Fines, short jail terms for 4 ex-ICBC Spain employees in laundering case FILE PHOTO: A man rides a segway near Spanish Civil Guards at the headquarters of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) during a raid in Madrid By Jesus Aguado and Emma Pinedo MADRID (Reuters) - Four ex-employees and executives of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's (ICBC) Madrid branch reached a plea deal with Spanish prosecutors in a money-laundering case and accepted prison terms of between three and five months. The prosecutor's office said on Tuesday the accused also agreed to pay a fine totaling 22.7 million euros ($25.55 million) as part of the deal to settle the case. In 2016 Spain's judiciary began investigating the European management of ICBC as part of an inquiry into the alleged laundering of hundreds of millions of euros through the Madrid branch of the Chinese banking giant. "The defendants have accepted the qualification (of the crime as money-laundering) and the sentences, which has allowed the prosecutor and the defence to ask the Court to ratify the agreement in a verdict," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. Without naming the accused, it said that Spain's High Court held a hearing on the case on Monday. A spokesman for the court said that the judge would have to ratify the agreement, which was considered a formality. Under Spanish law, a prison sentence of less than two years does not usually lead to serving any time behind bars unless there are previous criminal records. In 2017 a Reuters investigation, based on confidential case submissions and interviews with investigators and former ICBC employees, showed how a long-running Spanish inquest into alleged Chinese organised crime networks eventually led police to raid ICBC's Madrid branch in early 2016. Spanish judicial officials told Reuters that between 2011 and 2013, ICBC's Madrid branch transferred about 225 million euros (202.98 million) to China, most of it for suspected criminal networks. ICBC said at the time that it was a "law-abiding company" and cooperating with Spanish authorities. ($1 = 0.8884 euros) (Reporting by Jesus Aguado and Emma Pinedo with additional reporting by Belen Carreno and Angus Berwick; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Mark Heinrich) WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump, faced with multiple crises and falling poll numbers less than five months before the presidential election, is prodding top health officials to move faster on a historically ambitious timeline to approve a coronavirus vaccine by year's end. The goal is to instill confidence among voters that the virus can be tamed and the economy fully reopened under Trump's stewardship. In a meeting last month with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar - who is overseeing the effort called Operation Warp Speed, along with Defense Secretary Mark Esper - Trump pushed Azar repeatedly to speed up the already unprecedented timeline, according to two senior White House officials familiar with the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Trump wants some people to be able to get the vaccine sooner than the end of the year to demonstrate an end to the pandemic is within reach, according to those officials and two others. The push - which has provoked deep concerns among some scientists - comes as Trump encourages states to reopen even as coronavirus cases are rising in Southern and Western states. This week alone, nine states - Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas - have reported a record number of new coronavirus cases in a single day or set a record for seven-day case averages, according to a Washington Post analysis. At least 115,000 people in the United States have died of coronavirus, while more than 2.1 million cases have been reported. Despite the uptick across much of the country, Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Tuesday that fears of a second wave of cases were "overblown," accusing the media of trying to "scare the American people." Public health experts reacted with alarm to the op-ed, especially because the nation has not emerged from the first wave, with the number of daily deaths plateauing at about 800. Trump is hardly the only world leader racing to deliver a vaccine as a way to save lives, get people back to work and fully reopen the economy. But some scientists and even several people close to the White House worry that his fixation on the timeline, combined with his past dismissal of scientists' recommendations, could put regulators under intense pressure to approve some sort of limited use of a vaccine before it has been adequately vetted for safety and effectiveness. Some go so far as to raise concerns about an "October surprise" in which the administration issues an emergency authorization for a vaccine right before the Nov. 3 election, regardless of whether the research justifies it. "What worries me is we are coming up to an election, and the administration might be tempted to put its hand into the Warp Speed bucket, and say we have enough information, let's just give it now," said Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who is an adviser to the National Institutes of Health effort on vaccines. Critics also cite the Food and Drug Administration's emergency-use authorization of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as a covid-19 treatment in March as the president heavily promoted it - and despite lack of evidence. That authorization was revoked Monday after studies showed no clear benefit from the antimalarial drugs. In a memo explaining the reversal, the FDA said it had received almost 400 reports of adverse events about the drugs, including 109 serious cardiac episodes. "This will be a huge issue . . . when we have the first application for a vaccine and people will wonder and worry, 'Is the FDA using science and evidence here, or is it trying to meet some political timeline?'" said Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. "I think the FDA has lost a lot of credibility the last few months." Unlike a rare cancer treatment or a drug for a debilitating disease, vaccines are given to healthy people, so there is little tolerance for side effects or risks, vaccine experts say. Another concern is that those who have been immunized may return to behaviors that put them at risk, only to have a vaccine turn out to be ineffective. Trump administration officials insist the process will be driven by science. "Under no circumstances will we allow political pressure to affect our decision-making and, importantly, that has not occurred on my watch," said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who has denied the White House influenced the agency's emergency authorization of antimalarial drugs. "Any new vaccine must be thoroughly tested to ensure it is safe and effective, and that is why Operation Warp Speed is being led by expert scientists focused on saving lives," said White House spokesman Judd Deere. Trump has eschewed the advice of many scientists throughout his presidency, but he finds himself reliant on an extraordinary scientific experiment to end a global pandemic. Even as he spends far less time dealing with the coronavirus crisis, the president has convened several meetings on vaccines in recent weeks, telling officials to move faster on making a vaccine available. If a vaccine were approved as early as the fall, it would most likely come in the form of a so-called emergency-use authorization issued by the FDA. Such authorizations require a lower level of evidence of effectiveness than formal approvals. They may be issued if the agency believes a product "may be effective" to prevent or treat a serious or threatening disease, and that its "known and potential benefits" outweigh the risks. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said delivering an emergency-use authorization by the fall is one of the administration's "stretch goals." "We have for the most part been focused on the stretch goals and trying to inspire everyone" to do things that previously did not seem possible, Collins said in an interview. "Hopefully at least having an EUA for one or more of [the vaccines] by sometime in the fall - that is a stretch goal, and even beyond belief. It has my knuckles white." An emergency-use authorization might allow a vaccine to be distributed to certain high-risk groups. Two senior administration officials said groups that are likely to be prioritized are the elderly, those with preexisting conditions and front-line essential workers, such as those in health care and food safety. It remains unclear, however, just how broad or narrow such an authorization could be, and the number of people who would be eligible to receive it under those circumstances. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said recently that Operation Warp Speed, unveiled last month, was set up to remove the financial disincentives to manufacture vaccines before a drugmaker knows they will work. On a telecast hosted by the Journal of the American Medical Association, he said officials may know whether potential vaccines are effective by November or December and hoped to have "close to" 100 million doses by then. The goal is to have "a couple of hundred million doses" by early next year, he said. Under the initiative, the administration is providing extensive financial support to 14 vaccine candidates to accelerate the timeline by enabling them to proceed simultaneously through the normally sequential steps - testing, then manufacturing. Officials will eventually narrow the list to the seven most promising candidates, two senior administration officials said on a call with reporters Tuesday. Moncef Slaoui, a pharmaceutical industry veteran and the chief adviser for Warp Speed, has been convening calls with private companies and meeting with Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser and Trump's son-in-law, who played a role in selecting him, several senior administration officials said. The administration also has a public-private partnership spearheaded by the National Institutes of Health and has hundreds of millions of dollars in funding going to various drug companies from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to help them more quickly move through the process. The administration is working closely with several companies, including AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Merck. Three companies are expected to begin late-stage 30,000-person vaccine trials this summer, which could provide health officials with several months worth of safety data, but many scientists are doubtful there would be definitive data on effectiveness by then. Some vaccine experts said it could take eight to 12 months to know whether a vaccine is effective, but they have expressed concerns that the FDA might be pressured to authorize it earlier if it appeared safe and showed it produced antibodies in clinical trial participants - even though such antibodies wouldn't necessarily prove effectiveness because it is not yet clear whether they prevent people from getting covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Peter Lurie, a former top FDA official who has been intensely critical of the FDA's performance on hydroxychloroquine, said he doesn't believe the agency would make a similar mistake on a vaccine. "I like to believe the people I worked with would not let loose an ineffective vaccine on the American people because the consequences could be catastrophic," Lurie said. Fauci, asked about the possibility of White House pressure to move quickly for political reasons, replied is he is focused on the work. "I'm going to do the best possible science to develop what I consider convincing evidence that it works and is safe, or does not work and is not safe," Fauci said. "That's what I'm focused on trying to definitively show." Vestas, the energy industrys global partner on sustainable energy solutions, has received a 336 MW order from the Taaleri SolarWind II fund and co-investors, AIP and Akuo Energy for the Escalade wind project in Texas, US, which will feature the first Enventus platform turbines in the US. The project is the first North American wind project for Taaleri Energia and the Taaleri SolarWind II fund. The order includes supply, installation, and commissioning of 45 V162-5.6 MW and 20 V150-4.2 MW turbines as well as a 30-year Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement, designed to ensure optimised performance for the lifetime of the project. Turbine delivery will begin the second quarter of 2021 with commissioning scheduled to begin the third quarter of 2021. We are extremely happy with first investment in the US from the Taaleri SolarWind II fund and delighted to be partnering with Vestas on this project. The onshore wind resource in Texas is excellent and the location of our wind farm, with connections to the large population centres, is also ideal. The ERCOT market for electricity in Texas is very similar in structure and operation to the Nord Pool electricity market in the Nordic countries, a market that we are very familiar with, said Taaleri Energias Managing Director, Kai Rintala. Were pleased to deploy the first Enventus turbines in the USA with Taaleri Energia on their first project in the USA, said Chris Brown, President of Vestas sales and service division in the United States and Canada. By pairing this technology with a 30-year service agreement, Taaleri Energia has ensured the Escalade wind project will deliver long-term low-cost wind energy thus maximising returns for their fund investors. It is Vestas largest EnVentus order to date and it takes the global order intake for the platform past 900 MW. Introduced in 2019, the Enventus platform is the next generation of Vestas technology, building on and leveraging proven technology from the 2 MW, 4 MW and 9 MW platforms to meet customisation needs more efficiently through advanced modularity. Tradearabia News Service Health department announces shift from case investigation procedures Although health department staff will no longer be following up with every individual who tests positive for COVID-19, staff will continue to provide direct education, resources and support. WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged China to reveal all it knows about the coronavirus outbreak in a meeting with a top Chinese official in Hawaii on Wednesday as new revelations about President Donald Trump and China rocked Washington. Pompeo and his deputy Stephen Biegun held closed-door talks with the Chinese Communist Partys top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, according to a senior State Department official on the base. Discussions covered a wide range of contentious issues that have sent relations between the two countries plummeting, according to the two sides. Pompeo stressed the need for full transparency and information sharing to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future outbreaks, the State Department said in a statement. Pompeo has joined President Donald Trump in criticizing Chinas response to the outbreak, including giving credence to a theory that the virus may have emerged from a Chinese laboratory in the central city of Wuhan. Trump has said he will withdraw funding and cut ties with the World Health Organization over what he alleges is its overly close relationship with China. Pompeo also stressed important American interests and the need for fully-reciprocal dealings between the two nations across commercial, security, and diplomatic interactions, the State Department said. According to Chinas foreign ministry, Yang expressed strong dissatisfaciton with Trumps signing of legislation that would impose financial sanctions and visa bans on Chinese government officials deemed guilty of persecuting Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. China is accused of incarcerating more than a million Muslims in prison-like reeducation camps that it says are needed to counter Islamic radicalism and separatism and teach job skills. The ministry also said Yang reiterated opposition to U.S. intervention in the issues of Taiwan the self-governing democratic island and U.S. ally that China claims as its own territory and threatens to invade and Hong Kong, where China intends to impose legislation that could have major effects on free speech and opposition political activity. No reporters were allowed to travel with Pompeo and Biegun, and coverage of the event was extremely limited. The meeting, which lasted more than six hours including a lunch break, wrapped up about 3:50 p.m. Hawaii time (0150 Thursday GMT), said a senior State Department official who attended it. The talks got underway shortly after explosive details from a new book by Trumps former national security adviser John Bolton began to emerge. Bolton alleges that Trump sought Chinas help in winning reelection in 2020 by ending a trade war and encouraged the Chinese leader to build camps for Uighurs in western China. On Wednesday, Trump signed a bill that seeks to punish China for its crackdown on the Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. The legislation, which Congress passed with little opposition, includes sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the mass surveillance and detention. Trade and human rights along with Chinas policies toward Hong Kong and its response to the coronavirus pandemic were among the most divisive matters expected to be on Pompeo and Bieguns agenda with Yang. In his book, Bolton writes that Trump appealed for Xis help in getting a second term at a G-20 leaders dinner in Osaka, Japan. Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure hed win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome, Bolton wrote. Bolton also wrote that Pompeo, who led Trumps early outreach to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before handing the reins to Biegun, was highly skeptical of the effort and never believed a deal was possible. Bieguns presence at the Hawaii meeting suggested that deadlocked U.S.-North Korea talks would also be a topic of conversation. The State Department had no comment on any aspect of Boltons book and referred questions to the White House. Despite Boltons portrayal of Trump being enthralled with Xi, China has become a key element in the 2020 presidential campaign, with Trump and his supporters seeking to make the administrations tough stance with Beijing a main foreign policy selling point. They have also painted Democratic candidate Joe Biden as being soft on China. Last month, Trump and Pompeo announced that the U.S. would be rescinding special trade and economic privileges it had extended to Hong Kong after the former British territory reverted to Chinese control in 1997. Since last year, both sides have ramped up hostile rhetoric and taken reciprocal steps to expel journalists and restrict diplomats ability to travel. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 04:39:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, June 16 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for inter-Korean dialogue to defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula, said his press office on Tuesday. "The secretary-general is concerned by the latest developments on the Korean Peninsula," said the press office in a note to correspondents, quoting an unnamed spokesman of Guterres. "The secretary-general calls for the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue leading to peaceful solutions that benefit peace and prosperity for all." Police install a checkpoint near the inter-Korean border in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday, to prevent access by people who send anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border. / Yonhap By Jun Ji-hye The Gyeonggi Province Government designated four cities and one county bordering North Korea as "danger zones," Wednesday, to stop North Korean defectors and activists from sending anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border. In an administrative order, the provincial government placed the cities of Pocheon, Paju, Gimpo and Goyang as well as Yeoncheon County off-limits to senders of anti-Pyongyang leaflets. The order will be valid until Nov. 30, it said. This is the first time that the South has designated such zones in relation to the sending of the leaflets. BENZIE COUNTY -- Satire, the New Age and hard-boiled detective mysteries collide in "Sandy Bottom," a new novel by Benzie County author Robert "Bob" Downes. This is the author's second book that includes a Benzie County setting, including his 2017 historical novel, "Windigo Moon." "'Sandy Bottom' is a spoof on murder mysteries that includes many well-known businesses and locations, along with some of the problems facing northern Michigan," Downes said. The plot involves a street musician named Dredd who falls in love with a mysterious playgirl named Sandy, who he meets on the dock in Leland's Fishtown. Sandy jilts Dredd to marry wealthy eco-warrior Timothy Bottom. Dredd flees to Guatemala, where he tends bar at a yoga resort on Lake Atitlan. While there, he spends his spare time reading detective novel and studying to be a shaman. When Timothy turns up dead in a Benzie County outhouse, Sandy hires aspiring detective Dredd to track down the killer. Meanwhile, a gobbling gator, a crystal skull and a misguided militia add to the mayhem as northern Michigan is overwhelmed by baffling events. Downes divides the year living on Little Platte Lake in Benzie County and in Traverse City. He is the former editor and co-founder of Northern Express Weekly from 1991-2013. He has written six non-fiction books and novels over the past decade, all with a twist on adventure. His other books include: "Planet Backpacker," "Biking Northern Michigan," "I Promised You an Adventure," "Windigo Moon," and, coming soon, "The Wolf and the Willow," a prequel to "Windigo Moon." For more information on Downes and his books, visit www.robertdownes.com. Up to 40 judges of the Supreme and High Courts gathered in the yard of the Four Courts today to say farewell to High Court president Peter Kelly on his last day in that office. Mr Justice Kelly was applauded by his colleagues, who formed a guard of honour around what is known as the judges yard, when he arrived for work about 9.30am. He was clearly taken by surprise on seeing the unprecedented gathering but warmly thanked the judges, saying it had been a wonderful experience working with them. The gathering included Ms Justice Mary Irvine of the Supreme Court, who was nominated by the Cabinet last week as the next president of the High Court, the third most senior judicial office. Among the other judges in attendance were Mr Justice George Birmingham, president of the Court of Appeal, Ms Justice Marie Baker and Mr Justice John MacMenamin of the Supreme Court, Ms Justice Caroline Costello of the Court of Appeal and many judges of the High Court. When a senior judge retires, there is normally a large gathering in court on their last day, including the Attorney General, judicial colleagues, lawyers, Courts Service staff and family members to hear tributes. Because of Covid-19 restrictions, that was not possible and Mr Justice Kelly had also indicated he did not wish to have the traditional gathering. The judge, who was called to the Bar in 1975 and was appointed a judge of the High Court in 1996, is a reluctant retiree but is compelled to retire this evening because he turns 70 on Wednesday. He will spend his final day dealing with wards of court matters in his chambers. In comments earlier this week, he praised the commitment and dedication of staff in the wards of court office. In a statement of tribute today and wishing the judge a happy retirement, Bar Council Chairman Micheal P. O'Higgins SC said Mr Justice Kelly "is an advertisement for the Irish Bar and Bench" and a "beacon for the highest standards of competence, rigour, propriety and independence". He noted Mr Justice Kelly is now the second longest serving judge in the Irish courts, with 24 years service as a judge of the High Court and Court of Appeal and, since 2015, as president of the High Court. He was "the leading figure in the establishment of the Commercial Court in 2004, a lasting and international legacy". "His work in the wardship list, where justice, humanity and the law co-exist to vindicate the rights of the elderly and vulnerable, gave him particular fulfilment. This may say something about him." Regarded as an accomplished legal writer, Mr Justice Kelly's many written judgments stand as "jewels of logic and learning and have contributed to the development of the law in many areas", Mr O'Higgins said. Equally impressive was his ability to frame a clear, fluent and reasoned ex tempore (on the spot) judgment within minutes of a case, he added. Mr Justice Kelly's "independence and fearlessness as a judge stand as an example to his colleagues", he said. Law Society Director General Ken Murphy said Mr Justice Kelly was a "fearlessly independent judge with a ferocious work ethic, a first class legal mind, and an utter commitment to the highest of standards for himself and others". Courts Service CEO Angela Denning said Mr Justice Kelly was "a great friend of, and support to, the Courts Service since he was appointed to the bench". Recalling that the judge, before being called to the Bar, had worked in the High Court Central Office, she said: "We are very proud that he is one of a number of former courts staff who went on to hold public office later in their career." "As a judge, and as president of the High Court, he always worked in partnership with the administrative staff of the service where new processes or rules were being developed," she said. "Much of the success of the Commercial Court "can be attributed to his clarity of purpose and collaborative approach". Don Larson's "boat" Chickcharnie is currently marooned by itself in a marina in northern Belize. Larson is working to find someone to move it to its home port in Guatemala where it will be out of the hurricane zone. Don Larson has spent the last 22 winters fishing and cruising off the Central America coastline. Due to the coronavirus, both Larson and his partner Rosie Strope ended up staying out on the open waters a lot longer than expected. "This year we got down and got our boat ready to go, got out there and they closed all the borders," Larson said. "We were marooned for three months!" According to the news company Reuters, many Central and South American countries opted to close their borders as early as March 15 to stop the coronavirus from spreading. This effectively stranded Larson and hundreds... The recent spike in coronavirus cases in Uinta County is in large part attributable to patrons of at least one bar there not practicing social distancing, a health official said Wednesday. On June 1, Uinta County had just nine cases of the novel coronavirus. As of Tuesday afternoon, that number had skyrocketed to 87 identified cases, 59 of which are still active. Thats the most active meaning nonrecovered cases anywhere in the state, a bit ahead of Fremont County, which still has identified the most overall cases of any county in Wyoming. Uinta has another 17 people listed as probable cases; of those, three have recovered. The majority of these new cases have spread outward from at least one bar where young adults at least one of whom was apparently carrying the virus gathered and did not practice social distancing, state Health Department spokeswoman Kim Deti said. She said she didnt know the names of the bar or bars but added that the businesses are believed to have been following health restrictions on how bars can operate and serve patrons. On Tuesday, state health officer Dr. Alexia Harrist said that many of the new cases there appear to be connected to a particular gathering at a public location where social distancing rules were not taken seriously. Those exposed to the virus at that gathering then spread it elsewhere, she said, as has happened in outbreaks elsewhere. Deti said that she didnt have an approximate date when the gathering took place. A health official in Uinta County told the Star-Tribune it may have happened during Memorial Day weekend. I am not an epidemiologist, and so Ive been cautious to really weigh in heavily, but I am willing to say that there certainly has appeared to be a connection between many of the cases and some local bars, particularly over Memorial Day Weekend and the weekend following that, Kim Proffit, manager at Uinta County Public Health, wrote in an email. Outbreaks in multiple states, including Alabama and California, have been tied to Memorial Day gatherings. Uinta County health officials posted to their Facebook page Monday saying that they had been overwhelmed by the spike. The majority of the new cases, the officials wrote, are in the category of the 20-29 age group. There has been at least one hospitalization linked to this latest cluster; most of the new patients report some illness, some moderately severe, including high fevers, painful body aches and difficulty breathing, the department wrote. Younger, healthier people typically recover well from the virus, which is most deadly for older, sicker people. The vast majority of coronavirus deaths in Wyoming have been described as older residents. Prior to this spike, Uinta Countys positive rate the number of positive tests divided by the number of overall tests run was roughly 1 percent, well below the state average of roughly 2.5%. With this recent spike, officials wrote in their Facebook post, the infection rate has climbed to 4%. Without being alarmist, we do want people to know that 3% is a pretty big change in a short time, and when percent positive is climbing, were spiking, officials wrote. If you look at the percentage of positive tests compared to total tests in two week chunks, it is also helpful. In the last two weeks of testing, we have had 16.72% positive test results. Thankfully that is down from 20% a couple of days ago. Anything over 10 indicates a spike. The agency added that it had expected an increase with things opening back up. But this big of a growth in such a short time wasnt expected, it continued. In a separate post, officials wrote that it is very important for all of us, but especially our restaurants and bars, to follow the recommendations for spacing, masking and hygiene. State and local health officials said that the Uinta spike is illustrative of how quickly the virus can spread if a group of people are exposed to it and arent following social distancing guidelines. It was a rude reminder, officials continue. Were in this now, and weve got to work to level this out. It has a lot of potential to grow quickly. Wyoming has continued to reliably identify new batches of cases each day. But since the spike in Uinta County, the majority of the new patients have been confirmed there. 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. Its no secret that out-of-date tax rolls can cost state and local governments millions. Especially in states like Florida that levy no income tax, property taxes are a chief source of revenue, and they depend on an accurate record of homestead exemptions tax breaks that reduce the amount owed for ones primary residence, due to life circumstances such as the death of a spouse or deployment by the military. Some people underpay taxes by failing to notify the local assessor when an exemption expires, and others overpay because they dont apply for an exemption for which theyre qualified. It can be prohibitively labor-intensive for a property assessor to keep regular tabs on this.Enter The Exemption Project , a startup in Chicago that offers county governments an online portal and data service to identify unqualified and unclaimed exemptions on tax rolls. Launched in early 2019, the company is the brainchild of CEO Tyler Masterson and Chief Data Scientist Joe Walsh, both veterans of government data work who had met the year before, both looking for something socially responsible to do.Masterson toldthey were specifically looking to start a business, something that would use data science and machine learning to improve an aspect of core government operations, and they came upon homestead exemption auditing.County governments, for the last 10 years, have been doing this homestead exemption audit about every three to six years, he said. The problem is, people die, they rent their place, they discover Airbnb, they move away, they get divorced and they become unqualified in that time. So we decided to build a proactively monitoring solution.Proactivity is key to the value proposition, Masterson said, because changes to exemptions happen so often that local governments cant catch most of them by hiring staff once every six years to comb through local obituaries and real estate websites.Once you get outside the context of the governments own data silos, they dont have access to that data, nor the skills or the tools to identify who those individuals are, Masterson said.To spare them the trouble, The Exemption Project can process a countys tax roll through more than 80 data sets which the company has either bought, requested or generated: from credit bureaus, public utilities, the IRS, Social Security information, voter records, Postal Service records, court records, foreclosures and vacancies, social media, professional licenses, et cetera. Using machine learning to recognize who in the tax roll might have an unclaimed or unqualified homestead exemption based on that data, The Exemption Projects software, called TrueRoll, generates a "stack-ranked"list of most likely candidates.The county can then prioritize and verify each case, removing unqualified people from the automated exemption rolls and placing liens on properties to collect back taxes, if owed.It can also work the other way for unclaimed exemptions, it can start notifying people.If we can help them use data to identify pockets of people who are not receiving the exemptions they should be getting, theyre not going to give them back taxes, but they will use it to make them aware, Masterson said. Did you know, as an active-duty military individual, you can claim a primary residence exemption even when youre not living here?Not yet two years old, The Exemption Project has customers in Texas, Illinois, Washington and particularly Florida, where rental properties are common and, according to Masterson, every countys tax rolls are in a standard format.Eddie Creamer, property appraiser for St. Johns County, Fla., and more than 250,000 residents, said he contracted The Exemption Project for two reasons: first to audit the countys 84,000 currently approved homestead exemptions for things like additional properties, rental properties and voter registrations in different states; and then for an ongoing monitoring process.Creamer said phase one kicked off in November, and hes 90 percent finished sending questionnaires to the 5,500 residences whose exemptions might be expired or improperly claimed. He said the county has placed almost $800,000 in liens for back taxes, penalties and interest so far, and collected more than $200,000 of that.He said phase two is ongoing monitoring by The Exemption Project, checking the countys tax rolls against those data sets for the rest of the fiscal year. Creamer said hes very satisfied with the collaboration so far and is open to renewing the contract next year.[To monitor homestead exemptions in-house] I would probably have to assign three staff internally, full-time, or hire three new staff, and subscribe to LexisNexis or some service like that, and then go through the process, he said. Once it was over and we had removed the exemptions, I would still have the staff and those subscriptions. The efficiency in using [The Exemption Project] is, I get access to all that, they work very well with our staff on a weekly basis, and then my cost becomes variable in the collection process. Once phase one is over, I dont have that cost anymore.The comparison with LexisNexis is one Masterson also made, explaining the role of proactive monitoring. He said in 2016, Cook County, Ill., paid LexisNexis Risk Solutions about $1.2 million to audit the citys homesteads.He added that The Exemption Project signed contracts last month with King County, Wash., home to Seattle, and Cook County, which encompasses much of Chicago. Woodbridge cops said they used federal funds to set up a makeshift barbershop in the police station during the coronavirus pandemic so they could adhere to the departments personal grooming standards during the coronavirus lockdowns. The Woodbridge health department OKd the setup despite Gov. Phil Murphys March executive order banning businesses that offer personal care services from operating. A local barber was paid $1,605 and came to police headquarters six times to cut the hair of officers and other unidentified members of the public, the townships police director said. Barbershops and hair salons are allowed to reopen Monday when New Jersey starts the second week of Stage 2 of the reopening plan. The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the state fell below 1,300 for the first time in at least three months on as of Monday night after peaking at 8,045 on April 14. Hospitalizations, however, increased to 1,352 as of Tuesday night. Officials announced 51 new deaths attributed to COVID-19 and 470 new cases on Tuesday to push the states totals to 12,727 fatalities and 167,426 cases. Tens of thousands have recovered with exact figures not known. New Jersey's 71 hospitals reported 1,352 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases as of Tuesday night.N.J. Department of Health CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage Heres a roundup of coronavirus news: I was fired after denying Murphys top aide coronavirus tests for his family, health department official claims: A high-ranking state Health Department official mysteriously let go at the height of the pandemic alleges the real reason he was fired was because he pushed back on a request to test relatives of Murphys top aide for coronavirus, calling it a complete waste of his time. According to a newly filed whistleblower lawsuit obtained by NJ Advance Media, Christopher Neuwirth who served as assistant commissioner for the Division of Public Health, Infrastructure, Laboratories and Emergency Preparedness claimed that he was ordered in late April to provide test kits to family members of George Helmy, the governors chief of staff, for COVID-19. N.J. hair salons, barbershops and other personal care reopen Monday. Here are the new rules.: New Jersey hair and nail salons, barbershops, massage and tattoo parlors and other personal care services forced to close amid the coronavirus pandemic can once again open their doors next week under new rules released Tuesday by Murphys administration. The requirements issued by the states Office of the Attorney General include rules about screening customers and workers for symptoms of COVID-19 and limiting the number of people allowed in personal care businesses. Fewer people than ever say theyre proud to be an American: Fewer Americans are singing along with Lee Greenwood these days. While 63% of U.S. adults agree that Im proud to be an American, which begins the chorus of Greenwoods God Bless the U.S.A., thats the lowest level in two decades of Gallup polling. The poll was taken in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent recession, and the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Drug offers hope amid spikes of coronavirus cases worldwide: As nations grapple with new outbreaks and spiking death tolls from the coronavirus, a commonly available drug appeared Tuesday to offer hope that the most seriously ill could have a better chance of survival. The drug, called dexamethasone, reduced deaths by 35% in patients who needed treatment with breathing machines and by 20% in those only needing supplemental oxygen, researchers in England said. It did not appear to help less ill patients. Talking can spread coronavirus, so new NJ Transit commuting rules say to keep quiet: NJ Transits updated guidelines ask customers to avoid loud talking or restrict phone conversations until after their trip because they increase the expulsion range of droplets which may contain the virus." That follows the lead of Japanese health officials, which have asked people to avoid conversations in close spaces such as transit trains to reduce the spread of the virus, City Lab reported. Long-standing N.J. diner closes its doors following coronavirus struggles: After years of struggles because of an ongoing construction project and more restrictions brought on by the coronavirus, a long-standing Passaic County diner has closed its doors. The owners of the Six Brothers Diner on Route 46 in Little Falls announced on the business Facebook page Tuesday that it was permanently closed. U.S. cases: The virus has killed roughly 117,000 of the 2.1 million infected as of 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide cases: About 444,000 of the 8.2 million to test positive have died, the center says. About 4 million have recovered. The Associated Press, Katie Kausch, Chris Sheldon, Johnathan D. Salant, Larry Higgs, Brent Johnson contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. It's generally recognized that differences in background and education cement class differences. It is less clear when and under what circumstances individual psychological forces can drive an initially homogenous social group apart and ultimately divide it. Claudius Gros, professor for theoretical physics at Goethe University, investigated this question in a mathematical precise way using game theory methods. "In the study, societies of agents - acting individuals - are simulated within game theory, which means that everybody optimises her/his success according to predetermined rules. I wanted to find out whether social differences can emerge on their own if no one starts off with advantages - that is, when all actors have the same skills and opportunity," the physicist explains. The study is based on the assumption that there are things in every society that are coveted but limited - such as jobs, social contacts and positions of power. An inequality is created if the top position is already occupied and someone must therefore accept the second-best job - but not, however, a societal division. With the help of mathematical calculations Gros was able to demonstrate that envy, which arises from the need to compare oneself with others, alters individual behaviour and consequently the agents' strategies in characteristic ways. As a result of this changed behaviour, two strictly separate social classes arise. Game theory provides the mathematical tools necessary for the modelling of decision situations with several participants, as in Gros' study. In general, constellations in which the decision strategies of the individual actors mutually influence each other are particularly revealing. The success of the individual depends then not only on his or her own actions, but on others' actions as well, which is typical of both economic and social contexts. Game theory is consequently firmly anchored in the economy. The stability condition of game theory, the "Nash equilibrium", is a concept developed by John Forbes Nash in his dissertation in 1950, using the example of poker players. It states that in equilibrium no player has anything to gain by changing their strategy if the other players do not change theirs either. An individual only tries out new behaviour patterns if there is a potential gain. Since this causal chain also applies to evolutionary processes, the evolutionary and behavioural sciences regularly fall back on game theoretical models, for example when researching animal behaviours such as the migratory flight routes of birds, or their competition for nesting sites. Even in an envy-induced class society there is no incentive for an individual to change his or her strategy, according to Gros. It is therefore Nash stable. In the divided envy society there is a marked difference in income between the upper and lower class which is the same for all members of each social class. Typical for the members of the lower class is, according to Gros, that they spend their time on a series of different activities, something game theory terms a "mixed strategy". Members of the upper class, however, concentrate on a single task, i.e., they pursue a "pure strategy". It is also striking that the upper class can choose between various options while the lower class only has access to a single mixed strategy. "The upper class is therefore individualistic, while agents in the lower class are lost in the crowd, so to speak," the physicist sums up. In Claudius Gros' model, whether an agent lands in the upper or lower class is ultimately a matter of coincidence. It is decided by the dynamics of competition, and not by origin. For his study, Gros developed a new game theoretical model, the "shopping trouble model" and worked out a precise analytical solution. From it, he derives that an envy-induced class society possesses characteristics that are deemed universal in the theory of complex systems. The result is that the class society is beyond political control to a certain degree. Political decision-makers lose a portion of their options for control when society spontaneously splits into social classes. In addition, Gros' model demonstrates that envy has a stronger effect when the competition for limited resources is stronger. "This game theoretical insight could be of central significance. Even an 'ideal society' cannot be stably maintained in the long term - which ultimately makes the striving for a communistic society seem unrealistic," the scientist remarks. ### Publication: Claudius Gros, Self induced class stratification in competitive societies of agents: Nash stability in the presence of envy, Royal Society Open Science, Vol 7, 200411 (2020). Link: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200411 Further information: Professor Claudius Gros, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Riedberg Campus, E-Mail gros07@itp.uni-frankfurt.de Current news about science, teaching, and society can be found on GOETHE-UNI online 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.goethe-universitaet.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 Publisher: The President of Goethe University Editor: Dr. Anke Sauter, Science and Humanities Editor, International Communication, PR & Communication Department, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Tel: +49(0)69 798-13066, Fax +49(0)69 798-761 12531, sauter@pvw.uni-frankfurt.de. Kentucky Congressman Andy Barr's wife Carol has died 'suddenly' at their family home. Eleanor Carol Leavell Barr, known to friends and family as Carol, was just 39 years old when she passed away at the family's Lexington property on Tuesday. Authorities have not yet revealed a cause of death and it is not know whether the couple's two young daughters, Eleanor and Mary Clay, were at home when she passed away. Husband Andy Barr, 49, who married Carol in 2008, spoke of his grief in a statement issued by his chief of staff. Carol Barr is seen above in a family photo with her two daughters, Eleanor and Mary Clay, and husband Andy. The 39-year-old died at her family home in Lexington, a statement issued by Barr's chief of staff confirmed 'Congressman Andy Barrs wife Carol passed away suddenly tonight at the family home in Lexington,' a statement from Mary Rosado read. 'During this tragic time, we respectfully ask for privacy for Congressman Barr and his family to grieve Mrs. Barr being called home to heaven. 'Congressman Barr may release a more detailed statement at a later date, but right now is solely focused on being a father to his two beautiful daughters', Rosado's statement continued. On Tuesday evening, a Fayette County coroner's van was seen outside the family home. The coroner's office issued no comment on the cause of Carol's death when contacted by DailyMail.com. Barr, who is a Republican, has served as the US representative for Kentucky's 6th congressional district since 2013. Carol grew up in Georgetown and went to the University of Kentucky where she majored in communications and information. She was a healthcare representative for Pfizer, having previously worked as executive director for the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship. Carol was also a member of the University of Kentucky College of Information National Advisory Board. Andy Barr is congratulated by wife Carol Barr after unseating Ben Chandler for Kentucky's 6th Congressional District in Lexington, Kentucky in November 2012 As news spread of Carol's death spread, dozens of tributes from Barr's colleagues began pouring in online. US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said that Carol's 'warmth filled whatever room she entered and her contributions made Kentucky a better place for all of us.' Barr, who is a Republican, has served as the US representative for Kentucky's 6th congressional district since 2013 Jim Gray, former mayor of Lexington and current Secretary of Transportation, described Carol as 'loving, caring and compassionate', adding that 'Her smile and spirit were irrepressible and her life represented devotion to family and friends and the broader community she embraced and touched each day.' Governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear said he and his wife were 'heartbroken for U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and his family tonight at the sad news of the unexpected passing of the congressman's wife, Carol. We are praying for the Barr family'. Congressman Hal Rogers, who serves as US Representative for Kentucky's 5th District, said: 'Carol was always a joy to be around. She had a smile that lit up every room, radiating with the love she had for her family and our Commonwealth. 'Unexpected tragedies of this measure are difficult to understand, but we pray for peace and strength for the entire Barr family'. The Kentucky State Majority also offered their thoughts and prayers to Barr and his family, in light of the 'unexpected and heartbreaking news' of Carol's death, 'We hope the people of Kentucky join us in praying for Congressman Barr, his two young daughters, their family and loved ones as they navigate this incredibly difficult time.' Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams shared on Twitter his memory of when Barr first told him about meeting Carol, whom he described as an 'extraordinary woman'. 'I remember the day years ago when my friend Andy Barr told me about the extraordinary woman he'd met, and how he thought she was the one,' Adams wrote. 'He was right on both. My heart breaks for Carol, Andy and their beautiful family.' US Senator Rand Paul wrote in a tweet that 'our hearts are heavy tonight' and that he and his wife 'offer our deepest condolences to Rep. Andy Barr, his two daughters, family, and friends.' 'Please join us in praying for them during this incredibly difficult time,' the junior senator from Kentucky said. Attorney General Daniel Cameron also shared his 'heartbreak' to learn of Carol's passing. 'Carol was a wonderful mother and wife, and she was beloved by all who knew her,' Cameron said. 'She will be deeply missed. My heartfelt prayers are with Andy, their children, and their entire family as they mourn this unspeakable loss.' Democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath, who lost in a challenge to Barr in 2018 for Kentucky's Sixth Congressional District, wrote in a tweet that her 'heart goes out to Andy and his two daughters over the tragic loss of Carol.' 'They are in our prayers. While we were political competitors, we are Kentuckians first,' McGrath wrote. 'I hope they feel the love of many and we wish him great strength during this very trying time.' Andy Barr is currently running for reelection in Kentuckys Sixth Congressional district. His likely opponent in the fall, Josh Hicks, called the death 'unimaginable'. 'While we may disagree politically, were both family men and I cant fathom the pain he must be experiencing right now,' Hicks said. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor A 25-year-old woman travelling with her children from Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh to Noida was allegedly raped on a moving bus by its two drivers early on Wednesday, police said. One of the accused has been arrested while the other is absconding, they said. According to police, the incident apparently took place on the stretch between Lucknow and Mathura. The woman was travelling on the long-distance private bus with her two children and around 10 other people at the time of the incident. However, the woman gave a complaint to police after reaching Noida, where an FIR under Indian Penal Code Sections 376 and 506 was lodged at the Sector 20 police station, they said. The bus had two drivers and a support staff. It was the woman's first trip to Noida from her native place in Pratapgarh, officials said, adding that her husband is a vegetable vendor. "It was an AC sleeper bus, coming to Noida from Pratapgarh. According to information given to police by the woman, it appears the incident took place in the night when the bus would have been on a stretch between Lucknow and Mathura," said DSP (Women Safety) Vrinda Shukla. "As the complaint was made after the woman reached here, an FIR was immediately lodged," Shukla said. She said one of the accused named in the FIR has been arrested and the bus, too, has been impounded. Police teams have been formed to ensure the arrest of other accused as well as the owner of the bus at the earliest, she added. The DCP said further proceedings in the case are under way and the complainant has been sent for a medical test. "All co-passengers are being traced and their statements are being taken so that a charge sheet in the case could be filed soon," she added. According to officials privy to the probe, the woman was given the last seat where the accused forced themselves on her. One of the accused threatening her with dire consequences if she raised an alarm. The woman got down in Noida in the morning where her husband had come to pick her and she narrated the ordeal to him after which police were informed, officials said. The bus bears registration code UP 17 (Baghpat district) but it is owned by a Noida-based operator, they added. Author Elin Hilderbrand will be among the first authors to return to visiting bookstores for live, in-person signings when she appears at Bethany Beach Books in Bethany Beach, Del., this Saturday, June 20. She will follow this with an appearance at Browse About Books in Rehoboth Beach, Del., the next day. The following week she will appear at Books & Greetings in Northvale, N.J., on Wednesday, June 24. She will then fly to San Diego for an appearance at Warwick's on Friday the 26th. She will be signing copies of her novel 28 Summers, which was published by Little, Brown and was published June 16. "Prior to sheltering in place due to COVID-19 we had an in-person tour plan in place for Elin," explained Katharine Myers, publicity director for Little, Brown. "In mid-March we feared we'd have to cancel entirely when stores began to close to the public. Elin has never stopped wanting to visit stores in person if we could figure out a way to do it safely. She held out hope since March that it would be possible. Elin is devoted to seeing her fans during two tours each year and makes seeing them in independent stores a priority." Little, Brown's Myers said these first four events were a test case for more in the future. The main question for many who might want to attend the event is what protocols will be implemented to ensure the health and safety of Hilderbrand, the bookstore staff, and customers. HBG has set up guidelines and PW spoke with several stores hosting the event, and while each will have a different set-up, numerous elements will be commonplace. First, all events are ticketed and readers will be given a specific time-slot when they can line up at the store to have their book signed; typically, these will be in 15 to 20 minute blocks with the number of customer limited to 15 to 20 per time slot. At least three staff members must be present to ensure proper social distancing. Hilderbrand will personalize books, but customers must maintain at least six-feet distance; photos of Hilderbrand will be allowed, but customers will not be allowed to pose with the author. Hilderbrand's partner, Tim Field, will assist her with handling the books. All of the events are taking place in the afternoon. "Naturally, everyone will also have to wear a mask and if they don't bring one, we will give them one, and we are required to have hand sanitizer available, which is already all over the store" said Michelle Gersh, manager of Books & Greetings, a store in a strip mall which sits just over the border of New York and is close to the George Washington Bridge. Gersh noted that they have hosted Hilderbrand before, and would typically expect between 100 and 200 people for an event with her. "We just started promoting the event through email and social media and are getting some presales, so we know people are excited." At Bethany Beach Books, events coordinator Zandria Senft, said they expect to sell 550 copies of the book. "We have been working really hard to put extra precautions in place for Elin and our readers to make this a safe, social distance signing, with markers on the floor six feet apart to show where readers should stand," said Senft, who added that customers will flow one direction, coming in the front door and leaving by the back. "We have decided to close the store to the public for the duration of the event, and only ticket holders will be allowed in." A staff member will hold up an index card for Hilderbrand to read that indicates to whom the book should be dedicated. Six staff members will be working the event. Adrian Newell, head buyer for Warwick's, said their event will be held outdoors. "It is considered much safer that way," she said. Customers will be able to buy tickets on Eventbright and will be able to choose from among 15 minute time slots. "We ordered 100 copies of the book to start with," said Newell, who said that Hilderbrand's event was the first of two in-person events the store has planned. The second event will be with writers Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke who are local residents and have been hosting Warwick's virtual online events, which have been branded The Couch Surfing Book Tour. Prior to the pandemic, Newell said Warwick's, which has been opened since 1896, would host as many as three or four events a week. "We really depend on events to drive sales. Virtual events, no matter how good, are hard to monetize even when we make people buy a ticket to enter the event online, lots of people will just watch the archived event later. So, we're really hoping we can find a way to make live, in-person events work, provided we can ensure everyone's health and safety." This article has been updated to correct inaccuracies. The past few weeks of protests have revealed some dramatic shifts in American public opinion about police treatment of African Americans and other minorities. There are a lot of things going on here, but one important phenomenon is an ebbing of pluralistic ignorance in this area. Pluralistic ignorance is a concept in which individuals within a social group hold a policy preference about a particular issue but believe that other group members hold different preferences, even when they do not. For decades, the belief has been that a "law and order" approach to policing represents the majority view. The surge of protests and polling on this issue reveals, however, that a solid majority of Americans think there is a problem here. To be clear, this does not mean that the American public wants to defund the police or anything remotely like that. Still, there has been a shift, and the president is on the wrong side of this issue. 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 YTL Corp records 11% revenue increase 17 June 2020 Malaysias YTL Corp has reported a 65.6 per cent decline in net profit to MYR29.52m (US$6.9m) in the third quarter ending 31 March, compared to MYR85.79m in the year-ago period. However, the groups revenue advanced 11.6 per cent YoY to MYR4.81bn from MYR4.31bn. For the nine-month period until March 2020, YTL Corp saw a 75.7 per cent YoY fall in net profit to MYR62.37m from MYR256.40m in the previous fiscal, while revenue increased 20.8 per cent YoY to MYR15.64bn from MYR12.95bn. The higher revenue was mainly attributed to the consolidation of Malayan Cement Bhd (MCB) alongside the increase in sales volumes and prices from operations in China. "Despite the higher revenue, the lower profit was due to finance costs related to the acquisition of MCB," said the group. Published under US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Hawaii on Wednesday, the State Department said, amid a deep deterioration of relations between strategic rivals that are the world's two top economies. The two have been at loggerheads over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and China's move to impose new security legislation on Hong Kong. Tensions have risen also over China's neighbor North Korea. The United States and China share concerns about that country's nuclear weapons program. Even as the meeting got under way, US President Donald Trump signed legislation calling for sanctions against those responsible for repression of Uighur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region. Separately, foreign ministers of the G7 countries, including Pompeo, issued a statement calling on China not to follow through with the Hong Kong legislation. Pompeo has been forceful in his criticism of Beijing and it was his first known contact with Yang since they discussed the coronavirus by phone on April 15. They had not met face to face since last year. Experts say US-China relations have reached their lowest point in years, and in mid-May Trump, who has pursued a deal to end a damaging trade war he launched with China, went so far as to suggest he could cut ties with Beijing. The bill Trump signed calls for sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for oppressing Uighur Muslims, including on one of Yang's colleagues on China's powerful Politburo. Trump tempered that possibility with a signing statement saying that some of the bill's sanctions requirements might limit his constitutional authority as president to conduct diplomacy so he would regard them as advisory, not mandatory. While Trump and his administration have stepped up rhetoric against China in the run-up to the November US election, his former national security adviser, John Bolton, said on Wednesday the president sought Chinese President Xi Jinping's help to win re-election during a closed-door June 2019 meeting. Bolton's accusations are part of a book that the US government on Tuesday sued to block him from publishing, arguing it contained classified information and would compromise national security. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday's published excerpts. Neither side has outlined an agenda for the Hawaii talks, but diplomats and other sources have said the meeting was requested by China. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer also told a congressional hearing that Chinese officials had repeatedly affirmed their commitment to buy more US goods and services under a Phase 1 trade deal signed in January and that some $10 billion in purchases had been recorded thus far. Lighthizer also said, when asked about exports of products made by Uighurs and other Muslim groups in camps in China, that Washington would "strongly enforce" US laws banning the import of goods made by forced labor. Among his criticisms of China, Pompeo has said it could have prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths from the global coronavirus pandemic by being more transparent, and accused it of refusing to share information. Trump has initiated a process of eliminating special US treatment for Hong Kong to punish China for curbing freedoms there, but has stopped short of immediately ending privileges that have helped the territory remain a global financial center. German carrier Lufthansa says it canceled 33,000 trips, or 10 percent of its winter flights, because of low demand. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters) One airline says it may need to fly 18,000 "poorly booked" flights this winter to secure its slots at airports. a figure the European Union disputes. New laws to overhaul Western Australia's much-criticised unpaid fines regime have been passed by the state's parliament. The upper house late on Tuesday passed the Labor government bill, which advocates say will address the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system. The changes were sparked by the case of Yamatji woman Ms Dhu, who died in custody in August 2014 after being locked up for $3622 in unpaid fines. Western Australia on Tuesday passed new laws to overhaul its much-criticised unpaid fines regime after Aboriginal woman Ms Dhu (pictured), 22, died in custody in August 2014 Ms Dhu (pictured) died of septicaemia and pneumonia after she was locked up at South Hedland Police Station for three days over $3622 in unpaid fines A coroner ruled Ms Dhu was treated inhumanely and unfairly. Pictured: Police in Ms Dhu's cell The 22-year-old, whose first name is not used for cultural reasons, died in hospital two days after being locked up at South Hedland Police Station. Shocking CCTV footage showed how Ms Dhu's limp body was dragged from her cell to a police van by two officers an hour before she was declared dead. A coroner ruled Ms Dhu, who died of septicaemia and pneumonia from a broken rib, had been treated inhumanely. Under the new legislation, fine defaulters will no longer be immediately taken into custody and warrants for imprisonment can only be issued by a magistrate under strict circumstances. The legislation will also introduce garnishee orders, allowing money to be taken from the bank accounts and salaries of fine defaulters. However, hardship provisions such as mental illness and disability, domestic violence, homelessness, and drug and alcohol problems will be taken into account. Advocates say the new legislation will address the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system. Pictured: Ms Dhu's mother, Della Roe, in December 2016 The change is long overdue in WA, which is the last remaining state to lock up fine defaulters, at a cost to taxpayers of around $2.8 million a year. Government upper house leader Sue Ellery told MPs during Tuesday's debate on the bill there were currently 1300 outstanding warrants involving 300 fine defaulters. Those warrants will now be cancelled the day after the new laws come into effect. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt said the imprisonment of mostly indigenous fine defaulters had become 'normalised' in some regions. 'You will see this have an impact and a very quick impact on the number of Aboriginal people inside prisons,' Mr Wyatt said. On Saturday, June 6, Dr. Kerry Anne Perkins was making the short walk from the downtown Philadelphia Sheraton where she had stayed the night before to the courtyard of the nearby Logan hotel to get ready to see her husband-to-be Michael Gordon as a groom for the first time when she realized that she had left her bridal bouquet in her room. It was that unplanned delay that allowed the Black Lives Matter march taking place in the city that day to catch up with her. It even led to her and Gordon joining in the protest ahead of their wedding ceremony. Since that day, photos and videos of the time the couple spent with the protestors have spread around the world, with one video of them sharing a kiss in the midst of the crowd garnering nearly 40,000 likes on Twitter. Perkins and Gordon arent the only couple who have put their love on display at recent marches. As global protests over racism and police brutality in the U.S. continue, a number of couples participating in them or in Perkins and Gordons case, getting married alongside one are taking a moment to celebrate the love they have for each other amid the broader movement for equality and justice. In Philadelphia, San Francisco and Raleigh, weddings and proposals coinciding with Black Lives Matter protests have been a setting for a display of joy for a handful of couples in the midst of one of the most painful and momentous episodes in recent U.S. history. In the wake of the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia in February, the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville in March and the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer in May, demonstrators in all 50 states as well as a number of countries around the world have turned out in droves to protest violence against Black people. In turn, these demonstrations have sparked a long overdue reckoning with systemic racism in America. The three couples who TIME spoke to have experienced varied reactions to their relationship milestones taking place within the context of Black Lives Matter protests. But all of them have been mindful about not wanting to detract from the purpose of the larger movement. Instead, they say they hope their gestures of love underscore the power and importance of this pivotal moment in time. Story continues Here are the stories of three couples in places across the country who have marked major moments against the backdrop of recent Black Lives Matter protests. Dr. Kerry Anne Perkins and Michael Gordon Dr. Kerry Anne Perkins and Michael Gordon join a Black Lives Matter protest taking place alongside their wedding ceremony at The Logan hotel in Philadelphia on June 6, 2020. | Linda McQueenLinda McQueen Photography While waiting on her forgotten bouquet, Perkins says that one of the protests taking place in Philadelphia that day, reportedly the largest Black Lives Matter demonstration in the city yet, began moving down the parkway adjacent to the Logan hotel. As it was passing through, people started to notice me there, she says. At that point, I had my veil on, I had my shoes on and everything. I was just missing my bouquet. And so people started to cheer and they were really just sending me love. But it wasnt until she moved closer to the street to get out of the sun, Perkins says, that protestors began gathering around her. The area that had shade was closer to the street where the protesters were, so I moved there and I see people really slowing down with the march, she says. As some of our family members started to come around the corner to see what was happening, the cheers continued and built up and people started to surround me. Im not even sure exactly why that happened, but I think everyone was just so excited by the fact that there was a bride there that they came to a standstill. Thats when Gordon, who was standing in the Logan courtyard eagerly waiting to catch sight of his bride, heard applause from around the corner. I start hearing cheering and clapping and congratulating and there was just a ruckus and a roar from around the corner. But I cant see it. I can only hear it, he says. So a few of my family members start to trickle off to go up there and look, people start clapping and I see cell phones going up in the air. Since their ceremony was supposed to take place in the courtyard, Gordon says that family members originally tried to stop him from investigating what was happening. But after seeing the scene at hand for themselves, they urged him on instead. At that point, I run over, run up the steps, run around the corner and Im just looking for Kerry, he says. Im going toward the focal point of the applause and as Im running, people see me coming and theyre like, Oh, well this must be the guy. They start parting to let me through and Kerry Anne is standing there looking like a beautiful Black princess with her dress on amongst all the protesters around her clapping and congratulating and saying things like, You guys are beautiful, Black love, Black lives matter. Any positive statement you can think of, thats all we heard. All I remember is positivity and love. Dr. Kerry Anne Perkins and Michael Gordon join a Black Lives Matter protest taking place alongside their wedding ceremony at The Logan hotel in Philadelphia on June 6, 2020. | Linda McQueenLinda McQueen Photography As Perkins saw Gordon approaching, she says that she couldnt help but think about how it seemed like their relationship was always meant to lead them to that moment. I was thinking about all of our most important moments in time together. I was thinking about the vows that I wrote five months ago that talked about how hes an amazing Black man and how thats such an important and pivotal thought that manifested five months before but was still relevant to that minute, she says. I was also reflecting on the movement that started just days prior to that and what that movement is all about. That moment in time and all those thoughts in my mind were overwhelming my spirit and soul and it got to the point where my emotions were just overflowing. The forgotten bouquet, however, wasnt the first hiccup in Perkins and Gordons wedding plans that led to this moment of what they say seemed like kismet. After getting engaged in January 2019, the couple had originally planned to wed in a large ceremony at the Legacy Castle in Pequannock, N.J., on May 26, 2020. But as has been the case for many couples in recent months, the coronavirus pandemic necessitated a change in plans. They decided to go ahead with a much smaller ceremony at the Logan on June 6, keep their marriage a secret and reschedule their original wedding for spring 2021. At the time, they had no idea that the date for their micro-wedding would come just over a week after protests sprung up around the country in the wake of George Floyds death. Based on their viral popularity, the photos and videos of Perkins and Gordons interaction with the protest clearly struck a chord with people. I think it was a moment for everybody where it was like, what we are chanting and protesting about and what we are hoping and longing for is right before our eyes, the couples officiant, Rev. Roxanne Birchfield, says. It was a symbol of hope, a symbol of peace, a symbol of not just Black lives mattering, but something thats connected to Black lives mattering, the Black family. For her part, Perkins says that she thinks the resonance of the moment has much less to do with who she and Gordon are as people than what their union represents in the midst of this historic movement. People around the world arent looking at us because they know us, but because they see something in us that we were exuding at that time thats needed in society. I think thats what this really comes down to, she says. What people knew was that there was going to be a union and that union must have been built on love. I think people really needed to feel that. Because when I look back on it, believe it or not thats what I see. When I see those images, I dont see Mike and Kerry. I see love and unity. Were so appreciative to everyone around the world for recognizing that, for uplifting us with that and encouraging others to be uplifted as well. Marjorie Alston and Xavier Young When Xavier Young saw how passionate his girlfriend, Marjorie Alston, was about going out to protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, thats when he says he knew he wanted to propose at the May 30 march they were planning to attend in Raleigh, N.C. I had the idea beforehand that I wanted to propose because once she convinced me to go and I was able to get off work, I was like, Shes really passionate and shes down to do this,' he says. So I went ahead and threw the ring in my book bag just to make sure I had it in case the opportunity presented itself. But Young says the moment that he actually got down on one knee was spontaneous. I didnt necessarily know that I was going to do it right there or at that moment in that spot, he says. It just seemed like a good time. While Alston says that she knew Young was going to propose eventually, she never expected it to be at the protest. I just really wanted to go because I felt like the more voices being heard on these serious issues the better. I thought a lot of people needed to be there for it, she says. I didnt know [he was going to propose] that day or at the protest, so I was just excited when I saw he was down on one knee. Id been waiting for that day for a while. After meeting while working at Hard Knocks laser tag in Raleigh in 2018, Young and Alston dated for nearly two years before Young popped the question. That summer when we started dating neither of us was looking for a relationship, he says. It just so happened that we met each other and started dating and fell in love and here we are now. Now, the couple has a baby on the way and are planning their wedding for September 2021. In addition to trying to make sure Alston was safe, Young says that a major reason he wanted to be at the protest was to do his part to fight for a better world for their future child. Not only does what were protesting for affect me, but Im also about to have a baby, he says. I want to make sure things are actually changing. Despite the fact that Young and Alston say they never expected their story to get as big as it has amid everything going on, they ultimately feel its good for people to see the love they have for one another right now. I think youll see them in a textbook one day as a part of history, Young says of the viral photos of them celebrating their engagement. For us to be able to display that love and commitment for one another in the midst of that protest and whats going on, I think thats pretty amazing. People are marching and the Black community is hurting and were in pain and were outraged and we want change, but its definitely good for our community to see people who look like them and who they can identify with loving each other. Carrie Montgomery and Quin Messenger Quin Messenger and Carrie Montgomery attend a Black Lives Matter protest in San Francisco on June 6, 2020. | Carrie Montgomery Ahead of the June 6 protest in San Francisco where he proposed to his then-girlfriend, Carrie Montgomery, Quin Messenger wasnt sure if he wanted to attend a march. Although he identifies as multiracial with Black, Indigenous and white ancestry Messenger says that because he is generally perceived as a Black man, its given him a fear of going to protests. I wanted to go but I just didnt feel safe doing so, he says. It was this really difficult moment of navigating what I felt was my own responsibility, but also feeling like my right to go had almost been taken away from me because I was so afraid. That was really hard for me to process. But after Montgomery decided to go to a protest earlier that week, he says that a period of reflection helped him arrive at the conclusion that it was his responsibility to be as active a participant as possible in the fight for change. I could feel this sort of cultural trauma stirring up inside me, he says. I could feel that pain and it stirred up all these latent fears in me with respect to police brutality and identifying as a person of color and being seen that way. And in that moment, I really realized that with mine and Carries union, with bringing together these cultural legacies that are very much in the public eye right now, if I was going to be an example for our future children, then I had to go. I had to be able to move past that fear and be an example not just for our children, but also for people in our general circles. The couples five-year relationship was one of the things keeping Messenger grounded as he and Montgomery marched across the Golden Gate Bridge alongside thousands of other demonstrators that Saturday, he says. I had the [engagement] ring and I had our love and thats what I really looked to to help lead me, he says. The ring was a physical manifestation of our love that I needed in what was, for me, a very transformative moment of getting more in touch with my own fears and my own Blackness. Quin Messenger and Carrie Montgomery at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles in 2016. | Carrie Montgomery Messenger, who met Montgomery in Birmingham, Ala., while on assignment for a Los Angeles design firm at the Birmingham Museum of Art, says that it makes sense for them to have gotten engaged at a protest as their relationship has always been rooted in working towards understanding their own roles in the fight for racial justice. With Birmingham being a touchstone for the civil rights movement, it really gave me an opportunity to reflect more on myself and my own past history, he says, noting that he has family ties in Clarksdale, Miss. Pretty much every time I visited Birmingham, we made an effort to go see some sort of civil rights landmark. So its kind of no surprise that [our relationship] came full circle for [our engagement] to happen at this moment in the sense that it was rooted there. The time they spent together in the south, Montgomery adds, helped them learn more about each other as well as their own family histories and legacies. He was based in LA at the time, and I was based in Birmingham, so we used the lens of art and exploration and social practice to better understand each others pasts, she says. I think thats really been something thats helped us not only understand each other as people but also, with an empathetic eye, be able to further understand other movements and other experiences. But even after five years together, Montgomery says that when Messenger first got down on one knee in the midst of the protest, she had no idea what was happening. Everyone around me definitely knew exactly what was going on a solid 15-20 seconds before I did and they were taking out their phones and cheering and putting their fists up in the air, she says. I think a lot of my shock was just from hundreds of people surrounding us and yelling and looking at us and holding up their signs. And then when I realized what was going on after I saw the ring, it kind of switched me from the mindset of the protest to a very personal and intimate and deeply moving moment. Despite the overwhelmingly positive reception that their engagement garnered in real time, in the aftermath of the moment going viral, the couple says they have faced some criticism. We were very sensitive to our story of joy and love and light being something that wasnt going to detract from the greater movement, Messenger says. And I think what Ive also been unpacking is that while there are some people who have their own opinions about whether or not it was the right time or space [for me to propose], its definitely brought to light that there are conversations around interracial relationships that need to happen within the Black community and need to happen within the white community. The attention theyve been receiving, both positive and negative, has only made them even firmer believers in using their platform to try to have meaningful discussions, Montgomery says. At no point have we tried to say that being an interracial couple fixes racism or that our union is the solution to curing a built-in system of oppression in this country, she says. Weve really just tried to honor the truth that we can speak to in our own individual experiences and honor our own responsibility and accountability and continue conversations on racism the best we can. For Messenger, this experience has also stressed the importance of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. I think thats something that everyone needs to be doing right now whether youre in the white community or the Black community. It doesnt matter. We all need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and that comes from really looking into our pasts and looking into ourselves, he says. In order to take action and inspire change in the present, we must first understand our past and move forward from there with empathy and love. This is work that we all have to do every single day. While business owners and residents of California expressed relief over the reopening, some public health experts and county health officers voiced out their scepticism about levelling up as COVID-19 cases in the state continuously increase. Governor Gavin Newsom defended the state's wide-scale reopening as positive results of tests for the virus continue to rise. Newsom said there is a certain point where you have to acknowledge the fact you cannot be in a permanent situation where people are locked out for so many months. The state leader also cautioned of more extensive public health effects of witnessing "lives and livelihood" being totally wrecked. 58 Counties Authorized to Reopen Commercial Activities The state, in recent weeks, has sanctioned its 58 counties to restart a surging number of commercial activities including dine-in restaurants, nail salons and bars. According to news reports, the governor gave counties the go signal after "they faced weeks of weeks of increasing pushback from local officials" who contended the economic consequence was concealing public health risks. Specifically, the new cases' seven-day average continues to rise in California while it has dramatically dropped in other high-impact states like New Jersey and New York. Meanwhile, imageries of packed businesses such as bar scenarios over the weekend have highlighted growing concern or apprehension. Indicators Justify Decision to Reopen Governor Newsom, reports said, presented on Monday, a long series of indicators that justify the decisions of reopening, noting "that infection rates have stabilized." He also argued that the health care system of the state had retained its capacity "to handle a flow or upwelling of new COVID-19 cases. He highlighted too that counties are exercising the final say in terms of reopening. In addition, the governor also stated that the positive rate, or the percentage of individuals who tested positive with the virus, had dropped as there comes an increase in test access, and with the state reaching a goal of having the ability to conduct "60,000 days" each day. He also said California was spreading personal protective equipment or PPE like masks, adding, "We have a state" that holds firm when it comes to case rates stability. Currently, the state is tracing persistent, multi-le-day red flags surrounding indicators such as rates of hospitalization in seven counties of the state including Los Angeles. Relatively, skilled nursing homes and facilities, accounting for most deaths, stay the government's top priority, said the governor. Also, African-American Californians and Latinx continue suffering unreasonably. Gov. Newsom implored people of California to stay vigilant in the coming weeks and months, saying, "As we reopen unavoidably," there will be a rise in the total number of cases. Lastly, he also urged Californians to continue practicing social distance, putting on face masks and often washing their hands. These things, he said, are essential for everyone in the state "to avoid the second wave. Check these out! Cyber criminal networks and individual opportunists have leveraged the coronavirus crisis to ramp up schemes to defraud businesses, credulous consumers and governments at all levels. The big picture: This new wave of cyber crime, documented in a series of indictments, public disclosures and statements from U.S. officials, illustrates why the U.S. government sometimes refers to the big four plus one of cyber threats. The big four are the traditional quartet of states known for their cyber capabilities: Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. The plus one refers to cash-rich and increasingly adept cyber criminal operations that have now earned equal footing with nation-states. Whats happening: Since the coronavirus crisis exploded domestically in March, U.S. authorities have mobilized to combat a torrent of related cyber crime. The Justice Department and FBI convened a COVID-19 Working Group, which coordinates closely with the U.S. Secret Service, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and other agencies. By the numbers: The scope of the problem is overwhelming. By late May, the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center had received 320,000 complaints over the course of the year, compared to roughly 400,000 complaints in all of 2019. The FBI: The agency has tracked an increase in online and other fraud related to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which gives loans to small businesses to keep employees on the payroll. The FBI has launched nearly 100 investigations into PPP-related fraud that involve $42 million in funds, and it's clawed back $900,000 from fraudsters. But in some cases, cyber criminals have successfully had victims wire funds to international bank accounts shielded from U.S. law enforcement. The Secret Service: The acute nature of coronavirus-related fraud has led the U.S. Secret Service, which plays a major role in federal cyber crime investigations, to focus on quickly disrupting these schemes and protecting victims, rather than building prosecutable cases against offenders. Investigators are returning to the question of prosecution after these disruptions have taken place, knowing that quick action may have affected their ability to arrest wrongdoers. Health care targets: Earlier this year, some cyber criminal groups announced that they were suspending their targeting of the health care sector during the coronavirus crisis. But attacks havent stopped. In at least one instance, a group that publicly forswore targeting health care entities quietly compromised a health care company. Cyber criminals are also pumping fake coronavirus cures and treatments. Stimulus targets: Recently, large-scale stimulus fraud has become a major focus for cyber criminal groups. For instance, cyber criminals, aware of U.S. government efforts to prop up consumer spending, have crafted their messages around recent individual payments to taxpayers, with these groups engaging in stimulus-themed spear-phishing campaigns. PPE targets: Earlier in the outbreak, much coronavirus-related fraud involved the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE), which cities and states scrambled to acquire in the initial aftermath of the outbreak in the United States. Using middlemen, states and cities made PPE purchases, sometimes worth many millions of dollars, to procure PPE from foreign countries. Price gouging has been common, and sometimes the transactions have been fraudulent leading the FBI to step in and stop entire bulk purchases. (In some cases, the federal government and U.S. states battled over PPE orders, leading to charges of political intervention.) The bottom line: The types of attacks and vectors used by cyber criminals haven't changed in the COVID-19 era. Some residents, business owners and civil rights activists have called on Bynum to cancel Trumps rally at the 19,000-seat BOK Center, warning it could bring a confluence of dangers. They say his visit the first large-scale gathering in the state since its shutdown will spread the novel coronavirus at a time when cases are spiking. And they worry it will inflame racial tensions, particularly because of recent protests against racism in policing and the rallys timing on the weekend of Juneteenth, which commemorates the day enslaved black people in Texas received news of their freedom. It is now observed across the country to celebrate emancipation. 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. By Jefferson County Memorial Project Core Members, T. Marie King and Abigail Schneider How can we remember what our institutions have tried to erase? How can we remember when events are painful and traumatic? When the National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened in 2018, it charged our countiesand the residents in themto reckon with the long-standing emotional, social, and economic consequences of racial terror. The grassroots coalition, the Jefferson County Memorial Project (JCMP), and our JCMP Fellows, are helping answer these questions for our county. To begin this reckoning, we knew we needed to understand our history; we asked our young people to help. In 2019, JCMP Fellows from Jefferson County's six colleges scoured newspaper archives, census records, marriage certificates, and coroners reports to understand the lives of our countys 30 racial terror victims. Local activists, librarians, and historians helped them craft best practices for telling these stories. They uncovered additional lynching victims and pinpointed places of these murders. We started telling our countys story. Their research opened up more questions than answered. So, our 2020 JCMP Fellows are digging deeper. Theyve found more undocumented lynchings and new details on the victims lives. Theyve analyzed our countys broader systems of power, highlighting the nuances of how institutions oppressed people of color in our county. In 2020, at each lynching anniversary, we are publishing our 2019 and 2020 Fellows analysis. The dialogue youll see between these fellows shows research as it unfolds. We hope this transparency will help us build a better archive, better collectively remember this history, and advocate against racial injustice today. By Joyeuse Senga, Samford University On September 9, 2019, Jefferson County community members gathered at Sloss Furnaces to dedicate a historical marker memorializing Tom Redmond, who was lynched on June 17, 1890, as a result of racial violence at Brookside Mines. Sources agree that on June 16, 1890, a group of white men instigated a quarrel after hurling rocks at a group of black men. The next day, Tom Acres, a white man, reignited the dispute after attempting to arrest one of the black men, Jim McDowell. The encounter sparked a shoot-out in front of a Sloss company store and Tom Redmond was fatally shot. Some newspapers do not mention Mr. Redmonds name, and in fact never mention that a black man was killed at all. Most newspapers mark Mr. Redmond as a leader of the group of black men who deserved punishment. The only accounts we have of Mr. Redmonds lynching are from the perspective of the white men involved in the incident and the white press reporting on the incident. Although no accounts from African American sources survive, accounts in the white press in Alabama and across the country provide new insights into how contested the account of Mr. Redmonds lynching was, and how hard it remains to understand exactly what happened. The day after Mr. Redmonds murder, an article provided new information in understanding his lynching. The Birmingham News states that miners children playing near Brookside found a dead body in the leaves. The children reported it to the authorities, but their parents refused to allow them to return with the officers to show them where the body was seen. Newspaper accounts say nothing about what happened to the body that was found, and authorities held no one responsible for Mr. Redmonds murder. The aftermath of Mr. Redmonds murder repeats the pattern of the death of an African American man used to reaffirm the social frameworks and values of a society dedicated to oppressing black people. Our understanding of Mr. Redmonds death and our remembrance of him are shaped by the lens of the white community. Without a common understanding of what happened, some remember Mr. Redmond as the unnamed, others remember him as a bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and others as the perpetrator rather than the victim. The historical marker helps us name Tom Redmond and reckon with the truth of racial terror that intimidated Mr. Redmond and traumatized generations by reinforcing racial hierarchy and segregation. In remembering Tom Redmond, the community must resist the urge to accept the narrative that dehumanizes him. In a bizarre incident, an amusement park in the Netherlands was seen swarming with teddy bears as they enjoyed rides meant for humans. In a video shared on YouTube by Walibi Holland theme park in the Netherlands, dozens of cream-colored teddy bears can be seen "enjoying" rides in the park. The park, which shut down in keeping with lockdown regulations instated by the Netherlands, has recently opened to humans following a relaxation in rules. But with social distancing restrictions. Nevertheless, those rules do not apply to bears, it seems, who seemed to be enjoying their day out. These are the same 22 bears who were previously seen in the park's "Untamed" roller coaster. Taking to YouTube, the amusement park's page wrote, "The teddy bears had so much fun in #UNTAMED that they were eager to test another attraction. This time they chose Super Swing. They would like to go to another attraction, but don't know which one yet. In which attraction should the bears be next?" The video has been going viral on social media, with many thanking YouTube for sharing the video. "The bears are back", one YouTube user wrote while another said, "This video lifted the spirits of my entire crappy day". Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday filed the anticipated police reform bill drafted in the wake of the officer-involved death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis. The bill, An Act to Improve Police Officer Standards and Accountability, was the result of conversations between the Baker administration and the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus over the past year, though elements of the legislation have appeared in bills filed earlier this session and in previous sessions. Baker, a Republican, called the bill a first step in a process that we hope will create a package of reforms that accomplishes the goals that we all share. He said meetings on the bill started nearly a year ago. It will provide police departments with the tools they need to build trust and strong relationships with every community across the commonwealth at a time when we need it most, Baker said during a news briefing Wednesday at the Massachusetts State House with Reps. Russel Holmes, Carlos Gonzalez, Liz Miranda, Nika Elugardo and other members of the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus. The legislation creates a certification program that would have to be renewed every three years, similar to renewal processes for other licensed professions, Baker said. Employers will have access to information about an officers training levels and conduct. Baker said some of that information will be publicly available, but he did not elaborate on what. The bill would also create a process for decertification that involves community input, Baker said. Officers who use a chokehold or excessive force would be automatically decertified, as would officers who fail to intervene if they see an officer violating standards. The third change in the bill would create incentives for training, including teaching deescalation tactics, foreign language proficiency and methods of responding to domestic and sexual violence calls. The bill includes three levels of training, each accompanied by a base salary increase: $1,000 for Level 1, $2,500 for Level 2 and $5,000 for Level 3. The credits dont roll over from one fiscal year to the next. The Police Officer Standards and Accreditation, or POSA, committee that would license the officers would include seven police officials, including one officer of any rank appointed to a Western Massachusetts department. The other seven would involve the attorney general, or an appointee, and six civilians appointed by the governor. At least half of the committee members would need to be people of color, Lt. Gov. Karen Polito said. It would be up to the POSA Committee to develop and approve a standard background investigation for any existing officer who applies for a new job. They would have to check the POSA database and the national decertification index. It would also be up to the committee to determine what courses need to be completed for each level. The POSA Committee would oversee licensing for officers and job candidates at municipal police departments, the MBTAs Transit Police, the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs Office of Law Enforcement, UMass police, campus police officers attending committee-approved academies or training programs and deputy sheriffs. The licensing requirements would not apply to correctional officers. Holmes said theres no reason why police officers shouldnt be certified just as nail technicians, financial planners and teachers are. I am sick and tired of hearing constituents say, I asked for a badge number, and I didnt get it, said Holmes, a Boston Democrat who has repeatedly filed legislation that aimed to increase police accountability. Those days are over. Both anti-racist activists and police unions say they support one of the key provisions of the bill, which would license police officers in Massachusetts and authorize the state to decertify problem officers. Massachusetts is one of six states that have not licensed police officers. Mark Leahy, president of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said he agrees with certifying police officers and has seen it work in Connecticut. He said other reforms have already been in place for years in Massachusetts. Weve been ahead of the curve with training for years in Massachusetts, which frankly is also part of the reason why these high-profile, controversial, embarrassing situations with police officers that have happened around the country, said Leahy, former police chief of Northborough. They havent happened in Massachusetts. The legislation comes as protesters are taking to the streets of Boston and other cities worldwide calling attention to the deaths of Floyd, where video footage captured an officer kneeling on his neck for several minutes; Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot as Louisville police raided her home in the middle of the night; and countless others who have died in the hands of white people, particularly white police officers. Proponents of a Peace Officer Standards Training, or POST, system, who spoke during a panel Tuesday afternoon say its one of several needed steps lawmakers need to take, the State House News Service reported. I dont think that theres one silver bullet or pill for police reform as a total. It needs to encompass a bunch of stuff, Jamarhl Crawford, the founder of Mass Police Reform, said during a panel hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the New England Area Conference of the NAACP and the Black and Latino Caucus. Leahy said Floyds death was unconscionable but that the conduct of officers halfway across the country doesnt reflect the actions of officers in Massachusetts. He said officers cant remember ever being trained to use a chokehold and cant recall seeing one ever used. Officers in Massachusetts have engaged in bias training at least since the officer-involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. Were starting to get a little tired of being painted with that wide brush, and with being stereotyped because we wear a badge, Leahy said. Its tough. We have men and women that are out there every day trying to do the best we can. Theyre taking a lot of flak for something that happened half way across the country. Bakers bill comes as House leadership and others on Beacon Hill are preparing their own bills. The bills are taking form as the Legislature nears the end of its two-year session on July 31. Baker urged lawmakers to come together to pass a bill with teeth before the end of session. I really want to be able to stand this up in a relatively short period of time, Baker said. Holmes credited Baker and Polito for jumping on efforts to license police officers before recent high-profile deaths, rather than just reacting to recent protests across the nation. Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, urged state leaders to take their efforts further and end qualified immunity for police officers, implement new legal use of force standards and re-allocate funding for police into social services for Black and Brown communities. This bill is a welcome first step, but more can and should be done to dramatically change the role police play in our communities, Rose said in a statement. There can be no more limited or temporary fixes when it comes to policing. Related Content: Fire season in the Amazon rainforest does not open with a political proclamation. Nor does it end with a parade. But everyone in the region knows how this calendar operates. Deforestation and fires in 2019 reached a record high in a decade and continued to rise in 2020. A high-profilenew report,releasedonJune 2.confirms that Brazil what is responsible for more than one-third of all loss of tropical primary forests in 2019.The authors identified a particularly troubling trend is that most press accounts missed--deforestation ofprimary forests protected by the indigenous territorieshas risen dramatically, most of itfueled byillegal landgrabbers, At the start of this year's fire season in the Amazon, with COVID-19 tearing through Brazil, Indigenous Amazonians face threats from all sides. A recent study showed that 3.7% of indigenous people in 21 of the Amazonian cities tested positive for COVID-19, in comparison to only 0.6%among whites, the alarming trend. the Leaders of indigenous organizations in Brazil last week launched a campaign to demand the expulsion of illegal miners in order to curb the impact of the COVID-19 virus in the northern Brazilian Amazon. There are currently 20,000 illegal miners operating on the lands of the Yanomami, leading to fears the communities want to be infected by contact with the outsiders. Like the Yanomami, many of Brazil'sIndigenous people have retreated to the most remote corners of their territories, worried about this plague from the outside world. Itis not so long ago that exposing communities to pathogens like measles and smallpox was a strategy used by colonizers to gain access to new lands. Current policies introduced by Brazils current government, added to concerns about the pandemic, have raised old fears and led to the call for desperate measures. And yet these risks threaten populations far beyond the forests of the Amazon. The strong spiritual and cultural values of Indigenous Amazonians have protected tropical forests and biodiversity for centuries. Their way of life benefits us all, in a modern world that seems diametrically opposed to an equilibrium developed and often passed down from one generation to another. Trees are cleared for new cattle pasture, soybean farms, mines, hydropower projects, or felled by brazen land speculators or illegal logger. With drier seasonal weather now arriving in all of the southern Amazon, any clearinglegal or illegalraises the risk of fires. These not only destroy more hectares of forest, but release dense smoke plumes that threaten the health of children, the elderly, and people already suffering from respiratory diseasesincluding conditions generated by COVID-19. Updated Date: 17 June 2020, 06:19 The enterprise technology and AI company welcomes a host of global talent as it brings best-in-class platforms to Europe TAIPEI, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Appier , a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, announces today the expansion of its global leadership and that it is now established in Europe, bringing its suite of enterprise products to the market to help businesses in the region grow through effective application of AI and deep learning. Appier was founded in 2012 and has since become one of the foremost technology partners to more than 1000 global brands. Recognised as a Top 50 AI company by Fortune Magazine, Appier helps its clients use AI to make data-driven decisions and solve business problems. Leading the expansion is Alban Villani who joins Appier as SVP of Global Sales, EMEA and SEA, based in Paris, France. He was previously regional managing director at Criteo, where he drove business growth throughout APAC and across verticals including retail, travel and finance. In his international role for Appier, Villani will work with brands and agencies to help them apply deep learning to find new audiences for their products and services. "During my time in Asia I watched Appier grow from an AI startup into a technology powerhouse, and I'm thrilled to join the team as it continues on this trajectory," said Villani. "The demand for self-learning digital advertising optimisation tools is borderless, and this has never been clearer as we join together as a global community to tackle the challenge of the pandemic. European marketers have an appetite for solutions that can translate vast amounts of data into actionable predictions. Appier's platforms will allow them to acquire customers and engage audiences across devices and channels- paid and owned- while protecting user privacy. I have heard many marketers asking for a full-funnel solution with deep data insights, and we are glad to be able to provide one to them." Appier also announces the appointment of Michelle Wong as SVP of Enterprise Sales, taking the role after almost 24 years in leadership at IBM where she was General Manager of Technical Support Services ASEAN. Michelle has more than 30 years of experience in the enterprise space and at Appier, leads the global enterprise commercial team responsible for propelling the adoption of Appier's enterprise-grade AI and data science platforms around the world. "As we move towards economic recovery following the height of the global pandemic, we are at a critical moment to help businesses accelerate their digital transformation and increase online efficiency by leveraging AI technology," said Chih-Han Yu, co-founder and CEO of Appier. "We are committed to bringing our solutions to more customers in APAC and Europe who are serious about improving customer engagement to drive business growth. Alban and Michelle are both proven leaders in global business, and are helping Appier's clients apply AI and deep learning to meet and exceed their business goals while growing and mentoring stellar teams of international professionals." Appier will continue to grow its presence in Europe. The announcement of new leadership and European expansion follow Appier's most recent round of Series D funding of US$80M. Appier has received a total of US$162M in funding from global investors including Sequoia, Softbank, and Line. The most recent capital injection is earmarked to drive global growth, attract the best talent worldwide and super-charge product innovation. About Appier Appier helps businesses solve their most challenging problems with artificial intelligence. It is a partner to some of the world's leading brands, providing a suite of enterprise-grade products to support data-driven decisions and accelerate business growth. Established in 2012 by a passionate team of computer scientists and engineers, Appier now has more than 400 people across 15 offices and is recognised as a Top 50 AI company by Fortune Magazine. Appier has raised US$162 million in funding from investors including Sequoia, Softbank, and Line. Learn more at www.appier.com . Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1191541/Michelle_Alban.jpg The rally, Kim said, was to show support of an institution that we stand for, black lives; that we care for the health of our black community and that we will do our best as faculty, staff (and) students to further the health of members in our black community. A 47-year-old fugitive being sought on charges he tried to kill his former girlfriend in Newark last week was arrested later that day in Maryland, authorities said. Carlos Hernandez Bonilla-Pabon stabbed the woman at a home on Nichols Street in Newark on June 9 after his demands that the two reconcile were rejected, according to the Prince Georges County Sheriffs Office and Newark police. Later that day, the Essex County Sheriffs Office got a tip that Bonilla-Pabon might be in Fort Washington, Maryland and notified officials there. Prince Georges County deputies then went to a home on the 11000 block of North Star Drive, knocked and were let inside, authorities said. Bonilla-Pabon tried to run out a back door but was quickly arrested, authorities said. Bonilla-Pabon, of Newark, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons offenses and is in the Prince Georges County jail awaiting extradition to New Jersey The woman is in stable condition, a Newark police spokeswoman said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. 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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 North Korean state media released images Tuesday of what it said was the destruction of the joint liaison office with South Korea. Seoul's Unification Ministry confirmed that the building in the North Korean border town of Kaesong was demolished "by bombing" on Tuesday afternoon local time, NBC News reported. Rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula saw North Korea cutting off communications with the South and threatening to move armed forces back into demilitarized zones on the border. The warnings came amid stalled nuclear talks with the U.S., and could be a signal that Pyongyang is frustrated with what it views as "failed democracy," John Park, director of the Korea Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, told CNBC on Monday. While there is no evidence of intentional manipulation, the states coronavirus data blunders have created openings for confusion and baseless conspiracy theories. 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 Data is difficult. At its best, its a tool for sound policy. Data can cut through noise to help spot trends, like new clusters of the coronavirus. It can prove which communities face the most risk and where supplies are most needed. At its worst, though, data brings trouble. Without context, it can seem to tell a story that might not be true. A countys case count on its own is misleading without information about tests. A death toll might be declining, but it wont account for reporting delays. Since March, data about the coronavirus has played a profound role in Pennsylvania, underpinning sweeping decisions to close schools, restrict businesses, and separate loved ones. Now, in the early days of the states reopening, accurate data is critical to detecting a resurgence. But over the past three months, the state Health Department has repeatedly failed to safeguard the publics trust in its data. While there is no evidence of intentional manipulation, the states blunders have created openings for confusion. A Spotlight PA review of the states COVID-19 data practices found: From the start, Pennsylvania officials failed to acknowledge the full limitations of COVID-19 data. The state has not always clearly explained to the public what numbers mean, what they dont, and when and why they might change. On several occasions, the Health Department has published data without careful vetting. When mistakes have been made, the state has quietly edited information without clearly documenting and communicating the changes. The state has been opaque about its methods and sources used to compile the data, obscuring the publics ability to scrutinize the numbers. Taken together, these shortcomings make it difficult for researchers, policymakers, and the public to get an accurate sense of whats happening. The whole picture isnt being painted, said Raeven Faye Chandler, director of the Pennsylvania Population Network, a research center housed at Penn State, and its possible that we could derive results that are more optimistic than they actually are. In a statement, the state Health Department defended its handling of COVID-19 data, saying it has faced immense challenges and has tried to be transparent. Funding for public health in Pennsylvania is among the lowest in the country, and some of the work being done ... is work that up until this response, had not been possible, the department said. We are providing data on a daily and weekly basis that previously took months and sometimes more than a year to compile. The statement added that when there are items that may confuse the public, we are doing our best to explain what happened. Chandler, whose work focuses on social demographic and health research, uses the states numbers to build a data-driven analysis of COVID-19s effect on high-risk populations. She said she understands the challenges the department is up against, given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic. But the problem, she said, is that there has been no discussion presented to provide clarity when the states methods with data have changed. With the lack of information, its hard for researchers to understand whats happening and what the risks are and how that may vary across populations, Chandler said. READ MORE: Tracking the coronavirus' spread across the Philadelphia region Be clear and transparent Since the start of the pandemic, Pennsylvania officials have said decisions would be driven by data. They have asked the public to trust the process, saying policies would be fact-based and fair. Along the way, however, the state has repeatedly struggled to explain how data is being collected and used. Instead, officials have had to play defense to dispel confusion and baseless conspiracy theories after a number or metric has unexpectedly changed. In April, Gov. Tom Wolf announced a reopening benchmark with clear numbers, easy for the public to track. If a county had fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 days, Wolf said, it would be a sign that its safe to start reopening. Were going to be applying the metrics that I mentioned the number of cases per 100,000 people to make sure that were doing this in a data-driven, evidence-based way, Wolf said at the time. Local officials and the public latched on to the metric, only to see the state reopen counties that failed to meet it. Wolf later explained the benchmark had always been one of many, and had shifted as the states understanding of COVID-19 evolved. State officials have likewise struggled to explain how they are collecting death data. As early as March, county coroners raised concerns about the Health Departments process, and the lack of a uniform death-reporting system led to discrepancies between state and county counts. At daily press conferences throughout much of April, Health Secretary Rachel Levine discussed the departments efforts to reconcile death data to merge and vet numbers being collected from multiple systems. That effort is still ongoing, leading to delays between the date deaths occur and the date they are reported publicly. Even the states process of defining COVID-19 deaths became a major point of confusion. Questions about whether the Health Departments count included deaths probably caused by the coronavirus have circled for months. The peak of confusion was in April, when the department announced the addition of probable deaths to the count, then, two days later, said they removed more than 200 of them. There wasnt any clarity, aside from minimal asterisks, Chandler said. Currently, the states death count does include some probable deaths, according to a department spokesperson. But a member of the public wouldnt know that. The state releases a daily breakdown of confirmed and probable cases, but does not do the same for deaths. The state has also faltered in the collection of data about race. For much of the crisis, it has been mandatory for Pennsylvania health-care providers to report the race and ethnicity of people with COVID-19, but the state still lacks the data for more than half of its almost 80,000 cases. Its a really big deal, said Chandler. We need this data to be able to understand how COVID-19 may be disproportionately impacting individuals, particularly those who may be more vulnerable. Even when data about race and ethnicity is included, the state doesnt disclose how it was obtained. Thats a crucial missing piece of the puzzle, said Bob Gradeck, manager of the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center at the University of Pittsburghs Center for Social and Urban Research. As the state tries to understand issues with equity, Gradeck said, its important to understand the context where numbers about race and ethnicity come from and whether the collection process has been consistent across the state. Vet data before it goes public On June 8, the Health Department debuted a new data dashboard. At its launch, the dashboards number of tests appeared impossibly high. The trend line showed a jump overnight from about 12,000 tests administered one day to 26,100 the next. But the data was wrong. After Spotlight PA inquired, Nate Wardle, a spokesperson for the department, acknowledged the error, saying the second days number should, in fact, be 9,410. Hours passed before it was corrected. The situation is just one of many. In mid-May, when the department published a long-awaited list of nursing homes with outbreaks of COVID-19, the numbers were immediately contested. Without disclosure or acknowledgment, the department began quietly correcting issues. Days later, they admitted to some problems. Complexities and shifts should be expected, said Gradeck, of the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center. Its not surprising that the numbers change. But if youre clear about the datas limitations from the start, he said, you avoid setting yourself up for a gotcha moment. And with data constantly revised, its important to provide historical numbers, said Coral Sheldon-Hess, a professor of computer information technology and data analytics at the Community College of Allegheny County. People analyzing Pennsylvanias COVID-19 data need to know when to correct any past numbers, to help make predictions better going forward, Sheldon-Hess said. But that hasnt happened in every case. Since March, the Health Department has kept an archive page of coronavirus data, publishing daily tallies. But the archive doesnt disclose when numbers were later corrected, nor does it explain why the department changed its methodology. Whats more, the department said on June 8 that with the launch of the new data dashboard, it would no longer be posting updates to the archive page. That wouldnt be necessary, Wardle said, given that the dashboard contained a graphical depiction of when COVID-19 cases and deaths occurred. A day later, after hearing that the dashboard was difficult for some people to use, the department resumed posting to the archive page. Make data easy to scrutinize In 2016, the Wolf administration pledged to make government data available and usable to the public. One of our most valuable and underutilized resources in state government is data, Wolf said at the time. The initiative centered around OpenDataPA, an online portal for data thats both free for anyone to use and structured in a way thats easy for computers to process. Think: Excel spreadsheets or CSV files, not PDF files or tables posted on web pages. The format of data is important, because it sets the stage for what the public can do with it. If I have three hours to work on a dataset and I spend two hours just getting that data, my time to explore and understand the data is limited, said Jacob Kaplan, a postdoc fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, whos been studying the spread of the coronavirus in prisons. In the OpenDataPA portal, the catalog has a listing for data about the coronavirus. But the page doesnt actually contain data. Instead, it just links to the Health Departments COVID-19 website, where data is structured in a way that makes it cumbersome to work with and difficult to analyze. If Pennsylvania had made its source data easily accessible, it could have helped quash concerns last month, when the state said its total count of COVID-19 tests included negative antibody tests, then backtracked on the statement a day later. The situation raised red flags among epidemiologists, as antibody tests show past infections, not current ones, and, if included, would distort the states capacity to detect infections in real time. But as it stands, Pennsylvania is touting total testing numbers impossible for the public to vet. County-level data currently shows only the number of people receiving COVID-19 tests, without disclosing how many times those people are tested. Those numbers exactly how many people are being tested more than once are reported internally, Wardle said. Data visualization by Daniel Simmons-Ritchie of Spotlight PA. 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. A ctor Danny Masterson has been charged with raping three women, prosecutors in Los Angeles have said. The That '70s Show star is accused of attacking the alleged victims in separate incidents between 2001 and 2003, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney. Masterson has been charged with three counts of rape by force or fear. An arraignment hearing is set for September, prosecutors added. The 44-year-old is alleged to have raped a 23-year-old woman in 2001, according to prosecutors. He is also accused of attacking a 28-year-old woman in April 2003 as well as raping a 23-year-old he had invited to his Hollywood Hills home between October and December that year. All of the alleged attacks took place at Masterson's home, prosecutors said. In a statement following news of the charges, Masterson's lawyer Tom Mesereau said the allegations are false. He said: "Mr Masterson is innocent, and we're confident that he will be exonerated when all the evidence finally comes to light and witnesses have the opportunity to testify. "Obviously, Mr Masterson and his wife are in complete shock considering that these nearly 20-year old allegations are suddenly resulting in charges being filed, but they and their family are comforted knowing that ultimately the truth will come out. "The people who know Mr Masterson know his character and know the allegations to be false." Masterson, who has identified himself as a practising Scientologist, has been married to the actress Bijou Phillips since 2011 and they have a six-year-old daughter. If convicted as charged, Masterson, best known for playing Steven Hyde on sitcom That '70s Show, faces a maximum sentence of 45 years to life in state prison. The District Attorney's office also said it declined to file sexual assault charges against Masterson in two other cases, one for insufficient evidence and the other based upon the statute of limitations. Masterson was written out of Netflix comedy The Ranch in 2017 when he was accused of sexual assault. His dismissal from the show came in the wake of mass allegations against the now-jailed Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was accused of sexual misconduct following a New York Times investigation in October 2017. Read the full article on Motorious This beautiful American car is on the auction block right now. Back in the latter part of the 1950s General Motors and other US automakers found themselves battling hard against an unanticipated wave of European competition. Seeing their market shares shrinking, Cadillac and other GM brands launched a bold initiative to get shoppers back into their showrooms in droves. As clearly demonstrate on this 1957 Cadillac DeVille, that involved punching up the drama factor in the design, a strategy which some would argue was a success. You have a chance to own a beautiful example of this interesting period in automotive history since this grand American luxury car is on the virtual block at Awesome Joe Auctions this very moment. Photo credit: Awesome Joe Auctions The big sedan version of the long-running and popular Cadillac Series 62, this DeVille provides plenty of space for up to five people to really stretch out and get comfortable. Its the ultimate cruiser for running around town or hitting the open road. Photo credit: Awesome Joe Auctions Whats more, this DeVille has gone through a comprehensive restoration, leaving the exterior, interior, and mechanicals all in fantastic condition. According to the listing, about $70,000 has been poured into this car, with the receipts to prove it. Photo credit: Awesome Joe Auctions Theres no denying how attractive that nice, long Tahoe Blue body with white roof, Kelsey Hayes wire wheels and sparkling chrome looks. Really captivating your eye is a white interior with all factory switchgear and gauge cluster, plus OE radio, under-the-dash AC, and other correct details. Photo credit: Awesome Joe Auctions Even the 365ci V8 under that long hood looks incredibly clean. The seller says it and the automatic transmission work. Considering the amount of money put into this car, you can expect it absolutely purrs. Photo credit: Awesome Joe Auctions Taking this big Caddie out for a car show or cruise will really get people talking and smiling. If you want to bid on it before the auction is done, youll need to create an account on Awesome Joe Auctions. Also, take a look at the other auction vehicles. Sign up for the Motorious Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Former Indian Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale on Wednesday said that in the wake of the violent clash between the Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan valley in Ladakh, India will have to make a reappraisal of its foreign and defence policy towards China. "This is a very serious situation as for the first time in almost 35-40 years there have been deaths on both sides. I think this is a very serious situation. I think India will have to make a reappraisal of its policy to China and then we will have to implement a recalibrated policy, both foreign policy and defence policy, ... Wendys burns following a rally against racial inequality and the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, Ga., on June 13, 2020. (Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters) Atlanta Authorities Release New Photos of Wendys Arson Suspect The Atlanta Fire Department has released new photos of one of two female suspects in an arson investigation after a Wendys restaurant was set on fire during protests over the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks. Brooks was shot and killed on June 12 after seizing control of an officers stun gun and fleeing during an arrest attempt in the parking lot of the Wendys. According to a police account, Brooks turned and fired the stun gun at Atlanta Police officer Garrett Rolfe, who shot and killed Brooks. The incident, which is being investigated, sparked protests, which became unruly Saturday night, leading to the restaurant being gutted and set ablaze. In a press conference Tuesday, chief fire investigator James Oliver said the fire was started by several people, using items that included fireworks and a homemade blowtorch. Oliver said there are multiple suspects in the case and that investigators only have quality photos of two of them, adding that he believes both suspects are white females. Oliver said the State Arson control board has offered an additional $10,000 reward in the case, bringing the total to $20,000 for information leading to arrests. Earlier, officials posted a photo of a woman wearing a black mask, hat, and a coat who was attempting to hide her identity after the arson incident. Roughly 150 protesters marched Saturday night around the Wendys restaurant outside where Brooks was shot after police tried to handcuff him for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car at the restaurant drive-thru. Brooks was cooperative during more than 30 minutes of conversation before things rapidly spun out control. He wrestled with officers, snatched one of their stun guns and pointed it at one of them as he ran through the parking lot. The officer who shot Brooks in the back was fired, and prosecutors are weighing charges against him and another member of the force. The incident prompted the resignation of the citys Police Chief Erika Shields, who in a statement said, It is time for the city to move forward and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said that Brooks, who was seen on body camera video sleeping in a car blocking the Wendys drive-thru, failed a sobriety test. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 04:42:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Members of a Chinese medical team attend a farewell ceremony held for them in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 16, 2020. The Chinese medical expert team has concluded a mission to support Palestine's fight against COVID-19. At a farewell ceremony, Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila expressed high appreciation for the Chinese experts' visit to Palestine. The team, which arrived in Palestine on June 10, was put together by China's National Health Commission with the members selected by the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua) RAMALLAH, June 16 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese medical expert team has concluded a mission to support Palestine's fight against COVID-19. On Tuesday, the team held a meeting with Palestinian health officials in the Gaza Strip via video conference at the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, over the situation of the pandemic in the coastal enclave. Head of Palestinian Health Ministry's Preventive Medicine Department in the Gaza Strip Majdi Dheir briefed the Chinese team on the anti-coronavirus measures taken in Gaza, including imposing quarantine and protection protocols, and carrying out multiple tests. The total cases of COVID-19 in Gaza have reached 72, including 45 recoveries and one death. Also on Tuesday, head of the government-run Palestine Medical Complex (PMC) Ahmed Bitawi and head of the Chinese medical team Hu Peng signed a framework agreement on telemedicine cooperation between the PMC in Ramallah and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. Meanwhile, at a farewell ceremony held for the Chinese medical team in Ramallah, Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila expressed high appreciation for the Chinese experts' visit to Palestine. "This visit has been successful by all measures, especially on the medical side. The delegation held various meetings, visits and tours to the quarantine and isolation centers in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Turmosaya, in addition to an exchange of viewpoints on epidemiology and preventive and treatment protocols," said al-Kaila. Head of the Palestinian National Institute of Public Health, which is run by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rand Salman said the Chinese medical team's mission has enriched the Palestinian experience in fighting COVID-19. For his part, Guo Wei, director of the Office of the People's Republic of China to the State of Palestine, said that the cooperation between China and Palestine in the health sector will continue through various forms after this visit. The team, which arrived in Palestine on June 10, was put together by China's National Health Commission with the members selected by the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission. Prior to this visit, China had sent medical supplies to Palestine and organized several meetings between Palestinian and Chinese medical experts via video conferences. On Tuesday, Palestine announced that 11 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, bringing the total number of infection cases up to 700. Enditem METTAWA, Ill., June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brunswick Corporation (NYSE: BC) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Ryan M. Gwillim as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. He succeeds William L. Metzger, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, who will retire from Brunswick effective July 10, 2020. We are excited to promote Ryan to this position. His experience with the company in a variety of important leadership roles in our finance and legal functions position him well to lead our finance team during this pivotal time for the Company, said David Foulkes, Brunswick Corporation Chief Executive Officer. Foulkes further commented, On behalf of our Board of Directors and the entire Brunswick team, I thank Bill for his 33 years of service, including the last seven years as our CFO. Bill served as CFO during a time of significant change for Brunswick as we divested and purchased assets transforming the Company into the leading integrated marine platform. Bill was the architect of our capital strategy, which positioned the Company to successfully navigate through events such as the current global pandemic as well as supporting our industry-leading pace of product and capacity investments. Bill developed a strong pipeline of succession talent and leaves a legacy of solid financial stewardship. Assuming the CFO role is a natural progression for Ryan, and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role, said Foulkes. During his time with Brunswick, Ryan worked in a variety of roles developing strong relationships with our Board of Directors, business leaders, finance team, and the investment community. I am excited about the ongoing transformation and future of the finance function under Ryans leadership. Gwillim most currently served as Brunswicks Vice President, Finance & Treasurer with responsibility for investor relations and M&A. Gwillim, a CPA, previously served as Vice President Investor Relations from 2017 to 2019. He joined Brunswick in 2011 as Corporate Counsel and progressed through a series of leadership roles in the Law Department before joining the finance organization. Before joining Brunswick, Gwillim was an associate in the Chicago office of Baker & McKenzie, an international law firm. He earned his bachelors and masters degrees in accounting and Juris Doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Also, effectively immediately, Brian Frey, has been promoted to Vice President and Treasurer. Frey has served as Brunswicks Assistant Treasurer since 2009. Frey joined Brunswick in 2005 as Treasury Manager. Brian is a valued partner and has been instrumental developing and executing our successful capital strategy, noted Gwillim. I look forward to continuing to work with Brian as he leads our Treasury team and helps us deliver value for our shareholders. Ryans and Brians appointments are indicative of the deep bench of talent and leadership we have throughout Brunswick and our continued focus on succession planning, Foulkes concluded. ABOUT BRUNSWICK The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to issue directions to states for payment of salaries and providing necessary quarantine facilities to doctors and healthcare workers engaged in treating COVID-19 patients. The government told the court it would issue the necessary directions. A bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, S K Kaul and M R Shah said that doctors and healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients should not be denied quarantine facilities. The top court asked the Centre to file a compliance report within four weeks on payment of salaries and quarantine facilities to doctors and healthcare workers and warned that non-compliance would be viewed seriously. The bench was hearing a plea filed by a private doctor raising questions on the Centre's May 15 decision that 14-day quarantine was not mandatory for doctors. Doctor Arushi Jain, in her petition filed through advocates Mithu Jain and Arjun Syal, had alleged that front line healthcare workers engaged in the fight against COVID-19 are not being paid salaries or their wages are being cut or delayed. During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre said that government would issue the directions to states and union territories within 24 hours to ensure timely payment of salaries to doctors and health care workers. He said that the May 15 circular on Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will also be modified and do away the clause for non-mandatory quarantine for healthcare workers engaged in COVID duty. Mehta also gave the assurance that a new order would be issued for providing suitable alternate accommodation for doctors and healthcare workers engaged in COVID duty to avoid risk to their family members. He said that Centre is also thinking to make non-payment of salaries by hospitals to health care workers a criminal offence under the National Disaster Management Act. The bench said that necessary directions be issued by union health secretary and chief secretaries of the State. On June 12, the top court had observed, In war, you do not make soldiers unhappy. Travel extra mile and channel some extra money to address their grievances. It had said that the courts should not be involved in the issue of non-payment of salary to health care workers and government should settle the issue. Senior advocate K V Viswanathan, appearing for the petitioner, had said that if doctors on COVID duty are not provided accommodation near hospitals their family/friends are exposed to higher risk of infection. He had said that doctors and other healthcare workers, who are engaged in COVID duty, run a great risk of exposure of infection without proper PPE kits and without proper accommodation, their family members are also at higher risk of infection. On June 4, the Centre had told the top court that a large number of make-shift hospitals will have to be built in the near future to accommodate the constant rise in the number of newly infected people. The Centre had also contended that though hospitals are responsible for implementing the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) activities, the final responsibility lies with healthcare workers to protect themselves from COVID-19. It had further said mandatory quarantine for 14 days after the duty of healthcare workers of 7/14 days is not justified and warranted. It is most respectfully submitted that number of cases of COVID-19 are constantly increasing and at some point of time in near future, apart from existing hospitals, large number of temporary make-shift hospitals will have to be created in order to accommodate COVID-19 patients requiring admission, medical care and treatment, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had said in an affidavit. On April 8, the apex court had observed that doctors and medical staff are the "first line of defence of the country" in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, and directed the Centre to ensure that appropriate PPEs are made available to them for treating coronavirus patients. This photo, taken in Paju, South Korea shows smoke rising from North Korea's Kaesong Industrial Complex where an inter-Korean liaison office was demolished by North Korea June 16, 2020. North Koreas destruction of a landmark liaison office with South Korea Tuesday is likely only the first of many steps Pyongyang can take to signal impatience with Seoul and its ally Washington, analysts said. The office, built during a warming phase in inter-Korean relations in 2018, was destroyed in a terrific explosion, North Koreas state-run KCNA reported, days after the country said it was cutting all communications with Seoul over anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by balloon from the South. KCNA said the blast was corresponding to the mindset of the enraged people to surely force human scum and those, who have sheltered the scum, to pay dearly for their crimes, referring to North Korean refugees and defectors now residing in the South. Balloons criticizing Kim Jong Un and his regime sent by activists and defectors were the target of bellicose statements from Kim Yo Jong, Kims sister and the countrys propaganda chief, as well as officially staged anti-South Korean rallies in North Korea. But Tuesdays destruction of the liaison office, which was located inside North Korea, north of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, came despite South Korean President Moon Jae-ins efforts to stop the leaflets with criminal complaints and license cancellations in the hopes of preserving engagement with Pyongyang. Blowing up the North-South Liaison Office conveys Kim Jong Uns graphic rejection of President Moons attempts at rapprochement. It is also a reminder to the United States that North Korea cannot be ignored, said former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel, in a statement released by the Asia Society. Pyongyang had hoped that engaging with Seoul and Washington over the past few years would bring relief from U.N. and U.S. sanctions aimed at depriving Pyongyang of cash and resources that could be funneled into its nuclear and missile programs. But after Kim Jong Un held a series of summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and with Moon, sanctions remain in place, with Washington insisting Pyongyang must first take steps to give up its nuclear weapons. Ramping up pressure through escalating provocations is how Kim makes the point that without sanctions relief, sooner or later he will also blow up Trumps claim to have ended the threat from North Korea," said Russel. South vows strong response World leaders expressed dismay at the blow to peaceful inter-Korean relations. The Secretary-General is concerned by the latest developments on the Korean Peninsula, a U.N. spokesperson told RFAs Korean Service. The Secretary-General calls for the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue leading to peaceful solutions that benefit peace and prosperity for all, the spokesperson added. The European Union expressed deep regret and told RFA the severance of communication lines was unacceptable, while the UK called it a troubling step, and Germany said it was concerned about North Koreas steps towards escalation. South Korea put the blame on North Korea. "The government makes clear that all responsibility caused by this rests totally with the North Korean side," the South Korean National Security Council said in a statement. "We sternly warn that if North Korea takes steps further aggravating the situation, we will respond strongly. Pyongyangs next provocation A South Korean expert predicted that North Koreas next move will be to cancel the inter-Korean Comprehensive Military Agreement, a September 2019 pact to reduce military tensions and prevent accidental clashes. [We] believe that Kim Yo Jong, the First Deputy Director of the Workers Party of Korea will quickly move on the next stepterminating the 9.19 inter-Korean military agreement, Park Won Gon of Handong University told RFA. Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute said Pyongyang likely would next dismantle the Kaesong Industrial complex, which operated from 2004 until it was closed amid tensions in 2016, or try to use the factories where South Korean firms employed North Korean workers for military purposes. North Korea now has no option but to continue to provoke the South, as quickly returning to negotiations would be a sign of weakness to its people, according to the Choi Kang of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. Choi told RFA that now that the North Korean public has been made aware of the fate of the liaison office, a policy reversal would be impossible. If it has only appeared in the external propaganda media, it is possible to change the direction. But it is impossible to change the policy in one day because it has been published in [North Koreas official] newspaper and the North Koreans have heard about it, Choi said. I think the current situation will last quite a long time. Shore up alliance with U.S. Several U.S.-based experts told RFA that the best response to North Koreas latest actions and threats would be for the United States to beef up cooperation with South Korea. The U.S. and South Korean governments should be careful not to overreact to North Koreas dramatic efforts to escalate tensions and increase leverage, Frank Aum of the United States Institute of Peace told RFA. Unfortunately, South Korea is in a difficult position and stuck between wanting to advance inter-Korean relations but not creating fissures in the US-ROK Alliance. The Alliance will need to maintain strong military readiness and deterrence and continue to warn North Korea against increasing tensions on the Peninsula, said Aum. Under President Trump, Washington has seen a weakening in its alliances all over the world, and this trend must be reversed to deal with North Kore, said The RAND Corporations Soo Kim. The U.S. should be strengthening its alliance with South Korea. We see that there are fissures within the alliance with South Korea and also with other countries around the world, Kim told RFA. Whatever leverage that the United States had through alliances and even through maintaining our principles is starting to wear away, and North Korea has been taking advantage of those opportunities, she said. David Maxwell of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said North Koreas recent belligerence is not simply about testing the alliance. It is about driving a wedge in the alliance and splitting it altogether. The proper response is to first, increase ROK-US alliance readiness and second, ensure the protection of the escapees/defectors who have been threatened by the Kim family regime, Maxwell said. Analyst Ken Gause of CNA said theres not much we can do other than seek dialogue with North Korea. If we want to solve the issue of North Korea, you need to engage Pyongyang. That means the U.S. has to take the lead and make appropriate concessions to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table, Gause told RFA. Reported by Albert Hong, Hee Jung Yang, Seung Wook Hong, Jeong Eun Lee and Kyung Ha Rhee for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. What lies beyond the pandemic? MassForward is MassLives series examining the journey of Massachusetts businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. ___________ For the first time in three months, the Worcester Public Market will open its doors to the public on Thursday. The market opens at 11 a.m and when patrons arrive, they can expect to see some changes within the market, which celebrated a grand opening at the end of February. On the night it opened in the Canal District, the food court, the vendor space and Wachusett Brewing Companys bar room were filled to capacity. Smiles filled many of the faces of those inside. On Thursday, no more than 80 people will be allowed inside the market aligning with state regulations. Masks and social distancing policies will be enforced. The 20,000 square foot space can only allow 40% of its capacity. It represents only one of the many changes the market has undergone to reopen. If you plan on visiting the Public Market on Thursday or in the future, heres what to expect. 7 New Vendors The Worcester Public Market closed in the middle of March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since that time, a host of new vendors have found homes in the market. Akra - An African fusion takeout and juice bar. Crate & Howl - A dog supply boutique that features everything pet teepees to bowties. Nothing says summer time like a navy blue bow tie covered in ship anchors! Bow tie measures 4" and has adjustable... Posted by Crate and Howl on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 Georges Middle Eastern Bakery - As the name implies a middle eastern bakery. Girly Girl Soaps - A shop offering handmade natural soaps without any chemicals. Packaging! It is a labor of love! I just packaged 100 bars of soap with help from my husband only 500 more to go! #Handmadesoaps #laboroflove #vegansoaps #ecofriendlypackaging #nowaste Posted by Girly Girl Soaps on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 K Sense Co. - Specializing in custom and handmade gifts that are ethically and locally-sourced. Keep #Kalm we are re-opening in just TWO DAYS!! Come and shop our sustainable Handmade Candles, Greeting Cards, Art,... Posted by Ksense.co on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 Northampton Olive Oil - More than olive oils, a shop with BBQ, hot sauce, and more. Website should be complete this week! Still offering FREE delivery! Call or text 413-537-7357 (Jay) For orders or questions. Posted by The Northampton Olive Oil Company on Friday, June 12, 2020 Sabrosa Venezuela - A Venezuelan inspired pastry shop. Hours The Worcester Public Market is open Thursday, Friday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Saturday the market opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. Wachusett Brewing Company will open Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Entering/exiting All three entrances to the Worcester Public Market will be open. Floor managers will have headsets and monitor the number of people inside. If lines form outside vendor spaces, customers much remain 6 feet apart. Once more than 60 people enter the facility, floor managers will close the entrances to insure the floor never eclipses 80 people. Once capacity dips below 60, entrances will reopen. Customers outside the market must also remain 6 feet apart. Outdoor seating Developer of the Worcester Public Market Allen Fletcher estimated there will be about 80 seats outside of the market for patrons to dine at. Party sizes are restricted to no more than six people. Picnic tables will line Harding Street and may also be available at the plaza by Kelley Square. Regular tables will primarily populate the plaza, though. Picnic tables are also expected to extend to Green Street once construction is complete. Ordering food Patrons wanting to order food at the market will have to go inside to place the order and wait for its completion. Once the order is complete, customers must take it outside. Retail shopping The Worcester Public Markets retail vendors will be open. Capacity for the entire facility, though is 80, including both for retail and the food court. MassForward is MassLive's series examining the journey of Massachusetts' small businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Related Content: When choosing a mate, females of different subspecies of Drosophila mojavensis recognize the right mating partners either mainly by their song or by their smell. This was discovered by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and their international collaboration partners, as a new study reports. A specific male sex pheromone is only produced by males from two of the four subspecies, and is crucial for the mate choice of the corresponding females. Females from the subspecies in which the males no longer produce this pheromone are also able to perceive the chemical messenger, but for them the specific mating song is more important for the choice of the right males than their smell. New species apparently evolve when the chemical mating signal is altered and when, in turn, the signal is reinterpreted by the opposite sex in the context of other signals, such as the courtship song. (Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5279, June 2020). Four subspecies of the desert dwelling fly Drosophila mojavensis are known in the USA and Mexico. They only evolved about 250.000 years ago, which is a relatively short period from an evolutionary perspective. An investigation of these subspecies is therefore an opportunity for scientists to follow evolutionary events and the incipient speciation "live". The four subspecies are found in geographically isolated regions. While the two northern subspecies specialized on the fruits of cactus species in the Mojave Desert or on the Californian island of Santa Catalina, the two southern subspecies use cacti in the Sonora Desert and in the Mexican part of California as their food and breeding substrate (see also our press release published on May 4, 2020: Foraging Drosophila flies are open for new microbial partners). Of particular interest is the different mating behavior of the four Drosophila mojavensis subspecies. In their natural environment, males usually choose a site close to their brood substrate and attract females to this location. By conducting chemical analyses and neurobiological experiments, the research team was able to identify the chemical signals involved in courtship and mating and understand their function. The loss of a pheromone can be an isolating mechanism Although the subspecies have only been separated for a relatively short evolutionary time scale, the scientists discovered a pheromone only produced by the males in the two northern subspecies, whereas the males of the southern species do not produce it. "Females of the northern subspecies prefer males that produce this odor and thus avoid mating with males of the southern subspecies", Markus Knaden, senior author of the study, describes the results. Surprisingly, the females of the southern subspecies were also able to detect this pheromone, but selected their right males anyway, even if the pheromone of their northern relatives had been applied to their male conspecifics. They apparently ignored the scent and attached greater importance to the courtship song specific to their subspecies when choosing a mate. For females of the northern subspecies, on the other hand, the male courtship song was far less important than the right scent when choosing a mate. All four subspecies of Drosophila mojavensis use in addition another sex pheromone as a mating signal. The researchers were able to show that this chemical compound is not perceived as an olfactory signal, but rather via gustatory cells on the foreleg of the flies. Interestingly, this pheromone, which is transferred from a male to a female during mating, acts like an anti-aphrodisiac on other males and prevents mated females from mating again before laying their eggs. By transmitting this pheromone during mating, a male can thus ensure his paternity. The olfactory receptor responsible for female responses to sex pheromones was identified using CRISPR-Cas9 In addition to chemical analyses and behavioral experiments, the scientists investigated which areas of the fly brain respond to the pheromones during mating. "The CRISPR-Cas9 technology allowed us to identify and even silence the olfactory channels that underlie the sexual behaviors in Drosophila mojavensis. This enabled us to solve the longstanding mystery of the isolation barriers responsible for the evolution of the four Drosophila mojavensis subspecies," says Mohammed Khallaf, the study's lead author. The researchers observed that an activation of the olfactory receptor Or65a induces female receptivity in a subspecies of D. mojavensis. Interestingly, the same receptor also exists in the well-studied model species Drosophila melanogaster, where it has the opposite effect, however: In D. melanogaster, Or65a mediates that mated females are less attracted to the sex pheromone of other males. The evolution of sex pheromones still holds many mysteries. A new odor signal produced by one sex must also be perceived and correctly interpreted by the other. In the case of the two southern subspecies of Drosophila mojavensis, one sex pheromone was lost in the course of evolution, while another mating signal, the courtship song of the males, was given a higher priority. "We are currently identifying potential pheromones from a large number of flies. In order to gain a better understanding of pheromone evolution as a whole, we need to look more closely at other cases where either novel pheromones show up or where tiny chemical changes in closely related species might result in speciation events," says Bill Hansson, head of the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, explaining the further research plans. Despite the complexity of changes in the production, detection and interpretation of mating signals, which do not always occur in a coordinated manner during the evolution of new species, one thing is certain: Females always find the right males, namely those of their own (sub)species. Whether they fall for a male scent or succumb to the charm of a song: it seems to be an advantage to weigh up all available clues thoroughly. ### Original Publication: Khallaf, M. A., Auer, T. O., Grabe, V., Depetris-Chauvin, A., Ammagarahalli, B., Zhang, D.-D., Lavista-Llanos, S., Kaftan, F., Weiflog, J., Matzkin, L. M., Rollmann, S. M., Lofstedt, C., Svatos, A., Dweck, H., Sachse, S., Benton, R., Hansson, B. S., Knaden, M. (2020). Mate discrimination among subspecies through a conserved olfactory pathway. Science Advances, 6: eaba5279, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5279 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba5279 Further Information: Prof. Dr. Bill Hansson, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoll-Strae 8, 07745 Jena, Tel. +49 3641 57-1401, E-Mail hansson@ice.mpg.de Dr. Markus Knaden, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoll-Strae 8, 07745 Jena, Tel. +49 3641 57-1421, E-Mail mknaden@ice.mpg.de Contact and Picture Requests: Angela Overmeyer M.A., Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoll-Str. 8, 07743 Jena, Germany, Tel. +49 3641 57-2110, E-Mail overmeyer@ice.mpg.de Download of videos and high-resolution images via http://www.ice.mpg.de/ext/downloads2020.html NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Senator Cory Booker, addressing the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Virtual Global Forum, declared that "silence is complicity" when fighting for racial equality in the United States and combating assaults on Blacks and Jews. In the conversation with Julie Rayman, AJC's Washington-based Deputy Director of Policy and Diplomatic Affairs, Senator Booker discussed longstanding issues that have come to the forefront in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. "There will always be obstacles in the way of freedom, justice, and righteousness, but you just cannot give up," said Booker. "We have to have an awareness growth in our country. Anyone who stands in the way of justice has to feel the consequences." Ensuring awareness of enduring inequities in American society is, in the view of the legislator, of paramount importance. "We've become too comfortable with injustice in this country," said Booker, who cited as a primary example the nation's prison system. The U.S. criminal justice system is "way out of whack with the rest of inhumanity," said Booker. "We are the mass incarceration nation." Reflecting on past landmark achievements, Booker offered perspective and context. "I have to remind myself when I feel frustrated how long it took to pass civil rights legislation, voting rights legislation," he said. "People don't realize that the workers' rights we take for granted really took the demands of millions of people, in diverse coalitions, that ultimately created the atmosphere to make changes." In this regard, Booker expressed optimism about the mounting numbers of people mobilizing. "We see now, across this country, people protesting in the streets, in all 50 states, thousands of cities. It is a wonderful thing that you see such diverse groups of folks who are confronting the injustices in our times," said Booker. The Senator pointed out that Jews are very much involved now, as they have been over many decades in the struggles to achieve equality and justice. "All of us have an obligation to speak out, especially because we are bound together in destiny," said Booker. "Black and Jewish communities who have known so much targeting and suffering, and horrific murders and death, are bound together in many ways through experience to have a role as a conscious of this country. I am grateful for Jewish leaders like yourself and others who understand that role." Extolling the Black-Jewish alliance, Booker warned against giving credence to those who speak ill of Jews or call for delegitimization of Israel. "Don't let a few individuals ever steal away from the enduring truth of incredible alliances between blacks and Jews in this country," said Booker. "Right here, right now, is testament to this truth. I look at the people protesting now, and I see people of different religious backgrounds and Jews leading many of the calls for justice." "AJC has been an extraordinary champion for justice," said Booker, who has addressed AJC audiences many times as Senator, and previously as mayor of Newark. "Getting consciousness raised is the thread that ties together all the issues I know you hold to your core justice, equality, end to racism, antisemitism, bigotry of any kind." Booker recalled Joachim Prinz, a rabbi who fled Berlin in 1937, moved to New Jersey, and was one of the five people who spoke before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King at the 1963 March on Washington. "Joachim Prinz's speech was all about silence in the face of injustice, inaction in the face of injustice, calling on all Americans to understand that you are complicit in injustice if you are doing nothing about it," said Booker. On antisemitism, Booker said that silence in the face of "a 50 percent increase in antisemitism over the past two years in our country" is unacceptable. Before and after the 2018 fatal attack at a Pittsburgh synagogue, "we did not talk enough about rising antisemitism in our country," said Booker. "Silence is complicity." Booker also pointed out that "this is the first time in American history that we have three African Americans serving in the Senate at the same time." Together with Senators Tim Scott and Kamala Harris, Booker has introduced legislation that would criminalize lynching. "Most people are not aware that lynching is not a hate crime," said Booker, who expressed optimism that, after decades of failed attempts in Congress to address the issue, the bill is closer than ever to passing. The AJC Global Forum is the global Jewish advocacy organization's signature annual event. Originally scheduled to take place this week in Berlin, Germany, the venue was changed to an online meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 8,000 people have registered for the AJC Virtual Global Forum, June 14-18. Booker spoke at the Leonard Greenberg Forum for Domestic Policy Issues session. SOURCE American Jewish Committee Related Links http://www.ajc.org Wage theft will become a crime in Victoria after the state's upper house, in an Australian first, passed legislation making deliberate underpayment of workers a criminal offence. The legislation was passed late on Tuesday night with crossbench support, despite opposition from the Coalition parties.Employers and the federal government have warned Victoria's approach could be unconstitutional and confusing. Victoria's Attorney-General Jill Hennessy with Premier Daniel Andrews. Credit:James Ross The Victorian laws include fines of up to almost $1 million for businesses and up to 10 years' jail for offending employers, with a team of new inspectors empowered to police the laws. Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy said workers now "have the law on their side". She said existing laws had failed to stop the problem, making a criminal approach necessary. The Asian tiger mosquito was the first member of the Aedes genus to take up residence in the Iberian peninsula, where it soon became a regular summer nuisance, particularly along the Mediterranean coast. It was first detected in 2004 in Barcelona province, and has since spread at a fast pace. But it may not be the only airborne pest moving across the peninsula. Since 2018, the small northern regions of Asturias and Cantabria have been home to another invasive mosquito species, Aedes japonicus. Although it is more discreet than the tiger mosquito because it favors fields with cattle over urban areas, its potential for expansion is even greater. Aedes japonicus caught us by surprise because we didnt see it coming, and we also dont know how it got here, explains Javier Lucientes, a professor at Zaragoza University who heads the Health Ministrys entomology surveillance project. Aedes japonicus caught us by surprise because we didnt see it coming, and we also dont know how it got here Javier Lucientes, Zaragoza University A new field study has been planned for this summer to assess the spread of this new species in Asturias and Cantabria. Experts suspect that by now, it may have entered neighboring Galicia as well. Lucientes says it is too late to eradicate the Asian bush mosquito, as it is commonly known in English, and that in the coming years it will probably extend like an oil stain into the regions of Castilla y Leon, the Basque Country and Navarre. Its growth could be greater than that of the tiger mosquito because it adapts better to cold weather, and because it can breed in a wide range of aquatic habitats, such as puddles, tires, milk cartons or buckets, according to the Health Ministry. It is less discerning than Aedes albopictus (tiger mosquito), which could facilitate its expansion. Frederic Bartumeus, a researcher at the Spanish National Research Councils Blanes Center for Advanced Studies (CEAB-CSIC), says that the tiger mosquito spreads along the main roadways, often hitching a ride inside vehicles, while the bush mosquito expands in little jumps. It was detected in the early 21st century in central Europe, and scientists were amazed at its ability to spread across vast stretches of land. It was identified in Switzerland in 2008 and subsequent research found that it had colonized an area covering 1,400 square kilometers, says a 2018 report from the Spanish Health Ministrys Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies. The used-tire trade route Unlike 'Aedes japonicus,' the Asian tiger mosquito has distinctive stripes. Pixabay This agency notes that Aedes japonicus comes from east Asia and began its global spread in the 1990s through the international trade in used tires. This species not only lays eggs in the water, but also on dry surfaces that could later collect water, such as the inside of tires. The region of Asturias, located on Spains northern coast, first showed up on the European Center for Disease Prevention and Controls (ECDC) bush mosquito tracking map in August 2019. But the first alert came in July 2018, when a local man from Siero, a hamlet near the city of Oviedo, took a picture of a specimen and shared it on a cellphone app called Mosquito Alert. The program, which is run by several public agencies, was created in 2014 mainly to follow the spread of the tiger mosquito in Spain thanks to input by the more than 74,000 people who have downloaded the app. Bartumeus, who heads the Mosquito Alert initiative, says that one of their priorities is detecting potential invasive species from the Aedes genus. There are already five of them in Europe, and Spanish researchers are concerned about the potential arrival of Aedes aegypti, or yellow fever mosquito. West Nile virus Aedes japonicus represents a lower risk to humans than Aedes aegypti, the main vector for the dengue fever. So far this latter mosquito has not been detected in Spain. In 2018, the Spanish Health Ministry concluded that the risk of disease transmission by the bush mosquito is very low, although it did concede that it could transmit dengue or Chikungunya fever. Lucientes notes that Aedes japonicus is, however, an important vector for the West Nile virus, which mostly affects the nervous system of birds and horses. The disease is already present in Spain, and can cause symptoms like a summer flu, while some people can suffer from encephalitis, says Lucientes. Unlike the tiger mosquito and the yellow fever mosquito, the bush mosquito prefers natural areas with lots of vegetation. One advantage to this is that, because it breeds in forest settings, it may have more predators in breeding areas, says Miguel Angel Miranda, who teaches zoology at the University of the Balearic Islands. It was Miranda who first located a specimen in the Santander area, in Cantabria, in 2018. It is less discerning than Aedes albopictus (tiger mosquito), which could facilitate its expansion Spanish Health Ministry I ran into one at a watering trough made of stone, across from a shrine, he recalls with a smile. I was visiting the area with relatives, and while we were having something to eat, I took a little walk and located some larvae that caught my eye. We entomologists are always alert. During two field missions by the Lucientes and Mosquito Alert team, what researchers noticed the most is the bush mosquitos predilection for cattle drinking areas. They just love to breed inside old tubs used as watering troughs for animals, notes Bartumeus, who says it is up to local authorities to keep residents informed and take measures such as cleaning the troughs and applying larvacide. As we have seen in other European countries, eradicating them is very difficult. It is vital to control the breeding areas, adds Miranda, who agrees that local and regional authorities should take action. Up until now, as far as I know, nothing has been done. A spokeswoman at the regional health department of Asturias said that in 2019, a team from the Epidemiology Surveillance Service set traps to detect tiger mosquito clusters, and chanced upon specimens of Aedes japonicus in watering troughs for cows. But regional technicians did not feel it was of any consequence from a health point of view, said this spokesperson. Lucientes and Miranda note that Aedes japonicus has probably been in Spain for too short a time to have made authorities really sit up and take notice. As a matter of fact, the mosquito doesnt even have a name in Spanish yet. English version by Susana Urra. Stocks in the news today: Here is a list of top stocks that are likely to be in focus in Wednesday's trading session based on latest developments. Investors will also be taking cues from the latest released March quarter earnings. Meanwhile, Pidilite Industries, Natco Pharma, Muthoot Finance, Indraprastha Gas, HEG, Cummins, Gulf Oil Lubricants India, Fortis Healthcare, JK Cement among others will be reporting their quarterly results today. Key highlights on share market; check the latest stock market news -On Tuesday, Sensex ended 376 points higher to 33,605 and Nifty climbed 100 points to 9,914. -Rupee ended weaker at 76.21 per US dollar on tuesday, as compared to the earlier closing of 76.03 per US currency. -Indian Army said 17 more Indian troops have succumbed to their injuries, taking the number to 20 at the Galwan area. -India moves out of 25 nation Kearne's FDI Confidence Index 25-country list for 2020. -On a net basis, FIIs sold Rs 1,478.52 crore, while DIIs bought Rs 1,161.51 crore worth in equities on Tuesday Share Market LIVE: Sensex drops 140 points, Nifty at 9,873; Pidilite, Cummins, JK Cement results today SBI: Company said it will seek shareholders approval in mid-July to raise up to Rs 20,000 crore equity capital through various means in the current fiscal HDFC Asset Management Company (AMC): Company promoters Standard Life Investments is looking to offload upto 2.82% stake in the company through offer for sale (OFS) Wipro: Wipro Gallagher Solutions partnered with DocMagic, Inc to enhance digital mortgage processes. NMDC: The company reported a 78% drop in its net profit at Rs 315 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, as against profit of Rs 1,448 crore, recorded in a year-ago period. Company's total income fell 12.5% (YoY) to Rs 3,187 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 3,643 crore in a year-ago period. IPCA Labs: The company reported 13% drop in its net profit at Rs 83 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, as against profit of Rs 96.2 crore, recorded in a year-ago period. Company's total income rose 22% (YoY) to Rs 1,074 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 879 crore in a year-ago period. Airtel, Vodafone: Telecom stocks will be watched closely by investors ahead of AGR hearing at SC today. Kotak Mahindra Bank: The lender has cut base rate, prime lending rate by 30 bps each Maruti Suzuki India: The company has collaborated with IndusInd Bank to arrange attractive finance schemes to help customers buy their favourite car and to support progressive restart of business activities in the automobile industry. Bank of Maharashtra: Company's net profit stood at Rs 389 crore in FY20 as against loss of Rs 4784 crore in FY19. Company net profit for Q4FY20 stood at Rs 58 crore. Company's net NPA fell 4.77% as of March 31, 2020 as against 5.52% as during the same period last year. PNB Gilts: Company said ICRA Limited has assigned the credit rating of A1+ to Rs.1000 crore commercial paper programme of the company. HCL Technologies: The company has commenced operations in Srilanka. HCL plans to create over 1,500 new local employment opportunities for both freshers and experienced professionals, within the first eighteen months of kick-starting its operations from its office in Colombo. Chemcrux Enterprises: Company's net profit rose 22% to Rs 5.91 crore in FY20 as against profit of Rs 4.92 crore in FY19. Company's total income fell 1.22% (YoY) to Rs 30.06 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 30.43 crore in a year-ago period. Cadila: Company said its subsidiary Zydus Cadila has received final approval from the USFDA to market Deferasirox Tablets in the strengths of 90 mg, 180 mg and 360 mg. Globus Spirits: Company's net profit rose to Rs 19.40 crore in FY20 as against profit of Rs 5.19 crore in FY19. Company's total income fell 2.18% (YoY) to Rs 298 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 291 crore in a year-ago period. Navin Fluorine: The company reported net profit at Rs 270 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, as against profit of Rs 33 crore, recorded in a year-ago period. Company's total income rose 6.98% (YoY) to Rs 282 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 263 crore in a year-ago period. HPCL: The company reported net loss at Rs 27.63 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, as against profit of Rs 3,340 crore, recorded in a year-ago period. Company's total income fell 2.23% (YoY) to Rs 72,059 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 73,705 crore in a year-ago period. Ratnamani Metals & Tubes: The company reported 6.5% rise in its net profit at Rs 67.34 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, as against profit of Rs 63.19 crore, recorded in a year-ago period. Company's total income fell 6.6% (YoY) to Rs 643 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 689 crore in a year-ago period. Schneider: The company reported net loss at Rs 25.74 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, as against profit of Rs 1.45 crore, recorded in a year-ago period. Company's total income fell 23% (YoY) to Rs 231 crore in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 303 crore in a year-ago period. Earnings today: Pidilite Industries, Natco Pharma, Muthoot Finance, Indraprastha Gas, HEG, Cummins, Gulf Oil Lubricants India, Fortis Healthcare, JK Cement, Indostar Capital Finance, Emkay Global, Clariant Chemicals , Welspun Corp, Sicagen, Rico Auto, REC, Rane Brake Lining among others will announce their Q4 results today The Justice Department is weighing whether to charge John Bolton, President Trump's former national security advisor, with disclosing classified information. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) Federal prosecutors are weighing whether to criminally charge John Bolton with disclosing classified information in his upcoming White House memoir, and the Justice Department late Wednesday ramped up its legal campaign by seeking a temporary restraining order to block publication of a book that is being billed as a scathing rebuke of President Trump, according to court documents and people familiar with the matter. The Justice Department sought a temporary restraining order from a federal judge to prevent Bolton from releasing the memoir as planned on June 23, according to the court filing. It is not clear how successful such a legal fight would be. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy excerpt of the book. It is also in the hands of journalists who have begun to chronicle its findings in stories. The Justice Department has sought a hearing on the matter for Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington. Such a legal maneuver would amp up the fight begun Tuesday when the Justice Department filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to order Bolton to halt the release of The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, pending the conclusion of a prepublication scrub of the manuscript for classified information. The suit alleges that Bolton is in breach of nondisclosure agreements that required such a review and clearance by the National Security Council before he can publish a book. The Justice Department described the book as a 500-plus page tome rife with classified information. The internal discussions about whether to charge Bolton with releasing classified information are occurring at the highest levels of the Justice Department and involve Atty. Gen. William Barr, the person said. An attorney for Bolton, Charles Cooper, did not respond Wednesday to an email seeking comment. Cooper has said that Bolton labored for months with National Security Council officials to remove classified information and that the White House is using the review process as a pretext to censor his client. Story continues The Justice Department is under pressure from Trump to block the books release. On Monday, Trump said that his former national security advisor faced a criminal problem if he didnt halt publication. Bolton, a conservative foreign policy hawk who served as national security advisor from April 2018 through September 2019, clashed with Trump throughout his tenure, officials have said. Bolton is just the latest former Trump administration official to emerge as a critic of the presidents leadership. Former Defense Secretary James N. Mattis early this month sharply criticized the presidents handling of protests over police violence and racial inequality. Simon & Schuster, Bolton's publisher, has touted the book as an inside account of the Trump White House in which the former advisor describes the presidents inconsistent, scattershot decision-making process and his dealings with allies and enemies alike, from China, Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, Iran, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Bolton, the publisher said in a statement, argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping their prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trumps Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy and Bolton documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the Administration to raise alarms about them. In the excerpt of the book published by the Wall Street Journal, Bolton described how Trump tried to enlist Chinas president, Xi Jinping, to help his reelection effort. In a meeting with Xi in June 2019, Bolton wrote, Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure hed win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trumps exact words, but the governments prepublication review process has decided otherwise. The New York Times and Washington Post both published stories Wednesday by reporters who read the book, with the Post describing the memoir as the most substantive, critical dissection of the president from an administration insider so far. In a review, the New York Times said the book toggles between two discordant registers: exceedingly tedious and slightly unhinged. House Democrats asked Bolton in the fall to testify in their impeachment inquiry, but he declined to participate, saying he would only testify if a federal judge ruled in an unusual lawsuit brought by a former deputy who sought clarity on whether he should comply with a similar subpoena or follow White House orders not to cooperate. The House, in the end, dropped its subpoena for the deputys testimony and never sought one for Bolton. Democrats said fighting in court over such a subpoena would have dragged impeachment out for months. Democrats have since blasted Bolton for withholding his knowledge for a lucrative book deal. The Justice Department estimates Bolton is being paid at least $2 million for the memoir. On Wednesday, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, tweeted that Bolton may be an author, but he is no patriot. Trump was impeached by the House in December for pressuring Ukraine to launch an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrats presumptive presidential nominee, over his sons work for a Ukrainian energy company. The Senate voted to acquit Trump in February along a mostly party-line vote. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) voted to convict the president of abusing his power but acquitted him of a charge of obstructing Congress. (Alliance News) - Domino's Pizza Group PLC on Wednesday said it expects earnings for the first half of 2020 to be lower than a year prior. The FTSE 250-listed pizza delivery chain - which is holding its annual general meeting on Wednesday - said that while sales in the UK increased year-on-year, changes made to its operations in UK and Ireland during the lockdown period has resulted in higher costs. From December 31, until June 14, like-for like sales were up 3.7%, driven by an increased order count. However, Ireland recorded a weaker performance as sales fell by 5.9%. Domino's said that while the UK operation benefited from an increased order count during lockdown, Irish business suffered from weak consumer spending generally. Domino's Pizza said changes implemented - such as re-routing all store deliveries to stop two-person deliveries, ensuring all stores are closed during restocking, changing its supply chain shift patterns, paying salary premiums and purchasing contact-free boxes and facemasks - has meant that it has incurred "considerable" costs. Therefore, it expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization to be slightly lower year-on-year. For comparison, underlying Ebitda for the 26 weeks ended June 30, 2019, was GBP52.4 million. Sales performance in Domino's Pizza's remaining international operations - Sweden, Switzerland and Iceland - were mixed during the Covid-19 period, with sales in Switzerland particularly hurt by the temporary closure of a number of stores. The company said it has now completed the sale of its operations in Norway, adding that the Norwegian business had incurred operating losses for a number of years. As part of the sale, the company is now the full owner of Domino's Sweden. Full first-half results will be published on August 11. "I joined the group at a time of unprecedented trading conditions and have spent my first few weeks as CEO becoming fully immersed in the business," Chief Executive Officer Dominic Paul told the company's AGM on Wednesday. Paul joined as CEO in April, replacing David Wild. Paul was chief executive of coffee chain Costa Coffee from 2016 to 2019. Costa was owned by Whitbread PLC but sold to Coca-Cola Co in 2019. "I am proud of the performance of our system during this period, and that the vast majority of our stores have remained open," he said. Shares in Domino's were trading 8.2% lower at 311.19 pence each on Wednesday morning in London. By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com. Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. An elderly Chinese couple sparked a heated online debate last week after it was revealed that despite being married for 30 years, they still split all their finances, house chores, even the food in their refrigerator. In many parts of the world, going Dutch is considered perfectly normal on dates, but for a couple going on three decades of marriage and having been living together for all that time, it seems a bit strange. Still, for Mr. and Mrs. Chen, an elderly couple in Tianjin, China, splinting everything, from finances to the eggs in their fridge, has been the norm for as long as they can remember. The two have been featured in the news for their unusual going Dutch lifestyle before, and went viral once again, earlier this month. According to Chinese media, this special couple dont even share a bed, with the husband instead sleeping in a narrow hallway. Everything in their house, down to the plastic wash basins are split between them, as are the chores and the food. For example, if a light bulb goes out, Mrs. Chen has to ask someone to change it, because her husband will not do it unless its on one of his designated ceiling lamps. The refrigerator is split down to the number of eggs, which the two spouses each administering their own shelves. We take turns cooking and cannot use each others cooking utensils, the husband said. Sometimes after I cook, she suspects that I stole her eggs. Mrs Chen told reporters that their unique arrangement was a consequence of her husbands selfish behavior. Ever since they were young, he would always keep all the things he bought for himself, never sharing them with her, so at one point she just decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. Theyve been going Dutch ever since. Interestingly, the two credited this system for making their life together more peaceful, as they dont fight over the things they own or chores they have to do. This view was considered very controversial on Chinese social media, with the vast majority of reactions suggesting that a going Dutch system isnt ideal in a marriage. I can accept splitting the bill while dating but why do we need to keep going Dutch after getting married? If a couple cannot share everything, that means they are not Mr Right and Ms Right for each other, one person wrote. If he asked to go Dutch after we decided to get married, I would feel that he was unreliable and reconsider whether to spend the rest of my life with this man, a woman commented. Read your overview of news from Slovakia from June 17. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled This is your overview of news from Slovakia from Wednesday, June 17, 2020. We prepare the Today in Slovakia news overview at the end of every workday as unpaid content. The best way to support our work is to buy our online subscription. Thank you for your trust. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Planning a trip to or from Slovakia? Check out our overview of post-coronavirus travel options and restrictions. Pellegrini introduces his fellow renegades Former Smer election slate leader Peter Pellegrini, who recently announced he was leaving the party he had made his career in, has announced he is founding a new party, on June 17, 2020. He wants to have the party up and running by September, he said, to be "the new face of social democracy in Slovakia". Pellegrini is joined by 10 more MPs from the Smer caucus in his new endeavour. Most of them are prominent Smer politicians. "Our rival is the current ruling coalition - its missteps, amateurism, incapability to lead the country in these complicated times," Pellegrini told the press conference. Robert Fico said the renegades are no new faces after 20 years in Smer. MP with a controversial past takes up new gov't proxy post Sme Rodina MP Petra Kristufkova is the new government plenipotentiary for families and social aid. That is the official title of a new position that emerged at the Labour Ministry after Milan Krajniak (Sme Rodina) took over as minister. The Igor Matovic cabinet approved the proposal at its June 17 session and installed Sme Rodina MP Petra Krisufkova into the newly-created post. She is to help the government "to prepare measures for families and the socially weak", the ministry wrote in its press release. There have been several organisational changes at the Labour Ministry that have provoked criticism among proponents of gender equality. In addition, the choice of Kristufkova for the post has been criticised too, with media pointing to her lack of experience in the respective policy area and to her past relationships with prominent underworld figures in Bratislava. Kocner: Kuciak's stories were no danger to me Marian Kocner rejected any connection between himself and the 2018 murder of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova during the trial session that was held in Pezinok on June 17. Kocner faces charges of ordering the murder of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak, who was killed in his house in western Slovakia in February 2018 together with his fiancee Martina Kusnirova. "I have ordered no murder and I have nothing to do with it," Kocner, who had previously rejected to comment, told the court as quoted by the SITA newswire. In other news from Slovakia: Tuesday testing has returned nine positive COVID-19 results; four of them reportedly came from the eastern-Slovak town of Spisske Podhradie. See the complete coronavirus stats for Slovakia here. Re-introducing compulsory state quarantine is the topic of the day, said PM Igor Matovic in reaction to the higher number of new cases. Smart quarantine was dramatically less effective than the controversial state quarantine, according to the PM. (SITA) The National Criminal Agency (NAKA) continues to investigate the case from the State Material Reserves Administration of the Slovak Republic. As part of the Bratislava operation, they seized twenty 250-gram gold bars from a safety deposit box belonging to former material reserves head Kajetan Kicura. (SITA) 1990s businessman Jozef Majsky, who has been on trial over fraud suspicions relating to non-banking companies in Slovakia, was detained in a hospital in the Czech Republic based on a European arrest warrant issued by the Slovak Supreme Court. Majsky has been avoiding court trials, citing health problems. His case has been dragging on for 18 years now. He is currently awaiting surgery and is being guarded by the Czech police. Local authorities will decide about his extradition to Slovakia. (SITA) Drivers should prepare for another change concerning the compulsory car insurance card . Currently, drivers can use the green card both in Slovakia and abroad. This will change in July, and the card will possibly be black and white. Read more about the change. . Currently, drivers can use the green card both in Slovakia and abroad. This will change in July, and the card will possibly be black and white. Read more about the change. Slovakia has fallen in the competitiveness ranking. It placed 57th in the recent IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2020, down four positions compared with last year. Only 5 percent of 425 employers in Slovakia expect the number of their employees to increase between July and September, while 17 percent expect their number to drop, the recent ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook suggests. Do not miss on Spectator.sk today: Related article Related article Summer schools to help kids catch up after pandemic. Ministry will fund them with half a million Read more Related article Related article How to travel to and from Slovakia post-coronavirus Read more Related article A tortoise whose rampant sex drive has been praised for "saving its species from extinction" has now retired. Diego the Galapagos tortoise has been retired from the Galapagos national park's breeding programme on Santa Cruz island. The move was branded as the "end of an era" by Ecuador's environment minister Paulo Proano Andrade, who said: "We are closing an important chapter." For decades now Diego has been breeding in captivity to save the species from extinction, but on the 15 June he was sent to his native home - the uninhabited island of Espanola - to spend the remainder of his days with 14 other male tortoises. At the age of 100, he weighs a hefty 175 pounds / AP The park service believe he was previously captured on Espanola, the southernmost island in the Galapagos archipelago, some time between 1900 and 1959. According to Park rangers, Diego's extraordinary libido has led to him fathering over 40 per cent of the 2,000 tortoises that live there. At the age of 100, he weighs a hefty 175 pounds (80kg) and has been applauded for saving his species. Speaking to AFP news agency, Jorge Carrion, the park's director said: "He's contributed a large percentage to the lineage that we are returning to Espanola. "There's a feeling of happiness to have the possibility of returning that tortoise to his natural state." Diego and the other tortoises released back onto Espanola were quarantined in an attempt to safeguard the fragile ecosystem of the small island, and ensure plants weren't transferred across. After originally spending time in San Diego Zoo, California, Diego was taken to Santa Cruz island almost 50 years ago and enrolled on a breeding programme with 15 other tortoises. At first there were just two males and 12 females of Diego's species - Chelonoidis hoodensis or the Hood Island giant tortoise - in their natural habitat. Describing Galapagos tortoises, National Geographic said: "It is possible, though perhaps unlikely, that among the remaining giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, there exists an old-timer that was a hatchling at the time of Charles Darwin's famous visit in 1835. "Giant tortoises are the longest-lived of all vertebrates, averaging over 100 years. The oldest on record lived to be 152." The indigenous species of animals that were first found on the Galapagos, including iguanas and tortoises, are believed to have played an important role in the development of Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Botswana has joined the international community to celebrate the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) dubbed Desertification and Drought Day, as food security concerns loom across the globe (Natural News) Earlier today, Big League Politics reported on how The Federalist and ZeroHedge were reportedly demonetized on Googles ad platform after they were targeted by a conspiracy of the corporate media and far-left special interest groups. (Article by Shane Trejo republished from BigLeaguePolitics.com) The thought-control group, Stop Funding Fake News, has other conservative news organizations they are agitating to demonetize as well. Big League Politics is on the list with other top conservative outlets. In the wake of George Floyds death, a global #BlackLivesMatter movement has erupted, demanding justice for black people across the world and calling for an end to systemic racism. Stop Funding Fake News stands in solidarity with this movement, but this moment calls for more than words: it calls for action, the group wrote on their page. Fake News and racist narratives can cause real-world harms: dehumanizing black people and whipping up fear. Stop Funding Fake News is fighting back: were calling on advertisers to blacklist these 10, U.S-based, racist Fake News sites, they added. Big League Politics is on the list next to Moonbattery, American Greatness, American Thinker, ZeroHedge, WorldNetDaily, The Washington Standard, Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, and The Federalist. One offending post was listed for allegedly claiming Twitters action against white nationalist groups on its platform is based on fake news. In the article, Big League Politics reported accurately that Twitter blamed a nonexistent white nationalist group for a parody account on their platform that they claimed was responsible for fomenting violence. It is a matter of fact that the group Twitter blamed for the account, Identity Evropa, has been defunct for over a year. Another offending post according to the thought controllers was supposedly racist because it said that Nigel Farages offensive comments that resulted in him being kicked off LBC on the grounds that he told the truth about Black Lives Matter and their terrorist agenda. In that article, Big League Politics noted that Farage was being thrown off the radio for opposing a cultural genocide of British icons by BLM rioters. BLM thugs regularly use violence and intimidation to enforce their political agenda, which makes them by definition a terrorist organization. Google has made it clear that they are happy to do the bidding of these Orwellian left-wing groups to help them shape the narrative surrounding race riots and prevent any wrongthink from being disseminated over the internet. We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race from monetizing, a spokesperson for Google wrote about the decision to censor. When a page or site violates our policies, we take action. In this case, weve removed both sites ability to monetize with Google. Google should lose their Section 230 privileges allowing them to skirt liability as long as they are behaving like a partisan publisher rather than a neutral platform. Read more at: BigLeaguePolitics.com A window was smashed and paint thrown around the inside of a Coleraine home in an attack police are treating as a hate crime A window was smashed and paint thrown around the inside of a Coleraine home in an attack police are treating as a hate crime A sectarian attack which saw windows smashed and containers of paint thrown inside a house in Coleraine is being treated as a hate crime, police have said. The attack happened at around 12.15am on Tuesday at a house on Westbourne Crescent. A living room window was smashed and containers of paint thrown inside the home, causing extensive damage. Two cars parked outside were also damaged with paint. A man and woman who were asleep upstairs at the time were not injured but were left shocked, police said. Sinn Fein MLA Caoimhe Archibald condemned the attack. Expand Close A window was smashed and paint thrown around the inside of a Coleraine home in an attack police are treating as a hate crime / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A window was smashed and paint thrown around the inside of a Coleraine home in an attack police are treating as a hate crime "Everyone has the right to live free from the fear of intimidation and violence," she said. "Sectarianism has no place in our society and I call on all political and community leaders to show leadership and work to end these types of attacks. "I condemn this attack and call on anyone with any information about it to bring it forward to the PSNI." SDLP Assembly member Cara Hunter also condemned the incident. The East Londonderry MLA said: "I was deeply distressed to learn of an attack on a home in Coleraine last night, which the PSNI are treating as sectarian. "Attacks of any kind, but particularly of a sectarian nature, have absolutely no place in Coleraine in 2020. "The community in Coleraine have pulled together during this pandemic to support each other through this difficult time. "Attacks like this fly in the face of our efforts to build a better east Derry and thugs behind them must be robustly resisted." Anyone with information is asked to call police in Coleraine on 101 quoting reference number 30 16/06/20. More than 120 victims of sex abuse by Larry Nassar called for the Justice Department on Wednesday to release its inspector general's report into the FBI's handling of the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal. Their demand, sent in a letter to the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General, the FBI and ranking members of Congress, comes on the fifth anniversary of the day a gymnasts alleged abuse was first reported to USA Gymnastics and two years after the inspector general's investigation into the FBI inquiry was opened. Questions remain about institutional failures at the FBI that enabled Larry Nassar, the doctor for the U.S. national gymnastics team, to abuse dozens of additional victims in the year and a half between the FBI's first learning of allegations against him in 2015 and his arrest. USA Gymnastics is the governing body of the national team. Nassar, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 10 minors in a Michigan court in January 2018, is serving up to 175 years in prison and is expected to be behind bars for the rest of his life. People familiar with the inspector general's investigation were told by the office's lead investigator that the report on the FBI's inquiry was referred to the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section in 2018. A source told NBC News that the lead investigator said the matter was now a "criminal investigation." Typically, such a referral to the Public Integrity Section would be made at the end of an administrative inquiry when a report was complete, according to a former Justice Department official. The report has never been released. "Why is the Justice Department sitting on this report?" asks the letter, which was reviewed by NBC News. "We do not want it withheld and then have authorities claim they cannot indict and prosecute the people involved in criminal conduct because the statute of limitations has expired." Story continues "It is important for our healing for all the facts to come out and for wrongdoers to be held accountable. It is also important to maintain public confidence in our federal law enforcement agencies by exposing the truth and initiating reforms so that this never happens again," the victims wrote. The letter is signed by Olympic athletes including Simone Biles and Aly Raisman. Stephanie Logan, spokesperson for the inspector general's office, said: "The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General is investigating the allegations concerning the FBI's handling of the Nassar investigation, and the victims and the public should rest assured our findings will be made public at the end of our investigation." Logan declined to comment on specific questions about a criminal referral to the Public Integrity Section. The FBI declined a request for comment. The FBI opened an investigation into Nassar in July 2015 after it received credible reports of allegations of sexual abuse of three U.S. national team gymnasts Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols. Throughout the fall of 2015, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Indianapolis office kept in regular contact with executives at USA Gymnastics, according to emails viewed by NBC News. Over 100 of Larry Nassar's victims are demanding to see the inspector general's report on the FBI's handling of the case on the fifth anniversary of the day a gymnasts alleged abuse was first reported to USA Gymnastics. (Reuters/ Getty Images) But no significant action was taken, and the FBI waited almost a year before conducting any in-person interviews with victims or other key witnesses. Raisman was not contacted until 15 months after her abuse was first reported. She described the meeting in a 2018 interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBC News. "I said, 'Why did you wait so long?'" Raisman recalled. "They said, 'Oh, we wanted to wait until the Olympics were over.'" During the yearlong gap in the FBI's investigation, Nassar continued to operate freely and was in regular contact with children in Michigan. He even ran for the school board in fall 2016. Dozens of young athletes said Nassar abused them in the period between the first report to the FBI in July 2015 and his arrest by local authorities in November 2016. "It's extremely hard to even process," Nichols told NBC News. Nichols was the first victim to disclose Nassar's abuse to USA Gymnastics in June 2015. She was not contacted by the FBI until almost a year later. "Just knowing that if someone reported it and made a change right when it was reported, so many people would have been saved. ... Everyone should be held accountable." Public pressure for justice for the hundreds of Nassar victims has mounted as the fifth anniversary of the FBI referral has approached. On Monday, victims suing USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee filed a motion protesting that certain executives with knowledge of what happened are trying to avoid having to testify. In a statement, the U.S. Olympic Committee said, "Five years ago, Larry Nassar's despicable crimes were first reported to the FBI. Tragically, his terrible acts took too long to uncover. The USOPC commissioned a comprehensive, independent investigation shared publicly and without edits to find out what went wrong and what could have been done better. In the time since, under new leadership, we have implemented significant reforms to prevent such reprehensible acts from ever occurring again. That time and those crimes will never be forgotten and our hearts ache for the victims of Nassars abuse. USA Gymnastics told NBC News in a statement that "USA Gymnastics has fully cooperated with multiple independent investigations led by several congressional committees, law enforcement, and other investigatory bodies; and we will continue to cooperate. We are deeply committed to learning from these investigations, so that we can better protect athletes in the future. As part of that commitment, we would support the release of the OIG investigation." On June 2, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, sent a letter asking the inspector general's office to release its report. In an interview, he said Congress would use all available options to compel the inspector general's office and the FBI to explain what went wrong. "I'm determined to get to the bottom of it," Cornyn said. "I would like to know who told them to wait, because ordinarily when there's been a crime committed, which there are multiple crimes here, you want to get the information quickly as possible." Cornyn said he has yet to receive a response. The 2018 referral of the inspector general's investigation to the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section indicates that a decision about potential criminality was needed, said NBC News national security contributor Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI's former assistant director for counterintelligence. "That kind of referral implies that there may be a corruption concern." The Justice Department investigates potential corruption when it is related to government employees and elected officials. "OIG investigations are common," Figliuzzi said, "but what is uncommon is that this investigation could have been referred to a number of places. That it has been referred to the Public Integrity Section that in itself is significant." Last year, a congressional report found that the FBI fundamentally failed to act and "did not stop Nassar from seeing patients or protect those in harm's way" as the bureau's investigation "dragged on" for more than a year while it was shuffled among field offices. In an interview in July 2019, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Senate subcommittee that oversaw the investigation, described the actions of the FBI and other organizations as a "cover-up." "Whether it was a criminal cover-up remains to be proven, but it was a cover-up in spirit," he said. Adiel Kaplan contributed to reporting of this story. KYODO NEWS - Jun 17, 2020 - 15:32 | World, All South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon Chul offered Wednesday to resign to take responsibility for rapidly worsening ties with North Korea. The move comes a day after North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Kaesong, a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation, escalating tensions between the two Koreas. Related coverage: North Korea to deploy troops to two demilitarized areas near border FOCUS: North Korea's Kim may use South to boost influence of younger sister U.S. urges restraint from North Korea after it destroys liaison office 6 Feet I Think I'm Paranoid AI Editing 77% As shelter-in-place orders have become the norm and maintaining a 6-foot distance from others in public spaces the standard for combating the novel coronavirus, what has become clear is that social distancing in urban areas is no small task. In New York City, developer Meli Harvey designed a map using NYC Open Data that measures the width of sidewalks throughout the city and color-codes them based on how easily they allow for that 6-foot margin between pedestrians. The result confirms what New Yorkers anecdotally believed to be true: Keeping far enough apart to slow the spread of COVID-19 is easier said than done.Source: The Verge Smart assistants like Amazons Echo and Google Home make it easy to do things like add to a shopping list or play music with a simple voice command, but what about all those things you dont want your device listening in on as it scans for activation words? A tool called Paranoid hopes to make it a little more difficult for Alexa or Google to spy. It connects to a smart speaker and prevents it from eavesdropping unless you tell it to. To disable the noise-blocking, say Paranoid before a devices regular activation command.Source: Digital Trends A new Web browser extension from Microsoft, called Editor, aims to ensure that what youre saying online is neither insensitive nor politically incorrect. Similar to an existing function in Microsoft Word, the AI-powered Editor will suggest an alternative to a gendered term: It may prompt you to type police officer instead of policeman, for example, or person with a disability instead of disabled person. The feature also flags potential plagiarism and works on popular websites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.Source: Fast Company The increase in website hits across the Internet in March as social distancing and/or shelter-in-place orders swept the globe, according to tech research firm Omida.Source: Forbes One is written by Trumps niece, Mary Trump, and its reported title is an already VERY WRONG collection of words: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Worlds Most Dangerous Man. (Its clear the terrible word Dangerous overtook the very good word Dignified and canceled it the way liberals have cancelled so many of our great words.) Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has adopted several resolutions that change the requirements for entry into the country for foreign citizens and stateless persons. Under the Government decree, No.477, the temporary entry ban for foreigners to Ukraine is no longer in force. At the same time, the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated June 12, 2020, No.480, stipulates that foreigners entering Ukraine must have appropriate medical insurance. People arriving from countries with high incidence of COVID-19 will be required to enter into self-quarantine. In particular, according to the said resolution, during the period of quarantine, the crossing of the state border by foreigners and stateless persons (except for foreigners, stateless persons permanently residing in Ukraine, persons recognized as refugees or persons who need additional protection) is prohibited without medical insurance (certificate) covering all expenses related to COVID-19 treatment and observation while on the territory of Ukraine. At the same time, a citizen (subject) of a country with a high number of COVID-19 infections, who has not been in that country in the previous 14 days, foreign diplomats and consular officials, representatives from accredited international missions and organizations and their family members, drivers and crew members of cargo transport vehicles, air, sea and river crews, members of train and locomotive brigades, participants in an external independent audit (with one accompanying person each), will not be required to undergo observation, unless there is a reason to believe that they have been in contact with a COVID-19 patient. Also, persons who agree to self-isolate using the Dii vdoma electronic service are not subject to observation. A country is considered to have a high incidence of COVID-19 if it has at least 40 active cases per 100,000 population. The list of these countries will be provided to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine every three days by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. Consequently, foreign citizens and stateless persons will be able to enter Ukraine from the date of entry into force of the decrees of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of June 12, No.477 and No.480, given that they have legal grounds for entry, as stipulated in the Ukrainian border control law, and observe sanitary and epidemiological rules and norms. Ukraine completely closed its borders to regular transport services, including air travel, on March 28 as part of the lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease. Ukraine started gradually easing restrictions on May 11. In light of the recent clash between India and China, trade relations between the two Asian giants are poised for a rough ride. Dismissing rumours of lockdown reimposition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there is a need to fight "rumours of lockdown." Amid escalating border tensions with China, traders' body CAIT has released a list of more than 500 Chinese products to be boycotted. Read for more top stories from the world of business and economy: 1) China's investment plans in India cross $26 billion: Will breaking ties hurt India Inc.? India imports about 14 per cent goods and services from China as compared to 5.3 per cent exports to it, which happens to be one of the world's biggest trade deficits between two nations. 2) PM Modi dismisses lockdown rumours, urges states to focus on testing PM Modi urged states to make full use of their existing testing capacity and work to boost health infrastructure. 3) Life-saving coronavirus drug Dexamethasone costs less than 30 paise India exports 5.35 lakh tonnes of Dexamethasone worth $15.34 million. US is the bigger buyer worth $5.17 million, Nigeria $ 1.88 million, Canada $1.02 million, Russian Federation $0.92 million and Uganda $0.91 million. 4) 6 term insurance myths all investors must know We often hear people say life insurance is a must for every earning person. However, no one rule applies to all. It is not uncommon for a working married couple to not have kids or their parents having their own pensions. 5) CAIT releases list of 500 Chinese items to be boycotted "We have raised some very important issues with the government today including cancellation of Delhi-Meerut RRTS project. It should be given to an Indian company instead of the Chinese firm," CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said. He's been dubbed the 'mastermind' of Big Brother Australia, after pulling off a number of manipulative stunts so far this season. And Kieran Davidson, 21, appeared to poke fun at his controversial antics by wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the word 'clickbait' on Tuesday. The YouTuber was spotted wandering the aisle of an Adelaide supermarket in search of cleaning supplies. Trying to make a statement? Big Brother 'mastermind' Kieran Davidson, 21, wore a hoodie emblazoned with the word 'clickbait' as he went shopping for cleaning supplies in Adelaide on Tuesday Opting for comfort over style, Kieran matched his oversized yellow hoodie with grey trousers and a pair of black-and-white sneakers. He was seen picking up several cleaning items, including paper towels and anti-mould spray, before heading to the check out. While it's common for celebrities to be hounded by fans in public, Kieran managed to keep a low profile throughout the casual outing. Blending in with the crowd: Opting for comfort over style, Kieran matched his oversized yellow hoodie with grey trousers and a pair of black-and-white sneakers Essentials: He was seen picking up several cleaning items, including paper towels and anti-mould spray, before heading to the check out Low-key: While it's common for celebrities to be hounded by fans in public, Kieran managed to keep a low profile throughout the casual outing After leaving the supermarket, he was seen staring down at his phone while power-walking down the sidewalk. Kieran has made no secret of his plans to use manipulation, deceit and pot-stirring to win Big Brother this season. He was nominated for eviction in the first two episodes, but worked hard to stay out of the firing line from episode three onward. Distracted? Kieran appeared to be lost in thought as he pulled out his wallet to pay for the items Playing to win: Kieran has been dubbed the 'mastermind' of Big Brother Australia, after pulling off a number of manipulative stunts so far this season On the move: After leaving the supermarket, he was seen staring down at his phone while power walking down the sidewalk On Monday's episode, the troublemaker tried to gain an advantage by purposely creating a feud in the house. He did so by spreading the lie that newcomer Danni Keogh thought Garth Saville was 'a bit of a snake'. While Kieran admitted it was a risky decision, he wanted to make sure the focus was far away from him when it came to nominations. This simple strategic move created a ripple effect in the house, and resulted in Danni being evicted. Strategic: Kieran has made no secret of his plans to use manipulation, deceit and pot-stirring to win Big Brother this season GREENWICH Nearly 74,000 property tax bills will be sent out to Greenwich residents next week but the deadline to pay has been extended this year due to the coronavirus. The usual deadline for paying the taxes on real estate or cars is still Aug. 3. But this year taxpayers have until Oct. 1 to make their payments, according to town Tax Collector Heather Smeriglio. For the majority of the people who have called into the office, it seems that people just want to pay on time, Smeriglio said. But we have had a couple of calls from people who are very thankful for this because some people have been out of work and are just starting back up again. They are very happy to be able to take advantage of this. The extension was approved by the Representative Town Meeting in May following an executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont granting 90 days, instead of the usual 30 days, to make the tax payments in the new 2020-21 fiscal year due to the economic impact of the pandemic. The extension is not mandatory, and residents can make their payments at any time between now and Oct. 1. Smeriglio said she had heard from a resident who wants to pay in several installments. That is fine, Smeriglio said, but stressed the importance of paying the entire bill by Oct. 1. For bills that are not paid by Oct. 1, an interest charge of 1.5 percent per month will be added retroactively for July, August, September and October, she said. Any payment sent in Oct. 2 or later would be affected. Another 1.5 percent interest would be added for each successive month for an unpaid bill. People need to understand not to pay past Oct. 1, Smeriglio said. That will not be a good situation for them. The extension is only open to residents who are up to date on their tax payments to the town. Those with delinquent accounts must have their payments in by Aug. 3 to avoid further interest charges on the amount they owe. Theyre getting delinquent statements or lien statements, Smeriglio said. There are currently 329 accounts that are delinquent, she said. If they make good on those delinquent payments, they can then take advantage of the extension for the current taxes. The extension does not apply for those who have accounts in escrow. Information about the extension will be included with the tax bills, which will be mailed next week. The extension is automatic residents do not have to fill out any forms. The only exception is for landlords of residential or commercial property. If they want the extension, landlords must fill out an application by July 1. The applications are online at www.greenwichct.gov under the section for the tax collectors department. Residents can pay their taxes by mail, online through the town website at www.greenwichct.gov or in person at Town Hall. To pay at Town Hall, residents must make an appointment with the tax collectors office due to coronavirus restrictions. Paying online is the safest way at this point, Smeriglio said. If they go online they can just put in their check number and its a 95-cent charge. Its better to do it that way and be safe instead of coming to Town Hall. Smeriglio said anyone with questions can call the Tax Collectors Department at 203-622-7891 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and they will explain the payment options. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com WASHINGTON - Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who has been an aggressive advocate for President Donald Trump and his administration at the Supreme Court, will step down at the end of the court's term, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday. Francisco, 50, who was confirmed in September 2017, has defended some of the administration's most controversial cases at the Supreme Court, most notably Trump's ban on travelers from some mostly Muslim countries. The justices ruled 5 to 4 that Trump had the authority to make such a call. Francisco's departure was expected, and in his resignation letter to the president he called Attorney General William Barr a "friend and patriot" and said that together the administration had "furthered the principle of limited constitutional government." "We have had significant success in advancing the rule of law - including protecting religious liberty, ensuring vigorous enforcement of the nation's immigration laws and safeguarding the executive power that the Constitution confers on the president," Francisco wrote. The last of Francisco's 17 arguments as solicitor general was to object to a New York prosecutor's subpoena for Trump's long-withheld private financial records. The court has yet to rule in the case. Francisco said Trump's appointment of two Supreme Court justices and nearly 200 other federal judges "will redound to the benefit of the nation for many years to come." The principal political deputy in the solicitor general's office, Jeffrey Wall, is expected to become acting solicitor general and could be a candidate for the job if Trump is reelected. People with knowledge of the issue say Patrick Philbin, a deputy White House counsel and one of Trump's lawyers during the Senate impeachment hearings, is also under consideration. Francisco is the second high-ranking Department of Justice official to announce his departure in recent days, though the exits are not connected. Brian Benczkowski, the head of the department's criminal division, announced his departure in an email to staff members on Wednesday. The solicitor general is often referred to as the "10th justice" because the person in the office so often is involved in the cases the court accepts. (Justice Elena Kagan held the position before President Barack Obama nominated her to the court in 2010.) It is considered the most coveted and challenging job in the country for an appellate lawyer, and Francisco, who is of Filipino descent, was the first Asian American to hold the job. He is a longtime favorite of the conservative legal establishment, and a good match for the aggressive legal strategy Trump wanted to employ. The DOJ's positions on legal issues change with administrations, but the "SG," as lawyers calls the office, traditionally had soft-pedaled any abrupt U-turns. Francisco did not. A striking example of that came when the department said it would not defend the Affordable Care Act against a constitutional challenge from Republican-led states. The case is to be argued next term. But it was only one change the office forthrightly acknowledged. It reversed Obama administration positions on voting rights cases, switched sides in a suit challenging Texas' redistricting plans, revoked past support for organized labor on union dues, rescinded protection for transgender students and split with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on protection for LGBTQ workers. This term, Francisco argued that the administration should be allowed to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program protecting some immigrants from deportation instituted by Obama. Wall argued that a Louisiana law restricting abortion should be upheld, though it is almost identical to a Texas law struck down in 2016, when Obama's solicitor general was on the other side. Neither case has been decided. Some liberal justices challenged Francisco to defend the changes. "How many times this term already have you flipped positions from prior administrations?" Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Francisco during an oral argument in 2018. But the administration's views were often endorsed by the court's conservatives. A notable exception came last term, when Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's liberals to rule that the Commerce Department had not made a proper case for adding a question on citizenship to the census form all Americans received in 2020. One way Francisco was different from his predecessors was in taking issues quickly and directly to the Supreme Court, rather than letting an issue proceed slowly through the legal process. University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck keeps a running count of the times the administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene when a lower court issues an adverse ruling. According to Vladeck's numbers, Francisco made 29 such applications, 17 of which were granted in full or in part. In the previous 16 years of Obama and George W. Bush administrations, the solicitor general made eight such requests. Francisco also made waves early in his tenure when he told the Supreme Court in a highly unusual filing that it should consider disciplining lawyers for an undocumented teenage immigrant in a legal fight to get an abortion. He called out lawyers for the ACLU for helping the girl to quickly receive the procedure after a favorable court ruling, even though they knew DOJ lawyers planned to go to the Supreme Court the next day. The lawyers responded that they did nothing wrong in serving their client, and the Supreme Court eventually declined to get involved. "Not all communication breakdowns constitute misconduct," the court said. In announcing the resignation, Barr said Francisco's "skilled advocacy has been instrumental to historic victories on behalf of the President's national security authority, the free speech rights of public employees, and property owners' access to federal courts, among many other significant accomplishments." A still from a video from RIA Novosti showing the disinfectant tunnel installed at Russian President Vladimir Putin's residence west of Moscow. RIA Novosti A special disinfection tunnel has been installed at Russian President Vladimir Putin's official residence for those wanting to visit him. State-news agency RIA Novosti released a video on Tuesday showing a man entering the tunnel and being sprayed with a "fine water mist" of antibacterial solution. Putin, 67, is working from his palace in Novo-Ogaryovo, to the west of Moscow as the country's coronavirus cases continue to mount. Members of Putin's inner circle, including his prime minister and spokesman, have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in recent weeks. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Russian President Vladimir Putin has installed in his official countryside residence a special disinfection tunnel, which anyone must walk through and get sprayed with liquid before meeting him. State news agency RIA Novosti released a video on Tuesday that showed the tunnel in question. The outlet said it sprays a "fine water mist" of antibacterial solution over new arrivals. Putin is currently working remotely from his palace in Novo-Ogaryovo, to the west of Moscow. (@Kremlinpool_RIA) June 16, 2020 You can watch a second video of the machine here. The unit is made by the Russian company Mizo Safe, RIA Novosti said. It is not known when the machine was installed. "The Russian president's residence contacted managers at the MIZOTTY plant," the plant's director Olga Izranova said, according to The Moscow Times. "We had to deliver and install the equipment under a tight deadline." Putin takes part in a video conference call with members of the Security Council at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence on June 11, 2020. Sputnik/Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin via REUTERS Putin, who is 67, has not contracted the virus, despite exposure to several people in his inner circle who have. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin tested positive in late April, as did Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, one day later. In late March, a Russian doctor who shook Putin's hand the week before was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Story continues In April, Peskov said that anyone who wanted to come into face-to-face contact with the President would be tested, according to RIA Novosti. As of Wednesday, more than 550,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Russia. It has a very low official mortality rate, which has led to accusations of a cover-up, including by doctors. Read the original article on Business Insider One of the more offbeat podcasts out there is the one from comedian Chris DElia who does his show under the name Congratulations. His shows in quarantine are a rambling, mixed bag of talking about all things pop culture. One reality show DElia went after recently is 90 Day Fiance, which is still popular on TLC after seven seasons. Some contestants there are not always likable. A long list could be made of male contestants epitomizing the worst of male traits. And, of course, the basic premise is already ridiculous. Forcing couples to use their K-1 visas to meet and marry within 90 days sounds like a disaster in the making. At least DElia called out one initially likable now-notorious contestant on the 90 Day Fiance: Big Ed. Ed Brown appeared on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days RELATED: 90 Day Fiance Fans Are Furious Big Ed and Rosemarie Vegas Pay Gap on TLC Series Yes, the real name of Big Ed on this seasons 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days is Ed Brown, a 54-year-old man who happened to fall for a young woman in the Philippines. Her name was Rosemarie Vega who just so happened to be only 23 at the time. Many people found this uncomfortable from the beginning, especially with social media interaction first. However, the two seemed to find kinship and managed to hook up once agreeing age is only a number. According to Brown, though, his own adult daughter was never for him going on the show in the first place. Brown told People Magazine recently: My daughter and my ex-wife, they were 90 Day Fiance people. They watch every episode. So right away when I told my daughter, Hey Im thinking about doing this show, shes like Youre an idiot. And she hung up on me. Despite Browns unusual physical appearance, he ended up being one of the most affable contestants for a while. On DElias podcast, he went off on a tangent about how much he liked Big Ed, if also knocking the shows premise. Apparently this was before Ed was lambasted by Rosemarie for his behavior. What did Chris DElia say about Big Ed Brown? No one can say DElias podcast is anything rational. His show is like the rant of his inner thoughts. At the same time, he does manage some worthwhile comedic insights along the random way. Toward the end of podcast #174 last May, he let his viewers know he was forced to watch 90 Day Fiance. He also said Big Ed was the only one worth watching. DElia even had to mention Brown has no neck due to his overly short 4 11 inch height. Chris DElia | Christopher Polk/Getty Images Yes, Brown apparently lied to Rosemarie about his height after initially telling her he was 5 2 online. Yet, DElia comically said Big Ed is his new friend, despite the two having never met. It broached a brief discussion about the value of online dating, with caveats in the case of Brown. On the other hand, DElia notes anyone marrying each other after only knowing one another 90 days is nothing but idiotic. Will Chris DElia really become friends with Big Ed? Even the popular YouTuber PewDiePie has reacted to the 90 Day Fiance episodes of Rosemarie Vega and Big Ed. Find out why audiences are curious of the whole affair. BASAHIN: https://t.co/Y256nsGAlf StarStudioPH (@StarStudioPH) June 16, 2020 If Brown really is entertaining to DElia, no one should be surprised if he shows up as a guest on the podcast eventually to give his side. Or maybe the show will disavow having Brown appear on DElias show since latter basically lambasted the series concept. Plus, Vega has already gone on record through her own Vlog about how awful she discovered Brown to be. And with the recent allegations against DElia, it might be in both their best interest to steer away from one another. While rebutting the Sena, state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat said the editorial in the mouthpiece is based on wrong information. Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Tuesday has termed the Congress party an old cot which is squeaking in the government every now and then. The Sena told Congress that chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is not greedy for power and hinted that the seats of the Legislative Council to be appointed by the governor would be distributed as per the strength in the lower house. The editorial in Saamana said that internal resentment is inevitable in an alliance of parties with different ideologies. The Congress is an old party with a historical legacy where murmurs of resentment are more, it said. The cot is old and creaks often. The cot is very old, but has historical legacy. There are many (leaders) on the cot who change their sides...whether the Congress or NCP, both parties have seasoned politicians who know when to express resentment and when to change sides, the mouthpiece said. There are many in the party (Congress) who can change sides. This is the reason why murmurs are being felt. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray should be prepared to tolerate such murmurs in the alliance, it added. While rebutting the Sena, state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat, however, said the editorial in the Sena mouthpiece is based on wrong information. It also pointed out that though Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan, who are senior leaders, have vast experience, they should remember that NCP chief Sharad Pawar and its leaders also have a great experience but are not creaking. Noting that there is also a complaint about Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta getting repeated extensions causing resentment in the bureaucracy, the Sena said the issue can be discussed. But there is no complaint that any illegal work has been done in the government. The entire bureaucracy and the administration are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but still, Uddhav Thackeray should hear out Chavan and Thorat, it said. The editorial also said that there is no problem in distributing the seats as per the party strength in the Legislative Assembly. The Congress has 44 MLAs, Shiv Sena has 56 (along with other smaller parties, it went to 64), and NCP has 56. Therefore, there would be no problem in distributing the seats as per this ratio, the editorial said. Referring to the early morning swearing-in of BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister and NCP's Ajit Pawar as his deputy in November 2019, the Sena also said that there is no threat to the government. Nobody should think that a door of Raj Bhavan would again be opened in the wee hours. Uddhav Thackeray has no greed for power. Politics is ultimately for power and there is no one, who does not need power, but Uddhav Thackeray is not a leader who will do anything for it, the Sena added. BRASILIA, June 16 (Reuters) - A fifth-generation (5G) telecoms tender in Brazil should not be contaminated by ideological battles with China and more competition will lead to better prices for consumers, the head of the lower house said on Tuesday. Speaker Rodrigo Maia said Brazil's telecoms regulator Anatel should run the auction and that the supposedly economically liberal government of President Jair Bolsonaro should focus on free and fair competition. He added that ideological debates could interfere in Brazil's other sectors, such as agribusiness. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has urged governments worldwide, including Brazil, to shun the world's largest telecoms equipment maker, China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, because of spying concerns but few have heeded those warnings so far. Huawei, a leader in setting 5G standards, has consolidated its presence in Brazil over the last 20 years. Originally scheduled for March, Brazil's 5G auction has been pushed back and no new date has been set. Last week, U.S. ambassador for Brazil Todd Chapman told Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that the United States is in talks with Brazil and its telecommunications companies on funding the acquisition of 5G produced by Swedish company Ericsson and Finland's Nokia. Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, was a longtime China skeptic before assuming a far less abrasive attitude toward the world's No. 2 economy when he took office in 2019. (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; editing by Grant McCool) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 11:01:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, June 17 (Xinhua) -- South Asia has recently become a new hotspot of the COVID-19 pandemic with a sharp surge in confirmed cases after a number of countries started to ease restrictions this month for reopening the economy. In Bangladesh, amid a rapid increase of infections, the government was forced to reimpose a zone-based lockdown earlier this month, a few days after businesses were allowed to resume. The South Asian country initially imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 26 to curb the spread of the virus, and later extended it for several times until May 30. The government then decided to relax the restrictions starting May 31, citing the lockdown's impact on the economy and people's lives. However, as it slowly hit the economic restart button, a spurt of cases was seen with the daily caseload hovering around 3,000 and total cases almost doubling since June 1. On Tuesday, total cases in the country exceeded 94,000 after a record 3,862 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours. Bangladesh is hardly the only South Asian country that is walking a tightrope between economic resumption and pandemic control. India has become the fourth worst-hit country by COVID-19 after the United States, Brazil and Russia with its total cases reaching 343,091 including 9,900 deaths as of Tuesday. India entered "Lockdown 5.0," or the fifth phase of the nationwide lockdown on June 1, with gradual relaxation of restrictions. While the lockdown involving the world's second largest population was believed to be crucial and effective in preventing the rapid spread of the virus, it also badly hit the Indian economy. "With the imposition of nationwide lockdown to contain COVID-19 pandemic nearly 60 percent of our economy was locked down. The lockdown triggered job losses and fuelled a massive reverse migration," Devendra Kumar Pant, chief economist of India Ratings and Research, told Xinhua. Millions of migrant laborers returned to their homes from big cities after the lockdown was imposed on March 25, some even walking up to 2,000 kilometers in the absence of public transport. Their future remained uncertain even as the country's economy is slowly reopening with minimal job opportunities in major cities. Meanwhile, micro, small and medium enterprises were also hard-hit by the lockdown, according to Pant. As an emergency relief, the Indian government chalked out a plan to provide employment at doorsteps, social welfare and a direct benefit scheme to migrant workers in over 100 districts in six states where the majority of them stayed during the lockdown. The "Lockdown 5.0," also dubbed as "Unlock 1.0" which started on June 1, would have an economic focus, said the Indian government. Hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and religious places were the first to be allowed to reopen, except in containment zones. The resumption of schools and international air travel may follow pending further assessment of the situation. However, since June 1, around 8,000 to over 10,000 new cases along with hundreds of new deaths have been recorded every day and some experts expressed concern over a rushing resumption of business activities. "The three important cities in India in terms of business activity, namely New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai are witnessing a sharp increase in the cases," Aakash Jindal, an Indian economist, told Xinhua. "I do give stress to capital or money but for the economic activity to restart people should be medically fit and fine and not fearful of catching the infection or disease," said the expert. Local authorities on Monday decided to declare a total lockdown in Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, where infections are raging. In neighboring Pakistan, confirmed cases surged to 148,921 with 2,839 deaths as of Tuesday. Pakistani Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said the current trajectory showed that cases could double by the end of June and reach 1 million to 1.2 million by the end of July. The spike in cases came after the easing of the lockdown across the country since May. In a recent address, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan urged people to follow anti-pandemic guidelines 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 (standard operating procedures) and precautions so our poor people can earn a livelihood," he said. The World Bank projected Pakistan's economy to contract by 2.6 percent in the current 2019/20 fiscal year and shrink by 0.2 percent in the next fiscal year. The country's finance ministry, meanwhile, estimated that some 3 million people associated with industrial and services sectors in the country are expected to lose their jobs, and the poverty level could rise to 33.5 percent from the current 24.3 percent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. To support the poor population during the lockdown period, the Pakistani government offered support by providing 12,000 rupees (about 73 U.S. dollars) each in cash to those in the labor, poor and unemployed class. As South Asian countries are striving to cope with rising COVID-19 cases, China is trying its best to offer help and support. On June 8, Bangladesh welcomed the first foreign medical team to the country since the outbreak of the virus - a 10-member expert team from China. The team from China's southernmost island province of Hainan shared experiences in pandemic prevention and control, and gave advices for Bangladesh on COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and quarantine. The experts also visited local hospitals treating COVID-19 patients and offered on-site guidance on management of cases, treatment of patients and protection of frontline medical staff. Apart from sending medical experts, 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 the country to contain COVID-19, according to Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming. Meanwhile, China and Pakistan, as "iron brothers," have been standing firmly together and helping each other to fight COVID-19. Pakistan was among the first countries to show solidarity and offer aid when China was in a fierce battle against the virus. And since the outbreak occured in Pakistan, China has spared no efforts in providing all kinds of assistance to help its neighbor. On Tuesday, Pakistan received the sixth and so far the largest batch of medical supplies donated by the Chinese government. The 68 tonnes of supplies included testing kits, protective suits, N95 masks and protective goggles. Besides, China also sent medical teams to Pakistan to join the country's efforts to battle the virus. The Chinese experts shared the know-hows in COVID-19 screening, testing, quarantine, diagnosis, treatment and prevention, offering advices on wearing masks, setting up isolation hospitals, enhancing testing and even giving instructions for frontline medical workers on how to properly put on protective gowns. Meanwhile, Chinese companies and organizations such as the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation, The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and the Confucius Institute Islamabad, among others, have also donated anti-pandemic materials to Pakistan to help save lives and protect the people. Enditem Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images The forces of two nuclear weapons states have set about each other with clubs and rocks at one of the most forbidding flashpoints in the world, in a bloody incident that highlights the constant dangers posed by expansionist nationalism. Related: India says 20 soldiers killed on disputed Himalayan border with China India has confirmed that it lost at least 20 of its men in a clash with Chinese soldiers near the disputed mountain border running along the Ladakh area of Kashmir. It is the first fatal confrontation since 1975 and the most serious since 1967, and so can be expected to have a powerful galvanising effect on the populations of both countries, already primed by a constant stream of nationalist rhetoric. There is a long history of such encounters ever since the two nations fought a short war there in 1962. After that conflict a Line of Actual Control (LAC) was declared, but there is no agreed line and limited control, as the events of recent weeks have confirmed. Thus far at least, both Indian and Chinese forces have stuck to an agreement not to carry firearms on patrol near the LAC. Beijing has put out a string of statements blaming India but giving no hint of Chinese casualties, estimated in the Indian press to total 43, including some deaths. In the past, such accounting has come decades later, if at all, from a regime that tightly controls information. For that reason, the only detailed accounts to have emerged so far have come from the Indian press. What is clear is that there will be more of these clashes without a clear change of direction and an attempt to agree on where the LAC should be, and how both sides should behave around it. Both Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping have built their images as warriors for national greatness. In his remarks on Wednesday, Modi warned the sacrifice of the soldiers would not be in vain and that India is capable of giving a befitting reply if provoked. Chinas foreign minister, Wang Yi, after speaking to his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday, issued his own warning, that India should not underestimate Chinas firm will to safeguard territorial sovereignty. Story continues In the broadest terms the deadly brawl in the Galwan valley was the latest symptom of an increasingly aggressive Chinese policy on territory and borders, of the sort that has been playing out among the rocks and reefs of the South China Sea. Over the decades China has been more assertive than India in building infrastructure around the LAC, with roads and bunkers. In recent years, India has been trying to catch up, in particular with a road to the Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), the highest airstrip in the world, with feeder roads leading off it. China has been trying to push back against that Indian construction work, so that its creeping occupation of the Galwan valley goes unchallenged. Since May, Chinese troops appear to have stopped their Indian counterparts from approaching areas where both sides have patrolled over the years. And Beijing has sent in reinforcements. What distinguishes the current confrontation from previous incidents is not just the death toll but the fact that there have been standoffs in multiple locations. This kind of territory is incredibly hard to hold, but also to move multiple troops over, said Tanvi Madan, director of the India project at the Brookings Institution. So its not considered to be something that just happened on the ground. Its clearly a decision made by the Chinese at a more senior level. Activists stage a protest against China in Bhopal, India, on Tuesday. Public opinion may make calming tensions difficult. Photograph: Sanjeev Gupta/EPA It is not just about bragging rights over crags. China has built a road, Highway 219, linking Tibet and Xinjiang, that passes through territory near the LAC that India considers its own. Indias foothold at the DBO airfield, on the other hand, allows its forces to look down at the Karakoram highway linking China and Pakistan. The timing of the incident may be connected to the weather. The melting snows of spring provide an opportunity for aggressive moves. The pandemic may also have played a role. It led to India putting off military exercises, and an extra motive for Beijing to look for distractions from its own failures in governance. The deadly clash happened at a time and a place where officers from both sides were trying to negotiate a disengagement of forces. Neither government wants this to escalate, and the foreign ministers on Wednesday agreed on resuming the disengagement process. But the fact that there has been significant loss of life, at least on the Indian side, makes the situation much harder to defuse. Now domestic politics and public opinion, especially nationalist pressure to avenge their deaths and escalate, becomes a dangerous force, Vipin Narang, a security studies professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said. It will be hard for India at least, with a relatively open media, to de-escalate as easily now. Gains were capped by worries about a second wave of coronavirus as cases surge in Latin America, US and China. Oil prices rose 3 percent in volatile trade on Tuesday as Wall Street surged and the International Energy Agency (IEA) increased its oil demand forecast for 2020, but gains were capped by worries about a second wave of coronavirus cases. The global benchmark Brent crude futures ended the session up $1.24, or 3.1 percent, at $40.96 a barrel while United States West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) rose $1.26, or 3.4 percent to settle at $38.38 a barrel. Oil gave up some gains in post-settlement trade after US crude inventories rose by 3.9 million barrels last week, according to industry group the American Petroleum Institute, compared with analysts expectations for a 152,000-barrel draw. Government data will be released on Wednesday. The market was bolstered earlier when Wall Street opened higher after a record increase in May retail sales revived hopes of a swift post-pandemic economic rebound, with sentiment also lifted by data showing reduced COVID-19 death rates in a trial of a generic steroid drug. In its monthly report, the IEA forecast oil demand at 91.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, 500,000 bpd higher than its estimate in Mays report, citing higher than expected consumption during coronavirus lockdowns. Still, the agency said a decrease in air travel because of the virus outbreak meant the world would not return to pre-pandemic demand levels before 2022. Gains were limited as coronavirus cases rose to more than eight million worldwide this week, with infections surging in Latin America, while the US and China are dealing with fresh outbreaks. China sharply ramped up restrictions on people leaving Beijing in an effort to stop the most serious coronavirus flare-up since February from spreading to other cities and provinces. A full US economic recovery will not occur until the American people are sure that the epidemic has been brought under control, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said. In the last two weeks, oil traders priced in two big ifs. How supply will evolve and the fear of the pandemics second wave, said Bjornar Tonhaugen, Rystad Energys head of oil markets. If the world treats a second COVID-19 wave like in the first half of the year, then we are in for a demand reduction that was not in the initial planning. Oil supplies in May plunged by nearly 12 million bpd, the IEA said, with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia a group known as OPEC+ reducing their output by 9.4 million bpd. That means OPEC+ hit 89 percent compliance with agreed cuts in May, the IEA said. OPEC+ agreed this month to extend production cuts of 9.7 million bpd through July. It also called on members that have not been complying to make up commitments with extra cuts later. Iraq, which had one of the worst compliance rates among the major producers, has already made deep cuts to its crude supplies to Asia in July. Equity benchmark Sensex dropped 97 points on Wednesday in a volatile session amid concerns over border tensions with China and the impact of spiking coronavirus on economic recovery. After gyrating 600.70 points during the day, the 30-share index closed 97.30 points, or 0.29 per cent, lower at 33,507.92. It had hit an intra-day high of 33,933.66 and a low of 33,332.96. Similarly, the NSE Nifty settled 32.85 points, or 0.33 per cent, down at 9,881.15. It touched a high of 10,003.60 and a low of 9,833.80 in the session. Kotak Bank was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding over 2 per cent, followed by ITC, PowerGrid, M&M, HDFC, Asian Paints and NTPC. On the other hand, Maruti rallied over 4 per cent. Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and Bajaj Finance were also among the gainers. According to traders, border tensions with China, spike in Covid-19 cases and unabated foreign fund outflows weighed on investor sentiment. As many as 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. There were around 35 casualties on the Chinese side, sources said, citing US intelligence reports. Adding to investors woes, India witnessed its highest-single day spike of 2,003 Covid-19 deaths, pushing the toll to 11,903, while cases rose to 3,54,065 with 10,974 new infections. The number of cases around the world linked to the coronavirus has crossed 81.62 lakh and the death toll has topped 4.41 lakh. Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors sold equities worth a net Rs 1,478.52 crore on Tuesday, provisional exchange data showed. Globally, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul ended on a positive note, while Tokyo settled in the red. Stock exchanges in Europe were trading on a positive note in early deals. International oil benchmark Brent crude futures slipped 0.83 per cent to USD 40.62 per barrel. On the currency front, the rupee settled 4 paise higher at 76.16 against the US dollar. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Officials in Paterson will be publicly disclosing the names of all present and former police officers punished for serious disciplinary violations, dating back 20 years. Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh made the announcement Tuesday amid a national debate on police brutality, and just one day after New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal ordered all state, county and law enforcement agencies to begin publicly identifying officers who were sanctioned by their departments. This initiative will help us reassure Patersonians that we take protecting and serving our city very seriously," Sayegh said. Paterson, though, is going well beyond Grewals directive, which stipulates annual reports with the first one not due until Dec. 31. The states third-largest city will disclose the names of those who were fired, demoted, or suspended for more than five days due to a disciplinary violation since 2000 by July 15, along with a summary of what happened. It mirrors what the New Jersey State Police will be doing. On Monday, State Police Superintendent Patrick J. Callahan said the names of disciplined present and former troopers will be publicly disclosed, also no later than July 15. The changes stem from the discussion prompted by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 26. Sayeghs office released a statement from Grewal, praising the citys decision. If New Jersey is going to be a national leader in policing reform, we must reckon with our past. By identifying officers subject to serious discipline, we deter future misconduct and allow us to begin the process of rebuilding trust with the community, Grewal said. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Sorry! This content is not available in your region House Oversight and Reform Committee member Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) questions witnesses during a hearing about the 2020 census in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill January 09, 2020 in Washington, DC. A Democratic congressman is pushing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for more disclosure about the internet giant's plans to put a one-year hold on police use of its facial recognition software. Amazon announced last week it was putting the moratorium on police use of its "Rekognition" software amid concerns the technology has racial and gender bias. Corporate giants' work with the police has come under extra scrutiny amid the push for police reform spurred by the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis last month. "While I am encouraged by the direction Amazon appears to be taking on this issue, the ambiguity of the announcement raises more questions than answers," Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California wrote in a letter sent Monday night and obtained by CNBC. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform, whose members include Gomez, has held hearings on the matter but has yet to introduce a bill regulating the technology. Amazon said it hopes the moratorium would give Congress sufficient time to pass legislation to regulate the use of the nascent software. Gomez, though, has argued that Amazon has stalled those efforts by refusing to hand over key information about its use of the technology. "After two years of formal congressional inquiries including bicameral letters, House Oversight Committee hearings, and in-person meetings Amazon has yet to adequately address questions about the dangers its facial recognition technology can pose to privacy and civil rights, the accuracy of the technology, and its disproportionate impact on communities of color," the Los Angeles-area congressman said. "Corporations have been quick to share expressions of support for the Black Lives Matter movement following the public outrage over the murders of Black Americans like George Floyd at the hands of police," he added. "Unfortunately, too many of these gestures have been performative at best. Calling on Congress to regulate facial recognition technology is one of these gestures." Gomez again pushed for information he said he has already requested of the technology giant. He wants to know what efforts Amazon is taking to ensure customers aren't using the software in violation of the company's policies. He asked for internal reports on the accuracy of the software, including the impact of race and gender. He asked whether the technology is currently integrated with any police body-camera technology or existing public-facing camera networks. As for the moratorium, Gomez wants to know whether it would extend to local and federal enforcement agencies beyond the police, such as the Department of Homeland Security or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He asked whether Amazon will stop selling Rekognition to police departments during the one-year hold, and what it plans to do with the technology should Congress not pass a bill in that period. Amazon's announcement came on the heels of a similar declaration from IBM and ahead of another by Microsoft. Joy Buolamwini, founder of Algorithmic Justice League, testified to Congress last year about shortcomings in the technology she found as part of her research into the subject for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to her findings, the software was significantly less accurate when used on women and individuals with darker skin. AWS launched Rekognition in 2016, describing it in a short blog post at the time as a "service that makes it easy to add image analysis to your applications" and to "detect objects, scenes, and faces in images." Much about its use remains unclear, including which and how many enforcement agencies use the technology. Gomez's letter comes as scrutiny from Washington and state governments on big technology ramps up again after a few months of respite as the government battled the coronavirus pandemic. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on Wednesday unveiled a bill targeting tech's liability shield, Section 230, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the protection last month. Amazon in particular has faced scrutiny from the New York attorney general over its treatment of workers and reportedly the attorneys general in California and Colorado for potential antitrust investigations. Bezos has said he is willing to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on the company's competitive practices amid its own inquiries into the matter Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:45:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HELSINKI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Association of Science and Technology in Finland (CASTF) on Wednesday received a shipment of COVID-19 protection supplies from China's Hubei province, the association told Xinhua. Donated by the government of Hubei province, the protection supplies included 20,000 surgical masks and some 10,000 other protection gears. "These supplies will be attributed to governing units of our association as well as members and other overseas Chinese in Finland who had assisted Hubei in the early stage of the pandemic," CASTF president Guo Ming told Xinhua. "When people in Hubei and China were seriously affected by the epidemic, our members made great efforts to collect and deliver supplies to help them fight against the virus. Now we are deeply encouraged by them. The warmth and love between compatriots will not be blocked by mountains and rivers," said Xie Yuanyuan, general secretary of the CASTF. "The COVID-19 pandemic has brought difficulties to the whole world. No matter from which country and nation, people should get united and fight together against the virus," said Guo, adding that some members of the CASTF have been participating in the vaccine development. Enditem The most recent edition of the Energy Information Agency monthly Drilling Productivity report confirmed what news reports had anecdotally told us. U.S. domestic shale production is on a decline, and one I think, from which it will never recover. Is it going to round trip to 2010 levels? No, I am not predicting that, and will discuss where I think shale production is heading later in this article. EIA First, a brief recap. I have discussed the problems and fallacies associated with shale in a number of OilPrice articles over the last year. Note-I typically go into a lot of technical and geologic detail in these articles. If you missed them, heres some links you may find illustrative. How Low Could U.S. Production Actually Go? Is The Oil Collapse Over Already? In these articles, I began pointing out some of these problems, and how certain companies were poised to overcome them. Parent/Child well performance declines Early onset of water production Lack of Tier-1 rock to drill Over supply of frac spreads and drilling rigs These problems werent readily apparent as production was building toward its eventual peak of 9.3 mm BOPD, as shown in the chart above. It took a one-two punch from the Wuhan corona virus, and a temporary collapse of the alignment between Russia and Saudi Arabia in March of 2020. Following that little spat, which lasted only briefly, crude prices began a plunge that didnt stop until April 20th, where the NYMEX forward contract fell to a -$37/bbl, meaning sellers were willing to pay buyers to take oil off their hands to avoid taking physical delivery. A profound, and never seen before moment in oil trading. Chart by author As you can see prices staged an amazing, and again, never before seen recovery over the next 6-weeks. This begs the question, what is going on in the oil market for expectations to shift from massive over supply with VLCCs backed up in the Port of Long Beach, to concerns about impending shortage as we exit the year? In this article we will address what we see as an emerging trend that will affect oil supplies for years down the road. Looking first at one key International operator that just announced major write-downs for the second quarter, and then what the might portend for future energy supplies. BPs $13-17.5 billion dollar asset write-down may signal new directions for the company The company announced the other day that it would take a stunning asset write-down when it reports second quarter earnings. One that reduce its assets value by about 10% and raise its gearing level to about 48%, far beyond the 30% number theyve said was comfortable. As noted in the linked Reuters article BP has revised its view toward oil prices going forward, and these changes may likely put a dividend in cut into play, as noted by RBC Capital markets in the article. BP said the new price assumptions will lead to non-cash impairment charges and write-offs in second-quarter earnings, due on Aug. 4, in a range of $13 billion to $17.5 billion after tax. It said it would also now review its plans for some oil and gas projects that are at early exploration stages. Related: U.S. Is The Surprising Winner In Chinas LNG Market This also means that as they review their exploration portfolio things that are not consistent with debt reduction, and a focus toward cleaner energy solutions, will go on the chopping block. BP site This picture taken from BPs site shows upstream projects under review and some of the company could be considering for this write-down and possible asset disposition. For those looking for an inkling of where this might take the companys focus, this quote, again from the Reuters article may be illustrative. BP is set to increasingly shift its fossil fuel production from oil to natural gas, which is expected to play a key role in supplying growing demand for electricity. Reuters Areas that would appear to be safe from the chopping block would be BPs short-cycle shale assets acquired from BHP in 2018. This was a deal engineered by BPs new CEO, Bernard Looney, to deliver cash flow with minimal investment. Looney comments from 2018 By every measure, this is a transformational deal for our Lower 48 business. It is an important step in our strategy of growing value in Upstream and a world-class addition to BPs global portfolio, We look forward now to safely integrating these great assets into our business and are excited about the potential they have for delivering growth well into the next decade. BP site Gulf of Mexico deepwater assets also appear to be safe given BPs huge infrastructure advantage in this area. I discussed Advantaged Oil in a previous OilPrice article a few months back. Its worth a read for background on deepwater cost structure, if you missed it. Through reengineering, the company has reduced break evens for these long-cycle assets to below $35/bbl as Looney noted in a recent article in Reuters. BP seeks to sharply reduce its spending and costs to be able to generate profit at oil prices below $35 a barrel by next year compared with $56 a barrel last year. Related: U.S. Energy Infrastructure Hit Hard By Pandemic So, if shale and advantaged deepwater focused on gas are safe, where might BP be looking shed assets? Brazil might be one area. After striking out in 2019, in the Peroba drilling campaign, BP sat out additional leasing that year. As the linked World Oil article notes- Still, BP has plenty of chances left in Brazil. In July, the ANP approved an exploration plan for Pau Brasil, a pre-salt prospect that the company acquired in 2018 where it controls operations. It has stakes in 25 blocks in the nation and operates 6 of them, according to its website. And the country has three more deepwater auction rounds scheduled for this year, with one offering access to proven reserves. Given the liquids rich nature of Brazils deepwater pre-salt plays, BP may just include the assets in its upcoming write-downs and sales. We should have long to wait for confirmation, as second quarter results are due in early August. What does this signal for future energy investing? BPs recent and upcoming pre-announcements may portend broader directions for the energy industry. As Rystad notes in the graphic on the next page the decline in oil and gas prices has led to a dramatic under-funding of energy resources as oil firms curtailed upstream energy investments to shore up balance sheets. Rystad Two areas that have seen sharp funding declines are Shale Tight-Oil, and Other-onshore, which usually refers to gas production. What that may mean is that capital may flow in this direction soon with the rise in oil prices. These assets typically require little in the way of infrastructure development, and can be scaled up or down quickly depending on the trend for oil. This could lead to a resurgence in drilling activity from the current levels. In a prior OilPrice article, which focused on Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), we noted that there is a supply/demand gap emerging for crude oil that is not widely recognized by the market at present. As this trend becomes more and more pronounced through year, shares of OXY could see a rebound. Your takeaway The future of oil prices has been written in the under-investment in virtually every aspect of oil and gas production. As legacy fields decline, and new production falls below the replacement rate for new wells, oil and gas prices will see an uplift. Supermajor oil companies, like BP, no longer provide a safe dividend and may experience share price deterioration as a result. As we exit 2020, there will be a supply gap of between 10-15 mm BOPD causing prices to rise well beyond their current $30-40/bbl range. By David Messler for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: In groundbreaking new research, mechanical engineers and computer scientists at the University of Minnesota have developed a 3D printing technique that uses motion capture technology, similar to that used in Hollywood movies, to print electronic sensors directly on organs that are expanding and contracting. The new 3D printing technique could have future applications in diagnosing and monitoring the lungs of patients with COVID-19. The research is published in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The new research is the next generation of a 3D printing technique discovered two years ago by members of the team that allowed for printing of electronics directly on the skin of a hand that moved left to right or rotated. The new technique allows for even more sophisticated tracking to 3D print sensors on organs like the lungs or heart that change shape or distort due to expanding and contracting. "We are pushing the boundaries of 3D printing in new ways we never even imagined years ago," said Michael McAlpine, a University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor and senior researcher on the study. "3D printing on a moving object is difficult enough, but it was quite a challenge to find a way to print on a surface that was deforming as it expanded and contracted." The researchers started in the lab with a balloon-like surface and a specialized 3D printer. They used motion capture tracking markers, much like those used in movies to create special effects, to help the 3D printer adapt its printing path to the expansion and contraction movements on the surface. The researchers then moved on to an animal lung in the lab that was artificially inflated. They were able to successfully print a soft hydrogel-based sensor directly on the surface. McAlpine said the technique could also possibly be used in the future to 3D print sensors on a pumping heart. "The broader idea behind this research, is that this is a big step forward to the goal of combining 3D printing technology with surgical robots," said McAlpine, who holds the Kuhrmeyer Family Chair Professorship in the University of Minnesota Department of Mechanical Engineering. "In the future, 3D printing will not be just about printing but instead be part of a larger autonomous robotic system. This could be important for diseases like COVID-19 where health care providers are at risk when treating patients." ### Other members of the research team included lead author Zhijie Zhu, a University of Minnesota mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate, and Hyun Soo Park, an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The research was supported by Medtronic (for sensor development) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number DP2EB020537. Additional support was provided by a University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship awarded to Zhijie Zhu. To read the full research study entitled "3D Printed Deformable Sensors," visit the Science Advances website. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham today vowed never to sell Australia's national interest to China when making deals with the communist superpower. Senator Birmingham slammed Beijing for putting an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley after the government called for an inquiry in the origins of COVID-19, saying it was bad for both countries. He said trade with China was needed to help both nations recover from the crisis - but insisted that Australia would be cautious about protecting its security. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham today vowed never to sell Australia's national interest to China when making deals with the communist superpower. Pictured: Troops in Beijing Senator Birmingham (pictured today) slammed Beijing for putting an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley 'What we will never do is change who we are or what we stand for. We will never sell out our national interest,' he said in a speech at the National Press Club today. 'We will not compromise our sovereignty, our values or our principles.' Earlier this month the government announced it was tightening foreign investment rules to stop Chinese companies buying up strategic assets in Australia. In 2015 the Port of Darwin was leased to a Chinese company for 99 years without oversight from the federal government. Senator Birmingham said both China and Australia would benefit from greater co-operation. China's decision on Australian barley impedes the ability of Australian exporters Simon Birmingham 'The reason countries trade is mutual benefit. Just as China's economic recovery will support our recovery, so, too, will we support China's,' he said. 'Many of our goods and services are the building blocks of China's economy. It's not a zero sum game. We all win together or we all lose together. 'Barley is a case in point. China's decision on Australian barley impedes the ability of Australian exporters and farmers to compete on fair terms. 'It doesn't just affect our farmers, though. It's also a significant cost to Chinese consumers and producers.' Senator Birmingham - who hasn't been able to get his Beijing counterpart on the phone in recent months - said openness is the only grown-up way to resolve differences. Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the opening of the National People's Congress at The Great Hall Of The People on May 22 People wearing protective clothing and masks arrive at Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, to board one of the first trains leaving the city in China's central Hubei province early on April 8 'Whether we all like it or not, we share the same dynamic region of the world, the geography isn't going to change,' he told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday. 'To deal with differences, though, you do need to talk. 'Australia is ready and willing to have that mature, sensible dialogue that grown-ups have even when you have differences of opinion.' His frank acknowledgement of his frustration comes on the heels of Foreign Minister Marise Payne warning that China, along with Russia, is using the heightened anxiety around the coronavirus to spread disinformation online. 'It is troubling that some countries are using the pandemic to undermine liberal democracy and promote their own, more authoritarian models,' Senator Payne said in a speech at the Australian National University's National Security College. 'I can assure you that Australia will resist and counter efforts at disinformation.' Twitter last week revealed it had removed more than 32,000 'political propaganda' accounts linked to the Chinese, Russian and Turkish governments for violations of its platform. Senator Payne described it as an 'infodemic'. Tensions with China have heightened since Australia started pursuing a World Health Organisation investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. China ultimately backed that investigation. However, since Australia made the first push for the inquiry, China has slapped hefty tariffs on Australian barley, blocked certain beef imports and warned tourists and students not to travel to Australia because they say it's unsafe and racist. Senator Payne rejected those last warnings as more disinformation. A week ago, A Chinese court sentenced Australian Karm Gilespie to death over a 2013 drug arrest. An opinion piece published in the state-owned Global Times this week said Australia had 'chosen to act as a pawn of the US'. 'Australia's mentality toward China has become increasingly irrational,' it said. CHICAGO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- RareiTi Inc.TM, the global technology-enabled Managed Access company welcomes Alex Evans, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Alex Evans has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare services industry. She is a registered clinician with senior level experience in clinical quality and evidence- based practice and a passionate leader of patient-centered care solutions. Alex's career includes 13 years at Astra Zeneca and 5 years at Biogen Idec in both clinical and commercial roles. As an RN, Alex was former Head of Clinical Nursing at Astra Zeneca and former Head of Nursing at Danone Advanced Medical Nutrition (Nutricia). Alex joins RareiTi from Europe's leading clinical home care provider, Healthcare at Home, where she was formerly Director of Quality and Governance and Regional Clinical Operations Director. She was responsible for delivering great commercial results through leading edge regulated patient support programs across a range of complex therapy areas and rare diseases. RareiTi co-founder Natalie Douglas says, "We are truly delighted to welcome Alex as our CEO. She has a wealth of clinical and commercial industry experience, combined with a passion for delivering patient-centered, evidence-based care solutions, which will be invaluable for our clients." Says co-founder Wendy White, "We welcome Alex at this very exciting time as we continue to build a global presence for RareiTi. Alex brings a unique skill set and senior management experience. She will be leading an international team from our European base in London, England." "I am delighted to be joining RareiTi," Alex Evans says. "As a clinician I know first-hand how patients and their families rely on excellent services for support when dealing with complex health needs. I was drawn to RareiTi due its patient-centric culture and approach. The opportunity to work alongside Wendy and Natalie, who are both such inspirational ambassadors for rare disease, made the decision to join easy." About RareiTi Inc.TM RareiTi offers a new system of care for people and communities across the globe with unmet needs in the rare disease space. Our managed access and medicines management programs offer support beyond therapy, combining care solutions that are specifically developed, combining a breadth of global experience, cutting edge technologies and analytics that deliver better outcomes. To find out more visit www.rareiti.com or email us at info@rareiti.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1191927/Alex_Evans___CEO_of_RareiTi_Inc.jpg After arresting two men accused of carrying loaded firearms during a Black Lives Matter protest, Troy police discovered a tactical manual tying the group to the New England Minutemen militia group. According to the Times Union, Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnellys office said the manual was found when police searched one of the vehicles after confronting a group of eight armed men. Nathaniel Shepard, 34, of Averill Park, was charged Tuesday with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, 16 counts of criminal possession of a weapon in third degree, and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Shepards arrest follows Noah Lathams case last week. Latham, 21, a soldier based at Fort Drum, who was with the group, has been accused of allegedly carrying a ghost gun, an untraceable firearm assembled from parts sold on the internet with no serial number. Latham was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, second degree, a Class C violent felony. He was returned to Fort Drum and confined to the base, according to reports. The Black Lives rally took place in Troy on June 7. Officials said the armed men dressed in military style body armor and wore bullet proof vests. Some of the men carried loaded firearms and two-way radios and some also carried batons. According to WWNYTV, the men were detained near a parking garage not far from Troys police department, during the Black Lives Matter rally which began at the city park and made its way downtown to the police station and city hall. A search of vehicles recovered a stash of loaded firearms and ammunition, a gas mask, fireworks and a tactical manual tying the group to the New England Minutemen militia group. Troy police is still conducting an investigation in this incident. More NYUP Utica 2020 Boilermaker road race canceled; will be virtual event Cuomos threat to bars that break rules: 18 have already had licenses yanked Get Outdoors! Exploring the Pleasant Valley Preserve in western Onondaga County The police in China are collecting blood samples from men and boys from across the country to build a genetic map of its roughly 700 million males, giving authorities a powerful new tool for their emerging high-tech surveillance state. They have swept across the country since late 2017 to collect enough samples to build a vast DNA database, according to a new study published on Wednesday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a research organisation, based on documents also reviewed by The New York Times. With this database, authorities would be able to track down a mans male relatives using only that mans blood, saliva or other genetic material. A US company, Thermo Fisher, is helping: The Massachusetts company has sold testing kits to Chinese police tailored to their specifications. American lawmakers have criticized Thermo Fisher for selling equipment to Chinese authorities, but the company has defended its business. The project is a major escalation of Chinas efforts to use genetics to control its people, which had been focused on tracking ethnic minorities and other, more targeted groups. It would add to a growing, sophisticated surveillance net that the police are deploying across the country, one that increasingly includes advanced cameras, facial recognition systems and artificial intelligence. The police say they need the database to catch criminals and that donors consent to handing over their DNA. Some officials within China, as well as human rights groups outside its borders, warn that a national DNA database could invade privacy and tempt officials to punish the relatives of dissidents and activists. Rights activists argue that the collection is being done without consent because citizens living in an authoritarian state have virtually no right to refuse. Already, the program is running into an unusual amount of opposition in China. The ability of the authorities to discover who is most intimately related to whom, given the context of the punishment of entire families as a result of one persons activism, is going to have a chilling effect on society as a whole, said Maya Wang, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch. The campaign even involves schools. In one southern coastal town in China, young boys offered up their tiny fingers to a police officer with a needle. About 230 miles to the north, officers went from table to table taking blood from schoolboys while the girls watched quizzically. Jiang Haolin, 31, gave a blood sample, too. He had no choice. Authorities told Jiang, a computer engineer from a rural county in northern China, that if blood wasnt collected, we would be listed as a black household, he said last year, and it would deprive him and his family of benefits like the right to travel and go to a hospital. Tracking Chinas Males Chinese authorities are collecting DNA samples from men and boys for one simple reason: They commit more crimes, statistics show. The impetus for the campaign can be traced back to a crime spree in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia. For nearly three decades, the police there investigated the rapes and murders of 11 women and girls, one as young as 8. They collected 230,000 fingerprints and sifted through more than 100,000 DNA samples. They offered a $28,000 reward. Then, in 2016, they arrested a man on unrelated bribery charges, according to the state news media. Analyzing his genes, they found he was related to a person who had left his DNA at the site of the 2005 killing of one of the women. That person, Gao Chengyong, confessed to the crimes and was executed. Gaos capture spurred the state media to call for the creation of a national database of male DNA. The police in Henan province showed it was possible, after amassing samples from 5.3 million men, or roughly 10% of the provinces male population, between 2014 and 2016. In November 2017, the Ministry of Public Security, which controls the police, unveiled plans for a national database. China already holds the worlds largest trove of genetic material, totaling 80 million profiles, according to state media. But earlier DNA gathering efforts were often more focused. Officials targeted criminal suspects or groups they considered potentially destabilizing, like migrant workers in certain neighborhoods. The police have also gathered DNA from ethnic minority groups like the Uighurs as a way to tighten the Communist Partys control over them. The effort to compile a national male database broadens those efforts, said Emile Dirks, an author of the report from the Australian institute and a Ph.D. candidate in the department of political science at the University of Toronto. We are seeing the expansion of those models to the rest of China in an aggressive way that I dont think weve seen before, Dirks said. In the report released by the Australian institute, it estimated that authorities aimed to collect DNA samples from 35 million to 70 million men and boys, or roughly 5% to 10% of Chinas male population. They do not need to sample every male, because one persons DNA sample can unlock the genetic identity of male relatives. When The Times tried to fax questions about the database to the Ministry of Public Security, an employee said it could not accept them without permission from a senior official. Local officials often publicly announce the results of their sampling. In Donglan County in the Guangxi region, the police said they had collected more than 10,800 samples, covering nearly 10% of the male population. In Yijun County in Shaanxi province, the police said they had collected more than 11,700 samples, or one quarter. To estimate the projects ambitions, the Australian institute looked at sampling rates in 10 counties and districts, then studied purchase orders for DNA test kits from 16 more jurisdictions. The Times reviewed the same public documents, along with 15 similar orders from the past six months that were not included in the report. Purchase orders were often filled by Chinese companies, but some contracts went to Thermo Fisher, the Massachusetts maker of genetics testing equipment. Thermo Fisher has sold DNA testing kits to police agencies in at least nine counties and cities for establishing a male ancestry inspection system, or a male DNA database, according to corporate bidding documents found by Dirks and verified by The Times. The company actively sought the business. In 2017, one week before the start of the DNA collection program, a company researcher, Dr. Zhong Chang, said at a conference in Beijing that the company could help, according to a video of the event. The company designed one testing kit to look for the specific genetic markers sought by the Ministry of Public Security, Zhong said, a common industry practice. Another was tailored to distinguish between Chinas ethnic groups, including Uighurs and Tibetans, he said. Zhong did not respond to requests for comment. Thermo Fisher said its DNA kits are the global standard for forensic DNA testing. In a statement, the company said it recognized the importance of considering how our products and services are used or may be used by our customers. We are proud to be a part of the many positive ways in which DNA identification has been applied, from tracking down criminals to stopping human trafficking and freeing the unjustly accused, it added. China has other reasons to buy Thermo Fishers equipment aside from compiling genetic data to track people: The companys gear can help Chinese physicians screen for deadly diseases. Thermo Fisher also sells DNA equipment to the police in many other countries. But scientists, medical ethicists and human rights groups say its equipment can also become a critical tool for social control. Last year, in the wake of criticism, the company said it would stop selling its gear to authorities in Xinjiang, in northwestern China, where the police are collecting DNA from the largely Muslim Uighur minority group for social control purposes. c.2020 The New York Times Company HARWICH The attorney for The Port and Ember restaurants in Harwich Port has asked the town to preserve evidence and produce records relating to alleged violations of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissions advisory regarding the sale of beer and wine and on-premise consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic. Attorney Raymond Tomlinson, representing the restaurants, said in his notice to the town that the alleged violations as detailed in a police report filed with selectmen are unfounded. Town officials continue to exhibit bias toward the two restaurants and preserving documents is potentially relevant to a forthcoming lawsuit, he wrote. The police report filed by Deputy Police Chief Kevin Considine on May 28 was in response to a complaint on May 22 at The Port about guests allegedly standing around on the premises drinking. Similar violations were observed by an officer at Ember the same day. On May 24 another complaint about patrons at Ember allegedly drinking on the patio was confirmed by an officer, according to the report. Tomlinson said The Port and Ember are separate corporate entities and lumping together alleged violations is entirely inappropriate. The ABCC advisory states in part, That all on-premises consumption licensees remain prohibited from selling alcohol for on-premises consumption to the public until June 8 at the earliest, awaiting further notice from the Governor. Two weeks ago selectmen appointed Interim Town Administrator Joseph Powers to serve as hearing office for the alleged violations. Tomlinson initially took issue with the police report, which cited a total of five violations from May 22 to May 24. Two of the incidents, including one of live music, were found not to be valid. Only two incident reports were filed with selectmen. Yet each alleged violation, including unfounded violations was reported to the board of selectmen for discipline without notice to The Port or Ember after Health Director Meggan Eldredge on May 27, 2020 confirmed that no actual violation of the ABCC advisory occurred at The Port (as reported by Officer Neil Nolan for Incident 20-5518) and that Incident No. 20-5519 warranted only a warning because the patrons alleged on-premises consumption was contrary to Embers directive (that patrons not consume food or drink on the premises) and where Officer Nolan was aware that Embers skeletal staff did not witness the alleged violation, Tomlinson claimed. Nolans incident report relating to The Port read, A male subject was drinking from a brown bottle that I observed to be a Budweiser beer. He further reported seeing a number of Bud Light bottles. Tomlinson wrote that the health director confirmed, contrary to Nolans narratives, that neither The Port or Ember possess or sell Budweiser or other bottled beer. In truth, and consistent with the ABCC advisory, both The Port and Ember sell only canned beer and bottled wine. In fact, the beer distributor will testify that months ago, the distributor recovered all beer bottles from both establishments as beyond the applicable sell-by date, Tomlinson wrote. He added that he wanted to raise concerns with the board on June 1, the evening Powers was appointed as the hearing officer, but in the virtual public hearing he was repeatedly denied any ability to join or participate. The pandemic has created difficult challenges for licensees, Tomlinson said. At a meeting two weeks ago between town officials and restaurant owners, in preparation for outdoor serving with the beginning of phase two for Reopening Massachusetts, there was confusion among those present. Tomlinson said that is why the health director is recommending an educate and warn approach to licensed establishments. Police have responded to similar allegations of violations of the advisory for which Eldredge has fined at least one of the licensed establishments, yet none of these establishments have been referred to the selectmen to consider public discipline, Tomlinson said. The health department has not issued any fines to any food establishments in regard to non-compliance with the Governors orders surrounding the current state of emergency, Eldredge said in an email. Additionally, the health department does not issue fines for liquor license violations. I cannot comment on the letter sent from attorney Tomlinson at this time as it is an open legal matter. Certainly, one takeaway is that Deputy Chief Considine and certain members of the board of selectmen, including Michael MacAskill, continue to exhibit bias toward The Port and Ember, Tomlinson wrote, and the push for discipline over these alleged violations is a blatant attempt to advance a personal biased agenda (the Claim) that ignores the health directors determination that no violation occurred at The Port, and Embers violation merited only a warning. By abusing their color of authority, these individuals seek to improperly influence the public process by initiating and publicly shaming The Port and Ember, which will not be tolerated, he wrote. Each of the companies is being forced to expend tremendous resources during already difficult times to investigate and respond to the alleged violations, he added. Over Memorial Day weekend, sales at The Port and Ember were down 98 percent over last year with total alcohol sales at Ember $130 on May 24, he said. This is hardly business as usual. Tomlinson stated. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. MANOHLA DARGIS When we started the Weekend Watch in March, theaters had shut down and we were searching for a way to foster a virtual community while in lockdown. But finding a movie to laugh along with can be tough. Old Hollywood is a representational land mine, with casual racism and sexism. Even newer movies dont necessarily offer better, pleasurably egalitarian choices. We chose Nine to Five as our latest Weekend Watch while The Times was in the middle of turmoil that led to a great deal of internal soul searching. Id seen the film not long ago, and, despite its flat-footed direction, it seemed like an apt choice. But watching it again amid a national reckoning on race, all I could see and think about was how white (and straight) it is. Its at once empowering and dispiriting, and less a call to revolution than another of the industrys well-meaning liberal calls for playing nice with power. I love the leads, but still. This wasnt funny in 1980 and it isnt funny now. If the three protagonists had been black, no one would be laughing. Barbara A. Lee, NY (via email) A.O. SCOTT Those leads and their characters are more radical than the movie itself. Nine to Five might look even more like a fluffy, well-intentioned product of its time if not for the charisma, political savvy and pop-cultural power that Parton, Fonda and Tomlin impart. In past weeks, weve looked at a few stellar examples of comic filmmaking craft, and its safe to say this is not one of those. There arent a lot of memorable jokes, and the set pieces (the pot-fueled fantasies of killing the boss, Franklin Hart Jr., the shenanigans with the cadaver the women think is his) hardly count as screwball classics. But like a lot of our readers, I would watch these three do anything. I cant get enough of Tomlin and Fonda in Grace and Frankie, even if its not always that great a show. And Parton, in addition to being one of the great American songwriters of our time (Jolene, Coat of Many Colors, I Will Always Love You) is I mean, shes Dolly Parton. Part of the fun of the movie is the way their characters refract their well-established public personas. Fonda plays the prim, sheltered Judy absolutely straight and with a fragile dignity that falls away to reveal her wit and toughness. Wit and toughness are the qualities that Tomlin leads with, but we also see how Violets confidence has been eroded by the steady poison of humiliation. Doralee starts out as the punchline to a joke the joke that Parton would often disarm by telling on herself and then turning around. The International Secretariat of the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative Programme (CoST) based in the United Kingdom have expressed their condolences in memory of the departed Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) Mayor, Mr Anthony K.K. Sam. Mr Christian J. Poortman, Chair, CoST Board in a letter copied the Ghana Chair, Architect Eugene Ofori- Atta wrote, "it is with deep regret that I write to express the condolences of the CoST Board in relation to the sad demise of the Mayor of Sekondi-Takoradi, Mr Anthony K.K. Sam." The International Board Chair alluded to the successes chalked with the CoST programme in the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly adding, "without the vision and commitment of late Sam, it is unlikely that such progress would have been achieved". In March 2019, the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly became the first sub-national member of CoST to promote construction sector Transparency and save government purse of cost overruns, shoddy jobs and delay in project execution. Subsequently, another milestone was reached in January this year when the STMA published its first assurance report on five selected projects. Mr Poortman said, "We have no doubt that the reforms that he initiated will ultimately contribute to better quality infrastructure and services and benefit all the people of Sekondi-Takoradi." The Board, he said, have missed an inspirational leader and champion of CoST Sekondi-Takoradi. " We pledge our support to continue the important reforms that he initiated and believe that doing so will form part of his enduring legacy," Mr Poortman added. The Board, therefore, prayed for comfort for late K.K. Sam's family, colleagues and the people of Sekondi-Takoradi. Meanwhile, a book of condolence had been opened at the Western Regional Coordinating Council for sympathisers. Already, the Western Regional Minister and his Deputy have signed the book in honour of the late Mayor. 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 crime scene technician works at the site of a crash in Silver Lake where an SUV hit the front of a building. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) One person was killed and two others were seriously injured Wednesday morning when an SUV crashed into the front of a restaurant in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, officials said. According to witnesses, the vehicle was on the wrong side of the street and speeding when it swerved to avoid an oncoming car. Then, shortly after 10:30 a.m., the SUV careened into the L&E Oyster Bar in the 1600 block of North Silver Lake Boulevard. The vehicle struck someone riding either a motorcycle or a scooter, toppled a tree and, on impact, overturned into the building. One person died at the scene and two others a 72-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man were taken to the hospital in serious condition, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Sadly, one person died onscene of this overturned vehicle in the 1600 block of N Silverlake. Please avoid area, will be an extended duration incident as @LAPDHQ investigates Eric French #lafd pic.twitter.com/9uJ0b5SXPj LAFD Talk (@LAFDtalk) June 17, 2020 Lamill Coffee, across the street from the restaurant, was open at the time of the crash. Johnny Mendoza, a store manager, said he and others heard what sounded like an explosion and ran across the street with a fire extinguisher to put out a small blaze in the car. Mendoza said there was a driver and a passenger in the SUV, whom they helped from the vehicle. Both were taken to the hospital, he said. Authorities could not confirm who was taken to the hospital and did not provide information on the person who died. L&E Oyster Bar, which had been providing curbside takeout only, was not open at the time of the crash. The area around the restaurant on Silver Lake Boulevard is currently closed off as police investigate the crash. Times staff writer Deborah Vankin contributed to this report. Yet these shopkeepers are often in a difficult position. Starting in the 1990s, more aggressive policing became the norm in major urban centers on the country, as did the growing use of nuisance abatement laws compelling shopkeepers into doing the polices work for them. In 2016, an investigation by ProPublica and The Daily News revealed that the New York Police Department was targeting small, immigrant-run stores in low-income neighborhoods. The police and the courts would shut down the stores through nuisance abatement laws. When the owners would petition to reopen, they would be forced into accepting warrantless searches of their premises or even electronic surveillance of customers for the police. The investigation found that the police routinely ensnared unsuspecting immigrant shopkeepers with liquor purchases by underage customers when the store was busy or with selling stolen merchandise not to the store owner but simply to patrons. Any future infraction could mean the store would be closed for good. In 2017, the New York City Council limited the use of the nuisance abatement statute after it became clear that the wide and disproportionate usage of this law has negatively impacted law-abiding New Yorkers, and New Yorkers of color in particular, in the words of Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson. Nuisance abatement laws have been used similarly nationwide, including at Cup Foods. These laws are part of what is known as third-party policing, which transforms immigrant businesses into nodes of surveillance, expands the power of the police and the courts, and drives wedges between vulnerable communities. The facts of third-party policing do not take away from the need for conversations about anti-black racism within Muslim American communities. Although Muslim Americans routinely have to deal with the bigotry of Islamophobia, many have been in denial for far too long about the anti-black racism among the believers. About a third of American Muslims are African-American and the history of Islam in the United States is deeply connected to the African-American story. Yet research by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, which studies American Muslims, shows that African-American Muslims still often feel unwelcome in South Asian and Arab Muslim circles. Disease-related, profound fatigue impairs the quality of life of many people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. A Belgian study has now concluded that early intensive treatment combining methotrexate with a bridging scheme of prednisone can reduce the onerous fatigue - this also applies to patients at low risk of a severe course. The European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) therefore recommends, that even in so-called low-risk patients, early consideration should be given to whether intensive treatment should be initiated. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) suffer from chronically inflamed joints. The inflammatory processes in the body can lead to a feeling of weakness, exhaustion, and lassitude - this abnormal tiredness is called "fatigue". Such fatigue is poorly helped by resting and can accompany patients constantly or at least over long distances. "In addition to pain, profound fatigue reduces the quality of life for many people, even more than the swelling of the joints", explains EULAR President Professor Dr. Iain B. McInnes from Glasgow, Scotland, UK. However, doctors often do not pay sufficient attention to this fact and do not adjust the therapy accordingly. A recent Belgian two-year study has now examined the question of whether early intensive treatment of RA directly after diagnosis has a positive influence on the course of the disease and offers an opportunity to manage the fatigue. Using the same approach, it also examined whether these mechanisms also apply to patients who have a lower risk of severe disease progression. "Up to 90 percent of patients with rheumatoid arthritis report profound fatigue," says Dr. Diederik De Cock, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, who conducted the study together with his team. Fatigue has a major impact on patients' lives and is perceived by many as difficult to manage. "The early course of the disease could provide an opportunity to manage fatigue." Eighty patients with a low-risk profile were selected for the study - this risk profile is based, among other things, on a low disease activity status. Randomized into two groups of 38 and 42 patients, the subjects received, directly after diagnosis of RA, monotherapy with 15 mg methotrexate weekly or a combination therapy of 15 mg methotrexate weekly plus cortisone (prednisone) starting at 30 mg but tapered weekly to 5mg. Methotrexate suppresses the disease and acute inflammatory reaction, while prednisone has a strong anti-inflammatory effect and is suitable for reducing pain and inflammation of the joints very quickly. The result: Patients who received intensive treatment with the combination therapy of both drugs for two years were less tired than the patients in the monotherapy control group - even though the disease activity in both groups were comparable over time. The levels of fatigue seemed to differ more and more over time between groups. This underlines the importance of initiating optimal, intensive treatment early on, even in so-called low-risk patients." Dr. John Isaacs, Professor, EULAR Scientific Chair of the Congress, Newcastle University, UK Unfortunately, this is not yet standard practice. The study clearly shows how fatigue levels in early RA can be significantly improved, the congress president concludes. About one percent of all people worldwide suffer from rheumatoid arthritis - according to figures published by EULAR in the run-up to its annual congress. FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed oil pump jack is seen in front of displayed Opec logo in this illustration picture By Alex Lawler LONDON (Reuters) - The world faces an oil surplus in 2020 even as demand gradually recovers and record supply cuts by producers help rebalance the market, according to OPEC forecasts on Wednesday. The latest monthly report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries potentially increases pressure on the group and its allies, known as OPEC+, to curb more supply. OPEC said demand would decline by 6.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in the second half of 2020, less than the drop of 11.9 million bpd in the first six months of the year, with a "gradual recovery" seen until the end of the year. Oil prices have collapsed as lockdowns to limit the spread of the coronavirus have curtailed travel and economic activity. While some places in Europe and Asia have eased restrictions, concern over new outbreaks has kept a lid on prices. To tackle the drop in demand, OPEC+ - which includes Russia - agreed to a record supply cut that started on May 1, while the United States and other nations said they would pump less. OPEC said these curbs were already helping. "The oil market was strongly supported by a reduction of the global crude oil surplus, thanks mainly to the historic voluntary production adjustment agreement," it said. Despite the cuts made already, OPEC still pointed to a surplus in the market this year, in part because it now expects supply from outside the group to be about 300,000 bpd higher than previously thought. SUPPLY CUT A technical committee of OPEC+ and a ministerial panel are meeting on Wednesday and Thursday to review the supply cut's impact and seek better compliance from those yet to deliver their share in full, such as Iraq and Nigeria. Brent crude was trading above $40 a barrel after the report's release and is up from a 21-year low below $16 reached in April. In the report, OPEC did not further reduce its forecast for world oil demand in 2020, after steep cuts in earlier months. Still, downside risks remain for consumption in top consumer the United States, according to the group. The supply pact agreed in April involves OPEC+ cutting output by 9.7 million bpd in May and June. OPEC+ agreed on June 6 to extend the cut for another month, a decision OPEC said the market had taken well. Story continues In its report, OPEC said it had cut supply in May by 6.3 million bpd to 24.2 million bpd. That amounts to 84% compliance with the pledges, according to a Reuters calculation - higher than some estimates. Overall OPEC+ compliance stood at 87% in May, a source said on Wednesday. OPEC estimated the demand for its crude this year at 23.6 million bpd, down 700,000 bpd from last month, suggesting it needs to cut about 600,000 bpd from May's rate to avoid a surplus. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, Editing by Jason Neely, Mark Potter and Pravin Char) The two opposing camps gathered next to the building of the Presidential Office in the downtown capital Shariy protest in Kyiv, June 2020 strana.ua Two rallies took place in Kyiv on Wednesday: supporters of blogger Anatoliy Shariy protest against attacks on reporters, and his opponents who stand next to the police cordon claim they are ready to render "psychiatric assistance" to those who stand with Shariy. 112 Ukraine TV channel's reporter said so telling the story from the scene in the downtown Ukrainian capital. The initial venue of both rallies was next to the building of the Presidential Office in the downtown capital. About a thousand of Shariy's supporters demand to lift the pressure on the media, urging to stop attacks on journalists. Besides, they demand to investigate previous attacks on reporters. They are shouting: "Vova, come down!", obviously referring to President Volodymyr Zelensky. No one came out of the Office's building. Among Shariy's opponents, there are representatives of the far-right organizations, such as National Corps and Demokratychna Sokyra (Democratic Axe, - 112 International). Some of them wear medical overalls and carry the cardboards with "Psychiatric assistance. Treating Schizoriy" (a word-play, deriving from "Shariy" and "schizophrenia", - 112 International). The two opposing camps were divided by law enforcers. One of Shariy's opponents who wore the T-shirt with Azov regiment symbol on it infiltrated the lines of the blogger's supporters, but they pushed him back. Some of the radical protesters pelted Shariy's supporters with eggs. The police increased the distance between the two camps. "It was not a thing nice to do, but no tough consequences", said Interior Ministry's spokesman Artem Shevchenko. As none of the President's Office's staff approached Shariy's supporters, the column marched to the Interior Ministry's building. They demanded a meeting with Minister Arsen Avakov, and then, a scuffle with Shariy's opponents followed. The police interfered and ended the fight. Then, Shariy's supporters followed to the residence of Volodymyr Zelensky. By making truck diagnostics available to our users at no cost to them, we are investing into their business well-being and growth. UTECH, a leader in the transportation software industry, announced that truck diagnostics are now available on its comprehensive safety and compliance solution, GPSTab. The addition of truck diagnostics will be free for users, who can leverage the functionality to improve fleet management by keeping equipment maintained and drivers safe. With this convenient function, users will be able to interpret fault codes, which they can use to detect and solve issues affecting their vehicle. Users will also have access to key vehicle parameters such as fuel economy, idle time, battery voltage, engine oil pressure, and many more. By leveraging the use of truck diagnostics throughout their fleets, users will benefit greatly by being able to scan and diagnose their vehicles, allowing them to make the appropriate fixes in a timely manner. This process can ultimately save trucking companies thousands of dollars on costly repairs, lost time, and ultimately keep shipper and broker relationships strong. Concerning the addition to GPSTab, UTECH CEO Yuriy Nekrasov said By making truck diagnostics available to our users at no cost to them, we are investing into their business well-being and growth. With the recent ELD mandate taking full effect and the COVID-19 pandemic raging through most World economies this is the least we can do to support small to medium sized carriers, as they are the ones who have been, and still are, struggling the most. About UTECH: UTECH is a transportation software development company with offices located globally in California, Illinois, Lviv and Ternopil. Founded in 2015, UTECH quickly moved into the forefront of the transportation software industry by releasing solutions such as GPSTab and UTECH TMS. This article, Facebook aims to register 4 million voters, let you turn off political ads, originally appeared on CNET.com. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said late Tuesday that the social network is creating a new online voter information center as part of an effort to get 4 million people to register to vote in the 2020 US elections. The social network will also let some people turn off all political advertising if they don't want to see it. In an op-ed published in USA Today, Zuckerberg said the new center will include details about how and when to vote, voter registration, voting by mail and early voting. More than 160 million people in the US will potentially see this new online hub because it will show up at the top of the Facebook News Feed and on its photo-sharing service Instagram this summer. Information from state and local election officials will appear in the hub. "The 2020 election is going to be unlike any other. It was already going to be a heated campaign, and that was before the pandemic -- and before the killing of George Floyd and so many others forced us yet again to confront the painful reality of systemic racism in America. People want accountability, and in a democracy the ultimate way we do that is through voting," Zuckerberg said in the op-ed. Facebook is calling it the "largest voting information campaign in American history." Facebook The campaign underscores Facebook's efforts to rehabilitate its image ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The company has faced criticism that it hasn't done enough to combat misinformation, including lies from politicians who are exempt from fact-checking on the platform. During the 2016 US presidential election, Russian trolls also used the social network to sow discord among Americans. Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden urged Facebook to change its mostly hands-off approach to political speech. Biden's campaign sent a letter to Zuckerberg asking the company to fact-check all political ads two weeks before they're allowed to run on the platform and fact-check election content that goes viral. Facebook, which says political speech is already heavily scrutinized, said in response that if lawmakers set new rules about campaign ads, it would follow them. In the meantime, Facebook will let some users who no longer wish to see political ads turn them off. Naomi Gleit, who oversees product management and social impact at Facebook, said in a blog post on Wednesday that the feature rolls out today for some people and will be released to all US users over the next few weeks. Facebook The move comes after the social network said in January that users would be able to see fewer political ads. Its rival Twitter banned political ads last year. Users will be able to turn off all social issue, electoral or political ads from candidates, Super PACs or other organizations that have the "Paid for by" political disclaimer on them, Gleit said. To access this feature, users will have to go to Facebook or Instagram's ad settings or click on an ad. Facebook might not catch every political ad so users who turned off political ads can also click on the top right corner of an ad and report it. Gleit said Facebook aims to make the feature available in certain countries outside of the US where they "have enforcement on ads about social issues, elections and politics later this fall." It's unclear how many countries or users will get this new feature. The social network makes most of its money from ads, and it seems unlikely that will change in the future. Nick Clegg, who oversees global affairs and communications, said in a press call on Wednesday that a business model that relies on ads means everyone can access the social network. Allowing users to pay a fee to not see all ads, for example, could jeopardize that, he said. On Wednesday, six civil rights groups called on large Facebook advertisers to boycott the site as part of a new campaign called #StopHateforProfit. The groups, which include the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP and Color of Change, criticized the company for not doing enough to combat hate speech on its platform. Clegg said the social network doesn't allow hate speech on its platform, but he acknowledged that the company could do more. He also pushed back against the Trump administration's plan to curtail the protections that shield online platforms from being liable for content posted by their users, saying it would result in less speech appearing online. Clegg said Facebook is trying to "strike the right balance, without sacrificing the safety of our community or the ability of people to express their voice at the polls." The company has also faced pushback from its own employees who raised concerns about posts from President Donald Trump they said could incite violence amid protests against police brutality. Facebook's response differed from that of Twitter, which veiled a tweet from the president about protests in Minnesota, behind a notice that says it violates the company's rules about "glorifying violence." Facebook determined that Trump's controversial remarks, in which he stated "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" didn't violate its rules against inciting violence. In May, Twitter also fact-checked and added a label to Trump's tweets for containing "potentially misleading information about voting processes." In the tweets, Trump falsely stated in his tweets that California will send mail-in ballots to "anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there" when only registered voters will receive ballot. He also said that there's no way that mail-in ballots would be "anything less than substantially fraudulent," a claim debunked by fact-checkers and news outlets. Facebook didn't fact-check the same remarks from Trump on its site, Clegg said, because Trump's comments were directed at state authorities and he was engaged in a debate about mail-in voting versus discouraging people to vote. In the op-ed, Zuckerberg stood by the company's approach to political speech. Voting, he said, was the best way to hold politicians accountable. Facebook has helped people to register to vote before. In 2016 and 2018, the company said, it helped more than 2 million people register to vote. "Everyone wants to see politicians held accountable for what they say -- and I know many people want us to moderate and remove more of their content. We have rules against speech that will cause imminent physical harm or suppress voting, and no one is exempt from them. But accountability only works if we can see what those seeking our votes are saying, even if we viscerally dislike what they say," he said. Twitter users were able to still see Trump's remarks if they clicked on the notice, but Facebook doesn't have the same feature. Zuckerberg also acknowledged that the company was slow to stop Russian interference in the 2016 election, but said it's more prepared this time. Facebook has removed more than 50 networks of malicious accounts last year and 18 networks of accounts this year. "This work is never finished, but we've learned a lot and have adapted our systems to protect against interference," he said. SEOUL, South Korea When North Korea decided to join the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and kick off a giddy period of rapprochement on the peninsula, its charm offensive was fronted by a smiling face: Kim Yo-jong, the only sister of the Norths top leader, Kim Jong-un. Now, as Mr. Kim threatens to extinguish the fragile detente with a new cycle of bellicose actions and military provocations, its his sister who is again speaking for the nation, this time heaping scorn on South Korea a signal of her deepening clout in the hereditary regime. It was sickening to listen to his speech, Ms. Kim said of the Souths leader, Moon Jae-in, in a statement on Wednesday, referring to his message this week calling for peace on the Korean Peninsula. He seems to be insane, though he appears to be normal outwardly. Tatoyan: Expired drugs found in mental health centers in Armenia 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes off coast of Alaska Putin and Pashinyan discuss by phone prospects for further cooperation within CSTO First batch of military aid to Ukraine from US arrived in Kyiv 6.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off Philippine coast Armenia confirms 940 new coronavirus cases, no deaths Armenian rescuers pull out 50 stuck cars and provide necessary aid to 80 citizens Papua New Guinea parliament repeals death penalty law TikTok starts testing paid subscriptions 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 This is the horrifying moment butchers at a Chinese wet market chop and sell dog carcasses ahead of the notorious Yulin dog meat festival even though the nation has classified dogs as 'companion animals'. Animal rights campaigners filmed the heart-breaking footage this month at a specialised dog meat market on the outskirts of Yulin before rescuing 10 puppies alive from another market outside the city. Beijing last month signalled that it could ban canine meat from the dinner table after removing dogs from its official list of livestock. However, the government is yet to issue an order to forbid the eating of dogs in the country. Heart-breaking footage shows piles of dog carcasses being sold at a market in Yulin this month According to insiders, most of Yulin's dog meat stalls and shops scattered around the city have relocated to one centralised area called Nanchao market ahead of the annual dog meat festival The pictures and videos were taken after Beijing last month removed dogs from its official list of livestock. Officials called for 'some traditional customs about dogs' to change in the country The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs called for 'some traditional customs about dogs' to change in the country and stressed that dogs were 'companion, rescue and service animals'. The latest shocking scenes came from an eye-witness report sent by activists to animal protection organisation Humane Society International (HSI), the group said. According to the insiders, most of Yulin's dog meat stalls and shops scattered around the city have relocated to one centralised area called Nanchao market, which offers predominantly dog meat rather than live dogs. The authorities were likely hoping to monitor and manage the dog meat trade more easily through the move, according to HSI. The Yulin dog meat festival, held every year on the summer solstice, is one of the most controversial food festivals in the world. The event sees thousands of dogs cruelly killed, skinned and cooked with blow-torches before being eaten by the locals. Previously, most of the slaughtering and selling of dogs took place in the infamous Dongkou market in downtown. The activists said that Dongkou appeared relatively empty this year by comparison. Activists rescued 10 'friendly and innocent' puppies (pictured) this month after spotting live pooches being caged and ready to be slaughtered at a market outside Yulin, southern China When activists travelled further afield to a market just outside Yulin, they were horrified to discover a dog meat stall offering to slaughter and butcher a cage full of puppies (pictured) When activists asked the stall owners how they had acquired the puppies, the owners agreed to let the activists take them, according to animal welfare group Humane Society International Activists called on officials to follow the central government's message and halt the trade The activists rescued 10 'friendly and innocent' puppies after spotting live pooches being caged and ready to be slaughtered at a market outside Yulin. What is the Yulin Dog Meat Festival? Some claim that the consumption of dog meat has been observed in Guangxi Province, China, for hundreds of years. However, the activity was not promoted and encouraged until around 30 years ago - first by the dog meat traders, then by the Yulin government for driving tourism. The annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival can be traced back to 2009. The event has drawn waves of criticism from media and animal lovers, with influential figures leading campaigns around the world in a bid to stop it. The local government has stopped organising the festival under pressure, as it is understood, but vendors continue selling dog meat and residents carry on eating it on the summer solstice. Advertisement One of the rescuers, Jenifer Chen, said she was shocked by what she saw there. She described: 'I can't believe that anyone would even want to eat these adorable little darlings. 'My hands were trembling when I took the first puppy out of the cage. He kept licking my hands, and unbeknown to him I could easily have been a dog meat eater.' Ms Chen called on the Yulin officials to follow the central government's message and halt the trade. She urged: 'Like the Chinese government said, these puppies are companions not livestock, and cities like Yulin should put those words into practice and end this shameful dog meat trade.' HSI also renewed its appeal for the Yulin government to crack down on the business. Dr Peter Li, China policy specialist for HSI, said: 'Momentum is building in China to tackle the dog and cat meat trades, and while I don't think anyone expects Yulin's dog meat trade to close up overnight, what the activists witnessed could indicate that things are shifting even in Yulin.' He added: 'I do hope Yulin will change not only for the sake of the animals, but also for the health and safety of its people. 'With new cases of COVID-19 tied to a Beijing market, allowing mass gatherings to trade in and consume dog meat in crowded markets and restaurants in the name of a festival poses a significant public health risk.' The annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival is one of the most controversial food festivals in China and sees thousands of dogs cruelly killed, skinned and cooked with blow-torches before being eaten by the locals. The picture shows dog meat being served at the festival on June 21, 2017 A spokesperson said: 'With the progress of the times, humans' understanding of civilisation and dining habits have changed constantly. Some traditional customs about dogs will change too.' A woman is pictured wearing a mask while carrying a dog in the street of Wuhan on Jan.22 The Chinese agricultural ministry no longer considers dogs as livestock or poultry in the latest version of the country's Directory of Genetic Resources of Livestock and Poultry. Only the animals on the list can be bred, raised, traded and transported for commercial purposes in China, according to China's Animal Husbandry Law. This means the act can potentially prevent around 10million dogs being killed for their meat every year in the country. A spokesperson from the ministry said that dogs had been domesticated for a long time in the country and they had 'close relationships' with humans. In late February, China issued a temporary ban on all trade and consumption of wild animals - a practice believed responsible for the global crisis. The picture shows butchered dogs being sold at a market in the Chinese city of Yulin at the annual dog meat festival on June 21, 2016 Two Chinese cities, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, have banned the eating of dogs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but no national law has been released to ban the act. Pictured, caged cats and dogs for sale at a live animal meat market in Guangzhou, China, in April 2003 The spokesperson told reporters: 'With the progress of the times, humans' understanding of civilisation and dining habits have changed constantly. Some traditional customs about dogs will change too.' The idea of 'traditional customs' has been used as one of the explanations for the existence of the annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival. The spokesperson highlighted that it was an international consensus not to classify dogs as livestock. He said more policies regarding dogs would be rolled out in the future without giving details. The new directory went into effect on May 27. Two Chinese cities, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, have banned the eating of dogs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In late February, China issued a temporary ban on all trade and consumption of wild animals - a practice believed responsible for the global crisis. MEXICO CITY (AP) A federal judge and his wife have been slain in the western Mexico state of Colima, Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldivar announced Tuesday after interrupting a court session to break the news. Killings of federal judges are rare in Mexico, but the Pacific coast state of Colima has Mexicos highest homicide rate and is plagued by drug cartel violence. Federal judges in Mexico hear many of the most serious cases, like drug trafficking and weapons possession. The federal Judiciary Council said in a statement that all security protocols to guarantee the safety of federal judges and their families will be revised. In the past, some judges have been provided with protective measures like bulletproof cars. The federal Attorney General's Office said it would take over the investigation into the killing, but did not offer details of the deaths of District Court Judge Uriel Villegas Ortiz and his wife, Veronica Barajas. While judges are believed to be frequently pressured by organized crime in Mexico and lawyers involved in drug cases have been killed in the past, killings of federal judges are extremely rare. In 2006, a federal judge was shot to death while traveling in his car near a maximum-security prison outside Mexico City that holds some of Mexicos top drug suspects. Mexico wants to avoid a situation like Colombias drug conflicts of the 1980s, when judges were often targets for attacks. The Jacksonville District 117 school board is scheduled to meet in regular session at 7 p.m. today via teleconference. To join the meeting online, go to the RingCentral link and enter password 1483846518. To join the meeting by phone, call 1-720-902-7700 and enter password 1483846518. Coming off a summer that saw their newly opened bed and breakfast packed with satisfied customers, Bryn Barnes and Mike Meyer were excited for a second season in Port Dover. Then COVID-19 hit. And while short-term rental accommodations like theirs are now legally allowed to open, the couple is taking a pass on their sophomore summer at Five Blocks Northuntil a bigger question is answered when can people get together again? Almost everybody that stayed here had some involvement in a big gathering a wedding, a reunion, a birthday, the theatre. Friday the 13th, we were fully booked, Meyer said, referring to Port Dovers famous motorcycle rally. People dont usually come here just to stay here. This year, with the Canada Day parade and Lighthouse Festival Theatres summer season cancelled due to the virus, bookings at Five Blocks North were way down. The big one was the theatre, Barnes said. When the theatre decided to cancel its season, which truly didnt surprise us by the time it happened, that cancelled all our bookings through them. Then they had a wedding move to 2021, and guests from Germany postponed their vacation. By the time the local health unit gave businesses like theirs the go-ahead to open, it was June 5, over a month into a season that runs from May to early October. Finally we said, you know what, were probably going to have so little business this year that it doesnt make sense to open and go through all the expenses, Barnes said. Instead of buying extra insurance and rejigging the layout of their 1830s-era home to allow guests to physically distance, Barnes and Meyer will spend the summer with family out west and look to reopen in 2021. Five Blocks North isnt the only bed and breakfast in Haldimand-Norfolk that decided to give 2020 a pass. Barnes has heard from several fellow proprietors who arent opening this year, while others have seen interest plummet even as theyve reduced capacity. And while Ontarians looking closer to home for staycations might prompt a late-summer surge in bookings, so far Meyer hasnt been encouraged by the sight of empty parking lots at local hotels. Obviously, theyre really hurting, but there might be a silver lining, he said. Mike and Lisa Barber are banking on that silver lining. As of late June, their cottage called The Sunshine Box will be back on the market for weekly rental. Up until now, its been uncertainty, Mike Barber said of preparing for their third season in Port Dover. We hemmed and hawed just kind of waited to see whats going on. We couldnt commit either way, because we didnt know. The Barbers ultimately decided to open, secure in the health units recommendation and their own ability to clean and sanitize the space. Their cottage less than two blocks from the beach is usually booked all summer and into September, but this year there are gaps in the schedule. We had some people that committed and then they cancelled because of COVID, Barber said. They called and said, with all the uncertainty, were going to skip this year. While renting out their cottage this summer will involve some extra work, Barber said the satisfaction of welcoming visitors to their hometown is well worth it. Its kind of a social thing, too, he said. You get to talk with people and learn a little bit about them, and you can provide them with insights into things in the community that you like. T he youngest person to take part in the trial of a breakthrough drug in the treatment of coronavirus has described the medication as a "lifesaver". New research shows that Dexamethasone, a cheap and widely available drug, can significantly cut Covid-19 deaths. Ten days after first developing symptoms of the virus, Marium Zummer, 18, was admitted to Bradford Royal Infirmary, where she was given the treatment by Dr Dinesh Saralaya, who ran the trial at the hospital. The teenager was discharged from hospital just one week later. Ms Zummer, from Bradford, told BBC Breakfast: "I did unfortunately contract coronavirus and I was taken to the hospital 10 days after being really poorly, to find out it was coronavirus. "Dr Saralaya came visit me on the first or second day I was there and he told me a bit about this drug. "I didn't really understand what it was about but once he explained and I read this leaflet he gave me - he spoke to my dad as well - I signed and had that medication every day while I was in the hospital. "I can say it was a lifesaver. Dr Saralaya said to me 'in a week you will hopefully be home', and a week later, I did come home." Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures 1 /81 Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures A deserted Westminster Bridge PA A man wearing a face mask or covering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, walks past customers sat outside a restaurant AFP via Getty Images Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Runners pass cardboard cutouts of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William during the London Marathon in London AP An empty escalator at Charing Coss London Underground tube station Jeremy Selwyn Electronic bilboards displays a message warning people to stay home in Sheffield PA A sign is displayed in the window of a student accommodation building following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mancheste Reuters People take part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions, in Londo AP People sing and dance in Leicester Square on the eve on the 10PM curfew Reuters Hearts painted by a team of artists from Upfest are seen in the grass at Queen Square, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bristol Reuters Graffiti reads 'good luck and stay safe', as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, under a bridge in London Reuters A sign is pictured in Soho, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London Reuters Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures, during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London AP A person runs past posters with a message of hope, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Manchester REUTERS Riot police face protesters who took part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions in London AP An image of The Queen eith quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the Coronavirus epidemic are displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus PA Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images Durdle Door in Dorset Reuters Captain Tom Moore via Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Coronavirus outbreak PA An NHS worker reacts at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS Reuters Goats which have taken over the deserted streets of Llandudno @AndrewStuart via PA Tobias Weller PA Novikov restaurant in London with its shutters pulled down while the restaurant is closed London Landscapes: Hyde Park and the Serpentine, central London. Matt Writtle A newspaper vendor in Manchester city centre giving away free toilet rolls with every paper bought as shops run low on supplies due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus PA Theo Clay looks out of his window next to his hand-drawn picture of a rainbow in Liverpool, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue Reuters A young man cuts another man's hair on top of a closed hairdresser in Oxford Reuters General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital, built to fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London via Reuters Jason Baird is seen dressed as Spiderman during his daily exercise to cheer up local children in Stockport, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images A man holds mobile phone displaying a text message alert sent by the government warning that new rules are in force across the UK and people must stay at home PA Medical staff on the Covid-19 ward at the Neath Port Talbot Hospital, in Wales, as the health services continue their response to the coronavirus outbreak. PA Prime Minister Boris Johnson taking part in a virtual Cabinet meeting with his top team of ministers PA A shopper walks past empty shelves in a Lidl store on in Wallington. After spates of "panic buying" cleared supermarket shelves of items like toilet paper and cleaning products, stores across the UK have introduced limits on purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have also created special time slots for the elderly and other shoppers vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour PA Mia, aged 8 and her brother Jack, aged 5 from Essex, continue their school work at home, after being sent home due to the coronavirus PA Children are painting 'Chase the rainbows' artwork and springing up in windows across the country Reuters Social distancing in Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn A general view of a locked gate at Anfield, Liverpool as The Premier League has been suspended PA Homeless people in London AFP via Getty Images A piece of art by the artist, known as the Rebel Bear has appeared on a wall on Bank Street in Glasgow. The new addition to Glasgow's street art is capturing the global Coronavirus crisis. The piece features a woman and a man pulling back to give each other a kiss PA The Queen leaves Buckingham Palace, London, for Windsor Castle to socially distance herself amid the coronavirus pandemic PA A general view on Grey street, Newcastle as coronavirus cases grow around the world Reuters Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (L) and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance look on as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news conference inside 10 Downing Street Reuters The ticket-validation terminals at the tram stop on Edinburgh's Princes Street are cleaned following the coronavirus outbreak. PA Locked school gates at Rockcliffe First School in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear PA A sign at a Sainsbury's supermarket informs customers that limits have been set on a small number of products as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world Reuters Jawad Javed delivers coronavirus protection kits that he and his wife have put together to the vulnerable people of their community of Stenhousemuir, between Glasgow and Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" Getty Images A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads "Diseases are in the City" in Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London inform patrons, as it shuts its doors PA A quiet looking George IV Bridge in Edinburgh PA A quieter than usual British Museum Getty Images A racegoer attends Cheltenham in a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com A commuter wears a face mask at London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn A empty restaurant in the Bull Ring Shopping Centre Getty Images A deserted Trafalgar Square in London PA Passengers determined to avoid the coronavirus before leaving the UK arrive at Gatwick Airport Getty Images Ms Zummer, who lost her grandfather to the virus, added: "This trial has proven to be a lifesaver, so I'm delighted I was chosen." Dr Saralaya approached Ms Zummer when she was admitted to hospital and, after consulting her father, asked her to take part in the trial. "When I knew Marium was on Dexamethasone, I went back to her and said 'I'm confident this will work on you' and quite rightly, she improved within a week," he said. "She was on the highest flow of oxygen that we could give her... luckily the treatment helped her." Dr Saralaya said the hospital has seen a number of children who have contracted the disease, warning that it does not just affect older people or those with underlying health conditions. "At the start of the pandemic we were told that this is a disease which will affect elderly people or people with multiple medical conditions, but that was not the experience that we saw," he said. "Across the country, we have seen a lot of young patients. Marium was the youngest patient we treated on our unit, but there are children much younger who have got this disease as well. "We have seen patients in their 30s and their 40s, who are otherwise very well with no other pre-morbid conditions, who have been affected by severe Covid-19." One minute silence to NHS heroes who lost lives to the Coronavirus 1 /25 One minute silence to NHS heroes who lost lives to the Coronavirus London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff stand outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Shoppers queue in the rain outside Costco in Thurrock during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 Sky News London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff react outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A staff member reacts outside Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Members of the public, NHS staff, and Police offices, some wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) of a face mask as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, pause for a minute's silence to honour UK key workers AFP via Getty Images A police officer observes a minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 outside 10 Downing Street, Reuters London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, Prime minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak stand inside 10 Downing Street, London, to observe a minutes silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA A minute silence in honour of key workers who have lost their lives due to COVID-19 Sky News London Ambulance Staff observe the minute silence today at their HQ in Waterloo Road Jeremy Selwyn Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Staff stand outside the Royal Derby Hospital, during a minutes silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA Staff stand inside Camberwell bus depot in London, during a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA National Shop Stewards Network protesters outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, during a minute's silence which was to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA Staff members applaud outside the Royal Derby Hospital, following a minute's silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stands outside St Andrew's House in Edinburgh to observe a minute's silence in tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak PA One month on since being discharged from hospital, Ms Zummer said she is "still not 100 per cent" and suffers from aches and pains. She also occasionally struggles with her breathing. "Apart from that, I'm a lot better than before," she said. Speaking about the loss of her grandfather, she said: "It's really sad that he is not here, but he was older and he struggled with the ventilator. He's at peace, so that makes me feel a bit more comfortable. "It's not nice that any life is lost." According to the new research, Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third in ventilated patients and by one fifth in other patients receiving oxygen only. However, there was no benefit among those patients who did not require respiratory support. The researchers estimate that the drug could have saved up to 5,000 lives had it been in use from the start of the pandemic. Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the study as "the biggest breakthrough yet" in the treatment of the virus. He told the Downing Street briefing on Tuesday: I am proud of these British scientists, backed by UK Government funding, who have led the first, robust clinical trial anywhere in the world to find a coronavirus treatment proven to reduce the risk of death. Im very grateful to the thousands of patients in this country who volunteered for the trials thank you." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 10:47 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf662b7 1 World diplomacy,geopolitics,health,US-China-tension-COVID-19,ASEAN Free COVID-19 has made a profound and unprecedented impact on how countries interact with one another, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, but Indonesia reserves hope that ASEAN will play a role in maintaining regional stability. As a result of the pandemic, international relations will likely be driven by stronger right-wing politics going forward, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has said, which is likely to weaken the multilateral system and reinforce transactional politics. Retno said geopolitical rivalries between the United States and China had gone beyond the usual ideological and trade tensions and had turned into questions about the origin of the virus and politicization at the World Health Organization. We are seeing that the rivalry between the US and China is [...] actually polarizing and spilling into other spaces, she said in a recent discussion on geopolitics hosted by the Golkar Party. Uncertainty is increasingly inevitable. Currently suffering from the highest number of infections in the world, the US under President Donald Trump has undermined the WHO by accusing it of siding with China. Both sides have also pointed fingers at each other on the source of the virus and pinned one another as being responsible for the damages. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) executive director Philips J. Vermonte has called on Indonesia to continue utilizing ASEAN to maintain dynamic equilibrium in the Indo-Pacific, even though its member states are struggling with their own domestic problems. Indo-Pacific is a term describing the region straddling the Indian and Pacific oceans, replacing the previously preferred Asia-Pacific that some experts argue takes the focus away from the rise of China, highlighting the US-China rivalry. Last year, at the initiative of Indonesia, ASEAN adopted the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific to reinforce its position on maintaining peace, security, stability and prosperity through dialogue and by building trust. Philips said the Indo-Pacific as a strategic concept was used by other countries in the region as a geopolitical vehicle, but ASEAN insisted that it must be used to forge functional cooperation, including on development and Sustainable Development Goals. Because of the pandemic, he said that foreign policy and development should become more entrenched with one another, with a particular emphasis on global health policy, global disaster risk reduction, economic policy and democratization. Other powers in the emerging Indo-Pacific regional order have already put their money where their mouths are. Last month, Australia announced a new development package policy for Indo-Pacific pandemic response and recovery. Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Gary Quinlan said the package would divert programs and funds into specific areas of the COVID-19 response, including in health security, regional stability and economic recovery. We face a more dramatically changing strategic situation and countries were starting to develop new partnerships with each other as a result in order to be able to reinforce each other with more resilience, Quinlan said during the virtual discussion. Retno argued that in ASEANs perspective on the Indo-Pacific, the achievement of SDGs remains a priority, especially for least-developed and low-income countries who faced major setbacks in achieving the goals by 2030. We are hoping that ASEAN remains an engine to maintain stability in the region and to be very honest, it is not an easy task for ASEAN to be able to play that role, Retno said, acknowledging diverging interests among member states and the additional pressure from other players in the region. As a possible avenue of cooperation for a more robust COVID-19 response, Philips suggested that ASEAN could explore initiatives under the ASEAN Plus Three mechanism, particularly because the three partner countries involved China, South Korea and Japan are influential countries with relative success in handling the outbreak. They are also engines of growth in our regions of Southeast Asia and East Asia. Today the Indo-Pacific can be relatively too broad in the sense that [countries] are all busy facing domestic problems, so the ASEAN Plus Three may become our engine to jumpstart the economy and future cooperation related COVID-19, he said. The coronavirus is racing through San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, with the number of confirmed cases tripling from 15 to 46 in the past two weeks as legislators and advocates for prisoners demand action to stem the spread. During COVID, we have continued to fail our incarcerated loved ones, said Adnan Khan, an activist and executive director of Re:Store Justice, a prison reform group. The numbers are growing tremendously. The rise in cases at San Quentin comes after state officials bungled a transfer of prisoners away from the deadly outbreak at the California Institution for Men in Chino (San Bernardino County), introducing the virus to a prison population that previously had no confirmed cases. In late May, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation decided to transfer 121 incarcerated men from the Chino prison to San Quentin. Officials in Sacramento said this was done to prevent the prisoners from falling victim to the Chino outbreak. But many of the men werent tested for the coronavirus for up to a month before the state put them on buses, a Chronicle report revealed. The men finally received tests at San Quentin and several came up positive, touching off the prisons first outbreak after San Quentin prisoners had remained infection-free for months. The cases were initially contained among the transferred men, but the virus now appears to have jumped to the native San Quentin population. At least one infected prisoner at San Quentin is being housed in an area that does not hold the transferred inmates, according to an internal prison memo obtained by The Chronicle. Im just horrified and angry that the series of errors has resulted in the spread of the virus, said Marc Levine, a state assemblyman for Marin County whose district includes San Quentin. He is concerned that sick prisoners will need medical care in community hospitals, potentially overwhelming them. All of this was preventable, Levine said. Dana Simas, a spokeswoman for the state prison system, said in a statement that the situation at San Quentin is being monitored closely. We are following isolation and quarantine protocols for inmates that have tested positive to COVID-19 in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, Simas said. Simas did not respond to questions about the virus spreading into the native population. The state also announced Tuesday that it will try to alleviate strain on the overcrowded prison system and increase social distancing by speeding up the release of an unspecified number of prisoners who are not incarcerated for violent offenses. A previous release that went into effect on March 31 reduced the statewide prison population by about 3,500. The new releases wont begin until July 1, and advocates for incarcerated people questioned whether they would be enough to slow the virus as it burns through the states prisons. Its like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, said Kate Chatfield, senior adviser for legislation and policy with the Justice Collaborative, a national group focused on reforming the criminal justice system. Activists and attorneys for prisoners have said that the only way to save the lives of prisoners and staff is to release tens of thousands of people who pose a low risk of reoffending based on the states own classification system. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state prison officials have resisted such sweeping releases. In the meantime, the number of infections at San Quentin is likely to increase. So far, 835 prisoners out of 3,600 at San Quentin, or 23%, have been tested for the coronavirus. The Corrections Department began mandatory testing of all staff in recent days, and so far 14 San Quentin employees have tested positive. During a virtual news conference Tuesday, three men who are incarcerated at San Quentin talked about conditions there. All three pointed out that the design and age of San Quentin, the oldest prison in the state, makes it particularly vulnerable to the virus. Most cells at San Quentin are permeable, without solid doors, allowing droplets from sick prisoners to spread through the air. For this reason, incarcerated men with COVID-19 are being held in a part of the prison known as the Adjustment Center, which is normally used as a segregation unit to punish and isolate prisoners who violate rules. 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. Kerry Rudd said he lives in San Quentins H Unit, a dormitory where hundreds of men are housed close together. Some of the worst outbreaks at California prisons have taken place in dorm-style units. We all cohabit in the same area, Rudd said. Its obvious that theres no floor plan the prison can create to provide adequate social distancing measures. Another incarcerated man, Adamu Chan, said that the North and West blocks of San Quentin are filled with elderly people and men with preexisting health conditions. I just want to be clear: If COVID begins to spread in those units, there will be death. Echoing that fear was Rahsaan Thomas, who said that if the virus gets through, its going to go crazy, because theres so many people in such a small place. Some of my favorite people that mentor me are the elderly population, Thomas said. I dont want to see them die. Other prisons in the state system are facing similar dangers. As of Wednesday, 3,272 prisoners and 564 staff across the state have contracted the virus, resulting in two employee deaths and 17 prisoner deaths, according to the states web tracker. The state has released little information on the 17 prisoner deaths, withholding the names of the deceased and citing medical privacy rules. But during Tuesdays news conference, Michael Bien an attorney representing tens of thousands of California prisoners in a federal class-action lawsuit and who receives state data on prison deaths provided a statistical snapshot of the victims for the first time. Of the 17 state prisoners who died after contracting the virus, at least 12 were people housed in dorms, Bien said. Fifteen suffered from mental health problems or disabilities, and all 17 were medically vulnerable, either due to their age or other illnesses. Their ages ranged from 41 to 83 and the average age of the dead was 63, Bien said. Thirteen were people of color. Jason Fagone and Megan Cassidy are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jason.fagone@sfchronicle.com, megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfagone, @meganrcassidy The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Mitchell Kukulka. Wednesday, June 10 6:44 p.m. Officers responded to a car-deer crash in the area of Dublin Avenue and West Wackerly Street. 6:40 p.m. Deputies responded to a Mills Township residence for a domestic assault incident. A 48-year-old woman was arrested for domestic violence against a 26-year-old woman. 6:23 p.m. A deputy spoke with a 28-year-old Midland man in reference to him witnessing a possible domestic assault while working at a Warren Township business. The man reported he witnessed a man punch a woman while they were in their vehicle in the parking lot. The man said the vehicle then drove off. The suspect vehicle was described as a dark colored small suv. Unknown make, model or license plate. 3:24 p.m. Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the area of eastbound U.S.-10 and Bay City Road. 12:57 p.m. Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the 1500 block of Joe Mann Boulevard. 11:27 a.m. A 43-year-old Lee Township man called the sheriff's office regarding a civil matter with his 38-year-old brother. The caller said his mother passed away and he said his brother was allowed to stay at her house through the winter. They are looking to sell the house, and the 38-year-old would not move out. The man was given suggestions such as using the legal eviction process or contacting a civil attorney. The caller did not like this and said he is the one with the decision-making authority on the house, advising he was going to turn off the power and water. The deputy advised this was not suggested, although the 38-year-old brother later called saying the 43-year-old had in fact turned the utilities off, argued with him and called him names. The 38-year-old was told turning the utilities on is his choice, given information on applying for a Personal Protection Order and contacting an attorney due to both parties claiming rights to the house. 9:05 a.m. A deputy assisted a Michigan State Police trooper in investigating a possible domestic assault in Greendale Township. Tuesday, June 9 11:59 p.m. Deputies responded to a car-deer crash in Greendale Township. 5:46 p.m. Officers responded to an intoxicated driver in the area of North Saginaw Road and Jefferson Avenue. 4:47 p.m. Deputies responded to a vehicle crash causing injuries in Jerome Township. 11:59 a.m. A 78-year-old Jasper Township woman reported that she believed an exterior screen on her trailer had been tampered with. A deputy responded to the scene and observed there were taller weeds, grass and landscape type plants outside the window. None of the vegetation appeared to have been walked on or pushed down until the deputy checked on the screen. The screens were visibly older and the corners of the screen appeared to be deteriorated, which possibly caused the side of the frame to come loose. There were no indications that someone had damaged the screen. The woman said she understood this, but was concerned due to hearing noises outside her house sometimes. 12 p.m. Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the 2000 block of North Saginaw Road. 11:59 a.m. A deputy was dispatched to a Jerome Township residence in reference to a civil dispute. An 81-year-old man was denying Consumers Energy access to his property to set a power pole and run an electrical line. The deputy contacted a representative from Consumers Energy in reference the matter. Even after being shown proof that Consumers Energy had easement rights to the property since 1941, the 81-year-old denied them access, so Consumers Energy ceased setting the power pole. The two parties will have their dispute handled in a court of law. 11:15 a.m. Officers responded to a hit-and-run crash in the 3000 block of Washington Street. 8:42 a.m. Deputies responded to a vehicle crash in Lincoln Township. 7:43 a.m. A 61-year-old Lee Township man reported that his business was broken into. The unknown suspect/s caused $100 in damage and stole $100 in property. 2:17 a.m. Deputies responded to a car-deer crash in Warren Township. 17.06.2020 LISTEN The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is asking health facilities to settle debts owed pharmaceutical companies to avoid any disruption in the supply of drugs by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Ghana. This follows a threat by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Ghana to stop supplying drugs to health facilities that have failed to pay them for five years now, resulting in a debt accumulation of about GHS 300 million. The Executive Secretary of the Association, Lucia Addae, had said attempts to get the Association to pay them had been met with excuses about lack of funds from the Health facilities. Usually when we ask, what they tell us is that they have not received their reimbursement from the government and because there is no transparency, you go and do not get the money and there is still an emotional appeal to supply medication. We have been doing credit business and it is not helping us. The NHIA, in a statement, however, clarified that it had disbursed in excess of GHS 92 million a couple of months ago to NHIS service providers. The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) prior to the announcement in Parliament by Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori Atta a couple of months ago had disbursed in excess of GHS 92 Million Cedis following which additional funding of GHS300, 000, 000 was received from the government soon after that speech. Additional funds have since been received from the government which now totals GHS 598,940,611.70 paid to the NHIS service providers as claims payment and includes withholding taxes due to them. The NHIA said it is committed to further reduce any outstanding claims to ensure that the schemes members continue to receive quality healthcare. citinewsroom India-China border face-off: Forever indebted, say Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan as they pay homage to soldiers The film fraternity has paid tributes to 20 Indian Army soldiers killed in a face-off with Chinese troops in Ladakhs Galwan Valley. A host of Bollywood celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Taapsee Pannu took to social media to pay homage to the martyrs. (Read full story here) Sushant Singh Rajput had once said he couldnt make friends: They will pretend to like me but then they dont take my calls The tragic news of Sushant Singh Rajputs untimely death has shaken up the entire nation. Reports suggest that he was lonely and suffering from depression. Two days after the actors demise, an old video has resurfaced online, in which he said that he had just two friends. Very honestly, I just have two friends, he said in the clip. (Read full story here) Akshay Kumar comes to aid of actor Nupur Alankar facing financial crisis, Renuka Shahane thanks superstar with heart of gold Renuka Shahane has thanked actor Akshay Kumar for coming to the aid of her friend, Nupur Alankar, who has been going through a difficult situation financially. Renuka took to Twitter to thank the actor. (Read full story here) Salim Khan on Abhinav Kashyap accusing Salman Khans family of sabotaging his career: Watch his films first then well talk Filmmaker Salim Khan has reacted to director Abhinav Kashyaps accusations against the family of sabotaging his career. Abhinav, who directed the first Dabangg film with Salman Khan in the lead, recently said that the actor, and his brothers Arbaaz and Sohail had bullied him and tried to impact the release of his films. (Read full story here) Sushant Singh Rajputs US-based sister reveals what her son said when she told him Mamu is no more Actor Sushant Singh Rajputs US-based sister, Shweta, in a Facebook post has written about telling her son that his uncle is no more. Sushant died by suicide on Sunday, at the age of 34. He was reportedly suffering from depression. (Read full story here) Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 8,272 in Haryana on Tuesday with 550 new cases being reported. Gurugram has the highest number of cases in the state with 3,682 cases as 205 cases were reported by Tuesday evening, as per the medical bulletin issued by the Haryana health department. Gurugram, which borders Delhi in the NCR, now has more coronavirus positive cases than the whole state of Punjab (3,371). While 46 people have died in Gurugram so far, 1,624 active cases have been reported in last ten days. Among the 8,272 coronavirus cases in Haryana, there are 5656 males, 2,615 females, and one transgender. So far, 3,748 people have recovered and 118 have died in the state. The state saw 18 virus related deaths on Tuesday which is highest for a day. Faridabad had 1579 cases now with 174 new cases and five deaths being reported on Tuesday. Sonipat now has 631 cases with 32 new cases and one death, Jhajjar has 149 cases so far with eight new cases, Palwal has 204 cases with six new cases and Nuh reached 117 cases with one positive case on Tuesday. All these six districts border Delhi. A health official said that the majority of people in Gurugram who are testing positive continue to be either asymptomatic or display mild symptoms. We have been told randomly check reports of private laboratories as well, he said. The number of cases in Gurugram may touch 35,000 by the end of the month and reach 2.5 lakh in August, sources said quoting a projection released last week. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has directed officials to conduct a survey of vacant buildings in the city so that they can be used for isolation of coronavirus positive patients if required. As per the Punjab state health department, there are 3,371 COVID-19 cases in the state. Of these, 2461 have recovered while 72 people have lost their lives. 104 new cases were reported in the state with 31 in Jalandhar, 22 from Ludhiana, nine each from Amritsar and Patiala. Amritsar being the highest with 642. 18 more dead in Haryana Eighteen more people died of coronavirus in Haryana on Tuesday as the state reported another record daily rise in infections, according to a health bulletin. On Monday, the state had reported 514 cases. So far, 118 people have succumbed to the virus in the state while the number of total cases rose to 8,272 with 550 fresh infections on Tuesday. As the number of people claiming unemployment benefits reaches 65,200 and job losses hit once unassailable sectors such as tourism and manufacturing, the economy is giving much cause for concern. Tuesday's labour market statistics revealed the extent of the dole queue in May, when lockdown was in its second full month, but they also showed us just how healthy the jobs market had been. Before the pandemic the unemployment rate was 2.4%. On the plus side, many of us have been encouraged by businesses gradually waking up again after lockdown and are eagerly awaiting the reopening of our favourite pubs and restaurants next month. But optimism must be tempered by a dose of realism. The end of the Government's job retention scheme in October is a ticking time-bomb that is likely to lead to many more thousands - if not tens of thousands - joining the dole queue. Around 212,000 workers here are on the scheme. But there are fears that when it expires, the economy will still not have recovered enough for all of the workers on furlough to get their jobs back. It was the medicine that saved us from a deeper downturn at the start of the lockdown, but the end of the furlough scheme could bring a nasty dose of reality. Titanic Belfast, once voted the world's top tourist attraction, doesn't appear to be banking on a rush of 'staycationers' making up for the loss of foreign visitors this year. It is understood to be seeking to make 75 of its 300 staff redundant. The company has confirmed that it's carrying out a consultation with the workforce. But there are signs of hope. Ideas are being generated and there is a will to pull us out of the serious downturn we are in. DUP minister Diane Dodds will on Wednesday publish a paper on how the economy can be revitalised and the business and economy 'superheroes' on the advisory group who will give direction on how to get out of the downturn. The crack team on the economic advisory group is chaired by Ellvena Graham, the former head of Ulster Bank and a former president of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce. In that latter role she carved out a reputation for straight talking, particularly in the direction of the political parties who, at that point, were abjectly failing to form a government at Stormont. Expand Close Ellvena Graham / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ellvena Graham She memorably called out politicians for "endless Brexit bickering" and urged them to pull themselves out of the "quagmire" of stalemate - a message that eventually got through. Ms Graham is supported by Neil Gibson, the chief economist of business advisory firm EY, a creative thinker who Wednesday's Belfast Telegraph urges us to do our bit for the economy by spending the money that we've saved in lockdown to support local businesses. The all-important agri-food industry is represented by Paul Vernon, the chief executive of Irish company Glanbia Cheese, which has a mozzarella factory just outside Craigavon. Manufacturing is represented by Ulster Carpets managing director Nick Coburn, also a former president of the Northern Ireland Chamber. The troubled manufacturing sector is represented by Michael Ryan, chief operating officer of aerostructures at Bombardier Aviation. He has led Bombardier through many crises, not least the latest panic induced by a global downturn in aviation following lockdown. It has led to 600 job losses at the company, which is also in the middle of a sale to US giant Spirit AeroSystems. The newer parts of the economy, including the tech sector, are represented by Dr Rob Grundy, chairman of Matrix, a government advisory panel, and Steve Orr, chief executive of Catalyst, formerly the Northern Ireland Science Park. Brendan Mooney, chief executive of IT giant Kainos - currently the only Northern Ireland company listed on the main London Stock Exchange - is also on the group, along with Lisa McLaughlin, partner of law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. It's completed by Rose Mary Stalker, chairperson of Invest NI, and Tina McKenzie, chief executive of Grafton Recruitment. Ms McKenzie brings vast experience as a recruitment boss and Northern Ireland chair of the Federation of Small Businesses. As well as confirming the names of the economic advisory group, the Economy Minister has published her medium-term economic recovery plan covering the next 12-18 months. 'Rebuilding a Stronger Economy' is aimed at delivering higher-paying jobs, a skilled workforce and a more regionally balanced economy. Tourism will be a linchpin in the recovery on both sides of the border, though for the foreseeable future, it's inevitably more with a focus on the staycation market than the overseas one Mrs Dodds said: "There has been significant financial support from the Executive to date to help businesses survive the immediate impact of Covid-19. "We must now look to the medium-term and work to build a more competitive, inclusive and greener economy. "Our people are our key asset, so developing the skills base of our young people and workforce will remain central to our economic success going forward. "We also intend to focus on sectors where there is a potential for growth in higher-paying jobs, such as life and health sciences, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and big data." Meanwhile, in the Republic, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party have published their draft programme for government. Tourism will be a linchpin in the recovery on both sides of the border, though for the foreseeable future, it's inevitably more with a focus on the staycation market than the overseas one. The west of Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way concept has long been the envy of tourist markets. Now the nascent government in the Republic wants to link up an all-island coastal tourist trail, linking the Wild Atlantic Way, the Causeway Coastal Route and the area along the eastern and southern coast of Ireland. There are also proposed cross-border greenways, including one between Sligo and Enniskillen. It is likely those ideas will get an eager hearing here because, when it comes to helping tourism, or indeed any sector of the economy, no idea can be taken off the table. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 07:36 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf525a2 1 Health vaccination,vaccine,immunization,children-health,COVID-19,coronavirus,coronavirus-effect,health,drive-thru,health-service,#ForgingtheNewNorm Free This article is part of The Jakarta Posts "Forging the New Norm" series about how people are adjusting to the new realities of COVID-19 in Indonesia. Since Indonesia announced its first COVID-19 case in March, many parents have faced the dilemma of whether to bring their children in for immunizations. According to an assessment conducted by the Health Ministry, with the support of UNICEF, between April 20 to 29, the pandemic has led to a decline in the countrys vaccination coverage. Based on the ministry's online survey, which polled 5,329 out of the 9,993 Puskesmas (healthcare centers) in Indonesia, immunization services had been significantly disrupted by the outbreak, and the government policy of physical distancing was in place in about 84 percent of the reporting facilities. National immunization program data shows that between January and March, there was a 13 percent decline in measles and rubella vaccinations compared to the same period last year, indicating that thousands of children will be at risk of increased morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). Inadequate understanding of the ministrys guidance and a perceived high risk of local transmission of COVID-19 in the reported Puskesmas areas were among the reasons mentioned for the disruption. The report also states that despite their understanding of immunizations, some caregivers are anxious about contracting COVID-19, and their fears have outweighed their willingness to bring their children in for immunization. On May 22, the Indonesian Pediatricians Association (IDAI) called on parents to continue vaccinating their children despite the outbreak. Pediatrician Citra Amelinda reiterated that children under the age of two had to follow their immunization schedules. We need to protect our children from other diseases besides COVID-19, she said during a virtual press conference on June 4. In response to the crisis, parents such as Andreas Yosafat Tarigan and Siksta Alia have sought alternatives, including drive-through and in-home vaccination services. Andreas brought his 9-month-old son to a drive-through immunization in Santo Borromeus Hospital in Bandung, West Java. He told The Jakarta Post that he was satisfied with the service as he didnt need to enter a crowded area. We queued in the car, got out of our car and went directly to the room, he said, adding that he had made a reservation and paid for the service one day before going to the hospital. I prefer drive-through vaccination during the pandemic, he said. Read also: UN agencies: 117 million children may miss measles shots due to COVID-19 Siksta used the ProSehat mobile application to reserve in-home vaccinations for her two children. She said the service gave her peace of mind as she did not need to go to the hospital during the pandemic. Its [quite comfortable] for emergencies. But the immunization was not performed by a pediatrician, and there were no weight and head measurement, which is important for children under the age of two, she added. Brawijaya Clinic in Kemang, South Jakarta, is one of the healthcare facilities offering drive-through vaccinations. The clinics manager, Martina Maharani, told the Post that the service was created because of high demand from patients. We understand that patients are afraid of going out and coming to the clinic because there is a risk of contracting the coronavirus, she said. The drive-through procedure is quite simple. Patients register on WhatsApp prior to their visit. During the appointment, a doctor in protective health gear (APD) performs the immunization inside the car. For child immunizations, the doctor will do a quick review of the patients medical history. For other health issues, the patients can use our teleconsult application, said Martina, adding that the patients could choose between a pediatrician and general practitioner for the service. In addition to ProSehat, ZAP Clinic is offering in-home vaccinations. The clinic, known primarily as a beauty specialist before the pandemic, charges a minimum of Rp 1.5 million (US$106) per visit. To use the service, patients contact the clinics call center and consult with the pediatrician. After making an appointment, a medical worker wearing APD will visit their home. The entire consultation and administration procedure will be conducted before the appointment, said ZAP Clinic CEO Fadly Sahab, adding that the service sought to uphold the principle of quick and limited physical interaction. (kes) 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 A Federal Court judge has said there is no self-evident reason why a government minister could not be fined or jailed if found guilty of contempt of court, in a strongly worded rebuke to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. In a decision on Wednesday, Federal Court Justice Geoffrey Flick ordered Mr Dutton to make a decision by Friday June 26 on an Iranian man's longstanding application for a protection visa. Peter Dutton in Federal Parliament on Tuesday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen It was "regrettable" the Department of Home Affairs had acted "contrary to law" after an earlier ruling, Justice Flick said. In a decision last week, Justice Flick said there had been "unreasonable delay" in considering the man's application for a protection visa, which was first made three-and-a-half years ago. The man was placed in immigration detention in December 2016. New Delhi, June 17 : Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has monetized 22.4 of Jio Platforms and raised Rs 1.04 lakh crore and international investors have reached the conclusion that Reliance Jio is the new king of Indian Telecommunications, according to a research by brokerage firm, Bernstein. "At our last model update in December, we proclaimed Reliance Jio the new King of Indian Telecommunications. Since then, we have seen a multitude of international investors reach the same conclusion," it said. Facebook kicked-off the party, investing Rs 435.7 billion ($5.7 billion) to secure 9.99 per cent stake at a $65.95 billion pre-money enterprise value and this was closely followed by a further Rs 607.5 billion($8 billion) in investment spread across 8 different private equity investors. All together, Reliance has monetized 22.4 per cent of Jio Platforms and raised Rs 1.04 trillion ($ 13.7 billion) in the process. "While we expect strategic cooperation between Facebook and other parts of the Reliance Group, we believe most of the other investments are passive. Reliance gets access to much needed capital to assist in paying down debt, and these investors get early access to the leading Telco platform in India," the report said. "We expect an IPO of Jio sometime over the next few years as its market share approaches 50 per cent. By then ARPUs will have improved and we expect service revenue will double over the next three years. Based on our updated model, we see potential upside of 30 per cent by FY25 at fair value. Returns will likely be higher as retail investors clamor to get a slice of what will be the undisputed scale player in Indian Telecoms," the report said. "With all the positive news regarding investments in Jio Platforms you might expect we would become more optimistic regarding the value of the company. Instead we have become slightly more pessimistic about the near-term and have taken down our numbers," Jefferies said. The key reasons are two-fold: Covid-19 and the resulting shutdown has likely reduced the rate of gross additions to the platform. "While we expect this to recover as India reemerges from lockdown, we take down our numbers for the year and this has a flow on effect," it said. The price increases in December have a more muted effect on Jio's ARPU than Bharti's and were lower than expected. "We think lower value JioPhone users having already increased their Telco spend (to increase their data allowance) may have found further increases harder to absorb. More of the Jio base appears to have down traded than for Bharti. Post these changes we forecast Jio to reach 48 per cent subscriber market share and 44 per cent revenue market share by 2025," it added. The big unknown remains the on-going viability of Vodafone Idea. This is linked to the resolution of the AGR issue, which remains before the courts. "Our default assumption is that a resolution will be found that allows Vodafone Idea to continue to be viable. This requires a long payment plan as well as a recapitalization of the company. Without this we expect the company to be pushed into administration," it added. Both Jio and Bharti would gain subscriber share from this action but might face greater regulatory scrutiny as a result -- particularly with regard to pricing. - Increasing demand from packaging, automotive, construction sector as well as supportive government regulations is driving the demand for the market - Market Size - USD 4.16 Billion in 2019, Market Growth - CAGR of 15.9%, Market Trends -High demand in packaging, automotive sectors NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Nanocomposites Market is projected to reach market revenue of USD 13.64 billion in 2027. The increasing demand for such materials from the modern packaging industry, automotive industry, and government regulations favoring the usage of such products is expected to drive the market during the forecast period. Nanocomposites are solid materials that have multiple phases of nanoscale dimensions and are mainly of three types - ceramic, metal, or polymer matrix. They possess properties like flexibility, transparency, high thermal, and electrical conductivity. There is a huge demand for nanocomposites in the food packaging industry mainly because they provide resistance from gases, water, and other hydrocarbons. They are also easily recyclable, making it an appropriate material for usage in the packaging industry. They also provide high tensile strength and thus finds widespread usage in the manufacturing of automobile components. Rapid industrialization around the world has led to an increase in construction activities. The construction sector being one of the main consumers of nanocomposites, is largely contributing to the market's growth. Apart from these, they also find applicability in the electronics and semiconductor industry due to their high thermal and electrical conductivity. Government regulations supporting the usage of nanocomposites in food packaging are a major driver for the market, especially in Europe. Request free sample of this research report at: https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/3221 The production cost of nanocomposites is quite high, and there is a need for an optimized production process. But there is a lack of technological advancements, which is crucial for the optimization of these processes. These factors are hindering the market's growth to a certain extent. Large manufacturers around the world are focusing on developing cost-effective solutions and are aiming to supply products at a lower price. The COVID-19 impact: The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to disrupt the industry's growth to a certain extent. Major industry players are skeptical about the future of the market and are trying to redesign their strategies for sustaining in this challenging situation. They are trying to assist governments around the world by providing solutions for making PPE. The pandemic had affected the construction as well as the automobile industry badly and most of the large manufacturers have been forced to stop production as well as other operations. Thus the demand from those sectors has completely dipped. There is a shortage of manpower due to repeated lockdowns in several parts of the world. COVID-19 has affected the international trade, exports, and imports, and consequently, the demand in the industry has also largely reduced. The major companies operating in the market are trying to clear their stocks, and they are focusing on maintaining their cash balances. They are concentrating on the health and welfare of their workforce and are trying to provide them all sorts of assistance. The average disposable income of people is likely to decrease, and manufacturers are trying to come up with innovative solutions that can cater to the needs of customers at a much lesser cost. To identify the key trends in the industry, click on the link below: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/nanocomposites-market Further key findings from the report suggest Nanoclay product holds a considerable market share because of its demand from the packaging and automotive sector. The polymer matrix structure is used in multi-walled carbon nanotubes, which is witnessing high demand from end-user industries and thus augmenting the segment's growth. The automobile sector is one of the major consumers of nanocomposites primarily due to the usage of nanocomposites in manufacturing of various automobile components. European nanocomposites market is growing at a steady pace due to the presence of a large number of automobile manufacturers in this region. There have been a number of new product launches in the market, amongst which Zyvex Nanotube Technology by Zyvex Technologies, RESOMET Composite Polymers by Evonik Industries AG require special mention. In March 2017 , Evonik Industries AG, along with Forward Engineering established a joint venture named VESTARO GmbH in order to develop composite solutions for the production of fiber composite components for automobile industry. , Evonik Industries AG, along with Forward Engineering established a joint venture named VESTARO GmbH in order to develop composite solutions for the production of fiber composite components for automobile industry. Key players in the market include Nanocor Inc., Zyvex Technologies, Du Pont De Nemours, Arkema Inc., Powdermet Inc., Nanophase Technologies Corporation, Unidym Inc., Nanocyl S.A., Inframat Corporation and Evonik Industries AG. There have been a number of M&A in the industry like Evonik Industries AG acquiring the additive business of Air Products in 2017 and Arkema Inc acquiring Arrmaz in 2019. Order Now: https://www.reportsanddata.com/checkout-form/3221 For the purpose of this report, Reports and Data have segmented into the global Nanocomposites Market on the basis of Product, Type, Application and region: Product Outlook (Revenue: USD Billion; Volume: Million Tons; 2017-2027) Carbon Nanotubes Nanoclay Metal Oxide Nanofiber Graphene Others Type Outlook (Revenue: USD Billion; Volume: Million Tons; 2017-2027) Ceramic-matrix Metal-matrix Polymer-matrix Magnetic Application Outlook (Revenue: USD Billion; Volume: Million Tons; 2017-2027) Packaging Automotive Aviation Electronics & Electrical Military Construction Biomedical Others Regional Outlook (Revenue: USD Billion; Volume: Million Tons; 2017-2027) North America U.S Europe U.K Germany Asia Pacific China India Japan MEA Latin America Brazil Browse more similar reports on Nanomaterials category by Reports And Data Ceramic Matrix Composites Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/ceramic-matrix-composites-market https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/ceramic-matrix-composites-market Composite Materials Aluminum Alloys Aerospace Materials Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/composite-materials-aluminum-alloys-aerospace-materials-market https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/composite-materials-aluminum-alloys-aerospace-materials-market Composites Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/composites-market About Reports and Data Reports and Data is a market research and consulting company that provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. Our solutions purely focus on your purpose to locate, target and analyze consumer behavior shifts across demographics, across industries and help client's make a smarter business decision. We offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a multiple industries including Healthcare, Technology, Chemicals, Power and Energy. We consistently update our research offerings to ensure our clients are aware about the latest trends existent in the market. Reports and Data has a strong base of experienced analysts from varied areas of expertise. Contact Us: John W Head of Business Development Reports And Data | Web: www.reportsanddata.com Direct Line: +1-212-710-1370 E-mail: sales@reportsanddata.com LinkedIn | Twitter | Blogs Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1009077/Reports_And_Data_Logo.jpg Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Wednesday that he has offered to resign to take responsibility for failing to stably manage inter-Korean relations. Kim said that he expressed his intent to resign to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae earlier in the day. "I feel sorry for failing to live up to the demands and expectations of our people for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula," Kim told reporters during a hastily arranged briefing. Inter-Korean relations have recently fallen to one of the lowest points in years, as North Korea has taken a series of retaliatory steps against South Korea and threatened even military action in anger over activists' sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets. On Tuesday, the North blew up a liaison office in its border town of Kaesong launched as a result of a summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in April 2018 to facilitate cross-border exchange and cooperation. Earlier in the day, the North heightened tensions further, saying it has rejected South Korea's offer to send special envoys and will redeploy troops to two inter-Korean business zones near the border. Kim, who previously headed a state-run think tank on North Korea, was appointed as unification minister in April last year. (Yonhap) The Centre had informed the top court that the home secretary had convened a joint meeting on June 9 with chief secretaries of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to deal with the issue of restriction on movement in the NCR. The Supreme Court Wednesday told district administration of Gautam Budh Nagar in the NCR not to be in denial mode as it took a serious view of an incident where a pregnant woman lost her life recently while looking for a bed in hospitals of the district. The top court also asked the district administration to ensure that it does not have separate quarantine guidelines than the national guidelines. A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and M R Shah asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a detailed affidavit in two weeks. "Don't be in a denial mode that there is no problem," the bench said, while referring to news report of pregnant lady losing her life recently for want of hospital bed in the district. The top court asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to intervene and look into the issue. On June 12, the top court had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to explain the guidelines issued by the Noida administration on institutional quarantine amid the COVID-19 pandemic, observing they are not in "conformity" with the national guidelines. "There cannot be a guideline contrary to the national guidelines," the court had said, adding, that any directive contrary to the national or state guidelines might lead to chaos. The apex court, while hearing through video-conferencing a plea which has raised the issue of restriction on movement for permissible activities in the national capital region (NCR), asked the state government to give it "complete information" on whether asymptomatic persons were put under institutional or home quarantine in Noida. "It is also brought to our notice that certain guidelines issued by District Magistrate, Noida are not in conformity with the National guidelines and the guidelines issued by the state of Uttar Pradesh," the bench had noted in its order. While asking the Centre to ensure that states do not violate national guidelines, the bench had observed that authorities are bound to follow the guidelines. The Centre had informed the top court that the home secretary had convened a joint meeting on June 9 with chief secretaries of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to deal with the issue of restriction on movement in the NCR. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, had said that now there is no barrier on the borders of Delhi and Haryana but Uttar Pradesh has raised some issues. The bench noted in its order that Mehta has "submitted that although there are no baseless issues with regard to state of Haryana and Delhi, however, with regard to state of Uttar Pradesh there are some different instructions have been issued by the District Magistrate, Noida and there are some issues with regard to border of the state of Uttar Pradesh". Uttar Pradesh government had told the top court that they have already filed an status report and are permitting all essential services and medical staffs, lawyers and media persons are allowed. It had told the apex court that state is bound to follow the national guidelines and appropriate remedial steps, if any, shall be taken by the District Magistrate. On 4 June, the apex court had asked the Centre to convene a meeting of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for easing inter-state movement at all borders in the NCR amid certain restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It had also observed that there should be a consistent policy in this regard for the NCR. The plea, filed through advocate Anindita Mitra, has alleged that "complete sealing of borders" within the NCR and restrictions imposed on movement of citizens was in violation of the new guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The petition has sought to declare as unconstitutional the measures by the district administrations of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh which allegedly restrict movement for permissible activities in areas falling within the NCR due to "blanket orders of sealing borders without reasonable exceptions". It has referred to the April 29 order of district administrations in Haryana, which is applicable to Gurugram and Sonepat, and May 3 public statement by the district administrations of Uttar Pradesh about Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad. Father of Sepoy Kundan Kumar, one of the 20 bravehearts of the Indian Army who lost their lives in Mondays violent face-off with China in Ladakh, said that he is proud of his sons sacrifice. He said that if given a chance, he will send off his two grandsons to join the army as well so that they could serve the nation. My son sacrificed his life for the nation. I have two grandsons, I will send them too, he said. Also read: Sacrifice of our jawans will not go in vain - PM Modi #WATCH Bihar: Father of Sepoy Kundan Kumar, who lost his life in #GalwanValley of Ladakh on June 15-16, says, "My son sacrificed his life for the nation. I have two grandsons, I will send them too." pic.twitter.com/WHkkJw0HEX ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 The killing of 20 Indian Army men in the face-off with Chinas military earlier this week has angered New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the sacrifice of the soldiers will not go in vain. I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important. India wants peace but it is capable of giving a befitting reply if instigated, the prime minister said. PM Modi will also hold an all-party meeting on Friday to discuss the situation on the countrys border with China. Earlier in the day, defence minister Rajnath Singh condoled the loss of the bravehearts in the Galwan Valley and described the incident as deeply disturbing. The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army, he said. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias bravehearts, the minister tweeted. Tensions between India and China flared up in early May following clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Sikkim and Ladakh sectors of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The two sides led a series of high-level delegation talks this month in a bid to settle the stand-off. The deployment of reinforcements by both sides led up to the face-off in Galwan Valley on Monday night that left 20 Indian soldiers, including a colonel, dead. The Conversation In the middle of the night, invisible to anyone but special telescopes in two Chinese observatories, satellite Micius sends particles of light to Earth to establish the worlds most secure communication link. Named after the ancient Chinese philosopher also known as Mozi, Micius is the worlds first quantum communications satellite and has, for several years, been at the forefront of quantum encryption. Scientists have now reported using this technology to reach a major milestone: long-range secure communication you could trust even without trusting the satellite it runs through. Launched in 2016, Micius has already produced a number of breakthroughs under its operating team led by Pan Jian-Wei, Chinas Father of Quantum. The satellite serves as the source of pairs of entangled photons, twinned light particles whose properties remain intertwined no matter how far apart they are. If you manipulate one of the photons, the other will be similarly affected at the very same moment. It is this property that lies in the heart of the most secure forms of quantum cryptography, the entanglement-based quantum key distribution. If you use one of the entangled particles to create a key for encoding messages, only the person with the other particle can decode them. Micius has previously produced entangled photons and delivered them to two ground stations (observatories) 1,200km apart via special telescopes. Scientists showed the photons reach Earth as entangled as they were in orbit. Then, in 2017, the Micius team used entangled photos to encrypt transmissions enabling a virtual meeting between the Austrian and Chinese science academies in Vienna and Beijing respectively 7,400km apart. This involved designing the machinery for distributing the keys and a mechanism for preventing malicious attacks, such as blinding the telescopes with other light signals. None of the communication went through Micius. It only produced and distributed the encryption keys. But both ground stations had to talk to and trust Micius as part of their communication systems and use it as a relay before establishing a link with each other. A new paper from Pan Jia-Weis lab published in Nature shows that Micius has again successfully brought entanglement-based quantum cryptography to its original ground stations 1,200 km apart. But this time the satellite sent simultaneous streams of entangled photons to the ground stations to establish a direct link between the two of them. This gave them robust, unbreakable cryptographic protection without the need to trust the satellite. Until now, this had never been done via satellite or at such great distances. Again, none of the communication went through Micius. The satellite provided entangled photons as a convenient resource for the quantum cryptography and the two ground stations then used them according to their agreed protocol. The new paper doesnt specify how the messages were transmitted in this instance, but in theory, it could be done by optical fibre, another communications satellite, radio, or any other method they agree upon. Quantum race Secure long-distance links such as this one will be the foundation of the quantum internet, the future global network with added security powered by laws of quantum mechanics, unmatched by classical cryptographic methods. The launch of Micius and the records set by the scientists and engineers building quantum communication systems with its help have been compared to the effect Sputnik had on the space race in the 20th century. In a similar way, the quantum race has political and military implications that are hard to ignore. Pan Jian-Wei credited Edward Snowdens 2013 disclosures of internet surveillance by western governments with prompting China to boost quantum cryptography research in order to create more secure means of communication. As a result, Micius has been dubbed Sputnik for the ultra-paranoid. Any country could theoretically trust Micius to provide entangled photons to secure its communications. But the satellite is a strategic resource that other countries are likely to want to replicate, just as Europe, Russia and China now have their own versions of the US-controlled GPS. However, the news of a successful long-distance quantum communications link is a sign that we are already living in a new era of communication security. Harun Siljak, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Complex Systems Science for Telecommunications, Trinity College Dublin This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Devotees and sadhus will not be allowed to enter the Kamakhya Temple in Assam during the forthcoming Ambubachi Mela from June 22 due to COVID-19 pandemic, the temple committee said on Wednesday. The four-day Ambubachi Mela will be held at the temple from June 22 with only the priests performing the rituals. Devotees, sadhus and sanyasins will not be allowed to enter the temple premises or its nearby areas and all the entrances to the temple, atop the Neelachal hills here, will be closed, spokesperson of the Maa Kamakhya Devalaya MC Sarma said here. "The Ambubachi Mela is an important religious congregation of the region and also occupies a significant place in the tourism sector of the state but we have been compelled to take this painful and drastic step due to the prevailing pandemic," the spokesperson said. He appealed to the Assam government, Kamrup (Metro) district administration and people to extend their full cooperation to implement the decision taken by the Devalaya Management Committee in greater public interest. Every year, the temple remains closed for four days in the belief that the annual menstrual cycle of Goddess Kamakhya falls during the period. The temple reopens on the fifth day when devotees throng the place of worship to seek the blessings of the Goddess. The occasion witnesses around 25 lakh footfalls from all over the country and abroad. Sarma said, during the Mela social or religious organisations will not be allowed to set up camps, stalls, put up banners or distribute food as per the decision taken by the Devalaya Management Committee. The spokesperson said, it has come to their notice that "some fraudsters pretending to be priests from Kamakhya are operating fake websites, Facebook pages, online shopping companies and collecting money from innocent devotees for online puja, prasad and the raktabastra (the holy red cloth)." The committee asked people to verify its authenticity as only priests living in the temple premises have access to such puja items, he said. The Kamakhya temple was closed for devotees since March 20 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent nationwide lockdown. Even after the government issued a notification allowing religious places to open from June 8, the authorities of the Kamakhya Temple decided to keep it closed till June 30 due to the coronavirus crisis. The decision to reopen the temple will be taken after due consideration of the situation and people will be informed accordingly, Sarma added. InCred Management and Technology Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of InCred Financial Services, has acquired Bengaluru-based digital lending platform Qbera. The company did not disclose the amount at which the deal was struck. Moneycontrol was the first to write, on February 3 this year, about InCred's plan to acquire a majority stake in Qbera. The Qbera acquisition importantly marks the launch of InCreds platform business -- a first of its kind for an NBFC (non-banking financial company) of our size in India, InCred CEO Bhupinder Singh said. Qbera was built as a platform for sourcing personal loans for middle- income individuals not served by large banks or NBFCs. The loans were offered in partnership with IndusInd Bank, RBL Bank and Fullerton. InCred, which is a large lending player, will look to strengthen its digital distribution business through the acquisition. InCreds legacy personal- loans business will also help strengthen its play, the company said in a press note. We have built best-in-class risk management, technology and analytics capabilities across different asset classes like education, MSME and consumer loans, we look to leverage them in strong partnerships with leading financial institutions in India and abroad, Singh said. Qbera chief executive Aditya Kumar has joined InCred to head its platform business as well as InCreds personal-loans business. Initially, sources had pegged the deal at $10 to 15 million but they now say the final agreement was struck at a much lower valuation. The company, however, did not share those details. SALT LAKE CITY, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- TazWorks , the leading technology platform for independent background screening professionals, today announced its latest integration with BambooHR, a technology leader in HR software for small and medium businesses. Users of BambooHR can now access a vast network of independent background screening agencies through the TazWorks integration. TazWorks' integration with BambooHR is part of an overall strategy to make integrations more powerful, easier to develop, and flexible using the latest version of TazWorks' open API. "We've been looking forward to launching this integration for a long time because we use BambooHR and love it, so we know what they can do for employers, and we are excited to make this integration available to TazWorks CRAs and their clients," said Jordan Blasdell, TazWorks Director of Strategic Alliances. "The BambooHR integration will simplify the hiring process for our end-users and allow recruiters, employers, and hiring managers to initiate pre-employment background checks and drug screening on candidates as well as view the background screening report without ever leaving the BambooHR Software." BambooHR's Senior Director of Business Development and Strategic Initiatives, Todd Grierson said of the integration, "Background screening is something almost every organization needs to do as part of their hiring process. We are excited to have TazWorks in the BambooHR Marketplace. So many of our mutual users can now quickly initiate background screenings without ever having to leave their BambooHR hiring flow." For more information about TazWorks Integrations, visit our website at tazworks.com/integrations. ABOUT TAZWORKS TazWorks is a technology company that offers a turnkey background screening platform to organizations that provide background screening as a service. TazWorks is the creator of TazCloud an end-to-end technology solution for the background screening industry. TazCloud supports the largest number of independent screening agencies in the nation and includes a robust suite of screening applications and advanced business intelligence tools that help screening professionals operate more efficiently. TazCloud also delivers the most comprehensive network of integrations ranging from quality data providers to Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), Property Management Systems (PMS), and drug screening providers. TazWorks was founded in 2002 and is based in the Greater Salt Lake City area of Utah. Learn more about TazWorks at www.tazworks.com Media Contact: Ashley Casaus 801-572-7401 [email protected] SOURCE TazWorks Related Links http://www.tazworks.com Urban exploration. Seemed like a clever way to describe a recent outing and, I thought, original. Turns out urbex is already a thing. A big thing, actually. TV shows, documentaries, newspaper features, tours and clubs have focused on the hobby the unsanctioned exploring of abandoned schools, hospitals, factories, tunnels and other manmade structures. Thats not what I did, not at all. I just rambled. Downtown. Early, before people arrived for work and business and shopping. To see what I could see. Since the pandemic started, Ive hunkered down, cooking and eating mostly at home with the occasional takeout. But someday that will change, and I wondered just what Id missed over winter and lockdown months. With a downtown walkabout you can: Check out new or newish restaurants to include on a must try someday list or are candidates for interesting takeout. Check out how established eateries have added or expanded outdoor seating to enjoy this summer and to accommodate diners who dont yet feel comfortable indoors. Read the historical markers that dot downtown, so you can say, Wow. I didnt know that about Missoula. Check out the construction that has continued throughout the pandemic, such as the new library and new $21 million AC Hotel by Marriott at Pattee and Main streets. See the rain-greened hills of Missoula before they turn their summer hue. See the gorgeous summer flower baskets and planters that downtown streets and businesses display. Grab a coffee, breakfast, lunch, cocktail or beer, dinner or sweet treat as you start or end your stroll. Turns out, I missed or forgot a lot over the lockdown months. I parked near (and peered inside) Pangea, the new global fusion restaurant at 223 N. Higgins Ave., site of the former Liquid Planet coffee shop, and started a 2-mile meander that took me: Through the alley behind Pangea, where a speakeasy-style restaurant and bar, Stave & Hoop, opened just last month. By Cranky Sam Public House, at 233 W. Main St. (next to Biga Pizza), which opened just this spring. Along West Front Street, behind Biga Pizza, to see where Biga is building an expansion to handle its surging take-out orders. Along East Front Street, where a new pizzeria, Front Street Pizza, just opened, and a new chocolatier seems ready to do so soon. Around the new library and hotel construction sites. Around the outside of the Missoula Museum of Art to see, up close, the amazing outdoor Reborn Rez Wrecks sculptures by the late Blackfeet artist Jay Laber, which will be on display through October. Past eateries that arent new but that I havent tried in ages, or at all, that represent an impressive tour of world cuisine and influences: Thai, Indian, Mexican, Asian, Modern Montanan, Montana Fusion, Brazilian, Argentinian, basic Montana bar food. The whole route took just 80 minutes but, of course, can be as short or long as you like, depending on how long you pause for window shopping, marker reading or architecture admiring. Downtown is a different experience from other nearby trails Rattlesnake, Pattee Canyon, Grant Creek, South Hills, Clark Fork River yet fascinating in its own way, an exploration of where Missoula, the city, got its start. Granted, not everyone likes downtown, but an early-morning ramble might be the perfect way to enjoy it. Parking is abundant and free (until 9 a.m. on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday). Of course, downtown isnt the only area of town where new eateries have opened up in recent months. If you spot a new place, walk by, check it out, put it on your try soon list. Not ready to dine in? Order takeout. It is one way to support the entrepreneurs who dreamed of opening their own cafe or pub or bistro but didnt anticipate something called a pandemic. Mea Andrews is a retired Missoulian reporter and editor who now writes a twice-monthly column for the Missoulians food section. Reach her at meaandrews406@gmail.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A recently appointed provincial court judge is under scrutiny and not sitting in court and no one is saying whats going on. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A recently appointed provincial court judge is under scrutiny and not sitting in court and no one is saying whats going on. The provinces Judicial Inquiry Board is investigating Judge Christina Cheater, one of the two most junior judges on the bench, having just been appointed by Justice Minister Cliff Cullen on Feb. 19, to fill a vacancy in Dauphin. She was selected at the time from a list of candidates recommended by an independent judicial nominating committee chaired by Chief Provincial Court Judge Margaret Wiebe. But while the three-member board, made up of a lawyer, a Court of Queens Bench Justice, and a person who is not a lawyer or a judge, investigate the matter, the board will not say what the investigation concerning Cheater is all about. And while, under the Provincial Court Act, Wiebe as chief judge would have reviewed the complaint of misconduct, to see if there was a basis to send it to the board, all she could say on Tuesday through court spokeswoman Aimee Fortier was that now that the board had acknowledged a complaint publicly she could "now acknowledge there is a complaint regarding Judge Cheater being investigated by the Judicial Inquiry Board. "The chief judge can also confirm that Judge Cheater is currently unassigned, with pay, and is not sitting," Fortier said. "The court recognizes the importance of the judicial conduct regime and its role in maintaining the publics confidence in the judiciary. The process to be followed is set out in the legislation and the matter will be dealt with by the (Judicial Inquiry) Board." The board has three choices it can make: have the complaint resolved with mutual agreement, ruling no further action is required, or lay a charge of misconduct or incapacity against the judge and send it to the provinces Judicial Council. The six-member Judicial Council, made up of three Western Canadian provincial or territorial judges from outside Manitoba, as well as the president or designate of the Law Society of Manitoba, and two non-lawyers or judges, will usually hold a public hearing and, if they find misconduct, penalties range from a warning to a recommendation to the justice minister that the judge should be removed. Fortier said because Cheater is not sitting in Dauphin court "other provincial court judges are assisting on an as-needed basis." While nobody is saying what the investigation is about, Cheater has had her wages garnished twice in recent years in connection with lawsuits filed in Court of Queens Bench. In one of them filed in 2017, Shanahans Limited Partnership, a British Columbia-based building and supply company, sued Cheater, her father, Bernard Cheater, and their company, A&A Building Contracting, for $61,024.62 plus interest and costs. The case, which is still before the courts, is over allegations the company renovated 323 Portage Ave., but didnt pay for the work and materials. At one point, after the company was granted a default judgment, Cheaters Crown attorney wages were under garnishment for $83,817.15, but both have since been dropped against her with the court action continuing. The company, through their lawyer, declined comment on the matter. Meanwhile, in a small claims matter, Julian Tile sued Cheater in March 2018, for an unpaid bill of $7,133.45, and also received permission to garnish her wages. The garnishment was dropped a few months later after the bill was paid in full. Cheater was appointed a provincial court judge, to sit in Dauphin, on Feb. 19, at the same time as Provincial Court Judge Geoffrey Bayly, who was also chosen to sit in Dauphin. In a statement at the time, Cullen said "it is an honour to appoint two dedicated, knowledgeable lawyers as judges in the provincial court in Dauphin. 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. "Their expertise and commitment to the legal system will be invaluable following their appointment to the bench." A spokeswoman said Cullen would not comment on the matter because it is under investigation. Before her appointment, Cheater had been a federal Crown prosecutor with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada for her entire legal career, and had been prosecuting cases in Dauphin, Swan River, Roblin, Brandon, Virden and other areas of western Manitoba. Cheater, who was called to the bar in 2005, has also been an adviser to the RCMP, Winnipeg Police, Brandon Police, and various federal agencies, and earlier this year she helped to develop the Westman Drug Treatment Court. Cheater declined an interview request. kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca Not surprisingly, terrorist organisations seized on the Covid-19 crisis to ratchet up their hate speech. The pandemic was heaven sent to take revenge against violators of Gods law and inflict on them the worst punishment for their many sins, said Islamic State (IS) Spokesman Abu Hamza Al-Qirshi. The virus was a soldier sent down to strike the tyrants of the world, goes the refrain of militant Islamist organisations keen to turn domestic public opinion against their governments and to sow anarchy and sedition. Unfortunately, the rhetoric has a market among these organisations sympathisers, enabling it to spread across social networking sites. These organisations also hastened to take advantage of governments preoccupation with implementing the necessary measures to curb the spread of the pandemic and the need to divert large portions of their budgets into their health sectors. This helps explain the recent spike in terrorist attacks in various parts of the world and a resurgence of the organisations activities in areas where they had suffered debilitating setbacks. The general panic and alarm stirred by the epidemic have simultaneously served these organisations recruitment drive. They know that fear, which leads people to more tightly embrace faith in times of adversary, can also render minds easier to control. Although the government in Baghdad pronounced Iraq free of IS in 2017, and although this terrorist organisation sustained major defeats in Syria where its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was killed, counterterrorist authorities in both countries have failed to follow through with the operations necessary to fully eliminate terrorist lairs. As a result, IS operatives that managed to escape security forces have gone underground, creating sleeping cells and finding places of refuge in remote and less policeable areas. They were drawn in particular to areas characterised by conflict, high levels of social polarisation, regional and international tugs-of-war, instability and poor states of security, high poverty rates and low standards of living, poor social services and other such conditions. There they could resume their activities as they won over local populaces by offering social services, and they could recruit youth from the armies of unemployed which have swelled as a result of the economic repercussions of the coronavirus crisis. In Iraq where, in addition to having to address the Covid-19 crisis, the government also had to manage a cabinet reshuffle, IS staged a spate of attacks that extended from the Saladin governorate to the Kirkuk and Diyala governorates. The area, which has been dubbed the triangle of death, extends from the border with Iran to the east to the border with Syria to the west. It is a varied terrain, parts of which are mountainous and rugged, and therefore favoured by terrorists as hideouts. The attacks demonstrated, as they were undoubtedly meant to, that the organisation has preserved considerable combat capacity, manoeuvrability and the tactical knowhow to wage lethal lightning strikes. The organisations attacks have also increased in areas under the control of the Syrian regime, most notably those between Al-Sukhna and Deir Al-Zor, indicating that the organisation still has a heavy presence in the region east of Homs up to the Iraq border. Also significant is the diversity of modus operandi. Assassinations, roadside bombs, suicide attacks, defacement of public buildings, attacks against oil and gas installations, armed raids and other such operations testify to the organisations ability to move unchecked across large stretches of land. The area east of the Euphrates, the area noted for the presence of the US-led coalition forces and the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has also experienced an increase in terrorist attacks. There, IS was handed the advantage of the chaos generated by the partial withdrawal of US forces, the spread of Turkish forces, the prison breaks and renewed fighting between local opposition forces and the Syrian army. At least in that area, however, SDF pre-emptive strikes against terrorist lairs, widespread combing operations and US Special Forces operations targeting terrorist commanders have curtailed ISs activities. In addition, Syrian Kurdish political leaders have been soliciting political support to hold trials locally of the thousands of Arab and foreign IS recruits who are still being held in Syrian Kurdish supervised detention centres because foreign governments continue to refuse to assume responsibility for their nationals who left to enlist with the terrorist organisation. Africa has also seen a rise in terrorist activity recently, especially the Sahel region. Al-Qaeda affiliates such as Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and IS affiliates such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) have carried out a series of lethal attacks against local and international forces. The violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. In the course of their response to these attacks, French forces with assistance from US AFRICOM, succeeded in hunting down and killing Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) leader Abdel-Malek Droukdel, aka Abu Musaab Abdel-Wadoud, in northeast Mali. They also killed or apprehended about 500 extremists in the Sahel region, including first tier terrorist commanders. The success of this operation was symbolically important because of Droukdels prominent status and long history as a terrorist leader and because AQIM is one of the deadliest terrorist organisations in the region. But if Droukdels death delivered a stunning blow to AQIM, the organisation still has the ability to rally. It has a council of dignitaries that includes 14 commanders who are responsible for choosing a new leader. Iyad Ag Ghaly, aka Abul-Fadl, a Tuareg militant from Mali and leader of JNIM, is believed to be the most likely candidate to succeed Droukdel. The Chadian army has been able to inflict major losses on the Boko Haram organisation. It killed some 1,000 of the groups fighters and destroyed many of its bases in the Lake Chad area in retaliation for the terrorist attack that killed 98 Chadian soldiers on 23 March. Boko Haram has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in the vicinity of Lake Chad district at the juncture of Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon (the border area also notorious as a transit point for various forms of organised crime). There are numerous counterterrorist forces in the Sahel, most notably the 5,100 strong force detailed to the French led Barkhane Operation. In addition, several European countries have agreed to contribute to the Takuba Task Force, a 500-member special forces group which is to be deployed later this summer. There are also the armies of the G5-Sahel nations and a US drone base in Niger, not to mention AFRICOM which has some 7,000 soldiers deployed across the continent and provides assistance to local and international counterterrorist forces. In addition, a 15,000 strong UN force is stationed in Mali while Britain provides periodic logistic support. Despite these many forces, they have been unable to defeat terrorism in Africa for a number of reasons: - The ability of terrorist groups to exploit certain circumstances created by the Covid-19 measures, most notably the closure of the borders between Mauritania and Mali, the suspension of joint patrols to apprehend terrorists, the French decision to reduce its Barkhane force after many members were infected by Covid-19 and the reduction in the activities of UN forces. - Counterterrorist operations have been restricted to military operations. There has been no complimentary drive to promote social and economic development in order to offset the widespread sense among tribes in the area of oppression and marginalisation, which feeds terrorism. (This is why the last summit of the international coalition to defend the Sahel resolved to fund 600 development projects at the cost of 9 billion Euros. Also, the World Bank has earmarked six to seven billion dollars to help Mali overcome such challenges.) - Poor security coverage in view off complex tribal demographics. As a result, terrorist groups are largely free to range across porous borders in an area larger than the whole of Europe. - Insufficient funding for counterterrorist activities. - The motives and aims of the governments and forces involved in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel may sometimes be at odds with each other, or may sometimes be ambiguous. - The military conflicts in Libya produced a state of anarchy that made that country a refuge and transit point for terrorists as well as organised crime, and helped create a terrorist belt across North and West Africa. Turkeys transfer of thousands of jihadist mercenaries from Syria to Libya threatens to turn Libya into the next terrorist mecca. The latter phenomenon in particular raises some crucial questions. Are the powers whose forces are present in Africa genuinely interested in eliminating terrorism? Or do they really want to keep terrorism alive in order to legitimise their presence in African countries? The writer is an expert on national security affairs. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Fourteen Oxford academics have slammed the university's vice-chancellor after she claimed Nelson Mandela would not have wanted colonialist Cecil Rhodes' statue to be taken down. After thousands of anti-racism protesters gathered outside Oxford University's Oriel College with the message 'Rhodes Must Fall' last week, Prof Louise Richardson said the late anti-apartheid leader would have disagreed with the clamour. However, she has since been criticised by more than a dozen professors at her university who said she should not 'presume to speak for black students or people of colour'. Fourteen Oxford academics have slammed the university's vice-chancellor, Prof Louise Richardson, pictured left, after she claimed Nelson Mandela, pictured right, would not have wanted colonialist Cecil Rhodes' statue to be taken down Thousands of anti-racism protesters gathered outside Oxford University's Oriel College with the message 'Rhodes Must Fall' last week Rhodes' statue, pictured, is one of a number of monuments across the country being targeted by demonstrators, due to his links with Britain's colonial past The group wrote in a letter to The Telegraph that it was 'inappropriate' for her to 'ventriloquize' the former South African president. Rhodes' statue is one of a number of monuments across the country being targeted by demonstrators, due to his links with Britain's colonial past, but tearing it down would be 'a refusal to acknowledge history', Prof Richardson said. The vice-chancellor declined to respond to the letter which was signed by academics from the fields of politics, law, history and English. Mr Mandela joined forces in 2003 with the Rhodes Trust - the charity set up by Cecil Rhodes' widow to fund educational scholarships - to form the Mandela Rhodes Foundation to help build a 'better future' for disadvantaged Africans. Standing in London's Westminster Hall at its launch, Mr Mandela declared it a 'symbolic moment in the closing of the historic circle'. 'In this, I am certain, Cecil John Rhodes and I would have made common cause,' he said at the time. Rhodes, the industrialist and colonial-era political leader for whom the country Rhodesia, present-day Zimbabwe, was named, benefited greatly from the slave trade and has become a controversial and divisive figure in the decades since his death in 1902. Rhodes Must Fall: A timeline of events March 2015: Students at University of Cape Town begin protest to remove statue. April 2015: After a vote by the university's council, the statue is removed May 2015: A vote is held at Rhodes University, South Africa, to change the name of the university. The vote is defeated. January 2016: Vote held by Oxford students in Oxford Union, not affiliate to Oxford University, vote to remove the statue. January 2016: Leaked report reveals the university faces huge funding loss if it removes the statue. June 2020: The Rhodes Must Fall campaign is thrown into the spotlight among growing anti-racism protests by the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of American George Floyd. It gains particular attention following the toppling of a statue to slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol. Advertisement Mr Mandela's move to associate with the charity bearing his name was therefore seen as 'extraordinarily generous', according to Prof Richardson, and was to show an ability to look past the horrors of the colonial era to the future. As the statue row intensified last week, Oxford University's Chancellor, Lord Patten, accused protesters of 'hypocrisy', stating that a scholarship created by Rhodes had benefitted hundreds of scholars, with a fifth coming from Africa. 'For me there is a bit of hypocrisy in Oxford taking money for 100 scholars a year, about a fifth of them from Africa, to come to Oxford, and then saying we want to throw the Rhodes statue in the Thames,' Lord Patten told the BBC. 'For all the problems associated with Cecil Rhodes's history, if it was all right for Mandela, then I have to say it's pretty well all right with me.' Asked if Mr Mandela would have opposed the removal of the Rhodes statue, a spokesman for the Mandela Rhodes Foundation said: 'The partnership with the Rhodes Trust underlined Mr Mandela's message and approach of reconciliation and reparation of taking hands across historic divides that others may deem unbridgeable.' The university also announced this week that students who feel the 'traumatic effect of the brutality' of George Floyd's death made them do worse in exams can apply for mitigating circumstances considerations. Prof Richardson's decision followed pressure from campaigners at the university who claim the horrific video of Floyd's last moments had a lasting impact on black students. Floyd was killed when white police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds despite his desperate pleas that he 'can't breathe'. Content clarifies key steps in Paycheck Protection Program loan payment process Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions has created an informational, multi-part podcast with J.R. Bruno Associates, "COVID-19: 1502 Reporting Under the Paycheck Protection Program," to offer lenders guidance on completing and filing Form 1502. A successful filing of Form 1502 to the Small Business Administration (SBA) triggers payment of loan processing fees to lenders under the U.S. CARES Act's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Episode One, "Ongoing 1502 Filing Requirements and Common Errors to Avoid," has been recorded and provides listeners an overview of PPP lender obligations and outlines common missteps in the Form 1502 reporting process. Episode Two, "PPP Legislative Updates That Impact 1502 Filings and Procedures for Submission," will delve more deeply into the intricacies and nuances of 1502 filings, including servicing, cancellations and delinquencies. Subsequent podcasts are planned. Samir Agarwal, Vice President, Banking Segment Leader, for Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions hosts Lori McCausland, Senior Associate, JR Bruno Associations in an engaging discussion. Agarwal has helped oversee the implementation of Compliance Solutions' Paycheck Protection Program Supported by TSoftPlus, which has helped lenders assist Main Street small businesses access critical PPP funding to support their business and, in the process, helped retain approximately one million U.S. jobs under the CARES Act. With expertise in SBA reporting, Lori McCausland has held department management positions at national and regional financial institutions and, at JRB, manages lending department staff training, loan servicing, and portfolio reviews. Complying with Form 1502 reporting requirements under the Paycheck Protection Program can be complicated. Filing the 1502 Disbursement report is similar but handled differently from the regular SBA 7(a) loan program. It is important that lenders comply with the criteria to ensure they can collect fees in a timely manner. Even seasoned SBA lenders will glean insights on PPP-specific 1502 reporting requirements, and lenders new to SBA loans will gain understanding of the key elements to filing PPP 1502 reports. These podcasts provide more clarification on requirements for a successful filing and address some of the most common questions raised by lenders. Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions is a market leader and trusted provider of risk management and regulatory compliance solutions and services to U.S. banks and credit unions, insurers and securities firms. The business, which sits within Wolters Kluwer's Governance, Risk Compliance (GRC) division, helps these financial institutions efficiently manage compliance obligations tied to loan and deposit origination transactions and workflows, manage risk and other regulatory compliance obligations, and gain the insights needed to focus on better serving their customers and growing their business. Wolters Kluwer's TSoftPlus PPP Forgiveness Module is one of several expert solutions launched by the company's GRC division in response to the COVID-19 crisis, including the Business Entity Search for CARES Act solution, offered by Wolters Kluwer's Lien Solutions business, which conducts bulk/batch corporate identity searches to verify the business status of potential borrowers. COVID-19 Noteworthy Developments Bulletins, meanwhile, aggregates COVID-19 related global regulatory changes, orders, notices and other informational updates for the financial services industry. The division has also launched a COVID-19 resource center to provide businesses and law firms with international, federal and state legislative updates. About Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk Compliance Governance, Risk Compliance (GRC) is a division of Wolters Kluwer, which provides legal and banking professionals with solutions to ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory and legal obligations, manage risk, increase efficiency, and produce better business outcomes. GRC offers a portfolio of technology-enabled expert services and solutions focused on legal entity compliance, legal operations management, banking product compliance, and banking regulatory compliance. Wolters Kluwer (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of 4.6 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005182/en/ Contacts: Paul Lyon Director of Global Corporate Communications, Banking Regulatory Compliance Governance, Risk Compliance Wolters Kluwer Office +44 20 3197 6586 Paul.Lyon@wolterskluwer.com David Feider Corporate Communications Manager, Banking Regulatory Compliance Governance, Risk Compliance Division Wolters Kluwer Tel: +1 612-852-7966 David.Feider@wolterskluwer.com On Twitter: @davidafeider Sangrur: Sepoy Gurbinder Singh, 22, of Tolawal village near Sunam was among the 20 Indian soldiers killed in the clash with Chinese troops in Ladakhs Galwan Valley. Sunam sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Manjit Kaur, said, We have got information from higher authorities that Gurbinder Singh attained martyrdom in Ladakh. His family has been informed. However, the weather in Ladakh was bad today and his body will reach Tolawal for the last rites on Thursday. According to villagers, Gurbinder Singh was recruited in the army two years ago. He was engaged recently and looking forward to the wedding. He is survived by his parents, an elder brother and a sister. Gurbinder had passed Class 12 and was recruited in the army. He was the younger son in the family and had visited the village around 10 months ago. The news of his martyrdom has left us shocked. He belongs to a humble family that owns two-and-a-half acres, said Jaswant Singh, a resident of the village. 3 1 of 3 Rebecca Ruiz/For The Herald Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Rebecca Ruiz/For The Herald Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Carlos Alexander Hernandez says he wants to be an engineer and a candy shop owner when he grows up. Hes only 9 years old but hes halfway there. The young entrepreneur started Hyper Space Candy Shop and has been selling his homemade candy since October. Silvia Marquez, mom of Kid Beast as Hernandez likes to be called, said he sells candy from under a tent at 2615 Wood Ave. most weekends. Hernandez came up with the idea of creating Hyper Space Candy Stop, after a conversation with his mom on his way to school one morning. I told her how I just wanted to help her at her job, Hernandez said. I saw that my mom was so tired of working and I wanted to help and I was like, why can my cousins and their dad work and I can't work with you? Mom, why don't we have our own business? Creating robots and microchips are expensive, Marquez said, so he decided to try selling spicy candy. It's kind of every kids dream to own a candy shop, Alex decided he wanted to be in the candy business, Marquez said. With the help of his parents, Hernandez gets to make candy and the process, according to Hernandez. I make candy sometimes and sometimes I package it, Hernandez said. Sometimes I do the labor with labels, but my mom and dad are the one who make the candies and the labels and all types of stuff. Marquez said her sons candy shop became popular. We have lots of loyal, regular customers from Plainview and we do candy give-away to try to get our name out to more people, Marquez said. They offer different flavored candy such as Sandi Loca, Mango Mamba, Cherry Sour and Gushers. The 8-ounce candy bags are $6, and their mini candy bags for $3. He recently donated some of the money from his earnings to the Crisis Center of the Plains because they help families in need. Hernandez said he was inspired by his favorite YouTuber. Mr. Beast does all these crazy challenges and he donated a bunch of stuff to charities, Hernandez said. He bought a whole store with food and everything. He got all of it, donated to the food bank. I think that's why I wanted to do it. Melinda Morales, a victim advocate at the Crisis Center, mentioned Hernandez donated $50 from his birthday money. Alex brought hygiene products, coloring books and crayons, Morales said. He bought stuff for the women and children to be able to use. Brandy Heads, an educational advocate at the Crisis Center, explained the services the organization offers. We're a nonprofit agency, which serves survivors, witnesses of domestic violence, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. We offer individual advocacy, or we work with them one-on-one such as helping coping skills or self-esteem, Heads said. Morales was impressed by the donation. A 9-year-old boy to want to help the community, I think that is truly inspiring and surprising to come from someone of that age. Morales said. Marquez isnt surprised, though. His kind heart is something she admires about her son. Alex is an amazing, smart kid, he is super shy, has such a kind heart and is very forgiving, she said. For the school year 2019-2020 he was in 3rd grade. Alex has been severely bullied, but no matter what, Alex would still have a smile on his face. He comes home with good grades, helps with chores, plays with his little sister and he's an awesome gamer. Marquez explained that she encourages her son and other kids to help their community. Alex and I want to encourage other children and their families to donate also. It's good for people especially children to grow up and learn about donating, she said. It shows them about selflessness and kindness, while helping others who really need it. Hernandez said his goal was just to spread kindness. "Be kind to people, because if you're kind to one person then that person is kind to someone else and then everyone will be happy," Hernandez said. 404 This page could not be found . WATERLOO A local retired Mennonite pastor has been stripped of his pastor credentials by an internal church body after complainants came forward about allegations of sexual misconduct. The censure of the pastor was outlined in a news release this week by the Kitchener-based Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC), a group that represents about 100 Mennonite congregations in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. No criminal charges have been laid against the man. Waterloo Regional Police was not called to investigate. Mennonite Church Eastern Canada executive minister David Martin said one complainant came to church elders at the end of October and other complaints followed. Martin would not comment on the misconduct against the pastor or when it occurred except to say that sexual misconduct is a range of behaviours which can include sexual touching. He said the complainants are not children under 18. If it was an investigation of a minor, it would be turned over to police, Martin said in an interview Wednesday. We would not deal with anything with a minor. Martin said the investigation is considered disciplinary action against the pastor but victims are free to take their complaints to police if they wish. There is robust proceeding for reviewing the integrity of the complaint, Martin said. The whole process is premised on fairness and impartiality for the accused and the complainants. Martin would not say how long the pastor has been retired. Martin said the complaints are an internal matter that are dealt with under church policy. Investigators within the church organization investigate the allegations, speaking to the victims and the accused. A leadership council made a determination that the evidence against the accused was sufficiently compelling and credible to terminate his ministerial credential, the release said. The pastor appealed the decision but the judgment was upheld. Martin said the church investigation does not follow the conventional methods of the criminal justice system. It is strictly evaluating the credential process of the individual, he said. Martin said the investigation has a narrow focus, only to examine the pastors credentials. The process is not intended to grant anything to the complainant other than the validity of the complaint, he said. Martin said the public perception is that churches are happy to cover this up but the Mennonite Church takes the allegations seriously and does not shy away from them. We have take a strong stance on this, he said. We are not willing to brush this aside. Martin said church policy says the decision must be made public to all congregations. This is an important step in facilitating the process of healing and being accountable to the constituency. It saddens MCEC to make this announcement and as painful as it may be, we as a faith community are called to support paths that lead to healing and wholeness. MCEC will do its best to walk alongside all those who are impacted, the release said. Leonid Gilevich, Counsel at Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm The possibility of multiple citizenship can be a powerful argument for attracting foreign investors to Ukraine. Together with a well-thought-out tax and investment policy, the dual citizenship can not only protect state interests, but also return human and intellectual capital to Ukraine, for which all developed states have fought long battles. The practice of multiple citizenship does exist in Ukraine, yet somewhere in the shadow. Ukrainian law does not directly allow multiple citizenship, but, in fact, does not exclude the possibility thereof, determining that, despite any other citizenships, the Ukrainian passport holder for Ukraine will be a citizen of Ukraine only. The conflict is hidden in the citizenship law. The principle of single citizenship in Ukraine, established by Article 4 of the Constitution of Ukraine, is defined in Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine On Citizenship of Ukraine as excluding the possibility of citizenship of the administrative and territorial units of Ukraine, and stipulating that where a citizen of Ukraine acquired the citizenship of another state or where a foreigner acquired citizenship of Ukraine, in legal relations with Ukraine they should be recognized as citizens of Ukraine only. Pursuant to Article 25(1) of the Constitution of Ukraine, a citizen of Ukraine shall not be deprived of citizenship and of the right to change citizenship. Yet, Article 19 of the Law of Ukraine On Citizenship of Ukraine provides that one of the grounds for the loss of citizenship is a voluntary acquisition by Ukrainian citizen of the citizenship of another state. However, the effective legislation envisages no mechanism to implement such a norm. It must be admitted that the Ukrainian citizenship laws really require amendments and that the existing situation violates one of the general law principles, namely, the principle of legal certainty. In recent years, the team of Ilyashev & Partners has been witnessing a significant interest of foreigners in Ukrainian citizenship. The reasons vary: from an intention to develop a business in Ukraine and permanently live here to marrying a citizen of Ukraine and just wanting to get a passport allowing visa-free travel to many countries. We can display dozens of successful cases of obtaining all types of residence permits and permits for our clients, despite the procedure complexity and all legislative traps and pitfalls. Yet, only the comprehensive and well-weighed legislative changes will help increasing the demand for Ukrainian citizenship while preserving the existing one. Naturally, any changes should be carefully worked out having due regard to the international commitments of Ukraine. Recently, the draft Law On Amending Certain Laws of Ukraine Concerning Citizenship Issues No. 2590 was submitted to the Parliament for consideration. It proposes expanding the list of persons who are entitled to acquire Ukrainian citizenship by territorial origin. The document provides for the possibility for some foreigners not to file an obligation to terminate their foreign citizenship when registering the Ukrainian one. Thus, it is assumed that the Cabinet of Ministers will draw up a list of states (except for aggressor and occupying states), whose citizens will have the right to take an oath of a citizen of Ukraine instead of filing the aforementioned obligation. In general, the draft law requires certain finalization: according to the Main Scientific and Expert Directorate of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, its provisions somewhat ease the requirements for avoiding multiple citizenship, while any legalization of dual (multiple) citizenship... shall be possible only after appropriate clarification of the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, i.e. after introduction of amendments to the Constitution. And this is quite a long story. In the context of globalization and residence of several million of ethnic Ukrainians in other states, there are good reasons to preserve the countrys connection with those who for personal reasons acquire foreign citizenship, in no case shut the door on them, and ensure legal clarity for those holding passports of other countries. A similar approach to their citizens has recently been observed in the EU member states. In turn, the opportunity for foreign nationals to retain their citizenship upon obtaining Ukrainian citizenship may be an additional argument for attracting foreign investors to Ukraine. Citizenship by investment is also a common global trend. 17.06.2020 LISTEN The Savannah Regional wing of the opposition National Democratic Congress has called on the government to partner with elected assembly members and other relevant stakeholders in the region to sensitise and educate residents about the novel Coronavirus. This the NDC believes will help curb the sudden spike of the stubborn virus in rural communities through community spread since the assemblypersons are closer to the people and understand them better. In a press release signed by the Regional Secretary, Mr. Salisu Be-Awurbi, the NDC maintains that the clueless Akuffo-Addo led government has lost the fight against COVID-19. He expressed shock that the Savannah Region has suddenly moved from a single case of Coronavirus to 35 cases within a matter of days, charging the government to complete abandoned health facilities started by the previous administration. Among other suggestions, the party admonished the various MMDCEs across the region to distribute the locked up face masks sent from Accra and judiciously use the COVID-19 money approved by parliament to procure more PPEs for targeted groups in the various districts. Read the full statement below: NANA ADDO MUST WAKE UP FROM HIS DEEP SLUMBER BEFORE THE CORONA VIRUS CONSUMES ALL PEOPLE IN SAVANNAH The announcement of 34 new Corona Virus cases in the Savannah Region, 18 in the East Gonja and 16 in the Central Gonja by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service has sent shock waves and justifiable apprehension to all well-meaning inhabitants of the Region. This brings to 35, the Total Number of Recorded cases in the Region. This recent spike in the Region has come at a time that the Nana Addo's Government is absolutely clueless, has lost the fight against the virus, thrown his hands in despair, and virtually staring at the virus as if to urge it on to do it's worse and to leave the remainder to what the disease may choose to ignore. We are pretty sure that but for the timely donations of PPEs by H.E JDM and his Parliamentary Candidates in the Region, which became and it's still the single biggest life-saving donations to Health facilities within the Region, a lot more people and Health Staff would have contracted the virus. This has brought painful memories of the wicked agenda of Nana Addo Led NPP Government in not only delaying but frustration the completion of ultra Modern State of the Art Health Infrastructure which were generously bequeathed to the current government by the Visionary John Mahama Led Administration but which sadly ought to suffer needless project execution delays and some are sadly even recklessly abandoned. If not, by now the Buipe, Sawla and Salaga Hospitals would have been running and saving lives. If these projects were religiously followed through, in the Nature H. E John Mahama had envisaged before souring funding and starting them, the Region would not have been gripped with this hysteric panic. We, therefore, call on the slumbering Addo's Government, the Regional Minister and his Army of nonperforming District Chief Executives to at least exhibit leadership for once and do the following as a matter of urgency to save lives and property: 1. Liaise with all Elected Honourable Assembly Members, Unit Committees, Chiefs, and Community Leaders together with NCCE, Ghana Health Service, Health Volunteers, Community, and Environmental Health Staffs, and other relevant stakeholders to begin immediately, the long-awaited aggressive Community Sensitization and Education throughout the Region. 2. Distribute the locked up to face masks, the materials of which were sent down from Accra and to additionally procured many others using the monies received from the Covid-19 Resources recently approved by Parliament and distribute them to our market women, traders, youth groups, Palaces and School Children in the Region. 3. Conduct Random Mass Testing across the Region. 4. Properly fumigate, using the appropriate Chemicals, all public places such as markets, schools, mosques, Churches, etc. We insist and demand proper fumigation, not the Charade of fumigation that the Assemblies allegedly undertook some two months ago. 5. The Government must Properly Equip and earmark containment and isolation centres in the major Towns and District Capitals within Savannah. The centres must be meet the requisite standard for a dignified holding of patients. Those currently earmarked in the Savanah Region are not only poorly ventilated and illuminated but they are also poorly maintained, needing massive refurbishment and renovations. To put few beds and mattresses together and name it an isolation or containment centre is an insult to the good people of Savannah. It betrays the huge sums of the taxpayer's monies Parliament approved for government to judiciously use it for the intended purpose of fighting to defeat Corona Virus. properly. We deserve better. 6. We hereby serve Notice to The District Chief Executives and Ministers in the Savannah Region that we are monitoring all the diversions of Public Goods to their private gains and that of the NPP Parliamentary candidates and that sooner 'NOT' later, they shall be called upon to account for their stewardship. They should desist henceforth the Practice of passing off John Mahama and his MPs Projects like that of their own. The project theft is becoming one too many. It is not the fault of NDC that they elected Incompetent Parliamentary Candidates in Savannah Region and no amount of Projects theft and crediting the same to the NPP Parliamentary Candidates will make the Bad Products appear Good. Our People are wiser than the NPP on Savvanah thinks. 7. With this spike in the Corona Virus case count in the Region, we call on the Nana Addo Government to test all students, if it's still insistent on reopening schools before they resume for their studies. We also call on them to be mandatorily housed, be fed, and provided with the necessary items that will make their stay conducive. This should include their Teachers. The students should be cocooned from contacts with the external environment for the entire period of their stay in school while providing adequate PPEs and sanitizer for the Students and their Teachers. 8. We also call the administrator of the COVID- 19 Trust Funds to immediately and aggressively utilized the funds to fight the Virus at this time the Virus is stubbornly taking a stronghold on Rural Communities through the communal spread. HON SALISU BE-AWURIBE (REGIONAL SECRETARY) Stories of racism faced by black students at New York Citys top private schools were once largely limited to whisper networks among alumni. But over the last few weeks, many of the often harrowing testimonies have been made public by graduates of Chapin, Brearley and Spence, among others, all some of the nations most prestigious schools. One Chapin student said that she was falsely accused of stealing money within her first few weeks at the all-girls school in New York City. A recent Brearley graduate said she was ostracized after calling out her white friends for repeating a racial slur in a song. And a woman who graduated from Brearley nearly 50 years ago still remembers being told that Europeans invented history. The reckoning over racism in many aspects of American life has reached the front doors of New Yorks exclusive single-sex private schools, which typically charge over $50,000 a year in tuition and are known for catapulting their graduates into top colleges and impressive careers. Notable alumni include Ivanka Trump, Gwyneth Paltrow and several generations of Kennedys. Stories have also emerged from black alumni of coed local private schools like Dalton and Berkeley Carroll, and for graduates of boarding schools across the Northeast. Airline Norwegian has announced it will resume serving UK airports from July 1 due to increased demand. The carrier will initially operate flights on four UK routes, connecting Gatwick and Edinburgh with Oslo and Copenhagen. Since April, Norwegian has only operated domestic flights within Norway due to the collapse in passenger numbers caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The airlines chief executive, Jacob Schram, said: Feedback from our customers has shown that they are keen to get back in the air and resume their travels with Norwegian beyond the current domestic services that we have been operating. Norwegian is returning to European skies with the reintroduction of more aircraft to serve our key destinations, which will ensure that we remain in line with competing carriers. Mr Schram added that Norwegian will offer great value as competition in the industry begins to recover over the summer period. It has introduced a series of enhanced safety and hygiene measures, including requiring passengers to wear face masks, banning hand luggage from being put in overhead lockers, and not operating a catering service. In May, the airline secured a 221 million loan backed by the Norwegian government as part of a rescue package to ensure its survival amid huge losses. (Gatwick Airport/PA) Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate, who has seen passenger numbers at his airport decimated during the pandemic, described the return of Norwegian flights as very welcome news. He said: Consumer demand is picking up as more people want to start flying again. For our part, the airport is ready to go and we have implemented a range of measures to protect the wellbeing and safety of both passengers and staff in recent weeks. We are starting to see small green shoots of recovery. EasyJet restarted flights for the first time in 11 weeks on Monday. Among airlines which plan to increase services from current skeleton schedules, Ryanair intends to restore 40% of its flights from July 1, and British Airways is due to make a meaningful return to service next month. The Daily Beast Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesWeve been lulled into believing Donald Trump is made of Teflon. He was, after all, the guy who boasted that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a vote.But Trumps luck began to run out in early 2021when he lost the White House, Air Force One, and his Twitter account inside a few weeks. His days of getting away with conduct that would sink anyone else appear to be over. He could even start losing so much that hell get sick of losing.Trump was met wi The British pilot is undergoing physical therapy with the support of medical workers at HCM Citys Cho Ray Hospital. - Photo zingnews.vn The development is a miracle, said doctors from the hospital on Tuesday. Several days ago, the patient, Stephen Cameron, could sit up in a wheelchair and enjoy the fresh air on the balcony of the hospital. He could move his hands and legs, press key on a keyboard, and use a mobile phone. Doctors said he still needed time to regain use of his leg muscles. He has been disconnected from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for 13 days and come off the ventilator for three days, said Associate Professor Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the health ministry's Department of Medical Examination and Treatment and deputy head of treatment unit under the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control. The patient is in a stable condition and is able to talk. Hand and arm muscles have gradually recovered. About four fifths of his leg muscles have recovered. He undergoes physical therapy twice a day. The committees treatment unit said the British pilot needs many weeks to recover. During the recovery period, there might be new phases of infections. According to Dr Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, director of HCM Citys Hospital of Tropical Diseases, the company which sold insurance to the patient agreed to cover expenses for 65 days he was treated at the hospital. The expenses were estimated to reach VND3.5 billion (US$152,000). The 91st patient has been treated at hospitals for 89 days. He was moved from the Hospital of Tropical Diseases to the Intensive Care Unit of Cho Ray Hospital on May 22 with severely damaged lungs. He was the most critical COVID-19 patient in Vietnam and tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 at least six times. As of Tuesday morning, 323 out of 334 COVID-19 patients in Vietnam have recovered. Among 11 active cases being treated at six healthcare facilities nationwide, two tested negative once; three tested negative at least twice. Landing home About 266 Vietnamese citizens in Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt have been repatriated to Vietnam on Monday and Tuesday and quarantined upon arrival. The Bamboo Airways flight bringing them back home safely landed at Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City. The passengers are pregnant women, those under 18 years old, critically-ill people and workers whose labour contracts have expired or who are on unpaid leave due to the pandemic. Under the Prime Ministers directions, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Transport, domestic agencies and Vietnams overseas representative agencies have arranged a number of flights to bring Vietnamese citizens home. On the basis of the pandemics developments in the country and the world, citizens aspirations and local quarantine capacity, more flights are set to be conducted to repatriate Vietnamese citizens. By Andre Damon June 16, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - On Sunday, White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow made clear that the Trump administration will not allow an extension of emergency jobless aid to workers laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic. Were paying people not to work, the former Wall Street executive declared. Almost all businesses, he said, understand that the additional unemployment benefit is, in effect, a disincentive for people to get back to work. Three months ago, Congress passed the CARES Act. While handing vast sums to big business, it included a $600-per-week emergency payment by the federal government to supplement the far lower state unemployment benefits, which are, for example, capped in Michigan at approximately $350 per week. More than 20 percent of the US workforcesome 36.5 million peoplehave been thrown out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For millions of people in newly unemployed households in America, the additional $600 assistance has been a vital lifeline, allowing them to avoid hunger and homelessness. Even with the subsidy, which millions of workers have never received, the number of food-insecure households has more than doubled, hitting between 22 and 38 percent, as food pantries across the country report running out of food. And millions of families are facing foreclosure and eviction. Kudlow complained that the $600, plus state unemployment benefits, was better than their salaries would get if workers had never lost their jobs. But this is not an expression of the generosity of the government, but rather one reflection of how low wages are in the United States for millions of workers. Amid a wave of mass layoffs and corporate consolidations triggered by the pandemic, in which an estimated 42 percent of jobs lost during the pandemic will not return, the White Houses refusal to extend emergency unemployment aid will mean destitution for many working class people. Kudlows aim is open and brutal: to extort workers into returning to factories that have become hotbeds for the transmission of COVID-19, even as the disease is in the midst of a major resurgence throughout large portions of the country. Nationwide, over 24,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 in meatpacking plants alone, and at least 87 workers have died. In Kansas, nearly 3,000 meatpacking workers have been infected, accounting for approximately one-third of all cases in the state. Auto plants are likewise breeding grounds for the virus, except the companies are not publicly reporting how many workers are getting sick. Every major automaker, including GM, Ford, FCA, Toyota and Tesla, has a policy of not announcing cases in their factories. But according to sporadic press reports based on anonymous tips from workers, there have been dozens of cases in the auto plants. One worker at the Navistar truck plant in Springfield, Ohio wrote to the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter on Monday to report that five workers had tested positive for COVID-19, and 20 more were waiting on results. Navistar resumed production at the plant one month ago. The factories have become, in the words of Karl Marx, houses of terror, in which any shift could mean a death sentence. Even in factories without reported cases, conditions are intolerable. Instead of reducing line speeds to allow for social distancing, workers have reported employers simply switching off fans to keep air from circulating. In the middle of summer, surrounded by hot machines, with no fans and having to wear masks, workers are passing out from exhaustion or suffocating on the lines. Large numbers of workers are refusing to come to work under conditions where it could result in death for themselves and their loved ones. Nationwide, some 30 percent to 50 percent of meatpacking employees were absent last week, according to figures from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. At some auto plants, more than 25 percent of workers are absent on any particular day. Worker absences have disrupted the efforts of the corporations to return to maximum capacity. They have sought to make this up by compelling newly hired and temporary workers to work 60 hours or more a week. But among these workers there is growing resistance to efforts to abandon all safety measures to meet production targets. Just one day after Kudlows interview, on Monday, the Federal Reserve announced that this week it would begin its previously announced plan to directly purchase corporate bonds. This sent stock values soaring at the prospect of a further infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer cash onto corporate balance sheets. The message was clear: When it comes to bailing out the billionaire financial oligarchy, no expense will be spared. But when it comes to keeping workers from starving or being evicted, government assistance is an unacceptable disincentive to ramping up production and an obstacle to profit-making. Kudlow, the multimillionaire ex-director at investment bank Bear Stearns, is speaking as the bagman for Wall Street and the major corporations. They know that forcing workers back on the job under conditions where the pandemic continues to rage will lead to mass infections and mass deaths. Internally, the Trump administration is working with models of how many hundreds of thousands more people will die from its policies. That is why the White House is pushing for corporations to be granted immunity from liability for infections at their workplaces. The great secret of capitalism, denied by all of its economists, experts and pundits, is that no matter how many trillions of dollars are handed out to corporations by the government, the profits of the financial oligarchy are made only through the exploitation of the working class. Twelve years of central banks effectively printing unlimited money have massively expanded corporate valuations on the stock market, fueling the enrichment of the financial oligarchy through the expansion of corporate debt. But to service these debts, corporations are required to ensure the uninterrupted extraction of surplus value from their workers. The claim that workers should risk their lives so that the giant corporationswhich spend hundreds of millions each year on executive paycan service their debts is absurd and irrational. All claims of what can and cannot be afforded within the framework of capitalism must be rejected. The refrain that there is no money to pay for safe working environments or provide support to those affected by the economic shutdown is belied by the $4 trillion handed out to Wall Street. Every institution of society, from the corporations, to their partners in the trade unions, to the Trump administration and both big business parties, is arrayed against workers, seeking to get them back into death-trap factories with the aim of enriching the financial elite. As the Socialist Equality Party wrote in its statement, Build rank-and-file factory and workplace committees to prevent transmission of the COVID-19 virus and save lives!: This is why workers require their own organizations. In every factory, workplace, and office, workers should organize and elect trusted and respected workers who will represent them. They should utilize all available tools, including social media, to reach out to workers throughout their industry and in other sectors to coordinate their activities and share information. With COVID-19 cases surging throughout the country, it is all the more critical that workers assert control over their own workplaces. Workers must form rank-and-file safety committees to establish control over line speeds and social distancing. In factories where COVID-19 is spreading, these committees must immediately stop production. Inseparable from the demand for safe workplaces is the fight to ensure that workers made unemployed by the crisis receive a guaranteed living wage, and that they do not suffer any diminution of their incomes as a result of the pandemic. The demands of workers for safe workplaces are in harmony with the calls by scientists and medical professionals for serious measures to contain the disease. The struggle for a rational, scientific response to COVID-19 requires a fight against the capitalist system and the dictatorship of the financial oligarchy over society. - " Source " - Copyright 1998-2020 World Socialist Web Site - Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Post your comment below Economic lockdowns meant to contain the coronavirus pandemic have come with unusual side effects, from aggressive rats to the dawn of pouch cocktails. Add this to the list: Americas banks are running out of coins. Whats happened is that with the partial closure of the economy, the flow of coins through the economy, it has gotten all its kind of stopped, Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, told lawmakers while testifying on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, noting that places where people exchange their quarters and pennies for cash and stores have closed, disrupting the normal flow. Weve been aware of it, were working with the Mint to increase supply, were working with the reserve banks to get the supply to where it needs to be, he said. Mr. Powell was responding to questions from Rep. John Rose, Republican of Tennessee, who said a bank in his district had reported that the Fed had notified them that they would receive only a small portion of their weekly coinage order. His institution will likely run out of coins by Friday, he said, and after some research, he found that many banks were having similar problems. I know we dont want to wake up to headlines in the near future, such as: Banks out of money. The Fed said in a June 15 notice that coin circulation has been disrupted by the pandemic, and the U.S. Mints production of coin also decreased because of measures put in place to protect its employees. Bank coin orders have increased as states reopen, causing the coin inventory which the Mint prints but the Fed manages to dip below normal levels. As we listen to the voices of consumers, especially in the Black community, and to the voices of our Associates worldwide, we recognize that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Bens brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do, said the statement from the company, whose food division is based in Chicago. We dont yet know what the exact changes or timing will be, but we are evaluating all possibilities. On Monday last news broke nationally that apparently 50 councillors from Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Leitrim, Louth, Meath, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford were joining 1,000 Fianna Fail members in launching a campaigning group, Fairer Future, to defeat the Programme for Government negotiated by Fine Gael, the Green Party and the leadership of Fianna Fail. However Leitrim's Fianna Fail councillors, while acknowledging their opposition to entering Government with Fine Gael and the Green Party remains unchanged, stress they have not signed up as part of the Fairer Future campaigning group. Cllr Mary Bohan, the longest serving Fianna Fail member on the council, told the Leitrim Observer that we (Leitrim's Fianna Fail councillors) haven't signed up to anything or any organisation, nor have we been asked to. What we are still doing is continuing to support what we said in a letter we sent to Micheal Martin outlining our opposition to Fianna Fail entering Government with Fine Gael and the Green Party. On May 29 last the county's six Fianna Fail councillors: Mary Bohan, Justin Warnock, Sean McGowan, Paddy Farrell, Caillian Ellis and Paddy O'Rourke, sent a letter to party leader, Micheal Martin TD outlining their opposition to plans for the new coalition. In the letter they said: we are unanimous in our opposition to this, and we are also very disappointed that local councillors and party members have little or no say in decision making any more. The local councillors expressed their belief that a National (or) Unity Government would be much better at this difficult time and expressed their fear for the future of the party if it proceeds with plans to enter into government with Fine Gael and the Green Party. Our position on this hasn't changed from what we said in this letter, Cllr Bohan explained this week. Cllr Sean McGowan acknowledged that he and his fellow councillors would be happier if there was a Unity Government in place . We wrote to our leader on this and we still believe that would be the best option going forward especially in light of the Covid-19 (pandemic) and the impact this has had and will have on our country, he said. Cllr McGowan said he had yet to read the draft Programme for Government in its entirety but said that any vote on this will be a personal matter for each member. Cllr Caillian Ellis expressed his disappointment at the proposed formation of the new Government adding Fianna Fail has been sold out for power. It's all about power and jobs for the boys. He said the current situation was very disappointing for members and said he had real concerns about the impact of the proposed coalition on the party and on rural Ireland. Cllr Paddy O'Rourke pointed out there were some very difficult decisions to be made in the coming years and this would best be served by a National or Unity Government. He noted that, in the recent General Election three parties had secured roughly the same amount of the vote, and acknowledged that a National Government was our (Leitrim's FF councillors') preferred option. He said that from the time that Covid-19 struck Ireland a joint effort was always what was in mind to get the country up and out of this and this must harness any and all parties. He said: I don't detect any huge resistance to joining with other parties (in Government), it's about the policies and we are concerned about the policies which may be brought in and about the sustainability of any Government formed. Will they be able to hang in for the five year term? These are important considerations. Similar concerns were expressed by Cllr Paddy Farrell who said he remained opposed to the current coalition configuration. What we said in our letter (to Micheal Martin), my position on that hasn't changed, he said. The last time we were in power with the Greens, well we are still not over it yet. We are still feeling the impact of things like the changes for one-off housing. Cllr Justin Warnock said he had already received a number of calls from party members in the local area expressing their unhappiness with the coalition. They see us entering Government with Fine Gael in particular as Fianna Fail selling out on our principles as a party, said Cllr Warnock. And I agree with that. I have always believed that we (Fianna Fail) are first and foremost a Republican party. That is our tradition and that was always the difference between us and Fine Gael. Going into government with Fine Gael, we are losing that difference. We are in danger of becoming one and the same and I am not happy with that. I am not happy with the direction this is taking us in and I stand fully behind what we (Leitrim's Fianna Fail councillors) said in our letter last month. My position on this hasn't changed. The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, has charged the Ghana Education Service (GES) to put in place measures to ensure compliance of COVID-19 protocols in disinfected schools to avert any infections for the final year students. Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, said this while inspecting the ongoing government-sponsored disinfection of schools at Bompeh SHS in Takoradi. The Regional Minister told Citi News he will personally take interest in the effective monitoring of schools to curtail the spread of COVID-19. We have all been told that this virus moves in the air. So when we are bringing back our children to school, we want to make sure that all the surfaces are clean so they can come to sit for their exit examination without panic and be assured that their health is being taken care of. That's why government has given Zoomlion a contract that has also been subcontracted to some four companies to help with this exercise in line with local content law to carry out the disinfection exercise successfully in the Western Region. This school, in particular, is day school so naturally, the students would be coming from home, and therefore apart from this disinfection exercise, they too have to make sure that the students practice good personnel hygiene as well as observe the protocols. We would be getting the Regional GES to be inspecting to monitor whether the protocols are being enforced. So we will encourage them to be sending the Regional Co-ordinating Council reports because the RCC has oversight responsibility for SHS in the region. We all understand the inconvenience this disease has brought to us; the infection rates and deaths hence we cannot allow anybody to derail us. And now that children are coming together, we need to make sure that they supervise properly so that it does not lead to more infections in the region. More so when they are coming from home and we don't know who they have been in contact with. In the Western Region, 1,808 Public and Private Basic and SHS' schools are benefiting from the current government-sponsored disinfection of exercise. Thirty of the schools within the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis have been subcontracted to Orion Cleaning and Fumigation Services which has disinfected Bompeh SHS and others. The Director of Orion Cleaning and Fumigation Services, Justice Acquah, told Citi News other services they are giving to the schools in addition to the disinfection. We are doing this exercise on behalf of Zoomlion Ghana Limited. Currently, we have been assigned to disinfect 30 Senior High Schools in the Western Region. We commenced the exercise at the beginning of the week and so far we are still working in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis where we are disinfecting the classrooms, dormitories, offices, and the libraries. What we plan to do in addition to this is that we would assist them with more posters to sensitize the students on the protocols." Meanwhile, the Assistant Headmistress of Administrator at the Bompeh SHS, Elizabeth Ampofo, explained to Citi News how they intend to ensure that no student brings to the campus any virus. We have put in place measures to enforce the protocols which include the Veronica Buckets and sensitize the teachers. We have two entries to the school, myself and a team would be standing there to check their temperatures every morning since it's a day school. So if there is any high temperature, we can take it up from there." The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, however, reiterated his regret with the passing of the Mayor of Sekondi-Takoradi, Anthony K. K. Sam, who died after contracting COVID-19. ---citinewsroom For 40 years, the Rickhoff name was political gold in Bexar County. Prior to the 2018 midterm elections, Republican brothers Tom and Gerry Rickhoff had won 16 of 17 local elections. In 2018, the magic vanished (or, more precisely, a Democratic wave appeared). Gerry Rickhoff lost his county clerk seat to Democratic challenger Lucy Adame-Clark. Tom Rickhoff, after deciding to step away from the probate court bench, launched a quixotic, bare-bones campaign for county judge against Nelson Wolff and lost by nearly 20 percentage points. The magic returned, however, three months ago when both Rickhoffs registered surprisingly successful results in the GOP primary. Related: Numerous San Antonio area runoffs set for May 26 to determine who goes on to do battle in November Gerry easily defeated two opponents in the race for county sheriff, even though his resume contains zero law-enforcement experience. Tom won a plurality of the vote in an eight-candidate field for the lone consistently Republican slot on Commissioners Court the Precinct 3 position being vacated by Kevin Wolff and secured a spot in the GOP runoff. So now we face the very real possibility that in January 2021 well once again have two Rickhoffs in county government with bigger responsibilities than ever before. Responsibilities that overlap. Thats what worries Willie Ng. Ng, a retired San Antonio police officer and the former chief criminal investigator for Bexar County, finished second to Gerry Rickhoff in the primary race for sheriff. If expertise was directly proportional to vote-getting power, Ng would have won the March 3 primary in a walk. But Ng learned, the hard way, that the Rickhoff name carries more currency than a Jail Administrators License or two decades of law-enforcement experience. Ngs big concern right now is how the county government will function if both Rickhoffs win in November. Puro politics: Coverage and commentary of the 2020 primary election He sees conflict-of-interest issues with one brother serving on the Commissioners Court, making policy for the county and overseeing a sheriffs office run by the other brother. The stakes are high, because public safety currently makes up more than 38 percent of the countys general-fund budget. For that reason, Ng has endorsed Trish DeBerry, Tom Rickhoffs opponent in the July 14 GOP runoff. He also has decided to refrain from endorsing Gerry Rickhoff in his November race against incumbent Democratic Sheriff Javier Salazar. Public safety is critical, Ng said. If we have a commissioner whose brother is the sheriff, hes not going to be able to engage and vote on a lot of that stuff. Hes going to be conflicted. When it comes to raises, when it comes to the contract, its going to be very difficult to get things done, when you have five commissioners and one cannot participate on issues regarding 40 percent of the budget. Tom Rickhoff did not respond to an interview request for this column. Beyond the question of whether Tom Rickhoff would have to recuse himself on public-safety votes if his brother gets elected sheriff, there also is the issue of how this set-up would affect public trust at a time when our nation is grappling with the proper role for law enforcement in the wake of repeated instances of police brutality against African Americans. Right now, when we have so much distrust with our police and law enforcement in the community, we dont need that, Ng said. We dont need the perception of favoritism. We need the trust of the community right now, to build and restore that relationship. The conflict-of-interest issue likely will emerge as a major talking point for DeBerry, a public-relations consultant who ran for mayor in 2009. In 2008, Chip Haass, the Democratic nominee in Precinct 3, built his campaign against Kevin Wolff largely on the idea that it would be problematic to have a father and son serving together on the five-member Commissioners Court, even if the father (Nelson) and the son (Kevin) belonged to different political parties. Ng himself encountered conflict-of-interest questions in 2016 when the Commissioners Court renewed a contract with his security company at a time when Ng also was employed by the county as a criminal investigator. When it comes to the sheriffs race, Ngs resistance to the Rickhoff brand goes beyond the potential for brotherly conflict-of-interest. Ng spent a good part of his primary campaign arguing that Gerry Rickhoff was not qualified to be sheriff, even as Rickhoff argued that his lack of experience was an asset because it enabled him to be a disruptive force for change. Ng said he met with Gerry Rickhoff for coffee after the March 3 primary and Rickhoff asked for his endorsement. But Ng plans to stay out of the general-election race for sheriff. Just because he wins the primary doesnt make him qualified. So I have a hard time putting my support behind someone who I really dont believe (in). And Im not going to do it just because of a party affiliation. Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Gilbert, become a subscriber. ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470 Its a moment that Haseena Hotaki and all immigrants long for: taking the oath, shaking hands with the citizenship judge, waving the Canadian flag and cheering with other new citizens. Instead, on this big day, the 29-year-old Afghani immigrant found herself alone in the living room of her Toronto apartment, in front of her laptop awaiting the appearance of Judge Hardish Dhaliwal on her computer screen so she could be sworn in on Zoom. I have heard all these stories from others about what happened at these ceremonies. I pictured what my own ceremony would look like, holding a Canadian flag in a room with other new citizens, said Hotaki, who came here in 2012 under a government sponsorship. Did it really just happen? I just had this over an online meeting through Zoom? asked the Kandahar native after the 30-minute solo virtual event hosted recently by the judge and four immigration and citizenship officers. It feels something was missing. It wasnt the dream ceremony Hotaki envisioned when she passed her citizenship exam last September, but its still better than a further delay in becoming a full Canadian. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had to cancel all citizenship ceremonies in mid-March because its impossible to enforce social-distancing at these functions attended by new citizens and their loved ones. Immigration department spokesperson Beatrice Fenelon said officials began holding virtual ceremonies on April 1, beginning with individuals and families whose ceremonies had been cancelled and who had contacted IRCC with urgent reasons for needing citizenship, such as employment requirements. Last year, an average of 20,000 immigrants became new citizens each month. To date since April, 96 ceremonies have been held. An important aspect of holding online group ceremonies is the verification of applicants identities, which is important to the integrity of the program, especially in an online environment, said Fenelon. A virtual ceremony is similar to an in-person one. In Hotakis case, she was asked to show the immigration officers on the screen three pieces of picture ID before she took her oath in English and French with Dhaliwal and signed her citizenship certificate with an e-signature. There were no RCMP officers in Red Serge present or singing of the national anthem. The process wasnt without its hiccups. Hotaki said her ceremony was twice disrupted due to internet problems that forced her to log onto Zoom again. It made me nervous, said Hotaki, who worked for international aid groups as an English translator in Afghanistan and in the not-for-profit sector after coming to Canada. She started her post-graduate program in international development at Centennial College last fall. Hotaki picked a traditional Afghan kochi dress, worn only for celebrations, for her citizenship ceremony to honour this special moment of her life. But she was disappointed there was no one around her to share her joy other than her two young daughters. The whole experience was surreal, she said, until a citizenship officer asked her to cut and void her permanent residence card. The whole ceremony was like a dream. When I looked at my PR card in small pieces, thats the only thing that seemed real, said Hotaki, who has founded her own group, Humanity Search for Peace, to provide education programs for girls and women in Afghanistan. I am grateful for the opportunities Canada has given me and I am extremely proud of who I am today. I have come a long way and feel I finally belong. Hotaki kissed and hugged her daughters after the ceremony, then called her parents in Afghanistan to share the news before ordering takeout from her favourite Thai restaurant to celebrate a new leaf of her life in Canada. Correction - June 18, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Haseena Hotaki started a bachelor program in international development at the University of Toronto last fall. In fact, she started working on a post-graduate program. Jim Coltrin, CFP and Andy Bailey, CFP, the managing partners of True North Advisors at Raymond James, announced the group has added another member, Mike Cartwright, CFP. Mr. Cartwright has been a part of the advisor community since 1984. The managing partners said, We are excited to have another seasoned veteran to join us at True North Advisors. Mike is a Certified Financial Planner that puts his clients first, which is also our first priority. Mr. Cartwright has previous experience as managing principal with Cartwright Hitching & Frazier Private Wealth Management, vice president and senior investment officer for AmSouth, and senior broker with J.J.B. Hilliard, W.L. Lyons & Company. He is a member of the American Philatelic Society and has collected over 300,000 stamps. Mr. Cartwright is a fan of amatuer racing and formed his own team in 2000. His father, who helped him rebuild a BMW race car, was his crew chief. Mr. Cartwright raced for five years as a member of the SCCA before selling his team package in 2005 to two men from Indianapolis. Mr. Cartwright has an INTL-Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Diplomacy from UBIS-Geneva, Switzerland and a Bachelor of Science in International Business from the University of the Potomac in Washington, D.C.. He holds a CFP and specializes in Budget & Debt Management, Comprehensive Financial Planning, Sudden Wealth, Special Needs, Women's Finances, 401(k)/403(b)/IRAs to name a few. Mr. Mike Cartwright joined True North Advisors at Raymond James in April 2020. He adds value to the companys team approach to financial planning providing customized services for clients. [June 17, 2020] DDN's Innovative AI Platforms Transform Drug Discovery Operations at Recursion SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DDN, premier provider of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Management software and hardware solutions enabling Intelligent Infrastructure, today announced its high-performance storage solutions have helped to support broader, faster and more efficient drug discovery research and operations at Recursion, a digital biology company industrializing drug discovery through the combination of automation, AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities to discover novel medicines. Read the Recursion case study that describes the challenges, solution and benefits of the infrastructure, and reveals details of the global-impact work that's taking place in Salt Lake City. With most of the industry fighting mounting drug-discovery costs and time-to-market challenges, Recursion uses new approaches combining scientific and technological approaches. This requires high-performance drug discovery processing that is fully optimized for AI and ML and designed to unlock the maximum value of data from the world's largest repository of biological images. "Our data is our company, so we needed a robust storage archiecture to support our AI-driven models," said Kris Howard, principal systems engineer at Recursion. "Managing our at-scale data needs requires fast ingest, optimized processing and reduced application run times." In collaboration with DDN's domain experts, Recursion initially created a proof of concept, encompassing DDN's EXAScaler ES400NV and ES7990X parallel file system appliances that were later scaled to 2PBs of capacity for staging ML models. An all-flash layer was employed as a front-end to the file system supported by ample spinning disk and the first 64K of each file is stubbed to this layer, which then accelerates access to the first part of the data before streaming the rest to spinning disk. With DDN, Recursion executes about 350,000 experiments weekly and screens thousands of compounds against hundreds of disease models, now at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional drug discovery methods. DDN's hybrid high-performance scalable storage solutions, fully optimized for AI and ML, have helped to decrease costs and increase the efficiency of biological research. "DDN's reputation as a storage leader is reinforced by our mature solutions and increasing focus on AI data storage," said Paul Bloch, president and co-founder at DDN. "Leveraging Intelligent Infrastructure to deliver the most comprehensive set of data-centric AI-enabled solutions, DDN's flexibility in sizing Recursion's configuration to meet specific workloads has resulted in robust storage that seamlessly supports 18 nodes and 136 GPUs. Being trusted as the storage infrastructure provider for Recursion is a true honor as they work to disrupt traditional drug discovery methods and identify treatments for disease with precision and efficiency." While traditional storage architectures would not meet Recursion's stringent high-performance file processing demands, DDN's 2PB high-performance, multi-tier data management infrastructure has helped to maximize GPU compute resources for accelerated AI workflows. Not only did this approach deliver extremely fast performance for Recursion's demanding workloads, it helped to alleviate file-access bottlenecks while enabling efficient streaming to the GPUs. "Our DDN storage is wicked fast," says Howard. "The Flash layer resulted in a 40% reduction in file access time, and we can get our GPUs to 100% utilization, and keep them pegged there. It's highly unusual to train data off a PFS, but it's a perfect solution for our use case." About DDN DDN is a premier provider of Artificial Intelligence and Data Management software and hardware solutions enabling Intelligent Infrastructure, delivering unified analytics to solve business challenges for data-intensive, global organizations. Tintri is a wholly owned subsidiary of DDN, comprised of IntelliFlash, Nexenta and Tintri technologies and provides enterprise customers with a different experience, through simplicity, efficiency and agility for on-premise and multicloud environments, powered by Intelligent Infrastructure innovations that advance real-time and predictive application analytics. Over the last two decades, DDN has established itself as the data management provider of choice for over 10,000 enterprise, government, and public-sector customers, many of which include the world's leading financial services firms, life science organizations, manufacturing and energy companies, research facilities, and web and cloud service providers. For more information, visit ddn.com, follow us on twitter: @ddn_limitless, or call 1-800-837-2298. Contact: Press Relations at DDN [email protected] Walt & Company, on behalf of DDN Sharon Sumrit, 408.369.7200 x2981 [email protected] 2020 All rights reserved. DDN and EXAScaler are trademarks owned by DataDirect Networks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ddns-innovative-ai-platforms-transform-drug-discovery-operations-at-recursion-301078611.html SOURCE DataDirect Networks (DDN) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 14:00:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SYDNEY, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Australian State of Victoria recorded its biggest daily increase of COVID-19 infections in over a month, with 21 new cases officially recorded on Wednesday. Victoria Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told reporters that fifteen of those new cases were overseas travelers returning to Australia, all of whom were in mandatory hotel quarantine. One of the remaining cases was detected at an aged care facility, sparking serious concerns for the welfare of the elderly residents. The 53-bed facility was placed into lockdown and residents were restricted to their rooms. Of the other five cases, two of them with known infectious sources while the other three were still under contact tracing by local health authorities to identify the source. Mikakos warned that Australia will see a further rise in case numbers as travelers continue to arrive from overseas, a large portion of which are from the Indian subcontinent, currently one of the hotspots in the COVID-19 pandemic. "We will continue to see large numbers of returning travelers coming back to Australia, coming back to Melbourne," Mikakos told reporters. "Countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are experiencing exponential growth in confirmed cases at the moment, and obviously that's impacting on the increase on our numbers who are in hotel quarantine." As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 1,762 cases of COVID-19 in total, with 70 of them still active. Enditem When hes not on form well, you can see for yourself in his ambitious new Netflix release Da 5 Bloods, which he co-wrote with BlacKkKlansman collaborator Kevin Willmott (reworking a script inherited from Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, the team behind the minor 1990s superhero classic The Rocketeer). When Spike Lee is on form most recently in the muckraking docudrama BlacKkKlansman hes one of the essential American filmmakers: funny, stylish, morally challenging, able to sketch a place and time and a set of issues with clarity while leaving room for suggestive loose ends. The project gives Lee the chance to school us on a subject rarely tackled head-on in the movies, the impact of the Vietnam War on African-Americans who, were told, made up almost a third of those who fought for the United States despite being only 11 per cent of the countrys population. The set-up is complicated, recalling old-fashioned political cartoons where everything comes with a label. The war is shown in flashback; half a century on, a quartet of old army buddies (Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis and Isiah Whitlock jnr) return to Vietnam with unfinished business in mind. The Bloods, as they call themselves, are bent on recovering literal buried treasure a stash of gold bars abandoned after a plane crash and the body of their fallen comrade and guru Stormin Norm (Chadwick Boseman), a revered figure they compare to Malcolm X or Martin Luther King. Norm is replaced in the present by a new fifth Blood: David (Jonathan Majors), estranged son of Lindos character, Paul, who insists on joining the expedition. Paul, for his part, remains the hothead of the group and the only one to have voted for Trump, referred to as the Klansman in the Oval Office. As usual, Lee seems willing to throw in any hot button theme, contrived plot move or flashy stylistic device that comes to mind. This everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach can be his strength, but while Da Five Bloods doesnt entirely lack heat, it never really gets cooking. Two persons who allegedly robbed a taxi driver of his Toyota Vitz vehicle after slashing his left arm with a broken bottle have been caged in Police custody by an Accra Circuit Court. Solomon Azure aka Baba Sulley aka 2PAC and Brian Ibrahim Adam aka Red are alleged to have pulled out the driver from the vehicle and bolted with it. The two are facing charges of conspiracy to rob and robbery. Azure pleaded guilty with explanation but Adam denied the offences. The court presided over by Mrs Evelyn Asamoah however rejected Azure's explanation because the case is still under investigations. According to Azure he did not commit the offence with Adam but rather one Dida. Azure said after committing the crime, he drove the vehicle to Circle and met Adam who had also come to Circle to buy food. He said Dida however left him after he (Dida) had received a call from his wife. Azure and Adam are however expected to reappear on June 29. Inspector Benson Benneh who held the brief of Chief Inspector Emmanuel Haligah narrated that the complainant Emmanuel Asare is a taxi driver residing at Teshie in Accra. Prosecution said Solomon resides at the Yam Market in Agbogbloshie in Accra whiles Adam unemployed resides at Kumasi Airport roundabout in the Ashanti region. Inspector Benson said in March this year, Azure met Adam at Avenor Park in Accra and became friends and both have since been communicating on phone although Adam later left for Kumasi. Prosecution said Azure informed Adam about a car snatching business saying he knew one Nana who receives the vehicles and was ready to pay huge sums of money for any taxi brought to him for purchase. The prosecution said on May 24, this year, Adam travelled to Accra and stayed with Azure at the Yam market in Agbogbloshie. The prosecution said on May 28, Azure and Adam hatched a plan to rob taxi drivers of their cars so they went to Nungua-Brigade and engaged the services of the complainant who was then in charge of Toyota Vitz with registration number GW 4985-19 . Prosecution said the accused asked the taxi driver to transport them to Emef Estate in Lashibi and Azure sat behind the driver while Adam sat in the front seat. Prosecution said on reaching a spot at Emef Estate road, Azure alerted the driver that they would want to alight so the driver stopped the vehicle. The prosecution said Azure alighted and walked to the driver's door as if he was going to pay the fare whilst Adam remained seated at the front seat. Prosecution said Azure opened the driver's door and began pulling him from his seat but the driver was stuck to his seat as a result of the seat belt he was wearing. He said Azure then broke a bottle he was holding and slashed the complainant's left arm and pulled him out of the car. Prosecution said Adam quickly jumped onto the steering wheel and Azure joined him and both sped off with the vehicle. He said the complainant reported the incident to the police at Sakumono where he was issued with a medical report form to seek medical attention. The prosecution said on June 3, this year, the complainant went to the Sakumono Police Station's Criminal Investigation Department and saw Azure and Adam. He said the complainant identified them to the Police as those who robbed him of his vehicle. The Prosecution said Azure and Adam in their cautioned statement admitted the offence where the two accused indicated that they have given the vehicle to one Nana and Dida. ---GNA Confronted by protests and political pressure, Senate Republicans seek a deal with Democrats on new legislation. Republicans in the United States Congress are signalling a willingness to work with Democrats to advance police reform legislation amid continuing protests and a mounting political crisis. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate will take up Republican-backed police reform legislation next week and work with Democrats in the House of Representatives to craft a compromise bill. We are serious about making a law here, McConnell told reporters at a news conference at the US Capitol on Wednesday. This is not about creating partisan differences. This is about coming together and getting an outcome, McConnell said. The political situation in Washington, DC is evolving rapidly as public opinion moves strongly behind the huge protests against racism and violence in policing that continue to occur in major cities and small towns across the US. Democrats, who control the House, are already advancing broad police reform legislation that would ban the use of chokehold, require new training in de-escalation techniques and eliminate protections for police from lawsuits, among other sweeping measures. But any legislation that would be sent to President Donald Trump for his signature would first need approval from Senate Republicans along with the help from some Democrats in the upper chamber. President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that directs Attorney General William Barr to take a series of steps to address police violence. The presidents willingness to meet us on this issue, its clear, said Senator Tim Scott, an African American who is leading the Republican legislative effort. Every lever of government wants change and most of us want about 70 percent of the same change, Scott said, assessing the prospect for enactment of legislation. The legislation is already bipartisan. The question is, can we get bipartisan support, Scott said at the news conference with McConnell. A Chicago police officer walks ahead of protesters June 17, 2020, as they march around City Hall, demanding that Mayor Lori Lightfoot enact the ordinance for an all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Council, CPAC [Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo] Scott, who has recounted his own encounters with police, is well respected by his Democratic colleagues as a leader on race and a credible voice on policing. But there are thorny policy differences to be worked out if the two sides are to reach an agreement. Reacting to the introduction of the Republican bill, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said there was a glaring contrast between Democratic and Republican priorities that would have to be worked out. For example, the Democratic bill bans no-knock warrants in federal drug cases, while the Republican bill only requires FBI data collection on the use of no-knock warrants. We in Congress have to take up the mantle and Im glad that well be turning to this subject next week, Schumer said, calling Trumps executive order window dressing that will have little effect. We must all set our sights on achieving real, strong, effective reforms to police departments in America, Schumer said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who will be a key power broker in any deal, said the Senate Republican bill is inadequate because it focuses on studies and reporting without creating meaningful change. Grateful to @RepKarenBass & @TheBlackCaucus for their leadership on fighting police brutality & racial injustice. Their expertise & experiences form the foundation of the #JusticeInPolicing Act. Together, we will secure the change & justice Americans are demanding. pic.twitter.com/qM6U4Pg3WL Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) June 17, 2020 Republicans face political pressure to act in response to the protests. Trump trails his Democratic rival Joe Biden in a recent polling of voters preferences in Novembers presidential election. An Economist/YouGov poll taken June 14-16 has Biden leading Trump by 9 percentage points among US adults nationwide. Republicans are struggling to maintain control of the Senate where Democrats have a better than 50-50 chance of regaining a narrow majority. Democrats led Republicans by 9 points in a generic ballot test in the same Economist/YouGov poll. We have seen a shift nationally in attitudes about race and policing, said James Henson, a pollster and political science professor at the University of Texas. Our politics are very volatile right now. And Republicans are feeling pressure from Black communities at home. In March, Breona Taylor, a 26-year-old African American woman, was shot in her bed by police during a night-time raid on the wrong house. The incident occurred in Louisville, Kentucky, the hometown of Republican leader McConnell. Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, which was the home state of George Floyd, said he has promised Floyds family the Senate will act on police reform. I had an opportunity to talk to George Floyds family, Cornyn said. Theyre from Houston, Texas and Rodney, his brother, told me, he said, Senator, we are from Texas, and we want some Texas-size justice. And I said, Well, Mr Floyd, to the best of my ability, thats exactly what we will deliver.' A California mum who claimed her son paid off a classmate's lunch debt and used the national fame to get free tickets to the Super Bowl made up the story, investigators said. Kylie Jean Kirkpatrick, 43, of Napa Valley told multiple publications her then nine-year-old son used $78.80 of his own savings to go to Napa Valley Unified School District Food Services Department to pay off lunch debts at West Park Elementary. Instead, the money was actually raised by others through GoFundMe and Venmo accounts, the Napa Valley Register reported after obtaining court documents. "After making the payment, Kirkpatrick created a false narrative that her nine-year-old son had used his savings money to pay for the debt," Napa Police investigator Darlene Elia said. "Kirkpatrick actively sought out the media via email by sending them pictures of her son holding the payment receipt and providing the information for the false story." An investigation into the story led to Kirkpatrick being arrested in March and charged with seven felonies, including six for grand theft and one for welfare fraud, and 13 misdemeanours, 12 for theft and one for defrauding an innkeeper. Kirkpatrick pleaded not guilty and has yet to be assigned a trial date. Prosecutors found that the woman actively sought out media outlets to boast the story about her son using his money for classmates. Included in some of these media requests was a picture of her son holding a receipt of his donation. The child received national attention for his alleged generosity towards classmates, and it resulted in gifts, monetary prizes, and even tickets to the Super Bowl. The family also received donations to go towards other students who were unable to pay off their lunch debt, but prosecutors said none of the money was donated. "Kirkpatrick kept the money and did not donate it towards additional food accounts ... All of these gifts were given based on the false narrative of the donation being from her son's savings," Elia wrote in the court filing. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that would ban "lunch shaming" or refusing food to students unable to pay their school bills after the story went viral, and the governor even mentioned Kirkpatrick's son when making the announcement. The story also sparked a national conversation about "lunch shaming" and hinted Kirpatrick's son was seeing this happening at his own school. West Park Elementary already banned "lunch shaming" prior to the governor's law, the Napa Valley Register reported. She allegedly used this outrage to her advantage. "Kirkpatrick solicited several different companies to donate food items, drinks or money towards charitable organisations that did not exist," Elia wrote. "She created a website in her son's name and solicited donations through the site to pay for school lunch debt." Total losses are estimated at $10,000, according to the Napa Police investigator. , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Fort Benning is home to the U.S. Army Airborne School, which thousands of paratroopers attend each year. The three-week program teaches service members how to parachute safely. During the final week of jump school, students must complete five jumps from an altitude of more than 1,200 feet from either a C-130 or C-17 aircraft, according to a fact sheet from the Army. Order for Phuket Governor to transfer finally in effect PHUKET: The order for Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana to transfer out of the province became official today (June 17) as it has now been published in the Royal Thai Government Gazette. By The Phuket News Wednesday 17 June 2020, 03:56PM The order for Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana, pictured here at an event at the Phuket Vocational College yesterday, was finally published in the Royal Thai Government Gazette today (June 17) but marked as effective from June 15. Photo: PR Phuket The announcement in the Royal Gazette today confirmed that the Cabinet had resolved to transfer Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana to Phetchaburi province, where he is to serve as governor. Of note, the Cabinet delivered its resolution to transfer Governor Phakaphong in April, when the Governor was under heavy criticism for his handling of the COVID-19 situation in Phuket. According to reports in the Thai media online at the time, some people said Governor Phakaphong did too little too late, while others reported that the measures he rolled out were too harsh. The announcement in the Royal Gazette today noted that the order for Governor Phakaphong to transfer became effective two days ago on Monday, June 15 but did not stipulate by which date the transfer was to be concluded. Governor Phakaphong is to be replaced by Narong Woonciew, who up until today served as Governor of Chaiyaphum province, the announcement today noted. Phetchaburis current governor, Kobchai Boonoranais, will take up the position of Governor of Chaiyaphum province. Incoming Governor Narong is 57 years old, and is originally from Phattalung province, south of Phuket. Governor Narong previously served as Krabi Vice Governor in 2014. After one year as Krabi Vice Governor, Mr Narong was transferred to take up the same position in Nakhon Ratchasima, and was promoted to the post of Governor of Chaiyaphum in 2017. In some ways, Albertas Fair Deal Panel report is like a time capsule from a pre-COVID-19 time. It was commissioned and created before oil prices plunged even lower, before coronavirus pushed the provinces already battered economy to the brink, and before the federal government stepped in with economic support for thousands of Albertans. Six months ago, some Albertans were bristling for a fight. Today, its less clear. The provinces United Conservative government is already taking action on some recommendations from what Premier Jason Kenney called the historic document that was released Wednesday. The government has, for instance, committed to a referendum on equalization long a topic of fury in some corners of this province to be held next year. Kenneys also committed to studying others of the 25 recommendations, including a plan to withdraw from the Canadian Pension Plan, and create the provinces own police force to replace the RCMP. The recommendations are not a cry for help; theyre a demand for fairness, Kenney said. Failure to get a fair deal for Albertans is not an option. But the corners have been sanded off some demands. While the report notes that it understands the anger Albertans are feeling, We do not believe the threat of secession is a constructive negotiating strategy. Kenney announced the panel, which included former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, during a keynote address at a Manning Centre conference last November, and tasked it with finding ways to get more independence for Alberta. Over several months starting late last year, the panel held town halls, talked to experts and solicited online feedback. At the beginning, the panel rode a wave of anger among some Albertans who were feeling the pinch of dropping oil prices and frustration over the perceived unfairness of the federal government; at least one rally for the newly re-emerged Alberta separation, or Wexit, movement drew hundreds. Travelling our highways and hearing how Albertans across the province feel, as though we are losing our voice and identity in Canada, painted a vivid picture of the difficulties we are facing, panel chair Oryssia Lennie told media Wednesday. Experts initially wondered if the panels report would shake up Confederation, or at least tilt the national power balance west. But the provincial landscape has shifted considerably since the task force was struck, as oil prices have continued to plummet and coronavirus has further punished an Alberta economy struggling with a global oil price war and crashing prices. The new economic reality likely forced the panel to adopt a slightly more moderate tone, says Lisa Young, a professor at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. I think they must have realized that this was going to be delivered to a provincial government that has faced really profound challenges that hadnt been imagined at the time when they were holding their consultations, she said. To that end, the report seems to have become a little bit less about showing it to Ottawa, and a little bit more about what Kenney called the cataclysmic economic effects of coronavirus, and the need for the federal government to get out of Albertas way. I think it was really interesting that they finished their public consultation just at the point where you couldnt have angry people in a room together anymore, Young said. There they were, writing this when we were all stuck at home with the pandemic happening and starting to understand just how the world is fundamentally changing. They were also writing this at a time when we were all looking to Ottawa to deliver enormous amounts of cash to help them out. The report was submitted to government in mid-May, but a statement at the time said that it would not be released until the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is over. The report does seem to acknowledge that Alberta can no longer shake its fist in an easterly direction in quite the same way. As Canadian governments have pulled together in recent months to tackle coronavirus, We have witnessed a much greater willingness on the part of the provincial and federal governments to mutually support and co-operate with each other, it notes. Still, the feedback included in the report most of it collected pre-coronavirus does highlight the economic angst many in the province are feeling. While not many cried at the public presentations, the despair and loss of hope were palpable and some people cried in private when speaking to individual panel members. The real fear for many was young Albertans unemployment and lack of hope for the future, the report reads. Across the province, participants mentioned suicide as a response to feeling powerless. According to the report, many Albertans surveyed meaning those who attended town halls, in addition to a public opinion poll of 1,000 people thought economic initiatives were the way to go in terms of improving the provinces place in the federation. The majority of Albertans said they thought free trade between provinces, getting major energy projects, such as the Trans Mountain expansion, built, and pushing for changes to equalization would help Alberta improve its standing. However, according to the report, Albertans were less supportive of other plans. Fifty one per cent of those surveyed thought Alberta creating its own tax collection agency, police force or pension plan would help it get a fairer deal. That number dropped to 42 per cent when people were asked just about the pension a question not asked at town halls. Only 35 per cent said the same about a provincial police force, an option also not discussed at town halls. Less than half of Albertans 42 per cent at town halls and 49 per cent in polls thought the appointment of an Alberta chief firearms officer, which the province has already moved ahead with, would help. Kenney noted the government had also done polling independent of the report. He said it wouldn't move forward with things the people didnt support. Meanwhile, 47 per cent of those at town halls (and 34 per cent of those polled) thought Alberta separating from the federation entirely with or without the other western provinces would improve its position. Its notable that the report mentions the importance of diversifying the economy, Young said, a topic that usually plays a very faint second fiddle to oil in Alberta. If you think back to where we were before COVID, people who talked about diversification were sort of not patriots of Alberta, because they werent toeing the line on oil and gas, she said. I think was an interesting signal that the panel was sending to the provincial government. She adds that there is a danger that the end result of this report could mean the next year and a half in Alberta are devoted to the equalization referendum, which is a conversation that could pull focus away from other ways to move forward. I think theres a little bit of wishful thinking here. You know, at the end of the day, Alberta can hold a referendum, and I think the rest of the country can shrug. Here are some of the other notable recommendations from the Fair Deal report Collaborate with other jurisdictions to reduce trade barriers within Canada and pressure the federal government to enforce free trade in Canada; Collaborate with other jurisdictions to design and advance regional strategies for northern development; pressure the federal government to implement those strategies; Secure a fairer share of federal civil service opportunities and federal offices in Western Canada; Explore ways and means to affirm Albertas cultural, economic and political uniqueness in law and government policy; Assert more control over immigration for the economic benefit of Alberta; Continue to challenge federal legislation that affects provincial jurisdiction; Secure a seat at the table when the federal government negotiates and implements international agreements and treaties affecting Albertas interests; Strengthen Albertas presence in Ottawa; Continue to diversify Albertas economy in the energy sector and beyond; and Vigorously pursue access to markets for Albertas exports. Correction June 17, 2020 An earlier version of this story misstated the wording of the polling questions posed to Albertans. This story has been updated. With files from The Canadian Press Read more about: The University of Technology Sydney is typical. Even though schools, shopping malls, gyms, pubs, clubs, theatres, and even 10,000-strong sports crowds are coming back, it is beyond the "top-ranked young university in Australia" to organise tutorials with social distancing for 30 or so students when second semester starts in six weeks' time. They've chosen an easier, cheaper road, telling students and lecturers most classes will remain online all year, arguing their first priority is protecting their health. While the rest of the community is fast adapting to life with social distancing working, dining, exercising, and travelling within COVID-19 guidelines most universities have decided it's too hard to resume face-to-face teaching for the majority of their students. With no public debate, universities across Australia have quietly decided students will stay holed up in their bedrooms for the rest of the year. The university is determined to keep most classrooms closed for the rest of the year even though the privately run gym on the UTS campus reopened this week, welcoming 100 sweaty students at a time. Apart from a handful of face-to-face classes in subjects where online teaching is too difficult, UTS has told its 43,000 students "online learning will remain for all other learning activities until social distancing allows otherwise". Given that NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said social distancing will remain in place until we have a COVID-19 vaccine, the future for UTS students and most others across Australia looks lonely indeed. Unable to meet, mingle and work face-to-face with their peers, they are being denied the social, educational and intellectual benefits of a full university education to which the campus experience is critical. The retrograde impact of locking students off campus for the rest of the year has been recognised by several universities. Among them are the University of Adelaide and the University of Newcastle. Both have announced clear plans for a majority of students to return to campus from the second semester. At Newcastle, that means more than half the classes for its 38,000 students will be taught on campus from August 3, when the second semester begins, including tutorials and lectures with less than 100 students in the hall. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark Hoffman said it had taken "considerable work" to redo timetables and rearrange facilities to meet social-distancing requirements, but the university had decided it was worth the effort given the educational and other benefits for students. In making its decision, he said, the university noted nearly all schools were already back. Resuming face-to-face teaching could be done within existing COVID-19 guidelines and no special federal or state government approvals were needed, Professor Hoffman said. Over 120 of Larry Nassar's sex abuse victims including Aly Raisman and Simone Biles are calling on the Justice Department to release its inspector general's report into the FBI investigation of the former USA Gymnastics team doctor as questions remain about how he managed to avoid arrest for a year. Wednesday's letter from the gymnasts to the Inspector General, the FBI and ranking members of congress comes on the fifth anniversary of the first reported allegation against Nassar, who pleaded guilty to abusing 10 minors in a Michigan court in 2017 and is now serving up to 175 years in prison. The victims are demanding to know why the FBI failed to stop Nassar from abusing dozens of gymnasts in the year and a half between the first reported allegation in 2015 and his arrest in 2016. Wednesday's letter from the gymnasts to the Inspector General, the FBI and ranking members of congress comes on the fifth anniversary of the first reported allegation against Larry Nassar (pictured), who pleaded guilty to abusing 10 minors in a Michigan court in 2017 and is now serving up to 175 years in prison Victims and others look on as Rachael Denhollander speaks at the sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar, a former team USA Gymnastics doctor who pleaded guilty in November 2017 to sexual assault charges, in Lansing, Michigan Victim and Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman speaks at the sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar, (R) a former team USA Gymnastics doctor who pleaded guilty in November 2017 to sexual assault charges, in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., January 19, 2018 The FBI investigation was referred to the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section in 2018, according to the letter obtained by NBC News. Now the victims would like to see that information released. A source told NBC News that the matter is now a 'criminal investigation.' The victims' letter focuses on one central question: 'Why is the Justice Department sitting on this report?' 'In interviewing only a single victim telephonically in September of 2015, the FBI would not interview any other victims or other key witnesses until the spring and summer of 2016. 'In September of 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department Office of Inspector General was investigating how the FBI handled the sexual-abuse allegations against Larry Nassar, amid claims FBI agents failed to respond to complaints from gymnasts in 2015. 'The Justice Department, however, still has not released the OIG report n the FBI's role in the Nassar scandal nearly two years after the OIG official leading the investigation told parties in the case that the investigators' report had been forward to the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section.' Simone Biles (left) and Aly Raisman (right) both signed the letter sent to the DOJ and FBI The FBI began investigating Nassar in 2015 after receiving reports of abuse of US national team gymnasts Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols, all of whom signed Wednesday's letter. The FBI's Indianapolis office stayed in touch with executives at USA Gymnastics, according to emails obtained by NBC News, but no action was ever taken. In fact, the FBI would wait nearly a year before interviewing any victims or other key witnesses. Raisman said to NBC News in 2018 that she was told by the FBI that investigators wanted to wait until 'the Olympics were over' before conducting interviews. Dozens of athletes have claimed they were abused by Nassar between the summer of 2015, when the crimes were first reported to USA Gymnastics and the FBI, and November of 2016, when he was arrested by local authorities. 'It is important for our healing for all the facts to come out and for wrongdoers to be held accountable,' read Wednesday's letter. 'It is also important to maintain public confidence in our federal law enforcement agencies by exposing the truth and initiating reforms so that this never happens again.' A spokesperson for the Inspector General's office released a statement in response: 'The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General is investigating the allegations concerning the FBI's handling of the Nassar investigation, and the victims and the public should rest assured our findings will be made public at the end of our investigation.' The FBI has not commented publicly yet. The letter was addressed to Michael Horowitz, inspector general for the Justice Department There has been growing pressure for transparency for the various investigations into Nassar. In a motion filed Monday, a group of victims suing USA Gymnastics as well as the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee claimed executives within those organizations who have knowledge of what happened are trying to avoid testifying. The USOC responded with its own statement: 'Five years ago, Larry Nassar's despicable crimes were first reported to the FBI. Tragically, his terrible acts took too long to uncover. The USOPC commissioned a comprehensive, independent investigation shared publicly and without edits to find out what went wrong and what could have been done better. In the time since, under new leadership, we have implemented significant reforms to prevent such reprehensible acts from ever occurring again. That time and those crimes will never be forgotten and our hearts ache for the victims of Nassar's abuse.' In a statement to NBC News, USA Gymnastics claimed it has 'fully cooperated with multiple independent investigations led by several congressional committees, law enforcement, and other investigatory bodies,' adding that it will 'continue to cooperate.' Earlier this month, Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked the IGO in a letter to release its report In this January 19, 2018 file photo, Larissa Boyce makes her victim impact statement about Larry Nassar in Lansing, Michigan. Nassar's serial molestation of hundreds of young female patients, including some who tried in vain to raise concerns with adults, is provoking calls to expand and toughen Michigan's law that mandates certain people to report suspected child abuse to authorities Madison Kocian, Gabrielle Douglas, Simone Biles, Alexandra Raisman and Lauren Hernandez of the United States wait for the final result during the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Team Final at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Raisman said to NBC News in 2018 that she was told by the FBI that investigators wanted to wait until 'the Olympics were over' before conducting interviews Earlier this month, Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked the IGO in a letter to release its report. 'I'm determined to get to the bottom of it,' Cornyn said. 'I would like to know who told them to wait, because ordinarily when there's been a crime committed, which there are multiple crimes here, you want to get the information quickly as possible.' Cornyn told NBC he has yet to receive a response. In 2019, congress compiled a report finding that the FBI failed to 'stop Nassar from seeing patients or protect those in harm's way' during the course of the investigation. Senator Richard Blumenthal, (D-Connecticut), a member of the Senate subcommittee overseeing the investigation, accused the FBI and other authorities of a 'cover up.' 'Whether it was a criminal cover-up remains to be proven, but it was a cover-up in spirit,' he said in 2019. In a series of experiments using human cancer cell lines, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have successfully used light as a trigger to make precise cuts in genomic material rapidly, using a molecular scalpel known as CRISPR, and observe how specialized cell proteins repair the exact spot where the gene was cut. Results of the experiments, published June 11 in Science, not only reveal new details about the DNA repair process, but also are likely, the researchers say, to speed up and aid understanding of the DNA activity that typically causes aging and many cancers. "Our new system of gene editing allows for targeted DNA cutting within seconds after activation. With previous technologies, gene editing could take much longer -- even hours," says postdoctoral fellow Yang Liu, Ph.D., a member of the Johns Hopkins Medicine research team. The powerful CRISPR tool has, in recent years, enabled scientists to easily change, or "edit," DNA sequences and alter gene functions to speed the pace of research on gene-linked conditions. Adapted from a naturally occurring gene editing system found in bacteria, CRISPR uses small sequences of genetic material called RNA as a kind of guide that is coded to match and bind to a specific sequence of genomic DNA within a cell. The CRISPR molecule also contains an enzyme called Cas9, which acts as the scalpel to cut out the DNA sequence. Then, the cell uses its own enzymes and proteins to repair the sliced DNA, often adding DNA sequences that scientists slip into the cell. Liu says that studying the DNA repair process has been hampered by an inability to damage the DNA, such as by using CRISPR, in a way that's fast, precise and "on demand." For the new experiments, the scientists modified the CRISPR-Cas9 complex by engineering a light-sensitive RNA molecule that allows the CRISPR complex to cut genomic DNA in living cells only when exposed to a particular wavelength of light. "The advantage of our technique is that researchers can get the CRISPR machinery to find its target without prematurely cutting the gene, holding back its action until exposed to light," says Johns Hopkins M.D.-Ph.D. candidate Roger Zou, also a member of the research team. "This allows researchers to have far more control over exactly where and when the DNA is cut," he adds. Other research teams have experimented with both drugs and light activation to control CRISPR timing, says Taekjip Ha, Ph.D., Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His team's experiments differ by improving the precise timing of CRISPR cuts and examining how quickly proteins repair the DNA damage. For the current study, the Johns Hopkins team, led by Ha and Bin Wu, Ph.D., assistant professor of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, delivered an electric pulse to cultures of human embryonic kidney cells and bone cancer cells, which opened pores in the cell membrane and allowed the CRISPR complex with the light-activated RNA molecule to slide into the cells. Then, the scientists waited 12 hours for the CRISPR complex to bind to a targeted spot on the genomic DNA. When they shined a light on the cells, they tracked the amount of time it took for the CRISPR complex to make the cut. The team found that within 30 seconds of shining the light on the cells, the CRISPR complex had cut more than 50 percent of its targets. To further examine the timing of DNA repair, the Johns Hopkins scientists tracked when proteins involved in DNA repair latched on to the DNA cuts. They determined that repair proteins started their work within two minutes of the CRISPR activation, and the repair was completed as early as 15 minutes later. "We have shown that light-activated gene cutting is very fast, and it has potentially wide applications in biomedical research." says Ha. "Revealing the timing of CRISPR gene cuts allows us to see biological processes far more precisely." Ha and the Johns Hopkins team have dubbed the technique "very fast CRISPR on demand." Ha also noted that light-activation offers better location control than drugs that can diffuse widely in the cell. The Johns Hopkins team also used high-resolution microscopes to "see" how repair proteins interact with the CRISPR cut site in living cells. They used these microscopes and a focused beam of light to show that they could activate CRISPR cutting of one of two gene copies that are normally found in human cells. This capability, they say, offers opportunities for using CRISPR to study and eventually treat conditions linked to only one abnormal gene copy, such as Huntington's disease. "There is a big research community interested in studying DNA damage and its impact," says Ha. "The technology we developed is well suited to study that." Ha notes that scientists typically use ionizing radiation or chemicals to study DNA damage. While those methods can also be fast, he says, they are not specific to a certain genomic location. The team has filed a provisional patent on the CRISPR technology described in this research. ### The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35GM122569, GM123130); the National Science Foundation; Pew Charitable Trust; the National Institutes of Health's Medical Scientist Training Program Award; and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research Abroad. Other scientists who contributed to the research include Shuaixin He, Yuta Nihongaki, Xiaoguang Li and Shiva Razavi from Johns Hopkins. DOI: 10.1126/science.aay8204 Accompanying "Perspective" commentary in Science. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mqnXkunlDo In a time-lapse video over eight hours, a high powered microscope captures the moment when the CRISPR-Cas9 complex cuts two copies of a gene (red glow in blue circle and purple square) in a living cell. Scale Bar: 5 m. Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine 16 June 2020 : It is time for the implementation of bold measures in order to guarantee equal access to decent housing for all and to tackle inequalities . The Minister of Housing and Land Use Planning, Mr. Louis Steven Obeegadoo, made this statement during his intervention on budget debates, yesterday, in the National Assembly. According to him, the 2020-2021 budgetary measures for the construction sector are encouraging, given the lack of affordable state-built apartments for purchase or sale. There is a dysfunctional housing market situation whereby working and middle class Mauritians find it difficult to find affordable housing units to buy or rent, he said, while adding that there are currently around 18,000 applicants for social housing at the NHDC and the NEF. Mr. Louis Steven Obeegadoo reiterated the determination and political will of the government to ensure that the vulnerable ones are given the necessary assistance to benefit from decent housing. He thus highlighted that the 2020-2021 Budget provides for the construction of 12,000 houses in a period of 3 years, which he stressed, is an unprecedented financial commitment from the Government to act quickly and efficiently to build a large number of social housing within a short deadline. The Minister also indicated that 2,221 social housing units were built by the NHDC and 136 by the NEF in 2015-2020. 154 houses are about to be handed over to beneficiaries , while 278 houses will be delivered in the coming months in Calebasses, Montagne Longue, Camp Fouquereaux and Baie du Tombeaux . In addition, 678 homes will be handed over to beneficiaries at the end of the year, 1,717 in 2021 and 1,427 in 2022. He also recalled that his Ministry plans to organise a National Forum to develop a strategy to help the most vulnerable section of the society. According to him, having decent housing is a fundamental right and a legitimate aspiration, but that it must be done in accordance with the principles of social justice and equal opportunities. On that note, he dwelt on the illegal occupation of state lands, which he deplored hinders the development of the country for the benefit of the population at large. He spoke about Governments decision to act against the sudden and exponential increase in squatters who violated curfew law during the Covid-19 pandemic, whereby some 170 squatters erected illegal structures on state land in two weeks. The Minister underlined that the Ministry of Health and Wellness is waiting for two state lands, at Roche Bois and St Francois Xavier in Port Louis, to be freed from squatters, to enable the construction of health centers, which he added will undoubtedly benefit the entire population. Also, he announced that his Ministry intends to revise the criteria concerning the requests for social housing so as to support the most vulnerable according to social trends such as the rising feminisation of poverty. Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org Mobile App: Search Gov Surrounded by members of law enforcement, President Donald Trump signs an executive order on "Safe Policing for Safe Communities" during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, on June 16, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Trumps Police Reform Executive Order Gets Varied Response From Lawmakers Lawmakers had varied responses to President Donald Trumps executive order on policing, ranging from praise to harsh criticism, divided along party lines. Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order on policing in an attempt to build trust between communities and law enforcement, following weeks of protests over the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis resident who died last month in police custody. The order has three main components: more certification and credential requirements for officers, information sharing on officials who have been subject to excessive use of force complaints, and co-responder programs that will send health professionals alongside officers during certain situations. The package would create a database to track officers who have multiple instances of misconduct and would also use federal grants to incentivize departments to meet certain standards, according to a senior White House official in the call with reporters. Democrats criticized the order, saying its not enough to change the law enforcement system. Trumps executive order does not go nearly far enough to create the kind of change our country is demanding to see. Americans are taking to the streets in all 50 states for widespread, systemic changes to our system of policing. We must sign into law our Justice in Policing Act, said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Booker, who ran for the 2020 presidential election before dropping out, is referring to Democrats effort to advance the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act legislation, which would completely ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants, require police to wear bodycams, demilitarizes the police, seek to end racial profiling, limit qualified immunity, create a police misconduct database and make lynching a federal crime. Meanwhile, Republicans praised Trumps order as an effort to honor those who have been affected by police brutality while also respecting police professionals. Todays action by President Trump marks the first step in helping our cops serve their communities better; better training, more transparency, new accountability, these are meaningful solutions, as opposed to Democrats push to defund the police and stoke anarchy, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Republicans are gearing up to introduce their own police reform legislation which seeks to not only reform some dangerous police practices but aims to collect national data on police use of force and no-knock warrants. Thank you, @POTUS @realDonaldTrump, for your leadership in addressing police reforms. The solution isnt to defund the police, it is to provide more support and accountability. With todays executive order were taking a strong step to enhance training and communication, said Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.). Lawmakers have been forced to address police brutality and use of force by protestors demanding change, which was triggered by Floyds death. The Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on police reform Tuesday, in an effort to reform outdated police practices. Republicans oppose the growing calls to defund and dismantle police departments and Trump has repeatedly said he opposes dismantling or defunding the police. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also criticized the order, saying in a statement: The Executive Order lacks meaningful, mandatory accountability measures to end misconduct. Rep. Suzan Delbene (D-Wash.) also criticized Trumps efforts as insincere and not going far enough to reform the system. President Trumps #executiveorder today is a narrow attempt to placate people protesting for reform while doing little to change our law enforcement system, she said. Nokias first 5G phone was announced back in March following MWCs cancellation. However, it wasnt clear when Nokia would begin selling the new handset. It was initially reported that Nokia would launch the 8.3 5G in the UK and other parts of Europe sometime in July. The Nokia 8.3 5G was listed on Amazons German website, which could suggest the phone is headed to European markets in the near future. The Nokia 8.3 has its marketing graphics listed, but the phone isnt yet available for sale. Perhaps we could expect an earlier launch than originally anticipated. The Nokia 8.3 5G will go for 600 in most European markets and will retail for 500 in the UK. The phones top features include a 6.81-inch LCD screen with a punch hole 24MP selfie camera. The main quad-camera setup consists of a 64MP main camera with Zeiss lens hardware, a 12MP ultrawide, and 2MP sensors, each for macro shots and depth sensing. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 765G chipset with support for 5G networks. Theres 6GB or 8GB of RAM along with either 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage. Theres an integrated fingerprint scanner in the power key and comes with Android 10 out of the box. Source Via About 350 international students will come to Canberra on a charter flight from an Asian airline hub next month under a planned pilot program that lays the groundwork for large-scale arrivals in the year ahead. The tentative resumption of international arrivals a joint effort between the Australian National University and University of Canberra, backed by the ACT and federal governments will see students from across Asia return to face-to-face teaching in Australia, subject to strict health and border requirements. The Australian National University and University of Canberra are jointly backing a pilot program to restart international student arrivals. Credit:Louie Douvis Students will gather at a yet-to-be-decided flight hub and fly to Canberra, where they will quarantine for two weeks in hotels. The flight costs will be shared by the students and universities. The quarantine accommodation and support will be funded by the universities while other logistical support will be provided by the ACT. "We have students in 50 countries that are stranded and we expect [those participating in the program] to be made up of people from lots of places, but the logistics come down to how do we get people here on a single flight coming into Canberra," ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt said. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Someone stole two shotguns from police cruisers that were set on fire during last months riot in the downtown area, records say. The Remington shotguns were stolen from two police cruisers parked near the Justice Center during the May 30 riot, according to a police report. No suspects have been identified in the thefts. The police report identifies the cruisers as numbers 306 and 314. Photos and video of the rioting show cruisers with those numbers damaged and set on fire near the intersection of West 3rd Street and West Lakeside Avenue. The two police cruisers were the first of a half-dozen damaged during the riot. People also vandalized dozens of buildings and storefronts and looted businesses in downtown Cleveland. The May 30 protest of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and other instances of law enforcement brutality began peacefully at the Free Stamp. Cleveland police officers clashed with protesters outside the Justice Center, and used pepper-spray and flash-bangs to try to disperse the crowd. Authorities announced 99 arrests in the days after the unrest, including two Pennsylvania men who face federal charges. Investigators are still working to identify others involved in the rioting, including men suspected of arson. Read more from cleveland.com: Man accused of setting fire to parking lot booth amid rioting that followed protest in downtown Cleveland Crimestoppers offer $50,000 reward for information about murder of Nakia Crawford in Akron Judge gives former Westlake lawyer who fled to Thailand prison time for stealing clients money Cleveland man charged in road-rage shooting that injured 6-month-old boy, pregnant woman Former janitor at St. Michael Catholic Church in Independence sentenced for child pornography charges Prosecutor says Brooks was no threat to police officers and the one who shot him dead faces a potential death sentence. An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Atlanta police officer on 11 charges, including murder and assault, in relation to the killing of African American man Rayshard Brooks in the US city. Garrett Rolfe could face life without parole or the death penalty, a prosecutor said. Brooks fatal encounter with police came after an employee of a Wendys fast-food restaurant in Atlanta phoned the authorities last Saturday to say someone had fallen asleep in his car in the restaurants drive-through lane. The decision to prosecute came five days after the killing rocked a city and a nation already roiling from the death of George Floyd under a police officers knee in Minneapolis late last month. Mr Brooks never presented himself as a threat, Fulton County District Attorney Paul L Howard Jr announced on Wednesday, adding Brooks never showed aggressive behaviour. After he was shot, for some two minutes and 12 seconds, no medical assistance, said Howard. He said during that time, Rolfe kicked Brooks while he lay on the ground struggling for life. Rolfe shot Brooks after the 27-year-old Black man grabbed a Taser and ran, firing it from too far away to reach the white officer, the prosecutor said. Plus, the Taser had already been fired twice, so it was empty and no longer a threat, Howard said. Police officer Devin Brosnan, who was also on the scene, has become a states witness and will testify against Rolfe, Howard said an unprecedented development in a case against a former police officer. But a lawyer for Brosnan said he has not agreed to be a prosecution witness and had not pleaded guilty to anything. Brosnan faces three charges, including aggravated assault. Howard said Brosnan admitted he stood on Brooks shoulders after he was shot. Brosnans lawyer, Amanda Clark Palmer, said the charges against him were baseless. She said Brosnan stood on the wounded mans hand, not his shoulder, for a short period of time, seconds, to make sure Brooks did not have a weapon. Howard said they are recommending Rolfe not receive bail. Witnesses and videos The investigation began at 1:15am on Saturday morning, Howard said, and has continued round the clock since that time. Howard, the first Black man elected a district attorney in Georgia, said authorities had the opportunity to speak with 10 witnesses to the killing. Enhanced surveillance videos were also viewed by authorities. Although there was a 41-minute discussion between Brooks and the officers, Mr Brooks was never informed that he was under arrest for driving under the influence, Howard said. This is required by the Atlanta Police Department. The officers had established Brooks was not carrying a weapon. Howard said Brooks was calm, he was cordial, his demeanour almost jovial. Family members of Rayshard Brooks attending a news conference on Monday, June 15, 2020, in Atlanta [Ron Harris/AP Photo] Atlantas police chief, Erika Shields, resigned after the shooting last weekend. Brooks killing prompted Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to state there was a clear need to review use-of-force protocols for the citys police. Brooks widow Tomika Miller said the revaelations about his last moments were painful. I felt everything that he felt just by hearing it, she said tearfully at a news conference, and it hurt. L Chris Stewart, a lawyer for Brooks family, said he was disappointed in the state of policing in the United States. We shouldnt have to celebrate as African Americans when we get a piece of justice like today. I got him Howard noted that after Brooks had been shot, Rolfe exclaimed, I got him! A coroner determined the killing to be a homicide, though this is typically for statistical purposes and not a legal decision. Rolfe, who is white, was fired and Brosnan, also white, was put on administrative leave. Atlanta residents took to the streets, chanting for the officers to be criminally charged at one point late on Saturday blocking traffic on a nearby interstate highway and the restaurant went up in flames. Atlanta had already seen protests following Floyds death in May, part of the worldwide movement against racism and police brutality. Demands for police reform have become a rallying cry for the movement. In human history, the greatest crime against women is rape. Males have been raped, but all through history, females have been victims most of the time. Let us focus more on females, as approximately five times more females than men are victims of sexual assault and young adults are at especially high risk. Ages 12-34 are the highest risk years for rape and sexual assault of females. Rape and sexual assault involve involuntary sexual intercourse comprising both psychological coercions, as well as physical force. Rape points to forced sexual intercourse or sexual penetration (anal but vagina mostly) by the offender. Sexual assault includes attacks or attempted attacks involving unwanted sexual contact between the offender and the victim. It also involves such things fondling, groping, grabbing and verbal sexual threats. In child sexual abuse, children are unable to give consent. Within Africa, Nigeria has extremely high levels of rape, sexual assault, and child violation. Equally reported in Nigeria are male rape and murder of female victims, and their ages range from a few months old to females in their 70s or more. Within the Nigeria environment, credible reports show that sexual violence, assault, and child molestations are happening in peculiar places like police custody, universities, schools, family homes, a childs bedroom, workplace, house of worship, relief camps, military custody, in a Doctors care, motor parks, and others. Female style of dressing which could be described as provocative dressing, like wearing skintight clothes, or Islamic women in modest dress like being hijab-clad, essentially does not result in a female becoming a victim of sexual violence. Reports have shown that rapists and child sexual abusers also attack females who are physically or developmentally disabled. Child-girl and elderly women wearing nonrevealing or everyday clothes are also victims of sexual predators. The commonsense question is what characteristic differentiates rapists and child violators from the general male populations. In my ongoing work as an American-based forensic, clinical and sex offending psychologist in the last 26 years, in line with research and practice outcomes, rapists are rapists everywhere, irrespective of ethnicity, educational or social-economic status. Generally, a rapists urge to engage in violence against females especially, starts in their teenage years, either as an individual or in a group form. Child neglect, an abusive father, child abuse, physical abuse, and bad company are all a significant part of their experiences. Sexual offenders, as early as in their teenage years, shows a disrespect for girls and women. Sexual perpetrators fail to recognize the humanity of others, females especially, as dehumanization and objectification of women is part of their reality. In their mind, they view a female not from the point of sexuality, but rather as an expression of control. Rapist and child violators are motivated by anger, resentment and general hostility towards girls and women. Sexual predators and violators have low inhibitions, find ways to justify their actions, have poor interpersonal and coping skills. Sexual abusers and rapists tend to fantasize about potential victims. Sexual abusers and rapists in the age of social media now prey on naive children using trickery, using the internet to meet, develop relationships with, and openly seduce underage teenagers and women. They tend to relive past sexual activities, want to have an emotional relationship with the child, and are known to have unsatisfactory relationships with adults. Sexual offenders mainly achieve sexual gratification when they inflict pain on their victims. Sexual predators in recent times engage in multiple roles as an offender, being a rapist, a child molester, or an incest offender. Sex offenders see themselves as entitled and superior beings; while engaging in marital, relationship or acquaintance, express these motives which they also show when they periodically engage in stranger or gang rape. They take time to plan their attacks, using sophisticated tactics to groom, trick, and isolate before attacking their victims. They exhibit weak impulse control, especially those that abuse children. Sexual assailants often have well-formulated tactics to hunt for strangers or seek out a familiar face, and, like con artists and bullies, assault their victims but tend to molest children repeatedly. Except those rapists and child abusers involved in general violent crimes, like kidnapping, robbery, and murder, they use more psychological weapons, like power, control, manipulation, and threats, and less of physical force, like guns and knives. They use alcohol and other substances deliberately to render victims more vulnerable to sexual attack. Now that we have a general idea of why some men become rapists and child molesters, let us see what they look for in potential victims. The first thing these men look for in a potential victim is hairstyle, so they go after a woman with long hair, bun, braid, or hairstyle which can easily be grabbed. Sexual assailants look for a style of clothing that can be removed quickly; as such they carry scissors and other cutting objects. Sexual offenders look for women preoccupied on their cell phone, searching through their purse, or doing other activities while walking because they are caught off guard and can be easily overpowered. Rapists are most likely to attack in the early morning, between 5:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. There are those who risk assaulting women and girls anytime, if they feel no one can find them. The primary places women are abducted are in grocery stores, general parking, office parking lots, garages, and public restrooms. Rapists are the types who look to grab a woman and quickly move her to another location where they do not have to worry about getting caught. Globally, societies, policymakers and clinicians focus more on the female victim, but it is time to learn about these men who rape women and girls so as to be able to control and treat them which can reduce their dangerousness in society. These potential or convicted sexual aggressors in regards to rape and child molestation need to be involved in psychological treatment and therapeutic changes, using treatment focused on a cognitive-behavioral model. Within the African societies, in Nigeria sex offences are soaring, due to longstanding failures of families, police, investigators, the courts, policymakers and legislatures. No comprehensive investigation, prosecution, and rehabilitation of offenders (rapists, pedophiles, child molesters, incest offenders, cyber offenders, exhibitionists, and others) exist in terms of a significant success rate. The John Egbeazien Oshodi Foundation, a Nigerian-based nonprofit Psychological Forensic Behavioral Center carries out most of its services digitally. This now includes STOP IT RIGHT NOW, an Online Sex Offending At-Risk Study, Assessment, and Therapy Service. With our online therapy, you can access psychological services within the comfort of your home, through your computer or mobile device, and find therapeutic aid when you need it the most, especially if you feel that the person who abused you currently poses a risk to a child or teen. At STOP IT RIGHT NOW, we work to prevent the sexual abuse of adults and children by educating adults, families, and communities about sexual offending and then take actions that protect potential victims before they are harmed. Providing specialized treatment programs for sex offenders is part of our work. At JEOF, we provide online workshops on sex offending behaviors, systems intervention, and prevention strategies trainings, live webinars and other online related learning, Our whole method to safety brings education and information together with confidence and skill building events to prepare adults to speak up and prevent sex abuse. JEOF welcomes you: If you are an adult worried about your sexual thoughts and feelings towards potential victims and children. If you are an adult and recognize a sexual behavior problem in yourself that can make you feel frightened. If you as an adult, or someone you love, needs support to recover before they act or abuse out again. If as an adult, you feel that the person who abused you currently poses a risk to a child or teen. If you are a recovering sex offender, a released sex offender or on community service supervision by the court. If you as an adult who wants to learn how to manage the behavioral choices that have created pain and chaos in your live and the lives of others. While treatment does not eliminate sexual crimes, with prevention education, prevention advocacy, systems education, and appropriate treatment, we can decrease sex offenses and protect potential victims. As a nonprofit Psychcorp organization, we will serve as a technology-initiated source of practical, cutting-edge information for families, professionals, criminal justice systems and public policymakers, as well as bring out promising and best-practice interventions with those who sexually abuse or display sexual offensive behavior problems. Online JEOF will work with relevant service providers, families, schools, institutions, law enforcement agencies, correctional system, and the courts for better therapeutic community management of sex offending persons. Prof John Egbeazien Oshodi, Ph.D. is a Florida-based Forensic/Clinical Psychologist with over 25 years of psychological practice. His services involve sex offender evaluation for the Sexually Violent Person, Sexually Violent Predator, or Sexually Dangerous Person. Prof Oshodi can provide an array of psychological forensic services including expert witness and consultation, evaluations, assessments, and treatment. JEOF is an extension of his work in Africa in collaboration with academic and clinical type programs, especially in Nigeria. Contact my Nigeria Business Manager, Benedicta Oriavwote (813 876 0079). For Program Education, contact Mamman Mohammed Munir (706 878 0090) or contact me directly at 305 505 3018; email of [email protected] Visit: http://www.trans-atlanticinstitute.com To tide over the liquidity crisis created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has eased capital raising norms for listed companies. The markets regulator has amended the takeover code to allow promoters to acquire up to 10 per cent in a financial year without triggering an open offer. However, such an acquisition can be done only through the preferential issue of equity shares. In other words, promoters will have to infuse fresh capital into their company and not simply acquire shares from the secondary market. In the normal course, promoters ... He appeared on Love Island during its third series in 2017. And Jonny Mitchell has revealed on Wednesday that he's traded the reality star life for a new calling, taking care of stray dogs in Bali with girlfriend Simone Engelhardt. The TV personality, 29, moved to the Indonesian island six months ago, and has said his move has led him to 'change a lot' as his 'priorities reshuffle[d] almost overnight'. New calling: Love Island's Jonny Mitchell revealed on Wednesday that his life has 'changed a lot' since moving to Bali as he found his 'higher purpose' by helping take care of stray dogs In a lengthy caption alongside a snap with the dogs he's been taking care of, Jonny explained: 'Ive changed a lot in the last 6 months. 'And when I say changed a lot, I mean almost a complete 180 in how I see life and how I gauge my success and happiness. And how Ive noticed my priorities reshuffle almost overnight. 'But one of the biggest most unexpected changes Ive seen in myself is my new overwhelming sense of duty towards helping dogs on this tiny little island. 'And how I feel like somehow one of my higher purposes in life is to make a difference by helping more dogs that need it. Reality TV: Jonny appeared on Love Island during its third series in 2017, but was dumped from the villa on day 38 after being paired with Camilla Thurlow and Amber Davies Jetsetters: Jonny moved to Bali with girlfriend Simone Engelhardt (pictured) six months ago 'Ive fallen in love with Bali since Ive been living out here but it doesnt excuse some of the approaches they have in relation to animal rights and how theyre treated.' Going on to detail the conditions these stray dogs face on the island, he went on to say a lot are 'on the street' but while most 'get by just fine' there are many puppies that struggle to find food. He added that there are also 'the older or weaker dogs who end up starving or getting seriously ill with no help.' 'These problems arent huge compared to many of the worlds issues right now,' Jonny continued. 'But it is something that I feel that I can make a real impact on in my own way. Higher purpose: In a lengthy caption alongside a snap with dogs, Jonny said he has 'changed a lot' since moving to Bali, and now feels an 'overwhelming sense of duty towards helping dogs' 'Ive always liked dogs, but now its so different, Now theyre a huge part of my everyday life. These rescue pups are family now. 'And I want to keep up the good work. So Im not sure what it is yet, But I know for sure that something big around helping the dogs here in need is on my path in the very near future. 'And as most of my followers are huge dog lovers I cant wait to share it all with you.' Jonny joined the villa on day four but was dumped on day 38 after being paired with Camilla Thurlow and Amber Davies. Assistance: Jonny went on to say a lot of dogs are 'on the street' but while most 'get by just fine' there are many puppies that struggle to find food and that's why he wanted to help them It was revealed in December that Jonny split with his fiancee Danielle Zarb-Cousin one year after getting engaged. Danielle broke the news of their breakup on Instagram when she uploaded a short video clip of her wearing her wedding dress. In a lengthy post, the brunette confirmed her relationship with the millionaire was no more and the split had been 'pretty traumatising' to come to terms with. She wrote: 'It isnt just cancelling a wedding, its saying goodbye to the vision you had for the rest of your life after that day. Split: It was revealed in December that had Jonny split with his fiancee Danielle Zarb-Cousin (pictured) split up one year after getting engaged 'The venue, the laughter, the family members and the start of a journey with someone who you love and who will love you for the rest of your life, no matter what, for better or worse. 'The places you would live and the things you would see together. I am not posting this for sympathy but for my own closure. Im saying goodbye to the girl in this dress, Im saying goodbye to her for good. 'Its been pretty traumatising for me having to come to terms with everything lol but Im only looking forward from now on. God has a different plan for my life. I hope the next chapter is the best one yet.' Breakup: In a lengthy post, the brunette confirmed their relationship was no more and the split had been 'pretty traumatising' to come to terms with as she shared a video in a wedding dress She later added another piece to her post and stressed that she and Jonny have ended their relationship on good terms and wish each other well. She wrote: 'Edit - the details are between Jonny & I. We have some amazing beautiful memories together which I will always cherish and I wish him nothing but happiness and success with everything he does in his life.' Following speculation on the nature of the breakup, Danielle took to her Instagram Stories and confirmed neither she nor Jonny were unfaithful to each other. She wrote: 'Before this gets out of hand, nobody cheated. We had a very loving relationship for the best part of two years and that's why it's so hard to go our separate ways. Life happens.' Since the coronavirus pandemic forced school closures nationwide and a transition to online classes, enrolled international students have had numerous questions about possible changes in visa guidelines. To help schools and international students steer through these unprecedented times, the U.S. government's Student and Exchange Visitor Program, or SEVP, has released guidance on student visa regulations, which it continues to update as the COVID-19 situation evolves. "SEVP has been quite accommodating in these trying times and have relaxed some of the main issues that affect international students who are still at university," says Prithvi Reddy, a Ph.D. student from India studying mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University. For example, SEVP has said there should be no impact on international students' immigration status if schools change their grading policy to pass-fail as a result of the switch to online classes. Still, many international parents and students have concerns, says John Gu, an educational consultant who works mainly with Chinese students and is the founder of Unibond Education in Massachusetts. "Returning students worry about the interruption of international travel," Gu says. "Other concerns include the economic impact on their financial aid or school-sponsored work opportunities, lack of internship opportunities, shortage of international student support due to funding cuts, schools' financial stability, etc." [Read: Ways U.S. Colleges Support International Students During Coronavirus.] Here are three areas enrolled international students and recent graduates should be aware of in light of updated guidance from the government: -- Requesting a temporary absence -- Remote learning in the summer -- Flexibility with OPT required hours Requesting a Temporary Absence To maintain their immigration status, students on an F-1 student visa must enroll in what's known as a "full course of study." Per the updated government guidance, if students are not willing to enroll in online classes and therefore are not taking a full-time course load, they will have to request a temporary absence. Story continues Students planning to take the option of a temporary absence should contact their designated school official, or DSO, who helps them maintain their legal status to study in the U.S. Typically, an F-1 student may be able to take an authorized leave of absence from school due to unforeseen circumstances. When students take a temporary absence, their record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, will be set to terminated status for "Authorized Early Withdrawal." SEVIS is used by the U.S. government to maintain information on international students. When students take an authorized temporary absence of less than five months, their record can be corrected in SEVIS to active status when they return and re-enroll in school, which will allow those students to re-enter the U.S. using their previous SEVIS ID number, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, known as DHS. [Read: What International Students Should Know About Maintaining Visa Status.] Students outside the U.S. for more than five consecutive months will need to obtain a new Form I-20, the Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status, an important form used throughout an international student's studies in the U.S. They must also pay the I-901 SEVIS fee again if their original visa is no longer valid. But as a result of COVID-19, there may be more flexibility. "Given the uncertainty that still exists, especially with the various travel restrictions and the temporary closure of U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, the five-month rule has been relaxed for the time being," says Christian Stuart, executive director of the Center for On-Campus International Student Services in the College of Education and International Services at Andrews University in Michigan. Remote Learning in the Summer U.S. government regulations typically permit international students to take just one online class a semester. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, SEVP issued guidance in March that gave universities some flexibility to implement temporary adjustments, such as moving to online instruction, that would not affect the immigration status of enrolled international students who maintain their full course of study online. Earlier this month, SEVP stated that it has not yet issued guidance to schools and international students for the fall semester. However, it says the temporary changes that permit international students to participate in remote learning remain valid through the summer session. "F-1 students who are not in the United States, but attend a college or university that offers online or other alternative learning procedures, must participate in these programs to remain in valid status," says Raymond G. Lahoud, an immigration attorney and member and chair of Immigration Practice Group in Pennsylvania. Once colleges begin offering only in-person classes without remote learning alternatives, "international students will be required to return to the U.S. to take the in-person classes," or their visa status may be affected, Stuart says. Flexibility With OPT Required Hours Another area with updated guidance that international students should be aware of relates to temporary employment through the Optional Practical Training, or OPT, work program. Typically, for what's known as post-completion OPT, students who have completed their degrees must work at least 20 hours a week. [Read: What to Know About Optional Practical Training Work Authorization.] However, SEVP has updated its guidance due to COVID-19. If the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak causes students' hours to drop below 20 hours a week, they can still be counted as taking part in OPT. "Students currently in the U.S. on OPT have some flexibility. Since OPT can either be a paid job or volunteer work or a combination of both, a student who drops below 20 hours per week of work hours might consider adding some volunteer hours," Stuart says. He says students who are outside of the U.S. can participate in OPT if they had already applied and been approved before they left in the spring term, and if the OPT work remains with a U.S.-based company or organization and the student can do the work remotely. "For example, if a student completed a teaching degree in the spring term and was offered a teaching position through OPT for the summer in a U.S.-based institution, but that teaching position is now for an online class because the institution moved to remote learning, the student can continue with the OPT while outside of the U.S.," Stuart says. It remains unclear whether international students can apply for OPT while outside of the U.S. Matthew Bourke, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of DHS, wrote in an email that OPT applications are being "evaluated by USCIS officers on a case-by-case basis to determine eligibility while noting all available information." International students must have an active status listed in SEVIS, Bourke says, and their designated school official must enter a recommendation for OPT into the student's record. Since the government's updates likely do not yet answer all of the questions international students have, Stuart says patience will go a long way at this time. He recommends international students stay in direct and regular contact with their individual school's international student services office and designated school official, and to avoid relying on rumors or anecdotal information. "The DSOs and other international student services advisers at colleges and universities are monitoring the rapidly changing developments daily, taking in and processing updates from government agencies and interpreting students' options based on relevant regulations," Stuart says. Searching for a college? Get our complete rankings of Best Colleges. More From US News & World Report SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Teamsters Local 340 and Catholic Charities USA launched a three-day mission to deliver desperately-needed food to the charitable organization's chapters across New England, starting the trip from the union hall in South Portland. Over the next three days, the Teamsters will deliver more than 40,000 pounds of food to locations in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Teamsters Local 340 and Teamsters Joint Council 10 have partnered with Catholic Charities for more than 10 years, donating time, labor and the use of the joint council's truck to help deliver food and supplies to those most in need. "Teamsters are always happy to participate in something so worthy that helps so many of our friends and neighbors," said Brett Miller, President of Teamsters Local 340. "It is what we do, and it is even more needed right now. We always hope none of our members need this help, but if they do, we know it is there and we are doing our part to make sure of that." In the past, the two organizations have held an annual Statewide Food Drive which concluded at the Maine Potato Blossom Parade in Fort Fairfield, Maine. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 parade was cancelled, but the demand for food and donations for those in need has only increased during this crisis. "We have a tremendous amount of gratitude for the relationship we have with the Teamsters," said Judy Katzel, spokesperson for Catholic Charities Maine. "We couldn't do something of this magnitude without this the support from Teamsters Local 340 and Joint Council 10. Working with the Teamsters, we are literally able to feed thousands of people across four states with just one drive." Over the course of the three-day trip, the Teamster truck will drop off 40,000 pounds of potatoes that were donated by McCain Foods USA. The potatoes were packed and grown by Guerrette Farms in Caribou and loaded on the truck in Monticello. On Friday, the truck will pick up two pallets of cheese in Manchester, NH that will then be transported back to Catholic Charities in Monticello. A full itinerary of the trip is included below. Media interested in covering any of the deliveries across New England can contact Traci St. Clair at (207) 554-8330 for exact arrival and departure times. All contacts listed below are with local Catholic Charities locations. Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 1-1:30 p.m. Teamsters Local Union 340 27 Main St., South Portland, ME 04106 Teamsters Joint Council 10 truck arrives from Monticello, Maine with 40,000 lbs. of potatoes in a Catholic Charities trailer. Thursday, June 18, 2020 Timetable for locations below TBD, please Catholic Social Services Fall River Greater New Bedford Regional Tech High School 1121 Ashley Blvd., New Bedford MA 02745 Matt Dansereau, (508) 951-0598 Catholic Charities St Martin De Porres Center Providence 160 Cranston St., Providence RI 02970 Linda A'Vant'Deishinni, (401) 215-7388 Catholic Charities Worcester 10 Hammond St, Worcester, MA 01610 Maydee Morales (203) 814-0365 Friday, June 19, 2020 Catholic Charities New Hampshire Food Bank 700 East Industrial Park Drive, Manchester, NH 03109 Ann Coates/Mark Gambeski (603) 669-9725 Contact: Traci St. Clair, (207) 554-8330 [email protected] SOURCE Teamsters Local Union 340 A local councillor has lashed out at those responsible for racist graffiti that appeared overnight in Ardee. It is the second such incident in recent weeks. Sinn Fein Councillor Pearse McGeough said he was called out yet again to survey graffiti in the Ardee area, this time it was along River Walk and appeared to have been done by the same people as before. A few weeks ago on 24th May Cllr McGeough hit out at racist graffiti that had been sprayed on walls at Railway Walk in the town and it has since been repainted and said it was not reflective of the decent people of Ardee. Cllr McGeough received abuse online from a small number for speaking out but he consistently repeated that racism must be confronted at all levels. As news filtered through of the unfortunate events in America and the death of George Floyd over the following week and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the abuse against Cllr McGeough subsided. Cllr McGeough said racism and bigotry in all its forms sickens me, whether its aimed at someone for their colour, culture, sexual orientation or whatever. It must be confronted on all levels. Whether its badly spelt graffiti, verbal abuse, assaults or murder, it must be confronted by all decent people and not left to those minorities who are targeted. Racism must not be allowed to gain momentum in this country and all communities must work together to ensure that happens. Cllr McGeough said Ireland is growing into a multi-cultural place to live and work and that diversity is to be welcomed. We are citizens of Ireland but we are also citizens of the world. We should not be afraid of change or diversity. What is worrying continued Cllr McGeough, is that the seeds of racism tend to grow in areas where there is poverty or low resources so you have that mentality that immigrants are taking our houses or immigrants are getting everything while WE are struggling. While this vile notion is being entertained, attention is being diverted from those actually responsible for the housing shortage or the low resources in the area, the Government and their policies. Cllr McGeough said put the blame where it belongs. The government of any country wants to divide and conquer, and racism plays into their hands. Its always easier to blame those who are vulnerable or in a minority, that is unacceptable. We have another term of government now with Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens who have failed the people consistently over the past 90+ years and their policies havent changed so we can expect more of the same and we have to stop turning on each other and blaming minorities no matter what colour or culture they are. Its not fair. It is not fair to attack any vulnerable group or minority and most Irish people are decent. We saw that at the last election when the representative running on a racist platform only got a handful of votes. However, we all need to stand together and confront racism at every level, no matter how insignificant or blatant, from graffiti to murder, we need to have the long overdue hate legislation enacted so that people who carry out hate crimes at any and every level can be prosecuted and punished accordingly. We must have zero tolerance on racism. Twenty-five more people tested positive for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday, taking the states Covid-19 count to 585. Eight cases were reported from Kangra, seven from Hamirpur, three from Chamba, two Solan and one from Sirmaur. Four cases were reported from Una late on Tuesday. SSB JAWAN, WOMAN DOC TEST POSITIVE IN KANGRA Kangra deputy commissioner Rakesh Kumar Prajapati said a 44-year-old Sashastra Seema Bal personnel deployed at the Union home ministry in Delhi was among the new positive cases. He came to Himachal on June 13 and was under institutional quarantine in Dehra. He developed fever and was shifted to Dharamshala zonal hospital on June 15. His test result turned out positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, said Prajapati. Besides him, three of a family including a 34-year-old woman and her two daughters, aged 7 and 3, were among the patients. They had returned from Gurugram on June 12 and were in institutional quarantine. The above four patients have been shifted to the Covid hospital in Dharamshala. Another family of two including a 55-year-old man and his 46-year-old wife, who had come from Delhi on June 9, also tested positive. Moreover, a 23-year-old Delhi-returned youth was found infected. A 30-year-old woman doctor who was deployed at a quarantine centre has Covid-19. Seven cases were reported in Hamirpur district. Four are from Barsar sub-division and two from Bhoranj. Details of one patient are awaited. The four patients have been shifted to a Covid-care centre in Dadh. Three cases have been reported in Chamba. These include a 27-year-old man from Thanoli village, a 22-year-old youth of the same village and a 30-year-old from Chowari. So far, Himachal has recorded 585 cases, of which 368 have recovered while six people, three men and three women, have succumbed to the disease. Eleven patients have migrated to other states. 198 ACTIVE CASES There are 198 active cases in the state as seven patients recovered on Wednesday. Kangra is the worst-hit district with 155 cases followed by Hamirpur with 141 cases. Una has recorded a total of 77 cases, Solan has 61 cases, Chamba 42, Bilaspur 29, Sirmaur 28, Mandi 23, Shimla 21, Kullu four and Kinnaur three cases. HIGHER RECOVERY RATE The hill states recovery rate has gone up significantly in the past week. Currently, it stands at 63.44% compared to the 55.79% at the national level. Last week, the recovery rate was 57%. The doubling rate of Covid-19 cases of the state was 22.3 days which is almost equal to the national rate of 22.8 days. Himachal is conducting 7,546 tests per million compared to 3,913 tests being conducted at national level. The fatality rate was low at 1.4% while nationally it is 2.44%. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON One positive outcome of the coronavirus pandemic has been agencies increased ability to quickly adapt to new circumstances, thanks, in many cases, to their use of robotic process automation (RPA) and chatbots to deliver internal and external services. In Missouri, the Office of Administrations IT Services Division, the states consolidated IT organization, launched a chatbot to help handle vastly more inquiries about unemployment insurance. Like most everybody, our unemployment insurance exploded, and in order to help relieve calls from the call center, we implemented a chatbot, Missouris CIO Jeffrey Wann said. We did it in about a week and then [spent] about a week and a half to train it. Weve got it down now so that we can deploy a chatbot technically in about 24 hours, he said. Weve set up four of them now, and other areas of government are lining up. They want to do the same thing. At the federal level, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched the CMS Employee Roll Call Bot that can flag when employees arent logging in or are having trouble accessing agency systems. It gives senior leaders a single, up-to-date visual source of information about the health of its internal IT systems, communications networks and personnel. Other ways that RPA can help agencies during the pandemic include prioritizing help-desk response to automatically prioritize emails about suspected IT incidents related to teleworking, automating COVID-19-related cyber threat response and patching and improving telehealth scheduling to reduce virus spread. What we found emerge directly from this COVID crisis -- and of course the very sudden and extensive amount of teleworking that its created -- is that its shined a bright light on the need for modernization, said Leslie Steele, CEO of IT services company InterImage. Now, suddenly, because of this COVID crisis, its a much bigger conversation. This increased attention may be the result of the greater security risks agencies face as their attack surfaces have expanded with more remote workers who sometimes struggle to securely connect to agency networks and data and share information, she said. Steele said the pandemic has not necessarily fast-tracked RPA projects, but it has heightened interest in the technologys ability to solve problems quickly. Thats because bots can be created and implemented within weeks, whereas most systems take years to build, particularly when starting with a new solution. That is absolutely revolutionary. It doesnt happen with any other technology, she said. As agencies explore RPA, they should remember that its easiest to apply to rules-based processes and systems that are stable and well-documented, she said. Its harder to use with systems that change frequently because the bot has to change in response. Also, processes that require human intervention can still benefit from RPA, but they might have a lower return on investment. Whether its better to buy or build a bot depends on the situation, Steele added. With RPA solutions, yes, they have to buy the platform that gives them the bot licenses, but the solution itself is not off the shelf, she said. Its so inexpensive to develop a custom solution that it makes more sense to build than to try and buy something off the shelf thats only going to [meet] part of their needs. The technology prerequisites for bots depend on the type of automation agencies need. Tended bots can run on any local machine that has Microsoft Windows 7 or higher, while unattended bots require a server and an orchestrator that fits the application theyre using. Bots and bot components may be shared across and within agencies, typically with the help of a commercial implementation partner. The IRS, for example, is setting up an RPA library of reusable components that any developer within the agency can use, Steele said, and InterImage is helping seed that library with components for error logging or performing certain kinds of searches. The General Services Administration has started an RPA community of practice that has 900 members across the government. Through that, there may be opportunities for sharing information and technology. RPA has staying power, especially as workloads increase, Steele said. Once people start working with bots, she said, they see that value firsthand and honestly they dont want to go back. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 04:38:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Platforms like the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit are important in strengthening global solidarity in the fight against the novel coronavirus, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. "Unity and solidarity are very important to defeat this virus. When unity and solidarity is lacking, when there is a crack between us, the virus exploits that crack between us," said Tedros at a press conference in Geneva. "That's why national unity and global solidarity is important, and platforms like this will be important in strengthening solidarity across the globe." The world has now recorded more than 8 million cases of COVID-19. Noting that 85,000 cases were reported in the first two months of the outbreak but 6 million have been reported in the past two months, Tedros underlined that "the virus is accelerating and moving really fast." "It's only by moving faster that we can defeat it, and to move fast, the most important element is unity and solidarity," he added. He recalled that "since the pandemic started, China has been supporting Africa... especially in sending experts, sharing information, in addition to that, in providing support with supplies, test kits." Tedros expressed his concern that "although the number of cases in Africa is the lowest compared to other regions, it is at the same time accelerating." The continent has reported more than 180,000 confirmed cases to WHO. The Extraordinary China-Africa Summit, held via video link on Wednesday, was jointly proposed by China, South Africa, the rotating chair of the African Union (AU), and Senegal, the co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Tedros and Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, attended the meeting as special guests. Enditem Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) World-class beach destination Boracay recently reopened to local tourists but this time, a trip to the island wont mirror your previous stays or preconceived notions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Forget crowded shores or beach parties. Just like other places around the globe, the renowned tourist spot is abiding by the new normal in travel with strict health and safety protocols in place to curb the spread of the viral disease. What will your stay in Boracay look like in the time of coronavirus? CNN Philippines spoke to Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat to learn more. Contactless transactions To prevent physical contact, commercial establishments and other industries have gone digital when it comes to payments and transactions. Services in Boracay are no exception. Upon entering the island, guests will be given a QR code for faster, contactless processes. The code will also be used for the medical declaration forms. Standard health protocols A COVID-19 hotline will also be in place to cater to guests possible health concerns. Meanwhile, individuals with high temperatures will be brought to the nearest hospital. If a person tests positive for coronavirus, he or she will be transported out of the island immediately. Face masks will also be provided for guests, while hand sanitizers and alcohols will also be available in accommodations and establishments. Physical distancing shall also be strictly observed. Authorities have also placed foot markings along the island to make sure guests follow the rule. Reduced operations, limited guests For now, the island is only accepting tourists from the Western Visayas region. The move is seen as a dry run, with authorities still studying the possibility of opening Boracays doors to other low-risk COVID-19 areas. Under quarantine rules, tourists above 60 years old and below 21 years old are still prohibited from entering the island. Not many people or hotels are wanting to open because its only for Western Visayas, Puyat said in an interview with The Source. She added that as of Wednesday, only 91 hotels have signified that they wanted to resume operations. Activities involving close physical contact will likewise be prohibited, the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force earlier announced. However, authorities have yet to specify what these activities are. Same brand of service Despite the new measures, the Tourism department assured that a Boracay trip will still let guests experience the same brand of customer service the Philippines has long been known for. Even with all the safety protocols in place, you still felt the Filipino brand of service, people were so warm, Puyat added. Breach of protocols? The DOT said it has also revoked the accreditation of a resort which housed a group that supposedly breached quarantine protocols after visiting the island prior to its official opening. Local officials said they have initiated contact tracing measures, while staff and management of the resort are now under quarantine. Tensions between the world's two most populous countries have risen to their highest levels in more than four decades after dozens of Chinese and Indian soldiers were reportedly killed in hand-to-hand combat in the Himalayas. Chinese state media said on Wednesday that as a measure of good will, the Chinese government would not release the number of People's Liberation Army soldiers killed in the battle. Indian news agency ANI claimed 43 Chinese soldiers had been killed or seriously injured in the clash, which reportedly involved iron rods, clubs and soldiers being pushed off cliffs, but no firearms. An Indian man holds a photograph of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest against China in Ahmedabad, India, this week. Credit:AP Indian officials confirmed on Wednesday that at least 20 Indian soldiers had been killed in the dispute. At least part of the fight took place at night on a narrow ridge, according to the Financial Times, which, quoting Indian media, reported that some Indian troops fell into a ravine below. India and China signed a treaty in 1996 that said neither side would use its military capability" against the other on the disputed border, limiting the use of firearms. Three southern US states have seen thousands more people contract Covid-19 this week as confirmed cases surpass previous 24-hour highs. Authorities in Arizona, Florida and Texas all announced alarming one-day increases in new cases on Tuesday, which have broken records set since the Covid-19 pandemic began in March. Arizona reported 2,392 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday whilst Texas reported 2,622 and Florida reported 2,783 new cases. The three Sun Belt states, who were among the earliest to ease lockdown measures, are now among 21 states with an upward spike in Covid-19 infections, according to John Hopkins University data. Some public health experts are now concerned that virus transmission is increasing as states open-up. Floridas Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, meanwhile dismissed those concerns and said he would not shut down the state. Were going to go forward. Were going to continue to protect the most vulnerable, said Mr DeSantis on Tuesday. Were going to urge, continue to advise, particularly our elderly population to maintain social distancing, avoid crowds. Were not shutting down, he added. You have to have society function. Those comments came as bars on Floridas Jacksonville Beach closed to sanitise this weekend, some seven days after the state permitted bars, cinemas and tattoo parlours to reopen. Mr DeSantis, who maintains that increased testing has contributed to new highs in Covid-19 cases, denied that businesses were to blame on Tuesday. Theres been community spread the whole time, argued Mr DeSantis. Texas governor Greg Abbott attributed increased cases to backlogged infection reporting, among other anomalies, on Tuesday. Along with Florida and Arizona, Texas has however seen more hospitalised patients with Covid-19 since May, then was recorded in March when the pandemic began, said The New York Times. In Arizona, the state health departments website crashed on Tuesday as authorities announced the new one-day high in coronavirus cases. Despite those statistics, US vice president Mike Pence announced on the same day that there had been a great American comeback from the pandemic. Anthony Fauci, the Trump administrations top infectious disease expert, meanwhile warned that the pandemics second wave was still to come. 385 Shares Share On June 12, 2016, during LGBTQ+ pride month, a gunman opened fire inside Orlandos Pulse nightclub, an LGBTQ+ venue, killing 49 and wounding 53 others. Four years later, on June 12, 2020, the LGBTQ+ community mourned the deaths of Dominique Remmie Fells and Riah Milton, two black transgender women found murdered in Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. That very same day, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reversed a 2016 Rule regarding Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act which protected patients from discrimination on the basis of gender identity based on ones internal sense of gender, reverting instead to nondiscrimination on the basis of sex as male or female and as determined by biology. The new rule effectively removes certain legal protections for transgender patients, therefore putting an already vulnerable population at greater risk in the middle of a global pandemic. The timing of these events is drastic, but outlines the stark reality of transgender life in the United States: one lived under constant and unrelenting threat. The HHS defends the new rule by stating that concern about denial of basic health care to transgender individuals appears to be based largely on unsubstantiated hypothetical scenarios. This claim either ignores the volume of published literature to the contrary, or conflates the concept of basic health care with that of minimum health care. For example, a 2013 study of 350 transgender people living in Virginia found that 27 percent experienced transgender-based health care discrimination, citing several factors in addition to gender, including socioeconomic status, inability to obtain care, history of violence and substance abuse, and interpersonal factors. The 2008 National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), a landmark survey of 27,715 transgender patients, found that 31 percent delayed or avoided health care due to discrimination and that gender-nonconforming patients face more transphobic discrimination and experience more health-harming behaviors. While a survey of 131 transgender adults in Massachusetts found no significant health differences from non-transgender adults, these results were limited to patients with stable housing and situated in an area with traditionally high levels of health care and strong statewide anti-discrimination laws. Overall, these studies clearly demonstrate that health care discrimination against transgender patients is neither unsubstantiated nor hypothetical. It is not enough for transgender care to be made equal. Transgender patients often face health care issues far beyond the experience of non-transgender patients, and which demand an additional degree of clinical awareness. The increased risk of mental health compromise among transgender individuals is well-documented, and inseparable from the challenges they face across all aspects of society. The increasing prevalence of cross-sex hormone therapy is another such example, with likely side-effects of exogenous hormones including but not limited to sexual dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, and weight gain. Sex reassignment (or gender-affirming) surgery is often a necessary step in the treatment of gender dysphoria, and these patients accept the burden of a physical and financial toll in their search for well-being. For many transgender people, mistreatment is simply a way of life, one that extends to the health care they receive, and it should not be this way. Framing all patients within a binary of male vs. female is unacceptable and fails to acknowledge the interactions between a patients sex and multiple internal and societal factors, all of which contribute to their overall state of health. The health care system has never been kind nor fair to transgender individuals. A retrospective study of 79 transgender adolescents found that only 30 percent received insurance coverage for gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues, in spite of significant concurrent mental health conditions. The aforementioned 2008 National Transgender Discrimination Survey also found that more than half of patients who sought insurance coverage for sex reassignment surgery had their claims denied, regardless of evidence suggesting that gender-affirming care is cost-effective in the long term. In 2019, a federal judge found the Wisconsin Department of Health Services in violation of the law for denying Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgery, a policy rooted in a 1997 state regulation. It is this very law that has now been reversed by the HHS, and this exact form of discrimination which we are being told is merely hypothetical. As health care providers, there is much we can do to support our transgender patients today. Many health care systems have already instituted changes in response to the 2016 Rule, for example, a brief-but-important distinction between a patients gender identity and biologic sex within the electronic medical record. We can push to keep these changes in place, regardless of the new rule, and continue to further our efforts toward nondiscrimination. We can identify LGBTQ+ resources within our systems if they exist, and petition for their creation if they do not. We can identify and support local trans-positive organizations, such as Brooklyns Audre Lorde Project or Bostons Boston Area Trans Support, and nationwide organizations such as the National Center for Transgender Equality. We can take a moment to understand transgender terminology. We can incorporate transgender health education at all levels of medical learning, hire more transgender staff, and support open gender nonconformity in the workplace. We can educate ourselves on the LGBTQ+ experience through literature and discussion, and work to dismantle our own explicit and implicit biases. What we cannot do is allow politics to dictate the scope of our practice when so many vulnerable lives are at stake. As the world changes rapidly around us, we must be there to extend a hand, solemn in our knowledge that too many, too often, are left behind. Aaron Jen is a radiology resident. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Admin of Telegram channel to stay detained in porno peddling case TASS, Anton Vaganov 16:38 17/06/2020 MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) The Moscow City Court on Thursday dismissed an appeal against detention of the Police Ombudsman Telegram channels admin Igor Khudyakov until July 22 in a porno peddling case, lawyer Maxim Pashkov told RAPSI. Khudyakov was placed in detention in late May. He was arrested on April 23 in Volgograd and charged with illicit production and distribution of materials with sexual content by a group of people. According to Pashkov, the case was opened over publication of sex photos of a VKontakte female user in a closed chat. Searches were conducted in his premises, after which Moscow police reported a new criminal case over porno peddling against Vladimir Vorontsov, the creator of the Police Ombudsman Telegram channel. Khudyakov pleads not guilty. Vorontsov was arrested in Moscow on suspicion of extorting 300,000 rubles ($4,000) from a former Interior Ministry employee in May. Later, he was put in detention. According to the police, the arrested has demanded the money for non-distribution of personal photos, a source has said. From 2012 to 2017, the victim served in Moscow police. In October 2017, the suspect called him and demanded 300,000 rubles threatening to publicly share his personal photos, the statement reads. The victim refused and his photos were published in the Telegram channel. The University of Chicago maintains its own plasma banks, garnering interest from hundreds of donors but hoping for more. The hospital is collecting plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19. Donors must be 18 or older, eligible to donate blood and have tested positive for COVID-19 and recovered. People interested in donating can apply for screening on the COVID-19 convalescent plasma study website. Harrild pointed at Ice Condos in Toronto as emblematic of the phenomenon: From February to June, the number of Ice Condos units listed on the long-term market has grown by 234%. At Ice Condos, for example, there are now 147 units available for rent, which is unbelievable, Harrild told The Financial Post. Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation Inc., expressed scepticism at the connection between Airbnbs decline and more long-term listings, however. The data indicate that there has been a very large percentage year-over-year increase in new listings of long-term furnished units 62%, to be precise but, in absolute terms, an additional 213 new listings compared to last May is not very dramatic given the thousands of units that were estimated to have been operating as short-term rentals, Hildebrand said, referring to the Greater Toronto Area. The market saw a 12% annual increase in furnished listings last month, Urbanation figures indicated. Its history in the making: An ambitious, four-phase program of dives into the Pacific Ocean including to previously unexplored depths and a number of technical and scientific firsts. And Erin Moots, who grew up in Rio Rancho, will be along for the ride. Not into the depths of the Pacific, where her fiance, Kelly Walsh, is headed, but shell be aboard the mother ship thats transporting the 5-foot-wide, two-man submersible vessel carrying Walsh and Victor Vescovo. The vessel is capable of multiple, repeatable dives the only manned submersible of its kind that can dive to full-ocean depth, anywhere in the world, over and over again. This time its headed to the deepest place on the planet. Its a long way from when Moots was a girl, living on Sara Road, and attending Rio Rancho Elementary, Lincoln Middle School and Cibola High School, where she graduated in 1991. Walshs father, Don, 78, once named one of the worlds great explorers by Life magazine, preceded his son by 60 years into the depths of the ocean. He and famed underwater explorer Jacques Piccard were on the bathyscaph Trieste when it made a record-breaking dive into the Mariana Trench on Jan. 23, 1960 nearly 36,000 feet, or almost seven miles. Vescovo and the elder Walsh, a retired Navy captain, thought itd be neat to have his son take his place 60 years later. Moots, the chairwoman of the Sandia Prep performing arts department, had her usual summer work waylaid by the pandemic and could tag along. Walsh-Moots connection The engaged couples connection goes back to Moots days as a student at Eastern New Mexico University, where a roommate mentioned she should meet this guy who attended St. Johns College in Santa Fe. I never did, she said. Fast-forward to 2011. I was doing some graphic design work for (that) roommate, who asked to connect Moots with the same guy Walsh after almost two decades, since both were divorced. She did. They started getting to know each other online, and Moots flew to Oregon to meet him. After a six-year courtship, they became engaged in November 2017. He has the same sense of humor, she said. They dont have the same sense of adventure, given that Erin is a self-proclaimed couch potato. Me, personally, its just so wild what life throws into your path, she said. Me from a land-locked state, I meet somebody online and this guy Kelly falls in love with a land-locked desert rat. Theres no way I could design this in my head. Its hilarious, Walsh said of their courtship. You cant plan these things they just happen. Hes done the Arctic multiple times, Moots said. The closest I came was I joined him for (an earlier expedition) and was part of the greeting crew (in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada). I came back home when they launched. How did Walsh end up in Santa Fe? His dad was a dean at the University of Southern California, so it was easy to attend college there. But, In my sophomore year, he retired so I went to Santa Fe. I had a friend from high school who went (to Santa Fe College), and I fell in love with the people, Indians and the climate. Challenger Deep expedition Vescovo and Walsh will be headed next month to the bottom of the Western Pool of Challenger Deep, with three additional dives into Challenger Deep including the Western, Central and Eastern Pools. The objective is to do a further topographical and marine life survey of the entire Challenger Deep for a cumulative total this year of eight dives, all piloted by Vescovo. Initially, (Vescovos co-pilot) was to be his father; then it spiraled down to, What if your son did it?' Moots said. So Kellys going to be passenger, Victor the pilot. (The vessel) holds just two at a time. Theyll do multiple locations doing the Titanic again and the Mariana Trench. She was asked how shed answer if her fiance was to be the pilot and wanted her to be the passenger. I feel like, who would say no to that, but I have awful claustrophobia, she replied. But you just cant say no. Im not worried about being seasick. Moots left New Mexico on June 10 and said she expects to be home July 3. Shes the media director for the adventure, tweeting out updates and using other social media She said the expedition would involve three dives, each around nine hours long. I think were on the ship for 10 days, Moots said. Ill meet up with him in Seattle. Walsh, 52, agreed: 3 hours down, 3 hours up, and a couple hours poking around. Think of it as a plane ride long and uncomfortable. He has confidence in the vessel. Repeatable (uses) and safe, and when you do it this many times, its economically sound, he explained. Nobodys cookie-cutter building these; theyre built for specific tests, with goals in mind. Good engineering doesnt change. Hes eagerly anticipating the upcoming adventure. (The vessel) is climate controlled and has an oxygen scrubber, so the pressures the same as on the surface. Well be breathing regular oxygen at sea-level atmospheric conditions no decompression time, he said. The timing of the dive is gonna vary; (it depends) on how equipment is working. Ill be closing the circle bet my dad and myself. He isnt interested in shipwrecks. I dont care about the Titanic or the Bismarck, he said. I think salvaging them is a mistake I dont have interest in seeing them, rather seeing the natural world. Oceans have not been explored to the extent they should have been, (unlike space). The president of Honduras was hospitalized on Wednesday for Covid-19 and is being treated for pneumonia, a day after testing positive for the illness, a government health official said. The president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was admitted after laboratory tests and X-rays revealed the pneumonia. He was receiving medicine intravenously, said the health official, Francis Contreras, in a televised statement to the news media. But Mr. Contreras sought to reassure the country about the presidents condition. His general state of health is good, Mr. Contreras said, adding that the presidents medical team had recommended that he be treated as an inpatient at a hospital rather than remain at home. Mr. Hernandezs transfer to the hospital came hours after he announced, in a televised statement late Tuesday night, that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, joining a small group of world leaders infected in the pandemic that has swept the globe and reached into the halls of power of several governments. CALGARY, AB, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ZayZoon Inc., a leader in employee financial health services, is pleased to announce the addition of Marcos Lopez, Managing Director and Head of Shareworks by Morgan Stanley, and Ryan King, Co-Founder and CTO of Chime, to its Board of Directors. These individuals join ZayZoon's existing independent board members, which include Bill McAdam, Corporate Director and Chairman, and Casper Wong, Co-Founder and COO of FinanceIt. In addition, the Company issued $3.5 million in a private placement to the new directors, current shareholders and certain new investors. Marcos Lopez is the Managing Director and Head of Shareworks by Morgan Stanley, a leading global software solution for equity administration, financial reporting and compliance. Previously, Mr. Lopez was CEO of Calgary-based Solium, where Lopez was the original architect of the technology and a member of the executive team for almost two decades. Ryan King is the Co-founder and CTO of Chime, a San Francisco-based challenger bank with more than 8 million accounts. Chime helps its members avoid fees, save money automatically and achieve financial peace of mind. Chime recently raised US $500 million, valuing the company at US $5.8 billion. Ryan earned his M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University and a B.S. in Computer Science from UCLA. "We're thrilled to welcome such an accomplished group of individuals to our board," said Darcy Tuer, CEO of ZayZoon. "The depth of experience in financial technology, product, growth and value creation represented by Ryan, Marcos and Casper, combined with Bill's corporate stewardship, positions ZayZoon to continue its significant growth in the U.S., Canada and Australia." This private placement comes at a time of growth for ZayZoon and will help the company continue its mission of improving employee health through responsible financial products such as Earned Wage Access. ZayZoon's Wages On-Demand gives employees access to their wages as they earn them, in advance of their regularly scheduled paydays, protecting them from predatory products such as Overdraft Fees and Payday Loans. "It's rare that you find a company with the growth potential and social mission as that of ZayZoon," said Sandi Gilbert, Managing Director of InterGen Capital, a fund committed to accelerating the growth and scale of high-potential Calgary companies and one of the participants in this private placement. "Calgary was the economic envy of the entire continent for the last 20 years, and we believe investing in companies like ZayZoon is what will define the next 20 years and beyond," Ms. Gilbert exclaimed. About ZayZoon ZayZoon's mission is to provide workers with effective tools that improve their financial health in a socially responsible way. Launched in 2014, ZayZoon began with the idea of giving workers access to their earned wages in order to avoid high-cost loans and fees. ZayZoon is at the forefront in developing financial technology that empowers workers across North America by giving them the tools and the knowledge to better manage their financial health. Media Contact: Chaz Somers [email protected] Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and ZayZoon 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, other than as required by applicable securities laws. SOURCE ZayZoon Related Links https://www.zayzoon.com By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: Blame game between the BJD and BJP over COVID-19 management in the State continued on Tuesday with the latter criticising the State Government for not carrying out the required number of tests to detect infected persons. The BJP targeted the Government by alleging that it is failing to reach its own test target. State general secretary Golak Mohapatra alleged that while Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced testing capacity will be increased to 15,000 per day, maximum 3828 tests were conducted on June 13. So far, Odisha has conducted two lakh tests. On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh has managed to test 15,000 persons daily, he said and added that the number of tests in the neighbouring state has crossed five lakh. Referring to Ganjam, the BJP leader alleged that infection has spread in the district because of laxity on the part of administration to enforce restrictions on traders and businessmen. After shops and markets were allowed to open, people thronged those places leading to spread of the coronavirus, he alleged. Mohapatra demanded that all the migrant workers in quarantine centres should be tested. He said persons who have been released from the Covid-19 hospitals after recovery should also be tested again. BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra rubbished Mohapatras allegations and said BJP should not do petty politics when the country is fighting the pandemic. Besides, Odisha is in a better position because of the Government strategy to open temporary medical centers (TMCs) which none of the states have done, he said. "No other state has been able to take charge of the migrant workers up to the panchayat level by opening TMCs," Patra claimed and said Odisha is doing COVID-19 testing for symptomatic persons and random tests as per ICMR guidelines. On the COVID testing capacity, the BJD leader said it has been increased to 15,000 per day but Odisha is undertaking the tests as per ICMR and Government of India guidelines. The same procedure is also followed by BJP and Congress ruled states and Opposition must do some homework before levelling such allegations, Patra added. The Minority in Parliament is demanding the setting up of a commission of inquiry to probe what it is now an Aflao cocaine saga. Cocaine weighing about 100.1 grams with a street value of about $3,000 went missing at the Aflao border. Addressing the media in Parliament, a Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee of the House, James Agalga, said: it is the expectation of the minority that the current government will follow precedent by allowing an independent body to thoroughly investigate the Aflao cocaine saga. He recalled the Georgina Wood Commission of Inquiry probing the disappearance of cocaine from the MV Benjamin vessel in 2006 and the Kojo Armah committee in 2008 which probed the substitution of cocaine with flour at the CID headquarters. The disappearance of the cocaine at Aflao was followed by a back forth between the Narcotics Control Commission and the Ghana Revenue Authority over culpability. Mr. Agalga said the exchanges between the two indicated a grave danger to national security, adding that the lack of collaboration between these state entities must be investigated. The Minority in Parliament is of the view that the lack of synergy amongst the country's security agencies at our borders mirrors the failure of the leadership of President Akufo-Addo as chairman of the national security council, he stated. citinewsroom With international travel severely locked down thanks to The Bat Kiss, most of us can only dream of flying. Or maybe some would consider flying a nightmare right now, what with the whole lack of social distancing and prospect of breathing in recycled air for hours (even if there are hospital-grade filters, the idea is still off-putting). While the epicentre of the pandemic has shifted from Asia to the Americas, countries like India, China, Iran and Turkey still have a large number of cases, and youd have to be pretty brave to be travelling around just for kicks. YouTuber The Luxury Travel Expert recently posted a video of a business class flight they took with Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Dragon from Phnom Penh to Hong Kong in late February. This journey, recorded at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia, is an intriguing insight into how airlines have been handling flying during whats been one of the most challenging times for the industry in living memory. Departing from the small but very modern Phnom Penh International Airport, our experts flight to Hong Kong only took two hours. One commenter observed how weird it was that the airport and lounge was pretty chilled given that the pandemic was building up at that time. It was interesting to see how Cathay Dragons staff were adapting to the pandemic wearing facemasks, handing out antiseptic towelettes instead of hot towels, and a much slower boarding process than normal. Otherwise, things werent as grim as you might think. A full, decent meal served in normal tableware hell, you even got a full tub of Haagen-Dazs ice cream! Not bad for a two-hour flight. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cathay Pacific (@cathaypacific) on May 14, 2020 at 2:56am PDT Measures have become more drastic since the video was filmed in February. Since May, Cathay Dragon has required passengers to wear facemasks as well in order to travel, and flights across the world have become far less frequent than normal. Cathay Dragon, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, was one of the first airlines to implement safety measures because of COVID-19 as it flies to many destinations inside China. Australian airlines are no doubt looking to how Asian airlines have dealt with the pandemic now that Asia seems to be recovering quickly compared to other regions. Itll be interesting to see how the mood then compares to the mood now in airports around Asia, Australia and the world. Its cool to see how less scary flighting seems right now. Honestly, the video just makes us wish we could escape the winter weather and have a cheeky little holiday in Asia. Read Next BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 Trend: Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) made another charter flight from Moscow to Baku on June 17 in accordance with the plan determined by the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, AZAL told Trend. Some 152 Azerbaijani citizens were brought back home via this flight. After arriving in Baku, the passengers were placed in the quarantine. Ecuador, one of the countries in Latin America hardest hit by COVID-19, has hired Balsera Communications (Coral Gables, FL) to counter the perception that it is besieged by the virus and lacks a cohesive response. Working with the Ecuadorian ambassador to the US, Balsera is to execute crisis and reputational management pertaining to COVID-19 in the US. It will conduct outreach to think tanks and non-governmental thought leaders and monitor media and prepare appropriate reactions when necessary, according to its agreement with Ecuador The contract went into effect June 4 and runs through August 15. Balsera has received $37,500 to cover its May activity. ABC News reported that a major laboratory in Ecuador's capital city of Quito had to close June 12 and halt COVID-19 tests due to lack of basic supplies to analyze specimens. Corruption scandals have dealt a setback to testing, according to ABC. Ecuador's former president Abdala Bucaram was arrested earlier this month as part of a corruption probe after investigators found 5,000 masks and 2,000 test kits in his home. China announced it would support Ecuador in the battle against COVID-19 by supplying assistance and cooperating in areas such as vaccine and drug research and production. That development followed phone calls between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ecuadorian counterpart, Lenin Moreno, on June 16. Moreno called China Ecuador's most important comprehensive strategic partner. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nina Loasana (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17 2020 The Education and Culture Ministry has announced that the country will allow the reopening of schools located in COVID-19 low-risk areas, or green zones, starting in July. A joint ministerial decree by the education minister, religious affairs minister, home minister and health minister was announced on Monday to regulate the school reopening during the pandemic. "We'll allow schools in green zones to reopen," Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim said in Monday's online press conference. 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 As statues again come down as our culture is further torn up, something goes unsaid and often unnoticed: Notable Western historical figures are being condemned as immoral by the most immoral, decadent, depraved people among us. The cultural revolutionaries attacking statues and what they represent, generally speaking: support prenatal infanticide, support prenatal infanticide, which claims one million babies yearly in the U.S. and 40 to 50 million worldwide; are products of our Sexual Devolution, meaning theyre what we used to call people of easy virtue; in fact, theyre often downright depraved; are vulgar as can be, violating the biblical injunction to rid themselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips; support socialism, even though it now can be easily known that its a system causing death, destruction and misery. Moreover, consider the following list of virtues and ask yourself how many these revolutionaries embody as a group: charity, chastity, courage, diligence, kindness, faith, hope, honesty, fortitude, justice, temperance, prudence, patience, forgiveness, humility, and love. Why, could even one of them define virtue? So, I say to these civilization destroyers: Who the heck are you, you two-bit degenerates, to look down your noses morally at Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Christopher Columbus or, for that matter, the Founding Fathers, whom youre also attacking? Youre not fit to shine their shoes. By Richard Terrell of Aftermath Also generally unasked is this: If everyone associated with slavery is to now be demeaned, discredited and dishonored, wholl make the cut? With slavery once having been ubiquitous in this world, how many prominent people of ages past were not participants in, enablers of or tolerant with respect to the practice? Famed ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato, for example, both justified slavery. But historically speaking they werent outliers they were the norm. So, a wise person understands that a prerequisite for insight isnt infallibility, that throwing out the baby with the bathwater (which perhaps appeals to the abortion-crazed) leaves you with an empty past and unguided present. After all, what would be the result if we did this vis-a-vis technology, language and everything else and rejected all advancements/innovations birthed by people with checkered or racist pasts? Wed be left using sticks and stones while grunting. So is our cultural revolutionaries goal their own Year Zero, as the past is completely erased? Not exactly, and this brings us to the real prejudice here. While the rabble rousers claim to be so deeply offended by slavery, interestingly, they never complain about non-Western figures who embraced the practice. Consider Islams Mohammed, for example. He was not only a warlord, mass murderer, caravan raider and employer of torture who married a prepubescent girl, but also a slave owner and trader. Yet we never hear leftists rail against his exaltation or imply that his handiwork, the Koran, should be ignored. On the contrary, theyve often taught children Islam in schools. And no small number of black Americans have embraced that medieval slave owners faith. This double standard was also evident when cultural revolutionaries complained about Orange County, Californias airport being named after late actor John Wayne, whod made politically incorrect comments about race in a 1971 Playboy interview. Yet they were mum on Louisville, Kentuckys airport being renamed, just last year, after an individual who said in a 1975 Playboy interview, A black man should be killed if hes messing with a white woman. That individual was late boxer Muhammad Ali. If the leftists truly cared about slavery and prejudice, theyd actually applaud white people. Whites likely werent the first to practice slavery, after all. But they were the first to end it. Whites also arent the only ones whove exhibited prejudice, but they were the first to make taming it a priority. So, whats really going on here? The most Machiavellian cultural revolutionaries, the puppeteers, arent driven by a desire for justice but power. And you attack those whose power you want for yourself. In balkanized Western nations this means characterizing the power structure as white and then attacking it on that basis. As for the useful-idiot miscreants in the street, theyre not driven by justice but prejudice. Consider that Philadelphia rioters recently defaced the statue of anti-slavery icon Matthias Baldwin, who dedicated much of his life before, during and after the Civil War to helping black Americans and championing racial equality, writes the Western Journal. Of course, the vandals had no idea who Baldwin was and didnt care. Hes a dead white male. Thats enough. Oh, by the way, such ignorance reflects the deadly sin of sloth, which includes intellectual laziness; its yet another indicator of the cultural revolutionaries moral stature. In truth, though, its not uncommon for people to make moral judgments reflecting their time and place and themselves. This brings us to our leftists moral blindness, to their lack of self-awareness, which relates to their unforgiving nature. There are two yardsticks available for making moral judgments: the eternal and the ephemeral. The problem with moderns today especially the subspecies called leftists is that being moral relativists blind to Truths existence, they make everything relative to themselves. When we recognize Truth (by definition universal, eternal, transcendent and correlative to Gods existence) and use it as a yardstick for making moral judgments and assessing others, yes, their flaws are revealed. Theyll pale in comparison to Truth. But so will we. For Truth is perfect, but we can never be. So when a Truth-(God) oriented person views the world, he sees people down low, morally, who can only strive for those heavens of virtue. But he also sees himself right beside them, a brother in brokenness. This breeds humility and a forgiving attitude. The blind to Truth cannot, obviously, use it to make moral judgments and thus must use another guide. This often is whats most real to them, what feels best to them, something whose existence they cant deny: their own emotion. Hence the modern credo, If it feels good, do it. The issue, however, is that deifying ones feelings by making them arbiters of right amounts to deification of oneself. For once your emotions become the yardstick for morality your truth you can begin to see yourself as perfect. After all, how can you be out of conformity with yourself? But others will never conform to your god-self perfectly. This engenders a perspective where you see yourself occupying the heavens, in Truths place, looking down on the flawed ants who may dare defy your will and foil your plans. This breeds arrogance and unforgiving wrath (ergo, the cancel cultists). As G.K. Chesterton put it, It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong. Our cultural revolutionaries, with their corruption-catalyzed cocksureness, are the ultimate bigots. Yet in accordance with this, saner citizens must also see not only how they might have gone wrong, but how they actually have. Remember that the cultural revolution couldnt succeed if the wider society loved our culture as much as the miscreants hate it, if its righteous anger matched the mobs risible rage. Sadly, though, and reflecting the demoralization I wrote about last week, most today just dont have a strong enough emotional attachment to what once was our common culture. And to the purposeful and passionate go the victories. Eloi get subjugated by Morlocks every time. Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Gab (preferably) or Twitter, or log on to SelwynDuke.com. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 06:05:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SAN SALVADOR, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Jose, a Salvadoran migrant recently deported to El Salvador by the United States, said the brutal way he was treated by U.S. immigration authorities violated his human rights. He is one of thousands of mostly Central American migrants the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported amid the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening to fuel the outbreak even further, especially in less developed countries with weak healthcare infrastructure. "They hurt me a lot," the 47-year-old deportee, who asked to remain anonymous, told Xinhua from his mother's modest home in the southern department of La Paz. Jose was arrested in June 2019 in the U.S. state of Georgia on a driving infraction, and detained at an ICE facility because he has no legal documents for staying in the country. While in custody, he developed a hernia that required surgery. In April 2020, about 10 days after the surgery, while he was recovering in a cell at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, guards ordered him to prepare for deportation. He was still unable to stand up, so the guards grabbed him by his legs and neck to take him to a wheelchair. As he writhed with pain, they dropped him and he remained on the floor until nurses came to pick him up about 15 minutes later, he recounted. "They grabbed my feet by force," said Jose, adding he pleaded that they simply deport him on a later date, once his surgical wound had healed. Instead, "one of them said 'turn off the cameras', because they knew what they were doing was a violation," said Jose. Jose, who was put on a flight to El Salvador and deported on April 7, had previously lived in the United States for 17 years and expelled in 2018. He returned to the United States because he wanted to reunite with his four young children and restart a small construction business, where he employed 10 people and paid taxes. When he was arrested again last year, he had been back for only a few months. In El Salvador, he was the target of a kidnapping by criminals who assumed he had money from his years in the United States. They shot at his vehicle, causing him to collide and suffer injuries that later led to the hernia. At Stewart, he was also concerned about being exposed to COVID-19 in cells that usually held 80 or 90 migrants. "There were people who were already starting to have COVID-19 symptoms" and "they (the ICE) were covering up that many migrants were getting sick," Jose said. Stewart reported that 31 migrants were infected with the virus and one died from the disease, the second COVID-19 death at an ICE facility, according to the latest data from the agency on June 15. To date, the network of U.S. detention centers has seen 2,016 COVID-19 infections, after testing just over 5,000 migrants out of a total inmate population of more than 24,700, according to the ICE. According to the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), the ICE has deported thousands aboard 135 flights to 13 countries since March, with the following countries reporting receiving deportees who have tested positive for COVID-19: Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Colombia and Haiti. "The continued deportations of the (U.S. President Donald) Trump administration represent a significant risk to public health in the region (Latin American), and represent a burden for already overburdened health systems," CEPR researcher Jake Johnston told a May 29 forum on the issue. Enditem Couple hiking in front of the Matterhorn The Matterhorn is one of the highest summits in the Alps. For hikers who want to test themselves, it doesn't get much harder than trekking up part of the 4,478 meters of the mountain that sits right on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Technically a moderate hike, getting up the Matterhorn will take eight to 12 hours, depending on fitness, stops, and a few variations on the route along the way. The city of Zermatt is the best starting point for Matterhorn hikes. If you want to keep this to a one-day hike, set off as soon as the sun rises, find the cable car line, and start hiking up following it. After three hours of a very steep and straight path with stunning views over blue mountains, you'll reach Schwarzsee Paradise, a hotel/restaurant where you can stop for a bite before continuing on. You are technically not on the Matterhorn yet, but this is the quickest way to get you high enough to connect to the following trail. From here, it's a surprisingly flat, one-hour hike along the Matterhorn side. Weather starts to change at this altitude but it's also the last bit of "easy" hiking, so it's a good time to enjoy the surroundings. After about an hour (if you don't take any breaks), the terrain gets difficult again expect lots of slippery rocks, very steep rocks that require some maneuvering, and lots of good balance. After 90 minutes of this, you'll reach the Hornli Hut, the sleeping hut for the Base Camp at the Matterhorn this is where multi-day trekkers spend the night before continuing on. Take a break here to admire the cloud-covered peaks and the Matterhorn up close on clear days, it feels like you can almost touch the summit. From here, the trail actually heads down for a nice break until you reach the Glacier trail, where you have a direct, open view of the snow-kissed Matterhorn and the other mountains around it. This trail is rocky and slippery but flat at a steady pace, it should take you two hours to travel to the end of it, where you'll find a cable car station. Unless you want to overnight on the mountain, end the hike here, and jump on the cable car to get back to Zermatt. Something to keep in mind: even in summer, it gets cold on the Matterhorn. With a hike this long, you will need to take along a jacket and possibly layers to stay comfortable the entire way. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Zermatt: Best Areas & Hotels S everal Australian students have been hospitalised after trying to pet a local fox. Students from the University of New South Wales in Sydney unsuccessfully attempted to befriend a local fox. However, at least three students were bitten by the fox over the weekend, and required tetanus shots from the Prince of Wales Hospital. Gavin Wang, a UNSW student, posted a video of his encounter with the fox on social media. In the video, the fox slowly approaches him. As soon as Wang reaches out his hand, the fox which students have named Frankie takes a sniff and bites it. Several other students posted videos of sightings of a fox on the UNSW campus on social media. Liz Willer, 20, a UNSW computer engineering student, wrote about her meeting with what is believed to be the same fox later that night on a UNSW Facebook page. "Silly me, [I] did pat him for a bit, she wrote. Then he chomped me when I pulled away my hand... I have since been informed you shouldn't pat a fox." When Ms Willer arrived at hospital, she reportedly met another student who had been bitten by a fox. The man said he was bitten after he sat next to the fox believed it was a cat, and attempted to stroke it. After the news of Frankie the fox reached student discussion boards on Sunday, CJ Wong, another computer science student, decided to try to see the fox for himself. Mr Wong said in a social media post that along with several other UNSW students, he went searching for the fox on Sunday night. "At least six [people were looking for it]. Some of them travelled in groups and they would look around the Quad. So I only talked to two groups, but potentially more [were] on the lookout," Mr Wong said. Mr Wong was returning from McDonalds when he saw the fox, and decided to offer it some of his chicken nuggets. However, the fox stole his bag, and bit his hand. "Maybe he was getting more friendly, or maybe more courageous, but he started going for my slippers and I had to dance to avoid his jaws," Mr Wong wrote. When Mr Wong called campus security, he was told there were "maybe three [foxes], and one of them is the mum, they think". Although none of the bitten students needed stitches or surgery, they each had to pay $300 for the tetanus shot.. Mr Wong wrote that "the pain wasn't in the [tetanus] jab it was the $300 medical bill." Sydney Fox and Dingo Rescue volunteer Lara Schilling told UNSW student newspaper The Newsworthy that foxes should be avoided, as they can be aggressive when provoked. "Foxes generally avoid humans in the wild, but urban foxes have this bada** kind of curiosity streak, so they might come up to sniff someone and they can bite," she said. "They're sneaky little jerks sometimes but it's part of their quirks." UNSW campus authorities are now trying to hunt down the fox and remove it. In 2014, the New South Wales Government passed an order labelling foxes as pests and making it illegal to keep them as pets, and declaring that abandoned or injured foxes should be euthanised. 17.06.2020 LISTEN Former Deputy Minister of Education and Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency, Hon Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has questioned the high charges Ghanaian citizens stranded outside the country would have to shoulder inorder to airlifted back to Ghana. Speaking on the hottest afternoon political show 'Inside Politics' hosted by Mugabe Maase on Power 97.9 FM, Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa said Parliament approved the World Bank support towards the fight against covid19. He explained that there was an underlining item of 12.7 million dollars for quarantine. "what has that money has been used for," he quizzes. He suggested government provide other options instead of limiting the hotels accomodation to Kempinski Hotel and African Regent Hotel. "During a humanitarian crisis, the government must not involve in profiteering and commercialization. Its not good to select hotels closer to you, but rather opening up for competition will drive down the price so that the prices of hotel accommodation for such purposes will be reduced, the former Deputy Minister added. Hon. Ablakwa added that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has demonstrated that it cares more about the countrys development and its citizen's health. According to him, all former Presidents elected on the ticket of the NDC party invested heavily in the health sector. Rice University will launch an annual lecture series Friday to celebrate Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in Texas. Reflections on Juneteenth and Americas Racial Legacy Lectures will be live online via Zoom June 19, featuring eight presentations from Rice professors discussing the legacy of slavery, race in the context of schools and criminal justice, media coverage of protests, racial bias and the Second Amendment. The program, which will be an annual lecture series, will also feature an hour-long conversation with Paul J. Matthews, a former Army captain and the founder and chairman of the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum. Various departments, including the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Center for African American Studies, and the Task Force on Slavery Segregation and Racial Injustice the latter which were launched last year came together to create the series. Juneteenth as a moment in African-American history does not get nearly the attention that it deserves, Rices provost Reginald DesRoches said in a statement. So I believe there is still a great deal of education that needs to be done around the history of slavery and how its legacy plays out to this day. Now Playing: Here is how the Houston area has celebrated Juneteenth through the decades, from the Houston Chronicle archives. Video: Houston Chronicle On HoustonChronicle.com: Rice group raises more than $90K for black lives More Information Want to go? Rice University's inaugural lecture series on Juneteenth is Friday, June 19 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. via Zoom. The link will only be accessible on Friday. A recording of the program will be posted online. More information: https://president.rice.edu/juneteenth See More Collapse Speakers include Rice sociology professor Jenifer Bratter on Reflecting on the Lessons of Juneteenth: Racial (In)Justice and the Role of Place, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and professor Caleb McDaniel on slavery before and after Juneteenth. Roland B. Smith Jr., associate provost, will moderate a talk with Matthews, who, as founder of the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, helps preserves and honors African American soldiers from the Revolutionary War to the modern day. Commemorating Juneteenth through a series of lectures is great way to bring our community together around the important issues of race and justice, said DesRoches. It has never been more important than today as we grapple with issues of racial injustice. On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas A&M system to launch $100M scholarship to increase diversity Juneteenth, which is celebrated across the nation, commemorates the day in 1865 when news came to Galveston that enslaved people had been freed, two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1872, Jack Yates, Richard Allen, Richard Brock and Elias Dibble, four black ministers from Third Ward, pooled $800 to buy 10 acres of land to create Emancipation Park for Juneteenth celebrations. The park, donated to the city in 1916, is now considered the oldest park in Houston. Texas became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday in 1980. The Rice lecture series runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Zoom link will be accessible on rice.edu on Friday. brittany.britto@chron.com Police detain a man after he ran in front of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's car (in background with dent) as it left the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Photo credit: Victoria Jones/PA Wire Police officers detain a protester near the Houses of Parliament, after the departure of Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson REUTERS/Hannah McKay The dented car carrying Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves the Houses of Parliament, after it was involved in a collision, in London REUTERS/Hannah McKay British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's car was shunted by a security vehicle outside parliament on Wednesday when Kurdish protesters ran into the road, two Reuters witnesses said. Johnson's office said no one had been injured. The vehicle was leaving the parliamentary estate with police outriders when a protester ran into the road, prompting the official car to stop and the following Range Rover to drive into it. Both cars moved off in a matter of seconds. Expand Close Police officers detain a protester near the Houses of Parliament, after the departure of Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson REUTERS/Hannah McKay / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police officers detain a protester near the Houses of Parliament, after the departure of Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson REUTERS/Hannah McKay Johnson, who returned to work at the end of April after recovering from a serious COVID-19 infection, had just finished his weekly question session in parliament. A 75-year-old protester who was hospitalised after being shoved to the ground by US police has a fractured skull and is unable to walk, his lawyer has said. Martin Gugino was captured on video being pushed by officers in Buffalo, New York, during protests in the wake of George Floyd's death. He was seen bleeding from his head as officers appeared to walk away. "I am not at liberty to elaborate at this time other than to confirm that his skull was fractured," Mr Gugino's lawyer Kelly Zarcone told CNN in a statement. "While he is not able to walk yet, we were able to have a short conversation before he became too tired. "He is appreciative of all of the concern about him but he is still focused on the issues rather than himself." George Floyd protesters 'take the knee' 1 /16 George Floyd protesters 'take the knee' AFP via Getty Images REUTERS Getty Images Getty Images PA PA AFP via Getty Images PA PA AFP via Getty Images PA Getty Images Ms Zarcone confirmed last week that the elderly man had suffered a brain injury. "As heartbreaking as it is, his brain is injured and he is well aware of that now," Ms Zarcone said in a statement to NBC News. "He feels encouraged and uplifted by the outpouring of support which he has received from so many people all over the globe. It helps." Mr Gugino 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, the centre's executive director has said. Officers Aaron Torgalski, 39, and Robert McCabe, 32, have pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault. The officers, who could face prison sentences of up to seven years if convicted, are due to appear in court on July 20. The film is very much grounded in fact, but we have taken a little bit of license in terms of how some elements of the story are handled, Range told interviewer Stuart Kemp. A lot of the conversations are imagined, and we created composite characters for some of the roles to build an engaging narrative to wrap his world around. Suguba, in partnership Mercy Corps and the French Development Agency (AFD) and Mercy Corps, is organising their second six-month investment readiness program in West Africa to support the eight most promising startups in the digital sector in Francophone West Africa. Source: APO LAfrique Excelle, the francophone adaptation of the World Banks XL Africa tech accelerator, was Sugubas first acceleration program. The programme which took in 2018/2919 aimed to connect francophone startups across the continent with mentors and investors. Afrique Excelle had enabled 18 of the top 20 startups in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa to raise funds for a total amount of approximately 10 million dollars, making it a total success.Afrikhaliss is aimed at digital startups with impactful solutions for local and regional value chains. The program targets companies that already have a product or service on the market and are generating revenues. However, applications from companies not yet generating revenue will also be considered.Eligible companies are based or generate at least 75% of their turnover in one or more of the following markets in Francophone West Africa: Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Senegal. We are sector agnostic and are looking for later-stage digital solutions with services or products available on the market now.Entrepreneurs will be mentored by international and local experts, trained through a tailor-made program, increase their brand visibility and have access to potential partners and investors. Through its collaboration with leading investors with a focus on Francophone Africa, Afrikhaliss will help the selected start-ups attract capital.This year's program will take place in two virtual or physical residences, in Senegal, depending on the evolution of the health situation, and in Cote d'Ivoire.Flagship activities include two one-week residential training sessions in Dakar (Senegal) and another in Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire), offering entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop their professional network and learn from mentors, peers and local and international partners. The residential training in Dakar will conclude with a Pitch which will take place during the second edition of the Francophone Africa Investment Summit where entrepreneurs will present their start-ups to a large audience of new technology experts, investors, large companies, experts and media.The program has as partners leading investment funds and business angels active in Francophone Africa.Interested companies can apply online at www.Suguba.org , no later than 19 June 2020. Jeanette Clabassi suffered constant stomach pains for three years before being diagnosed with abdominal cocoon syndrome A model and former ballerina with a crippling condition that almost killed her has been refused help from the government, which argues she is not permanently disabled. Jeanette Clabassi suffered constant stomach pains for three years before in November 2017 being diagnosed with abdominal cocoon syndrome - a rare condition that causes her intestines to twist into a 'butterfly cocoon' shape inside her stomach. The 30-year-old, from Melbourne, was repeatedly dismissed by doctors who said her pain was due to an eating disorder. Overwhelmed by finally having an answer to her pain, Ms Clabassi is fighting another battle after being rejected from the National Disability Scheme (NDIS). 'They are saying they can't classify it as being a permanent disability. Then what the hell is it? Is it the cold? Is it the flu?' she told Nine News. 'How is having an ileostomy, having a stoma and seven laparotomies not permanent?' The 30-year-old from Melbourne was repeatedly dismissed by doctors who said her pain was due to an eating disorder and from food allergies At one point, Ms Clabassi weighed a deadly 29kg after being misdiagnosed multiple times by different doctors Ms Clabassi is currently relying on Centrelink after they finally granted her disability support pension last month, but said it is not enough. 'I still can't get out of bed. I need a monkey bar and certain equipment at home to be able to function. 'I need care at home, I need to be able to get around. I need to get to appointments which I can't get to. I have got to shop and cook for myself but I can't do anything because I'm half blind.' What is an abdominal cocoon syndrome? An abdominal cocoon syndrome is a rare condition that causes the intestines to twist into a 'butterfly cocoon' shape inside the stomach. The cause is not known but it can usually be treated with surgery. It cannot be cured. It can only be detected once someone is opened up for surgery even though sufferers are born with the condition. Advertisement A spokesperson for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) said it couldn't comment on Ms Clabassi's case but that the NDIS was 'never intended' for chronic or serious illnesses. Living with the excruciating pain for most of her life, Ms Clabassi said every day was a constant battle. 'Every day was challenging for me. I was in some form of pain, it was getting to a point where I was severely drained, some days I would be in tears,' she previously told Daily Mail Australia. 'I would go to the doctors and they would say the same thing over and over again, "your body is fine, there's nothing wrong with you". 'No one was listening to me, I was alone. I tried desperately to live a normal life but I couldn't.' For years, she underwent several colonoscopies, X-rays and tests but doctors struggled to figure out where the pain was coming from. 'I was also accused of having an eating disorder, pretty much my entire life. I was actually put into an eating disorder ward against my will, which in all honesty caused more damage to me,' she said. 'Doctors made a lot of mistakes, everything they were doing was a test. "We'll just try this" or "give this a go" - it was all I was hearing. 'It was hard when no one was listening to me. My heart would be shattered, what am I meant to do here, no one is listening here does it take me to nearly die for people to realise?' After being placed in a month-long coma due to surgery complications in 2017, Ms Clabassi found out her family had been told she had 24 hours to live and to 'start planning a funeral' 'No one was listening to me, I was alone. I tried desperately to live a normal life but I couldn't,' she said (pictured in her 30s) After being placed in a month-long coma due to surgery complications in 2017, Ms Clabassi found out her family had been told she had 24 hours to live and to 'start planning a funeral'. Much to their relief she miraculously woke up but she was in extreme pain and paralysed from all pf the surgery as her father recalled everything they'd been told. 'That was horrific because I just looked at my dad and tears started flowing down my face. It really freaked me out,' she said. 'I couldn't feel my body, I couldn't move side to side. I couldn't bear the pain, it was horrific, and my stomach still hurts... even to this day.' She was fitted with an ileostomy bag attached to an opening outside her abdomen to help relieve inflammation in her digestive system. 'I wasn't allowed to eat solid foods for a couple of months. My bowels were extremely thin so anything I ate leaked out inside my body,' Ms Clabassi said. 'Every hour, I was only allowed to suck on 20mL of liquid - either jelly or ice cream,' she said. Within seven weeks, her weight dramatically plummeted to just 29 kilos. 'Every day, I felt like my body was eating itself,' she said. Coming from a nutrition background, Ms Clabassi started eating a teaspoon of coconut oil to keep her fluids up. 'I started sucking on a teaspoon of coconut oil every hour and after the first week, I gained seven kilos. I thought "my body is loving this, it doesn't have to eat my own body anymore",' she said. 'Every day, I felt like my body was eating itself,' she said The actress, dancer and model led a very successful career until her world crumbled in 2017 'I've become anti-social, I lost my whole life, I lost a lot of business, I had goals and dreams, and they pretty much disappeared,' she said (pictured before her diagnosis) After spending 10 months in hospital, she was finally allowed home - but she still has a long way to go to as the condition is incurable. 'I've become anti-social, I lost my whole life, I lost a lot of business, I had goals and dreams, and they pretty much disappeared,' she said. 'Everything's just touch and go at the moment. I get around on crutches, I haven't left the house since I came back home to my parents in July last year. 'I'm petrified. To be honest, I don't know what's going to happen next. It's going to take me a long time to rebuild my life again. I don't have much support.' Since undergoing surgery, Ms Clabassi said she has been struggling with the simple tasks, even eating has been challenging. 'When food goes into my stomach, it's not fine, it gives me certain reactions. I could be eating dinner but then feel sick five minutes later,' she said. 'My stomach is flat one minute, and then I'm bloated the next. It could take hours before it settles down again, I'd have to lie down or do exercises to alleviate the pain. 'Sometimes I feel embarrassed, I don't feel attractive like I used to. I had a six-pack once upon a time. I wanted to be pregnant but it's not going to be possible anymore. Maybe I'll adopt when my life gets back to normal.' By sharing her story, Ms Clabassi - who hopes to become an inspirational speaker - wanted other women to draw hope from her experience. 'Never give up,' she said. 'I must say I am very grateful to be alive.' To follow Jeanette Clabassi's journey or make a donation, visit her Facebook. A commuter wearing a protective face mask arrives at the Gare Bruxelles-Central train station while a man with a mouth mask reads a book in a corridor on May 4, 2020 in Brussels. Belgium had the worst response to the coronavirus crisis out of OECD countries, while New Zealand's response was the strongest, according to a new ranking. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on Wednesday published an index that rated how well governments across 21 member states had reacted to the pandemic. Each country was given an overall score out of four. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is a cohort of 37 member states that works together to shape policies around socioeconomic issues. In its report, the EIU analyzed the responses of 21 of those countries to the health crisis. Economists finalized the scores by weighing three risk factors obesity prevalence, share of the population over the age of 65 and international arrivals against three "quality of response" indicators, which were testing, provision of non-Covid 19 health care, and death rates from the virus. With an overall rating of 2.11, which fell into the "poor" threshold, Belgium was ranked at the bottom of the index. Despite receiving the highest possible score for its testing capacity, Belgium was given the lowest score for its death rate. To date, 9,663 people in Belgium have died of Covid-19, making it the country with the highest death rate per capita in the world, according to Our World in Data. Hospital workers march during a demonstration in Paris. French hospital workers and others are protesting in cities around the country to demand better pay and more investment in France's public hospital system, which is considered among the world's best but struggled to handle a flux of virus patients after years of cost cuts. France has seen nearly 30,000 virus deaths. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) (Philadelphia, PA) - Walter J. Koch, PhD, W.W. Smith Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, and Director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 Research Achievement Award (RAA) - the most prestigious honor given to a senior researcher by the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR). Dr. Koch is one of two recipients of the 2020 RAA, with Dr. Livia Hool from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Australia also selected. Dr. Koch was nominated and chosen to receive the RAA by ISHR peers for his work in pioneering and advancing the study of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) kinases (GRKs) in cardiovascular physiology and disease. He was one of the first to suggest that GRKs influenced heart function, and 25 years later, he remains a leader in GRK heart research. "To be included with past winners of the RAA and to be recognized by peers for this award is a big honor," Dr. Koch said. "I have benefited from wonderful trainees in my lab over the past years, and I couldn't have reached this point without them." Over the last 25 years, Dr. Koch has trained more than 60 pre- and post-doctoral fellows in his laboratory. Dr. Koch started his own lab in 1995 at Duke University, where his research became increasingly focused on the role of GRK2 and GRK5 in heart function. One of his early major breakthroughs was showing that alterations in GRK2 activity directly impacted heart function, which was soon after followed by his discovery that GRK2 plays a role in cardiac injury. Part of that work involved the development of a GRK2 inhibitor, known as ARKct, which currently is being investigated as a possible gene therapy for patients with heart failure. In 2003 Dr. Koch moved his lab to Thomas Jefferson University, where he established the Center for Translational Medicine. While there, he discovered that in heart cells, GRK2 and GRK5 influenced heart function through pathways unrelated to their usual GPCR activities. The realization of these so-called noncanonical activities of GRK2 and GRK5 provided much-needed insight into abnormalities in heart cells that arise in the setting of heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. The discovery also made GRK2 and GRK5 attractive drug targets. Dr. Koch moved his Center for Translational Medicine to LKSOM in 2012, and since then, he and colleagues have been working tirelessly to identify small molecule inhibitors of GRK5 and GRK2. Much of Dr. Koch's ongoing research now centers on the development and clinical study of GRK inhibitors. "GRK inhibition in patients with heart failure could have life-changing effects," Dr. Koch explained. "If GRK inhibitors work, they would be an entirely new class of drugs." Dr. Koch has also served on numerous committees and boards in the effort to advance cardiovascular research, including serving as chair of the National Institutes of Health Cardiac Contractility and Heart Failure Study Section and chair of the American Heart Association's Council Operations Committee. He has been a member of the ISHR since 1997 and a fellow of the ISHR since 2010. Dr. Koch was a previous recipient of the society's Outstanding Investigator Award, which recognizes promising junior researchers. He also won the prestigious Basic Research Prize (2017) from the American Heart Association. Dr. Koch will deliver an invited talk about his research and will receive the RAA, which includes a plaque and monetary prize, at the 38th Meeting of the ISHR-North American Section, which will be held virtually in August, 2020. ### About Temple Health Temple University Health System (TUHS) is a $2.2 billion academic health system dedicated to providing access to quality patient care and supporting excellence in medical education and research. The Health System consists of Temple University Hospital (TUH); TUH-Episcopal Campus; TUH-Jeanes Campus; TUH-Northeastern Campus; The Hospital of Fox Chase Cancer Center and Affiliates, an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center; Temple Transport Team, a ground and air-ambulance company; Temple Physicians, Inc., a network of community-based specialty and primary-care physician practices; and Temple Faculty Practice Plan, Inc., TUHS's physician practice plan comprised of more than 500 full-time and part-time academic physicians in 20 clinical departments. TUHS is affiliated with the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. Temple Health refers to the health, education and research activities carried out by the affiliates of Temple University Health System (TUHS) and by the Katz School of Medicine. TUHS neither provides nor controls the provision of health care. All health care is provided by its member organizations or independent health care providers affiliated with TUHS member organizations. Each TUHS member organization is owned and operated pursuant to its governing documents. It is the policy of Temple University Health System that there shall be no exclusion from, or participation in, and no one denied the benefits of, the delivery of quality medical care on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, disability, age, ancestry, color, national origin, physical ability, level of education, or source of payment. The mayors of Texas largest cities pressed Gov. Greg Abbott Tuesday to mandate that Texans wear masks amid a new surge of the novel coronavirus or allow them to do so themselves, even as Abbott insisted the state can handle the rise in the deadly disease. A group of mayors including San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner fired off the letter Tuesday as the state reported record levels of COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals. Health officials attribute recent spikes in hospitalizations to the Memorial Day holiday weekend in late May when residents headed to beaches and barbecues. This one step could prove to be the most effective way to prevent the transmission of this disease, the mayors wrote. Yet many people in many of our cities are still refusing to wear these face coverings even though these coverings are scientifically proven to help prevent the disease from spreading. At the start of the pandemic, many cities including San Antonio required residents to wear masks while out in public or in settings like grocery stores where keeping 6 feet of social distance could be difficult. But Abbott later rolled back those restrictions as he then set the pace of reopening businesses and resuming activities. Now, mayors want that power back. A one-size-fits-all approach is not the best option, the mayors wrote. We should trust local officials to make informed choices about health policy. And if mayors are given the opportunity to require face coverings, we believe our cities will be ready to help reduce the spread of this disease. Other mayors signing the letter are from Austin, Dallas, El Paso and Fort Worth, among others. Abbott has been leery of requiring Texans to wear masks out in public. Responding to a similar demand from Bexar County Nelson Wolff last week, Abbott said doing so would deprive someone of their liberty. Though many mayors have disagreed with the rate at which Abbott decided to allow the economy to reopen, theyve so far been hesitant to confront the governor head-on over potential new restrictions a sign that now the situation is more dire. In San Antonio, the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 has doubled since June 1 and the number in intensive care more than doubled in a week. On Saturday, the city saw its highest single-day spike in cases to-date 230. Last week, San Antonio Metro Health Director Dawn Emerick declared that the region was entering a second wave of the virus. Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports A person is seen in front of the burning Third Precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department in Minn., on May 28, 2020. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo) Colorado Man Charged Over Arson of Minneapolis Police Precinct A Colorado man appeared in court Tuesday after being arrested and charged with aiding and abetting the arson of a Minneapolis Police Department precinct during riots last month. Footage from surveillance cameras, Facebook, and Dylan Shakespeare Robinsons own Snapchat account appeared to show him involved in setting the fire, according to a criminal complaint (pdf). At one point, a person who looks like Robinson appears to light a Molotov cocktail-like device held by someone else, who then threw it at the Third Precinct building. Robinson later allegedly threw another incendiary device at the building, authorities said. During the video shared on Snapchat, an unidentified female voice can be heard saying, Dylan. The user behind the account typed several comments, including, These guys have never made a Molotov Rookies, and, We need gasoline. Another video posted on Facebook shows an individual authorities identified as Robinson inside the precinct setting a fire. Dylan Robinson (L) in a mugshot. (R) A man identified as Robinson throws a Molotov cocktail at a Minneapolis police precinct on May 28, 2020. (Minneapolis Police Department; ATF) After investigators released information on the probe, including pictures of several suspects, a woman emailed them on June 10 and identified one of the suspects as Robinson, explaining that he had gone to school with her son. The woman gave investigators the name of Robinsons Facebook account and said he recently removed pictures from it. She said she hoped they found Robinson because he also did AutoZone. An AutoZone located across the street from the precinct was burned down on May 27. Robinson was on probation at the time of his arrest. He was convicted previously of possession of drugs. The probation officer said Robinson was known to carry around a skateboard. The suspect was carrying a skateboard in the videos from the night of the fire. A search warrant showed Robinsons cellphone was in the vicinity of the police precinct late May 28 into the early hours of May 29. Robinson was arrested in Breckenridge, Colorado, on June 14. A person of interest in arson at the Minneapolis Police Departments Third Precinct in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 28, 2020. The man was identified as Dylan Robinson. (ATF) A 23-year-old St. Paul, Minnesota, man was arrested earlier this month for allegedly being involved in torching the police precinct. Branden Michael Wolfe identified himself as a shirtless individual in several photographs captured by witnesses at the scene. Law enforcement officers found items belonging to the Minneapolis Police Department at Wolfes apartment, including a riot helmet, a police radio, and a 9 mm pistol magazine. Investigators also found evidence leading to the arrest of three teenagers in the arson of a health and nutrition store in St. Paul. Images released last week showed suspects engaging in arson in a slew of places in the Twin Cities, including a charter school, an AutoZone, an Aldi, and a Wells Fargo. One set of images authorities released showed a man they now say is Robinson. Twenty members of the Indian armed forces were killed in a clash with Chinese forces along the disputed border in Ladakh, the Army said on Tuesday, making them the first fatalities on what is known as the Line of Actual Control in 45 years. While China accused the Indian army of provoking and attacking Chinese soldiers after a border meeting to de-escalate the ongoing tension, leading to a physical conflict between the two sides, the Indian government is yet to come out with an official statement. "It is not a surprise that the Chinese are blaming India and branding India as an aggressor. It is their standard playbook. What surprises me is that the Indian government is not putting across its viewpoint. If you look at the international coverage today they are all highlighting the Chinese government's viewpoint. This is unfortunate. The fact is that this armed confrontation that happened with all kinds of weapons other than firearm happened in the Galvan Valley, which is on the Indian side of the line of action control." said Brahma Chellaney, strategic thinker and author at CNN-News18. Earlier on Tuesday, the Army had said that commanding officer Colonel B Santosh Babu, and two soldiers - Havildar Palani and Sepoy Ojha had lost their lives in the incident. The Army said both Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area after the clash, adding that it is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. "China is making India as the aggressor and the Indian government is keeping quiet. International media picks the Chinese government's version and India comes across in poor light. Why should we allow China to spread mis-information. If we do not state facts in the public domain who will state facts on behalf of India. India will have to speak up for itself. The battle of perceptions is very important," added Chellaney Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said India had crossed the border twice on Monday, "provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces on the two sides," AFP news agency reported. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met union home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh twice as India discussed a response to the development. Singh briefed the PM about last night's clash as well as the overall situation in eastern Ladakh after he held a high-level meeting with external affairs minister S Jaishankar and the military chiefs. "You need to ensure that the morale of the people on the ground does not go down. We are poised to deal with any situation let me tell you. But yet as part of our strategy, we need to keep our guard up and be ready to take on any form of escalation," said General (Retd.) Bikram Singh on the same show. News reports say Russian and U.S. officials are negotiating a possible swap of Paul Whelan, an American who was sentenced by a Moscow court this week for espionage, for two Russians serving lengthy sentences in U.S. prisons. The Interfax news agency on June 17 cited an unnamed official as saying that the talks included Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko. "If an agreement is reached, it's most likely that a so-called exchange will be made after the U.S. president pardons the Russians and the Russian president pardons Whelan," the official was quoted as saying. Whelan, who was arrested in Moscow in December 2018, was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian penal colony after being found guilty of espionage on June 15. He denounced the trial as a sham. The Interfax report was the latest suggestion that Russian officials see Whelan's imprisonment as a bargaining chip to gain the release of Russians serving prison time in the United States. Russian officials have for years called for the release of Bout, who was arrested and extradited from Thailand in 2008 on a U.S. warrant, and convicted by a U.S. jury three years later of weapons smuggling and other related charges. His notoriety as a gunrunner earned him the nickname Merchant of Death. Yaroshenko, meanwhile, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States. After Whelan's sentence was announced on June 15, defense lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov said the verdict was expected because "no one was hiding" that Moscow was seeking the release of Russian prisoners held in the U.S. That same day, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency as saying: "Were sticking with the previous position and these options have been repeatedly offered to the Americans." 'A Humane Act' Whelan's brother, David, told RFE/RL that he also believed Moscow wants to exchange Paul for Bout, Yaroshenko, and others. "The Russian Federation has made it clear for many years that they want Mr. Bout and Mr. Yaroshenko, among others, returned," he said in an e-mail. "It is the Russian Federation's reflexive approach to make justice transactional. That doesn't mean anyone else wants their bargain." "The U.S. government has made it clear publicly that they are not interested in discussing an exchange," Whelan said. "I would be astounded if, given their public statements, there was any consideration of a trade." He also said it was possible Russia was looking to reclaim several diplomatic properties that were shuttered by Washington in 2016 in response to findings that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election. Tatyana Moskalkova, who is the Kremlin-appointed human rights commissioner, said on June 17 that she could not confirm the negotiations for a prisoner swap, but she told Interfax that "any exchange, any actions to bring Russian compatriots back to the homeland is a humane act." The 50-year-old Paul Whelan, who also holds British, Canadian, and Irish citizenship, is a former U.S Marine who was working as the head of global security for a U.S. auto parts supplier at the time of his arrest in the Russian capital in 2018. He said he was in Moscow to attend a friend's wedding. Russian prosecutors claimed that a flash drive found in Whelan's possession contained classified information. Whelan insists he was framed when he met an acquaintance at a Moscow hotel and took the flash drive from him, saying he was told it contained holiday photos. He says the allegations of spying against him are politically motivated. He has also accused his Moscow prison guards of mistreatment. With reporting by AFP and Interfax Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Alain Jean-Robert and Fiachra Gibbons (Agence France-Presse) Paris Wed, June 17, 2020 16:04 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf884d0 2 Entertainment Raoul-Peck,director,Racism,France Free Acclaimed black film-maker Raoul Peck has accused France of being in denial of its racism, its colonial past and its wealth "built on the misery of others". The Haitian-born maker of the Oscar-nominated documentary, "I Am Not Your Negro", said he was with young people who have taken to the streets in France and the US to protest against police violence in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. "They are right to rise up. They are right to protest, they may even be right to smash everything," Peck wrote in a piece to be published Wednesday in the French weekly, Le 1. Headlined "I Can't Breathe", echoing Floyd's last words as a white US police officer kneeled on his neck, Peck said "France is in denial and its 'adulterated' children no longer have the time to wait," he added, referring to its ethnic minorities. "Every citizen has to take their part of the burden and to stop looking on from a distance," he said. "I thought that another world was possible without burning everything," said the director, who made his name with "Lumumba", the story of the murder of DR Congo's independence leader Patrice Lumumba in a plot involving the CIA and the country's former Belgian colonial masters. "Now I am not so sure," Peck added. Read also: Actress' comments reignite long debate on racism in Mexico Macron: No statues will fall His comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron all but ignored the wave of protests in a major address Sunday except to warn that he would not take down statues of controversial historical figures from the country's past. "The Republic will not wipe away any trace or any name from its history... but lucidly look at our history and our memory together," he said. His government also backtracked Tuesday on a ban on the use of chokeholds by the police after a backlash by police unions who deny claims of systemic racism and violence. Angry officers staged protests across France and threw down their handcuffs to protest the ban on the highly controversial technique, which Black Lives Matter activists say can be deadly. But Peck, who was once culture minister on his native Caribbean island, said France could no longer hide behind denial. "We have simply come to the end of a far too heavy heritage of injustice, denial and profit built on the misery of others. 'It's not up to blacks' "France is in denial because it refuses to accept that it has lost its predominant place and empire," said Peck, who has spent most of his life in the country. Peck, who won a French Oscar, called a Cesar, for "I Am Not Your Negro", his portrait of the American writer James Baldwin, admitted he was a "privileged black man". Even so he was horrified at how "racist words, gestures... decisions and laws" were becoming normalized, and called for society to change from top to bottom. "We have to take it by the root, put everything on the table and rebuild everything. No institution should escape," he wrote. "It's everyone's problem, every institution, the press included... We have to start rebuilding and it is not up to the blacks, or Arabs or women, or gays or the handicapped to solve this," Peck insisted. In France, protest about racism and police violence has coalesced around the case of Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black man who died at a police station shortly after his arrest in 2016. Traore's family claim he was suffocated as officers held him down, an accusation that medical assessments ordered by French investigators have rejected. Experts hired by his family, however, have questioned this. Prosecutors said this month that the inquiry was still open. By Dr. Maskoor Ahmad Usmani, TwoCircles.net Establishments around the world are trembling, and people have lost faith in capitalism. Earlier people from lower strata thought that there are various opportunities in big cities and big companies or factories. They thought that their rights are protected and they can raise their voice in their union and get their proper share of wages and facilities. But the pandemic of COVID-19 revealed to them the true face of capitalism. The big capitalists in the country contributed to the PM Cares and CM Cares fund but didnt pay any heed to the deteriorating conditions of their labourers in the so-called industrial cities. Their trains were cancelled by state governments under the pressure of a handful of construction mafias. Then came the dilution of labour laws in BJP ruled states UP, MP, Gujarat and other states. These are on its way to achieving the so-called trillion economy at the cost of the life of those who put the economy at the right place. Support TwoCircles In India, seed sowing of Kharif crops will be affected badly which may lead to food security issues if its not properly managed. Those labourers reaching home have lost faith in big industries and capitalism. They are not in a mood to return and work where they were left stranded to die and go on foot to their homes. They will prefer to go on roots and rather focus on agricultural-based work in their respective villages. Recently on TV, PM Modi announced a 20 Lakh crore package which seems to be a gimmick and mockery. It says that the government will guarantee the loan to the bank without any collateral, which is going to shake the banking system badly as these loans will reach to the upper strata only and not those who need it. It will open a Pandora box for NPA and corruption. Amid these crucial times, it becomes highly important to analyse the role of the government in dealing with the pandemic and other crises which comes as a byproduct. We know that the Indian economy is mostly unorganised, more than 22% of the population lives below the poverty line. Experts say that more than 110 million people will lose their jobs in India. Many research organisations have estimated a negative growth rate of GDP. As India went under continuous lockdown from March 23rd, 2020, it is seen that migrant workers and labourers have been trying to come back to their homes on foot. Many have lost their lives on the way. Later trains which were set to bring them back home lost their way and were moving on tracks for seven or eight days. The poor were deprived of food and shelter. Many lost their lives while battling for survival. The purpose of lockdown was to flatten the growth curve of coronavirus positive cases. But what we have seen is that there has been an exponential growth in the cases in the last sixty days. The government was also seeking time to settle the stranded and prepare itself medically to fight the pandemic. But what is seen is a clear paradoxical situation. The country has been pushed into a more jeopardised situation. These situations testify to the fact that there has been a complete governance fiasco. The government must come under public scrutiny and be held liable for the massive failures and lost lives. Rather than working for welfare, the government is trying to subdue the voices raised against it. Many prominent activists and students have been arrested as they were critical of the dispensation. The same old game is being played by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to lure its robust supporters and increase its partisanship by hiding their failure in the name of nationalism and Pakistan. If at this point the government is not criticised and their accountability isnt questioned, I believe that we are moving towards a totalitarian state form being a world largest democracy. Dr. Maskoor Ahmad Usmani is a Political activist and Former President of Aligarh Muslim University Students Union. He can be contacted at [email protected]. He tweets at @MaskoorUsmani. As Electra Semmes Colston unveiled the statue of her late father during a 5 p.m. ceremony 120 years ago this June 27, the Excelsior brass band cranked up the song, Dixie, and an artillery squad stationed at the foot of Government Street began firing an admirals salute. Moments later, the citys then-Mayor J.C. Bush stepped onto the platform and accepted the statue of Confederate Navy Adm. Raphael Semmes on behalf of the city. That moment, played out over a century ago and exhaustively detailed on the front page if the Mobile Daily Register, is being highlighted by Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpsons office to support his decision to remove the monument from public viewing. The citys views over the ownership of the monument were detailed in a June 12 letter by City Attorney Ricardo Woods and shared publicly on Tuesday. I firmly believe the statue is owned by the city of Mobile, Stimpson said. Council members are also certain that the city owns the monument. But in the aftermath of the June 4 removal of the 8-foot statue from its Royal and Government streets perch, representatives claiming to be descendants of the original ownership group want it returned to them. In a letter circulated to the council, the group says they are the competent and worthy recipient of the monument. Stimpson wants it displayed at the History Museum of Mobile. Public hearing Mobile City Councilwoman Bess Rich, who raised concerns about the fate of the monument on Tuesday, said that the lineage of the Camp 11 Sons of the Confederate Veterans should allow the group an opportunity to state their public case for the monument. She also said that in Mobile, the city council not the mayors office is responsible for determining the fate of city-owned property. A representative with Camp 11 will speak before the council during its June 23 meeting. Who is the rightful owner of Mobiles Confederate statue? As far as who exactly owned the statue, it definitely is the city, said Rich, in an email to AL.com. However, if (five members) of the council agree, (we) can give the statue to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans group if we declare its no longer needed for public purpose, just as we do with any other city property. She added, its a very serious public process. Normally, it is building or land. But why not this statue as I am sure it has a value that could be assigned. Rich said she would be interested in knowing the assessed value of the monument, which is sitting in storage at the history museum. According to newspaper accounts, the statue cost $6,000 in 1900 which means its value would be worth an estimated $180,000 in 2020. The statue was commissioned in the late 1890s by the Ann T. Hunter Chapter Auxiliary of Raphael Semmes Camp 11 Sons of Confederate Veterans. According to the city, among the funds raised by the Sons of Confederate Veterans for the erection of the statue were donations of dimes from children. Also, according to a 1991 Mobile Bay Monthly article, the group oversaw fundraising for renovation projects. Rich said any effort to return the statue for public display in Mobile is not achievable, but she said that it is important that they have a seat at the table on its fate. They deserve the courtesy, even if one doesnt agree with their perspective or interpretation of events. Rich has chided the administration for not being publicly forthcoming over its plans for the statue. Stimpson disagreed and said on Tuesday, that his administration has been open about its plans for the monument. He also noted that its removal was to prevent the statue from being destroyed during a future demonstration. The city was fined $25,000 by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshalls Office for removing the statue, which Stimpson said will be paid for through online fundraisers. The city has 30 days to pay the fine. I understand that some council persons were never told the option of giving the Semmes statue to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and thats not right, said Rich. Dismissing the ancestors requests because they couldnt prove ownership is not in the interest of transparency and doesnt help our community really move forward in a genuine manner. We cant just sweep discussions away that may make us feel uncomfortable. It will only continue to foster anger and mistrust if we dont allow all sides at seat at the table. Original ownership The Confederate Navy Adm. Raphael Semmes statue in Mobile was removed overnight on June 4, 2020. All that remains at the Royal and Government streets site is the granite base where the statue long stood. Rich said shes hopeful the dispute over the fate of the statue doesnt wind up in court. In North Carolina, a judge ruled in February to void a prior settlement that granted the Silent Sam Confederate monument and $2.5 million to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans. The judge, in that case, ruled that the Sons of Confederate Veterans did not have legal standing in the case, and he dismissed the lawsuit. The dispute in the North Carolina case focused on whether there were conditions in place over the display of Silent Sam, which was toppled during protests in 2018, and placed into storage by the university. The United Daughters of the Confederacy, which commissioned the Silent Sam statue, made a conditional gift to UNC that was dependent on the monument staying up, according to news accounts. There is no indication of a conditions associated with the original display of the Semmes statue. Said Rich, I dont think the gift of the statue had any conditions attached that prohibits giving the statue away. Confederate monuments installed after Reconstruction and before Jim Crow have become a flashpoint in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Demonstrations against policy brutality and racism have engulfed cities nationwide this month, leading to the toppling and destruction of some of the monuments including a statue of Confederate Navy sea captain Charles Linn that stood at Birminghams Linn Park. The granite base of the Semmes statue was vandalized during demonstrations in Mobile on June 1. Three days later, during the overnight hours on June 4, the statue was removed from the base at Stimpsons order. The Porsche driver who allegedly taunted a dying police officer in the aftermath of the Eastern Freeway crash has been charged with more offences. Richard Pusey, 41, was on Wednesday charged with the rare offence of committing an act outraging public decency, along with behaving in an indecent or offensive manner, in relation to the crash. Richard Pusey is led from his home by police in Melbourne in April. Credit:AAP Mr Pusey was arrested on April 22 after he allegedly fled the scene of a horror crash that killed police officers Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney. He had been pulled over in his Porsche for allegedly speeding when a semi-trailer driven by Mohinder Singh crashed into the emergency lane, killing four police officers. The Department of Justice on Tuesday filed suit against President Donald Trumps former national security adviser John Bolton, claiming his nearly 600-page memoir contains classified information and arguing publication should be delayed pending further vetting by the National Security Council. According to The New York Times, Boltons book allegedly confirms one of House Democrats core allegations leading to the presidents impeachment: Bolton claims Trump told him last summer to keep withholding nearly $400 in military aid from Ukraine until the country agreed to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who previously sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. The book, titled, The Room Where it Happened, is set for release on June 23. According to a press release from publisher Simon & Schuster, Bolton claims that House lawmakers committed impeachment malpractice by keeping their prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trumps Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy. Bolton, the publisher continued, documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the Administration to raise alarms about them. Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment effort, criticized Bolton in early February for not signing an affidavit addressing what he knew about the Ukraine affair after the Senate voted against hearing more witnesses during Trumps trial. In January, Bolton submitted a manuscript to the Trump administration for a review. The administration says Boltons publisher pushed out a press release last week with no advance notice and without fully complying with confidentiality agreements and efforts to remove sensitive material from the final product. Simply put, Defendant struck a bargain with the United States as a condition of his employment in one of the most sensitive and important national security positions in the United States Government and now wants to renege on that bargain by unilaterally deciding that the prepublication review process is complete and deciding for himself whether classified information should be made public, the Department of Justice argued in its complaint. The administration said it is not seeking to censor any legitimate aspect of Boltons manuscript. It merely seeks an order requiring defendant to complete the prepublication review process and is free of classified information. The suit asks the government to seize money Bolton made from the book and to order him to instruct or request his publisher to take any and all available steps to retrieve and dispose of any copies of the book in the possession of a third party. Trump on Monday told reporters that he considers every conversation with me as president highly classified. So that would mean that if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, hes broken the law. Maybe hes not telling the truth, Trump added. Hes been known not to tell the truth, a lot. Back in January, Trump tweeted that he NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. He said Bolton was merely trying to sell a book. I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2020 Simon & Schuster, in a statement, said that in the months leading up to publication, Bolton worked in cooperation with the National Security Council to incorporate changes to the text that addressed NSC concerns. The final, published version of this book reflects those changes, and Simon & Schuster is fully supportive of Ambassador Boltons First Amendment right to tell the story of his time in the Trump White House. A spokesman for Simon & Schuster told The Times the lawsuit is nothing more than the latest in a long-running series of efforts by the administration to quash publication of a book it deems unflattering to the president." Over the last two days, Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, has retweeted posts by the American Civil Liberties Union and PEN America defending his right to publish. Fifty years ago, (The U.S. Supreme Court) rejected the Nixon administrations attempt to block the publication of the Pentagon Papers, establishing that government censorship is unconstitutional, the ACLU tweeted. Any Trump administration efforts to stop John Boltons book from being published are doomed to fail. 50 years ago, SCOTUS rejected the Nixon administration's attempt to block the publication of the Pentagon Papers, establishing that government censorship is unconstitutional. Any Trump administration efforts to stop John Boltons book from being published are doomed to fail. https://t.co/QOiiPcOHg0 ACLU (@ACLU) June 15, 2020 Bolton is scheduled for an exclusive interview with ABCs Martha Raddatz at 9 a.m. EST. ESG portfolio analytics are the heart and soul of what we provide as ESG investing is rapidly moving to the forefront for both advisor and investor concerns to have more control, insight and alignment with their investments and their personal values. Act Analytics, an innovative ESG-based investment analytics technology platform, announced today that the company was recognized as a Finalist in the 2020 #Wealthies, the prestigious wealthmanagement.coms Industry Awards Program in the Technology Providers - Portfolio Analytics category. Act Analytics ESG technology platform was selected by a judging panel of industry luminaries in a highly competitive submission process that featured over 600 nominations from over 220 companies. We are honored to be recognized as a Finalist for this celebrated award, said Zachary Dan, co-founder of Act Analytics. ESG portfolio analytics are the heart and soul of what we provide through the Act Analytics platform, which is experiencing growing momentum as ESG investing is rapidly moving to the forefront for both advisor and investor concerns to have more control, insight and alignment with their investments and their personal values. The Technology Providers Portfolio Analytics category is designed to recognize technology companies for New initiatives to enable advisors to better construct, compare, model and manage portfolios through new analytical frameworks, ESG and SRI considerations, access to enhanced investment data, reporting, macto-economic impacts, x-ray analyses and similar. Act Analytics comprehensive ESG technology platform is fueled by the industrys highest quality ESG data on over 200 ESG factors across 100,000 mutual funds and ETFs, as well as more than 20,000 publicly traded securities. This comprehensive platform helps advisors better compare, contrast and manage ESG portfolios. We look forward to participating in the Wealthies Circle initiative to engage with advisors and the industry for this prestigious recognition, as well as attending the virtual gala event in September where we will gather with the wealth management industry to celebrate the winners, said Dan. About Act Analytics Founded by a former financial advisor/portfolio manager and a technology expert, Act Analytics is leading the way for RIAs and investment professionals to invest on a values-based level. As an independent technology company, Act Analytics is able to bring transparency to ESG investing, ensuring that ESG portfolios stand up to the highest levels of stakeholder scrutiny. Based in Toronto, Canada, Act Analytics is dedicated to helping advisors and managers source, access, and analyze ESG investments for their clients. http://www.act-analytics.com There are lessons to be learned from the way governments dealt with crises of the past, whether we are looking at threats to public health, social unrest or an economic catastrophe.A hundred years ago, municipal governments faced daunting challenges, including political corruption, poor sanitation and inadequate infrastructure. The first city managers tackled the problems with a vengeance, making sure, for example, that water and sanitation systems reached all neighborhoods.In the 1920s, Petersburg, Va., City Manager Louis Brownlow reported that the city's public-health initiatives were paying off. In one year, the city's infant mortality rate dropped from 189 per 1,000 people to 106.Today we take for granted that our children will not get polio, yet that epidemic lasted for decades in the United States, peaking with 57,879 cases in 1952. It ended with a vaccine, mostly administered to children in their schools in the mid-1950s, and a vaccine may end the COVID-19 pandemic. In the meantime, however, we have fallen behind on routine childhood immunizations, essential to prevent outbreaks of diseases like measles.In the 1960s, social unrest sparked by issues including civil rights and the Vietnam War was at the forefront of government's challenges. "We are in the midst of an urban revolution in the United States economic, social, moral, and cultural ferment that pervades all elements of our lives," observed the International City Management Association's president, David Rowlands, in 1967.As the protests of the 1960s continued, local-government leaders listened to more community voices and pressed their regional, state and national partners to take action. Then and now, federal resources were needed to mend the nation's social fabric.The 1960s social-justice issues included more-equitable service delivery and the need for low-income housing. Today we still need to address housing affordability, while the current protests over the deaths of African Americans at the hands of police have given new urgency to the need to transform law enforcement. Community policing has resurfaced as a sound strategy, while questions remain on how to address police misconduct complaints. Leadership is needed for culture change, and the voices of local government officials are being heard in response to the protests sweeping across our cities.Keeping protesters safe while maintaining public order has added to local governments' costs on top of the fiscal burdens imposed by the need to deal with the pandemic, at the same time that tax revenues have plunged as a result of business closures and stay-at-home orders.In the Great Depression, local government leaders initially focused on cutting costs, adopting innovative strategies such as cooperative purchasing. But good management alone cannot protect communities from economic realities as harsh as we're seeing now and saw then. In the 1930s, many smaller jurisdictions could not keep up with their debt payments; more than 2,000 municipalities defaulted, and they were forced to cut services just as the unemployed needed more help.Local governments pressed their states for a greater share of state revenues, and more than 20 million Americans benefited from federal unemployment relief as millions more found employment through infrastructure-building programs such as those conducted by the federal Works Progress Administration. By 1934, local tax collections began to revive and cooperation with states and federal governments grew.Today, local government managers stretch tax dollars by employing such strategies as sharing services with other jurisdictions. They use technology and automation to reduce costs and improve services. But as in the 1930s, it's become clear that the economic impact of the pandemic is far too harsh for them to sustain essential services on their own. Cities, towns and villages anticipate budget shortfalls of more than $360 billion between 2020 and 2022, and counties expect a $144 billion budgetary impact through fiscal 2021.After the Great Recession of 2008-2009, local and state governments shed more than 720,000 jobs over several years. Just since the pandemic began, twice that many state and local jobs have been eliminated. About 85 percent of those jobs are in local government: teachers, along with public safety, public works, public health and other local employees.Clearly urgent federal action is needed now, just as it was in the 1930s and during the Great Recession. The HEROES Act, passed by the Democratic-controlled House in May, includes $915 billion in direct, flexible aid to state and local governments. The bipartisan SMART Act, introduced in the Senate, would provide $500 billion in emergency financial aid to local and state governments.As self-reliant and innovative as local governments have shown themselves to be through the last century, in the present situation only bold federal action can stabilize their budgets so they can sustain vital public services during this trifecta of pandemic, social unrest and economic crisis.GoverningGoverning A family have been left devastated after their pet Chihuahua was given away by a vet to a thief posing as the dog's owner. The dognapper is said to have made off with the 14-year-old pooch on June 8 after she was handed into Our Vet Browns Plains, in southern Brisbane, the previous day when she was found wandering in the area. Staff shared images of the dog to a lost pets Facebook Page and said the Chihuahua was found without a collar or a microchip. A family's 14-year-old Chihuahua was handed into a vet who gave the dog to an unknown woman posing as the her owner But by the time owner Jacki Cornelius contacted the vet to pick up her dog she had already been taken by the unknown woman. The family have been left shattered by the theft with the dog's other owner, Tegan Maree, pleading with the woman online to return their beloved pet. By the time owner Jacki Cornelius contacted the vet to pick up her dog it had already been taken by the unknown woman 'Please if anyone knows the whereabouts of my family's baby,' Ms Maree said on a lost pets Facebook group. 'She went missing on Sunday and has since been picked by another lady and our family is heartbroken.' Ms Maree said the family is now offering a reward for the dog's return. 'If you have our girl please return her no questions asked, if you know who has our girl please speak up and ask them to return her,' she said. 'She has been in our family for almost 14 years and we are all devastated.' The family have been left shattered by the theft with the dog's other owner, Tegan Maree, pleading with the thief online to return their beloved pet Queensland Police told Daily Mail Australia they were reviewing CCTV footage that showed the alleged thief at the vet. 'Police have been notified of the matter and calling on anyone who may have information into the whereabouts of the dog or who may have seen it in the area to please contact police,' a spokesperson said. Ms Maree accused Our Vet Browns Plains of changing their story multiple times and not taking responsibility for the theft. 'They did not take contact details of the lady, however police have requested surveillance of the car park and the vets for number plates and facial ID,' she said. One of the dog's owner Tegan Maree said the family were now offering a reward for their dogs return and 'no questions would be asked' A spokesperson for the vet told Quest Newspapers they were deeply saddened by the deception and were working to get the dog back to its owner. 'We are saddened to confirm that a lost, unmicrochipped dog was handed in last Sunday and the following day our team was contacted by a person who deceptively posed as the owner,' they said. 'We are assisting the police in their investigation into the matter, which we take very seriously. 'We are currently reviewing internal procedures to identify if there were steps that could have been taken to avoid this situation,' they said. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the dog's family and Our Vet Browns Plains for comment. By Express News Service KOCHI: The Perumbavoor police on Tuesday launched a scientific inquiry into the death of the 43-year-old woman at Perumbavoor, who died on Monday after bumping into a banks glass door, which shattered and a broken piece pierced her stomach. A scientific expert team of the police inspected the A M Road branch of Bank of Baroda at Perumbavoor, the spot of the incident. The probe was launched after the relatives of Beena Noby, the deceased, lodged a complaint alleging serious lapses on the banks part. They alleged the bank authorities installed a low-quality glass door at its entrance. Perumbavoor CI C Jayakumar said they had registered a case of accidental death under CrPC Section 174. It may be changed depending on our findings. The police are examining whether there was any lapse on the banks part. For this, we will check whether there are any norms related to installation of glass doors, Jayakumar said. The bank is functioning in a rented building and was previously occupied by Vijaya Bank since 2013. In April, it was turned into a Bank of Baroda branch following a merger. The bank officials are not sure whether the frame is fitted with toughened glass and said the door had been in use since Vijaya Bank occupied the space, said a police officer. The Perumbavoor municipality has directed its engineering division to inspect the building. The Kerala State Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and its chairman Justice Antony Dominic has ordered Ernakulam rural police chief K Karthik and the Perumbavoor municipal secretary to submit a report within three weeks. Beenas body was handed over to relatives after the postmortem. The body was brought to her residence at Mankuzhy near Koovappady by 6pm. The relatives said the burial will be held at 10am on Wednesday. Architects slam banks for compromising on quality The Indian Institute of Architects (IIA), Kerala chapter, has come out strongly against the use of sub-standard materials in interior works. According to L Gopakumar, chairman, IIA-Kerala chapter, the banks that award tender to the lowest bidder all for the sake of profit are the culprits. The wrong policies of banks too are to be blamed for such occurrences, he said. The tendency of the contractors to compromise on quality of materials is the main reason behind the fall in quality, he said. According to him, just as laws have been made to weed out frauds in the medical field, the government should take similar steps in the construction sector. IIA-Kerala chapter will soon conduct an independent investigation to check whether public buildings conform to safety rules. Boniface Oburuku has been arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly stealing a bag bel... Boniface Oburuku has been arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly stealing a bag belonging to a woman from Mauritius. The 32-year-old was said to have stolen the handbag at an event organised by the EFCC in Abuja on June 11, 2019. The bag contained mobile phones, an international passport and cash. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the commission said it had been on the trail of the suspect, who was eventually arrested in Lagos. Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested 32-year old Boniface Oburuku for theft of a handbag belonging to an international guest from the Republic of Mauritius, it read. The bag contained her two Samsung mobile phones, an international passport, United States Dollars, Nigerian and Mauritian currencies. Oburuku committed the crime on June 11, 2019 at an event organised by the EFCC to mark the years National Democracy Day and Anti-Corruption Summit at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, which had in attendance, President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian security chiefs, respected citizens and global leaders. The 2019 summit, which was attended by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, among others, had as its theme, Curbing Electoral Spending: A Panacea for Public Corruption. Donald Trump was reportedly obsessed with sending a CD of the song Rocket Man, signed by Elton John himself, to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, according to a new book that the White House is trying to block. Former US national security adviser John Bolton makes the claims of Mr Trump "inordinate interest" in his upcoming book The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir. While the White House has sued to stop the publication of the book, The Washington Post obtained a pre-publication version of the tome, which says Mr Trump wanted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to hand over the CD to the North Korean dictator in 2018. Calling Kim "Little Rocket Man" was one of Mr Trump's favoured insults during a time when the two exchanged threats over North Korea's nuclear programme. A summit on denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula was held in Singapore in June 2018, and Mr Trump wanted Mr Pompeo to deliver the CD during a trip to North Korea in October of that year in an apparent attempt to convince Kim that "Little Rocket Man" was a term of affection meant as a compliment rather than an insult. "Trump didn't seem to realise Pompeo hadn't actually seen Kim Jong Un [during the trip], asking if Pompeo had handed" the CD, writes Mr Bolton. "Pompeo had not. Getting this CD to Kim remained a high priority for several months." Mr Trump was reportedly determined to make friends with the North Korean leader, and his desire to give gifts like the Elton John CD violated US sanctions that eventually had to be waived. Mr Bolton said that Mr Trump cared little for the details of the denuclearisation effort, and that he saw the Singapore summit as merely "an exercise in publicity". "Trump told . . . me he was prepared to sign a substance-free communique, have his press conference to declare victory and then get out of town," Mr Bolton wrote. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 19:56:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's electricity generation is rising at a faster pace after a significant increase in May, buoyed by growing demand, the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) said on Wednesday. "As a bellwether of China's economy, a hike in power generation shows the country's economic and social activities are returning to normal at an accelerated pace," said Shan Baoguo, deputy chief economist with the State Grid Energy Research Institute. Most parts of China have seen higher temperatures since June, which also contributed to the increase, Shan added. In east China's Jiangsu Province, electricity consumed by the information technology and software industries continued to grow rapidly, while mining, food processing, and equipment manufacturing sectors also reported rapid increases in power consumption. The gradual industrial recovery and the summer harvest explained part of the recent increases, said Wang Yiqing with the Xuzhou branch of SGCC. Electricity consumption in the city of Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province jumped by 15.4 percent year on year in early June. Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, a leading engineering machinery manufacturer, saw its power consumption up by almost 30 percent during the period, according to Wang. China's key economic indicators are expected to continue to improve with a slew of measures to unleash domestic demand and stabilize business operations coming into effect, Shan noted. The country's power generation climbed by 9.1 percent year on year in early June. Enditem We are extremely excited about this moment. We are fully convinced that the arrival of professionals of this magnitude will bring the necessary competence and experience to further leverage our maturation and growth process, says Nana Baffour, Chairman, CEO and Chief Culture Officer at Qintess Relying on the best talents to drive business-oriented innovation. With this commitment, Qintess, one of the main suppliers of technology and digital transformation solutions in Brazil, announces its new leaderships for Latin America: Gilberto Caparica assumes as Chief Operation Officer (COO) and as Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Lauro Chacon is the new Chief Marketing and HR Officer, and Raul Rocha takes over as Chief Sales Officer. These executives will act together with Rogerio Dias, the Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff at Qintess. We are extremely excited about this moment. We are fully convinced that the arrival of professionals of this magnitude will bring the necessary competence and experience to further leverage our maturation and growth process, says Nana Baffour, Chairman, CEO and Chief Culture Officer at Qintess, reinforcing the role and importance of the new company leaders in Latin American countries. All the transformation processes we have been through make us sure that we are on the right path to provide our customers with successful experiences in the digital transformation journey, says Rogerio Dias, who served for 22 years as an executive of the Cimcorp Group, precursor of Qintess, besides having occupied, among others, the position of Global Head of Commercial Strategy at Getronics. During this period, he acted effectively in the transformation processes that brought the company to the present day. In addition to Qintess' growth strategy plan, Gilberto Caparica will act as Chief Operating Officer, leading the entire delivery structure of the company. Caparica has over 30 years of experience in the Operations, Digital Services and Commercial areas, having held positions in large companies such as JD Edwards, Peoplesoft (now Oracle), HQS and Getronics, where he recently was a Board Member & Global CMO. It is an extremely rewarding moment in my professional career. The great challenge at Qintess for this year is to redesign our offers so that they are even more connected with the companys new business model, increasing the synergy obtained by integrating Resources experience in applications and systems with Cimcorp Groups recognized expertise in infrastructure and workspace, emphasizes Caparica. Caparica's vast experience opens new horizons for Qintess, as over the last few years he has developed and articulated the creation of offers in countries in Latin and Central America, as well as in the United States, Canada, and Spain. His expertise in creating high-performance digital models will help Qintess to grow in the Latin American and European market in the coming years. Raul Rochas objective will be to support sustained growth and the evolution of solutions offered to the market. Qintess' new Chief Sales Officer for Latin America aims to generate a 20% growth in the regional company's revenue in 2020, working to verticalize the offers according to the demands of each location. I am very confident and happy to be part of Qintess, a company that continues to evolve and transform itself. I arrive to support the actions of the brand and to bring new experiences and options for the group, says Rocha, who has experience in Technology industry, since he has worked for companies such as Tivit, Sonda and T-Systems, and who was the Executive Vice President of Stefanini for the past six years. With significant achievements throughout his professional history, Lauro Chacon worked at Accenture for 22 years, where he was the Managing Director responsible for Change Management, in addition of the position of HR and Talent Strategy Head for Latin America. Chacon joins the Qintess executive team to strengthen the innovation and people management strategy, in addition to promoting projects which comply with the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) principles and best practices. Working towards this, the Chief Marketing and HR Officer will aim to improve the integration of the teams through leadership development, staff appreciation and strengthening the brand, with a great focus on building an organizational culture of transformation and growth. It is a differentiated opportunity in my career. The objective is to build a favorable environment for innovation, to expand the diversity and sustainability of the company, in addition to strengthening the new identity and the employees pride in working for our company. This, of course, added to strategies to improve the talent attraction and retention processes. A specialist in the implementation of high-performance human management models, Chacon will also work to implement fully digital processes, such as attracting and selecting people, in addition to training professionals through the Talent Academy. About Qintess With around 3,500 employees in Brazil and Latin America, Qintess combines the expertise in strategy, design innovation and technology to support organizations and to offer the best experience for the customer. As a result of the union of the Cimcorp Group and Resource, Qintess aims to expand support to organizations, with options fully aligned with the agile and disruptive model, reducing the bureaucracy of processes and offering more added value to customers, presenting Resources experience in applications and systems with Cimcorp Groups recognized expertise in infrastructure and workspace. The ESG principles, which refer to the best environmental, social and governance practices, are the major drivers of the company's transformation. To learn more, please visit: http://www.qintess.com Media Contacts - Planin Qintess Communication and PR Office Angelica Consiglio, Beatriz Imenes and team - http://www.planin.com Contacts: Hellen SantAnna, Andre Geniselli, Ana Flavia Richter and Thelma Kai Phone: (11) 2138-8906 qintess@planin.com The German government has been divided on whether to include Huawei in its 5G network expansion. (Horst Galuschka/picture alliance via Getty Images) A ban on using network equipment from Chinese telecoms giant Huawei would be a catastrophe for Germanys Deutsche Telekom, and would cost the company billions of euros, according to a report. A preparatory document for a meeting between Deutsche Telecom (DTE.DE) and Huawei managers, seen by business daily Handelsblatt, outlines a scenario where Germany, bowing to pressure from the US, bans Telekom from using the Chinese supplier in its 5G network buildout. The company reportedly described such a scenario as Armageddon, as Deutsche Telekom would be forced to replace all the Huawei equipment it has already installed. It said this would take up to five years and cost at least 3bn ($3.4bn, 2.7bn). Huawei technology is already embedded in over half of Germanys telecommunications network, but its inclusion in the build out of 5G networks has become a hotly debated topic not just in Germany, but across the EU and US. President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded that US allies exclude Huawei from their 5G networks. He has threatened to limit intelligence sharing with countries that allow Huawei gear, saying the company represents a security threat as it could pass on sensitive information to the government in Beijing. READ MORE: UK plans cut in Huawei's 5G network involvement to zero by 2023 The German government has been divided on the issue. However the Federal Network agency said in its guidelines in October last year that it would not exclude Huawei from participating in the countrys 5G infrastructure plan but included a rule that critical network components must be certified and network providers and suppliers must prove that they are trustworthy. The Chinese ambassador to Germany Ken Wu said last December that there was no law in China that demands its companies hand over data they have collected in foreign countries to the Beijing government. He threatened consequences if Huawei were to be excluded from the German market, saying: The Chinese government will not stand idly by. Story continues UK cyber-security chiefs announced a fresh review of the telecoms firms role in Britains 5G rollout last month. However, the US on Monday confirmed a report by Reuters that it will amend its ban on US companies doing business with and selling their tech products to Huawei in order to let them set 5G network standards together. READ MORE: Huawei launches open letter to UK amid new review into 5G role Telekom and Huawei declined to comment on the document reported by Handelsblatt, but a Telekom spokesman told the paper that many components from Ericsson and Huawei are already installed in the existing network. Excluding Huawei from 5G would also mean dismantling it from 4G, the spokesman said.Germany would be set back massively in 5G expansion. Urgent need for new investor India's Mahindra & Mahindra has indicated that it will give up control of SsangYong Motor, its cash-strapped subsidiary here. "SsangYong needs a new investor. We are working with the company to see if we can secure an investment," Pawan Goenka, Mahindra's managing director, told Indian reporters Friday. As Mahindra, which owns a 75 percent stake in SsangYong, is signaling a possible exit from South Korea, the struggling carmaker is facing yet another life or death crisis. Reports say Mahindra is seeking to cede its ownership of SsangYong in an effort to shed loss-making ventures amid the coronavirus pandemic. SsangYong suffered an operating loss of 282 billion won ($232 million) in 2019 with its debt ratio reaching 755 percent as of the end of March this year. So it will not be easy to find a new investor. At the moment, it's unclear whether Mahindra will leave Korea for good or if these are just maneuvers to receive a fresh round of financial support from the government. SsangYong has 254 billion won in liabilities due this year, 90 billion won of which is owed to the state-owned Korea Development Bank, payable in July. The company reportedly hopes to receive 200 billion won from the 40 trillion won coronavirus bailout fund for core industries. But SsangYong is ineligible for the fund, in principle, because it is intended to rescue companies that are experiencing temporary problems due to the COVID-19 outbreak. SsangYong has been struggling financially since well before the coronavirus crisis began. Currently at stake are tens of thousands of jobs, including those of 5,000 SsangYong employees. Nonetheless, a hasty decision could end up filling a bottomless vessel. What's most urgent is to quickly look for a new investor that can normalize SsangYong's management through fresh cash injections. Only then can SsangYong emerge from its chronic financial woes and prepare for the coming era of electric and self-driving vehicles. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal office, has arrested a social media influencer, Adedamola Adewale, also known as Adeherself alongside four others for their alleged involvement in internet-related fraud. Taking to Twitter, the anti-graft agency wrote; The EFCC Lagos Zonal Office has arrested five alleged internet fraudsters, including one Adedamola Adewale, a self-acclaimed social media influencer, for their alleged involvement in internet-related fraud, The five suspects were apprehended in different areas of Lagos during a raid by operatives. Advertisement While Adewale, 20, and her accomplice, Lamina Hamzat Ajibola, were arrested at the Agungi area of Lekki, Lagos State, while Israel Onyebuchi, Emmanuel Olayode and Valentine Nwokorie were picked up at the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State. According to the commission, the arrest of Adewale and Ajibola was sequel to intelligence linking them to online fraudulent activities with two brothers, Lasisi Wasiu Adeleke and Lasisi Riliwan Adeniyi, who are at large. EFCC revealed they were apprehended at a four-bedroom duplex belonging to the two run-away fraudsters and Intelligence also linked them with flamboyant lifestyles. EFCC said Adeherself confessed to being a picker in cybercrimes during interrogation and the model usually poses as a lady to hoodwink her foreign preys. Items recovered from the suspects include two Toyota Camry 2009 model cars, and a sum of N9,000,000.00 (Nine Million Naira only), which was found in Adewales account. The commission also said that the other suspects; Onyebuchi, Olayode, and Nwokorie were arrested for their alleged involvement in a romance scam. According to EFCC, they were arrested during another raid, following a separate intelligence. Investigation revealed that Nwokorie was posing as a female American citizen and sending photos as a porn star to defraud his victim while Onyebuchi was engaging in a love scam as well as forging foreign cheques. Items recovered from the suspects include laptops and mobile phones EFCC said. All the suspects will soon be arraigned in court as soon as investigations are concluded. Read Also: Pastor Ituah Ighodalo Reveals Plans To Fulfill His Late Wifes Birthday Wish (Video) See the tweets below: Global growth in primary energy consumption slowed down to 1.3 percent last year from 2.8 percent demand growth in 2018, with renewables a major growth driver in 2019, BP said in its annual Statistical Review of World Energy 2020 on Wednesday. Renewables, together with natural gas, accounted for three-quarters of last years increase in global energy consumption, said BP, which has been publishing the annual statistical review since 1952. Renewable energy accounted for over 40 percent of the global growth in primary energy in 2019, more than any other fuel. The share of renewables in power generation rose to 10.4 percent and surpassed the share of nuclear energy in the global power mix for the first time, according to BP. China was the key driver of energy consumption growth last year, followed by India and Indonesia, while the United States and Germany saw the largest declines in primary energy consumption. Global oil consumption increased last year by a below-average 900,000 bpd, or 0.9 percent annually. Demand for all liquid fuels including biofuels grew by 1.1 million bpd and topped 100 million bpd for the first time. Unsurprisingly, China was the main driver of oil demand growth, accounting for 680,000 bpd of the 2019 global increase, BPs closely watched report said. Related: The Most Vulnerable Of The Oil Majors While global energy demand growth slowed down, the growth in carbon emissions from energy was 0.5 percent in 2019, less than half the ten-year average growth of 1.1 percent per year. Slower energy demand growth and increased use of renewables and natural gas instead of coal helped reduce the carbon emissions growth, partially reversing some of the unusually strong 2.1-percent increase in emissions in 2018, BP said. Of course, one effect of the pandemic is that emissions may fall again perhaps by as much as 2.6 gigatonnes, BPs chief executive Bernard Looney wrote in a LinkedIn post, noting that the price of the falling emissions is a terrible loss of lives and jobs in the pandemic. To get to net zero emissions by 2050, the world would need similar-sized reductions in carbon emissions every other year for the next 25 years, BP says. For me, that shows the challenge we face. We cant lockdown every year. We need another way - to build back better, said Looney, reiterating BPs pledge to do its part as the supermajor is reinventing itself to become a net-zero energy company by 2050 or sooner. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Amid calls for massive cuts to the citys police force, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said the department is willing to give up its school safety and traffic enforcement responsibilities. On Tuesday, Commissioner Shea spoke with reporters from the Associated Press, stating that the NYPD is willing to concede some ancillary functions, such as school safety and traffic enforcement, which would reduce the departments budget by approximately $500 million annually. The discussions surrounding potential funding reductions for the NYPD come after members of the City Council called for $1 billion in cuts to the departments $6 billion annual budget last Friday. The calls for NYPD budget cuts came after weeks of protests against police brutality throughout the country following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. I think everyone has to cut. I think were going to be forced to do difficult things. We certainly get that, Shea told the AP. What concerns me is a moment in time and some rash judgments stepping in and taking the place of some well thought out conversations about how to cut smartly. However, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been skeptical of calls to drastically reduce funding for the NYPD. I do not believe it is a good idea to reduce the budget of the agency that is here to keep us safe and the agency that is instituting neighborhood policing, which involves getting our officers to be deeply engaged with the community, de Blasio told reporters during a press conference on Jun. 5. [Neighborhood policing] is a game-changer, it is the future of policing. If you undercut that, its not helpful, he said. On Jun. 10, the mayor addressed specific concerns regarding the removal of NYPD from school safety duty. My honest feeling that the safety issues are not resolved in schools at this point and school safety is necessary in its current form to keep ensuring the safety of our kids and personnel, de Blasio said. Earlier this month, hundreds of Department of Education (DOE) employees penned a letter to NYC Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza requesting that School Safety Officers be removed from NYPD control and be retrained by the Office of Safety and Youth Development with a focus on deescalation, mediation and restorative practices. Carranza appeared receptive to the letter in a written statement, noting that he shared the desire to make New York City schools more inclusive for students. I welcome this letter, and hear the voices of our staff unequivocally standing against racism and police brutality seeking just, welcoming, anti-racist schools for our students. I share that vision, and the anguish you and so many are feeling across this city and country. I am listening, and I look forward to meeting with you, Carranza said. Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, told the New York Post that while safety comes first, the union is willing to discuss alternatives to NYPD presence in schools. The safety of students and staff is our first priority. If people have an alternative suggestion to better ensure that safety, we are willing to discuss it, Mulgrew said. Currently, there are 5,200 School Safety Officers stationed at schools throughout the city to keep students safe. The NYPD refused to provide specific information as to how many School Safety Officers work on Staten Island. At the aforementioned Jun. 10 press conference, the mayor also expressed concerns with stripping traffic enforcement from the NYPD, something de Blasio said is crucial to keeping the city moving safely. Traffic enforcement is something that we all need to keep this city safe, to keep this city moving. I think there, the question is going to be talking to the people that do the work, talking to their union. Thats very important in this discussion. And determining what we think will make it work best, the mayor said. The NYPD has already diverted some resources from traffic-related functions, no longer responding to minor vehicle crashes in order to respond to higher-priority jobs, a program that was first piloted on Staten Island starting in Mar. 2019. The Mayors Office did not respond to a request for comment regarding Commissioner Sheas most recent remarks about the NYPDs willingness to remove cops from school safety and traffic enforcement. New York state is still slowly reopening during the coronavirus pandemic, and gatherings of up to 25 people are now allowed as we are in phase three. You can also now see movies at reopened Midway Drive-In and Finger Lakes Drive-In. This weekend we celebrate Fathers Day, Juneteenth, and Pride Month with a mixture of outdoor activities and virtual happenings. If you know of a virtual or outdoor event you would like to see on this list, let us know at features@syracuse.com. Free To Be - A Juneteenth Celebration This virtual event will be streamed online via Zoom and on Cafe Sankofa Cooperatives Facebook page. Juneteenth commemorates the day when Union soldiers finally arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War was over and that all slaves were free. Free To Be is a collaboration with the Sankofa Wellness & Resource Liberty Resources and aims to tie together the celebration of Juneteenth and current events which have spurred daily protests against police brutality across the nation. There will be guest speakers, spoken word and more. Where: Cafe Sankofa Cooperative Facebook page When: June 19 from 1-2 p.m. How much: Free Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards Drive-In Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards is hosting a summer drive-in movie series this weekend and various dates through July 30. This weekend will feature an 80s nostalgia movie and there will be a charge per car, not per guest. When purchasing tickets, patrons are also encouraged to pre-order their movie drinks and snacks at the same time through Eventbrite. Where: Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards, 2708 Lords Hill Rd. (Rte. 80) LaFayette, NY 13084 When: June 19, July 22, 30 (Disney dates for July 3 and 11 are sold out) How much: $25 Baldwinsville Haiku Contest Baldwinsville Center for the Arts is sponsoring its first ever haiku contest. Traditional and non-traditional haiku will be accepted on the theme of summer. Individuals of all ages and locations may submit up to three entries. All entries will be reviewed and judged by members of the BCA board, as well as the community on baldwinsville.org. Winning poems will be seen on colorful lawn signs along Baldwinsville streets. Where: baldwinsvillearts.org When: Entries can be submitted from now through June 20 How much: Free to enter. First-place award will be a $100 Gift Basket including local gift certificates. Second prize will be a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant. Outdoor yoga Breathe yoga of Fayetteville is offering a free community yoga class. No prior yoga experience required, but you will need to bring your own mat. Donations will be accepted, but not expected for Black Lives Matter Syracuse. Parking will be available at Wellwood Middle School. Where: Beard Park, 505 Lincoln Ave, Fayetteville, NY 13066 When: June 20 from 10-11 a.m. (rain date June 27) How much: Free 7th Annual In My Fathers Kitchen You are Not Invisible Virtual Run The In My Fathers Kitchen (IMFK) annual 5k is going virtual and seeks to bring awareness as well as resources to individuals who are homeless living on the streets, in abandoned houses and under the bridges of our city. Since 2011 IMFK has assisted 191 individuals off the streets and into safe housing in the Syracuse community. The run will have prizes for top 3 finishers for men and women, for the largest team on the virtual platform, and for the largest amount of money raised. Where: diem.life When: Can be completed anytime from now until August 30 How much: $20 Summer Solstice Join The Twisted Sage Apothecary to celebrate the official start of the summer season. They will have a day filled with fun and games for all ages, a small rite, a potluck dinner and a fire. Where: The Twisted Sage Apothecary, 429 Lenox Ave Oneida, NY 13421 When: June 20 from noon to 8 p.m. How much: Free Waiting For The Host and Still Waiting Redhouse Arts Center presents a two-part play written specifically for Zoom. In a season when theaters, playgrounds, schools and churches are shuttered by a modern plague, the rector of a small church on Long Island gathers a handful of parishioners via video conference. Where: theredhouse.org/virtual-performances When: Waiting For The Host streams from June 18 at 7 p.m. June 22 at 7 p.m., Still Waiting streams from June 25 at 7 p.m. June 29 at 7 p.m. How much: $15 per show Uncommon Excerpts and Others: The Wendy Chronicles This show is scenes and excerpts from the life and work of Tony and Pulitzer-Award winning Wendy Wasserstein, ranging from her well-known comedies to her insightful lesser-known essays. Compiled by Hangar AD Michael Barakiva, who worked for Wendy for the last five years of her life. There will be a pre-show conversation with Julie Salamon, author of Wendys biography Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein." Where: hangartheatre.org/event/wendy/ When: June 20 at 7:30 p.m. How much: Adults: $20, Students: $10 with promo code LEARN Mario & The Dancing Princesses Hangar Theatre Company will be presenting several virtual plays and musical performances for children as part of its KIDDSTUFF programming. They include Mario & The Dancing Princesses on June 13, The Emperors New Clothes on June 20, The Magic Paintbrush" on July 18, and The Velveteen Rabbit on July 25. Hangar Theatres seasons have gone virtual with performances for both kids and adults. Where: hangartheatre.org When: June 13, 20; July 18, 25 at 10:30 a.m. How much: Free Virtual Amazing Migrants Over the past few weeks, these migratory birds have arrived back in our region after a perilous journey south and are now raising their young, who will make their own journey soon enough. Join naturalist Rand Michaels as he takes a closer look at this avian phenomenon, with help from the researchers at Onondaga Audubon. Where: Baltimore Woods website When: June 20 at noon to July 1 at noon How much: Free, registration is required Contemporary Broadway Cabaret CNY Playhouse presents a virtual cabaret filled with local performers via their YouTube channel. Where: CNY Playhouse YouTube When: June 20 at 3 p.m. How much: Free, but donations are appreciated at cnyplayhouse.org/donation Gone are the days when consumers had to follow advertisements before finalizing the brand that they want to go for. Today, the advertisements follow consumers as millions of users have become active on social media platforms, even in developing nations. The revolution is further being facilitated due to increasing penetration of smartphones. The brands which do not join the social media advertising bandwagon lose visibility and thereby, consumer base. The reason is simple the number of active users on Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, among others are even higher than the population of most of the countries. Consequently, these platforms have become the best, the most convenient, and interestingly, the most reasonably priced advertising medium for businesses. Why social media advertisements? Besides ensuring a large audience, social media provides the opportunity to interact with customers/clients (or the prospective ones), build relationships, and increase brand awareness and sales as well. When businesses join these platforms, consumers get to interact with them directly. These responses can really help an entrepreneur devise future business strategy and address any existing issues. Additionally, social media ensures word of mouth publicity for a brand as these sites (and blogs) allow followers to like and repost any positive comment uploaded by a consumer for a brands product. And this happens quite frequently on websites. Not to forget, when an individual appreciates your product on social media in any which way, it creates a domino effect. Some others echo the appreciation, and this compels the rest of the social media users to try to your brands product /service. The statistics too back these claims. In a careful and detailed study, it was found out that 57% of Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube, GDN, and NATIVE users say that advertisements posted on these platforms influence their shopping purchases. Not just this, 30% of social media users also confirmed that they have made a purchase after checking out Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube advertisements. How social media ups your marketing? The science of data analysis and audience penetration has been transforming as business owners are switching more and more to digital marketing. Advertising firms can help businesses in strategizing successful social media advertising campaigns. The firms, through data analytics tools, can even gauge the progress, success, and engagement of these advertisement campaigns. Social media marketing has become such a crucial business aspect now-a-days that companies cannot afford to overlook it. We provide services like buyer traffic, demographic and engagement filters, geo-location filters, exact and relevant keywords, call to action based sorting, powerful search algorithm, video, and image advertisement integration, among others to our clients. These services give an edge to them over their competitors. Thus, it has become imperative for companies to acknowledge the power of social media to attract and engage customers. A shift in approach Social media platforms were initially approached by advertisers in a different manner. It was simply a tool to connect with the audience. But now, firms are going beyond conventional trends to keep up with the consumer behavior and technological trends. Holiday-specific and day-specific campaigns are being launched on social media to cash in on an occasion of celebration. Several firms also prepare a social media calendar with an aim to achieve very specific goals. Since the product/service offered, social media platforms are chosen to target the right audience demography to ensure greater retention. As society leans more towards social distancing due to Covid-19 pandemic, consumers are relying on digital media like never. Acknowledging this, firms are switching from traditional to social media marketing techniques. Also, with internet connectivity expanding each day and technology penetrating deep into our society, social media platforms are sure to have a long run and thus, entrepreneurs must adapt in order to advertise their products/services effectively and engage customers. Authored by Sumit Ghosh, CEO, PowerAdSpy. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the publisher. Florida restaurants are under no obligation to let the public know when they have been exposed to employees with COVID-19, despite record numbers of new infections sweeping the state, sparking fears of a second wave. The Sunshine State, which is continuing to plow ahead with its reopening despite a surge in new cases, does not require restaurants to inform customers of a coronavirus outbreak among staff because it is not classed as a food-related outbreak. While the Florida Department of Health tracks outbreaks of illnesses such as hepatitis A and norovirus in restaurants and orders owners to contact customers when they occur, it does not track cases of coronavirus linked to restaurants or require the cases to be made public. Customers of infected restaurant workers are also not classed as their close contacts under the state's contact tracing efforts. The state does not even require workers to wear masks when serving customers food, and has offered limited guidance over what steps restaurants should take if employees are struck down with the virus. The shocking revelations comes despite the highly contagious nature of coronavirus which has so far killed 2,994 and infected 80,109 across Florida and after cases have soared since restaurants were allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity from May 4 in some regions of the state. New York Pizza & Pasta in Florida closed after staff tested positive for COVID-19. Florida restaurants are under no obligation to let the public know when they have been exposed to employees with COVID-19 The CDC encourages restaurants to notify customers of a coronavirus outbreak among staff, but does not mandate it with state and local laws instead dictating the rules. Under the Florida health department's rules, customers have to be notified of outbreaks of hepatitis A or norovirus because it can be passed from the worker to the customer if they have not washed their hands properly during food preparations. 'With hepatitis, the reason it's tracked the way it is is the fecal-to-oral means through which it is transmitted,' Kristine Hollingsworth, public information officer for the Florida Department of Health, told Yahoo News. There is no evidence that coronavirus can be passed through food and several health experts have said the risks of food transmission are low, so restaurants do not have to take the same steps. Hollingsworth also said transmission between a server and a diner are low. 'You can just as easily pick it up at a restaurant as a grocery store or shop, she told Yahoo News. However, while the virus is mostly spread by respiratory droplets released when people talk, cough, or sneeze, the CDC also warns it can spread through contaminated surfaces. Yet, despite the risks, Florida officials also do not class customers as restaurant workers' contacts during state contact tracing efforts. Several restaurants re-closed temporarily after employees tested positive including Tommy Bahama Restaurant (above). While the Florida Department of Health tracks outbreaks of illnesses such as hepatitis A and norovirus in restaurants, it does not track cases of coronavirus linked to restaurants or require the cases to be made public Customers of infected restaurant workers are also not classed as close contacts to restaurant staff within the state's contact tracing efforts 'If you are within six feet or less of a person for 10 minutes or more, that would constitute a close contact,' Hollingsworth said. The decision to exclude customers from contact tracing remains unclear given restaurant workers are not required to wear masks so it could be transmitted through talking, coughing and sneezing and, with many sites now reopen for dine-in, servers are likely to be within six feet or less for a duration of longer than 10 minutes. The few measures restaurants are required to take also provide little clarity with only one of the eight measures introduced by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation for reopened restaurants addressing the issue of sick employees. It simply states that any staff who show symptoms or become sick at work must be 'separated from other employees, customers, and visitors, and sent home'. Governor Ron DeSantis also ordered that workers with symptoms or who have passed through airports or cruise ships in the past 14 days must not enter restaurants. Fears that restaurants are staying silent over outbreaks is sparking concern among some local residents. Floridian Steve DiOrio told Yahoo News a number of local restaurants had shuttered in mysterious circumstances. DiOrio said he learned that multiple employees had tested positive for COVID-19 at New York Pizza & Pasta, causing the restaurant to shutter on June 6. He said he had gotten takeout food from the site two days in the lead-up to its closure but when he called he was told there was a gas problem. DiOrio drove to the restaurant and found sanitation crews onsite and a sign on the door saying it was closed for 48 hours. The restaurant later confirmed it had a potential COVID-19 exposure and has since given all staff rapid testing so it could reopen. It also requires all staff to wear masks. Several other restaurants nearby also re-closed temporarily after employees tested positive including Tommy Bahama Restaurant and Osteria Tulia. Florida has witnesses record numbers of new cases and hospitalizations in the past week but Governor DeSantis (pictured) insisted the state will not slow down on its path to reopening 'People should be able to know,' DiOrio said. 'If they've potentially been exposed, they should at least have the right to know about it.' Concerns over customer safety as they flock to newly reopened restaurants comes as fears are growing that the state relaxed its coronavirus restrictions too soon. Florida has witnesses record numbers of new cases and hospitalizations in the past week and leading COVID-19 mode, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, is now projecting that Florida will see its deaths nearly triple to 18,675 deaths by October. Governor DeSantis insisted the state will not slow down on its path to reopening, despite stark warnings from health officials of a potential surge in new coronavirus infections. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has taken steps on a local level, announcing Monday that its reopening will be put on pause as cases rise. President Donald Trump asked China's leader, Xi Jinping, to help him win the 2020 U.S. presidential election, suggesting that China's boosted purchases of U.S. agricultural products could get him a second term in the White House, former national security advisor John Bolton reportedly writes in his new book. The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the forthcoming book, said Bolton wrote that Trump in a one-on-one meeting at the June 2019 Group of 20 summit in Japan with Xi "stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China's economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win." "He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump's exact words but the government's prepublication review process has decided otherwise," Bolton wrote in the book "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir." The Post also reported that Bolton wrote that Trump at one point said that invading Venezuela would be "cool," and that that country was "really part of the United States." Trump, in a tweet after midnight Thursday, ripped Bolton over the book. "A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!" the president said. TRUMP TWEET Trump also spoke to The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "He is a liar," the president told the newspaper, referring to Bolton. "Everybody in the White House hated John Bolton." Bolton himself took to the media to defend himself and launch more attacks against the president. In an interview with ABC News, which will air in full on Sunday night, Bolton said Trump isn't "fit for office" and that he lacks the "competence to carry out the job." The Wall Street Journal published a long excerpt of Bolton's book on Wednesday, a day after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit that seeks to block the book's release next week, at least temporarily. The Justice Department late on Wednesday filed an emergency application for a temporary restraining order and a motion for a preliminary injunction against Bolton to prevent the publication of his book, NBC News reported. The motion asks the court to schedule a hearing on Friday, four days before the book is scheduled to be released. In the excerpt, Bolton wrote, "Trump's conversations with Xi reflected not only the incoherence in his trade policy but also the confluence in Trump's mind of his own political interests and U.S. national interests." "At the opening dinner of the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang. According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Council's top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China," the Journal quoted from the book. "Trump commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security," Bolton wrote. Columbus statues have been pulled down all over the country. Hes the trending symbol of hatred, of oppression, of racism and bigotry, so the good and tolerant folk who hate the things they think he did (according to Howard Zinn and other hostile biographers) have been exorcising his spirit by vandalizing his image. In most cities, theyve been successful. Next door to us in Camden, his statue was carted away, but not before some residents took possession of a random hand, a sliced off nose, a severed set of toes. Chester has covered over its statue, Bostons was decapitated and the one in Richmond was thrown into the river and is presumably swimming with the fishes. Minneapolis, site of the George Floyd killing, toppled its own tribute to the Italian wayfarer, and New London Connecticut put him in storage. But in Philadelphia, Columbus will not go gentle into that good night. As I write these words, a mere three blocks from Marconi Plaza where the gift to the people of Philadelphia from the Italian government has been sitting proudly for almost three decades, there have been days of peaceful, albeit angry protest as those same people of Philadelphia fight to honor the powerful weight of history. Mayor Jim Kenney has already made clear his desire to remove the statue from his old neighborhood, mere blocks from where he grew up. This son of South Philadelphia, who has demonstrated over and over how little care and concern he still harbors for those old neighbors, has made clear his desire to remove the statue. After weekend protests which spilled over into Monday and then Tuesday (the day that I am writing this column), the Italian-American community decided to pre-empt any actions like the one that resulted in Kenney ripping the Rizzo statue off of its pedestal in the wee hours of the morning, and hired an attorney to prevent the statues removal. Kenney was likely outraged that these good people sought protection in the law, thereby limiting his options to Rizzofy the statue, and in a pique of executive annoyance, issued a directive to the Philadelphia Arts Commission to initiate the public process for the possible removal of the statue. And, in a message as clear as the Schuylkill is not, Kenney took a rhetorical knee and pretty much regurgitated the narrative that Columbus was a murderer, a demon, a slave holder and the scourge of the indigenous (who were doing those same things to members of other tribes, but Kenney apparently didnt have room for that paragraph in his letter). And then, he hauled out the construction workers who may or may not have been union folk, and placed a wooden cage around Columbus to protect him while the public hearings proceeded. It was only half-finished when I was there earlier in the day to honor a beloved police captain whod been reassigned under suspicious circumstances. But when I asked a police officer standing vigil if the statue would still be visible, he told me that he was certain they were going to cover the whole thing in a vertical coffin. And in fact, they did. In other words, the mayor sought to protect our eyes from having to look at the statue. In other words, the mayor willingly bent the knee and bowed to bullies. In other words, the mayor allowed terrorists who traffic in threats and blackmail to impose their vision of tolerance on the rest of us, who believe in the rule of law. In other words, the mayor told the Italian Americans who helped build the city he now runs that their feelings, their history, their efforts, their accomplishments, their joys, their sorrows, their traditions, their money, their voices, their hopes, and their ownership in Philadelphia are cheap and illegitimate, and that the Faberge Egg sensitivities of resentful children who know as much about Christopher Columbus as they do about Columbus, Ohio, must be honored, If I sound angry, I am. Anger is not even a word sufficient to describe my feelings, a small verbal vessel for a mighty emotional storm. And I am not alone. There are many of us, from different walks of life and educational backgrounds, political parties and religions, ages and ethnicities who feel the blood race to our temples when we think of Jim Kenneys attempt to Etch-A-Sketch history. It is a personal thing for Italian Americans, a very personal thing for South Philadelphians, but there is a universality in our shared historical birthright. We all have the right to access history, and memorialize it in stone and paint and music and language. And when one group whines loudly enough about their grievance, their pain, the answer is not to placate them by removing the source of that subjective pain. It is, rather, to allow them to erect their own memorials with their own stories. We do not erase one culture to mollify the narrow-minded hysterics of another. I can promise Mayor Kenney and his supporters that this does not end here. The statue of Columbus may be in a box at Marconi Plaza, but unlike the dismembered statues in Camden and Boston, the waterlogged one in Richmond, the disappeared one in Connecticut and the toppled one in Minnesota, this one is not going anywhere without a fight. Philadelphians have a history, after all, of rising up against tyrants. Christine Flowers is an attorney and a resident of Delaware County. Her column usually appears on Sunday. Email her at cflowers1961@gmail.com. A neighbors photo of Aiden, with his flame-red hair and back-to-basics sign, went viral on Twitter, with over 680,000 likes so far, one of many signs of the power both symbolic and practical of the solo protests popping up across America in recent weeks. Examples on social media include a Minnesota mom who protested alone because her friends didnt want to join her, and a man standing at an intersection in Peachtree City, Georgia, with a grim but determined look on his face. Late Sushant Singh Rajputs death due to suicide has stumped everyone. The actor, all of 34, was known for his charming smile, effortless dancing skills and performance in films like Kai Po Che, M.S Dhoni: The Untold Story, Chhichhore and more. Sushant did a film that wasnt so successful but its songs were a hit. It was Raabta alongside Kriti Sanon. The pairs chemistry had become the talk of the town at that time. With the shocking incident of Sushants suicide, all eyes were on Kriti as she was once said to be close to him. In such a difficult time, the actress was pestered by several people to react to the news, even before she could come to terms to it herself. The actress took to social media this evening lashing out at everyone trying to invade her personal space and not letting her mourn in peace. Check out her post here. 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 White people "need to speak up" and call out racism when they see it, whether it is from businesses or people in their lives, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban told CNBC on Wednesday. "We, as White people, all know people who are racist. Maybe not overtly racist, but subtly racist. And when we see people act that way, we have to step in and say something," Cuban said on "Squawk Box." "That's when things start to change." Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, said he understands that White people will find conversations about race and privilege difficult. He added it makes him uncomfortable, too. "But the fact that it makes us uncomfortable gives us a reason to really want to start taking steps forward," Cuban said. Protests against racism and police brutality have spread across the U.S. in the weeks following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Lawmakers in Washington and at the local level have proposed reforms to law enforcement, and some of the nation's largest companies also have announced plans to combat racial inequality and discrimination. Cuban said he sees this moment in America as a "generational opportunity" to put in place lasting reforms. While there's a need for programs designed to end racial inequality, he also stressed the need for White Americans to make changes in their own lives. That's necessary to tear down the systems that perpetuate inequality, he added. "We have to start to recognize that racism comes from us," said Cuban, also an investor on "Shark Tank." "It may just be one little baby step at a time that each one of us can take, but in aggregate, that is where real change occurs." Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank," on which Mark Cuban is a co-host. Member of the Communication team of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Adomako Baafi says the rating of the manifesto promises of the Akufo-Addo led NPP government by the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) was mischievously done to deceive Ghanaians into voting Mahama back into power. The NDC in the third edition of their weekly press conference on Monday rated the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) 14 percent in their manifesto promises prior to the 2016 general elections. The press conference which was by led by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa described governments accomplishment of its promises as woeful. Reacting to the NDC's press conference on Monday, Yaw Adomako Baafi on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show slammed the NDC for peddling deceit as they have nothing to offer Ghanaians in the upcoming general election. He added that the ruling NPP Government since it took power from the NDC has opened over 100 industries; accusing the NDC of only repeating their unfulfilled manifesto promises in their subsequent manifestos to make it look like new ideas. Sounding a warning to Ghanaians to stay alert, Mr. Adomako Baafi reminded Ghanaians of the dark days under Rawlings regime; recollecting the effort of President John Agyekum Kuffour to bring back the economy into the light. The NDC used deception to take over power from the NPP and many Ghanaians cried for the comeback of the NPP. He was of the view that the opposition NDC is trying hard to dent the image of President Akufo-Addo. We are not prepared to lose focus by the destructive tactics of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). We will continue to mention our records of achievements and we will not give ears the distraction of the NDC . . . they have embarrassed themselves," he slammed. Watch video below 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 Grab Holdings Inc., the leading ride-hailing company in Southeast Asia, will lay off 360 people, or about five percent of its employees, as it looks to cut expenses to deal with an economic downturn caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Grabs co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan announced the job cut on Tuesday in a note to employees posted on its website. Tan said the company, which is active in eight countries including Vietnam, will be letting go of about 360 Grabbers following months of review and deliberation on how to tackle the challenges of the post-pandemic economy. The exact numbers of employees in each country to be laid off were not mentioned in the note, which was originally written in English and translated into Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Thai, and Vietnamese. Affected employees had been informed of the decision via email by 1:00 pm Tuesday, Tan said. The move came a week after the ride-hailing firm decided to limit performance-based commission rebates to 18,000 drivers. It has also dropped a series of incentive schemes for drivers, including monthly trip target bonuses and birthday rewards. In late April, Grab cut the pay of its senior management by up to 20 percent and encouraged its staff to take voluntary unpaid leave. With an expected recession ahead, Tan wrote, there is a need for Grab to prepare for a long recovery period and become leaner as an organization. Moving forward, Grab will halt certain non-core projects, consolidate functions for greater efficiency, and right-size some teams. I assure you that this will be the last organization-wide layoff this year and I am confident as we execute against our refreshed plans to meet our targets, we will not have to go through this painful exercise again in the foreseeable future, the executive said in the note. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Fine art exhibition highlights social distancing period As many as 126 paintings, which were created by 44 painters during the social distancing period of Covid-19 prevention and control, were introduced to the public at an exhibition in Hanoi on June 15. Painter Nguyen Thi Hien (right) participating in the exhibition The exhibition, entitled Paintings in social distancing season, was held by the Monthly Publication of Nhan Dan (People) Newspaper in collaboration with Vietnam Fine Arts Association, as part of the activities marking the 95th anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day (June 21). During the difficult time in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, the fine arts sector launched many practical activities, joining hands with the Party, State and the whole society to prevent and control the epidemic. In response to the Nhan Dan Monthly Department and Vietnam Fine Arts Association, 44 painters, who have been the publications collaborators for many years, created paintings highlighting the period when the whole community complied with social distancing orders. They contributed significantly to encouraging all people to make their best effort to overcome and push back the pandemic. The messages of the values of the happiness, humanity and the family connection as well as changes in the peoples behaviour in line with the Earth to minimise the impacts of climate changes are conveyed through the exhibits. The displayed paintings were also printed into a book with the same title, contributing to spreading the humanistic message as well as the optimistic and positive perspectives evident during this unforgettable period for the country. Charlottesville. Helsinki. The children in cages at the Mexican border. And now Lafayette Square. Only a few legacy-defining moments have clung to President Donald Trump, who often appears to emerge relatively unscathed from a seemingly endless stream of crises and controversies. But the forceful clearing of demonstrators from the park across from the White House has resonated like few others, prompting top military leaders and usually lockstep Republicans to distance themselves from him. It's one of those rare images that seems unlikely to be overwritten by tomorrows headlines, instead claiming a prominent place in Trumps entry in the history books. It also could help shape an election less than five months away. Even the president and members of his inner circle have privately expressed worry that its impact could be lasting. Its an indelible moment when the president of the United States ordered the use of force against peaceful protesters using their First Amendment rights in order to walk across Lafayette Square" and hoist a Bible, said Steve Schmidt, senior adviser to John McCains 2008 presidential campaign. In 10 minutes, he totally disgraced his office and committed sacrilege. President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John's Church across Lafayette Park from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)AP Protests, some violent, had flooded Americas streets after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was pinned under the knee of a white Minnesota police officer. Trump had briefly been forced to take shelter in the emergency White House bunker, and flames had risen from St. Johns Church across from the executive mansion. Lafayette Square was ordered to be cleared. What happened was broadcast live to the nation: federal law enforcement officers using batons, shields and chemical agents to forcibly push back peaceful protesters. Trump walked to the church and awkwardly held up a Bible, accompanied by top officials. The White House quickly produced a slick ad celebrating the triumph. The ad doesn't run anymore. Aides have pointed fingers at each other as to who suggested what while some of Washingtons most prominent figures, perhaps with an eye toward the judgment of history, have tried to keep their distance. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he wasn't aware of what Trump had planned before he joined him. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued a remarkable public apology for participating. Several Republicans, including Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, denounced the use of force and the display of religion. The president has seethed about what transpired, believing he wasn't properly prepared by aides for the blowback and venting that media coverage was unfair, according to three White House and campaign officials not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. He was angered by Milley and Espers rebukes but, for now, doesn't want them dismissed, the officials said. In this June 1, 2020 photo, police move demonstrators away from St. John's Church across Lafayette Park from the White House, as they gather to protest the death of George Floyd in Washington. Only a few legacy-defining moments have clung to President Donald Trump. But the forceful clearing of demonstrators from the park across from the White House has resonated like few others, sending Trumps poll numbers tumbling and prompting top military leaders and usually lockstep Republicans to distance themselves from the president.AP Photo/Alex Brandon The Trump campaign, looking at internal polling, is worried about a drop in support for the president coming amid questions about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed nearly 120,000 Americans and put more than 40 million out of work. And some in Trumps inner circle have privately likened it to other dark days in his presidency. In August 2017, a clash erupted between white supremacists and anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, leaving one demonstrator dead. In the days that followed, Trump suggested there were very fine people on both sides of the violence, drawing rebukes from members of his own administration and party. The next July, the president stood next to Russias Vladimir Putin at a summit in Helsinki and declined to say he believed his own nations intelligence services conclusion that Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election. Before Air Force One had even touched back down in Washington, Trump was faced with the biggest intra-party revolt of his term. That summer, images of his administrations enforcement of a policy to separate immigrant children from their parents stunned a nation and were later cited by many Democratic strategists for being a defining issue in that years midterm elections. There are moments over the last three-and-a-half years that run so contrary to our self-conception that it causes us to pause and to ask the fundamental question: Are we losing ourselves in this moment? said Eddie Glaude, chair of the department of African American studies at Princeton University. The presidents bungled church photo op has, according to polling, generated widespread sympathy for the demonstrations and sparked fears in Trumps campaign it could be a breaking point for voters who cast their ballots for the Republican in 2016 but are uncertain this time. Dozens of retired military leaders, including the presidents first defense secretary, Jim Mattis, denounced what happened. The campaign of Trumps likely November rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, said it showed Trump felt his political fortune was more important than traditional American values. When Donald Trump ordered the violent removal of peaceful protesters so he could stage a bizarre and offensive photo op, it didnt project strength as he had intended, but instead reflected profound weakness, campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said. Despite closed-door concerns, Trump has continued to lean in on his tough, law and order approach. On Tuesday, during a White House signing ceremony for an executive order on police reform, Trump was surrounded by law enforcement leaders, not the families of victims of police misconduct. And his campaign publicly continued to defend the decision to clear the park across from the West Wing. President Trumps visit to historic St. Johns Church was a powerful statement to the American people that acts of violence against our cities and neighborhoods will not prevail, said Tim Murtagh, the campaigns communications director. He said Trump was turning Americans anger into action with the executive order. Trump has shaken off previous controversies that would have crippled other presidencies. The two-year Russia investigation didn't cause his base supporters to waver, and his impeachment last winter was immediately dwarfed by the approaching pandemic. Some observers believe Trump may be able to cast aside Lafayette Square, too. There are moments that we will remember, that will be in the first part of his legacy, but dont change his support, said Julian Zelizer, presidential historian at Princeton University. Considering the pandemic, the protests, and that the country has been shut down for months, its remarkable his approval isnt lower. Anything can happen between now and November. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images Regarding Why systemic change needs to happen in America (Letters June 14): The letter struck a chord with me. This election in November is the most critical election this country will ever have to deal with, one that will affect our democracy for decades, maybe forever. We need to make sure that the election process is done in a lawful way that allows everyone who is entitled to vote is able to do that, no matter where they live, and without interference from those outside the country or those who want to disrupt the voting process. What happened in primary elections in Wisconsin and Georgia is absolutely outrageous and should both be investigated as soon as possible so that this doesnt happen again in November. We need to look at who has been in control in those cities, which political party has been running other cities where racism is still rampant, and vote them out of office. Only then can we begin to bring this country back to a democracy we can be proud of. A politician has been chastised for using the word 'grubs' in parliament when referring to youth crime in his electorate. Liberal Queensland MP Sam O'Connor was pulled up on his use of the term on Tuesday while speaking about the issue of crime in his seat of Bonney in the Gold Coast's western suburbs. The parliament's deputy speaker Jess Pugh also said it was 'unparliamentary' to quote a father - whose 17-year-old son was allegedly stabbed to death outside a Surfers Paradise supermarket - as saying the justice system 'sucks'. 'I want to raise the concerns of my community about the level of crime in our suburbs,' the 28-year-old MP began his speech at the state's legislative assembly. Queensland MP Sam O'Connor (pictured) has been reprimanded for his use of the word 'grubs' in parliament when referring to youth crime in his electorate He said he had run a community crime forum at a pub in his area attended by 200 locals - many of whom expressed their concern about the subject of youth crime. 'Stories of juveniles getting caught and getting a slap on the wrist means residents feel like there is no point even reporting a crime - it means these kids will often laugh off the possibility of ever being held to account for their actions,' he said. 'Two very special people came along that night too - Brett and Belinda Beasley. Brett and Belinda lost their 17-year-old son Jack, last December.' Five teenagers stand charged with the murder of Jack Beasley - who was allegedly stabbed to death when another group of boys approached him outside an IGA supermarket on Surfers Paradise Boulevard. 'The young men charged with Jacko's murder have been granted bail and that shattered the Beasleys' faith in our justice system,' Mr O'Connor said. 'Brett summed it up saying, It's a kick in the guts, but that's the system. It absolutely sucks.' Queensland state parliament's deputy speaker Jess Pugh (pictured) said it was 'unparliamentary' to quote a grieving father who said the justice system 'sucks' 'Member, that is unparliamentary language and I ask you to withdraw,' Ms Pugh responded. The member for Bonney continued talking about Mr Beasley's parents setting up a foundation to fight back against knife crime - but was again warned about his use of language. 'They have set up a foundation to change the culture of knife crime and to reform a system that is putting no fear in these grubs,' he said. Mr O'Connor was also warned about his use of language when he said the justice system was 'putting no fear in these grubs' 'Member you have used unparliamentary language again,' the deputy speaker responded. 'Even if you are quoting, you cannot use unparliamentary language. I ask you to withdraw.' Mr O'Connor told Daily Mail Australia he had asked the state parliament's Table Office for clarification about accepted parliamentary terms. The World Health Organization (WHO) says it welcomes early results of a human trial of the drug dexamethasone to treat COVID-19 disease. Researchers in Britain announced Tuesday that their study shows dexamethasone cut death rates by around a third among patients with the most severe cases of COVID-19. Dexamethasone has been in use since the 1960s to reduce swelling caused by diseases such as arthritis. This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on Tuesday. The United Nations health agency also said it was looking forward to the full findings of the British trial. The WHO said the additional information could lead it to change its COVID-19 treatment guidelines. The University of Oxford is leading the study. It compared the results of treatment given to 2,104 patients who took the drug and 4,321 who received only usual care. After four weeks, deaths dropped by 35 percent in dexamethasone-treated patients who required ventilators. The patient group that needed oxygen but not ventilators showed a 20 percent drop in death rate after treatment with the drug. The incomplete results showed dexamethasone did not help patients who had less severe cases of COVID-19. The researchers said the findings suggest doctors should use the drug immediately as usual treatment for severely sick patients. Is it a major breakthrough? British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the study a major breakthrough. His government immediately approved the use of dexamethasone for coronavirus patients in Britain. South Koreas top health official, however, expressed concern about the use of the medicine for COVID-19 patients. She argued that some experts believe that the drug can weaken the bodys natural defense system and produce undesirable changes. Other scientists are also calling for more detailed information about the study. Dr. Kathryn Hibbert is director of the medical intensive care division at the Harvard University-linked Massachusetts General Hospital. She said, We have been burned before, not just during the coronavirus pandemic but even pre-COVID, with exciting results that when we have access to the data are not as convincing. Earlier in June, two respected medical publications, Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, withdrew published studies about experimental COVID-19 treatments. The data in both were said to be incorrect. However, the top American infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, praised the incomplete trial findings on dexamethasone, as a substantial improvement in available treatments. New outbreaks around the world The good news comes as coronavirus infections have again increased in China and some areas in the United States. On Wednesday, officials in Beijing increased the citys emergency warning to just under the highest level. Officials canceled more than 60 percent of flights to Beijing, suspended its reopening plan, closed schools and strengthened social distancing measures. The United States has recorded more than 2.1 million cases of COVID-19 and 117,000 deaths from the disease. Both numbers are the highest of any country where the disease has spread. As New York and California experience a decrease in COVID-19 cases, other states including Arizona, Texas and Florida are reporting daily increases of new coronavirus infections. Texas Governor Gregg Abbott said of the situation: It does raise concerns, but there is no reason right now to be alarmed. Abbott noted that the increase might come from Texans that do not use face coverings or employ social distancing measures. I'm Jonathan Evans. Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English with information from the WHO and Reuters and Associated Press news reports. Caty Weaver was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story mortality - n. the number of deaths in a particular time or place ventilator - n. a medical device for helping a person to breathe access - n. a way of being able to use or get something convincing - adj. causing someone to believe that something is true or certain alarmed - adj. worried or frightened Nanoparticles cloaked in human lung cell membranes and human immune cell membranes can attract and neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell culture, causing the virus to lose its ability to hijack host cells and reproduce. The first data describing this new direction for fighting COVID-19 were published on June 17 in the journal Nano Letters. The "nanosponges" were developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego and tested by researchers at Boston University. The UC San Diego researchers call their nano-scale particles "nanosponges" because they soak up harmful pathogens and toxins. In lab experiments, both the lung cell and immune cell types of nanosponges caused the SARS-CoV-2 virus to lose nearly 90% of its "viral infectivity" in a dose-dependent manner. Viral infectivity is a measure of the ability of the virus to enter the host cell and exploit its resources to replicate and produce additional infectious viral particles. Instead of targeting the virus itself, these nanosponges are designed to protect the healthy cells the virus invades. "Traditionally, drug developers for infectious diseases dive deep on the details of the pathogen in order to find druggable targets. Our approach is different. We only need to know what the target cells are. And then we aim to protect the targets by creating biomimetic decoys," said Liangfang Zhang, a nanoengineering professor at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. His lab first created this biomimetic nanosponge platform more than a decade ago and has been developing it for a wide range of applications ever since. When the novel coronavirus appeared, the idea of using the nanosponge platform to fight it came to Zhang "almost immediately," he said. In addition to the encouraging data on neutralizing the virus in cell culture, the researchers note that nanosponges cloaked with fragments of the outer membranes of macrophages could have an added benefit: soaking up inflammatory cytokine proteins, which are implicated in some of the most dangerous aspects of COVID-19 and are driven by immune response to the infection. Making and testing COVID-19 nanosponges Each COVID-19 nanosponge--a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair--consists of a polymer core coated in cell membranes extracted from either lung epithelial type II cells or macrophage cells. The membranes cover the sponges with all the same protein receptors as the cells they impersonate--and this inherently includes whatever receptors SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter cells in the body. The researchers prepared several different concentrations of nanosponges in solution to test against the novel coronavirus. To test the ability of the nanosponges to block SARS-CoV-2 infectivity, the UC San Diego researchers turned to a team at Boston University's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) to perform independent tests. In this BSL-4 lab--the highest biosafety level for a research facility--the researchers, led by Anthony Griffiths, associate professor of microbiology at Boston University School of Medicine, tested the ability of various concentrations of each nanosponge type to reduce the infectivity of live SARS-CoV-2 virus--the same strains that are being tested in other COVID-19 therapeutic and vaccine research. At a concentration of 5 milligrams per milliliter, the lung cell membrane-cloaked sponges inhibited 93% of the viral infectivity of SARS-CoV-2. The macrophage-cloaked sponges inhibited 88% of the viral infectivity of SARS-CoV-2. Viral infectivity is a measure of the ability of the virus to enter the host cell and exploit its resources to replicate and produce additional infectious viral particles. "From the perspective of an immunologist and virologist, the nanosponge platform was immediately appealing as a potential antiviral because of its ability to work against viruses of any kind. This means that as opposed to a drug or antibody that might very specifically block SARS-CoV-2 infection or replication, these cell membrane nanosponges might function in a more holistic manner in treating a broad spectrum of viral infectious diseases. I was optimistically skeptical initially that it would work, and then thrilled once I saw the results and it sunk in what this could mean for therapeutic development as a whole," said Anna Honko, a co-first author on the paper and a Research Associate Professor, Microbiology at Boston University's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL). In the next few months, the UC San Diego researchers and collaborators will evaluate the nanosponges' efficacy in animal models. The UC San Diego team has already shown short-term safety in the respiratory tracts and lungs of mice. If and when these COVID-19 nanosponges will be tested in humans depends on a variety of factors, but the researchers are moving as fast as possible. "Another interesting aspect of our approach is that even as SARS-CoV-2 mutates, as long as the virus can still invade the cells we are mimicking, our nanosponge approach should still work. I'm not sure this can be said for some of the vaccines and therapeutics that are currently being developed," said Zhang. The researchers also expect these nanosponges would work against any new coronavirus or even other respiratory viruses, including whatever virus might trigger the next respiratory pandemic. Mimicking lung epithelial cells and immune cells Since the novel coronavirus often infects lung epithelial cells as the first step in COVID-19 infection, Zhang and his colleagues reasoned that it would make sense to cloak a nanoparticle in fragments of the outer membranes of lung epithelial cells to see if the virus could be tricked into latching on it instead of a lung cell. Macrophages, which are white blood cells that play a major role in inflammation, also are very active in the lung during the course of a COVID-19 illness, so Zhang and colleagues created a second sponge cloaked in macrophage membrane. The research team plans to study whether the macrophage sponges also have the ability to quiet cytokine storms in COVID-19 patients. "We will see if the macrophage nanosponges can neutralize the excessive amount of these cytokines as well as neutralize the virus," said Zhang. Using macrophage cell fragments as cloaks builds on years of work to develop therapies for sepsis using macrophage nanosponges. In a paper published in 2017 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Zhang and a team of researchers at UC San Diego showed that macrophage nanosponges can safely neutralize both endotoxins and pro-inflammatory cytokines in the bloodstream of mice. A San Diego biotechnology company co-founded by Zhang called Cellics Therapeutics is working to translate this macrophage nanosponge work into the clinic. A potential COVID-19 therapeutic The COVID-19 nanosponge platform has significant testing ahead of it before scientists know whether it would be a safe and effective therapy against the virus in humans, Zhang cautioned. But if the sponges reach the clinical trial stage, there are multiple potential ways of delivering the therapy that include direct delivery into the lung for intubated patients, via an inhaler like for asthmatic patients, or intravenously, especially to treat the complication of cytokine storm. A therapeutic dose of nanosponges might flood the lung with a trillion or more tiny nanosponges that could draw the virus away from healthy cells. Once the virus binds with a sponge, "it loses its viability and is not infective anymore, and will be taken up by our own immune cells and digested," said Zhang. "I see potential for a preventive treatment, for a therapeutic that could be given early because once the nanosponges get in the lung, they can stay in the lung for some time," Zhang said. "If a virus comes, it could be blocked if there are nanosponges waiting for it." Growing momentum for nanosponges Zhang's lab at UC San Diego created the first membrane-cloaked nanoparticles over a decade ago. The first of these nanosponges were cloaked with fragments of red blood cell membranes. These nanosponges are being developed to treat bacterial pneumonia and have undergone all stages of pre-clinical testing by Cellics Therapeutics, the San Diego startup cofounded by Zhang. The company is currently in the process of submitting the investigational new drug (IND) application to the FDA for their lead candidate: red blood cell nanosponges for the treatment of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia. The company estimates the first patients in a clinical trial will be dosed next year. The UC San Diego researchers have also shown that nanosponges can deliver drugs to a wound site; sop up bacterial toxins that trigger sepsis; and intercept HIV before it can infect human T cells. The basic construction for each of these nanosponges is the same: a biodegradable, FDA-approved polymer core is coated in a specific type of cell membrane, so that it might be disguised as a red blood cell, or an immune T cell or a platelet cell. The cloaking keeps the immune system from spotting and attacking the particles as dangerous invaders. "I think of the cell membrane fragments as the active ingredients. This is a different way of looking at drug development," said Zhang. "For COVID-19, I hope other teams come up with safe and effective therapies and vaccines as soon as possible. At the same time, we are working and planning as if the world is counting on us." ### Paper reference "Cellular Nanosponges Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity," published in the journal Nano Letters. Authors Qiangzhe Zhang, Jiarong Zhou, Hua Gong, Ronnie H. Fang, Weiwei Gao and Liangfang Zhang from the Department of NanoEngineering, Chemical Engineering Program, Jacobs School of Engineering and Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego Anna N. Honko, Sierra N. Downs, Jhonatan Henao Vasquez and Anthony Griffiths from the Department of Microbiology and National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, Boston University School of Medicine Contributors Qiangzhe Zhang, Jiarong Zhou and Anna N. Honko contributed equally to the work Funding This work is supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Joint Science and Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense under Grant Number HDTRA1?18?1?0014. Conflict of Interest statement Liangfang Zhang discloses financial interest in Cellics Therapeutics. All other authors declare no competing interests. Intellectual Property Patents for macrophage nanosponges are held by Cellics Therapeutics. Animation, b-roll, stills available at: https://bit.ly/2nanospongesvisualassets Narrated video: https://bit.ly/nanospongesvideo Standing up to China and diplomacy to go hand in hand to end border tensions India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 17: The violent skirmishes between India and China have ruined peace between the two countries. China's call for peace has become a myth and this has been a norm by the country since the past five decades. While the diplomatic channels will open to reduce tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India is also keeping a close watch on the psychological operations that would play out by China in full swing. India-China standoff: China 'throwing punches', provoking neighbors, says Top former US diplomat India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News China is likely to put out images of the Indian soldiers being held captive and videos of armed drones so that it could cause a doubt in the minds of the Indian military over the retaliation to the face off. While India is expecting these psychological games by China, it also maintains that this escalation of tensions is a slap on the face of both the Wuhan and Chennai understandings. Sources tell India OneIndia that any rapprochement with China is ruled out immediately. The situation is being constantly monitored by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar and the top military brass. In Delhi, many are in favour of a diplomatic resolution to the problem as well as the June 15 violent skirmish. However, there is also talk that India must stand up to the PLA and ensure that it respects the Indian Army. Prepared for action in winter, acted in summer: China had this planned for some time now On the other hand, India also wants to ensure that the work on the border infrastructure also does not slow down. There has been a constant effort on the part of China to slow down the infrastructure work being undertaken by India in the Galwan Valley. The source cited above says that the display of military might by China is to ensure that both the border and the bi-lateral trade takes place on its own terms. However, India is entirely sensitive of these issues and will negotiate on its own terms. Meanwhile, an Indian Army statement said that the Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged in the Galwan areas where they clashed on the night of June 15-16. While India lost 20 soldiers, including a colonel, there are chances that the casualty rate may rise. This is because many are injured. Some soldiers are still missing and some of them who were taken captive were released following talks by both sides. Sources say that the Chinese were present in large numbers and were armed with nail studded iron rods and stones. Meanwhile, China said that Indian troops on Monday seriously violated the consensus of the two sides by illegally crossing the border twice and carrying and carrying out provocative attacks on the Chinese soldiers. This resulted in serious physical clashes, the Chinese foreign minister told Global Times. China has lodged solemn representations with the Indian side and urged it to strictly restrain its frontline troops from crossing the border or taking any unilateral action that may complicate the minister also said. China and Indian side agreed to resolve the bilateral issues through dialogue to ease the border situation and maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas, the Chinese FM also said. Growing up, I was exposed to different world views. We entertained relatives quite often, and it was always a highlight to see aunts, uncles, and of course my cousins. There was laughter, good food and the sharing of life experiences through stories. There was a custom always practiced. Everyone would gather in the living room and process current events, politics, religion, social issues, nothing was off limits. Within this large group of relatives we had hard-core Democrats and devoted Republicans. There were two protestant groups that discussed a wide range of doctrinal issues. We had relatives that were avid union proponents and those who opposed organized labor. For hours, the discussion rolled on. They processed the Vietnam War, the Kennedy assassination, no conspiracy theory was off limits. I never engaged, just took it in. At times it was heated, but something amazing always happened. When they were talked out, they got up and hugged one another and made their way to the kitchen for some nourishment. The laughter returned. No one was mad or offended. No one. They really loved one another. They grew up in the darkness of the depression, and even though they came out of it with different world views, they honored one another and preferred one another. That experience never left me. It taught me at a young age that we all see the world through different eyes, but could be of one heart. Before the 2016 election, I had conversation with two mature ladies that held two different views about the political landscape. Both are extremely intelligent and both very successful in their careers. They knew each other very well, but both were perplexed that the other could support what they believe. Sometimes it is just plain hard to understand how others see what they see. Back in the 1980s, I served a church that two elders who held very different political views. Both grew up in the Depression, and both came out with different philosophies about what was needed in our country. Their views sometimes bled over into meetings, but it was never ugly. In fact, these gentlemen loved each other deeply and worked seamlessly for the cause of Christ. Knowing their views and observing their hearts of service deeply encouraged me. We sometimes place conditions of fellowship or oneness not found in Scripture. I have a simple rule: If you love my Savior, we can have some measure of fellowship. We may see certain doctrines differently, but Jesus is the cornerstone of our profession. Our foundation is Jesus and His Lordship. We have His spiritual DNA. One of the reasons we struggle with this oneness is we fail to see things through Gods eyes. We have a spiritual astigmatism that distorts our vision. Do you remember Samuels visit to the home of Jesse in I Samuel 16? He went there to anoint the next king of Israel. Jesse places his seven sons on display for the prophet to review. Samuel believed any one of the seven would be excellent choice to lead Israel. Not in Gods eyes. But the LORD [YAHWEH] said to Samuel, Do not consider his appearance of his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD [YAHWEH] does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but LORD [YAHWEH] looks at the heart (I Samuel 16:7, NIV). God chose David who was out in the fields tending sheep. David was the most insignificant in Jesses family, but in Gods eyes, David was the right choice. Our God sees the whole person, the whole picture, not just our slice of it. How then do we address the deep division in our land? The Scripture point the way. First, we keep focusing on the good. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21, NIV). This is a spiritual imperative. Good is not convincing others to accept your view. Good means we return to what is good and has blessed us. We can also ask God to open our eyes. David did, Open my eyes (Psalm 119:18, NIV). We think we are seeing clearly, but we dont always have Gods perspective. When we are dealing with the pain of people, we are dealing with profound wounds, and that is certainly true of blacks in America. As we address issues of race relations, we must humble ourselves to seek Gods perspective. Remember God said this, 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares LORD [YAHWEH] (Isaiah 55:8, NIV). We absolutely need Gods clarity in processing our differences because only one being possesses the whole story. Back to my childhood. Family debates were positive because we had something mighty good in common. We were all heirs. Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life (Titus 3:7, NIV). When all the dust of discussion ceased, we fellowshipped the fact we were all in the will. Jesus did for us what we couldnt do ourselves. If we are serious about seeing real change then we must treat each other as heirs. Treat others like family. Seeing my relatives love on each other was a picture lesson of Isaiah 43:4, You are precious to me (NIV). Thats what God told Isaiah to write. We were red, blue, progressives, conservatives, Calvinists and non-Calvinists, and yet, we all realized we were precious to God and to one another. If we want to make a positive impact on this culture, we must treat every person as a precious gift from God. What keeps me absorbed is embracing Gods consistent love. Listen to our Father, Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the LORD [YAHWEH], who has compassion on you (Isaiah 54:10, NIV). Gods love is not fickle. He doesnt have good days and then some bad days. Dependable love. We can address the disunity in the land by stop trying to convert people to our view and just love people! Didnt Jesus say, By this all men will know you are disciples, if you love one another? (John 13:35, NIV). Our response to Gods love and adoption into His family is clear: Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, please the case of the widow (Isaiah1:17, NIV). It wont come naturally; we must learn to do right. One caveat. The way we express our outrage, our justice-seeking may be as different as the number of worldviews. Awareness of injustice is not a license to pin labels on people who are not as passionate as we are. Faith in action touches people on different levels as we seek to exalt Christ who changes hearts. One awful day our Lord was arrested illegally. He was subjected to the indignity of mock trials. He was forced to endure a horrible scourging and then had to experience the pain and shame of the Cross as an innocent man. Why? There were two worldviews of Jesus. One, He was Savior and Lord. The other, He was a misfit that had to go. How could the bright scholars of Judaism miss it so badly? And yet on the Cross, Jesus uttered, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34, NIV). Translation: Father, they just dont see it! The early church did see it and they endured a bloody persecution. How did they do it? They embraced a truth needed today: Its not about your view or my view; it is about Gods view that matters most. I close with Pauls exhortation: Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselfBe joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayerBless those who persecute you; bless do not cursemourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low positionDo not repay anyone evil for evilIf it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:9-18, NIV). Different eyes do not have to mean different hearts. James Chilton, pastor at The Wheeler Road Church of Christ, authored this column as part of the Daily News Community Connections initiative. Michigan's attorney general said her office intends to review the 2014 case of a black man who died while being apprehended by mall security officers, after protesters shined new light on the incident in recent weeks. Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on Tuesday evening that the Southfield Police Department and Oakland County Prosecutor made a request for her office to review the incident that led to McKenzie Cochran's death while he was being detained in the now-closed Northland Mall. His detainment by three white mall security officers, which reminded many of George Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis, was captured on video but didn't result in any criminal charges. A mall employee called security after Cochran allegedly caused a disturbance in a store, according to reports. Mall cops pepper-sprayed the 25-year-old and pinned him on the ground, with one officer putting his leg on Cochran's back, according to the video. MORE: New video appears to show moments before George Floyd was pinned to ground Cochran is heard in the video screaming, "I can't breathe!" And one of the officers is heard responding, "If you can talk, you can breathe." Cochran went limp and died shortly thereafter. An autopsy report determined his cause of death was "positional asphyxia," according to investigators. Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper chose not charge the mall officers at the time. Cooper said in a statement to ABC Detroit affiliate WXYZ on June 11 that her office reviewed all evidence in the incident and consulted with the Justice Department before making that decision. "In the interest of justice, we consulted with an expert, referred by the Justice Department, who also reviewed the case, and came to the conclusion that while the guards were negligent, they were not criminally negligent," the statement read. PHOTO: Demonstrators gather at the Michigan State Capitol on Wednesday, June 10, 2020, in Lansing, Mich. (Nick King/Lansing State Journal/USA Today Network) During recent protests, activists outside the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office have demanded she reopen the case. Some called for Cooper to be voted out of office, according to WXYZ. Story continues MORE: George Floyd protests go international as demonstrations break out across the world The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office didn't immediately return messages to ABC News seeking comment after Nessel's announcement. "If the evidence warrants additional action, we will make efforts to ensure justice is served," Nessel said in a statement. Gerald Thurswell, an attorney representing Cochran's family, told ABC News the victim's family is happy the case is under a new review. He said that at the very least, the officers involved should have been charged with manslaughter. "Those officers," he told ABC News, "need to be held accountable." Michigan attorney general to review 2014 case where black man died at the hands of mall cops originally appeared on abcnews.go.com (Philonise Floyd) "You watched my brother die, that could have been me" The brother of the late George Floyd on Wednesday called on the top United Nations human rights body to investigate police brutality and racial discrimination in the United States. Philonise Floyd spoke to U.N. officials in Geneva, Switzerland via video conferencing. "I hope that you will consider establishing an independent commission of inquiry to investigate police killings of black people in America, and the violence used against peaceful protesters." The video of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after having an officer kneel on his neck for nearly nine minutes, sparked a national outcry for police reform. The sad truth is that the case is not unique. The way you saw my brother tortured and murdered on camera. Is the way black people is treated by police in America. (flash) You have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd. The urgent debate convened at the request of African countries which are seeking a U.N. inquiry into abuses, is due to continue on Thursday. The United States quit the Human Rights Council two years ago and does not attend debates. WATERBURY This year, The MATT's Summer Youth Art Program, for ages 5-11, is being offered on-site at the Museum as well as virtually from home. Each week features a different theme and on Thursday evenings students and their families are invited to participate in Family Night, an exclusive evening performance and activity. Each morning, young artists, historians, and naturalists who will be participating in-person at Rose Hill, 63 Prospect Street, Waterbury, will experiment with ever-changing art supplies before joining museum educators in a series of guided activities. Children can collaborate on large-scale group projects; experiment with printing, photography, painting and other activities, and have plenty of indoor and outdoor playtime. After lunch, teaching artists will lead in-depth, hands-on workshops designed to engage curious minds and stimulate the senses. Students will wrap up each day with healthy snacks and an afternoon art journaling session. The Mattatuck Museum is following all state guidelines for a safe, and a clean environment. No more than 10 children will be in attendance each week, implementing social distancing strategies. All employees will wear cloth face masks and the Mattatuck will implement hand hygiene and will continue with protocols for intensified cleaning and disinfection. If you choose to participate from home, join fellow art enthusiasts, museum educators, and talented teaching artists for creative adventures in art, nature, and history. Each week is packed with live and recorded art activities, creative snack recipes, and daily opportunities to engage with other kids and teachers virtually. Every budding artist will receive their very own Studio in a Box, a mailed kit filled with all the art materials youll need to keep crafting and artmaking all summer long. Daily activities are designed to keep participants busy from morning through the afternoon, and will include: a virtual warm-up activity to get creative juices flowing, two guided art projects for which all supplies will be provided, a kid-friendly snack recipe with basic ingredients included, and a virtual wrap-up session and drawing prompt to end each day in a mindful way. Choose one weekly art kit or purchase all three. July 13-17 Express Yourself!: Adventurous artists will find inspiration in the Museums collection and embark on creative projects each day. Show off your personal style through upcycled accessories, make your own Museum diorama, and design puppets that are entirely YOU-nique. On Family Night, enjoy a virtual performance combining art, acrobatics, and marvelous music with the Tanglewood Marionettes. July 20-24 Nature Makers: Explore nature, environmental sciences, and animals too. Immerse yourself in learning about the extraordinary natural world around us. Design a fairy village or treehouse hideaway, learn about clouds with a REAL meteorologist, paint a flowerpot and fill it with dirt that you can eat, and make a mixed-media canvas featuring your favorite farm animal. On Family Night, change into your jammies for a PJ Party at Rose Hill with the cuddly goats of Bradley Mountain Farm. July 27-31 Peek into the Past: Travel back in time this week to learn all about what kids did for fun before TV, iPhones, and Tik Tok. Design a time machine, explore your dramatic side in a theater workshop, go on an architectural scavenger hunt, build a miniature dream home inspired by the historic Rose Hill Mansion, and more. On Family Night, all are invited to a virtual evening performance with activist and historical superhero, Susan B. Anthony. Visit the Museums website, mattmuseum.org, for more information and to register for Summer Youth Art. Need-based scholarships are available. Contact Heather Whitehouse, the Mattatucks Director of Education, at heather@mattmuseum.org with any questions. Located in the heart of downtown Waterburys architectural district, the Mattatuck Museum is a vibrant destination, known locally and regionally as a community-centered institution of American art and history. For more information on all of the Museums programs, events, and exhibits visit the website at mattmuseum.org or call 203-753-0381. The Mattatuck Museum is operated with support from the Connecticut Department of Economic & Community Development/CT Office of the Arts, which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and is a member of the Connecticut Art Trail, a group of 21 world-class museums and historic sites (ctarttrail.org). Located off the Green in Waterbury, CT at 63 Prospect Street, the Mattatuck Museum is under construction and closed to visitors. Join The MATT @ Home each week for a different themed collection of lesson plans, activities, and links to other resources for use by families or individuals. Find more ideas by following The MATT on Facebook and Instagram. MEDIA In response to the nations and communitys outcry for racial equality and an end to police brutality, Delaware County officials on Tuesday announced the creation of a countywide Task Force on Criminal Justice Reform. Led by Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, the task force will be comprised of a variety of stakeholders including county Sheriff Jerry L. Sanders Jr., the Fraternal Order of Police, the Delaware County Police Chiefs Association, the NAACP, the Delaware County Black Caucus, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5 of Swarthmore, state and municipal leaders, the Public Defenders Office and other community members. Its goal is to foster and support a culture of trust, integrity and accountability in Delaware Countys criminal justice system and in county government, county Council Vice Chairman Dr. Monica Taylor said, adding that the goal is to foster and build relationships among law enforcement, county government and community members. The task force will take a critical and hard look at our criminal justice system and our local government and examine what policies and practices need to change or be improved, Taylor said. We know that this type of work doesnt happen overnight but this is where we can start. This is the beginning of much needed and long overdue change that we are hopeful will lead to equality and spark unity in our communities. Within the task force will be four working groups, each addressing a specific issue. They are 21st Century Policing; Principles for a 21st Century Prosecutor; Legislative Change; and County Governments Impact on Achieving Equality and Justice in Delco. Everyone in our county deserves fair and equal justice and thats what this task force is going to do, Stollsteimer said. We really have to have a conversation about what public safety means anymore in the 21st century world we live in. He said he expected the task force to bear tangible results over time. We want to make real change, the district attorney said. We want to have people in this community not fear the police. We want everybody to know that youre all going to be treated well and will be treated equally. Some priorities for the task force, he said, will include examining how prosecutors do their work and defining what contemporary policing is. Police officers have to be community police officers, Stollsteimer said. They have to get out of their cars and interact with the community At the same time, these guys have to be ready to be first responders I dont want another Columbine situation happening in Delaware County where my kids or your kids go to school. County Councilwoman Elaine Paul Schaefer said county government practices will also be evaluated, including every step in human resources with recruiting, training and promoting. She added that county officials would be reaching out to community partners, such as schools, libraries and non-profit organizations. We really have to look at changing the culture of our county and of our community, changing the hearts and the minds and the attitudes of the people that are charged with enacting those policies, she said. State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, D-8 of Philadelphia, whose district includes nine Delaware County communities, recalled the graphic memory of Emmett Till, the plea of Rodney King up to Eric Garner and George Floyd. He said the rhetoric of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the action of Malcolm X led to the the reforms signed by former President Lyndon B. Johnson for rights that impacted African Americans, women, people of different genders and sexual orientation, veterans and disabled. That was 50 years ago and between then and now, black people are still dying in this country not because of their actions but because of the governments, he said. Our positions do not shield us from the anger, frustrations of a generation of black and white young people. They dont understand how government works nor do they care that it works so slow. Their expectation is that the people who change government work immediately not only to affect policies but to drive those policies. He continued, I deserve, my wife deserves, my mother deserves, my sister deserves, my children deserve, my grandson deserves every life, liberty and pursuit of happiness that Philadelphia, Delaware County, Pennsylvania and America can provide. Thats what this should be about that drive, that tenacity, that urgency to see results that when they walk down the street any place in Delaware County they no longer have to fear why the are where they are. State Rep. Joanna McClinton, D-191 of Philadelphia, also spoke. Her district includes Darby Borough and Yeadon. We cannot just let this be a moment in time that passes, she said. This must be a movement and each and every one of us have to let these young people know we hear their voices We have to work together that not just bills and legislation move but to make sure that the environment and culture in which policing has become militarized, it must change. Nether Providence Police Chief David Splain, who is also president of the Delaware County Police Chiefs Association, said hes looking forward to working with all of the task force members. I can tell you with whats transpired over the last several weeks, Weve heard you and were listening,' he said. Clearly, theres a need for change and theres a need for us to do a better job as law enforcement. Stollsteimer said he expected that policies would be implemented throughout the process. We want to make a change, he said. We want to make this the best possible community for everyone who resides here and anybody who passes through. We want Delaware County to have the reputation of a welcoming, diverse community. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 23:12:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BAGHDAD, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Health Ministry on Wednesday recorded 1,554 COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase since the outbreak of the disease in the country, bringing the total nationwide infections to 24,254. The new cases included 568 in the capital Baghdad, 152 in Sulaimaniyah, 140 in Maysan, 115 in Diwaniyah, while the remaining cases were registered in the other provinces, the ministry said in a statement. The statement also reported 61 deaths during the day, in the highest single-day rise so far, bringing the death toll in the country to 773, while 10,770 patients have recovered. The new cases were recorded after 13,053 test kits were used across the country during the past 24 hours, and a total of 403,388 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the disease, according to the statement. Meanwhile, the Health Department of Wasit province in eastern Iraq said that the head of al-Karama Teaching Hospital was infected with coronavirus, while local media reports said that four more medics were infected in the southern province of Diwaniyah. On Tuesday, the Iraqi Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi said that many medical workers in Iraq have been infected with COVID-19. "We are fighting a fierce enemy and our medical staff have been infected with the pandemic, but they are still serving the infected people at the quarantine centers," al-Tamimi said in a statement. On June 13, the Iraqi authorities decided to partially lift the nationwide curfew from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time starting from June 14, but the full curfew will continue on Thursday, Friday and Saturday every week. However, Baghdad Operations Command said that full curfew on Thursday, Friday and Saturday will exclude health workers, media workers and workers of Baghdad Municipality. China has been helping Iraq fight 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. Since March 7, China has also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem Daniel Andrews appeared to be on the warpath as he vowed to 'clean-up' his party after a major scandal claimed three of his ministers and sparked a police investigation. The Victorian Premier apologised to hard-working Labor supporters on Wednesday after allegations of 'industrial scale' branch-stacking were levelled in a 60 Minutes programme on Sunday night. Branch-stacking is when new party members are recruited to influence the outcome of internal elections. The practice is against both Liberal and Labor guidelines and can be illegal if it involves faking addresses or forging signatures. Adem Somyurek (pictured in May, 2019) has been sacked over allegations of branch stacking Former Victorian minister Marlene Kairouz (left) resigned from her post after she was caught up in the scandal. She denies any wrongdoing The 60 Minutes show aired a series of recorded CCTV footage and phone calls which allegedly showed former minister for local government Adem Somyurek plotting and carrying out a huge branch-stacking operation involving creating fake members, which he denies. Mystery remains over who made the secret tapes, but the day after the show a furious Premier Andrews sacked Mr Somyurek and said: 'I have ended his career.' Mr Somyurek was a powerbroker within the Victorian right and some analysts say his downfall benefits former Labor leader Bill Shorten, who now stands to increase his influence over the Labor right. Since then two other ministers whose staff were allegedly involved in the scandal have resigned from their positions, Minister for Consumer Affairs Marlene Kairouz and Minister for Veterans Robin Scott. Both vowed to clear their names but said they didn't want to cause a distraction for the government or add to their families' distress. Premier Andrews, determined to find and stamp out any wrongdoing, has referred the allegations to the police and Victoria's anti-corruption commission. Last night he also made the extraordinary move of asking the national executive to block Victorian ALP members from voting in internal elections while every one is verified as a real and willing member who paid their own membership fees. Adem Somyurek (centre) pictured at a meeting in May, 2019. Mr Somyurek is still an MP although he has resigned from the Labor Party Former Victorian minister Robin Scott (pictured) resigned from his post after he was caught up in the scandal. He denies any wrongdoing There are fears that up to 25 per cent of the members have been hoodwinked into signing up or faked altogether. In a letter to the executive, Mr Andrews said he had 'no confidence in the integrity of any voting rolls' and asked national leadership to appoint former premier Steve Bracks and former federal minister Jenny Macklin to oversee the clean-up. Speaking to reporters outside parliament this morning, he said: 'We have got to go through a process where each and every rank-and-file member re-establishes that they are genuine, consenting and self-funded members of our great party. 'We need to clean this up and we will'. Premier Andrews, who has been praised for effectively handling the scandal by swiftly sacking Mr Somyurek, apologised to innocent party members who have had their voting rights stripped until 2023. I thank you for your work and your passion. I apologise for your pain Daniel Andrews apologises to Labor supporters 'I've got a message for all of those true believers, those genuine hard-working local branch members, who hand out how-to-vote cards, who make phone calls, who knock on doors, who debate policy - I thank you for your work and your passion. I apologise for your pain,' he said. Meanwhile, questions are being raised over who took the secret recordings of Mr Somyurek and how they came into the hands of 60 Minutes. Phone call recordings and footage taken in Victorian federal MP Anthony Byrne's electoral office showed the former minister calling a female colleague a 'psycho bitch', branding gay staff members 'slimy little f***ers' and boasting he was more powerful than the premier. Mr Somyurek said: 'It is clear that I was taped and surveilled in a federal electorate office without my knowledge and that this material was published without my knowledge of its existence or my consent. 'I will be taking steps to seek a police investigation into these matters.' Victorian Labor MP Tim Richardson has also called for an investigation on national security grounds. 'We don't know who put those recordings in, we don't know what has been compromised,' he said. Jaclyn Symes, Gabrielle Williams, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Melissa Horne and Adem Somyurek in 2018 'That is a great concern for our Commonwealth and our national security. 'The notion that there is an unknown covert recording is a great concern on our democracy and on our sovereignty and that needs to be investigated by the Australian Federal Police, and if it's a national security risk, ASIO.' Asked about the recordings on Monday, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said: 'There were a range of other calls taped, somehow. 'I don't know all of the circumstances of it. That will all come out, no doubt, over a period of time. That really isn't the story here.' Who are the Victorian ministers that have lost their jobs? ADEM SOMYUREK * Accused of handing over cash and using parliamentary employees to create fake members to branch stack and amass political power * Allegations were first aired by 60 Minutes and The Age on Sunday * There are recordings of him using profanities against colleagues and staff * Mr Somyurek denies the allegations and wants police to investigate the recordings used in the expose * Mr Somyurek was sacked from the Victorian ministry on Monday and resigned from Labor before the party could boot him out * He most recently held the local government portfolio * In 2014, Mr Somyurek was made a minister only to have him stand down over bullying allegations a year later * He was reinstated to the ministry in 2018, with Premier Daniel Andrews saying Mr Somyurek had made the case he had changed * Will now sit in the Legislative Council as an independent for South Eastern Metropolitan Region * Supports the ALP Right faction MARLENE KAIROUZ * Factional ally of Mr Somyurek * Accused of encouraging staff to take part in the branch stacking with Mr Somyurek, according to secret recordings obtained by The Age * Assured Mr Andrews on Monday that she had acted appropriately at all times * After becoming embroiled in the allegations, she resigned from the ministry on Tuesday * Held various ministerial portfolios of suburban development, local government and consumer affairs, gaming and liquor regulation * 'I no longer want these matters to be a distraction to the government. They have placed enormous pressure on my family and caused them great distress,' she said in a statement on Tuesday * Ms Kairouz will continue to serve the electorate of Kororoit ROBIN SCOTT * Factional ally of Mr Somyurek * Mr Scott is accused of having staff involved in the branch stacking * Stepped down from his ministerial post on Monday * 'To the extent that these matters relate to my conduct, I look forward to the opportunity to clear my name. I am very confident that the investigative process will do so,' he said in a statement * Mr Scott will continue to serve the electorate of Preston Advertisement Mr Somyurek claims he resigned but Premier Andrews said he sacked the minister at 9am on Monday. 'Mr Somyurek was not offered an opportunity to resign. He is not worthy of an opportunity to resign. He was sacked. And that is the fact of the matter,' Premier Andrews said. 'He offered no defence of his actions. It was not a meeting where I was having a debate or discussion with him. I was simply doing him the courtesy of informing him in person of the decisions that I had taken.' 'The conduct is appalling and unacceptable and will not be tolerated and I have taken action to deal with that.' Party powerbroker Adem Somyurek (pictured) has been banished from Labor after allegedly being caught branch stacking, which he denies The Premier said the first he heard of the allegations was when he watched 60 Minutes on Sunday night. The programme claimed to reveal the upper house MP handed over thousands of dollars in cash and used parliamentary employees to create fake branch members and amass political influence within the Australian Labor Party. Footage shows Mr Somyurek on April 13 withdrawing $2,000 in cash from an ATM, before handing it and dozens of party membership forms to an adviser working for fellow Labor minister Marlene Kairouz, who then delivers the forms and cash to ALP head office. The advisor reportedly carried out a similar cash drop-off earlier in the year. 'Well, if he (the advisor) gets caught on the street, he'd better not say he's doing f***ing this stuff,' Mr Somyurek is recorded saying after the April 13 drop. Mr Somyurek was also allegedly recorded ordering people to forge signatures and create false statements, in which Labor branch members claim to have paid for their own memberships. He also talks about directing taxpayer-funded parliamentary employees, meant to be working for other MPs, to conduct party political operations. In one recording, Mr Somyurek boasts of controlling two-thirds of the Labor party in Victoria. 'I'll be just running the joint,' Mr Somyurek says. 'It's who I say is going to be the f***ing premier.' What did Adem Somyurek say in secret recordings? On the Premier: 'F**** the Premier. Alright? That's what this is about. F*** the premier. I'll be just running the joint, like, it's who I say is going to be the f***ing premier' On female colleague Gabrielle Williams: 'I will f***ing force her out of the ministry, that f***ing stupid b****, when Andrews goes She's a stupid, stupid moll. 'I'm going to f***ing knock her f***ing head off. She's a f***ing psycho b****.' On young Labor members: 'Real little f***ing slimy little f***ers, right little passive aggressive f***ing gay kids' Advertisement It is against Labor rules to pay for other people's memberships and members are required to sign a form declaring they have paid their own fees. In the recordings, Mr Somyurek also takes aim at his colleagues, including Ms Kairouz, who he describes as holding a 'meaningless' portfolio 'made up just to make it look like we're interested in the suburbs'. He labels the Minister for Women and the Prevention of Family Violence Gabrielle Williams a 'stupid b****' whom he will 'f***ing force ... out of the ministry'. Somyurek also describes these young staffers helping him as 'patronising and annoying', and 'real little f***ing slimy little f***ers, little passive-aggressive f***ing gay kids.' We inside the industry have a real advantage when it comes to understanding the plant from a scientific, regulation and usage perspective that is generally a requirement for those in the space, Oasis Intelligence co-founder Laura Albers told The Fresh Toast. However, when it comes to the average consumer, we see the needs for education are not about more advanced topics that the industry may prioritizethink terpenes, minor cannabinoids gaining popularity or even the endocannabinoid system. The United States has imposed a new round of sanctions targeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as Washington tries to push the war-torn nation back to the UN-led negotiating table to try and end its almost decade-long civil conflict. The June 17 announcement of new penalties on Syria, which target Assad and his wife Asma personally, come as the Syrian leader faces a deepening economic crisis and rare protests in government-held areas. In a statement announcing the move, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said "many more" sanctions against Assad government should be expected in the coming weeks and months. "We will not stop until Assad and his regime stop their needless, brutal war against the Syrian people and the Syrian government agrees to a political solution to the conflict," Pompeo said. "I will make special note of the designation for the first time of Asma al-Assad, the wife of Bashar al-Assad, who with the support of her husband and members of her Akhras family has become one of Syrias most notorious war profiteers," he added. The United States and the European Union already have sanctions on Syria, but the latest from Washington extend to punish any individuals, institutions, or companies conducting business with Damascus. The bill, known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, can be used to target Assads main backers -- Russia, Iran, and Lebanon's Hizballah militant group. But it will also impact China as well as regional players Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Gulf states seeking to reconcile with Syria as it attempts to rebuild following nine years of devastating civil war. The U.S. ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, told the UN Security Council on June 16 that the sanctions are designed to "deprive the Assad regime of the revenue and the support it has used to commit the large-scale atrocities and human rights violations that prevent a political resolution and severely diminish the prospects for peace." Craft said Assad must implement a Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire, elections, and political transition along with long-stalled UN-led talks. "The Assad regime has a clear choice to make: pursue the political path established in Resolution 2254, or leave the United States with no other choice but to continue withholding reconstruction funding and impose sanctions against the regime and its financial backers," Craft said. The Caesar Act, which was passed by Congress in December, is named after a former Syrian military photographer who escaped the country in 2014 with 55,000 images of brutality in Assad's jails since he launched a crackdown on protests three years earlier. The Syrian government has regained most territory from various rebel factions, except for an enclave in northwest Idlib Province and some Kurdish-controlled areas. After a decade of war that has killed some 700,000 people, the regime is now facing a Pyrrhic victory. Towns and cities lay devastated, millions are displaced and in poverty, and the economy is crumbling under rising prices and currency collapse. Critics of the sanctions say that they are an ill-intentioned bid to hamper efforts to rebuild Syria and only hurt Syrian civilians. They also say it aims for the unrealistic goal of ousting Assad and his cronies from power after his forces secured military victory against a divided opposition. "Nine years of war and the death of hundreds of thousands have not changed Assad's course or caused him to question the rectitude of his position. Can sanctions accomplish what war could not? It seems unlikely," Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and fellow at the Quincy Institute think tank, told RFE/RL. "However, sanctions are sure to hurt many innocent people. Syrians are already on their knees. This will simply bring them a bit lower," he said. Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on June 16 that the United States had confirmed "that the purpose of these measures is to overthrow the legitimate authorities of Syria." China's UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said that "as vulnerable countries like Syria are struggling with the [coronavirus] pandemic, imposing more sanctions is simply inhumane and may cause additional catastrophes." Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizballah, described the sanctions as "America's last weapon" meant to starve the Syrian people. "Syria's allies who stood by its side politically and militarily will not abandon it in the face of an economic war and will not allow it to fall," Nasrallah pledged. The sanctions are set to hit Lebanon particularly hard at a time when it faces unprecedented economic and financial crises that have triggered months of protests. Syria is Lebanon's only land bridge to the rest of the Arab world. With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters His sig file began with the typical boilerplate The content of this email is confidential and intended for the recipient specified in message only. It is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message with any third party, without a written consent of the sender before segueing into something else entirely: Blah, blah, blah. I bet no one reads this. The moon is made of green cheese. I am the walrus. Elvis lives! Job Title: Technical Accountant Assistant Organisation: African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) Duty Station: Uganda About US: The African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) is a pan-African multilateral financial institution established in 2001 by African States. ATI was originally launched with the technical and financial support from the World Bank Group and has had more recent support from the African Development Bank. Job Summary: The Technical Accountant Assistant will assist the Technical Accountant in the maintenance of accurate technical accounts, as per approved policies and procedures. Key Duties and Responsibilities: Assist in processing all the business transactions from the underwriting department ensuring that the premium, commissions, acquisition costs and reinsurance premiums are captured accurately Ensure proper filing and safe custody of accounting documents Assist in reconciling reinsurance treaty returns with the accounting records before processing the payments Assist on reinsurers and brokers payments and ensuring proper allocation of payments Assist in allocating premium receipts Assist in analyzing premium receipts and in determining any available free cash for investment purposes Perform bank reconciliations for premium and any other technical accounts Assist in booking bad debts Assist in requesting third-party statements and performing third-party reconciliations when possible Handle cash (petty cash, per diems, cash withdrawals & remittances) and cash deposits Assist in managing travel expenses Attend to audit queries as and when required Perform basic book keeping functions as may be requested Perform such other duties as may be assigned from time to time Qualifications, Skills and Experience: The ideal candidate must hold a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting or Finance Holds or working towards a Professional accounting qualification e.g. CPA, ACCA, CIMA At least two (2) or three (3) years of relevant experience Experience in the insurance sector would be an added advantage Basic knowledge of IFRS and accounting procedures Familiarity with accounting systems, preferably SAGE High degree of honesty and integrity Rigorous Ability to prioritize tasks Ability to work under tight deadlines Ability to work cohesively to achieve results through teamwork Computer literacy and familiarity with accounting systems, Excel and the other standard office computer applications Good written communication skills How to Apply: Please submit the following to recruitment@ati-aca.org An Application Letter (cover letter) CV including details of your current remuneration package along with details of three referees remuneration package along with details of three referees Personal History Form, Click Here Candidates are expected to be completely fluent in English therefore all applications must be submitted in English only NB: Please note that once your application is submitted, ATI will only contact short-listed candidates. ATI does not accept unsolicited job applications. Deadline: 11th July 2020 at 5:30 pm For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline HOLYOKE After five months of visiting with her father from two stories away in the parking lot of the Soldiers Home in Holyoke, amid a pandemic that decimated its patient population, Susan Regensburger was looking forward to a hug. She didnt get it. Nor did her father, John J. MacKay, who not only survived the Burma Theater during World War II and a COVID-19 diagnosis, but also turned 100 in May. He looked chilly. And he looked lonesome, said Regensburger, a retired teacher from Westfield. I can tell hes regressed. On Tuesday she was among the first family members allowed to visit the long-term care facility since the pandemic disastrously struck its population beginning in March. The visits were conducted outdoors and everyone had to keep their distance to guard against potential new coronavirus infections. Over the past few months, Regensburger said visits with her dad consisted of posting up in the parking lot and shouting questions at MacKay through his open window two flights up. It was like: How was your day? and hed have to close the window when it got breezy and too cold, she said. Seventy-six residents of the facility have died from COVID-19, drawing an unwanted national spotlight as one of the deadliest hot spots for elder care in the nation. The last coronavirus-related death of a Holyoke Soldiers Home resident was reported May 26. A new round of testing last week showed eight of 137 residents infected. Two residents who recovered from COVID-19 have since died of other causes, according to state data. The outbreak has upended the Soldiers Home administration most notably prompting the suspension of superintendent Bennett Walsh. Walsh, for his part, has said state officials were slow to react when he sounded an alarm. State and federal agencies have launched parallel investigations, and advocates of the facility have sparked an aggressive plan for a renovation and new staffing structure. On Tuesday, Regensburger and her husband saw her father in person in a shady pavilion on the Cherry Street campus under the watchful eye of a nursing assistant. They were on opposite sides of a table about seven feet long, she said. This was the best we could do, she joked of a photo that shows her, arms outstretched, several feet away from MacKay. The state Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the states two Soldiers Homes, green-lighted tightly controlled family visits for the first time today in Holyoke and on Monday in Chelsea. Generally, each veteran is allowed one family visit per week. Only two family members are permitted at once. Regensburger, one of four siblings, lamented about Fathers Day, just days away on June 21. I feel like all of this is stealing my fathers life, she said. Who knows how long any of us is going to be on this Earth? LOS ANGELES, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) today announced the availability of GI Bill educational benefits to veterans at its Los Angeles campus. The campus, which opened in 2018, joins the New York City campus in accepting these military benefits to attend the school. At the LA campus, ICE's career training programs in Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts, Health-Supportive Culinary Arts and Restaurant & Culinary Management are eligible. "At the Institute of Culinary Education, we value members of the military and honor their commitment to our country," said Lachlan Sands, Los Angeles campus president. "We're thrilled to be able to offer these benefits to veterans and we're committed to helping them build their next chapter and find their culinary voice at ICE." There are several active duty and veteran's benefit programs available to ICE students. In addition to post 9/11 GI Bill educational allowances from the Department of Veterans Affairs and tuition assistance benefits available to military members from the Department of Defense, ICE also offers members of the military special tuition discount programs, including: Students taking the Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts and Health-Supportive Culinary Arts programs can receive a $2,500 tuition discount in addition to their military benefits. tuition discount in addition to their military benefits. Students taking the Restaurant & Culinary Management program can receive a $750 tuition discount in addition to their military benefits. tuition discount in addition to their military benefits. When Restaurant & Culinary Management is combined with Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts and Health-Supportive Culinary Arts, students can receive a $3,250 maximum tuition discount in addition to their military benefits. "There's a really big similarity between the military and the culinary world," said Kelly Bedford, a 2019 Pastry & Baking Arts graduate who used her GI Bill benefits to attend ICE's New York campus. "There is a lot of organization. There is a rank structure. And there is camaraderie. The culinary world is not that big, and neither is the military. They are both small, little communities and everybody watches out for each other as best they can. It's that sense of family and belonging and I hadn't had that since I was in the Marine Corps." For more information on benefits for military and veterans, visit https://www.ice.edu/losangeles/admissions-financial-aid/military-veterans. About the Institute of Culinary Education The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) is one of the largest and most diverse culinary schools in the world with campuses in New York and Los Angeles. Established in 1975, ICE offers award-winning six to 13-month career training programs in Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts, Health-Supportive Culinary Arts, Restaurant & Culinary Management and Hospitality & Hotel Management, in addition to professional development in Artisan Bread Baking and The Art of Cake Decorating with more than 14,000 alumni, many of whom are leaders in the industry. ICE also offers continuing education for culinary professionals, hosts 400 special events each year and is home to one of the world's largest recreational cooking, baking and beverage programs with 26,000 students annually. ICE's 74,000-square-foot, cutting-edge campus in New York City and its new 38,000-square-foot Los Angeles campus were designed for inspiration, creativity and community. Visit us at ice.edu or join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @iceculinary to find your culinary voice. CONTACT: Stephanie Fraiman Public Relations Director Institute of Culinary Education (212) 847-0703 [email protected] SOURCE The Institute of Culinary Education Related Links http://www.ice.edu BURTON, MI -- Nearly 40 years ago Raymond and Lynne Freiberger said, I do, but this year, theyre split on at least one thing -- theyre both running in the election for 50th District state House of Representatives. Raymond, a Democrat, and Lynne, a Republican, are running their own campaigns for the same state House seat currently held by Rep. Tim Sneller, D-Burton. Despite the friendly challenge, their home hasnt turned into a war zone yet. Heres whats going to happen, laughed Raymond, 71. " Im going to divide the house down the middle. Im going to get the bedroom. Shes going to get the bathroom because thats where she spends most of her time. Im going to take the big refrigerator. Shes going to get the small refrigerator." The Freibergers know their two-pronged approach to unseating Sneller, a long-time legislator and aide at the state Capitol, is unconventional, but then again, so are they. Were an unusual couple ..., Lynne said of the pairs outlook on the race and their lives together. Although they agree on many issues and sometimes finish each others sentences, they still have sometimes blistering disagreements, and arent afraid to let voters sort out which one is right. When you live together 40 years and havent divorced each other, then you have a tendency to have a way to deal with conflict successfully, Lynne said. "There are times I say, You got that. Im walking away. Or hell say the same thing. We try to calm down and try to rethink it from the other persons point of view. Raymond says hes a Vietnam veteran and Bronze Star recipient. He also says his background includes having worked with Army intelligence and the Internal Revenue Service. After this run for state representative, he wants to run in a future presidential primary to show his grandchildren that any person can do what you want to do. The people need a voice, he said. Right now, weve got a career politician ... What does he know about the guy who goes into the factory, stands on the assembly line and comes home and tries to live? ... They dont know what the little guy goes through every day. Lynne, 67, who said she worked in communications security in the Army and in various business endeavors, once rode in a race car at the Texas Motor Speedway, took a ride in a Cobra attack helicopter and wants to eventually categorize her collection of dragon-related items in order to be recognized by the Guinness World Records as having more dragons than Huang Xiaojing of China, whos collection includes 3,201 different items. In addition to both having run for public office previously, they show and breed cats, producing 14 international winners. People think were crazy, Raymond said, "but youve got to enjoy life. Although they agree on the importance of improved roads, expanded term limits and support for police, each campaign has its own Facebook page, each candidate answers their own questionnaires and both have distinct yard signs -- Lynnes are red and Raymonds are blue. Lets just say we have very similar if not the same kind of viewpoint ... (but) were running under the policies of the organizations were running with, Lynne said. There are pros and cons to both parties. In addition to Sneller, who faces Raymond in the Democratic primary, Lynne has two Republican opponents in her primary election -- Christina Fitchett-Hickson and Lynn S. Hukee. The 50th District includes the cities of Grand Blanc and Burton, as well as Grand Blanc and Mundy townships. Sneller is a former teacher who worked more than 30 years as an aide to several legislators in Michigan, including former state representatives Charles Smiley, Rick Hammel, Lee Gonzales, Brenda Clack, Frank Accavitti, Jr., Gino Polidori and Bob Emerson, as well as former state Sen. John D. Cherry, Jr. He said hes familiar with the Freibergers and cant recall another election in which a husband and wife ran for the same seat in the Michigan Legislature. I dont know what to tell you, Sneller said. Ive met them but I dont know what they are up to. I think its -- If you cant get (me) in the primary, maybe theyll get" me in the general election. Unusual as it is for a husband and wife to face each other in an election, isnt the first time relatives have run on the same ballot in Genesee County. Two members of the Gaines Township Board of Trustees in the 1990s -- Diane and Frank Hyrman -- were related by marriage, and two brothers -- David and Robert Stewart -- ran against county Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright in 2012. In the case of the Freibergers, the couple said there would be no hard feelings if either spouse is able to win the state House election. We met on a blind date in the military in Germany back in 1980, and we decided it was a go, and weve been married ever since, Lynne said. Whoever has the stronger way of getting the point across to voters deserves to win. Brothers will make Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright go through two elections to keep job Genesee County waits to finalize ballot with unsettled candidate field in Circuit Court election Three Genesee County candidates kicked off August ballot because of paperwork errors Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 19:57:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GABORONE, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has donated medical protective supplies to Botswana to help the country fight against COVID-19. An aircraft carrying the consignment arrived at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Gaborone, Botswana's capital city late Tuesday. "The donations are made through the EU humanitarian office and the Federation of the Red Cross and are worth over 1.4 million Pula local currency (about 121,229 U.S. dollars)," said EU Ambassador to Botswana Jan Sadek. The donation includes 40,000 surgical masks, 1,500 gowns, 40,000 examination gloves, 1,500 face protective glasses, 6,250 respiratory N95 masks, infrared thermometers, disinfectants and sanitizers. The supplies are intended to safeguard and protect frontline health workers who are exposed to the virus during daily screening, tracing and testing activities. The donations will be officially handed over to the Office of the President in the coming days. Enditem Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 14:34 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf7eb9a 1 Business pertagas,pertamina,Krakatau-Steel,Rokan-block,Riau,oil-and-gas,steel,pipe,SOEs,nationalization Free State-owned energy giant Pertamina has enlisted fellow state-owned company Krakatau Steel to supply metal sheet coils for the formers project in the Rokan oil and gas block in Riau. Pertamina, through subsidiary Pertamina Gas (Pertagas), signed on Tuesday a deal with Krakatau Steel, the countrys largest steelmaker, to purchase 53,600 metric tons of hot rolled coil (HRC) steel, which will be turned into 370 kilometers of piping for the project. Read also: SOE Ministry slashes Pertaminas board of directors to refocus business Pertagas president director Wiko Migantoro said the deal was a means of using more locally made components within the Rokan Block, which is Indonesias second-most productive oil block. This is mainly an effort to create synergy among state-owned enterprises and their subsidiaries in key national projects, he said in a joint statement, adding that the deal would cut pipe purchasing costs by 16 percent. Indonesia, through Pertamina, is set to nationalize the Rokan Block next year. The area is currently operated by United States-based Chevron. Read also: Pertamina loses partners, eyes new investors for refinery megaprojects The country expects Pertaminas takeover to maintain block production levels, which saw a landmark decline of 9.2 percent year-on-year to 190,131 barrels per day in 2019. Prior to 2019, the Rokan Block was Indonesias most productive oil block. We guarantee punctuality on the lead time of 4-6 months, so that this project can be finished on time and with quality, said Krakatau Steel president director Silmy Karim. One of the tools used by the U.S. Department of State in its continuing battle against corruption is visa restrictions of foreign officials involved in significant corruption. Under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, the Secretary of State is required to publicly identify current and former foreign officials who have been found to engage in significant corruption. The families of designated individuals may also be publicly identified. Designated individuals and their families are ineligible for entry into the United States. To date, the State Department has publicly designated over 80 individuals related to corrupt acts under this authority. On June 8, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the public designation of Gustavo Adolfo Alejos Cambara, a former high-level official of the Government of Guatemala, as a corrupt individual. In addition to Mr. Alejos, the Department of State publicly designated his spouse, Beatriz Jansa Bianchi; his son, Jose Javier Alejos Jansa; his son, Gustavo Andres Alejos Jansa; and his minor daughter. Gustavo Adolfo Alejos Cambara is under investigation in Guatemala for allegedly being a key member of a corruption ring involving government officials and local businessmen. According to official documents, government officials solicited bribes from local businessmen in exchange for the awarding of state contracts. These proceeds were then allegedly laundered through offshore firms set up in Panama and Belize by the purchase of real estate. The investigators believe that the corruption ring has been in operation through at least three administrations, going back at least a decade. Former Guatemalan Presidential Chief of Staff Gustavo Adolfo Alejos Cambara's corrupt actions undermine the rule of law in Guatemala, said Secretary or State Pompeo in a tweet. As a result, I am publicly designating him as ineligible for entry into the U.S. We stand #UnitedAgainstCorruption with the people of Guatemala. The United States continues to stand with the people of Guatemala in their fight against corruption. To open the third season of this lively social history series, host Michael Hing literally emerges from the sea and strides ashore, only to transform into his hosting persona. It's a madcap anti-Clark Kent sequence and not the only stylistic flourish in this episode but it's indicative of a show that uses a light touch to examine the sometimes seismic change in Australia's multicultural identity. Michael Hing. Here Hing is visiting Inala in the south west suburbs of Brisbane, which is home to a thriving Vietnamese community that's taken shape over the past 40 or so years. With a local guide offering tips and introductions, he interviews those who fled Vietnam after the end of the war in 1975 led to a humanitarian crisis, as well as the second and third generation descendants of those refugees who've grown up here. Hing, who is 5th generation Chinese-Australian himself, teases out joyous anecdotes and proud beliefs. It's a cheerfully optimistic reminder that each wave of migration to this country brings a welcome shot of industriousness, excellent culinary options (as the show itself emphasises), and an enduring measure of gratitude. Those who come here from other countries, especially as refugees, tend to actually see us in the best light. As one Inala local tells Hing: "You can't really go wrong in Australia." Desert Collectors Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 10:15 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf631a0 1 News Accor-Group,Habitat-for-Humanity,OYO-Hotels-and-Homes,Alila-Solo,Hyatt-Regency-Bali,hospitality-industry,health-protocol Free Sudarman felt a sense of pride when he was selected to be a nurse for COVID-19 patients at Cengkareng Regional General Hospital in West Jakarta. At the same time, he was worried as he had a baby at home. During his first weeks of being assigned, he headed home daily as he did not have [isolation] accommodation. My wife is also a medical worker and both of us had to practice self-quarantine, so we had to leave our child with our neighbor. After two weeks working in the intensive care unit (ICU) for COVID-19 cases, Sudarman finally received other accommodation. Its comfortable and I dont feel worried anymore, he said. Sudarman is among the medical workers who are being provided with accommodation in hotels through a collaboration between non-profit Habitat for Humanity and French multinational hospitality company Accor Group. Since April 13, they have helped more than 600 medical workers from COVID-19 referral hospitals in Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java. The hotels used to accommodate medical workers include Ibis Budget Jakarta Daan Mogot in West Jakarta and Ibis Budget Jakarta Cikini in Central Jakarta. The collaboration accepts donations from the public via crowdfunding platforms KitaBisa and BenihBaik as well as e-wallet app Dana. Accor Group has also teamed up with the COVID-19 special task force to provide hotels for quarantine, particularly of repatriated Indonesians, including Pullman Jakarta Central Park in West Jakarta and Ibis Style Jakarta Airport in Banten. Seventy of our hotels in Indonesia are still operating while around 30 hotels are closed, said Adi Satria, vice president sales, marketing, distribution and loyalty for Accor Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, said during a press conference on June 10. Should the hotels be allowed to reopen to the public in the future, Adi said the company would analyze its protocols to decide whether hotels would serve the public or be used to accommodate medical workers and for quarantine purposes. It will also coordinate with the COVID-19 special task force and the Health Ministry regarding additional procedures, such as whether or not guests will be required to provide evidence of negative COVID-19 test results. In preparation for the new normal period, Accor Group has implemented cleanliness and operational standards that have been reviewed by certification company Bureau Veritas. The standards are to be applied in every hotel and will later be reviewed by operational experts from Accor Group or its third party to receive the ALLSAFE label. The label involves health protocols for guests and staff members, including room disinfection, physical distancing and regular health checks for the staff. In a similar move, hotel chain OYO Hotels & Homes has launched its Sanitized Stay protocols that ensures its properties implement health and safety protocols from check-in to check-out. Currently, around 200 OYO properties have implemented the program, with information available on OYO's website. The Sanitized Stay protocols include disinfecting all areas and rooms; providing hand sanitizer and face masks for guests; training staff about safety and health procedures during the pandemic; maintaining physical distancing; and coordinating with the nearest hospital. Eko Bramantyo, OYO Hotels and Homes Indonesia head of emerging business, said the company had adapted to the pandemic by implementing a long-term strategy, including the Sanitized Stay. We need to have resilience as we dont know how long this situation will last, Eko said on June 11, adding that the strategy would be implemented until December or January 2021. He stated that the pandemic had caused a shift in peoples behavior within the hospitality industry. Most people prefer to stay for a long period of time. For instance, on average guests used to stay for around one to three days, but now the duration has shifted to seven to 14 days, Eko said. Additionally, a larger portion of guests now prefer to pay online than pay on arrival. Read also: Singapore has launched new hygiene certification program for hospitality industry Since May, hotels in Asia Pacific run by hospitality company Hyatt have launched new safety and hygiene procedures for their guests. Hyatt Regency Bali in Sanur, Bali, has implemented procedures that include sanitization of surfaces every hour, body temperature checks at all entrances, contactless room service, physical distancing protocols in restaurants, frequent air quality tests and a food safety management system based on international standards. The hotel received its HACCP certification in March and will pursue international organization for standardization (ISO) certification soon. All Hyatt hotels are to be accredited by the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC), especially its GBAC STAR program, which focuses on the prevention of infectious diseases. The hospitality company plans to have the majority of its hotels worldwide accredited by the end of the year. Located in the Central Java city of Surakarta, Alila Solo is among the hotels in the country that have reopened to the public. Since June 12, the hotel began operating by implementing its HY-giene program, which consists of enhanced sanitization and operational protocols for its front desk area, guests rooms and dining outlets. In the guests rooms, the program requires frequently touched surfaces to be sanitized, air filters to be cleaned more often and alcohol wipes to be provided. (wng) Seattle's police chief insisted there is no 'cop free' zone in the city after claims cops failed to respond to 911 calls. Chief Carmen Best was referring to the so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) - a six-block area in the Capitol Hill neighborhood blocked off by Black Lives Matter protesters. One local business owner said he had called 911 nearly 20 times after protesters vandalized his business but cops did not show up. In response, Best said on Monday that the notion that the city is 'under siege' is not the case. Officials have replaced plastic barriers put in place by protesters with concrete ones which will shrink the CHAZ, now known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), down to just three blocks and also split Pine Street for pedestrians and traffic. Seattle's police chief Carmen Best insisted there is no 'cop free' zone in the city after claims cops failed to respond to 911 calls Seattle's police chief insisted there is no 'cop free' zone in the city after claims cops failed to respond to 911 calls. Pictured: A protester holds a sign referring to the city's mayor Jenny Durkan Police had abandoned a precinct in the area amid escalating tensions with George Floyd protesters but Best insisted to Fox News, 'There is no cop-free zone in the city of Seattle. 'I think that the picture has been painted in many areas that shows the city is under siege. That is not the case.' She spoke after auto shop owner John McDermott, whose business sits just outside the CHAZ, said he called police 19 times after protesters broke into his shop. He ended up detaining a suspect himself who had allegedly stolen money from his cash register before trying to set fire to the building. 'They alluded they were sending someonefinally said they weren't going to send somebody,' McDermott told KIRO-TV. 'I don't know what to expect next. If you can't call the police department, you can't call the fire department to respond, what do you have?' The business owner added that he was 'heartbroken', saying the cops are 'the cavalry'. His son Mason said he chased the suspect down before putting him 'on the ground'. The suspect then allegedly tried to injure him with a box cutter. Officials have replaced plastic barriers put in place by protesters with concrete ones which will shrink the CHAZ down to just three blocks and also split Pine Street for pedestrians and traffic Plastic barriers were previously put up by protesters occupying the so-called autonomous zone However, both men had to let the suspect go to avoid 'mayhem beyond mayhem' as other protesters knocked down the business's fence. Responding to the claims, Best said cops responded to Mr McDermott's report and 'observed the location from a distance'. She said they did not see 'signs of smoke or fire' or any other 'disturbance'. The Seattle Fire Department also said it is investigating why no one responded to McDermott's call. According to Fox News, Seattle city officials and protesters in the CHAZ have agreed to remove temporary road blocks and replace them with concrete barriers. One local business owner reportedly said he had called 911 nearly 20 times after protesters vandalized his business but cops did not show up. In response, Best said on Monday that the notion that the city is 'under siege' is not the case Police had abandoned a precinct (pictured) in the area amid escalating tensions with George Floyd protesters but Best insisted, 'There is no cop-free zone in the city of Seattle 'I think that the picture has been painted in many areas that shows the city is under siege. That is not the case,' she added. Pictured: New concrete barriers in place. They will shrink the CHAZ, now known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, down to three blocks New barriers are being installed in the middle of Pine Street. They will allow emergency service vehicles to pass through the area. They will also at least halve the size of the autonomous area, meaning for the first time in weeks that traffic will be able to pass by the closed East Police Precinct. It comes after chief Best said she wants her officers to return to the abandoned police precinct building. It was boarded up just before Black Lives Matter protesters began occupying the CHAZ. But Mayor Jenny Durkan appeared to contradict the officer. She spoke after auto shop owner John McDermott, whose business sits just outside the CHAZ, said he called police 19 times after protesters broke into his shop When asked by CNN's Chris Cuomo last Thursday how long she expected protesters to remain in the area before police return to the precinct, Durkan said: 'I don't know. We could have a summer of love.' Best had told KIRO-TV on Friday: 'We've certainly been in conversation about what we might do and what the alternatives are. 'Ideally, we just need to get back into the building. People are looking for a plan, but we want to make sure we modulate anything that were doing. 'We dont want to exacerbate or intensify or incite problems that are going to lead to harm to the officers or the people who are standing by. 'We know that several are armed. We want to make sure that we are being very thoughtful about how we respond.' The document will be discussed with Ukrainians from the Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine's east. Head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's Office Andriy Yermak says a new draft law on special provisions of local government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (Donbas) where the implementation of the so-called "Steinmeier formula" is envisaged is in the pipeline now. Read alsoUkraine one of world's most mined countries MP "Today we've introduced the first [draft] law on special provisions of local government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions where the 'Steinmeier formula' has been implemented," he told LB.ua on June 17. According to Yermak, the document will be discussed with "our representatives" from the Russia-occupied territories so that they could "express their opinion." As UNIAN reported, Yermak earlier admitted that Serhiy Sivokho, an ex-advisor to the Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), was wrong when he urged Ukrainians to reconcile with those from Russia-occupied Donbas as he did not take into account the mood of society. MSNBCs Joe Scarborough criticised Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his show on Wednesday, and claimed the social media site is promoting extremism. Mr Scarborough, the host of Morning Joe, made the comments after his network reported on right-wing extremism featured on Facebook, following the arrest of Steven Carrillo, according to Mediaite. Mr Carrillo, who is reportedly part of the Boogaloo Movement, was arrested on Wednesday morning, and charged with the murder of a federal security officer in California, during a George Floyd protest. The Boogaloo Movement, is populated by far-right extremists, who call for a violent uprising and a second civil war in the US. It was reported that Mr Carrillo wrote on a Facebook group on 28 May that the uprising is on our coast now, this needs to be nationwide. Before Mr Scarboroughs show, NBC's Ben Collins reported said that Facebooks algorithms can lead users to extreme groups. If youre in a libertarian group on Facebook, for example, or a Tea Party group or just like weaponry, guns and ammo stuff, they might in the last three months have driven you to a Boogaloo page, Mr Collins said. After hearing about the Boogaloo Movements use of Facebook groups to spread their message, Mr Scarborough took aim at Mr Zuckerberg and the content that is allowed and promoted on the site. Mark Zuckerberg is promoting the extremism, because Mark Zuckerberg is actually his site, the Zuckerberg site, has actually set up! Set up! Like, ad promotions that actually push people towards extremist sites that kill federal officers! the host claimed. And Mark Zuckerberg becomes a billionaire! Mr Scarborough added. How many times over? Because hes pushing people towards extremist sites that gun down and murder federal officials. Over the last few years, there have been growing concerns that Facebook allows extremism and misinformation to spread, as it does very little to censor content on the site. In May, Snapchat took the decision to stop promoting president Donald Trumps tweets after Twitter flagged a controversial post, for inciting violence. The post was also shared by the president to his Facebook page, but Mr Zuckerberg decided against flagging or taking down the controversial status, despite staff walkouts against the decision. Mr Zuckerberg said: I know many people are upset that weve left the Presidents posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies. Scrutiny of Facebooks content was highest in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, where it was claimed that Russia spread misinformation on the site, to help Donald Trump become president. When Sheryl Sandberg found out that Mark Zuckerbergs website was being used by foreign powers to interfere in the 2016 election, what did she do? She got angry at the Mark Zuckerberg employee that came to her and came to the board and warned them that American democracy was at risk, Mr Scarborough said. Mark Zuckerberg said, he doesnt care that people use his site to lie. He doesnt care that they use their site, the host added. The Independent has contacted Facebook for comment. Zhejiang waxberries taste success in Shanghai By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-06-17 08:23 At a latitude of 29N, Xianju County in Taizhou, Zhejiang, has a subtropical monsoon climate, a unique microclimate in the mountains and moderate soil pH. The resulting excellent agricultural conditions have meant its waxberries have been well known since the Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644). Shanghai citizens can now enjoy Xianju waxberries just one day after they have been harvested from the orchard. On June 15, Xianju, dubbed the land of waxberries, promoted its star fruit in Shanghai, through various activities both online and offline. Wearing blue printed coats and headbands, fruit farmers from the county held the baskets full of waxberries in front of their mobile phones and talked proudly to the camera, promoting their fruit to the netizens. They also explained the entire process of harvest and transportation from tree to table. Offline at a promotional meeting, while introducing waxberries to Shanghai citizens, people from Xianju also recommended their special tourist routes. Boasting a history of one thousand years, Xianju County is also famous for its two mountains: Kuocang Mountain and Tianmu Mountain (the latter became renowned thanks to ancient Chinese poet Li Bai). Whats more, the Xiatang Cultural Relic Site is the countrys best preserved Shangshan cultural relic site (a culture from the Neolithic Age). There is Potan Ancient Town, the No.1 ancient dragon-shaped street in East China; Tongjiang Academy; and Gaoqian Ancient Residence from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The earliest ancient temple built in the south of the lower Yangtze River area, Daxing Temple, is also located in Xianju. Additionally there are 31 well-preserved traditional Chinese villages in the county. People can also enjoy fantastic national cultural heritage like lion dancing and frameless lantern making. An abundant harvest of waxberries has been reaped in Xianju this year. The planting area of waxberries across the county is 138,000 mu (92 square kilometers), yielding nearly 100,000 tons in total. Thanks to better packaging and distribution methods, the shelf life of waxberries has been extended by 10-15 days. The fruit can stay 60 hours in transit. For this year, more than 500 pickup locations have been set up by Shunfeng Express in Xianju County, covering over 400 waxberry cooperatives, cold storage facilities and professional markets. With two expressways running through, Xianju is about four hours drive from Shanghai. If you take the train, you can go from Shanghai to Taizhou, Linhai, or Yongkang, and then drive for one hour before arriving in Xianju. The good news is that by 2023 when the Hangzhou-Wenzhou high-speed train will open, the travel time between Xianju and Shanghai will be reduced to just 90 minutes. (Photos/Zhejiang News) A Covid-19 patient today credited dexamethasone for saving her life after she defied 50/50 odds of surviving when doctors gave her the 50p-a-day steroid drug that has now been proven to be the first medicine to cut the risk of dying. Katherine Millbank, 55, was placed in an induced coma and hooked up to a ventilator in her near-death battle. Her husband - who was reunited with her on her birthday - revealed she 'turned a corner' just days after she became one of the 'lucky' Brits to get the drug as part of a trial. Oxford University researchers yesterday announced dexamethasone which costs 5 for a course of treatment cut the risk of death by up to 35 per cent for infected patients on ventilators and by a fifth for anyone needing oxygen at any point. World Health Organization (WHO) bosses have revealed they will update its Covid-19 treatment guidance to include dexamethasone in the wake of the results, described as the 'biggest breakthrough yet' by Boris Johnson. The guidelines, aimed at doctors and other medical professionals across the world, inform clinicians on how best to tackle all phases of the disease, from screening to discharge. Health Secretary Matt Hancock today called the dexamethasone breakthrough 'one of the best pieces of news we've had' during the Covid-19 pandemic, after the 5 steroid was proven to be the first drug to save lives. The medicine created in the 1950s is already licensed to treat ulcerative colitis, arthritis and some types of cancer. It has been proven to be safe for humans and can be manufactured cheaply and en masse by companies all over the world. Results of the RECOVERY trial did, however, show dexamethasone given as either an injection or once-a-day tablet on the NHS had no benefit for people who were hospitalised with the virus but did not require oxygen. Katherine Millbank, 55, was placed in an induced coma and hooked up to a ventilator in her near-death battle. Her husband Paul (pictured together) revealed she 'turned a corner' just days after she became one of the 'lucky' Brits to get the drug as part of a trial In the biggest coronavirus breakthrough to date, dexamethasone was found to reduce the risk of dying by coronavirus by up to a third NURSE CLAIMS SHE RETURNED TO WORK IN THE NHS ON HER 36TH BIRTHDAY AFTER TAKING GETTING DEXAMETHASONE A nurse claims she returned to work on her 36th birthday after recovering from Covid-19 with the help of steroid dexamethasone. Kate Bugtong, from Portsmouth, started suffering symptoms of coronavirus on April 14, including fever and headaches, but as her shortness of breath worsened, she was admitted to hospital eight days later where she was put on oxygen. The nurse, who returned to work at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in the Hampshire city, was offered dexamethasone as part of a trial being conducted alongside other treatments for her symptoms. Ms Bugtong, from the Philippines, said: 'I am happy that I was able to take it, at first I was a bit hesitant about it, naturally.' She said that when she was discharged on April 29, she was still suffering from shortness of breath but her symptoms had improved. On returning to work on the hospital's renal ward, she said: 'I feel a mixture of everything to be back, I feel happy because I have been isolated for a bit long already but I am still adjusting because there are many changes. 'And it's my birthday actually, so it's a half-half celebration, but I haven't been back to work for a long time so I said I would go back, I'm happy to be back.' Advertisement Ms Millbank, of Buckinghamshire, revealed she was reunited with her husband on her 55th birthday after being given the drug. She was rushed to intensive care at Stoke Mandeville Hospital on March 26 and hooked up to a ventilator. Recalling her ordeal, she said: 'I remember thinking, "I don't know what's happening but I don't think I'm going to come through this. I'm going to die".' Doctors rang her husband Paul, 55, on April 3 and asked if he would give permission for her to be included on a trial for dexamethasone. Mrs Millbank said she felt 'lucky' to have been included on the clinical trial, which she credits with saving her life. She said: 'The research team have been amazing, because not everybody got that drug, so I was one of the lucky ones. 'I don't remember much, but I just remember thinking about my husband telling me, "you're going to be all right, you're going to come through it".' Mrs Millbank revealed she remembered coming out of intensive care and 'everyone was clapping'. Mr Millbank said he had 'no issue' with his wife being given the trial drugs. He said: 'I didn't even have to think about it, really. 'They are already tried and tested drugs anyway, all of them, and none of them has got any serious side effects, to my knowledge anyway. It was a no-brainer because, at the end of the day, I wanted my wife back.' Mr Millbank had already been told by doctors that his wife's chances of recovery were '50/50' and he was willing to do anything to help her get better. Despite being told he would have to wait another two weeks before she was well enough to return home, she began to improve faster than expected and he picked her up from the hospital on the evening of her 55th birthday. He said: 'I was sceptical at first. I got numerous text messages from Katherine and not all of them made sense, but then they called me and said I could go pick her up. It just felt so surreal. 'We started to drive home and it was like, just pinch me, is this really happening? Am I really bringing my wife home after all this emotion and all this trauma? It didn't really hit home until we got home.' Ms Millbank, of Buckinghamshire, revealed she was reunited with her husband on her 55th birthday after being given the drug She was rushed to intensive care at Stoke Mandeville Hospital on March 26 and hooked up to a ventilator (pictured in hospital) Mrs Millbank added: 'I just kept looking around and trying to listen to the birds and talk to my husband a bit. I remember thinking, is this really happening? Because when I was in hospital I was having hallucinations and it all felt a bit surreal. 'Most of the time you listen to the news at the moment and it is sad news. But the research team have found something that's really helped a lot of people and it's just absolutely fantastic. It should give people hope.' Elsewhere, a nurse claims she returned to work on her 36th birthday after recovering from Covid-19 with the help of steroid dexamethasone. Kate Bugtong, from Portsmouth, started suffering symptoms of coronavirus on April 14, including fever and headaches, but as her shortness of breath worsened, she was admitted to hospital eight days later where she was put on oxygen. The nurse, who returned to work at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in the Hampshire city, was offered dexamethasone as part of a trial being conducted alongside other treatments for her symptoms. Ms Bugtong, from the Philippines, said: 'I am happy that I was able to take it, at first I was a bit hesitant about it, naturally.' She said that when she was discharged on April 29, she was still suffering from shortness of breath but her symptoms had improved. On returning to work on the hospital's renal ward, she said: 'I feel a mixture of everything to be back, I feel happy because I have been isolated for a bit long already but I am still adjusting because there are many changes. The Health Secretary described the results of the landmark Oxford University trial as 'brilliant news for everybody'. The drug is already licensed, proven safe and in mass-production 'And it's my birthday actually, so it's a half-half celebration, but I haven't been back to work for a long time so I said I would go back, I'm happy to be back.' The stories of Mrs Millbank and Ms Bugtong come after one Covid-19 survivor given dexamethasone claimed last night the drug saved his life. Pete Herring, 69, was 'over the moon' that health chiefs approved the medicine for immediate NHS use in the wake of the results. The WHO today said that it was moving to update its guidelines on treating people stricken with Covid-19 to reflect results of the RECOVERY trial. LEADING EXPERTS DEMAND OXFORD SCIENTISTS RELEASE THE FULL DATA Leading experts have demanded scientists release the full results of their dexamethasone trial, saying it was 'unacceptable' to tout the results without first releasing the paper. Professor Atul Gawande, a public health researcher at Harvard University, admitted it would be 'great news' if dexamethasone can really cut the risk of dying in critically-ill Covid-19 patients. But he tweeted: 'After all the retractions and walk backs, it is unacceptable to tout study results by press release without releasing the paper.' It comes after the retraction of a study on the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which found it increases the risk of death in Covid-19 patients. International trials investigating the Donald Trump-backed drug were halted on the heels of the research, originally published in medical journal The Lancet. Independent experts spotted errors in the data behind the study based on 90,000 patients. It was later retracted. Dr David Juurlink, a drug safety researcher at the University of Toronto, also raised concerns about the lack of transparency over the Oxford results. He said: 'Just reflecting on the fact that today, doctors all around the world changed how we treat Covid-19 based upon a study we haven't even been able to read yet.' Dr Dara Kass, an emergency medicine doctor at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, told Yahoo that 'we need to see the data'. Advertisement WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: 'This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support. The agency said it was looking forward to the full data analysis of the study in coming days. Dr Tedros said: 'WHO will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase our overall understanding of this intervention.WHO clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used in COVID-19.' Mr Hancock who said the drug will help save thousands of lives described the results of the landmark Oxford University trial as 'brilliant news for everybody'. He told BBC Breakfast it was a 'wonderful' discovery, saying: 'It is the single biggest scientific breakthrough the world has yet made [in the Covid-19 pandemic].' In a Sky News interview he added: 'It (dexamethasone) does increase your chances of survival quite significantly. 'It is one of the best pieces of news we've had through this whole crisis... It is brilliant news for everybody.' He said the potential of the steroid, created in the 1950s, to fight Covid-19 was first spotted in February. The Government began to buy supplies in April after preliminary data showed it had a beneficial effect. It comes as leading experts have demanded scientists release the full results of their dexamethasone trial, saying it was 'unacceptable' to tout the results without first releasing the paper. Professor Atul Gawande, a public health researcher at Harvard University, admitted it would be 'great news' if dexamethasone can really cut the risk of dying in critically-ill Covid-19 patients. But he tweeted: 'After all the retractions and walk backs, it is unacceptable to tout study results by press release without releasing the paper.' It comes after the retraction of a study on the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which found it increases the risk of death in Covid-19 patients. International trials investigating the Donald Trump-backed drug were halted on the heels of the research, originally published in medical journal The Lancet. Independent experts spotted errors in the data behind the study based on 90,000 patients. It was later retracted. Dr David Juurlink, a drug safety researcher at the University of Toronto, also raised concerns about the lack of transparency over the Oxford results. He said: 'Just reflecting on the fact that today, doctors all around the world changed how we treat Covid-19 based upon a study we haven't even been able to read yet.' Dr Dara Kass, an emergency medicine doctor at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, told Yahoo that 'we need to see the data'. Peter Herring (pictured), 69, was rushed to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridgeshire late April after the virus infiltrated his lungs. He was given dexamethasone The former John Lewis manager, from Ely, Cambridgeshire, was placed on oxygen support before he volunteered to take part in a new drug's trial FORMER COVID-19 PATIENT SAYS THE STEROID SAVED HIS LIFE A former coronavirus patient who was treated with dexamethasone has said the experimental medicine 'saved his life'. Peter Herring, of Ely, Cambridgeshire, was rushed to Addenbrooke's Hospital in late April after the virus infiltrated his lungs and was placed on oxygen support within hours of his arrival. As his health deteriorated and he became gravely ill, the former John Lewis manager volunteered to take part in a new drug's trial and was offered dexamethasone, a cheap steroid that has been around for decades, in an effort to save his life. Praising the experimental treatment Mr Herring, who was 24 hours away from being placed on a ventilator, told The Sun: 'When I went into hospital, my breathing was pretty bad and the doctors put me on oxygen. 'I was quite worried, as I have type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, and had bowel cancer 15 years ago, so I was high risk. The team said I was 24-hours away from being placed on ventilation, and nobody wants that.' The 69-year-old added: 'The treatment saved my life. I can't say for certain, but my breathing was getting worse and then I turned the corner. 'Five days later I was out of intensive care and just over a week after I went in, I was back at home. I am feeling absolutely wonderful now. I have bounced back and am full of energy. 'I cannot thank the team at Addenbrooke's Hospital [pls keep] enough. The standard of care was second to none. 'I feel incredibly lucky I was given dexamethasone. I am pretty certain that it made a difference to my outcome. I am over the moon that they are now rolling out use of the drug across the country.' Advertisement She added: 'This is more of a confirmation of something that we believed would work with what we hope is good science, but we haven't seen it yet.' Oxford experts last night revealed in a press release they were working to 'publish the full details as soon as possible'. Results from the RECOVERY trial suggested the steroid could prevent death in one in eight ventilated coronavirus patients and one in 25 on breathing support. A total of 2,104 patients were randomised to receive 6mg of dexamethasone once a day, either by mouth or by intravenous injection for 10 days. Their outcomes were compared with 4,321 patients given standard care alone, which involves painkillers and, in some cases, antibiotics. For patients on ventilators, the drug cut the risk of death from 40 per cent to 28 per cent after 28 days. In patients who required any form of oxygen, the risk was reduced from a quarter to a fifth. The preliminary results not yet published in a scientific journal did not observe any notable side effects or adverse reactions. But dexamethasone is known to cause a number of mild effects, including vomiting, heartburn, anxiety, high blood pressure, muscle weakness and insomnia. The Prime Minister said last night: 'I'm absolutely delighted the biggest breakthrough yet has been made by a fantastic team of scientists right here in the UK. 'I think there is genuine cause to celebrate a remarkable British scientific achievement [and] the benefits it will bring not just in this country but around the world.' Dexamethasone is now the second drug available in the NHS arsenal to treat Covid-19, after Ebola medicine remdesivir was last month given the green light. Health chiefs said they imposed a ban at midnight last night to stop businesses from exporting the drug to other countries, in order to protect the UK's supply. The Department of Health claimed it has already stockpiled 200,000 courses of the drug for British patients, after buying it ahead of the results of the trial. Britain became the first country to approve dexamethasone for coronavirus patients, officials revealed last night. Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosted today's Downing Street press conference where he hailed the approval of dexamethasone as the 'biggest breakthrough so far' in Britain's coronavirus battle England's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty described it as the 'most important trial result' so far, and the chief scientist Sir Patrick Vallance said it was 'tremendous news in the fight against this virus' WHAT IS DEXAMETHASONE? The steroid drug is a type of anti-inflammatory medicine used to treat a wide-range of conditions. It is given via an injection or once-a-day tablet and is sold under the brand names Ozurdex and Baycadron. In coronavirus patients, the steroid reduces inflammation in the lungs triggered by an overreaction by the immune system. One in 10 symptomatic Covid-19 patients are thought to suffer from the nasty symptom, known as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ARDS causes the immune system to become overactive and attack healthy cells in the lungs. This makes breathing difficult and the body eventually struggles to get enough oxygen to vital organs. Dexamethasone was first made in 1957 and was approved for medical use in 1961. The steroid is also used to treat conditions that cause inflammation, conditions related to immune system activity, and hormone deficiency. These include: allergic reactions rheumatoid arthritis psoriasis lupus eczema flare-ups of intestinal disease, such as ulcerative colitis multiple sclerosis pre-treatment for chemotherapy to reduce inflammation and side effects from cancer medications adrenal insufficiency (a condition where the adrenal glands dont produce enough hormones) Dexamethasone is known to cause a number of mild to moderate side effects, including vomiting, heartburn, anxiety, high blood pressure, muscle weakness and insomnia. Advertisement Clinical trials of the drug are ongoing in other countries including France, Iran, Spain and Argentina. If other countries approve the drug for patients, most will be able to obtain their own supplies from domestic firms. Professor Martin Landray, lead researcher, said dexamethasone could have saved up to 5,000 lives if it was used throughout the UK's crisis. He said: 'If you were to design a drug that treats coronavirus, this would be exactly how you'd hope it works. 'There is a clear, clear benefit. The treatment is up to 10 days of dexamethasone and it costs about 5 per patient. This is a drug that is globally available.' He warned people should not go and buy it to take at home because it has no effect on people with mild symptoms and could cause nasty side effects. Co-author Professor Peter Horby said: 'Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in Covid-19. This is an extremely welcome result.' He said the survival benefit was 'clear', adding that dexamethasone is 'inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide'. The RECOVERY trial has recruited more than 11,500 Covid-19 patients from 170 NHS hospitals across the country and is the world's biggest trial testing existing drugs. Dexamethasone is just one of five promising therapies being trialled, alongside HIV drug combination lopinavir/ritonavir and antibiotic azithromycin. Earlier this month the trial found the promising anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine branded a game changer by Donald Trump did not treat coronavirus. Some 1,542 patients were randomly given the drug and compared to 3,132 patients randomised to receive standard care. After 28 days, 25.7 per cent of patients taking the malaria tablets passed away from the virus compared to 23.5 per cent who were not given the medicine. Dexamethasone prevents the release of substances that cause inflammation, a nasty Covid-19 complication that makes breathing difficult. In seriously unwell coronavirus patients, the lungs become so inflamed they struggle to work. Mr Hancock said last night: 'Im absolutely delighted we can announce the worlds first successful clinical trial for a treatment for Covid-19. WHAT WAS THE FIRST COVID-19 DRUG TO BE APPROVED ON THE NHS? Remdesivir became the first medicine approved for coronavirus patients in Britain when it was approved by health chiefs at the end of May. Adults and teens battling severe bouts of Covid-19 will be allowed to get remdesivir if they fit specific criteria, officials announced. It made the drug, which destroys a part of the virus, the closest thing the NHS had to a cure or treatment for the life-threatening disease. Britain's approval of remdesivir came three weeks after US bosses gave it the green light on May 1, putting the UK weeks behind once again. Matt Hancock said the experimental Ebola drug was the 'biggest step forward' in treating Covid-19 since the outbreak spiralled out of control. Studies have shown mixed results for remdesivir, with no firm proof that the drug can slash the risk of death in Covid-19 patients. Until then, there were no drugs that had been approved specifically for the purpose of treating patients with Covid-19. Doctors have tried to save people with serious infections by giving them oxygen therapy such as through ventilators for the most sick. Advertisement 'This astounding breakthrough is testament to the incredible work being done by our scientists behind the scenes. 'From today the standard treatment for Covid-19 will include dexamethasone, helping save thousands of lives while we deal with this terrible virus.' He said Britain was 'leading the way' in the global coronavirus fight and thanked the 'brilliant scientists' and 'thousands of patients' who took part in the study. One patient who received the medication at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, is convinced it saved his life. Mr Herring said he was at high risk of dying with Covid-19 because he has high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and had recovered from bowel cancer 15 years earlier. He was so breathless that he couldn't talk by the time an ambulance came to get him from his home in Ely and spent five days in intensive care before recovering. He said: 'I didn't think twice about taking part in the trial and said yes straight away. If you can help others in a similar situation then you absolutely should.' Mr Herring said: 'I am glad I did it. I feel incredibly lucky I was given dexamethasone. I am pretty certain that it made a difference to my outcome. 'And the overall results of the trial are pretty amazing. I am over the moon that they are now rolling out the use of the drug across the country.' Leading health figures last night hailed the results of the RECOVERY trial as a 'huge breakthrough' which will 'dramatically improve Covid-19 survival'. NHS chief executive Simon Stevens said: 'NHS hospitals, researchers and clinicians have worked together at breakneck speed to test new treatments for Covid-19. 'It is amazing to see work that would normally take years bear fruit in just a matter of months. Professor Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, added: 'This is a huge breakthrough in our search for new ways to successfully treat patients with Covid, both in the UK and across the world. 'It is thanks to NHS staff and patients who participated in the trial that from now, we are able to use this drug to dramatically improve Covid-19 survival for people in hospital who require oxygen or ventilation.' The Governments Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said the news was 'particularly exciting' because the drug was so widely available and cheap. He added: 'This is a ground-breaking development in our fight against the disease, and the speed at which researchers have progressed finding an effective treatment is truly remarkable. 'It shows the importance of doing high quality clinical trials and basing decisions on the results of those trials.' Dr Nick Cammack, head of the research-charity Wellcome Trust, which is conducting its own studies into Covid-19 therapies, added: 'This is a major breakthrough. 'Dexamethasone is the first and only drug that has made a significant difference to patient mortality for Covid-19. 'Potentially preventing one death in every eight ventilated patients would be remarkable. NHS REGULATOR STOPS RECRUITMENT FOR HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE TRIALS The UK's drug regulator has stopped scientists from signing any more Covid-19 patients up to trials of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine. Hydroxychloroquine caused a storm last month when US President Donald Trump announced he was taking it regularly in a bid to protect himself from coronavirus. Trials of it as a therapy for the viral disease are ongoing in the UK but the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) today told those running the trials not to sign anyone else up. It said that it wanted to see better results proving the safety of the drug before it is used any more widely. Some studies have shown that large doses of the medication can have damaging effects on the heart and lead to irregular rhythms which can cause deadly complications. Dr June Raine, CEO of the MHRA, said: 'We have told those conducting clinical trials using hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent COVID-19 to suspend recruitment into their trials. 'Neither hydroxychloroquine nor chloroquine are licensed to treat COVID-19 related symptoms or to prevent infection. 'It is important to note that patients taking hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat other health conditions can continue to do so, as advised by their healthcare professional, as the balance of benefits and risks remains favourable in the licensed uses.' Advertisement 'Finding effective treatments like this will transform the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on lives and economies across the world. 'While this study suggests dexamethasone only benefits severe cases, countless lives will be saved globally. 'Dexamethasone must now be rolled out and accessed by thousands of critically ill patients around the world. It is highly affordable, easy to make, can be scaled up quickly and only needs a small dosage. 'Any and every successful treatment against Covid-19 must be made available to everyone who needs it globally, regardless of their ability to pay.' Professor Landray had previously admitted he did not expect one single drug to treat coronavirus. Just two months ago he said there was an 'extraordinarily' low chance of one of the five medicines being effective on its own. And he claimed it was more likely a combination of several drugs will have 'modest effect' on patients. Experimental Ebola drug remdesivir was the first medicine approved for coronavirus patients in Britain when it was approved by health chiefs at the end of May after a separate trial showed promising results. Adults and teens battling severe bouts of Covid-19 will be allowed to get remdesivir if they fit specific criteria, officials announced. It made the drug, which destroys a part of the virus, the closest thing the NHS had to a cure or treatment for the life-threatening disease. Britain's approval of remdesivir came three weeks after US bosses gave it the green light on May 1, putting the UK weeks behind once again. Matt Hancock said at the time remdesivir was the 'biggest step forward' in treating Covid-19 since the outbreak spiralled out of control. Studies have shown mixed results for remdesivir, with no firm proof that the drug can slash the risk of death in Covid-19 patients. Until then, there were no drugs that had been approved specifically for the purpose of treating patients with Covid-19. Doctors have tried to save people with serious infections by giving them oxygen therapy such as through ventilators for the most sick. A Virginia restaurant has removed a T-shirt with the business's logo that says "Drunk Wives Matter" and is responding to criticism that erupted when a photo of the item circulated online. Jason Bursey, owner of Parallel Wine & Whiskey Bar in Loudoun County's Broadlands community, said he removed the shirt, which was hanging in the establishment, after a friend criticized it in the wake of recent protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The incident was first reported by the Burn, a local news site from Ashburn. "I never meant to offend anybody," Bursey said in a Facebook video posted Monday. "I will apologize if my shirt offended anyone." He added: "What I'm not is a monster racist in this community." In an interview Tuesday, Bursey, 44, said the shirt had been in the establishment for more than a year and was one of many he sells for $25. He said he didn't create the shirt and didn't come up with the slogan. Bursey said the controversy started when a person "maliciously created" a social media post about the shirt "with ill intent toward me because she doesn't like me." "l will apologize if anyone is offended by that shirt," he said. "I'm not apologizing for anything else. I haven't done nothing wrong. I don't feel the need to." Heather Gottlieb, 38, of Leesburg, Virginia said her social media post started the controversy. "I didn't realize it would blow up like it did," she said. "It appears it needed to." Gottlieb said she knows Bursey and has worked with him to cater events. They had feuded on Facebook over the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, among other topics, but never had a business disagreement. When she saw a photograph of the shirt on social media with Parallel's logo, she said she felt the need to speak out. Part of being an "anti-racist," she said, is calling out bad behavior. "I think he's had ample chances and time to address it," she said. "And he's chosen not to." Comments from Parallel posted to the restaurant's Facebook page indicate that the shirt was one of many that mined politics for humor. "If you all must know, We have several shirts that play off of political views like Make Merlot Great Again and that shirt was specifically taken down at the beginning of the changing climate in our world to preserve the sensitivity of anyone who may be offended by it [sic]," one comment said. "Someone deliberately circulated after an attempt to publicly attack us as she's done before. We are certainly not racists." Another comment from Parallel explained: "The shirt was up and taken down when the George Floyd murder happened as we did not want to offend anyone. It's gone never to return and yes, it was recirculated with the intent to harm our business." Some Facebook commenters took the restaurant to task. "Comedy that brutal is just bullying," one person wrote. "And bullying someone/group based on their racial background is racism/bigotry." Others defended Parallel. "Don't back down to those who can't engage in critical thought . . . there are far more rational thinkers than the hand full of loud irrational knee jerkers . . . sell wine, make good food and ignore the haters," one commenter posted. The "Drunk Wives Matter" slogan has existed for years. Merchandise bearing the phrase is sold at Amazon and Wal-Mart, among other retailers. Wendell Smith, a 51-year-old from Ashburn who works in the insurance industry, posted a lengthy condemnation of the shirt to social media. Smith, a black man who has eaten at the restaurant, said he "just had to respond." "If you are going to be a business owner in a community that is supposed to be a thriving, diverse, inclusive community, this is the United States and you can say whatever you want, but there are going to be consequences to you saying bigoted and offensive things," Smith said. "I don't want him to get away with saying this is something about a T-shirt." A restaurant waitress got revenge against a chef who slapped her bottom by encouraging her friends to post negative reviews of the establishment online. University student Farah Istanbouli, who has won a 9,000 payout at tribunal, said she felt 'embarrassed' and 'humiliated' when Hussein Agha smacked her behind while they were dancing in the kitchen. But after she complained to the owner of Persian eatery Sinuhe, in London's West End, he threatened her with being blacklisted from getting another job and refused to sack the chef. The then 19-year-old resigned and told her friends what had happened and they then started to post negative online reviews of the restaurant, despite never having eaten there, the tribunal was told. University student Farah Istanbouli, who has won a 9,000 payout at tribunal, said she felt 'embarrassed' and 'humiliated' when Agher Hussein smacked her behind while they were dancing in the kitchen. She complained to the owner of Persian eatery Sinuhe, in London 's West End, he threatened her with being blacklisted from getting another job and refused to sack the chef She has now won more than 9,000 after the restaurant was found guilty of sexual harassment and victimisation. The hearing in London was told that Miss Istanbouli had started working part time at Sinuhe in September 2018 while she was studying at the University of London. In November of that year Mr Agha and another staff member persuaded her to play some traditional wedding music in the restaurant between shifts. Miss Istanbouli said the two men then began to dance. 'At first, I was just watching and laughing,' she told the London tribunal. 'Then they told me to dance with them. So I walked over to them and just waved my hands back and forth, which is a 'manly' way to dance to such music. '(They) were getting into it and I felt like I was finally part of the team,' she said, explaining that she then let out a traditional Arabic wedding call known as a 'zaghloot'. After Miss Instanbouli, complained to the owner of Persian eatery Sinuhe, in London's West End, he threatened her with being blacklisted from getting another job and refused to sack the chef. The then 19-year-old resigned and told her friends what had happened and they then started to post negative online reviews of the restaurant, despite never having eaten there, the tribunal was told She said: 'Mr Agha then shooshed me loudly and slapped my lower back and then he slapped my butt hard which hurt and made a really loud sound. 'I became really embarrassed and did not know how to react. (They) started laughing hard and were tearing up from laughter. I left the kitchen and felt humiliated.' Miss Istanbouli texted friends to protest that that the chef had just 'slapped my ass' and complained to owner Hossein Torfinejad's wife and daughter. In a conversation with Mr Torfinejad she demanded that Mr Hussein be sacked or she would resign and then quit when he refused to do so. A week later the restaurant was forced to send Miss Istanbouli a legal letter asking her to stop the 'campaign' of negative reviews that it had started to receive. 'Miss Istanbouli admits that she had some conversations with some friends, and some of her friends then wrote some bad reviews of the restaurant despite not having been to the restaurant,' the tribunal judgement found. '(She) says she did not encourage them to do this. We find that lacks credibility. We conclude (she) was well aware of their plans to try to damage the restaurant's reputation before they did so.' The tribunal concluded that even though Miss Istanbouli - who now lives in Saudi Arabia - could be seen smiling after the bottom slapping incident it had been an intrusion that had impacted upon her dignity and caused her to feel humiliated. It ordered the restaurant to pay her 8,600 compensation for injury to feelings and a further 476 for breaching employment regulations. JENKINTOWN, Pa., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pitcairn, the leading family office specializing in helping ultra high net worth families navigate the challenges and opportunities created by the interplay of family and financial dynamics, announced today that Bruce Stewart has joined the firm as Managing Director of Client Investment Strategy. Stewart brings over 25 years of family office and investment experience to the firm. He reports to Chief Investment Officer, Rick Pitcairn. "We are excited to add Bruce as a key member of the Pitcairn investment team," said Chief Investment Officer Rick Pitcairn. "We've experienced outstanding investment results for our clients these past years, and Bruce's expertise will ensure continued success going forward. This new addition is a significant step in the growth of our firm." Stewart is primarily responsible for supporting Pitcairn's chief investment officer on investment and wealth management-related issues impacting clients and managing the investment team. In this regard, he will serve as the relationship manager to a select set of client families. He will also conduct capital market and economic research to shape and support investment decisions and educate clients and client-facing professionals on key economic and financial market issues. "I am excited to join the industry leader in family wealth where I can leverage 25 years of family office experience serving multi-generational families and single family offices," shared Stewart. "I was drawn to Pitcairn's extensive expertise and ability to deliver independent thinking not found on Wall Street. I look forward to being a part of this outstanding team of professionals." Stewart's background includes 25 years of experience in family office and institutional investments, specializing in manager research portfolio construction, risk analytics, product development and investment thought leadership. Before joining Pitcairn, he served as Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of the family office group at BNY-Mellon and Director of US Investments at Citibank Global Markets. A graduate of Purdue University, School of Technology, Stewart holds the designations of Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA). His professional certifications include the Investment Strategist Certificate and the Alternative Investment Certificate, issued by The Wharton School and IMCA. He has published multiple white papers and presented at several investment conferences over the years. Born and raised in Paraguay, Stewart is looking forward to joining the Pitcairn team in Philadelphia once the coronavirus restrictions are lifted. He serves on the Board of Directors for The Home for Little Wanderers and the Advisory Board for the Latino Legacy Foundation (Boston Foundation). About Pitcairn Pitcairn is a true family office and leader in helping families navigate the challenges and opportunities created by the interplay of family and financial dynamics. Through Wealth Momentum, an experience-based family office service model, Pitcairn helps families and single family offices achieve a more effective and complete experience. Since its inception, Pitcairn has partnered with some of the world's wealthiest families to meet their needs and drive better outcomes year to year, decade to decade, generation to generation. Today, Pitcairn is recognized as an innovator, guiding families through generational transitions and redefining the industry standard for family offices. The firm is located in Philadelphia, with offices in New York and Washington, DC and a network of resources around the world. SOURCE Pitcairn Related Links https://www.pitcairn.com/ America can be proud of many things: our innovation, generosity and entrepreneurial spirit are unsurpassed. Yet when it comes to our nation understanding one of the greatest gifts ever given to humanitythe Biblewe're moving from dumb to dumber, and it's no laughing matter. US Fracking Backlog Grows But Sector Ready to Begin Rebounding Shale poised to recover shut-in losses as wells reopen In the wake of the CCP virus crisis, the slowdown in fracking across U.S. oilfields has resulted in massive increases in the number of drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells over the past three months, according to Norwegian oil market analysts Rystad Energy. The total of 750 wells drilled but awaiting fracking looks set to increase again slightly in June, and is the equivalent of some two years of fracking operations at current levels of activity. US fracking slowdown set to add at least two years of backlog work as DUC wells pile up. Read the full article here > https://t.co/gCygrhwu2F#RystadEnergy #energy #energymarkets #shale #fracking pic.twitter.com/KxUCjokasn Rystad Energy (@RystadEnergy) June 16, 2020 However, Reuters reported Wednesday that several larger producers are starting to turn everything back on, according to Oklahoma oil marketer, Joshua Wade. Oil Industry Unemployment Worries Rystad Energy said in a report last week that over 100,000 jobs had already been lost in the U.S. oil and gas industry due to the CCP virus crisis, and that wages could drop by up to 10 percent through 2021. The most severely affected sector is currently that of support activities for oil and gas production, where more than 44,000 of the 233,550 jobs in the sector had been lostover 19 percent of employees. Almost 17 percent of drilling jobs had been lost, while 6 and 7 percent of jobs had been lost in oil & gas extraction and construction, respectively. Texas has lost more than 45,000 jobs in upstream sectors since February. Rystad Energys Vice President of Energy Service Research, Matthew Fitzsimmons, said that producers had been frantically cutting jobs in response to weakened oil and gas demand. Overall, the impact of the job cuts would be greater for the oilfield services (OFS) sector than for exploration and production companies, Fitzsimmons said. While other industries have started to see labor demand embark on a road to recovery, oil and gas workers will have to wait longer for demand to increase. Uncompleted Wells Ready to Restart Production Rystads Head of Shale Research, Artem Abramov, said it was typical for DUC wells to build up over the winter, with the backlog being drawn down over the following spring and summer months. Contrary to the norm, said Abramov, in the last three months this metric jumped to 15 to 25 months of frac activity. Abramov said that the second half of 2020 might witness something of a rebound in fracking, but without much extra drilling. Pump jacks and wells are pictured in an oil field on the Monterey Shale formation where gas and oil are being extracted by hydraulic fracturing near McKittrick, Calif., on March 23, 2014. (David McNew/Getty Images) EOG Resources Inc. COO Lloyd Helms said that his company was in a position to restart production quickly. We were able to shut in thousands of wells with really minimal time and effort. And we can bring those back on with really minimal time and effort, too, Helms said at an industry conference on Tuesday. Some Shale Plays Already Back in Business According to Wood Mackenzie energy consultants, many producers in west Texas Permian basin shut their wells voluntarily from March through May, removing almost 1 million barrels per day (bpd) from the market. The energy research specialists see positive signs in the region, however. We are now expecting production to begin rebounding in the basin, said Wood Mackenzie in a June 11 report. Weve already seen some recovery just south of the worlds most productive basin, the company said, with most of the production fall-off in the south Texan Eagle Ford back online. As of June 5, most of that production has recovered, the company said. Rystad Energy said that oil and gas companies are well positioned for a comeback. Many recent wells are left uncompleted and will probably be carried all the way into 2021, so the industry is well positioned to boost or protect production while staying within relatively low capital expenditure levels. Primary Vision, a tracker of fracking activity, estimates that as much as 500,000 bpd of production will be brought back to the market by the end of June, while Rystad Energy claims that 400,000 bpd could come online before the end of August. $3040 Per Barrel Oil Prices Driving Recovery The CEO of Devon Energy Corp, David Hager, told a J.P. Morgan energy conference on Tuesday that, With prices where they are now, if they stay above $30, I wouldnt expect any significant curtailments from us in Q3 or beyond. Shale producer Devon curtailed around 10,000 bpd of oil during the recent economic downturn. However, around 8,000 bpd of that curtailment came from throttling back well production or slightly delaying it. Were in the process of bringing all of that back on, Hager said. Reuters contributed to this report. The Worcester City Council on Tuesday night voted unanimously to approve the Fiscal 2021 budget, including a quarter-million dollar increase for the police department, despite weeks of demands from the residents to divert those funds back into the community. Councilors approved the budget during a virtual meeting and after an hour of hearing residents call in, renewing pleas that the increase for the police budget instead be spent on things like the public schools, public health and transportation. Worcesters Fiscal 2021 budget has $163.2 million in city operations, 32% of which goes to the Worcester Police Department, the highest allocation of the budget. Included is a $254,320 increase for the police department, bringing the departments budget to a total of $52,766,614. The city council ignored four hours of public comment and the voices of hundreds of Worcester residents who called and emailed expressing their opposition to this budget. We are disappointed but not surprised, Defund WPD, a group working to advocate for the reallocation of police funds, wrote in a statement Tuesday night. The clearest way for a city to demonstrate its morals to its residents is through its budget. Tonight, the council demonstrated that its values are out of touch with its constituents. After weeks of residents expressing their concerns over this budget allocation, the city council has decided to value policing over people, the statement continued. The council, starting its meeting at 7 p.m., voted to allow for one hour of public participation, instead of the normal 30 minutes. All but two people who spoke during that portion called for defunding the Worcester Police Department and reallocating those funds to social services. The same calls have been made during the last two meetings. After one hour of public comment, with residents still waiting to address the council, callers were booted off the line. The same thing happened last week after dozens called in and spoke until about 10 p.m. As residents were kicked off the line Tuesday night, they called out: We cannot play this game again, are you serious, and same story different day," among other comments. Mayor Joe Petty apologized to the callers who did not get a chance to speak. Petty said that the council does believe that Black lives matter and that there must be change to make Black lives better. But, Petty said he felt the discussion should not be about defunding the police but rather creating programs to address problems and make change. Councilor Sarai Rivera, who began her comments by listing names of numerous Black men who have been killed in police custody, said that she was upset to see fellow councilors respond to the ongoing conversation about race with a list of everything good instead of continuing the conversation. "What I do want to see is a council thats united to really stand against hate and not just about lip service, Rivera said. Rivera, as well as councilors Sean Rose and Khrystian King, all said they and their families have experienced issues of racism during their lives. King reiterated that accountability is important and encouraged others to listen rather than questioning experiences. This is about life and death of black people. Period. End of story, he said. Several times through the meeting, councilors said Black lives matter, a statement that in previous times would have been uncommon to hear from officials during a public meeting. But in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man, in the custody of a now-former Minneapolis police officer, who is white, conversations about race and bias are happening across the country. I am not voting to defund the police, Rose said. I am voting to create policy and good policy that was put up by my peers. Among orders approved by the council was one from King, which requested that City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. work with Superintendent Maureen Binienda to adjust the school budget to eliminate or reduce the charge for assigned police officers and further request Augustus to reallocate those funds to the positions of a school social worker and/or adjustment counselor. Augustus on Tuesday night noted that the arrest rates of youth, and Black youth in particular, have decreased since 2015, a year with high rates of violence in Worcester. The manager also touted summer employment programs in the city, which give jobs to young people, 48% of whom are Black. City officials defended their decision by comparing crime and arrests today to 2015, suggesting that city programs focused on jobs and youth intervention have led to a safer Worcester. This is what we are asking for: more investment in the programs that address systemic racism and prevent crime while drastically decreasing the citys reliance on reactive policing, Defund WPD wrote in its statement. Police Chief Steven Sargent addressed the council explaining that the department academy has more than 800 hours of training, which includes criminal law, constitutional law, diversity training and use of force. Councilor Kate Toomey, the chair of public safety, said she believes the Worcester Police Department is well trained. She said she thinks that more diversity is needed in the police department, fire department and among teachers. The change has to be within all of us and thats something that I think is incredibly important, Toomey said. We need to be better to each other. Toomey said the momentum has to keep moving forward to address the issue. What have right now is so many people who are just putting up a wall, Toomey said. Theyre divisive. Councilor Matt Wally said he believes criminal justice reform is needed on a local, state and national level, but that he doesnt think the way the council votes on the police budget increase should be a litmus test on how councilors feel on issues of racial equity. Meanwhile, 104 Worcester Public School teachers have received emails indicating that their contracts will not be renewed for next year, according to the teachers union. Several residents on Tuesday night expressed outrage and the reduction of the teaching staff and suggested the police budget could have allowed the city to keep some teaching jobs. Its up to you, Worcester City Council, to decide which side of history youd like to be on. We are speaking and we are powerful. Will you listen to us? We will not stop calling and voicing our concerns," said Alberto Solis, a resident who called in to the meeting. We will take our voices to the streets in the form of democracy to campaign against each and every one of you to elect a council who will listen to its people. Related Content: New Delhi: Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Wednesday said it has approved a USD 750 million (around Rs 5,714 crore) loan to India to help the government strengthen its battle against the adverse impact of COVID-19 on poor and vulnerable households. "Cofinanced with the Asian Development Bank, the budgetary support will go toward bolstering economic aid for businesses, including for the informal sector, expanding social safety nets for the needy, and strengthening the country's health care systems," the multilateral agency said in a statement. India is extremely vulnerable to the pandemic given that around 270 million people continue to live below the national poverty line and around 81 million live in densely populated informal settlements with limited access to health services, according to the World Bank, it added. Meanwhile, India registered the highest-ever spike of 2,003 COVID-19 fatalities pushing the death toll to 11,903 on Wednesday, while the caseload rose to 3,54,065 with 10,974 new coronavirus infections, according to the Union Health Ministry data. "The disruption in economic activities threatens to impact poor households disproportionately, especially women, many of whom are employed in the informal sector," said AIIB. According to AIIB Vice President, Investment Operations, D J Pandian, "many of the world's low and middle-income countries are still in the early stages of the health crisis but are already feeling the impact of the pandemic. This poses an enormous risk for millions across India who have only recently emerged from poverty". The support to India also aims to ensure economic resilience to prevent long-term damage to the productive capacity, including human capital, of the country's economy, Pandian added. AIIB's total sovereign loans to India that have already been approved amount to USD 3.06 billion, including a recent USD 500 million COVID-19 emergency response. The current loan will be the second for India under AIIB's COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF). While AIIB does not have a regular instrument for policy-based financing, the Bank is extending such financing on an exceptional basis under the CRF to support its members through projects cofinanced with the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank. As per the statement, AIIB is currently reviewing projects from its members. AIIB began operations in January 2016 and has 102 approved members worldwide. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 16:47:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A Palestinian vendor sells vegetables at a market, in Gaza City, June 15, 2020. The Palestinian people in the blockaded Gaza Strip are facing a severe financial crisis due to the non-payment of the salaries of the Palestinian Authority (PA) employees in the coastal enclave. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) by Sanaa Kamal GAZA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian people in the blockaded Gaza Strip are facing a severe financial crisis due to the non-payment of the salaries of the Palestinian Authority (PA) employees in the coastal enclave. On May 19, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the abolition of all agreements and understandings reached with both Israel and the United States, including economic and security cooperation. Abbas's decision was made in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration that his government will annex the Jordan Valley and impose the Israeli sovereignty on several settlements in the West Bank on July 1. The PA also announced that it refused to receive the tax revenue dues that Israel collects from the Palestinian trade on behalf of the PA under Oslo interim peace accords signed between the two sides in 1993. The tax revenue dues worth around 150 million U.S. dollars, which represents 60 percent of the Palestinian government's total revenues. However, the PA employees' salaries are considered the most important source of economic activity in the Gaza Strip, Omar Shaban, an economist from the Gaza city, told Xinhua. The non-payment of employees' salaries will has severe consequences in the blockaded coastal enclave, which has been already suffering from the deteriorations since 2007, added Shaban. He explained that the PA's inability to pay wages to its employees in the coastal enclave, most of whom do not work due to the internal division, will create a deep economic crisis in addition to the accumulated crises in the Gaza Strip for 14 years. Nevertheless, Hani Abu Ouda from the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun is one of the PA employees, who are waiting to get their monthly salaries. The 37-year-old father of six told Xinhua that the delay in paying salaries has negatively affected his life, because he depends mainly on his salary to provide the basic needs for his family. "Neither PA nor Hamas will be able to prevent Israel from implementing its annexation plan as long as they keep the division in place," said the man. Meanwhile, the local markets in the coastal enclave seemed empty from customers. As a result, the commercial movement in the markets has been very limited, while the merchants are complaining of weak purchasing power, as well as the accumulation of goods in their stores. Emad al-Jammali, a 51-year-old clothing merchant from the Gaza city, complained of the weak purchasing because no customers were buying goods due to the non-payment of employees' salaries. The father of five told Xinhua that the current financial crisis would significantly affect importing goods from abroad, as traders will reduce the quantities of the products they import in half or more to avoid new losses. "The salaries crisis has negatively affected 50 percent of the purchasing power in the local markets," said the man. He added "if these salaries are cut, the situation will deteriorate further," explaining that "the traders have to reduce the import of goods from abroad to overcome the new crisis." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano has justified the government's decision to bring back the tightest lockdown measures in Cebu City, saying that the spike in COVID-19 cases there required "drastic" action. Ano on Wednesday disputed the data presented by Mayor Edgar Labella in appealing the city's enhanced community quarantine status. Labella argued that a general community quarantine will be more suited to the local situation which he said was under control. "For the meantime, ang desisyon ng ating Pangulo ay ipatupad ang ECQ sapagkat may basis naman [the President's decision to put the city under ECQ has enough basis]," Ano told CNN Philippines' Balitaan. "Ang Cebu City ang pinakanangunguna sa active cases sa buong Pilipinas [Cebu City is tops in the number of active cases in the country]," Ano said, adding that 11 out of the top 15 barangays across the country which have the highest number of infections are located in the city. Cebu City had 2,905 confirmed cases as of Tuesday afternoon, of which 2,701 are active cases. This is about a tenth of the nationwide tally of 26,781 infections. Under ECQ, only people out to buy essential supplies or report to work for critical industries (such as banks, food preparation, and supermarkets) are allowed to head out. Quarantine passes are required for residents spotted outside their homes until June 30. RELATED: Cebu City mayor appeals to DOTr to lift suspension of jeepney operations due to transport woes "It's really alarming na the moment you step out of the house hindi naman sa tinatakot natin 'yung mga tao pero really, the virus is everywhere... mag-iingat ka talaga [we're not trying to scare people but really, the virus is everywhere... you should really be careful]," the Cabinet official added. Ano also pointed out that the request also came from some Cebuanos who saw the need for a more "drastic" response to contain the outbreak. Labella said Tuesday night that he would appeal to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for Cebu City to be brought back to general community quarantine, which is a lot more relaxed compared to the ECQ. Ano said he has not seen the mayor's formal request, but said it may have been sent to the IATF or the regional task force for consideration. While the matter is pending, Ano said he already talked to Labella and told him that he has to implement ECQ rules and do his job. He went on to dispute the city executive's claims, saying that inspections done in Cebu City by COVID-19 response chief implementer Carlito Galvez, Jr. and his deputy, Bases Conversion and Development Authority president Vince Dizon, showed that local hospitals were being "overwhelmed" and that there were residents blatantly ignoring minimum health standards. RELATED: Cebu City hospitals allot more beds for COVID-19 cases as admissions rise Ano also cited a report where a suspected British COVID-19 patient in the city died while waiting to be attended to in the hospital for hours. He added that during the on-site evaluation, Galvez and Dizon saw people not wearing masks and not following rules on social distancing when outdoors. "This is not a spontaneous or emotional decision... We are seeing what would happen if we do not impose an ECQ. In fact, this is supported by data analytics presented by the TWG (technical working group). Kung merong magkaibang figure ang Cebu City, I advise them to look at it carefully and get the real facts from the ground," he added. He said they are avoiding a repeat of the initial spike in deaths in Quezon City, where even crematoriums could not keep up with the number of dead bodies. Nationwide, the latest count shows 1,103 deaths as of Wednesday. Only Cebu City in that province was placed under ECQ. Nearby Talisay City was classified under modified ECQ. Meanwhile, Metro Manila remains under GCQ. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has relaxed preferential allotment norms for promoters till March 2021. SEBI has allowed company promoters to acquire up to 10 per cent stake in the company through preferential allotment. The promoters can currently acquire only up to 5 per cent of the preferential issue. With SEBI tweaking the norm, companies can now raise funds faster from promoters. The relaxation comes at a time when businesses are under seeing financial stress and urgently need capital amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis and economic slowdown. The capital markets regulator has also relaxed voluntary open offer norms and removed timeline restriction on voluntary open offer if shares are purchased within 52 weeks. In a separate gazette notification, SEBI also reduced the time gap between two qualified institutional placements from six months to two weeks. A preferential issue is an issue of shares or of convertible securities by listed companies to a select group of persons to raise capital. It is considered to be the fastest way of raising capital. Also read: SEBI serves notice to Rakesh Jhunjhunwala over alleged 'insider trading' charges Meanwhile, SEBI last month had asked listed companies to disclose to investors and stakeholders the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their businesses in a timely and cogent manner. Listed entities should evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on their business, performance and financials, both qualitatively and quantitatively, to the extent possible and disseminate the same to investors, SEBI said in a circular. The regulator had also said that order will come into force with immediate effect, while it advised the stock exchanges (BSE and NSE) to bring the provisions of this circular to the notice of all listed entities and also disseminate the same on their websites. Also read: Tata-Mistry row: Tata trustees flouted SEBI's insider trading norms, alleges Cyrus Mistry People of diverse races and ethnicities in our nation are crying aloud together for justice. Every time we lose another human being to these horrific inhumane acts, our whole nation tremendously regresses. May this be a time that we, the American people, arise and be unified among ourselves as we fight to win the war for liberty and justice for all. We are better together. We will never overcome the evils of injustice with rioting, loitering and other irrational forms of destruction. As we protest against the deadly injustices of our society, let us do it in the name of peace and non-violence. One of the greatest evils of our society is when a human being stoops so low to hate another human being. We cannot completely love ourselves when we have hatred in our heart for others. The entire human race is interrelated and our destinies are universally tied together. I, as Dr. Martin Luther King, grew up in the racially segregated south. We both were greatly influenced by parents who taught us to love and respect everyone regardless of their race, creed or color. We were taught to overcome hate with love and overcome evil with good. The father of a 10-year-old boy with Down syndrome has praised supermarket staff after they allowed his son to scan their groceries in a Tesco supermarket. Father of four David Burke, from Great Horton in Bradford, England, approached the checkout with his son, Jay, ready to purchase their groceries, when Jay became fascinated by the product scanner at a nearby vacant checkout station and proceeded to occupy the empty stall, wanting to use the equipment. David braced himself for a reprimand as the supermarket manager approached. Instead, the manager, James, greeted David and his 10-year-old son with an entirely unexpected suggestion. James offered to open the closed checkout lane so that Jay could use the scanner and ring up the familys purchases himself. David later told BBC that his son was thrilled to bits. Shopping with a child with special needs, David added, can be really difficult. Footage taken from the occasion shows Jay ringing through a jar of sauce, two packs of onions, a head of broccoli, a bottle of water, and a whole chicken by himself using the stores checkout scanner. Store manager James and another staffer hover nearby, assisting the boy as he scans the barcodes one by one. Its smiles all round as David briefly interrupts his sons concentration to inform him that their friend is watching and laughing from outside the store; Jay, absorbed in his task, looks up from the checkout station for a second and waves enthusiastically. David, who is a firefighter, described his son to BBC as incredibly independent. Hes a little charmer, David added, and its amazing to be the parent of a child that brings the absolute best out in people. David and Jays shopping trip made headlines after the father shared his footage with the news media. The Tesco store manager and staffers were widely praised for their friendly, kind-natured attitude toward their young customer and his fascination with the checkout equipment. David revealed that Tesco was Jays favorite store at the time of their now-viral shopping trip in October 2018, speaking to the Daily Mail. Jays family had even taken to calling the 10-year-old the ultimate icebreaker, a nickname earned for his ability to talk to anyone. Neither David nor Jay, however, had ever met store manager James before. I was trying to get him out from behind the till, David recalled, but Jay decided he wanted to work at Tesco that day. I was having real difficulty but amazingly the manager, James, came over and opened the till for him. He felt like a worker, David continued, and it just warmed my heart to see how focused her [sic] was and how much he was enjoying himself. David praised the staffers for taking the time to support his son, allowing Jay the unique experience of mastering the checkout equipment at his favorite store. An otherwise uneventful shopping trip was transformed into a memory, a viral video that circulates to this day, and an affirmation of kindness that David and Jay can treasure. Jay really is a ray of sunshine, David reflected, and this really highlights that when you show children with special needs a bit of patience and compassion, they return the favor by putting a smile on your face. The United Nations Human Rights Council opened a special, unscheduled debate on Wednesday to discuss the issue of racism and police brutality in the United States in the wake of the murder of black American George Floyd. The call by African countries for the debate comes as Americans continue to protest the latest killing of a black man by police. Before the debate, the UN rights body heard a number of speakers, notably Philonise Floyd, George's brother. In a passionate video statement to the council, he recounted the final minutes of his brother's life on 25 May. My family had to watch the last moments of his life, when he was tortured, including the eight minutes and 46 seconds one officer kept his knee on my brother's neck-- my brother begged the officer for his life, crying out for our mamma, who was already dead, and saying over and over again 'I can't breathe', said Floyd, audibly sighing as he spoke of his late brother. Floyd spoke of those who came out on the streets of Minneapolis, where his brother was killed, and other parts of the US, who were teargassed, run over, beaten, and blinded by police cracking down on demonstrations. In their comments before the debate, both African Union vice chairman Thomas Kwesi Quartey, a Ghanaian, and UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed spoke of the direct connection of racism to the transatlantic slave trade. Mohammed, originally from Nigeria, said she has grown thick skinned even numb, speaking on a personal capacity of the racism she has experienced. How can we possibly continue to turn the other way? Enough is enough, said Mohammed. UN fails to fight racism Her words were echoed in the video statement presented by E. Tendayi Achiume, special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, who called out the whole UN system on its lack of changes regarding racism. The truth is, there's been a steady erosion within the UN of commitment to the anti-racism human rights framework, including the historic commitments to combatting structural forms of racial discrimination and intolerance that were made at the world conference against racism in Durban in 2001, said the Zambian. African nations in the council have called for a international commission of inquiry that would report back in a year about US police brutality and systematic racism in the US and elsewhere, a call that those against the plan have cited as only to be used for more serious human rights violations. If the national and global uprisings we are now witnessing are not sufficient evidence of the gravity of the issues before you, it's difficult to imagine what it would take to convince you that the situation we are facing is very serious, said Achiume. It's difficult to imagine what might convince you to demonstrate the equal worth of people of African descent, she added. Hours before the debate was about to start, Andrew Bremberg, US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said that the US is not above scrutiny, but all the other countries where racism is a problem need to be noted as well. As the world's leading advocate for human rights we call upon all governments to demonstrate the same level of transparency and accountability that the U.S. and our democratic partners practice, Bremberg said. The US quit the council two years ago, saying that members were picking on its ally, Israel. Botswana submitted the draft resolution, and its ambassador to Switzerland, Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme, spoke during the debate, focusing on the uprising of people on the streets of the US and elsewhere, protesting against racism and brutality. The protests forced all of us to look in the mirror and introspect on the state of the world also on the horrors of slavery, colonialism, apartheid, among others, she said. What remains unique at this time is the solidarity portrayed by people of all races, different backgrounds, people from every corner of the world, she added. International commission of inquiry? Council members are currently debating the possibility of the international commission of inquiry. Philonise Floyd ended his comments on the state of racism in the US, saying that the slaying of his brother, George, was not unique. You watched my brother diethat could have been me. I am my brother's keeper. You are the UN, and you are your brother's and sister's keepers in America, he said. I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us, black people in America, he added. Responding to increasing demands for systemic changes to policing, a new report to the Toronto police board recommends anti-racism training for officers, the urgent expansion of the forces specialized mental-health response teams and greater public input in the budget process. Despite our best efforts, we recognize that much work remains to be done, board chair Jim Hart said in a report released Wednesday that says the police board must be a catalyst, along with others, for the examination of reforms and changes that are in the citys best interests. But even as the police board chair acknowledged the proposed changes were just the beginning, the measures were criticized as falling far short of demands for systemic reform, which include calls for dramatic reductions to police spending and large-scale changes to stop police-involved deaths of Black and Indigenous people. This is taking baby steps. This is not what we need we need bold leadership, said Nigel Barriffe, president of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, who is calling for the immediate reallocation on funds currently spent on policing to community services. We are at a moment of reckoning. The trust is not there between the community and the police, Barriffe said. The seven-member civilian board will debate the recommendations at a virtual meeting Friday, its first sitting since outrage over the police-involved deaths of Black and Indigenous people has sent thousands of protesters to the streets in Canada and United States, demanding police be reformed, dismantled or defunded. Harts report to the board acknowledges the recommended changes are not a panacea, but calls them concrete steps that can be taken in the immediate while additional work is undertaken. That message was echoed by Mayor John Tory, who said in a statement Wednesday the proposals are first steps to be taken immediately. I fully support accelerating the pace of police reform in Toronto and I believe the recommendations going to the board this week will result in real tangible changes, Tory said. But some of Harts recommendations came as a surprise to those directly involved, including Notisha Massaquoi, co-chair of the police boards anti-racism advisory panel. Harts report suggests the panel, which was struck after the fatal police shooting of Black mentally ill man Andrew Loku, be made permanent. This was made without any consultation with the advisory panel, Massaquoi said, undermining her confidence in the recommendations. That lack of consultation makes the proposed changes look more like a (public relations) issue, she said. A look at some of the recommendations, which will be debated at the boards Friday meeting: Expansion of mobile crisis teams and development of new models for mental-health response The board recommends the expansion on an urgent basis of the Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams (MCIT), which pair a mental-health nurse with a specially trained police officer to respond to people experiencing crisis. The report notes the program minimizes the number of emergency-room visits and limits reliance on the criminal justice system. Currently, the MCIT Program is unable to meet the real-time demand for mobile crisis intervention that exists daily in Toronto, reads the report. The report also recommends police work with the city to develop new community-based models for mental-health emergencies that can be delivered by experts such as trained nurses or social workers, and not necessarily involve police officers. If a new approach is found and the demand for regular police presence goes down, funding could be reallocated from the MCIT program, the board said. The recommendations follow renewed calls for changes to how emergency mental-health calls are handled, following the death of 29-year-old Afro-Indigenous woman Regis Korchinski-Paquet, who fell to her death in the presence of Toronto police last month. Her mother says her daughter was in mental health distress; police say they were attending an assault call involving knives. The death is currently under investigation by the Special Investigations Unit. Jennifer Chambers, executive director of Empowerment Council, an advocacy group for clients of addiction or mental-illness services, said there is broad support for creating community-based emergency services for people in mental-health crisis. But right now, there is a critical lack of resources. The result is that the only service with the human resources to show up within minutes when people are in crisis is the police. The public and the police want alternatives, she said. John Sewell, former Toronto mayor and member of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, said the expansion of the MCIT program is good, but questioned why these units cannot be first responders. Toronto police have said MCIT units cannot be first responders in crisis situations because it could put the mental-health nurse in jeopardy. Greater public disclosure of the police budget, and additional public consultation The board recommends greater disclosure requirements regarding the Toronto police budget, which has in recent years topped $1 billion. The report suggests the chief provide a line-by-line breakdown of the existing budget at the outset of the process, and that enhancements be made to public consultation about the budget. The report does not directly address calls to cut the police budget. In a recent interview, Hart told the Star that he didnt think the police budget was too high. Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, called the line-by-line recommendation the bare minimum this should have been happening before. Later this month, council is expected to debate a motion to reduce the Toronto police budget by 10 per cent, brought forward by Couns. Josh Matlow and Kristyn Wong-Tam. The motion asks that when the police make next years budget request, it should include a reduction of $122 million in spending from the current $1.22-billion total. In a Wednesday tweet, Matlow warned that Tory would say a lot of things today about policing in response to the report. Anything other than supporting a minimum of reinvesting 10% of the police budget, the largest single line item in Torontos entire budget, towards community supports and alternatives to policing, isnt good enough, Matlow wrote. New human rights training The report also recommends the creation of a new training course on ethics, inclusivity and human rights, to be taught every two years, and developed with the help of the citys Confronting AntiBlack Racism (CABR) unit. Anthony Morgan, a racial-justice lawyer and manager of the CABR unit, said training is an important step forward, but Black communities are asking for serious systemic change. Training is not transformative, he said. Morgan points out that, as part of the Toronto Action Plan to confront anti-Black racism, the Toronto police board signed on to fulfil certain recommendations, including investing in alternative models that create better safety alternatives for Black Torontonians. While there have been some moves in the right direction, a lot more needs to be done, he said. Permanent advisory boards on anti-racism, mental health and addictions The report recommends making permanent two specialized committees composed of community members: one advisory panel on mental health and addictions, and one on anti-racism. The anti-racism advisory panel was created in 2018, in response to a recommendation from Andrew Loku coroners inquest. The advisory panel includes members of the community with lived experience and expertise in anti-racism and mental health and addictions. Given the complex and significant issues that must be addressed on a constant basis insofar as anti-racism work in policing goes, having an expert body to regularly advise the board is vital, reads the report. Massaquoi, the co-chair of the anti-racism advisory panel, said the panel was not given any advance warning that its mandate could be expanded. So far, the panels biggest win has been establishing a policy on the collection of race-based statistics, but she said she has not seen it become fully implemented. We have not seen the will and the effort, Massaquoi said. The report recommended that the mental health and addiction panel equally be made permanent, saying advisory body provides perspective and recommendations about mental-health issues in the policing context. Chambers, the co-chair of the boards mental health and addiction panel, said that while alternatives are being explored, police will be interacting with people in crisis for the foreseeable future. Members of the Toronto Police Service resolve hundreds of crisis calls peacefully every week. At times during this pandemic, they have been the only people who would attend a person in crisis. So the need for ongoing training, supervision and support of de-escalation skills and unbiased judgment calls is going to continue, she said. The board is scheduled to discuss the recommendations Friday at 9 a.m. and can be watched live. Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing for the Star. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis Its hard to keep creative types down for long, even in a time of pandemic. With central Pennsylvania stages dark, some local theater companies are turning to a new platform cyberspace to connect with audiences. That includes Gamut Theatre Groups new childrens theater series, Once Upon an Online. Open Stage kicked things off last month with a multi-episode Zoom production of Tony Kushners AIDS-era drama Angels in America. Gamut and Gretna Theatre have since joined the online chorus. A cyber show is no financial substitute for the revenue generated by a full-blown stage production, but it provides some income and a much-needed creative outlet for actors and audiences. People are in the homes, isolated and safe, but its like you are attending, Open Stage chief Stuart Landon said. Our actors are very excited to explore this technology. With the proverbial show still not going on at least in front of a live audience the online world has become the primary outlet for stage productions in an era of virus, masks and social distancing. Thats true even on mighty Broadway, where legendary theaters like the Belasco and the Helen Hayes have been shut down for several months now as New York City battled the COVID-19 epidemic. Campaigns like #sharethemicnow have brought stars together for online events. That included this past Mondays event, #keepsharingthemic, when famous black women on Broadway took over the Instagram accounts of notable white female stars. The show was an acknowledgement of the nations current uproar over the subject of racial injustice, which has spilled over onto Broadway, according to show promoter Dionne Figgins, co-founder of Broadway Serves. Now, more than ever, it is essential that black women, our voices and our stories, be amplified, acknowledged and respected, Figgins said. Black womens voices need to be heard, and I hope that this is the first of many opportunities for us to center black womens experiences and insights. And Hamilton fans can look forward to streaming, for the first time ever, the hugely popular 2016 Broadway hit by Lin-Manuel Miranda via Disney Plus on July 3. As for live stage productions, the earliest possibility would appear to be September, and thats tentative. At Allenberry Playhouse near Boiling Springs, which reopened in 2017 after a long closure due to financial issues, this unscheduled interruption has been painful. We had hoped that would be the last time the historic 1949 theater would ever be dark, said Dustin LeBlanc, artistic director for Keystone Theatrics, which stages the shows at Allenberry. When we shut the doors in the beginning of March, we were hopeful that it would be only a short pause. If all goes as hoped, Allenberry will return in the fall with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Kids shows Summers are generally busy times at all theaters, including big-budget musicals like Dreamcoat and popular theater camps for youngsters. Not this summer. At least, not in-house. But for professional theaters like Harrisburgs Gamut and Lebanon Countys Gretna, with paid staffs that require many thousands of dollars annually, sitting still risks financial disaster. Thats one reason Gamuts well-liked childrens troupe, the Popcorn Hat Players, has resumed offering shows via the web. An example is Sleeping Beauty: A Once Upon Online Performance, which launched June 10 and continues with live performances online through June 27 at 10 a.m. Wednesdays and 1 p.m. Saturdays. Tickets are $10 per screen access. When we first had to shut down due to the pandemic, I didnt expect that we would be able to do any shows, Gamut Executive Director Melissa Nicholson said. But we have found a new way to do what we love, which is to entertain and enlighten children and adults alike. On tap is Sleeping Beauty on Tour, an interactive digital performance available to rent for festivals and events, and TMI Improv: Live Online, a virtual improv series on Zoom that premieres today at 7:30 p.m. And Gamut has not forgotten its theater camp for kids, either, offering a Gamut Theatre Summer Virtual Academy online from July 6-31. Learn more on the Gamut web site. Outdoor show In the tiny Lebanon County borough of Mount Gretna, the Gretna Theatre has been staging summer stock productions since 1927. Now this years season has been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak that has claimed nearly 120,000 American lives. Gretna Theatre is looking to take advantage of the towns status as a nostalgic resort by staging Drive-In, an outdoor showing of the classic musical 42nd Street. The show starts at dusk Friday in Mount Gretnas Soldiers Field on Timber Road. This rendition of the 1980 Tony-winning musical is a filmed live performance of a revival from 2017 that was recorded at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in Londons West End. For $25 per car, with advance registration required, patrons can watch the musical on a large inflatable screen and listen on their FM radios while remaining in their vehicles. Admission and concessions will be handled in a contact-less manner. Two-wheeled vehicles will not be permitted. Worth noting: the field has no restrooms. Gretna also has an online show planned for the Fourth of July weekend, featuring a filmed live concert by the USO Show Troupe. The show was recorded on the Gretna Theatre stage as part of the 2019 season. Ticket holders who pay $5 for streaming access can watch the 90-minute show anytime from noon on July 3 through 10 p.m. on July 5. These days, you have to grab your theater where you can. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Exclusive: African nations seek UN inquiry into US racism, 'police brutality' - text Delegates attend the resuming of a UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - African countries are lobbying to set up a U.N. inquiry into "systemic racism" and "police brutality" in the United States and elsewhere, aiming to defend the rights of people of African descent, a draft resolution seen by Reuters shows. The text, circulating among diplomats in Geneva, voices alarm at "recent incidents of police brutality against peaceful demonstrators defending the rights of Africans and of people of African descent". It will be considered at an urgent debate of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday. The Council agreed to convene at the request of Burkina Faso on behalf of African countries after the death last month of George Floyd, an African American, in police custody in Minneapolis, which ignited protests worldwide. The United States quit the Council two years ago alleging bias against its ally Israel. A senior U.S. diplomat in Geneva defended its record, saying: "Our transparency, commitment to a free press, and insistence on the right to justice allow the world to see our problems and openly engage on our efforts at finding solutions." "And when violations of people's rights are committed we hold people accountable through independent courts, and through an independent media," he added. The resolution, subject to change after negotiation at the Council, calls for "an independent international commission of inquiry ... to establish facts and circumstances related to the systemic racism, alleged violations of international human rights law and abuses against Africans and of people of African descent in the United States of America and other parts of the world". The inquiry would report back in a year. "It is countries that hide the truth, violently silence their critics, don't have democratic accountability, and refuse even to recognise fundamental freedoms that merit censure," the senior U.S. diplomat said. Story continues More than 600 activist groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, called last week for the Council to launch an investigation into U.S. abuses. But Hillel Neuer of the Geneva-based UN Watch told the forum: "We are concerned this session may be a farce when some of the worst practitioners of police brutality and racism will be the ones asked to be the judges." The Council already has commissions of inquiry or fact-finding missions into human rights violations in hotspots including Syria, Burundi, Myanmar, South Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens, William Maclean and Giles Elgood) Palestinian security services have been destroying secret files, fearing Israeli raids on their offices as the Jewish state weighs annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, sources in such organs say. "We have been ordered to destroy confidential documents in our possession and we have obeyed this order," a Palestinian security source told AFP on condition of anonymity, saying that the instructions came from "high up". During the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada, which erupted in the early 2000s and included waves of suicide bombings, Israeli security forces repeatedly stormed Palestinian security services' offices and removed confidential documents. Several Palestinian security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the services are concerned that this could happen again if Israel moves ahead with annexation. US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, unveiled in late January, envisions Israel annexing its settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. More than 450,000 Israelis live in settlements deemed illegal under international law, alongside 2.7 million Palestinians in the wider West Bank. Washington's proposals provide for the creation of a Palestinian state, but on reduced territory and without Palestinians' core demand of a capital in east Jerusalem. The plan has been rejected in its entirety by the Palestinians. One Palestinian security source, who did not describe the nature of the documents, said the security services began destroying them a month ago, around the time Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he was ending security coordination with Israel. Two other security sources said some documents were destroyed after they were scanned and transferred to USB drives, which were then put in "secret places". According to the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority controls all Palestinian cities in the West Bank, but the Israeli military can enter them to make arrests, in coordination with local authorities. But in May, Abbas declared that he no longer felt bound by the treaties, saying that Israel's annexation plans showed that it was no longer honouring the agreements. Analysts said the end of security cooperation could inflame unrest in the West Bank. - 'Hot summer' - Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh recently warned of a "hot summer" if Israel goes ahead with its annexation plan. Palestinian authorities accused Israel Tuesday of an incursion into Ramallah, the West Bank seat of the Palestinian Authority, for the first time since the end of security cooperation. Israeli forces "searched three houses inside Ramallah, but did not make any arrests," Ghassan Nimr, spokesman for the Palestinian interior ministry, told AFP. According to a security source, a 20-year-old Palestinian man was arrested in the Al-Amari refugee camp, which borders Ramallah. The source reported clashes between stone-throwing youths and Israeli soldiers who responded with tear gas, but said nobody was wounded. Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army confirmed having made an arrest in Al-Amari, but denied entering the city of Ramallah itself. The Palestinians have so far staged two Intifadas against Israeli rule, the first in 1987. A recent poll showed that a majority of Israelis fear a third uprising if annexation goes ahead. Shtayyeh said the Palestinian Authority, led by president Mahmud Abbas, wanted to avoid widespread disruption. But, "the anger is there, the dissatisfaction is there, the frustration is there," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:06:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- "Black Lives do not matter in the United States of America," this is the message brought by George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd to an urgent debate held by the UN Human Rights Council Wednesday. "The officers showed no mercy, no humanity, and tortured my brother to death in the middle of the street in Minneapolis with a crowd of witnesses watching and begging them to stop -- showing us black people the same lesson yet again -- black lives do not matter in the United States of America," he said via video message. Enditem Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) A group of supermarket owners is open to the governments plan to lift the purchase limits it previously set on some items during the quarantine. The Department of Trade and Industry earlier placed purchase limits to avoid hoarding by some consumers during the early weeks of the lockdown in Luzon. Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association President Steven Cua said the supply of most basic goods has been improving compared to previous weeks. He, however, said that grocery and supermarket owners should be allowed bring back purchase limits on in demand goods if necessary especially since their supply is still not as high as pre-quarantine level. Let the supermarkets decide what to limit and what not to limit," Cua told CNN Philippines. "Nakitang inuubos ng isang wholesale customer niya, eh di puwede niyang i-limit para mapagbigyan yung iba. Lalo nat alam niyang mahirap umorder ng produktong yun diba, [Translation: If it can be seen that one wholesale customer is buying all the supplies, the supermarket can limit the purchases so others can also buy. Especially if they know that it's not easy to order the product] Cua said this is because factories in areas under the general community quarantine especially Metro Manila, have been operating with a limited number of workers. He said the manufacturers are struggling to meet the demand for canned goods, noodles, and biscuits. As to rubbing alcohol, he said they can only supply up to five percent of the demand. But Cua said they still have stocks due to governments purchase limits of two bottles per person. The group is now recommending that manufacturers have two shifts of workers in their plants for them to respond to the steadily increasing demand. DTI Undersecretary Ruth Castelo, meanwhile, told CNN Philippines Newsroom Ngayon Tuesday that Secretary Mon Lopez is expected to soon issue his decision on the matter. She noted that most manufacturers and retailers have enough supply of essential and non-essential goods to respond to consumer demand. Pati po ang raw materials nila [manufacturers] they have enough stock to be able to produce for the next 45 days, mayroong 60 days, 80 days to last pa na raw materials. Yung supply, retailers have sufficient inventory to last them at least 30 days, Castelo said. [Translation: They (manufacturers) have enough stocks even of their raw materials to produce for the next 45 days, some for 60 days, 80 days. As for supply, retailers have sufficient inventory to last them at least 30 days] Usec. Castelo warned unscrupulous individuals against hoarding once purchase limits are lifted. She explained these persons usually resell these items online at prices that are up to four to five times higher than its original price from the supermarket. Castelo said they monitor sellers as well as customers and know when items are overpriced. 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This is the first human trial of the new vaccine developed by Imperial College London. This development and trial is independent of the vaccine project at Oxford. The trials will test whether it is well-tolerated and produces an effective immune response against Covid-19, according to Imperial College. The UK government has given 41 million pounds for funding development of this vaccine. An additional five million pounds have come by way of individual and institutional gifts. The trials will be the first test of a new self-amplifying RNA (genetic code) technology, which has the potential to revolutionise vaccine development and enable scientists to respond more quickly to emerging diseases, Imperial said in its statement. The vaccine, it said, has undergone rigorous pre-clinical safety tests and has been shown to be safe and produced encouraging signs of an effective immune response in animal studies. In the first trial stage, 300 healthy participants will receive two doses of the vaccine within the next few weeks. If promising, a new larger trial will be carried out among 6,000 healthy persons. The use of the RNA route marks new ground in development of a vaccine. Many traditional vaccines are based on a weakened or modified form of virus, or parts of it, but the Imperial vaccine uses synthetic strands of genetic code, based on the viruss genetic material, the institute says. The final vaccine consists of RNA strands packaged inside tiny fat droplets. When injected, it instructs muscle cells to produce virus proteins. It does not create copies of the virus and does not cause changes to the cells own DNA. Participants will not be intentionally exposed to live virus. The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed thousands of lives and had a huge impact on daily life, said Prof Robin Shattock, from the department of infectious disease at Imperial, who is leading the work. In the long term, a viable vaccine could be vital for protecting the most vulnerable, enabling restrictions to be eased and helping people to get back to normal life. UK business secretary Alok Sharma said he was incredibly proud the vaccine being developed by Imperial College London was one of the worlds front runners. "The fast progress of Imperials vaccine is testament to the ingenuity and tenacity of Britains researchers. If these trials are successful a vaccine will not only help us tackle the coronavirus but also emerging diseases now and into the future, he said. Kate Bingham, chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, said, I am delighted that Imperial College have so quickly advanced to the clinical trial stage. Their self-amplifying technology has the potential to be a real game changer, not only for a Covid-19 vaccine but for the development of future vaccines. By backing Imperial College London and their alternative vaccine platform, we have enhanced the UKs vaccine portfolio, increasing our chances of identifying a successful vaccine. WASHINGTON The only thing Rachel Tudor wants more than to be herself is to teach. After transitioning from male to female in 2007, Ms. Tudor, a professor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, applied for tenure to ensure she could do both. But her path was blocked by members of the universitys administration, including one who wondered if she could be fired for her new gender identity. In 2011, she was out of a job. Nine years later, the Supreme Court seemed to confirm on Monday that the universitys actions violated Ms. Tudors civil rights, when six justices ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act extended to gender identity. Ms. Tudors long-stalled federal employment suit was granted new life. When I read what they decided, I felt a page had turned not only in my life, but in the nations, and in the history of civil rights, Ms. Tudor said in an interview on Tuesday. I hope that as a result of the Supreme Court decision, no one else will have to live with the dilemma of having to choose between doing what they love and being who they are. Dozens of cases, if not hundreds, like Ms. Tudors are likely to be bolstered by the courts landmark ruling that employers cannot fire people based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. L.G.B.T.Q. rights lawyers are preparing to argue that the highest jurists in the land have erased all doubt that transgender people are protected from discrimination on the basis of sex. Global oil demand will start to recover in the second half of the year from the crash in the second quarter, but it will still be down by 6.4 million bpd in H2 from year-ago levels as demand for fuels will continue to be constrained by the coronavirus pandemic and the measures to contain it, OPEC said in its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) on Wednesday. According to the cartel, the loss in global oil demand will slow to 6.4 million bpd in the second half of the year, compared to an estimated decline of 11.9 million bpd in the first half of the year. OPEC left its full-year 2020 global oil demand projection unchanged at a decline of 9.1 million bpd. Transportation fuels are forecast to remain under pressure in 2H20, despite ongoing easing in lockdown measures. Aviation fuel is expected to continue facing challenges, as national and international flights are anticipated to only slowly recover, while teleworking/teleconferencing restricting business travel, OPEC said. In addition, gasoline consumption will also suffer because of the high unemployment rate in the United States and reduced commuting, while industrial fuels will be impacted by weaker manufacturing around the world, the cartel said. OPEC now sees demand for its crude at 23.6 million bpd this year, revised down by 700,000 bpd from the previous months estimates. This years demand for OPEC crude is expected to be down by 5.8 million bpd compared to 2019. OPECs crude oil production in May was higher than the cartels expectations for demand for its crudeat 24.19 million bpd, OPECs crude oil production dropped by 6.3 million bpd from April, as per OPECs secondary sources. Saudi Arabia slashed in May its production to the required 8.5 million bpd quota, and so did its key Gulf partners Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while Iraq, while cutting production by 340,000 bpd to 4.165 million bpd, was still way off the mark. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Labor is willing to fast-track approvals for major projects including mines and infrastructure in a new sign the Morrison government could reach a deal in Parliament to streamline environmental safeguards. Labor environment spokeswoman Terri Butler backed the case for speedier decisions on big investments, declaring "every delayed decision is a delayed job" when projects deserved to go ahead. Labor's environment spokeswoman Terri Butler has flagged the party could support faster approvals for major projects. Credit:AAP The stance raises the prospect of an agreement between Labor and the Coalition on changes to environmental law after Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week said he would fix the regime in the name of creating jobs. But Ms Butler blamed the government for allowing delays to blow out since the Coalition took power at the 2013 election with a pledge to cut red tape. Alcoa Corporation, a global leader in bauxite, alumina and aluminum, today announced that it plans to begin, on June 25, 2020, a formal process for the collective dismissal of employees at its San Ciprian aluminum facility in Spain. On May 28, 2020, Alcoa launched an informal process with the workers' representatives to discuss significant and unsustainable circumstances at the aluminum plant. The Company now intends to begin the formal 30-day consultation period with the Works Council to achieve the best possible outcome for the Company and its workforce. The Company envisions a restructuring for the aluminum plant that retains a portion of the casthouse in operation. A collective dismissal could potentially affect up to 534 employees of the aluminum plant. No final decisions will be made until the mandatory, formal consultation process is complete. The aluminum smelter has incurred significant and recurring financial losses, which are expected to continue. The San Ciprian site has both an aluminum plant and alumina refinery. The San Ciprian alumina refinery is not affected by this formal consultation process. About Alcoa Alcoa (NYSE: AA) is a global industry leader in bauxite, alumina, and aluminum products, and is built on a foundation of strong values and operating excellence dating back more than 130 years to the world-changing discovery that made aluminum an affordable and vital part of modern life. Since developing the aluminum industry, and throughout our history, our talented Alcoans have followed on with breakthrough innovations and best practices that have led to efficiency, safety, sustainability, and stronger communities wherever we operate. Visit us online on www.alcoa.com, follow @Alcoa on Twitter, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Alcoa. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that relate to future events and expectations and as such constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include those containing such words as "anticipates," "believes," "could," "estimates," "expects," "forecasts," "goal," "intends," "may," "outlook," "plans," "projects," "seeks," "sees," "should," "targets," "will," "would," or other words of similar meaning. All statements by Alcoa Corporation that reflect expectations, assumptions or projections about the future, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Although Alcoa Corporation believes that the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that these expectations will be attained and it is possible that actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks and uncertainties. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements is contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Alcoa Corporation disclaims any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether in response to new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Dissemination of Company Information Alcoa Corporation intends to make future announcements regarding company developments and financial performance through its website, www.alcoa.com, as well as through press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, conference calls and webcasts. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005147/en/ Contacts: Investor Contact James Dwyer 412-992-5450 James.Dwyer@alcoa.com Media Contacts Jim Beck 412-315-2909 Jim.Beck@alcoa.com Clara Acebes Spain +34 914068280 Clara.Acebes@alcoa.com NEW DELHI: Interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the killing of 20 Indian soldiers during a violent face-off with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh on Monday night and sought an explanation from him over the incident. Today, when there's anger in the country regarding this incident then PM should come forward and tell the truth to the country that how did China occupy our land and why did our 20 soldiers lose their lives? What is the situation there today? the Congress interim president said. Trying to corner the NDA government at the Centre, Sonia Gandhi said, Are our soldiers/officers still missing? How many of our soldiers/officers are critically injured? What areas have been occupied by China? What is the policy of the Centre to deal with this? The Congress chief also paid tributes to the 20 slain Indian soldiers and said that her party stands with the armed forces in this crisis. The sacrifice of our 20 jawans has shaken the conscience of the nation. I pay my tribute to all those brave soldiers from the core of my heart and pray to the Almighty to give their families the strength to face this pain, Sonia Gandhi said. She further stated that Congress stands with our Army, soldiers, their families and govt in this crisis. Sonia Gandhi also expressed confidence that the Indian armed forces are capable of giving a befitting reply to the enemy to defence the nations integrity and sovereignty. Her party colleague Anand Sharma and Adhir Ranjan Choudhary too made similar statements. India stands firmly united behind its armed forces in this challenging time and we're confident that they're firm in their resolve to defend country's security. It's also important that all facts are shared with leadership of opposition parties and with Parliament, Congress leader Anand Sharma said. Amid all this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (June 17, 2020) said that sacrifice of the Indian soldiers will not go in vain as the countrys armed forces are fully capable of giving a befitting reply to the enemy if instigated. The sacrifice of our soldiers along the border with China will not go in vain, the Prime Minister said. The PM made these remarks at the start of the second day of his virtual meeting with state chief ministers on the coronavirus situation, Hardening his stance on the India-China face-off in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, the PM said that India will defend every inch of its territory. PM Narendra Modi said this while referring to the martyrdom of at least 20 Indian soldiers during a violent face-off with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in the eastern Ladakh on Monday night. During the occasion, the PM and all CMs also observed a two-minute silence as a tribute to the martyred Indian soldiers. "Whenever there was a situation, we have shown our strength to keep India united. We have tried that differences do not come between disputes," the PM said on Ladakh face-off. The whole country is with the families of those who sacrificed their lives for the country. India will defend every stone, every inch of its territory. India is a peace-loving country which has always tried to maintain cooperative and friendly relations with neighbours, PM Modi said. Trying to assure the nation, the PM said, India wants peace but is capable of giving befitting reply if instigated. The Indian Army had on Tuesday (June 16, 2020) said that at least 20 soldiers have been martyred during the violent face-off with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. Chinese phone maker Realme has announced another flash sale of its Realme Narzo 10 smartphone that will be held on June 23 at 12 PM IST. Those interested in buying may head to either Realme India website or e-commerce platform, Flipkart, to purchase the device. This will be the second flash sale since May 18, when the company announced the first sale via online platforms. The Realme Narzo 10 offers quad-cameras at the back, a big 5,000mAh battery with 18W fast charging support. Realme Narzo 10 Specifications The Realme Narzo 10 comes with a 6.5-inch HD+ display with 1600x720 pixel-screen resolution as well as an 89.8 percent screen-to-body ratio protected by a 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass. Under the hood, the Realme Narzo 10 is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio G80 processor, with a Mali G52 GPU and 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage which can be further expanded via a dedicated microSD card slot. In the camera department, the Realme Narzo 10 has a quad rear camera setup that includes a 48-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.8 lens, an 8-megapixel secondary sensor with an f/2.25 lens, a 2-megapixel monochrome portrait sensor with an f/2.4 lens and a 2-megapixel macro camera with an f/2.4 aperture lens. Up front, there is a 16-megapixel camera sensor with an f/2.0 lens. The handset will run on Reami UI based on Android 10 out of the box. Other features of the Realme Narzo 10 include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, and a USB Type-C port. Realme Narzo 10 Price and Offer The Realme Narzo has a price tag of Rs 11,999 for the sole 4GB + 128GB storage variant and is available in two colour options - Green and White. Customers can avail EMI options as well as special discounts while purchasing the Realme Narzo 19 using the Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card or MobiKwik. Besides, customers can also exchange their old Realme phones to avail an additional discount but only through the Realme India website. Everyone in my neighborhood in Bostonnot just the narcs and NIMBYs on my local NextDooris convinced theyre hearing way more fireworks this year. It turns out were not imagining it: Boston police recorded 1,445 fireworks complaints in the first week of June, compared with just 22 in the same week last year, the Boston Herald reported last week. This seems to have started when the weather began warming upcomplaints in May were also up by more than 2,300 percent compared with May 2019and itll only continue as we near a July 4 in which organized fireworks displays are yet another casualty of this semi-reopened pandemic summer. Advertisement To go by the complaints cities are registering, it appears way more people are spending their free time dabbling with pyrotechnics this year. The mayor of Syracuse, New York, vowed action after a rash of 911 calls about fireworks last Tuesday night, and Syracuse police claim a 335 percent increase in fireworks complaints since the beginning of the year. Looking at New York Citys 311 data, I calculated a 920 percent year-over-year increase in fireworks complaints for the month of May. (The city made it easier to submit these complaints last June, when it began accepting reports onlinebut that by itself doesnt appear to explain the May increase. The NYPD did not respond to a request for further comment.) More anecdotally, in Baltimore, longtime residents say individual fireworks use is noticeably more prevalent this year. In other parts of the country, Facebook and Twitter are full of complaints that its the worst year ever. As my colleague Ben Mathis-Lilley put it: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sudden Fireworks All the Time outbreaks seem to be happening everywhere but the media wont talk about it. And I think thats because everyone deep down knows the truth about whos setting them off: The evil clowns from 2016. https://t.co/uoJzfg5pvG Ben Mathis-Lilley (@BenMathisLilley) June 17, 2020 Its true that Americans always complain more about fireworks in the run-up to July 4. And a pandemic alone cant explain why Americans are generally setting off more explosives than they used to; we can also thank a liberalization of laws in a slew of states over the past two decades. These factors make it challenging to establish just how extraordinary 2020 is in terms of DIY fireworks displays and whether the apparent boom (sorry) is a local or national phenomenon. Advertisement I think the general public, due to COVID , is just itching to do something. American Pyrotechnics Association executive director Julie Heckman Less in doubt, though, is that consumer fireworks sales are up. A spokesperson for the National Fireworks Association confirmed to me that the organization is hearing reports of increased sales from across the industry. In an industry roundtable event on June 3, American Pyrotechnics Association executive director Julie Heckman said that theyre now anticipating a banner year for consumer sales. William Weimer, vice president and general counsel of Phantom Fireworks, a large national retailer, estimated that his companys sales are up 15 percent across the country, most notably in the Northern states. July 4 falls on a Saturday this year, timing that has historically been associated with higher sales. But even after accounting for that, Phantoms sales are much higher than expected. Weimer, who lives in Youngstown, Ohio, also told me, Whats most surprising to me is that theyre also using them earlier. I asked him how he knew that. The same as you, he said. I hear more in my neighborhood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both the people who are selling explosives and the government officials who are complaining about them agree that the pandemic is probably what lies behind their respective stories. I think people are home, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said last Wednesday, when asked what might be driving the increase in complaints. Cant see a movie or dine out? Why not explode some things? Several industry-side representatives offered similar explanations to me. They also suggested that the widespread cancellation of July 4 festivities, along with the cancellation of sporting events and music festivals, has left all of us craving our fireworks fix. I think the general public, due to COVID, is just itching to do something, Heckman said. Apart from boredom, it seems possible that the pandemic is causing supply-side dynamics that are contributing in their own way to an increase in sales and usage. Professional fireworks display companies, the kind that produce the shows you see at ballparks, festivals, and Disney World, make at least 75 percent of their annual revenue from July 4 shows, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association. This year, that display business has been devastated. Some of the display companies also operate retail stores, so by pivoting their focus and resources to retail sales, they can try to mitigate their losses. Though the law doesnt allow consumers to buy professional-grade fireworks, it does allow for the sale of some nonetheless powerful explosives, the kind that in another year may have been used by a display company at, say, a corporate picnic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And certain public health precautions that fireworks stores, like other retailers, have adopted may have some downstream impact on sales and usage. Firework sales tend to peak in the days prior to July 4, sometimes resulting in long lines for retailers like Phantom Fireworks. Because Phantom is currently limiting the number of customers who can be in a store at one time, the company is concerned it wont be able to accommodate as many last-minute shoppers. Thats led Phantom to offer early-bird discounts to get more of its sales booked sooner. Maybe some of those discount shoppers will decide they cant wait until the Fourth. Advertisement Perhaps more importantly, retailers have also started selling fireworks online and allowing for pickup service. In an email, Heckman confirmed to me that this is a new marketing strategy for the industry; before the pandemic, online sales were rare. (One cannot, after all, drop a bomb in the mail.) Steve Pelkey is the owner and CEO of Atlas Fireworks, a family-owned company that produces large fireworks events, including for the New England Patriots, and also operates four retail locations in New Hampshire. Atlas began offering online sales during the pandemic, and retail sales are currently up 28 percent from 2019. Pelkey estimates that online sales now account for 24 percent of Atlas gross retail revenue. These online sales may be helping retailers to reach new customersperhaps even ones who live in cities in Massachusetts, the lone state that still outlaws the sale of all types of fireworks. People are looking for ways to entertain themselves, and the fireworks industry is doing everything it can to boost retail sales, especially as other parts of its business suffer catastrophic losses. This appears to be a case of motivated buyers meeting motivated sellers. This summer, every day is Independence Day. A bit of personal news this week: This will be my final Mid-Valley Scam Alert. But dont worry, this column isnt going anywhere. PARIS, June 16, 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: La Mondiale Guarantor (if any): na Aggregate nominal amount: EUR Benchmark Description: Fixed due 23rd June 2031 subject Conditions to Redemption and Purchase (the Scheduled Maturity Date) Offer price: TBC Other offer terms: Stabilisation: Stabilising Manager(s): HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Natixis Stabilisation period expected to start on: 16th June 2020 Stabilisation period expected to end no later than: 23rd 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 Tech giant Google said Wednesday it planned to open its first Houston office to focus on selling cloud services to businesses in the region. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company leased a floor in the One Buffalo Heights building at 3663 Washington Ave., the same building that houses the Buffalo Heights H-E-B that opened in 2019. The approximately 12,000-square-foot office will occupy the top floor and be operational early next year. Google spokesperson Kayla Conti said the new office will focus on sales and will not have any technology workers. There will be new hires for the office, but she would not say how many employees would work there. On HoustonChronicle.com: Google backs off using AI for oil & gas extraction Google Cloud Enterprise Sales group sells a variety of products and services to businesses, including its GSuite office productivity package, as well as artificial intelligence and machine-learning services. Conti said Google already has many large customers in the Houston area, ranging from technology to energy companies. In May, Google said it would no longer provide artificial intelligence tools to help oil and gas companies pull fossil fuels from the ground. The decision came after a Greenpeace report that Google, Microsoft and Amazon were violating climate change pledges by providing such services to the energy industry. Google said at the time it would continue to honor existing contracts with energy companies, but didnt name them. Google did not provide a list of the local companies it serves for this story. In a statement, Mayor Sylvester Turner said Googles decision to open an office here provides further momentum as we build the Silicon Bayou. Release Notes: Get Dwight Silvermans weekly tech newsletter in your inbox This step is crucial for the long-term health and resiliency of our city, Turner said. The goal is to grow top-paying jobs for residents and new arrivals. Although the Google office will not house any tech workers, Susan Davenport, the Greater Houston Partnerships chief development officer, said luring Google sales effort to Houston is part of the work involved in the citys desire to build out its tech ecosystem. The fact that Google is opening their first office in Houston is a testament to the work we have been doing to build out innovation ecosystem, Davenport said in a statement. We are hopeful this will lead to increased engagement between Houston companies and Google, which will lead to an increased presence of the company in Houston as they scale their relationships. BKR Memorial, the buildings developer, said it is planning further expansion at the Buffalo Heights District site, which is bordered by Buffalo Bayou Park, South Heights Boulevard, Studemont and Washington Avenue. The development will include additional Class-A office space, residential units, retail and restaurants. The expansion will be located behind the existing One Buffalo Heights building that now houses H-E-B, according to a BKR spokesperson. She declined to say when construction would begin. In a release, Google also said it is donating $100,000 through its Google.org philanthropic group to help area families hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100 local families will receive $1,000 in cash from Google. The tech giant has had a presence in Texas for 13 years, with 1,550 employees. Most of its operations are in Austin. The company said in 2019 it would develop a $600 million data center in Midlothian, as well as taking more office space in Austin. The company also has an office in Addison in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. dwight.silverman@chron.com twitter.com/dsilverman houstonchronicle.com/techburger Sonora Brewing Company mural View Photos Sonora, CA Over a short trial period, the Sonora City Council will allow a local business to close a downtown street to expand seating capacity. We reported earlier that the Sonora Brewing Company requested that the city allow for the closure of Bradford Street so that it can better space patrons during the time of COVID-19. City Engineer Jerry Fuccillo submitted a letter recommending that the proposal be denied because Bradford Street serves as an important cross street for emergency traffic. The council, with a 4-1 vote, decided to allow the brewery to access Bradford Street, but only on Fridays from 6-9pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 11am-9pm, over a two week trial period. Councilmembers Jim Garaventa, Matt Hawkins, Connie Williams and Mark Plummer were in favor, and councilwoman Colette Such was opposed. The council also voted unanimously to appoint Peter Ghiorso to the planning commission seat that is being vacated by the outgoing Gary Anderson. In addition, a city proclamation was passed honoring outgoing councilwoman Connie Williams. The meeting was held online via the website Zoom, and during which, Fire Chief Aimee New delivered the document to Williams at her home, while she was on video. Numerous community leaders called in and praised Williams for her leadership and dedication to the city. Former City Administrator Tim Miller joined the meeting from his new home in Montana, stating, There have been very few people who I have met that have had the dedication to serve the public like you have. Youve gone over and above, and a proclamation really doesnt do justice for all that you have done for the community. This week was the final meeting for Williams, as incoming councilwoman Ann Segerstrom will take the oath of office next month. Williams has served the past eight years on the council, and was the third woman to serve as Mayor, between 2016-18. Coming clean on the massive data discrepancy in the number of deaths reported from Maharashtra, state's chief secretary Ajoy Mehta said the government had realised the problem much before anyone else. "Last week itself, we had issued orders to all the district administrations and municipal corporations to reconcile their data. We have nothing to hide," he told CNN-News18 in an exclusive interview. Maharashtra has declared 862 additional Covid-19 deaths in Mumbai and 466 more in the rest of the state after a massive data reconciliation exercise. The process ended on Tuesday, and the outcome was declared by the administration on Tuesday evening. With this, the death rate in Maharashtra has gone up to 4.8 per cent. The total number of deaths in the state now stands at 5,537. Explaining the reasons behind the data discrepancy, and the causes for undertaking this exercise, Mehta said, "Initially, there were only two labs. Today, we have 90. Earlier, the data used to be noted manually. Now, it is being entered electronically. There were many platforms on which it was put, now it is only one platform. For all these reasons, there were discrepancies." When asked if the government didn't give out the data earlier because of the fear of showing increased number of deaths, he said, "We have nothing to hide. These persons were reported as Covid cases. A death certificate was issued about it. But previously, the committee interpreted it as cardiac arrest, not Covid death. As per the epidemic management act, it has to be entered as epidemic death. That wasn't done. That is why we asked the district administrations to reconcile all the deaths. If there would have been fear, the death certificates would have been missing. It is just that they weren't reported on the Covid portal." He said that the government had issued these orders on June 11, much before the Opposition had raised the matter. Just a day ago, Maharashtra's recovery rate crossed the 50 per cent mark. Over 5,000 were shown discharged by the government. When asked if any change in discharge policy led to this, he said, "This is completely attributed to data reconciliation. There is no change in discharge policy. The amount of data is so much that, at times, data management takes time. My target is to chase patients. Data management is important, but not as important as chasing the virus." In Punjab, funds to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore received by the government through a labour cess are presently lying unspent. In Punjab, funds to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore received by the government through a labour cess are presently lying unspent. Despite this, construction labourers, the intended beneficiaries of the cess, had to suffer during the lockdown. With a slump in economic activity, their situation seems unlikely to improve soon. The labour cess is envisaged in a 1996 central legislation, Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act. This law empowers states to levy a 1 percent labour cess on construction activities, and then use this fund for the welfare of construction labourers. Parveen Kumar Thind, secretary, Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (PBOCWWB), a nodal agency in charge of utilising the labour cess, claims that the state government has disbursed Rs 6000 per head to the states 3 lakh active registered construction workers. This, he said, amounted to a total spending of Rs 180 crore after the Centres 24 March circular, which had directed state governments to transfer welfare funds to construction workers. However, media reports have stated that despite official claims, many labourers are yet to receive the benefits. The actual number of construction labourers could be much more than the official figure of 3 lakh, if a recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) is any indication. The report revealed that the labour welfare boards own estimate pegged the total number of construction workers in Punjab at 15.33 lakh. The non-adoption of any mechanism by the board to identify the unregistered workers had resulted in non-achievement of targets besides denial of welfare benefits to the construction workers due to non-registration, said the CAG report. Lakhwinder Singh, president of Ludhiana based Karkhana Mazdoor Union, said that daily construction labourers were worst affected during the COVID-19 lockdown, since there was a complete ban on all construction activities. "Many were forced to flee to their home states, since there was no major help from the state government. Others barely managed to survive with the help of community support. Even now, unorganised labour continues to bear the brunt of the market slump, be it in real estate or other sectors," he added. VK Janjua, Principal Secretary, Labour, said, The state for some time was aggressively enrolling construction workers through special camps. But the lockdown hampered this process. Once the situation is normalised, we will again renew our efforts. Janjua, who is also the secretary of PBOCWWB, said, This is a great scheme to help the poor and we dont want to leave anyone out of it." Inadequate implementation mechanisms In Punjab, the labour cess scheme came into force in 2009, thirteen years after the central act was passed. Even after that, the implementation of the scheme left much to be desired. Recently, a private agency hired by the labour board to increase its beneficiary base has come under fire for several reasons. An order of the labour board on 1 June stated that the said agency (Common Service Centres) not only charged an exorbitant fee for registration, but also made ineligible beneficiaries fill applications. A media report said that as many as 217 workers were registered with the same mobile number. The matter is currently being probed at the level of the board. Raghunath Singh, general secretary, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, said that the registration process has often been characterised by touts, middlemen and fake registrations. "Most of the workers in the construction sector are illiterate and yet, the labour welfare board made the registration process online in 2017, " he said. The CAG report, too, had stated that the registration has slowed down since the online system. Raghunath added most workers face huge problems in submitting reelevant documents. "Further, they lack awareness and are unable to fill the forms and produce documents like Aadhaar. This is especially so for migrant construction workers, he said. Vijay Walia, convenor of Patiala-based NGO Centre for Social Change and Equity, said that just 90 days of construction work in a year is required for a person to be eligible for registration under the BOCW act. The certification by his employer about the minimum duration of his work is a must. But construction workers find it difficult to procure this certification, because sometimes, the contractors whom they work for are also not duly registered under the Act, said Walia. Walia explained that the said Act has a provision whereby no construction is allowed to be carried out by a contractor who is not registered under this Act and has not made his workers registered. "However, there hardly ever was any effective drive to identify those unregistered contractors and pensalise them, he said A major drawback is that a lot of registered construction workers are also unable to renew their membership every year due to the hassles in the system, he said. The workforce shortage in the labour department is also to be blamed for the scheme's poor implemsentation. A labour inspector posted in Amritsar said on the condition of anonymity that apart from implementation of 26 labour laws, the entire burden of identifying eligible construction workers, conducting field inspections, etc has been put on the labour department. There are times when we can neither do justice to labour laws nor enrolment of poor beneficiaries," the inspector said. He also suggested that it would be better if the PBOCWWB hires its own staff for better implementation of the scheme. As per data shared by a labour department officer, the state has only 70 labour inspectors on active duty. There are as many as 15 circles where the labour inspector' post is vacant. Misuse of labour cess As per Punjab government records, the board incurred approximately Rs 800 crore on monetary dispersal of 18 welfare schemes that were conceived over the years for the welfare of the construction workers. But not all the money seems to have been spent on the intended purposes. In 2015, there was a clear instruction by the Supreme Court not to use the labour cess for the construction of schools or training centres since it is reserved to fund welfare schemes for construction labourers. In spite of that, 48 crore from the cess was spent between September 2015 and March 2017 to buy land and construct four Multi Skill Development Centres (MSDC) in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Mohali. The work on all these buildings was stopped due to the Supreme Court's intervention in 2017, but not before crores were already spent. Principal Secretary, Labour, VK Janjua said that the process to sell these buildings and accordingly recover the expenditure is underway as per the court's directions. A CAG report that scrutinised the assessment files of all the labour schemes, too, revealed major discrepancies in awarding monetary benefits. For instance, in Sangrur, three lakh ex-gratia was said to have been disbursed to the family of a deceased worker in 2016, who was found registered after his death. In five other cities, ex-gratia amounts adding up to Rs 73 lakh were disbursed to adult sons and brothers of deceased workers, who were not eligible as per the scheme Further, as per the Shagun scheme of the board, each registered construction worker was entitled to get Rs 31,000 on the occasion of the marriage of their daughters. However, the report found that Rs 8.06 lakh were dispersed to 26 beneficiaries on the marriages of their minor daughters, in contravention of Section 2(a) of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. As per the report, the board had identified 1,588 (up to January 2018) and 3,307 (up to March 2018) eligible registered workers for family pension and pension cases respectively. But only 165 cases (132 family pension and 33 pension cases) were approved up to 2019 for issuance of pension benefits. Commenting on this, Janjua said, There were procedural lapses in implementing welfare schemes but this cant be equated with financial embezzlement. We have sought the explanation of circle officers based on the CAG report." Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Kotakpur, said, "When I was the chairman of the public accounts committee of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha last year, I had recommended a high-level probe to inquire into the matter. But nothing happened, since the state government did not act on our recommendation," he said. Speaking about the lockdown, Sandhwan said, The lowest rung of the society was most affected due to the coronavirus outbreak, as they lost jobs and were made to sleep hungry. The state government claims that it has transferred money into the accounts of 3 lakh registered labourers. But can anyone guarantee that the list was accurate, and that it comprised all eligible beneficiaries? he asked. Hardships continue in post-lockdown phase Mukhtar Alam can't tell his age, but guesses that he is probably about 25 years old. He had been working as a labourer in Ludhiana ever since his family migrated from Nalsar village in Bihar's Katihar district in 2008. However, Alam went back to his village a month ago. He said that it was getting very difficult to survive during the lockdown in Punjab. There were no jobs as construction activities were banned. To add to his worries, the landlord was asking him for his room rent. Alam further said that he has not received any government help. However, he lamented that surviving in the village was also getting difficult. "I dont know what to do. I hope everything becomes normal soon," he said 'Labour chowks' in Punjab are getting back to normal after having been deserted for two months. But labourers are not getting enough work as construction has not yet started in full swing. This is owing to a liquidity crunch in several sectors, including real estate. ITHACA, N.Y. - New Cornell-led research shows that inadequate funding is the main barrier to better surveillance and control of ticks, including the blacklegged tick, which spreads Lyme disease, the No. 1 vector-borne illness in the country. Insufficient infrastructure, limited guidance on best practices and lack of institutional capacity also are impediments to improved tick monitoring, the researchers found. Their report, "A Survey of Tick Surveillance and Control Practices in the United States," published June 17 in the Journal of Medical Entomology. The lead author is Emily Mader, program manager of the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases (NEVBD) and a member of the lab of Laura Harrington, professor of entomology, NEVBD director and a co-author of the study. The study identifies what methods public health agencies use to track ticks, the barriers they have and what aid they might need. The study also generated a directory of tick surveillance programs, which did not exist previously. Aside from Lyme disease, multiple tick species can infect people and animals with a wide variety of other pathogens. Public health and medical professionals have seen a dramatic rise in these tick-borne illness over the last 15 years. "Vector-borne diseases are only going to become an increasing threat in the world, [including] the United States," Mader said, "and we really don't know how to address that threat unless we study it." Mader and colleagues surveyed 140 vector-borne disease professionals who work in state, county and local public health and vector control agencies. The survey addressed: tick surveillance programs; pathogen testing methods; tick control practices; how data is communicated; and barriers to developing and operating programs. Cornell impacting New York State The results showed that close to half of the respondents were engaged in active tick surveillance, meaning they collect ticks from the environment. Nearly two-thirds engaged in passive surveillance - a kind of crowdsourcing where members of the public send in tick samples. Active surveillance costs more as it requires trained personnel, transport and storage costs, but it offers more detailed location and ecological information that informs risk compared to passive surveillance. Some programs conducted no tick surveillance. "If you want to know how the public health threat of ticks is changing from year to year, you need to have the data," Mader said. "We found that [surveillance] programs just weren't able to be sustained across time." Lack of access to pathogen testing services for many programs was another major barrier to getting better information about the public health threat of ticks in an area. The survey also found that partnerships between tick surveillance programs within state health or agriculture departments often relied on academic partners. Universities may absorb some costs, provide diagnostic services and provide labor with student interns. "The most prevalent barrier to developing and sustaining a tick surveillance program across time is just lack of funding," Mader said. County programs often rely on funding from county taxes, while state programs receive state budget appropriations or federal grants. Many existing programs are in areas where blacklegged ticks live; these communities may have a long history of tick-borne illness. The survey has already provided important information to bridge knowledge gaps, Mader said. One of the biggest barriers for effective tick surveillance has been lack of standardized guidelines on how to survey the environment for certain tick species, each of which behave uniquely, live in varying habitats, and are collected in different ways. In response this need, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued two documents on collecting ticks from the environment. NEVBD will work to identify more such gaps and provide the knowledge or resources that people need, Mader said. ### Co-authors included researchers from Texas A&M University; the University of Florida, Gainesville; the University of California, Davis; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and the CDC. The study was funded by the five Regional Centers of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases. To anyone following developments in Libya it is obvious that Turkey has gone on the rampage, unrestrained by the US, influential powers in NATO, the EU and needless to say, the UN. After acquiring a foothold in western Libya, Turkey now seeks to press eastwards to conquer the rest of the country. Although it claims to back the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), the reverse is the case. The GNA is Ankaras puppet in its current game of playing NATO policeman against Russia in the Eastern Mediterranean. The aggressiveness with which Ankara is performing this role has jeopardised peace-making efforts in Libya and raised tensions as never before in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. The pro-government press in Turkey has recently revealed Ankaras plans to establish two military bases in Libya. One is the Watiya Airbase to the southwest of Tripoli and the other is a naval base in Misrata. The facade towards this end is a military cooperation pact with the GNA which has been fighting the Libyan National Army (LNA) under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Behind that facade resides Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ambition to grab as large a share as possible of Libyan oil and gas and to assert Turkish military and political hegemony over Libya. Other North African countries are acute to the dangers of the Turkish expansionist project which seeks to promote the Islamist project as its instrument and to advance the Muslim Brotherhood, the mother organisation of all extremist Islamist groups, as its partner in sowing chaos and destruction in the region. The Turkish occupation of Libya also strengthens Ankaras hand in its various disputes with Europe. More immediately, it bolsters its position in growing tensions with Greece over oil and gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean, and over the Greek islands that Ankara has set its sights on. The spurious Turkish-GNA maritime border agreement has furnished Ankara with another facade in order to deploy warships in the area, whether to protect Turkeys illegal drilling activities and or to advance its other acquisitive ends. Turkish entrenchment in Libya has reached such a level that it will take concerted international efforts to halt the revival of the Turkish occupation. France has expressed its alarm at the Turkish danger on numerous occasions. Last week, a spokesperson for the French presidency harshly censured Ankara for its even more aggressive and insistent stance... with seven Turkish ships deployed off the Libyan coast and violations of the arms embargo. He added: The Turks are behaving in an unacceptable manner and are exploiting NATO. France cannot just stand by. Unfortunately, NATO appears to prefer appeasement when it comes to dealing with Turkish belligerence. NATOs condonation (if not behind the scenes approval) of Turkeys Libya campaign will prove the most disastrous mistake it has committed since the NATO bombardment of Libya nine years ago, which opened the doors to the hell of civil war, the proliferation of militias and the influx of terrorists. Hopefully, influential powers can take some constructive action before it is too late. The US and Russia, above all, should agree on a formula to promote a political solution to the Libyan conflict before it spirals out of control. The international community can also take advantage of the Egyptian peace initiative that Ankara sought to undermine. The Turkish regime will continue to obstruct attempts to promote a return to the political process, which runs counter to its current campaign of conquest. Whatever justifications the Turkish media advances for Ankaras military intervention, they are nothing more than smokescreens for the true nature and ends of the Turkish designs. Unfortunately, Turkish propaganda finds willing buyers in some major international media outlets which claim to support the legitimate government in Tripoli. Curiously, these same media never mention the Libyan House of Representatives, which rests its legitimacy on the fact that it is the only popularly elected body in the country, and they conveniently ignore the fact that, under the UN-backed Libyan National Agreement, any sovereign agreements that the GNA concludes with foreign powers require the House of Representatives ratification. The international community and major powers need to draw some clear and strong red lines to put a stop to Turkish aggression before it precipitates military clashes in the Eastern Mediterranean where Ankara is deliberately cultivating war. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 10:22:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PYONGYANG, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday flatly rejected a plea from South Korea to send special envoys to Pyongyang for talks to ease the current tensions on the peninsula, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. The South Korean authorities "staged the petty farce of asking us to accept special envoys on June 15," but the "tactless and sinister proposal" was flatly rejected by Kim Yo Jong, first vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said the KCNA. "We take seriously the south side's disrespectful attitude of wishing to send special envoys out of a lingering attachment even though they are well aware of the fact that unprecedented state emergency anti-epidemic measures are in force and no entry or exit are allowed from and to the territory of the DPRK," it said. "We can guess how much the south side reacts to the present situation and what its anticipation of the consequences could be, but we are extremely displeased to get such an absurd judgment and reckless proposal," it added. It is impossible, said the report, to solve the present crisis between the North and the South, which is "caused by the incompetence and irresponsibility of the South Korean authorities" and the crisis "can be terminated only when proper price is paid" by the South. The DPRK on Tuesday demolished an inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Kaesong in retaliation for the South's failure to stop activists sending anti-DPRK leaflets into the North. Pyongyang has also cut off all communication lines with Seoul. Enditem A chaotic movement will carry a cloud of tiny droplets that can be inhaled or spill onto bathroom surfaces when someone flushes the toilet, according to a new computer model. One exposed flush could theoretically burp into your bathroom sanctuary by a cloud of poop particles in its aerosol form. That is disgusting in any sense and unwelcome in our current COVID-19 atmosphere. Previous studies have shown that suspended droplets may carry the coronavirus if the person using the toilet is infected by such disease. ALSO READ: [BREAKING] COVID-19 Update: Lysol Urges People Not to Drink or Inject Disinfectants to Treat Coronavirus Toilets can release a tiny geyser of fecal mist for up to three feet The evidence suggests that the coronavirus - although found in human waste - is primarily transmitted from person to person. However, we unknowingly spread particles through the teeny drops of saliva as we speak, and scream, and sneeze, etc. Nevertheless, a new study by Chinese researchers recommends caution when flushing public and private toilets as you release a tiny geyser of fecal mist. Researchers simulated viral spreading by flushing into two types of toilets. One is annular-inlet toilets, whose bowls fill all around the rim as water. The single-inlet toilets, on the other hand, is overflowing through a single spillway. Flushing produced interior turbulence intense enough in both types of toilets to send poop particles rocketing up and out. Around 40 to 60 percent of particles reached the bowl's brim, which "leads to the spread of the virus on a large scale," the study says. This spray radius of "toilet plume" reached as high as three feet off the ground, and proceeded to float there for over a minute. "Flushing will lift the virus up from the toilet bowl," co-author Ji-Xiang Wang of Yangzhou University warned the Washington Post. Where possible, Wang said, we "need to close the lid first and then trigger the flushing process." And of course, you know you should thoroughly wash your hands. Flush with caution Again, there is no evidence to suggest that the coronavirus has spread this way. Although it's not a fact that we always want to dwell on, many diseases spread through fecal-oral transmission. That is when small quantities of fecal matter reach the body through the mouth. However, the argument is that it might mitigate the risk. It is also an additional cause of concern in a very crowded bathroom. What's more, the toilet plume flew too long beneath our collective disgust radar. "The aerosols generated by toilets are something that we've kind of known about for a while, but many people have taken for granted," Joshua L. Santarpia, a University of Nebraska Medical Center professor of pathology and microbiology, told the New York Times. "This study adds a lot of the evidence that everyone needs [to] take better action," Santarpia, who was not involved in the research, added. Of course, some toilets can not have a toilet seat to put down at all, especially in public bathrooms. The best thing to do in this situation is to be careful about our own personal hygiene. The other two suggestions from the researchers are that we clean the toilet seat before using it - a concept that is especially applicable to the use of public toilets. After using the bathroom, we continue to wash our hands with caution. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Securities and Exchange Commission told Hertz that the regulator has issues with its plan to sell stock while the rental car company is in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings. "In this particular situation we have let the company know that we have comments on their disclosure," SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said Wednesday on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "In most cases when you let a company know that the SEC has comments on their disclosure they do not go forward until those comments are resolved." Hertz said in a securities filing with the SEC on Monday that it would seek to sell $500 million in stock. In quite an unusual disclosure in that filing, the company told potential investors that they would likely lose their money. "Although we cannot predict how our common stock will be treated under a plan, we expect that common stock holders would not receive a recovery through any plan unless the holders of more senior claims and interests, such as secured and unsecured indebtedness (which is currently trading at a significant discount), are paid in full, which would require a significant and rapid and currently unanticipated improvement in business conditions to pre-COVID-19 or close to pre-COVID-19 levels," the filing said. In an effort to get a piece of the market's rebound from the coronavirus downturn, retail investors are piling into even potentially worthless stocks like Hertz. With economic conditions improving suddenly, investors are betting these bankrupt companies are now in better shape than when they limped into Chapter 11. The issue is that equity investors are behind bondholders and other creditors in a bankruptcy and will likely lose their money. But just this month, Hertz's stock is up more than 110%. Clayton said the company is aware the SEC has issues, but the regulator has not heard back yet from Hertz. When a company submits a filing to sell a security, the SEC will often submit comments back to the company asking it to improve the disclosure or any irregularities in the filing. Clayton did not elaborate specifically on what the issues were with the Hertz filing. "We at the SEC, were are trying to carry out our responsibility in the situations like this as best we can and I expect the other professionals around the situation to carry out their responsibilities as best they can," Clayton added. Later on Wednesday Hertz said in a securities filing that it suspended the planned sale of up to $500 million worth of stock. Hertz's stock rose 2.6% on Wednesday. Trading activity in names like Hertz has spiked on millennial-favored stock trading app Robinhood in the days following the bankruptcy filings, according to Robintrack, which tracks Robinhood account activity but is not affiliated with the company. Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world. Browse through recently listed homes in the Helena real estate market and find your next home! The reopening of the British tourism industry could be delayed beyond July 4, the Culture Secretary has warned. Hotels, campsites and guesthouses have been taking bookings from the start of next month after Boris Johnsons road map for exiting lockdown indicated that the tourism ban could end then. But with the deadline barely a fortnight away, Oliver Dowden has said it was still too early to say whether Britains beleaguered tourist businesses would finally be able to open their doors. Officials also warned that there could be a phased return, with relatively low-risk accommodation like campsites, caravan parks and self-catering flats and cottages allowed to reopen before hotels and bed and breakfasts, which make greater use of shared facilities. The tourism sector may now have to wait on a proposed July 4 re-start, after the Government was warned it may still be unsafe to begin mass movements Center Parcs has revealed it is pushing back bookings to July 13 at the earliest and others are likely to follow suit. Pictured: the swimming pool of the Woburn Forest branch Speaking at Wednesday nights No10 briefing, Mr Dowden said that although the industry had made a lot of progress on how to minimise the risk of the virus spreading, Government scientists had still not agreed it was safe. We have set out a road map, he said. The next stage is July 4. I very much hope that well be able to stick to that roadmap and we will see tourism return to the UK... but we can only do so when its safe. We have made a lot of progress, but the key thing is ensuring its safe. Ministers are expected to make a final decision next week on whether to give the green light for the domestic tourist industry and the wider hospitality sector to reopen on July 4. But one government source acknowledged the decision was in the balance. Every department is fighting for its own sector, the source said. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said on Wednesday that although the tourism industry had made progress on virus control, Government scientists had still not agreed it was safe The problem is that we only have limited headroom for relaxing the rules, so some very difficult decisions will have to be made. The warning came as hospitality and tourism bosses said the sector needed certainty now about the date when firms could reopen. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality, said: We need confirmation of the reopening date for hospitality businesses without any further delay. Businesses need time to prepare and the first step in giving them some much-needed clarity is confirmation of when they can open their doors again. There may be phased return to travel, with low-risk accommodation like campsites the first to be allowed to get back on their feet. Pictured: Cloud Farm Campsite in Lynton This is particularly important for hotels and tourism, where 60 per cent of bookings are made more than two weeks in advance. Caravan, camping and holiday parks were planning to re-open in the first week of July. However, Center Parcs, has revealed it is pushing this back to July 13 at the earliest and others are likely to follow suit. The decision to delay is all the more frustrating for the company as most Center Parcs across Europe re-opened this week albeit with social-distancing restrictions. Even the pools are operating in Center Parcs in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands with restrictions on the numbers allowed in at one time. This is designed to maintain a social distancing rule of 1.5m rather than the 2m required in the UK. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality has called for confirmation of the reopening date for hospitality businesses without any further delay A growing number of campsites have decided to pause or cancel all tent bookings because operators are in the dark about what safeguards will be required. The advice is expected to mean that many of the facilities, such as playgrounds and childrens clubs, will be closed, so taking away much of the fun. At the same time bars and restaurants may only operate as takeaways. Most importantly, camping and caravan sites are worried they will not be allowed to open shower and toilet blocks. If these are closed, or forced to impose social distancing and queues, many families will be put off. Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/DigitalVision, GettyImages Testosterone therapy ads promise to help aging men recapture their vitality, decrease body fat and enhance libido. But hormone treatmentswhile medically necessary for some menaren't meant to be a fountain of youth, and experts warn more research is needed to determine if such therapy could boost heart disease risks. Testosterone levels naturally decline in most men as they age. This decline is generally mild, and symptoms often are nonspecific, such as low energy, reduced muscle mass and reduced vigor. Roughly 20% of men over the age of 60 have experienced a drop in testosterone levels, though this gradual decline can begin as early as the mid-30s. While that can be frustrating, experts say it's not a clinical indication of a need for testosterone therapy, nor is there any evidence that therapy is effective for treating those symptoms. The Food and Drug Administration has limited approval of testosterone therapy to the treatment of organic hypogonadism, a dramatic drop in testosterone caused by disease or injury of the hypothalamus, pituitary gland or the testes. "If testosterone therapy is used appropriately in men with organic hypogonadism, then there is no controversy," said Dr. Shehzad Basaria, associate director of Men's Health: Aging and Metabolism at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The condition causes specific symptoms such as decreased sexual desire, breast enlargement, testicular atrophy and hot flashes. But "in middle-aged and aging men who have a slightly lower testosterone level and nonspecific symptoms due to aging or obesity, testosterone therapy is not indicated. Similarly, testosterone is not a rejuvenation drug," said Basaria, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The majority of patients seen in our clinics have symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, muscle loss or feeling sad. These symptoms are common and nonspecific, and testosterone therapy is generally not indicated in such clinical scenarios." Over the past two decades, intense direct-to-consumer marketing of hormone therapy for aging men, much of it via television ads, has more than doubled its off-label use. It's a trend experts warn is medically unwarranted and potentially harmful. The American College of Physicians, which issued new guidelines in January, recommends against prescribing testosterone therapy to boost energy, vitality or physical function, but supports its use for men experiencing sexual dysfunction. The recommendation calls for discussing potential benefits and risks with the patient and discontinuing treatment after one year if there is no improvement. "I think one of the biggest concerns about testosterone therapy is whether it is really needed," said Dr. Robert Eckel, professor of medicine and an endocrinologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado. "Erectile dysfunction is a common problem as men age, but there can be other reasons for this, such as vascular disease or nerve damage, which is more common in patients with diabetes. It is not necessarily an indication for treatment with testosterone therapy. The patient must be properly evaluated." The FDA warns against prescribing testosterone therapy for age-related hormonal decreases or anything other than a medical diagnosis of hypogonadism. Since 2015, it has required testosterone product labels to warn of a possible increased risk of heart attacks and stroke. But research about that association so far is unclear, Basaria said. "Some studies have reported higher cardiovascular risk with testosterone use but there are an equal number of studies showing that it does not increase cardiovascular risk," he said. "This discrepancy exists because no study published to date has been powered to assess cardiovascular events as the primary outcome." Eckel, president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association and a past president of the American Heart Association, agreed. "The cardiovascular disease outcome story is not convincing one way or another. I think to make a strong statement here would be a mistake." Explore further American College of Physicians issues guideline for testosterone treatment in adult men American Heart Association News covers heart and brain health. Not all views expressed in this story reflect the official position of the American Heart Association. Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org. Apple faced harsh criticism on Tuesday from regulators and the companies behind some of the most popular apps in its App Store, including Tinder and Fortnite, a sign of the growing discontent with Apple's grip on the mobile economy. The companies - Tinder parent Match Group and Fortnite owner Epic Games - each faulted Apple for its long-standing policy of collecting a portion of subscriptions and other purchases made through its App Store, a move the companies say has cut their profits and left consumers paying higher prices. Earlier in the day, the European Commission announced two investigations into how the iPhone maker treats competitors on its App Store and in its mobile payment system.The probe into the App Store was brought on by Spotify, the music-streaming service that has complained loudly about alleged mistreatment by Apple, and by an unnamed distributor of e-books and audiobooks. "We need to ensure that Apple's rules do not distort competition in markets where Apple is competing with other app developers, for example with its music streaming service Apple Music or with Apple Books," Margrethe Vestager, the commission's executive vice president for competition, said in a written statement. Every time an iPhone user subscribes to a service such as Spotify through Apple's App Store, a portion of that fee, usually between 15 and 30 percent, goes to Apple. That fee has irked companies including Match, Fortnite and Spotify, which has said it hurt its business and resulted in higher prices for its customers. Spotify has tried to encourage its customers to subscribe directly, so as to circumvent Apple's fees. But Apple has tried to block Spotify from doing so. That behavior is at the heart of the investigation, according to an announcement by the commission Tuesday. Apple says the fees are fair and help pay for the service, which it says offers a safe and secure way for customers to download apps. "It's disappointing the European Commission is advancing baseless complaints from a handful of companies who simply want a free ride, and don't want to play by the same rules as everyone else. We don't think that's right - we want to maintain a level playing field where anyone with determination and a great idea can succeed," said Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock, in an emailed statement. Epic earns revenue from Fortnite players who are willing to pay real dollars for digital currency that can be redeemed for in-game items - and Apple gets a cut of it. Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney said security has nothing to do with Apple's "extractive" fees. "The iOS App Store's monopoly protects only Apple profit, not device security." "Apple is a partner, but also a dominant platform whose actions force the vast majority of consumers to pay more for third-party apps that Apple arbitrarily defines as "digital services," Match Group said in a statement, adding Apple "squeezes industries like e-books, music and video streaming, cloud storage, gaming and online dating." "We're acutely aware of their power over us," the company added. "Apple acts as stadium owner, referee and player and tilts the playing field to favor its own services," Horacio Gutierrez, Spotify's head of global affairs and chief legal officer. "There is no doubt that Spotify would be a more successful company today were it not for Apple's conduct," he said. A new email service called Hey echoed some of Spotify's concerns, telling the tech site Protocol Tuesday that Apple was forcing the start-up to use the iOS payments system by preventing it from updating its app until it complied. "There is never in a million years a way that I am paying Apple a third of our revenue," the company's co-founder, David Heinemeier Hansson told the website. Companies rarely sound off in opposition to Apple, given the iPhone giant's immense power, popularity and influence. Apple also maintains tight, strict oversight of its App Store, potentially leaving companies like Match Group and Epic Games little choice but to work out their disagreements - or risk losing access to millions of users' iPhones and iPads. New antitrust scrutiny in the United States and Europe, however, has emboldened some smaller tech companies in recent months to speak out publicly for the first time. That includes Tile, which makes technology that helps people track their keys and other lost items. Earlier this year, the company publicly blasted Apple at a congressional hearing for introducing tweaks to its operating system, known as iOS, that it says puts competing services at a disadvantage. Tile later lobbed a complaint with the European Union. The commission has not said whether it will formally investigate those allegations. Apple has defended its software revisions, arguing that changes to iOS are designed to protect user privacy. "Our multiple attempts to engage in meaningful dialogue with Apple have been ignored and we are beginning to believe the only way to get Apple to play fair is through government action," Tile's general counsel, Kirsten Daru, wrote in an emailed statement. The move by the European Commission comes as antitrust scrutiny in the United States has moved on to focus on other technology companies such as Google. Antitrust regulators in Europe have been more aggressive in taking on the power of large technology companies. Though the cases have dragged on for many years, they've resulted in some large fines. The commission also announced a separate investigation Tuesday into Apple Pay, the company's mobile payment system that allows its customers to make in-store purchases using a wireless chip in the iPhone. In a news release, the commission said Apple dictates the terms to merchants who accept Apple Pay and limits the use of the "NFC" chip on iPhones only to Apple's own service. "It is important that Apple's measures do not deny consumers the benefits of new payment technologies, including better choice, quality, innovation and competitive prices," the commission wrote in the release. The commission said it will also focus on allegations that Apple restricts the use of Apple Pay for its competitors. Apple is one of several U.S. technology companies facing possible fines and other action in Europe for allegedly anticompetitive behavior. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon could be hit with antitrust charges for its treatment of third-party sellers on its site. Whether the investigation will lead to a change in Apple's business or a material ding to its pocket book is unknown. But Tuesday, Wall Street shrugged at the news. Apple's stock was up roughly 2.5 percent, and the company was valued at $1.5 trillion, or about 44 times the size of Spotify, whose stock was down Tuesday. George Floyd's brother on Wednesday begged the United Nations to help African Americans because "black lives do not matter in the United States", as the UN's rights chief urged reparations for centuries of discrimination. Philonise Floyd made an impassioned speech via video-link to an urgent United Nations Human Rights Council debate on "systemic racism" in the US and beyond. Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the "gratuitous brutality" of Floyd's death in police custody encapsulated racism that harmed millions of people of African descent. She also urged countries to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism and to make reparations. The council, based in Geneva, is debating a draft resolution pushing for Bachelet to investigate racism and police civil liberties violations against people of African descent in the United States. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the council two years ago. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer -- since charged with murder -- pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Amateur video of the incident sparked demonstrations and calls to address systemic racism in the United States and around the world. Philonise Floyd said his brother had been "tortured to death" as witnesses begged the officer to stop, "showing us black people the same lesson, yet again: black lives do not matter in the United States of America". "You in the United Nations are your brothers' and sisters' keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd." "I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us black people in America." He urged them to establish an independent international commission of inquiry -- one of the UN's highest-level probes, generally reserved for major crises like the Syrian conflict. Probe Proposal Dropped An initial text presented on Tuesday on behalf of 54 African countries had proposed such an inquiry. But the proposal was dropped, the resolution heavily watered down following stark opposition from Washington and some of its allies. But the proposal was dropped, the resolution heavily watered down following stark opposition from Washington and some of its allies. It now calls on Bachelet and UN rights experts to "establish the facts and circumstances relating to the systemic racism, alleged violations of international human rights law and abuses against Africans and people of African descent" by law enforcement in the US and beyond -- especially those incidents that resulted in deaths. The aim, it said, was "to ensure the accountability of perpetrators and redress for victims". In her statement to the council, Bachelet said Floyd's death had brought to head the sense of outrage felt by overlooked people and the protests were "the culmination of many generations of pain". "Behind today's racial violence, systemic racism, and discriminatory policing lies the failure to acknowledge and confront the legacy of the slave trade and colonialism," the former Chilean president said. She stressed the need to "make amends for centuries of violence and discrimination, including through formal apologies, truth-telling processes, and reparations in various forms." US Call For Transparency On Tuesday, Trump issued an order to improve policing, calling for a ban on dangerous choke holds -- except if an officer's life is at risk. The executive order encourages de-escalation training, better recruitment, sharing of data on police who have bad records, and money to support police in complicated duties related to people with mental or drug issues. However, it stopped well short of demands made at nationwide protests. Andrew Bremberg, the US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said his country was open in its commitment to addressing racial discrimination and injustice, citing Trump's executive order. "We call upon all governments to demonstrate the same level of transparency and accountability," he said. "Sadly, there are too many places in the world where governments commit grave violations of human rights and practice systematic racial discrimination while many of those assembled in Geneva are silent." It remains to be seen whether the current draft resolution will pass. Australia, South Korea and the Netherlands all issued statements in the chamber that were broadly supportive of Washington's outlook. "We have confidence in their transparent justice systems to address these issues appropriately," Australia's representative said. The UN Human Rights Council's 47 members are due to vote on the resolution following the urgent debate, which was set to conclude on Thursday. Wednesday marks only the fifth time in the council's 14-year history that it has agreed to hold an "urgent debate", which is like a special session, but within a regular session of the council. Search Keywords: Short link: Five days into the lockdown, fisherman Ganesh Nakhawa, 32, was sitting down to a lunch of fish curry and rice, and sent a picture to a friend in Mumbai. You should sell these in the city. We have no fish here, the friend texted back. Luckily, that fisherman in Karanja, Raigad, had a degree in business studies from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; and his friend, Myron Mendes, was communications manager at an NGO where he helps run campaigns for a living. Mendes got permission from his housing society to coordinate orders and connected with other housing societies to offer that cherished thing in Mumbai and rare treat in the lockdown fresh fish straight from the fisherman. Watch | HT Salutes: 3 youngsters helping Maharashtra fishermen amid lockdown Two days later, Nakhawa, armed with an e-pass (fish was an essential service in the food category) loaded 25kg of the days catch into the boot of his car and drove 90 minutes to Mumbai. Two hours on, as Nakhawa puts it, his car was empty and his pockets full. Back home, he spread the word and 15 other families joined in. He drove back later that week with 100kg of fish, then 150 (he had to take out the back seat to make room). At a time when fisherfolk all along the coast were being forced to stay home or dump the bulk of their catch because supply chains had shut and more crucially the ice factories had closed, he had found a way for his community to thrive. There were so many orders that Nakhawa got to indulge his love for Excel spreadsheetsorders placed, orders filled, orders pending, orders for next week. Customers began calling from so far away, they had to turn some down. By the second week, Nakhawa realised this could be scaled up further. As director of the Karanja Fishing Co-operative Society, he took his model to the people. Earnings had fallen by now, by about 25%, and most fisherfolk were taking their boats out only every two or three days. Given the already-slim margins of their business, many were becoming desperate. Nakhawa suggested they throw their lot in with him, leverage technology to balance supply, demand and pricing, and create an entire supply chain on their own. The co-operative society partnered with Numer8, a data analytics firm. All orders were funnelled through a single WhatsApp number. They called themselves BluCatch a name that Nakhawa had trademarked in 2017, when he first tried to use a similar online model, but saw it fail due mainly to lack of scale. This time, using their own vans and cars (and later a few rented tempos) and tying up with online delivery platforms, they rushed their fish to homes across the city. By the third week of April, BluCatch had around 600 fisherfolk across Raigad and Mumbai selling over 3,000 kg of fish a day. Eliminating the middleman has meant they can keep more of their margins, and earnings have risen by as much as 35% over pre-lockdown levels. Earnings from each carload are transferred back to each fisher family on the same day. I dont have to worry. And I dont have to wait for weeks for my money to come in. They are working more to be ready for a post-pandemic world and I am going to be with them, says Karanja fisherman Vinayak Patil, 41. If theres one downside, its that managing the whole supply chain is exhausting. Most of us havent slept in two months, Nakhawa says. Ive slept in my car, at the harbour, at friends homes. But for Nakhawa, it is a dream coming true. He quit a job in investment banking in the UK in 2011, to return to his Koli community and become a seventh-generation fisherman. What the lockdown has done is show us that it is sustainable, he says. Right now, only about 5% of Koli men with another career choice opt to go into fishing. The number is higher among women, but still no more than 30%. I want more youth coming in. And now I hope they will. (Hindustan Times and Facebook have partnered to bring you the next 15 stories of HT Salutes. HT is solely responsible for the editorial content of this series) Republican Senators including Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley have invoked the death of retired St. Louis Police captain David Dorn as proof of some kind of awful epidemic of anti-cop violence coming from the political left. Dorn was working as a security guard at a friend's pawn and jewelry shop when he was tragically shot and killed during a 2:30am robbery that was unrelated to protests against police brutality. Dorn was a black man, who was deeply beloved in the community; while his death was certainly heartbreaking, it had nothing to do with any "defund the police narrative." Pawn shops and jewelry shops do unfortunately get robbed sometimes, but not because people hate the police; these stores get robbed because there are desperate people out there who saw the risk as worth it for the potentially lucrative target. In most cases, that desperation is caused by poverty, or addiction, or mental health, or some combination of these issues the exact same issues that most of the "defund the police" crowd believe would benefit from more focused financial resources, which have otherwise been tied up in policing. But there is no actual evidence of any increase of extreme violence from the political left (not even from "Antifa"). The bulk of political violence both against civilians, and police officers continues to come from the far right. Case-in-point: Steven Carillo, a US Air Force Sergeant connected to the Boogalo movement, is facing 19 felony charges, including the alleged murder of Santa Cruz County Deputy Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller on June 6 (during which he scrawled "BOOG" on the hood of a stolen car in his own blood), and the drive-by shooting of federal protective services officer David Patrick Underwood in Oakland on May 29. "Use their anger to fuel our fire. Think outside the box. We have mobs of angry people to use to our advantage," Carillo allegedly wrote on Facebook, in an effort to recruit accomplices. This follows up on the three US military veterans who allegedly plotted a terrorist attack during the recent protests in Las Vegas. There is absolutely no logical reason beyond selfish political exploitation for anyone to try to make up boogeymen after some fantastical leftist violence, when the demonstrable truths of reality are so readily available for anyone to see. If you're concerned about violence against police, the threat comes from the right; if you're concerned about crime and desperate violence from looters, the cause is violence by the largely conservative police, and a poorly-funded social welfare system that gets ignored in favor of further militarizing the police. There are some pretty clear and easy solutions here, if we cared enough to solve the problems. Authorities charge alleged Santa Cruz deputy killer with assassinating federal cop in Oakland, link attacks to Boogaloo movement [Nate Gartrell / Mercury News] A man allegedly linked to the Boogaloo movement accused of going to a BLM protest with a homemade machine gun to kill cops [Cheri Mossburg and Theresa Waldrop / CNN] Air Force Sergeant With Ties to Extremist Group Charged in Federal Officer's Death [ Neil MacFarquhar and Thomas Gibbons-Neff / The New York Times] US Air Force sergeant charged in Boogaloo Bois murder [BBC] 17.06.2020 LISTEN Ghanaian musician Wutah Kobby has lamented that he does not have the money to pay for Government's 14 days quarantine. This follows arrangment by government to quarantine Ghanaians abroad who want to return into the country on special arrangements. A letter in circulation on Social Media suggests that the government has negotiated prices with the Kempinski Hotel and African Regent Hotel to quarantine people on arrival for 14 days. But speaking in an interview with Andy Dosty, Monitored by Ghanaian Journalist and Blogger Attractive Mustapha Nii Okai Inusah , Wutah Kobby said he is not prepared and never anticipated that he will be locked up in a way that his own countrys government will ask him to pay huge amounts of money before he returns to his homeland. According to him, he has really suffered in the United Kingdom throughout this pandemic. He said even in the UK, he has stayed above his means. It is not conducive for everybody to pay that amount of money that government is asking us to pay . The show that I came to play in the United Kingdom was canceled so I didnt perform. I was supposed to be paid after the gig and all the gigs were canceled , Wutah Kobby fumed. According to him, the only thing he is doing now is to adhere to all the safety precautions in order to be safe, stay alive, and come back to Ghana peacefully. He urges Government to open the Airports for Ghanaians stranded abroad to return. In response to a critical blood shortage, and in partnership with Versiti Blood Center of Michigan, MidMichigan Health will host multiple community blood drives in the coming weeks. Like so many hospitals across the country, MidMichigan stopped performing elective surgeries and procedures early on in the COVID-19 crisis in a further effort to decrease exposure to patients and staff. This also allowed the health system to practice conservation of supplies, said Lydia Watson, senior vice president and chief medical officer, MidMichigan Health. Now, with the continued decrease of COVID-19 cases in our health system and service area, we have reopened our services and need to ensure blood products are readily available for our patients. We urge all who are able to donate much needed blood to do so and help meet the demands of patient care. Two people who were found dead in a Vancouver-area home on Friday, including a 7-year-old girl, are determined to have died in a murder-suicide, Clark County officials said. The Clark County Medical Examiners office announced on Tuesday that Lennox Maul, 7, died of a gunshot wound to the head. The office ruled the manner of death homicide. Her father, John Maul, 40, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the medical examiners office said. The two were found in a Felida residence at 102nd Street and NW 20th Avenue, said Clark County Sheriffs Office spokesman Brent Waddell. Waddell said he didnt know whether the two lived at the residence where their bodies were found. Waddell said deputies responded to the scene around 3 p.m. after someone who was not related to the Mauls found their bodies. Waddell said its not yet clear whether the shooting took place Friday or Thursday night. He said he could not release any more information about the circumstances of the shooting. Waddell said the sheriffs office was continuing to look into the case, but there had been some delay in releasing information because detectives had been investigating another case, a suspicious death in Washougal. Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Some years ago, my wife and I toured the ancient sites where St. Paul lived and preached in Turkey. The tour guide pointed out the small heads and cracked necks on statues of Roman emperors who were also considered to be gods. This business of tearing down the statues of out of favor white men reminds me of the reasons for the microencephalic emperors that the guide offered. The powers that be put up a statue of emperor #1 soon after his installation, but then, when the Praetorian guard wanted him out, the city fathers would, nominally, at least, have to get rid of his statue and carve another. The Romans, being pinched for resources found an answer. Break the head off Emperor #1 and carve the features of Emperor #2 onto that lump of marble. Drill holes into the neck at the head end and another into the corresponding neck of the main body, and connect the two with an iron rod. Woolah! Emperor #2 has his statue. Of course, the new head was smaller and grew even smaller with successive emperors. Sic transit gloria mundi. I propose doing something similar with all of those statues that the BLM and Antifa crowd want to tear down. Bronze and our modern sensibilities require a slightly different approach. When the old hero has become shopworn, cut off the head, recast it with the visage of the new boy, and solder (or whatever you do with bronze) it onto the main body. A new hero can be presented to the worshiping world! An example might help advance the cause. Let's say MLK is dethroned because of his perceived truculence toward women. It should be easy and cheap for the then dominant radical feminists to make a statue of a woman to replace the disgraced civil rights leader. Cast the woman's head with her features, long hair, and the slight mustache that feminists sport. Solder this new head to the existing body. The mainstream press can explain the man's suit because she must be trans...or something. Maybe foreseeing the evanescence of earthly fame might deter some of these iconoclasts (from the Greek meaning "image-breakers"). Erwin Haas is a retired infectious diseases physician, former flight surgeon in Vietnam, and city commissioner in Kentwood, Mich. They split in 2018 amid reports he was a sex addict and had cheated on her with two of her friends. But Kieran Hayler has refuted the notion that he has a sex addiction, as he claimed he and ex-wife Katie Price 'made up' the whole thing. Speaking during a livestream interview with Stevie Richie on Tuesday, the stripper, 33, said: 'I definitely don't have a sex addiction. It was all made up. I don't have a sex addiction. It's not true... I don't.' Candid: Katie Price's ex-husband Kieran Hayler claimed in an interview on Tuesday that the former couple 'MADE UP' his sex addiction after he cheated multiple times Slamming their relationship, he went on: 'She said she loved Pete [Andre] when we were married... but to be honest, whatever. 'That goes to show how much our relationship meant to us. I am happier now I'm in a real relationship.' MailOnline have contacted Katie's representative for comment. Katie and Kieran wed in 2013 before parting ways in May 2018, and it was reported in March that their divorce was 'weeks away' from being finalised. Happier times: Katie and Kieran wed in 2013 before parting ways in May 2018 amid reports he had cheated on her with two of her friends (pictured in 2017) The pair share children Jett, six, and Bunny, five, together, while Katie shares son Junior, 15, and Princess, 12, with ex-husband Peter, and son Harvey, 18, with Dwight Yorke who decided he wanted nothing to do with her after she fell pregnant. Katie and Kieran's seemingly sturdy marriage was first rocked to its core in 2014 when Katie discovered Kieran and close pal Jane Poutney had become intimate on a sun-lounger during a group holiday to Cape Verde. Katie and Jane had known each other for 20 years when the 10-month affair came to light, and the latter was even maid of honour at Katie's weddings to Alex Reid and Kieran. After Katie rumbled the pair's affair, which started when she was heavily pregnant with Jett and in hospital, and made Kieran undergo a lie detector test, she took to Twitter to announce she was divorcing him. Days before she had revealed she was six-months pregnant with daughter Bunny. She later made the shocking revelation that Kieran had bedded another close friend, former glamour model Chrissy Thomas, who Katie had known since she was 18. After Kieran admitted to sex addiction, Katie reconciled with him, but in 2017 revealed he had been having an affair with their children's nanny - and the couple went their separate ways. Kieran is now engaged to fiancee Michelle Penticost, who he proposed to in the Maldives in March after just over a year of dating, and the pair had hoped to tie the knot in 2020 but are now looking to wed in 2021. In an interview with Simon Gross for Get Gossy with Grossy last month, Kieran revealed: 'We plan on getting married in 2021 when things get back to normal.' Of whether he had a sex addiction, Kieran claimed it 'was all made up' and was 'not true' as he criticised their marriage (pictured in 2016) Although Kieran is disappointed he can't make Michelle his wife this year, he knows when their special day comes around it will be worth the wait because she is his ideal woman. When asked if Michelle is his soulmate, he replied: 'Yeah, we bounce off each other.' Kieran has been spending his time in lockdown looking after his two children Jett and Bunny, but the children have also visited their mother, as they went to stay with her on her 42nd birthday. Family: The pair share children Jett and Bunny (pictured) while Katie shares son Junior and daughter Princess with ex-husband Peter Andre, and son Harvey with Dwight Yorke NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The ever-growing series of blockchain conferences hosted by CoinGeek is coming to New York (October) for a unique hybrid live & livestream experience. The last CoinGeek Conference in London (Feb 2020) saw over 1,000 attendees and a live stream seen by over 30,000 viewers. For obvious reasons the in-person attendee numbers will be limited according to governmental advice, so CoinGeek NYC will broadcast live from New York and London studios enabling both live and virtual attendees from around world participate in this global event. Professionals from leading blockchain start-ups, global enterprises, crypto mining groups, investors, and others in the financial community are coming to learn about exciting developments for Bitcoin SV (BSV), as well as the benefits of massive blockchain scaling for miners, application developers, and enterprises. The three-day event in October will feature technical topics about how BSV's massively-scaled blockchain unlocks technical capabilities and enables business applications not possible on other platforms. Attendees will also witness presentations from the three finalists of Bitcoin Association's 3rd Hackathon where the winners enjoy $100,000 of investment. Viewers and attendees can also expect some of the more regular but no less popular features including; another intimate conversation with nChain Chief Scientist and creator of Bitcoin Dr. Craig S. Wright (Satoshi Nakamoto) about Bitcoin's history; and yes, there will be a classic CoinGeek Afterparty at one of New York's awesome rooftop venues. Notable speakers include host Bitcoin Association President Jimmy Nguyen, nChain Chief Technology Officer Steve Shadders, and many more to be announced. Each of the three days will also have a mainstream keynote speaker who will have a free reign to talk about related but not necessarily BSV focused London saw Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales who proved to be a controversial debate trigger. CoinGeek are not afraid to have robust debates about all aspects of the Bitcoin economy. For more information and tickets please see www.coingeekconference.com. SOURCE CoinGeek WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday as investors fretted about a second wave of coronavirus infections in China. Benchmark Brent crude declined 0.7 percent to $40.67 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 1.1 percent at $37.96. Both benchmarks jumped over 3 percent on Tuesday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) raised its 2020 oil demand forecast to 91.7 million barrels per day (bpd) and data showed U.S. retail sales rebounded sharply in May after two months of declines. Beijing reported 31 new cases of novel coronavirus for June 16, four more than the day before and taking the total number of cases to 137 in six days. Elsewhere, South Korea confirmed 43 more coronavirus cases in 24 hours, Brazil reported a record 34,918 new infections and India registered over 10,000 new Covid-19 cases for the fifth day in a row, while new coronavirus infections hit record highs in six U.S. states on Tuesday. New coronavirus outbreaks and geopolitical tensions offset investor optimism stemming from signs of a U.S. economic recovery. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in action after the Army clashed with Chinese troops at a disputed border site in eastern Ladakh. North Korea rejected a South Korea offer to send special envoys and vowed to send back troops to the border. After the American Petroleum Institute report showed a rise in U.S. crude and fuel inventories, investors now await official data from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration for further direction. A panel led by oil cartel Opec will meet on Thursday to further discuss ways to strengthen and review compliance with producers' output cut promises. 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. Our Elites Suffer From China Envy Commentary Cui bono (who profits), when tens of thousands of gullible conformists march in the streets, even loot and maim, protesting things that were already made illegal decades ago? Not the small-business owners or their workers, not the unemployed or the marginally employed, not the police officer on the brink of resigning (or already past the brink), not those ill from a pandemic, not the homeless, not the addict trying to kick drugs, not those posting to the Instagram account @santamonicaproblems, not the unfortunate folks who woke up one morning to find they were living in an autonomous zone with no security, not the residents of Chicagos black communities whose children are shot on the sidewalks almost every day, not even the myriad demonstrators themselves. Certainly not those of whatever race they are and whatever affiliation, whatever degree they think black lives matter (upper or lower case) or that Antifa is an organization that fights for equality in American lives. Who benefits, then, from our national nervous breakdown that never seems to end? It is the globalist elites who still govern most of our society today, despite the invasion of Donald Trump. And those elites wish to continue that rule through what they fervently hope will come as the outcome of these demonstrationsmore government control, particularly government control that helps them. They have seen it done elsewhere with results they might want to emulate, at least until recently. Call it China Envy. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has, over the years, found a way to regulate Chinese society to an extraordinary degree via a form of communism that maximizes profits and power for those (party) elites while holding the masses largely at bay. No wonder our elites are jealous. People call ours globalists but theyre not really global. Theyre selectively global, but actually just greedy and power hungry, like the communists in China. Whether planned or not, or partially planned, the current confluence of catastrophes has offered them an opportunity to advance their cause against their natural adversary, Trump. In macro, thats the landscape of election 2020the globalist elites, represented (for the moment anyway) by Joe Biden, versus the American people, represented by Trump. Many of those American people, heavily influenced by the media and repelled by the presidents rhetoric, dont realize hes representing them, but he is. Ignorant, often willfully, they oppose him tooth and nail. An equal number, or possibly larger, as the 1 million-plus requesting tickets to his Tulsa rally indicates, supports Trump. Were in the midst of a Battle Royale for the soul of our nation, whether it remains more or less the democratic republic the Founders envisioned or becomes an Americanized version of what has been evolved by the CCP. If the latter, ironically, then such groups as Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa will be kicked to the curb once victory has been achieved and secured. Elites have little or no interest in such revolutionary riffraff, even though they are currently being feted not only by the usual Democratic Party suspects, but by many of the lions of corporate America. BLM is being coopted, though its supporters dont realize it. Soon enough they will be dispensed with. Antifa is already considered de trop. Elites dont want to smash the state. They want to strengthen and formalize it in the Chinese communist tradition for their own advantage (cf. McKinsey & Company, our most powerful consulting firm, which works with the Chinese on the Belt and Road Initiative and with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on New Yorks reopening). And if the CCP falls apart due to the mishandling of the virus it pioneered, so much the better. The globalists will eagerly replace it, while closely replicating what its done. As we know, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Roger L. Simon is a prize-winning author, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, and the co-founder of PJ Media. His most recent books are I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasnt Already (non-fiction) and The GOAT (fiction). Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The US Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorates Foreign Military Sales (FMS) construction division has awarded a $524-million contract for setting up its operational fighter wing within the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar, by 2022. The contract was awarded to a joint venture between Bahadir Construction Engineering Contracting and Trading Company & Impresa Costruzioni Giuseppe Maltauro. Over the next two years, approximately 35 buildings to include training, simulators, maintenance, supply, administrative facilities, and a mosque will be constructed on the campus designed by Aecom, to support three F-15QA squadrons with personnel who will train at the 65- acre complex. We worked closely with the [Fighter Bomber Directorates] F-15 Qatar Program Office to provide the necessary facilities and infrastructure to support the beddown of 48 [F-15] aircraft at Al Udeid Air Base for Qatar, said JP Wedding, the divisions Qatar Section Chief. This is the first time Qatar has purchased F-15s, so there are a lot of unique requirements for the facilities to be able to support the aircraft, he stated. Manufactured by Boeing, the F-15QA is considered to be one of the most advanced fighter jets ever built, with next generation technology such as fly-by-wire flight controls, electronic warfare capabilities, modernised sensors, and radar. Before the fleet of F-15QAs can even touch the ground in Qatar, the complex at Al Udeid Air Base must be completed, said the section chief. We have folks in country [Qatar] as well as engagement from our team here [at Wright-Patterson AFB] working with the Qataris to ensure the facilities are properly designed, constructed, and in place to receive the weapon system so the Qataris can operate and maintain it, remarked Dr Carlos Braziel, Chief of the International Construction Division. Collaboration, and coordination is the key and we will continue to do this throughout the life span of the construction project. Additional facilities that will be constructed include sunshades, interior aircraft storage to protect the jets from the harsh environmental climate of the Middle East, as well as a wing headquarters building, entry control points, infrastructure, landscaping, roads, and community spaces. SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ridecell Inc., the leading platform provider for shared mobility operators, today announced that Groupe Renault is using the Ridecell High-yield Mobility Platform to power the new ZITY electric carsharing service in Paris. ZITY first launched its carsharing service in Madrid using the Ridecell technology platform with a fleet that has now expanded to 800 electric cars, rented up to 10x per day. The Ridecell platform enables ZITY customers to have an experience that is almost as easy as using a private vehicle, including contactless rental, payment, verification, and on-demand scheduling through the app. "Transportation is changing as the world experiences enormous disruptions and transformations," said Javier Mateos, CEO of ZITY. "Working with Ridecell has helped us stay agile through this challenging time. We launched the service during the early phases of the pandemic and initially reconfigured the service to offer discounted, clean and safe rides for medical workers and the Red Cross. The Ridecell platform lets us respond to our customer's needs so we can be there for them no matter what may come." The ZITY France carsharing fleet comprises of 500 five-seater Renault ZOE free-floating electric vehicles in Paris and Clichy. The ZITY service takes full advantage of the Ridecell platform, including end-to-end automation, instant driver verification, payment processing, on-demand scheduling, and custom analytics. Customers can use the ZITY app to easily reserve, access, and return vehicles at any time of day or night. "Our collaboration with ZITY in Madrid has been an overwhelming success, and we are excited to continue our partnership as they expand their service in France," said Aarjav Trivedi, CEO of Ridecell. "Keeping fleets operational and optimized is the key to profitability. Our high-yield mobility platform helps mobility companies run efficient and delightful services, so companies like ZITY can continue to grow and succeed." Ridecell offers the world's only end-to-end platform for all types of mobility, including car sharing, ridehailing, and short-term vehicle subscriptions. The platform is designed to create high-yield mobility businesses for greater profitability. For more information, visit www.ridecell.com. About Ridecell Ridecell helps companies build and operate profitable mobility businesses. With the company's High-yield Mobility SaaS toolkit of intelligent software, business services, and ecosystem partners, Ridecell customers maximize three key profit drivers: customer experience, fleet utilization, and operational efficiency. Founded in 2009, today, Ridecell powers some of the most successful mobility services in cities across Europe and North America. These services include ZITY from Ferrovial and Groupe Renault, Gig Car Share from AAA, and Blu Smart EV ridesharing service. Ridecell is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with more than 170 employees in offices across the globe. Media Contact: Jane Gideon Tel: 415-682-9292 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Ridecell Inc. Related Links http://www.ridecell.com/ A North Carolina legislator used his personal Facebook page to call Black Lives Matter protesters 'ignorant thugs,' 'criminals,' 'domestic terrorists' and 'vermin.' Cabarrus County Republican Rep. Larry Pittman posted the comments online after becoming frustrated at several weeks of protests. 'This is war,' he wrote in a lengthy Facebook posting on Monday. 'Our people have a right to expect our leaders to be on our side, not surrender to the lawless, godless mob.' North Carolina state lawmaker, Rep. Larry Pittman (R), has called Black Lives Matter protestors 'vermin' In a lengthy Facebook posting, Rep. Larry Pittman (R) suggested those who resisted arrest should be shot Pittman singled out the six-block area of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood that protesters have established as an 'autonomous zone' free of police 'These vermin don't care about George Floyd or any other individual, except maybe their financial sponsor, George Soros,' Pittman, who is a pastor, wrote. 'They are bent on destroying our country and our way of life, and they will use any tragedy, any slogan, any excuse to convince clueless people that their radical injustice is justice.' His diatribe didn't end there. Pittman, 65, continued saying that if he were in charge, he would order police to arrest 'these domestic terrorists.' 'Whatever stolen goods or money you recover from them will go to help the business owners whose places of business have been invaded If they resist and attack you, shoot them,' Pittman wrote. He also went on to mock police officers who decided to 'take a knee' when faced with protesters. Pittman accused Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan (D), pictured, of 'betraying the citizens by allowing the anti-American actions of ignorant thugs to go unchallenged.' 'Law and order must be restored,' he vented. 'Innocent citizens have a right to expect elected officials and law enforcement officers to protect them and their property. They also have a right to defend themselves with deadly force if they are able.' 'I am thoroughly disgusted by the gutless wonders in public office who are bowing down to Black Lives Matter. The mayor of Seattle has betrayed the citizens there by allowing the anti-American actions of those ignorant thugs to go unchallenged. Even some police officers are giving in to the pressure to kneel down to these criminals,' Pittman's post read. His post came as a response to nationwide protests that have been seen across the country following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Protestors make their way along the route during a peaceful George Floyd protest through the Town of East Spencer, North Carolina last week On Pittman's own Facebook page, people were quick to fight back. 'We are at war? Vermin? Thugs? You, Mr. Pitman, have a big problem! You should have no position of authority with that attitude,' wrote one user. 'You are racist and the nerve of you calling yourself a Christian! Racist people like you is why rioting is taking place! You give Cabarrus County a bad name . You should remove yourself!' added another angry resident. Pittman is running for his fifth term against Democrat Gail Young in November. Young had her own response to Pittman's outburst. 'This is just the latest in a long series of incendiary and divisive comments from Rep. Pittman, and I'm deeply disappointed that he would choose to incite violence in these already difficult times for so many families,' Young said in a statement. 'I'll be a leader who seeks to bring us together and I'll work to make sure people in Cabarrus County feel safe and healthy.' Pittman also went on to mock police officers who decided to 'take a knee' when faced with protesters. Pictured, Officers with the Wilmington Police Department take a knee after protesters protestors chanted to 'Take a knee for George' last month This weekend, Pittman declared on his page how he was going to ignore social distancing rules in the state of North Carolina. 'I haven't drunk [Gov. Roy] Cooper's Kool-aid,' he wrote. 'I'm not going to freak out over someone getting close to me without a mask or gloves. The risk has been seriously exaggerated in order to control people.' Pittman has not shied away from controversy in the past. In 2017 he compared Abraham Lincoln to Hitler. 'Lincoln was the same sort of tyrant, and personally responsible for the deaths of over 800,000 Americans in a war that was unnecessary and unconstitutional,' he wrote. He then tried to clarify his statement: 'While both Lincoln and Hitler were obviously bad guys, what Hitler did was worse and I apologize if people thought I was putting them in the same league.' In 2011 he wrote to the North Carolina General Assembly urging for a return to public hangings. Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) on Wednesday cosponsored legislation that would empower Americans to sue Big Tech companies for selectively censoring or suppressing political speech. The bill, the Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act, would also prohibit Big Tech companies from receiving immunity under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act unless they update their terms of service to pledge to operate in good faith and pay monetary damages if they violate that pledge. The bill was introduced by Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Marco Rubio (R-Fl.), Mike Braun (R-In.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ar.). Weve watched Big Tech silence Americans without repercussions for far too long, said Senator Loeffler. Its clear Section 230s definition of good faith is not sufficient. This legislation I am cosponsoring will give everyday Americans the ability to hold massive, powerful tech companies accountable for their blatant effort to make some political opinions voiceless. The Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act provides that Big Tech companies who want to receive section 230 immunity must bind themselves contractually to a duty of good faith. Under this bill: Locations from Phu Quoc to Cat Ba islands are already working to attract tourists In the latest e-forum themed on the reopening of the Vietnamese hospitality market, held by Savills Hotels with VIR as the media partner last week, industrial experts gave analyses of the tourism and holiday market in the aftermath of COVID-19. According to Mauro Gasparotti, director of Savills Hotels Asia-Pacific, the decision to reopen a large number of properties was a remarkably bold move by Vietnamese owners and it has given a strong sign of confidence to the hospitality market. We can also see from the way many companies have contributed to the success of the e-forum an impressively strong collaboration and willingness to work together towards a recovery, Gasparotti said. Drive-by destinations such as Vung Tau, Dalat, Phan Thiet, Can Tho, and Halong have experienced a good recovery as all lockdowns have been lifted. Meanwhile holiday destinations more likely to be reached via air have not seen much demand. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Citys performance has been increasing, but slowly. Over the weekends, there is much more demand for driving markets than fly-by markets due to recovery of domestic markets. Drive-by markets are preferable mainly because of closer distances. We will see this trend until international flights are restarted, Gasparotti added. The pandemic has widely impacted hotels worldwide. It was a tough time for many countries in the ASEAN region, with most hotel occupancies falling below as much as 25 per cent. Hotels across Asia remain closed due to various government restrictions. The market is now pinning hopes on a comeback this month as some markets have been reopened such as Vietnam and Malaysia. In a recent survey by Savills Vietnam on the business situation following the reopening of the hospitality market, hotels and resorts reopened almost everywhere nationwide with specific containment measures. The survey, involving 635 hotels and resorts of 4- and 5-star standard, found that 78 per cent or 493 properties reopened, most with full room inventories and facilities and a few limited facilities to better manage costs. Some 22 per cent of respondents also indicated they would remain closed until the international market recovers. The majority of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi properties wanted to retain key personnel and avoid losing market share in the event of an early rebound while those in the main coastal destinations were a little more prudent with lower reopening rates such as 58 per cent in Phu Quoc and 55 per cent in Quang Nam. Overall, business will be slow in the upcoming months even if average occupancies increased to around 16 per cent during the first few weeks of May, showing initial signs of rebounding. However, that increase was mainly driven by drive-to destinations such as Ho Tram Long Hai, Dalat, and Vung Tau, which in certain cases reached full occupancy during weekends with travellers still trying to avoid airports. Upscale and luxury city hotels that were heavily reliant on international and corporate demand still maintain single digit occupancies, with some running as low as 5 per cent. Meanwhile, a range of brand new hotels opened recently, as soon as the COVID-19 crisis eased in Vietnam. The Shilla Hotels & Resorts, a representative of South Korea, recently launched its first property in the country with a brand-new lifestyle resort Shilla Monogram Quangnam Danang. Its unique architecture, services, and wide-ranging facilities promise to be a new tourism symbol for both Danang and Quang Nam. Boasting 309 rooms, including one luxurious beachfront Monogram Villa, this grand resort brings a distinctively sophisticated lifestyle and leisure experience to anyone travelling to Vietnams Central Coast. Elsewhere, viewing Lan Ha Bay and the ecologically diverse Cat Ba National Park, Hotel Perle dOrient Cat Ba - MGallery is the 34th member from famous international operator Accor in Vietnam. Also on Cat Ba Island in the north, a new cable car link over the sea with the worlds highest track rope began operation. The cable car system traverses nearly 4,000 metres of sea and connects Dong Bai commune on Cat Hai Island to Phu Long commune on Cat Ba Island. Invested by giant second-home developer Sun Group, this system expects to boost tourism on Cat Ba with 60 cars capable of carrying 30 passengers each. In Haiphong, the largest port city in northern Vietnam, Japanese chain Okura Nikko Hotels is ready to launch Hotel Nikko Haiphong. The hotel presents 250 rooms and suites designed under the brands principles of simplicity and elegance, offering guests a truly comfortable stay with the wonderful view of the peaceful Lach Tray River. Meanwhile, other properties with long-term guests are able to maintain higher occupancies. The anticipated local demand, although representing 83 per cent of total tourists last year, is a much more price-sensitive cohort than international leisure and corporate guests. Their accommodation needs are typically captured by budget and midscale properties and have little impact on 4- and 5-star city hotel performance. However, the local leisure demand may be captured by upscale resorts if the right promotions are there, according to Savills Hotels. OTTAWA - Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal says he has been revolted by recent videotaped examples of "police brutality" against Indigenous People in Canada. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Minister of Northern Affairs Dan Vandal rises during a meeting of the Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Tuesday, June 9, 2020. Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal says he's been revolted by recent videotaped examples of "police brutality" against Indigenous People in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang OTTAWA - Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal says he has been revolted by recent videotaped examples of "police brutality" against Indigenous People in Canada. Vandal, who is Metis, told a House of Commons committee Tuesday that systemic racism against Indigenous People stems from the colonial attitude of Canada's founding government, whose top policy objectives were "to civilize, to Christianize and to assimilate Indigenous People into Canadian life." "That's really the basis of the racism. It needs to stop," he told the Indigenous and northern affairs committee. "It needs a dramatic government intervention and I hope our government will be able to lead the way because the images that we saw of police brutality are absolutely unacceptable. "We need to stop the hate, the violence and we need to stop the racism." Video surfaced earlier this month of an Inuk man being knocked over by the door of an RCMP vehicle in Nunavut and of an Alberta First Nations chief, Allan Adam, being tackled and punched in the head by a Mountie during an arrest over an expired licence plate. As well, two Indigenous People have been shot dead by police in New Brunswick this month Chantel Moore during what was supposed to be a wellness check by Edmundston police department officers and Rodney Levi after the RCMP was called to deal with an "unwanted person" at a barbecue. "For me personally, they're revolting," Vandal said of the images of some of those incidents widely shown on television and online. "It's something that really our country, our society can no longer put up with." When he first got involved in local politics in his hometown of Winnipeg 20 years ago, Vandal said the Aboriginal justice inquiry was under way in Manitoba, which eventually came up with "a big book of recommendations" for addressing discrimination faced by Indigenous People from police, the courts and the prison system. "The bottom line is 20-some years later there's not a lot of change in the city of Winnipeg. We've had three shootings of young Indigenous People in the last six months and that's unacceptable." Vandal was joined at the virtual committee meeting by Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett and Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller, who also condemned the recent incidents. "We have all been upset by the images on our screens and the undeniable evidence of systemic racism in Canada," said Bennett. 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. "Right now, we are in a moment when Canadians are recognizing that there's unfairness built into our systems, that these systems have always been unfair towards Indigenous Peoples," said Miller. Miller and Bennett both pointed to community-based Indigenous policing, which the government is working to advance, as part of the solution. Vandal said the government's commitment to self-determination for Indigenous communities so that they can "take care of their own governance ... whether it's child and family services, whether it's policing, whether it's health, I mean that basic philosophy I think is going to bring many more positive returns than what we've been doing thus far." New Democrat MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, who represents Nunavut, took issue with non-Indigenous Canadians discussing the discrimination faced by Indigenous People. "I will say it's been very difficult to listen to the conversations that have been going on and Indigenous experiences being discussed as if non-Indigenous peoples will ever be able to fully grasp what it means to be Indigenous in Canada," she said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2020. S erco can definitely count itself among the busiest companies during lockdown. The outsourcer has had to respond to rapid requests from governments, including running the first UK drive-thru testing centre and in Australia it had to house 1,500 quarantined travellers at a week's notice However, the City was focused on what had gone before Covid - as the group said first-half revenues were up 23% helped by a US acquisition last year - and the restoration of financial guidance for the rest of the year. The forecasts - pulled in April amid the virus crisis - are now for 3.7 billion of revenues this year, against previous forecasts of 3.4 billion to 3.5 billion and profits of 145 million - estimates were previously for 135 million to 150 million. "We believe that it is better to say what we believe to be the case and give some guidance rather than none," Serco said. Serco noted seven of its staff had died from Covid. Chief executive Rupert Soames told the Standard his priority this year is to help the Government reboot the economy. We do one thing which is to serve governments. Governments where we operate across Europe, the US, Australia and the Middle East have moved with remarkable pace to situations where they are dealing with unknowns. We will help them in their efforts to improve the economy over the next year. The outsourcer also reinstated financial guidance for the year, pleasing analysts at Peel Hunt. They said: The reinstating of FY20 guidance reflects the resilience of the business as a supplier of critical services to the government and the strength of the order book. Serco has good headroom against both leverage covenants and facilities, and forecast leverage is low. The shares jumped 18% to 158p. Also on the up was Kingfisher. The B&Q owner has spent several years as unloved stock, waiting for someone to give it a makeover. Newish chief executive Thierry Garnier today set out his vision for the DIY chain: with lower costs, a mobile first strategy and decisions devolved to its operating companies across Europe. Although the future of its stores remains unclear, the Covid-19 crisis has pushed the group, which also owns Screwfix, to focus on its online operations. Its annual results looked like a wonky shelf: profits plunged 5.2% to 544 million on sales down 1.5% to 11.5 billion. But investors decided to focus on the positives of the new strategy, as well as an improvement in recent trading with sales up 21.8% in the quarter to June 13. B&Q stores did not legally have to shut in lockdown but were closed amid distancing concerns, and sales have surged since reopening. Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, commented: There are early signs that Kingfisher has at last grasped the nettle in reshaping a business fit for future purpose. Shares rose 5% to 213p and Kingfisher is on track to rejoin the FTSE 100 this month after only being relegated in March. The FTSE 100 improved for the second successive session up a modest 52.26 points at 6295.35 as investors balanced speculation of a massive public spending plan by Donald Trump with growing concerns over the new Covid outbreak in Beijing. Bookmaker William Hill saw shares tumble 5% to 131.5p after it raised 224 million at 128p a share to shore up its balance sheet. Galliford Try was on the rise after it won a 85 million contract to help create hundreds of new homes at a major new Tottenham Hale development. The construction outsourcer has won the contract from developer Argent Related to build 281 homes as part of a 500 million development includes over 1000 homes, a health centre, shops and a cinema next to Tottenham Hale station. Galliford shares rose 7% to 123p. Good morning, Bay Area. Its Wednesday, June 17, and federal officials say two recent Bay Area killings of law enforcement officers are connected. Heres what you need to know to start your day. Surely, Rafael Arias thought, it must have been the spicy fish and rice hed eaten the day before. The 42-year-old Oakland restaurant worker could think of no other reason for suddenly feeling ill. It was late March, and the novel coronavirus had begun to take hold in the Bay Area. The week before, the Oakland restaurant where Arias had worked as a barback closed its doors. As his fever, aches and confusion worsened, Arias sensed he might have the virus. He decided to begin chronicling his days in a handwritten journal, to memorialize what he believed might be a descent to death. With no health insurance and alone in his home, Rafael Arias spent weeks fighting for his life, sometimes hallucinating and gasping for air. Through nearly all of it, he was conscious, remembering every painful detail. This is his diary of his battle with the coronavirus. Cases formally linked by FBI An Air Force sergeant suspected in the fatal shooting of a Santa Cruz County Sheriffs deputy on June 6 allegedly shot and killed a federal security guard in Oakland a week earlier, federal authorities said on Tuesday as they announced charges against him and an alleged accomplice. Steven Carrillo, who has been stationed at Travis Air Force Base since 2018, allegedly took advantage of the nearby protests in Oakland, which consumed much of law enforcements attention that night. Robert Alvin Justus Jr. is accused of driving the van involved in the crimes. They came to Oakland to kill cops, FBI Special Agent in Charge John Bennett said Tuesday. Both men are believed to be supporters of a right-wing, anti-government movement that seeks to spark a civil war and whose members have seized on recent anti-brutality protests against the police to incite violence, authorities said. A first in treatment studies Matthew Horwood / Getty Images A steroid long used in hospitals to control inflammation significantly reduced fatalities in seriously ill COVID-19 patients during a drug trial, marking the first time any coronavirus treatment has proven to prevent deaths, said a University of Oxford study released Tuesday. The drug dexamethasone reduced deaths among patients on ventilators by one-third and cut fatalities for people receiving oxygen by one-fifth in a drug trial involving 6,425 coronavirus patients in the United Kingdom, university scientists said. Most medical professionals in the Bay Area said the results are encouraging, Peter Fimrite reports, but they cautioned people not to get too excited and make a run on stores looking for the drug, especially given that it appears to work only on severely ill patients. Computer model study: Flushing a toilet can disperse the novel coronavirus 3 feet above the commode and suspend it in the air for more than a minute, according to one study. Guilty, your honor Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press Pacific Gas and Electric Co. formally pleaded guilty Tuesday to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter over its responsibility for Californias deadliest and most destructive wildfire. Bill Johnson, CEO of PG&E Corp., the utilitys parent company, personally entered each of the pleas at a hearing in Chico. One by one, the judge read aloud the names of the victims, mostly the elderly and infirm, who had suffered horrific, preventable deaths. The court projected their photos onto the wall. Mask pulled down, Johnson took in each picture as he entered the guilty pleas on behalf of his company. The fire nearly leveled the town of Paradise and surrounding areas more than one and a half years ago, and investigators found that it was started by an old power line that PG&E allowed to deteriorate. Read more from reporter J.D. Morris. Timeline: Northern Californias most destructive wildfires. Around the Bay Ballot deadline day: A proposal to tax companies with high-paid executives heads to San Franciscos November ballot, another measure would simplify permits for small business, and Mayor Breed proposes a parcel tax to fund teacher wages. Off-the-cuff remarks: Healdsburg mayor resigns after refusing to support inquiry into police policies. 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. Dramatic drop-off: Bay Area home sales fall by half in May vs. last year; median price is down 2.5%. AB5 challenge: S.F. district attorney sues DoorDash, alleging worker misclassification. Salad robots, smoothie robots and vertical farms: Bay Area food automation goes from niche to necessity during pandemic. 5,000 backup officers: California Highway Patrol has spent $38 million responding to protests against police brutality and racism. Narrowly avoided: Man escapes death on BART tracks in Berkeley after woman allegedly pushes him in unprovoked attack. From Phil Matier: On S.F.s Larch Street, as the tents move in, the residents move out. In the Studio Justin Sullivan / Getty Images 2018 San Francisco Police Chief William Scott says he feels conflicted as a black man and police officer watching national protests against police brutality. He supports calls for San Francisco's department to be defunded and for officers' responsibilities to be narrowed and he explains why on the Fifth & Mission podcast. Listen here. More: Fifth & Mission: Police Reform Promises Made, Often Broken data journalist Joaquin Palomino on how police use-of-force cases have and havent changed. Total SF (in Exile): Chronicle Editor in Chief Audrey Coopers exit interview including Heather Knights lightning round of San Francisco questions. Bay Briefing is written by Taylor Kate Brown and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact Brown at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com. Collection of David Meeker , Author provided Ernest Hemingway was affectionately called Papa, but what kind of dad was he? In my role as Associate Editor of the Hemingway Letters Project, I spend my time investigating the approximately 6,000 letters sent by Hemingway, 85% of which are now being published for the first time in a multivolume series. The latest volume the fifth spans his letters from January 1932 through May 1934 and gives us an intimate look into Hemingways daily life, not only as a writer and a sportsman, but also as a father. During this period, Hemingway explored the emotional depths of fatherhood in his fiction. But his letters show that parenting could be a distraction from what mattered most to him: his writing. No alibis in the writing business Hemingway had three sons. His oldest, John nicknamed Bumby was born to Ernest and his first wife, Hadley, when Ernest was 24 years old. He had Patrick and Gregory with his second wife, Pauline. Hemingway initially approached fatherhood with some ambivalence. In her 1933 memoir The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein recalls that one evening Hemingway came to visit and announcedwith great bitterness that he was too young to be a father. As the fifth volume of letters opens in January 1932, Hemingway is trying to finish Death in the Afternoon, his nonfiction account of bullfighting, in a household with a six-week-old baby, a three-year-old who ingests ant poison and nearly dies, a wife still recovering from a C-section, along with all the quotidian problems of home ownership, from a leaky roof to faulty wiring. Hemingway explained to his mother-in-law, Mary Pfeiffer, that if his latest book fell short, he couldnt simply take readers aside and say, But you ought to see what a big boy Gregory isand you ought to see our wonderful water-work system and I go to church every Sunday and am a good father to my family or as good as I can be. There are no alibis in the writing business, Hemingway continued, and a man is a fool to allow anything, even family, to interrupt his work. Taking refuge in domestic successes, he added, is merely a form of quitting. Story continues For Hemingway, work didnt simply entail sitting at a desk and writing. It also included the various adventures he was famous for the fishing, hunting, traveling and socializing with the people he met along the way. Though he would teach the boys to fish and shoot when they were older, when they were very young he didnt hesitate to leave them with nannies or extended family for long stretches of time. This separation was particularly hard on the youngest, Gregory, who, from a very young age, was left for months in the care of Ada Stern, a governess who lived up to her last name. Patrick sometimes joined his parents on their travels or stayed with other relatives. Bumby, the oldest, divided his time between his father and his mother in Paris. The childrens lives were so peripatetic that at the Letters Project we maintain a spreadsheet to keep track of their whereabouts at any given time. Papa explores fathers and sons in his fiction However, it would not be accurate to say that Hemingway did not care about his children. In the latest volume of letters, three are addressed to Patrick, two of them decorated with circled dots, a Hemingway family tradition called toosies, which represented kisses. Princeton University Library , Author provided In Hemingways fiction, we can see the depth of that paternal feeling, and in his letters, the domestic moments that inspired him. In November 1932, with his two youngest sons ill with whooping cough and being cared for by their mother at their grandparents home in Arkansas, Hemingway postponed a trip to New York to stay in Key West with Bumby. He is a good kid and a good companion, Hemingway wrote his editor, Maxwell Perkins, but I do not want to drag him around the speakies [bars] too much. That same month Hemingway worked on the story of a father and son traveling together that would become Fathers and Sons in the collection Winner Take Nothing. Its one of the only stories in which Nick Adams a semi-autobiographical recurring character is portrayed as a parent, and the reflective, melancholy piece was written just three years after Hemingways own father had died by suicide. In the story, Nick is driving along a stretch of highway in the countryside with his son asleep on the seat by his side when he starts thinking about his father. Nick recalls many details about him: his eyesight, good; his body odor, bad; his advice on hunting, wise; his advice about sex, unsound. He reflects on viewing his fathers face after the undertaker had made certain dashingly executed repairs of doubtful artistic merit. Nick is surprised when his son starts to speak to him because he had felt quite alone even though this boy had been with him. As if reading his fathers thoughts, the boy wonders, What was it like, Papa, when you were a little boy and used to hunt with the Indians? Hemingways letters show that another story in the collection, A Days Wait, was inspired by Bumbys bout with influenza in the fall of 1932. It is a seemingly lighthearted story about a young boys misunderstanding of the differences between the centigrade and Fahrenheit scales of temperature. Like Bumby, the protagonist, Schatz one of Bumbys other nicknames, a term of endearment in German attends school in France but is staying with his father when he becomes ill. Schatz had learned at school that no one can survive a temperature of 44 Celsius, so, unbeknownst to his father, he spends the day waiting to die of his fever of 102 Fahrenheit. But there is more to this story than the twist. You dont have to stay in here with me, Papa, if it bothers you, the boy tells him. It doesnt bother me, his father replies. He unwittingly leaves his son to believe, for an entire day, not only that the boy is going to die, but that his death is of no importance to his father. In this slight story one of those stories he told Perkins was written absolutely as they happen we find an unexpected Hemingway hero in the form of a nine-year-old boy who bravely faces death alone. Though he once wrote that he wanted Winner Take Nothing to make a picture of the whole world, Hemingway also seemed to understand that no one ever truly knows the subjective experience of another, not even a father and son. [Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversations email newsletter.] This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Verna Kale, Penn State. Read more: Verna Kale works for the Hemingway Letters Project. The Hemingway Letters Project receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), the media and communications conglomerate headquartered in London, has promoted Rajni Menon to Head of Solutions Development and Chief Strategy Officer for DAN Solutions India. Prior to this, Rajni was chief executive officer (CEO) for Carat India, the flagship media agency from the house of DAN India. In her new role, Rajni will lead the development of solutions, strategy, and research for the recently launched DAN Solutions India and report to its CEO, Narayan Devanathan. For the record, DAN Solutions India is built to unlock business and brand outcomes for clients by bringing together the right expertise, operational rigour, and most importantly, client-centricity. It works horizontally across all Dentsu Aegis Network agencies in India in the Creative, Media and CRM Lines of Business (LoB). With two decades of experience in strategic planning, media buying, research and insights, Rajnis forte has been to initiate and establish business-focused solutions for brands through in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour. She also led strategy and insights for Carat India for over five years before DAN India named her as the agency CEO in 2017. Commenting on the appointment, Narayan Devanathan, CEO, DAN Solutions India & Chairperson, Creative Line of Business, DAN India and Group Executive & Strategy Officer, Dentsu Aegis Network, South Asia said, Strategy is the art of unlocking value through problem-solving without giving primacy to the form the solution takes. As someone who has been doing that throughout her career, Rajni is a natural when it comes to helping deliver the promise of DAN Solutions. As we see a new confluence in marketing today, beyond just the re-integration of creative and media offerings, Rajnis stock-in-trade, along with her untiring energy, vast experience, and intuitive grasp of what moves business, make the idea of a solutions-orientation practicable and credible. Im thrilled to have Rajni join DAN Solutions, and look forward to us partnering clients and colleagues to greater success. Elaborating on the role, Rajni said, Connecting the brand and the consumer is what really excites me. Therefore, with this opportunity, it seems like my playing field has exploded. The prospect of working closely with an extremely gifted talent pool at DAN in co-creating brand and consumer connections and experiences is what I am really looking forward to. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:47:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian experts and policymakers on Wednesday emphasized that the extraordinary China-Africa summit on solidarity against COVID-19 will elevate solidarity between China and African countries in combating the adverse effects of the pandemic. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, who took part in the virtual extraordinary China-Africa summit on solidarity against COVID-19 on Wednesday, mainly emphasized the need to strengthen solidarity among African countries and China in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The summit, held via video link, was jointly proposed by China, South Africa, the rotating chair of the African Union (AU), and Senegal, the co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Leaders of African countries, including members of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government and rotating chairs of major African sub-regional organizations, and the chairperson of the AU Commission, attended the summit. "Solidarity has been key between China and African countries during these unprecedented times," the Ethiopian Prime Minister's Office quoted Ahmed as saying during the summit. The Ethiopian prime minister also stressed that "building on our existing partnership is key as we work to overcome the pandemic-induced threats to our health and economic systems." Recalling the eight major initiatives announced by China during the Beijing Summit of the FOCAC, which was held in September 2018, the Ethiopian premier also called for the initiative to give major priority and focus to health care. The secretary-general of the United Nations and the director-general of the World Health Organization also attended the meeting as special guests. Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, who served as an economic advisor to the AU and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, also told Xinhua that at the summit, China further transformed the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic into an opportunity to strengthen global cooperation and solidarity. "China is probably the only nation that can address the challenges faced by African countries and beyond in the Global South in terms of improving economic governance, rebuilding societies from crisis and polities and addressing the impact of climate change adaptation, curtailing corruption, and economic and social sustainability of developing nations," Costantinos added. According to Costantinos, as China's COVID-19 cases decline, Beijing strives to take the lead in the containment of the global pandemics, and this is the first international crisis where China is actively taking a global leadership role and it stands in particular contrast to the U.S., which has disdained international cooperation. Costantinos, who is also professor of public policy at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, further stressed that despite criticism from some countries, "China is an able and willing partner of Africa. Africa can learn from the Chinese development and pandemic management system. What does seem clear is that the performance of the Chinese system offers Beijing a unique chance to steal a march on the future." According to the latest figures from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases across the African continent reached 259,036 as the death toll from the pandemic also rose to 6,999 as of Wednesday. The Africa CDC also said that some 114,308 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, Ghana and Algeria, it was noted. Enditem Calling the violence at the Line of Actual Control by the Chinese side as completely unprecedented, former head of Indian Armys Northern Command Lieutenant General (Retd) DS Hooda said clear rules of engagement are required going forward. The retired General, under whose leadership India carried out the surgical strikes against terror camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, told CNN-News18 this is not the first time that China has resorted to violence along the border, but the situation never escalated to this extent. His reaction came a day after the Army confirmed that at least 20 Indian armed forces personnel were killed in a clash with Chinese troops at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. Government sources say at least another two dozen soldiers are battling life-threatening injuries, and over 110 have needed treatment. The toll will likely go up, a military officer with knowledge of the issue said. I am sure that there are casualties on both sides...we are in a situation where Chinese are resorting to violence and this is not for the first time, he said. Lt General Hooda also called upon the Indian authorities to be more firm in responding to the Chinese aggression while making statements, as the government had till now maintained that military and diplomatic dialogue was being used to defuse the border row that has lasted for more than a month. In his first reaction since the deaths of the soldiers were first confirmed on Tuesday afternoon, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday gave his condolences to the families of 20 soldiers who laid down their lives in the violence face-off, but did not mention China. "The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army," Singh tweeted. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's breavehearts," the defence minister added. Eduardo Cojuangco, who was an ally of the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and fled with him into exile before returning to his country to take control of the San Miguel Corporation and build a billion-dollar fortune, died on Tuesday. He was 85. The company, of which he was chairman and chief executive, reported his death to the Philippine Stock Exchange. No cause was given; local news outlets said only that he had died of a lingering illness. Known in the Philippines as the Boss and the King of the Cronies, Mr. Cojuangco served as a congressman, governor and ambassador before running unsuccessfully for president in 1992. But he wielded his greatest political influence behind the scenes, during and after the Marcos era. In the process, he became one of the Philippines richest men, building on a fortune acquired under disputed circumstances through a Marcos-era government fund that taxed coconut farmers. narvikk/iStockBy DR. AYODOLA ADIGUN, ABC NEWS (NEW YORK) -- As the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine, researchers studying possible treatments have found a commonly used steroid called dexamethasone that might help save one-third of patients who end up on ventilators. While another drug, remdesivir, has been shown to help people severely ill with COVID-19 recover more quickly, this is the first time any drug has been shown to significantly boost the survival rate of patients on ventilators. "This is an exciting clinical trial -- it is the first study of this magnitude that has shown a significant decrease in mortality," said Dr. Todd Ellerin, chief of infection prevention at South Shore Health. The study, conducted in the United Kingdom, included almost 6,500 patients from 175 hospitals. The results have not yet been vetted through the traditional peer review process. Researchers found that patients on mechanical ventilators who were given a low dose of the steroid were more likely to recover than those who received standard care. Meanwhile, the drug also seemed to benefit patients who required oxygen assistance without mechanical ventilation, reducing deaths in this group by about 20%. The drug did not seem to help patients with milder COVID-19 symptoms who were able to breathe on their own. Dexamethasone is a low-cost, widely available anti-inflammatory drug that has been around for almost 65 years. The drug worked so well that an independent monitoring board recommended that this part of the study end early so the public could see the results. "This study appears to indicate that the fatalities associated with patients who need ventilations or oxygen therapy can be reduced, and probably the duration they spend in the ICU can be reduced," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. There has previously been ongoing debate on the use of steroids, as some studies have shown poor outcomes. "COVID-19 has two parts, the virus and the inflammation," Ellerin said. "Steroids are anti-inflammatory and can reduce inflammation, or the immune response in the lungs, or even the vessels around the lungs and other organs, including the heart, kidneys and liver, which is common with the virus. However, steroids can potentially increase the amount of the virus." This drug and similar steroids are being studied in forthcoming clinical trials in the United States. "I am not saying dexamethasone is for everyone," Ellerin added, "but right now we need to strongly consider it for patients who are severely or critically ill from COVID-19." Experts emphasized that people who are less sick may not benefit from dexamethasone, and implored the American public to adhere to preventative measures that include social distancing, mask wearing and hand hygiene. "The study suggests that people in the latter, most severe stages will benefit, not patients from earlier stages," Schaffner added. "It won't prevent them from moving into serious sickness, but once you are there, the drug can be given and you can possibly reduce your chances for mortality." Ayodola Adigun, M.D., M.S., a fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at Yale University, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. The house for sale in the mid-$200,000s in the Catskill Mountains was a cutie, no doubt about it. A midcentury shingled cottage just shy of 1,000 square feet, it had a freshly renovated interior with a vaulted ceiling. Two tiny bedrooms flanked a bathroom with double sinks and fashionable tile. The real estate pheromones wafting from this property were so powerful that eight days after it appeared on the market in mid-May, it had received nine offers. All exceeded the list price, and about half were in cash. Two came from potential buyers who hadnt even set foot inside the home. The winning bid was $50,000 over the asking price. A buying frenzy is roiling the real estate markets in some of New Yorks most pastoral regions. And nowhere is the enthusiasm starker than in the Catskills. In Sullivan, Ulster, Greene and Delaware Counties, urbanites with the wherewithal to venture beyond the city are snapping up primary and weekend houses, many in what real estate sales agents say is a financial sweet spot from $200,00 to $450,000. They are forging ahead despite the inconveniences and uncertainties of buying in a pandemic (masked, self-directed house tours; cautious lenders; virtual closings). London: Oxford University's vice-chancellor has been condemned by dons who have accused her of making "unwarranted claims" about Nelson Mandela. Professor Louise Richardson has been criticised by 14 of her university's own professors, who warned that she should not "presume to speak for black students or people of colour". Writing to the London Telegraph, the academics said that it was "inappropriate" for her to "ventriloquise" the late anti-apartheid leader. The row comes amid rising tensions in Oxford, which faces renewed calls to tear down the statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College over his links with Britain's colonial past. It is among dozens of monuments at risk of being torn down in the name of anti-racism. Protesters gather outside Oxford University's Oriel College, demanding the removal of a Cecil Rhodes statue from its facade. Credit:Getty The academics' intervention follows remarks made by Professor Richardson last week. Asked by the London Telegraph whether Mandela would have opposed the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, she said: "I think he was a man of deep nuance who recognised complex problems for what they were. And I don't think he sought simplistic solutions to complex problems. The question is, how do we judge people? How do you judge Cecil Rhodes? Do we judge him by our values today or do we judge him by the context of his time? This is what education is all about. I don't think we can pretend our history is different from what it was." Hugh Laurie stars in Armando Iannucci's "Avenue 5" where the news just keeps getting worse. (Alex Bailey / HBO) "Avenue 5" launched as a cheeky sci-fi spoof, but by the end of its nine-episode orbit in mid-March it had inadvertently become a searing indictment of this fraught historical moment. The latest riotous satire from "Veep" creator Armando Iannucci nails something true and deeply worrying about human beings, especially when placed under pressure a scenario playing out in real time with the onset of COVID-19 namely, that we are largely ill-equipped to help each other through a crisis. After a luxury space cruise ship is knocked off course, years are suddenly added to the weeks-long getaway the wealthy passengers thought they had signed up for. When they then discover that the charming, resolute and handsome American captain, played by Hugh Laurie, is actually just an actor (and a balding, British one at that), the fragile social structure quickly breaks down. As with all of Iannuccis comedic work ("The Death of Stalin," "The Thick of It"), the sophisticated and the puerile mix to illuminating, entertaining effect. I like comedy that has ideas and ridiculousness at the same time, says Iannucci, whose influences include Airplane! and Buster Keaton as well as Monty Python and "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy." The Emmy-winning, 56-year-old Scotsman knew after he left "Veep" that he was interested in exploring groupthink and the idea of events being controlled by feelings and emotions. Placing a cluster of humans in isolation under extreme stress would lend itself to this. "Avenue 5s" vicious satire takes aim at many of our cultures blind spots an obsession with attractiveness at the expense of expertise, the hollowness of corporate culture, the worshipful conflation of wealth and brilliance but the show is particularly intrigued by the question of leadership. Or as Iannucci puts it, People who say theyre in charge actually making it up as they go along and assuming that someone else is in charge, and then realizing that no ones in charge. Anything that smacks of authority, the more you examine it the more you realize how vulnerable it is. Story continues If this sounds pointed, thats by design. Yes, the shows title is a reference to President Trumps claim that shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue wouldnt cost him any voters, while the overwhelmed Capt. Clark and fatuous billionaire Herman Judd (played by Josh Gad) are complementary avatars of the administrations abysmal lack of expertise, organization and focus. But as with "Veep," the news has mimicked the shows story lines in discomfiting ways, turning "Avenue 5" into a commentary on COVID-19 and societys split reaction to it. For starters, the very premise of passengers stranded on a luxury cruise ship was perfectly mirrored here on Earth at the time of the HBO shows Jan. 19 debut (by early May, more than 100,000 actual crew around the world were still trapped on cruise ships). Episode 6, which aired Feb. 23, involves passengers and crew being forced to ration oxygen (toilet paper?) and the White House suggesting the ejection into deep space of 500 non-essential passengers. Then, in mid-April, a friend sent Iannucci a shot captured by Columbia Dispatch photojournalist Joshua Bickel of bellowing American protesters pressed against the glass of the Ohio governors office demanding an end to the state lockdown. The expressions on their faces! Iannucci says. It looked so much like the passengers trying to go out the airlock. As anyone who watched the gaspingly funny and disturbing climax of Episode 8 can tell you, the brutal airlock scene in which many passengers decided they were being lied to and hadn't left Earth at all is the apotheosis of what the show captures about our national psychosis. It illustrates, horrifyingly as people eject themselves out into the void, how the delusional certainty of those who write off events as fake news and an accumulation of lies from purported authority figures can collude to produce poisonous consequences. But, you know, in a really amusing way. By the time the pandemic hit, Iannucci and his writing staff had already mapped out Season 2, and theyre using the delay in production to write all the teleplays so they can jump back into production as soon as circumstances permit. Iannucci hints that the next season will widen its scope to introduce some new characters and show more of how the ship's tragedy has been playing out down on Earth. Still, the eerie prescience of his imagination has Iannucci joking about a change in creative direction before he kills us all. Im going to write something about how lots of really good people are elected and sort everything out in the space of two to three months, he muses. After pausing to reflect on the idea, he notes, Its not terribly funny. Companies want both the collaborative atmosphere the physical office provides but also the flexibility to support remote working for their employees Demand for flexible workspace increasing amid uncertainty as companies look for cost-management solutions LONDON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- While the pandemic has led many to believe remote work will become the norm, concerns about lagging creativity and loneliness demonstrate that there is still a role for the office in a post Covid-19 world, according to The Executive Centre (TEC). While there are advantages to working from home, such as reduced commuting times, costs and pollution, there are also disadvantages for businesses and employees. In a video produced in association with Business Reporter, Paul Salnikow, founder and CEO of TEC, discusses what the future of work could look like. "Being one of Asia's largest premium flexible workspace operators give us a good insight into how companies have been adapting," he says. "Once our centres reopened, we found our members were looking forward to coming back as they missed the social interaction their office provided." Other disadvantages to remote working include a disruption to creative thinking and the additional logistical steps required to ensure business can continue as usual. The situation has also made it difficult for companies to accurately predict headcount. "What we're seeing now is a re-evaluation by organisations of their office strategy," Salnikow says. "The current market uncertainty is creating huge demand for the flexible workspace sector as companies try to manage costs and become less willing to commit to long-term leases." Vast resources are wasted paying leases for real estate businesses simply don't need. Flexible working spaces are a vital way of ensuring that no longer happens. "Every healthy business needs to consider what mix of traditional and flexible is right for its teams and their work," says Senior Development Director of TEC, Todd Liipfert. "Sales teams who need to work both remotely and in different places will benefit from flexible access to broad networks. Creative teams that use the office as a place to spark ideas need more permanent and fixed spaces." The workspace of the future must be agile and versatile to adapt to unprecedented and unpredictable challenges that are becoming more common in our society. Wherever and however, businesses choose to move forward post Covid-19, there will be a workspace trend where professionals place higher value on their flexibility. For more details, watch the video here. Notes for editors This press release has been provided by Business Reporter (www.business-reporter.co.uk). About Business Reporter Business Reporter is distributed with The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and City AM, with each publication reaching an average of 1.5 million people. Content is also published through the Business Reporter and teiss websites, which include video debates, online articles and digital magazines, delivering news and analysis on the issues affecting businesses to a global audience. Business Reporter also hosts conferences, breakfast meetings and exclusive summits, events which bring together some of the most influential decision makers and innovators in modern business. These exclusive events for business leaders give Business Reporter direct contact with readers and help to inform the content and direction of its editorial projects. Business Reporter is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and was the first UK member of the UN SDG Media Compact. We have launched a website dedicated to showcasing the work of companies towards these goals at 17globalgoals.com. Business Reporter is committed to providing meaningful analysis to everyone in business. Whether you're running a small business, the head of a local company or an executive in a multinational corporation, there's something for you at Business Reporter. www.business-reporter.co.uk About The Executive Centre The Executive Centre (TEC) opened its doors in Hong Kong in 1994 and today boasts over 135+ centres in 32 cities and 14 countries. It is the third largest serviced office business in Asia with annual turnover in excess of US$275 million. The Executive Centre caters to ambitious professionals and industry leaders looking for more than just an office space - they are looking for a place for their organization to thrive. TEC has cultivated an environment designed for success with a global network spanning Greater China, Southeast Asia, North Asia, India, Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and Australia, with sights to go further and grow faster. Each Executive Centre offers a prestigious address with the advanced infrastructure to pre-empt, meet, and exceed the needs of its Members. Walking with Members through every milestone and achievement, The Executive Centre empowers ambitious professionals and organizations to succeed. Privately owned and headquartered in Hong Kong, TEC provides first class Private and Shared Workspaces, Business Concierge Services, and Meeting & Conference facilities to suit any business' needs. For more information please visit www.executivecentre.com COLUMBUS, Ohio The leader of the Ohio Black Legislative Caucus said Wednesday that Ohio House leaders have continued to ignore black lawmakers long-standing call for racial sensitivity training, even in the aftermath of racist comments made by a white state senator last week. But State Rep. Stephanie Howse, a Cleveland Democrat, said rather than being an outlier, the comments from state Sen. Steve Huffman actually are a norm. And they would have been challenged if Republican legislative leaders were to actually take her up on her desire for training on racial equity and implicit bias, she said. It didnt have to be that way, Howse said in a Wednesday interview. But its easier to throw out a Sen. Huffman as an isolated example when thats literally the mindset of most of the people I serve with. The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus renewed its call for racial bias training last week after Huffman, a Dayton-area Republican, asked during a legislative committee hearing last week whether the colored population was more likely to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19 because they were less likely to wash their hands. Committee members were discussing a resolution that would declare racism a public-health crisis. Huffman apologized after his comments drew public condemnation, saying he chose his words poorly. After the fallout, which included Huffman losing his job as an emergency-room doctor, Senate President Larry Obhof has said the state senate will incorporate implicit bias into mandatory training for staff and legislators. Obhof, a Medina County Republican, also said legislative leaders will undertake a statewide listening tour to discuss comprehensive racial issues. But House Speaker Larry Householder, a Perry County Republican, has not said if he will make any changes. A House GOP spokesperson didnt respond to messages seeking comment for this story. Howse said lawmakers are afraid of addressing racism and implicit bias, in part because they fear they might say something controversial, and in part because they benefit politically from not confronting the issue. People are scared to be racist, and to say stuff, she said. So they feel like, were going to ignore it and thats how its going to be. What transpired with Senator Huffman is peoples greatest fear. But if the training doesnt happen, white lawmakers, particularly those from rural areas where there are few people of color, will never be forced to confront their biases, she said. I would grant this is literally a frustration, unequivocally, that all 17 members share who are members of the OLBC, she added. Everybodys frustrated. But its not just our frustration. This is the frustration of a majority of black people not only in Ohio, but across the country. Howse has been outspoken about racial issues since joining the legislature in 2015. An example that made headlines was in November 2018, when then-House Speaker Ryan Smith, a Republican, cut her mic while she gave a speech on the House floor opposing a stand-your-ground gun bill. She said the legislation would affect black communities differently than the largely white communities the legislations sponsors represented. At the time, Howse had recently discussed holding bias training with Smith. Smith told reporters afterward that, in light of that conversation, he had grown angry, feeling like she was calling him and the bills other supporters racists. Smith since has lost his leadership position and left the legislature. Howse also was among the black state legislators who said in 2018 they felt like they were being singled out for greater scrutiny by Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers and private contractors who provide security for the Statehouse and other state office buildings in Downtown Columbus. In June of that year, state Rep. Emilia Sykes, an Akron Democrat who is black, called for implicit bias training over the issue. Sykes, whos now the Democratic House leader, said Wednesday shes not heard anything meaningful back from Householder about their repeated requests. We keep hearing this statement about how we cant force members to do anything, Sykes said. But, she said at the beginning of the current legislative session, members received training on House rules, including how the process works through which committees review and advance legislation. If there is a will, there is a way, and if there is no will, they will not allow sensitivity training, Sykes said. Howse said she has tried to be selective about raising racial issues with her colleagues, knowing that its uncomfortable for white lawmakers. But she said recent events, including the coronavirus pandemic and widespread protests and unrest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, have made it harder for her to stay quiet. Its this balancing act, trying to manage white peoples [discomfort], she said. But Im exhausted. Im tired of doing it. Read recent coverage from cleveland.com: After senators remark about colored people and hand washing, Ohio Black Legislative Caucus again calls for racial bias training Stand your ground debate begs larger discussion about race, Cleveland legislator says Watch Ohio state Rep. Stephanie Howse get cut off during stand your ground debate Black women lawmakers say they get stopped, questioned by security Ursula von der Leyen updated MEPs on her Brexit talks with Boris Johnson. - Anadolu Agency /Anadolu The European Union has accepted that Britain will take back control of its waters after the end of the Brexit transition period, the president of the European Commission said on Wednesday. Ursula von der Leyen said that all Brussels wanted was a long-term agreement over fishing rights that gave guarantees to EU boats that had fished UK waters for years. The latest hint at an EU willingness to compromise over its demand for a status quo fishing deal under existing conditions still ruled out the annual negotiations over fishing opportunities demanded by the UK. No one questions the UK sovereignty over its own waters, she told the European Parliament in Brussels, but we asked for predictability and we asked for guarantees for fisherman and fisher women who have been sailing in those waters for decades. She said that Brussels was willing to be creative to find compromises in the trade negotiations after her meeting with Boris Johnson on Monday. Talks will intensify in July after months of deadlock. The former German defence minister was less conciliatory over the governance structure overseeing the free trade agreement, which the EU wants to also include fishing and foreign policy and security cooperation. A single dispute settlement system was vital for all aspects of the future agreement, she said in a signal the EU would not abandon that red line, despite the UK pushing for a different enforcement regime for each separate agreement. Governance may sound like an issue for bureaucrats, it's not, she said, It is central for businesses and our private citizens both in the UK, and the European Union. It is crucial to ensure that what has been agreed is actually done. Mrs von der Leyen told MEPs that the transition period would not be extended beyond the end of the year. Failure to reach a deal by then will mean both sides trading on less lucrative WTO terms. Story continues We on our side have always been ready to grant extension, but it needs two to tango, she said. This means that we are now halfway through these negotiations with five months left to go but we're definitely not halfway through the work to reach an agreement with little time ahead of us, she warned. No one can say with certainty, where these negotiations will be at the end of the year. But I know for sure that we will have done everything to reach an agreement, she added. Mrs von der Leyen also insisted on the need for level playing field guarantees and a role for the European Court of Justice where it matters, which the UK resists. . Mrs von der Leyen claimed that the EUs demand for level playing field guarantees for state aid, tax, labour rights and the environment were to ensure fair competition. The commitments, which are meant to prevent the UK undercutting EU standards, are rejected by Britain because they are more stringent than similar guarantees in EU trade deals with Japan and Canada. Brussels counters that the UK is closer to the EU market and is being offered a zero quota, zero tariff trade deal. We're ready and willing to compete with British firms they're excellent and our firms are excellent too, but it cannot be a downward competition, she said. It should be a shared interest for the European Union and the UK to never slide backwards and always advance together towards higher standards. Michel Barnier, the EUs chief negotiator, accused the UK of attempting to cherry-pick the advantage of membership of the bloc without the obligations. It's up to the UK to choose what it wants, or whether it wants an agreement, he said before warning that Brussels would not strike a deal at any price. But I remain convinced, ladies and gentlemen, honorable members, such an agreement is possible for the long term, he said. Slate is making its essential coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. Wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is an act of citizenship. It is also, of course, an act of self-preservation, but because mask-wearing appears more effective at preventing transmission of the virus than preventing your catching it yourself, wearing a face covering amounts to a small self-sacrifice in service of the greater good of communities, states, and, in aggregate, the country. Dr. Anthony Fauci articulated why he wears a mask this way: I wear it for the reason that I believe it is effective, he said. It is not 100 percent effectiveI mean, its sort of respect for the other person and have that other person respect you. You wear a mask. They wear a mask. You protect each other. Many Americans, however, particularly those on the God-fearing, freedom-idolizing political right, refuse to wear masks, including the president of the United States. President Donald Trumps signaling has been clear: Hes not only refused to wear a mask, hes mocked those who do. Others in Congress have followed the presidents lead, refusing to wear a mask in the cramped corridors of the Capitol. The GOPs no-mask caucus is an outlier even in its own party, but as virus rates continue to climb in portions of the country, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a move Tuesday to require House members to don a mask in committee hearings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pelosi is tightening restrictions on mask-wearing that had until this point been strongly recommended and largely adhered to by the vast majority of House members, other than the Trumpy no-mask holdouts, like Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, and Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins, among others that either stridently refuse or only occasionally wear masks in the chamber. The rationales used are diverse and generally nonsense. Can you smell through that mask? Higgins asked a CNN reporter during an interview at the Capitol. Then youre not stopping any sort of a virus. Its part of the dehumanization of the children of God. Youre participating in it by wearing a mask. Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho told CNN theres just no need to wear a mask because the only way youre going to get herd immunity is to get exposed. These are obviously bogus lines of thinking and lead to situations like that of South Carolina Republican Tom Rice, who announced this week he and his son had tested positive for the virus after being asked just 2 weeks ago why he didnt wear a mask around the Capitol. Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. New guidelines issued Tuesday by the attending physician of Congress, Brian Monahan, now require a mask for anyone meeting in a limited enclosed space, such as a committee hearing room, for greater than 15 minutes. Pelosi, in turn, directed committee chairs to require masks at committee meetings starting Wednesday and authorized the sergeant-at-arms to enforce the rule by barring entry to those refusing to cover their faces. Members who refuse to wear a mask will also be given the option of participating in hearings remotely. Under the new guidance, members are still encouraged but not required to wear masks on the House floor and in most other areas of the Capitol. Season 2 of Slates hit podcast Slow Burn is now live. Listen below and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your shows. The Northern Development Authority (NDA) has initiated a total of 2,149 projects in the five regions in the north as part of the governments Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) to address the needs of the people. The projects, which cut across education, health, agriculture, roads, electrification, water and sanitation, and social and economic sectors, were awarded in March this year and expected to be completed within six months. In the Northern Region, a total of 740 projects are being executed in various sectors including 451 projects under education, 31 under health, 12 under agriculture, 49 under roads, 38 under electrification, 91 under water and sanitation, 68 under social and economic. A total of 159 projects are being executed in the North East Region, 102 are being executed in the Savannah Region while the Upper East and Upper West Regions have 1,048 and 100 projects respectively. Dr Alhassan Sulemana Anamzoya, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NDA announced these in Tamale on Monday when he paid a courtesy call on the Northern Regional Minister to brief him about the operations of the NDA over the period. The courtesy call on the Regional Minister also marked the start of 16-day monitoring of the projects across the five regions by officials of the NDA. Under the IPEP, the government undertakes infrastructure projects in each constituency of the country to the tune of one million dollars to address the needs of the people. Dr Anamzoya said the monitoring tour of the projects was to ensure that consultants and contractors executed the projects to highest standards and quality to ensure value for money and the well-being of the people. Mr Salifu Saeed, Northern Regional Minister gave assurance of the Northern Regional Coordinating Councils support for the NDA to deliver priority projects to address the needs of the people of the five regions. Mr Saeed referred to the projects in the Northern Region and said the peace prevailing in the region made it possible for such projects to be initiated and appealed to the residents to continue to embrace peace for accelerated development of the area. The CEO of NDA later visited five projects including a three classroom block for Vittin Ansuaria School in Tamale, a CHPS Compound and Nurses Quarters at Jana in the Nanton District, reshaping and graveling of a three-kilometre Shishegu Road at Sagnarigu Municipality, electrification project for the Gburumani community in the Tolon District and the construction of a Maternity Ward at Gbu-Lahigu community also in the Tolon District to assess progress and quality of work. He expressed satisfaction at the quality and progress of work at the facilities. At all the project sites, the contractors gave the assurance that the projects were being executed according to specification and would be completed on schedule to serve the needs of the people. Mr Francis Tettey, a Board Member of NDA said the projects were dear to the government and the people and urged the contractors to continue to ensure that they executed the work to the highest standards to serve the people for a long time. Some of the residents in the beneficiary communities lauded the government for initiating the projects, to address some of their challenges. 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 During the raid, law enforcers seized Nazi-related print material, arms and ammo, explosive devices, computers used to administer online communities, and receipts confirming extremist literature deliveries from abroad. The SBU security service has exposed and blocked further activities of Neo-Nazi radicals, headed by a Russian national. The raid was carried out in Kyiv and Kharkiv, simultaneously, the SBU press service reports. It is alleged that gang members are followers of Brenton Tarrant, an Australian man accused of last year's deadly attacks on mosques in New Zealand's Christchurch, who has pleaded guilty. To promote their ideas, perpetrators published and disseminated extremist literature. The group would produce illegal material and Nazi symbols in their own undercover print offices Kyiv and in Kharkiv. Part of material neo-Nazis have been receiving from Russia. Read alsoExperts on children's "upbringing" in occupied Donbas: This somehow resembles "Hitler Jugend" Then the print would be distributed during secret meetings and themed parties. SBU also documented extremist spins via Telegram groups and secret communities with more than 3,000 members in social networks. During the raid at the gang leader's place of residence and undercover print houses, law enforcers seized more than 300 copies of Nazi editions, Third Reich flags, arms and ammo, explosive devices, computers used to administer online communities, and receipts confirming literature deliveries from abroad. Earlier, the SBU seized 200 copies of extremist literature in Kharkiv. The investigation into incitement to terrorism is underway. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nina A. Loasana (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 08:29 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf57fdb 1 National Bintang-Emon,Twitter,novel-baswedan,acid-attack,Prosecutors-Office,prosecutors,Attorney-General-Office,KPK,netizens,SAFEnet Free Comedian Bintang Emon has refuted drug abuse accusations leveled against him as experts raised concerns over Indonesia's democracy and freedom of expression following his viral video that poked fun at the controversial light sentence handed down against two policemen behind the acid attack on graft buster Novel Baswedan. Emon posted his drug test results on his Instagram account @bintangemon on Tuesday, revealing that the test taken at Pondok Indah Hospital in Puri Indah, West Jakarta came back negative. The test came following a series of tweets by anonymous accounts alleging that the stand-up comedian was a methamphetamine addict. The tweets quickly went viral, causing the hashtag #bintangemon to trend, with more than 270,000 tweets on Monday. The attacks were allegedly conducted by buzzers following Emons video that had gone viral on social media. In the video posted on his Twitter account, Emon highlighted the prosecutors insistence that the defendants in Novels case Chief Brig. Ronny Bugis and Brig. Rahmat Kadir had accidentally thrown sulfuric acid at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators face in April 2017. He also questioned the one-year sentence demanded by the prosecutors for the defendants. Besides the damaging tweets, Emon also claimed that he and his management team had been receiving anonymous emails. Read also: Lawyers seek acquittal in Novel acid attack case "Somebody started to harass my business email account, my brother's accounts and my manager's account. But I am still relaxed, calm," he tweeted on Sunday. Ismail Fahmi, analyst and founder of big data consulting company Drone Empirit, said based on his research, the false accusation was initiated by three Twitter accounts, @LintangHanita @Tiara616xxx, and @LiarAngsa on Sunday. All of the accounts have fewer than 10 followers. "All the accounts posted five similar tweets at exactly the same time around 10:45 p.m. to 10:49 p.m. [on Sunday]," Fahmi said via his Twitter account on Tuesday. Ketiga akun itu adalah: @LintangHanita (2 followers), @Tiara616xxx (9 followers), dan @LiarAngsa (0 followers). Ketika masing-masing diexplore, semua menampilkan 5 postingan yang sama persis dan jam yang sama, antara 22:45 sd 22:49 WIB. Ismail Fahmi (@ismailfahmi) June 15, 2020 Fahmi said the organized tweet attacks quickly went viral because many famous twitter accounts quickly responded to the tweets. As of Tuesday, Fahmi said all of the three accounts had been suspended so it would be hard to trace their history and affiliations. Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network's (SAFEnet) head of digital at-risks subdivision, Ellen Kusuma, said the online attacks against Emon followed a similar pattern to recent attacks against activists holding online discussions on #Papuanlivesmatter. "These attacks are an effort to delegitimize the activists' expressions by leading public opinion. This is not the first case and this won't be the last," Ellen told tempo.co on Sunday. Director of Jakarta-based Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH Masyarakat), Muhammad Afif, also expressed similar concern over online attacks against Emon, claiming these trends could lead the country's democracy into an authoritarian phase. "At this point, the country needs to protect citizens when they are expressing their opinions. By staying silent, the government has shown that it has no strong commitment to protecting our freedom of expression," Afif said. "I, hereby, urge the government to investigate who is behind these attacks," he added. (nal) Plant gene found to regulate control over whether a plant grows or puts up its defenses against pathogens. Researchers from Kumamoto University, Japan have pinpointed the mechanism that regulates the balance between plant growth and defense. Plants synthesize and accumulate protective hormones to protect them from pathogen infections, but excessive accumulation significantly hinders plant growth. Researchers found that the DEL1 gene plays a role in balancing growth and defense of plants infected with nematodes. This finding is expected to contribute to the improvement of agricultural crop varieties and the identification of infection mechanisms of various pathogens. Plants grow continuously throughout their life but growth becomes suppressed and energy is put into defense responses, like the synthesis of the defense hormones salicylic acid and lignin, when attacked by pathogens. When the accumulation of salicylic acid and lignin becomes excessive, plants show significant growth inhibition. It is therefore believed that plants keep an appropriate balance between growth and defense. However, this type of balance regulating mechanism has only been reported in leaves; the existence of a similar mechanism in roots was unknown. To test for a mechanism in roots, researchers infected wild-type and DEL1-deficient Arabidopsis, a plant related to cabbage or mustard frequently used in plant-based genetic research experiments, with Meloidogyne Incognita, a parasitic roundworm that infects roots. After nematode infection, DEL1 deficient plants exhibited excessive salicylic acid accumulation and infected sites turned brown, a strong reaction color, when stained with lignin. Additionally, the DEL1 deficient plant had a higher nematode resistance than the wild type, indicating that the DEL1 gene acts to suppress the defense response against nematodes. Furthermore, when the DEL1 deficient plant was infected with nematodes, significant root growth inhibition was observed. This is the first study to demonstrate that the DEL1 gene plays an important role in the growth vs defense balancing mechanism in plant roots. "This study should allow us to develop more diverse strategies for controlling pathogens," said study leader Professor Shinichiro Sawa. "For example, plant varieties that have excellent appearance, taste, and resistance traits often have slow growth and low yield. By focusing on genes involved in growth vs defense balance regulation like the DEL1 gene, increased yields and better plant varieties may be produced. We believe that direct control over DEL1 activity will improve our ability to breed pest resistant, high yield plants." ### This research was posted online in Scientific Reports on 1 June 2020. [Source] Nakagami, S., Saeki, K., Toda, K. et al. The atypical E2F transcription factor DEL1 modulates growth-defense tradeoffs of host plants during root-knot nematode infection. Sci Rep 10, 8836 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65733-3 WILLIAMSPORT A Waverly, N.Y., man has admitted he planned to kill a lot of people and commit the worst terrorist attack in American history when he got out prison. Jesse Allen Blake, 25, Tuesday made the admission in U.S. Middle District Court when he pleaded guilty to a charge of mailing threatening communication. Blake was an inmate at the Bradford County Correctional Facility on March 29, 2019, when he sent the letter to FBI headquarters in Washington that stated: When I come home Im gonna kill a lot of people and commit the worst terrorist attack in American history. He went on to threaten to blow up the White House, the U.N., the Pentagon and Trump Tower and said he would try to kill the president. Below his name he wrote: I will terrorize the (expletive) out of America. In outlining the governments evidence, Assistant U.S. Attorney George J. Rocktashel quoted Bradford County Warden Donald Stewart as saying he believed Blake was fully capable of carrying out the threats. The prosecutor also mentioned comments made by Blakes grandmother that her grandson is a violent person who has threatened to kill family members. Blake told Judge Matthew W. Brann he had been treated for methamphetamine and alcohol addiction. He agreed with Rocktashels recitation that he: Was a former member of the Aryan Brotherhood but renounced the white supremacist organization and was moving to Islam and Judaism. Was fascinated by assassinations, especially Lee Harvey Oswald. Hated President Trump and had been planning his assassination for four years. Would shoot up the United Nations headquarters as the first thing he did when he got out of prison. Had access to military-style weapons. Blake will be unable to try to carry his threats anytime soon because last year he was sentenced in Bradford County to a total of 10 to 20 years in state prison in two cases. One was a sexual statutory assault in which the victim was 13 and the other was an aggravated assault related to an incident at the prison. The federal charge to which Blake pleaded guilty carries a 10-year maximum sentence. US Justice Department officials on Wednesday recommended that a high-capacity undersea data cable system proposed by Google and Facebook bypass Hong Kong, citing potential national security concerns following China's moves to exert greater control in the territory. The Pacific Light Cable Network pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission should connect the US, Taiwan and the Philippines but not go through Hong Kong as planned, a Justice Department committee recommended. The high-capacity, low-latency fiber optic cable backed by Google and Facebook would "encourage" US communications crossing the Pacific Ocean to land in Hong Kong before continuing on to other parts of Asia, the DoJ reasoned. The recommendation to the FCC contended that the cable network's "proposed Hong Kong landing station would expose US communications traffic to collection" by Beijing. The concerns have been heightened by the Chinese government's "recent actions to remove Hong Kong's autonomy and allow for the possibility that (Beijing's) intelligence and security services will operate openly in Hong Kong," the DoJ said in a release. Google and Facebook four years ago announced plans to work with a China Soft Power Holdings subsidiary to connect Los Angeles and Hong Kong with a high-capacity internet cable. The Pacific Light Cable Network was to stretch 12,800 kilometers (8,000 miles), crossing beneath the Pacific Ocean in a first-of-its-kind direct connection between the two locations, according to companies involved with the project. PLCN is expected to handle some 120 terabytes of data per second, enough capacity to enable 80 million high-definition video conference calls simultaneously between Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Most Pacific subsea cables stretch from the US to Japan, Facebook noted at the time. Lifestyles increasingly centered on access to cloud-based online services, as well as to video, pictures and other content on the internet, have increased the need for infrastructure capable of quickly and efficiently moving digital data. The FCC in April granted Google's request for temporary authority to operate the segment of the cable network connecting the US and Taiwan. 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. WASHINGTON - The Trump administration sued former national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday to delay the publication of a book that the White House says contains classified information and that is expected to paint an unfavourable portrait of the president's foreign policy decision-making. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. WASHINGTON - The Trump administration sued former national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday to delay the publication of a book that the White House says contains classified information and that is expected to paint an unfavourable portrait of the president's foreign policy decision-making. The civil lawsuit in Washington's federal court follows warnings from President Donald Trump that Bolton could face a criminal problem" if he doesn't halt plans to publish the book, which is scheduled for release next week. The complaint is the latest salvo in a contentious relationship between Trump and the hawkish Bolton, who was abruptly forced from the White House last September after repeated disagreements on national security matters. It moves their rift into court, where a judge will be asked to decide whether Bolton short-circuited proper procedures to get his book on the market something his lawyer and publisher have strongly denied. His publisher, Simon & Schuster, called the lawsuit nothing more than the latest in a long running series of efforts by the administration to quash publication of a book it deems unflattering to the president. It said in a statement Tuesday evening that Bolton had worked with White House officials to address their concerns, and that it fully supports his First Amendment right to tell his story. Similarly, Boltons attorney, Chuck Cooper, has said Bolton worked for months with classification specialists to avoid releasing classified material. He has accused the White House of using national security information as a pretext to censor Bolton. In its lawsuit, the Justice Department administration contends that the former adviser did not complete a pre-publication review to ensure that the manuscript did not contain classified material. It requests that a federal court order Bolton to instruct or request that his publisher further delay publication of the book to allow for a completion of the national security review process and to retrieve and dispose of existing copies in a manner acceptable to the government. The Justice Department also is seeking to prevent Bolton from profiting off the book, particularly if he refuses to complete the prepublication review process and obtain the required prior written authorization before proceeding with publishing the book." In its lawsuit, the Justice Department argues that Boltons job meant he regularly came into possession of some of the most sensitive classified information that exists in the U.S. government. Officials said Boltons manuscript was more than 500 pages and was rife with classified information, which he proposed to release to the world. The United States is not seeking to censor any legitimate aspect of Defendants manuscript; it merely seeks an order requiring Defendant to complete the prepublication review process and to take all steps necessary to ensure that only a manuscript that has been officially authorized through that process and is thus free of classified information is disseminated publicly," the lawsuit says. Boltons book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, was supposed to be released in March. Its release date was twice delayed and it is now set to be released next week by Simon & Schuster. Bolton covers an array of topics chaos in the White House, sure, but also assessments of major players, the presidents inconsistent, scattershot decision-making process, and his dealings with allies and enemies alike, from China, Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, Iran, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, according to the publisher. I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasnt driven by reelection calculations, Bolton writes in the book, according to a news release from the publisher. The book has been highly anticipated for months, especially after news broke during Trump's impeachment trial that the manuscript offered a vivid account of the president's efforts to freeze military aid to Ukraine until the country assisted with investigations into Trump's political rival Joe Biden. Those allegations formed the crux of the impeachment case, which ended in February with the president's acquittal in the Senate. Cooper did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the lawsuit Tuesday. He has previously said that he sent Boltons manuscript to White House classification specialist Ellen Knight in late December and that Knight and Bolton spent nearly four months going through the book multiple times, often line by line. 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. According to the lawsuit, Knight completed her review in late April and determined that the manuscript draft did not contain classified information. But early the next month, Michael Ellis, the National Security Council's senior director for intelligence, began an additional review of the manuscript and found classified information in it, the lawsuit says. The review was still ongoing earlier this month when media reports revealed that Bolton intended to move forward with his book. In a statement Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union said the lawsuit is doomed to fail. Ben Wizner, the director of the organization's speech, privacy and technology project, said the Supreme Court had rejected a half-century ago the Nixon administration's efforts to block the publication of the Pentagon Papers, and said it is well-established that prior restraints on publication are unconstitutional. As usual, the governments threats have nothing to do with safeguarding national security, and everything to do with avoiding scandal and embarrassment," Wizner said. ____ Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Zeke Miller and Deb Riechmann contributed to this report. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav has called for cancellation of contracts awarded to Chinese companies as part of an economic reply to China in addition to the strategic response for the killing 20 Indian soldiers at the line of actual control in Ladakhs Galwan Valley on Monday. Akhileshs call on Wednesday follows similar demands by some other groups including RSS linked Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), whose members protested outside the Chinese Embassy earlier today. Govt should not only give strategic but also an economic reply. Contracts awarded to Chinese companies should be suspended with immediate effect; restrain imports from China. Samajwadi Party will support the government in any such endeavour for the countrys sake, Akhilesh Yadav tweeted in Hindi on Wednesday. Akhileshs suggestion comes close on the heels of demand by the SJM to oust Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co Ltd (STEC)- a Chinese companyfrom the project to build the underground stretch of the Delhi-Meerut RRTS (Regional Rapid Transit System) corridor. Also Read: Why not name China in your tweet?, Rahul Gandhi asks Rajnath Singh STEC has emerged as the lowest bidder for the project and the government clarified on Wednesday that the part of the project was funded by the Asian development bank and it was obligated to not discriminate between companies or countries. Five bidders submitted bids and qualified for financial bid opening including (i) SKEC (Korea) +Tata, (ii) STEC (China), (iii) L&T (India), (iv)Afcons (India) and (v) GulermakAgir (Turkey). On 12th June 2020 - Financial bids were opened M/s STEC emerged as lowest bidder. The tender is under process and yet to be finalised. Pl note that the ADB/World Bank/Multi-lateral procurement guidelines do not allow discrimination among firms/ countries, a government press release clarified. A news agency reported that protestors in Varanasi burned Chinese flag and effigy of Chinese President Xi Jinping and said that similar protests were also seen in Patna and Gujarat. Also Read: Will seriously impact relations: Jaishankar asks China to take corrective steps The boycott Chinese goods sentiment has surfaced in India from time to time and it witnessed a surge recently when innovator and education reformist Sonam Wangchuk posted a video last month asking Indians to shun all Chinese products including the popular mobile application TikTok in response to the Ladakh stand-off. Wagchuks video from Ladakh drew over 20 lakh views in two days. India has lodged a strong protest with the Chinese government over the Galwan Valley incident in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed and blamed Beijing for seeking to alter the status of the line of actual control by erecting a structure on the Indian side. A statement issued by the ministry on Wednesday evening said Chinese actions were directly responsible for the violence that led to casualties. Longtime advocates for racial justice are assailing a Charleston Wine + Food Festival statement calling for the removal of the John C. Calhoun statue from Marion Square. Charleston Wine + Food Festival since 2006 has staged its annual tasting extravaganza in the shadow of the towering stone tribute to the slavery defender. But it now plans to boycott its signature venue, and work with community leaders, local nonprofits and lawmakers to see (the statue) removed, according to an Instagram post. Mayor John Tecklenburg on Wednesday announced that City Council will vote next week to remove and relocate the Calhoun statue. It followed demands for its removal from civil rights groups and several state lawmakers. While the festivals Tuesday afternoon declaration garnered some social media support, activists immediately took issue with the festival focusing on a pre-Civil War racist instead of addressing contemporary allegations that the organization slights the contributions of black chefs and overlooks black consumers. Frankly, it feels kind of performative, says Reina Gascon-Lopez, a Charleston-based chef and writer behind The Sofrito Project. Its great they stepped up, but where has this energy been the entire time? The festival is inaccessible, and we dont see faces that look like ours. A spokeswoman for the festival did not return messages seeking comment. The nonprofits policy of asking chefs to work without pay figured into many of the detractors complaints. While failing to compensate chefs has long been common practice in the food event industry, the setup has lately come under fire for placing an unfair burden on chefs from marginalized communities. Around the same time that Wine + Food put out its statement, The James Beard Foundation announced it plans to fully restructure its programming to remove financial barriers to participation. When we resume events at the James Beard House and around the country, it will be with a new financial model that prioritizes compensating talent, CEO Clare Reichenbach wrote in a statement which also pledged to examine internal structures, leadership and its awards system. My ire for (Wine + Food) is informed by personal experience, Tamika Mika Gadsden said in a video posted to Instagram. I witnessed them ask for black artists, black performers, black influencers to promote the event, to add to their diversity, but really just paying them either peanuts or what I call exposure bucks. Considering her experiences, Gadsden dismissed the festivals gesture as like the easiest stance you could take: We want the racist statue to come down. You dont lose nothing. Gascon-Lopez also said the festival should come up with money to pay the people who are integral to creating and executing its demos and dinners, many of which bear three-figure price tags. Its laughable when they can put celebrity chefs up in The Dewberry, but they cant pay the people doing the work, she says. In addition to condemning the Calhoun statue, the festival also said it will no longer hold events at plantations. A spokeswoman did not respond to a message asking if the ban would extend to urban residences associated with slavery, such as the William Aiken House, a popular Charleston Wine + Food event location. Of the more than 700 comments on Wine + Foods Instagram post, a significant percentage criticized the festivals stance, citing the beauty of plantations and War of Northern Aggression. Gascon-Lopez said she was disheartened by the festival allowing white supremacy to flourish on its watch. Theyre not moderating their feeds, so its like, yeah, you spoke up, but youre not addressing your fan base, she says. Addressing the issue means you have to look within. If that means alienating racists, so be it. Gadsden in a phone interview said she would like to see the festival stop the PR machine and solicit the opinion of black critics. Pointing out that a mass gathering in Marion Square was already unlikely to happen in the wake of the coronavirus, she urged festival organizers to do more than take the easy stance of denouncing racism. We need to wait and see what some of these powerful cultural strongholds can produce in terms of real change, she said. I want to see leadership interrogated. Ideally, Gadsden said, Charleston Wine + Food would think about dismantling its board. But she added that an active board is harder to pull down than a 124-year-old statue. The Chinese troops had attacked commanding officer of the Bihar regiment Colonel Santosh Babu after they were asked to withdraw from camps occupied along the Galwan River, leading to a bloody scuffle, said a top Northern Command official, on condition of anonymity. Twenty Indian soldiers, including commanding officer Colonel Santosh Babu were killed on Monday evening in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakhs Galwan valley where soldiers of the two countries have been locked in a tense stand-off for 40 days. An official of the Indian Armys Northern Command gave an account of what unfolded on the fateful night. Following the June 6 corps commander level meeting, both sides had arrived at an agreement that the Chinese troops will withdraw from some cluster of camps occupied along the Galwan River moving eastwards, he said. These are temporary tents built by the Chinese and serve as logistic bases for living and supporting presence of their troops in the area, he added. On June 15 between 4pm and 5pm, keeping the sensitivity of the situation in mind, commanding officer of 16 Bihar Regiment Colonel Santosh Babu led the team to meet his Chinese counterpart. He asked him to comply with decisions taken during June 6 meetings, the official said. When asked to clear the area, the Chinese troops displayed an aggressive behaviour and assaulted our men in larger number, he added. The official said the Chinese also resorted to stone pelting in which Colonel Santosh Babu was grievously injured. The group of Indian soldiers, who accompanied the commanding officer, tried to evacuate him while the rest remained engaged with the Chinese troops. He was brought back to the base camp where he later succumbed to the injuries, the official said. Some more troops from our side rushed to assist their colleagues who were already engaged with the Chinese. Accordingly, more Chinese troops were also brought in and clashes continued for some time, he said, adding that the scuffle continued till few hours in the night. The Chinese troops had also used iron rods and clubs in the attack, he said. The Chinese troops resorted to pushing and stone pelting. Due to limited space and steep gradients of mountains, some soldiers slipped and fell into the gorge and Galwan River. While some were hurt in clashes, the remaining were hurt by rocks as they slipped and some suffered hypothermia due to falling into Galwan waters at freezing temperatures. Search operations were undertaken to retrieve those who had fallen into or along the river. They were rushed to medical facilities established in the area, where some of them were declared brought dead, the official said. Had the Chinese troops removed tents, which was agreed on at the corps commander level meet, the violent clashes would not have taken place. Chinese betrayed the agreement and then attacked the commanding officer which triggered the clashes, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Victims of vehicle theft should be wary of a car recovery scam that could see them lose even more money. Multiple people have reported receiving phone calls from people posing as police officers who claim to have retrieved their stolen vehicles. The scammers attempt to extort thousands of rand from the victims by offering to tow their vehicles to them from remote locations across the country. One MyBroadband reader explained his ordeal with these scammers, which began when his VW Polo Vivo was stolen in May 2019. He reported the case at the Brooklyn Police Station in Pretoria, and two weeks later he was contacted by a person claiming to be the investigating officer working on his stolen vehicle case. In-depth details supplied The caller told the victim that his Polo Vivo may have been recovered in Mpumalanga and asked to confirm various details of the car the police officer was seeing in front of him. The caller then proceeded to provide specific details about the vehicle including the registration number and the scratches on the car. Once the victim confirmed it was his vehicle, the caller told him the vehicle had apparently been used in an armed robbery and computers and guns had been found in the car. He told the victim that his car would have to be impounded if he was not able to fetch it immediately, which he could not do as he was in Gauteng at the time. The caller then offered to have the vehicle taken to the Brooklyn Police Station if the victim paid R3,000 for the towing. Although much of the story sounded believable, given the particular details the person had provided, the victim called his insurance company about the issue and was subsequently informed that it was a scam. The victim said that he had not posted any information on the vehicle on social media, so he suspected that whoever had tried to scam him must have had access to the case file, which included the vehicle details the scammer repeated on the call. He called the person back and told him to impound the car and that the insurance will handle the matter from there. He never heard from the scammer again. Phone call straight from prison Another person whose Toyota Land Cruiser was stolen from a parking basement in the Pretoria CBD in 2018 nearly fell victim to a similar scam. In an attempt to get information on whether the vehicle had been spotted in public, he and his wife posted the vehicles description on a few groups on Facebook including Eks van die Ooste and Stolen vehicles in South Africa. Two weeks later, his wife received a message on Facebook Messenger advising her to contact a particular police officer, as they believed they had recovered the vehicle. Her husband was eventually called by a person claiming to be a police officer at the stolen vehicle division in Musina, Limpopo. He said that the Land Cruiser had been recovered and requested that the victim go to a Pep Store to transfer R2,500 to pay for the towing of the vehicle to Pretoria. To determine the veracity of the claim, he asked that the person take a photo of the vehicle to confirm whether it was his car. The caller was unable to do this. Finding the request suspicious, the victim asked a contact to perform a trace on the number which had called him. The contact determined that the phone call had not originated from Musina, but from inside the Kgosi Mampuru Prison. It was not clear whether the scammer was an inmate himself or if another person had been using the phone within the prison facility. After calling the scammer back and telling him that he knows that the call came from inside the prison, the scammer hung up and blocked the victims number. The Land Cruiser was later recovered by the military when an attempt was made to smuggle it over the Mozambican border close to Komatipoort. SAPS responds MyBroadband reached out to the SA Police Service for more information about this scam. Gauteng Provincial spokesperson Captain Mavela Masondo confirmed that they have received complaints of this nature and that the cases are under investigation. He recommended that victims of hijacked or stolen vehicles match the name and contact number of the investigating officer making the call with the information provided to them when an officer was assigned to their case. It is important that the victim verifies with the investigating officer once they get the call or alternatively they can verify with the nearest police station, Masondo stated. Victims should also note the number from which the call originates and any other information that is given. If this does not match with what they were provided, Masondo said it is important to make a note of the number used by the suspect to assist the police in its investigation. He also explained the proper procedure police follow when they recover a stolen vehicle. Once the car has been recovered, the investigating officer will be informed immediately and will, in turn, inform the complainant to come and identify the car at the offices of SAPS, Masondo said. He said that the police would under no circumstances ask members of the public to pay for its service. We urge the public not to give money to any person calling himself/herself an employee of the SAPS. Instead, report the matter to the nearest police station or by calling crime stop on 08600-10111. When asked whether SAPS suspects the scammers may have gained access to case information held by the police, Masondo confirmed that investigations were underway, but that no arrests had been made thus far. A new study led by researchers from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin challenges claims from some international scientific circles, that having high blood levels of folate (folic acid) increases the risk of poor cognition in older adults, especially in those with low levels of vitamin B12. The study published today (Monday, 15th June 2020) in the British Journal of Nutrition, forms part of the largest representative study of its kind conducted among older persons. Both vitamin B12 and folate are essential vitamins for the nervous system and healthy blood cells. Deficiency of folate in early pregnancy can lead to neural tube defects (NTDs) in new-born babies. This is the reason for mandatory fortification of the food supply with folic acid in the US and other countries (but not Ireland or Europe). While fortification is proven to reduce NTDs, several influential publications in the US suggest that very high folate levels in older persons, if coupled with low vitamin B12, leads to poorer brain function and a faster rate of cognitive decline. Largely because of such fears, no country in Europe has implemented mandatory folic acid fortification, although the NTD rates have not declined in two decades and may be rising in Ireland, according to recent data. What has the new research unveiled? Using blood samples from over 3,700 Irish older adults aged 50 and over, the study compared cognitive health in individuals grouped by their combinations of vitamin B12 and folate blood levels. It found no evidence that having high blood levels of folate affected the risk of cognitive decline in those with low levels of vitamin B12. Moreover, having higher folate seemed to be associated with better cognitive function in these older adults. Key findings: Cognitive performance was not worse in older people with low vitamin B12 combined with high folate (representing 1.5% of older adults in Ireland) Those with normal vitamin B12 levels and high folate levels (7.6% of older adults) performed better cognitively than the others The use of folic acid - containing supplements was uncommon, with higher rates among women than men but less than 4% overall taking supplements Why do the findings matter? Older adults at significant risk of deficiency TILDA has previously reported high rates of deficiency: 1 in 8 older adults are deficient in vitamin B12, while 1 in 7 are deficient in folate. Vitamin B12 deficiency is associated with cognitive impairment and nerve damage. Older adults can have difficulty in absorbing vitamin B12 due to diminished digestive function or medications. Folate deficiency causes anaemia and is associated with heart disease, stroke, and possibly certain cancers. New-born babies at significant risk Folate is critical to the healthy development of the brain and spinal cord in the growing foetus, and deficiency can cause NTDs, such as spina bifida. Consequently, public health authorities world-wide recommend that women of childbearing age consume folic acid from fortified foods and/or supplements. Voluntary food fortification is permitted in Ireland but is not effective in this regard. Ireland has one the highest rates of NTDs in Europe but does not have mandatory fortification largely because of concerns detailed above. Lead author Deirdre O'Connor, Registered Nutritionist and TILDA researcher said, Concerns surrounding associations between high intakes of folic acid and cognitive decline in older adults with low vitamin B12 have impeded mandatory folic acid fortification in Ireland. Our study shows that a small percentage of older people in the community have this potentially adverse combination, but they are not at increased risk of poorer cognition." Anne Molloy, Study Senior Author and Professor, Trinity College Dublin In fact, older adults with normal vitamin B12 and high folate levels performed better in cognitive tests than their counterparts with normal folate. This implies that elevated folate may benefit cognitive health in older persons in Ireland." "Ireland does not have mandatory food fortification with folic acid. We know that folic acid fortification is an effective population strategy if it is carefully established, controlled and monitored. We can learn from up to two decades of experience in North and South America and Australia. It reduces NTD prevalence and eliminates folate deficiency - a much bigger health problem. Our study on this important Irish cohort of almost 4,000 older individuals indicates that improving folate levels in the population would have positive health consequences for both young and old." Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Principal Investigator of TILDA, said: "This is the largest study of the interaction between vitamin B12 and folate and cognitive function world-wide. The high rates of vitamin B12 and folate deficiency in the older adult population are of concern and, given that this can be easily treated with fortification, this has significant policy implications for Government and health services. TILDA has consistently assisted policy makers by providing strong evidence-based data on which to make recommendations and this study provides such data to energize policy decisions on this important topic for all ages and reopen the public discourse regarding the proposition of mandatory fortification." New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday (June 17) extended his deepest condolences to the families of the martyred soldiers who showed 'exemplary courage' and made 'supreme sacrifices' during the violent clashes with the Chinese Army on June 15 night. President Kovind wrote on his official Twitter account, "As Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, I bow to the exemplary courage and supreme sacrifice of our soldiers to protect the sovereignty and integrity of the country." "All those who laid down their lives in Galwan valley of Ladakh have upheld the best traditions of the Indian armed forces. Their valour will be eternally etched in the memory of the nation. My deepest condolences to their families," added President Kovind. All those who laid down their lives in Galwan valley of Ladakh have upheld the best traditions of the Indian armed forces. Their valour will be eternally etched in the memory of the nation. My deepest condolences to their families. President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) June 17, 2020 Twenty Indian Army soldiers were killed in action on the late evening night of June 15 at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. The violent clashes have added to the recent growing tensions between the two countries. Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also commented on the incident and said the sacrifice of the Indian soldiers will not go in vain as the countrys armed forces are fully capable of giving a befitting reply to the enemy if instigated. Also read: Indian Army salutes its valiant soldiers, says their supreme sacrifice will not go in vain The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also grieved the death of 20 Army personnel asserting that the loss of soldiers during a face-off in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh "is deeply disturbing and painful". Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Singh said that the soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. He added that the nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. RNC Minerals Announces Name Change to Karora Resources Inc. Posted by Publisher Internet RNC Minerals (?RNC? or the \Corporation\) (TSX: RNX https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/rnc-minerals-corp/) is pleased to announce that effective Wednesday, June 17, 2020, the Corporation?s common shares and warrants will commence trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the \TSX\) under the Corporation?s new name, Karora Resources Inc., and its new trading symbols ?KRR? and ?KRR.WT?, respectively. As described in RNC?s management information circular dated May 8, 2020 available through its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, the Corporation believes that the new name more accurately reflects its business focus on growing gold production in Western Australia ? the Fraser Institutes top ranked mining jurisdiction for investment worldwide in 2019. On June 15, 2020, the Corporation filed Articles of Amendment to change its name from \Royal Nickel Corporation\ to \Karora Resources Inc.\ (the \Name Change\). The shareholders of the Corporation overwhelmingly approved the Name Change at the Corporation\-\-s annual and special meeting of shareholders held on June 11, 2020. The Name Change is effective as of June 15, 2020. Effective June 17, 2020, the Corporation?s new US OTCQX trading symbol will be ?KRRGF? for its common shares. Effective June 17, RNC?s website, www.rncminerals.com, will redirect visitors to the Corporation?s new webpage, www.karoraresources.com. About the Corporation The Corporation is focused on growing gold production and reducing costs at its integrated Beta Hunt Gold Mine (the \Beta Hunt Mine\) and Higginsville Gold Operations (\HGO\) in Western Australia. The Higginsville treatment facility is a low-cost 1.4 Mtpa processing plant which is fed at capacity from the Corporation\-\-s underground Beta Hunt Mine and open pit HGO mine. At the Beta Hunt Mine, a robust gold mineral resource and reserve is hosted in multiple gold shears, with gold intersections along a 4 km strike length remaining open in multiple directions. HGO has a substantial historical gold resource and highly prospective land package totaling approximately 1,800 square kilometers. In addition, the Corporation has a 28% interest in a nickel joint venture that owns the Dumont Nickel-Cobalt Project located in the Abitibi region of Quebec. Dumont contains the second largest nickel reserve and ninth largest cobalt reserve in the world. The Corporation has a strong board of directors and management team focused on delivering shareholder value. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains \forward-looking information\ including without limitation statements relating to the liquidity and capital resources of the Corporation, production guidance and the potential of the Beta Hunt Mine, HGO and Dumont Nickel Project. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Corporation to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals; the results of drilling; inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the properties; environmental liabilities (known and unknown); general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; results of exploration programs; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability, terrorism, insurrection or war; or delays in obtaining governmental approvals, projected cash operating costs, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to the Corporation\-\-s filings with Canadian securities regulators, including the most recent Annual Information Form, available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Corporation disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Cautionary Statement Regarding the Higginsville Mining Operations A production decision at HGO was made by previous operators of the mine, prior to the completion of the acquisition of HGO by the Corporation and the Corporation made a decision to continue production subsequent to the acquisition. This decision by the Corporation to continue production and, to the knowledge of the Corporation, the prior production decision were not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves, demonstrating economic and technical viability, and, as a result, there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, which include increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit. Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic and technical failure. There is no guarantee that anticipated production costs will be achieved. Failure to achieve the anticipated production costs would have a material adverse impact on the Corporation?s cash flow and future profitability. Readers are cautioned that there is increased uncertainty and higher risk of economic and technical failure associated with such production decisions. For more information, please contact: Rob Buchanan Director, Investor Relations T: (416) 363-0649 In Europe: Swiss Resource Capital AG Jochen Staiger info@resource-capital.ch www.resource-capital.ch Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:58:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- "Black Lives do not matter in the United States of America", this is the message brought by George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, to an urgent debate held by the UN Human Rights Council Wednesday. "The officers showed no mercy, no humanity, and tortured my brother to death in the middle of the street in Minneapolis with a crowd of witnesses watching and begging them to stop- showing us black people the same lesson yet again- black lives do not matter in the United States of America," he said via video message. "My family and I have had to watch the last moments of his life when he was tortured to death including the eight minutes and 46 seconds one officer kept his knee on my brother's neck. My brother begged the officers for his life, cried out for our mama who was already dead, and said over and over again, 'I can't breathe'," he recalled. He told the UN rights body that none of the police officers were fired for murdering his brother until masses of people in the United States and around the world protested the injustice. "When people dared to raise their voice and protest for my brother they were tear-gassed, run over with police vehicles, several people lost eyes and suffered brain damage from rubber bullets, and peaceful protesters were shot and killed by police," he added. Saying that his brother, George Floyd, is one of many black men and women that have been murdered by police in recent years, he told the Council that "the sad truth is that his case is not unique". He asked the Council to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate police killings of black people in the United States, and the violence used against peaceful protesters who are reminding the world that "Black Lives Matter". George Floyd, an African-American man, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes on May 25. His death has triggered protests against racism and police brutality across the globe. Enditem Matt Hancock has defended the governments controversial new quarantine policy even though he could not name any countries other than Brazil with a worse infection rate than the UK. Since 8 June, almost all international arrivals at British airports, ferry ports and Channel Tunnel rail terminals have been required to self-isolate for two weeks. The strategy has been deplored by the travel industry, with one campaigner saying: Every day of quarantine is hundreds of jobs lost in the sector. The government is looking at travel corridors or air bridges bilateral no-quarantine deals that would remove the self-isolation requirement for key destinations such as Spain, France, Portugal and Greece, which have much lower infection rates than the UK. Interviewed by Kay Burley on Sky News, the health secretary was asked to name any other nation that was performing worse than Britain. He replied: My policy judgment is that sadly quarantine is necessary because there are countries where the rate of infection is well above one. Ms Burley asked: But apart from Brazil, which ones? Mr Hancock said: Im going to allow the advice to come to us and then we will make the decisions and announce them at the end of the month. Later, on the BBCs Today programme, he said: If you look at other countries around the world, there are some other countries where the curve is going up and appears to be getting up exponentially. Thats a big worry. When asked by Nick Robinson if the policy would be scrapped, the health secretary said: No. Its really important because there is some countries around the world, as we discussed at the start, where this virus is not under control and the number of infections is going up very sharply. Having said that, there are other countries where it may be safe to be able to not have a quarantine in place in the same way. Im working with [transport secretary] Grant Shapps, on whether those countries that have a low rate of infection, where we trust their figures, where the infection rate isnt going up, and where we can have that discussion with the other country and come to an agreement on a travel corridor. He added: I want people to go on summer holidays. The government is reviewing the quarantine arrangements on 29 June. It is facing a legal challenge from British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair to reveal the scientific basis for introducing a blanket quarantine scheme. There are concerns that the policy will actually increase infections in the UK. How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Show all 6 1 /6 How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Milan, Italy REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities North Jakarta, Indonesia REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Jakarta, Indonesia REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Venice, Italy REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities New Delhi, India REUTERS How coronavirus lockdowns changed the world's most polluted cities Islamabad, Pakistan REUTERS Last week Sir David Skegg, a New Zealand professor of preventive and social medicine, told MPs: From the point of view of the United Kingdoms health system, is it going to make things better or worse? Someone could argue that if they go and spend two weeks sitting on a beach in Greece, theyre actually less likely to become infected than if they remain in the UK. It doesnt look very logical to me to have 14 days quarantine for people coming from countries with a much lower incidence and prevalence of Covid-19. A government spokesperson said: The quarantine system is informed by science, backed by the public and designed to keep us all safe. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 04:31:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PARIS, June 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 111 COVID-19 patients in France succumbed to the coronavirus-caused disease in the last 24 hours, bringing the total fatalities to 29,547, while hospitalizations further declined, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. Of the deaths, 19,090 were registered in hospitals, a one-day rise of 38. At nursing homes and medico-social establishments, whose casualties are updated once a week on Tuesdays, 10,457 were reported dead, up by 73 from last week. Currently, 10,535 patients are in hospitals, including 820 in intensive care. The two figures -- key indicators to evaluate the country's ability to cope with the epidemic -- fell by 217 and 26 respectively in the last 24 hours. Of the 103,451 hospitalized since early March, 73,335 have recovered and returned home. "The first epidemic wave is ending in Europe and in France's mainland. But the epidemic is far from over and the virus is still circulating," warned Health General Director Jerome Salomon, addressing the National Assembly's investigative committee. "We must anticipate a resurgence, even a second epidemic wave in autumn or winter. Failure to prepare for a second wave would be a major mistake," he stressed. "Vigilance and caution must remain in place." Salomon added, "the whole world was surprised by this totally new, massive, rapid, brutal global crisis. No country is spared." Enditem President Xi Jinping addresses the fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, June 15, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua] China stands ready to promote international cooperation in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic to secure the final victory over the global public health crisis, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday. Xi made the remark in a telephone conversation with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. He also spoke by phone with Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on Tuesday night. Mutual support and assistance between China and Tajikistan in responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak have demonstrated the spirit of their joint building of a community of common development and security, Xi told Rahmon. While saying Tajikistan lent a hand to China when China was experiencing a hard time in its fight against the contagion, Xi also mentioned China's assistance to the Central Asian nation in curbing the virus by sharing anti-epidemic experience and sending a medical experts team to it. Xi said China-Tajikistan relations are at a new historical juncture. He called on the two countries to make coordinated efforts to promote trade exchanges while ensuring epidemic control measures are implemented so that key Belt and Road cooperation projects can be carried out. He also underlined the need to make plans about bilateral cooperation in fields such as trade and economy, investment, energy, mutual connectivity and agriculture to enable bilateral cooperation to make new progress after the pandemic. Rahmon said China's effective response to the outbreak and its success in socioeconomic development have demonstrated the outstanding governance capacity of the Chinese government. While saying his country will strengthen Belt and Road cooperation with China, he stated that Tajikistan firmly abides by the one-China principle and firmly supports China's measures to safeguard its national sovereignty and security. In a telephone conversation with Moreno, Xi said China will continue to carry out anti-epidemic cooperation with other countries to jointly push forward the building of a community of health for all. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, only solidarity and cooperation from all countries can help secure the victory over the contagion, he said. Xi said that China supports efforts to strengthen coordination on macroeconomic policies among countries, to bolster the stability of the global economy and improve global governance. China will continue to firmly support the South American country's anti-epidemic efforts, provide necessary assistance within its capability and discuss cooperation on vaccine research and production, Xi added. He noted that China values developing China-Ecuador relations and is willing to overcome difficulties brought by the epidemic. Moreno said that the assistance and support from China and its people have played a significant role in his country's fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak. Ecuador hopes to learn from China's experience and strengthen cooperation with it in order to combat the virus and restore economic development, he said. A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a case filed against the eligibility of Musa Adamu to contest the by-election to represent Babura/Garki Federal Constituency of Jigawa State, conducted on March 14, 2020. The by-election followed the death of the member representing the constituency, who was the father of Mr Adamu. PREMIUM TIMES reported on Monday how Nasiru Dantiye asked the court for a declaration that Mr Adamu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, was not qualified to contest the election because he presented false information to INEC in support of his credentials to contest the election. Delivering the judgement on Tuesday, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu said the plaintiff, Mr Dantiye, failed to prove the allegation against Mr Adamu beyond reasonable doubt. She held that Mr Adamu, who was the 2nd defendant in the suit, was qualified to contest the election. It is the view of this court that the case of the plaintiff has failed and it is hereby dismissed, she said. The judge said the allegation that the certificate presented by the lawmaker did not belong to him could not be proven by the plaintiff as only the issuing authority could make such pronouncement. The plaintiff have failed to write to WAEC to answer whether the certificate belong to the 2nd dependent or not. They also did not present someone who lays claim to ownership of the said certificate. Ms Ojukwu also disagreed with the plaintiffs on the disparities in the names of the lawmaker on the credentials presented to the electoral body, INEC, saying the names were synonymous with each other as argued by the defence team. She disagreed with the plantiffs lawyers on the similarities between the case and a recent case which led to disqualification of a deputy governorship candidate in Bayelsa State. Commmenting on the judgement, the lawmaker described it as a vindication of him and the Jigawa State governor, Badaru Abubakar. Mr Adamu who was in tears on emerging from the courtroom said the decision of the court has relieved him of the burden of the allegations against him. He said the end to the litigation will provide him time to focus more on his representation of his constituents at the National Assembly. AKRON, Ohio A man opened fire when three males broke into his apartment late Monday night in the Kenmore neighborhood, police say. The suspects returned fire in the incident on the 2500 block of Shoreline Drive but no one was wounded, according to police. The three male suspects, who all were wearing black clothing, escaped. The shooting occurred at about 11:30 p.m. Monday. The 29-year-old victim tells police the suspects forced their way into his apartment and began firing and that he returned fire. Nothing was taken during the break-in. Anyone with information can call detectives at 330-375-2490 or the Summit County Crimestoppers at 330-434-COPS. Individuals also can text TIPSCO with tips to 274637. Callers can remain anonymous. More crime-related coverage on cleveland.com: Crimestoppers offer $50,000 reward for information about murder of Nakia Crawford in Akron Judge gives former Westlake lawyer who fled to Thailand prison time for stealing clients money Cleveland man charged in road-rage shooting that injured 6-month-old boy, pregnant woman Former janitor at St. Michael Catholic Church in Independence sentenced for child pornography charges Hilton Cuts Nearly a Quarter of Its Corporate Workforce: Will It Regret the Deep Layoffs? Coronavirus continues to take a toll on headcounts at the worlds largest hotel companies. Hilton will lay off 2,100 corporate roles or about 22 percent of its corporate workforce around the world, the company announced this week. The company also said it would extend previously announced furloughs, reduced hours, and pay cuts by 90 days. Never in Hiltons 101-year history has our industry faced a global crisis that brings travel to a virtual standstill, Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta said in a statement. Hospitality will always be a business of people serving people, which is why I am devastated that to protect our business, we have been forced to take actions that directly impact our team members. Employees impacted by the announcement are expected to receive severance pay, access to Hilton alumni resources, an expedited recruitment process when travel resumes, and extended access to team member travel and loyalty programs. Those steps position the company well to bring workers back as the travel industry recovers further down the line, said Sean Hennessey, a professor at New York Universitys Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality. The primary emphasis right now for hotel companies like Hilton is getting their hotels back up and running and trying as best they can to incorporate virus protection measures, new cleaning measures, and all the rest, Hennessey added. A lot of the other aspects of the corporate enterprise are not really needed or at least as important in the corporate mission, at least in the near-term. Hiltons corporate layoffs come on the heels of strong May employment numbers, where leisure and hospitality jobs accounted for 1.2 million of the 2.5 million jobs added for the month. Hiltons job cuts may seem out of step from the labor strength seen last month, but most analysts expect the travel industry has a long way to go before it is once again performing at 2019 levels. When you think of the range of activities that take place at the corporate level, there are certainly a lot of people that wouldnt be busy in their traditional job roles right now, Hennessey said. Hilton is doing the right thing in recognizing that. Story continues Travel spending in the U.S. alone is expected to drop 45 percent in 2020, according to a Tourism Economics report released Wednesday. Domestic travel by U.S. residents is expected to fall by 30 percent in 2020. It will take four years for U.S. hotels to return to 2019 revenue per room performance levels, according to CBRE. Major hotel companies like Marriott, Hyatt, and Wyndham have all announced corporate layoffs and furloughs amid the coronavirus crisis but havent been as public with the percentage impact to their overall workforce. There is no denying the global travel industrys uncertainty especially in the near-term is also coupled with growth and development opportunities showing signs of a slowdown, said Ryan Meliker, the president of Lodging Analytics Research & Consulting. With that backdrop, layoffs may be a prudent move, he added. But there is no doubt that cutting with a hatchet rather than scalpel can do more harm than good. It remains to be seen how much precision will go into Hiltons layoffs, and time will tell. Hilton declined to speak further on the layoff announcement. Our companys spirit has always been grounded in a culture that supports our Team Members and delivers hospitality for our Guests, Nassetta said in his statement. We will keep that spirit alive, and when the world begins to travel again, we will be ready to welcome them back. Subscribe to Skift newsletters for essential news about the business of travel. Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 17.06.2020: Armenia confirmed Wednesday 544 COVID-19 new cases, bringing the total number to 18,033. According to the latest data, 6,814 people have already recovered. COVID-19 death toll in the country has reached 302. The total number of tests conducted so far is 87,600. As health ministry said in response to Armenian News-NEWS.am's inquiry, as of June 10, a total of 971 healthcare workers at medical centers in Armenia have been diagnosed with COVID-19. And one COVID-19 death was reported among the countrys medical workers. As of Tuesday, COVID-19 was confirmed among 33 employees of the penitentiary system of Armenia, the Penitentiary Service's spokesperson Nona Navikyan told Armenian News - NEWS.am. According to her, 19 out of these 33 employees have already recovered and returned to their official duties. She added that among the people detained in the countrys penitentiaries, there was only one convict who had tested positive. COVID-19 was registered in eight out of twelve penitentiaries in Armenia. The parliamentary faction of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) will come up with two initiatives Wednesday: to create an inquiry committee to investigate the circumstances of the activities toward coronavirus prevention, elimination of its consequences and to apply to the Constitutional Court to challenge the legality of the decision regarding the organization of rallies during a state of emergency. Opposition Bright Armenia Party leader Edmon Marukyan has already noted that they would support setting up of parliamentary inquiry committee on COVID-19. In turn, Deputy Speaker of Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan noted: "If the committee is set up, we will also be able to examine the news that the insider groups of the Prosperous Armenia Party disseminate, stating that there is no coronavirus and that there is no need to wear a mask at all." The Criminal Court of Appeal is considering on Wednesday Armenian ex-president Robert Kocharyan's attorneys' appeal of the ruling to keep Kocharyan under arrest. While ruling on the case, the court did not analyze Kocharyans behavior before his arrest, did not take into account the fact that he himself returned to the country, and while free he did not show the slightest sign of obstruction of the investigation. The refusal to release Kocharyan under a personal guarantee was not justified at all, which contradicts the requirements of the European Court. Thus, the decisions of the court are arbitrary and contradict Article 5 of the Convention on Human Rights. Meanwhile - amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert Kocharyan, being in a penitentiary institution, is forced to constantly communicate with employees, the motion added. Small-business owners wont have to pay back their federal pandemic relief loans even if they dont rehire all of the workers they laid off, the Trump administration affirmed, effectively eliminating a rule that many borrowers had feared would leave them stuck with a large debt. Congress appeared to relax that requirement this month with a new law that loosened many terms of the Paycheck Protection Program, a $660 billion relief effort intended to help struggling small companies retain or rehire their workers. But the final say on how the law would be interpreted rested with the Treasury Department, which has called the shots on most aspects of the relief effort. On Wednesday, the agency and the Small Business Administration, the programs manager, released new loan forgiveness forms that slashed documentation requirements and will give many borrowers an easy pathway to having their debt eliminated. The forms added a safe harbor option that allows borrowers to simply affirm they were unable to operate at the same level of business activity they had before the crisis because of government requirements or safety guidance, including social distancing rules. [June 17, 2020] CoreLogic Names New Independent Director CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today announced that its Board of Directors has elected Pamela Hughes (News - Alert) Patenaude, prominent housing and community development public policy expert and former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the Board effective June 17, 2020. Patenaude fills the vacancy resulting from the retirement of Mary Lee Widener, former President & CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of America, Inc., a nonprofit housing agency, who served on the Company's Board since 2010. Patenaude, 59, joins CoreLogic's Board after a successful career in both the public and private sectors. Patenaude most recently served as the Deputy Secretary of HUD from 2017 to 2019 where she managed the day-to-day operations of the $52 billion cabinet level agency with a diverse portfolio of federal housing and community development programs and over 7,000 employees nationwide. Following Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, Patenaude oversaw the $37 billion disaster program supporting the long-term recovery efforts in Puerto Rico; Texas; Florida; Hawaii; U.S. Virgin Islands; California; North Carolina and South Carolina. From 2001 to 2007, Patenaude served as Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development at HUD, where she administered more than $8 billion in housing and community development funds. She also played a significant role in the Department's efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast region following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by providing direct oversight of $17 billion i disaster recovery funds. Patenaude also served as HUD's Assistant Deputy Secretary for Field Policy and Management. In addition to her public service, Patenaude served as the President of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America's Families, a national nonprofit, education and research organization dedicated to illuminating America's affordable housing crisis. Before co-founding the Terwilliger Foundation, she was the Director of Housing Policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center, where she successfully led a 21-person commission to present a new direction for national housing policy. Patenaude served as Executive Vice President of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Founding Executive Director of the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing. Patenaude currently serves on the Board of Habitat for Humanity International, the Bipartisan Policy Center and is also a Trustee of the Homebuilders Institute (HBI). In addition, she serves as a Board Member of the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion. Patenaude earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Saint Anselm College and a Master of Science degree in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University. "Pam Patenaude is a tremendous addition to the CoreLogic Board of Directors. Pam's successful and distinguished career focused on housing policy and community development adds unique and relevant insight and expertise which we expect will be invaluable as we continue to expand and grow CoreLogic's role as a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider," said Chairman of the Board, Paul Folino. "Mary Lee Widener has graced our Board with her unique prospective and insights on housing policy and expanding homeownership since our launch and we wish her a wonderful retirement." CLGX-F About CoreLogic CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), the leading provider of property insights and solutions, promotes a healthy housing market and thriving communities. Through its enhanced property data solutions, services and technologies, CoreLogic enables real estate professionals, financial institutions, insurance carriers, government agencies and other housing market participants to help millions of people find, buy and protect their homes. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com. CORELOGIC and the CoreLogic logo are trademarks of CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005738/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] As the coronavirus spreads across Latin America and the Caribbean, public health officials are flagging outbreaks cropping up in several border regions, particularly the one between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Pan American Health Organization said on Tuesday that it was focusing its efforts in these rural frontier areas, where populations are on the move and medical facilities are lacking. Indigenous people and migrants, vulnerable under normal circumstances, face even greater risks now. The increase of transmission in these areas is cause for serious concern and immediate action, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, the director of the P.A.H.O., said. In addition to the Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Dr. Etienne cited spikes in other border areas, including the one between Costa Rica and Nicaragua and the Amazon region that Brazil shares with its neighbors. Today, said there is "no merit in charging interest on interest" for deferred payment instalments during the period announced in wake of the pandemic. Now, what exactly is A period is the time during a term when the borrower is not required to make any repayment. It is a waiting period before which repayment of EMIs resumes. Moratoriums are often enacted in response to temporary financial hardships. As a relief measure for people in view of the pandemic, the (RBI) on on March 27 allowed a three-month moratorium on term- and credit card repayments. Initially, the moratorium was for payment of all instalments falling due between March 1 and May 31, 2020. Then the on 22 May extended moratorium on term loans till 31 August. Lending institutions were directed to defer the EMIs of their customers opting for this moratorium scheme. Well, according to the RBI, the deferred instalments under the moratorium would include a) principal and/or interest components; b) bullet repayments; c) equated monthly instalments (EMIs); d) credit card dues. So, should one ideally opt for the moratorium? Well, the moratorium includes both the interest and principal component of your EMI. If a customer has the liquidity, they should not opt for a moratorium. Repaying the loan amount is advised as interest continues to accrue on the loan amount even during the moratorium period. Repaying helps reduce the interest cost. Now, a plea was filed by an Agra resident Gajendra Sharma, who has sought a direction to declare the portion of the RBI's March 27 notification "as ultra vires to the extent it charges interest on the loan amount during the moratorium period, which create hardship to the petitioner being borrower and creates hindrance and obstruction in 'right to life' guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India". Supreme Court's observations On May 26th, the asked the Centre and the to respond to the plea challenging levy of interest on loans during the moratorium period. The counsel argued that borrowers should not be penalised like this and banks should not add interest on the loan amount during the moratorium period. On june 3rd the Reserve Bank of India, told the that a waiver of interest on loans will impact the financial viability of the countrys banks and will be harmful for the interests of depositors and the financial sector. Giving an illustrative example RBI also said that banks could forego about Rs 2 trillion in interest income if interests are waived off for the six months duration of the moratorium. Next day, that is 4th June Supreme Court said that the government should not prioritise economics over health. The court observed that such a stand was detrimental, and sought a response from the finance ministry and the RBI. While on one end you are granting moratorium, on the other nothing (no relief) on interest. This is more detrimental in such challenging times, it said. However, Supreme Court last Friday that is 12th June asked the Finance Ministry and the to hold a meeting within three days and decide on waiver of interest on interest for deferred payments of loans during the moratorium period. SC said it is not considering a full interest waiver during the moratorium period but is asking RBI to consider waiver of interest on interest for deferred payments during the moratorium period. Today, the apex court asked the Central government to step up and take a stand over the issue related to charging interest on EMIs during the six month moratorium period. SC asked the Central government and to review the matter and slated it for further hearing in the first week of August. Now, the question remains that Can banks afford to do so? Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India, told the apex court that waiving the interest completely will not be easy for banks as they have to pay interest to their depositors. "There are Rs 133 trillion in deposits with banks and interest has to be paid on them and the waiver will have a cascading effect," Mehta told the bench. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan observed that once moratorium is fixed then it should serve the desired purposes and that the bench sees no merit in charging interest on interest The bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and Justice M R Shah, orally observed that the government should consider interfering in the matter as it cannot leave everything to banks. The bench asked the Indian Banks Association to examine whether they can bring new guidelines in the meantime on the issue of loan moratorium. Wednesday, 17 June 2020 16:30:09 (GMT+3) | Istanbul Algerian integrated steel producer El Hadjar recalled its 4,000 workers on Monday, June 15, amid strict health measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, after remaining inactive for three months. The companys medical team will ensure regular medical monitoring of all workers who resumed activities. The company has resumed production at its CRC and pipe rolling mills with sufficient semi-finished stocks, while its blast furnace No. 2 still remains idle, SteelOrbis understands. As previously reported by SteelOrbis, El Hadjar has been going through some financial distress in recent times. The producers Annaba complex, with a 2,500 mt per day ferrous metal production capacity, employs more than 6,000 workers. London, June 17 : The Champions League and Europa League will be finished in August with 'final eight' tournaments in Lisbon, Portugal and in cities across Germany, the UEFA said in a statement. The Champions League will resume on August 7. "The 2019/20 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will be played as a straight knockout tournament in Lisbon, Portugal in August. All these ties will be single-leg fixtures," the statement on UEFA's official website read. "A decision is pending on whether the four remaining round of 16 second legs will take place at the home team's stadium or in Portugal," it added on uefa.com. "The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will be split between Benfica's Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica and Sporting CP's EstAdio Jose Alvalade. The Estadio do Dragao in Porto and the Estadio D. Afonso Henriques in GuimarAes will host the four outstanding round of 16 second legs if required." The 2019/20 Champions League has been on hold since March 11 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the English Premier League is set to start from Wednesday with the Spanish LaLiga and German Bundesliga already underway after being halted in March due to the health crisis. Talking of Premier League clubs, former striker Dimitar Berbatov has said Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should not be treated as a stop-gap arrangement anymore and a top-four Premier League finish would ensure he remains in the hot seat at the club. "I think the board have faith in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and that's the most important thing. I'm sure they speak constantly, they give him confidence to build and use young players," Berbatov, who won two Premier League titles during his time at Old Trafford, said in an interview with Betfair. By PTI NEW DELHI: Hundreds of workers of Tata Steel's unit at IJmuiden in the Netherlands have gone on strike, demanding job security, according to labour union Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV). The Dutch operations of the company have been facing protests and demonstrations for over a week. According to the Netherlands-based workers' union, employees of Tata Steel are worried and demanding job security from the management. "This morning the office staff of Tata Steel are on strike in IJmuiden. FNV estimates that about 400 people attended the strike event," FNV said in a statement. There is enormous anger and concern for their jobs among the workers, FNV Metaal Director Roel Berghuis said adding "We keep going. We will not let our company be destroyed. Hands off IJmuiden!" On Tuesday, he said as long as workers don't get anything to hear from the company's management, the strikes will continue. Since June 10, there have been strikes at several locations in the IJmuiden unit. Due to strikes, work was interrupted in the ore preparation, warehouses, rolling mill, at research and development and other departments. According to the Dutch labour union, of which thousands of Tata Steel IJmuiden plant workers are members, the "inevitable move" was taken when the management of Tata Steel did not respond to the demands of the employees. Tata Steel had earlier said it recognises the uncertainty in the minds of the employees and respects the rights of the workers in IJmuiden steelworks. It had also said that in the current environment of global uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has been working with all stakeholders, including the unions in both Netherlands and the UK, to meet the challenges. It also requested the union in the Netherlands to postpone industrial action so it could continue discussions and find the best way forward to meet everyone's interests. The industrial action would only put further pressure on the company's results as it continues to deal with the impact of lower steel demand caused by the pandemic, Tata Steel had said. German investigators reportedly want to retest a mystery saliva sample found in the apartment where Madeleine McCann went missing. No DNA match has been found between the sample and the latest suspect, Christian Brueckner. The sample is believed to be only a trace and Portuguese forensic tests have been unable to extract any DNA profile from it in the 13 years since it was collected, Sky News reported. The German investigators believe they should carry out their own tests as they consider the sample to be potentially vital evidence. However, the Portuguese police are thought to be unlikely to send the sample after Hans Christian Wolters, the German prosecutor in Braunschweig, said the Portuguese police still believe Madeleines parents were responsible for their daughters disappearance. The Portuguese police discounted the McCanns as suspects in 2008. It comes after German media reports said girls swimming costumes, childrens clothes and 8,000 child abuse images were found by police investigating Brueckner, the latest suspect. Brueckner also reportedly boasted a motorhome he owned and drove repeatedly between Germany and Portugal was ideal for hiding drugs and children. German investigators believe Brueckner killed Madeleine soon after abducting her from a holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007. The 43-year-old Brueckner is serving a 15-month prison sentence in Germany for drug dealing, and is appealing a conviction for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman, also at Praia da Luz, for which he was sentenced to seven years in jail. Brueckner has racked up 17 convictions across Europe, including for sex offences against children, drug offences, theft and forgery. He was named prime suspect over Madeleines disappearance earlier this month by German police, although his lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, said Brueckner denies any involvement in the case. Lime misrepresented that its new scooters were safe to use as it continued to allow them to be ridden on footpaths around Brisbane, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has found. In a decision handed down by the ACCC on Wednesday, Lime accepted a court-enforceable undertaking to address the commission's concerns. Lime has admitted to not reporting serious injuries sustained by some users of its scooters. Credit:Albert Perez/AAP In certain circumstances, the ACCC found, Limes Gen 2 e-scooters would apply excessive brake force to the front wheel, causing it to suddenly stop. This caused riders to suffer serious injuries, including broken bones, damaged teeth, cuts and abrasions. A major drive is being launched to source and publish for the first time Leitrim GAA stories from the grassroots of the association. The collaboration between the association and publishers, Ballpoint Press Ltd, aims to gather the most comprehensive treasure trove of Gaelic-related stories ever compiled in the 136-year history of the GAA. As well as Leitrim and the four corners of Ireland, stories will also be sought from across the globe, in particular from those who have been GAA frontier people in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and many other countries. The story gathering will include oral accounts so that all kind of stories can be written down for the first time in book form and also feature in the GAA's archives at Croke Park. Potential contributors who feel they have a story but may not feel up to writing it can get in touch with Ballpoint Press and relate their account. It will then be written and sent back for approval before being submitted for final publishing. The president of the GAA, John Horan, said he welcomed the exploration through the GAA grassroots to find the diversity of stories that undoubtedly exist there. The grassroots are the lifeblood of our organisation and it is timely that that such an undertaking is finally going ahead. I'm delighted because it means that there will be a permanent home for these stories in both book form as well in our own GAA archive section. Well-known journalist and author, PJ Cunningham, will spearhead the undertaking alongside GAA Communications Director, Alan Milton. PJ said it had been an ambition of his for many years to bring what he believes is the great legacy of GAA stories together under one project. GAA is a way of life for most Irish people at home and abroad. It is packed with diverse stories from on and off the pitch. I grew up listening to them and enjoying their retelling, but the reality is that many of these stories exist only in word of mouth form. At present, we all have a bit more time to commit such stories to paper so that they can be preserved for future generations. Ideally the stories should have their own unique selling point rather than just normal accounts of winning or losing matches. They can also include inter-county fare and personnel because it is the grassroots people who gather in large numbers to support those encounters. Basically, we are interested in any story from 1884 onwards to the present day that has a special, novel or unusual twist to it. For further information contact pj@gaastories.ie or communications@gaa Letters can be sent to GAA Grassroots Stories, Ballpoint Press, 4 Wyndham Park, Bray, Co Wicklow, phone 086 8217631. Bay Area voters of both major parties will head back to the polls starting June 29 for early voting in several runoff elections. Polling locations in the Bay Area are limited, but Harris County voters also can cast ballots at any of the others in the county. Galveston County voters as well can vote at any polling site in their county. In Clear Lake, Freeman Branch Library, 16616 Diana Lane, Houston, serves as the polling site. Other nearby early voting locations are the Baker Ripley Cleveland Ripley Neighborhood Center, 720 Fairmont Parkway, Pasadena and the Harris County Scarsdale Annex, 10851 Scarsdale in South Belt. In Galveston County, early voting sites include: the North County Building, 174 Calder Road, League City, Bacliff Volunteer Fire Department, 600 Grand Ave., Bacliff; and Friendswood Librarys community room, 416 S. Friendswood Drive, Friendswood. With the upcoming Fourth of July holiday falling on a Saturday during the early voting period, poll openings will be broken into two parts. From June 29 to July 2, the polls will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be no voting July 3 and 4 in observation of Independence Day. The polls will then be open Sunday, July 5 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. From July 6-10, ballots can be cast 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. For Harris County residents who cant make it to the polls or are concerned about exposure to the coronavirus, mail-in ballots are available. Application forms are available online. Once filled out, the ballot needs to be mailed to: Chris Hollins, Harris County Clerk, Attn: Elections Division, P.O. Box 1148, Houston, Texas 77251-1148. For Galveston County residents who wish to vote without going to the polls, mail-in ballots are available. Application forms are available online.Completed ballots need to be mailed to: Attn: Ballots by Mail, c/o Dwight Sullivan, Galveston County Clerk, P.O. Box 17253, Galveston, Texas 77552-7253. Runoff races In a local battle, incumbent Chris Diaz and Jerry Garcia are vying for the Democratic nomination to be Harris County Precinct 2 constable. The precinct includes South Belt, Pasadena and South Houston. The March primary was close, with Garcia tallying just over 39 percent of the vote and Diaz pulling almost 35 percent in a five-person contest. First elected in 2012, Diaz is seeking a third term. The race was confusing from the start, as another Jerry Garcia was also on the ballot despite dropping out shortly before Election Day. He received 9.3 percent of the vote. The Jerry Garcia who is Diazs current runoff opponent claimed in December that the constable had recruited a relative with the same name to run for the seat in a ploy to confuse voters. Diaz denied urging a cousin of his wife to enter the race. The winner will face Republican Daniel Vela of Pasadena in the November election. In another Harris County race concerning law enforcement, Paul Day and Joe Danna are each looking to be the Republican candidate for sheriff. The winner will face Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, a Democrat, in the fall general election. Democrats also have a runoff between two candidates who hope to go to Washington, D.C. In a U.S. Senate race, former Air Force pilot Mary MJ Hegar will square off with Texas Sen. Royce West. In March, Hegar received 22 percent of the votes cast, while West garnered 14.5 percent. The winner of the runoff will face incumbent Republican John Cornyn. John DeLapp is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at texdelapp@gmail.com. The Andhra Pradesh assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution opposing the implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the revised format of National Population Register (NPR) in the country. Moving the resolution, deputy chief minister and minister for minority welfare Amzad Basha said the NRC was creating a sort of fear psychosis and insecurity among the minorities. There has been strong opposition against the NRC all over the country. Our government led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has always been safeguarding the interests of minorities. There is no question of implementing the same, the deputy CM said. He said the cabinet had also adopted a resolution strongly opposing the NRC and the present resolution was in tune with the cabinet decision. Basha also said the state government would oppose the revised format of the NPR-2020. The central government should stick to the old format of NPR 2010 and not the revised one, he said. The state assembly passed the AP Appropriation Bill approving the state budget for 2020-21, before it was adjourned sine die by Speaker Tammineni Sitaram. Earlier, the assembly paid tributes to the Army personnel who laid down their lives in line of duty at Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh. Moving the resolution, the chief minister said Andhra Pradesh would join the nation in expressing deep sorrow to the family members of 20 brave soldiers who had laid down their lives fighting at the Galwan Valley to safeguard the integrity and sovereignty of the country. The House observed silence as a mark of respect to the fallen soldiers. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Key indices are trading lower in early trade. At 9:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 173.28 points or 0.52% at 33,431.94. The Nifty 50 index was down 70.65 points or 0.71% at 9,843.35. Asian stocks are trading lower. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.2%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.3%. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, is positive. On the BSE, 709 shares rose and 702 shares fell. A total of 54 shares were unchanged. Stocks in news: HCL Technologies slipped 0.59%. HCL Technologies announced the commencement of its operations in Sri Lanka. Marking its presence in the region, HCL plans to create over 1,500 new local employment opportunities for both freshers and experienced professionals, within the first eighteen months of kick-starting its operations from its office in Colombo. A key part of HCL's business and development strategy in Sri Lanka will be to use local talent pool of Sri Lanka for global assignments. Wipro rose 0.54%. Wipro Gallagher Solutions (WGS), a Wipro company announced a partnership with DocMagic, Inc., the premier provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, regulatory compliance and comprehensive eMortgage services for the mortgage industry. The partnership will enable Wipro Gallagher Solutions to advance digital mortgage processes via a seamless integration to DocMagic services. HPCL rose 1.67%. HPCL reported consolidated net loss of Rs 27.63 crore in Q4 March 2020 against a net profit of Rs 3,340.03 crore in Q4 March 2019. Total income fell 3.2% to Rs 66,659.85 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. HDFC Asset Management Company (HDFC AMC) fell 2.55% to Rs 2,473. Standard Life Investments (the promoter of the company)(the Seller) proposes to sell up to 60 lakh equity shares (representing approximately 2.82% stake in HDFC Asset Management Company on 17 June 2020 (for non-retail investors only) and on 18 June 2020 (for retail investors and for non-retail investors who choose to carry forward their un-allotted bids), with an option to additionally sell up to 6,000,000 equity shares (representing approximately 2.82% stake). The floor price for the sale shall be Rs 2,362 per share. NMDC rose 1.06%. NMDC reported 78.23% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 315.39 crore on 13.51% fall in total income to Rs 3,320.95 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Navin Fluorine International advanced 4.83% after the company reported 675.13% surge in consolidated net profit to Rs 272.69 crore on 6.99% rise in total income to Rs 282.26 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Ashoka Buildcon gained 4.61%. Ashoka Buildcon reported consolidated net profit of Rs 134.56 crore in Q4 March 2020 against a net loss of Rs 10.24 crore in Q4 March 2019. Total income fell 0.83% to Rs 1,610.56 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Global Markets: Overseas, Asian stocks are trading lower as the International Monetary Fund said the global economy is set to see a more significant contraction than it previously forecast. Japan's exports plunged 28.3% year-on-year in May, according to provisional trade statistics released Wednesday by the country's Ministry of Finance. IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said in a Tuesday blog post that the forthcoming June World Economic Outlook Update is expected to show negative growth rates even worse than previously estimated. The fund also said the current crisis, which it dubbed the Great Lockdown, is unlike anything the world has seen before. Investors continue to watch for developments on the geopolitical front regionally, as tensions escalate along the Korean peninsula after North Korea reportedly destroyed a liaison office with the South. In US, Wall Street advanced on Tuesday as the prospect of additional stimulus and a record jump in retail sales suggested the U.S. economy could bounce back sooner than expected. A full US economic recovery will not occur until the American people are sure that the novel coronavirus epidemic has been brought under control, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday, as he began the first of two days of hearings before US lawmakers. The longer the downturn lasts, the greater the potential for longer-term damage from permanent job loss and business closures, Powell added. In economic data, U.S. retail sales jumped by 17.7% in May, the government said Tuesday. U.S. industrial production for May rose by 1.4%, as many factories resumed operations after shutdowns spurred by the coronavirus crisis, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday. Back home, domestic shares advanced on Tuesday amid high volatility as strong global cues boosted sentiment while India-China faceoff in Ladakh capped gains. The barometer S&P BSE Sensex gained 376.42 points or 1.13% at 33,605.22. The Nifty 50 index rose 100.30 points or 1.02% at 9,914. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,478.52 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,161.51 crore in the Indian equity market on 16 June, provisional data showed. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki has broken his silence few hours after the appeal court upheld the judgment of a high court suspending Adams Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). Obaseki who had earlier announced his resignation from the APC after meeting with Ibrahim Gambari, chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday says he is yet to join any political party. He made this known via a short message on his official social media account on Tuesday. Read Also: Oshiomhole Afraid Of Educated People Because He Didnt Go To School Obaseki Advertisement Obaseki was disqualified from the APC primary election in Edo by a screening panel for alleged defective certificate. There has been the speculation that he may join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He met with some governors elected on the PDP platform at the weekend. It is not clear if he is reconsidering his resignation from the APC following the suspension of Oshiomhole. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday tested positive for the coronavirus infection, a day after testing negative. The development came hours after Jain was tested for the second time. Today my covid test found to be positive. Satyendar Jain (@SatyendarJain) June 17, 2020 The minister's sample was taken on Wednesday afternoon for the second time after symptoms of fever and low oxygen levels persisted despite the earlier negative report. Jain was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital on the night of June 15 following breathlessness and high fever. "The minister continues to be on oxygen support for the second day in a row and his treatment is slated to continue at the same hospital," said an official. Sources in Delhi government said contact tracing of people who interacted with him in the last couple of days has been started and accordingly, they will be quarantined as per the advice of doctors. As Jain would be in hospital for the next few days, the charge of the health department may be given to another cabinet minister, even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is yet to take a decision on it, they said. One of the key faces of the capital's COVID-19 fight, Jain has been actively holding multiple meetings at various levels. He was also present at the meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday to review the preparedness of the national capital. Kejriwal and Jain had met at the latter's residence before the meeting and had returned from there in the same vehicle. Afterwards, Delhi Jal Board Vice-Chairman Raghav Chadha and Jain had left Kejriwal's house in the same vehicle. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was also present at Kejriwal's residence following the meeting with Shah. Just prior to his admission, Jain had also held a meeting with hotel and restaurant owners as the government sought to use the latter as extension of hospitals for coronavirus treatment in the face of spiralling numbers in the capital. Apart from Jain, three other key members of the Delhi government also tested positive on Wednesday. AAP MLA from Kalkaji Atishi, who has also been involved in the thinktank of the AAP government's strategy of interventions (both in terms of relief and health measures from the beginning of the lockdown); AAP spokesperson Akshay Marathe, a member of Kejriwal's inner circle; and Abhinandita Mathur, advisor to Sisodia and actively involved in relief operations during the lockdown. Speaking to CNN-News18, Atishi said she isolated herself on June 11 after an IAS officer in the Delhi Secretariat tested positive. Atishi said she got herself tested on June 16 and is asymptomatic. Marathe said he had mild symptoms of sore throat and body ache. Mathur said she got herself tested at a paid facility. All three of them are currently in home isolation. At present, all eyes are on Kejriwal and Sisodia who will have to isolate themselves as per protocol. Incidentally, Kejriwal had undergone a COVID-19 test recently and had tested negative. Although Atishi, Marathe and Mathur had been working from a separate office, Kejriwal met Jain a couple of hours before the latter's admission. Similarly, Jain, Sisodia and Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had attended the SDMA meeting on June 10. Apart from ministers, many bureaucrats and journalists have been meeting Jain regularly. Meanwhile, Jain's father-in-law died on Wednesday after brief illness, sources said. He was 88, and was not diagnosed with COVID-19. He died of natural causes, they said, adding Jain's father-in-law was not keeping well for the past few days. (With PTI inputs) Zeng Kerong (second from right), general manager of HNRB's East African Regional Center, and Ababu Namwamba (center), chief administrative secretary of Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pose for a photo at a handover ceremony for medical and protective materials donated by Chinese companies in Nairobi, Kenya's capital, on June 11, 2020. (From left: Solomon Kitungu, principal secretary of Kenya's State Department of Transport; Susan Mochache, principal secretary of Kenya's Ministry of Health; Ababu Namwamba; Zeng Kerong; Zhuo Wu, chairman of Kenya Chinese Chamber of Commerce). [Photo by Liu Hongjie/China Daily] President to deliver keynote speech at event focusing on importance of relations Leaders of China and African countries are set to have an extraordinary summit on solidarity against the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, a move that experts said demonstrates their joint efforts to build a community of common health based on the traditional China-Africa friendship. President Xi Jinping will preside over the summit in Beijing and deliver the keynote speech, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday. The summit, jointly initiated by China, South Africathe rotating chair of the African Unionand Senegal, co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, will be held via video link, Hua said. Leaders of African countries, including African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, members of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government and rotating chairs of major African subregional organizations, will attend the summit, the spokeswoman said, adding that United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will also participate. The summit comes as the novel coronavirus pandemic is still surging globally and African countries are also challenged by the contagion due to weak public health systems on the continent. More than 250,000 people in Africa were reported to have been infected with the disease as of Tuesday, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The summit takes place at a critical time and demonstrates again the importance of China and Africa working together to overcome difficulties, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday. Zhao said at a news briefing that the summit will help build up consensus between China and African countries in solidarity against the pandemic and boost their cooperation. It will also inject fresh impetus into support for multilateralism and strengthen international cooperation in combating the epidemic, he added. Since the start of the epidemic, China and African countries have been supporting each other. Over 50 African leaders have expressed sympathy and support for China's efforts in fighting the epidemic in various forms. China also delivered medical supplies and sent medical experts to African countries to help them combat the disease. At the Extraordinary Group of 20 Leaders' Summit held via video link in March, Xi called on the G20 members to "jointly help developing countries with weak public health systems enhance preparedness and response". Speaking at the Virtual Event of the Opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly on May 18, Xi announced that China will provide $2 billion over two years to help with COVID-19 response and with economic and social development in affected countries, especially developing countries. Particularly, he said, China will establish a cooperation mechanism for its hospitals to pair up with 30 African hospitals and accelerate the building of the Africa CDC headquarters to help the continent ramp up its disease preparedness and control capacity. It will also work with other G20 members to implement the Debt Service Suspension Initiative for the poorest countries to bolster support for the hardest-hit countries under the greatest strain of debt repayments, Xi said. Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said at a news conference last week that China had announced the suspension of debt repayments for 77 developing countries and regions and the pairing-up cooperation mechanism between Chinese hospitals with 30 their counterparts in Africa is also being set up. He Wenping, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of West-Asian and African Studies, said China has used concrete actions to demonstrate its commitment to building a community of common health for mankind and a closer China-Africa community with a shared future in the joint fight against COVID-19 with Africa. Omer Gamar-Eddin, Sudan's state minister for foreign affairs, told Xinhua News Agency, "We thank China for this medical assistance and for the visit of the Chinese medical team to a number of medical sites in Sudan." Brettson Paynes nine-year-old sister Breann watched on in horror as her little brother leaned on the door of a moving caravan they were travelling in before falling out onto the road. Eight-year-old Brettson was rushed to hospital after the incident on Sunday in Katherine, in the Northern Territory, but sadly could not be saved. Breann was the one that physically watched him fall before she and another sibling Ariana, 14, ran to try and comfort their younger brother, who had suffered severe injuries to his head in the fall. Breann, Ariana and third sister, Addyson, 7, as well as their youngest brother Rylee, 6, had all allegedly been travelling unrestrained at the time of the incident. Brettson Payne died on Sunday after falling from a moving caravan. Source: GoFundMe/Brettson Payne funeral fund His dad, Brett Payne, said he was unaware Brettson and four of his other children had left his property on Sunday, telling Yahoo News Australia he didnt find out until it was too late. I didnt see them leave, Mr Payne said. They [the other children] rang me and told me the accident had happened, and that they were heading to the hospital. So I got there first so they would be ready for them. The fantastic hospital staff tried to revive Brettson for nearly an hour-and-a-half, Mr Payne said. Since the loss of his son, he said he had gone through good times and also crappy times. I do miss my little man. Hes not coming back, he said, explaining some of Brettsons siblings had taken his death harder than others. Breann obviously, shes lost her little playmate, her partner. Brettson was travelling in a caravan like this with some of his siblings at the time of the tragedy. Source: Facebook Mr Payne pleaded with parents and adults responsible for supervising children to not take their job to look after them lightly, as their actions could spell the difference between life and death. We know that kids want to have fun... but parents need to be aware that accidents do happen, he said. Story continues Sometimes it might only be a little scrape or something, but sometimes they can be life or death. My son lost his life for a simple act of saying sorry little man you cant travel in there. If it were for something as simple as that, my little man would be here today. Mr Payne, along with his tight-knit family, were coping to the best of their ability in the wake of the tragedy, which not only has seen Northern Territory locals rally around them, but people from across the country. A GoFundMe account has been established to support the family with funeral costs and ongoing care for the other children; Rylee, 6, Addyson, 7, Breann, 9, Ariana, 14, Keegan, 16, Braithlee, 17 and Nikaiya, 19. Brettson will be farewelled in a private viewing for family and close friends next Friday, before a memorial service open to the community at a quiet spot he used to enjoy fishing. Its a place thats special to him, Mr Payne said. The tragedy unfolded in Katherine (scene photo) on Sunday. Source: AAP Driver of ute towing caravan charged A 31-year-old man from Katherine, in the Northern Territory, has been charged with driving a motor vehicle causing death after being interviewed by detectives. He had allegedly taken nine boys and girls aged five to 14 from several different families he was friends with, for a drive north of the Top End town on Sunday. The ute was on Edith Farms Road 30km north when, "for reasons we are yet to determine", the boy, Brettson Payne, has fallen from the caravan onto the road, Major Crash Investigation Unit Detective Senior Sergeant Brendan Lindner told reporters. More charges are likely to be laid and the man will appear in the Katherine Local Court on August 10. With AAP 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. COLONIE While few people may have heard of it, a 26-acre parcel of forever wild forest land in the middle of an exclusive residential community adjacent to Siena College is the subject of a protracted court fight pitting neighbor against neighbor and drawing in a descendant of the wealthy benefactor who created the reserve. The legal battle over land that the late Marjorie Doyle Rockwell gave to the Audubon Society of New York State has also highlighted the confusion caused by the existence of more than one organization using the Audubon name. There's the one benefiting from Rockwell's bequest, which touts itself on its website as a "global leader in environmental sustainability certifications," while the older National Audubon Society focuses on protecting bird and wildlife habitat. The story here began in 1998 when Rockwell, heiress to a plastics fortune, deeded about 30 acres of forest along Spring Street to the Audubon Society of New York State, also known as Audubon International, to create a nature preserve. The land had previously been offered to Siena College, which turned it down. Audubon International eventually sold the land off in parcels. One nine-acre parcel, which contained Rockwells home, was sold to Tony and Denise Gorman who live there. Another two acres went to the Standish family who built a pair of homes on their lots. The major parcel, of 26 acres, was supposed to remain a Forever Wild ecological preserve, according to court papers. However, it was sold to Tom Despart in 2013 for $150,000. But neighbors, including the Gormans noticed that Despart was cutting trees and clearing what looked like ATV trails on the land, which they say violated the covenant. The Gormans filed a lawsuit, but lost when an appellate division court concluded they didnt have standing over the land covenants in Desparts purchase. I spent three and a half years litigating this, Tony Gorman said. But that wasnt the end of the case. Alerted to the dispute, Rockwells granddaughter Elizabeth Haley Rockwell, who lives in Connecticut, filed lawsuits against both Despart last year and Audubon International earlier this spring. She hired Albanys Gleason, Dunn, Walsh and OShea law firm to sue Despart, contending he is disregarding the deed restrictions that came with the land. Defendant has violated the Forever Wild Restriction, the complaint in State Supreme Court in Albany County says of Despart. A similar complaint was filed against Audubon International in a separate lawsuit. The grandmother gave the property to this organization and she wanted it forever wild, said Gorman, who added that he and other neighbors have grown upset at what they say is the frequent din of chain saws, brush-hogs and other power apparatus coming from the area. Desparts attorney maintains that the deed restrictions went away when Audubon International sold the land to Despart. Our position is that this covenant is not enforceable, said lawyer Brendan Baynes of the Baynes law firm. Baynes explained that New York law doesnt favor restrictive covenants. Nor, he noted, does the deed contain any reference to a preserve. It started out as a dispute between neighbors and it snowballed since, added Baynes. Chris McDonald, of the Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna firm, is defending Audubon International. He said they are confident of their case. Confusion over the distinctions between the National Audubon Society and Audubon International are not uncommon. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. In fact, the two groups emerged from a split of sorts that began in the Capital Region in 1987. That was when Ronald Dodson, a New York coordinator for the National Audubon group, was laid off amid a cash crunch. He went on to create Audubon International, whose New York affiliate received and later sold Rockwells land. Audubon International officials referred questions to their lawyers. In the early 1990s, the National Audubon Society sued Audubon International over use of the Audubon name but lost when the court ruled that both organizations could use the moniker, the surname of 19th-century painter and ornithologist John James Audubon. National Audubon spokeswoman Sharon Bruce agreed that there often is confusion between the two groups. We get folks mixed up between the two, Bruce said. National Audubon, which was created in 1905, she said, doesnt buy and sell land, aside from three small visitor centers in Garrison, near Syracuse and on Long Island. Instead, they focus on protecting bird habitat and educating the public about those areas. Were not a land trust, Bruce said. The National Audubon Society has been in place for quite a long time as have our state offices. The name is important to us and all we can do is our best, she added. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-454-5758 @RickKarlinTU Union leaders have warned that all schools may not be able to fully reopen in September under the governments current social distancing rules. Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), raised doubts over whether all children could go back to the classroom in the autumn due to concern over shortages of space and teaching staff needed to meet coronavirus safety standards. At a fiery hearing of the Commons Education Committee, Tory MPs clashed with leaders of four major teaching unions over what one Conservative branded a disgraceful political campaign to prevent schools from reopening. Official guidance says primary school class sizes must be limited to 15 pupils per teacher to prevent the spread of the virus, as young children cannot be expected to remain two metres apart at all times. Asked if schools could reopen fully in the autumn, Dr Bousted said: If the government retains its social distancing rules, then they cant. So that is why we then need to look at an education recovery programme that is focused on more than school buildings. We have got one about increasing the physical footprint of the school, this is about increasing the number of teachers available to teach smaller classes, and about a national plan for blended learning. Large pupil to teacher ratios in English classrooms create a headache for schools trying to reopen fully, she said, and called on the government to consider using other public buildings to provide more space. Tory MPs lined up to criticise union leaders over their warnings about rushing back into schools amid deep tensions between both sides over the governments strategy. Jonathan Gullis, a former teacher and a former NASUWT union rep, said he was absolutely outraged at the sheer damage the unions have done to the teaching profession. The Stoke-on-Trent North MP asked: Why is it that every time I see a teaching union on TV theyre saying schools arent safe to open, schools arent safe to open? A campaign has been run, whether you like or not, to breathe fear into parents about the idea of sending their kids back to school. It has come across to parents that these schools are death traps and that is just not the case and there are thousands of children not getting an education. Tom Hunt, Tory MP for Ipswich, added: The perception that many people have in this country, whether rightly or wrongly, and it is a reality, sadly, that many people feel as though some of the teaching unions have actively obstructed the reopening of schools ahead of September. Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the committee, added: Why is it that children and parents can have access to Primark over the next few months, but many of them wont have access to schools according to your risk assessments? But union leaders hit back at the criticism. Dr Bousted said: Some of the line of the questioning here seems to be that its schools and teachers and leaders fault for following government guidance. Patrick Roach, general secretary of NASUWT, said they wanted to get children back to school but this had to be done in line with health and safety guidelines. On reopening more widely in the autumn, Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: If it is at all possible and considered safe then absolutely we want all children to be back in school from September. But were not able to do that at the moment within the governments own protective measures guidance. The maths just doesnt work. If you can only have up to 15 children in a class and youre bringing back all children, you need twice as many classrooms and you need twice as many teachers. Signs showing closed lanes at the U.S.-Canada border crossing in Lacolle, Quebec, on March 18, 2020. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) US-Canada Border to Remain Closed for Another Month US to keep southern border with Mexico closed The U.S.-Canada border, the longest in the world, will remain closed for another month to non-essential travel in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday that it is an extension on an existing agreement, meaning the border restrictions will remain in place until July 21 even as the two nations continue to reopen. The two nations agreed in March to close the border to only necessary travel. This is an important decision that will keep people in both of our countries safe, Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday. The agreement does not block trade and commerce, as well as temporary workers and healthcare workers. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland stated that the measures apply to to all of Canadas borders, not just the 5,500-mile-long land border. When it comes to the Canada-U.S. border, as the prime minister announced today, we have agreed with our American neighbors to roll over for another 30 days, the measures that we have currently in place, Freeland said on Tuesday, according to CTV News. She noted that discussions between Washington and Ottawa on border restrictions were very productive, adding that its based on a mutual recognition that the measures we currently have in place are working very well. An ambulance crosses the San Ysidro sentry box border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico on April 27, 2020. Baja California state remains as one of the worst-hit states of Mexico and its main city Tijuana has registered over 115 COVID-19 deaths. (Francisco Vega/Getty Images) Chad Wolf, the acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told reporters that travel will also be limited along the U.S.-Mexico border. Based on the success of the existing restrictions and the emergence of additional global COVID-19 hotspots, the Department will continue to limit non-essential travel at our land ports of entry with Canada and Mexico, Wolf said in a statement. This extension protects Americans while keeping essential trade and travel flowing as we reopen the American economy. Mexicos foreign ministry wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that the terms of the closure will stay the same since they were implemented on March 21. The ban applies only to non-essential travel. Americans returning to the United States are exempted from the closures, according to the U.S. State Department. Essential travel also includes people traveling for medical reasons, people traveling to attend schools, people traveling to work, people traveling for healthcare reasons, people involved in lawful cross-border trade, those involved in diplomatic or government travel, and individuals involved in military-related operations, according to the agency. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus, has sickened more than 2 million people in the United States and killed at least 115,000, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers. The virus has sickened more than 99,000 people and killed 8,175 in Canada. Few cared in 2002 when I pushed the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general to resign over whistleblower complaints about poor staff management. Little mind was paid in 2009 when I shined a light on the sudden departure of Amtraks inspector general, whod signed a gag order in exchange for a significant payout. There were no screaming headlines in 2015 when the Obama administration blocked a broad swath of the IG community from accessing records needed for oversight. As recently as February, bipartisan concerns about an ineffective inspector general largely went ignored even after my staff briefed the media. The British Fashion Council have launched designer face masks. (British Fashion Council) Yahoo Lifestyle 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. Prices were correct at the time of publication. Wearing a face covering in shops and enclosed public spaces is now mandatory in England. This includes supermarkets, indoor shopping centres, banks and takeaways. The new rules are an extension of the government guidelines that were put in place in June, which made masks compulsory on public transport to help defend against the coronavirus. Children under the age of 11 and those with disabilities or certain health conditions will be exempt from the rule. As the coverings become more and more prevalent in daily life, so too do the options available to us. Numerous high street retailers including Adidas, Boden, Mango and Anthropologie have started to stock fabric designs in a range of summer prints and patterns. And now, The British Fashion Council (BFC) has launched a line of coveted designer non-medical masks, which cost only 15 for a pack of three. Face coverings designed by Liam Hodges, Julien MacDonald and RIXO.(Getty Images for the BFC) Its a joint campaign with Bags of Ethics, to manufacture and retail internationally, sustainable and reusable non-medical face coverings to use alongside existing social distancing measures. The non-medical masks, all created in London, have been designed by six sought-after British designers, Halpern, Julien Macdonald, Liam Hodges, Mulberry, RAEBURN and RIXO. There are two packs to chose from, each featuring three of the designers creations. Face coverings designed by Mulberry, RAEBURN and Halpern.(Getty Images for the BFC) The project aims to raise 1 million with 100% of sale profits going to charity and split between NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal, BFC Foundation Fashion Fund and Wings of Hope Childrens Charity. The reusable, washable, masks are now available to buy through UK partner retailers including ASOS, Boots, John Lewis & Partners and Sainsburys, as well as through the BFC website. Each face coverings has been made from GOTS certified organic cotton sateen with two layers of fabric, a nose-strip to create a snug fit around the nose and mouth, a filter panel, adjustable ear straps for comfort, and an anti-fog fit for glasses. Story continues Suitable for sensitive skin, the print is made from non-toxic REACH compliant inks, and the protective pouches are made from upcycled fabrics. Who says you cant combine responsible safety with haute-couture? Certainly not us. Where to buy BFC face masks John Lewis | Shop here The department store sold out of BFC masks pretty sharpish earlier this week. The brand have now re-stocked the masks, but are already proving very popular. Sainsburys is now stocking the masks and currently have them in stock. If you spend over 20 online youll qualify for free Click & Collection, otherwise, delivery charges apply. Boots | Shop here Boots has the face mask 3-pack currently in stock, and their website advises that options for children will also be coming soon. ASOS | Shop here Youll be able to buy the designer face masks from ASOS next week and delivery will cost 4. Waitrose | Shop here Waitrose will only start stocking the masks from the end of June. You can find a full list of where to buy a face mask in the UK here. Indian intelligence agencies have asked the government to block or advise people to stop use of 53 mobile applications linked to China over concerns that these werent safe and ended up extracting a large amount of data outside India, people familiar with the development told Hindustan Times. The list of applications sent by the security establishment to the government include video conferencing app Zoom, short-video app TikTok, and other utility and content apps such as UC browser, Xender, SHAREit and Clean-master. A senior government official said the recommendation of the intelligence agencies had recently been supported by the National Security Council Secretariat, which felt these could be detrimental to Indias security. The discussions on the recommendations are continuing, said an official, explaining that the parameters and the risks attached to each mobile app will have to be examined one by one. On the radar of intelligence agencies TikTok, Vault-Hide, Vigo Video, Bigo Live, Weibo WeChat, SHAREit, UC News, UC Browser BeautyPlus, Xender, ClubFactory, Helo, LIKE Kwai, ROMWE, SHEIN, NewsDog, Photo Wonder APUS Browser, VivaVideo- QU Video Inc, Zoom Perfect Corp, CM Browser, Virus Cleaner (Hi Security Lab) Mi Community, DU recorder, YouCam Makeup Mi Store, 360 Security, DU Battery Saver, DU Browser DU Cleaner, DU Privacy, Clean Master Cheetah CacheClear DU apps studio, Baidu Translate, Baidu Map Wonder Camera, ES File Explorer, QQ International QQ Launcher, QQ Security Centre, QQ Player, QQ Music QQ Mail, QQ NewsFeed, WeSync, SelfieCity, Clash of Kings Mail Master, Mi Video call-Xiaomi, Parallel Space In April this year, the home ministry had issued an advisory on use of Zoom on the recommendation of the national cybersecurity agency Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-in). India wasnt the first country to restrict use of Zoom within the government. Taiwan has banned government agencies from using Zoom, the German Foreign Ministry restricts its use of Zoom to emergency situations on personal computers while the United States Senate advises members to use other platforms. The company had responded to the home ministry advisory, insisting that it was serious about user security. There have been calls for action against mobile apps that are perceived to be compromising security from time to time. And companies such as the hugely-popular video popular video-sharing app TikTok - owned and operated by Chinese internet company ByteDance - have issued denials. But officials said there were inputs that many Android and IOS apps, either developed by Chinese developers or launched by companies with Chinese links, had the potential to be used as spyware or other malicious ware. There have been reports that security agencies had advised security personnel from using them in view of the detrimental impact that this could have on data security. Such concerns about backdoors in China-linked hardware or software have been frequently articulated by western security agencies too. One argument has been that China could use its access to degrade communications services in case of conflict. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON United Nations: India is expected to register a comfortable victory in the Security Council elections on Wednesday that will bring the country to the UN high-table as a non-permanent member for the 2021-22 term. The 193-member UN General Assembly will hold elections for President of the 75th session of the Assembly, five non-permanent members of the Security Council and members of the Economic and Social Council under special voting arrangements put in place at the UN headquarters due to Covid-19 related restrictions. India is all set to join the powerful 15-nation Security Council as a non-permanent member. India is a candidate for a non-permanent seat from the Asia-Pacific category for the 2021-22 term. India's victory is certain since it is the sole candidate vying for the lone seat from the grouping. New Delhi's candidature was unanimously endorsed by the 55-member Asia-Pacific grouping, including China and Pakistan, in June last year. President of the UN General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande on Monday circulated a letter to member states with the names of candidates for the various elections. For the two vacant seats from among the African and Asia-Pacific States, three candidates have been communicated, namely, Djibouti, India and Kenya. Of those three candidates, India and Kenya are endorsed candidates. For the one vacant seat from among the Latin American and Caribbean States, one endorsed candidate has been communicated, namely, Mexico. For the two vacant seats from among the Western European and other States, three candidates have been communicated, namely, Canada, Ireland and Norway. Each year the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members (out of 10 in total) for a two-year term. The 10 non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis as follows: five for African and Asian States; one for Eastern European States; two for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two for Western European and other States. To be elected to the Council, candidate countries need a two-thirds majority of ballots of Member States that are present and voting in the Assembly. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti has said that India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world its ethos of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', as he underscoring that the United Nations as well as multilateralism need to change to reflect contemporary realities and remain credible as the world organization marks its 75th anniversary this year. "India's journey with the United Nations is quite a remarkable one. As a founding member of the United Nations, India's contribution to implementing the goals of the United Nations Charter and to the evolution of UN specialised agencies and programmes has been substantial. In many ways, quite extraordinary," Tirumurti said in a video message ahead of the elections. "I'm confident that at a time when we are poised to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and later the 75th anniversary of India's independence in 2022, India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world our ethos that the world is one family Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam," he said. Ahead of the elections, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar outlined New Delhi's priorities for its candidature to the Council. Termed as NORMS, India's focus will be on 'New Orientation For A Reformed Multilateral System.' India's priorities include new opportunities for progress, effective response to international terrorism, reforming multilateral systems, comprehensive approach to peace and security and technology with a human touch. Tirumurti said as the UN commemorates its 75th anniversary this year, "it is clear to us that the United Nations and indeed multilateralism itself need to change to reflect contemporary realities to enable them to remain effective and credible." The Indian envoy referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for reformed multilateralism and reform of multilateral system as essential to ensure that the international system is inclusive and caters to requirements of all countries, which will in turn facilitate stronger action. "We also believe that the current crisis that we face, especially in the context of COVID-19, provides the seed for new opportunities," Tirumurti said. Previously, India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council for the years 1950-1951, 1967-1968, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1984-1985, 1991-1992 and most recently in 2011-2012. India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the Security Council saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the Council, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st Century. Renowned author Felicity Hayes McCoy had little to no sympathy for me earlier this week when on the phone before we chatted about her new book - 'The Heart of Summer'. I lamented to her about the disappearance of all the beautiful sunshine we'd been enjoying over the past few weeks. For Felicity - normally a resident in one of Kerry's most stunning areas, Baile an Fheirtearaigh - it was just another reminder of all that she is missing back here in her adopted home as she remains trapped in London due to COVID-19 restrictions. "I've seen all the photos from back there over the last few weeks, and here I am looking out from a London flat! Ye've had a very good run of it, " she laughed. Felicity may be a Dublin native, but confided to us that after her first trip to Kerry back when she was 17, she then and there made it her life's goal to be successful enough to be able to move to Kerry - West Kerry, specifically - on a permanent basis. "I was studying English and Irish up in Dublin, and I don't know for what reason, they decided to send me down to learn Munster Irish - they obviously thought I had some connection to it - so away they sent me down here on a scholarship for a few weeks, and I fell completely in love with the place almost straight away," she said. "The people, the place, all of it. I just loved it, and I suppose I spent 30 years of my working life working towards getting an opportunity to live there and now, thankfully, my husband and I have a lovely little house on the side of a mountain back in Ballyferriter," she said. As for how she ended up spending almost the entirety of lock-down away from her beloved Kerry, Felicity jokes that it was just bad timing on her and her husband's part. When COVID-19 really began to take hold in the country, Felicity and her husband had just travelled over to London for what was supposed to be a very quick trip. "So sure were we that we'd only be over there a short time that we left food in our fridge back in Kerry, and so when we realised that we were going to be here in London for a lot longer, we had to call one of our neighbours to go in and take the food out and tidy the place up. We didn't want to be coming back to a fridge full of rotten food!" she joked. The fact that she is chatting to us today about her new book, entitled 'The Heart of Summer' - the sixth book in her acclaimed 'Finfarran' series - shows that she's achieved her goals and then some. First things first, though, for those interested in the book and what it's all about, here's a look at what the blurb has to say: "It's summer in Finfarran on the west coast of Ireland. Librarian Hanna Casey is looking forward to al fresco lunches, and to balmy evenings with her boyfriend Brian in their stunning new house in the beautiful Hag's Glen." With family dramas and a painful divorce behind her, Hanna and Brian are browsing romantic holiday brochures. Then, unexpectedly, Brian's adult son moves in with them and Hanna re-encounters Amy, one of three girls with whom she shared a London flat in her 20s. And all of a sudden, she begins to question her apparently perfect life. When Amy suggests a visit to London's bright lights and a flatmates' reunion, Hanna accepts. But she's plagued by misgivings. In London, Amy introduces Hanna to a handsome London banker who asks her to work with his family's library charity. It's a chance to be something more than a local librarian who's settled back into the little rural community where she grew up. But it means that Hanna has tough choices to face. 'The Heart of Summer' was released on May 28 and even though it was a more muted celebration than it normally would have been with book signings and a book tour all impossible to do, Felicity told The Kerryman that the love she has received for the book online through messages and calls has more than made up for it. "It [publication] was just absolutely extraordinary. It was weird and it was kind of sad in one way because it threw up the reality of the situation. You'd normally just keep going from day to day in lock-down, but then something like that happens and you're suddenly thinking 'oh God, what would I be doing normally?' "The thing is, though, what was just gorgeous is that I'd have a large social media followin,g and what happened was a couple of friends back here, they sent me over a bottle of Dingle Gin for us to mark the occasion." "What happened was from the very moment that we got up on the morning of publication day right through to the end of the day, I had this stream of lovely messages on Twitter and Facebook congratulating me on the book. They were from readers and friends at home in Ireland, people all over Kerry and even one from the Dingle Peninsula's own Twitter account. It was amazing," she said. 'The Heart of Summer' is out now and is available to buy from all good bookshops and is available to order online. She was hospitalised last week after suffering from kidney troubles. But Abbie Chatfield is bouncing back from her health troubles, and was seen going for a jog in Brisbane on Wednesday. The Bachelor beauty, 24, stood out during the run by wearing a low-cut leopard print exercise top teamed with black leggings and matching runners. Bouncing back! Bachelor star Abbie Chatfield was seen going for a jog in Brisbane on Wednesday after being hospitalised last week She tied her wild curly locks into a top bun and appeared to be makeup free. Abbie is said to be embarking on an eight week fitness challenge in preparation for her upcoming series of Bachelors in Paradise, which airs in July. She is said to be the first one booted off the island of Fiji. Wild thing! The Bachelor beauty stood out during the run by wearing a low-cut leopard print exercise top teamed with black leggings and matching black runners The popular reality star appeared to work up a sweat thanks to the vigorous workout and kept hydrated with water. At times she was engrossed in what was on her phone, scrolling through the screen several times during the workout. Abbie worried her fans last week when she posted a picture of herself in hospital. She later told Daily Mail Australia she was receiving treatment because of 'kidney troubles' and is now feeling better. Barefaced beauty: She tied her wild curly locks into a top bun and appeared to be makeup free 'I had some kidney troubles but have had IV antibiotics and have just been discharged,' Abbie explained. Before adding: 'Nothing too stressful. Was just in there today.' In the original post, which was posted by accident, Abbie was seen wearing a lilac gown as she laid in a hospital bed. Abbie is about to star on the upcoming season of Bachelor In Paradise, but her appearance is cut very short. It is believed that she is booted off the island during on the first week. Hospital dash: Abbie worried her fans last week when she posted a picture of herself in hospital. She later told Daily Mail Australia she was receiving treatment because of 'kidney troubles' and is now feeling better Meanwhile, Abbie recently revealed on her podcast, It's A Lot, that she doesn't like using condoms during sex. 'A lot of the time I don't want to use a condom because it feels better to not use a condom,' she confessed. 'It's uncomfortable and I tend to dry up on the use of the condom, and lube doesn't really help it and it just ruins the whole situation.' Condoms are a frequently used method of contraception and prevent most forms of sexually transmitted infections. Abbie has previously spoken about her experience with STIs on her podcast. She said last month: 'When it comes to self s**t-shaming, this is something that I still struggle with a lot. I have had STIs in the past.' Russia exported 259,000 tonnes of diesel fuel and 62,400 tonnes of LPG to Ukraine in May. Ukraines energy ministry is considering imposing monthly quotas for imports of diesel fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Russia aiming to reduce dependence from a single supplier. A local specialized Enkorr news agency published on Wednesday a scanned image of a document in which the ministry proposed limiting imports of Russian diesel fuel to 175,000 tonnes a month and LPG to 50,000 tonnes a month, Reuters reports. Ministry officials were unavailable for comment and Reuters could not confirm the authenticity of the published document. Read alsoUkrainian agricultural associations ask Zelensky to prevent setting quotas for fertilizer imports Enkorr said Russia exported 259,000 tonnes of diesel fuel and 62,400 tonnes of LPG to Ukraine in May. According to the reported document, the ministry said quotas could help Ukrainian refineries win market share and reduce fuel consumption. Far, far beyond the orbits of the planets lie the hazy contours of the magnetic bubble in space that we call home. This is the heliosphere, the vast bubble that is generated by the Sun's magnetic field and envelops all the planets. The borders of this cosmic bubble are not fixed. In response to the Sun's gasps and sighs, they shrink and stretch over the years. Now, for the first time, scientists have used an entire solar cycle of data from NASA's IBEX spacecraft to study how the heliosphere changes over time. Solar cycles last roughly 11 years, as the Sun swings from seasons of high to low activity, and back to high again. With IBEX's long record, scientists were eager to examine how the Sun's mood swings play out at the edge of the heliosphere. The results show the shifting outer heliosphere in great detail, deftly sketch the heliosphere's shape (a matter of debate in recent years), and hint at processes behind one of its most puzzling features. These findings, along with a newly fine-tuned data set, are published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplements on June 10, 2020. IBEX, short for the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, has been observing the boundary to interstellar space for more than 11 years, showing us where our cosmic neighborhood fits in with the rest of the galaxy. "It's this very small mission," said David McComas, the principal investigator for the mission at Princeton University in New Jersey. IBEX is just as big as a bus tire. "It's been hugely successful, lasting much longer than anybody anticipated. We're lucky now to have a whole solar cycle of observations." Mapping the solar system's edge, one particle at a time The heliosphere is filled with the solar wind, the constant flow of charged particles from the Sun. The solar wind rushes out in all directions, a million miles per hour, until it butts against the interstellar medium, winds from other stars that fill the space between them. As the Sun wades through the interstellar medium, it generates a hot, dense wave much like the wave at the front of a boat coursing through the sea. Our cosmic neighborhood is called the Local Fluff, for the cloud of superhot gases that blooms around us. Where the solar wind and Local Fluff meet forms the edge of the heliosphere, called the heliopause. Just inside that lies a turbulent region called the heliosheath. Particles called energetic neutral atoms, or ENAs, that are formed in this distant region of space are the focus of IBEX's surveys. They're created when hot, charged particles like the ones in the solar wind collide with cold neutrals like those flowing in from interstellar space. Zippy solar wind particles can snatch electrons from lumbering interstellar atoms, becoming neutral themselves. The journey of these particles begins long before IBEX detects them. Past the planets, past the asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt, to the edge of the heliosphere, it takes about a year for a gust of solar wind to race 100 times the distance between the Sun and Earth. Along the way, the solar wind picks up ionized atoms of interstellar gases that have wriggled in to the heliosphere. The solar wind that arrives at the edge is not the same wind that left the Sun a year before. Solar wind particles might spend another six months roving the chaos of the heliosheath, the gulf between the heliosphere's two outer boundaries. Inevitably, some collide with interstellar gases and become energetic neutrals. It takes the neutral particles close to another year for the return trip, traversing the space from the edge of the heliosphere to reach IBEX -- if the particles happened to be heading in precisely the right direction. Of all the neutral particles formed, only a few actually make it to IBEX. The whole trip takes two to three years for the highest-energy particles in IBEX's observing range, and even longer at lower energies or more distant regions. IBEX takes advantage of the fact that neutral atoms like these aren't diverted by the Sun's magnetic field: Fresh neutral particles bound away from collisions in nearly a straight line. IBEX surveys the skies for the particles, noting their direction and energy. The spacecraft only detects about one every other second. The result is a map of the interstellar boundary, crafted from the same principle a bat uses to echolocate its way through the night: monitor an incoming signal to learn more about one's surroundings. By studying where the neutrals come from, and when, IBEX can trace the remote boundaries of our heliosphere. "We're so lucky to observe this from inside the heliosphere," said Justyna Sokol, a visiting scientist on the Princeton team. "These are processes that happen at very small distances. When you observe other stars that are very far away, you observe distances of light years, from outside their astrospheres." Even the distance between the Sun and the nose of the heliosphere is tiny compared to many, many light years. Using IBEX's 11-plus years of data, McComas and his team were able to study changes that evolve over time and are key to understanding our place in space. The solar wind is constant, but the wind is not steady. When the wind gusts, the heliosphere inflates like a balloon, and neutral particles surge at the outer fringes. When the wind calms, the balloon contracts; neutral particles dwindle. The ensuing seesaw of neutral particles, the scientists reported, consistently echoed two to three years after the changes in the wind -- reflecting their journey to the edge of this balloon and back. "It takes so many years for these effects to reach the edge of the heliosphere," said Jamey Szalay, another Princeton researcher on the team. "For us to have this much data from IBEX, finally allows us to make these long-term correlations." Shaping up the heliosphere From 2009 to 2014, the wind blew fairly low and steady, a gentle breeze. The heliosphere contracted. Then came a surprise swell in the solar wind, as if the Sun heaved a great sigh. In late 2014, NASA spacecraft orbiting Earth detected the solar wind pressure increase by about 50% (it has since remained high for several years). Two years later, the billowing solar wind led to a flurry of neutral particles in the heliosheath. Another two years later, they filled most of the nose of the heliosphere. Eventually, they crested over the heliosphere's north and south poles. These changes were not symmetric. Each observed bump traced the quirks of the heliosphere's shape. The scientists were surprised at how clearly they saw the tidal wave of solar wind pushing out the heliopause. "Time and the neutral particles have really painted the distances in the shape of the heliosphere for us," McComas said. IBEX still hasn't observed the effects of this cosmic punch from the back end of the heliosphere, the heliotail. That means the tail end is much farther away from the Sun than the front; those particles are on a much longer journey. Maybe the solar wind surge is still hurtling toward the tail, or maybe neutral particles are already on their way back. In the coming years, the IBEX team will be watching for signs of their return from the tail. "Nature set up this perfect experiment for us to better understand this boundary," Szalay said. "We got to see what happens when this one big thing -- the solar wind push -- changes." Overall, this paints a picture of the heliosphere that is shaped something like a comet. The shape of the heliosphere has been a matter of debate in recent years. Some have argued our bubble in space is spherical as a globe; others suggested it is closer to a croissant. But in this study, McComas said, IBEX data clearly shows the heliosphere's response to the solar wind push was asymmetric -- so the heliosphere itself must be asymmetric too. The Sun is situated close to the front, and as the Sun hurtles through space, the heliotail trails much farther behind, something like the streaking tail of a comet. Tackling IBEX's biggest puzzle IBEX's many years of data have also brought scientists closer to an explanation for one of the heliosphere's more puzzling features, known as the IBEX ribbon. The ribbon remains one of IBEX's biggest discoveries. Announced in 2009, it refers to a vast, diagonal swath of energetic neutrals, painted across the front of the heliosphere. It's long puzzled scientists: Why should any part of the boundary should be so different from the rest? Over time, IBEX has indicated that what forms the ribbon is very different than what forms the rest of the interstellar sky. It is shaped by the direction of the interstellar magnetic field. But how are ribbon particles produced? Now, the scientists report that it's very likely a secondary process is responsible, causing the journey of a certain group of energetic neutral particles to roughly double. After becoming energetic neutrals, rather than ricochet back toward IBEX, this group of particles would streak in the opposite direction, across the heliopause and into interstellar space. There, they'd get a taste of the Local Fluff, cruising until some would inevitably collide with passing charged particles, losing an electron once again and becoming tied to the surrounding magnetic field. Another two years or so pass, and the charged particles might collide yet again with slower peers, stealing electrons like they've done before. After this brief migration beyond the heliosphere, the twice-born energetic neutrals might eventually re-enter, hurtling back toward home. Extended IBEX data helped the scientists connect the ribbon to the particles' long interstellar tour. Particles forming the ribbon have journeyed some two years more than the rest of the neutral particles observed. When it came to the solar wind spike, the ribbon took another two years after the rest of the heliosphere to even start responding. Far exceeding its initial mission of two years, IBEX will soon be joined by another NASA mission, IMAP -- short for the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, for which McComas also serves as principal investigator. The mission is scheduled to launch in late 2024. "IMAP presents a perfect opportunity to study, with great resolution and sensitivity, what IBEX has begun to show us, so that we will really get a detailed understanding of the physics out there," McComas said. ### In some ways, farming is like cooking. Cooking would be much easier if we could leave the kitchen after eating and not come back until we make the next meal. But someone needs to put away the leftovers, do the dishes, and clean up the table. Similarly, there's work to do in farm fields after harvest and before planting the next spring. After harvest in the fall, farmers take the harvested crops to market or store them on their farm. They don't take the whole plant from the field, though. The leftover parts of the plant, like the stalk and leaves from corn, remain in the field. This debris is called crop residue. Using no-till and prescribed fire management are two potential ways to manage crop residue. Both practices help keep organic matter and nitrogen in the soil. However, research was needed to understand how these two practices can affect long-term soil health. Lisa Fultz and her team want to help farmers determine the best way to manage their residue between growing seasons. To do this, her team decided to learn more about how no-till and prescribed fire management affect nutrients and microbes in the soil. Fultz is a researcher at Louisiana State University AgCenter. No-till is a practice where farmers plant directly into the crop debris from the previous year. Prescribed fires are used to purposely burn off the previous crop debris with controlled fire. "Both of these practices have minimal physical disturbance to the soil," says Fultz. Both of these practices also come with drawbacks. No-till can cause poor conditions for crop growth like low spring temperatures and increased moisture, which promotes disease. Prescribed fire can leave bare soil vulnerable to erosion. The team focused the research on wheat and soybean rotations and continuous corn production systems. "These are common practices not only in the mid-south, but across many areas of the world," explains Fultz. "Wheat and corn production leave behind residue," she says. "Common practices, like conventional tillage, are highly disruptive. The need to identify viable conservation practices is growing in importance." Crop residue and its degradation by soil microbes is an important part of the carbon cycle. Plants store carbon during the growing season, then microbes use the plant residue for food. The carbon then gets stored in the soil in a chemically stable form. "Fresh, green material in no-till fields is easy to breakdown and provides rich nutrients for soil microbes," says Fultz. "Ash from burned residue is more chemically stable, but it doesn't provide a nutrient source for microbes." The team found that impacts from crop management practices, like crop rotation or fertilization, outweighed the influence of prescribed fire for residue management. Researchers found some decreases in microbial activity after yearly prescribed burns. Findings show prescribed fire had some possible short-term benefits for soil nutrient availability, but timing is crucial. Prescribed burning of wheat residue provided an increase of nitrogen for about 7 days. These benefits should be weighed against other possible impacts, like carbon dioxide production and crop yield. We still need to learn the long-term influence of prescribed fire on the soil biological community," says Fultz. "While short-term impacts were measured, the long-term influence on soil nutrients, biological cycles and soil health are not known." No two farm management systems are the same, and their success is defined by the user. Scientists continue to examine possible scenarios to provide accurate and sustainable recommendations to farmers. "I have always been interested in soil conservation and the potential it has to impact many facets of life," says Fultz. "By improving soil health, we can improve air and water quality, store carbon, and provide stable resources for food production." ### Read more about this work in Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment. This research is supported by the Soybean and Forage Grain Research and Promotion Board. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 19:23:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BAGHDAD, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The residents of ten Iraqi villages near the border with Turkey were displaced due to a military offensive by the Turkish forces on Wednesday on suspected positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, the Iraqi official television reported. The Turkish artillery and aircraft bombardment on border areas of Zakho, Haftanin and nearby villages forced the residents of ten villages to leave their homes to safer areas, the state-run Iraqiya channel said. Earlier in the day, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced the launch of a new operation dubbed "Operation Tiger-Claw" two days after launching a series of airstrikes on PKK suspected positions in northern Iraq. The Turkish special forces conducted an airborne operation on the area of Haftanin in the Iraqi Duhok province to combat PKK elements. The commandos were supported by helicopters and drones, according to the Turkish statement. The operation came a day after the Iraqi Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish Ambassador Fatih Yildiz to Baghdad and handed him a letter of protest over the latest airstrikes on suspected PKK elements in northern Iraq. A statement by the ministry said "the letter included a condemnation by the Iraqi government to the violations of Iraq's sovereignty and its airspace." The ministry reiterated its call on Turkey to "stop unilateral military operations, and expressed the Iraqi government's readiness for cooperation in controlling borders," it added. On Monday, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command condemned in a statement a series of airstrikes conducted by 18 Turkish warplanes late on Sunday night on refugee camps in Sinjar, some 100 km west of Nineveh's provincial capital Mosul, and Makhmour, about 60 km southeast of Mosul. Also on Monday, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced that the Turkish jets bombed positions of PKK militants across northern Iraq as part of the ongoing Claw-Eagle Operation. Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes and artillery bombardments against the positions of the PKK militants in northern Iraq, especially the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the PKK. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Enditem Yves here. Even with Covid-19 shaking the economy top to bottom, some trends grind on. For instance, automation is a fetish even when the payoff is questionable. Readers discussed how WalMart intends to eliminate cashiers and replace them with automated checkout, which seems idiotic based on how well they work at CVS (not). I see the cashier have to run over to Do Something to help a customer complete a self-checkout sale at least one time out of three. Moreover, self-checkout promotes theft; the last stats I saw (and Id be curious to hear if retailers have figured out new counter-stategies) is that shrinkage is about 1% higher in stores with self checkout than not. I like the authors theory of how automation affects employment, but I am much less taken with their claims about offshoring. For one, a lot of jobs offshored are not ones that have been unbundled; a call center worker in India performs the same tasks as ones in the US. And while we are on the subject of call center workers, my limited sample suggests, depressingly, that companies are using coronavirus as an excuse to degrade customer service even further by shifting more to know-nothing offshored phone reps. Its particularly offensive to see Cigna pulling this stunt when health insurers are making out well from the coronacrisis. By Ester Faia, Professor and Chair in Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Goethe University Frankfurt; Sebastien Laffitte, PhD candidate, University Paris-Saclay and CREST; Maximilian Mayer, PhD student, Goethe University Frankfurt; and Gianmarco Ottaviano, Professor of Economics, Bocconi University; and CEPR Research Fellow. Originally published at VoxEU Understanding the effects of automation and offshoring on labour markets and growth has been a significant topic of interest. This column argues that automation and offshoring fundamentally affect the matching between firms and workers and do so in contrasting ways. It predicts that automation will increase firms and workers job selectivity and decrease employment, while offshoring will have the opposite effect. Empirical evidence as well as a quantitative model support this hypothesis and provide a mechanism of technological change typically missed in standard neoclassical reasoning. Automation and offshoring are two contemporary trends that are perceived to have a disruptive impact on several aspects of the labour market, such as employment opportunities or wage inequality, and growth. Understanding their effects, their relative importance, and their possible interactions has been the focus of many influential papers (among many others Acemoglu and Restrepo 2020, Autor et al. 2013). If we think of automation and offshoring as simply two different types of `technological change, standard neoclassical reasoning suggests that their effects will not be different from those of previous industrial revolutions. Any improvement in the state of technology leads to an increase in labour productivity. In turn, employment increases as labour demand cannot deviate from the long-run path dictated by the evolution of labour productivity. Concerns about the impact of new technologies can be rationalised only if one departs from the neoclassical paradigm in which any threat to wages and employment may come more from the impacts on the competitiveness of markets in the presence of frictions rather than from changes in the production function in the presence of frictionless markets (Caselli and Manning 2019). In Faia et al. (2020) we hypothesise that beyond productivity effects, automation and offshoring fundamentally affects the matching between workers and firms. Firms need workers with heterogeneous skills to perform heterogeneous tasks. A match occurs when a firm meets and employs a worker with the appropriate skills. The ideal match delivers the maximum achievable productivity. The productivity of less-than-ideal matches decreases with the distance between the matched tasks (on the firm side) and skills (on the worker side). Matches between firms and workers are not necessarily ideal as search frictions make them less selective, i.e. willing to accept less-than-ideal matches. This is how search frictions induce mismatch between tasks and skills, that is, divergence between the actual matches and the ideal ones. Our key hypothesis is that better matches (i.e. matches that generate larger outputs for a given firm-worker pair) enjoy a comparative advantage in exploiting automation and a comparative disadvantage in exploiting offshoring. As such, automation will increase firms and workers selectivity, which in turn decreases mismatch and employment. Following the same logic, we predict that offshoring will increase employment by reducing selectivity. Figure 1 gives a first indication on the interaction of automation and offshoring and their effect on employment using data from the European Labour Force Survey for 13 European countries. Occupations that had a higher probability of being automated (as measured by their routineness) in 1995 experienced a decrease (dashed line) in total hours worked in the subsequent years (1995-2010) as employment shifted from routine to non-routine occupations. This negative relationship is driven by highly offshorable occupations (solid black line), while the change in hours worked seems unrelated to the routine-intensity in low-offshorability occupations (solid grey line). Figure 1 Automation, offshoring, and hours worked The idea that automation increases the value of the ideal match by making skills and tasks more complementary is motivated by recent survey evidence (2018 Talent Shortage Survey by Manpower Group, 2018). This evidence highlights the increased prevalence of talent shortage with a growing number of jobs left unfilled because applicants are not talented enough for the job. Talent shortage is strongly linked to technology, but does not necessarily depend on a dearth of workers with higher education. Difficulties in recruiting the right man for the job tend to be reported in manufacturing, ICT, and health care for jobs such as skilled trades workers, machine operators, sales representatives, engineers, technicians, ICT professionals, and office support staff (Cedefop Eurofound 2018). Machine operators, for instance, are required to have machine-specific experience ranging from the knowledge of production procedures to the ability to understand blueprints, schematics, and manuals. Due to technological change, they are also increasingly required to be familiar with different types of machines, each with its own specific blueprints, schematics, and manuals. A concern for both firms and workers is that retraining from a known to a new machine can be a costly time-consuming process, making them cautious about a potential mismatch. If automation increases the productivity of ideal matches relative to less-than-ideal ones, it may, therefore, make firms and workers more willing to give up the surplus of a less-than-ideal match and instead wait for a better one. This increased selectivity improves the productive efficiency of matches that are eventually formed and better matches end up commanding a higher wage premium. The result is increased match efficiency together with more unemployment and wage inequality. The type of heterogeneity we have in mind is horizontal rather than vertical as usually assumed in the literature on skill-biased or routine-biased technological change. While these concepts are very relevant, our paper highlights additional effects of automation and offshoring at work independently from any vertical heterogeneity. As ideal matches are the ones that define firms and workers core competencies, we use core-biased technological change to label the way technology evolves in our conceptual framework. Differently, offshoring may increase the productivity of less-than-ideal matches relative to ideal ones by allowing firms to unbundle tasks into subtasks to be performed at home or abroad depending on comparative advantages. It may, therefore, make firms and home workers less selective. On the one hand, decreased selectivity reduces the productivity of less-than-ideal matches that are eventually formed. On the other hand, match surplus may still increase thanks to specialisation according to comparative advantage. Hence, differently from automation, offshoring may lead not only to higher match productivity, but also to higher employment and less wage inequality. When embedded in a quantitative model, these features imply that how automation and offshoring affect labour market outcomes depends on the interactions of four effects. Figure 2 displays simulation results of our model where higher automation (A) implies productivity increases due to more automation and higher corresponds to the share of production that is offshored. While automation increases the productivity of any given match (productivity effect), it also increases the relative productivity of ideal matches relative to less-than-ideal ones (mismatch effect). In parallel, offshoring increases the productivity of any given match thanks to domestic workers subtask specialisation (specialisation effect), while also decreasing the subset of subtasks assigned to them (substitution effect). As productivity and specialisation effects of automation and offshoring increase the match surplus of domestic firms and workers, mismatch and substitution effects work in the opposite direction. These opposing forces create an inverted U-shaped function of employment in automation and offshoring: productivity and specialisation effects dominate when automation and offshoring are limited whereas mismatch and substitution effects dominate when automation and offshoring have already reached an advanced stage. Whether our theoretical mechanism indeed operates in practice (i.e. whether the mismatch effect is strong enough to reverse the neoclassical conclusions) is in the end an empirical issue, which we investigate focusing on 92 occupations at the three-digit ISCO-88 level and 16 (out of 21) sectors according to the NACE Rev.2 classification from 13 European countries for the period 1995 2010. Figure 2 Automation, offshoring, and employment (quantitative model) We capture firms and workers match selectivity at the sector-occupation level. While a sector may cover a rich menu of occupations, these include a submenu of core occupations that are disproportionately concentrated in the sector. In this respect, an increase in the concentration of occupations employment across sectors can be interpreted as an increase in match selectivity. We thus compute an index of selectivity (the sectoral selectivity of occupations) defined as the concentration of occupations employment across sectors. The index inversely measures the willingness of firms and workers to accept less-than-ideal matches. Figure 3 shows that selectivity rises in our sample period especially in occupations that are highly automatable. Figure 3 Automation and selectivity This suggestive evidence is confirmed in our econometric analysis. In line with our model we find that occupations with higher automatability become more selective. This effect is driven by occupations with above-median automatability while there is no impact on selectivity for occupations characterised by below-median automatability. We also find that sectors with higher initial offshorability experience a differential decrease in selectivity. Our results continue to hold when we use more standard selectivity measures borrowed from the literature, such as skill mismatch and unemployment duration. As our model predicts, we find a robust negative relationship between selectivity and employment at the occupation level. To address potential endogeneity concerns stemming from the fact that our measure of selectivity is calculated from occupation employment shares, we construct a Bartik instrument. The negative effect of selectivity on employment materialises especially in occupations with above-median automatability. Finally, by putting together the results on the impacts of automatability and offshorability on selectivity with those on the impact of selectivity on employment, we show that automation reduces (offshoring increases) employment through the selectivity channel of our framework. Growing concerns about the negative impacts of automation and offshoring on employment and wage inequality are well documented. While traditional neoclassical arguments imply that those concerns are unfounded, a negative relation of employment and wage equality with improvements in technology arises naturally in our setting of horizontal mismatch where search frictions hinder the efficient assortative matching between firms with heterogeneous tasks and workers with heterogeneous skills. Our analysis in terms of core-biased change illustrates a more general idea of how wages and jobs in frictional labour markets may react to shocks beyond our application to technology and offshoring. See original post for references Councillors in Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party who are being asked to back the programme for government are in line for a pay rise of just under 8,000 next year as part of the deal. The programme for government negotiated by the three parties commits to implementing the recommendations of a report into the remuneration of all city and county councillors in Ireland within 12 months of taking office. The unpublished report by senior counsel Sara Moorhead recommends a salary increase of just under 8,000 for local authority members. Read More The report is due to be brought to Cabinet for approval by the outgoing Government on Friday by Local Government Minister John Paul Phelan. Local authority members are currently paid around 17,000 per annum, with the proposals in the Moorhead report understood to recommend this be increased to around 25,000 under a new public sector pay deal. This would apply to the 279 councillors in Fianna Fail, 255 in Fine Gael, and 49 in the Green Party, who are all being asked to back the deal, as well as the rest of the State's 949 local authority members. The planned rise would cost the Exchequer more than 7.5m a year. The report is also said to recommend a number of reforms, including the ending of unvouched expenses as part of an overhaul of the allowances system which would mirror the one in place for TDs. The programme for government, negotiated and agreed by the three parties this week, also commits to examining devolution of more powers to local authorities to strengthen and enhance local democracy. "Tailored and appropriate training" should also be provided to local authority members, and councillors should be enabled to access research and training to support them in their duties, the document states. It also pledges to pass laws for the election of the first directly elected mayor in Limerick next year. Open source On June 16, pro-Kremlin mercenaries landed two attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas. The enemy used weapons of banned calibers, the HQ of Joint Forces Operation reported. In the Luhansk region, the enemy used 120 mm mortars to shell Krymske; in Orikhove, they opened fire from small arms, stationary grenade launchers, and heavy machine guns. The Ukrainian forces returned fire and managed to repel the enemy. None of the Ukrainian soldiers were wounded or killed in action. On June 15, an incident took place in Donbas, involving an injury of a civilian resident. Russian mercenaries shelled residential neighborhoods on the outskirts of Avdiivka. The press office of the Joint Forces Operation HQ reported that on June 17. "Local woman suffered an explosive trauma and the blind fragmentary wound to her lower back in the yard of her own household at about 9 p.m. The citizen was taken to intensive care of Avdiivka central city hospital, where she received medical assistance. Her health conditions are satisfactory," reads the message. The fragments also damaged the house's roof. The Ukrainian side of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination found that the distance and the direction where the shooting came from clearly point out to the fact that occupant forces are involved in this crime. New Delhi: A person attempted to hurl a shoe at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi during his road show in Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh on Monday. Later, the police arrested the local who tried to hurl shoe at Rahul and started questioning him. Rahul Gandhi, who arrived in Sitapur on his 'Deoria to Dilli kisan yatra' during which he was raising issues related to farmers. During his rallies, the Congress vice president accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not paying heed to the problems of farmers. So far, Rahul has addressed 17 khat sabhas, 12 mega shows and over 500 public meetings during his yatra, a Congress leader said. Local hurls a shoe towards Congress VP Rahul Gandhi during his road show in Sitapur(UP),detained by police pic.twitter.com/oU3YsB3Fru a ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 26, 2016 For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Hong Kong: Works departments awarded Three works departments today received awards from the New Engineering Contract (NEC) Users' Group of the United Kingdom. The Highways Department was awarded the Transport Contract of the Year, the Drainage Services Department received the Water Contract of the Year, and the Civil Engineering & Development Department won the Contract Innovation Award. The NEC Awards scheme was established in 2015 by the NEC Users' Group under the Institution of Civil Engineers of the United Kingdom to recognise excellence in project delivery and showcase examples of good practice through collaboration across the world. The Development Bureau piloted the use of the NEC form in 2009 and expanded its application in public works projects since 2015. As of today, more than 200 NEC contracts have been awarded. This story has been published on: 2020-06-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. EU Foreign Affairs representative says it is important for it to collaborate with US to defend common values and interest against China's increasing aggression. The European Union chief diplomat has called for talks between Europe and the United States aimed at forging a common transatlantic front against China. According to Bangkok Post, EU foreign affairs high representative Josep Borrell said the two sides should make common cause to defend our values and our interest. Borrell made the remarks during video talks with 27 EU Foreign Ministers and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday. We need a more robust strategy for China, which also requires better relations with the rest of democratic Asia, he added. While talking to reporters, Borrell said that he suggested launching a distinct bilateral dialogue focused on China and the challenges it poses to the EU and US by its actions and ambitions. Read also: US Journalist Tom Rogan calls Chinese aggression a provocation against the Indian nationalist tiger Read also: Anti Minority Pak-army Unmasked: Army backed death squads kill Baloch woman in front of her children For us, its important to stay together with the US in order to share concerns and to look for common ground to defend our values and our interest, he said. The US has so far not responded to Borrells suggestion. Speaking at the same conference, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas echoed Borrells call for greater transparency from China, an issue that has come to the fore over Beijings information policy during the early stages of the virus outbreak. Read also: North Korea blows up inter-Korea liaison office amid escalating tensions with South For all the latest World News, download NewsX App Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 23:01:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday lashed out at the United States for repeatedly leaving international treaties and organizations. "This is a pitiful process. We see they are not one-off actions but a policy, a system and a strategy: to abandon all agreements that impose any obligations on the United States, even if they simply require Washington to cooperate and seek mutually acceptable solutions," Lavrov told a news conference. He recalled that the United States has withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN Human Rights Council, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the majority of treaties on strategic stability and arms control. The United States, as a leading world power, could actively contribute to the collective efforts of the world community in many directions, where joint work is needed, Lavrov said. However, the United States has chosen another path -- abandoning formats where such joint work is possible, he said. Speaking about U.S. criticism of the WHO, Lavrov said the institution is the leading mechanism for the mobilization of international efforts to fight diseases, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. Russia does not see any basis for such accusations and believes that the WHO has worked in full accordance with its mandates, Lavrov said. Currently, there is no need to look for a scapegoat, but it is necessary to unite in the common fight against the common disaster, he added. Enditem The Okaikwei North Constituency Executive of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has put in place measures and precautions to ensure that the Parliamentary Primaries slated for Saturday, June 20, comes off peacefully. Mr Eric Nana Acquah, Constituency Secretary told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that each Electoral Area has been disinfected, including; Churches and Mosques which would be used for the electoral process. He said they had successfully submitted their centres to the Electoral Commission (EC) and received endorsement to carry out the exercise at the following Electoral Areas with its corresponding Centres: At the Anahuma Electoral area, voting will take place at the Pentecost Church; Nii Boiman Electoral area (Immaculate Conception School); Akweteyman Electoral area (Asiamah School); Achomita Electoral area (Achimota Gethsemane Presbyterian Church) and at Anumle Electoral Area (Fountain of Life Church). However, at the Constituency Office, an improvised polling Centre would be set up for the Council of Elders, Council of Patrons, constituency executives and the sitting Member of Parliament to cast their ballots. Nana Acquah said a total of 600 delegates are expected to cast their ballots and the exercise would start at 07:00 hours and end at exactly 13:00 hours. He said counting of votes would be done at the various Electoral areas at the end of polls and after counting was done, the polling sheets would be brought to the Constituency Head Office (Collation Centre) for the final collation of votes and declaration of results. What I want all the Electoral areas to note is that after the agents have counted the votes and declared the results to their representatives at the Party Office, they wont follow up to the Office again. This is to prevent crowding and ensure that social distancing is adhered to, he added. To ensure that all COVID-19 health protocols are adhered to, the Constituency Secretary said Veronica buckets, water, soaps, hand sanitizers, tissues, and enough nose masks would be provided at each Electoral area to be given to any delegate who forgot to come along with a nose mask. He emphasized that any delegate who failed to follow the safety protocols would be denied entry to the premises, but the Parliamentary Election Committee would still decide on how that delegate would be made to vote. Mr Acquah said representatives would be deployed from the National Office, EC and Parliamentary Election Committee across the constituency to supervise each Electoral area and no one would be allowed to move from one centre to the other. This, he said would help to carry out effective contact tracing should any COVID-19 case show up at any centre. He said a meeting would be held in the course of the week with Candidates to spell out the various offences and the repercussions that could follow in case they flouted any of the regulations. Mr Aqcuah said the party allowed for proxy voting (a vote cast on behalf of another) and the caveats were that the person voting on behalf of another delegate should be a registered voter of the same polling station. Both delegates should have their voters ID card number indicated and the photo album must contain the name and picture of the person being voted for. Voters should do well to carry along their NPP membership card or Voters ID card when coming along to vote but without any of these, delegates should not be deterred because once their names and pictures are found in the photo album, they would be allowed to vote, Mr Acquah stated. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The New York Police Department found no criminality after officers became sick Monday night from shakes they got at a Shake Shack in downtown Manhattan, Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison tweeted early Tuesday. Sources told CBS New York it appears the incident was accidental, possibly the result of cleaning solution that wasn't properly removed from the shake machine. Harrison tweeted that, "After a thorough investigation by the NYPD's Manhattan South investigators, it has been determined that there was no criminality by Shake Shack's employees." Police and the police union initially suspected an employee may have contaminated the shakes with bleach. The officers were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where they were treated and released. A shake sample was taken to a lab for testing, police said. The Police Benevolent Association said the officers were assigned to a protest detail. There have been numerous racial justice demonstrations in the area since the George Floyd's death some marred by clashes with police. Before word came down that no foul play by Shake Shack employees was discovered, the PBA was quick to express its outrage in a now deleted tweet that read: "When NYC police officers cannot even take meal without coming under attack, it is clear that environment in which we work has deteriorated to a critical level. We cannot afford to let our guard down for even a moment." Also before the determination that none of its workers was implicated, Shake Shack tweeted that it was "horrified": We are horrified by the reports of police officers injured at our 200 Broadway Shack in Manhattan. We are working with the police in their investigation right now. SHAKE SHACK (@shakeshack) June 16, 2020 Later, the company said: Our team is working hard to get the full picture. In the meantime, were relieved to hear the officers are all okay. https://t.co/rjJYFSYjZc Story continues SHAKE SHACK (@shakeshack) June 16, 2020 Cases of coronavirus spiking across the U.S. raise alarm as states reopen Protests and outrage after fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta Officials investigate 2 hanging deaths of black men in California Ever dreamed of buying a robot dog? Well, now you can as long as you don't plan to use it to harm or intimidate anyone. Boston Dynamics has reportedly started selling Spot (of YouTube fame) online for roughly $75,000 a piece. Also read: Robot Dog Manages Flock Of Sheep & People Are Worried That AI Might Take Over Our Lives Boston Dynamics The robot can walk, climb stairs and observe its surroundings with the help of cameras and other sensors. However, there is one condition that the people who buy them have to agree not to intentionally use the robot to use as weapons. Michael Perry, the company's vice president for business development told The Associated Press, The key goal for us is to make sure people trust robots. Somebody wanted to use Spot for a haunted house and we said no to that. It frames the robot in a negative context. The terms and conditions state: 'Spot is an amazing robot, but is not certified safe for in-home use or intended for use near children or others who may not appreciate the hazards associated with its operation.' Also read: Tamil Nadu Man Makes His DIY Robot Stand In Line & Buy Alcohol For Him Boston Dynamics Perry added that if the buyer is found to be in violation of the company's rules to buy the robot dog, the company holds the right to nullify its warranty and the decline to repair the robot and also not renew its license. Boston Dynamics has reportedly been in the process of developing the robots through years of military-funded research. The company is now on the lookout for commercial applications for them for the first time since its inception in 1992. Also read: Police Deploys Robots In Chennai's Containment Zones SIOUX CITY -- A Milford, Iowa, man faces federal charges of making a pipe bomb and other explosive devices and possessing several firearms. A federal indictment filed June 10 charges Darrell Sorey, 35, with possession of a firearm by a drug user, possession of an unregistered explosive device and making an unregistered explosive device. Sorey pleaded not guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City. According to the indictment, Sorey made a pipe bomb, two CO2 (carbon dioxide) cartridge bombs and a CO2 cartridge bomb attached to an arrow on Jan. 15. Sorey also is accused of being a marijuana and methamphetamine user who from Jan. 1, 2018, through Jan. 15 possessed two .22-caliber rifles, a 16-guage shotgun, an SKS rifle, an AR-15 rifle, two high-capacity drum magazines containing ammunition and other ammunition. Search warrants were served on three addresses in Milford and neighboring Arnolds Park on Jan. 15 after authorities found explosives at the site of a truck crash near Knoxville, Iowa, in which Sorey's father, Del Sorey, was killed. Ron Humphrey, special agent in charge with the Iowa State Fire Marshal, said Wednesday that the crash and Darrell Sorey's indictment were related, but he did not know if the explosive devices referenced in Darrell Sorey's indictment were found during the searches of Sorey family property in Milford and Arnolds Park. Del Sorey, 62, of Arnolds Park, died Jan. 12 when the truck he was driving rolled into the ditch and caught fire. Ammunition and consumer-grade fireworks were consumed in the fire, and authorities found three homemade explosive devices, which had been ejected from the truck during the crash. Humphrey said Del and Darrell Sorey had been traveling together, but Darrell Sorey parted from his father prior to the crash. Humphrey declined to say if the explosives found at the crash site had been made by Darrell Sorey. Humphrey also said he did not know what the explosives were to be used for. Love 0 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 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. The Management Board of joint stock company GRINDEKS, registration number: 40003034935, legal address: 53 Krustpils street, Riga, Latvia, LV-1057 (hereafter the Company), considering the Covid-19 pandemic, with the aim to preserve health of shareholders, the Companys employees as well as public in general, encourages all shareholders to participate in the Annual General Meeting of shareholders to be held on June 30, 2020 in a written mode prior to the shareholders meeting by filling in voting form which is attached to this notification. We kindly ask completed voting form and send: electronically signed with the electronic signature to the Company's e-mail address: liene.snore@grindeks.lv; or in paper form signed to the postal address of the Company: 53 Krustpils street, Riga, LV-1057, Latvia. In this case, the voting form should be notarized or with the attached shareholders contact information (telephone number and email addresses) in order to let the Company's Management Board to identify the shareholder. A shareholder who has voted prior to the shareholders meeting may request the Company to confirm receipt of the voting form. The Company shall send the shareholder confirmation without delay after receiving the shareholder's voting form. The voting will take into account all duly received votes received by the Company till June 29, 2020. Appendix: Draft resolutions of Annual General Meeting of Shareholders JSC GRINDEKS Voting form Report of the Council of JSC GRINDEKS Curriculum vitae of the Audit Committee candidates JSC GRINDEKS Remuneration policy for the Management Board and Supervisory Council The Management Board of joint stock company Grindeks Additional information: Laila Klavina Head of the Communications Department JSC GRINDEKS Phones: (+371) 67083370, (+371) 29256012 Fax: (+371) 67083505 E-mail: laila.klavina@grindeks.lv Attachments SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IMPRES Technology Solutions, Inc., a premier Information Technology solution provider for the US federal market, today confirmed its status as a primary provider for Nokia products under the General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) 70 contract. For more than two decades, IMPRES has provided customers with robust network security, engineering, and IT modernization support. Partnering with Nokia extends IMPRES' ability to support customer needs across the entirety of the network enterprisefrom the core, to the data center, to the edge. Offering carrier grade equipment and specific solution sets, IMPRES will market, distribute, and service Nokia's diverse product line for federal customers through IMPRES' GSA IT Schedule 70 contract vehiclewithin both the defense and civilian sectors. "By partnering with Nokia, IMPRES has combined technological capabilities that provoke deeper discussions which encompass topics of great importance for all federal customers like 5G. Together, the IMPRES/Nokia alliance will provide federal customers with enterprise-class solutions that are proven and best-in-class," said Steve Ridgeway, Executive Vice President, Business Development of IMPRES. Nokia offers a comprehensive portfolio of network equipment, software, services and licensing opportunities with tier one service providers and enterprises across the globe. With a strong commitment to innovation, driven by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs, it is a leader in the development and deployment of 5G networks. The alliance with IMPRES allows Nokia to leverage its end-to end portfolio, deep industry expertise and resources to strengthen its relationship with the federal government. As the primary GSA offer of Nokia products to federal customers, IMPRES is delighted to offer unparalleled direct access to Nokia's leading suite of solutions. "We are thrilled to be partnering with IMPRES," commented Mike Allison, Head of US Federal Government Sales at Nokia. "By offering Nokia products on IMPRES' GSA IT Schedule 70, our world class team can rapidly bring game-changing networking solutions to the federal government at the best value." For more info, please join our upcoming Live webinar, 5G & Mission Critical Networks for Federal Agencies, on July 15th at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Register at https://www.imprestechnology.com/nokia-webinar-registration/ SOURCE IMPRES Technology Solutions, Inc. Related Links imprestechnology.com Beijing raises COVID-19 emergency response level to II from III Global Times Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/16 22:39:25 Beijing raised its COVID-19 emergency response to Level 2 from Level 3, reinstating closed managements on communities, requiring people to have temperatures taken, register, and check health codes before entry. Communities, sub-districts, streets in high/middle risk areas would ban outsiders and cars from entering; and communities of high risk sub-districts would have closed-off management, allowing no one to leave. Chen Bei, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing municipal government, announced the decision at a press conference on Tuesday night, noting the capital's situation is still grim. Under the COVID-19 emergency level 2, underground cold places in Beijing will be closed. Other public places such as libraries, museums, art galleries and parks will implement time-limited reservations with visitor traffic no higher than 30 percent. Trans-province group travel to Beijing will be banned. Many inter-provincial shuttle bus services at Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport have been suspended. People from medium and high-risk areas and personnel related to Xinfadi wholesale market are prohibited from leaving Beijing, Chen said. On-campus classes for all primary, middle, high school and university students will be suspended from Wednesday to curb the spread of the virus as soon as possible. Under the Level 2 emergency response, working from home is encouraged, while normal work and production will not be halted, Chen said, requiring people to wear masks in enclosed places. Those who have to leave Beijing need to hold a negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test certificate within 7 days of departure. Flights in and out of Beijing were largely cancelled shortly after Beijing raised its COVID-19 emergency response to level 2. Chen said the city government will strictly enforce prevention and control measures at wet markets, food markets, restaurants and workplaces, comprehensively conduct disinfection and strengthen monitoring, and require all employees in these places to wear masks and gloves. Stricter inspection and quarantine of imported food at ports will be carried out. The quarantine standards and traceability management of imported food will be enhanced as well, said Chen. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address KYIV -- Hundreds of activists supporting the pro-Russian Party of Shariy have clashed with Ukrainian nationalist groups in Kyiv near the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Some 500 activists from the Party of Shariy, which was founded by a controversial pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger, Anatoliy Shariy, rallied in front of Zelenskiy's office on June 17, urging him to stop police brutality toward protesters. Some 200 activists of the radical nationalist group Democratic Ax had also gathered at the site for what they called for "a moralizing talk on the theme Kyiv -- the Ukrainian city." Reports say activists from the nationalist group started throwing firecrackers and smoke grenades at the activists from the Party of Shariy after they began marching toward the Interior Ministry, which led to clashes between the two groups. Police intervened to restore order. The pro-Russian group was upset about what happened on June 15 outside a court in Kyiv, when a former leader of a far-right Ukrainian paramilitary group in Odesa, Serhiy Sternenko, was placed under house arrest. After the June 15 demonstration, photos and videos appeared online showing police beating the demonstrators. Kyiv police officials say they have launched an internal investigation into the incident. In last weeks Queen's Birthday Honours List two prominent people were given Order of Australia awards for services said to benefit indigenous people. One was Marcia Langton, a long-time Aboriginal university professor. The other was former Liberal-National Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The question must be asked: How did Langton, who began her political life in the 1970s as a leader of the Communist League, purporting to fight for the overthrow of capitalism, become, at the age of 68, the beneficiary of a Queens Honour alongside Abbott? In fact, this is Langtons second such award. She was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1993. Last week, she was promoted to an officer of the order. Her citation read: For distinguished service to tertiary education, and as an advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Abbott was lifted to the orders highest rank, that of companion, for eminent service to the people and Parliament of Australia, particularly as prime minister, and through significant contributions to trade, border control, and to the Indigenous community. Abbott is a widely reviled right-wing figure who lost his own parliamentary seat at last years federal election. Among other things, he is notorious for stripping $600 million in funding from indigenous organisations, including health, legal and language support services, in his governments 2014 budget. One of them was the Aboriginal Medical Service at Mount Druitt, which had been trying to address the many health needs of Australias single largest Aboriginal communitythe more than 32,000 indigenous people living throughout the working class suburbs of western Sydney. Abbotts government also drove, via funding cuts, moves to shut down hundreds of remote settlements in Western Australia and elsewhere, seeking to force their residents off traditional lands in order to slash social spending and clear the way for unhindered mining and agricultural operations. Langton has played a different role, but with similar results. A leading figure in Aboriginal politics since the 1970s, she is currently an associate provost at the University of Melbourne and has held its foundation chair of Australian Indigenous Studies since 2000. Langton welcomed her latest award. She told the media she was especially proud of helping achieve a significant increase in the numbers of indigenous Australians with PhDs. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with higher degrees are among that small percentage of our people who have closed the gap, she said. Langton noted that among these graduates are a number of university pro vice-chancellors. Such people are on annual salaries of more than $250,000, placing them in the wealthiest 5 percent of the population. Langtons comments point to her part in the deliberate cultivation of a privileged strata of indigenous academics, politicians, lawyers and business operators. This small percentage, which includes Langton, has certainly closed the gap with their non-indigenous counterparts. Yet the conditions for the vast majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have gone backward. As one of the most impoverished and vulnerable layers of the working class, indigenous workers and youth have suffered some of the most severe impacts of the decline in social conditions driven by the pro-business restructuring of the economy over the past four decades. Even by the limited measures of the closing the gap program initiated by the last federal Labor government in 2008, the health, social, education and employment conditions of most indigenous people remain shocking. For example, according to the latest 2020 Closing the Gap report, the child mortality gap has not narrowed but widened. The indigenous rate was 141 per 100,000more than twice the rate for non-indigenous children. But these gap statistics hide a deepening social polarisation among indigenous people themselves. Alongside terrible poverty, an indigenous capitalist class has emerged. According to Creative Spirits, a website promoting indigenous entrepreneurs, by 2016, there were more than 16,000 Aboriginal-owned businesses. The top 500 Aboriginal corporations employed over 15,000 full-time employees. No statistics exist on the number of Aboriginal millionaires, but reporting on a 1,000-strong indigenous business conference at Sydneys Darling Harbour in 2017, indigenous broadcaster Stan Grant enthused: In one room was probably assembled the single largest collection of indigenous millionaires ever assembled in one room. They were there to celebrate black business. These corporate entrepreneurs have benefited from government and big business contracts. Government procurement spending with indigenous-owned businesses has exceeded $1 billion annually since mid-2015. Last year, the Business Council of Australia pledged another $3 billion in such contracts over five years. This is an indigenous empowerment policy, pursued by successive governments. In the words of a federal government web site: Indigenous Business Australias (IBAs) Equity and Investments program aims to promote self-management, self-sufficiency and economic independence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Langton and other indigenous figures, such as former Labor Party national president Warren Mundine and Cape York program director Noel Pearson, have been among the most prominent advocates of this economic independence program, which has closed the gap for the wealthy few. Another widening gap is that of incarceration. Although indigenous people make up about 3 percent of the population, they account for 28 percent of prison inmates. That ratio has roughly doubled since 1991, the year in which a Hawke Labor government royal commission handed down its report into 99 black deaths in custody over the previous decade. That report was a whitewash. Not a single police or prison officer was charged for causing any of the deaths, effectively giving a green light for the killings to continue. In fact, the rate has increasedthere have been 434 indigenous deaths in custody in the 29 years since 1991. After her award, Langton told journalists: There have been ... no convictions of any police officer ever for killing or assaulting Aboriginal people. But Langton worked on the royal commission herself from 1989 to 1990. I also contributed to the national report, she told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio last week. The Hawke governments employment of Langton in the royal commission was part of a broader turn to head off the public outrage over the killings by integrating indigenous leaders into the state apparatus and the political establishment. Many of the commissions recommendations focused on drawing indigenous figures into police and prison operations, as consultants and monitors, as well as retraining police. Two years later, Langton was given her first Order of Australia award. She was made a member in the 1993 Queens Birthday list for service as an anthropologist and advocate of Aboriginal issues. In last weeks ABC radio interview Langton advanced, yet again, the call to retrain the police force. This only serves to hide the reality. Police violence is not simply the product of racism. Indigenous people, together with immigrant youth and workers, are particularly targeted for police harassment and abuse. But police killings are rising more broadly, especially in working class areas, where social distress and discontent is mounting. As the Marxist movement has always explained, the police, together with the military-intelligence agencies, are the bodies of armed men on which the capitalist class relies to enforce its rule, especially when social and class tensions explode. Langtons ideological role Stripped of its rhetoric, the economic independence program championed by Langton and her co-thinkers consists of creating a layer of black capitalists, at the expense of Aboriginal workers and the working class as a whole. In her pursuit of this agenda, Langton became infamous for supporting the Howard governments militarised intervention into Aboriginal townships in the Northern Territory in 2007. Significantly, Abbott, the governments health minister, also strongly backed the military-led operation, as did the Labor Party, then the official opposition. Contrary to Langtons claims, the real goal of the intervention was not to protect Aboriginal children or families from domestic violence. It was a punitive expedition, conducted on the pretext of combating alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence and other endemic social problems. It included quarantining or cutting off welfare payments to indigenous people, designed to coercively create a new supply of cheap labour for employers, including indigenous businesses. It also featured the breaking up of communal land ownership to clear the way for private wealth accumulation. To achieve these ends, authoritarian measures were used. Indigenous township councils were ousted, government managers were installed and police patrols were boosted, backed by troops. The intervention also pioneered welfare-cutting measures for use against other working people around the country. Wider trials of cashless welfare systems soon followed in selected working class areas. Supposed economic independence also involves facilitating projects by mining conglomerates on native title land in return for the establishment of investment funds for Aboriginal business owners. Langtons delivery of the 2012 Boyer Lectures, hosted by the ABC, sought to develop the ideological justification for this program and the elevation of affluent indigenous leaders. Her selection to give the prestigious annual series was a measure of the value placed on her role. Under the title of The Quiet Revolution, she proclaimed the emergence of an Aboriginal middle class, based on hundreds of Aboriginal businesses. This process, she claimed, was delivering economic outcomes to communities on an unprecedented scale. In reality, the benefits have gone to a small layer, to the cost of the majority. During her five lectures, Langton hailed the big mining companies that had struck native title deals with indigenous claimants. These deals have allowed the mining giants to reap billions of dollars in profits while allocating sums of cash to Aboriginal corporations and exploiting the labour of indigenous workers. Langton lauded Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals Group and BHP Billiton for employing Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in larger numbers than ever before in Australian history. More recently, since last October, Langton has been co-chair of the Morrison Liberal-National governments senior advisory group on options for an indigenous voice. This is a proposal for an indigenous council to advise governments on all parliamentary legislationa potentially lucrative source of employment for aspiring Aboriginal politicians. Langton and her co-thinkers falsely present this voice as a means to redress historic injustices. They appeal to widespread sentiments of revulsion toward the more than 200 years of massacres, epidemics, removals and separation of children. In reality, these were the methods that British imperialism and the emerging Australian ruling class used to devastate the indigenous people and clear the continent for capitalist exploitation. The historic crimes of this diseased social order can be rectified and overcome only through the unified struggle of the working class, indigenous and non-indigenous, in Australia and internationally, to overthrow the capitalist profit system as a whole, and replace it with a socialist society, based on genuine equality and democracy. Langtons political evolution Despite Langtons previous apparent, and seemingly short-lived, adherence to socialism in the 1970s, this has never been her perspective. Her insistence that race must be elevated above class as the determining factor in society is both bound up with her rejection of the revolutionary role of the working class and the justification for her own political and social trajectory over the past four decades. Langtons history is especially significant. It illustrates a parallel process to the cultivation of a favoured indigenous layerthe rightward shift of ex-radicals from organisations that once claimed adherence to Marxism and posed as representatives of Trotskyism. Langton first became known, in the mid-1970s, as a member of the national committee of the Communist League, and later the Socialist Workers Party, into which the Communist League merged in 1977. At the time, these formations falsely presented themselves as representatives of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution established by Trotsky in 1938 to overcome the betrayals of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union. This had an appeal to students and workers who were radicalised by the horrors of the Vietnam War and the upsurge in global working class struggles from 1968 to 1975. In reality, these organisations were based on Pabloism, which sought to effectively dissolve the Fourth International. They dismissed the very conception that the international working class is the only force that can overturn capitalism and reorganise society along socialist lines, that is, in the interests of all, instead of the financial oligarchy. Instead, the Pabloites promoted an alignment behind other class forces, and various forms of identity politics, such as feminism and black nationalism, which elevate gender and race above the fundamental divide in capitalist societythat of class. As a young Aboriginal woman, Langton epitomised their orientation. Above all, these outfits vehemently opposed the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), formed in 1953 to defend and develop genuine Trotskyism, and the establishment in 1972 of an Australian section of the ICFI, the Socialist Labour League, the forerunner to the Socialist Equality Party. The end of the Vietnam War and the betrayals and defeats suffered by the working class worldwide, followed by the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union, led to a wave of renunciation by the middle class-based membership of the Pabloite organisations of any, even formal, adherence to the revolutionary socialist perspective of Trotskyism. This helped paved the way for followers such as Langton to more openly adapt themselves to the requirements, and blandishments, of the capitalist profit system. Exactly when and how Langton left the Socialist Workers Party remains unclear, but her evolution flows from the class logic of rejecting any perspective based on the working class and socialism. Today, indigenous leaders such as Langton speak on behalf of a very well-off and aspiring layer. They seek to suppress the fact that the historic oppression and social blight afflicting Aboriginal communities is a product of the private profit system and that the majority of Aborigines are part of the working class. Assorted pseudo-left groupsthe successors of the Pabloite formationsas well as black nationalist groups, pursue a similar line. They all insist that racial identity, not class, is the most important issue in society. In response to the eruption of mass multi-ethnic protest demonstrations throughout the United States and internationally against police violence, they seek to introduce racial and other forms of identity politics to bury and suppress the fundamental class issues at stake. In fact, the more diverse and global the protests have become, the more these groups blame white people, not the capitalist system, for the oppression of indigenous people. The Socialist Equality Party opposes all such attempts to divide the working class along racial lines. The only means of resolving the deplorable situation confronting Aboriginal workers and youth is through the mobilisation of the entire working class, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike, to end the socio-economic order that has produced it. The author also recommends: Twenty years since the death of Australian Trotskyist and Aboriginal worker, Comrade Yabu Bilyana [15 April 2019] Ten years on: The fraud of Australian parliaments stolen generations apology [17 February 2018] Australias 1967 referendum, fifty years on [23 August 2017] What is at stake in Australias History Wars [12 July 2004] Chennai, June 17 : The Chennaiyin FC (CFC) Foundation contributed a batch of N95 masks to the Greater Chennai Corporation on Wednesday, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It is the CFC Foundation's endeavour to assist the authorities in their continued efforts to contain the spread of the virus, with this being a small contribution in that regard. Representatives from the CFC Foundation met with officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation and handed over the masks, that will further be put to use by sanitation workers and other officials employed with the corporation in their daily monitoring rounds among other essential activities. "At CFC Foundation, the endeavour will always be to help the city and its people at large. And as part of the community, this is the least we can do during these unprecedented times. We hope this small contribution is just the beginning of us doing our bit in giving back and improving the lives of those in need in the spirited city of Chennai," said Vita Dani, co-owner of Chennaiyin FC on behalf of the CFC Foundation. On Monday, June 15, the Tamil Nadu state government announced that a stricter lockdown will be in place from June 19 to June 30 in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu districts in light of the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases. The CFC management would like to urge everyone to adhere to the government order and not step out of their homes unless absolutely necessary. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Mica Rosenberg and Frank Jack Daniel (Reuters) New York, United States/Mexico City, Mexico Wed, June 17, 2020 09:20 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf5d8c2 2 World US-Mexico-border,US,Canada,border-areas,coronavirus,coronavirus-restrictions,COVID-19,coronavirus-effect,pandemic,COVID-19-travel-restriction,novel-coronavirus,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona Free The Trump administration said on Tuesday it would extend existing restrictions on non-essential travel at land ports of entry with Canada and Mexico due to continued risks from the novel coronavirus pandemic. "This extension protects Americans while keeping essential trade and travel flowing as we reopen the American economy," US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement, without specifying an end date to the extension. The travel restrictions had already been extended several times and were set to expire on June 23, according to a related US government notice. A DHS official said the latest extension would run for 30 days. Mexico's foreign ministry said in a tweet on Tuesday that the travel restrictions across the country's border with the United States would continue for 30 days. The United States said it was in "close contact" with both countries on its northern and southern borders about the restrictions, which were first imposed in mid-March. The Trump administration had already extended indefinitely a separate set of pandemic-related rules that permit rapid deportation of migrants caught at US borders. Separately, the US Department of Justice on Tuesday said in a statement it was again postponing hearings for thousands of migrants who have been waiting in Mexico for US immigration court hearings. The Justice Department, which runs the immigration court system, said the hearings for those in the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols program would be on hold until July 20. "This will alleviate the need for travel within Mexico to a US port of entry while pandemic conditions in Mexico remain severe," the Justice Department said. The controversial program has stranded migrants - many of them seeking asylum in the United States - in Mexico for months. Hundreds have been living in squalid tent camps near the US-Mexico border, which health experts and immigration advocates have said leaves them vulnerable to coronavirus infections. In his first remarks on the violent LAC face-off between the troops of India and China in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said India wants peace but is capable of giving befitting reply if instigated, and asserted that the sacrifice of our army men will not go in vain. In his opening remarks on day two of the virtual conference with chief ministers on the coronavirus crisis, Modi said India would not "compromise with its integrity and sovereignty" and will firmly defend its self-respect and every inch of land. Modi's remarks came ... Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Reports on India Provides the Trending Market Research Report Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Indian Outbound Travelers Traffic and Market Revenue to the GCC (United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain) Countriesunder Tourism Category. The report offers a collection of superior market research, market analysis, competitive intelligence and Market reports. Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Indian Outbound Travelers Traffic It is forecasted that GCC countries will attract nearly 7.7 Million Indian travelers and generated more than US$ 12 billion market revenues by 2025. The objective of this market research report is to provide an overview of the development of the Indian outbound travelers traffic to the major continents and to give an insight into the Indian outbound travelers traffic and market revenue to the GCC countries. The GCC Countries which we covered in the report are UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Request a free sample copy of Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Indian Outbound Travelers Market Report http://www.marketreportsonindia.com/marketreports/sample/reports/2065123 The database of the following report is defined as follows: Total India Outbound Travelers Visitation & Forecast By Continents (2018 2025) India Outbound Travelers Visitation to the GCC Countries & Forecast (2018 2025) India Outbound Travelers Market Revenue to the GCC Countries & Forecast (2018 2025) India Outbound Travelers Visitation Share to the GCC Countries & Forecast (2018-2025) India Outbound Travelers Market Revenue Share to the GCC Countries & Forecast (2018-2025) Weekly Flights & Seats from India to the GCC Countries Key Market Drivers and Inhibitors of the India Outbound Tourism Market to the GCC Countries Note: We have thoroughly studied the impact of the COVID 19 outbreak into this market research report. Browse our full report with Table of Content : http://www.marketreportsonindia.com/marketreports/impact-of-covid-19-outbreak-on-indian-outbound-travelers-traffic-and-market-revenue-to-the-gcc-united-arab-emirates-ua/2065123 About Market Reports on India:Market Reports on India is an excellent source to obtain top quality market research reports that helps you to understand the business in the Indian market. We cover various industries, identifying and understanding key macro and micro-economic trends, insights and futuristic growth opportunities. To help achieve all this and more, Market Reports on India is the answer to all your business needs. Contact us at: Market Reports on India Tel: +91 22 27810772 / 27810773 Email: info@marketreportsonindia.com Website: www.marketreportsonindia.com Follow us on: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Granting Ukraine the EOP status does not indicate country's approach to the Membership Action Plan (MAP) and is not an alternative to Ukraine's membership in the Alliance. This was announced by Kay Bailey Hutchison, the U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO, at a special briefing on Tuesday, ahead of the meeting of NATO Defence Ministers on June 17-18. [Recognizing Ukraine as a NATO Enhanced Opportunity Partner] is saying that the Ukraine people are very much important to NATO, that we are going to have more interoperability, more training, more exercises So, we stand with the Ukraine people. But this is not anything in a beginning of a MAP, and it is not anything that is saying that Ukraine would never be an ally in NATO. I hope they will be. The U.S. hopes they will be. And when the time is right, then accession and MAP plans will be on the drawing boards. We are very supportive of Ukraine, the American diplomat said. The U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO stressed that the development of cooperation with Ukraine and Georgia would be among the issues to be considered by the Alliance's defence ministers. Weve also adopted Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunity Partner, which Georgia already is. And what that means is that we are giving special attention and more interoperable efforts with Georgia and Ukraine and consider them our closest partners. We think that both of those countries are standing up to Russian aggression; Russia has tried to illegally take over parts of Georgia and parts of Ukraine. NATO has stood firmly for the sovereignty of those two countries, and we will continue to do so, Hutchison stressed. As a reminder, on June 12, Ukraine was granted the NATO Enhanced Opportunity Partner status. NATO Allies continue to encourage and support Ukraine in its reforms, including reforms in the security and defense sectors, in particular in such areas as civilian control and democratic oversight, as well as the fight against corruption. NATO launched the Enhanced Opportunity Partner program in 2014. Sweden, Finland, Australia, Georgia, and Jordan have already joined it. The program aims to help participants increase the interoperability of their troops with NATO forces. ol Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2020) - Roscan Gold Corporation ("Roscan" or the "Company") (TSXV: ROS) (FSE: 2OJ) (OTC Pink:RCGCF) is pleased to announce that it has signed a Definitive Agreement (the "DA") with Komet Resources to purchase its wholly owned subsidiary Komet Mali SARL ("Komet Mali"), which owns the Dabia Sud Gold Property. Roscan expects to close the Acquisition by end of June 2020. (Please see previously announced press release dated May 11, 2020). President and CEO Nana Sangmuah stated, "We are now one step closer to the acquisition of this exciting project from Komet Mali. Our goal is to immediately commence exploration after the acquisition. Exploration focus at the Dabia Sud Gold Property will be to evaluate the highly prospective regional targets at Komet Mali with our updated drill program." Additionally, Roscan is pleased to announce plans for the upcoming rainy season and 2020 drill program at its 100% owned Kandiole Project in West Africa, Mali. Expected to kick off in early July of 2020, the Company is planning a further 15,000m drill campaign and have an additional 2 drill rigs at site. This will take it to 4 drill rigs at site for a total of 45,000m drill program in 2020. Currently, Roscan has 3 drill rigs at site and the 4th drill rig is expected to arrive in early July 2020. Roscan initially started with a 10,000m drill program in January 2020 and quickly tripled its drill program to 30,000m for 2020 in February. (Please see previously announced press release dated February 27, 2020). The Company intends to provide a comprehensive exploration update of drilling on both Mankouke South and Kandiole later this month. Assets Acquired 1) Highly prospective land package adjacent of Roscan to the North-East and West of Oklo Resources (OKU AU) (See Figure 1); Figure 1: Location Map of Dabia Sud Property with Roscan and Oklo Resources To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4821/57989_29bf5b6d344e8980_001full.jpg 2) The Kabaya deposit has an "historical estimate" (Disclosures are listed below) that is pit-constrained with 105,000 ounces of Indicated Resource and 35,000 ounces of Inferred Resource which has been drilled to an average depth of 80m, and the deposit remains open at depth. Kabaya Project (Source Komet's NI43-101) The historical estimate is based on optimized pit shells using a gold price of US$1,350 and a presumed heap leach gold recovery of saprolite material. Classification Tonnage (Mt) Au (g/t) Ounces (koz) Indicated 3.17 1.03 105 Inferred 0.96 1.14 35 Table 1: Pit Constraint Historical Estimate Effective date for resources is January 7, 2019. (Source Komet's NI43-101) The independent QP for this resources estimate is Yann Camus, Eng., SGS Canada Inc. he mineral resources are presented at a 0.4 g/t Au cut-off grade in pits. The resources are presented without dilution. Whittle pits have been utilized based on a gold value of US$1,350/oz. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. No economic evaluation of the resources has been produced. This Resource Estimate has been prepared in accordance with CIM definition (2014). Density used is of 1.7 based on measurements and similar projects. Capping grade is of 30 g/t Au on original assays. Based on the Disclosure of Historical Estimate of NI43-101, Section 2.4 The source is Komet's NI43-101 that is effective January,7, 2019 We consider the reliably and relevance to be reasonable The key assumptions are listed above (1-10) Below Table 1 The categories are similar (the historical estimate was prepared using CIM definitions) There are no recent estimates The QP needs to complete due diligence to verify the historical estimate The qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves; and The issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Consideration Paid The terms of the transaction are as follow: Acquisition price at $3.2MM CAD comprised of 50% cash and 50% in shares of Roscan (ROS), equating to a purchase price of $16 USD per ounce (see Definitive Terms below): Cdn $1,600,000 cash payment to Komet; Cdn $1,600,000 in Roscan shares. (Subject to TSXV approval, the number of Roscan Shares to be issued by Roscan in connection with the payment will be calculated by dividing such amount by 5-day VWAP of the Roscan Shares on the TSXV calculated as of the day prior to the Closing Date.) Roscan will not assume any liabilities and no rights are retained by the Vendor. Qualified Person The scientific and technical data contained in this news release was approved by Greg Isenor, P.Geo., a non-independent "qualified person" under the National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects. About Roscan Roscan Gold Corporation is a well-financed Canadian gold exploration company focused on the exploration and acquisition of gold properties in West Africa. The Company has assembled a significant land position of 100%-owned permits in an area of producing gold mines (including B2 Gold's Fekola Mine which lies in a contiguous property to the west of Kandiole), and major gold deposits, located both north and south of its Kandiole Project in West Mali. For further information, please contact: Andrew J. Ramcharan, P.Eng Executive Vice President - Corporate Development and Investor Relations Tel: (416) 572-2295 Email: aramcharan@Roscan.ca Greg Isenor, P.Geo Executive Vice-Chairman Tel: (902) 221-2329 Email: gpisenor@Roscan.ca Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is 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. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company 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. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable securities laws. 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/57989 Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) speaks to the media after attending a briefing with administration officials about the situation with Iran, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 8, 2020. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Sen. Cotton Says Twitter Threatened to Lock Account Over Tweet A Twitter employee called the office of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and threatened to lock the lawmakers account over a tweet sent during the recent rioting, the senator said Wednesday. We asked for an explanation of why that was and it was not really forthcoming. They cited a policy that didnt apply to my situation, Cotton said during an appearance on Fox & Friends. We waited them out, we called their bluff, for 30 minutes they didnt lock down my account and within about 2 hours they got back to us and said, OK, you can keep your posts up,' he added. Twitter didnt return a request for comment. Cotton wrote on June 1 that the anarchy, rioting, and looting needed to end as he called for the deployment of a U.S. military division to deal with anarchists and other hooligans fomenting the unrest. In the tweet that Twitter apparently made the threat over, Cotton wrote, And, if necessary, the 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, 1st Cav, 3rd Infantrywhatever it takes to restore order. No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters, he added. 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) In an op-ed published on Fox News, Cotton said no quarter is a common metaphor for being tough. The Twitter employee issued an ultimatum, saying the only option was to delete the tweet or lose the account, he said. Twitter began as an open platform committed to the free exchange of ideas; over time, it increasingly has taken upon itself the role of politically correct censor of thought-crime by elected officials and ordinary citizens alike. Not surprisingly, the censorship falls overwhelmingly on conservatives, he said. Twitter in recent weeks applied a so-called fact-check to Republican President Donald Trump and flagged a missive from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). The company has not appeared to target any Democrat lawmakers. Cotton and other members of Congress are increasingly eyeing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields Twitter and other technology giants from liability. Trump last month signed an executive order directing federal agencies to develop regulations that will protect users of social media platforms from unfair or deceptive content restriction practices. The choices that Twitter makes when it chooses to suppress, edit, blacklist, shadowban are editorial decisions, pure and simple, the president said. In those moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform and [becomes] an editor with a viewpoint, and I think we can say that about others also. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a military parade for the 70th anniversary of founding of the Korean People's Army in Pyongyang, in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, February 9 2018. KCNA/via REUTERS North Korea has a cyber army of about 7,000, trained to find secrets, disrupt critical infrastructure, and steal money to circumvent sanctions. These cyberattacks are often difficult to pin on North Korea because they originate in countries like China and Russia, and a counterattack is almost impossible because of North Korea's rudimentary internet. North Korea's likely next targets are critical US infrastructure like power plants, dams, and electrical grids. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Video: What its like inside North Koreas controversial restaurant chain North Korea's state-sponsored hack of Sony Pictures in 2014 over the movie "The Interview" was highly embarrassing for Sony. But it was just the tip of the iceberg, according to Daniel Russel, vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Russel, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, spoke with Insider recently about the threat of North Korea's hacker army, how it supports North Korea's nuclear program, and what the future holds if the US doesn't take this threat seriously. Insider: When did this cyber army start? north korea Kyodo/Reuters Daniel Russel: The North Korean cyber operation documented by a lot of cybersecurity firms lists this principal group as starting circa 2010. But that gives the impression that we know a lot more about North Korea's cyber activity than I think we really do. North Korea has been cultivating and has been investing in an elite cyber force under the control of its military, the Korean People's Army and the Reconnaissance General Bureau Kim Jong Un's clandestine security apparatus. It's estimated to comprise about 7,000 people who are trained pretty extensively, both in specialized domestic programs in North Korea, including in parts of their universities. In other cases, they then seem to receive training in China or in Russia. Quite a few of them are dispersed through China, Russia, and some in India. They use other countries as a platform and for conducting their various cyber activities because North Korea has pretty much air-gapped its own internal internet or intranet system, both to prevent North Koreans accessing information from the rest of the world, but more importantly to prevent the rest of the world from getting in. Story continues That makes it very hard to get a definitive attribution that the attack originated in North Korea and raises the risk that China or Russia will get the blame. It also makes it harder for services in countries like the US to retaliate because you're running the risk of retaliating against China or Russia for something that's actually masterminded and executed by the North Koreans. Insider: How do we figure out that these attacks are actually performed by North Korean actors? US Homeland Security officials at a briefing where they blamed North Korea for unleashing the so-called WannaCry cyberattack, at the White House, December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Russel: You're digging into technical areas for which I'm spectacularly unqualified because I'm not a digital or a cyber expert. But the people who are real experts, Mandiant, FireEye, or CrowdStrike, or for that matter the CIA or the NIS, South Korea's intelligence service, have a very sophisticated ability to conduct forensic detective work in the cyber realm. In many cases, they can identify patterns, code, servers and the like to trace things back to North Korea. These companies issue an annual worldwide cyber-threat report. They track all of these various major hacking operations and rank them. They call them advanced persistent threats, APT. North Korea is the host of something they call APT38 or the Lazarus Group, Guardians of Peace, or Hidden Cobra. These are sort of code names. APT38 is number one on their list of worldwide cyber threats. In some cases North Korea directly claimed credit for a cyberattack. Beyond that, Kim Jong Un and the Korean Workers' Party have been speaking increasingly in a very open and direct way about its cyber capability. They use the same vocabulary now for cyber as for their nuclear weapons. They call it "an all-purpose sword that guarantees our capability to strike relentlessly." Insider: You called the Sony hack "chickenshit." Can you tell me what kinds of bigger projects are out there? Movie posters for the film "The Interview" at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles, December 11, 2014. AFP via Getty Images Russel: You could break it down into three categories: spying; sanctions circumvention through cyber theft; and harassment, disruption, and retaliation the Sony hack was an example of that. One important use of cyber for North Korea is to steal secrets. CrowdStrike has done a lot of documenting this, but it's the US government and foreign governments that are paying super-close attention to this. In 2016, APT38 stole about 40,000 defense documents from South Korean contractors with information on F-16 fighters and drones. North Korea is also believed to have stolen a PowerPoint summary of the US military's top-secret operation plan, called Op Plan 5027, which is the war plan for the United States. Second is the cyber theft category. In March, the Department of Justice unsealed indictments accusing some Chinese and North Korean nationals of laundering $100 million for North Korean nuclear activities. This indictment makes clear that the money these people laundered was part of a $250 million theft by North Korea in a cyberattack on a global cryptocurrency exchange. So this isn't just imaginary stuff. Cyber theft effectively neutralizes UN and US sanctions against North Korea. If North Korea is denied a billion dollars in the sale of coal and iron and mushrooms, but it can go out and steal a billion dollars, then sanctions are not going to have the intended effect. While the administration takes a lot of pride in its efforts to maintain sanctions against North Korea, this is an immense loophole, and it's not just going to buy those fancy Mercedes that we saw Kim Jong Un driving around in when he was hobnobbing with Donald Trump in Singapore and in Hanoi. This money is going to fund North Korea's nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile program. We're paying for the threat against ourselves. north korea Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP At the high end, it's potentially a devastating destruction of critical infrastructure in the United States and Japan and South Korea. The WannaCry virus, on the one hand, was ransomware; you could argue that it's aimed at getting money, but it caused a huge disruption of hospitals in the UK and, potentially, in something like 100-plus other countries where they had disseminated the ransomware. This was software that brought the operation of critical facilities to a standstill. This is not hacking; this is cyber warfare. Cyber weapons kind of level the playing field for North Korea in a way that nukes can't. Not only do the United States, China, Russia, have vastly more nuclear weapons than North Korea, but a nuclear weapon is an all-or-nothing proposition. Cyber warfare has a very different risk-return calculation. it's a low-cost, asymmetric, relatively speaking, low-risk weapon system. And the US is the most vulnerable country on planet Earth to disruptive cyberattacks. Most American infrastructure facilities were built in the pre-digital era energy grids and the Hoover Dam. They get retrofitted with makeshift, MacGyver-style internet linkages, as opposed to new infrastructure that has digital safeguards built into it. So you have somebody firing up their router, like with one of those old "you got mail" connections. The US has a lot of that stuff, number one. And something like 80% of America's critical infrastructure is privately owned. Who's going to pay to upgrade the power plant? Who's going to pay to upgrade the air traffic control systems? Who's going to pay to upgrade the rail systems, the cellphone network? Good luck getting these private companies to sell their shareholders on investing billions of dollars in upgrades. If it's bad now, just imagine what it's going to look like with 5G and the internet of things. New interconnectivity is going to provide new opportunities for malicious cyberattacks, and you're going to wake up one morning and find that your toaster oven is getting ready to kill you, thanks to Kim Jong Un. Insider: Are there other ways that this cyber army is innovating? North Korean leader Kim Jong Un receives applause as he guides the multiple-rocket launching drill of women's sub-units under KPA Unit 851, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) April 24, 2014. Reuters Russel: I think the new threat for which we are woefully unprepared isn't so much a technical innovation as a strategic innovation. We can see that North Korea is practicing its ability to shut down and to hold at risk an entire American city or a facility in the US that is critical to our economy, our safety, and our national security. This cyber capability, the ability to hold not just a bank hostage but a nation hostage, is going to be North Korea's next generation weapon of mass destruction. There isn't a big bang. There's not a missile that can be taken out on the launchpad, and because North Korea's own internet or intranet system is so difficult to access, direct retaliation or preemptive cyber defense may not be possible. We've got to sprint now to get ready because we can see what very likely is coming at us. Insider: What are we doing on a national level, and to support our allies against these kinds of attacks? South Koreans burned portraits of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and current leader Kim Jong Un after a cyber attack in 2009. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak Russel: I'm sure there are a lot of cyber-defense initiatives and programs underway through the Department of Defense, the FBI, the Department of Homeland, and National Security, the CIA, etc. some with the Five Eyes intelligence partners, some with various allies, and then NATO has a program. US, Japan, South Korea have programs. But I'm not all that current on where it is now and how well developed they are, and that's only one piece of it. I am strongly convinced that this is not a priority for the Trump administration. Donald Trump was prepared to accept the word of his best friend, Kim Jong Un, that North Korea had no intention of threatening the US. He's turned a blind eye when North Korea has violated UN sanctions by launching mid-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan. Because North Korea depends so heavily on China, not just for cyber, but in the case of cyber, for access to servers, its pipelines, and so on, it would be critical for the United States to develop some degree of cooperation with China to limit North Korea's offensive cyber threat. Obviously, there's much more on the diplomatic side that we would have to do to present North Korea with an international unified front that would make it difficult for it to find these cyber platforms to use against us. A cartoon of Kim Jong Il's son, Kim Jong Un, bleeding on North Korea's official Youtube account, on a computer screen in Seoul, January 9, 2011. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won The United States needs to launch a crash campaign to up the level of our defense of critical infrastructure. This is not a secret. There's plenty of warnings out from the US intelligence community and from the cybersecurity companies. But the United States, as far as I know, doesn't have a cyber czar. Most importantly I think, is deterrence. Deterrence means convincing the other side that the consequences of an attack are sufficiently certain and the capability of the United States is so well demonstrated that it's too high a risk to take. And the fact is that North Korea is succeeding in so many of these cyberattacks, and it's getting a pass from the Trump administration, so it's continuing to build intercontinental ballistic missiles. It's continuing to develop other weapons. The US has stood down on joint military exercises with South Korea. The US is in the middle of a grudge match with South Korea over the cost of American troop deployment there. The US is in the middle of a demolition derby with China. It's at odds with so many of the countries that have historically been American partners. What North Korea sees when it looks at the US does not deter it. This interview has been edited and condensed. Read the original article on Business Insider The headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seen in Silver Spring, Md., on Nov. 4, 2009. (Jason Reed/Reuters) FDA Warns 4 Companies Selling Unapproved Injectable Drugs as Homeopathic The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued warning letters to four companies for selling unapproved injectable drugs under the homeopathic label. The FDA said in a statement on June 16 that the drugs can pose a serious risk to patients life and violate federal law. All the drugs included in the letters are new. The federal agency issued warning letters to Hervert Pharmaceuticals, LLC; MediNatura, Inc.; Viatrexx; and World Health Advanced Technologies, Ltd. These unapproved injectable drugs are particularly concerning because they inherently present greater risks to patients because of how they are administered, said Donald D. Ashley, director of the Office of Compliance of the FDA in a statement. The FDA said the drugs are injected directly into the bloodstream and bypass some of the bodys key natural defenses against toxins, toxic ingredients, and life-threatening organisms. Homeopathic drugs are made from a variety of sources like plants, healthy or diseased animal or human sources, minerals, and chemicals, and these ingredients may contain poisons. These products are further concerning given that they are labeled to contain potentially toxic ingredients intended for injection directly into the body. These warning letters reflect our continued commitment to patient safety, said Ashley. The FDA said these concerns only become more serious if the homeopathic drugs are poorly manufactured. The agency referred to Viatrexx for the substandard manufacture of sterile drugs. Many of the drugs were labeled to contain potentially toxic ingredients such as nux vomica, belladonna (deadly nightshade), Mercurius solubilis (mercury), and plumbum aceticum (lead), the agency further noted. Nux vomica contains strychnine, a well-known poison to kill rodents. The agency also put several manufacturers of injectable drugs on an import alert, meaning unapproved drugs can be detained without physical examination. Senior officers recounted extreme Chinese brutality to the Indian prisoners, with some of them being pushed over cliffs and soldiers' bodies being recovered from the Galwan River. Ajai Shukla reports. IMAGE: People's Liberation Army soldiers seen here during a military exercise. In a steep escalation of the ongoing India-China border face-off in eastern Ladakh, soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army attacked and killed 20 Indian soldiers, including a colonel, on Monday night. This is the first deadly clash on the 3,488-kilometre disputed border since four Assam Rifles jawans were ambushed and killed by Chinese border guards in October 1975. In a statement on Tuesday morning, the army said: 'During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday (Monday) night with casualties on both sides.' 'The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers. Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation,' the army stated. Late on Tuesday evening, another statement from the army said: '17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total of those killed in action to 20.' The statement also said: 'Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020.' There were unconfirmed reports that five PLA soldiers were also killed in the clash. Senior officers recounted extreme Chinese brutality to the Indian prisoners, with some of them being pushed over cliffs and soldiers' bodies being recovered from the Galwan River. Sources said the clash occurred on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control in the vicinity of Patrolling Point 14 when some 300 PLA soldiers attacked a group of about 50 Indian soldiers. Army sources denied that firearms were used. The casualties apparently occurred in brutal hand-to-hand fighting with clubs and staves. China's foreign ministry spokesperson in Beijing blamed Indian troops for the clash, claiming that they had illegally crossed the border twice on Monday and attacked Chinese soldiers. Beijing, he said, had 'lodged strong protests', but continued to work toward resolving tensions. Meanwhile, senior government sources said the Chinese troops who had intruded into Indian claimed and patrolled territory last month continued building their defences, notwithstanding talk about de-escalation and disengagement. In the Pangong Tso sector, Chinese troops continue to occupy the area up to Finger 4, which includes 8 km of Indian-claimed territory between Finger 8 -- which is the Indian version of the LAC -- and Finger 4. In the Galwan River sector, the PLA still occupies the area up to PP 15 and PP 17 and the heights overlooking the Galwan valley. Reports are also emerging that Chinese troops have entered the Depsang area, which lies to the north of Galwan, in the Daulat Beg Oldi sector. Here they have reportedly secured the areas up to PP 12 and PP 13. This could mean that the Indian Army has one more sector to safeguard, besides the Galwan and Pangong sectors where the PLA earlier encroached, and the Harsil sector in Uttarakhand, where the PLA has also built up troops. Depsang is the same sector where India and China saw tensions in 2013. The current crisis began in end-April when Indian intelligence reported Chinese troop buildups across the LAC. However, the Indian Army chose not to deploy a countervailing force because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, the army was taken by surprise when a large Chinese force crossed the LAC into the Galwan and Pangong Tso areas in late April. While clashes between Indian and PLA patrols are not unusual at this time of the year, there were indications even before Monday that the current confrontation was a departure from the normal. First, the PLA had encroached into areas like Galwan that were traditionally peaceful. Second, they entered in unusually large numbers that were in the thousands. Finally, this was clearly not a temporary occupation of disputed territory of the kind that took place in Depsang in 2013, or in Chumar in 2014. This time PLA soldiers are digging defences, preparing bunkers and deployed artillery guns to the rear (albeit in their own territory) to support the intruders, said sources. The PLA intrusions into Ladakh do not appear to be a localised event, being spread across a frontage of 2,000 km, including the area of responsibility of different PLA brigades and divisions. That suggests centralised coordination at the higher military and political levels. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Clinical researchers at Imperial College London are beginning this week the very first human trials of a new coronavirus or Covid-19 vaccine, backed by the UK Government. With successful trials, the vaccine may be available in Spring 2021, offering protection against COVID-19 to millions across the world. This will be the second experimental coronavirus vaccine in UK to start trials in humans. A potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by University of Oxford has already initiated human trials, in partnership with AstraZeneca Plc, also funded by the UK Government. According to Imperial, the vaccine is based on a new self-amplifying RNA technology, and uses synthetic strands of genetic code -called RNA, based on the virus's genetic material. In comparison, many traditional vaccines are based on a weakened or modified form of virus, or parts of it. The development and trial of Imperial's vaccine candidate is being funded with more than 41 million pounds from the UK government and donations of further 5 million pounds. In the rigorous pre-clinical safety tests and in animal studies, the vaccine has been shown to be safe and produced encouraging signs of an effective immune response. In the initial human trial, lead by Robin Shattock, 300 healthy participants will receive two doses of the vaccine over the coming weeks. If the first phase is successful, Imperial is planning larger Phase III trials to begin later in the year with around 6000 healthy volunteers. Imperial's new social enterprise VacEquity Global Health or VGH, in partnership with Morningside Ventures, aims to rapidly develop vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and distribute them as widely as possible in the UK and overseas, including to low- and middle-income countries. In the U.S., Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has funded AstraZeneca with more than $1 billion to develop and produce Oxford University vaccine. The development programme includes a Phase III clinical trial with 30,000 participants and a paediatric trial. The British drug major also has signed a contract with Europe's Inclusive Vaccines Alliance to supply up to 400 million doses of the Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de New Delhi, June 17 : Almost 10 days after Congress leader Sanjay Jha raised questions over the internal functioning of the party, Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday dropped him as the party's national spokesperson. In a major reshuffle of the party spokespersons, Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday appointed Abhishek Dutt and Sadhna Bharti as the new party spokespersons while dropping Jha. A statement from the Congress communication department read, "Congress President has approved the appointment of Dutt and Bharti as national media panelist of Congress. Congress President has also approved that Jha be dropped as Congress spokesperson with immediate effect," it said. The action comes almost 10 days after Jha said the claim that the Congress has an internal robust mechanism was "not correct" and "it doesn't listen to its members". Jha pushed his view through a newspaper article, but was promptly contradicted by the party. In the article, the Congress leader also said the party could not present an alternative narrative of governance to the people when the government has failed. Jha said that the party was reacting to the issues, but not in a comprehensive manner. The views of Jha were contradicted by several senior Congress leaders like Ajay Maken. A Life Consumed By Sleep, Savannah Santos Seeks to Uncover Treatment Options Glen Ellyn, Ill., June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- College of DuPage Psychology student Savannah Santos was recently awarded a $600 Margaret Messer Student Research Grant from the Honors Council of the Illinois Region to support her work researching idiopathic hypersomnia, a disorder Santos has been battling since childhood. After several misdiagnoses and doctors failing to find the right treatment to minimize her symptoms, Santos spent her teenage years on a quest for answers. Its been a struggle most of my life, Santos said. For as long as I can remember, I spend most of my days exhausted even after sleeping 11 to 12 hours a night. Its debilitating. When I was younger, it got in the way of school and activities because I couldnt focus. Doctors were stumped and, at nine years old, I was put on antidepressants and Adderall after being wrongly diagnosed with ADHD and depression. While researching her symptoms, questioning her doctors previous diagnoses, Santos found her way to a sleep specialist at the University of Chicago. She was finally diagnosed with the chronic neurological disorder marked by excessive sleepiness, trouble waking and difficulty doing mental and physical tasks during the day. Santos has always been interested in the biology behind her disorder and, when she came to COD, she pursued psychology classes to learn more about the intricacies of the brain. With the help of COD Associate Professor of Psychology Sarah Butler, Santos started an Honors program independent study to research the physiology of the disorder. I have appreciated the opportunity to mentor her, Butler said. This interdisciplinary project combines her interests in biology, human behavior and neuroscience, and connects these fields with an area that is very personally relevant to her. Savannah is a wonderful student and very passionate about her education. Story continues Santos recently presented her research project Idiopathic Hypersomnia and Narcolepsy Type 2: Subjective Experiences of Stimulant Use at CODs Library Student Research Symposium and placed first, winning $1,000 to support her project. Through the award money from COD and the grant money from the Honors Council of the Illinois Region, she plans to delve into the experiences of individuals with diagnoses of Narcolepsy Type 2 and Idiopathic Hypersomnia with a focus on medication effectiveness. At this time, there is no Federal Drug Administration-approved treatment for the disorder; however, it is common practice to use stimulant medications. According to the Hypersomnia Foundation, some people, like Santos, do not achieve adequate control of symptoms and doctors continue to test medications approved for other disorders, as well as novel treatments. I hope with the gathered data I can find similarities and find out if others have had success with out-of-the-box treatments, she said. Doctors have been treating me with various medications but none of them have ever been effective for me. If Ive learned anything with all of this, its that treatment protocol needs to be individualized. Doctors dont know much about my disorder and try to lump it in with more well-known sleep disorders, like narcolepsy. They are two completely different disorders and medication needs to target different parts of the brain. After earning a transfer scholarship through COD, Santos will attend North Central College this fall to pursue neuroscience and biology. North Central has a sleep lab that they just built so Im hoping that I can continue my research and also look at other sleep disorders to see if they are interconnected, she said. Id love to work with neuroscience faculty there to look at possible biological underpinnings. Santos credits COD for allowing her to pursue her passion. Coming to COD was the best decision because when you get to North Central, they want you to start neuroscience classes right away, so taking my general education classes at COD was the smartest path for me, she said. Through CODs scholarship, Im able to further my education and I could not be more grateful. After earning her bachelors degree, Santos plans to pursue her graduate degree at the University of Chicago Medical Sciences Training Program to become a scientific researcher or doctor at the hospital that finally gave her the correct diagnosis. University of Chicago is a special place for me because its where I was finally given answers, she said. Im so grateful COD has prepared me for future endeavors, and I hope to enact real change for fellow sufferers. Attachment Jennifer Duda College of DuPage (630) 942-3097 dudajen@cod.edu Nearly 800 additional coronavirus cases not immediately attributed to a testing backlog were reported in Louisiana on Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 48,634 diagnosed cases. Louisiana reported a total of 928 additional cases, but Louisiana Department of Health officials noted that 129 cases are related to test backlogs. Those cases came from tests between April 1 and April 9. Wednesday's count is the largest single-day increase in non-backlogged coronavirus cases since April 10, which was the tail end of the peak in Louisiana. There have only been four days since April 10 when there were more than 700 additional reported cases: April 11: 761 761 May 1: 710 710 May 30: 775 775 June 13: 728 Louisiana began reopening for Phase 1 on May 15 then moved to Phase 2 on June 5. New Orleans started a modified Phase 1 of reopening on May 16. An additional 20 coronavirus patients have died as of Wednesday, and 2,850 coronavirus patients have died across Louisiana. Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up In total, 579 patients remain hospitalized, including 83 patients requiring ventilators. Louisiana on Tuesday reported 588 hospitalized patients, including 77 on ventilators. Wednesday's data reflects a nine patient decrease in hospitalizations and a six patient increase for ventilator use. The number of hospitalized patients rose on Tuesday by 20, which accounts for the largest day-to-day increase since May 25. +2 Coronavirus deaths could pass 200K+ in U.S. by October. What's Louisiana's outlook? Epidemiological models are almost certainly going to be wrong in their bottom-line estimates of the future, but they are useful tools for help The Louisiana Department of Health releases updated data on the coronavirus daily at noon. Here are the number of coronavirus-related deaths and cases in the five Louisiana parishes with the most reported cases of the coronavirus. The numbers in parenthesis are the number of deaths and cases that were reported yesterday. Jefferson Parish: 472, 8,507 (change from 471, 8,468) 472, 8,507 (change from 471, 8,468) Orleans Parish: 523, 7,459 (change from 522, 7,428) 523, 7,459 (change from 522, 7,428) East Baton Rouge Parish: 260, 4,357 (change from 260, 4,301) 260, 4,357 (change from 260, 4,301) Caddo Parish: 217, 2,933 (change from 217, 2,888) 217, 2,933 (change from 217, 2,888) St. Tammany Parish: 170, 1,999 (change from 169, 1,962) Here's the latest data in full: LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CoPilot Provider Support Services, a market leading provider of technologically advanced reimbursement support HUB's and healthcare access solutions, appointed life science industry leader Charles A. Stevens as its Chief Operating Officer. Stevens will be responsible for leading all functional areas of CoPilot's operations, with a specific emphasis for advancing growth and reimbursement solution expansion in the ever changing patient access market. "We are delighted that we have an experienced commercialization executive in Chuck joining our leadership team," said CoPilot CEO & Co-Founder Nuaman Tyeb. "Chuck's decades of bio-pharmaceutical experience in reimbursement HUB services, access strategy development, HEOR and drug pricing make him the right choice to lead CoPilot's next phase of growth." CoPilot President & Co-Founder Moby Kazmi, MD, stated, "Chuck is a skilled commercialization tactician who leverages his experience to develop workable solutions that meet the needs of clients." Stevens, a recognized expert in understanding the complexities of patient access across a number of therapeutic areas, has presented at the FDA/CMS Summit, AMCP, ISPOR, DIA and at the Value-Based Cancer Care Summit. He has also been quoted in the Pink Sheet, Barron's, FDA Week, Pharma Voice and the Financial Times on topics involving reimbursement HUB's, drug pricing, innovative payer contracting and alignment of regulatory and payer strategies. Stevens was the first person to successfully secure a product specific HCPCS code from CMS that coincided with FDA approval. He also served on an industry collaborative that led to the expansion of recognized compendia by CMS for oncology off-label reimbursement. "I am excited to be joining such a dynamic and transformative organization like CoPilot," said Stevens. Having been involved in leading reimbursement HUB operations for over 20 years, I am incredibly impressed and inspired by the skill exhibited by the CoPilot team to support patient access, especially during the added difficulties presented by the COVID pandemic. CoPilot's industry leading technology platform has enabled operations to continue through remote access, without the disruption of service or real-time data transfer being provided to industry clients." Prior to joining CoPilot, Stevens worked at ICON serving as the President of MediMedia-Complete Healthcare Communications (CHC), and leader of its 400-person global commercialization and HEOR practice. He held a similar position at PAREXEL, and served in positions of increasing responsibility at Cephalon Oncology, Cell Therapeutics, Genetics Institute (Wyeth Oncology) and Abbott Laboratories. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Suffolk University Law School, is admitted to appear before the Supreme Court of the United States of America and all courts in Massachusetts. Stevens is a former Captain in the United States Army Reserve and a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. About CoPilot: CoPilot Provider Support Services is a customized supplier of provider and patient focused reimbursement programs (HUB's). CoPilot utilizes a proprietary, industry leading technology platform that ensures that bio-pharmaceutical clients receive accurate real world data, intelligence and program information. Learn more at www.cmcopilot.com. SOURCE CoPilot Provider Support Services, LLC Related Links http://www.cmcopilot.com (Newser) South Korea's unification minister is offering to resign a day after North Korea blew up the joint liaison office on its side of the border and accused its neighbor of acting like a "mongrel dog." Kim Yeon-chul put forth his resignation while claiming responsibility for worsening relations between the two countries, though it remains unclear if President Moon Jae-in will accept his offer, per the BBC and AP. The North said Tuesday's explosion, perhaps "a prelude to the total catastrophe of the North-South relations," was in response to the South "systemically breaching and destroying" 2018 agreements, which saw the end of live-fire exercises and the destruction of guard posts along the border. It then said it would violate those agreements in sending troops into disarmed areas just north of the border, re-erecting guard posts, and resuming military exercises. story continues below The North also said it would resume sending anti-Seoul leaflets across the border. Earlier this month, the North cut all communication with the South while railing against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent into the North by activists. Meanwhile, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said she'd rejected an offer from the South to send special envoys to ease tensions. She also accused Moon of "pro-US flunkeyism," per Reuters. South Korea expressed regret at the North's plans while warning of a "strong response" to military provocation. At NBC News, David Maxwell and Mathew Ha of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies argue that Pyongyang is "using force to ratchet up the fear factor to try to extort concessions." They suggest Seoul and Washington resume joint military exercises and "deploy strategic assets ... to maintain deterrence." (Read more South Korea stories.) Experts see environmental, social fallout in Indonesias infrastructure push by Hans Nicholas Jong June 17,2020 | Source: Mongabay As Indonesia struggles to contain one of the deadliest coronavirus outbreaks in Asia, the countrys president has quietly issued a new regulation on eminent domain. Signed in May, the regulation expands the types of land that can be unilaterally acquired by the state for purposes deemed to be in the public interest. Limited under a 2016 regulation to land held by state-owned companies, areas that may be subject to eminent domain under the new presidential regulation now include forests, villages, and land bequeathed for religious and charitable use. The regulation is just one in a series of steps the government is taking to ramp up dozens of major infrastructure projects billed as key to jump-starting the economy out of the current pandemic-induced slowdown. But for conservationists, environmental activists and indigenous rights defenders, this push comes at the expense of the countrys biodiversity, its climate commitments, and its most vulnerable communities. On the governments docket are 89 projects, most of them newly proposed and the rest expansions of existing projects. They include roads and railways, ports and airports, dams and power plants, industrial estates and plantations. The common hurdle, says President Joko Widodo, is land acquisition. In a May 29 conference call to announce the slate of projects, tagged at a combined $100 billion, Widodo called them a national priority and said they have to continue. Airlangga Hartarto, the coordinating minister for the economy, said it was in light of this urgency that the eminent domain regulation was issued: To speed up projects, because usually the roadblock, based on experience, is land procurement. But the real impact will be to make it easier for the state to take over community lands, including those of indigenous groups, and degazette forests to allow them to be cleared, according to Siti Rakhma Mary Herwati of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI). This article makes it easier to shift villages assets and indigenous peoples customary lands for strategic projects or infrastructure projects, she said. It also speeds up the changing of the function of forest areas for those projects. The regulation is bolstered by another from 2017 that allows projects of national priority to override local governments zoning plans. In practice, that means that projects can proceed in areas that would otherwise be off-limits, including forests and conservation areas. Reynaldo Sembiring, executive director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) said zoning plans should only be revised if theres a change in the landscape, adding that the plans should conform to the environment, not the other way around. That theory is being thrown out of the window, because it all now depends on the national strategic projects, Reynaldo said. Regulations for the sake of national strategic projects have been revised since a few years ago, he added. 2020 Copyright Conservation news Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. The guarantor nations of the Astana talks have agreed to meet virtually, to discuss issues related to Syria and will meet in-person at a later date writes Alsouria Net. Leaders of the guarantor countries for the Astana talks, which include Russia, Turkey and Iran, are set to hold a video conference to discuss Syria, to be followed by a face-to-face meeting. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said his country had obtained Turkish and Russian agreement to hold the video meeting within the Astana track, provided all three leaders showed up. He added that that virtual meeting will be followed by an in-person summit. Presidents of the three countries are to meet in Tehran, Zarif said, without specifying a date, indicating that the gathering will occur once their schedules are arranged. Foreign ministers of the three Astana guarantor countries met in a video summit on Apr. 22, 2020, due to coronavirus measures. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and Iranian counterpart Zarif took part in the meeting. The virtual meeting ended with broad plans. The ministers agreed in a closing statement on, the necessity of continuing consultations and coordination at the highest level between the two countries. They also discussed the ceasefire agreement in Idleb, the latest developments east of the Euphrates and a political solution for Syria that would ensure the return of refugees. Iran has made several moves on the Syrian file ahead of implementation of the so-called Caesar Act. The Iranian foreign minister visited the Turkish capital Ankara on Sunday, meeting with Cavusoglu before heading to Moscow today to sit down with Lavrov. Iran also announced that it would hold a tripartite summit with Russia and Turkey soon, without specifying the agenda that will be discussed, whether regarding the Syrian file and other topics. The upcoming summit was announced on Monday by Iranian Foreign Minister spokesperson Abbas Mousavi, who said that the meeting would be soon. Irans moves come just hours before the Caesar Act comes into effect. The bill includes measures imposing sanctions on all those who provide any economic support to the Syrian regime, especially regarding reconstruction. The US sanctions are expected to extend to Iranian and Russian individuals and entities, increasing pressure on Assad to accept a political solution. 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. Imphal, June 17 : The BJP-led coalition government in Manipur headed by Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Wednesday night fell in serious political trouble after three ruling party MLAs resigned and six other legislators withdrew support from the government. After the latest political development, the strength of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance government has been reduced to a minority in the 60-member Assembly, effective strength of which is 59 after Shyamkumar Singh of Andro Assembly constituency, who had defected to the BJP from Congress, was disqualified. Led by Deputy Chief Minister Y. Joykumar, the four MLAs (including three ministers) belonging to the National People's Party (NPP), the lone Trinamool Congress member and an independent MLA from Jiribam withdrew their support from the BJP-led government, which has been facing political trouble since January this year. With three BJP MLAs joining Congress, the latter now has 24 members in the Assembly even though former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh claimed the effective strength of the party was now 27. Manipur's Assembly elections in 2017 had yielded a hung verdict, with the Congress emerging as the single largest party with 28 MLAs in the house of 60. The BJP had 21 MLAs. The Manipur High Court on June 8 ordered restraining seven Congress MLAs, who in 2017 joined the BJP, from entering the state Assembly till the Speaker's tribunal heard their disqualification case. The seven Congress MLAs had joined the BJP as it was short of 10 MLAs to form the government in the 60-member house after the 2017 Assembly polls. However, the BJP formed the government with the support of rebel Congress MLAs, apart from the National People's Party (NPP), headed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, and the Naga People's Front. Former Vice President Joe Biden is leading President Trump in all six 2020 battleground states tracked by a CNBC/Change Research poll out Wednesday. Why it matters: It's the first time Biden has led across all six states in this poll, reflecting his growing momentum both nationwide and in critical swing states needed to win the election. Biden's lead has widened in recent polls amid the coronavirus pandemic and widespread protests against police brutality and systemic racism. The battleground advantage comes a week after a Gallup poll showed Trump's net approval rating dropped 19 points in a month. By the numbers: Arizona: Biden 45%, Trump 44% Biden 45%, Trump 44% Florida: Biden 50%, Trump 43% Biden 50%, Trump 43% Michigan: Biden 47%, Trump 45% Biden 47%, Trump 45% North Carolina: Biden 47%, Trump 45% Biden 47%, Trump 45% Pennsylvania: Biden 49%, Trump 46% Biden 49%, Trump 46% Wisconsin: Biden 48%, Trump 44% Worth noting: The poll also found that 45% of likely voters in the six states approved of Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis, while 55% disapproved. 44% approve of Trump's handling of police violence and discrimination, while 56% disapprove. 52% of respondents said Trump's response to the police killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests was harmful, compared to 23% who said it was helpful. Methodology: The CNBC/Change Research poll surveyed 2,408 likely voters across the six states June 12-14. It has a margin of error of 2 percentage points. Go deeper. The Galapagos National Park on Monday freed 15 giant tortoises, ending its captivity breeding program which saved the species from extinction by breeding more than 2,000 tortoises since the 1960s. Park authorities dubbed the breeding effort as one of the most successful in the world, bringing back balance to the tortoises' native island. Diego, a century-old giant tortoise that bred more than 800 of progeny, was among the 15 to be released. Held by San Diego Zoo before the Galapagos National Park conservation program, Diego was returned to the island from where he was taken more than 80 years ago. Tortoises were quarantined and marked before their release on Espanola Island, which now hosts the Cheloinidis hoodensis species of the tortoise. The Galapagos, whose variety of endemic species helped inspire Charles Darwin, held 15 closely related species of giant tortoise according to the Galapagos Conservancy, which estimates that 20,00025,000 wild tortoises live on the islands today. At least four of the species are now considered extinct. The over five-week standoff between India and China in Eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley has brought into question China's renewed interest in taking back control of the area. The late Monday night violent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers is the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has further heightened tensions along the already volatile situation in the region. At least 20 Indian troops have been martyred in a scuffle that took place in Galwan valley. Senior military officials from both sides are holding meetings to defuse tensions between the two countries. The incident comes days after Indian Army Chief General MM Naravane said that both sides had begun disengaging from the Valley. Also Read: India-China Tension Live Updates: PM Modi pays tribute to martyrs, says their death will not go in vain The recent confrontation between India and China in the region is the first since 1962. Although the LAC (line of actual control) is clearly defined, this is the first time that tensions have heightened in Eastern Ladakh, which otherwise is usually a non-skirmish area. In 1962, China launched an attack on India across its Eastern and Northern borders. Amongst several factors, one of the main reasons that triggered the war between the two sides was the construction of a road between Xinjiang and Tibet. This highway today is known as G219 with around 179 km of this road passing through Aksai Chin, which is an Indian territory and also claimed by China. Galwan river valley is considered a point of great strategic importance for both countries. It is named after Ghulam Rasool Galwan, an explorer from Leh. He had first discovered a path leading to the Galwan river while leading a British expedition along the north of Chang Chenmo valley. The river is the highest ridgeline allowing China to control the Shyok route passes, which are close to the river. The country wants to control the area as it fears that India could end up threatening its position in Aksai Chin by using Galwan river valley to its advantage. India is trying to build a feeder road here emerging from Darbuk-Shyok village-Daulat Beg Oldi road. This road runs along the Shyok River and is crucial for communication close to LAC. It comes up at Patrol Point 14 (PP14) and is a crucial connect between Leh and Daulat Bed Oldie. This has irked the Chinese. India has also set up army posts with its flag on top to make it known to the Chinese side that it owns the area. Also read: India-China border clashes: How many Chinese soldiers died? Here's what we know Galwan Valley's ridgeline gives India a strategic boost over the road. The valley is also an important connecting link with the disputed Aksai Chin region (which houses the crucial Xinjiang-Tibet highway pass) through the river valley. China had constructed a road halfway through the Galwan Valley by 2016 and since then, the country has managed to expand it closer to the LAC in the sector. India and China have been locked in a stand-off situation since May 5 in the area with the Chinese troops reportedly crossing the LAC from their bases in the Galwan River sector. The face-off took place at Patrol Point 14 (PP14) as the area is not only on the Indian side but is also near the LAC. According to media reports, India has decided to stick to its infrastructure building exercise in the entire Ladakh region comprising the Galwan River area. [June 17, 2020] Komainu Emerges to Address Financial and Security Challenges for Digital Asset Institutional Investors JERSEY CHANNEL ISLANDS, United Kingdom, June 17, 2020 /CNW/ -- Global investment bank Nomura, digital asset security company Ledger, and pioneer digital asset investment house CoinShares, share further details of Komainu , a digital asset custody business for institutional investors. Komainu is the first hybrid institutional-grade custodian for institutional investors designed by finance and security leaders with the belief that decentralised finance needs to be institutionalised, regulatory compliant and secure for institutions looking to incorporate digital assets into their investment strategies. Komainu is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission as a custodian and depositary and provides custody for a range of digital assets on an institutionally compliant platform powered by a Ledger bespoke environment. Through the partnership, Komainu draws on expertise from banking, fund management and cyber-security and provides an optimised application-based solution allowing multi-asset support benefits, regulatory compliance and insurance, while giving peace of mind to digital asset owners with built-in security protocols. The hybrid custody solution has the capability to integrate with legacy financial systems and works to seamlessly overlay services to complement native processes. Komainu only supports clients and tokens that satisfy AML and provenance requirements. Komainu will be led by a team of experts handpicked by leadership from Nomura, Ledger and CoinShares. Jean-Marie Mognetti, Co-Founder and CEO of CoinShares, will also take the helm of Komainu. Kenton Farmer will serve as Head of Operations, bringing experience from financial service institutions such as Credit Suisse and Hermes Fund Managers. Andrew Morfill joins Komainu as Chief Information Security Officer after his position of Global Head of Cyber Defense at Santander Group, and his experience building the Cyber Intelligence division at Vodafone Group. Susan Patterson, Head of Regulatory Affairs, is a former regulator and has worked for industry leaders including Credit Suisse, Brevan Howard and UBS. Jean-Marie Mognetti, CEO and Co-founder of CoinShares, and CEO of Komainu, said: "The growth and maturity of the digital asset industry highlights the true potential for decentralised finance. What this partnership has highlighted is the need for credible and solid service providers to support industry participants. Komainu bridges the gap by bringing financial expertise and capabilities for institutional clients to feel confident their assets are in safe hands." Jezri Mohideen, Global Chief Digital Officer, Wholesale at Nomura, said: "Through the joint venture between Nomura, Ledger and CoinShars we have successfully bridged the gap between legacy finance and emerging technology, establishing Komainu as a regulated and secure digital asset custody solution tailored to the needs of institutional clients. Komainu will act as a foundational pillar to Nomura's digital asset strategy, enabling the firm to further progress with its initiatives across the full digital asset value chain, thereby setting out to become one of the leaders in the institutional digital asset industry." Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, said: "Institutions are looking for compliance and security when it comes to the custody of digital assets. With cryptocurrencies more prone to vulnerabilities, institutions' digital assets are weaponised against them without the proper security infrastructure in place. Through our combined experience, we have developed a sophisticated financial and security solution that will be the key institutional partner." Daniel Masters, Chairman of CoinShares said: "The case for digital assets as part of an investment portfolio, both as a source of diversification and as a countermeasure to rampant money supply expansion, is becoming clearer to institutions. The foundation for such institutional participation must be robust asset custody. Komainu combines best-in-class fiduciary and engineering expertise to deliver the required functionality and peace of mind." About Komainu Komainu is the first hybrid custodian offering safe-keeping for institutional client's digital assets. Created by the Japanese investment bank, Nomura, digital asset investment house, CoinShares and digital asset security company, Ledger, Komainu is solving the problem of decentralised and secure digital asset custody by providing a single application-based solution to institutions, allowing multi-asset support benefits, regulatory compliance and insurance. Headquartered in Jersey, Komainu merges best in class financial services with the highest security standards for the next generation of institutional custody. For more information, please visit: https://www.komainu.com/ About Nomura Nomura is an Asia-headquartered financial services group with an integrated global network spanning over 30 countries. By connecting markets East & West, Nomura services the needs of individuals, institutions, corporates and governments through its four business divisions: Retail, Asset Management, Wholesale (Global Markets and Investment Banking), and Merchant Banking. Founded in 1925, the firm is built on a tradition of disciplined entrepreneurship, serving clients with creative solutions and considered thought leadership. For further information about Nomura, visit: www.nomura.com About Ledger Ledger is the global leader in security and infrastructure solutions for safeguarding critical digital assets from cryptocurrencies and DApps to CBDCs and STOs. With a team of over 200 professionals around the world, Ledger offers a variety of products and services that protect critical digital assets for individuals, companies and connected devices. For more information, please visit: https://www.ledger.com/ About CoinShares CoinShares is expanding access to the digital asset ecosystem while serving as a trusted partner for clients. CoinShares believes that Bitcoin and blockchain networks are landmark innovations that will fundamentally reshape the global financial system, and that investors should be able to participate in this transformation. CoinShares achieves this mission by providing institutional-grade investments products and services for digital asset investors. The CoinShares Group is a pioneer in digital asset investing, delivering its services to a global investor base, with offices in Jersey, Stockholm, London, and New York. For more information, please visit: https://coinshares.com/ CONTACT: DITTO PUBLIC AFFAIRS, [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/komainu-emerges-to-address-financial-and-security-challenges-for-digital-asset-institutional-investors-301078260.html SOURCE Komainu [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has awarded a $4.4 million grant to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) for a truck automation corridor project along Interstate 70 between Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis. The award, one of 10 issued by FHWA under its Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) program, will combine with $4.5 million in state matching funds. The goal of the project is to allow freight companies and truck automation vendors to deploy automated vehicle (AV) technology in daily revenue service along the corridor. "Ohio's I-70 Truck Automation Corridor project represents a model for other states in promoting technologies that will make freight transport and America's economy more efficient," commented FHWA Administrator Nicole Nason on Tuesday. "As self-driving technology matures, it is important that everyone has a seat at the table," said Patrick Smith, interim executive director at DriveOhio, a state government group that is coordinating the project. "With the coalition of public, private, and research institutions that we have built, we're confident this project will provide valuable insights to [the U.S. Department of Transportation] and the industry as we develop smart logistics policies, procedures and technology standards that will be shared across the nation." As a partner with the project, the Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC), an independent proving ground for AV technology, will offer professional driver training for host fleets and perform an automation audit of I-70, according to DriveOhio. "During public road testing, a professional driver will be at the wheel always should human intervention be needed. The project data gathered will be shared with USDOT to inform the development of policies and procedures to scale across the United States," DriveOhio stated. DriveOhio has encouraged self-driving truck company Plus.ai, which has previously conducted testing in Ohio, to expand testing in the state. Story continues The largest grant recipient in the current funding round was Florida, which received $10 million for its Regional Advanced Mobility Elements (FRAME) project on Interstate 4. The I-4 FRAME project will deploy "next-generation" traffic incident management and vehicle-to-infrastructure technologies, allowing travelers to receive traffic, weather, intersection signal timing, and other mobility-related messages in real-time, according to FHWA. The Tennessee Department of Transportation received a $2.6 million grant for an artificial intelligence-powered Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) system, part of the multiphase, 28-mile-long I-24 Smart Corridor project along that interstate and connecting highways and state routes. "It will help address the challenges to creating a successful and comprehensive ICM system that includes, for example, increased congestion, high incident rates and limited real-time performance monitoring," according to FHWA. Click for more FreightWaves articles by John Gallagher. See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. We agreed to hold an interview on the occasion of 100 days in office with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in advance, so, of course, I began to prepare for it ahead of time. However, it turned out that questions to the minister become outdated almost the same day they appear as the situation is changing in the twinkling of an eye, assuming that I see only the visible part of an "iceberg." Actually, it is with this point that we started our conversation which, using diplomatic cliches, touched on a "wide range of pressing issues", inter alia, the recent and future staff appointments in the Foreign Ministry, sensitive issues in the situation in Donbas and Crimea, relations with Georgia, prospects for reaching understanding with Iran in the case of downing of Ukrainian plane, and whether the Foreign Ministry will save Ukrainians if they get stuck abroad amid summer vacations. TWO TYPES OF MESSAGES GIVE RISE TO PRESIDENT'S COMMENDATION - Mr. Minister, President Zelensky said in a recent interview that he is in the ocean of information. And how would you characterize your information flow - ocean, sea, Niagara Falls? - The Deluge! Now every person who follows the news at least a little, scrolls through social media, and communicates with other people is in the Deluge. In addition, a huge amount of professional information comes down on me. In order not to drown in it, I organize the processes in the Ministry in such a way that only the most important information or its extract reaches me. - Did the President commend you for anything during your first 100 days at the post? - Perhaps, it would sound immodest, but yes, he commended me. For humanitarian assistance from a number of countries, for the release of citizens whom we returned from Nigeria, Malaysia, for the investment projects. The best news for him is when we pull our compatriots out of some kind of difficult situation abroad and when we attract investments to Ukraine or help Ukrainian business in foreign markets. Any messages on these two topics always give rise to Presidents commendation. - How do you get this commendation? Does the President call you or write to you? - It happens in very different formats. - Have the difficult situations, when you did not know what to do and needed advice, happened over this time? If so, whom did you contact? - When you become a minister, the circle of people whom you can consult with narrows to the greatest possible extent as everyone expects decisions from you. When dealing with sensitive matters, I several times have sought advice from the President and spoken to veterans of Ukrainian diplomacy, who have vast experience and whose opinion I respect. - Your predecessors at the post were not among them, were they? - I discussed one issue with Pavlo Klimkin. - Due to [coronavirus] quarantine, your international contacts were mostly virtual. However, you had negotiations, both virtual and in-person, with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Heiko Maas. Is there any fundamental difference between online and offline talks? - When you communicate offline, you can use a short time, when you are face to face, without aides, to make small talk. It does not have to be some kind of diplomatic secrets, it can be ordinary human things that just help to establish personal contact and evoke mutual empathy. This is the only difference. RENEWAL OF FOREIGN MINISTRY'S SENIOR STAFF NOT COMPLETED YET - At the very beginning of your work in the Ministry, you told the staff that you wanted to change the diplomats approach towards work, to awaken their initiative. Have you managed to do that? - Yes, I have. I am very pleased with the results of the changes that began in March and for which I simply set the pace and key ideas but which have been fully implemented by my colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I am very grateful to them for this! And the speed with which we are able to move forward confirms that these things were long overdue, we just needed an impetus and the correct formulation of ideas to launch them. Therefore, on Monday, June 15, I will give a presentation at which I will talk not about the plans for the Foreign Ministrys reform, but about the changes we have already introduced. - Has the renewal of the Foreign Ministrys senior staff completed already? - No, it hasnt. At the moment, on my initiative, Emine Dzheppar and Yevhen Yenin became deputy ministers. Two more candidates for deputy minister posts are awaiting approval by the President of Ukraine, and there will also be a new state secretary of the Foreign Ministry. - Yesterday [the conversation was recorded on June 12], there was a report that the State Bureau of Investigation had served your deputy, Yehor Bozhok, with charges. How do you assess this situation and how was it perceived in the Ministry? - The episode over which Yehor Bozhok was served with charges does not concern his work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - this is an important point. The Foreign Ministry staff knows Yehor as an experienced diplomat. In addition, we live in a country where the presumption of innocence exists, according to the principle of the rule of law. That is, a person is not guilty until the guilt is proved. - Recently, the appointments of ambassadors have started to be announced though earlier it was uncustomary to talk about that before the appointment became a fait accompli. In particular, it was reported that Vadym Prystaiko had expressed his desire to become the Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK, and Head of the Presidents Office Andriy Yermak announced during a trip to Khmelnytskyi region that a new ambassador to France would be appointed in a week. Are these exceptions, a system outage, or a new practice? - In fact, long before Vadym Prystaikos dismissal from the post of Vice Prime Minister, I submitted the recommendation for his appointment as the ambassador to the UK to the President. Therefore, we simply explained the society that a person does not go, that he prepares for secondment as he is an experienced career diplomat. Therefore, in this case, the announcement was due solely to the need to explain the society what happens. As for the change of the ambassador to France, as far as I remember, Andriy Yermak was asked such a question earlier at a meeting with business and he replied that this was expected. I dont think that we should definitely adhere to all the secrecy conventional before. Diplomacy should become more open. If a political decision is made, and we know that this will happen, then why not to inform society about it? ECONOMIZATION OF DIPLOMACY IS ONE OF DISCREDITED TERMS, BUT WE WILL CHANGE THIS - You constantly emphasize the importance of economic diplomacy. How exactly do you formulate the task for the ambassadors in this area? A while back, there were rumors about setting plans for ambassadors. Are there any plans to introduce some kind of economic KPI for diplomats? Although ambassadors work under different conditions, sometimes the situation in the host country is such that little depends on diplomats. - Over the thirty years of independence, a lot of words in the Ukrainian political vocabulary have been discredited. The "economization of diplomacy" is one of discredited diplomatic term. We have been doing this for 30 years, but the result is the same! I believe that KPI for ambassadors is a minor matter precisely for the reasons that you have mentioned. There may be a general KPI growth in trade between the countries but it is unrealistic to assess to what extent this growth is the embassys achievement. In fact, a key thing is completely different. A diplomat and a businessperson should speak the same language. For example, when a businessperson addresses a diplomat and says that it is necessary to obtain, theoretically speaking, the E130 certificate in this country so that Ukrainian products will be able to enter the market in this country, a diplomat should be quick to understand everything. So when an investment businessperson comes in X country and says that he or she wants to invest in Ukraine, the diplomat should already know who should be addressed in Kyiv, with whom this issue should be discussed and the diplomat should be sure that this conversation wont be futile. That is, the primary question is to arrange processes so that Ukrainian companies see that their problems with accessing foreign markets are solved, so that a foreign investor is satisfied with how the state treats the investments from the very first contacts with Ukraine abroad, in the person of a Ukrainian diplomat. - And what gives you a reason to think that this idea wont be discredited again and will not turn into yet another campaigning? After all, the same things were probably said before, werent they? - Precisely these things were not used to be said before. But we live in a world where anything can be discredited! I just know what to do, I trust people with whom I do this, and we will do everything possible in order to succeed. I sincerely believe that we will leave our successors a strong, effective system which they will make even better. - An agreement on selling the Motor Sich shares to Chinese companies, which is sensitive to Ukraines relations with the US and China, is still pending. Do our partners have questions regarding this, including in the context of the investment climate in Ukraine? - Motor Sich is not a factor of the overall investment climate because the situation around it is so narrow and specific that everyone understands that no general conclusions can be drawn from it. Motor Sich was at the center of a big diplomatic game. For Ukraine, there is only one interest - the strategic development of the Ukrainian enterprise and Ukrainian technologies in Ukraine. The decision is considered by the Antimonopoly Committee, but there are different parallel processes. For example, I know that a draft law on investments in strategic areas is being elaborated. And here we talk about investments in the military-industrial complex. But the interest of Ukraine is exactly the one that I mentioned. MINSK FORMAT HAS NOT DIED YET, BUT UKRAINE HAS PUT IT ON LUNG VENTILATOR - In the matter of conflict in Donbas, the previous president and authorities placed their stake on stepping up international pressure on Russia to force it to leave these territories. What does the new team stake on? - We are focused on three things. The first thing is offensive diplomacy. This means that we do not wait for Russia to propose something or try to impose something. Instead, we offer, initiate, create situations that Russia is forced to respond to, not vice versa. We suggested holding the Trilateral Contact Group meetings even amidst the pandemic in the videoconference mode, not to allow using the pandemic to slow down the process. By the way, Russia tried to do this by blocking the access of the OSCE SMM to the territory of the occupied Donbas, but they failed to impede the negotiation process in the TCG. We upgraded the status of the Ukrainian delegation and introduced new members, expecting reciprocity from the Russian Federation and thus making them also demonstrate interest in dialogue and finding solutions. We included representatives of certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions from among internally displaced persons, setting, in fact, a new standard of work. The second element is the increased international pressure. Since the beginning of my cadence in March, I and my German and French counterparts have restored the Normandy format dialogue at the ministerial level. Before that, it had not been held for two years. In addition, a large delegation visited Berlin, where we talked with the ministers of defense and foreign affairs of Germany and the foreign policy adviser to the German Chancellor. Today, the Ukrainian delegation is in Paris. -Why didnt you fly to Paris? - I did not fly only because Frances Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian is not in Paris today. If my schedule coincided with the schedule of my French counterpart, then it would make sense to fly. By the way, some people see yet another betrayal in this fact. But lately I have leaned toward the idea that I need to stop worrying about alleged betrayals as I worried much about that before and wrote a whole book to help people cherish common sense. But it seems that not everyone wants this as it is much more fun to believe in conspiracy theories. But lets get back to the previous question. The third element is a surge in promotion of Crimean issue in the international arena. We work very seriously now to bring the Crimea out of the shadows, because we must not forget about it! - In your opinion, will such an intensification of our position on Donbas yield any practical results? After all, there are no retaliatory steps of the Kremlin, there is only hysteria. How does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs generally assess the real goals of Russia in Donbas? - If we listen to official statements about the goals of Russia, they imply the facilitation of return of certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions to Ukraine, but, in fact, on Russias conditions. Our goal is also to return these territories to Ukraine, but in no case on the conditions of Russia. Actually, all the maneuvers take place around this issue. There are three main methods for achieving a goal in diplomacy. The first one is to do something actively, impose your agenda, your ideas and make your partner respond. The second method is to do nothing. Then issues, as a rule, die by themselves or you are driven by a partner who does something. And the third method is to imitate that you are doing something, when actually you do nothing. I do not want to delve into the past, but now our principled position is to use the first method: active offensive diplomacy, ideas, initiatives, proposals. In our opinion, it is the only way to create a situation where Russia will eventually be forced to take a constructive approach. Russia also does not act in isolation, and its arguments that Ukraine is unconstructive, does not want settlement, and violates Minsk they just look absurd not by themselves but against the background of how we act. All our partners see this and acknowledge that we are really proactive, constructive, we want to seek a solution, so the argument about, conditionally speaking, bad Ukraine is knocked from Russias hands. - So it turns out that the Minsk format has not died yet? - I would say that the Minsk format has not died yet, but Ukraine has put it on a German-French lung ventilator. Sorry for my dark humour. RUSSIAN PASSPORTS IN DONBAS IS A WORTHLESS PIECE OF PAPER - When you announced the holding of a Normandy format ministerial meeting in Berlin in the near future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did not respond to this at all. So will it take place or not? - We are looking for a date and I am convinced that we will find it. I am open to communication with Sergey Lavrov. I am ready to cooperate with him in any format if it will help solve our problems and will contribute to de-occupation of Ukrainian territory, and the release of Ukrainian prisoners. - Meanwhile, Russia continues its passportization campaign in the occupied Donbas and declares that it can issue 600-800 thousand Russian passports to Ukrainians in Donbas by the end of the year. How do you find a solution to the issue of Russian passports in Donbas after even hypothetical local elections? - Russian passports in the occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are a worthless piece of paper. By issuing these passports, Russia grossly violates international law. Therefore, they mean little to us. At the same time, I urge you to be very careful when making judgments about people who obtain a Russian passport in the occupied territory. Someone receives it for ideological reasons, because they are ready to support Russia till the final victory. Someone gets it for reasons of convenience - to leave, cross the border, receive some payments. Such a person, by the way, may not have problems with Ukraine and want its return. Others obtain a passport for security reasons - what if you dont have a Russian passport, and tomorrow you will be blacklisted. Therefore, let's not tar all with the same brush and not say that they are all the same there. The key thing is that from a legal point of view, these documents are absolutely useless pieces of paper, and the practice of their issuance must be stopped. Therefore, we work with the international community, with our partners, so that they do not recognize these passports and that we put pressure on Russia together to stop this practice. - What do you think of local elections? Will they be held in the occupied Donbas in the autumn? - It will depend on how the Minsk process develops. But there will be no elections at gunpoint! - If we assume that Russia withdraws its troops from the occupied Donbas 60 days before the election day, will this make sense given the six years of Russian occupation? After all, we will not have time to prepare public opinion, to explain our position to people. - Take a look at the media space in Ukraine - can you prepare public opinion for something here? These are our citizens, this is our land, and we are the only legitimate power there. Therefore, these territories will be back under our control, we will restore there the entire vertical of power, which includes not only the right to vote, but also the right to be elected. Of course, all war criminals will not be able to realize themselves in a new reality. But if we thing only about constantly postponing it, then we will not come anywhere. After all, the information warfare is an infinitely long process, and we will fight for people's thoughts for a very long time. That is, the struggle for people's thoughts takes much longer than for the territory. - You stated in Berlin that Ukraine is ready for a wide range of compromises regarding Donbas, except for the right of the ORDLO veto on the geopolitical vector of Ukraines movement. - I spoke about the right of veto on any nationwide decisions. We have a wonderful decentralization reform - very European, very deep, which gives the community broad powers and brings power to the regions. As part of this decentralization reform, this is already much more than Donetsk and Luhansk had before 2014. In addition, there is the law On the peculiarities of local self-government ..., according to which some additional elements may be introduced, taking into account the specifics of the region in which the war has been going on for such a long time. But I can guarantee one hundred percent that even without a special status, citizens of these territories as part of Ukraine will have rights and resources a thousand times more than they have under the occupation of the Russian Federation. - Concluding the topic of Russia, I want to touch on the occupied Crimea. Former Prosecutor General of Crimea Natalia Poklonskaya in early June sent a letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, in which she accused Ukraine of creating a humanitarian and environmental disaster in Russia-occupied Crimea. Could this appeal have any international consequences for Ukraine? - No, it couldnt. - But international organizations are very sensitive to humanitarian issues! - International organizations have very good specialists in international law. They all know cold that the occupying country, and no one else, is fully responsible for the situation in the occupied territory. Therefore, Ms. Poklonskaya is engaged in her PR, and this is her right, but these appeals do not have real international significance. GEORGIA FOR US IS A VERY IMPORTANT COUNTRY AND A CLOSE FRIEND - Considering the recent events when the Georgian government decided to recall its ambassador and invite the Ukrainian ambassador to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, it seems that we are losing an old friend. You also said that we will survive the deterioration in our relationship... - I said that we will survive any crisis in our relationship. - And who created it? - Some crises are created because each country has its own specifics. I assure you that nothing can destroy the Ukrainian-Georgian relations. Political tension will ease off, and all will be forgotten, and we will continue to develop our relationship. - Saying that no one can destroy the Ukrainian-Georgian relations, maybe you underestimate Mikheil Saakashvili. - Or maybe you overestimate Saakashvili. - But the Georgian side reacts strongly to the fact that a citizen of Ukraine, Mikheil Saakashvili, comments on the internal affairs of Georgia. - Citizen of Ukraine Mikheil Saakashvili is not even a civil servant. Commenting on the affairs of Georgia, he does not represent the position of the Ukrainian state. - When can we expect the return of the Georgian ambassador to Kyiv? - The return of the ambassador depends on the Georgian side, and we will respect any decision in this context, because Georgia is a very important country and our close friend. - According to recent surveys, support for Ukraine's accession to EU fell to 46% compared to 64% last December, while joining NATO fell to almost 42% against 51%. At the same time, anti-Western and, in particular anti-American, rhetoric is growing, which the government does not actually respond to. What do our partners think against the backdrop of our European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations? - Im worried about the spread of anti-Western rhetoric in the Ukrainian media space - this does not meet the interests of the Ukrainian people at all. There is no anti-Western rhetoric in the executive vertical of power or in the vertical responsible for foreign policy. We are absolutely convinced that Ukraine should continue to move towards membership in the European Union and NATO, and I do not see any hints of any U-turns or a change in attitude towards this course. Now, during our conversation, NATO is deciding on an Enhanced Opportunity Partnership status for Ukraine. Just now they are voting on the silence procedure [looks at the clock]. If no member of the Alliance interrupts the procedure within 14 minutes, we will receive this status. This will be an important step towards improving interoperability of Ukraine and NATO, for which many people have been working for years. Over the years, we have been told from different sides that this will not happen. But now we are a step away from being on the list of the six closest partners of the Alliance in the world. I am sure that we are already on the list de facto, and in a few minutes the Alliance will fix this with its decision. LOTS OF INTRIGUE AROUND BLACK BOXES FROM A DOWNED UIA PLANE - Iran has recently announced its readiness to take part in negotiations in Ukraine on the case of a UIA aircraft shooting down anytime soon. Is the date for these negotiations already determined? - I respect Iran as a difficult negotiator. The case of the downed plane is very sensitive, since it concerns the feelings of the victims families. Therefore, we try to act correctly and urge our Iranian partners to do the same. For Ukraine, there are three crucial points in this matter. The first one is the establishment of an objective reason for what happened on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of all the information, and for this we need black boxes. Without their decryption, the establishment of a full-fledged picture will not be fully legitimate. The second point is compensation provided to the families of all the victims and the airline. This is a whole block of questions. And the third one is to bring the perpetrators of the tragedy to justice. These are the three goals that we pursue and which we are talking about with Iran. As for when and who will come to whom ... Back in March, when I became a minister, Iran announced its readiness to meet soon. But still all the same. We hope that the time between Irans statements of readiness to meet and the implementation of this readiness will be reduced as much as possible. As for the "black boxes", there is a lot of intrigue around them. But I am convinced that ultimately everything will happen within the framework of international procedures and in full compliance with all the rules. The complete legitimacy of this process is crucial to us. Decoding of black boxes requires special equipment, which Ukraine does not have yet. A few months ago, Ukraine reached an agreement with France regarding the decryption of flight recorders there. At meetings of the ICAO Council, Irans representatives speak about their readiness to hand over the black boxes to France. We hope that these are not hollow words. However, on the way to France, we should see them in Ukraine. - Finally, let's talk about summer the borders are opening, air service with different countries is gradually resuming. At the same time, you recommended that Ukrainians refrain from traveling abroad this summer. In turn, the German foreign minister warned that Germany will not evacuate its citizens in case of contracting coronavirus during vacation abroad. What will the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine do in such situation? - The task of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consists of two things to promote the freedom of movement of citizens and protect their rights abroad. Therefore, the Foreign Ministry will not stand in the way of Ukrainian citizens willing to travel somewhere. However, all that is in my power is to remind them that any journey now may put them in danger. So, travel if you want, but always remember that the world is dangerous! Nadiia Yurchenko, Kyiv. Photo credit: Hennadiy Minchenko Households are being urged to lock into cheap energy deals before prices rebound as the UK exits lockdown. Prices are at a two-year low and customers could save more than 350 by switching to the cheapest deal on the market, according to Uswitch.com. Experts say costs are likely to have bottomed out and households should switch now before prices recover. Energy prices are at a two-year low and customers could save more than 350 by switching to the cheapest deal on the market, according to Uswitch.com A rise in household energy use during lockdown caused the average bill to rise by 32 during April, according to comparethemarket.com. But wholesale prices collapsed amid the pandemic, meaning families could mitigate costs by taking advantage of cheap tariffs. Six months ago there were no deals at 800 or below, but now there are eight. Peter Earl, head of energy at comparethemarket.com, says: 'Is now a good time to switch? Absolutely. 'No one can really predict the pace at which we are going to come out of lockdown, but we don't think costs will go much lower. Inevitably, prices will start to creep up.' But he adds that Google search data indicates that fewer people were seeking to switch during lockdown, possibly because of the fine weather or concerns over the process. Energy UK is yet to release official figures for April, when the price cap was lowered by 17 to 1,162. 'This is still 380 more expensive than the best buy on the market with Tonik, at 782', according to energyhelpline. 'The best buy available from a Big Six supplier is 825 with EDF Energy, a potential saving of 327.' Mr Earl believes the cap will be lowered again in October, but is unlikely to keep pace with the fall in market prices. m.dilworth@dailymail.co.uk Castleisland Community College Transition Year student, Micheal OShea, from Ballymacelligott, has reached the national final of the Young Social Innovators Open Call with his Climate Change Board Game. Castleisland Community College Transition Year student Micheal O'Shea has reached the national final of the Young Social Innovators Open Call. The competition is looking for young people's ideas about how to tackle the problems as a result of the Coronavirus. The 'Open Call for Teenagers' gives them a platform for their voices to be heard, to find ways to tackle some of the problems that we, as a community, are now facing. With restrictions in place and everyone following a slower pace of life, we have begun to take heed of nature and to respect the beautiful natural world that we live in. "We all can hear the birds singing, we have noticed the flowers, butterflies etcetera; foxes have been seen on Grafton Street; the city of Venice is enjoying crystal clear waters with fish swimming in the canals; clear blue skies can been seen over the Taj Mahal in India due to a decline in air traffic," said community college teacher Doreen Killington. "Micheal designed an educational climate-change board game. His passion for climate change began in school. Castleisland Community College has a very strong ethos of respecting the environment, as evidenced by the many awards already won by the school. "Students from first year are taught by their peers about protecting and preserving the environment for future generations. "He noticed that the topic of climate change made his peers anxious due to feeling that they could not prevent or do anything about it. "The aim of the board game is to educate people on the small changes they can make to help combat climate change. This, in turn, will protect our environment and our future. "He hopes to encourage a change of mindset in players. They learn how to adapt their daily routine to reduce their carbon footprint and benefit the environment. "The school will be using the board game as a way of teaching students in Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) classes about taking action on climate change." The ideas, including Micheal's, with the most potential to impact are now in the final. Micheal, from Ballymacelligott, is now being given an opportunity to pitch to a digital panel of leaders from across government, NGOs and business, which will be hosted by Virgin Media. Colette Fitzpatrick the news anchor with Virgin Media News is one of the judges. "Fair play dhuit Micheal agus go n-eiri leat," arsa muinteoir Doreen. The "thing" from the ice has given up any of its secrets: researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have identified a 2011 in the Antarctic, found Fossil as an Egg, which probably comes from a giant sea reptile. The approximately 66-million-year-old Fund had the largest soft-shelled Egg that was ever found and the second largest overall, the researchers said in a Wednesday in the journal "Nature" published an article. Chilean researchers the 28 x 18 cm, shriveled Fossil of 2011, had discovered in the Antarctic. Since then, it was stored in a Museum in Chile. The helpless scientists have dubbed the mysterious Fund is simply "the thing". for Years, was puzzled, what could it have with "the thing" to yourself. Until 2018, the US paleontologist Julia Clarke, Co-author of the article came to the idea that it could be an Egg. Due to the size and there's no skeleton Inside it was, was not this Thesis is not necessarily obvious. Chemical analyses confirmed the acceptance but now. The researchers suggest that it comes from a type of reptile that has measured at least six feet probably from a Mosasaur. This is corroborated theory of finds in the vicinity of the ice: There, researchers discovered Mosasauriern the skeletons of Baby. Updated Date: 17 June 2020, 16:19 The Madeleine McCann suspect has denied involvement in her disappearance in his first public comment on the case. The statement came as it emerged he could walk free from prison in a month if the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overturns his conviction for raping an American pensioner. Christian Bruckner emerged as a prime suspect two weeks ago after German prosecutors said they had launched a murder investigation and could place him in Praia de Luz, Portugal, on the day Madeleine disappeared. Lawyers defending Bruckner yesterday said their client "denies any involvement" in the case. Read More Bruckner's first comment came as Madeleine's parents denied they had received a letter from German prosecutors stating their daughter was dead. Bruckner, who is in prison for a separate drugs offence and is eligible for parole, was convicted last year of raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia de Luz in 2005 and jailed for seven years. But his conviction is the subject of an ECJ appeal due to an administrative error by German police after they extradited him on the wrong charge. The court's decision is expected on July 16. It could result in the ECJ ordering a retrial or quashing the conviction, meaning Bruckner would be eligible for immediate release. The authorities fear it would enable him to flee abroad to a country that does not have an extradition agreement with Germany. Yesterday, further details emerged in the German media about his past. According to an investigation by 'Der Spiegel', police recovered "countless children's items, most of them small swimsuits" when they searched Bruckner's US-style camper van in May 2016. Officers viewed more than 8,000 photos and videos on six USB sticks and two memory cards showing the abuse of young children and around 100 of the files were pictures of Bruckner partly naked or in black stockings performing a sex act, the newspaper reported. Yesterday, a row erupted after a German prosecutor said he had written to the McCanns to apologise for not being more transparent about the investigation. He added: "We have really considered the fact that it is going to be very hard for the family when we tell them that we assume Madeleine is dead. But we can't say why she is dead." Kate and Gerry McCann issued a statement, saying: "The widely reported news that we have received a letter . . . that states there is evidence or proof that Madeleine is dead is FALSE." BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi suggested on Wednesday that China and India strengthen communication and coordination on properly addressing the border situation and jointly maintain the peace and tranquility in the border areas. In a telephone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Wang said that Indian frontline border defense troops on Monday night blatantly broke the consensus reached at the commander-level talks between the militaries of the two sides. Under the circumstance that the current situation in the Galwan Valley has eased, the Indian troops once again crossed the Line of Actual Control for deliberate provocation, and even violently attacked the Chinese officers and soldiers who went to the terrain for negotiation, thus triggering fierce physical conflicts and causing casualties. The hazardous move of the Indian army severely violated the agreement reached between the two countries on the border issue and the basic norms of international relations, he said, while voicing China's strong opposition to the move of the Indian side. China demands that India carry out a thorough investigation into the incident, severely punish those who should be held accountable, strictly discipline Indian frontline troops, and immediately stop all provocative actions so as to ensure that such incidents do not happen again, Wang said, adding that India must not misjudge the current situation, or underestimate China's firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty. He stressed that China and India, both emerging powers with a population of over 1 billion, bear the historic mission of accelerating their own development and rejuvenation. Hence, acts of mutual respect and mutual support are on the right track and conform to the long-term interests of both countries, whereas those of mutual distrust and friction belong to an evil path and go against the fundamental aspiration of the two peoples, Wang said. He suggested that China and India follow important consensuses reached by the leaders of the two countries and leverage such existing channels as meetings between the two countries' special representatives on the boundary issue and meetings between border troops of both sides. Jaishankar briefed Wang on the stance of India. He expressed the willingness to set out from the overall situation of bilateral relations to carry out with the Chinese side the consensus reached between leaders of both countries to peacefully resolve the situation in the border areas through dialogue. Both sides agreed to address the serious situation provoked by clashes in the Galwan Valley impartially and abide by the consensus reached at the commander-level talks between the two militaries to cool down the situation at an early date and safeguard the peace and tranquility in the border areas in accordance with the signed agreement. Wells Fargo Bank will make loans and credit cards available to young, undocumented immigrants in the DACA program as long as it lasts and pay up to $19.6 million to settle a lawsuit over its former policy, advocates for the immigrants announced Wednesday. The bank was accused in a 2017 lawsuit of violating federal and state laws by denying mortgage and consumer loans and credit cards to participants in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program established by President Barack Obama in 2012. DACA allows immigrants who entered the United States without documentation before age 16, who have attended school or served in the armed forces, and have no serious criminal record to remain in the country and obtain renewable two-year work permits. President Trump has ordered the elimination of DACA and is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on his authority to do so. He halted new enrollment in the program in September 2017, but has allowed previous participants to renew their enrollment. The Wells Fargo settlement covers participants in DACA as long as it remains in effect. If Trump is allowed to terminate the program, Wells Fargo will no longer be required to offer credit to former participants, but must still compensate them for past denials of credit, said Michael Litrownik, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. He said at least 30,000 customers nationwide, and perhaps many more, were denied loans because of their immigration status. This settlement will significantly expand DACA recipients ability to obtain the credit they need to finance their education, small businesses and homes, and meet other important financial needs, Litrownik said. Attorneys from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund also participated in the case. Wells Fargo announced in March, during settlement negotiations, that it would extend credit to DACA recipients. For participants who were denied credit under the former policy, the settlement provides up to $2,500 for each denial to a resident of California, and $100 to $300 for denials to residents of other states. The bank will also pay up to $5.5 million to the plaintiffs lawyers for fees and costs of the lawsuit, Litrownik said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. In defense of its former policy, Wells Fargo cited a 1976 federal law, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibits discrimination in lending based on race, sex, religion or national origin but does not mention citizenship. But U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney of San Francisco refused to dismiss the suit in 2017 and cited an 1870 federal law enacted mainly to protect Chinese immigrants that required businesses such as lenders to grant equal contract rights to all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States, including non-citizens. For California residents, Chesney said, the Unruh Civil Rights Act requires businesses to provide equal treatment to all customers, regardless of their immigration status. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Former President Pranab Mukherjee who also served as Indias defence minister during UPA-1 has said that the violent clash with Chinese military at Galwan Valley in Ladakh is of grave concern not only for Indias national strategic interests but will also have far reaching global geo-political ramifications. The senior Congress leader also said that a bi-partisan consensus among the political class was needed to address the bruised conscience of the nation. He said the onus of achieving that consensus mostly lied with the government of India. I would like to underline that this particular situation at the Indo-Chinese line of control (line of actual control) in Ladakh is of grave concern for not only our national strategic interests but also have far reaching global geo-political ramifications, Mukherjees statement read. Mukherje, who also served as Indias defence minister between May 22, 2004 and October 26, 2006, said that it was his considered opinion that no service in the cause of Mother India could be greater than the service rendered by the brave hearts, who guard our sovereignty and integrity. Mukherjees statement comes on a day when Congress President Sonia Gandhi sought to know from the central government, the details of the clashes between Indian and Chinese Army in the Galwan Valley on Monday that led to the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers. The PM should tell the nation how the Chinese occupied Indian territory, why 20 brave soldiers were martyred, she said in Hindi during a live address. She also added that her party stands behind the government. Also Read: PM should tell how Chinese occupied Indian territory: Sonia Gandhi on Ladakh face-off Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party-meet on Friday to discuss the latest incident which has been described as an outcome of Chinese attempts to change the status quo of the LAC despite consensus between the two sides to refrain from such attempts. Also Read: PM Modi on the situation in India-China border areas: Complete statement Mukherjee said the government of India needs to take various stakeholders including the armed forces on board. The conscience of the nation has been bruised and needs to be addressed satisfactorily by the entire political class through a bipartisan consensus- the onus of achieving which lies mostly on the Government of India, by taking various stakeholders, including the Armed forces on board. It is for the Government of the Day to ensure that nothing but out National Interests are kept supreme, he said. Big Horn County has consistently seen an increase in cases. As of Tuesday the county reported 47 total cases. Big Horn County has 12 active cases, and one person is hospitalized, the release states. The county added two cases Tuesday. Those cases are a woman in her 20s and a man in his 30s, who were both found through contract tracing, the release states. Public information officer Rhonda Johnson also said that while most of Big Horn County's cases have been in people in their 30s or younger, the county has started to see a fair number of older folks test positive, too. The original rise in cases of mostly younger people was likely due to young people not taking the risk of COVID-19 seriously, she said. Johnson said the majority of the cases have been tracked to isolated "clusters." In Big Horn County, only a small portion of the cases were found through surveillance testing, Johnson said. In Custer County the rise in case count is partly attributed to increased testing, and a likely increase from the state reopening, according to Chelsea Jerke, the county's public health director. China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said on Tuesday its experimental coronavirus vaccine has triggered antibodies in clinical trials and the company plans late-stage human trials in foreign countries. No vaccines have been solidly proven to be able to effectively protect people from the virus that has killed more than 400,000 people, while multiple candidates are in various stages of development globally. The vaccine, developed by a Wuhan-based research institute affiliated to CNBG's parent company Sinopharm, was found to have induced high-level antibodies in all inoculated people without serious adverse reaction, according to the preliminary data from a clinical trial initiated in April involving 1,120 healthy participants aged between 18 and 59. CNBG said it is proactively seeking opportunities for late-stage and large-scale Phase 3 trials overseas. "[We] have secured cooperative intent with companies and institutes in many countries," the company said in a statement. State media reported that the vaccine candidate, along with a different experimental shot developed by Sinopharm's unit, has been offered to Chinese employees at state-owned firms travelling overseas as developers seek more data on their efficacy. China has five vaccine candidates for COVID-19 in human trials, the most in any country. China's vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech (Sinovac) released over the weekend positive preliminary clinical trial results for its potential vaccine candidate, which is expected to be tested in a Phase 3 trial in Brazil. JALANDHAR: Youth Congress Jalandhar held candle light march to pay tribute to soldiers who has been killed in violent face off in Ladakhs Galwan valley with the Chinese troops. The march started outside the Punjab State War Memorial near Bus Stand Jalandhar. Rajinder Beri M.L.A Jalandhar Central joined the march along with Angad Dutta President Youth Congress Jalandhar (Urban). During the March Rajinder Beri said that the entire officers are regularly warning the government that the situation is serious and government needs to be careful but the careless and failed government is kept busy in its electoral battles and conspiracies to topple opposition government in the states. The main priority of Narendra Modi is not the country but the rule of its party in the entire states of the country. He further said that there is ban on questions and information on Modi Government. But does P.M. have any answer for those mothers who sacrificed their sons in Defence of country. Angad Dutta said that incident was shocking, unbelievable and unacceptable and the entire congress party stand united with Centre Government on every issue of national security and security but the Prime Minister have to tell the truth how China occupied our land and how our 20 soldiers were martyred. He also said it is time now for the Centre to take some stringent measures as each sign of weakness makes China's reaction more "belligerent". He also thanked Captain Amarinder Singh Chief Minister Punjab to give jobs to the kin of 4 Punjabi Martyrs. He further said that on the directions of our PYC President Barinder Singh Dhillon the candle march is being organised in all the constituencies of Jalandhar.Randeep Sandhu (President AYC) in Jalandhar Cantt, Jaskaran Sohi (Gen. Sec. DYC) in Jalandhar West, Parveen Kumar (President AYC) in Jalandhar Central, Sunny kumar (President AYC) in Jalandhar North, Rocky Nahar in Jalandhar Cantt, Jai Abhishek Bhagat (Gen Sec DYC) in Jalandhar has organised the candle march in their respective assemblies. Those who joined the protest in the different areas are Abhishek Jain, Rohit Pathak, Ram Dayal, Sunny Narula, Ashish thakur, Jodha Minhas and many others. "During these unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is reassuring to know our community is served by a public health department that has demonstrated the capacity and ability to deal with this event." Jeff R. Coombs, Executive Director, Tooele County Health Department, Tooele, Utah The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) today announced the names of three public health departments that have successfully completed a rigorous review process to maintain their national accreditation status. In achieving the prestigious accreditation designation for five more years, the departments -- Crook County Health Department in Prineville, Oregon; Tooele County Health Department in Tooele, Utah; and Ventura County Public Health in Oxnard, Calif. -- have successfully demonstrated a commitment to continuously improve and advance, thereby becoming increasingly effective at improving the health of their communities. PHAB, the nongovernmental, nonprofit organization that administers the national accrediting program, works to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing and transforming the quality and performance of governmental public health agencies in the United States and abroad. This weeks accreditation decisions arrive in the midst of the most challenging time in modern public health history, with pandemics of infectious disease and systemic racism posing unprecedented threats to the health and safety of people and communities, said PHAB President and CEO Paul Kuehnert, DNP, RN, FAAN. Maintaining accreditation through PHAB is steadfast proof that these health departments have demonstrated a consistent and continued commitment to collaborative efforts to keep their communities safe from diseases and injuries, promote good health, and protect them from hazards. We applaud them and congratulate them for their tireless work to assure that their communities will continue to reap the benefits of being served by a nationally accredited health department. PHABs national accreditation program, which launched in 2011 with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has become the national gold standard for public health in the United States. To date, nearly 300 health departments including state, Tribal, local and Army Installation Departments of Public Health have achieved accreditation through PHAB, and the benefits of being served by a PHAB-accredited health department now extend to 82 percent of the U.S. population. Commenting today on the reaccreditation of Tooele County Health Department in Tooele, Utah, Health Officer and Executive Director Jeff R. Coombs, MPH, LEHS, thanked the departments staff and community partners for their work to achieve and maintain accreditation status through PHAB. During these unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is reassuring to know our community is served by a public health department that has demonstrated the capacity and ability to deal with this event, Coombs said. In Oxnard, Calif., Ventura County Public Health Director Rigoberto Vargas, MPH, expressed gratitude to the departments outstanding and diverse team of public health professionals dedicated to protecting health and promoting the well-being of all residents in Ventura County. Added Vargas: We are especially proud to have been the first health department in California to have been accredited, and now to be the first to be reaccredited. Achieving reaccreditation, all while also responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, further demonstrates that indeed, Ventura County Public Health is a high-achieving department that's not just meeting, but largely exceeding, national standards for health department excellence. To receive national accreditation through PHAB, a health department must undergo a rigorous, multi-faceted, peer-reviewed assessment process to ensure it meets nationally established public health quality standards and measures. PHAB-accredited health departments range in size from large state health departments serving tens of millions of people to small local health departments serving communities of fewer than 50,000 people. Serving a population of fewer than 24,000 people, Crook County Health Department in Prineville, Oregon is the smallest of the three health departments to achieve reaccreditation status through PHAB this week. Speaking on behalf of the departments 25 employees, Director and Public Health Administrator Muriel DeLaVergne-Brown, RN, BSc, MPH, called the achievement a great accomplishment for all the staff. It demonstrates our commitment to accountability, quality, and the importance of public health accreditation to improve everything we do. As a small public health department, it can be done, and its worth it. For more information, contact PHAB Communications Manager Teddi Nicolaus at (703) 778-4549, ext. 118, or via email at tnicolaus@phaboard.org. Learn more about PHAB and accreditation at http://www.phaboard.org. Be in the know: Subscribe to PHAB's e-newsletter! About the Public Health Accreditation Board The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) was created to serve as the national public health accrediting body and is funded in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The development of national public health accreditation has involved, and is supported by, public health leaders and practitioners from the national, state, local, Tribal, and territorial levels. For more information, email tnicolaus@phaboard.org. Two Area Residents Being Charged in Alleged Fraud Ring District Attorney Andrea Harrington announces the arrest of two people in a multistate fraud ring. Update: Law enforcement in Albany, N.Y., arrested Parth "Peter" Chaudhari, 23, of Adams on Wednesday afternoon without incident. Albany officials are holding Chaudhari without the right to bail on a charge of fugitive from justice, based on a warrant issued in Massachusetts for charges associated with a fraud investigation. The State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Berkshire District attorney's office and the Adams Police Department filed for an arrest warrant for Chaudhari on Wednesday. He is alleged to be involved in a fraud ring with Ajaykumar Chaudhari and Jitendra Chaudhari, both arrested earlier this week, that scammed people across multiple states out of $300,000. He will be arraigned in Northern Berkshire District Court on charges of larceny by false pretenses over $1,200, larceny from a person over the age of 65, and conspiracy following rendition proceedings. He and his two alleged accomplices are being held on $100,000 bail and had to surrender their passports. ****************************************************************************************** PITTSFIELD, Mass. Two area residents are being charged in a multistate phone fraud ring that scammed victims out of upwards of $300,000. Ajaykumar Chaudhari, 24, of Pownal, Vt., and Jitendra Chaudhari, 27, of Wiliamstown are expected to be arraigned on Wednesday in Northern Berkshire District Court in North Adams. Police say they have not confirmed the suspects' relationship, if any. Their arrests are the result of a three-month investigation that included local police departments, the sheriff's office, and State Police assigned to the Berkshire district attorney's office. Law enforcement executed search warrants at three locations in the Northern Berkshires on Monday and arrested two individuals as part of a three-month investigation into a nationwide organized fraud scheme. "In March, police in other jurisdictions alerted the Adams Police Department that individuals in their own communities reported being scammed and sending thousands of dollars in cash to addresses in Adams," said District Attorney Andrea Harrington at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. "In total, 27 search warrants were executed over the duration of each investigation, including two businesses, one residence and multiple motor vehicles." Police seized $50,000 during search warrants executed on Monday. Some of the estimated $300,000 scammed has been recovered and returned to the victims and some held for evidence. The suspects are facing charges of larceny by false pretenses over $1,200, larceny from a person over the age of 65 and conspiracy. More charges may be likely. Law enforcement declined at this point to provide further information on what the scams entailed but did say the victims ranged in age. "We're still going through extensive amounts of information that was recovered during the course of the search warrant," said Harrington. "So we'll have a better idea of that in the near future." The case is still under active investigation with other law enforcement agencies and jurisdictions and there may be additional arrests nationwide. "Last year, the Federal Trade Commission reported that people lost $1.9. billion through various scams and imposter scams," Harrington said. "These types of scams involve caller attempts to create urgency distress and trigger an emotional response." Her office offered the following tips: Do not engage with callers who try to pressure you into making an immediate decision or request secrecy Do not provide any personal information if you did not initiate the contact. Be wary of anyone who asked you to send cash wire funds, send cash or purchase prepaid cards. Consult with a loved one or the police department if you are unsure of anything. Screen your phone calls, do not answer the phone if you do not recognize the number, add your number to the do not call lest Monitor your financial records closely. Harrington urged anyone who thinks they have been scammed to contact local police or her office. "If you are scammed, do not be critical of yourself. Anyone can be," she said. "And many scams go unreported, because the victim is too ashamed." New Delhi: The Chinese Army suffered 35 casualties during the violent clash with the Indian military in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley, official sources said on Wednesday quoting US intelligence reports. The figure could be a combination of total number of soldiers killed and seriously wounded, they added. The Indian Army on Tuesday said 20 Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed on Monday night in the biggest ever military confrontation between the two armies in over five decades. There were 35 casualties on the Chinese side, the sources said citing US intelligence reports. China has not yet talked about the number of casualties suffered by the People's Liberation Army during the clash. Government sources on Tuesday said the Chinese side suffered "proportionate casualties" but it does not have a clear picture about the number of Chinese soldiers killed as well as those injured in the clash. On Wednesday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the overall situation in eastern Ladakh with Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs. Last night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with the Defence minister as well as Home Minister Amit Shah, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Army Chief General MM Naravane on the situation in the region. Military sources said at least four Indian soldiers were seriously injured in the clash. Monday's clash was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. The External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said the violent face-off between armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. The ministry said both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement arrived earlier at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. We see you quiver with antici. So say the rainbow pink lips of the logo for Big Sky Prides celebration. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- most of Big Sky Prides annual celebration, including its popular parade and drag show are postponed. Indefinitely. Until Montana lifts Phase 3 restrictions for reopening. And, as of June 11, it looks like reaching Phase 3 anytime soon is unlikely. Montanas COVID numbers have been climbing, and cases have surged in a number of states. Admittedly, this week would have been one glorious time to celebrate -- coming right on the heels of Mondays U.S. Supreme Court 6-3 ruling that protects gay and transgender people from workplace discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ruling found two conservative Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and John G. Roberts Jr. joining more liberal justices in this sweeping gay rights ruling, which is being called a stunning victory for LGBTQ equality. We are super excited and amazed and surprised and ecstatic about the ruling that came out this morning, said Big Sky Pride President Kev Hamm on Monday afternoon. Its an amazing step forward but our work isnt done. It was a nice thing to wake up to this morning. It certainly makes everything a little bit better when...were going forward. The fact that it was a 6-3 decision and that it was written by Justice Gorsuch is astounding. While the court decision protects people from discrimination at work, he noted, thats not the only parts of our life needing protections. We still need protection in housing. We still need protection in policing. So, we still need everything to be better. So, our work isnt done. Its a great step forward. Its not the end of the road by any means. Hamm urges folks to celebrate smartly. Remember your social distancing. Wear a mask. And hes super excited to share whats on tap for Big Sky Pride -- this week and when the COVID crisis passes. This week, Big Sky Pride and The Myrna Loy host the LGBTQ FILMFEST, featuring four nights of movies. Films kicked off Monday, with Academy Award winning Moonlight. Tuesday featured the critically acclaimed comedy-drama Tangerine. Wednesday its the multi-award-winning film, Brokeback Mountain, based on an Annie Proulx short story. The festival wraps up with Booksmart, a coming-of-age comedy, on Thursday. All films are shown at 7 p.m. and tickets are $8 each night. For more details, visit https://themyrnaloy.com/whats-happening/events/. Only 100 tickets will be sold each night to ensure space for social distancing in the theater. Were sticking to 50 percent capacity, said film programmer Benji Cosgrove. The Myrna Loy is not streaming the films. However, all of them are available on popular streaming services for those who want to watch them at home. For updates on the film fest and info about virtual Pride events, visit https://www.facebook.com/pg/bigskypride/events/?ref=page_internal. Last year, Pride events drew around 10,000 people to Helena, estimates Hamm, between the parade and the popular drag show. Since we cant do the parade in June, we are postponing, most likely canceling everything, said Hamm. We cant do anything until Phase III restrictions are lifted. But when that time comes, Big Sky Pride has an ambitious road show it will be taking around the state. Were bringing Pride to everyone by doing a seven-week tour, said Hamm. Part of this is to respond to the economic stress of the pandemic, which has people worried about their jobs, money and the economy, he said. Theyll be holding three to four drag shows in local businesses in all seven cities and holding different dinner specials at restaurants around those towns. Its a nice way for us to get back to the economies of various cities, where local businesses have supported Big Sky Pride over the years. The tour will zigzag across the state, going from Great Falls to Billings to Missoula, Bozeman, Kalispell, Butte and Helena. Big Sky Pride wont be focusing on doing any virtual events, Hamm said, because theres no need to compete with major Pride events going on around the world. Theres already an organization InterPride thats doing a great job of informing folks of virtual events. Someday, sometime -- there will be a massive Big Sky Pride event with queer comedy shows, drag shows, and Bears & Brews social gatherings in all seven cities. Until then, antici... Love 6 Funny 8 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 As public and nonpublic K-12 schools grapple with reopening plans and the need for additional state funding, state lawmakers said they are concerned that schools will not have the capabilities to adopt ambitious coronavirus mitigation policies. Officials from Pennsylvania public charter schools and faith-based schools testified before the state House Education Committee on Wednesday. Ultimately, school leaders are concerned they wont have enough funding to implement flexible mitigation strategies that can be adjusted throughout the year. Lawmakers are concerned with the complexity and logistics of some proposed reopening plans. I think we have some opportunities here, and if you listen to the [school officials], were not hearing, Im afraid of the opportunity, Im afraid of trying, Im afraid of making mistakes, said Larry Jones, vice president of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools. What were hearing is, Im afraid that if I try and do something, Im going to be held to a standard, and Im going to be slammed for it. Maintaining social distancing guidelines in elementary classrooms and on school buses were common concerns among the school officials, as well as an accountability system for teachers who fail to facilitate a classroom where students are interacting six feet apart. Most school officials talked about a potential hybrid system, where students would be in schools part of the time and learning remotely on some days. The goal would be to limit the amount of students in a classrooms. Eric Eshbach, recently retired superintendent at Northern York County School District, said implementing a hybrid plan would help enforce social distancing measures. But it creates a problem for families who would need child-care services for the days or weeks their child is not in school. Eshbach also mentioned the need for increasing cleaning protocols and the possibility that buses would need to run additional routes to limit the amount of students in a bus at a time. And he noted concerns about how extracurricular activities will be able to operate. Schools also need more help with remote learning. Well need additional help from the state and federal government to ensure that our families have the technology resources internet, broadband capacity to reach every child, Eshbach said. Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford, voiced a strong opposition for implementing a hybrid system, calling it not only impractical but impossible. He said there needs to be a model that looks more similar to a normal school day. Topper also pointed out the difficulties that will come with requiring elementary and middle-school students to wear a mask. Eshbach said that while he feels there is some flexibility from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to accommodate families who dont feel safe sending their child to school, he would like to see more guidance from the department as schools craft their plans. In April, K-12 schools received $523 million in CARES funds to help schools provide families with adequate access to needed technology. Gov. Tom Wolf and state lawmakers also agreed to maintain state funding for K-12 public schools for the 2020-21 year. No budget cuts were made to brick-and-mortar or cyber charter schools. Another common concern among all of the school officials was how remote learning is affecting the social and emotional well-being of students. Joe Scheuermann, a math teacher at Hempfield Area High School and president of the local teachers association, said even some of his brightest students in advanced calculus classes struggled with online learning, and many students struggled with the stress of things happening at home regarding the pandemic. Scheuermann said he wants to see more guidance counselors placed in schools when students return, but that hes unsure if school districts will have the resources to hire additional counselors. These kids need to be back in school, but when they get back, they need a support system, he said. Our guidance department on a regular day is flooded with teenagers who are trying to manage teenage life in 2020. On top of social and emotional issues, the digital divide in the state is still letting many students down as families are trying to facilitate remote learning at home. Jones said a lot of schools were delivering pencil-and-paper packets to students without access to computers, and they were also able to provide about 40% of students with Chromebooks. He said schools in disproportionately affected areas will have to not only figure out a way to address the students who fell behind in education over the last several months, but also figure out how they would pay for the implementation of hybrid models. Moving forward, we are facing tremendous shortfalls in terms of revenue that are coming into our municipalities, and that point, 143,000 students in charter schools and their families are just as susceptible to COVID-19 Jones said. Leaders from faith-based schools in the state shared many of the same concerns, saying that if both school systems choose to implement a hybrid system, they will have to coordinate with bus routes to ensure students safety coming to and from school. Phil Fromuth, superintendent for Catholic education in the Diocese of Allentown, said their schools have been experiencing a shortage of school nurses, and an increase in funding could allow them to hire more. Rep. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin County, suggested that since most children do not suffer the same risks of COVID-19 as older adults, schools should consider implementing a mass testing solution, instead of spending money on alternative hybrid and electronic systems. While adults make up most known cases of coronavirus, children can still carry and spread the virus to others. We can spend millions and millions of dollars for all of these protections, or we can get every kid tested, Kim said. We dont have to do a shot in the dark in terms of whats safe and whats not safe. She also raised questions as to what a procedure would be if a child has a fever at school, and if there should be a policy that the child self-isolates for 14 days before returning to school. Most schools currently have a policy that a child must be 24 hours fever-free before returning to school. Art Levinowitz, member of the Pennsylvania School Board Association, voiced concerns about what a screening process would look like for students how frequently could testing realistically be done, what practices will they follow in excluding and admitting staff, and how will school districts be able to pay for frequent COVID-19 testing. Preparing for this return will require a significant amount of work consideration, and our districts health and safety plan has to be approved by our Board, posted on the school district website for the community to see, and sent to PDE (Pennsylvania Department of Education) prior to reopening our district, Levinowitz said. Leaders from faith-based schools shared the same funding concerns as charter school officials. They asked the General Assembly to ensure that faith-based education receive the same consideration for additional resources as public school districts. Nonpublic schools are able to apply for state grants up to $10,000 but are not guaranteed to receive the full amount. No one has been immune to the economic impact of this pandemic, said Rabbi Sam Weinberg, principal and education director at Hillel Academy in Pittsburgh. Our parents are struggling and many have indicated they will not be able to pay tuition either partially or in full. More from PennLive Will students have to wear masks to school? Pa. superintendents face tough choices for fall Pa. senators explore policing, criminal justice reform issues in wake of George Floyds killing Spring Carlisle crowds are diminished but not deterred by coronavirus: Watch out for yourself A senior US diplomat said that the United States would like to have an in-person meeting with Iran to discuss prisoner release after Tehran freed a Navy veteran as part of a deal. Speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said America also wants UN Security Council to impose an indefinite arms embargo on Iran amid its accelerated nuclear program. Wed love to have an in-person meeting to have a consular dialogue so that we can move faster than we have, said Hook. Earlier this month, US Navy veteran Michael White arrived in America after being freed by Tehran as part of a deal in which the United States allowed a dual citizen to visit Iran. Irans Foreign Minister Javad Zarif confirmed on June 4 that Iranian American physician Majid Taheri will soon be visiting his family, adding that it can happen for all hostages without cherry-picking. Read: UN Chief Says Missiles, Drones Used To Attack Saudi Arabia Of 'Iranian Origin' 'Big deal' After Whites release, Trump took to Twitter to express his delight on the latest development on the hostage situation saying it shows a deal is possible. Trump had asserted that he is going to win the elections and it will better for Iran to make a better deal now, asking Iran not wait for US elections to make the Big Deal. So great to have Michael home. Just arrived. Very exciting. Thank you to Iran. Dont wait until after U.S. Election to make the Big deal. Im going to win. Youll make a better deal now! https://t.co/OGJU2VWBWq Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2020 Hook said that the door for diplomacy is wide open on all the issues that have been plaguing the US-Iran bilateral relations for 41 years, adding that Trump would like to get to the negotiating table. Iran has been crippling sanctions from the United States after the latter pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), also known as Iran nuclear deal, in 2018 and the bilateral relations have been in a free fall since then. Read: Russia, China Make Case At UN Security Council Against US Sanctions Threat On Iran People protest at King George square on June 06, 2020 in Brisbane, Australia. (Jono Searle/Getty Images) 3 People Charged After Queensland BLM Protest Three protesters have been charged at a Black Lives Matter rally in Brisbane, after 100 people marched on Parliament House and the Roma Street watch house. The group of about 100 people marched to Parliament House on Wednesday to demand justice for those who have died in custody. They gathered outside the building, chanting and waving placards before a large group of police flanked the crowd. One male protester was seen in social media footage pushing a police officer as they tried to move the crowd on. He was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed. A 21-year-old man was charged with two counts of assault and blocking a road. A 43-year-old woman was charged with assault and public nuisance, and a 58-year-old man was charged with contravening a direction. The group also marched to the Roma Street watch house, where they blocked a small street near police headquarters for about an hour chanting Too many coppers, not enough justice. The lead protester was also videoed voluntarily lying on the ground before his arrest. After demanding a meeting with a representative from the police commissioners office the group then agreed to peacefully disperse. Brisbane Arsen Avakov has been minister of interior since February 27, 2014, which effectively makes him Ukraine's longest-serving minister. The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement Affairs on Wednesday recommended that the parliament include on the agenda of the current session a draft resolution on the dismissal of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, an UNIAN correspondent reports. The decision was made at today's committee meeting without prior discussion of the draft resolution's content. As UNIAN reported earlier, on June 5, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered draft resolution No. 3606 on the dismissal of Arsen Avakov from the post of Minister of Internal Affairs. It was authored by almost 60 legislators, including several from the ruling Servant of the People faction. The call to consider the sacking of the long-standing interior minister comes amid a rising wave of public criticism targeting Avakov, which escalated in the wake of the recent high-profile incidents that sparked outrage. One of them involved two policemen who have been detained on charges of raping and beating a woman who reported to a police station as a witness in a petty theft case. The other incident involved an armed showdown between two rivaling gangs in a town just outside Kyiv as part of an apparent turf war in public transportation sector. Read also"This is a complicated ministry": Leading faction's deputy chief on why Avakov retains post of interior minister in new Cabinet The incidents highlight what critics of Avakov say is his failure to reform the police and bring law and order to the country, RFE/RL earlier reported. They also add to a growing list of high-profile cases in recent years in which Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have been accused of involvement, negligence, or botching the investigation on Avakov's watch. Arsen Avakov has been minister of internal affairs since February 27, 2014, which effectively makes him Ukraine's longest-serving minister. In Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is in control of police, border guards, emergency service, and the National Guard. Every name on the BrandBucket marketplace is exclusively listed with BrandBucket. That means that all of our sellers are very responsive, making for quick domain transfers. A dedicated BrandBucket agent will manage your domain transfer from beginning to end, ensuring a secure and easy transaction. They will manage the receipt of the domain into one of BrandBuckets secure registrar accounts and then complete the transfer to you. 1. Verification and registrar choice After we receive the payment and verify it, we will reach out via email to confirm which registrar you want the domain transferred to. We also provide a link to our tracking system, where you can communicate with us, check on the status of your transfer, view your invoice, and download your logo files. In most cases, if a domain is moved between accounts at a single registrar, the transfer is quick and usually completes within 48 hours. If a domain changes registrars (in other words, you would like to move it away from where it is currently registered), the transfer is slower. The total transfer time can then be anywhere from 48 hours to 7 days. BrandBucket has vetted and supports the following registrars: GoDaddy Namesilo Uniregistry NameCheap Google Domains Network Solutions Name.com Dynadot Amazon Route 53 123 Reg Gandi 2. We request the name from the seller. Once we know where you would like the domain transferred, BrandBucket will request the domain from the seller. All of our sellers are very responsive, making for a quick process. 3. Transfer the name into your account As soon as we receive the name from the seller, we start the transfer into your account and guide you through the whole process. 4. Verify with the buyer that the transfer is complete Once we confirm that you have received the name, we consider the escrow process to be complete. Only then do we release payment to the domain seller. The lockdown that crippled the entire logistics, delivery and supply chain network to near zero, was enough to deal a body blow to Indias fastest growing unicorn whose very business model saw a severe disruption, like several other firms and sectors. Until recently, Udaan had literally been on a flight. The business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce start-up may have continued with similar or even a faster pace of growth, had the Covid-19 pandemic not hit the globe. The pandemic forced India to impose a nationwide lockdown from March third week. The lockdown that crippled the entire logistics, delivery and supply chain network to near zero, was enough to deal a body blow to Indias fastest growing unicorn whose very business model saw a severe disruption, like several other firms and sectors. Although attempts to speak to the companys officials could not yield any result, the Bengaluru-based start-up is learnt to have lost almost 60 per cent of its business because of the lockdown, according to sources privy to the development. This has prompted the Tencent-backed start-up to implement a series of cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. While the start-up had recently announced that it would lay off around 10-15 per cent of its contract staff, affecting around 3,000-3,500 jobs, more such measures are on cards, said the sources. It was already facing a daunting task of monetising business after scaling it massively which just got worse post the Covid-19-induced lockdown, said one of the persons cited above. Sources say one of the reasons why the pandemic has hit Udaan hard is its business model itself. Logistics and delivery comprise core part of the companys model which took the first hit as inter-state and intra-state movement of goods was majorly affected during the lockdown. The other challenge is that the company did not have any control on logistics as it was provided by third-party providers under the brand Udaan Express. Thus, the non-essential categories such as electronics, apparel and footwear, which comprise major part of its business, saw an immediate impact. Even though the company is also into intra-city delivery of goods, which are mostly perishable items, including food and grocery, it is still a small part of the business. The other major challenge is, Udaans business model is also very asset heavy comprising several warehouses across the country. It has operations in categories such as lifestyle, electronics, pharmacy, fruits and vegetables and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). With almost no sales taking place during the lockdown, the start-up had to burn a lot of money to keep its warehouses active and pay staff salaries. In a recent meeting with Business Standard, Udaan co-founder Sujeet Kumar agreed that the business is capital intensive, though most of the infrastructure the company has set up is meant for the future when one does not need to spend in proportionate to demand. If you have the right infrastructure in terms of supply chain, payments, financing, you can move much faster when the economy matures, while your cost of operations will also come down, Kumar said. That means, you are spending on something which will last forever, just like the road infrastructure, he added. Founded in 2016 by former Flipkart executives Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta and Sujeet Kumar, Udaan had been growing very rapidly. The company works with three million retailers and over 25,000 sellers from 900 towns and cities across the country. It seems that Udaan is implementing an internal restructuring to adapt to the Covid environment becasue of the structural changes in demand in the country, said Salman Waris, managing partner at New Delhi-based specialist technology law firm TechLegis Advocates & Solicitors. This is evident from the fact that the company has laid off contractual staff from its sales, credit and collection teams while it has gone on record to confirm that it would honour all campus placements and pending job offers. Also, unlike the B2C e-commerce space, which continues to generate a lot of cash to meet the operating requirements, Udaans model is quite different. Its model thrives on the promise that the company would provide the merchant establishments, kiranas and shops their entire requirement at a competitive price point, doing away with a lot of hassles for them. But that category itself is highly competitive, while the firm also faces difficulties such as high order cancellations and return of products by sellers and the buyers, according to industry sources. Besides, margins are quite less in categories like FMCG and electronics, where the firm sees maximum of gross merchandise value (GMV). Given these, the companys primary revenue earner had been the non-banking financial company (NBFC) arm, through which it caters to the short-term fund requirements of merchants in lieu of interest. But it was quite minuscule as of last fiscal. The defaults in the financing space are also quite high. In FY19 for example, Udaan earned Rs 14.71 crore via interest on loans, while its operating revenue in the financial year stood at Rs 12 core, close to double that of the previous year. The burn rate was much higher owing to manpower costs, outsourcing, buyers refunds and transportation and distribution costs, which resulted in losses growing more than fivefold to Rs 338.2 crore. Liabilities of the company include guarantee for overdraft facility for one of its subsidiaries at an amount of Rs 70 crore. Its unsecured loans have increased from Rs 6.3 crore in FY18 to Rs 171 crore in FY19. Udaans lease expenses for FY19 increased to Rs 7.03 crore from just Rs 88.40 lakh in FY18. According to analysts, the post-Covid world, however, looks promising for Udaan, and it is on a recovery path. They said besides FMCG, Udaan may be looking at focusing on high-margin unbranded items which have a huge demand in rural India and tier-II and -III cities. B2B players have beneficial tailwinds as the pace of digitisation increases in supply chains, post-Covid, said Ankur Pahwa, partner and national leader, e-commerce and consumer internet, at EY India. Beside the traditional FMCG and mobile segments, he says, there is a huge opportunity in discovery-led categories like fashion, home and accessories which generally will have much stronger metrics around economics, cohorts, experience and engagement. Bharat (rural India as well as tier-II and -III cities), for B2B players, is a $50 billion opportunity in the near term and time is right for it (Udaan) to innovate, accelerate footprint and leverage digital adoption, added Pahwa. Aryaman Tandon, director at management consulting firm Praxis Global Alliance, also echoes this view, saying that Udaans business fundamentals still remain strong. It has created good inroads into the retail outlets and we will see it getting back on the recovery path soon, Tandon added. Paris court finds Rifaat al-Assad guilty of acquiring French property using funds diverted from the Syrian state. A Paris court has sentenced the 82-year-old uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to four years in prison and ordered the confiscation of all his property in France as well as one of his London properties. Wednesdays ruling came in a trial that found Rifaat al-Assad guilty of acquiring millions of euros worth of French property using funds diverted from the Syrian state. According to the ruling, the younger brother of late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad father of the incumbent president committed the crimes, including aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian funds, between 1984 and 2016. He denies the charges. Rifaat al-Assads trial opened on December 9 last year. He has been under investigation in France since 2014. This came the year after anti-corruption group Sherpa filed a suit accusing Assad of using ill-gotten gains from corruption in Syria to build a real estate fortune in the country. Rifaat al-Assads real estate holdings were valued at 90 million euros ($99.5m). Formerly Syrias vice president, al-Assad left his home country in 1984 after mounting a failed coup against his brother Hafez, who led Syria from 1971 to 2000. He was dubbed the Butcher of Hama for allegedly commanding troops who put down an uprising in central Syria in 1982. Currently, he describes himself as an opponent of his nephews regime. Lavish lifestyle After he arrived in Europe, Rifaat al-Assads lavish lifestyle, four wives, and 16 children soon raised eyebrows. His reported French fortune includes two Paris townhouses, one measuring 3,000 square metres (32,000 square feet), as well as a stud farm, a chateau and 7,300 square metres (78,500 square feet) of office space in Lyon. He and his family also built up a huge portfolio of 507 properties in Spain, valued at about 695 million euros ($782m), Spanish legal documents show. All his properties in that country were seized by the authorities in 2017. Al-Assad, awarded Frances Legion of Honour in 1986 for services rendered, insists his lifestyle was made possible by gifts from the Saudi royal family amounting to more than $1m per month. But while his lawyers claimed to document gifts of almost $25m between 1984 and 2010, French investigators registered transfers from Saudi Arabia totalling only $10m. Los Angeles: One of Americas most celebrated authors Truman Capotes ashes have been sold for a whopping USD 45,000 at an auction here. The writers mortal remains were owned by Tonight Show host Johnny Carsons ex-wife and Capotes best friend Joanne Carson and were auctioned off by Juliens Auctions on Saturday. The buyer promised to bring the ashes to parties, movies and other events, in keeping with the wishes of the famed author of Breakfast at Tiffanys and In Cold Blood. We had people from Russia, Germany, China, South America and here in the US who had interest in them, said President and Chief Executive Darren Julien said. I anticipated it could sell for over USD 10,000, but didnt anticipate it going to USD 45,000, Julien was quoted as saying by the CNN. The remains are sealed in a carved Japanese wooden box and will be presented in its original cemetery packaging from Westwood Village Mortuary. Carson, who died last year aged 83, often stepped out with the Capotes remains who died in 1984. Julien said this was the first time in public record that someones ashes had been sold at auction. If it wasnt for it being Truman Capote, it would have been disrespectful, he said. The ashes were among a number of items sold at the auction. About 50 of Capotes personal items from Carsons estate were sold with prices ranging from USD 50 to USD 2,000, according to the auction house. The buyer of his ashes is a collector who wishes to remain anonymous, Julien said. They promise that Truman will continue his adventures, he said. Born in New Orleans in 1924, Capotes two most famous works, Breakfast at Tiffanys (1958) and In Cold Blood (1966) solidified his place among the great American authors of the 20th century. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The Commanding Officer of 16 Bihar, Colonel Santosh Babu, and his fellow men lost their lives in a medieval-era clash, complete with stones and nail-studded clubs, with Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) at Galwan on Monday evening, but their blood has triggered a turning point in India-China relations. Despite being outnumbered by PLA troops with reinforcement reserves coming from behind, Col Santosh and his men struck back at the adversary, killing or critically injuring 43-50 PLA troopers. Unlike in the past, the Colonel had confronted his Chinese counterparts and asked them to follow the agreed June 6 disengagement rules. The aggressive Chinese PLA had left him with no options. The Indian side had pulled back as part of de-escalation but the Chinese PLA was staying put at the stand-off site on Patrolling point 14. While most Indians are worried about the escalation in eastern Ladakh, the skirmish has shattered the peace and tranquility myth perpetuated by Chinese rulers since the 1950s. The Galwan face-off has clearly revealed that the peace and tranquility doctrine is just a Chinese PLA ruse to force their cartographic expansion agenda in Ladakh sector to strengthen the logistics route of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The military nibbling by the PLA towards the Chinese claim line in eastern Ladakh, particularly in the Daulet Beg Oldi sector, is part of this strategic plan. Already, there are reports that Xi Jinpings PLA is supplying at least four armed drones to Pakistan to protect the CPEC route and should be seen in action against the restive population of Balochistan. The past 70 years of contemporary history teaches us that Beijing, while mouthing restraint, will ostensibly offer speeding up of boundary resolution by the two Special Representatives with a promise to handle the bilateral trade deficit in a focused fashion. This means that Beijing will keep the nearly $ 100 billion bilateral trade insulated from the border skirmishes, a tactic used by the Chinese leaders in the past to resuscitate relations. So basically China wants border and bilateral trade on its terms by trying to impose its military might against India. Even at the cost of losing his life, Col Santosh challenged this might by refusing to allow change in the ground situation in Galwan. Col Santosh Babu confronted his Chinese counterparts and asked them to follow the agreed June 6 disengagement rules That also means that India should not let the execution of the border infrastructure upgradation plan slow down. Certainly not in the Galwan Valley where one part of the Chinese effort has been to stop Indias border road project. In the coming days, we will see the PLAs psychology operations playing out in full strength. That could include TikTok videos of bodies of Indian soldiers lying in the Galwan river and that of soldiers, injured or held captive. This could be accompanied by images of PLA troops, artillery guns, surface-to-air missile batteries. There may also be videos of armed drones to create doubts in indian military minds over retaliation to the violent face-off. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the military brass assess the situation, the Galwan face-off is a slap in the face of the Wuhan and Chennai understandings with Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping. The answer to the skirmish does not lie in mere economic retaliation but standing and facing the PLA on the ground to have them honour the June 6 military resolutions. And till that time, any rapprochement with Beijing should be ruled out. While a section within the Indian government advises diplomatic resolution of the June 15 face-off, the only answer to the PLAs belligerence is standing up to them and holding the territory. The PLA must learn to respect the Indian army. This is the path Colonel Santosh Babu has shown us. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Police in Albuquerque were being criticized Tuesday for not stepping in sooner as a protest over a statue of a Spanish conquistador erupted in violence, leaving one man hospitalized with gunshot wounds. Police units that had been monitoring the protest moved in minutes after the shooting and used tear gas and rubber bullets as they took the suspect into custody and aided the man who was shot. But some witnesses say things started to escalate long before the shooting as protesters surrounded the statue and a group of armed men who were trying to protect it. Protesters wrapped a chain around the statue of Juan de Onate and began tugging on it while chanting: Tear it down. One protester swung a pickax at the base of the statue. The shots were fired in the street nearby, and protesters scrambled after hearing the gunfire. Stephen Ray Baca, 31, was arrested and jailed on suspicion of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Baca was once a candidate for the Albuquerque City Council and is the son of a former Bernalillo County sheriff. Baca had been among those trying to protect the statue when protesters appeared to maliciously pursue him, according to a criminal complaint. Video posted on social media showed protesters hitting Baca with a skateboard, punching him and chasing him before he opened fire. Mayor Tim Keller said during a news conference that Baca appeared to be agitating at the protest well before this shooting took place. The mayor pointed to a video that showed Baca throwing a woman to the ground and said investigators were still interviewing witnesses, reviewing video and working on a full account of what happened. It wasnt clear what precipitated the interaction with Baca and the woman. Keller said the investigation was being turned over to New Mexico State Police and the tactics used by police would be reviewed. I want to be clear that this investigation will continue. It will be independent and all these facts will be brought to light, he said. The mayor also announced that the Onate statue was removed Tuesday afternoon and placed into temporary storage given the citys concerns over public safety. Days earlier, the city announced plans to convene a council to consider the next steps for the piece of public art. Onate statues and other references to the Spanish conquistador have been sources of criticism for decades. Onate, who arrived in New Mexico in 1598, is celebrated as a cultural father figure in communities along the Upper Rio Grande that trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers. But hes also reviled for his brutality among Native Americans. The Albuquerque Journal reports members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, a self-described civilian militia group, showed up to protect the statue but protesters still tried to pull it down. Police could not say if Baca had any connection to the group. He was dressed differently than members, some of whom wore camouflage, had tactical equipment and carried long guns. Still, Keller said he was concerned about the group and used the incident to call on state lawmakers to consider gun control measures during their next session, specifically a possible amendment to the state Constitution that would give cities the power to regulate the right to bear arms. Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis said hes concerned about the decisions made before and during the prayer vigil and subsequent protest outside the museum, saying at least three different groups with different agendas were allowed to converge and antagonize each other unimpeded. Those charged with making decisions about engagement have put our officers in the impossible situation of protecting the rights of conflicting protesters while not intervening to prevent the inevitable conflicts, he said. At its core, policing is about protecting life and property. By that standard, the city failed on both counts last night. The man who was shot, Scott Williams, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, according to the criminal complaint. The violence came hours after activists in northern New Mexico celebrated the removal of another likeness of Onate that was on public display at a cultural centre in Alcalde. Rio Arriba County officials removed it to safeguard it from possible damage and to avoid civil unrest ahead of a scheduled protest. - Associated Press writer Paul Davenport in Phoenix contributed to this report. India recorded a total of 1, 611 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, raising the death rate in a single day in the country at 80 percent. ... India recorded a total of 1, 611 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, raising the death rate in a single day in the country at 80 percent. A day before, India had recorded less than 400 deaths. A day before, India had recorded less than 400 deaths. With 153, 178 active cases, India is the fourth country with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world after the USA, Brazil and Russia. Brazil recorded 1, 123 new deaths, while the USA has 797 deaths and Russia !93. India now has a total of 11, 921 deaths. The Indian Council of Medical Research had earlier said it is continuously scaling up its testing facilities for COVID-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. As of June, a total number 885 laboratories across India had been given approval to conduct the tests, including 642 government laboratories and 243 private laboratories. More than 180, 000 have recovered from the virus in the country. More than 5, 000 had also recovered from the virus in Nigeria. Nigeria has recorded 455 deaths and 17,148 cases of COVID-19.More than 5, 000 had also recovered from the virus in Nigeria. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkeys export of leather goods to Uzbekistan reduced by 47.67 percent from January through May 2020 compared to the same period of 2019, having amounted to $2.1 million, Turkeys Ministry of Trade told Trend. In May 2020, the export of leather goods from Turkey to Uzbekistan reduced by 87.95 percent compared to May 2019 and made up $84,100. In the first five months of 2020, export of leather goods from Turkey to the international markets decreased by 28.7 percent compared to the same period of 2019 and made up $530.3 million. The export of leather goods from Turkey made up 0.9 percent of the country's total export volume over the reporting period. Turkey exported the leather goods worth $61.4 million to the world markets in May 2020, which is 62.2 percent less compared to May 2019. In this month, Turkeys leather export amounted to 0.6 percent of the country's total export. From May 2019 through May 2020, Turkey exported $1.4 billion worth of the leather products abroad. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Former Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Rachel Appoh has asked Ghanaians to be circumspect with their criticism of Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu over his coronavirus status. Reports of Kwaku Agyeman Manu contracting the virus were quashed by Despite Media reporter, Afia Pokua who claimed to have spoken to the Minister who told her that he was only resting at the University of Ghana Medical Centre. However, in his eleventh address on the pandemic delivered on Sunday, June 14, 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo confirmed that the Dormaa MP was undergoing treatment after testing positive for the virus. The confirmation by the President led to criticism and mocking of the minister on various social media platforms. But Rachel Appoh has urged Ghanaians to stop mocking the Minister and rather pray for him. Speaking during a Covid-19 donation exercise in her constituency, the former Gomoa Central MP said that Ghanaians should rather unite and support the government in its fight against the virus. Ghanaians should stop mocking the Health Minister. Some Ghanaians are fond of taking pleasure in someones misfortune. When someone is going through difficulties thats when we rejoice. This sickness can affect everyone. Its not shameful for a Health Minister discharging his duties to get the virus. Anyone insulting or mocking the minister should by his or her head in shame. This is the time for us to unite and fight against the virus. We should do away with stigmatization, she said. Meanwhile, the government has announced that Kwaku Agyeman Manu has been discharged from the UGMC where he was receiving treatment. Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said at a press briefing on Tuesday, June 16 that the Minister is now being catered for at home. He [Agyeman-Manu] is not physically sick but he is taking the medication he has been given and he is responding to treatment, he said. 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 Cavelle Lennon and Mckia Seebaran hold up signs at a rally in Osoyoos on Saturday evening, to shed light on the problem of racism in small towns in Canada Chris Janicek, the Senate candidate who lost the support of the Nebraska Democratic Party this week after sending a sexually explicit text message about one of his campaign staff members, has also made racist comments in the past, according to four people who knew him or heard about the comments at the time. Peggy Jones, an associate professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha, told The New York Times that at a mutual friends party in Omaha about 20 years ago, while she was waiting in line to get food at a buffet table, Mr. Janicek turned to another person and said something like, Whos this N-word here, using a variation of the slur and indicating Ms. Jones. Ms. Jones, who is black, said that while she did not recall the full sentence with certainty, she remembered clearly that Mr. Janicek, who is white, had called her a niglet a slur she had never heard before. While she and Mr. Janicek had mutual friends, she said, they had never interacted before that remark. I definitely remember him calling me that and saying it in front of me so I could hear him, pretty unapologetically, Ms. Jones said. I was caught off guard. I was hurt. I was mad. I still remember how I felt. I dont remember every detail, but I remember how I felt. Tempus, a Chicago-based technology company that offers genetic testing and aggregates clinical information, initially focused on cancer patients. But with the coronavirus pandemic spreading across the world, it's joining the fight against Covid-19. Tempus was founded in 2015 by its CEO, Eric Lefkofsky, who previously co-founded the e-commerce company Groupon in 2008. But while Tempus' mission may seem far removed from that of an online discount marketplace, Lefkofsky had personal reasons for branching out. "My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer about five years ago, and I was amazed how little data was actually used as a part of her therapy, largely because our system makes it hard for doctors to access data when making real-time clinical decisions," he said. "It became clear to me that I needed to try and tackle this problem, and I founded Tempus soon afterwards." Tempus, which ranked No. 6 on the 2020 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, has three primary lines of business. It offers genomic tests that physicians can order, its most popular being a test that looks for over 600 genes associated with cancer. (It does not offer any direct-to-consumer genetic testing, like a 23andMe.) After Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, he discovered how hard the U.S. health system makes it for doctors to access data in clinical decision-making. That led him to found disease-agnostic AI start-up Tempus, which is now mining patient data for a potential Covid-19 medicine. Tempus It also partners with academic medical centers and community health-care systems to organize and aggregate clinical data, primarily data held in electronic health records. The clinical data is de-identified to protect patient privacy, then typically used in research projects to help understand patterns. Tempus claims to have one of the largest molecular and clinical data libraries. There is crossover between these two businesses, as data from genomic tests that run in its Chicago and Atlanta labs can be de-identified and added to the molecular and clinical data library. Finally, it curates and sells de-identified data to pharmaceutical companies working on drug discovery. Tempus is a covered entity under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), so all of the data is scrubbed of patient name, date of birth, address and any other data point that could identify an individual. Early on, Lefkofsky felt that the Tempus platform should apply to a broad cross-section of patient data. For this reason the Tempus platform was designed to be what the company calls "disease agnostic," which means it can be applied to patients suffering from many kinds of illnesses, including cancer, depression, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Covid-19. Using real-world Covid-19 patient data In April, Tempus began offering a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for Covid-19 from its Chicago and Atlanta laboratories. It currently expects to build its testing capacity to approximately 10,000 tests a day in the coming months. The test, offered through physicians, was rolled out parallel to the start of a research project to gather data on Covid-19 patients and look for patterns that can help physicians treating patients as well as drug-discovery efforts. Procedures may vary from patient to patient, but this is where Lefkofsky thinks the company's AI platform can do the most good. "We are focused on collecting real-world evidence for patients that are Covid-19 positive to help doctors stratify patients based on risk and help triage patients to the optimal therapeutic path for them, based on their unique phenotypic characteristics," he said. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and special partner at New Enterprise Associates, sits on Tempus' board of directors. He joined after serving as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, where he spearheaded efforts to advance the use of artificial intelligence to create individualized patient care. "I was impressed by the company's ability to rapidly scale its sequencing operations to support major academic institutions and community oncologists across the country and get data to patients and providers," he said. "They were focused not only on the back-end technologies to enable these opportunities, but equally important the front-end interfaces to make this information useful at the point of care." Artificial intelligence could help us solve a number of serious public health problems and improve outcomes for patients with infectious diseases. Scott Gottlieb former FDA commissioner and Tempus board member It also launched an initiative whose goal is to aggregate data for 50,000 patients who are Covid-19-positive. The hope is that this data will help reveal genetic characteristics that cause specific Covid-19 outcomes, as well as treatment practices for the illness. Gottlieb added that Tempus is partnering with employers and health-care providers to support Covid-19 testing in states where restrictions are being relaxed, and employees are going back to work, so they'll know what to watch out for. "We're going to have to be more aggressive in detecting and identifying respiratory viruses," he said. "To these ends, Tempus is also working on a next-generation sequencing panel for respiratory pathogens, including Covid-19, to diagnose patients and create a library for infectious disease research that could reduce the impact of future epidemics." Current limitations to AI use in medicine While Tempus' use of health data as a way to accelerate research shows promise, there are limitations. Dr. Jose Morey, Chief Medical Innovation Officer for Liberty BioSecurity and advisor for MIT Solve and NASA iTech, said that one problem in relying on AI in the case of a new virus is that there isn't enough data at the moment. "You have to have large data sets to be able to train, test, and validate," he said. "When you have something new and novel like this, they just don't exist. ... It will come eventually, but not yet." More from Disruptor 50: Meet the 2020 CNBC Disruptor 50 companies The technology that will dominate daily life on the other side of coronavirus Opportunity Missed: Why there are no Black CEOs on this year's list He added that the technology is also only as good as the data, and currently, there are systemic flaws in the way medical data is gathered and recorded. For example, he said that data in medical centers could be "dirty." "This means that the data is not structured to be plugged into the math that is AI,'" he said. He added that health-care data is also frequently "siloed," or separated into unconnected compartments. For AI to do its job, it requires large amounts of interconnected data, which Morey said doesn't exist in the U.S. health-care system. "Health-care entities, such as device manufacturers, electronic medical record vendors, and hospitals, are not incentivized to share data amongst each other," he said. "This is why there are so many AI companies doing incremental algorithm and application development." In April, Tempus began offering a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test from its Chicago and Atlanta laboratories. It expects to build its testing capacity to 10,000 tests a day in the coming months and hopes to aggregate data for 50,000 patients who are Covid-19-positive. Tempus YOU are a very wicked man. Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Maxwell Takuva on Monday told an Inyathi man before sentencing him to 25 years in jail for fatally stabbing a village head four times with a spear in October last year. Mthokozisi Mtambo (35) of stand 21 Village 8, Kennilworth in Inyathi used a spear on October 5 to stab Hlathini village head, Major Masiza Moyo, who was 65. Mtambo stabbed Moyo on the forehead, shoulder, abdomen and hand after the now-deceased and some villagers confronted him for stealing bags of cement and mealie meal from two homesteads. Justice Takuva, who is on circuit in Hwange said the manner in which Mtambo killed Moyo was brutal as he convicted him of murder with actual intent. You are a very wicked man. You ruthlessly attacked an unarmed old man trying to conceal a crime you had committed and, in the process, you deprived the deceaseds family and community of a father and leader, Justice Takuva said. Justice Takuva said when sentencing Mtambo, who was represented by Mr Tafadzwa Chimusaru of Mashindi and Associates, he had considered that he has a wife and three minor children. Details of the case as presented by the prosecutor Ms Memory Munsaka were that on October 5 at around 4PM, a villager Mrs Mildred Sigadula reported to the now-deceased that someone had stolen two empty buckets and five kilogrammes of maize meal from her homestead. When the village heads wife reported that cement had also been stolen from her homestead, villagers went to engage Mtambo leading to the fatal attack. The deceased called for a village meeting at the assembly point the following morning. At around the same time the deceaseds wife discovered that six bags of cement had been stolen from their homestead and reported the matter to the now deceased, said the prosecutor. Villagers suspected that Mtambo had stolen the goods after tracing footprints to his homestead. The now-deceased mobilised some villagers and proceeded to Mtambos homestead with the intention of searching for the stolen goods. Mtambo became violent when the villagers asked for permission to search his homestead. He went into his bedroom and came out armed with a spear and an iron bar. The court was told that the now-deceased pleaded with Mtambo telling him that he was not there to fight but to search for stolen property, but he attacked him. Moyo fell down before Mtambo stabbed him on the shoulder, stomach and hand. Villagers later used a wheelbarrow to carry Moyo to Inyathi District Hospital where he died on admission. Mtambos elder brother Mr Mkhululi Mtambo teamed up with other villagers and apprehended him and handed him over to the police. Chronicle The stolen bags of cement were recovered from Mtambos hut.Chronicle The United State government on Wednesday expressed worry over the incessant attacks on citizens of Nigeria living in the northern part of the country. The U.S. government, in a statement signed by Michael Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State from its Nigeria embassy said the recent killings are senseless and brazen. It also corroborated PREMIUM TIMES weekly analysis that over 100 civilians were killed by Boko Haram and Bandits attacks last week. We condemn the recent senseless and brazen killings of civilians in northern Nigeria. In recent weeks, suspected ISIS West Africa militants launched multiple attacks in Borno State, killing more than 120 civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. On June 9, unidentified armed bandits attacked a village in Katsina State, killing dozens. These horrific crimes follow the shooting of a pastor and his pregnant wife on June 1 and the killing of an imam, local village head, and several civilians on June 5 in the course of intercommunal violence in Taraba State. Tens of thousands of civilians have lost their lives in Nigeria in recent years to violent attacks by terrorist groups or criminal gangs, in inter-communal violence, or due to their religious beliefs. The U.S., however, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take necessary actions in insecurity in the country. The United States calls on the Government of Nigeria to do more to strengthen ongoing efforts to address this violence, hold those responsible accountable, and protect civilians. On Sunday, PREMIUM TIMES analysis revealed that over 150 persons died following the attack as many were also injured. Aside from this, many houses and other properties were also lost in the attacks. Yet, President Muhammadu Buhari in his Democracy day speech claimed that insurgence and banditry have been downgraded. READ ALSO: The data for this report were gathered from newspaper publications where cases were confirmed by police, defence headquarters, government officials or families of the victims. Despite the scary figure of deaths, Mr Buhari in his June 12 address said his government has in the area of security, in the past five years remain unshaken in its resolve to protect our national infrastructure including on-shore and off-shore oil installations, secure our territorial waters and end piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. The broadcast came hours after suspected Boko Haram splinter group, ISWAP, circulated a video footage showing the execution of an abducted soldier and a police officer. The crowd was steady at the opening day of the Spring Carlisle event at the Carlisle Fairgrounds, though modest compared to the auto show and flea markets highest attendance records. When we postponed the show, we immediately had an expectation the event turnout was not going to be what we are accustomed to, said Michael Garland of Carlisle Events. This is the first day of the spring event albeit in June but still, day one of the spring show is historically a load-in and setup day. The true measure of what the show will look like will probably come tomorrow and Friday. The Spring Carlisle show is usually held in April, but it was initially postposed to May due to the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing statewide shutdown orders. It was postponed weeks later, and the opening in June came after Cumberland County entered the green phase of the states recovery program. But while delayed opening dates and COVID-19 concerns from crowds may reduce the overall attendance, by 10 a.m. there were still dozens and dozens of attendees making their way through the lines of vendor stalls. Garland cited several new safety measures put in place this year, as well as the potential for both vendors and guests to stay well spread-out over the fairgrounds 82 acres. Thus far, he said, there had been no complaints from attendees about the requirements to wear masks upon entry, or the one-way traffic imposed on the few large, well-ventilated buildings that were open. I think everybody, given all of this, is looking for that peace of mind, Garland said. We were able to craft some health safety measures, including some cleaning of picnic tables that people are dining on, social distancing in the food court, masks when people enter the facility. We havent heard anything negative from vendors. While vendors and attendees arent complaining, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is another story. The state agency has filed a suit for a cease and desist petition for the event, citing concerns that at similar events, as many as 100,000 people have gathered a number 400 times larger the 250 limit established by the state for safe gathering in the green phase. READ MORE: Citing COVID-19 fears, Pa. Health Department sues in bid to stop 100K from attending Carlisle car show Carlisle Events has declined to comment on the Department of Healths filing, though in a previous interview, Garland had noted that many of the past years events that would require crowds gathered into grandstands or other tightly-packed areas have been canceled. But while masks were required for entry into the event, and their use was encouraged by Carlisle Event staff, many attendees went without them once inside. Ive been coming here for 20 years, spring and fall, said John Mancino, who had driven from outside of Syracuse, New York, roughly five hours to attend and sell wares as a vendor. I think that all the signs are there that things are clearing up, at least in New York state. When we found our Carlisle was going to open up, we jumped right in we had to get out of the house. Mancino did not wear a mask, though he acknowledged that he was within the age demographic most at risk of severe and potentially deadly COVID-19 symptoms. I believe its everybodys right to choose, he said. Im a big boy, I can take my chances like that. But again, it comes down to hygiene. Wash your hands. Dont lick doorknobs. Its worked for me since this started. I do wear masks where required, but I think its everybodys right to choose. Mancino praised the measures taken by Carlisle Events, including hand washing stations and allowing for more distance between vendors, saying that the organizers had checked all the right boxes. Im not uncomfortable, and I think if you look around here, not a lot of people are, he said. And were at about a third of the capacity as what the show normally is. So I feel safe. Brian Martin drove two and a half hours from the Scranton area in Luzerne County to attend with a small group of friends, all of whom wore masks. Luzerne County will not enter the green phase until June 19 along with Dauphin County and six other counties. And while Martin admitted that he hadnt seen many attendees in masks, things still seemed pretty good right now. READ MORE: Which Pa. counties will go green next? Here are the 8, including Dauphin, set to reopen next Friday I was really expecting to see more people around, he said. So far the crowds are pretty low and everyone seems to be staying pretty far away. I havent talked to any vendors yet, but it looks like most people are not wearing masks. But its a pretty wide open area, and its not super crowded. So Im not worried. As the Spring Carlisle show was his first public outing since the shutdowns began, Martin said he and his companions planned to watch out for ourselves, wear our masks, wash our hands, do what we need to stay safe. Interactions between people, Ill definitely have my mask on, he said. Im not real concerned. I dont plan on touching people or anything like that. I feel pretty comfortable with the situation. When asked about the Department of Healths suit and enforcing the limitations on public outdoor gatherings, Martin considered before saying expecting less than 250 people at an event like Spring Carlisle is not realistic. Youre obviously going to have much more than that, he said. It looks like vendors are spread out, and people are keeping their six foot distance. I think its definitely doable. But youve got to follow precautions. Wear your masks, wash your hands, dont touch. Take care of yourself and watch out for yourself. More on the coronavirus reopening: Hersheys Chocolate World reopens with new coronavirus safeguards: Heres our first look Summer camps go socially distant, both online and in person, as the coronavirus continues In May, Microsoft unveiled a new supercomputer at a developer conference, claiming its the fifth most powerful machine in the world. Built in collaboration with OpenAI, the computer is designed to train single massive AI models in self-supervised learning, forgoing the need for human-labeled data sets. These AI models operate in distributed optimization, resulting in significant improvement in both speed and level of intelligence. This is a major step forward in mimicking the human brain, with the ultimate goal of attaining artificial super-intelligence (ASI), a fruitful outcome from Microsofts $1 billion investment in OpenAI in July 2019. Is achieving ASI hubris? Can artificial intelligence created by humans be superior than human intelligence created by God, displaying mans supremacy, glory, and independence in himself, apart from his Creator? As a technologist in the field, I am intrigued by the cleverness in designs and algorithms of various AI disciplines advancing the world every day. However, I take issue with making super intelligence that out-performs humans the ultimate goal of AI. First, such an agenda not only faces immense technical limitations, but it also extremely underestimates the intricacy of Gods design in his creation of mankind. Second, such an agenda will incur an expensive opportunity cost to augmented intelligence, the agenda of which is human collaboration, not competition to supersede humans, as a more realistic and practical approach to benefit humanity. Scientists define artificial intelligence as a machines ability to replicate higher-order human cognitive functions , such as learning, reasoning, problem solving, perception, and natural language processing. In a system like this, its engineering goal is to design machines and software capable of intelligent behavior. OpenAIs daring goal is classified as artificial super-intelligencea state in which machines become superior to humans across all domains of interests, exceeding human cognition. Some scientists envision ASI as a monolithic, super-intelligent machine called the singleton, a single decision-making agency at the highest level of technological superiority, so powerful that no other entity could threaten its existence. Past progress made this aspiration seem hopeful. In 2016, Googles DeepMind AlphaGo beat South Korean Go champion Lee Se-dol. In 2011, IBM Watson won US quiz show Jeopardy!, demonstrating AIs superior performance over humans in processing speed and data-volume. In 1996 and 1997, IBM Deep Blue defeated chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, demonstrating the machines superiority in looking ahead at different possible paths to determine best moves. Do these breakthroughs mean ASI is within reach? In Genesis 11:19, the people of the earth sought to build the Tower of Babel, a monolithic super-state in the land of Shinar. Today, scientists seek to build ASI, a monolithic decision-making agency as a super-intelligent singleton. Similarities between the two transcend time and space. Both are a quest for supremacy of mankind: one with a tower that reaches the heavens, the other with a singleton that is capable of dominating man. Both are quests for self-glory: making a name for themselves, seeking the glory in themselves instead of seeking the glory of God. Both are a quest for independence from God: People would rather trust the creations of their own hands than trust their Creator. Unmasking the unspoken presumptions Famous physicist Stephen Hawking believed that when we arrive at ASI, (AI) will take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldnt compete and would be superseded. Hawking presumed that a human is only a brain, no different from a computer. Hawkings stance, popular within the AI community, presumes (1) evolution, (2) non-existence of God, and (3) humanity as no different from objects. Article continues below As a technologist in this field, I operate with a strikingly different set of presumptions that are based on my faith in God and informed by his Word. There are four biblical pillars, I call them, that anchor my presumptions and draw the perimeter within which I explore and formulate my AI points of view. First, mankind is the image bearer of God. Theologian Anthony A. Hoekema said, The most distinctive feature of the biblical understanding of man is the teaching that man has been created in the image of God. This presumption not only asserts the existence of God but also validates the value of people as bearers of Gods image. It states the hierarchical order between God, the Creator and man, the creatures. Any endeavor to defy this hierarchical order is outside the set perimeter. Computer scientists such as David Poole, Alan Mackworth, and others asked among themselves, Just as an artificial pearl is a fake pearl, is artificial intelligence real intelligence? Second, I consider the divine mandate of mankind to subdue the earth and everything within it (Gen. 1:28), including AI. This presumption guides the AI agenda into submission to mankind and takes issue with an AI agenda seeking to supersede it. I also rest on a third pillar: Humans are integrated beingsspirit, soul, and body (1 Thess. 5:23)a striking contrast to Hawkings presumption on humanity. While AI attempts to digitize a fragment of human intelligence, the human spirit, the imprint of Gods image, the faculty that connects to God, is not within the reach of AI. Last, I remember that humans are beings of love as God is love (Ps. 8:48; Ps. 57:10; Ps. 139:1318), demonstrated by Jesus, who came to earth to serve (Phil. 2:68). Therefore, when we ask why AI? the answer is to see AI as a tool to serve and to bless for the benefit of the world. The ASI singleton: Will mankind arrive? The inception of AI can be traced back to 1950, when Alan Turing published the landmark paper asking Can machine think? and devised the Turing test using humans as his benchmark. Generally speaking, most AI we think of today has only achieved capability of the first of three stages of AI, as defined by computer scientists. The breakthroughs previously cited, which beat humans in different games, solved specific problem of narrow domain but are incapable of adaptability to derive solutions for problems in diverse contexts. These machines, which rely on humans to feed them data, are called artificial narrow intelligence or ANI. They learn by performing statistical analysis over training data to formulate a generalized model that can be used to predict and prescribe. As training data and generalized models accumulate, machines are able to solve problems of broader scope with more precision. But they have limitations. By design, they can only find correlations, not discover causality. Their accuracy depends on the training datas representativeness of the population data at large. Amazons AI hiring engine behaved discriminately against hiring women, illustrating the problem of representativeness in data resulting in bias. Then, before we even get to a singleton, there is yet another stage to achieve. AI would have to be comparable to humans (artificial general intelligence or AGI). Machines would become capable of self-adaptation, self-understanding, transferring learning to problem contexts not previously exposed. With autonomous control, machine intelligence would be proactive and interactive like humans. While machines can surpass humans in certain areas such as retention and retrieval of knowledge, extracting insights from data in volume, speed, etc., AGI is still considered ambitious, with many challenges before it can claim to be comparable to humans holistically. Article continues below For example, emotional AI, formally known as affective computing, can only process and simulate sadness in very limited forms, such as facial recognition and language processing, but is unable to elicit emotions, such as sadness coming from compassion or empathy triggered by a flashed memory of a deceived love one or seeing a starving child. So, the final echelon of accomplishment of artificial super intelligence is yet far off. A survey of AI experts published in 2016 indicated that there is a 90 percent chance of reaching AGI by 2075 and a 75 percent chance of reaching ASI by 2105. The core question remains: Is arriving at ASI a function of time? Or is it a function of nature? Would 155 years since 1950s landmark discovery be all it takes for human-created intelligence to become superior than human intelligence created by God? Or is ASI unattainable by nature? Is ASI todays Tower of Babel, another project of humanity waiting to fail? Setting an alternate AI trajectory Not everyone in the AI field shares the ASI presumptions and its agenda. Some doubt the plausibility of the ASI agenda. Others realize that humans are more than their intelligence. Wisdom, as differentiated from intelligence, is uniquely human and superior to intelligence. Intelligence only addresses the what, demonstrated in efficiency, capacity, and accuracy. Wisdom addresses the why, encapsulating the moral compass, discernment, sound judgment, discretion, prudence, understanding, compassion, empathy, intuition, etc. We feel the effects of wisdom: harmony, peace, sense of justice, respect, fruitfulness, righteousness, purity, love, prosperity. Psychologist Mark McMinn further calls out critical wisdom as embedded in complexity and paradox, requiring exceptional discernment and creativity, compared to conventional wisdom as living a good and effective life. To accomplish the ASI goal to supersede mankind, surpassing human intelligence, even if successful, is insufficient. ASI must also surpass human wisdom, coming from the imprint of Gods image in mankind. Furthermore, we are free to choose a strikingly better trajectory for AI. If better is defined and measured by the number of people benefited and the magnitude of the benefits, then we may assert that blessing humanity is a better AI agenda than creating a singleton to supersede humanity. It is up to us to step up to subdue the earth as beings of love, by creating and applying AI technologies, such as augmented cognition, for the blessings and the betterment of others: better management of resources entrusted to us, healing the sick, offering cognitive relief to the stressed out workforce, and more. Setting an AI trajectory in alignment with Gods prescribed hierarchical order, with his heart to love and to serve under the lordship of God, gives us access to his divine wisdom for our AI work to bring wise solutions to solve critical problems that are also dear to Gods heart. It is far more intriguing for mankind to be the embodiment of Gods divine wisdom (DW) than AI as the embodiment of mankinds intelligence. Adding to McMinns critical wisdom, divine wisdom is the spirit of mankind receiving Gods revelations, the secret and hidden wisdom (1 Cor. 2:7, ESV), the great and unsearchable things you do not know (Jer. 33:3), through the Spirit of God that God promised to generously grant to those who call on him and ask in humility. Joanna Ng is a founder of an AI startup. A former IBMer, she headed up research in IBM Canada and is an IBM Master Inventor; she has 44 patent grants, with 12 pending; and has published 2 computer science books and 20-plus papers. WASHINGTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A statewide poll of likely Wisconsin voters finds broad voter support for reductions in immigration in the face of massive layoffs resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. The polling was conducted on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) by the national opinion research firm, Zogby Analytics, on June 10 and 11. The poll indicates that Wisconsin voters support reductions in the admission of new immigrants and guest workers in the face of the ongoing public health and economic crises gripping the nation. Wisconsin voters are also significantly more likely to prioritize the need for immigration and border enforcement over programs to legalize millions of illegal aliens. Among the key findings of the Wisconsin opinion poll: By about margins of 57% to 36% voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. By a 53% to 34% margin, Wisconsin voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." 83% of voters in Wisconsin believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 12% disagree. believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 12% disagree. By a 59% to 41% majority, Wisconsin voters said they would prioritize reducing overall immigration, strengthening immigration enforcement and border security, and removing illegal aliens from the country, over increasing immigration, granting amnesty to illegal aliens, or decriminalizing illegal immigration. "The polling shows clear public support in Wisconsin for many of the immigration policy steps that the Trump administration has taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting economic and unemployment crisis. Voters in this key state agree that reductions in the admission of new immigrants and foreign workers are a prudent response to a crisis that has resulted in some 40 million Americans losing their jobs, and there is broad support for additional measures to be taken by the White House," commented Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "The polling numbers send a clear message to Senators Johnson and Baldwin, and members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation, that jobs and economic security are always critical issues in presidential and congressional elections. Senator Baldwin is a vocal supporter of the H-1B program that prevents hundreds of thousands of American STEM workers and graduates from finding meaningful employment, even during a crisis of this magnitude. Senator Johnson is a supporter of President Trump's immigration enforcement agenda, but now has the chance to stand against corporate interests demanding the continuation of cheap guest worker programs in the midst of the current economic crisis. "While voters certainly understand the extraordinary circumstances that have led to massive unemployment, they will also expect that the president and their federal representatives will take all reasonable steps to minimize the damage done to American workers, and expedite recovery for those who have lost jobs. This poll makes it clear that Wisconsin voters understand and support the need to reduce the flow of people entering the country who will compete for jobs during this crisis and once the economy fully reopens," Stein concluded. The poll of 607 likely voters has a +/-4 percent margin of error. Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or [email protected] ABOUT FAIR Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 2 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced. SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Related Links http://www.fairus.org By Bill Hughes Jun. 16, 2020 | 11:00 PM | PADUCAH A write-in candidate for Mayor of Paducah has claimed that the integrity of a family member's in-person vote at the courthouse was compromised.In an email link sent to West Kentucky Star and a Tuesday afternoon Facebook post with a video that has since been deleted, DuJuan Thomas posted, "Check your ballots! My grandmother was cheated out of her right to vote in the Kentucky primary election due to negligence by McCracken County Courthouse staff in Paducah. She was given the wrong person's ballot and it was too late until she realized the mistake they made."Thomas claimed courthouse workers would not allow her come back and vote under her correct name to fix the problem, and wondered how many others may have encountered similar situations.When contacted about the issue, County Clerk Julie Griggs said she was unaware of the situation and had not been told by any of her staff about any problems. She asked this reporter to reach out to Thomas so they could speak directly to each other.Later, Thomas and Griggs both indicated they had spoken and that nothing could be done at this point. Griggs explained that when a voter comes in and is identified, the system will indicate which ballot a person should get based on their voting precinct and political party affiliation.In this specific case, Griggs said, "We scan the person's driver's license when they come in, so it's not going to come up under another Mary Thomas, only her."As for a claim that the woman couldn't vote in a specific race, Griggs indicated that the only possible way that could happen is if the poll worker gave the wrong ballot. But the voter has the final say in that process.Griggs said, "If she had a question about it, she should have asked somebody before she ran it through the scanner."Thomas said his grandmother got confused about the process and didn't say anything until it was too late.Printed ballots are designed to not include any personal voter information, so at this point, it would be impossible to trace back to her.Griggs stressed that voters are ultimately responsible for making sure the ballot they receive from an election worker is the one they should have, based on their precinct and political party. Until the ballot is scanned, any errors can be corrected.Thomas is a write-in candidate in the Paducah Mayoral race, which is a non-partisan election. Every voter in the city limits may vote for mayor and city commission.A sample ballot for McCracken County can be seen at the link below.Thomas' complete Facebook post said, On the Net: An Oklahoma man was set free after new video footage showed his two young children climbed into his truck on their own, where they became trapped and succumbed to the heat, multiple reports said. Dustin Dennis, 31, told police he drove to QuikTrip around noon with his 3- and 4-year-old children in tow, according to KOCO News. A neighbors surveillance footage showed he returned home, locked his car and went inside alone. Dennis reportedly told investigators he took a four or five-hour nap, and when he woke up couldnt find his children, KOCO News said. Hes seen in the neighbors video going out to the truck and retrieving his children around then. CNN said Dennis told police he thought hed taken his children inside. But newly-discovered video footage showed the children got into the truck on their own, and then couldnt get back out, KOCO News reported. Both were dead when police arrived, according to KOCO News. Temperatures in Tulsa reached the low-90s on Saturday. District Attorney Steve Kunzeweiler told CNN the investigation isnt over just because Dennis was released. READ MORE: Father, son responsible for shooting death of 19-year-old in western Pa. after argument: reports Central Pa. police investigating after severely injured woman is found in the street with multiple gunshot wounds Eastern Pa. man accused of sexually abusing two boys, including foster child What is the most shameful is that the government is filling the budget with such fines. This is what deputy of the Prosperous Armenia Party Gevorg Petrosyan told reporters in the yard of the Yerevan court of general jurisdiction today, touching upon the fact that he was fined for not wearing a face mask. Since the authorities finally became convinced that no other foreign investor is going to come and make investments in Armenia in order to raise police officers salaries due to their administration and policies, now they are going after people to fine them. Let them fine me so that I will want to go out every day without a mask and pay the fines to fill the budget, the deputy said. When asked why he doesnt wear a face mask, Petrosyan said he has a health problem and will dispute the fine. Asked if he is also loyal to Gagik Tsarukyan, Petrosyan said Gagik Tsarukyan is his big brother and doesnt need to show his loyalty to him. Journalists also asked Petrosyan if thinks its normal that his fellow deputies signed papers to show their loyalty to Gagik Tsarukyan, to which Petrosyan said he wasnt familiar with those papers and that everyone has to be held responsible for their actions. YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian signed today the law on making changes in the Tax Code, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. According to the change, profit taxpayers will be exempt from the duty of making profit tax prepayments for the 2nd quarter of 2020. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan By PTI NEW DELHI: Beverages major Coca-Cola on Wednesday said it has partnered with CARE India to provide food and other essentials to underprivileged and vulnerable groups as part of its commitment of Rs 100 crore towards various COVID-19 relief programmes in India. Under the initiative, Coca-Cola and CARE India will provide dry-ration kits with curated food items to meet specific nutritional needs of various marginalised groups such as migrant workers, daily wage earners and people living with HIV/AIDS across various parts of the country, the company said in a statement. The three-month-long programme starting June aims to benefit over 1. 5 lakh people and will be rolled out across Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal. Commenting on the initiative, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia Vice-President, Public Affairs, Communications & Sustainability Ishteyaque Amjad said, "We hope that our joint efforts help assuage the state of the most vulnerable people of our society and that through our collective efforts as a country, we will be able to steer ourselves out of these testing times." CARE India CEO Manoj Gopalakrishna said the nationwide lockdown to fight COVID-19 has disproportionately affected the poorest and marginalised population in India. "In these difficult times, we need to ensure that they have access to high-quality nutritious food to overcome the challenges posed by this pandemic and provide them with necessary support. With the support of Coca-Cola, we hope to make a difference to the vulnerable and marginalised and hope they overcome these unprecedented circumstances," he added. Loading A minute's silence was observed in parliament on Wednesday to honour the 5000 people who died of the disease. New infections spiked in India, Iran and the US as authorities struggled to balance restarting economic activity without accelerating the pandemic. Officials in some European countries, which embarked on a wide-scale reopening this week, looked on with trepidation as the Americas struggled to contain the first wave of the pandemic and Asian countries like China and South Korea reported new outbreaks. A worker disinfects a site where Beijing residents are being tested for COVID-19. Credit:Getty Images More than 8.4 million people have been reported to be infected by virus globally and 451,885 have died, according to a WHO and Johns Hopkins University tally. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December. African debts to China South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has reminded China that African nations are seeking significant debt relief as they battle the coronavirus pandemic. Ramaphosa addressed Chinese President Xi Jinping during an online summit on Wednesday to discuss the virus that has infected more than 260,000 people across Africa. From left: Chinese President Xi Jinping, Senegalese President Macky Sall and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attend a China-Africa summit in 2018. Credit:Getty Images African nations early in the pandemic called for a two-year suspension of debt payments and other relief that would allow them to focus resources on the health crisis. Loading But China, Africa's biggest creditor, has not indicated it will offer a sweeping solution and experts say it will focus instead on bilateral arrangements with countries. Ramaphosa urged China to offer more relief "or to propose alternative solutions", warning that "the worst is still to come" for Africa in the pandemic. The Chinese President in his speech said he hoped the international community, "especially developed countries and multilateral financial institutions, will act more forcefully on debt relief and suspension for Africa." US toll passes 117,000 The US has the most infections and deaths in the world, with a toll that passed 117,000 on Wednesday, surpassing the number of citizens who died in World War I. Arizona reported a daily high of nearly 2400 new infections for a total of more than 39,000, while in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott insisted the state's healthcare system could handle the fast-rising number of new cases and hospitalisations. Tuesday marked the eighth time in nine days that Texas set a new high for COVID-19 hospitalisations at 2518. Abbott noted that Texans may have become lax in wearing masks or practising social distancing and urged people to stay home as much as possible. Canada and the US extended to July 21 a deal to keep their border closed to non- essential travel, with many Canadians fearing cases arriving from the US. Germany records 657 virus cases at slaughterhouse It came as regional officials in western Germany said on Wednesday that the number of new COVID-19 cases linked to a large meatpacking plant had risen to 657, a higher figure than many recent daily increases for the entire country. Health officials in Guetersloh said they have received a total of 983 test results so far from workers at the Toennies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck. Of those, 326 tests were negative. German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised regional officials for swiftly closing schools in the region. "We are far away from an exponential increase," Merkel said, insisting that the country would continue to try to relax restrictions despite the local outbreak at the slaughterhouse. "But we see from these outbreaks that the virus isn't gone," she added. Company officials at Toennies said the outbreak at the slaughterhouse may have been linked to workers taking the opportunity to visit their families in eastern European countries as border controls were relaxed. Officials ordered the closure of the slaughterhouse, as well as isolation and tests for everyone else who had worked at the Toennies site - putting about 7000 people under quarantine. Situation 'extremely grave' in China On Wednesday Beijing raised its threat level from three to two, cancelling classes, suspending re-openings and strengthening requirements for social distancing. It was a sharp pullback for the country that declared victory over COVID-19 in March and a message to the rest of the world about how tenacious the virus really is. Chinese officials described the situation in the capital, population 20 million, as "extremely grave". "This has truly rung an alarm bell for us," Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of the city's Communist Party Standing Committee. Loading After a push that began on June 14, the city expects to have tested 700,000 people by the end of the day, said Zhang Qiang, a Beijing party official. About half of them were workers from the city's food markets, nearby residents and close contacts. The party's Global Times said 1255 flights to and from the capital's two major airports were scrapped by Wednesday morning, about two-thirds of those scheduled. China also limited other travel around the capital, keying in on hotspots. Beijing had essentially eradicated local transmissions until recent days, with 137 new cases since last week. Experts say the true toll is much higher, due to the many who died without being tested and other factors. Medical staff test a person for COVID-19 near the Xinfadi Market in Beijing. Credit:Getty Images President hospitalised in Honduras Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been hospitalised with COVID-19 and is being treated for pneumonia, a health official said on Wednesday, a day after the Central American leader's diagnosis was revealed. While his condition is serious enough to require specialised hospital care, including receiving medicine via an intravenous drip, the President is generally in good health, said Francis Contreras, a spokesman for Honduran health agency SINAGER. In a televised address a day earlier, Hernandez said he and his wife had tested positive for the virus. He said that over the weekend he began feeling some discomfort and on Tuesday received the test results. He said it was part of the risk that comes with the job. With his responsibilities, he said, he could not stay at home constantly. South Korea, India report new cases In South Korea, authorities reported 43 new cases amid increased public activity. Loading Authorities said 25 of them came from around Seoul, where hundreds of infections have been linked to nightclubs, church gatherings, e-commerce workers and door-to-door salespeople. Twelve of the new cases came from international arrivals. India, with the fourth-highest caseload after the US, Brazil and Russia, added more than 2000 deaths to its tally after Delhi and Maharashtra states included 1672 previously unreported fatalities. Its death toll of 11,903 is now eighth-highest in the world. India has reported 10,000 new infections and more than 300 deaths each day for the last two weeks. Iran's latest outbreak comes after a major Muslim holiday last month and as travel and lockdown restrictions were relaxed. Health Minister Saeed Namaki said he realised the extent of the challenge when he took a domestic flight. "Many people have become careless, frustrated with wearing masks," he said. "They did not observe [social] distancing in the flight's seating and the airliner's ventilation system was not working." Buckle, an insurtech startup focused on rideshare insurance, has acquired Gateway Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Schaumburg, Illinois-based Atlas Financial Holdings, for an undisclosed price. The move allows Buckle to expand its commercial auto coverage capacity and reach via a partnership with Atlas. Buckles purchase of Gateway includes its 47 state insurance licenses. Gateway provides auto insurance to the light automobiles market in the U.S. Atlas primarily focuses on U.S. commercial auto insurance, zeroing in on the light commercial automobile sector in areas such as taxi cabs, non-emergency para-transit and limousine/livery. Buckle said it made the decision to purchase Gateway as a way to support a management general agency owned by Atlas Anchor Group Management Inc. By doing so, Buckle will now be working with Atlas to sell comprehensive, affordable auto insurance to the commercial auto market for clients including part-time rideshare and delivery drivers, full-time taxicab and limousine drivers, non-emergency paratransit drivers, and transportation network companies (TNCs). The deal calls for Buckle to support Anchor Group as it scales annual premiums, the companies said. As well, Anchor Group will transition Atlas taxi, livery and full-time TNC driver policies from its pool of subsidiaries over to Gateway. The companies describe their transaction as a re-capitalization of Gateway. Funding for the deal came from clients of Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd., (doing its insurance/reinsurance business as HSCM Bermuda Management Company). Buckle co-founder Marty Young said in prepared remarks that the partnership will drive down the costs of insurance. Every time Buckle sells a policy, its TNC partners balance sheet improves as risk is moved from the TNC to the independent contractors, he explained. Buckle, based in Georgia, debuted its driver rideshare policy with personal and commercial cover in February. The companys official launch came after a pilot test of the coverage with hundreds of drivers in Georgia in 2019. As Buckles website notes, it is regulated by state insurance commissioners and backed by Munich Re and Clear Blue Insurance. Source: Buckle/Atlas Topics Mergers Auto InsurTech Commercial Lines Tech Business Insurance Featuring equipment from four locations, all items will be sold with online bidding only NORTH EAST, MD, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - For the past few months Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers has been conducting its site auctions as online-only bidding events and seen bidder registrations hit record levels. Next week, on June 23 24, the company will combine equipment from four different locationsNorth East, MD; North Franklin, CT; Pittsburgh, PA; and Williamsport, PAinto one big online-only auction with 5,900+ items. "We would expect to see a lot of buyer crossover if we held these as individual events, so it just makes sense to combine for the convenience of our buyers and benefit of our sellers," said Dave Kreis, Sales Director, Ritchie Bros. "With 5,900+ items from 800+ owners, this will be one of our biggest events ever in this part of the country. We already have a ton of late-model, well-maintained equipment and trucks, with more being added every day. We encourage interested bidders to get online, get registered, and be ready to bid come auction dayyou won't want to miss this one!" Equipment highlights in the June 23 24 Northeast auction include 440+ truck tractors, 135+ excavators, 130+ aerial work platforms (boom & scissor lifts), 130+ dump trucks, 110+ compactors, 95+ flatbed trucks, 70+ loaders, 60+ skid steers, and more. All items will be sold without minimum bids or reserve prices. Visit rbauction.com for more info. Ritchie Bros. will also be hosting a special Marketplace-E event leading up to next week's Northeast auction. More than 100 items are currently listed to be sold in the June 17 26 Markeplace-E event from consignors from the Northeast region and across the United States, with 'Make Offer' and 'Buy Now' bidding options available. For more information, visit ironplanet.com/mpe-northeast. About Ritchie Bros.: Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE and TSX: RBA) is a global asset management and disposition company, offering customers end-to-end solutions for buying and selling used heavy equipment, trucks and other assets. Operating in a number of sectors, including construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, oil and gas, mining, and forestry, the company's selling channels include: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, the world's largest industrial auctioneer offers live auction events with online bidding; IronPlanet, an online marketplace with featured weekly auctions and providing the exclusive IronClad Assurance equipment condition certification; Marketplace-E, a controlled marketplace offering multiple price and timing options; Mascus, a leading European online equipment listing service; and Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty, offering privately negotiated sales. The company's suite of multichannel sales solutions also includes Ritchie Bros. Asset Solutions, a complete end-to-end asset management and disposition system. Ritchie Bros. also offers sector-specific solutions including GovPlanet, TruckPlanet, and Kruse Energy, plus equipment financing and leasing through Ritchie Bros. Financial Services. For more information about Ritchie Bros., visit RitchieBros.com. Photos and video for embedding in media stories are available at rbauction.com/media. SOURCE Ritchie Bros. The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that Turkish and Iranian military interventions in Iraq violated the sovereignty of a sisterly Arab country. "UAE denounced the Turkish and Iranian military interventions in brotherly Iraq, through their bombing of areas in northern Iraq, which constituted a violation of the sovereignty of a sisterly Arab country and led to intimidation and the spread of terror among innocent civilians," a foreign ministry statement said. Early on Wednesday, Turkey's Defence Ministry said its warplanes had struck Kurdish forces in northern Iraq's Haftanin region. It was the second strike against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq in the space of three days. Search Keywords: Short link: China had started to return to normalcy after successfully "flattening the curve," with the government slowly easing restrictions and opening up the economy. However, Beijing has reported new clusters of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, prompting the implementation of lockdown measures. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Beijing has over 200 new cases of the viral illness, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This prompted the government to put more residential areas under lockdown and enhance testing in an attempt to contain the new outbreak. A Policeman checking temperature during the COVID-19 outbreak in China (BEIJING). Image Credit: Openfinal / Shutterstock The capital city of China has reported 44 new cases on June 16, bringing the total of 201 people in over five days. A majority of the new cases have been tied to the city's largest wholesale market, Xinfadi. Local media reports pointed out that the virus was discovered on chopping boards utilized for imported salmon at the market. The reports have prompted supermarkets in the city to pull out the fish to prevent further virus transmission. "The measures in Beijing are timely and effective. Those who are infected might show symptoms in the coming two days. If the number of reported cases does not increase much, it can be said the epidemic has stabilized at such a scale," Whu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said. He added that the city had caught the outbreak early, imposing lockdown measures before the virus could spread at a rapid pace. However, he warned that there might be similar outbreaks in the future, citing that the Beijing outbreak is like that in Wuhan City, which also started in the market. Lockdown measures The government issued lockdown measures in the capital to contain the virus spread. Residential compounds near the wholesale and trading hub have been declared "high-risk." These areas have reinstated security checks and continued loudspeaker announcements, house visits, and phone calls, asking residents who have been to the Xinfadi market. The city's authorities have raised the emergency response alert to level two, signaling the seriousness of the new outbreak. With the situation considered a severe public health emergency, the government will impose strict restrictions to control the spread of the coronavirus. School closures were imposed, and temperature checks are being performed in malls and other public places. Also, long-distance bus services between Beijing and the rest of the country have been suspended. Those who live near the affected market and had been there for the past 14 days are not permitted to leave Beijing. All restaurants, canteens, markets, and workplaces in the city have been instructed to perform deep cleaning and disinfection. Also, public places, such as galleries, museums, and parks, were instructed to run only at 30 percent of its maximum capacity. Across the capital, markets are being inspected, with a total of 46 food markets tested for COVID-19. So far, all the samples turned out negative. Meanwhile, at least 6,000 staff and vendors from the Yuegezhuang wholesale food market in the Fengtai district were tested. The Tiantao Honglian food market has been shut down since a vendor tested positive with SARS-CoV-2 infection. New Zealand records new case New Zealand's fight against the coronavirus has gained praise from across the globe since it has reported zero COVID-19 cases for three weeks. The run has been cut short when two new cases were revealed. The two women, who came from the United Kingdom, had been allowed to leave isolation in Auckland and took a road trip to Wellington before undergoing COVID-19 tests, which turned out positive. The women were from the same family and traveled to the country via Australia. The women said they did not stop for fuel or supplies during the road trip. One of the women manifested mild symptoms before being tested, but it was tied to a pre-existing condition. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern admitted that there was a lapse in the protocols. She said that the women should not have been granted compassionate leave from isolation. "Ultimately, after taking a look at what has happened here, there is already an expectation that no one leaves quarantine until they have completed their two weeks [isolation] and have been tested," Ardern said. "Of course that was our expectation already, so that is where there is a failure in this case," she added. So far, New Zealand has reported 1,506 confirmed cases, with 1,482 recovered and 22 deaths tied to COVID-19. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 05:18:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Video: Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, the current General Assembly president, announces on June 17, 2020 at the UN headquarters that India, Ireland, Mexico and Norway are elected non-permanent members of Security Council. (Xinhua) One non-permanent seat remains to be filled. Kenya and Djibouti, neither of which won the required two-third majority on Wednesday, will enter a run-off on Thursday. UNITED NATIONS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly on Wednesday elected India, Ireland, Mexico and Norway as non-permanent members of the Security Council for a two-year term. The combo photo shows the national flags of India (Up Left), Ireland (Up Right), Mexico (Down Left) and Norway. (Xinhua) One non-permanent seat remains to be filled. Kenya and Djibouti, neither of which won the required two-third majority on Wednesday, will enter a run-off on Thursday, said Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, the current General Assembly president, who announced the voting results. Canada, which was running in the Western Europe and Others Group against Ireland and Norway, failed to get a seat. The newly elected members of the Security Council will have a two-year term that begins on Jan. 1, 2021. China fighter jet enters Taiwan's air defense identification zone ROC Central News Agency 06/16/2020 09:40 PM Taipei, June 16 (CNA) A Chengdu J-10 fighter jet from the Chinese military entered Taiwan's southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday before being chased off by Taiwanese patrol planes, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND). When the Chinese jet briefly entered the ADIZ on Tuesday morning, Taiwanese patrol aircraft responded with radio warnings and monitored the jet's movements until it flew off, the MND's Air Force Command Headquarters said in a press release. The incident was the third of its kind by Chinese aircraft in the past eight days, following the intrusion of a Y-8 transport plane on June 12 and "several" Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets on June 9, according to the MND. The ministry said, however, that there was no cause for alarm, as it was closely monitoring the airspace and waters around Taiwan. Chieh Chung (), a research fellow at the National Policy Foundation, a think tank affiliated with the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), said the spate of recent incursions could be intended by Beijing as a sort of "stress test" of Taiwan's defense capabilities. While the MND has not revealed the exact location of the recent intrusions by Chinese aircraft, Chieh said he believed that they had occurred close to Taiwan's Penghu Island and were intended to apply pressure and force a response without being viewed as a major political provocation. Chien noted that from April 2012 to December 2014, China had engaged in similar actions in response to Japan's sovereignty claims to the Diaoyutai Islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan and China. During that period, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force responded to as many as 33 incursions per month, as compared to only 11 in total before the controversy arose, Chieh said. Meanwhile, data released Tuesday by Peking University Institute of Ocean Research's South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative showed two U.S. military KC-135 Stratotankers, a type of aerial refueling aircraft, operating near Taiwan -- in the East China Sea to the north and in the Bashi Channel to the south. (By Matt Yu and Matthew Mazzetta) Enditem/pc NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said its exports could increase by a billion pounds as a result of the trade deals it is seeking from Australia and New Zealand, setting out its negotiating objectives on Wednesday ahead of the start of formal talks. Australia and New Zealand are among Britain's top priorities for trade talks, alongside the United States, the European Union and Japan, as it looks to define an independent trade policy after leaving the EU in January. "Ambitious, wide-ranging free trade agreements with old friends like Australia and New Zealand are a powerful way for us ... to make good on the promise of Brexit," trade minister Liz Truss said in a statement. The government's aims for each deal were largely similar and broadly focused on increasing goods and services trade and cross-border investment. They included chapters on digital trade and ways to help small businesses export more. The aims for an Australian deal included a focus on technology, innovation and research and development, while the objectives for the New Zealand talks made reference to the need to protect both countries' climate change commitments. The first round of talks is expected to take place by videoconference in the coming weeks. (Reporting by William James; editing by Stephen Addison) Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Research Future Published Stem Cell Banking Market report. Stem Cell Banking Market Report gives a clear picture of current market scenario which includes past and estimated future market size. The report provides detail information and strategies of top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study about different markets segments and regions. Market Highlights According to MRFR analysis, Stem Cell Banking Market is expected to register a CAGR of 9.8% during the forecast period of 2019 to 2025 and is expected to reach USD 12,056.7 Million by 2025. Stem cells (SC) are a class of undifferentiated biological cells of a multicellular organism that have the ability to produce indefinite cells of the same type, from which certain types of cells (proliferation and replication) can be produced by differentiation in the body through early life and growth. The stem has the potential to develop into several different cell types, from muscle cells to brain cells. Factors representing the growth of the market are rising use of therapeutic potential of stem cells, increasing investments in stem cell-based research, surging number of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) procedures, and growing newborn population. For instance, in August 2018, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of the Government of China published a draft of the 2019 Annual Project Application Guide for the Stem Cell and Transformation Research pilot project. The government proposed investing 400 million yuan (around USD 56.4 million) to support stem cell research in China. On the other hand, high operational and storage costs and dearth of awareness about stem cell banking in developing and underdeveloped nations are anticipated to impede the market growth during the forecast period. get free sample copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/8441 Segmentation The Global Stem Cell Banking Market has been segmented based on cell type, bank type, and application. Based on cell type, the market has been divided into umbilical cord stem cells, adult stem cells, and embryonic stem cells. The umbilical cord stem cells segment has been additionally categorized into cord blood, cord tissue, and placenta. The umbilical cord stem cells segment will hold the highest market share over the forecast period due to huge demand for umbilical cord blood in stem cell research. Scientists found that the umbilical cord is a rich source of stem cells and are collected from people of different biological traits. On the basis of bank type, the global stem cell banking market has been classified into private banks, public banks, and hybrid banks. The private banks segment would lead the market throughout the forecast period as it generates greater revenue, the cost to retrieve cord blood is free, and has complete ownership rights preserved by the donor. In addition, private banks have flexible collection sites and assured, and secured access offers a competitive advantage over public banks. By application, the market has been bifurcated into thalassemia, cerebral palsy, diabetes, leukemia, autism, and others. The diabetes segment is likely to witness the fastest market growth due to the rising burden of diabetes mellitus (DM) across the world, thereby augmenting the demand for stem cells. For instance, as per statistics published by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), in 2017, about 425 million adults were living with diabetes worldwide, which is anticipated to increase to 629 million by 2045. Key Players Some of the key players in the Global Stem Cell Banking Market are Americord Registry LLC (US), CBR Systems, Inc. (US), Cryo-Cell International, Inc. (US), Cordlife (Singapore), Cryo-Save AG (Netherlands), Smart Cells International Ltd. (UK), Global Cord Blood Corporation (Hong Kong), Celgene Corporation (US), BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics (US), and Regrow Biosciences Pvt. Ltd. (India). Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/stem-cell-banking-market-8441 Regional Analysis The market has been divided by region into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The stem cell banking market in the Americas has further been divided into North America and Latin America, with the North American market divided into the US and Canada. The existence of key market participants and sophisticated healthcare infrastructure, expanding network of stem cell banking services, and continuous efforts by researchers to explore new therapeutic applications of cord blood cells in the US and Canada is assisting in the dominance of North America. The European stem cell banking market has been categorized as Western Europe and Eastern Europe. The Western European market has further been classified as Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe. The stem cell banking market in Asia-Pacific has been segmented into Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. Asia-Pacific is likely to register the fastest market growth over the forecast period owing to surging elder population, increasing product launches, growing investments in R&D projects, and the presence of favorable regulatory policies coupled with commercialization opportunities Related News Radiopharmaceutical Market Needles Market 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 (3 The Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Vandegrift (FFG 48) arrives at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, on April 9, 2014. (Corey T. Jones/U.S. Navy via Getty Images) Chinese Tourist Sentenced to Three Years for Attempt to Export Military Radio to China The U.S. District Court in San Diego recently sentenced a Chinese tourist to three years in prison, for attempting to illegally export a military-grade radio to China. Li Qingshan, 34, pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to attempt to export defense articles without a license, for buying a Harris Falcon III AN/PRC 152A handheld radio in San Diego, with the intention of shipping the radio from Tijuana, a border city in Mexico, to China. Li arrived in San Diego with a tourist visa on June 28 last year, with a return flight ticket to China scheduled for July 7, 2019, according to a June 12 press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. A day after his arrival, he traveled to a storage unit owned by a man identified only as AB in court documents. Li met with AB there, and bought the radio along with other military radios, antennas, additional military equipment, and a map of North Island Naval Air Station, according to prosecutors. Li agreed to pay AB a total of about $7,200 and paid $600 in cash as a down payment for the purchase, promising to pay the remaining amount later. North Island Naval Air Station is a military base located on the north end of the Coronado peninsula on San Diego Bay. It is home to several U.S. aircraft carriers, including USS Nimitz, which was deployed on June 8 with its strike group in support of global maritime security operations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Foster pointed out that the radio is designated a defense article on the United States Munitions List, meaning that a license from the U.S. State Department is needed to export it. It is certified by the National Security Agency for Top Secret wire and data communications. Any breach in these communications could mean deadly results for U.S. Navy SEALS and other U.S. Military personnel using this equipment in the field, Foster said in the press release. Before Li could travel to Mexico, he was stopped by U.S. law enforcement agents, with the radio and other equipment in his bag. He admitted to the agents that he was aware the radio was export-controlled and he was violating U.S. law. Mr. Lis criminal attempt to obtain sensitive military communications technology and provide it to China posed a serious threat to the U.S. militarys warfighting capability, said Garrett Waugh, an agent in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, in the press release. U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo, who sentenced Li to 3 years in prison, said he would be deported after serving his sentence and would lose his visa. 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 Brachytherapy 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. Drivers Rising incidence of cancer Restraints Less number of suppliers Rapidly evolving technologies 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 technique, application 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 Brachytherapy Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/20787-brachytherapy-market-report The report also covers the complete competitive landscape of the global Brachytherapy market with company profiles of key players such as: Boston Scientific Corporation C. R. Bard, Inc. C4 Imaging, L.L.C. Cianna Medical, Inc. Cook Medical Incorporated Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG S.A. Elekta AB, GE Healthcare Huiheng Medical, Inc. Isoaid L.L.C. Olympus Panacea Medical Technologies, Pvt. Ltd. Radiadyne L.L.C. Theragenics Corporation Varian Medical Systems, 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 Technique: High Dose Rate Low Dose Rate By Application: Cervical Cancer Prostate Cancer Breast Cancer Skin Cancer By End- User: Hospitals Oncology Treatment Centers 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 Brachytherapy Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-20787 The Global Brachytherapy Market has been exhibited in detail in the following chapters - Chapter 1 Brachytherapy Market Preface Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Brachytherapy Industry Analysis Chapter 4 Brachytherapy Market Value Chain Analysis Chapter 5 Brachytherapy Market Analysis By Technique Chapter 6 Brachytherapy Market Analysis By Application Chapter 7 Brachytherapy Market Analysis By End- User Chapter 8 Brachytherapy Market Analysis By Geography Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape Of Brachytherapy Companies Chapter 10 Company Profiles Of Brachytherapy Industry Purchase the complete Global Brachytherapy Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-20787 Other Reports by DecisionDatabases.com: Global CAR T Cell Therapy Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecast Till 2026 Global Home Infusion Therapy Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 Global Gene Therapy 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/ But what is clear is that it began to disintegrate in Hanoi in February 2019 with the collapse of President Trump and Kim Jong Uns second summit. The failed talks hammered home the realization that the two sides remained very far apart on what closer ties meant, including the key issue of whether and under what conditions the North would consider dismantling its nuclear weapons program. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates. A recent "surge" in containers from China has created a plethora of bullish headlines signaling a possible turnaround. Well, don't pop the champagne yet. The flow of trade within a critical supply chain trade route will tell you to put that bottle of bubbly back on ice. A line of drayage tractors wait to be unloaded at portside. (Photo credit: Jim Allen/FreightWaves) In reality, the delicate balance of supply and demand along the crucial intra-Asia trade lane is waving the economic distress flag. China, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, and Bangladesh make up this critical offshoring region and are responsible for the world's manufacturing and apparel industries, both finished and semi-finished products. This trade region is the last leg a product makes before it is finally exported. The volume of containers moving along the intra-Asia trade lane will tell you the strength of the world's consumer. More volume means more demand for products, less volume means less demand. Based on the movement of these containers, year-on-year growth is at a dismal four million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) volume. This tells the story of more hardship ahead, which would translate into fewer containers being exported out of China to the United States and around the world. "May volumes are bound to disappoint as well," explained BIMCO's Chief Shipping Analyst Peter Sand. "We have seen a record low level of manufacturing orders for export in recent months from China, so a return to 2019 levels will take much longer. High unemployment and lower consumer spending power, which are set to stick around for longer than the immediate health crisis, mean that a return to 2019 sales is not just around the corner." You could argue Sand is wrong but based on the trends and plans of retailers he is not. Traditionally, the retailing industry plans at least a season or two ahead, banking on what they think consumers will spend when placing their manufacturing orders. Based on the volumes of those orders, you can get a sense of what retailers are expecting for a healthy consumer to buy and how much. Story continues Containers await pick-up. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves) According to Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent labor rights monitoring organization, the intra-Asia corridor experienced order cancellations and refusal of retailers to pay for completed product and delivery as early as March. In response to the growing number of canceled orders and refusal to pay, the WRC along with the Center for Global Workers' Rights (CGWR) at Pennsylvania State University created the COVID-19 Tracker, publicly listing those companies that are paying and not paying for their goods. "Major brands and retailers have retroactively canceled orders for billions of dollars in clothes that suppliers have already produced," explainedScott Nova, CEO of Global Workers' Rights. "U.S. apparel imports for April 2020 declined by almost half from the same month in 2019 ($6.2 billion to $3.4 billion). For example, Kohl's and Sears have both canceled more than half a billion dollars' worth of orders." (Photo: Flickr/Mike Mozart) Sears declined to comment on Nova's comments. Kohl's did not respond for comment. As a result, retail and fashion industry consultant Rick Helfenbein said some suppliers in Asia are asking for cash before delivery (CBD) and some are only accepting letters of credit. "The pendulum of trust, trade, and commerce is now swinging in two directions," explained Helfenbein. "Earlier this year when retailers locked-down, orders were canceled and many suppliers in Asia were [unfortunately] left holding the tab. This is all unfolding in a marketplace glutted with too much-unsold merchandise and saddled with high unemployment. No matter how strong the stock market is, many in the industry really wonder how long it will take for the mythical Humpty Dumpty to put retail back together again. The retail business is destined to be on a very slow road to recovery." The blue economy connects the world. Container growth has been consistent for the last 40 years thanks to the growth of globalization. Not since the 2008 financial crisis has global trade taken such a huge hit. COVID-19 has already proven to be just as destructive to global trade, and the year is only six months in. Based on the current flow of trade along the intra-Asia route, fewer containers are expected. Just like bricks supporting the foundation of a house, containers are the bricks to the foundation of the world economy. If you take away the bricks, the foundation is weaker. The intra-Asia trade route, which is a brick in the trade foundation, is manufacturing less. Time for a fortification plan. See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Voting for amendments that would let Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036 starts on 25 June and ends on 1 July - Olga Maltseva/AFP An independent Russian television channel has uncovered a scheme to buy votes in an electronic ballot on constitutional amendments next month. Russians go to polls next week amid the coronavirus epidemic to vote for constitutional amendments that would allow Vladimir Putin to serve as Russias president for two more terms. Anxious to both hold the vote as soon as possible and also not to spread the disease further, Kremlin officials have ordered the voting to be held in the space of a week, and citizens in some of Russias regions including Moscow will be able to cast their ballots online. Television channel TV Rain published an investigation on Wednesday, detailing how its correspondent was able to join a WhatsApp group involved in potential vote buying. The TV Rain correspondent was given 25 sim-cards and granted access to a database with personal data of dozens of elderly people, aged 60 to over 100, all residing in Moscows north-west. A woman wearing a face mask walks past a poster informing of a national vote on constitutional changes in Moscow - AFP With the sim-cards and full personal data, the TV Rain reporter was able to set up several accounts on the Moscow City Halls official website and go through verification that would allow the owner of the accounts to cast the ballot online next week. TV Rain reported that the scheme's organisers were paying 75 rubles (just 1) per each account registered and 50 rubles per each ballot cast. Officials later said that Muscovites with Mos.ru accounts set up after 5 June would not be able to cast their ballots online. The Moscow Election Commission said on Wednesday that it had contacted police to check the reports. Artyom Kostyrko, the City Hall official in charge of electronic voting, insisted that they would not allow people whose accounts were set up after 5 June to take part in the voting. A woman reads an amended version of the Constitution of the Russian Federation - TASS TV Rain, however, quoted one of the schemes organisers as saying that they had been setting up fake accounts for four months. A potential voter needs to submit their personal details such as their ID, social security number, registered address and the phone number in order to set up an account to vote next week. But they do not have to verify their identity in person. Story continues Moscow officials who introduced electronic voting at local elections last year insist that it is secure and that all data are verified. Vasily Vaisenberg, an election expert at election monitors movement Golos, said that registering voters accounts without in-person verification is an invitation to vote rigging: The only solution would be to allow the voting only for those with complete, verified accounts: Otherwise, itd be hard to imagine how many fake voters will cast ballots in Moscows electronic voting. International human rights organizations suggest from 40,000 to 80,000 people are stateless persons in Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has passed a bill "On amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine on recognizing a person stateless." Relevant bill No. 2335 was backed by 331 MPs, according to an UNIAN correspondent. According to the estimates of international human rights organizations, from 40,000 to 80,000 people have been living in Ukraine without citizenship, as noted by the rapporteur on June 16, 2020. Therefore, the bill amends the law "On the legal status of foreigners and stateless persons," which establishes that foreigners and stateless persons who are legally living in Ukraine are required to hold a valid passport. In case of loss or exchange of a passport, within three days they must notify in writing the migration authority. It is also provided that persons who are recognized as stateless persons in the manner prescribed by this bill and who have received a residence permit are considered to be temporarily staying in the territory of Ukraine on legal grounds until they obtain a residence permit or acquire citizenship of Ukraine. Read alsoBill on protection of labor migrants passes first reading in Ukraine's parliament Information about children shall be submitted by one of their legal guardians. The decision to refuse recognition as a stateless person is taken if the applicant is a citizen of Ukraine or another state provided that their citizenship has been recognized by the competent authority of that state and the applicant has been proper IDs in accordance with that state's legislation. Another reason for refusal is if the applicant has committed a war crime or crime against humanity. A stateless person who permanently or temporarily resides in Ukraine, but has no travel document, may obtain a stateless person's certificate for foreign travel. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arshad Mohammed and Humeyra Pamuk (Reuters) Washington, United States Wed, June 17, 2020 09:00 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf5b7a8 2 World US-Iran-tension,US-Iran-sanctions,prisoners,exchange Free The United States would like a face-to-face meeting with Iran to discuss prisoner releases and it wants the UN Security Council to impose an indefinite arms embargo on the Islamic Republic, a senior US diplomat said on Tuesday. The two adversaries disagree on many issues, including US President Donald Trump's decision two years ago to abandon the 2015 Iran nuclear deal under which Tehran limited its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief. Trump has since restored US sanctions that have choked Iran's oil exports, the country's main source of revenue, while Iran has accelerated its nuclear program. Washington believes Iran may seek a nuclear weapon, something Tehran denies. Despite the tensions, the two sides struck a deal under which Iran on June 4 freed a US Navy veteran it had detained since 2018 and the United States allowed an Iranian-American physician to visit Iran. Speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said he hoped for further prisoner exchanges and talks on a wide array of issues. Tehran has been reluctant to deal with Washington since the Trump administration abandoned the nuclear agreement, demanding the United States return to it. "We'd love to have an in person meeting to have a consular dialogue so that we can move faster than we have," Hook said. "The door for diplomacy on our side is wide open, not just on these matters but on ... all the issues that have been bedeviling the US-Iran bilateral relations for 41 years," he said, saying Trump "would like to get to the negotiating table." He also said Washington, which criticizes Tehran for backing proxies in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, believes a U.N. arms embargo on Iran expiring in October should be extended indefinitely. Aunt Jemima, a syrup and pancake mix brand, will get a new name and image after Quaker Oats, its parent company, acknowledged that the brands origins were based on a racial stereotype. The brand, founded in 1889, is built on images of a Black female character that have often been seen as a symbol of slavery. Aunt Jemima has gone through several redesigns; pearl earrings and a lace collar were added in 1989. On Wednesday, Quaker Oats, which is owned by PepsiCo, said that it was taking a hard look at our portfolio of brands as it worked to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives. The packaging changes, which were first reported by NBC, will begin to appear toward the end of this year, with the name change coming soon after. While work has been done over the years to update the brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful, we realize those changes are not enough, Kristin Kroepfl, Quakers chief marketing officer, said in a statement. After the Quaker Oats announcement, the food and candy giant Mars said it was evaluating all possibilities concerning the rice brand Uncle Bens, which has been marketed through a character that has long been criticized as a racial stereotype. Mars said that it did not know the exact changes or timing, but that it had a responsibility as a global brand to take a stand in helping to put an end to racial bias and injustices. As we listen to the voices of consumers, especially in the Black community, and to the voices of our Associates worldwide, we recognize that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Bens brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do, Mars said in a statement. Amid protests across the United States over racism and police brutality in recent weeks, many companies rushed to express their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, often running into accusations of hypocrisy. But PepsiCo was already familiar with the fallout: In 2017, it apologized for running an ad featuring Kendall Jenner, a white model, that was criticized for trivializing the movement. PepsiCo bought Quaker Oats in 2001, inheriting the Aunt Jemima brand. Ramon Laguarta, the chief executive of PepsiCo, wrote in an article in Fortune this week that the journey for racial equality has long been part of our companys DNA. The Aunt Jemima brand has its roots in a 19th-century minstrel song, Old Aunt Jemima, that expressed nostalgia for the South in the time of slavery. The brand was once described by Riche Richardson, an associate professor of African-American literature at Cornell University, as an outgrowth of Old South plantation nostalgia and romance grounded in an idea about the mammy, a devoted and submissive servant who eagerly nurtured the children of her white master and mistress while neglecting her own. Last week, the glorified depiction of slavery in Gone With the Wind, which included a portrayal of an affable Black character named Mammy, led HBO Max to temporarily remove the film from its catalogue. Quaker Oats said in its statement that Aunt Jemimas marketing had evolved over time with the goal of representing loving moms from diverse backgrounds who want the best for their families, but that it would gather more perspectives internally and from the Black community to further shape the brand. The Aunt Jemima brand will also donate at least $5 million (U.S.) over the next five years to create meaningful, ongoing support and engagement in the Black community, the company said. Nancy Green, the first woman to play the role of Aunt Jemima for the brand, was born a slave in Kentucky in 1834. In 2014, two men sued PepsiCo and others, saying that they were the great-grandsons of Anna Short Harrington, who played the character from the 1930s until the 1950s. The following year, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, which sought $3 billion in royalties and other damages. As outrage has mounted over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis last month, Aunt Jemima has been one of many brands under pressure to adapt to the times. The Washington Redskins football team, whose name and mascot have been subject to fierce debate for years, sparked accusations of hypocrisy earlier this month when it participated in a broader effort to support Black Lives Matter by posting a black box on social media. Other companies, such as Land OLakes, had removed stereotypical Native American imagery from their products before the recent protests. Barr ordered a review of Flynns case in January. And last month, in a move that prompted a career department prosecutor to quit the case, Barr determined that Flynns January 2017 FBI interview was unjustified because it was conducted without any legitimate investigative basis. As a result, the department concluded, any lies Flynn told about his contacts with Russia and other foreign governments were immaterial to any crime. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday deferred for two days the hearing on two appeals challenging Patna High Court granting bail to controversial RJD leader Mohd Shahabuddin in a murder case, as noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani who would argue for him was not available. A bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy listed the matter for hearing on Wednesday saying it has to strike a balance between the interests of both the parties. One of the lawyers, representing Shahabuddin, urged that the matter be taken up on Friday as Jethmalani was not available and moreover voluminous case records needed to be studied for proper defence. A "Since there are allegations and counter allegations being made in the case, we shall not pass any order without hearing both the sides. We are fixing it on Wednesday (September 28)," the bench said. Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, also appearing for Shahabuddin, said his client has been suffering from media trial and should be given adequate opportunity to present his case. A Shahabuddin, who was granted bail by the Patna High Court on September 7, was released from Bhagalpur jail on September 10. He was in jail for 11 years in connection with dozens of cases against him. On September 19, the apex court had sought a response from Shahabuddin on a separate plea filed by Siwan resident Chandrakeshwar Prasad, challenging the bail granted to him by Patna High Court, in the murder case of his third son. The apex court is also hearing a separate plea filed by the widow of journalist Rajdev Ranjan, who was murdered in Siwan allegedly at the instance of Shahabuddin, seeking transfer of the case to Delhi. Kalawati Devi, wife of Chandrakeshwar Prasad and the mother of three youths who were brutally killed by henchmen of the controversial politician, had also moved the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of bail granted to him in the case in which he has already been sentenced to life.A Earlier today, the Supreme Court was to hear petition against bail granted by Patna High Court to RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin on Monday. A petition was filed by Chandababu and Bihar government against bail granted to Shahabuddin. Shahabuddin was present his response in the Supreme Court on Monday. Chandrashekhar Prasad also known as Chandababu is the father of three brothers who lost their lives in Bihar, Chandababu said in his petition A that there is atmosphere of fear ever since Shahabuddinas release from jail. Complainant has said that Patna High Court has granted bail to Shahabuddin without considering statements of any witness. Also the High Court neglected the fact that Shahabuddin is also accused of murder of a journalist Rajdev Ranjan in Siwan.A Lawyer P.Bhushan told SC there were 45 cases against Shahabuddin, out of which 9 are murder cases, & 10 cases he had been convicted in a ANI (@ANI_news) September 26, 2016A Shahabuddin's lawyer asked for more time to respond in the matter. a ANI (@ANI_news) September 26, 2016A A Bhushan told the division bench that Shahabuddin is a serious threat to the society if his bail is not cancelled. (With inputs from PTI) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. In this article: PARIS (Reuters) - French carmaker Renault plans to cut 1,500 engineering jobs in France, a trade union source told Reuters on Tuesday. The engineering job cuts are part of cost savings plans that Renault announced last month aiming to find 2 billion euros ($2.27 billion) in savings over the next three years. Renault declined to comment. The carmaker had planned to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide, including 4,600 in France. Renault shares were up 5.66% at 1118 GMT. ($1 = 0.8830 euros) (Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; writing by Matthieu Protard; editing by Jason Neely) By Terje Solsvik OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian Air will resume flights on 76 routes halted during the coronavirus outbreak and bring back into service 12 of its mothballed aircraft on top of the eight already flying, as European countries reopen and demand for flights rises. Airlines have been hit hard by the pandemic, which put a stop to most international travel, leading many to seek help from governments. "We're getting back in the air with more planes and we're reopening many of the routes which our customers have requested," Chief Executive Jacob Schram said. More than 300 pilots and 600 cabin crew from the company's bases in Norway will operate 20 aircraft, with about 200 pilots and 400 cabin crew being brought back to work. Norwegian furloughed or laid off about 7,300 staff, roughly 90% of its employees, after the COVID-19 outbreak. The airline will resume flights between London's Gatwick airport and Oslo, as well as Gatwick-Copenhagen, Edinburgh-Oslo and Edinburgh-Copenhagen, with more destinations out of its Oslo base to Spain, Croatia, France, Poland and the Baltics. It is not yet resuming the transatlantic flights it is known for, nor is it flying to Italy. "The reopening of flights is the result of recent increased demand from customers and is also in line with other airlines across Europe," Norwegian said. Its shares opened up 14.6% at 3.450 crowns ($0.3619). The resumption comes despite the patchwork of restrictions governments have imposed to try to prevent a resurgence in infections. Britain has ordered a 14-day quarantine on incoming passengers, while Norway says those arriving must undergo a ten-day quarantine unless they fly from Denmark, Iceland or Finland. Norwegian completed a financial rescue deal last month, handing control to its creditors and saying it could wait until 2021 before resuming flights beyond Norway's borders. The airline, which brought Europe's low-cost business model to the transatlantic market, plans to reinvent itself in a scaled-down version with 110-120 aircraft, compared with almost 150 before the pandemic. (Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Gwladys Fouche and Gerry Doyle; Editing by Mark Potter) Can machines be agents with the capacity for autonomous action? Can they be creative and produce something genuinely new? Philosopher Professor Thomas Muller from the University of Konstanz and physicist Professor Hans Briegel from the University of Innsbruck receive a total of 825,000 euros over four years from the Volkswagen Foundation through the funding initiative "Off the Beaten Track" to explore the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in basic research. The aim is to provide a conceptual framework for the description, evaluation and regulation of the current rapid technological development surrounding the use of AI - a development that affects the field of economy as well as the arts. The researchers will focus on clarifying the concepts of agency, creativity and authorship in research. Artificial intelligence and the concept of agency The funded project "The future of creativity in basic research: Can artificial agents be authors of scientific discoveries?" combines methods and techniques from the fields of philosophy, physics and artificial intelligence (AI) in an interdisciplinary approach. Theoretical philosopher Muller and theoretical physicist Briegel, who has been holding a visiting professorship at the University of Konstanz since 2017, funded by the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, have been collaborating for almost ten years. Their shared interest revolves around the concept of agency - understood as the opposite of an uncontrolled bodily reaction - and its application in the natural sciences. They believe this clarification to be a matter of increasing urgency in view of the developments in the natural sciences in the 21st century. In research experiments, for example, more and more work steps that were previously performed by humans are being outsourced to AI systems. Hence the question: Can AI systems be self-acting agents that make their own scientific discoveries? When a new Jupiter moon is discovered with the help of a telescope, the role of the telescope as an instrument is undisputed: it serves to expand the human senses. But what happens when AI programmes are involved, such as so-called Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN), a special combination of artificial neural networks, or the learning method Projective Simulation developed by Hans Briegel? The physicist and his colleagues have been using Projective Simulation, for example, to design experiments that can produce novel quantum states in the laboratory. In this context, the AI, which is based on the methods of reinforcement learning, has advanced itself based on the experiences made in the process. By gathering feedback on successful setups, the system has gradually learned which combination of experimental elements would frequently result in the generation of such states. Hans Briegel: "We may not be far from an AI proposing experiments that will lead to the discovery of new quantum phenomena. This will then also raise the question what part we or the AI respectively have in such a discovery." Focus areas of the project The project is divided into three focus areas: The role of experiments in AI-driven research, specific case studies on the implementation of AI methods in basic research in physics, and the question of authorship in AI-driven research. Thomas Muller says on the subject of authorship: "We don't know if in ten years an AI will be named as the author on a research paper. What we are interested in is the underlying philosophical and conceptual question: At what point would we attribute to a system the ability, literally, to be curious, to be surprised, to intervene, to have a new idea?" Collaboration partners The two researchers are joined by three doctoral candidates who will work on the individual focus areas. The team will work in close exchange with working groups in whose research machine learning and artificial intelligence play an increasing role. At the University of Konstanz, research groups from the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour" will be involved as collaboration partners. Further collaborations are planned in the field of climate research with Professor Tapio Schneider at the California Institute of Technology (USA), who is working on a new climate model as part of the CliMA project. In the field of quantum optics, collaboration partners include, among others, the working group of Professor Markus Aspelmeyer at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IQOQI) in Innsbruck and Vienna, who are developing micromechanical experiments for the measurement of ultra-weak gravitational fields. ### Key facts: - The project "The future of creativity in basic research: Can artificial agents be authors of scientific discoveries?" - Project partnership between philosopher Professor Thomas Muller from the University of Konstanz and physicist Professor Hans Briegel from the University of Innsbruck - Study on the role of artificial intelligence in basic research - Supported by the Volkswagen Foundation with 825,000 euros over four years - Collaborations with the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour" at the University of Konstanz, the CliMA project at the California Institute of Technology, and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Note to editors: A photo is available for download here: https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2020/Bilder/kuenstliche_intelligenz.jpg Caption: Philosopher Professor Thomas Muller (right) and physicist Professor Hans Briegel receive funding from the Volkswagen Foundation for their study on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in basic research. Opposition parties questioned the "silence" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh and asked them to take the nation into confidence on the matter, while the ruling BJP asserted that India's borders will remain intact under Modi's leadership. A total of 20 Indian Army personnel were killed during a violent clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday night, escalating the already volatile border standoff between the two sides, an army statement said. Initially, the Army said one officer and two soldiers were killed. Later in the night, an army statement said 17 more soldiers who "were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20." India-China Border News LIVE The Congress said the Prime Minister must take the nation into confidence and the gravity of the situation calls for a "firm and appropriate response". "Shocked to learn that 20 of our brave soldiers have been killed in Galwan valley of the western sector. As we salute their martyrdom, the PM must take the nation into confidence. The gravity of the situation calls for a firm & appropriate response," senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma tweeted. Earlier, reacting to reports that an Indian Army officer and two soldiers were killed in the Sino-India face-off, the Congress termed their death as "deeply shocking, horrifying and unacceptable" and demanded answers from Prime Minister Modi on how this happened. The party also demanded that the government should convene a meeting to brief the leadership of political parties about the ground situation. Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said reports of brazen Chinese transgressions at three points in Ladakh into Indian territory since April or May have caused grave concerns as the Modi government remained a "mute spectator". "To the distress and dismay of the entire nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh remain absolutely 'mum'," Surjewala said. He said the prime minister and the defence minister must come forward and answer whether it is true that Chinese have killed an officer and soldiers of the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley and whether Indian soldiers have also been critically injured. "If so, why are PM Modi and Defence Minister maintaining absolute silence?" he asked. "Let Modi government remember that in our Parliamentary democracy, 'secrecy or silence' are unacceptable on part of our government," he said. Punjab Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh said it is time now for the Centre to take some stringent measures as each sign of weakness makes China's reaction more "belligerent". Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, ex-party president Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot condoled the death of the soldiers. Reacting to the border clash, BJP president J P Nadda asserted that the borders of India will remain intact under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. Addressing the 'Kerala Jan-Samvad' virtual rally, he referred to the India-China face-off and said during the de-escalation process a violent clash took place with the Chinese army on Monday night. "Indian Army gave a befitting reply, but unfortunately, we have lost our three army men. I pay homage to them for their sacrifice and I can assure you that under the leadership of PM Modi, India's territorial integrity will not be compromised," he said. "We now have the political will and our Army is fully equipped to take (on) any adversary," he said. Senior BJP leader B L Santhosh said Indian forces were resolute in forcing Chinese troops to "retreat" in a violent face-off in Ladakh, claiming that the loss on the adversary's side could be "still more huge". "Our forces were resolute in forcing Chinese troops to retreat. In the process yesterday we have lost 3 brave Deshbhakt soldiers. 'Veer Sadgati' to the departed souls. The picture on the Chinese side is yet to emerge. It is still more huge," the BJP general secretary (organisation) tweeted. In a guarded reaction to the border face-off, Left parties said India and China should initiate talks to defuse tensions between the two countries in eastern Ladakh. The CPI(M) called on the government to come out with an "authoritative statement" to explain what happened in Galwan Valley, and said that high-level talks should be initiated between the two nations to defuse the situation. The CPI, in a separate statement, said that it is believed that the present standoff can be resolved through talks and established frame-works agreed by both the countries. "Any military confrontation between the two major Asian countries not only impacts the cooperation and friendship between the two countries but also can jeopardise the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region," it said. Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda termed the development "disturbing' and said the government should offer a clearer picture to the nation on the border issue. The Janata Dal (Secular) leader sought to know as to how Indian soldiers lost their lives during a de-escalation process and said Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Singh should come out with a clearer picture. Starting in July, Egypt is to reopen its airports and the Red Sea, South Sinai, and Matrouh beach resorts to international travellers in the hope of salvaging this years tourism season and easing an anticipated recession caused by the lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus. We chose these governorates because they have coastal cities with warm and sunny weather and an open-air atmosphere, and they have also reported the lowest numbers of coronavirus infections, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Enany said, adding that they were destinations tourists were eager to visit after months of confinement at home. Trips overland between these destinations and others in the Nile Valley are still banned for the time being until further announcement. Other tourist destinations such as in Luxor, Aswan, and Cairo will be reopened gradually. We have been a bit later than other countries in announcing the resumption of inbound tourism, El-Enany said. But we are not in a hurry because we are keen to protect the safety of tourists as well our reputation as a tourist destination. The decision to resume inbound tourism is not Egypts alone, however, as it also depends on other factors. El-Enany said that over the past few weeks several Mediterranean countries had announced the resumption of tourism, but thus far no one had visited them. It all depends on other countries political decisions to open up, the tour operators willingness, and policies to market the destinations, as well as the appetite and financial ability of consumers to travel after the crisis, he said. The government has been working to prepare for the reopening since last month, when it began licensing hotels to receive domestic tourists at reduced occupancy levels. Since mid-May, the permissible occupancy rate has been only 25 per cent of hotel capacity, increasing to 50 per cent in June. Some 232 out of around 1,400 hotels and resorts in Egypt have thus far received a hygiene safety certificate after meeting the health and safety regulations published by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and approved by the cabinet in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The regulations oblige hotels to space out restaurant tables and restrict elevator capacities, apply physical distancing, and sanitise rooms and air them for 12 hours after guests departures. Parties and other events are prohibited. Any establishment breaching hygiene regulations will have its authorisation revoked, El-Enany said. The ministry stopped the operation of a resort in Hurghada earlier this week after it breached the regulations and annulled the licence of its manager for allowing guests to organise a party in the pool area. In order to encourage inbound tourism, the government has offered various incentives, El-Enany continued. Among them is waiving tourist visas until 31 October and offering a 50 per cent discount on landing and parking fees and a 20 per cent discount on ground services at South Sinai, Hurghada, and Matrouh airports. There has been a reduction of 10 cents per gallon in the price of airplane fuel. Passengers taking EgyptAir and Air Cairo international flights have been offered a 20 per cent discount on entrance tickets to museums and archaeological sites all over Egypt as well as visitor passes in an offer valid for 15 days. Other tourist sites including the Hurghada Museum, the Pyramids at Giza, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and Luxors Karnak Temple will reopen progressively, El-Enany said. Egypt has approved hygiene safety protocols to receive tourists and ensure health and safety for employees and guests in hotels, passengers at Egyptian airports and in planes, and visitors to museums and archaeological sites. They include pre-travel precautionary measures when passengers are departing for their destination, regulations for restaurants operating inside and outside hotels, and measures to secure transport operations. Travellers are required to sign a declaration prior to receiving their boarding passes at airports outside Egypt certifying that they are not infected with Covid-19 and that they are personally responsible for informing Egyptian officials if they begin to show any signs of illness during their travel. Travellers arriving from countries where the outbreak is contained will only have to have their temperatures checked on arrival at Egyptian airports, which have been outfitted with thermal screening gates. Travellers arriving from countries with high infection rates, according to the WHO, will need to submit a PCR test result for the coronavirus 48 hours before travelling. Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Manar said that national flag-carrier aircraft would be disinfected before each flight and face masks would be obligatory on board for passengers and attendants. Each passenger will receive a universal protection kit containing disinfectant, gloves, and masks, with spare quantities available if necessary from flight crew. They will also be barred from circulating magazines, newspapers, and other printed materials on flights. Hot meals will not be available, and they will be replaced by dry foods and boxed beverages, Manar said. Special seats will be allocated for passengers with chronic health problems who cannot wear face masks for long periods of time, and any who develop symptoms during the flight will be isolated in the last two rows of seats with access to their own toilet and a dedicated flight attendant serving them. Upon arrival at Egyptian airports, physical-distancing regulations will be maintained, temperatures measured, and luggage sanitised before it is placed on conveyor belts. EgyptAir confirmed that it will begin operating regular flights to several destinations as of next month, with the exact schedule on offer due to be announced within a few days. If a tourist begins to show mild symptoms of Covid-19 during a holiday in Egypt, he or she will be quarantined in the same hotel and will receive medical treatment on site, El-Enany said. All hotels have agreed to designate a specific wing or floor to such cases to ensure their isolation. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has issued new regulations and precautionary measures for visitors to archaeological sites as well as to archaeological missions hoping to resume excavations. It has also issued regulations for activities such as diving, parasailing, safaris, and others. All the regulations abide by the hygiene safety measures issued in accordance with WHO measures. Hisham Al-Demeri, former chair of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Board, praised the decision to resume inbound tourism. He said that the recovery of the tourism sector globally would take time to return to pre-coronavirus levels, depending on factors such as a reluctance to travel as a result of the global economic crisis caused by the pandemic. If people travel, I think they will most likely travel to destinations closer to home to save money, Al-Demeri noted. He said that people who could travel soon were those over 60 years of age, as they were less likely to be affected economically by the crisis. Ahmed Abu Ali, the owner of a tourism company, said that Egypt needed to attract new markets, particularly in Asian countries that have recovered quickly from the coronavirus. He said that 60 per cent of tourism exporters to Egypt were markets that had been most affected by the coronavirus, among them Germany, England, Italy, Spain, and France. Chair of the Egyptian Hotels Association (EHA) in the Red Sea area Alaa Akel said that the decision to resume inbound tourism, even if at low demand, was better than the lockdown and halting tourism movement. He also expected better occupancy rates in the winter season. He said that Italy had expressed its keenness to resume tourism to Hurghada starting in July. Germany will start allowing its tourists to return to Egypt starting from 31 August, in addition to Ukraine, which will allow activities to resume during early to mid-August. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Amid the fallout from the death of George Floyd, the San Antonio Independent School District has rejected calls to disband its police department, but some trustees are pushing for a comprehensive review of student discipline and the departments role in it. One is the boards newest member, Alicia Perry, elected last year to represent an East Side area that includes historically black neighborhoods. Perry, who is African-American, has six children in SAISD schools and another who has graduated. A few years ago, when her son was in the eighth grade at Connell Middle School, he was horsing around with a classmate who got hit with the zipper of a jacket, Perry said. Her son was detained and taken to the Bexar County Juvenile Detention Center, where he stayed for hours, scared and confused, but ultimately not charged, she said. I was enraged, of course, Perry said. That was one of the things that prompted me to get involved, because that makes them feel a certain type of way. We dont want to make them feel like theyre prisoners. SAISD, which spans San Antonios urban core, had more than 48,000 students last school year. About 90 percent were Hispanic, 6 percent black and 2 percent white. The district employs about 80 state-licensed police officers for its 100 schools, in a department with a budget of about $5.6 million. A coalition of nonprofits sent SAISD Superintendent Pedro Martinez a letter two weeks after Floyds death urging the district to disband its police department and use the money instead for mental health counselors and social workers. SAISD must take a stand against school policing for the sake of its students, stated the letter from Disability Rights Texas, Texas Appleseed, the Earl Carl Institute and Childrens Defense Fund Texas. Schools can, like in the past, make calls to outside police in rare emergencies that necessitate law enforcement involvement. Kin Man Hui /San Antonio Express-News In an analysis of the effects of school shootings in Santa Fe, Texas, and Parkland, Florida, on school policing in Texas, the nonprofits found black and Hispanic students were overrepresented in referrals to law enforcement. Black students were more than twice as likely as all others to be referred to juvenile authorities for making threats or exhibiting firearms. On ExpressNews.com: SAISD students ask for limits on school policing, amendments to their Bill of Rights Disability Rights Texas has sent similar letters to other school districts in the states major metropolitan areas, said Robert Winterode, its education team attorney. SAISD was chosen because of its advocacy of the restorative justice method of mediation-based discipline, which contrasts with the districts pattern of police overreach, Winterode said. We recognize law enforcement involvement is an issue at every Bexar County school district as well as statewide, he said. This is a problem that, in our view, strong urban districts with diverse populations should lead on. Winterode called SAISDs response disappointing and woefully inadequate. Before the coronavirus pandemic shut schools down, special education advocacy organizations saw an increase in SAISD parents reporting improper restraints and incidents between students and law enforcement, and we have seen no evidence that the districts alleged commitment to restorative justice practices has reversed that trend, he said. District-wide restorative justice training began last year, and police have been discussing with administrators how to support it, SAISD spokeswoman Leslie Price said.. The school district also created a team of mental health experts last year to respond to children in crisis, relieving police officers of that responsibility, she said. Our officers have forged relationships and partnerships within our school community, including holding forums for community members and mentoring and other activities with our students, she said. The districts disciplinary and policing practices have occasionally provoked controversy. Students earlier this year asked trustees to reduce police involvement in their schools. Critics cite high-profile incidents going back to 2016, when an SAISD officer threw a 12-year-old girl to the ground during an altercation outside Rhodes Middle School and another officer handcuffed and arrested a girl at Harris Academy, also 12, for accidentally hurting a friend with a playful push. SAISD police again caused consternation in September, when an officer handcuffed a 7-year-old boy while taking him from Hirsch Elementary to receive mental health care. Perry said she ran for school board in part because she believed boys of color were being treated unjustly in East Side schools. Discipline practices can affect academics and attendance and feed the school-to-prison pipeline, Perry noted. She is forming an advisory team of East Side parents and community members to discuss school concerns and wants to increase social services and counseling on diversity and inclusion. But police are necessary in schools, Perry said. I dont think the police presence in my district is overwhelming, she said. There have been instances where things havent been handled the right way. However, theres not an excess. Floyds killing occurred with two days left in a school year that had moved online, and Perry said the district should decide before school starts again how to teach children about it. Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox Art Valdez, vice president of the SAISD board, represents a South Side area that includes Burbank High, with a 98 percent Hispanic student body. Valdez put three children through SAISD schools and has grandchildren in the district. He said his children, well-behaved, werent disciplined in school, but he agreed on the need for a review of policies and district police training. Valdez cited grisly mass shootings in recent years as a reason to keep police stationed in schools, to speed response times in a crisis. If something were to happen inside of the schools, the parents would be blaming us as to why we didnt do anything, he said. We have a very good police department run by a very good police chief. Hes come to us and hes instituted a lot of changes. Since Floyds death, school districts in Minneapolis, Denver, Oakland, Calif. and other cities have voted to eliminate their own police departments or end contracts with municipal police. A week after the killing, SAISDs board president, Patti Radle, issued a statement urging educators to ask where their responsibility lies in avoiding another such death. What is our role in assuring our personnel, including police officers, do not act out of hate or racism or ignorance or anger? Radle asked. We encourage law enforcement officials to listen, empathize and de-escalate. We have seen the relationships and partnerships forged between our District police and our community. We know it can be done. Wearing a Black Lives Matter sticker, Radle called for a moment of silence for Floyd during a videoconferenced board meeting last week. But leaders of the SAISD teachers union blasted the district during the meeting for what they said was a lack of action to curb overpolicing and overdiscipline. They criticized the Student Bill of Rights, adopted last year with discipline recommendations, as a set of false promises. Its time to break completely with the idea of policing youth in our schools, said Luke Amphlett, a teacher at Burbank, dismissing Radles statement and a letter from Martinez, the superintendent, to employees about Floyds death and racial equity. Neither speaks of the overwhelming empirical evidence that school policing does little to keep our students safe while drastically increasing their likelihood of being suspended, incarcerated and having their lives destroyed by racist systems of mass incarceration, Amphlett said. 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 BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend: Turkmenistan will continue providing support to agricultural producers of Dashoguz region at the state level, Trend reports with reference to the Zolotoy Vek (Golden age) newspaper. This was stated by President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov during his working trip to the Dashoguz region, which was aimed at familiarizing with the progress of work carried out on agricultural areas of the region. During his visit, the president was thanked for the assistance provided by the state. One of the farmers said he plans to harvest 84 tons of wheat on his land. The president reaffirmed the states support for agricultural producers. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov checked the operation of machinery used in the sowing of cotton and wheat, namely the equipment of CLAAS made in Germany and John Deere made in the US. In addition to this land plot, the president also visited one of the greenhouses in the region, where he got acquainted with the activities of the greenhouses, operational conditions, as well as with opportunities created for employees. Berdimuhamedov said that it is necessary to create the needed conditions for the further development of the private sector, study and implement the achievements of modern science and best practices by domestic businessmen. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday ordered a top defence official to monitor COVID-19 isolation facilities and borders after a "failure of the system" in which two overseas arrivals were able to leave managed quarantine and later tested positive for the virus. Ardern, whose government has been praised for its early, strict and effective response to the pandemic, adopted the measure after reports emerged that two women, who had arrived in New Zealand from the United Kingdom on June 7, travelled some 650 kms (404 miles) from Auckland to Wellington without completing the mandatory 14-day quarantine or undergoing COVID-19 testing, Efe news reported. The women, who were allowed on compassionate grounds to travel six days after their arrival in New Zealand, later tested positive for COVID-19, following which New Zealand authorities have contacted the 320 close contacts of the pair to ask them to be tested for the virus. "This case represents an unacceptable failure of the system. It should never have happened and it cannot be repeated," Ardern said. Ardern reiterated that people in quarantine and isolation facilities were required to be tested for the virus on Day 3 and Day 12 of their stay. "That should have happened in the cases we learned about yesterday. It did not and there are no excuses," she said. "Our borders and our controls at the borders must be rigorous," the leader stressed. "They must be disciplined and they must have the confidence of ministers and all of you, New Zealanders, who got us here (to zero cases previously)." Ardern then announced that she was appointing Assistant Chief of Defence Air Commodore Digby Webb to oversee all government quarantine and isolation facilities and undertake an audit of the existing processes to ensure they are being fully implemented. "Air Commodore Webb will regularly report to ministers. As the assistant chief of defense he can also seek access to our military logistics operational expertise, and if needed personnel to assist in the running of the facility," she said. The PM added that Webb will make any changes needed to further strengthen border defences. She also announced that the suspension of compassionate exemptions will continue "until such time as we can guarantee a disciplined and rigorous system at the border that ministers have confidence in." The two new infections have broken the 24-day streak of zero coronavirus cases in the country, which overall has recorded 1,156 confirmed cases and 22 deaths due to the virus. New Zealand imposed one of the strictest quarantines in the world in March when it had only 50 COVID-19 cases and gradually relaxed its restrictions until returning to normal on June 9. Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung, left, and Shinhan Bank CEO Jin Ok-dong make braille learning boards at the financial group's head office in Seoul, Wednesday, to take part in the 2020 Global One Shinhan Volunteer Activity Festival. Shinhan said CEOs of its subsidiaries also participated in the volunteer activity at their offices to help visually impaired people study at home. / Courtesy of Shinhan Financial Group OTTAWAErin OToole says he would legislate conscience rights for physicians who oppose abortion or medically assisted dying if he leads the federal Conservatives to power. In one of the few nods to social conservatives in his leadership platform, OToole promised a law to protect health-care professionals who refuse services that violate their beliefs, religious or otherwise. The rights of all Canadians must be respected. Rather dismissing the conscience rights of all Canadians, a mature society like Canada should work on solutions to accommodate all rights, reads his platform, which was released last week. The pledge to make conscience rights government business goes a step further than a recent attempt to legislate the issue in Alberta, where a backbench Conservative MLA introduced a bill on the issue late last year. Legal and medical advocates criticized that bill, warning that allowing physicians to deny services on religious grounds would jeopardize access to services like abortion and medically assisted death. But the OToole campaign contended Tuesday that no one will be denied any access if the Charter rights of health professionals are protected. Freedom of conscience is an explicit Charter right, we must protect it and respect the rights of all Canadians, wrote Melanie Paradis in a brief statement. OToole is not a social conservative, but the Durham MP has been courting their support as he attempts to overtake Peter MacKay in the race to become the next Conservative leader. In the partys ranked ballot leadership contest, members will order the four candidates by preference. After each round of voting, the last-place candidate will drop off, with his or her supporters second or third choices moving to the next candidate. OToole is hoping that he finishes above social conservatives Derek Sloan and Leslyn Lewis, and that their support flows his way as they drop off the ballot. The partys last leadership race showed that can be an effective strategy. A surprisingly strong finish by former MP Brad Trost in 2017 showed the strength and organizational ability of social conservative groups, which helped push Andrew Scheer past front-runner Maxime Bernier. But its also a potentially risky strategy, especially in socially liberal Quebec, where OToole has been aggressively organizing and where social issues hurt Scheer in the 2019 federal election. Allisa Golob, an activist with the group Right Now, said most social conservatives are not looking for leadership candidates to champion their causes. All we want them to do is to follow the party policy, and the party policy states that (MPs) get free votes you have the right to vote with your conscience, said Golob, whose organization is supporting Lewis but lists OToole as its third choice. We dont necessarily need an advocate as the leader. We understand that its a democracy and, you know, you need the majority of the House to pass legislation, not just one particular leader. On Monday, Radio Canada reported that OToole had told social conservatives in Quebec that he had concerns with Liberal proposals to ban conversion therapy, a controversial practice that attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people. OTooles campaign clarified Monday evening that he unequivocally opposes conversion therapy, but has concerns about how the Liberal governments proposal was drafted. Let me be unequivocal, conversion therapies have no place in Canada and should be abolished. Final point, OToole wrote in a statement. LGBTQ people are welcome in the big conservative family and I am committed to fighting this unacceptable and hurtful practice. I will not compromise on this. In the video leaked to Radio Canada, OToole asks social conservatives to make him their second choice on the ballot. The Conservatives are scheduled to choose their next leader on Aug. 21. Read more about: ALBANY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed an executive order Wednesday declaring Juneteenth a day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States a holiday for state employees. The holiday, also known as Freedom Day, falls annually on June 19, the same day in 1865 that a Union general arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans that the Civil War had ended and they had been freed more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. "This observance is a reminder of the hardships and losses suffered by African Americans in their struggle to attain freedom, and we pay tribute to the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in this quest. ... It is fitting that all New Yorkers join to commemorate such an important day in our nations history, as we take this opportunity to reflect upon and rejoice in the freedom and civil rights that we all share as Americans," the executive order states. State employees will, generally, be afforded a paid day off on Friday; anyone required to work will accrue one day of compensatory time. Cuomo said he will propose legislation to codify the executive order and make Juneteenth an official state holiday beginning next year; a bill to do so was introduced last week by Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman, D-Queens. Currently, the holiday is a "day of commemoration" in New York. "Black Emancipation Day June 19th, 1865, also known as Juneteenth is pivotal in the joy, congregation, and spiritual wellbeing of black people in America," Hyndman said in a release from the governor's office. The holiday is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States, according to Juneteenth.com. "I don't think it has been recognized for the importance it denotes," Cuomo said at his daily briefing in Albany. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The announcement comes as both the state and the nation have continued to confront racial injustice and respond to weeks-long Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. The state Legislature convened last week to pass a slew of criminal justice reform bills, and Cuomo directed local police departments last week to "reimagine" their policies or risk state funding. Several protests and celebrations are planned to commemorate Juneteenth nationwide, with marches scheduled on Friday in New York City, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Tulsa, Okla., among other areas. A Juneteenth event is planned in Albany on Saturday from 12 to 3 p.m. at 135 South Pearl St.; the celebration will also feature online music performances. Texas was the first state to declare Juneteenth a public holiday in 1980. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam also announced Tuesday that his state would move to make the celebration a paid state holiday. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 15:34 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf86c1e 4 National Chinese-workers,Southeast-Sulawesi,Konawe-Regency,smelters,migrant-workers,nickel,nickel-smelter Free Southeast Sulawesi Governor Ali Mazi has allowed some 500 Chinese workers to work on nickel smelter projects in the province's Konawe regency after previously blocking their entry. Ali said he had given permission to the Chinese workers after receiving orders from Jakarta. "Regional administrations should not contradict orders from the central government," Ali told Kompas TV on Tuesday. All of the foreign workers would be subject to health protocol and put in quarantine before they were allowed to work on the project site, Ali said. "They're working here to support investment in Southeast Sulawesi, so that our economy can recover after the COVID-19 pandemic," he added. Read also: Police slammed for arresting producer of video showing 49 Chinese workers arriving in Kendari In April, Ali and the Southeast Sulawesi Legislative Council (DPRD) had refused entry to the foreign workers, supposedly due to concerns over COVID-19 transmission. The Chinese workers were hired by Chinese-backed mining company PT Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry (VDNI) and PT Obsidian Stainless Steel (OSS) to install 33 pieces of smelter equipment belonging to PT OSS in Southeast Sulawesi. The companies said they had to bring in the Chinese workers because of a lack of capable local workers and said that, once the equipment was ready, the company would hire 3,000 local workers. The foreign workers were scheduled to be in Indonesia for six months and return to their home country once the installation was complete. PT VDNI external affairs manager Indrayanto said the recruitment process for the local workers had already been completed. "If the 500 foreign workers from China were to be denied entry, then around 3,000 local workers were at risk of losing their jobs," Indrayanto said on May 11. The foreign workers are expected to come to Konawe gradually in several batches. The first 146 people are scheduled to arrive on June 23. (nal) An independent review into the Sydney Harbour Foundation Trust has recommended against long-term plans to transfer the control of historic sites into private hands. The review, to be released on Thursday, effectively rules out proposals such as one from art collectors Tony Berg and Danny Goldberg to invest as much as $100 million to convert all of Cockatoo Island into an "art island". Cockatoo Island is one of the sites that belong to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. The review, led by Carolyn McNally and Erin Flaherty, is the first since the trust was set up in 2001 to restore former defence sites. These include the Macquarie Lightstation in Vaucluse and Neutral Bay's Sub Base Platypus. The report recommends against leasing entire sites such as Cockatoo Island, and calls instead for the creation of a special master plan for the world heritage-listed site with convict-era structures dating back to 1839 and a former shipbuilding dock. Pablo Escobar's crime partner and one of Colombia's pioneering cocaine cowboys has been released after a long prison sentence in the U.S. and been deported to Germany, his lawyer said Wednesday. Carlos Lehder left on a flight for his new home in Berlin on Monday after being released from a U.S. prison in Florida, where he had been held as part of the government's witness protection program, attorney Oscar Arroyave told The Associated Press. Lehder, 70, was one of the leaders with Escobar of the Medellin cartel that dominated the global cocaine trade in the 1980s. At the same time an admirer of both John Lennon and Adolf Hitler, Lehder is portrayed in the Netflix series Narcos as a wild, womanizing criminal who set up a transit point for cocaine-laden aircraft on a private island, Norman's Cay, a few hundred miles off the coast of Florida in the Bahamas. His extradition to the U.S. in 1987 kicked off a period of intense U.S. targeting of Colombian narcos, who at the nadir of the bloody cartel turf wars managed to bribe and threaten their way out of prosecution in the South American country. Escobar, his partner turned rival, never saw a U.S. jail cell, dying in a shootout with police in Medellin in 1993. But thousands of Colombian drug traffickers have since gone to U.S. prisons, many of them serving far less time than Lehder. Arroyave, who didn't represent Lehder at the time of his arrest, said federal sentencing guidelines make it very costly for defendants who fight charges and lose in a jury trial. Nobody accused of drug trafficking goes to trial in the U.S. anymore, said Arroyave, who said he plans to travel soon to Berlin to share a celebratory beer with his client after such a long ordeal. Had he pled guilty, he wouldve been home 15 years ago. In todays world, there are drug traffickers far bigger that Carlos Lehder who pay five to six years." Lehder was originally sentenced to 135 years plus life, but after agreeing to testify against former Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega, he had his sentence reduced to 55 years. Lehder acquired German citizenship through his father, an immigrant to Colombia. Arroyave said Lehder has no interest in returning to Colombia and German authorities provided assistance in allowing him to resettle in his adopted homeland. New Delhi, June 17 : Even as border clashes between India and China escalate geo-political tensions in the subcontinent, the pro-China government in Nepal seems to be in no mood to budge from its position on redrawing the country's map. Behind Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli's unanticipated stand on the map issue, the role of the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu has been a key "inspiring factor", sources in Indian intelligence agencies revealed to IANS. The timing of the unprecedented Indo-China clash in Galwan valley, and PM Oli's territorial adventurism is no coincidence. Intelligence sources in New Delhi said that young Chinese Ambassador in the Himalayan republic, Hou Yanqi, was an "inspiring factor" behind Comrade Oli's move to change Nepal's boundary, claiming a part of territory in India's Uttarakhand state. Sources said that Hou, who earlier did a three year stint in Pakistan, was a frequent guest at Oli's office and residence. Besides, a delegation of Communist Party of Nepal, instrumental in drafting the Second Constitution Amendment Bill to change the political map, was in touch with the Chinese Ambassador. The young Chinese Ambassador, working at the behest of foreign policy strategists in Beijing, is considered to be one of the most powerful foreign diplomats in Nepal. "Apart from serving in Pakistan, she was holding a key responsibility in the Department of Asian Affairs in China's Foreign Ministry," says an intelligence report. The Chinese Embassy also entertained a few top leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal's youth wing. According to a report, youth leaders of the left-wing party staged a protest on the India-Nepal border near Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. Later simultaneous protests were also staged in Kathmandu and other towns to muster widespread support of the people. The Chinese Embassy's hectic back door efforts finally led PM Oli to fast-track the map bill. Without taking China's name, Indian Army chief General M.M. Naravane had earlier hinted that Beijing was behind Nepal's strong protest against India's new link road to the Lipulekh pass in Uttarakhand. "I do not see any contradiction at all as far as the road to Lipulekh Pass is concerned. In fact, the Nepalese Ambassador had mentioned that the east side of Kali Nadi belongs to them. There is no dispute in that," Gen Naravane had said in a webinar organised by an Indian think tank last month. The Indian army chief was of the view that on the Lipulekh Pass issue, there had never been any problems arising from Nepalese side in the past." So there is a reason that they (Nepalese) have raised the issue at the behest of someone else," he had said without mentioning China. Intelligence reports say that initially Nepal had agreed to hold discussion on the Lipulekh issue once the Covid-19 pandemic abated. There was also a plan to hold a virtual conference between the foreign officials of India and Nepal over the issue. However, as Indo-China border border tension gradually escalated in Galwan Valley, the Communist government in Kathmandu also changed its view on the issue and was seen adamant to change Nepal's map through an amendment in the constitution. "Home Town" stars Ben and Erin Napier are experts when it comes to DIY projects. With Bens woodworking skills and Erins creativity, theyve made some incredible custom pieces for their clients over the years. It's no surprise, then, that in their latest "Home Town" episode, titled Upcycled, Erin and Ben look back on the most memorable things they've built on their show. Check them out, and you can relive not only some "Home Town" highlights, but get some inspiration for what you can DIY for your own home, too. A built-in banquette and shadow boxes made from drawers This banquette is a perfect space to gather as a family. HGTV Ben and Erins client Mackenzie has so many special memories gathering at her parents kitchen banquetteso of course, Ben knows he has to build a custom banquette to make her new house feel like home. Ben uses reclaimed wood from the homes walls to make the banquette extra special, and pairs it with a simple breakfast table. Erin puts some family memories in these unique shadow boxes. HGTV Meanwhile, Erin also focuses on making Mackenzies house feel homey by hanging old drawers on the walls to use as shadow boxes that can display family pictures. The natural wood tones and rustic vibe give the house an extra cozy feel. We just really wanted to do all we could to cure your homesickness wherever we could, Erin says to Mackenzie. DIY dropcloth curtains Bens custom table looks perfect in front of Erins DIY curtains. HGTV Erin knows the importance of saving a dollar, and her DIY curtain project is a perfect example of thrifty decor. She explains that dropcloths, the kind that painters use to protect floors from paint spills, make for perfect curtains. She spends only $100 on curtains for clients Ross and Laura. Normal curtains could cost about 10 times that amount. Butcher-block countertops and DIY checkered floors The floors and counters both look amazing in this kitchen! HGTV Ben loves using wood from earlier projects, because it saves tons of money. So hes excited to use a mix of scrap oak, cherry, and mahogany wood when he builds a custom butcher-block countertop for their clients Kenya and Coy. A countertop this thick, to buy, would be outrageously expensive, Erin says. The finished counters look top-of-the-line, but luckily, with a much less showy price tag. Then, to finish off this kitchen, Erin decides to do a little DIY woodworking of her own, by giving the wood floor a checkered pattern. She tapes down lines on the floors, then whitewashes every other square, to get a checkered look. This is like a budget way to punch up a floor that wasnt expensive, Erin says. A custom vanity This vanity is a mix of sophisticated and rugged. HGTV Another all-time favorite DIY project is a vanity that Ben built from used pine for his client Alise. The fancy hardware gives this piece a sophisticated, Victorian touch, while the pine is a little more rugged. Ultimately, the DIY vanity has a look thats both tough and refined. A custom kitchen table for a great cook This kitchen table is beautiful! HGTV Serious chefs need serious toolsat least thats the theory behind Bens custom kitchen table. The client, Linda, is an expert cook, and Ben wants to give her a table that shell love using. He uses all white oak, which is strong and durable, to make this intricate table. That is the most unbelievable piece of furniture, just because of the complicated joinery, Erin says, It was amazing. How to upcycle an old piano This piano makes a lovely desk! HGTV Have you every wondered what to do with an old piano? Ben and Erin answer this question when they find an old piano thats too worn to be fixed up. Still, they dont want to throw it away, so they find another use for it. They remove the workings of the piano and create a custom drafting table for a client, Bill, who loves both music and architecture. This project takes a lot of work, but in the end, it's a music lovers dream work station. This wall hang is perfect for a music room. HGTV This old piano turns out to be the gift that keeps on giving. In a later season, Erin decides to use the insides of that same piano as a wall hanging for a music room for the homeowner, Judi. She and Ben put it in an oak shadow box and hang it over the music room door. The results prove yet again that for Erin and Ben, there are always opportunities to upcycle! Louvered shutters to hide an AC vent Erin's painting and Ben's console look great in this room. HGTV For clients Terry and June, Ben builds a table that can cover up an air-conditioning return vent in the living room. Its louvered shutters allow air from the vent to flow through it easily, and it's made without a bottom or a back, so it fits over the AC without problem. When Ben finally finishes this piece, it perfectly hides the ugly AC return vent. Now, the clients can focus on the rooms chic coastal look, and not the vent. A kitchen peninsula turned into an island This island is a big upgrade from the peninsula that was in this house before. HGTV "Home Town" clients Marian and Marissa have a kitchen peninsula, but they'd much prefer a kitchen island. So Ben moves the structure to the center of the kitchen, refinishes the cabinets, and adds a new counter on top. The new island transforms the kitchen, but the old cabinets manage to keep the homes original charm. Baby Helens custom crib Erin loves Helen's crib. HGTV Perhaps not everyone can DIY a crib, but Ben and Erin name this custom crib as their No. 1 favorite project. Ben makes this white oak crib for their daughter, Helen, and grandmother-to-be Erin is blown away when she finally sees the finished product. The post Erin and Ben Napier's Best 'Home Town' DIY Ideas You'll Be Dying To Try Yourself appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday questioned the prime minister's silence on the "intrusion of foreign troops" and said it was worrying for the country. He said the nation is waiting for an official statement from the Ministry of Defence or Army headquarters. "Will it come tonight?" We have seen the official statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs that says nothing new after the news broke out at 12.52 pm today thanks to an Army WhatsApp group. a P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) June 16, 2020 "The PM has maintained a worrying silence since May 5. Can you imagine any other Head of Government not saying a word for 7 weeks since the intrusion of foreign troops into a country," the former Union minister asked on Twitter. He said one has seen the official statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs that says nothing new after the news broke out at 12.52 pm on Tuesday, thanks to an Army WhatsApp group. "Admittedly, Indian lives have been lost. Who are the brave men who have made the supreme sacrifice? Is one of them a Tamil/Indian from Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu," Chidamabarm also asked. An Indian Army colonel and two soldiers were killed during a violent clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night -- the first such incident involving fatalities in the last 45 years and signalling a massive escalation in the five-week border row in the sensitive region. Also read: India-China border clash: 'Closely monitoring, support peaceful resolution,' says US Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: Rahul Gandhi questions PM Modi over violent LAC face-off CLINTON Firefighters' tactical decision to use a front-end loader to open up a hallway while battling a fire at Clinton Assembly of God may have saved part of the facility, officials said Tuesday. The Clinton Fire Department was called to the church at 801 S. Mulberry at 8:19 a.m., and crews cleared the scene at 3:47 p.m. An official cause and damage estimate were not available late Tuesday. The first companies to arrive tried to attack the interior fire but faced high heat and zero visibility, forcing them to withdraw, according to a joint statement from Fire Chief Jeff Hoke, Assistant Chief Stephen Page and Clinton Public Safety Commissioner Dan Ballenger. The fire self-vented through the roof shortly after. Three ladder trucks were used for elevated master streams to fight the fire along with several hand lines around the structure in a defensive operation," the officials said. Fire crews were able to contain the fire in the sanctuary part of the church, and the front-end loader from the City of Clinton was brought in to open up the hallway connecting the church to the gym and kitchen area. "This move saved the gym and kitchen area of the church other than some smoke throughout that building," officials said. The roof of the church collapsed during the fire and made re-entry into the structure impossible, officials said. Once the fire was under control, excavators were called in to tear down remaining areas so that firefighters could access hot spots and limit safety concerns. Fire departments from Kenney, Wapella, Maroa, Farmer City, Heyworth, Waynesville, Weldon, Argenta-Orena, Warrensburg, Decatur, Lincoln, Mt. Pulaski, Bloomington and Hickory Point assisted at the scene. Clinton Police and DeWitt County Sheriff assisted with traffic control. Several other agencies also assisted, officials said, including DeWitt County EMS, who provided assistance to personnel during the incident; the Clinton street department, which helped with heavy equipment; and the Clinton water department, which helped with water levels. The Clinton Lutheran church gave firefighters a place to cool off and use the restrooms, and several people brought refreshments and food for first responders. PHOTOS: Fire at Clinton Assembly of God Contact Kevin Barlow at (309) 820-3238. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_barlow Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The occupation administrations use the lists for entry across the boundary line The citizens of Ukraine still cannot pass Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint to get the territory of occupied Donbas as they are not included on the lists. During the past 24 hours, a few citizens were denied in the pass due to the absence on the lists, as the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported. Yesterday, 81 people proceeded to the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine through Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint. The occupation administrations use the lists for entry across the boundary line. Two people, due to the absence on these lists, were not admitted to the temporarily occupied territory by the Russian mercenaries, the message said. 76 people were registered at the territory controlled by Ukraine. On June 17, as of 11:00 a.m., 68 people proceeded to the controlled territory through Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint. The checkpoint work from 07:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Meanwhile, eight people wait for the admission at Mariinka checkpoint; however, the occupants do not admit them. Yesterday, a person who tried to cross the boundary line was returned due to the refusal of the militants. Two people in the car stayed near the checkpoint of the militants as they are waiting for the admission since June 11. The checkpoints work from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. As we reported, in the Joint Forces Operation zone, the militants did not admit the citizens to the occupied territory. About 100 pedestrians were waiting near Mariinka checkpoint. A Monmouth County lawmaker hosted a Zoom meeting Tuesday night bringing together police chiefs, the state officers union head, local elected officials, clergy, and a social scientist to talk about police reforms following the death of George Floyd last month in police custody in Minneapolis. One of the potential achievements of the discussion, hosted by state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, was that Freehold Borough Mayor Kevin Kane and Freehold Township Mayor Lestor Preston both offered assurances that they were open to the formation of civilian review boards to look into complaints of police misconduct. A similar online discussion Thursday at 6:30 p.m. will focus on Asbury Park and Neptune. The dozen participants in the discussion also reached a consensus: that race is no easy thing to talk about. In fact, the evening proved it, with a contentious exchange between two of them, Chief George Baumann of the Freehold Township Police and Prof. Kastori DasGupta, a sociology professor at Georgian Court University in Lakewood. Toward the end of the hour-and-twenty-minute discussion, Baumann was responding to a concern raised by Freehold Borough Councilwoman Margaret Rogers that the boroughs Black community was underrepresented on the police force. I dont see color when it comes to that, Baumann said, adding that his main focus was on attracting more women to the department, and that the department was legally bound to hire borough residents who come forward for a civil service test. DasGupta was unimpressed by Baumanns professed color-blindness. I mean, not seeing color is not non-racist, DasGupta said. Not seeing color actually says that youre not going to be, what should I say, your eyes are not open. The chief, in turn, took offense at her remark, saying he found it insulting. Baumann, who was sworn in as chief in January, then asked DasGupta, Do I treat someone differently, on the job as the chief of police, by the color of their skin? No, replied DasGupta, who is Indian-American. I do understand that. But we celebrate color. Not seeing color and not being racist are not the same thing. We see color, but its not important in terms of how we deal with it. We should see color. Im proud of my color. I want you to see me. But I dont want you to treat me differently. So, I think its just a matter of, you know, what terms you are using. But it can lead to misunderstanding. The online discussion took place on the day President Donald Trump issued an executive order to set up database of police officers who use excessive force. It was a day after state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal ordered all New Jersey police departments to begin publicly identifying officers disciplined for serious misconduct, the same day a state Assembly committee passed a package of police reform bills that would include a ban on chokeholds and creation of civilian review boards. As if foreshadowing the exchange between DasGupta and Baumann, the Rev. Ronald Sparks had told fellow participants that race is an uncomfortable issue. Sparks, who leads the AME Baptist Church in Freehold Township, noted at one point that legal and illegal police conduct can seem like a distinction without a difference to Black communities all too accustomed to seeing their members brutalized. A legal expert said 'It was lawful but it was awful" Sparks said. "The community sees the awful part. Other participants included Assemblywoman Joanne Downey (D-Monmouth), and Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemans Benevolent Association, the statewide police union. On Monday, Colligan testified against enabling legislation for local civilian review boards. Online Tuesday, he reiterated his position that the PBA opposes the bill and instead supports guidelines crafted in 2019 by state Attorney General Gerbil Grewal, which would protect officers privacy and career opportunities by keeping past disciplinary measures private, while creating more transparency going forward. Prospective, youre not going to get an issue from PBA, Colligan said of Grewals forward-looking guidelines. But referring to the bill, he added, Going back 20 years, Im going to have to respect the privacy of my officers. Gopal, who is seeking re-election this year after being elected New Jerseys first Indian-American state Senator in 2017, recalled an exchange with a fellow Democrat concerned about his chances leading up to that race, in which he upset the white, Republican incumbent. A Democratic mayor came up to me one day and asked me, Do you think you can win here in Monmouth County?" said Gopal, adding that the mayor was not being hostile, but rather concerned with the unknown. "And I said, Why? And he said, Well, you know, youre not Christian, youre brown, youre not, you know. And I said, I mean, I grew up in Freehold Township, I was born in Neptune. Im proud of my Indian heritage. Im proud to be a practicing Hindu no more than an individual whos proud to be an Italian American, or Irish American, or African American, or anything else. So, recognizing each others culture, diversity is really what strengthens us," Gopal added. "And as so many of the speakers have said, its not ignoring it or not giving it preferential treatment but understanding that we have this common theme of humanity that unites all of us. And to appreciates those differences but know that it really makes us much stronger. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips The Connecticut blues scene is slowly and safely coming back. Things have changed and venues are taking the blues outsides. Fans are happy to hear some live music and see old friends. One can see the optimism in future events as many clubs are already rebooking acts. If things go well, the fall will see a resurgence in live shows. The scheduling of events is still open and often done at the last minute. Once things normalize, Blues Beat anticipates the column and blog to return to its old form. The virtual options continue to grow. A number of clubs went into their archives and pulled out classic old shows. New music is also available, and CDs continue to be released. The Westville Music Bowl, in accordance with state guidance on large gatherings, is deeply saddened to announce that the opening of Westville Music Bowl in New Haven will be postponed until spring 2021. The four shows that were announced on sale have all been rescheduled to the same date/same time frame one year later in June and July. M.C. Records is proud to announce the release of their 100 percent cotton, re-usable face-mask. The Blues Foundations COVID 19 Blues Musician Emergency Relief Fund. https://blues.org/covid-19-fund/ will receive 20 percent of the purchase price. Mark Carpentieri, founder, and president of M.C. Records said, As a musician myself and working with such amazing artists every day, I know how important maintaining income during these rough times can be. Im so glad that the Blues Foundation is doing something so positive and Im glad we can help with that. You can view and order the mask at: https://mc-records.com/ B.B. King Museum Offering Online Activities for Educating and Prizes, so dont forget to join them for online activities. Although they cannot open at this time, the B.B. King Museum is offering online tools to continue educating you and your family during the COVID-19 pandemic. Download any of the resources on their website based on age range. Need even more incentive? How about some free merchandise or entry into the Museum? How to enter: Post a photo to social media with the tag: #BBKingEducation or email your completed project photos to kreed@bbkingmuseum.org. Winners will be chosen and notified every two weeks. If thats not enough, B.B. King Museum has also put together weekly quizzes for adults and children for a Grand Prize. Come back each week, enter your answers, and be put into the drawing. Winner will be notified August 1, 2020. The B.B. King Museum & Delta Interpretive Center mission is to Inspire Hope, Creativity and Greatness! The creation of the Americana Music Association Foundation (AMAF) was recently announced as a 501c3 educational and charitable organization by The Americana Music Association.. It will focus on preserving the art form of Americana music through educational initiatives and music events. Supportive board members include Jackson Browne, T Bone Burnett, Brandi Carlile and Rhiannon Giddens. The Americana Music Association Foundation will preserve and educate people about roots music through educational programs, musical performances and public events. Its Official the October 2020 Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise has been rescheduled to October 24-31, 2021. It is the same ship and same itinerary, sailing roundtrip from Ft. Lauderdale to Aruba, Curacao and Half Moon Cay aboard Holland Americas ms. Eurodam. This has been a challenging decision, but given the circumstances, it is the right and only decision as the LRhythm&BC moves forward. All of the wonderful artists scheduled to perform have been contacted and 100% of them are expected to return. The confirmed lineup will be announced once performers contracts have been re-signed. Walter Trout announced the global release of a new studio album, Ordinary Madness due in August. For Trout, across his five-decade career, music has always been a lifeline and call-to-arms, reminding listeners they are not alone. Now, as the world seeks solace from a tragedy that has touched us all, he comes armed with a boundary-exploring new studio album and eleven searingly honest songs that bring his fans even closer. Ordinary Madness was completed mere days before the U.S. COVID-19 shutdown, its cathartic songcraft and themes of shared troubles couldnt chime better with a period in which our souls and spirits are under fire from tumultuous global events. This time around, Trout is doing things a little differently. Led in by an electronic intro created by eldest son Jon Trout, the song sets off on a hypnotic groove with a gloriously languid guitar break thats anything but autopilot blues. Ive broken the pinkie on my left hand three times in the past year, remembers Trout, so the guitar playing on this album took a little work, and theres some anger and frustration in some of the solos. I really like that solo on the title track. It took two or three re-takes. But I think I nailed it. Any questions or comments should be sent to Domenic Forcella at TWBlus@aol.com. Hart Crowser Clark Salvador Hendrix Lytle Hart Crowser hired Blake Lytle as a hydrogeologist and Thomas Tremaine as a geoscientist in Seattle, and it hired Ryan Hendrix as a geologist, Sheri Salvador as a business development specialist and Andrea Clark as a project assistant in Honolulu. Lytle holds a master's degree in hydrogeology from Clemson University, where his research focused on studying water flow with ground penetrating radar. At Clemson he also developed and directed a program that involved using drones for grants, strategic initiatives, research projects and instruction. Tremaine has a bachelor's degree in geosciences from Trinity University. He has experience as a 3D geospatial analyst, using geographic information system software to turn complex data into user-friendly formats such as maps and 3D virtual plans/models, and to calculate the volume of soil stockpiles. Hendrix holds a bachelor's degree in geology and geophysics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. He will work on projects involving rockfall hazard, landslides, building development and environmental investigation and study. Salvador returned to Hart Crowser after 18 years. Her 20 years of marketing at health care, finance and engineering firms includes brand awareness, communications, events, databases and advertising. She also has digital marketing experience, including website development and management. She has coordinated proposals involving geotechnical engineering, landscape architecture and environmental planning and permitting issues, and has coordinated community and charity events. Clark has previously worked in the engineering industry and for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Hart Crowser added this new position to support its growing Hawaii and Pacific Island presence. The Seattle-based firm specializes in geotechnical engineering, environmental science and engineering, stormwater services and resilience engineering. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: A pall of gloom enveloped Kundan Kunj Colony at Rohta Road of Meerut on Wednesday as the news of the supreme sacrifice made by Havildar Bipul Roy during the violent face-off with Chinese soldiers at the Line of Actual Control in Galwan Valley area in Ladakh region on Monday night came in. Originally from Bhindipada village of Alipordwar, Jalpaigudi in West Bengal, Havildar Roy of 21 Mount Brigade, Signals Regiment, was posted at the Meerut Cantonment two years ago. When he got his posting in Ladakh, he had made arrangements for his wife Rampa and daughter Tamanna, 5, to stay in Meerut in a rented accommodation before he headed to the border. As per sources, the sad news was broken to the bereaved family by Meerut District Magistrate Anil Dhingra and Senior Superintendent of Police P Ajay Sahni. In the meantime, a team of Army personnel reached the residence of the martyr and escorted his wife and daughter to Delhi where the late havildar's body will be received. They will all then move to their ancestral place in West Bengal to perform his last rites. ALSO READ | Ladakh standoff: Sepoy KK Ojha's daughter was born just 17 days ago, never got to see her Soon after getting the news of her husband's martyrdom, Havildar Roy's wife, devastated and crestfallen, somehow gathered herself and started packing her bags while trying to answer the innocent queries her daughter had about her father. Meanwhile, Bipul's elderly father Niren Roy, who is in Bhindipada, came to know about his son's death only on Wednesday. "My wife is suffering from ailments and she is bedridden. She does not know the news," he said. 35-year-old Bipul had joined the Army in 2005. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday had announced Rs 5 lakh compensation and government job for Roy's kin and the family of his fellow-martyr from the state Sepoy Rajesh Orang. UP CM Yogi Adityanath also paid tribute to the martyr and hailed the supreme sacrifice made by the 20 bravehearts who laid down their lives at the LAC. The CM assured the bereaved family of martyr Havildar Bipul Roy all possible help. He said the state government was solidly behind the family in their moment of grief. ALSO SEE: Protesters clad in black set fire to a vehicle and pelted the police with projectiles. (AFP/Alain JOCARD) Doctors, nurses and administrative staff marched without incident in the capital and other French cities to demand the government keep its promise to overhaul France's hospital system in response to the coronavirus crisis. But when demonstrators arrived in front of the Les Invalides complex in central Paris, protesters clad in black set fire to a vehicle and pelted the police with projectiles, chanting "everybody hates the police." They also overturned several vehicles. Police then fired tear gas and charged, in tense and chaotic scenes. The police put the crowd at Les Invalides at 18,000. A police source said radical anti-government protesters had merged into the crowd and estimated their number at between 250 and 300. PROTEST 'HIJACKED' "Violent groups are trying to escalate tensions at the peaceful demonstration held by healthcare workers," police headquarters in Paris tweeted. Thirty-two people had been arrested, according to police. "They have hijacked this protest by force," Patrick Pelloux, the head of the Association of Emergency Doctors in France (AMUF) told BFM television, adding that he was "disgusted." A nurse was in tears. "You have ruined our protest," she said, addressing the violent protesters. Healthcare workers have long complained about low salaries and insufficient staff at French hospitals, leading to a series of strikes over the past year to demand funding increases. There were clashes between the police and demonstrators in the northern city of Lille, in Nantes and Toulouse in southern France. The French healthcare system has been under severe pressure due to the coronavirus epidemic, although officials insist it has largely withstood the challenge. But many healthcare workers have insisted that the nightly rounds of applause for caregivers treating COVID-19 patients would ring hollow if the government did not back up the public recognition of their work with additional resources. "We were portrayed as superheroes because we worked overtime and protected our patients without enough equipment. We were promised hirings and funding but we haven't seen any of it," said a nurse, Latifa, who works at a hospital in southern city Grenoble. The 50-year-old earns 1,565 euros (US$1,765) a month. "Every day I had a knot in my stomach from the fear of bringing the virus home," said home carer Amelie Membanda, who has a three-year-old boy and also works in Grenoble. "We were there for our patients, even without masks, gloves or other protective gear. For the elderly who no longer had any visitors or had no family, we were everything," said Membanda, who earns around 1,100 euros a month. In Paris, Philippe Martinez, who heads the powerful CGT union, struck a combative tone. "We are waiting for a revaluation of salaries and for qualifications to be recognised," he said. Health Minister Olivier Veran on Monday said work was on to review the salaries of health workers and added that the government would have the inputs by the start of July. Analysts say there could be a host of reasons behind Chinas massive troop build-up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that flared up into the first conflict between the sides in almost 45 years: from Beijings desire to tighten its grip on Tibet to anger over New Delhis rapid development of infrastructure in border areas. Tensions between the two sides first flared up in early May following clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Sikkim and Ladakh sectors of the LAC. The deployment of reinforcements by both sides led up to the violent face-off in Galwan Valley on Monday night that left at least 20 Indian soldiers, including a colonel, dead. The obvious priority for the Chinese side in Galwan Valley appears to be to move the perception of the LAC to their advantage, said one of several people familiar with developments who spoke to HT on condition of anonymity. This sentiment in New Delhi appears to have been vindicated as a statement in Mandarin issued by the western command of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) on Tuesday said: The sovereignty of the Galwan River Valley has always been ours. This is what China does, the people cited above pointed out: forcibly establish a military presence in a disputed region and then stake claim to it. The people said China was also irked by Indias speedy development of infrastructure, especially in recent years, in strategic sections of the LAC, including in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. This includes bridges and other structures along the key Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO) road. But there could have been other irritants as well. Then theres Tibet and the Dalai Lama factor. Chinese officials have been saying for some time that India shouldnt come in the way of their efforts to choose the next Dalai Lama. The current Dalai Lama is based in India along with the Tibetan administration in-exile and thats always been a problem for China, said a second person. Or it could be plain old-fashioned distraction. The people said Chinas actions along the LAC could also have been aimed at countering growing criticism within the country and abroad of Beijings response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the calls from several countries, including India, for an examination of the response from global bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as a probe to identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route that led to human infections. Linking the border stand-off to the pandemic may sound far-fetched to some but President Xi Jinping has been strongly criticised within the country for his handling of the Covid-19 crisis. This stand-off could help burnish his image and also help distract attention from the blame from around the world, said the second person. China has also watched the role India has sought to play in shaping the post-Covid world order and they could be thinking this is the perfect way to cut India down to size, the second person added. The people attributed the timing of the troop build-up and intrusions into the Indian side of the LAC to the preparations apparently done by the Chinese side over the winter months. This was a coldly calculated move and there doesnt seem to be anything spontaneous about their actions. They prepared through the winter and acted as summer set in, said a third person. Amitabh Mathur, a former special secretary in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), said the time has come for the Indian government to take the opposition parties into confidence so that the political leadership could present a united stand on the border stand-off. He too said the Tibet factor could have influenced Chinas actions along the LAC. The government has to take the opposition into confidence and brief them and plan a coordinated response before things spiral further out of control. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Prince William is second in line to the throne and, as long as things go according to plan, he will one day become the King of the United Kingdom. There is little doubt that William is ready to wear the crown, but there was a time when he reportedly hated the idea of being King. His younger brother, Prince Harry, was very keen on the idea of sitting on the throne and wasnt afraid to tell their mother, Princess Diana, all about it. Princess Diana with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry | Rota/Pool/Getty Images Prince William was groomed to be King Since the day he was born, the royals have done their best to prepare William for the day he becomes King. Diana may have wanted to give William a normal upbringing, but she and Prince Charles still had to ensure he was ready to wear the crown. To that end, Queen Elizabeth mentored William at a very young age, exposing him to the ins and outs of running the royal family. According to Harpers Bazaar, William developed a very close relationship with Queen Elizabeth in those days and often helped her with royal duties when he was a teenager. There has always been a special closeness between William and the Queen, and she has taken a particular interest in him, royal expert Robert Lacey explained. When William became a teenager, she would have him at Windsor Castle and would open the state boxes and guide him through the papers. Williams training ramped up after he graduated from college. In 2009, he reportedly took part in a two-year program that Queen Elizabeth and Charles designed. The program included lessons from experts on the constitution plus some internships with members of the British government. Given how William continues to be held in high esteem by the public and seems genuinely ready for the challenges of being King, there is no denying that the royals did a good job training him up. But when William was still a young boy, he was reportedly against the idea of sitting on the throne and even told his parents that he wanted nothing to do with the crown. William told Princess Diana that he hated the idea of being King In a recent interview, royal correspondent Jeremy Paxman shared an interesting story about Williams attitude towards the throne when he was a young boy. According to Express, Paxman revealed that William once told Diana, Princess of Wales, that he did not want to be King when he grew up. We talked about our children, and [Princess Diana] said William often told her that he didnt really want to be king, and then Harry would say, If you dont want the job Ill have it,' Paxman revealed. William, of course, was very young when he commented on the throne and has since embraced his future role as the King of the United Kingdom. In fact, William and his wife, Kate Middleton, have increased their royal responsibilities in recent years in preparation for the day his father, Prince Charles, takes the crown. This includes taking part in video calls amid the coronavirus pandemic and delivering food and essential items to people in need. Harry, meanwhile, has officially left the royal family and is now living in Los Angeles with his wife, Meghan Markle. Despite his departure, he remains sixth in line to the throne and will never lose his place in the line of succession (though he will continue to get bumped down once Williams children start families of their own). Prince William and Kate Middleton are taking a page out of Princess Dianas book Speaking of increasing their royal duties, William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, have quickly become the new faces of the royal family. While most of the royals have been hunkering down due to the pandemic, the Cambridges are already making plans for their first big public event. According to Daily Mail, royal author Nigel Cawthorne believes William and Kate will follow Dianas lead by shaking peoples hands during their big return to the public spotlight. The couple reportedly wants to show that the virus is unlikely to be transmitted in this manner. Cawthorne argued that the move is similar to what Diana did with the AIDS epidemic when she shook peoples hands during a tour of Africa. RELATED: How Kate Middleton Saved Her Relationship WIth Prince William Before She Became the Duchess of Cambridge Ironically, at the time, shaking hands couldnt transmit the virus, and their mother made a point of doing so to counter the stigma and spread comfort, Cawthorne shared. I think her sons will seek to do the same and show how life can resume normality, while sticking to the safety rules on transmission further to the latest guidance Prince William and Kate have not commented on the rumors surrounding their first public engagement. The government in the UK is looking to ease restrictions in the coming weeks but it is still unclear when the royals will return to action. Houston-based Episcopal Health Foundation has awarded $1.3 million in COVID-19 relief grants to 32 Texas organizations working to address health care and social inequities exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly $500,000 will be awarded to clinics who serve Texas' uninsured or Medicaid population, according to the foundation, a community health and health policy advocacy group. Houston's El Centro de Corazon, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, HOPE Clinic and The Rose are among the grant recipients. "COVID-19 has highlighted why these services are so important for communities in need," president Elena Marks said in a statement. "And at the same time, many of these organizations are battling severe financial issues plus increased demand for their services." Funds also went to nonprofits such as BakerRipley and SEARCH Homeless Services, to aid in the costs of working with low-income Texans to address early childhood development, benefit programs, mental and behavioral health and other social issues. HOSPITAL SURGE: Gov. Abbott responds to alarm as Texas hospitals swell with coronavirus patients A Houston Chronicle analysis found that Houston's predominantly black and poorest ZIP codes are seeing higher rates of coronavirus cases compared with the rest of the city. That racial and economic disparity, city officials said, is due to a number of factors -- one of which is the disparity in the quality of medical care. In late April, Episcopal Health Foundation announced the creation of a $10 million plan that would help nonprofits working with Texans "disproportionately impacted" by COVID-19. That included grants up to $100,000 for community groups, a research project on pandemic recovery needs in Texas and emergency loans up to $1 million for struggling services. The foundation has already awarded $1.6 million in grants to 23 organizations during the pandemic. gwendolyn.wu@chron.com twitter.com/gwendolynawu The Ministry of Finance will consider a value-added tax (VAT) rate of 5 per cent on fertiliser products which are now free of VAT in response to domestic producers claim that the zero VAT policy made it harder for them to compete. A storehouse of Phu My Fertiliser Plant. The Ministry of Finance will consider a value-added tax (VAT) rate of 5 per cent on fertiliser products. Director of the ministrys Tax Policy Department Pham Dinh Thi told Vietnam News Agency this could be included in the amendments to the Law on VAT. According to the law which took effect in 2015, fertilisers are exempted from VAT to ensure reasonable fertiliser prices, aiming to encourage domestic fertiliser production as well as agricultural production. However, the policy had not worked as effectively as expected. According to the Viet Nam Fertiliser Association, since the law came in force, the prices of fertiliser products in the domestic market rose by 7.2 7.6 per cent compared to when a VAT rate of 5 per cent was imposed previously. The reason was that as fertiliser products were free from VAT, producers could not deduct the VAT they had paid for input and had to include it in the selling price, which pushed production costs and resulted in higher prices of domestic fertilisers. Domestic producers said the policy eroded their competitiveness against imported products which had more competitive prices due to lower production costs and the export countrys policies of zero export tax and VAT deduction on inputs. Although local fertiliser production capacity could meet domestic demand for some products, Viet Nam imported more than 4 million tonnes of fertiliser products per year since 2015, mainly from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia and the Middle East, with an average value of US$1.33 billion. According to the general secretary of the Viet Nam Fertiliser Association Phung Ha, the policy also discouraged domestic producers from expanding production and investing in new fertiliser products. Ha said that amending the zero VAT policy was essential to enable domestic producers to compete with imported products and reduce reliance on imports, which would aid sustainable agricultural development and ensure national food security. In late May, the Ministry of Finance sent a document to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Viet Nam Fertiliser Association which mentioned the ministrys plan of revising VAT policy on fertiliser products, putting the 5 per cent VAT under consideration. The finance ministry said that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the ministry to compile amendments to the Law on VAT to propose to the National Assembly for consideration. Nguyen Van Dong, director of fertiliser producer DAP 2- Vinachem, said the response of the Ministry of Finance was good news to domestic producers. Dong said that he hoped amendments would be issued soon. VNS WASHINGTON - Nineteen days had passed since she picked up a bullhorn for the first time, pressed on the trigger and led a crowd of strangers in chants and cheers as they stared down a line of police outside the White House gates. Now, Arianna Evans blinked open her eyes as the soft light of morning leaked through a green-topped tent. She was one of dozens who had spent the night in Freedom Plaza in a days-long sit-in meant to shine a light on the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has dismissed calls from protesters to defund the city's police department. As she lifted herself from the air mattress, Evans, 23, could feel the way weeks of nonstop demonstrations have changed her: Her joints ache. Her feet throb with a dull pain from having been on them for days, marching for miles. Even her voice is different. Not just metaphorically - how she has learned to wield it to inspire crowds - but physically. There is more gravel in her throat, a deeper tone in her voice that did not exist before. "It's probably from all the yelling," she said. "It's physically exhausting being out here. But I feel like if we're not the ones to do it, then who will be?" The protests, which began May 29 as a reaction to the police killing of George Floyd, have changed hundreds of lives, challenged unwritten rules around how Washington protests are typically conducted and altered the very fabric of the city itself. A legion of demonstrators like Evans, who had never marched in a protest before last month, say that even after weeks in the streets, they are just getting started. If you ask these stalwarts why they keep coming back, each has a different answer. But what they have in common is hope. "I go out there every day because I have committed myself to seeing a change," Evans said. "People need to see that consistency - even if it's just a small group of people every day. People need to see that the movement is still moving." Outside the park where police and protesters faced off for days, "Black Lives Matter" is written in gold on the asphalt. Boarded up businesses have covered plywood in murals calling for equality and change. A constantly evolving collection of protest signs along H Street NW continues to shift and grow. Though the number of demonstrators has ebbed since the protests' early days, new faces still appear daily. Visitors have traveled to the District of Columbia to see for themselves what one protester from Lancaster, Pa., called "the heart of the revolution." District residents who felt intimidated by aggressive police tactics and looting that marred the protests' earliest days have begun to arrive at the now-open Lafayette Square, where they stand with homemade signs and raise fists in solidarity with the longtime demonstrators who have returned again and again, day after day. Protesters say they march because they hope D.C. officials will divert funds from the police department budget and funnel the money into social services. They hope sweeping nationwide change in policing is on the horizon. They hope more people recognize the myriad ways racism affects the country and their own communities. They hope that by being in the street every day, they are helping to forge a new path forward - toward a better, more equal world. "I'm seeing people who were scared to step out before stepping up now," said Kya Parker, 25, a restaurant worker who has been feeding protesters every day they return. "We need them to remain active, stay consistent, keep showing up until we get some laws passed." Dion Ingram, 38, lost his job at a Washington hotel when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Despite the financial hardship, he said, he now sees the extra time as a gift. It has allowed him to spend the past three weeks in front of the White House. Every day, rain or shine, Ingram arrives about 10 a.m. and stays until the sun has set, then rides the subway back across the Anacostia River to Southeast Washington. Nearly two weeks to the minute that federal forces scattered peaceful protesters using chemical gas and rubber bullets to make way for President Donald Trump's visit to St. John's Episcopal Church, a man approached Ingram on the grass outside the White House. He asked what good it would do, standing outside in the summer heat with a sign. The government, the man said, wasn't listening. Why bother? "I grew up in this city," said Ingram, who is black. "And I have never seen this many white people saying things like, 'defund the police.' We're already seeing a change." Ingram, who wore a green camouflage face mask to protect against spreading the still-raging coronavirus and a Washington Nationals cap to shield him from the afternoon sun, carried a sign in each hand - just as he had the day before and the day before that. In his left hand, the placard read "No justice, no peace." In his right, he held the names of two black men and an 11-year-old boy who were fatally shot by police: Philando Castile, Terence Crutcher and Tamir Rice. Across the top of the sheet of paper, Ingram had written the words: "We need a conviction!" Friday was his 15th straight day at the protest. Ingram said he had no intention of stopping and wished others would not either. "We need to be out here," he said, gesturing at the newly reopened Lafayette Square. "I'm going to keep coming until something changes, until the police stop killing us." Dagoberto Acevedo, 23, never meant to return every day. He had gone out that first Saturday with bottled water, hand sanitizer and masks to distribute to protesters staring down police on the front line. He was giving out supplies, he said, when federal officers began to push forward, moving the crowd back onto H Street and away from Lafayette Square. As the police line pressed on and protesters began to scatter, Acevedo said, he tripped and fell at the feet of an officer in riot gear who shouted at him to move. Acevedo froze. The officer, he said, raised his baton as if to strike when a teenage boy ran forward and stood between them. The boy had his hands up, Acevedo said. He shouted at the officer to stand down. "At that moment, I decided I would continue going into Washington every day to do my part to protect and support that person and everyone else," said Acevedo, who lives in Northern Virginia. "It's how I hope I can repay that person, because I don't even know who he was." In the days that followed, Acevedo started an online fundraiser to purchase supplies to hand out to protesters. By the end of his second week, he said, he had raised more than $4,300. As the demonstrations persist, so, too, has the elaborate network of aid stations and vendors set up around the newly minted Black Lives Matter Plaza. On rainy days, volunteers arrive with free T-shirts for protesters who need a dry change of clothes. On hot days, carloads of people wheel out coolers filled with cold water and Gatorade. Parker, who works as an assistant manager at Red Apron, a restaurant and butchery in downtown D.C., has spent hundreds of her own dollars to serve protesters plant-based meals daily for more than two weeks. As a black woman who lives and works in the District, Parker said, it was important to her that protesters feel supported by the community. She wanted to make sure demonstrators could continue to show up without worrying about where they might find a hot meal in a downtown corridor still reeling from pandemic shutdowns and days of unrest. "People are going hard in the heat, some look like they're about to pass out, and they're still coming, night and day," Parker said. "I wanted a way to say, 'we see you, we see your efforts. Keep going. Don't stop. Don't stop.' " On Juneteenth - the June 19 commemoration marking the end of slavery - marches, sit-ins, walkouts and strikes will again take over the District. Protests have also been planned for the weekend and into next week. There is no end in sight to the demonstrations, but some groups - like Freedom Fighters DC, which organized the Freedom Plaza sit-in that began Monday - have shifted their strategies. While many protesters continue to flock to the White House and the Mall, others have transitioned to zeroing in on local politics. In the small tent city at Freedom Plaza, demonstrators listened to a D.C. Council hearing on the police department's budget as it played through speakers around the square. They formed focus groups, where participants discussed issues of racial inequity and shared ideas on how best to address them. Activists even rigged up a projector and played documentaries, like Ava Duvernay's "13th," well into the night. The mood was somber and still. Police, who did not issue a permit for the rally, kept their distance - a marked departure from the explosive standoffs with federal law enforcement officers earlier this month. Evans even found time to do something unfathomable just days before. She closed her eyes, took a breath and drifted off to sleep. "I had to make sure I got some rest," Evans said. After all, she will be back tomorrow - and the next day and the day after that. Booking requests have risen 65 percent in the first week of June compared to May An exclusive analysis of data by hotel price comparison site trivago shows that Germans are avoiding long-distance trips this year No more short breaks: vacations for longer periods are now the choice of preference Mountains over Mallorca: Austria prevailed over Italy and Spain as the top choice for trips abroad in May DUSSELDORF, GERMANY June 16, 2020 - The international travel warning ended for most European travelers in mid-Juneand Germans are once again longing for a vacation. In the first week of June, search queries and vacation booking requests shot up by 50, respectively 65 percent compared to the May average. This follows on from late March/early April where queries had collapsed by 90 percent compared to the previous year. Particularly striking is that Germans are sacrificing short breaks rather than their main holiday. Interest in trips lasting more than seven days is growing far faster than short breaks: compared to 2019, there are far fewer searches for short breaks. Indeed, in the first week of June 2020, searches for longer trips (lasting 7 to 14 days) saw roughly 40 percent year-on-year increase. These are the results of a recent and exclusive analysis conducted by management consultancy McKinsey & Company using anonymized search query data from the hotel price comparison site trivago. General search requests were analyzed as well as booking queries or click-outs, where the user clicks on a link to a selected offer. The search data and booking queries show that concerns over travel restrictions and the convenience of the travel destination now play a major role in travel planning. Public announcements on travel restrictions have a direct impact on search behavior, which is why destinations in Germany and neighboring countries are currently in such high demand. In May, 70 percent of German searches were for domestic destinations compared to only 46 percent in May 2019. By the first week of June, this had fallen to 62 percent. Story continues Ease of planning and local offers influence choice of destination As expected, demand for vacations in natural surroundings and beautiful landscapes has significantly increased, while interest in city breaks has collapsed. This trend will likely continue for a long time even after Corona, according to Axel Hefer, CEO trivago. A dashboard developed by McKinsey and trivago allows this data to be interpreted, trends to be determined in travel behavior, and success factors identified for travel firms. People are now basing their choice of travel destination on completely different criteria than in the time before the coronavirus pandemic, says Jurgen Schroder, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company. Not only do pragmatic considerations play a role such as the convenience of traveling to a location, but also the potential experience at the destination itself. People wonder, for example: What will I be able to do there? How will it work? Axel Hefer, CEO trivago: Interestingly, the duration of vacations being searched for has also increased. People seem to feel much safer journeying in their own cars, so its hardly surprising that shorter trips are less favored. The German coast is the new top destination of Germans The German destinations on the North Sea and Baltic Sea are the winners in this crisis: With 14 percent of all search queries, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has seen twice as much interest during the crisis (April through June) as before the crisis (7 percent). Interest in Schleswig-Holstein has also nearly doubled from 6 percent to 11 percent. According to Jurgen Schroder: Low numbers of virus cases and ease of accessibility with a car play a big role. Also, holidaymakers dont want to miss out on their preferred type of vacation, which makes the German coast a good alternative to a Mediterranean holiday. Compared to before the crisis, interest in the top city breaks of Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich has fallen by around 40 percent. Demand for holiday apartments has also grown by more than 65 percent since the crisis. Vacations in a holiday apartment are less affected by the travel restrictions than, for example, vacations in a hotel complex. They come closest to replicating that pre-corona vacation feeling, says trivago boss Axel Hefer. Trips abroad are mostly being postponed to the end of the year The data shows that the popularity of a destination pre-corona still plays a big role, and Germans are staying true to their traditionally favored travel destinations of Austria, Spain, Italy, the USA, and the Netherlands. With 14 percent of all booking queries for foreign trips, Austria doubled its share between April and June compared to the previous year (7 percent), even overtaking the pre-crisis top destination of Spain. The analysis shows that while Germans continue to look for foreign destinations, actual booking queries tend to be for neighboring countries. Equally, many Germans are deciding to postpone their travel plans to later in the year. Although as in the previous year, domestic trips are mainly planned for the summer months, the data analysis shows a clear trend of international trips being postponed to later in the year and early 2021. The travel industry needs to respond quickly to changing customer expectations According to McKinsey consultant Schroder, the various players in the travel industry including tourism associations, event organizers and hotels face completely new challenges: They need to ensure that demand and expectations for a destination match the realities and opportunities available at that destination. If this is not the case, measures need to be taken to ensure travelers still enjoy a good experience. Hotels, for example, need to know when capacities can be ramped up or need to be scaled down. Axel Hefer adds: Tourism agencies need to weigh up the risks of opening attractions and the danger of a new COVID outbreak. Questions and answers are changing daily, and plenty of flexibility is called for. The analysis of the search queries offers an overview of the factors that are most important to Germans who want to travel: Travel restrictions: Which destinations are currently open for travel? Convenience: Which destinations can currently be reached safely, e.g., by car, availability of alternative transport, and other restrictions such as compulsory face-mask regulations on airplanes, and so on. Travel sentiment: Given the current situation, which regions will offer the best vacation experience, e.g., number of COVID-19 cases, local healthcare system, etc. Attractiveness: Given the current restrictions, how attractive is the destination, e.g., opening hours of key attractions, restaurant opening times, availability of accommodation, etc. About trivago trivago is a leading global hotel search platform focused on reshaping the way travelers search for and compare hotels and alternative accommodations. Incorporated in 2005 in Dusseldorf, Germany, the platform allows travelers to make informed decisions by personalizing their hotel search and providing them access to a deep supply of hotel information and prices. trivago enables its advertisers to grow their businesses by providing access to a broad audience of travelers via its websites and apps. As of March 31, 2020, trivago has established 54 localized platforms connected to over 4.5 million hotels and alternative accommodations, in over 190 countries. Media Contact: Stephanie Lowenthal stephanie.lowenthal@trivago.com Storyful An observatory in Hawaii captured atmospheric pressure waves created by the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano on January 15.The Gemini Observatory in Hawaii was 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) away from the eruption when it captured the atmospheric pressure waves on three different cameras. They are the faintly red waves seen in the footage, NOIRLab explained.The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano erupted on January 15, triggering a tsunami on the South Pacific nation of Tonga with waves up to 15 meters, according to information released by the Tongan government. At least three people were killed and dozens of properties were damaged across the islands. Credit: NOIRLab via Storyful MentorTutoring wrote: Hello, jphogan94 . That does seem a little harsh for Verbal, perhaps for Quant as well. What question types were the ones you missed in Verbal? SC? CR? RC? As for Quant, I know that I have seen people miss as many as eight questions and still earn a 50, but it has also been the case that their errors occurred in the middle and later portions of the test. Moreover, I have read in more than one debrief that Practice Test 6 tends to run easier than others on the whole. Still another person posted recently about the official practice tests, speculating on whether the upper limit of the scaled scores was set at 49, since he had missed a single question in Quant (I believe) as part of a simulation and generated such a score. Maybe, all things considered, the score you earned makes a little more sense. I would be pleased if I were you that I had gone through a gauntlet of 58 questions and missed only 5. That is a handful of questions away from perfection! I often tell my high-shooting students who are earning really competitive scores in practice that the numbers attached to the performance mean a lot less at that level than the actual number of questions answered incorrectly. Sure, if you could choose where in the test to miss questions, you would do so later, but pull back those two or three questions per section, and the pendulum could swing the other way entirely, and that sort of volatility provides an element of excitement. My best advice? Study those questions you missed inside and out. Go over, too, any you felt less than certain ofi.e. look them up and pore over the dialogue on them in the forumso that you can set yourself up for success in the next run. Good luck with your studies. (Focus on clawing back those few questions. No one disputes that getting all the questions correct leads to a perfect score.) - Andrew Andrew,Thank you for this very useful insight and the kind words of encouragement! It is good to hear that others have said Practice Test 6 seems to run a bit easier. I did realize that this practice exam rarely provided me the harder level of questions (according to GMAT Club, only 5 of the questions were of the "Hard" difficulty level), so that could explain why my result was Q49 with only 3 wrong. As for verbal, I missed 1 SC question (Question #24 rated "Hard" on GMAT Club) and 1 RC question (Question #32 rated "Medium" on GMAT Club). I found the verbal score to be a bit more concerning since 2 wrong spaced out as far apart as they were in this practice exam typically resulted in V46-47 in the past for me. Express News Service BENGALURU: Justice Subhash B Adi, former judge of the Karnataka High Court, has been appointed the president of the Fee Regulatory Committee of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions with immediate effect. A notification issued by GM Venkateshaiah, under-secretary, higher education department (technical education), in the name of the Governor on Wednesday, stated that Justice Subhash has been appointed in this capacity under The Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006, for a period of one year or until further notice, whichever is earlier. This comes after the Karnataka High Court pulled up the government on Monday and sought a response on what happened about the court's recommendation to appoint a retired judge as the head of the Fee Regulatory Authority.The court was hearing a PIL by Hubballi-based Late G B Kulkarani Memorial Legal Trust, represented by its president Dr Vinod Kulkarni, a medical practitioner and social activist, who questioned the government's move to increase the fees for post-graduate medical courses in private medical colleges in Karnataka. The state government, amid the lockdown, on April 30, had announced a 20 percent and 30 percent hike in fees for government and institutional quotas in private medical colleges, both for medical and dental courses. Several students took out online protests but received no favourable response from authorities. Yadeen Rashid was flying high in February. Hed just earned stellar grades in his latest semester at Virginia Tech university, where hes in his third year double majoring in economics and political science. And hed just landed a summer internship at a data analysis company. Then the pandemic hit, triggering lockdown restrictions and pushing the U.S. economy into recession. Many companies cancelled their internships programs and rescinded job offers - including NTT Data, where Rashid was set to intern. I was really upset, not just because finding an internship is hard, but because I actually was very excited to work with them very specifically, said Rashid, 21. He said he bears no ill-will to the company and is looking for other internship opportunities. But, you know, as time goes on, it gets a little less optimistic. Rashids experience shows how the global coronavirus crisis, which has already thrown much of the business world into turmoil, is also disrupting summer internships, an important stepping stone to working life for many university students and recent graduates. Half of all internship openings in the U.S. have been cut since the pandemic outbreak, and 64% of those in the U.K., according to research by Glassdoor, the career website. Hundreds of companies, including AirBnb, Fedex, Gap and Walt Disney Co., have scrapped their summer programs, according to an online database. Companies use summer internships as a pipeline for recruiting graduates while young people benefit from exposure to real working life. They can serve as a source of income or a graduation requirement. More than one in every six young workers globally have stopped working during the pandemic, the International Labour Organization said last month. The U.N. labour agency added that the pandemics long-term fallout could lead to a lockdown generation scarred throughout their working lives. Some companies are making their internships virtual mirroring the work-from-home trend thats swept office life during the pandemic. E-commerce giant Amazon is hiring more than 8,000 interns for its summer program, which its turning into a virtual model. Global consulting firm EY said more than half of its 15,000 internships this year will be in virtual formats. Interns will be assigned a peer counsellor, someone who joined the company in the past two years, as well as a more senior reporting counsellor who will both regularly check in on them, said Trent Henry, EYs global-vice chair of talent. At the Associated Press, some internships will either likely be done remotely, some deferred until next year and others have been cancelled. One benefit of a traditional internship networking is harder to do virtually but companies are trying to help. Amazon is providing mentoring and weekly fireside chats via remote video conferencing. U.S. air conditioner maker Lennoxs 54 summer interns can join lunchtime talks with senior executives by video conference. The company still wants to treat them to a good lunch so its considering sending them gift cards to buy food, said recruiter Lexie Williams. Those who have done virtual internships say its a way to learn remote working skills that are more important now that COVID-19 has changed how people work. Recent graduate Sahar Shabani, 22, did a three-month remote internship with a development charity based in Thailand from her parents home in South London. Shabani applied in February through Queen Mary University of London, where she earned a bachelors degree in politics and international relations. She checked in by phone every day with her supervisor, who assigned her to research and write reports about topics like corporate social responsibility and then give video presentations on them using Zoom. Whether it was in person or not, you still gained those skills or valuable experience, she said. Its a new way of experiencing work. Catarina Silva, 22, is doing a part-time virtual internship with an Asia-based social enterprise through Aston University in Birmingham, England, as part of her masters degree. Silva, who returned to her parents home in Porto, Portugal, spends her mornings working on her dissertation and afternoons building a donor database and working on strategy for the foundation. She says shes getting used to the unstructured nature of working from home. That means, for example, night owls could work after midnight, she said. There are a lot of people in my generation that like that flexibility. Silva, who has already lined up a job after graduation with the consultancy Accenture, said shed like to work in an office, but at the same time, you will always have to know how to work remotely. She has done two previous in-person summer internships, at a bank and a fashion chain in Portugal, and acknowledges that interning remotely makes it harder to network. Its good when you go to the office and meet people and have lunch with them, so you build human connections, Silva said. With a virtual internship thats more difficult. Universities with work placement or study abroad programs have scrambled to replace them with remote options, said Edward Holroyd-Pearce, president of Virtual Internships, a British firm that helped arrange Silvas and Shabanis programs and specializes in Asia. Weve seen a huge demand because of coronavirus, said Pearce. The number of students his company has placed has jumped tenfold this year, with inquiries coming from the U.S., Britain, Australia, the Middle East and many other countries, he said. Still, the remote option doesnt appeal to everyone. Tobias Bidstrup, a third-year international business student at Copenhagen Business School, was offered an internship at Procter & Gambles London offices this summer. But after the pandemic hit Europe, the company offered to let interns to do it virtually or defer it for a year. Bidstrup, 21, chose to wait. Starting at a new company, doing the internship and youre meeting people and being introduced to new tasks and also getting to know how the culture is at a company I think thats really difficult to do virtually compared to doing it in person at the office, he said. (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 Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced Wednesday that he will donate $40 million each to Spelman College, Morehouse College and the United Negro College Fund. (Paul Sakuma / Associated Press) Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, announced Wednesday morning that they have given $120 million toward scholarships at historically Black colleges and universities the largest individual donation to the institutions to date. Spelman College, Morehouse College and the United Negro College Fund each received $40 million. The two colleges, focused on educating women and men, respectively, are located in Atlanta. They are top producers of Black graduates receiving Fulbright scholarships and pursuing doctorates. The United Negro College Fund is a minority education organization that awards scholarships to more than 10,000 students each year and financially supports 37 historically Black colleges and universities. Endowments at historically Black colleges and universities remain significantly lower than at comparable colleges. The median endowment for American historically Black colleges and universities is $15.7 million, compared with the median endowment of $36.8 million for non-HBCUs, a news release said. Hastings attributes this to white people's lack of understanding about the record of historically Black colleges and universities. "Because there's so much social isolation in America, there's just less awareness in the white community certainly in my community of the role that HBCUs have played over the last 150 years," said Hastings, who has a net worth of about $4.7 billion. Hastings has been involved in education throughout his life. After graduating from Bowdoin College, he taught math in Swaziland through the Peace Corps. Since then, he's financed a 1998 campaign to push for charter schools, provided start-up funding to the Aspire Public Schools charter network and served on the California Board of Education and KIPP Foundation. He had donated to his alma mater in Maine but hadn't considered giving to historically Black colleges and universities until he spoke with United Negro College Fund President Michael Lomax. Story continues "He said, 'Well, capital is isolated also, in addition to social [isolation]. So white people generally give to predominantly white institutions. It's natural, but it's not healthy. We need to do a better job of kind of getting to know each other and cross-investing,'" Hastings said. The donation announced Wednesday is not Hastings' first gift to benefit historically Black colleges and universities. In 2016, he created a $100-million Hastings Fund toward education, $1.5 million of which went toward the United Negro College Fund. He then foreshadowed the 2020 gift, posting on Facebook that "I hope to do more in the future." Morehouse College President David Thomas said the gift is powerful because Hastings and Quillin allocated it specifically toward scholarships. The donation makes up nearly 10% of Thomas' goal to reach a $500-million endowment. Now, he plans to raise the target amount. Ideally, the endowment would be large enough so the college can admit students without considering their family's economic status. Morehouse College, located in Atlanta, was founded in 1867. The school educated Martin Luther King Jr., former U.S. Surgeon Gen. David Satcher and filmmaker Spike Lee. (Mike Stewart / Associated Press) "We've done the calculations. To be where I want our college to be, which is need-blind, we need an endowment of roughly $1.2 billion," he said. Thomas hopes Hastings and Quillin's donation will indicate to other high-income people that historically Black colleges and universities are worth investing in. High rates of annual alumni giving (more than 35% at Spelman) have not been enough to overcome educational inequality. To reverse the inequity, more people must support HBCUs, a news release said. Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell said scholarships relate directly to students' success. If not for a scholarship, the school's 2020 valedictorian, Kendra Grissom, wouldn't have been in the same position to help others, Campbell said. She was a mentor for 10 first-generation freshmen and sophomores. She'd tutor them, advise them about course selection and tell them about off-campus events. Now, she'll pursue a doctoral program in history at Johns Hopkins University. And if it weren't for his scholarship, Los Angeles native Lomax said he may not have become president of the United Negro College Fund. "In 1964, my mom, who was a journalist, decided to go back to the Deep South and cover the civil rights movement. I was going to be a senior at L.A. High. My only option was to go to Tuskegee Institute High School, which was a segregated school," he said. So his mother wrote to Benjamin Mays, the then-president of Morehouse. After looking at Lomax's transcript, he offered Lomax a spot in a Morehouse program for high school seniors. "I got a scholarship, a Charles E. Merrill early admissions scholarship, founded by the son of the man who created Merrill Lynch. And that $1,200-a-year tuition scholarship gave me the opportunity to get a Morehouse education, the most powerful education I've had in my life," he said. "It has made all the difference." Paris, France (PANA) - Amnesty International has said that President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Felix Tshisekedi, did not fulfill promises he made during his inauguration, leaving hundreds of families whose members were killed in pre-election crisis WORDEN Amy Maher, the Republican nominee for circuit judge, on Monday announced her support of a program instituted by the Madison County Veterans Assistance Commission to better train and prepare law enforcement to deal with veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The National Center for PTSD estimates that 11 to 20 percent of all veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom suffer from PTSD in any given month Maher said. At these epidemic levels we owe it to both the veterans and our hard working, over stressed law enforcement professionals to provide the best resources possible. I think this program, does just that. One of the countrys most well-known actors has been involved in a violent incident at a Perth train station after he claims he was called a f---ing Abo. Ernie Dingo was at central station on Wednesday morning waiting to board a train when a man reportedly walked past him and made the racial slur. Ernie Dingo starred in Australian musical Bran Nue Dae and international cult classic Crocodile Dundee II. I chased him and scruffs him, Dingo said, according to Ngaarda Media, which published an account of the scuffle in the actor's own words on social media. Say it again. He is scared now and I whack him on the right side of his head. We look forward to joining this impressive coalition and offering enterprises and MSSPs a seamless way to leverage their Microsoft security tools on our independent security operations platform. Siemplify, independent provider of security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), today announced it has joined the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association to help Microsoft security customers gain access to faster and more informed threat investigation and response. As a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association, Siemplify will integrate its Security Operations Platform with an array of Microsoft security products, including Microsoft Azure Sentinel and Microsoft Graph Security API. The Siemplify platform combines SOAR with end-to-end security operations management to make analysts more productive, security engineers more effective and managers more informed about the security operations center (SOC). Trusted by many of the worlds leading enterprises and MSSPs, security teams rely on Siemplify to reduce alert overload, build automated processes that slash response times, and measure and improve SOC performance. SOAR has become integral for every security operations team seeking to respond to threats at the speed of business, said Amos Stern, CEO and co-founder of Siemplify. As cloud adoption continues to accelerate, the need for security orchestration and automation across hybrid environments will become even more imperative to address new threats at the speed of cloud. We look forward to joining this impressive coalition and offering enterprises and MSSPs a seamless way to leverage their Microsoft security tools on our independent security operations platform. Security operations teams can now easily create repeatable, automated playbooks that detect, investigate and remediate cyber threats across Microsoft solutions at scale. This will not only enhance the value of their security investments, but also boost the effectiveness of their SOC. Members of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association integrate their security solutions with Microsofts to gain more signal, increase visibility and better protect against threats, said Ryan McGee, director of Microsoft Security product marketing. By extending Microsofts security capabilities across the ecosystem, we help our shared customers to succeed. For more information on the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association, visit here. About Siemplify Siemplify, the leading independent security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) provider, is redefining security operations for enterprises and MSSPs worldwide. The Siemplify platform is an intuitive workbench that enables security teams to manage their operations from end to end, respond to cyberthreats with speed and precision and get smarter with every analyst interaction. Founded in 2015 by Israeli Intelligence experts, with extensive experience running and training security operations centers worldwide, Siemplify has raised $58 million in funding to date and is headquartered in New York, with offices in Tel Aviv. Visit us at siemplify.co and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Products, service names and company logos mentioned herein may be registered trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Contact: Dan Kaplan Siemplify dkaplan@siemplify.co A former owner of West Shore-based Keystone Biofuels Inc. will spend years in prison and be on the hook to pay more than $9 million in restitution if a federal judge accepts a newly filed stipulation in his tax fraud case. Ben Wooten, 55, of Enola struck that tentative deal with the U.S. Attorneys Office 14 months after a federal jury in Harrisburg convicted him, his firm and his partner Race Miner of Colorado on charges that they ran a multiyear tax credit scheme against the U.S. government. Prosecutors said Keystone provided bogus records to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency between 2009 and 2012 to illegally get millions of dollars in tax credits for supposedly producing renewable eco-friendly biodiesel fuel. The amounts and sometimes the contents of fuel Keystone claimed to have produced didnt actually qualify for those credits, investigators said. They said Keystone officials also gave federal agencies documentation for fuel that wasnt actually produced. Wooten, Miner and Keystone, which filed for bankruptcy in 2013, all are awaiting sentencing by U.S. Middle District Chief Judge John E. Jones III. Under the stipulation proposed to the judge, Wooten would face a prison term ranging from 78 to 97 months. It calls for him to pay $4,149,983 in restitution to the IRS and $5,076,376 to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Miner has no sentencing stipulation on file with Jones court. Wooten was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2017. He was convicted on charges of conspiracy and making false statements after a three-week trial in April 2019. This past February, Jones rejected a plea to void the verdicts. He cited testimony from former Keystone employees that the con was committed deliberately and at the now-defunct companys highest levels. One top Keystone executive who cooperated with prosecutors already has been sentenced. Last August, Jones sentenced David Tielle, its former business development director, to 3 year of probation. Tielle, 51, had pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit tax fraud charge. He testified as a prosecution witness during the 2019 trial. (CNN) Since George Floyd's death three weeks ago, the role of America's criminal justice system has been catapulted to the forefront of national conversation with thousands calling for sweeping changes within the country's policing system. Protesters have called on their community leaders to hold officers accountable and defund police departments in hopes those funds could be redirected toward other programs. And many local leaders have responded, signing orders changing how departments operate, promising further reform and acting quickly on incidents of police brutality that have surfaced in recent weeks. But as anger bubbles in parts of the country, some US police departments are facing their own crises and some officers have now opted to walk away. In Minneapolis In Minneapolis, at least seven police officers resigned from the department since protests sparked by Floyd's death in late May flooded the city's streets. More than half a dozen officers are also in the process of leaving, a city spokesperson told CNN. The number of officers who are no longer with the department doesn't include the four men who were involved in Floyd's death and were fired, according to Casper Hill, the city's spokesperson. "There's nothing that leads us to believe that at this point the numbers are so great that it's going to be problematic," police spokesman John Elder told the Minneapolis Star Tribune of the departing officers, which include both patrol officers and detectives. "People seek to leave employment for a myriad reasons the MPD is no exception," Elder said. Members of the department condemned the actions of ex-Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin -- who pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes -- in an open letter last week. "Derek Chauvin failed as a human and stripped George Floyd of his dignity and life. This is not who we are," said the letter, signed by 14 officers. "We're not the union or the administration," the letter says. In Atlanta Atlanta became the epicenter of protests this week after a black man was shot in the back and killed Friday night. Following Rayshard Brooks' killing, Atlanta's police chief stepped down and the officer who killed the 27-year-old father was fired. A second officer was placed on administrative duty. Atlanta police said in a statement eight officers have resigned from the department this month. "Our personnel data indicates that we have had anywhere from two to six officers resign per month in 2020," Atlanta police said in a statement. The Atlanta Police Foundation earlier reported that 19 officers had resigned "since the start of social justice protests." The foundation has since retracted that incorrect number. Prior to Brooks' killing, some were critical of charges that six officers faced after video captured the group violently handling a pair of black college students who were in their car and were stuck in traffic caused by ongoing protests. Those critics included Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields, who had already fired two officers involved, and said she didn't expect charges. Criminal charges "were never part of any discussion that I had with the Mayor or her administration," Shields wrote in the memo provided to CNN by the department. "I called the DA and strongly expressed my concern, both to the appropriateness and the timing of any charges," Shields wrote. In South Florida In South Florida, 10 officers resigned from their city's SWAT unit over concerns about safety, saying they feel "restrained by the politicization of our tactics," according to documents obtained by CNN. The officers sent a letter to Hallandale Beach Police Chief Sonia Quinones, saying they were "minimally equipped, under trained and often times restrained by the politicization of our tactics to the extent of placing the safety of dogs over the safety of the team members." They also said they were displeased after the command staff took a knee with activists and others during a demonstration on Monday, according to the letter. "Until these conditions and sentiments are rectified and addressed, we cannot safely, effectively and in good faith carry out duties in this capacity without putting ourselves and our families at this needless increased level of risk," the officers wrote. The officers resigned only from the SWAT unit, not from the police department, Hallandale Beach City Manager Greg Chavarria said. The chief told CNN Monday night she was "extremely disappointed" in the officers' decision. "They walked away from their assignment, they never talked to me in advance and let me know their concerns," she said. "If we're not connecting and we're not communicating, then we're not resolving concerns." She said what the officers wrote in their memo was inaccurate, adding she didn't kneel to oppose police but to be in solidarity with their community. "We provided increased training hours, we provided over $100,000 in the last two years in SWAT-specific equipment and then they inaccurately and falsely stated I took a knee in solidarity with the vice mayor, which was not the case. It was in reverence with our community," the chief said. In Buffalo In Buffalo, New York, nearly 60 officers resigned from the force's emergency response team over the suspension of two police officers who were caught in a video pushing an elderly protester to the ground. "Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders," Buffalo Police Benevolent Association president John Evans had previously told CNN affiliate WGRZ. The two officers captured on video were charged with assault and pleaded not guilty. The 75-year-old protester was seen falling to the ground and bleeding from his head. The 57 officers that turned in their resignation did not quit from the force -- but made up the entire active emergency response team of the department, the Buffalo mayor's office told CNN. A few members of the unit are out currently and are not included in the 57 that resigned, according to the mayor's office. This story was first published on CNN.com,"Police officers across the US have quit their jobs in recent days. Here is where there have been resignations." There is no doubt that being an A-list actor comes with a few perks. For instance, you get to travel the world, meet a variety of interesting people, and of course buy some of the most lavish houses in the world. Tom Cruise not only enjoys all of these perks, but he also has purchased a few very expensive and rare aircraft. Cruise is not the first celebrity to own an airplane, but the types of airplanes that he does have proves that sometimes he definitely feels the need the need for speed. In addition to a real-life WWII fighter, Cruise also owns a few other luxurious aircraft. Heres a look at some of the most lavish and expensive airplanes that Cruise has parked in his garage. Can Tom Cruise fly his own airplanes? Tom Cruise | Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images RELATED: Tom Cruises Wedding Gift To Katie Holmes Set Him Back $20 Million In 1986, Cruise landed the role of Maverick in the critically acclaimed movie Top Gun. While filming the movie, Cruise fell in love with aviation, and in 1994 he got his pilot license. In an interview with Wired, Cruise said he is a multi-engine instrument-rated commercial pilot and is able to fly both commercial airplanes and helicopters. In the upcoming Top Gun sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise is actually flying some of the airplanes in the movie. He recently talked to Conan OBrien about the upcoming sequel. And he said it has always been his dream to make movies and fly airplanes. Has Tom Cruises pilot license helped his career? With his incredible acting skills, Cruise is one of the highest-paid actors in the world. He has been a household name since the mid-80s, so it seems that his career doesnt really need any help. However, Cruise has always loved to perform his own stunts, and having a pilot license for both airplanes and helicopters has definitely helped him achieve that goal. With his pilot license, he is able to fly almost anytime he likes, and his experience with G-forces has helped him when filming his own flying stunts in movies. Top Gun: Maverick was not the first time that Cruise was able to get in the pilot seat on a movie. In 2017 Cruise starred in the movie American Made, and in 2018 he starred in Mission Impossible: Fallout. In both of those movies, he performed death-defying stunts in a helicopter. How many airplanes does Tom Cruise own? RELATED: Tom Cruises Rarest Car Might Be His Original Model Bugatti Veyron According to World War Wings, Cruise owns at least three different luxury aircraft, but he may own as many as five airplanes. His most luxurious aircraft is his Gulfstream IV G4 jet. The Gulfstream IV cost around $20 million and is capable of hauling up to 19 passengers. The jet can travel up to 45,000 feet in the air and is equipped with a jacuzzi and a movie-screening room to help him and his guests feel at home even when they are several thousand feet in the air. Cruise also owns a P-51 Mustang, which was a real-life WWII fighter. The aircraft was built in 1946 and was donated to a museum in Illinois. In 1997 the P-51 was completely restored and later sold to Cruise in 2001. Cruise had some custom alterations made to the plane specifically he had the words Kiss Me Kate (in reference to his ex-wife, Katie Holmes) painted on the nose of the plane. Out of all of the airplanes that Cruise owns, he seems to like his P-51 Mustang the best. He has frequently been spotted flying the plane and has even been known to let his friends ride with him in his WWII fighter. Correction: An earlier version erroneously referred to the WWII fighter as a jet. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Last week the esteemed Rabbis Abraham Cooper and Yitzchok Adlerstein of the Simon Wiesenthal Center launched a rebuke against Ward Simpson, the Messianic Jewish president of GOD TV, regarding our Hebrew language television channel in Israel called Shelanu. Shelanu is the first-ever cable channel that broadcasts the stories, teaching and worship of Messianic Jews in Hebrew. Before I address the rabbis' comments, let me say that this response article is not personally against them. As a Jew, I am grateful for the work of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. They have fought against anti-Semitism and against the anti-Israel BDS movement with courage and truth. However, when it comes to the issue of Yeshua (Jesus), they are governed more by history and emotion than Biblical truth. For instance, they say that GOD TVs Ward Simpson knows nothing about Judaism because he says the goal of the channel is not to convert Jews but to introduce them to Jesus as the Messiah. But as the honored rabbis know, no one has a corner on Judaism. There are so many different sects and groups within Judaism, that there is no one definition. For instance, there are some Jewish synagogues in the Reform movement that don't even believe in the existence of God. For them, Judaism is merely a cultural identity. One group, whose rabbi died 26 years ago, still has signs up all over Israel proclaiming him to be the King and Messiah of the Jewish people. They expected him to rise from the dead, but he did not. Twenty-six years later, many of them are still waiting. However, it does seem that all groups agree on one thing, there is no such thing as a Jew who believes in Jesus. That they are antithetical. When a Jewish person says they have embraced the Messiah, meaning Jesus, the rabbis say he or she is no longer part of the Jewish people. They believe that a Jew for Jesus is an oxymoron but this is an emotional argument, not a theological one. If we're just going to talk theology, then the group I mentioned above whose rabbi died 26 years ago are also no longer Jewish. If believing in a different Messiah disqualified you from being Jewish, then many groups would be disqualified, including the followers of the most revered rabbi in all of Judaism next to Moses, Rabbi Akiva. He proclaimed the military general Simon bar Kokhba to be the Messiah in the year 132 CE. This false prophecy led to the deaths of half a million Jews during the Second Great Revolt. So gruesome was the scorched earth policy of the Romans, that I can't even share the stories here. Rabbi Akiva's recognition of a false Messiah was one of the greatest mistakes in Jewish history. But no one ever says that Rabbi Akiva left Judaism, in fact, he is revered. This is because their argument is not based on truth or fairness in theology, but emotion. As I have documented in my books Identity Theft and The Jerusalem Secret, there has been a horrific, bloody history from the institutionalized church against the Jewish people. The rabbis eloquently retraced part of this history in their blog. And then, they reason, how can Jewish people believe in the Messiah of the people who murdered, raped, expelled and forced many of our people to convert to another religion. Believe me, I understand that. That was my position until I became a believer. In fact, growing up if you had asked me what does it mean to be Jewish, my very basic and ignorant definition was this: We don't believe in Jesus. That probably holds true for many non-religious Jews. However, what I challenge Jewish people to do is to divorce themselves from this horrible history and read the New Testament for themselves. Let's face it, anyone who reads the New Testament knows that it does not teach hate, violence or encourage forced conversions. The people who perpetrated such crimes against humanity were not Christians. Yes, they had a title or a label, but it was inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus. It was political Christianity, not genuine faith. The truth is Jesus never preached to gentiles at all just Jews. Neither did his disciples until almost 10 years after his death and resurrection. And when Peter finally did enter the home of a Roman centurion, he did so quite reluctantly. He had never been in the home of a gentile. For those first 10 years the movement of Yeshua-followers was 100% Jewish. If you had told one of those first believers that believing in Yeshua made them a Christian, they would have asked you, What is a Christian? They were Jews who had found the Messiah. Now the rabbis can argue that they were mistaken and that Jews today who believe in Yeshua are misguided, but you cant argue that we are no longer Jewish. Or else there is a whole slew of other Jewish people they will have to excommunicate. I find it very interesting that they quoted me in their article but not by name. Could it be that my last name Cantor is understood by most people to be a Jewish name? And it was a bit dishonest because they quoted me from a press release that begins with the words, As Israelis but left that out. The quote makes it very clear that I am Jewish and Israeli as opposed to a gentile outsider, Christian, from another country seeking to convert Jews. Let's look at the whole quote: As Israelis, we request that the law will be applied to us exactly as it is applied to anyone who wants to share their faith view, from Orthodox Jews to Muslims. It will be a sad day if the only democracy in the Middle East prevents the freedom of speech of Messianic Jews in Israel. We pay taxes, our sons and daughters are recruited to serve in the Israeli military, but when it comes to the freedom of speech, some want to silence us. "Shelanu TV provides an outlet of expression for thousands of Israeli Messianic Jews and Christian Arabs to express their faith in Yeshua, as 70% of our content is created by Israelis. It was expected that some may disagree with our faith, but this is an issue of freedom of expression. We have an Israeli oversight team that has implemented stringent measures to ensure that Shelanu TV adheres to regulations and that it remains in good standing with the authorities, says Cantor. It would appear that they intentionally left out the fact that I am Jewish and a citizen of the State of Israel. In fact, as a citizen, I have more legal rights to share my faith here in Israel than they do as Americans. They also failed to share with their audience that 70% of the programming is from local messianic Jewish Israelis not Western teachers and preachers. They claim that the channel, that I'm quite sure they've never seen, is proselytizing. But that is not correct. There is no proselytizing which conjures up images of enticing people to join your religion or sect with goods or funds or using fear tactics. On Shelanu TV, in addition to teachings, interviews and worship music, Israelis who believe in Yeshua share their stories. But what we don't do is pressure people in an undue manner. Everything is done in good taste. And the fact is that the average Israeli on the street has absolutely no problem with what we are sharing. It is only a vocal minority and in this case, from another country. Just this week an Arab Israeli bus driver was reprimanded for sharing his faith in Jesus with his passengers. Personally, I understand that people don't ride the bus to get a lecture on religion. However, I was very encouraged by the responses of Israelis to the situation. Let me share a few: 100 per cent legal, one wrote. Every citizen has the right to his or her own faith. What a bunch of losers are those who complained about this. What do you care what the driver had to say? Hypocrites. If he had been talking about girls or sex or drugs or politics, no one would have cared. So what? The Orthodox Jews who bother us to pray with tefillin (phylacteries) are much worse. I thought there was freedom of speech and religion in Israel. At a time when people are chanting terrorist slogans and waving Palestinians flags in the center of Tel Aviv and no one is complaining, this driver says a few words that set off a media storm. Another reader called it fake news and accused Ynet (who reported on the situation) of making a mountain out of a molehill. Its shameful for you to have even reported on this. I see no violation. Where are the children? The driver was speaking with an adult passenger. This is fake news for the sake of ratings. So while I respect the American rabbis and the work they do in fighting anti-Semitism, I don't respect that they are seeking to tell Israelis what they can listen to or watch. If they know anything about Israelis, the more they tell them not to watch Shelanu, the more they will. Edith Kalech, 91, Holocaust survivor, stands outside Lions Gate retirement community in Voorhees, where she lives. I feel really fortunate to be at Lions Gate, Kalech said. Having been through difficult times in my life, I learned how to survive and learned how to be helpful. Read more As a child, Edith Kalech fled what was then Czechoslovakia to escape the Nazis. Her family settled in New York, where her inability to speak English made her a target. Later, Kalech, who is now 91, endured a bad marriage, early widowhood, and then widowhood again. In November, she moved to Lions Gate, a Voorhees retirement community, to get more social interaction. Before she could totally settle in, the coronavirus started raging through New York and New Jersey, especially in nursing homes where medically fragile seniors lived close to one another and staff. Lions Gate went into lockdown. Elders such as Kalech were told to stay in their rooms except for brief walks in the hall. Isolation was their new challenge, one that many who work with older Americans fear could have serious mental-health consequences. Nir Barzilai, who is scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research, is studying a group of centenarians. Only one has died since the pandemic, a 106-year-old who became isolated and stopped eating. Shes a casualty of COVID-19, but not from the virus, but from the loneliness, he said. Kalech, who is in independent living at Lions Gate, which also offers assisted living and nursing home care, says shes doing OK. Its not the best of times, but its also not the worst of times, as Dickens said, she said. I am not terribly unhappy. Ive been through worse. Gayle Perlmutter, who also lives at Lions Gate, is more upset. Now in her early 80s, she was a baby during World War II and considers herself a product of the relatively pleasant Elvis Presley era. Her husband, who is 11 years older, is having health problems. She feels cooped up. She hates how her hair looks. She cries easily now and often feels sad. This has changed my personality, she said. Im not the Gayle that I was. She is well cared for. Anything she needs is delivered to her door, but she suspects isolation was a factor in the deaths of some older friends. Being locked up in a prison, thats almost what it feels like, she said. Heres your food. Its on the ledge. READ MORE: The coronavirus has been devastating for people over 80, but many are surviving Like younger people, members of the oldest generation are responding to virus-related restrictions in many ways, but with an extra burden of fear. They know they are much more likely than their children or grandchildren to die or need hospital care if they get sick. Some also feel a different kind of time pressure. The road they see ahead is short. Yes, they can apply a lifetime of coping skills and wisdom to this new crisis, but they dont want to waste precious time. Jeanette Axelrod, president of the Lions Gate resident council, will turn 90 in September. She wishes she was making memories with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She has a 2-year-old grandchild who knows her mostly as a picture on a cell phone. Thats heartbreaking to me, she said. Shes a voracious reader. She calls friends. Her eight children call her. She walks endlessly. Still, she misses mah-jongg and Scrabble with friends. She is trying to rise above the boredom, but worries about neighbors who never leave their rooms. Many of them, she said, are just being etherized. READ MORE: When will it be safe to visit your mom in a nursing home after coronavirus lockdowns? 'Lost and untethered Talya Escogido, a Philadelphia psychologist who specializes in geriatrics, said her clients with mild cognitive impairment are having the hardest time. Theyve lost routines that were helping them function and they lack the intellectual resources to adjust to the changes. She thought nursing home patients might be OK, because they have the most staff members around them, but they miss their families. Phone calls and window visits have not filled the void. Its obviously not the number of humans, she said. Its the quality of humans that count. Another struggling group, she said, is recent widows who have not yet rebuilt their lives. Some are feeling lost and completely untethered, she said. "Theyre feeling the loss so much more. Judith Coche, a 77-year-old psychologist with offices in Center City and Stone Harbor, said that, whenever people are experiencing something big for the first time, it stops traffic. She said how her clients have reacted has more to do with personality than age. Some were already anxious, and the virus has heightened their fears. They are obsessing about what ifs, like What if someone breathes on me? Lions Gate is still strongly encouraging its independent-living residents to stay home, but soon will introduce activities to allow residents to meet safely outside or in a large room. Public-health experts have cautioned that assisted-living facilities and nursing homes should be among the last places to reduce restrictions because their populations are so vulnerable. READ MORE: Coronavirus invaded these South Jersey senior communities, despite managers' best efforts At the same time, nursing-home medical directors are worried that continued isolation will lead to physical and cognitive deterioration in their patients. I think some people will have irreversible worsening as a result of this isolation, said Jim Wright, medical director of a Virginia nursing home where about 85% of residents tested positive for COVID-19. He wants group activities to return. John Beaty, 74, who lives at Cheltenham Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia, has begged to go outside. He walks in the halls, but said theres little else to do but watch TV and sleep. He loves to read, but cant without new glasses. Its really frustrating, depressing, because there isnt anybody to talk to. He said hes sleeping 13 hours a day. Its my way of escaping this place," he said, "because I dream a lot, and most of my dreams are happy. Some independent older adults said that worries over recent civic upheaval intensified the pandemics pain. Thelma Reese, 87, of Center City, has a new book on older activists to promote and has kept herself busy. But shes also worried about a viral invasion with no known end. I have occasional crying jags which seem to come from nowhere, she said. I have moments of solid depression on days that start out fine that seem to come from nowhere. Some of it, its probably just fear. The thing is that its more than the pandemic. She remembers wartime air raid drills as a child, but this is worse. This is the worst time I think that this country has ever seen in my lifetime, she said. Its the first time Ive felt that we really could be losing our form of government. Meanwhile, Don Fletcher, a 101-year-old retired Presbyterian minister who lives at Lions Gate, is missing dinners with friends and family, but is having no trouble staying busy. He bought a cross trainer and is using it three times a day. He started writing books at 80 and is now writing short stories. I do it quietly and on my own, so the isolation does not bother me at all, he said. This time is not normal for most, but I am not normal. I enjoy the quiet. Coche has loved spending more time with her husband and walking, carefully, with friends. Escogido said many of her patients are finding joy in their new computer skills. Randy Padula, 85, has gone low tech. His granddaughter bought him coloring books and crayons. I cant put them down, said the resident of Allegria at the Fountains in Atco. Time just flies. Civic upheaval has added to the stress Jettie Newkirk, who lives alone in West Philadelphia, is also finding staying home relatively easy. Since Im not driving anymore, I was kind of on lock down anyway, she said. Newkirk, 84, has learned how to use Zoom. People have brought her food. She attends virtual prayer meetings at church and helps with voter registration efforts. A lawyer, shes still doing some work. My schedule didnt change that much, she said. She sometimes sees a granddaughter who lives one street away. We do a distance hug, she said. She wraps her arms around herself and I wrap my arms around me. Thats my hug. She found the recent protests inspiring. I see this as a very exciting time, and Im glad that I lived to see it, she said. Barbara Lavin, 82, moved into Lions Gate two weeks before COVID-19 changed everything. Her husband died six months ago. She has reason to feel miserable, but she doesnt. Time goes by very quickly, she said. I dont know what I do. Probably half the time, nothing. She feels no pressure to pack her days with experiences. I dont think Im dying so soon, she said. She gets lots of calls from her two children and five grandchildren. You reap what you sow sometimes, she said, and, right now, Im very happy with what Im reaping. It has crossed Kalechs mind that she may not outlast the virus. She tears up as she describes the people who helped her during the worst periods of her life. Shes grateful that people are helping her now. Shes optimistic that shell live to see more normal life. I very strongly feel that this, too, shall pass, and its doable in the meantime. China on Wednesday continued to be silent on the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) casualties in the June 15 clash with Indian troops, which left 20 Indian soldiers including an infantry battalion officer dead in eastern Ladakhs Galwan Valley. The PLA and the Chinese foreign ministry, which have blamed India for the unprecedented flare-up in decades, admitted that the fierce physical conflict led to casualties, and have then gone into silence mode about details of the incident or casualty figures. Zhang Shuili, spokesperson for the PLAs Western Theatre Command, said on Tuesday the Indian side should ...strictly restrain their frontline troops and return to the correct track of dialogue and negotiations to resolve the differences. The Indian troops had violated their promises and once again crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) for illegal activities, and deliberately provoked and attacked the Chinese forces, thus triggering fierce physical conflicts between the two sides and causing casualties, said Zhang. Chinese state media have followed the government in squarely blaming India for the situation without - expectedly - raising any question about the lack of details available. The incident happened during a patrol and both sides suffered injuries and casualties, with this being the most severe situation China and India have experienced along the border in more than four decades and may render previous efforts to defuse border disputes fruitless, Qian Feng, director of the research department of the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told the nationalistic tabloid Global Times. China Daily, the flagship English newspaper, ran a story, which was headlined as China: India actions at border harm bilateral military relations. The PLAs statement on the border situation has been viewed millions of times on Chinas Twitter-like Weibo platform where many online users have expressed worry about their own soldiers involved in the face-off. The editor of Global Times Hu Xijin had tweeted on Tuesday without elaborating that the PLA too had sustained casualties. In a later tweet he attempted an explanation for the silence, which actually is triggering more questions about what exactly happened in the Galwan Valley region on Monday Chinese side didnt release number of PLA casualties in clash with Indian soldiers. My understanding is the Chinese side doesnt want people of the two countries to compare the casualties numbers so to avoid stoking public mood. This is goodwill from Beijing. 'To deal with a bully, you have to deal from a position of strength, not a position of weakness.' IMAGE: Indian soldiers operate in sub zero temperatures in the Ladakh theatre. Photograph: PTI Photo "They have used spikes, knuckle dusters etc, which has aggravated the situation to another level," former Ladakh Corps Commander Lieutenant General Rakesh Sharma (retd) tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih in the first part of the interview. As a corps commander who knows the area intimately, what was your reaction when you first heard about the incident that took place on Monday night? There was anguish and sorrow for a commanding officer and men who died. It is of immense pain to see such loss of lives. In my opinion, the situation was on the boil. It had been pent up for 6-7 years. We have seen transgressions happening in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017. The protocols and architecture decided after talks with China had been failing over a period of time. The systems were not responding. In a face-off when troops are supposed to disengage, disengagements were not taking place. It was resulting in fist-cuffs and the situation getting out of hand. In the later day events of the last 40 days, they have used spikes, knuckle dusters etc, which has aggravated the situation to another level. The apprehension was that a systemic failure was looming large. I was anguished to hear of the loss of lives. I feel we should do something from a position of strength. What are the systemic failures when the procedures and systems are well laid down and passed down the chain of command? We are veterans and not aware of the full sequence of affairs on the ground. I will not venture into speculation. The serving establishment knows best. The situation that I handled in 2013-2014 cannot be replicated in 2020. The situation is different now with new infrastructure, increased force levels and more discussions have taken place between India and China. The action and reaction taken at that time was relevant to that period. What is being done now is what commanders on the ground feel is the right thing to be done and we must respect their views. At this juncture, the Chinese have shown immense aggression, not only against India, but against many other peripheral neighbours like Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan. India also falls among the peripheral nations. This orchestrated aggression against such a large number of countries could not have happened without the blessings of the Central Military Commission headed by President Xi Jinping, who is also the commander in chief of the PLA (People's Liberation Arny) The Chinese aggression has been forthcoming because of various reasons like the criticism faced over the COVID-19 outbreak and the trade war with America. China's GDP is falling and unemployment is on the rise. These could also be reasons to drum up ultra-nationalism by displaying aggression on the India-China border. Has the building of infrastructure by India on its side of the LAC upset the Chinese? People say it is the road and bridge construction that irks them, but we have been using the Daulat Beg Oldi road for the past 15 odd years. We used the road to go across in the winter months when the river was frozen. Five-six years ago, we made a motorised trolley to move things up and down. I do not personally think the construction of the road and bridge would have irked them so much because they knew it was coming up. The bridge was being constructed for the last three years. They must have watched its progress by satellite and drones etc. It is the feeder roads from this larger highway leading to Galwan or other areas which would be irking them much more. Our infrastructure is now reaching close to the LAC and we are doing the last mile connectivity. It is this last mile connectivity that must be causing them maximum anxiety and that is what has forced them to come down. In future times, there will be more and more anxieties at more and more places and that may become the new normal. What do the Chinese actually want, what is their intention? The Chinese believe they have reached a status globally where they can act like a big bully. When you deal with a bully, you have to look him in the eye. To deal with a bully, you have to deal from a position of strength, not a position of weakness. This Chinese aggression comes from the belief that they have attained the status of a superpower economically and militarily. Galwan and Pangong Tso are manifestations of China displaying that they have reached a competence level. IMAGE: The Indian Army's then Adjutant General Lieutenant General Rakesh Sharma pays homage at Amar Jawan Jyoti on the occasion of the 33rd Corps Day of the Judge Advocate General Department, December 21, 2016. What will it take for the Chinese to move back to their previous position? We have been having talks with the Chinese from 1981 onwards. After Rajiv Gandhi's visit (to Beijing) in 1988, we had joint working groups that have met 15 times. After Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit we started the special representatives talks that have met 22 times. In the last ten years, thousands of border personnel meetings must have taken place. In the last 40 days, we have met 15 times, if not more. China does not want to talk about the Line of Actual Control. If they tell us what do they consider as their line, we are willing to debate it, but they never tell you that because the nebulous nature of the line suits them. It is a tool for it to apply geo-political pressure on India. China wants India under pressure in many ways than one. I do not know what negotiations have taken place for China to go back to its previous position. The methodology or quid pro quo can only be conjecture and it will be rhetorical in nature. I found range anxiety was not a thing after I discovered so many charging stations on an e-charging application before we started our trip, said Zhang Huimin, an electronic car owner who recently had a 300-kilometer road trip from Zhejiang province's Lishui to Jiaxing. According to her, the experience of vehicle charging along the route was quite satisfying. The construction of charging poles is an important part of Chinas new infrastructure, as it offers convenience for the countrys expanding group of new energy vehicle (NEV) owners and injects green power to the building of a smart transport network. In Jiaxing, smart transportation and energy, as well as other new infrastructure projects, are turning technologies into momentum for industrial development, offering firm support for innovative development and transformation of the region. China led the world in NEV sales and production last year, with both figures exceeding 1.2 million. The scale effect is gradually emerging in the Chinese NEV industry, leading to increasingly better environment for development. According to a plan released by State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Co., Ltd. on April 16, a total of 250 million yuan is expected to be invested to develop charging facilities in Zhejiang. The province aims to build 82 charging stations for buses, taxis, and online-hailed cabs, as well as pilot charging programs for privately-owned NEVs in residential communities. The plan is believed to accelerate the coordinated operation of charging poles and the power grid, and bring healthy and rapid development to the electric vehicle industry. Interconnectivity, an internet-based development philosophy, has been incorporated into the construction of NEV charging facilities in Wuzhen, Jiaxing. The town became the first in the world to build a charge-and-go senseless payment charging station for 5G-powered autopilot buses prior to the sixth World Internet Conference (Wuzhen Summit) held last year. The innovative application that introduces 5G to the new infrastructure includes two charging poles each with a power of 60 kilowatts, and is able to charge four buses simultaneously. The charging poles recognize the buses by the latters IDs, making the charging process simple and easy. At present, NEV charging facilities are seen everywhere in Jiaxing. A total of 180 charging stations and 1,326 charging poles are established in the city under the coordination of the State Grid Jiaxing Electric Power Supply Company. As a result, it is easier to charge NEVs in the city, and a clean, efficient and green urban transport network is taking shape. Apart from the construction of charging facilities, the company has, by making use of big data, the Internet of Things and cloud computing, promoted the building of a smart storage system under the modern smart supply chain. It has completely reformed the way of inventory handling and improved the effective utilization of inventory. For instance, a mobile application developed by the company is able to precisely distribute cables and other materials actually needed in power repair projects to electricians, and sort out the materials automatically by cable cutters, thus largely reducing the preparation time in power line repairs. The materials are applied by electricians on their phones after on-site investigation, and claimed after QR code scanning. This method saves about 70 percent of time needed in preparation work, and makes the repairing 40 percent faster. Smart storage and high-efficient logistics are not only accelerating the sorting, but also improving the efficiency of human resource. Take the automated guided vehicles (AGVs) applied in a power park Jiaxings Tongxiang as an example. According to Xiang Jinyao, an executive with the smart storage department of the power park, the AGVs can easily sort and transport a transformer from the warehouse to the stock-out area with only one backstage operator, while the task needed four to five workers previously. The rapid development of new infrastructure is making a new blueprint for smart production and life. China urges India to restrain Global Times By Liu Xuanzun and Liu Xin Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/16 23:03:40 Last Updated: 2020/6/17 0:53:43 PLA fully capable of defending sovereignty, territorial integrity: analysts In an event that Chinese experts call the most severe situation China and India have experienced along the border in decades, a fatal physical clash broke out on Monday between the two countries' border defense troops in the Galwan Valley. The clash took place after Indian troops crossed the border to conduct illegal activities and launched provocative attacks against Chinese personnel, leading to physical self-defense measures from Chinese troops that reportedly caused the deaths of one Indian Army colonel and two soldiers. Breaking their promises, Indian troops had again crossed the line of actual control in the Galwan Valley region on Monday evening and purposefully launched provocative attacks, leading to severe physical clashes, causing casualties, said Senior Colonel Zhang Shuili, spokesperson of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theater Command, on Tuesday. China has always maintained sovereignty over the Galwan Valley region, and the words of Indian border defense troops are inconsistent and seriously violate the agreements both countries have reached, seriously infringe upon the consensus made in the army commander-level talks and seriously harm the relations of the two militaries and the sentiment of the people in both nations, Zhang said. India should strictly restrain its frontline troops, stop all provocative actions, meet the Chinese side halfway and return to the correct path of solving disputes via dialogue, Zhang said. Despite China and India's close communication via diplomatic and military channels aimed at easing border tensions, Indian troops on Monday severely violated the consensus reached in the two countries' commander-level talks on June 6. They crossed the border twice to conduct illegal activities and launched provocative attacks against Chinese personnel, leading to a serious physical conflict between troops from both sides, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a routine press conference on Tuesday. The Chinese side has lodged strong protest and solemn representation to the Indian side, urging it to strictly restrain its frontline troops according to the consensus, and not to cross the border and make any unilateral movement that could complicate the border situation further, Zhao said. The statements made by both Zhao and Zhang came after Indian media reported on Tuesday that an Indian Army colonel and two soldiers were killed in the clash. Indian reports also claimed there were Chinese casualties. A further 34 Indian soldiers are also missing, believed to have died or been captured, the Telegraph reported on Tuesday, citing senior Indian Army sources. This is the first time that military personnel have died in border clashes between China and India since 1975, Indian media said. The world has always focused its attention toward how China and India as major global powers solve their border conflicts. The two countries have only just walked out from the 72-day Doklam standoff in 2017 after meetings by the two countries' leaders brought the serious border crisis out of harm's way. Despite of this, a new conflict broke out again three years later, even causing the first deaths in four decades. Just like the Doklam standoff, it was India that made the first provocative move by illegally crossing the line of actual control. It is obvious that India has become increasingly aggressive in border disputes with its neighboring countries, analysts said. Observers believe that small-scale conflicts in border regions between China and India will likely keep on occurring, but a large-scale military conflict will not. The statements from China urged the Indian side to restrain its frontline troops and return to the avenue of talks. This shows the Chinese side treats the incident as an on-site conflict conducted only by frontline troops, and still see that dialogue is the ultimate approach to solving such issues. The Indian leadership should also attain this kind of rationale, restrain aggressive forces and frontline officers within its military, and let this bloody conflict be resolved by the wisdom of both sides, analysts said. 'Staged provocation' This Indian aggression is an intentionally staged, enhanced military action aimed at capturing Chinese territories that India has long sought of and is an egoistic move by India to shift away enormous domestic pressure caused by social problems including the COVID-19 epidemic, Chinese experts said on Tuesday. The incident happened during a patrol and both sides suffered injuries and casualties, with this being the most severe situation China and India have experienced along the border in more than four decades and may render previous efforts to defuse border disputes fruitless, Qian Feng, a senior fellow at the Taihe Institute and director of the research department of the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday. Facing provocation, the Chinese side had to take decisive countermeasures, Qian said, noting the fact that Indian troops crossing the boundary line twice means the second wave could have been reinforcements after the first crossing failed. Chinese military expert and TV commentator Song Zhongping told the Global Times on Tuesday that the clash was the result of a provocative military operation conducted by Indian troops that was planned for a long time. They were no longer satisfied by mere standoffs. They entered Chinese territory and actively sought a physical clash with Chinese troops and continued to construct infrastructure aiming to build up new tensions even resorting to military action, Song said. This incident is a surprise attack by Indian troops against the PLA, a source familiar with the matter told the Global Times on Tuesday under the condition of anonymity. Indian frontline troops may believe they took a beating in previous scuffles, and therefore conducted this retaliatory attack, analysts said, noting that these troops are from lower ranks and such an operation was most likely not approved by their superiors. It could be a challenge for India to properly manage these frontline troops, they said. Another source familiar with the matter told the Global Times under the condition of anonymity on Tuesday that in a precautionary measure not to escalate any conflict, both Chinese and Indian troops have a tacit understanding of not carrying lethal weapons and bullets, so the clash was only a physical one. Not even during the 72-day Doklam standoff in 2017 did such a bloody event occur, and Chinese analysts believe one reason is the current domestic challenges India is facing, and as a result, India is trying to divert the pressure. Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday that plagued by the worsening COVID-19 epidemic domestically and a slumped economy, the Indian government has been provocative regarding border issues in recent months, trying to divert public attention.India has also had disputes along its borders with Pakistan and Nepal in recent months. India's recent provocation against China amid strained China-US ties also show that it wants to please the US, Hu said. It might be India's purpose in the first place to create a more serious problem than the Doklam standoff, experts said. Chinese preparations India may further increase provocations and cause more trouble in border regions in order to achieve their goals. And while the likelihood of a larger military confrontation remains low, the possibility does exist if military tensions keep rising, fueled by aggressive public opinion in India, analysts said. China needs to prepare for this, and only when if China is well prepared militarily can it secure an advantage at the negotiating table, they said. Since border tensions flared up in May, the PLA has conducted several military exercises in China's Northwest and Southwest plateau regions, a move that observers believe was related to the border situation. This includes night time behind-enemy-line infiltration drills by the PLA Tibet Military Command, a large-scale maneuver operation featuring thousands of paratroopers plus armored vehicles coming from Central China to the high-altitude northwestern region, and the deployment of advanced weapons like PCL-181 howitzers and Type 15 tanks to the region. The PLA is fully capable of thwarting foreign provocations that threaten China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the Chinese troops' restraint should not be taken as a sign of weakness, analysts said. Lessons from history The China-India border dispute has been a historically contentious matter with the two countries having seen several clashes along the border in the past six decades. India should learn from these experiences in their decision-making, experts said. In the 1962 border war, China decided to fight back against India's provocations. China came out of the conflict overwhelmingly victorious. The two countries also saw border conflict in 1967 and 1975. Another severe standoff took place in 1987 around the Sumdorong Chu Valley, with the dispute being on the verge of war, but was finally defused amid efforts from both sides. The latest clash was in 2017 - the Doklam standoff. Due to the great gap in strength, India has never seen any benefit from border clashes with China. Some Indian netizens boast that India isn't what it was in 1962, but so is China. Rationality needed Even as the incident would have great influence on China-India ties and the current dialogue on border disputes, both countries' higher-ups are still on the right path to de-escalate the tensions and manage the border issue. Both China and India agreed to resolve bilateral issues via talks and contribute to the easing of tension and peace in border regions, said Zhao, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. Senior military officials from both sides are currently meeting to defuse the situation, Indian media reported, citing the Indian Army. The Indian government may face great pressure from nationalists who have actively urged the Indian government to be tough toward China over the border issue. But at this time, the two sides should keep restraint and seek more channels to solve the current problem as military clashes do not overlap with each other's interests, Qian said. From China's perspective, we hope to have friendly and good-neighborly relations with India, maintain peace and stability in the border regions, Song said, noting that both China and India are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. If India keeps up the provocation and persists in disregarding the consequences, the PLA will again be forced to take action, Song said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The President of the Nigerian Youth Congress (NYC), Blessing Akinlosotu, has called on the government across all tiers to introduce self defense subjects/courses in secondary and tertiary institutions respectively, for the female gender. Akinlosotu made the call yesterday in his office at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja while addressing a cluster of journalists in regard to the increasing rape cases in the country. He suggested that it would go a long way in helping combat the act amongst youths. The dogged young leader who has been a leading-leader by example suggested that the Nigerian government should seek a public opinion from her female gender citizens on the penalties a rapist deserves for perpetrating such an evil act and thereafter adopt one, after striking a balance through the instrumentality of the law (Fundamental Principles). Speaking further, he admonished the government to also include a subject that would teach the male gender the consequences of rape and its religious implications as well as the extent to which the female gender suffer damages and lifetime trauma. "Mothers should handle their female children with all sense of cautiousness and secure them with close monitoring in other to scare away rapists who are on the look-out for victims. This would go a long way in averting this act, he added. ATLANTA, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the next 10 years, 200 first-year students will be able to attend Spelman College with a full four-year scholarship thanks to a generous gift from philanthropists committed to educational equity. Philanthropists Patty Quillin and her husband, Reed Hastings, co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Netflix, have aligned their resources with social action by awarding $120 million to Spelman, Morehouse College and the United Negro College Fund. The gift is the largest ever contribution by an individual in support of scholarships at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. "We've supported these three extraordinary institutions for the last few years because we believe that investing in the education of Black youth is one of the best ways to invest in America's future," said Quillin and Hastings. "Both of us had the privilege of a great education and we want to help more students - in particular students of color - get the same start in life." "HBCUs have a tremendous record, yet are disadvantaged when it comes to giving. Generally, White capital flows to predominantly White institutions, perpetuating capital isolation. We hope this additional $120 million donation will help more Black students follow their dreams and also encourage more people to support these institutions - helping to reverse generations of inequity in our country." As devotees of education reform with a deep interest in social equity and education, the couple believes that one of the most powerful ways to support the next generation of Americans is through the education of future Black men and women leaders. Quillin and Hastings have long given to educational institutions, starting in 1997 with their support for schools like and including the KIPP charter school network that serves overwhelmingly low-income Black and Latino students. "This historic gift in response to the historic moment we're experiencing comes from two people who care deeply about education, equity and the future of our country. We are enormously grateful for this affirmation of the importance of the work that HBCUs do to educate the next generation of Black leaders," said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman. Each institution will receive $40 million. Spelman will use its allocation to fund a scholarship named for Spelman alumna Dovey Johnson Roundtree, a civil rights and criminal defense attorney whose groundbreaking 1955 bus desegregation case helped dismantle the practice of separate but equal. Annually, the gift will provide 20 talented, first-year students with full scholarships, which include tuition, and room and board. "At the end of 10 years we will have educated 200 students who will graduate debt free," said Dr. Campbell. "It's a liberating gift, that will allow our students to work toward change in their respective communities and careers without financial strain." As the U.S. searches for ways to start addressing the inequities faced by Black people, UNCF, Spelman and Morehouse urge other philanthropists to invest in HBCUsinstitutions that improve mobility and create new generations of leaders, increasing justice, equality and opportunity in America. SOURCE Spelman College Related Links http://www.spelman.edu A 25 feet-tall-statue was of Shri Hanuman was reportedly unveiled in the city of Hockessin in Delaware, United States on Monday. It is the tallest Hindu statue in the North American country now and the second tallest religious statue in Delaware, next only to Our Lady Queen of Peace statue. The sculpture, carved from a single block of granite, weighs more than 30,000 kg and is 25 feet tall. The Hindu statue cost more than $1,00,000 and was procured from Warangal, Telangana. The handcrafted statue was chiselled by more than a dozen artisans and took almost a year to complete. It was then transported from Hyderabad to New York by ship and to then to Delaware via a truck. The installation process was organised by temple priests for over 10 days and more than 300 Hindu families who donned orange T-shirts that read, The hanuman Project. Reportedly, a priest from Bengaluru named Nagraj Bhattar performed a purification of the idol with rice, water, and flowers. This was followed by puja for divine intervention, amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. Senator Chris Coons, New Castle County executive Matt Myer, and Lt. Governor (Delaware) Bethany Hall-Long was present during the unveiling of the statue and sought blessings at the temple. US: A 25 feet tall statue of Lord Hanuman has been installed in Hockessin, Delaware. Patibanda Sharma, President, Hindu Temple of Delaware Association says, It weighs around 45 tonnes. It has been shipped from Warangal, Telangana to Delaware. pic.twitter.com/KlWIEgKRCX ANI (@ANI) June 16, 2020 10 day-ritual for idol purification Once the statue is made according to a prescribed process by an artisan and is delivered to the temple, the temple priests normally conduct a 10 day, a 5 to 10-day rituals, mostly involving fire offerings and other rituals. And also the community is invited to bond with the statue, the president of Hindu Temple Association, Patibanda Sharma, was quoted as saying. He added that two Hindu rituals namely, Yantra Pratishtha and Prana Prathista will be performed for the correct installation of the idol. Sharma also thanked non-Hindus who helped in erecting the mammoth statue of Shri Hanuman. He said, It is a big tribute to all the people who handled the idol, we have been very fortunate, I must say whenever we have any contract, whether it is crane operators to lift or concrete operators to install. I am not exaggerating, they take more than more care than we do ourselves very careful about handling the statue, and being respectful, thats more important. No mass gatherings Owing to the Coronavirus pandemic, special arrangements have been made to avoid large gatherings. Devotees would be allowed in batches to offer their prayers and the idol would be made open to people of all Faiths in the upcoming days. Visitors need to signup on the temples website to book their preferred time slots. The temple was established in 1996 and is frequented by thousands of practitioners of the Hindu Faith. The temple reportedly provides spiritual, wedding and catering services with the help of a network of volunteers. The statue of Shri Hanuman represents strength and victory over evil. NEW ORLEANS, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, announces that the securities class action lawsuit against Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) on behalf of all persons who purchased or otherwise acquired Honeywell securities from February 9, 2018 through October 19, 2018, continues forward in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Get Help Honeywell shareholders that purchased or otherwise acquired Honeywell securities in the time period of February 9, 2018 through October 19, 2018 should visit us at https://www.claimsfiler.com/contact or call toll-free (844) 367-9658. Lawyers at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC are available to discuss your legal options. About the Lawsuit On May 18, 2020, the New Jersey federal judge presiding over the case ruled that the plaintiff-investor leading the suit, represented by Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC, sufficiently alleged that the Company made materially false and misleading statements and failed to disclose material information regarding its liabilities relating to former subsidiary Bendix Friction Materials' use of asbestos in certain automotive products. On June 10, 2020, a conference was held before the Magistrate Judge to implement a schedule for discovery in the case. The case is Kanefsky v. Honeywell International Inc. et al., 2:18-cv-15536. About ClaimsFiler ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations. To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com. SOURCE ClaimsFiler Related Links www.claimsfiler.com June 16 (Reuters) - Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd said on Tuesday it was further extending suspension of its voyages through end of September due to the COVID-19 crisis, sending its shares down about 7% after the bell. The cruise operator and peers Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and Carnival Corp earlier extended trip suspensions until July 31 amid sailing curbs. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first imposed a "no-sail" order in March. The industry has faced the brunt of the health crisis as major outbreaks on ships were blamed for spreading the disease, resulting in government-mandated no-sail orders and trip cancellations. Norwegian Cruise said it was also cancelling some voyages through October 2020, including Canada and New England sailings, due to travel and port restrictions. Shares of Royal Caribbean and Carnival also fell more than 5% in extended trading. (Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli) NEW YORK - Charlottesville. Helsinki. The children in cages at the Mexican border. And now Lafayette Square. Only a few legacy-defining moments have clung to President Donald Trump, who often appears to emerge relatively unscathed from a seemingly endless stream of crises and controversies. But the forceful clearing of demonstrators from the park across from the White House has resonated like few others, prompting top military leaders and usually lockstep Republicans to distance themselves from him. Its one of those rare images that seem unlikely to be overwritten by tomorrows headlines, instead claiming a prominent place in Trumps entry in the history books. It also could help shape an election less than five months away. Even the president and members of his inner circle have privately expressed worry that its impact could be lasting. Its an indelible moment when the president of the United States ordered the use of force against peaceful protesters using their First Amendment rights in order to walk across Lafayette Square and hoist a Bible, said Steve Schmidt, senior adviser to John McCains 2008 presidential campaign. In 10 minutes, he totally disgraced his office and committed sacrilege. Protests, some violent, had flooded Americas streets after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was pinned under the knee of a white Minnesota police officer. Trump had briefly been forced to take shelter in the emergency White House bunker, and flames had risen from St. Johns Church across from the executive mansion. Lafayette Square was ordered to be cleared. What happened was broadcast live to the nation: federal law enforcement officers using batons, shields and chemical agents to forcibly push back peaceful protesters. Trump walked to the church and awkwardly held up a Bible, accompanied by top officials. The White House quickly produced a slick ad celebrating the triumph. The ad doesnt run anymore. Aides have pointed fingers at each other as to who suggested what while some of Washingtons most prominent figures, perhaps with an eye toward the judgment of history, have tried to keep their distance. Defence Secretary Mark Esper said he wasnt aware of what Trump had planned before he joined him. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued a remarkable public apology for participating. Several Republicans, including Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, denounced the use of force and the display of religion. The president has seethed about what transpired, believing he wasnt properly prepared by aides for the blowback and venting that media coverage was unfair, according to three White House and campaign officials not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. He was angered by Milley and Espers rebukes but, for now, doesnt want them dismissed, the officials said. The Trump campaign, looking at internal polling, is worried about a drop in support for the president coming amid questions about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed nearly 120,000 Americans and put more than 40 million out of work. And some in Trumps inner circle have privately likened it to other dark days in his presidency. In August 2017, a clash erupted between white supremacists and anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, leaving one demonstrator dead. In the days that followed, Trump suggested there were very fine people on both sides of the violence, drawing rebukes from members of his own administration and party. The next July, the president stood next to Russias Vladimir Putin at a summit in Helsinki and declined to say he believed his own nations intelligence services conclusion that Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election. Before Air Force One had even touched back down in Washington, Trump was faced with the biggest intra-party revolt of his term. That summer, images of his administrations enforcement of a policy to separate immigrant children from their parents stunned a nation and were later cited by many Democratic strategists for being a defining issue in that years midterm elections. There are moments over the last three-and-a-half years that run so contrary to our self-conception that it causes us to pause and to ask the fundamental question: Are we losing ourselves in this moment? said Eddie Glaude, chair of the department of African American studies at Princeton University. The presidents bungled church photo op has, according to polling, generated widespread sympathy for the demonstrations and sparked fears in Trumps campaign it could be a breaking point for voters who cast their ballots for the Republican in 2016 but are uncertain this time. Dozens of retired military leaders, including the presidents first defence secretary, Jim Mattis, denounced what happened. The campaign of Trumps likely November rival, former Vice-President Joe Biden, said it showed Trump felt his political fortune was more important than traditional American values. When Donald Trump ordered the violent removal of peaceful protesters so he could stage a bizarre and offensive photo op, it didnt project strength as he had intended, but instead reflected profound weakness, campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said. Despite closed-door concerns, Trump has continued to lean in on his tough, law and order approach. On Tuesday, during a White House signing ceremony for an executive order on police reform, Trump was surrounded by law enforcement leaders, not the families of victims of police misconduct. And his campaign publicly continued to defend the decision to clear the park across from the West Wing. President Trumps visit to historic St. Johns Church was a powerful statement to the American people that acts of violence against our cities and neighbourhoods will not prevail, said Tim Murtagh, the campaigns communications director. He said Trump was turning Americans anger into action with the executive order. Trump has shaken off previous controversies that would have crippled other presidencies. The two-year Russia investigation didnt cause his base supporters to waver, and his impeachment last winter was immediately dwarfed by the approaching pandemic. Some observers believe Trump may be able to cast aside Lafayette Square, too. There are moments that we will remember, that will be in the first part of his legacy, but dont change his support, said Julian Zelizer, presidential historian at Princeton University. Considering the pandemic, the protests, and that the country has been shut down for months, its remarkable his approval isnt lower. Anything can happen between now and November. ___ Follow Lemire on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@JonLemire. Chinas police have been collecting the samples since late 2017, according to a new study published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a research organization, based on documents also reviewed by The New York Times. The police say they need the database to catch criminals and that donors consent to handing over their DNA. Critics warn it could tempt officials to punish the relatives of activists and dissidents, and say that citizens feel pressured to participate. The database would allow China to expand its high-tech surveillance net, which already includes advanced cameras, facial recognition and artificial intelligence. Details: The authorities went door to door and to schools, collecting blood samples. Some men and boys said in interviews and social media posts that they were told they would be punished if they refused. Authorities are aiming to collect samples from 35 million to 70 million men and boys, according to the report. India is unlikely to join a virtual meeting of foreign ministers of the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping scheduled for June 23 in the aftermath of the violent clash along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, people familiar with developments said on Wednesday. After a weeks-long military build-up along the LAC, Indian and Chinese troops were involved in what Indian officials described as a violent face-off on Monday night. One officer was among the 20 soldiers killed in the confrontation and several more were injured. Though the border stand-off was not on the agenda of the RIC meeting via video conference, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity it appeared unlikely the Indian side would join the meet in view of the prevailing tensions with China and the domestic situation. The meeting, which hasnt been officially announced as yet, was originally scheduled to be held in March but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Russia recently took the initiative to organise the virtual meeting on June 22, as first reported by HT on June 13. It was subsequently deferred by a day to June 23. The meeting was expected to largely focus on enhancing cooperation to tackle the fallout of the global pandemic and the agenda was to have been finalised by early this week. The situation in Afghanistan and regional connectivity projects such as the International North South Transport Corridor involving India, Russia and Iran were also expected to figure so that the three countries could reach common ground on issues such as regional security and stability. The atmosphere has been vitiated by the developments of the past two days and Indian participation is looking unlikely, said one of the people cited above. The people didnt rule out a last minute push by Russia to go ahead with the meeting, especially in view of recent remarks by Russian officials about India and China taking steps to de-escalate tensions. The existing situation is a concern but Russia is trusted by the other two countries. There is a need for all sides to keep in touch, especially in multilateral formats, to expand multilateral cooperation and accumulate more trust, said a second person. Moscows relations with both New Delhi and Beijing are currently very good, and Russian ambassador Nikolay Kudashev and deputy chief of mission Roman Babushkin have, in recent remarks to the Indian media, spoken of the need for easing tensions for regional stability. Kudashev said Russia is confident India and China will be guided by commitments made by their leadership during two informal summits and work for peace and tranquillity on the border. He also said Russia is looking toward to further engagements in the RIC, SCO and Brics (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) groupings to enhance mutual trust and stability. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Why Millennials in Both China and U.S. Will be the Key to Who Emerges as #1 in 5G How did China surpass the U.S. in 5G, bullet trains, EVs, digital currency, smart cities, and blockchain while nobody was looking? How can millennials in the U.S. who are plagued with anxiety and stuck working for large corporations that undervalue their abilities get the U.S. back on track? Read a first-hand account by a millennial expat tech executive that's worked in both countries how this will play out and what it means for you, in The Race for 5G Supremacy: Why China Is Surging, Where Millennials Struggle, & How America Can Prevail. The book provides first-hand experience on what it was like being a technology executive in both China and the U.S., how we got here, and how the global tech race will continue to play out. "Trying to deal with the politics of Corporate America while filling out spreadsheets and PowerPoints was demoralizing given that I could speak Chinese and was already an expert in Internet of Things. To my surprise upon transitioning back to China I realized they were doing things completely differently from the U.S. When I landed at Pudong airport to start a new eCommerce company in 2016 it was like I took a plane ride into the future," said co-author Austin Groves. Millennials in Corporate America are finding it harder and harder to progress in the current culture short-term stock buybacks while the baby boomers in charge wait for retirement, stifling risk-taking and innovation from the country club parking lot. On top of this, they are dealing with the added anxiety of growing up with everything from school shootings to climate change, not to mention at least half of these millennials have been directly impacted by addiction--all this while China, with over 400 million millennials, is largely able to bypass these issues and cannot wait to take a bigger piece of the pie that isn't getting much larger. The authors of The Race for 5G Supremacy believe that if the U.S. is to regain and maintain technological dominance there is a dire need for not one, but two "Apollo Programs" to deal with not only the lack of technological progress in Corporate America, but to solve some of the devastating social issues holding American millennials back. The Race for 5G Supremacy retails for US$36 / 30 (paperback) and US$98 / 85 (hardback). To order or know more about the book, visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/11780. ### About the Authors Austin Groves grew up in a small city in upstate New York where alcoholism and addiction are rampant. Somehow by dumb luck and the support of a few relatives and friends, he created a career in technology which has allowed him to work in IoT projects with Accenture, Verizon, AT&T and Coca-Cola (Coke). By the age of 27, he implemented IoT projects in over 40 countries. He ended up in a NYSE listed company in Shanghai which dealt directly with Alibaba and JD.com. He hired a large Chinese team and built an ecommerce business from scratch. His is an unlikely journey of a millennial traversing two worlds--the U.S. and China. Paul Schulte first went to China as an equity analyst with Credit Suisse in 1992. He has analyzed seven five-year plans and has conducted research on Chinese equities for over 25 years having worked with Barings, Lehman, Nomura and China Construction Bank Intl. in Hong Kong. He has also been teaching millennial graduate students on five continents since 1999. He has written three books on China's technological rise and has taught in China at Tsinghua, Fudan and Zhejiang Universities. He also worked at the White House NSC, the House of Representatives, and the International Trade Commission. He was also an advisor to the Indonesian Minister of Finance in the 1980s. About World Scientific Publishing Co. World Scientific Publishing is a leading international independent publisher of books and journals for the scholarly, research and professional communities. World Scientific collaborates with prestigious organisations like the Nobel Foundation and US National Academies Press to bring high quality academic and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. The company publishes about 600 books and over 140 journals in various fields annually. To find out more about World Scientific, please visit http://www.worldscientific.com. For more information, contact Amanda at heyun@wspc.com. ### (Newser) Nearly two months after she went missing, the US Army is offering a reward for information leading to soldier Vanessa Guillen. The 20-year-old was last seen April 22 in the parking lot of her military unit's headquarters in Fort Hood, Texas. Earlier this week, the Army announced a $25,000 reward, CBS News reports, and on Tuesday, the League of United Latin American Citizens announced an additional $25,000 reward. A Houston rapper is also adding $5,000 to the pot, KVUE reports. story continues below Guillen's mother has said Vanessa told her she had been sexually harassed by a sergeant and that she did not feel safe on the base. "This is on a federal government base. A military base. ... More protections and safeguards than anywhere else," an attorney for the family says. "You talk about all these gate checks and all these security checks ... yet someone goes missing?" (More on the disappearance here.) The Stormont Executive has been urged to make progress on commitments made in its Racial Equality Strategy. Equality Commission chief Geraldine McGahey said surveys show that significant work is needed to encourage positive attitudes to difference in Northern Ireland. A spotlight has been shone on the issue of racism following the death of George Floyd in police custody in the United States, sparking demonstrations across the world, including in Northern Ireland. Expand Close People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Custom House Square, Belfast (Rebecca Black/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Custom House Square, Belfast (Rebecca Black/PA) Ms McGahey said the commissions most recent equality awareness survey showed that all five of the most negatively viewed categories were racial groups. It is clear that there is significant work to be done to encourage positive attitudes to difference and to tackle prejudice and any institutional racism, she said. The commissions chief executive said the Executives Racial Equality Strategy has been in place since 2015 and has five more years to run. The Executive and departments need to progress the commitments already made in the strategy, she said. Expand Close Equality Commission Chief Executive Geraldine McGahey. (Equality Commission/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Equality Commission Chief Executive Geraldine McGahey. (Equality Commission/PA) Now is the time to push ahead on actions to eliminate racism and racial discrimination, to tackle prejudicial attitudes and to reform the race equality laws so that people here have the same protection against racial discrimination as elsewhere in the UK. The Executive Office needs to involve every part of Government to examine the changes needed to reduce racial inequalities and give clear timescales for actions. It will involve schools and agencies in education, criminal justice and housing, for example. The inclusion of black and ethnic minority people in public life and local communities must be improved and more positive contacts encouraged between people of different races and ethnicities, including in schools and workplaces. It is essential that we promote values of acceptance and respect for difference here and work together to ensure dignity and respect for people of all races and ethnic backgrounds. Education is a hot topic this Legislative session. Here's what bills we're watching. Here are some of the hot-button education bills were tracking at the Argus Leader. Check back each day to see where they stand as we update. Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak expects that the meeting of the Normandy format leaders may take place in the coming months, but all the agreements reached at the Paris summit must be fulfilled first. "First of all, we need to fulfill everything that the leaders agreed on in Paris. I believe that Ukraine has done everything to ensure that this is done in a short period of time provided the political will of the other side. I think that a meeting of the Normandy format leaders may take place this year, in the coming months," Yermak said in an interview with LB.ua Ukrainian media outlet. The Head of the President's Office is convinced that the Ukrainian people want peace most of all - in the interests of Ukraine and on the terms of Ukraine. Yermak stressed that this peace implies the end of the war, the return of Ukrainian territories and Ukrainian people. "Therefore, if the Normandy format meeting takes place, there should be an agreement with a specific outline of this peace, with specific timeline," Yermak stressed. However, he clarified that a request for a meeting from any of the four participants in the format may be made only after it can be said that all the Paris summits agreements have been fulfilled. On December 9, 2019, a meeting of the leaders of the Normandy Four - Ukraine, France, Germany, and Russia - took place in Paris. The leaders agreed to continue working in the Normandy format and to hold the next summit at the highest level in four months. ol State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe has introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of Gov. Tom Wolf. Metcalfe, a Butler County Republican, introduced the resolution Tuesday. The resolution has 24 co-sponsors. Republican lawmakers, who control the General Assembly, have clashed with the Democratic governors management during the coronavirus crisis. GOP lawmakers have argued Wolfs actions have crippled the states economy and they say he has regularly exceeded his authority. While these are certainly unprecedented and chaotic times, Gov. Tom Wolf must be held accountable for his actions that have harmed so many of our citizens and violated so many of our rights," Metcalfe said in a statement released Tuesday. Wolfs unconstitutional dictates and Orwellian overreach into our lives and the marketplace has caused immeasurable harm and hardship for far more Pennsylvanians than the virus!" The resolutions title: A Resolution impeaching Thomas W. Wolf, Governor of Pennsylvania, for misbehavior in office. Metcalfe began circulating a memo in May to draw support for impeaching Wolf. Other state lawmakers signing on as sponsors of the resolution include Reps. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon; Rob Kauffman, R-Franklin; Dawn W. Keefer, R-York; Mark K. Keller, R-Cumberland/Perry; Dan Moul, R-Adams; Francis Ryan, R-Lebanon; and David H. Zimmerman, R-Lancaster. Bill Patton, a House Democratic spokesman, defended Wolfs leadership in the crisis. The governors doing the job he was elected to do and the last thing the state needs right now is a circus sideshow," Patton said. "House Democrats will give this political stunt no more attention that it deserves. A request for comment from the governors office wasnt immediately returned Tuesday afternoon. Polls have shown strong support for Wolfs leadership during the pandemic, even as he has imposed measures such as shutting down businesses and schools to stem the spread of the virus. Statewide, nearly 80,000 people have contracted the coronavirus and more than 6,200 deaths have been tied to COVID-19, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. More than two-thirds of those deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes. The number of new cases has dropped in recent weeks, which Wolf has attributed to people to practicing social distancing and taking the virus seriously. Nonetheless, Metcalfe said the deaths in nursing homes and the loss of more than 2 million jobs under Wolfs administration are indefensible. His resolution includes five articles calling for Wolfs removal from office. Last week, the GOP-controlled General Assembly passed a resolution that directs Wolf to issue a proclamation or executive order to end the coronavirus disaster emergency. Wolf has vowed to veto the measure, but Republican lawmakers argue he lacks the authority to do so. The battle is expected to be decided in the courts. The measure comes as Wolf has gradually eased coronavirus restrictions in recent weeks. Currently, there are 46 counties in the green phase, the lease restrictive in the Wolf administrations plans to reopen the state. On Friday, Dauphin County and seven other counties move into the green phase. In Pennsylvania, the last person to be impeached was Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen, who was convicted of conspiring to obtain drugs via fraudulent prescriptions. That was in 1994, with the next most recent attempt at impeachment dating back to the 1930s. More from PennLive Lawmakers vote to end Pennsylvanias COVID-19 emergency disaster, but Gov. Wolf says its not over We believe theres a clear and present danger: Three Mile Island decommissioning in question One Ohio restaurant named Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf its employee of the month; heres why Corporate America is facing a reckoning, reminiscent for some of the #MeToo movement, over renewed allegations of structural racism that emerged in the course of mass protests over the killing of George Floyd. While predominately-white boards and C-suites have long been the norm in the private sector despite past efforts to make changes, the last few weeks have seen an exit of some corporate leaders over allegations of racism and widespread push to rethink the system that is in place. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian even voluntarily gave up his board seat to make room for a black board member. "Im cautiously optimistic that it is a tipping point," said Joseph K. West, a partner and the chief diversity and inclusion officer at the law firm Duane Morris. "The lines have really been blurred between what you see playing out in the streets and what you see playing out in the corridors of power." PHOTO: Hundreds of protesters march in downtown Brooklyn over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer on June 05, 2020, in New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Moreover, "those two disparate groups are actually communicating with each other at a policy level in a way that didnt exist before," West said. MORE: Does Black Lives Matter sell? As protests roil the nation, corporate America's response met with skepticism Despite long calls for diversity in corporate America, the state of affairs, especially at the top, remains dismal. Black CEO's make up just 1% -- only five out of 500 -- of the most recent Fortune 500 list of U.S. companies. Black workers make up 7.8% of management roles in management, professional and related occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics current population survey. White workers make up 83.6% of those roles. Black workers are also grossly underrepresented in business and financial operations occupations, legal occupations and other professional and related occupations, according to the same data set. While firms large and small have addressed the Black Lives Matter movement with marketing and social media campaigns, here is what experts say needs to happen to attempt to dismantle structural racism at the corporate level. Story continues "The pledges of solidarity are a start at least acknowledging that there is an issue, and we're hearing these companies talk about structural racism and systemic issues, and even in some cases, white supremacy," Jamillah Bowman Williams, a longtime scholar of workplace inclusion at the Georgetown Law Center and the director of its Workers' Rights Institute, told ABC News. "You're calling these things out, but we want to make sure that there are concrete steps." Understand and address biases and barriers that quell black talent "A lot of what people came to understand from the George Floyd murder is the biases that exist out in society that can have a very meaningful impact on people of color, particularly African Americans, West said. Those same biases play out in the workplace at various junctures at every level. Biases at work can impact compensation, assignments, recruiting, mentoring, promotions and nearly every other decision in the workplace, according to West. There are biases that play out at each of those sorts of critical junctures in the career lifespan, and if you dont get outside assistance ideally to help identify those barriers and come up with strategies to eliminate them, then you may have a problem, West added. Williams added that at work, many promotions and other opportunities to advance "happen very informally." "You get this tap on the shoulder, you get certain people who are invited to join in to meet with top clients, for example, or to take on a prestigious assignment," she said. "This normal sort of informal process leads to structural barriers where some people get opportunities and some don't," she added. "Even though it's not like some official policy that, 'Oh, we're going to hire or promote more whites because we think they're better,' but that in the end, ends up being what happens." PHOTO: Protesters silently march up 23rd Avenue South in Seattle, Washington on June 12, 2020. (Noah Riffe/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) West and Williams say unconscious bias training can help tackle these issues. Another part of the solution is just being aware of them, "and being aware of how that can favor some employees over the other and how it leads to this historic exclusion and lack of opportunities," Williams said. When people are "aware of both unconscious bias and structural barriers and how they work together to perpetuate inequality, they can then reflect and really hopefully check their own bias," Williams said, both "individually and institutionally." Create a culture of inclusion According to West, the conversation about inclusion -- making sure diverse voices are heard and valued -- has been lagging in corporate America. "Weve had a lot of conversations about diversity, but not as much about the importance of inclusion and inclusiveness," West said. "Thats important because a lot of organizations over the last couple of decades have done a decent job of recruiting diverse talent, but they tend not to stay, he added. Retention is an issue because people run into barriers to inclusion, they run into barriers to ascension. According to a report from this year on retention from the New York-based non-profit Catalyst, 35% of black professionals intend to quit their jobs within two years compared with 27% of their white counterparts. Stereotypes of people of color in the workplace contribute to a higher emotional tax burden for workers of color, in which these employees feel on guard at work and may contribute to their intention to leave, the researchers noted, adding that inclusive leadership can help reduce turnover. Dr. Akilah Cadet, the founder of the diversity consulting firm Change Cadet, told ABC that this issue is "all about belonging." "If you feel like you don't belong in a work environment and can't be yourself, if you dont feel comfortable, there is only so much time that you can take to deal with that," Cadet said. "A lot of people are forgetting or underestimating that as black people, we have to learn how to live in a white country, in white spaces, we have to work twice as hard to get minimum respect. A non-inclusive environment leads to "a revolving door of people of color leaving, of black people leaving, because they wont be able to relate to anyone or they will be tokenized and have to represent all of black people." "America is designed for white people to be the best and be the top and there is a lot of historical context for that, that shift in dynamic is incredibly hard for white people," she said. "They dont want to stop benefiting from white privilege in America." "In order for us to get to a place of humanity and equality for black people, for that to happen, white people are going to have to lose some of their power," she said. "That is terrifying for a lot of white people." MORE: Reddit replaces Alexis Ohanian's board seat with black tech entrepreneur Michael Seibel Williams added that this experience at work is "often isolating." "Its alienating to be representative in that token number, and not feeling like you're actually valued," she said. "So you feel like you have to change yourself to fit in and some molds of this culture and you feel like you have to work twice as hard." For black people often when they make mistakes, it's associated with their blackness, she added. "It's just used as an excuse or a rationale for why they weren't really worthy or deserving to be there in the first place. The first time they make a mistake, which happens with all professionals then it's like ... it's used as a reasoning behind almost why they shouldn't have been there in the first place and black workers are very aware of this and they are worried about affirming these stereotypes," she said, noting that white people don't often have to fight these battles at work. Changes here are going to have to come at a cultural level, the experts say. I am hopeful that things will shift and change, it will only come with more white people understanding their privilege and working to dismantle it," Cadet said. "First off, understanding their privilege, second step, learning how to become an ally." For white and non-black people of color, this involves active listening and calling out situations where black colleagues may be talked over or ignored and "being able to have conversations with leaders about microaggressions that they see," Cadet said. Push hard for transparency and accountability If companies really want to enact change and dismantle issues of systemic racism that have plagued institutions for decades, they need to be transparent about their work and data and be held accountable. Cadet said transparency in the breakdown of leadership and employees is a good start, and having that information in an easy-to-access place that is often updated -- such as a website with clear information about who you can contact. If companies develop a plan to tackle diversity and inclusiveness, being able to have a point person to bring comments and complaints and "not be chastised by asking these questions, is essential, according to Cadet. Williams said that companies should be more transparent about their efforts "and create more dialogue and conversation about what works and what doesnt, rather than being just so defensive." "I think the tech industry is a great example of that. Because the media got involved, politicians got involved, customers got involved in really pushing them to start releasing the data," she said. "And they were resistant for years." PHOTO: Protesters take part in the 'March on Georgia,' organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, on June 15, 2020. (Dustin Chambers/Getty Images) Williams also said it's important to push for specifics. If someone says they are doing unconscious bias training, ask, "What does your training look like? Does everyone have to do it?" If diversity is good for business, it should be compensated as such Finally, "if diversity is like any other business metric, then companies should reward" it as such, West said. West cited an example at a tech firm where the leader "incentivizes his direct reports by withholding a certain percentage of their annual bonus if they dont meet certain diversity and inclusion goals." You would be amazed how much that clarifies the mind, he quipped. "For me when you talk about diversity and inclusion from a corporate standpoint and from the standpoint of the C-suite, the most compelling argument is that, sure, eliminating barriers can be good for the bottom line," he added. Many studies have shown that diversity is ultimately good for business. A 2020 McKinsey report found that firms with ethnic diversity at the executive level were more likely to financially outperform those without. "If that is the thing that convinces people that diversity in the c-suite is a good thing then so be it," West said. Cadet added that many companies and brands are finally "understanding the value of the black dollar and the conscious consumer dollar." Ultimately, "money is a wonderful precipice for cultural change," she said. As corporate America faces racial reckoning, heres how experts say change can be made originally appeared on abcnews.go.com By Ritsuko Ando and Sophie Yu TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) - The coronavirus pandemic is shredding the global apparel industry, stripping hundreds of billions of dollars from sales and thrusting big names like J.Crew into bankruptcy protection. While no major fashion firms have been spared, Japan's Fast Retailing , owner of the Uniqlo brand and not far behind the world's No. 2 H&M in sales, looks well placed to cope with the crisis better than rivals. By Ritsuko Ando and Sophie Yu TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) - The coronavirus pandemic is shredding the global apparel industry, stripping hundreds of billions of dollars from sales and thrusting big names like J.Crew into bankruptcy protection. While no major fashion firms have been spared, Japan's Fast Retailing <9983.T>, owner of the Uniqlo brand and not far behind the world's No. 2 H&M in sales, looks well placed to cope with the crisis better than rivals. That's thanks to legions of faithful Chinese fans like 25-year-old IT worker Niu Ran, whose wardrobe is crammed with Uniqlo basics like shirts and socks and was looking for more in a post-lockdown shopping trip. "I like Uniqlo because it's very easy to match and the quality is not bad," he said, waiting in line to try on pants at a Uniqlo store in Wangfujing, Beijing's prime shopping district. "It satisfies all my needs, so I don't need to spend time elsewhere." Led by Tadashi Yanai, Japan's richest man, Fast Retailing has expanded aggressively in China with 750 Uniqlo stores, roughly the same number in its home market. Mainland China has all but contained domestic transmission of the coronavirus with lockdowns lifted in most areas since March and the worlds no. 2 economy is widely expected to emerge from pandemic-induced pain faster than other countries. In other parts of Asia too, key markets such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have been more successful than the West in curbing the virus. In contrast, rivals mostly focused on the U.S. market like Gap Inc or far more dependent on Europe like Zara-owner and industry leader Inditex and H&M, are expected to face a longer downturn. "Asia is going to be much faster to bounce back in terms of willingness to spend, which will favour operators with a big presence in Asia," said Honor Strachan, retail analyst at research firm GlobalData. "In the mature western markets across Europe, the U.S. and Canada, we expect the recovery to be long and drawn out," she said. GlobalData predicts the global apparel market will lose $297 billion in revenue this year due to the pandemic, with the United States accounting for 42% of that lost spending. Of Uniqlo's 2,260 stores globally, just 51 are in the United States. Its inability to make strides in the world's biggest clothing market has long been seen as an Achilles heel, but for the time being it may prove a blessing. Asia, however, accounts for three-quarters of Uniqlo's annual revenue and Greater China alone represents 20%. While Strachan notes H&M and Inditex are some of the most resilient players in the market, Asia & Oceania make up just 15% of H&M's annual revenue while at Zara, its "Asia and the rest of the world" category accounts for 23% of sales. THE BASICS ADVANTAGE Uniqlo's long shelf-life items like Oxford shirts for work, chinos and underwear as well as its reputation for value for money are likely to resonate with consumers grappling with lost income or less job security more than the trend-based clothing of Zara and H&M, according to analysts. "The quality is good and designs are classic," said Jiang Xin, an internet company employee in Beijing, one of many Chinese shoppers interviewed by Reuters who said they felt Uniqlo quality was a cut above comparably priced brands. Although Fast Retailing warned in April operating profit could slide 44% in the year to end-August, analysts expect a quick recovery assuming key markets are not hit by a large second wave of infections. With a large proportion of items no-frills basics, it is hoping to limit discounts. "We will be looking to gradually sell off the excess stock to normalise inventory over the next 18 months," CFO Takeshi Okazaki said on a call with analysts in April. Fast Retailing declined to comment further on its business outlook for this article. Rapid growth has brought Fast Retailing almost neck and neck with H&M. Last year the Japanese firm was more profitable with net income of around $1.5 billion compared to the Swedish chain's $1.4 billion (1.12 billion pounds), though its $21 billion in revenue was some $3 billion less. And while it still has a way to go before it matches Inditex's annual sales of $31 billion, Yanai's long-held goal of making Fast Retailing the world's biggest retailer has looked less far-fetched in recent years. But for that to happen, Uniqlo will have gain market share in the United States, analysts say, adding that it may have to offer more stylish items to get there. "They still need to find a way to compete in the U.S.," said Jefferies analyst Michael Allen. "The current crisis doesn't change the equation for that." ($1 = 107.82 yen) ($1 = 0.8987 euros) (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando and Sophie Yu; Additional reporting by Sonya Dowsett in Madrid and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Advertisement "When a person's functioning is affected and these symptoms are present it is important to seek help," Parikh said, adding that treatment can involve a combination of or individually the utilisation of medicines and psychotherapy."It is also important that people focus on self care, identify if there are errors in their thinking, determine ways to manage emotional functioning, seek support in friends and family and most importantly talk about the struggle they may have and not hesitate because of the stigma or misconceptions that surround mental health problems," he said.Actor Deepika Padukone, who earlier opened up about her own struggles with depression, emphasised on the need of "reaching out" again on Sunday."As a person who has had a lived experience with mental illness, I cannot stress enough about the importance of reaching out. Talk. Communicate. Express. Seek help. Remember, you are not alone. We are in this together. And most importantly, there is Hope," she wrote in an Instagram post.As Manish Jain, Consultant, Psychiatry, BLK Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, pointed out, social, psychological, cultural and other factors can interact to lead a person to suicidal behaviour, but the stigma attached to mental disorders means that many people feel unable to seek help properly.Source: IANS The loss of soldiers in Galwan Valley is deeply disturbing and painful, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said today, paying tribute to the Indian Army soldiers who sacrificed their lives in a violent clash with the Chinese troops Monday night. On Tuesday, the Indian Army confirmed the death of 20 Army personnel, including a Colonel in a clash which took place Monday night. This was the biggest ever military confrontation between the two armies in over five decades. "Nation will never forget their bravery" In a series of tweets, Singh said Indian soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias breavehearts. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 17, 2020 "The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's bravehearts," he said. After the 1967 clashes in Nathu La, Monday's clash was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries. In 1967, India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese Army personnel were killed in the confrontation. BCCL Face-off result of Chinese side changing status quo The External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said the violent face-off between armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region, according to news agency PTI. The Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in the standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the row. PHILIPSBURG:--- The Supervisory Board of Directors of the TelemGroup of Companies has recently requested a shareholders meeting with the Council of Ministers; specifically, with the Shareholder Representative and Prime Minister, Ms. Silveria Jacobs. The purpose is to discuss pending matters from the previous sitting government, with specific attention to the current situations brewing at the Telem group of companies. The Supervisory Board in its communication to the government provided a proposed agenda which includes among other topics, the appointment of a fifth board member, a spot that had to be filled since the removal of Mr. Arnell Brown, which came into effect some months ago. The financial position of the company and the general state of affairs of its operations are also included on the proposed agenda. Member of the Supervisory Board of Directors and its Audit Committee Chairperson, Mr. Jimmy Challenger: The Supervisory Board of Directors remains vigilant in its role and continues to advise the Management of the company on the importance of implementing best practices in the interest of the company ensuring that ongoing projects, such as Fiber to the Home (FTTH), are executed in a timely and effective manner guaranteeing a future for the company and the many internal and external stakeholders. This includes the employees of Telem and the (business) community at large, who heavily rely on Telems services to conduct business. Telems proper functioning is a matter of National Importance in all aspects of the word. Mr. Challenger continued: Now more than ever, reliable telecommunication services in a post COVID19 era will remain paramount. The Management Team of TelemGroup, some of whom have been at the helm of the company for quite some years must make every effort to deliver quality services and understand that it is no longer business as usual increased competition and costs of doing business will remain on the rise, against reduced income from operations, as the Telecommunications sector profits continue to decline partly due to technological advances with free applications (e.g. WhatsApp) being available. The SBOD needs to now assure the Shareholder Representative and employees of the company that things are being done in a transparent manner when it pertains to the role of the Management Team of the company, and during these trying times, not entertain the notion of sending employees home prematurely. Management has to now understand that things should be done differently and better in the interest of the companys (paying) customers and the entire community which it serves directly or indirectly. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 06:34 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf4dc3f 1 World Indonesia-Australia,COVID-19,WHO,COVID-19-aid,coronavirus,COVID-19-in-Indonesia Free Australia is set to disburse aid totaling AU$6.2 million (US$4.2 million) to the World Health Organization (WHO) to support Indonesias COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. According to a joint statement by the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and WHO Indonesia, the funds are to strengthen Indonesias laboratories, improve the way Indonesia collects and uses health information and help to protect patients and health workers at health facilities. As neighbors and long-term partners, Indonesia and Australia are well-positioned to overcome these challenges together, Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Gary Quinlan said Tuesday. Supporting Indonesias immediate critical health security efforts, in partnership with the WHO, is fundamental to ensuring our regions recovery. Read also: UN allots $2 million for Indonesia's COVID-19 response WHO representative to Indonesia N. Paranietharan said that, over the next two years, his organization would continue to work with the Indonesian government to achieve improved national policies and procedures to better respond to public health emergencies. With the support from [Australias] Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the WHO will be able to ensure essential support is provided towards the preparedness of the health system, including enhancing the national surveillance and case detection system and strengthening infection prevention and control activities, Paranietharan was quoted as saying in the statement. Other countries and international organizations have also given aid to Indonesia for its COVID-19 response. The UN announced last week that it would contribute $2 million to support Indonesias COVID-19 response under its COVID-19 Multi-Partner Trust Fund (COVID-19 MPTF). Last month, New Zealand announced it would contribute NZ$5 million ($3 million) to Indonesias COVID-19 preparedness, response and recovery efforts through UNICEF Indonesia. Over 170 members of An Garda Siochana took part in arresting 14 people from 67 searches across Limerick, Clare and Tipperary as part of operation coronation. 13 men and one woman, aged 20s to 60s, were arrested as part of the major operation across several garda units, including the Criminal Assets Bureau, Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The searches took place across homes, businesses and lands in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary from 6am this morning. Three people were arrested for suspected money laundering offences and detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. One person was arrested in respect of Section 15 Misuse of Drugs Act after approximately 2,000 of suspected crack cocaine and heroin was seized in one search. One person was arrested and detained under the provisions of Section 2 of the Criminal Justice 2 (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996 after 20,000 worth of cannabis herb was seized. Six people charged with offences under Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act and three people arrested on penal or bench warrants. Over 220,000 was seized in euro, sterling, old Irish currency and dirham - the currency used in the United Arab Emirates - was seized, as well as deeds to a Dubai property, 100,000 worth of jewellery and luxury watches. A car worth 50,000, designer clothes and significant evidence to support the investigation, including financial accounts and property documentation was seized. The raid also saw Gardai seize 23,500 of suspected drugs, two cocaine presses and frozen two bank accounts, which contain sums in excess of 119,000. [June 17, 2020] Infoblox Unveils Customer Momentum for BloxOne Threat Defense as Remote Work and Learning Surge SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Infoblox Inc., the leader in Secure Cloud-Managed Network Services, today announces that Morgan School District and railway operator Keio Corporation are now using BloxOne Threat Defense to secure their networks, applications, and user devices wherever they are. These customers illustrate the demand for scalable, simple, and foundational security, which cloud-based DNS inherently provides, to protect today's increasingly decentralized corporate network. "Companies large and small are turning to cloud-based networks and services more than ever before, often stitching them onto what used to be a purely on-premises network," says Jesper Andersen, CEO of Infoblox. "As enterprises become more distributed and borderless, they need security to stretch across the entire infrastructure to protect users wherever they are. Our BloxOne Threat Defense uses cloud-native DNS at the core of the network to simplify and extend security across the hybrid stack." "Cloud-managed DNS security platforms provide a robust, scalable, and secure platform for protecting any enterprise network, no matter the size or the origination of the traffic," says Brandon Butler, Senior Research Analyst of Enterprise Networks at IDC. "Enterprises that embrace these next-generation security best practices will ensure their networks are able to securely scale to meet the needs of their digitally transforming business." School districts in particular have seen a pressing need for solutions that extend network security to remote users, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of students to learn from home. The Morgan School District chose BloxOne Threat Defense after searching for a cloud-delivered solution that unified the district's cybersecurity posture and reduced false positives. BloxOne Threat Defense gives the district a central point for enforcing malware policies for all issued devices regadless of a student's location. "Once our schools were shut down, we immediately began issuing Chromebooks to families," says Ven Savage, Network Operations Manager for the district in Morgan, Utah. "We went from issuing zero take home devices to issuing 750 devices in just three days." Since the pandemic, "category based filtering has remained our primary challenge. Data privacy laws require school devices to filter the exact same way no matter where students are using them." With BloxOne Threat Defense, "I set up our filtering to happen at the DNS level, which is different from other solutions," says Savage. "It's more effective and successful at eliminating false positives. We used to have false positives 8-10 times per day. Now, my team has dealt with only one false positive in six months since we implemented BloxOne. We had that one fixed in about five minutes." Keio Corporation , a Japanese railroad operator, selected BloxOne Threat Defense to secure 6,000 computers on the company's network. The company chose Infoblox security to more accurately identify and mitigate threats, including SEO poisoning attacks and the Emotet malware that previously went undetected. "There have been an increasing number of new web-based threats that have been difficult to address with a traditional cybersecurity solution alone," says Kenichi Sato, Group IT Officer-in-Charge in the IT Department at Keio. "It became necessary to build a more multi-layered defense." "Since Infoblox offers a cloud-based cybersecurity service, it is easy to deploy to every other company within the Keio Group," says Hiroko Tamura, Group IT Management Officer-in-Charge at Keio. "It can also flexibly support the addition of new functions and minimize the hardware maintenance and operations costs associated with an on-premises solution." Led by BloxOne Threat Defense's robust growth and customer adoption, Infoblox has quickly earned recognition as a network security leader. Forbes and The Software Report respectively named Infoblox one of the Top 10 Cybersecurity Companies to Watch in 2020 and one of the Top 25 Cybersecurity Companies of 2019 . Additionally, the 2020 Fortress Cyber Security Award recognized BloxOne Threat Defense as a winner in the Enterprise Network Security category for extending DNS based protection to multiple clouds and to the edge. "These awards and the growth in demand for BloxOne Threat Defense show the strong reception for our cloud-native DNS security solution across healthcare, financial services, government, technology, and other mission critical sectors," says Jesper Andersen. "We expect BloxOne Threat Defense adoption to continue as organizations around the world invest in securing remote work and learning for the long haul. On top of building faster and scaling costs as needed, going cloud-first allows organizations to quickly and easily extend and secure their networks for users wherever they work." About Infoblox Infoblox delivers the next level network experience with its Secure Cloud-Managed Network Services. As the pioneer in providing the world's most reliable, secure and automated networks, we are relentless in our pursuit of next level network simplicity. A recognized industry leader, Infoblox has more than 50 percent market share in the DDI networking market and 8,000 customers, including 350 of the Fortune 500. Learn more at https://www.infoblox.com . Media Contact Lise Feng [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/infoblox-unveils-customer-momentum-for-bloxone-threat-defense-as-remote-work-and-learning-surge-301078445.html SOURCE Infoblox Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The nationwide calls to defund the police in the wake of the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 embody both the anger at continuing gratuitous police violence and a strategy for dealing with it. But do defunders want to constrain police, replace them, reimagine them or simply abolish them? Not everyone who chants or hashtags the slogan agrees on the details. For now, though, here are some things that defund the police is not: Its not new. One of the leading strategies to encourage better police behavior over the last 40 years has been ever-greater investments in technology to surgically pinpoint public safety problems, and in larger police forces to enable more humane community-oriented rather than occupation-style policing. But there has been a strong counter-narrative from communities in which more surveillance and more cops has meant more oppression rather than safer streets. In the midst of the crack epidemic that began in the 1980s, the most succinct articulation of the dissatisfaction with the state of policing in black neighborhoods south of downtown Los Angeles came not from street marchers or reformers but from the 1988 N.W.A. album Straight Outta Compton. Defund tha police! the group rapped in its most controversial track, except that they didnt say defund, but a word that starts with an f. The work is a bill of complaints against not just policing but the inequitable economic and social structure of which it is a part. With minor editing it could have been the executive summary of a blue-ribbon commission report explaining how mistaken it was to spend money on greater police presence rather than on better health, education and employment opportunities. That was 32 years ago. Its not a panacea. The Marshall Project has reported at length on the continuing problems in Chicago and Memphis, which cut their police budgets but did not reduce excessive force or improve the communitys regard for officers. Smaller forces meant larger backlogs of unsolved crimes and longer wait times for police response. That experience is at the core of the fear voiced by critics of defund the police: What do you do when you really need a cop? Defunders answer that many times you need the kind of help best provided by a mental health professional, not an armed law enforcement officer who may be as likely to exacerbate the situation as resolve it. But still sometimes you need a cop. Its not what happened in Camden, N.J. The city across the river from Philadelphia had a police department beset by deep corruption, so it was disbanded and replaced by a new law enforcement agency. The move could best be seen as a reset rather than a full-scale defunding. Nor is defund the police N.W.A.s Compton, which disbanded its department in 2000 but replaced it with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, an agency with plenty of its own problems. Other cities, too, have had police do-overs, including Stockton, Calif., where municipal bankruptcy meant layoffs and early retirements that did some good by purging the department of many of its old-school warrior cops and paved the way for more constructive thinking and practices. Stockton, though, remains one of Californias most violent cities. Its not reform. The defund the police movement critiques traditional police reforms such as body cams, oversight commissions, better training and more restrictive use-of-force policies. Defunders note that these things have been tried, but police killings, especially of black people, continue. Backers of reforms called #8cantwait recently apologized for putting forward a reform package, because they said it distracted attention from the more radical defunding campaign. Last week congressional Democrats proposed a package of sweeping yet traditional police reforms, and a majority of Americans (including Republicans) appear to support it perhaps because they see it as a more comfortable approach than defunding or abolishing police agencies. Its not crazy. Transferring funding from armed law enforcement to other first responders is not, in and of itself, insane. Even many police would agree that they are the wrong people to deal with mental health crises or Metro fare-evaders. Defunding police does not mean defunding public safety. But at its best it should mean reconsidering the most effective means to attain public safety, how much it should cost, who should pay the freight, and who should do the job. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 0 Angry 0 South Sudan's main rivals on Wednesday sealed a deal on control of the country's 10 internal states, an issue seen as the biggest threat to peace since a unity government was formed in February. President Salva Kiir and former rebel leader and now vice president Riek Machar, whose 2013 fallout sparked a civil war, had been at loggerheads over the allocation of states, especially those producing oil, the country's main earner. Last week the governments of Britain, Norway and the United States issued a statement urging them to agree on the appointment of governments as violence soared in recent weeks in the "vacuum created by the lack of governance". Minister in the Office of President Nhial Deng Nhial told journalists that Kiir's camp had been allocated six states, including the oil-rich Unity State and Central Equatoria, which includes the capital Juba. Machar will take three states, including the largest oil-producing area, the Upper Nile state, while a third signatory to the peace deal, the South Sudan Opposition Alliance, will take Jonglei state. "With this development a fresh impetus has been given for the process for the implementation of the agreement," said Nhial. "We are very hopeful that with this development, the road is now paved to further positive developments that we hope will be carried out expeditiously." South Sudan plunged into war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his former vice president Riek Machar of plotting a coup. In September 2018 the warring parties signed an agreement to form a unity government, which would see Machar return to government as vice president, after previous attempts at ruling together only led to disaster. In their statement last week, the three western countries said increased violence was putting South Sudan's hard-won peace at risk. "In Jonglei, the vacuum created by the lack of governance has exacerbated cycles of intercommunal violence," said the statement, while in Central Equatoria a ceasefire between the government and rebels who did not sign the peace deal broke down and fresh fighting erupted. During the first three months of 2020, 658 people were killed in intercommunal violence in the country, while 452 were injured, the UN rights office said last month. North Korea has announced it will send troops into sites previously used to foster cooperation with South Korea a day after demolishing an inter-Korean liaison office. Why it matters: North Korea is wiping out all remnants of the detente with South Korea that began in 2018, and taking dramatic symbolic steps to signal a new more hostile era in relations. Pyongyang has also said it will resume military exercises and reestablish guard posts near the heavily fortified border. Behind the scenes: Experts generally view this as a play for leverage from Kim Jong-uns regime, which has expressed fury over America's unwillingness to loosen sanctions and is believed to be facing a severe economic downturn amid the COVID-19 pandemic. North Korea has also expressed outrage over propaganda leaflets sent across the border from the South. Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, has been taking a central role in the rhetorical offensive from Pyongyang. What to watch: Nuclear talks are likely to remain on ice this year, with an election approaching in the U.S. The Kim regimes goals include weakening the U.S.-South Korea alliance and reminding Washington that North Korea is still a force to be reckoned with, said Glyn Davies, who served as a special representative for North Korea during the Obama administration, in a recent International Crisis Group webinar. U.S. intelligence says North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear program since President Trumps two summits with Kim, which did not yield a deal on denuclearization. Flashback: South Korean President Moon Jae-in, an advocate of warmer ties with North Korea, also held a series of summits with Kim in 2018. Just two years later, one symbol of the friendlier relations those three meetings seemed to signal has been exploded. Others are now being actively militarized. Go deeper: Kim Jong-un finally reappears Professor Mai Van Trinh, director-general of the Quality Control Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, speaks on local authorities role in the upcoming high school graduation exam. Professor Mai Van Trinh, director-general of the Quality Control Department under the Ministry of Education and Training. Photo sggp.org.vn What are the differences in the high school graduation exam for 2020 compared to previous years? In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has agreed with a proposal made by the Ministry of Education and Training on the organisation of the 2020 national high school graduation examination. According to the proposal, provincial authorities have to take full responsibility for organising and marking the students exam papers in their own locality as well as publicising the exam results. One important principle that all high schools have to observe is that all exam supervisors must come from other schools in the province. According to a plan on June 9 and 10, a training course for all people involved in the coming national high school graduation examination will be held to make sure that the graduation exam will take place in a safe and sound manner. In previous years, up to 50 per cent of inspectors were staff sent from universities. Yet this year, all the examination inspectors are local teachers. Do you think the exam results will be objective and fair? Basically speaking, there is no major change in high school graduation exam procedures this year compared with the previous year. However, among exam inspectors there will be quite a few staff from universities and from the Ministry of Education and Training as well as the local provincial Department of Education and Training. The only difference compared to previous years is local provincial authorities, including some inspectors, will take part in supervising the graduation examination. Each inspector will only be assigned to supervise an examination room once. What about grading examination papers? The grading of the examination papers will be done on computers using special software. Of course, all activities will be supervised by a special camera system. Whats more important, this year the Ministry of Education and Training has demanded everything must be transparent to avoid any fraudulent acts. The Ministry of Education and Training has demanded that all provinces hold high the principle of transparency and accountability throughout the course of marking the test papers. Do you think with those measures people can be at ease that the school graduation exam this year will be totally objective, safe and no bias? In this years school graduation exam, the provincial Peoples Committee has to take full responsibility for the safe organisation of the graduation exam in their locality. To make sure everything goes smoothly, the ministry has adopted a series of measures, ranging from classroom activities and academic electronic records. We hope this year, we will have a fair, objective and strict school graduation exam for all 12th graders. VNS/SGGP High school graduation examination to be held on August 9 and 10 The seminal high school graduation examination, hosted by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), is poised to take place from August 9 to 10 after constant changes in dates and formats. A new study by Florida State University researchers may help answer some of the most perplexing questions surrounding Alzheimer's disease, an incurable and progressive illness affecting millions of families around the globe. FSU Assistant Professor of Psychology Aaron Wilber and graduate student Sarah Danielle Benthem showed that the way two parts of the brain interact during sleep may explain symptoms experienced by Alzheimer's patients, a finding that opens up new doors in dementia research. It is believed that these interactions during sleep allow memories to form and thus failure of this normal system in a brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease may explain why memory is impaired. The study, a collaboration among the FSU Program in Neuroscience, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, was published online in the journal Current Biology and will appear in the publication's July 6 issue. "This research is important because it looks at possible mechanisms underlying the decline of memory in Alzheimer's disease and understanding how it causes memory decline could help identify treatments," Benthem said. Wilber and Benthem's study, based on measuring brain waves in mouse models of the disease, gave researchers a number of new insights into Alzheimer's including how the way that two parts of the brain -- the parietal cortex and the hippocampus -- interact during sleep may contribute to symptoms experienced by Alzheimer's patients, such as impaired memory and cognition, and getting lost in new surroundings. The team had examined a phenomenon known as memory replay -- the playing back of activity patterns from waking experience in subsequent sleep periods -- in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease as a potential cause of impaired spatial learning and memory. During these memory replay periods, they found that the mice modeling aspects of Alzheimer's Disease in humans had impaired functional interactions between the hippocampus and the parietal cortex. The hippocampal formation is crucial for the storage of "episodic" memories -- a type of long-term memory of a past experience -- and is thought to be important for assisting other parts of the brain in extracting generalized knowledge from these personal experiences. "Surprisingly, a better predictor of performance and the first impairment to emerge was not 'memory replay' per se, but was instead the relative strength of the post-learning coupling between two brain regions known to be important for learning and memory: the hippocampus and the parietal cortex," Wilber said. According to the Alzheimer's Association, more than 47 million people worldwide are living with the disease, a number projected to soar to 76 million over the next decade. It is currently the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S., affecting one out of every 10 people ages 65 and older. ### FSU research scientist Shawn Moseley and students Alina Stimmell, Jessica Dixon and Aandreza Melilli also contributed to the study. The research was supported by grants from the Florida Department of Health, the National Institute on Aging, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Victoria, 30, (pictured) who has been single for five years, is a freelance project manager VICTORIA, 30 Dating Past? My most recent serious relationship was five years ago, as I have put my career first, working in the technology sector and as a management consultant. I spent my late 20s working in Sydney, where I dated only occasionally. I came back to the UK in November. I went on a date the day before lockdown began. But while we wanted to meet again, we agreed there was no sense in waiting around until goodness knows when. Pre-Date Nerves? I was excited rather than nervous. Im used to talking online for work, but this was a different prospect. I chose to wear a black dress with a floral print. First Impressions? VITAL STATISTICS Single for five years, no children. CURRENT ROLE Working freelance as a project manager. WOULD LIKE TO MEET . . . Somebody who is funny and a little bit nerdy. Ideally he is physically fit and looks after himself. I cant bear entitled and snobbish types. Advertisement Paulo is rather handsome. On screen I could see only his head and shoulders, but he has a lovely smile and I could tell he was friendly. I knew he was a yoga teacher, so I was expecting him to look a bit like a guru, with his hair in a ponytail. But he had smart, shortish hair. That was my fault for having preconceived ideas! Easy To Talk To? While we didnt have any technical difficulties, it did take a while to get used to being on a virtual date. Id prepared some food, but it felt weird to eat while chatting, so I stuck to my watermelon cocktail. We discovered we had both left the corporate world behind. Paulo told me he quit his job in finance to live a life that brings him closer to happiness, while Ive taken on a less stressful freelance role. We agreed that its an extremely hard thing to do, and I was pretty impressed. I learned he also walks dogs, which I love as Im obsessed with them. Embarrassing Moments? He teaches yoga, so I thought hed have a ponytail None. But Id had quite a few cocktails by the end, so I might have talked more than I realised. Did Sparks Fly? VICTORIA'S VERDICT: 9/10 LIKED ? It was a memorable and positive thing to do. REGRETS ? None. SEE HIM AGAIN ? Yes. Advertisement Its hard to say because the virtual environment feels quite a professional one. We didnt flirt, but we got on well. Would you like to meet in person? I had a genuinely lovely time, so I would like to meet him to see if there is chemistry between us. What do you think he thought of you? I suspect he thinks I dont like small talk and dont beat about the bush I ask rather straight-to-the-point questions. Would your friends like him? They absolutely would. Paulo, 40, (pictured) who has been single for four years, is a yoga teacher and dog walker PAULO, 40 Dating Past? I was focused on my career as an accountant in my 20s and 30s and worked long hours, so I didnt have much time to date. But five years ago a family member fell seriously ill and I left my job to live near them. I then went travelling before returning to London, but I havent had the chance to meet anyone yet. Pre-Date Nerves? I was nervous but intrigued. First Impressions? Victoria is warm, open and happy to talk freely about herself. She also made an effort to listen. VITAL STATISTICS Single for four years, no children. CURRENT ROLE Yoga teacher and dog walker. WOULD LIKE TO MEET . . . A woman who is kind. I dont have a physical type any more I tend to be open-minded. Hopefully she will enjoy the outdoors, like me, and love dogs. Advertisement Although we both had food, we agreed to stick to drinks, because dipping away from the screen to eat felt weird. Victoria had cocktails while I enjoyed white wine. Easy To Talk To? We chatted about how much our lives have changed in the past five years. Victoria has recently returned from a four-year stint in Australia, and seemed to respect the path I have taken. She didnt flinch when I explained that teaching yoga doesnt deliver the same pay cheque as my previous career. She practises kundalini yoga, which is a different style to the yoga I do daily, but I am glad she is interested in it. She told a politically incorrect joke it was hilarious While I tend to be a quiet person and have been happy with my own company during lockdown, it was a fun way to spend an afternoon. Embarrassing Moments? There werent any. In fact, as the date came to an end, Victoria made a very politically incorrect joke which really made me laugh. She obviously realised that I wouldnt be offended I liked that about her. Did Sparks Fly? PAULOS VERDICT: 9/10 LIKED ? It was a different but fun way to date. REGRETS ? None. SEE HER AGAIN ? Yes. Advertisement We kept it neutral because its hard to be flirtatious online you cant read body language and theres no human touch. But we had a lovely date. Would you like to meet in person? Yes. Meeting in person is the best way to see if there is chemistry and potentially more between us. What do you think she thought of you? I hope she thought I was approachable and a good listener. Would your friends like her? They would think she is cool and quirky, and shares their sense of humour. Would you like us to find you a date? Fancy a date with an eligible single like you? Or would you like to play cupid for someone else? Email your or their details and a photo to blinddate@dailymail.co.uk Emanuel Simhayev, owner and pharmacist at Get Well Rx in Astoria, Queens, consults with a customer purchasing face masks. April 2, 2020 Doug Hirsch never intended to get into the health-care business. The Yahoo and Facebook veteran was thinking through ideas back in 2010 when he became fixated on the fact that a consumer couldn't look up a medication on the internet and find out the price. Around that time, he became friends with Trevor Bezdek, a fellow software entrepreneur. Hirsch's and Bezdek's moms had known each other for years in Los Angeles and had a gut feeling that their entrepreneurial sons would get along. Bezdek agreed that drug pricing was opaque, which represented a big opportunity for them to solve. They decided to start GoodRx the following year and now run it as co-CEOs. The company ranks No. 20 on the 2020 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, announced Tuesday. GoodRx offers discount cards and coupons for consumers to take to the pharmacy, often allowing them to get a lower price. It was an early mover into the space but now has half a dozen competitors, including Singlecare and RxSaver, which are each jostling for a corner of the highly lucrative market. Many companies in the burgeoning health-technology space cater to the so-called worried well, meaning those with spending money who are anxious about their health. But GoodRx markets its service to the 28 million Americans who are uninsured, as well as to people with high deductible plans who might still get a deal on their generic medications via its website and mobile app. Since its founding the company says it has helped Americans save more than $20 billion on prescription drug expenses. How the company makes money GoodRX makes part of its revenue by collecting fees from the pharmacy benefits managers, or PBMs, it works with when consumers present their GoodRx coupon at the pharmacy. PBMs are middlemen that fit into the notoriously complicated drug supply chain, where they negotiate prices with manufacturers on behalf of insurers. In a very simple example, imagine a patient pays $20 for a drug. The PBM might collect $6 from the pharmacy, leaving the pharmacy with $14 (the pharmacy also incurs dispensing costs). The PBM then splits some of that fee with GoodRx. Independent pharmacies will sometimes make money on the transaction, but not always. For that reason, some of them have started their own rival discount programs or work with a different contractor that is offering to reduce the fees. But GoodRx's Hirsch claims that overall, the service is "financially positive" for pharmacies. "A lot of times you can end up losing money (as an independent pharmacy) when a customer uses a discount card," said Steve Moore, a pharmacist with Condo Pharmacy in New York. "But it depends on the drug." GoodRx also sells advertising on its website and charges consumers $5.99 per month for a subscription service called GoodRx Gold, which can offer savings for customers with many prescriptions. GoodRx founders and co-CEOs: Doug Hirsch (left) and Trevor Bezdek The company's business model seems to be working. GoodRx has been profitable on and off since 2013, and was pulling in more than a hundred million in profit in 2018, said a source familiar with the company's financials. The company's last valuation, after an investment from private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018, was $2.85 billion. The company has accelerated growth in many areas, and revenue has grown over 50% every year since inception, according to Hirsch. About 17 million Americans use GoodRx every month to find the best prices at more than 70,000 pharmacies nationwide. The company could be poised for major growth during the Covid-19 pandemic because it caters to those who don't have insurance and are looking for options to get care at home. Unemployment may already have hit 25%, and those numbers could increase if there's a second wave of Covid-19 in the fall. That could also leave millions without coverage. But the company faces some complicated politics and mechanics in the industry it serves. Pharmacies could sour on GoodRx. And technology giants, like Amazon, may also encroach on their space as they move into the pharmacy space. There's also the looming, albeit more distant threat, of single payer. GoodRx's Hirsch and Bezdek told CNBC that they're "constantly worrying" about the other shoe dropping, but they are keeping at it. "All we can do, and all we have done, is stayed true to our mission of helping provide more transparency to consumers," said Bezdek. "And it's led us well so far." The company hasn't ruled out an IPO but wouldn't comment on the specifics. "Like any private equity-backed company, we are looking for liquidity options," Hirsch shared in a statement. "We can only say we're considering options that a company in our situation would." If the company does go public, it now has some seasoned leadership in its ranks. This month it brought on a new CFO, Karsten Voermann, from wealth management firm Mercer Advisors, and a new president of health care, Bansi Nagji, who previously was the chief strategy officer at McKesson. Sky-high drug prices GoodRx is tapping into a very real and growing consumer need. The country spends more than $500 billion on prescription drugs each year, and that number is only set to increase despite regulatory scrutiny. Americans pay on average more than $1,200 for their medications per year, which is far higher than in any other developed nation. But when Hirsch first shared his idea, many experts told him to avoid the space completely, as incumbents in the drug supply chain often take aggressive steps against newcomers. For example, after Amazon made its first steps into the space by acquiring online pharmacy PillPack, CVS sued to stop an executive from jumping ship, and e-prescribing giant Surecripts called in the FBI to look into how PillPack was getting prescription information. GoodRx offers discount cards and coupons for consumers to take to the pharmacy, often to access a lower price. GoodRx But Hirsch ignored their advice, recalling that it irked him that he could never find any pricing information when he searched for commonly prescribed drugs, like Lipitor (Bezdek jokes that Hirsch is "cheap"). So the early team built a first version of the product by scraping prices from websites or calling pharmacies to ask for medication costs. Hirsch and his cofounders realized they were onto something when they started getting inundated with phone calls from doctors. It was a big frustration within the medical community that doctors couldn't answer the most basic questions from their patients about how much a drug would cost and whether there was a cheaper option available. Now, in many cases, they could check GoodRx. Nowadays, GoodRx offers a competitive price by looking across the various retailers, including Walmart, Costco and CVS. That price is often cheaper for the consumer than the cash price they'd be offered at the register, which is typically highly inflated. In theory, pharmacies will work with GoodRx because consumers will simply shop elsewhere if they're quoted a price that's too high. Hirsch said that a pharmacy executive once told him that the threshold where a consumer would pay out of pocket for a generic tended to hover around $25. As he explained, pharmacies are limited in how much they can bring a price down, because of their contractual obligations to insurers and other entities. PBMs also seem willing to work with GoodRx. The company struck its first deal with MedImpact in 2012. Through that relationship, GoodRx was able to tap into MedImpact's employees to figure out how drugs really got priced. Within six months a slew of other deals followed, and now it's working with many of the largest companies in the sector. If America as a country decided to keep all Americans healthy, and things were upfront and transparent, there would be no need for GoodRx. Doug Hirsch founder and co-CEO, GoodRx NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In-depth Analysis and Data-driven Insights on the Impact of COVID-19 Included in this Global Face Shield Market Report Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05915164/?utm_source=PRN The global face shield market by revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 12% during the period 20192025. The report provides market size & forecast in both revenue and volume. The global face shield market has been highly influenced by the increased demand from the construction industry. The increased stringency in implementing workplace safety solutions in several end-user industries has been a major factor contributing to the market growth. Awareness of several safety standards and regulations has led to an increase in demand for protective equipment, thereby impacting the demand for face shield products in the market. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is an important factor driving the market. Several government initiatives are implemented to avoid the spread or containment of the virus among individuals across the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has enforced hospitals to expand prevention and control measures such as hand protection & hygiene, visitor restrictions, along with the testing of employees, with universal masking solutions for Healthcare Professionals (HCPs). Hence, one of the most important needs is to focus on the introduction of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits for the usage against SARS-CoV-2 as per the guidelines given by governments and healthcare agencies. Part of PPE kit, such as face shields, offers full coverage to the face of the health professionals, thereby reducing the risk of self-contamination. The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the face shield market during the forecast period: Increasing Construction Activities Emergence of Stringent Regulatory Framework Advancements in Technology and Innovative Solutions Increasing Disease Outbreaks across the World The study considers the present scenario of the face shield market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The report offers both the demand and supply aspect of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent ones operating in the market. Face Shield Market Segmentation This research report includes a detailed segmentation by material, end-user, and geography. The growing investment in healthcare expenditure, along with the increasing number of innovative products is anticipated to boost the market growth. With the increasing number of COVID-19 patients, the demand for equipment such as face shields, disposable gloves, medical mask, N95 respirators, eye protection goggles, and disposable gowns to take care of patients and, keep the workforce safe and healthy is witnessing an exponentially surge in demand for personal protective equipment. Face shields used in the construction industry protect workers from irreversible facial disfigurements, which otherwise are expected to take place in case of flying debris or other types of projectiles. The construction industry is a crucial focus area for vendors to look at owing to the high demand for face shield solutions. Hence, construction sites pose risks of noteworthy injuries, particularly eye injuries or injuries from airborne debris; however, face shields in such situations play the most vital role in protecting the worker. The global construction industry is expected to reach $8 trillion by 2030, which is majorly driven by the US, China, and India; hence, the demand for face shields is likely to grow. The polycarbonate segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 13% from 20192025. Polycarbonate face shields are economical, safe, as well as effective to counter in case of direct spray protection from airborne droplets. These are being used in conjunction with the N95 or other grades of masks. Hence, polycarbonate replaceable clear shields offer increased safety to patients and health employees in hospitals, clinics, wards, and other healthcare facilities. Cellulose acetates are gaining a profound increase in demand for their usage in face shields. These sheets are widely being used in the application areas wherein, high rigidity and clarity are required. This includes its usage in the chemical industry in which a high optical clarity while dealing with various chemicals plays an utmost role. These are plant-based plastic, which is hypoallergenic. They offer higher impact resistance and withstand cracking or crazing at a wider range of temperatures. Segmentation by Material Polycarbonate Cellulose Acetate Segmentation by End-user Healthcare Construction Oil & Gas Chemical Manufacturing Others Insights By Geography North America is the largest face shield market, which accounted for a market share of over 32% in revenue in 2019. The United States holds a significant face shield market share, which can be attributed to the widespread usage in healthcare facilities, including a large number of nursing homes, hospitals, construction sites, and chemical laboratories in the region. With the rise in infectious diseases in the region, the need for protective gear and equipment in the region is expected to witness an increase. The expansion of the construction industry is expected to contribute to an increase in demand for protective equipment such as face shields that have profound usage among workers. In 2019, APAC accounted for a share of over 27% by unit shipments in 2019. APAC was led by China, which is also one of the significant markets for face shields. These products are profoundly used in the construction and mining sector to offer face and head protection to site workers from several safety hazards. Segmentation by Geography North America o US o Canada Europe o UK o Germany o France o Italy o Spain o Russia o Rest of Europe APAC o China o Japan o South Korea o Australia o India o Malaysia o Indonesia o Rest of APAC Latin America o Brazil o Mexico o Argentina o Rest of Latin America Middle East & Africa o South Africa o Saudi Arabia o UAE o Rest of Middle East & Africa Insights By Vendors The global face shield market share is highly concentrated currently, with several local and global players in the market. The competition is intense. The rapidly changing technological scenario can adversely affect vendors as customers expect continual innovations and upgrades in the face shield domain. One of the key strategies implemented by market players is the introduction of differentiated products and solutions. Hence, companies strive to offer differentiated channels for distribution and better product mix, thereby catering to the changing needs and requirements of the target customers. The key market players include The 3M Company, Honeywell International, and Key Surgical. Key players are offering and expanding their product line-up with the launch of various innovative techniques, thereby gaining an edge. Prominent Vendors The 3M Company Honeywell International Key Surgical Other Prominent Vendors Alpha Pro Tech ADVENTA Health Casco Bay Molding Dragerwerk AG DuPont Teijin Films Global Enterprise Jain Group Kapoor Plastics KARAM Kerma Medical Products Kimberly-Clark Lakeland Industries Medline Industries Metrex Research MSA Safety Nantong Runyue Plastic Products Owens & Minor Paulson Manufacturing Polison Corporation Precept Medical Products Prestige Ameritech Pyramex Quebee Safety Technologies Safewell Sanax Protective Products Udyogi Unique Safety Services Visipak WeProFab Other Custom Manufacturers Boson Machines Dana Limited Disc Makers Primera Plastics Mahindra & Mahindra Nike XPEL Key Questions Answered: What is the market size of global face shield market? What are the factors affecting the growth of the global market? Who are the leading vendors in global face shield market and what are their market shares? What is the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the global face shield market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05915164/?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 Johnson is speaker at Northern State event Monday U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson will speak at the grand opening of Northern State University's Center for Public History and Civic Engagement. The Aunt Jemima brand, acknowledging its racist past, will be retired Quaker Oats is retiring the more than 130-year-old Aunt Jemima brand and logo, acknowledging its origins are based on a racial stereotype. Breakfast just got slightly less racist and/or pundits from across the political spectrum earn a talking point for the news cycle.Read more:Moreover . . . ONE of Ireland's most notorious drugs gangs has divided into two factions, a major Garda investigation has revealed while hundreds of thousands in cash and deeds to a Dubai property were seized. The Keane and Collopy crime groups were today the targets of a significant operation involving some 170 gardai and the Army under Operation Coronation. Almost 70 homes were raided including a property linked to mobster Christy Keane (59), who survived an assassination attempt in 2015. Both mobs have been openly flaunting their proceeds of crime which led to the raids, involving the Cab, targeting their finances and money laundering operations. The gangs were once involved in a murderous feud with the McCarthy/Dundon faction in Limerick but are now operating as separate crime networks, Independent.ie has learned. More than 220,000 in cash was seized and bank accounts containing close to 180,000 were frozen during the operation involving local and national units across three counties. Gardai also arrested 14 people in the raids which sources said targeted the hierarchy of both gangs "from the top right down to the bottom." A senior source told Independent.ie: "This operation involving Limerick gardai and supported by several other regional and divisional units focused on the proceeds of crime being accumulated from drug dealing in the south-west and across Ireland. "Every known property or business linked to both of these factions was searched, from the people organising the drug dealing right down to the people stashing the cash and drugs. "The Keane and Collopy gangs once traded under one umbrella but are now operating independently and are benefiting lucratively from the drugs trade. However, there is nothing to suggest they are involved in a dispute with one another and have learnt from the McCarthy/Dundon gang to work without feuding and to generate profits from drugs," the source added. Due to the volatile nature of the mobs involved the elite Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and regional Armed Support Units (ASU) were required to breach the homes of some of the associates. Among the properties searched was the home of convicted drug dealer Christy Keane, considered the head of his gang, although he was not arrested during the operation. Approximately 220,000of cash in euros, sterling, UAE currency and old Irish punt as well as a car valued at 50,000 were seized. Deeds to a property in Dubai, 100,000 worth of jewellery and luxury watches, high value clothing items were recovered as well. Significant evidence to support the investigation including financial accounts and property documentation, two cocaine presses were also recovered while two bank accounts containing sums in excess of 119,000 were frozen. A Garda spokesman said: "As part of Operation Coronation, in excess of 170 members of Gardai from Limerick, Clare and Tipperary Divisions supported by the Criminal Assets Bureau, Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Emergency Response Unit, the Armed Response Unit and Regional Dog Unit carried out 67 searches at dwellings, businesses and land in Counties Limerick, Clare and Tipperary this morning at 6am. The operation was also supported by three teams of Irish Army Search Engineers, the Army EOD team and the Army Helicopter." Gardai arrested 13 men and one woman, of which three were arrested on suspicion of money laundering offences, one of whom was caught with around 120,000. One man was arrested after 2,000 of suspected crack cocaine and heroin were seized in one search, while another was held after 20,000 of cannabis was found. Six persons charged with offences under Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act and three were detained for outstanding warrants. Quaker Oates has announced that Aunt Jemima syrup and pancakes will be going through a rebrand, complete with a new name and image. To say this is a long-overdue move is like telling someone they should turn off the oven after the house has already burned down, but we're glad this change is happening anyway. Kristin Kroepfl, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Quaker Foods North America, said, "We recognize Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype." There might be some of you reading this that are wondering why this depiction of a black woman is so problematic. Well, it's not just that she's a black woman and if the ad above with the caption "lawsee" didn't make it clear enough, then we'll let this video explain: According to Riche Richardson, an associate professor at Cornell University, "It's an image that harkens back to the antebellum plantation ... Aunt Jemima is that kind of stereotype that is premised on this idea of Black inferiority and otherness." In fact, the very name Aunt Jemima came from an old minstrel song in "which white actors in blackface mocked and derided Black people." The character itself is based on "mammy ... a devoted and submissive servant who eagerly nurtured the children of her white master and mistress while neglecting her own." Scientists have hailed a cheap steroid as a "major breakthrough" in the fight against Covid-19 after it was found to reduce deaths by up to a third among patients suffering the worst effects of the virus. The mortality rate of those who end up on a ventilator is above 40pc, but this was reduced by a third among people prescribed the drug, called dexamethasone. More than 11,500 patients from 175 hospitals in Britain have been enrolled on the Recovery trial since it was set up in March to test a range of potential coronavirus treatments. In the dexamethasone study, 2,104 patients received 6mg of dexamethasone once a day by mouth or intravenous injection for 10 days. Their outcomes were compared with a control group of 4,321 patients. Over a 28-day period, the mortality rate among patients requiring ventilation was 41pc, and for those needing oxygen it was 25pc. Among those not requiring respiratory intervention the figure was 13pc. The study revealed the steroid reduced deaths by a third in ventilated patients and a fifth in people who needed oxygen. There was no change in deaths among patients who did not require respiratory support. The Recovery trial - which stands for Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY - was co-ordinated by scientists from the University of Oxford. Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the university's Nuffield Department of Medicine and one of the chief investigators for the trial, described it as "an extremely welcome result". "This is the only drug that has so far shown to reduce mortality, and it reduces it significantly. It is a major breakthrough, I think," he said. "Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide." Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, and another chief investigator, said: "Covid-19 is a global disease - it is fantastic that the first treatment demonstrated to reduce mortality is one that is instantly available and affordable worldwide. "It's been around for probably 60 years. "It costs in the order of 5... (5.50) for a complete course of treatment in the NHS, and substantially less - probably less than one dollar - in other parts of the world, for example in India." The results suggest the drug should immediately become standard care in patients with severe cases of the pandemic disease, said the researchers. "This is a result that shows that if patients who have Covid-19 and are on ventilators or are on oxygen are given dexamethasone, it will save lives, and it will do so at a remarkably low cost," said Prof Landray. "It's going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this." Nick Cammack, a expert on Covid-19 at the Wellcome Trust global health charity, said the findings would "transform the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on lives and economies across the world". "Countless lives will be saved globally," he said. A parallel trial involving malaria drug hydoxycholoroquine was abandoned after results showed it was "useless". Covid-19 has already killed more than 431,000 people globally. Police may use special stop-and-search powers as they try to calm tensions in Melbourne's west following a fatal attack on a 15-year-old boy outside a suburban shopping centre. Solomone Taufeulungaki was stabbed to death outside Brimbank Shopping Centre in Deer Park on Tuesday afternoon. It is alleged he was approached by a group of eight to 10 teenagers wielding knives and baseball bats about 4pm in a car park at the centre, opposite his family's church. Six boys, aged 13 to 16, have been charged with violent disorder and affray over the incident, but no one has been charged over the teenager's death. T he European Union will be "creative" to reach a trade deal with the UK but will not allow a "downward competition" in standards, Ursula von der Leyen has said. The European Commission chief told MEPs that the UK and EU should "advance together" towards higher standards. The UK is resisting the so-called "level playing field" demands because of concerns it could leave Britain tied to rules set by Brussels on issues including workers' rights, environmental protections and state subsidies. Updating the European Parliament after talks with Boris Johnson on Monday, the commission president said that the bulk of the work on a deal still needed to be done with time running out before the end-of-year deadline. European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, right, speaks with the British Prime Minister's Europe adviser David Frost during the start of the first round of post -Brexit trade talks between the EU and the UK / AP She said while the EU was open to extending the transition period beyond December 31 "it needs two to tango" and the UK had ruled it out. "This means that we are now half-way through these negotiations with five months left to go. "But we're definitely not half-way through the work to reach an agreement. "With little time ahead of us, we will do all in our power to reach an agreement, we will be constructive as we've always been and we're ready to be creative to find common ground where there even seems to be not." The major stumbling blocks to a deal include access to fishing waters, the level-playing field conditions and the role of the European Court of Justice. Michael Gove formally confirmed that the UK will not extend the Brexit transition last week / @michaelgove On the issue of the level-playing field, Ms von der Leyen told the European Parliament the issue was "fair" competition. "It cannot be a downward competition. "Just think of labour standards or environmental protection. "It should be a shared interest for the European Union and the UK to never slide backwards and always advance together towards higher standards. On fisheries, she said no one questioned the UK's sovereignty over its waters but "we ask for predictability, and we ask for guarantees for (EU) fisherman and fisherwomen who've been sailing in those waters for decades". And she said "we expect a role for the European Court of Justice where it matters" in the deal. The UK has accused the EU of seeking to impose conditions in the trade deal that it has not insisted on in other agreements. But the commission president said: "These are our objectives, not only in our discussions with the UK but in any relationship with any partner. "Because these are principles at the heart of the European Union - fair competition, rising social standards, the protection of our citizens and the rule of law. "This is who we are and it is not going to change." On Tuesday, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove told MPs at Westminster that the UK was "ready to be flexible" to reach a deal. The Prime Minister hopes an agreement can be struck by the end of July, with negotiators meeting weekly in the hope of a breakthrough. Launch of LNG terminal in Croatia opens up new opportunities for Ukrainian traders Makogon KYIV. June 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) The head of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) LLC, Serhiy Makogon, notes the growth of opportunities for Ukrainian gas traders against the background of the launch of the floating LNG terminal on the island of Krk in Croatia scheduled for early 2021. "Great news. Another LNG terminal will start operating near Ukraine. Ukrainian traders will be able to start purchasing and deliveries through Hungary," he said on Facebook. The launch of the floating LNG terminal on the island of Krk with a throughput of 2.6 billion cubic meters per year is scheduled for January 1, 2021. According to the terminal's website, the facility's capacity is fully booked for the next few years. So, for the 2020/2021 gas year, the total reserved capacity is 1.878 billion cubic meters, for 2021/2022 some 2.541 billion cubic meters, for 2022/2023 some 2.540 billion cubic meters, for 2023/2024 some 2.003 billion cubic meters, for 2024/2025 some 2.001 billion cubic meters, for 2025-2026 and 2026/2027 some 2.157 billion cubic meters each, for 2027/2028, 2028/2029 and 2029/2030 some 1.143 billion cubic meters each. Senior African leaders in the United Nations have expressed commitment to act decisively to help end systemic racism against people of African descent and other minority groups. This will help in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion as stipulated in Article One of the UN Charter. "As leaders in the multilateral system, we believe it is incumbent upon us to speak for those whose voices have been silenced, and advocate for effective responses that would contribute to fight systemic racism, a global scourge that has been perpetuated over centuries," the leaders said. A statement signed by 22 Senior UN officials and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Tuesday said African leaders must do more by walking the talk'. Not enough can ever be said about the deep trauma and inter-generational suffering that has resulted from the racial injustice perpetrated through centuries, particularly against people of African descent," it said. The statement quoted Mr Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as saying: We need to raise our voices against all expressions of racism and instances of racist behaviour. It welcomed the initiatives by the Secretary-General to strengthen the global anti-racism discourse, which would address systemic racism at all levels, as well as its impact wherever it exists, including the United Nations Organisation. It said following the killing of George Floyd, the cry; Black Lives Matter, across the United States and throughout the world was more than a slogan, stressing that they do not only matter but they are quintessential to the fulfilment of the common human dignity. "We owe it to George Floyd and to all victims of racial discrimination and police brutality to dismantle racist institutions." It called for an honest assessment of how the UN Charter was upheld within the institutions to initiate and sustain real change in the system. The statement called on African leaders to contribute towards the realization of Africas own transformative vision contained in the Agenda 2063, which was consistent with the worlds Agenda 2030. "As leaders we share the core beliefs and the values and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations that do not leave us the option to keep silent. We commit to harnessing our expertise, leadership and mandates to address the root causes and structural changes that must be implemented if we are to bring an end to racism". 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 [June 17, 2020] Bright Scholar Embarks on OMO Strategy and to Launch Virtual "Future Global School" FOSHAN, China, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited ("Bright Scholar" or the "Company") (NYSE:BEDU), a global premier education service company, today hosted an online press conference to announce the launch of its virtual "Future Global School" (the "School"), an online school focusing on international curriculums. Leveraging the rich offline international education resources of Bright Scholar, the "Future Global School" will adopt the Online-Merge-Offline (the "OMO") model for the international curriculum to create new learning experience for potential students around the globe. Students can take all or some classes online, and complete other classes and activities in physical schools within the Bright Scholar global network or physical schools of their choice. The online school aims to mirror the ethos of Bright Scholar schools via an interactive and intelligent Learning Management System to deliver high quality international curriculums including A-Level, Cambridge English for Young Learners, Cambridge English for General and Higher Education from September 2020, and will start AP and IB courses in the near future. Mr. Nelson Chen, the Future Global School's Principal, comments, "Our A-Level curriculum of the School are well suited for students in Grade 11 and Grade 12 whether they are current students of Bright Scholar schools or outside our school network. Uponcompletion of the courses, candidates will be eligible to participate in the official A-Level exam. They can eventually apply overseas universities with their A-Level results, school transcript and language test results." Mr. Jerry He, Executive Vice Chairman of Bright Scholar, comments, "Bright Scholar has been investing in digital innovation with focus on education technology in recent years. The launch of the virtual 'Future Global School' with OMO model represents a major milestone in utilizing technology to increase access to high quality education for international learners, ushering a new age of learning. The 'Future Global School' will significantly improve the learning experience of our students in the face of pandemic, and accelerate the sharing of knowledge, expertise, resources and teachers across our global network of schools." About Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited Bright Scholar is a global premier education service company, dedicated to providing quality international education to global students and equipping them with the critical academic foundation and skillsets necessary to succeed in the pursuit of higher education. Bright Scholar also complements its international offerings with Chinese government-mandated curriculum for students who wish to maintain the option of pursuing higher education in China. As of February 29, 2020, Bright Scholar operated 80 schools across ten provinces in China and eight schools overseas, covering the breadth of K-12 academic needs of its students. In the six months ended February 29, 2020, Bright Scholar had an average of 51,879 students enrolled at its schools. IR Contact: GCM Strategic Communications Email: [email protected] Media Contact: Email: [email protected] Phone: +86-757-6683-2507 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bright-scholar-embarks-on-omo-strategy-and-to-launch-virtual-future-global-school-301078532.html SOURCE Bright Scholar Education Holdings Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] CALGARYA lawyer for a man who killed a Calgary couple and their young grandson says the trial judge imposed a vengeful sentence, since his client will be 129 years old before he is eligible for parole. Douglas Garland was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 75 years after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in the slayings of Alvin and Kathy Liknes and five-year-old Nathan OBrien. The trial judge had ruled the automatic life sentence with a minimum 25 years before parole eligibility needed to be increased because of aggravating factors, including Nathans young age and Garland not expressing remorse. Garlands lawyers argued before the Alberta Court of Appeal on Tuesday that three consecutive parole ineligibilities is excessive and harsh. The primary sentencing rules here are denunciation, deterrence, moral blameworthiness and things of that nature. But just because this is a heinous crime doesnt mean that all these other principles dont get their due weight also, Kim Ross said. (The trial judge) says, Look, its not going to make any difference if Mr. Garland is 79 years of age at year 25, whether hes 104 at 50 or whether hes at 129 at 75 years. At the end of the day, in my respectful submission, what the learned sentencing judge did was essentially impose a vengeful sentence and basically said, It doesnt matter. The Appeal Court reserved its decision. Last year, it rejected Garlands appeal of his conviction. Prosecutor Christine Rideout said Tuesday that the trial judge examined all issues of the case before imposing the sentence. The issue becomes was it excessive and harsh in the circumstances of this case? she asked. This offender committed not just one first-degree murder. He committed three of them. And even within each of those first-degree murders, there was aggravating factors that even elevated the seriousness of those offences. The grandparents and the boy vanished after an estate sale at the couples home on June 29, 2014. Nathan had been there for a sleepover. Prosecutors believe the three were attacked at the home before they were taken to the Garland farm, north of Calgary, where they were killed. Their bodies were never recovered, but bone fragments, burned flesh and teeth were found in ash from a burning barrel on the property. The Crown had argued that Garlands anger over a dispute about a patent for an oilfield pump that he and Alvin Liknes had worked on together had built up to the point where he meticulously plotted the killings. Read more about: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- The libel conviction for the head of a Philippine news outlet known for its scrutiny of President Rodrigo Dutertes administration is a blow to one of Asias most vibrant media sectors. Its also the sort of headline thats often overlooked by foreign executives and fund managers casting around for fast-growing economies. They would be wrong to gloss over this one. Dutertes rule has already seen institutions eroded and top-level opponents targeted. If fewer questions are asked, that will reduce transparency and drive up the risk premium for investing in the Philippines. Thats something the coronavirus-weakened economy can ill afford when inbound investment is already falling. The case against Maria Ressa whose Rappler site has been directly denounced by the president and often critical of his war on drugs was always about more than the allegedly defamatory article on a local businessman, first published in 2012. The verdict, similarly, has ripples far beyond the online publication. Mondays conviction is no isolated incident. Ressa and her co-accused, Reynaldo Santos, were sentenced to as long as six years in jail, but she faces seven other criminal charges including for alleged tax evasion. Theres more. A month ago, the countrys largest broadcaster, ABS-CBN Corp., shut TV and radio stations after its license wasnt renewed a move repeatedly threatened by Duterte, reportedly because of a disagreement over paid election campaign commercials. Opponents elsewhere, from the human rights commission to the Supreme Court, have fared little better. Meanwhile, lawmakers passed an anti-terrorism bill this month that, while targeting a real problem, could also allow worryingly lengthy detentions without charge. The presidential spokesman says Duterte upholds free speech and played no role in the Ressa verdict. That should offer little comfort to investors, or to a local population facing the deepest economic contraction in decades. Indeed, it suggests weakened institutions are carrying out the presidents whims without needing to be told. The target is one of the countrys best-known journalists, at home and abroad. Ressa was honored by Time in 2018. With other governments behaving badly, there is little reason to hold back. Story continues To be clear, Duterte isnt the first occupant of the Malacanang presidential palace to castigate the press, or indeed other institutions, since the end of martial law in the 1980s. While free and outspoken by the regions standards, the Philippines has also had high rates of violence against journalists. The difference is in what Nicole Curato of the University of Canberra describes as the normalization of attacks on the press, and the sheer volume of vitriol released through spokespeople, political allies, and on social media. Worse, it is done with the language of democracy. At least in openly authoritarian states, as Ressa said Monday, the rules are clear. The economic context is grim. While the Philippines is young, promising and has been an outperformer in terms of headline expansion, its economy remains highly concentrated, unequal and opaque. Foreign direct investment and local stocks were fading even before the pandemic, despite infrastructure spending plans and tax reform efforts. After the coronavirus, an economy that had been projected to expand 7% this year will instead contract. Unemployment and underemployment are high and remittances, which account for about 10% of gross domestic product, have dropped. Ressas verdict brings more reasons for concern. The first is the increasingly arbitrary nature of the attacks, in part because of the disparate coalition behind Duterte vying for favor. This leaves investors vulnerable, says Aries Arugay, professor of political science at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Duterte triggered a more than $2 billion stock rout in December after targeting the Ayala family and another local businessman, demanding the renegotiation of contracts with two concessionaires, Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc., to supply the capital. Companies such as Fraport AG and Suez SA left the Philippines over just such disputes. While the old guard is under fire, a new, Duterte-friendly oligarchy is being created, tilting an already uneven playing field. Aaron Connelly, research fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, points to telecoms as an example of the change: Duterte ally Dennis Uy, with China Telecom Corp., won the countrys third telecoms license in 2018. Partner risk has always been a problem in Southeast Asia, but the shift away from Manila elites is making this less predictable. Lastly, theres the issue of transparency. The simple act of questioning authority, deals and negotiations is becoming more challenging. It could get worse still if, as Arugay posits, the current purge fosters the flourishing of partisan Duterte-friendly media. The Manila Times closed in 1999 after running afoul of then-President Joseph Estrada, only to be bought by one of his close associates. Dutertes enduring popular support, and a term that doesnt end until 2022, create room for plenty more lasting damage. Investors could do worse than to ponder Ressas words after her conviction: This is a precipice. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia. 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. 'During disengagement, you don't find violence.' 'And that, too, the killing of a commanding officer.' 'This indicates that this is more serious than previous incidents.' IMAGE: Indo Tibetan Border Police personnel and People's Liberation Army soldiers somewhere near the Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh sector in less combative times. Photograph: ANI Photo Peace across the Line of Actual Control with China has been shattered after 45 years of a violence-free border. The killings of 20 Indian soldiers on the Ladakh side of the India-China border on Monday night is a game-changer between the Asian rivals. The old paradigms stand demolished. A solution looks distant and India-China relations enter an era of instability and uncertainty. Dr Srikanth Kondapalli, the well-known China scholar, discusses India's options after the killings of Indian Army soldiers in the Galwan Valley with Sheela Bhatt and Aniruddh Sheth. The first of a two-part interview: What is your take on Monday's battle in the Galwan Valley? Well, in terms of Monday's incident in Galwan, with the deaths of 20 soldiers, in which one colonel, one JCO and many soldiers were killed in the most barbaric manner -- by stones, by clops, so very typical, medieval, way of killing -- is very serious. We did not see before such killing at the commanding officer level, colonel level. One Chinese colonel rank officer has died too. We have not seen such things happen before. According to reports on Chinese Web sites, between 45 and 50 Chinese soldiers have been killed. China never confirms its casualties. They didn't do it even in the 1962 War when they lost 1,800 plus soldiers. In 1967, in Jelep La, Cho La in Sikkim, we had two incidents where some 36 Indians were killed and some 400 Chinese were killed. Likewise in 1975 in Tulung La, Arunachal Pradesh, four Assam Rifles soldiers were killed by the Chinese. It happened in the Cold War period. We didn't have diplomatic relations at the time. Why the disruption of the status quo now? In the current incident, it is happening at a time of disengagement of troops. Generally, during disengagement, you don't find violence. And that too, the killing of a commanding officer. This indicates that this is more serious than previous incidents. What is the view from Beijing of the event? China's ministry of foreign affairs made a statement that India had escalated, India had unilaterally -- they used the word 'unilateral' -- escalated this position. Well, the official statement has been a subdued way of dealing with this. There was the report that Yang Jiechi (state councilor and a member of the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party) talked to the Indian side about the situation a few days ago. The thinking is that the central leadership is far away from what is happening here. It doesn't, of course, mean that the local military commanders do not have permission from Beijing. Although it was said that the theatre-level permission was sought by local commanders. Theatre-level is at Chengdu in Sichuan province, the western theatre level. So the thinking is that this is far away and this can be addressed. The Chinese thinking is that India is constructing a road closer to their perceived LAC. India could become dominant and this could possibly disturb China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects in the future. So the thinking is that this is not good for China and that it needs to oppose this and hence they came so far (the PLA entered Indian territory). And, how is New Delhi viewing it? According to one report, the Indian side was surprised because India is busy tackling the COVID-19 situation. So there was surprise and the old phrase of 'stabbing in the back' came up. Like in 1962. This is one expression that has come up in India. The feeling is back -- that China is not reliable, in terms of the summit-level meetings that happened between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jingping in Wuhan and Mahabalipuram in 2018 and 2019. So the agreements they arrived at are not really resulting in progress at the ground level. What are the options?/p> My reading is that there will be further de-escalation talks because nobody wants to escalate in this kind of situation. But then, there is another possible scenario. There is a pent-up feeling, on Monday night when this incident happened, that soldiers of that battalion (PLA battalion) went berserk and killed the other side. If that situation continues, which is quite possible, we may possibly see more violence. Because if you lose your commanding officer, the soldiers who served under him, they generally go on the offensive. Does China want de-escalation and peace at this particular border or not? Their foreign minister mentioning this meant that they want peace. They do not want escalation. Can we believe this? That depends on National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's call to the leadership. He is the special representative (at India-China border talks), he is also looking at overall security issues. It depends on him. We do not know, these are all classified. Is this crisis due to the dilution of Article 370? No, because Article 370, as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar mentioned, does not violate anybody else's borders. It does not violate any other country's position. Did Home Minister Amit Shah's statement in Parliament reasserting India's claim on Aksai Chin trigger this situation? No. Amit Shah's statement is to be given by any Indian leader who is in that position. Any Indian home minister will have to say this. Because Aksai Chin is disputed territory, it is not Chinese territory. China cannot claim it is their land. It is disputed territory. Is the tension between the US and China playing a role here? Some analysts do mention that this is one reason because India was among the 120 countries which endorsed a resolution at the WHO meeting on an impartial, independent and comprehensive inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. Some analysts say China was angry at this. It was more angry with Australia so it banned beef imports from there. 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 Two Cumbrian farmers are wanting to embrace new ideas to become more sustainable as their farm is the latest to join AHDBs Farm Excellence network. James Turner manages Brackenburgh Home Farm, an 800-hectare mixed farming enterprise, with trainee manager Henry Scholefield. Alongside the 300-hectare arable enterprise, the farm has a dairy unit, sheep, hill cattle and pigs. During the three-year programme, the farmers said they have an aim to embrace new advice and incentives to become more sustainable. They said they hoped to seek rewards from natural capital assets while also developing Henry into a strong successor to manage the business going forward. Farmers in Cumbria will now have the opportunity to discuss challenges and share expertise on topics that are of interest to the group. Topics to be covered by Brackenburgh Home Farm - which is now Penriths Monitor Farm - over the next three years include soil health, integrated pest management and succession. The programme will be invaluable for us and for the area as it will bring industry experts and specialists into Cumbria," Mr Turner said. As farmers, we need to balance running a sustainable enterprise with being a profitable food-producing farm and this programme will help us consider all aspects of our business. Local farmers should get involved because it is great for us to get together to share information and learnings. Michelle Nuttall, AHDB knowledge exchange manager for Cereals & Oilseeds, said the monitor farm network was a 'great way' for farmers to share ideas. Having the first monitor farm in Cumbria is particularly exciting as it will allow us to reach more farmers and help them develop their enterprises. Part of AHDBs Farm Excellence programme, monitor farms bring together groups of farmers interested in improving their businesses by sharing best practice around a nationwide network of host farms. Although there will not be any meetings at Penriths Monitor Farm in the short term due to coronavirus, Mr Turner and Mr Scholefield will be taking part in the NW & NI monitor farm summer meeting on 25 June. 17.06.2020 LISTEN A First Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Japan branch, Mr. Michael Awuah, has appealed to delegates to consider voting massively for Professor Tina Abrefa-Gyan in the upcoming NPP parliamentary primaries. According to him, besides women constituting more than 51 per cent of Ghana's population and she could mobilise more voters especially the floating ones for the party to win in the pending general election, the learned Professor has a proven record of improving the lives of people from all walks of life irrespective of your political affiliation. Mr. Awuah stated that the numerous social intervention programmes including building a cashew processing plant and stone querying to improve the economic fortunes of her constituents had impacted positively on the livelihoods of the vulnerable. In the area of education, Mr. Awuah noted that the parliamentary aspirant has established an education-ICT laboratory, offered scholarships, implemented after-School programs, and has offered supports to vocational training centres in her constituency. Furthermore, she has facilitated the enrolment of some students in tertiary educational institutions in Ghana and is in the process of helping some delegates to secure admission and scholarships in American universities for Ph.D. and Masters education. Mr. Awuah stated that there is no other candidate that have improved the lives of the constituency than Professor Tina Abrefa-Gyan. Other things that make her stand tall among her competitors the assistance she offering to improve our healthcare industry and sanitation, sporting facilities. She is also developing the Nchiraa waterfalls and a museum for the great Dr Abrefa Busia. As part of her social responsibility towards the constituency, she has plans to create a library facility within the traditional Council and help create the Queen mothers association for developmental purposes. And together with her team, they have already built a radio station, the Nana Drobo ICT centre, rural electrification for Asuofri in the Buoku electoral area. Mr. Awuah reiterated the need for the delegates to give the mandate to Professor Tina to pave the way for her and the NPP government to initiate better social programmes to help bridge the poverty gap. New Delhi: With the formation of a cyclonic circulation/ low-pressure system over West Bengal and neighbourhood on 19th /20th June and its movement towards southwest Uttar Pradesh, conditions are becoming favourable for further advancement of monsoon over west UP and rest of Northwest India, according to India Meteorological Department. Monsoon is likely to cover most parts of Northwest India during 21-25 June. It is likely to cover: 1. West Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand during 21-22 June; 2. North-east Rajasthan and eastern parts of Haryana and Delhi during 22-23 June; 3. HP, East Rajasthan, and Some parts of (west Rajasthan, Punjab, J&K) during 23-24 June. The National Weather Forecasting Centre/Regional Meteorological Centre, New Delhi of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the Northern Limit of Monsoon (NLM) continues to pass through Kandla, Ahmedabad, Indore, Raisen, Khajuraho, Fatehpur, and Bahraich, according to Ministry of Earth Science. It further said that a cyclonic circulation lies over East Uttar Pradesh and neighbourhood and extends up to 3.6 km above mean sea level. "A trough at mean sea level runs from central Pakistan to Bangladesh and extends up to 0.9 km above mean sea level. A cyclonic circulation lies over north Konkan and neighbourhood between 3.1 and 7.6 km above mean sea level. A shear zone at 3.1 km above mean sea level runs from Jharkhand to the cyclonic circulation over the Konkan region," said the statement. It further informed that "widespread rainfall activity very likely along the West Coast with isolated heavy to very heavy falls over coastal Karnataka on 17th and 21st June and over Konkan and Goa 17th and 18th and heavy falls over coastal Karnataka during 18-20th June and over Konkan and Goa during 19-21st June." Widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls very likely over Northeast, East, and adjoining Central India during the next 5 days. 1. Isolated to fairly widespread rainfall with isolated thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds very likely over the Western Himalayan Region and plains of northwest India during 19th-21st June. 2. Heatwave to severe heatwave conditions over West Rajasthan and heatwave conditions over East Rajasthan and Punjab during the next 2-3 days. Monsoon likely to reach Delhi by June 22-23 Meanwhile, India Meteorological Department (IMD) today said that the monsoon is likely to reach the national capital three to four days earlier than the usual date of June 27. Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre of the IMD, told PTI that a cyclonic circulation over West Bengal and the neighbourhood will move towards southwest Uttar Pradesh by June 19 and June 20. "It will help in further advancement of the monsoon in west Uttar Pradesh, some parts of Uttarakhand, northeast Rajasthan and eastern Haryana between June 22 and June 24," he was quoted as saying. The IMD has predicted normal rainfall (103 per cent) for northwest India this year. The former Atlanta police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks in the back after he resisted arrest and ran off outside a Wendys fast-food restaurant will be charged with felony murder, according to a Georgia district attorney. Garrett Rolfe, 27, a white officer, was terminated within 24 hours of firing his handgun at Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man. He faces 11 charges in total, including multiple counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violation of oath by an officer. The maximum sentence for murder in Georgia is life in prison without parole or the death penalty. Mr. Brooks never presented himself as a threat, said Paul Howard, the Fulton County district attorney. Not only was Brooks calm and cordial before Rolfe sought to arrest him, Howard said, but Rolfe did not inform him that he was under arrest for driving under the influence. In firing a taser at Brooks while he was running away, Howard said Rolfe violated the departments standard of practices, which prohibits officers from firing tasers at someone running away. You certainly can't fire a handgun at someone who is running away, Howard said. Rolfe and the other officer on the scene, Devin Brosnan, did not provide Brooks with timely medical attention after the shooting. And Rolfe actually kicked Brooks while he lay on the ground "fighting for his life," Howard said, while Brosnan stood on Brooks' shoulder. "I felt everything that he felt just by hearing what he went through," Brooks' widow, Tomika Miller, said at a news conference with her attorneys. "It hurt," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. "It hurt really bad." Howard, who is African American and running for reelection this year, said his office interviewed at least 10 witnesses and reviewed body camera and dashboard camera footage, surveillance video and citizens' cellphone videos before deciding to bring charges. Brosnan, who Howard said has agreed to become a cooperating witness for the state, is being charged with aggravated assault for standing on Brooks shoulder and two violations of his oath, for standing on Brooks shoulder and failure to render timely medical aid. Howard is recommending a bond of $50,000 for Brosnan and no bond for Rolfe. Story continues Howard said Brosnan is the first officer in Fulton County he can remember testifying against a fellow officer. However, after the news conference, Brosnans attorney, Donald Samuel, disputed the idea that Brosnan had agreed to be a state witness or admitted doing anything wrong. Its absolutely untrue, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The decision to initiate charges by the Fulton County D.A.s office is irrational, unethical and obviously based on factors which should have nothing to do with the proper administration of justice, he said in a statement. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, meanwhile, posted a pointed statement on Twitter noting that it was still in the process of investigating. Although we have made significant progress in the case, we have not completed our work, the statement said. The GBI was not aware of todays press conference before it was conducted. We were not consulted on the charges filed by the district attorney. Despite todays occurrence, the GBI will complete its mission of completing an impartial and thorough investigation of this incident and we will submit the file, once completed, to the Fulton County district attorney's office. The shooting sparked protests across Atlanta last weekend after weeks of nationwide anger over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the nations long history of police brutality against Blacks. Within hours of Brooks death, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the resignation of the citys police chief, Erika Shields. Protesters shut down lanes of a major interstate in downtown Atlanta and faced off with police in riot gear. By the end of the night, the Wendys had burned to the ground. The attorneys who represent Rolfe released a statement shortly before the news conference, saying that Brooks death was tragic, but that Rolfes actions were justified because he had feared for his safety and the safety of civilians. Mr. Brooks violently attacked two officers and disarmed one of them, the LoRusso Law Firm said in a statement. When Mr. Brooks turned and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe, any officer would have reasonably believed that he intended to disarm, disable or seriously injure him. Atlanta Police Officer Devin Bronsan, left, is cooperating with prosecutors. His partner, former Officer Garrett Rolfe, right, is facing murder charges in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks. (Atlanta Police Department) According to a disciplinary history report released by the Atlanta Police Department, Rolfe was reprimanded in 2017 for use of force involving a firearm. It was his only previous use-of-force complaint in his 6 years with the department, although he had faced multiple reports of vehicle accidents, citizen complaints and a firearm discharge. The incident began just after 10:30 p.m. Friday, when Rolfe and Brosnan were dispatched to the Wendys a few miles south of downtown to investigate a complaint that a man had fallen asleep in the drive-through line. The encounter was initially peaceful. Police body cam footage showed that Brooks complied with Brosnans request to move his car from the drive-through line to a parking spot and agreed when Rolfe asked him to take a sobriety test. But after he failed the test, he appeared to resist when Rolfe tried to handcuff him. The witness video shows Brooks wrestling with the officers on the ground. During the struggle, he appears to grab Brosnans Taser and punch Rolfe. Rolfe fires his Taser at Brooks, who then breaks free and runs away across the parking lot. Rolfe gives chase and Brosnan follows. Surveillance camera footage from the Wendys shows Rolfe pass his Taser from his right hand to his left as he runs and then reaches for his handgun. Brooks keeps running, glancing behind him and appearing to fire the Taser in Rolfes direction. Rolfe fires his handgun three times at Brooks as he runs away. On Sunday, the Fulton County Medical Examiners Office declared Brooks death a homicide, saying he had two gunshot wounds in the back that resulted in organ injuries and blood loss. On Monday, Mayor Bottoms described the killing as a "murder as she announced a series of immediate reforms in police use-of-force policies that would require officers to employ deescalation techniques and use only the amount of objectively reasonable force necessary to successfully protect themselves or others" or "to bring an incident under control. Officers, she said, will also be duty-bound to intercede when they see fellow officers apply unreasonable force. It is clear that we do not have another day, another minute, another hour to waste, she said. Some in law enforcement have argued that the officers' conduct in the case is more ambiguous than in the George Floyd case because Brooks resisted arrest, grabbed an officers Taser and then fled, turning around at one point to deploy the Taser. In Minneapolis, Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes when he was handcuffed and already restrained by multiple officers. According to Georgia law, a person is justified in using deadly force only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to himself or herself or a third person. Vincent Champion, Southeast regional director of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents more than 1,100 Atlanta officers, said police officers in Atlanta agreed that the killing of George Floyd was a crime. The police departments and officers that I represent, not one has said what happened to Mr. Floyd was just. It was a crime. And that officer deserves any and everything that he gets. We don't train that way. Champion said he worried that the Atlanta officers were not getting due process and the charges in the Brooks case seemed politically motivated. He noted that Howard recently charged four officers with aggravated assault after a viral video showed a group of officers shattering the windows of a sedan and Tasing two Black college students inside. The D.A. says a Tasers a deadly weapon, he said. Well, then it was a deadly weapon when Mr. Brooks pointed it at a police officer. After the conference, L. Chris Stewart, an attorney for the Brooks family, said no one was celebrating the fact that Howard had brought charges against both officers. Is this justice today? Not yet, he said It was more heartache that families have to go through this and fight ... to try and get justice for a man that was shot in the back twice. But we do thank everybody in this country for the outpouring of support. Maybe one day this country will get right with policing. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Hong Kong, already grappling with tightened policing to rein in widespread protests that followed last year's proposed extradition bill, is now bracing for the prospect of stricter digital controls -- ones that would curtail free speech, communications and the ability to organize and turn the city of 7 million into a surveillance state that more closely resembles China. In recent years, law enforcement has deployed tens of thousands of closed-circuit television cameras in Hong Kong's streets and shopping malls, used broad warrants to crack into the mobile phones of protesters, and deployed facial recognition software that can identify activists in massive crowds. Now, residents and activists worry that proposed national security legislation will further encroach on civil liberties, as part of a continuing effort by Beijing to exert its influence over the former British colony. Residents have already watched with concern past efforts to curb online speech. A similar bill proposed and later withdrawn in 2003 would have punished those who published seditious material with up to seven years in prison. There are few details of what is in this imminent legislation, which Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in a statement last month would "only target acts of secession, subverting state power and organizing and carrying out terrorist activities." Expected to be passed in the coming weeks, it would also outlaw foreign interference in Hong Kong's affairs. Asked if the legislation would bring China's Great Firewall with it, a spokesperson for the government said: "All the basic rights and freedoms legitimately enjoyed by Hong Kong residents will remain intact. The vast majority of Hong Kong people who abide by the law and do not participate in acts or activities that undermine national security will not be affected." But Hong Kong's head of security, John Lee, presented a more ominous view. Beijing's security ministries are expected to be involved in a new agency that would be set up once the new legislation was in place, Lee told the South China Morning Post. Mainland agencies would operate in Hong Kong "when needed," he said, suggesting changes to constitutional curbs on interference by Chinese entities. In a financial hub used to relative freedom, protesters and privacy advocates fear they will soon face the kind of restrictions that are the norm in China. There, the Great Firewall blocks Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and many of the other means Hong Kongers use to communicate and organize with one another online. On the mainland, state-sanctioned apps such as WeChat and Baidu are regularly monitored, and automated systems detect keywords the Chinese government has banned from use in online discussions, along with any images that might also break its rules. There is no such censorship in Hong Kong. An unchecked internet benefits businesses and finance professionals using social media as much as it does activists organizing protests. A firewall similar to that in the mainland would cut access to most foreign news outlets, most foreign websites and messaging apps. News websites would be state-approved and subject to censorship. Online forums and messaging apps would be monitored. And Beijing-style digital controls could stop Hong Kong protesters and other activists from using the very digital tools that have helped them organize. In late May, Beijing's National People's Congress passed a resolution authorizing its top leadership committee to draft the actual legislation that Hong Kong's government would have to enact. A Chinese official declined to answer questions from Bloomberg News on whether China would extend its ban on websites and apps from the mainland to Hong Kong with the new legislation. "This is a very specific question to ask. Specific legislation has not come out," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Thursday. During the regular daily briefing she told reporters, "I want to make one point very clear, that is, the national security legislation for Hong Kong targets a small number of acts that seriously jeopardize national security."James Griffiths, a journalist and author of "The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet,'' said it was possible for China to impose a partial digital blackout on the territory. "Hong Kong is ultimately a very small place. You could feasibly send internet companies cease and desist letters, and ask them to block certain websites," he said. China has eight of the ten most surveilled cities in the world, according to a study by Comparitech that compared the number of closed-circuit television cameras to 1,000 people. In places like the restive province of Xinjiang where over 1 million people of ethnic Uighur origin were at one time or another said to be held in detention camps, authorities have the ability to stop people without warrants and look at their phones. Charles Mok, a member of the Legislative Council who represents the information technology constituency, said he has asked Hong Kong's security services for information on whether methods currently used in mainland China are now being deployed in the territory. His efforts to find out how many surveillance cameras were in use met with different responses: One Hong Kong security official told him the government didn't maintain those statistics, while another government official said there were tens of thousands of cameras in public squares, borders, shopping malls and housing estates. Andy Chan, under secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, told Mok in a November letter that facial recognition technology might be used by law enforcement as part of an investigation "through established procedures if it is legally feasible," but "will not be excessive." Chan wrote that personal privacy would be respected during an investigation but declined to answer many of Mok's questions "lest it should compromise the police's technologies and capabilities" to do their work. Protesters have fought back against additional surveillance measures. They've damaged dozens of so-called smart lampposts installed across the city that authorities say are meant to collect weather and traffic data; demonstrators fear they will soon also sport cameras and facial recognition technology. And before the coronavirus was even a whisper, protesters routinely wore face masks or brandished umbrellas to thwart street cameras from recording and possibly identifying them. (Protesters have said that once identified, they have been intimidated by authorities for attending rallies and even lost jobs). They've used LIHKG, which is often likened to Hong Kong's version of Reddit, to anonymously post opinions on current events, and to plan protests and online campaigns - an online forum that could come under scrutiny from authorities once that legislation is in force. Some residents of Hong Kong aren't waiting to see what happens with the national security legislation. After news of the pending rules broke, people in Hong Kong rushed to download virtual private network apps that are banned in the mainland. VPN software can allow users access to the internet that isn't censored by the government. NordVPN said it received 120 times more downloads on the day Beijing signaled plans to usher in the new national security legislation than on the day before. It was a tactic shared by protesters that dates back to the Arab Spring in 2011, when people in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere used VPN software to access foreign websites detailing the misdeeds of longstanding rulers, or publish content that would have earned them imprisonment at home, said Roderick Jones, president of cybersecurity firm Rubica. "It's not just about security. It's about information," he said. "There's very strong arguments for people using VPNs wherever they are. If you're an activist you should think that way, but any normal person should also just use a VPN." Activists like Joshua Wong said he is concerned that any new national security legislation will only exacerbate police overreach. He was arrested last summer on charges including "organizing unauthorized assembly," and his mobile phone was among others seized and searched by law enforcement using technology that allowed them to crack his passcode. According to a police statement detailing the investigation, and Wong's application to Hong Kong's High Court to have the warrants declared unlawful, hundreds of messages on Telegram and WhatsApp were accessed and collected by police. Once the new laws are in place, Wong fears that participating in a protest could land him in front of Communist Party-approved judges in the mainland, instead of the independent judiciary Hong Kong is known for. "They might target me, I might be arrested and prosecuted but not in Hong Kong, in China," he said in an interview. "Never say never under the hard-line crackdown of Beijing." In an open letter Wednesday, Amnesty International urged the leadership committee of the NPC to drop the proposed legislation. "Although China has revealed few concrete details about the national security law, everything we know about it so far suggests it will threaten the basic rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong," the organization wrote in a letter penned with more than 80 other rights groups. In 2015, Dave Chappelle dropped into a small comedy club in Brooklyn unannounced. Kenny DeForest, one of the hosts, asked if Chappelle would like to do a set. We start the show thinking he MIGHT come. A couple comics in, he sneaks in like a boxer with his hood up. We're in the green room smoking, drinking & joking. The dude is a machine. Every topic that came up, he had something profound for. We bring him up last, the crowd LOSES IT -- Kenny DeForest (@KennyDeForest) June 3, 2020 Since it was not a formal appearance, Chappelle asked the crowd for headlines he could riff on. As DeForest says, "Every topic, he had a perfect joke for." Then someone suggested the topic "police brutality." A clearly privileged white girl (she had a wide brimmed felt hat for chrissakes) shouts "Life's hard, sorry 'bout it!" and it takes the air completely out of the room. A collective gasp. Chappelle zeros in on her. "What did you say?" She repeats it. Chappelle starts going in. -- Kenny DeForest (@KennyDeForest) June 3, 2020 As DeForest recounts, Chappelle "started educating people on the history of black people and police." Rodney King. The Watts riots. Emmett Till. Trayvon Martin. And John Crawford III, a black man who was shot by a white police officer in a WalMart near Dayton, Ohio, while holding a BB gun he had picked up from the store's shelves while shopping. (A grand jury later decided not to indict the police officer.) Chappelle then told a story about getting pulled over while driving in Ohio, where he lives. As Chappelle put it, "I may be white on paper, but I'm still black. So I'm nervous." The officer turned out to be the same officer who would later shoot John Crawford III. 'I know who you are Dave Chappelle' & I said 'so why do you need my license and registration?'" He gets off w/ a warning. The twist? The same cop would go on to murder John Crawford III. His take away: "I shouldn't have to be Dave Chappelle to survive police encounters" -- Kenny DeForest (@KennyDeForest) June 3, 2020 Chappelle then spoke about a South African friend who said that just before apartheid ended, the movement had hit a critical mass. "There was nothing they could do to stop it," Chappelle said. "Once enough of you care, there will be nothing they can do to stop the change." But that's not the end of the story. The young woman who shouted "Life's hard, sorry 'bout it!" came backstage to see Chappelle. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what I said," she told him, "and thank you for educating me. I was ignorant before, but I want you to know I learned from you tonight and I won't say things like that anymore." How did Chappelle respond? ...you said, it's your job to correct them and share with them what you learned tonight. THEN, you're no longer part of the problem, you're part of the solution." She starts crying and he pulls her in for hug "it's ok. You're part of the solution now. Do you want a picture?" -- Kenny DeForest (@KennyDeForest) June 3, 2020 The young woman is shocked. And thrilled. They take photos. They exchange hugs. As DeForest says, "He changed everyone in that room that night. 200-plus people became part of the solution... even a privileged girl in a privileged hat with a privileged mindset. Point is, it doesn't matter what you thought before. You can always change." When someone does or says something you don't agree with, it's easy to forever see that person through the lens of that moment. The customer who gets belligerent. The employee who criticizes your decisions. The vendor who treats one of your employees inappropriately. You could get mad. You could lash out. Or you could calmly state your position. And then, if your words make an impact, act with kindness and empathy. As Inc. colleague Justin Bariso writes, "Empathy doesn't necessarily mean agreeing with another person's point of view. Rather, it's about striving to understand, which allows you to build deeper, more connected relationships." Change of any kind starts with understanding -- and especially with understanding that everyone has the capacity to learn, and grow. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Wildfires broke out in southwestern Iran during the last week of May and clawed their path up north and west, spreading across much of the Zagros Mountains and leaving behind a trail of irreparable destruction to the already endangered environment. The flames have died down, but there is a heated debate among Iranians about the wildfires. Were they a natural disaster or the result of arson? Who is to blame for the government's slow response? What are the implications for the Iranian environment? And what could be done in the future to avert such a blow? The Khaeez protected area in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province was identified as the origin of the fires. Officials in the province announced that the initial flames were ignited by one of two local farmers engaged in a land dispute. The two, according to a local activist, were in custody no longer than one day. But the fires, fanned by typical seasonal winds of the mountainous area, grew faster than expected, ravaging the green ranges and burning to death an unspecified portion of the wild population. Photos and videos quickly went viral of the threatened animals, including of partridge chickens desperately seeking shelter under rocks. Emotional calls from citizens and environmental activists to do something before the mountain inherited from our ancestors dies in the fire were shared on social media in an attempt to prompt timely action from the central government. Local activists, some of had worked to extinguish the fires nearly barehanded, called for an institutional response, including the use of helicopters and air tankers. Mohammad Dasmeh, who has been involved in volunteer work as the secretary of a local nongovernmental organization and is an environmental lawyer in Khuzestan province, complained that no such helicopters were dispatched to the fire sites despite all the distress calls for several days. He blamed this on the incompetence of officials who stood by at a time activists needed fans and fire flappers to put out the flames. Under Iran's laws, the countrys Defense Ministry and other armed forces are obliged to come to the rescue of the Forests Organization, affiliated to the Agriculture Ministry, at times of all disasters, including wildfires. Based on an earlier agreement, helicopters are required to be on standby in 16 designated stations to respond at any moment. In the recent fires, however, a financial dispute between the Defense Ministry and the Forests Organization is widely believed to have hindered a workable response. According to Masoud Mansour, the head of the Forests Organization, the Defense Ministry refused to dispatch its firefighting helicopters because the department had failed to pay off its accumulated debts of 300 billion rials (approximately $1.7 million calculated on the free market exchange rate). Calls from activists to prioritize a rescue plan, therefore, remained unheard in the raucous blame game and amid bureaucratic hurdles. After dayslong exchanges, the Planning and Budget Organization, as the higher authority allocating each government institution their share of the state budget, intervened by agreeing to shoulder half the amount owed by the Forests Organization. The move, nevertheless, was seen as too little, too late to handle a crisis of that magnitude. The amount, an environmental journalist reminded everyone, was the value of a fancy apartment building in Tehrans affluent north and just another indication of the little importance Iranian officials attach to environment protection. For years, those activists have lamented that environment institutions are kept underfunded due to the official mindset, which typically has too many other sectors to prioritize. Thousands of hectares of forests were burned in eight provinces along the Zagros range, which supplies 40% of Irans water demand and is a habitat for diverse wildlife, including at least 240 species of mammals, such as the rare and endangered Persian leopard, 200 bird types and 39 reptiles. There also were reports about fires in several large parks and resort areas at locations disconnected from the Zagros Mountains. Iranian experts have warned that the damage could be irreparable: It could take up to 80 years for the eroded soil and its lost organic matter to be revived, and half a century for the oak trees to thrive again, not to mention the vegetation barrier. The fires could also have a negative effect on water resources, which are fast dwindling in Iran. As the smoke from the latest wildfires disappears, Iranian environmentalists worry that its only a matter of time before another domino-style wildfire returns with even greater magnitude. For years, the first responders to such disasters have been volunteers battling the unequal war by themselves. One of them, Alborz Zarei, has been receiving treatment at the intensive care unit of a hospital in the central city of Isfahan after suffering severe burns putting out the fires near Khaeez. Part of the problem is that many people who fight for the environment have repeatedly faced accusations of advancing a political agenda under the guise of protecting nature. Over the years, volunteers, activists, NGOs and even employees working for the government-affiliated environment institutions have been closely watched by the security and intelligence apparatuses through a lens of suspicion. A number of well-educated and prominent environmentalists were arrested in 2018. At least eight are still languishing in prison on suspicion of espionage and other political charges. One of them, Kaveh Madani, had returned to Iran in 2017 at the governments invitation to serve as the deputy head of the Department for Environment. His mission to find a remedy for Irans water crisis remains woefully incomplete. He did, however, manage to leave the country while temporarily released on bail. Currently a senior fellow at Yale and a visiting professor at the London Imperial College, Madani, addressing the recent wildfires, relentlessly criticized Iranian authorities he said were doing nothing and sitting idly by as mere onlookers. The aggressive face-off could have been avoided if the higher level agreement was followed by the Chinese side, said India. Indian intercepts reveal that Chinese side suffered 43 casualties including dead and seriously injured in the violent face-off in Ladakhs Galwan valley, sources confirmed to ANI. The violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on Tuesday. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the violent face-off, government sources said and added that the casualty numbers could rise. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said earlier in the day that both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. Read also: Punjab CM urges Centre to take action against Chinese incursions Read also: Army men in double digits martyred in violent face-off with Chinese army men at Galwan, some reportedly missing: Sources Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held two review meetings over developments in Eastern Ladakh during the day. Read also: At least 20 Indian soldiers martyred in India-China face-off in Galwan Valley For all the latest National News, download NewsX App The Perspective Atlanta, Georgia June 17, 2020 Derek Chauvin Murdering George Floyd Last week I posted something on the linkages between racism, colonialism, and slavery and few people asked me to elaborate. My post was related to the murder of George Floyd, the protests, and discussions on de-funding the police. Police brutality is an instrument of racist policies, instituted to protect a certain status quo, a world order, that rationalized the domination and exploitation of certain people by another group of people . Racism did not exist as a social construct and action before slavery and colonization. Racial differences did not become an issue until colonizers sought justification for their subjection of Africa. It started with the transatlantic slave trade. Slave owners could only explain (to themselves and convince slaves) their treatment of other human beings by creating and propagating a concept that dehumanizes slaves. The guilt of slavery could only be washed away with the notion that slaves were lesser humans. This happened in 18th century Europe and America when certain literature mixed with religious references created the persona of savage. Racism did not create slavery, just the opposite. Redeem lost soul and instilling civilization in savages justified any extremes. After the slave trade took away millions of Africas youths to America, Europe easily conquered the continent and took it over in totality. Forced labor, land grab, military conscription, and slave treatment were justified by the colonial concept that Africans were inferior human beings, who needed to be civilized. Colonization was presented as a humanitarian mission, to redeem Africans. Europeans were the power and knowledge and Africa provided cheap labor and natural resources. This could only be justified by using race as a differentiator. Either brainwashed by religion or forcefully subject by the guns, Africans became possessions of Europe. Like Black Americans, hundreds of thousands of Africans died in European wars, defending Europeans freedom but where denied the same freedom in their own countries. Racism may have started in America, but it has come to define global relations. The darker the skin color of a person in 2020, the more likely that s/he is from a poor, mismanaged, and exploited country or area and vice versa. Africa became independent but remained clustered in the colonial narrative. The independent nations tried to morph into copycats of the colonizers and embarked on a self-defeating search of development. Independence freed the colonizers of the burden of the cost of administering the colonies, however, it did not end the exploitation. Just like the civil rights in the US, independence on the continent did not lead to freedom from poverty, exploitation, and dependency. Racism is not a genetic human trait; it is cultivated and maintained to ensure the survival of a socio-economic order. It becomes more effective when the victims become active participants in their subjugation. Africa became independent but never gained control of its economy, Blacks in America, like Africans, attained all their civil rights but when it comes to wealth, the reality is different. Africa created a political bureaucracy that takes its cues from former colonial masters while in America, the civil rights movement joined mainstream politics. In both cases, leaders took their eyes off the ball. For the past 500 years, Europe and Africa have been in contact, while Europe created wealth, Africa sunk into poverty. While democracy is taking hold on the continent, leaders find themselves at the head of bankrupt states, which had been mismanaged and exploited for decades. The concept of development the apex of an ideological hoax. By accepting to be defined as under-developed Africans put themselves in a human sub-category. There is no reference to racial differences in any literature, religious or secular in Europe prior to the slave trade and colonialism. With the Bible and the theories of evolution [Charles Darwin, etc.] that flourished in the centuries of colonization, it was easy to scale Africans down to the lowest level of humanity. Police brutality is a by-product of racism and racism is the ideological and moral justification for a social and economic order deriving from slavery and colonialism. The changes that are needed to stop police brutality must start with redefining the mission of the police; educating both the police and the population about social protection and responsibility, and teach police about fairness and transparency in dealing with human beings. So many bad apples cannot just be accidental. Police brutality can only end if viewed in the global context of the social structures that led to it. Racism, as a by-product of the slave trade and colonialism, will disappear with social and economic justice. Moving forward will require three things: a sustained engagement of Non-black actors in the protest movement; beyond street protests, an education campaign targeting young people, tomorrows leaders; and globally, a transatlantic dialogue between Africans on the continent and the Diaspora, not limited to political discourse as in 1950 to 1960s, but also involving scholarship and economic cooperation. Short of serious and sustained engagement and strategy, racism will continue, and reformists will put in place few-crowd pleasing cosmetic measures. Ending racism will end a certain power structure, therefore it will face enormous resistance, conscious or subconscious. ANN ARBOR, MI - Lisa Jackson, chairwoman of the citys Independent Community Police Oversight Commission, was blunt Tuesday night: Shes disappointed in Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor. In an outdoor meeting June 16 at the Kerrytown Farmers Market, the commission discussed Taylors resolution for it to lead an in-depth, multi-stakeholder and data-driven review of public safety services. City Council voted 8-3 at its June 15 meeting to have the commission review the resolution prior to city approval. Jacksons disappointment? She doesnt think Taylor understands what the commission does. The resolution asks us to do things we already do, she told a crowd of a few dozen residents, as well as a handful of City Council members. Thus, it means that the mayor, who wrote the resolution, has no idea what we do. The commission voted unanimously to schedule a special work session to revise Taylors resolution and send it back to City Council at a later date. Council Members Ali Ramlawi and Jane Lumm, liaisons to the commission, were joined by Council Members Jack Eaton, Elizabeth Nelson, Kathy Griswold and Anne Bannister in attendance. Jackson noted that none of the drafters of the resolution, including Taylor and Council Members Julie Grand and Zachary Ackerman, attended Tuesdays meeting. (Note: Ackerman told MLive he was at the meeting for an hour before attending a Planning Commission meeting.) Taylor apologized to Jackson at Mondays meeting for stumbling in how he brought the resolution to Jackson for review. We encourage City Council members who are unfamiliar with our work to come to our meetings to talk to us as a body to what we do, she said. Weve got a long way to go: Police oversight chair seeks review of all complaints against officers Another of the commissions concerns is that the resolution doesnt guarantee the commission leverage to affect change. I dont know what the power behind it is, said Commissioner Jude Walton. I dont know whats different. Jackson proposed several changes to Ann Arbor public safety at the meeting, much of which echoed suggestions made publicly by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. An example, she said, is seeing the names of officers named in complaints. One of the things we have consistently asked for is the ability to see police names, she said. We know way too many names of people who have been killed and I dont know any police names. That is not to say we want to publish them...but the police oversight commission needs to know that if 20 complaints come across our desk, was it the same guy 20 times or 20 different guys. Council voted unanimously to OK a separate resolution from Nelson calling for state policy changes to grant civilian oversight commissions access to restricted Law Enforcement Information Network records and allow more oversight of police. Ann Arbor officials want to radically rethink policing, consider alternatives to armed officers When opened up to public comment, residents at Tuesdays meeting expressed ideas ranging from defunding or reallocating funds from the police department, to harsher negotiations with the Ann Arbor Police Officer Association in its collective bargaining agreement. Farooq Azizuddin, a former member of the Detroit Black Panther Party, suggested more community-led programs that take enforcement out of the hands of police departments. It wouldnt just be police that respond, it would be a Community Emergency Response Teams trained by emergency personnel," he said. Those are the kinds of programs that we need to look at very seriously if we want to take control of our community. When one resident asked a question about union contracts, Lumm said that everything is pretty much on the table, including limiting the contract to just one year. We dont know if were going to bring it back to council in July, but we know further negotiations are ongoing," she said. The commission also approved a resolution asking that it be able to speak to City Council at the first meeting of every month, as well as renominate Jackson and Frances Todoro-Hargreaves as chair and vice-chair, respectively. Before adjourning, Commissioner Mashod Evans gave advice to residents looking to reform city police policy. Keep showing up, because the systems of oppression and the power and the dominant culture is just waiting some of us out. In three months or six months, this is all going to die down. How do you help do the work that we do? Keep. Showing. Up." MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS: Ann Arbor ends state of emergency, but officials caution pandemic isnt over Ann Arbor police to walk with George Floyd, police brutality protesters Ann Arbor officials propose review of $30M police budget, more citizen oversight of policing [June 17, 2020] ENGIE North America Fast-Tracks Installation of Free Wi-Fi on School Buses to Support Distance Learning for California School Districts ENGIE North America today announced that it has rolled out a connectivity solutions pilot to provide four California school districts Wi-Fi-enabled school buses to serve students and their families. ENGIE's 'Student Wi-Fi Zone' helps to bridge the digital divide and provide reliable, long-distance learning solutions, free of charge, while maintaining social distancing. These buses provide fast internet within a 300-foot radius for those affected by California's mandated shelter-in-place order. The mobile connectivity solution is made possible through a public/private partnership between the districts, ENGIE North America, and Icomera, an ENGIE company. "In response to COVID-19, this solution is especially important because of the urgency around building equitable access to remote learning for California school districts - a story that we know is true of school districts across the U.S.," said Courtney Jenkins, vice president and general manager for ENGIE North America. "Once we identified this opportunity to support our education partners' critical need, we were able to procure, install and provide free Wi-Fi access within days. That's a remarkable testament to the collaborative efforts between the school districts and ENGIE North America. All four school districts will continue to use 'Student Wi-Fi Zone' for summer sessions." Nearly 22 percent of U.S. households have no access to internet on a regular basis. During the shut-down of typical internet access points due to COVID-19 closures - including public libraries in addition to school sites - lack of reliable access to internet has become an even more significant barrier to new distance learning expectations. The school districts using ENGIE's mobile connectivity solution include the Aromas-San Juan [San Benito County], North Monterey County [Monterey County] and John Swett [Contra Costa County]. According to Aromas-San Juan Superintendent Michele Huntoon, "We have close to 25 percent of our students who do not have access to the internet. Our area has multiple areas of 'white spaces' that are dead zones for internet access. We are thrilled to establish this partnership with ENGIE to bring a much-needed service to our students. The service will reduce the digital divide and address equity among our students as seen in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16qpK-S9zxM. ENGIE North America is a leader in providing renewable energy and energy efficiency services to K-12 school districts in CA (News - Alert), having worked with more than 50 districts across the state. Icomera is the world's leading provider of wireless Internet connectivity and application platforms for public transportation, committed to promoting green mobility. Its mobile devices are installed in more than 31,000 vehicles around the world. Mobile connectivity is an integral part of ENGIE's Connectivity-as-a-Service (CaaS). While the system can provide additional services in the future to help parents track buses, and the districts with fleet management, for now the system is tailored to address the needs of the student population. The Wi-Fi units provide a secure installation capable of blocking inappropriate sites and optimizing access across multiple cellular providers. About ENGIE North America ENGIE North America Inc. offers a range of capabilities in the United States and Canada to help customers decarbonize, decentralize and digitalize their operations. These include comprehensive services to help customers run their facilities more efficiently and optimize energy and other resource use and expense; clean power generation; energy storage; and retail energy supply that includes renewable, demand response, and on-bill financing options. Nearly 100% of the company's power generation portfolio is low carbon or renewable. Globally, ENGIE S.A. is the largest independent power producer and energy efficiency services provider in the world, employing 170,000 people in 70 countries. For more information on ENGIE North America, please visit our LinkedIn page or Twitter feed, www.engie-na.com and www.engie.com. About Icomera Icomera is the world's leading provider of wireless Internet connectivity for public transport and is committed to promoting green mobility. Serving millions of Wi-Fi users worldwide, our award-winning technology makes public transport a better, safer, more attractive option for passengers, supporting our mission to help contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions of 3.5 million metric tons by 2022. A wholly owned subsidiary of ENGIE Solutions, Icomera is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, with main offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the United States and Canada. Find out more at icomera.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005492/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] On a night when Chula Vista celebrated progress on its long-awaited Bayfront hotel and convention center, Third Avenues revitalization, and more residential development, Mayor Mary Casillas Salas acknowledged the city needs to increase revenues in order to continue providing city services. During Tuesdays State of the City address, the mayor of San Diegos second-largest city said Chula Vista has the countys second-lowest tax revenue per capita. We are working very hard to increase and diversify our revenue streams so that we can afford to provide better services to our residents, Salas told the crowd of more than 150 people. But at the moment, we are second-to-last in revenues in the entire county. Chula Vista generates $552 in tax revenues for every resident, compared to $953 in San Diego and $2,057 in Coronado, Salas said. Advertisement In the short-term, the city wants to increase revenues by asking voters to raise the sales tax from 8.25 percent to 8.75 percent in Junes election. They also hope sales at new breweries on Third Avenue and taxes from marijuana businesses, pending a November vote, bring in more tax dollars. If Measure A passes in November, the revenue from the sales tax increase will go into the general fund, a pool of money the city uses to pay for basic services, but the City Council has promised to use it to hire more police officers and firefighters. Regarding new marijuana businesses, the city approved a cannabis ordinance in February. But that ordinance is dependent on voters approving a tax ballot in Novembers election. In the long-term, the city hopes the Bayfront hotel and convention center becomes a catalyst for more development in Chula Vistas bayfront. Salas envisions the area becoming a community hub full of hotels, restaurants, office space, and parks. In April, Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego approved a development agreement, revenue-sharing plan and public subsidy for the $1.1 billion hotel and convention center. The Coastal Development Permit for the project is expected to be presented to the Port this fall. Despite Chula Vistas stagnant tax revenues, Mayor Salas believes the city has much to celebrate. In addition to the Bayfront project, the mayor touted the opening of a new hotel and construction of two more, new housing developments in the east part of the city that include 200 units of affordable housing, a 53-acre business park under construction on the west side, and Chula Vistas commitment to being 100 percent energy efficient by 2035. We are no longer a sleepy agricultural town full of lemon orchards, Salas said. We are growing, developing, and maturing; fulfilling our promise of becoming a great 21st century city. Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter COVID Fallout: Provincial government moves to mediate debt-relief for Phuket businesses PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Government is calling for financial institutions to discuss terms for repayment of outstanding debts among local businesses as many are suffering heavily from the fallout of the COVID-19 lockdown provisions. economicstourismCOVID-19 By The Phuket News Wednesday 17 June 2020, 06:58PM The mediation sessions aimed to ease the extra pressure on local businesses from outstanding debts brought on by the COVID-19 situation. Photo: PR Phuket The mediation sessions aimed to ease the extra pressure on local businesses from outstanding debts brought on by the COVID-19 situation. Photo: PR Phuket Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana was at the event in person. Photo: PR Phuket Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana was at the event in person. Photo: PR Phuket The mediation sessions aimed to ease the extra pressure on local businesses from outstanding debts brought on by the COVID-19 situation. Photo: PR Phuket The mediation sessions aimed to ease the extra pressure on local businesses from outstanding debts brought on by the COVID-19 situation. Photo: PR Phuket The mediation sessions aimed to ease the extra pressure on local businesses from outstanding debts brought on by the COVID-19 situation. Photo: PR Phuket Financial institutions, including banks and non-banks, were invited to discuss terms of repayments at a special multi-mediation session held at Phuket Community Hall in Phuket Town yesterday (June 16). The event was attended by Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana together with Vice Governor Pichet Panapong and Phuket Provincial Office Chief Thalerngsak Nuchprahan. Governor Phakaphong explained that Phuket has been massively affected by the COVID-19 situation by the simple fact that no tourists have been coming to Phuket. Tourism businesses hotels, restaurants and tour agencies generally generate around 85% of Phukets gross provincial product (GPP), Governor Phakaphong said. With no tourists coming to Phuket, these have been affected, leading to problems with debt, he added. To help facilitate a solution to the extra pressure Phuket businesses are facing from outstanding debts, the Phuket government yesterday aimed to mediate between local business owners and 15 financial institutes, both banks and non-banks, invited to the event. At the sessions, the main focus was extending the deadline by which debts were to be paid, and reducing the money to be repaid as monthly installments. We expect this may help local business owners and Phuket residents, Governor Phakaphong said. Event attendee Rachin Thongmakkul praised the mediation sessions. This is a good idea to set up a place where creditors and debtors can together find the best solution. I believe that most people will still suffer with housing or vehicle debts, especially after the governments debt-relief programs end, as people have not been able to work, he said. Another attendant, Chalermpong Seangdee, also praised the idea. The negotiations will succeed if financial institutions understand the pressure that business owners have to face during this crisis, Mr Chalermpong said. Business owners have not been helped by the government, so we want financial institutions to help us by reducing the interest to be repaid on outstanding debts, he added. Attorneys Ven Johnson and Thomas Waun visited Midland this week to make a few stops and begin their investigation into the Midland area flooding that occurred nearly a month ago. The Michigan attorneys, of Johnson Law, PLC, teamed up with Chicago law firm Romanucci & Blandin, LLC and filed a mass tort on June 1, which alleges that dam owner Boyce Hydro Power, LLC and all its trusts and subsidiaries are to blame for the dam failure. It alleges that Boyce defendants were negligent, engaged in ultra-hazardous activities, have caused ongoing public nuisance, and acted with indifference and/or disregard to health, safety and wellbeing of residents. The defendants repeated failures to exercise even scant care in the ownership and operation of the dams resulted in the Edenville Dams failure on May 19, 2020, when heavy rains throughout the region overcame inadequate spillway capacity and exposed long-standing structural flaws, the lawsuit states. The Edenville Dam, one of four dams located in a system on the Tittabawassee River, failed and caused widespread damage and loss of property in Midland County and the surrounding area. As the attorneys meet with more clients and build their case, Johnson said there will be more announcements in the next few weeks. As lawyers, no matter what we do, when we try these cases, nothing internalizes it better for you than to be there and feel it, Waun said. If all you're doing is watching TV feeds and youre reading things, its not the same as being there. However, they wanted to make sure residents and flood victims are aware of a deadline that they said can make all the difference in a case. Flood victims wishing to sue a state agency or governmental body for sewer and stormwater backups in or on their properties, must do so by July 3. According to a Michigan statute, government agencies must be notified in writing within 45 days of the injury in this case, the flood. Waun said hes concerned not many residents are aware of the statute. Were concerned theres going to be a lot of people that have not really given this sewer statute thought that are going to be left out in the cold because they dont get the notice in in 45 days, Waun said. He said each individual person has to make their claim, whether theyre represented by a lawyer or not. So if somebody comes to us on July 10, well try to make the claim for them but theres a defense that the state can raise and say you didnt do this in 45 days and the court will probably dismiss the case, Waun said. With several other class action lawsuits filed around the same time which include a large group of people called a "class" that are represented by an individual or handful of individuals with similar circumstances Waun and Johnson said they chose a mass tort because of the individual client approach. Its much more personal, Waun said. They said while they recognize a single event is the cause of damage, their clients all have very different stories some lost boats or sheds, while others lost large homes or businesses. We dont think a class action is the appropriate way to go when youre talking about every person (having) a different damage profile; every persons life has been affected in the same way because they were harmed by the flood and the sewer backup, Waun said. But theyve all been affected differently and uniquely because of the way that their house is damaged; what they lost. Johnson is a Saginaw native and Wauns daughter went to Midland High School, so for them, this lawsuit is personal. They plan to visit the area frequently and meet with more clients as the case progresses. Having a local presence its not downtown Midland, no question but having a local presence versus guys coming in from L.A. and New York and so forth, we think is really important and I think its going to be important for our clients, Johnson said. Johnson said more than 100 clients have signed onto the case so far. While no one knows how long the case will take to resolve, Johnson said realistically, it will take a few years at least. To learn more, call 1-855-VEN-FIGHTS, email MichiganFlood@venjohnsonlaw.com or visit https://www.venjohnsonlaw.com/ The Russian leaders spokesman says Putin is protected from the coronavirus by disinfection tunnels for his visitors. Russian President Vladimir Putin is protected from the coronavirus by special disinfection tunnels that anyone visiting his residence outside Moscow or meeting him in the Kremlin must pass through, according to his spokesman. Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that one such special tunnel, manufactured by a Russian company based in the town of Penza, had been installed at Putins official Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow and two more in the Kremlin. He said they were installed at the height of the pandemic in Russia, which authorities say is now on the wane, particularly in Moscow where lockdown restrictions are being lifted. A few restrictions remained in place in the Kremlin, said Peskov, as precautions regarding Putins health continued to be justified. Demonstration footage of the tunnel, published by the state-controlled RIA news agency on Tuesday night, showed masked people passing through it being sprayed with disinfectant from above and from the side. RIA described the disinfectant as a fine mist that covered peoples clothes and any exposed upper body flesh. Self-quarantine Putin has spent much of the pandemic running the worlds largest country from his residence rather than the Kremlin, chairing video-conference meetings from a room that his critics dubbed a bunker. Peskov said in April that anyone meeting Putin in person underwent testing for the coronavirus. A month later, Peskov said he had himself been infected. Russia has recorded more than half a million infections, the third-highest number of cases in the world after Brazil and the United States, something it attributes to an enormous testing programme. Russia has registered 7,478 deaths to date a relatively low rate. Critics are dubious about the accuracy of its mortality figures. US officials want a Pacific Ocean data cable to bypass Hong Kong amid concerns of spying by Beijing US Justice Department officials on Wednesday recommended that a high-capacity undersea data cable system proposed by Google and Facebook bypass Hong Kong, citing potential national security concerns following China's moves to exert greater control in the territory. The Pacific Light Cable Network pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission should connect the US, Taiwan and the Philippines but not go through Hong Kong as planned, a Justice Department committee recommended. The high-capacity, low-latency fiber optic cable backed by Google and Facebook would "encourage" US communications crossing the Pacific Ocean to land in Hong Kong before continuing on to other parts of Asia, the DoJ reasoned. The recommendation to the FCC contended that the cable network's "proposed Hong Kong landing station would expose US communications traffic to collection" by Beijing. The concerns have been heightened by the Chinese government's "recent actions to remove Hong Kong's autonomy and allow for the possibility that (Beijing's) intelligence and security services will operate openly in Hong Kong," the DoJ said in a release. Google and Facebook four years ago announced plans to work with a China Soft Power Holdings subsidiary to connect Los Angeles and Hong Kong with a high-capacity internet cable. The Pacific Light Cable Network was to stretch 12,800 kilometers (8,000 miles), crossing beneath the Pacific Ocean in a first-of-its-kind direct connection between the two locations, according to companies involved with the project. PLCN is expected to handle some 120 terabytes of data per second, enough capacity to enable 80 million high-definition video conference calls simultaneously between Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Most Pacific subsea cables stretch from the US to Japan, Facebook noted at the time. Lifestyles increasingly centered on access to cloud-based online services, as well as to video, pictures and other content on the internet, have increased the need for infrastructure capable of quickly and efficiently moving digital data. The FCC in April granted Google's request for temporary authority to operate the segment of the cable network connecting the US and Taiwan. Explore further Google, Facebook team on undersea cable to Hong Kong 2020 AFP Earlier this month, H-E-B announced customers would no longer needed to wear a face mask to enter the store, but starting June 22 shoppers will need a face covering again, per Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff's new order. The grocery chain released a statement Wednesday, hours after Wolff issued an order mandating all businesses require customers to wear masks or face coverings. H-E-B said the company appreciates the judge's work in prioritizing the health of the community. Wolff's order, which goes into effect Monday, applies to residents 10 years or older. Businesses risk a $1,000 fine if the order is not enforced. Enter to win: Were giving away a $75 gift card and relaxing recliner "The CDC and State health officials strongly support the use of facial coverings in public as a proven way to slow the spread of COVID-19," H-E-B said in a statement. "Throughout the COVID crisis, H-E-B has worked closely with the Governor and his staff and we appreciate the collaborative work and advocacy to help keep Texans safe." On Wednesday, H-E-B also announced two more stores with employees who have tested positive for COVID-19. The grocery store chain announced seven stores with infected employees on Tuesday and 10 on Monday. More than 30 employees working in San Antonio stores have now tested positive. Here are the two H-E-B stores with COVID-19 cases, according to H-E-B's website. - Commerce and Rosillo H-E-B: The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 was last working in the store on 108 N. Rosillo St. on Monday, June 15. - Valley Hi H-E-B: The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 was last working in the store on 302 Valley Hi Dr. on Friday, June 12. From Tuesday: - Schertz H-E-B plus!: The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 was last working in the store on 17460 IH 25 N. on June 15. - 281 and Evans Road H-E-B plus!: The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 was last working in the store on 20935 US Highway 281 N. on June 15. - Babcock H-E-B: The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 was last working in the store on 5910 Babcock Rd. on June 9. - Olmos Park H-E-B: The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 was last working in the store on 300 Olmos Dr. on June 14. - Military and Goliad H-E-B: The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 was last working in the store on 3323 SE. Military Dr. on June 10. - Las Palmas H-E-B: The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 was last working in the store on 721 Castroville Rd. on June 14. - Zarzamora and Military H-E-B plus!: The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 was last working in the store on 6818 S. Zarzamora St. on June 14. It is unclear when the employees tested positive. H-E-B said it has cleaned and sanitized all stores multiple times. Employees who had contact with the infected employee have been notified, the grocery chain said. Stewart Kohl is Co-CEO of The Riverside Company, a $10 billion global private equity firm focused on investing in the smaller end of the middle market. Prior to joining The Riverside Company in 1993, Kohl was a vice president of Citicorp Venture Capital, Ltd., the private equity arm of Citibank. Stewart Kohl serves on the board of Oberlin College, the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, and the Board of Trustees of Cleveland Clinic as well as its Wellness Institute Leadership Board. He was inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges Hall of Excellence in 2009. He previously served as Co-Chair of the Building for Hope Capital Campaign of the Center for Families and Children. Stewart Kohl is a founding donor of VeloSano, a charity bike ride dedicated to eradicating cancer by supporting research at the Cleveland Clinic.VeloSano supports projects that will build upon and transition recent advancements in cancer research into new diagnostics and therapeutics with a high likelihood of leading to successful, future grant funding. In the first six years, VeloSanohas raised over $21 million which has been used to fund more than 125 cancer research projects. VeloSano raised more than $4.7 million in 2019, with 100% of the money raised supporting lifesaving cancer research at Cleveland Clinic. We have an opportunity to share selected excerpts from recent interviews with Stewart Kohl where he shares his insights about private equity and minority-owned businesses and some of the biggest lessons he has learned over the course of his career. The SBA reported that over 29 percent of all businesses are minority-owned and these businesses are growing several times faster than U.S. firms overall. What are some of the challenges facing these businesses? How do you see the role of private equity? Given demographics, obviously, this should be a fast-growing part of our economy, and I think there's some evidence that it is. There are several private equity firms now that are focusing on investing in Hispanic companies, none of them in Cleveland today, although I hope some of them would be active here even if they're headquartered in Texas or California or other locations. I think that more often than not, the impediments to success or growth among minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses are the same as faced by every other business, and then they face these additional challenges that come, given the nature of their ownership. I still believe that private equity can be a great partner for them to help them overcome those challenges and succeed. I know at Riverside, we would be eager to do that. In terms of our own firm, I would give us good marks in terms of achieving gender diversity within our own team and achieving some gender diversity among the management teams of the companies that we invest in. I could be naive, but I start from the perspective that private equity is a very good tool, partner, for these businesses. I don't see any reason it can't be. To attract private equity, they're going to have to do the same things or similar things to what any other business would do. Again, in the case of Riverside, we're going to want to see that efficacy of the product and the authenticity. In fact, I could argue there, they have an advantage. If they're going to try to sell to, say, a Hispanic demographic, then being Hispanic-owned and having that authenticity should be a competitive advantage that we would recognize as an investor. Then they're going to have to be a well-run, well-advised and do the same things that any other business would do. What are some of the biggest lessons you have learned over the years? We learn far more from our mistakes. When things go well, you're just not forced to do the level of introspection. It doesn't hurt in the same way. Whenever we exit a transaction, whenever we sell, we go and we do a deep dive, an introspection. But the ones where it doesn't work and tend to leave the most powerful lessons and we memorialize them in something we call lessons from the loo, L-O-O, the English word for bathroom. In Riverside offices around the world, there's a poster that has these lessons up on it. Several times a day, in fact, for me it seems to be an increasing number of times each day, I am forced to stare at these lessons and be reminded of the mistakes that we've made. I've gotten to the point where I don't mind making mistakes. It's humbling. I still get it wrong after nearly four decades.I still get it wrong sometimes, and I'm humbled by that, but I accept that. What I have much more trouble accepting is when I make the same mistake again. I want to find new and creative ways to be wrong as long as long as I don't make the same mistakes twice. That level of introspection I think goes across the firm, around the world. Not so long ago, we had our annual investors conference and stood up before all of our investors, and had one of the sessions that we have ever year, called Lessons from the Losers, where we take these, one of these lessons from the loo from a recent loss, and lay it out just as clearly as we know how to our investors, and God bless our investors, because these are sophisticated people. None of them have ever come up to me afterwards and said, "Boy, how stupid were you. What were you thinking?" They all say, "Thank you for your candor. We know you make mistakes. We make mistakes. We're really heartened to see that you actually are trying to get better." Brazil records a concerning increase in its Covid-19 death rate, cases on the rise again in China, and the UK announces scientific breakthrough. By Vatican News Currently, more than 8.1 million people have been confirmed to have coronavirus around the world. Nearly 4 million have recovered, while at least 444,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. Brazil cases increase Brazil set a grim new record on Tuesday as its confirmed coronavirus cases grew by over 34,000 in 24 hours, bringing its total number of cases to over 923,000. The country also recorded over 1,200 deaths since its last update on Monday, bringing its confirmed fatalities to 45,456 reported deaths. That makes Brazil the country with the second most cases in the world, after the United States. The concerning increase in the infection rate comes as the pandemic continues to accelerate in Latin American countries. As of Wednesday, Peru recorded more than 7,000 deaths from about 237,000 confirmed coronavirus cases after almost three months of confinement measures. Chile also reportedly has 184,000 confirmed cases with about 3,800 Covid-19 related deaths. Resurgence in China A new coronavirus outbreak in Beijing grew on Wednesday to 137 cases in the past week. The Chinese government has since stepped up containment measures to control the resurgence of the Covid-19 virus in the country. Chinese health authorities on Wednesday confirmed 31 new Covid-19 cases. The first confirmed case of this new outbreak was recorded on 11 June, according to a statement on WHO's website. Schools which had recently re-opened have been closed once again, and companies were told to encourage working from home. Health officials have also isolated 27 neighborhoods and imposed stricter restrictions on movement out of the capital. WHO also reports that preliminary investigations have revealed that some of the initial symptomatic cases had a link to Beijings Xinfadi wholesale market, one of Asias biggest supply markets. Since the first case of the Covid-19 virus was detected in Wuhan last year, China has reported over 83,000 cases and over 4,600 deaths. This recent re-emergence of infections in Beijing comes after a lull of almost two months. Research breakthrough in the UK Separately, the World Health Organization (WHO) has welcomed a breakthrough in coronavirus research from the United Kingdom in a statement released on Tuesday. WHO said initial clinical trial results show that the use of dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, can be lifesaving for patients who are critically ill with Covid-19." The statement also indicates that for patients on ventilators, the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one third. However, for patients requiring oxygen, mortality was cut by about one fifth. Dexamethasone has been in use since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions including inflammatory disorders and cancers. It is listed in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, and is affordably available in most countries, according to the WHO. Reacting to the news, WHOs Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus said, This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with Covid-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support. He went on to congratulate the government of the UK, the University of Oxford, and the hospitals and patients who contributed to the scientific breakthrough. An Associate at Bentsi-Echill, Letsa & Ankomah, Mrs Dzifa Vanderpuye, has called for extensive deliberations between employers and employees in times of crisis. This, she said would help encourage transparency between the two parties. She said it was necessary for employers to engage the employees on decisions being taken to rescue the company in times of crisis. In other to obtain the employees consent you have to consult and engage them and I think one way to get employees to buy into the changes that you need to make is to be transparent to them and negotiate in good fate, she noted. Speaking on the panel of the Graphic Talks 360, a Graphic Business series today on the topic, Rescuing employment contracts in times of disruption, she said if the process for making changes is open, it is easier to get employees to agree to the term. Transparency, openness, communication and responsiveness are very important and parties must negotiate in good fate, she said. She said any changes made by an employer must have reasonable details adding that it is best to notify employees before making changes. 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 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. Shrapnel of the troubled relationship between the civilian-turned-general Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his military have shattered many countries in the Middle East. The failed military coup of July 2016 re-energised the most dangerous of Erdogans obsessions the fear that he will be pushed out of power by the military. The massive purge in the armys ranks following the failed putsch was aimed at repositioning the armys role in Turkish political life, and in doing so, neutering it as a threat to the presidency. Having cleaned up the forces from all followers of Fethullah Gulen and his other opponents, Erdogan is now on a mission to reshape the military in his own image. In recent years, the Turkish president has allowed Islamist allies of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) to tighten their grip on critical military posts. The purge was not only a process of sidelining officers with different political leanings but an attempt to Islamise the army too. The intensity of this military-civil mutual fear has helped to form Turkeys expansionism abroad based on its military might. This is very obvious in the ongoing Libyan civil war, where Turkeys military support of the Tripoli government, against general Khalifa Haftar, has altered the war balance. Early on Wednesday, Ankara launched land operation Claw-Tiger against the strongholds of the insurgent Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Northern Iraq seen by many as an invasion of Turkeys neighbouring country. This is Erdogans third major military incursion outside Turkey against the Kurds alone since 2016. Only one month after the failed putsch, Erdogan ordered his troops to cross the Syrian borders as part of Operation Euphrates Shield, to push Isis fighters out of Kurdish towns and take them. In 2018, he ordered the Olive Branch blitz against the US-backed YPG Kurdish forces who played a central role in wiping out Isis from Northern Syria. That was followed by another operation in Idlib earlier this year, to prevent the Syrian regime from recapturing the city. In addition, Erdogan has sent military advisors and mercenaries to Libya, established military bases Afghanistan, Qatar and Somalia, and still vying for military outposts in Sudan and Tunisia. The president is effectively overseeing the largest Turkish military posture abroad since the Ottoman era. Pushing the military into conflicts abroad has multiple advantages for Erdogan. Firstly, it allows him to keep an iron grip on his forces and you could make the argument that this stifling of a sense of independence would make those in the military think twice before going against their president. It also means he strengthen his position in relation to the the international community by bolstering the strongman image he is so fond of. The same can be said domestically, he will look strong to voters not that he has to worry about an election before 2023. The Turkish military is also on the verge of the biggest cultural change since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The recent incursions in Syria highlighted the rise of generals who dont believe that staying aligned with the US and Nato is in Turkeys best interests. Instead, many of Turkeys analysts confirm that those who want deeper military cooperation and more arms deals with Russia have taken full control in the armys decision making. This has been obvious in Erdogans cajoling of Putin after Turkish pilots shot down a Su-24 Russian bomber in 2015 on the borders with Syria, crushing the US-backed Kurds, and the generals push to purchase the Russian S-400 air defence system despite a repeated outcry from the west. Challenging the US has become an act of heroism among the senior Turkish generals and a way to satisfy their commander in chief. This is also the least secular army since the foundation of the republic. New Islamist ascendents are actively transforming the militarys role as the pillar of secularism in an Islamic country. They are also doing Erdogan a great service by placing Islamist militias and armed groups aligned with Turkey at the centre of any conflict, guaranteeing them a seat at the table of any political resolution and helping to harvest long-term loyalties towards Turkey in the regions most turbulent areas. As many will have already been convinced, Erdogans strategic goal is to transform Turkey and the Middle East. This goal might take some time for him to achieve. But the imminent danger Turkey faces is seeing the military being reconstructed in Erdogans own image and becoming an instrument of authoritarianism, revisionism and extremism as a result. Iraqi government decision to cut salaries, pensions sparks outrage as the country faces worst economic crisis in years. Iraq is facing its worst economic crisis since 2003, worsened by the global drop in oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic. Mustafa al-Kadhimis government has proposed austerity measures, including capping the amount and number of state salaries and pensions people can receive. Many people rely on pensions and reparations from the government. Al Jazeeras Simona Foltyn reports from Baghdad, Iraq. Mayor JIm Kenney addresses the crowd at the Octavius V. Catto Monument at City Hall before The Divine 9 United for Equality & Justice March. Kenney declared June 19 a city holiday. Read more Mayor Kenney announced Tuesday evening that he will be designating Juneteenth, which is celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States, as an official city holiday. This means that city offices and facilities will be closed on Friday. Kenney said in a news release he will do this for 2020 with an executive order. For future Juneteenth celebrations, Kenney said his administration would take steps to ensure June 19 will become a city holiday for years to come. The mayor said he consulted with the citys recently formed Reconciliation Steering Committee and it overwhelmingly agreed to have Juneteenth become an official city holiday in order to increase the education of our past and connection with our communities. Philadelphia Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. earlier in the day announced that the school district would be closed on Friday to honor Juneteenth. Kenney said in a statement: Now more than ever, its critically important to acknowledge Americas original sin of slavery something we as a nation have never atoned for. The only way to dismantle the institutional racism and inequalities that continue to disenfranchise Black Philadelphians is to look critically at how we got here, and make much-needed changes to the governmental systems that allow inequality to persist. This designation of Juneteenth represents our administrations commitment to reckon with our own role in maintaining racial inequities as well as our understanding of the magnitude of work that lies ahead. Last year, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf designated June 19 as Juneteenth National Freedom Day in Pennsylvania. Vietnamese prepare to board a repatriation flight from Toronto, Canada, June 15, 2020. Photo by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Vietnam helped organize three repatriation flights to bring 678 citizens home on Monday and Tuesday. The passengers included children, students, the elderly and sick, pregnant women, guest workers whose labor contracts had expired and tourists with expired visas. National carrier Vietnam Airlines brought home 343 citizens from Canada to Hanoi; Bamboo Airways carried 266 from Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt to Ho Chi Minh City; and South African Airways flew 69 from South Africa, Mozambique and Eswatini to Hanoi. The Vietnam Airlines flight was the third to repatriate citizens from Canada, the previous two doing so last month. All passengers have been sent to quarantine camps for 14 days where they will be tested repeatedly for the new coronavirus. In the last few months, several special flights organized by the government have repatriated thousands of Vietnamese from several countries including France, India, Japan, Russia, the UAE and the U.S., as also other Southeast Asian countries. Passengers have paid their own fares. More of such repatriation flights are expected to keep bringing Vietnamese citizens wanting to return home to avoid facing the Covid-19 pandemic elsewhere. As of Tuesday, Vietnam has gone 61 days without community transmission of the Covid-19 virus. Of the 334 infections recorded in the country so far, 325 have recovered and there are only nine active cases left. There has been no death recorded in the country so far. Connecticut legislators, including the top Republican leaders, say Gov. Ned Lamonts executive order to increase police accountability was necessary but didnt go far enough. The order, which Lamont signed Monday, applies to the state police, not municipal departments. Legislators are drafting a bipartisan bill with measures to rein in and oversee police at the municipal level that could include such measures as civilian police review boards with subpoena powers; more psychological evaluations for police; ending the purchase of surplus military equipment; banning choke holds; and requiring officers to intervene if a colleague is using force inappropriately. Senator Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, chairman of the legislatures judiciary committee, and a longtime leader in criminal justice reform, said he expects a document to be ready in the coming weeks with help from his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, as well as various groups including police and activists for police reform. Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media Its fine, Winfield said of Lamonts executive order. Its very limited in that it deals with state police and not municipal level police where many people have their interactions. This is a policing problem. The solution should be for police at every level. ...Kudos to the governor for doing something but we do still need the legislation to deal with the issue at hand. State Rep. Brandon McGee, D-Hartford, chairman of the legislature's Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, stood alongside Lamont in announcing the executive order. He told reporters last week in a conversation with the governor Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and Rep. Joshua Hall, D-Hartford, that hed like to see such reforms as a re-certification process for officers independent investigators. Police should not be policing police, he said. But McGee noted that negotiating with the states police unions which have historically opposed granting subpoena power to independent review boards will be a key factor. I really want to be cautiously optimistic going into these conversations, McGee said. As I represent the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, thats our No. 1 priority, is to sit down and have a conversation with the heads of our unions. Years past, you cant deny it, thats been the opposition, thats been the challenge in passing legislation that would hold police men and women accountable. The states Republican leaders, Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, expressed similar sentiments, indicating they werent upset or opposed to Lamonts executive order, but that theyd like to do more with legislation. Conceptually, most of the things are things I agree with and we already do, Klarides said. The body cams passed the legislature in 2017 so that was already mandated, for example ... As with everything else, we need to drill down further. I think this is a legislative decision. And the Judiciary Committee leadership have been working on this already. We are moving forward with our proposals and our plans that were proposing. Klarides, who has scheduled a community conversation with leaders in her district to discuss race and policing on Monday, said she would like to see legislation that includes more frequent psychological exams for officers to ensure they are operating in the best state of mind given the toll the job can take. Theres idea after idea put forth by all sides right now and its going to be our job to put it together in a comprehensive way to make sure everyone is treated fairly in this state as we all believe they should be and the police are allowed to do their job in a way thats fair to everybody, Klarides said. This job changes you and it takes a toll. We need to make sure that everyone is in the right state of mind. Just like with body cams, officers like them because they say, I want to make sure Im doing the right thing. Unfortunately in police work theres no wiggle room for error because theres lives at stake. Fasano also said he supports the governors effort and executive order, but would like more clarity on some of the mandates issued by the governor. On the outright ban on choke holds, for example, Fasano said if an officer is fighting for his life, there needs to be some mechanism for an officer to use that under extraordinary circumstances. And on the purchase of surplus military equipment, Fasano cited anexample in his district when military equipment might have been utilized by police. In the 2018 incident, a man barricaded himself in his house and, while police were negotiating with him, an explosion set off in the barn behind the house injured nine police officers. I dont know what the state police has or doesnt have right now, but we should never be in a position that our police officers are outgunned or out-equipped, Fasano said. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt 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. During the course of Fearless: Samantha Barry (RTE1), the person in question was variously described as "energetic", "driven", "a ball of energy", "charming" and "amazingly spectacular". And yes, as the film's title had assured us, "fearless", too. But why fearless? Was it because she had agreed to have as her boss the fearsome Anna Wintour, a woman reputed to be so terrifying in the fashion world that she only has to fix her basilisk stare on underlings from behind those impenetrable sunglasses for them to expire on the spot? Or have you not seen The Devil Wears Prada? Anyway, Barry had opted to take up the role as the eighth editor-in-chief of Glamour magazine, with Wintour in overall command as Conde Nast's (and here I quote) "US artistic director, editor-in-chief of Vogue US and global content advisor", which is quite a mouthful. Read More At this point I should confess that, until last Monday, I'd never heard of Barry, though maybe that's just because I'm not in the habit of reading fashion magazines, especially those, like Glamour, which are now available only online. I learnt from this gushing profile (Glamour, apparently, is "one of the most prestigious female-focused media brands in the world") that she hails from Ballincollig in Co Cork, studied journalism at Dublin City University, worked with radio stations in Papua New Guinea and had a stint as a reporter with CNN, which seemingly so impressed the Conde Nast people that they offered her the Glamour job. But I didn't learn much more about her, or indeed anything about what makes her tick. She came across as extrovert and forthright in a jolly-camogie-sticks kind of way and quite unlike someone you'd imagine would be working in an industry that's mostly run by grim-faced people fixated on stick-insect aspirations. Perhaps that's what won the approval of the icy Wintour, who deemed her a "perfect leader" who "looks at everything from a global perspective". Barry herself spoke of her "overall vision for the brand" because, of course, despite all the talk by Wintour of Glamour offering a true "reflection of young women", that's what it is: a brand, and a superficial one at that, there to make money for its owners. Still, Barry lent the documentary some human appeal, a quality that was conspicuously absent from the first episode of Inside Monaco: Playground of the Rich (BBC2), a rebranding exercise as blank as the prince who runs that ridiculously privileged European principality. Formerly the paparazzi had been banned from taking unauthorised snaps there, but now that everyone has smartphones, Albert II has decided to loosen the rules in the hope of opening up the place to a younger set than the dwindling old millionaires who have traditionally taken advantage of its tax-free enticements. Video of the Day Still, if you're not of native Monegasque descent (9,000 out of the 37,000 population) or don't have at least 500,000 in your bank account, you won't get to reside there. But if you do have the readies, you can stay for 40,000 a night in the poshest hotel suite, pay 2,000 a day to berth your yacht or shell out 5,000 for a Methuselah of Champagne. There were lots of unlovely people interviewed for the film, including the reigning prince, who sadly didn't inherit the looks of his mother Grace Kelly, nor her charm. Yet for all his dullness, I preferred him to English self-made billionaire John Caudwell, who was the owner of Britain's Most Expensive Home (Channel 4) and oozed arrogant entitlement as he blithely splashed out 65m for the refurbishment of his Mayfair townhouse. The only amusing moment came when we met his current partner who, at 35, was three decades younger than the 66-year-old Caudwell. She had vowed, she said, not to get involved with someone who was much older than herself or divorced or with grown-up children, "but when I met John, somehow that wasn't so important". I couldn't help thinking of Mrs Merton's question to Debbie McGee about her hubby: "What first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?" Murder in the Outback (Channel 4) ran over four nights and concerned the 2001 killing of Peter Falconio in northern Australia, for which Bradley Murdoch is serving a life sentence imposed in 2005. Falconio's body was never found, so there has been much speculation about the case for nearly 20 years. No conclusion was reached here, either, and so the viewer wondered why it merited four episodes. The Secrets She Keeps (RTE1) is a six-part Australian thriller with Laura Carmichael (Edith in Downton Abbey) as a disturbed woman with sinister designs on a more successful woman of her own age who is about to give birth. Already there are echoes of both Single White Female and The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, but the first episode was gripping in a clammy kind of way and the series may be worth pursuing. So might I May Destroy You (BBC1), created by and starring Michaela Coel as a scatty young blogger on the way to a successful writing career but ending up, after a wild night out, with little memory of what had happened but bad flashbacks that suggest she may have been raped. There were too many characters to absorb in this week's opening episodes, but Coel effortlessly commanded the screen. In Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars (BBC2), the rock legend came across as a self-absorbed, miserable git. Ronnie Wood: Somebody Up There Likes Me (Sky Arts) was much more fun, mainly because Ronnie and the Stones are fun. As state after state imposed social distancing and other measures to mitigate the viruss spread, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services suspended most of its activity on March 18, and the agency notified Mr. Kieffer that his interview had been canceled. Now Mr. Kiefer is among thousands of citizens-in-waiting who, amid a ballooning backlog, may be unable to complete their naturalizations in time to vote in the 2020 election. An estimated 650,000 citizenship applications were pending in the first quarter of the 2020 fiscal year, which ended Dec. 31. The agency recently began holding naturalization ceremonies in small groups, compared with the hundreds who typically gather to be sworn in, but many of those working with immigrants say that so few are being processed that it may be impossible to make up for lost time this year. Before the pandemic, about 63,000 applicants took the oath of allegiance each month in small-town courthouses and convention centers around the country. Covid-19 lockdowns postponed the final steps in the process interviews and ceremonies potentially delaying citizenship for several hundred thousand people before the end of 2020, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, which leads a network of nonprofits helping green-card holders become naturalized citizens. The delays caused by the pandemic follow moves by the Trump administration to tighten scrutiny of naturalization applications, making the process more cumbersome, as well as financial troubles engulfing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is expected to start furloughing workers in coming weeks. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo granted clemency to three individuals on Wednesday, including one man who has served 15 years in prison for burglary. In a statement, the governor announced the commutations of Freddie Harris, 61, and Juan Serrano, 58. He also reduced the sentence of 30-year-old Teara Fatico. Cuomo said that 'in New York we believe in giving a second chance to deserving individuals who have demonstrated remorse and undergone successful rehabilitation'. 'With this action we are saying once again that the Empire State values fairness and compassion in our criminal justice system, providing these New Yorkers with an opportunity to support their families and contribute to their communities,' he added. Harris has served 15 and a half years of a 17 years to life sentence for two counts of second-degree burglary. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (pictured on Monday) granted clemency to three individuals on Wednesday, including one man who has served 15 years in prison for burglary He was convicted for committing two burglaries in 2004 in which no one was injured. According to Cuomo, Harris has earned his GED while in prison, taken several semesters of college courses and participated in multiple training programs. He will live with his brother and has an offer of employment upon his release. Serrano, 58, has served 22 and a half years out of a 35 years to life sentence for three three counts of second-degree burglary and one count of second-degree robbery. He was convicted in 2000 for his role in a series of burglaries. According to Cuomo's statement, Serrano has 'not only completed substance abuse treatment, but was selected as a lead facilitator for substance abuse counseling for other incarcerated individuals'. Serrano has also earned his GED while in prison and completed multiple vocational classes, including plumbing, electrical work, masonry, carpentry and welding. Upon his release, Serrano will live with his wife in Brooklyn and work as a bible study teacher. A statement from The Legal Aid Society, CUNY School of Law Defenders Clinic and Fordham School of Law Criminal Defense Clinic read: 'Over the course of more than two decades of incarceration, Mr. Serrano has worked steadfastly to address mistakes of the past and his lifetime of substance abuse. 'He has embraced religion, gained a number of vocational skills to prepare as a productive member of society upon his release, and is considered a leader amongst his peers. Upon re-entry, Mr. Serrano will reunite with his wife and assist with the healthcare of his ailing elderly mother. We are overjoyed that Mr. Serrano will have a second chance at life.' The statement said, however, that 'there are thousands of other New Yorkers incarcerated in state prisons just as worthy of clemency as Mr. Serrano. We urge Governor Cuomo to continue to use his powers to grant more clemencies now.' Lastly, Cuomo reduced Fatico's sentence. She has served more than 8 and a half years of a 13 year sentence for first-degree attempted burglary. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, 1,861 people have been released from jail (nurses are seen protesting outside Rikers Island in April) early following individualized reviews In 2011, Fatico facilitated her boyfriend's entry into an apartment so that he could rob the resident. During the incident, Fatico's boyfriend and the victim had a physical altercation that resulted in the victim's death. Fatico was not present in the apartment during the altercation, but she cooperated and testified against her boyfriend who was convicted of murder. While in prison, Fatico has worked toward her associate's degree and has volunteered in the prison's infant care center. Her sentence has been reduced from 13 years to 11 years, which will make her eligible for release in 2021. Since Cuomo took office, New York has closed 15 prisons - more than any governor in state history - and reduced the number of people in state custody by more than 30 per cent. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of people have been released early following individualized reviews. To date, 1,861 individuals have been released. Those include: 791 people who have had their low-level parole violations cancelled; 1,062 individuals who were committed on non-violent, non-sex offenses and were within 90 days of their earliest release date; and eight women who were pregnant or postpartum, committed on non-violent, non-sex offenses, and were within 180 days of their earliest release date. PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pennsylvania, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Comprehensive Cancer Network ( NCCN )an alliance of leading cancer centers in the United Statesis announcing the publication of translated versions of the NCCN Guidelines for Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) into Chinese, French, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Pediatric ALL is the most common type of cancer in children, but is highly curable when treated with contemporary and evidence-based approaches. 1 NCCN Guidelines are written and updated by leading authorities across various health disciplines. They include the most comprehensive and up-to-date recommendations for treating patients, including children, with cancer outside of a clinical trial setting. "More young lives could be saved through the application of widely-available, evidence-based treatments," said Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, NCCN. "Advances in the fight against pediatric ALL have been remarkable in recent years. We can improve the cure rate even further by making sure best practices are reaching every corner of the earth. We get closer to achieving this goal by making evidence-based, expert consensus-driven NCCN Guidelines more accessible to non-English speakers." The English-language version of NCCN Guidelines for Pediatric ALL was first published in May of 2019. The recommendations cover typical treatment algorithms, such as multi-agent chemotherapy regimens, as well as emerging innovations in targeted therapy and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy. The guidelines are intended for the management of patients from birth through adolescence and into young adulthood. "These NCCN Guidelines include a strong focus on supportive care in order to reduce potentially dangerous side-effects for children undergoing treatment," explained Dr. Carlson. "They also help identify vulnerable populations, such as infants or patients with Down syndrome, and provide specific recommendations for keeping them as safe as possible, both short- and long-term." The translated guidelines are available free-of-charge for non-commercial use at NCCN.org/global or via the Virtual Library of NCCN Guidelines App. The NCCN Global Department constantly updates and expands adaptations and translations of NCCN Guidelines for all major cancer types plus supportive care and prevention. More than 40 new translations have published this year alone, including clinical guidelines and patient-friendly versions. NCCN also provides NCCN Framework for Resource Stratification of NCCN Guidelines (NCCN Framework) and NCCN Harmonized Guidelines with optimal recommendations alongside pragmatic approaches for adapting treatment in resource-constrained settings, such as low- and middle-income countries. Visit AlliedAgainstCancer.org to learn about NCCN's ongoing work in Sub-Saharan Africa with the African Cancer Coalition, American Cancer Society, Clinton Health Access Initiative, and IBM. Free recommendations for self-care and stress management for cancer patients, caregivers, and providers during the COVID-19 pandemic are now available in English, Chinese, and Spanish at NCCN.org/covid-19. Visit NCCN.org/global for more on everything the organization is doing to improve cancer care worldwide, and join the conversation online with the hashtag #NCCNGlobal. About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, effective, efficient, and accessible cancer care so patients can live better lives. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) provide transparent, evidence-based, expert consensus recommendations for cancer treatment, prevention, and supportive services; they are the recognized standard for clinical direction and policy in cancer management and the most thorough and frequently-updated clinical practice guidelines available in any area of medicine. The NCCN Guidelines for Patients provide expert cancer treatment information to inform and empower patients and caregivers, through support from the NCCN Foundation. NCCN also advances continuing education, global initiatives, policy, and research collaboration and publication in oncology. Visit NCCN.org for more information and follow NCCN on Facebook @NCCNorg, Instagram @NCCNorg, and Twitter @NCCN. 1 Esparza SD, Sakamoto KM, Topics in pediatric leukemia-acute lymphoblastic leukemia. MedGenMed 2005;7:23. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16369328. Ma H, Sun H Sun X. Survival improvement by decade of patients aged 0-14 years with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a SEER analysis. Sci Rep 2014;4:4227. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24572378. Media Contact: Rachel Darwin 267-622-6624 darwin@nccn.org Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1180364/NCCN_Pediatric_Acute_Lymphoblastic_Leukemia_translations.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/441768/NCCN_Logo.jpg Related Links http://www.nccn.org SOURCE National Comprehensive Cancer Network The front lines of the Libyan conflict have shifted in recent weeks after Ankara increased military support to the GNA. A senior Turkish delegation headed by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has arrived in the Libyan capital Tripoli to hold talks with Libyas internationally recognised government. Cavusoglu was accompanied by Finance Minister Berat Albayrak and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan on Wednesday. During the visit, the Turkish officials discussed the latest developments in the crisis in Libya and the international efforts to resolve it with Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the UN-brokered Government of National Accord (GNA), according to a GNA statement. The meeting also covered the monitoring of the implementation of the military and security memorandum of understanding concluded in November 2019 between Tripoli and Ankara, the statement added. It was under this controversial agreement that Ankara had reinforced its military support of the GNA, tilting the balance against in a conflict against forces aligned with the renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, who is supported by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi and has been split since 2014 between rival administrations in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj during the unannounced visit on Wednesday [Anadolu] Ankaras increase in military support led to a shift in the conflicts front lines in recent weeks, as pro-GNA forces pushed back Haftars forces, which include his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) and other allied militias, from most of northwest Libya towards the central coastal city of Sirte. The GNA and the LNA have returned to ceasefire talks, but the UN, which is brokering the discussions, has warned of a possible major escalation due to the flow of weapons and fighters into Libya despite an arms embargo. The LNA controls eastern Libya and much of the south, where some of the main oilfields, the source of most of the North African countrys external revenue, are located. However, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Central Bank, the only bodies allowed to sell Libyan oil according to international agreements, are located in Tripoli and controlled by the GNA. Oil exports have been frozen for most of this year after eastern-based forces blockaded the ports, including the main ones near Sirte. Last week, the NOC briefly restarted production at two of the main oilfields, but was forced to close them again after a few hours. A new study by the University of Leeds and University of Oxford has examined spatial biodiversity patterns across the Permo-Triassic mass extinction event. (c. 252 million years ago). The Permo-Triassic mass extinction represents the most catastrophic event in the last 500 million years of evolutionary history and caused the loss of up 95% of species because of a cocktail of volcanic effects including extreme greenhouse warming. Examination of the global distribution of tetrapods -- amphibians, reptiles and their relatives -- reveals that biodiversity was consistently higher at temperate latitudes, both before and after the mass extinction. This is in strong contrast to the modern day, where the greatest levels of biodiversity are found in the low latitudes of the tropics, near the equator. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows how patterns of biodiversity can respond when temperatures in tropical regions become too extreme to support high levels of biodiversity. Examining the responses of organisms to rapid climatic changes in the distant past can offer a window into the potential impact of future global warming. Study lead author Bethany Allen, PhD researcher at the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds, said: "Higher equatorial diversity has been recognised for over 200 years, but the consistency of this pattern throughout Earth history has been uncertain. "The Late Permian to Middle Triassic is an ideal time interval to examine biodiversity trends. It is characterised by large-scale volcanic episodes, extreme greenhouse temperatures, and the most severe mass extinction event in Earth's history. "Our study shows that the regions we now associate with some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on Earth were once too hot to support communities of large animals, likely reaching over 40C. In the face of a rapidly warming planet, this window into our past could offer a glimpse into the future of those regions and the very real risk to the species that live there if we do not act to curb our carbon emissions and limit global warming." ### Further information The paper "The latitudinal diversity gradient of tetrapods across the Permo-Triassic mass extinction and recovery interval" is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B (DOI:10.1098/rspb.2020.1125). For additional information contact University of Leeds press officer Anna Harrison a.harrison@leeds.ac.uk University of Leeds The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes. We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2021. The University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. http://www.leeds.ac.uk Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. San Francisco, 17 June 2020: The Report Leather Chemicals Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Process, By End Use (Upholstery, Footwear), By Product (Biocides, Surfactants, Polyurethane Resins), And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025 The global leather chemicals market size is anticipated to reach USD 11.65 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., progressing at a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period. Increasing disposable income along with growing population in developing economies is estimated to boost the demand for consumer leather products, which in turn, can drive the leather chemicals market. Leather chemical manufacturers have integrated their production and distribution channels for improved market accessibility. These manufacturers have to comply with regulations, acts, and guidelines published by regulatory authorities such as European Commission (EC), Environment Protection Agency (EPA), and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). Business activities of end users influence the financial conditions and operations of raw material suppliers as well as manufacturers to a large extent. Leather chemicals have high penetration in tanning & dyeing processes, as they include numerous operations, which consume liberal amount of chemicals. Access Research Report of Leather Chemicals Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/leather-chemicals-market Further key findings from the report suggest: In terms of revenue, the biocides product segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.7% over the forecast period Increasing consumption of polyurethane resins in solvent free finish formulations and manufacturing synthetic leather is likely to fuel product demand over the same period The processed leather market in Europe is nearly 35.0% outside community and 65.0% intra-community, indicating that Europe is a significant market for leather chemicals The U.S. leather chemicals market (in terms of revenue) is poised to exceed USD 490 million by 2025 Europe is projected to experience considerable growth during the forecast period owing to developed standards of living and higher consumer spending capacity Countries in APAC, especially India, China, and Japan, are anticipated to register remarkable growth in the coming years The leather chemicals market is majorly dominated by few market players such as Stahl international B.V., Lanxess A.G, Bayer AG, Elementis, and Zschimmer & Schwarz GmbH & Co KG Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/organic-chemicals-and-compounds Grand View Research has segmented the global leather chemicals market on the basis of product, process, end use, and region: Leather Chemicals Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Biocides Surfactants Chromium Sulfate Polyurethane Resins Sodium Bicarbonate Others Leather Chemicals Process Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Tanning & Dyeing Beamhouse Biocides Surfactant Sodium Sulfide Formic Acid Others Finishing Leather Chemicals End-Use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Footwear Upholstery Garments Leather Goods Leather Chemicals Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America Europe Asia Pacific Central & South America Middle East & Africa Access Press Release of Leather Chemicals Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-leather-chemicals-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 Thousands of companies have been taking advantage of an unprecedented package of UK Government support to protect jobs and support businesses during the coronavirus outbreak. The financial support is helping firms across the nation to adapt, innovate and protect jobs. Here are two examples of how companies have been helped, and what support is available. NORTHERN IRELAND IN NUMBERS 212,000 jobs furloughed through the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme up to May 31 69,000 claims amounting to 198 million through the Self- Employment Income Support Scheme up to May 31 Across the whole UK 70 per cent of those eligible for SEISS made a claim. The average value of a claim is 2,900 Source: Her Majestys Treasury CASE STUDY 1 SHNUGGLE Planning, forward-thinking and invaluable help from the UK Government has enabled a Northern Ireland firm to diversify and remain solvent. When Covid-19 struck, Newtownards baby product manufacturer Shnuggles owners Sinead and Adam Murphy were prepared thanks to advice from their export colleagues in China. Sinead said: We reduced our out-goings, put on pause our marketing spend in the business. We just tried to protect the cash that we had. The first impact was our customers that we sell to in Asia. They all went into lockdown so our orders and sales to them stopped. But also a lot of our production happens out in Asia so our factories went into lockdown. Luckily we had bought a lot of stock beforehand. We were so relieved that we had, at least we could carry on trading with our UK and European customers. With around half of the companys sales in the UK and Ireland and half in the export business, Shnuggle had to rely on their local retail-base. Sinead continued: Baby items were classed as essential goods which was a huge relief to us. This meant as long as we could socially distance within the warehouse we could continue trading and selling online. All of our business is supplying other retailers like John Lewis, Mamas and Papas, Amazon. But our online sales actually grew because everyone was at home and maybe an element of panic buying. CASH HELP: The Shnuggle team Shnuggle took advantage of the furlough and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) schemes. Sinead said: We furloughed five out of our 16 team, and were able to access the Business Interruption loan through Ulster Bank. We were relieved to get the money in quickly, so we werent worrying about paying wages or our biggest overhead was our suppliers in China who were calling in all of their debts. That was our biggest headache and stress, we owed significant amounts of money to them and we didnt have the cash as we needed time to sell our products. Shnuggle also received a 10,000 Small Business Grant. Adam said: Furloughing was brilliant, and the CBILS was the one that was the best for us because it meant that we could keep all our suppliers happy. So even though we had a temporary dip in our sales, and obviously the inventory was sitting there ready to sell, it just kept us solvent and the cash flow moving. Its really going to help us trade out of it, and if all goes well, we should be able to get back into a reasonably strong cash position within the next six to 12 months. The loans coming in helped us to sleep at night. The Government schemes also gave Sinead and Adam the freedom to diversify into the PPE market and the development of HeroShield Ltd, enabling local firms to unite to develop a protective face covering for key workers. This non-profit company designs, produces and distributes reusable visors. Its surprisingly easy and money arrives quickly CASE STUDY 2 Q-MASS An unprecedented package of UK Government financial support has helped firms like Q-Mass in East Kilbride weather the coronavirus crisis. Director Ronnie Robertson said lockdown hit his companys order book, but the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been vital to help them hang on to their valued staff. Ronnie said: Before this, we had quite a good order book, with three to four months of work planned, so we were pretty worried where it was going to take us. At first, he was worried how he would keep Q-Mass 47 staff on the payroll, but then the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was announced. It offers UK Government support to pay 80 per cent of staffs wages up to 2,500 a month, and the scheme has now been extended until the end of October. Q-Mass manufactures bespoke parts for the oil, gas and defence industry so staff training is important. Ronnie said: Our staff are very highly skilled. Weve gathered a bunch of people here and trained them up and taken on apprentices. We do a lot of training, weve got good people, we train them a lot and we want to hang on to them. He found applying for the furlough scheme quick and straightforward. He said: It was surprisingly easy and we were surprised that the money came through relatively quickly. Now staff at the firm whove been furloughed are gradually returning to work, with strict safety measures in place. Ronnie said: Weve put a day shift back on and weve still got a few office people working at home, with quite a few still on furlough. SURPRISINGLY EASY: Q-Mass director Ronnie Robertson praises the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Were just ticking over. Were trying to cover our costs every month, trying to break even, to stay still. Were looking at it that if we can stay still were doing very well. And because of the size of the building, maintaining a two-metre distance hasnt been a problem for returning staff. Ronnie said: Its been really easy. Weve got a big workshop with wide corridors and weve got a lot of the doors propped open internally so no-one has to touch doors or handles. Weve got a few toilet areas with restrictions on them and a couple of one-way corridors, but the offices are open plan, so theres no real need for people to be near each other. The workshops a big, wide-open space and we have to keep cleaning things like photocopiers and touch screens, but its been quite straightforward. Now Ronnies looking forward to a brighter future. He said: I feel like were on the side of the valley and were looking across to the other side and it looks absolutely fantastic. Money for business and staff Here are some examples of the support available for businesses and workers. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has enabled businesses to put employees on a period of temporary leave (furlough) and apply for a UK Government grant to cover 80 per cent of those workers usual monthly wage costs, up to 2,500 a month. The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme will allow eligible self-employed individuals to claim a taxable grant of 80 per cent of their average monthly profits, up to 7,500. UK VAT-registered firms have been given the option to defer VAT payments until the end of June. There will be no interest or penalties on any amount deferred. Commercial tenants who cannot pay their rent because of coronavirus will be protected from eviction. The UK Governments Bounce Back Loans Scheme provides loans of up to 50,000 to small businesses, with a 100 per cent government-backed guarantee for lenders. The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme is available for loans or finance of up to 5m. The UK Government will provide the lender with an 80 per cent guarantee to support the lending. The Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme will repay employers the current rate of Statutory Sick Pay they pay current or former employees for sickness starting on or after March 13, 2020. The Future Fund will issue loans between 125,000 to 5 million to innovative companies which are facing financing difficulties due to the coronavirus outbreak. Details of the support available to businesses across the UK can be found at www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support China raised its emergency warning to its second highest level and canceled more than 60% of the flights to Beijing on Wednesday amid a new coronavirus outbreak in the capital a sharp pullback for the nation that declared victory over the virus in March and a warning for the rest of the world about how tenacious this virus really is. New infections spiked in India, Iran and US states including Florida, Texas and Arizona as authorities struggled to balance restarting economic activity without accelerating the spread of the pandemic. European nations, which embarked on a widescale reopening this week, looked on with trepidation as the Americas struggled mightily to contain the first wave of the pandemic and Asian nations like China and South Korea reported new outbreaks, giving rise to fears of a second wave. In China, officials described the situation in Beijing as extremely grave. This has truly rung an alarm bell for us, Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of Beijings Communist Party Standing Committee. The partys Global Times said 1,255 flights to and from the capitals two major airports were scrapped by Wednesday morning, about two-thirds of those scheduled. Beijing Capital Airport is traditionally the worlds second busiest in passenger capacity. Since the virus emerged in China late last year and spread worldwide, there have been more than 8.1 million confirmed cases and at least 443,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say the true toll is much higher, due to the many who died without being tested and other factors. The US has the most infections and deaths in the world, with a toll that neared 117,000 on Wednesday, surpassing the number of Americans who died in World War I. In a worrying development since the US hurricane season began this month, the virus has even sidelined some members of a US team that tracks hurricanes. Arizona reported a new daily high of nearly 2,400 new infections for a total of more than 39,000, while in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott insisted that the states health care system could handle the fast-rising number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Tuesday marked the eighth time in nine days that Texas set a new high for Covid-19 hospitalizations at 2,518. State health officials also reported 2,622 new cases, a single-day high. It does raise concerns, but there is no reason right now to be alarmed, Abbott said. Texas began aggressively re-opening its economy on May 1 and Abbott has continued to relax restrictions. He noted that Texans may have become lax in wearing masks or practicing social distancing and urged people to stay home as much as possible. In Oregon, a rural northeastern church has become the epicenter of the states largest coronavirus outbreak, as 236 people tested positive. The outbreak also led to Oregons second consecutive record-setting daily case count. Canada and the US, meanwhile, decided to extend to July 21 a deal to keep their border closed to nonessential travel, with many Canadians fearing cases arriving from the US This is a decision that will protect people on both sides of the border as we continue to fight Covid-19, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. As the US struggles with the first wave of the virus, other countries where it was widely thought to be under control faced disturbing developments. In South Korea, authorities reported 43 new cases amid increased public activity. Authorities said 25 of them came from the Seoul metropolitan area, where hundreds of infections have been linked to nightclubs, church gatherings, e-commerce workers and door-to-door salespeople. Twelve of the new cases were linked to international arrivals. Not long after declaring itself virus-free, New Zealand is dealing with a reemergence of the virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern assigned a top military leader to oversee the border quarantines after what she described as an unacceptable failure by health officials. They had allowed two New Zealand citizens who had recently returned from London to leave quarantine before being tested to see a dying relative. After the women tested positive, New Zealand began tracing their potential contacts to ensure the virus is contained. Their cases raised the specter that international air travel could ignite a new surge of the virus just as countries are reopening airports to boost their devastated tourism industries. The flight cancellations in China were among a number of travel limits placed around the capital. Beijing had essentially eradicated local transmissions until recent days, with 137 new cases since last week. On Wednesday, the city of 20 million people raised its threat level from 3 to 2, leading to the cancellation of classes, suspended reopenings and stronger requirements for social distancing. China had relaxed many coronavirus controls after the Communist Party declared victory over the virus in March. India which has the fourth-highest caseload after the US, Brazil and Russia added more than 2,000 deaths to its tally, after Delhi and Maharashtra states included 1,672 previously unreported fatalities. Its death toll of 11,903 is now eighth highest in the world. India has been reporting some 10,000 new infections and more than 300 deaths each day for the last two weeks. In Europe, which has seen over 184,000 virus-related deaths, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that a ceremony will be held on July 16 to honor the countrys more than 27,000 dead. Denmarks health minister urged anyone who joined a large protest against racial injustice on June 7 to be tested whether you have symptoms or not after one person in the crowd tested positive. As long as we have the virus in Europe and in Denmark, it will flare up. We are dealing with a very, very contagious disease, said Health Minister Magnus Heunicke. New York City is on track to enter Phase 2 of reopening on Monday, June 22, Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference on Wednesday morning (pictured) New York City is on track to enter Phase 2 of reopening on Monday, June 22, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced this morning. Cuomo's news came an hour after Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to commit to a date for the second phase, which will allow for outdoor dining at restaurants, in-store shopping, and the reopening of a wide range of businesses such as hair salons. City and state officials have faced mounting pressure to accelerate the Big Apple's reopening plan as COVID-19 figures have continued to fall. But Cuomo and de Blasio have been cautious, warning that moving too quickly could cause numbers to surge, as has happened elsewhere in the country after lockdowns were lifted. New York City currently has one of the lowest infection rates in the country, with just one percent of tests coming back positive over a seven-day rolling period. On Wednesday Cuomo announced that just 17 new daily deaths were reported across the state overnight. That number stands in stark contrast to figures from just 10 weeks ago, when the state was losing nearly 800 people per day. Phase 2 will allow for outdoor dining at restaurants, in-store shopping, and the reopening of a wide range of businesses such as hair salons. Pictured: A couple flouts lockdown rules by drinking cocktails outside a bar in the East Village on Saturday New York City has recorded 207,373 cases, 17,355 confirmed deaths and 4,690 probable deaths as of Tuesday New York state has recorded a total of 385,142 coronavirus cases and 24,625 deaths to date. New York City itself has recorded 207,373 cases, 17,355 confirmed deaths and 4,690 probable deaths. The Big Apple entered the first phase of the reopening on June 8, marking the end of a grueling 11-week lockdown. De Blasio has since warned that the city likely wouldn't begin the more extensive second phase until early July, despite ongoing improvements in coronavirus figures and mounting pressure to get businesses back up and running. On Wednesday morning Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to commit to a date for Phase II Just 17 new daily deaths were reported across the state overnight, Cuomo said Wednesday New York state has recorded a total of 385,142 coronavirus cases Cuomo, on the other hand, feels the city is ready to move forward with the June 22 plan. 'New York City will have been Phase 1 for 14 days. Look at all the numbers, all the numbers are good,' the governor said at his press conference Wednesday. 'Look at the number of tests, the positive tests, you look at it from the point of reopening, the numbers are good. Hospitalizations since reopening, the numbers are good, so New York City is on track to enter Phase 2 on Monday.' NYC PHASE 2 REOPENING Open under Phase II: Outdoor dining at restaurants Retail - in-store shopping, rental, repair and cleaning, barbershops and hair salons with limited service, motor vehicle leasing, rental and sales All office-based jobs - professional services, administrative support, information technology Real estate services - building and property management, leasing, rental and sales services Establishments that must remain closed: Malls, gyms, movie theaters and similar public gathering places Nail salons Indoor dining at restaurants and indoor service at bars Places of public amusement -amusement parks, carnivals, water parks, aquariums, zoos, arcades, fairs, childrens play centers, funplexes, theme parks, bowling alleys, family and childrens attractions Advertisement He then cited successes in other parts of the state that were already given the green light to enter Phase 2. 'The same metrics we use in New York City are the same metrics we've used in every region across the state and they have all shown to be accurate and effective,' he said. 'We don't change the rules for New York City. We don't change the rules for Long Island. It's one set of rules for everyone and they have worked everywhere in this state.' Cuomo called on New York City residents to remain vigilant in their personal efforts to slow the spread of the virus by continuing to wear masks and practice social distancing. 'Employers, storeowners, employees, individuals, local governments have to be responsible and do their job,' he said. At his own press conference an hour earlier, de Blasio cautioned that 'it may take another week or so' before the city could move into Phase II. The mayor said that the timing would depend on monitoring the potential impact of the mass protests that have persisted throughout all five boroughs over the past three weeks. 'We're all mindful we had a very unique situation with the protests,' de Blasio said, noting that New York City's coronavirus situation was far more complex than anywhere else in the state even before the unrest. De Blasio said he hopes coronavirus figures in the coming days will shed light on how the protests have affected community spread, given that the virus has a two-week incubation period. He also cited the influx of hundreds of thousands of workers who returned to work in the city when Phase 1 went into effect. 'If you're judging by today's numbers, we're in great shape. And I've been impressed that they've been very steady now for many days,' he said. 'But what we're looking for going into the weekend is do we see any variation there? I know the state's concerned about that as well. So it's a day to day discussion. We want to come to a decision with the state as quickly as possible.' De Blasio said that he is working closely with the governor's office in determining the date for Phase 2. After Cuomo's announcement, a City Hall spokesperson said reopening Monday is 'pretty consistent' with what de Blasio said earlier. Cuomo spoke about his experience leading New York through the coronavirus pandemic in an interview with Good Morning America on Wednesday Cuomo spoke about his experience leading New York through the coronavirus pandemic in an interview with Good Morning America on Wednesday, where he described the past 100 days as 'hell'. He revealed how he would often look to memories of his late father, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, for comfort on the worst days. 'There were many nights when I would get in bed and I couldn't sleep, and I would just be staring at the ceiling,' Cuomo said. 'And I would say to myself: "What would he say?" And I could hear his voice, you know? And I knew what he'd say and that gave me a lot of comfort, a lot of guidance My father's spirit lives in me. I know what he would say. I know his advice.' He said that while he is crushed by the number of lives lost to the pandemic, he doesn't blame himself. 'New Yorkers who died did not die because we failed them,' he said. 'The goal should be, make sure we don't lose a life that we could have saved, make sure no one dies because we failed them. 'What happened in Italy where the hospital system was overwhelmed and people died on gurneys and in hallways, where society failed, government failed. In New York, we've lost people, but we did not lose anyone who we did not give the best medical care to. 'That's how I put my head on the pillow at night and that's how I sleep.' Cuomo also quashed any speculation that he could have his eye on a job in Washington, DC, saying he does not intend to run for president or to accept a cabinet position from presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Vietnams cement sector is facing oversupply and firms need flexible business strategies to overcome the difficulties. A cement production line of Vicem Hoang Mai Company. Photo bnews.vn The sector was expected to see many challenges this year due to the complex changes of the COVID-19 pandemic, with real estate projects short of capital. Figures from the Ministry of Construction showed the country would have a cement output of more than 100 million tonnes this year while local consumption was forecast at 67 million tonnes. Meanwhile, cement exports have sharply decreased. In the first five months of the year, the sector earned only US$515 million from exports, a 13 per cent year-on-year decrease. A report from the FPT Securities Company (FPTS) said the prospects for the housing construction material segment in 2020 would continue to suffer due to tightening management of housing construction permits, along with decreased housing demand. In the short term, new construction activities would be affected, making it harder to sell cement. In the first five months of 2020, cement consumption reduced by 10 per cent year-on-year. Many firms had to lower their business goals. Vicem Ha Tien 1 Company approved its goals this year at its recent shareholder meeting with net revenue of VND8.5 trillion, down 2.9 per cent from last year. Its pre-tax profit goal reduced by 10.6 per cent to VND830 billion. Last year, the company reached a net revenue of VND8.8 trillion, up 5 per cent from the previous year and meeting 99 per cent of set targets. Its pre-tax profit grew by 14 per cent to VND928 billion while after-tax profit was VND741 billion. Vicem Hoang Mai Company also set a cautious business plan this year with consumption of 1.6 million tonnes and revenue of VND1.6 trillion. Its pre-tax and after-tax profit goals were also set lower than last year. The cement sector has seen the highest inventory in years with a sudden sharp decrease in the first five months of the year. By the end of the first quarter, the sectors inventory was 4.8 million tonnes. The company said the cement market this year would continue to be a thermometer for local producers as oversupply was more than 30 million tonnes, causing fierce competition. Therefore, weak firms would have to stop operation, especially in the central region due to increasing supply from Tan Thang Cement Company (Nghe An) with the capacity of 2 million tonnes and Nam Dong Cement Company (Thua Thien Hue). In addition, big cement factories such as Thanh Thang, Xuan Thanh, Long Son, Ha Long and SCG have invested in warehouses and distribution stations to expand the central region market. Meanwhile, the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has applied safeguard measures from 2019 to 2021 on cement imported from Viet Nam, which has greatly affected the industry, because the country is one of the three largest consumer markets. Since the tax was imposed in early 2019, exports to the Philippines have decreased by 23 per cent in volume and 17.4 per cent in value, reaching only $257 million. FPTS said difficulties both domestically and in exports would make cement inventory in 2020 reach 8 million tonnes, while cement prices in the north, central and south regions would decline by 3.3 per cent, 4.1 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively over the same period last year. Although the prospects for the construction and building materials industries in 2020 were not positive, most firms think that this is the time for restructuring towards more transparent and professional development. VNS Vietnam gains record in cement exports Viet Nams cement industry in 2019 continued gain of billions of US dollars in export value, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Peterborough city and county, Curve Lake First Nation and Hiawatha First Nation held steady at 93 cases, Peterborough Public Health reported Tuesday afternoon. Of the 93 cases, 87 have been resolved and there were two earlier deaths, leaving the number of active cases at four as of Tuesday afternoon. There are no local institutional outbreaks. The four active Peterborough cases involve a man in his 80s, a man in his 60s, a woman in her 40s who had contact with a confirmed case and a man in his 40s who had contracted it through travel, according to Public Health Ontario. Ontario COVID-19 cases This interactive map shows confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths related to the virus as reported by public health units across Ontario. The map is updated hourly. Peterborough now has a rate of 62.9 cases per 100,000 people, nearly one-quarter of the provincial average of 239 cases per 100,000 people as of Tuesday. More than 13,150 people have now been tested locally for COVID-19 as of Tuesday. About half of them have been tested through the drive-thru clinics that continue this week in the city and county. People with symptoms need to get tested through the Peterborough Regional Health Centre assessment centre, which operates daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 705-876-5086 to book an appointment. For people without symptoms who want to get tested, the drive-thru clinic at the Kinsmen Civic Centre at Sherbrooke Street and Medical Drive operates on weekdays only from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until at least Friday. No appointment is required but bring an Ontario health card. One more drive-thru clinic in the county is planned for Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Otonabee Memorial Community Centre at 24 Fourth St. in Keene. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday that she hopes opponents of a new national security law being imposed by China do not demonize and stigmatize the legislation because doing so would mean pitting themselves against residents of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. The people of Hong Kong want to see stability again, they want a safe environment where they can work and live, Lam told reporters. She said people were sick and tired of violence in Hong Kong and intervention by foreign forces in the city. Chinas ceremonial parliament in May approved the decision to enact a national security law in Hong Kong, aimed at curbing subversive, secessionist, terrorist and foreign intervention activities in the city following months of anti-government protests last year. We are part of the Peoples Republic of China, but we dont have a mechanism to protect national security, Lam said. This is a risk not just to over 7 million people in Hong Kong, its also a risk to 1.4 billion people in the country. Lam spoke ahead of a meeting this week by the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress, which exercises legislative power in China. The law is not on the meetings agenda, but Hong Kong delegate Tam Yiu Chung said in an interview Monday that items could be added. Critics consider the imminent legislation an attack on the one country, two systems framework in which China promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not found on the mainland when the former British colony was returned to Chinese control in 1997. They fear that the law will be used to curb any dissent in Hong Kong. Details about the law have not been disclosed, though Lam said the specifics will be established. She said people dont need to worry about this because at the end of the day, it is for Hong Kongs authorities to enforce the law. Please accept and understand why we have to do it, she said. The only purpose of this task is to protect Hong Kong and the country. The anti-government protests had subsiding during coronavirus restrictions, but have returned to the city in recent weeks, even though social distancing measures remain in place. Lam said Hong Kong will relax its measures gradually. It would be risky if we completely lift the measures, she said. In recent times in some cities such as Beijing, we have seen imported cases and some countries have seen an influx of cases after relaxing measures. Hong Kongs secretary for food and health, Sophia Chan, said Tuesday that the ban on public gatherings will be relaxed from eight to 50 people. Restaurants will no longer be limited by capacity. For establishments such as bars and karaoke lounges, the maximum number of guests per table will be doubled from eight to 16. The relaxation is made in light of the easing of the epidemic. We also realize that certain activities must resume, said Chan, who stressed that there was no political consideration involved in limiting the number of people allowed in public gatherings. Separately, a group of over 50 protesters gathered in a shopping mall in the citys Causeway Bay shopping district despite heavy riot police presence, shouting slogans and holding up flags that said Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our times. Police stopped and searched several people near Victoria Park, where protests were initially supposed to take place but were later cancelled. They did not appear to make any arrests. Bindi Irwin surprised fans when she wed long-time beau Chandler Powell at a secret ceremony at Australia Zoo on March 25. And on Wednesday, the wildlife warrior announced on Instagram that they're 'officially filming' season three of their Animal Planet documentary series. Alongside a photo of herself with Chandler, her mother Terri Irwin and brother Robert in their signature khaki, the 21-year-old described their life 'as a hurricane'. 'Our life is a hurricane!' Bindi Irwin (centre right), 21, announced on Instagram on Wednesday that they are filming season three of their Animal Planet TV series. Pictured with husband Chandler Powell (right), her mother Terri Irwin (centre left) and brother Robert (left) 'I'm so happy to announce that we're officially filming season three of our Animal Planet show, 'Crikey! It's The Irwins',' Bindi wrote in the post's caption. 'We can't wait to share the smiles, emotion and breathtaking moments with you. Our life is a hurricane! Thank you for being part of our journey. See you soon.' In the couple's Animal Planet TV wedding special released in April, Bindi revealed the exact moment she knew Chandler, 23, was The One. Announcement: 'I'm so happy to announce that we're officially filming season three of our Animal Planet show, 'Crikey! It's The Irwins',' Bindi wrote in the post's caption 'I knew I was going to marry him': In the couple's Animal Planet TV wedding special released in April, Bindi revealed the moment she knew husband Chandler Powell, 23, was The One Bindi said she instantly knew the American wakeboarder was her future husband when he showed an interest in her family's legacy. She said on camera: 'For me, I knew that Chandler was The One when I watched him jump into our biggest crocodile pond. 'I watched him and I went, "Yep that's it. I'm going to marry this man, it's official".' At the time of filming the wedding special, the couple were engaged. Showing an interest in her family's legacy: Bindi said on camera: 'For me, I knew that Chandler was The One when I watched him jump into our biggest crocodile pond' Bindi added in the clip: 'I can't think of my life with anyone else but Chandler, and so now here I am looking at marrying the love of my life, my best friend, and I couldn't be happier. I'm so excited.' The couple made the 'difficult decision' to host their wedding at Australia Zoo on March 25 without guests amid the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Scott Morrison enforced new restrictions on weddings at the time, with only five people allowed to attend - including the couple, the celebrant and witnesses. Husband and wife: Bindi and Chandler, 23, surprised their fans when they tied the knot at Australia Zoo on March 25 Beautiful: The wildlife warrior was every inch the blushing bride in a princess-style gown with a lace bodice and semi-sheer sleeves Love story: Bindi and Chandler got engaged at Australia Zoo in Queensland in July last year, on what was her 21st birthday and they began dating in 2015 Bindi was every inch the blushing bride in a princess-style gown with a lace bodice and semi-sheer sleeves. She styled her brunette locks in soft waves, and added an intricate beaded crown. Chandler cut a suave figure in a blue dress shirt, beige trousers and dress shoes. Bindi and Chandler got engaged at Australia Zoo in Queensland in July last year, on what was her 21st birthday and they began dating in 2015. Despite it being her birthday and engagement, Bindi admitted in an Instagram post at the time that it was a 'bittersweet' day as she was celebrating without her father. Family: Despite celebrating a birthday and engagement on the same day, Bindi admitted last year that it was 'bittersweet' as her father Steve Irwin (right) was not there. Pictured also with mother Terri Irwin and brother Robert Steve Irwin, famously known as the 'Crocodile Hunter', tragically died from a stingray barb to the heart in 2006. He was 44-years-old. Speaking to the Sunshine Coast Daily, she explained: 'I do really wish that dad was here to be able to celebrate with us as a family. 'I think in some ways he is and his spirit lives on in everything that we do, and I always feel closest to dad here at Australia Zoo.' The company said one insurance plan flagged the high price in mid-April, which led it to reduce the price to $500. The new charge was still 500% of the Medicare rate and $350 higher than the online cash price. The company declined to comment on how it settled on the new price and why it differed from the one posted on its website. Aunt Jemima will soon receive a name change and have its longstanding logo removed, Quaker Oats announced Wednesday morning. As NBC News reports, the 130-year-old brand of syrup and pancake mix will debut new packaging in fall 2020 as the brand recognizes that Aunt Jemimas origins are based on a racial stereotype. Quaker said the move is an effort by the corporation to make progress toward racial equality, NBC wrote. Aunt Jemimas new name will be revealed at a later date. Quaker also announced it will donate at least $5 million over the next five years to create meaningful, ongoing support and engagement in the Black community, the website said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Furious vegans have slammed a food van over their 'disgusting' description of a vegan burger as the Greta Thunburger. Lazy Gramps in Cheltenham, south-east of Melbourne, named their plant-based burger after 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg. According to the description on Uber Eats, the $15 burger, which is currently sold out, is 'light on facts and high on carbon monoxide'. 'You ruined my meat!' the description reads. 'She may be full of hot air, Iight on facts and high on Carbon monoxide but how deer you mock this little number!' The Greta Thunburger (pictured) includes 'home-style falafel, tomato, pickles, lettuce drizzled with a hummus tahini sauce, with minimum carbon foot print,' according to Lazy Gramps According to the description on Uber Eats (pictured), the $15 burger, which is currently sold out, is 'light on facts and high on carbon monoxide' Members of a private vegan Facebook group were not impressed. One person described it as 'tone deaf at best, disgusting at worst,' according to Yahoo News. 'No way would I support a business like this,' another wrote. Other offended social media users accused the business of 'belittling a child'. 'If someone said all this about me I'd laugh but I always find the criticism of Greta difficult because she's so young,' one person wrote. 'Besides the offence and attempt a belittling a child, [the burger] doesn't sound appealing,' another agreed. Lazy Gramps (pictured) in Cheltenham, south-east of Melbourne, named their plant-based burger after 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg Greta Thunberg is pictured in Bristol for the Youth 4 Climate strike on February 28, 2020 William, the owner of Lazy Gramps, told Daily Mail Australia description was 'light-hearted fun'. '[The description is] aimed mainly at mainstream media who we believe via Greta, push division among people by pushing a certain narrative of us versus them.' He said the plant-based burger is the third most popular menu item, behind the Big Bird chicken burger and the Hawaiian Rocker Fella beef burger. 'I say to the people offended by the description to please feel free to send in your own fun description of the Greta Thunburger and we may replace it with the current description.' He also said the burger joint, which prides itself on using locally-sourced and hormone-free ingredients, will be offering a plant-based beef burger in July. At the end of May, Northampton County heralded an encouraging change at its Gracedale nursing home: the number of new positive cases was starting to decline. By the beginning of June, there were only four new positive cases at Pennsylvanias largest nursing home under one roof. We thinks its a credit to the medical team at Gracedale and a credit to the teamwork of the good people who work there," county Executive Lamont McClure said of the downward trend in positive cases. As of Tuesday, the 688-bed facility in Upper Nazareth Township had a total of 235 confirmed positive cases among residents with eight tests pending, and 50 confirmed positive employees, with one test pending. The county previously said 45 employees completed their quarantine and returned to work. Employees who do test positive are required to quarantine and cannot work during that time, a county official said last week. The county reported the nursing home had 66 deaths so far during the pandemic. The improvement in cases comes after Gracedale changed its testing strategy, from only testing residents with a fever or respiratory symptoms as recommended by the CDC, to testing all residents in the same room after someone develops a fever or other COVID-19 symptoms. That testing will ramp up, as the state requires all of its 693 nursing homes to test every resident and employee by July 24. In addition to testing, the nursing home is still following a strict universal mask policy, McClure said. Everybody in our facilities has masks on, he said. We have fought very hard to get as much Personal Protective Equipment as possible. We are going to keep using it." Staff wear surgical or N95 masks, while residents wear surgical masks, said Becky Bartlett, Northampton Countys deputy director of administration. There are a few residents who have complained about the surgical masks and they use cloth masks. The supplies in hand now and the new testing requirements represent a stark contrast to the scrambling Pennsylvania nursing homes did at the beginning of the pandemic. The federal government really let us down at the beginning of this process, when it came to developing a test and making sure there was enough swabs and reagent to perform the tests, McClure said, noting problems persist today in the supply chain for the testing reagent. Those were very important things that we didnt have at our disposal. By the end of April, the federal government said it would directly ship a weeks worth of PPE to the more than 15,000 nursing homes across the country. ABC News reported on Saturday that several organizations representing nursing homes received reports that some of the FEMA equipment fails to meet basic health care standards. We have a sufficient supply of PPE to get us though the time being, McClure said on Tuesday. Theres never enough. Gracedale did not stop admissions during the pandemic, but did require potential new residents have two negative COVID-19 tests. The nursing home was required to allow its established residents to come back, and those who came back were taken to the negative pressure treatment area in Gracedales tower. Visitor restrictions are still in place, and no visitors have been allowed at the facility. We are hoping with the nicer weather, we might be able to do something. But at this time the visitor rules are unchanged, McClure said. Even when the nursing home gets to zero new positive cases, McClure said county officials need to plan for a second wave of infection in the region. That would include trying to get the PPE it needs and bringing universal mass testing to Gracedale. We need to stay vigilant, he said. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. COVID-19 can be transmitted between people who are standing more than four feet apart, even if they are wearing a mask, a new study has found. The research, published in Physics of Fluids, notes that face coverings alone do not prevent droplets of fluid that are projected by a cough, a discovery the researchers called alarming. It adds to the importance to also maintain proper social distancing measures, they said. The same researchers found previously that droplets of saliva can travel 18 feet in five seconds when an unmasked person coughs, so masks are important. However, repeated coughs are likely to reduce their effectiveness, the experts found in the new study, using computer models. Corona virus prevention face mask protection N95 masks and medical surgical masks at home . (iStock) The use of a mask will not provide complete protection, study co-author and University of Nicosia professor Dimitris Drikakis said in a statement. Therefore, social distancing remains essential. If a person has a coughing fit, many droplets penetrate the mask shield and some saliva droplet disease-carrier particles can travel more than 1.2 meters (4 feet), Drikakis added. The calculations from the simulation also noted that droplet size could be affected due to hitting the mask, escaping and eventually, entering the environment. The droplet sizes change and fluctuate continuously during cough cycles as a result of several interactions with the mask and face, Drikakis explained. Masks decrease the droplet accumulation during repeated cough cycles, Dr. Talib Dbouk, the studys co-author, added. However, it remains unclear whether large droplets or small ones are more infectious. The studys findings have implications for health care workers, who are often unable to maintain proper social distancing. The researchers suggested wearing much more complete personal protective equipment, including helmets with built-in air filters, face shields, disposable gowns and two sets of gloves. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization updated its guidance to recommend that governments around the world encourage the widespread use of fabric face masks while in public settings. Initially, the WHO advised only those who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or are caring for someone infected with the novel virus to wear a face mask. The WHOs new recommendations also lag behind those from other top health agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In April, the CDC updated its guidelines to recommend all Americans wear cloth face coverings while in public, especially in areas of significant community-based transmission. As of Tuesday morning, more than 8 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed worldwide, more than 2.1 million of which are in the U.S., the most impacted country on the planet. Source: foxnews.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 Why it matters: Parallels is partnering with Google to bring full Windows applications to Chrome OS via its virtualization technology. This would allow businesses to deploy cheaper Chromebooks while still being able to leverage legacy Windows applications when needed. There's no word as to general availability but this should help bolster Chrome OS in the software department. Parallels is known for allowing Mac owners to run Windows virtual machines within macOS itself. Now, Google wants to get in on the action with its own announcement of a partnership with Parallels that brings full Windows applications to Chrome OS. Unfortunately, this announcement only mentions enterprise Chromebooks, not consumer devices. Parallels will bring "full-featured" Windows applications to Chrome OS Enterprise including Microsoft Office. From a business standpoint, this could go a long way to provide much needed support for legacy Windows apps while keeping overall costs down. Businesses wouldn't have to buy expensive Windows machines and simply rely on cheaper Chromebooks. The theme surrounding the partnership seems to center around remote work, where workers may not be able to access critical Windows programs from home. "Remote work is a new reality, making efficiency, connectivity, speed, reliability, security and undisrupted access essential elements of a successful organization. At this key moment, our two organizations have formed a landmark partnership to equip enterprises with solutions that optimize their businesses and teams to meet the evolving challenges of modern work environments." While the feature appears to be aimed strictly at business customers, it's unclear whether it'll see general availability eventually. Being able to advertise Windows applications on Chrome OS could make it a big selling point. You could use Chrome OS for most things and then fire up a Parallels virtual machine for a specific Windows app when needed. Google has also confirmed that Parallels will be running locally on the Chromebook, not in the cloud. Twilight star Kristen Stewart is set to play Princess Diana in a new period drama about the Royal's life, an intriguing casting choice that set social media ablaze on Wednesday. Kristen, 30, has signed on to the movie Spencer, that will dramatise a 'critical' weekend in the early 1990s, when Diana decided that her marriage to Prince Charles wasn't working, Deadline reports. However, many were quick to react negatively to the news on on Twitter, with users joking: 'What could possibly go wrong?' while another said: 'Couldn't you have found a British actress?' Royal role: Kristen Stewart will play Princess Diana in new biopic Spencer... depicting the 'moment she decided her marriage to Prince Charles wasn't working' 'Plenty of British actresses who would have been better for this role, Princess Diana was classy, Kristen is not. They don't even look alike,' another tweet read, and one simply said: 'Kristen Stewart playing Princess Diana is wrong on so many levels.' Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain defended his decision to cast the American actress in the role, telling Deadline: 'Kristin is one of the greatest actors around today.' Pablo directed Natalie Portman in the 2016 Jackie Kennedy biopic Jackie, which earned the star a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Princess: Kristen, 30, has signed on to the movie Spencer, that will dramatize a 'critical' weekend in the early 1990s He added: 'Kristen can be many things, and she can be very mysterious and very fragile an ultimately very strong as well, which is what we need.' 'The combination of those elements made me think of her. The way she responded to the script and how she is approaching the character, it's very beautiful to see. I think she's going to do something stunning and intriguing at the same time.' The script written by English screenwriter Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) follows the Princess of Wales realising she 'needed to veer from a path that put her in line to one day be queen.' Reaction: Many Twitter users reacted negatively to the news on Wednesday Wrong: The intriguing casting choice set social media ablaze following the announcement Funny side: Others appeared to be amused by the casting choice Support: There were also a fair share of supportive tweets from fans The story is said to take place over three days during one of Diana's final Christmases at the House of Windsor in their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England. Pablo explained that the film will not delve into Diana's tragic death, but instead focus on her marriage to Charles and the love she had for children Prince William and Prince Harry. 'We decided to get into a story about identity, and around how a woman decides somehow, not to be the queen. She's a woman who, in the journey of the movie, decides and realizes that she wants to be the woman she was before she met Charles,' the director said. Per the report, the movie is expected to be a hot ticket at the virtual Cannes Market, the French film festival which will not be taking place in its usual fashion due to coronavirus. Anguished: Many Twitter users expressed their dismay at the news Suggestions: Many tweets mentioned Florence Pugh as a better choice, with one saying they would prefer to see the 5 4 British actress play 5 10 Diana 'on stilts' Production on the film - titled Spencer in reference to Diana's maiden name - is not expected to begin until early 2021. Charles and Diana were married from July 29, 1981 to August 28, 1996, and there has been endless speculation that their union was an unhappy one. In 2018, veteran royal reporter Robert Jobson - who toured the world with Charles - claimed Charles wanted to pull out of his wedding to Diana when he realised how 'incompatible' the pair were. Diana also infamously speculated over Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles in her 1995 interview with BBC Panorama when she said: 'Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.' Depiction: The troubled marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana will be the subject of the new film (Pictured above in Sicily British royal tour of Italy in 1985) At the age of just 36, Diana died in the early hours of 31 August 1997 after being injured in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris. Her partner at the time, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene. Meanwhile, American actress Kristen is not the first star to play the Royal on the big screen. Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts played the role in the 2013 drama Diana, that focused on the last two years of her life, but was ruthlessly mocked by critics at the time. Despite her work in teen movie fare with Twilight, Kristen won a supporting-actress Cesar in 2015 for the film Cloud of Sils Maria, making her the first American actress to take home France's most coveted acting award. A group of ex-armymen gathered near the Chinese embassy in Delhi on Wednesday to protest against the killing of 20 Indian Army personnel in a violent clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, officials said. New Delhi: A group of ex-armymen gathered near the Chinese embassy in Delhi on Wednesday to protest against the killing of 20 Indian Army personnel in a violent clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, officials said. The group of six-seven ex-armymen gathered near the Chinese embassy to stage a protest under the banner of Martyr's Welfare Association, they added. "We requested them to disperse from the spot and they left immediately," said Deepak Yadav, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi). The police said all the protesters were wearing masks and followed social-distancing norms. Another group of around 10 protesters belonging to the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch also gathered near the Teen Murti roundabout to protest against China in the wake of recent tension between India and China. The police detained the second group of protesters. They will be released soon. #WATCH Delhi Police detain Swadeshi Jagran Manch members and some Army veterans who were protesting outside China's Embassy to India. #IndiaChinaFaceOff pic.twitter.com/g7um9hMuGF ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 The Indian Army on Tuesday said 20 of its personnel, including a colonel, were killed in the clash on Monday night, in the biggest-ever military confrontation between the two armies in over five decades. Monday's clash was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La, when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed. The Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in a standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. Georgetown, SC (29440) Today Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. High 41F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low around 20F. Winds light and variable. The Abuja Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it recovered N1,541,801,872 billion from June 2019 to June 2020. The Zonal Head, Aminu Aliyu, made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abuja at a press briefing on the achievements of the zone within the period under review. The disclosure came just as the commissions Sokoto office announced the recovery of N400 million within six months. Breaking down the recoveries, Mr Aliyu said For individuals, we have recovered N315,825,431 million. For corporate organisations, we have recovered N285,430,343 million while we have recovered N940,546,098 million for the federal government. Also as part of our recoveries in foreign currency is 10,386 dollars and 730,500 pounds sterling, he said. Mr Aliyu said the commissions collaboration with the FBI in some investigations had yielded three arrests in cybercrime offences. We have also intensified our efforts in stemming the rising tide of cybercrimes in the country and have made several arrests and seized their laptops, phones and other gadgets used to perpetrate the offence. Some proceeds of these crimes in form of vehicles and properties have been forfeited to the federal government while others are still under investigation. Mr Aliyu said that as entrenched in EFCC corporate culture, the officers of the zone had demonstrated high level of professionalism and integrity in dispensing their duties to the public. Within the year under review, we have received a total number of 704 petitions. Out of these, 314 arrests have been made based on intelligence and merit of the cases, some have been thrown out for lack of merit while others have been transferred to other zones. In the same period, we have charged 67 cases to court and secured 43 convictions. You are all aware that courts were also affected during this lockdown. However, despite this and partial easing of same, we at the Zone are still pushing to get justice as we have been attending our court sessions as and when they sit, Mr Aliyu said. The zonal head said that 2020 has been challenging due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that it did not deter officers from their duties. This according to him is to effectively carry out their mandate, knowing that no gap must be created in the fight against corruption. He enjoined the media, civil society organisations and pressure groups to join hands with EFCC to stamp corruption out of Nigeria for good. I wish to assure you that we are ready to do more. Ample support from the Acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu and dedication from highly skilled and well trained officers of the EFCC gives that assurance. However, we cant win alone. We must all join hands together in this fight because we can win, but only together, he added. (NAN) HALIFAXNova Scotias RCMP are being accused of a series of crucial failings and mistakes in their response to Aprils deadly massacre in northern Nova Scotia as part of a proposed class-action lawsuit. Among the allegations made against the national police force is that it returned a victims car to her family with human remains and bullet casings still inside the vehicle. The suit initiated by family members of some of the gunmans victims alleges that the RCMP failed in their duty to protect the safety and security of the public during the 13-hour shooting rampage in Colchester County on April 18 and 19. The suit further takes the RCMP to task for their handling of the investigation after the fact, claiming the police force handled the Spree and its aftermath in a high-handed, self-serving and disrespectful manner. A claim filed to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia this week, naming Tyler Blair and Andrew OBrien as representative plaintiffs, alleges, among other things: That the RCMP failed to investigate reports prior to the shootings that the gunman possessed illegal weapons, that he was physically abusive to women and that he had said he wished to harm police officers; That the Mounties failed to adequately secure the perimeter of the scene of the initial shooting in Portapique, allowing the gunman to escape; That the RCMP failed to accept and act on credible information, including a witness who had been shot by the gunman, who told police the gunman was driving a replica police car; That the force failed to alert the public adequately by choosing to use Twitter rather than the provincial Alert Ready system; and That the RCMP failed to accept the assistance of the nearby Truro Police Service even after it had offered to help. Tyler Blair is the son of Greg Blair and the stepson of Jamie Blair, two victims who were among the first killed in Portapique. Andrew OBrien is the widower of Heather OBrien, a nurse who was killed in her car in Debert, N.S., along the same stretch of road that another nurse, Kristen Beaton, was also shot and killed. Twenty-two people were killed over 13 hours between April 18 and 19 in Colchester County, Nova Scotia, in one of Canadas deadliest mass shootings. Gabriel Wortman, a 52-year-old denturist, began his crimes by assaulting his longtime girlfriend, who managed to escape and hid in the woods until the morning. When police arrived on the scene of the initial shooting in Portapique, they found bodies in the road and houses engulfed in flame. Thirteen people were later reported dead. Wortman, driving a replica RCMP car and wearing a Mountie uniform, managed to escape the area that evening, and holed up in nearby Debert, N.S., overnight before continuing his rampage the next morning. By the time he was shot and killed by police, 100 kilometres away at a gas station in Enfield, N.S., the gunman had killed nine more people and burned another house to the ground. Shortly after police arrived on the scene in Portapique at approximately 10:20 p.m., according to both RCMP reports and the proposed class-action suit, they were approached by a man who had been shot by the gunman. This unnamed witness told police that he had been shot by a man in what appeared to be a police car. When police issued their first alert to the public, they did so at 11:32 p.m., advising the public to stay in their homes. They did not mention that the gunman might have been driving a replica RCMP car. In fact, it was not until 10:17 a.m. the following morning almost four hours after the RCMP talked to the gunmans longtime girlfriend, who confirmed the information about his replica police car and Mountie uniform that the RCMP announced again on Twitter that the gunman may be driving what appears to be an RCMP vehicle and may be wearing an RCMP uniform. A half-hour before that tweet, around 9:48 a.m. the gunman had attempted to enter another home in Glenholme. The residents there contacted the RCMP to tell them that they knew it was Wortman at their home, and that he was in an RCMP uniform and driving and RCMP car. According to the suit, RCMP did not respond to the call, appearing to disagree with the information provided by the Glenholme residents. In taking issue with the RCMPs use of Twitter to alert the public rather than the provincial emergency alert system, the proposed suit says that residents of the area are older and not as likely to be Twitter users; that internet coverage in the area is inadequate to disseminate warnings to the affected population; and that the information contained in those Twitter alerts was either inaccurate or insufficient to allow the population affected by the spree to properly protect itself. The lawsuit also looks to seek punitive damages against the RCMP. Among other things, it alleges that the RCMP misled OBrien by telling him that his wife, Heather OBrien was shot and killed from across the road. The RCMP also misled the public during a June 4 news conference, alleges the lawsuit, when it said that nobody was pulled over by Wortman using his replica RCMP car. Further, says the lawsuit: (The RCMP) released the automobile of a deceased family member to a Class Member after the investigation with gun casings and body parts still in the automobile. The Class Member was required to clean the automobiles (sic) themselves. The class-action suit is the second to be initiated in connection with the mass killing. The first, filed May 5, was a class-action suit against the gunmans estate. SM Steve McKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: stevemckinley@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @smckinley1 Read more about: 110 Shares Share What could go wrong with the coronavirus vaccine? I have opinions. I am not a virologist or an infectious disease specialist. I am just a doctor who has been following the pandemic in the journals and in the newspapers. But I am worried because there is a lot that could go wrong. There are the usual problems that we all know about. The vaccine will not work because it does not induce enough antibodies; it produces antibodies, but the antibodies do not kill the virus; it kills the virus, but the antibodies only last for a short time; there are bothersome side effects. These are the problems that must be overcome with every newly developed vaccine. But I worry about what else could go wrong. Here are some nightmare scenarios. A pharmaceutical company issues an optimistic press release when an advance in the development of a vaccine occurs. Invariably, the stock market jumps. The country has the sense that we are soon to vanquish COVID. The general public starts to ignore masking and social distancing. Governors relax state guidelines. We know what happens next. Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths rise over the next month. But it could be worse. The vaccine could produce enough antibodies to kill the virus and be effective for a long time but with a low level of serious side effects. What level of serious side effects would regulators accept when approving the vaccine? When balancing public health versus the need for the nation to be rescued from economic collapse, where will the balancing point be placed? In many states, the balancing point has been pushed toward economics over health. So, I have little confidence that the approval process will not be compromised by political considerations. I am also worried about how the vaccine will be tested. It must protect older adults with co-morbidities. How will they populate a test group with elderly, obese, diabetic, hypertensives, with heart disease? It is much easier to test the vaccine on healthy 20 to 40-year olds. We could end up with a vaccine that does not protect the most vulnerable who need protection the most. And it could be even worse. If healthy elderly people are not included in the test group, we could have a vaccine that only protects younger people. As we age, our ability to mount an immunologic response decreases. That is why we have a high dose influenza vaccine for people over 65. The coronavirus vaccine must also be sufficiently immunogenic to be effective in healthy older adults. And worse yet, there could be side effects that come on slowly after the vaccine is given. Under the terms of the warp speed vaccine program, pharmaceutical firms have been encouraged to ramp up production facilities so that there will be enough capacity to administer hundreds of millions of doses as s? soon as the vaccine is approved. In normal times, there is a slow ramp-up that allows time for post-marketing studies to be done. With the increased speed, we will not have the post-marketing studies done until after the vaccine has been given to millions and millions of people. If there are long term toxicities, we will not know about them until too many people have been affected. But wait, it could be worse. The coronavirus might mutate. We could dodge all the problems above with a perfect vaccine that is no longer effective against the virus. This happened with the influenza vaccine in 2014 when that years virus mutated, and the influenza vaccine became ineffective against it. The coronavirus from Wuhan has been found to have mutated as it spread across the globe. So, it is possible that it could escape from whatever vaccine is finally developed, and then we will be in big trouble. None of these might happen, but these are the nightmares that I am having. I hope that everyone working to develop vaccines and make policies about vaccines are having the same nightmares, so that they do not happen in our waking life. David Galinsky is an internal medicine physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com The COVID-19 pandemic has placed enormous physical, emotional and psychological strain on the more than 16 million health care workers in the US who have been thrust into the maelstrom of caring for the hundreds of thousands of people who have needed medical care due to the coronavirus. Doctors, nurses, EMTs and other health care workers have been required to work under stressful and often deplorable conditionsincreased patient loads without necessary staffing, a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), overtime hoursplacing them at high risk for contracting the virus. They are also witnessing horrific suffering and death. At the same time, they are living in fear of bringing the coronavirus home to their loved ones. Many have chosen to live separately from their families in an effort to protect them from infection. Doctors and nurses have been catapulted into the role of healers, family communicators, and bereavement counselors, as patients have been kept in isolation for fear of spreading the virus. Dr. Mona Masood These conditions have placed an enormous mental stress on physicians. To meet this urgent need Dr. Mona Masood established the Physicians Support Line, staffed with licensed, board certified psychiatrists. The lines mission is to offer free and confidential peer support to American physicians by creating a safe space to discuss immediate life stressors with volunteer psychiatrist colleagues who are uniquely trained in mental wellness and also have similar shared experiences of the profession. The World Socialist Web Site recently spoke to Dr. Masood about her experience setting up the support line and serving the needs of physicians in this critical time. Kate Randall: Could you tell me about how you came to set up the support line? Mona Masood, D.O.: I am an outpatient general psychiatrist in the Greater Philadelphia area and Im in private practice here. But Im also a moderator for a COVID-19 physicians group thats made up of tens of thousands of physicians, nationwide as well as internationally. Back in March when this was ramping up, in terms of the media coverage and also in the physicians circles, where it was already in the forefront even before January, it was something that was just very different from other epidemics that weve seen in past years. And I thought, I dont know if were properly covered to take this on and if were even giving this the legitimacy that it deserves. So, we started banding together in preparation for it to hit our shores. So, Im moderating the posts that are coming inthe groups main purpose it to share clinically vetted and relative information amongst physicians in order to come up with good practice guidelines for when we see COVID patients. And as Im approving ones that are clinically relevant or not, I started seeing posts that were filtering through from physicians in our group about their own personal health and their own personal wellness. A lot of them were describing anxiety and looking for reassurance that this was normal. A lot of them started planning things like their own DNRs (do not resuscitate orders) and their own wills, just in case they do end up getting it [COVID] and theyre not able to make those kinds of decisions. People were describing how they never chose medicine for this, and I feel like escaping right now, but I know that is just my anxiety. Is anyone else feeling this way? So, these kinds of things started coming through, instead of just the clinical information. And as I was seeing that If its not me, then who? attitude, I put out a post in that same group, calling all psychiatrists, Whos with me on starting a support group for our colleagues who are clearly struggling with all this? And the response was incredible. It went originally from 50 people, to 100, to 200, and now were almost close to 800 volunteerspsychiatrists, active, licensed in the United States. KR: What kind of problems have physicians been speaking to you about? MM: It sort of evolved, which is relevant, because this is a whole evolving crisis, so it would match the evolution of the crisis in general. So at the beginning it was bracing for the onslaught. Every day they were going in wondering if they would get COVID, coming back home, being reassured, going back in. So, we were dealing with a lot of anticipatory anxiety about whether the person was going to get COVID, whether their family members were going to get it, etc. Then it evolved into seeing so many cases, being overwhelmed by the number of deaths that they were seeing, the amount of health care system regulation that was failing. Then it involved into, Are we covered? Do we have enough PPE? Are we being supported by this health care system? Is this an individual kind of problem? Is there a greater health care advocacy that needs to happen, or a system change that needs to happen? It then went into unprocessed grief, such as, Im losing all these people. I dont know how to even feel about it. Im numb, Im feeling like I cant process it because I have to go right back into the battlefield again. Yes, and then it came to us as psychiatrists that these are warning signs. That even while talking about mental health during COVID, theres going to be a major mental health crisis after COVID. Because all these things were unprocessed, and like we see with the veterans, a lot happens after people return back home, when they feel safe again. So thats what were preparing for in the evolution of this crisis. KR: Would you describe it as a lot of anxiety, numbness? How would you characterize it? MM: I think there is a lot of anxiety. I think, honestly, theres a lot of grief and sadness. And its complicated grief, which would fall under the category of a potential depression, a post-traumatic stress disorder, and something called moral injury. Again, moral injury is really something that was characterized primarily for veterans. Because it was not really PTSD related to what they were experiencing, like having flashbacks, or being triggered by fireworks, which are the typical things we tend to associate with veterans. But it was more along the lines of, Did I really follow through with those orders? I feel like morally I was challenged. I didnt agree with some of the things I had to do. I feel like I could have done more. I could have done better. And what was my purpose, and was it fulfilled in this particular line of duty? And that is something that health care workers feel quite a bit. When we cant save someone, we keep thinking, What could I have done differently? Is it because of me that this person did not survive? Or could I have done something with the setting, could I have done something with a medication protocol? So, were hounded by these kinds of things after the fact. KR: So, not just the trauma but the functioning of the whole enterprise? MM: Exactly. They were asking, What am I really doing? Is my purpose really fulfilled? Was my moral compass compromised somewhere because I was so overwhelmed by what was going on, and seeing so many patients? Was I able to provide every bit of myself to each patient? KR: Do you think that the way the health care system is the US, in terms of the for-profit model, is contributing to this? Did this contribute to the way the hospitals became overwhelmed? The fact that people in the government and elsewhere, including infectious disease experts, knew something like this could happen and that they were unprepared? MM: Youre absolutely right. That is one the ongoing fears and that has come out of this. Which is, where was this breakdown, of not only communication, but validation and understanding and working together in order to deal with this kind of crisis? That is one of the issues that as physicians, were realizing more and moreand this has been the discussion both on the support line and just within physicians circles. We have been in a double bind for so long. We serve multiple masters. We serve these health care systems and also capitalist systems, how insurance companies work in our country as well as how the health care system is capitalized, where we have hospitals that are owned and operated by private entities. Theres no guarantee that the care you find in one place is going to match the care of another place. And in all of that there was a complete breakdown of the system, the system that was partly government-run and partly privately run, and the doctors were caught in the middle. As I was saying about moral injurytheres their moral duty towards their patients, which is the reason they went into medicine, with the Hippocratic oath, of serving the patient. But also, theyre realizing theyre not just serving the patients, theyre serving the system, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, the federal government. There are so many different masters, which will obviously take a toll on the people on the ground. KR: Did you find that there were particular areas of the country that were more affected? MM: Physicians from all 50 states have called and used the line. But if were going to talk about where we were getting the most calls from, it was the places that were having the most cases, such as New York, such as California. Also, I would argue that its in the places with higher populations, even if they werent hit as hard, they were still having to navigate a higher rate of seeing COVID patients than other areas. But the experiences of rural physicians were unique, too. Because they were in this limbo of whether or not they were going to be another hotspot. Also, people are coming to them looking for all these answers. But we ourselves dont know COVID, because it is new, were building this plane as were flying it. Were trying to roll in, roll out, different treatment modalities. Were trying to figure out what to do with these patients for an unknown disease: People are expecting us to have these answers. What do I tell my patients? I feel like Im letting them down. I feel like I dont have all the answers. We were dealing with all of this and, again, people were in this moral crisis: What even defines me as a physician? I cant even help these people. KR: I know that there have been some highly publicized suicides of health care workers. Did you get doctors calling contemplating this? MM: I will say that though we did not have an imminent suicide that we dealt with on the support line, we had people who definitely talked about what we call in psychiatry passive death wishes. Those are things like, What would it be like if I just wasnt here anymore? I think I could set up everything for my family. I think that they would be just fine. I dont see the purpose of what Im doing. I feel like Im failing everyone. I cant guarantee to keep my family safe. I cant guarantee keeping my patients safe. I feel like Im trapped. It would come from more of a helplessness and a hopelessness of the situation, but not a fully realized suicidal thought. We do screen for that, being psychiatrists, the realm of death thinking, but we did not have callers with a direct plan of suicide. But I will say this, one of the reasons I believe that so many psychiatrists got on board with this is that, like other physicians, we tend to see risk factors for our own field. So, for other physicians they can say, oh, this person has high cholesterol that puts them at risk for a heart attack. But for us, risk factors for things like suicide and for adverse mental health outcomes are things like when people feel like theyre in a double bind, where people feel trapped, where they feel helpless. And so, were seeing already when people start saying detachedly, Are you writing your wills? Im like, oh boy! You cant ignore that. KR: So more so than a cardiologist, for example, as psychiatrists you have a real direct connection and understanding of what theyre going through. MM: Exactly. And thats why we made this support line where the volunteers would be psychiatrists, because we have that training. But were also physicians, and so as physicians we understand the shared journey. We know what medical school was like, we know what residency was like. We know all of the settings, so when theyre talking about ventilator settings, we dont have to have them explain all of that. We dont have to tell them what the health care system is like in America, and why that is bothering them. We can just get to the root of the matter because we have a shared experience. But we have one additional quality, which is we have therapeutic modalities to help address their immediate concerns. KR: What would say could change in the future? Obviously, the pandemic itself is in one way a natural phenomenon, like a hurricane, but also the way that a society responds to it has a direct impact. So, are there any things that you see that could change, that could be learned, in terms of the government response, and the societal response? MM: So, yes, there is definitely hope. Psychiatry is all about hope. When people enter into this field, they are physicians, they want to heal. And for us, how we do that is by taking these circumstances and finding ways that can have a productive outcome. I do honestly believe that a silver lining to all of this, especially when it comes to physician wellness, is that people are normalizing this. Even among physicians there is so much self-expectation of being one that knows everything for the patient, for having all those answers. But we need to admit that as doctors were human beings, were not heroes, which what is being reported about us. There is a lot of pressure, actually, behind those words. Because being a hero means having superpowers, its not about being human. It means not being able to have vulnerabilities and not being able to get exhausted. And so there is so much pressure. People related to that right away when we started saying, how does it feel having people clapping? People would tell us, theyre walking home and they cant stand the clappingtheyre thinking about the patient who just died. Its not anyones fault, but its just what the reality of the situation is, how people are processing it. The hope in this is that were normalizing and were advocating for physician wellness. And we are again putting them back into the role that they signed up for. That we are human beings helping human beings, and that we are partners in health care with our patients. Were not the ones who know everything, were not the ones who have all the answers, were there to work with each other. And I think that that normalization of we, too, need to be well, to do well for others, is something that people are forced to see now. That we dont have to put on this facade that we can only give wellness to others, we cant receive it. KR: According to my understanding there is a stigma, especially for doctors, of seeking mental health treatment. Even to the point where you can be denied a job, or you can be sent off to a treatment program. MM: Absolutely. There are definitely repercussions for physicians in the United States seeking mental health treatment. Mental health treatment obviously comes in so many different forms. If a doctor is simply seeing a therapist, then theyd have to report that. And then if somebody just has a counselor, theyd have to report these things. Oh, and youre on a medication? Its really hard when out of one side of their mouths physicians are telling their patients they need to seek help, and then on the other side theyre saying that they, doctors, cant. Youre preaching compassion to others but not able to say it to yourself. So, its this weird hypocrisy within the medical community about mental health. Even among physicians, the way that psychiatry as a specialty is seen is that its very much stereotyped that theyre not real doctors. Even though we had to go through the same training, the same board and licensing processes, it is still seen as that kind of stigma. It almost rationalizes for other physicians, that mental health treatment is for someone else, but not for me. When the system tells you the same thing and reinforces that feeling, then its no wonder that the physician suicide rate is so high. KR: Do you have figures on that? MM: Every week we do what we call a debrief session with our volunteers, where we go over and process our own feelings, such as what were difficult emotions with somebody who calls into the line. And a lot of them will discuss how they know a colleague who committed suicide. Its a very common thing that we have some that we know, whos a physician, that committed suicide. KR: Finally, do you have any thoughts about the protests that are going on? And do you see any connection between the pandemic and these protests? MM: Absolutely. Ill say this: The connection is what its telling me about the physician support line being a sustainable intervention, which is what were doing now. Were now moving it towards being sustainable for not just COVID. COVID was the impetus, but now it is going to remain as a service. I can tell you that in our recent calls, there are some about COVID, but a lot of them are now focusing on the racial injustices, either their own experiences and triggers of being discriminated against, at being people of color or black Americans in the field of medicine. Also, there are calls about how they can be better providers for black Americans, how can they look into their own biases and all of that. Because theres a lot a research even prior to the protests about racial discrepancies in care that is provided. So medicine is interesting, this whole field, because we see everyone. In the end the human body is going to have illness, its going to have the same issues whether youre from one race or another. So, physicians are going to have to deal with changes of our population, of what is affecting people psychologically, socially and medically. KR: There are also racial disparities in the infection rate from COVID and the death rate. There are definitely biases and discrimination in the health care system that leads to that, but its really an economic thing. MM: Theres so much, but economy and race and all of these things are intertwined. And so, all of these things create this perfect storm. For us, in our debriefs, when were talking about whats going on with the protests, it was not very surprising to us as psychiatrists that this was coming in the time of COVID. I think there is just so much vulnerability going on for all of us right now. The things that we were sweeping under the rug for so long have really come up to the forefront. People are raw, they are raw in so many different ways and were going to continue seeing these kinds of things come up because of it. COVID really did unearth a lot of medical issues, for black Americans and people of lower socioeconomic standing as well, because of these health care disparities. Its a crucial time in our history. I think we have the opportunityas I said, Im a psychiatrist and my whole thing is about hopeI do hope that what comes out of this is that we have to break down things to have breakthroughs. So, I hope that things, though theyre overwhelming and we feel like its one hit after another, its in these moments of discomfort that meaningful change occurs. The Air Force has inked a contract for thousands of sets of body armor specifically designed to fit its female security forces airmen, and may start receiving the new armor as early as this fall. The contract, to company TSSi of Harrisonburg, Virginia, is for the Aspetto "Mach 'V'" body armor system, according to a service release. Although the total contract award is redacted in government contracting documents, individual systems can be purchased for roughly $1,600. According to Aspetto, the body armor was designed specially for Air Force security forces and featured a reinforced drag handle; design elements to help the plate carrier retain its shape; and a quad release feature that allows an airman to take off the carrier in one second, among other details. The Air Force plans to buy up to 5,600 body armor systems, with delivery starting this fall and completing within a year, contracting documents state. "Our female Airmen had gaps due to poor fitment issues, Maj. Saily Rodriguez, Female Fitment Program Manager, said in a statement. "The new gear fits properly which improves protection and offers better comfort for gear that has to be worn in difficult environments and conditions." The Air Force announced last November that it was pursuing better-fitting body armor for its female security forces members, and would use a "try-and-buy" approach to select a winning design from five prototypes. Security Forces troops defend Air Force bases and provide other law enforcement functions. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein has described acquiring better-fitting equipment and uniforms for female airmen as one of his priorities. Air Force officials hailed the relatively quick process of acquiring the armor as a case of effective collaboration between multiple teams and commands. "This is a perfect example of Air Force Materiel Command getting feedback from the field and delivering the Air Force We Need to the warfighter," Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr., AFMC commander, said in a statement. "I'm proud of the team pulling together to do what is right for our Airmen. They deserve gear that offers the protection they need while allowing them to complete their mission." Last year the Air Force authorized two-piece flight suits as part of the effort to make gear that works better for female airmen. Service officials have also cited plans to redesign other gear used by female pilots who historically have had to make do with uniforms and equipment designed for men. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. Related: Coming Soon: Better-Fitting Body Armor for Female Security Forces Airmen Utica, N.Y. Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri plans to proactively publish personnel records for every sworn officer in the citys police department. In a letter to the Utica Common Counsel, published online, Palmieri said personnel records for all police officers will be posted on the citys website. The first records to be published will be those of the chief and deputy chief. Palmieris move comes days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation repealing a part of the Civil Rights Law that has traditionally shielded law enforcement records from public access. Officers personnel files can now be released upon request. My administration and the Utica Police Department recognize that transparency and substantive engagement are critical for police legitimacy and acceptance in the eyes of the community it serves, Palmieri wrote. In his letter, Palmieri said he discussed the decision with police leadership, city lawmakers and the police officers union. The files to be released include officer discipline as well as commendations. Officers personal information, which is protected by law, will not be disclosed. He noted that UPD is an accredited police department and said he is proud of the departments record. Palmieri said it will take some time to get the records online, due to the volume of files. Palmieris announcement came the same day New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would begin publishing the results of officer disciplinary hearings for the New York Police Department, according to Politico. The districts of Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts along the Chinese borders along with all State intelligence units have also been alerted, said Superintendent of Police Khushal Sharma. Following the violent face-off in Galwan valley in Ladakh between Indian troops and Chinese Peoples Liberation Army forces, Himachal Pradesh has been put on alert. An alert has been issued to the districts of Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti, which border China, to ensure the security of the local population and to collect intelligence to plan the future course of action, said police. All State intelligence units have also been alerted in this regard, State police spokesperson Khushal Sharma said. In view of the recent face-off between PLA of China and Indian Army in Ladakh sector, an alert and an advisory have been issued to the districts of Kinnaur and Lahul-Spiti to take all precautionary measures to ensure the security of the local population and also to collect intelligence so as to plan future of course of action, said Superintendent of Police, Khushal Sharma. Read also: China suffered 43 casualties in the Galwan valley face-off late on June 15, say Indian intercepts Read also: At least 20 Indian soldiers martyred in India-China face-off in Galwan Valley The violent face-off happened on late evening and the night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on June 16. Read also: Congresss Kapil Sibal questions Centres stance on India-China standoff For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Three suicides were reported in the tricity on Wednesday, the police said. In the first case, a 16-year-old boy of Dashmesh Nagar in Nayagoan committed suicide at his residence on Wednesday by hanging himself from the ceiling fan. The boy was a student of Class 11 in a private school of Chandigarh. Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Gursher Singh said, as per parents, the boy had been upset since learning about Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajputs suicide on June 14. He was a die heart fan of Rajput. He committed suicide when parents were not home. The parents have, however, said no to any investigation, the DSP added. Meanwhile, a 28-year-old woman living in Lohgarh of Zirakpur was found hanging at her rented accommodation on Wednesday. Station house officer Gurwant Singh said, We got information that a foul smell was emanating from a room in Lohgarh. When we reached, we found a woman hanging from the ceiling fan on Tuesday afternoon. No suicide note was found, the police said. The woman was divorced and was working in a private firm in Sector 34. The victim is survived by a baby girl, who lives with her grandmother nearby in Zirakpur, said the SHO. The body has been kept in the mortuary of civil hospital. Police have initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC. KALKA YOUTH FOUND HANGING A 20-year-old resident of Kalka was found hanging at his house, the police said on Wednesday. The victims brother told the police that on Tuesday night, just after 25 minutes of his brother going to his room to sleep after dinner, he found him hanging from the ceiling. Police said they did not find any suicide note in the room. The deceased is survived by his mother and brother. The family told the police that the victim had sustained burn injuries in an accident last year and had slipped into depression. Police have initiated inquest proceedings. Nationwide Fathers Eve Event Combines Free Virtual and In-Person Gatherings to Bring Together, Celebrate Dads June 20 Fatherhood is rarely easy, especially during trying times, and men often dont seek out the support they need. Thats why Minnesota dad John Francis created Fathers Eve as a way for dads to connect, share and celebrate fatherhood the Saturday before Fathers Day. And its gaining momentum: What began as a single gathering in his St. Paul garage in 2012 has now grown to include thousands of participants in events in 60 cities across the country, as well as in Mexico and Canadaand its still growing. In the past, Fathers Eve gatherings have been in-person events at venues like bars and restaurants, which due to COVID-19 are not permitted in many states. So this year, on Saturday evening, June 20, Francis is also taking the celebration virtual allowing even more fathers to participate than ever before. From New York City, to Cincinnati, to St. Paul, to Fresno, to many locations in between, some dads will join in small, socially distanced gatherings, and others will join the party solo from their homes. Francis is turning his Mendota Heights, Minn., garage into Times Square and will be broadcasting live to dads across the country for a countdown and a live toast to fatherhood at 8 p.m. four times once for each time zone. His garage will be command central and will have screens displaying social media posts and videos from other events. Dads across the country can sign up for the free 30-minute online event to be livestreamed on FathersEve.com and Facebook Live from 7:40 to 8:10 p.m. in each time zone by visiting the website. The 8 p.m. local-time live toast will be accompanied by videos of supporting partners as well as a special keynote from John Sweeney (aka the infamous Jiggly Boy, who welcomed Kevin Garnett back to the Timberwolves in 2015 in a special way that went viral and earned more than 25 million YouTube views). Sweeney is also co-owner of the Brave New Workshop, motivational speaker and dad to two boys. The Fathers Eve events support Childrens Miracle Network, with participants encouraged to donate throughout the evening. Sport Clips is this years events national sponsor. Dad-group partners include City Dads, National At Home Dads, Fathering Together and Dads Married to Doctors. Usually, Fathers Eve events happen in silos, with each city doing their own thing, says Francis. This virtual Fathers Eve event will connect dads across the country like we havent done before, and Im excited to reach an even bigger group of dads, to let them know they are not alone, especially during this difficult time in our world. Good fathering is especially critical in this time of crisis and uncertainty. For more information on Fathers Eve, visit http://www.FathersEve.com. Media Contact: Megan Anderson, Bellmont Partners megan@bellmontpartners.com, (612) 423-0335 jet1445 wrote: High school students who feel that they are not succeeding in school often drop out before graduating and go to work. Last year, however, the cityas high school dropout rate was significantly lower than the previous yearas rate. This is encouraging evidence that the program instituted two years ago to improve the morale of high school students has begun to take effect to reduce dropouts. Which one of the following, if true about the last year, most seriously weakens the argument? (A) There was a recession that caused a high level or unemployment in the city. (B) The morale of students who dropped out of high school had been low even before they reached high school. (C) As in the preceding year, more high school students remained in school than dropped out. (D) High schools in the city established placement offices to assist their graduates in obtaining employment. (E) The antidropout program was primarily aimed at improving studentsa morale in those high schools with the highest dropout rates. OFFICIAL EXPLANATION Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer. The argument concludes that a program instituted two years ago to increase morale has ultimately caused the recent decrease in high school dropouts. You must always recognize a causal conclusion when one is presented to you! Whenever you encounter a causal conclusion, ask yourself if the relationship must be as stated by the author or if another explanation can be found. In simplified form, the conclusion appears as follows: P = program to raise high school morale, RD = reduction in dropouts, PRD. Regardless of the question asked, this assessment is helpful. The question stem asks you to weaken the argument, and according to the How to Attack a Causal Conclusion section there are five main avenues of attack you should be prepared to encounter. The correct answer, (A), falls into one of the most frequently occurring of those categories: the alternate cause.The answer attacks the conclusion by introducing an alternate cause: it was not the morale program that led to a decrease in high dropouts, but rather the fact that no jobs were available for individuals contemplating dropping out of high school. The job availability factor is important because the first sentence of the stimulus indicates that high school students who drop out go to work. Thus, if a recession led to a high level of unemployment, this could cause high school students to rethink dropping out and stay in school.Answer choice (B): At best, this answer confirms that some of the high school students had a low morale, and in that sense, the answer strengthens the argument. At worst, the answer choice is irrelevant.Answer choice (C): The argument indicates that the dropout rate is lower relative to the preceding year; there is no claim that the dropout rate ever exceeded the retention rate. Thus, to suggest that more students stayed in school than dropped out has no effect on the argument.Answer choice (D): This is a Shell Game answer. The stimulus refers to high school dropouts. This answer choice refers to high school graduates.Answer choice (E): The argument uses information about the citys overall dropout rate. Therefore, the target high schools of the anti-dropout program are irrelevant._________________ Bengaluru, June 17 : Karnataka police has arrested an overstaying German national wanted for kidnapping and causing bodily harm to a person in his home country, an official said on Wednesday. "On receipt of credible information by the CID Interpol Division officers, the Red Corner Notice subject (German national Alexander Bruno Wehnelt) was traced at Hulimangala village," said a police official. Wehnelt (55) escaped from Germany and took shelter in Bengaluru. The Interpol Division of CBI NCB - New Delhi had communicated to the Interpol liaison officer in Karnataka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) about Wehnelt, directing extensive search measures. NCB - Wiesbaden is on the hunt for Wehnelt for the crimes he committed in 2015. "A special team of officers was constituted by CID - Interpol division under the supervision of ADGP B. Dayananda and Interpol liaison officer and efforts were made to trace the subject," said the official. On Monday, the police received credible information leading up to his arrest. "It was learnt that his visa had expired in 2016 and he tried to show a visa which was issued in December 2019 which had expired on Saturday," said the official. Prima facie, it appeared that Wehnelt had tampered with his visa and the police are probing on that front as well. He was handed over to Hebbagodi police station for overstay and a criminal case has been registered under the Foreigners Act. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said India will always remain indebted to its soldiers who lost their lives in Ladakh's Galwan protecting the country's territory, and their bravery reflects the country's commitment towards the motherland. Photograph: Umar Ganie for Rediff.com IMAGE: A BSF personnel stands guard at a checkpoint along the Srinagar-Ladakh national highway at Gagangeer in Kashmir's Ganderbal district. In a series of tweets, Shah said the pain of losing the brave soldiers at Ladakh's Galwan cannot be put in words. 'India will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifice. Entire nation and Modi government stands firmly with their families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured,' he said. The home minister said the nation salutes the immortal heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep Indian territory safe and secure. 'Their bravery reflects India's commitment towards her land,' he said, adding, 'I bow to the families who have blessed Indian Army with such great heroes'. 20 Indian soldiers, including a colonel, were killed on Monday evening in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the sacrifice of the Indian soldiers will not go in vain. He also said that India wants peace but is capable of giving a befitting reply, if instigated. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is most important, Modi said in his opening remarks on day two of the virtual conference with chief ministers on coronavirus. The opposition had been questioning the government's 'silence' on the biggest ever military confrontation between the two armies in over five decades. 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. U.S. Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia on Tuesday called for transparency in the Army investigation of a missing Fort Hood soldier whose Houston family said had been sexually harassed, while the case garnered celebrity attention. Private First Class Vanessa Guillen was last seen on April 22 at around 1 p.m. in the parking lot of her barracks, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division Command said at the time. Garcia said that she has met with Army leaders at the post in Killeen, including Col. Ralph Overland, the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment to which the 20-year-old Guillen was assigned. She said she wanted to know what they have been doing to find Vanessa and ensure that there is more transparency in this case. Gloria Guillen, the soldiers mother, said that her daughter told her that a sergeant had sexually harassed her at the base. She told me that she didnt feel safe there, the mother said during the online conference. The soldiers family said they are unsatisfied with the Armys investigation and dont trust it. Information for tips Army CID Special Agents: (254) 287-2722 Military Police Desk: (254) 288-1170 Anonymous tip online: Army Criminal Investigation See More Collapse They did not begin looking for my daughter until the next day with only 20 soldiers, the mother said, crying. Why didnt they close the base immediately? Why didnt they look for a girl properly? Mayra Guillen, the soldiers older sister, said the family doesnt know what the Army investigators have been doing or if they have found anything. We have received no meaningful information from the investigators, said Mayra Guillen. Its close to being two months, and they say they have no lead. You are a military (organization) and tell me that you have no lead, when you are trained to find soldiers in the middle of the war abroad? Thats hard to believe. Chris Grey, the spokesman for the Army CID, said investigators have no credible information or report that Guillen was sexually harassed. We are completely committed to finding Vanessa and aggressively going after every single piece of credible information and every lead in this investigation, Grey said in a news release. We will not stop until we find Vanessa. Mayra Guillen said the family wants the FBI to take over the investigation. The family is also asking that volunteers with Texas Equusearch, who have been helping in the case, be allowed to search inside the base. The sister said family and friends will continue rallying every week outside the base until Guillen is found. READ MORE about Vanessa Guillen case. At the news conference, the president of the League of United Latin American Citizens Domingo Garcia announced a reward of $25,000 for information that leads to finding Guillen. The total amount is now $50,000 after the Army raised its reward from the initial $15,000 to $25,000 on Monday. Additionally, Houstonian rapper Baby Bash pledged $5,000 in a Facebook post. Guillens case is gaining national attention with the intervention of high profile figures. Among them, actress and filmmaker Salma Hayek posted a photo to her 15 million followers on Instagram during the weekend, holding a bilingual sign with a picture of the soldier. The post calls to bring Vanessa back. Vanessa, you are not alone. We are all with you and will not stop until you come back, reads a part of Hayeks message written in Spanish. olivia.tallet@chron.com Twitter.com/oliviaptallet Some 6,000 U.S. and Polish troops on Wednesday conducted joint exercises in Poland, modified because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The manoeuvres come as U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a major reduction in U.S. troop strength in neighbouring Germany. Trump's move was widely criticized by members of his own Republican party as a gift to Russia and a threat to U.S. national security. The U.S. currently has about 34,500 troops in Germany far fewer than during the Cold War, when Germany was the central focus of American and NATO efforts to deter invasion by the former Soviet Union. In recent decades, Germany has hosted key American military facilities and provided a transit point for troops deploying to and from the Middle East, including during years of conflict in Iraq. Commenting relations between the countries, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said Tuesday the Polish government has been in talks with the U.S. about an increase of U.S. troops in Poland, but he said that that issue was "unrelated to recent U.S. declarations and U.S.-German relations regarding a possible reduction of the U.S. presence in Germany." Czaputowicz also said that the U.S. troop presence in Germany serves the security of Poland. (Representative Image) Press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of the meetings of NATO Defence Ministers NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 16 Jun. 2020 (As delivered) Good morning. Over the next two days, NATO Defence Ministers will take steps to ensure our security in a more uncertain world. We face global challenges. So we must take a global approach. Keep our Alliance strong militarily, and make it stronger politically. That is my vision for the reflection on NATO 2030, which I launched last week. At this meeting of defence ministers we will take decisions on: Our preparations for a possible second wave of COVID-19; Updating national resilience guidelines; Deterrence and defence, including our response to Russia's new nuclear-capable missiles; And NATO missions and operations, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, NATO and Allied armed forces have played a key role in supporting civilian efforts: With some 350 flights airlifting hundreds of tons of critical supplies around the world; Almost 100 field hospitals; And more than half a million of troops have supported the civilian response. All of this has helped to save lives. Now, NATO is preparing for any future health crisis. I expect ministers will agree on three things: A new operational plan, to be ready for any second wave of COVID-19; A stockpile of medical equipment to provide immediate assistance to Allies and partner countries; And a fund to acquire critical medical supplies. These three elements together will ensure that we can strengthen our response to a possible second wave of the pandemic. So that critical assistance gets to the right place at the right time. But COVID-19 does not mean that other challenges have gone away. Ministers will also discuss the NATO requirements for national resilience. These cover critical sectors such as energy, transport, and tele-communications. Any vulnerability in these areas can be exploited by potential adversaries. I expect ministers will agree updated baseline requirements for resilience. Particularly focusing on threats from cyber; the security of supply chains; and foreign ownership and control. We will also discuss and address the security implications of Russia's growing suite of nuclear capable missiles. Russia's deployment of the SSC-8 missile system led to the demise of the INF Treaty last year. Since then, Russia has continued to modernise its missile capabilities, including with hypersonic weapons. I expect Defence Ministers will agree a substantial and balanced package of political and military measures in response. This includes strengthening NATO's air and missile defences. Several Allies have announced major investments in new capabilities such as patriots and SAMP/T. We will also strengthen our advanced conventional capabilities, for example with fifth generation combat aircraft. And we will adapt our exercises and intelligence to address new challenges. NATO's response will also be discussed by Ministers at the meeting of the Nuclear Planning Group. We will continue to ensure the NATO nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective. NATO will not mirror Russia's destabilizing behaviour. We have no intention to deploy new land-based nuclear missiles in Europe. And NATO remains strongly committed to effective arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, which make a key contribution to our security. So we continue to call for all actors, including Russia and China, to engage constructively. A new arms race would benefit nobody. And make the world a more dangerous place. We will also discuss NATO's missions and operations, including in Afghanistan and in Iraq. In Afghanistan, the situation remains challenging. NATO will continue to adjust our presence in support of the peace process. But for the peace to succeed, the Taliban must live up to their commitments. To reduce violence, break all bonds with Al Qaida and other international terrorist groups, and engage in intra-Afghan talks in good faith. In Iraq, we remain committed to enhancing NATO's training mission. And to increase our presence when conditions allow. In full coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Global Coalition. Iraqi security forces have made great strides in suppressing ISIS and other terrorist groups. But terrorists are trying to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic. And their attacks have increased in recent months. I spoke with Prime Minister al-Kadhimi recently, and underscored that NATO stands with Iraq in the fight against international terrorism. During the meeting of defence ministers we will be joined by our colleagues from Finland, Sweden and Australia. And by EU High Representative/Vice President Borrell. This is a clear sign of our deepening ties with like-minded countries and organisations. With that, I am ready to take your questions. PIERS CAZALET [Deputy Spokesperson]: And for the first question, we will go to Evelyn Kaldoja from Postimees in Estonia. EVELYN KALDOJA [Estonian Daily Postimees]: Hello. Can you hear me now? Okay? Am I coming through? PIERS CAZALET: We can hear you. EVELYN KALDOJA: Okay. Good. In the light of the experience with COVID-19 this spring, what does NATO's intend to do to be better prepared next time, be it the feared second wave of the disease or some other pandemic? JENS STOLTENBERG [NATO Secretary General]: What we have seen over the last months is that NATO and military forces across the Alliance have played a key role in supporting the civilian health services in responding to the COVID-19 crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, because we have seen that military aircraft have lifted hundreds of tons of supplies, have been critical in providing support to different Allies and partner countries, have transported medical personnel, but also actually helped to transport the patients in a safe way. And we have seen how military personnel have been key in everything from logistics, controlling borders, disinfecting public spaces and so on, setting up field hospitals, providing medical capabilities. And very much, all of these efforts have been coordinated by our Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General Wolters, and he has provided different kinds of capabilities, airlift capabilities, to different countries over the whole pandemic since March, or actually also before that. Now we are preparing for a second wave. And we are actually doing three things. We are agreeing an operation plan which will enable us to strengthen the way we coordinate our efforts to be even faster in providing support in an even better coordinated way. We are setting up a stockpile with equipment, because we have seen the need for having equipment ready, available. And we are setting up a trust fund, or a fund to help to finance our efforts. So I think this highlights that, yes, this is a civilian crisis. This is a health crisis. But military, military personnel and military capabilities have played a key role in the response. And we have to make sure that that's even stronger and more available if there is a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. PIERS CAZALET: Now we will move to Robin Emmott from Reuters. ROBIN EMMOTT [Reuters]: Thank you very much. Thanks for the question. So, President Trump has now publicly commented on his decision to withdraw some 10,000 troops from Germany. Are you now in a position to give us your sense of what that means and whether this decision weakens in any way one of the pillars of the post-war security order? Thank you. JENS STOLTENBERG: President Trump and I discussed this issue during a phone call last week. And my message was that the US presence in Europe, it's good for Europe, but it's also good for North America and the United States, because the transatlantic bond is essential to the strength and the success of the Alliance. It is good for Europe because the presence of troops, military capabilities from the United States, but also from Canada, links the defence of Europe to forces, capabilities from North America. That's the core of the transatlantic alliance. But it's also good for the United States, because we have to remember that peace and stability in Europe is, of course, important also for North America. But also the fact that the US presence in Europe is not only about protecting Europe, but it's also about projecting US power beyond Europe. We have seen that bases like the Ramstein Base, the Landstuhl medical facility and many other US bases in Germany, they are essential for what the US has done over decades in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq and in Africa. And for instance, the US Africa Command is not in Africa. The US Africa Command is in Europe, in Stuttgart. And the command of the 6th Fleet is in . . . which is actually patrolling down south of Africa, is in Italy. So it just illustrates that US presence in Europe, yes, it's of great value for European Allies, but it also matters for the security of the United States. Therefore, I welcome the fact that in the last couple of . . . in the last years, we have seen increased presence of both US but also Canadian troops in Europe. We have seen a new US-led battlegroup in Poland. We have seen more rotational presence of US troops in the Baltic region, in Black Sea Region. We have seen, of course, the new missile defence site in Romania, with also new ships deployed in Rota in Spain. In my own country, Norway, we have seen more US Marines than we have seen for a long time. And on top of that, we also, of course, see more prepositioned US equipment, more exercises, more prepositioned supplies. And then we see also increased air and naval presence, including, for the first time in a long . . . in decades, we saw a US aircraft carrier taking part in the Exercise Trident Juncture. And just as we speak, we have the BALTOPS Exercise in the Baltics, with roughly half of the troops are US. I say this because the big picture is that over the last years, we have seen an increased US presence. Then, of course, the United States and the President has announced what they have announced. But it remains . . . but it's not yet decided how and when this decision will be implemented. And I expect this to be an issue that will be discussed at the upcoming defence ministerial meeting. And I have spoken with the President, I have spoken to other representatives of the US administration. And I've also spoken with the German Defence Minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, so there's now an ongoing dialogue on this issue. And my message is, and remains to . . . has been and remains to be, the importance of a North American, US, Canadian presence in Europe, because that binds Europe and North America together and that's good for both Europe and North America. PIERS CAZALET: And we now move to Thomas Gutschker from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. THOMAS GUTSCHKER [FAZ]: Thank you very much. Secretary General, on that same issue, you are speaking about the importance of the US presence in Europe, but then, of course, there is a big difference between a presence that is permanent, as it is now in Germany, and the rotating presence in Eastern Europe. So if the US were to move part of these troops, for instance, to Poland, which has been calling for it, and these troops were to be based permanently in Poland, in your opinion, would this be in . . . still be in compliance with the NATO-Russia Founding Act? And does NATO uphold, or intend to uphold, this NATO-Russia Founding Act? Thank you. JENS STOLTENBERG: First of all, there are many different kinds of presence. Of course, we have exercises, they will last for weeks or perhaps a month. And then the troops will be placed another place, or deployed to another place. But what we very often refer to as 'rotational presence' is actually a presence where we have what they call 'heel-to-toe rotational presence'. So, for instance, the battlegroups in Poland, the US-led battlegroup in Poland, it's always there. It's US-led, that are also other Allies contributing. But then, the forces are rotating, but there is a continuing, continued rotation. So the battlegroup is always active, the battlegroup is always operational, but the troops, which are part of the battlegroup, are changing regularly. So rotational presence also provides security. Rotational presence is also important for our collective deterrence and defence. When it comes to the NATO-Russia Founding Act, NATO's presence in the eastern part of the Alliance with the new battlegroups and with more NATO presence is not violating the NATO-Russia Founding Act. The challenge now is that Russia has violated the NATO-Russia Founding Act several times, not least through their aggressive actions in Ukraine and the presence that NATO has discussed in the eastern part of the Alliance is within the framework of the . . . is not violating the NATO-Russia Founding Act. PIERS CAZALET: And now we move to Teri Schultz from Deutsche Welle. TERI SCHULTZ [Deutsche Welle]: Hi, thank you very much. Following up on this issue to some extent, don't you feel, Secretary General, that, that even the fact that this, this move, this announcement was done in such a disjointed way with you even calling it a leak last week, before President Trump made his, made his comments last night. Is this the way that you would like NATO to operate that, sort of, we're piecing together parts of what may or may not end up being the implemented policy simply by media reports? And on the same note, he bragged about his relationship with you in his comments yesterday. Do you feel that, in the interests of countering disinformation, that it would be important for you to perhaps explain to him in your next call how NATO is funded, the fact that no country actually owes billions to NATO? Isn't this an important part of all of our jobs in countering disinformation? Thanks. JENS STOLTENBERG: First of all, this was an issue I discussed with President Trump, I think it was Monday last week. So, this is an issue which I then discussed with him. Last week this was media reports, because it was not confirmed by the United States. Now, these reports are confirmed and therefore it's also, what should I say, easier to comment because now it's officially announced by the United States. And that's exactly why I went into more details in my comments today than I did last week. Of course, the US presence in Europe and in Germany in particular has been an issue we have discussed, I have discussed, with the President, with representatives of the US administration, actually, for several years. We have seen adjustments over many years. And over the last years we have seen an increase. And I expect this to be an issue at the defence ministerial meeting this week, because presence of US troops, Canadian troops, is important for NATO. Adjustments have been part of the, what should I say, has been . . . it's nothing new, we have seen significant adjustments in US presence in Europe over several years. During the Cold War, we had hundreds of thousands of US troops in Europe. Then we saw significant reduction. And now, again, we have seen some increase. The US has also made clear that exactly how and when this decision will be implemented is not yet decided. And therefore, I think it is important that we now have a dialogue within NATO on this issue. It's a bilateral arrangement between the US and Germany. But, of course, it matters for the whole Alliance. On defence spending, while President Trump has been very clear on the importance of increased defence spending across Europe and Canada, my message to him has been that NATO Allies are actually delivering. We have seen now several years with increased defence spending across the Alliance. Allies are adding in total 130 billion extra US dollars from 2016 up to the 2020, this year. And that's a significant increase. But we still have a way to go to meet the 2 per cent guideline. And the United States, not only President Trump, but also President Obama and previous presidents have been extremely focussed, or have been focussed, on burden-sharing, defence spending. And therefore, I also pushed that agenda, underlining the importance of fairer burden-sharing within the Alliance. So NATO is a platform to have open discussions about burden-sharing, but also military presence, and I expect this to be an issue, as I said, at the defence ministerial meeting. PIERS CAZALET: And now we go to Mustafa Sarwar from Radio Free Europe. MUSTAFA SARWAR [Radio Free Europe]: Thank you very much, Mr Secretary . . . Secretary General. You said in February that Norway and Germany offered to help with the all-Afghan talks. Are they still ready to help with the talks that were to start on March 10 this year? And is there any evidence to show that the Taliban have severed ties with al-Qaeda? Thank you very much. JENS STOLTENBERG: We have seen some progress in Afghanistan. We have seen the agreement between the United States and Taliban. We have seen some steps, important steps being taken when it comes to prisoners' release. And we have seen some reduction in violence, especially when it comes to attacks. There are no attacks against NATO and US forces. And we are also seeing a clear commitment from the Taliban to break all ties with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. At the same time, the situation in Afghanistan remains fragile, difficult and there are many obstacles that we have to overcome before we have a lasting political solution in Afghanistan. We continue to support the peace efforts. We strongly believe that this has to be an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process. That's the reason why we really hope and support all efforts to start the intra-Afghan negotiations. I have . . . this is, again, an issue I've discussed with . . . I spoke with President Ghani and also Mr Abdullah a few weeks ago about this issue, an issue I also discussed with President Trump. And we have an ongoing conversation now in NATO on how we can best support the peace efforts by adjusting our presence, but making sure that we do that in a coordinated way. And, of course, we need to see progress on the ground, meaning that we need to see that the Taliban is breaking all their ties with al-Qaeda. We need a stronger and more firm demonstration of that. We need to see a reduction of violence. And, of course, we need the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations. And that's also the reason why NATO Allies, what should I say, do this step by step. We assess, monitor the situation on the ground and based on that, we make decisions on adjusting our presence. On the role of Germany and Norway, I'll be careful being too specific, but I know that these nations and then they can, of course, speak for themselves, that they have announced previously that they, together with other nations, are ready to provide support. Exactly how and when, I think it's best to leave to them to answer and be more specific. PIERS CAZALET: And next, we go to Serife Cetin from Anadolu. SERIFE CETIN [Anadolu Agency]: Thank you very much, Secretary General. I would like to ask you a question about the recent developments in Libya, and I was wondering what role could NATO play in Libya and also in assisting the internationally recognised and UN-backed Libyan government. And I also would like to ask you, there are reports that more than 100 bodies have been discovered in this city of Tarhuna, which is the last stronghold of warlord Khalifa Haftar. Do you have a comment on these mass graves? Thank you. JENS STOLTENBERG: The situation in Libya remains extremely difficult, dangerous and, of course, we are deeply concerned about the reports about mass graves. And I support also, the UN called for an investigation into that to find out exactly what happened. But it just underscores the need for a political, negotiated, peaceful solution to the conflict in Libya. And therefore, NATO also strongly supports the UN-led efforts. We support the initiative taken at the Berlin Conference - the Berlin Process, which is also providing support to the UN efforts. NATO is also concerned about the increased Russian presence in the eastern Mediterranean, in general, in Syria, but also, of course, in Libya. And we have to follow and monitor that very closely. We have had discussions about the situation in Libya in NATO over the last weeks in several different formats. Libya is not on the agenda for the defence ministerial meeting, but I expect that Allies may raise that issue, because what's happening in Libya has a direct impact on the security of especially our southern Allies, but actually for the whole of NATO. PIERS CAZALET: And now we move to Ansgar Haase from DPA. ANSGAR HAASE [DPA]: Thank you. Secretary General, last week, NATO recognised Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner. Can you tell me if this also means that Hungary has lifted its veto, blocking NATO-Ukraine Commission meetings at ministerial level? And if not, what does . . . does that mean for NATO? Thank you. JENS STOLTENBERG: Yes, you're right. NATO Allies have decided to grant Ukraine Enhanced Opportunity Partnership status, because Ukraine has proven to be a highly-valued partner for NATO. We work with them in many different ways. And this is a way to further deepening our partnership with Ukraine. On the issue of ministerial meetings in the NATO-Ukraine Commission, that issue is not yet solved. So that's an issue we are still addressing and hope to find a way to solve. PIERS CAZALET: Okay, and now we will go to Michael Peel from the Financial Times. MICHAEL PEEL [Financial Times]: Can you hear me? PIERS CAZALET: We can hear you. We can't see you, but we can hear you. MICHAEL PEEL: Yes. Okay. Thank you. Secretary General, thank you. Michael Peel from the Financial Times here. You talked about how a new arms race would be damaging for everybody. But given the developments which you've talked about, the development of new Russian missiles, Chinese missiles, and now the measures that NATO is taking on missiles, plus the collapse, or feared collapse, of various international agreements, isn't a new arms race, unfortunately, exactly what we now have? JENS STOLTENBERG: We are not back to where we were during the Cold War with a really dangerous arms race, especially an arms race in nuclear weapons. But there is a danger. And we see some very disturbing developments, including the demise of the INF Treaty, which was actually a cornerstone for arms control and disarmament, because it banned all intermediate-range weapons. The Russian deployment of the SSC-8 missile in clear, blatant violation of the INF Treaty led to the demise of the INF treaty. And then we have also seen the announcement, the deployment of different other Russian missiles systems, many of them also nuclear capable and, of course, altogether this is of concern. But as I have stated many times, we don't want a new arms race. That's also why we are not going to mirror what Russia is doing. We have no plans to deploy new nuclear missiles in Europe. And we will continue to strive for a dialogue with Russia, including strive for arms control and disarmament. Allies have also expressed concern about the consequences of the rise of China, especially when it comes to their heavy investments in new, modern military capabilities. This is partly about investing in new nuclear warheads, but also about deploying, developing new delivery systems on land, at sea, in the air. And therefore, we call on China to engage constructively in arms control negotiations. As a global power, they have also global responsibility to engage in global arms control talks. One of the challenges with China is that China has been very reluctant to engage in arms control and therefore also reluctant to engage in mechanisms that provide transparency regarding their nuclear weapon systems. And therefore, that in itself is a challenge that there is less transparency related to China's weapons systems than, for instance, the US and Russia, which are part of international arms control agreements. NATO, what NATO is doing is that we actually are not mirroring Russia, we are not deploying new land-based missiles. We are very focussed on a balanced package, also focussing on arms control, air and missile defence, more robust conventional capabilities, but delivered in a way, or composed in a way which is not leading to a new arms race. At least we will do whatever we can to prevent a new arms race from happening. PIERS CAZALET: And for the final question, we will move to Nicolas Barotte from Le Figaro. NICOLAS BAROTTE [Le Figaro]: Hi, Mr Secretary General. Do you hear me? PIERS CAZALET: Yes. NICOLAS BAROTTE: I have two questions about the US decision to withdraw troops from Germany. First, from your point of view, what message does it send to Russia? And second, you said you don't know how or when it could be implemented. Does it mean that it depends on the result of the presidential election in the US? Thanks. JENS STOLTENBERG: Well, the US has made it clear that no final decision has been made on how and when. And, therefore, I look forward to a dialogue within NATO about this issue. I think it's important that this is an issue which is discussed in NATO and expect this to be an issue at the defence ministerial meeting. And also, I've already engaged in different bilateral talks about the US presence in Germany. So therefore, we have seen the statement from the US President, but the US has also made it clear that there has to be a process now to finalise and to make clear exactly how and when this will happen. Well, I think it's no way to speculate about the US elections, we work with the US administration. And we will then engage in, and we are already engaged in, a dialogue with the United States on this issue. It is a bilateral arrangement between the United States and Germany. But, of course, a US presence in Germany matters for the whole of NATO. And we have seen adjustments in the US presence in Europe before. And what we seen over the last years is actually increased US presence in many other European countries, including in Poland, the Baltic countries, the Black Sea Region. We have seen also in Spain with the new ships there - the new Aegis ships, which are of great importance for our missile defence system. And then we have seen more air and naval presence in the Black Sea, in the Baltic Sea and also in the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea. So, US presence - and also especially if you add the presence of Canadian troops Canada is leading the battlegroup in Latvia can come in many different forms. And it's not limited to Germany alone. It's about presence in many European countries, land, sea, air. And therefore, I think it is important that we have an open discussion about the presence. At the same time, I think we have to all realise that what we have seen over the last years is an increased US presence, but at the same time increased European investments in European defence. And this goes hand in hand. And altogether, this has led to the strongest reinforcement of our collective defence since the end of the Cold War. So, well, the thing is that we will now sit down, discuss this, and then, it is too early to say exactly how this will be implemented and when. And what matters to me is that we maintain credible deterrence and defence, and that we maintain the strong link between US and Europe, North America and Europe, because that's good both for North America and for Europe. PIERS CAZALET: That brings us to the end of this press conference. Thank you, everybody, for following us. We hope you will follow us again tomorrow after the first session of the meeting of defence ministers. Thank you. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) have not played any major role in the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria, in spite of huge expenditure on the facilities over the years through yearly budgetary allocations. Although primary healthcare is the responsibility of the sub-national governments, the federal government between 2015 and 2019 allocated over N5 billion for the construction and equipment of PHCs under the yearly Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIPs). These projects are nominated by lawmakers for their constituencies and are executed by contracts under the supervision of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). In the five years from 2015 to 2019, N912.9million, N2 billion (2,119,485,714), N1billion (1,292,906,059), N779million, and N840milion respectively were allocated to the construction and equipping of 182 PHCs in different communities across the country. Interestingly, these expenditures do not cover other overheads like procurement of buses, health awareness campaigns, and so on. COVID-19 Outbreak COVID-19 caught everyone by surprise and unprepared, and for some time overwhelmed the healthcare system, especially secondary and tertiary facilities, in many parts of the world. With the transition to community transmission of COVID-19, one would expect public healthcare facilities at the local level to assume a key role in the fight against the disease. However, that is not happening in Nigeria. First Line of Defence The PHCs are the first line of care and defence in the healthcare system, including against epidemics. According to WHO, primary healthcare addresses the majority of a persons health needs throughout their lifetime. These include physical, mental and social well-being. And it is people-centred rather than disease-centred. Primary healthcare is a whole-of-society approach that includes health promotion, disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care. An NPHCDA data shows that between 2001 and 2014, N32.7 billion was spent on construction of 687 PHCs in Nigeria. This expenditure, however, has not translated into functional PHCs. Public and Private Development Centres (PPDC) monitoring assessment of 18 primary health centres in Benue, Kano, Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Ogun states in 2015 revealed that most of the facilities had one challenge or the other. These range from lack of water supply, electricity, equipment, to inadequate staff and staff accommodation, and the likes. Sorry State In 2018, the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) tracked about 220 PHCs across the country. The findings are that they were mostly lacking equipment, water, electricity or staff. Many were inaccessible to the communities they were sited to provide services, and had dilapidated buildings. The lack of electricity led health workers in some centres taking birth deliveries in maternity wards lit by kerosene or recharge lanterns. The report indicated that PHCs in Nigeria are dysfunctional or non-existent. UDEME through an ongoing campaign on how the negligence of Primary healthcare facilities constrains the fight against COVID-19, also confirmed that PHCs across Nigeria are in a sorry state and need urgent attention if Nigeria must flatten the curve of COVID-19. Because of the failure to provide PHCs in every community in the country, Nigerians are taking up the role at the community level. Ugonna Egbukichi hails from Egberemiri Eziudo, Ezinihitte Mbaise in Imo State. There is an ongoing community health centre construction at Egberemiri Eziudo, my community. We are the ones building with contributions from villagers and our brothers abroad, he told UDEME, Mr Egbukichi told Udeme that the only community health centre in the area is far from the village and became inaccessible after the larger Eziudo was split into two communities. Confirming the absence of PHCs from the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria, the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale (PACaH@Scale) in a statement on June 5 said PHCs have been under-emphasised and relegated to the background in the scheme of things. While infectious disease control requires highly specialised interventions with facilities removed from communities, there is still an important role for PHCs in infectious disease prevention, the statement said. Primary Health Care centres in Nigeria, even if equipped poorly, are the hub for healthcare in the community and well-positioned as the primary point of care under the Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) National Policy. The fight against Covid19 should not be one which trades off PHCs against a specialised and central command system of service delivery. NPHCDA said it recently organised a virtual training programme for primary health workers to help reduce community transmission of COVID-19 in the country. It announced on May 21 on Twitter, the successful completion of a 3-day virtual State Training of Trainers (SToT) of over 7,000 health workers from all the states + the FCT, under the guidance and supervision of the Executive Director Faisal Shuaib. Preparation is now underway on cascading the training to LGA level, where we will be training over 60,000 frontline health workers from over 30,000 health facilities across the country, the tweet read. Advertisements But in May, when one of our trackers visited the Ikot Oku Model Health Centre in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, a worker at the facility said they had not received any training on how to handle COVID-19 cases. He said the health centre only received a bucket tap, a hand sanitiser, four pieces of nose masks and gloves. According to the official the facility is understaffed and may not be able to play any significant role in the fight against the pandemic. It only has a nurse, a community health extension worker (CHEW), a laboratory technician and no doctor. This accounts for the centre operating only in the morning. Patients turn to the general hospital, St. Lukes Hospital, which is quite far from the health centre, for care. So aside the centre being unequipped for a role in the fight against COVID-19, the training announced by NPHCDA apparently did not reach all of the workers. NPHCDA Reacts Garba Bulama, the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics at NPHCDA, at a webinar organised by PTCIJ, insisted that the agency was training health workers. We just finished with the national and state health workers and are going down to the local government to train as well, he said. The PHCs are not getting the attention they deserve, they (PHCs) are not understood, he said. According to Mr Bulama, funding of PHCs is the responsibility of state and local governments. He said the zonal intervention projects of the federal government are only complementing the main funds which should come from the state and local governments. The NPHCDA official urged Nigerians to see the PHCs as a critical part of the health sector and should charge politicians seeking offices to pay attention to the sector. India insisted on 'complete disengagement' in all its talks with China on eastern Ladakh row: Govt Prepared for action in winter, acted in summer: China had this planned for some time now India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 17: There are multiple reasons attributed to the massive troop build up China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). India China face-off: Why are there frequent clashes at the Line of Actual Control | Oneindia News Sources say that the flare up could be attributed to Beijing's desire to tighten its grip over Tibet. The anger over India's rapid development of infrastructure is also another reason for the enhancement in number of troops, the source also said. India, China disengage after violent face-off in Galwan valley leaves many dead On Monday night, there was a violent flare up at the Galwan Valley, which resulted in the deaths of 20 soldiers, including a Colonel. On Tuesday, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) said, " the sovereignty of the Galwan River Valley has always been ours." This clearly indicates that China's priority in the Galwan Valley is to move the perception of the LAC to its advantage. In this context one must also look at the Tibet issue as well. China has been saying of late that India should not come in the way of their efforts to choose the next Dalai Lama. However the biggest irritant for China is the speedy development of infrastructure by India in the strategic sections of the LAC including in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. China could also be looking to cut India to size due to its role in shaping the post COVID-19 world. Indian troops violated agreements; China has sovereignty over Galwan Valley: China's official media However these are not knee jerk reactions. China has planned this for quite sometime, The Chinese had prepared for this action all through the winter and acted as the summer set in. This means that the Chinese have planned this all along. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 11:06 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf67f30 4 National corruption,lawmaker,nazaruddin,bribery,Democratic-party,money-laundering,parole,prison Free Former Democratic Party treasurer and graft convict M. Nazaruddin was released on parole from Sukamiskin Penitentiary in Bandung, West Java, on Sunday. The parole is effective from June 14 until Aug. 13, said Rika Aprianti, a spokesperson for the Law and Human Rights Ministrys Corrections Directorate General, as quoted by kompas.com. She added that Nazaruddin would be supervised by Bandung Correctional Board officials during his parole. The former Dems lawmaker was convicted in two separate corruption cases. In 2012, he was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison for accepting Rp 4.6 billion (US$325,000) linked to the construction of the Sea Games athletes village in South Sumatra. The Supreme Court later imposed a heavier sentence of seven years imprisonment during an appeal. Read also: Indonesia vows to eradicate corporate money laundering, tax evasion Four years later, the corruption court sentenced Nazaruddin to six years in prison and fined him Rp 1 billion for laundering nearly Rp 600 billion he obtained from corrupt practices. He was believed to have accepted a Rp 23 billion bribe from construction firm PT Duta Graha Indah and Rp 17 billion from PT Nindya Karya in connection to several projects for the education and health ministries during his term as party treasurer and lawmaker. According to the verdicts, Nazaruddin was supposed to serve 13 years behind bars and to be released in 2025. However, based on a ministerial decree, the convict has received several remissions, reducing his sentence by 45 months and 120 days, said the ministrys West Java corrections division head, Abdul Aris, as quoted by tempo.co on Tuesday. A 2012 government regulation on remissions stipulates that graft convicts are eligible for remission if they cooperate with law enforcers to uncover a graft case. (nal) FDA approval for Cosentyx is based on the Phase III PREVENT trial, demonstrating efficacy in active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA), which is part of the axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) disease spectrum There are an estimated 2.7M people living with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) in the US; however, it remains significantly underdiagnosed1,2 nr-axSpA approval is the fourth indication for Cosentyx, which is backed by five years of clinical data supporting long-term safety and efficacy across moderate to severe plaque psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS)3-8 Basel, June 17, 2020 - Novartis, a leader in rheumatology and immuno-dermatology, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Cosentyx (secukinumab) for the treatment of active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA), confirming Cosentyx efficacy in addressing the axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) disease spectrum9. "The results from the PREVENT trial show that there was a significant reduction in disease activity for patients treated with Cosentyx versus placebo," said Atul Deodhar, MD, professor of medicine and medical director of Rheumatology Clinics at Oregon Health & Science University, and an investigator in the PREVENT clinical trial. "This approval brings a new therapeutic option to people living with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis." The approval of Cosentyx for nr-axSpA is based on efficacy and safety outcomes from the PREVENT Phase III study, which included 555 adults with active nr-axSpA that were biologic treatment naive or had an inadequate response / were intolerant to an anti-tumor necrosis factor-a therapy (anti-TNFs). Cosentyx met the primary endpoints achieving statistically significant improvements versus placebo in the signs and symptoms of nr-axSpA, as measured by at least a 40% improvement in the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society (ASAS40) response criteria in biologic-naive individuals at week 5210. nr-axSpA patients treated with Cosentyx showed improvement in both load and without load arms compared to placebo-treated patients at Week 16 in health-related quality of life as measured by the Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQoL) questionnaire (Least Squares mean change: Week 16: -3.5 and -3.6 -vs -1.8, respectively). General health status and quality of life was assessed by the Short Form health survey (SF-36). At Week 16, patients treated with Cosentyx showed greater improvement from baseline in the SF-36 physical component summary (PCS) score and in the mental component summary (MCS) score10. The safety profile of Cosentyx in the PREVENT trial was shown to be consistent with previous clinical trials. No new safety signals were detected3-8,10. nr-axSpA is part of the axSpA spectrum, which is characterized by inflammatory arthritis of the spine associated with chronic inflammatory back pain11. The axSpA disease spectrum also includes AS, in which joint damage is visible on x-ray, and nr-axSpA, in which joint damage is generally not visible on x-ray1,12. The physical limitations of axSpA can affect activities of daily living as well as leisure activities causing limitations for patients13,14. "There is a need for additional treatment options. Having a new treatment option for the axSpA community is truly encouraging," said Cassie Shafer, Chief Executive Officer of the Spondylitis Association of America. "Helping reduce the burden on people living with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis by improving symptoms that affect their daily lives remains a critical focus for the SAA." In April 2020, Novartis received European Medicines Agency approval of Cosentyx for the treatment of nr-axSpA15. About Cosentyx (secukinumab) Cosentyx is the first and only fully-human biologic that directly inhibits interleukin-17A (IL-17A), an important cytokine involved in the inflammation and development of psoriatic arthritis (PsA), moderate to severe plaque psoriasis (PsO), ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and nr-axSpA16,17. Cosentyx has been studied clinically for more than 13 years. The medicine is backed by robust investigational evidence, including five years of clinical data supporting long-term safety and efficacy across moderate to severe plaque psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS)3-8. These data strengthen the unique position of Cosentyx as a comprehensive treatment across axial spondyloarthritis, psoriatic arthritis and psoriatic disease, supported by more than 340,000 patients treated worldwide since launch18-20. About PREVENT PREVENT is a two-year randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III study (with a two-year extension phase) to investigate the efficacy and safety of Cosentyx, in patients with active nr-axSpA. The study enrolled 555 male and female adult patients with active nr-axSpA (with onset before 45 years of age, spinal pain rated as =40/100 on a visual analog scale (VAS) and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) =4) and who had been taking at least two different non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) at the highest dose up to 4 weeks prior to study start. Patients may have previously taken a TNF inhibitor (not more than one) but had had an inadequate response. Of the 555 patients enrolled in the study, 501 (90%) were biologic naive. Patients were allocated to one of three treatment groups: Cosentyx 150 mg subcutaneously with loading dose (Induction: 150 mg Secukinumab subcutaneously weekly for 4 weeks, then maintenance with 150 mg Secukinumab monthly); Cosentyx 150 mg no loading dose (150 mg Secukinumab subcutaneously monthly), or placebo (induction of subcutaneously weekly for 4 weeks, followed by maintenance of once-monthly)10. The primary endpoints are the proportion of biologic-naive patients achieving an ASAS40 response with Cosentyx 150 mg at weeks 16 and 52. Secondary endpoints include change in BASDAI over time and change in the Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score with CRP (ASDAS-CRP)10. ASAS40 is achieved when there is a measure of an improvement of at least 40% and an improvement of at least 20 units on a 0-100 scale in at least three of the following domains: Patient global assessment, Pain assessment, Function (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI)), and Inflammation (morning stiffness severity and duration) and no worsening in the remaining domains21. BASDAI assesses a patient's disease activity on six measures: fatigue, spinal pain, joint pain/swelling, enthesitis, morning stiffness duration and morning stiffness severity21. Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "potential," "can," "will," "may," "could," "remains," "expectations," "encouraging," investigational," "launch," "brings," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential or actual marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for Cosentyx, or regarding potential future revenues from Cosentyx. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that Cosentyx will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any additional markets, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that Cosentyx will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding Cosentyx could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Novartis Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach nearly 800 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 109,000 people of more than 145 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at https://www.novartis.com. Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at https://twitter.com/novartisnews For Novartis multimedia content, please visit https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library For questions about the site or required registration, please contact media.relations@novartis.com References 1. Strand V and Singh JA. Evaluation and Management of the Patient With Suspected Inflammatory Spine Disease. Mayo ClinProc 2017;92:555-564. 2. Spondylitis.org. Overview of Ankylosing Spondylitis Ankylosing. Available from: https://www.spondylitis.org/Ankylosing-Spondylitis [Last accessed: June 2020]. 3. Data on file. CAIN457F2310 (MEASURE 2): 5 Year Report. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; September 15, 2015. 4. Data on file. Data Analysis Report: Study CAIN457A2302E1. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; November 30, 2015. 5. Data on file. CAIN457F2310 and CAIN457F2305 Summary of 5-Year Clinical Safety in (Ankylosing Spondylitis). Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; May 2019. 6. Data on file. CAIN457F2312 (FUTURE 2): 5 Year- Interim Report. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; May 2019. 7. Data on file. CAIN457F2312 Data Analysis Report. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; November 2008. 8. Data on file. CAIN457F2310 (MEASURE 1 and 2): Pooled Safety Data. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; July 23, 2018. 9. Cosentyx [Prescribing Information]. East Hanover, NJ: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; 2020 10. Novartis data on file. September 2019. 11. Strand V, et al. Patient Burden of Axial Spondyloarthritis. J Clin Rheumatol. 2017 Oct; 23(7): 383-391. 12. Rudwaleit M, et al. The development of Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society classification criteria for axial spondyloarthritis (part II): validation and final selection. Ann Rheum Dis 2009;68:777-783. 13. Doward LC, Spoorenberg A, Cook SA, et al. Development of the ASQoL: a quality of life instrument specific to ankylosing spondylitis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2003;62:20-26. 14. Moncur C. Ankylosing spondylitis measures. Arthritis Rheum (Arthritis Care Res). 2003;49:S197-S209. 15. Novartis. Novartis Cosentyx gains fourth indication in EU with first-in-class approval in axial spondyloarthritis spectrum. Available from: https://www.novartis.com/news/media-releases/novartis-cosentyx-gains-fourth-indication-eu-first-class-approval-axial-spondyloarthritis-spectrum [Last accessed: June 2020]. 16. Novartis Europharm Limited. Cosentyx (secukinumab): Summary of Product Characteristics. Available from: http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.jsp?curl=pages/medicines/human/medicines/003729/human_med_001832.jsp&mid=WC0b01ac058001d124 [Last accessed: June 2020]. 17. Girolomoni G, et al. Psoriasis: rationale for targeting interleukin-17. Br J Dermatol 2012;167:717-724. 18. Data on file. COSENTYX Access. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; May 2019. 19. Data on file. AIN457A2102 Clinical Study Report. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; December 2008. 20. Data on file. COSENTYX Access. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; June 2020. 21. Landewe R, et al. Clinical Tools to Assess and Monitor Spondyloarthritis. Curr Rheumatol Rep. 2015;17(7):47. # # # Novartis Media Relations E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com Antonio Ligi Novartis Global External Communications +41 61 324 1374 (direct) antonio.ligi@novartis.com Eric Althoff Novartis US External Communications +1 646 438 4335 eric.althoff@novartis.com Louise Clark Novartis Pharma Communications +41 61 324 2970 (direct) louise.clark@novartis.com Novartis Investor Relations Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944 E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com OAKLAND, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Oaktown Supply invites all card game aficionados to lend a helping hand in the making of its Infinite Rule Playing Cards. The company has recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring this custom illustrated playing card set to life. Infinite Rule is an original set of luxury playing cards illustrated and designed by Andy Sundblad and produced by the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC). To contribute to this Kickstarter campaign, please visit: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andysundblad/infinite-rule-luxury-playing-cards Hearts Fan Cards Each Infinite Rule playing card has been designed completely from scratch, with elaborate illustrations and custom fonts and icons. The printing is exquisite and the card backs are lushly embellished with gold metallic ink. The box features rare burgundy-colored paper with a special soft feel, enhanced with gold foil and embossing. The card faces feature intricate and elaborate art. Some of the most attractive features of Infinite Rule Playing Cards include: Gorgeous and extremely intricate tuck case design with a luxurious Bordeaux paper stock and gleaming gold metallic foil. paper stock and gleaming gold metallic foil. Elaborate and detailed face cards featuring unique artwork and unique, cool, deadly weapons. Cards from 2-10 are have the suit icons laid out in a pleasing and balanced way. The card backs and faces are printed in premium quality metallic ink Many add-ons to complement the cards, including luxury engraved walnut wooden boxes with velvet interior, 3D rendering of antique gold coins, Infinite Rule ivory marble dices, and antique gold enamel pins. A graphic designer and illustrator, Andy Sundblad is the founder of Oaktown Supply. The company creates custom-designed journals, maps, toys, gifts and a growing array of new items designed to meet previously unmet needs of the consumers in a thoughtful and unique way. "Inspired by other independent designers who've made outstanding playing cards, I decided to create one of my own. This is me, putting my best, longest, and hardest work out there. This is my personal American dream. I hope you like it," Sundblad mentions. Once the funds are raised, Sundblad and his team will begin production, and then distribution will begin as soon as the decks are ready. This project will only be funded if it reaches its goal of $15,000 by Friday, June 26, 2020. Please visit the project's Kickstarter landing page to find out more about the Infinite Rule Cards - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andysundblad/infinite-rule-luxury-playing-cards About Infinite Rule Oaktown Supply is a small product design company that hangs its hat in Oakland, California. We create custom-designed journals, maps, toys, gifts and a growing array of new items as well. Our goods are designed to be beautiful, of exceptional quality, and to meet consumers' previously unmet needs in a thoughtful and unique way. Spokesperson: Andy Sundblad Phone: 5107598194 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Oaktown Supply Lisa Burhannan could be seen everywhere in Harrisburg. She worked in the school district, taught classes at the prison and served meals to the homeless. She supervised a re-entry home for women and volunteered as a hospital chaplain. If tragedy struck, she would rush to the scene, ready to assist grieving relatives. If someone she loved had a special event, she was seated in the front row. Even after Burhannan, 50, came down with pneumonia and tested positive for COVID-19 in late May, she kept up her efforts. From her hospital bed in the intensive care unit last week, she sent her goddaughter money to get her nails done for a high school red carpet event and hosted a video conference on Zoom as coordinator of the Harrisburg chapter of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice. Days later, on June 11, she died, leaving behind her father, son, daughter, four grandchildren and a gaping hole in the nonprofit and volunteer circles of Harrisburg. Her death came nearly two months after the city lost School Board Member Gerald Welch to COVID-19. Youll never be able to replace Lisa Burhannan, said Kevin Dolphin, who worked with her at his nonprofit, Breaking the Chainz. Never. She helped so many people. Its hard to believe shes gone. She was a role model and one who changed peoples lives. Funeral services are set for 11 a.m. Saturday at the bandshell at Reservoir Park, with visitation from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Face masks are required as well as social-distancing. In the months before she died, Burhannan helped open chapters of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice in York and Philadelphia, Dolphin said. She had been active in the organization since 2017 and passionate about reducing violence and supporting crime victims and their families after losing her son to gun violence in the city in 2009. Lisa posed with Kevin Dolphin and a citation they received from the Pa. House of Representatives for their work. Burhannan also worked to help formerly incarcerated people by overseeing a community restoration center on 6th Street for Breaking the Chainz, Dolphin said. As part of her work, she taught classes at the prison. Burhannan had a presence and booming voice that commanded respect, friends said. She had credibility as someone who previously ran the streets when she was younger, but turned her life around and became a devoted follower of God. Burhannan fiercely loved her family and doted on her grandchildren. She and her grandsons other grandmother, Paulette Smith, often would joke about who spoiled the boy more. He has you wrapped about his pinky, Burhannan would say, and Smith would retort: Youre on the other pinky. Burhannan also had a playful sense of humor. She loved snapping pictures of friends when they were least expecting it and then posting the photos on social media. She also carried a large cup of ice with her, nearly everywhere she went, so she could chew on the ice. It could be freezing out and shed still have her cup of ice, friends said. At church, she was known to show up late, make her way to the front of the church and ask whomever was sitting in the front pew to scoot over so she could have her usual seat. Lisa didnt have an inside voice at all, Smith said. She would be whispering on the front row and you could hear it all the way in the back of the church. Burhannan was funny, but when she had a project at hand, she meant business, said Ralph Rodriguez, who worked with her at Breaking the Chainz. She really wanted to help people, he said. Sometimes that meant snapping at people and she would do it to get them in line. Rodriguez said he was on a Zoom call with Burhannan in the days before she died, and they were talking about how the pandemic was impacting their efforts to help the community. She led the meeting, and we could hear her coughing and gasping, Rodriguez said. But she held it together. She was strong as an ox. We closed the meeting out with a prayer. Antoinette Black said shell never forget Burhannans loyalty after her mother died in a house fire two years ago while saving several grandchildren. When my mom passed, Lisa was at my house every day, Black said of her cousin. Burhannan helped make calls, receive guests, coordinate the service and talk to news reporters on behalf of the family, Black said. Even when everyone stopped coming around and calling, Lisa was still right there, Black said. Lisa has been there for so many who lost loved ones. Previous jobs for Burhannan include working at the YMCA at Camp Curtin and at the Neighborhood Center in uptown. Tisha Barber said she got to know Burhannan after she became close with her daughter, who participated in programs at the Neighborhood Center. Lisa had a strong personality and I have a strong personality, Barber said. So we clashed at times, but I saw her passion for children and we formed a tight bond. At the center, Burhannan started a gospel dancing group for the kids. When she worked at Marshall Math and Science Academy last year as a paraprofessional, she stepped up to sponsor a dance team for an in-school competition when they needed volunteers. Her team won first place. One of her former dance teams is expected to perform at her funeral, per Burhannans wishes. Many of Burhannans friends expected her to come home from the hospital eventually, especially after she was able to sit up in a chair for several hours on Wednesday, June 10. But Burhannan knew at some point that she might not make it, Barber said. So like the project manager she was, she created detailed lists of what she wanted to see at her own funeral down to songs, speakers and seating charts. Before becoming sick last month, Burhannan had been taking the novel coronavirus pandemic seriously, friends say. She did not have any pre-existing conditions that put her at higher risk, but she always wore a mask when she went out, she made masks for friends and carried a bottle of Lysol with her when she went into crowded stores. One time, when a store clerk told Burhannan she didnt feel well, Barber said Burhannan fogged up the entire aisle with her Lysol spray to kill germs, just in case. If someone coughed near Burhannan, she wasnt shy about breaking out her Lysol can. Friends dont know how she caught the virus. They were unaware of any contact-tracing effort by state officials to determine where she picked it up or who Burhannan may have been around prior to being hospitalized. But if Burhannan made it out of the hospital, she planned to spread the word that people need to continue to take precautions against COVID-19, Dolphin said. Her oxygen levels had been holding steady during her first 10 days in the hospital, said Smith. On Thursday June 11, however, Burhannans oxygen levels dropped and the hospital put her on a ventilator. But it was too late, Smith said. She did so much, I dont know if people realize yet what was lost. But we lost a pillar of our community. Information on Lisa Burhannan's funeral service. READ: Harrisburg may hire social workers, violence interrupters with money from police budget: mayor The Staff and Management of the Ghana Railway Company Limited (GRCL) have appreciated the government for infusing huge capital into the company for the company to become self-reliant and efficient in its operations. Due to this capital injection, GRCL, which hitherto was struggling with the payment of workers salaries, would now be able to take care of staff salaries and other related expenses up to the end of March, 2021. A press release signed by the Managing Director, Mr. John Essel, said, through the effort of the government, GRCL will, aside the capital injection into the company by the government, take delivery of track tools, spare parts and equipment to facilitate the rehabilitation of five locomotives and several mineral wagons to augment the current fleet of manganese trains that will further increase the haulage of manganese ore for export. The release, was however, silent on the quantum of amount given though it described it as substantial to bring back the sector on its toes. Mr Essel applauded the government for its continuous support to the Ghana Railway Company and promised that management and the entire workforce would perform their roles to make sure the railways in Ghana were the most preferred mode of transportation in passenger and goods. The Railways, started in 1901 as a department of the Gold Coast Service after the building of the harbour. The Railways passed through several stages and were known as the Ghana Railway Corporation since its separation from the Port until the 7th of March, 2001, when it was issued with a Certificate of Incorporation by the Registrar of Companies, and became known as Ghana Railway Company Limited to allow for private sector participation and investments. Meanwhile, decades of neglect and underfunding left the railway completely shattered, The Company currently has a total staff strength of 1,582, made up of 1,189 permanent staff and 393 casual Labourers. The Akufo-Addo led government as part of its manifesto pledge, decided to recapitalize and revamp the ailing railways in the country. "The Management and Workers of GRCL hereby thank the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the continuous support for GRCL". 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 Rents in major cities across the country have seen steep declines in recent months, as the coronavirus pandemic causes people to flee crowded urban areas. San Francisco recorded the biggest decline in rents on record in May, when the average rent of a one-bedroom apartment declined 9 percent from the same month a year ago, according to apartment listing platform Zumper. 'It seems the pandemic has shifted the demand for apartments away from the most expensive cities, since usually demand picks up as we head into summer but now the opposite is true,' wrote Zumper analyst Crystal Chen. 'As more and more companies move into remote work, many renters don't want to pay the big city price tag when they are unable to use the amenities and are looking for more affordable options outside of large, metropolitan areas,' she continued. Overall, the national one-bedroom rent dropped 0.2 percent last month to $1,217, while two-bedrooms were flat at $1,473, according to Zumper San Francisco (above) recorded the biggest decline in rents on record in May, when the average rent of a one-bedroom apartment declined 9 percent from a year ago Some real estate agents refer to the new reality as 'pandemic pricing,' as property managers cut monthly rents and offer sweeteners like one month rent-free to lure tenants in a soft market. In New York City, which has been under draconian lockdown restrictions for three months, hundreds of thousands have fled the city, either permanently or temporarily. One-bedroom rents in New York were down 1 percent in May from a year ago, while two-bedroom rents were down 2.4 percent. From March 1 to May 1, about 420,000 New York residents left the city, which has a population of nearly 8.4 million people, particularly from the wealthiest neighborhoods, according to an analysis of cell phone location data from the New York Times. Many sought to buy homes in Connecticut and in upstate New York, leading to fierce bidding wars in those areas. One-bedroom rents in New York were down 1 percent in May from a year ago, while two-bedroom rents were down 2.4 percent. Above, Soho is seen deserted on June 3 'It is unlike anything I have ever seen. We're busier in May than we ever were in the height of the summer, which is our high season in the Catskills,' Robin Jones, an agent with Country House Realty in upstate Sullivan County, told the Times. 'I've been in five bidding wars in the last few weeks.' Jones said her typical clients were New Yorkers who have discovered the ease of working from home, and see no upside to paying astronomical city rents when cultural events, restaurants, and bars are all closed. In Boston, the country's third most expensive rental market, the average rent on a one-bedroom dropped 2 percent year-over-year, and two-bedroom rents were down 1.8 percent, according to Zumper. On the West Coast, Los Angeles saw one-bedroom rents drop 3.6 percent, while two-bedrooms were down 1.7 percent. A pedestrian walks across an empty street Boston last month. In Boston the average rent on a one-bedroom dropped 2 percent year-over-year in May Seattle (above) saw an annual decline of 4.3 percent for one-bedroom rents and 4.6 percent for two-bedrooms Seattle saw an annual decline of 4.3 percent for one-bedroom rents and 4.6 percent for two-bedrooms. In Miami, the average rent for a one-bedroom dropped 2.2 percent, and for two-bedrooms it was down 0.4 percent in May. Some cities, including Oakland and Baltimore, say rents increase slightly in May, bucking the trend. Providence, Rhode Island saw the largest month-over-month increase, with one-bedroom rent jumping 5.3 percent, to $1,400. Overall, the national one-bedroom rent dropped 0.2 percent last month to $1,217, while two-bedrooms were flat at $1,473, according to Zumper. On a year-to-date basis, both one and two bedroom rents are down 0.5 percent. Iran will never allow US to exploit IAEA to kill nuclear deal: FM Zarif Iran Press TV Tuesday, 16 June 2020 2:42 PM Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran will never allow the United States to use the UN nuclear agency as an instrument to kill a landmark 2015 nuclear deal signed between Tehran and major world powers. Addressing a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday, Zarif said withdrawing from international treaties and organizations has become the new normal for the administration of US President Donald Trump. "We will not allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to become a tool in the hands of the Trump administration to destroy the JCPOA," said the top Iranian diplomat, using an acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal is officially called. As verified by the IAEA's reports, the Islamic Republic has always cooperated with the agency in a transparent way and lived up to all of its commitments, he added. Zarif said "we will never allow Iran to become the topic of investigations, which are based on espionage claims." "It will be very deplorable if the United Nations secretariat and the agency's secretariat moves in the path of the JCPOA's destruction," he added. In his introductory statement to the Board of Governors of the IAEA on Monday, the agency's Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi claimed that "for over four months, Iran has denied us access to two locations" that the IAEA had asked for access to, urging Tehran to cooperate with the agency, "including by providing prompt access to the locations specified by us." Zarif further said "since quitting the JCPOA, the US has been using all pressure tools against Iran, and this is unacceptable." Since entering the Oval Office in 2016, Trump a self-professed negotiator has abandoned many international pacts and treaties that previous administrations had authorized. In May 2018, Trump took an illegal and unilateral decision to end Washington's participation in the Iran deal and re-impose the sanctions that the agreement had lifted, in defiance of the fact that the accord has been endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Under Washington's pressure, the three European signatories to the JCPOA have so far failed to fulfill their contractual obligation to protect Tehran's business interests against the sanctions. Russia will do everything to protect JCPOA: Lavrov The Russian foreign minister, for his part, said his country would stand by its ally Iran and do its utmost to prevent the collapse of the hard-won nuclear deal. "We will be doing everything so that no one can destroy these agreements," Lavrov told reporters after face-to-face talks with Zarif. The top Russian diplomat slammed the United States for trying to "manipulate" the Security Council in order to put pressure on Iran and said "Washington has no right to punish Iran." He said US plans to extend an arms embargo on Iran "contravene international law," expressing Moscow's firm opposition to any attempts "to promote an anti-Iranian agenda." Lavrov described his talks with his Iranian counterpart as "very timely" and thanked him for accepting the invitation to come to Moscow for a "very useful" conversation. Iran-Russia declaration on promotion of intl. law Prior to the presser, the two ministers sat down for talks on various issues of bilateral and global significance. At the end of the meeting, the Iranian and Russian foreign ministers signed a declaration in 13 paragraphs on promoting international law. Iran and Russia expressed their determination to confront unlawful unilateral approaches to the settlement of international crises and to actively work instead to promote fair, multifaceted and collective approaches based on recognized principles and rules of international law in order to solve urgent regional and global issues. The two sides emphasized the principle of requiring governments to refrain from threatening or resorting to force against the territorial integrity or the political independence of any other country in contradiction to the United Nations Charter. Accordingly, they condemn unilateral military intervention. Iran and Russia voiced full support for the principle of non-interference in the internal or external affairs of countries. They also emphasized that the two countries are resolved to counter terrorism in all its forms as a threat to global peace and security. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Photo: (Photo : Screenshot from Instagram) American actor Tyler Perry will pay for the funeral expenses of Rayshard Brooks. According to an exclusive report by PEOPLE, Perry also offered to pay for the college education of Brook's kids. Perry reached out to the family of Brooks after the latter's death. The 50-year-old mogul wanted to help the family during this tragic time. READ ALSO: Couple Marched Down Philadelphia Protest Rally to Celebrate Wedding What caused Rayshard Brooks' death? Last Friday, police officers of Atlanta received a call about a man sleeping at the drive-thru of a fast-food chain. When police responded to the incident, they gave the man, Brooks, a sobriety test. According to reports, Brooks failed. That led to his supposed arrest. However, a struggle ensued as the 27-year-old man resisted. Video footage released by the Atlanta Police Department showed the struggle between Brooks and two officers. Aside from the angle from the body camera of one of the officers, another video was released. The clip from the police car's dashcam showed that Brooks took an officer's Taser then started running. Footage at the fast-food chain showed how Brooks was shot twice at the back by a police officer. According to authorities, he was pronounced dead at the hospital. Rayshard Brooks' death sparked protests in Atlanta. Rayshard Brooks' death happened only a few weeks after George Floyd's death. Just like Floyd's death, Rayshard Brooks' death caused demonstrators to gather and protest the officers' way of handling the incident. Last Sunday, protesters went out of the streets, not only in Atlanta but also in other areas in the country. Protesters gathered outside the fast-food restaurant where Brooks got shot by police officers. On Saturday, the demonstrators also torched the restaurant. READ ALSO: George Floyd's Daughter and Granddaughters To Receive Scholarships and Aids for College Autopsy result of Rayshard Brooks' death According to the Medical Examiner's Office of the Fulton County, Georgia, Brooks died of organ damage and blood loss. Authorities listed Rayshard Brooks' death as a homicide. The District Attorney of Fulton County said that they are going to decide on Wednesday on whether they will file charges against the police officers. The DA's office criticized the police officers' fatal shooting that caused Rayshard Brooks' death. The family continues to mourn for the father's death. Rayshard Brooks left four kids and his wife, Tomika Miller. His kids are Dream, one-year-old, Memory, two, Blessing, 8-year-old, and his eldest, Mekai, who is only thirteen years old. According to reports, Rayshard Brooks' death came a day before the 8th birthday of one of his kids. Aside from Tyler Perry paying the funeral expenses, he also plans to pay for the college education of the four kids that Brooks left behind. Perry is known for offering help during a time of tragedy. In previous years, there were also reports of Tyler Perry paying funeral expenses of Tynesha Evans and two fifteen-month-old twin girls. All of them died tragically in Georgia. READ ALSO: Teens Participate in "George Floyd Challenge": Police Investigates Posts, Treats Them As Hate Crime The natural gas market is reeling from the triple whammy of a stubborn supply overhang, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region--which accounts for nearly two-thirds of global demand--a mild winter, and a hobbled global economy. China has emerged as a rare bright spot as energy demand in the country remains relatively high. However, Beijing is taking advantage of the health and economic crisis to do a dramatic overhaul of its natural gas supply chains. China has shifted its attention from its traditional Central Asia supply hub further west where another natural gas and LNG powerhouse is emerging. The United States is emerging as the surprising winner as China, the worlds second-largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), continues to ramp up its LNG imports despite a buildup of tensions between the two nations. Force Majeure Over the past decade, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan have emerged as major natural gas exporters to China. In 2019, Turkmenistan sold over 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to Beijing--good for more than 90% of its total exports--with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan exporting 10 bcm apiece to the Middle Kingdom. Things have, however, taken a turn for the worse--especially for Turkmenistan. In early March, Kazakhstan revealed that Beijing had issued a force majeure declaration to state pipeline company KazTransGas (KTG) regarding its natural gas supplies. Consequently, import data published by Beijing revealed that Turkmen imports had declined some 17.2% during the first two months of the year. Meanwhile, Uzbekistans exports to China, of which gas is a major component, fell 35.4%. Kazakhstan was the outlier in this trilogy, with its natural gas exports to China rising 31.6%. Related: China Drops Energy Efficiency Targets Amid Covid-19 Crisis The same trend continued in March and April, with Turkmen and Uzbek exports to China falling in excess of 20% and 30%, respectively, while Kazakh exports once again climbed more than 20%. Despite these large declines in natural gas imports from Central Asia, Chinas National Development and Reform Commission has claimed that natural gas consumption by the country increased by 1.6% to 78.5 bcm during the first quarter. Chinas LNG Imports Grow Chinas largest LNG importer, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNOOC), and PetroChina also invoked force majeure clauses on various LNG suppliers, though the notice was rejected by Shell, Total, and Qatargas. Meanwhile, commodity trading houses such as Trafigura as well as Middle East gas producers did not officially confirm receiving the notices. However, China resumed buying LNG cargoes later in the quarter as spot market prices plunged to multi-year lows. And now, Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) has reported that Chinas LNG imports have actually been rising on a year-on-year basis, with the U.S. stealing market share from traditional powerhouses Australia and Qatar. According to Wood Mackenzie via NGI, China took in 10 LNG cargoes from U.S. suppliers between April and May at the expense of Australia whose market share slipped up in May. There are several plausible explanations as to why China is buying U.S. LNGdespite Washington and Beijing feuding over everything from the novel coronavirus to Hong Kong to 5G networks. First off, China could be using the crisis as a bargaining chip to renegotiate its contracts with long-term suppliers, including Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This could, however, prove to be a tough proposition because force majeure cases are rarely straightforward and even reference to specific events like epidemic, acts of government, or quarantine restrictions under an SPA (sale and purchase agreement) does not automatically guarantee relief. Related: The Oil & Gas Sector Could Already Be In Terminal Decline Second, Beijing could be trying to increase its sphere of influence in Central Asia, a region that has long been a geopolitical battleground between Beijing and Moscow. It is instructive to note that Russia and Turkmenistan have reached a tentative rapprochement that saw a resumption of gas exports from Turkmenistan to Russia sometime in mid-April after ceasing exports in January 2016 over a dispute over price and payments. A decade ago, Turkmenistan was exporting over 40 bcm/yr of gas to Russia, significantly more than its current exports to China. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that China has fallen out with Turkmenistan at a time when the latter has made up with Russia. Meanwhile, in February, under pressure from Moscow, Uzbekistan became an observer of Russias Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), probably irking China. Lastly, Beijing might simply be trying to stick to the January trade agreement with Washington to prevent another full-blown trade war. Although the accord did not specify quantities of the products, it committed Beijing to purchase an extra $52.4 billion of U.S. energy supplies over the next two years. Under the deal, Chinas deal amount increases to $18.5 billion in 2020 and another $33.9 billion in 2021 from a baseline of just $9.1 billion in 2017. China has already instructed state-owned firms to suspend large-scale purchases of U.S. farm produce including soybeans and pork, in retaliation to Trumps Hong Kong stance but has not said anything about energy products. Whatever the case, U.S. LNG suppliers appear to be cozying up to a second major customer after recently doing so with Turkey. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Indian Army paid its last respects to Colonel Bikumalla Santosh Babu the brave son of Telangana who made the supreme sacrifice of his life in service to the Nation. The mortal remains of the officer were received at Hakimpet Air Force Station on Wednesday by senior government officials and Military personnel of Headquarters Telangana and Andhra Sub Area with full military honours befitting a soldier, an official release said. Colonel B Santosh Babu, an alumni of Sainik School Korukonda and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, got commissioned into the Bihar Regiment from Indian Military Academy, Dehradun and went on to complete the Defence Service Staff Course from Wellington before taking over the command of his Battalion, according to the release. He is survived by his wife B Santosh and two children, who reached Hyderabad for the last rites accompanied by the officials of the headquarters, Telangana and Andhra Sub Area. A wreath on behalf of the Army Commander and all ranks of Southern Command was laid in honour of the valiant soldier by Lieutenant General TSA Narayanan, Commandant, MCEME (Military College Of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering), it said. Tributes were also paid by the Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, State Ministers K Rama Rao, Malla Reddy, Jagdish Reddy, Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar, Hyderabad City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar and other army officials. The last rites of Colonel Santosh Babu will be performed with full Military honours tomorrow at his home town Suryapet in presence of family members and well-wishers, the release said. Santosh was among the 20 soldiers who were killed in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night during a clash with Chinese troops. PHILADELPHIA, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New county-level projections released today by PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) demonstrate increasing risk over the next four weeks for COVID-19 resurgence in known hotspots, including Florida, Arizona, Texas and South Carolina. This has occurred even as other areaslike Denver, Atlanta, St. Louis and Columbus, Ohiocontinue to contain transmission of the virus while reopening. The new modeling data project many southern and western communitiesincluding Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, and areas throughout Arkansas, North Carolina and South Carolinathat have been in the news recently for increasing case counts will continue to see a concerning rise in COVID-19 infections into July. However, over the past week, social distancing, which the model measures as changes in travel to non-essential businesses, has begun to tighten again in some counties, particularly in Texas and the Southwesta sign that community members or local officials are slowing the pace of reopening to combat the rise in cases. The researchers will closely watch over the next few weeks how quickly that tightening may help to flatten these evolving epidemics. Still, among all of the worsening forecasts, several areas in Florida had considerably more alarming predictions from last weekfor example, new daily cases are projected to rise to 500 in Palm Beach and nearly 350 in Orlando by mid-July. New areas of concern are also emerging on the coast of South Carolinafrom Myrtle Beach through Charleston and Hilton Head Islandand worsening disease burden in parishes around New Orleans are threatening virus resurgence in that city for the first time in two months. Meanwhile, increasing case forecasts for Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Kansas City bear close watching to see if they might lead to more widespread community transmission. Importantly, the researchers did not observe a significant effect of the recent outdoor protests in increasing risk for COVID-19 resurgence in the large urban cities of the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Midwest and Upper Midwest. Instead, the clustering of counties with concerning forecasts along major highway routes, including I-85, I-95 and I-5, and among southern communities that received an influx of Memorial Day visitors, leads the researchers to suspect that increased travel as places reopen is a greater factor in perpetrating spread of the virus. This is particularly true in areas with high circulating case counts and uncertain vigilance with respect to masking in indoor locations. Although the current PolicyLab model does not yet account for factors related to vehicular traffic, it is expected to include this feature in future models. Finally, the model continues to project that areas in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest that reopened more cautiously or slowlysuch as Denver, Columbus, Ohio, Madison, Wis., St. Louis, Atlanta, New York City and Bostonwill be better able to contain any increase in case counts as social distancing relaxes over the next four weeks. "Understanding the underlying reasons why some communities are succeeding so far in containing additional widespread community transmission of COVID-19whether due to differences in ability to contain local outbreaks in high-risk locations, like meatpacking plants, or vigilance in personal protective behaviorswill be key to informing community strategies to contain spread of coronavirus beyond this summer," said David Rubin, MD, MSCE, director of PolicyLab at CHOP and a professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. "Those bright spots should be receiving equal, if not more, attention than the hotspots as we prepare for what may be a difficult fall." For additional comments from lead investigators Dr. Rubin, Dr. Gregory Tasian, and Dr. Jing Huang on their updated forecasts and findings, read this blog post: https://policylab.chop.edu/blog/covid-19-outlook-america-hangs-balance-early-evidence-behavior-shifts Background Researchers at PolicyLab at CHOP and the University of Pennsylvania developed the model, known as COVID-Lab: Mapping COVID-19 in Your Community, which tracks and projects COVID-19 transmission across 517 U.S. counties with active outbreaks, representing 71% of the U.S. population and 89% of all identified coronavirus cases. The researchers built their model to observe how social distancing, population density, daily temperatures, and humidity affect the number and spread of COVID-19 infections over time across a county, accounting for test positivity rates and population characteristics such as age, insurance status, crowding within homes and diabetes prevalence. COVID-Lab's projections forecast the number of coronavirus cases communities could experience over the next four weeks based on a three-day average of their current social distancing practices, defined by the change in travel to non-essential businesses as compared to pre-epidemic. A scientific review of the team's model and findings is available as a pre-print article ahead of peer review on medRxiv. The data are publicly available in the form of interactive maps and graphs. About PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is dedicated to achieving optimal child health and well-being by informing program and policy changes through interdisciplinary research. Founded in 2008, PolicyLab is a Center of Emphasis within the CHOP Research Institute, one of the largest pediatric research institutes in the country. With more than 30 highly regarded faculty and 60 passionate staff who bring expertise from myriad of fields covering health, research and health policy, our work focuses on improving public systems, improving health care delivery and improving child health outcomes. For more information, visit http://www.policylab.chop.edu . MEDIA CONTACT: Lauren Walens, Strategic Ops & Comms Director PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia [email protected] or (734) 904-2181 SOURCE PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Related Links http://www.policylab.chop.edu In this file photo taken on June 30, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un stand on North Korean soil while walking to South Korea in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), in Panmunjom, Korea. AFP-Yonhap North Korea's destruction of an inter-Korean liaison office is likely the first step in a series of provocations aimed at increasing its bargaining power with Washington and Seoul ahead of the November presidential election in the United States, experts here said Tuesday. Fully aware that it is unlikely to get any sanctions relief it wants from the U.S. before the election, North Korea will continue to escalate its military and nonmilitary threats in preparation for a second term for President Donald Trump or a first term for former Vice President Joe Biden, according to the analysts. "This is just the opening bid," Sue Mi Terry, who served as Korea director on the National Security Councils of former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, told Yonhap News Agency in a phone interview. "From here, escalations will continue. They have to. After provocations towards South Korea, then they will turn their attention to the United States," she said, noting the abundance of options North Korea can choose from without directly provoking Trump's ire. Trump has drawn the line at nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests that threaten the United States, but North Korea could fire medium-range ballistic missiles over Japan or launch a missile from a submarine and still build its nuclear deterrence. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has also yet to showcase the "new strategic weapon" he spoke of in December, with upcoming anniversaries providing the opportunity to do so June 25 will be the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, July 4 will be Independence Day in the U.S. and Oct. 10 will be 75 years since the founding of the North's ruling Workers' Party. "Pyongyang has issued increasingly negative depictions of the personal relationship between Kim Jong-un and President Trump, and vowed not to engage in another photo-op summit," Bruce Klingner, a former CIA deputy division chief for Korea, told Yonhap, supporting the notion that North Korea is not interested in diplomacy anytime soon. North Korea leader's sister Kim Yo-jong, center, smiles at U.S. President Donald Trump during the second U.S.-North Korea summit in February 2019 in Vietnam. Yonhap STAMFORD About 17,800 personal-injury claims have been filed by people who believe they or loved ones were harmed by Purdue Pharmas opioids more than double the total from a few weeks earlier, according to a new report compiled as part of the OxyContin makers bankruptcy case. The total, as of June 11, marks a sharp escalation from the roughly 6,800 personal-injury forms that had been filed by May 21. In addition, about 5,300 potential personal-injury claims have been submitted through other documentation against the Stamford-based company. Everyone who has a claim has the opportunity to file a claim, and we will see how many claims are filed by July 30, Purdue said in a statement Tuesday. The deadline for filing was recently extended a month due to the coronavirus pandemic. Among those who filed personal-injury forms, about 15,500 said they had been injured by opioids. About 2,400 said they were submitting claims related to another persons opioid use. Approximately 240 submitted claims on behalf of minors with neo-natal abstinence syndrome, which refers to complications caused by babies withdrawal from drugs to which they are exposed while in their mothers wombs. Another 657 said they were not currently aware of any injury but they wanted to file now to retain the ability to seek payment in case they suffered future adverse effects related to opioid use. Among the states, Connecticut accounts so far for 202 claims. In line with being the most-populous state, California has produced the most, with 4,265. Private citizens claims are being processed in federal bankruptcy court alongside the approximately 3,000 lawsuits that allege Purdue fueled the opioid crisis with deceptive marketing of its opioids including OxyContin. The company denies those claims, although it has offered a settlement of the complaints that it has valued at more than $10 billion. Individual payouts would not change the total settlement value. The amount paid out to individuals would be determined through the bankruptcy process. On June 3, the judge overseeing the bankruptcy agreed to push back the claims-filing deadline from June 30 to July 30. Purdue had argued for the 30-day extension, while a Sept. 30 deadline had been recommended by 24 non-consenting states, including Connecticut, that have not agreed to settlement terms. Purdue said the July 30 deadline balances our compassion for anyone who may have been impacted by COVID-19 shutdowns with the goal of providing the public benefits from a Purdue settlement as soon as possible. More Information For more information on the process for filing claims against Purdue Pharma, visit https://restructuring.primeclerk.com/purduepharma/EPOC-Index See More Collapse After having allocated approximately $24 million for a national advertising campaign launched in February that has notified people about the opportunity for claims filing, Purdue has estimated it would incur another $700,000 for the notices with a July 30 deadline. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said, this (July 30 deadline) is less than we had requested, but an important extension giving all who have been harmed by Purdue additional time to file claims and seek justice. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter; @paulschott Oranges Slovakian unit is increasing its 5G spectrum holding while also discussing a potential network-sharing arrangement with Slovak Telecom. According to local news outlet Zive.sk, talks have been underway for some months between Orange Slovensko and Slovak Telecom (ST), with the operators mindful that a shared FTTH network would reduce their costs and speed up implementation, allowing customers swifter access. On the 5G front, Orange is acquiring 20MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum from the fixed-wireless provider SWAN, which has transferred its licences valid until the end of August 2025 to the operator. Orange already holds 2x20MHz blocks of 3.5GHz spectrum, which it obtained in 2019 from Slovanet. Rival player O2 acquired the same amount of spectrum in this band in July 2015, while ST only has access to the 3.5GHz frequency within the Bratislava metropolitan area. Slovakias government opened its 5G auctions on 31st March, with 60MHz of coveted 700MHz spectrum available. To ensure that it can be obtained by multiple parties, operators will be able to acquire a maximum of 2x15MHz. The spectrum is being sold in blocks of 2x5MHz at a reserve price of 16 million. Spectrum in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands will also be up for bidding. The licences will be valid for 20 years. DEINOVE immediately strengthens its cash position by 1.5 million Regulatory News: This announcement is not intended to be released, published or distributed, directly or indirectly, in the United States of America, in Canada, Australia or Japan. DEINOVE (Euronext Growth Paris: ALDEI) (Paris:ALDEI), a French biotech company that uses a disruptive approach to develop innovative antibiotics and bio-based active ingredients for cosmetics, announces today the issuance of a 3rd tranche of notes convertible into new shares (the "OCA") as part of the agreement reached on July 9, 20191 with the European Select Growth Opportunities Fund (the "Investor") relating to a financing through the issuance of OCA for a maximum nominal amount of 15 million, with a 6.5% face discount upon conversion into shares, not bearing interest and with no stock subscription warrants attached, over a maximum period of 24 months. This 3rd tranche is composed of 150 OCA with a nominal value of EUR 10,000 each, representing a total amount of EUR 1,500,000, fully subscribed by the Investor today, in accordance with the contract signed on July 9, 2019. The characteristics of the OCA and their theoretical dilutive impact are detailed in the press release dated July 9, 2019. DEINOVE recalls that all of the 220 OCA issued under the first tranche and 86 out of the 100 OCA issued under the second tranche have already been converted to date. Objectives The objectives of this issue for DEINOVE are to (i) finance the need for working capital, (ii) continue the development and marketing of natural active ingredients for the cosmetic industry, (iii) continue the Phase II clinical trial in the United States testing DNV3837, its most advanced antibiotic candidate for the treatment of severe gastrointestinal infections caused by Clostridiodes difficile and (iv) discover new antibiotic leads based on its integrated and automated, high content, screening platform. It is further recalled that DEINOVE and the Investor entered on April 2, 2020 into an amendment to the contract concluded on July 9, 20192 ABOUT DEINOVE DEINOVE is a French biotechnology company, a leader in disruptive innovation, which aims to help meet the challenges of antibiotic resistance and the transition to a sustainable production model for the cosmetics and nutrition industries. DEINOVE has developed a unique and comprehensive expertise in the field of rare bacteria that it can decipher, culture, and optimize to disclose unsuspected possibilities and induce them to produce biobased molecules with activities of interest on an industrial scale. To do so, DEINOVE has been building and documenting since its creation an unparalleled biodiversity bank that it exploits thanks to a unique technological platform in Europe. DEINOVE is organized around two areas of expertise: ANTIBIOTICS, New-generation anti-infective drugs : A first antibiotic candidate, DNV3837, is in Phase II. The Company is also pursuing the systematic exploration of biodiversity to supply its portfolio with new leads, drawing notably on partnerships with bioMerieux and Naicons (AGIR program supported by Bpifrance). : A first antibiotic candidate, DNV3837, is in Phase II. The Company is also pursuing the systematic exploration of biodiversity to supply its portfolio with new leads, drawing notably on partnerships with bioMerieux and Naicons (AGIR program supported by Bpifrance). BIOACTIVES, Active ingredients of natural origin with cosmetics as the first market. DEINOVE already markets four cosmetic active ingredients, proprieraty or developed in partnership with Greentech and Hallstar France, and has a number of products in development. Within the Euromedecine science park located in Montpellier, DEINOVE employs 60 employees, mainly researchers, engineers, and technicians, and has filed about 350 patent applications internationally. The Company has been listed on EURONEXT GROWTH since April 2010. Visit www.deinove.com 1 Press release dated July 9, 2019 available on the Company's website (http://www.deinove.com/en/news/all-press-releases/issuance-notes-convertible-new-shares-maximum-amount-eu15m-issuance-first-eu22-million-tranche) 2 Press release dated April 3, 2020 available on the Company's website(http://www.deinove.com/en/news/all-press-releases/issuance-2nd-tranch-eu1-million-notes-convertible-new-shares) View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005288/en/ Contacts: Investors Coralie Martin Communication, Marketing and Investor Relations Ph.: +33 (0)4 48 19 01 60 coralie.martin@deinove.com Media ALIZE RP Caroline Carmagnol Ph.: +33 (0)6 64 18 99 59 deinove@alizerp.com Almost 17,000 new free and subsidised places are to be made available to people wanting to upskill or reskill, the Government has announced. There will be 11,074 new places on 332 courses under Springboard+ 2020 and 5,891 on 93 courses over three years for the Human Capital Initiative (HCI) Pillar 1. An extra 2,129 places are available on both programmes as a result of a 10m investment by the Government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The additional funding, combined with the new HCI Pillar 1 courses, has resulted in 7,600 more places being available over three years to those wanting to upskill or reskill compared to last year. HCI Pillar 1 will provide specialisation and conversion courses for graduates in third level institutions. Places are available on courses in a wide range of skills areas, including artificial intelligence, smart factory technology, sustainable energy, medical device technology and cybersecurity.Over 90% of the Springboard+ 2020 courses will be delivered in a more flexible format, such as blended learning and online or distance learning. The flexible format will enable upskilling or reskilling to continue even in circumstances where social distancing continues to be required because of Covid-19. Of the 17,000 new places, 13,000 will be available this year, with an additional 4,000 coming onstream over the next two years. Springboard+ 2020 and HCI Pillar 1 represent an investment of 57.62m in the 2020/21 academic year from the National Training Fund with co-funding from the EU. A further 52.48m will be provided for HCI Pillar 1 in subsequent years. Courses under both programmes were selected by an independent panel with experts from industry and education following a competitive tendering process. New Delhi, June 18 : The Delhi Police while opposing a petition seeking to make the FIRs registered in connection with the north-east Delhi riots public said that "conscious decision" has been taken to declare the FIRs connected to the riots as sensitive in order to preserve communal harmony. "A conscious decision has been taken to declare the 'FIRs' connected to riot as sensitive. This has been done primarily to preserve the communal harmony as putting these FIRs in public domain would disclose the names of complainants, witnesses and accused persons. However, this is in no way to prejudice the rights of the accused persons," the force said in its affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court. The affidavit came in response to the petition filed by CPI-M leader Brinda Karat through advocate Tara Narula seeking the court's direction to the Delhi Police asking it to upload copies of FlRs registered pursuant to the violence in the north-east Delhi on its website. The Delhi Police opposing another prayer in the plea seeking court direction for calling of status report disclosing the names and numbers of persons detained and arrested by Delhi Police to the pogrom for the duration of lockdown, said that petitioner has "no locus standi" in the present matter. "The petitioner is neither an accused nor a complainant nor a witness in any of the 751 cases registered in connection with riots in North East District. Disclosing the names of the persons arrested/detained during the period of investigation would prejudice the right of the accused. The petitioner has no locus standi in the criminal matter," the response read. However, the Delhi Police submitted a list of persons detained or arrested by it since March 24 before the court in a sealed cover. The plea also sought for directions to the police that the copies of FIRs, Remand Applications, orders of remand and ground of arrest and copies of Charge sheets be supplied through email/Whatsapp/Post to the families and counsels of accused persons In response to this prayer, the Delhi Police responded that the procedure for providing of copy of FIR to an accused is being followed by Districts/Investigating Units of Delhi Police as per the directions of the Supreme Court of India and the same cannot be diluted through a PIL. "As far as providing of such other documents mentioned in the prayer under reply are concerned, it is submitted that these documents cannot be provided during the pendency of investigation of the case as it may hamper the investigation of the case," the affidavit read. "However, as and when a charge-sheet is filed before the concerned Court, the accused is provided a full set of charge sheet including all those documents mentioned in the prayer by the Court free of cost as per the provision prescribed under section 207 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)," it said. Earlier in the day, former Jamia Coordination Committee member Safoora Zargar moved the Delhi High Court seeking bail n a case against her in north-east Delhi riots that broke out in February this year. Meanwhile on Monday, the high court had designated four special courts for holding trials in cases relating to the violence and clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi in February this year. The high court has created two magistrate courts and two sessions courts for holding trials in connection with the Delhi riots. Communal violence had broken out in the parts of Delhi in February after clashes between citizenship law supporters and opponents spiralled out of control, leaving 53 dead. China on Wednesday claimed that the sovereignty over the Galwan Valley area in Ladakh "always belonged to it" but underlined that Beijing does not wish to see "more clashes," after the militaries of the two countries were engaged in the biggest confrontation in over five decades. India's External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said the violent confrontation between armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. The ministry said both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement arrived earlier at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. At a briefing at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Spokesman Zhao Lijian said the "sovereignty of the Galwan Valley area has always belonged to China," echoing a statement of the Chinese military on Tuesday, opening up another dispute. He also refused to comment on reports of 43 casualties on the Chinese side during the face-off with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley on Monday night. "The border troops are dealing with relevant matter," he said. When pointed out that the India has released the number of casualties and why Beijing was not providing the number for Chinese side, he said, "I I have stated that Chinese and Indian border troops are now jointly dealing with the relevant matter on the ground. I have nothing to add at the moment." "On the situation at the China-India border both sides are having close communication with each other to resolve this through diplomatic and military channels, Zhao said. "The over all border situation is stable and controllable," he told correspondents to a volley of questions. Responding to a question whether whether further clashes could be averted, the spokesman said, "from the Chinese side we do not wish to see more clashes." "I belive you have noticed that China and India have both said that we are committed to resolve the differences through dialogue safeguarding peace and tranquillity in the border area. "As the world's two biggest countries and emerging economies, the shared interest of China and India are far larger than the differences. "Both sides should earnestly follow important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and ensure that the bilateral relationship can move forward in the right direction and that serves our peoples interests and expectations. We hope India can work with China to this end," Zhao said. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel, were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. A large number of Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Galwan Valley and certain other areas of eastern Ladakh for the last five weeks, including in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. Monday's face-off was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the row. 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. Also read: India-China border dispute: Key developments that led to killings of soldiers Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: 'Galwan Valley belongs to China, don't want further clashes,' says Chinese govt New Delhi: Search engine giant Google has made its premium video conferencing product Google Meet, free for everyone which is now available directly to Gmail on the web. As per the latest addition, Google has said that Meet Meet will now be available on Gmail on Android and iOS. In the coming weeks, youll soon notice a new Meet tab on your phones Gmail app where you can see upcoming meetings scheduled in Google Calendar, and easily join them with a single tap, Google Product Manager Erika Yamasaki wrote in a blog. Heres how to use it Tap on New meeting Meet tab to start a meeting instantly You will get a meeting link to share or to schedule a meeting in Calendar Tap on Join with a code, so that you can join meetings shared with you by entering a meeting code Google said, If you dont want Meet to appear as a tab in the Gmail app, access the Settings from the hamburger menu in the top left corner of your inbox, tap on your account, scroll down and uncheck Meet. Sahaya Novinston Lobo By Express News Service CHENNAI: A police inspector in Chennai who was undergoing treatment for COVID-19 died on Wednesday in a government hospital. He is the first member of the city's police force to lose his life to the pandemic. A statement from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami condoled the death and said the inspector had lost his life while working as a frontline warrior against the pandemic. He said a family member will be given a government job. The Chief Minister also telephoned the mother and wife of the police inspector and expressed his condolences. The inspector's health deteriorated over the last few days and he was shifted to a government hospital from a COVID care centre. A senior police officer said the inspector was shifted to a ventilator on Wednesday morning and breathed his last around 3.30 pm. He is survived by his wife and two children. His death has sent shock waves among police personnel. Some of his friends in the department said that he did not have any other major health issues. The deceased was a native of Vellore and joined the police in 2000 as a sub-inspector. He served in different police stations in Chennai before he was promoted as a police inspector. He was in the list of police inspectors expected soon to be promoted as Assistant Commissioner of Police. His father was also a police officer. His colleagues remembered his calm attitude and pleasant approach towards young personnel even if they made mistakes. As of Wednesday, 731 police personnel from Chennai have tested positive for COVID-19, of which 330 have recovered. There has been a dizzying rush to show concern about racial inequality in the days since the death of George Floyd. Context is always important, however. It is easier to post a social-media announcement than to make a difference. In the heart of great affluence in the Bay Area, the 750,000 black residents of the region have been rendered invisible in the major sectors of the economy. Just a few months ago, I gave local civic leaders a road map on how to reverse that trend. Since Julia Angwin and Laura Castaneda wrote the Digital Divide series in The Chronicle in 1998, our leading industries have ignored the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which has clear legal standards for equal opportunity in employment. The following year, I began investigating federal equal opportunity reporting forms (EEO-1) in the metropolitan area in the annual Silicon Ceiling report, now in its 20th year. More than 90% of the employers with more than 100 employees did not even file the reports in 1999. More recently, the research examined recruitment web pages of San Francisco-based firms, finding that only 10% had a photo of an African American. Between 2005 and 2017, there were 144,000 jobs added in San Francisco County, but only 1,000 went to African Americans. In an industry such as construction, which anyone would imagine is a fast-growing field, the number of black workers in the county has not grown since 1989. Many longtime residents have made it a personal part of their exercise routine to count the paucity of black workers on the ubiquitous construction sites. Had the ratio of those new jobs only matched the representation of blacks in the county workforce 4.3% another 5,000 workers would have been added. That would have been a 25% increase in the 20,000 black civilian workers in the city. We see the results in the gleaming new buildings popping up throughout the city, or more aptly, we dont see the results, even in buildings built with substantial public subsidies on public land. Local and state leaders do have leverage through land-use and civil rights law to demand much better. I have recommended a certification that such projects will comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in employment practices, the same way that firms are required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This can avoid the kind of chest thumping which companies engage in by using terms like diversity and inclusion, which have no meaning in law. Over the past two decades, we have avoided dealing with these issues in favor of growth at any cost to historically significant communities. We have ignored meeting the needs of the $15 billion African American market in Northern California with the amenities of commerce, health care and culture. We also have missed the opportunity to invest in entrepreneurs whose creativity can compete with anyone globally. The scale of the response is not something that should be measured in ceremonial donations of a few million dollars. There has been a $3.5 billion loss of wealth because of the decline in black home ownership in San Francisco from close to 9,000 in 1990 to less than 4,000 in 2018. Given those factors, the data suggest that a significant way to address these disparities is to urge business leaders to undertake the kind of recruitment and procurement that would help at least 10,000 African Americans join the labor market locally in the next 12 months. A few months ago, that seemed like an astronomical goal. In the current climate, many are motivated to be imaginative. Using the data in addition to the passion of the weeks of demonstrations can revive some of the most significant institutions such as the three black churches founded in 1852, which are 168 years old this year. In 2004, Fred Jordan and I began National Black Business Month to address these disparities nationwide. We encourage those who wish to listen to use tools like our annual State of Black Business report to understand how to make change that lasts. When the California Assembly voted last week to approve Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5, which would repeal Proposition 209s (1996) ban on affirmative action, the lawmakers used their own personal histories to show how race is an enduring factor in their life prospects. They correctly explained that the 14th Amendments mandate for equal protection of the law the goal of the millions of African Americans who voted in 1868 to make the amendment part of the Constitution has not yet been achieved. Lets match their recognition with a proportionate response. We would rather see well thought-out steps that rely on the institutions that are rooted in communities than ceremonial photo ops. John William Templeton is co-founder of National Black Business Month and author of a trilogy of books on the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Greece and Egypt have much to gain from the signature of an Exclusive Economic Zone Agreement that would be to the economic and strategic benefit of both countries, writes Ioannis E Kotoulas Greece and Italy, two states sharing sea borders in the Ionian Sea, signed an agreement for the delimitation of their respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) on 9 June in an important development for stability in the Eastern Mediterranean. Egypt signed an EEZ agreement with Cyprus back in 2003. The time has now come for a similar Greece-Egypt Exclusive Economic Zone agreement that will greatly enhance the vital interests of both countries. The Greek-Italian EEZ agreement of 2020, an extension of the 1977 bilateral agreement on the continental shelf, was the result of laborious diplomatic efforts and contacts between the political and technical personnel of both countries. Initial Italian reservations concerning the potential restriction of fishing rights in the Ionian Sea were overcome with relevant provisions. The Defence and National Security Committee of the Libyan parliament also announced its support for the maritime delimitation agreement signed between Italy and Greece and requested that this should function as a potential model and a fair framework for maritime delimitation among the countries of the Mediterranean. Attention has now turned towards Egypt and a possible Greek-Egyptian agreement. Egypt has raised partial concerns that are primarily focused on the repercussions of the effects of an EEZ agreement on the island of Kastellorizo. Kastellorizo, a strategic Greek island, is a linking part in the EEZ agreement between Greece and Cyprus. According to Article 121 of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf of an island are determined in accordance with the provisions of this convention applicable to other land territory. This in effect means that the island of Kastellorizo, like all other Greek islands and all other land territory of the Greek state, possesses a full economic zone. It should be remembered that Turkey is one of the few states that have not signed the UNCLOS. Kastellorizo is fundamental for Greek and Cypriot security vis-a-vis the Turkish rejection of international law, and Greece cannot be seen to abdicate from the Kastellorizo region, which has become the primary focus of Turkish interest in relation to EEZ agreements, as such a move would only encourage further Turkish aggression. Egypt, along with Greece, Cyprus, France and other countries, rejected the signing in November 2019 of two Memoranda of Understanding between Turkey and the Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord Fayez Al-Sarraj. The Memorandum of Understanding for the delimitation of maritime zones between Turkey and the Tripoli government, an illegal action from the point of view of international law, was rightly rejected by Egypt. It is in this context that Egypt can now complete its commitment to international law and its vital national interests by signing an EEZ agreement with Greece. A compromise between Egypt and Greece on this matter would ensure the vital strategic interests of both countries. With the possible extension of an Egyptian EEZ agreement to the north with Greece, Egypt would unify its energy reserves in the Zohr natural gas field and obtain a recognised economic and strategic presence in the central part of the Eastern Mediterranean. Egypts growing energy needs and overall interests have reoriented it towards the Mediterranean Sea and the Zohr Field. Cooperation with Greece is essential in this regard. Agreeing terms with another member state of the European Union, after the successful 2003 Egyptian-Cypriot EEZ agreement, would enhance Egypts vital interests and ties with the European Union as a whole. It is in the interests of Egypt to share sea borders with two member states of the European Union rather than with an unstable and revisionist Turkey. Greece and Cyprus are not antagonistic towards Egypt in any field, and they are Egypts best diplomatic allies in the framework of the European Union. On the other hand, Turkey is a major opponent of Egypt in its interference in the affairs of other states and support for Islamist militias, as well as in the spheres of regional interests and power projection in the greater Middle East. Greece does not interfere in Egyptian zones of interest, unlike Turkey, which has grown to be a major opponent of Egyptian interests in both internal and foreign affairs. Concerning issues of national security, Egypt faces two issues on its land borders, one external and one internal. The external threat is connected to events in Libya, where the Turkish intervention in support of the Al-Sarraj government in Tripoli has altered the balance of power. Libya represents strategic depth to Egypt, and the establishment of a Turkish-supported and Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated power structure in Libya is clearly against Egyptian interests. The internal threat is represented by the Islamist militias active in the Sinai Peninsula, against which the Egyptian authorities have achieved considerable success, thereby ensuring internal peace and stability for the Egyptian people. A possible third zone of tension with a revisionist Turkey in the Mediterranean would undermine Egypts strategic interests and produce an unnecessary field of confrontation. Egypt can avoid this through an EEZ agreement with Greece. The Eastern Mediterranean has become a focus of instability due to the revisionism and expansionist policies of Turkey. Turkish interference in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Egypt in the past, Cyprus and in the Aegean Sea creates zones of instability that pose a collective security threat. If Egypt and Greece move forward with the signing of an EEZ agreement, this would constitute a major turning point for the geopolitical equilibrium of the region. Greece and Egypt, along with Cyprus, could thus create a new axis linking the Eastern Mediterranean and isolating the connection between Turkey and the Tripoli government. An EEZ agreement between Egypt and Greece is thus a matter not only of economic interest, but also of strategic interest as well. A Greek-Egyptian EEZ agreement would safeguard Egyptian geopolitical interests in the case of Libya, as it would combat Turkish interference and undermine the Memorandum between the Tripoli government and the Turkish regime concerning EEZs. We should also remember that Iran has obtained a sea facade on the Mediterranean through Syria and Lebanon, and Egypt cannot remain inactive for long on the EEZ issue. After a Greek-Egyptian EEZ agreement and the stabilisation and legal recognition of the exact sea borders of each country, Greece and Egypt with the possible cooperation of France could move forward to form a real military alliance focused on the seas. This Eastern Mediterranean Naval Alliance could extend to joint military exercises and joint patrols of the border regions of the national EEZs in the sea. Sea power is the main field of power projection for both countries concerning their fundamental strategic interests. Greek strategic interests include its connection to the Cyprus Republic and are mainly historical. Egyptian strategic interests are primarily economic and strategic. Both countries would benefit greatly from an EEZ agreement. The time has come for a leap forward as part of a pro-active strategic mentality. The writer is a lecturer in geopolitics at the University of Athens. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay has been censured in State Parliament over branch stacking claims on the back of sensational revelations of industrial scale branch stacking in Victoria. The Coalition moved the motion against Ms McKay after Corrections Minister Anthony Roberts told Parliament she "stands by the conduct" of MPs accused of branch stacking. NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay with Granville MP Julia Finn, who was named in a branch stacking report. Credit:AAP Mr Roberts said Ms McKay had remained "silent" about a report which he said found branch membership books in western Sydney were systematically falsified. Granville MP Julia Finn is named in the report for having breached party rules but Labor's deputy leader Yasmin Catley told Parliament there were no adverse findings against Ms Finn. I know that as his father, a black man in America, it is my duty to prepare him for the harsh reality that awaits him outside of the watchful eyes of his loving parents. It will be a hard, heartbreaking conversation, but one that I must have and will have soon. Finding adequate personal space on a flight especially in economy class hasnt been easy since the late 1970s, when the government deregulated airlines. Over time, airlines moved the seats closer together to accommodate more passengers and make more money. Now, at a time when social distancing is necessary, personal space is a scarce but vital commodity. Some airlines have pledged to block middle seats, but how long will that last? Toronto The border between the United States and Canada will remain closed to non-essential crossings until July 21. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the extension of the border restrictions Tuesday during a press conference. "This is a decision that will protect people on both sides of the border as we continue to fight COVID-19, Trudeau said. U.S. and Canadian citizens who are returning home are exempted from the border restrictions and essential cross-border workers like healthcare professionals, airline crews and truck drivers may also cross. Immediate family members of Canadians are also allowed entry into Canada, but must quarantine for 14 days, the Associated Press reports. Canada sends 75% of its exports to the U.S. and about 18% of American exports go to Canada. The AP report also listed the U.S. as the main supplier of food for Canada. Crossings at the border have been restricted since March 18 and have been extended twice as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The border between the U.S. and Mexico is also restricted for non-essential crossings. In Michigan, 60,064 people have been confirmed to have tested positive for the virus, while 5,772 people from the state have died from the virus. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 18:01:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MANILA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surge to 27,238 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 457 more infections on Wednesday. The DOH said in its bulletin that the number of recoveries further climbed to 6,820 after 268 more patients have survived the disease. The death toll also increased to 1,108 after five more patients have succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH added. According to the DOH, 173 of the daily reported cases were in Metro Manila, 160 cases in the Central Visayas region in the central Philippines and 124 cases were reported in other parts of the country. The reopening of Boracay island world-class resort in Aklan province in the central Philippines was spoiled after authorities confirmed that a female visitor who had stayed on the island tested positive for COVID-19. The incident happened while the island resort reopened on Tuesday to allow local tourists to visit the island. The move is part of the government's efforts to restart the local economy after the coronavirus lockdown that started in mid-March. The popular Boracay resort, famous for powdery white sand, shallow azure water and spectacular sunsets, is a favorite beach destination of local and international tourists, including Chinese national holidaying in the Philippines. The Department of Tourism said the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a serious blow to the industry, slashing foreign arrivals for January to April 2020 to 1,318,719, or a 54.01-percent decrease from the 2,867,551 year-on-year. The tourism industry, touted as a key economic driver in the Philippines, is the country's second largest contributor to national revenue, and contributing 12.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018. DOT data showed the industry also accounted for the employment of 5.4 million Filipinos in 2018, and achieved a record-high international tourist arrivals of 8.26 million in 2019. Enditem Mr Maudo Jallow, Policy Analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has said "if we are to make any progress in the post COVID-19 time there is the need for the African continent to strengthen its local production base. He said that would create employment and contribute to the continent's economy. Mr Jallow speaking at the Ghana Young Entrepreneurs Roundtable (GYER) on the Sustainable Development Goals' (SDGs) Virtual Conference on Zoom said the COVID-19 pandemic had refocused attention to local production, which was laudable. The Virtual Conference was on the theme: "Post-COVID 19 and SDG Targets: Re-sharpening strategies to Match the Goals." The conference brought together representatives in government, private sector, development and advocacy setting to discuss how achievement of SDGs can still be realised. He said with the pandemic, there was the need to think about opportunities based on sectors including; Fintech, Digital Education and Digital Health. The Policy Analyst said even as entrepreneurs look at the SDGs and aspire to them, they should not forget that this is the time to restructure our economies to reduce the inequalities and create jobs. "We have seen high growth figures in economies yet citizens do not realize these growths". He said it was an opportunity to work together as entrepreneurs to collaborate on things, while restructuring for a brighter future. He said collaboration would continually enable entrepreneurs to find solutions better to most of their challenges and problems they encounter in their line of work. Madam Alima Bawah, Co-founder Cowtribe Inc said, "If we approach the SDGs as we are approaching COVID-19, we will attain higher heights." She said the SDGs were a pandemic on its own as even hunger kills more. Madam Bawah called on the Ministry of Business Development to develop a strong startup ecosystem to support young entrepreneurs in the country. She urged Governments to consciously invest and expand access telecommunications infrastructure to rural communities. She said the country needed to commercialise agriculture and open at various parts of the country with more infrastructure at farm gates, especially at the Northern Ghana. She urged NGOs to provide skills training and capacity of people than rather giving them free things to support them. Mr Dela Gadzanku, Regional Chair, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), (Eastern/Volta Region) said the Association was available to assist any startup to formalise their business. "We cannot do any meaningful business without formalising our businesses," he said. He urged them to take advantage of Government's stimulus package to support their businesses and advised them to utilise the resources well. GNA Millions of children will be asked to work a longer school day next term under plans to help them catch up on their education. Ministers are finalising plans to help those who have missed out since the closure of schools in March. It comes after 1,500 paediatricians signed an open letter warning the government it needed to get pupils back to school or 'risk scarring the life chances of a generation of young people,' according to The Daily Telegraph. The plan, which is set to be published tomorrow, is expected to include funding for 'bolt-on' sessions at either end of the school day to help those who have fallen behind. Thousands of private tutors could also be hired and used to bolster classes and provide extra lessons for pupils of all ages both in person and remotely. Youngsters in disadvantaged areas are expected to get the first use of them. Million of pupils, pictured socially distancing at a school in Corringham, Essex, this week, will be asked to work a longer school day next term Prince Charles fears consequences of coronavirus could be 'devastating' for young adults Prince Charles fears the impact of the coronavirus could be 'potentially devastating' for young adults. His charity, the Prince's Trust, has set up a relief fund and is supporting young people who are trying to cope with job losses and other changes brought about by the coronavirus. The Prince told The Daily Telegraph: 'In times of economic hardship it is often young people who are hardest hit and we know that many under-25s work in sectors such as hospitality and tourism, which have borne the brunt. ' He warned of the impact youth unemployment can have on mental health and warned it could lead to poverty and homelessness. Prince Charles added: 'When I founded my trust 44 years ago, the problems facing young people through unemployment and a lack of support were serious. Now, I fear, those problems have gone from serious to potentially devastating.' Advertisement A Whitehall source said: 'The best place for children to learn is in a school environment, so it makes sense to try and do catch-up work at school rather than trying to do it through home learning. 'There has rightly been a lot of focus on the impact on disadvantaged children but all children have missed out on their education so we need a catch-up programme that is open to everyone.' Ministers have ruled out formally extending the length of the school day in legislation. But schools will be asked to run catch-up sessions on their premises. Boris Johnson this week promised a 'massive catch-up operation' to try to minimise the impact of the lockdown on children's education. This will include some 'summer camp' activities at schools in August, but teachers will not be asked to provide formal lessons during the holidays. Private tutors are set to be hired to help state school pupils catch up on work lost during the pandemic. The multi-million pound scheme will employ the tutors at both primary and secondary schools in a bid to undo some of the damage lockdown has done to the education of millions of children. According to The Guardian, the Government is about the announce the programme, which will last for an entire year. Small group and one-to-one lessons will be funded, with state schools allowed to hire thousands of tutors from approved agencies. However, ministers have decided that there is no prospect of children making up for lost schooling over the summer, so the catch-up programme will be extended into next term, and possibly beyond. Ministers have ruled out formally extending the length of the school day in legislation but schools, such as Ortu Gable Hall School in Corringham, Essex, pictured this week, will be asked to run catch-up sessions on their premises An open letter from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warns: 'School is about much more than learning. It is a vital point of contact for public health services, safe-guarding and other initiatives. 'This includes access to mental health support, vaccinations, special therapies, free school meals, physical activity and early years services that help children get the best start in life.' Why we're still the in-crowd Most of us are still staying at home despite the easing of lockdown. Adults dont leave the home for two or three days a week, according to University College Londons Covid-19 social survey. Thats down from an average of four days spent indoors in late March. Restrictions have been relaxed to allow unlimited exercise, non-essential outings and to meet up with friends or family. While people went out more often as the lockdown progressed, over the last two weeks this has plateaued. The lowest earners and those with mental health conditions are spending the most time in their homes, risking increased loneliness, anxiety and depression, the study of 90,000 people found. The research, which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is the UKs largest study into how adults are feeling during lockdown. Advertisement Prince Charles, founder of the Prince's Trust, fears the pandemic could be 'devastating' for young people under the age of 25. He told The Daily Telegraph: 'When I founded my trust 44 years ago, the problems facing young people through unemployment and a lack of support were serious. Now, I fear, those problems have gone from serious to potentially devastating.' A study by UCL's Institute of Education this week found that 2 million children have done less than an hour a day of schoolwork during lockdown. Only 17 per cent have done more than fours a day. Some teaching unions have resisted efforts to get teachers to live-stream lessons, with the result that many schools have been unable to offer online classes. Unions have also advised that teachers should not be expected to mark work done at home. The move came as the Prime Minister clashed with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over the continuing difficulty in getting children back to school. Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson suggested that Labour and the teaching unions were hampering efforts to get schools restarted. He said one of the best ways to help the poorest children in the country 'would be to encourage all kids who can go back to school to go back to school now, because their schools are safe'. The Prime Minister repeatedly challenged Sir Keir to say it was safe for children to return and accused the Opposition of 'wibble-wobble' over the issue. Mr Johnson urged parents to send their children back to school where their classes have restarted, saying it was 'safe'. A string of Labour councils have refused to reopen schools, saying they have continuing health concerns. Ministers accuse the big teaching unions of also hampering progress. Sir Keir, who has been critical of the Government's failure to move faster on schools, repeatedly refused to acknowledge that schools are now safe. Mr Johnson told him: 'I want kids to go back to school. The unions will not let him say the truth. A great ox has stood upon his tongue. Let him now say that schools are safe to go back to.' Sir Keir said it was not his job to answer questions at PMQs. A government source accused Sir Keir of a 'lack of leadership' over the issue. B y the time the 1980s rolled around, punk rock the sound defined just a few years earlier by the Ramones and the Sex Pistols was pretty much dead, and there were a new breed of young Americans intent on stamping out any last breath. These were the hardcore punks; the amped-up, DIY, anti-establishment musicians revolting against a genre that had lost all of the sharpness that helped it puncture the mainstream back in the 70s. They abhorred what punk rock had morphed into, refusing the grey-scale gloominess of post-punk, and mocking the flamboyance of new wave. They inverted the ideals of mainstream rock no major labels, no trendy clothes, no commercialism and set about forging a sound that stripped away any unnecessary pretensions. The drums moved at manic speed, the vocals eschewed melody for ferocity, and the guitars were distorted and aggressive. It was only ever played fast, and had to be as loud as possible. This new musical militia had various outposts. Black Flag, widely credited as godfathers of the genre, spearheaded the Los Angeles scene, followed by the likes of Fear and The Germs. In San Francisco, Dead Kennedys led the way. Over in Washington DC, it was Bad Brains a band consisting of black musicians, marking them out as an anomaly in a scene dominated by white men who led the revolution, inspiring other seminal acts such as Minor Threat to do likewise. When Bad Brains moved to New York City in 1981, a new hub was formed there, soon welcoming the likes of Agnostic Front and a pre-hip-hop Beastie Boys. Each scene had its own quirks. Minor Threat popularised the straight edge movement, which in its various forms avoided drink, drugs, animal produce, casual sex and more. Some would even shun prescription drugs, but it all served as a pushback against the excesses of their punk rock predecessors. Elsewhere, the politics stayed largely left, but varied from Reagan-hating socialism to full-blown anarchism. What they all shared, however, was the chaos of their live shows. Hardcore punk gave birth to the idea of moshing, a form of dancing that, truth be told, was just an organised form of fighting. Sometimes, the charade was dropped and violent brawls broke out among the crowd, with police often called. Moshing even made its way onto network television, during an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1981. John Belushi struck a deal with SNL that he would make a cameo appearance if his favourite hardcore band, Fear, were allowed to play. The shows organisers reluctantly agreed and, somewhat strangely, decided to invite other punk rock band members into the studio to mosh in the crowd while Fear performed. It was, naturally, a glorious mess, with bodies flying everywhere and microphones flung across the stage. A premature ad break cut the performance short and quelled the madness. Like most scenes this explosive, hardcore punk in its most vigorous form was fairly short-lived but hugely influential. Other scenes sprung up in the UK and the rest of the world, but by the mid 80s, the American cohort had splintered, with bands moving off into other directions: post-hardcore, emo, thrash metal, alternative rock and beyond. Hardcore still exists in various forms today, but never did and probably never could again change the angry face of music like it did all those years ago. Listen: Damaged by Black Flag Read: American Hardcore by Steven Blush Watch: American Hardcore (documentary, 2006) The A-Z of Music so far A is for... ABBA B is for... boy bands C is for... Christmas songs D is for... death metal E is for... the Eighties F is for... Fela Kuti G is for... Glastonbury H is for... hardcore punk The global yoga accessories market size is expected to grow by USD 830.47 million during 2020-2024. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact can be expected to be significant in the first quarter but gradually lessen in subsequent quarters with a limited impact on the full-year economic growth, according to the latest market research report by Technavio. Request a free sample report This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005466/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Yoga Accessories Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Product premiumization due to increasing innovation will be one of the major factors behind the yoga accessories market growth. Vendors are offering innovative yoga accessories such as reversible mats, which are made from natural rubber along with eco-friendly mats that are developed from jute. These mats are designed with antimicrobial additives that help prevent mold and mildew on the mat. Such innovations are driving the market and consumers are willing to invest in these premium products due to factors such as superior quality and durability. The launch of such innovative and premium products will help vendors widen their profit margins and gain a competitive edge during the forecast period. 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=IRTNTR43441 As per Technavio, the introduction of smart mats 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. Yoga Accessories Market: Introduction of Smart Mats Several manufacturers are continuously looking to improve yoga mats with additional features to increase customer satisfaction. One of the trending innovations in the field of yoga mats is smart connectivity using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Such smart mats can be monitored through mobile apps installed on smart gadgets. Several manufacturers are focusing on introducing the smart connectivity feature in their upcoming yoga accessories. For instance, SmartMat is a portable yoga mat, which helps track and improve yoga practice by suggesting incremental improvements towards achieving the perfect position. Thus, with such advanced features, the global market is expected to witness a positive outlook during the forecast period. "Growing enrolment in fitness and health clubs and increasing availability of custom yoga mats will have a significant impact on the growth of the yoga accessories 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 Yoga Accessories Market: Segmentation Analysis This market research report segments the yoga accessories market by product (yoga mats, yoga straps, yoga blocks, and others) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA). The North American region led the yoga accessories 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 factors such as the rising participation in regular fitness activities, and the introduction of new product offerings by vendors in the region. 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/20200617005466/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/ If you needed proof that the United States no longer has the best health care system in the world, the new coronavirus has delivered the evidence. The brave doctors, nurses and other health professionals may be well trained. The clinics, hospitals and research centers may be well equipped. But they are not enough. The failure comes from our poorly financed public health system, the amazingly fractured billing process, and the fundamental injustice of for-profit enterprises that exclude the most vulnerable. TOMLINSONS TAKE: Americans must address protesters social and economic grievances The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epically failed in the early days of COVID-19 by giving bad advice and parochially developing its own tests. On Feb. 29, five days after the Coronavirus Task Force drafted recommendations to close schools and business, CDC director Robert Redfield spread false hope. The risk at this time is low, Redfield told the White House press corps. The American public needs to go on with their normal lives. Redfield buckled under pressure from White House officials opposed to shutting down the country for fear of damaging the economy, and presumably President Donald Trumps reelection bid. Instead, the CDC focused on testing, containment and contact tracing. The problem, of course, is that politicians at every level had slashed spending on public health departments, most of which operate at the county level. Epidemiologists knew what to do but didnt have the tools. Rather than use tests developed in Asia, the CDC came up with their own test kits, which were faulty. Epidemiologists had to rely on anecdotal accounts from doctors to guess who needed to quarantine. Contact tracing proved beyond the capacity of most health departments. Gov. Greg Abbott scrambled to hire 4,000 new contract tracers before expanding the reopening of Texas businesses on June 1. When the state fell 1,000 tracers short of the goal, Abbott relaxed restrictions anyway. Republican and Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, are calling for him to fire the politically-connected, inexperienced firm he hired to train new tracers. The CEO of MTX Group Inc. also lied about having a doctorate. Infection rates, as predicted, are climbing, and Texas still doe not have enough contact tracers. Hospitals are beginning to worry about having enough beds. My colleagues Jenny Deam and Lauren Caruba embedded in two hospitals for several days and came back with harrowing stories. One big question, of course, is how to pay for all of this. The federal government has agreed to reimburse insurance companies for testing, but there seems to be some confusion. Different insurance companies have different policies. Some say they will only pay for testing if it is medically necessary, but they do not clearly define what that means. U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, a California Democrat, recently got tested and promptly received notification she owed $76. UnitedHealth explained it was likely a coding error, but some insurers will only cover in-network labs. Go somewhere else, and you will probably get a surprise bill your insurance will not pay. Even during a pandemic, the same old billing games are causing the same old problems. Most cruel, though, is the way disadvantaged communities are getting hit triply-hard. Low-income neighborhoods, particularly African American and Hispanic, are registering infection rates far beyond those of whites and people with money and insurance. TOMLINSONS TAKE: June will be Americas most important test in fight against COVID-19 The causes are complicated. But African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to work in high-risk jobs as janitors, cooks, servers, drivers and porters at health care facilities. They cannot work from home. Most of those jobs do not include health insurance, which means these workers do not routinely visit a primary care doctor or get low-price pharmaceuticals. The resulting chronic illnesses in these groups make them far more susceptible to the worst COVID-19 has to offer, and they are not covered if they fall ill. People of color right now are more likely to be infected, and were more likely to die. What were seeing here is the direct result of racism, Camara Phyllis Jones, an epidemiologist who recently served as president of the American Public Health Association, told the STAT health care news site. Thats the thing that is slapping us in the face. Actually, its lashing us like whips. In several columns, I have called for more focus on protecting public health rather than charging for medical care. A public health system spends money on preventing illness with community programs and primary care rather than paying specialists to treat individuals with insurance in high-cost facilities. Our failed public health response to COVID-19 should drive us to shift focus onto prevention and universal access. Because letting the coronavirus run rampant is costing us all, both socially and economically. Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy. twitter.com/cltomlinson chris.tomlinson@chron.com New Delhi: South Korean Electronics manufacturer Samsung launched Galaxy A21s smartphone with quad-camera system and 5,000mAh battery in India on Wednesday. The smartphone comes at a starting price of Rs 16,499 and will be available across retail stores and leading online portals. Offered in black, white and blue colour options, the Galaxy A21s features a 6.5-inch HD+ (720x1,600 pixels) Infinity-O display with 20:9 aspect ratio. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by the latest Exynos 850 chipset paired with 4GB or 6GB RAM with 64GB of internal storage and an expandable memory of up to 512GB. The smartphone houses a quad-camera setup on the rear that has 48MP primary camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor positioned in a rectangular camera module. The Samsung A21s comes with a 13 MP front shooter. The device is packs a 5000mAh battery with the company claiming that it gives upto 21 hours of video playback time. It comes with 15W of fast charging. Key specs at a glance Display 16.63 cm (6.5 inch) HD+ Infinity-O Display Camera Rear - 48MP / 8MP / 2MP / 2MP Front - 13MP Memory 4GB/6GB + 64GB Up to 512GB Expandable Battery 5000mAh+ 15W Fast Charging Processor Latest Exynos 850 Octa 2.0GHz Rear Fingerprint Scanner OS Android 10 Samsung One UI Queen Elizabeth II is now sternly on alert on further mayhem that may ensue. Royal writer Tom Quinn stated that the Queen is closely overseeing the actions of Prince William and Kate Middleton in the event that the royal couple will commit something unfavorable and tarnish the reputation of the royals. On the airing of Channel 5's "William & Kate: Too Good to Be True?" documentary, according to Quinn, British royal family members wanted to guarantee that the Cambridges will not "repeat mistakes made by other young royals," but the identities of the said young royals were not revealed, reported Express. Quinn said in the documentary, "The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, will be watching very carefully, especially given that younger royals in the past have got things very badly wrong and they don't want that to happen again." The documentary also underscored Prince William and Kate Middleton's love story while pursuing studies in St. Andrews in 2001. Prince Harry "stumbled" hastily upon meeting Middleton at university, according to Eg24 News. According to sources, the Queen and Prince Phillip, aside from keeping an eagle-eyed watch on them, are giving them more responsibilities. Also, during trying times, the Cambridges have more eyes on them than they normally would have, reported Cafemom. Prince William is slated to be next in the succession to becoming King following his father Prince Charles. Also Read: Prince William Gradually Becoming Blind? Duke Says His Eye Sight is "Just a Blur" The 94-year-old Queen has been reigning for 68 years and is the longest-reigning UK monarch to date. Queen Elizabeth II will turn 95 years of age in 2021, which was the same age at which Prince Philip renounced his public royal duties. Courtiers said that she could take advantage of the turning point to transfer daily management of the monarchy to Prince Charles. The development arrives as the media and public attention are focused on the Cambridges following the Sussexes' renouncement of their membership as senior royal members and started anew in Los Angeles. The documentary also narrated that Prince William and Middleton fell in love in Scotland. The duchess was then a History of the Art course-taker at university. Quinn noted a comical mark to their story, "One of the funny stories is he was so desperate to meet her that as he walked towards her, he apparently tripped and said, 'Oh that's a terrible start, you're going to think I'm a complete clot.'" Middleton has assisted to and undertaken some of the Queen's duties already. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have played the role of sole patrons for some charity organizations. Middleton's life was also revealed post-St. Andrews. She was employed as a part-time accessory buyer. According to Daily Mail royal commentator Rebecca English, Middleton advised her boss that she can only be employed in part-time work due to her getting involved with a high-profile person. Related Article: Stepping Down the Royal Family Saved Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Marriage @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Kyrgyzstan added on Wednesday 90 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 2562, Trend reports citing Kabar. The republican headquarters on coronavirus infection said that among the newly infected 21 are medical workers, bringing the total number of contracted medical workers to 495, including 367 recoveries. Of the new confirmed cases, 42 cases were identified among the contact persons, 36 are unknown sources and 12 are imported cases. Usenbaev reported one new virus related death, raising the total number of fatalities to 30. 54 were recovered and discharged from hospitals in the past day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1901. Currently, 631 people remained hospitalized, and 6patients are in intensive care. In addition, 1160 people who have had contact with infected patients are under medical observation and another 10664 people are in home quarantine under the supervision of doctors. 3544 laboratory tests were carried out in the country past day. TS Inter 12th Result 2020 Declared | The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) issued a notification on Wednesday stating that the result for Intermediate first year and Second Year was announced today (Thursday, 18 June, 2020) at 3.15 pm. TS Inter 12th Result 2020 Declared | The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) issued a notification on Wednesday stating that the result for Intermediate first year and Second Year was announced today (Thursday, 18 June, 2020) at 3.15 pm. The state education minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy released the Intermediate Results from the Vidya Bhavan at Nampally in Hyderabad. Students can access their scores by visiting the official website tsbie.cgg.gov.in. Of the total 4,31,358 candidates, who appeared for the TS Inter exams, as many as 2,63,463 students have cleared the exa, taking the overall pass percentage among general students to 61.07 percent. Among the second year students, as many as 3,74,492 candidates appeared for the TS Inter 2020 exam. Of the total, 2,60,703 clear the exam, taking the overall pass percentage to 69.61 percent. Click here to follow LIVE updates Here's how to check your result on official website: Step 1: Visit the official TSBIE website at tsbie.cgg.gov.in. Step 2: On the home page, click on Class 12 results Step 3: Enter roll number and date of birth and click Submit Step 4: Download the result for future reference. Students can also register themselves at the Telangana government's mobile app --T App Folio -- by posting their credentials including name, phone number, and other details to check their Telangana TS intermediate result. Students can check their results on Firstpost by using the following widget: Earlier, the state education minister had said that the results of second year examinations will be announced in the second week of June and the first year results will be declared in the third week. But the results were delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdown. In 2019, TS Inter Result was declared on 18 April. A total of 59.8 percent students had cleared the first year exam while 65% students passed the second year exam. Over 4.8 lakh students appeared for the TS Inter-II exams this year. While the TS Inter 12th exams were to be held from 5 till 23 March, exams for two papers geography and modern language on 21 March - were postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. These exams were held on 3 June. New Delhi, June 17 : Kanishka Chaudhry, a high-school student from Gujarat, never had an inkling like all of us that mental health would become such a raging debate after the suicide of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The girl, however, is ready with an iOS app to help teenagers and adults overcome mental health issues. Apple has announced 350 winners of its annual WWDC Swift Student Challenge from 41 different countries and regions, including nearly 15 from India and she is among those next generation of coders and creators. Apps that can help people make more connections and improve people's mental health always motivated Kanishka to do something similar for humanity. "Imagine an app where people with mental health problems can express themselves without any limits and the best thing about that app is they don't have to share their real identity, like on traditional social media platforms," Kanishka told IANS. A student of GNFC Narmada Vidyalaya in Bharuch, Gujarat, she developed one such app called 'Ralasi Teen' during the lockdown period that would be available soon on Apple App Store. "People can share their stories and problems off limits and can have like-minded people to interact with," she said. When she won WWDC 2019 scholarship last year, it gave her some kind of positive hope that even not-so-famous apps can bring a change to a community. "That really encouraged me to do better and develop more apps and software. Apple really encourages students to make apps that bring a change. And that really encourages me to make apps for the community," said Kanishka. She made an Xcode playground about mental health awareness this year. The playground starts with some text slide show showing some real facts about mental health. Apple Xcode is an integrated development environment for macOS containing a suite of software development tools. The playground that she developed is divided into three parts and shows symptoms of different mental health problems with practical tips. Indore-based student Amit Sawant who is another winner of the Swift Student Challenge said Apple is motivating students like him to take part in programming through the challenge. "People are facing lots of mental health issues in this pandemic time like depression and I would love to contribute to develop an app that can help people maintain their mental health," Amit told IANS. He is creating a platform for sponsors, content creators, event organizers, and anyone who needs sponsorship after creating next-gen solutions to solve real-life problems. "This will ease the process for content creators and event organizers, without worrying about sponsorship and meeting the right set of people," he said. Another winner Hariharan Murugesan from Chennai started coding in 2014 when Swift was announced. He already has two apps on the App Store - Neural Vision for iOS and Inhale Air Quality Monitor for iOS and macOS. "Augmented Reality (AR) apps which tend to create a bridge between reality and computer-generated objects fascinates me. I believe that AR apps have big potential for almost all the fields, particularly education," said Hariharan. "With technologies like Apple's ARKit getting more and more advanced year by year, and entry level iPads getting really affordable, I think AR will revolutionise the way we explore things," he added. He is excited about new features on ARKit, Vision, SwiftUI and more. "With the new iPad Pro featuring breakthrough LiDAR Scanner, I just can't stop thinking about what features Apple would add next into the new hardware," Hariharan said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text As COVID-19 cases continue to surge in some states, mayors, backed by health experts, are urgently requesting the authority to impose mandatory mask wearing with little success so far. On Tuesday night, a number of doctors pleaded with the Montgomery, Ala., City Council to make mask wearing mandatory. The request was supported by Mayor Steven Reed, who said, We are at a point that we cannot sustain much longer. ... Our hospitals are reaching a breaking point. Montgomery County has more cases than any other county in Alabama, which as a state has seen its case total spike upward over the last 14 days. State health officials said a number of the hospitals in the state have reached all-time highs in numbers of COVID-19 patients. The units are full with critically ill COVID patients, Dr. William Saliski of Jackson Hospital said, noting that 90 percent of the patients in the ICU are Black. This mask slows that down, 95 percent protection from something as easy as cloth. ... If this continues the way its going, we will be overrun. A man in Houston receives a haircut in early May as social distancing guidelines to curb the spread of the coronavirus are relaxed. (Callaghan OHare/Reuters) Some council members said they doubted a mask requirement could be enforced. The measure failed to pass, with the council divided 4-4. All three Black council members were in favor, and four of the five white council members present voted against it. At the end of the day, if an illness or a pandemic comes through, we do not throw our constitutional rights out the window, said Councilman Brantley Lyons, explaining his vote against the measure. Doctors in the crowd urged Lyons to come visit them in the hospital. Earlier that day, Montgomery County Commissioner Elton Dean said the county didnt have the power to implement a mask requirement but asked individual businesses to do so. Today, I want to request, not require, request that our big box stores and all the companies that we allow to open back up for business ... they can require people coming into their facility to wear a mask, Dean said. Story continues Birmingham, the largest city in the state, implemented a mask ordinance on May 1 and recently extended it to July 3. While the vote in Montgomery fell short, the cities of Memphis, Tenn., and Raleigh, N.C., approved mask mandates in an attempt to curb cases. A new study released this week found that a few hundred thousand coronavirus cases may have been averted due to face-covering mandates. Alabama is not the only state dealing with a surge without a mask ordinance in effect. Arizona has become one of the largest viral hot spots in the country, and hundreds of medical professionals there have signed letters to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey asking him to issue a mask requirement. "By wearing masks, we can curtail a huge surge of COVID-19 cases in Arizona and reduce unnecessary mortality in our community, read one of the letters, signed by 688 medical professionals. No social distancing, going to bars and happy hour, not wearing masks it seemed like the general public assumed the threat was over when it was really only just beginning, read a letter from Dr. Christine Severance, a family physician in Phoenix. In addition to the governor giving an executive order about the masks, I think we need to get support from other leaders. ... We need a widespread effort. Duceys office issued a statement saying Arizonans should wear a face-covering in public, but the governor has not endorsed a legal requirement. On Tuesday, Arizona set record highs for both new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations due to the virus. We know that its in the community, and that we cant stop the spread, said Dr. Cara Christ, the states top public health official, last week. We cant stop living, as well. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announces the reopening of more businesses at a press conference in Austin on May 18. (Lynda M. Gonzalez/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool) Mayors of Texass nine largest cities sent a letter of their own Tuesday, asking Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to grant them the authority to set rules and regulations mandating face masks. The state also saw a record high number of new cases on Tuesday. A one-size-fits-all approach is not the best option. We should trust local officials to make informed choices about health policy. And if mayors are given the opportunity to require face coverings, we believe our cities will be ready to help reduce the spread of this disease, wrote the mayors of Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, Arlington, Plano and Grand Prairie. If you do not have plans to mandate face coverings statewide, we ask that you restore the ability for local authorities to enforce the wearing of face coverings in public venues where physical distancing cannot be practiced. In late April, Abbott signed an executive order limiting the power of local leaders, stating that no jurisdiction can impose a civil or criminal penalty for failure to wear a face covering. Despite a rise in cases, Texas moved forward with its reopening on June 3, allowing bars to open at 50 percent capacity and restaurants at 75 percent capacity. I make clear on a daily basis around the entire state of Texas that wearing a mask is very important, and local officials send that message, Abbott said Tuesday. Putting people in jail, however, is the wrong approach for this thing. More than 116,000 people have died in the United States from COVID-19, according to tracking from Johns Hopkins University. Both the death total and the number of positive cases more than 2.1 million are the most of any nation in the world. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: A man who was shot and killed in northeast Stockton, California over the weekend has been identified by authorities as a 21-year-old Alabama resident. Stephen Davis called the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office about 2:40 a.m. on Sunday to report that he'd been shot, according to a Sheriff's Office Facebook post. Officers located Davis near Alpine Avenue and North F Street with multiple gunshot wounds, sheriff's officials said. "He was transported to a nearby hospital where he unfortunately passed away," sheriff's officials said. Davis was from the city of Brent, sheriff officials said. Authorities are asking anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information to contact the Sheriff's Office by calling (209) 468-4400 and selecting "Option 1." Callers can remain anonymous. 2020 The Record (Stockton, Calif.) Visit The Record (Stockton, Calif.) at www.recordnet.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Ampex Data Systems (Ampex), a Delta Information Systems Company, is proud to announce the award of a firm fixed price contract in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division (NAWCWD) located in Ridgecrest, California (China Lake). Ampexs contract provides NAWCWD full rate production of Ampexs low-cost TuffCORD ruggedized network attached storage (NAS) device, part of the Ampex TuffServ product line. The TuffCORD will be used to store test data generated onboard aircraft during flight test operations. Ampex built the U.S. Navys first, dedicated, flight test instrumentation data storage device in 1950. Today, Ampex is known for manufacturing the fastest ruggedized network file servers in the industry and supports various U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy programs. Most notably, Ampex provides the network file servers and boot computers that are the digital backbone of the U.S. Navys E-2 C/D Hawkeye fleet. The new contract with the Navy represents yet another major milestone for Ampex and the defense industry. This is Ampexs first production run of a network-based recording device for Department of Defense (DoD) flight test instrumentation. Today, most onboard flight test recording devices are still direct attached storage systems only capable of recording and playback. Ampex has pioneered the use of NAS systems (servers) for flight test recording with its unparalleled Ampex Common Compute Environment (ACCE) software. ACCE helps customers take advantage of the network file server capabilities inherent in Ampex NAS devices. With ACCE, customers can use an Ampex NAS to execute software-defined recording (software replicates what hardware used to), index stored data for easier access and post-mission analysis, and integrate third-party software on the device. Ampex will complete work at its Silicon Valley headquarters in Hayward, CA. Were proud to offer the industry Ampexs winning combination of NAS systems and ACCE software, stated Jim Orahood, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Ampex Data Systems. The combination will save customers time and money in flight test recording applications and mission system operations. [June 17, 2020] Statement - Canada and the United States Advance Collaboration on Critical Minerals OTTAWA, ON, June 17, 2020 /CNW/ - Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Seamus O'Regan, today released the following statement after the 2nd Bi-lateral Critical Minerals Working Group videoconference meeting. "Today, Shawn Tupper, Associate Deputy Minister for Natural Resources Canada and Cynthia Kierscht, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs participated in a virtual meeting and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening Canada-U.S. supply chain for critical mineralsessential to both countries' security and economic growth. "Canada and the U.S. discussed the effects of the COVID-19 glbal pandemic on the mining sector and explored opportunities to collaborate on securing access to the critical minerals needed for key manufacturing sectors such as communication technology, aerospace, defence and clean technology. "These efforts build on a commitment last June by the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the U.S. to develop reliable, integrated North American supply chains for critical minerals. The CanadaU.S. Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals Collaboration was finalized on January 9, 2020. "Both of our economies are better off when we work together. By advancing this Joint Action Plan, we are joining forces to secure access to the critical minerals including uranium, rare earth elements and those needed for next generation batteries that can play a key role in our economic recovery post COVID-19. These efforts will not only boost our competiveness in global markets and create jobs for Canadians; they will also help to develop cleaner technologies to reach our net-zero targets. "The Government of Canada remains committed to attracting investment into Canadian exploration and mining projects and positioning itself as a reliableand sustainablesupplier of choice for critical minerals." SOURCE Natural Resources Canada North Korea said it had rejected South Koreas offer to send special envoys to ease escalating bilateral tensions, and vowed to redeploy troops to demilitarised border units in the latest step towards nullifying inter-Korean peace accords Seoul: North Korea said on Wednesday it had rejected South Koreas offer to send special envoys to ease escalating bilateral tensions, and vowed to redeploy troops to demilitarised border units in the latest step towards nullifying inter-Korean peace accords. The announcements made by state media agency KCNA came one day after North Korea blew up a joint liaison office set up in a border town as part of a 2018 agreement by the two countries leaders, as tensions flare over propaganda leaflets sent by defectors into the reclusive state. South Koreas President Moon Jae-in on Monday offered to send his national security adviser Chung Eui-yong and spy chief Suh Hoon as special envoys. But Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a senior ruling party official, flatly rejected the tactless and sinister proposal, KCNA said. Moon greatly favours sending special envoys for tiding over crises and raises preposterous proposals frequently, but he has to clearly understand that such a trick will no longer work on us, KCNA said. The solution to the present crisis between the North and the South caused by the incompetence and irresponsibility of the South Korean authorities is impossible and it can be terminated only when proper price is paid. There was no immediate comment from Moons office. Any moves to invalidate cross-border peace deals pose a major setback to Moons bid for more lasting reconciliation with the North, while complicating efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile programmes. Kim Yo-jong also harshly criticised Moon in another KCNA statement, saying he had failed to implement any of the 2018 pacts and had made inter-Korean ties a US puppet. In Mondays speech, which marked the 20th anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit, Moon expressed regret that North Korea-US and inter-Korean relations have not made progress as hoped but asked Pyongyang to maintain peace deals and return to dialogue. In a separate KCNA dispatch on Wednesday, a spokesman for the General Staff of the (North) Korean Peoples Army (KPA) said it would dispatch troops to Mount Kumgang and Kaesong near the border, where the two Koreas had carried out joint economic projects in the past. Police posts that had been withdrawn from the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) will be reinstalled, while artillery units near the western sea border where defectors frequently send leaflets will be reinforced with the readiness alert heightened to the level of top class combat duty, the spokesman said. The North will also restart sending anti-Seoul leaflets across the border, he added. Areas favourable for scattering leaflets against the South will open on the whole front line and our peoples drive for scattering leaflets will be guaranteed militarily and thorough-going security measures will be taken, he said. The KPA said on Tuesday it had been studying an action plan to re-enter zones that had been demilitarised under a 2018 inter-Korean military pact and turn the front line into a fortress. Seouls defence ministry has urged North Korea to abide by the agreement, under which both sides vowed to cease all hostile acts and dismantled a number of structures along the DMZ. Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state, says he is yet to join any political party. The governor announced the resignation of his m... Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state, says he is yet to join any political party. The governor announced the resignation of his membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) after meeting with Ibrahim Gambari, chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday. He said he would pursue his reelection bid on another platform. But Shortly after the governor announced his quitting of the APC, the appeal court upheld the judgment of a high court suspending Adams Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the party. Ajibola Ajimobi, former governor of Oyo state, was named as acting APC national chairman. In a tweet on Wednesday, a few hours after Oshiomhole stepped down, Obaseki said he is yet to join any party and that his focus is to control the spread of COVID-19 in the state. My focus now is to control the spread of the coronavirus ( Stay safe. I have not moved to a new platform yet to seek re-election.My focus now is to control the spread of the coronavirus ( #COVID19 ) pandemic, which is ravaging our country and threatening our healthcare system.Stay safe. June 17, 2020 Obaseki was disqualified from the APC primary election in Edo by a screening panel for alleged defective certificate. There has been the speculation that he may join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He met with some governors elected on the PDP platform at the weekend. It is not clear if he is reconsidering his resignation from the APC following the suspension of Oshiomhole. But governors elected on the APC platform had said they would ensure internal democracy is at play in the selection of candidates for Edo governorship election scheduled for September 19. Ho Chi Minh City chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong paid a visit to a British COVID-19 patient, considered Vietnams most critically ill one, in the hospital on Wednesday, seeing him very conscious as he continues to be on the mend. Patient No. 91 is making a marvelous recovery, Phong said at Cho Ray Hospital in District 5, referring to how Vietnam numbers the Briton. He was on the verge of death a few times and we once thought of a lung transplant [to save him]. Relentless efforts by medical teams at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases and Cho Ray Hospital have helped him recover, bringing hope to the patient. I have been informed of his conditions, reading media reports. Now I see him very conscious. Chairman Phong called the health workers treating the British patient excellent soldiers on the COVID-19 front. Vietnam has kept the coronavirus under control but people should not be complacent, he warned, adding that everyone should take preventative measures to curb transmission at a time when the pandemic is still raging in surrounding countries. The 43-year-old patient, a Vietnam Airlines pilot, was confirmed as the countrys COVID-19 patient No. 91 in mid-March. He was admitted to the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases on March 18 with a damaged right lung. His condition then got worse and worse, leading to him relying on life support while in a coma for about three months. He suffered multi-organ failure and was closer to death than ever. Doctors even planned to resort to a lung transplant to rescue him, as his lungs were badly damaged by the disease. Medications then worked to clear him of the coronavirus following his treatment at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases in District 5. He was transferred to Cho Ray Hospital on May 22 with his lungs still severely damaged. He has been making a remarkable recovery ever since. He woke up from the coma, was able to unlock his phone and iPad with passwords, talked to doctors, moved his arms and legs, wrote on a board, sunbathed daily, and practiced walking with health workers help. He has been taken off life support. Doctors say he no longer needs lung transplantation, as the patient has regained most of his lung functions. Patient No. 91 needs more time for recovery, said Tran Thanh Linh, deputy chief of Cho Rays intensive care unit, which is treating the Briton. His condition was truly critical when he was admitted to the hospital, Linh said. We didnt dare to believe he would recover. Vietnam has reported 335 COVID-19 cases to date, with 325 recoveries and zero deaths, according to Ministry of Health figures. The Southeast Asian nation has documented no community-transmitted infections for two months. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! (Newser) Mission accomplished for a group of 15 male giant tortoises credited with saving their species from extinction. The tortoisespart of a breeding program that began in the 1960s when there were just two males and 12 females left in the wild, per CNNwere returned to their home on the island of Espanola in the Galapagos Islands on Monday after fathering some 2,000 offspring. About 800 of those came from Diego, a 100-year-old tortoise with a "legendary libido," the BBC reports. Diego, thought to have been removed from the Galapagos in the early 20th century, spent 80 years in the San Diego Zoo before being moved to the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos to take part in the tortoise recovery program, which will now end. story continues below "We can shut down the captive breeding program of this species because their natural behavior is effective," Danny Rueda, director of Galapagos National Park, tells Reuters. Ecuador's environment minister, Paulo Proano Andrade, says the heroes were welcomed to Espanola, their native island, "with open arms," per the Guardian. After a period of quarantine meant to prevent the tortoises from transporting any non-native plants or seeds to the uninhabited island, the animals, weighing up to 400 pounds, were transported by boat, then carried in special backpacks to an area with an abundance of cactus, which should help them adjust to life in the wild. They'll be monitored for the time being with GPS trackers. (Read more Galapagos Islands stories.) Noting that many of the vehicles that arrive at the lakefront have Illinois plates, some officials have surmised that closed beaches there because of the COVID-19 pandemic are driving more people across the state line. Beachgoers from both sides of the border said people are just happy to break free after being cooped up against the new coronavirus. Aruba Unified Infrastructure: Provide Operational Simplicity with a Cloud-native Platform Network infrastructure and operations teams have never been more stretched. Hyper-distributed edge environments are creating insurmountable levels of operational complexity. Adding to this complexity is the independent management of WAN, wired, and wireless networks across campus, branch, remote worker, and data center locationsoften orchestrated by standalone, domain-specific tools. In this brief, learn about Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform) which was specifically designed to address fragmented network operations and simplify the network management lifecycle. UN chief Antonio Guterres has hailed "progress" in the Central African Republic on political reform, but voiced concern over the failure to disarm rebel groups. In a report delivered to the Security Council this week and seen by AFP on Tuesday, the secretary general said such reforms were "essential" to implementing the peace deal signed by the government and 14 rebel groups early last year. "I am encouraged that the people and government of the Central African Republic continue to make progress in advancing the peace process, even as the country battles the COVID-19 pandemic," Guterres said. But even as violations of the peace agreement have waned in the troubled country, the UN chief said there were still problem areas to address. "I am deeply concerned about ongoing violent confrontations involving armed groups, resulting in violence against civilians, humanitarians, national armed forces and peacekeepers," he said. "I am concerned that no progress has been made in advancing the national disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program since November 2019." One of the world's poorest and most unstable nations, CAR spiralled into bloodshed after former president Francois Bozize was overthrown in 2013. Fighting has since forced nearly a quarter of the country's 4.5 million people to flee their homes, and rival militia groups control most of the country. A presidential election is expected to be held in December 2020. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio school districts should submit a remote learning plan to the state by July 31 in case the coronavirus pandemic spikes again, according to a section of a bill passed last week. But the new law could confuse the 107 districts that have already submitted a declaration to the states department of education of their intent to use a blended learning plan. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 21:56:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHONGQING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Experts from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and Hungary held a video conference on Wednesday on COVID-19 prevention and control, with local medics in Chongqing sharing China's experience and anti-epidemic measures with their Hungarian counterparts. The conference gathered experts in multiple disciplines, including epidemiology and infectious diseases. "At present, the epidemic control situation in Hungary is facing challenges. We hope to learn from Chongqing's useful practices and experiences through today's video exchanges, and hope to overcome the epidemic soon," said Diossi Lorand, consul-general of Hungary in Chongqing. The two sides exchanged views in areas such as therapeutic methods, mental health consultation, and the characteristics of the epidemic at different stages. "Our experts shared their experience unreservedly to help Hungary's fight against COVID-19," said Tang Wen, deputy head of the municipal foreign affairs office. "We hope that we can help our friend overcome the novel coronavirus soon." Enditem North Korea has compared the South to a mongrel dog and said it blew up a joint liaison office on the countries border because it had lost its symbolic meaning. In the latest of a series of provocative gestures, Pyongyang vowed to send soldiers to closed co-operation sites in its territory, reinstall border guard posts and resume military exercises in frontline zones, nullifying peace deals reached with South Korea two years ago. The North blew up the liaison office in the border town of Kaesong on Tuesday amid worsening tensions over a campaign by defectors to send balloons carrying leaflets criticising Kim Jong-un across the frontier. A commentary published by state news agency KCNA on Wednesday warned the destruction of the building, set up in 2004 and largely funded by Seoul to improve bilateral relations, could be a prelude to the total catastrophe of the north-south relations. It said the office had already lost the value of its existence and symbolic meaning and accused the South of violating peace agreements with hostile acts including war exercises. Just like [a] feared mongrel dog, it kept bragging and bluffing, rattling the dialogue partner and stoking confrontational atmosphere, the commentary said. The statement came as the Norths general staff separately said military units would be deployed to the Diamond Mountain resort and the Kaesong industrial complex, both just north of the heavily fortified border. The two sites, built with South Korean financing, have been closed for years due to inter-Korean disputes and US-led sanctions. The North said it will resume army exercises and re-establish guard posts to boost military readiness in border areas, and open frontline sites for flying propaganda balloons towards South Korea. Those steps would reverse agreements reached between the Koreas in September 2018 aimed at lowering military tensions along the border. Experts believe the provocations are calculated moves to apply pressure on Seoul and Washington amid stalled nuclear negotiations. Some analysts believe the North may be seeking concessions at a time when its economy, already battered by sanctions, is likely to have worsened due to the coronavirus pandemic. South Koreas military expressed regret over the North Korean announcement and warned that the North will face unspecified consequences if it violates the 2018 deals. Major General Jeon Dong Jin, of the Souths joint chiefs of staff, told reporters Seoul maintained its military readiness but would strive to prevent tensions from rising further. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Mr Kim, said on Wednesday that Pyongyang had rebuffed a recent offer by South Korean president Moon Jae-in to send special envoys to defuse tension. Ms Kim, who has spearheaded the Norths recent rhetoric against South Korea, called Mr Moons offer a petty farce and a trick to tide over a crisis. One of Mr Moons senior presidential advisers, Yoon Do-han, called the response very rude, irrational and senseless, and warned the South would not tolerate similar statements any longer. Although less well-known than fellow guerrilla leader and current Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Eden Pastora, who died June 16 at 83, was one of the leading figures of the left-wing Sandinista revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979. Pastora, whose father had been killed by Somoza's National Guard over a land dispute, had joined the anti-Somoza insurgency in 1962 and used the nom de guerre Comandante Cero, or Commander Zero, with a military-style dog tag that read 0. He launched the first major attack on the Somoza regime, on Aug. 22, 1978, when the strongman was at the peak of his power. Pastora and two dozen fellow Sandinista guerrillas stormed the National Palace, seat of the Nicaraguan congress in Managua, taking more than 1,000 hostages including congress members and two members of the Somoza family. Pastora eventually negotiated the freedom of 59 imprisoned Sandinista fighters, all of whom were allowed to fly out of the country - eventually to Cuba - along with Pastora and his fellow assailants. It was the beginning of the end of the nearly half-century-long Somoza dynasty, and Pastora, with the dark good looks of a young Robert De Niro, became a national hero - for a while. Four years later, declaring that he was disillusioned by the communist direction of the revolution, Pastora switched sides and joined the right-wing "contras" along the border with Costa Rica to fight Ortega and the Sandinistas. He became commander of the contras' Southern Front, leading a guerrilla group of about 2,000 men. Pastora made international headlines on May 30, 1984, when his news conference at La Penca, at a base camp just inside Nicaragua, was the target of a deadly bombing. One attendee, purportedly a Danish journalist, detonated a bomb in a camera bag at Pastora's feet. The guerrilla leader was seriously wounded and lucky that both his legs were saved. Seven people, including three journalists, were killed. One was Linda Frazier, an American reporter for the English-language Costa Rican newspaper the Tico Times whose husband, Joe Frazier, was Latin American bureau chief for the Associated Press. The bomber escaped and was later identified as a pro-Sandinista Argentine. Pastora long believed the CIA may have been involved, but investigations by many of Linda Frazier's friends in journalism indicated the bomber had direct connections with the Sandinista government. No one was ever prosecuted for the bombing. As reports of contra atrocities grew, including torture, rape and killings of civilians, the U.S. administration under Ronald Reagan began withdrawing support. After the CIA cut off funding to Pastora's group, he gave up the armed struggle in 1986 and made a living in the Costa Rican fishing industry, including shark hunting. The war ended in 1989 with a peace agreement. More than 30,000 Nicaraguans, combatants and civilians, had died; Somoza, exiled to Paraguay, had been assassinated in 1980 by a Sandinista commando team. As president, Ortega allowed Pastora back into Nicaragua as a gesture of reconciliation, quashing a possible death sentence he had faced over the previous years. Pastora went into politics, initially with the Social Christian Party, which described itself as a centrist alternative to the Marxist-Leninist Sandinistas and the right-wing National Opposition Union. He called for a government independent of Soviet or American influence. "We are anti-imperialist with Moscow and we are anti-imperialist with Washington," he said while campaigning. "I propose a third type of government . . . without the influence of Soviet tanks or dollars from the United States." Although he had been a hero during the revolution, his 1980s defection to the contras turned him into a marginal figure in Nicaragua. In 2006 he ran for president as a candidate of the Alternative for Change party but claimed only 0.29 percent of the vote while the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) won with just over 38 percent of the national vote, restoring Ortega to power after 16 years in opposition. Eden Atanacio Pastora Gomez was born in Ciudad Dario, Nicaragua, on Jan. 22, 1937. He was 8 and attending a Jesuit school when his father, a rancher, was killed by National Guard members. After studying medicine in Guadalajara, Mexico, Pastora returned to Nicaragua to commit himself to the anti-Somoza cause and the newly formed Sandino Revolutionary Front, one of the groups formed in honor of the Nicaraguan guerrilla leader Augusto Cesar Sandino. While Ortega and Pastora were in Cuba after their successful mission at the National Palace, the Nicaraguan revolution picked up steam. After guerrilla training by Fidel Castro's forces, Ortega returned clandestinely to Nicaragua while Pastora based himself in Costa Rica as commander of the Sandinista's Southern Front on the Nicaraguan border. The latter made little headway against Somoza's U.S.-backed National Guard but tied down enough of them to allow Ortega's forces to capture major Nicaraguan towns. In a 2019 interview with the Spanish news agency EFE, Pastora said there were two "detonators" for the revolution that triumphed on July 19, 1979, when he and other guerrilla leaders marched into Managua to popular acclaim. "I think the last straw was the killing of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro [an anti-Somoza journalist] in 1978," he said. "But it took one of their [U.S.] citizens being killed for that to change and for the U.S. to remove their support for Somoza," referring to the June 20, 1979, unprovoked killing of ABC-TV news correspondent Bill Stewart by Somoza's National Guard in Managua. "That was what made it an international political matter," Pastora told EFE. "With that, neither Jimmy Carter nor anyone could defend Somoza and told him to get out." The revolution was victorious a month later, and Pastora was appointed vice minister of the interior and later vice minister of defense in the revolutionary government. Some observers said he was angered to get such second-level appointments and that that was part of his motivation for leaving the Sandinista administration in 1981 and publicly declaring his switch to the contras in 1982. In interviews, he described the betrayal by the Sandinistas of the cause for which they fought, saying they had simply replaced the corruption of the Somoza dynasty with their own. After failing in his own political ambitions in the 1990s and the early years of the new millennium, Pastora made peace with Ortega and in 2008 the former became a political adviser to the latter, by then president of Nicaragua. Pastora was very much back in the Sandinista fold. In April and May 2018, during a student-led rebellion against Ortega, he mobilized and armed Sandinista veterans and youths as paramilitaries to dismantle barricades and fire live ammunition at protesters, killing dozens of students, according to Amnesty International and other human rights groups. On May 30, 2018 - Mother's Day in Nicaragua - Pastora, on state media, expressed his support for sharpshooters who fired on students and their mothers during an anti-Ortega protest march by over 300,000 people in Managua. With 15 dead, it became known in Nicaragua as the Mother's Day Massacre. Pastora was unrepentant. In an interview with Nicaraguan state TV in November 2019, he said: "We listen to Daniel [Ortega] because we love him and are willing to give our life for what Daniel teaches us, for what Daniel dictates to us. Therefore, we must be willing to give our lives and do what the party says, whatever the party orders." Pastora died in Managua's military hospital of lung problems, according to his son Alvaro Pastora. Doctors said he was suspected of having the novel coronavirus, but a test was not performed. Nicaragua has denied a serious outbreak of the virus and conducts very few coronavirus tests. Alvaro Pastora said his father had been connected to a ventilator for a week. He had suffered from bronchopneumonia for several years, according to his wife, Yolanda Torres. - - - The Washington Post's Ismael Lopez Ocampo in Managua and Mary Beth Sheridan in Mexico City contributed to this report. When Attila Csanyi lost his housing, his life fell into a death spiral. In early March, the operators of his lodging home told him to leave when he had friends over just as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold. Less than two months later, the 28-year-old with schizophrenia was found dead on the roof of Jackson Square. Having a home base was key to Attilas stability, his twin brother says. Losing the roof over his head set him adrift on the streets of Hamilton, Richard Csanyi says. That was the nail in the coffin. Attilas tragic unravelling follows an all-too-familiar trajectory for those who know the health-related consequences of homelessness. When people lose their housing, they lose stability, says Dr. Jill Wiwcharuk, a physician with the Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team. Its not clear how Attila died on May 2, but Richard believes a drug overdose killed his brother. Police are awaiting toxicology results. Stephanie Cox, a lawyer with the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, also says the connection between health and stable housing is crucial. She has urged the city to crack down on illegal evictions from lodging homes also known as residential care facilities and do more to protect their vulnerable tenants. People are dying because they do not have a roof over their head. Under Ontario law, tenants of residential care facilities should be afforded the same rights as other renters, such as proper eviction notices, but that doesnt always happen in practice. In December, Cox urged the city to consider a third-party advocacy office to allow hundreds of residents of the facilities to file complaints without blowback from operators. How many tragic examples of deaths associated with the loss of housing will it take until we take the right to adequate housing seriously? she said in the aftermath of Attilas death. The city offers an anonymous phone line for residents to complain, says Rob Mastroianni, manager of the residential care facilities subsidy program and emergency shelter services. But the exploration of an advocates office is part of the citys ongoing review of the residential care facilities program, Mastroianni says. Its not something that we have lost sight of. The city subsidizes 52 of the 88 residential care facilities in Hamilton. Hundreds of residents frail older adults, disabled, mentally ill, cognitively delayed or those battling addiction receive care and meals in these homes. Some of these for-profit lodging homes have come under city scrutiny for inadequate care and conditions, including poor sanitary practices, pest infestations and improper storage of medication. Attila and Richard Csanyi. Courtesy Richard Csanyi Attilas residence at 265 Bay St. S. was far from perfect. Between February 2019 and January 2020, Sampaguita Lodging and Rest Home landed five bylaw violation notices relating to property standards, three for cleanliness issues and one concerning licensing. All were resolved except one, which was partially resolved, the city says. Specifically, there were problems with bedbugs and sanitation, the city says. But at least Attila had a roof over his head, says his brother, Richard. There was hope while he was living in that place. He was talking to his social worker and working on getting his own place at that time. For about nine months, Attila was able to keep his worldly possessions, including trinkets and pretty-looking rocks collected during long walks around Hamilton. But there were also frustrations at the lodge. Attila felt lonely among the older residents. His bed was just riddled with bedbugs, his brother said. Attila also had a discomfort sharing a room with a stranger, partly due to his schizophrenia, Richard says. On March 11, his stay at the lodge ended. Richard says the operators told his family it was because Attila had brought guests over. They were worried about coronavirus spreading through the home. Amelia Acierto, owner of Sampaguita, agrees COVID-19 was one of the factors. But Acierto says they told Attila more than once not to have friends over. She also alleges he punched a resident in the shoulder two days earlier and that staff were afraid of his company. Police confirmed officers were called to Sampaguita but no charges were laid. Richard contends Attila wouldnt have assaulted anyone unless he felt threatened. Acierto says staff worked with Attilas social worker to secure a bed at Good Shepherd, a social-service agency that operates shelters, but he wouldnt go. The lodge refunded Attila $360 half of that months room and board a few days later, she says. The eviction, we did it right. But Richard disputes this, saying his fraternal twin wasnt given any formal notice under the Residential Tenancies Act. There wasnt even time for him to pick up his possessions. Richard Csanyi with daughter Violet, age 3. Barry Gray Days after Attilas rupture from the home, the Ontario government announced an eviction freeze to prevent tenants from losing their homes during the pandemic. Acierto who once operated a residential care facility in Dundas until it closed under a cloud of violations says staff struggled with Attila for some time. She acknowledges the home couldnt handle him. The proper care is in the hospital. For his part, Richard says the home lacked the expertise and staffing levels to properly care for his brother. What happened to Attila after Sampaguita is murky, but Richard says his brother stayed at the Salvation Army and Mission Services. He worried about coronavirus and rampant drug use at shelters. He despised heavy drugs. He hated it, Richard says. But in the last full month of his brothers life, something triggered, he says. Hed shifted from marijuana to crystal meth. They found a backpack with meth pipes at his fathers house in Hamilton. At the end of April, Attila showed up at Richards home in Mississauga around 1:30 a.m. He had a bike and friend with him. Attila had welts on his leg. He thought it was cancer. He wanted his health card which Richard had for safe keeping to go to the hospital. Richard believes the wounds were abscesses, which can be caused by intravenous drug use. That was the last time he saw his brother alive. On May 5, Richard contacted police to report Attila missing after his social worker told him he hadnt been to St. Josephs Hospital for his injection. He hadnt picked up his disability cheque, either. Richard didnt know that three days earlier, paramedics had responded to an unidentified man without vital signs on the roof of Jackson Square. Police didnt identify him as Attila until June 5 after making a public plea for information, despite the familys frantic search for their loved one. Richard met with police and took an agonizing look at the photograph that was circulated within the service. You could see he was hurting when he left this world. Dr. Jill Wiwcharuk didnt know Attila but says his death sadly illustrates to the extreme what she experiences generally in her clinics. Tenants do not have anyone to advocate on their behalf and often do not know their rights. Wiwcharuk says the city is 100 per cent aware that residential care facility operators illegally evict tenants regularly with impunity. Rob Mastroianni, with city, says he has heard of instances where that occurs. The city has reiterated to operators that theyre required to follow Residential Tenancies Act regulations, Mastroianni says. But Stephanie Cox, the legal clinic lawyer, points out that councillors asked staff in December to report back in 60 days on a potential advocacy office to help protect tenants. Since then, the public has yet to receive a clear policy with respect to what proactive measures have been taken to ensure quality of living for tenants residing in these homes. Rebel Wilson's jokes aimed at Prince Andrew and Megxit left the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge squirming uncomfortably in their seats at the BAFTAs in February. And the comedian, 40, has now expressed no regrets about referencing the British monarchy's scandals on stage - insisting the royals had in fact 'secretly' loved her gags. 'I'm friends with someone in the Royal family and they say all the royals have a great sense of humour and they secretly love it,' the Pitch Perfect star told The Sun. 'Great sense of humour!' Rebel Wilson has no regrets about her jokes directed at the Royal family at the BAFTAs in February. She told The Sun, 'I'm friends with someone in the Royal family and they say all the royals have a great sense of humour and they secretly love it' Addressing the star-studded audience at London's Royal Albert Hall in early February, Rebel said: 'It is really great to be here, at the Royal Andrew... Royal Harry... no, sorry, Royal Phil- at this royal... palace place.' The joke prompted a ripple of laughter from those in attendance, but William and Kate looked notably reserved as cameras immediately cut to the Royal couple. However, in her new interview, Rebel explained: 'I did speak to Kate and Williams private secretary after the BAFTAs and all seemed fine. Awkward: The comedian's jokes about Prince Andrew and Megxit left the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge squirming uncomfortably in their seats at the BAFTAs in February Scandal: The Duke of York stepped down from royal duties in November following a disastrous Newsnight interview about his friendship with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein 'I mean, obviously, I'm not a malicious person either. My goal is not to try to take down someone, especially at the BAFTAs.' The Duke of York stepped down from royal duties in November following a disastrous Newsnight interview about his friendship with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Following the interview, he was accused of failing to show regret over his friendship with the disgraced financier or empathy with his victims. Rebel also joked about Megxit - the term coined to describe Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to step back from the Royal family. Taking aim: Rebel also joked about 'Megxit' - the term coined to describe Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to step back from the Royal family Meanwhile, Rebel has been hot on the promotional trail for her new show LOL: Last One Standing. On the personal front, the blonde has been on a serious health and fitness kick in a bid to get her weight down to 75kg. Rebel has been proudly flaunting the results in a slew of confident and sexy Instagram photos lately. Will the Brown family ever settle down? First, the Sister Wives stars fled their home state of Utah because of its strict anti-polygamy laws. Kody Brown and his four wives moved to Las Vegas, purchasing side-by-side homes in a cul-de-sac. They lived in Sin City for a few years before pulling up stakes again, relocating to Flagstaff, Arizona. The Browns bought a parcel of land in Coyote Pass, where they intended to live. But as viewers saw in the last season of Sister Wives, the family has yet to move forward with construction. Kody wanted the entire family to live together under one roof, and idea that didnt go over well with all the women in his life. Now, an Instagram post from Christine Brown has fans asking new questions about the Coyote Pass land and where the Brown family is living. Some Sister Wives fans think the Browns have moved to Coyote Pass RELATED: Sister Wives: Fans Wonder If Christine Brown Is Kodys New Favorite Spouse In a June 14 Instagram post, Christine shared several photos of herself and her daughter spending time in the fresh air and sunshine. In the background of a few of the photos were some gorgeous mountain views, which had fans wondering if it was possible the Browns had finally moved to Coyote Pass. Are you guys in houses on Coyote Pass now? one asked. Looks like you are at Coyote Pass!!! The show must be really far behind, commented another. Others claim the Browns still arent living at Coyote Pass Sister Wives | TLC While some fans thought Christines photos were a sign that the Browns had finally resolved their issues and moved to the Coyote Pass property, others said that wasnt the case. Several chimed in on Instagram to say the land was still vacant. Nothing has been done at Coyote Pass still, one wrote. Someone on Reddit went by it a few months ago while on vacation and posted a bunch of photos. It seems like Christine is still living in the $520,000 house she and Kody purchased back September 2018, according to The Sun. The three-bedroom, three-bath house is just a couple of miles from Coyote Pass, noted Realtor.com. Christine has made it clear she enjoys living on her own RELATED: Sister Wives: Kody Brown Knew He Was Headed Toward Financial Ruin Before Officially Moving to Flagstaff Though Kody had grand plans for living in one large house with his wives, they werent all enthusiastic about the idea. While Janelle Brown seemed open to sharing a home with her fellow sister wives, the others balked. Especially Christine. Honestly, Im a better Mom living separate, she tweeted on February 9. I love my sister wives and I want to live next to them for the rest of my life. Theres so many ways to live in a plural family, she wrote in a tweet a few weeks later. From one big home all the way to wives in separate states!! Like every other family, theres no normal. Check out Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Facebook! The nuclear-armed Asian powers share a long history of mistrust and clashes along their lengthy border. Asian regional superpowers India and China share a long history of mistrust and conflict along their lengthy border, and tensions flared this week in their first deadly clash in more than four decades. The worlds two most populous nations and nuclear-armed neighbours have never even agreed on the length of their Line of Actual Control frontier, which straddles the strategically important Himalayan region. Recent decades have seen numerous skirmishes along the border, including a brief but bloody war in 1962. Here are some key dates: Nehrus 1959 Beijing visit India inherited its border dispute with China from its British colonial rulers, who hosted a 1914 conference with the Tibetan and Chinese governments to set the border. Beijing has never recognised the 1914 boundary, known as the McMahon Line, and currently claims 90,000 square kilometres (34,750 square miles) of territory nearly all of what constitutes Indias Arunachal Pradesh state. The border dispute first flared up during a visit by Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to Beijing in 1959. Nehru questioned the boundaries shown on official Chinese maps, prompting Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai to reply that his government did not accept the colonial frontier. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India in Beijing [Bettmann/Getty Images] 1962 Sino-Indian War Chinese troops poured over the disputed frontier with India in 1962 during a dispute over the borders demarcation. It sparked a four-week war that left thousands dead on the Indian side before Chinas forces withdrew. Beijing retained Aksai Chin, a strategic corridor linking Tibet to western China. India still claims the entire Aksai Chin region as its own, as well as the nearby China-controlled Shaksgam valley in northern Kashmir. Indian officers occupying a fort on the Ladakh border [Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images] 1967 Nathu La conflict Another flashpoint was Nathu La, Indias highest mountain pass in northeastern Sikkim state, which is sandwiched between Bhutan, Chinese-ruled Tibet and Nepal. During a series of clashes, including the exchange of artillery fire, New Delhi said some 80 Indian soldiers died and counted up to 400 Chinese casualties. Chinese soldiers guard the border on the Nathu La mountain pass connecting India and Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region [Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images] 1975 Tulung La ambush This skirmish was the last time shots were officially reported to have been fired across the disputed border. Four Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed along the dividing line in Arunachal Pradesh. New Delhi blamed Beijing for crossing into the Indian territory, a claim dismissed by China. 2017 Doklam plateau standoff India and China had a months-long high-altitude standoff in Bhutans Doklam region after the Indian army sent troops to stop China constructing a road in the area. The Doklam plateau is strategically significant as it gives China access to the so-called chickens neck a thin strip of land connecting Indias northeastern states with the rest of the country. It is claimed by both China and Bhutan, an ally of India. The issue was resolved after talks. 2020 Ladakh confrontation India on Tuesday said 20 of its soldiers were killed after a violent clash with Chinese forces a day earlier in the strategically important Galwan Valley on the Himalayan frontier, a dramatic escalation that represents the first combat fatalities between the Asian powers since 1975. The clash follows weeks of low-level tensions after several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a high-altitude fistfight on the border at Sikkim state in early May. Within days, said Indian officials, Chinese troops encroached across the demarcation line further west in Ladakh region and India then moved in extra troops to positions opposite. Last week, both countries said they would peacefully resolve the face-off after a high-level meeting between army commanders. But on Tuesday, India revealed that those efforts had gone badly wrong, with both sides blaming each other. Beijing confirmed there had been casualties in Mondays clash but gave no further details. Dr. Anthony Fauci said he wouldn't attend President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa on Saturday, arguing he is a 'high risk category.' The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases also dismissed concerns about a second wave of the coronavirus, saying 'we're still in a first.' Trump has come under fire for holding a campaign rally during the pandemic, which has infected more than 2.18 million Americans and killed more than 119,000. The campaign argues Oklahoma is in phase three of its reopening, which allows for such gatherings, and points out they are taking safety measures such as taking temperatures and offering hand sanitizer. But Fauci said he wouldn't go. 'No,' he told The Daily Beast when asked if he'd attend. He noted his age, 79, puts him the high risk category. 'I'm in a high risk category. Personally, I would not. Of course not,' he said. Dr. Anthony Fauci said he wouldn't attend President Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa President Trump's campaign is defending its decision to hold a rally, pointing out Oklahoma is in phase three of its reopening, which allows for such gatherings, and points out they are taking safety measures such as taking temperatures and offering hand sanitizer But he noted when it comes to Trump's rallies 'outside is better than inside, no crowd is better than crowd' and 'crowd is better than big crowd.' The Trump campaign has said a million people have requested tickets to the rally, which will be held at the Bok Center in Tulsa. The arena has a capacity of 19,000. Anyone from all over the country can request a ticket to a rally through the Trump campaign website. Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday the campaign was having conversations about moving the rally outside. 'It's all a work in progress. We've had such an overwhelming response that we're also looking at another venue. We're also looking at outside activities, and I know the campaign team will keep the public informed as that goes forward,' Pence told Fox News. 'But it's one of the reasons that we're going to do the temperature screening and we're going to provide hand sanitizers and provide masks for people that are attending,' he said. Pence will also be at the rally. Tulsa's chief health officer said over the week he had concerns about holding a large indoor event while coronavirus cases were rising in Oklahoma and wished the rally could be postponed. 'I'm concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I'm also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well,' Tulsa City-Council Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart told the Tulsa World. The rally will be Trump's first since early March, when the coronavirus pandemic led shut downs around the country. In Oklahoma, new cases rose 68 percent to 1,081 in the second week of June. White House adviser Kellyanne Conway pointed out people are only going to the rally if they feel comfortable going and compared rally goers to the protesters that gathered in the wake of George Floyd's death. 'People are going to go if they feel comfortable going. So we always tell people, here's the guidance, feel comfortable, don't feel comfortable. We also know that people don't want to be locked down forever. We see them peacefully protesting. We see folks doing many things,' she told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. Fauci, meanwhile, expressed his concerns about people gathering in closed in spaces. 'When I look at the TV and I see pictures of people congregating at bars when the location they are indicates they shouldn't be doing that, that's very risky,' he told The Wall Street Journal. 'People keep talking about a second wave,' he added. 'We're still in a first wave.' Thirteen states - mostly in the South - have since reported weekly increases in deaths related to COVID-19 since states began the reopening process. Pence argued Tuesday that reports of a second wave of the coronavirus are 'overblown.' 'The media has tried to scare the American people every step of the way, and these grim predictions of a second wave are no different,' he wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. 'The truth is, whatever the media says, our whole-of-America approach has been a success. We've slowed the spread, we've cared for the most vulnerable, we've saved lives, and we've created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future. That's a cause for celebration, not the media's fear mongering,' he added. Fauci, a member of the coronavirus task force who's been unafraid to publicly disagree with the president on health matters, also questioned Trump's claim that the increase in cases was because of increased testing. While more testing does result in more cases, Fauci told the Journal, higher percentages of positive tests in many states 'cannot be explained by increased testing.' President Trump argued that 'testing a double edged sword' that makes the country 'look bad' but is 'good to have.' 'Our testing is so much bigger and more advanced than any other country (we have done a great job on this!) that it shows more cases. Without testing, or weak testing, we would be showing almost no cases. Testing is a double edged sword - Makes us look bad, but good to have!!!,' he tweeted Monday morning. Vice President Mike Pence argued that reports of a second wave of the coronavirus are 'overblown' Tulsa has seen a spike in coronavirus cases recently, with 121 new cases in the last two days of the 1,564 total cases in the county The coronavirus task force has not held a public briefing at the White House since April 27 - task force members Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci are seen at the White House with President Trump on May 15 although neither of them spoke at the event The coronavirus task force has not held a public briefing at the White House since April 27 although members of the team do individual interviews. The task also continues to meet with a meeting scheduled for Wednesday. President Trump also continues to argue COVID-19 could go away without a cure or vaccine. 'I always say, even without it, it goes away. But if we had the vaccine, and we will, if we had therapeutic or cure, one thing sort of blends in to the other, it will be a fantastic day. I think that's going to happen and it's going to happen very soon,' he said Tuesday during his announcement on police reform. He said a coronavirus cure was in sight by the end of the year. 'Before the end of the year, I predict we will have a very successful vaccine, therapeutic and cure. We're making tremendous progress,' Trump said. President Trump has kept faith there will be a coronavirus vaccine by year's end and has pushed states to reopen from their shutdowns. The pandemic caused unemployment to reach 13 per cent, the stock market to tumble and the economy to tank. The president is banking his re-election campaign on a strong U.S. economy and has unveiled a new slogan - 'Transition to Greatness' - as states go through the phases or reopening. Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. Laal Singh Chaddha. Recently, she reportedly spoke about how Aamir takes her help with the pronunciation and dialogue. As we know Aamir Khan is a true perfectionist. He goes all out to create something special. For this film too, the actor is leaving no stone unturned to nail the part. It seems that the actor is taking Punjabi lessons as the film has dialogue in Punjabi as well. Interestingly, the actor has decided to take these lessons from his co-star from 3 Idiots, Mona Singh. The actress also plays an important part in. Recently, she reportedly spoke about how Aamir takes her help with the pronunciation and dialogue. Laal Singh Chaddha was all set for a Christmas release this year. But with the coronavirus pandemic putting all production work to a halt for three months now, we wont be surprised if the release is pushed to next year. Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan are all set to pair up once again for their. The film is reportedly a remake of the popular Hollywood film Forrest Gump, which featured Tom Hanks in the titular role. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been thrown into fresh battle for the successor to the suspended and seemingly dethroned national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. The Court of Appeal had on Tuesday upheld the suspension of Oshiomhole by the FCT High Court trailing the former national chairmans suspension by his ward in Etsako Local Government Area, Edo State. The Appeal Court judgment tentatively restored the leadership of an APC bloc under Lawal Shuabu, APC Deputy National Chairman, North, who was APC acting national chairman after the FCT High Court judgment that earlier ousted Oshiomhole from office which judgment was appealed and lost. Lawal Shuabu, APC Deputy National Chairman, North, had declared: I will resume office as the Acting National Chairman as soon as I receive the judgement of the appeal court. Obasekis resignation will be rejected by my party. A sitting governor is an asset to our great party. This was the status quo after the FCT High Court pronouncement that barred Oshiomhole from parading himself as member and national chairman of APC. Lawal Shuabu was the acting National Chairman before the intervention of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, which altered the conflict for political solution that restored Oshiomhole. This time the Oshiomhole episode can only be resolved at the Supreme Court. However, Oshiomholes faction is also fighting back smartly. The APC National Working Committee (NWC) quickly released a statement on Tuesday appointing Senator Abiola Ajimobi, former Oyo State Governor as APC acting national chairman. APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, in the statement acknowledged the appeal court, Abuja, judgment which upheld the suspension of Oshiomhole by FCT High Court pending the determination of the substantive suit. the publicity secretary quickly announced Ajimobi to stand in the gap in the interim. The statement read: Guided by advice from the Partys legal department in line with the provisions of Section 14.2. (iii) of the Partys constitution, the Deputy National Chairman (South), Sen. Abiola Ajimobi will serve as the Partys Acting National Chairman. According to Section 14.2. (iii), of the APC constitution, the Deputy National Chairman, North/South Shall act as the National Chairman in the absence of the National Chairman from his zone. While Lawal Shuabu is APC Deputy National Chairman, North, Ajimobi is Deputy National Chairman, South. The Oshiomhole NWC opted for Ajimobi against Shuabu who was acting national chairman after the FCT High Court judgement. Shuabu has also announced his readiness to resume office, only waiting for the Appeal Court judgement notice before going back to work. A further political conflagration is coming from a relatively invisible bloc in the APC. Chief Victor Giadom had through his counsel, OLuwole Afolabi Esq., cautioned against the imposition of Ajimobi as APC acting national chairman after the dethronement of Oshiomhole by the Appeal Court on Tuesday. Gaidom had in a statement on Tuesday by his counsel revealed that he was earlier recognized by the court as APC acting national chairman after Oshiomhole was ousted from office in March. Oluwole Afolabi questioned the statement by APC National Publicity Secretary imposing Abiola Ajumobi as acting APC National Chairman after Oshiomhole was suspended from office by the Court of Appeal. We wish to state that the statement must have been issued in complete ignorance of the order of the FCT High Court issued on 16th of March, 2020, by Hon. Justice S.U Bature in Suit No. FCT/HC/M/6447/2020 to the effect that Chief Victor Giadom is to act as the National Chairman of the party due to the suspension of Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman. The order was given the same day that the Court of Appeal earlier gave Oshiomhole a temporary respite by staying the execution of the said order suspending Oshiomhole. Now that the Court of Appeal has affirmed the order of suspension, it is only proper that the Order recognizing Chief Victor Giadom is implemented. Consequently, we have written to all law-enforcement agencies to implement the said order and anyone who attempts to parade himself/herself other than Chief Victor Giadom as the Acting Chairman of the APC would be facing contempt of court proceedings, Afolabi declared. Since the NWC recognized that the deputy national chairman north/south could act as acting national chairman in the absence of the substantive national chairman, the main war would be between Shuabu and Ajimobi. Shuabu had acted in the crisis period Oshiomhole was earlier suspended while Ajimobis hurried appointment as deputy national chairman, south, was being questioned at the time. The war rages on. Haiti - FLASH : Progression of active cases, 2 times faster in Haiti than in the Dominican Republic The Ministry of Public Health informs that 106 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Haiti (the day before : +132), for a total of 4,547 cases throughout the national territory (40.0% women and 60.0% 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 ). Deaths : 4 new deaths have been recorded, bringing the national total to 80 Healings : 24 people healed (data not made available by the Ministry since May 31, 2020) Active cases : (less death and recovery) 4,443 (+ 2.35%) +102 in 24h (the day before: +129) All the details in our daily report of 11am Analysis : The number of active cases (minus healings and minus deaths) is growing 2 times faster in Haiti than in the neighboring Republic. From May 8 to date Haiti increased from 101 active cases to 4,343 active cases, an increase of +4,242 active cases. At the same time in the Dominican Republic for the same period, the number of active cases increased from 6,658 active cases to 8,938 active cases, an increase of + 2,280 active cases, almost 50% less active cases than in Haiti. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30723-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-may-8-2020.html See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31043-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-june-16-2020.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31037-haiti-flash-76-deaths-132-new-cases-in-24-hours.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30723-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-may-8-2020.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html S/ HaitiLibre Ankara: A child died from injuries sustained during a bomb attack on a Kurdish wedding in southern Turkey last month, raising the death toll to 57, local media reported. As a result, 34 children are now among those killed in the suicide attack in the city of Gaziantep which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said was carried out by a child bomber acting on the orders of the Islamic State group. Mahsun Nas, 13, was the latest victim of the bombing on August 20, the Dogan news agency reported, and succumbed to his injuries while in hospital where he had been since the attack. The bombing was the deadliest in 2016 after the country has suffered more than a year of attacks linked to IS and Kurdish militants. A triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbuls Ataturk airport in June left 47 dead, with authorities pointing the finger at the extremist group. Four days after the attack, Ankara launched its unprecedented military incursion into northern Syria against IS militants and Syrian Kurdish rebels linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. A French gendarme who made racist slurs against people from French Guiana in Latin America risks losing his medal of honour after the foreign ministry launched a procedure to strip him of his title. We confirm that the foreign ministry has launched a procedure to strip this person of the medal of honour, a deputy spokesperson told reporters on Monday. This decision reflects the ministrys will to fight racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, the spokesperson added. The captain in Frances gendarmerie, a police force with military grades, is accused of comparing people from Guiana to howling monkeys. During a field trip to the French overseas department in April 2018, the gendarme was overheard saying: What an exceptional fauna all these howling monkeys are, throwing as many swear words as stones to mark their territory, before insinuating that locals in Guiana spent day and night drinking. Shocking A month after the incident, then Interior Minister Gerard Collomb denounced what he said were inadmissible and shocking remarks. A disciplinary procedure was swiftly launched against the gendarme. The foreign affairs medal, which rewards exceptional services performed in France or abroad, was awarded to him in February 2018 for training activities in Iraq, the ministry said. Untimely decoration The department said it had initiated proceedings to strip the officer of his medal as soon as it became aware of the facts. However, in an embarrassing turn, a decree was signed by Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in May 2018 confirmed the gendarme's decoration, just days into the disciplinary procedure. The current procedure comes as France faces a wave of anti-racism protests sparked by the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in the US. Trump issues an order, and virus cases rise. Its Wednesday, and this is your politics tip sheet. Flanked by uniformed police officers at a signing ceremony in the Rose Garden, Trump reiterated his belief that most officers conduct their jobs well and pushed back against calls for more sweeping change. I strongly oppose the radical and dangerous efforts to defund, dismantle and dissolve our police departments, Trump said. Americans want law and order. They demand law and order. President Trump signed an executive order yesterday outlining a series of overarching principles meant to encourage police departments to amend their use-of-force policies. But the order could have little concrete impact and its unlikely to quell the demands of protesters, who continue to push daily for a far-ranging reconsideration of the American justice system. Senate Republicans plan to unveil their police reform bill today, a little over a week after House Democrats put forth a bill that includes measures to increase police oversight and rein in the use of force. The G.O.P. legislation is expected to include some elements of that bill, but not others. Yesterday, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, called the Democratic bill an overreach that was going nowhere in the Senate. House Democrats have scheduled a vote on a separate bill that would grant statehood to the District of Columbia. Its a largely symbolic vote, as Washingtons residents are heavily Democratic and the bill is virtually guaranteed to perish in the Republican-controlled Senate. But its the first time in over a quarter-century that the issue has come to a vote on Capitol Hill. It was once a prominent demand in the push for racial justice, given that D.C.s population, which has no meaningful representation in Congress, has long been heavily African-American. With most states moving ahead with reopening, coronavirus cases are surging in areas around the country. Florida, Texas and Arizona yesterday all reported their highest one-day increases in new cases. Each state had reported well north of 2,000 new cases the day before. In Oklahoma this week, Tulsa County also registered its highest number of daily coronavirus cases so far. Trump is planning to hold a rally in Tulsa on Saturday, his first major one since the onset of the pandemic, but local health officials are begging him to call it off. Its the perfect storm of potential over-the-top disease transmission, said the director of Tulsas health department. Its a perfect storm that we cant afford to have. The rally is set to take place in a 20,000-person indoor arena; attendees will be forced to accept liability if they contract the virus there. A day after the Food and Drug Administration revoked its authorization of hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus, some good news blew in from across the Atlantic: Scientists at the University of Oxford announced that after a 6,000-person trial, a steroid had been proven effective at reducing virus deaths among patients receiving oxygen. If that conclusion is borne out, this would be the first drug proven effective at reducing coronavirus mortality rates in severely ill patients. A group of federal inspectors general appealed to Congress for help last week, saying that the White House had put such great limits on their oversight powers that they could not effectively keep watch over virus relief spending. In a letter to various House and Senate committees, the inspectors charged with overseeing more than $1 trillion in pandemic-related funding including large payouts to businesses facing economic distress said the administration had used an ambiguity in the law to curtail their ability to monitor where the funds went. At least four members of Congress benefited from the small-business-loan program in the stimulus legislation, Politico reported yesterday. Its impossible to know how many more might have received stimulus money for businesses they have an interest in, because only the Trump administration has access to that information and its not making it public. We dont have a copy of the presidents summer reading list but we have a good sense of what probably isnt on it. On the top of the dont-read list is John Boltons new tell-all book, The Room Where It Happened, set for release next week. In a move sure to help sales, the administration has sued Bolton, one of Trumps former national security advisers, to try to prevent the memoir from hitting bookshelves, claiming that it contains classified information. Bolton confirmed this week that the book contains explosive details about his time at the White House and that it affirms accusations that were central to House Democrats impeachment case against the president. Another book Trump probably wants no part of: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Worlds Most Dangerous Man, by the presidents niece Mary Trump. She has promised that the book contains harrowing revelations about Trump, and in it she writes that she was a source for The New York Timess in-depth 2018 investigation into the Trump familys finances. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Steve Dickson, acknowledged on Wednesday that Boeing and the U.S. air safety agency both made mistakes in developing the 737 Max jet, but rejected senators' accusations the FAA was "stonewalling" probes after two fatal crashes. Boeing's 737 Max has been grounded since March 2019 following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people, triggering multiple investigations into how the plane was certified as safe. In a particularly tense exchange at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on aircraft certification, Senator Ted Cruz accused Dickson of speaking in the passive voice as a way of "avoiding responsibility" after Dickson told him, "Mistakes were made." "So unknown somebodies made unspecified mistakes for which there were no repercussions." Cruz said. "What mistakes were made and who made them?" After a pause, Dickson said, "The manufacturer made mistakes and the FAA made mistakes in its oversight." Dickson referred to the MCAS flight control system that repeatedly pushed down the jet's nose in both crashes as pilots struggled to gain control. "The full implications of the flight control system were not understood as design changes were made," he said. Other senators at the hearing said the agency was "stonewalling" the committee's investigation into the 737 Ma's development, and said the FAA was like "a dog watching TV" when it came to policing Boeing's work. "Your team at the FAA has attempted deliberately to keep us in the dark," Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican committee chairman, told Dickson. Dickson told Wicker he was "totally committed to the oversight process." "I believe it is inaccurate to portray the agency as unresponsive," Dickson said, pointing to its cooperation in multiple investigations. "There is still ongoing work." The hearing came a day after Wicker and Senator Maria Cantwell, the ranking Democrat on the committee, introduced bipartisan legislation that would strengthen FAA oversight of Boeing's designs. The crashes and Boeing's long-delayed efforts to win regulatory approval to return the 737 Max to commercial service plunged the Chicago-based company into its worst-ever crisis, since compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Aircraft Safety and Certification Reform Act of 2020, introduced on Tuesday, would give the FAA new authority to hire or remove Boeing employees conducting FAA certification tasks, and grant new whistleblower protections to employees. Dickson told Cantwell he did not think it would improve safety if the FAA appointed the certification employees, but agreed to look at the Senate proposal. He also told lawmakers there were many items in the legislation "that are exactly on point," including a provision that would authorize $150 million over 10 years for new FAA training and to hire specialized personnel. Michael Stumo, whose daughter died in the Ethiopia crash, which came five months after the crash in Indonesia, applauded such reforms but told lawmakers the bill did not go far enough. Stumo demanded that manufacturers be subjected to a tougher certification process when they introduce an aircraft derived from models certified years before. The 737 Max, for example, was derived from a plane first developed in the 1960s. "The first crash should not have happened," Stumo said. "The second crash is inexcusable." Lisov pleaded guilty to stealing US$855,000 from accounts in U.S. banks. The United States has deported a Russian hacker who was sentenced to 48 months in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from online banking accounts using malicious software known as NeverQuest. Officials from the Russian Embassy in the United States said on June 17 that Stanislav Lisov was transferred to the JFK International Airport in New York, from where he left the country aboard an Aeroflot plane for Moscow, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Read alsoEU to impose sanctions on Russia hackers for cyber attack on German Bundestag journalist Lisov was supposed to be released from prison in several months. He was arrested in Barcelona in early 2017 and extradited to the United States the same year. A court in New York sentenced Lisov, also known as "Black" or "Blackf," in late November last year and ordered him to pay a US$50,000 fine and US$480,000 in compensation to his victims. Lisov pleaded guilty to stealing US$855,000 from accounts in U.S. banks. Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (right) during Senate Business in the Senate at Parliament House on June 17, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. Fierravanti-Wells has called for Australia to slap tariffs on Chinese imports and consider seizing state-owned assets in retaliation for the CCP virus and has escalated her demands for Beijing to pay reparations for the deadly pandemic. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images) Aussie Senator Calls for Tariffs on Imports from China in Plan for Reparations A Liberal Senator has outlined details of her demands to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to pay Australia reparations for the economic damage caused by the outbreak of the CCP virus pandemic. Her plans include new tariffs on Chinese imports and potentially seizing assets owned by Chinese state-owned entities. On June 16, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells outlined her plan for reparations in a speech to the Senate, saying: No Australian has been left untouched by the negligent actions of the CCP. Therefore, it is just that China pays compensation. Billions of dollars have been borrowed. Australian taxpayers will need to shoulder the enormous burden of repaying the debt, she said. The former minister for international development previously spoke to The Epoch Times on her plan to decouple from China in response to the ongoing trade dispute with the regime. A group of Asian tourists has their photograph taken in front of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge on May 8, 2012. (Greg Wood/AFP/GettyImages) For her plan for reparations, the senator cited similar calls by the United States and the United Kingdom (UK). On April 5, the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) published a report arguing the UK could potentially claim up to 351 billion (AU$641.9 billion) from the Chinese regime for its negligent handling of the CCP virus. The HJS calculated Australia could claim $54 billion and the United States could claim $1.7 trillion. Fierravanti-Wells told the Senate that if the UK pursued a claim, and was successful, the United Kingdom would be entitled to pursue any lawful means for collection of that judgement. The senator proposed three means for Australia to collect compensation from China, saying: Reparations are synonymous with monetary compensation. The first involved the seizure of assets under the control of Chinas state-owned entities, including the Port of Darwin. The government could look to refloat or sell off the assets as part of the compensation claim. In 2015, Chinese company Landbridge was sold a 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin for $506 million. At the time, the sale was exempt from scrutiny by the Foreign Investment Review Board. The senator said the port was part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. Related Coverage 2016 Parliamentary Briefing Book Warned MPs of Chinas Bigger Strategic Belt and Road Agenda Regardless of why the lease was signed, national security imperatives, including threats from Chinas actions in the South China Sea and the growing military requirements, are such that the lease should now be broken, she said. Fierravanti-Wells did not believe the Chinese authorities would explore legal means for recourse given it is a totalitarian regime. The second means was for Australia to stop repaying government bonds owned by Chinese entities. Fierravanti-Wells quoted the Royal Bank of Canada that estimated the sovereign debt owned by the CCP was valued at around $130 billion. The third was to impose tariffs, a blunt tool, in response to the CCPs implementation of tariffs on barley imports from Australia. The senator said Australia should not be afraid to do so likewise. Of course, this would further impact on the relationship, but judging by the ongoing threats by the CCP to Australia across many areas it clearly doesnt give a damn, she told the Senate. The call echoes similar actions taken by the United States during its trade war with China last year. The United States imposed tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods coming into the country, with the president championing the great economic results resulting from the extra duties being paid to the U.S. Treasury. On May 11, Fierravanti-Wells spoke to The Epoch Times, calling for Australia to develop its own manufacturing base for strategic goods and services, and reduce its over-reliance on the Chinese economy. The Government must finally understand that putting 26.4 percent of our trade eggs in the China basket has made us overly vulnerable she said. Australia imported from China telecommunications equipment, computers, furniture, refined petroleum, childrens goods, sporting goods, and textiles. This demonstrates the extent of our dependency on China but also the enormous scope for greater selfreliance, she said. Australia currently is engaged in a protracted trade dispute with the Chinese regime, which has seen it impose tariffs on Australian barley imports, ban imports from four Australian abattoirs, notify Chinese power plants not to buy Australian coal, and suddenly hand a death sentence to an Australian actor jailed in China. Book lawsuit The Trump administration sued the former national security adviser John R. Bolton on Tuesday to try to delay publication of his highly anticipated memoir about his time in the White House, saying the book contained classified information that would compromise national security if it became public. The book, The Room Where It Happened, is set for release on June 23. Administration officials have repeatedly warned Mr. Bolton against publishing it. The books publisher, Simon & Schuster, has already printed and distributed copies, and the lawsuit did not name it as a party, in an apparent nod to the constitutional and practical impediments to trying to stop it. Instead, the Justice Department asked a judge to seize Mr. Boltons proceeds from the book deal and to order him to try to persuade Simon & Schuster to pull back the book and dispose of copies until a security review is completed. (New York Times) Featured stories Feds say Air Force sergeant accused of killing officers had symbols linked to boogaloo movement (CBS News) Albuquerque shooting the latest example of fringe actors at protests (Washington Post) Trump says Obama didnt reform policing but he did. Then the president ditched it (NBC News) GOP reform bill to require disclosure on use of force, encourage chokehold bans (Politico) Richmond police chief resigns after viral footage of police SUV driving into crowd (The Hill) National news Trump pushes ahead with Tulsa rally, while Pence misleads and coronavirus cases rise (ABC News) Scientists hail dexamethasone as major breakthrough in treating coronavirus (CNBC) Rayshard Brooks family says he didnt have to die. Some law enforcement officials say his shooting was justified (CNN) Feds to review investigations into two Black men found hanging in Southern California (NBC News) Gov. Greg Abbott says rising Texas coronavirus cases, hospitalizations are no need to worry (Dallas Morning News) 16 friends test positive for coronavirus after an outing at a Florida bar (CNN) PG&E pleads guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter in devastating Camp Fire (NBC News) New polls show Trump sinking under the seismic events of the moment (Washington Post) Americans are the unhappiest theyve been in half a century and have historically low levels of national pride, according to new polling (Business Insider) Prosecutor who quit Roger Stone case to testify before Congress about politicization of DOJ (The Hill) Washington, D.C., faces House vote to become the 51st state (Associated Press) World news North Korea blows up a strategic building to try to blackmail the U.S. and South Korea (NBC News) Brazil sees record daily coronavirus cases; official says outbreak under control (Reuters) Beijing coronavirus outbreak: travel restricted to tackle extremely severe situation (The Guardian) New Zealand puts Covid-19 quarantine in hands of military after border fiasco (The Guardian) Testing tradition, Trump taps US official to lead Latin bank (Washington Post) India says China unilaterally tried to change status quo at disputed border site (Reuters) U.S. extends border closure agreements with Canada, Mexico into July (USA Today) Coronavirus: Hungary votes to end Viktor Orban emergency powers (BBC) Castro, Duboce Triangle Diane Ramirez, owner of Bangin Hair Salon. | Photo: Steven Bracco/Hoodline On July 13, shelter-in-place restrictions for hair salons and barber shops in San Francisco will be lifted. And for those in the Castro eager to get their hair cut, there will be a new option on the table. Bangin Hair Salon is set to open August 1 at 2253 Market St., formerly Alegre Home Care. The new salon is owned by Diane Ramirez, who previously cut hair at Fillmore Street's David James Salon and two Tenderloin salons: Public Barber and the now-closed Strand Barber & Beauty. "I feel like I've been slowly inching toward opening my own salon," said Ramirez, a SoCal native who's lived in San Francisco since 2010. Renting a chair, "you're basically a small business of one," she said. "I just sort of built some momentum, that maybe I could do this ... there's so many salons everywhere, I felt fortunate to be able to build a clientele." Inside Bangin Hair Salon. | Photo: courtesy of Diane Ramirez Ramirez tells Hoodline she's been negotiating the lease on the space since last October, and officially took over on April 1. I love the Castro it's a great, central location, she said. "I wanted to be somewhere close to where my clients are already going." Though she never expected to open in the midst of a pandemic, she's making the best of it. I couldnt do anything at all in April, it was so stressful," said Ramirez. "Its been a roller coaster I think everyone can vouch for that. I've learned to go with ebbs and flows. Like many stylists, Ramirez is an independent contractor, which means she's excluded from standard unemployment assistance. Thankfully, California moved to include freelancers in unemployment during the pandemic, but "waiting for that was nail-biting," she said. Now that her finances are secure, she's trying to find the bright side of the situation. While other salons have to rework themselves to meet new health and safety protocols, she can build them in from the start. Story continues Her original business plan called for six stylist chairs, including her own, but she's cutting down to just two other stylists. She'll add the other three once it's safe to resume normal operations. "This pandemic really has me fully refocusing the business plan," she said, adding that she's also reconsidering her planned hours of operation. Hair washing station inside Bangin Hair Salon. | Photo: courtesy of Diane Ramirez Ramirez already has a following on her Bangin Hair Instagram account, where she posts her freshly styled clients on Photoshopped backgrounds. ("I'll botch Photoshop, but never your hair," she jokes in the account's description.) "I wanted to have more fun, and make typically stylized and pretty salon photos more colorful," Ramirez said of the stylized, '90s-esque backdrops. "It kinda looks shitty on purpose." Photo: Bangin Hair/Instagram Bangin Hair isn't the only Castro salon to open in the midst of the pandemic just two doors down, Castro Barber Lounge (2265 Market St.) will be opening once the city gives the go-ahead. "Although we're both in the same industry, we're not in direct competition," says Ramirez, adding that owner Angel Benitez is "super cool." I want everyone to stay positive," she said. The arrival of both salons will be a welcome sight on the 2200 block of Market Street, which has lost five businesses since 2019. Two have closed in the past month: Latin American restaurant Castro Republic (2295 Market) and vitamin and supplement shop Active Nutrition (2275 Market). Connecticut State Police say it remains unclear why Angela Santiago, an off-duty Chicopee police officer, lost control of her motorcycle prior to her fatal crash Tuesday in East Windsor, Connecticut. Santiago, 33, of Springfield, was killed at the scene after being thrown from her 2005 Harley Davidson while exiting Interstate-91 southbound at Exit 44, according to state police. The preliminary police report says Santiago lost control of her motorcycle and struck a concrete jersey barrier in the median for some unknown reason. The impact sent her flying from the motorcycle, and she suffered fatal injuries. The motorcycle skidded on its left side before coming to rest in the middle of the ramp. The report does not give any indication of speed, road conditions, or what traffic was like at the time of the crash. According to state police, the investigation remains active. Police are asking witnesses to come forward. In particular, state police are interested to hear from anyone with dashboard footage who may have been driving by at the time of the crash. People with information are asked to call Troop H investigating trooper John Wilson at 860-534-1098 or via email at john.wilson@ct.gov. Santiago, a 5-year-veteran of the Chicopee police, had been a uniform patrol officer until she was named the School Resource Officer for Chicopee High School earlier this year. Lynn A. Clark, Chicopees superintendent of schools, said Santiagos death is an incredible loss to the Chicopee Public Schools and the Chicopee community. Officer Santiago had a vibrant personality and an infectious smile, and could instantly connect with people and students, Clark said. Chicopee police are waiting for her family to finalize arrangements, and no information about calling hours or the funeral were available, according to the office of Chief William Jebb. Chicopee police parked a cruiser in front of the station to honor Santiagos memory, and several people had stopped by to place flowers, notes, and other mementos to express condolences. A statement posted on the departments Facebook page said We are extremely touched and honored to everyone who has stopped by and left something on officer Santiagos cruiser, to honor her memory. Please continue to keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. There is a movement to remove the names of Confederate soldiers and officers from U.S. military installations. Many of these bases were named in the 20th century to appease racist white Southern leaders who objected to integration in the military. Indeed, all 10 of these facilities are located in the South, from Virginia to Texas. But who isnt good with bringing the military fully into the oft-stated goal of racial equality? That would be President Donald Trump, who last week tweeted that his administration will not even consider renaming bases that he described as magnificent, fabled, and part of the Great American Heritage. But while Fort Bragg (named after Braxton Bragg, an often-defeated Confederate general considered by many historians to be among the worst military leader to serve on either side during the Civil War) and Fort Hood (named after Confederate General John Bell Hood, who is famous for his overaggressive tactics and personal ambition) have a storied place in U.S. military history, it is not for their namesakes but because of the accomplishments of the men and women who have served in those installations. The unseemly adulation of Confederate generals is not just distasteful, its likely harmful to the morale of the current rank-and-file military, About 43% of U.S. active duty personnel are from minority groups, up from 36% in 2004. Think they are comforted by having the name of a Confederate general pasted on their front door? Or are they more likely to share the views of Skip Auld, the 67-year-old who serves as CEO of Anne Arundel Countys library system who recently petitioned the courts to change his name? No longer did Auld wish to be Hampton Marshall Auld, a tribute to Confederate General Wade Hampton III, one of the Souths largest slaveholders. Were going to guess they see the librarians point of view. A lot of decorated military leaders certainly do. They include David Petraeus, the four-star Army general who once trained at Fort Bragg and recently observed in The Atlantic that 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. This is especially problematic at a time when the United States is convulsed with protests over the brutal killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. When even such a revered and deeply Southern institution as NASCAR decides to ban Confederate flags from its races as it announced Wednesday, you know attitudes are seriously changing. So now we have the unfortunate circumstance of a military willing to rename and well-regarded veterans like Gen. Petraeus believing it is wrong to honor treason only to have this reasonable course of action cut off at the knees by a commander in chief who famously avoided military service during a war by falsely claiming to have bone spurs. One imagines President Trump could not pick Braxton Bragg out of a photo lineup. What he can do, however, is recognize that the white Southern vote is crucial to his reelection chances, particularly in potential swing states like North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. And so Trump sticks up for Fort Gordon, named after John Brown Gordon, who is widely believed to have served as head of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia after the Civil War. This is yet another instance of this president not only failing to recognize systemic racism that continues to plague this nations most important institutions including the military, but seeking to inflame a culture war. It is not denying history to take the name of a Confederate general off the welcome sign of a U.S. Army base. Nor does it dishonor veterans. It achieves exactly the opposite effect: This is about correcting the mistakes of the past, standing up for the core American values of fairness and equality, and demonstrating that the nation is finally willing to move beyond institutional racism. Such a choice brings honor to anyone involved including retired and active duty U.S. servicemen and women of all races. The Baltimore Sun Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 11 NOVI, MI - Its been months and months in the making for the city of Novi. The Chick-fil-A Twelve Oaks restaurant is set to open its doors bright and early Thursday morning for its grand opening. But things will be a little different with this opening amid the coronavirus pandemic. UPDATE: Traffic chaos greets Chick-fil-A customers on opening day. One big change is that there will be no traditional First 100 celebration event giving away Chick-fil-A for a year to 100 people. Instead, Chick-fil-A tells MLive it will announce recipients of the First 100 cards on its Novi Twelve Oaks Facebook page on opening day. We have pivoted from our traditional First 100 event to honor a group of heroes in our local community with a years worth of free Chick-fil-A," said spokesperson Tiffany Simmons. "We are excited for this opportunity to serve and give back to the Novi community. The restaurant will open for breakfast at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 18. Regular hours will be Monday through Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Its closed on Sundays like all Chick-fil-A locations. There will be no inside ordering or dine in for the foreseeable future. The restaurant will open as drive-thru only with curbside pickup. This location will feature a two-lane drive-thru. You can expect very long lines, especially during peak breakfast, lunch and dinner hours. This location is operated by Michael Killian. He and his family moved to the Novi area from Atlanta, Georgia where he was born and raised. He attended Furman University in Greenville, SC where he graduated with a degree in English. Killian owned his own restaurant before pursuing a career with Chick-fil-A where he worked his way up to a Director level before eventually enrolling in a program with the company where he was able to travel the U.S. and help open up new restaurants. Chick-fil-A opened its first two restaurants in Michigan in October 2016 in Lansing and at Somerset Mall in Troy. There are now also locations in Okemos, Portage, Grand Rapids (two), Wyoming, Holland, Detroit (Detroit Medical Center & Metro Airport express), Allen Park, Ypsilanti (EMU express) and Rochester (Oakland U. express). MORE FROM MLIVE: Michigan family starts business crafting tiny picnic tables for squirrels 20 natural wonders of Michigan to put on your travel bucket list Affordable face mask deals available for purchase right now online The Henry Ford reopening after nearly four months with Marvel exhibit debut A talented hero, a brave heart and an ideal son who was loved by all, this is how Colonel Santosh Babus parents who were visibly shaken remember him. Along with Colonel- a Commanding Officer from 16 Bihar Regiment, 19 other Armymen were martyred on Tuesday in massive escalation at Galwan Valley during the India-China face-off. As one enters Suryapet in Telangana- Babu's hometown, barricades were set up to avoid crowding as hundreds were waiting to salute the hero for one last time. His last words with his parents were over a phone call on June 14. You sent me to Army, now let me do my duty, Babu told his parents over the call. Upon questioning the situation on the border, he added, you are not supposed to ask me that and I cannot tell you anything. Everything is fine. Recollecting his achievements, Colonels parents maintaining a stoic demeanour stated that during his tenure he executed multiple crucial missions and always received appreciations from Army Chiefs. Babu studied at Sainik School, Korukunda from Class 6 to 12, thats when his journey for the defence sector began. He successfully qualified the National Defence Academy examination and the Indian Military Academy to join Indian armed forces in 2003. During his journey in the Army, Babu was posted in Congo and Srinagar, Arunachal Pradesh and from the past one year, he was posted in the Ladakh region. He was always praised amid peers, his stint at Kupwara, helped eliminate infiltrators was much appreciated by seniors, recalled Babus 62- year old father Upendar. A retired bank chief manager, Upendar was longing for his sons posting in Hyderabad which was delayed due to the lockdown, implemented to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. It was my wish to join the Army and when I looked at his achievements, I felt my childhoods wish was fulfilled, Updenar added. Babus mother- Manjula remembered his son as a kind-hearted man, who always helped her in the kitchen whenever he was home. As a mother, I am very sad. But, simultaneously, I am also happy that my son gave up his life for the nation, his mother said. The colonel is survived by his wife- Santoshi, their daughter (8) and a son (3.5) who reside in the national capital. US Not 'Adequately' Investigating Airstrikes That Killed Somali Civilians, Rights Group Says By VOA News June 16, 2020 Human Rights Watch said Tuesday the U.S. has "not adequately investigated" two U.S. airstrikes in Somalia this year that killed seven civilians. The global non-governmental organization called on the United States to conduct "thorough, impartial, and transparent" investigations into a Feb. 2 strike that killed a woman at her home and a March 10 attack that claimed the lives of a child and five men in a minibus. The group released a report Tuesday on airstrikes in Somalia, which it considers possible violations of international humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch said it has no evidence the U.S. Africa Command or the Somali government spoke with the victims' family members or evaluated their claims for reparations. The group said it interviewed 14 people, including relatives of those killed in the two attacks, four of whom were at the scene of the attacks immediately after they occurred. It also said it reviewed public information about the strikes. The group said it found no evidence the attacks were targeting the terrorist group al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-affiliated group based in Somalia. The U.S. has participated in military operations against al-Shabab for more than a decade. Airstrikes in Somalia have increased since 2017. The U.S. military said it carried out 63 airstrikes last year and at least 40 in the first five months of this year. The U.S. admitted killing two Somali civilians in 2019, but rights groups in Africa contend the deaths could be higher. The U.S. did not immediately respond to the report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Senate Republicans unveiled their proposal Wednesday to reform law enforcement practices, including new accountability, training and deescalation measures, including incentives to limit controversial tactics like chokeholds, as protests and demands for change have raged across the country in the wake of two high-profile cases of black men being killed by police officers. In introducing the bill, Sen. Tim Scott - the chamber's lone African American Republican - who led the effort along with five of his Senate colleagues, called for lawmakers to abandon the argument that one is either for police officers or for Americans of color. "Too often we're having a discussion in this nation: Are you supporting law enforcement or communities of color? This is a false binary choice. The answer to the question is, 'I support America. You support America. It is not a binary choice. This legislation encompasses that spirit," Scott told reporters. PHOTO: Sen. Tim Scott is joined by fellow Republican lawmakers for a news conference to unveil the GOP's legislation to address racial disparities in law enforcement at the U.S. Capitol, June 17, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) The Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, announced Wednesday that he is fast-tracking the legislation by using a procedural motion to try to start debate on the bill next week. McConnell, whose own hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, was roiled by the death of an African American woman - Breonna Taylor - who was killed by police officers executing a no-knock warrant, said he was not in this for a political win. "I want you to know we're serious about making a law here," the GOP leader insisted, and late, in a floor speech, said that he intended to allow amendments, a rare moment in the Senate these days. MORE: Attorney for Floyd says meeting with Trump and families 'very heavy' before Senate kicked off police reform hearing The 106-page bill, called the the JUSTICE Act -- Just and Unifying Solutions To Invigorate Communities Everywhere Act -- does not include federal mandates to curb police use of force and other questionable practices, like chokeholds, as Democrats have included in a competing measure; rather, the legislation seeks to offer federal incentives for those departments that implement best practices and end controversial tactics and penalize those that do not. Story continues For instance, in an effort to limit chokeholds, the legislation states that "if on the day before the first day of the fiscal year, the State or unit of local government does not have an agency-wide policy in place for each law enforcement agency of the State or unit of local government that prohibits the use of chokeholds except when deadly force is authorized," those entities will not receive certain federal funds. Republicans insisted that this monetary leverage was powerful and would effect change. PHOTO: Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during a news conference to announce that the Senate is considering police reform legislation, at the U.S. Capitol, June 17, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images) "Certainly I think we achieve some of the same ends by our approach, frankly if you think about the inability to have any grants, if your department has chokeholds, that frankly is, by default, a ban on chokeholds," Scott told reporters, notably not ruling out stronger mandates that Democrats are seeking. McConnell's move to start debate next week will require bipartisan support, and though the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said he opposes the GOP legislation as written, he signaled support for taking it up and working to make changes. "We're still reviewing it but, what's clear is that the Senate Republican proposal on policing does not rise to the moment," said Schumer, but he added, "I'm glad we'll be turning to this subject next week." MORE: Trump signs executive order to reform policing, encourages ban on chokeholds Sen. Scott has often pointed to the dearth of information on some of the more controversial practices, like no-knock warrants in narcotics cases and suspect take-down tactics. As such, the GOP bill encourages reporting on these incidents with an eye toward, as Scott said, potentially changing or ending these practices down the road. For those departments that fail to report annually to a national database all use of force incidents to that result in "serious bodily harm" or where a firearm was discharged, the JUSTICE Act would reduce by 20% federal grant money in the first fiscal year after the law is enacted and a 5% reduction in each following year that data is not reported. Law enforcement witnesses, from police chiefs to a union representative, told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday night that the lure or possible elimination of federal money would "absolutely" be a motivator for change. PHOTO: Sen. Tim Scott is joined by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican lawmakers for a news conference to unveil the GOP's legislation to address racial disparities in law enforcement, June 17, 2020, in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) But congressional Democrats, in their Justice in Policing legislation that will be finalized by the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, called for more active measures, like an outright ban on chokeholds and the elimination of no-knock warrants in drug cases. "There's no reason to scribble our changes in the margins, or nibble around the edges of this large, difficult, and persistent problem," Sen. Schumer said in a floor speech. "The moment calls for bold action, and the American people are behind it." But there is overlap in the competing proposals which might point to grounds for a compromise, however difficult that might be. Like the Scott bill, the Democrats' legislation - which was crafted with the support of Schumer and the chamber's two African American Democrats, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker - would finally make lynching a federal hate crime, this after Congress has tried more than 200 times to do so in the first half of the 20th century. Both bills establish a 19-member Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, something for which Speaker Nancy Pelosi has advocated. The commission would study - with an eye toward recommending changes - the condition of this particular population, which has historically been disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, "including homicide rates, arrest and incarceration rates, poverty, violence, fatherhood, mentorship, drug abuse, death rates, disparate income and wealth levels, school performance in all grade levels including postsecondary education and college, and health issues," according to the bill. The bill also includes a proposal to beef up funding for popular Community Oriented Policing (COP) programs, something a number of African American expert witnesses at the Tuesday Senate hearing said was of primary importance. But significant differences remain. PHOTO: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference on D.C. statehood in the Capitol in Washington, June 16, 2020. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) Democrats and many police reform activists want strict limits on qualified immunity, a court-created legal shield that protects police officers from civil lawsuit if their use of force is determined to be "reasonable." Democrats want the standard to be changed to a showing that the forceful tactic used was "necessary," something that legal experts say would give victims and their families a chance in court. In an interview, Scott bluntly said the votes simply are not there among Republicans to alter the legal shield protecting officers from civil lawsuits. Rather, Scott and a number of his colleagues, like Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., say those who have a potential grievance should look to take a particular police officer's department or city to court, instead. MORE: Democrats, seizing the moment, unveil sweeping policing reform bill "I say to those families that the fastest way to find the economic response from the departments is the departments themselves," Scott told CNN in an interview. "We certainly don't have the votes on qualified immunity to move it forward. The truth is suing the officer is harder to do than suing the department or the city. That's where the resources are anyway. So, I think that's the right path to go on." The wild card in the overall debate and potential for compromise remains President Donald Trump who met privately for an emotional conversation with the families of victims who were killed by police, a tearful interaction that sources said left the president, who is often criticized for using racially-insensitive rhetoric, deeply moved. But then, in a Rose Garden ceremony to introduce an executive order to encourage change in policing practices, the president touted his support for "law and order" and never mentioned "racism" in the speech. PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks during an event on police reform, in the Rose Garden of the White House, June 16, 2020, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP) While Scott was unable to assure that he had Trump's support, merely saying he "hoped" that was the case, he said he saw positive signs in the Tuesday meeting between Trump and the families that the senator joined. "The president was the most presidential I've seen him talking to the families yesterday. It was not about anything other than finding justice for the victims and their families," Scott recounted when asked if he thought the president would "bend" in negotiations. "It's not so much about bending and more about finding justice." The JUSTICE Act, created by Scott with the help of GOP Sens. Graham, John Cornyn of Texas, Shelly Moore Capitol of West Virginia, Oklahoma's Jim Lankford, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, would impose stiff penalties for any officer who knowingly alters a police report in his or her favor. This legislative language is something Scott has fought for since the 2015 police shooting of a black man - Walter Scott - in North Charleston as he was fleeing following a traffic stop. The offending officer, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence, later was found to have altered police reports to his advantage. In the Scott bill, fines and a maximum 20-year prison sentence would be imposed in an officer is found guilty. MORE: President Trump expected to sign executive order on policing reform that falls short of protesters' demands It remains unclear if Republicans can find common ground with their colleagues across the political aisle, a difficult prospect in any year but especially in 2020 - a heated presidential election year with passions already boiling over. Republicans Wednesday repeatedly offered support for police officers who they said were good people, but Democrats - like protesters crowding American cities and towns - have focused more on what they say is systemic racism in police ranks. It was unclear if that divide was a chasm that could be bridged in this emotional time. "I don't know how to tell people that the nation is not racist. I'll try again - we're not a racist country. We deal with racism because there's racism in the country," Scott explained as his GOP colleagues looked on. "Both are mutually true So -- I don't want to worry about the definitions that people want to use. It's good for headlines, but it's really bad for policy. We're going to focus on getting something done." This report was featured in the Thursday, June 18, 2020, episode of Start Here, ABC News daily news podcast. "Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts. Republicans unveil 'Justice Act' aimed at policing reform, propose fast-track action originally appeared on abcnews.go.com REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascend, the nation's leading dialysis testing laboratory, collaborates with the Stanford University School of Medicine to study the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a nationwide sample of dialysis patients. The study will begin in July 2020, and last up to one year. It is the most extensive study of this type and will include approximately 30,000 patients. Ascend will use the FDA, EUA approved SARS-CoV-2 Total Antibody assay from Siemens Healthineers, utilizing their high throughput Atellica immunoassay instrument. "Ascend has been dedicated to the dialysis community," said Paul Beyer, CEO, Ascend. "Through this research collaboration, we hope to provide valuable information that will be critical to patient care and long-term virus management." The study focuses on dialysis patients who need to interact with the healthcare system to receive life-sustaining therapy, even during a worldwide pandemic. Patients in this vulnerable population cannot quarantine themselves, so it is crucial to understand their exposure status and highlight any differences between age groups and other regional factors. The research aims to estimate the exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19 in the U.S. dialysis population and understand the rates of protective immunity over time. Shuchi Anand, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine, is the protocol director for the study and will lead the research. By bringing epidemiologists, statisticians, and infectious-disease experts together to plan this wide-scale study, the anticipated results will provide vital tools to prepare patients on dialysis and service providers as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. In the short-term follow-up, the study will also help estimate the potential need for healthcare capacity and vaccine requirements to support this high-risk patient population in future waves of COVID-19. About Ascend Clinical Founded in 1984, Ascend Clinical is the leader in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) laboratory testing services for independent and hospital-based dialysis clinics throughout the United States. Media Contact: Thomas Hyland 650-780-5512 [email protected] SOURCE Ascend STOCKHOLM, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the annual general meeting of 2020 was held in SciBase Holding AB (publ) (the "Company" or "SciBase"). Below follows a summary of the resolutions passed at the annual general meeting (all in accordance with the proposals presented in the notice to attend the meeting kept available at the Company's website www.scibase.com). The annual general meeting resolved: to adopt the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet and the group profit and loss statement and the group balance sheet for the financial year 2019; that the Company's accumulated profits amounting to SEK 98,878,721 should be carried forward in new account and that no dividend shall be paid for the financial year 2019; should be carried forward in new account and that no dividend shall be paid for the financial year 2019; to grant the board members, including the board member who resigned during the financial year, and the CEO discharge from liability for the financial year 2019; that the board of directors shall consist of four ordinary members without deputy members and that a registered accounting firm shall be elected as auditor; that the fees payable to the board of directors for the period until the end of the next annual general meeting shall amount to SEK 200,000 to the chairman and SEK 150,000 to each external board member who is not employed by a major shareholder of the Company and that fees payable to the auditor is to be paid in accordance with approved invoices; to the chairman and to each external board member who is not employed by a major shareholder of the Company and that fees payable to the auditor is to be paid in accordance with approved invoices; for the period until the end of the next annual general meeting re-elect Diana Ferro , Thomas Taapken and Tord Lendau and to new-elect Barbro Friden as board members, to re-elect Tord Lendau as chairman of the board of directors and to re-elect the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers AB (PwC) as auditor for the Company, with Magnus Lagerberg as auditor-in-charge; , and Tord Lendau and to new-elect Barbro Friden as board members, to re-elect Tord Lendau as chairman of the board of directors and to re-elect the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers AB (PwC) as auditor for the Company, with as auditor-in-charge; to adopt principles for the appointment of a nomination committee (same principles as previous year); on an authorization for the board of directors to increase the share capital through issuance of new shares, warrants and/or convertible debentures through which the Company's share capital may be increased by an amount corresponding to not more than 20 per cent of the share capital after such issue(s); and on changes to the Company's articles of association (i) regarding the prerequisites for participating in general meetings and (ii) by introducing a provision on the collection of proxy forms and postal voting. For more information, please contact: Simon Grant, CEO SciBase Tel: +46-72-887-43-99 Email: simon.grant@scibase.com Certified Advisor: Avanza Tel: +46-8-409-421-20 Email: corp@avanza.se The information was submitted, through the agency of the contact person set out above, for publication at the time stated by Scibase's news distributor Cision upon publication of this press release. About SciBase and Nevisense SciBase AB is a Swedish medical technology company, headquartered in Stockholm that has developed and sells a unique point-of-care device for evaluation of skin disorders such as skin cancer and atopic dermatitis. Its first product, Nevisense, helps doctors to detect malignant melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Further development has led to Nevisense also being used as a tool to assess the skin barrier and inflammation. SciBase was founded by Stig Ollmar, Associate Professor at The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Nevisense is based on substantial research and has achieved excellent results in the largest clinical study ever conducted on the detection of malignant melanoma. Nevisense is CE marked in Europe, has TGA approval in Australia and an FDA approval (PMA) in the United States. Nevisense is based on a method called Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), which uses the varying electrical properties of human tissue to categorize cellular structures and thereby detect malignancies and abnormalities. SciBase is listed on First North Growth Market ("SCIB"). Further information is available at www.scibase.com. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/scibase/r/annual-general-meeting-has-been-held-in-scibase-holding-ab--publ-,c3136962 The following files are available for download: Mumbai, June 17 : The Reserve Bank on Wednesday proposed to increase the minimum Net Owned Fund size of Housing Finance Companies (HFCs). The proposal comes as part of a draft regulatory framework which will be applicable to HFCs. "The Bank proposes to increase the minimum NOF for HFCs from the current requirement of Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore," the draft regulatory framework said. "For existing HFCs the glide path would be to reach Rs 15 crore within 1 year and Rs 20 crore within 2 years. This step is aimed at strengthening the capital base, especially of smaller HFCs and companies proposing to seek registration under NHB Act." The draft guidelines also proposed to have an inclusive definition of the terms 'providing finance for housing' or 'housing finance' as per provisions of the RBI's master circular on housing finance addressed to banks and NHB's illustrative list of housing loans. Accordingly, 'Housing Finance" or "providing finance for housing" means: financing, for purchase or construction or reconstruction or renovation or repairs of residential dwelling units. On the loaning part, the guidelines said: "All other loans including those given for furnishing dwelling units, loans given against mortgage of property for any purpose other than buying or construction of a new dwelling unit or units or renovation of the existing dwelling unit or units will be treated as non-housing loans." Besides, the RBI proposed to issue HFC regulations by classifying them as systemically important and non-systemically important, so as to introduce a graded approach as applicable to NBFCs in general. "In other words, non-deposit taking HFCs (HFC-ND) with asset size of Rs 500 crore and above; and all deposit taking HFCs (HFC-D), irrespective of asset size, will be treated as systemically important HFCs," the regulation said. "HFCs with asset size below Rs 500 crore will be treated as non-systemically important HFCs (HFC-non-SI). While the regulations for HFC-NDSI and HFC-Ds will be as existing under NHB regulations or harmonised with NBFC regulations, the regulations for HFC-non-SI will be brought on par with relevant regulations for NBFC-ND-non-SI." In addition, the RBI said that as a measure of customer protection and also in order to bring uniformity with regard to repayment of various loans by borrowers of banks and NBFCs, no foreclosure charges or pre-payment penalties shall be levied on any floating rate term loan sanctioned for purposes other than business to individual borrowers with or without co-obligants. "Since similar regulations are currently not prescribed for HFCs, it is proposed to extend these instructions to HFCs," the regulation said. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has had a video conference with the leadership of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to discuss the possibilities of foreign investment in the construction of Ukrainian roads, the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine reports. EBRD Vice President Alain Pilloux stressed that Ukraine is among the priorities of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the EBRD is ready to implement a number of projects together with Ukraine in the road construction. "According to the Vice President of the EBRD, it applies to the reconstruction of the Kyiv-Odesa highway and the construction of a bypass road in Lviv. Also, according to him, the EBRD has embarked on considering lending to Ukrainian regions for the construction of roads of regional importance, starting with Dnipro and Kherson," the government portal reported on Tuesday evening. Ukrainian premier noted that Ukraine is looking for options for road infrastructure development in the regions and cooperation with the EBRD is among the priorities for the government. "From the pilot project, we will be ready to switch to funding in all regions," he stressed. Shmyhal thanked the EBRD for its consistent support of Ukraine and noted that the EBRD "has been and still remains a major institutional investor in Ukraine's economy." "Undoubtedly, we want and strive to reach the annual volume of EBRD investments in Ukraine at the level of EUR 1 billion. The purpose of the projects financed by the Bank fully meets the requirements of the national economy and European integration strategy of Ukraine," the premier said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 18:57:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, pushing the national total to 8,515, the Health Ministry said. Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah told a press briefing that all the new cases are local transmissions, with three being foreign nationals and seven locals. Another 140 cases of COVID-19 patients had been cured and discharged, bringing the total to 7,873, or 92.5 percent of all cases. Of the remaining 521 active cases in the country, four are being held in intensive care and none of those are in need of assisted breathing. No new deaths had been reported, leaving the total deaths at 121. Enditem SUSTAP LLC, an experienced, minority and women-owned business, a United States certified Federal Government Contractor and a certified Minority Business Enterprise with the State of California with decades of management experience in both the shipyard industry and project management, announced that it has filed a Claim against The Port of San Francisco, seeking multi-million dollars in damages. The Claim and Whistleblower's Complaint JYYL9Mkd was filed by SUSTAP's counsel, Marc R. Greenberg, Tucker Ellis, LLP on June 10, 2020 in the United States, City of San Francisco, Controller's Office, Claims Division 1390 Market Street, 7th Floor, San Francisco, Ca 94102 SUSTAP alleges in its Claim that its response to the Port of San Franciscos Request For Proposal (RFP) for Lease Operation of the Pier 70 Shipyard was feasible and The Ports inaction and gamesmanship in the handling of the restart of the Ship Repair facility suggests that there was never a true intent to include Ship Repair as part of the redevelopment of Pier 70. The Claim alleges because a formal rejection has yet to be issued, SUSTAP is significantly limited in its ability to bid on other projects. Separate from the damages suffered, the company also claims it incurred damages by The Ports improper conduct. The Claim alleges, The Port requests and accepts Grants from the United States Government agencies and that The Ports Water Front Plan states maintaining the ship repair industry is key to the historic preservation strategy and also is a key industry that supports the Citys economic base. 1 This commitment is also stated in the Port of San Franciscos 10 Year Capital Plan (2016-2025). The Claim alleges Pier 70 is a 69-acre property owned by the Port of San Francisco located in the Citys Central Waterfront that contains dozens of industrial facilities which form the Union Iron Works (UIW) Historic District. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the UIW is historically significant as the center of shipbuilding and repair on the West Coast for nearly 150 years, and as an exceptional example of shipyard architecture and industrial design from the 1880s to the end of WW II. The Claim alleges under the US Department of Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Pier 70 incorporates 41 active buildings and 4 structures that include a 15-acre active dry-dock and ship repair. In turn and pursuant to this agreement, the Claim alleges, the City of San Francisco receives annual financial funding from the U.S. federal government. The Claim alleges, in April 2018, The Port of San Francisco issued an RFP seeking a new ship repair operator and SUSTAP responded to the RFP. SUSTAP operated by a San Francisco native with extensive business and maritime experience, including 25 years of contracting with the City of San Francisco teamed with a Naval contractor, a California business out of San Diego operated by a U. S. Navy veteran Annapolis graduate with extensive experience in operating shipyards as well as performing government contracts. The SUSTAP team states in the Claim that the proposal response submitted and the teams ability to perform met all criteria presented in the RFP and was indeed practical or feasible as the preparation of SUSTAPs proposal was completed by a team of experts and involved many layers, including senior advisors. The Claim states SUSTAP is a certified client of the U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) Minority Business Development Authoritys (MBDA) Minority Business Development Center (MBDC) and that through the assistance of the USDOC MBDAs MBDC, SUSTAP received a pre-qualified $10 million dollar loan for the dry-dock opportunity in San Francisco, and also secured, through the USDOC MBDAs MBDC assistance a $25 million line of credit. The Claim alleges, SUSTAP received a letter from the Port that read We are pleased to inform you that you are one of the respondents that we have initially determined has met the minimum qualifications detailed in Shipyard RFP #2. The Claim alleges SUSTAP was never notified to attend oral interviews for shortlisted firms and that due to delays and mismanagement by The Port, SUSTAP submitted a PROTEST, and The Port responded to meet and discuss. The Claim alleges, SUSTAP attended a meeting and The Ports Maritime director at the time, advised in the meeting attended by SUSTAP representatives and The Port members this was not dead in the water to go back and sharpen your pencils and get back... The Claim alleges, SUSTAP submitted a best and final offer and the COO of the Port said, this is what we were looking for. The Claim alleges, The Port continued to engage SUSTAP in conversations, emails, meetings (both formal and informal), and The Port conversed and emailed the U. S. Department of Commerce MBDA MBDC (SUSTAPs customer/client) at SUSTAPs introduction. The Claim alleges, in 2019 The Port then continued to engage SUSTAP by touring the dry dock with SUSTAP with one of SUSTAP companies who would sublease from SUSTAP revealing future additional income plans to the Port and that The Port requested additional Marketing ideas (outside of any SOW requirement). The Claim alleges the RFP appeared to be used in a fraudulent manner, where the secretive nature of the Port knowingly or through malfeasance evaded an open and transparent process. The Claim alleges, by using these tactics of ignoring a minority and women-owned company, The Port used an open form of bid manipulation by changing the announced evaluation criteria during the evaluation process. The Claim alleges it appears that the Port, while receiving various state and federal funding to support Pier 70, was simultaneously supporting its demise, while publicly appearing to seek a qualified operator for the active dry-dock and ship repair area. In its Claim, SUSTAP also alleges an array of acts by The Port of San Francisco: Allegedly, for the past three years, the Port allows the Pier 70 Ship Repair facility to sit empty and fall into decay, while causing the loss of more than 200 jobs; The Port and the City of San Francisco incur the expense of security and electricity of the shuttered Ship Repair facility at a cost of $150,000 a month in tax dollars and allegedly the Ship Repair facility could be operating today and producing lease payments and tax revenue, but for the inaction of The Port. Allegedly, in February 2020, The Port issued a statement of the Project Goals for redevelopment for the entire Pier 70 area. Conspicuously missing from the publication is any mention of the plan to restart the ship repair facility or why the ship repair parcel has been stalled by The Port. The Claim alleges, If The Port delays long enough in issuing an award, SUSTAP claims the Ship Repair facility will fall into such disrepair that recovery of the facility and its jobs will be impossible, which is perhaps the goal. And, whatever underlying agenda is guiding the Port in its actions, that agenda has caused, and continues to cause, damages to SUSTAP, LLC and the City of San Francisco. A copy of SUSTAPs civil Claim and submittal and Whistleblower Report is available from SUSTAPs counsel, Marc R. Greenberg, Tucker Ellis, LLP, by sending email to marc.greenberg@tuckerellis.com. ### Media Contacts: newsroom@gallagherworldwide.com Attn: Daisy Gallagher, AMA, CPM, CHT Chief Public Affairs Officer 202-465-0009 (direct) Marc R. Greenberg, Esquire Tucker Ellis LLP - 213-430-3355/213-215-8887 (mobile) Virginia Gibson, Chief Operating Officer - Maritime Cofounder SUSTAP LLC vgibson@sustap.com / 650-201-4723 1 Water Front Pier 70 Masterplan Robin Ross, a chaplain at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, stands outside the hospital in the city's Logan section. Read more Meet Robin Ross, a chaplain at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia who works with COVID-19 patients. Sacred space: The moments that Im with these patients, its like walking on holy ground. Losing touch: A chaplain wants to put their arms around someone and console them and right now we cant touch," Ross said. Its so tough. Even as the staff at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia faced their own shortages of personal protective equipment in the face of the coronavirus, they often offered their gear to Robin Ross and other chaplains at the hospital whenever they saw them approach a patients room. That shortchanged them, but they were willing to do it because the chaplain needed to give these patients and their families something they didnt have in their arsenal to give them, Ross said. What Ross gives as a hospital chaplain to believers and atheists alike is the spiritual and emotional support the soul yearns for, especially when the body fails, or when its attacked by outside forces. But despite years of working with everyone from cancer patients to gunshot victims, nothing prepared Ross for COVID-19, which not only attacks the body but, in an especially cruel twist, also isolates its victims during treatment and in death. A lot of people dont understand why their loved ones arent there, she said. Theyre so confused. And so, Ross, 49, of Northeast Philly, has become a lifeline for these patients, often holding up the phone or iPad as they video chat with their families. Sometimes it brings tears to my eyes when the patient is lying before me and theyre unable to communicate and the family is saying We love you. Keep fighting. Were praying, she said. Ross didnt want to do this, not at first any way. As someone in a high-risk category, she initially scoffed at the idea of working during the pandemic. But God had other plans, she said. Just like when she was a Philadelphia schoolteacher. Ross grew up in Southwest Philly and attended St. Maria Goretti High School. While studying at St. Josephs University, she began attending a Baptist church in Bristol, where she lived with her husband and son at the time. She prayed to God to lead her to her calling and hoped to find the answer in the Bible. One day, she was moved to read 1 Timothy 4:11-16, a passage that includes the line: Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. And then my heart was like Oh, my God! God is calling me to be a teacher! she said. Ross taught at Christian and charter schools in Philadelphia, including four years teaching third grade in West Philly. I was not only the teacher, I was also a social worker, a nurse, and a mother, she said. I saw myself in their faces, their dreams, and their aspirations." But after seven years, Ross felt called to do something else. She went back to that same Bible verse she was led to all those years ago, but this time, she read it differently. I read it as PREACH and teach these things," she said. "I thought How come I never saw that before? Ross, who was finishing her masters in education, was not trying to go to the seminary, but she couldnt shake the calling either. It made no sense to go to the seminary, but I just said yes, she recalled. MORE WE THE PEOPLE: This former Philly cop is one of the few Muslims in the dog show world Ross finished her masters in education and, the next month, enrolled at Palmer Theological Seminary. Since graduating in 2009, shes done hospital and hospice work across the region and is currently an associate minister at Ebenezer Temple Pentecostal Church in Southwest Philly. In 2017, Ross became a chaplain at Einstein in the citys Logan section, where she connects volunteer leaders of all faiths with patients of the same religion and also visits patients herself to offer emotional and spiritual support. It doesnt matter what your faith is, or lack thereof, a chaplain will come and support you in what you believe, she said. When COVID-19 first hit the region, Ross was given the option to work from home and because she has asthma, she was set on doing so. But then, she felt called by God to serve. "I believe the Lord has me here for such times as this and Im just going to trust and walk with him, she said. Ross has worked with more than 50 COVID-19 patients and their families, listening to their struggles and uniting them through technology. Its been especially difficult for Ross, who is black, because the black community has been hit so hard. It goes back-to-back with a lot of the socio-economic ills that we deal with, she said. MORE WE THE PEOPLE: For 35 years, this hotel doorman has had a window into Philly At the same time, many of those patients and Ross herself are watching as Black Lives Matter protests happen in Philadelphia and around the world in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. You have to provide grace, you have to provide mercy, but you have to speak out against injustices, too, she said. Its a lot of work during this time of COVID-19 and civil unrest, but it is a time for the chaplain because we help people process whatever is going on. Want more We the People? Philly streetwear pioneers, the Cao brothers, created a Fight The Virus Not The People project. Corina Newsome is the Hood Naturalist. Check out the full We the People archive here. IT companies urge Ukraine's Rada to accelerate public services' move to cloud technologies 10:35, 17.06.20 2493 The European Business Association also supports the bill. Kansas police are investigating after a memorial to a lynching victim was vandalized and thrown off a cliff. The memorial plaque honored Levi Harrington, a black man who was lynched by a white mob in 1882. The sign was severed from its pedestal at West Terrace Park in Kansas City, Missouri over the weekend and thrown off a cliff, according to a park official. The sign was severed from its pedestal in a Kansas City park over the weekend and thrown off a cliff, according to a park official. The memorial plaque honored Levi Harrington, a black man who was lynched by a white mob in 1882. Above, the sign prior to the incident Authorities are working to retrieve the historical marker and will assess the damage before deciding whether it can be put back in place. 'We got a report the other day that the sign was missing and came to find out that it was vandalism,' superintendent of parks for Kansas City Parks and Recreation Kevin Evans told the Kansas City Star. 'We discovered that it was thrown over a wall.' The sign was severed from its pedestal (pictured) in a Kansas City park over the weekend It remains unclear whether the act of vandalism was motivated by racism, Evans said. The sign will be inspected for graffiti once it is recovered. 'All that I can do is get it and see if the rest has been spray painted or any other kind of vandalism happened to it,' Evans said. 'Other than that, I have to wait until I get the sign above the wall to see.' Harrington was one of 'almost 4400 "racial terror lynchings" between 1877 and 1950' in a registry compiled by the Equal Justice Initiative. The memorial plaque, which was erected in West Terrace Park due to its proximity to the historical lynching, documents Harrington's murder and was erected in a ceremony on December 1, 2018. The memorial had previously been vandalized in early 2019, when it was sprayed with graffiti. District 2 Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Mariah Parker is running unopposed for reelection. She won the position in a special election in 2018 after longtime Commissioner Harry Sims stepped down to run for mayor. By their own admission, the Senate Republican conference didnt fully grasp the widespread problems of racial profiling and abuse in policing until their colleague Tim Scott of South Carolinathe only black Republican in the chambertold them about the numerous instances, even as a sitting United States senator, when hes been pulled over for driving while black. Thatand an only very, very recent polling spike in support of police reformmight be why the JUSTICE Act, Senate Republicans tame opening offer on police reform legislation thats spearheaded by Scott himself, reads as if this is a relatively new concern area in public policy. The bill focuses on implementing studies, collecting more data, augmenting officer training, and instituting additional reporting requirements to the federal government. Currently there is genuine, bipartisan interest in police reform legislation. But making that happen depends first on whether Democrats decide the bill is workable enough to bother engaging with. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The JUSTICE Act and Democrats more expansive counterproposal, the Justice in Policing Actwhich the House intends to pass as soon as next weekoverlap, at least, on some of the issues. The Republican bill, like the Democratic bill, ties federal grants for state and local law enforcement to their implementation of chokehold bans. The Republican proposal, though, only applies to holds that cut off airflow; the Democratic bill goes further to include a ban on carotid holds that cut off blood supply to the brain. (Republicans language also includes a lawyer-able exception that allows police to use chokeholds when deadly force is authorized.) The Democratic bill creates a national database to track misconduct by abusive officers who might try to get a job with a new department; Republicans bill incentivizes state-based records retention and appropriate sharing between departments. Both bills would make lynching a federal crime; both would expand the use of officer body cameras; both would require use-of-force reporting from state and local law enforcement agencies. Advertisement Advertisement From there, though, the paths diverge. Democrats billthough considered too lukewarm by many activists and reformersdoes offer some meaty reforms in policy spaces where the Republican bill, while meandering off into the nebulous world of commissions for further study and best-practices research, is silent. Republicans offer nothing on restricting qualified immunity for police officers, the legal doctrine that shields abusive cops from civil penalties for violating constitutional rights. Democrats bill would eliminate it. Democrats bill would also ban no-knock warrants in federal drug cases; Republicans bill would require more reporting on its uses. Democrats bill prohibits racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling; Republicans does not. And Democrats bill limits transfers of military equipment to state and local police departments, which Republicans does not. Advertisement Advertisement In general, Democrats bill is both more expansive in its scope and more forceful in addressing problems with federal mandates than Republicans bill. Thats exactly what everyone on planet Earth with a rudimentary understanding of American politics would expect. Early reviews from Democratic leaders in Congress of their opponents bill were also predictable. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that the Senate Republican proposal on policing does not rise to the moment and questioned whether Republicans were ready to vote for a bill that actually solves the problem, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Senates so-called Justice Act is not action. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a co-author of the Democratic bill, described the Republican bill as heavy on gestures, light on real reforms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What Democrats hadnt done by Wednesday afternoon, though, was shut the door on working to improve Republicans bill. We expect our Republican colleagues to work with us to make significant improvement s to any legislation in order for it to pass, Schumer said on the Senate floor. We take this very seriously. And as we continue to review the Republican legislation, I will be talking to my caucus about the best way to strengthen it. Advertisement Advertisement McConnell has queued up a decision point for Democrats on whether they want, in his framing, to make a law or make a point. The majority leader said Wednesday that the chamber will vote next week on whether to open debate on the Scott bill, a procedural move that will require 60 votesand, thus, bipartisan cooperation. I hope [the Democrats] will join us in getting on the bill and trying to move forward in the way the Senate does move forward when its actually trying to get an outcome, McConnell said, rather than just sparring back and forth. Advertisement In other words: Do Democrats agree to take on the JUSTICE Act, and try to improve it close enough to their liking through amendments? Or do they filibuster it, and then pressure McConnell to take up the eventual House-passed police reform bill instead, trying to blame him for inaction on the issue heading into the election? Democrats will spend the coming days strategizing and seeing whether there are enough Republicans movable in their direction. The JUSTICE Act is not a perfect expression of each individual Republican senators beliefs, and there are Republicans who would like to do more. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who just a couple of weeks ago was holding up an anti-lynching bill in the Senate, told me Wednesday that he was preparing several amendments for next weeks (would-be) debate on policingone of which would be a ban on no-knock warrants. And Indiana Sen. Mike Braun is preparing to introduce legislation that wouldnt eliminate qualified immunity, but would at least reform it. Advertisement Advertisement Braun has been an interesting figure in the debate. On Tuesday, he told reporters that hes been disappointed that we havent as a Republican conference been more aggressive here, and Ill be disappointed here if we dont get support behind reforming qualified immunity. Its a watershed moment, he said on Wednesday, speaking to the protests and conversations that the police killing of George Floyd have sparked. We ought to do more than window-dress the issue. He sees a compromise of real substance on either qualified immunity or no-knock entries as necessary for anything to break through and reach the presidents desk. (Also important to the delicate negotiations: whatever craziness Trump might tweet, at any moment.) Advertisement The debate is likely to get stuck, if it isnt stuck already, with Democrats wanting nothing to do with Republicans bill and vice versa. The true test of whether any compromise legislation can pass is whether legislators convince themselves theyre in a must-pass environment, as they were when they passed the multitrillion-dollar CARES Act in March. If they can, each party will grind through obstacles and accept voting for a measure that may include elements they strongly disagree with but can live with. If they cant, the moment for police reform collapses into another bipartisan messaging exercise heading into a presidential election, with Democrats saying Republicans were never serious about reform and Republicans telling the masses of (white, swing) voters whove recently come around to police reform that, well, they tried. Old Main on the Penn State campus in State College, Pa. Read more For weeks, colleges have been slowly rolling out their plans to welcome back tens of thousands of students in the fall. Now, concern is bubbling among faculty and staff about what happens when they get there. Leaders at Pennsylvania State University on Friday received a petition signed by nearly 900 faculty about 12% of the total demanding the right to bar from their classrooms students who refuse to wear masks, and the autonomy to decide whether to teach in person or online. They have asked the university to outline clear procedures for handling violations of social distancing, mask wearing, and other safety protocols. Faculty feel that their concerns about personal and public health are being ignored or downplayed by administrators, and that they are being subjected to a dangerous, potentially deadly experiment without their informed consent," said education professor Esther Prins, one of the signers. That came as a Temple professor had an op-ed published in the New York Times claiming that most college reopening plans were so unrealistically optimistic they border on delusional and could result in virus outbreaks among students, faculty, and staff. And nationally, theres no consensus on how to handle mask-wearing. Some states, including Oregon, are requiring it on campuses, while others, such as Virginia, will encourage it, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Pennsylvania has said students, faculty, and staff should wear masks in all classrooms, public shared spaces on campus, or in areas where social distancing cannot be observed. READ MORE: Nittany Lion football? Thousands of students back in Happy Valley? Penn State is planning for it. That leaves open the question of what happens when they dont. Steve Newman, president of Temples faculty union, said professors should have the right to ban a student who steadfastly refuses to wear a mask or to immediately shut down the class. That question of what rights an instructor has to insist and react if somebody is not complying with the rules is a pretty important one, he said. Discussions with faculty are underway at Pennsylvanias 14 state universities, said Jamie Martin, president of the statewide faculty union. Weve been in negotiations with the state system and the office of the chancellor in trying to voice some of those same concerns, she said. It has not been decided how noncompliance will be handled, said Dave Pidgeon, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Temple and Penn State said they will require mask-wearing in university buildings, including classrooms; educate students on its importance; and consider refusal a conduct violation. At Temple, security guards will bar students from entering buildings if they dont have masks on, said spokesperson Ray Betzner. READ MORE: Reopening of Pennsylvania state universities will vary by campus But exactly what enforcement steps will be taken if students refuse to don a mask in class is unclear. Penn State intends to provide guidance to instructors on how to enforce the rule, said spokesperson Lawrence Lokman. The guidance will provide details about how instructors can set clear standards of behavior, encourage shared responsibility, and hold students accountable, he said. But faculty are skeptical that approach will work. Risky behavior peaks among people in their late teens and early 20s, and theres no reason to believe behavior around mitigating virus transmission will be any different, Laurence Steinberg, a Temple psychology professor, wrote in the Times op-ed. But Martha Compton, president of the Association for Student Conduct Administration, a national group of campus administrators working in that area, said she believes most students will comply. At Penn State, more than three-quarters of nearly 6,000 students who responded to a university survey said they would wear a mask in class. Compton said schools should handle mask wearing as a public health issue, similar to seat belt wearing and no-smoking campaigns, which sought to alter behavior on a large scale. Students should be educated on reasons for masks, given clear expectations and instructions, and be reminded when they forget, she said. Exceptions or accommodations should be made for students with health conditions that make mask-wearing difficult and for deaf students, she said. For those who fail to comply after repeated warnings, then you have to use the tools in the tool belt, she said. More risky behavior, such as a student who tests positive and breaks quarantine, should be dealt with differently, she said. For me, thats absolutely a place where a university needs to step in and take some action, she said. Not all schools intend to require masks. We dont want faculty or staff to have to police mask use," said Jayson Boyers, president of Rosemont College, a small, Catholic liberal arts school. Rosemont instead will go with strong encouragement and an education campaign on why its important, said Boyers, who is new to Rosemont this month. READ MORE: A new college president amid COVID: Rosemonts Jayson Boyers makes plans for fall reopening from afar Even if after our education program a student refuses to wear a mask, he said, "that student can be set further apart from all the others in the room. Our size will allow for that. But Boyers acknowledged that large universities, with thousands of students coming from distant places, will have a harder time enforcing social distancing. At Penn State, faculty who organized the petition had been discussing concerns even before the university released its plan Sunday to bring back more than 110,000 students and employees to its campuses around the commonwealth. The release of the plan, which calls for testing, contact tracing, and a hybrid of online and in-person classes, did nothing to allay their concerns, said Sarah Townsend, an associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the main campus. The plan itself is very vague, she said. She also asserted that there should have been more widespread faculty input. Fewer than 20 faculty served on the 300-member task forces, she said. The university is planning town hall meetings for later in the week and will take more input, Lokman said. Townsend said faculty also are seeking other assurances, including job security and free testing and coverage of health costs if employees get the virus. Chief among concerns, too, she said, is that faculty wants a guarantee they can decide for themselves whether to return for in-person classes. Both Temple and Penn State have set up systems for faculty and staff to make that request, and theyve pledged to work through issues with employees, but neither has promised to honor every request. We also have an obligation to our students, and we have to be mindful to that, Betzner said. Flash U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order on policing amid calls for action against police brutality and racism. It comes three weeks after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, in police custody, which has triggered massive and weeks-long demonstrations. The executive order focuses on three areas: credentialing and certifying police officers; boosting information sharing to track officers accused of excessive use of force; and creating co-responder programs on mental health, drug addiction, and homelessness. It also said police departments must "prohibit the use of chokeholds -- a physical maneuver that restricts an individual's ability to breathe for the purposes of incapacitation -- except in those situations where the use of deadly force is allowed by law." Trump, speaking at the White House before signing the executive order, stressed that he "strongly" opposes efforts to defund or dismantle police departments, calling the ideas "radical." "Without police, there is chaos. Without law, there is anarchy and without safety, there is catastrophe," he said. The move from the White House comes alongside separate efforts on Capitol Hill focused on police reforms. The Democrat-led House introduced a bill last week that aims to ensure officers can be held accountable for misconduct and increase transparency. The GOP-led Senate is also creating its own legislative package that will focus on police reporting, accountability, training and relations. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump's executive order "weak." "The president's weak executive order falls sadly and seriously short of what is required to combat the epidemic of racial injustice and police brutality that is murdering hundreds of Black Americans," the California Democrat said in a statement on Tuesday. "The executive order lacks meaningful, mandatory accountability measures to end misconduct. During this moment of national anguish, we must insist on bold change, not meekly surrender to the bare minimum." Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said on Tuesday that Trump's executive order is not enough. "While the president has finally acknowledged the need for policing reform, one modest executive order will not make up for his years of inflammatory rhetoric and policies designed to roll back the progress made in previous years," Schumer said in a statement. "Unfortunately, this executive order will not deliver the comprehensive meaningful change and accountability in our nation's police departments that Americans are demanding," the New York Democrat added. "Congress needs to quickly pass strong and bold legislation with provisions that makes it easier to hold police officers accountable for abuses, and President Trump must commit to signing it into law." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Tuesday that he would wait until Wednesday morning to announce whether he would bring the GOP bill to the floor ahead of the two-week July 4 recess. The Republican also said the House bill of police reform efforts is "going nowhere in the Senate," while describing it as "typical Democratic overreach." Floyd died during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25 after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Protests in response to Floyd's death, and more broadly to police violence, spread across the United States and took place in some other countries. BENZIE COUNTY -- Since mid-March when the pandemic closed Michigan schools, Benzie County's two school districts have been delivering meals to families in need of support. To coordinate this monumental task for Benzie Central Schools, Lisa Purchase, food service director, and Matt Olson, superintendent, have been working with a team of community volunteers that has included Rotarians, school staff, parents, and, in particular, four young people that the Benzie Sunrise Rotary Club has recognized with Service Above Self Awards. Sisters Jaylynn, Chelby and Mae Talsma, along with Zach Grundy, have been at the school twice a week to pack food bags and transport them for overnight storage at the walk-in refrigerator at Beulah's L'Chayim Delicatessen. Two other mornings these four young people arrive at L'Chayim at 7:30 a.m. to move the food to Benzie Central, where it is loaded onto school buses for distribution. "These four volunteers have been the ones I could turn to whenever I needed extra support," Purchase said. "They have said yes to everything I've asked and haven't missed a day in the 12 weeks this program has been going." Benzie Sunrise Rotary typically recognizes a middle or high school student each month who exemplifies Rotary's motto, "Service Above Self." When stories began to circulate in the community and at club meetings about the "Talsma women and Zach," the club wanted to recognize them and show the club's appreciation for their commitment. On June 8, the final morning of food distribution, club members were at Benzie Central to say thanks. When asked what inspired them to get up early every morning the past three months and demonstrate this kind of reliability and dedication, they answered, "We just knew this was a big need and we wanted to help." The club thanks the Talsma sisters and Grundy for stepping up and making a difference. Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc, in partnership with the Department of Transportation (DOTr), is assuring medical frontliners that the fuel subsidy for participating vehicles included in the Free Ride Service for Health Workers Program will still continue until June 30. The program, which assists the transportation needs of medical frontliners, subsidizes 30 liters of fuel a day to 60 private bus companies included in the DOTr Free Ride Service for Health Workers. This daily fuel distribution adds to a total of 1,800 liters per day, or an additional 27,000 liters until June 30. DOTR supports frontliners To avail of the free fuel assistance, bus units under the Free Ride Service for Health Workers Program should at least complete two round trips on a given day. They are then given a voucher that will be certified and signed by the leaders in the different staging areas. Participating bus units can then proceed to designated Phoenix Petroleum gas stations to avail of their free gas. These stations include PX RETAIL CODO-Timog and PNX RETAIL CODO-Bahay Toro in Quezon City; PNX RETAIL CODO-Mall of Asia in Pasay City; PNX AFA PSPC-NAIA Road in Paranaque City; PNX RETAIL CODO-Malanday 1 in Valenzuela; PNX RETAIL CODO-Potrero in Malabon; and PNX AFA PSPC-Filinvest-Northgate in Alabang, Muntinlupa. Once the free fuel is availed, the voucher will be signed by an authorized representative at the assigned Phoenix Petroleum gas stations. phoenix brand It may be recalled that Metro Manila and other selected areas in the country was placed under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) on June 1. This assurance of a fuel subsidy by Phoenix Petroleum Philippines is a welcome development," said said DOTr Undersecretary for Administrative Service Artemio Tuazon Jr. "Secretary Tugade, and the whole of DOTr, are grateful for the generosity of Phoenix Petroleum Philippines as it further extends its assistance until June 30. This fuel subsidy will enable us to help with the transportation needs of our health workers, especially now that the National Capital Region and its neighboring regions are under GCQ. Story continues The DOTr Free Ride Service for Health Workers Program started last March 18 this year. It's a joint effort between the DOTr and various government agencies, as well as private transport companies to ferry frontline health workers during the start of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) until the present general community quarantine (GCQ). Last May 30, the DOTr Free Ride for Health Workers Program exceeded the 1-million total ridership mark in the Philippines. Photos from DOTr and Phoenix Petroleum Facebook pages Also Read: Phoenix Petroleum Extends Help for Frontliners Phoenix, Cleanfuel Extend Assistance for Fuel Subsidy until May 15 My main mistake as opposition leader in advocating broad-based tax reform in the early 1990s as a key element of the Coalition's Fightback campaign for broad government reform was to misread the politics. I assumed that Paul Keating could be held to his word, particularly his public support for a consumption tax after his "option c" defined by a 12.5 per cent consumption tax had been scuttled by a motel room deal between Bob Hawke and ACTU leader Bill Kelty. Keating had said in a subsequent press conference: "I have always believed that an across-the-board, broad-based consumption tax was the best tax option for achieving major reform of the Australian tax system" a view I assumed he held passionately. Bob Hawke and Paul Keating in 1987. Credit:David Jame Bartho Naively, I hadn't expected that he would so easily reverse that position and run a scare campaign against the tax as the basis for "doing Hewson slowly". Nor had I recognised that, to him, and I quote what he subsequently said to me, "politics is just a game, and I will say or do whatever I have to, to win". Sure, I also helped with answers about the price of birthday cakes, attempting to demonstrate the complexity of the sales tax system to be replaced by a simpler GST. But this emphasised the need for a wide and informed public debate to overcome scare campaigns and to convince the electorate of the need for tax reform as a precondition to an effective overall reform agenda. The stars of acclaimed comedy 30 Rock, including Alec Baldwin, are reuniting for a one-off special that will serve as a promotional event for network NBC (Ian West/PA) The stars of acclaimed comedy 30 Rock are reuniting for a one-off special that will serve as a promotional event for network NBC. Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan are among the actors who will take part in the remotely-filmed reunion show, which is due to air on July 16. NBC describes it as a one-time, commercial-free event, that will promote its upcoming programming. In normal circumstances, the major US networks would have presented their 2020-21 shows to ad buyers in New York in mid-May. However, the coronavirus pandemic made that tradition impossible. 30 Rock originally aired from 2006-2013 and took place behind-the-scenes on a fictional comedy sketch show based on Saturday Night Live. The special will feature the actors in their 30 Rock roles, including Baldwin as the controlling network executive Jack Donaghy. 30 Rock executive producers Fey and Robert Carlock said: Were all happy to have this excuse to (remotely) work together again for NBC. To quote Kenneth the Page, there are only two things we love in this world, television and everyone. 30 Rock was a huge hit when it first aired, winning 16 Emmy Awards including three consecutive outstanding comedy series gongs. Video of the Day NISKAYUNA A town employee is suspended pending the outcome of an investigation by outside legal counsel into claims the staffer posted a picture in blackface on Facebook, Town Supervisor Yasmine Syed said in a statement Tuesday. Though Syed's statement does not name the employee, the activist group Progressive Schenectady identified the person as longtime Comptroller Paul Sebesta. Several people with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, told the Times Union that Sebesta was placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the probe. Progressive Schenectady, in a letter Monday to Syed and other town officials, notified them of the photo from two years ago, and had demanded action before they would go public with the matter at noon on Wednesday. Sebesta, who according to his online Linkedin profile has nearly 32 years in with Niskayuna, and has for years been among its highest paid employees, did not return calls Tuesday evening to his cell phone seeking comment. Sebesta also receives a stipend for serving as the towns human resources director. Seen as increasingly offensive, blackface refers to the practice of wearing makeup to imitate the appearance of a black person. The use of such makeup was associated with minstrel shows in the United States from the 1830s until the mid-20th century. Syed said in the news release the action was taken against the employee "in light of the employees position of authority within the town." "In any context, the use of blackface has racist connotations and is offensive and unacceptable," stated Syed, adding "equality and inclusivity are the standard for our community and our town offices and employees." She said the Town Board will take appropriate action when it receives a report of the investigation with its findings and recommendations. "We are grateful to the members of our community who provided this report and encourage anyone who sees racism or discrimination to say something so we can address it," Syed said in the statement. The incident comes just over a week after a Black Lives Matter rally outside Niskayuna Town Hall. It was one of countless demonstrations held around the nation after the death on Memorial Day of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. In 2019, Sebesta grossed $135,249, a combination of his $131,749 annual base salary plus $3,500 for handling the human resources job until Niskayuna filled the post, according to town payroll records obtained by the Times Union through a Freedom of Information Act request. His suspension came in the aftermath of an emergency closed-door meeting Monday afternoon of the town board members. It was held hours after Progressive Schenectady sent town leaders their letter. Town Board member John Della Ratta on Tuesday afternoon acknowledged he had seen the letter but not any proof to substantiate the claim against Sebesta. "I don't know if this happened or not, I haven't been able to confirm if anything happened so I can't really speak about it," said Della Ratta, adding he expected that the governing body would soon be presented evidence. Even then, he said, he wouldn't be able to talk about it because it's "probably going to be an internal personnel thing." Town Board member Rosemarie Perez Jaquith said in an email response to the group that blackface is an "ignorant and degrading practice which prolongs its racist legacy" and cannot be tolerated. "I denounce the use of blackface by anyone and support a zero tolerance for racism at the Town of Niskayuna and everywhere," she wrote. Denise Murphy McGraw, did not Tuesday return a call seeking comment. The four founding members of the Progressive Schenectady, three of them Niskayuna residents, had asked the town to launch an internal probe of discrimination in hiring practices and human resources. Those members are Niskayuna residents Katie Chao, Lynell Engelmyer and Sunny Lee as well as Jill Loew of Guilderland. The letter from the four indicates Sebestas job description likely involved diversity training and the investigations of allegations of racism and employee discipline when complaints are found to be true. The photo, the group said, was removed from Sebestas Facebook page, but not before someone captured a screen shot of it. Wearing blackface has long been seen as a demeaning reinforcement of stereotypes, and is unconscionable and needs to be addressed, the letter reads. We strongly urge the town to adopt a zero tolerance policy for racism in or outside the workplace and that the town immediately commence an internal investigation of discrimination in the hiring process/HR department. The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled last week that a lower court could give Wyomingites an order to change their sex on their birth certificates, clearing the way for transgender residents here to alter records to reflect their gender identity. The case landed in front of the high court after the Laramie County District Court ruled that it didnt have the authority to grant an order to a transgender woman who needed it to have her birth certificate changed. The order is required by the state Department of Health to make the change, but the lower court ruled that it couldnt issue such a document. That left the woman, identified in court records by her initials, in limbo. The lower courts decision was appealed by the woman late last year. In a ruling issued last week, the justices reversed the district courts ruling and determined that issuing the orders were within the jurisdiction of the courts. In a statement, Cheyenne attorney George Powers told the Star-Tribune that he was pleased with the courts ruling. Our client is a transgender woman, who simply wants to exercise her rights under existing Wyoming law, Powers wrote. The law provides that every citizen in Wyoming has a right to ask for an amendment to their birth certificate, but first they must obtain a court order. When our client tried to exercise her rights, the trial court concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to consider her petition and denied her request without reaching the merits. Powers said the woman will now have the ability to go back to the Laramie County District Court so she can receive the order and, ultimately, change her birth certificate to reflect her gender identity. Attorney General Bridget Hill, who represented the opposing side in the appeal, declined to comment when reached by email late last week. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 2 Angry 3 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. Advertisement The Duchess of Cambridge urged people to enter her nationwide photography project before the deadline tomorrow evening. In a new video shared on the Kensington Palace Instagram account this morning, Kate, 38, called for more submissions to be made that capture the nation in lockdown. She said: 'There have been so many amazing entries in the last few weeks. But it isn't too late to take part so please take a moment to capture what life is like for you. I can't wait to share the final 100 entries with you.' Kate, who spearheaded the campaign, is a patron of the National Portrait Gallery and a keen amateur photographer, aims to capture a snapshot of the UK at this time, with the help of the nation. The Duchess will personally curate 100 photographs for the Hold Still exhibition, which will be made available for free online. In a new video shared on the Kensington Palace Instagram account this morning, pictured, Kate, 38, called for more submissions to be made that capture the nation in lockdown The Duchess of Cambridge also provided details of how people can enter the project on her Instagram account, pictured Over the last few weeks the Duchess has shared regular updates via Instagram, offering up some of her favourite shots and explanations on why they make such an impact. Today she shared another selection, including photos of exhausted healthcare workers and socially distant neighbours. Other images submitted to the Hold Still project include one of a family dinner table where a little girl is trying to sing Let It Go from Disney's Frozen and another snap of children living next-door to each other playing musical instruments in front of their houses. Kate previously told how she had been 'struck' by the many 'incredible' images seen already, 'which have given us an insight into the experiences and stories of people - some desperately sad images showing the human tragedy of this pandemic'. People from across the UK are invited to submit a photographic portrait which they have taken during these extraordinary times for the community project. The Duchess of Cambridge today highlighted a selection of her favourite submissions, including this one titled Rainbow This moving image submitted to the project shows a hospital worker on the floor in despair. It's titled Heartbroken Hero The relationship between a toddler and an elderly woman is captured in this image, 'Social distancing' The bond between father and son shines through in this uplifting photograph titled Reunited With Daddy Emergency services workers are celebrated in this image called Customised PPE, taken in the back of an ambulance Hold Still aims to create a collective portrait of lockdown in the UK, capturing the spirit, mood, hopes, fears and feelings of the nation as the coronavirus outbreak continues. Pictured, 'We are the Future' by Daisy Valencia, which was featured by the Duchess in today's video Participants are also encouraged to provide a short written submission to outline the experiences and emotions of those depicted in their photograph. Hold Still is completely free, open to all ages and abilities, and will focus on three core themes - 'Helpers and Heroes', 'Your New Normal' and 'Acts of Kindness'. The idea is to create a unique photographic portrait of the people of our nation in lockdown as we 'hold still' for the good of others, and celebrate those who have continued so we can stay safe. It will reflect resilience and bravery, humour and sadness, creativity and kindness, and human tragedy and hope. Hold Still will also act as a reminder of the significance of human connection in times of adversity, and that although we were physically apart, as a community and nation, we all faced and rose to the challenge together. Kate Middleton, 38, showcases print-out versions of some of her favourite photos in a Kensington Palace video shared last week, including one of a six-year-old girl playing noughts and crosses with an elderly relative on a window pane (left). She also chose this one of a hectic household, with a little girl singing Frozen's Let It Go as her family tries to work (right) The images revealed the reality of life for many amid the coronavirus lockdown - including 'band practise at a distance' by Becky Wickes. The Duchess loved this image for the way it communicates a sense of 'community' spirit The Duchess of Cambridge has celebrated the 'amazing' entries to her photographic project 'Hold Still', documenting life under lockdown. Pictured: 'Working from home' by Roseangela Borgese, features a working dad with his back to the camera while in the foreground a toddler lies sprawled on the ground surrounded by toys 'Sleeping Colleagues Unmasked' by Jane Roe shows two nurses, wearing intensive care branded uniforms, asleep on a sofa after a tiring day working on the frontline Another entry, 'Glass Kisses' by Steph James, shows a shielding elderly lady sending a kiss to her loved one from behind a window. Elderly and extremely vulnerable people have been 'shielding' from coronavirus for the last three months, meaning interactions between family members have taken on unconventional means In another poignant entry, 'Biba Behind Glass' by Simon Murphy, a girl can be seen with her face behind a pane of glass as she keeps herself safe from the deadly virus The heartwarming entry 'Life Goes On' by Matthew Williams shows a nurse in protective equipment, holding a newborn baby that has just been welcomed into the world Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, an honest look at President Biden's press conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Giant U.S. banks still have to deliver a Brexit plan to get staff across the English Channel before a potential second wave of covid-19 forces Europe's doors shut again. JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have lost precious months during the pandemic lockdowns in moving employees to European Union financial hubs. With Brexit talks deadlocked and time running out before the year-end deadline, firms are finally reactivating long-held plans to shift staff from London -- only to find they can't move fast enough."Relocating staff during a second spike is a concern," said Peter Bevan, a partner at the law firm Linklaters. "During lockdowns, a small number of people have been caught in the wrong place and regulators understand that, but if you are talking about an entire team stuck in the location regulators want them to move from, that will make for a tougher conversation." Foreign banks oversee almost half of all banking assets in the U.K., according to 2015 figures from the Prudential Regulation Authority. Yet the exodus from London to the continent has been far smaller than some expected after the Brexit vote, with firms moving about 1,000 people by last September, compared with a prediction of 7,000 moves by consultancy EY. Representatives for JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman declined to comment. German financial regulator BaFin told Bloomberg that little had changed since February, when Chairman Felix Hufeld said banks had done far more than 80% of the work needed to deal with Brexit from a legal and technical standpoint. But when it comes to moving client business to their EU hubs, the banks are, on average, less than a third of the way there, he said. John Liver, a partner in U.K. financial services at EY, said that banks reached "peak preparation" last year and have since hit the pause button on relocations. "As it has now been formally clarified that there will not be an extension to the transition period, firms will be considering what final adjustments they need to make," he said. "Given the extra time that has elapsed, European regulators are likely to be less accommodative of requests for further implementation time to complete EU entity build-up after December 2020." Some European banks have advantages over their American peers when it comes to Brexit planning. UBS Group decided to merge its U.K. entity with its EU entity that has passporting rights last year, giving the bank flexibility to move staff around the region. Now, its traders, risk and back office teams sit in Frankfurt, where UBS already had a large presence in wealth management. Credit Suisse joined UBS in planning for a hard Brexit from the beginning. It moved some staff to bolster the bank's services in Spain, Germany and Luxembourg. "London will remain a key part of the bank's strategy and footprint after the U.K.'s exit from the EU," a spokesman said. Deutsche Bank, which has said it is moving hundreds of staff to adapt to Brexit, declared client migration was "materially complete" in its earnings last September. Deutsche Bank continues to expect to transfer several hundred jobs from London to Frankfurt once the Brexit transition period concludes, a person familiar with the matter said. To be sure, the U.S. banks have made progress on their longer term post-Brexit plans. Earlier this month, Goldman signed a 12-year lease in Paris's 16th arrondissement where it operates one of its broker-dealers servicing European clients, allowing it to double its headcount in the French capital from late next year. JPMorgan bought a seven-floor office building in the historic 1st arrondissement in January with capacity for as many as 450 people -- although that was an estimate made before social distancing became the new normal. Bank of America, which also has its Brexit hub in Paris, has gone further by committing to a fully fledged sales and trading business on the continent. It has had about 450 staff in Paris since last year and won't need to add any more in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Citigroup, which already has about 60% of its European staff outside the U.K., is creating 150-200 new roles primarily in Frankfurt as part of its Brexit response. Some finance employees who are earmarked to work from Brexit subsidiaries in Europe are still physically in London while operating under European employment contracts as the virus interrupts their plans to move, people with knowledge of the banks' plans said. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Politicians avoided a hard Brexit last year and could still agree to a deal on trade ties. In the past 24 hours, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have tried to reignite the deadlocked talks. But privately, officials from Brussels and London say they are focusing on reaching an accord between mid-August and a summit of EU leaders scheduled for mid-October. European regulators have already said they'll require French and German asset managers to do business through EU banking entities unless a deal is achieved. Regulators have previously put pressure on banks to move staff promptly, although some banks are now expecting a change in stance in light of the pandemic, people with knowledge of the matter said. "We have seen a lot of dialogue in recent weeks from the ECB and home regulators asking banks to push these things forward," said Bevan. Many JPMorgan and Citigroup clients are still funneling business through London, rather than the banks' EU offices, some of the people familiar with the matter said. The liquidity is still better and it's cheaper to do business there, the people said. A Citigroup spokesman declined to comment. Bevan at Linklaters said that while the re-papering exercise has been completed to switch EU clients to new Europe-facing entities, hundreds of asset managers have yet to review the new terms and push the button to activate trading. The scale of the outstanding work could take months to complete, he said. Stephen Jones, the CEO of trade body UK Finance, expects more bankers to follow those that have already moved from London to European hubs. "But it's not going to happen overnight, and I hope regulators in the EU will be pragmatic about all this." Nathusius' pipistrelle bat. Credit: Christian Voigt The Via Pontica, an important migration route for birds in Eastern Europe, runs along the Black Sea coast of Romania and Bulgaria. Bats also use this route. In this region, numerous wind farms have been installed in recent years because of good wind conditions, but there has been little implementation of the legally required measures for the protection of bats. A Romanian research team cooperated with the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in Berlin to demonstrate that this leads to high death rates of migrating bats and potentially large declines even in populations living far away in other countries. The scientists therefore recommend the widespread introduction of turn-off times during the migration months, whichas the team was able to show in a local wind farmwould massively decrease bat mortality yet produce only a marginal loss in the energy production of the turbines. Over the past 10 years, the coastal region west of the Black Sea developed into a hotspot for wind energy production in Eastern Europe. Favorable wind conditions make the operation of wind farms particularly profitable in this area. Moreover, the region is relatively sparsely populated, so conflicts between operators and residents are rare. Because of the good wind conditions, there is also an important migration route for numerous bird and bat speciesthe so-called Via Pontica, named after a historical Roman road connection. This area should therefore particularly benefit from conservation measures such as carefully chosen turbine turn-off times in order to keep bat mortality to a minimum. International agreements such as the EUROBATS agreement and the European Union's Fauna Flora Habitat Directive do already provide the legal framework for that. Currently, few protective measures have been implemented and monitoring of the populations is limited or absent in many regions in Eastern Europe. Accordingly, little is known about the impact of wind farms on bat populations. A Romanian research team in cooperation with the Leibniz-IZW investigated bat fatalities in a local wind farm over a period of four years. The wind farm, comprising twenty turbines, is located in the Romanian part of the Dobruja, a historical coastal region between the Danube and the Black Sea which forms the border between Romania and Bulgaria. Within the four years, the scientists collected a total of 166 dead bats of 10 different species in the wind farm. Carcasses of Nathusius' pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus nathusii) and common noctule bats (Nyctalus noctula) were particularly common. Since many bats had open wounds and/or broken wing bones, they most likely died as a result of direct collisions with rotating rotor blades. About half as many animals died without direct collision from barotrauma, which are commonly deadly lung injuries caused by huge differences in air pressure close to the rotor blades. The scientists conducted selective, punctual searches, and calculated the total loss of animals, taking into account the search pattern, search times and other factors such as the likely removal of carcasses by foxes and stray dogs. According to this projection, 2,394 bats had died in this wind farm over the period of four yearsor in other words, 30 bats per wind turbine and year, or 14.2 bats per megawatt and year. "This fatality rate is extremely high," says Dr. Christian Voigt, head of the Department of Evolutionary Ecology at the Leibniz-IZW. "For comparison: the highest fatality rates in Central Europe or the U.S. are 10 bats per megawatt and year." A stable isotope analysis of fur samples carried out at the Leibniz-IZW additionally revealed that 90 percent of bats came from distant regions in the north and northeast, including the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. "This has given us a clear picture of what happened," explains Christian Voigt. "The fatality rate is so high because the wind farm under investigation is located in the middle of an important migration route for bats. Thus, the wind farm does not only negatively affect local bats, but also distant populations. This makes it all the more important to take appropriate measures to keep the fatality rate as low as possible, especially on such migration routes." The scientists have already shown at this site that this is relatively easy to achieve. During the summer months, when there is a high level of bat migration, the operatorin consultation with the scientistsincreased the threshold wind speed at which the turbines start up (the cut-in speed) to 6.5 meters per second. As a result, the fatality rate fell massively by 78 percent. "The energy production of the wind farm decreased by only 0.35 percent per year, which is a marginal loss for the operator," says Christian Voigt. "This wind farm has a total capacity of 42 megawatts and is rather small," the Leibniz-IZW scientist says. "The wind farms throughout the Dobruja region have a total capacity of at least 3,000 megawatts in operation. The total number of fatalities across this area could lead to a long-term decline in local bat populations as well as those from large parts of Eastern Europe. We therefore strongly recommend the widespread introduction of turn-off times and higher cut-in speeds. This will cost the operators almost nothing and could make the Via Pontica once again a largely safe flight path for bats." Explore further Wind farms along mountain ridges may negatively affect bats More information: Dragos Stefan Mantoiu et al. Wildlife and infrastructure: impact of wind turbines on bats in the Black Sea coast region, European Journal of Wildlife Research (2020). Dragos Stefan Mantoiu et al. Wildlife and infrastructure: impact of wind turbines on bats in the Black Sea coast region,(2020). DOI: 10.1007/s10344-020-01378-x HOUSTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In light of recent world events surrounding racial and social injustice, the Vortex Companies is excited to announce that it has promoted Candace Strother to the newly created position of Director of Diversity and Inclusion. In this role, she will lead Vortex's efforts to promote diversity in the workplace through training and education, creating an inclusive environment and promoting respect among peers. Candace Strother, Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Vortex Companies. "What we've all witnessed over the last few weeks made me look closer at our company's diversity program and quite frankly I know we can do better," stated Mike Vellano, CEO of the Vortex Companies. "This is a great opportunity for Candace. Her professionalism, experience and outreach abilities are perfectly suited for this role." Effective immediately, Ms. Strother will lead a diversity committee, comprised of a balanced cross-section of Vortex employees, to begin building the foundation for a more open and inclusive environment. "This is really about making sure each and every employee feels welcome and comfortable in their role within the company. That starts with education and awareness," said Ms. Strother. "Vortex is already a racially diverse and progressive thinking company, so this is a natural next step. I am looking forward to being the architect of our company's diversity and inclusion program." "We want to be the vanguard for change in an industry that needs to improve in this area. With Candace's guidance, our goal is to make Vortex a place where people know they will be treated equally and appreciated for their talent, regardless of race, culture, sex or age," added Vellano. Prior to joining the Vortex Companies, Ms. Strother worked in the banking and financial services field for over a decade. She is also the founder and CEO of QueenLyfe, Inc (Love. Yourself. First. Every day.), which is a non-profit organization whose mission is to build an empowered community of women and girls by promoting health and wellness, financial responsibility and mentorship. "It's my passion to bring people together regardless of age, race and social standing," added, Ms. Strother. "The experience I've had building QueenLyfe, and working to help thousands of women, translates well to what I will be doing at Vortex. " About Vortex Companies The Vortex Companies deliver advanced trenchless products and services to cost-effectively renew water, sewer and industrial infrastructure. Included in its suite offerings are pipe condition assessment, large and small diameter pipe relining, manhole rehabilitation, pipe bursting, advanced repair materials, pipeline robotic systems and high-speed drain cleaning tools. The company was built with the vision of providing a wide range of solutions under a single roof, supported by highly experienced and trained personnel with decades of trenchless infrastructure renewal experience. For more information, go to: www.vortexcompanies.com MEDIA CONTACT: Kit Jones 713-269-2333 [email protected] SOURCE Vortex Companies Related Links http://www.vortexcompanies.com An animal protection charity has called for an increase in prosecutions for cruelty offences in Northern Ireland. The plea from the Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) came after it emerged nearly 240 such offences had been tackled by courts here in three years. Out of 236 prosecutions to the end of 2019, a total of 167 led to convictions. Only 14 of these led to custodial sentences, with 76 resulting in fines. The remaining 21 convictions were categorised as 'other'. The figures were released by Justice Minister Naomi Long after an Assembly question by DUP MLA Robin Newton. In 2017 there were 70 prosecutions, compared to 97 in 2018 and 69 in 2019. Brendan Mullan, the USPCA's chief executive, claimed the data showed that not enough people were being processed by the judicial system for animal cruelty offences. "The increase in the number of prosecutions between 2017 and 2018 is to be welcomed and hopefully reflects increased effectiveness from the statutory agencies in enforcing the animal welfare act and holding abusers to account in the courts," he said. "Similarly, however, the decrease in prosecutions between 2018 and 2019 may be a cause for concern, unless as a community we have suddenly become more caring towards animals, which is unlikely." Recent high-profile cases of animal cruelty include a Maltese dog that was found drowned in a Co Down lough with a red Christmas ribbon tied around its muzzle last December. In February the PSNI launched an investigation after an Alaskan Malamute called Junior was poisoned at a Co Tyrone dog rescue centre. Last month police in west Belfast investigated a "barbaric" incident in which a cat was allegedly killed and set on fire in Falls Park. Mr Mullan said these incidents underlined the importance of ensuring perpetrators were prosecuted in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act. "We have the toughest animal welfare legislation in Europe with five-year custodial sentences, lifetime animal bans and 20,000 fines available to judges, but this is of no consequence if abusers are not brought before the courts," he added. In 2018 local courts banned 45 people from keeping animals after they were convicted of animal cruelty, which included offences against wildlife, farm animals and pets. Figures obtained by the BBC showed that this was an increase from the 26 people who had been banned in 2015. The animal charity chief, however, said that more needed to be done to ensure the bans were enforced, preventing those who are convicted from obtaining more pets or animals. Mr Mullan repeated calls from the charity for a register of animal abusers to be established, which he said would help mitigate against this issue. "The USPCA again calls for the establishment of an animal abusers' register to record individuals banned from keeping animals, which is accessible by reputable breeders and animal re-homing charities," he added. "Such a register may not completely solve the problem, but it would be a significant step to closing the current loophole. "As it stands, the ultimate penalty for the most serious animal welfare offences is relatively ineffective." - Nigerian actor Browny Igboegwu expressed happiness after God expanded his family - Browny and his wife welcomed a baby after 10 years of marriage - The actor shared the testimony on his social media page with photos of his pregnant wife It is a season of rejoicing in the home of Nollywood actor Browny Igboegwu and his wife after they finally welcomed a beautiful baby girl after 10 years of marriage. The actor took to his official Instagram page to share the good news with lovely photos of when his wife was still pregnant. According to him, it was God who did it and not the work of man. READ ALSO: Flaqo Na Azziad: New 'comedy couple' impress Kenyans with first skit together Actor Browny Igboegwu and wife welcome baby after 10 years. Source: @brownyigboegwu Source: UGC READ ALSO: Mike Sonko urges retired officer who handcuffed him to accept lovechild, stop being a deadbeat "This took 10 years to come, who can battle with the Lord? I say nobody," he said. Narrating his experience as a man who had to wait on God and stand by his wife during their challenging period, Browny said that he got all manner of advice. The film star said he was advised to get another woman as age was no longer on his wife's side. He was also told to get another woman pregnant with some asking how long he would wait for a child. "Get another wife, age is no longer on her side, find a girl and make her pregnant at least time no dey, Browny hmm you will wait for how long, oya adopt baby first as you wait, all these Asaba girls who know what she has done that she cant conceive," he said. He said that he was even taunted for his situation that when he acquired a new thing, people looked past it to ask him for his child. "Is it by buying a new car? Let him born, you no go understand because you never born. Dont worry when you born you will understand. I love this couple you will never know they dont have a child, God help them even if its one. Your children must be up to four now its been long you got married," he narrated. Actor Browny said that people mocked his pain but he always took it to God in prayers and he gave him a reason to return praises to him. READ ALSO: Laws of Love: 9 enchanting photos of soap opera actor Ricardo Bustamante Early this year TUKO.co.ke reported the story of a 68-year-old woman who gave birth to twins in Nigeria. Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) broke the good news on Sunday, April 19, 2020, via its official page on Twitter. It also gave details about the new parents. According to the health facility, it was the woman's first time to carry a pregnancy and she successfully delivered her twins. The hospital noted the new mother got pregnant through In Vitro Fertilisation popularly called IVF. 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. Kenya's greatest football coach now lives in a mabati house - Marshall Mulwa | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke 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. In light of the recent clash between India and China, the trade relations between the two Asian giants are poised for a rough ride. There have been calls for boycott of Chinese goods by various groups in India. Social media too is abuzz with similar appeals. However, the reality is different, at least going by India's trade relations with China, its largest trading partner. With China accounting for more than 10 per cent of our trade, India will find it difficult to disengage with China. India imports about 14 per cent goods and services from China as compared to 5.3 per cent exports to it, which happens to be one of the world's biggest trade deficits between two nations, as per latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce. As per Brookings India report, the total amount of current and planned Chinese investment in India has crossed $26 billion (around Rs 1,98,000 crore). China-based companies are also stepping up their investment in Indian companies, including startups, the report said. The numbers clearly show India's heavily reliance on Chinese imports and any disruption of trade ties between the two countries will substantially hurt Indian businesses. Also Read: Infographic: Can we boycott China? However, India's trade dynamics with China have changed after the coronavirus pandemic. The trade deficit, difference between exports and imports, between the two countries stood at just $1.816 billion in March 2020, which was the lowest level ever in a month since December 2010 when the deficit was $183.7 million. For the financial year 2019-20, bilateral trade with mainland China declined for the second consecutive year by 6 per cent to $81.86 billion. This was the first time ever that trade with Mainland China declined for the second consecutive year. In the previous year, it had declined by 2 per cent. The rate of contraction in bilateral trade in FY20 was the steepest since 2012-13 when it had declined by 10.5 per cent. Decline in bilateral trade with China also resulted in a narrowing of the trade deficit between the two. It is now below $50 billion mark for the first time in 5 years at $48.66 billion. Mainland China was India's largest trading partner between fiscals 2014 and 2018 but became number two in 2018-19 when US overtook it. Also Read: Troubled times ahead for Indian exports to China Meanwhile, India's trade with mainland China and Hong Kong declined by over 7 per cent to $109.76 billion in FY20, its steepest fall since FY13. It is a sharp reversal from the 3.2 per cent growth in trade in 2018-19 and the more robust 22 per cent jump in FY18, signalling the prevailing anti-China sentiment in the country. A lot of business with Mainland China is also conducted via Hong Kong. On April 17, India announced changes to the FDI policy followed by notification on April 22 to prevent opportunistic takeovers or acquisitions of Indian companies due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The restriction was specific to countries that share land borders with India and hence primarily targeting China. By Chitranjan Kumar New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation is planning to perform a key manoeuvre on Mars Orbiter next year to reduce the impact of eclipse duration to allow the spacecraft survive for more time. The space mission completed two years on Saturday. ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar said that the original mission life of Mars Orbiter Mission was slated to be six months, and that the space agency had released a lot of first year data beamed by its five payloads. Our next major event in the Mars Orbiter will be sometime in the beginning of next year when we will be doing a manoeuvre to reduce the impact of the eclipse duration the satellite is going to encounter, he told reporters. Also read: Countdown starts as ISRO preps to launch SCATSAT, 7 other satellites on Sept 26 He said during an eclipse the battery in Mars Orbiter has to support its operation and if the eclipse duration is very long then the battery may not be able to support it. So we intend to do a manoeuvre of the spacecraft so that the impact of eclipse duration will reduce and with that we will be able to survive for many more years because the satellite still has large (amount of) fuel left in it, he added. The MOM, also called Mangalyaan, was successfully launched on November 5, 2013 by ISROs PSLV-C25 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre. After a 300-day journey in deep space, it was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014. (With Inputs from PTI) Also read: ISRO set to launch IIT-Bombay Students' Satellite 'Pratham' For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. In order to boost testing capabilities, Indian Institute of Techonoly-Guwahati (IIT-G) has developed several low-cost and high-quality Made in Assam Covid-19 kits. The institute has developed viral transport media (VTM) kits, RT-PCR kits and RNA isolation kits. The first lot of 20,000 VTM kits, used to keep the collected nasal and throat swab samples, was handed over to Assam government on Wednesday. This is a very good development. Till now we were procuring all our VTM kits from outside the state. We faced some problems in sample collection during the initial lockdown phase because of paucity of VTM kits, Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said while launching the kit on Wednesday. This is an indigenous Made in Assam product. We need nearly 10,000 VTM kits daily. Once they are made on a mass scale we wont have to but from outside. Earlier each kit used to cost us Rs 206, but now we can get them for Rs 140 per unit, he added. Due to huge demand and high price of these kits, National Health Mission (NHM), Assam, had asked IIT-G to develop them. Incidentally, the institute was already working on developing the kits, but the request from NHM speeded up the process. According to IIT-G, the VTM kit is suitable for collection, transport and long term freezer storage of the swab samples. The formulation of the transport medium helps in preserving viability of viruses for up to 72 hours (at refrigerated temperatures), said a release from the institution. In addition to the VTM kits, we will also deliver the RNA isolation and RT-PCR kits to the Assam government. This would help in boosting large scale testing capacities and prevent spread of the pandemic, Parameswar Krishnan Iyer, professor at department of chemistry and centre for nanotechnology, said. Assam has ramped up its testing facilities in recent weeks and nearly 10,000 tests are being conducted daily. Till Tuesday 4,511 Covid-19 positive cases have detected in the state. There have been eight deaths and 2,412 recoveries. WUHAN, June 16 (Xinhua) -- A freight train left Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, on Tuesday, heading for Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The train, carrying 43 containers of cargo weighing 800 tonnes, will take around 15 days to reach its destination, covering around 8,000 km in the process. It is the first direct China-Europe freight train between central China and Ukraine. The goods on the train include chemical raw materials, agricultural machinery and equipment, aluminum frames, syringes, and backpacks that are manufactured in Wuhan and nearby areas. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Wuhan and Kiev, and the new route is expected to optimize transportation and further deepen the pragmatic cooperation between the two cities, said Yuan Qiong, general manager of train operator Wuhan Asia Europe Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. The China-Europe rail-freight service was resumed in Wuhan on March 28, as the novel coronavirus epidemic ebbed away. As of Sunday, 93 trains had departed from the city bound for Europe, with capacity recovering to around the same level as in the same period last year. Dover, Delaware--(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2020) - Encode Ideas, L.P. Initiates Research on Epigenomics AG (Xetra: ECX.DE) (FSE: ECX) (OTC: EPGNF). The full research publication is available here and available on our website at www.encodelp.com. A summary follows: Encode Ideas, L.P., a healthcare focused research firm, announced today it is initiating coverage on Epigenomics AG as a High Conviction Investment Idea. Epigenomics has the first and only FDA-approved blood-based test, Epi proColon, for the detection of colorectal cancer. The company is expecting a reimbursement decision for Epi proColon from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) by August 28th. This CMS decision is a critical milestone for Epigenomics, and an event worthy of investors attention. Encode Ideas, L.P. is a healthcare focused research firm, founded in 2019, providing institutional quality research and actionable investment and trade ideas. We undertake an intensive research process to identify healthcare companies that are mispriced or underfollowed. This process lends us towards covering predominately micro / small cap securities, where we feel some of the most intriguing risk reward opportunities exist. Disclosures Full disclosures can be found at the end of the report, page 43, and on the website under the disclosure section. The securities of the issuer(s) discussed in this press release may be unsuitable for investors depending on their specific investment objectives and financial position. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. This research does not constitute a personal trading recommendation or take into account the particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs of an individual reader of this report and does not provide all of the pertinent information to make an investment decision. Neither Encode Ideas, L.P., nor its employees and affiliates are registered as investment advisors or broker/dealers in any jurisdiction whatsoever. The information contained herein is based on sources that Encode Ideas, L.P. believes to be reliable but is not guaranteed to be accurate and does not purport to be a complete statement or summary of the available data. Encode Ideas, LP has been retained by Epigenomics AG to provide investor awareness and research coverage. This compensation may constitute a conflict of interest as to Encode Ideas LP's ability to remain objective in our communication regarding the profiled company. Readers should always do their own due diligence and consult a financial professional. Encode Ideas, L.P. Ryan Aldridge, CFA email: ideas@encodelp.com twitter: @encodelp To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/58025 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened an all-party virtual meet on Friday to discuss the situation along the India-China border, his office said on Wednesday. The meeting comes against the backdrop of demands by the opposition seeking details of the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh which left 20 Indian Army personnel dead. "In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister @narendramodi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 PM on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting," the PMO tweeted. Twenty Indian soldiers including a colonel, were killed on Monday evening in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh Galwan valley. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked the prime minister to share the truth of the India-China face-off, saying the entire country is standing behind him. Earlier in the day, defence minister Rajnath Singh said that Indian soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. "The nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers ...We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's bravehearts," he wrote on Twitter. The Justice Department is preparing to roll back the legal protections big tech companies have used to shield themselves from lawsuits over their content, a move that comes after President Donald Trump threatened to shut them down over what he says is bias against conservatives. The reforms would make companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter more liable for a wide array of content posted on their sites. And it would also push those companies to be more aggressive in addressing harmful conduct on their sites, The Wall Street Journal reported, and to be fairer and more consistent in their decisions to take down or downplay content. The plan from the Justice Department involves legislative reform to the law known as Section 230 - the original legal code governing the internet - so it would have to be adopted by Congress, including approval from the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to become law. It would say that the companies have to show they acted in 'good faith' when they removed or downplayed content for being 'objectionable.' Currently they are essentially free to act as they wish. Conservatives say they have used that discretion to censor or downplay material from right-leaning websites, a row which exploded Tuesday when Google threatened to demonetize The Federalist, a conservative website founded by Meghan McCain's husband Ben Domenech. Another part of the proposal would make them more liable for content related to child exploitation and terrorism. Justice Department is preparing to roll back the legal protections big tech companies have used to protect themselves from lawsuits; President Trump has been one of the companies leading critics Twitter added its second warning to a Donald Trump tweet in four days by covering the president's message about the Minneapolis riots with a comment that it 'glorifies violence' Twitter posted a blue exclamation mark alert underneath two of Trump's tweets about potential for fraud with mail-in voting, a move that infuriated the president and led to the administration attempting to crack down on big tech companies If passed the proposal would change decades of legal protection enjoyed by social media companies. The move is the next step in the administration's war on big tech over claims of anti-conservative bias, and comes after President Trump signed an executive order at the end of May that limited the companies' legal protections. But legal experts said the president's order would likely have little effect on tech companies. It was immediately challenged in court. A change in law pushed by the Justice Department would have greater impact. Democrats and Republicans have found rare common ground in attacking Section 230. The law, adopted in the the 1990s, is seen by both sides as out of date in governing the rapidly evolving internet. That law gave big tech companies immunity from lawsuits that would have threatened the existence of the then-infant companies but now it protects the online giants from liability. Democrats complain the law allows social media companies to spread political falsehoods, disinformation, and hate speech while Republicans claim it allows the stifling of conservative voices. The president has been one of big tech's biggest critics on the matter, claiming the companies silence conservative voices. 'We're here today to defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history, frankly,' Trump said in the Oval Office on May 28 when he signed the order. 'A small handful of powerful social media monopolies control the vast portion of all private and public communications in the United States.' That order came after Twitter marked some of tweets as needing more information, a move that infuriated the president. The debate over the president tweets highlights the struggle social media platform have as they try to balance freedom of speech with cracking down on misinformation. The Justice Department's proposal would strip big tech companies of the civil immunity they have in a number of areas, including third-party content or activity that violates federal criminal law or situations involving online child exploitation and sexual abuse, terrorism or cyberstalking. It would also make clear the companies don't have immunity in civil enforcement actions brought by the federal government, and can't use immunity as a defense against antitrust claims, The Journal reported. Additionally, Republican Senator Josh Hawley, a close ally of President Trump, introduced legislation that would allow users to sue social media platforms over accusations of censorship of political speech. A user could sue any large platform - with more than 30 million users in the U.S. in a month - that are not 'operating in good faith' for $5,000 and attorneys' fees. Under current law, tech platforms are generally not legally liable for the actions of their users, except in rare, small cases. The social media companies also have a broad ability to police their sites of content as they see fit. Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a close Trump ally, proposed legislation that would allow conservatives to sue social media companies if they feel their voices are being stifled Twitter's fact checking of two Trump tweets - which made false claims about absentee voting - sparked the president's fury and his threat against them. 'Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,' Trump tweeted after the fact checking took place. 'We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can't let a more sophisticated version of that.... happen again.' Twitter later red-flagged another Trump tweet, one he wrote about the Minneapolis riots in the wake of George Floyd's death, claiming that it 'glorifies violence'. His tweet saying that 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' was hidden by a warning that it violated Twitter's rules - but the message can be bypassed and the tweet remains live. The Federalist is run by Meghan McCain's husband Ben Domenech Trump has a large online presence. His Facebook page has more than 28 million followers and he has more than 82 million followers on Twitter. The Justice Department's proposal also comes as NBC News is under fire for appearing to influence Google to punish two conservative news sites over what was deemed offensive coverage of the protests that sprung up after Floyd's death. The network reported on Tuesday that Google 'banned' The Federalist and ZeroHedge from Google Ads for 'pushing unsubstantiated claims' about the Black Lives Matter movement. Google, however, said The Federalist 'was never demonetized.' 'We worked with them to address issues on their site related to the comments section,' the company said. However, it appears it was NBC News' inquiry that led to Google's action with The Federalist, an American conservative online magazine run by Meghan McCain's husband. NBC was reporting on a study about online hate done by a British non-profit and noted in its report: 'Google blocked The Federalist from its advertising platform after the NBC News Verification Unit brought the project to its attention. ZeroHedge had already been demonetized prior to NBC News' inquiry, Google said.' Conservatives jumped on Google, accusing it of bias. Meghan McCain tweeted: 'Google is now trafficking in digital fascism. How soon until all conservative speech and publications are completely banned?' Donald Trump Jr. said the company was trying to have it 'both ways' by on the one hand seemingly trying to hold The Federalist accountable for comments posted on its site while shirking responsibility for what appears on its own search results page - something that has recently been called into question by the president as tech giants' way of getting out of being sued. And, in a letter to Google on Monday night, Republican Senator Ted Cruz said Google's actions 'raise serious concerns that it is abusing its monopoly power in an effort to censor political speech with which it disagrees'. Cruz demanded Google turn over all correspondence it had with NBC, the think tank and all communications between staff about The Federalist. Meghan McCain's husband runs The Federalist. She tweeted that the company was trafficking 'in digital fascism' Donald Trump Jr. piled into the debate, saying big tech 'wants to have it both ways' 'Google seems more than happy to play this censorship role by trying to break the financial back of a media publication with which it disagrees. 'Whether or not one agrees with this characterization, destroying the publisher's ability to use advertising to reach willing readers should be wholly beyond the pale,' Cruz continued. He said it was indicative of the 'bigger problem' that 'the culture of free speech in this country is under attack.' 'Google is helping lead the charge,' he went on. The company has in the past been accused of promoting left-wing sites over right-wing counterparts but insists its algorithms are impartial. SECTION 230: THE LAW TRUMP IS TAKING AIM AT OVER CLAIMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA BIAS Twenty-six words tucked into a 1996 law overhauling telecommunications have allowed companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to grow into the giants they are today. Those are the words President Donald Trump challenged in an executive order Thursday, one that would strip those protections if online platforms engaged in 'editorial decisions' - including, in the president's view, adding a fact-check warning to one of Trump's tweets. Under the U.S. law, internet companies are generally exempt from liability for the material users post on their networks. Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act - itself part of a broader telecom law - provides a legal 'safe harbor' for internet companies. But Trump and other politicians argue that Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms have abused that protection and should lose their immunity - or at least have to earn it by satisfying requirements set by the government. Section 230 probably can't be easily dismantled. But if it was, the internet as we know it might cease to exist. Just what is Section 230? If a news site falsely calls you a swindler, you can sue the publisher for libel. But if someone posts that on Facebook, you can't sue the company - just the person who posted it. That's thanks to Section 230, which states that 'no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.' That legal phrase shields companies that can host trillions of messages from being sued into oblivion by anyone who feels wronged by something someone else has posted - whether their complaint is legitimate or not. Section 230 also allows social platforms to moderate their services by removing posts that, for instance, are obscene or violate the services' own standards, so long as they are acting in 'good faith.' Where did Section 230 come from? The measure's history dates back to the 1950s, when bookstore owners were being held liable for selling books containing 'obscenity,' which is not protected by the First Amendment. One case eventually made it to the Supreme Court, which held that it created a 'chilling effect' to hold someone liable for someone elses content. That meant plaintiffs had to prove that bookstore owners knew they were selling obscene books, said Jeff Kosseff, the author of 'The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet,' a book about Section 230. Fast-forward a few decades to when the commercial internet was taking off with services like CompuServe and Prodigy. Both offered online forums, but CompuServe chose not to moderate its, while Prodigy, seeking a family-friendly image, did. CompuServe was sued over that, and the case was dismissed. Prodigy, however, got in trouble. The judge in their case ruled that 'they exercised editorial control - so you're more like a newspaper than a newsstand,' Kosseff said. That didn't sit well with politicians, who worried that outcome would discourage newly forming internet companies from moderating at all. And Section 230 was born. 'Today it protects both from liability for user posts as well as liability for any clams for moderating content,' Kosseff said. What happens if Section 230 is limited or goes away? 'I dont think any of the social media companies would exist in their current forms without Section 230,' Kosseff said. 'They have based their business models on being large platforms for user content.' There are two possible outcomes. Platforms might get more cautious, as Craigslist did following the 2018 passage of a sex-trafficking law that carved out an exception to Section 230 for material that 'promotes or facilitates prostitution.' Craigslist quickly removed its 'personals' section altogether, which wasn't intended to facilitate sex work. But the company didnt want to take any chances. This outcome could actually hurt none other than the president himself, who routinely attacks private figures, entertains conspiracy theories and accuses others of crimes. 'If platforms were not immune under the law, then they would not risk the legal liability that could come with hosting Donald Trumps lies, defamation, and threats,' said Kate Ruane, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. Another possibility: Facebook, Twitter and other platforms could abandon moderation altogether and let the lower common denominator prevail. Such unmonitored services could easily end up dominated by trolls, like 8chan, which is infamous for graphic and extremist content, said Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman. Undoing Section 230 would be an 'an existential threat to the internet,' he said. But Goldman doesn't see the White House order as that kind of threat to the internet, saying it's 'political theater' that will appeal to Trump supporters. 'The president can't override Congress,' he said. ASSOCIATED PRESS Advertisement Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 09:45 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf61526 1 News TransNusa,Kupang,kupang-nusa-tenggara-timur,flights,health-protocol,Airlines,coronavirus,COVID-19,travel Free Private airline TransNusa is set to resume flights from Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara to certain destinations in the province on June 22 The routes include flights from Kupang to Alor regency, Bajawa, Larantuka, Tambolaka and Ruteng. The airline will implement COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Tickets are available to purchase on TransNusas website, via online travel agencies and at the company's representative offices. Read also: Airlines resume operation in state of loss amid COVID-19 The carriers routes to Bandung, West Java, and Makassar, South Sulawesi, will remain closed until at least June 30. The planned date may change depending on the situation and the governments policies. Requests for refunds, rescheduling and rerouting can be done through the website, or by contacting the call center at +62380-822-555, emailing cs@transnusa.co.id, or visiting the airline's representative offices. Headquartered in Kupang, TransNusa was established in 2005 and only flies domestically. Its current fleet includes ATR 42-500 and ATR 72-600 aircraft, with its routes connecting various provinces across Indonesia, such as Lampung, Yogyakarta, East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan. (wir/kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Toh Ting Wei (The Straits Times/Asia News Network) Wed, June 17, 2020 11:11 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf68b11 2 News Changi-airport,Airport,travel,Singapore Free With a cloud hanging over the future of aviation, Singapore has halted construction of the upcoming mega Changi Airport Terminal 5 for at least two years, and will review its scale and design. Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said on Tuesday that the project will not resume until the Republic has undertaken a study on prospects for the sector which has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic. "Big questions remain, and we don't think we will get the answers very quickly within the next few months," said Mr Khaw. "It may take us a couple of years, and that is why we have decided to take a pause in the T5 project... So at the minimum, I think we will push it back by two years." The Changi Airport T5 project was scheduled to be completed in the 2030s. It was earmarked to provide future capacity for the airport to ride on the projected growth in air travel. From 85 million passengers a year currently, Changi Airport planned to have the capacity to handle 140 million a year - with T5 alone being able to handle up to 50 million passengers per year in its initial phase. It held the key to Singapore retaining its status as an aviation hub, analysts said. But now, instead of calling for major civil engineering tenders that the initial timelines would have demanded, the Government will review the additional safety features that will need to be built into T5, Mr Khaw told scholarship holders under the Transport Ministry's agencies in an online engagement session. "In the case of the virus, what are the additional safety features we need to adopt?" he said. "All major airports are testing and experimenting... We are already experimenting with some of these safety rules." Mr Khaw said the continuous stream of cargo traffic going through the airport despite reduced passenger traffic will be considered in the review of T5's design. The Changi air hub contributes more than 5 per cent of Singapore's gross domestic product and employs 192,000 people. While all air hubs globally have been hit hard by the pandemic, International Air Transport Association chief executive Alexandre de Juniac said the worst part of the collapse in air traffic is likely over, provided there is not a second and more damaging wave of COVID-19 infections. In April, Changi Airport handled just 25,200 passenger movements, a 99.5 percent drop from the same time last year. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the airport has shut down T2 for 18 months, in part to facilitate upgrading works. It has also temporarily closed T4. Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said in a national address on Sunday that all of Singapore's major infrastructure projects, including T5, will be completed, although timelines may shift based on demand. Experts said the move to delay T5 was sensible. Mr Shukor Yusof of Endau Analytics said: "It is tough to visualise what 2030 and beyond holds, since the virus has changed the world as we know it. The design will have to take into account the reality that Changi may not see such volumes as had been forecast earlier." But Mr Subhas Menon, director-general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, said major aviation infrastructure projects in the region, such as T5, will still be needed when air travel picks up again. "If (the passenger volume) gets back to what it was last year, it is already a good volume. Many places were already feeling infrastructure constraints. "So I think in the long term, all these projects will come in handy." Topics : This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday Moscow welcomed contacts between India and China after a deadly border confrontation. "It's already been announced that military representatives of India and China have been in contact, they are discussing the situation, discussing measures for its de-escalation. We welcome that," Lavrov told a press conference. Search Keywords: Short link: DUBLIN, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Ride Hailing Global Market Report 2020-30: COVID-19 Growth and Change" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global ride hailing market is expected to decline from $60.5 billion in 2019 and to $52.07 billion in 2020 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -13.88%. The decline is mainly due to the COVID-19 outbreak, extending lockdown across countries and the measures to contain it. The market is then expected to recover and reach $85.48 billion in 2023 at CAGR of 17.97%. This report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the market's historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider ride hailing market, and compares it with other markets. On-demand transportation services and a lower rate of car ownership among millennials is driving the growth of the ride-hailing market. Ride-hailing service providers need to follow several state and central laws for uninterrupted services. North America was the largest region in the Ride hailing market in 2019. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in the forecast period. Major players in the ride hailing market are Uber Technologies Inc., Grab, ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Gett Inc., Lyft Inc., DiDi Chuxing, Delphi Automotive, Daimler AG., BlaBlaCar, and Didi Chuxing Technology Co. Report Scope The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market, the influence of the COVID-19 virus and forecasting its growth. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers the growth trajectory of COVID-19 for all regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section analyses the shape of the market as it emerges from the crisis and suggests how companies can grow as the market recovers. The ride hailing market section of the report gives context. It compares the ride hailing market with other segments of the ride hailing market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses GDP proportion, expenditure per capita, ride hailing indicators comparison. Key Topics Covered 1. Executive Summary 2. Ride Hailing Market Characteristics 3. Ride Hailing Market Size and Growth 3.1. Global Ride Hailing Historic Market, 2015-2019, $ Billion 3.1.1. Drivers Of The Market 3.1.2. Restraints On The Market 3.2. Global Ride Hailing Forecast Market, 2019-2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 3.2.1. Drivers Of The Market 3.2.2. Restraints On the Market 4. Ride Hailing Market Segmentation 4.1. Global Ride Hailing Market, Segmentation Vehicle Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Two Wheeler Three Wheeler Four Wheeler Others 4.2. Global Ride Hailing Market, Segmentation End-user , Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Commercial Personal 4.3. Global Ride Hailing Market, Segmentation By Service Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion e-Hailing Car Sharing Station Based Mobility Car Rental 5. Ride Hailing Market Regional and Country Analysis 5.1. Global Ride Hailing Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 5.2. Global Ride Hailing Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Companies Mentioned Uber Technologies Inc. Grab ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Gett Inc. Lyft Inc. DiDi Chuxing Delphi Automotive Daimler AG BlaBlaCar Didi Chuxing Technology Co. Denso Corporation Yandex.Taxi B.V. Ola Beijing Xiaoju Technology Co. Ltd. TomTom N.V. Lime (US) inDriver RideCell Inc. Bolt Technology O VOXTUR SAS Addison Lee Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qyf9vn 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 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) A law affecting rents paid by 2 million New York City tenants expired late Monday as state lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on extending it before a midnight deadline. As talks between legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo dragged on past the long-awaited expiration date, tenants, Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio and many rank-and-file lawmakers slammed the Legislature's inability to craft a compromise in time as the latest example of dysfunction in Albany. "Do your jobs! You're playing with people's lives," said Esteban Giron, one of several New York City tenants who gathered outside Cuomo's Capitol office. The 36-year-old social media consultant said rent regulations have prevented his rent from going up by hundreds of dollars each month. The rent regulations cover some 1 million rent-controlled and rent-stabilized units in and around New York City. The longstanding rules, which must be renewed in Albany periodically, dictate rent increases and eviction policies and are seen as a key protection for affordable housing in the nation's largest city. The immediate impact of a lapse in the rules likely would be minor. Landlords of rent-regulated units must give notice to tenants about rent increases or evictions, and Cuomo vowed to go after landlords who exploit the law's expiration. The law expired when it came up for renewal four years ago before an extension passed a few days later. "While the Legislature needs to act immediately, New York tenants should know that this state government will have zero tolerance for landlords that seek to exploit those who live in rent regulated units," Cuomo said in a statement Monday night, two hours before the law expired. Still, the slow pace of the negotiations and the approaching deadline prompted a flurry of phone calls to the office of Sen. Adriano Espaillat, a Manhattan Democrat. Espaillat said the procrastination reflected poorly on the Legislature, which has been in session since January. "This is also about competence and a functioning democracy," Espaillat said. "We had six months. We had a couple of years. And we're here at the 11th hour." De Blasio said there had been an uptick in calls to the city's 311 information hotline from tenants asking about the expiration. He said the city was prepared to take steps against landlords who tell tenants their leases are no longer in effect because of the law's expiration. "The hour of decision has come, and it is time for Albany to act," he said. "All Albany had to do was recognize that this deadline was coming years in the making this deadline was coming and by this deadline extend rent regulation and strengthen it." The Assembly voted Monday to renew the law for 48 hours so negotiations on a compromise could continue. The Senate and the Assembly remain far apart on a deal. By evening, the Senate had not announced plans to consider the 48-hour extension passed by the Assembly. The Assembly's Democratic majority passed a plan in May that would renew the rules for four years, restrict rent increases in vacant apartments and repeal a provision in the current law allowing some apartments to be deregulated when they become vacant. The Republican-led Senate on Monday passed its preferred alternative, which would extend the rules for eight years and institute new income verification rules to ensure those living in rent-regulated apartments are eligible for the benefit. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Senate Republicans pointed to cases of tenants whose incomes exceed the eligibility requirements or who sublease rent-controlled and rent-stabilized units to turn profits. "That is what this bill is targeted at, to stop those kinds of abuses," said Sen. Catharine Young, R-Olean, the chairwoman of the Senate housing committee. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn its 2015 session Wednesday. Lawmakers also are expected to take up bills to address campus sexual assault, a tax credit for private school tuition, the legalization of professional mixed martial arts and the renewal of a lucrative tax break for New York City residents. Cuomo has promised to call the Legislature back into session if it adjourns before passing a deal on renewing the rent rules. Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela contributed to this report from New York. The untimely suicide of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has left Indians, as well as the entire film fraternity, shaken. The 34-year-old Kai Po Che actor was found dead in his Bandra home in Mumbai on June 14. No suicide note was found. While the suspected suicide caused a much-needed debate regarding Indias mental health awareness and preparedness, many seem to fall back to a familiar recourse when faced with uncomfortable questions - the blame game. And this time, several Bollywood celebrities such as Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt, and others are facing the brunt. After the actors demise, Johar took to Instagram and wrote that he blamed" himself for not being in touch with Rajput for the past year. I have felt at times like you may have needed people to share your life withbut somehow I never followed up on that feelingwill never make that mistake againwe live in very energetic and noisy but still very isolated times some of us succumb to these silences and go withinwe need to not just make relationships but also constantly nurture them," Johar wrote. He added that Rajputs suicide was a wake-up call" for him. Alia Bhatt also posted her condolences, stating that the news came as a shock to her. The posts were instantly riddled with hate messages against Johar and Bhatt with many blaming nepotism for Rajputs death. Others even dredged up old clips of Koffee with Karan episode featuring Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra following their debut film Student of the Year where Bhatt and Johar seemingly mock Rajput for being a newbie and a serial actor" (Rajput acted in TV serials before his first film in Bollywood). Both Johar and Bhatt lost lakhs of followers from both Twitter and Instagram after the posts with many people calling out the hypocrisy of the Bollywood. Suicides are Triggering While suicides can be triggering for many, celebrity suicides are laced with the additional baggage of public discussion and scrutiny. And thats exactly what happened after Rajputs suicide. Why did a young, successful celebrity end his life? Was he depressed? Was it because he was an outsider to the industry and had no Godfathers in Bollywood? Following Rajputs death, both social and legacy media was flooded with such questions. READ: Guru Dutts Pyaasa, Sushant Singh Rajputs Death and Cold Capitalist Logic of Separating Artist from Art The questions, however, soon turned to accusations following Johar and Alias posts. Many including actors from the film fraternity slammed celebrities for posting condolences now despite never extending a helping hand to Rajput during troubled times. Several news outlets republished old reports about fall-out between Rajput and Yash Raj Films after he was promised a film which was never made. Even the flag-bearer of the nepotism debate in Bollywood, Kangana Ranaut, took to social media to blame nepotism against outsiders as the primary cause for the tragic event. Fans and sundry netizens on social media, shaken by the unexpected demise of the young actor, lapped up the narratives and soon, vile and disturbing comments began to appear on the vilified celebrities social media feeds. What many failed to understand was that bullying is not the answer to either nepotism or to suicide. Outrage vs Bullying While it is absolutely necessary to debate and discuss mental health in cut-throat industries like Bollywood, bullying, and shaming other celebrities is hardly progressive or fruitful. Tragic as it is, Rajputs suicide only highlights the stress faced by those in Bollywood. But issues such as nepotism, insider-outsider biases, sexism, discrimination are also part of every other industry. By blaming and shaming Johar or other so-called nepotists" like Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Varun Dhawan among others, many on so social media seemed to lose the real focus of the discourse which should be on improving mental health awareness, preparedness and infrastructure to help people cope with stress in all environments. Toxicity cannot be reduced with further toxicity and cyberbullying is not the best practice when the end-goal is improving mental health. Additionally, by blaming celebrities as easy targets, many seem to be shirking their own guilt. After all, how many times do most people reach out to their friends, colleagues and acquaintances (hell, even their families) to ask about their mental health? This is a country where getting therapy and having mental health issues is still looked down upon. This is a country where many think doing Yoga and going out with friends to eat ice cream is a cure for depression. This is a country where mental health is not part of most health insurance plans offered by organisations. Read: Call a Friend, Just do Yoga: Mental Health Experts Explain Why These Tips Wont Cure Depression Meanwhile, a case has been filed in a Bihar court by advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha against Johar, Bhatt, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and others with relation to the suicide. I have filed a case against 8 people including Karan Johar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Salman Khan & Ekta Kapoor under Sections 306, 109, 504 & 506 of IPC in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajputs suicide case in a court in Muzaffarpur, Bihar: Advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha pic.twitter.com/9jNdqvXVKr ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 Investigating the cause of Rajputs suicide is the duty of police and investigators as well as mental health experts. Not social media warriors with little to no understanding of mental health. Scapegoating a certain few to ease the pain of losing a bright and talented man in his prime may well appear to be the easy way out. What is tougher is to take accountability for own actions and not using someones death to fuel further hate and stress. Note: This news piece may be triggering. If you or someone you know needs help, call any of these helplines: Aasra (Mumbai) 022-27546669, Sneha (Chennai) 044-24640050, Sumaitri (Delhi) 011-23389090, Cooj (Goa) 0832- 2252525, Jeevan (Jamshedpur) 065-76453841, Pratheeksha (Kochi) 048-42448830, Maithri (Kochi) 0484-2540530, Roshni (Hyderabad) 040-66202000, Lifeline 033-64643267 (Kolkata). (This story was first published on June 17, 2020) Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here Upgrade, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based neobank that offers credit to mainstream consumers, raised $40m as part of its Series D funding round. The round, which brought total funding since inception to $200m, was led by Santander InnoVentures, the venture capital fund of Santander Group, with participation from existing investors Union Square Ventures, Ribbit, Vy Capital and Silicon Valley Bank and new investors Ventura Capital and Uncorrelated Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Chris Gottschalk, senior advisor at Santander InnoVentures, will be joining the Upgrade board. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth of Upgrade Card, and the upcoming launch of Upgrade Account. Led by co-founder and CEO Renaud Laplanche, Upgrade is a neobank that offers credit to mainstream consumers through cards and personal loans, together with free credit monitoring and education tools that help consumers understand and manage their finances. Upgrade Card provides an innovative credit card that brings the low cost and responsible credit of installment lending to millions of retail locations in the U.S., while Upgrade Account is a mobile banking product offered to mainstream consumers. The company, which has delivered over $3 billion in consumer credit through cards and loans since launch in 2017, is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with an operations center in Phoenix, Arizona, and a technology center in Montreal, Canada. Personal credit lines and personal loans are issued by Cross River Bank, a New Jersey State Chartered Commercial Bank, Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender and Blue Ridge Bank, National Association. Upgrade Card is issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. FinSMEs 17/06/2020 The move allows Facebook to play both sides of a complicated debate about the role of political advertising on social media ahead of the November presidential election. With the change, Facebook can continue allowing political ads to flow across its network, while also finding a way to reduce the reach of those ads and to offer a concession to critics who have said the company should do more to moderate noxious speech on its platform. Mr. Zuckerberg has long said that Facebook would not police and moderate political ads. Thats because the company does not want to limit the speech of candidates, he has said, especially in smaller elections and those candidates who do not have the deep pockets of the major campaigns. But critics, including the Biden presidential campaign, have argued that Facebooks laissez-faire approach has dangerous consequences, with untruthful political ads leading to the spreading of disinformation and potential voter disenfranchisement. Some Republicans have argued that Facebook should not act as an arbiter of what can and cannot be posted in ads, and that the companys intervention amounts to censorship. The Biden presidential campaign lashed out at Facebook over its hands-off policy on political ads last October after the Trump campaign released ads on the social network that falsely claimed that Mr. Biden had offered to bribe Ukrainian officials to drop an investigation into his son. Since then, the Biden campaign has called for the company to fact-check ads from candidates and their campaigns. Last week, Mr. Bidens campaign also began an online petition and letter to Mr. Zuckerberg to demand changes to its speech policies ahead of the 2020 presidential contest. At the same time, the Biden campaign also spent $5 million in advertising on Facebook, surging past political ad spending by Mr. Trump on the platform. (Newser) TV preacher and convicted fraudster Jim Bakker is being sued yet again for selling a product that supposedly "eliminates" the coronavirus from the body within hours. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has filed a lawsuit against the Missouri-based televangelist under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, saying 385 Arkansans had spent a total of roughly $60,000 on the collodial silver "cure" Bakker was peddling, the Arkansas Times reports. Missouri filed a similar lawsuit in March and federal agencies have sent cease-and-desist letters to the Jim Bakker Show. Bakker sold "Silver Solution" for around $80 a bottle. Rutledge's lawsuit accuses the 80-year-old of exploiting consumers "by leveraging COVID-19 fears." story continues below The Arkansas lawsuit also named Sherill Sellman, a guest who claimed on Bakker's show that his products were "proven by the government to have the ability to kill every pathogen it has ever been tested on," CBS News reports. Bakker is being represented by former Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who has argued that the Missouri lawsuit infringed on Bakker's rights of freedom of expression and freedom of religion, per the Springfield News-Leader. "Let me be clear, this case is not about freedom of religion," Rutledge said in a statement. "This is a consumer fraud case, and I urge any Arkansans who have experience with these false advertisements claiming silver to be a COVID-19 cure to immediately call my office." (Read more Jim Bakker stories.) Amid the covid-19 pandemic and the protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd, bond funds have risen to prominence as a focus of philanthropic energy. "If you can't march, donate to a bond fund" became a common refrain in social media posts as an isolated public sought to make a difference from home through viral donation-matching campaigns. Within days, the Minnesota Freedom Fund announced that it had raised $20 million. The Chicago Community Bond fund has raised $3.5 million from 75,000 donors worldwide. The Constitution ensures a right to a speedy trial and guarantees the presumption of innocence, but it does not guarantee a right to pretrial freedom. People who are accused of crimes are either held in jail or released with conditions, most commonly by paying a bail bond - a security paid to courts that is forfeited if a person fails to show up to trial. People who obtain these securities from bail bondsmen sign agreements that allow them to be captured by bounty hunters, a practice made famous by television's "Dog the Bounty Hunter." Movement organizers and legal advocates today recognize that the arrests of protesters and community members should not mean jail time. But the problem with bail runs deeper than the ability to raise money. While it is widely assumed that keeping people in jail helps public safety, in fact, it has long perpetuated racial and economic divides and placed people accused of crimes in dangerous jail conditions. Bail emerged in tandem with the rise of the modern jail. In early America, there was little need for extended detention in advance of a trial. Within close-knit communities, trials could be held quickly, and it was easy to locate someone for trial. Bail was paid only if someone didn't show up. As cities and judicial systems grew, cities adopted the English common law tradition of prepaying bail because urban jails could not hold everyone accused and they did not trust strangers to appear. Those confined in jails faced poor conditions: Jails lacked toilets, suffered rampant bed bug infestations, had no uniforms or means of washing prisoners' clothes and offered no health care of any kind. But not everyone endured such harmful, and potentially deadly, experiences. By the 1920s, social scientists understood that bail ensured that poor people who could not afford their freedom suffered in jail, while the rich went free. Bail practices that facilitated the jailing of the poor in such dangerous conditions have long drawn opposition from critics. During World War II, these critiques were rooted in anti-fascist appraisals of federal executive power. Caleb Foote, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, published a landmark study of bail practices in 1954. Foote had risen to prominence during World War II as a conscientious objector, organizer against Japanese American incarceration and advocate for prison abolition. His study found that while ensuring the accused appeared in court was supposed to be the only purpose of bail, judges often made decisions based on other factors. They weighed the fear of whether the accused person might commit a crime while free and personal histories of bail jumping. Their decisions, therefore, resulted in inconsistent bail decisions and practices. Most egregiously, Foote found, "bail was often used for punishment purposes," with judges letting "custom or intuition" serve as the central feature of bail decisions. Foote's one-man campaign to reform bail practices and to reduce unfair jailing succeeded in gaining the attention of journalists, philanthropists and lawyers across the nation who worked to change how bail decisions were made. In New York, the Manhattan Bail Project saw not only the possibility of using bond funds - using donated money to pay bail for people who could not afford it - to ensure release, but also to persuade judges to abandon use of bail altogether. The movement against unjust jailing achieved even greater prominence as the civil rights movement adopted the "jail no bail" tactics in which they refused to pay bail after being arrested for protesting. As a "strategy of the last resort," activists who could not afford bail and could not raise the needed money in bond funds used their incarceration to draw further attention to their political repression. But this didn't make jails any safer. Indeed, at the Democratic National Convention in 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer recounted being beaten while held in a Mississippi jail after her arrest for registering people to vote. Her account exposed how racial oppression made jails even more dangerous for African Americans and people of color. The mobilizations around bail that occurred as part of and in tandem with the civil rights movement helped to inspire the Bail Reform Act of 1966, which extended pretrial services to people accused of federal crimes and aimed to reduce what President Lyndon B. Johnson called the "arbitrary cruelty" of the bail system. Across the nation, state legislators adopted similar reforms to bail practices through changes to state laws and constitutions. With the expansion of federal law enforcement funding through Johnson's War on Crime, community organizers found vital funding for the expansion of local bail reform projects in cities such as Chicago. That the War on Crime included funds for local anti-incarceration initiatives was not a contradiction. Like the Great Society, it included opportunities for community-based organizations to enact more radical visions. In 1969, after the killing of Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton by Chicago police and the FBI, the Alliance to End Repression formed to challenge police violence through a broad-based coalition of civil rights organizations, religious groups and liberal activists such as the League of Women Voters. Through its Cook County Special Bail Project, the Alliance to End Repression established a bond fund and coordinated a comprehensive pretrial interview program to help people accused of crimes demonstrate that they had the social capital to ensure that they showed up for court. Federally funded bail programs folded with the collapse of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in the 1980s, however, and policymakers passed more punitive policies. The Bail Reform Act of 1984, for example, legitimized the widespread practice of "preventive detention." Allowing judges to consider the potential for commission of crimes while accused people were free on bail in their bond decisions undermined the practice of conditional release. This contributed to the expansion of pretrial jailing in the late 20th century. The legacy of mid-century bail reform became clear through the Black Lives Matter movement. Through public recognition of the harms of jailing, publicized prominently through the stories of the deaths of Kalief Browder and Sandra Bland, the bail abolition movement has gained attention in recent years as a necessary means of intervening where local courts had failed to protect vulnerable people. Today, activists recognize that raising bond funds is not enough. Prosecutors and judges continue to set astronomical bail amounts, and movements to end bail in New Jersey and New York have faced pushback from legislators fearing a rise in crime. As part of the movement to abolish cash bail, bond funds have inspired thousands of donors across the country and may help Americans imagine new possibilities for freedom amid catastrophic state failure. - - - Newport is an assistant professor of history at the University of Connecticut. She teaches at the Hartford campus. Fifteen out of the 21 members of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have reaffirmed Abiola Ajimobi as the partys interim national chairman. The APC spokesperson, Lanre Issa-Onilu, had on Tuesday announced the former Oyo State governor as acting national chairman shortly after the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the suspension of the embattled national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. Earlier on Wednesday, in a separate press conference at the partys Abuja headquarters, the Deputy National Secretary of the party, Victor Giadom, declared himself acting national chairman of the party. This he said is in accordance with the judgement of Justice S.U. Bature in suit no FCT/HC/M/6447/2020 dated March 16, 2020, which ordered the suspension. In a contrary position, shortly after Mr Giadoms address, the NWC members said Mr Ajimobi remains the acting national chairman and said Mr Giadom was not even a member of the party. Speaking for the 15 NWC members, 12 of whom were in attendance, Hilliard Eta, the APC national vice-chairman (South-south) said Mr Giadom has not returned to the NWC since he resigned his position to contest as deputy governor in the last Rivers State governorship election. You said chief Victor Giadom has annulled the screening of Edo State governorship aspirants. Even a properly elected chairman that is currently on suspension cannot on his own make such decision. Chief Victor Giadom has long ceased to be a member of the NWC. He has voluntarily resigned his membership to be able (because that is the constitution of our party) to contest as deputy governorship candidate of our party. And, at no time I (Mr Eta) superintend over the South-South and at no time did I present Giadom again to come to the NWC. You can check all the records and you will see that this is the fact, Mr Eta said. However, PREMIUM TIMES obtained a copy of the NWC signed attendance list of the meeting held on Wednesday, June 17. Mr Giadom was in attendance and signed as a member of the body. Meanwhile, this is not the first time he would be attending core meetings with the body without any form of hesitation from the other members. Mr Eta, in company of other members of the NWC, announced a seven-member panel for Edo State governorship election primaries and another five-member appeal committee. Ajimobi calls for peace The man whom the NWC members announced as acting chairman, Mr Ajimobi, is ill and on admittance at a Lagos hospital, PREMIUM TIMES learnt. His spokesperson, however, released a statement late Tuesday calling on party stakeholders to observe peace as he assumes office. Speaking through his spokesperson, Bolaji Tunji, the former Oyo State governor announced his plan to call the partys National Executive Council (NEC) meeting to douse the mounting crisis in the party. We should therefore let peace continue to reign until we call the NEC meeting and take a position on the way forward, he said. Hilaria Baldwin has addressed criticism about having a nanny, explaining that it is okay to accept help. During a recent appearance on the Mom School podcast, Baldwin, who is currently pregnant with her and husband Alec Baldwins fifth child, explained that the family is currently social distancing together amid the coronavirus pandemic. To help the family out during this time, Baldwin said the family specifically rented a place nearby so that our nanny could come and help us out. However, according to the 36-year-old, having a nanny doesnt mean she and Alec dont take care of their children. It's so interesting with the whole nanny conversation," Baldwin said. "People will write to you and be like: 'Ugh, she has a nanny' - but that doesn't mean that you don't take care of your own kids. Recommended Hilaria Baldwin reveals she has suffered a second miscarriage It literally means I am also working. I work every single day. And for people to make you feel badly about that is not fair." Explaining that neither her family nor her husbands family live close by, Baldwin added: I have kids. Right now, my youngest kids are two, three, and four. And I have a seven year old. So, its okay to accept help and theres no shame that other people should give you because of that. According to Baldwin, even with an extra set of hands, she does not have extra time during the day to do anything except for work. During the interview, the actress also opened up about the difficulties of being a parent to multiple young children, telling host Kristen Kelly that she has her moments, especially being pregnant when the kids are destroying me all day long. They don't understand, they're babies! And I'm not a victim. I chose to have all these kids really close together. I take responsibility for it. It's hard, but I am enjoying it so much. It is never a burden for me, she said, adding that when she feels overwhelmed she looks at her children, takes a deep breath and thinks of this little person that is my little person and how we get to have this bond, this amazing relationship, and then I kind of chill out. Iran has said it will soon send France the black boxes of a Ukrainian passenger plane its forces mistakenly shot down in January, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stated. "The black boxes are supposed to be sent to France soon," Trudeau said at a daily briefing, adding that the coronavirus pandemic had delayed the handover, AFP reports. According to the Canadian prime minister, he raised the analysis of the black boxes in a telephone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky "a couple of days ago." "We're going to continue to put pressure on the Iranian regime alongside our international partners to get answers, to get justice, to get compensation for the families," he added. 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. iy BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkeys export of leather goods to Kazakhstan grew by 2.88 percent from January through May 2020 compared to the same period of 2019, having amounted to $9.8 million, the Turkish Ministry of Trade told Trend. In May 2020, the export of leather goods from Turkey to Kazakhstan reduced by 20.39 percent compared to May 2019 and amounted to $955,000. In the first five months of 2020, export of leather goods from Turkey to the international markets decreased by 28.7 percent compared to the same period of 2019 and made up $530.3 million. The export of leather goods from Turkey made up 0.9 percent of the country's total export volume over the reporting period. Turkey exported the leather goods worth $61.4 million to the world markets in May 2020, which is 62.2 percent less compared to May 2019. In this month, Turkeys leather export amounted to 0.6 percent of the country's total export. From May 2019 through May 2020, Turkey exported $1.4 billion worth of the leather goods abroad. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Nissan's chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta helped engineer the troubled automaker's latest turnaround plan. Now his allies are pressing the board to promote him to co-CEO to drive the new strategy, said four people with direct knowledge. Thus far, Nissan Motor Co's 12-member board has no plan to change the roles of Chief Executive Makoto Uchida or his No. 2 Gupta, the sources told Reuters. But the behind-the-scenes campaign, involving at least half a dozen current and former executives, points to continued tensions at the top of the Japanese automaker, which has had four CEOs in four years. The sources, all of whom have ties to Nissan's leadership team, declined to be identified because they aren't authorised to speak to reporters and because of the sensitivity of the topic. Nissan responded in a statement to Reuters there are "no plans or consideration for any change in the management structure at Nissan, and no change to the close collaborative working relationship between Mr. Uchida and Mr. Gupta in their current roles." Speculation to the contrary is baseless and misleading, the statement went on. Lobbying to promote Gupta, 49, has intensified, the sources said, since Nissan unveiled a four-year recovery plan on May 28 to slash costs and strengthen its global alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi. Indian-born Gupta, an industry veteran, was instrumental in drawing up the plan. His allies now want him to implement it. According to the people with knowledge of the matter, Gupta's supporters are proposing that he either share the CEO role with Uchida, or replace his boss, with Uchida becoming chairman. One of the sources, a Nissan executive, told Reuters: "We're clear enough in telling the board what our expectations are. But we don't want to push the issue too hard. We want this to happen in a natural way." The uncertainty threatens to increase instability at Nissan that stretches back to late 2018, when long-time leader Carlos Ghosn was arrested and fired because of alleged financial misconduct, which he denies. Ghosn was Nissan's CEO through April 2017, when he stepped aside, remaining as chairman. Since Ghosn, Nissan has had three CEOs. The discussion about Gupta's role is also a distraction as Nissan wrestles with an array of problems, from its own financial woes to the industry-wide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that is hurting sales. The sources said Gupta's allies have become emboldened in recent weeks because of growing doubts among rank-and-file employees about Uchida's ability to lead Nissan back from its first annual loss in 11 years. Two of the sources cited Uchida's performance during a news conference on May 28 at which he presented the plan to cut Nissan's production capacity and model range, and put new emphasis on sharing costs and investment with Nissan partners Renault and Mitsubishi Motors. Uchida emphasized that "the main focus of the plan is not restructuring." Its purpose, he said, is "to build a financial foundation that will lead to sustained future growth. For that future growth, we plan to continue to invest in (product and technology) development." The sources said Uchida's comments displayed a lack of urgency at a critical moment. "The Nissan plan is a restructuring plan, no matter how you slice it," said Tokyo-based SBI Securities analyst Koji Endo. "But Uchida fell short of clearly defining this as a restructuring plan. I think it would've served him better if Uchida had said honestly what this is, in order to instill the urgency of the plan and to stress people need to scramble." LEADERSHIP Gupta is already taking on much of the leadership of Nissan, said the four people with direct knowledge. Uchida, they said, is less engaged. Another source, a mid-ranking global product distribution strategy manager, said Gupta has hosted all recent meetings attended by this manager and his colleagues at head office in Yokohama to discuss recovery in key markets like China and the United States. "He's doing all the heavy lifting in formulating the plan, and we are not getting any guidance from Uchida," the manager said. Nissan said in its statement to Reuters that the management is "focused and united on the delivery of the transformation program, led by chief executive officer Makoto Uchida. Ashwani Gupta, as chief operating officer, is working intensively in partnership with Mr. Uchida on executing the program." Nissan's recovery plan draws on ideas previously employed by Gupta to reinvigorate the commercial vehicle businesses of Renault and Nissan. After joining Renault in India in 2006, Gupta became vice president in charge of Renault's global commercial vehicle business, a job he held until April 2019, when he was named COO of Mitsubishi. In drawing up Nissan's latest turnaround strategy, Gupta worked closely with Renault's chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard. As a consequence, Gupta and Senard, who sits on the Nissan board, have developed a close relationship, the sources said. According to two of the sources, this might persuade Senard to support making Gupta co-CEO. If Gupta were to be promoted, the sources said, it would be positive for the Nissan-Renault alliance because Uchida and Senard have yet to develop a solid relationship. A spokesperson for Renault said the company wouldn't comment on speculation, adding that the relationship between the current leaders of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi is "excellent." Mitsubishi declined to comment for this article. Donning black gowns, the lawyers were joined by law students and lecturers in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu. Hundreds of Malawian lawyers have taken to the streets of several cities to protest against interference with the judiciary, after President Peter Mutharika placed the countrys chief justice on leave pending retirement as the country gears up for a hotly contested election rerun ordered by the court. Donning black gowns and dark cream wigs, the lawyers on Wednesday were joined by law students and lecturers on the streets of the capital, Lilongwe, and the cities of Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu. Mutharikas office issued a notice on Friday that sent Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda into early retirement, 18 months before he was due to leave and two weeks before the country returns to the polls on June 23. The move, which prompted widespread condemnation, was reportedly halted by a high court injunction following appeals by the Malawi Human Rights Defenders Coalition, the Association of Magistrates and the Malawi Law Society. Nyirenda had led the Supreme Court decision which rejected Mutharikas bid to overturn a landmark ruling quashing his controversial re-election in May last year. In the judgement last month, Nyirenda said some of the grounds for appeal were not just fictious [fictitious] but purely unprofessional, disrespectful and distasteful. The protesters carried banners and placards calling for the separation of powers, telling the executive keep your hands off our judiciary. Our courts should be able to deliver judgements freely and independently without interference, said lawyer Bernadette Malunga, who led the march in Lilongwe. The decision by Mutharikas administration sparked widespread criticism from lawyers and judges organisations in Malawi and abroad. Main opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera said the presidents action was a tragic case of interference and alleged that it could be a way of capturing the judiciary in anticipation of a poll loss next week. Its a very poor attempt that has greatly embarrassed him. They are trying to get justice perverted in this nation, Chakwera said. Mark Botomani, a government spokesman, on Tuesday insisted the chief justice had accumulated 572 leave days and must proceed on leave. It is best practice for judicial officers to proceed on leave pending retirement. The chief justice will not be the first judicial officer to have proceeded on leave pending retirement, he said. Mutharika, of the governing Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), was declared the winner in the May 21, 2019 elections with 38.57 percent of the popular vote, against 35.41 percent garnered by Chakwera and 20.24 percent for Saulos Chilima, the countrys former vice president. Both Chakwera and Chilima rejected the results that returned Mutharika to power and filed a petition to the High Court asking it to nullify the results. On February 3, the Constitutional Court annulled the vote, citing widespread, systematic and grave irregularities, which included result sheets with sections blotted out or altered with correction fluid. Often seen wearing Hawaiian shirts, possessing guns and bent on starting a civil war, followers of the anti-government Boogaloo movement have also been seen at the protests against police brutality and George Floyd's death. As protests against police brutality and racism draw lakhs in the US despite the coronavirus pandemic, movements like the antifa and Black Lives Matter have been blamed for incidents of violence witnessed during these gatherings. Often seen wearing Hawaiian shirts, carrying guns and seemingly set on starting a civil war, followers of the pro-gun and anti-government Boogaloo movement have also been seen at these protests. On Monday, a Texas bodybuilder arrested for running a steroid trafficking ring, was found to have been publicly associated with the movement. He had used his social media accounts to advocate vigilante guerrilla warfare against the National Guardsman patrolling Black Lives Matter protests, Fox News reported. In another incident on Friday, a US Air Force sergeant wrote the word boog and the phrase, I became unreasonable, in blood on the hood of a car, shortly before being arrested on accusations of shooting dead a sheriffs deputy in Californias Santa Cruz. He was also accused of throwing lit pipe bombs and shooting at other deputies and planning to kill more, Reuters reported. On 30 May, the FBI arrested three individuals, all with US military experience and associated with the Boogaloo movement, on the way to BLM protests. They had in their possession Molotov cocktails that they were allegedly planning to use at the protests in Nevada, Las Vegas. While President Donald Trump has repeatedly singled out antifa, a movement of primarily leftist anti-authoritarians, as a major instigator of the unrest, the term does not appear in any of the federal charging documents against 53 individuals accused looting and violence at protests held after George Floyds death on 25 May, a Reuters report said. The documents mention only one group the Boogaloo movement, the followers of which are largely an assortment of right-wing extremists, according to hate group experts. The movement began on the internet but is now spilling on to the streets of the United States. The name was derived from a 1980s film Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo. The Boogaloo movement originated largely on 4chans /k/ forum, where users discuss weapons and guns. The term boogaloo has been used on the forum since 2012, in reference to "Barack Obamas reelection causing a second civil war", according to Reuters. However, among the recent protests this year where supporters of the movement were seen was in January in Richmond, Virginia at a rally against the states attempt to bring in more stringent gun laws. Boogaloo followers hold a resentful approach towards the law enforcement specifically and believe the government would restrict access to firearms. They believe in an accelerationist ideology, which entails disorder between the people and police to cause a breakdown of the political system. By April this year, an advocacy group called the Tech Transparency Project warned that Boogaloo followers were discussing taking up arms while promoting protests to liberate states from coronavirus restrictions, according to Reuters. The group that tracks tech companies had reported on 22 April that Boogaloo groups are especially active on Facebook, where at least 125 operate. More than half of those groups have been created since January. Additionally, it was found that tens of thousands of people joined Boogaloo-related Facebook groups over a 30-day period in March and April. Reddit shut down several Boogaloo-related communities in February and another set in May for inciting or glorifying violence. On 1 May, Facebook banned the use of Boogaloo and related terms when they accompany pictures of weapons and calls to action. It decided over a month later that the platform will no longer recommend such groups to members of similar associations, making it more difficult to find these groups. Terms like Boogaloo Bois, big igloo and big luau then emerged to evade scrutiny. In a 27 May memo, the Department of Homeland Security raised concerns that domestic terror groups could target the protests, including allegations from the FBI that a white supremacist extremist Telegram channel incited followers to engage in violence and start the boogaloo by shooting in a crowd, Vox reported. Far-Right militias and Boogaloo-related groups were present at 40 protests against police brutality and Floyds death, Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights found. Whether boogaloos hold a white supremacist or white nationalist approach remains unclear. The movements members have showed up armed to protect stores from protesters on the one hand, while some of the most popular Facebook pages have celebrated the agitation against George Floyds death, The Guardian reported. Claims that the group travels to various states to join protests are also unfounded. Of the 57 people arrested in Minneapolis on 30 May as protests against police brutality turned violent, 47 provided Minnesota addresses, while only 10 were from other states, The Washington Post reported. A US intelligence assessment released last week too said that most of the violence at protests appears to have been driven by opportunists. But the assessment also said there was some evidence that organised extremists were tied to violence or promoting it online. A very unusual lake in the Indian state of Maharashtra has stunned scientists and observers, as it has made a complete color transformation from green to pink. The oval-shaped depression was formed over 50,000 years ago when a meteorite crashed into the earth, resulting in one of the largest crater lakes on the planet. The lake has always been known to scientists and tourists who visit as having a blue-green hue, yet recently, Maharashtra tourism authority has posted shocking pictures of it appearing a pastel pinkish-red. Gajanan Kharat, a member of the lake conservation committee, speculated that the low level of water may lead to increased salinity and change in the behavior of algae because of atmospheric changes, News18 reported. Lonar is famous for Lonar crater and Lonar Lake, which is located at 1958N 7630E. It is a meteorite crater created in the Pleistocene Epoch. (Praxsans/CC BY-SA 4.0) Lake Lonars formation story is unique, as its geological composition is the largest basaltic impact crater on Earth. The lake has incredibly high salinity levels because it wasnt formed by input from rivers or streams. In recent years of drought, though, the rain-fed lake has lost a great deal of its volume to evaporation. Because of the basaltic rock underneath, the lake has a very high pH that prevents many forms of life from developing, around 7 near the shore and up to 11 in the center, the Times of India reported. These two factors combined lead to the most plausible explanation for the change in color: the normal types of algae that give it its color have been replaced by other kinds that produce carotenoids, reddish-colored pigments. In local newspaper Lokmat, Dr. Suresh Mapari suggested that halobacteria and dunaliella salina (types of fungi), both of which flourish only in highly salty environments, might be responsible for the color transformation. The rapidity of the change is definitely remarkable. While the lake didnt turn pink instantaneously, the transformation was quick enough to shock the local population. Kharat explained in a video, produced by Maharashtra Tourism, that [s]alinity in the lake has increased as water level has gone down drastically this year and it has become warmer too resulting in overgrowth of algae. Though scientists are still awaiting the results of tests that are being performed on water samples, they have raised the possibility that human activity, or rather the lack thereof, could have had an effect. A general view of Lonar crater sanctuary lake is pictured in Buldhana District of Maharashtra state on June 11, 2020. (SANTOSH JADHAV/AFP via Getty Images) In case of a natural phenomenon, there are fungi which generally give a greenish color to water most of the times. This (the current color change) seems to be a biological change in the Lonar crater, Madan Suryavashi, professor of geography at the nearby Babasaheb Ambedkar University, told NDTV. Indias strict lockdown to deal with the coronavirus pandemic meant that the lake has been closed to the public for several months. There wasnt much human activity due to lockdown which could also have accelerated the change, Suryavashi said to AFP. The remote lake has been mentioned in ancient Indian texts and also became an object of curiosity when British explorer James Edward Alexander rediscovered it in 1823. Nowadays, the lake attracts crowds of curious tourists and scientists alike, whose wonder will only be piqued further by this fascinating color change. The judicial committee of Vietnams National Assembly on Tuesday agreed to seek a review of a court rejection last month the appeal of a death row prisoner,in a rare case of public disagreement between branches of the one-party communist state. The majority of the panels 40 members agreed to review the decision last month to reject an appeal of the verdict in the case of Ho Duy Hai, who was convicted in 2008 of the murder of two female postal employees in Long An province and given the death penalty, according to state media reports. On May 8, a 17-member jury rejected the Supreme Peoples Procuracys petition to throw out the verdict in Hais trials and reinvestigate his case, saying he had admitted guilt for his crimes and the basic facts supported the decisions by the courts of first instance and later appeals. On Monday, Supreme Court Chief Judge Nguyen Hoa Binh reaffirmed the death penalty, telling the assembly that Ho had given 25 statements to the court admitting his guilt. The majority of the National Assembly Judicial Committee, however, disagreed, according to the online state media outlet Tuoi Tre They said their evaluation of the investigation and rulings in Hais case pointed to serious issues with the potential to change the nature of the case, and that they will petition the assembly standing committee for a review of the May 8 cassation trials conclusion. Hais case has stirred public interest in one-party Vietnam, where the assembly typically rubber stamps ruling party decisions. In a video that went viral on social media after the May 8 ruling against Hai, Hais mother Nguyen Thi Loan collapsed, while family members outside the building decried what they said was a lack of justice in Vietnams courts. The National Assembly is the last recourse for Ho in the decades-long case that has seen appeals and a 2014 stay of execution ordered by the then president. Observers have pointed to several procedural errors in Hos case, including that it was largely based on a confession that he later recanted, saying he had been forced to do so by police during his detention. Additionally, prosecutors lacked crucial evidence, as no time of death for the two victims was ever established, fingerprints at the crime scene did not match Hais, and the murder weapons were misplaced by the forensic team. London-based rights group Amnesty International has cited Hais mother as saying that he was tortured in prison, citing his deteriorating health and loss of weight. In February 2015, the National Assemblys Committee on Judicial Affairs declared after a reinvestigation into the case that during both the initial trial and the appeal, there had been serious violations of criminal procedural law. The committee urged that the case be reviewed on appeal, but in Dec. 2017, Long An provinces procuracy pushed for execution. In November last year, Amnesty International sent a petition with 25,000 signatures to President Trong calling for Hais acquittal. Between August 2013 and June 2016, Vietnam executed 429 people, while 1,134 people were given death sentences between July 2011 and June 2016, according to government figures released in 2018. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Paul Eckert. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine intends to extend the adaptive quarantine until July 31. "Today, we will extend the adaptive quarantine until July 31," said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at a government meeting on Wednesday. If necessary, the government will consider the possibility of enhanced quarantine in certain regions, Shmyhal said. The issue is on the agenda of the government meeting. The government declared a shift to adaptive quarantine in a resolution published on May 21. That document extended the quarantine period from May 22 until June 22, 2020, and allowed for easing certain quarantine restrictions in regions with favorable epidemiological situations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed concern about a record spike in coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours at the daily coronavirus response conference. "The president is concerned about the record number of deaths from COVID-19 reported over the past day (31 deaths). The president has been informed that the absolute majority of the deceased were elderly and had severe co-morbidities," the presidential press service said on Wednesday. A Washougal woman died and a Camas woman was seriously injured Tuesday after their vehicle crashed into a median and rolled several times on Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon. Shannon Gatlin, 45, was driving her Ford van west through Sherman County when she traveled into the median. Her passenger, Vickie McDowell, 52, was killed. Gatlin was taken to Mid-Columbia Medical Center for serious injuries. Police did not report her condition. Police are investigating whether intoxicants contributed to the crash, which occurred shortly after 4 p.m.. --Alex Hardgrave | ahardgrave@oregonian.com | @a_hardgrave Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. I am sick at heart that our entire political leadership is cowering before mobs of vandals seeking to destroy our collective memory of the past. But now we see mob rule imitating the tactics of the Red Guards of China's Cultural Revolution, who destroyed that nation's precious artistic and literary heritage in the name of revolutionary purity, and the Taliban in Afghanistan, who blew up ancient Buddhist statues to almost universal condemnation outside the Islamic world. Slavery may be the "original sin" of America, but until recent days, courage has been seen as more of an American virtue than a French one. But where is the condemnation of the vandalism of our historic artistic heritage by mobs tearing down statues, rather than following democratic processes and getting them removed to museums or less public display areas, which would be a perfectly reasonable solution to offense taken at honoring heroes of the Confederacy? Did anyone ever expect that the president of France would teach a lesson in courage to the POTUS? French President Emmanuel Macron publicly disavows racism but says colonial-era statues will stayhttps://t.co/cHzRzElXwX pic.twitter.com/C72iCsya2F TIME (@TIME) June 14, 2020 Brandon Moore of RedState provides a transcript: "We will be inflexible when it comes to tackling racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, and new strong decisions will be made to reinforce the egality of chances," Macron said in the video. "But this noble fight is perverted when it turns into communitarianism, into a false rewriting of history." "This is unacceptable when it is picked up by separatists. I tell you very clearly tonight my dear fellow citizens, the Republic will not erase any trace or name from its history," he continued. "It will not forget any of its deeds or take down any statue. What we need to do is to look all together with lucidity on all of our history and all our memory. Our relation to Africa in particular so we can build a present and a possible future from one to the other side of the Mediterranean." Twitter video screen grab. If the Republic survives, this era will become an enduring blot of shame for the madness tolerated and even promoted by the commanding heights of our political, corporate, academic, and media establishments in other words, our entire institutional leadership class. Openness and transparency are what China has underlined in its COVID-19 response, as well as objective evaluation of the international society on Chinas anti-pandemic experience. However, some U.S. politicians are always lying through their teeth, saying China underreported the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths and covered up relevant information while knowing the severity of the disease. This time, they cooked up a new story, slandering that China was stealing the COVID-19 vaccine research from the U.S. It's unusual and unbelievable that dignitaries of a country are lying without remorse and taking double dealing as a routine. Facts are the best rumor dispeller. Wuhan, the former epicenter of COVID-19 in central Chinas Hubei province, recently tested 9.9 million people in just 19 days, and only found 300 asymptomatic cases. Besides, no infection has been caused by asymptomatic patients so far. The test results were in line with the previous data released, which further indicated the reliability of China's statistics. If China is forging statistics, they must have a time machine, remarked Nobel prizewinner Michael Levitt, refuting the U.S. false accusation. Facts revealed not only the absurdity of the U.S. slandering, but also the true intention of the U.S. politicians. Facts proved that to understand and control an unknown virus takes a process. When the virus firstly broke out, there was almost no scientific evidence suggesting that the novel virus might lead to a dangerous pandemic. Even so, China still reacted in an amazing speed. It reported the viral pneumonia of unknown cause to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. on Jan. 3, and unprecedented measures were taken by the country 20 days later to sound a stunning alarm for the world. Even some U.S. politicians lauded Chinas epidemic response at first. However, they had a turnabout due to their incapability to control the epidemic, trying to duck responsibilities and pass the buck to China. How could such self-contradictory practice watertight? A Chinese internet user once asked what kind of transparency the U.S. politicians were demanding. If such transparency was based on assumption and used to frame others, then they would never be satisfied with Chinas transparency. It is recognized that these U.S. politicians, draining their brains to shift the blames to China, are absolutely not seeking for truth or transparency. What they are trying to do is just finding a scapegoat for their incapability and hyping international confrontation to win elections. The New York Times pointed out that some U.S. politicians increasingly believe that elevating China as an archenemy culpable for the spread of the virus, and harnessing Americas growing animosity toward Beijing, may be the best way to salvage a difficult election. The Washington Post was blunter, saying the White House is guilty of exactly what it accuses China of doing. The COVID-19 pandemic is something that certain U.S. politicians seek private gains from, but for plain American citizens, it is an unbearable trauma. According to a research by the Columbia University, if the United States had begun imposing social distancing measures one week earlier than it did in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died in the coronavirus outbreak, and if the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact two weeks earlier than most people started staying home, the vast majority of the nations deaths about 83 percent would have been avoided. Till today, these U.S. politicians are still weighing people's lives and political interests, and even diverting attention and shifting responsibility by defunding the WHO and interfering in other countries domestic affairs. Lies will always be lies no matter how they are disguised. The world has loved, hated and envied the US. Now, for the first time, we pity it, said the Irish Times in a commentary. From this we see the worlds compassion for U.S. citizens, and also the contempt for the practices of certain U.S. politicians. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 05:02:07|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KHARTOUM, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Sudan on Wednesday announced its rejection to unilateral filling of Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) without an agreement between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia. "Sudan does not accept unilateral filling of the dam without signing an agreement," Sudanese Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Yasir Abbas said at a press conference in the capital Khartoum. Sudan on Wednesday proposed to refer the issues of difference over the GERD to the political leadership in the three countries, Abbas said. The Sudanese minister highlighted Sudan's support for the right of any country in equitable use of water without causing harm. Abbas also described the negotiations' atmosphere as "positive" to reach a deal before July 1. Since June 9, the three countries have been holding regular video meetings to discuss issues related to the filling and operation of the GERD in the presence of three observers from the United States, the European Union Commission and South Africa. In March 2015, leaders of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia signed the Declaration of Principles committed to reaching an agreement regarding the GERD through cooperation. Ethiopia started building the GERD in 2011, while Egypt, a downstream Nile Basin country that relies on the river for its fresh water, is concerned that the dam might affect its 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of the water resources of the river. The GERD, covering an area of 1,800 square km, is now scheduled to be completed in three years at a cost of 4.7 billion U.S. dollars. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 21:22:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Wednesday by 16 cases to 1,489 while the death toll remained unchanged at 32, the National News Agency reported. The number of infections among new arrivals to the country reached 13 while residents' infections are three only. Lebanon and China have supported each other in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In February, Lebanese President Michel Aoun expressed solidarity with China in its battle against the coronavirus. In return, China has offered help to Lebanon's anti-coronavirus fight, including the donation of medical equipment to Beirut's airport, and Lebanon's Health Ministry. On April 16, China also donated 3,000 testing kits and 200 manual thermometers to Lebanon. Enditem FastBridge is a powerful tool, whether its used in the school building, as part of remote learning or in a blended learning environment, said Dr. Shawn Mahoney, Chief Product Officer and Chief Learning Officer at Illuminate. Illuminate Education, a leading K-12 student performance solution, today announced that FastBridge has been selected as a Texas Education Agency (TEA) approved reading diagnostic tool for grades 1 and 2, per House Bill 3 legislation. FastBridge is a powerful tool, whether its used in the school building, as part of remote learning or in a blended learning environment, said Dr. Shawn Mahoney, Chief Product Officer and Chief Learning Officer at Illuminate. FastBridge supports Texas educators in accelerating early literacy learning with two efficient, evidence-based tools: earlyReading and CBMreading. earlyReading is an assessment suite of 12 subtests that screen students foundational skills in the core areas of phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency. The subtests typically administered in grades PreK-1 are in English and Spanish and may be used for screening and frequent progress monitoring at any grade. Each assessment is designed to be highly efficient and inform instruction. CBMreading is a one-minute assessment of oral reading fluency that can be used for universal screening in English or Spanish, and for frequent progress monitoring for grades 1-8. Substantial research demonstrates that CBMreading is a robust indicator of reading development and a useful predictor of student performance on state tests. FastBridge is the only assessment system utilizing both Computer-Adaptive Testing (CAT) and Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) for universal screening and progress monitoring for reading, math, and social-emotional behavior. FastBridge takes the work out of data analysis by offering robust, reliable reporting that identifies students who are at risk and makes recommendations for timely, targeted supports. Illuminate Education is offering free demos of CBMreading and earlyReading, as well as webinars on how FastBridge and the Illuminate Education comprehensive solution can be used to prevent learning loss and accelerate learning. Click here for more information. About Illuminate Education Illuminate Education is the leading provider of integrated K12 technology systems. Illuminate's innovative tools bridge the gap between instruction, assessment, and data analytics, transforming the potential of teaching and learning. With all the data available within a single platform, teachers can assess learning and link to the right resources, while district leaders can receive a holistic view of students. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Illuminate's team of experienced educators and technology specialists serve 12 million students across all 50 states. The false accusation allegedly resulted in his arrest, improper charges, and a police raid that violated his privacy rights. A civil lawsuit further claims the false accusation contributed to the loss of contact with his three children, who are eight, 13, and 15 years old. He seeks damages from Northrop, John Bamford, an Arlington County police detective, and his ex-wife Heather Kiriakou. In 2007, Kiriakou was one of the first CIA officers to publicly acknowledge that torture was official United States policy under President George W. Bush. His outspokenness on torture led the government to target him with a leak prosecution under the Espionage Act. He pled guilty in 2012 to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA), when he confirmed the name of an officer involved in the CIAs Rendition, Detention and Interrogation (RDI) program to a reporter. Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. He was incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Loretto in Pennsylvania, nearly 200 miles away from his children. He is currently a co-host of the Loud and Clear radio program on Sputnik, a writer whose work is regularly featured at Consortium News, and an author of four books, including his most recent book, The CIA Insiders Guide to the Iran Crisis. Much of his commentary involves advocacy that is critical of United States foreign policy, which may directly challenge Northrops business interests. According to the complaint [PDF], Heather was allegedly involved in an affair with a Northrop executive. John contacted Northrops ethics office in July 2018 to inform them that he possessed documents showing Heather, a director of global business development at Northrop, and an executive fraudulently billed the company for business travel. However, they were engaged in tens of thousands of dollars of personal travel that involved cheating on him. The ethics office allegedly instructed John to transmit the documents he claimed he possessed, but subsequently, Northrop shared the documents with Heather and engaged in retaliation. On August 9, 2019, John Bamford, a detective with the Arlington County Police Department, arrested and charged John Kiriakou with two counts of illegal dissemination of photographs. Bamford obtained search warrants on October 11 for Johns person, vehicles, and home to investigate accusations of revenge porn that were apparently false. The lawsuit contends Bamford knew the search warrants violated the Fourth Amendment because they were not supported by evidence of revenge porn. Johns home was raided on October 15, and Bamford allegedly violated his constitutional rights when he detained and searched John with an army of two dozen Arlington County Police and FBI officers nearby. Over seven and a half hours, electronics and other items from Johns home were apparently inventoried and seized. A 2016 Vespa LXV scooter was impounded for three weeks before authorities finally returned it. The photos showed Heather in a bikini with a thong-style bottom. They were taken by Heather, and they were in emails to her Northrop Grumman lover, according to the complaint. Heather Kiriakous motivations for her knowing, intentional, false, and malicious accusation was to secure a litigating advantage in a pending child custody dispute with plaintiff, to diminish her sense of guilt over her adultery, and to retaliate against plaintiff for exposing her adulterous affair in the course of whistleblowing on defendants business travel fraud via Northrops ethics hotline, the complaint argues. The charges were dismissed on March 16 after a judge barred him from seeing his children. John Kiriakou is seeking damages for severe emotional distress including loss of contact with his children, acute depression requiring psychiatric care, and alienation from friends and professional colleagues. Bruce Fein, an attorney representing John, told Shadowproof he took on this case because he was somewhat involved in helping John when the CIA and Justice Department had a problem with him. He feels John has been totally, completely maltreated by the justice system, and it is time for relief. This is one way he can have justice vindicated. With regard to Northrops alleged actionsand inaction, Fein said, This is the no good deed goes unpunished standard in Washington, D.C. The ethics office was willing to take anything and investigate it. And they turn around, and if you want to create a chilling effect, this is what you do. Submit it, you follow our directions, and we come back and get you, Fein added. As Fein acknowledged, they may learn more in discovery. But it appears once Northrop obtained documents from John they shared the information with Heather. She turned around and falsely accused John of revenge porn, and the military contractor never acted on any evidence of fraud. Northrop Grumman has a history of whistleblower retaliation. In 2009, the military contractor settled a whistleblower lawsuit for $325 million. It was the largest military contractor settlement at the time. The corporation retaliated against a scientist named Robert Ferro, when he tried to reveal how faulty electronic components were sold to the U.S. government for military and intelligence-gathering satellites. Paul Solomon audited Northrops subcontract for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Air System Program. Solomon was removed from the program in 2007 after he discovered Northrop, along with Lockeed Martin, were concealing from the government the true cost overruns of the project. Back in 1989, James Holzrichter worked for a division of the corporation in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. He uncovered evidence that showed the contractor was falsely inflating its materials costs to increase government reimbursements. When he confronted executives, Northrop fired and blacklisted him. The post Northrop Grumman Accused Of Fueling False Revenge Porn Allegations Against CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou appeared first on Shadowproof. Our Army Will Provide Sure Military Guarantee for All External and Internal Measures of Party and Government: Spokesman for KPA General Staff Korean Central News Agency of DPRK Pyongyang, June 17 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) said as follows on Wednesday: Our army will provide a sure military guarantee for all external and internal measures to be taken by Party and the government. The KPA General Staff issued an open report on the direction of military action plans of the next phase on Tuesday. The KPA General Staff clarifies the following clearer stand in line with the detailed military action plans under examination as of June 17: Units of the regiment level and necessary firepower sub-units with defence mission will be deployed in the Mt Kumgang tourist area and the Kaesong Industrial Zone where the sovereignty of our Republic is exercised. Civil police posts that had been withdrawn from the Demilitarized Zone under the north-south agreement in the military field will be set up again to strengthen the guard over the front line. The artillery units deployed on the whole front line including the southwest naval front will reinforce those on combat duty, upgrade the level of the front guard duty to top class combat duty system throughout the front line and will resume all kinds of regular military exercises in the areas close to the boundary. Areas (districts) favorable for scattering leaflets against the south will open on the whole front line and our people's drive for scattering leaflets will be guaranteed militarily and thorough-going security measures will be taken. The KPA General Staff will work out these military action plans against enemy in more detail and present them to the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea for ratification at an earliest date. -0- NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address COVID-19 Response Guide Lays Road to School Reopenings The National Labor Management Partnership Coalition, a loose group of education organizations, has issued a short report to help schools plan their reopening in the fall. The seven-page guide advised the use of a "collaboration matrix" involving administrators, district staff and teachers and community members for decision-making. The organizations that make up the partnership are the School Superintendents Association (AASA), the National Education Association, the National School Boards Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the Consortium for Educational Change and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Among the advice to districts: to form a task force with five working groups, each tackling one segment of the planning: Public health and safety; School operations and logistics; Teaching and learning; Equity and family needs; and Social-emotional health As an example, the public health and safety working group was advised to focus on such issues as: What screening measures to take for identifying COVID symptoms and how those would be done; What happens when somebody at the school tests positive; What scenario would trigger a given school to close and move back to online instruction; How communication with families would be handled, especially among those who have had contact with confirmed cases; Whether there would there be sufficient personal protective equipment to keep educators and support people safe; Whether masks would be required for everybody; How daily and deep cleaning would be handled without laying the entire burden on custodial staff; How to handle safety concerns from teachers and others "without fear of retaliation or discipline"; and What the costs for everything would be and how those would be covered. "Our nation's students deserve a well-designed, thoughtful plan for reopening school buildings," said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, in the guide. "The nations families are counting on all of us--administrators, educators, and community members--and we must work together to keep them safe." "School board members and other public-school leaders have managed a herculean task to serve students during the pandemic," added Anna Maria Chavez, head of the National School Boards Association. "With the new school year approaching, it is imperative to provide public education leaders with key questions and options to consider so they can prepare their buildings so students are safe when they are able to return. The guide is openly available through the National Education Association's website. [June 17, 2020] KT and Hyundai Accelerate Digital Transformation with Smart Robots SEOUL, South Korea, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KT Corp. (KRX: 030200; NYSE: KT), South Korea's largest telecommunications company, announced it signed strategic cooperation and investment contracts with Hyundai Robotics, to speed up collaboration for digital transformation based on 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and smart factory. Under the contracts, KT will acquire a 10 percent equity stake in Hyundai Robotics, the leader in the Korean industrial robotics market, for 50 billion won. KT also signed a business cooperation agreement with Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings for joint efforts toward digital transformation. The signing ceremony, held at the KT headquarters in central Seoul, was attended by KT President Ku Hyeonmo, Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) Chung Kisun and Hyundai Robotics CEO Seo Yoo-seong, and other senior executives. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2019 and the new contracts solidify their ongoing collaboration to spread digital transformation based on 5G, AI and smart factory. They intend to quicken joint development of intelligent service robots, technological research in autonomous driving, and smart factory solutions. "In the post-COVID 19 era, KT is prepared to contribute to strengthening the Republic of Korea's industrial competitiveness and the transformation of our nation's manufacturing industry, taking advantage of our 5G and AI capability in cooperation with Hyundai Heavy Industries Group," said KT President Ku. "Beginning with Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, we will do our utmost to expand digital transformation in diverse areas." KT will undertake software development and applications related to intelligent service robots and autonomous driving, while Hyundai Robotics will be responsible for hardwae development and manufacturing. This is expected to lead to the introduction of intelligent robots that not only provide hotel amenities but also serve food and beverages at restaurants, and cleaning patrol robots loaded with cleaning and security functions. For entry into the service robot market, the two parties also plan to develop collaborative robots for small factories and large franchise stores. For a smart factory, KT will provide communication technology, cloud, ICT solutions, and related bundle products, while Hyundai Robotics will supply robots and relevant solutions. In particular, the combination of KT's smart factory solutions, dubbed "5G Factory Makers," and Hyundai Robotics' Hyundai Robot Management System (HRMS) is expected to heighten smart factory process analysis, production management and predictive maintenance. The toolkits of both sides will also be applied jointly for smart hospitals and logistics. Along with its equity participation in Hyundai Robotics, KT will seek an exchange of human resources to help refine elevation of Hyundai Robotics' competitiveness in robotics and smart factory. "Beyond mere production, the competitiveness of manufacturers will be determined in the future by the ability of individual businesses to read market trends and transform themselves." said Chung Kisun, Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings. "Through expansive business cooperation with KT, we believe that not only Hyundai Robotics but the entire Hyundai Heavy Industries Group will be able to achieve digital transformation and thereby improve our competitiveness as leading enterprises in the world." Hyundai Robotics, spun off from Hyundai Heavy Industries in April 2017, became a separate corporation specialized for robotics and smart solutions in May this year. It provides smart factory and smart logistics services, and has two subsidiaries Hyundai Robotics Shanghai and Hyundai L&S (Logistics and Solutions). The company aims for an initial public offering in 2022. In accordance with their business cooperation agreement, KT and Hyundai Heavy Industries Group will delineate details of their collaboration, particularly through a new senior committee on joint efforts in smart solutions, digital transformation, AI and ICT, as well as other business opportunities. The group will include KT President Ku and Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) Chung Kisun. Last year November, KT and Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings conducted a joint presentation on their 5G-based business cooperation, focusing on smart factory and smart shipbuilding. In February this year, they launched "AI One Team," aiming to lift Korea to global leadership in AI, and two months later, KT and Hyundai Robotics introduced "N Bot," an upgrade from KT's second-generation GiGA Genie hotel robot in terms of both function and design, at the Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun Hotel. It was followed by the signing with Hyundai Construction Equipment of a memorandum of understanding for "joint development and commercialization of 5G smart construction equipment and industrial vehicle platform." KT expects that its cooperation with Hyundai Heavy Industries Group will expand digital transformation into diverse industrial fields, eventually enhancing national competitiveness. To that end, KT is exerting corporation-wide efforts for digital transformation to help maximize efficiency and widen business opportunities of companies on the basis of its expertise in 5G network, AI, Big Data, cloud and ICT solution. MEDIA CONTACTS For inquiries, please contact our Global Media Relations Team at [email protected] ABOUT KT CORPORATION (KRX: 030200; NYSE: KT) KT Corp., Korea's largest telecommunications service provider, reestablished in 1981 under the Telecommunications Business Act, is leading the era of innovations in the world's most connected country. The company is leading the 4th industrial revolution with high speed wire/wireless network and new ICT technology. KT launched the world's first nationwide commercial 5G network on April 3, 2019, after successfully showcasing the world's first trial 5G services at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in February 2018. This is another milestone in KT's continuous efforts to deliver essential products and services as it aspires to be the number one ICT Company and People's Company. For more information, please visit our English website at https://corp.kt.com/eng/ View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kt-and-hyundai-accelerate-digital-transformation-with-smart-robots-301078524.html SOURCE KT Corp. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The federal agency tasked with upholding mining and environmental laws at the nations surface coal mines proposed a new rule last month aimed at strengthening coordination with state regulators when responding to citizen complaints of potential mining violations. Though federal regulators said the new rule would streamline coal mine investigations and uphold public safety, several concerned citizens including the former director of the agency leveled strong opposition to the revisions during a one-month public comment period, which closed Monday. The new rule would restrict citizen participation and compromise the integrity of coal mine oversight, opponents said. Many went so far as to urge the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to withdraw the proposed rule. The rule concerns what are known as Ten-Day Notices, notifications the federal government issues to state regulators if it receives a citizen complaint related to an alleged mining violation. The notice gives the state 10 days to promptly investigate and address any violations at a mine site. The proposed new rule would clarify the investigative process and increase collaboration between the state and federal regulatory bodies, federal officials told the Star-Tribune in May. Under the proposed rule, before issuing a 10-day notice, federal regulators would first contact Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality to check if the agency had already launched an investigation into a potential violation. This way, officials can avoid doing duplicative work, according to the Office of Surface Mining. But several citizens delivered a hefty dose of criticism in response to the agencys proposed rule clarification. A vast majority of letters submitted during the public comment period outlined a fear that the tweaks to the rule would erode public participation. The Citizens Coal Council, along with several organizations serving coalfield communities, staunchly opposed the proposed rule change in a 65-page comment. The opponents believe the amendments to the current 10-day rule would only delay investigations into possible mining infractions by adding an additional step, or what they called an open-ended pre-notice process. This rule change, moreover, could slow down the issuance of 10-day notices to states, the groups maintained. Any delays risk exacerbating harm to the environment and the health of surrounding communities, they added. This would significantly impair the ability of the communities who bear the brunt of coal minings negative impacts to seek enforcement of SMCRAs provisions in cases where the state regulatory authority is through intent or inadvertence failing to maintain, implement, administer, and enforce the Act and the approved state program on a case-specific basis, the Citizens Coal Council and others stated. Former director of the Office of Surface Mining Joseph Pizarchik also contributed to the letter. He said the rule change may have come in response to insufficient funding from Congress. Rolling back federal regulators responsibilities and deferring to states could lighten their workload associated with enforcing coal mining laws, he reasoned. As a former State program official and former Director of OSMRE (Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement) it is my conclusion that the only decent thing for OSMRE and DOI (Department of Interior) to do is to withdraw the proposed changes to the Ten-Day Notice Rules, Pizarchik declared in a written comment. During an interview with the Star-Tribune in the weeks following the issuance of the proposed rule change, Pizarchik said he worried the overhaul could affect the integrity of the response to citizen complaints. Its a puzzle as to why (OSMRE) wants to burden the citizens when the purpose of the statute was to protect citizens and the environment, he said. ... What I think that this will do is it will slow down how quickly OSMRE and the states respond to the citizen complaints. It makes the process more lethargic. The Powder River Basin Resource Council, a grassroots organization representing Wyoming landowners, also said the rule change would deliver a blow to public participation. Shannon Anderson, a staff attorney for the group, opposed the new rule, saying it would also weaken federal oversight of state regulators and potentially compromise the thoroughness or expediency of investigations including but not limited to, damage from blasting, water contamination or lack of cleanup. The proposed (Ten-Day Notice) rule change gives states unlimited time to review citizen complaints and makes federal responses to citizen complaints discretionary rather than mandatory, Anderson said. This all but eliminates the ability of citizens to protect themselves and others from coal mines that are operating in violation of the permit and regulatory standards designated to safeguard public health and safety. However, Lanny Erdos, the acting director at the Office of Surface Mining, disagreed with this characterization of the rule. Federal officials still have the authority to conduct their own investigations into alleged mining infractions to uphold the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, if it so chooses, he said last month in a phone interview. Inspection protocols and requirements will stay the same under the proposed rule, too. He considered the change the opposite of a regulatory rollback. If we determine that the state agency hasnt acted properly or appropriately and not taken appropriate action, then we still have the authority to issue a 10-day notice, he said. A small portion of comments, including one submitted by the Interstate Mining Compact Commission, extended support for the new rule. Gov. Mark Gordon is a commissioner of the organization. The states welcome OSMREs attempt to create a more efficient process for promptly achieving this purpose that is true to the legislative language and intent of SMCRA, without the bureaucratic paper chase that has been so time-consuming and harmful to the efficiency of both federal and state regulatory efforts, the Interstate Mining Compact Commission wrote in its comment. Not enough time Other individuals participating in the public comment period requested an extension to the 30-day public comment period associated with the proposed rule change, due in part to the disruptions prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The rule was published in the Federal Register on May 15. The public comment period closed 30 days later on Monday. As a coal miner who worked in the (Powder River Basin) for over 39 years I oppose the rushing of the public comment period, Lynne Huskinson, a former miner living in Gillette, stated in a comment. The public has the right to seek accountability for mining violations and the proposed rule changes diminish that right. Im requesting that the current comment period be extended to at least 90 days. Over a dozen citizen organizations from across the country also demanded the agency both extend the public comment period to allow greater engagement on the issue and host public forums on the proposed rule in communities affected by coal mining. Follow the latest on Wyomings energy industry @camillereports Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SILVER SPRING, Md., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued warning letters to three companies for marketing adulterated and misbranded COVID-19 antibody tests. Generally, antibody tests, also called serological tests, detect antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, which can help identify individuals who have developed an adaptive immune response to the virus, as part of either an active infection or a prior infection. These tests may be important in the fight against this pandemic, as they may provide information on disease prevalence and the frequency of asymptomatic infection. Today's warning letters are the first set of letters the agency has issued for marketing adulterated or misbranded COVID-19 test kits. "Providing regulatory flexibility during this public health emergency never meant we would allow fraud," said Jeff Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. "When tests are marketed inappropriately, with inaccurate or misleading claims such as the ability to perform the test completely at home, or that the test is authorized, cleared, or approved when it is not they put the health of Americans at risk. Such conduct will not be tolerated by the FDA, and we will continue to monitor tests marketed in the U.S., taking appropriate action as warranted." Warning letters were issued to: Medakit Ltd. of Sheung Wan, Hong Kong; Antibodiescheck.com and Yama Group; and Dr. Jason Korkus, DDS and Sonrisa Family Dental d/b/a My COVID19 Club of Chicago, Illinois. Violations outlined in the warning letters include: offering test kits for sale in the United States directly to consumers for at-home use without marketing approval, clearance, or authorization from the FDA; misbranding products with labeling that falsely claims products are "FDA approved"; and labeling that bears the FDA logo, which is only for the official use by the FDA and not for use on private sector materials. The FDA reminds the public that, at the present time, there are no diagnostic or antibody COVID-19 test kits that are authorized, cleared or approved to be used completely at home. Testing in the home can present unique and potentially serious public health risks, including whether a lay user has the ability to collect their specimen, run the test, and interpret their results accurately. However, the FDA has authorized several diagnostic COVID-19 tests for use with at-home collection of samples such as from the nose or saliva that can then be sent to a lab for processing and test reporting. However, there are not any serology tests that are authorized for use with at-home collection of samples. The FDA has requested that the companies take immediate steps to correct violations, such as ceasing the sale of the products or preventing future sales. Failure to immediately correct the violations cited in the warning letters may result in legal action, including possible seizure and injunction. The FDA reminds consumers to be cautious of websites and stores selling products, including test kits, that claim to prevent, mitigate, treat, diagnose or cure COVID-19. Fraudulent COVID-19 products defraud consumers of money and can place consumers at risk for serious harm. Using these products may lead to delays in getting proper diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 and other potentially serious diseases and conditions. The FDA encourages health care professionals and consumers to report adverse events or quality problems experienced with the use of COVID-19 products to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program. For a complete list of firms and websites that have received warning letters from the FDA concerning the sale or distribution of COVID-19 related products, please visit FDA's COVID-19 Health Fraud website. Additional Resources: Media Contact: Jim McKinney, 240-328-7305 Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products. SOURCE U.S. Food and Drug Administration Related Links http://www.fda.gov California officials have announced a Christopher Columbus statue will be removed from the state capitol, saying the presence of the 'deeply polarizing historical figure' is 'completely out of place today'. Legislative leaders issued a joint statement Tuesday revealing that the statue of Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella will be taken down from the Capitol Rotunda, where it has stood for more than a century. 'Christopher Columbus is a deeply polarizing historical figure given the deadly impact his arrival in this hemisphere had on indigenous populations,' Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Assembly Rules Chair Ken Cooley said in a statement. 'The continued presence of this statue in California's Capitol, where it has been since 1883, is completely out of place today. It will be removed.' The move comes as statues, flags and displays of Confederate or racist symbols and historical figures are being removed across America, amid widespread protests calling for an end to systemic racism following the death of black man George Floyd at the hands of a white cop in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. The removal of the statues (above) comes as statues, flags and displays of Confederate or racist symbols and historical figures are being removed across America, amid widespread protests calling for an end to systemic racism California officials have announced a Christopher Columbus statue (pictured) will be removed from the state capitol, saying the presence of the 'deeply polarizing historical figure' is 'completely out of place today' The statue's removal, which shows Columbus successfully asking Isabella to support his 1492 voyage to the Americas, marks a historical moment as it has been displayed in the capitol building since 1883. The controversial figure was donated to the state by Sacramento banker Darius Ogden Mills and dedicated to his brother, a former Capitol commissioner, according to the California State Capitol Museum. The statue became synonymous over the years with lobbyists and legislative staff tossing coins into Isabella's crown on the final night of session, although the tradition was banned in 2016 after the statue was damaged. It is not clear when the statute will be taken down or whether it will be replaced by a person of color, as has been confirmed with other figures removed in recent weeks. It is also not certain where the statue will go, though historian Alex Vassar said on Twitter the Mills family in the 1980s asked for it to be returned to the family if it was not to be displayed any longer. The removal of the statue, which comes around 50 years after the Native Sons of the Golden West called for its removal in the 1970s, has sparked some debate. Legislative leaders issued a joint statement (above) Tuesday revealing that the statue of Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella will be taken down from the Capitol Rotunda Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez welcomed the news saying children need to learn about 'real heroes'. 'It's important that children today learn the difference between real heroes and fake ones,' she said on Twitter. But Roger Niello, a former Republican assemblymember from Sacramento, blasted the move tweeting: 'I guess now if we don't like part of our history we just erase it.' Commemorations of Columbus have divided America for years, with his arrival in continental US in 1492 unleashing centuries of European colonisation and slavery, making him a symbol of violence to Native Americans. However, he continues to be an important symbol to the Italian American population. When millions of Italian immigrants arrived on US soil in the late 1880s and faced xenophobia, the Italian explorer became a figure for Italian immigrants to hold on to. Some states including Michigan, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia have renamed Columbus Day - the public holiday held on the second Monday in October each year - 'Indigenous Peoples' Day' in recent years to recognize the native populations that were colonized by the explorer. California has so far stopped short of joining these states, with Governor Gavin Newsom last year declaring October 14 2019 'Indigenous Peoples' Day' in the state but only for one day rather than writing it into state law for each year. The removal of the statue has divided opinion. Columbus unleashed centuries of European colonisation and slavery on the US, making him a symbol of violence to Native Americans, however, he is an important symbol to the Italian American population This came after state Senator Henry Stern's failed attempt to rename the holiday in 2018 - though the state has not shuttered schools and workplaces for the day since 2008. Nationwide, Columbus Day continues to be a federal holiday, meaning it is recognized by the US government but individual states can choose not to observe a federal holiday and change the name and intent of the holiday. October was named Italian American Heritage Month in 2018 as a way to honor Italian Americans this month without specifically referencing Columbus or Columbus Day. The ousting of the Columbus statue comes as outrage over Floyd's death has reignited calls for the removal of racist and Confederate statues across the nation. Several officials and institutions have pledged to remove them while, in some cases, protesters have taken matters into their own hands and toppled monuments linked to the Confederacy and slavery. A statue of settler John Sutter, who helped colonize California and is believed to have enslaved Native Americans, was removed from outside the Sutter Health Medical Center near the state capitol this week. A statue of settler John Sutter, who helped colonize California and is believed to have enslaved Native Americans, was removed from outside the Sutter Health Medical Center near the state capitol this week (pictured) Meanwhile, a Christopher Columbus statue was beheaded in Boston last week and another torn down and thrown in a lake in Richmond. A statue of Thomas Jefferson outside an Oregon high school named after him was toppled by a group of protesters during a demonstration this weekend. Officials in several other states including Virginia, Alabama and Florida have backed the removal of other Confederate statues while the US Navy and US Marine Corps have both banned Confederate flags from public places. There are still 776 Confederate monuments across the US, according to Southern Poverty Law Center. The removal of the figures has fallen along political lines, with the Democrats welcoming the move while the Republicans have voiced anger. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week said it was the 'perfect time' to rid Capitol Hill of the 11 remaining Confederate statues on display, saying they 'pay homage to hate, not heritage.' However, Republican lawmakers have pushed back, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel blasting what he called attempts to 'airbrush' history and saying he was only open to renaming military bases named after Confederate leaders but not removing Confederate statues. An Australian politician sparked fury today by demanding the states of Queensland and Victoria be renamed because they honour Britain's former monarch and head of an empire 'that murdered people'. Lidia Thorpe, who represented the Greens in the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 2017 and 2018, said the territories got their names because of an 'invasion of the country' and due to this history the titles 'caused harm' to Aboriginal people. But the comments by Ms Thorpe - who was the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Parliament of Victoria - were panned on Twitter, where critics accused her of 'jumping on a bandwagon' and pointed out that her surname 'Thorpe' had English origins so could also have to be changed under her own reasoning. Meanwhile, Tory MP Mark Francois told MailOnline: 'Unless I am mistaken several years ago Australia voted democratically in a referendum to retain HM the Queen as head of state. 'In light of that decision it seems to me that there is unlikely to be overwhelming support in Australia for this proposition. We would all be better to focus on the exciting prospect of a new trade deal between Britain and Australia.' Queen Victoria granted permission to become a separate colony in 1859, and the new colony was named Queensland (Queen's land) in her honour. Similarly, Victoria was also named after Queen Victoria when the colony was established in 1851. Aboriginal activist and former Greens MP Lidia Thorpe (pictured) said she wants both Queensland and Victoria to change their names since they honour British Empire ruler Queen Victoria Her comments were panned on Twitter, where critics accused her of 'jumping on a bandwagon' and pointed out that her surname 'Thorpe' had English origins so could also have to be changed under her own reasoning Ms Thorpe suggested the Victoria name change in an interview with The Herald Sun, in which she said: 'Anything that's named after someone who's caused harm or murdered people, then I think we should take their name down.' The politician, who was the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Parliament of Victoria, made similar comments about her home state of Victoria earlier on Wednesday. 'Maybe that's something they (the Queensland government) could negotiate (in a treaty),' she told news.au. 'Given we're all talking about the colonial past and how everything's named as a result of invasion of this country, why wouldn't we negotiate that (name changes)? 'It may be that it stays the same. But why wouldn't we put that on the table. Maybe we need to be making decisions, changing place names, state names and anything else that causes harm.' Ms Thorpe believes a rename of the state should be considered during treaty talks between the state government and indigenous groups The population of Queensland in the north-east of Australia is just over five million Ms Thorpe thinks Victoria should be renamed over its association with Queen Victoria (pictured) Victoria and Queensland are the second and third most populous states in Australia, with 5.6million and 4.6m inhabitants consecutively. The history of early British settlement in Australia is intensely controversial and has been characterised by Aborigines as an 'invasion'. After several sightings by European explorers, British naval captain James Cook arrived in Queensland in 1770 and claimed the territory for George III. The territory was once part of New South Wales but since the seat of the colony, Sydney, was too far away, northern settlers petitioned to separate. City of Melbourne councillor Nicholas Reece said statues for John Batman could be reviewed in light of his history hunting indigenous people in Tasmania Queensland (top right) and Victoria (bottom right) were both named in honour of Queen Victoria by British settlers The Captain Cook statue in Cairns (pictured) has stood since 1972, but protesters want it to be taken down 'Invasion day'? How Australia remains divided over the arrival of British settlers and its impact on Aboriginal people The legacy of British settlement in Australia remains intensely controversial, with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 commemorated each year as Australia Day but characterised by Aboriginal people as 'invasion day'. The Royal Navy's Captain Arthur Phillip had been empowered under British law by King George III to establish a penal colony in New South Wales. The land he was ordered to settle had been occupied by Aborigines for perhaps 60,000 years but was not legally recognised as a sovereign nation. Among Phillip's instructions upon reaching his destination were that Aborigines' lives and livelihoods be protected and friendly relations with them established. The First Fleet's initial landing was gradual, with ships arriving between January 18 and 20 at Botany Bay, south of Port Jackson, where James Cook had dropped anchor 18 years earlier. According to the NSW Migration Heritage Centre, the local Aboriginal people met the fleet in an 'uneasy stand-off' at what is now called Frenchmans Beach at La Perouse. No violence occurred. Unsatisfied with Botany Bay as a suitable site to establish a colony, on January 21, Phillip led a small party in three boats to explore other options further north. He entered Port Jackson, which he later described in a letter as 'the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security' The British flag was planted in a short ceremony and formal possession was declared. The other 10 ships of the fleet did not arrive until later in the day. There was no armed conflict with the local Eora people. No one was physically harmed. Phillip's instructions regarding Aborigines were that he would 'conciliate their affections', to 'live in amity and kindness with them.' He was to punish anyone who should 'wantonly destroy them, or give them any unnecessary interruption in the exercise of their several occupations.' Those instructions were standard British orders for the time and initially were largely followed. Writing in the Dictionary of Sydney, historian Grace Karskens said: 'Phillip and the officers were genuinely committed to establishing and maintaining friendly and peaceful relations. 'The early meetings in Botany Bay and Port Jackson were often marked by friendliness, curiosity, gift-giving and dancing together on the beaches. 'This is so entirely different from earlier violent and murderous encounters between Europeans and Indigenous people.' Professor Karskens told how the arrival of the First Fleet and the establishment of a small camp at Sydney Cove was momentous only in that 'it marked the origins of a great city.' The expert noted the Eora did immediately have to cope with an influx of strangers on their lands and waterways, which must have been alarming. According to Professor Karskens, the first fatal shooting might not have occurred until September 1789 when a Henry Hacking shot into a group of Aborigines out hunting on the North Shore. As the colony spread in the years to come, so did the violence. More and more land was taken, and massacres did occur. Some Australians say all of those wrongs must be attributed to the First Fleet arriving at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788. But there was no violent confrontation on that first Australia Day. Advertisement In both territories of Queensland and Victoria, the Aboriginal population declined for 150 years after settlement, mainly through infectious diseases from Europe like Smallpox, but also through frontier conflict with settlers. Thousands were also killed in massacres, usually as indiscriminate revenge for killings or raids against white settlers. Others were killed under a programme offering bounties for dead Aborigines and large numbers were forced into slavery for their 'white masters'. Today, Queensland Greens MP Michael Berkman's spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the state should change its name. Lidia Thorpe's comments came as Black Lives Matter protests sparked calls to tear down monuments linked to Australia's colonial past across the country. City of Melbourne councillor Nicholas Reece said monuments dedicated to Melbourne co-founder John Batman could be up for review through his hand in hunting Aborigines in Tasmania. 'There's a number of monuments and statues to John Batman in Melbourne, and I think there's a case to be made around perhaps them being given a less prominent place in our city,' he told 3AW. A 50-year-old statue of Captain Cook in Cairns is under threat after activists petitioned for it to be torn down because of the British Royal Navy captain's treatment of Aboriginal people when his ship landed in Australia. The petition claims the statue is a 'slap in the face to all indigenous people', saying Cook's legacy was one of 'forced removal, slavery, genocide and stolen land'. Two other statues of the explorer, both in Sydney, have already been defaced as Black Lives Matter protests shine a light on racial inequality. There are growing calls for statues of Cook to be removed, though Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended the explorer's legacy and controversially declared there was 'no slavery in Australia' - a comment he has since apologised for. The petition for the Cairns statue to be removed, signed by more than 12,000 people as of Tuesday morning, reads: 'Since 1972, the James Cook statue on Sheridan Street has stood as a symbol of colonialism and genocide. 'It's a slap in the face to all indigenous people,' it read. 'For us it represents dispossession, forced removal, slavery, genocide, stolen land, and loss of culture - among many other things. 'I am calling on Cairns Regional Council and Cairns Mayor Mr Bob Manning to take action today and remove this statue. This would be a huge step forward in uniting the community and honouring our First Nation's people. 'I also call on non-indigenous Australians to stand with us. The #BlackLivesMatter movement is as urgent here on your own doorsteps as it is on the streets of Minneapolis. 'For you to demand the removal of this offensive and outdated statue shows your willingness to look Australia's ugly history right in the eye, and say no more.' Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told 9News he wants the statues to stay. 'I don't think ripping pages out of history books and brushing over parts of history you don't agree with or you don't like is really something the Australian public is going to embrace,' he said. 'There are good and bad parts of our history. You learn from that.' Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has also voiced his support for the statues to stay. 'You can't rewrite history, you have to learn from it,' he told Sydney radio 2GB. 'The idea that you go back to year zero of history is in my view, just quite frankly unacceptable.' Mr Morrison has previously said he wanted to help the public to gain a better understanding of Captain Cook's historic voyage. 'That voyage is the reason Australia is what it is today and it's important we take the opportunity to reflect on it,' Mr Morrison said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 15:22:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KABUL, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan National Police (ANP) arrested four Islamic State (IS) members including one of the group's key leaders in eastern Kunar province, the Ministry of Interior said Wednesday. The ANP's Special Operations Police Force conducted a counter-terrorism operation Tuesday night, arresting IS members in Jaba Pushad village of Sarkanu district, the ministry said in a statement. The arrestees' related files were referred to the related organs for further investigation, according to the statement. The statement gave no details about the arrested militants' identities. The Afghan forces continued mopping-up operations as spring and summer known as fighting season is drawing near in the mountainous country. The militant group has not responded to the report so far. Enditem As the elderly, especially those in nursing homes, bear the brunt of deaths from COVID-19, new approaches and tools to keep them safe are emerging. Why it matters: Seniors are much more susceptible to the novel coronavirus, and the conditions in many long-term care homes facilitate the spread of COVID-19. Independent of the current pandemic, America and much of the world is aging rapidly and is in need of technologies to care for them. Driving the news: More than 50,000 people in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have died from COVID-19, according to a tally released on June 16 by the Wall Street Journal. That's nearly half of total U.S. deaths from the virus, and it doesn't count the many seniors living independently who succumbed to the disease. The death toll in U.S . nursing homes since the beginning of the epidemic has been nothing short of horrific: 6% of New York state's more than 100,000 nursing home residents have died of COVID-19, while Michigan lost 5% and New Jersey 12%. nursing homes since the beginning of the epidemic has been nothing short of horrific: 6% of New York state's more than 100,000 nursing home residents have died of COVID-19, while Michigan lost 5% and New Jersey 12%. "COVID-19 has shown that we simply aren't prepared to care for the elderly," said Lily Parsey, the global policy and influencing manager at the International Longevity Centre, at a recent webinar. "Nursing-home residents aren't getting half of our resources or half of our attention, yet they account for roughly half the deaths. We don't value their lives as much as other people's." David Grabowski, health care policy professor at Harvard University What's happening: There are steps that can be taken to protect seniors from both COVID-19 and the effects of the lockdown. Regularly testing workers would be one of the most effective ways to stem outbreaks among the elderly, but testing all 3 million of the country's nursing home workers and residents just once would cost $672 million. While nursing homes received nearly $5 billion in stimulus money for coronavirus, facilities also need to cover additional expenses to protect against the virus, even as they lose residents and are largely unable to take in new ones during the pandemic. Harvard's Grabowski, who advises Congress about Medicare, has proposed a federal effort to regularly test nursing home staff and residents and procure greater supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). In an op-ed for USA Today, former Senate majority leader Bill Frist and Martha K. Presley of Vanderbilt University Medical Center suggest that pooling tests could reduce costs by as much as 80%. Florida banned the transfer of COVID-19 patients from hospitals back to care facilities, which helped keep death rates among the state's nursing home residents much lower. Technology could play an increasingly important role as well. CarePredict sells a wearable device called Tempo that tracks indoor location, pulse rate, blood-oxygen levels and more. Originally targeted as a way for caregivers and family members to monitor the physical and mental health of seniors, Tempo is now being used to tackle COVID-19, including contact tracing. "If an individual tests positive for COVID-19, [caregivers] can go into the software, select the individual and rewind the last 14 days to see who they made contact with and the duration and length of that contact," says Jerry Wilmink, CarePredict's chief business officer. Context: Protecting the elderly from COVID-19 would be difficult enough in the best of conditions, given how much higher the fatality rate is for those over 75. But conditions in many of the U.S.'s 15,000 nursing homes are anything but ideal. Too many facilities are understaffed, and pay is often so low that 42% of workers who care for older people are on some form of public assistance. Especially early in the outbreak, many nursing homes struggled to source the PPE needed to prevent residents from spreading the virus between each other and even more importantly, to keep younger staff who live in the community from bringing the virus into the facility. As if the effect of the virus itself isn't enough, the lockdown policies instituted to stem the spread have had a major effect on the elderly, who already suffer disproportionately from loneliness and depression. In-person visitors have been banned from nursing homes for months, while families have been advised to keep clear of seniors living independently to prevent spreading the virus to them. The resulting loneliness and isolation, says York University psychology professor Gordon Flett, "is seen as a cause of mortality, not just a correlation." The big picture: According to the UN, for the first time in history, people aged 65 or above now outnumber children under the age of 5 globally, and by 2050, the number of people 80 or above will triple to 426 million. The pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of an aging society and the need for new innovations to protect them. The bottom line: COVID-19 has been a tragedy for the elderly, but if we're smart, it will be an opportunity to rethink how we approach a future growing old that nearly all of us will share. A South Korean army soldier patrols at the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom border village in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea. Tuesday, June 16, 2020. North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office building just inside its border in an act Tuesday that sharply raises tensions on the Korean Peninsula amid deadlocked nuclear diplomacy with the United States. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) North Korea has said it will send soldiers to closed inter-Korean co-operation sites in its territory and reinstall guard posts and resume military exercises at frontline areas, nullifying deals reached with South Korea two years ago. The announcement is the latest in a series provocations by North Korea in what experts believe are calculated moves to apply pressure on Seoul and Washington amid stalled nuclear negotiations. On Tuesday, the North destroyed an empty inter-Korean liaison office in its territory. Expand Close The demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP) North Koreas recent actions have not lead to clashes or bloodshed, but they still raise animosity on the peninsula to a level unseen since Pyongyang entered nuclear talks in 2018. The Norths General Staff said military units will be deployed to the Diamond Mountain resort and the Kaesong industrial complex, both just north of the heavily fortified border. The two sites, built with South Korean financing, have been closed for years due to inter-Korean disputes and US-led sanctions. The North also said it will resume military exercises, re-establish guard posts and boost military readiness in border areas as well as open frontline sites for flying propaganda balloons towards South Korea. Those steps would reverse agreements reached between the Koreas in September 2018 aimed at lowering military tensions along the border. South Koreas military expressed regret over the North Korean announcement and warned that the North will face unspecified consequences if it violates the 2018 deals. Expand Close South Korean troops near the border (Ahn Young-joon/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp South Korean troops near the border (Ahn Young-joon/AP) Major General Jeon Dong Jin of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters that Seoul maintains military readiness and will strive to prevent military tensions from rising. Vice unification minister Suh Ho warned against destroying South Korean assets that remain at the two co-operation sites. Under the 2018 agreements, both Koreas halted live-firing exercises, removed some land mines and destroyed guard posts along the worlds most heavily armed border. Some analysts see North Koreas provocations as an attempt to get concessions from Washington and Seoul at a time when its economy, already battered by sanctions, is likely to have worsened due to the coronavirus pandemic. They say North Korea may be frustrated because the sanctions prevent Seoul from breaking away from Washington to resume joint economic projects with Pyongyang. The Norths official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday said that recent actions were taken to retaliate for South Koreas failure to prevent activists from floating propaganda leaflets across the border. It said the destruction of the building was a reflection of the zeal of our enraged people to punish human scum who challenged the noblest dignity and prestige of our country and those who sheltered the scum, perpetrators of shuddering crime. Expand Close Kim Yo Jong (Jorge Silva/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kim Yo Jong (Jorge Silva/AP) Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, separately revealed that Pyongyang had rebuffed a recent offer by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to send special envoys to Pyongyang to defuse tension. Ms Kim, who has spearheaded the Norths recent rhetoric against South Korea, called Mr Moons offer a petty farce and a trick to tide over a crisis. One of Mr Moons senior presidential advisers, Yoon Do-han, called Ms Kims statement very rude, irrational and senseless, and warned that South Korea will not tolerate similar statements by North Korea any longer. Islamabad, June 17 : Border clashes between India and China have become more aggressive as at least 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives after deadly clashes with the Chinese forces in the Ladakh area. While tensions continue to soar between the two countries, Pakistan's military establishment is joining heads and keeping a close eye on the developments. On Wednesday, a Corps Commanders' Conference was held at the General Headquarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi to discuss the national and regional security situation. "Corps Comds' Conf. held today at GHQ. Forum was briefed on national and regional security situation," the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Gen. Qamar Jawed Bajwa chaired the meeting. Among the important discussion on regional security matters including the "gradual positive effects of ongoing Afghan Peace Process along Western Borders", and the conference also expressed the resolve to continue, "supporting the normalisation process through national institutions". The conference also discussed tensions with India along the Line of Control (LoC), stating that the "forum resolved to continue thwarting Indian designs and expose Indian targeting of innocent civilians in Kashmir and open support to terrorist outfits". The ongoing tensions between China and India also figured among the discussions, where Pakistan has taken a pro-China policy, opting to use this as an opportunity to not only take a jibe against the Narendra Modi-led government, but also to further strengthen its understanding with Beijing. The Corps Commander Conference comes a day after a rare but detailed meeting was held at the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters, which was attended by all services chiefs, who gathered to discuss the country's preparedness to counter what they called India's aggression at the LoC. "A comprehensive briefing was given to military leadership on the regional security issues with special focus on the situation of LoC and IOJ&K (Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir)," read the ISPR press release. "Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee (CJCSC) and services chiefs appreciated the tireless efforts of ISI for national security and expressed satisfaction over professional preparedness," it added. It seems that the ongoing tensions between India and China is being seen as a serious developing situation with strategic importance in Pakistan as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route in Gilgit Baltistan is not far from the Galwan Valley, the site of the bloody India-Chinese clash. With China engaging India in Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), tensions along the LoC, coupled with repeated incidents of harassment of Indian diplomats in Islamabad seem to be a pressure tactic that Islamabad is exerting on New Delhi. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has slammed the Modi-led Indian government for continuing constructions in the disputed region, leading to the bloody clash. "This is an extraordinary situation, which has been seen in the form of a bloody clash after several decades. This clearly is the result of India's Hindutva ideology," Qureshi maintained. "Whenever India follows this Hindutva ideology, and shows this kind of stubbornness, situation in the region will deteriorate," he added. Sarah Curran was at a grocery store last week, browsing the soup aisle with a mask on, when a shopper without a face covering approached her and shook his head. "You know COVID is a hoax," the man said, according to Curran. "I don't understand why people are still wearing masks." Curran, 28, a nurse with the cardiothoracic intensive care unit at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, Michigan, could think of plenty of reasons including the dozens of coronavirus patients admitted to her hospital, about a fifth of whom have died. Sarah Curran, a nurse in Michigan, has been alarmed to see hordes of tourists flocking to her region of the state ever since pandemic restrictions were lifted. Most are not wearing masks, she said. (Sarah Curran) "You really want to argue this with me?" she asked the man after telling him what she does for a living. "Normally, I'm not the confrontational type, but I just couldn't hold it back," Curran told NBC News. "This little old lady down the aisle was clapping, and the guy just kind of walked away." Across the country, there is a deepening divide between Americans who are firmly adhering to guidelines issued by public health officials to avoid the spread of the coronavirus and those who believe the recommendations are overkill, contradictory or just plain annoying. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Masks, in particular, have become a flashpoint from coast to coast: In California, Orange County's chief health officer recently resigned after she received death threats for her countywide mask order. And during the wave of nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism following George Floyd's May 25 death, so many police officers in New York City were spotted violating the mandatory mask rule that they drew the ire of both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Floyd demonstrations brought thousands of people in close proximity to one another and were backed by more than 1,200 public health experts, who signed an open letter of support but recommended that protesters practice social distancing and other safety measures when possible. The movement, and public health professionals' blessing of it, seems to have only expanded the rift between Americans, many of whom have grown irritated with the precautions more than three months into the pandemic. Story continues On social media, dueling hashtags specifically tied to masks have emerged: #MaskItorCasket for those who are pro-masks, and #NoMaskDay for those who want to do without and plan to do just that in cities nationwide this Saturday. In interviews with 17 people in cities throughout the United States, some said their faith is eroding in those tasked with keeping them safe, while others said they felt it was more crucial than ever to abide by advice from officials to flatten the curve. The rationale on both sides comes from a deeply emotional place. For those eager to restart their livelihoods, religious services or other aspects of life, conflicting messages about the coronavirus are making them question everything they have given up so far. And for those dead set on avoiding a second wave of COVID-19, they worry about future losses they might have to endure. Curran, for instance, is concerned about another influx of patients at her hospital, and is also afraid she could accidentally transmit the virus to her 5-year-old daughter, Remy, should she get exposed through work. To protect Remy, she has not hugged the little girl in nearly 100 days. Remy Curran, 5, has learned to obediently sit on her grandmother's porch during her mom's visits to avoid catching the coronavirus instead of running up to hug her mom. (Sarah Curran) In some cases, the split falls along party lines a poll published by the Pew Research Center in late May just before Floyd's killing found that trust in medical scientists and public health experts had grown, but mainly among Democrats. In Raleigh, North Carolina, Ryan Fournier, founder and co-chairman of Students for Trump, a nonprofit that aims to mobilize college students to re-elect the president, said that "COVID feels like old news now." "If you're going to allow these massive protests and massive crowds without people getting fined and arrested under the current conditions in these states due to COVID, you should be opening up other places, like places of worship. Small businesses should be able to open their doors," Fournier, 24, said. "Enough is enough." Nuanced support Health professionals say their open letter amid the Floyd protests was not sanctioning large gatherings as much as it was advocating an anti-racist public health response to the demonstrations against systemic injustice a health crisis that long predates the pandemic. The demonstrations against the killings of Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people by police should not be broken up under "the guise of maintaining public health for COVID-19 restrictions," the letter said. In contrast, most public health officials opposed the April protests against stay-at-home orders in Lansing, Michigan. It is an important distinction, say those whose signatures are on the letter. "When people ask why we were saying we allow these protests, the question they think they are asking is, 'Why are these people allowed to be out on the street, and why am I not allowed to go to church?'" said Dr. Abby Hussein, an infectious disease fellow at the University of Washington who was one of the first people to sign the letter. "But the true question they're asking is, 'Why are these people allowed to fight for their lives, and I'm not allowed to go to church?'" While the letter emphasized that safeguards should be in place during the protests for example, it opposed the use of tear gas or other irritants by police that could induce coughing it has been criticized as hypocritical. "Our national life during this pandemic has slid toward a double standard," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said last week. "A month ago, small protest demonstrations were widely condemned as reckless and selfish. Now, massive rallies that fill entire cities are not just praised, but in fact, are called especially brave because of the exact same health risks that brought condemnation when the cause was different." In Colorado Springs, Colorado, Ashley StClair, a conservative political commentator, expressed a similar sentiment. Youre kind of giving people the idea that the spread of the coronavirus is inversely proportional to the nobility of your cause, and clearly thats not how it works. "You're kind of giving people the idea that the spread of the coronavirus is inversely proportional to the nobility of your cause, and clearly that's not how it works," she told NBC News. Adding to StClair's frustrations was a misstep last week by the World Health Organization, which issued a correction after one of its doctors said it was "very rare" for asymptomatic carriers to spread the virus throwing into question the premise behind wearing masks. "They are sending so many conflicting messages," StClair said. "We don't know what to believe." That isn't the case for Rosie Fonseca, 43, a cook at a restaurant inside the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas, where casinos, bars and gyms reopened this month, with some restrictions. She said she worried businesses were opening too soon in Nevada, where COVID-19 cases are rising. But she had no issue with the demonstrations. "It's one thing to put yourself at risk to go to a bar, but this cause is worth taking a risk for because we need this kind of change," Fonseca said. In some spots, mask use is down significantly Pandemic guidance has evolved as scientists' understanding of the never-before-seen coronavirus has grown, from whom to test to how contagious it is. Federal recommendations on masks have changed, too, in the last two months. At first, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that face coverings were only necessary for those displaying symptoms of the coronavirus. Then, as it became clear that at least 35 percent of COVID-19 infections can be asymptomatic, the CDC recommended everyone wear a face mask in addition to staying 6 feet apart from people outside of their household at all times. But even President Donald Trump has repeatedly flouted that, including during a tour of a mask production factory in early May. And as summer weather sets in, wearing masks can be stifling. But many don't see that as an excuse. In Austin, Texas, Nick Peebles, 34, said that at his job at a grocery store, which requires that everyone wear masks, customers are combative, which disappoints him especially because they are only inside the air-conditioned store for a few minutes at a time. Its such a simple measure to take to try and be safe. "It's such a simple measure to take to try and be safe," he said. As Peebles spoke to NBC News last Friday from a spot off of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, joggers, walkers and cyclists passed by on a trail along the lake, most with no masks. Some had bandannas or other cloth coverings, but left them around their necks. Coronavirus cases have been rising in Texas, which has been among the states leading the charge to reopen businesses. Dr. Mark Escott of the Austin-Travis County health authority, told The Austin American-Statesman that the reopening of businesses is not the only reason for the uptick. "We also have an increase in risk-taking behavior," Escott said. "People are less cautious, they're not wearing masks as much, they're not social distancing as much, and they're not paying as close attention to personal hygiene messages like washing your hands frequently and not touching your face." Related: The same scenario is playing out elsewhere and is a phenomenon known as "caution fatigue," where people become desensitized to warnings as a result of physical and mental exhaustion from observing safety guidance, according to Jackie Gollan, an associate professor of psychiatry and a clinical psychologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine who conducts research on how to make better decisions. "We begin to outweigh the risks of the situation for the benefits, be it the connection or the goals, like attending a protest or seeing a neighbor," Gollan said. And the sight of other people wearing masks may give an individual a false sense of security. People do things that are risky like not wearing a mask or washing their hands assuming that others have taken safety precautions. "People do things that are risky like not wearing a mask or washing their hands assuming that others have taken safety precautions," she said. "So, 'I'm at less risk because you're wearing the mask.'" In Detroit, where at least 1,420 people have died of the coronavirus, nearly everyone at a shopping center east of downtown last Thursday was wearing a mask. Dee Dee Alexander lives in downtown Detroit and has been pleased to see most of her neighbors wearing masks whenever they are outside. (Erin Einhorn / NBC Newss) Dee Dee Alexander, 63, has had friends and members of her church die from the virus, and said she plans to keep wearing a mask until she knows it's safe to go without one. "I want to live as long as I can," she said. I want to live as long as I can. In Los Angeles, where masks are required to enter virtually every business and are often seen in public, Caleb Auston, 33, said he was in no rush to return to pre-pandemic life even with protections in place. "I have no interest in going to restaurants. I've got no interest in going back to the gym," he said. "I have no interest in being around people for a long time." In Oxford, Mississippi, David Swider, the owner of a small record store called The End of All Music, recently started welcoming customers to his store again. Customers must sign up in advance for one-hour appointments during which they get the store to themselves, and they must wear masks and gloves while inside. "The only way to shop for records is by touching all of them and being very close to them, and it can be a pretty intimate thing," Swider said. It would be devastating to learn that someone got sick because they came to the record store. The moneys not worth it. A decent number of customers have made appointments, helping keep the record store afloat. But Swider does not foresee fully opening up to the public anytime soon. "It would be devastating to learn that someone got sick because they came to the record store," he said. "The money's not worth it." Is an increase in infections inevitable? In many states, confirmed cases of the coronavirus have jumped over the past two weeks. Florida and Arizona recently reported new daily highs, and the CDC forecasts that there could be up to 140,000 deaths from COVID-19 across the U.S. by July. But an out-of-control spike is not inevitable: A British study last week found that widespread mask use in public combined with some lockdown measures could be an "acceptable way of managing the pandemic and re-opening economic activity" while avoiding future waves of the coronavirus while scientists race to develop a vaccine. Two other studies, out of Germany and the United States, found the same thing. For Curran, the nurse in Michigan, the fear of more cases weighs heavily on her. For the time being, she has sent her daughter, Remy, to live with Remy's grandmother, even though there have not been new coronavirus patients in her hospital lately. When she is not working, Curran goes to visit her, sitting on a lawn chair at least 6 feet away. For nearly 100 days, Sarah Curran's daughter, Remy, has been living with her grandmother so she doesn't get the coronavirus, should Curran get exposed through work. This was Remy's Mother's Day card this year for Curran. (Sarah Curran) "Whenever I see people out in public who aren't wearing masks, I just want to tell them this is part of the reason I can't hug my daughter," she said, adding that she doesn't know when she will feel comfortable bringing Remy home. "They think they're not going to get sick. But it's not just about you: You have to think about everybody as a whole." Erin Einhorn contributed reporting from Detroit; Suzanne Gamboa from Austin, Texas; Anita Hassan from Las Vegas; Tyler Kingkade from Los Angeles; and Savannah Smith from Oxford, Mississippi. China issuance of special gov't bonds to have limited impact on liquidity: analysts BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's upcoming issuance of special government bonds for COVID-19 control will have a limited impact on market liquidity and bond prices, analysts said. China will issue the first three batches of special government bonds totaling 170 billion yuan (about 24 billion U.S. dollars) to raise funds for coordinating epidemic control and economic development, the Ministry of Finance said Tuesday. The first two batches of 50 billion yuan of five-year bonds and 50 billion yuan of seven-year bonds will be listed and traded on June 23, while the third batch of 10-year bonds will become tradable on June 30, according to statements on the ministry's website. Following the announcement, spot prices of bonds plunged while treasury yields climbed. Although large-scale government bond issuances inevitably squeeze market liquidity and raise borrowing costs, the impact will be limited, analysts said. Local governments may take into account the special bond issuance and delay some of their own fundraising via bonds, effectively easing their liquidity pressure, said Ming Ming, an analyst with CITIC Securities. In the meantime, the central bank has stepped up open market operations recently, hinting at an easing bias that will relieve some of the pressure, he noted. Zhang Xu, an analyst with Everbright Securities, said some of the funds raised via previous government bond issuances will be spent in June and July, adding to market liquidity. China will pursue a more proactive and impactful fiscal policy, setting its fiscal deficit above 3.6 percent of GDP and issuing 1 trillion yuan of government bonds for COVID-19 control this year to release more funds for companies and individuals. The overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate, which measures the borrowing cost of China's interbank market, rose by 29.7 basis points to 2.048 percent Wednesday. Seoul District Court judge Kim Young-ki, right, listens to a plaintiff's lawyer, visible on the screen, during a video hearing on Wednesday in Seoul. Yonhap By Kim Se-jeong At 11:20 a.m. on Wednesday, courtroom 477 of the Seoul Central District Court was unusually empty. Judge Kim Young-ki entered the room, sat down, took off his mask and started to talk to the computer screen in front of him. "Legal representative for the plaintiff, can you hear me okay?" he asked. "Yes, I can," the lawyer on the computer screen answered. Her face was projected on a big white screen on the wall to the judge's right. The judge also asked the same question to the defendant's side before hearing their claims. The hearing was to decide whether a hot dog outlet located at a tourist spot on Geoje Island violated the unfair competition prevention law by selling the same food that was being sold in another outlet close by. The owner of the original restaurant who brought up the case claimed the second restaurant also stole its trademark. The plaintiff's lawyer took part in the hearing from her Seoul office, while the defendant and his lawyer were at the Changwon District Court where video conferencing was possible. The COVID-19 pandemic is changing how courts operate in Korea. The court revised rules for civil lawsuits recently permitting video hearings if both sides agree. The new rules went into effect on June 1, and Wednesday's hearing was the first since then. Wednesday's video hearing was arranged as the defendant's lawyer, who is from Tongyong, South Gyeongsang Province, requested for the court to reschedule the hearing. The pandemic led to changes to the bus schedules and made it difficult for the lawyer to attend the scheduled hearing. "It's not that there were zero online hearings before," said a district court official, "but now the law says video hearings are an option and that's what makes it significant." Wednesday's hearing, which lasted less than one hour, went smoothly. No major technical problems occurred during the session. The judge had no problem opening or sharing documents from the plaintiff and defendant. Voices were also clear for the most part. The two sides agreed to hold the next hearing online as well. Asked by the judge how they liked the video hearing, both the defendant, his lawyer and the plaintiff's lawyer expressed satisfaction. "It's convenient that I don't have to come to Seoul," the defendant said. The judge said, "The court is hoping to offer a better service to citizens and that's why we started the online hearing service. Please feel free to use it." The pandemic brought about similar changes to other courts in the country. The Seoul Bankruptcy Court has already conducted 10 video hearings since May and equipped six rooms with the necessary equipment. This isn't happening only in Korea. Courts around the world are going through similar changes. According to the Financial Times, the High Court in the U.K. conducted video hearings in March for a case brought by the Republic of Kazakhstan against Moldovan businessman Anatolie Stati and U.S. bank BNY Mellon. All hearings were livestreamed on YouTube. A 33-year-old Middletown police officer has been charged with falsifying records after authorities said he lied about how his patrol vehicle became damaged, authorities said Wednesday. Thomas E. Foster, of Keyport, backed the police cruiser into a parked pickup on Cedar Avenue on July 3, 2019 while on assignment at a road repair project, the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office said. Both vehicles were damaged. Foster, however, filed a report claiming he contacted a telephone pole while backing out of a parking spot, prosecutors said. Another cop notified the police administration after suspecting potential wrongdoing and untruthfulness, Middletown police said in their own statement. After the departments internal affairs investigation showed inconsistencies in Fosters report, Middletown police notified the prosecutors office. Foster was served with the criminal complaint and on Tuesday was suspended without pay, Deputy Chief Paul Bailey said. Foster, who was hired in August 2014, is paid an annual salary of $77,699, according to public records. Dishonesty will never be tolerated within our department by any of our officers, Middletown police chief Craig Weber said in the statement. The alleged conduct is unacceptable and does not reflect the values of our agency and we strongly condemn the officers actions. Foster is the 26th law enforcement officer criminally charged in Monmouth County since 2012, the prosecutors office noted. He faces up to 18 months in state prison if convicted of the fourth-degree charge. Fosters West Long Branch-based attorney, Charles J. Uliano, didnt immediately return a phone call from NJ Advance Media asking for comment. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A temporary Black Lives Matter chalk mural will appear on one of Mobiles downtown streets Sunday, marking Juneteenth celebrations in the port city. However, requests from city council president Levon Manzie to make the Conti Street mural a permanent fixture have gone unanswered. In Manzies June 15 letter, he asked Mayor Sandy Stimpson for approval to paint the mural. In its aftermath, many cities have allowed local artists and activists to help move the healing process along by expressing the communitys commitment through Black Lives Matters Murals, wrote Manzie. I would greatly appreciate you providing the authorization for one to be painted on Conti Street in front of the Alabama Contemporary Art Center. [In Birmingham: Black Lives Matter: Activists, volunteers make their mark] He added: This would be a beautiful, much needed and healing message and I am hopeful you will expedite the approval of this project. I am proud to have made this request on behalf of a group of local artists and many community members. Our city and... Posted by Levon Charles Manzie on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 A spokesperson for the city said that it had granted permission for the chalk mural but did not say whether it would be made permanent. The chalk mural comes during a unique time for race relations in Mobile, elsewhere in the Alabama and throughout the country. While the first protest in Mobile on May 31 contained some mild violence and civil unrest, the following two and a half weeks have been without any major incidents. Similar Black Lives Matter murals have been created in New York, Austin, Washington D.C. and in Birmingham. A Black Lives Matter mural is expected to be created in Prichard on Saturday, according to organizers. Several organizations and local artists in Mobile are collaborating to help create the Conti Street mural. Lucy Gafford, executive cirector of the Mobile Arts Council, said she hopes the mural will bring the community closer together. We hope that this peaceful demonstration, in conjunction with the virtual Juneteenth event, will work to bring our community closer together, she said in a statement to AL.com. An essential function of the arts, and humanity, is to learn from each others collective experiences. During these times of crisis, it is vitally important for us to exhibit compassion for one another. The Mobile Arts Council stands with others in our community and throughout the world in support of racial equality and justice, and it is our wish that Mobile will work together to make everyones well-being a priority. The first stage of the Mobile Black Lives Matter Mural Project is designed to proceed quickly and coincide with Mobiles Virtual Juneteenth Celebration. The Celebration will begin at 1 p.m. This Project is also committed to bringing a sustained long-term show of support for the Black Communities of Mobile and the surrounding areas, according to a press release from organizers, who invited the public to take part. Ample precautions will be taken to minimize risk of contributing to the spread of COVID-19, and all participants are encouraged to wear masks and engage in social distancing as much as possible, said a press release from organizers. Rainbow Mobile, an LGBTQ community organization, will also have a hand in the organization and creation of the mural. Bryan Fuenmayor, executive director of the group, said in a statement that his group was proud to be a part of the project and hoped it would serve as a way to open dialogue about the continuing threat of racism in the community. We believe that racism is a pandemic, he said. And hope that this project will serve as a launching pad to start having these difficult and uncomfortable conversations with one another about how we can all become more anti-racist in our words and actions, and learn about systemic racism, white privilege, and more. There is still much progress needed in our communities, and we hope to facilitate this positive change. In a recent Facebook post, the Alabama Contemporary Art Center asked for donations of water and chalk. They are also taking monetary donations to help in the effort. Donations can be dropped off at 301 Conti Street in Mobile. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 04:43:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Georgia state's Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard on Wednesday announced 11 charges, including felony murder, against Garrett Rolfe, the former Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks last week. Rolfe, if found guilty of felony murder, could face life in prison without parole or the death penalty, Howard said in a press conference. Rolfe was fired after footage showed him shooting at Brooks multiple times from the back as the 27-year-old African American man fled during an encounter outside a restaurant in Atlanta last Friday night. Arrest warrants have been issued for Rolfe and Devin Brosnan, the other officer on the scene. Brosnan has been placed on administrative duty, and charged with three criminal counts including aggravated assault. He will be a witness for the state, according to Howard. Enditem MADISON, Wis. - The U.S. Army Reserve suspended the commander of an Illinois-based unit Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations that unit officers mishandled sexual misconduct complaints and retaliated against a whistleblower. Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey, commanding general of the Army Reserve Command, suspended the 416th Theater Engineering Commands commander, the Army said. The statement didnt identify the commander by name, but the units website lists Maj. Gen. Miyako Schanely as its leader. The 416ths spokesman, Jason Proseus, didnt immediately return an after-hours email Tuesday evening. According to Schanelys biography, she joined the Army in 1986, transitioned to the reserves in 1993 and held command positions with units at Fort Drum, Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Dix as well as in Syracuse, New York. She also serves as the executive director of the State University of New York North Country Consortium, a partnership of six SUNY campuses that works to bring college degree programs to Fort Drum. The Army statement said such suspensions are routine during ongoing investigations. It added, however, that a number of potentially adverse findings have been tied to 416th officers. The statement did not elaborate or name the officers, saying only that the officers will be entitled to free legal representation as they draft their responses. The statement said the Army is committed to preventing sexual harassment and sexual assault, each of which harms Soldiers and erodes unit readiness and cohesion. Army spokeswoman Col. Sunset Belinsky said she wouldnt have any further information until the investigation is complete. The 416th, based in the Chicago suburb of Darien, provides technical and engineering support for U.S. military forces. It serves as the headquarters for nearly 11,000 soldiers in 26 states west of the Mississippi River. Amy Braley Franck, a civilian sexual assault victim advocate with the 416th, has alleged that commanders launched internal investigations into at least two sexual assault cases, one in 2018 and another last year. Federal law and Department of Defence policy require that commanders refer sexual assault complaints to criminal investigators in their respective branches to avoid biased investigations. Commanders who dont follow the proper channels can face reprimand, removal from command or a court martial. The Wisconsin National Guards top commander, Adj. Gen. Donald Dunbar, resigned in December after a federal review found he had been launching internal sexual assault investigations rather than forwarding complaints to the National Guard Bureau. Hes still under Air Force investigation. Braley Franck also has alleged that the 416th went months without holding a sexual assault management meeting, even though the DOD requires such meetings monthly, and unit commanders also placed a victim on a firing range with someone she had accused of sexual harassment, causing her to fear for her life. Braley Francks commanders suspended her in November in what she believes was retaliation for alerting Army criminal investigators to the internal probes. The Army Reserve launched an investigation into the 416th in January in response to a request from Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth. The senators cited an Associated Press story about Braley Francks allegations in their request. Aides for Durbin and Duckworth didnt immediately respond to an after-hours email seeking comment Tuesday evening. Braley Franck said Schanely and other 416th commanders have ignored her allegations and sexual misconduct victims dont trust them. Any commander that ignores a subject matter expert for the betterment of their formation, their soldiers will not trust them, she said. When soldiers dont trust their leaders to take care of them, theyre not going to trust them on the battlefield. ___ Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1 ___ This story has been corrected to attribute information on the suspension, including a quote, to an Army statement rather than to the Army Reserve Commands commanding general. So, Google was demonetizing the Federalist, and then it wasnt. NBC News has the story, or it doesnt. On Tuesday, NBC News published a story claiming that Google had banned the Federalist, a right-wing news and commentary site, from its advertising platform. The Federalist, according to NBC News, was being demonetized. Google shortly thereafter asserted that no such thing had happened with the Federalist; Google took issue with some of the content in the Federalists comments section and worked with the publication to resolve the issue. This was all generally related to criticism of the recent protests originating in Minneapolis and Black Lives Matter, an organization of which the Left intends to permit no criticism. NBC News did what looks like some bad reporting. But NBC News also was at the heart of the story: A complaint from NBC News is what started off Googles review process to begin with, at least according to a report from NBC News, which, apparently, is not to be trusted here. The Federalist may not be everybodys cup of tea, but NBCs campaign against the publication looks like the new rabid normal in journalism. Adele-Momoko Fraser, the NBC journalist at the center of the story, festooned her tweeting gloating about the Federalists fictional demonetization with the Black Lives Matter activist hashtag and described her work as collaboration with left-wing activists. Collaboration, yes. Journalism? No. Media outfits that rely heavily upon the goodwill and cooperation of Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc., are making a very dangerous bet. These companies have shown time and again that they can be bullied and bullied fairly easily by Beijing, by Brussels, and, most important, by their own employees. They are media companies of a kind, but what they mostly are is commodity eyeball aggregators with no abiding interest in journalism or democratic discourse and no real grounding in the history and culture of free speech and freedom of the press. Story continues They are multi-multi-billion-dollar behemoths, but they are oddly easy to push around, if the right kind of person is doing the pushing. And the people at the Federalist arent the kind that the powers in Silicon Valley companies care about very much, even if they do take an occasional Jane Goodallish interest in conservatives. The Left will try to shut down the Federalist, just as it has tried to cancel Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh. We expect that National Review will be targeted in the same way in turn. We have been sounding the alarm about the authoritarianism and illiberalism of the Left for years, and the current nadir is surprising even to us. Remember this: If they can do it to the Federalist, if they can do it to the New York Times, if they can do it to the University of Chicago, they can do it to you. More from National Review Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2020) - The Very Good Food Company Inc. (CSE: VERY) ("VGF" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the successful completion of its initial public offering (the "Offering"), including the full exercise of the over-allotment option by the agent for the Offering, Canaccord Genuity Corp. ("Canaccord"), resulting in the issuance of 16,100,000 common shares of the Company ("Common Shares") at a price of $0.25 per Common Share for gross proceeds of $4,025,000. The Common Shares were listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") on June 16, 2020 and will commence trading on the CSE at market open on June 18, 2020, under the symbol "VERY". CEO Mitchell Scott stated: "This IPO is a critical milestone for VGF. It provides us with the capital to realize our vision of becoming a global leader in food technology, creating a healthier alternative to existing options and offering a premium customer experience. We have seen significant growth in our eCommerce and in-store sales, including a rapid increase in subscriptions to our monthly recurring delivery service. We intend to scale our operations aggressively and continuously reinvest in creating the highest quality, most innovative plant-based products for our customers." Use of Proceeds The Company anticipates using the net proceeds from the Offering to accelerate its expansion plans, and to continue developing innovative new products to increase market share. Key priorities include funding the build-out of its Vancouver facility, increasing production capabilities, as well as investing in research & development. Appointment of Chief Operating Officer VGF is also pleased to welcome Brian Greenleaf as the Company's new Chief Operating Officer. Most recently, he played a key role in creating the world's largest medical marijuana company (Canopy Growth Corp) as Director of Operations. Mr. Greenleaf holds a degree in Engineering physics and additionally has experience in IT, Marketing, Business Development, Financial Management and Operations. Brian will be a critical asset in scaling operations as the Company builds a globally recognized brand, serving customers and businesses internationally. Story continues In connection with his appointment, Mr. Greenleaf has been granted 240,000 incentive stock options exercisable at a price of $0.25 until June 17, 2025. IPO Details The Common Shares were issued pursuant to a final prospectus dated May 14, 2020, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (the "Prospectus"). A copy of the Prospectus is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Canaccord received a commission of $322,000 (representing 8% of the gross proceeds realized from the Offering) of which $241,500 was paid in cash and $80,500 through the issuance of 322,000 Common Shares at a deemed price of $0.25 per Common Share. Canaccord was also granted 1,288,000 warrants exercisable to purchase Common Shares at a price of $0.25 per Common Share until June 17, 2021 (the "Agent's Warrants"). The Company today also announced that it has engaged Canaccord to provide certain financial advisory services and as compensation thereunder has granted to Canaccord an aggregate of 500,000 warrants exercisable at a price of $0.25 at any time after the volume weighted average price of the Common Shares is equal to or exceeds $0.62 until December 17, 2021 (the "Advisory Warrants"). Upon commencement of trading, it is anticipated that VGF will have 69,598,725 issued and outstanding Common Shares (28,008,343 of which are subject to escrow restrictions), 4,613,500 Common Shares reserved for issuance pursuant to the exercise of outstanding incentive options, 1,288,000 Common Shares reserved for issuance pursuant to the exercise of the Agents' Warrants and 500,000 Common Shares reserved for issuance pursuant to the Advisory Warrants. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The Common Shares 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. Accordingly, the Common Shares may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to exemptions from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of VGF in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About The Very Good Food Company The Very Good Food Company Inc. is an emerging plant-based food technology company that designs, develops, produces, distributes and sells a variety of plant-based meat and other food alternatives. Our mission is to employ plant-based food technology to create products that are delicious while maintaining a wholesome nutritional profile. To date, we have developed a core product line under The Very Good Butchers brand. For further information, please contact: Mitchell Scott Chief Executive Officer and Director Phone: +1 855-472-9841 Email: invest@verygoodbutchers.com Forward-Looking Information Certain information contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information under applicable securities laws including, but not limited to, statements related to the anticipated time of trading of the Common Shares on the CSE, the anticipated use of net proceeds raised under the Offering, the Company's vision of becoming a global leader in food technology, the attributes of the Company's products as healthier alternatives to existing options and the Company's plans to scale operations, establish a market leadership position and build a globally recognized brand. This information is based on management's reasonable assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it and are made as of the date of this news release. However, the Company does not undertake to update any such forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws in Canada. Actual results and the timing of events or developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking information as a result of various risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, without limitation, those described in the "Risk Factors" section of the Prospectus such as negative cash flow and future financing requirements to sustain operations, dilution, limited history of operations and revenues and no history of earnings or dividends, competition, economic changes and the impact of and risks associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A copy of the Prospectus can be accessed under VGF's profile on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval ("SEDAR") at www.sedar.com. We caution that the list of risk factors and uncertainties is not exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect our results. Readers are urged to consider the risks, uncertainties and assumptions carefully in evaluating the forward-looking information and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. Not for dissemination in the United States or for distribution to U.S. newswire services To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/58080 Early details are here from the John Bolton book that President Trump's legal threats are sending to the top of the bestseller lists. The big picture: Bolton claims Trump asked China to help him win in 2020. He also throws his former colleagues under the bus and taunts Democrats for committing impeachment malpractice. Bolton had a reputation as a prolific note taker, filling yellow legal pad after yellow legal pad with notes. Highlights from a copy obtained by the N.Y. Times' Peter Baker: Impeachment: Bolton says Democrats failed by focusing the probe on Ukraine rather than on other cases involving China and Turkey. Bolton says Democrats failed by focusing the probe on Ukraine rather than on other cases involving China and Turkey. Gossip: Bolton alleges Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped him a note calling Trump "full of shit" during a 2018 meeting with Kim Jong-un. Bolton alleges Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped him a note calling Trump "full of shit" during a 2018 meeting with Kim Jong-un. Trump gaffes: Bolton alleges Trump didn't know the U.K. was a nuclear power and claims Trump asked if Finland was part of Russia. Bolton alleges Trump didn't know the U.K. was a nuclear power and claims Trump asked if Finland was part of Russia. Journalists: Bolton alleges Trump privately told him reporters deserve prison. "These people should be executed. They are scumbags." Bolton's own words, via an excerpt published in the WSJ: "Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure hed win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome." the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure hed win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome." "I would print Trumps exact words, but the governments prepublication review process has decided otherwise." but the governments prepublication review process has decided otherwise." "At the opening dinner of the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang. According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do." in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang. According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do." "One of Trumps favorite comparisons was to point to the tip of one of his Sharpies and say, 'This is Taiwan,' then point to the historic Resolute desk in the Oval Office and say, 'This is China.' Between the lines: House intel chair Adam Schiff, who led the Democratic impeachment probe, tweeted his commentary on the book: "When Bolton was asked, he refused, and said hed sue if subpoenaed. Instead, he saved it for a book. Bolton may be an author, but hes no patriot." The bottom line: Bolton's book is scheduled to go public on June 23. The House impeachment vote was on Dec. 18. Go deeper: Read more highlights Taylor Energy has filed a lawsuit challenging the Coast Guards order for the New Orleans oil company to halt a more than 15-year-long oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Filed in federal court in New Orleans on Monday, the lawsuit asserts that Taylor is not liable for the costs, penalties or damages related to collecting or halting the oil flowing from the site of its broken deepwater wells. Taylor also questions whether the high volume of oil the Coast Guard says is being collected from Taylors wells is actually oil from its wells. The Taylor Energy site has produced what many scientists say is one of the largest and longest-running oil disasters in U.S. history. The lawsuit comes a few weeks after the Coast Guard billed Taylor $43 million for more than a years worth of oil collection and removal costs. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan triggered an underwater mudslide that toppled Taylors Mississippi Canyon Block 20 oil platform, often referred to as MC20, which sat about 10 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. Taylor plugged and covered some of the broken wells, but large oily sheens have been visible on the waters surface for more than a decade. Video from the Taylor oil well site In 2018, the Coast Guard ordered Taylor to fix the problem after a government-commissioned study estimated the platform site was releasing between 10,500 and 29,000 gallons of oil per day. That volume was vastly larger than the dozen or so gallons per day estimated by scientists hired by Taylor. When Taylor refused to take action, the Coast Guard hired the Couvillion Group, a Belle Chasse marine contractor, to do the job. Taylor sued Couvillion, arguing the contractor was unqualified and would likely cause larger releases of oil. Couvillion started work anyway, installing in April 2019 a custom-built contraption that catches oil as it bubbles upwards. In one year, Couvillion recovered about 400,000 gallons of oil, according to Couvillion and the Coast Guard. Thats the equivalent of four oil spills the Coast Guard would define as environmental disasters of national significance. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The Coast Guard is reviewing Taylor's latest lawsuit and was not ready to comment on Tuesday. A Taylor spokesman declined to discuss the lawsuit, saying it speaks for itself. Taylor has long sought to downplay its responsibility for the continued leaks. Its lawsuit attacks the Coast Guards cleanup and containment efforts, which began in 2018, on several fronts. It questions the validity of the Coast Guard cleanup order, exaggerated and excessive" costs associated with Couvillions work, and the Coast Guards alleged failure to show proof of the oil collected. Perhaps the boldest assertion is that the oil Couvillion is collecting isnt from Taylor wells. Any oil that has been collected at the MC20 Site by the Coast Guard and/or Couvillion is not oil sourced to the Taylor Energy wells at MC20, the lawsuit says. The Coast Guard, Couvillion and several university and government scientists say the oil leaking from the Taylor site is, indeed, Taylor's. Scientists hired by Taylor have said the oil leaving the site is not from subsurface wells and is instead from oil that seeped into the seafloor when the platform toppled. They say attempts to clean up oil embedded in sediment on the seafloor would likely release more oil than could be collected. Taylor, which is no longer in the oil business, is trying to get back the remaining $430 million from a $666 million trust the company was required to create to pay for oil that escaped after the platform was destroyed. Taylor says it has done all it can at the site, and that the remaining funds should be returned. The Coast Guard expects Taylor to reimburse the $43 million spent so far on oil collection and removal. Taylor would be held responsible for continuing cleanup costs unless a permanent fix, which would also be expensive, is devised. Taylor Energy was founded by Patrick Taylor, the late oilman who started and initially funded a merit-based college scholarship program for Louisianans that is now known as TOPS. He died a few weeks after the platform toppled, and all his company's oil leases and other oil and gas assets were sold four years later. The company, which has declined to say what assets remain, is led by Patrick Taylor's widow, Phyllis Taylor, a prominent philanthropist and political donor. Clarification: An earlier version of this story said the Coast Guard expects a trust associated with Taylor Energy to cover cleanup costs. In fact, the Coast Guard said only that Taylor is responsible for costs and did not specify that the money should come from the trust. In the couple of months gone by, the one thing which has been on director Milap Zaveris mind is Satyameva Jayate 2, the sequel that hes directing to his 2018 original. He reveals he has been making more changes to the script, which include making the action sequences bigger, and finding a new thing for John Abraham (the lead in the film) to break after a tire in the original. I am adding more punch lines in the script. I plan to resume shooting soon. Apart from this, I spent time with my family and my five-and-a-half-year old son. I also wrote two poems and filmed them on Manoj Bajpayee and John respectively (virtually), which got a great response. I have stayed positive throughout. Zaveri also took to social media recently to hint at him restarting Satyameva Jayate 2. While it was earlier slated to release in August, its only now that the shooting might commence. But what about other ready films? The debate on releasing films direct-to-OTT vs wait for a theatrical release continues to rage on . The filmmaker has a very straight take on this. I understand the point of view of producers as well as cinemas. What everyone should understand is even producers give salaries to employees, and office staff. If a film is delayed indefinitely, theres interest on capital. So certain producers are trying to do when they feel they cant bear the burden anymore, he says. For the theatre owners, he adds, this is not the new normal. Eventually when cinemas reopen, he feels masses will rush back. In Norway, when theatres reopened with 50 percent capacity, they were houseful on the weekend. There are more people out now on the beaches in United States than there are at home. I genuinely believe that mass entertainers like Sooryavanshi, Coolie No 1 are big screen experiences and people will come to theatres. I may see certain films at home, on OTT platforms, but if I want to enjoy larger-than-life films, I have to go to the cinemas for that, Zaveri asserts. Follow @htshowbiz for more Two books expected to be highly critical of President Donald Trump one by his niece Mary, the other by his former national security advisor John Bolton are among the top-selling books on online retail giant Amazon even though they have yet to be released. Bolton's book "The Room Where it Happened," which the Justice Department sued to block the release of on Tuesday night, was the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon on Wednesday morning based on presale orders, according to the site's sales tracker. The suit claims that Bolton has not finished a review process required of authors who had government security clearance. Bolton's book is due to be published Tuesday. The Justice Department late on Wednesday filed an emergency application for a temporary restraining order and a motion for a preliminary injunction against Bolton to prevent the publication of his book, NBC News reported. The motion asks the court to schedule a hearing on Friday, four days before the book is scheduled to be released. Mary Trump's book, which President Trump reportedly is considering legal action against, was the No. 5 bestseller on Amazon, more than a month before its official publication date. Her book, which comes as President Trump is seeking reelection, is titled, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man." A third book, about first lady Melania Trump, is also selling well on Amazon, according to the site's sales tracker. That book, "The Art of Her Deal," was No. 49 on the sales chart a day after it was published by Simon & Schuster the same publisher of the books by Bolton and Mary Trump. The book was written by Washington Post journalist Mary Jordan, who reports that the first lady renegotiated the terms of her prenuptial agreement with the president before she moved into the White House with their son, Barron, months after the president was inaugurated. Melania Trump's spokeswoman has called it "yet another book about Mrs. Trump with false information and sources. This book belongs in the fiction genre." Daily Beast reporter Lachlan Cartwright on Sunday broke the news that Mary Trump was coming out with a book, which will detail "harrowing and salacious stories" about the president. The news site also reported the book will detail the previously undisclosed fact that Mary Trump was the main source for a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by The New York Times, which alleged that President Trump "participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents." The Times stories relied on tax returns by the president's father, Fred Trump Sr., and other private family financial records, according to The Daily Beast. People who have had contact with the Xinfadi Wholesale Market, or someone who has, line up for a nucleic acid test for CCP virus at a testing center in Beijing, China, on June 16, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) Beijings New Outbreak Raises Fears for Rest of the World BEIJINGChina raised its emergency warning to its second-highest level and canceled more than 60 percent of the flights to Beijing on June 17 amid a new CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak in the capitalwarning the rest of the world about how tenacious this CCP virus really is. New infections spiked in India, Iran, and U.S. states as authorities struggled to balance restarting economic activity without accelerating the spread of the pandemic. European nations, which embarked on a widescale reopening this week, looked on with trepidation as the Americas struggled mightily to contain the first wave of the pandemic and Asian nations like China and South Korea reported new outbreaks, giving rise to fears of a second wave. Medical staff in full protective gear carry signs to assist people who live near or who have visited the Xinfadi Market, a wholesale food market where a new CCP virus cluster has emerged, as they arrive for testing in Beijing, China, on June 17, 2020. (Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images) In China, officials described the situation in Beijing as extremely grave. This has truly rung an alarm bell for us, Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of Beijings Communist Party Standing Committee. The partys Global Times said 1,255 flights to and from the capitals two major airports were scrapped by Wednesday morning, about two-thirds of those scheduled. Beijing Capital Airport is traditionally the worlds second busiest in passenger capacity. People wearing protective gear are pictured inside the terminal at Beijings international airport, China, on June 17, 2020. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) Since the CCP virus emerged in China late last year and spread worldwide, there have been more than 8.1 million confirmed cases and at least 443,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say the true toll is much higher, due to the many who died without being tested and other factors. Airline employees redirect a traveler at a checkpoint for passengers from high-risk areas to present their CCP virus test results before checking in for their flight at the Beijing Capital Airport terminal 2 in Beijing, China, on June 17, 2020. (Ng Han Guan/AP Photo) Canada and the United States, meanwhile, decided to extend to July 21 a deal to keep their border closed to nonessential travel, with many Canadians fearing cases arriving from the United States. This is a decision that will protect people on both sides of the border as we continue to fight COVID-19, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. A street vendor walks away with her mannequin during a police operation to evict a group of street vendors who came out to sell their products, ignoring lockdown measures to curb the spread of the CCP virus, in La Victoria district, in Lima, Peru, on June 16, 2020. (Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo) As the United States struggles with the first wave of the CCP virus, other countries where it was widely thought to be under control faced disturbing developments. Prime minister Giuseppe Conte wears a face mask to prevent the spread of the CCP virus as he arrives to address parliament on the next European Council meeting, in Rome, Italy, on June 17, 2020. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse/AP) In South Korea, authorities reported 43 new cases amid increased public activity. Authorities said 25 of them came from the Seoul metropolitan area, where hundreds of infections have been linked to nightclubs, church gatherings, e-commerce workers, and door-to-door salespeople. Twelve of the new cases were linked to international arrivals. Not long after declaring itself CCP virus-free, New Zealand is dealing with a reemergence of the CCP virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern assigned a top military leader to oversee the border quarantines after what she described as an unacceptable failure by health officials. They had allowed two New Zealand citizens who had recently returned from London to leave quarantine before being tested to see a dying relative. After the women tested positive, New Zealand began tracing their potential contacts to ensure the CCP virus is contained. A keeper wearing protective face mask feeds giraffes at Ragunan Zoo prior to its reopening this weekend after weeks of closure due to the large-scale restrictions imposed to help curb the CCP virus outbreak, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 17, 2020. (Dita Alangkara/AP Photo) Their cases raised the specter that international air travel could ignite a new surge of the CCP virus just as countries are reopening airports to boost their devastated tourism industries. The flight cancellations in China were among a number of travel limits placed around the capital. Beijing had essentially eradicated local transmissions until recent days, with 137 new cases since last week. On Wednesday, the city of 20 million people raised its threat level from 3 to 2, leading to the cancellation of classes, suspended reopenings, and stronger requirements for social distancing. China had relaxed many CCP virus controls after the Communist Party declared victory over the CCP virus in March. India added more than 2,000 deaths to its tally, after Delhi and Maharashtra states included 1,672 previously unreported fatalities. India has been reporting some 10,000 new infections and more than 300 deaths each day for the last two weeks, with a death toll of 11,903. Medical staff along with Hindu hardline group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteers walk through a market for door-to-door medical screening inside a slum to fight against the spread of the CCP virus in Mumbai, India, on June 17, 2020. (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images) In Europe, which has seen over 184,000 CCP virus-related deaths, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that a ceremony will be held on July 16 to honor the countrys more than 27,000 dead. Denmarks health minister urged anyone who joined a large protest against racial injustice on June 7 to be tested whether you have symptoms or not after one person in the crowd tested positive. As long as we have the virus in Europe and in Denmark, it will flare-up. We are dealing with a very, very contagious disease, said Health Minister Magnus Heunicke. By Ken Moritsugh, David Rising and Rod McGuirk Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 16:45:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SEOUL, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean stocks on Wednesday managed to end in positive territory despite growing geopolitical risks on the Korean Peninsula. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 3.00 points, or 0.14 percent, to settle at 2,141.05. Trading volume stood at 914.8 million shares worth 15.2 trillion won (12.5 billion U.S. dollars). The main index bobbed in and out of the positive territory throughout the session, managing to end higher slightly though geopolitical risks emerged on the Korean Peninsula. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) demolished the inter-Korean liaison office building in its border city of Kaesong by explosion on Tuesday. It came in protest against anti-DPRK leaflets scattered across the inter-Korean border by South Korean civic groups, mostly composed of defectors from the DPRK. Pyongyang has cut off all communications lines with Seoul. Market watchers said geopolitical risks had a limited impact on market sentiment owing to the recently announced positive economic data from major economies. Foreign and institutional investors sold local stocks, but retail investors were net buyers. Large-cap shares gained ground. Memory chip giant SK Hynix increased 1.6 percent and leading chemical firm LG Chem climbed 0.8 percent. The most-used search engine Naver advanced 3.1 percent and Samsung SDI went up 2.3 percent. Geopolitical risks also had a limited influence on the foreign exchange market. The local currency finished at 1,213.9 won versus the greenback, down 6.7 won from the previous close. Premium on credit default swap (CDS), which gauges credit risk on the 5-year government bonds, was unchanged at 27 basis points overnight. The average CDS premium in May was 32 basis points. Bond prices ended lower. Yields on the liquid three-year treasury notes rose 1.4 basis points to 0.874 percent, and the return on the 10-year government bonds added 0.7 basis points to 1.409 percent. Enditem GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The teacher librarians at Northview Public Schools have been distributing $20,000 worth of books to elementary students this month. The Elementary Literacy Committee began planning for the June book distribution in January. The teacher librarians purchased almost 4,000 books from Scholastic to ensure students in developmental kindergarten through fourth grade could start their summer reading off right. Carrie Davies, a committee member and teacher librarian at North Oakview and West Oakview elementary schools told MLive Tuesday, June 16 that the committee was very intentional about selecting books from a variety of genres and formats. We wanted to make sure we had representative titles so that every kid feels like they could choose a book where they see themselves," said Davies. Families can sign-up online for a 10-minute time slot to visit one of six tables with books in the gymnasium at Highland Middle school, located at 4645 Chandy Dr. NE. Each of the roughly 1,100 students is able to select three books to take home. Books will be distributed again on Thursday, June 18, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Tuesday, Erin Atkinson, a Northview parent and social worker at the middle school, was one of approximately 120 families who took advantage of the opportunity. With the libraries being closed ... its really awesome to have some new books at home, said Atkinson, mother of three. She described the program as generous and believes the books will help her daughters prepare for the next school year. Due to an Early Literacy Grant of roughly $11,000 from the state of Michigan and $2,000 from an anonymous donor, the committee began with $13,000. They were able to secure an extra $7,000 worth of books through Scholastics program which provides an additional 50 percent of funds in Scholastic dollars. While the books were initially intended to be distributed during the final week of school, the process was altered to account for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The teacher librarians are hopeful every book will make its way to a students home this summer. If there are any books left after this week, the committee will arrange for each child who did not receive books to do so by next school year. For some of our kids these will possibly be the only books they own, said Kurt Stroh, a teacher librarian at the districts elementary schools and committee member. Stroh emphasized the importance of students feeling empowered through ownership of books. He hopes to see each child use the program to begin or continue to build their home libraries. The districts Early Literacy Committee consists of volunteer representatives from the community ranging from paraprofessionals to school board members. More from MLive: Tuesday, June 16: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel wants to take retirement benefits from bad cops, other possible reforms Grand Rapids Community College to waive online course fees next school year Rogers & Cowan PMK is partnering with One GS Media, the new for-profit subsidiary of Girl Scouts USA, on the launch of its new media brand and online platform CircleAround. R&CPMK will provide comprehensive brand conceptualization, strategy, content creation, communications, launch and execution support to create and amplify opportunities for CircleAround and OGSM. In addition, the agency will collaborate with One GS Media on revenue-generating sponsorship and partnership opportunities for the new website. Launching in July, CircleAround will feature content tailored for women with specific messages of commonality, positivity and inclusivity. Subjects the platform will cover include wellness, work, money, parenting, relationships and news. Verizon Business and Shutterstock will serve as founding partners of CircleAround. Formal partnership details will be released in the coming days, with additional media and signature partners set to be announced in the coming weeks. French/West/Vaughan has been selected as agency of record for Nutramax Laboratories Consumer Cares Avmacol nutritional supplements. FWV will work alongside the Avmacol marketing team in Lancaster, SC, raising brand awareness and educating the public about clinical studies of the products effects through public relations, creative, paid media and social media strategy and execution. Avmacol supports the production of sulforaphane, a phytochemical that turns on genes, resulting in what the company says are powerful health benefits. FWV has already kicked off work on behalf of the Avmacol brand. KMR Communications has added Riverchase Dermatology, Perfect Image and Dr. Durga Posina to its client roster. For Riverchase Dermatology, one of Floridas largest dermatology practices, KMR will work to position the practices doctors as key opinion leaders. Nevada-based skincare company Perfect Image has enlisted KMR to undertake outreach to beauty media and influencers, presenting the company as an industry disruptor. KMR will work to position Dr. Durga Posina as an internist with a focus on beauty. Posina is starting up a website, and she also plans to launch a hand sanitizer and a lip balm. Photos show Virginia State Police troopers used Charlottesville city vehicles to respond during a weekend rally protesting police brutality, refuting a claim by Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney. Planning Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg shared pictures with the city council during its virtual meeting on Monday and asked why the troopers were seen driving city police-marked vehicles for the rally. Stolzenberg took the photos near City Yard. People wearing VSP uniforms can clearly be seen driving trucks with the city logo and Charlottesville Police marked across the side. The trucks appear to be repurposed maintenance vehicles. We deserve answers for why dozens and dozens, three buses of state troopers, were brought to Vinegar Hill on Saturday to suit up in riot gear and prepare to disrupt the protest, he said. City Yard sits in an area that once was home to Vinegar Hill, a predominantly African American neighborhood that was razed by the city in the 1960s. I dont have any knowledge of any state troopers driving city cars, Brackney said. They didnt have our vehicles and dont have our vehicles. Brackney said Monday and VSP spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Tuesday that the two agencies were operating a unified command led by the University of Virginia Police Department because the rally started on UVa property and was expected to move into the city. Geller directed questions about troopers level of involvement to the city and university police departments. University spokesman Brian Coy confirmed that Tim Longo, UVas head of safety and security, led the establishment of a unified command, which would require localities to sign off on any involvement. Stolzenberg spoke again at the end of the council meeting after the council had a chance to review the photos he sent. However, Brackney was no longer on the virtual meeting call at the time. City Manager Tarron Richardson said that Brackney would provide an update to the council on Tuesday. The Daily Progress asked for comment from Brackney . The city doesnt have anything further to add at this time, spokesman Brian Wheeler responded on Tuesday. Two councilors said Tuesday evening they had yet to receive an update from Brackney. Hundreds of people protested on Saturday, calling for police defunding in a march that started at John Paul Jones Arena on UVa property. The nonviolent protesters marched from the arena along Emmet Street to its intersection with Barracks Road. In some of Stolzenbergs photos, three unmarked tour buses are shown driving down 4th Street Northwest toward City Yard flanked in front and behind by marked VSP vehicles. Men dressed in black gear are later seen getting off the buses at City Yard. Stolzenberg and witnesses on social media reported that the troopers headed to the Barracks Road Shopping Center and turned on Milmont Street. The troopers did not engage with the protesters. VSP has an office in Albemarle County near Fontaine Avenue. Stolzenberg wasnt the only one to speak about the state police presence during Mondays meeting. Its odd that so many state police officers would have descended on Charlottesville when weve had no incidents here of any concern, said Don Gathers, a local activist. Brad Slocum said that he felt Brackney didnt give a very satisfactory answer to earlier questions about police presence. He added that a police aircraft was seen circling the area on radar. Council member Lloyd Snook said during the meeting that it would be very distressing if state police were using city vehicles without CPDs knowledge. Mayor Nikuyah Walker said that state troopers should not be conducting operations in the city without permission. She highlighted a controversy in August when troopers assigned to the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement task force raided a house in the citys Fifeville neighborhood. This is problematic if we did not know it was happening, she said. The state police shouldnt be here without our permission or our planning and permission, and if they are, thats a problem. F ather's Day is approaching, but how long have we celebrated the occasion? The day follows on from Mother's Day - which is celebrated in March in the UK - and honours male parents. It's often an excuse to treat fathers for their love and dedication - and dads get treated with presents and cards from their children. Here's when to celebrate this year, and the reason behind the special day: When is Fathers Day? Father's Day is nearly here / Unsplash The rule of thumb is that fathers day falls on the third Sunday of June, meaning the actual date changes annually. This is the US calculation, so some countries around the world opt for different times of year. For Americans and Britons in 2020, Fathers Day falls on Sunday, June 21. This coincides with the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year - meaning this time, fathers are really cashing in. Why do we celebrate it? Fathers Day is generally believed to have been inaugurated in 1908, by a West Virginian woman who missed her own dad. Grace Clayton had lost her father several years before, but was roused to act by an incident that would shake her town for generations. The 1907 Monogah Mining Disaster left a thousand children fatherless, when an accidental explosion killed 250 fathers and 367 men Inspired by the US first Mothers Day earlier that year, Clayton encouraged her pastor - Reverend Robert Thomas Webb - to dedicate a special service to the victims of Monogah. It was July 5, the closest Sunday to her own fathers birthday. So Fathers Day was not originally a day of breakfast in bed and greetings cards. It was a dedication to unforgotten fathers, and a memorial to the tragic loss of mens lives. Unsplash The date in June was officially designated by President Lyndon Johnson almost 60 years after the Monogah service, in 1966. But if we zoom out historically, it is not that significant a marker. Ritual celebrations of fatherhood can be found within many civilisations. One that endures comes from Catholic Europe in the Middle Ages, where a religious observance has long been held on the Feast of St Joseph - 19 March. St. Joseph stands behind the shining Mother Mary / Picture Post/Getty Images Joseph, guardian of Jesus, was certainly no Virgin Mary - at least in the eyes of Catholics - but he did a respectable job in the undesirable shadow of The Holy Father. Many men would have felt insufferably emasculated by this unchallengeable rival to their wifes affections. But not Joseph. Thanks to St Joseph, fathers are still hailed in Catholic countries on the Festa del papa (Italy) or Dia del Padre (Spain). Russia is unconcerned with rivalling national stereotypes, shunning Fathers Day for Mans Day, in a Soviet tradition that remembers February 23 as the first mass drafting into the revolutionary Red Army. This day is also known as Defender of the Fatherland. (Russian soldiers dress in WWII Red Army uniform, AFP PHOTO / OLGA MALTSEVAO) / AFP PHOTO / OLGA MALTSEVAO Thailand, too, nods to one father in particular. December 5 is their chosen Fathers Day, the birthday of the late king and Father of the Nation, Bhumibol Adulyadej. For several Middle Eastern countries, the Summer Solstice is always Fathers Day. Amid escalating border tensions with China, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has released a list of more than 500 Chinese products to be boycotted. The list includes FMCG products, consumer durables, toys, furnishing fabrics, textiles, builder hardware, footwear, apparel, kitchen items, among others. "By calling for the boycott of these Chinese products, the objective is to reduce import of Chinese Finished goods by $13 billion or about Rs one lakh crore, by December 2021," CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal told BusinessToday.In. "We have raised some very important issues with the government today including cancellation of Delhi-Meerut RRTS project. It should be given to an Indian company instead of the Chinese firm. Secondly, the government should look closely at Chinese funding in various Indian startups such as Paytm and BigBasket," Khandelwal said. The issue of People's Bank of China (PBoC) recently raising its stake in the country's largest non-banking mortgage provider HDFC was also taken up, Khandelwal added. "CAIT requests movie stars to refrain from endorsing Chinese products," he said. "I can't go to the border, but I can boycott Chinese products to support my army and country," Khandelwal also said while sharing CAIT's motto. In the first phase, CAIT has selected more than 500 broad categories of items including over 3,000 items which are made indigenously in India. "Manufacturing of these items do not require any sophisticated technology and even if they do, India is well equipped and therefore the goods manufactured in India can be used very easily in place of the Chinese goods which will reduce India's dependence on China for these goods," CAIT said. The traders' body claims to represent 7 crore traders and 40,000 trade associations across the country. Meanwhile, CAIT on June 10 launched a campaign to boycott Chinese goods with an aim to reduce India's imports of products manufactured in the country by $13 billion by December 2021. The traders' body had prepared a list of 3,000 items which are currently imported from China and easily replaceable by Indian manufactured goods. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: PM Modi held late-night meet with Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah over Ladakh clash Also read: Fuel on fire! Petrol, diesel prices increased for 11th day straight; rates up by Rs 6.4 per litre We regret to inform you that Free Slurpee Day 2020 is canceled. Add it to the list of cancelations due to the coronavirus pandemic. 7-Eleven announced on Tuesday that it would cancel the popular annual freebie due to the uncertainties associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. Its the first year they have not held the annual giveaway since they started the tradition in 2002. The event, and the media coverage around it, regularly draws millions of customers to the convenience store chain on the same day. Gathering nine million of our closest friends in stores on one day just didnt feel right in light of social distancing concerns around Covid-19, said 7Eleven Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Marissa Jarratt. The chain isnt giving up on the tradition this year entirely, however. In lieu of free Slurpees for all on July 11, 7Rewards loyalty program members will receive a coupon for a free medium Slurpee redeemable once at any time in July. The coupons will land on July 1, so get the app here now. Then, between July 7 and 11, a whole pizza will be offered for just $5 and you can redeem an additional free Slurpee with that order. Beyond that, the convenience retailer plans to donate one million meals to Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the country. If youre a Free Slurpee Day die-hard, dont worry. They plan to continue the tradition next year. This year, we have to make changes for the greater good, Jarratt said. "I hope youll join us for the in-person party next year. 7-Eleven, like retailers and food vendors across the country, has increased its safety and cleanliness protocols to protect patrons and workers from the spread of coronavirus. Measures include giving customers access to disposable gloves, tissues and sanitizer stations while shopping in stores and installing sneeze guards and visual floor markers at the front sales counter. Deonte Kemp, 27, of Los Angeles, lights candles at a memorial for Robert Fuller in Poncitlan Square next to Palmdale City Hall. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Arthur Calloway, a Black man, was pulled over so many times in Lancaster by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies asked to step out of his car and handcuffed while it was searched with little or no explanation that he started avoiding certain streets. In the Antelope Valley, he said, he has been confronted multiple times by racist skinheads who told him he doesn't belong. And so, after authorities were quick to say that the death of Robert Fuller a 24-year-old Black man found June 10 hanging from a tree near City Hall in neighboring Palmdale was likely a suicide, Calloway was immediately skeptical. His heart sank when he went to the site two days later and saw no "crime scene" tape around the tree and someone mowing the grass nearby, as if nothing had happened. He thought of his own 20-year-old son. "I wish some of the people who say 'all lives matter' actually believed it," said Calloway, a 39-year-old Air Force veteran and president of the Democratic Club of the High Desert. "If a cop was found in a tree in Palmdale, there would be 600 cops scouring the neighborhood looking for answers." Dominick Ford, right, hugs Alex Gonzalez in front of Palmdale City Hall during a sit-in demanding justice for Robert Fuller. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) In the Antelope Valley, which has a substantial Black population, a history of racism has fueled deep suspicions over Fuller's death, which came after weeks of nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer. Jamon R. Hicks, an attorney for Fuller's family, told The Times it was troubling that the Sheriff's Department did not initially investigate the death as a homicide, given the current protests over racial injustice and "the fact that this is a city that has had a history of racial tension and conflict." "Given that I'm an African American male, our first thought in our community when you see a Black man hanging in a tree is not a suicide," Hicks said. "Our first thought brings us back to a dark time in history where we see public lynchings to send a message." Story continues Five years ago, Los Angeles County reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations that sheriff's deputies had systematically harassed and discriminated against Black people and Latinos in Lancaster and Palmdale. Some of the worst abuses included surprise, military-style sweeps of federally subsidized Section 8 housing, in which armed deputies accompanied housing authorities to look for violations of housing rules, causing some to be evicted. Robert Fuller, 24, was found dead June 10. Federal investigators also found that Black people were much more likely to be stopped and searched than other residents and that deputies had used excessive force against handcuffed detainees. "The trust isn't rebuilt," Calloway said. On Monday, L.A. County Medical Examiner-Coroner Dr. Jonathan Lucas said investigators made their initial assumption because of "the lack of any evidence" of foul play. "He was hanging, and there was no other information to suggest that there was foul play at the time," Lucas said. At the scene, authorities found no chair or anything else that could have been climbed upon. Investigators recovered a phone, items in Fuller's pocket and a backpack. Sheriffs homicide investigators now plan to survey the area for surveillance video, conduct a forensic analysis of the rope and knot structure and research Fuller's medical history. State Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said his office was sending independent investigators to Palmdale to review the sheriffs investigation and potentially conduct its own. An FBI spokeswoman said Monday that the agency would monitor the Palmdale investigation, as well as the May 31 hanging death of Malcolm Harsch, another Black man, near the city library in Victorville. When asked about racial tensions in the Antelope Valley at a news conference this week, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said reforms enacted since the 2015 settlement "are working" and require additional funding. "I think, if you look at the big picture, people trust what the Sheriff's Department does, by and large," Villanueva said. "And I know the recent events behind the murder of George Floyd cause a lot of people to rethink their relationship with local law enforcement, but we've been at this for 170 years, and we have longstanding ties. We are part of the community." But emotions have remained raw. At a news briefing Friday, Palmdale City Manager J.J. Murphy, who is white, acknowledged, Maybe we should have said it was an alleged suicide. Then he added: Can I also ask that we stop talking about lynchings? The audience erupted with cries of Hell, no! The sunbaked, high desert cities of Lancaster and Palmdale split along Avenue M but nearly indistinguishable have undergone dramatic growth and demographic change in recent decades. In 1990, the Black population of the two cities combined was about 7%. By 2018, it had risen to nearly 17%, according to a Times analysis of census data. The Latino population grew from about 18% to 51% over that time period. The new, nonwhite residents often were blamed for crime and gang problems, with Section 8 housing becoming a touchstone for racial animosity. In 2010, a sheriffs deputy posted a photo on a Facebook page called I Hate Section 8 of luxury cars in the Palmdale garage of a Section 8 voucher recipient. He had taken the picture while conducting an official compliance check. Soon, the home was vandalized with racist graffiti. Someone threw urine at the tenant's son while yelling a racial epithet. The family eventually left town. In 2013, a judge ruled that Palmdale's at-large voting system violated state law and hampered the ability of Black people and Latinos to win office. The city fought the ruling but agreed in 2015 to vote by geographic districts. The Antelope Valley Union High School District was roiled by allegations of racism last year, and four Palmdale elementary school teachers were placed on leave after a photo of them smiling and holding a noose circulated on social media. In Palmdale and Lancaster this week, Black residents said they often don't feel welcome. Elaijaha Braddock, 25, who is Black and moved to Palmdale with her mother four years ago, said authorities' initial response to Fuller's death matched the area's reputation for racial animosity. I used to come here to do college work, Braddock said, pointing to the city library, near the site of Fuller's death. I dont feel safe here. It all makes me feel hopeless and scared for my little 5-year-old-brother. Domonique Boyd, 26, said that when he was growing up in Palmdale, students often called him racial epithets. Once, a man threw a bottle of Gatorade and cursed at him and his Black friends as they walked down the street. Three years ago, Boyd was returning from a dance competition in L.A. at about 1 a.m. and pulled onto Palmdale Boulevard. He was stopped by police, allegedly for failing to yield to traffic. But Boyd saw no other cars. Boyd said a deputy asked his light-skinned friend to step out of the vehicle but dragged Boyd out and slammed him into the hood of his car. Im a grown man, and I cant even get out of my own car. Im dragged out, Boyd said. When I see them, I dont feel safe." Johnathon Ervin, right, greets Cedric White on Tuesday in Lancaster. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) Johnathon Ervin of Lancaster attended a vigil for Fuller last week with a heavy heart. Ervin, who is Black, had already spent weeks talking with his children about the death of Floyd. He worried about his oldest son, who is 18. "He doesn't have the leeway to make one mistake, because it could mean death. And that is scary," said Ervin, 41. "I don't know if people understand how many families have been up at night thinking about their kids and the safety of the country that we live in and how we can't protect them out on the street." When Ervin, an aerospace engineer and Air Force Reserve senior master sergeant, ran for a seat on the Lancaster City Council in 2014, Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris, who is white, sent out a campaign mailer that labeled Ervin a "gang candidate." That same year, Ervin had been stopped on the street by sheriff's deputies who said he resembled someone cited in a warrant. It was deeply unnerving. "I said, 'I'm Johnathon Ervin. I'm running for office. Here's one of my cards. I don't have any warrants,'" he said. "It was jarring." Times staff writer Doug Smith contributed to this report. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2020) - Roscan Gold Corporation ("Roscan" or the "Company") (TSXV: ROS) (FSE: 2OJ) (OTC Pink:RCGCF) is pleased to announce that it has signed a Definitive Agreement (the "DA") with Komet Resources to purchase its wholly owned subsidiary Komet Mali SARL ("Komet Mali"), which owns the Dabia Sud Gold Property. Roscan expects to close the Acquisition by end of June 2020. (Please see previously announced press release dated May 11, 2020). President and CEO Nana Sangmuah stated, "We are now one step closer to the acquisition of this exciting project from Komet Mali. Our goal is to immediately commence exploration after the acquisition. Exploration focus at the Dabia Sud Gold Property will be to evaluate the highly prospective regional targets at Komet Mali with our updated drill program." Additionally, Roscan is pleased to announce plans for the upcoming rainy season and 2020 drill program at its 100% owned Kandiole Project in West Africa, Mali. Expected to kick off in early July of 2020, the Company is planning a further 15,000m drill campaign and have an additional 2 drill rigs at site. This will take it to 4 drill rigs at site for a total of 45,000m drill program in 2020. Currently, Roscan has 3 drill rigs at site and the 4th drill rig is expected to arrive in early July 2020. Roscan initially started with a 10,000m drill program in January 2020 and quickly tripled its drill program to 30,000m for 2020 in February. (Please see previously announced press release dated February 27, 2020). The Company intends to provide a comprehensive exploration update of drilling on both Mankouke South and Kandiole later this month. Assets Acquired 1) Highly prospective land package adjacent of Roscan to the North-East and West of Oklo Resources (OKU AU) (See Figure 1); Figure 1: Location Map of Dabia Sud Property with Roscan and Oklo Resources Story continues To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4821/57989_29bf5b6d344e8980_001full.jpg 2) The Kabaya deposit has an "historical estimate" (Disclosures are listed below) that is pit-constrained with 105,000 ounces of Indicated Resource and 35,000 ounces of Inferred Resource which has been drilled to an average depth of 80m, and the deposit remains open at depth. Kabaya Project (Source Komet's NI43-101) The historical estimate is based on optimized pit shells using a gold price of US$1,350 and a presumed heap leach gold recovery of saprolite material. Classification Tonnage (Mt) Au (g/t) Ounces (koz) Indicated 3.17 1.03 105 Inferred 0.96 1.14 35 Table 1: Pit Constraint Historical Estimate Effective date for resources is January 7, 2019. (Source Komet's NI43-101) The independent QP for this resources estimate is Yann Camus, Eng., SGS Canada Inc. he mineral resources are presented at a 0.4 g/t Au cut-off grade in pits. The resources are presented without dilution. Whittle pits have been utilized based on a gold value of US$1,350/oz. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. No economic evaluation of the resources has been produced. This Resource Estimate has been prepared in accordance with CIM definition (2014). Density used is of 1.7 based on measurements and similar projects. Capping grade is of 30 g/t Au on original assays. Based on the Disclosure of Historical Estimate of NI43-101, Section 2.4 The source is Komet's NI43-101 that is effective January,7, 2019 We consider the reliably and relevance to be reasonable The key assumptions are listed above (1-10) Below Table 1 The categories are similar (the historical estimate was prepared using CIM definitions) There are no recent estimates The QP needs to complete due diligence to verify the historical estimate The qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves; and The issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Consideration Paid The terms of the transaction are as follow: Acquisition price at $3.2MM CAD comprised of 50% cash and 50% in shares of Roscan (ROS), equating to a purchase price of $16 USD per ounce (see Definitive Terms below): Cdn $1,600,000 cash payment to Komet; Cdn $1,600,000 in Roscan shares. (Subject to TSXV approval, the number of Roscan Shares to be issued by Roscan in connection with the payment will be calculated by dividing such amount by 5-day VWAP of the Roscan Shares on the TSXV calculated as of the day prior to the Closing Date.) Roscan will not assume any liabilities and no rights are retained by the Vendor. Qualified Person The scientific and technical data contained in this news release was approved by Greg Isenor, P.Geo., a non-independent "qualified person" under the National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects. About Roscan Roscan Gold Corporation is a well-financed Canadian gold exploration company focused on the exploration and acquisition of gold properties in West Africa. The Company has assembled a significant land position of 100%-owned permits in an area of producing gold mines (including B2 Gold's Fekola Mine which lies in a contiguous property to the west of Kandiole), and major gold deposits, located both north and south of its Kandiole Project in West Mali. For further information, please contact: Andrew J. Ramcharan, P.Eng Executive Vice President - Corporate Development and Investor Relations Tel: (416) 572-2295 Email: aramcharan@Roscan.ca Greg Isenor, P.Geo Executive Vice-Chairman Tel: (902) 221-2329 Email: gpisenor@Roscan.ca Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is 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. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company 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. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable securities laws. 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/57989 The UK and Australia may stand almost 10,000 miles apart, but when you look at our shared history, traditions, complementary economies, model of government and legal systems, not to mention our Ashes rivalry, metaphorically we stand shoulder to shoulder. Around a quarter of people in Australia claim British ancestry, and it has long been a favourite destination for UK tourists, with over 700,000 visiting last year. There is also a long tradition of young Australians travelling to the UK to live, work and study. Many young Britons experience the Australian way of life, too, under our working holiday visa scheme. Boris Johnson encountered the joys of Australia's great outdoors in his own formative years, camping overnight on a Canberra roundabout when he was 18. But while our people-to-people links have gone from strength to strength, our economic ties have not kept pace. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his UK counterpart Boris Johnson at last year's G7 meeting. We may not shake hands anymore, but can still stand shoulder to shoulder. Credit:AAP When the UK entered the European Economic Community in 1973, the UK went from being our third largest two-way goods trading partner, to now 12th. British companies looked to the EU for opportunities. UK consumers turned away from Australian produce when high tariffs and low quotas were imposed. All efforts to replicate in tokamak fusion facilities the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars must cope with a constant problem -- transient heat bursts that can halt fusion reactions and damage the doughnut-shaped tokamaks. These bursts, called edge localized modes (ELMs), occur at the edge of hot, charged plasma gas when it kicks into high gear to fuel fusion reactions. To prevent such bursts researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, which General Atomics (GA) operates for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), previously pioneered an approach that injects small ripples of magnetic fields into the plasma to cause heat to leak out controllably. Now scientists at the DOE's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a control scheme to optimize the levels of these fields for maximum performance without ELMs. Path to suppressing ELMs The research, led by PPPL physicist Florian Laggner and funded by the DOE Office of Science, developed the scheme at DIII-D in San Diego. Laggner said the method, put together with researchers from GA and other collaborating institutions, reveals a path to suppressing ELMs and maximizing fusion power on ITER, the international tokamak under construction in France that is designed to demonstrate the practicality of fusion energy. "We show a path forward, a way that it can be done," said Laggner, lead author of a paper reporting the findings in Nuclear Fusion. Fusion powers the sun and stars by combining light elements in the form of plasma -- the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei that makes up 99 percent of the visible universe -- to generate massive amounts of energy. Scientists around the world are seeking to harness fusion for a virtually inexhaustible supply of safe and clean power to generate electricity. The demonstrated technique uses the expanded capacity of the DIII-D plasma control system to address the inherent conflict between optimizing fusion energy and controlling ELMs. The scheme focuses on the "pedestal," the thin, dense layer of plasma near the edge of the tokamak that increases the pressure of the plasma and thus fusion power. However, if the pedestal grows too high it can create ELM heat bursts by suddenly collapsing. So the key is controlling the height of the pedestal to maximize fusion power while preventing the layer from becoming so high that it triggers ELMs. The combination calls for real-time control of the process. "You can't just preprogram some constant scheme beforehand, since the plasma and wall conditions may evolve," said Egemen Kolemen, an assistant professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University and a PPPL physicist who oversaw the project. "The control must provide adjustments in real time." Stable ELM suppression The developed system created ELM suppression at the minimum amplitude, or size, of the magnetic disturbance. It further reduced the amplitude to allow partial recovery of the confinement lost during the process, thereby achieving both stable ELM suppression and high fusion performance. "Laggner and colleagues have assembled an impressive suite of control tools to regulate core and edge plasma stability in real-time," said GA physicist Carlos Paz-Soldan, a coauthor of the paper. "Some kind of adaptive control like the techniques pioneered in this work will likely be necessary to regulate the plasma edge stability in ITER." While the international facility will not simply apply the control system developed by PPPL and GA, it must create its own method for coping with ELMs. Indeed, "active control schemes will enable safe operation at maximized [fusion] gain in future devices such as ITER," the authors said. Moreover, they added, implementation of such a scheme on DIII-D provides proof of principle and "guides future development." PPPL, on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, N.J., is devoted to creating new knowledge about the physics of plasmas -- ultra-hot, charged gases -- and to developing practical solutions for the creation of fusion energy. The Laboratory is managed by the University for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science (link is external). ### About the DIII-D National Fusion Facility. DIII-D is the largest magnetic fusion research facility in the U.S. and has been the site of numerous pioneering contributions to the development of fusion energy science. DIII-D continues the drive toward practical fusion energy with critical research conducted in collaboration with more than 600 scientists representing over 100 institutions worldwide. For more information, visit https://www.ga.com/magnetic-fusion/diii-d. Mauritanias capital welcomed warmly a shipment of medical supplies from Morocco on June 14, a motion that reflects the strong ties the connect the two countries, expressed Mauritanian Foreign Minister Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. King Mohammed VI authorized a special aircraft full of medical supplies to be sent to Mauritania to assist the country in its COVID-19 response on Thursday, June 11. The initiative came as part of Moroccos efforts to help fellow African states in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, preceding the Kings June 14 call for medical aid to be sent to several other African countries. Apart from Mauritania, African aid beneficiaries include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Eswatini, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Tanzania, Chad, and Zambia. Upon receiving confirmation of the decision from the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, Mauritania expressed satisfaction with the initiative. The Mauritanian FM said the aid comes with perfect timing and testifies to the strength of the remarkable relations between the two countries and the two brotherly peoples. Ould Cheikh Ahmed reiterated this sentiment in a statement to the press on Monday, saying, The sending of this aid, made up of medical material and equipment, comes at the right time for us in Mauritania. He expressed his admiration for Moroccos efforts against the spread of the virus, saying the countrys successful management of the health crisis testifies to the quality of Moroccan human resources and the capacity of the Kingdom to stem this pandemic. Ould Cheikh Ahmed also underlined his countrys desire to share experience and expertise with Morocco and voiced his countrys gratitude to King Mohammed VI, the Moroccan people, and the Moroccan government for this substantial help. Since the election of President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani on June 22, 2019, the solid relations between Mauritania and Morocco witnessed a strong impetus, the FM continued. Best-Selling Author Stephen E. Strang Releases New Book, 'God, Trump, and COVID-19' Award-Winning Journalist Analyzes Trump's Handling of Coronavirus Pandemic, Reveals Insider Information and Discusses Why the Crisis Has Made the Christian Vote All the More Crucial in 2020 NEWS PROVIDED BY FrontLine June 17, 2020 ORLANDO, Fla., June 17, 2020 /Christian Newswire/ -- Author, Christian businessman and award-winning journalist Stephen E. Strang is releasing an extremely timely new book: "God, Trump, and COVID-19." Strang's newest work, available in both e-book and paperback, comes on the heels of "God, Trump, and the 2020 Election," which stresses why the Christian vote will be so critical in 2020. "God, Trump, and COVID-19: How the Pandemic Is Affecting Christians, the World, and America's 2020 Election" details how, just as the economy was booming and Donald Trump was fixing long-term problems and beating back attacks from his opponents, a brand-new virus shakes up everything including the outcome of the 2020 Election. Strang shares inside information about what happened in China early in the pandemic and what went wrong around the world. He even documents what happened and how Donald Trump has led the nation in this time of crisis. In "God, Trump, and COVID-19," Strang also discusses the ever-increasing stakes of the upcoming election. Strang seeks to answer the question, for both Christian believers and seekers, "Where is God in all of this?" "God, Trump, and COVID-19" also provides an unreported 1986 prophecy by the late David Wilkerson about a plague coming that would shut down the government as well as schools, churches, restaurants, bars and thousands of businessesand would shake New York City as it's never been shaken. Wilkerson said this plague would force believers into radical prayer that will spark an awakeningsomething echoed by Christian leaders and prophets. "In 2016, God raised up Donald Trump to lead America at a pivotal time. Evangelicals who recognized this backed him more than any other presidential candidate in history," Strang says. "Heading into Election Day 2020, the stakes are even higher, especially with the uncertainty and upheaval caused by COVID-19. This book is really 'part two' of 'God, Trump, and the 2020 Election,' which details the fight for the soul of America. Christians need this continuation to fully realize all that's at stake. For example, with the shutdown caused by the coronavirus, serious anti-Christian trends surfaced, such as some states closing 'non-essential' churches but allowing liquor stores to provide curbside service. Or ceasing all elective surgeries except abortion, which is the taking of a life while the purpose in shutting down the economy was to save lives from this dreaded virus." "God, Trump, and COVID-19" is released by FrontLine, an imprint of Charisma House, which publishes books that challenge, encourage, teach and equip Christians. Stephen E. Strang is an award-winning journalist who founded Charisma magazine, the only national evangelical magazine to endorse President Trump. He is also best-selling author of "God and Donald Trump." Voted by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in America, Strang has interviewed four U.S. presidents and has been featured on many media outlets, including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, the BBC and CBN. Media Kit: bit.ly/StrangGTC19 To interview Stephen E. Strang or for a review copy of "God, Trump, and COVID-19," contact Lklosterman@tkomarketing.net / 615.414.8827 or chelsey@tkomarketing.net. SOURCE FrontLine CONTACT: Lklosterman@tkomarketing.net, 615-414-8827; chelsey@tkomarketing.net This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. ___ Author: Katherine Bruce-Lockhart, Assistant Professor, History, University of Waterloo As governments around the world responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, they released prisoners in large numbers. The scale and scope of these releases are unprecedented, but this phenomenon is not new. The early release of prisoners is usually due to clemency measures, legal instruments that reduce or revoke punishments. Nearly all societies throughout history have had some form of clemency commonly called "mercy" in their justice systems. Pardons or amnesties, which have different meanings in different contexts, are examples of clemency measures that can result in early release. Typically, those in executive positions have the power to grant clemency. In England, for example, the Royal Prerogative of Mercy originated in the medieval period and was based on the idea that the sovereign had the power to take away or spare a life. By the 19th century, the use of the death penalty had decreased significantly and clemency measures focused more on incarceration. This became an increasingly global phenomenon as prisons and western legal systems were forcibly spread through colonialism. Clemency in Canada Canada, for example, still has the Royal Prerogative of Mercy. It is rarely used and typically benefits individuals rather than groups. In the past year, there have been calls for the mass release of non-violent Indigenous offenders in Canada. This has continued during COVID-19. These calls are tied to wider efforts to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada's prisons a situation deeply tied to settler colonialism. If such releases occur, they would represent a major departure from past policy. Mass releases throughout history Prisoner releases have become a regular but selectively used feature of legal systems worldwide. Historical examples demonstrate the range of motivations for these releases but also reveal some persistent patterns. Pandemics have prompted releases in the past. During the cholera pandemic in the 1830s, 75 prisoners from Wakefield Prison in England were released to relieve overcrowding and slow the spread of the disease. In Boston, naval officials offered prisoners pardons if they agreed to undergo medical experiments during the 1918 influenza pandemic one of many unethical prison experiments throughout history. In most cases, prisoners have been forced to remain in custody, with disastrous results. Many releases have been tied to significant events. To celebrate the Allied victory in the Second World War, Josef Stalin released more than 600,000 prisoners from the Gulag. In the past few decades, Cuba has freed thousands of prisoners in connection with visits from the Pope. Releases have also occurred on annual occasions, such as Bastille Day in France, New Year's celebrations in Myanmar and Independence Day celebrations in Kenya. Governments often release prisoners during moments of tension or transition. In 1919, King George V declared a royal amnesty for political prisoners in India to encourage them to work with rather than resist the colonial state. Upon taking power in Uganda through a coup in 1971, Idi Amin released political prisoners incarcerated by the previous government. When South Africa dismantled apartheid rule in the early 1990s, many political prisoners including Nelson Mandela were released. While governments celebrate these releases as signs of their humanity, these acts typically benefit a narrow range of prisoners. In 1945, political prisoners like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn remained in the Gulag. When Amin freed political prisoners in 1971, his government was newly detaining many Ugandans. In South Africa, many prisoners not categorized as political remained behind bars at the end of apartheid. They protested their continued imprisonment, arguing that their crimes were due to the structural violence of apartheid. Past, present and future What can we learn from this history? First, it reminds us that the release of prisoners is nothing new. Clemency is a longstanding feature of legal systems that has served many purposes. Second, releases are generally motivated by political rather than compassionate concerns. Governments often release prisoners when it's beneficial to them or when they face pressure from activist organizations and the public. By controlling releases, leaders can try to deflect criticism, improve their image and reinforce their power. Third, the release of prisoners benefits the individuals affected, but it is often a selective and politicized act. This persists today. U.S. President Donald Trump has recently pardoned high-profile offenders known to support him, while millions of Americans remain behind bars in the world's largest system of mass incarceration. Historically, prison releases have been isolated acts that have not fundamentally challenged the prison system itself. But we are in unprecedented times. Many have pointed out that the COVID-19 releases could be a step towards widespread decarceration and the abolition of prisons. The pandemic represents an important opportunity to think critically about the place of prisons and other penal institutions in our societies. COVID-19 could spark systemic change. ___ This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read the original article: It will be available in Black, White and Blue colour models starting today across retail stores, Samsung Opera House, Samsung.com and leading online portals. Samsung, like other rival brands in India, is also boosting its mid-range smartphone line up. And this time it is the Galaxy A21s, which has entered the Indian shores. The smartphone, which was already launched in Europe before, is priced at 16,499 and 18,499 respectively for the 4GB+64GB and 6GB+64GB models. It will be available in Black, White and Blue colour models starting today across retail stores, Samsung Opera House, Samsung.com and leading online portals. In terms of specs, Galaxy A21s features a 6.5-inch HD+ (720x1600) Infinity-O display. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core processor and comes in two storage options we mentioned above - 4GB+64GB, and 6GB+64GB. You also get a microSD card slot for storage expansion up to 512GB. Also read: Samsung Galaxy M41 may use a display from third-party company, TCL For photography, the quad rear camera setup has a 48-megapixel primary sensor, 8-megapixel ultrawide sensor, 2-megapixel depth sensor and a 2-megapixel macro lens. Theres a 13-megapixel camera up front for selfies. Galaxy A21s packs a 5,000mAh battery paired with 15W fast charging. In addition to the fingerprint sensor, Galaxy A21s also supports face unlock. On the software front, it runs One UI and it also has Dolby Atmos support. A San Antonio man has been charged with murder in connection with a North Side shooting. Fabian Jay Hernandez, 23, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder. The shooting took place around 3 a.m. Monday on the 1100 block of West Ridgewood Court. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office identified the victim as Christopher Michael Alderete, 25. Alderete and a passenger were asleep in his vehicle parked in an alley when they were woken up by a knock on the driver's side window, according to an arrest affidavit. Hernandez asked if a "Brandy" was inside the vehicle. Alderete said no. When Hernandez asked for his name, Alderete said "Chris," then gave his street name "Icon." Hernandez pulled out a handgun and shot Alderete in the head before fleeing on foot, the affidavit said. The passenger got out of the vehicle and began to walk out of the alley to the street when she saw a white vehicle. Hernandez, in the driver's seat of the white vehicle, fired several rounds at the woman before driving away. Alderete was pronounced dead on scene. The Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a homicide. A second person who witnessed the shooting said Hernandez had sped up to avoid police shortly before the incident because he was driving a stolen vehicle. Hernandez was booked and held on a $250,000 bond, according to court records. He also faces a criminal mischief charge with a $10,000 bond. Citizens wait to go through coronavirus testing at a public health center in Daejeon, Wednesday, as there has been a spike in the number of COVID-19 patients there. / Yonhap By Jun Ji-hye Another mass COVID-19 infection reported in Daejeon is putting the health authorities on high alert as it marks the first time the country has seen an infection cluster outside the capital region since May. According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), Wednesday, at least 13 people living in the southern city have been confirmed infected with the coronavirus over the past three days. This is raising concerns over the possible spread of sporadic infection clusters that have continued to emerge in the densely populated capital, the nearby city of Incheon and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, to other parts of the country. Among the 13 patients reported in Daejeon, 10 were linked to a multi-level marketing company, while three were traced to a local church. The authorities are staying vigilant over the possibility of additional patients emerging as many people are known to have gathered at multi-level marketing companies and churches. "We have dispatched an epidemiological investigation team to Daejeon, and are making efforts to contain any further community spread there," Vice Health and Welfare Minister Kim Kang-lip said during a media briefing. On a national scale, the KCDC said 43 new infections 31 local and 12 imported were detected Tuesday, which raised the nation's total to 12,198. One more death was reported, raising the death toll to 279. The nation's new virus cases rebounded to over 40, marking a rise from the 34 additional cases reported the previous day, amid continuous infection clusters in the capital region and an increase in imported cases, in addition to the community infections outside Seoul. According to the KCDC, 176 patients have been traced to Richway, a Seoul-based multi-level marketing company selling health food supplements, as of noon Wednesday. Among the 176, 41 visited the company, while 135 came into contact with them. An infection cluster that broke out at the company has spread to at least eight other groups, including a Protestant church attended by Chinese immigrants and a call center operated by an investment company in the capital. A care center in Seoul's Dobong-gu has been emerged as a new hotbed for the spread of the contagious disease, with the number of cases linked to the center reaching 34 as of noon Wednesday. An increase in the number of patients over 60 years old is adding to the woes as senior citizens are known to be more vulnerable to the disease. In addition, there has been a steady increase in the number of imported cases, the authorities said, noting that a total of 112 patients were categorized as such this month. What we had, it was not equivalent. When you see the cops kneeling, I just love that. And there are a lot of young white people. Ive never seen that. We had some white people, but not as many. It is a surprise, and it gives me hope. Dont assume this moment will last. Bob Moses, 85, an educator who in the 1960s led a drive to register black voters in Mississippi, has watched the protests from an apartment in Hollywood, Fla. He said he was moved by a viral video clip of three black men from different generations including a 45-year-old and a 16-year-old in a shouting match at a protest in North Carolina, arguing with raw emotion about whether violence was an appropriate response to systemic racism. Its like an awakening: Were trapped. He was trapped, hes 45. Youre trapped, youre just 16. What weve been doing isnt working. What are we going to do? That level of consciousness really is new. And its not just the broader white population that is waking up to some extent, but also within the African-American population, too. It may be that the person who killed George Floyd was an aberration. But the system they were a part of, that protects them and is as American as apple pie. So waking up to that its not clear whether the country is capable of waking up to that to its full extent. Unlike Ms. Harris, he was skeptical that gestures of solidarity from the police were meaningful. You are talking to an individual policeman in the street, you want him to express empathy about what is happening, but behind the scenes you have high politics. The system works to protect the people who are involved in all of this at different levels, not just the guy who pulls the trigger and puts the knee on the throat. Its catharsis for the person asking and for any policeman that responds. Its what the country has always wanted, to try to solve the problem at the level of the individual. This individual you know directs his or her behavior or tones, and the system just keeps rolling on and producing more atrocities. It is revelatory that the pressure now is coming from within. Its been sparked by this one event, but the event really has opened up a crevasse, so to speak, through which all this history is pouring, like the Mississippi River onto the Delta. Its pouring into all the streams of TV, cable news, social media. So that is quite different. And the question is, can the country handle it? Orthodox Jewish girls watch from their windows as protesters walk through the Brooklyn borough on June 3, 2020, during a "Breonna Taylor and Black Lives Matter" protest in New York City. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) Orthodox Jewish Leaders Decry Apparent Double Standard in NYC Lockdown Enforcement Leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community are outraged by the apparent double standard exhibited by New York City authorities in the enforcement of lockdown measures. They say Mayor Bill de Blasio has singled out the Jewish community as part of his effort to stop the spread of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus. The double standard came into full focus on June 13, when de Blasio allowed thousands of people to attend a densely packed rally for trans black lives in Brooklyn. Days earlier, videos posted on social media showed city authorities welding shut the gates of a popular playground in one of the largest Jewish communities in the same borough. Unfortunately, its very sadly familiarthe fact that Bill de Blasio called out the Jewish community in a way that he wouldnt call out any other community, Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director for the Coalition for Jewish Values, told The Epoch Times. Menken says pandemic data shows the spread of the virus in the Jewish community is no different from any of the others in New York City. The statistics say one thing, and the narrative coming out of the government says something else. And theres complete tolerancegood tolerancefor peaceful protesters who are violating social distancing rules as they march together, Menken said. Yet, Jewish kids playing on a playground, who are at extremely low risk from this virus, are at the same time being singled out. The trans black lives rally in Brooklyn was the latest in a series of protests and riots that swept the country in the wake of the police-custody death in Minneapolis of George Floyd. De Blasio spoke at one of the protests, facing a crowd not practicing the social distancing guidelines and not wearing a mask himself. I think the problem starts out when government officials make rules, and then decide to make an exception to their own rules and join in on this exception, Yossi Gestetner, co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, told The Epoch Times. If you set policy and then you make an exception to the rules, on your own choice, youre a dictator. And thats not how freedom and liberties work in the United States. Gestetner noted that African Americans are statistically more vulnerable to adverse outcomes from the CCP virus. Yet the citys leaders allowed a mass protest without the familiar reminders about social distancing and wearing masks. Why are you subjecting a minority community to an outbreak in the name of helping the same community? Its diabolical, Gestetner said. Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, told The Epoch Times that his organization is actively consulting with several prominent epidemiologists about the precautions needed to reopen houses of worship. The scientists the board spoke to all concur that New Yorks limitations on congregations are reasonable and necessary. You dont have any disagreement amongst the health professionals, that we shouldnt be lenient when it comes to opening these houses of worship, Posatnik said. I understand the stringency, I just dont understand why were not enforcing that kind of standard on protesters. [June 17, 2020] New IDC Industrial Printer Tracker Highlights Impact of COVID-19 on Large Format Printer and Industrial Print Markets The new Worldwide Quarterly Industrial Printer Tracker from International Data Corporation's (IDC) shows industrial printer and large format printer shipments declined in Q1 2020. "While shipments and revenues have declined in the large format printer market over the past two years, both 2018 and 2019 were growth years in the industrial inkjet market," said Tim Greene, research director, Hardcopy Solutions at IDC (News - Alert). "Large format printer shipments declined 32% worldwide in Q1 2020 as COVID-19 impacted both supply chains and demand cycles, and as the market has shifted towards higher-end solutions. The year also got off to a slow start with weak results in the industrial printer segments. As the markets recover IDC expects to see shipment growth for the full year as more companies worldwide adopt smarter and more sustainable supply chains, new signage and graphics applications are developed, and more print service providers seek new revenue opportunities." Industrial Printer Segment Highlights for 2019 The industrial printer market, as defined by IDC, generated $5 billion in hardware revenue to manufacturers worldwide. Label & Packaging unit shipments grew 6.0% year over year in 2019. Industrial Textile printer shipments grew nicely in 2019, increasing by more than 11% worldwide year over year. Total shipments in the Direct-to-Garment (DTG) segment grew about 2% worldwide year over year in 2019. Total shipments in the Direct-to-Shape (DTS (News - Alert)) segment grew by about 2.5% worldwide year over year. Regional Analysis The COVID-19 crisis had the greatest impact across the Asia/Pacific region in Q1 2020 with the total value of industrial printer shipments declining 55.9% year over year. The value of shipments declined 31.5% year over year in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The Americas region showed the most resiliency, but shipment value still declined 17.6% in Q1 2020. Notes: The Large Format Printer segment includes single-function printers as well as multifunctional printers (MFPs). The Label & Packaging segment includes printers that can print primary and secondary label stock, as well as devices that can print onto folding cartons, flexible packaging, and directly onto corrugated materials or liners. The Industrial Textile segment includes high-speed printers designed for printing fabrics. The DTG segment includes T-shirt printers. The DTS segment includes small format (<24" wide) printers designed for applying graphics or decoration onto objects. Data for all vendors are reported for calendar periods. About IDC Trackers IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools. Click here to learn about IDC's full suite of data products and how you can leverage them to grow your business. About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading tech media, data and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter (News - Alert) at @IDC and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights: http://bit.ly/IDCBlog_Subscribe. All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005627/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] (Bloomberg) -- One week before Apple Inc.s annual developer conference, the financial heart of its App Store is under renewed attack from antitrust regulators and exasperated developers. The European Commission launched two investigations into Apple on Tuesday. One major focus is on a contentious rule that limits what app developers can tell users about payment options beyond the App Store. Apples developer guidelines say apps cant include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase. Europes regulators are particularly concerned that Apple forces developers to use its App Store payment service, which takes a cut of most app subscriptions and in-app purchases. Authorities are less concerned about the size of the revenue share -- whether Apple charges 30% or 15%. Apples competitors have either decided to disable the in-app subscription possibility altogether or have raised their subscription prices in the app and passed on Apples fee to consumers, the European Commission wrote in a Tuesday statement. In both cases, they were not allowed to inform users about alternative subscription possibilities outside of the app. Theres been a backlash against app stores run by Apple and Google in recent years, with a growing number of developers saying the tech giants are collecting too high a tax for access to consumers mobile devices. The European Commission is the first major regulator to launch a formal investigation into this issue. Apple is the target because Googles Android app store offers more choice on payment methods. The most likely outcome is a ruling that limits Apples ability to restrict information about other purchasing options, Amit Daryanani, an analyst at Evercore ISI, wrote in a note to investors on Tuesday. The App Store is the only way for most consumers to install apps on the iPhone, and in most cases, Apple takes a 15% to 30% cut from developers offering subscriptions. Many of these arent allowed to facilitate purchases outside of the App Store, ensuring Apple gets its cut. Some apps are allowed to function without a subscription bought through Apple, but these apps cant direct users to buy the service outside of Apples digital walls. Story continues The Netflix app tells users they cant subscribe to the service inside the app. We know its a hassle, the app says. Other services choose to use Apples payment system because its often simpler for customers. But in some cases, that makes the product more expensive. For example, the Soundcloud Go+ streaming music service costs $9.99 through its website, but $12.99 when bought through Apples App Store. Read more about how Apples subscription rules impact cloud-based iPhone gaming services It may be more useful and less costly for consumers if apps could tell people they can buy subscriptions outside the Apple App Store. If that happened, though, more developers may stop using Apples in-app payment system and the company would lose revenue. Fees from App Store transactions are estimated to be the largest contributor to Apples Services revenue, a business the company is trying hard to expand. Any slowdown here would be a concern for Wall Street. If Apples cut dropped from 30% to 5%, that would knock about 11% off the companys earnings per share, Daryanani estimated on Tuesday, calling that a worst case scenario. Basecamp Chief Technology Officer David Heinemeier Hansson complained about Apples rules on Twitter, just hours after the European Union launched its Apple investigations. The executive said Apple threatened to remove Basecamps new Hey email app if it did not add the ability for users to buy a subscription via the App Store -- and pay the extra fee to the tech giant. We did everything we were supposed to with the iOS app. Try downloading it (while you can?), Hansson wrote. You cant sign up, because Apple says no. We dont mention subscriptions. You cant upgrade. You cant access billing. We did all of it! Wasnt enough. Apple said Hey didnt comply with the App Store rules. Earlier on Tuesday the company said its disappointing the European Commission is advancing baseless complaints from a handful of companies who simply want a free ride, and dont want to play by the same rules as everyone else. Match Group, the owner of dating apps including Tinder, challenged this argument soon after. Apple is a partner, but also a dominant platform whose actions force the vast majority of consumers to pay more for third-party apps, the company said in a statement. They claim were asking for a free ride when the reality is, digital services are the only category of apps that have to pay the App Store fees. Match Group called for Apple to treat its dating apps like other services that dont get charged extra fees, such as ride hailing and social networks. Apple has recently made exceptions. In April, it let some video apps, including Amazon Prime, sell movies on iPhones and iPads without giving the company a cut. Basecamps Hansson accused Apple of applying its App Store rules inconsistently and unfairly. Who cares if Apple shakes down individual software developers for 30% of their revenue, by threatening to destroy their business? There has been zero consequences so far! Most such companies quietly cave or fail, he wrote. 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. My wife woke up this morning and thought she might have COVID. We called the Hamilton County Heath Department hotline and someone answered on the third ring. Not a voice mail, a real person. She told us they they were already out of their supply for rapid testing but recommended two pharmacies, one on Highway 58 and one on Hixson Pike. We chose the one on 58. A pharmacist ... (click for more) (TNS) A labor union that represents toll booth workers plans to take legal action against the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission after it unanimously voted to lay off nearly 500 employees despite a contract that assured employment through January 2022, according to Teamsters International Vice President-East William Hamilton.This was nothing more than a premeditated hit, Hamilton said during a public hearing with the state Senate Transportation and Labor & Industry committees on Monday. The facts are we had an agreement. I sat in on the agreement when it was finalized.Republicans and Democrats on the committees hammered members of the state turnpike commission with criticism over their decision, some accusing the commission of using the pandemic as a justifiable reason to make the last-minute transition to all-electronic tolling.Turnpike employee contracts were ratified on May 19, which guaranteed that people would keep employment, health benefits, and tuition assistance through January 2022, the year the commission was planning to transition to a cashless system.However, the commission voted unanimously on June 2 to terminate 492 toll workers, but those workers will still receive unemployment, health benefits, and tuition assistance provided by the turnpike through 2022.Hamilton said legal actions will include filing charges against the commission for unfair labor practices, which he said will show the commission did not negotiate in good faith.This is an unprecedented time for us with the organization, and had I seen that absolutely I wish I would have not given those assurances, said turnpike CEO Mark Compton.Compton said they decided to make the layoffs based on financial strains and measures to protect the health and safety of toll workers from being exposed to COVID019. He said toll booth workers can interact with up to 1,200 motorists an hour in cities like Philadelphia.Senate Labor & Industry Committee Chairwoman Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington County, said based off of an email that was leaked from the turnpike commission that showed talking points for the June 2 meeting, this was a decision that was made prior to the meeting. Bartolotta, along with other members of the committees, were critical of the commissions motives to go all-electronic and skeptical that coronavirus was the only factor.It seems to me that it was quite apparent, [from] the outside looking in, it was obvious that this was a perfect opportunity to go ahead and flip the switch to say we're going to just be fully automated, Bartolotta said. This is what we've been wanting to do. Let's just do it. Let's just do it now.Members of the commission said the layoffs will save them $42 million this year and $65 million next year, which are net numbers after unemployment and health insurance is paid. Craig Shuey, the turnpikes chief operating officer, said the turnpike could see up to $400 million in losses for fiscal year 2021 because fewer motorists have been using the toll road amid Gov. Tom Wolfs stay-at-home orders and the states phased reopening of the economy.Toll revenues have fallen by more than $100 million for the turnpikes fiscal year that ended May 31, amounting to a 36.4 percent drop in revenue from the prior year. From a traffic standpoint, turnpike business declined by an unprecedented 46 percent. The last time the turnpike had as few customers as it did during this past fiscal year was 35 years ago.Given the drop in traffic, especially commuter traffic, and the revenue reduction, Compton said the decision was made to go cashless to offset losses and improve safety.Hamilton said the commission never discussed health and safety concerns with members of Teamsters, and they were not aware that layoffs were going to happen before they were announced on June 1. The General Assembly also was not aware of the decision, but Transportation Secretary Yassmin Gramien said they had conversations with Wolf before announcing the layoffs.Shuey said during these two years, employees who were laid off can still apply for open positions within the commission and will be considered as internal applicants when bidding on positions. He also said outside of the approximately 50 open positions they have now, they are imposing a hiring freeze. Those laid off can also now collect up to $25,000 in severance, which was originally capped at $14,000.Sen. Lindsey Wiliams, D-Allegheny County, pressed Compton as to why they did not have a conversation with the Teamsters before laying off employees. Compton said that they dont telegraph news of layoffs before an official decision.Hamilton said the Teamsters have worked with other departments prior to mass layoffs.Compton stated in his testimony the decision to layoff 492 employees was not one easily made. He said, The fact is, the world has been forever changed by the pandemic, which has had a greater impact than anyone expected. The government allowed to host flights from EU member countries and member countries of the European Free Trade Association, except for Sweden, Portugal and the UK illustrative material Open source Poland resumed international air traffic on the territory of the EU and the EFTA (European Free Trade Association). However, the flights from Kyiv that were scheduled on June 17 are now canceled. A correspondent of Yevropeiska Pravda reported that, citing the Polish Cabinet. The government allowed to host flights from EU member countries and member countries of the European Free Trade Association, except for Sweden, Portugal, and the UK. Flights of Wizz Air and LOT companies were supposed to depart from Kyiv to Poland on June 17. They were delayed, just like the return flights from that country. Kyiv international airport has temporarily suspended servicing of international flights until Wednesday, June 17. The reason is the ongoing lockdown and the current incidence of coronavirus in Kyiv. The airport's press office reported that on Facebook. "Kyiv international airport does not service regular international passenger flights until 3 a.m. local time of June 17, 2020, due to extension of Covid-19 quarantine in Kyiv (...)," reads the message. The Cabinet's decree No. 392 prevents airports in cities with high Covid-19 incidence from servicing any international transportations. Nebraska Democratic Party officials have withdrawn party support from Democratic Senate nominee Chris Janicek following his refusal to withdraw from the race in the wake of sexually inappropriate comments about a staff member in a group text. Janicek vowed to remain in the race and said he will continue to pursue his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Ben Sasse without party support. The party said its state officials met with Janicek on Thursday and asked him to decline the Democratic Senate nomination and file a form with the secretary of state requesting that his name be removed from the November ballot. That would give the party an opportunity to replace him with a different candidate. Janicek told the party on Monday he would not withdraw. "I made a mistake, I acknowledge it and I have apologized for it," he said during a telephone interview on Tuesday. "I issued an apology through text message and voicemail," he said. "I met with her (the former staff member), and she accepted our apology." Responding to that statement, Lincoln attorney Vince Powers said: "My client did not accept Janicek's apology. He came over to her house at night, uninvited and unannounced. She just wanted him to leave the front door." Powers is a former Democratic state chairman. The group text message that Janicek authored, which has surfaced online, contains a graphic suggestion and description of sexual assault. Included was a reference to whether the campaign should spend money on "getting her laid" and a description of imagined group sex activity involving the female staff member and "three guys." Janicek said part of what may be at issue in the party's reaction is a difference of viewpoints on issues. "The Nebraska Democratic Party is very, very progressive in their views," he said. "That's not my platform. I support the Second Amendment and gun ownership with responsible laws. I am against abortion, but not against the right to choose. "I'm constantly accused of not being progressive enough." The Democratic Party's state executive committee voted unanimously Monday evening to withdraw all party resources from the Janicek campaign. "Our Democratic Party has no tolerance for sexual harassment," Democratic State Chair Jane Kleeb said. "Our party will not extend resources or any type of support to any candidate that violates our code of conduct and doesn't treat men and women with the dignity and respect they deserve." Janicek, owner of Cupcake Omaha, received 31% of the votes cast for seven Democratic candidates in the May primary. The next top vote-getters were Omaha residents Angie Philips, a community organizer, and Alisha Shelton, a licensed independent mental health practitioner. Shelton said Tuesday that she may mount a write-in campaign for the Senate seat if Janicek remains in the race. The Janicek staff member, who has since quit the campaign, sent a copy of the text message to the state party last week and filed a formal complaint on Monday, a party news release stated. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 South Sudan's main rivals on Wednesday sealed a deal on control of the country's 10 internal states, an issue seen as the biggest threat to peace since a unity government was formed in February. President Salva Kiir and former rebel leader and now vice president Riek Machar, whose 2013 fallout sparked a civil war, had been at loggerheads over the allocation of states, especially those producing oil, the country's main earner. Last week the governments of Britain, Norway and the United States issued a statement urging them to agree on the appointment of governments as violence soared in recent weeks in the "vacuum created by the lack of governance". Minister in the Office of President Nhial Deng Nhial told journalists that Kiir's camp had been allocated six states, including the oil-rich Unity State and Central Equatoria, which includes the capital Juba. Machar will take three states, including the largest oil-producing area, the Upper Nile state, while a third signatory to the peace deal, the South Sudan Opposition Alliance, will take Jonglei state. "With this development a fresh impetus has been given for the process for the implementation of the agreement," said Nhial. "We are very hopeful that with this development, the road is now paved to further positive developments that we hope will be carried out expeditiously." South Sudan plunged into war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his former vice president Riek Machar of plotting a coup. In September 2018 the warring parties signed an agreement to form a unity government, which would see Machar return to government as vice president, after previous attempts at ruling together only led to disaster. In their statement last week, the three western countries said increased violence was putting South Sudan's hard-won peace at risk. "In Jonglei, the vacuum created by the lack of governance has exacerbated cycles of intercommunal violence," said the statement, while in Central Equatoria a ceasefire between the government and rebels who did not sign the peace deal broke down and fresh fighting erupted. During the first three months of 2020, 658 people were killed in intercommunal violence in the country, while 452 were injured, the UN rights office said last month. Search Keywords: Short link: Advertisement Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Texas have spiked to record highs this week as daily new infections also surge in five other states - as health officials warn the United States hasn't even passed the first COVID-19 wave. The number of new cases in Texas hit a record high of 2,622 on Tuesday, marking a rising tide of cases for a second consecutive week. Texas had previously recorded the highest daily tally of the pandemic just one week ago when infections hit 2,504. Hospitalizations - a metric not linked to increased testing - also hit a record high in Texas this week after increasing for five consecutive days. The number of Texans hospitalized with COVID-19 hit 2,518 on Tuesday. The state currently has more than 93,000 cases and just over 2,000 deaths from COVID-19. Despite the record number of hospitalizations, Governor Greg Abbott put the surge in cases down to increased testing. Abbott said the state has nearly 15,000 hospital beds available. TEXAS CASES: The number of new cases in Texas hit a record high of 2,622 on Tuesday, marking a rising tide of cases for a second consecutive week TEXAS HOSPITALIZATIONS: Hospitalizations - a metric not linked to increased testing - also hit a record high in Texas this week after increasing for five consecutive days. The number of Texans hospitalized with COVID-19 hit 2,518 on Tuesday TEXAS DEATHS: The states recorded 46 new fatalities on Tuesday. Peak daily deaths occurred on May 15 when 58 people died from COVID-19 Health officials in many states attribute the spike to businesses reopening and Memorial Day weekend gatherings in late May. Many states are also bracing for a possible increase in cases stemming from tens of thousands of people protesting to end racial injustice and police brutality for the past three weeks. It comes as health experts, including Dr Anthony Fauci, warned the United States was still in the middle of its first coronavirus wave despite fears the country was headed for a second surge. Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon and Nevada all reported record increases in new cases on Tuesday. Hospitalizations in Arizona have been hitting record daily highs all month. At Arizona's Tucson Medical Center on Monday, just a single intensive care unit bed designated for COVID-19 patients was available, with the other 19 beds filled, according to a hospital representative. 'ICU to be expanded, hopefully, in coming days,' Dr. Steven Oscherwitz, an infectious disease expert at the hospital, said in a tweet on Monday night. 'Not sure where people needing ICU care will be able to go, since most AZ (Arizona) hospitals are pretty full now.' Nevada reported its highest single-day tally of new cases on Tuesday, up from a previous high on May 23. Hospitalizations are also rising or at record highs. In Oregon, health officials are trying to contain an outbreak of over 200 new cases in Union County linked to the Lighthouse United Pentecostal Church. The Oregon Health Authority reported 278 new statewide cases on Tuesday - a 51 percent increase from Monday's case count. FLORIDA CASES: Florida has recorded record spikes in new cases on both Monday (2,700) and Tuesday (2,500). It is more than double the cases being reported last month NEVADA CASES: Nevada reported its highest single-day tally of new cases on Tuesday, up from a previous high on May 23. Hospitalizations are also rising or at record highs OREGON CASES: The Oregon Health Authority reported 278 new statewide cases on Tuesday - a 51 percent increase from Monday's case count. In Oregon, health officials are trying to contain an outbreak of over 200 new cases in Union County linked to the Lighthouse United Pentecostal Church OKLAHOMA CASES: In Oklahoma, where President Donald Trump plans to hold an indoor campaign rally on Saturday, new cases rose 68 percent last week. More than 200 new infections were reported on Tuesday, bringing the state's total to 8,645. Pictured above is cumulative cases for the state In an interview with the Daily Beast, Dr Fauci - the top infectious disease expert in the country - said that despite the current surge in cases, he didn't think it was a second wave. 'I don't like to talk about a second wave right now, because we haven't gotten out of our first wave,' he said. 'We are seeing infections to a greater degree than they had previously seen in certain states, including states in the southwest and in the south.' He said it was unlikely a second lockdown would have to occur. 'When you start to see the inevitable exceptions that you might see when you try to pull back on the mitigation and open up use public health measures to help you to get to your goal,' Fauci said. 'Namely, if you get new infections, you put into place, the manpower, the system... the ability to identify, isolate and contact-trace so that you're actually utilizing public health measures to help you to open up.' His comments were echoed by virologist Dr Joseph Fair who told NBC's Today on Wednesday that the surge in cases was due to states reopening too early and people relaxing social distancing measures. 'Technically we are still in the first wave and this spike we're seeing is really induced by ourselves - it's induced by us opening up early and us moving on from the problem before it moved on from us,' he said. Addressing the comments made by various governors that increases in cases were down to more testing, Dr Fair said: 'The analogy that more tests is going to reveal more cases - that's true. ARIZONA HOSPITALIZATIONS: Hospitalizations in Arizona have been hitting record daily highs all month. Another 1,500 patients were admitted across the state on Tuesday NORTH CAROLINA HOSPITALIZATIONS: There are currently 846 people hospitalized in North Carolina - a record high over the course of the pandemic ALABAMA HOSPITALIZATIONS: Daily hospitalizations have been increase in Alabama with the state recorded a high of 678 on Tuesday Across the United States, 17 states - mostly in the south and southwest - saw new cases rise last week and 13 states reported weekly increases in deaths related to COVID-19 'Hospitalizations indicate new cases that you wouldn't have picked up if you didn't have the diagnostics. 'We're seeing record hospitalizatons in states that opened up early or have been lax in social distancing.' Dr Anthony Fauci - the top infectious disease expert in the country - said that despite the current surge in cases, he didn't think it was a second wave Across the United States, 17 states saw new cases rise last week and 13 states reported weekly increases in deaths related to COVID-19. New deaths from coronavirus nearly doubled in Georgia and Missouri in the second week of June compared to the prior seven days. New cases of COVID-19 nearly doubled in Alabama and South Carolina in the second week of June compared to the prior seven days. Alabama's new cases rose 97 percent for the week ended June 14, while cases in South Carolina rose 86 percent. South Carolina and Alabama health officials say the increases are down to some residents not following social distancing guidelines to avoid large gatherings and wear a mask in public. In Oklahoma, where President Donald Trump plans to hold an indoor campaign rally on Saturday, new cases rose 68 percent. Many of the states that have seen increases in cases are also seeing record hospitalizations - a metric not affected by increased testing and perhaps more troubling for health officials. New cases of COVID-19 nearly doubled in Alabama and South Carolina in the second week of June compared to the prior seven days as 17 states reported weekly increases in the spread of coronavirus Carefully crafted in India and widely worshipped in the United States, a towering statue of Hanuman was installed on Monday in the city of Hockessin- making it the countrys tallest Hanuman statue. Costing more than a whopping $100,000 for construction and logistics, Standing 25 feet tall and weighing more than 30,000 kg, this handcrafted statue has been chiselled from a single block of black granite in Warangal, a small town in southern India. The statue has been handcrafted by a number of artisans or shilpils, who specialized in the skill and It took more than a dozen of them working full-time for more than a year to carve out the installation. Donning bright orange shirts that read, The Hanuman Project, more than 300 families, temple devotees and resident priest organized the ten-day-long Sthapana or installation ritual. Back in January, the 25 feet tall installation Travelled from Hyderabad to New York by ship, and then by flatbed truck to Delaware, to the states largest Hindu temple. For the purification of the Moorty, after it arrived Nagraj Bhattar, a priest from Bangalore who has been with the Hindu Temple of Delaware performed several rituals including purification of the deity with rice grains, water and flowers beds. The priest and the devotees then performed the Puja for a Devine intervention at a time when Covid derailed so many lives. We all believe that with the moorty coming to Delaware, lord Hanuman will bring all the good things like he bought the Sanjeevani. So that was the main central focus for all devotees and the priest, Bhattar told ANI. Once the statue was unveiled American Senator Chris Coons, New Castle County executive Matt Myer and Lt Governor of Delaware Bethany Hall-Long also stopped by to support the Indian community and seeks blessing at the Hindu Temple. The president of the Hindu Temple of Delaware association, Patibanda Sarma, says the statue was supposed to be celebrated by thousands of devotees. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, there werent many gatherings of the public during the installation ceremonies, he added. In an interview to ANI, Sarma thanked everyone who made this happen with a special mention to those people of all faiths who worked tirelessly to make it happen. It is a big tribute to all the people who handled the idol, we have been very fortunate, I must say whenever we have any contract, whether it is crane operators to lift or concrete operators to install. I am not exaggerating they take more than more care than we do ourselves very careful about handling the statue, and being respectful thats more important, he added. Sarma says the next step after the installation is to invite the Hindu community to come In batches and offer their prayers to the almighty and in the days to come the statue will be open to people of all faiths. (ANI) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Board changes and Corporate Update Melbourne, June 17, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cohiba Minerals Limited ( ASX:CHK ) advises that Mr Andrew Graham, current CEO, has been appointed to the Board as Executive Director following the resignation of Mr Avi Kimelman as Chairman and Non-executive Director effective today.Commenting on the board changes Mr Kimelman said, "I joined the board with two key objectives: ensuring CHK successfully earned its 51% stake in the Olympic Domain project and making sure the company is capitalised and ready to carry out its much anticipated drilling programs at Pernatty C and Horse Well. I believe that Andrew is the best person to carry these programs forward and will provide a significant amount of experience to the Board."The Board wishes to thank Mr Kimelman for his efforts over the past year during his tenure as Chairman and note that he will continue to carry out an operational consulting role with the Company.Mr Mordechai Benedikt has also been appointed Executive Chairman effective today.CHKO Options Offer updateOn 1 June 2020, the Company announced the offer to holders of the expired CHKO options registered with an Australian address at 7:00pm on 18 April 2020 (Placement Record Date) the right, but not the obligation, to subscribe for one option (Placement Option) for every two listed options previously held, at a subscription price of $0.001 (0.1 cents) per Placement Option (Option Offer). The Placement Options will have identical terms to Rights Issue Options recently issued, being an exercise price of $0.01 (1 cent), expiry date of 22 May 2022 and upon exercise, entitle the holder to one fully paid ordinary share in the capital of the Company.The Company sought shareholder approval for the proposed Options Offer, which was granted on 22 May 2020 and the Option Offer closed on Monday 15 June 2020.The Company announces that it has received valid applications for the issue of 142,552,674 unlisted options raising $142,552.88. The issue of options will be processed over the coming days.About Cohiba Minerals Limited Cohiba Minerals Limited (ASX:CHK) is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with the primary focus of investing in the resource sector through direct tenement acquisition, joint ventures, farm in arrangements and new project generation. The shares of the company trade under the ticker symbol CHK. The Company recently acquired 100% of the shares in Charge Lithium Pty Ltd, which holds exploration licences in Western Australia. WASHINGTON House lawmakers on Wednesday examined the lack of diversity within the State Departments ranks, capitalizing on the national conversation around racial injustice in America to explore why the nations diplomatic corps is not more reflective of the country it represents. In recent weeks, U.S. lawmakers and diplomats, among many Americans, have used the moment of racial unrest to shine a light on the deep inequality they believe exists in the State Department, and they have implored the Trump administration to address diversity in an agency where the face of the country presented to the world is overwhelmingly male and white. The department has lost too many of us because of bias, quiet discrimination and indifference, said Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, a former ambassador who is African-American. This moment in America has shown us just how dangerous a culture of indifference can be. Lawmakers at Wednesdays virtual hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee noted that the lack of racial minorities and women at the State Department has plagued the agency for decades, and that the issue has reached a tipping point among many in the countrys foreign policy and national security community. The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, has hailed the court verdict, which upheld the suspension of Comrade Ad... The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, has hailed the court verdict, which upheld the suspension of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Reacting, Okechukwu, who is a chieftain of the APC, said the judgement was in order. He noted that by the verdict, a Daniel has come to judgement. He said in a statement, It is good riddance to bad rubbish. He was playing God. One is vindicated, as I had maintained that Comrade Adams was no more a valid chairman of our great party. Out of narcissism, he glossed over his valid suspension by his ward executive and with culture of impunity failed to adhere to the provisions of APC Constitution. A man who lost his ward, LGA and State Exco has no reason to remain chairman. The good thing is that his suspension will afford a golden opportunity for the leadership of our party to overhaul and reposition our great party along the core progressive tenets, as we enshrined during merger in our constitution. Lets be frank, and do a careful review of Adams stewardship and take our party as a company in stock market. As MD of APC Plc and taking states controlled in 2019 as stocks, did Adams pass or fail? He failed woefully, Okechukwu declared. Saudis violate Yemen's Hudaydah truce 65 times in 24 hours: Media Iran Press TV Tuesday, 16 June 2020 6:10 PM Yemeni media say Saudi Arabia and its allies have once again breached a ceasefire agreement and violated for 65 times the war-torn country's airspace above the western coastal province of Hudaydah over the past 24 hours. The Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing the media bureau of Yemen's Operations Command Center, said on Tuesday that the Saudi-led coalition's violations included the flight of eight fighter jets and spy planes in the airspace of Hudaydah, 14 breaches of artillery bombardment and 43 rounds of shelling. The development came a day after the coalition had for 78 times violated a ceasefire agreement in the strategic western province and its warplanes had waged 43 raids on four Yemeni provinces. The coalition claimed on April 8 that it was halting military strikes in support of the United Nations (UN)'s peace efforts and to avoid the further spread of the new coronavirus in Yemen. However, shortly after the announcement, coalition warplanes struck positions at several Yemeni regions. On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dropped the Saudi-led coalition engaged in an atrocious military campaign against Yemen from a blacklist, several years after it was first named and shamed for killing and injuring children in the impoverished country. The move prompted immediate protests from human rights groups worldwide. Supported militarily by the United States, Britain, and other Western countries, Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement. The invaders have also enforced an all-out aerial, naval, and land blockade on the impoverished country. 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. More than half of Yemen's hospitals and clinics have been destroyed or closed at a time when Yemenis are in desperate need of medical supplies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 80 percent of the 28 million-strong population is also reliant on aid to survive in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The United Nations has warned that Yemen could suffer one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world. Yemeni authorities have reported 486 reported coronavirus cases and 113 deaths, but the World Health Organization believes numbers are much higher. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Developing and Manufacturing Novel RNAi drug Candidates Using Precision NanoSystems' NxGen Platform GAITHERSBURG, MD and VANCOUVER, BC, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Sirnaomics Inc. (Sirnaomics) and Precision NanoSystems Inc. (PNI) jointly announced a partnership on the development and manufacture of Sirnaomics polypeptide nanoparticle-based RNAi therapeutic product. This strategic joint effort includes the execution of a NanoAssemblr platform license and supply agreement, plus successful production of multiple batches of Sirnaomics drug product candidates, STP705 and STP707, for ongoing IND enabling safety and toxicity studies, as well as several clinical studies. Sirnaomics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company specialized in RNAi-based therapeutics for addressing the unmet needs in treatment of cancers and fibrosis diseases. The company has developed proprietary polypeptide nanoparticle carriers for efficient siRNA delivery, to advance an enriched drug product pipeline. Sirnaomics' lead product candidate, STP705, is an siRNA (small interfering RNA) therapeutic which takes advantage of a dual-targeted inhibitory property together with a polypeptide nanoparticle (PNP)-enhanced delivery to directly knock down both TGF-1 and COX-2 gene expression. The product candidate has received multiple IND approvals from both the US FDA and Chinese NMPA, including treatments of Cholangiocarcinoma, Non-Melanoma skin cancer and Hypertrophic Scar. STP705 has also received Orphan Drug Designation for treatment of Cholangiocarcinoma, Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma. A recent interim analysis report of a phase IIa clinical study on STP705 for treatment of Squamous Cell Carcinoma in situ indicated the topline therapeutic results with complete histological clearance tumor cell on treated sites. Using the same dual targets design, Sirnaomics has further developed STP707, a systemic formulation with broader application potential. Sirnaomics' founder, president and CEO, Dr. Patrick Lu said, "As the leader in RNAi therapeutics specialized in polypeptide nanoparticle formulation, we are so excited to see the further advancement of our process development and large scale product manufacturing, using PNI's NxGen microfluidic technology. In working with PNI's team and the NanoAssemblr platform, we were able to establish a robust manufacturing process from a nominated drug candidate to GMP manufacturing in just a few months, greatly accelerating our drug development process". Sirnaomics is currently using these batches produced with NxGen for non-human primate safety toxicity studies and clinical studies." PNI is a global leader in technology solutions to enable the development and manufacture of new nanomedicines in the areas of vaccines, cell therapies and gene therapies for the treatment of oncology, infectious diseases, and rare diseases. With the NanoAssemblr suite of products, PNI provides solutions across the drug development process for clients to develop and seamlessly scale their drug programs. Dr. James Taylor, co-founder and CEO of PNI said, "We are pleased to support Sirnaomics, an innovative RNAi therapeutics company, with our NanoAssemblr platform and Clinical Solutions Team that helped take their drug program to a successful GMP batch manufacture. We believe the NanoAssemblr microfluidic technology enables exquisite control over the particle size, charge and encapsulation efficiency which was important for the performance of Sirnaomics' drug product candidates." PNI's NanoAssemblr platform, with over 400 systems placed worldwide, is designed to enable drug developers to rapidly progress from R&D to industrial-scale nanomedicine manufacture. About Sirnaomics Sirnaomics, Inc., a leading privately held biopharmaceutical company for discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics, is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, with subsidiaries in Suzhou and Guangzhou, China. The Company's mission is to develop novel therapeutics to alleviate human suffering and advance patient care in areas of high unmet medical need. The guiding principles of the company are: Innovation, Global Vision with a Patient Centered focus. Members of the senior management team have a great deal of combined experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, financial, clinical and business management in both the USA and China. The company is supported by funding from institutional investors, corporate partnerships and government grants. Sirnaomics has developed a strong portfolio of intellectual property with an enriched product pipeline. The therapeutic areas of focus include oncology and anti-fibrotic therapeutics. Learn more at www.sirnaomics.com. About Precision NanoSystems Inc. Precision NanoSystems Inc. (PNI) proprietary NanoAssemblr Platform enables the rapid, reproducible, and scalable manufacture of next generation nanoparticle formulations for the targeted delivery of therapeutic and diagnostic agents to cells and tissues in the body. PNI provides instruments, reagents and services to life sciences researchers, including pharmaceutical companies, and builds strategic collaborations to revolutionize healthcare through nanotechnology. For more information visit http://www.precisionnanosystems.com. SOURCE Precision Nanosystems Related Links www.precisionnanosystems.com In 1902, when Henry Haven Windsor founded Popular Mechanics, he dreamed of a magazine that would show "the way the world works," using plain language, with illustrations to help out. Its original tagline was "Written so you can understand it." Now, though, Popular Mechanics has a new goal: helping the Black Lives Matter and Antifa revolution by explaining how best to tear down the fabric of our institutions. It's fun to browse through the Popular Mechanics archives, looking at what used to inspire the readership. In 1944, six months before D-Day, the magazine explained "How Japan Will Be Defeated" and "Photos without Film" (the secret was photographic enlarging paper). A decade later, in the 1954 edition, readers learned about "Three Rear-Engine Cars," "Aluminum as a New Craft Material," and "How Your Brakes Work." Fast-forward to 2012, and the magazine is telling its readers about "Reengineering the Human" (with bionic prosthetics) and explaining the Costa Concordia disaster. For over one hundred years, Popular Mechanics stayed true to its mission, explaining the mechanical and scientific world to readers who want to know how things work and, maybe, try building things themselves. No longer. At its online site, Popular Mechanics' latest article is entitled "How to Topple a Statue Using Science: Bring that sucker down without anyone getting hurt." (The Search Engine Optimization title is more graphic: "How to Remove Racist Statue | Physics of Taking Down Statues.") The article is explicit that its goal is to make it easier for people to tear down or otherwise destroy any public or private statuary that offends them: It hasn't been a great past few weeks for statues. From Bristol, England to Birmingham, Alabama, people all over the world have been grappling with the legacy of racism by tossing their grappling hooks around the heads of problematic monuments. Should you happen to find yourself near a statue that you decide you no longer like, we asked scientists for the best, safest ways to bring it to the ground without anyone getting hurt except, of course, for the inanimate racist who's been dead for a century anyway. The article tells readers how to use physics to drag a statue off its pedestal or to use chemicals to melt or explode a statue's ankles, causing it to topple. Not only can you destroy history, but it's fun! And here's a fun bonus: The liquid nitrogen will quickly turn to a gas and come shooting out of that hole you drilled, says Harrison, which will almost certainly cause a high-pitched squeal. "One could imagine it sounding something like the sound a confederate general would make if their feet were on fire." There is no relationship between this recipe for revolutionary destruction and the magazine's older articles, all aimed at helping people understand how the world works. This is pure anarchy from a magazine staffed with woke college graduates. And no, it's not guesswork that the author is a college grad disseminating the indoctrination he got along with his degrees. James Stout, who wrote the article, graduated from Oxford with a B.A. in history and politics, and from U.C. San Diego with a Ph.D. in philosophy and European history. He's currently a freelance writer and adjunct professor at San Diego's Community College District, indoctrinating other young minds in socialist anarchy. The genius of late 20th- and early 21st-century leftism was that it didn't attack America head-on. Instead, slowly but steadily, it's been eroding our institutions from the inside out. The fruit of that slow march through the institutions is a Popular Mechanics article explaining how to destroy our world. NEW MILFORD The Rhode Island man charged with manslaughter in the August 2019 death of a 43-year-old Robert C. Cerrato III was arraigned Wednesday in state Superior Court in Torrington. State Police said Hector L. Diaz-Negron was held on $150,000 bond following his arrest Tuesday in connection with the incident on Kent Road last summer. The 47-year-old has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, criminal possession of a firearm and unlawful discharge of a firearm after police said he fatally shot Cerrato by accident during a party at Cerratos home on Aug. 10. New Milford police received a 911 call that evening from a hysterical male party later identified as Diaz-Negron who reported that his friend had been accidentally shot, according to the warrant released Tuesday night for Diaz-Negrons arrest. According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Diaz-Negron told the dispatcher his friend was showing him a gun and it went off. Another individual, who had been in the room when the gun went off, told the dispatcher Cerrato had a heart condition and was recovering from cancer, according to the warrant. Officers found Diaz-Negron and the other man trying to offer first aid to Cerrato, who was on his back on the floor of a bedroom in the home. First responders discovered a small wound on Cerratos right side, and applied pressure to it as medics treated him. Cerrato was taken to Danbury Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Shortly after Diaz-Negron arrived at the party, Cerrato led Diaz-Negron inside a bedroom and showed him some firearms, according to the warrant for Diaz-Negrons arrest. Diaz-Negron told police he was handing one of the guns back to (Cerrato) and the gun discharged striking the victim, according to the warrant. He said he thought all the magazines had been removed from the guns Cerrato was showing him, the warrant states. An autopsy listed Cerratos cause of death as gunshot wound of chest, and his death was ruled a homicide, according to state police. Diaz-Negron denied anyone had acted careless or was fooling around with the firearms, but admitted he and Cerrato were tucking them into the waistbands of their clothing to conceal them and joking around with each other, according to the warrant. Police said Diaz-Negron had recklessly caused the death of Robert Cerrato. The morning after the shooting, investigators served a search-and-seizure warrant at the Kent Road home and retrieved several guns and ammunition rounds and magazines. After checking the state firearms database, investigators learned Cerrato did not have a valid pistol permit or any registered firearms. According to police, the firearms had been purchased by relatives of Cerrato but there was no record of the guns being transferred or sold. Diaz-Negron is next scheduled to appear in court Aug. 18. A reporter in Pittsburgh is suing the newspaper she works for after the company prohibited her from covering the citys Black Lives Matter protests because of a tweet concerning the issue. Alexis Johnson, a black reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Pennsylvania alleging racial discrimination and illegal retaliation on Tuesday. The suit claims that Ms Johnson was prevented from pursuing stories on jailed protesters or social-media efforts to raise bail funds after she posted a tweet on 31 May highlighting the different treatment black and white people regarding property damage. Horrifying scenes and aftermath from selfish LOOTERS who dont care about this city!!!!! the tweet says. .... oh wait sorry. No, these are pictures from a Kenny Chesney concert tailgate. Whoops." The suit stated that the tweet was intended to and did mock, ridicule and protest discrimination against African Americans by society in general and by whites who equate property damage with human life. The filing alleges that the subsequent ban on her coverage would tend to dissuade a reasonable newspaper reporter from making or supporting claims of race discrimination. The lawsuit also alleges that white reporters who have sent similar social media posts did not receive similar treatment in similar circumstances. For example, Defendants reporters who spoke out publicly against discrimination and hate after the 2018 shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue which did not involve actions by police directed at African Americans were not removed from covering that story, the suit says. The suit alleges that Ms Johnson has suffered mental anguish, emotional strain, humiliation and diminished career advancement because of her employers. The reporter and her legal team are seeking for the paper to be forced to allow her to cover the protest and racial issues, to be prevented from retaliating against her and monetary damages to be determined at trial. Post-Gazette managing editor Karen Kane previously declined comment on the issue when contacted by The Associated Press, stating that editors could not discuss personnel matters. An email seeking comment on the lawsuit was sent to Ms Johnsons editors by The AP. Ms Johnsons fellow reporters, her union and the citys mayor have all voiced support for the reporter. Guild President Michael A Fuoco, who is also a Post-Gazette reporter, said that guild leaders were appalled by the paper's move. Additional reporting by The Associated Press. (Newser) Becoming an Eagle Scout, an elite rank within the Boy Scouts, requires time, effort, tenacityand now, a new merit badge inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. The Boy Scouts of America announced Monday that those who wish to attain Eagle Scout status must now earn a "diversity and inclusion" badge. "The Boy Scouts of America stands with Black families and the Black community because we believe that Black Lives Matter," the BSA said in a letter (seen here) sent to Scouting families. "This is not a political issue; it is a human rights issue and one we all have a duty to address." Earning the badge will be an extension of what's required for other merit badges that mandate Scouts "learn about and engage with other groups and cultures," per Fox News. The BSA says starting next month, it will also begin offering diversity and inclusion training for workers. story continues below A Northwestern University political science professor tells NBC News the BSA's move is a "big deal," but also that the group has been slacking in terms of progressive stances; now, "nobody wants to have anything to do with them." "Society is passing them by, and they have to catch up," Alvin Tillery says. Still, a history professor at Christian Brothers University notes the BSA hasn't endorsed discrimination or segregation since its inception more than a century ago, and that it has long encouraged black youth to join. "They were taking inclusive stances when the Ku Klux Klan was riding high," says Ben Jordan. The BSA letter notes this move is just the beginning. "As our country reckons with racial injustice, we all must consider our role and our failures and commit to meaningful action," the letter reads. "There is no place for racismnot in Scouting and not in our communities." (Read more Boy Scouts stories.) The US government named 39 individuals and entities, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his wife Asma and a coterie of regime insiders Wednesday, as part of a sweeping sanctions campaign targeting the Syrian government and its financial backers. Today we begin a sustained campaign of sanctions against the Assad regime under the Caesar Act, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter. Many more sanctions will come until Assad and his regime stop their needless, brutal war and agree to a political solution. The bipartisan Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act allows for sanctions on anyone Syrian or foreign that does business with the government, specifically in the construction, engineering, energy or aviation sectors. Targets also include anyone who provides support for the governments military operations or those of its main backers, Russia and Iran. First lady Asma al-Assad, who Pompeo describes as one of Syrias most notorious war profiteers, was sanctioned by the US for the first time Wednesday. Several of the presidents relatives and members of his inner circle were also designated, including businessman Mohamed Hamsho and Assad's younger brother Maher al-Assad, who commands the elite Fourth Division of the Syrian Arab Army. The State Department also named Fatemiyoun Division, an Iranian militia operating in Syria. Many of those listed were already under US sanctions, but now anyone doing business with any of these persons or entities is at risk of sanctions, Pompeo said. The US Treasury Department also designated a group of regime-friendly investors contributing to Syrias reconstruction with high-end real estate aimed at ushering in a wealthy and loyal demographic. Why it matters: The Caesar Act, named for the defector who smuggled evidence of torture and murder of Syrian regime prisons, aims to stop such heinous crimes and deprive Assad of the resources he needs to rebuild Syria. The Trump administration argues that squeezing the regime financially may open Assad to concessions he hadnt previously considered. But many Syria experts fear civilians will be indirectly impacted by the sanctions, which come as Syrias economy is on the verge of collapse. The currency has plummeted to record lows, the cost of medicine and food have soared and rare protests have erupted in government-controlled areas. The regime is ultimately responsible for the economic devastation, but analysts say panic over the Caesar measures has likely contributed to the recent currency woes. A lot of Syrians are very much fearing the worst, and I think that this collapse factors in that sense of impending zoom, said Julien Barnes-Dacey, the director of the Middle East & North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Whats next: More sanctions on the regime and its foreign patrons are expected in the coming weeks. Plan for a "summer of Caesar," State Department Syria envoy Joel Rayburn said Wednesday at a panel hosted by the Washington Institute. The sanctions are just a first taste of what the US government is going to do under the Caesar Act, he said. The US Treasury Department is also expected to label the Central Bank in Syria a financial institution of primary money laundering concern. Know more: Correspondent Elizabeth Hagedorn delves into the debate over whether Syrian civilians will be the unintended victims of the sanctions campaign. Pentagon correspondent Jared Szuba examines the Caesar Acts impact on Kurdish-ruled northeast Syria. Libya: Di Maio talks with Tunisian counterpart Focus on dialogue (ANSAmed) - TUNIS, JUNE 17 - The Libyan crisis was at the center of a phone call between Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and his Tunisian counterpart Noureddine Erray, the Tunisian foreign ministry said in a statement. According to the note, the two ministers also discussed ''friendly relations'' and the ''strategic partnership'' uniting Italy and Tunisia and called for stronger bilateral cooperation in all sectors. Erray, the note said, stressed the importance of the Libyan issue, recalling how Tunisia supports ''international legitimacy'' to reach a long-lasting political solution. Di Maio and the Tunisian minister also reportedly ''highlighted the convergence of points of view on the Libyan issue and invited to promote inter-Libyan political dialogue to guarantee Libya's unity and protect its stability''. (ANSAmed). Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 23:59:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The world is witnessing the largest transnational mobilization against systemic racism in law enforcement sparked by the chilling images of the police killing of George Floyd, a UN expert said Wednesday. E. Tendayi Achiume, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, told a special UN meeting that this unjust and discriminatory killing is only one of countless others. "In the United States, there can be no question that the problem is not one of isolated incidents of police misconduct, but rather it is one of systemic racism in law enforcement," she said. The UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday began an urgent debate on current racially inspired human rights violations and the related issues following a request made by Burkina Faso on behalf of the African Group, at which Achiume is one of the opening speakers. Calling Wednesday's event a "historic debate", the UN expert told the audience that she delivered her speech also on behalf of a group of other UN experts, including the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. "The predominant analysis in the United States is that the problem is not limited to specific enforcement practices or individual officers, but extends to the very framework of law and policy that governs law enforcement, including transparency and accountability for human rights violations by law enforcement officials," she said. "The response of the U.S. government to the national uprising against systemic racism in law enforcement has reenacted the very injustices that have driven people into the streets in the first place," she added. According to the UN expert, for people of African descent in the United States, the domestic legal system has utterly failed to acknowledge and confront racial injustice and discrimination. "This urgent debate must mark a shift, even within the United Nations, in the fight against racial injustice to ensure that racial inequality receives the attention, political will, and resources required to achieve real and meaningful protection and promotion of human rights for people of African descent, and others," she stressed. Enditem (Newser) The Vincent Van Gogh Foundation has purchased the only known letter signed by artists Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin at an auction in Paris. The cost of the four sheets of paper: $237,700, per Reuters. The artists penned the letter to fellow painter Emile Bernard in early November 1888, about a week into their two-month stay together in Arles, France, prior to Van Gogh cutting off part of his own ear, which was reportedly offered to a brothel maid, reports the Guardian. The letter, written in French, describes the post-impressionist painters' "excursions" in the brothels. "It's likely that we'll eventually go there often to work," Van Gogh writes. "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." Auction house Drouot called the letter "exceptional," per Deutsche Welle. story continues below The two men discuss their recent paintings and the future of artVan Gogh predicts "a new series of powerful portraitists, simple and comprehensible to the whole of the general public"as well as their impressions of each other. Gauguin is "an unspoiled creature with the instincts of a wild beast," writes Van Gogh. "With Gauguin, blood and sex have the edge over ambition." Gauguin responds that Van Gogh is "easy to impress and ditto to be indulgent." The foundation said the privately owned letter was the most important document by Van Gogh that wasn't held in a museum, as it's the only one he's known to have written with Gauguin. "Their artistic dialogue was unstoppable in those days and was even continued in brothels and in this letter," it said. The letter is to be displayed in an exhibition of letters at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum this October. (Read more Vincent Van Gogh stories.) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday grieved the death of 20 Army personnel asserting that the loss of soldiers during a face-off in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh "is deeply disturbing and painful". The Indian Army had said that 20 of its soldiers were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops during a face-off in Galwan on June 15 night. This is the biggest ever military confrontation between the two armies in over five decades. In a statement, the army said that almost the same number of Chinese troops have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Singh said that the soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. He added that the nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 17, 2020 The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias breavehearts. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 17, 2020 Extending his sympathies to the families of the martyred soldiers, Singh said that the nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. "The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army," Singh tweeted. "The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias breavehearts," he also tweeted. The Indian Army on June 16 had said in a statement, "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20. The Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," the official release had said. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had blamed China for the incident and alleged that it tried to unilaterally change the status and "departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley". MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. Srivastava said that India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh. India wants peace but is capable of giving a befitting reply if provoked, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday, his first remarks on the border clash between soldiers of the Indian and Chinese army in eastern Ladakh on Monday evening. PM Modis sharply-worded statement was aimed not just at reassuring the country that the government was taking steps to protect Indias sovereignty but was also designed to deliver a stern message to Beijing. India has always promoted peace among nations, PM Modi said on Wednesday afternoon. PM Modi, who is meeting chief ministers via video conference on the Covid-19 pandemic, started with a reference to the border clash in Galwan Valley that cost 20 lives on the Indian side. Over the next five minutes, PM Modi summarised his governments stand on the clash and his determination not to let anyone stop India from retaliation if someone does target the countrys sovereignty. In our neighbourhood, Indias constant effort has been that differences should not become disputes, PM Modi said a throwback to one of the principles that India and China had pledged themselves to at his meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. India has blamed China for the border clash that New Delhi says could have been avoided had the Chinese soldiers scrupulously followed the agreement and not tried to unilaterally change the status quo in the Galwan region. Colonel Santosh Babu and his men were outnumbered by the Chinese troops who attacked the Indian soldiers, but they still struck back at their adversary. In the process, Col Santosh, according to one estimate by the army, killed or critically injured over 40 Chinese soldiers including a commander of the Peoples Liberation Army. PM Modi referred to the extraordinary courage that they displayed. The country will be proud to know that they died after they killed their adversaries (Desh ko Is baat par garv hoga ki vae maarte, maarte, maren hai), PM Modi said. Also read | PM Modi calls all-party meeting on June 19 to discuss India-China border situation The Chinese military or the foreign office has not made public the casualties suffered by the PLA. Officials said PM Modis statement had omitted any reference to dialogue to signal that the government was not looking for a way out. To the contrary, PM Modi underscored that no one could stop India from hitting back if its sovereignty was targeted. I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain. For us, Indias unity and sovereignty is the most important and no one can stop us from protecting it. No one should have a doubt on this point. India wants peace but is capable of a befitting reply in every circumstance, PM Modi said. This clear message comes against the backdrop of Chinese PLAs introducing a fresh claim over the Galwan Valley. This was one of the few areas along the Line of Actual Control where the difference in perception between the two sides was minimal. In New Delhi, the Chinese statement is seen as an effort to create fresh areas of differences even as older differences turn into disputes. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was also present at the chief ministers conference along with Home Minister Amit Shah, had earlier in the day described the loss of soldiers deeply disturbing and painful. The nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias bravehearts, the defence minister tweeted. Shortly after the prime ministers intervention, Amit Shah also paid rich tributes to the fallen soldiers. The pain of losing our brave soldiers while protecting our motherland at Ladakhs Galwan can not be put in words. Nation salutes our immortal heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep Indian territory safe and secure. Their bravery reflects Indias commitment towards her land, Shah said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A prison officer arrested after alleged jailhouse sex with an inmate has boasted about her relationship with another ex-con - hailing him as 'my world' and 'king' in a series of loved-up social posts. Melissa Goodwin is accused of having sex with prisoner Corey London five times at Silverwater jail and smuggling in contraband for him including tobacco and chewing gum. Goodwin was charged last month after already having been stood down by prison authorities over a relationship with former inmate and Rebels bikie associate Caleb Valeri. But the pressure of a police investigation hasn't stopped Goodwin and Valeri's love from blossoming, according to her gushing Instagram posts. Prison officer Melissa Goodwin has described her ex-con lover as 'king' and 'my world' on Instagram as their love blossoms while she is on bail Goodwin has shared several photographs with friends in recent days - including posing with the aspiring rapper Valeri at the gym In the past week, Goodwin has lauded Valeri as a 'king' in a romantic selfie, confessed she was 'blessed' to be with him and posed with him at the gym. 'He said he loves me thick,' she said. Goodwin also shared a charming text message exchange the pair apparently had about why she was applying make-up. 'Why the f*** you doing eye shadow,' a contact Goodwin represented with a ring, a globe and a heart emoji apparently wrote to her. 'You want black eyes c*** I'll give you them for free. 'You look gorgeous,' it added. Goodwin described the former convict - who posted a picture from the bathroom of a courthouse just yesterday - as her world, represented by a globe emoji. Valeri's messages have been similarly saccharine, fawning over her as his 'better half' and 'baby'. Mates urged Valeri to 'wife her up' and jokingly writing 'yes officer' on photos of the pair together. The couple have fawned over each other online, describing each other as 'baby' - with Valeri describing the prison officer as his 'better half' A text message apparently from Valeri to Goodwin which the rapper shared online But prison sources are far less impressed. Former jail governor John Heffernan told Daily Mail Australia that Goodwin's posts were sickening. 'It's a real kick in the teeth,' Mr Heffernan said, arguing she was doing a disservice to her fellow prison workers. Prior to being stood down, Goodwin featured alongside two fellow prison officers on the front cover of the March-April edition of the Corrective Services NSW magazine. But she came under investigation by Correctives investigators over allegations of her relationship with a one-time inmate. Goodwin was charged last month with public office misconduct and engaging in a relationship with an inmate, causing a safety risk. It came weeks after she appeared on the front cover the Corrective Services NSW magazine (pictured) Goodwin had already been suspended by Corrective Services NSW over her relationship with Caleb Valeri (pictured), an up and coming rapper and former prison inmate. The pair are understood to be dating, but it is not suggested their relationship began prior to his release Her charges relate to inmate Corey London (above), rather than Valeri Corrective Services staff are required to inform their employer of relationships of any nature they have with former inmates. Goodwin was arrested by NSW Police at her Ingleburn home late last month. She was charged with misconduct in public office and engaging in a relationship with an inmate, charges which carry up two years' imprisonment. The charges relate to London, not Valeri, who is believed to have left prison before they struck up a romantic relationship. Ms Goodwin has been granted bail to appear at Burwood Local Court on July 14. Nikada/iStockBy CATHERINE THORBECKE, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- Morgan Stanley's former head of global diversity is suing the investment bank, alleging rampant racial discrimination and arguing in court documents, "Black lives did not matter at Morgan Stanley." The legal action comes as the firm publicly attempts to position itself as a diversity leader amid protests over the killing of George Floyd, announcing on June 9 a $5 million donation to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and initiatives including what the lawyers bringing suit characterize as fast-track promotions of two Black women to senior leadership roles. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by 26-year Morgan Stanley veteran Marilyn Booker, claims black employees received disparate treatment at work, and faced discrimination, retaliation and unequal pay. Booker accuses CEO James Gorman of being "quick to now pay lip service and throw money at the diversity problem at Morgan Stanley because he is suddenly 'moved,'" according to the complaint, referencing the firm's recent reactions to Floyd protests. However, "When it was Ms. Booker's job to do just that -- i.e., to work with the Black community and increase both diversity in the workforce and the Firm's reputation around diversity in the community -- Morgan Stanley did nothing but actively hamstring her ability to do so, such by steadily decreasing her budget year over year," the court documents state. It continued: "Clearly, Black lives did not matter at Morgan Stanley." Booker alleges that when she created an internal proposal to remedy the systemic racial bias she said was inflicted on black financial advisers and trainees, senior leaders refused to listen to her plan. Finally, after more than two decades at Morgan Stanley, the court documents allege Booker was fired "in a horrifying fashion" in December. "Having had no performance issues, Ms. Booker was blindsided. No explanation for her firing was given other than typical corporate posturing that her position -- which was primarily to help Black people and people of color -- was simply being eliminated," the complaint states. The complaint also alleges that Morgan Stanley having predominately white, male leadership has resulted in discriminatory practices that disproportionately harm black women. Booker is seeking collective action claims under New York's Equal Pay Act for all black female employees at Morgan Stanley within a relevant statutory period. Jeanne M. Christensen, a partner at the law firm Wigdor LLP, which is representing Booker, said Morgan Stanley has had "decades to get its house in order and improve its record on diversity and inclusion." "No more excuses," she said in a statement. "The numbers speak for themselves and Morgan Stanley must be held accountable for looking the other way." Morgan Stanley denied the allegations in the lawsuit and affirmed its commitment to a diverse workforce in a statement emailed to ABC News. "We strongly reject the allegations made in this claim and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in the appropriate forum," the company said. "We are steadfast in our commitment to improve the diversity of our employees and have made steady progress -- while recognizing that we have further progress to make. We will continue to advance our high priority efforts to achieve a more diverse and inclusive firm." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Turn Over a New Leaf Creating a wearable specifically designed to reverse the effects of prediabetes has been our mission for over 5 years. LifePlus, a next generation medical device company, previewed the breakthrough technology behind its flagship smartwatch that provides a continuous real time and truly non-invasive way to measure and monitor five different vitals including blood glucose. LifePlus CEO, Dr. Alodeep Sanyal, presented this preview in the DIABESTSMINE D-DATA EXCHANGE forum, held on June 12th in conjunction with the American Diabetes Association 80th Annual Scientific Sessions. Dr. Sanyal stated, Research shows almost everyone who develops Type 2 diabetes, develops prediabetes first. But not everyone who has prediabetes ends up with diabetes. Prediabetes can be reversed if acted upon early and carefully. Creating a wearable specifically designed to reverse the effects of prediabetes has been our mission for over 5 years. Our goal is to provide the worlds first, truly non-invasive wearable for continuous tracking of blood glucose, eliminating painful finger sticks. Dr. Sanyal adds, Our wearable will continuously & non-invasively track blood glucose, blood pressure, heart rate, heart rate variability, oxygen saturation and respiration rate providing a comprehensive, '360' view of your metabolic and cardiovascular health. After the presentation Dr. Sanyal engaged in a lively Q&A session with attendees answering questions about LifePlus initial focus on prediabetes, availability of their open API to integrate with other diabetes management solutions, and how people can participate in early trials. The first version of the LifeLeaf product will be available this fall through Hovid Pharmaceuticals in Malaysia and other South-East Asian markets. US availability will follow FDA approval which is currently in progress. About LifePlus LifePlus is a Silicon Valley, California based technology company that develops and manufactures next generation connected and smart medical devices addressing long-standing medical challenges. Their flagship product, LifeLeaf, is a smartwatch that uses spectroscopic signals to measure five different vitals including blood glucose, blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate and blood oxygen saturation. A continuous, real time and non-invasive measurement of these vitals provide functional and practical solutions for people suffering from chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. Learn more about LifePlus at http://www.lifeplus.ai. Trademarks LifeLeaf is a registered trademark of LifePlus, Inc. Keywords Diabetes, Blood Glucose, CGM, Glucometer, smartwatch (HedgeCo.Net) The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a consent order for permanent injunction and other equitable relief against defendant Brett G. Hartshorn of Sarasota, Florida, finding, among other things, that he fraudulently solicited at least 13 individuals to trade off-exchange foreign currency derivatives (forex) and misappropriated funds of at least two of those clients. The order requires that he pay restitution of $890,000 and imposes permanent trading and registration bans. The order findsand Hartshorn admitsthat from at least June 18, 2008 to in or around 2014, Hartshorn fraudulently solicited at least 13 individuals, including members of his church, as well as individuals in the local community, to trade off-exchange forex. According to the order, Hartshorn falsely told most, if not all, of his clients that he had traded forex profitably on behalf of himself and others, that his clients could expect substantial profits if they permitted him to trade forex on their behalf, and that he would limit the risk of loss. In reality, Hartshorn repeatedly employed risky trading strategies and suffered significant trading lossesoften creating devastating single-day losseson behalf of his clients. The order finds that Hartshorn failed to disclose to clients that under his so-called profit sharing agreement with clients, he could be, and often was, compensated even as his clients lost money trading. The order also finds that Hartshorn misappropriated the funds of at least two clients and failed to disclose that misappropriation to his other clients. The order further finds that Hartshorn failed to register as a commodity trading advisor (CTA) as required under the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations and that he violated various CTA requirements, including failing to produce certain documents to the CFTC that he was required to maintain. This order resolves the CFTCs case against Hartshorn that was filed in the Southern District of New York in 2016. [See CFTC Press Release No. 7506-16] Related Criminal Action In a parallel criminal action pending in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Hartshorn pleaded guilty to willfully making false statements to the FBI relating to his misappropriation of client funds [See United States v. Brett G. Hartshorn, Case No. 8:20-cr-00022-CEH-SPF, ECF No. 3 (M.D. Fla)]. The CFTC cautions that orders requiring repayment of funds to victims may not result in the recovery of any money lost because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets. The CFTC will continue to fight vigorously for the protection of customers and to ensure the wrongdoers are held accountable. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday night that she would be enforcing the Attending Physician of the United States Congress' requirement that House members wear masks during committee meetings. Politico reported that the move came after a number of House Republicans were caught not wearing masks, including Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina, who later confirmed he had contracted the coronavirus. Pelosi informed the sergeant at arms to enforce the requirement, prompting even Rep. Jim Jordan, a top Trump ally, to place a mask on his face during portions of Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee meeting. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (right) decided Tuesday night to enforce the Attending Physician of the United States Congress' requirement that House members wear masks during committee meetings Rep. Jim Jordan (right), a Republican who has been resistant to mask-wearing, can be seen in a face covering Wednesday, as he greets fellow Judiciary Committee member, Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Rep. Jim Jordan started out the meeting mask-less, though his mask was prominently displayed in front of him. Lawmakers were allowed to take their face coverings off when it was their turn to speak Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler opened up his Wednesday morning hearing by going over the new rules pertaining to members wearings masks during committee meetings on Capitol Hill During Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler's opening remarks, Rep. Jim Jordan (second from top right) put on the mask that was sitting in front of him. Members were told they could participate in hearings remotely if they refused to cover their faces Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, started that session by informing members they needed to be wearing their masks when they weren't speaking. 'Before I make my opening statement, I want to briefly address the new guidance from the sergeant at arms that the Office of the Attending Physician released yesterday concerning preventing the spread of COVID-19,' Nadler said. Nadler explained that the rules required face coverings for 'meetings in a limited and closed space, such as a committee hearing room, for greater than 15 minutes.' 'This new advice is based on the best available scientific evidence we have about how the coronavirus spreads,' he said. 'It is based on the best practices issued by the Trump administration's Centers for Disease Control and is supported by the world's top infectious disease experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx, who serve on President Trump's White House coronavirus taskforce,' Nadler added. Nadler noted that the Attending Physician's guidance 'does not mince words,' as it points out that individuals assembling from different parts of the country in close confines 'are the highest risk' for transmitting the disease. 'In light of the Attending Physician's new guidance, I therefore fully expect all members on both sides of the aisle to wear a mask at all times that you are not speaking,' Nadler said. He also said members could participate in hearings from their offices if they refused. 'If for whatever reason you are not willing to wear a mask, the House rules provide a way to participate remotely from your office without being physically present in this room,' the New York Democrat said. While Nadler was speaking, the C-SPAN camera panned away and Jordan, known for not wearing a mask around Capitol Hill, could be seen sitting at his seat with his mask on. Digital.com, a leading independent review website for small business online tools, products and services, has named GreenGeeks to its list of the best website hosting services for 2020. Top providers were selected based on server types, uptime and load speed as well as customer support. GreenGeeks is one of 20 companies from across the web that qualified for the list. Experts at Digital.com conducted 50 hours of research and analyzed over 40 web hosting services. Only companies offering multiple server types, faster speed and dedicated tech support were considered for the final list. "Everyone here at GreenGeeks is excited and honored at receiving an award for being one of the best web hosting services of 2020," said Kaumil Patel, COO of GreenGeeks. "We have been working exceptionally hard at ensuring our hosting platform continues to be fast, secure and scalable, while being environmentally friendly. It's good to know we're being recognized for the hard work we do!" he added. The comprehensive guide also highlights pricing, refund policy and user feedback. To access the complete list of top web hosting providers, please visit https://digital.com/web-hosting/. ABOUT GREENGEEKS GreenGeeks, established in 2008 has been the industry's leading eco-friendly green web hosting provider putting back 3 times the power we consume into the grid in the form of renewable energy. Our web hosting platform is built for speed, security, scalability while being environmentally friendly. We are based out of Los Angeles, California with a global workforce that provides a better web hosting experience to individuals, bloggers, small businesses and web designers/developers from over 150 countries. To learn more, visit https://www.greengeeks.com ABOUT DIGITAL.COM Digital.com reviews and compares the best products, services, and software for running or growing a small business website or online shop. The platform collects twitter comments and uses sentiment analysis to score companies and their products. Digital.com was founded in 2015 and formerly known as Review Squirrel. To learn more, visit https://digital.com/ At first Kelly Dawson thought she would be safer in her native United States, but now she is glad she is in Beijing. Nick Bailey says he is picking up the pieces of his live after almost dying and losing his home as a result of the Salisbury poisonings (Wiltshire Police handout/PA) A police officer who almost died after investigating the Salisbury poisonings said he is still trying to pick up the pieces of his life. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey has made a third attempt to return to work this week, two years after being poisoned by Novichok. Det Sgt Bailey was the first person to enter the home of Sergei Skripal after the Russian former double agent and his daughter Yulia were rushed to hospital after being poisoned by the deadly nerve agent on a park bench in Salisbury. The case that led Britain to accuse Russia of attempted murder and charge two Russian intelligence agents with the poisoning in absentia, has now been turned into a BBC drama series, The Salisbury Poisonings. Expand Close Members of the military wear protective clothing while investigating the home of Sergei Skripal following the poisonings (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Members of the military wear protective clothing while investigating the home of Sergei Skripal following the poisonings (Andrew Matthews/PA) In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Det Sgt Bailey, 40, has detailed the torment he and his family endured after he was accidentally poisoned at the Skripals home after grasping the door knob. Det Sgt Bailey had worn a protective suit and latex gloves, but was later told his glove was saturated by the powerful nerve agent. What followed was a two-week stay in intensive care during which his wife and two daughters feared he would die as well as the loss of the Baileys family home and possessions due to contamination fears. The world has moved on, but Im still trying to pick up the pieces, he told the paper. Im not ashamed to say it has had a massive impact psychologically. It really pulled the rug from under my feet. Although Det Sgt Bailey was discharged from hospital within three weeks, he could not then go home, since he had unknowingly carried Novichok into the residence from the Skripals house. While he was in hospital, police had seized Det Sgt Baileys home and its contents, fearing the risk of contamination too high. They moved his wife Sarah and daughters Eloise and Annabel, then 14 and 10, into a bed and breakfast. Expand Close Military personnel at the site near the Maltings in Salisbury where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned (Ben Birchall/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Military personnel at the site near the Maltings in Salisbury where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned (Ben Birchall/PA) While Sarah had packed some belongings into four suitcases, police took the decision to buy the house and destroy all its contents. They had done the same to the Skripals house and had removed the park bench where they had sat when poisoned, as well as burying no fewer than 20 emergency services vehicles used in the case. It was heartbreaking, said Det Sgt Bailey. We scrimped and saved for that house. It was our forever home, but we only lived there for two years. While the Baileys have now bought a new home, the policeman suffers with depression and memory loss, The Daily Telegraph said. He attempted to return to work in September 2018, and in January 2019, but both times couldnt deal with being in a police environment. He returned again on Monday, joining a neighbourhood police team to build his confidence. If that also proves unsuccessful, he will look for a different job. The Skripals, like Det Sgt Bailey also recovered and, after more than a year in an MI6 safe house, moved to New Zealand. But local woman Dawn Sturgess, 44, died months after the incident, having picked up the discarded perfume bottle used by Russian agents to hold the Novichok. Russian agents going by the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov have been charged in absentia over the poisonings, with Interpol Red Notices and European Arrest warrants issued. Meanwhile, Det Sgt Bailey has defended his wife against criticism for her actions as portrayed in the series. He tweeted: Ive seen quite a bit of negativity towards my wife regarding episode 2 and the way she handled it. Those scenes with Sarah could never truly reflect the extreme emotion and trauma she went through that day. Cut her some slack and be kind. In the episode, Sarah played by Annabel Scholey is seen to angrily tell a police liaison officer at the family home to piss off and pours herself a glass of white wine. Critical tweets were also posted by viewers pointing out Mrs Bailey did not change the bed sheets after her husband had slept in them. Chennai: Havildar Pazhani from Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu was among the three Indian soldiers who were martyred near Ladakh while fighting the Chinese Army. Pazhani who hailed from Kadukkaloor village in Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram district, is the father of two kids and had served the Indian Army for 22 years. Colonel Santosh Babu, Commanding officer of 16 Bihar and Sepoy Ojha also laid down their lives in the violent face-off with the Chinese Army which occurred near Galwan Valley at Ladakh on Monday night. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced a solatium of Rs 20 lakh for the family and also offered a government job (based on qualification) for the next of kin. The Chief Minister and various opposition leaders from Tamil Nadu issued statements or posted messages on social media in honor of the supreme sacrifice made by the solider and expressed their condolences and solidarity with the bereaved family. The father-in-law of the fallen soldier said that they were informed of his death during the early hours. "An Army official from Rajasthan called and informed us. He had even come to this very house in our town in January this year. The family is fully dependent on his income said Nachiappan, father-in-law of the fallen soldier" said Nachiappan. He added that Pazhani and his daughter had two schoolgoing-kids- a son who was studying in 6th grade and a daughter who was into her 3rd grade. The slain soldiers wife, is a degree holder and works as a clerk at a college in the Ramanathapuram district. Even if omicron peak nears, Long Beach cases and hospitalizations will still be up for weeks, official says Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Sperm bank is a specialized organization, that collects and stores the sperms collected from human sperm donors for the provision to women who need such sperm to have a pregnancy. Sperm bank also known as cryobank or semen bank, and sperms donated in the bank are known as donor sperm, whereas the process of sperm insertion is known as artificial insemination. It is notable that the pregnancy achieved by using sperms in the sperm bank is similar to natural pregnancy, achieved by sexual intercourse. Get Free Sample Copy With Impact Analysis Of COVID-19 Of Market Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/5330 The major mechanism involved in the operation of sperm bank underlies the provision of sperms, donated by sperm donors, to the needy women, who, due to various reasons, such as, physiological problems, widow, age and others, are not able to achieve pregnancy. Sperm bank forms the formal contract with sperm donors, usually for the period of 6-24 months, during which he has to produce sperms and donate to the bank. Usually, monetary compensation will be offered to sperm donors. Although, a donor can donate his sperms for more than two years, but, due to laws and regulations of various countries and a potential threat of consanguinity, a contract is made for maximum two years only. A donor produces his sperms in a specialized room, called mens production room. From this, the semen fluid is washed, in order to extract the sperms from other materials present in the semen. In case of frozen storage, a cryoprotectant semen extender is added in the sample. Usually, around 20 vials can be extracted from one sample of semen, collected from a sperm donor. These vials are stored in cryogenically preserved condition, in the liquid nitrogen (N2) tanks. Usually, sperms are stored for the period of around 6 months. However, it can be stored for a longer period of time. The services offered by sperm bank includes provision of sperms, donors selection, guiding recipient for selection of donor, sex selection of baby, and sales of sperms. Although, sperm banks play a major role in the women who are not able to achieve pregnancy, due to some controversial issues, such as, use of sperms by lesbian couples and others, government healthcare bodies of various countries imposed strict regulations on the sperm bank. In the U.S., sperm banks are regulated by FDA, and treated as Human Cell or Human Tissue or Human Cell and Tissue (HCT/Ps), in the European Union, it is been regulated by EU Tissue Directive, whereas, in the U.K., it is regulated by Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority. You Can Buy This PMR Healthcare Report From Here @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/5330 The global market for sperm banks is expected to increase in steady manner in the forecast period, due to market growth propellers, such as, increased prevalence of women miscarriage, technological innovations in the sperm storage industry, and growing awareness towards this type of pregnancy. Increased miscarriage rate is one of the major drivers that fuels market growth. According to the study report published by HopeXchange, out of 4.4 million pregnancies carried every year in the U.S., around 1 million pregnancies result into miscarriage. Similarly, due to growing concerns towards such pregnancy that achieved without sexual intercourse is also an important market growth propeller. On the other hand, various governmental regulations, negative mindset towards sperm banks and donor, high cost associated with the operating of sperm bank and limited spread across the various regions of the world are some of the major hurdles in the market growth. Major players operating in the market includes Cryos International Sperm Bank, FairFax Cryobank, Androcryos, New England Cryogenic Center, Inc. and others. A UK-US trade deal is highly unlikely to be approved before the US election in November, according to Donald Trumps chief trade representative. Speaking before the House Ways and Means Committee, United States Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer said that such an agreement is almost impossible by the 2020 election. This raises the prospect that the president, who was supportive of Brexit and Britain forging new trade deals, could be out of office before any agreement is signed. "I am confident that we will get an agreement and I am confident that we will get one that is warmly received by Congress. The question is really when," the ambassador said. Mr Lighthizer said that it is imperative to have an agreement with the UK given the overwhelming ties and economic similarities between the two countries, but there are still fundamental issues that negotiators have to address. The current round of negotiations with the UK ends next week and the US has tabled text on most of the 32 chapters of a potential agreement. The ambassador said he hoped that they will be able to close out at least a couple chapters of the agreement by then. Responding to a question about the future of US trade relations with the UK and European Union, Mr Lighthizer said that what the UK does in relation to regulation in negotiations with the EU will be crucial to the US position. Stressing that the UK has more than twice as large a trading relationship with the EU than the US, the ambassador said that the US is willing to work concurrently with the UK as it negotiates with Europe, but "what they give Europe will affect what we get". "And if they buy Europe's total regulatory regime, then we're in a position where we're going to get substantially less, and thus the way I think about these things, and I'm a pure pragmatist, we should give them less," he continued. One of the biggest disagreements between the US and UK (and EU) is over food and agricultural sanitary standards routinely exemplified by the debate over chlorinated chicken. Recommended Government ready to open British markets to chlorinated chicken Mr Lighthizer said that the perception in Europe that American food is unsafe is actually a form of thinly veiled protectionism and that the US will not compromise on fair access for the agricultural sector. Congressman Earl Blumenauer asked if there were cause for the US to look at its own agriculture standards in response to the criticism from the UK and EU. Should we really export our weak standards to another country? he asked. Mr Lighthizer reminded Mr Blumenauer that agricultural policy is set by Congress, and not by the US Trade Representative. He argued that the US has the best agriculture in the world and the safest standards. We shouldnt confuse science with consumer preference. Before he became president, Donald Trump was a proponent of the UK leaving the EU ahead of the Brexit vote in June 2016. Since then he has enthusiastically talked about the potential for a trade agreement between the US and the UK and hailed the 2019 re-election of the Conservative government as a step towards such a deal. Theme parks across Queensland are preparing to reopen with strict coronavirus safety measures in place to protect visitors and staff. Sea World and Paradise Country on the Gold Coast will open to the public on June 26. Australian Outback Spectacular will reopen on July 3 while Movie World and Wet'n'Wild are looking to reopen on July 15 in line with Queensland's roadmap to recovery. Sea World (pictured), Australian Outback Spectacular, Movie World and Wet'n'Wild will reopen in the coming weeks Staff will be on hand to provide extra cleaning on rides and around the parks which will remain as contactless as possible, according to Village Roadshow. Park owners have indicated tickets would likely be your mobile phone rather than printed. The parks will operate at 50 per cent capacity initially but it is hoped they will be at full capacity by September - just in time for the New South Wales school holidays. Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa told the Gold Coast Bulletin they were unsure what the public response would be. 'This is like shooting an arrow in the dark with the borders still closed. We dont know what the level of confidence will be out there.' The move comes as the state government takes steps to reopen its borders - providing a much-needed boost to the economy. Paradise Country on the Gold Coast will open to the public on June 26 (pictured: A staff member from the theme park) SAFETY PLAN AT THEME PARKS: Cleaning of rides before and after each use All public areas to be sanitised Three Queensland Health workers working with the parks to ensure best covid-safe practice Covid-safe training for staff to identify any cleanliness or social distancing breaches Markers to ensure social distancing while people queue for rides Electronic tickets instead of printed ones Advertisement Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has suggested that he borders could reopen on July 10, dependent on whether cases remain low. The border closure has impacted 65,000 jobs across the Sunshine State and prevented a $650 million cash-injection into the tourism sector. Ms Palaszczuk has faced harsh criticism over the decision to keep borders closed, despite national health authorities arguing there was no need for the strict measures. But she has stood firm on the decision. 'There are now just five active cases of COVID-19 in Queensland compared with 73 active cases in New South Wales and 49 active cases in Victoria,' she said this week. 'Of course, we recognise businesses are doing it tough but they would be doing it even tougher if there was an outbreak of community transmission in Queensland.' Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham previously said the state was more reliant on tourism than most others in Australia, and would haemorrhage money. 'Tourism businesses currently have no choice and no access to international visitors, and if we also leave them with no access to interstate visitors, then they're going to be bleeding in terms of viability and job losses for a long time,' he said. For artist Albert Gonzales, the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd and other black people at the hands of police officers across the country felt like a call to action. Ive been a victim of some police profiling, Gonzales said. Especially now, I think, me also having a son now in the present time and seeing George Floyd there on the ground, it hit me even harder. This could happen to me. Im a person of color. I knew I could go out and protest, but I wanted to use my platform and my voice through my art to bring some sort of awareness to whats going on. Gonzales is one of a number of San Antonio artists creating work in response to the protests and the actions that led to them, including the death of Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police in May. Arts organizations also are having discussions about how to address issues artistically, as well as how to deal with inequities in how they operate. Gonzales painted a single flower rising from a bright blue river. It is part of his Wabi Sabi series of flower paintings named after and inspired by the Japanese philosophy that seeks to find beauty in the imperfect. He typically titles the works sequentially, but he titled this one Wabi Sabi #846. Albert Gonzales It references the minutes and seconds that the cop kneeled on George Floyds neck, Gonzales said. I wanted that number to be significant. The single flower represents the people unified in solidarity and standing up and growing through a bunch of different scenarios and bad circumstances. On ExpressNews.com: Meet the new generation of Black Lives Matter leaders in SA Gonzales plans to donate half of the proceeds from the sale of the painting to Black Lives Matter and half to the Texas Organizing Project, a progressive grassroots organization that works with black and Latino communities in Bexar, Harris and Dallas counties. Gonzales does not typically address current events in his work, so Wabi Sabi #846 is a departure. The hip-hop trio Third Root has always dealt with social justice issues in its music, and Passion of the Poets, its fourth full-length release, is no different. One of the tracks, The Next Kendrick, references systemic oppression and encourages listeners to agitate, aggravate, bring about change. Weve been working on it for a while, and these problems arent new, so its just a combination of a lot of things that have been going on that we want to address, said DJ Chicken George. The group planned to release the album in September but decided to make it available today instead because of current events. Jules Vaquera This is the message weve been relaying in our music for eight years, but whats going on in the country seems to have a different feel to it, and there are a lot of people who may not have been listening before, said Charles Peters, who performs as Easy Lee. Maybe COVID has them sitting at home kind of soaking in whats going on. Maybe watching the breath go from a mans body, and you dont just hear about the killing, you see the actual moment of death, maybe thats whats waking everybody up. But in any case, the people who have been aware and the people who are now aware, we think, would appreciate having an album as a soundtrack for their feelings and their thoughts in the moment right now. Ideally, the music will spark discussion, they said, which is particularly important right now. I think the country as a whole is taking a close look at black history, black struggle and anti-black racism in our institutions, the political, social and educational, said Marco Cervantes, who performs as Mexican StepGrandfather. I think that our music is like writing an essay or writing an article. Were definitely inviting dialogue. Spoken word artist Jessica Mitchell, who writes and performs under the name Jess Mahogany, didnt specifically reference the death of Floyd in her powerful online cabaret for The Public Theater of San Antonio last Friday in which she talked about, among other things, the healing power of the arts. She is working on some pieces that also deal with whats going on. Writing is a way for her to process her feelings, and she said she hopes it helps those who listen to her. I think the majority of those around me, because they know who I am, they understand that its important for me to speak about these things, Mitchell said. Amplifying messages Some San Antonio artists are working to spread the messages of the protests throughout the city. A group of about 20 visual artists has been creating posters with a range of messages. Some are text-based and fairly simple graphically, including Laundry is the only thing that should be separated by color and Destroy white supremacy. Others are more visually complex, including one bearing instructions on how to make a mask to protect against tear gas and another featuring an image of police officers in riot gear and the words Black lives matter and Prosecute the police. The posters are available for free through a Google drive, tinyurl.com/yc8mlx4t, for anyone who wants to print them. The drive also has information about how artists can add their own work. The project has an Instagram page, blm.artcoalition, featuring photos of the posters on mailboxes, bulletin boards and telephone poles. The posters also have been carried in some of the marches here. If you look at images of protests in San Antonio, you can see our signs there that people are holding up, said Kat Cadena, who is part of the group and created a poster reading We cant breathe. Most of the protests have taken place downtown or close to downtown, so the group wanted to spread the word all over the city. On ExpressNews.com: Protesters demand justice at Bexar County Courthouse Angela Martinez Here in San Antonio, some people may feel like its not happening or its separate from your real life somehow, Cadena said. We really wanted to do a series of visual reminders for people. Photographer Angela Martinez, who is part of the group, has taken a different approach, using projectors to beam some of the messages including Support revolutionary thinking and All lives dont matter if black lives dont matter onto the sides of buildings all over town. Martinez has been snapping photographs of the projections. Once all the images are edited, she plans to share them on social media. The idea is, if I could get 10 buildings done, then I could get the photos out and amplify the message, she said. The group will be giving away posters at the Black Lives Matter protest at 3 p.m. Friday at the Central Library downtown. The giveaway will include hand-pulled screen prints of an image by New York-based artist Stephen Powers, who works under the name ESPO, which were made and donated by the fine art printmaker La Printeria. Harvey Mireles, founder and director of La Printeria, said 1,800 prints of the poster have been made in the shop and volunteers have been sharing them all over. Powers made the image available for free to printers around the world, Mireles said. It holds the names of more than 30 people from all over the country including Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice and Philando Castile who lost their lives during encounters with the police. Printing the poster is in line with La Printerias mission, Mireles said. Part of what I do here is work with inner-city kids who are underserved, he said. This is what were about, so I felt the need to step up and get involved. If he can get the funding together he credits Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez with helping to make printing the ESPO poster possible Mireles said he hopes to print a second poster. Musician and theater artist Jules Vaquera has been spending the cool hours right before dawn out and about in her King William neighborhood, chalking Black Lives Matter messages on the sidewalks. Sometimes she is joined by fellow artists. The messages include Silence is violence and All houses matter, but we douse the one in flames. Jules Vaquera When the idea came to her, she put out the word in a neighborhood Facebook group, offering to chalk a message in front of any home or business that wanted one. She got a big response: I havent even come close to chalking all the addresses that have been offered, she said. Artist Debra Zender and her daughter went out with Vaquera. Zender also is creating some pieces in her studio that deal with some of the issues raised by the protests, including a shadow box in which an African American man steps into an elevator and the white woman inside clutches her purse. The protests hit home for Zender, a white woman married to an African American man with whom she has two children. This movement is way overdue, and its not going to change everything, but its making a difference, she said. Talking about change Besides creating work that deals with issues raised by the protests, arts groups are having conversations aimed at trying to make lasting changes in the way they program and the way they operate, including diversifying the makeup of boards. The theater department at the University of the Incarnate Word held a Zoom meeting with past and present students to begin a dialogue about their experiences and how to address the movement as artists. About 30 people took part, including Vanessa Lopez, who works in the costume shop at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Similar discussions are happening all over the country, Lopez said. She is hopeful they will result in lasting change. Its really focusing people to have those conversations that they didnt want to have for years and years, especially in white theaters, meaning theaters mostly run by white producers and white artistic directors, Lopez said. I think its forcing people to have the conversations about why we cast the way we do. People also have reached out to the Carver Community Cultural Center, which has deep roots in the East Side and focuses much of its programming on work by African American artists, for guidance. We have been contacted by a lot of other arts organizations, asking how can we be better, what can we do, and also using us as a gauge to test how thing might be perceived, said Executive Director Cassandra Parker-Nowicki. Theres definitely a sense of, things have to change. WASHINGTON (AP) Utah Sen. Mitt Romney declined again Monday to endorse President Donald Trumps reelection, saying he would stay quiet about whom he'll be supporting in November. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told reporters on Capitol Hill, I'm not going to be describing who I'll be voting for." His open acknowledgment that he would not support Trump comes after former Trump defense secretary Gen. James Mattis and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski aired criticism of the president's handling of ongoing protests against the police killings of black Americans. In 2016, Romney said publicly that he would support neither Trump nor Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. He later said he had cast his vote for his wife, Ann. He told The Atlantic in February that he wouldnt vote for Trump in November and would probably choose his wife again. Retired Gen. Colin Powell, who served as President George W. Bushs secretary of state, took a stronger step away from Trump, telling CNN on Sunday that he would support presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden this November. Powell had said he voted for Clinton in 2016. The relationship between Trump and Romney is acrimonious. Romney was the only GOP senator to support removing Trump from office after the president's impeachment trial earlier this year. Trump has derided him as a fool and a failed presidential candidate. After the senator attended a march for racial justice on Sunday, declaring that black lives matter, Trump tweeted sarcastically about Romney's sincerity. Romney shrugged off that dig Monday, saying that Trump has got time to do whatever he feels is appropriate and that I would presume the president would consider supporting a police reform measure, given his public expressions of concern about the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man, by a white officer in Minneapolis. ___ Schor reported from New York. __ This story was first published on June 8, 2020. It was updated on June 9, 2020, to make clear that Mitt Romney had told The Atlantic in February that he wouldnt vote for President Donald Trump. The most popular social media platform in the UAE is Facebook with eight million users, says a report. English is the preferred language for social media users in the country across all platforms, including Facebook, says Crowd Analyser, the Dubai-based data intelligence provider and social media listening platform in its State of Social Media 2020 report. This comes as no surprise since the number of online expats are the highest among the selected countries. It is interesting to note that the most viewed page by Facebook users in the UAE is the TV news channel, Sky News Arabia. Crowd Analyser targeted brands and industry professionals that are keen to meaningfully engage with audiences on social media. The annual report covers Egypt, Saudi Arabia (KSA), the UAE and Kuwait, offering insights on key social media platforms in these markets, including their popularity, breakdown of platform users in 2020 as well as their habits and interests. In addition, it provides a deep dive into five major industries in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, specifically telecommunications, e-commerce, banking and finance, ride hailing and automotive. These insights highlight best practices for reaching target audiences, indicating that amid current Covid-19 disruptions, businesses can significantly benefit from a strong understanding of consumer behavior and favored content, supporting marketeers in building agile strategies for a stronger brand. In doing so, they are set to redefine 2020 as the year of digital transformation. Speaking on the report, Ahmed Saad, CEO and Co-founder of Crowd Analyser, said: In the context of the current uncertainties, and as part of our wider efforts to identify the most effective solutions to the issues we face, this years report aims to empower businesses, marketeers and industry professionals to leverage the available insights and dig deeper into key platform data to recalibrate their brand content and customer outreach strategies. There is no doubt that for the foreseeable future, data and insights will form the foundation of any successful business while shaping our understanding of emerging trends. In doing so, data serves as a vital tool for effective communication with customers. The report examined multiple platforms and found that the most popular social media platform in the UAE is Facebook with eight million users. It also found that English is the preferred language for social media users in the country across all platforms, including Facebook. This comes as no surprise since the number of online expats are the highest among the selected countries. It is interesting to note that the most viewed page by Facebook users in the UAE is the TV news channel, Sky News Arabia. For marketeers, this data reveals that developing winning content strategies is mostly dependent on understanding your target audience interests, behavior, habits and preferences. To ensure greater reach and engagement, businesses today must be aware of changing interests and preferences on social media platforms. Data on social media consumption in KSA reveals that Twitter is the preferred platform for social media users in the country. There has been a significant increase in Twitter usage from 2019 to 2020, surging from 11 million to 14 million Saudi users. The vast majority of online content from Saudi Arabia is published in Arabic across all platforms, with the exception of Facebook, which has more content generated and shared in English. The report also unveiled interesting facts on social media usage across other regional markets. For instance, Egypt is the most active nation in the region on Facebook compared to monitored countries. The report pointed out that Twitter is gaining uptake among Egyptians and plays an important role in shaping the countrys cultural and media landscape. Most tweets revolve around TV, music, and fashion. In Kuwait, more than half of the countrys population is on Facebook it counts 2.7 million active users from a general population of four million. Notably, English users outnumbered their Arabic counterparts by more than one million. Instagram, specifically Instagram for Business is gaining popularity in Kuwait. Users upload personal photographs to the main platform while Instagram for Business supports marketing initiatives. Furthermore, the report analysed the top performing industries in 2019. The telecommunications industry was the most talked-about sector across all social media platforms compared to the monitored industries, accounting for 37.7 million interactions out of the total 131.6 million recorded interactions. The banking and finance industry accounted for 30 million activities, while the automotive industry followed with 29.4 million activities and the e-commerce industry with 26.3 million activities. The ride-hailing sector came in last with only 8.2 million interactions. Crowd Analyser is a data intelligence provider that is principally engaged in Arabic social media monitoring. The company was founded in 2014 by Ahmed Saad and Bahaa Galal and launched commercially in 2016. Employing more than 60 people in its Dubai headquarters, Riyadh branch, and Cairo branch, Crowd Analyser uses groundbreaking technology including proprietary machine learning, artificial intelligence and natural language processing. As well as monitoring all social media platforms, Crowd Analyser also covers news, blogs and various forums in order to procure a comprehensive and exhaustive range of analytical content that anyone with a vested interest or stake in the media industries can benefit from. -- TradeArabia News Service As protests gripped Oakland on May 29, a white van pulled up outside a federal courthouse. A door slid open, and a man peppered the two security officers outside with bullets, killing one and wounding the other. For a little over a week, the crime was a mystery. Was it tied to the protests just blocks away? Even after the suspected killer was dramatically caught in the nearby mountains eight days later, his motive was murky. Now, federal authorities say the man, identified as Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, 32, was an adherent of the "boogaloo boys," a growing online extremist movement that has sought to use peaceful, protests against brutality to spread fringe views and ignite a race war. Federal investigators allege that's exactly what Carrillo was trying to do last month. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged Carrillo with murder and attempted murder, and leveled aiding and abetting charges against Robert Alvin Justus, who has admitted to serving as a getaway driver during the courthouse ambush, according to the FBI. Protective Security Officer David Patrick Underwood was killed and a second officer, who officials have not named, was seriously wounded in the ambush. Inside the three vehicles Carrillo used, police found a boogaloo patch, ammunition, firearms, bombmaking equipment and three messages scrawled in blood: "I became unreasonable," "boog" and "Stop the duopoly." "The assassination and injury of federal officers who swore an oath to protect the American public will not be tolerated," Chad Wolf, the acting secretary for homeland security, said in a statement announcing the charges. "The Department of Homeland Security will continue its mission to end violent extremism in any form." Carrillo's attorney, Jeffrey Stotter, told NBC News that investigators claims are "accusations and allegations," and said his client was "left deeply shaken" by his wife's suicide in 2018. He also told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that Carrillo, who was an active-duty Air Force staff sergeant at the time of the attack, suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2009. "All I can ask is that we avoid a rush to judgment as to what occurred," Stotter told the Sentinel. The newly detailed alleged motive behind the attack at the Oakland courthouse comes as concerns rise about right-wing violence at Black Lives Matter protests. On Monday, a counterdemonstrator shot a protester during a scuffle in Albuquerque, after a militia group in military-style garb and armed with semiautomatic rifles stood menacingly in the crowd throughout the afternoon. Other boogaloo boys have been charged recently with fomenting violence at other protests. The alleged crime spree started with a Facebook exchange between Carrillo and Justus on the morning of May 28, according to the criminal complaint. Carrillo was transferred to Travis Air Force Base about a month after his wife's 2018 death, and had no disciplinary record in the Air Force. He was a Phoenix Raven team leader, heading an elite squad of security forces stationed at Travis Air Force Base. He served four months overseas in Kuwait in 2019. "It's on our coast now, this needs to be nationwide," Carrillo allegedly posted in a group chat with Justus and one other person, referring to a YouTube video showing a crowd of protesters attacking two California Highway Patrol vehicles. "It's a great opportunity to target the specialty soup bois. Keep that energy going." "Let's boogie," Justus allegedly replied. The term "soup bois" has been used in boogaloo memes to refer to the "alphabet soup" of federal law enforcement agencies such as the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); and the Federal Protective Service (FPS). Facebook messages also show that Justus and Carrillo planned to use nearby protests as a distraction, knowing police resources would be focused on preventing rioting and looting, the criminal complaint alleges. More for you 'Boogaloo' Sounds a Lot Like Charles Manson's Helter Skelter The next day, on May 29, as thousands of protesters filled the streets in Oakland, Justus allegedly drove the 1992 white Ford van to the federal courthouse in Oakland and rolled past two Protective Security officers standing guard as Carrillo opened the van's sliding door and fired rounds, authorities say. The men fled in the van and disappeared for days while police circulated photos of the vehicle pleading with the public for information that would lead them to the gunman. Eight days later, on June 6, a witness in Ben Lomond, Calif., about 70 miles south of Oakland, spotted the 1992 van, its license plates removed, windows obscured with spray paint and a distinctive missing hubcap replaced with a new one that did not match the other three wheels. Inside the car, investigators found Carrillo's fingerprint on a can of white spray paint, according to the complaint. The van's VIN number led officers that afternoon to Carrillo's property in Ben Lomond. As they approached the isolated home surrounded by wooded hills, someone began firing bullets. Two sheriff's deputies were shot in the gunfight, and one later died. Then, an explosion erupted nearby. The shooter, allegedly Carrillo again, ran away, armed with a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a silencer and designed to fire multiple rounds with each pull of the trigger. He allegedly stole a Toyota Camry from a driver at gunpoint. He abandoned the car nearby after scrawling the boogaloo-linked phrases on the hood in his own blood, authorities say. Wounded from the gunfight, Carrillo did not make it much farther. He allegedly stumbled onto a local resident's property, still bleeding, with his rifle strapped to his chest, and demanded the resident's car keys. The man calmly went inside to retrieve the key and handed it to Carrillo, law enforcement officials said. When Carrillo turned to leave, the man tackled him, disarmed him and held him until police arrived and arrested him. Federal officials took particular issue with Carrillo's alleged intent to use protests in Oakland as cover for the ambush attack. "Indiscriminate targeting of law enforcement officers by those motivated by violent extremism of any stripe is contrary to our nation's values and undermines the powerful message of peaceful protesters," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said in a statement Tuesday. "We stand firmly against anyone who seeks to hijack the protests with acts of violence and destruction." The so-called boogaloo boys movement might be more accurately described as a loosely connected online community, with no formal organization, leadership or coherent set of beliefs. Almost everything about the far-right ideology - starting with the name spawned from online jokes about a 1982 break dancing film - bubbled up through meme-sharing on social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube and more obscure sites like 4chan and Gab. The igloos and Hawaiian shirts that boogaloo-supporters sport in public are drawn from memes riffing on the name, which sounds similar to "big igloo" and "big luau," and refers to a civil war that "boogaloo bois," as they are also known, imagine in the near future. One uniting theme behind the so-called movement is a belief in and support for that civil war against a tyrannical government. Beyond that, the Boogaloo ideology is flexible. Many of those who claim an allegiance to the far-right movement, which largely is made up of young white men, frequently carry rifles and espouse a need to defend the Second Amendment. According to the Anti-Defamation League, some boogaloo adherents oppose government overreach and advance libertarian ideas embraced by militias and gun-rights groups; others openly spread white supremacist rhetoric and encourage a race war. In April and May, boogaloo boys showed up to anti-lockdown protests. One alleged supporter was arrested as part of an armed group that aimed to defend an illegally opened bar in Texas from law enforcement attempting to enforce the governor's coronavirus restrictions. More recently, they've been spotted at Black Lives Matter events. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted a photo of two men in Hawaiian shirts posing near a flipped police cruiser in Salt Lake City on May 31. And on June 3, federal prosecutors charged three men allegedly connected to the boogaloo movement with exploiting a racial justice protest in an attempt to incite violence using a molotov cocktail. In addition to the federal charges, Carrillo faces a murder charge in the slaying of Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, and attempted murder charges for allegedly shooting at deputies when they searched his California property June 6. If convicted on the federal counts, Carrillo could face the death penalty for the murder charge and up to 20 years in prison for the attempted-murder charge. Justus could face the same penalties for the aiding and abetting charges. North Macedonia To Hold July Elections Despite Pandemic June 16, 2020 North Macedonia's political parties have agreed on parliamentary elections to be held on July 15, despite a constant number of coronavirus infections. The elections are seen as a crucial step for the country's European Union membership bid. The elections in the newest NATO member will also be a test of support for the pro-EU policies of the Social Democrats of former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. Zaev resigned in January after the EU failed to announce a date for accession talks. The EU subsequently said in March that membership talks could begin with North Macedonia and Albania. A transitional government had initially scheduled an early parliamentary poll for April 12 but postponed it due to the outbreak. Zaev reached the agreement on June 15 with opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski, head of the main opposition party, the nationalist conservative VMRO-DPMNE. In a Facebook post, Mickoski said his party would participate in the elections. North Macedonia's economy is forecast to contract 3.5 percent this year and is expected to return to growth in 2021. "We cannot bear a bigger crisis than this with a technical government and without a parliament," Zaev told reporters. North Macedonia is grappling with a resurgence of infections that occurred after restrictions were recently relaxed. Health Minister Venko Filipce announced 103 new confirmed cases and five deaths on June 15, bringing the total number of infected people to 4,157 and the death toll to 193. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/north -macedonia-to-hold-july-elections- despite-pandemic/30673130.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 BETHEL, Alaska - An Alaska city plans to increase the number of visitors participating in coronavirus screening tests at its airport by adding a financial incentive. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation said between 25% and 60% of passengers arriving at the Bethel airport volunteer for coronavirus testing, Alaska Public Media reported Monday. Bethel officials hope to use some of the citys $8.4 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to increase the percentage of passengers agreeing to airport testing to 100%. Whether its a gift card, or a raffle ticket for some prize, but some kind of a financial incentive to catch peoples attention to go get tested, City Manager Vincenzo Corazza said. The testing is voluntary and an inducement with a monetary value could increase participation, Corazza said. Bethels city attorney has analyzed the possibility to determine that it would be an appropriate use of the federal virus funding, Corazza said. If the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation approves the reward proposal, the city plans to add a booth to the testing centre at the airport as soon as possible, Corazza said. There were two positive coronavirus tests in Bethel on consecutive days last week and officials are confident both cases stem from people who travelled to the region, the health corporation said. 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. Zhang Junqiao, a post-80s anesthesiologist from the Affiliated Hospital of Weifang Medical University in east China's Shandong province, has recently become a "booth owner", with his "commodity " being the popularization of first aid knowledge related to cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills free of charge. Zhang Junqiao was also a member of the 10th medical team in Shandong province that aided central China's Hubei province, the former epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Starting from June 7, Zhang Junqiao has set up a booth in a nearby square. Buying model props for demonstration at his own expense, he teaches first aid knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the spot. His wife, who is also a medical worker, volunteers in the demonstration activities as well, while their two daughters have helped hand out relevant materials. From 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., this special booth attracts many people who are full of curiosity about cardiopulmonary resuscitation. At the scene, Zhang Junqiao took the trouble to explain the main points over and over again. Zhang Junqiao said that the popularization rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation is relatively low in China, and the lack of relevant knowledge leads to many sudden cardiac deaths. He felt that as a medical worker, he has the obligation and responsibility to promote the knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Last week Dr. Frank Fechner prepared his medical facility to reopen as one of the Massachusetts businesses awaiting Gov. Charlie Bakers approval to enter phase two. It would be difficult to find a business owner who has taken more precautions than Fechner. Three days prior to patients arrival, he provides them with a coronavirus test to ensure they do not have the virus prior to entering. His staff has created a virtual check-in system that prevents large groups from waiting in the office. Any procedures would be completed in a medical accredited facility. Yet, Baker announced the states progression into phase two and Fechner Facial Plastic Surgery and Medical Spa on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester remains closed - along with every other plastic surgery office in the state. Phase two included elective surgeries, but excluded plastic surgery. It just seems like we were singled out, Fechner said. I can have a lasik procedure done, but I cant have my eyelids done. I can have my teeth cleaned but I cant have my sun-damaged skin treated with a laser. I can have veneers placed, but I cant have my lips enhanced. Plastic surgeons in Massachusetts arent able to open until phase three but those in neighboring New England states and New York are able to. New York opened its plastic surgery offices again on June 8. Others in New England have been open since May. In fact, Massachusetts is the only state in the country that prohibits plastic surgery offices from opening due to COVID-19, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Our patients feel discriminated against that their wellness goals for elected procedures are randomly determined as less valid or less important," Fechner said. Fechner said many of his patients have had to reschedule at least twice. He estimated that upwards of 15% of his clients have made the short half hour drive from Worcester down Route 146 into Rhode Island. The advantage of all the other states having started already with cosmetic surgery, most of them four to six weeks ago, is that we have plenty of data to draw from here in Massachusetts being the last, Fechner said. This data shows clearly that these elective procedures, including aesthetic surgeries do not pose any increased risk of the patients, the community or the employees. Dr. Frank Fechner of Fechner Facial Plastic Surgery and Medical Spa on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester has been forced to close his facility during the coronavirus pandemic. Like any other medical facility, Fechner said his officer prides itself on cleanliness. Three weeks prior to the pandemic, Fechner Facial Plastic Surgery and Medical Spa received an excellent evaluation during an accreditation visit. The approval is for three years. Weve always had an extremely stringent safety system in place, which basically guarantees the highest level of sterility, the highest level of sanitation and infection control, Fechner said. Otherwise we wouldnt receive the accreditation by the national agency. The services at the facility primarily involve facial procedures including rhinoplasty, face lift, neck lift, ear lobe repair, lip enhancement and more. While Fechner understands the bias some may have against the procedures, he said they tie directly with his patients overall well being. Some people may not be a fan of it for whatever reasons. But I can tell you having done this for more than 16 years, there is a scientifically proven significant quality of life improvement for our patients with these kinds of services. Fechner Facial Plastic Surgery and Medical Spa has been closed since the middle of March. Fechner applauded Baker for his swift action in closing industries across the state at the start of the pandemic. He was confident in the governors commitment to reopen the state based on data. Since Baker released the four-phased plan, though, Fechner hasnt seen the administration follow through on its commitment. To exclude these things, there just seems to be no scientific or data driven reason behind it, Fechner said. Related Content: Mr. Lighthizer also praised the administrations trade record, including new or revised deals it has signed with Japan, Canada and Mexico that he said had improved the terms of trade for American farmers and businesses. And he said that a comprehensive trade deal with the United Kingdom was just a matter of time, though it was not likely to be concluded before the election in November. But he was more circumspect on the potential for a deal with another big partner, the European Union, which he accused of thinly veiled protectionism for rejecting American agricultural products over alleged safety concerns. A deal with the European Union is not looking good in the short term, Mr. Lighthizer said, adding that the president will use tariffs if he has to to get a fair shake for American businesses. Mr. Lighthizer defended the administrations aggressive use of tariffs and rebuffed requests from various lawmakers to reduce or defer the levies it charges on products imported by people or businesses in their districts, in order to reduce costs on businesses that are struggling with the pandemic. Over the last several years, the Trump administration has deployed tariffs more aggressively than any in modern history, turning to tariffs to shelter American businesses from competition and create leverage in trade negotiations. The president has imposed new duties on steel, aluminum, washing machines, solar panels and more than $360 billion of Chinese goods in the last few years, levies that have helped some American businesses but raised costs for others that depend on imported products and components. Opposition to the tariffs has increased since the pandemic began, with lawmakers and trade groups pressing the administration to waive some of these taxes to help the United States bounce back from the economic downturn. They have questioned the administrations decision to continue imposing levies on some medical products and components that have been in short supply, like protective gear, hand sanitizer or ventilator parts. Even though Beaumont Health is big at $5 billion, its really not big enough to play with those kinds of players, Fox said. We think the three of us, these three markets together in the Upper Midwest ... being the leaders in our respective states, gives us an extraordinary opportunity to be more successful. Sparrows Group, a global provider of specialist equipment and integrated engineering services to the oil and gas, renewables and industrial sectors, said it has completed its first project for Asry (Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard) delivering crane condition evaluation services at the multi-service facility in Bahrain. Sparrows carried out non-intrusive inspection of its 16 rail, crawler and floating cranes throughout April and May this year as part of Asrys extensive modernisation programme. Asry, established in 1977, is the Arabian Gulfs leading maritime repair and fabrication facility. The facility includes a drydock, two floating docks, 15 repair berths and twin slipways alongside a fabrication area, workshop and service centres. The scope of work included visual inspection of structural components, wire ropes and hook blocks as well as functional checks on safety limits and calibrations for the rated capacity indicator. Sparrows will now be providing the Bahrain-based organisation with a report of recommendations. On the achievement, CEO Stewart Mitchell said: "Asry is a well-known and respected name in the Middle East so were delighted to have worked on this project and hope to develop the relationship further." "Diversification into new industries is a key part of our growth strategy and this work demonstrates how we can seamlessly transfer our expertise and capability to the marine and industrial sectors," noted Stewart. "The Middle East is an important region for us and having a local presence in the Saudi Arabia enabled us to support Asry in Bahrain even during these challenging conditions," he added. Sparrows has been active in the Middle East for the last 25 years and in 2015 the company established a local presence in Saudi Arabia. It was granted a commercial registration to operate last year and recently became the first company in the kingdom to be awarded Approved Service Provider Recognition for crane maintenance and overhaul by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).-TradeArabia News Service Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on World Yoga Day on June 21. Earlier his address was scheduled at Leh, as per the plans made before the pandemic outbreak, but now he will address the country from the national capital itself. Leh is in the Ladakh region that saw one of the bloodiest face-offs between India and China this week resulting in multiple casualties on both sides. While he will talk about the importance of Yoga in today's life, it is not yet clear whether he will touch upon the India-China face-off. He may himself practice a few yoga moves on live TV, sources said. The broadcast will start at 7 a.m. and is likely to last for nearly an hour. Last year, PM Modi led a grand event on the occasion of International Day of Yoga from Ranchi. This year the event was scheduled at Leh but the plans were changed due to the pandemic outbreak across the globe. With the news of the India-China face-off that saw 20 Indian soldiers being martyred and an all party meeting being convened by the PM on June 19 on the incident, all eyes will be on the Yoga Day broadcast to see whether the Prime Minister chooses to take up the issue directly. Donald Trump "pleaded" with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win re-election in 2020 by purchasing more US farming products, Mr Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton claims in his new book set to be released next week. At a one-on-one meeting at a multilateral summit in Japan in the summer of 2019, Mr Xi expressed his dissatisfaction with some critics of China within the US. Mr Trump mistakenly assumed Mr Xi was talking about Democratic lawmakers, Mr Bolton writes in his new book, the Washington Post has reported, and sympathised with Mr Xi's frustration. Trump immediately assumed Xi meant the Democrats. Trump said approvingly that there was great hostility among the Democrats," Mr Bolton writes. He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure hed win, Mr Bolton writes. "He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trumps exact words but the governments prepublication review process has decided otherwise, the former national security adviser adds. The excerpt from Mr Bolton's new book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, depicts a scene similar to the president's alleged attempt last summer to coerce Ukraine into helping him win re-election this year by announcing anti-corruption investigations into former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Mr Bolton's description of Mr Trump's and Mr Xi's conversation does not, however, outline a proposed quid pro quo between Mr Trump and China, whereas the Trump administration's freeze on vital military assistance to Ukraine as it sought political favours was a central component of Democrats' impeachment of Mr Trump. Mr Trump has sought to block Mr Bolton from selling his first-person tell-all in which he describes the president as "erratic" and "stunningly uninformed." The book's sale has been held up for months by an extensive vetting process. Its release date was pushed back first from March to May, then to 23 June. The White House and Attorney General William Barr continue to claim that the books publication would reveal classified information, overruling an intelligence official who had previously determined it did not contain classified information and was fit for publication. The book has already been shipped to distributors warehouses, and major news publications have been reporting on many of the book's revelations. Asked at a press conference earlier this week why he is trying to prevent the books publication, Mr Trump said he wasnt impressed with Mr Bolton while he worked for the administration and that the book was inappropriate." Somebody said he went out and wrote a book. If he wrote a book, I cant imagine that he can because thats highly classified information. Even conversations with me, theyre highly classified. I told that to the attorney general before I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified, Mr Trump said. So that would mean that if he wrote a book and the book gets out that hes broken the law. And I would think that hed have criminal problems. I hope so," the president said. Mr Bolton declined to testify before House investigators last year during their impeachment inquiry, frustrating many Democrats who saw his appearance as key to corroborating the accounts of other US national security officials who testified against Mr Trump. Congressional Democrats have not been quick to forgive Mr Bolton for his refusal to testify. "Bolton could have testified when it mattered. He could have talked. But his cowardice and pursuit of a book deal came before his patriotism," Democratic Congressman Sean Casten of Illinois tweeted on Wednesday. A federal appeals court has vacated part of a finding that cleared five West Virginia police officers on qualified immunity grounds in an excessive force lawsuit, which was filed by the estate of a homeless black man shot 22 times. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ruled this week that shielding five Martinsburg police officers for their actions during the summary judgment stage of the lawsuit would signal absolute immunity for fear-based use of deadly force, which we cannot accept. The panel sent the case back to U.S. District Court for further proceedings. Police had stopped Wayne Arnold Jones as he was walking on a Martinsburg street in March 2013. Jones was shot 22 times after police said the 50-year-old Stephens City, Virginia, resident shrugged off two jolts from a stun gun, fought with officers and stabbed one of them. The officers were white. A Berkeley County grand jury declined to indict the officers in the fatal shooting. The U.S. Justice Department later said there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal civil rights charges against police. Civil rights leaders had pressed for the investigation. Family Lawsuit U.S. District Judge Gina Groh dismissed a $200 million lawsuit filed by Jones family against the officers and the city. But the appeals panel said in reversing the granting of summary judgment to the officers on qualified immunity grounds that a reasonable jury could find that Jones was both secured and incapacitated in the final moments before his death. By shooting an incapacitated, injured person who was not moving, and who was laying on his knife, the police officers crossed a `bright line and can be held liable, the panel wrote. The panel noted that Jones death occurred about a year before the shooting by a white police officer of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri. Seven years later, we are asked to decide whether it was clearly established that five officers could not shoot a man 22 times as he lay motionless on the ground, the appeals court said. Although we recognize that our police officers are often asked to make split-second decisions, we expect them to do so with respect for the dignity and worth of black lives. The court also referenced the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after white police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee to Floyds neck for several minutes. That death prompted protests by millions of people around the world. Although we recognize that our police officers are often asked to make split-second decisions, we expect them to do so with respect for the dignity and worth of black lives, the panel said. This has to stop. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Jihadist groups operating in the central Sahel, between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, have opened a new front that is increasingly consolidated in the Gulf of Guinea countries. Togo, Benin, Ghana and the Ivory Coast have detected in recent months a growing presence of radicalized groups connected with Ansarul Islam (linked to Al Qaeda) or the Islamic State of the Great Sahara (related to the Islamic State, ISIS for short). English). These two organizations are responsible for the increase in violence in Burkina Faso in the last four years. But it is more than that. The northern regions of the countries of the coast have become a refuge, and also sources of financing and supplies for Sahelian terrorism. Comoe National Park in northern Ivory Coast is one of the largest in West Africa. In it you can find antelopes, panthers, leopards, baboons and crocodiles under cover of dense vegetation. And it was northeast of this protected area, a few days ago, when a joint military operation between the armies of Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast ended with the death of eight suspected terrorists, the arrest of 38 suspects and the seizure of various weapons. General Lassina Doumbia, head of the Ivorian General Staff assured Radio Omega: This is only the beginning. The terrorists have managed to unite. Like Comoe, numerous natural parks and forest reserves cover northern Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin on its border with Burkina Faso. In the past two years, these spaces have become the new front for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel. In February 2019, the Spanish Salesian Antonio Cesar Fernandez was assassinated on the border between Togo and Burkina; Three months later, two French tourists were kidnapped and their guide was killed in the Pendjari National Park in Benin. Very close and connected to each other, the Burkinanese reserves of Arly; and of W, in Niger, have become jihadist sanctuaries. The terrorist threat is real and the pressure is very strong, we feel it a little more every day, Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe told France Press in late February. An obvious but subtle contagion is taking place, says Lori-Anne Theroux-Benoni, director of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Dakar, the coastal countries already serve as a transit, financing and supply area for armed groups operating in the Sahel. According to this analysis center, the gold extracted in radical controlled mines in Burkina Faso is sold in Togo and Benin, poaching and illegal trafficking of ivory or animals from the natural spaces of these countries inject funds into jihadists and the motorcycles used in the attacks in Mali or Burkina Faso come from Nigeria via Benin. It is a dimension that should require more attention, he says. Two of the factors that have led to the progressive establishment of these armed groups in the north of the countries of the Gulf of Guinea are the porosity of the borders but also the increasing pressure exerted on them in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso by the French operation Barkhane, the G5 of the Sahel and the national armies. Local recruitment is taking place, which is supported by inter and intra-community tensions, conflicts between pastoralists and farmers and a certain investment deficit on the part of these countries, adds Theroux-Benoni. To counteract the radicalization and accession of local people to armed groups, these four countries plus Burkina Faso launched the Accra Initiative in September 2017, which also aims to combat cross-border crime that funds terrorists. Soon after, Mali and Niger joined. The idea is to share information, train security officers, and conduct military operations on the ground. However, it is also intended to combat the root causes of radicalization. For this, Benin has the Agency for the Development of Transboundary Spaces or Togo with the Committee for the Prevention of Violent Extremism, which tries to attract investment and aid for the most vulnerable population in these regions. Terrorist groups in the Sahel are in the process of internal reorganization, trying to become strong in new areas where there are dynamics of cooperation or conflict between them. As occurred in the Sahel or northern Mozambique, penetration into Togo, Benin, Ghana and the Ivory Coast is carried out in stages, first with the arrival of preachers or radical sects that rely on the most disadvantaged or excluded to favor recruitment and local complicity; then with the development of illegal activities that open up a source of income, and finally with the adhesion to a jihadist franchise that provides them with logistics and operational capacity to carry out terrorist actions, whether they are kidnappings or attacks on military posts, schools or health centers . Kerala High Court grants interim protection from arrest to actor Dileep till January 27 in a case registered against him for allegedly threatening investigating officers in the actress sexual assault case of 2017. PTI RRTKerala High Court grants interim protection from arrest to actor Dileep till January 27 in a case registered against him for allegedly threatening investigating officers in the actress sexual assault case of 2017. [June 17, 2020] AVOD News Leader Haystack TV Rebrands as Haystack News; Records 145% Audience Growth Over Last 12 Months Haystack TV, a leading ad-supported streaming provider that connects viewers with hyper-relevant local, national and global TV news, has rebranded its popular curated streaming service from "Haystack TV" to "Haystack News" and reported on its record growth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005422/en/ Haystack TV, the leading AVOD news platform, has rebranded its popular curated streaming service from "Haystack TV" to "Haystack News." The only OTT news service with local content from 90% of U.S. DMAs and availability on all new Smart TV devices, Haystack has achieved 145% new user growth the past 12 months and more than doubled usage for its personalized OTT news service. (Graphic: Business Wire) With nearly 300 U.S. broadcast stations supplying Haystack News wih local news content, Haystack is the only AVOD news service with local news coverage for more than 90 percent of all local U.S. markets. Haystack News is also the only AVOD news service with full availability on Smart TV platforms. Haystack's audience growth is accelerating with millions of new users signing up year-to-date and 145% audience growth year over year (May 2020 vs. May 2019). Building upon a strong 2019, which was the fourth consecutive year of more than doubled watchtime, Haystack News is on pace in 2020 to more than double usage yet again, exceeding millions of hours monthly. As part of the consumer rebrand, Haystack News unveiled a new logo and onscreen look enhancing the visual appeal of the service and showcasing the recent rollout of Newsline, the first-ever personalized and dynamic news TV ticker. The change to Haystack News reflects the market-leading position the company has secured in the AVOD news category. "This is a period of remarkable growth for Haystack, with downloads and usage surging as we accelerate our performance across all platforms. Haystack has extended our leadership with more premium news partners and support for more OTT platforms than anyone," said Daniel Barreto, CEO and Co-Founder of Haystack TV. "The importance of free access to news could not be more apparent as we battle a global pandemic, economic dislocation and social unrest." Barreto continued, "We are now shifting our consumer brand to Haystack News to better reflect our position as the preferred destination for AVOD news. The new Haystack News logo and on-screen design embraces the value proposition we offer consumers to watch hyper-relevant news that connects you to the world around you." The Haystack News rebrand is being deployed across apps and supported Smart TV platforms in the coming weeks. Troika Media Group assisted Haystack with the rebrand. The company will continue to operate under the Haystack TV moniker. Funding its Innovation and Expansion Dating back to its seed round investment in 2015, Haystack TV has raised $6.5 million to-date, including a round that closed in mid-2019. Investors in Haystack TV include AltaIR Capital, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Stanford University's StartX Fund, SVLinks, Uhuru Capital, and Zorlu Ventures. About Haystack TV Haystack TV offers Haystack News, a leading ad-based video on demand (AVOD) platform, providing free and customized over-the-top (OTT) streaming of local, national and international news. Haystack has more local TV news stations than any other AVOD news service, with more than 90% of the metropolitan areas in the United States covered and nearly 300 local TV broadcast stations including major broadcast groups and renowned national/international content providers. Haystack News is available on multiple platforms and all leading Smart TVs worldwide including the Amazon Fire TV, Android (News - Alert) TV, Apple TV, and Roku streaming platforms; Hisense, LG, RCL, Sony, Samsung and Vizio Smart TVs; Android and iOS mobile devices; and online at www.haystack.tv. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005422/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] WASHINGTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A statewide poll of likely Ohio voters finds broad voter support for reductions in immigration in the face of massive layoffs resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. The polling was conducted on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) by the national opinion research firm, Zogby Analytics, on June 10 and 11. The poll indicates that Ohio voters support reductions in the admission of new immigrants and guest workers in the face of the ongoing public health and economic crises gripping the nation. Ohio voters are also significantly more likely to prioritize the need for immigration and border enforcement over programs to legalize millions of illegal aliens. Among the key findings of the Ohio opinion poll: By about margins of 2 to 1 (58% to 29%), Ohio voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. By a 53% to 32% margin, Ohio voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." 80% of voters in Ohio believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 11% disagree. believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 11% disagree. By a 60% to 40% majority, Ohio voters said they would prioritize reducing overall immigration, strengthening immigration enforcement and border security, and removing illegal aliens from the country, over increasing immigration, granting amnesty to illegal aliens, or decriminalizing illegal immigration. "The polling shows clear public support in Ohio for many of the immigration policy steps that the Trump administration has taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting economic and unemployment crisis. Voters in this key state agree that reductions in the admission of new immigrants and foreign workers are a prudent response to a crisis that has resulted in some 40 million Americans losing their jobs, and there is broad support for additional measures to be taken by the White House," commented Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "The polling numbers send a clear message to Senators Portman and Brown, and members of Ohio's congressional delegation, that jobs and economic security are always critical issues in presidential and congressional elections. Senator Portman supports President Trump's vision to strengthen our borders against illegal immigration, but now has the opportunity to stand with the American worker against corporate interests demanding an increase in guest worker visas. Senator Brown, despite his union background, still refuses to condemn the effect that guest workers have on American workers of different skill and education levels. "While voters certainly understand the extraordinary circumstances that have led to massive unemployment, they will also expect that the president and their federal representatives will take all reasonable steps to minimize the damage done to American workers, and expedite recovery for those who have lost jobs. This poll makes it clear that Ohio voters understand and support the need to reduce the flow of people entering the country who will compete for jobs during this crisis and once the economy fully reopens," Stein concluded. The poll of 805 likely voters has a +/-3.5 percent margin of error. Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or [email protected] ABOUT FAIR Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 2 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced. SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Related Links http://www.fairus.org Representative Image (Image: BMC) The Delhi government is looking to slash coronavirus test rates by half of the current Rs 4,500. The state is in talks with private hospitals and diagnostic centres to discuss the same and tests could soon cost between Rs 2,000-2,500, sources told The Economic Times. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report. Prices of testing kits reduce due to an increased number of local options. As the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that price caps for RT-PCR testing would be removed, many states have already cut or are considering reducing prices for the process. This price was fixed at a time when testing kits were in short supply and had to be imported. With so many vendors now approved and the kits being indigenously produced, the price can be brought down, a source in Delhi health services told ET. Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here 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 Private testing centres are however not all on board, and said a price drop would compromise quality. They pointed out that testing costs for them includes more than just the kit. For every test, the phlebotomist has to wear a new personal protective equipment (PPE). There is an additional cost of transportation and a particular medium in which the sample needs to be maintained. We are already conducting these tests on a no-profit basis, the owner of a South Delhi lab told the paper. Delhi would be following Maharashtra and Karnataka, which made similar moves and cut the test cost to Rs 3,000. It also comes after Dr Balram Bhargava, director general, ICMR, and secretary, department of health research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare asked state chief secretaries to fix agreeable prices for RT-PCR testing for COVID-19. In a letter to states, ICMR said the reduced charges are justified as majority of testing material is now being made indigenously, Mint reported. All efforts have been made to facilitate local companies Indigenous diagnostic kits are also being approved on a fast track basis for RT-PCR testing testing supplies are also stabilised Prices are becoming competitive and are undergoing reduction because of varied options," Dr Bhargava said in the letter written to chief secretaries of all states two weeks ago. The earlier upper ceiling of Rs 4,500 may not be applicable now. Therefore, all state governments and UT administrations are advised to negotiate with private labs and fix up mutually agreeable prices for samples being sent by the government and also for private individuals desirous of testing by these labs," Bhargava added. Notably, testing at government hospitals has been free, while the Rs 4,500 cap was for private facilities. In case a private facility undertook tests for the government Rs 3,500 was reimbursed. Sources added that Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has also informally asked private players to downward adjust prices. amphotora/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News (RICHMOND, Va.) -- The police chief in Virginia's capital has resigned following weeks of citywide protests in the wake of George Floyd's death. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced at a press conference that William Smith has stepped down from his post as the city's police chief at Stoney's request. "One thing is clear after the past few weeks -- Richmond is ready for a new approach to public safety," Stoney told reporters Tuesday. "There is work to be done, and were ready to do it." Smith, who didn't attend Tuesday's press conference, was nearing his one-year anniversary as police chief after being with the Richmond Police Department for 23 years, according to Richmond ABC affiliate WRIC-TV. "Chief Smith is a good man," the mayor added. "He has served this city for a very long time. He has put his heart and soul into the service of the police department, and to this city, and I thank him for his service." Stoney named Maj. William "Jody" Blackwell as interim chief of the Richmond Police Department. "Interim Chief Blackwell is willing and able to focus on the necessary public safety reforms," Stoney said. "He will lead our healing and trust-building within our community." The announcement comes on the heels of tense demonstrations and repeated clashes between protesters and police officers. Richmond police have been criticized for deploying chemical irritants and rubber bullets, including one incident on June 1, when officers reportedly fired tear gas at a peaceful group of demonstrators about half an hour before the mayor's mandated curfew went into effect. Three advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia, sent a letter on Monday to Richmond's mayor, police chief and commonwealth's attorney raising concerns over the "escalation of violence against protesters." Protests against police brutality and racial injustice erupted in cities across the United States and around the world following Floyd's death while in police custody. The unarmed 46-year-old black man died in Minneapolis on May 25, shortly after a white police officer was filmed kneeling on his neck as three other officers stood by. The officer who prosecutors say pinned Floyd down for nearly nine minutes, Derek Chauvin, has since been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers each have been charged with second-degree aiding and abetting felony murder as well as second-degree aiding and abetting manslaughter. Hundreds of protesters converged outside the Richmond Police Department headquarters on Monday for the second night in a row. Officers reportedly used chemical irritants, flash-bangs and rubber bullets to disperse the angry crowds. "I have high expectations for the Richmond Police Department, our law enforcement. At a very minimum, I expect them to be willing to come around the table with the community to reform and reimagine public safety," the mayor told reporters Tuesday. "So it boils down to whether the leadership of RPD embraces the change or stands in the way." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. One person has been wounded in a shooting at a mall in Dallas, Texas, police have said as a manhunt for the gunman continues. Witnesses reported hearing between five and nine shots at the Galleria Dallas mall at Dallas Parkway. In a tweet Dallas Police said: "One person was shot inside of the Galleria Mall. "The suspect is currently at large at this time. DFR transported the complainant to Parkland Hospital, unknown condition. Officers are reviewing the video cameras and searching the mall for the suspect. Not an active shooter case." One person was shot inside of the Galleria Mall. The suspect is currently at large at this time. DFR transported the complainant to Parkland Hospital, unknown condition. Officers are reviewing the video cameras and searching the mall for the suspect. Not an active shooter case. Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) June 17, 2020 One witness, Hannah DeClerk, told the Dallas Morning News that she was in a store on the second floor when she heard five or six shots outside the nearby branch of Nordstrom. She told the paper the mall was crowded at the time and that she escaped through a back stairwell. She said she heard screaming and said people outside the complex were "devastated" by what had happened. "It was one of the scariest things I've ever been in," she said. "You could smell the gunpowder." Dallas police spokeswoman Melinda Gutierrez told CNN: "This is an active call. I can confirm that there is a shooting at the location." An Action Hero: Ayushmann Khurrana is now joined by Jaideep Ahlawat as they kickstart shoot in London News18 Daybreak |Violent Indo-China Face-off in Ladakh; India's COVID-19 Death Toll Surpasses 10,000 and Other Stories You Need to Watch Out For Jun 17, 2020 11:04 AM IST Daybreak Share At least 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in a violent face-off in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, Army stated. In the morning, India lost an officer and two soldiers during the violent face-off, while there were casualties on the Chinese side as well. External affairs minister S Jaishankar earlier met PM Narendra Modi as the Indian Armys standoff with Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan Valley saw violent escalation. Follow live updates here. Alert Issued: The Himachal Pradesh Police has issued an alert in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur districts, which border China, in view of the violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley, an official said Tuesday. State police spokesperson Khushal Sharma said an advisory have been issued to take all precautionary measures to ensure security of local population. Violated agreements: China's official media Tuesday quoted the Chinese military as claiming that it always owned sovereignty over the Galwan Valley region and alleged that provocative attacks' launched by the Indian troops resulted in severe clashes and casualties. Chinese media quoted the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theatre Command Spokesperson Colonel Zhang Shuili said, "China always owns sovereignty over the Galwan Valley region." Disengaged: Twenty members of the Indian armed forces were killed in a clash with Chinese forces, making them the first fatalities on the Line of Actual Control in 45 years. The Indian Army said both sides suffered casualties. Beijing did not confirm any deaths, but observers in China appeared to corroborate that information. However, the Army said both Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged after the clash. In Other News Covid count: India registered over 10,000 new COVID-19 cases for the fifth day in a row pushing tally to 3,43,091 Tuesday, while the death toll surpassed 10,000-mark with new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The country recorded 10,667 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours. United by virus: In a strange turn of events, both Karnataka and Kerala are being hailed as model states in their fight against the spread of coronavirus. The BJP government led by chief minister BS Yediyurappa and the Communist government led by Pinarayi Vijayan have so far successfully contained the disease in their respective states. In the last 90 days, both state governments have aggressively fought Covid-19, limiting it to small numbers compared to many other states that continue to struggle. Geared Up: With hospitals already severely stretched, coronavirus-hit India is now bracing for the monsoon and its deadly annual onslaught of mosquito-borne illnesses, with an overwhelmed army of public health workers the only defence. Healthcare workers are not the only ones battling exhaustion, lockdown to prevent the epidemic from spreading left states with an acute shortage of sanitation workers. Decision pending: Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the ministry was confident that a decision on resumption of international flights will be taken by next month after taking into confidence all stakeholders and travellers. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on March 19 had announced that no international commercial passenger flight operations will take place in India from 1.30 am on March 23 to 5.30 am on March 29. On Our Specials Key Point 14: The murderous clash on the Galwan River which claimed the lives of 16 Bihar regiment commanding officer and two other soldiers broke out after troops moved to remove a Peoples Liberation Army tent set up near a position code-named Patrolling Point 14, inside territory on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control. Few details have emerged on how the fighting began, but government sources familiar with events said PLA soldiers responded to the Indian action by throwing stones from the high ground above Point 14, Praveen Swami writes inside story. Vaccine on way? Researchers from the University of Oxford have said that Dexamethasone, a low-cost steroid is improving survival chances of Covid-19 patients. These were the results from a randomized trial and a detailed paper will be published soon. The drug cut deaths by a third in patients on a ventilator and by a fifth in patients receiving only oxygen. News18 explains how this drug works and the trial being carried out to test its efficacy. On Reel 20 soldiers were killed in a violent face-off with Chinese soldiers in Ladakh's Galwan Valley. This is the first case of bloodshed at the LAC in 45 years. Richard Pusey, the driver of a Porsche who allegedly fled the scene of a truck crash on Melbourne's Eastern Freeway which killed four police officers, is taken away from his Fitzroy property by police in Melbourne, Australia, on April 23, 2020. (AAP Image/Michael Dodge) Further Charges for Porsche Driver Following Fatal Melbourne Crash The driver of a Porsche who allegedly fled the scene of a multi-car accident on a Melbourne freeway where four police officers were killed has been charged with two further offences. Central Melbourne resident Richard Pusey has been charged with committing an act outraging public decency and behaving in an indecent or offensive manner by Victoria Road Policing Operations and Investigations Division. If convicted, the 41-year-old will face penalties ranging from further fines to more jail time. It is alleged that Pusey took pictures on his iPhone and taunted a dying police officer before leaving the scene of a horrific crash that killed four officers. He is currently remanded in custody and is expected to face Melbourne Magistrates Court on June 25. These two new charges are in addition to the previous ten Pusey is facing. His existing charges are driving speed dangerous, reckless conduct endangering life, fail to remain after a drug test, fail to render assistance, fail to exchange detail, possessing a drug of dependence, destruction of evidence, and three counts of commit indictable offence while on bail. Related Coverage Porsche Driver Faces Court on 10 Charges Following Fatal Police Crash Victorian police intercepted Puseys black Porsche 911 on April 22 for allegedly speeding at over 140 kilometers (86 miles) per hour. Soon after, a semi-trailer driven by Mohinder Singh Bajwa veered into the emergency lane at 100 kilometers per hour and collided with the four officers. At the time of the incident, Pusey was urinating on the side of the freeway, away from the others. He was the only person on the ground to avoid death. Leading Senior Constable Lynnette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Glen Humphris, and Constable Joshua Prestney lost their lives that evening. It was the biggest loss in a single day in Victorian police history. Singh appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on April 27 and was charged with culpable driving causing death. He did not apply for bail and is scheduled to return on October 1. New South Wales and Victoria police have carried out multiple raids on properties related to the registered company involved in the crash on April 22. Richard Pusey is due to face court next week. Coronavirus cases in Contra Costa continue to rise amid the countys aggressive push to reopen the local economy, raising concern that the county may be moving too fast. Our cases are increasing, our hospitalizations are increasing, our deaths are increasing and our testing positivity rate is increasing, Anna Roth, Contra Costas health services director, told county supervisors Tuesday. Contra Costa Countys recent test results are showing a positive rate of about 3.5%, compared to about 2% when it first began testing, Roth said. One more person died from COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the countys death toll to 50, health officials reported. Forty-seven new cases were recorded for a total of 2,071. There are 27 patients hospitalized, slightly above the seven-day average of 23 patients a number that has crept up since early June. Contra Costa raced ahead of other Bay Area counties, including Alameda and San Francisco, to allow local businesses and activities to resume. Hair salons and barbershops were allowed to reopen on Wednesday, according to the countys updated COVID-19 response plan. The East Bay county is also allowing residents to go back to outdoor swimming pools, outdoor restaurants and dog parks, as well as funerals and indoor religious gatherings for as many as 100 people. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle Coronavirus cases have increased 114% in Contra Costa County since Stage 1 of the statewide reopening May 18. We expected some increase as more businesses and activities reopened in the county, and we are carefully monitoring our key indicators to determine if our reopening timeline should be adjusted, Roth said. At this time, we believe the current timeline is appropriate, deliberate approach for our county. Roth also said the rise in hospitalizations is not attributable to congregate settings. We are thinking that this is community spread, she said. But I think we still need to understand more. The pandemic is hitting hardest in the countys low-income communities, including San Pablo, Bay Point and Richmond. Dr. Chris Farnitano, health officer for Contra Costa, has urged a cautious approach to reopening the county since their is no vaccine or effective treatment in place. Its going to be a lot harder to pull back than it is to move forward, Farnitano said. Last week, demonstrators appeared outside his home to protest the countys mask policies and contact-tracing efforts, according to multiple media reports. 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. Contra Costa residents have repeatedly expressed frustration with local officials, despite the countys accelerated pace for reopening. We are aware of the pain that the shelter-at-home has caused a lot of people, said Ori Tzvieli, deputy health officer with Contra Costa County. Its really about finding a balance between controlling COVID-19 spread and not inflicting too much pain. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a briefing Monday that California is closely monitoring 13 counties after they reported concerning increases in cases, hospitalizations, or other local metrics. Were not out of the woods, Newsom said. As we mix, as we reopen, inevitably were going to see an increase in the total number of cases. Its our responsibility to address that and to make sure were prepared for spikes. Aidin Vaziri is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com Toi Ohomai Institute of Technologys Communication and Digital Experience Team has won a Silver Award in the Internal Communications category at the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand Awards. The PRINZ Awards recognise and celebrate outstanding work in public relations and highlight the impact of excellent communications across every aspect of society. Chief Judge and PRINZ Fellow, Kate Woodruffe, says the awards celebrate the diverse range of success stories generated by PRINZ members and recognise the huge amount of talent and professionalism inherent in the industry. As a way of increasing recognition and better reflecting the judging process, this year finalists were awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze, rather than Winner or Highly Commended as in previous years. We hope that this, combined with the option to receive feedback from the judging panels, provides greater scope for learning and celebration. In April 2018, Toi Ohomai set out to unite its more than 1000 staff, working across five campuses in the Bay of Plenty and South Waikato regions, under a single, new intranet. At the time, staff were using three separate intranets: one from each of its legacy institutes (Waiariki Institute of Technology and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic) after their merger in 2016, and a third which had been introduced as a stop-gap in 2017. According to Toi Ohomai Communication and Digital Experience Manager Jenna Waite-Leonard, the teams goal was to entice and support staff on a digital transformation journey, showcasing how the new intranet would help improve collaboration, culture and communication. Our brief was to replace the existing intranet sites and create a single intranet that would promote organisational culture, enable staff to share stories, celebrate success and help staff to do their jobs efficiently and effectively, says Jenna. The project was a collaborative effort across the Institute, with a strong focus on staff input, engagement and usability. We worked closely with our IT team and their platform provider WebVine to design the homepage, mega menu and layout, based on what we knew from our research. We also worked closely with our in-house design team to develop all collateral and launch campaign materials. She says the team are honoured to be recognised for the mahi by PRINZ. The post-launch results were impressive, and we are continuing to improve the content and functionality of our new intranet based on staff suggestions and inputs. Its been exciting to see the platform serve its purpose, especially during the recent COVID-19 lockdown period, when the resources and functionality proved more important than ever to enable staff to work from home, collaborate and communicate. 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The move came amid a High Court challenge over the planning regulations governing extraction at the company's remaining commercial bogs. Workers who were to be employed in harvesting this summer are to be redeployed to peatland restoration projects instead. However, work at peat-based businesses including Derrinlough briquette factory, Edenderry power station and the Kilberry horticulture facility are to continue for the time being because they operate on existing peat reserves. Bord na Mona said it had taken the suspension decision to provide security to workers facing uncertainty over their immediate future. It added it would continue to seek permission for harvesting, but said it would have to "overcome a range of legal and planning challenges". The move is seen as an acceleration of the company's longer-term 'brown to green' strategy of withdrawal from peat harvesting, and throws doubt over whether harvesting will recommence. Moving out of peat is expected to save 1.25 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year. Bord na Mona chief executive Tom Donnellan said: "As a company, we are supporting Ireland's response to the ever-increasing challenge posed by climate change." Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton said he would finalise details of a peatland rehabilitation package with the company within weeks. Friends of the Irish Environment had challenged the system of peat extraction, saying it breached European law. The High Court ruled last year that until domestic law was clarified, extraction on bogs of more than 30 hectares would require planning permission. Saudi Arabia is expected to scale back or call off this year's hajj pilgrimage for the first time in its modern history, observers say, a perilous decision as coronavirus cases spike. Saudi Arabia is expected to scale back or call off this year's hajj pilgrimage for the first time in its modern history, observers say, a perilous decision as coronavirus cases spike. Muslim nations are pressing Riyadh to give its much-delayed decision on whether the annual ritual will go ahead as scheduled in late July. But as the kingdom negotiates a call fraught with political and economic risks in a tinderbox region, time is running out to organise logistics for one of the world's largest mass gatherings. A full-scale hajj, which last year drew about 2.5 million pilgrims, appears increasingly unlikely after authorities advised Muslims in late March to defer preparations due to the fast-spreading disease. "It's a toss-up between holding a nominal hajj and scrapping it entirely," a South Asian official in contact with Saudi hajj authorities told AFP. A Saudi official told AFP: "The decision will soon be made and announced." Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, withdrew from the pilgrimage this month after pressing Riyadh for clarity, with a minister calling it a "very bitter and difficult decision". Malaysia, Senegal and Singapore followed suit with similar announcements. Many other countries with Muslim populations -- from Egypt and Morocco to Turkey, Lebanon and Bulgaria -- have said they are still awaiting Riyadh's decision. In countries like France, faith leaders have urged Muslims to "postpone" their pilgrimage plans until next year due to the prevailing risks. The hajj, a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime, represents a major potential source of contagion as it packs millions of pilgrims into congested religious sites. But any decision to limit or cancel the event risks annoying Muslim hardliners for whom religion trumps health concerns. It could also trigger renewed scrutiny of the Saudi custodianship of Islam's holiest sites -- the kingdom's most powerful source of political legitimacy. A series of deadly disasters over the years, including a 2015 stampede that killed up to 2,300 worshippers, has prompted criticism of the kingdom's management of the hajj. "Saudi Arabia is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea," Umar Karim, a visiting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told AFP. "The delay in announcing its decision shows it understands the political consequences of cancelling the hajj or reducing its scale." The kingdom is "buying time" as it treads cautiously, the South Asian official said. "At the last minute if Saudi says 'we are ready to do a full hajj', (logistically) many countries will not be in a position" to participate, he said. Amid an ongoing suspension of international flights, a reduced hajj with only local residents is a likely scenario, the official added. A decision to cancel the hajj would be a first since the kingdom was founded in 1932. Saudi Arabia managed to hold the pilgrimage during previous outbreaks of Ebola and MERS. But it is struggling to contain the virus amid a serious spike in daily cases and deaths since authorities began easing a nationwide lockdown in late May. In Saudi hospitals, sources say intensive care beds are fast filling up and a growing number of health workers are contracting the virus as the total number of cases has topped 130,000. Deaths surpassed 1,000 on Monday. To counter the spike, authorities this month tightened lockdown restrictions in the city of Jeddah, gateway to the pilgrimage city of Mecca. "The hajj is the most important spiritual journey in the life of any Muslim, but if Saudi Arabia proceeds in this scenario it will not only exert pressure on its own health system," said Yasmine Farouk from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It could also be widely held responsible for fanning the pandemic." A cancelled or watered-down hajj would represent a major loss of revenue for the kingdom, which is already reeling from the twin shocks of the virus-induced slowdown and a plunge in oil prices. The smaller year-round umrah pilgrimage was already suspended in March. Together, they add $12 billion to the Saudi economy every year, according to government figures. A negative decision would likely disappoint millions of Muslim pilgrims around the world who often invest their life savings and endure long waiting lists to make the trip. "I can't help but be heartbroken -- I've been waiting for years," Indonesian civil servant Ria Taurisnawati, 37, told AFP as she sobbed. "All my preparations were done, the clothes were ready and I got the necessary vaccination. But God has another plan." Jason Manford was hailed as a 'superhero' on Tuesday, after it was revealed that he gave PPE to ambulance staff as they attended to a bike accident in Manchester. The comedian, 39, who this week revealed that had taken on a role doing deliveries for Iceland, stopped his van to provide the personal protective equipment which has been deemed especially vital amid the COVID-19 pandemic. After his day of duties, which he's taken on in exchange for charity donations, an ambulance staffer tweeted to him: 'Thank you for stopping at Old Trafford and providing us with PPE to help assist with a road traffic accident.' Superhero: Jason Manford was hailed as a 'superhero' on Tuesday, after it was revealed that he gave PPE to ambulance staff as they attended to a bike accident in Manchester Responding, the star admitted: 'That was the maddest morning Ive had all lockdown! Guy knocked off his bike, people trying to help but social distancing! 'Lucky me, Ive got the antibodies & have got loads of PPE in their vans so gave everybody some! An eventful morning to say the least.' 'Not all superheroes wear capes,' replied one fan. 'This superhero works for Iceland.' Here he is! Jason announced that he has put his showbiz life aside to start the role for the day 'Good on you, Jason,' wrote a second follower. 'Good deeds appear to be happening off the pitch with Old Trafford today!' Suggesting he don superhero attire, a third advised: 'Jason u need to start wearing your pants over your trousers.' Earlier in the day, Jason took to Instagram to share a selfie while sitting in the front of his van in his uniform while sharing a caption alongside the shot reading: 'I'm guessing this is why mum's go to Iceland @IcelandFoods'. Speaking about his effort, he said: 'Massive thanks to Iceland who have offered me this opportunity to not just deliver some food to their loyal customers, but also for making a generous donation to charities that are close to my heart.' Hero: It was revealed on Twitter that the star stopped his van to provide the personal protective equipment which has been deemed especially vital amid the COVID-19 pandemic High praise: A number of the star's followers tweeted their praise after learning of the moment In exchange for his valued contribution, Iceland has also made a donation to Jason's charity of choice, The Children's Adventure Farm Trust. Based in Cheshire, the charity provides holidays and days out for terminally ill, disabled or disadvantaged children from across the North West of England. Richard Walker, Managing Director at Iceland, said: 'Everyone at Iceland is extremely grateful for Jason's contribution today and he has certainly helped to lift spirits with our customers and heroic colleagues... 'Our stores are deeply rooted within their local communities, so it's a real privilege for us to be in a position where we can work with great people like Jason and donate to some worthy causes at the same time.' During his shift, Jason surprised workers at The Bread and Butter Thing charity in Trafford Park, Manchester with 500 worth of groceries. Livid: It comes a month after the supermarket offered him a job after his application to work as a driver for Tesco was rejected - a decision he claimed to be 'livid' about It comes a month after the supermarket offered him a job after his application to work as a driver for Tesco was rejected - a decision he claimed to be 'livid' about. Last month, he joked he was 'livid' that Tesco had declined his application and admitted that he was 'only trying to do his bit' amid the coronavirus pandemic. Iceland replied to his tweet offering him work for a day and promising to make a donation to the NHS in his name. In response to Tesco's rejection, Jason had posted: 'Absolutely livid Tesco. I was only trying to do my bit. Job offer: Iceland Foods replied to Jason's tweet, saying he can work with them for a day and the supermarket will make a donation to the NHS Thanks, but no thanks! The star's post, which appeared to be in jest, also included a screenshot of the email he received informing him they wouldn't be pursuing his application He went on to joke that he'll be keeping an eye on the new employee, and said: 'I hope the better person got and enjoys the job, I'll be watching.' But Iceland stepped in, saying: 'Our door is always open for you. Help us out for the day and we'll make a donation to the NHS in your name.' Jason's original post had included a screenshot of Tesco's rejection email informing him they wouldn't be pursuing his application. The email read: 'Hello Jason, we appreciate your interest to work for Tesco during these unprecedented times and thank you for your application for the Customer Assistant - Convenience. Declined: The comedian said he was 'livid' that the store had declined his application and admitted that he was 'only trying to do his bit' amid the coronavirus pandemic 'Regrettably we are unable to progress your application forward this time as the vacancy is now closed. Unfortunately, due to such a high volume of applications we are unable to provide any detailed feedback. 'If you are interest in other opportunities at Tesco, or would like to be kept in the loop about future jobs that may be right for you, keep your Tesco Career Centre up to date.' Jason had applied for a role at the Alderley Road Express in Wilmslow, which is local to his Cheshire home where he lives with wife Lucy Dyke and their children. Tesco responded to Jason following his posts on social media and claimed that he was rejected because he didn't meet the deadline for the application. Fuming: In response to the rejection, he posted on Instagram: ' Absolutely livid Tesco. I was only trying to do my bit' Wanting to help: Jason later defended his post after people accused him of 'taking the p**s' by applying for a job at his local supermarket A Tesco spokesman said: 'We've recruited around 50,000 temporary workers during the Coronavirus pandemic and they have played a huge part in helping us to serve customers safely during these unprecedented times. 'Jason's skills would have no doubt brought a lot of joy to our customers and colleagues, so it's a shame he didn't make the deadline for this vacancy. But should he ever want to join the Tesco family in the future, we'd be happy to receive an application from him.' Jason later defended his post after people accused him of 'taking the p**s' by applying for a job at his local supermarket. He said: 'A few people thought I was taking the p**s, being insensitive or making it up about my previous message about being turned down for a job as a Tesco driver. Struggle: Last month, Jason admitted he broke down in tears at the thought of having to learn to be a 'full-time dad' again in lockdown, speaking during an appearance on The Steph Show 'I applied 7 weeks ago when I thought, like everyone, it was basically wartime and it would require all hands on deck. 'Curtains got cancelled on the 16th & I applied on the 21st fo quite a few jobs). I have since managed to fill my 'spare time' doing some volunteer driving (this is not 'virtue signalling', just defending myself!) and homeschooling 6 kids (and doing our little quizzes and kids' comedy clubs!) and being made to clean my own house by my wife. 'At the same time I also don't believe 'we're all this together'. I'm more aware than ever the differences in society & chatting to some of the people I've driven the last few weeks has only highlighted how hard the lockdown has been for people with less money and space. 'I feel extremely fortunate. Hope you're all keeping safe and being kind to yourself and to others. Seven Air Force service members tested positive for COVID-19 more than two weeks after they arrived on Guam from various locations in the United States for deployment. The airmen arrived May 25 on a military transport, Andersen Air Force Base confirmed. When they arrived, they temporarily stayed at a hotel along Tumon Bay. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. "Upon arrival, members of the deployed unit were housed at the Guam Reef Hotel in Tumon and received medical checks," the base's public affairs office stated. Andersen AFB is continually monitoring the situation and working closely with Joint Region Marianas and the Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services to coordinate prevention and response efforts, said Brig. Gen. Gentry Boswell, 36th Wing commander. Team Andersen remains committed to the health of our service members, their families and the local community. The deployed members came from various locations in the United States. "In order to protect operational security, we cannot disclose the exact locations at this time," stated Master Sgt. Richard Ebensberger, superintendent of the 36th Wing Public Affairs. On June 11, 17 days after they arrived on Guam, one of the airmen began to show symptoms of COVID-19 and was immediately tested by U.S. Naval Hospital Guam staff, which later produced a positive result on June 12, Ebensberger confirmed. The six other airmen who had close contact with the first individual have also been confirmed positive. "All service members assigned to the unit were rapidly placed in isolation and have since been relocated to Andersen AFB where they are under medical observation in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocols," Ebensberger added. Airmen included in local count The seven airmen are counted as part of the 188 COVID-19 patients on Guam since the pandemic reached Guam's shores in March. Of the seven airmen who tested for COVID-19 on Guam, three were reported in the government of Guam tally as new cases as of Wednesday evening. Four of the seven airmen had been included in GovGuam's prior tally, said Krystal Paco-San Agustin, the governor's press secretary. The more than 1,000 sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt who tested positive for COVID-19 while the warship was docked at Naval Base Guam are not part of the Guam count. The military's medical professionals are conducting contact tracing, the 36th Wing stated. During contact tracing, the airmen will be asked to state the places they've been to and who they came in contact with. Once the contacts are identified, they will undergo testing for COVID-19. COVID-19 has been generally believed to manifest within 14 days of exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus strain that causes the disease. The first of the seven airmen who tested positive showed symptoms 17 days after arrival on Guam. It's not clear how many on Andersen Air Force Base and in the civilian community will be tested for COVID-19. The Department of Public Health and Social Services is working with Andersen Air Force Base for contact tracing, according to Paco-San Agustin. Director/writer Menelek Lumumbas low-budget indie film 1 Angry Black Man was made in 2018, but its release in the current climate is an amazing bit of cultural synchronicity, almost as if it were cranked out last weekend as the image of George Floyds death at the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin flashed across the globe. But 1 Angry Black Man is a more thoughtful and intellectual exercise than its prosaic and incendiary title at first suggests, though the issues it attempts to juggle the demonization of young black men in white spaces, free speech, systemic racism, the blind spots of earnest white liberals, the dangers of stereotyping all conservatives as racists are at the heart of many of todays thorniest topics and loudest arguments. Mike (Keith Stone making his film debut) is a black senior at a largely white, small liberal-arts college in Maine. With his close-cropped haircut, fashionable tortoise-shell glasses and penchant for pullovers, he seems to be the walking embodiment of The Talented Tenth, the name popularized by W.E.B. DuBois in the early 20th century for black intellectuals and cultural leaders. Yet, as the film opens, hes being interrogated by the local police for a suspected sexual assault that he denies. Hes ultimately let go, but he carries the scars of humiliation with him into his black literature class, where akin to the jury room in 12 Angry Men the bulk of the film takes place. (The movies title now makes more sense.) Thats where we meet his classmates: Dominican friend Eddie (Ramon Nunez); black girlfriend Kendra (Isi Laborde-Edozien), white friend and Trump-voter bro Kyle (William W. Wallace); queer Latina Michelle (Dahiana Castro); older white mom, Ellen (Elizabeth Saunders), who has a mixed-race son; white feminists Rachel (Danicah Waldo) and Maggie (Amanda Jane Stern); white guys Jimmy (Mike Taylor) and Lucas (Richie Dupkin) and South Asian immigrant Tushar (Arush Dayal). Running the class with a firm hand is the professor, Carla (Daphne Danielle), who is black. The discussion starts with the subjects at hand authors James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston and August Wilson but quickly moves into other, more personal issues, ranging from family violence to who they voted for in 2016. While this format could easily collapse into preachiness and heavy-handedness, and it sometimes does, Lumumba does his best to create characters with some level of depth. Take the case of Kyle. It would have been easy to make him just a loudmouth punching bag but hes actually someone who can be moved by the words of Wilson and Hurston while at the same time attempt to justify supporting Obama and then voting for Trump. The same is true for Mike, who is also a feast of contradictions. Anger is just one of his many motivations. Though this is Lumumbas debut film, it should be noted he worked with director of photography Hans Charles (Ava DuVernays 13th documentary) as cinematographer and producer. And its wonderful to hear the words of the authors discussed read aloud. More Information "1 Angry Black Man" 3 stars Director: Menelek Lumumba Starring: Keith Stone, Ramon Nunezra, Isi Laborde-Edozien and William W. Wallace Running time: 92 minutes MPAA rating: R for strong language, sexual references Where: Video-on-demand and DVD See More Collapse Unfortunately, Lumumba doesnt seem to know where to take all of this; the ending isnt particularly satisfying. But his valiant effort makes for an intriguing addition to the current cultural conversation. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban may have given up the power to rule by decree, but the covid-19 pandemic has provided him the ammunition to halt any remaining opposition momentum from an upset in local elections last year. Citing the virus crisis, Orban is creating special economic zones that will divert taxes away from cities and plans to quadruple the contributions of municipalities to the budget over the next four years. The measures hurt the opposition that unexpectedly won control over half of Hungary's major cities in October, positions they had hoped to use to build a credible challenge to the premier's decade-long rule. Orban's opponents have been left scrambling with dwindling resources. In the capital, the new leadership is trying to find ways to keep public transportation and garbage collection going and salvage some big-ticket items, including the long-delayed renovation of the iconic Chain Bridge that spans the Danube river. "The government is trying to make it look as if municipalities can't perform their tasks, when in fact this is happening because the state is taking away funding," Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, the highest-profile opposition politician, said in an interview. "The government can't accept that there's political competition." Hungarians have widely backed Orban's pandemic response, buttressing a comfortable poll lead and allowing him to set his sights on a fifth term in 2022. No other head of government in the European Union has been in power for longer, with the exception of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who's confirmed that she won't seek a fifth term in 2021. Six out of ten decided voters support Orban's Fidesz party, compared with just 11% for the biggest opposition group and 40% for 10 opposition parties combined, according to a Median poll published on news website HVG. The poll was taken between May 28 and June 5, as the first wave of the coronavirus retreated. That made it relatively risk-free for Orban to end the state of danger, which had allowed him to govern by decree for an indefinite period since late March. The ruling party also framed the move as a sharp rebuke to some critics, including EU leaders, who'd warned that Orban may not return absolute control. "Those who cried dictatorship home and abroad can now extend their apologies," Orban wrote on his Facebook page after parliament's unanimous vote. Still, Orban's ability to rule has hardly been diminished. On Tuesday, lawmakers also approved legislation allowing the government to start ruling by decree without parliament's consent in case of a health emergency. Another billed stripped cities of tax revenue from major corporate investments and channeled them to counties, which are currently all controlled by Fidesz. The government said the change would allow for a fairer distribution of funds. "Orban is bleeding municipalities of revenue, which is making things exceedingly hard for the opposition," said Gabor Gyori, a political analyst at Policy Solutions in Budapest. "After so many years out of power, the opposition needs to show voters they know how to govern." The National Identification Authority (NIA) has so far issued 9,050,346 Ghana cards to qualified Ghanaians out of 11,034,174 printed cards since the mass registration exercise started on April 29, 2019. The Authority is expected to issue about 16.7 million cards to qualified Ghanaians by the end of the mass registration and mop-up exercises in all the 16 regions by September 4, this year. Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, the Executive Secretary of the NIA, announced this at a media briefing in Accra on Wednesday. Giving an update on the NIA's Card Issuance blitz, which started on Wednesday, June 10, Prof. Attafuah said the Authority had issued 1,950,245 cards out of 3,934, 073 cards planned for distribution in 5,635 distribution centres. He said the card distribution exercise would continue tomorrow, June 18, and afterwards the authority will determine whether the exercise would continue or otherwise. He urged all those who have not gone for their Ghana cards to do so whilst observing anti-Covid-19 safety protocols. Meanwhile, the NIA has announced that the mass registration for the Ghana card in the Eastern Region, which was truncated on March 21, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, would continue from tomorrow, June 18 to June 27 in 33 districts. The NIA would concurrently commence mop-up exercise for the issuance of the Ghana card in the Upper West and Upper East regions from tomorrow June 18 to July 3, 2020. The nationwide exercise would continue to the Northern, North East and Savannah regions from July 10 to July 24, Central, Western and Western North regions from July 4 to July 23, Volta and Oti from July 30 to August 9 and Ashanti Region from July 30 to August 13. Greater Accra Region would have its turn for the mop-up exercise from August 16 to August 29, Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions from August 20 to September 4, 2020. Prof. Attafuah revealed that more than 32,000 individuals attempted to perform double registration for Ghana card, therefore the NIA's governing board would investigate and decide on what action to take against the miscreants at the end of the registration process. He said additionally, 525 incidents of multiple Ghana cards were printed and issued, therefore the Authority said it would invite those with multiple cards to indicate the eligible ones they will use for their official transactions. Consequently, some 250 persons had their registration for Ghana cards challenged, and currently being adjudicated by special adjudication committees. Prof. Agyemang Attafuah said anyone who intends to visit the NIA's registration centre to wear face masks, observe social distancing directives and use the hand washing facilities provided. He said temperatures of prospective individuals would be checked with thermometer guns at the registration centres. The NIA Boss said it had provided the requisite Personal Protective Equipment and facilities to the registration officials to ensure a smooth exercise. 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 German member of the European Parliament complained Wednesday she had been treated in a violent and humiliating way by Belgian police, on the eve of a debate on racism. A spokeswoman for the Belgian police disputed her account of the incident but confirmed she had been searched after interfering during an identity check of two men and said she was to be investigated for insulting officers. "I was a victim of police violence on the behalf of the Belgian police," 71-year-old Pierrette Herzenberger-Fofana, who represents The Greens, told the Brussels assembly. "I consider that an act of discrimination of a racist tendency," said Herzenberger-Fofana, who was born in Bamako, Mali. The MEP said that on the day before the debate, called to discuss racism in the wake of global protests against a US police killing, she had arrived at Brussels Gare du Nord railway station. "I saw nine police officers harassing two young black men. I took out my phone and took a photo of the scene, which is legal. The police approached and snatched my phone," she said. "Four of the nine armed police brutally pushed me against a wall. They violently grabbed my bag. They pushed me against a wall, legs apart and an officer wanted to search me. - Police action 'intolerable' - "They treated me in a humiliating way. When I told them I was a member of the European Parliament, they did not believe me." Audrey Dereymaeker, a police spokeswoman, said Herzenberger-Fofana had wanted to interfere in an identity check of two suspects. "She filmed the scene and at first refused to identify herself when we asked her to, later she wanted to show her papers," she said, insisting: "It happened without violence." The spokeswoman confirmed the MEP had been searched by a female officer -- "in the usual procedure" -- and had been temporarily deprived of her liberty. Police have lodged a complaint with prosecutors alleging she had showed contempt for the officers. Herzenberger-Fofona's tearful statement received applause, and the parliamentary speaker David Sassoli expressed his support and invited her to meet him to discuss filing a complaint. Philippe Lamberts, a Belgian MEP and the head of Herzenberger-Fofana's Green group, said she had committed no offence and described the police action as "intolerable." The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was in parliament for the debate but did not address the German MEP's complaint directly. She did however insist that there is "no place in our union for racism or any form of discrimination." [June 17, 2020] Pagaya Announces $102 Million Series D Funding Round Pagaya, a global financial technology company using artificial intelligence (AI) to reshape asset management and institutional investment, today announced a $102 million Series D funding round led by a prominent strategic financial institution. Aflac Global Ventures (the venture capital holding company of top insurance firm, Aflac Incorporated), Poalim Capital Markets (the investment banking arm of Bank Hapoalim), Viola, Oak HC/FT, Harvey Golub (Pagaya board member and former Chairman and CEO of American Express (News - Alert)), Clal Insurance Ltd., GF Investments, and Siam Commercial Bank (through its Digital Ventures arm) participated in the round. In the four years since launching, Pagaya has grown to manage over $1.6 billion of assets for banks, insurance companies, pensions funds, asset managers, and sovereign wealth funds entirely with its sophisticated AI. "The world is changing quickly and investors need a performance edge - more and more are turning to Pagaya," said Gal Krubiner, Pagaya's CEO and co-founder. "We continue to unlock unprecedented value with our AI even during extreme market stress. Closing a round of this magnitude, with such a high-quality group of investors, is a testament to the hard work of the Pagaya team." Pagaya effectively re-opened the consumer credit asset-backed security (ABS (News - Alert)) market in May with a $200 million ABS fully managed by its AI - the first issuance amongst marketplace lenders in months, and the firm's seventh deal to date. The firm's total ABS issuance is now over $1 billion in just a year and a half. "It's extraordinary to see the Pagaya team deliver on their promise to bring in a new era of asset management using unparalleled technology," said Harvey Golub, Retired Chairman and CEO of American Express, and Pagaya board member. "The firm continues to significantly and effectively innovate in a space that has failed to evolve for decades. Pagaya is driving the future of asset management." "Working with Pagaya's exceptional founding team has been an amazing experience," said Avi Zeevi, Chairman of Pagaya and a General Partner and co-founder of Viola Ventures. "Through their vast understanding of financial markets and unmatched technological expertise, they've disrupted global asset management and have solidified their rank as an industry leader." Pagaya will use the investment to hire more top tier data scientists, develop its technology further, and continue its pursuit of new asset classes, such as real estate and other fixed-income assets like auto loans, mortgages, and corporate credit. The firm's growing AUM, speed between ABS deals, expansion of its Origination Group, and the Series D investment all point to the monumental transformation of the lending market. Pagaya's data-driven asset management has set a new standard. About Pagaya Pagaya is a financial technology company reshaping asset management using machine learning and big data analytics to manage institutional money. With a focus on fixed income and alternative credit, Pagaya offers a variety of discretionary funds to institutional investors, including pension funds, insurance companies, and banks. Pagaya's unique technology platform, Pagaya Pulse (News - Alert), runs on a suite of artificial intelligence technologies and state-of-the-art algorithms to consistently deliver a high and scalable performance edge. The firm's total consumer credit ABS issuance is over $1 billion. Founded in 2016 by seasoned finance and technology professionals, Pagaya has headquarters in New York and Tel Aviv. About Aflac Global Ventures Aflac Global Ventures is the corporate venture capital holding company of Aflac Incorporated. Aflac Global Ventures manages a $400 million global corporate venture fund. The fund invests in early, growth and late-stage companies in the healthcare, insurtech and fintech space with emphasis on digital applications designed to improve the customer experience, gain efficiencies and develop new markets as well as companies developing new and emerging technologies. About Poalim Capital Markets Poalim Capital Markets is Israel's leading investment bank providing a full range of global products and services. PCM (News - Alert) is a subsidiary of Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest financial group. Since its establishment in 1990, PCM has played a major role in shaping the Israeli economy by providing international investment banking services, advising on numerous M&A transactions, structuring private equity funds, and leading the local underwriting market (through Poalim IBI). PCM's diversified Private Equity (PE) platform manages and monitors the group's private equity investment activities locally and internationally, including direct investments and co-investments across a wide range of sectors: alternative energy, life sciences, mezzanine, infrastructure, distressed, turnaround and growth equity. Together with its US strategic partner, William Blair & Company, PCM offers clients end-to-end, best-of-breed international investment banking solutions and advisory services, including public offerings on US exchanges, mergers & acquisitions and cross border private placements. PCM, in conjunction with international partners in China and India, provide investors and businesses a broad range of cross-border opportunities in some of the fastest growing markets in the world. Poalim Asia Direct, based in Beijing, China, provides tailor-made solutions to foreign corporations seeking the most effective entry, expansion and investment opportunities in China's growing markets. PCM holds 19.97% of Poalim IBI's shares. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005200/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] That '70s Show star and Scientologist Danny Masterson has been charged with three counts of rape, officials said Wednesday. Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced that the actor has been charged with forcibly raping three women in separate incidents between 2001 and 2003. Masterson, 44, stands accused of raping a 23-year-old woman between January and December 2001, according to the complaint. He is also accused of raping a 28-year-old woman in April 2003 and sometime between October and December of that year of raping a woman, 23, who officials say he had invited to his Hollywood Hills home. Masterson, who also starred in Netflix's 'The Ranch', has been charged with three counts of rape by force or fear. The case was filed for warrant Tuesday. All of the alleged crimes occurred at the defendant's home, Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller of the Sex Crimes Division, who is prosecuting the case, said. Masterson, who was taken into custody Wednesday before posting bail, now faces 45 years to life in state prison. In February Masterson slammed four women who accused him of rape, saying the lawsuit they have filed against him and the Church of Scientology is just a 'shameful money grab'. It is not known who the alleged victims in today's arrest are or if they are connected to this earlier lawsuit in any way. That 70s Show actor and Scientologist Danny Masterson has been charged with three counts of rape, officials said Wednesday Danny Masterson is pictured in the sunglasses with his That '70s show co-stars All of the alleged crimes occurred at the defendant's home, prosecutors said. The star's current home in the Hollywood Hills is pictured A spokesman for the District Attorney's Office said they have 'declined to file sexual assault charges against Masterson in two other cases, one for insufficient evidence and the other based upon the statute of limitations for the crime alleged'. Masterson has been married to actor and model Bijou Phillips since 2011. Masterson's attorney Tom Mesereau said in a statement: 'Mr. Masterson is innocent, and we're confident that he will be exonerated when all the evidence finally comes to light and witnesses have the opportunity to testify. 'Obviously, Mr. Masterson and his wife are in complete shock considering that these nearly 20-year old allegations are suddenly resulting in charges being filed, but they and their family are comforted knowing that ultimately the truth will come out. 'The people who know Mr. Masterson know his character and know the allegations to be false.' The alleged rapes came at the height of Masterson's fame as he starred on the retro sitcom 'That '70s Show' alongside Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace. The series ran on Fox TV from 1998 to 2006 and has had a long afterlife in reruns. He had reunited with Kutcher on the Netflix western sitcom 'The Ranch' when the LAPD investigation of him was revealed in March 2017. The news did not have immediate career repercussions for Masterson, but later in the year, after allegations against Harvey Weinstein shook Hollywood's culture, he was written off the show. Masterson decried the Hollywood atmosphere that led to his losing the job, and also suggested at the time that his high-profile membership in the Church of Scientology was leading to his persecution. He said in a 2017 statement that 'in the current climate, it seems as if you are presumed guilty the moment you are accused.' Masterson, center, also starred in Netflix's 'The Ranch' alongside Ashton Kutcher, left, and Sam Elliott, right Masterson, who also starred in Netflix's 'The Ranch', has been charged with three counts of rape by force or fear. His home is pictured Wednesday Four women filed a lawsuit against Masterson in California last year claiming the actor drugged, raped and sexually assaulted them in the early 2000s. The Church of Scientology, of which Masterson is a member, was also named as a defendant in the long-running lawsuit after the women claimed they were stalked and harassed by the church in a bid to silence them after they complained. Masterson had asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit. The Tampa Bay Times reported last that the Church of Scientology has moved to transfer into arbitration in the case. Chrissie Bixler formerly Chrissie Carnell speaks to Leah Remini. It is not known who the alleged victims in today's arrest are or if they are connected to this earlier lawsuit in any way Chrissie Bixler dated Masterson for several years and claims he would forcefully have sex with her and became violent when she refused. She says her dog mysteriously died after she reported him. It is not known who the alleged victims in today's arrest are or if they are connected to this earlier lawsuit in any way Bobette Riales, who dated the actor for two years from 2002, claims he drugged and sexually assaulted her. She claims she was followed, watched and had her trash stolen after going to the police with her allegations against Masterson in 2017. It is not known who the alleged victims in today's arrest are or if they are connected to this earlier lawsuit in any way Two of the women named in the suit were Masterson's ex-girlfriends - Chrissie Bixler and Bobette Riales - while the other two were only identified as Jane Does. He said the women are all ex-girlfriends just trying to humiliate him and claims they are engaged in a 'shameful money grab'. He has always denied the allegations and said a criminal investigation two years ago did not result in any charges. In the lawsuit the women claim that when they came forward to report the sexual assault allegations against Masterson, the church allegedly conspired to stalk, harass, invade their privacy and cause emotional distress in a bid to intimidate and silence them. In the initial lawsuit, Bixler said she dated Masterson for several years and joined Scientology 'per his orders'. She claims Masterson would regularly force her to have sex with him and says he 'became violent' when she refused, citing one occasion when he dragged her naked across their bedroom floor while berating her appearance. Bixler claims that after the incident she was required to do an 'ethics program' where she told a church employee about Masterson's alleged abusive behavior. In new court papers filed in February, the church argued that the women consented to 'ecclesiastical rule' when they became members and therefore relinquished their rights to sue She said the employee told her it was her job as Masterson's girlfriend 'to give him sex whenever he wants it' and that if she complied 'these things wouldn't happen', according to the suit. After coming forward with her allegations, she claims her dog mysteriously died from unexplained traumatic injuries to her trachea and esophagus. According to the suit, Bixler claims she was also run off the road in June by a car that had been following her. In the same month, Bixler claims one of Masterson's friends threatened to release nude photos of her taken when she was underage. Another woman in the suit, Bobette Riales, claims she experienced similar threats, including being followed, watched and having her trash stolen after going to the police with her allegations against Masterson in 2017. Riales claims Masterson, who she dated for two years from 2002, drugged and sexually assaulted her. The other two women, who have not been identified, claim they experienced Masterson and his alleged abuse between 1999 and 2002. Jane Doe 1 claims she may have been drugged by Masterson after he gave her two drinks and ended up alone in his guestroom where she fell asleep. She claims she woke up to Masterson having sex with her and fought him off. A few years later, Jane Doe 1 said she again felt disoriented after having a drink given to her by Masterson. She claims she passed out and woke up to the actor raping her. Jane Doe 1 claims she reported the incident to the LAPD on June 6, 2004, but said the Church of Scientology 'mobilized' against her to ensure no charges were filed. The other woman, Jane Doe 2, claims she also felt disorientated after having a drink given to her by Masterson. Jane Doe 2, who was a member of the church since childhood, claims Masterson sexually assaulted her in the shower and in his bedroom. Jane Doe 2 said she knew from Scientology that she would 'not be permitted to report the assault to civil authorities outside of Scientology' so she did not disclose the alleged incident to the LAPD until 2017. Since reporting it, Jane Doe 2 claimed her phone and computer were hacked, her car was vandalized and she received harassment on social media. Masterson has repeatedly denied all the accusations against him since they first came to light in 2017. Netflix fired him from its show The Ranch after the LAPD confirmed they were investigating the allegations. CLEVELAND, Ohio In a Tuesday forum with the Press Club of Cleveland, Mayor Frank Jackson would not rule out the possibility of seeking an unprecedented fifth term in 2021. The question was presented to him by moderator Russ Mitchell of WKYC Channel 3 as part of a wide-ranging conversation that also touched on the protests and riots of May 30, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Cleveland and the meaning behind one of the mayors trademark lines. Want more? Get insider texts about Cleveland City Hall on your phone from Robert Higgs, cleveland.coms City Hall reporter. Sign up here. It costs less than 15 cents a day. Jackson talked for about an hour, taking questions from Mitchell and from others participating in the forum. Heres some takeaways from the event. To run or not to run Already the longest serving mayor in Clevelands history, Jackson is in year three of his fourth four-year term. If he were to win re-election, he could end up as Clevelands chief executive for two decades. When asked by Mitchell about a fifth term, the mayor said he wont answer the question until hes decided it for himself. I honestly have not decided that, Jackson said. But as he has said before, he expressed a desire to avoid becoming a lame duck if he opts to not run again. I cant get a short timer mentality, he said. It wouldnt be fair to myself and it wouldnt be fair to the community. So then running again is a possibility? Mitchell asked. Yes, he said. Grading Clevelands response The mayor declined to give himself or the city a grade for how it handled policing and security for the Black Lives Matter protest May 30 that devolved into a riot. I dont do that. I did what I did, Jackson said. During the events, he was in the citys emergency operations center with Chief of Police Calvin Williams and other city leaders. I wouldnt do anything different, Jackson said. Id go down to the command center and do my job in the command center. Jackson did note, though, that the decision to close the downtown with a curfew and to deploy officers to the neighborhoods was a strategic move to try to quell further violence. It was confined to one night and since May 30 there have been other peaceful protests. How others grade the citys response might be a matter of perspective, he said. This is pass/fail, I guess, Jackson said. Those who believe I passed based on the number of days [of violence]. Thats fine. Those who believe I failed based on Saturday night, thats fine too. But I dont give myself a grade, he said. Eventually he expects a briefing from Williams perhaps in the next few weeks -- on the departments internal review of how it handled the events. No time for pandemic panic The coronavirus pandemic, and the accompanying shutdowns of businesses in Cleveland, will certainly have an impact, Jackson said. The citys bottom line for tax collections will be affected by tax collections, but he said the time for drastic action has not arrived. The year started strong, Jackson said, with income tax revenues running ahead of projections. When the pandemic hit, those revenues declined. But the city has weathered the decline because it budgeted for a recession in 2020. In a normal situation, if we had not built in a cushion for a recession, then wed be in layoff mode now, Jackson said. Were down, but were not to a point where we have to lay people off. Cost-cutting measures have helped, Jackson said. And he and his administration are monitoring revenues weekly. The real answers will come in July, when the city can see if theres an upturn in revenue. Right now, that moment hasnt come where we need to do something more drastic, Jackson said. The state of the city The last two years, Jackson has presented his State of the City address after Labor Day, but Mitchell asked for a quick overview for now. Some of the underlying problems racism, inequities and opportunity for sharing in prosperity still persist, Jackson said. But police reforms laid out in an agreement with the federal government have made the police department better. The overall economy before the pandemic hit was pretty strong. Investment was returning to the city. We had recovered from being the butt of jokes in the past to being a place where people talked about as a place theyd like to go. It is what it is Although he doesnt us the line that much anymore, it is what it is has become a trademark phrase forever tied to the mayor. But he told Mitchell most people misunderstand what he meant when he said it. Most people believe that when I say that [about a situation], Im saying theres nothing I can do about it, Jackson said. Actually, its just the opposite. I have to deal with reality, he said. And then I can say how can I change that reality. At that point, decisions can be made, Jackson said. It is what it is. More from Cleveland City Hall Two Cleveland councilman vow to oppose all police-related legislation until theyre shown proper respect Defunding police a completely unrealistic approach to solving institutionalized racism, inequity, Mayor Frank Jackson says Cleveland to offer grants to businesses damaged by rioting to help them reopen, allocates coronavirus aid Declaring racism a health crisis in Cleveland labeled a start; the real work will be finding the solutions UPDATE June 22, 2020: McDonald's shared the following statement: "There was no franchise-sanctioned or manager meeting between Berkeley and Telegraph Hill restaurants. These restaurants are owned by two different operators and run as entirely separate entities." *** Workers at an Oakland McDonald's with a COVID-19 outbreak filed a public nuisance lawsuit Tuesday against management for an alleged failure to create a safe work environment that prevents the spread of the virus. The four workers suing the franchise at 4514 Telegraph Ave., allege they were asked to report to work even when they were sick. The plaintiffs said they were also initially given doggie diapers and coffee filters to use as face coverings. "They were provided as a stopgap but were completely inadequate, and it's somewhat offensive that the company wouldnt provide adequate masks," said Michael Rubin, the attorney representing the workers. "Eventually they were given masks meant for one-time use, but they were told to use them day after day after day." Rubin added, "One worker who had symptoms complained of being sick and said she couldnt breathe and was told by the manager to just pull the mask down, which means this woman was infecting other people." Rubin says 25 cases of coronavirus were traced to the restaurant and infections were found in at least 11 workers and traced to several family members and seven workers at a nearby Berkeley location. Rubin explained the managers at the Oakland restaurant and a nearby Berkeley franchise had a meeting and claims this likely led to the spread between the two locations. All four workers filing the suit were infected, and the 10-month-old baby of a worker was also sick and is listed as a plaintiff. "The baby may have been the sickest and had a 104-degree temperature," Rubin said. Angely Rodriguez Lambert is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and developed a strong headache and body aces during a shift on May 23, the suit alleges. When Lambert alerted her manager she wasn't feeling well, she was allegedly told to finish her shift. After testing positive for COVID-19, Lambert asked about receiving sick pay and said she has yet to receive a response. Lambert lives with extended family, including her grandmother, and was forced to move out and pay rent for an apartment to protect her family, the suit alleges. "This lawsuit isnt just that people got sick," Rubin said. "Its because of these practices that theres serious fear. One of the workers lives with her 83-year-old grandmother. She has been living in this fear." Lambert doesn't receive health insurance through her job and has had to pay for her care. Michael Smith, who reportedly owns the McDonalds franchise, told CBS News he denies the allegations. The allegations raised in this lawsuit do not represent the high standards and reality our crew is bringing to life in our restaurants each day," Smith wrote in a statement. "Weve worked tirelessly since March to enhance nearly 50 processes in our restaurants to put crew and customer safety and well-being as our highest priorities. He added: We are closely monitoring and complying with the guidance from the CDC and all state and local orders, including sick pay and PPE requirements. The use of PPE in our restaurant, including masks and gloves, is absolutely mandatory and has been provided to our crew members. We personally purchased 3,000 masks and 500 sets of gloves for a total of 375 employees in our organization in an effort to further mitigate any risk of transmission in any of our restaurants. Out of an abundance of caution, our organization has been working closely with the Alameda County Department of Environmental Health and the City of Oakland over the past several days to develop a reopening plan at the restaurant at issue that best Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com. The Arab League has condemned the detention and abuse of a large group of Egyptian workers in Libya. Footage circulating in recent days on social media appears to show militias loyal to Libyas internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) assaulting tens of Egyptian workers captured in the western city of Tarhuna. The video showed the Egyptian workers forced to stand barefoot on one leg with their hands raised. The men appeared to be repeating, on an unidentified mans order, expletives against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Libya's eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar. The Arab League welcomed in a statement on Tuesday the GNAs statement in which it vowed to launch an investigation into the video's authenticity and arrest and punish the perpetrators of what it described as a "criminal act". The video has sparked outrage in Egypt, with Emigration Minister Nabila Makram saying it "will not pass lightly". On Tuesday, the United Nations expressed alarm about the incident, while calling on Libyan authorities to "conduct a prompt investigation". The Arab League underscored "the illegitimacy of methods of detaining, insulting, and torturing civilians, both Libyans and non-Libyans as a means of delivering political messages, the statement added. In its statement, the bloc also expressed concern over the discovery of a number of mass graves mostly in the city of Tarhouna in recent days. Eight mass graves were discovered in an area evacuated this month by Haftar's forces, AFP reported. The UN said it noted the discovery "with horror". A source at the Arab League warned of the danger of reprisal killings on the fabric of the Libyan society and on the success of the political course and ceasefire efforts, the statement said. The Arab League also expressed its readiness to cooperate with the Libyan authorities in both incidents. Egypt has supported east-based military commander Khalifa Hifter who is fighting the forces of the UN-backed government in the capital, Tripoli, which is backed by Turkey. Search Keywords: Short link: Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz The Queens Birthday award to former boxer Billy Graham, making him a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, recognised his decades long work in developing and growing the potential of young men and women in the community. In 2006, Billy established the Naenae Youth Charitable Trust which funds the activities of the Naenae Boxing Academy, in utilising the skills and discipline of the sport to change young people's lives. The aims and goals of the Naenae Boxing Academy are to teach youth life-skills through participation and the discipline of boxing and physical fitness. Such has been the success of Billy Grahams academy, that it has become the template for similar programs throughout the country, including the Tauranga Boxing Academy run by the BOP Youth Development Trust. On the Naenae Boxing Academy website, Billy Graham says the reason he established the Hutt Valley academy is to make a differences in young people's lives and give them a place of refuge". Billy's boxing coach Dick Dunn made him feel secure through one-on-one time and the old-time virtues of abstinence from smoking, alcohol and bad language. The seeds of the Naenae Boxing Academy began nearly a century ago, when Dick Dunn walked into the Tim Tracy boxing gym in the heart of Wellington. Tracy, who emigrated with his parents to New Zealand from County Clare in Ireland as a two-year-old in 1876, engaged in the countries first official professional title fight in 1905. After retirement from combat in the ring, Tim Tracy established a boxing gym in Willis Street in the Capital City, where his students included Ted Morgan. Morgan would go on to win New Zealand's first Olympic Gold Medal at the 1928 Olympic Games. Conditions in the Tim Tracy boxing gym were extremely spartan by today's standards, with just a rope across the front of three walls of the room, which offered little escape. After a solitary lesson in self-defence, the aspiring boxers were put in the ring and if showing some potential, were invited back the following week. Dick Dunn went on to become a legend in the training ranks in New Zealand, with a myriad of amateur champions that included 1958 Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist Wally Coe and Billy Graham. Billy Graham was out of the top draw of amateur boxers produced in this country. With Dick Dunn in his corner, he won four Light Welterweight National titles which included the prestigious Jameson Belt awarded to the most scientific boxer. 1967 was a vintage year for the Hutt Valley pugilist, with his second national title accompanied by the Jameson Belt with the icing on the cake being an Australasian crown. Billy Graham has called upon the memories of the massive contributions to boxing in the country of Ted Tracy and Dick Dunn, to make a difference to youth of New Zealand today. NEW DELHI: Whether it is Chinas ongoing trade war with the United States, its territorial dispute in the South China Sea, or its recent border conflict with India, it appears that Chinese President Xi Jinping is harbouring ambitions to become the supreme leader of the world. And if it is so, heres what India can do to shatter Xi Jinpings dream of becoming the worlds tallest and most influential leader. India has four options to do so. These points were raised by Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary in his highly popular show DNA on Wednesday. The first option is that India engages itself with China in a small but decisive war. Just as India fought the Kargil War and forced Pakistan's Army to retreat from high-altitude mountains in 1999. The second option is India opens a front against China in the region near the Line of Actual Control and give a tit-for-tat response to China just as its soldiers entered the Galvan Valley in Eastern Ladakh. Indian armed forces can also occupy the area that China claims as its own. If this happens, this might force China to come to the negotiating table unconditionally. The third option for India is to launch an international alliance against China. To do this, New Delhi needs to include and seek assistance from all the powerful and influential countries of the world to isolate China at the global level. In the event of a war with China, India will thus be able to exert diplomatic pressure on Beijing and receive the necessary support from countries like America and Israel during the actual war. The fourth and most important option is that unless China agrees to resolve the LAC issue completely, there should be no discussion with Beijing on any other issue. That is, China should be forced to officially consider LAC as an international border. Actually, India and China have about 3500 km-long borders and China deliberately wants to keep this border disputed for its military advantage against New Delhi in case of a war. Till India does not talk tough with China on the LAC, China will continue to claim different areas adjoining the international border as its own and strategically move forward slowly. The way New Delhi has time and again rejected offers of third party mediation on the Kashmir issue, saying Kashmir is an integral part of India, it needs to a put a condition before China that until Beijing agrees to resolve the LAC dispute there will be no talks whatsoever with the Dragon. At present, the LAC is the biggest flashpoint between India and China, and if New Delhi succeeds in building pressure on the hostile neighbour to settle the border dispute, it will be the biggest diplomatic and strategic victory for India. This way, New Delhi can also expose the real face of China to the world. All this comes amid heightened tension between the two companies leading to the killing of as many as 20 Indian soldiers in Galwan Valley in Ladakh, and such an action is likely to adversely impact Shenzhen-based ZTE's India business which maintains six circles for the state-run telco being its largest customer. The Indian Army had said that 20 of its soldiers were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops during a face-off in Galwan Valley on June 15 night. This is the biggest ever military confrontation between the two armies in over five decades. In a statement, the Army had said that almost the same number of Chinese troops have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley. "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20. The Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," read the official release of the Indian Army on June 16. GILLETTE After about 90 minutes of protesting outside Gillette City Hall on Tuesday evening, dozens of city residents packed the City Council chambers to overflowing demanding former councilman Shay Lundvall be installed back on the council and for the mayor and council to step down. Lundvall resigned his Ward 3 seat on the council last week less than 24 hours after the urging of Mayor Louise Carter-King and the rest of the council. They were reacting to a pair of complaints that Lundvall had liked a handful of Facebook posts that espoused sexist and offensive opinions. Lundvall was told if he didnt resign, the council would go public with its concern over the councilmans actions on social media. Claiming Lundvall was blackmailed by the mayor and council to unfairly resign a position he was elected to, an upswell of supporters have been rallying to his defense, including Tuesdays peaceful protest, hundreds of comments in local Facebook groups and at least one change.org petition to recall Carter-King. As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, the #firethemayor Recall Election petition had 437 online signatures of a goal of 500. All eight people who addressed the mayor and City Council during its regular meeting called for Carter-King to resign and most for the rest of the council follow suit. What a bunch of crap, said Dean Vomhof about the circumstances leading up to and following Lundvalls resignation. He told the council members if they couldnt think for themselves and are only doing the mayors personal and political bidding, then they have no business being public servants. If you cant stand up for yourself and you follow her, follow her out the door, he said. Chris Smith was the first to speak about what he called an unrighteous act in forcing Lundvall off the council and subsequent shameful attempt to smear him publicly. He was referring to a lengthy statement the council released Monday evening detailing its reasons behind asking for Lundvalls resignation. It also included four screenshots of posts liked by the former councilman that had the offensive content. All four posts were made by Gillette resident Bob Vomhof, who also addressed the council Tuesday. Since he was first reported as being one of the posters involved late last week, Vomhof said hes been harassed. Whos responsible for the violence you guys have instigated against me? he asked. You think I enjoy hearing about this crap from every person everywhere I go around town? For the first time in my life, I dont feel safe in Gillette. Vomhof also said he briefly considered legal action against the mayor, council and city, but decided against it. This is my town, he said. Its struggled enough. Many of the comments were directed at Carter-King, including from Karla Brandenburg, who claimed she also has been a victim of the citys alleged strongarm tactics when she was forced to resign as interim director of the Boys & Girls Club of Campbell County. She said she didnt fight back, but is glad Lundvall has, referring to a lengthy Facebook post Friday in which the former councilman expressed regret for resigning and apologized for liking the offensive posts. He also said that as a city councilman, he should have held himself to a higher standard than that, but that he intends to run for re-election in the primary. I understand Shays frustration and humiliation, because Mayor Carter-King makes you feel like the dirtbag of the earth if you dont follow her rules, Brandenburg said. She also said the mayor thinks its perfectly fine to have as many meetings as necessary behind closed doors to accomplish what she wants outside the public view. After the public comment period of Tuesdays meeting, the council finished the rest of the business on its agenda and adjourned without comment. Love 1 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 Singapore will suspend the construction of a major airport terminal for at least two years as global aviation struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the transport minister said Tuesday. Khaw Boon Wan said the government will use the time to study how the industry will change after the pandemic, and to introduce new designs so the facility can meet future health and safety requirements. Experts have suggested airlines must brace for changes more challenging than those that followed the 2001 Twin Tower attacks in the US. Changi Airport's Terminal 5, handling up to 50 million passengers a year in its initial phase, had been due for completion around 2030. The airline business has been badly hit by the pandemic, with industry experts not expecting traffic to return to 2019 levels before 2023. But Khaw said aviation, especially in Asia, was likely to recover despite uncertainty over the risk of fresh infections after countries ease restrictions. Singapore had been studying what the aviation industry will look like in the coming years, he told an online meeting with students. "That's why we have already decided that we will take a pause in the T5 project... for two years to let us complete this study of the future of aviation." The minister said major changes are expected after the pandemic. "I suspect that the T5's current layout, the design may actually need some alterations to take into account some of these safety needs," he said. Singapore, a regional aviation hub, has already closed two of its four existing airport terminals after international air travel plunged due to the pandemic. Dear Editor: I disagree with Professor Gennady Shkliarevskys opinion that Bard College President Leon Botstein should reconsider his call to students, among other members of the college, to fight for justice. (Letter: Bard College president must take safety of students into account, June 2, 2020) Botsteins call would have been inappropriate if had been directed at children in elementary school or middle school, or perhaps even high school. But college students are young adults, not children. While it is commendable to attempt to ensure the safety of every person in the college community, the colleges main responsibility is to educate its students, and part of that education must be the importance of fighting for justice. If one knows his/her history, that person knows that tremendous victories have been achieved as a result of protest, and that tragedies like the Holocaust, for example, have been enabled by an absence of protest. History has also shown that college students traditionally have been leaders in such protests. More recently, high school students have been taking the responsibility to act (i.e. the students of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School). I am quite surprised that as a history professor, Shkliarevsky fails to see the importance of protest by young adults. As Martin Luther King Jr. said: A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. Mitch Newman Rifton, N.Y. Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here! (Kitco News) The Perth Mint has begun an independent third-party audit after an order from Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan to review how the Mint oversees its suppliers, following allegations of buying conflict gold from Papua New Guinea (PNG). Last week, the Australian Financial Review said its investigation revealed that the Mint buys up to $138 million (AUD$200 million) worth of gold a year from companies that buy gold from artisanal miners within PNG. Read more about the accusations against The Perth Mint here. The Mint denied the allegations, stating that it does adhere to responsibility guidelines. We take Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting very seriously and are vigilant in our assessments of the companies from which we source gold and other metals for processing, Perth Mint chief executive officer Richard Hayes said in an emailed statement to Kitco News. We remain confident that we comply fully with all regulatory requirements and the responsible gold guidelines set out by the global gold industry's governing bodies. In a follow-up to the story, the Australian Financial Review reported that McGowan requested that Perth Mint chairman Sam Walsh lead the investigation into the matter. I have initiated an independent third-party review of the Perth Mints audit processes, Walsh said. The review will also assess the arrangements with licensed counterparties that may deal with artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) Effective immediately as part of this process, the Perth Mint has suspended relationships with all companies and aggregators dealing with ASM. The Perth Mint is owned by the Western Australian Government and has London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) accreditation. Last week, the LBMA said that it will also be investigating allegations against The Perth Mint. The Mint could lose its LBMA accreditation if found that it violated the ethical purchasing guidelines. By Derrick Darby George Floyds death is a failure of American democracy. Terrence Floyd, wearing a coronavirus face mask with his brothers likeness and the words We Cant Breathe, gave us inspiration for the remedy at a Brooklyn rally in Cadman Plaza Park. The way to end police brutality, part of Americas shameful legacy of dishonoring Black lives, is to give the power to the people. Lets defund police departments and use the money to create civilian review boards with real power to hold them accountable for racial injustice. The 8 minutes and 46 seconds it took for Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to kill George Floyd knee on his neck, pinned face down by two other officers with hands cuffed behind his back while a fourth officer looked on, has caused mass protests reminiscent of those of the late 1960s. We face the same question that civil unrest in Detroit, Los Angeles, Newark and other cities raised: What will it take for American democracy to stop failing Black people? It failed when Blacks were being lynched by white mobs who were aided and abetted by police, while journalists like Ida B. Wells were terrorized for informing the public; when Blacks were put on trial for defending themselves, their families and property, tried by all-white juries of their peers and when whites were tried, again by all-white juries, for lynching and other crimes against Blacks. In the summer of 1967, as cities burned and violence erupted over police brutality another example of democratic failure President Lyndon B. Johnson organized a commission to study the problem. It concluded that America was moving toward two societies, one Black, one white, separate and unequal. Johnson did then what Trump is doing today. He changed the discussion from one of unjustified aggressive policing of Blacks to the need to crack down on lawlessness and disorder. Local Black leaders and community activists called for civilian review boards, which would give local communities power to address allegations of police misconduct. We face the same crossroads. We can call for a military invasion of American cities and towns to squash the protesters as did Sen. Tom Cotton, or we can address the real root of the problem: a lack of police accountability stemming from the people lacking real power to police the police. President Trump wants to seize control of the police, mobilize the military-industrial complex, and unleash the vicious dogs on peaceful protestors, who some people call terrorists. Black Lives Matter activists, and the millions marching in solidarity here and around the world, want to end the terror of blatant disrespect of Black lives. Floyd would still be alive if Chauvin had been subject to civilian oversight and held accountable for previous complaints of excessive force. Robert Shelide wants forgiveness for cosigning Trumps threat to deploy the military to squash peaceful protests. The disgraced police chief of Shelby Township, Michigan tweeted: I have a better idea: unleash the real cops and let them take care of these barbarians. I promise it will be over in 24 hours. If this is the kind of leadership we find in some police departments around the country, can we really expect beat officers like Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao to treat Black lives with respect? Naysayers police brass and unions, law and order politicians, some business leaders have resisted giving this kind of power to the people, despite evidence of unfit leadership within their ranks. They fear what can actually solve the problem. If bad cops knew they would be judged by the community they serve, and could face meaningful consequences for misconduct, incidents of brutality against Blacks would diminish. New Jerseyans want Gov. Phil Murphy and lawmakers to empower municipalities to create civilian review boards on demand. Newark created one with resources and broad powers to police the police with investigations, subpoenas and disciplinary oversight that is now under challenge in the New Jersey Supreme Court. Activists in other cities including Jersey City, fed up with excessive police force in their communities, are hoping Newark wins because they want their own board. So does Camden, which has made community-friendly changes to its policing practices such as required de-escalation, but some residents want more done to ensure police accountability. Its time for New Jersey and America to do the right thing: we must get serious about policing the police. It will take courage and determination. Establishing civilian review boards composed of people in local communities especially voting-age youth on the front lines of protests is the way to heed Terrence Floyds powerful democratic response to end the police brutality that caused his brothers senseless murder. Derrick Darby is Henry Rutgers Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and co-author of The Color of Mind: Why the Origins of the Achievement Gap Matter for Justice. 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. SHANGHAI, June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Westwin, a leading tech-driven cross-border marketing company, was invited to join an online panel discussion produced by Createch of CogX festival 2020 in June. Anderson Liu, CEO of Westwin, shared insights and expertise on impacts and business opportunities brought by technologies during the outbreak and aftermath of COVID-19. Based in the UK, CogX is an award-winning Festival with its roots in artificial intelligence, which presents a virtual summit gathering of global leaders in business, academia, politics, and arts. Createch is one section of the festival offering visions on the convergence of tech and creativity. Consumers: Stronger appetite for e-commerce At the Createch panel discussion, Anderson pointed out that consumers show a stronger appetite for online shopping, spend more time watching live streaming, and are more willing to place orders afterward, based on a research Westwin conducted in March surveying Chinese consumers' behaviors changes during the pandemic. "Chinese consumers embraced e-commerce live streaming: it became a daily habit. KOL (Key Opinion Leader) are beloved by both brands and customers even more influential than celebrities," said Liu. In addition, Liu said that the pandemic has elevated e-commerce penetration among seniors and consumers in small cities and rural areas. "During the lockdown, the generation over 60 were forced to go online to order groceries and they found it quite convenient and the price is also quite good," said Liu. Brands: Larger investment in digital engagement Coronavirus forced businesses to shift from offline to online. "But after one month or two, they found it in the right direction to go," said Liu. It is more cost-effective, and it is where they find the power of "word of mouth". In China, the two pervasive "word of mouth" are from KOL and KOC (Key Opinion Customer) on social media and live streaming platforms such as Douyin, the Chinese version of Tik Tok and Taobao live, Alibaba Group's dedicated live streaming channel. Brands have ramped up investments in social media and e-commerce. Liu shared a case in which Westwin leveraged the influence of KOL and WeChat, China's most popular messaging app, to help promote the brand of a sustainable food company in the United States. Consumers trust and rely on the KOLs as well as the opinions of their peers. Liu said that they create group chats on WeChat where consumers can share and learn, and the brand can implement user engagement and upsell. Opportunities ahead: embrace tech and scale Liu mentioned that in addition to marketing and promotion, a wide range of industries in China move online. There are music festivals that took place online and movies premiered on video streaming platforms. People can also order food and groceries and even ask for medical advice on the mobile. "China utilizes technology in people's daily life which plays a huge role in fighting coronavirus," said Liu. "It also brings new opportunities and the ability to embrace changes and scale amid pandemic is crucial for businesses," said Liu. About Westwin Westwin, formerly known as Microsoft Online (MSN China), is a leading technology-driven digital marketing company that focuses on cross-border business. It provides branding strategies and digital marketing solutions to help customers achieve success in China and around the world. Westwin is a certified marketing & advertising partner of Baidu, Tencent WeChat, Sina Weibo, and many other major digital platforms in China. With years of experience in cross-border business and partnership growth, Westwin is equipped with the knowledge and expertise to take businesses to the next level in overseas markets. SOURCE Westwin Related Links www.westwin.com TOKYO - For South Korean President Moon Jae-in, engagement with North Korea was a personal crusade to seek a new path on the peninsula. Now Moon is drawn into a fast-deepening crisis that has made him a target of the regime he once courted. In swift succession, North Korea has demolished a building that symbolized inter-Korean rapprochement, threatened to move troops back into recently vacated guard posts along the border, and unleashed a torrent of scorn and vitriol on Moon remarkable even by the North's flame-throwing standards. Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who is rapidly emerging as his de facto deputy, has become the face of the North's hostile turn away from South Korea and the United States. Kim's regime has effectively torn up a joint declaration signed by the leaders of the two Koreas in the border village of Panmunjom in April 2018. Moon, Kim Yo Jong said on Wednesday, was nothing but a flunky of the Americans, an "impudent man" whose "honeyed words" are offensive. "It is our fixed judgment that it is no longer possible to discuss the North-South ties with such a servile partner engaging only in disgrace and self-ruin, being soaked by deep-rooted flunkyism," she said in a statement, rejecting in a separate statement what she called a "tactless and sinister proposal" from the South to send an envoy for talks to resolve the row. So dramatic has been the breakdown been that South Korea's Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul offered to step down on Wednesday "to take all the responsibility for worsening inter-Korean relations." - - - The question now is whether anything can be rescued from the wreckage. The Moon administration - long so accommodating and optimistic in its dealings with the North - finally seemed to run out of patience. It accused Kim Yo Jong of "totally missing the point" and undermining their offer of talks "with rude words." "We should not backtrack on hard-earned inter-Korean ties after even overcoming risks of a war," said Yoon Do-han, Moon's spokesman, before warning North Korea to "show basic manners from now on." Nearly two years ago, Moon was given a VIP reception in Pyongyang, driven through the streets in an open-top car with cheering crowds. He made a historic speech to tens of thousands of North Koreans, to a standing ovation. It was a triumphant moment for a man who was born to North Korean refugees, and who has staked much of his presidency on the idea of rapprochement - and the dream of eventual unification. Kim Yo Jong seemed to delight in twisting the knife in her description of Moon on Wednesday. "Whenever he makes a public appearance, he lets out childish and hope-filled dreamy rhetoric and tries to look big, just and principled just like an apostle of peace," she said. "It was so regretful for me to see his disgusting behavior alone. So I decided to prepare a bomb of words to let it known to our people." - - - Whether Moon's dream was ever realistic is debatable. But what is clear is that it began to disintegrate in Hanoi in February 2019 with the collapse of President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un's second summit. The failed talks hammered home the realization that the two sides remained very far apart on what closer ties meant, including the key issue of whether and under what conditions the North would consider dismantling its nuclear program. It was at that moment that both Kim and Trump appeared to lose faith in Moon as mediator. But it has also been Moon's failure to deliver the promised economic benefits of the 2018 Panmunjom declaration that has badly needled the leadership in the North. Some of Moon's closest advisers and many of his supporters blame Washington, and its refusal to allow South Korea significant wiggle room under U.N. Security Council sanctions on the North. "Moon is between a rock and a hard place," said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul. "He understands that the gains he is likely to get from improvement in relations with North Korea cannot even be compared with the losses if he annoys 'Donald the Unpredictable Trump'. So he has to balance." With sanctions blocking proposed joint economic projects, the Moon administration made proposals - from humanitarian aid to cultural exchanges - designed to respect the sanctions and "not annoy the United States," Lankov said "This is not the type of a game North Korea plays," he added." They want real material stuff - above all, money - and Moon government is not giving it to them." - - - But Pyongyang also senses cracks in the U.S.-South Korea alliance and is trying to drive a wedge, experts say. "North Korea is trying to coerce Seoul to essentially choose between Pyongyang or Washington," said Duyeon Kim of the International Crisis Group. "I don't think Moon will ever back away from engagement, unless Pyongyang does something that injures or kills South Koreans, but many of his supporters would blame the U.S. for soured inter-Korean relations." Kim Yo Jong's main demand this month has been that the South prevent defectors and other activists sending leaflets across the border - leaflets that attempt to undermine the regime. Seoul's promise to crack down on the activists hasn't satisfied her, as she seeks to gain maximum leverage. On Wednesday, North Korea's army vowed to reoccupy border zones that had been demilitarized and resume military exercises there. The Korean People's Army said it would also deploy troops to now-shuttered Kaesong industrial zone and Mount Kumgang tourist resort, ventures jointly established by the two Koreas in the past that Kim and Moon had pledged to reopen. South Korea's Defense Ministry called the threat of military action a violation of inter-Korean peace accords, and warned the North that it will "definitely pay the price" if the threat is acted upon. Still, Moon is unlikely to abandon his dream. After his party won by a landslide in parliamentary elections in April - largely thanks to its handling of the coronavirus pandemic - he is effectively in a strong enough position to stick to his principles. North Korea said a solution to the current crisis was "impossible" but then went on to say the crisis could be brought to an end "only when the proper price is paid." - - - Kim reported from Seoul. At least twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in clashes with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation between India and China in over five decades. The violence has significantly escalated tensions in the already volatile border standoff in the region. The Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement, it revised the figure to 20 saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries." Government sources said the Chinese side too suffered "proportionate casualties" but chose not to speculate on the number. The incident marked the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after 1967. The casualties take both sides into uncharted territory at a time when the government's attention is focused on fighting the COVID-19 crisis. As news of the violence broke on Tuesday night, Indians were left shocked. At first, there was surprise, then came the anger. And then, of course, social media hate and cancel culture. No sooner had the news gone viral, #BoycottChineseproducts soon started trending online. Indian Twitter immediately started to trend the boycott hashtag. Many including former Indian criketer Harbajan Singh called for the boycott. Incidentally, Singh tweeted the message from an iPhone, which was designed in the USA, but assembled in China. Nevertheless, there were many more calls to abandon products made in China and a systematic boycott. Every Indian celebrity who endorses a Chinese brand beyond today is taking blood money. Kushan Mitra (@kushanmitra) June 16, 2020 Some made detailed lists of all the Chinese items that they wanted to boycott. (The authenticity of these lists remain still unverified.) BOYCOTT CHINESE PRODUCT ! Behind your any product Codes start with 690 is Made in china#BoycottChineseProducts #IndiaChinaFaceOff pic.twitter.com/okFKOqzven (@Itsboybadshah) June 16, 2020 China provokes India. Kills Indian soldiers. Stop buying Chinese products now. #BoycottChineseProducts Indians show some resolve please. pic.twitter.com/rqDJPzuGmW the Narrative indian (@Narrativehindu) June 16, 2020 Time to avoid pussyfooting around China. We must push for a complete ban on trade with China whatever be the cost to us in short term. Chinese hegemony must be resisted and rolled back. #BoycottChineseProducts R Jagannathan (@TheJaggi) June 16, 2020 The problem with cancel culture is that it offers symptomatic release from anger and no real solutions or answers to the actual issue. Reducing a serious bilateral issue to a hashtag on social media not only dilutes any relevant discussion on the same but also adds to misinformation and confusion. In addition, while calling for a boycott is easy on Twitter, following through is just as difficult. Is Harbajan Singh going to toss away his iPhone? The fleeting nature of #CancelCulture also reflects the low attention span of Indians, who move from one outrage to the next with the click of a button. Cancel culture over-exceeds its expectations in India, where every so often, people, products and organizations are "boycotted" for "offensive" content that managed to "hurt" some "sentiments". Be it Surf Excel, MS Exel, or Deepika Padukone who was banned by Twitterati for standing up against police brutality in solidarity with students in Jawaharlal Nehru University. In fact, Indians even wanted to boycott the soap 'Lux,' because Deepika Padukone endorsed it. Read: Boycott Windows? Twitter Mocks India's 'Cancel Culture' After Satya Nadella's Comments on CAA This is not the first time that Indians have called for a boycott of Chinese products. It happened in 2016 when China opposed India's entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). It happened earlier in 2020 itself after the COVIDD-19 pandemic. While cancel culture provides a symbolic release to express anger, it by no means is a solution to bilateral border disputes and military skirmishes. At a delicate time such as this when the United Nations is asking both sides to make efforts to maintain peace, Indians must practice caution on social media to avoid spreading hate and misinformation. In the case of violent border situations, the focus must always be on de-escalation and peace-building. Reactionary moves such as trade boycotts and economic sanctions may invite further brashness which can not only be dangerous but have long-lasting impacts on India's relations with its neighbors. NATO Ministers of Defence meet to discuss global challenges NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 16 Jun. 2020 NATO Defence Ministers will meet by secure video conference tomorrow (17 June 2020) and Thursday (18 June 2020). This two-day meeting will address plans for a second wave of the coronavirus, as well as other key issues such as resilience, missions and operations, and deterrence and defence. "We face global challenges, so we must take a global approach, to tackle them even more effectively," Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference ahead of the two-day meeting. The Secretary General confirmed that Defence Ministers from Finland, Sweden and Australia will join these discussions, as well as EU High Representative/Vice President Borrell. "NATO is preparing for a possible second wave of COVID-19," the Secretary General said, pointing to NATO's new operation plan, a stockpile of medical equipment and a fund to acquire medical supplies at short notice. As a sign of solidarity across the Alliance, more than half a million troops have supported the response to date, setting up almost 100 field hospitals and airlifting hundreds of tons of critical supplies around the world. "Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, NATO and Allied armed forces have played a key role in supporting civilian efforts," the Secretary General said. Ministers will also update NATO's guidelines for national resilience, to cover areas such as energy, transport, and communications. These updated baseline requirements for resilience will reflect threats from cyber, the security of supply chains and foreign ownership and control. Defence Ministers will address the security implications of Russia's growing suite of dual-capable and nuclear missiles, and they will adopt a substantial and balanced package of political and military measures. NATO's response will be discussed at the meeting of the Nuclear Planning Group. "We will continue to ensure the NATO nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective," the Secretary General said. He recalled, "NATO also remains strongly committed to effective arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, which make a key contribution to our security." Ministers will also discuss NATO's missions and operations, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address [June 17, 2020] Rayshard Brooks Atlanta Police Shooting Demonstrates Shortcomings of Bodycams MINNEAPOLIS, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The recently released body camera footage of the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta shows the officer's bodycam becoming dislodged during the struggle preceding the shooting. As a result, the key moments leading up to and including the shooting itself were not captured by the bodycam. In fact, during these crucial moments, the bodycam was only capturing stationary video of the nighttime sky. This is yet another high-profile police shooting where bodycams failed to adequately capture the event, which often results in social unrest, violence, resignations and life-changing fallout. The shooting of Rayshard Brooks is one more tragic example of how essential and important gun cameras are across the nationand why all police departments and law enforcement agencies need this technology now. Viridian Weapon Technologies in Minnesota has created an important category for law enforcement with the Weapon-Mounted Camera (WMC). This distinctive camera provides an unobstructed view of critical use-of-force events from the end of the firearm, addressing limitations officers face with body cameras. The highly advanced WMC employs a 1080p full-HD digital camera with a microphone and 500 lumen tactical light. Viridian's proprietary INSTANT-ON technology automatically activates the camera and microphone whenever the officer draws the firearm from its holster. Not only does this eliminate risk of failure to manually turn on the camera during a critical event, but it also keeps the officer from fumbling with cumbersome equipment. In this event, fortunately, there was some supplementary video footage. We know, however, that in too many cases, clear video evidence is not available. Unfortunately, the Atlanta Police Department does not presently have gun cams deployed with its officers. The investigation of this tragic shooting is just beginning. It is not yet known how critical the missing video evidence that could have been provided by gun cameras would have been to ensure justice. However, WMCs would have provided clear evidence of the officer's perspective, providing the best documentation of what the officer saw at the moment the decision was made to pull the trigger. "This is another high profile shooting where body cameras failed to capture what really happened," Viridian President and CEO, Brian Hedeen, said. "There is other video evidence of the incident, but noneincluding the body cameracapture the perspective of the officer when he made the decision to shoot. Our product is the only technology designed specifically to capture officer-involved shootings." More information on the FACT Duty can be found here. Interviews and access to subject matter experts are available by contacting Tim Brandt at [email protected]. About Viridian Weapon Technologies Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Viridian Weapon Technologies is devoted to applying cutting-edge technology to design compact, powerful self-defense products for the civilian, military and law enforcement markets. Viridian is the leader in weapon-mounted technology and responsible for a number of firearm innovations including green and red laser sights, LED weapon-mounted illuminators and several shooting accessories including the TacLoc Holsters. Viridian products are designed and built in the USA. More information is available at ViridianWeaponTech.com. Media Contact Tim Brandt Viridian Weapon Technologies [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rayshard-brooks-atlanta-police-shooting-demonstrates-shortcomings-of-bodycams-301078291.html SOURCE Viridian [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [June 17, 2020] Dumpling Raises $6.5 Million in Series A Funding to Fuel the Future of Grocery Shopping and Delivery Dumpling, the first and only company that empowers individuals to launch, run and grow independent grocery shopping and delivery businesses, announced $6.5 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by Forerunner Ventures -- a new partner for Dumpling -- as well as existing investors Floodgate and FUEL Capital, and brings the company's total raise to $10 million. "Dumpling is a dramatic evolution in the face of the severely broken gig economy. We empower disenfranchised gig workers to be truly independent business owners and enable them to build financial stability and wealth for the long term," said Joel Shapiro, co-founder and co-CEO, Dumpling. "Now, with the stark reality that millions of jobs lost due to COVID-19 may not return, Americans more than ever need a more viable, sound and flexible way to earn a living." In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dumpling has seen an unprecedented 20x surge in order volume that has sustained as people are returning to their routines. Dumpling powers more than 2,000 grocery shopping and delivery businesses across all 50 states, providing the tools, technology, and business support that individuals need. Since shoppers recruit their own customers, Dumpling's business model is far more capital efficient than previous gig companies. Personal shoppers set their own schedules and pricing, and keep 100 percent of their tips, earning on average three times more than Instacart workers. In turn, clients trust the personal shopper they choose with large, repat orders, and receive a more personal, higher-caliber level of service. "We believe that the future of work - and local communities - will be built on ownership and trust," said Nate D'Anna, co-founder and co-CEO, Dumpling. "We are investing in features and tools for business owners to power sustainable connections with their clients. Forerunner takes this same people-centered approach, and has a long history of identifying and supporting companies innovating at the cusp of dramatic behavior shifts." With Forerunner, Dumpling joins a portfolio of companies successfully transforming their categories, including the likes of Dollar Shave Club and Warby Parker -- companies that leverage technology to drive personalized experiences. "Even after billions of dollars in investment, gig app companies still can't create a consistent experience for consumers," says Brian O'Malley, General Partner at Forerunner Ventures. "The issue is that too much effort is spent automating people out of the process versus empowering individuals in the field to offer more personal and consistent experiences. Dumpling flips the model on its head, taking the exploited workers and enabling them to launch their own digitally-native service business. At a time when unemployment is at record highs, we're proud to support Dumpling's mission of getting people back working for the best boss around: themselves." Hear more from Dumpling's founders here on the news. ABOUT DUMPLING Dumpling is the first and only company that empowers individuals to launch, run and grow independent grocery shopping and delivery businesses. Dumpling powers more than 2,000 grocery shopping and delivery business owners in all 50 states, providing the tools, technology, and business support that individuals need to succeed. This model also uplevels the client experience, allowing them to choose their own shopper and pay in-store prices with no mark-ups. Dumpling is transforming the future of the gig economy, while re-shaping the face of entrepreneurship and fueling support for local communities. Co-headquartered in Seattle and Berkeley, the company has raised $10 million from Forerunner, Floodgate, and FUEL Capital. Find out more at www.dumpling.us. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005164/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Rep. James Clyburn, the House Majority Whip, told Yahoo News on Tuesday that he fears that the racial justice movement now underway could be derailed if overly broad slogans like Defund the Police are allowed to define the national conversation. Clyburn compared Defund the Police to Burn, Baby, Burn, a street slogan that caught on during the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles. We lost that movement because it got hijacked it got hijacked by sloganeering, Clyburn said in an interview with the Yahoo News Skullduggery podcast. Burn, Baby, Burn became the headline. Clyburn, D-S.C., called on leaders of the movement to defund the police to hone their message or risk being caricatured by the media. If we mean restructure the police, say restructure; if we mean deconstruct policing, say deconstruct, Clyburn said. The problem is if you allow the soundbite to lead then you're going to lose the argument. Clyburn said he has strong memories of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, which he said he participated in with John Lewis, the civil rights icon and longtime congressman from Georgia. We were trying to desegregate transportation, Clyburn said. Desegregate public accommodations. Open up schools. The 1954 Supreme Court decision had still not been adhered to, and we were trying to get schools integrated. So, how does Burn, Baby, Burn contribute to that? It doesn't. Asked about todays young protesters who have cited Martin Luther King Jr.s 1967 speech The Other America in which the civil rights leader described rioting as the language of the unheard, Clyburn scoffed at what he called a misunderstanding of Kings philosophy. He wasnt justifying rioting, Clyburn said of King. He was explaining it. Clyburn said that the protesters should instead quote Kings revered Letter from a Birmingham Jail, which lays out his nonviolent. direct-action principles. While Clyburn said that he favors major and systemic law enforcement reform, he also made a point of citing an example of good policing, underscoring the complexity of the police reform movement now underway. Clyburn recalled the officers who arrested the white supremacist responsible for killing nine African-American churchgoers at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston five years ago. Story continues House Majority Whip James Clyburn. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images) They took him out of the car in a very civil way, Clyburn recalled. He said he was hungry, and they took him to a Burger King ... before taking him back to Charleston to face justice. Thats the first instruction on how to conduct an arrest. (The arresting officers actually brought Roof food from Burger King as opposed to taking him there). Calling the June 17, 2015, slayings of the churchgoers horrific, Clyburn added that he has found inspiration in the response of the victims relatives. When those family members looked at this guy, who had just murdered their family and their friends, and they said they forgave him? Clyburn said. That, to me, started a reexamination of what this country is and what this country could be. But Clyburn said President Trumps response to the protests has been inadequate, particularly Tuesdays executive order designed to encourage local police departments to adopt best practices by incentivizing them with grant money. Trumps order also creates a national database to track excessive force complaints and encourages mental health professionals to be involved when police are responding to calls involving addiction, the homeless, or mental illness. I dont care what the president may do with his executive order if he signs an executive order, he can rescind it, Clyburn said. If he is really serious about this, then encourage Mitch McConnell to take up the Justice in Policing Act. It got 220 sponsors in the House. There are about 35 or 40 in the Senate. Tell him to come out, support that. Mitch McConnell, put it on the floor. And then, he will sign it. That's when I'll know he's serious, not an executive order to encourage. The Bible encourages every day. Clyburn, who has been an influential adviser to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and whose endorsement of Biden in the pivotal South Carolina primary fueled his resurgence as a candidate, also looked ahead to November. The congressman made headlines in March when he told the media Biden should pick an African-American woman as his running mate because we've reached a point in this country where African-American women need to be rewarded for the loyalty that they've given to this party." Clyburn told Skullduggery that he has not advocated for one particular vice presidential pick, but that as the father of three African-American women, nothing would make me more proud than to see an African-American woman on this ticket. I think we gotta do the vetting, Clyburn said. We gotta do the polling. And be instructed by that. And then [Biden] must let his heart and head take a look as well. Download or subscribe on iTunes: Skullduggery from Yahoo News _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Researchers study COVID-19, health disparities on caregivers of people with ADRD Sixteen million family members in the US are caregivers for the more than 6 million people living with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). For many caregivers in rural areas such as northern Arizona, health disparities prevent them from accessing the healthcare and support services they need. COVID-19-related isolation is adding to their burden, potentially contributing to their stress, anxiety and depression, and adversely affecting their physical health. To address the heightened health risks these caregivers face, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative (SHERC), a grant-funded initiative of Northern Arizona University's Center for Health Equity Research (CHER), received a one-year, $250,000 administrative supplemental grant from the National Institutes of Health. The researchers will study the unique needs of caregivers of persons with ADRD living in northern Arizona, identifying how health and caregiver support resources have changed during COVID-19 and how family caregivers are coping with current COVID-19 related caregiving demands. "We are interested in the health of diverse caregivers in northern Arizona and the resources they use and need to maintain their physical, emotional and mental well-being," said NAU Regents' Professor Julie Baldwin, principal investigator of the study and director of CHER. "Our long-term goal is to develop programs that provide support to caregivers and reflect the unique assets of populations in northern Arizona." Co-investigators on the study are Heather J. Williamson, assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy, Michael J. McCarthy, associate professor in the Department of Social Work, Dorothy J. Dunn, associate professor in the School of Nursing and Evie Garcia, associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology. To conduct the study, titled "A Multilevel Examination of Health Equity among Ethnic and Rural ADRD Caregivers," the researchers are currently recruiting family caregivers of individuals with ADRD to participate in focus groups and surveys. The team will produce a report on the healthcare and social support resources that are available to caregivers in northern Arizona, and participants will receive personalized maps and information on what resources are close to them. Researchers will use results from the project to inform culturally based programs for Hispanic/Latino, Native American and rural caregivers and to promote future policies, practices and research initiatives that support them. "We hope that community members will find these county-specific reports of caregiver resources helpful as a tool to either advocate for resources that are lacking and to know what things are available to them that they might not have known about previously," Williamson said. ### If you are a family caregiver of someone with ADRD living in northern Arizona (in Apache, Navajo, Coconino, Gila, Yavapai or Mohave County) and want to participate in a focus group or survey or both, please contact Rachel Bacon at Rachel.Bacon@nau.edu or (928) 523-5794. This story has been published on: 2020-06-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. After several weeks of protests across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, local religious leaders joined again together for conversations around social justice and equality. Local leaders, most of them representing houses of worship, from both Montgomery County and Harris County, met last week on a Zoom call to pray, share words of wisdom and kindness, and remind listeners that the fight for equality is not going to be a quick one. This is not the first time that a gathering of faith leaders from The Woodlands and surrounding areas have come together. Following the mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last year, several local houses of worship came together to pray. I believe this kind of blessed gatherings are very important to build bridges and have (a) better understanding, said Imam Rihabi Mohamed, faith leader of The Woodlands Islamic Center, who opened the gathering with a prayer. I really believe that working together with faith leaders will help our societies a lot, he said. Our community members look at us for reminder(s) as we are role models for them. Our responsibility is to always remind them of hope, compassion and forgiveness, the heavenly instructions which help us all. Rihabi has been using his sermons to his congregation as an opportunity to speak out against racism and tribalism. In my speeches and Friday sermons I repeat the most important thing in Islam: faith is peace with our Creator and peace with our fellow human beings, he said in an email. I believe that the pure instructions of God came to eradicate the idea of tribalism and lawlessness. Islam came to abolish the idea of superior race, gender, lineage, colors and social status. Rabbi Edwin Goldberg of Congregation Beth Shalom of The Woodlands chose to attend one of the marches that took place recently. But, like Rihabi, he has been using his sermons to speak to his congregation about racism and encouraging them to take action where they can, while still being mindful of the pandemic. Soon, he plans to pick a book about racism by an author of color and invite his congregation to read and discuss it together. Ideally, he would like to start making more connections with black communities in the area and inviting Black speakers to speak with the synagogue. But he wants to stress to his congregation that this issue wont be going away anytime soon and they should be prepared to keep taking actions and invest in the long-term. This is not about the urgency of this moment, its about a long-term corrosive thing that our congregation cares about, not because its good or bad for the Jews, but because its the right thing to do, Goldberg said. Its the right thing to try and make this country a place of justice. In Jewish tradition, Goldberg said, when comforting someone who is mourning a death, you dont say anything to them, you wait for them to speak first. Then, you continue to offer support long after the initial loss. This is how he hopes his congregation will move forward with this conversation. Faith leaders are community leaders, and moving forward Goldberg sees the role of faith leaders as helping their communities address these issues through structural change. I do think these are structural problems and they cant be solved by someone resigning or a statement of Well do better, its really the kind of oversight that a community needs, and I think places of faith should be involved, he said. As faith organizations continue to address the issues of racial inequality, many on the June 9 call will be working together. For Rajee Hari, director of communications at the Hindu Temple of The Woodlands, coming together was a way to derive strength from the different faiths. Our faiths may be different, but we are united by the care and love we share for each other, Hari said in an email to the Courier. The Hindu Temple of The Woodlands is focused on peace, harmony, and the well-being of the entire community. We emphasize on inclusiveness in all our events and festivals. Right now, the temple is closed because of COVID-19, but Hari said the temple will continue to pray for the communitys benefit and will be engaging with community leaders on these issues. For Craig Sorensen, Stake President Representing for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in The Woodlands, the decision to get involved was not his alone, though he embraced it. Two years ago, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and leaders of the NAACP, came together to work together to improve self-reliance and upward mobility for inner-city and minority families, according to a joint release from the groups. Now, the church, along with the NAACP, is responding to this moment by encouraging members to reach out and build connections. We believe that as we interact, as we serve, and we serve with, members of the community, and members that come from a different background or race, or even a different part of the world, that were able to learn about each other, Sorensen said. That were able to learn and serve others in a process that helps us see that were more alike than we are different. Sorensen said the church is encouraging everyone, members and non-members alike, to come together in service by finding a way to give back locally through the Just Serve app, which collects volunteer opportunities in the area. But beyond helping locally, the call from leaders of the church and the NAACP encouraged members to call on those in power to review laws, processes, and organizational attitudes that support racism and root them out. Conceptually, we also believe it is important for us all to be involved in our opportunity to vote, Sorensen said. Whether its at the national level or state level, or at the city and here in The Woodlands level, to be politically active, to be engaged in those things that will bring good to the community. Each community is moving forward in the conversation around racial justice in a different way, but all said that they plan to continue communicating with each other to find ways to work together, for the long-term. jamie.swinnerton@chron.com Sweden has made less progress than expected in achieving immunity to the coronavirus, according to its state epidemiologist. After leaving schools, shops and restaurants open throughout the pandemic, contagion rates in Sweden are much higher than anywhere else in the Nordic region. Its covid-19 mortality is among the worst in the world. Scientists have been eager to learn whether the flipside of widespread contagion is a higher level of immunity. But according to Anders Tegnell, Sweden's state epidemiologist, "the trends in immunity have been surprisingly slow." He also says "it's difficult to explain why this is so." Speaking in an interview with Swedish Radio on Wednesday, Tegnell said it's important to remember "that there is a time lag in all such measurements." An analysis of 50,000 tests by Werlabs, a private company, shows that about 14% of people tested over the past six weeks in the Stockholm region have developed covid-19 antibodies. That compares with a study published this month of Bergamo -- once the covid-19 epicenter in Italy -- which showed that 57% had developed antibodies. In Sweden, "the number of immune cases today is much closer to our forecasts than it has been before," Tegnell told Swedish Radio. "The 14% of those surveyed is from two or three weeks ago, meaning that immunity levels are higher today." Sweden's approach to tackling covid-19 has been among the most controversial in the world. Unlike the rest of Scandinavia, where governments quickly imposed strict lockdowns, Sweden advised its citizens to observe social distancing rules, but left most of society open. Some analysts have predicted that the softer lockdown means Sweden's economy will fare better than others. But the country's high death rate has triggered considerable backlash, and a recent poll suggested most Swedes have lost faith in their country's strategy to fight the virus. Tegnell and Prime Minister Stefan Lofven have insisted that Sweden's strategy is the right one. That's based on an assumption that covid-19 will be around for a long time, meaning short-term lockdowns ultimately won't help, and governments need to come up with more sustainable models for living with the virus. No one should assume that official India knows very much more than is evident, particularly not whether Beijing is willing to risk war over the issue. Its a strange non war taking place at one of the worst battlefields the world has ever witnessed. Galwan valley itself is at about 13,500 feet, while the actual area of conflict, across the river is probably even higher. There is shock at the now confirmed report of the death of a commanding officer and at least 19 soldiers during the de-escalation process in the valley. The Indian Army clarified that casualties had occurred on both sides, including a significant number of Chinese soldiers. Both sides however quickly began talks between senior officials, even as Delhis decision-makers met to discuss the issue. It's not a situation that is easy to decipher for a number of reasons. First, is the perplexing question of how to estimate escalation. This is the first such incident since 1975, and therefore there is little to go by in terms of historical precedent. Going by the shorter time frame from 5 May when the first clashes were reported in Pangong this is definitely an escalation, though again, the incident did not involve any firing. Its clear that the clash took place due to the offensive perception by the Chinese of what constituted status quo ante. A detailed account seems to indicate that the commanding officer and his men went to oversee the disengagement (reportedly) agreed upon at the 6 June meeting between senior officers. The PLA troops appear to have contested this, leading to the fight and the subsequent tragedy. Whether or not all of the casualties were due to the conflict itself, or worsened by the nature of the terrain and severe temperatures is unclear. Note that many Chinese troops were also injured and are possibly dead. Therefore, the extent of escalation and whether it was a deliberate decision by the Chinese remains unclear, wild allegations as to the Chinese occupying Indian territory notwithstanding. A second issue puzzling analysts is the issue of why China is intent on aggravation at all. Various theories have been floated, including as a warning against possible inclusion of Taiwan into the WHO when India takes over the chair, as an example of President Xi Jinpings need for popularity, and more credibly, as a tactic to prevent India from building up infrastructure, particularly into the Galwan area near Patrolling Point 14 to connect it to the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi road. That seemed to be the crux of discussions between senior military officers in June. Hark back earlier, however. Early on in August 2019, the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi was quoted as saying that the change in the status of Ladakh into a Union Territory posed a challenge to Chinas sovereignty and violated the two countries agreement on maintaining peace and stability in the border. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar who was in Beijing on a scheduled visit, reiterated that not an inch of territory had been changed on the map, by the change in the status. Beijing waited till its exercises commenced in January 2020 and then began to slowly increase its presence in April. India did a mirror deployment, leading to the flare-up. None of this however entirely explains the reason for the present situation, especially since Chinese incursions have been reported further along Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and north Sikkim. Incidentally, the whole border row hardly merits much mention in the mainland press. So, the assumption that the whole incident is due to rising Chinese nationalism seems to be a weak one. A third question that is far more dangerous is the apparent disingenuity of official China. So far, the leadership of both countries have been at some pains to avoid unnecessary verbiage. Indeed, the Indian side has been remarkably agile in this, leading to accusations of appeasement. The Chinese Ambassador in India, while hardly enjoying amicable relations with the media, has been at pains to praise Chinese commitments to assist India in fighting the virus. However, he continued to do so even as China strengthened its forces along Ladakh in early June. So did the Chinese Foreign Ministry whos spokesperson stressed stability in bilateral relations, in a post which also praised Beijings speed of deployment. All of this alongside a steady stream of anti-India rhetoric from Global Times and Chinese Think tanks. And now, post the incident in Galwan, is the deadly serious statement by a spokesman of the Chinese military that The sovereignty over the Galwan Valley area has always belonged to China. Thats as provocative as it gets at a time when both sides have massed their forces, including tanks, artillery and aircraft. But again, top decision-makers have to assess whether the statement has been made to create a wedge for negotiations, where India has demanded a return to status quo to April not May when China began its build-up across the LAC. Thats going to be tough to negotiate. Meanwhile, a hard-headed government would place its reliance on Chinese actions rather than a double-faced official narrative. Its the fourth question that is even more puzzling. The Chinese People's Daily reported that in a rare event, three US aircraft carriers were steaming towards Chinese waters. This included the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan, together with their strike groups, which represents a formidable array of forces. Beijing saw this exclusively as relating to the South China Sea and tensions in Hong Kong. New Delhi had no comment at all, even refuting an earlier statement by the US president that he had a chat with the prime minister, and politely disclaiming any need for the proffered mediation. It's as well to remember, however, that quiet US assistance particularly in intelligence was evident even during Doka La, when New Delhi had again kept out the Americans. Theres no doubt that the presence of such a formidable force in the Indo-Pacific is disquieting for Beijing, and will inevitably affect decision making on Ladakh. In sum, what is evident is a non-war, fought for unknown reasons, for gains that are not perceptible, where the official position is unknown, and with the possible assistance by a pure coincidence of what is still the most powerful armed forces in the world. No one should assume that official India knows very much more than is evident, particularly not whether Beijing is willing to risk war over the issue. That last lack of clarity is the most dangerous of all. It makes for greater opaqueness in what is already a fog of war situation. In the heights at which this is being fought, that fog is only likely to get worse. Dominic Zamprogna joined General Hospital as Dante Falconeri in 2009. However, he decided to leave the show in 2018. Although Zamprogna returned for a bit in 2019, he continues to spend much of his time away from the set with fans currently not knowing whether he will return or not. Since Zamprogna was on General Hospital for almost 10 years before his departure, it makes sense that he developed a close relationship with the cast and crew of the soap opera. In fact, Zamprogna recently admitted he misses his former co-workers a lot. Dominic Zamprogna | Rick Rowell/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Why did Dominic Zamprogna leave General Hospital? As Zamprogna has shared in a few interviews, his decision to leave the show was based off of his own desire to improve his skills as an actor. In a recent interview with Michael Fairman TV, Zamprogna shared: GH has also been super fun. I have always had great times up on stage there. But, I had never played a character for that long. I was like, Maybe what I need is just to walk away from this character for a bit and try other roles. Additionally, he cited his desire to network with new people as a reason as well. I didnt know many casting directors because I came down from Canada with the job at GH, and if youre not known by people outside of the soap world in the industry, often you arent always presented choices to play these other roles to satisfy these other desires you have an artist, Zamprogna explained. My manager was like, Listen, if you dont take the opportunity now to kind of get into rooms and meet people, it gets harder and harder the longer you wait. So, we just decided to take a chance. Zamprogna admits he still misses the cast and crew RELATED: General Hospital: 5 of the Shows Longest-Serving Cast Members After he left General Hospital, Zamprogna still tried to keep in touch with the friends he made there. He told Michael Fairman TV the set was a second home to him. Zamprogna said: Since last September, I started feeling like, I kind of miss my buddies. I miss my family over there, and I miss the day-to-day of what GH was to me I miss Maurice (Benard), I miss Lisa (LoCicero), I miss Chad (Duell), and I miss the crew. I get emotional thinking about the crew because they were all buddies of mine. Will Zamprogna return to General Hospital? Been running into a lot of #GH fans lately. I see you, and guys are awesome. Just saying. pic.twitter.com/IsrKEPptbe Dom Zamprogna (@dom_zamprogna) March 3, 2020 RELATED: General Hospital Fans are Overwhelmingly Against Dante Being Recast As of right now, it is not clear if Zamprogna will ever revive his role on General Hospital again. However, he would like to return at some point. Last month, Zamprogna told Soaps In Depth the shows executive producer, Frank Valentini, is aware he is ready to come home and totally open to a contract. Theres so much potential with the character and the story right now, Zamprogna added. With everything theyve done since Dantes been gone, there are so many options, and theyd all be fun to play. Pressure is mounting on ministers to ditch UK's quarantine policy as the first German tourists jetted off on their summer holidays. London-listed tour operator Tui has started flights from Germany, Switzerland and Benelux countries. Since June 8 British tourists have been required to quarantine for two weeks after returning from overseas, effectively cancelling summer holidays abroad. Holiday hopes: London-listed tour operator Tui has started flights from Germany, Switzerland and Benelux countries Tui's first two flights went from Germany to Majorca. A second route to Portugal, will soon open before flights to ten other countries start in July. It piles pressure on the Government to find ways to save thousands of aviation and tourism jobs. Ministers are trying to negotiate 'air bridges' allowing Britons to return from countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece without self-isolating for two weeks. Last month Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye said: 'It is going to be untenable for people to see German citizens going to Greece while Brits are stuck at home.' Hughes said the incident reminded me how tough and complex it is to talk about race, now more than ever. I try to have compassion for when people make mistakes like this, particularly because I know I will make mistakes. And these days, theres so much calling out and canceling that I am worried that progressives are actually making it harder to achieve the policy goals we want. On the other hand, I think there are lines we need to draw, and wearing blackface in 2018 under any circumstances should probably be one of them. 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 New Delhi, June 17 : Not all's well in China even as it steps up military aggression against India along the Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh region, leaving 20 Indian soldiers dead. The surge in unemployment and the possibility that the country's much-hyped debt diplomacy could backfire due to the acute economic recession have led to rising uncertainty and worry among many Chinese. Besides, the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has not only left the world community questioning Beijing but anti-China feelings among the locals too have risen. And now the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak in the country has made things only worse. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who emerged as one of the most powerful leaders since the founding father of communist China, Mao Zedong, faces tough times at home with his popularity dropping significantly in the last few months. Xi faces multiple problems, two analysts said. The current military aggression could just be a step to distract and deflect attention of the locals from the current pressing issues at hand, they said. While Chinese economic activities have resumed with factories starting production, dwindling export orders across the globe is adding to the woes and this could make recovery tough. China has been the world's largest supplier of goods for many years now. "China could well be doing this to ensure that people within the country get distracted from the serious issues at home," one of the analysts said. Many analysts have also opined that China could be getting trapped in its own debt diplomacy as many countries may default in repayment leading to further economic disruptions. Several countries including Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, and a number of African nations could be forced to restructure loans or delay payments. In April, China's unemployment rate stood at 6 per cent. This figure does not take into account the unorganized sector. "The latest official jobs data released by China's national bureau of statistics on May 15 put the unemployment rate in April at 6 per cent, up slightly from 5.9 per cent in March and a notch lower than the record 6.2 per cent in February. Many experts think that is a gross underestimate. Analysts at the Economist Intelligence Unit and SociAtA GAnArale put the unemployment rate closer to 10 per cent," a Quartz report said. Amid the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, many global companies have already evinced interest in shifting their manufacturing facilities outside China. Many fear that the rise in unemployment could lead to social unrest as well. "China has never been subject to such global scrutiny, as it is now for its role in handling the coronavirus disease, its recent dealing with Hong Kong and even Taiwan. These have come under question. We need to understand that its aggression against India could just be a measure to boost his popularity among the citizens," an analyst said, adding that there could be many such instances from China across the world. "India's relationship with China has always been tumultuous. India should ensure that she does not depend on Chinese imports for essential products," Nirupama Soundararajan, senior fellow & head of research at Pahle India Foundation, had said earlier in an interview. Till a few months ago, though, Xi had a high approval rating within his country and abroad. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A Nigerian-Canadian journalist, Chief Olufemi Shodunke, has vowed to continue to wage war against anti-Black, racism, and other systemic discriminations not only in Canada but across the globe. Shodunke, who is the Publisher of GatewayMailonline newspaper based in Canada, maintained that following the gruesome killing of the African-American man, 46-year-old George Floyd in US, the world has suddenly woken up to the menace of racism and systemic discrimination in the society. The journalist stated this yesterday in an interview with our correspondent over the recent Black lives matter protest in Canada, particularly in Alberta Province where he participated. Chief Femi Shodunke, with placard, on his left knee a gesture to condemn the gruesome killing of Floyd in US during the recent protest in Canada. Now the entire world has suddenly woken up to the realisation that there is racism and indeed systemic discrimination against blacks, minorities and indigenous people not only in Canada where I live, but across the world, Shodunke said. Indeed, the recently killing of Mr. George Floyd in US with huge protests that spread to other countries has exposed the eyes of everyone to this terrible situation in our society. The world cannot be the same against with these protests, he further said. And now is the best time for everyone to be involved, including me to wage war against any form of racism or discrimination anywhere across the globe, Shodunke maintained, adding: We can no longer tolerate it, as all human beings are equal and we all should be so treated in any country we live. It would be recalled that last May 25, Floyd, who was buried beside his mum last week in Houston, Texas, was killed in Powderhorn community of Minneapolis, Minnesota when he was handcuffed while lying face down during his arrest. Derek Chauvin, a white American Minneapolis police officer, who is now facing second degree murder, knelt on the right side of the deceaseds neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds until he died. His three fellow policemen have also been charged. Shodunke, who is the immediate past President of Olumo Progressive Association Canada Inc., however, called on governments at various levels federal, provincial and municipal in Canada to urgently take necessary measures to protect the lives of blacks, immigrants and indigenous people in the country. He urged Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ensure that his Liberal Party-led government enact relevant legislations that will stamp out all forms of discriminations against anyone in the country. Shodunke, who is also the National Public Relations Officer of Egba National Association USA and Canada, urged Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari to join the rest of the world in waging war against all forms of racism and systemic discrimination. He maintained that with the current wave of protest against discrimination across the globe, Nigeria cannot be left behind, but that the country should be seen to be working hard and enacting laws against this pandemic. The ENA image maker a one-time Chairman of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ogun State Council and Baaroyin of Igbeinland also pleaded with Nigerias legislators in the National Assembly to enact legislations that will prevent discrimination against anyone in the country. It is going to be the right step in the right direction for members of the National Assembly in Nigeria to join in enacting legislations that will prevent all forms of discriminations in the country. Nigeria should join the rest of the world in this direction, the journalist further maintained. 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. By Robert Skidelsky LONDON There was always something illusory about the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration that guaranteed the continuation of Hong Kong's capitalist system and basic freedoms for 50 years after the city's return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The Joint Declaration had been made possible by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's clever "one country, two systems" formula, which enabled the United Kingdom to withdraw, with face-saving grace, from a colonial position it could no longer defend. The illusion lay in the belief that a second system based on economic freedom and the rule of law could be maintained for 50 years within a communist dictatorship. Calling the Joint Declaration an international treaty and lodging it with the United Nations was beside the point, because neither Britain nor anyone else was going to go to war to defend it. What seemingly gave the illusion substance was the belief that preserving Hong Kong's capitalist way of life was in China's self-interest, especially given the country's own embrace of the market economy under Deng's guidance. There was also the remote hope that Chinese capitalism would gradually lead to greater democracy, so that the two systems would eventually converge. Things did not turn out that way. China's own economic miracle made Hong Kong less important to it economically, while Deng's violent suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests eviscerated any hope that communist rule would wither away. Hong Kong's current crisis arose over the implementation of the 1990 Basic Law, a constitution designed to give effect to the Joint Declaration. The Basic Law's Article 23 states that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) "shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government." The HKSAR would also "prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the region," while barring "political organizations or bodies of the region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies." Article 23 was designed to set the limits on Hong Kong's autonomy, and to help ensure that China retained control of security, defense, and foreign policy. British attempts before 1997 to limit the provision's scope to actual acts of violence as opposed to expressions of opinion and politics were vetoed by China. And the Hong Kong government's post-handover efforts to implement Article 23 failed in the face of popular protests. In China's eyes, the HKSAR lacked the tools to deal with "subversion." But many of Hong Kong's citizens viewed Article 23 as a menace hanging over their future. China got its chance to act when widespread street protests erupted in Hong Kong in June last year, following the politically inept attempt by Carrie Lam, the city's chief executive, to force through an extradition bill on China's behalf. Although China's main aim was to punish and deter economic crimes on the mainland, the demonstrators feared with some justification that the proposed law would expose Hong Kong's citizens to mainland definitions of crime and China's illiberal justice system. The bill was eventually withdrawn, but only after months of civil disorder had brought much of Hong Kong to a standstill. Now, with the rest of the world distracted by COVID-19, Chinese President Xi Jinping has upped the ante by calling for the immediate implementation of the missing security law. On May 28, the Chinese National People's Congress demanded that Article 23, plus supplementary measures allowing Chinese security forces to operate in Hong Kong, be implemented by a special process under the Basic Law's Annex III, which allows Hong Kong's executive to bypass local legislative and judicial approval. China's legal position is not without merit, because Hong Kong's guaranteed autonomy never extended to national security. But the heart of the issue is that the new security law breaches the spirit, if not the letter, of the Joint Declaration, because the political dynamics of the "two systems" have started to diverge so profoundly. Dictatorships always feel less legitimate than free societies, so will always demand more "security" than a free society regards as proper. The belief that the Joint Declaration would spare Hong Kong from this moment of reckoning has now been exposed as a fiction. The Hong Kong crisis will further fuel Western, particularly American, demands for economic sanctions against China, as part of the wider effort to contain the country's rise. Ramming through a security law for Hong Kong will also strengthen the independence movement in Taiwan, and might even elicit a U.S. military guarantee of the island's independence, with incalculable geopolitical consequences. But none of this is likely to deter China, which has waited 23 years for "its" security law to prevail in Hong Kong and is unlikely to back down now. So, Hong Kong's citizens will face their moment of truth: either knuckle under, or get out. And the U.K. may yet offer them a way out. On May 28, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that unless China shelved its new security bill, the U.K. government would offer British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong a path to citizenship by allowing them to study or work in the U.K. without a visa for 12 months, instead of the current six. Some 300,000 Hong Kong residents hold this "legacy" passport, and an estimated 2.9 million others who were born before 1997 are eligible to apply for one. This half-promise of political asylum is music to the ears of a group of Hong Kong professionals who have been promoting the idea of collective emigration to new "charter" cities in freer countries. It is an inspiring vision, and Britain would be the emigrants' natural, though not exclusive, host. But would China allow such a mass exodus, and would host countries welcome the establishment of new Hong Kongs within their borders? The U.K. has a special responsibility in this regard. In Hong Kong, the British implanted a unique culture of enterprise and freedom on Chinese soil. As the "one country, two systems" logic unravels, transplanting the city to other locations may offer the best chance to preserve it. Robert Skidelsky, a member of the British House of Lords, is professor emeritus of political economy at Warwick University. His article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org). 17.06.2020 LISTEN Government his hinting of a possible reduction in the compulsory hotel rates for the stranded Ghanaians abroad set for evacuation after growing opposition to the move to have the returned citizens pay amounts as high as GHS7,000. The governments pre-condition for evacuation was that the stranded citizens bear the full cost of their 14-day mandatory quarantine when they arrive in the country because of the threat of the novel coronavirus. This has left some Ghanaians fuming because of the governments exorbitant terms. Some hotels listed in correspondence to the stranded Ghanaians include Airport View Hotel for GHS500 a night, Alisa Hotel for GHS600 a night and Marriot Hotel for GHS600 a night. A Ghanaian woman stranded in the US, who spoke on Eyewitness News, said persons in her situation had no means of finding the money despite their desire to come home. These are people who have been stranded. They have been here for several weeks. Some have run out of money. Where do you think they would be able to raise this amount of money from, she asked? She further questioned why the government had not given the stranded Ghanaians more favourable terms. Why aren't we given the option of a no-star hotel to a five hotel for us to make a choice? If the government is indeed helping us, why won't they absolve half of the cost of the hotel bills? This is exorbitant, Let us see that it is help [coming from the government] and we shall appreciate it fully, she added. Gabriel Mwini, a stranded Ghanaian in German also noted that some of them have spent everything they have during the three-month travel restrictions in the country where they got stranded. The least the government of Ghana could have done for these stranded citizens in these difficult time is to understand their current plight by assisting them in every way possible, he added. Governments response Attempting to address these concerns at a press briefing on Tuesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, suggested that the unwillingness of hotels to give out their facilities to quarantine persons who are being evacuated into the country had led to limited options. She admitted that the quarantine plans were a major problem. It is difficult for the task force to get hotels that are willing for their hotels to be used as quarantine facilities. That is a major problem, But giving more clarity on the matter on Eyewitness News, Madam Ayorkor Botchways deputy, Charles Owiredu, said consultations were ongoing to reduce the quarantine costs. He, however, indicated that hoteliers had raised concerns about the costs they have to meet. They said they wanted some tax waivers and some other things then they could also go ahead to reduce further the cost of the hotels and the cost of feeding. Mr. Owiredu said the government was hopeful that by tomorrow or the days coming, we are going to see something positive from these hotels. We are so hopeful and optimistic based on the meetings we had with the hoteliers [on Monday] and the subsequent meetings they had with the Ministry of Finance. ---citinewsroom SEOUL, June 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's presidential Blue House expressed strong regret Tuesday over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s demolition of the inter-Korean joint liaison office in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong by explosion. Kim You-geun, first deputy director of the Blue House National Security Office (NSO), told a press briefing that the South Korean government expresses strong regret over the DPRK side's unilateral explosion of the inter-Korean joint liaison office building that was opened according to the Panmunjom Declaration. Kim said the demolition was an act of letting down the expectations of all who wish for the development of inter-Korean relations and the settlement of peace on the Korean Peninsula. The comment came after South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement that the DPRK blew up the Kaesong joint liaison office at 2:49 p.m. local time (0549 GMT). Chung Eui-yong, top national security advisor for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, convened a National Security Council (NSC) standing committee meeting to discuss countermeasures toward the DPRK's action. The liaison office was opened in September 2018 for the round-the-clock communications between the two Koreas in accordance with the Panmunjom Declaration. The declaration was signed by South Korean President Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un after their first summit on April 27, 2018 at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom. A total of 111 COVID-19 patients in France succumbed to the coronavirus-caused disease in the last 24 hours, bringing the total fatalities to 29,547, while hospitalizations further declined, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. Of the deaths, 19,090 were registered in hospitals, a one-day rise of 38. At nursing homes and medico-social establishments, whose casualties are updated once a week on Tuesdays, 10,457 were reported dead, up by 73 from last week, Xinhua reported. Currently, 10,535 patients are in hospitals, including 820 in intensive care. The two figures -- key indicators to evaluate the country's ability to cope with the epidemic -- fell by 217 and 26 respectively in the last 24 hours. Of the 103,451 hospitalized since early March, 73,335 have recovered and returned home. "The first epidemic wave is ending in Europe and in France's mainland. But the epidemic is far from over and the virus is still circulating," warned Health General Director Jerome Salomon, addressing the National Assembly's investigative committee. "We must anticipate a resurgence, even a second epidemic wave in autumn or winter. Failure to prepare for a second wave would be a major mistake," he stressed. "Vigilance and caution must remain in place." Salomon added, "the whole world was surprised by this totally new, massive, rapid, brutal global crisis. No country is spared." In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu says his executive order banning gatherings of 10 people or more is still in place. He also simultaneously and very publicly encourages the Black Lives Matter protests in his state, with thousands crowded together on public streets. In Pennsylvania, with one of the harshest lockdowns in the country, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has demanded strict adherence to his stay-at-home edicts, which still ban restaurant dining or groups of 25 or more. But he joined arm-in-arm with hundreds of protesters on the streets of Harrisburg, in apparent defiance of his own order. Pressed about his apparent hypocrisy, Wolf acknowledged: It was inconsistent, I acknowledge that. But I was trying to show support for a cause the eradication of racism that I think is very, very important, and I was trying to show my support for that effort. These two governors are hardly alone. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, whose state has been hit harder by the horrors of the coronavirus than any other, also went out of his way to praise Black Lives Matter protests despite both the massive crowds of people in close quarters and the destructive violence that followed some of the protests in New York City. The tidal wave of political two-stepping decrying a family trip to the beach as potentially fatal, then urging families to flood into the streets for political protests is feeding public cynicism about the true danger of the coronavirus. Its also raising questions about whether the severe stay-at-home strategy, which put millions out of work and cost the nation an estimated $500 billion in GDP per month, was necessary. Even more problematic, some social observers say, is the damage this is doing to public trust in government health experts. Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden, for example, spent months opposing desperate business owners and their attempts to reopen the economy and save their jobs. Now, hes publicly supporting mass protests involving large crowds of shouting and chanting strangers. Meanwhile, other health experts like former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb says, Were certainly going to see transmission of coronavirus due to protests, noting a German study found 250% increase in transmission after large outdoor gatherings. And what will those Americans do if theres another surge in COVID-19 cases this fall or winter and the same health professionals who told them it was OK to protest suddenly announce they have to go back into lockdown? Many observers believe Americans will simply refuse to comply. Data show that the COVID-19 virus, and the lockdowns in response to it, have disproportionately hurt people of color. Black Americans have been more likely than their white counterparts to die of the virus, and theyve also been more likely to lose their jobs during the shutdown. If that trend continues but public trust in public health policy is so eroded that it undermines future efforts to turn back another severe outbreak of the coronavirus the tragic and unintended consequence of the protest hypocrisy could be that communities of color will suffer yet again. Michael Graham is political editor at InsideSources.com. 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., to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Read more As protesters nationwide continue pushing to revamp or abolish policing, onlookers have pointed to Camden as a potential model for change. Since the city disbanded its police force in 2013 in favor of a county-run force, violent crime besides homicides decreased but the police budget shot up, and community members have expressed concerns at their lack of input in the process and outcomes. A longtime Camden resident and former mayoral candidate debates a member of Physicians for Criminal Justice Reform: Should reformers look to Camden for ideas? NO: Camden is spending more money on police, yet still not valuing black lives. By Theo Spencer Considering all the negative publicity Camden has endured in the recent past, it would be great for the city to be considered a model for police reform in the wake of George Floyds death and the national protests that have followed. As the narrative of Camden as a reform model has circulated national news, two of the most visible supporters in TV interviews are County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. and former Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson: two white nonresidents of a city that is overwhelmingly black and Latino. The irony of Cappelli and Thomson as the spokespeople for Camdens reform is one of many holes in a policing model rife with contradictions and inconsistencies. As a black man, I was riveted by the unrest that swept across the country. As a Camden resident, I know firsthand that the force here embodies none of the reforms people are yearning for in spirit or truth. Unfortunately, peoples need to find a bright spot in the way minorities are policed has led to a vast oversimplification of Camdens reorganization. Truthfully, our switch in 2013 was the result of a policy shift designed to get cities to share services. Camdens overreliance on state resources provided the leverage and cover politicians needed to make broad changes to police services. Predictably, the results for crime have been mixed. While violent crime as a whole went down, homicides spiked in 2016 and increased again from 2018 to 2019. Recently, activists have started making appeals to defund the police to divert resources to social services. Conversely, the plan in Camden was to get more officers on the street. Coincidentally, at the time of transition, suburban departments were shedding officers due to cuts, so Camden was getting a lot of white officers to police a predominantly black and Latino city. More officers, coupled with an aggressive policing strategy that would facilitate as many as six officers on the scene at minor traffic stops in our streets, lead to the kinds of scenarios that activists are protesting against. Academics have cited civilian review as crucial in reducing police brutality. Many agree the reporting structure where officers report to a police chief who reports to a mayor is too weak. In Camden, the force reports diffusely to the mayor and City Council yet not to civilians. No one with a basic understanding of the demands of activists right now would seriously look at Camden. Theo Spencer In fact, when concerned residents tried to organize a vote to block the changes to the department, the mayor and other local officials sued to prevent the vote. As it turns out, weaker civilian oversight has meant, for example, that the public has never gotten insight on the death of Nerreada Robles, a 17-year-old high school senior killed by a speeding police car last year. Following her death, City Council inexplicably considered a measure that would reduce the amount of time residents could maintain makeshift memorials like one created for Robles. Since the reorganization of the police in 2013, Camden has been more lucky than good. Any one of the aforementioned circumstances in other places would have caused a riot elsewhere. Frankly, no one with a basic understanding of the demands of activists right now would seriously look at Camden. If America has finally become serious about the notion that black lives matter, it cant start with a policing model where regard for black lives was an afterthought. Theo Spencer is a longtime Camden resident and currently works as a vice president of software development for a large U.S. bank. Spencer is also a former school board member and was a candidate for mayor in 2013 and 2017. YES: Camden is showing the value of community policing. By Zane Kaleem In the wake of angry nationwide demonstrations, Philadelphias response to peaceful protests exemplifies everything wrong with urban policing in 2020. Not only did we experience some chaos this month, but after days of public frustration over police brutality, Philadelphia police were caught abusing their power on camera. Officers were spotted pulling goggles off of seated protesters faces and spraying tear gas into their eyes, despite protesters obvious efforts to be civil in displaying their outrage over the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many other black Americans by officers nationwide. Adding insult to injury in Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney did not express regret at the teargassing assault of peaceful protesters by his citys police force. While unrest unfolded in Philadelphia, across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, police in Camden took a different approach to the trauma and emotion being expressed. Instead of fighting back, Camden police came together with protesters to march in solidarity with black American communities. How did this happen in one of the countrys most dangerous cities in 2012? A big part of it was community policing. Police are trained to shift their identity away from solving issues with their authority and guns and instead strive for a partnership with local residents. Zane Kaleem Community policing is a public health approach to public safety that tasks police and community members with collaborating to improve safety and quality of life in their neighborhoods. Camden officials revamped the citys police force in 2013, with the goal of shifting the culture of policing from one of dominance in the community to greater trust and stronger relationships with locals. Police are trained to shift their identity away from solving issues with their authority and guns and instead strive for a partnership with local residents. Community policing relies on key foundational principles that any city can adopt as a start toward change. These principles lie in procedural justice, which former Sheriff Sue Rahr in King County, Wash., simplified into what was coined the LEED framework: Listen and Explain with Equity and Dignity. Under such a framework, officers are trained to listen first, be transparent by explaining why they approach a person or pull them over, and explain the legal process to people who encounter law enforcement, such as when stopped on the highway by an officer. LEED helps police become trusted and have honest discourse with community members. READ MORE: Camden shouldnt sanitize away the truth | Opinion Nationally, organizations like Physicians for Criminal Justice Reform, of which I am a task force assistant director, have highlighted the negative health effects of police brutality and its role in systematizing racism, especially its contribution to poor health outcomes in black communities. The American Medical Association shared that more encounters with police in minority communities are linked not just to elevated stress and anxiety among residents, but also to increased prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes, and asthma. Research also suggests that racial discrimination leads to adverse mental health outcomes. Yet, as the American Psychological Association reports, the evidence suggests that when police treat people with dignity, respect, fairness and neutrality, people are more likely to comply with their directives and accept any outcome, [whether] favorable or unfavorable. What the APA describes matches the public health approach that Camden adopted via community policing. Switching to a community policing model for Philadelphia is a step in the right direction to end police violence. Advocates have yelled their battle cry for change. For the sake of the health and safety of every black Philadelphian, it is our leaders turn to deliver. Zane Kaleem is a medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine and assistant director of the Correctional Health Care Task Force at Physicians for Criminal Justice Reform. @ZaneKaleem Philonise Floyd called on the UN to investigate systemic police violence against African Americans in the US. George Floyds brother on Wednesday begged the United Nations to help African Americans because Black lives do not matter in the United States, as the UNs rights chief urged reparations for centuries of discrimination. Philonise Floyd made an impassioned speech via video-link to an urgent UN Human Rights Council debate on systemic racism in the US and beyond. Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the gratuitous brutality of Floyds death in police custody encapsulated racism that harmed millions of people of African descent. She also urged countries to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism and to make reparations. People have continued to protest police violence after Floyds death, with some occupying territory in the so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle [David Ryder/Getty Images/AFP] The council, based in Geneva, is debating a draft resolution pushing for Bachelet to investigate racism and police civil liberties violations against people of African descent in the US. President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the council two years ago. Tortured to death Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer since fired and charged with second-degree murder pressed his knee on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. Amateur video of the incident sparked demonstrations and calls to address systemic racism in the US and around the world. Philonise said his brother had been tortured to death as witnesses begged the officer to stop, showing us Black people the same lesson, yet again: Black lives do not matter in the United States of America. BREAKING: George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, urges the UN to investigate police killings of Black people in America and help him get justice for his brother's murder. pic.twitter.com/HPyCjaFVWg ACLU (@ACLU) June 17, 2020 You in the United Nations are your brothers and sisters keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd. I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us Black people in America. He urged them to establish an independent international commission of inquiry one of the UNs highest-level probes, generally reserved for major crises like the Syrian conflict. Proposal dropped An initial text presented on Tuesday on behalf of 54 African countries had proposed such an inquiry. But the proposal was dropped, the resolution heavily watered down following stark opposition from Washington and some of its allies. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends a session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations [Denis Balibouse/Reuters] It now calls on Bachelet and UN rights experts to establish the facts and circumstances relating to the systemic racism, alleged violations of international human rights law and abuses against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement in the US and beyond especially those incidents that resulted in deaths. The aim, it said, was to ensure the accountability of perpetrators and redress for victims. In her statement to the council, Bachelet said Floyds death had brought to a head the sense of outrage felt by overlooked people and the protests were the culmination of many generations of pain. Behind todays racial violence, systemic racism, and discriminatory policing lies the failure to acknowledge and confront the legacy of the slave trade and colonialism, the former Chilean president said. She stressed the need to make amends for centuries of violence and discrimination, including through formal apologies, truth-telling processes, and reparations in various forms. Calls for transparency On Tuesday, Trump issued an order to improve policing, calling for a ban on dangerous chokeholds except if an officers life is at risk. The executive order encourages de-escalation training, better recruitment, sharing of data on police who have bad records, and money to support the police in complicated duties related to people with mental illnesses or drug issues. However, it stopped well short of demands made at nationwide protests. Andrew Bremberg, the US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said his country was open in its commitment to addressing racial discrimination and injustice, citing Trumps executive order. We call upon all governments to demonstrate the same level of transparency and accountability, he said. Sadly, there are too many places in the world where governments commit grave violations of human rights and practice systematic racial discrimination while many of those assembled in Geneva are silent. It remains to be seen whether the current draft resolution will pass. Australia, South Korea and the Netherlands all issued statements in the chamber that were broadly supportive of Washingtons outlook. We have confidence in their transparent justice systems to address these issues appropriately, Australias representative said. The UN Human Rights Councils 47 members are due to vote on the resolution following the urgent debate, which was set to conclude on Thursday. Wednesday marks only the fifth time in the councils 14-year history that it has agreed to hold an urgent debate, which is like a special session, but within a regular session of the council. By Denis Slattery | New York Daily News Albany, N.Y. Gov. Cuomo signed legislation Tuesday requiring New York State Police officers to wear body cameras while on patrol. The measure is one of several sweeping police reforms passed by the Democrat-led Legislature last week in the wake of widespread protests against police brutality and racism. The relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve isnt working, the governor said. New York is the progressive capital of the nation, and we are leading the way by enacting real reforms to increase transparency in policing, promote accountability among our law enforcement agencies and ultimately mend that frayed relationship between the police and the community. RELATED: Cuomo signs more police reform bills: Courts must report new data on race Under the new law, state troopers must wear body cameras and turn them on any time they are interacting with the public or responding to a call. Cuomo also signed a separate measure creating the Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office within the state Department of Law. The unit will review, study, audit and make recommendations to police agencies to help increase public safety and protect civil liberties and civil rights. Lawmakers approved a total of 10 police reform bills last week as civil unrest engulfed the nation over the death of George Floyd, a black man killed in Minneapolis when a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. On Friday, Cuomo signed four of those bills into law, including one repealing a statute known as 50-a that helped police departments shield officers disciplinary records. Other measures already signed by the governor include a ban on police chokeholds like the one used on Eric Garner, a black man who died on Staten Island in 2014 when a then-NYPD officer used the maneuver on him, and a bill outlawing false race-based 911 calls. Bills mandating cops report within six hours of discharging their gun and ensuring anyone in custody has access to either medical and mental health assistance were also signed by Cuomo on Monday. During a briefing at the Capitol earlier Tuesday, the governor stressed his belief that an executive order signed last week requiring local police departments to implement community-engaged police reforms by April 1 of next year or risk losing state funding will lead to change. We have 289 days to do the legislation on a local level, and once you have the legislation and you have a relationship that works for both parties, you can have reconciliation, Cuomo said. But this has to be done, and it has to be done community by community." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people from all walks of life in varying degrees, experts said. "While the virus does not choose people, the disease affects people very differently," said University of the Philippines College of Medicine professor Dr. Tony Dans. "What this pandemic has highlighted is there is so much inequity in society." In an online seminar or webinar hosted by CNN Philippines, speakers weighed in on the dilemma of workers and schools amid quarantine restrictions. Dans said the poor faces three concerns: lack of work, transportation and money to pay for medical services. He cited a survey that showed the road network is skewed towards car owners but only a fifth of the population have cars. Another expert said people are more inclined to go to work to earn rather than stay at home despite the risk of catching the virus. "With the economy that we have, no work no pay ang mga tao... Your choice becomes gutom ba o sakit [hunger or illness] and people would say I'd rather choose magkasakit kaysa sa magutom [to get sick rather than go hungry]," said Emmanuel Leyco, president of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. In the education sector, schools and government officials are also trying to balance the need for learning while addressing limited access to digital platforms. "We need to address the inequity that has been exposed but has been there all along - inequity in information access," said Dans. "Estimates suggest that almost 60 percent of Filipinos are not connected." Oscar Bulaong, a leaderhip and philosophy professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, said government plans must tackle the root of poverty during the crisis. "The problem of poverty is systemic so I am a little worried that we are hearing less of that conversation about how to alleviate poverty," Bulaong said. "I think the conversation has to continue about how to solve this in the context of risk management." Tonette Palma-Angeles, another Ateneo philosophy professor, said government systems should address the needs of the poor. "I think to a certain extent the pandemic showed some systemic weakness of the government," she said. "If we had good safety nets 'yung talagang mahihirap sana 'yung nasalo." [Translation: If we had good safety nets then the needs of the poor would have been covered.] Government agencies should move as one in contaning the virus and mitigate its impact on the economy, she added. For Dans, this should also be applied to the workplace. "We should allow people to work from home, we should increase sick leave benefits and social amelioration for people who are sick and we should provide healthcare," he said. "It is the responsibility of those who are less stressed to take care of those how are devastated by this pandemic," he added. WASHINGTON - For months, as the nation was convulsed by the impeachment of President Donald Trump, his critics held out hope that the congressional proceedings would unearth a high-level witness with first-person testimony about Trump's efforts to use his office to try to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations that could bolster him politically. Now, more than four months after Trump was acquitted by a Republican-led Senate, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton has emerged with just such an account in his new book, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir." In it, Bolton asserts that the delay in releasing $400 million in security assistance for Ukraine last summer was indeed an attempt by the president to get the foreign country to provide damaging material about former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former vice president Joe Biden. The former national security adviser cites personal conversations in which he describes a quid pro quo that Trump long denied, including an August meeting in which Bolton alleges that Trump made the bargain explicit. "He said he wasn't in favor of sending them anything until all Russia-investigation material related to Clinton and Biden had been turned over," Bolton writes. The Washington Post obtained a copy of Bolton's 592-page memoir, which is set to be released publicly June 23. The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the contents of the book. In an interview Wednesday night with The Wall Street Journal, Trump called his former national security adviser "a liar," and added that "everybody in the White House hated John Bolton." The administration has said the memoir contains classified material, which Bolton's attorney disputes. On Wednesday night, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to issue an emergency order to block the book's publication. During the impeachment process, lower-level officials testified that they believed Trump had sought to condition the security dollars on Ukrainian willingness to provide politically useful information about his opponents. In a July 25 phone call, Trump asked the country's newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to open investigations into Biden and the 2016 election. But Trump and Zelensky did not discuss the financial assistance on the call, and the White House has denied that the president connected the two issues. Many Senate Republicans argued that House impeachment managers failed to prove the case because numerous witnesses acknowledged they had not personally heard Trump say the two were linked. The remarkable after-the-fact account bolstering the core of the impeachment case will likely be cold comfort to Democrats who listened to Trump's defense team and Hill Republicans repeatedly dismiss hours of testimony, arguing that few of the witnesses who agreed to participate had spoken directly to Trump about Ukraine. They have accused Bolton of withholding an account crucial to the public's interest and instead saving it for a moneymaking memoir. "Bolton's staff were asked to testify before the House to Trump's abuses, and did. They had a lot to lose and showed real courage," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led the impeachment inquiry, tweeted Wednesday. "When Bolton was asked, he refused, and said he'd sue if subpoenaed. Instead, he saved it for a book. Bolton may be an author, but he's no patriot." For his part, Bolton is silent on whether he believes Trump's actions toward Ukraine merited impeachment - and pointedly critical of how Democrats handled an impeachment process that he refused to assist. But he writes that he found Trump's actions "deeply disturbing" and potentially illegal. Bolton portrays a president entirely captive to "conspiracy fantasies" about Ukraine spun by his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and whose approach toward a U.S. ally, according to Bolton, was entirely motivated by his own political fortunes instead of the national interest. "I thought the whole affair was bad policy, questionable legally and unacceptable as presidential behavior," Bolton writes. In an interview, Giuliani said that he had recommended Bolton for his White House post and spoken to him repeatedly while he was in office but that Bolton never told him directly that he was concerned about his activities. "I don't think anyone will ever trust him ever again," Giuliani said. In the book, Bolton defends his approach to the impeachment proceedings, claiming that Democrats oversaw a rushed, unnecessarily partisan process guided largely by the calendar of the party's presidential primaries. He blames them for narrowing the focus of the proceedings when what he called "Ukraine-like transgressions" existed across Trump's foreign policymaking, he said. Out of respect for the powers of the executive branch, Bolton said he would not testify without a court requiring him to do so, given that Trump and White House lawyers had ordered him not to appear. He blasts House Democrats for not issuing him a subpoena to testify or fully seeking to enforce a subpoena issued to his deputy that he says might have provided legal guidance for top Trump aides. As for the Senate, where Republicans chose to call no witnesses at all, he concludes that his account "would have made no significant difference" in Trump's acquittal - blaming Democrats' "impeachment malpractice" for poisoning the process, rather than the Republicans who never asked for his testimony. He writes that he wanted to tell his story in his own way and was determined to bide his time to do it. "I believed, as the line in Hamilton goes, that 'I am not throwing away my shot,' especially not to please the howling press, the howling advocates of impeachment or Trump's howling defenders," he writes. Still, while Bolton refused to defy the White House and testify without a court order, he nevertheless proceeded with publication of his book over Trump's vehement opposition. The president this week threatened that Bolton would have "criminal problems" if he released his memoir, saying it contains classified material. Bolton's attorney has denied that. The basics of Bolton's account about Ukraine have been known since January, when the New York Times published key details, citing people who had reviewed the book manuscript. But the book itself provides dramatic new details and quotes, suggesting that nearly all of Trump's top aides knew why the president was withholding the military dollars. Bolton writes that Trump had always been hostile to Ukraine, perceiving it as a roadblock to his desire for better relations with Moscow and a troublesome irritant best handled by Europe instead of the United States. He describes Trump as growing increasingly incensed by Ukraine in spring 2019, spun up by Giuliani to believe that the foreign country was working with Democrats against him. Bolton writes that on May 8, he was summoned to the Oval Office, where Trump was meeting with Giuliani, then-chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone. The group was discussing Giuliani's desire to meet with Zelensky to discuss Ukrainian investigations into Clinton and the 2016 election, as well as Biden and his son Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. "Even after they became public, I could barely separate the strands of the multiple conspiracy theories at work," Bolton writes. He says Trump came to conclude, without evidence, that Ukraine rather than Russia had been behind cyberhacks of Democratic officialsin 2016. During the May meeting, Bolton writes, Trump ordered him to call Zelensky and ask him to meet with Giuliani - a startling intermingling of Trump's personal agenda with the work of government officials. Bolton ignored the instruction, he wrote, and Giuliani ultimately canceled his planned trip to Kyiv after it was reported by the Times. Trump and Giuliani have both denied the meeting took place, or that Trump asked Bolton to call the Ukrainian president on Giuliani's behalf. Bolton describes Trump's beliefs about Ukraine as widely known by senior staff, particularly following an Oval Office meeting Trump held with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker, EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., after the group attended Zelensky's May 2019 inauguration. Bolton did not attend the meeting but said that his deputy, Charles Kupperman, reported that Trump railed against Ukraine, at one point telling the group, "Ukraine tried to take me down. I'm not f------ interested in helping them" and "I want the f------ DNC server," using an expletive to refer to a conspiracy theory about a Democratic Party server hacked by Russia that he claimed could be found in Ukraine. By the time Trump and Zelensky spoke on July 25, a phone call that prompted a whistleblower complaint and ultimately the president's impeachment, Bolton writes that it was clear to him that "the linkage of the military assistance to Giuliani's fantasies was already baked in." Bolton writes that on at least eight occasions, he, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper pressed Trump to release the money, speaking to him either individually or together. The Pentagon, asked about Bolton's characterization on Wednesday afternoon, declined to comment. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump made the reasons for his opposition explicit during an Aug. 20 meeting with Bolton, according to the book, when the president said he would not release the aid to Ukraine until he got information about his political enemies. Bolton writes that he suspected some of Giuliani's activities, including his effort to oust the well-respected U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, might have been driven by the interests of Giuliani's other clients, who were, unlike Trump, paying the former New York mayor. At one point, Bolton describes meeting with Mulvaney, Cipollone and other White House lawyers, to discuss whether Giuliani had "ethical problems," given attorney rules that bar using one client relationship to advance the interests of other clients. Bolton writes that the others determined that Giuliani's actions were "slimy" but not likely a violation of the rules. "So much for legal ethics," he writes. On Wednesday, Giuliani said that Bolton could easily have come to him with his concerns. "Not a word, not a peep," he said. "If he's telling the truth, and he really believes this, I think he's a complete backstabber." Bolton also alerted both Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr to his concerns, saying he called Barr on Aug. 1, a week after Trump told Zelensky by phone that he should work with Barr and Giuliani on investigations of Biden. Bolton writes that he briefed Barr on the conversation, including Trump's references to theattorney general. "I suggested he have someone rein Giuliani in before he got completely out of control," Bolton writes. Barr has denied learning of the call from Bolton, saying he learned of it only in mid-August. Bolton writes that Pompeo too was concerned about Giuliani's actions in Ukraine, telling Bolton at one point that there were "no facts to support" Giuliani's allegations that Yovanovitch was working against Trump's interests. Still, pressed by Trump, Pompeo abruptly ordered Yovanovitch, a 30-year career diplomat, to leave her post in April. Bolton insists that his own behind-the-scenes efforts to get Ukraine its financial assistance while working to curb Giuliani's influence was the most effective way to address Trump's improper behavior, rather than confronting the president more directly or resigning in protest over the episode. In his book, Bolton also confirms two of the most memorable revelations of the impeachment proceedings. He did tell adviser Fiona Hill that he did not want to be part of any "drug deal" being cooked up by Mulvaney and Sondland regarding Ukraine, he writes. And he said he warned colleagues that Giuliani was a "hand grenade" likely to blow up the White House, adding that the remark "still sounds right today." On Wednesday, Giuliani responded: "If I'm a hand grenade, then he's an atomic bomb." - - - The Washington Post's John Hudson and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report. People wearing face masks walk on the Bir-Hakeim Bridge near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, on March 27, 2020, on the 11th day of a lockdown in France aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus). The chief executive of energy giant BP said Wednesday that to get to net zero by 2050, the world would need to see lockdown-like reductions in carbon emissions every other year for the next 25 years. In the London-based oil and gas giant's annual Statistical Review of World Energy, the group said some aspects of global energy trends prior to the coronavirus pandemic had been "encouraging." It noted the continued strong growth of renewable energy, led by wind and solar power, which increased by a record amount to account for over 40% of the growth in primary energy last year. At the same time, coal consumption fell for the fourth time in six years, with its share in the global energy mix seen at its lowest level for 16 years. But, BP CEO Bernard Looney said in the report that other aspects of the energy system "continued to give cause for concern." That's because coal, one of the dirtiest forms of energy production, remains the single largest source of power generation, accounting for more than one-third of global power in 2019. Comparatively, renewable energy provides only 10% of global power, according to the report, and would need to grow even more strongly over the coming years to decarbonize the power sector. "More worrying is the trend for carbon emissions," Looney said. A West Australian brewery has said it will review its name following a nationwide controversy. A chain of bottleshops in the eastern states confirmed on Monday it would no longer stock Colonial Brewing Co's beers following complaints about the company's name. The company has its roots in Margaret River and was established in 2004. Blackhearts & Sparrows confirmed the brewery's beers would not be sold at their stores anymore and any profits from the sale of remaining stock would be donated to an Aboriginal protest group. The campaign prompted Colonial Brewing Co to review its name in a bid to "better understand what it means". (TNS) Missourians who file for unemployment benefits will be required to search for work again beginning next month.The Missouri Department of Labor waived the search requirement in March as the state scrambled to respond to massive, pandemic-related job losses.But beginning the week of July 5, the state will again require unemployment applicants each week to document three "work-search activities," such as filling out a job application or attending a job fair.State benefits max out at $320 per week; emergency federal benefits add $600 weekly, but expire July 25. State officials also are re-imposing a one-week waiting period for unemployment benefits, effectively delaying state payments to jobless workers by a week.And the department said it will once again charge employers for unemployment claims. To encourage stable employment, the state levies different tax rates on companies based on an "experience rate" it calculates using the number of unemployment claims filed by that firm's workers. It had waived those charges in March as companies shed workers by the tens of thousands.To avoid the experience rate charges, Missouri Department of Labor officials encouraged employers to report workers who refuse to return to work making them ineligible for unemployment benefits. The state also has a new online portal so employers can report wages paid via the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which some companies may have joined after laid-off employees had already applied for unemployment.The state's unemployment payments come out of a trust fund filled by unemployment taxes. In the Great Recession, it eventually ran dry, forcing the state to borrow from the federal government to shore it up. At the beginning of the year, it stood at just more than $1 billion. By April 30, it was only down to $923 billion.Monday's announcement comes even as Republican Gov. Mike Parson lifts restrictions meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus.The department of labor did not respond to a request for information about its decision.The minority leader in the Senate slammed the announcement, saying coronavirus cases continue to climb, resulting in the downsizing of factories, restaurants and other businesses."The Department of Labor should not be making it harder for people to get the help they need during a crisis that is far from over," said Sen. John Rizzo, D-Independence. "I implore Gov. Parson to do the right thing and put a stop to this harmful plan."Jobless claims continued to trend lower last week, though the nearly 20,000 applications remained at levels last seen during the Great Recession.The number of people on Missouri's regular unemployment rolls those approved and continuing to claim weekly benefits fell to 230,000 for the week ending May 30, down 12,000 from the week before.Missourians claiming benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the federal program that makes sole proprietors and others eligible for unemployment benefits, fell to 68,000 the week ending May 23, down from almost 84,000 the week before. Regular unemployment and the pandemic assistance are counted separately in Missouri.But job losses continue to mount. Two casinos in St. Louis County, both owned by Penn National Gaming, will lay off more than 750 employees in August, according to filings with the state. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office told Sunflower area residents to evacuate Tuesday after Gila County officials evacuated communities in Tonto Basin and Punkin Center on Monday. "As the Bush Fire spreads, people are having to leave their homes and move to other parts of the Valley," stated Andy Smith, U-Haul Company of Eastern Arizona president. "The fire is creating an immediate need for people to protect their belongings. We want to help any displaced families by providing free self-storage for one month through our disaster relief program." U-Haul has made 20 facilities in the East Valley available to offer assistance. People seeking more information about the U-Haul disaster relief program or needing to arrange 30 days of free self-storage should contact the nearest participating location: U-Haul Moving & Storage of Fountain Hills 9264 Technology Drive Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 (480) 837-9467 U-Haul Moving & Storage at Gilbert Heritage District 1230 N. Gilbert Road Gilbert, AZ 85234 (480) 635-9103 U-Haul Storage of Downtown Mesa 125 W. Hampton Ave. Mesa, AZ 85210 (480) 649-7147 U-Haul Moving & Storage of Downtown Mesa 447 W. Broadway Mesa, AZ 85210 (480) 733-7815 U-Haul Moving & Storage of East Mesa 6215 E. Main St. Mesa, AZ 85205 (480) 830-0150 U-Haul Moving & Storage at Falcon Field 1614 N. Higley Road Mesa, AZ 85205 (480) 654-2015 U-Haul Moving & Storage at Leisure World 457 S. Higley Road Mesa, AZ 85206 (480) 830-0800 U-Haul Moving & Storage at Main & Lindsay 2947 E. Main St. Mesa, AZ 85213 (480) 324-1120 U-Haul Moving & Storage of Mesa 219 E. McKellips Road Mesa, AZ 85201 (480) 834-4198 U-Haul Trailer Hitch Super Center of Mesa Phoenix 2945 E. Main St. Mesa, AZ 85213 (480) 981-4896 U-Haul Moving & Storage at Cave Creek 20618 N. Cave Creek Road Phoenix, AZ 85024 (602) 765-9600 U-Haul Moving & Storage of Power Ranch 7175 S. Power Road Queen Creek, AZ 85142 (480) 988-5825 U-Haul Moving & Storage at San Tan Mountains 6028 W. Hunt Hwy. Queen Creek, AZ 85142 (480) 987-0927 U-Haul Moving & Storage at Hayden Road 15455 N. 84th St. Scottsdale, AZ 85260 (480) 991-8948 U-Haul Storage of Apache Station 1905 E. Apache Blvd. Tempe, AZ 85281 (480) 967-3900 U-Haul Moving & Storage of Apache Station 2340 E. Apache Blvd. Tempe, AZ 85281 (480) 968-0493 U-Haul at Elliot Road 8162 S. Priest Drive Tempe, AZ 85284 (480) 940-0274 U-Haul Moving & Storage at Fairmont Drive 1010 W. Fairmont Drive Tempe, AZ 85282 (602) 635-7514 U-Haul Moving & Storage at Loop 202 & McClintock 800 N. McClintock Drive Tempe, AZ 85281 (480) 968-0961 U-Haul Storage of Tempe Town Lake 500 N. Scottsdale Road Tempe, AZ 85281 (480) 829-1153 With U-Box containers, you can conveniently pick up our custom-designed trailer and take your U-Box with you. U-Haul also can store your U-Box container in our secure warehouses or pick up and deliver it to a location of your choice. U-Haul offered one month of free self-storage on March 12 to all college students whose school schedules were interrupted by COVID-19. That offer is ongoing at U-Haul-owned and -operated storage facilities across the U.S. and Canada, and is subject to availability. As an essential service provider, U-Haul is open to meet the needs of its communities. For details on what U-Haul has done to enhance cleaning protocols, protect Team Members and customers, and encourage the use of programs that inherently promote social distancing and contactless business, please reference our multi-media press release: "Moving Safely and Smartly during the COVID-19 Pandemic." About U-Haul Since 1945, U-Haul has been the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers, with a network of 22,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 offers secure access to U-Haul trucks every hour of every day through the customer dispatch option on their smartphones and our proprietary Live Verify technology. Our customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to approximately 167,000 trucks, 120,000 trailers and 43,000 towing devices. U-Haul offers nearly 697,000 rooms and 60.7 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities throughout North America. U-Haul is the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry, and is the largest retailer of propane in the U.S. Contact: Andrea Batchelor Jeff Lockridge E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 602-263-6981 Website: uhaul.com SOURCE U-Haul Related Links www.uhaul.com We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Trump announces cutting U.S. troops in Germany to 25,000 People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:57, June 16, 2020 WASHINGTON, June 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the number of U.S. troops deployed in Germany would be reduced to 25,000 due to Germany's insufficient defense spending. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump confirmed the number of U.S. soldiers in Germany would reduce to 25,000. "Germany as you know is very delinquent in their payments to NATO," Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that U.S. troops would redeploy to Germany until it pays. Currently, there are about 35,000 U.S. troops deployed in Germany. Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell told German media outlet Bild Live last week that "American taxpayers no longer feel like paying too much for the defense of other countries." "There will still be 25,000 soldiers in Germany, that's no small number," added the Trump loyalist. U.S. media reported early this month that Trump had directed the Pentagon to reduce U.S. military presence in Germany by September, which drew oppositions among U.S. lawmakers. Last week 22 Republican members of Congress warned Trump that a significant force drawdown in Europe would serve Russia's interests at the expense of U.S. national security. The reduction might further strain the relations between Washington and Berlin. The two allies have been at odds with each other on Iran nuclear issues, Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, and defense burden-sharing, among others. Trump has been repeatedly complaining that U.S. allies exploited his country on defense spending. In his remarks to graduates of the United States Military Academy over the weekend, Trump emphasized the U.S. military is not the policemen of the world. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jun. 17 Trend: NGO Forum on ADB, a network of over 250 civil society organizations across Asia calls out the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to end its green posturing and make real commitments towards a Paris aligned policy and appropriate clean energy investments, Trend reports with reference to ADB. This demand coincides with this year's Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) 2020 which started yesterday, June 16. This year, ACEFs thematic focus is centered upon building an inclusive, resilient sustainable energy future, recovering and rebounding from the social and economic crisis of the pandemic. Yet, the stark reality is that the ADB's policies and practices effectively fail to reflect such a vision, undermining rather than upholding the just, appropriately scaled, and participatory energy transition urgently needed by these times. Rayyan Hassan, Executive Director of NGO Forum on ADB states that the ADB Energy Policy 2009 is draconian and outdated and heavily embedded in coal and fossil fuels. The old policy is a complete contradiction to the Paris Agreement! A new ADB Paris 1.5 degree aligned Energy Policy is urgently needed to support Asia's renewable energy pathway to reach its NDC targets. ADBs carbon-intensive energy portfolio is rooted in the fact that its clean energy agenda is a grave misnomer. There is no such thing like 'clean coal'- coal still stays the dirtiest energy resource. Even the newly announced Chinese Green Bonds will exclude so-called 'Clean Coal' projects from their portfolio. ADB should not stay behind, said Nora Sausmikat of Urgewald, a Germany based NGO. Although climate change is considered as a key issue in the ADB Energy Policy of 2009, the Bank itself admits that not all of its clean energy investments are considered climate investments. Without strict criteria for clean energy and a firm exclusion for the financing of coal projects, the 2009 Energy Policy has enabled the Bank to make dirty commitments, providing a crutch for the next generation of advanced coal and gas power plants. Gerry Arrances of Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) Philippines explained that ADB must pursue and promote a 1.5C Pathwayreaching a global CO2 emissions decline of 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, and net-zero CO2 emissions by mid-centurywithout false solutions. Hemantha Withanage from the Center for Environmental Justice, Sri Lanka said that ADB has spent over USD 5 billion for dirty coal power plants and it has a historical responsibility for climate-induced migration. It is expected that over 200 million will become climate refugees by 2050 and ADB should make its energy policies to reverse this situation. It is also undeniable that the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the climate crisis. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) report in 2017 on climate risk in Asia, it was estimated that global flood losses are expected to increase to $52 billion per year by 2050 from $6 billion in 2005. The ADB report also identified that food shortage due to climate impacts could increase the number of malnourished children in South Asia by 7 million. In the words of Sreedhar Ramamurthi, from Environics Trust, India: the ADB (as with most of the MDBs) seems to be desperate to make use of the crisis and enhance its opportunities to lend. The ADB must realize that bigger loans for the same kind of destructive mega infrastructure projects cannot help the people nor the economy. In the case of India, the ADB in its tick-box mentality, claim that the emergency COVID-19 fast track loans are in tune with the country strategy! I will caution the bank and appeal to the ADB Board to ensure safeguards are not compromised in the name of an emergency or unprecedented" situation. The greenwashing approach of ADB in the climate policy space is now apparent. ADBs climate responsibility is not in its statements in various global platforms but rather revealed through its energy sector investments. The ADB has heavily invested in fossil gas and related infrastructure in the last 3 years across Asia and is now facing the reality of stalled construction and rising environmental & social costs. There is also the issue of lack of meaningful consultations with local communities on project planning, and lack of pre-project information disclosure; two critical issues which have led to a disconnect from real sustainable development outcomes. It needs to be noted based on our assessment from 2010-2020 clean energy infrastructure in public health is an immediate need, which has seen nothing but neglect for a decade from the ADB, said the report. Vidya Dinker of India based Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) explained that "ADB has spent over 40 million USD in strengthening capacities in India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, etc., yet not a single Country Safeguard Systems (CSS) is optimal for Safeguard Policy Statement (SPS) delivery. We hope the ADB will continue to take responsibility for delivering its own SPS until CSS achieve equivalency as articulated in the SPS 2009." The future of ADB Energy investments is in renewable energy and community microgrids and it has no space for fossil fuels especially coal. The ADB should take a deep look at its lending portfolio in the energy sector and makes an immediate shift towards renewable energy pathways for a Paris Aligned COVID-19 recovery. Data suggests renewable energy will create more jobs and is cheaper to produce. Long-term investments in the sector are needed to ensure sustainable energy access for the most vulnerable. The age of fossil fuel baseload power generation has come to an end and ADB must take action in these last 10 years towards the 2030 IPCC P1 pathway, the bank said. Investors breathed a sigh of relief after equipment rental giant Ashtead pledged to pay out its 151million final dividend. The FTSE 100-listed group hailed a 'resilient' performance in the year to April 30. Ashtead, which rents out everything from generators and portable cabins to tools and cranes, suffered in the initial downturn in March and April, with profits almost halving in the final quarter. FTSE 100-listed group Ashtead hailed a 'resilient' performance in the year to April 30 But across the year as a whole, profits fell by a much smaller 4 per cent to 1.1billion, while rental revenue rose 8 per cent. Its businesses in the US, Canada and the UK, which operate under the 'Sunbelt' brand, have been deemed essential, and work has continued at a number of construction sites. It has also been providing vital equipment to first responders and hospitals, and products such as metal barriers that can be used to create socially distanced queuing areas. Stock Watch - Puretech Health The US Food & Drug Administration has given Puretech Health the all-clear for its Endeavor Rx video game to be prescribed to children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The treatment is targeted at eight to 12-year-olds, and clinical studies found parents saw a meaningful change in their children's ability to concentrate after a month. After two months, its effect was even greater. Shares in the FTSE 250-listed group rose 7.5 per cent, or 19.5p, to 259.5p. As well as not needing to furlough any staff it also hasn't had to make redundancies, which presumably fed into its decision to keep the dividend. With around half of Footsie companies having cut, axed, or deferred making decisions on their shareholder payouts, Ashtead's news was a boost for investors, who sent its stock soaring 9.6 per cent, or 232p, to 2649p. The share price is now nearly 10 per cent higher than at the start of the year. Traders will be hoping the same recovery is on the cards for the wider market too. After a downbeat start to the week the FTSE 100 advanced 2.9 per cent, or 178.09 points, to 6242.79 though it still has some way to go before it is out of the woods, being down around 17 per cent so far this year. The latest boost followed the US Federal Reserve's announcement on Monday that it would kick off a new round of bond-buying. Rumours are also doing the rounds that the US government is preparing an 800billion spending package to stimulate the economy. The FTSE 250 also climbed, rising 2.2 per cent, or 375.53 points, to 17464.70. Mid-cap cinema chain Cineworld was on the up after outlining its plans to reopen. Some UK sites will start showing films again towards the end of this month and it wants all of them to be open in July. It will also open the doors on a number of its cinemas in the US, ahead of the lucrative summer blockbuster season. It will bring in additional cleaning and social distancing measures, such as only having screens 50 per cent full, in British cinemas though it's not clear if popcorn and other snacks will be on sale. Shares rose 1 per cent, or 0.8p, to 79.74p. A clutch of firms all accelerated after sealing or coming close to sealing new contracts. Oil and gas services firm Wood Group jumped 9 per cent, or 18.9p, to 229.8p, after it won two solar deals in the US state of Virginia with an unnamed American power and energy company. Outsourcing heavyweight Capita leapt 7.6 per cent, or 3p, to 44p, after clinching a 9million contract with Irish Water to provide its customer support services with new software and other digital skills. The deal could be extended for another two years, which would net Capita a further 15million. And Clipper Logistics said it is close to inking an agreement with Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group, which owns Topshop and Burton, on a transport contract for its store delivery network, which would see Clipper making some 3,000 deliveries a week starting from August. Its stock rose 3.2 per cent, or 9.5p, to 305p. General Motors CEO and Chairman Mary Barra told CNBC on Wednesday she is "cautiously optimistic" about consumer demand returning as well as a global economic recovery as businesses continue to reopen following shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. "We've been pleasantly surprised how demand has come back," she said in a "Squawk Box" interview. Barra said the company is "hopeful that we'll have a strong recovery" overall but is planning for multiple scenarios "to make sure the company is strong from a business perspective and can weather any outcome." GM, according to Barra, remains committed to ride-sharing, specifically when it comes to autonomous vehicles. Some have speculated consumers won't want to utilize ride-sharing such as Uber and Lyft, which the company has a stake in, in the future due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Right now you're seeing people, for the most part, be very cautious in shared environments across many levels," she said. "I think as we move forward, ride-sharing will be important, and autonomous will be even stronger." Cruise, a majority-owned subsidiary of GM, unveiled in January a driverless, electric shuttle for ride-sharing called Origin. The automaker initially had plans to launch a self-driving fleet of vehicles last year in San Francisco but indefinitely delayed those plans for further testing. Her comments came a day after the company's annual shareholder meeting, where she promised the company will remain steadfast on its plans to invest $20 billion in all-electric and autonomous vehicles through 2025. The automaker is in the midst of reopening its North American production. Barra has said the company plans to get production back or close to pre-coronavirus levels by the end of this month. "The return to work has been going pretty well," Barra said Wednesday, adding she has visited eight plants to talk with employees and ensure they feel safe returning to work. "We're cautiously optimistic as we see demand resuming." A small amount of GM's salaried employees have returned to offices and other work sites. The company has not released an exact time frame for all of its salaried employees to return to work. Ford Motor said it expects to begin the process in September. Making an argument closely aligned with talking points from President Donald Trumps re-election campaign, Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, urged reporters Wednesday to place nationwide protests over racial injustice under the same scrutiny as the presidents first campaign rally in three months, an event set for Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where coronavirus cases have spiked in recent days. McEnany said the campaign was taking precautions including providing masks, hand sanitizer and conducting temperature checks at the rally. We are taking every single safety precaution we can, McEnany said. She admonished reporters, claiming shed taken 10 questions related to the event. You should exhibit that same concern for protesters out there who are not social distancing and, in many cases, not wearing masks. But it isnt just reporters asking about the rally. Some Tulsa officials are asking the president to postpone the rally or hold it outdoors. Oklahoma has seen two straight days of record-breaking increases in COVID-19 cases. Its the perfect storm of potential over-the-top disease transmission, Bruce Dart, the executive director of the Tulsa health department, told The New York Times. Its a perfect storm that we cant afford to have. Trump, his campaign, and McEnany on her personal Twitter account have boasted that 1 million people requested tickets for the event, at Tulsas BOK Center. The arena sits about 19,000. Trumps campaign has hammered those whove argued the rally could endanger people amid the pandemic. The campaign says critics, including Democratic lawmakers, havent leveled the same concerns at massive protests that have sprung up across the country over racial injustice and the death of George Floyd. Within 24 hours, Democrat Cory Booker went from praising large protests in the streets to saying President Trump shouldnt hold a rally. Who does he think hes fooling? pic.twitter.com/Wd4pc8M4t6 Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 & get the APP (@TrumpWarRoom) June 11, 2020 Trump claimed on Twitter Monday that the Far Left Fake News Media, which had no Covid problem with the Rioters & Looters destroying Democrat run cities, is trying to Covid Shame us on our big Rallies. Wont work! Reports from several national and local outlets across the country note that public health experts have warned that mass gatherings following Floyds death would likely lead to new coronavirus cases. Countless protestors and law enforcement officials have adorned face coverings when participating in demonstrations in dozens of cities in recent weeks, and in some communities like Boston, police have handed out masks to individuals who do not have them. Black Lives Matter Boston and Violence in Boston have urged anyone who is at high risk due to COVID-19 to stay home. Organizers also asked participants wear gloves and masks and bring hand sanitizer at multiple protests and vigils. The New York Times reported earlier this month that epidemiologists estimated each day of protests could result in about 3,000 infections. At current transmission rates, Trever Bedford, an expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said those 3,000 infections would lead to 15,000 to 50,000 more, and 50 to 500 eventual deaths that would disproportionately impact black people. The registration page for tickets to Trumps rally includes a disclaimer at the bottom requiring attendees to voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19. Such risks are part of life, McEnany said on Wednesday. State officials in Oklahoma on Tuesday confirmed 228 new coronavirus cases a new state record amid a trend thats prompted doctors to urge caution, according to The Oklahoman. On Wednesday, state officials reported 259 new cases, another new record in daily increases. We have reached a peak that is higher than at any other point in the pandemic here in the state, Dr. Dale Bratzler, University of Oklahoma Colleges of Medicine and Public Health chief enterprise quality officer, told The Oklahoman. We are bending the curve sadly in the wrong direction. Almost half of the cases that occurred a few days ago came out of Tulsa County. Theyve had a very, very large spike in new cases. Over 1M ticket requests for the @realDonaldTrump #MAGA Rally in Tulsa on Saturday. Before entering each guest will get: Temperature check Hand sanitizer Mask There will be precautions for the heat and bottled water as well. Brad Parscale (@parscale) June 15, 2020 Brad Parscale, Trumps campaign manager, said earlier this week that before entering, each guest will receive a temperature check, hand sanitizer and a mask. There will be precautions for the heat and bottled water as well, he said. The rally was originally slated for Friday, June 19, but was changed to Saturday amid criticism that the event would be held on Juneteenth, the annual celebration of the full emancipation of slaves in the U.S. As of Wednesday, more than 2.1 million Americans have contracted COVID-19. More than 117,000 have died, and about 580,000 have fully recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University. Related Content: The Middle East Institute invites artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey and its diaspora to submit artwork for the upcoming exhibition Washington DC-based Middle East Institutes (MEI) Arts and Culture Center has announced that it is accepting entries for its upcoming exhibition titled 'Art in Isolation: Creativity in the Time of COVID-19,' which will be held at MEI's gallery between 23 September 2020 and 13 January 2021. The Institute accepts works by "emerging, mid-career, and established artists from the MENAT region (i.e. Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey) and its diaspora," the MEI reveals on its website. "The exhibition, organised in response to the impact of the global pandemic on artists, seeks to benefit artists from the region through the sale of artwork presented. Participating artists will receive 70 percent of sales, in line with MEIs Arts and Culture Centres mission to promote Middle Eastern artists." The submission deadline is 12 July 2020, 11:59 pm EST The artists will be notified by 24 July at the latest and the shipment of their works to Washington will take place in August. To learn more about the exhibition criteria and how to submit the artwork, please visit the Middle East Institute: Arts and Culture Centre's website. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArtsand on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: The provincial government should prepare for a legal fight if it intends to stand by its position that on-reserve gaming centres allowing smoking will not reopen. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us The provincial government should prepare for a legal fight if it intends to stand by its position that on-reserve gaming centres allowing smoking will not reopen. While VLT lounges, bingo halls, billiard rooms and other indoor amusement centres may get the go-ahead to reopen under Phase 3 of the provinces proposed economic roadmap for recovery plan, Premier Brian Pallister has made it clear that will not be the case for the approximately 30 centres allowing smoking. Jerry Daniels "We will not be proceeding to open smoking VLT facilities," Pallister said at his news conference late last week. The on-reserve gaming centres were grandfathered with smoking allowed because they existed prior to the Non-Smokers Health Protection Act, which passed in 2004. Grand Chief Jerry Daniels, who heads the Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO), said the move is yet another instance of Pallister overstepping. "Its a jurisdictional dispute," Daniels said. In March, Pallister said the province "absolutely" has jurisdiction. "But Im not proposing to act unilaterally. I want to be very clear on that. I have great respect for our chiefs and I want to work with them," he said then, adding the government had already been speaking with regional chiefs on the issue. At the time, Swan Lake First Nation Chief Francine Meeches a member of the SCO said: "We are federally run, federally funded. He needs to keep his nose out of our business." Pallister again said last week that he has spoken with affected leaders. "I dont know who hes talked to, because he hasnt talked to me. I havent spoken with any of his ministers in any official capacity for months now, mostly because theyre unwilling to move on this tobacco rebate," Daniels said. "This adds fuel to that fire." Included on Daniels list of areas where the province has allegedly overstepped is the tobacco tax rebate system. Previously, the province rebated 90 per cent of the provincial sales tax when First Nations bought tobacco products from wholesalers. Now its a 40/60 split, said Daniels. Pallister made that change. In March, member chiefs of the SCO confirmed support for Brokenhead Ojibway Nations legal challenge of the provinces new version of Tobacco Tax Rebate program. For many reserves, the only independent source of revenue is through the tobacco tax rebate, VLT centres, and from the sale of confectionery and gas. "Thats our start-up money. Thats our money to diversify into other areas so we can work as real partners in this province and in this country," Daniels said. Further, Daniels said First Nations have a long-standing disagreement with the province about VLTs. He said the province cornered the market on VLTs, not allowing VLTs onto First Nations without the provinces say including only being able to use province-owned VLT machines. "They actually mark up the price on the VLTs, so theyre making money that way by imposing a higher tax on us for the VLTs. We could go to another provider or produce our own gaming systems and have higher returns on that," Daniels said. Daniels added the province does not play a role in supporting First Nations with any of the social issues they face on reserves. Yet, Pallisters actions on this matter seem to indicate it wishes to. "We inherited these rules which allow smoking," Pallister said. "Weve got to get rid of them, and this is the time to do it in keeping with our consistent and unifying desires to see people kept healthy and well." But Daniels said Pallisters talk is empty rhetoric. Where was Pallister with regards to First Nations during COVID-19? asked Daniels. Not to mention the issue Pallister is currently pressing was put to rest 10 to 15 years ago when the NDP tried to abolish smoking at on-reserve gaming centres. Brokenhead Ojibway Nation decided to take the province to court on the matter. The government backed off. "They knew if it went to court, First Nations jurisdiction would prevail," Daniels said. Daniels said First Nations havent been pushing back, but they will. "Even the First Nations that are successful (in the province), its a fraction of the kind of economic development that were seeing south of the border," he said. He also asserts Pallister is attempting to do indirectly what he does not have the authority to do directly. "There are other ways to go about this (smoking issue)," Daniels said, such as providing education and tools to make better choices. Daniels said First Nations would prefer not to go the costly and time-consuming court route, but they are prepared to. SCO chiefs also resolved in March to explore the creation and implementation of an Anishinaabe and Dakota-led Liquor, Gaming, and Cannabis Authority. 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. Chron.com is following the latest headlines on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Houston area. 8:30 a.m. As of Tuesday evening, the statewide total of COVID-19 cases from Monday increased by 4.95 percent, or 4,487 cases, for a total of 95,100, according to the Houston Chronicle's data team. This marks the largest single-day increase for new cases in the state and is 77 percent bigger than the previous single-day record. The new single-day record was driven by "huge increases" in Anderson and Brazoria County as well as high numbers of new cases in larger counties, per the Chronicle's data team. The statewide death toll also surpassed a milestone and is now past the 2,000 threshold. During this day-over-day period, the state reported 48 new deaths, bringing the death count to 2,045. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Texas set a new record for COVID-19 hospitalizations in four of the last five days, officials said. Hospitals are scrambling to accommodate the spike. In the Houston region, cases increased by 5.2 percent or 1,224 cases, marking the largest single-day increase for the region. The region is now at 24,792 confirmed cases total and 11 more deaths, bringing the number to 433. Harris County saw a 2.5 percent increase or 425 new cases and is now at 17,707 cases total. While confirmed cases and COVID-19-related hospitalizations continue to trend upward in the Houston-area, Gov. Greg Abbott said during a Tuesday press conference he still plans to move forward with the state's reopening plan and that the region's hospital capacity is still "abundant." "As we begin to open up Texas and Texans returns to their jobs, we remain laser-focused on maintaining abundant hospital capacity," Abbott said. "The best way to contain the spread of this virus is by all Texans working together and following simple safety precautions." NOTE: The numbers included in this report represent a one-day change in confirmed cases from Monday, June 15 through Tuesday, June 16. rebecca.hennes@chron.com The United Arab Emirates can work with Israel on some areas, including fighting the new coronavirus and on technology, while still having political differences with the state, a senior official said on Tuesday. Addressing a conference of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) advocacy group, minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said communication with Israel was important and would yield better results than other routes taken in the past. His question and answer session, described as historic by the AJC, occurred days after another senior official made a rare appeal to the Israeli public by having an article published in Hebrew in Israels leading newspaper. The official said Israel cannot expect to normalise relations with the Arab world if it annexes land in the occupied West Bank. Can I have a political disagreement with Israel but at the same time try and bridge other areas of the relationship? I think I can and I think this is fundamentally where we are, said Gargash, who has previously said the Arab decision not to have contact with Israel was wrong. He added that cooperation on the challenge posed by the Covid-19 pandemic does not affect the UAEs opposition to the proposed annexation or other political issues. Israel has no diplomatic relations with Gulf Arab countries, but common concerns over Irans regional influence have led to a limited thaw in ties. In May, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad made the first known flight by a UAE carrier to Israel, carrying coronavirus-related aid for the Palestinians. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab states that have peace deals with Israel. The Israeli government intends to begin debating on July 1 the annexation plan, which would apply Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. In the newspaper article, the UAEs ambassador to Washington said annexation would upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and the UAE. The Jewish community in the UAE has recently taken on a more public profile. A new kosher food delivery service was covered in national newspapers, and a group called the Jewish Community of the UAE opened a Twitter account in late May. The group released a video, shared on Twitter by the UAE ambassador to London, featuring a Hebrew prayer for the UAE leadership. We want to see a region that is more stable. A region that can resolve its issues over a negotiating table, Gargash said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Historic changes to the transparency of NYPD disciplinary records and the speed at which cops are investigated for misconduct were laid out in detail Wednesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio. For the nations largest police force to take these actions sends a message not only to the people of this city but to people all over this country that we can do things very differently, de Blasio said. In Albany, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday signed an executive order requiring about 500 local police agencies across New York to implement a plan by April 1, 2021 that addresses police reform. OPEN DISCIPLINARY RECORDS In July, the disciplinary records of about 1,100 pending cases against NYPD officers for alleged misconduct will be released online, in a way thats easy to access. The database will include inner-departmental information included names of officers, the charges against them, hearing dates, and any other formal actions taken against officers, de Blasio said. An even more comprehensive list including past disciplinary actions will be rolled out in the months ahead. Too often...people simply felt that no matter how right they were, no matter how wrong the thing that happened to them, there would be no consequence, de Blasio said. When people dont think theres going to be justice, how is there going to be trust? The citys new policy is made possible by state legislators repealing 50-A, a section of New York law dating back about 45 years that allowed police, fire and corrections departments to conceal disciplinary and personnel records. The president of the citys largest police union responded to the announcement Wednesday, saying the move shows that the citys Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) process does absolutely nothing to protect police officers. It allows employers to release whatever they want, whenever and however they want, said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch. Pat Lynch on the effect of the anti-police movement: Our politicians want us to walk away from our communities and abandon you. pic.twitter.com/aGSDtgh4CL NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) June 9, 2020 BODY CAM FOOTAGE NOW RETROACTIVE De Blasio announced Wednesday that the release of body-worn camera footage in certain police-involved situations will be mandatory, and no longer at the discretion of the NYPD. Additionally, audio and video of prior incidents that meet the criteria -- dating back to when the program first was initiated -- also will be released to the public. Body-worn cameras became mandatory for NYPD officers several years ago, when U.S. District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled as unconstitutional the NYPDs controversial stop-and-frisk program because it allegedly targeted minorities. The initiative, however, was rolled out slowly over the course of several years, and later came with several exceptions as to how often they were worn and which footage would be made available to the public. The first protocols in 2019 allowed the department broad authority when deciding if footage should be made public, and the extent to which it would be censored or redacted. Some members of the NYPD have in the past touted the use of the cameras to defend officers accused of misconduct in a situation when they were defending their own lives. In a poignant display, protestors take a kneel and hold a moment of silence. pic.twitter.com/nfWUbCTOXZ Joseph Ostapiuk (@OstapiukJ) June 14, 2020 FASTER INVESTIGATIONS De Blasio on Wednesday outlined a new timeline for officers accused of crimes against civilians. If an officer is accused of misconduct, the police commissioner will have 48 hours to determine if they should be placed on modified duty or suspended. The Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) would then have two weeks to conduct an investigation. Additionally, IAB will have to file charges within 18 months for administrative violations. However, theres no limit on time to file for conduct that would criminal. Lynch railed against the proposal, saying that instead of affording officers due process, it amounts to no process. The only way to complete every investigation even large and complex ones within an arbitrary political deadline is to predetermine the outcome in every case, Lynch said. In the current environment, every police officer knows what that outcome will be. Phal Dam, a journalist with local television TV3 based in Ratanakkiri province, northeast Cambodia, was summoned to appear in court on Monday, June 15 following his story on a land dispute over an abandoned Ratanakkiri airport site. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) regrets the summon and urges all sides to respect press freedom. The provincial court had summoned Dam after the Put Dany, the Deputy Governor pf Banlung town, the capital city of Ratanakkiri province, filed a complaint against the journalist. Dam was alleged to have engaged in incitement to commit a felony in his story on land clearing at an abandoned of Ratanakkiri airport site. Dam had witnessed the clearing of land belonging to the airport. He interviewed residents and also attempted to contact Banlung city and Ratanakkiri provincial officials, who did not respond to his questions. When Dams report was aired two weeks ago, he had not received any complaints or corrections from the authorities. Dam has applied for an extension to appear before court and said that reason for the summons was unclear. The journalist has been unable to afford a lawyer and will request the Information Ministry to provide him one. He will also ask the court to delay his questioning. The IFJ said: Disputes over coverage published in the media should be resolved by journalists exercising their rights to correct articles or a right of reply, if there is a basis to the complaints. IFJ urges the authorities to withdraw the summon and respect journalists rights and due process. More than 80 human rights groups from around the world have called on Beijing to scrap its plan to impose draconian subversion legislation on Hong Kong, saying the move will destroy freedoms promised to the city under the 1997 handover agreement. China has said it will impose national security legislation targeting "actions and activities" deemed subversive, seditious, instigated by foreign forces, or supportive of independence, on the city. Now, more than 80 civil society groups said in a joint letter published by the New York-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the planned law is a "devastating assault on human rights" and should be abandoned. "China should abandon this effort to impose a national security law on Hong Kong immediately," HRW China director Sophie Richardson said in a statement. "No government should invoke national security as a justification for repression." In a move widely condemned by foreign governments and rights groups as signaling the end of Hong Kong's autonomy and status as a separate legal jurisdiction, the law will be imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, bypassing Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LegCo). The move has been widely criticized by foreign governments as being in breach of China's obligations under the 1984 treaty governing the 1997 handover of Hong Kong, and as paving the way for further political prosecutions of peaceful critics of the government, democracy campaigners, and rights activists. Chen Yue, head of the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, which signed the open letter, said: "We are very worried that this law will be used to target and persecute dissidents and human rights organizations." "But with enough international pressure, I think it may still be possible to influence Beijing." Beijing claims the move was made necessary by months of street protests and clashes sparked by Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam's plans to allow extradition to mainland China. Lam withdrew that legal amendment after months of protest, but pro-democracy politicians and activists say the new law will further erode the city's promised freedoms of expression and association, as it will allow China's feared state security police to operate in Hong Kong, a move which was explicitly banned by the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law. The legislation is likely to be discussed at a forthcoming meeting of China's National People's Congress standing committee from June 18-20, or at a special session at the end of the month, according to the open letter. 'Brought in to terrify' While the details of the forthcoming legislation remain unclear, comparable legislation in the mainland criminalizes overly broad, vague "offenses" that can encompass any criticism of the government and be used against people peacefully exercising and defending their human rights, the letter said. Civic Party lawmaker Jeremy Tam said the law is being brought in to terrify the people of Hong Kong, following months of mass protests sparked by plans to erode the city's freedoms by allowing extradition to mainland China. "The whole thing is very clear," Tam said. "They want to use this national security legislation to create an atmosphere of fear [so nobody speaks or acts against the government]." "This is an attack on the entire pro-democracy faction [in LegCo], whether it be through their candidacy or their ability to continue in politics," he said. The letter came as pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong hit out at comments by the city's constitutional affairs secretary Erick Tsang, who suggested that candidates in September's Legislative Council (LegCo) elections could be disqualified if they fail to support the new law. Tsang told reporters that while the decision on whether to debar electoral candidates isn't his to make, it should be "only natural" to expect them to support the new law. No room left for dissent Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai said Tsang's comments showed that the government is no longer willing to tolerate dissenting views in politics. "This shows the government only accepts one voice," Wu said. "[Anyone] who has a different view becomes someone who challenges [the] Chinese regime." Meanwhile, a recent statement from Beijing's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) gave an indication of the kinds of political speech and actions that would be considered criminal under the law, mentioning former 2014 pro-democracy student leader Joshua Wong, who now leads the political group Demosisto, by name. "Joshua Wong and Isaac Cheng of Demosisto are adding another chapter to their criminal record," the office said in a statement on its website, blaming "black hands" and "foreign influences" for corrupting the city's youth. Demosisto recently announced it would run an unofficial referendum on the national security law, something that the authorities have dismissed, saying "there is no such thing." "[Civic Party] lawmaker Alvin Yeung has also shamelessly incited young people to keep going, saying that the best people see something through until the end," the HKMAO statement said. "The core values of Hong Kong must be such that all remarks that incite "independence of Hong Kong" and violence will disappear in schools," it said. Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Twenty Indian Army men, including officers, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with Chinese People's Liberation Army troops at Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the Indian Army said on Tuesday. Sources said that the death toll is likely to go up as many soldiers have been brutally injured. Indian Army issued a statement on Tuesday night wherein it said, "17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20." The force further stated that Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged in the Galwan area where they had earlier "clashed on the night of June 15 and June 16, 2020." The force further stated that Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. An unprecedented violent clash took place in Galwan Valley at the Line of Actual Control with Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers attacking a small group of Indian Army men on patrol, resulting in fatalities which included the commanding officer of the Indian Army. The intensity of the fight increased with reinforcements from the both sides and it continued until late night till the time they got exhausted. Many Indian soldiers went missing during the fight. Early on Tuesday morning, both Indian and Chinese top military officials rushed and called for a meeting to defuse the situation. These are the first casualties faced by the Indian Army in clash with the People's Liberation Army since 1975 when an Indian patrol was ambushed by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh. Earlier in the day, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the prevailing situation in Eastern Ladakh. Singh met Modi after he held a meeting with External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, and the three service chiefs in the South Block here to review the situation. Singh asked the service chiefs to explain the current situation in Galwan Valley and what course of action could be taken from hereafter diplomatically. Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane was to visit Kashmir on Tuesday morning but following Monday night's developments at the LAC, it was cancelled. Sources in Indian Army stated: "The Defence Minister reviewed the current operational situation in Eastern Ladakh, consequent to Monday's violent faceoff on the Line of Actual Control along with the Chief of Defence Staff and the three service chiefs. The External Affairs Minister was also present during the meeting." It is yet to be ascertained as to how many Chinese soldiers were killed in the clash, but the MEA spokesperson has stated that "both sides suffered casualties". On Monday, Brigade Commander and company level talks happened in Eastern Ladakh between India and China. The talks were happening near patrolling point 14 near the mouth of Galwan Valley and patrolling point 17 in the Hot Springs area. ROME - ''The Italian government is appalled by the recent discovery of several mass graves in the city of Tarhouna, Libya'', according to a statement published on the website of the Italian foreign ministry on Tuesday. ''In line with the recent statements of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, EU High Representative Josep Borrell and the UNSMIL mission, Italy calls for an independent and transparent inquiry in order to identify perpetrators and hold them accountable''. ''Italy calls on all parties involved in the Libyan conflict to fully respect human rights and international humanitarian law'', the statement stressed. The Supreme Court has come down heavily on the Delhi government for harassing and threatening doctors raising concerns about the situation of the hospitals in the national capital. The Supreme Court warned the Delhi government not to "shoot the messenger" after an FIR was lodged against a doctor for video-graphing and disclosing the situation prevailing in a government hospital in north Delhi and suspended for sharing the video. AP The authorities should stop harassing him, it said. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan observed that doctors and nurses are corona warriors and they need to be protected. The top court was hearing the matter in which it had taken suo motu (on its own) cognisance on the treatment being meted out to COVID-19 patients and handling of bodies in hospitals. Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Delhi government, told the top court that they are committed to patient care, managing of dead bodies and increasing the number of COVID-19 tests in the national capital. AP The bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and M R Shah, was informed by Jain that after the recent visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to LNJP Hospital, things are being improved. The top court, while referring to the poor management of COVID-19 patients and handling of dead bodies earlier, told the Delhi government to redeem all this which was done earlier. The bench told the Centre that they must have a policy on discharge of COVID-19 patients in tune with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines. BCCL On June 12, the top court while taking note of the reports of horrific scenes at Delhi's COVID-19 dedicated LNJP hospital where bodies are being stacked next to coronavirus patients, had said that it indicated the sorry state of affairs in government hospitals. The apex court had directed Chief Secretaries of the Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat to take "remedial action" ensuring proper management of patients at hospitals. The court had issued notices to the Centre and the four states observing that apart from Delhi, the situation was grim at the hospitals there as well vis-a-vis treatment of coronavirus patients and handling of the bodies. BCCL On handling of the bodies of COVID-19 victims, the top court said there was no proper adherence to the guidelines of the health ministry and the hospitals are not giving due care and concern to the dead bodies. The top court had also wondered about the fewer COVID tests being conducted in Delhi and asked the government to ensure that there should be steep increase in the testing both by Government hospitals and private labs as non-testing of the patients is not a solution to the problem. WASHINGTON Scores of long-neglected maintenance projects at Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and hundreds of other national parks dotting the country are one step closer to being addressed. The Senate on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that would dedicate billions in revenue paid to the federal government from oil and gas exploration fees through the Land and Water Conservation Fund to cover a mounting backlog of park projects now approaching $12 billion. The vote was 73-25. The bill now heads to the House. The money, up to $1.9 billion per year, was always intended to cover maintenance projects but has often been diverted for other congressional priorities. The Great American Outdoors Act the Senate passed would require half of those revenues be spent on park maintenance over the next five years. A hiker climbs down Zion National Park's Angels Landing trail. The national park in Utah has a backlog of maintenance projects surpassing $67 million. "This isn't a bill that just benefits the East or the West, a bill that just benefits the coastal states or the interior states," said Colorado GOP Sen. Cory Gardner, the bill's lead sponsor. "The entire country, from Hawaii to Alaska (and) from Florida to Maine, everywhere in between, benefits from the Great American Outdoors Act." West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who helped craft the measure, called it "one of the most important things we've done in the conservation world in the last 50 years. So we're very proud of that." Some conservative groups and Republican lawmakers opposed the bill, saying that without cuts in other parts of the budget, the legislation would further add to the national debt. "This legislation will add over $17 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years," Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Enzi said Monday. He had proposed a new fee on visas for foreign visitors to raise money for park maintenance but the Senate did not accept his amendment. The bill's passage, a rare moment of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, marks a long-sought victory for preservationists who have fought for years to use money generated from fossil fuel production for environmental benefits. Story continues "Park roads and bridges are collapsing, water systems are failing, and visitor centers are crumbling," said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO for National Parks Conservation Association. "This momentous bill not only provides an opportunity to better care for these treasured places, it will help to increase access to public lands across the country, provide jobs and bring much-needed relief to local communities suffering through hard times." More: 'Game changing' conservation bill awaits vote in Congress Every state, several U.S. territories and the District of Columbia have projects on the list. Nearly two dozen, including Yellowstone in Wyoming, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the National Mall in Washington, Yosemite National Park in California and the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi have a backlog well above $100 million. Examples of disrepair that ruin the park experience are commonplace, advocates say. And it's not just parkways offering majestic views or hiking trails that allow close encounters with wildlife. Critical infrastructure sewer systems, visitor centers, bathrooms and campgrounds are on the list of expensive fixes. The issue has broad appeal. A Pew survey last year found that eight of 10 registered voters support using oil and gas revenues to cover the maintenance backlog. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Great American Outdoors Act passes Senate, provides billions for parks Local councillor Erin McGreehan has called for the next Government to announce at least one but ideally two more Bank Holidays before the end of the year as soon as possible. Cllr McGreehan feels that it would boost the tourist industry and boost local economies, an increased number of bank holidays can generate economic activity and jobs. It is also true that Ireland has a lesser number of public holidays than most of our European Union counterparts so possibly this could be more than just a once off. The North Louth Councillor believes that we must be innovative to think differently and by having an extra bank holiday you are giving people an opportunity to go away for the weekend, the boost of that to our local economy would be fantastic. We have missed out on three bank holidays this year due to Covid Lockdown. It would give us extra time to get out to our cafes and restaurants, shop in our local shops and enjoy our beautiful Island. Hundreds gathered outside the office of Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins on Monday calling on her to reopen cases where Black men in Boston were killed by law enforcement. The rally, organized by Mass Action Against Police Brutality specifically mentioned the cases of Terrence Coleman and Usaamah Rahim. The heart of this fight can be addressed with no legislation at all," said Brock Satter and organizer for Mass Action Against Police Brutality. "Actually, all that has to happen is the people who have the power to indict, they need to indict and prosecute zealously for truth, for justice and for the rights of the people. Thats their job. And so we say that to Rachael Rollins. Reopen the case! Demonstrators outside of the Suffolk County District Attorneys office, calling for DA Rachael Rollins to reopen the cases of Terrence Coleman and Usaamah Rahimtwo Black men in Boston, killed by law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/krihJbH38c Quincy J. Walters (@quincyjwalters) June 16, 2020 Protesters chanted Reopen the case!" and held signs that echoed similar sentiments. The mothers of each men, Hope Coleman and Rahimah Rahim, spoke at the event on Monday. I need you to help us to jail and convict the killers of my son, and the other sons, Rahim said. I need you to add your voices to the outcry against these unlawful police. They kill, and then they want qualified immunity. Federal prosecutors linked Usaamah Rahim to terrorism. Rahim, police said, was carrying a knife before he was shot on June 2, 2015. The overwhelming evidence gathered and analyzed during the course of the past year proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Mr. Rahim was armed with a large, military-style knife and posed the threat of death or serious injury to the Task Force officers at the time of the shooting, Conley said at the press conference at the time. Rahimah Rahim, a nurse in Boston for more than four decades, called the killing an assassination by plain clothes agents. Coleman was shot and killed in the early morning of Oct. 30, 2016, shortly after his mother called 911 seeking help for her son, who she said suffered schizophrenic paranoia. In a report, police say Hope Coleman had contacted her sons therapist, as well as Tufts Medical Center. Experts at Tufts reportedly said her son should be brought to the hospital by ambulance. Coleman said she called for an ambulance but police arrived first. I said, I didnt call for you. I called for the ambulance, Coleman said through tears on Monday. Two EMT responders arrived at the apartment shortly after while police waited outside. Police said Coleman became violent, attacking one of the EMT responders with a knife, the other responder called for the police outside. Former Suffolk D.A. Daniel Conleys report that said the shooting was warranted described officers attempting to pull Coleman onto his back and asking for him to drop the knife. Boston Police Officer Kevin Finn reportedly wrestled on top of Coleman. Officer Garrett Boyle then ordered Finn to get clear of Coleman, and then fired two shots at the 31-year-old, the report said. We dont care if it didnt happen under your tenure, that almost makes it worse, Satter said. "That means that this justice has been denied even longer. Posted by Mass Action Against Police Brutality on Tuesday, 16 June 2020 Last week, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh declared racism to be a public health crisis in the city. The mayor also announced he would propose the reallocation of 20% of the Boston Police Departments fiscal year 2021 overtime budget, or about $12 million, to be invested instead in community programs for youth, for homelessness, for people struggling with the effects of inequality. Related Content: The vaccine has been developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov says President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered to urgently start talks to preorder the COVID-19 vaccine, which was successfully tested by Oxford scientists. Read alsoZelensky elaborates on access to COVID-19 vaccine for Ukrainians "This process is under way. This is important to us that Ukraine be one of the first countries where the respective vaccine, which has passed all clinical trials, will also be used," he said at a briefing on June 17, as reported by the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda. Zhyttya ("Life"). This refers to the vaccine that has been developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca jointly with the University of Oxford. As UNIAN reported earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the results of Oxford scientists' study of dexamethasone, which can help in the treatment of patients with a complex form of the coronavirus. Scientists say the medication may be a "surprisingly cheap" means to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Dexamethasone has been used since the 1950s to treat rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, eye inflammation, and cerebral edema. 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 Army Jawan from Himachal killed in Indo-China clash at LAC, village grieves his loss India oi-Madhuri Adnal Hamirpur (HP), June 17: A pall of gloom descended on Karohta village when tragic news reached here about the demise of Sepoy Ankush Thakur in a fierce clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan valley of Ladakh. The 21-year-old sepoy was recruited to the Punjab Regiment in 2018 and was a resident of Karohta, a village in Bhoranj subdivision. Slain Army officer fulfilled his father's personal dreams India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News His father and grandfather had also served in the Indian Army. Thakur has a younger brother who is studying in class six. Twenty Indian soldiers were reported to have been killed in the violent clash between India and China on Monday night in the Galwan valley. As soon as the information about jawan's martyrdom was given through phone by the Army Headquarters to the Gram Panchayat Karohta, people started raising anti-China slogans. People rushed to Thakur's house once the news of his demise reached the village and they expressed condolences to his family. Ward Panch, Vinod Kumar of Gram Panchayat Kadhota said that he had received a call from the Army Headquarters informing that Thakur was killed in the clash. Thakur's body would be given a state funeral, an official spokesman here on Wednesday. He has been spending one-on-one time with his kids throughout lockdown, often with bicycle rides around Los Angeles. And it was Arnold Schwarzenegger's 22-year-old bodybuilder son Joseph Baena's turn on Wednesday morning as the two were spotted riding around the Brentwood neighborhood of of Los Angeles. The 72-year-old former Governor of California rode around without a helmet as he led the way. Father and son! Arnold Schwarzenegger was spotted on a morning bike ride with his son, Joseph Baena, around Los Angeles on Wednesday morning Movie star Arnold sported a padded long sleeved top and a pair of shorts for the outing. The grandpa-to-be wore closed toe shoes and accessorized with a pair of shades over his eyes. Joseph followed behind his dad in a very similar outfit and struggled to wipe the smile off of his face. Bike ride ready! The icon sported a padded long sleeved top and a pair of shorts for the outing Happy days: Joseph followed behind his dad in a very similar outfit and struggled to wipe the smile off of his face Just like dad: Baena's muscular figure made it clear that he was his father's son Speedy: Joseph looked relaxed as her peddled around Three's company: They were joined by a third friend Love child: Arnold's 25-year marriage ended after it was revealed he had fathered a child, Joseph, with his housekeeper, Mildred, while married to Maria Arnold has been spotted over the past few weeks riding his bike around Los Angeles with his kids. He is the father to, Katherine, 30, Christina, 28, Patrick, 26, Christopher, 22, and Joseph, 22. The actor and athlete welcomed Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher with his ex wife, Maria Shriver, who he married in 1986 and split from in 2011. Their 25-year marriage ended after it was revealed he had fathered a child, Joseph, with his housekeeper, Mildred, while married to Maria. Spending time: The Total Recall star has been spotted over the past few weeks riding his bike around Los Angeles with his kids Father/son outing: The pair looked like they were enjoying their quality time together Debrief: The trio stopped to have a chat after their ride around Brentwood Family: The movie star is the father to, Katherine, 30, Christina, 28, Patrick, 26, Christopher, 22 with Maria Shriver and Joseph, 22 (not pictured) with his former house cleaner Maria and Arnold's youngest son, Christopher, was born on September 27, 1997, while Joseph was born merely five days later on October 2, 1997. The actor wrote in his memoir, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, that the journalist had previously asked him if he was the father to Joseph but he had denied it. While Arnold didn't have any confirmation he was the father for the first few years, as Joseph grew up, 'the resemblance was so strong that I realized there was little doubt that he was my son,' he wrote. And while Maria and his four kids have remained close, they don't have a relationship with Joseph - regularly sharing family photos without him. Television actor Jaya Bhattacharya mourned the death of her Thapki Pyar Ki team member Irfan, who died after battling a long illness, which was further aggravated when he tested positive for Covid-19. Jaya said that he died on Wednesday after being unwell for the last two years. In an emotional Instagram post, she wrote, #thapkipyaarki team The guy inside this, our Irfan, is no more. He was unwell from a long time. I kept on asking him for his reports to try to understand what the basic issue was that was creating all his health problems since the last 2 years but... Gulab Dada told me of his being in hospital and on a bad state some days ago and then his weak body contracted corona. Today news from Susu, Irfan is no more. Jaya said that lives could be saved on getting medical attention at the right time. Damn it. This is the second, lovely, hard working, talanted, person I am losing in this manner. I am no medicine person but if we get to the correct doctor at the correct time for correct diagnosis we can save a life...thats what I believe. I feel like sh*t right now, she wrote. Also read: Ram Gopal Varma calls Karan Johar a bigger victim, says without nepotism society will collapse Jaya has been actively involved in ameliorating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. She has been feeding stray animals and distributing essential items to the needy, including sex workers, transgender people and daily wage workers. She has been documenting her relief efforts on social media to inspire and encourage others to do their bit as well. In April, Jaya shaved her head as her long hair was getting difficult to maintain and coming in the way of her humanitarian gestures. Sharing videos of herself getting rid of her tresses, she said, I keep sweating because of these long tresses. I need to go out to provide food for my driver and so many other people, cannot confine myself to ACs. I will be damned if I need to stop doing all this just to maintain my beauty. It is just hair, wigs exist. Hail wigs! Will use wigs while shooting, have often done that anyway. Follow @htshowbiz for more Tajik Islamic State Recruiter Reportedly 'Goes Missing' From Syrian Prison By RFE/RL's Tajik Service June 16, 2020 A notorious Islamic State recruiter who has been linked to terrorist attacks in Sweden, Russia, and Tajikistan, has gone missing from a prison in northern Syria, according to people with knowledge of his detention. Parviz Saidrahmonov, 33, hasn't been seen in the prison in the Syrian town of Afrin for more than a month, according to one Tajik woman, who said she shared a cell with Saidrahmonov's wife, who was also being held in the same prison. The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Saidrahmonov had previously been allowed to meet his wife twice a month. "There are rumors here that Saidrahmonov has escaped from the jail, but I don't know for sure," the woman told RFE/RL by phone on June 15. The woman is being held in custody along with other people with alleged links to Islamic State militants, Another Tajik woman, who lives at the Al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria, told RFE/RL that Saidrahmonov called her "out of the blue" in early June, asking after one of his family members. "He refused to tell me where he was and just said that everything was fine," the woman said on June 15. RFE/RL could not independently verify the claims. Saidrahmonov, also known as Abu Daoud, was among several key Islamic State figures from Tajikistan that Dushanbe wants extradited from Syria and Iraq. He's been linked to several attacks and terrorist plots in several countries, including the 2017 truck attack in Sweden that killed five people. A law enforcement official in Dushanbe said Tajik authorities are aware of the claims about Saidrahmonov's alleged disappearance from the Afrin prison, which currently is controlled by the Turkish forces. According to the official, Tajik authorities have formally asked the prison officials for information but haven't yet received any response. The official spoke in condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to speak to media. In late January, the Prosecutor-General's Office announced that it was "completing paperwork to repatriate Saidrahmonov" and that it hoped to bring him "back to Tajikistan in the coming days." The efforts, however, were halted with the outbreak of the coronavirus. Swedish investigators say Saidrahmonov was an accomplice of Rakhmat Akilov, an Uzbek man who drove a hijacked truck down a busy pedestrian street in Stockholm on April 7, 2017, killing five people and injuring 10 others. Akilov was sentenced to life in prison in June 2018. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/tajik-islamic-state -recruiter-goes-missing-from-prison- in-northern-syria/30674344.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 The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in its large multi-country trial of treatments for COVID-19 patients had been halted after results from other trials showed no benefit. "The hydroxychloroquine arm of the SOLIDARITY trial has been stopped," WHO expert Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo told a news briefing. Actor Anupam Kher, who worked with Sushant Singh Rajput in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, has urged newcomers in the film industry to not give up on their dreams. Sushant died by suicide on Sunday, at the age of 34, after reportedly battling depression. A message for all the young dreamers who come to the city of Mumbai to make it big, the actor captioned his post, which has been viewed over 150000 times. There has been a debate raging in the media, about what led to Sushant Singh Rajput taking his own life, Anupam began the video by saying in Hindi. Today I want to address the thousands of youngsters, from small towns all across India, who are coming to Mumbai to fulfil their dreams. He said that it is possible that they might have second thoughts after hearing about Sushant. The lockdown wouldve added to your stress, he said, adding that parents might be calling their kids back home. The same thing happened to me when I came to Bombay. They used to make fun of me for being bald, for being thin, for being from a Hindi medium school. This has been happening to outsiders for years, the actor said. But friends, you cannot quit. You cannot leave your dreams unfulfilled. You cannot be scared. He said that when he was at his lowest, sleeping on railway platforms, he used to remind himself of a saying that his grandfather used to tell him: Bheega hua aadmi baarish se nahi darta (The man who is drenched does not fear the rain). Perhaps Sushant was alone, Anupam said. We dont know what he was going through, but there can be no bigger tribute that you could give him, than by succeeding as outsiders. Our victory will be our biggest tribute. Also read: Why my dear Sushant Singh Rajput, why?: Anupam Kher breaks down as he remembers his MS Dhoni biopic co-star He ended by saying that Mumbai is the most generous city in the world, as it has fulfilled thousands of dreams. The industry is filled with fine folk, and they will guide to the summit, he said. If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918 Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The renewed budget and upcoming rally By Malkhaz Matsaberidze One of the highlights of last week was the government's presentation of an updated version of the 2020 budget, which drew strong criticism from the opposition. Other political issues have been overshadowed by expectations of June 20th, when the opposition plans to hold a protest rally after a long pause caused by the epidemic.On June 9th, the draft budget for 2020 adjusted by the government was submitted to the Parliament of Georgia. Instead of a 4.5% increase in the budget due to the global crisis caused by the global pandemic, now a 4% drop is expected. Budget revenues are reduced by ?GEL1.8 billion. The budget envisages ?GEL3.4 billion for anti-crisis measures promised by the government. To fulfill these promises, the government borrows ?GEL650 million, while loans from international partners amount to ?GEL4 billion 470 million. Budget expenditures 1 billion. It will increase by ?GEL491 million and will reach 15 billion 924 million ?GEL in total.Parliamentary discussions on the draft budget are still ahead. However, opposition officials have already said that the draft budget does not contain a specific plan for overcoming the country's economic crisis, or even a general vision. According to the opposition, the government's anti-crisis promises are aimed at the Georgian Dream's party goals and election campaign. Prime Minister Gakharia does not share the criticism of the adjusted version of the budget, saying the criticism is fake and propaganda.The results of a public opinion poll commissioned by Transparency International Georgia coincided with the presentation of the draft budget in parliament, which showed that the previous government was able to achieve the fight against corruption - to eliminate corruption at the current level (only 1% of respondents have encountered such a fact in the last 12 months), but elite corruption remains a serious problem (63% of respondents think so). These people are not mistaken. In 2015-2017, only 1,740 corruption cases were registered, of which only 12% were opened.A few opposition members claim that the tender offers announced by the government contain high risks and that only government-affiliated companies tend to win. According to Giorgi Kobulia, former Minister of Economy of the Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili could have eliminated the corruption schemes in the Georgian government, but he did not wish to do so. According to him, there are 4 main problems in the country's governance system: 1 / low-skilled and demotivated state machine, 2 / biased transactions in state structures; 3 / Reputable severely damaged court system, which prevents foreign investment in the country; 4 / Absolutely collapsed foreign policy, both in the West and in Russia.The united opposition is preparing for the first protest rally after the pause caused by the epidemic, which will be held on June 20th. The opposition intends to commemorate last year's bloody events and on this day symbolically intends to nominate common candidates in 8 majoritarian constituencies in Tbilisi. If the united opposition really manages to do so, it will be a significant success for the opposition. However, much will also depend on the scale of the upcoming rally. Authorities are planning to count the "heads" of those who came to the rally and suggest about 200 people will come. The small number of protesters will be a visible confirmation of the weakness of the opposition.The issue of June 20th became another reason for the government and the opposition to make mocking statements. Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia considered the opposition political spectrum "toxic", while former parliamentary speaker Irakli Kobakhidze compared the opposition to a cow.The opposition continues to call on the government to abide by the March 8 agreement, and G. Rurua's release, however, is still being ignored by the authorities. If this demand is not met, opposition representatives are not going to support the constitutional changes, the public discussion of which has formally begun, and ,therefore, the government will have to mobilise its forces to get it.The June 8th visit of US Ambassador Kelly Degnan to the Prosecutor's Office and her statement that voter bribery and intimidation are unacceptable caused a variety of reactions. According to the unanimous explanation of the opposition, Georgia's strategic partner directly pointed out to the government that the upcoming parliamentary elections should be held fairly and transparently. Such an interpretation of the ambassador's visit irritated the government. Prime Minister Gakharia said such an explanation was not true. However, it is clear that the upcoming elections will be of great interest to the West in defending democratic standards.Georgian Dream does not intend to hand over power and considers its own government as an alternative. The government is also facing the need to form its own electoral list. The issue of who was at the top of the Georgian Dream list became the subject of discussion last week. Irakli Kobakhidze, Giorgi Gakharia and former Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze were nominated. As Bidzina Ivanishvili determines the electoral list of the government, the remembering of the former Prime Minister is connected with it. The first official day of summer will feel more like the dog days of the year's hottest season for some. A heat wave will ramp up in northern New England and part of southeastern Canada just in time for the summer solstice, which kicks off the summer season on June 20. Temperatures are forecast to climb into the upper 80s and lower 90s F (30 to 34 C) over a several-day stretch across these regions, according to AccuWeather forecasters. In the northern United States, a heat wave can be called when the temperature soars to 90 degrees or higher for three consecutive days. In Quebec and New Brunswick, that threshold is roughly 31 C or 88 F. In southern Ontario, it is generally 32 C (90 F) like the northern U.S. "This spell of heat certainly qualifies for a heat wave, especially from southern Quebec and New Brunswick," AccuWeather Canada Weather Expert Brett Anderson said. Caribou, Maine, along with Montreal and Quebec City, are among the communities where record highs will be challenged on multiple days. Each of these cities has already endured highs in the 90s F (above 32 C) once or twice already this year, with more grueling days on the way, while Atlanta hasn't even reached that threshold. Burlington, Vermont, notched its fourth 90-degree day of the year on Thursday, although the temperature fell shy of the record high for the date. Caribou, Maine, beat out Thursday's daily record of 90 F set in 1955 by 5 degrees. According to the local National Weather Service office, there have only been nine days since Caribou's weather records began in 1939 that the city's temperature has reached 95. The all-time record for any calendar day in Caribou is 96, which was established on June 29, 1944, and reached again on May 22, 1977. "It's quite a rarity for Atlanta to not have had a high of 90 F by the middle of June," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines said. "In fact, Atlanta is going to have one of its latest first 90-degree days on record since temperatures aren't expected to reach that mark through at least this weekend." Story continues Kines said that Atlanta's third-latest first 90-degree day is June 20 set in 1974, and June 25 is the latest date. The same weather pattern that helped to trap a drenching rainstorm over the Carolinas and southern Virginia in recent days will continue to keep rain away from the St. Lawrence Valley region late this week and this weekend. Rain and storm systems will generally be forced to go around this area, rather than pass from west to east through the region, which is a more typical storm path. Showers and thunderstorms from the old Carolina storm will tend to travel northwestward, toward the Ohio Valley through Friday, then toward part of the lower Great Lakes early this weekend before being strewn northeastward across the St. Lawrence Valley sometime during early next week. This will keep much of the region under hot mid-June sunshine, which is the strongest sunshine of the entire year, associated with the summer solstice. This is when the sun's rays strike the Northern Hemisphere at the most direct angle of the entire year. It also marks the time with the maximum amount of daylight of the entire year. "Ongoing dry ground conditions will also help to maximize the temperature during the day as the dry soil tends to heat up faster than wet soil, much like a desert," Anderson said. Since May 11, rainfall over much of New England and southern Quebec has ranged from 15 to 50% of average with the driest conditions over southern New England. A gradual uptick in humidity is forecast for the region into this weekend, which had been enjoying autumnlike humidity levels earlier this week. The upward trend in humidity, combined with the intense sunshine will push AccuWeather RealFeel Temperatures a few degrees higher than the actual temperature. People are urged to use caution in partaking in strenuous manual labor or exercise during the late morning and afternoon hours when the heat will be most intense. The best time for such activity, as well as any Father's Day games, will be early in the morning or during the evening. Those seeking heat relief at the beaches in Maine are urged to use caution, as water temperatures remain low enough for cold water shock to be a concern. "Many people who live in Quebec and New Brunswick do not have air conditioning," Anderson said. This may change in the near future as the demand for summer cooling may steadily increase. "With climate change being even more pronounced in the North we expect the frequency and duration of heat waves to increase this century," Anderson added. It may take until the middle of next week for the worst of the heat to finally ease across northern New England and neighboring parts of Canada. How much eastward progress a cold front makes will determine whether humidity will also get slashed with a return of nicer weather around midweek or if clouds, thunderstorms and humidity will continue. People often seek heat relief with tried-and-true summertime favorites, and that means it's ice cream season. AccuWeather's Dexter Henry asks the age-old question of which ice cream option holds up better in the heat. Henry took to New York City streets to ask whether people prefer a cup or cone to avoid a sticky, melting mess when temperatures climb. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. Jacob Grier Grier is an author and freelance writer living in Portland. I'm not a joiner, I'm definitely not a chanter and I'm kind of a COVID scold. For these reasons, as well as the seeming improbability that a protest movement would find traction in the midst of a global pandemic, Id hesitated to take part in the protests following the killing by police of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But when the Black Lives Matter march came through my Northeast neighborhood last week, I realized it was time to mask up and join in. I soon found myself taking a knee on East Broadway along with the crowd that briefly shut down access to Interstate 5. My decision was motivated as much by solidarity with the cause as by shame in not having taken part in it sooner. As a friend posted on Facebook, shed always told herself that had she been alive during the civil rights movement, she would have been on the buses to Alabama. A peaceful walk through Portland on a temperate spring evening is hardly a big ask in comparison. And then there was the image of 73-year-old Mitt Romney marching for Black Lives Matter in Washington, DC. I mean, really. If he could do it, what was my excuse? Most of all, the appeal was in the sheer resistance of protesters around the world refusing to back down. They persisted in the face of rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas, beatings and weaponized police SUVs. Against long odds, Black Lives Matter has inspired an overdue reckoning with the cruel excesses of American policing and the ways that it particularly victimizes black communities. In the past few weeks, public opinion has shifted decisively in favor of the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a Pew Research Center poll. This reflects an increasingly transpartisan consensus that police have become too militarized, are tasked with doing too much and are too immune from consequences when they violate the rights of the people they are supposed to serve and protect. The righteousness of the protests may transcend the polarization that afflicts our politics; as more a libertarian than a progressive, Im sure I disagree with marchers on any number of issues. But on the one that matters the dignity of all people and their right to live free from the fear of state-sanctioned violence there should be no disagreement about the justice of their demands. Despite some progress on the right, Republicans still lag far behind other groups in support for Black Lives Matter, the Pew survey notes. This is a conspicuous failing for a party that styles itself in opposition to big government. The videos of police brutality that have flooded social media document big government in action. No-knock warrants of the type that led to the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, part of a drug war that, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, costs the United States nearly $50 billion every year, are big government in action. The predatory policing of Ferguson, where the police department treated black residents as a source of revenue rather than as equal citizens, is big government in action. The left-leaning politics of Black Lives Matter is no excuse for conservatives to avert their eyes from these flagrant abuses. The failure to address such problems in Oregon is bipartisan, with Republicans and many white Democrats prioritizing other issues. As Molly Harbarger and Hillary Borrud of The Oregonian/OregonLive reported, the bitter fight over cap-and-trade derailed police reform bills in the previous session (Police accountability, long ignored by Oregon lawmakers, poised to become law as white leaders finally see black colleagues urgency, June 13). Yet how can one take Republicans objections to big government seriously when they are willing to shut down the Legislature to avoid voting on a climate change bill, but do not lift a finger to hold armed agents of the state accountable for their actions? At last, there are some signs of progress. The Legislature may take up accountability bills in an emergency session. Portland City Council appears poised to cut its police budget, if only by a small amount. The longer fight must have more ambitious goals: defunding and unbundling police to narrow their purview, eliminating qualified immunity and disempowering police unions that protect bad cops, demilitarizing training and equipment, decriminalizing consensual behaviors, and much else. Its not enough to merely tinker around the edges of American policing; its time to rethink it entirely. We owe it to the victims of police violence, as well as to the protesters continuing to risk brutal crackdowns, to finally follow through. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter with links to our latest editorials, op-eds and letters to the editor at oregonlive.com/newsletters. New Delhi, June 17 : The RSS in a statement on Wednesday hailed the role of the 20 Indian soldiers who died during a violent India-China military standoff at the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh region. RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat along with Sarkaryavah Bhaiyaji Joshi said in a joint statement, "The Rashtriya Swayamvevak Sangh pays homage to the soldiers who were martyred by making supreme sacrifices while protecting the borders in the Galvan valley region of Ladakh to protect the sovereignty, integrity and self-respect of the country." Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out a clear signal on the India-China standoff saying that India won't tolerate misadventures when it comes to defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity. It was Modi's first statement after the bloodbath at the LAC. He said, "I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country are important. India wants peace but when instigated, India is capable of giving a befitting reply." Twenty Indian Army soldiers, including an officer, were killed on Monday night during a violent face-off with Chinese People's Liberation Army troops at Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh. These are the first casualties faced by the Indian Army in a clash with the Chinese PLA since 1975 when an Indian patrol was ambushed by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh. New York: The S&P 500 closed lower on Wednesday (US time) as news of spiking pandemic data and the prospect of a new round of economic lockdowns dampened investor optimism over signs of economic recovery. The S&P 500 and the Dow reversed earlier gains and snapped a three-day winning streak. Tech shares led the Nasdaq into the black. Wall Street's three-day rally came to an end on Wednesday. Credit:AP Worries over a resurgence in the pandemic's spread persist, as new coronavirus cases hit a record level in Oklahoma just days before President Donald Trump's expected campaign rally in Tulsa. The numbers of new cases are rising sharply in about six US states, according to a Reuters analysis, and authorities in Beijing have ramped up mobility restrictions in their efforts to contain a new COVID-19 outbreak. MOSCOW -- You might think governments seeking digital oversight of their citizens would avoid invoking the author who coined the phrase "Big Brother is watching you" and implanted the nightmare of total state surveillance in the imaginations of millions of readers. Think again, because Russian officials appear to disagree. According to the business daily Vedomosti, contracts exceeding 2 billion rubles ($29 million) have been signed for the procurement and installation in schools across Russia of surveillance cameras linked to a system that has facial-recognition capability and is called Orwell, after the British author of dystopian novels 1984 and Animal Farm. The company tasked with executing the project on behalf of regional governments is the National Center of Informatization (NCI), a subsidiary of state defense and technology conglomerate Rostec, Vedomosti reported on June 15. The video surveillance systems have been delivered to 1,608 schools across Russia, an unnamed representative of the company told the newspaper, adding that the equipment was intended to keep tabs on students' comings and goings and identify strangers who attempt to enter school grounds, among other things. Elvis-Neotech, a subsidiary of state nanotechnology company Rosnano, is responsible for preparing the systems for sale, according to Yevgeny Lapshev, a representative of that company. Lapshev told Vedomosti that the Orwell system will become a security feature in all of Russia's schools in the coming years -- more than 43,000 in all. On June 16, the media outlet RBK cited an anonymous NCI representative who disputed aspects of the Vedomosti report, saying that the company had not signed contracts for the delivery of video equipment to 43,000 schools. The representative told RBK that NCI had taken part in a pilot program to equip 1,600 Russian schools with video surveillance systems that were not equipped with facial recognition, and that a decision on expanding the program to all Russian schools was yet to be made. 'Total Surveillance' The reported plans come after a rise in recent years in violent incidents at Russian schools, including a spate of stabbings in late 2017 and early 2018 that prompted renewed calls from lawmakers for increased security measures and strict monitoring of visitors. "The requirements for training and certifying employees of private security organizations, especially those guarding schools and kindergartens, must be as strict as possible," Vasily Piskarev, chairman of parliament's Committee on Security and Corruption Control, said after a knife incident in October 2019. But amid the push to expand monitoring capabilities and beef up security at schools, rights activists in Russia are warning that facial recognition and other surveillance technologies are being used much more widely and with minimal oversight, leading to a curtailment of freedom of speech and movement and ultimately toward a loss of data privacy. Since March, when Russia's coronavirus epidemic began, the authorities have used facial-recognition technology to identify and fine quarantine violators, deploying -- in Moscow alone -- a network of over 100,000 cameras that link to a central database accessible to thousands of law enforcement officials at any time. In addition, a range of smartphone apps and digital passes unveiled since March -- some of which remain mandatory for people with COVID-19 symptoms despite the lifting on June 9 of many lockdown restrictions -- have prompted fears among data-privacy campaigners that those and other new digital tools may integrate into a ratcheted-up, post-pandemic surveillance apparatus. Alyona Popova, an activist who launched a lawsuit in October 2019 against Moscow's use of facial-recognition cameras, warned that "under the guise of fighting the coronavirus," officials are working to implement "total surveillance." Last fall, Russia's Education Ministry clarified the criteria under which facial recognition could be used in schools. All parties, including school employees and the parents of students, would have to give permission, the newspaper Izvestia quoted an official as saying. Bhubaneswar, June 17 : Bharatiya Janata Party's Balasore Sadar MLA Madan Mohan Dutta died of a heart attack at a private hospital here on Wednesday, family sources said. He was 62. The legislator was suffering from several diseases, including kidney problems. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Chandra Sarangi were among those who condoled the death. "I am saddened to learn of the death of Balasore MLA Madan Mohan Dutta while undergoing treatment. I offer my condolences to the bereaved family," tweeted the Chief Minister. "The untimely death of Mangu bhai (Dutta) has left me shocked. He was like a brother to me. I pray to Lord Jagannath to give strength to his family to face this tragic loss. Let the soul rest in peace," Pradhan tweeted. Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2020) - Clean Air Metals Inc. (TSXV: AIR) (OTC: CLRMF) ("Clean Air" or the "Company") is pleased to announce new assays from the Phase 1 minimum 10,000m diamond drilling campaign on the Escape Lake Intrusion portion of its Thunder Bay North Project announced May 22, 2020. Two holes from the current Phase 1 drill program previously announced by the Company are combined with results from six fully validated and previously unreported drill holes obtained from the former project operator (Table 1). The Company will host an Investor Update Webinar today June 17, 2020 at 11amET to discuss these results. See details and Registration Link below. Highlight intercepts include Clean Air Hole ELR20-003 which intersected 78.9m of 1.66ppm (g/t) Platinum, 2.17ppm (g/t) Palladium, 0.8% Copper and 0.41% Nickel, including 20.0m of 3.3ppm (g/t) Platinum, 4.49ppm (g/t) Palladium, 1.54% Copper and 0.84% Nickel. A previously unreported and fully validated historic Drill Hole 12CL0009 reported an assay interval of 33.4m of 3.01ppm (g/t) Platinum, 4.08ppm (g/t) Palladium, 1.49% Copper and 0.77% Nickel. Table 1 Assay Results from Phase 1 Drilling - Escape Lake Zone, Thunder Bay North To view an enhanced version of Table 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6596/58050_48714f5e14863a79_001full.jpg All intercepts are estimated to be 95% of true width based on drill hole inclination Mineralized intervals calculated at 1 ppm Pt+Pd cutoff Mineralization open in all directions Phase 1 drilling by the Company will consist of approximately 15-20 drill holes of 500-600m each, nominally on 50m centers designed to discover limits of the Escape Lake Zone mineralization, which remains open in all directions (Figure 1). Figure 1 Phase 1 Drill Target Area - Escape Lake Zone, Thunder Bay North To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6596/58050_48714f5e14863a79_002full.jpg The Escape Lake Zone mineralization is located at approximately 400m vertical depth within the Escape Lake Intrusion (Figure 2) and is open geologically. The objective of the Phase 1 program is to define the magnitude of the Escape Lake Zone and the full strike length of the mineralized area as a precursor to future calculation of a mineral resource estimate of the Escape Lake horizon. Figure 2 3D Oblique View - Escape Lake Zone, Thunder Bay North To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6596/58050_48714f5e14863a79_003full.jpg Abraham Drost, CEO of Clean Air Metals Inc. stated that, "Assays from Clean Air's initial two holes in Phase 1 drilling suggests a new Platinum-Palladium-Copper-Nickel discovery at Escape Lake. The historic drill results were never publicly reported. These are the Company's first confirmatory assay results since acquiring the Project on May 14, 2020, coming back to trade as Clean Air Metals Inc. on May 22, 2020 and commencing Phase 1 drill testing of what has up to this point been known locally as the Escape Lake High Grade Zone." "The emerging picture is that of a body of mineralization that is open laterally and along strike, contained in a mafic-ultramafic intrusion and magma conduit system. Given the $6.7M flow-through financing the Company closed yesterday, we are in a position to pursue our 2020 exploration objectives with vigor. The Company is presently executing Phase 1 drilling on the Escape Lake magma conduit and planning targeted geophysics to search for high tenor massive sulphides which have previously been identified on the Thunder Bay North Property." Quality Assurance/Quality Control Clean Air Metals uses ALS Global ("ALS"), a well-established and recognized mineral assay and geochemical analytical services company. The Thunder Bay laboratory holds ISO-9000 accreditation; the Vancouver facility holds ISO-17025 registration. Quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) statistical checks were performed on original, ALS-certified analytical data for all 8 holes in Table 1. Selected core intercepts from historic (RT) holes in Table 1 were relogged and resampled and compared with historic data. Mr. Andrey Zagoskin, P.Geo., Ontario, a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") and employee of the Company, led the validation exercise and has approved Table 1 assay results. All NQ-sized drill core is cut with a diamond-tipped saw blade with half of the core submitted to ALS for sample preparation and analysis. Core samples from selected intervals are individually bagged and tagged, gathered up in larger sealed poly bags and shipped to the sample prep facility in Thunder Bay, ON under custody of Clean Air personnel at all times. Sample preparation is completed at the ALS sample preparation facility located in Thunder Bay, ON and analysis is completed at the primary ALS assay laboratory located in Vancouver, B.C. Clean Air follows a documented quality control procedure for its core assay sampling program consisting of the insertion of blind blanks, duplicates, and certified Palladium-Platinum and Copper-Nickel standards into the sample stream. The insertion procedure results in a minimum of 11% to 12% control sample frequency depending on the length of the sampled interval. Gold, platinum, and palladium are analysed using fire assay (FA) with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) finish. Samples with grades above the optimal ICP-MS detection limits are analysed using an optical emission spectroscopy method (ICP-OES). Also, thirty-three (33) elements of each sample, including copper, nickel, silver, chromium, cobalt, and sulphur, are analyzed by a multi-element analytical method using the atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) technique following four-acid digestion of the sample. When samples have grades above the optimal detection limits for this analytical method, they are re-analysed using a high-grade method consisting of either ICP-AES or atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) techniques. Historic Estimate The Escape Lake Intrusion and magma conduit which is the Company's focus in Phase 1 drilling (Table 1), appears to be a standalone, separate twin structure to the Current Lake Intrusion and magma conduit on the Thunder Bay North Project (Figure 3) on which there exists a historic estimate of 9.8 million Tonnes (Indicated). The Historic Estimate is from Open Pit and Underground sources (Table 2). Figure 3 3D Oblique View of Current Lake and Escape Intrusive Complex Lithology Shells of Magma Conduits To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6596/58050_48714f5e14863a79_004full.jpg Table 2: Thunder Bay North - Current Lake Deposit - Historic Estimate (2010, 2012) To view an enhanced version of Table 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6596/58050_48714f5e14863a79_005full.jpg The historic estimate of the Current Lake Deposit at the Thunder Bay North Project is considered by Clean Air to be historic in nature. No Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 has done sufficient work for Clean Air to classify the historic estimate of the Current Lake Deposit as current and the Company is not treating the historic estimate as current. The Company's QP has verified the data but no resampling of core or any other tests on the analytical procedures has yet been performed by the Company to-date. Confirming the historic estimate at Current Lake will be a concurrent priority for Clean Air Metals Inc. Thunder Bay North Open Pit Historic Estimate The open pit Historic Estimate is reported at a cut-off grade of 0.59 g/t Pt-Eq within a Lerchs-Grossman pit shell optimized on Pt-Eq. The strip ratio (waste: ore) of this pit is 9.5:1. The platinum-equivalency formula is based on assumed metal prices and overall recoveries. The Pt-Eq formula is: Pt-Eq g/t = Pt g/t + Pd g/t x 0.3204 + Au g/t x 0.6379 + Ag g/t x 0.0062 + Cu g/t x 0.00011 + Total Ni g/t x 0.000195 + Total Co g/t x 0.000124 + Rh g/t x 2.1816. The conversion factor shown in the formula for each metal represents the conversion from each metal to platinum on a recovered value basis. The assumed metal prices used in the Pt-Eq formula are: Pt US$1,595/oz, Pd US$512/oz, Au US$1,015/oz, Ag US$15.74/oz, Cu US$2.20/lb, Ni US$7.71/lb, Co US$7.71/lb and Rh US$3,479/oz. The assumed combined flotation and PlatsolTM process recoveries used in the Pt-Eq formula are: Pt 76%, Pd 75%, Au 76%, Ag 55%, Cu 86%, Ni 44%, Co 28% and Rh 76%. The assumed refinery payables are: Pt 98%, Pd 98%, Au 97%, Ag 85%, Cu 100%, Ni 100%, Co 100% and Rh 98%. Thunder Bay North Underground Historic Estimate The underground Historic Estimate is reported at a cut-off grade of 1.94g/t Pt-Eq. The Pt-Eq formula is: Pt-Eq g/t = Pt g/t + Pd g/t x 0.2721 + Au g/t x 0.3968 + Ag g/t x 0.0084 + Cu g/t x 0.000118 + Sulphide Ni g/t x 0.000433 + Sulphide Co g/t x 0.000428 + Rh g/t x 2.7211. The assumed metal prices used in the Pt-Eq formula are: Pt US$1,470/oz, Pd US$400/oz, Rh US$4,000/oz, Au US$875/oz, Ag US$14.30/oz, Cu US$2.10/lb, Ni US$7.30/lb and Co US$13.00/lb. The assumed process recoveries used in the Pt-Eq formula are: Pt 75%, Pd 75%, Rh 75%, Au 50%, Ag 50%, Cu 90%, and Ni and Co in sulphide 90%. The assumed smelter recoveries used in the Pt-Eq formula are Pt 85%, Pd 85%, Rh 85%, Au 85%, Ag 85%, Cu 85%, Ni 90% and Co 50%. Ni and Co in sulphide were estimated by linear regression of MgO to total Ni and total Co respectively. The regression formula for Ni in sulphide (NiSx) is: NiSx = Ni - (MgO% x 60.35 - 551.43). The regression formula for Co in sulphide (CoSx) is: CoSx = Co - (MgO% x 4.45 - 9.25). COVID Policy Clean Air Metals Inc. has adopted COVID-19 avoidance and personal protection measures for its geological staff, drilling contractor and service suppliers. Personnel are required to maintain physical distance, self-monitor and self-isolate or elect to work from home. Management had previously eliminated plans for a camp setup to service a planned diamond drill campaign on the Escape Lake Project. The Company is aware of Thunder Bay Health Unit guidelines that provide for "mandatory" self-isolation for returning overseas and inter-provincial travel. The guidelines previously also "strongly recommended" self-isolation after travel into the Northwest region from other areas of the Province. Mineral Exploration and Development has been deemed an essential service in the Province of Ontario(http://www.netnewsledger.com/2020/03/23/ontario-covid-19-business-allowed-toremain-open-list-march-23-2020/). The Company has procured the services of a locally staffed and serviced diamond drilling contractor to complete the Phase 1 diamond drilling program. Mr. Allan MacTavish, P.Geo. a Qualified Person as such term is defined under NI 43-101, and an employee of the Company, has reviewed and approved all technical information in this press release. As previously announced and subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company has entered into an agreement to retain the services of Independent Trading Group ("ITG"). ITG assists Clean Air in expanding its visibility through marketing making. Under the terms of the Agreement, ITG provides capital markets advice and market making services to the Company for an initial six-month term. ITG, which is Canada's only brokerage firm dedicated exclusively to professional trading, employees a large resource base and investment tools to not only maintain liquidity for stocks of clients but also opens the door to a variety of investment opportunities. Clean Air Metals Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Panoramic PGMs (Canada) Ltd. acknowledge that the Escape Lake Property is on the traditional territory of the Fort William First Nation and the Red Rock First Nation, signatories to the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850. Investor Update Webinar Please join Abraham Drost, CEO, and Jim Gallagher, Executive Chairman, TODAY, June 17th, 2020 at 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada) to discuss the initial results from our ongoing drill program, followed by a question and answer period. Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2020 Time: 11:00 AM (EST) Registration Link: Clean Air Metals (TSXV: AIR) Investor Update After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Questions may be asked during the webinar, or can be emailed in to info@adcap.ca. A replay will be made available on the Clean Air website. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Abraham Drost" Abraham Drost, Chief Executive Officer of Clean Air Metals Inc. For further information, please contact: Abraham Drost, Chief Executive Officer of Clean Air Metals Inc. Phone: 807-252-7800 Email: adrost@cleanairmetals.ca Website: www.cleanairmetals.ca 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. Cautionary Note The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to the TSXV listing, risk related to the failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. 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, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/58050 Srinagar: Curfew was lifted from all parts of Kashmir today but restrictions on assembly of people remained in force in most areas as a precautionary measures. The entire Kashmir Valley is curfew-free today but restrictions are in place in many parts as a precautionary measure, a police official said. He said the curfew was lifted following improvement in the situation yesterday. There were no reports of any untoward incident from anywhere in the Valley today. Shops and other business establishments remained closed due to separatist call for shut down for the 79th straight day while public transport remained off the roads. However, markets are expected to open at 2 PM as the separatist groups have announced a 16-hour relaxation in the shutdown till 6 AM tomorrow. As many as 82 persons including two cops have been killed and thousands of others have been injured in the ongoing unrest that started after Hizbul Mujahideen commander BurhanWani was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. By PTI KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is "undecided" about participating in a virtual meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the chief ministers on Wednesday after it was reported that the state has not been slotted as a speaker. Modi is holding two-day-long consultations with the chief ministers from Tuesday as the country gradually emerges out of lockdown in the backdrop of rising number of coronavirus cases in the country. TMC sources said on Tuesday that Banerjee is still undecided about attending the meeting and the state would be represented in it by a senior government official. "What is the need for attending the meeting if you are not allowed to speak .The chief minister is still undecided about attending the meeting with the prime minister," a senior TMC leader told PTI. West Bengal has been invited to the meeting but has not been slotted as one of the speakers, TMC sources said. This has kicked off a political storm in the state with TMC criticising the union government and the BJP defending the "Centre's decision as the right one". "It seems the Centre's so worried about exposing itself to @MamataOfficial's constructive criticism on #COVID response that our hon'ble CM's been reduced to just a mute spectator for the latest round of VCs with the PM. People of Bengal won't forgive this," senior TMC leader and MP Dinesh Trivedi tweeted. Trivedi's remark was echoed by TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee who said it is an attempt by the Centre to suppress Bengal's voice. "Just because Mamata Banerjee has been pointing out the lapses and wrong decisions in implementing the lockdown, she has been blacked out in the meeting. This is an attempt to scuttle democracy and the BJP government's inability to face constructive criticism. We condemn it," he said. Supporting the Centre's decision of not giving Banerjee the chance to speak, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the state government, apart from seeking funds, has done nothing during the previous meetings between the prime minister and the chief ministers. "The West Bengal government has been a complete failure in implementing the lockdown in the state. It has been busy in blaming the central government. In previous meetings our chief minister has done nothing apart from seeking funds," Ghosh alleged. Banerjee during the last virtual meeting between Modi and the chief ministers had slammed the central government for "playing politics" on the issue of COVID-19 by trying to shift the blame on the states and said the onus lies with the Centre to come out with a clear strategy for the way forward. U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander on Wednesday released the following statement after the U.S. Senate passed the Great American Outdoors Act by an overwhelming 73-25 bipartisan vote. The legislation includes Senator Alexanders bill to restore the countrys 419 national parks and cut in half the national parks $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog, which the senator said will be the biggest boost to our national parks in 50 years. It also fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) permanently, a goal of Congress since 1964. The Great American Outdoors Act is the most important conservation and outdoor recreation legislation in the last half century, Senator Alexander said. Today, too many of our national parks are in bad shape, and American families visiting those parks are often shocked to find that so many of the roads, picnic areas, trails, campgrounds and visitor centers are in such bad condition or even closed. This bipartisan bill will cut in half the $12 billion maintenance backlog in our national parks, including $224 million in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It will also reduce maintenance backlogs at our national forests and refuges. Here is what this means for Tennessee it means that places like the beautiful Look Rock Campground in the Smokies, which has been closed for several years because the sewage system doesnt work, will have the resources needed to reopen so the 5,000 families who camp there each year can continue to enjoy it. And the Cherokee National Forest in East Tennessee, which suffers from a $27 million deferred maintenance backlog and welcomes more visitors each year than most of the western national parks, will have its roads and trails restored. And then in West Tennessee, the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge, which has about $8 million of maintenance work that needs to be done on boat ramps and boat docks, will receive the support it needs as well. Senator Alexander continued, It will also fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), an unrealized goal of Congress and the conservation community since 1964. Fully funding the LWCF was also a recommendation of President Reagans Commission on Americans Outdoors, which I chaired in 1985. Senator Alexander concluded, None of this would be possible without the strong support of President Trump and so many Democrat and Republican senators. In the midst of all the bad things that are going on today, this is a good thing, and sends a strong signal to the American people that Congress can come together to do important work. I hope Congress can send this bill to the presidents desk soon so future generations can continue to enjoy our national parks and public lands. The Great American Outdoors Act fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund permanently. The LWCF has played a large role in protecting the outdoors. In Tennessee, the LWCF has provided about $221.4 million for conservation and outdoor recreation efforts since the 1960s. This legislation also includes the Restore Our Parks Act, legislation Alexander first introduced in 2018 that would be the single biggest help to the National Park System in 50 years. It will cut in half the maintenance backlog at the countrys 419 national parks, making $6.5 billion available over the next five years to fix roads, campsites and hiking trails so Americans can enjoy them. The bill also provides funding to reduce maintenance backlogs for four other federal land management agencies: The U.S. Forest Service; The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; The Bureau of Land Management; The Bureau of Indian Education. The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed the Great American Outdoors Act by a bipartisan vote of 73-25. DPRK military says ready to go into action -- KCNA People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 14:30, June 16, 2020 PYONGYANG, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The military of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Tuesday it is getting itself fully ready for providing a sure military guarantee to any external measures to be taken by the Party and government. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted a statement released by the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) as saying that the army was keeping close watch "on the current situation in which the north-south relations are turning worse and worse," and it would "rapidly and thoroughly implement any decisions and orders of the Party and government." The statement said the army had accepted a government's opinion "on studying an action plan for taking measures to make the army advance again into the zones that had been demilitarized" under the north-south agreement in 2018, as well as to "take a thorough-going security measure for positively cooperating with our people from all walks of life in their large-scale leaflet scattering struggle against the enemy." "We will map out the military action plans for rapidly carrying out the said opinions to receive approval from the Party Central Military Commission," it said. The DPRK has repeatedly lashed out at South Korea since last week in protest against anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent by defectors and activists across the border. Pyongyang has also closed its joint liaison office and cut off all communication lines with the South. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Navajo Nation will reinstate a 57-hour curfew this weekend and next weekend, President Jonathan Nez said Tuesday. Were pleading with everybody to not let up, Nez said during a video update. Continue to wear your mask, continue to social distance. The reservation reported 22 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths on Monday night. It was the smallest increase in cases since early April. More than 6,600 people on the reservation have tested positive for COVID-19 and 311 have died from the disease, according to the Navajo Department of Health, Navajo Epidemiology Center and Navajo Area Indian Health Service. About 21% of the reservations population has been tested for COVID-19. More than 3,000 people have recovered. Nez said his administration is reinstating the curfews in part because of rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Arizona. Arizona reported a record-high 2,392 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, according to Arizona Department of Health Services data. Arizonas hospitalizations, ICU bed use and ventilator use for COVID-19 patients all hit record highs on Monday. The Navajo Nation president encouraged tourists not to travel through the reservation, where masks are required and a daily curfew is in place from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Now is not the time to be traveling all over the Southwest, Nez said. Yes, the numbers are flattening out, yes, the numbers are going down, but it took only one person to bring the bug into the Navajo Nation and it spread like wildfire. The reservation had eight weekend curfews before lifting restrictions in early June. Nez said the Navajo Nation government received an additional $86 million in CARES Act funds this week. In early May, the U.S. Treasury Department distributed about $600 million to the Navajo government. This week, a federal judge ordered the Treasury to release the remainder of the coronavirus relief money intended for tribes, the Associated Press reports. The Navajo Nation Council is currently considering legislation outlining a spending plan for the federal money. A violent face-off took place between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakhs Galwan Valley on Monday night in which 20 Indian soliders were killed. Defence minister Rajnath Singh issued a statament on Wednesday in which he mourned the loss of lives of 20 soldiers. In his first comments since the clashes on Monday, Singh said that the loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. He also said that India will never forget the bravery and sacrifice of soldiers who displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives. Singh had briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening and held two other meetings with the Chief of Defence Staff and the three service chief. News agency ANI quoting sources said four Indian soldiers are in critical condition after the face-off. The US media quoted reported from its intelligence officials to say that 35 Chinese troops have been killed in the clashes. The troops fought each other with fists and rocks, people aware of the development said. Neither side fired any shots in the clash, they added. After the clash, the two sides disengaged from the area where the fighting happened, the army said in a statement. A protest was held outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on Wednesday. The stand-off at Ladakhs Galwan Valley has escalated in recent weeks due to the infrastructure projects that India has undertaken in the recent years. India is building a strategic road through the Galwan Valley - close to China - connecting the region to an airstrip. China is opposed to any Indian construction in the area. In 1962, a stand-off in the Galwan area was one of the biggest flashpoints of the 1962 war, according to news agency Reuters. India last year abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, thereby ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. It further bifurcated the erstwhile state into two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. China was among the handful of countries to strongly condemn the move, raising it at international forums including the UN Security Council. Beijing said the move violated Chinese sovereignty but will also not change the situation on the ground as part of the area in the former state remains under Chinese control. The Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in the standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. A sizeable number of Chinese Army personnel even transgressed into the Indian side of the de-facto border in several areas including Pangong Tso. The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the border row. King Mohammed VI of Morocco underwent a successful operation on Sunday June 14 following a recurrent heart rhythm disorder, the Kings medical team said in a statement. King Mohammed VI known by his pan africanism and engagement in defending the value of Continent integration has successfully underwent an intervention on Sunday June 14 at the clinic of the Royal Palace in Rabat, said the statement of the medical team composed of Dr Abdelaziz Maouni, Dr Olivier Thomas, Dr Olivier Dubourg, Dr Ali Chaib, and Dr Lahcen Belyaman. King Mohammed VI presented a recurrence of the heart rhythm disorder of atrial flutter type on a healthy heart, the statement said. The Monarchs doctors recommended an additional radiofrequency ablation, which took place this Sunday, June 14, at the clinic of the Royal Palace in Rabat, the statement said, adding that the intervention was a complete success, like the previous one carried out on February 26, 2018 in Paris, with restoration of the normal heart rhythm. To the Times: In her column on June 14, Christine Flowers denounces the removal of a mural commemorating Philadelphias former Mayor, Frank Rizzo. She gives authentic voice to the powerful way in which public art can represent deeply held collective identities. My research on murals in Northern Ireland compels me to take seriously the sensitivities involved in replacing them, and I note that this removal was executed swiftly by consensus following a long dialogue among stakeholders. What concerns me most about Flowers article is her use of Orwell to gin up fear across racial lines. She charges a black-led multiracial movement with precipitating the erasure of Italian-Americans without acknowledging that European Americans have perpetually erased black people throughout the United States history of kidnapping and enslavement. This longstanding erasure has been accomplished through policies overseen by state officials, including Mayor Rizzo, and through declarations that all groups are equal, opening the door to claims of parity of esteem and offense (in this case over a mural). Orwell warned us about this kind of doublespeak in Animal Farm when the pigs claimed supremacy and declared, All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. One could hardly find a more concise historical summary of U.S. race relations. When they acknowledged the suffering of their black and LGBTQ neighbors and decided to replace the Rizzo mural, the Italian Market rejected Flowers principle of parity of offense. Orwell would approve. Lee A. Smithey, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Sociology, Swarthmore College Photo taken on June 16, 2020 shows the medical supplies donated to Pakistan from the Chinese government at the Islamabad International Airport, near Islamabad, Pakistan. The Chinese government on Tuesday donated the sixth batch of anti-COVID-19 medical supplies to Pakistan at the Islamabad International Airport to help the country fight against the pandemic. (Xinhua/Li Hao) ISLAMABAD, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government on Tuesday donated the sixth batch of anti-COVID-19 medical supplies to Pakistan at the Islamabad International Airport to help the country fight against the pandemic. Addressing the donation ceremony, Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal thanked the Chinese government and people for providing Pakistan with the urgently needed medical supplies. Pakistan and China have a relation like two brothers, and whenever Pakistan has a difficult time, China will always extend a helping hand, Afzal said. "The people of Pakistan and government of Pakistan appreciate this support from the government of China and hope that our friendship will continue to prosper in the future." Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said on the occasion that China and Pakistan are good brothers and partners who see each other though difficulties and challenges. Since the outbreak of the disease in Pakistan, China has taken practical actions including sending batches of medical supplies and expert teams, to enhance Pakistan's ability to curb the disease, and the friendship between the two countries have been deepened through the collaborative efforts of combating the pandemic, Yao said. He added that Pakistan still faces a serious situation of curbing the spread of the disease, and China is willing to continue to support Pakistan in fighting the disease and helping Pakistan restore its economic development. The sixth batch has been the largest batch of anti-COVID-19 medical supplies that the Chinese government donated to Pakistan so far, and the batch of 68 tonnes supplies includes testing kits, protective suits, N95 masks and protective goggles, according to the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan. Pakistan has witnessed a surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths after it started to ease the lockdown in May. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has risen to 148,921 with 2,839 deaths, according to the data updated by the country's health ministry Tuesday. The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has sealed a contract with a consulting services company for the execution of feasibility studies for the construction of the Port of Keta. The GPHA, announcing this in a press statement, said it has commissioned an association of Consultants led by M/s Sellhorn Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH from Hamburg, Germany, naming other consultants as ProTeln Service GmbH, PSP Architekten, Ingenieure and a Ghanaian team from Yogarib Engineering Services Limited. It indicated that the GPHA had also issued the Letter of Notice to Commence to the Consultant to begin the services officially on the 23rd of June 2020, in accordance with the conditions of the contract during the signing ceremony through Microsoft Teams video conferencing. The appointed consultant is expected to expedite work to deliver a full feasibility study and master plan, including development and investment strategy for the Port of Keta. The first feasibility indicators are expected within seven months . Globally, Port Infrastructure Development is usually a very involving and time consuming activity which doesn't just spring up but is accompanied by careful decisions backed by empirical facts and detailed port and public infrastructure planning considerations. Mr Michael Luguje, Director General of GPHA, at the virtual signing ceremony on Microsoft Teams video, acknowledged the limitations imposed on all parties in the face of the Global pandemic. Mr Luguje however admonished the team to take all necessary steps to ensure that they employed their best professional abilities in delivering the terms of the contract since the Port of Keta was an important development agenda for the government and people of Ghana. Dr. Alexander Yaw Adusei Jnr, Director of the Port of Keta, thanked the Director General and management of GPHA for the committed investment in the project and success in appointing a consultant through a professionally well-conducted and transparent process which would aid the commencement of the most critical part of the development of Port of Keta. The Director of the Port of Keta also expressed the hope that the Volta Region will soon have a modern port and maritime logistics hub for Ghana and a strategic cargo route through the Volta Region and the Eastern Corridor for Ghana's northern neighbours. According to the GPHA, the realization of Keta Port is beginning with the Master Plan and Feasibility Studies' consulting services, scheduled to commence in June 2020. Extensive multi-stakeholder engagement sessions are expected to be conducted during the feasibility study period, including market search, investment shows, etc. It is anticipated that in the absence of any major delays attributable to the covid-pandemic, the studies will be completed by Feb. 2021 with investment strategy plan for the port's development. They stated that GPHA anticipated parallel discussions with local and international interest groups on development prospects adding that to all intents and purposes, a Master Plan and Feasibility Study were necessary to guide the total development plan for Ghana's newest port project. GNA YEADON Borough Police Chief Anthony Chachi Paparo was sitting in his car when he first saw the George Floyd video weeks ago. When I saw the video, I was literally in my car screaming like, What are you doing?' he said. In a letter he wrote the community, he added, I literally got sick to my stomach. At that moment, Yeadon Mayor Rohan Hepkins called the chief and asked him if he was good. No, Paparo responded. Ill be honest with you, I just watched this video. This just destroyed me as a cop. Paparo has spent more than 35 years as a police officer, 32 of them in the Upper Darby Police Department and the last two as Yeadons chief. When he arrived, he dived into learning more about his diverse community and instituting measures to better coincide with that from the establishment of the Youth Police Academy and Citizens Police Academy to Racial Intelligence and De-escalation trainings. I dont tell members of the black and brown community that I truly understand their plight because no white guy could, ever, he said. You got to give it the respect that it deserves. Paparo added, Whats going on in this world with police, with Defund Police, its destroying me Theres so much good but its not talked about. Its really not. In Yeadon, he said his 30 officer force, 20 full time and 10 part time, answer an average of 1,000 calls a month or about 12,000 a year. In Upper Darby, when he was there, they averaged 80,000 calls a year. So, when you average that out, the acts of what guys are doing good should outshine, but I get there has to be drastic changes, he said. Heres the thing when youre in a fight for your life, you cant give up things that are going to keep you living. I understand the anger and the angst but to a certain degree, until youve been out here and youve been involved in it, you cant really understand it like I cant understand their pain. I want to. Thats why hes instituted racial sensitivity training and emphasized community policing. Youve got to think outside the box and if you look at everybody like theyre family, then its so much easier to police, Paparo said. You cant do it because theres a protest going on. Youve got to let the community know you care about them a lot sooner than that. Thats why he reached out to A.J. Ali and participated in his program Walking While Black, L.O.V.E. is the Answer last September. I thought, Hey, this is perfect for what Im trying to do here,' Paparo said. I believe I was the only municipal police department in Pennsylvania that got involved. He said part of the learning process is uncomfortable. Cops have to embrace that sometimes what youre going to talk about is going to be difficult for both sides, but if you dont, then youre missing the opportunity to connect with the people you take care of, the chief said. If somebodys calling because a squirrel pooped on their front lawn, thats important to them at the time that theyre calling. Give it the respect that it deserves and I told (my officers), Youve got a chance to talk to them. If you dont, youre losing the opportunity to connect to people.' He found ways to do so. He has Operation House Call where, like doctors of the past, he makes house calls. For me, I have a lot of older residents in Yeadon that cant get to Coffee with a Cop so how do I interact with them? Paparo said. You know what? Im going to be like a doctor in making a house call so I called it Operation House Call. I go on social media and I say, Operation House Call is in effect, if youve got something, direct message me, Ill come see you. So now, they direct message me on Next Door or Twitter and I go to their house and we have a chat. Those little things, they let people know that, Hey, you know what, you matter. I care about you and if you cant come see me, Ill come to see you,' he said. He also invited members of the community to take a ride-along with him or any Yeadon police officer. See for yourself the dedication and purpose we have to serve and protect this community, he told them. We do a lot more than you think, and we hear you, we see you. Paparo participated in Sundays walk from the Lansdowne Theater to Yeadon Borough Hall ending at Kerr Field in which more than 1,000 people walked the route. It was organized by 16-year-old Penn Wood High senior Tori Monroe, who specifically thanked the Yeadon police at the beginning of the march for their support. He was also present in a protest the week before. I had a cop come up to me last week, Paparo said. We had a protest down here. Originally, it was going to be anti-police. And, I tell you, mid-way into it, it turned into a love fest. One of my guys came up to me afterwards and he says, Chief, I want to let you know thank you for making me a better man and, most of all, a better cop.' The chief spoke about some of the changes hed like to see, including having the Walking While Black, L.O.V.E. is the Answer and Racial Intelligence training as part of the Municipal Police Officers Training. I think its something that every cop should get from the get go, he said. If you havent had it then youve got to get it at some point because were all bringing our personal lives with us everywhere we go. Were all bringing our implicit biases wherever we go and its a matter of understanding it and recognizing it. In his letter to the community, he said, (W)e cannot begin to succeed at policing until we (police) police ourselves. As part of that, Paparos written a new Failure to Intervene policy that applies to all of the officers in his department, including himself and pertains to persons and property. Regardless of the rank, if a supervisor or if I am doing something wrong, (an officer on scene) better step up and it doesnt just mean stop whats going on, but render aid, give him medical care, he said. You better act. You better act because you cant give up your integrity, you cant give up your honor. Failure to do so will result in discipline up to termination, depending on the circumstances, the chief said. The thing that really irritated me about Minneapolis is if you got probable cause to make an arrest, I dont need three different attorneys from the county, the state and the local to say, Lets look at it for four days,' he said. If Ive got probable cause to lock you up, youre getting locked up. He said, Sometimes arrests are not, for a lack of a better word, theyre not pretty when you have a person thats resisting arrest and youre trying to take them into custody, they want to get away and the officer wants to survive and the officer wants the person to survive. For him, the George Floyd incident was clear. This was beyond wrong, Paparo wrote the community. This was a homicide. This was murder. And, he called out the officers who failed to intervene, as well. They failed as cops, failed at just being human, he said. Its not about being weak on the street. Strength, real strength and courage sometimes comes with stopping an officer who has lost sight of what they have taken an oath for. Paparo hopes to have a conversation with the community about what a citizen can do when something like this happens. I think one of the things police and the public need to have a real conversation on is what safeguards can we put in place that if an officers losing his mind, doing the wrong thing and other cops are not intervening, what do you do? he said. In the meantime, he continues to connect to his community, instill training to his department of whom hes very proud and he reaches out to a power great than himself. I go home at night, I sit and I pray and I ask God, I say, Please help this stop. Put us on the right path. Do something,' he said. This cant be the narrative. It cant be the narrative that cops dont care. This is a wake-up call for good cops to start speaking up cause theres a lot of good cops out there but the problem is some good cops just arent vocal. But, you know what, nows the time to start being vocal. Not much is known in this country about 57-year-old Lt. Gen. Xu Qiling, whom President Xi Jinping handpicked for the job The present problem centres on the 8-km road that the Chinese built between Fingers (as spurs are termed) 8 and 4 on Lake Pangong Tso, in effect unilaterally shifting the LAC in Chinas favour While the situation along Indias borders with China may be under control now, as the Army chief, Gen. M.M. Naravane, claimed recently, the choice of a rising star of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army to head the Western Theatre Command is reason for wariness. Not much is known in this country about 57-year-old Lt. Gen. Xu Qiling, whom President Xi Jinping handpicked for the job in the midst of the standoff in Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control. Despite both the humiliating defeat India suffered in 1962 and Prime Minister Narendra Modis assiduous courtship of President Xi, Indians by and large do not have much interest in or knowledge of China. This became glaringly obvious during President Xis 2014 visit to India when a Doordarshan newsreader called him President Eleven, mistaking Xi for Roman numerals. Another aspect of this negligence is that the Indian armed forces seem constantly to be caught napping. Chinas surreptitious construction of the 2,342-km Aksai Chin road between 1951 and 1957 was an astonishing instance. So was Indian unawareness about the Pakistani infiltrators at Kargil in 1999. The present problem centres on the 8-km road that the Chinese built between Fingers (as spurs are termed) 8 and 4 on Lake Pangong Tso, in effect unilaterally shifting the LAC in Chinas favour. If Beijing is preparing to play hardball, Gen. Xu, who is also responsible for Xinjiang, Tibet and the PLAs military cooperation with Pakistan, may be the right man. He was chief of staff of the former 54th Army Corps, an elite fighting force involved in supressing the 1959 Tibetan uprising as well as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. Indias territorial disputes with China in three Himalayan regions cover more than 120,000 sq km at altitudes of up to 4,300 metres. The eastern sector, of about 90,000 sq km, corresponds roughly to Arunachal Pradesh, which the Chinese claim and call Southern Tibet. The central or middle sector, west of Nepal, is the smallest contested area at about 2,100 sq km, and is almost entirely under Indian control. China surreptitiously encroached on the 38,000 sq km western sector covering the Aksai Chin plateau (eastern Ladakh) and several districts in Xinjiang in the 1950s. There is also the 5,180 sq km chunk of Occupied Kashmir that Pakistan ceded to China in 1963. Despite the seven-hour June 6 meeting between Lt. Gen. Harinder Singh, 14 Corps commander, and Chinas Maj. Gen. Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region, the tussle for spurs and summits, roads and waterways continues. The agreement to keep talking at the brigade and battalion commander level gives no clue to Chinas long-term intentions. But specific physical features of the Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso lake can hardly be ends in themselves. They are bound to be aspects of a bigger long-term strategy that demands the leadership of a politically attuned ground and air military expert like Gen. Xu. A former PLA air force commander, Gen. Xu has worked in four of the five theatre commands and was one of the younger generals to be promoted to lieutenant-general last year. The previous year he was sent to 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. President Xi, who is also chairman of the all-powerful Central Military Commission, which is the PLAs high command, merged the 54th Corps he commanded with the 83rd Army Corps in a 2015 military overhaul. His predecessor, 63-year-old Gen. He Weidong, is expected to retire after his less arduous current posting in the Eastern Theatre Command. Managing sensitive border areas like restive Xinjiang and the Tibet autonomous region, whose stability is never to be taken for granted no matter what the Chinese might claim, calls for a younger and more vigorous man who can lead frontier soldiers and officers. The rugged terrain, high altitude and harsh climate make it a hard environment where even young people can age prematurely. The challenge also calls for someone familiar with joint ground and air operations. According to Song Zhongping, a Hong Kong-based commentator: 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. The latest tensions have further fuelled the buildup of troops and weapons with the PLA stepping up advanced arms testing and training at high altitude. Gen. Xus new position is seen as a test. If he handles the China-India border disputes to President Xis satisfaction, he will very likely be promoted to the PLAs ground force headquarters, or even higher. What will satisfy President Xi is anybodys guess. Chinas condescending attitude to India was reflected in President Liu Shao-chis remark that China was a great power and had to punish India once. However, Mao Zedong seemed to support those, including the British-Australian writer, Neville Maxwell, who argue India forced hostilities on China in 1962. Describing his fights with nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, Japan and the United States, Mao had reportedly said, During none of these did we fear. And in each case, we won. Now the Indians want to fight a war with us. Naturally, we dont have any fear. We cannot give ground; once we give it would be tantamount to letting them seize a big piece of land equivalent to Fujian province. [] Since Nehru sticks his head out and insists on us fighting him, for us not to fight with him would not be friendly enough. Courtesy emphasises reciprocity. Chairman Maos mocking tone confirms what Jawaharlal Nehru saw as Chinas Middle Kingdom complex. It was earlier evident in the Qianlong emperors rebuff of the Macartney mission. Whether or not China wants any further Indian territory, it probably does seek a less pro-American Indias acknowledgement of the global status to which it feels entitled. INVolve/Yahoo Finance Elevating, celebrating, and amplifying the visibility and voices of people of colour from across the globe is more important than ever. The 2020 EMpower ethnic minority executives ranking celebrates 100 senior people of colour who are leading by example and removing barriers on the pathway to success for ethnic minority employees. The executives on the list are all within at least three levels of the chief executives at large companies, or are the leaders of smaller organisations. The list was created by diversity and inclusion membership organisation INvolve and is supported by Yahoo Finance UK. All of the ethnic minority leaders were nominated by peers and colleagues. Nominations were then reviewed by EMpowers judging panel, including the head of Yahoo Finance UK, Lianna Brinded. Each person was scored on the influence of their role, their impact on ethnic minority inclusion inside and outside the workplace, and their business achievements. Those on the EMpower Senior Executive List are leading by example and blazing a trail for others to follow, said Suki Sandhu, CEO and founder of INvolve. They have not only achieved success in their own careers but have made it their mission to make change real happen within their own organisations and across wider society. Read more: 1) Mauro Gregorio, business president, consumer solutions, Dow Mauro Gregorio, president, performance materials & coatings, Dow Mauro leads one of the most diversified business units at Dow, which is a cultural amalgamation of two large mergers in the companys history. He credits the company advancement in inclusion to his largely ethnically diverse and gender balanced leadership team. Mauro initiated a successful accountability programme in which each leadership member adopts a global site solely to foster inclusion, improve working conditions and better employee engagement at all levels. A strong believer that education is THE accelerator of Inclusion, Mauro is active in education programmes for students of colour and diverse ethnic backgrounds, ranging from engaging with African American universities to providing scholarship and fundraising for community colleges. Story continues Mauro is a member of the USA-Brazil CEO Council and meets regularly with high-level officials from both governments to discuss actions to improve trade and collaboration in educational programmes which create bridges for social advancement. Read more: Dow's Mauro Gregorio: Focusing on education is essential for executive role models 2) Kanya King, CEO, MOBO Organisation Kanya King, CEO, MOBO Organisation Since founding the MOBO Awards in 1996, Kanya has been a key voice for diversity in music and the arts. Working with the London Theatre Consortium to address the lack of executive-level diversity in theatre is just one example. For 2020, she announced a year of cultural events to coincide with the MOBO Awards Homecoming. Together with the MOBO Trust and their partners, she will launch a million hours of opportunity campaign for young people of colour to engage and interact with culture through music creation, writing, producing, design, coding, talks and business. As a member of the Arts and Media Honours Committee, Kanya helps ensure a diverse selection of candidates. She is also a member of the Creative Industries Council, prioritising D&I. In 2018, Kanya was awarded a CBE for services to music, diversity and culture. 3) Punit Renjen, CEO, Deloitte Global, Deloitte Punit Renjen, CEO, Deloitte Global, Deloitte Punit is the first Indian-born CEO to lead a Big Four accounting firm and has worked diligently at Deloitte to create an inclusive culture that reflects his personal journey. His belief that theres strength in diversity is reflected in his signature initiatives: Deloittes WorldClass, refreshed Shared Values, and ALL IN, which aims to increase the number of women and minority leaders throughout the organisation. Outside Deloitte, Punit has been a supporter of the activities of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Willamette University, his alma mater. The Office of Multicultural Affairs is housed in the Renjen Center. Punit is a member of the Business Roundtable, a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, vice-chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum and recently concluded his term as the chairman of the United Way Worldwide. In February 2020, he was recognized by the Oregon Historical Society as a history maker for his visionary business leadership. 4) Ajay Banga, president and CEO, Mastercard Ajay Banga, president and CEO, Mastercard Ajay is co-chair of Mastercards global inclusion and diversity council, where he pushes to provide a level playing field and encourages colleagues to use their unique perspectives as a competitive differentiator. He is a founding trustee of the U.-India Strategic Partnership Forum and a member of the US-India CEO Forum. Among other prominent positions, Ajay is chairman Emeritus of the America India Foundation, and regularly speaks to executive and student groups on issues which support the principles of D&I. Ajay topped last years list. READ MORE: Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga named top ethnic minority executive in the world IN 2019 5) Bina Mehta, partner, KPMG Bina Mehta, partner, KPMG Bina has over 20 years international experience in corporate finance and restructuring and chairs KPMG UKs Emerging Giants practice. She is a role model with a strong voice who actively promotes inclusivity. She champions KPMGs global diversity and inclusion agenda by taking a leading role with women of the future as well as with KPMGs India Club, which brings together diversity networks to promote inclusion and recognise intersectionality. Outside KPMG, Bina is: a member of the Fawcett Society Advisory Group on Pay and Progression of Women of Colour; sits on HM Treasury and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategys co-sponsored Council for Investing in Female Entrepreneurs; and is a member of the India Business Forum, which promotes bilateral trade and investment. Bina is an Ambassador for Code First: Girls and passionate about inspiring diverse talent to consider careers in technology. She mentors junior female and BAME colleagues at the firm as well as entrepreneurs. 6) Christina Liciaga, head of protection journeys, HSBC Christina Liciaga, head of protection journeys, HSBC Christina is a speaker, panellist and vlog contributor on issues of race, diversity and inclusion, as well as a mentor to global BAME talent. She has increased BAME visibility in senior roles as representative to HSBCs Global Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce, Co-facilitator of Global Graduate induction, Advisor for Hispanic & Latinx Diversity Committee (USA), and Embrace champion (UK). Externally, she advises BAME-owned ventures and has founded organisations supporting women of colour, including Womens Wealth that helps minority women bridge the wealth gap. Christina is an Executive Trustee at JUSTICE, an all-party law reform and human rights organisation working to strengthen the UK justice system, and served on the Increasing Judicial Diversity Working Group, which delivered nation-wide proposals to counter structural barriers limiting diverse talent from reaching the judiciarys highest levels. In 2020, she was recognised in the Top 10 Customer Experience Professionals in UK and in 2018 named Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business. 7) Anre Williams, group president, global merchant & network services, American Express Anre Williams, group president, global merchant & network services, American Express Anre is a passionate leader committed to enhancing diversity and inclusion inside and outside of the workplace. He leads American Express Executive Black Engagement Network, a group of 61 members that comprise the companys most senior black executives globally. Anre readily participates in a broad range of D&I efforts globally, from enterprise-wide events like the American Express Global Womens Conference, to local celebrations of International Womens Day, to business-unit specific forums like Finance's D&I Symposium for black and Latina leaders. He is a member of the Wharton Graduate Executive Board at University of Pennsylvania, where he is helping to increase financial support for African American students, including through establishing an African American MBA Student Support Fund. Anre is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council, which works to advance black executives and prepare the next generation of corporate leaders. 8) Ara Tucker, VP, talent and culture, Audible Ara Tucker, VP, talent and culture, Audible At Audible, Ara leads an integrated group focused on attracting, hiring, onboarding, developing and engaging a broad spectrum of employees at all stages of their careers from high school interns to senior leaders. The Talent and Culture teams ensure that Audible is an inclusive and progressive workplace by providing distinctive candidate and employee experiences, as well as talent management solutions across the globe. Prior to joining Audible, Ara served in diversity and inclusion leadership roles in the financial and legal sectors. Ara also worked in higher education where she focused on matters related to academic, administrative and budgetary planning. Ara began her career as a corporate attorney. A visible and vocal minority leader, Ara regularly shares her story as an openly gay leader of colour in a variety of settings including: prominent speaking engagements, LinkedIn and via her personal website, 'I'm Here Too'. 9) Dinesh Paliwal, senior adviser to the board and CEO, HARMAN Dinesh Paliwal president & chief executive officer, HARMAN Talent development is at the top of Dineshs agenda as senior advisor to the Board and CEO of HARMAN, particularly for women and ethnic minority communities. This has led to the implementation of training programmes including the Hungry Cubs and Hungry Tigers initiatives, and the Leadership Experience Acceleration Programme, which have gained recognition for HARMAN as an employer of choice, including in the Profiles in Diversity Journal. Dinesh's family foundation, the Ila & Dinesh Paliwal Foundation, provides financial and advisory support to promote discovery and innovation among underrepresented populations in STEAM. Dinesh is also a member of the US-India CEO Forum and the US-India business Council, among many others. 10) Dr Paula C H Franklin, chief medical officer, Bupa Group & chief medical and risk officer, Bupa Global & UK Bupa Dr Paula C H Franklin chief medical officer, Bupa Group & chief medical and risk officer, Bupa Global & UK BUPA Paula is the Executive Sponsor for Bupa's Global Diversity & Inclusion agenda, specifically tasked with promoting women and BAME colleagues in leadership. Recently, Bupa committed to working towards mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting and hosted the East London Business Alliance's 'Board Match' event, where charities that support underrepresented groups into employment were invited into the company. Prior to her current role, Paula was chair of the Bupa UK Foundation. During this time, the Foundation worked with the Taylor Bennet Foundation, aiming to encourage more BAME graduates to pursue a career in communications. 11) Adrian Joseph, partner and head of AI, EMEIA and UK, EY financial services, Ernst & Young (EY) Adrian Joseph Partner and Head of AI, EMEIA and UK, EY Financial Services Ernst & Young (EY). Adrian joined BT in February 2020 and was previously a partner and head of AI for EMEIA and UK at EY (Ernst & Young) Financial Services until January 2020. At EY he was an adviser to the Race Diversity Committee and worked to improve focus, processes and metrics across the organisation. In 2018, he achieved 50% BAME and 50% women recruitment in leading a team of 200. Adrian was a non-executive director with the Home Office for over four years until January 2020, where he was a member of the Race Board and contributed to the Home Office D&I strategy. He is also a NED on the People Board of the Cabinet Office, where he challenges government-wide plans and injects an external perspective on race diversity strategies and policies. Adrian was awarded an OBE for services to equality and diversity in business in the 2019 New Year's Honours List and is on the Advisory Board of Business in the Community. 12) Manoj Raghunandanan, global president, self care, Johnson & Johnson Manoj Raghunandanan global president, Self Care Johnson and Johnson Manoj is the executive sponsor and founding member of Johnson & Johnsons Diversity Marketing Team, focused on recruitment, retention, development and advancement of diverse talent. Additionally, he works to make Johnson & Johnson a top employer choice for all African-Ancestry talent as executive sponsor of the African Ancestry Leadership Council. Manoj sits on the advisory board for the Academy of National Advertisers' Alliance for Inclusion & Multicultural Marketing, and on Google's Advisory Board for Multicultural Marketing. Manoj is a member of the Jack and Jill Father's Auxiliary, which is dedicated to nurturing future African American leaders. 13) Andrew Pearce, managing director, operations, Accenture Andrew Pearce, managing director, operations, Accenture Andrew is one of Accenture's global cross-cultural leads, with responsibility for educating colleagues about working across cultures and ethnicities. He is an executive sponsor of the Accenture African Caribbean Network and works with Accenture's global leadership on the broader D&I agenda to further the retention, progression and development of black talent. He is UK chair of the Executive Leadership Council and vice-chair of their International Presence Committee, an organisation that is committed to advancing the role and contributions of black executives and preparing the next generation of corporate leaders. Andrew also mentors BAME professionals across sectors, encouraging his mentees to support discussions on race, and regularly speaks to BAME students at inner-city schools on aspiration and inclusion. 14) Nazreen Visram, head of charities, Barclays Nazreen Visram, head of Charities, Barclays At Barclays, Nazreen is co-chair of the banks internal diversity initiative Embrace, where she has supported the establishment of both the Asian and Black Professionals Forums. Nazreen also works with Barclays Faith Forums. She is passionate about inclusion, creating the Network of Networks to promote intersectionality across all diversity networks, many of which Nazreen is a member of. As well as being a HeforShe champion, Nazreen mentors junior ethnic minority colleagues, regularly runs employability skills workshops at local schools and colleges and provides work experience programmes to students from diverse backgrounds. Nazreen is committed to voluntary service, serving as National Council Member for the Womens Portfolio for the Ismaili Muslim Council UK, delivering conferences and events and enabling access, support and empowerment initiatives for women and their families. Nazreen is currently on the board of a school and was a finalist for the Asian Women of Achievement Awards and for the British Muslim Awards. 15) Sophie Chandauka, executive director, global CAO shared services and banking operations, Morgan Stanley Sophie Chandauka, global COO shared services and banking operations, Morgan Stanley Sophie provides connectivity between strategic initiatives affecting the multicultural talent agenda across geographies internally and externally. In 2019, as an Ambassador for Everywoman, she negotiated sponsorship of the inaugural Everywoman in India career development forum involving 50 companies, including Morgan Stanley. She is co-founder of The Black British Business Awards (BBBAwards), endorsed by the three Prime Ministers. The BBBAwards runs a mid-career ethnic minority Talent Accelerator hosted by Morgan Stanley. Over 50 high-potential professionals from 20 top tier corporations have taken part, with exceptional results in terms of career progression. The BBBAwards spearheaded the award winning Boardroom programme with Deloitte which has trained more than 50 aspiring ethnic minority non-executive directors since 2017. Sophie Chairs The Network of Networks Multicultural (TNON), which trains employee network leaders from over 85 corporations to be strategically relevant and impactful. Sophie serves as Strategic Advisor to Morgan Stanleys African and Caribbean Business Alliance. 16) Timothy Wilkins, global partner for client sustainability, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Timothy Wilkins, global partner for client sustainability Freshfields, Bruckhaus Deringer Tim leads Freshfields global practice on client sustainability. He is the first black partner in the US offices and has pioneered numerous initiatives to support black colleagues and people of colour at his firm, including co-founding the Global Black Affinity Network; establishing a 12-year running mentoring program for NYC public high school students to provide college prep and professional experiences with international lawyers; and launching a Diversity Film Series that included a firmwide Black History Month film premier. Tim works to support black and minority ethnic communities more broadly through his board positions with the NYC Economic Development Association (appointed by the Mayor), New York Public Radio (Vice-Chair), and New York Public Theatre (Co-chair of Governance). He also co-founded the New York Circular City Initiative, a program to develop a circular economic system that promotes greater employment and a greener environment for the city, including its less advantaged neighbourhoods. 17) Irvinder Goodhew, transformation director, Lloyds Banking Group Irvinder Goodhew, transformation director, Lloyds Banking Group Irvinder plays a critical role as a core member of Lloyds Banking Group I&D OpCO, and leads Inclusion & Diversity within the Group Transformation Division. She is a passionate advocate and role model for ethnic minority colleagues. She has a track record for driving change and making a tangible difference to increase ethnic minority representation at senior levels and she leads interventions which support the Group's public goals. Among other initiatives, Irvinder spearheaded a tech returner programme, boosting diversity in the talent pipeline through encouraging those on career breaks to return to employment. Recognising BAME is a broad categorisation, she led interventions to support the progression and confidence of colleagues from black heritage communities. Irvinder launched the group's B.O.L.D. community (Black Organisation for Leadership Development), and empowered colleagues to take ownership of Black History Month celebrations. 18) Alan Bowser, co-head, Americas region, Bridgewater Associates Alan Bowser Co-Head, Americas Region, Bridgewater Associates, LP Alan Bowser is co-head of the Americas region at Bridgewater Associates, overseeing client relationships in the US and Canada for the worlds largest hedge fund. A member of the firms Diversity Council and senior sponsor of the Bridgewater Black Network, he is a leader in shaping Bridgewater's diversity and inclusion strategy, with an emphasis on attracting and retaining African American talent. He joined Bridgewater in 2011. Beyond Bridgewater, Alan is a board member for the Robert Toigo Foundation, which prepares underrepresented talent for leadership and helps businesses create environments where those individuals can thrive. He has also been a member of the Executive Leadership Council and a board member of the NY Urban League. His D&I leadership including his involvement with 100 Black Men of Stamford has been recognised by officials such as US Congressman Jim Himes. Alan holds a bachelors degree from University of Pennsylvania and a masters degree from Oxford. 19) Suresh Raj, chief business development officer, Vision7 International (Blue Impact) Suresh Raj, chief business development officer, Vision7 International (Blue Impact) Suresh sits on the Global Board for Vision7 International, and is executive sponsor for the Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee. Through this, he provides counsel, direction and operational change to the way the organisation recruits, manages and involves talent. He actively pushes for recruitment of senior talent from minority backgrounds to spearhead cultural change. Outside of work Suresh is also executive sponsor for numerous networks focused on personal and professional development of black, Asian and Latin communities. Last year, Suresh was invited to chair a conversation on humanity and race at the TED 2019 conference, and regularly appears as a panellist and speaker on D&I topics. He is also an inaugural member of The Alliance, a group of global senior LGBT+ leaders using their collective influence to drive corporate and social change for minorities. 20) Jonathan Mildenhall, CEO & co-founder, TwentyFirstCenturyBrand Jonathan Mildenhall, CEO & co-founder, TwentyFirstCenturyBrand. Jonathan's commitment to diversity and inclusion is reflected in the values of his company. D&I is always considered when looking at new talent, and TwentyFirstCenturyBrand (21CB) has built a summer internship program that recruits interns from College Track, a non-profit which empowers students from underserved communities to graduate from college. Jonathan is also an executive committee member and national board member for College Track. 21CB offers interns valuable exposure to marketing and brand strategy, while committing to full-time permanent work placements for the most deserving who pass through the programme. Additionally over the last few years, Jonathan has advised many high-profile tech and startup companies in San Francisco on how to become more diverse through tangible actions. He is also a partner with Alma, which supports non-profits and empowers organisations that further diversity and inclusion in marketing and advertising. 21) Justin Carty, senior director, CBRE Justin Carty, senior director, CBRE Justin is a real estate and funding specialist who has advised on more than 10bn ($13bn) of transactions. He Founded CBREs Multi-Cultural Network, is head of the CBRE Race Taskforce, and a member of the CBRE UK Diversity Steering Group. He ensures that D&I is central to CBRE, resulting in initiatives such as unconscious bias training for senior staff, the inclusion of D&I objectives in the appraisal process and ensuring a wide variety of D&I events are held. Justin and the Multi-Cultural Network's work has resulted in the collation and analysis of data in relation to BAME staff, CBRE signing the Race in Work Charter and the creation of a Race Taskforce. Justin is also vice-chairman of DiverseCity Surveyors, which focuses on promoting BAME issues across the property industry. His DiverseCity Surveyors activity has contributed to mentorship programmes and work experience opportunities for minority professionals and teenagers. 22) Chika Aghadiuno, group enterprise & operational risk director, Aviva Chika Aghadiuno, group enterprise & operational risk director, Aviva As co-sponsor for the Aviva BAME Network, lead on inclusion in the Aviva Global Risk Function and a member of the UK Aviva Inclusion Council, Chika is a visible and accessible minority leader at Aviva. Chika has spearheaded various diversity & inclusion initiatives outside Aviva, connecting them whenever possible. Examples include: a 2019 venture exploring the impact of race and education on recruitment for the black community, in partnership with the Forward Institute which promotes responsible leadership; support of the Amos Bursary, for which she is also a professional mentor; and support for Beyond the Classroom, a London-based social enterprise working to support the wider needs of less advantaged young girls and women. Helping young people from less advantaged and minority backgrounds has been a key focus for Chika through engagement with schools, work experience initiatives and informal individual mentoring. Chika chairs the Diversity Advisory Group for the UK Actuarial Profession and is a member of the Advisory Board for TWIN (The Women's Insurance Network). 23) Tonia Bottoms, managing director & senior managing counsel, BNYMellon Pershing Tonia Bottoms, managing director & senior managing counsel, BNYMellon Pershing At BNY Mellon, Tonia is on the Global Leadership Council of IMPACT, the organisation's multicultural business resource group, where she spearheads initiatives for the recruitment and retention of minority employees. She has developed a mentoring programme, identified diverse colleagues in middle management and below, and provided additional mentoring and sponsorship to support the promotion of diverse candidates. Tonia also chairs IMPACT's Black Leadership Forum, which is dedicated to building the talent pipeline and positioning BNY Mellon as a preeminent employer for black professionals. Additionally, Tonia serves as is a member of the Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council to the CEO. Offering her experiences and perspectives, she works to inform the strategy on diversity and inclusion across the enterprise and serve as a sounding board for senior leadership. Tonia has a commitment to her community, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Girl Scouts of Nassau County, which provides girls with opportunities for community service and leadership development. 24) Shelina Janmohamed, vice-president, Islamic marketing, Ogilvy Shelina Janmohamed, vice-president, Islamic marketing, Ogilvy Shelina is a member of Ogilvy's Inclusion Board, WPP's Inclusion board, and of WPPs Roots Steering Committee, a global network that brings together individuals from diverse, underrepresented cultural backgrounds. She is also vice-president of Islamic marketing, where she champions Muslim expression and engagement within Ogilvy. Shelina is purposefully visible and vocal as an ethnic minority board member and drives tangible change for her colleagues. She is a board member at IMPRESS, a judge for the D&AD New Blood Awards and the Gerety Awards, and an adviser to the AMAL Foundation, which promotes Muslim cultural and creative activity. She has been working with Campaign Magazine to highlight D&I issues and regularly contributes to other newspapers and publications. 25) Marva Smalls, global head of inclusion, ViacomCBS and executive vice-president, public affairs, kids & family entertainment brands, ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks, ViacomCBS Marva Smalls, ViacomCBS Last year, Marva launched Viacom's first Inclusion Week, celebrating and strengthening diversity and inclusion across the company. All levels of the company came together for a week of compelling programming and immersive experiences which highlighted D&I topics. She also published Viacom's first Diversity and Inclusion Report, outlining the company's work to elevate diverse voices, which included demographic data about the employee base for use in benchmarking and goal-setting. Marva launched Viacom's Content Creation Council, applying a D&I lens to all aspects of content creation, and the Viewfinders Emerging TV Directors Programme. She is a founding member of the Black Economic Alliance, she serves on the boards of the American Theatre Wing, the International African American Museum, the James Beard Foundation and Synovus Bank/South Carolina, among others. She founded the Marva Smalls Endowment, which awards funds to young people and families from underrepresented groups. 26) Rupal Kantaria, director, Oliver Wyman Forum, Oliver Wyman Rupal Kantaria director, Oliver Wyman Forum, Oliver Wyman When convening business leaders for the Oliver Wyman Forum, Rupal ensures diversity and intersectionality play a leading role. Both within and outside of Oliver Wyman, Rupal has championed mentoring and reverse-mentoring programmes, best practice sharing, and cross-company networking. She co-founded MissionINCLUDE, convening C-suite leaders to foster inclusion across all diversity strands. Led by Lord Popat, she co-hosts the only black and minority ethnic International Womens Day speaker showcase at the House of Commons, giving a platform to diverse stories from all genders and providing tangible actions for change. Rupal has led numerous other initiatives, including: exploring the racial diversity at client companies and reviewing how the client interacts with their BAME employees; engaging BAME leaders to champion the BAME agenda; and reshaping flagship events to prioritise diverse panels and attendance. 27) Richard Iferenta, partner, KPMG Richard Iferenta, Partner, KPMG Richard is a partner sponsor of KPMG UK's African Caribbean Network, and worked with the firm's managing partner to set up the Black Heritage Working Group, bringing together senior stakeholders to deliver a strategy to build on inclusion for Black Heritage colleagues, including reviewing project allocation processes and tailored exit interviews. Richard chairs the Race Diversity Board of Business in the Community, and has championed initiatives including the Race at Work Charter, which has been adopted by the UK government, and collaborating with the government on Ethnicity Pay Gap reporting. He established the KPMG Black Leaders Network and mentors a vast range of professionals to build confidence and navigate progression. He is regularly invited to speak publicly on D&I topics. 28) Dr Nneka Abulokwe, OBE, founder; chair board nominations committee; non-executive director, MicroMax Consulting; ISACA; University of Cambridge Nneka Abulokwe, CEO and founder of MicroMax Consulting In addition to being CEO and Founder of MicroMax Consulting, Dr Abulokwe serves as a non-executive Director at the University of Cambridge and Chairs the Board Nominations Committee at ISACA, amongst others. In 2019, Nneka received an OBE for services to business, and has introduced a system of governance which promotes greater empowerment of people and inclusion to improve business performance, in the digital economy. She mentors with EMpower and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, and is often found on BBC national and international press speaking on boardroom diversity and tech. Nneka is a passionate proponent of women and girls in tech and has supported programmes for ethnic minority women's inclusion at the UN General Assembly, the UK and across Africa. She is the first black female professionals to sit at board-level of a multi-national tech company in the UK and the first black woman admitted to the Information Technologists Livery Company. Nneka is an international keynote speaker on digital, governance and celebrating diversity in tech. 29) Ernest Nicolas, SVP, operations & engineering services, Rockwell Automation Ernest Nicolas, senior vice-president, operations & engineering services, Rockwell Automation Ernest is an executive adviser for the African American Professional Network at Rockwell Automation and founded the Black Executive Leadership Team focused on elevating inclusiveness for black executives within the organisation. He continues to sponsor recruitment at national diversity engineering conferences including the National Society of Black Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. He has championed establishing Rockwell Automations 'Navigating Your Career as a Black Professional' development series, which has become a staple at the National Society of Black Engineers regional, national and professional development conferences. As a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), he has introduced Rockwell Automation to the ELCs training programmes which serve to complement existing programmes to enrich development for black professionals. He serves the board of directors for the Milwaukee Urban League and the University of Wisconsin-Madisons supply chain programme advisory board. 30) Ricardo Mora, partner, co-head of FICC Americas sales, securities division, Goldman Sachs Ricardo Mora partner, co-head of FICC Americas sales in the securities division, Goldman Sachs A visible advocate for diversity, Ricardo is senior sponsor of the Global Markets Division Black and Hispanic/Latino Council at Goldman Sachs (GS), where he leads a diverse team in his role as co-head of FICC Americas Sales. He works to recruit diverse talent for key strategic roles, and advocated for diverse talent for the Global Markets Division summer internship program. Ricardo is on the board of visitors for the University of California, Berkeley, working to promote diversity to the university's leadership, shaping and advancing key initiatives, and increasing diverse representation on the board. He has also served on the board of the Orphaned Starfish Foundation, a non-profit which supports the construction of vocational training centres in orphanages throughout Latin America. 31) Raj Verma, senior vice-president, human resources, Sodexo Raj Verma, senior vice-president, human resources, Sodexo At Sodexo, Raj is the executive sponsor for ethnicity and sits on the culture & origins advisory board, pushing for a clearer, pragmatic and more results-driven approach to initiatives. He encouraged Sodexo to sign up to the Empower Ethnic Pay Audit charter, and has driven the need to share best practice throughout the industry. He has often been invited to speak publicly on D&I topics, and mentors numerous colleagues. Raj was appointed to the Board of Trustees at Barnardo's, increasing board diversity. With 20% of the charity's service users coming from a BAME background, Raj visibly supports their programme of events to engage with wider BAME and Faith audiences. 32) Albertha Charles, partner, PwC Albertha Charles, partner, PwC Albertha is a member of PwC's Talent & Diversity Council, Culture and Diversity Leader on the Transaction Services Leadership Team, and Sponsor Partner of the PwC Multicultural Business Network. She played a key role in sponsoring and hosting PwC & Aon's Black to the Future Black History Month forum, and in the PwC Colour Brave campaign. She established a network of culture champions in her business unit, launched a Culture Cafe series, and hosts a 'This is me' campaign, encouraging people to be more comfortable in their own skin at work. She is a member of the Race Equality Board at Business in the Community, where she led the development of an 'inclusion toolkit'. She has showcased aspects of PwC's inclusion journey at the Houses of Parliament and at the House of Lords, and has participated in Number 10's Black History Month celebrations. 33) Roni Savage, founder & CEO, Jomas Associates (Engineering & Environmental) Roni Savage, founder & CEO, Jomas Associates (Engineering & Environmental) As Founder & CEO of Jomas Associates, an engineering and environmental consultancy, Roni is a pioneer in the engineering and construction industry. She is dedicated to changing the landscape for minorities in business. Roni sits on numerous boards, including advising the London Mayor's Fund on social mobility and D&I. She has received a host of accolades for her work with Jomas Associates and for her commitment to inclusion for women and ethnic minorities. She is also a board member for the YMCA, and the National Leader for Women in STEM and Policy Chair for Construction at Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). She is regularly invited to speak publicly on D&I topics and mentors numerous women and BAME professionals. 34) William BJ Trach, partner, Latham & Watkins William 'BJ' Trach, partner, Latham & Watkins BJ is a member of Lathams Executive Committee, for which increasing Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) throughout the global firm is a key strategic priority. BJ serves as Executive Committee liaison to Lathams Diversity Leadership Committee, which he previously led as Global Chair. During his tenure, the group launched a Diversity Leadership Academy, established eight affinity groups, including three for ethnic minority lawyers, spearheaded a firm-wide Inclusion Initiative to achieve broader engagement, expanded programmes to enhance the pipeline of diverse law students, and revamped D&I training for all employees. BJ has served on the board, and a lifetime member, of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association, where he has attended countless D&I events and has mentored young law students and lawyers over the last decade. He is also involved with the Black Law Students Association at Harvard Law School, where he attends the annual job fair, among other events. 35) Gian Power, founder & CEO, TLC Lions Gian Power, founder & CEO, TLC Lions As founder and CEO of TLC Lions, Gian's mission is to ignite emotion in workplaces through storytelling. His work has supported over 120 organisations covering 19 industries reaching over 40,000 people in audiences in over 57 countries. Through TLC Lions, Gian's brought together 25 ordinary people with extraordinary stories sharing their stories around diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As a result, Gian has been sponsored by Baroness Verma, UN Chair for Women in the UK to host a quarterly roundtable alongside the Baroness discussing D&I in the workplace with a focus on solutions. This led to an invitation to share his learnings at Number 10 and with members of the Royal Family as well as sitting on the board of Mental Health Conference This Can Happen. 36) Zishan Nurmohamed, partner, EY Zishan Nurmohamed, partner, Ernst & Young (EY) Zishan leads Diversity & Inclusiveness for EYs Assurance service line, he is part of EYs Race Working Group and was previously partner sponsor for the EY Muslim Community. He created a video series, 'EY Through My Eyes, aiming to educate insiders on what it feels like to be an outsider, with a broad focus on race, sexuality, gender, working parents, neuro-diversity and social mobility. He has also started a series of talks nationwide called 'Let's talk about race', encouraging safe, interactive discussions focused on ethnic minority development and progression. Zishan is a London Regional Leadership member of Mosaic, focusing on children from underrepresented backgrounds and promoting growth through entrepreneurialism. Zishan was responsible for integrating the annual Mosaic Enterprise Challenge winners with a special award at EY's flagship Entrepreneur of the Year event. 37) Mitul Shah, partner, Deloitte Mitul Shah, partner, Deloitte Mitul sits on Deloitte UK's Ethnicity Council, representing the Tax & Legal business, and has led an initiative to increase personal data collection of ethnicity profiles following a presentation to the executive board around the challenges and opportunities the business faced from a BAME perspective. He led the development and design of BAME stakeholder workshops and the development of the resulting ethnicity leadership programme for Deloitte's director population, in addition to an education programme for Deloitte's senior partners to encourage advocacy. Mitul is a lead mentor in the Business in the Community mentoring circles, and contributes to Deloitte's 'BAME in the Boardroom' programme. 38) Paul Trussell, managing director, head of consumer, retail equity research, Deutsche Bank Paul Trussell, managing director and head of consumer, retail equity research, Deutsche Bank Paul is the founder & co-chair of the Black Leadership Forum (BLF) at Deutsche Bank and sits on the Steering Committee for the Multi-Cultural Partnership. The BLF provides empowering programming, including professional development workshops and opportunities to connect with senior leadership at the bank. Paul is a diversity champion within the Investment Bank for the graduate analyst and summer intern programs, participating directly in recruitment, interviewing and mentorship. He has elevated the executive leadership dialogue on ethnic minority inclusion, providing a 12-point action plan to improve D&I efforts. Paul is International Grand Treasurer of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc., America's fifth largest predominantly African American social service fraternity, and is a member of the Leadership Council, a financial presenter and a Youth Business Competition Judge with World of Money, an NYC-based non-profit organisation. 39) Raza Hasan, chief risk officer, retail banking and wealth management, HSBC Bank, Canada Raza Hasan, chief risk officer, retail banking and wealth management, HSBC Bank, Canada At HSBC (HSBA.L) Wealth and Personal Banking, Canada, Raza is the lead adviser for Diversity and New Immigrant strategy to the CEO of the division. In this role, he provides advice on recruiting talent that is reflective of diversity and the organisation's communities, and on providing banking solutions that meet the needs of new immigrant clients, allowing them to build credit history in Canada and settle more quickly. He has also worked with community partners to provide newcomers with mentorship and guidance on job searching and the Canadian job landscape. Raza is a member of the leading think tank, C.D. Howe Institute and its Financial Services Research Initiative Council, where he provides input into various initiatives including leveraging new immigrants and diversity in the financial services ecosystem. As a board member of the Oakville Hospital Foundation, Raza is assisting the board in hiring more diverse members and is helping the hospital to engage with a wider donor community reflecting a broader ethnic background. Raza is the proud recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and of the Canada Sesquicentennial Award for his contributions to Canada including on diversity and inclusion. 40) Tevin Tobun, CEO, GV Group, Gate Ventures Tevin Tobun CEO GV Group, Gate Ventures As the CEO of GV Group, Tevin is a strong advocate for BAME issues within business. Within GV Group, he has driven major initiatives which have helped to support ethnic minorities in the workplace. These include the sponsorship of courses, as well as reframing recruitment policies to ensure that BAME candidates are offered the same opportunities as others. Tevin is a regular contributor in the industry press and speaker at business focused events, including the recent Racial Equality in Leadership Forum and Arena Network, a networking association for the hospitality sector. He also chairs Inspirational You, a BAME-focused organisation empowering young entrepreneurs. Alongside this, he is a patron of Springboard, a charity focused on employment for disadvantaged groups. Tevin founded the GV Scholarship, which helps disadvantaged students with university fees and offers professional work experience and mentoring. 41) Roland Ilube, head of MA and commercial finance DS, Shell UK Roland Ilube, head of MA and commercial finance DS, Shell UK Roland is an executive sponsor for the Shell (RDSB.L) African and Caribbean Network, and is a member of the Shell Global Finance Diversity and Inclusion Group. He often features as a panellist for UK employees on D&I topics, including ethnicity at work, gender pay gap reporting, and the importance of ethnicity declaration. He advocates for consideration of ethnicity-related issues in Shell's senior leadership groups, with tangible results including Shell UK becoming one of the founder signatories of the Race at Work Charter, explicit D&I and ethnicity consideration during a recent reorganisation, and a commitment to voluntarily publish an ethnicity pay gap report. Roland is a member of the Business in the Community Race Equality Leadership Team, where he provided input into the development of the Race at Work Charter and the development of a series of executive sponsor toolkits for race. 42) Kamel Hothi OBE, non-executive director & trustee, TLC Lions Kamel Hothi OBE, non-executive director & trustee, TLC Lions Kamel is a non-executive director for TLC Lions, which has supported hundreds of companies in improving culture and inclusion. She chairs a round table in Westminster for these companies to collaborate and champion change faster. As an ex-banker, Kamel worked her way up from cashier to director, strategist and architect of numerous programmes and initiatives including the Asian strategy that helped access to finance for entrepreneurs from minority communities. Her campaigning for equality and fairness was recognised by the Queen in 2017 with an OBE and she has been awarded an honorary doctorate for her cultural cohesion work. Kamel is an emotional speaker and has been invited around the world to speak on gender and cultural challenges. She is also an adviser and trustee to several charities, including the Queens Commonwealth Trust and the Alzheimers Society to name a few. 43) Allyn L Shaw, president & chief technology officer, Recycle Track Systems Allyn L Shaw, president & chief technology officer, Recycle Track Systems Allyn is instrumental in breaking down barriers for minority groups. A board member of Out and Equal, Allyn spearheaded the first-ever transgender recruiting effort. He was also among the first set of black executives to launch the Black Executive Leadership Council and has been actively involved in the intersection of tech and diversity with Out in Tech, Lesbians who Tech and Out 4 U. Allyn's commitment to fostering an inclusive environment has received national recognition. Most recently, Allyn received the Brooklyn Nets Jason Collins Award sponsored by the NBA for courage and leadership in the LGBTQ community. He is an OUTstanding LGBT+ Role Model, a Diversity Best Practices' Above and Beyond Award winner and named to Diversity MBA world's top 100 business leaders under 50. Allyn is currently the President and CTO of RTS, a waste and recycling management company that combines technology with high-touch service to make disposal easier, smarter and more responsible. 44) Karen S Carter, chief human resources officer & chief inclusion officer, Dow Karen S Carter, chief human resources officer & chief inclusion officer, Dow As Dows first Chief Inclusion Officer, Karen developed and implemented a global inclusion and diversity (I&D) strategy that is woven into the corporate business strategy, coupling I&D metrics with financial and safety results. Under her leadership, Dow published its first inclusion report, and accelerated spend with small and diverse suppliers to more than $1bn since 2017. Additionally, global participation in Dows 10 Employee Resource Groups increased more than 25%, nearing best in class levels and over 80% of people leaders lead by example through their engagement. She renewed focus on sponsorship with through the creation of Advocacy in Action, a new talent development program that pairs African American proteges with senior leader sponsors to drive career achievement. Karen serves on the advisory board of Catalyst and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council. Her contributions have resulted in being named to Black Enterprises 2018 Top Executives in Diversity list. 45) Nilufer von Bismarck, partner, Slaughter and May Nilufer von Bismarck, partner, Slaughter and May Nilufer is Slaughter and May's D&I partner, with strategic oversight of the firm's inclusion initiatives and employee networks. She provided leadership to the 'Inclusion Allies' initiative to recognise how everyday exchanges might lead to feelings of inclusion or exclusion, and is partner sponsor for the Muslim Network, supporting social and awareness-raising events. She has hosted the firm's annual graduate recruitment event, 'A World of Difference', collaborating with university BME societies, and hosted the firm's 2019 Black History Month event. Nilufer is on the Board of Trustees for IntoUniversity, which tackles educational disadvantage, and has spearheaded their partnership with Slaughter and May. She leads workshops and advises on how clients can develop their own D&I initiatives, and mentors numerous ethnic minority professionals. 46) Annette Byron, partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Annette Byron, partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Annette co-leads Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's Global Black Affinity Network and drove their 2019 Talent Meeting, bringing colleagues together for a programme of fireside chats, a diversity hackathon, panel discussions and networking, taking the resulting initiatives forward into action between the network and the firms wider management. She is the Partner Sponsor for Social Mobility, and she is on the firm's graduate recruitment panel and the cross-function social mobility committee, helping those from underrepresented backgrounds thrive at the firm. Annette is the driving force behind the Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Scheme, a recruitment, development and mentoring scheme run by volunteers from Freshfields and its clients. Until very recently, having served the maximum terms, Annette was Board Director of PRIME, the legal sector charity alliance between law firms committed to improving access to those from less socially mobile backgrounds. 47) George Madrigal, CEO, Penserra George Madrigal, chief executive officer, Penserra As CEO of Penserra, George pushes managers to recruit a more ethnically diverse workforce, continuing with this commitment although Penserra already has 50% more diversity than the industry average. He works closely with the community and with non-profits to ensure qualified diverse candidates are found for the internship program. Recently, George signed the Hispanic Promise, a pledge to hire, promote, retain and celebrate Hispanic colleagues. He is on the Board of Directors of Pangea Legal Services, who work to provide legal resources to wrongfully detained immigrants, where he has helped to develop better non-profit oversight of budgeting and strategic decisions. George created the Founders Scholarship Program, providing scholarships to primarily Latinx high school students entering college. He is also a founding member of the NICSA Diversity Council CEO Advisory Council and a member of the finance committee for Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area and the Community Foundation of Mendocino County. 48) Sharon Blackman, EMEA legal head currencies, frontier markets and non-G10 rates, managing director & general counsel, Citi Sharon Blackman, EMEA head of foreign exchange & local markets legal, managing director & general counsel, Citi At Citi, Sharon is a member of the EMEA Legal Diversity Committee and the Global Legal Diversity Committee. She is a member of Citi Roots, and co-chairs the EMEA Pro Bono Committee. She has organised regional and global training on various D&I topics, including unconscious bias, mental health and cross-cultural working, all to promote a more inclusive environment. She has arranged Citi's participation in a mentoring programme for law undergraduates with a social mobility and ethnic minority focus, and has structured Citi's participation in social mobility and ethnic minority-focused programmes offered by law firms. Sharon is a mentor with the Black Solicitors Network, and has participated as a panel speaker and role model in Urban Synergy events at Lewisham Schools and Canary Wharf venues, among other high-profile speaking engagements. 49) Sarah Lee, partner, Slaughter and May Sarah Lee, partner, Slaughter and May Sarah is the partner sponsor for DIVERSE at Slaughter and May, and was the firm's first D&I partner, responsible for establishing Slaughter and May's eight employee networks. Last year she launched a buddy scheme for ethnic minority trainees, and has sponsored the firm's female leadership development programme for the past seven years, ensuring ethnic minority representation. She has helped redesign the graduate recruitment approach with a focus on diversity, worked on enhancing the firm's Black History Month celebrations and has mentored various ethnic minorities professionally, including a student through the firm's 'Law Springboard' programme with upReach. Sarah launched and hosted the 'Diversity in the City' series initiative to connect ethnic minority professionals across the City, and as a Commissioner for the Judicial Appointments Commission works to promote greater diversity within the judiciary. 50) Arlene Isaacs-Lowe, global head of corporate social responsibility, Moody's Corporation Arlene Isaacs-Lowe, global head of corporate social responsibility, Moody's Corporation Arlene is a member of Moodys CSR Council, comprised of the firms most senior executives. She champions non-profit partnerships that support the growth and success of women and BAME entrepreneurs, as well as those that provide diverse students with tools and opportunities to thrive in financial services careers. She puts forward Moodys executives for the boards of these organisations for the dual purpose of strengthening advocacy for marginalised communities and effective reverse mentoring of senior leaders. Arlene is an executive member of Moody's Employee Resource Groups and serves as a role model and sponsor for high potential women and black employees, providing access with an open-door policy. With the Executive Leadership Council, Arlene is co-chair of the International Presence Committee, charged with expanding the membership of global black executives and growing the pipeline of black talent. She is also a steering committee member of the Black Scholars Initiative, focused on ensuring the successful completion of university degrees. 51) Michael Sherman, chief strategy and transformation officer, BT Michael Sherman, chief strategy and transformation officer, BT At BT, Michael has brought together a community of ethnic minority colleagues to improve networking. He has championed improvement of the company's data collection, allowing BT to better support the development of minority employees through mentorship and guidance. He has led conversations centred on making BT a diverse and inclusive workforce, and has inspired the next generation of leaders at BT's Ethnic Diversity Network event. Michael is involved with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which aims to help students from historically black colleges and universities in order to develop the next generation of African American leaders. He also engages with disenfranchised communities through his position on the Business Advisory Council, and works with the Dallas Way Metro Dallas to help disenfranchised communities experiencing poverty. 52) Tunji Akintokun MBE, director, head of sales UK, PwC Tunji Akintokun MBE director, head of sales UK, PwC Tunji is involved with the PwC Multicultural Business Network and the PwC Diversity Mentoring Program, educating on the power of mentors, coaches and sponsors in navigating a career, and providing work experience and mentoring to graduates from diverse backgrounds. He has used his experience leading ERGs and his involvement with the National Equality Standard to advise clients on D&I programmes. Tunji is the founder of the Ilesha Charitable Trust, which makes ongoing and effective donations to D&I, STEM, Arts, Sports and social mobility causes. The Trust has provided numerous bursaries for BAME students to study at top universities across the UK and scholarships for female science students in Ghana and Nigeria. The trust is also a sponsor of the PRECIOUS awards, Warwick University Africa Summit and the successful 'Get Up, Stand Up Now' exhibition at Somerset House celebrating 50 years of Black creativity in the UK. 53) Jed Khan, global director D&AI partner ecosystem lead, Avanade Jed Khan, global director D&AI partner ecosystem lead, Avanade At Avanade, Jed is an Executive Partner for the Beyond BAME group, and is involved in numerous I&D initiatives, including raising awareness for mental health and learning disabilities, creating new ideas to drive BAME messaging and finding new avenues through which to amplify it, driving the company's I&D agenda and bringing BAME issues to Global Leadership Teams. Jed was invited, through the AI for Good Hackathon with Microsoft, to lead a team to help the RAF Museum bring the Battle of Britain to life through the eyes of the BAME and LGBT+ communities. Alongside partners Microsoft, Blue Prism, UiPath and Databricks, Jed formed a European Leaders Group to tackle tough global issues, with diversity and citizen impact high on the list of priorities. 54) Elizabeth Scarpelli, head of global operations & privacy compliance, BNY Mellon Elizabeth Scarpelli, head of global operations & privacy compliance, BNY Mellon Elizabeth is a role model and advocate for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) at BNY Mellon and has been involved in a number of key initiatives to drive the companys D&I strategy, including leading programmes designed to increase consideration of diverse individuals throughout the organisations talent lifecycle from recruitment and development to retention and advancement. Elizabeth serves: as an active member of the firms D&I Advisory Council to the CEO; in numerous leadership positions within the companys multicultural business resource group, IMPACT; and as a steering committee member for key external partnership initiatives. She has helped to broaden perspectives and foster change within the company and deliver against D&I goals as set by the firm. Elizabeth serves on the Senior Leadership Council for the Association of Latino Professionals for America for the New York Chapter, regularly speaks at internal and external events, and sponsors and mentors colleagues throughout the company. 55) Fiona Bolton, partner, Simmons & Simmons Fiona Bolton, partner, Simmons & Simmons At Simmons & Simmons, Fiona launched and co-chairs Emerge, the firm's inaugural BAME network, and has recently introduced a mentoring programme across all levels of the firm. The network was established as a result of discussions with an advisory board on the development of a BAME action plan, based on the principles of the Race at Work Charter, with Fiona acting as a partner sponsor and spokesperson for BAME inclusion. Fiona works closely with social mobility charity The Brokerage where she has previously served as a Trustee. She has worked with several client organisations advising on issues of culture and D&I. She also mentors BAME women in the legal profession. 56) Ugo Ojike, managing director, Accenture Ugo Ojike, managing director, Accenture Ugo is the co-executive sponsor of Accenture's African Caribbean Network, where she sponsors annual events and spearheads conversations around BAME development activities. She is working with leadership to further the retention, progression and development of black talent. She also sits on Accenture's Ethnicity Council for the UK and Ireland. She has co-sponsored the ethnicity I&D workstream in the legal function, where she led discussions in workshops on the challenges and opportunities for BAME legal professionals, which have been extended to Accenture's LatinX legal community in North America. Ugo is a mentor for the Minority Supplier Development UK, Diverse Supplier Development Mentoring Programme, and is particularly proud of the Innovation Hub, which supports innovative ethnic minority-owned businesses and an impressive talent pool of entrepreneurs. Her YouTube Colour Brave speech continue to be a catalyst for driving conversations about race in the workplace. 57) Kene Ejikeme, managing director in the securities division, Goldman Sachs Kene Ejikeme, managing director in the securities division, Goldman Sachs At Goldman Sachs, Kene is co-head of the EMEA Firmwide Black Network (FBN), and is actively involved in informing and advancing the Black talent strategy, leading recruitment initiatives and mentoring Black talent. He has led efforts to provide a forum for exchanging ideas within the FBN, and to discuss challenges faced by diverse professionals. The FBN hosts several Black History Month events, featuring internal and external Black leaders and role models. Beyond Goldman Sachs, Kene and a group of other senior finance professionals co-founded Impact X, a double bottom line venture capital company launched to support underrepresented entrepreneurs across Europe. He also dedicates a significant amount of time to mentoring Black youth in London. 58) Chris Brown, executive partner, IBM Chris Brown, executive partner, IBM Chris is IBM's (IBM) UKI Global Business Services People partner, and IBMs Industrial Sector Strategic Transformation leader. In his role as people partner, he is focused on creating an inclusive working environment that empowers and supports all practitioners to do their best work. He is a senior sponsor for the BAME BRG and chairs an Inclusion Council representing BAME, gender, LGBT+, PwDA and faith groups, and actively supports all BRGs and their D&I initiatives. He also mentors colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds and provides reverse mentoring to other senior executives in IBM. Beyond IBM, Chris works with the College of Policing to assess individuals who are on track for chief constable roles with a view of supporting the police to create more diverse senior leadership team that represent the communities they work in. 59) Segun Osuntokun, managing partner, London office, BCLP Segun Osuntokun, London office managing partner, BCLP Segun is a founding member of the BCLP Global D&I Board, founder and former chair of the BCLP Social Inclusion & Ethnicity Network, and partner sponsor of the BCLP Race for Change Alumni Community. The Global D&I Board have reset the firm's approach to diversity, with a focus on representation, hiring, attrition and progression of lawyers of colour. The Social Inclusion & Ethnicity Network has influenced policy and led to BCLP ranking in the top ten of the SMF's Social Mobility Employer Index for three consecutive years. Segun is a Partner in BCLPs Commercial Disputes Group and specialises in civil fraud litigation. He also heads BCLP's Africa Group, and is responsible for the firm's development strategy in sub-Saharan Africa. He is involved in mentoring with the Eastside Young Leaders' Academy, and also mentors prospective and trainee BAME solicitors. 60) Kelly McDonald, executive, strategic HR business partner, Irish Life Kelly McDonald, executive, strategic HR business partner, Irish Life Kelly is a member of the Irish Life Diversity & Inclusion Steering Group, and provides consultation support to D&I groups from two lines of business. She launched 'Live your Life' policies for all staff, with a focus on new parents, maternity and paternity leave, and adoption and surrogacy policies. She helped to develop various D&I training programmes for leadership teams, and set up a partnership with DCU to study the impact of D&I interventions at Irish Life. Kelly is also a mentor on IBM's P-TECH programme, a public education reform initiative that combines secondary school with elements of third-level education and work experience for underprivileged children. 61) Aleida Rios, group head of engineering, BP Aleida Rios, group head of Engineering, BP Aleida co-chairs BP (BP.L) Women's International Global Executive Committee, where she takes an intersectional approach, having also appeared on panels for the BP Ethnicity BRG and with BPs CEO discussing the benefits of inclusion. She is also a member of the Royal Academy of Engineers Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Group, where she participated in and supported the launch of the group's 2020 report on the engineering pay gap. Aleida was awarded the 2019 Texas A&M College of Engineering Outstanding Alumni. She serves on the schools Chemical Engineering College Advisory Board, promoting engineering to women and ethnic minorities since 2015. She helped to promote the Year of Engineering 2018 in the UK, a campaign designed to encourage women and ethnic minorities into engineering careers. She was born in Mexico and is a proud wife and mother of 3 boys. 62) Maxine Goddard, head of sales operations & planning, Zurich Insurance Company Maxine Goddard, head of sales operations & planning, Zurich Insurance Company Maxine sits on the Executive Committee of the industry-wide Insurance Cultural Awareness Network, with responsibility for partnerships and external relationships. Maxine is also the Principal Advisor and previously chaired the Zurich Cultural Awareness Network, and has been involved in leading Zurich's multicultural D&I strategy and initiatives for over four years. She spearheaded the reorganisation of Zurich's BAME ERG and significantly widened its national reach. She re-energised the ERG with meaningful initiatives and garnered c-suite executive sponsorship and positive engagement. The group have established BAME recruitment targets, and monthly data reviews, which have contributed to ethnicity pay gap industry consultations. Maxine was awarded at the 2019 Insurance Age D&I Awards as the Race Equality Champion in insurance. She was also recognised by Insurance Business, Global Top 100 as a person of influence within the insurance industry. 63) Chanel Frazier, chief of staff to global head of multi-asset strategies and global fixed income, BlackRock Chanel Frazier, chief of staff to global head of multi-asset strategies and global fixed income, BlackRock As the chief of staff to BlackRocks head of Multi-Asset Strategies and Global Fixed Income, Chanel takes an intersectional approach to D&I efforts. Throughout her tenure at the firm, she has focused on the retention of ethnic minority colleagues through mentorship, managerial- and leadership-level advocacy, and contributions to a firm-wide working group focused on how Black professionals experience BlackRock. She is a member of BlackRocks Black Professionals Network (BPN) and Womens Initiative Network, and previously served on BPNs Professional Development Committee. In addition to her commitments, Chanel works to recruit ethnic minority professionals to BlackRock, serving as a senior representative at national recruiting events for MBA students of colour and as a senior leader interviewer for the BlackRock Founders Scholarship Programme. Chanel proudly serves on the Board of Directors for both the I Have a Dream Foundation and Gibney Dance,an arts and social justice organisation in New York. 64) Justin Onuekwusi, fund manager, head of retail multi-asset funds, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) Justin Onuekwusi, fund manager, head of retail multi-asset funds, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) Justin is a fund manager in a team managing over 65bn at LGIM, one of the worlds largest asset managers. As part of a team, Justin leads on 6bn and maintains a high profile in the investment industry due to strong fund performance. Justin co-chairs the Legal & General Inclusion Team, which oversees eight LGIM employee networks, and he is also a member of L&G Groups D&I Committee and chairs the companys Investment Diversity Working Group. Justin is a founding member of #talkaboutblack, a movement facilitating breaking down the taboo of talking about ethnicity in society. Through these groups, Justin works both internally and externally to develop cross-industry strategies and policies supporting BAME recruitment, retention and progression. He is on the Advisory Board for City Hive, which focuses on driving diversity initiatives within asset management and is an ambassador of the Diversity Project, which strives to achieve greater inclusion across the asset management industry. 65) Sujata Bhatia, senior vice-president for merchant services, Europe, American Express Sujata Bhatia, senior vice-president for merchant services, Europe, American Express Sujata is the European chair of the Executive Women's Interest Network Committee and co-founder of the Black and Asian Employee Network for American Express in Europe. A committed champion for women and underrepresented groups at American Express, Sujata has spearheaded numerous intersectional initiatives related to ambition, leadership and community. She is on the Advisory Board for Women in Payments, where she has served as a speaker and awards judge. She is also committed to supporting the South Asian community, and is an active member of the Indian American Forum for Political Education, which encourages Indians to get involved in politics. She is also involved with a charity that raises funds to help build medical clinics that support visually impaired rural Indians. 66) Satvir Bungar MBE, FCA, MCSI, managing director and head of facilities sector, mergers & acquisitions, BDO Satvir Bungar MBE, FCA, MCSI, managing director and head of facilities sector, mergers & acquisitions, BDO At accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP, Satvir works with entrepreneurially-spirited and high-growth businesses advising them on achieving strategic goals through merger and acquisition activity. Satvir is a strong advocate of diversity & inclusion, taking part in BDO's graduate recruitment campaign to attract a diverse range of talent. As part of the campaign, he mentors numerous colleagues and is a member of BDOs BAME society. Satvir is also vice-chairman at Miss Macaroon, a social enterprise focused on increasing diversity of thinking by improving the lives of marginalised young people, and supports the board in delivering its ambitious growth plans. He was featured in Visa's 2019 Christmas 'Where you Shop Matters' media campaign, which championed Miss Macaroons social cause. Satvir is a valued member of the judging panel at PFM Awards, where he works to improve BAME representation in facilities management, a sector in which he has significant experience. 67) Dr Rashada Harry, enterprise account executive, Amazon Web Services/founder, Your Future, Your Ambition Dr Rashada Harry, enterprise account executive, Amazon Web Services/Founder Your Future, Your Ambition (YFYA) Rashada co-leads Women@AWS in the UK and sits on the advisory board of the BEN Network at Amazon. She takes an intersectional approach to her diversity and inclusion work, including through mentoring and working with schools. In her previous position at Vodafone, Rashada was a leadership adviser to the multicultural network and Employee Champion to the senior management. She sits on the board of Talawa, the UK's only black touring theatre company, and she founded Your Future, Your Ambition, leading 30 organisations and 270 individual volunteers to mentor, educate, inspire and encourage 900 students from across the UK to pursue careers in STEM in 2019. To date, YFYA has opened its doors to over 7,000 students, helping to build a more diverse STEM talent pipeline. 68) Javier Morgado, executive producer, CNN Javier Morgado, executive producer, CNN Javier is a lifetime member and former board member of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, a lifetime member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and a member of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and the Radio Television Digital News Association. He led the recruitment and retention committee on CNN's Diversity Council for several years, and he recruits for CNN and WarnerMedia at diversity journalism conferences every year. He leads professional development sessions at CNN for prospective diverse employees, which have led to numerous hires. He serves on the board of three national non-profit organisations in New York with an aim to improve diversity in the arts, and has raised money and awareness for the LGBT+ community and for those living with HIV/AIDS for many years. 69) Sanjeev Sharma, chief property portfolio officer, M&G Real Estate Limited Sanjeev Sharma, chief property portfolio officer, M&G Real Estate Limited Sanjeev is a longtime supporter and member of the Cultural Awareness Network at M&G, and was co-executive sponsor at its inception. He is also an ally for M&G's LGBT+ Network, and co-executive sponsor of M&G's Mind Matters Network. Sanjeev participated in Deloitte's BAMEs on Boards programme, which looks to prepare BAME individuals for non-executive director (NED) roles, and presented to the 2019/2020 cohort on his experiences and lessons to be learned from securing his first NED role with a Small Cap Plc. Sanjeev is a member of the National Mentoring Consortium, which aims to promote equality and diversity in graduate recruitment and to enhance the employability of BAME students and students with a disability. Sanjeev is on the Management Committee of Real Estate Balance, which seeks to address gender and broader diversity imbalances within the sector. He was chosen as M&G Plcs first ever Inclusion Champion in January 2020. 70) David Ziyambi, partner, Latham & Watkins David Ziyambi, partner, Latham & Watkins David helped to found, and was an inaugural global leader of, Latham's Black Lawyers Group, which aims to: enable black lawyers to establish and maintain broader networks; to attract, retain and promote black talent; and to foster an inclusive culture supporting the long-term success of black lawyers. He assisted in establishing Latham's unique 'mentoring families' programme, and the now biennial BLG global retreat. David is a Trustee and Treasurer of the BIGKID Foundation, mentoring and supporting young people in the UK who are at risk of social exclusion and violence. In partnership with the International Lawyers for Africa, he acts as Latham's mentor and buddy for the ILFA's secondment programme. He also mentors students, particularly those from minority backgrounds, looking to pursue a career in law. 71) Edward Estrada, partner, Reed Smith Edward Estrada, partner, Reed Smith At Reed Smith, Edward has served as the senior management team sponsor of the Hispanic lawyers' affinity group, and as an ally for the firm's other affinity groups. He has been reverse mentored by leaders of the firms LGBT+ and mental health affinity groups, and sponsors the firm's women's initiatives and events. He is a member of the Hispanic Lawyers' Society of New York, a mentor and financial sponsor for the Cornell University Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives, and an Advisory Board member of the Global Business Coalition for Education and YearUp, both organisations focused on access to education and the development of market-relevant skills. Edward is committed to working with first generation college students, predominantly from low-income and ethnic minority communities, and sponsors and directly mentors students and young adults. 72) Jig Ramji, MD, group head of talent, London Stock Exchange Group Jig Ramji, MD, group head of talent, London Stock Exchange Group Jig recently joined the London Stock Exchange Group, where he leads the Groups talent acquisition, performance, learning and leadership strategy and supports LSEG's diversity and inclusion agenda. In his previous roles, Jig led the design and implementation of new leadership behaviours, including 'supporting a diverse and inclusive environment' as a critical component of leadership. He and his team also led the development of specific programmes in Asia to strengthen 'local senior talent' and senior leaders across companies were trained in inclusive leadership. He is passionate about accelerating the growth of under-represented talent and as an executive coach, he has worked with diverse female leaders to support them in their senior C-suite roles. Jig is a trustee for the Roffey Park Institute, Board Member for the UK Chapter of the International Coaching Federation and Policy Forum Member of the CIPD, where he has advised on gender pay gap reporting and potential methodology for ethnicity pay gap reporting. 73) Dorothy Burwell, partner, Finsbury Dorothy Burwell, partner, Finsbury Dorothy champions diversity day-to-day as a member of the Finsbury Roots committee and by serving on the steering committee for WPP Roots, a group-wide team that supports initiatives implemented across WPP agencies in the UK. She has worked with Finsbury Roots since inception to develop D&I policies, particularly concerning maternity and paternity leave, flexible working, recruitment, and inclusion events and activities. Finsbury has also partnered with the Taylor Bennett Foundation, which encourages BAME graduates to pursue a career in communications, as part of its annual graduate recruitment process. The combination of initiatives has led to gradual improvements in diversity across various levels of the business. Dorothy is President and Chair of Trustees for the London Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, where she sets the strategy as the organisation executes ground-level outreach programmes to support underrepresented groups in obtaining exposure and access to various career paths. 74) Shimna Sameer, head of national operations & northeast division, Bank of America Shimna Sameer, head of national operations & northeast division, Bank of America Shim Sameer is a dynamic leader and passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion. A native of India, she began her career in financial services in 2005 as a teller and now is Head of National Operations and the Northeast Division for Bank of Americas Consumer Banking & Investments. She is passionate about advancing womens careers and actively works to develop and mentor women leaders. She often speaks at forums, panels and events addressing global audiences about inclusion and empowerment of women. She is the founder and the executive sponsor of the banks Womens Forum and the executive sponsor for the companys CB&I Employee Engagement & Inclusion Council. She is a recipient of the companys distinguished Global Diversity & Inclusion Award and has been profiled on FairyGodBoss.com for her advocacy for women. She serves on the board of the Walker School in Needham, Massachusetts, and the Big Sisters Association of Boston. 75) Cindy Rampersaud, senior vice-president, BTEC & apprenticeships, Pearson Cindy Rampersaud, senior vice-president, BTEC & apprenticeships, Pearson Cindy is executive co-sponsor at PRIME, Pearson's BAME ERG, and the executive lead for WILL in the companys Manchester office, an ERG group supporting diversity and inclusion for women. Since inception of PRIME in 2018, Pearson has signed the BITC Race at Work Charter, and the ERG has partnered with HR in a campaign to encourage employees to voluntarily disclose race and ethnicity information. Cindy has been proactive in raising BAME visibility through her mentoring and sponsorship of talent, both within and outside Pearson. The BTEC & Apprenticeships business has recently partnered with Thinkfest to sponsor the Annual BAME Apprenticeship Awards. Cindy is an Honorary Lifetime member of The Children's Society, working with children and young people, largely from ethnic minority communities, and a board member for The Speakers Trust, which works to build confidence and communication skills in children from across London, Essex and in other UK metropolitan areas. 76) Tanvi Gokhale, director, segmentation & propositions, Lloyds Banking Group Tanvi Gokhale, director, segmentation & propositions, Lloyds Banking Group Since joining Lloyds Banking Group in 2008, Tanvi has passionately driven the inclusion agenda. She is a key diversity sponsor for the Retail Bank, a member of LBGs Inclusion and Diversity Forum and Inclusion Strategy working group, and a member and speaker for the BAME network, REACH. Tanvi is founder of the Chief Customer Offices BAME committee, which has driven increases in colleague disclosure rates and advocate involvement. She pioneered Ask Me Anything sessions to encourage BAME colleagues to share experiences and be more confident. Other initiatives she has led include a hiring and retention programme for BAME talent and a reverse mentoring programme. Tanvi was invited to join the Deloitte Academy BAME on Boards Programme. She is a regular keynote and panel speaker at industry diversity events. Tanvi heads up the development and roll-out of LBGs consumer propositions. Her career at LBG has spanned both strategy and commercial executive roles across multiple divisions. 77) Carey Mendes, group CFO chief of staff, BP Carey Mendes, Group CFO chief of staff, BP Carey is involved in a number of D&I initiatives and organisations across BP, providing leadership and advocacy for the diversity agenda. These include the Positively Ethnic Network (PEN) and the BP African American network among others. He has helped to organise events that highlighted the importance of Sponsorship for minorities and women, as well as a BP wide event on the Economics of Diversity. Carey is also involved in the community with organisations like Chicago United and Working in the Schools (WITS). 78) Sonia Sng, director, business operations, Intuit Sonia Sng, director, business operations, Intuit At Intuit, Sonia is building on her lifelong advocacy of D&I initiatives. She previously co-chaired the Women's Network in her previous role at Visa. She has served on the Steering Committee of Intuit's Women's Network, and has co-hosted intersectional International Women's Day activities. She was recently named to Enterprise Management 360s Top 10 Influential BAME Tech Leaders list. Currently, Sonia is on the board of directors of the Close the Gap Foundation (previously known as SPARC Initiative), a non-profit in San Francisco Bay Area, focused on empowering the next generation of young leaders especially those from underprivileged and underrepresented backgrounds to achieve their dreams through project-based learning and mentorship. She mentors individuals from diverse backgrounds globally and shares her story via a blog. 79) Quentin Roach, senior vice-president, global supplier management, supply business development and workplace & enterprise services/chief procurement officer, MSD-Merck, Sharp & Dohme Quentin Roach, senior vice-president global supplier management, supply business development and workplace & enterprise services/chief procurement officer, MSD-Merck, Sharp & Dohme Quentin is Executive Sponsor of MSD's Next Gen Network while also advocating for several company Employee Business Resource Groups - LEAD (African American), Hispanos Employee Network, Women's Network and Rainbow Alliance. He is executive sponsor for company engagement with the Executive Leadership Council, where he sponsors talent development and advancement initiatives. He has been an Executive Champion and Board Member to several external organisations for Supplier Diversity and Economic Inclusion; including the NMSDC, USHCC and NBMBAA. He is sponsor and executive liaison to: the National Cares Mentor Movement, which is working for economic equity for the most underserved and deserving children; The Franklin Institute, supporting STEM education for diverse communities; and the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, supporting minority student scholarships, among other organisations. 80) Ritu Mohanka-Vedhara, head of Business Development, EMEA, Glint (LinkedIn) Ritu Mohanka-Vedhara, head of business development, EMEA, Glint (LinkedIn) Ritu is a prominent ethnic minority female leader on the Senior Leadership Team at Glint, now part of LinkedIn, where she actively champions the business benefits of employing an effective Diversity strategy and has significantly influenced the corporate agenda on behalf of, and to the benefit of, all relevant employees. Glint actively pursues a hiring strategy that is deliberately colour- and gender-blind and mirrors it in their approach to performance management. Ritu takes great pride in mentoring upcoming and talented ethnic minority professionals both within and beyond Glint, advising on career development. In her previous role at IBM, Ritu was a highly regarded Diversity Champion, and served as executive sponsor to numerous Diversity groups. She is a regular panellist and keynote speaker at Global and EMEA CXO Leadership and HR events, such as Digital HR in Dubai, championing diversity and inclusion to CXOs across EMEA every working day. 81) Raj Roy, general counsel, UK & Ireland, Centrica Raj Roy, general counsel, UK & Ireland, Centrica Raj sponsors Centrica's (CNA.L) Ethnicity Network and is a member of Spectrum, the LGBT+ network, DAWN, the disability and wellbeing network, and CWN, the women's network. He led discussions with employees from ethnic and non-ethnic backgrounds, consulting on how to improve D&I at Centrica. He created a working group to help drive the initial discovery work and identified issues attached to disclosing ethnicity information. The learnings from these initiatives informed key priorities and the launch of Centrica's Ethnicity Network. He has been invited to speak at a London law firm as part of their ethnicity network launch, and joined a roundtable as part of the Pinsent Masons D&I Report launch. Raj is an active mentor with the 30% Club, and has created a high level of senior leadership accountability for the D&I agenda in both the legal and consumer parts of Centrica. 82) Sarah Nelson, head of finance, Sainsbury's Sarah Nelson, head of finance, Sainsbury's At Sainsbury's, Sarah has accelerated the momentum of the ethnicity network over the last two years by engaging and educating senior leadership, increasing visible allies at operating board-level, and her work has led to a 300% increase in network membership. She mentors BAME individuals and advises the business on BAME issues to proactively influence the BAME strategy. Following the acquisition of Argos, Sarah has supported the integration of two BAME networks and has launched and participated in numerous initiatives to increase BAME visibility. As one of the most senior black colleagues within the business and a visible female role model, Sarah speaks at external events on D&I issues, and is also an adviser to other BAME networks within the retail industry. 83) Chiaki Nishino, president, North America, Prophet Chiaki Nishino, senior partner, head of North America, Prophet Chiaki heads up the Women in Leadership Diversity Initiative as an Executive Committee member and global sponsor. She is currently looking to expand this effort beyond gender diversity to more general diversity, including ethnic minority. The group is initiating an external engagement effort this year to contribute to the wider dialogue. Chiaki is a board member at MAKERS, committing to pledges on how to drive diversity within Prophet. She also engages in conversations with women through her Harvard and Wharton alumni network. 84) Maz Ahmed, finance director, WM Morrison Supermarkets Maz Ahmed, finance director, WM Morrison Supermarkets Maz has been instrumental in championing the BAME agenda at Morrisons. Maz sponsors the BAME steering group which now has clear priorities and actions to improve BAME representation in the business. Maz is a visible role model for business success, having been promoted to the Leadership team at Morrisons at the age of 37. He is using his role in the Leadership team to understand and address barriers to progression for BAME colleagues, including unconscious bias in all areas of the business. He is involved in mentoring BAME talent across the company. Maz has recently moved from his previous finance roles into an operational role, leading diverse teams across Morrisons' manufacturing sites. Maz is also involved in networking with local organisations to share best practice on BAME diversity. 85) Nisreen Hasib, chief operating officer, Unbound Nisreen Hasib, chief operating officer, Unbound For Nisreen, and for Unbound, diversity and inclusion are core elements of business culture. When hiring, the company seeks a diverse array of candidates, knowing that much of the company's strength comes from having a team from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds, gender identities, and educational experiences. Nisreen is on the Advisory Council of Women in Innovation (WIN), where she mentors WIN members, connects the organisation with necessary resources, and participates as a speaker at WIN events. She is also a mentor and speaker for Communitas America (CA), which supports diverse entrepreneurs in the Bronx. 86) April Crichlow, head, global customer and ecosystem marketing, SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass April Crichlow, head, global customer and ecosystem marketing, SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass April leads Diversity and Inclusion for SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass and is instrumental in aligning business goals with HR goals. Through a variety of diversity programmes, she has set targets for diversity representation with the organisation, to be reached by 2022. She is an active member of SAP Global Diversity & Inclusion Council, the SAP North America Diversity & Inclusion Council, the SAP Business Women's Network, and is a mentor with SAP.io Women's Foundry. She has worked to promote Supplier Risk and Supplier Diversity solutions that help SAP Ariba buyer and supplier customers support ethnic owned and women owned businesses. Externally, she serves on the board of Give Clear, supporting D&I initiatives, has mentored for Girls Who Code and Kode with Klossy, and is a member of and adviser to HeyMama which supports women in the workplace. April is regularly asked to speak on gender and ethnic pay parity, and often appears in the media discussing the importance of diversity and inclusion. 87) Jaya Handa, privacy director, Liberty Specialty Markets Jaya Handa, privacy director, Liberty Specialty Markets Jaya chairs the Cultural Awareness Matters network at Liberty Specialty Markets. This network promotes cultural, linguistic, ethnicity and social mobility diversity and inclusion initiatives to support the existing staff population and broaden the talent pipeline. The network engages with other market peers and sponsors the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network (iCan) to assist in the promotion of multicultural inclusion and progression in the insurance sector, through mentoring and networking opportunities. Jaya also set up and sits on the committee of the Junior Lawyers Group of the Black Solicitors Network, a not-for profit company promoting race equality and influencing D&I best practice in relation to matters which affect ethnic minority solicitors. She also acted as the Outreach Officer for the Next Generation Insurance Network, and continues to mentor minority students, graduates and professionals extensively. 88) Keia Clarke, chief operating officer, New York Liberty Keia Clarke, chief operating officer, New York Liberty Keia Clarke is entering her third season as COO of the New York Liberty, where she oversees the business and P&L, including strategic planning, budgeting and day-to-day team business operations. Additionally, Keia works with stakeholders on key elements of team business, including growing the fan base, maximising sales and fan engagement, and improving business performance. Under Keia's leadership, the Liberty put a spotlight on the mass incarceration of women, specifically women of colour, and has made an appearance on CNN to raise awareness for the issue. Clarke has also created an initiative to connect New York Liberty players with alumnae of YWCA Brooklyn's Young Women's Lead College Access Programme. Following a practice during the 2019 season, the two organisations teamed up to provide the young leaders with the unique opportunity to be interviewed by New York Liberty players about their journey to college and overall goals to create change. 89) Rachael Palmer, head of VC and startup partnerships, EMEA, Google Rachael Palmer, head of VC and startup partnerships, EMEA, Google As the head of VC and startup partnerships, Rachael drives Google's strategic partnerships with top VCs and Startups across the EMEA region. Her day-to-day involves collaborating with EMEAs major VC funds, working to define Googles VC strategy, and helping startups partner across Googles product areas. Rachael is dedicated to creating an inclusive and representative workplace. She helps drive Googles approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion through participation in action committees that outline recruitment practices, and works on retention and internal community building efforts. Rachael advises the Black Googler Network and is an active lead in advocating for increased fertility benefits through Google's Women's Network. She also leads Googles diversity recruiting efforts at Wharton. Rachael has been a featured speaker at Googles first EMEA State of Black Women Conference in the UK and the Wharton Women in Business Conference. In addition, she enjoys mentoring minority candidates in their business school applications. 90) Kathy Quashie, head of partnerships and alliances, Vodafone Kathy Quashie, head of partnerships and alliances, Vodafone Joining Vodafone recently, Kathy has already driven positive change by stepping in to be the UK Chair for the Multicultural channel and has become one of the leaders for the Women in Business UK Network. In her previous roles across telecoms, Kathy always took a lead role across D&I by creating awareness to improve processes to support a wider inclusive database, resulting in a larger pool of diverse candidates to put through the selection process. Having been in most of her leadership roles as the only BAME female leader running large P&L businesses across tech and software, she undertook the role to sponsor and mentor BAME and female professionals. In addition, she has also been involved in many external programmes promoting, encouraging and recognising both BAME and Women networks across the UK 91) Loreal Torres, chief people officer, Vested Loreal Torres, chief people officer, Vested Loreal has been devoted to elevating diversity and inclusion in the workplace throughout her career. She initiated a D&I program at her previous company, focusing on embracing and highlighting diversity in the organisation and creating a sense of belonging. Her role was to increase diversity and retention of diverse colleagues through programming and recruitment efforts, partnering with diversity-focused programs. At her current role with Vested, Loreal is looking to work with diversity-focused search firms to fill senior roles, and is working with colleagues to partner with diverse organisations at colleges. She is part of the Syracuse University Mentor Mentee Association, and participates in the Young Women's Leadership Network, among other diversity networks and initiatives. 92) Hina Nagarajan, managing director, Africa emerging markets, Diageo Hina Nagarajan, managing director, Africa emerging markets, Diageo As MD for Africa Emerging Markets, Hina leads one of Diageo's most dynamic and culturally diverse regions, allowing her to role model D&I practice through prioritising diverse local teams. She runs a cross-country task force for business-critical issues, leveraging the best skills from several countries to resolve problems and build inclusion, and to accelerate African talent development. Hina mentors colleagues, and contributes to REACH, a support group for ethnic minorities. This includes discussions, ideas and experience sharing, events planning and festival celebrations. She also contributes to WeQual Women's Group UK, Women for Women Beijing, and mentors through the Menttium Cross Corporate Mentoring Platform. 93) Cecil Adjalo, UK managing partner, Hiberus Cecil Adjalo, UK managing partner, Hiberus Cecil is the UK managing partner at Hiberus and director at Foundervine. He is a passionate advocate for publicising the D&I agenda though online media and events to a varied demographic. At Hiberus in 2019, Cecil sponsored a 'Build an App in a Day' event in collaboration with Microsoft, targeted at getting more BAME people interested in technology. He has been instrumental in the growth of Foundervine, a social enterprise which helps diverse founders build startups from scratch. He has spoken publicly about the need for diversity in entrepreneurship and about black innovation, and he helped organise and run four weekend entrepreneurial programmes to upskill BAME entrepreneurs among other initiatives in schools and universities. 94) Debbie Ellison, chief digital officer, Geometry Global Debbie Ellison, chief digital officer, Geometry Global Debbie sits on Geometry UK executive committee, WPPs end-to-end Creative Commerce agency. As one of a handful of female Chief Digital Officers in industry, Debbie is pioneering transformational changes through people-first, technology solutions enabling clients to grow in the fast-paced space of commerce. She actively encourages diversity in business and sits on WPPs Inclusion Board and on the steering committee of WPP Roots, championing greater ethnic and cultural diversity across WPP operating companies. She launched Geometry Roots and The Incubator, an agency within an agency experience encouraging students from BAME or low socio-economic backgrounds to pursue careers in creativity, technology and advertising. She is a member of Inspiring The Future, a government initiative connecting professionals with students. Debbie has lectured at Conde Nast Design College, Cambridge University and speaks regularly at schools. Named Industry Shaper 2019 by the global Women in Marketing Awards, Debbie was voted an IPA Woman of the Future in 2016. 95) Kashif Zafar, head of global markets division, Americas, Credit Agricole Corp & Investment Bank Kashif Zafar, head of global markets division, Americas, Credit Agricole Corp & Investment Bank. Kashif is one of the global markets executive committee sponsors of the ELLEvate programme which is focused on female employees in the Global Markets business of Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank. This programme aims to further develop the skills and network of female colleagues within the Markets business, giving them exposure to the management team and contributing to enhancing gender diversity and internal mobility within the firm. Kashif is a founding Board Member of the American Pakistan Foundation, serves on the Board of Trustees of Middlebury College and is an International Trustee of the International House in New York. Kashif also serves on the Advisory Board of South Asian Youth Action (SAYA), an organisation focused on building a strong sense of belonging among the South Asian American youth and providing them the tools to thrive academically and professionally. 96) Sumati Sharma, VP product & commercial, Virgin Holidays, part of Virgin Atlantic Sumati Sharma, vice-president, Virgin Holidays As VP Product & Commercial, Sumati is responsible for product, pricing and data along with accountability for strategy, project delivery at Virgin Holidays. She has previously held roles as VP Strategy, and VP Financial Planning at Virgin Atlantic, and is a chartered accountant, trained at EY. Sumati plays a central role on the Be Yourself Steering Committee at Virgin Atlantic, driving the diversity & inclusion strategy. Sumati has championed a data-led focus on measurement and target development, influencing the setting of published targets on women in leadership and BAME representation. Sumati is co-chair of the W Green Party members who are against the deal have an array of issues with the document. Those who have indicated that they are either on the fence or voting no said their biggest concerns come from three key areas. Economy They have issues with the plan's economic strategy, saying that the commitments to tax cuts, protected welfare, and no return to austerity measures don't add up. Ms Hourigan said she had negotiated the deal, but "can't square that circle" on the economy. Housing "This deal represents more of the same in housing," said one member. "Fine Gael expects the Land Development Agency to come along and fix the mess they made over the last 10 years. That's not happening." Climate Ms Hourigan said the wording around the climate is "problematic" and that it was unlikely the next government would be able to achieve what the Greens had hoped for at the beginning of negotiations. "Its very likely that 7% will be back-loaded for 2026, 2027, 2028, and that there will be some attempt to force the government of the day to adhere to the decisions that were made in 2020," she said. WASHINGTON - The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking a federal judge to order former White House national security adviser John Bolton to stop the release of his book, asserting that his much-anticipated memoir contains classified material. The move sets up a legal showdown between President Donald Trump and the longtime conservative foreign policy hand, who alleges in his book that the president committed "Ukraine-like transgressions" in a number of foreign policy decisions, according to his publisher. But the Trump administration stopped short of seeking a court order against Bolton's publisher to stop the distribution of "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," which is due to go on sale June 23 and has already been shipped across the country. Instead, the civil suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, accuses Bolton of breach of contract by violating his nondisclosure agreement and asks the court to order him "to instruct or request his publisher, insofar as he has the authority to do so, to further delay the release date." The suit also asks the court to prohibit him from disclosing any information in the book without written permission from the administration and from releasing it in any form, and to order him to notify his publisher that he did not complete the prepublication review process. In addition, the Justice Department asked the court to order Bolton "to take any and all available steps to retrieve and dispose of any copies of 'The Room Where it Happened' that may be in the possession of any third party in a manner acceptable to the United States." Finally, it asks the court to follow a step taken in previous cases involving unauthorized disclosures of classified information by former government officials: establishing a trust that would direct any profits from the book to the U.S. Treasury. Charles Cooper, Bolton's attorney, said, "We are reviewing the government complaint and will respond in due course." Cooper has said that his client's book does not contain any classified material and that Bolton has worked with the National Security Council since December to vet the manuscript. Bolton's publisher, Simon & Schuster, has said the former national security adviser spent months doing revisions at the request of the White House. In a letter sent to the White House on June 10, Cooper wrote that Bolton has no authority to stop the distribution of the book, which he noted had already been printed and shipped around the country, according to a copy attached as an exhibit in the Justice Department suit. Simon & Schuster said in a statement Tuesday night that the Justice Department action "is nothing more than the latest in a long running series of efforts by the Administration to quash publication of a book it deems unflattering to the President." Legal experts said it was notable that the Justice Department did not file a suit against Simon & Schuster, pointing out that courts are averse to preemptively blocking publication of books, particularly those that deal with political speech. Rather, in going directly after Bolton, the Trump administration appears to be focused on a different strategy, experts said: using financial pressure to discourage him from disclosing sensitive information without government permission. Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, called the complaint "strategically ambiguous about what relief the government is seeking, and against whom." While the government is clearly seeking a court order asking Bolton to block publication of the book, Jaffer noted, "it's not clear that Bolton is in a position to provide it." Stephen Gillers, a First Amendment law expert at New York University, said that the odd language used by the government in its request for court intervention was likely a strategy designed to apply pressure on both the publisher and Bolton. "The U.S. has no chance of an injunction against the publisher, which did not sign the NDA," Gillers said. "It wants the publisher to get the court-ordered notice so that, if it publishes anyway, the U.S. will have some basis then to seek civil or criminal sanctions against it." Trump hinted Monday that he would seek to stop the release of the book, telling reporters that it was "highly inappropriate" for Bolton to write the memoir. "I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified," he said. "So that would mean that, if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he's broken the law and I would think that he would have criminal problems. I hope so." "Maybe he's not telling the truth," added the president. "He's been known not to tell the truth, a lot." Attorney General William Barr concurred, telling reporters at the White House Monday that "we don't believe Bolton has gone through the process" required to clear books by government officials on topics of national security. The Justice Department complaint filed Tuesday said legal action was necessary to keep Bolton "from compromising national security by publishing a book containing classified information-in clear breach of agreements he signed as a condition of his employment and as a condition of gaining access to highly classified information and in clear breach of the trust placed within him by the United States Government." However, in his June 10 letter to the White House, Cooper noted that an NSC official who reviewed the manuscript told Bolton that it did not contain classified information and that she had no further changes. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The 592-page book is expected to go into detail about Trump's decision-making process, his warring advisers and the president's engagement on a range of foreign policy decisions, from Ukraine and Venezuela to North Korea and Iran. ''I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn't driven by reelection calculations,'' Bolton wrote, according a description released Friday by Simon & Schuster. The veteran GOP foreign policy adviser, who served as Trump's national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, also argues in the book that House Democrats "committed impeachment malpractice" by focusing their inquiry on Ukraine, according to the publisher. The New York Times reported earlier this year that an early draft said Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine as a way to pressure the country's newly elected president to launch an inquiry of Democrats, including the activities of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. That news broke just as the Senate was considering articles of impeachment against the president. The administration's effort to block the book is troubling, legal experts said. "Any effort to enjoin the publication of a book raises serious First Amendment concerns, and those concerns are heightened here because there are credible reports that the White House's interest is not in protecting national security, but in suppressing criticism of the president," Jaffer said. Last week, the White House warned Bolton that his book needed further revision to comply with a review process required of government employees writing about national security and intelligence issues. A letter to Bolton from John Eisenberg, a deputy White House counsel, noted that the former national security adviser signed a nondisclosure agreement when he began his White House service in April 2018. "The unauthorized disclosure of classified information could be exploited by a foreign power, thereby causing significant harm to the national security of the United States," Eisenberg wrote. Bolton was told that the White House would provide him with a new, redacted manuscript by June 19, four days before the book is to go on sale. In response, Cooper said his client scrupulously complied with national security vetting requirements. "Simon & Schuster is fully supportive of Ambassador Bolton's First Amendment right to tell the story of his time in the Trump White House," Julia Prosser, vice president and director of publicity for the publishing house, said in a statement last week. Prosser noted that Bolton took care to make sure the book, which was originally scheduled to be published in March, did not endanger national security. "In the months leading up to the publication of 'The Room Where It Happened,' Bolton worked in cooperation with the National Security Council to incorporate changes to the text that addressed NSC concerns," she said in a statement. "The final, published version of this book reflects those changes." - - - The Washington Post's Spencer S. Hsu and Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report. Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi in a video statement has said the Prime Minister should come out and tell the "truth" and take nation into confidence on Chinese transgression in Galwan Valley. The Congress chief said that killing of soldiers has "shaken the conscious of the nation." When the whole nation is "agitated" on the killing of the soldiers, the Prime Minister should come out and tell the nation about the current situation in the Galwan valley, she added. Sonia Gandhi said the Prime Minister should tell the nation the actual position on the LAC and the "policy ahead" to deal with the situation. "What is the government of India policy to handle the situation," she asked. The Congress chief said the whole nation is together to fight the enemy. She demanded the Prime Minister tell the nation how many soldiers were injured and taken captive and how much territory the Chinese have "occupied". The Congress said the Opposition has been raising questions since last month about Chinese transgression, but the government has not responded. The Prime Minister has called an all-party meeting on June 19 over India-China border issue following a violent face-off with the Chinese troops. The Prime Minister has also warned China that any misadventure will be responded to and that sacrifices of martyrs will not go in vain. A Donegal woman has been speaking about her incredible journey back to health - after spending 71 days in hospital with Covid-19. Gail Lafferty was admitted to Sligo University Hospital in March. In an emotional interview, she explained how she did not realise that she had Covid-19, but could have had it for four or five days before the ambulance was called. Her remarkable story has been recorded and posted online by the Saolta University Healthcare Group, whose hospitals include Sligo and Letterkenny. 'An incredible journey for an incredible lady'. Gail Lafferty from County Donegal was admitted to Sligo University Hospital #SUH last March with #COVID19 Gail spent 71 days in hospital. Here is her remarkable story pic.twitter.com/jWrQtHecAc saoltagroup (@saoltagroup) June 12, 2020 She does not remember being in ICU for three and a half weeks. Not surprisingly, she was full of praise for the staff in the hospital and the treatment she has received. And she added: "If anyone is feeling ill, they should not worry about coming into hospital, they (the staff) are amazing and they are here to look after you. Sligo hospital is amazing. I am so grateful, they have saved my life. At the end of the video, she is pictured leaving the hospital as the staff applaud her and she applauds them. The Justice Department plans to announce a proposed rollback of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act as early as today, according to The Wall Street Journal. If adopted by Congress, the legislation would reportedly push internet companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google to be more proactive in removing harmful and illegal content from their platforms, as well as be "fairer and more consistent" in how they take down content they say is questionable. The proposal comes just weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in which he directed the Federal Communications Commission to clarify the scope of Section 230. In the same order, he also called on the Federal Trade Commission to take action against companies that limit their users' speech in ways that aren't detailed in their terms of service. According to Wall Street Journal, the proposal touches on some of the same concerns as President Trump's executive order, while also recommending more broadly weakening some of the legal protections tech companies have enjoyed over the past two decades. For example, the proposal would not give companies legal immunity in cases involving acts like terrorism, sexual abuse and cyberstalking. Another part of the proposal would also reportedly limit what protection tech companies have in civil cases involving the federal government. The Wall Street Journal reports the proposal also suggests striking a clause that allows online platforms to delete content they "merely deem objectionable." The paper explains the aim of this part of the proposal is to impose significant limits on how companies like Twitter and YouTube moderate their platforms. The Justice Department reportedly wants to push companies to adhere to their terms of service, as well as any public claims they make about how they police their websites. In cases where they do action, companies would have to provide "reasonable" explanations detailing their decisions. Currently, Section 230 gives internet companies broad immunities. The clause, for instance, protects YouTube from being held accountable for the actions of some of its biggest stars. In the last year, both Democrats and Republicans have called for lawmakers to reopen and reexamine the Communications Decency Act. Earlier this year, Joe Biden said he would immediately repeal Section 230 if he were elected president. But as we wrote earlier this year, rolling back the clause, without care and consideration, is likely to fundamentally change the nature of the internet. Attack The Block (Credit: StudioCanal/Film4) It was thanks to Joe Cornish's 2011 sci-fi comedy Attack The Block that John Boyega made his debut on the big screen. And now, Cornish has revealed that he's met with Boyega who's since made his name in a franchise by the name of Star Wars about a possible sequel. Speaking to the Script Apart podcast, Cornish said: We've got ideas. I met with John a couple of months ago to talk about it. We've always had ideas after the first one. Read more: Boyega thanks fans for love and support after BLM speech But obviously we've both been busy doing different things. In a way, the longer you leave it, the more interesting it is. So that's all I'll say. Referring to Boyega's recent notoriety for his impassioned speech at the Black Lives Matters protests, he went on: The movie's nearly ten years old now, and it's trying to address issues that were fairly ingrained then, and have certainly stuck around. At the time when it came out, it put a lot of people's backs up, because it has a very unusual protagonist and arc. John Boyega, Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright at Comic-Con 2011 (Credit: Wendy Redfern/Redferns) It's wonderful that people are revisiting the film. Most of all, it's a moment for John, and it's a moment for hopefully some social change. To be a tiny little part of something that I hope is much, much bigger is exciting. Encouragingly, Boyega also weighed in on Twitter: ....think imma need the whole of London for an army on this one...... https://t.co/hGu9IL4UBJ John Boyega (@JohnBoyega) June 17, 2020 The movie, penned and directed by Cornish, found Boyega playing Moses, a teenage gang leader in South London who finds himself battling aliens which have crash landed via meteorites on Earth. It also starred Doctor Who's Jodie Whittaker, Alex Esmail and Nick Frost. India has reported a record 2,003 deaths and 10,974 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. This by far is the biggest daily hike in terms of deaths due to coronavirus. So far, the daily death tally was being reported between 200 to 350 but today's figures flag India's lack of preparedness on COVID-19. The current tally takes the total number of positive cases in the country to 3,54,065, including 1,55,227 active cases, 1,86,935 recoveries and 11,903 deaths, says the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Despite the rise in cases, India's overall recovery rate continues to improve, which is a good sign for the government. The recovery rate improved to 52.8 per cent from yesterday's level of 52.5 per cent, while death rate is now at 3.3 per cent against yesterday's 2.8 per cent. Also read: Can Dexamethasone be used to treat coronavirus? India has overtaken the United Kingdom in terms of coronavirus cases to become the fourth worst-hit country in terms of total number of cases. The country is now behind Russia, Brazil and the US only. In terms of deaths, India is now the sixth most affected country in the world. Cases continue to rise in Maharashtra, which is the most affected state in India, with 50,057 active case, 57,851 recoveries and 5,537 deaths and 1,13,445 total cases. Tamil Nadu follows Maharashtra, with 48,019 cases including 20,709 active ones and 26,782 recoveries. The death tally in the state stands at 528. Delhi's case tally is also rising rapidly, with active cases topping 26,351 and recoveries at 16,500. The state has reported 1,837 deaths and 44,688 total cases thus far. World over, cases have reached 8,264,399, including 4,46,135 and 4,321,495 recoveries. The US tops the world tally with 2,204,400 cases and 119,132 deaths. Brazil has reported 928,834 cases and 45,456 deaths, while Russia has reported 545,458 deaths and 7,284 deaths. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: Four Indian soldiers critical after violent face-off in Ladakh, says report San Antonios My Education Solutions has touted that it has saved more than 2,000 clients some $150 million in student loan debt, allowing them to live the life they dreamed of. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has a much different take on My Education Solutions, alleging in a lawsuit that it charges what amounts to thousands in fees for loan-forgiveness services that are available for free elsewhere. Consumers end up paying more money on their student loans and face the possibility that their loans will not be forgiven at the end of the term due to MES deceptive practices, which include failing to pay the consumers student loans, the suit alleges. The state seeks more than $1 million in penalties, consumer reimbursements and attorney fees from MES and its CEO and president, Christina Randell. The action was filed Friday in state District Court. The state also seeks injunctions preventing MES from destroying books and records, making any unauthorized withdrawals from consumers bank accounts and engaging in deceptive advertising, among other activities. A call to Randell was not immediately returned Wednesday, and the attorney generals office did not respond to an email seeking comment. On ExpressNews.com: State settles with San Antonio man accused of selling counterfeit Yeti products Randell previously operated Texas Debt Free Angels, a credit repair company. In 2014, it was issued a cease and desist letter from the Texas Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner for operating a debt-management service without registering with the state. MES also is required to register with the OCCC but has failed to do so, the suit says. MES, which calls itself a national consumer advocacy organization, has received an F from the Better Business Bureau the bureaus lowest rating. The BBB also issued an alert, saying it was unable to substantiate several advertising claims about how much MES saved consumers. The BBB says information provided by MES showed that some consumers had negative total savings on their student loans after enrolling with MES. In the lawsuit, Paxton targeted MES claim that consumers typically receive a 70 percent reduction in student loan debt. When asked how Randell arrived at that figure, she replied that it was calculated from her database and that some consumers could receive less than a 70% reduction, the suit says. Randell also claims that MES saved consumers over $100 million between October 2015-2016, but has no concrete proof to back that figure up. MES also told consumers there was no cost to enroll, but charged a $199 one-time enrollment fee and a $49 monthly maintenance fee, the suit says. Enrolling in the program will cost a consumer more than $6,000 in fees over 10 years, though some loans can take up to 25 years to pay back. Repayment programs may be based on a consumers income, the suit says, so its possible a consumer may owe nothing for years. Yet MES will still charge a consumer the $49 maintenance fee to submit a $0 payment, the complaint adds. The U.S Department of Education offers various programs to help borrowers with federal student loan debt, the lawsuit notes. They include the Teachers Loan Forgiveness Program and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. Borrowers can apply through studentloan.gov and there are no fees, the suit says. Loan forgiveness eligibility requirements and payment levels under income-based repayment plans are set by federal law, therefore special deals cannot be negotiated or obtained by borrowers or debt relief companies, the suit adds. Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox The lawsuit cites a consumer who paid a one-time fee of $99 to enroll in a loan forgiveness program. The consumer made three monthly payments of about $280 even though his first payment wasnt yet due. In addition, the suit says, MES did not pay the consumers loans on time, resulting in the account being marked delinquent by the loan servicer. The consumer later terminated his contract with MES, but the suit says it refused to refund the payments that were not applied to his loans. Late payments may negatively affect consumers credit score, the suit says. Another consumer, a teacher, says she discovered that MES had requested a forbearance on loan payments on at least three occasions even though she never authorized them to do so. MES continued to take her money during that time, according to the lawsuit. A former MES employee provided a printout to the attorney generals office that indicated on one account a consumer had made 12 payments on his loan but only six of them were counted as part of the program he paid MES to enroll him in, the suit says. The state is suing MES for violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, failing to register with the OCCC and misrepresenting the benefits of its services, among other claims. MES has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit. Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. To read more from Patrick, become a subscriber. pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD Chinese Ambassador to Greece Zhang Qiyue (3rd L), Greek Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias (2nd R), and Meletios Athanasios Dimopoulos (3rd R), rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), pose for a group photo at an online signing ceremony for a donation agreement in Athens, Greece, on June 16, 2020. China's Mammoth Foundation has donated key laboratory testing equipment for COVID-19 to Greece to assist the country's fight against the pandemic. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) ATHENS, June 16 (Xinhua) -- China's Mammoth Foundation has donated key laboratory testing equipment for COVID-19 to Greece to assist the country's fight against the pandemic. An online signing ceremony for the donation agreement was held on Tuesday with officials and experts by both sides applauding the Chinese charity organization's initiative as another example of true friendship and cooperation between the two nations. The Huoyan(Fire Eye) lab core equipment developed by Chinese biotech company BGI Group was donated to the National Kapodistrian University of Athens' (NKUA) Microbiology Lab to help improve the overall detection flux. As Greece has reopened as of Monday to tourism, the strengthening of its diagnosis capability is of critical importance, Greek Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said during the event that was hosted at NKUA's headquarters. "The bond between the Greek people and Chinese people obviously and without a doubt has grown stronger during these difficult months," the minister said. He added that he will never forget that he was at the Athens international airport in March when an Air China plane landed carrying the first significant aid to Greece in the battle against the coronavirus. Many more such precious loads reached Athens in the following weeks, helping the Greek government to implement measures to save lives. "That wouldn't have been possible, and I have to be frank and honest about that, if it wasn't for the cooperation and the solidarity and the help of China," Kikilias said. "Now this (cooperation) is expanding with your very, very kind gesture towards the University of Athens and the laboratory... concerning the testing which evidently is very important if one takes into account that we are a country that is based economically on our tourism," said the minister. Addressing the event, Chinese Ambassador to Greece Zhang Qiyue also expressed confidence that bilateral cooperation will expand in education and scientific research, and Sino-Greek relations will further flourish. "We are so happy that during this process we were able to be of help," she said. The pandemic has made clear one point, she stressed. "All of us are living in a community of shared future. We are all in this together, so we must work in cooperation." Professor Sotirios Tsiodras, head of the COVID-19 expert team assigned by the Greek government, also commended the gesture and cooperation beyond borders. "It is an opportunity to build solidarity amongst nations to eradicate stigma, especially among vulnerable populations and to build our response based on scientific data. This is what we tried to do in Greece following China's example," he said. Greece has registered 3,148 confirmed cases, including 185 deaths, according to the latest official count. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday expressed grief over the killing of 20 Indian soldiers in the India-China stand-off in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, saying "their bravery reflects India's commitment towards her land". "The pain of losing our brave soldiers while protecting our motherland at Ladakh's Galwan cannot be put in words. Nation salutes our immortal heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep Indian territory safe and secure. Their bravery reflects India's commitment towards her land," Amit Shah tweeted. The pain of losing our brave soldiers while protecting our motherland at Ladakhs Galwan can not be put in words. Nation salutes our immortal heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep Indian territory safe and secure. Their bravery reflects Indias commitment towards her land. Amit Shah (@AmitShah) June 17, 2020 "I bow to the families, who have blessed Indian Army with such great heroes. India will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifice. Entire nation and the Modi government stand firmly with their families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured," Shah further said. I bow to the families, who have blessed Indian Army with such great heroes. India will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifice. Entire nation and Modi government stands firmly with their families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured. Amit Shah (@AmitShah) June 17, 2020 Around 120 Indian soldiers, almost an entire company, was trapped and encircled by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and followed by savage and deceptive attacks, many to a point of mutilation, on Monday night at the patrolling point number 14 on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army on Tuesday said 20 of its men, including officers, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with PLA troopers in the Galwan Valley on Monday night. The force also said the death toll would increase, as many soldiers were grievously injured. In a statement, the Indian Army stated that 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States Wed, June 17, 2020 13:01 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf7228c 2 Books Mary-Trump,Donald-Trump,Book,memoir Free Donald Trump's niece is set to publish a no-holds-barred memoir next month that "shines a bright light on the dark history" of the US president's family, her publisher says. Mary Trump will release "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," on July 28, according to Simon & Schuster. The cover of Mary Trumps forthcoming book. pic.twitter.com/X4RrbU0OHQ Yashar Ali (@yashar) June 16, 2020 It marks the first time that a member of Trump's family will publish unflattering stories about the former real estate tycoon and reality TV star. Mary Trump, 55, is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr, the president's older brother, who died in 1981 at age 42 due to complications from alcoholism. The 240-page book will detail events she witnessed as a child while spending time at her grandparents' house in New York's Queens borough, where her uncle and his four siblings grew up. "She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse," Simon & Schuster said in a blurb about the book. Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist, will say that the president, despite being his father's favorite son, "dismissed and derided him" when he began to suffer from Alzheimer's. In the book, she explains "how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office," the publisher said. It will include "the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald," the blurb adds. Fred Trump died in 1999. "She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider's perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world's most powerful and dysfunctional families," it concludes. The book was first revealed by the Daily Beast on Sunday. The website reported that Mary Trump will reveal that she was the primary source for the New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into Donald Trump's finances and taxes. Read also: Donald Trump Jr. has a few grievances to air in upcoming book The investigation alleged that the president had received more than $400 million in today's terms from his father's real estate empire, much of it through fraudulent tax schemes. A spokeswoman for The New York Times declined to comment in the newspaper's own article on the Daily Beast's claim that Mary Trump provided them with documents. EXCLUSIVE: Trump is considering a lawsuit against his own niece for her tell-all book. https://t.co/0OyQHjCFvv Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) June 17, 2020 Several Trump aides and journalists have written books critical of the president, but Mary Trump's is billed as the first by a family insider. The book is due out a few weeks before the Republican convention in August, when Trump will accept the party's nomination for his re-election bid in November. A mother is facing legal action accused of discrimination after criticising an event where drag queens read stories to children. Katrina Tait shared an Australian Christian Lobby petition on her Facebook page opposing the Drag Queen Story Time event at a Brisbane library in January. 'I can't believe I have just had to sign a petition to try to stop drag queen story time happening at libraries in our country,' she posted. 'What happened to protecting children's innocence and letting them just be kids?' Katrina Tait (pictured right) is being investigated by the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board after sharing a Facebook petition in opposition of drag queens reading to kids Drag queen 'Annie Depressant' reading to children at the Wyndham Plaza Library in Werribee, Melbourne That post saw the mother-of-four come under investigation by the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, after a complaint from activist Garry Burns. She faces legal action and potential fines. The case caught the attention of One Nation's Mark Latham, who accused the Board of taking on a 'vexatious complaint' from 'the serial complainant Garry Burns'. Mr Burns has previously taken actions agianst the likes of former radio broadcaster John Laws and controversial footy star Israel Folau. 'Mr Burns has continued with his unhinged, vexatious and threatening messages in this and other matters, having been emboldened and empowered by the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board over the past seven years in hundreds of accepted and investigated complaints, including scores of investigations against people who do not even live in NSW,' Mr Latham said, as reported by The Daily Telegraph. He labelled the complaint against Ms Tait, who lives in Queensland, an 'amazing waste of money' and 'abuse of process'. Mark Latham has called the complaint an 'amazing waste of money' and 'abuse of process' Ms Tait is unsure why action has been taken against her. 'I really felt that what I had written was nothing more than any mother would write who was concerned about this type of public event,' she said. Mr Burns, who has won 62 of 65 cases, denied being vexatious and said 'my case law speaks for itself'. Protests at drag queen library reading sessions took a dark turn in January, when Wilson Gavin, president of the University of Queensland's Liberal National Club, was found dead after leading a demonstration against the events. Colonel B. Santosh Babu, one of the 20 Indian soldiers martyred in a fatal face-off with Chinese troops in Eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley, aspired to be in the Indian Army since he was a boy. He was the commanding officer of 16 Bihar unit that has been posted on the Indo-Chinese border for the past 18 months. Colonel Babu took over the battalion in December last year. The 37-year-old ex-NDA cadet was a resident of Telangana's Suryapet. He completed class 12 from Sainik School in Hyderabad and went on to join the Pune-based National Defence Academy (NDA) and the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun. Colonel Babu was commissioned into the 16 Bihar battalion in 2004 after which he was posted in Jammu for the first time. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: 'Galwan Valley belongs to China, don't want further clashes,' says Chinese govt Since then he had been deployed at the border areas across several locations. Colonel Babu was also part of the Indian contingent of UN peacekeeping forces in Congo. He was in service for 15 years and served on the Pakistan border in Kashmir in the year 2007, where he killed three terrorists who tried to infiltrate into the Indian side. He was promoted to the colonel rank in February this year. His father, B. Upender, a retired bank employee, said he lived his dream of being in the armed forces through his son. "In fact, I wanted to join the army in my student days. But somehow the family circumstances did not permit me. I realised my dreams through my son," he said. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: 'Galwan Valley belongs to China, don't want further clashes,' says Chinese govt Describing his son as a "brilliant guy both in studies and duties", the 63-year-old said that he never expected that his son would desert the family like this but "I am proud he gave up his life for the country." Colonel Babu is survived by his wife Santoshi, mother Manjula, four-year-old son Anirudh, and nine-year-old daughter Abhigna. His wife and children live in Delhi while parents lived in Telangana. Also read: India-China border clash: 'Closely monitoring, support peaceful resolution,' says US Seven years ago, while I was researching my book on equal marriage, I interviewed a number of people who had been direct victims of homophobia. Several of them had as teenagers been exposed to what is known as conversion therapy a pernicious misnomer in that its more oppression that conversion, and more abuse than therapy. One of them, Jim, told me of when hed come out to his evangelical Christian parents. They took him to a conversion therapist and after a few weeks he felt so emptied of value and virtue that he cut his wrists in an attempt to make the world disappear. He almost succeeded but, thank God, didnt. He showed me the slash marks from that horrific evening. His partner Steve theyve been together for 13 happy years now said, I find it hard to forgive the people who exploited Jim and his parents, because they were victims in all this too. I mention this because Conservative Party leadership contender Erin OToole has just asked social conservatives who might support rival candidates Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan to vote for him as their second choice when those two are almost certainly eliminated from the contest. To solidify his socon credentials he then stated this week in a mostly French-language video that was leaked to the media that he had concerns about banning conversion therapy and that, Its very important to respect the conversation between a priest and the members of their flock. The language is deeply significant here. OToole has said in the past that he opposes the anti-scientific and inherently homophobic procedure, but by qualifying that position hes successfully triggered that crucial minority of right-wing Christians who are party members to regard him as their next best choice. They likely form less than 20 per cent of those who will be voting for the new leader, but they were sufficient and essential in putting both Andrew Scheer federally, and Doug Ford in Ontario, over the line to victory. By referring to a priest and his flock hes also implying the seal of the confessional that exists within Roman Catholicism and is considered morally and perhaps even legally binding. Thing is, while some on the fringes of the Catholic Church support conversion therapy, its far more the concern of evangelical Christians. Conversion therapy has not only been discredited by every scientific body worth the name, but also banned in many jurisdictions and countries, and according to the International Forensic Expert Group (IFEG) it violates the global ban on torture and ill treatment. Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island have banned it for minors, and Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary have passed municipal bylaws against it. Shortly before the arrival of the corona pandemic the federal government tabled legislation to amend the Criminal Code to ban it too, with Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti describing it as, a cruel practice that can lead to lifelong trauma, particularly for young people. It sends a demeaning and degrading message. It does continue in Canada, however, with organizations and churches using alternative and euphemistic names such as sexual attraction fluidity exploration, reparative therapy, or deliverance sessions. Its all largely the same: an irrational, dangerous, and absurd attempt to change people from their happy and natural state into some archaic version of what is considered acceptable to Christian fundamentalism. It should be emphasized that this is all the preserve of the fringe of the church and not at all part of the mainstream. For those concerned that its an issue of personal freedom, nobody will be prevented from seeking advice or guidance from a conservative pastor or counsellor, but the concerted attempt to convert often vulnerable young people who are pressurized by their community or family will be prevented due to the colossal damage caused. This latest ploy may help Erin OToole in his leadership campaign but even if it does so hell almost certainly have to reject the position in any federal election where serious questions will be asked. So its an example of dreadfully irresponsible and divisive politics at a time when the nation is crying out for unity and maturity. Surely Mr. OToole and his party can do better. Go-go music has been percolating in Washington, D.C.'s clubs since the 1970s, but D.C.'s homegrown style of syncopated funk has experienced a whirlwind 15 months. In April 2019, a neighbor's complaints about the go-go playing on speakers outside a Metro PCS store on the corner of Seventh Street and Florida Avenue NW - the neighborhood's soundtrack more than two decades - led to anti-gentrification protests that were covered in national media and the launch of #DontMuteDC, a hashtag that ricocheted around the world. A few months later, D.C. native Regina Hall brought hometown spirit to the BET Awards, dancing onstage as Rare Essence's James "Funk" Thomas and E.U.'s Sugar Bear performed. And then in October, the D.C. Council passed legislation naming go-go "the official music of the District of Columbia" - which Mayor Muriel Bowser signed in February. More recently, go-go bands have been crankin' on the newly created Black Lives Matter Plaza. All of which makes this the perfect time for a go-go history lesson, whether you grew up dancing to Junkyard Band at free concerts in D.C. parks or first heard the Backyard Band at Moechella, one of the protest concerts that took over the intersection of 14th and U streets. But "The Beat Don't Stop," a feature-length documentary airing Sunday on TV One, is more than just talking heads discussing discographies and debating which band had the greatest conga players. "It's about how the story of go-go music and culture and Don't Mute D.C., is for me, an extension of Black Lives Matter," explains Deirdre Leake-Butcher, one of the executive producers. "So it's a story about how the erasure of black culture happens in cities across the country. It's a story that as African Americans, we can all relate to." Work on the project was already underway before Don't Mute D.C. dragged go-go back to the limelight, says Tracey Uy, another of the project's executive producers, though the protests and go-go's new status provided a neat conclusion of the narrative arc. "When we started out, we just had a love for the music and wanted to tell the story," she says. "But Don't Mute D.C. gave go-go worldwide attention again. We were really, really lucky in the timing." "The Beat Don't Stop" traces the origins of go-go from Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers at a club called the Maverick Room, when Brown had percussionists keep the beat going between songs to keep the dancers moving, and the creation of the "pocket" - the rhythmic interaction between the drummer, the percussionists and conga players that gives go-go its signature groove. And then, like the music, it keeps going and going. Viewers learn why go-go lead talkers began shouting out the names of people in the crowds, and their neighborhoods, and dive into the importance of Ballou High School's marching band as a training ground for go-go artists. We see the times go-go came tantalizingly close to making it big on major labels, via "Sardines" and "Da Butt," and the historic Go-Go Live concert at the Capital Centre in Landover, Md. Thankfully, the culture gets as many nods as the congas: There are asides about Mr. G, the photographer who took group shots in front of painted backdrops at concerts, and the sartorial differences between young people from Southeast and Uptown. Dance historians can compare Junkyard's HeeHaw and the more modern moves of the Beat Ya Feet Kings. Producers set the scene by incorporating documentaries shot by the BBC and German television in the '80s, as well as vintage videos - don't miss the clip of a young Junkyard Band performing at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1986 - and concert footage taped by audience members. Beyond the firsthand testimony from band members, such as Big Tony Fisher of Trouble Funk and Andre "Whiteboy" Johnson of Rare Essence, some the most memorable commentary comes from the engaging experts: Howard University professor (and former Washington Post reporter) Natalie Hopkinson, author of "Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City"; journalist Alona Wartofsky, who started writing about go-go for The Post in the 1980s and now writes for the Washington City Paper; musician and historian Kato Hammond, who performed with Little Benny and the Masters before launching the Take Me Out to the Go-Go website; and activist Ron Moten, who's been a driving force behind Don't Mute D.C. "We set out to find out where the passion for this music came from and what it was rooted in," Leake-Butcher says. "The scope started out fairly small, but once we started interviewing people - and we interviewed over 40 - we discovered some really impactful stories, and stories that hadn't been told before." If there's a fault, it's almost that there's too much information to share. Within a few minutes in the second half of the documentary, subjects hopscotch from the shootings inside and outside concert halls the late '80s and early '90s that led the city to crack down on go-go clubs; to the growth of the R&B-influenced "grown and sexy" sound in the '90s and 2000s; to moving interviews about Chuck Brown's death in 2012. Locals might wonder why members of a favorite band (say, Northeast Groovers) get almost no screen time, or be thankful that the widely panned 1986 go-go-exploitation film "Good to Go," which starred Art Garfunkel, doesn't even warrant a mention. "There were just so many stories to tell," Leake-Butcher says. "For a national audience who really doesn't know what go-go is, we really wanted to paint a picture so that they understood the origin of this music and the culture." And that's the key. Some might debate why go-go never became a national success - "I had the hottest record in the world, but in my opinion, it was nothing compared to what Chuck Brown was able to create," hip-hop trailblazer Doug E. Fresh admits in one scene - or focus on the tragic death of Rare Essence drummer Quentin "Footz" Davidson, but go-go's survival instinct is never far from the surface. Even without hit records, the musicians were local celebrities, supported by an ecosystem that included club owners, fans paying for shows, and folks selling clothing and live PA tapes. It is, Hopkinson points out in the documentary, "a multimillion-dollar industry, almost entirely black-owned." Throughout "The Beat Don't Stop," musicians and fans alike stress that go-go is a visceral, participatory experience, from the call-and-response between band and crowd to the slap of the hands on congas. But what does that mean for go-go now, when we're reduced to streaming gigs or playing old PA tapes for who knows how long? Leake-Butcher isn't worried. "One of the things that we learned (making the documentary) is just how tenacious the community is" she says. "They've been through a lot in terms of the music being stigmatized, the music being blamed for things that happened in the '80s and '90s. And yes, the culture died down. But, you know, it's still found a way to survive." - - - "The Beat Don't Stop" (83 minutes) screens Sunday at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET on TV One. WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats on Wednesday reacted with fury to the revelation in a new book by former national security adviser John Bolton that President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 U.S. election, with some blaming Bolton for not speaking out earlier, others criticizing Republicans for voting to bar new evidence in Trump's impeachment trial earlier this year, and a few demanding answers to questions raised by the new revelations. Bolton writes in his book, scheduled for release next week, that Trump told Xi during a summit dinner in June 2019 that an increase in agricultural purchases by Beijing from American farmers would aid his electoral prospects. At the same meeting, Xi also defended China's construction of camps to house as many as 1 million Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang - and Trump signaled his approval, Bolton writes in the book. Some Republicans, such as Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, defended their vote earlier in the year to acquit Trump and to block witnesses such as Bolton from coming to testify on the central question of whether Trump held back U.S. aid to Ukraine until the country launched an investigation into Joe Biden. "I haven't read John Bolton's book, but I don't need to rethink my decision," Alexander said Wednesday evening at the Capitol. "The question was, in the trial, did I need any more evidence to be convinced that President Trump did what he was accused of doing? I said he did it. I was convinced. I didn't need any more evidence." He added: "I simply said that that didn't rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, which would qualify for conviction on impeachment." House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who was the lead impeachment manager, said in a tweet Wednesday that Bolton "may be an author, but he's no patriot." "Bolton's staff were asked to testify before the House to Trump's abuses, and did," Schiff tweeted. "They had a lot to lose and showed real courage. When Bolton was asked, he refused, and said he'd sue if subpoenaed. Instead, he saved it for a book." Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Bolton book excerpts only further demonstrate that Democrats were correct to lead the push for Trump's impeachment on charges of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. "It was clear then and could not be any clearer now: the vote to convict and remove Donald Trump from office was absolutely the right vote," Schumer said in a statement. "The revelations in Mr. Bolton's book make Senate Republicans' craven actions on impeachment look even worse - and history will judge them for it." Some Democrats with powerful positions on committees said Bolton's claims about Trump's conduct opens up new questions to be probed, with at least one wanting to hear from Bolton directly. The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., sent a letter to the executive vice president of the Trump Organization asking for a full accounting of Trump's business arrangements with ICBC, a Chinese state-controlled bank. "This disturbing revelation raises new questions about other ways in which President Trump benefits personally, and financially, from the Chinese government, including through ongoing business relationships," Menendez wrote. Menendez's counterpart in the House, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said he would be consulting with other House Democratic leaders on next steps. "The House will continue to look for answers wherever we may find them about the President's abuses and corruption," Engel said in a statement. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, is interested in a different allegation Bolton makes in the book about Trump's attempt to interfere in a criminal investigation as a favor for Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan. "If John Bolton has an interest in serving his country, as opposed to selling books, he will respond promptly to my forthcoming request for more information about Donald Trump's relationship with Turkey," Wyden said. Other lawmaker saw the details in Bolton's book as a political rallying cry for Democrats. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, argued that the revelations make it more important than ever for Democrats to go to the polls in November. "There is no new piece of evidence, or crime or moral transgression that will cause congressional republicans to do the right thing and stand up to trump," Schatz tweeted. "We just have to beat them up and down the ticket." Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., quipped that Republican members of Congress will likely plead ignorance of the book excerpts. "Really looking forward to a whole bunch of Republicans in Congress claiming they haven't seen the Bolton excerpts," Cicilline said in a tweet. Whether the Senate would call Bolton to testify was the big question mark of the impeachment hearings that otherwise everyone knew would most likely end with Trump's acquittal. During the Senate impeachment hearings in January, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, asked the White House defense team why the Senate shouldn't call Bolton, someone who would have direct knowledge of what went on with Ukraine. A White House lawyer argued that the Senate's role was to decide whether the information in the House's articles of impeachment warranted removal from office, not to gather new evidence. Murkowski ultimately voted against calling Bolton to testify, blaming the House for a "rushed and flawed" impeachment probe. Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine were the only Republicans to vote in favor of hearing from Bolton. Last September, the day before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced that the House would mount an official impeachment inquiry against the president, Bolton told Engel in a phone call that the House Foreign Affairs Committee should investigate why former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch had been recalled. Bolton indicated that he had more information to divulge on the matter, according to a statement that Engel put out about the conversation during the Senate's impeachment trial. At that point, reports had been circulating for a few days that a whistleblower complaint stating Trump was holding up congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine to get that country's president to investigate the Bidens, and the debate about whether the Ukraine allegations would turn into an impeachment investigation was playing out in the open. Bolton's tip about Yovanovitch was unprompted, according to Engel, and he offered no similar tip regarding China, then or since, according to a person familiar with their conversation. Then, in the final days of the impeachment hearings, details from the book leaked about Bolton's allegation that Trump had been trying to tie U.S. aid to Ukraine to that country launching an investigation into the Bidens and the Democratic Party. Romney was the first Republican to say the revelations had convinced him they needed to hear from Bolton. While other Republicans said they considered it, only Collins voted with Romney. "If Members of Congress repeatedly solicited foreign countries to help our reelection campaigns, we would go to prison," Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., tweeted. "Illegal to work with a foreign power to help your campaign. @realDonaldTrump would likely be in prison if he weren't President." - - - The Washington Post's Karoun Demirjian and Josh Dawsey contributed to this report. A conservative law firm has sued the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources over the agencys cancellation of in-person hunter safety classes, which the group says infringes on residents legal rights to hunt. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the DNR this spring adopted a policy prohibiting in-person classes, which are required for anyone born after 1972 to obtain a hunting license. According to a complaint filed Wednesday by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of the Kansas-based Hunter Nation Inc., the DNR lacks authority to cancel the classes after the state Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers Safer at Home order on May 13. WILL contends the Oneida County Sheriffs Office canceled a class scheduled for June 22 based on a June 3 email from the DNR saying safety classes remain suspended until further notice. The complaint says the DNR is required by law to issue certificates to those who complete such courses and as such the agency is refusing to fulfill its obligations. A dog breeder has answered a call for help by giving a puppy to the brother of one of the four police officers killed when struck by a truck on a Melbourne freeway in April. Alex Prestney - the younger brother of Constable Josh Prestney, 28 who was killed in the Eastern freeway tragedy at Kew on April 22 - was looking to get a border collie puppy. Police Legacy chief executive Lex Man had spoken to Alex - who is also a police officer - about getting a dog to help in the family's healing, and put out a call on 3AW radio on Tuesday to see if anyone could help. A woman named Emma rang in and said her sister bred border collies and one of them, named Flossy, was pregnant and Alex could have one of the puppies. Shortly afterwards, the sister, named Melinda, called to say Flossy was about to go into labour. Flossy eventually delivered ten puppies. Alex Prestney (left) is the younger brother of Constable Josh Prestney (right), 28, one of the four officers who were killed in the Eastern Freeway tragedy at Kew in Melbourne, Victoria on April 22, was looking for a border collie puppy Police Legacy CEO Lex Man heard of Alex's search and asked anyone who could provide him with a dog to contact them on 3AW radio on Tuesday. After the call was made, a woman named Emma called and said her sister bred border collie Mr Man said he had spoken to Alex, who is also a police officer, late last week and he said the puppy would bring 'relief' and 'help' to his family during the grieving process. 'It would bring a smile to his face and the face of his family,' Mr Man said. Emma said she was driving home from work when she heard Mr Man's plea. 'We've got a border collie that has helped us with grief and my husband getting over PTSD. So they are amazing dogs and I'd love to help out if I can.' Emma said she would donate the puppy and did not want any money. Mr Man said Emma's response was 'marvellous' and thanked her for her generosity. One of them, named Flossy (pictured), was pregnant and Alex could have one of the puppies. Shortly after the call, the sister, named Melinda, called as well and announced Flossy had gone into labour and gave birth to ten puppies A private funeral to honour Const Prestney was held on May 4 at 10am at his former Catholic high school, Xavier College (pictured: Alex and Josh) Constable Joshua Prestney was killed on duty after a truck crashed into him and three colleagues in the emergency lane of the Eastern Freeway The officers had pulled over Richard Pusey, 42, who was allegedly speeding down the Eastern Freeway at 149km/h in his Porsche 911. As they were standing at the roadside, they were struck by a truck driven by Mohinder Singh, 47, who was been charged over their deaths. Pusey was charged with nine offences including driving at a dangerous speed, reckless conduct endangering life, failing to render assistance and drug possession. A private funeral for Const. Prestney, also a triathlon enthusiast, was held on May 4 at 10am at his former Catholic high school, Xavier College. Alex had presented him with his badge when he graduated from the academy last December. Const Prestney lost his life alongside Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and Constable Glen Humphris. By Fabian Cambero SANTIAGO, June 16 (Reuters) - A Chilean regulator on Tuesday dismissed the concerns voiced by union workers that mining companies were failing to enforce sanitary measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, calling mine adherence to the restrictions "adequate." Unions had urged the government to re-assess the operating plans of the countrys sprawling mines on Sunday, citing an "alarming" increase in infections among workers. But Chiles Geology and Mining Service (Sernageomin) told Reuters in an emailed statement it had carried out 4,299 inspections at various mining sites throughout the worlds top copper producer since the outbreak began in mid-March. "We have verified on the ground an adequate implementation by the industry and its workers of ... the respective protocols," the agency said in the statement. Chile, unlike neighboring Peru, has yet to require mines to limit operations, even as the number of cases nationwide has soared. South America has in recent weeks become the epicenter of the global outbreak, with Peru, Chile and Brazil especially hard hit. Chile has seen an explosive increase in infections since May, averaging more than 5,000 new cases daily. The country has now logged 180,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,300 deaths due to Covid-19. Most mining companies in the countrys vast northern desert have nonetheless maintained operational continuity. Chile said in May its copper industry ranked among the least affected globally by the pandemic, anticipating just a 1% reduction in output. International giants like the state-owned Codelco, BHP , Anglo American, Glencore, Antofagasta and Freeport McMoRan operate in Chile. None of the companies, nor the associations of the sector, have issued declarations on the indications of the unions. (Reporting by Fabian Cambero; Writing by Dave Sherwood'; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) 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. Political leaders in France on Tuesday expressed outrage after the usually placid eastern city of Dijon was hit by another night of unrest linked to score-settling by members of the Chechen community. Dijon has now seen four consecutive nights of unrest and scenes that have shocked the country. According to police, the incidents appear to have been sparked by an assault this month on a 16-year-old Chechen boy, prompting other members of the community to go on reprisal raids seeking vengeance. The Chechens reportedly had travelled to Dijon from all over France and even from neighbouring countries such as Belgium and Germany. Their actions have focused on the low-income district of Gresilles which has a large community of people originally from North Africa. On Monday evening, dozens of hooded men carrying arms and crowbars gathered in Gresilles, shooting in the air, destroying video surveillance cameras and setting fire to bins and vehicles, police told AFP. Riot police needed one-and-a-half hours to put an end to the violence, leaving the area calm at night as bins and cars continued to burn. Four people were detained. "Seeing young people brandishing arms, 100 people fighting, who are being aggressive, it's unacceptable," Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume told the CNews channel. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who rarely wastes a chance to criticise the government of President Emmanuel Macron for public order failings, said she would head to Dijon to hold a press conference later in the day. "Our country is plunging into chaos! What is (Interior Minister) Christophe Castaner doing? Gangs are going around in ethnic warfare with automatic weapons in their hands," tweeted the National Rally party leader. - 'Not abandoned' - The socialist mayor of Dijon, Francois Rebsamen, had criticised what he saw as insufficient police deployment over the weekend. "As justice comes too late and the police do not have the means, the Chechen community decided to take the law into its own hands," he told BFMTV. Regional prefect Bernard Schmeltz -- the top local state official -- defended the lack of forceful intervention on previous nights by the security forces. The tactic of encirclement used "was the only practical strategy", he said. "The local residents were not left abandoned," he added, following criticism of the apparent passivity of the security forces in the face of the violence. And he said that the latest violence on Monday night was due to local Dijon residents and not members of the Chechen community. Chechnya is a predominantly Muslim Russian republic in the North Caucasus. Two wars in the 1990s triggered a wave of emigration, with many Chechens heading for western Europe. More Chechens have also flowed into exile in recent years due to their disagreements with the strongman pro-Kremlin leader of the region Ramzan Kadyrov, who rights activists accuse of multiple violations. There are no precise figures on the number of Chechens living in France as they are included with other Russian passport holders. There are communities in Paris, around Nice in the south and in the east of France. Amid heightened Sino-India tensions after a border clash between their troops, Russia on Wednesday asserted that the existence of RIC (Russia-India-China) is an undisputable reality and there were no indications that the trilateral cooperation may be frozen. Russian Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev also welcomed all steps aimed at de-escalation of Sino-India tensions. "We welcome all steps aimed at de-escalation at the LAC, including the conversation between the two FMs, and remain optimistic," he said on Twitter. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. The casualties on the Chinese side are not yet known. However, government sources, citing an American intelligence report, claimed the total number of soldiers killed and seriously wounded could be 35. "The existence of the RIC is an undisputable reality, firmly fixed on the world map. As for the current stage of the trilateral cooperation, there are no indications that it might be frozen," Kudashev said. His remarks come amid uncertainty looming over the virtual RIC conference on June 22 at which External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was expected to join his Chinese and Russian counterparts. The meeting, convened at the initiative of Russia, was expected to deliberate on a range of key issues like ways to collectively tackle the coronavirus pandemic and address common security threats, sources had said. Russia had earlier said that India and China should resolve the border dispute through talks and that a "constructive" relationship between the two countries was important for regional stability. Constructive relationship between our Indian and Chinese friends is very important to promote regional dialogue on stability and sustainable development, Russian Deputy Chief of Mission Roman Babushkin told PTI earlier this month. Kristal Walker was just 18 years old when she discovered something terrible had happened to her as a child. She was sitting on the porch of her Adelaide home when a relative blurted out the admission in 2006. The now 33-year-old spent years probing for more information, turning to other family members when her questions were repeatedly dodged. But no one wanted to tell her the family secret. Perth woman Kristal Walker (pictured) has spent the last 14 years searching for answers about her childhood It wasn't until 12 years later, in 2018, that Kristal found out the truth through Freedom of Information documents. Photos released by the Department of Family and Community services, now Family and Community Services, showed Kristal at 22 months old beaten so savagely her blackened eyes were swollen shut. The images were taken inside Maitland Hospital, in NSW, in March 1989, just a short way away from Kristal's then home. 'I was bashed as a baby and almost killed, I was inches away from death,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'I don't know how someone could do that to a child. 'They might have killed me.' Doctors reports seen by Daily Mail Australia concluded her injuries had been inflicted by an adult. Authorities were unable to ascertain who committed the vile attack and, to this day, no one has been charged. Documents unearthed under Freedom of Information laws (F0I) included horrific images of Kristal aged 22 months brutally bashed with blackened eyes in Maitland Hospital, in the NSW Hunter Valley The heartbreaking images show bruising around the Kristal's neck from the despicable attack Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Kristal's mother or her mother's then boyfriend committed the attack. Hospital records indicated Kristal was too distraught that night for doctors to complete a full physical examination. Shortly afterwards Kristal and her family moved to Victoria. The NSW department handed her case to its Victorian counterpart, but communication between the agency and the family gradually petered out. When the family moved to South Australia a few years later, her case was not passed on and eventually became forgotten. Kristal believes her case was just another that fell through cracks of the system. Kristal pictured with black eyes in Maitland Hospital 'I would have been better off as a ward of the state,' she said. Instability and unhappiness at home saw Kristal drop out of school at 16, leave home, and move to Sydney before returning back to South Australia the following year in 2004. In 2012, she left Adelaide with only a backpack to start a new life Perth, where she met her fiance Michael Kurgan, and became the proud stepmother to his 13-year-old daughter Emma. She has since completed a diploma in counselling and worked on campaigns as an advocate for people suffering from HIV, after contracting the virus herself in 2010. While the move to Western Australia has brought calm and happiness to her life, unanswered questions remain about her childhood. She is certain family members or other members of the community knew more about what happened and is pleading with them to come forward. 'It is sad that people were alive at the time and wouldn't say anything.' Kristal moved to Perth in 2012 and met her fiance Michael Kurgan, 43 (pictured right). They plan to marry later this year Kristal is now the proud step mother of 13-year-old Emma Kurgan (pictured together) 'I'm sure there is someone out there that knows who I am but doesn't know where I disappeared too.' 'Someone has to be held accountable.' She hopes speaking out will encourage those who know about incidents of child abuse and domestic violence to report it to authorities. 'People don't talk about child abuse and it's not okay to sit on it and hide it.' 'Evil is harming children and Australians need to know.' 'If you see you something say something. It is as simple as that.' 17.06.2020 LISTEN A scientist with the University of Cape Coast has suggested that the COVID era is the right time to empower the local animal industry. Dr. Julius Hagan who is also the past head of the animal science department with the university said most government interventions are geared towards crops, giving the reason that animal products are easily available for importation, unlike crops that are only specific to certain areas or regions. Speaking on ATL FMs Atlantic Wave last week, Dr. Hagan said animal farmers in the country are hugely affected because they were not prepared for the pandemic. He mentioned that major countries where Ghana imports meat products from, such as the US, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have their economies seriously affected by the pandemic and have halted or limited exportation. He also revealed that the local poultry industry has become less profitable with most farmers halting operations. He explained that Most of the local farmers rely on imported day-old chicks. Now with the border restrictions, they may have to resort to chartered flights and go through strict protocols to get their supplies, which will increase their cost of production. How many farmers can afford that? Most local poultry farmers lack storage facilities and would have to watch their eggs go bad after a couple of weeks. This is as a result of suspension or restriction of activities of their major off-takers such as schools, hotels, food joints, and restaurants. Poultry farmers at Dormaa Ahenkro normally sell their eggs to neighboring Ivory Coast because they are closer to them than to Accra, but we know borders are closed now. If they should come to Accra, they wont have the market, so its either they destroy the produce or give them out for free. They have several crates of eggs but cant sell them. Dr. Hagan was of the view that now is the time to also grow the local livestock industry to produce enough to feed ourselves. He expressed fear that if the right mitigations arent made, people will soon be forced to become vegetarians or be forced to reduce the animal products they consume. He recommended that the government support the local (poultry) industry so farmers can easily import day old chicks under the restrictions to enable them to maintain their livelihoods. He further advised farmers to understand and accept that the coronavirus disease has come to stay and think of innovative ways to help their practices. He added that farmers, processors, transporters, animal sellers, veterinary doctors and others in the value chain must be trained to follow safety protocols and good farming practices. Markets should also be constantly fumigated and disinfected. If we do that, well be able to revive the livestock industry., He ended. By: Dennis Baffour-Awuah YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. Former Member of Parliament of Armenia Abraham Manukyan has been arrested, the National Security Service told Armenpress, without clarifying under which criminal case he has been arrested. According to the media reports, Manukyans arrest is connected with the criminal case launched against Multi Group Concern LLC general director Sedrak Arustamyan. Abraham Manukyan has served as MP of the Republican Party of Armenia faction in 2003-2007, and later in 2021-2018 he has served as a lawmaker of the Prosperous Armenia party. Manhattan, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/17/2020 -- As a small business owner, costs matter, including the cost of accounting software. QuickBooks offers tiered pricing options for both its Online and Desktop solutions. A closer look at QuickBooks Enterprise shows that it bills monthly with an annual subscription. QuickBooks Enterprise currently offers three options, Silver, Gold, and Platinum that are priced at $140 per month, $169 per month, and $198 per month for one user. Just like the QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop version, the price for each plan will increase with added users. QuickBooks Pro has a one-time cost, of $299.95. QuickBooks Enterprise is said to be best suited for larger companies with more than $1 million in revenue a year and with an employee base ranging from 20 to 250 people. Apart from cost differences, QuickBooks Enterprise has shown signs of hitches in its software mainly when opening a QuickBooks Enterprise data file with a non-Enterprise product. Some issues revolve around downgrading QuickBooks Enterprise to QuickBooks Pro, Premier or Accountant, restoring QuickBooks Enterprise backup to QuickBooks Pro or Premier, and converting from Enterprise to QuickBooks Online. With E-Tech's solutions, however, these snags"are a thing of the past", Technical Services Manager, John Rocha, said. E-Tech offers a guaranteed serviceconverting an Enterprise data file to Premier, Pro, Accountant, or QuickBooks Online with 100 percent financial accuracy. The conversion includes all data including the Payroll and service subscriptions that you may have with Intuit. For more information on this service, visit: https://quickbooksrecovery.co.uk/quickbooks-data-conversions/quickbooks-enterprise-uk-conversion/ About E-Tech E-Tech is the leading service provider of QuickBooks File Repair, Data Recovery, QuickBooks Conversion and QuickBooks SDK programming in the UK and Ireland. In their 20 years plus of experience with Intuit QuickBooks, they have assisted over 1000 satisfied customers with their requirements. E-Tech UK covers US, UK, Canadian, Australian versions which include Reckon Accounts, and New Zealand versions of QuickBooks through PC and Mac platforms. For media inquiries regarding E-Tech, individuals are encouraged to contact Media Relations Director, Melanie Ann via email at Melanie@e-tech.ca. To learn more about the company, visit: https://quickbooksrecovery.co.uk/ SEATTLE - This week, Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood embarked on a radical experiment in self-government. Activists have taken over a six-block area surrounding a police precinct, declaring it an "autonomous zone." Those who have gathered say they make decisions about their space by consensus. The decentralized movement has no leaders and no spokespeople, and one core demand: that police officers stay away. The zone has attracted the attention of President Donald Trump and other Republicans, who have urged the Seattle mayor and Washington governor to "take back" the city. "If you don't do it, I will," Trump tweeted Thursday, suggesting "domestic terrorists" are at the heart of the project. But the neighborhood's residents and activists say the autonomous zone is nothing of the sort. Locals describe a block party-like atmosphere with concerts and movie screenings. Protesters have set up barricades so cars can't get through. Volunteers give out free food and medical care and take turns performing night watch and other civic services. The city is providing trash pickup and portable restrooms serviced daily. And even as a handful of armed Seattle Police Department officers began making their way back into the East Precinct on Thursday, the situation remained peaceful. Protesters are still encamped around the station, putting finishing touches on a new "BLACK LIVES MATTER" street mural modeled on Washington, D.C. The "autonomous zone" is nestled in a normally bustling strip of bars, restaurants and apartment buildings. It was borne out of protests against police brutality, sparked by the killing of George Floyd while in police custody. On June 1, protesters marched from downtown Seattle up to Capitol Hill. When they found their route blocked by barricades set up around the neighborhood's police precinct, the crowd swelled and police eventually declared a riot. Protesters returned daily, and the situation devolved into a tense seven-day standoff. Police deployed tear gas, pepper spray and blast balls on multiple nights. On Sunday, a man attempted to drive his car into the crowd then shot a protester before surrendering to police. The scene shifted Monday, when the Seattle Police Department vacated its building, leaving the neighborhood to the protesters. As the last officers rode off on bicycles, a crowd streamed past the barricades in a victory parade. Once the police left, protesters immediately took over the intersection to ensure it would remain police-free. They repurposed barricades set up to protect the precinct, using them instead to block roads, effectively turning a six-block area into a pedestrian zone. Artists set to work stenciling, tagging and muraling messages and symbols such as "Black Lives Matter," "RIP George Floyd," and "ACAB" or "1312," shorthand for "All cops are b---ards," on the precinct and surrounded walls. Volunteers served at medical aid stations and staffed pop-ups such as the "No Cop Co-Op," a tent filled with free snacks. Pho and coffee were distributed to the activists camping in tents. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, someone set up a projector to host outdoor film screenings of documentaries such as Ava Duvernay's "13th" and "Paris is Burning." The nearby Domino's Pizza was flooded with delivery calls. On Thursday morning, a UPS deliveryman arrived with an Amazon package addressed to "PROTESTERS IN FRONT OF PRECINCT (ANY PROTESTERS)" at the East Precinct's address. A volunteer at a medical aid station signed for the package. Inside was a blanket. Members of the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club, which provides armed community defense for anti-racist events and other social justice activities, were on site, standing near the barricades with no visible weapons. At least one person had a gun on his waist; he was not a member of the John Brown club. Washington is an open-carry state, although Mayor Jenny Durkan banned weapons in an emergency order following the first major protest on May 30. Residents of the autonomous zone worked together to address conflicts through negotiation and de-escalation. When a group of individuals attempted to break into the precinct between 4 and 5 a.m. on Thursday morning, other members of the community convinced them to stop. By 6 a.m., roughly a dozen young men were engaged in a heated discussion in the middle of the street about why one would want to trespass in the precinct. At a Thursday afternoon news conference, Durkan said city officials continue to monitor the situation. "SPD did an assessment today, and there is going to be an ongoing assessment about when it is going to be safe to move in there," she said. "We don't want to introduce additional flash points." Cam Manny, a restaurant manager who has bartended in the neighborhood for years, lives in an apartment building inside the autonomous zone. He stayed through the seven-night police standoff and the three-night experiment without cops. "As someone who works in the bars in the area, I see more violence on any given Friday and Saturday night on the street, pre-pandemic, than I do in these last three nights here in my neighborhood," he said. "They call for medics, people are being proactive, and they are understanding that everyone is in a very heightened situation of tension and frustration and doing a pretty good job of working it out," Manny said. On Wednesday evening, Manny began talking with protesters about the need for vehicular access to allow for package and grocery delivery, as well as trash pickup. What started as a yelling match settled into a cordial dialogue, with Manny's dog serving as an icebreaker. "That's the magic about a small community," said David Lewis, a project manager at Lululemon who described himself as a "facilitator" of the Seattle protests. "This has become a micro-neighborhood, a microcosm. In a small population it is very easy to self-protect - I am hesitant to use the word police - with a unified message and a community in which everybody knows each other." "With conversation and dialogue built on the foundation of respect, we can and have been able to de-escalate every situation," he said. But, he added, there are challenges, particularly since the president's tweets. "Having a community that is autonomously policing is ideal and beautiful. I'm absolutely for that, given the right structure," he said. "That said, declaring autonomy against a city or against a nation like America is by no means a goal I wish to stand behind at this moment." WARWICK, NY., June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ozop Surgical Corp. (OZSC), (Ozop or the Company), today announced that Power Conversion Technologies, Inc. (PCTI), has submitted a sole source bid to one of the worlds largest defense contractors for multiple power converter units to be used in naval automatic weapons systems. Our reputation is built on our ability to meet the exacting standards of mission-critical systems when other vendors cannot, said PCTI President Catherine Chis. Were happy that this defense contractor has again turned to us for an innovative custom solution for this unique application. PCTI is recognized in the industry as having a breadth of knowledge and expertise in the field of power conversion and management systems. Global players seek out PCTI for projects especially where no readily available solutions exist. These clients rely on PCTIs engineering and design capabilities to offer tailored solutions to these industry leading companies. PCTI expects to hear back on its bid within the next 60 days and to be successful in obtaining a purchase order. For more information on PCTI please follow on the link, www.pcti.com Please be aware of our social media accounts that can be used from time to time for additional material events. https://twitter.com/power_conv_tech https://www.facebook.com/PowerConversionTech About Ozop Surgical Corp. Ozop Surgical, Corp. (www.ozopsurgical.com) invents, designs, develops, manufactures and distributes innovative endoscopic instruments, surgical implants, instrumentation, devices and related technologies, focused on spine, neurological and pain management procedures and specialties. Our focus is on economically disrupting the market with clinically equivalent or superior existing and new products resulting in immediate and significant savings for providers, payors and consumers. About Power Conversion Technologies, Inc. Power Conversion Technologies, Inc (www.pcti.com) invents, designs, develops, manufactures and distributes standard and custom power electronic solutions. Founded in 1991 and located in East Butler, Pennsylvania, the Companys mission is to be the global leader for high power electronics with a standard of continued innovation. Story continues Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains or may contain, among other things, certain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties. Such statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to the companys plans, objectives, projections, expectations and intentions and other statements identified by words such as projects, may, will, could, would, should, believes, expects, anticipates, estimates, intends, plans, potential or similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the companys management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in the companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ significantly from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that are subject to change based on various factors (many of which are beyond the companys control). The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Investor Relations The Waypoint Refinery, LLC 845-544-5112 www.the waypointrefinery.com Coalition MPs have helped install One Nation MP Rod Roberts to the coveted position of assistant president of the Legislative Council, entitling him to an extra $57,525 per year on top of his base salary of $169,192. Mr Roberts secured the position by one vote after two rounds of voting, despite the Liberals initially backing Christian Democrat Fred Nile. Rod Roberts was elected assistant president in a secret ballot of upper house MPs. Mr Roberts, a former NSW policeman from Goulburn, was promoted after he told the upper house on Tuesday of his planned motion around Aboriginal deaths in custody, urging the chamber to note "the truth matters". "[I]n NSW between 1995 and 2019, there were 923 deaths is custody, including 112 deaths of Aboriginal persons," the motion says. The Food Network has cut ties with Michigan chef Chad Barrett due to his alleged history domestic violence, and fresh allegations of abuse by seven women who came forward on social media. Barrett emerged in the food world spotlight when he appeared on two episodes of the Food Network show 'Guys Grocery Games' hosted by Guy Fieri in 2017 and 2019 and participated in a network-affiliated festival in New York City. But following the shocking allegations by seven women, he has lost ties with the network and has been fired from his job as executive chef at Feast, a new restaurant he was working at in Chesterfield. 'When we read the local news reports about the current allegations against this contestant, we pulled both episodes that he appeared, so no re-airs could be schedule,' a Food Network spokesperson said to the Detroit Free Press. The Food Network has cut ties with Detroit chef Chad Barrett following fresh allegations of abuse and charges by his ex-wife of domestic abuse Barrett emerged in the food world spotlight when he appeared on two episodes of the Food Network show 'Guys Grocery Games' hosted by Guy Fieri in 2017 and 2019 (above on the show) and participated in a network-affiliated festival in New York City 'A woman brought this article to our attention the other day and weve since removed Chad Barrett from our website. He participated in the festival in 2019 but he will not be participating in future events,' Alexandra Stylianos, the director of operations for the Food Network & Cooking Channel New York City Wine & Food Festival, said on cutting ties. Feast also released a statement in light of the allegations saying it would end ties with Barrett. 'Given the recent developments, we would like to address Chef Chads involvement here at FEAST. He was hired as the executive chef, he is not, and has never been owner or partner at FEAST. That being said he is no longer a part of FEAST team and is not involved with FEAST in anyway shape or form. The FEAST team has been, and still is, working very hard to bring a positive, exciting culinary experience,' the restaurant said. 'Along with jobs to Chesterfield, New Baltimore and the surrounding communities, Our team at FEAST does NOT condone nor support domestic violence or violence of any kind,' it added. In early June the new allegations emerged as he awaited trial on domestic abuse charges raised by his ex-wife Kari Barrett, a dental hygienist in Chesterfield. He was fired from his position as executive chef at Feast, a restaurant in Chesterfield Barret pictured center. He's awaiting a pretrial hearing on July 16 in Macomb County District Court on domestic violence charges filed by his ex-wife Kari Barrett Barrett is awaiting a pretrial hearing on July 16 in Macomb County District Court in New Baltimore on those charges, which a county clerk says is his second offense. 'The abuse started rather quickly. And I didnt want anybody else to be a victim of his abuse and I needed to do something about it. So I decided to speak with the New Baltimore Police Department and presented my evidence to them and filed a complaint,' Kari Barrett said to the Detroit Free Press. Her friend posted a warning about the chef on the Detroit Area Chefs Facebook group and Kari Barrett said other women who were allegedly abused by him began to contact her. 'We really became unified together. Our stories were pretty identical,' she said. Though she didnt share details she said the physical abuse didnt start until after they were married, but emotional and verbal abuse preceded it. A friend of Barrett's ex-wife posted a warning about him in a Detroit Area Chefs Facebook group in early June and seven women came forward with abuse claims Ex-fiancee Sarah Natushko alleged that Barrett was shockingly abusive during their seven months together and she was left seriously injured by him in 2011 and needed 31 stitches in her arm. She said she was six weeks pregnant at the time with her daughter who is now eight. She pressed charges against Barrett in October 2011, but the details were sealed as a part of a plea deal in April 2012. Following the Food Network's decision to cut ties she said: 'I didn't expect to feel a physical (weight) lifted off my chest. But that's what it feels like. It's very emotional for me because I've been bearing the pain for so long. It was like those articles drudged it back up and it took away my importance.' 'Seeing people praise him made me feel like I didn't matter. It made me feel like what I have been through, what I had survived and saved my child from, didn't matter. I feel vindicated and free. People are finally listening and, more importantly, they are standing by us now,' she added. Natushko said she and the group of seven women who have publicly alleged abuse by Barrett have been receiving guidance from Turning Point, an organization dedicated to ending domestic and sexual violence. But for many days, no one knew who had pulled the trigger or why. And as a frightened city tried to piece together what had happened, we published and prominently displayed a story delving into the criminal backgrounds of some of the victims, on the grounds that this information could be a part of the puzzle. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Biologics to modulate the migration and activation of specific innate immune cells, called neutrophils, discovered in the lab of Beth McCormick, Ph.D., at UMass Medical School, have been licensed by Bacainn Therapeutics, Inc., to develop treatments for various acute medical conditions, including ulcerative colitis. The Massachusetts company received FDA clearance for a Phase I clinical trial of its compound to address uncontrolled inflammation in the gut. "The collaboration with Bacainn has been fundamentally critical in advancing our biological discoveries in GI pathophysiology towards the development of novel therapeutics to treat patients with ulcerative colitisand perhaps other chronic inflammatory diseases, as well," said Dr. McCormick, the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research Chair, vice chair and professor of microbiology & physiological systems, and founding director of the UMass Center for Microbiome Research. "The Bacainn team shared our vision of how to bring a drug of this unique class into this phase of clinical testing while at the same time the my lab was ideally poised to understand how to obtain results to move the development forward quickly and effectively." Ulcerative colitis is the most common form of inflammatory bowel disease worldwide. A chronic debilitating disease with no cure, it requires lifelong management, and ultimately takes a significant toll on both the physical and mental health of the patient. In the United States, nearly 1 million people suffer from the disease, about 5 percent of whom will go on to develop colorectal cancer. "The quest for new treatment options, despite the backdrop of rapidly developing new therapies, is essential and highlights the complexity of this disease given there remains many unanswered questions regarding the causes and course of the disease, its management and treatment," said McCormick. Bacainn will begin enrolling healthy volunteers in the coming months to evaluate various dose levels of its compounds for safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The advancement of the biologic was based on its favorable profile exhibited in preclinical safety testing, along with its GI tract-restricted distribution and demonstration of potent and selective activity against human primary neutrophils in a model of inflammation. "We are thrilled by the remarkable progress made by the Bacainn team and excited about the advancement of this clinical development," said Bacainn CEO Ronnie Farquhar. "Our collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Medical School provided access to decades' worth of experience around neutrophil biology, as well as sophisticated assay systems, which greatly enabled our discovery process." Chris Stevens, MD, Bacainn's chief medical officer added, "As an oral, gut-restricted anti-inflammatory agent, this novel therapeutic approach is well positioned for patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis." Explore further New AGA guideline outlines treatment best practices for ulcerative colitis patients The University of Waikato Tauranga Campus scooped a top award for its innovative learning environment design at an Australasian awards ceremony. Tauranga Campus, designed by Aotearoa New Zealand leading architecture practice, Jasmax, working in collaboration with the University of Waikato and its community partners, won the New Construction / Entire New Educational Facility Category at Learning Environments Australasias 12th Annual Awards for Excellence in Educational Facilities. The project was up against a shortlist of buildings from New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore. Learning Environments Australasia is a body advocating for quality and innovation in learning environments to enhance student outcomes. They seek to raise awareness of the essential interplay between space design, pedagogy, and technology. The awards showcase architects and educators working together to produce inspiring educational facilities. The University of Waikato Tauranga Campus is a stunningly elegant building that achieves its stated vision to deliver a foundational university building in Tauranga, and in so doing grounds the project in its sense of place and people, says the judges. "It exhibits a simplicity in its solution to a complex technical brief with a rich layering of meaning. The facility is a statement of the importance and opportunity for educational buildings to fully and comprehensively understand and engage with their cultural context. "It is a learning environment that engenders a deep sense of belonging that connects to the past, while creating a catalyst for an inclusive future. The University of Waikato Tauranga Campus is a world-leading example of bi-cultural design and its incredibly affirming that this has been recognised on an international stage," says Jasmax CEO, Sjoerd Post. "The University and Jasmax share the vision for raising the bar on indigenous design intelligence and subsequent outcomes in the built environment. The partnership between Jasmax, the University of Waikato and the team of cultural artists and advisors was integral throughout the project. 'The partnership informed the conceptual and educational innovations for the project, delivering on the Universitys aspiration for an educational facility that speaks to local heritage and cultural identity, becoming a changemaker, and lifting the uptake of tertiary education for all of the community in the region. University of Waikato Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Alister Jones is delighted this has been recognised by such a prestigious awards programme. "The Jasmax team has created an iconic building that reflects the broader cultural/social/physical environment and incorporates best practice in modern tertiary teaching environments and collaborative social learning spaces for students. "The University of Waikato Tauranga Campus is inspiring, functional, innovative and aesthetically beautiful, and we are very proud it showcases world-leading tertiary education in a bi-cultural context. The multi-purpose state-of-the-art facility was a triple winner in the 2019 Bay of Plenty Property Council Awards, taking out the Supreme Excellence, Urban Design and Best Team Awards. The project is shortlisted for the 2020 NZIA Architecture Awards and Property Council Awards, the winners of which will be announced later this year. A church in rural northeastern Oregon is now the epicenter of the state's largest coronavirus outbreak, as 236 people tested positive for the disease, authorities said Tuesday. The large outbreak at Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in Union County comes after it recently held a wedding and a graduation ceremony, each with more than 100 people in attendance. The surge in new cases from the church led to Oregon's second consecutive record-setting daily case count. The Oregon Health Authority reported 278 new statewide cases Tuesday - a 51 percent increase from Monday's case count. The Lighthouse Pentecostal Church stands in Union County, Oregon. A COVID-19 outbreakwas linked to the church this week where as 236 people tested positive for the disease New daily coronavirus cases have spike in the last week causing Gov. Kate Brown to halt any further reopenings for a week from last Thursday. Monday saw a record number of cases The health authority and county officials teamed up with the church over the weekend to hold a clinic where 356 people were tested for the virus - 66 percent tested positive for coronavirus, officials reported. Currently, five people associated with the outbreak are hospitalized, said Thomas Jeanne, the deputy state health officer and deputy state epidemiologist. The county does not have any confirmed fatalities from coronavirus. Prior to the outbreak, the county had less than 25 cases during the pandemic. 'We have tested the majority of the congregation at the church in Union County,' Jeanne said. 'At this point we hope there will not be a lot more (cases), but that is what contact tracing, quarantine and follow up will be important for.' The Observer newspaper of La Grande reported that the church held services in April and May even though Oregon COVID-19 restrictions limited gatherings. It did change its format moving services outside and on April 12 held a 'drive-up' service where people remained in or near their cars. However, the newspaper reports that the services in April and May saw dozens of parishioners ignoring the state's restrictions on crowd sizes and gathering in the church parking lot around a central stage. On May 6, it reports that churchgoers were seen side by side, not wearing masks, and on May 10, Mother's Day, mothers in the crowd were asked to come forward for recognition and several did, again not standing apart or wearing masks. The church continued doing this once the state reached phase one of reopening on May 15. It had canceled its services over the weekend. Union county now has a 22 percent positivity rate on coronavirus tests and there are 89.4 cases per 100,000 people, both the highest in the state. It means that roughly one in every 210 individuals in the county has contracted the disease. Tuesday's case count brings the new total number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in Oregon to 6,098. Pictured, the congregation at Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in 2015. Over the weekend, 66 percent of those tested at the church were found to have coronavirus after they allegedly continued gatherings and outside services without masks despite the lockdown restrictions In addition, two more people have died from the disease, raising the state's death toll to 182. The seven-day average for new daily cases in Oregon is now 129, much higher than its previous peak in mid-May at 78 daily cases. Officials cited the rise in cases due largely to increased testing, contact tracing, workplace outbreaks 'as well as potential spread in the community.' Over the last 14 days, 35 percent of cases have not been linked to a specific transmission, Jeanne said. 'I think generally we are seeing increasing numbers, which is what we expected with reopening,' he added. 'We are concerned about these trends, particularly the sporadic cases that can't be traced to a specific outbreak or cluster, because they indicate how much community spread is occurring - the type of spread that we are less able to control through testing, case investigation, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine.' Before the outbreak at the church Oregon last week saw an outbreak at Newport seafood plant, that in two days accounted for more than half of Lincoln Countys 206 cases. Carrie Brogoitti, public health administrator at the center, said in the press release, that the increase in cases in the state were not linked to one specific source and urged the public to remember that large crowds are a risk. 'Many of the recent positive cases are touching various areas of our community and are not confined to one location,' she said. 'One of the main messages we are trying to get out to the public is large gatherings are a really efficient way to spread COVID-19,' said Dr. Paul Cieslak, Senior Health Advisor at OHA, in a press conference Monday. In response to the increasing case counts Gov. Kate Brown last week said she was putting all county applications for further reopening from her COVID-19 restrictions on hold for seven days. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown last week halted any further reopening of the state for seven days Twenty-nine of Oregons 36 counties are already in Phase two of reopening. All but Multnomah County are in phase one. 'In order to ensure that the virus is not spreading too quickly, I am putting all county applications for further reopening on hold for seven days,' Brown said in a statement Thursday. 'This is essentially a statewide "yellow light". It is time to press pause for one week before any further reopening. 'I will work with doctors and public health experts to determine whether to lift this pause or extend it or make other adjustments.' Ukraine has informed the UN Secretary-General about Russia's disregard for international law, the continuation of coercive passportization, and other repressions against residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea. This is stated in the official letter of Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya. "The Russian occupation administration in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, continues its artificial campaign of coercive passportization which is part of the aggressor state's repressive policy towards Ukrainian citizens who are forced to live under the occupation," the letter reads. It is emphasized that forcing the residents of the peninsula to get Russian citizenship is "a deliberate and cynical element of systematic pressure on the citizens of Ukraine." If Crimean residents refuse to obtain Russian passports, they are artificially restricted in their rights to employment, medical care, social and pension benefits, and the right to own their property. "The absence of a Russian passport often leads to forced deportation and a ban on entering the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol," the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN emphasizes. As noted, Ukraine remains determined to protect the rights and interests of its citizens living in the temporarily occupied Crimea. At the same time, the Ukrainian side appealed to the UN Secretary-General to respond appropriately to Russia's violation of international law. "We hope that consistent attention to these illegal actions of the Russian Federation and their negative consequences for the enforcement of the rights of residents of the temporarily occupied peninsula will be presented along with relevant recommendations in your specialized thematic reports on Crimea in accordance with the UN General Assembly resolutions," says the letter to the UN Secretary-General. ol St. Pauls Memorial Church and rectory, the landmarked Victorian-Gothic Revival structures and the oldest Anglo-Catholic Episcopal parish in New York City located in the landmarked Mud Lane section of Stapleton, is undergoing a project of repairs and restoration. To be refurbished are its ceiling, stone work and restoration of its stained glass window frames and other areas in dire need of repair. St. Pauls Memorial Episcopal church was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter. It is a classic example of Gothic Revival church architecture. St pauls episcopal church in stapleton. (STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE/jan somma-hammel) Staten Island AdvanceStaten Island Advance Church officials had been hopeful the project would be completed before the end of the year. However, the demolition and construction phase of the project have been on hold since March due to restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. And in so doing, a capital campaign has been established to raise funds for the extensive undertaking. FACTS ABOUT THE VINTAGE HOUSE OF WORSHIP The church and rectory. that have achieved triple landmarked status, were designed by Edward T. Potter and erected in 1866. Last year there was interior damage to the church as seen in this article. A large piece of ceiling concrete fell at the time-honored house of worship that could have been fatal had someone been sitting in the pews. The rectory also is in need of pointing the stone, a new roof, soffits and gutters, chimney repair, window repair and restoration. St. Pauls regularly provides programs featuring a variety of liturgical and secular music including traditional annual events such as The Annual Flower Festival in fall and the Festival of Lessons & Carols in December. Voyces sing during "A Festival of Christmas Lessons & Carols" presented by the parishioners, friends and neighbors of St. Paul's Memorial Church in 2016. (Staten Island Advance/ Bill Lyons)Staff-Shot Their community outreach also includes access to a yearly flu shot, supporting the food pantry at neighboring Trinity Lutheran Church, and are home to three 12-Step groups and other community groups. On Monday, scaffolding construction began in the interior of the church building. Scaffolding has been built inside St. Paul's Memorial Church as the interior is repaired and refurbished. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)Staten Island Advance According to St. Pauls Vicar, Father Frederick Schraplau, The initial response to our capital campaign has been very encouraging. We are most grateful for the generous support we have received from the Episcopal Diocese of New York, the Staten Island Inter Parish Council, our sister parishes here on Staten Island, local foundations, individuals from across the country, and of course our parishioners and friends in the community. We have been blessed with a broad base of generous and loving support; but we still need additional funding to reach our goals. The interior of St. Paul's Memorial Church is being repaired and refurbished. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)Staten Island Advance Contractors and forensic engineers conducted diagnostic testing and determined the entire ceiling was unsafe because of cracks, which could lead to further collapse and the church building cant be used until the ceiling is replaced. St. Pauls weekly celebrations of the Holy Eucharist and community outreach ministries were moved to the church basement until COVID-19 quarantine restrictions forced the suspension of all public worship. St. Pauls parishioners are currently offering the service of Morning Prayer from their homes via Zoom. Donations to support the repair/replacement and restoration of the church ceiling are tax deductible. The altars and religious relics are covered during the renovation at St. Paul's Memorial Church. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)Staten Island Advance Checks should be made payable to St. Pauls Memorial Church and mailed to St. Pauls Memorial Church, 225 St. Pauls Ave., Staten Island, N.Y. 10304. DETROIT - The latest challenge for the autonomous vehicle industry: How to assure passengers that the car they are getting in is virus free, even if it doesn't have a driver. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, a skylight is reflected in the rear window of a Waymo driverless car during a Google event in San Francisco. The latest challenge for the autonomous vehicle industry: How to assure passengers that the car they are getting in is virus free, even if it doesn't have a driver. An executive with Waymo said Wednesday, June 17, 2020 that the coronavirus pandemic forced it to put its limited ride service in the Phoenix area on hold to make sure human backup drivers and passengers were safe. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File) DETROIT - The latest challenge for the autonomous vehicle industry: How to assure passengers that the car they are getting in is virus free, even if it doesn't have a driver. Widespread use of autonomous vehicles already had been delayed by a March 2018 fatal crash involving an Uber test vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, forcing the industry to pause to make sure its vehicles are safe. Now it has to deal just like other ride-hailing companies and traditional taxis with passenger anxiety over getting into tight spaces with people who may have the virus, or after infected people who rode in the vehicles before them. An executive with self-driving car company Waymo said Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic forced it to put its limited ride service in the Phoenix area on hold to make sure human backup drivers and passengers were safe. The passenger-carrying service hasnt resumed yet, but testing restarted on May 8. Some of the rides were shifted toward delivery, Patrick Cadariu, Waymos head of supply chain operations, said on a webinar. Waymo, a unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc., has been running the service with selected riders since 2018, sometimes without human backup drivers. Waymo and outside supply companies are now focused on putting technologies in place to clean vehicles between rides, Cadariu said. The technologies, which he did not identify, have been ready for the last few years, he told the Society of Automotive Analysts webinar. Waymo is looking at what to do between rides when there isnt time to return to a depot for a full cleaning, Cadariu said. Those are the sort of questions that people are thinking through both at Waymo and outside of Waymo right now given how the pandemic has affected us and also our anxieties around germs, he said. The Arizona vehicles have been delivering school supplies, protective equipment and food for nonprofits in the meantime. 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. Waymo, seen by many as the leader in autonomous vehicle technology, is a ways from running a large-scale ride-hailing service with its Chrysler Pacifica minivans and Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs, he said, without giving a target date. The way we scale our technology, the way we scale our business will be incremental, safe and thoughtful, said Cadariu, who also runs Waymos Detroit factory where stock vehicles are modified with autonomous sensors and hardware. Were really at just the beginning in terms of scale. Waymo has gradually expanded its service around Phoenix and now can run autonomously in an area about the size of San Francisco, Cadariu said. The company said that before the pandemic, it was running 1,000 to 2,000 rides per week. Between 5% and 10% were fully autonomous without human safety drivers, Waymo said. The company, however, has yet to solve the difficult issue of self-driving vehicles in inclement weather. This despite its use of multiple laser, radar and camera sensors connected to artificial intelligence. Cadariu said Waymo has a team in the Detroit area working on snow and wet roads, while other teams in Florida and San Francisco are figuring out heavy rain and fog. Waymo also is investing heavily in technology to keep sensors clean so they can always view the road, something it sees as important to reaching large-scale services, he said. The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in London (Reuters) - Domino's Pizza Group on Wednesday said core earnings for the first half would be lower than last year, dragged down by weak results from its Irish operations and the cost of social distancing measures at its restaurants. Shares in the United Kingdom's largest pizza delivery chain fell 7.4% in mid-session trade after the company also withdrew its full-year guidance, citing uncertainties related to restrictions to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. The stock has risen 22% since March 23, when the British government imposed a nationwide lockdown. Group like-for-like sales were strong in the year to June 14, with an increase in the delivery order count and growth in items per order. But costs related to measures, such as re-routing to stop two-person deliveries, ensuring all restaurants remain closed during restocking and contact-free delivery boxes, offset any benefits. The company also made less profit from the average basket size of orders during the lockdown, as people ordered more sides and desserts, which compared to pizzas, have much lower margins. "The expenses relating to increased health and safety procedures have worried traders," CMC Markets analyst David Madden said. "It is a case of two steps forward and one step backwards." Domino's said it could not predict how long the changes related to social distancing and associated costs would continue, but said this year's EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) would be lower than last year's. Like-for-like sales in the United Kingdom grew 3.7% for the first half to June 14, with sales from March 23 onwards up 5.1%. In contrast, sales at its smaller Ireland unit fell 5.9%, which Domino's blamed on a deeper fall in consumer spending during the lockdown. "Strong delivery performance is helpful...but we think current operational difficulties will add to ongoing challenges to franchisee profitability," brokerage Jefferies said. (Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar and Siddharth Cavale in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Barbara Lewis) Ponza is the largest of the Pontine Islands, the string of tiny islands located off the coast of the Lazio region in Italy. Ponza is a popular summer vacation destination for Italians, especially Romans and Neapolitans, as Rome and Naples are only a short drive and ferry ride away. Known by some as Capri without the tourists, Ponza is a worthy vacation destination for travelers who want to experience summer the Italian way, basking in the beauty of the Mediterranian. What is the history of Ponza? Besides having pleasantly temperate weather and gorgeous scenery, Ponza is rich with history. During the reign of the Roman Empire, nobility built vacation villas on the island. When the Empire fell, the island was completely abandoned. It wasnt repopulated until the 18th century, when the Bourbon Dynasty ruled over southern Italy. In the early 1900s, many Ponza natives traveled to New York to make their fortunes, but returned to the island to retire. As a result, Ponza had a large population of Brooklyn-accented English speakers in the 1940s. Nowadays, the tradition of English-speaking seems to have died out, as English is rarely heard around the island. Another interesting fact about Ponza: Benito Mussolini was briefly held in prison on the island in 1943. According to the New York Times, Ponza is so remote that when Mussolini arrived, many locals had never heard of him or World War II. An American lieutenant described Ponza as another world, a paradise unmarred by the violence of war. Legend has it that the island is named after Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who condemned Jesus to death for acting against Roman law. There is no evidence to support this claim, so it is more likely that the name comes from the Latin word Pontia (meaning bridge), as Ponza has many natural bridges. Ph: Alessandro Tortora / Shutterstock.com What is Ponza like? Characterized by steep white cliffs and, Ponza is a gorgeous escape from traditional tourism. Unlike most tourist destinations in Italy,. With a population of around 3500, Ponza remains fairly quiet for most of the year, and maintains a small-town atmosphere. Also read: The island comes to life between June and September, when tourists flock from all over Italy to escape the Italian summer heat. Summer temperatures in Ponza usually hover around 25.5 C and rarely surpass 29 C. Tourists can expect sunny weather with a side of sea breeze. Even during high tourist season, Ponza has a relaxed, casual feel. Locals are known for being warm and welcoming. What is there to do in Ponza? Italian vacationers travel to Ponza to relax by the, enjoying the countless beautiful beaches perfect for sunbathing, swimming, and boating. For swimming and sunbathing, the Cala Feola beach can be reached by foot from the island, and features many Piscine Naturali, natural seawater pools. Also read: Spiaggia Di Frontone is another popular swimming location, and is usually one of the most crowded, lively beaches on the island. In the evening, a hired DJ transforms Frontone into an open-air disco. Prepare for a steep walk to the beach if you arent arriving by boat. One of the most popular beaches on Ponza, Chiaia di Luna, has been closed for a few years due to safety hazards, but visitors can still enjoy the beach from a distance--the area above the beach offers breathtaking views of sea and the island coast. Check into Hotel Chiaia di Luna to be immersed in the exquisite scenery. Chiaia di Luna beach There are numerous other beaches to explore in Ponza, but many require boat access. Tourists can pay for a boat tour of the island, or rent a boat from one of the various rental services at the Ponza port. For visitors with boats, take time to explore the other Pontine Islands, such as Palmarola and Santo Stefano. Sail around the Arco Naturale, an arch-shaped geological formation close to the Ponza coast. Adventurous history buffs will enjoy exploring the Grotte di Pilato, the complex network of tunnels dug into Ponzas cliffs that dates back to Roman times. When you need a break from basking in the sun, wander through the picturesque streets of the Centro Storico (historic center). The sunrise-colored buildings in the Centro Storico house fresh markets, artisan boutiques, and traditional seafood restaurants. Make a stop at La Chiesa dei Santi Silverio e Domitilla, the most celebrated church on the island, or explore the Roman Cisterns on Via Dragonara. Grab a bite to eat at Monte Guardia Trattoria, located on the islands highest summit. Foodie tourists will especially enjoy Acqua Pazza, Ponzas Michelin-star restaurant. No matter where you eat, you cant go wrong ordering locally-sourced seafood dishes. How can I get to Ponza? To get to, take a train from the Roma Termini station to the Anzio Colonia station. The train ride lasts an hour and costs less than 5 euro one way. From the station, walk a short distance to the Anzio port, where you can take a ferry or hydrofoil to Ponza. Another option is to drive or hire a private car to go directly to the Anzio port. From the port, the ferry ride is around an hour and a half, and costs roughly 50 euro. To get to Ponza from Naples, there is a direct ferry that leaves from the Naples port. It operates only a few times per week, so be sure to arrive on time. The trip lasts three hours and costs around 50 euro. Alternatively, take a one-hour train from the Napoli Centrale station to the Formia-Gaeta station and catch a ferry from the Formia port. The ferry ride last between an hour and a half to two and a half hours, and costs between 80 and 100 euro. Ferries to Ponza can also be taken from Terracina and San Felice Circeo. Top photo: Vladimir Sazonov / Shutterstock.com THORNWOOD, N.Y. When Diane Segel started a petition urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to allow in-person extended summer school, she was at her wits' end. Since mid-March, after schools shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, Segel struggled to function as a teacher, speech therapist, occupational therapist and physical therapist for her 3-year-old son William, who has developmental delays. While most children across the country transitioned into the routine of virtual learning, for those with special needs who get a variety of in-person services online learning has not been an effective option. Diane Segel and her 3-year-old son William with special needs play with the sandbox toys as her 1-year-old son Charlie and husband Will Segel look on at home in Thornwood, N.Y. She started a petition to open up an extended school year for kids with special needs and over 25,000 people have signed it. She's been struggling over the last three months as online education doesn't work for her son and feels that he needs his in-person services to continue to develop. "You're talking about kids who are already developmentally delayed, who have lost three months of services," Segel said. "That's huge. If we lose the whole summer, you're talking about six months. Her petition garnered more than 15,000 signatures in less than a week and was up to almost double that number around the time Cuomo signed an executive order giving the green light to in-person special education classes June 5. Though many parents of school-age children feel ill-equipped to handle the new role of teaching their kids, parents of children with special needs said they felt especially inadequate to help theirs, some of whom started self-harming out of frustration. You cannot put a computer screen in front of most kids with special needs, Segel said. I actually opted out of two of the three therapies on the second week because of blood-curdling cries and screams every time he saw the screen coming out." 'It's been hell': Parents struggle with distance learning for their kids with disabilities New York's extended summer school for kids with special needs typically runs eight weeks. Depending on the severity of the disability, services can include speech therapy, interpreting services, mobility services, psychological services, occupational and physical therapy, counseling and therapeutic recreation. Story continues Most classrooms have six to eight children, and parents said it should be easy to maintain social distancing and open programs safely. The news that their children will receive help over the summer has been a lifeline for parents, many of whom juggle teaching roles and full-time jobs. From our partner: Helpful items to help home-school a student with special needs Cuomo said classes may open if they follow safety protocols. Parents fear that the lack of a definitive must might give schools the leeway against offering in-person classes if they decide they aren't ready. Shelly Guzman, whose 6-year-old daughter, Faith, is severely autistic and nonverbal, does not feel out of the woods. Shelly Guzman has been taking care of her daughter Faith's needs in their Washingtonville, N.Y., home since the Jesse Kaplan School in West Nyack closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The executive order is not very clear and has left a loophole in letting the schools decide if they are ready or not, she said. There might be teachers or therapists who may not want to return over the summer. I hope that this executive order will meet the needs of these children and they will provide the in-person services that they so desperately need and that is mandated in the IEP (individualized education plan)." Jay Worona, deputy executive director and general counsel for the New York State School Boards Association, told The Journal News in Westchester County that districts were taken by surprise by the order. To provide in-school services, some districts would have to scramble to put summer staff together and figure out how to pay for staff, transportation and other costs. "I would think a lot of districts might not be able to make this happen," Worona said. Guzman, who is from Washingtonville, New York, worked two jobs as a dental assistant before the pandemic but lost one position last week when she couldnt return to work while caring for her child. Guzman is worried shell lose her other job soon if there is no clear plan. Shelly Guzman worked two jobs as a dental assistant before the pandemic but lost a position when she couldnt return to work while caring for her daughter Faith. She worries she could lose the other job if theres no summer plan for students with special needs. "What am I supposed to do with my job? How am I supposed to feed my family? How am I supposed to pay my bills?" she says. "What am I supposed to do with my job? How am I supposed to feed my family? How am I supposed to pay my bills?" she said. "Mentally, it is taking such a toll on me." She said she was thankful to Segel for starting the petition and for all the work parents and political leaders across the state did to get the governors attention. I was so frustrated about how our kids had been forgotten. It should really have been an essential service," she said. "Then the news came about the summer camps opening, the beaches opening, the day cares opening, and we just wanted our voices heard because our kids are suffering." Alex and Sarah Kooluris, who live in Amawalk, N.Y., with their children AJ, 11, and Holden, 9, say AJ, who is autistic and nonverbal, regressed over the past two months of home-schooling without his in-person therapies. Sarah Kooluris, whose 11-year-old son, AJ, is nonverbal and has severe developmental delays, said he lost the three words he had learned over the course of his schooling hi, bye and mom. They weren't perfectly crystal clear, but they were emerging words; they're all gone now," said Kooluris, who lives in Amawalk, New York. "So even though he is essentially nonverbal, he was making several word approximations that have stopped. This is the longest he's ever gone without services since he was 16 months old. The regression is severe. The skills that he had that took him years to gain, such as self- hygiene, basic math, are now gone. Kooluris said it's been frustrating to be a taskmaster to her son. "I'm wearing a million different hats in a very scary environment," she said. "I should be somebody that he comes to for comfort, not somebody that he's running from because I am doing all this work with him and then probably not even doing it correctly because I don't know how to do any of it." Kooluris said her son has become so confused and frustrated that he started to self-harm, biting his arms out of frustration "because he doesn't understand what's going on." Even though there is still so much unknown in terms of the guidelines, she was relieved by the idea that her son could get a semblance of normalcy back. Given how much my son has struggled and then to know that now, he's going to get back to his normal way of life or as close as possible, it just makes my heart so full, Kooluris said. And for the first time, since this started, we all slept through the night. Ana Paisley says that without in-person services and a structured school setting she feels her 7-year-old son, Elijah, who has developmental delays, hasn't been able to flourish. She's concerned about his regression. Although Ana Paisley of Stony Point, New York, was not sure about sending her developmentally delayed son Elijah, 7, to school amid her fears of contracting the virus, she said the governor's directive has been reassuring. "My husband and I have decided that it is best for Elijah," she said. "Structure is very important for children with special needs to avoid regressing further." Diane Segel, who lives in Thornwood, N.Y., with her husband, Will, and their sons William, 3, right, and Charlie, 1, says that although the governor's action is a step in the right direction, the coming days will be crucial. "It has been a huge relief, but without clarity, we are not out of the dark yet," she says. For Segel, although the governor's action is a step in the right direction, the coming days will be crucial. "It has been a huge relief, but without clarity, we are not out of the dark yet," Segel said. "We want to make sure that if there are districts that are on the fence, that they understand the importance of our childrens developmental needs and do everything in their power to develop a concrete plan." This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Coronavirus: Summer school for special education kids? Parents hopeful VANCOUVER The Canadian government and federal authorities are sending mixed signals in response to a complaint over forced confessions allegedly extracted by Chinese authorities that have been broadcast in Canada, a human rights group says. But the lead complainant in the case says what is clear is that in the six months since the complaint was filed, Canadian officials have not reached out to him to ask about his experience and the confession he says was forcibly extracted, then used as propaganda on Canadian airways. Simon Cheng is a Hong Kong citizen who was working for the United Kingdoms consulate in Hong Kong when he was detained by authorities at a democracy protest last August. Cheng was held for two weeks during which time, he says, he was tortured, interrogated and forced to make a recorded and false confession to soliciting prostitution. The videos were not released until after Cheng spoke out about his detention to the BBC. Chengs videos were among numerous confessions that were broadcast into Canada via the China Global Television Network (CGTN) and China Central Television 4 (CCTV-4), available on cable. Both are networks are owned by Chinas government. The human rights group Safeguard Defenders filed a complaint in December with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The complaint details about 30 confessions involving about 60 people, including Cheng, whose confessions were broadcast into Canada. Now Cheng is questioning why the CRTC hasnt reached out to him. I think, if they havent contacted me, that means they didnt take it seriously, Cheng said. That is my concern. Cheng said hes hoping the complaint can help prevent further instances of people being forced to confess in recordings he said are meant to become propaganda. Last week, the CRTC told the Star in an email the commission did not license foreign channels nor did it have an application to remove either channel from digital services in Canada with no move to pull the channel from Canadian services expected. It also said the complaint was still open. Peter Dahlin, director of Safeguard Defenders, said that as far as hes concerned the response meant the CRTC was not moving on the complaint. Its not really a complete denial, he said of the CRTC statement. But the way its formulated makes it sounds very much like they are not intending to move on this. Safeguard Defenders says no witnesses in its complaint to the CRTC have been contacted by the regulator. On Monday, Canadian Heritage denied a request from the Star to speak to Minister Steven Guilbeault about the issue, calling the response from the CRTC appropriate. In a followup email, the department said it was allowing the CRTC to go through its process. There is an open complaint on this matter with the CRTC, (which) is following its complaint process, wrote spokesperson Martine Courage in an email. In its statement, Canadian Heritage also said it expects the CRTC to regulate in manner consistent with the Broadcasting Act and Canadian values. Dahlin said Canadian Heritages assertion the complaint process is being followed seems to run counter to the CRTCs statement it doesnt license foreign channels and referring to the complaint simply as open. Its very interesting to hear Heritage Canada would have such a different interpretation, Dahlin said. Dahlin said it was encouraging to see the statement include some pressure for the CRTC to act on the complaint. He pointed to a 2006 approval for CCTV-4 to be carried on Canadian cable services, specifically warning it could be removed from cable service if it aired abusive material. He said similar complaints filed in the U.K. are going more quickly. There, broadcast regulator Ofcom has already moved on complaints filed against CGTN last year, including one in which the network was found to have broadcast biased reporting about the Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrations. The CRTC on Tuesday told the Star complaints are dealt with on a case-by-case basis and time frames may vary. Read more about: As California lawmakers come to grips with a projected deficit running into the tens of billions of dollars, calls for more taxes targeted at high-earners are beginning to emerge among certain unions and advocates for social services. "All revenue options should be on the table, because we cannot cut our way to safely and equitably reopening schools," said Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers. So far, top Democratic lawmakers have maintained that they're not interested in considering taxes that would affect middle-class Californians, although some have suggested they're open to new charges for corporations and wealthy households. The dynamic echoes how the Legislature approached the last recession, when Democrats advocated for more revenue to save services while Republicans held up budget votes to protest new fees. Since then, California has added several new taxes and fees that stopped the financial bleeding at the end of the Great Recession and set the state on track to accumulate billions of dollars in reserves that lawmakers expect to use now. The taxes and fees, which include a newly increased gas tax, also provide the state with more resources to keep programs funded than lawmakers and then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had in the free-fall of 2008. "Clearly we have a lot of revenue," said Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association -- which advocates against tax hikes -- noting that California has the country's highest income, sales and gas taxes. "[But] we're simply not getting the services that we're paying for." Here's a look at the primary taxes and fees California adopted since it last faced a deficit on the scale of the one brought on by the coronavirus outbreak. Tax on high earners What happened? Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012 bet on an initiative asking Californians to raise income taxes on wealthy households and adopt a temporary sales tax increase. If the initiative, Proposition 30, failed, he pledged to cut billions of dollars in spending for schools and other services. Voters passed the initiative, staving off cuts that year and giving Brown financial breathing room in subsequent state budgets. Voters passed a similar initiative in 2016, extending the tax on wealthy households through 2030. It brings in about $4 billion to $9 billion a year, depending on economic conditions. Who pays? The top 1.5% of California earners pay a progressive personal income tax of 10.3, 11.3 or 12.3% depending on their bracket, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office. How is the money spent? The money goes into the state general fund, where it's use for schools, health care and other services. Gas tax What happened? California took first place in 2018 -- for how much its drivers pay at the pump. The gas tax rate rate jumped by 12 cents per gallon in 2017 after the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1, a tax and fee increase that aims to raise about $5 billion a year for transportation projects. This year, the tax and fee increase probably won't deliver the kind of revenue then-Gov. Brown's office projected when he urged lawmakers to pass it because people are driving less and buying less gas. Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration projects fuel tax revenue cumulatively will come in $1.8 below expectations through 2024. Who pays? Anyone who drives a gas-powered car. How is the money spent? Gas tax money -- rather than funneling into the general fund -- is reserved for transportation projects. This means that as California lawmakers scramble to reallocate the general fund amid this year's cuts, projects like road repairs are safer from the chopping block. Online sales tax What happened? A decade ago, Californians didn't pay any sales taxes on online purchases from retailers not headquartered in the state. Purchases on Amazon, headquartered in Seattle, were not taxed. That changed in 2012, when Brown signed a law requiring online retailers to collect sales tax if they had a physical presence in the state, such as a warehouse. Two years ago, a Supreme Court decision paved the way for legislators to further tighten California's collection of tax on internet sales. Now, California can tax online purchases no matter where the seller is based or if it has any a physical presence in the state. As of last April, sites like Amazon and eBay that allow independent businesses to sell products on their platforms also have to collect taxes on behalf of their larger third-party partners. Who pays? Anyone who shops online. How is the money spent? It goes into the state general fund. Greenhouse gas reduction fund What happened? California lawmakers in 2006 created the state's landmark climate change program, cap and trade, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. It requires businesses to reduce carbon emissions gradually. Those that don't participate in auctions where they can purchase pollution credits. Although the law predates the Great Recession, the cap-and-trade auctions did not begin raising revenue for the state until 2013. Through February of this year, auction proceeds have totaled $13.1 billion. Who pays? About 450 major manufacturers, oil and gas companies and other businesses buy and sell the rights to emit greenhouse gases each quarter, according to the California Air Resources Board. How is the money spent? The money funds a mix of transportation, fire prevention and development programs such as High-Speed Rail.. Marijuana What happened? California began taxing cannabis in 2018, just over one year after voters legalized recreational marijuana with a ballot initiative. As of the first quarter of this year, excise, sales and cultivation taxes have brought $1.17 billion into California coffers according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Registration. Who pays? Those who grow marijuana and those who buy it. Cannabis farmers pay a weight-based cultivation tax that varies based on the plant. Tax rates increased on Jan. 1 with the introduction of an inflation-adjustment requirement. All marijuana sales are subject to state and local sales taxes as well as a 15 percent excise tax. Arm's length transactions -- in which buyers and sellers act independently without influencing another -- are subject to an 80 percent mark-up, up from an original 60 percent. How is the money spent? Most of the money from marijuana goes back into marijuana. Cannabis regulation was a $44.5 million effort this year -- up from $28 million in 2019, The Mercury News reported. The initiative that legalized marijuana also earmarked revenues for several grant recipients: university researchers, California Highway Patrol, local health departments and community organizations. The remaining funds go into a discretionary pool intended for youth education. But according to the Mercury News, both grant and discretionary funds have run dry. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Photo: (Photo : Photo from PDX Concierge website) High school students from seven cities in Oregon are making use of their free time during the pandemic by serving their community. They are volunteering in an online grocery shopping and delivery service launched by another high school student. The site aims to help senior citizens who are at high risk during the pandemic. PDX Concierge is a site operated by high school students. Neel Jain created the website, which quickly gained support from other teens in Oregon. How did the teen come up with a free online grocery shopping and delivery service? The idea of buying groceries for the elderly first came to Jain when he bought supplies for his grandmother. Jain's grandma has asthma and cannot risk going out of the house for a grocery run. When Jain was buying the stuff for his grandmother, he thought of the other seniors who probably have the same problem as his grandmother. Jain said in an interview with the TODAY Parents, "I realized that there are many other people in the community who don't have that family support." The online grocery shopping and delivery service were first launched in April, during the pandemic. Since Jain was from the metropolitan of Portland, the assistance was initially available in that area. However, online grocery shopping and delivery service branched out to six different cities. That is due to the enthusiasm of other high school students in other areas of Oregon. The service is entirely free. The only payment that the seniors would need to pay is for the supplies that they ordered. The volunteers also make sure that they wear gloves and masks when doing the grocery. The drop off of the items is always contactless to ensure that they still follow the social distancing protocols set by health officials during the pandemic. Also, to make things a little personal, volunteers from PDX Concierge write down notes for the recipients. Jain said that these notes are their way of encouraging the recipients to stay safe at home. The reaction of the seniors on the online grocery shopping and delivery Since there are older adults who do not have children or grandchildren who can support them, Jain's group's effort is beneficial to them. Some seniors chose the online grocery shopping and delivery service of PDX Concierge because they want to stay safe from the virus. According to Jain, they have been receiving big smiles and thank you notes from their recipients. More than the sense of fulfillment that the high school students feel every time they accomplish a delivery, they are happy that they have also built friendships along the way. One of the recipients who patronize the online grocery shopping and delivery service of Neel and his friends said that if they are happy, there are children like Neel who are willing to help during the pandemic. The risks of the pandemic to seniors Studies have shown that the coronavirus is hitting older adults, ages 65 and above, harder than the rest of the population. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), eight out of ten deaths in the United States are in adults who are 65 years old and above. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:34:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported on Wednesday eight more imported cases of COVID-19, taking the total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong to 1,120. The new cases involved six females and two males, aged between four and 70, who returned to Hong Kong from Pakistan and the Philippines, the CHP said in a statement, adding that it is tracing related close contacts. The CHP said it also continued the investigations into the recent cluster infections in a residential building in Sha Tin, noting that 1,066 deep throat saliva samples collected in the second round from residents all tested negative for the virus. The Hospital Authority said as of Wednesday, a total of 1,071 patients with confirmed or probable infection have been discharged, while 38 COVID-19 patients were still in hospital, with three in critical condition and one in serious condition. Enditem Spains Health Ministry and the regional governments have agreed to a stricter protocol for coronavirus testing. From now on, all close contacts of a positive case will undergo PCR testing, regardless of whether they show symptoms or not, healthcare sources told EL PAIS. These sources said that the new document is being finalized and has been sent to the relevant health authorities: Its just a matter of days before it goes into effect. Scientific groups have expressed satisfaction at the change. In recent days, several experts had voiced concerns about what theyd described as an open crack in the Covid-19 containment effort. Those second positives could slip through the cracks if they were asymptomatic throughout the quarantine period Santiago Moreno, Ramon y Cajal Hospital It is not just Spain that is concerned about new outbreaks as it gradually emerges from a prolonged lockdown that began in mid-March. A recent report by the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) takes it for granted that there will be a resurgence of Covid-19 on the continent in the coming weeks, as countries lift the restrictions of the past few months. The efficiency of the monitoring measures will determine whether this spike in cases takes the form of small, contained outbreaks or a second big wave. The current protocol in Spain establishes that close contacts of a positive case must self-quarantine for 14 days, but only those showing symptoms are being checked for coronavirus with PCR lab tests. A close contact is considered to be anyone who has cared for a positive case or been with him or her for more than 15 minutes at a distance of less than two meters. This left a crack open for transmission chains to go through, said Jose Miguel Cisneros, head of infectious diseases at Virgen del Rocio Hospital in Seville. The most likely situation is that there will be another positive case near the first one. And the only way to find it, and end the outbreak, is to do PCR tests on all close contacts. Those second positives could slip through the cracks if they were asymptomatic throughout the quarantine period, said Santiago Moreno, head of infectious diseases at Ramon y Cajal Hospital in Madrid. Jordi Vila, president of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) said that the current circumstances favor change. Right now we have resources that we didnt have three months ago. And the incidence of the disease is low. So we need to be very rigorous and thorough about investigating and ending any outbreak. Room for improvement But experts still see room for improvement, and cite outbreaks like the recent one in the area of La Garrotxa, in the Catalan province of Girona, with 31 positive cases. The first case was detected on May 27, yet the outbreak was not declared until 10 days later. The regional government did not explain the reasons for this delay. Its too long, said Pere Godoy, head of the Spanish Epidemiology Society (SEE). It is essential for the shortest amount of time possible to elapse between the first signs, the PCR test and the contact tracing. Cisneros said that the important thing is for citizens to see a doctor if they are experiencing any cold or other symptoms compatible with the coronavirus. I know its a change from what weve been telling citizens in recent years, to only go to the doctor for important things. But this is the important thing now, because the people passing on the virus the most are those who keep leading normal lives because they only have mild symptoms. Contact tracing Fernando Garcia Benavides, a professor of public health at Pompeu Fabra University in Catalonia, stressed the importance of contact tracing, and noted that some regions of Spain have yet to develop efficient teams: Now we have the technological capacity, but were short on professional capacity. The ECDCs latest risk assessment said there is a moderate to high risk of a rise in coronavirus incidence in the coming weeks that would force authorities to reintroduce physical distancing measures. Most of Spain is in a moderate risk situation, according to the ECDC, although there is still community transmission in places like Madrid and Barcelona, and not all monitoring and control systems have been shown to work at full capacity. English version by Susana Urra. A group of cottage owners is making a last-ditch pitch to federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan in hopes of stopping or delaying a plan to eradicate fish in Miramichi Lake this September. The proposal would see the fish killer rotenone applied to the lake, a nearby brook, and a 15-kilometre section of the Miramichi River in an attempt to eradicate smallmouth bass, an invasive species viewed as a serious threat to young Atlantic salmon. Rotenone kills fish within minutes. It has been effective in erasing invasive fish populations elsewhere in North America, although more than one application is sometimes required. A coalition of First Nations and salmon conservation organizations filed the application, which would see almost all fish in the lake killed, with native fish later repopulating naturally or being transplanted from elsewhere. The plan is awaiting DFO approval. Rotenone is made from the root of certain bean plants, it is poisonous to fish but biodegrades in water over a period of two weeks to 30 days or more depending on conditions. Bass are aggressive competitors for food Nathan Wilbur, ASF Smallmouth are not native anywhere in Atlantic Canada. They appeared in Miramichi Lake about a decade ago, possibly after being introduced illegally by anglers. Attempts since then to eradicate them through electrofishing and other methods have failed. The Miramichi River itself is connected to the nearby lake by a small brook. Bass were discovered in the river in August 2019, leading to an expansion of the eradication plan to include the use of rotenone in the brook and river. Salmon groups worry if the bass become established in the river, they will feed on Atlantic salmon young further threatening an already stressed population. The letter, signed by cottage owner Trish Foster, raises concerns about "significant" environmental, health and welfare impacts and asks for an opportunity to speak to the science content of the application along with the decision process being used. "Are we worried about the declining population of the salmon? Obviously, yes," said Foster in an interview with CBC. "But what we're saying is that we don't think that a nuclear bomb being dropped in our lake and Miramichi River is the solution." The provincial Department of Environment initially waived requirements for an environmental impact assessment of the plan to treat Miramichi Lake. Story continues No provincial decision has been made on the amended application to include treatment of the brook and river. Demands an EIA Foster wants to see an environmental impact assessment. "If poisoning an entire lake and 15 kilometres of a river doesn't trigger an environmental impact assessment, what does?" she said. Foster is also worried about other ingredients, including petroleum distillates, contained in Noxfish, the rotenone product the proponents plan to use. There are about 16 cottages on or near the 6,000-acre lake. Most are concentrated at one end. Owners would be prevented from visiting the lake during and immediately after the application. Adult invertebrates are not expected to be affected, nor are birds and insects. Atlantic Salmon Federation Proponents say other invertebrates and zooplankton in Miramichi Lake are expected to recover by the following spring or summer. A plan is being prepared to capture Atlantic salmon in the targeted stretch of the Southwest Miramichi in advance and hold them in a tributary during the Rotenone treatment. The cottagers group is concerned the fish killer will have to be applied to the lake more than once, as has happened in some cases in the U.S. But Neville Crabbe of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, one of the groups behind the plan, says lessons have since been learned about rotenone. He points to more recent applications in British Columbia's Thompson River Valley, where 12 lakes were treated to eliminate invasive smallmouth bass and yellow perch without incident. "This is really a conservation action," said Crabbe. "There's no motive other than to safeguard the diversity and integrity of the Miramichi River ecosystem." He said rotenone has been approved by Health Canada's pest management regulatory agency, and that other ingredients in Noxfish are "inert." No decision from DFO yet "You know I think it would be a lot different if we were proposing to use a product that had not been extensively reviewed and approved by Health Canada, but in this case we are." Partners in the project were told Monday by Fisheries and Oceans Canada that more time is required to complete the department's consultation with First Nations before a decision on the rotenone plan can be made. In a statement to CBC, Fisheries and Oceans Canada said a decision on the application will be made "by late summer/fall", a timeframe that could threaten plans to treat the lake and river in 2020. Due to water temperature and flow, the optimum time for rotenone application in the Miramichi area is September. The statement says consultation is currently underway with Indigenous communities. DFO must "take into consideration public safety, impacts to fish and fish habitat, the effectiveness of alternate measures, vessel and mariner safety, and other regulatory requirements," the statement says. Ripe, succulent strawberries and velvety clouds of clotted cream no combination better conjures up a traditional British summer. But with Wimbledon cancelled, weve had to find other ways to get our fix. Step forward Marks & Spencer, which has come up with the ultimate amalgamation of the nations favourite seasonal treat strawberry-flavoured clotted cream. The unique, pink concoction took off online, but shoppers are divided, with some declaring the combination an abomination, a sort of Frankensteins monster of food. Of course, it does solve the age-old cream tea question of whether to put cream or strawberry jam on your scone first, since you can now do both together. Its only one of a growing number of Frankenspreads to be found on supermarket shelves. From mayo-chup to Marmite peanut butter, we test the best and the worst and decide whether theyre better together, or apart ... STRAWBERRY-FLAVOURED CLOTTED CREAM 2.50, marksandspencer.com Sarah Rainey gives her verdict on a selection of 'Frankenspreads', including Marks & Spencer strawberry-flavoured clotted cream (pictured) WHAT IS IT? Luxury clotted cream, made at a farm in Devon from Jersey and Guernsey cows, infused with strawberry compote and chunks of fresh fruit. Its Barbie-doll pink in colour, velvety in texture and so thick its easier to spoon than spread. TASTES LIKE: Super-sweet, silky-smooth cream, with a fruity aftertaste. But the flavour doesnt live up to the vibrant, millennial-pink hue, and if you like jam, youll still want to serve this with a generous dollop on top. Distinctly average, despite all the fanfare. BETTER APART MARMITE PEANUT BUTTER 2.50, sainsburys.co.uk Sarah said Marmite peanut butter spread (pictured) intensifies the flavour of the nuts and is unexpectedly delicious WHAT IS IT? Launched amid much controversy, this combines the savoury flavour of the love-it-or-hate-it yeast spread with crunchy peanut butter. Made in response to apparently overwhelming demand from shoppers, it was Marmites first new product in 117 years. TASTES LIKE: Nutty spread with added salt and a tangy aftertaste I cant quite put my finger on. The Marmite gives it added depth and intensifies the flavour of the nuts. Its runnier than ordinary peanut butter and quite claggy in the mouth, but unexpectedly delicious. BETTER TOGETHER CHOCOLATE AND HONEY SPREAD 8.99, amazon.co.uk Sarah explained that chocolate and honey spread (pictured) would work well on ice-cream and as a topping for pancakes or waffles WHAT IS IT? Raw honey with cocoa powder, made by organic specialists Q-Honey from wildflower blossoms in Lithuanian woodlands. Its 90 per cent honey and 10 per cent cocoa. TASTES LIKE: Smooth, velvety, liquid chocolate. Theres no added sugar, making it far less sickly sweet than Id imagined. I can picture this working well in baking, on ice-cream and as a topping for pancakes or waffles. My only complaint is that its a little thin and translucent more cocoa please! BETTER TOGETHER SMOKY BACON SQUEEZY CHEESE 4.09, scandi kitchen.co.uk Sarah claims the smoky bacon squeezy cheese (pictured), which is eaten on rye bread in Norway and Sweden tastes vile WHAT IS IT? Eaten on rye bread or crispbread in Norway and Sweden, this Scandinavian concoction combines spreadable cream cheese with crispy bits of smoky bacon. Its only 2.9 per cent bacon, though the rest is water, glucose syrup, flavouring and unidentified meat broth. TASTES LIKE: Slightly-sweet, slightly-smoky white goo. Neither bacon nor cheese comes through strongly, so its a mishmash of odd flavours that tastes, quite frankly, vile. BETTER APART PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY 7.99, amazon.co.uk Sarah said this peanut butter and jelly spread (pictured) is the perfect bittersweet blend WHAT IS IT: Peanut butter and jam is a tried-and-tested childhood favourite. This jar features stripes of smooth, sweet peanut butter and purple-hued grape jam, which blend together as you spread it on toast or bagels. TASTES LIKE: Alternating mouthfuls of sweet and savoury deliciousness. The peanut butter is rich and nutty, while the jam is tart and tangy the perfect bittersweet blend. The slightly-sour grape jam makes for a nice alternative to the traditional strawberry. BETTER TOGETHER MAYONNAISE KETCHUP 2, morrisons.com Sarah claims mayonnaise ketchup (pictured) would taste great as a pasta sauce, or on top of a burger WHAT IS IT: The original Frankenspread, Heinzs Mayochup combines mayonnaise with ketchup to make a salmon-hued sauce. It hit UK shelves last year, and fans say its the ultimate dip. TASTES LIKE: Creamy ketchup, or spicy tomato mayonnaise. It lacks the citrusy tang of mayo, but makes up for that with paprika smokiness. It would taste great as a pasta sauce, or on top of a burger. It shouldnt work, but it does as long as you can get past the off-putting pale pink colour. BETTER TOGETHER SALTED CARAMEL CHOCOLATE SPREAD 2.50, waitrose.com Sarah said salted caramel chocolate spread (pictured) is too sugary, you can feel the cavities creeping in with every mouthful WHAT IS IT: A spread to satisfy your chocolatiest cravings. Sweet chocolate is offset by salted caramel to make a velvety-smooth goo. Theres a whopping 631 calories per 100g, almost half of which is fat. TASTES LIKE: The sweetest, most calorific concoction you can imagine. Its just too sugary. I can feel the cavities creeping in with every mouthful. BETTER APART ORANGE AND HONEY MARMALADE 9.95, fortnumandmason.com Sarah explained that Fortnum & Mason's orange and honey marmalade (pictured) is too jellified for her liking, but it's tasty WHAT IS IT: The ultimate toast-topper for well-to-do breakfast-lovers, this combines the sharpness of marmalade with the sweetness of Wiltshire honey. Makers Fortnum & Mason suggest spreading it on a slice of warm baguette, or using it to make a sauce for duck. TASTES LIKE: Richer-than-average marmalade, with a mellow hint of honey. Not too sweet or too insipid, this actually improves both elements. A little too jellified for my liking, but tasty. BETTER TOGETHER CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE 1.95, tesco.com Sarah said that chocolate cream cheese (pictured) sounds like the Frankenspread from hell but is incredibly moreish WHAT IS IT: Made in collaboration with chocolate brand Milka, this unlikely pairing is one of several divisive Philadelphia flavours. It first appeared in 2019, with shoppers declaring it delicious on pancakes and croissants. TASTES LIKE: Eating the top half of a cheesecake, making it utterly irresistible smeared on digestive biscuits. The sharpness of the cheese cuts through the creamy chocolate and its incredibly moreish. It sounds like the Frankenspread from hell, but its the perfect pairing. BETTER TOGETHER SPICY CHORIZO SAUSAGE JAM 2.75, chilli wizards.co.uk Sarah said spicy chorizo sausage jam (pictured) is a nice idea, but her tastebuds were confused by the flavour WHAT IS IT: The notion of combining chorizo sausage with jam can only have come about by accident, but the result is surprisingly gourmet. Sweet and sharp, with a chilli kick, its more like a chutney than a jam, made with onion, chorizo and paprika. TASTES LIKE: Caramelised onions, mostly, with just a hint of smoke and meatiness. But spicy sausage has no place in a pot of jam. The chorizo comes as an aftertaste; it leaves you feeling like youve taken a bite of sausage and ended up with a mouthful of jam. Its a nice idea, but my tastebuds are confused I want one or the other. BETTER APART WHITE CHOCOLATE AND COOKIES SPREAD 2, marksand spencer.com Sarah claims white chocolate and cookies spread (pictured) is better than an Oreo spread on toast, a sheer indulgence in a jar WHAT IS IT: There were stampedes in stores when this launched in October. There is indulgent milk chocolate spread on one side of the jar, and creamy white chocolate spread with cookie pieces on the other. TASTES LIKE: Sheer indulgence in a jar a delight. Like an Oreo spread on toast, but even better than that. The flavours blend perfectly when spread and its even tastier when slightly melted. BETTER TOGETHER Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, June 18 2020 Indonesia is expecting investment from American, Japanese and South Korean firms seeking to relocate their factories out of China and set up manufacturing, furniture and electronics businesses in the country as it begins reopening. The firms are looking to invest in either of two industrial estate under development in Central Java - one in Batang, the other in Brebes - according to Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) spokeswoman Tina Talisa. The agencys head, Bahlil Lahadalia, said Friday that a South Korean manufacturer would join the countrys battery industry with estimated investment of US$1.6 billion. He declined to name the company. 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 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 16:32:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HEFEI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Yiyi has been annoyed by the leak of her personal information as she often receives harassing phone calls after booking plane tickets online or buying a house from a real estate agency. Zhang, a resident in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, hopes the problem could be solved with the country's newly adopted Civil Code, which clearly defines people's privacy. As the first law to carry the title "code" since New China was founded in 1949, the Civil Code passed at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, will take effect on Jan. 1, 2021. A major innovation of China's Civil Code, jurists say, is embodied in the section on personality rights. Yao Weiyao, partner of the Anhui Huishang Law Firm, said incorporating personality rights provisions into an independent section emphasizes the protection of people's dignity, which is in line with the people-rooted thoughts of traditional Chinese culture and reflects China's confidence in its culture. The section on personality rights includes provisions on a civil subject's rights to life, body, health, name, portrait, reputation, and privacy, among others. In Yao's view, the code not only shows China's innovation in legislation but also contributes to mankind's achievements in building a law-based civilization. The adoption of the Civil Code also excited Deng Jiakai, a judge of the Intermediate People's Court of Wuhu, Anhui Province. "The code is a milestone in the country's advancement of the rule of law, and adapts to the judicial practices at the grassroots level," he said. "From the protection of individuals and families to the maintenance of social order, it embodies our excellent traditional values and national spirit." The judge, who has 26 years of trial experience, has heard a succession case before, in which the nephew of a man surnamed Fang, as his only relative, asked for insurance compensation after Fang died in a car accident. At that time, Deng could only protect the nephew's legitimate rights and interests in accordance with a series of legal provisions, such as the tort liability law and General Principles of the Civil Law, and relevant judicial interpretations. "The inheritance provisions in the Civil Code amended the Law of Succession, which highlights traditional values including caring for the elderly and gives judges at grassroots levels more clarity in their decisions," Deng said. In addition to general and supplementary provisions, the Civil Code includes six parts on real rights, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance, and tort liabilities, protecting Chinese citizens' rights from the cradle to the grave. According to the code, even unborn children have the right to an inheritance and gifts. Zhou Shihong, vice president of the Anhui Lawyers Association, said the code mentions carrying forward the core socialist values in Article One of its general provisions and also fully reflects the integration of the rule of law and the rule of virtue in the specific articles. "Embodying our fine traditional culture and moral values in laws can in turn promote the further civilization of society, resulting in two-way benefits," Zhou said. Enditem WASHINGTON Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged China to reveal all it knows about the coronavirus outbreak in a meeting with a top Chinese official in Hawaii on Wednesday as new revelations about President Donald Trump and China rocked Washington. Pompeo and his deputy Stephen Biegun held closed-door talks with the Chinese Communist Partys top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, according to a senior State Department official on the base. Discussions covered a wide range of contentious issues that have sent relations between the two countries plummeting, according to the two sides. Pompeo stressed the need for full transparency and information sharing to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future outbreaks, the State Department said in a statement. Pompeo has joined President Donald Trump in criticizing Chinas response to the outbreak, including giving credence to a theory that the virus may have emerged from a Chinese laboratory in the central city of Wuhan. Trump has said he will withdraw funding and cut ties with the World Health Organization over what he alleges is its overly close relationship with China. Pompeo also stressed important American interests and the need for fully-reciprocal dealings between the two nations across commercial, security, and diplomatic interactions, the State Department said. According to Chinas foreign ministry, Yang expressed strong dissatisfaciton with Trumps signing of legislation that would impose financial sanctions and visa bans on Chinese government officials deemed guilty of persecuting Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. China is accused of incarcerating more than a million Muslims in prison-like reeducation camps that it says are needed to counter Islamic radicalism and separatism and teach job skills. The ministry also said Yang reiterated opposition to U.S. intervention in the issues of Taiwan the self-governing democratic island and U.S. ally that China claims as its own territory and threatens to invade and Hong Kong, where China intends to impose legislation that could have major effects on free speech and opposition political activity. No reporters were allowed to travel with Pompeo and Biegun, and coverage of the event was extremely limited. The meeting, which lasted more than six hours including a lunch break, wrapped up about 3:50 p.m. Hawaii time (0150 Thursday GMT), said a senior State Department official who attended it. The talks got underway shortly after explosive details from a new book by Trumps former national security adviser John Bolton began to emerge. Bolton alleges that Trump sought Chinas help in winning reelection in 2020 by ending a trade war and encouraged the Chinese leader to build camps for Uighurs in western China. On Wednesday, Trump signed a bill that seeks to punish China for its crackdown on the Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. The legislation, which Congress passed with little opposition, includes sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the mass surveillance and detention. Trade and human rights along with Chinas policies toward Hong Kong and its response to the coronavirus pandemic were among the most divisive matters expected to be on Pompeo and Bieguns agenda with Yang. In his book, Bolton writes that Trump appealed for Xis help in getting a second term at a G-20 leaders dinner in Osaka, Japan. Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure hed win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome, Bolton wrote. Bolton also wrote that Pompeo, who led Trumps early outreach to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before handing the reins to Biegun, was highly skeptical of the effort and never believed a deal was possible. Bieguns presence at the Hawaii meeting suggested that deadlocked U.S.-North Korea talks would also be a topic of conversation. The State Department had no comment on any aspect of Boltons book and referred questions to the White House. Despite Boltons portrayal of Trump being enthralled with Xi, China has become a key element in the 2020 presidential campaign, with Trump and his supporters seeking to make the administrations tough stance with Beijing a main foreign policy selling point. They have also painted Democratic candidate Joe Biden as being soft on China. Last month, Trump and Pompeo announced that the U.S. would be rescinding special trade and economic privileges it had extended to Hong Kong after the former British territory reverted to Chinese control in 1997. Since last year, both sides have ramped up hostile rhetoric and taken reciprocal steps to expel journalists and restrict diplomats ability to travel. Madison, Wisc. The U.S. Army Reserve suspended the commander of an Illinois-based unit Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations that unit officers mishandled sexual misconduct complaints and retaliated against a whistleblower. Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey, commanding general of the Army Reserve Command, announced in a statement that he has suspended the 416th Theater Engineering Command's commander. The statement didn't identify the commander by name, but the unit's website lists Maj. Gen. Miyako Schanley as its leader. The 416th's spokesman, Jason Proseus, didn't immediately return an after-hours email Tuesday evening. According to Schanley's biography, she joined the Army in 1986, transitioned to the reserves in 1993 and held command positions with units at Fort Drum, Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Dix as well as in Syracuse. She also serves as the executive director of the State University of New York North Country Consortium, a partnership of six SUNY campuses that works to bring college degree programs to Fort Drum. Luckey said in his statement that such suspensions are routine during ongoing investigations. He added, however, that a "number of potentially adverse findings" have been tied to 416th officers. He did not elaborate or name the officers, saying only that the officers will be entitled to free legal representation as they draft their responses. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Army spokeswoman Col. Sunset Belinsky said she wouldn't have any further information until the investigation is complete. The 416th serves as the headquarters for nearly 11,000 soldiers in 26 states west of the Mississippi River. Amy Braley Franck, a civilian sexual assault victim advocate with the 416th, has alleged that commanders launched internal investigations into at least two sexual assault cases, one in 2018 and another last year. Federal law and Department of Defense policy require that commanders refer sexual assault complaints to criminal investigators in their respective branches to avoid biased investigations. Commanders who don't follow the proper channels can face reprimand, removal from command or a court martial. Braley Franck also has alleged that the 416th went months without holding a sexual assault management meeting, even though the DOD requires such meetings monthly, and unit commanders also placed a victim on a firing range with someone she had accused of sexual harassment, causing her to fear for her life. Aimee Stephens outside the Supreme Court on October 8. Stephens worked for six years as a male funeral director in Livonia, Michigan, but was fired after telling her employer that she was transgender and would identify as a woman. Her case was one of three that led to the Supreme Court's decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. Stephens died in May of kidney disease. Getty Images The U.S. Supreme Court's June 15 ruling that employers cannot fire workers for being gay or transgender is a huge milestone in the fight for LGBTQ rights, but it doesn't resolve every question of discrimination against LGBTQ people in the workplace. The court issued its 6-3 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, after hearing three cases in which an employee sued after being fired because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The decision affirmed that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, also protects LGBTQ people. "It is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. Gorsuch, a conservative, was President Trump's first appointment to the Supreme Court, but he delivered a major rebuke to the administration, which argued that Title VII did not cover LGBTQ workers. The decision also comes just days after the administration reversed Obama-era protections that barred discrimination against transgender people in health care. Legal experts and advocates for gay and transgender rights are hailing Monday's ruling as a big step forward. "This is a monumental, game-changing win for our workforce and for our economy," says Jonathan Lovitz, a senior vice president at the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. It's hard to overstate the ruling's importance when it comes to legal protection against discrimination, says Suzanne B. Goldberg, a professor at Columbia Law School and director of its Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Goldberg notes that the decision could have implications far beyond employment, since courts often look to Title VII when they interpret laws that prohibit sex discrimination in other areas, like housing and access to credit. Lovitz notes that an anti-discrimination ruling at the federal level could be reassuring to LGBTQ people who previously didn't feel comfortable being out at work, or who felt unable to move to a state with laws that allow discrimination. Prior to Monday's ruling, fewer than half of all U.S. states had similar protections on the books. "This decision is going to help employers attract the best and brightest talent, because their geography is no longer going to determine how safe they are in the workplace," Lovitz says. "Now we have legal recourse to defend our community." However, Title VII does not cover workers at businesses with fewer than 15 employees, or those who are not technically employees, such as independent contractors. "We're still in a world of uneven protections," Goldberg says. The federal government requires its contractors to adhere to federal anti-discrimination laws, but if you don't work with the government and your business is very small or employs freelancers, it's important to be aware of state laws that specifically address discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. That said, the logic of the ruling--that discriminating against LGBTQ employees amounts to discriminating on the basis of sex, which is illegal--should carry over to the state and local levels, she says. "Yesterday's ruling sends a powerful message even to employers who are not covered by Title VII--because there's no reason that a state should interpret its anti-discrimination law any differently." Importantly, the ruling also didn't decide whether employers can cite religious beliefs as a reason to exclude LGBTQ people from their workplaces. If an employer (besides a church or organization with an obvious religious affiliation) is sued for discriminating against an employee and claims a faith-based rationale for the action, it'll be up to the courts to decide whether that argument holds water, Goldberg says. Monday's decision is a crucial step within a larger movement toward greater diversity and equality in the workplace, Lovitz says, particularly since many LGBTQ people--including women, people of color, veterans, and immigrants--face discrimination due to other aspects of their identity. "In strengthening our workforce laws for one community, we are in fact making things better for all communities to thrive in the workplace," he says. Many companies already have anti-discrimination policies in place that include sexual orientation and gender identity--and if yours doesn't, now's the time to consider adding one. But Goldberg says it is culture more than code that allows LGBTQ employees to feel comfortable and protected at work. The Supreme Court decision should motivate employers to look critically at their cultures and at what behavior is and isn't tolerated, she says. Soak in the summer sun, dip your toes into the invigorating, cool water--and then just exhale when you realize you're on one of the most secluded beaches in Texas. It's not easy to spot these, but once you do, it's a step into a refreshing beach haven that offers plenty of space for social distancing. From Brownsville to Brazoria County, we've rounded up some of the hidden treasures you'll find along the Gulf Coast. If you're searching for one of the most uncrowded stretches of sand, Matagorda Bay Nature Park might be the perfect spot. The beach is between Corpus Christi and Galveston touching the Colorado River. Amenities include picnic areas, RV park, and fishing piers. Beaches in Brazoria County near Freeport are a Houston favorite, since they're just an hour away. They offer beach driving, free parking and small campfires. Check out these beaches for a quiet break away: The NSW Rural Fire Service is testing a new plan aimed at estimating which assets are at risk from bushfires, including how prescribed burning may reduce those hazards. Rob Rogers, RFS Commissioner, told the bushfire royal commission on Wednesday the pilot scheme would update a current system, replacing the existing "crude" manual methods to give more consistent projections of fire risk to populations. Rob Rogers with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in November. Credit:AAP The program simulates a whole lot of fire across the landscape and then determines assets at risk, Mr Rogers said. "[It] looks at potential ignition sources across the landscape, what the potential risk is, and therefore where we should target our work." Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 00:07:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China hopes that the international community, especially developed countries and multilateral financial institutions, will act more forcefully on debt relief and suspension for Africa, President Xi Jinping said Wednesday. Xi made the remarks in his keynote speech at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 held via video link. Within the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China will cancel the debt of relevant African countries in the form of interest-free government loans that are due to mature by the end of 2020, Xi said. Enditem Sophie Wessex joined a counselling shift today at a call centre offering support for vulnerable children as she continued her volunteering amid the pandemic. The Countess of Wessex, 55, was pictured chatting to staff as she met with the team at the Childline and NSPCC headquarters in London, which is a confidential service for under-19s to seek help and support. Sophie, who has been principal patron of the NSPCC since taking over from the Queen in 2016, appeared eager to get stuck in, and was seen typing at a desk in the office before thanking volunteers for their work during the lockdown. The pictures show the royal, mother to Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn, deep in thought while listening to staff about their vital service and how they have coped with calls during the crisis. The Countess of Wessex, 55, was pictured listening to staff as she met with the team at the Childline and NSPCC headquarters in London The royal donned a camouflage-style long shirt dress with a cross-body black bag and swept her hair up with a clip as she got to work in the office. Since the coronavirus pandemic, Childline has been forced to alter its usual 24-hour services, with counsellors only able to take calls or online messages between 9am and midnight. In March, Sophie highlighted some useful resources to help support and offer advice to those who are looking after their children at home during the coronavirus pandemic. She encouraged people to take part in the @Nspcc_childline #childlinechallenge, for parents and children to take part in a new activity every day to help beat boredom. Sophie got stuck into the counselling shift at Childline to experience first-hand the services the charity offers The mother-of-two onned a camouflage-style long shirt dress with a cross-body black bag and swept her hair up with a clip as she got to work in the office It comes after Sophie, who has been at the forefront of the royal family's response to the coronavirus crisis, joined The Saints Foundation last Friday to help pack food and prescription parcels for the vulnerable. Sharing the news on Twitter, the Southampton-based charity posted: 'We were delighted to be joined by HRH The Countess of Wessex this week, who volunteered with us at @FairShareUk and on our Prescription Delivery Service. 'A real privilege to show The Royal Family how we are transforming lives in and around Southampton.' In a video clip shared on the social media channel, Sophie could be seen donning a high-vis jacket and getting stuck into the volunteering effort. Sophie chatted to staff about their vital work during the pandemic after the service was forced to alter their working hours with counsellors only able to take calls or online messages between 9am and midnight The royal appeared deep in thought as she got straight to work during the counselling shift And Sophie appeared relaxed as she beamed and chatted with other volunteers and staff. The visit came days after she opened up about adjusting to life in the royal family, speaking of her 'frustration' and admitting it took her a while to 'find her feet'. She told The Times she had to reduce her expectations of what she could actually do and 'take a really big step back'. 'I couldn't turn up at a charity and go, right, I think you should be doing this, because that's what I was used to doing in my working life,' she said. Sophie thanked staff and volunteers for their dedication to helping children during the pandemic It comes after royal insiders said Prince Edward and Sophie would 'step up' and take on more public duties in the Queen's absence during the crisis. Sophie, who was once described as the Royal Family's 'secret weapon' by royal journalist and author Victoria Murphy, has played a key role representing The Firm throughout the pandemic, and has been seen volunteering at a variety of causes over the last few months. Last month, she joined the group Nourish our Nurses, which is delivering meals to key workers, before meeting staff at St Peter's Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey. And to mark Eid, the mother-of-two was joined by her husband he Earl of Wessex helped pack food parcels at a mosque in Woking. The Countess has spent the last three months volunteering for a range of worthy causes (pictured, in April making meals for NHS staff) Earlier in the pandemic, the royal has also volunteered alongside professional chefs making lunches for NHS staff battling the coronavirus pandemic and helped out at food banks. Sophie has also joined video calls to various patronages, including the Thames Valley Air Ambulance, of which she is patron, to congratulate them on their work with the NHS during the crisis, and has helped publicise advice from the children's charity NSPCC and the National Autistic Society. OMAHA, Neb., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Five student loan borrowers from Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, and Michigan have filed a comprehensive Class Action Lawsuit against Nelnet, Inc. and two of its subsidiaries. The Class Action Case No. Case No. 4:20-CV-03069 was filed on Monday, June 15, 2020 in Federal District Court in Nebraska. According to the complaint, all five student loan borrowers claim they suffered damages after interest on their Income-Driven Repayment Plans ("IDR plans") was capitalized, the total loan volume increased, and benefits of their IDR plan were diminished when their applications or renewals were delayed. Per court documents, all five Plaintiffs allege that after enrolling in one-year IDR plans serviced by Nelnet and its subsidiaries, they submitted the necessary documents to certify or recertify their income level and family size, sometimes multiple times. Despite complying with documentation requirements, the lawsuit claims, they were met repeatedly with excuses, delays, and a lack of processing attention. While two of the five borrowers qualified for forgiveness programs based on their employment, they say they're now required to work months or years longer in order to meet qualification standards because of Nelnet delays. The Plaintiffs contend that Nelnet's conduct at the core of their complaints constitutes a pattern of improper activity. Domina Law Group joined forces with Chicago lawyers Dan Edelman, Cassandra Miller, and Anthony Fiorentino to file the case. Potential Class Members Encouraged to Contact Firm The lawsuit against Nelnet identifies proposed Classes: a Breach of Contract class, a separate Negligent Misrepresentation class, and classes for the individual states where the Plaintiffs reside. All classes include persons with federal student loans serviced by Nelnet who, at any period within the previous four years prior to the lawsuit filing or after: Were enrolled in an IDR plan; Timely submitted an application to renew the plan; Had their application eventually approved; and Had their IDR temporarily discontinued by Nelnet while the application was pending. Given the scope of America's student loan debt, and the fact that Nelnet serviced at least $162.5 billion for six million student loan borrowers in 2016 alone, the Class Action may potentially include hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers across the country. Federal student loan borrowers who have interest in becoming a Class Member are encouraged to contact Domina Law Group. A questionnaire for qualification will be provided. Domina Law Group is a nationally recognized Civil Trial Practice that's helmed landmark litigation on behalf of the injured and the wronged, often against powerful corporations that value profits more than people. More information about the firm's award-winning trial lawyers and record of success can be found at www.dominalaw.com. SOURCE Domina Law Group pc llo Related Links http://www.dominalaw.com The French parliament has put forward an amendment which would effectively extend the state of emergency due to the Covid-19 crisis until 30 October in the overseas territories of Guiana and Mayotte. This as the number of cases increased rapidly in the past week. "The health crisis has deteriorated in Guiana and Mayotte, which could mean applying further administrative restrictions beyond 10 July," the amended law said. This refers to the date proposed by French lawmakers to end the state of emergency due to Covid-19 on the mainland, which President Emmanuel Macron labelled a 'green zone' on Sunday, meaning the coronavirus is less active. The law includes a transition period through until 30 October, in which some restrictions on citizens may still apply, such as movement of people, gatherings in public, and events. Critics of the law warn that the state of emergency is morphing into something "which has no name" and thus remains difficult to monitor. Cases doubled in a week Guiana and Mayotte, are the only two French territories considered in 'orange' zones as opposed to green, meaning the virus is still active and health services under pressure. The amendment proposed for these territories would extend the state of emergency to at least 30 October, which could be ended by decree if the scientific council says the situation has improved. French Guiana has seen a rapid rise in the number of cases of coronavirus, which has lead to the postponement of the second round of local elections due on 28 June. On Wednesday, there were 1,554 positive cases of Covid-19 reported (133 new cases out of 457 tests carried out), 78 patients in hospital, 11 patients in intensive care and 5 deaths (two in the last 24 hours). The number of cases has doubled in the last week as Guiana entered phase three of the epidemic on Monday. The local branch of the public health authorities in Guiana, ARS, has called for more staff to deal with the increasing number of patients. Peak passed in Mayotte In Mayotte, which entered phase three of the epidemic on 30 April, there were 2, 333 positive cases on Tuesday, 42 patients in hospital, 13 of them in intensive care and 29 deaths. The number of cases reported per day (+13) is not as high as Guiana and the local elections are scheduled to go ahead as planned on 28 June. "The peak of the epidemic is behind us," French minister for Overseas territories, Annick Giradin told the parliament, referring to Mayotte. Washington County added to quarantine list for troublesome bug The Maryland Department of Agriculture has added several areas, including Washington County, to its quarantine list regarding the spotted lanternfly. Publicans and restaurateurs are rejoicing at the idea that they will be allowed to reduce social distancing to one metre. This will make getting customers into their premises much easier, especially as they will be relying on the domestic market this summer. However, there is a sting in the tail: in return for relaxing the rules on social distancing, they must take on board strict guidelines around meals, time limits and bookings. Its a very Irish solution to an Irish problem, as Kevin Doyle explains The 9 rule is actually based on laws that state meals should cost five shillings The idea that pubs will have to serve a meal that customers would reasonably expect to pay 9 for has raised a few eyebrows. The internet is full of jokes about punters willing to fork out 9 for a bag of Tayto if it means they can get a pint on the side. Irish law doesnt have a lot of detail on what constitutes a substantial meal but Failte Ireland has pointed to the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1962. It defines proper pub grub as what you might be expected to be served as a main midday or evening meal or as a main course in either such meal. In terms of the price of the meal, the Act says it should not be less than five shillings. Yes, you read that correctly. We are relying on a currency that was last minted in 1968. Under the law, the Justice Minister may from time to time fix the sum at more than five shillings if deemed appropriate. Its understood this assessment was last carried out during the 2000s and at the time 9 was judged to be the modern-day equivalent of five shillings. The ham and cheese toastie wont cut it but this isnt about what we eat, its about how we eat There is no evidence that eating a substantial meal will help prevent the spread of Covid-19 but it might help people spread out. Health chiefs want pubs reopening on June 29 to strictly operate like restaurants. That means everybody sitting down and not cramped on top of one another in a crowded space. Table service will be the new normal so that crowds dont start queuing around the bar. As Liam Collins put it, the pub doors will be open - but will the craic be inside? Read More Sources told Independent.ie: This will be complicated but in essence we are not talking about a ham and cheese toastie. It must be a proper meal. A final say on whether the reopening goes ahead will fall to Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan and the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet). Mr Holohan has said that pubs must function in a more orderly fashion and food helps create that environment. Thats not the same as us saying that a few fellas getting together for a few pints and having a packet of peanuts constitutes a meal, constitutes a restaurant, he said. Not long enough for a Premier League game - the 90-minute time limit will be seen as a drinking game by some With sport slowly returning, the 90-minute rule means that pub-goers will not be able to watch a full Premier League game, when you consider half-time and extra time. However, there is no doubt that some drinkers will see the 90-minute time trap as a challenge to sink as many pints as possible before the clock runs out. There is also nothing to stop pub crawls, meaning you could spend 90 minutes in one pub before moving on to the next. Many publicans have already gone to great effort to make their offering safer, as Laura Lynott recently explained. But a 90-minute limit wasnt on their list. Read More The logic for the limit is that the risk of catching Covid-19 grows when you spend time indoors with other people. The current rules only allow for six people to meet indoors at any one time. A pub or restaurant will need many multiples of that to make opening their door viable. The fun police wont be out in force Health-and-safety authorities already have the power to inspect activities in pubs and restaurants but nobody seriously expects them to go around timing drinkers. In reality, it will fall to publicans/restaurateurs to enforce the new guidelines. This is likely to be contentious, as many will not want to upset customers by telling them to leave even if they havent finished their meal. There will also be an expectation that we all adopt a policy of self-regulation. This will be easier said than done. Social distancing etiquette is now well established in wider society but that can all fall away very quickly once alcohol is introduced. And while the health advice is to wear to face coverings indoors, they wont work if people are eating and drinking. Even during lockdown there were reports of house parties being organised with what Tony Holohan called abandon. There will come a point in time where we think certain activities that are indoor in nature can happen in controlled ways, he said. What difference does a metre make? Around 200,000 jobs, actually The new guidelines might sound a bit draconian but its likely the hospitality sector will do its best to work with them. Having been in shutdown since March, many businesses are already on the brink and desperate to just get some customers in again. Galways first Michelin star, JP McMahon, has described the two-metre rule as a "suicide run" at the entire industry. Read More No walk-ins: This is the dawn of an era of organised fun While Failte Ireland, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and the Department of Transport and Tourism are still working on the 'Covid-19: Guidance for Food Service Businesses, Independent.ie understands they will urge restaurants to stop accepting walk-ins. You might think this isnt a very big deal, as you regularly make a booking when going out for dinner anyway. But what about when youre in town and bump into a friend? Or perhaps most significantly when you are in a hotel and plan not to set an alarm clock? Hotels are likely to begin asking guests to reserve a breakfast slot the night before in order to control numbers in the dining room and allow extra turnover time for cleaning. The guidelines on food service to be published later this week come on top of a new playbook for post-pandemic staycations, which is explained in great detail by Pol O Conghaile. In a tweet on its official account, the NSC said that "257 million people in East Africa are relying on Ethiopia to show strong leadership, which means striking a fair deal." "The technical issues have been resolved," the NSC said, referring to the ongoing tripartite negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, adding that it is "time to get GERD deal done before filling it with Nile River water!" In the latest bid to seal a deal on the controversial dam, the current tripartite negotiations, which were brokered by Sudan, have been ongoing since last week, with South Africa, the US and the EU attending as observers. These latest talks come after negotiations faltered last February during US-sponsored meetings in Washington. The US, represented by the Treasury Department, and the World Bank stepped in last year to host tripartite negotiations, which began in November and lasted till February after years-long negotiations between the three countries hit a dead end. Following the four-month negotiations brokered by Washington, during which the three nations initially agreed on mitigation mechanisms to adjust the filling and operation of the dam during dry periods and drought, the US and the World Bank drafted a deal that was due to be signed in late February. Ethiopia, however, skipped the last round of talks. Today's statement by the US NSC is not the first from the US stressing the need to reach an agreement before Ethiopia commences with filling the reservoir of the GERD. After Ethiopia failed to attend the last round of the Washington negotiations, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said in February, Consistent with the principles set out in the Agreement on the Declaration of Principles, and in particular the principles of not causing significant harm to downstream countries, final testing and filling should not take place without an agreement. Article 5 of the Declaration of Principles -- signed between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in 2015 -- stipulates that all three countries should reach an agreement on the rules of filling and operating the 6,000-megawatt dam before starting the process of filling the reservoir. Nevertheless, Ethiopian officials have on various occasions announced that Ethiopia will start filling its mega dam in July regardless of whether an agreement is reached. The latest such statement was on 11 May, when Ethiopian Irrigation Minister Sileshi Bekele confirmed that the filling of the dam will start in July. Moreover, Addis Ababa told the UN Security Council earlier in May, in a letter sent in response to an Egyptian memo, that it does not have a legal obligation to seek the approval of Egypt to fill the dam. The disagreements that have impeded reaching a deal have mainly been over technical details regarding the operation and filling of the dam, which is under construction near Ethiopia's border with Sudan. However, Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas told reporters last Monday that the three countries have agreed on 95 percent of the technical aspects related to the filling and operation of the giant dam, both under normal conditions and during dry periods. The three countries agreed on most technical aspects except for small details, the Sudanese minister said, according to Sudans state news agency (SUNA). "Disagreements now mainly focus on legal aspects, including making the agreement binding, methods of amending it, and the mechanism to resolve disputes over the implementation of the agreement, the Sudanese minister said. Ethiopia hopes the massive $4.8 billion megaproject on the Blue Nile will allow it to become Africas largest power exporter. On the other hand, Egypt, which relies on the Blue Nile for 85 percent of its freshwater, fears the dam will diminish its water supply, that is already below scarcity level. Search Keywords: Short link: MAYFIELD, Ohio -- Village residents may be asked Nov. 3 to give pay raises to Mayor Brenda Bodnar and Village Council members. An ordinance was introduced during Mondays (June 15) council meeting that would have the mayors salary increase from the current $26,000 per year to $50,000 per year, while adding health benefits. Meanwhile, the position of council president, under the ordinance, would increase from $11,000 per year to $12,100 annually. Council members would see an increase from $10,000 annually to $11,000 per year. The legislation, which includes all of the increases, was introduced by Council President Stephen Schutt, and council members Allen Meyers, George Williams, Jennifer Jurcisek and Denny Murphy. In a June 12 memorandum to Schutt and the rest of council, Bodnar made her case for a raise. Bodnar explained that the village has about 3,400 residents and a business community about three times that size, thanks largely to Progressive Insurances offices. The village serves as Progressives headquarters. In a normal year, Bodnar stated, she works about 30 hours per week. Over the course of 48 weeks, she said she works about 1,440 hours and, under her current salary, earns about $18.05 per hour. This year, dealing with the challenges of COVID-19, it is not a normal year, she noted. But, she also added: My request for an increase in compensation is not based on 2020. It is based on normal years. She further stated: This ordinance is not about me. It is about seeking fair pay for the work, skill, education and experience required by the job. During the online council meeting, Bodnar read from a letter she wrote, stating: The increase in the mayors salary under the (proposed) ordinance represents approximately one-tenth of 1 percent of an $18 million budget. If you add in the cost of health insurance, it comes to a little over two-tenths of 1 percent of the budget. Neither the increases in the mayors compensation package, nor the increase in councils salary, will have any significant impact on our budget. Taxpayers services will not decrease. Taxpayers will not have to pay any additional money to support these increases. The ordinance will simply give the voters the chance to decide on fair compensation. The villages charter does not specify whether the mayors position is full- or part-time, nor does it state that the mayor is safety director, although Law Director Anthony Coyne said Bodnar acts in that capacity. Coyne compiled a list of 15 area communities and the salaries of their mayors and council representatives. Coynes list had only Richmond Heights mayor, at $24,000, earning less than Mayfield Villages mayor. Orange Villages mayor earns $55,000 per year. In Pepper Pike, with a population of just over 6,300, the mayor earns a combined $82,500 for the positions of mayor and safety director. Coyne said Pepper Pike has an operating budget about $7 million less than Mayfields $18 million. Murphy was the only member of council to speak during this first discussion on the ordinance. Is this a good time for an ordinance like this? Murphy asked. These past three months have been incredibly difficult for a lot of different people, he said, for businesses trying to keep afloat, trying to keep a job. Its been very difficult, a challenging time for a lot of different people. As we stand here now, there is a ton of uncertainty as to where we are going and where we will be. Theres a lot of unknown, and theyre talking about having a second wave of the COVID in the fall. Murphy said that future income tax collections are uncertain, in that it is not known whether the village will be able to collect in the future from people working from home. The timing isnt great, said Murphy, who urged residents to contact him and other members of council with their thoughts on the subject. Bodnar answered that her administration has budgeted conservatively and that, if necessary, she would be prepared to make budget cuts. Coyne noted that, compared to 2019, the villages income tax collections, through May, are up by $475,000. Helping the matter is the fact that the state legislature has passed emergency legislation that allows businesses host communities to collect income taxes from those working from home. Coyne said Progressive workers will continue working remotely until Sept. 1. According to the village charter, council is responsible for setting the salaries of the mayor and council. Once set, the salaries must be approved by the electorate. Council will discuss the legislation at least two more times before voting as to whether to put the pay increase ordinance on the Nov. 3 ballot. The village has until Aug. 5 to file with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. Read more from the Sun Messenger. The first graduates of Hamilton County Schools to receive scholarships from the LaBrenda Johnson Memorial Scholarship Endowment administered by the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga have learned of their selection. Dr. Bryan Johnson, superintendent of Hamilton County Schools, established the scholarship fund in 2019 with $15,000 that he received as a part of his compensation package for meeting a Level 5 composite student growth score for the district set by the Hamilton County School Board. Level 5 is the highest designation for student growth recognized by the state. Scholarship awards ranged from $500 for book stipends to $1,500 for tuition to help deserving students with college expenses. The five winners of the grand scholarship award of $1,500 were Traeveon Coleman, The Howard School; Alea Davis, East Ridge High; Zora McKissic, STEM School Chattanooga; Suhani Patel, Hixson High; and Isaiah Slaughter, Brainerd High. Additional scholarships for book stipends were awarded to 10 Class of 2020 graduates. Stipends of $750 each were awarded to Lucy Calhoun, Signal Mountain High; India Goldston, Tyner Academy; Jackson Key, Soddy Daisy High; John Key, Soddy Daisy High; and MacKayla Wall, Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences. Stipend awards of $500 were awarded to Mollie Bishop, Hixson High; James Ortiz, Central High; Brinley Screws, Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences; Samantha Smith, Signal Mountain High; and Timia White, Tyner Academy. Dr. Johnson and his wife Candy, presented each grand scholarship winner with a check during the announcement of the scholarships to honor his late mother, LaBrenda Sonnette Johnson. The awards honor the legacy of Mrs. Johnson. My mother taught my brothers and sisters and me many things, but the importance of education was at the very top of that list, Dr. Johnson shared with the graduates. She also taught us that life is not about what you get but what you give. Traeveon Coleman enjoyed his experience at Howard High. He is looking forward to moving on to the next phase of life as he seeks to major in business and return to Chattanooga one day to open a restaurant. Mr. Coleman loves to cook just about anything. He plans to attend Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C., this fall. Alea Davis leaves East Ridge High with an interest in biochemistry and would like to explore a career in genetics. She plans to study at the University of Memphis this fall. Zora McKissic loved project-based learning at STEM School Chattanooga. She is a history buff, and that will be her major at Howard University. Ms. McKissics career goals include using her degree in history to become a museum curator after graduation from college. The service life of nursing has been the focus of Suhani Patel in the CHI Memorial Institute of Healthcare and Medical Careers at Hixson High. She also won the CHI Memorial Scholarship, and she is the Salutatorian at Hixson this year. The career goals for Ms. Patel include becoming a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner. She will attend UTC this fall. Isaiah Slaughter, a graduate of Brainerd High, also seeks a service life for his future. He plans to major in criminal justice in college with a desire to serve as a parole officer as his career. Mr. Slaughter will attend Dr. Johnsons alma mater Austin Peay State University in the fall. Dr. Johnson credited the students, teachers, leaders, staff, parents, and community for the success of Hamilton County Schools. He thanked the first recipients of the scholarship for their commitment to excellence and challenged them to make the most of their opportunities in the next few years as they set their path for the future. I am appreciative of our teachers, leaders, and you for what you have done in your school career to make our school district successful, added Dr. Johnson. Because of those efforts, you have risen to the top in your selection to receive these scholarships. The LaBrenda Johnson Memorial Scholarship is administered through the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga and provides five scholarships for seniors in Hamilton County Schools. Those interested in donating to the fund can contact Rebecca Suttles, director of scholarships, 1400 Williams Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37408, or call 265- 7239. Georgia Tennant has slammed Facebook for removing a photo of her breastfeeding her eight-month-old daughter Birdie. The actress, 35, took to Instagram on Wednesday morning to shame the social network for sexualising' the image. Georgia, the wife of wife of Doctor Who star David Tennant, called out Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the irate post as she shared the black and white shot. She wrote: 'Facebook just removed this photo because it violated their policy on sexual images. Sort your s**t out @Zuck or I'll come round there and squirt you in the eye. Outraged: Georgia Tennant has slammed Facebook for removing a photo of her breastfeeding her eight-month-old daughter Birdie '#Breastfeeding #ifyouthinkthisissexualitmaybeyouthatistheissue.' Facebook's policy states that most breastfeeding photos should be allowed if they do not show the mother's nipple. It says on the site: 'We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful and we're glad to know that it's important for mothers to share their experiences with others on Facebook. 'The vast majority of these photos are compliant with our policies.' Unhappy: The actress, 35, took to Instagram on Wednesday morning to shame the social network for sexualising' the image, calling out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg directly A Facebook spokesperson told MailOnline: 'The photo Mrs Tennant posted on Instagram would also be allowed on Facebook under our Community Guidelines. 'We're investigating what's happened and have contacted Mrs Tennant to try and resolve the issue. 'We allow pictures of breastfeeding on our platforms and if someone believes we've removed content by mistake, they are able to appeal the decision.' Georgia's post comes after she urged women to book smear tests after her own appointment helped doctors spot her cervical cancer. Happy family: Georgia and David have been married since in 2011 after meeting on the set of Doctor Who in 2018; the couple now raise five children together In an insightful and emotional blog post from 2018, the You, Me and Him star detailed how doctors spotted early signs and managed to remove the cancer before proving fatal. From the start of seeing abnormalities in her test, in the blog post Georgia admitted she 'started planning her funeral', as she shared details of her journey to promote Cervical Screening Awareness Week on Monday. Georgia admitted that while she is typically a private person, she felt it her duty to share details of her journey to help others see the importance of the tests. Taking to Instagram, she shared a snap from hospital while sporting a medical gown. She added a caption reading: 'Here I am on 22nd February 2018. Although 'tis indeed a fetching look, if you'd like to learn more about why you should never miss a smear test please read the story attached in bio. #cervicalscreeningawarenessweek'. Georgia recently starred alongside her husband David, 49, in BBC's lockdown drama Staged, with Michael Sheen. The couple met on the set of Doctor Who in 2008 when she appeared in The Doctor's Daughter. The pair wed in 2011 and share children Olive, nine, Wilfred, seven, and Doris, five, and Birdie. David adopted Georgia's son Ty, now 18, when they married. KCET, Southern California's home for award-winning public media programming, today announced SOUTHLAND SESSIONS, a new weekly series that will allow the Los Angeles community to experience their regional arts and cultural institutions in this unique moment, when attending in-person, cultural events is not an option. As regional artists adapt to an uncertain future due to the current pandemic and the influence of social uprisings across the country, the new broadcast and digital initiative draws together prominent voices from around Southern California for up-close, virtual sessions. Every Wednesday, viewers will witness artists inspire audiences with a front-row seat to the creative process, guided by the communitys arts leaders. The new series kicks off with a conversation among key cultural leaders from around the city, working together to discuss how arts and culture are essential to Angelenos. SOUTHLAND SESSIONS premieres on Wednesday, July 15 at 8 p.m. PT on KCET and will run through the end of the year. SOUTHLAND SESSIONS will engage viewers across Southern California who are staying at home to stop the spread of coronavirus an order that has changed the lives of everyone, and impacted the futures of auditoriums, concert halls, and art galleries across the region. The series will vary in format on a weekly basis showcasing a variety of artistic communities and programs across the city. KCET has collaborated with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture to identify much of the new content and themes included in the series. Episodes will feature diverse arts and cultural events, including DCAs City of Los Angeles (COLA) Individual Artist Fellowships, Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival, and the annual Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival. The format will be a compilation of artist disciplines including music, dance, theater, spoken word, and poetry, capturing the immediacy of the regions artists response to COVID-19 and the racial as well as social injustices that are happening across the city and the nation. In addition to the conversation with civic arts leaders across Los Angeles, upcoming episodes will feature the tradition of mariachi music in Los Angeles, the diverse dance community of the city, and a personal tour of DCAs COLA program with local artists exhibiting their work through at-home interviews and virtual studio visits. Several of the episodes will be produced in partnership with community cultural leaders including online cultural trendsetting radio station dublab, avant-garde opera company The Industry, artist/designer/writer Rosten Woo, San Fernando Valleys performing arts center The Soraya on the CSUN campus, Orange Countys Pacific Symphony and many more. Later this year, KCET will put out a call for regional artists to submit their own content for future episodes. The vibrancy and dynamism of L.A.s arts and cultural scene will also be reflected online through a robust digital hub where viewers can find the creative communitys most engaging, uplifting content. Musical performances, dance presentations, poetry readings, art exhibitions, and more will be featured. Alongside these virtual presentations, local culture journalists will keep readers abreast of all things related to arts and culture in the time of pandemic and protest through artist profiles, gallery interviews, feature pieces, and arts news briefs. The SOUTHLAND SESSIONS digital destination will also include resources and how-tos detailing financial support and advice from other artists with ways to connect to gallerists, curators, and more. The citys creative community will also have an opportunity to show their work to a broader audience through KCETs call for submissions, which can be found at kcet.org/SouthlandSessions. Guided by the various art forms and themes highlighted in the new Wednesday night programming, KCET will also provide virtual audience engagement opportunities including live streaming events, discussions, arts classes/demonstrations, and more. The new series SOUTHLAND SESSIONS will launch a robust Wednesday night of programming for KCET designed to highlight the resilience of the arts community. Under the theme Create Wednesday, the schedule will also feature popular Arts and Culture programs that have previously aired on KCET and PBS that include KCETs Emmy award-winning Original arts series ARTBOUND and student film showcase FINE CUT as well as Americas preeminent performing arts television series from PBS, GREAT PERFORMANCES. Like the new local series SOUTHLAND SESSIONS, the programming lineup for the night will feature diverse artistic innovation across all media and disciplines to celebrate art as an essential service. The goal of the new programming lineup is to highlight Southern California as home to one of the most important cultural communities in the world. In addition to providing healing and solace to many, Los Angeles arts and cultural scene is a major source of income to millions in the local economy. Art and culture in Los Angeles is indelibly interwoven into the fabric of Southern California's economic landscape and has an undeniably important role in shaping not only the culture of the region but also acts as a powerful economic driver for the state and the rest of the nation. For updates, follow @KCET and #SouthlandSessions and #CreateWednesday on social media. ABOUT KCET On-air, online and in the community, KCET plays a vital role in the cultural and educational enrichment of Southern and Central California. KCET offers a wide range of award-winning local programming as well as the finest public television programs from around the world. Throughout its 54-year history, KCET has won hundreds of major awards for its local and regional news and public affairs programming, its national drama and documentary productions, its quality educational family and children's programs, its outreach and community services and its website, kcet.org. KCET is a donor-supported community institution. For additional information about KCET productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org. Select original programming from KCET is also available for streaming on Apple TV, YouTube, Amazon and Roku platforms. For more information please visit kcet.org/apps. KCET is a content channel of the Public Media Group of Southern California. About the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) As a leading, progressive arts and cultural agency, DCA empowers Los Angeless vibrant communities by supporting and providing access to quality visual, design, literary, musical, performing, and educational arts programming; managing vital cultural centers; preserving historic sites; creating public art; and funding services provided by arts organizations and individual artists. Formed in 1925, DCA promotes arts and culture as a way to ignite a powerful dialogue, engage LAs residents and visitors, and ensure LAs varied cultures are recognized, acknowledged, and experienced. DCAs mission is to strengthen the quality of life in Los Angeles by stimulating and supporting arts and cultural activities, ensuring public access to the arts for residents and visitors alike. DCA advances the social and economic impact of arts and culture through grantmaking, public art, community arts, performing arts, and strategic marketing, development, design, and digital research. DCA creates and supports arts programming, maximizing relationships with other city agencies, artists, and arts and cultural nonprofit organizations to provide excellent service in neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles. For more information, please visit culturela.org or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/culturela, Instagram @culture_la, and Twitter @culture_la. About the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. We provide leadership, services, and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations, countywide arts education initiatives, commissioning and care for civic art collections, research, and evaluation, access to creative pathways, professional development, free community programs, and cross-sector creative strategies that address civic issues. All of this work is framed by our longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts, and the Countys Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative. When a soldier dons the green uniform, he promises to live in the present and signs off his future in the name of his country. Living each day as if it were his last, a soldier faces the most difficult terrains and the deadliest of enemies with the sole purpose of ensuring that his country is safe, even at the cost of his life. So, when the end was staring him in the eye on the fateful night on 15th June 2020, Indian Army Colonel Bikkumalla Santosh Babu didnt blink before greeting death like an old friend. The officer was killed in action, along with 19 other brave soldiers during a fierce clash with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley of Ladakh on Monday. Twitter dhindaws 37-year-old Colonel B Santosh Babu, originally a Telangana resident, had been stationed in Ladakh and was to be transferred to Hyderabad, but the move was postponed due to the Coronavirus lockdown. Now, the late Colonel is finally going home, wrapped in the tricolour. The Backstory A native of Suryapet in Telangana, Col Santosh Babu was a student of Korukonda Sainik School and later joined the National Defence Academy, Pune in 2000 before making it to the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. Upon graduating, Col Santosh Babu joined the Indian Army in 2004 and went to Jammu and Kashmir as part of his first posting. Twitter OMG_078 It was Col Babus father Mr B Upenders dream to see his only son don the green uniform and serve the nation, something he couldnt do himself. Even when his family and relatives advised him against it, Mr Upender encouraged his son to join the Indian Army and has been a very proud father as Col Santosh Babu rose in the ranks over the last 15 years of his service. The Present That Was Twitter BDUTT At the time of his death, Col Santosh Babu was working as the Commanding Officer of the 16 Bihar Regiment, and had been posted in Ladakh for the past one and a half years. While his parents lived in Telangana, Col Babus wife Santoshi and children, 9-year-old daughter Abhigna and 4-year-old son Anirudh, were living in New Delhi. Currently, all three of them have flown down to Telangana for Col Babus last rites. The Final Hour Twitter chaturvedi_upma Speaking to Deccan Chronicle Col Santosh Babus wife Santoshi recalled the final hours of her husband. I was intimated about my husbands death on Tuesday morning by a unit officer. I was told that there was some clash between the soldiers at the border on Monday night. At that time, my husband fell in a canal and received injuries. He was taken out of the canal and was shifted to a hospital for treatment, but he succumbed. Col Santosh Babu had last spoken to his mother on Sunday where he confirmed that there were some tensions along the Indo-Chinese border, although he reassured her that she shouldnt worry too much about it. Twitter Shakti Singh However, as fate would have it, Colonel Santosh Babu was killed in action during the face-off and is now making his final journey home. Thank you for your supreme sacrifice for the nation, Colonel Babu. A proud nation salutes and honours you. LIMERICK There was a whole lot of shouting going on during Tuesday nights Limerick Supervisors meeting. Chairman Thomas Neafcy crossed swords with fellow Supervisor Patrick Morroney and several audience members on a variety of subjects. Neafcy took heat for not wearing a mask during a pandemic, holding in-person meetings instead of streaming them online as many other municipalities have done, and refusing to consider a motion to condemn Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale for a statement he released about Black Lives Matter. The fireworks started up right after the pledge of allegiance with Morroney shouting at Neafcy for, once again, not wearing a mask during a public meeting. At its most crowded, there were more than 30 people in the meeting room and only three of them were not wearing masks Neafcy, Supervisor Michael McCloskey and one unidentified member of the audience. Morroney was upset that at the May 12 supervisors meeting he was the only elected official to wear a mask as per CDC guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic and the instructions on the sign posted on the door of the township building. He is also the only Democrat on the board. Morroney had argued that the tape of the May 12 meeting should be entered into the record because the minutes proposed for adoption that evening said simply the supervisors had a discussion about COVID-19. By all reports, it was more than a simple discussion, as The Mercury reported May 18. Despite emails to all Limerick supervisors, the four Republicans have yet to provide a written explanation for their refusal to wear masks, particularly while holding in-person meetings. As the video shows, Morroney began shouting at Neafcy put your mask on Mr. Chairman, a cry echoed by several in the audience. You have no respect for this audience, Morroney said. This man wants to run for state rep. Look at him, he is in contempt of the governors order, said Morroney. Neafcy, who is the Republican candidate for the 146th House Dist. seat, replied this is about the biggest political circus at which point Morroney continued to shout everyone else, the police chief, the staff, everyone is wearing a mask, do you have an exemption? Am I socially distanced from you? Im fine, youre fine, Neafcy said, adding that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf walks shoulder to shoulder in protests violating his own social distancing rules. Neafcy clapped and replied good show Pat, good show as several members of the audience said put a mask on. Im done with public comment, said an obviously irritated Neafcy before realizing no one from the public has spoken yet. Several audience members joined Morroneys complaints, saying it was inadvisable for public meetings to be held in person during a viral pandemic. Several argued that if the township televised the meetings or held them online as many other municipalities have done during the pandemic such disputes about the minutes would be moot, and more people could participate from the safety of their homes. Im deeply angry that I have to be here in person, said June Landis, adding and I was appalled to come in and find some of you people not wearing masks, people in leadership who are supposed to care about their constituents. Im an old woman and I dont want to have to put my health at risk to find out whats going on in my township, said Linda Weaver. I am the president of my church and we have figured out how to worship remotely, you should be able to too. Its not about whether you want to wear a mask, youre wearing one for all of us, Weaver said, at which point Neafcy interrupted her and said my rights do not trump anyone elses rights and your rights dont trump my rights. Really? You want to bring Trump into this? said Weaver, to which Neafcy muttered Jesus, God. You have a right to stay home, to come here and to wear a mask if you want to, Neafcy said. Let her speak Morroney shouted, oh youre a good one to talk, Neafcy retorted. Shut up, one audience member yelled repeatedly at Neafcy as he tried to talk during Weavers allotted two minutes. Third on Morroneys list of grievances was Neafcys apparent ignoring of a request he made to have an item added to the agenda. The item he wanted to add was to have the board vote on issuing a statement condemning the statement issued by Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale earlier this month. The statement called the Black Lives Matter social justice group perpetrators of urban domestic terror and said they are a radical left-wing hate group. The statement, issued on Montgomery County stationery, was in the wake of protests across the country, several of which turned violent, in the wake of the death of George Floyd. The township did post a statement on its website about Floyds death, condemning the actions of the Minneapolis Police officers that caused the tragic death of George Floyd and in support of peaceful protests. Reaction to Gales statement has been overwhelming, with the other two Montgomery County Commissioners voting to censure Gale and numerous municipal and school boards condemning the comments and calling on Gale to resign. But the Limerick Board of Supervisors will, apparently, not be among them. McCloskey said he never received Morroneys email making the agenda request, and then said he does not know who Joe Gale is. If we dont send a letter to the county calling on Gale to resign, we condone that behavior, Morroney said. As Morroney demanded answers for why the matter was not on the agenda, Neafy responded Im not answering questions from you, youre out of control. He then replied, do you have three votes? You need three votes to add something to the agenda. A statement refuting Gale was also on the mind of some members of the audience. 84,410 people have signed a petition saying what Gale did is inappropriate, Weaver said. When good people dont stand up and call out racism, what do we have left as a society? she asked. I find Gales statement out of hand and, as a black person, uncalled for, said Ken Landon. But the only response Neafcy offered was to say Mr. Gale is responsible for his own words, you should take the issue up with him at the next county commissioners meeting. Landon, Weaver, Landis and two other speakers who were not quoted here Oliver Cannady and Preston Luitweiler are all listed as members of Area 4 of the Montgomery County Democratic Committee, according to that groups website. Gus Robbins, who said he was not at the meeting representing any political party or organization, said we are aware of the turbulent times we have all been living in. Responding to those who say the proper response to racial injustice by police is to defund the police none of whom spoke at Tuesdays nights meeting Robbins said I am opposed to any kind of defunding of the Limerick Township Police. I have always found them professional and an asset to the community. Robbins was not interrupted by anybody. Supervisors Kenneth Sperring and Kara Shuler were absent at Tuesdays meeting. This article first appeared as a post in The Digital Notebook blog. In this article 1735-TW Yellow Dog Productions The U.S. economy is restarting and millions of unemployed Americans are returning to work. Yet that positive trajectory may not last. Many newly employed Americans could be furloughed or laid off again. Officials in areas like New York have discussed renewed lockdown measures as citizens flaunt social distancing rules. Houston may do the same as new daily coronavirus infections rise. Some businesses supporting their payroll with federal loan relief may soon exhaust those funds. Others that reopened could fold or opt to close if consumer activity is lackluster. But there's good news for people who lose their jobs again: They can likely resume their unemployment benefits, essentially picking up where they left off. However, as is usually the case with unemployment benefits, the rules can be confusing. "Everything about unemployment insurance is too complicated," said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project. For one, states set different rules for their unemployment systems. But here's what Americans across the country can generally expect. How much will I get? Applying for unemployment benefits starts a "benefit year" for that individual. A benefit year is the 52-week period following the date you filed a claim. Someone who filed for unemployment in March 2020 would have a benefit year that lasts until March 2021, for example. Jobless workers can collect benefits over that period, even through multiple waves of unemployment. More from Invest in You: Here's how the pandemic is reshaping career planning for college students This CEO is on a mission to help minorities land Wall Street jobs How the coronavirus pandemic is impacting Gen Z's future However, states put limits on the benefits people can receive in weekly amounts and total duration over that yearlong time frame. Those limits often mean someone won't be eligible to collect benefits for the whole year. Americans can think of unemployment benefits like a bank account, said Chris O'Leary, a senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Let's say someone gets about $380 a week the average in state unemployment benefits. The state, like most others, pays benefits for up to 26 weeks (6 months). This person would have a "bank account" of $9,880. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Now let's say this person was receiving $380 a week over the 13-week period since mid-March, when layoffs began en masse. They got their old job back and stopped collecting unemployment. After some time, they are furloughed again. Half their bank account would be left. In other words, they'd be able to resume their old benefit level $380 a week for 13 more weeks. Some states allow people to collect benefits for longer than the maximum duration (i.e., 26 weeks) if they're drawing down a smaller chunk of their "bank account" each week, O'Leary said. This can occur through work-sharing programs, for example, which pay prorated unemployment benefits to part-time workers. Let's say the same person's hours were cut in half. They could theoretically get 50% of their benefit (i.e. $190 a week) for double the time (52 weeks). Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards However, not all states operate their programs this way, O'Leary said. (One important note: The CARES Act, a federal coronavirus relief law enacted in March, supplements state benefits with an extra $600 a week. These payments, which are funded by the federal government and last through July 31, don't increase the size of one's unemployment "bank account.") A year of unemployment benefits The CARES Act and other rules mean people can get benefits over a much longer period of time than is typically the case. The law funds an additional 13 weeks of benefits for unemployment recipients. This extension, called Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, expires at the end of 2020. States also have rules, which predate the CARES Act, that offer "extended benefits" during periods of high unemployment in their state. Most states have triggered these additional benefits, typically around 13 extra weeks, Evermore said. Some states like Florida and North Carolina pay fewer (around six weeks) and others pay up to 20 weeks. Unlike the 13 extra weeks offered through the CARES Act, which are unavailable past year-end, the extra weeks offered via "extended benefits" can bleed into next year if a person remains unemployed. So, our theoretical unemployed worker could access $380 a week for a whole year. (This factors in a typical 26-week state benefit duration, a 13-week CARES Act extension and an additional 13-week period offered via state enhanced benefits). This amount would be available over several periods of unemployment during that time period. The person would also get $600 a week through July 31 in federal supplement payments. Workers generally don't have to reapply when transitioning into new periods of duration, though some states may vary in their processes, Evermore said. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards The CARES Act offered some groups, like self-employed and gig workers, a total 39 weeks of unemployment benefits, via the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. It expires at the end of the year. These workers are typically ineligible for traditional state benefits. What happens when the 'benefit year' ends? Former Ukrainian Paramilitary Leader Put Under House Arrest Amid Violent Protests By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service June 16, 2020 KYIV -- A court in Kyiv has placed under house arrest the controversial former leader of a far-right Ukrainian paramilitary group suspected of premeditated murder and possession of an illegal bladed weapon in the killing of a man he claims was self-defense. After violent protests by his supporters outside, the Shevchenko district court ruled late on June 15 that Serhiy Sternenko, who once led the Right Sector group in the city of Odesa, will remain under house arrest for 60 days as investigations into the high-profile case continue. Police said that five demonstrators were detained. Lawmaker Roman Lozynskiy, who came to the site of the protests, said the police did not allow him to meet with detained individuals and assaulted him. After photos and videos appeared online showing police beating the demonstrators, Kyiv police officials said on June 15 they had launched an internal investigation. Sternenko was attacked by two men late in the evening on May 26, 2018, while walking with his girlfriend. He fought off the attackers, suffering numerous head injuries and a cut to his arm in the process. Sternenko injured one of the assailants who later died in hospital. Sternenko and his supporters have insisted that it was self-defense. But investigators say that after Sternenko defended himself using his knife, the attackers fled the scene. Sternenko, whose life and health were no longer in danger, then reportedly chased one of them and stabbed him several times, inflicting wounds that led to the man's death, investigators say. The attack was the third against Sternenko in three months. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/former-ukrainian- paramilitary-leader-under-house-arrest-amid -violent-protests/30673371.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 Kansas City, Missouri Councilwoman second District-at-large Teresa Loar pointed out she has been a member of many committees discussing these issues. I know we have a shelf full of studies from the past, Loar said. We had KC NoVA with all of the agencies coming forward and working together. It cost a lot of money. Did it work? Obviously not. Our homicides rates are higher than ever. City leaders search for solutions to stop deadly, violent crime in KC KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - The Public Safety Study Group will take a look at the pros and cons of local control of the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department. They will also examine just how effective current violence prevention efforts are specifically violence involving guns. Two important things . . .Even better . . .Here's the money line and a very nice fact check from a Northland council lady . . .Read more: WASHINGTON The Supreme Court blocked the execution Tuesday of a Texas inmate who was not allowed to die in the presence of a Christian priest. "The District Court should promptly determine, based on whatever evidence the parties provide, whether serious security problems would result if a prisoner facing execution is permitted to choose the spiritual adviser the prisoner wishes to have in his immediate presence during the execution," the high court ruled in an unsigned order. The court, which customarily looks favorably upon issues involving religious freedom, was in a bind of its own making: It blocked a Buddhist prisoner's execution last year because he was denied his own spiritual adviser. To avoid further discrimination, Texas barred all clergy from being present at executions. The high court's action in the Buddhist prisoner's case represented an about-face, following its refusal to block an Alabama inmate's execution for being denied the company of a Muslim imam. The court's five conservative justices were widely criticized for that decision, which they justified by saying the prisoner made his request too late. Associate Justice Elena Kagan called it "profoundly wrong," asserting that the prisoner's "religious rights will be violated at the moment the state puts him to death." More: Ruling on LGBTQ rights reveals precarious nature of Supreme Court's conservative majority In the subsequent Buddhist case, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh said barring all religious advisers would be one way to solve the discrimination. At the time, only Christian and Muslim advisers had the proper clearance to accompany prisoners into the execution chamber. Then-Supreme Court Associate Justice nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing on Sept. 5, 2018. "As this court has repeatedly held, governmental discrimination against religion in particular, discrimination against religious persons, religious organizations, and religious speech violates the Constitution," Kavanaugh wrote. Story continues "What the state may not do, in my view, is allow Christian or Muslim inmates but not Buddhist inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room," he said. The latest case involved Ruben Gutierrez, 43, who was convicted of killing an elderly woman during a home robbery in 1998. His execution was stopped by a federal judge last week to review both the religious claim and his request for DNA testing. But it later was reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. "Ruben Gutierrez believes that the presence of a Christian chaplain in the execution chamber will assist his passing from life to death and guide his path to the afterlife," his lawyer, Matthew Lawry, argued. "Prior to April 2019, the state of Texas would have allowed this practice, as chaplains have been present for hundreds of executions in Texas. But Texas changed the rules." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court blocks Texas execution without spiritual adviser Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Smart card is a device which comprises of an embedded integrated circuit, either in the form of a secure microcontroller, a solitary memory chip, or an equivalent intelligence with internal memory. A general smart card has up to 346 kilobytes of ROM, 8 kilobytes of RAM, a 16-bit microprocessor, and 256 kilobytes of programmable ROM. The card may either connect to a reader through direct physical contact, or with a remote contactless RF interface. Smart cards are available in a number of form factors, such as key fobs, plastic cards, watches, SIMs used in GSM phones, as well as USB-based tokens. The current tech-savvy global population demands efficient, secure and fast payment transaction, and with the global push towards cashless payments, smart cards are expected to be the way ahead, since they offer much convenience to the consumers. The features provided by smart cards help in maintaining privacy of the owner, which include authentication, encryption, secure data storage, strong device security, biometrics and secure communications, among others. The market for smart cards is expected to witness very positive growth in the near future, on the back of this critical aspect. The growing prevalence of IoT in various major sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing and education is expected to be a major driver of the smart cards market in the near future. According to Eurosmart, smart card shipments are expected to exceed 10 billion units in 2020, and the positive growth will be there for the long term, aided by the projected active connections of IoT becoming 25 billion by 2025. Smart cards are expected to expand their presence in the fields of e-commerce and personal finance in the coming years. Smart cards are expected to become a mainstay in the retail segment, as they help in performing faster transactions and reduce checkout time. Smart card technology also has low manufacturing and handling costs, which helps in reducing the costs of operation. Smart cards also find application as transit passes, which are in use by many public transit operators around the globe; examples include Singapores CEPAS, Londons Oyster card and San Franciscos Clipper card. Additionally, some operators offer points for usage that can be exchanged at certain retailers for various benefits, thus encouraging their adoption. Based on type, the smart cards market is segmented into contact cards, contactless cards and multi-component cards. The contact cards segment is anticipated to show substantial growth in the coming years, as they are in very common use as ATM cards, SIM cards and credit cards, and the lower costs involved are expected to drive this segment. The multi-component cards are expected to show substantial growth through 2025, as they offer faster processing speed and enhanced data security. Multi-component cards are used for specific market solutions, such as vault cards, fingerprint cards and OTP display cards. In terms of component, the smart cards market is segmented into memory-based cards and microcontroller-based cards. Microprocessor-based smart cards can hold high data volumes that are accessible by a dynamic or fixed OS. The segment is driven due to features like fraud prevention capabilities and longer lifespan. Memory-based smart cards store, read and write data to a specific location. Memory-based cards find use in the retail and banking sectors. Smart cards find application in various major sectors such as retail, BFSI, telecommunication, healthcare and government. The data protection and secure data transaction capabilities of smart cards have made them a highly attractive proposition for the BFSI sector. The financial services segment is expected to account for 32% of the market in 2020, according to Eurosmart. The telecommunication segment is a major application area of smart cards, in the form of SIM cards. SIM cards enable security in subscriber authentication and mobile value-added services, while also allowing international roaming across networks. This segment is expected to account for more than half of the overall smart card sales by 2020. Asia Pacific is anticipated to be a major regional consumer for the smart card technology in the coming years. The growing digitization across economies, coupled with government initiatives to go cashless in major economies such as India, have led to growing demand for smart cards in the region. Europe and North America are also expected to contribute substantially to the overall market revenue, owing to their superiority in technological advancements and the presence of major players such as American Express and Atos SE, in these regions. To request a sample copy or view summary of this report, click the link below: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/smart-card-industry Recent Trends and Developments The current outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has led to a shift in the purchasing behavior of consumers in the United States, which has led to a high demand for contactless payments, according to a 2020 American Express digital payments survey. The study states that 58% of the consumers who have used contactless mode of payment are more likely to use it much more frequently, with 50% of those surveyed being of the opinion that using contactless is much safer for personal health as compared to using cash, or inserting and swiping a card. The market for contactless smart cards can thus be expected to be in much higher demand in the post-coronavirus environment. In May 2020, CPI Card Group and Oxygen collaborated to develop the latters first personal and business debit cards. The collaboration involved development of two packages with clean and crisply-designed vertical cards that arrive nested in interactive packaging. Moreover, in January 2020, CPI highlighted its dual interface metal card solution, which offers contactless capability. These cards offer multi-directional contactless read-ranges with the ability to communicate with a payment reader regardless of how the card is held. In April 2019, Thales completed the acquisition of Gemalto, which enables the former to develop solutions for addressing areas such as unmanned air traffic management, data and network cybersecurity, airport security or financial transaction security. Gemalto is now one of Thales 7 global divisions, called Digital Identity and Security (DIS). Millions of dollars have poured into the coffers of Queensland's political parties ahead of a plan to cap such donations, which is expected to become law on Thursday. Donors will only be able to give $4000 to a political party over a four-year term of government, and donations to individual candidates, or multiple candidates from the same party, will be capped at $6000. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on election day in 2017. Credit:Dan Peled/AAP The spending limit was planned to be in place for the October 31 state election, but the government has deferred the start of the scheme until at least July 1, 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From August this year, political parties will be limited to a total election spend of $92,000 a seat, meaning no more than $8.5 million can be spent on an entire campaign. NORRISTOWN Community members and a state official came together to publicly condemn racially-charged comments made by Montgomery County Commissioner Joseph Gale. A group of protesters joined in a press conference in front of the Montgomery County Courthouse Monday evening as state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17th Dist., announced a resolution investigating Gales remarks. This is something that we need to do, Leach said. Leach said he was joining with PA Women Rise and other local community organizations to announce Senate Resolution 334, which creates a special committee to investigate whether Gales statement violated the law, ethics rules, or policies under Article VI, Section 7, of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Gale issued a lengthy public statement on June 1 calling for law and order while criticizing riots, looting, violence and arson during times of unrest in major cities such as Philadelphia following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, a killing which sparked outrage and protests across the country. The perpetrators of this urban domestic terror are radical left-wing hate groups like Black Lives Matter, Gale said in the June 1 statement. Gales words brought the ire of community members and fellow elected officials, including a vote of censure by Democratic Montgomery County Commissioners Valerie Arkoosh and Kenneth Lawrence Jr. A change.org petition calling for Gales resignation had 86,832 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon. Gale fired back at Leach in a statement issued to MediaNews Group Monday evening during the demonstration. There is nothing illegal, unethical, or improper about exercising my constitutional rights to free speech, Gale said. Sen. Leachs gross mischaracterization of my statement which discussed the rioting and looting in Philadelphia, not the peaceful protests is a desperate attempt for relevancy by a failed leader who was just rejected by his own partys voters in this years Democrat primary. PA Women Rise, the organizers of Mondays rally, had earlier issued a three-pronged approach to removing Joe Gale from his position, according to member Carmina Taylor. Those initiatives include initiating formal complaints with the states human relations and ethics commissions. We decided to have this rally because people were outraged about that statement at a time when a focus was on black lives and on police brutality, said fellow PA Women Rise organizer Danielle Kwock Phillips. To have someone in our own community who represents us in government make such inflammatory divisive statements on county letterhead was outrageous and it was something that we mobilize people around. Gales June 1 statement was issued on Montgomery County Commissioners letterhead, a point condemned by Arkoosh and Lawrence. The Monday evening press conference was filled with speakers sharing their experience associated with racism as well as vocalizing their opinions surrounding Gales statements. In front of the podium, speakers looked out into a crowd of more than 100 people wearing masks and holding signs denouncing Gales rhetoric and endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement. The resounding theme: Enough is enough. How many more mothers have to cry? How many more brothers that look just like me have to die? How many more children do we have to fight to protect? The time for change has to come now, said Christian Whitiker. As a white woman, PA Women Rise member Brighid Flynn, stressed the importance of using her privilege to motivate others to join the cause and advocate for justice. The time is now for white people to get it right, she said. The time is now for us as a community to step up to do what is right for millions of people stripped of their humanity every single day. Rev. Cean James, an associate conference minister for the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ, added that a multi-faith march is scheduled to take place prior to Thursday mornings Montgomery County Commissioners meeting. The march comes two weeks after a massive protest at the courthouse centered on calls for Gale to step down. We want to make it very clear to those that make decisions in this county that the days of putting up with mess like this are long gone, James said. We no longer have the temperament or the mood to allow people like Joe Gale to receive our public dollars, and then use his influence to try to keep his foot on our necks. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) Dr. Tony Leachon announced on Wednesday he is no longer a Special Adviser to the National Task Force on COVID-19, saying he was forced to vacate the post after two Cabinet officials were displeased when he publicly revealed gaps in the government's response measures. He served as the special adviser of National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. The announcement came just three days since he criticized the Department of Health, saying it has "lost focus" on its priorities in containing COVID-19 infections. "Time and again, I was asked not to speak about my independent views, but I think it would be helpful to the country," Leachon told CNN Philippines' Newsroom Ngayon with a somber voice. "I think I was asked to resign, 'yun ang real (score)." RELATED: Task force health expert laments delayed COVID-19 data: DOH has 'lost focus' On Saturday, the public health expert tweeted that the DOH has been running amiss in terms of risk communication, data management, and execution of all plans in battling the local coronavirus outbreak. He has long been calling on authorities to release real-time, granular data on infections, which he said will allow local officials to quickly respond and curb possible infections. He also lamented what he called the department's unreliable and delayed reporting of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which is supposed to shape state policies. RELATED: Early Luzon lockdown would have been better, says national task force adviser His comments came ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte's decision on the quarantine classifications for various cities and provinces in the country, which was announced late Monday. "It was an episodic, emotional outburst like a private citizen, not in any way to criticize in a negative way but I feel it's a constructive comment so that the health agency will shape up... Masakit sa akin kasi [it pains me because] I know I can add value to the crusade, but I don't want also to be a burden to Sec. Galvez," Leachon explained, saying he has grown fond of the former military chief's leadership in the fight against COVID-19. "My manner of communicating to the public truthful, transparent, open and straightforward might not be aligned with the communication strategy of the Palace, doon po siguro kami hindi nagkaintindihan [maybe that's where we had a falling out]," he added. Pressed further, Leachon said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque were displeased with his public comments, which led Galvez to talk to him about leaving the task force: "Hindi nila nagustuhan 'yung manner that I communicate to the public as to the many lapses of the Department of Health."In a statement, Galvez confirmed they let go of Leachon because of his preemptive releases of some information before the official announcement. In a statement, Galvez confirmed they let go of Leachon because of his preemptive releases of some information before the official announcement. Galvez said Leachons remarks jeopardized the communication efforts of the IATF and NTF and caused unwarranted misunderstanding between the two. He has been cautioned but remained deaf to collegial advise. Constructive criticism among colleagues is most welcome to assure improvement but this should have been done internally to maintain unity of effort, said Galvez. Meanwhile, he thanked Galvez, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano, Senator Bong Go, and the President for his stint with the NTF. Galvez also thanked Leachon in his short stint with the NTF. I maintain my respects for Dr. Anthony Leachon and thank him for his services rendered to the National Task Force on COVID-19 albeit very short. However, we have to let go of Dr. Leachon because the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and NTF are collegial bodies that have to work in synch with each other, said Galvez. Leachon clarified that he is not backing calls for Duque to quit his post as Health chief, saying that he literally recommends the official to take some rest so he can reassess current interventions: "You need to revisit your goals and plans if things are not working right now at maraming complaints against the department... You need to step back a little bit and then re-analyze." READ: At least 14 senators want Health Secretary Duque to resign over COVID-19 crisis response It was also announced Wednesday afternoon that the Ombudsman is probing Duque and the DOH for alleged lapses in handling the pandemic. Leachon said he had nothing to do with this investigation, but said it may be "serendipitous" and supportive of his observations. by Nirmala Carvalho The Diocese of Sindhudurg had already provided the authorities with some facilities. The decision was made without consulting the Catholic community. The centre is used for religious and social activities. Archbishop Barreto notes that the Church has already helped a thousand families affected by the pandemic. Without the Navsarni Centre, the diocese could close. Sawantwadi (AsiaNews) The Government of Maharashtra plans to turn the pastoral centre of the Diocese of Sindhudurg into an assistance structure to fight the pandemic. Bishop Alwyn Barreto and local Catholics are challenging the decision, which was taken without the consent of the community. The diocese had already provided the authorities with other facilities to be used as quarantine centres. The Navsarni (Renewal) Centre is a place of prayer and retreat as well as social, recreational, educational activities, run by both religious and lay people. It houses the diocesan offices, and is the home of five elderly priests, who now have to be moved elsewhere. We have distributed food to migrants stranded by the lockdown, as well as day labourers and the poor affected by the effects of the coronavirus, said Bishop Barreto speaking about what the diocese has already done to fight the coronavirus. We have helped a thousand families, he added. Now the local government takes away our centre, without which the diocese could close. The Indian Church has spent a lot of money to cope with the pandemic crisis. In late March, Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore launched a relief plan for pandemic victims. Christian hospitals take care of the sick, reserving entire wards for the infected. Some Catholic schools have been reconverted to host migrants, homeless people and refugees. In each parish, volunteers bring food and more to the poor. India is one of the countries where the pandemic has spread the most. The number of cases has topped 354,000 with almost 187,000 hospitalised and 11,903 deaths. With 5,537 deaths, Maharashtra is one of the states where COVID-19 has spread the most, along with Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal. The government imposed a lockdown across the country on 24 March. From 1 to 30 June the social confinement measures apply only to specific "containment areas". During the lockdown, hundreds of millions of migrant workers tried to return to their home villages to save themselves from hunger and possible infection in large cities, some walking thousands of kilometres. An eco-friendly Limerick company is offering plastic-free PPE to Irish businesses preparing for post-lockdown work arrangements. Ecostraws.ie believes the EcoShield visor will help companies protect their staff without increasing plastic pollution. The visors are compostable and recyclable. They are made from paper board and cellulose from wood pulp. Ecostraws.ie is distributing the product in the Irish market as part of a collaboration with UK companies Transcend Packaging and Reelbrands and international campaign group A Plastic Planet. Co-founder of ecostraws.ie Brian OCallaghan said the first shipment of the visors has arrived in Ireland and the company has already fielded calls from many interested companies. The colossal requirement for millions of pieces of PPE has been on news headlines across the world for a number of months now, said Mr OCallaghan. PPE is saving lives; its an essential requirement for many businesses, however as its mostly single-use plastic, we wanted to play our role in developing an alternative, that would provide the safety required yet continue to protect the planet. He added: In a time when weve all hugely appreciated the nature on our doorstep, we cant regress to behaviours of old. Our new plastic-free EcoShield gives companies choice and a solution for continuing to honour their plastic reduction commitments. Established in 2018, the company originally focused on supplying environmentally friendly straws, and subsequently expanded into distributing plastic-free cups, bottles and boxes. It has pivoted and diversified in response to the pandemic to sourcing new green products. Fellow co-founder Sarah Keyes said: As we unlock the Irish economy and businesses return to a new normal where employees and customers safety is paramount, demand for PPE is set to rise. Weve all already seen images of discarded plastic masks and gloves strewn across our countryside, and our hope is that because the plastic-free EcoShields are comparable in price to their plastic equivalent, they will be specified by many more companies as a way of keeping their employees safe whilst also meeting their environmental responsibilities. Expand Close Liz Bonnin said plastic-free PPE could help protect people and also help save the planet (Matt Crossick/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Liz Bonnin said plastic-free PPE could help protect people and also help save the planet (Matt Crossick/PA) Science, wildlife and environmental broadcaster Liz Bonnin insisted PPE did not have to be made from fossil fuels. PPE is vital for the protection of health care workers and to reduce the transmission of the virus, she said. But it doesnt have to be made from fossil fuels. Covid-19 will be part of our lives for some time, and as lockdown rules ease, demand for PPE is only going to increase. Considering the plastic pollution crisis we are still battling, and the lessons we are learning from this pandemic about the need to work with nature instead of against it, plastic free PPE can help to protect us without further damaging the planet. K Krishnachand By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On a rainy day early in May, a group of school students in a remote village of Kodankara, near Parassala, was busy setting up a playhouse using wood and tin sheets at a public place. Unmindful of the drizzle, the children arranged textbooks, magazines and newspapers and put up a board outside that read Intelligence Library. The library does not have a door, but you may not be able to enter it. Impressed by the students creativity, Parassala block panchayat president VR Salooja who was passing by got off her vehicle to watch it. Incidentally, the six students and an elderly woman named Rajam supporting them were waiting for a person to inaugurate the small venture. They requested Salooja to officially inaugurate it. For Salooja, it took some time to realise the students were indeed serious about their initiative. The enthusiasm of Arsha, a Class VIII student, Abhina of Class VII, Nilaya Raj of Class VI, Ashique and Anjana of Class V and Ann Jessy of Class I who were behind the idea has prompted to people to invest in the library which has now more than 300 books. Many people in the locality donated their collections of short stories, novels, poetry of prominent poets in Malayalam and magazines in Malayalam and English, thanks to the Facebook post by a local social worker Abhilash V T. For the children, it was a dream come true. The little caretakers of the library want this small unit to benefit a larger community. We want more students to chip in. The idea of a library emerged as a fallout of lockdown boredom. Gradually, more students came forward. Thus the Intelligenc Library became a reality, says Arsha. The number of readers has also increased, with more children and elderly frequenting the space. After picking the books or newspaper, they sit outside on chairs and tables donated by the people in the neighbourhood. Around 5 pm, the children and their parents come here and spend at least an hour in reading. At a time when the reading habit is dying down, these children made the whole village proud by encouraging other children to start the habit of reading, says Salooja who wants to make the idea big. I plan to present the childrens efforts before the State Library Council so as to expand, she says. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, June 18 2020 Southeast Sulawesi Governor Ali Mazi has allowed some 500 Chinese workers to work on nickel smelter projects in the province's Konawe regency after previously blocking their entry. Ali said he had given permission to the Chinese workers after receiving orders from Jakarta. "Regional administrations should not contradict orders from the central government," Ali told Kompas TV on Tuesday. 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 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 00:30:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LONDON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Britain intends to pursue accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) as a key part of its trade negotiations programme, a government policy paper said Wednesday. The announcement came as Britain is occupied in post-Brexit trade talks with the European Union, trying to secure a trade deal before the transitional period expires at the end of the year. It has also launched trade talks with the United States, Japan, and most recently, Australia and New Zealand. Securing increased trade and investment opportunities will help the country's economy overcome the unprecedented challenges posed by coronavirus, according to the policy paper from the Department for International Trade. It said the the CPTPP membership will also diversify its trading links and supply chains, and turn it into a global hub for businesses and investors wanting to trade with the rest of the world. CPTPP members include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. It represented 13 percent of global GDP in 2018, which would increase to more than 16 percent if Britain were to join, according to the policy paper. In 2019, Britain did more than 110 billion-pound (about 137.8 billion-U.S. dollar) worth of trade with countries in this free trade area. CPTPP reduces tariffs on 95 percent of goods between its members and sets modern rules in areas of increasing importance for British industry and business, including on digital trade, data, financial, professional, and business services, according to the paper. Enditem On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Second World War, there will be a military parade in Moscow to honour the heroism and sacrifices made by the Russian and other friendly people. It may be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had written to Russian President Vladimir Putin a congratulatory message on the occasion of the Victory Day (May 9). Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has also sent a congratulatory message to his counterpart Sergei Shoigu on the occasion. Russia's Defence Minister has invited an Indian contingent to take part in the Victory Day Parade scheduled to be held on June 24 in Moscow. Singh has agreed to send a 75-member Tri-Service contingent to participate in the parade, where contingents of other countries are also expected to participate. The participation in the parade will be a mark of tribute and solidarity with the people of Russia at a time when they remember their heroes of the Great Patriotic War. As news reports underline the disproportionate toll of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, a new data visualization dashboard developed by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health scientists may be the first to compile state-level COVID-19 demographic information for age, race/ethnicity, and sex. The Demographics by State COVID-19 Reporting (DSCovR) Dashboard allows policymakers, scientists, and the lay public to visualize and compare COVID-19 time trends and demographic information among cases, hospitalizations, and deaths across states. The DSCovR Dashboard: http://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/DSCovR Demographic insights based on June 15 COVID-19 data visualizations include: In an overwhelming majority of states, a minority racial group has the highest rate of death per capita. In many states, such as California, Colorado, and Delaware, Hispanics have a disproportionately high share of cases. In other states, such as Arizona, New Mexico, and American Indians/Alaska Natives have been disproportionately affected. In others, such as Alabama and Mississippi, Blacks have been disproportionately affected. In the majority of states, the percentage of females is higher among cases, while the percentage of males is higher among deaths. The researchers note that racial/ethnicity demographic data for cases are available in all but four states: Louisiana, Nebraska, New York, and North Dakota. Racial/ethnicity demographic data for deaths are not available from seven states: Hawaii, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Most of these states with the exception of Nebraska and New Mexico have fewer than 100 deaths. Three of these states report age demographic data for deaths: Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Age demographic data for cases is available for all states except New York. Sex demographic data for cases is available for all states except Hawaii. The DSCovR Dashboard also provides a map view of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The map view also highlights the availability and reporting of state-level demographic information. Users can use the dashboard to compare time trends of the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths. As of June 15, new cases are trending upward in several southern and western states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Texas. Going forward, the DSCovR team intends to add information on state-level re-openings so users can visualize the relationship between the number of new cases and death, and re-openings. The DSCovR Dashboard time trends are updated daily and the demographic information is updated regularly using data posted on state health department websites given the frequent updates and changes to the reporting of demographic information. The DSCovR Dashboard was developed by Shing Lee, associate professor of biostatistics, and Ken Cheung, professor of biostatistics, with the assistance from several biostatistics staff and students, and support from the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. ### WASHINGTON During a meeting last year, President Donald Trump turned to Chinese President Xi Jinping and asked for an important favor: China should increase its purchase of American soybeans and wheat because aiding American farmers would help him win the upcoming 2020 election, according to excerpts of a new book by Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton. The request, made during the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, is laid out in Bolton's forthcoming book, "The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir," according to an excerpt published by the Wall Street Journal. In it, the former adviser paints the president as someone consumed with winning a second term and willing to pressure, cajole and plead with foreign powers to aid his quest. "Trumps conversations with Xi reflected not only the incoherence in his trade policy but also the confluence in Trumps mind of his own political interests and U.S. national interests," Bolton writes according to an excerpt published in the Wall street Journal. "Trump commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security." Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump in Beijing, on May 9, 2019. Bolton's book, set for a June 23 release, is expected to detail other pressure campaigns on foreign governments beyond China and Ukraine, where the president's efforts to pressure the East European government to publicly investigate former vice president and now presumptive general election opponent Joe Biden led to Trump's impeachment last year, according to a book preview released last week by Bolton's publisher, Simon & Schuster. "I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasnt driven by reelection calculations," Bolton writes in the book. More: Trump Justice Department sues to block John Bolton from publishing book On Tuesday, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the former national security adviser from publishing his long expected memoir. Story continues The move came a day after Trump dismissed Bolton's forthcoming book as "highly inappropriate" and said it would be a "criminal problem" if published. "This book is full of classified information, which is inexcusable," White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Wednesday, hours before the excerpts were published. "Former national security adviser John Bolton should know all too well that it's unacceptable to have highly classified information from the government of the United States in a book that will be published." President Donald Trump and national security adviser John Bolton at the White House on April 9, 2018. White House officials did not immediately respond to the specific allegation that Trump raised his own reelection in a trade discussion with Xi. The president fired back in a series of interviews Wednesday, telling the Wall Street Journal that Bolton is a "liar" who everybody in the White House "hated." He told Fox News in a late interview that Bolton was a "washed up guy" who "broke the law." Several media organizations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal obtained the book and have published stories on it. Among the observations Bolton makes in the book is that Trump did not seem to know Britain is a nuclear power and asked if Finland is part of Russia, according to The New York Times. Bolton also writes that the president, who has clashed with the media that he often calls "Fake News," told him reporters should be in prison . "These people should be executed. They are scumbags," according to The Washington Post. Guy Snodgrass, who served as chief speechwriter to Trump's Former Defense Secretary James Mattis, tweeted Wednesday that he "can confirm" the president shared similar feeling with the Pentagon. "Bolton alleges Trump privately told him reporters deserve prison. "These people should be executed. They are scumbags."" Can confirm. This sentiment expressed again during Trump's meeting with Mattis in the Pentagon.https://t.co/8JdBVA6xYU Guy Snodgrass (@GuySnodgrass) June 17, 2020 More: President Trump acquitted on both impeachment charges, avoids removal Bolton, national security adviser from April 2018 until he was pushed out in September 2019, was a central figure in the Senate impeachment trial of Trump earlier this year following the House's decision to forward two charges to the Senate for consideration: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress After Bolton didn't appear voluntarily before a House impeachment hearing in November, his lawyer, Charles Cooper, told the investigating committees that his client was "personally involved" in meetings relevant to the inquiry into whether Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine for political reasons. News outlets reported at the time that a manuscript for Bolton's upcoming book says Trump explicitly told Bolton he did not want to release the aid until Ukraine helped with investigations related to the 2016 election and Democrats, including Biden, a political rival. Bolton never testified and the president was acquitted on both charges by the Senate on a largely party-line vote. Biden issued a statement Wednesday saying Trump "sold out the American people to protect his political future" in his dealings with China that Bolton outlined. "He was willing to trade away our most cherished democratic values for the empty promise of a flimsy trade deal that bailed him out of his disastrous tariff war that did so much damage to our farmers, manufacturers, and consumers," Biden said. Bolton aims his pen at Democrats as well, scolding them for being "so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg," they missed a larger opportunity to put the president on trial for a raft of misconduct that stretched across his entire foreign policy, according to the excerpts. The New York Times cites Bolton's claims that Trump was willing to "intervene in investigations" into certain companies doing business with the U.S. "to curry favor" with leaders in Turkey and China. Bolton also writes in the excerpts that the president seemed unmoved by the massive protests last year in Hong Kong against China's communist government over human rights crackdowns. "I first heard Trump react on June 12, upon hearing that some 1.5 million people had been at Sundays demonstrations. 'Thats a big deal,' he said. But he immediately added, 'I dont want to get involved,' and, 'We have human-rights problems too,' Bolton writes, according to the excerpts. "I hoped Trump would see these Hong Kong developments as giving him leverage over China. I should have known better," Bolton continues. "That same month, on the 30th anniversary of Chinas massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Trump refused to issue a White House statement. 'That was 15 years ago,' he said, inaccurately. 'Who cares about it? Im trying to make a deal. I dont want anything.' And that was that." Contributing: John Fritze This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: John Bolton: Book by ex-national security adviser blasts Donald Trump What do you do if youre stuck at home with your husband and five kids ages 8 to 21 during COVID-19, while also fearing cancer has returned with a vengeance? If youre Dundas resident Amy Ledin, you summon your braver self to slay the fear, and launch a self-improvement podcast because you always wanted to try it. And then you title your show F* It! and offend your mother. Ledin, 42, laughs recalling when she told her. My mom was like, Amy: Eff-it? Really? And I said, just for you, mom. This week her podcast is ranked ninth in Canada among education-themed shows, according to Podcharts. The shows title is provocative, but hardly unique, at least to anyone who has browsed the self-help section of a bookstore. But Ledins personal story is indeed unique. She was born in Idaho and raised in a Mormon family, attending Brigham Young University in Utah and its satellite campus in Hawaii. (She abandoned the religion years ago.) She married a Hawaiian who was a submariner in the U.S. navy, and they had a family, and moved between naval bases. Then she had an affair with a man from Hamilton, and married him at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope six years ago, and settled here. Her second husband, Erik Ledin, is a McMaster University kinesiology graduate who founded an online fitness training business. Amy met him online when she ran a similar venture in the U.S. From her first marriage she has a son and daughter; she has a daughter with Erik, and his son and daughter from a previous marriage all live in their home as well. Seven years ago, she was diagnosed with stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer. And then, in June 2018, she says doctors told her she might only live four to six months. She was terrified. Erik said to me, do you believe you will beat this? Because you have to fully believe. I visualized what the doctors would say in six months, what the scans would look like. And I thought, when I beat this, Im going full steam ahead. Six months later, in December 2018, following chemotherapy, she was told she was cancer free. I was so excited, but then the fear came back. I thought Id have freedom and peace, but no, I was still playing small in 2019. And then, this past March, she had symptoms and initial blood work that suggested the cancer had returned. She wasnt able to get scans to confirm the blood work, she says, because of the COVID-19 shutdown. She consulted with her doctors at a cancer centre in Buffalo she has also been treated at Juravinski Cancer Centre who prescribed her chemo pills to take for eight weeks as a life insurance policy. She lost her hair once again during the treatment, and while managing the household and helping kids with school work, recommitted herself to launching a podcast. Six episodes have aired since the first on June 9, and she has 14 more recorded. She shares her experiences with cancer, and the affair, and giving up a child for adoption at 18, as challenges to overcome: You create your own reality ... Im a big believer in my future self. Among the concepts she discusses with guests is a mindfulness exercise to create core characters for yourself; alter egos to help you find courage. It helps you trigger or trick your brain into believing, she says. I created Cyborg, my alter ego for fighting cancer. Amy is weak at times, but not Cyborg. Ledin was recently allowed to return to hospital for followup tests. On May 21 she learned she is cancer free. She says either this most recent round of chemo medication did the trick, or her initial blood work had returned a false positive. Ledin doesnt worry about whats to come. Instead she works at what she calls manifesting a positive future. And no matter what, its always good to have Cyborg Amy ready in the wings if necessary. The European Commission called on world leaders to work together to purchase large quantities of potential vaccines against COVID-19, to avoid harmful competition in the race for the vaccine and to ensure the availability of future vaccines for poor countries, Reuters reported. Wealthy countries rush to pre-buy doses from pharmaceutical companies to make sure they have enough stocks. The European Commission is concerned that such competition could raise vaccine prices for everyone, and also cause many countries, mostly poor, to struggle to get supplies. When it comes to fighting a global pandemic, there is no place for me first, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. The EU plans to spend about 2 billion euros on the preliminary purchase of vaccines. EU member states are also implementing their own initiatives: Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands last week entered into a joint deal with drug manufacturer AstraZeneca to buy the vaccine in development. Washington has made it clear that it is giving priority to its citizens regarding the COVID-19 vaccines. According to Von der Leyen, she is trying to convince a significant number of world leaders to join forces and buy vaccines up front together. Next week, the EU will host a global virtual vaccination strategy summit at the end of a fund-raising campaign to secure funds to distribute potential COVID-19 shots to poor countries. "We are counting on governments in the Middle East to implement the ICAO Take-off Guidance quickly," said Muhammad Albakri, IATAs regional vice president for Africa and the Middle East. Image: IATA These guidelines are contained in Takeoff: Guidance for Air Travel through the COVID-19 Public Health Crisis, which was approved by the ICAO Council on 1 June 2020. Air connectivity is critical to economic and sustainable development in the Middle East, effective recovery of air transport in the region is essential to support the economy post COVID-19. The key principles, recommendations and guidelines of CART Report and Take-off Document, provide governments with a framework for restarting aviation while protecting public health; and are intended to inform and align the COVID-19 recovery roadmaps established by States or industry. This is a living guidance which will be continuously updated based on the latest medical and operational advice and risk assessments as the world starts to reconnect. Governments and industry stakeholders can have certainty as they take action to get the world flying again, said ICAOs acting regional director for the Middle East, Mohamed Smaoui. We are counting on governments in the Middle East to implement the ICAO Take-off Guidance quickly and in a harmonised and mutually recognised way, because the world wants to travel again and needs airlines to play a key role in the economic recovery. The guidance recognises that social distancing is not possible on an aircraft, therefore supports face coverings as part of a layered risk mitigation approach. And recommends contact tracing which should give governments the confidence to open borders without quarantine measures. Local deviations and exceptions will damage public confidence and make it harder to operate effectively slowing down the industry restart. This would be harmful to public health and the economic recovery, said Muhammad Albakri, IATAs regional vice president for Africa and the Middle East. Safety and security are the industrys main priority, and both are firmly entrenched into every airports operations and corporate culture. Building on this track record, the ICAO Take-off Guidance document is fully aligned with our industrys focus on passenger and employee wellbeing. We urge the Middle East states to swiftly implement the guidelines so we can ensure truly harmonised and effective measures across the region and passengers can return to air travel with confidence. As rightly stated in the ICAO guidance, states should continuously readjust the measures depending on their effectiveness to reduce the risk of transmission and scalability, especially as soon as traffic ramps up again to certain volumes of traffic. Airports need health authorities to work cooperatively with them to adapt physical distancing to specific layout and operations, said Stefano Baronci, director general, ACI Asia-Pacific. Impact of COVID-19 on aviation in the Middle East COVID-19 has devastated the air transport industry in the Middle East. Demand in terms of passenger volumes is forecast to fall 56% in 2020 year-on-year for airlines and 47% for airports. Airlines in the region are expected to post a net loss of US$4.8 billion this year as passenger revenues decline by US$24 billion compared to the previous year. Airports in the region estimated total revenue loss of US$7billion, representing a 52% year-on-year decline in 2020. Job losses in aviation and related industries in the region could reach 1.2 million and GDP supported by aviation could fall by US$66 billion. Before the COVID-19 crisis aviation supported 2.4 million jobs in the region and generated US$130 billion in GDP. A phased approach The ICAO Guidance proposes a phased approach to restarting aviation and identifies a set of generally applicable risk-based measures which, in line with recommendations and guidance from public health authorities, will mitigate the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus during the travel process. Measures include: Physical distancing to the extent feasible and implementation of adequate risk-based measures where distancing is not feasible, for example in aircraft cabins; Wearing of face coverings and masks by passengers and aviation workers; Routine sanitation and disinfection of all areas with potential for human contact and transmission; Health screening, which could include pre- and post-flight self-declarations, as well as temperature screening and visual observation, conducted by health professionals; Contact tracing for passengers and aviation employees: updated contact information should be requested as part of the health self-declaration, and interaction between passengers and governments should be made directly though government portals; Passenger health declaration forms, including self-declarations in line with the recommendations of relevant health authorities. Electronic tools should be encouraged to avoid paper; Testing: if and when real-time, rapid and reliable testing becomes available. The organisations are also urging states to identify every opportunity where travel restrictions could be lifted, through bilateral or multilateral arrangements among countries - as soon as the epidemiological situation allows for it. Supporting the restart of the Industry ICAO, IATA and ACI Asia-Pacific also pledged their commitment to providing support to industry stakeholders in the region to help ensure implementation and compliance with the recommended ICAO Take-off Guidelines. Aviation is facing the biggest challenge of its history: safely restarting international connectivity while ensuring that aviation is not a meaningful source for the spread of COVID-19 is not an option but rather a necessity. We need all hands-on deck to get the industry up and running again and are committed to making the journey as seamless and risk free as possible. We will collaborate support states to implement these guidelines in the fastest and most efficient way and encourage governments and other industry stakeholders to reach out to us for support, said Albakri. The Atlanta officer who shot Rayshard Brooks in the back after the fleeing black man pointed a stun gun in his direction will be charged with murder and 10 other charges, a prosecutor said. Garrett Rolfe kicked Mr Brooks while he lay on the ground and the officer with him, Devin Brosnan, stood on Brookss shoulder as he struggled for life after a confrontation on Friday night, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said at a news conference. Rolfe had already been fired after he shot Brooks, 27, on Friday night. Brosnan, who will be charged with aggravated assault and other crimes, had been placed on administrative leave. Mr Brookss widow, Tomika Miller, attended the news conference along with her lawyers, Justin Miller and L Chris Stewart. Expand Close Tomika Miller, the wife of Rayshard Brooks, attended the news conference (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tomika Miller, the wife of Rayshard Brooks, attended the news conference (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) The news came as Republicans on Capitol Hill unveiled a package of police reform measures and the movement to get rid of Confederate movements and other racially offensive symbols reached Americas breakfast table, with the maker of Aunt Jemima syrup and pancake mix dropping the 131-year-old brand. The shooting sparked new demonstrations in Georgias capital against police brutality, after occasionally turbulent protests in response to George Floyds death in Minneapolis had largely simmered down. Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned less than 24 hours after Mr Brooks died. Police were called to a Wendys fast food restaurant over complaints of a car blocking the drive-thru lane. An officer found Mr Brooks asleep behind the wheel of the car and called for another officer to do sobriety testing. Expand Close This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the car park (Atlanta Police Department via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the car park (Atlanta Police Department via AP) Police body camera video shows Mr Brooks and officers having a relatively calm and respectful conversation for more than 40 minutes before things rapidly turned violent. Mr Brooks wrestled with officers, snatched one of their stun guns and turned and pointed it at one of them as he ran through the car park A post-mortem found that Mr Brooks was shot twice in the back. Ahead of the district attorneys announcement, Rolfes lawyers issued a statement saying the officer feared for his safety and that of others around him and was justified in shooting Mr Brooks. Rolfe opened fire after hearing a sound like a gunshot and saw a flash in front of him. Mr Brooks violently attacked two officers and disarmed one of them. When Mr Brooks turned and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe, any officer would have reasonably believed that he intended to disarm, disable, or seriously injure him, the lawyers said. An attorney for the Brooks family said previously that Rolfe should be charged for an unjustified use of deadly force, which equals murder. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans in Washington announced their most ambitious police-reform package in years, including an enhanced use-of-force database, restrictions on chokeholds and new commissions to study law enforcement and race. A South Korean Marine patrols the beach of Yeonpyeong Island bordering North Korea in the West Sea, Wednesday. / Yonhap S. Korean government lodges strong protest By Kang Seung-woo Following through on its previously made threats, North Korea is now inching toward nullifying an inter-Korean military agreement, which may lead to tension-stoking incidents. After its unilateral demolition of the inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Gaeseong, Tuesday, the reclusive state announced Wednesday that its military would enter the Mount Geumgang tourist area and Gaeseong Industrial Complex, and rebuild sentry posts along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The North also said its military will resume exercises in border areas, including seas off its southwest coast. If carried out, any of these would abrogate the military agreement signed during a 2018 inter-Korean summit to reduce tensions along the heavily fortified border. The agreement bans all hostile acts in this region. Since Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and probably the second-most powerful person in the North, threatened to close the now-defunct liaison office and scrap the military agreement June 4, she has kept her word, raising concerns that envisaged military actions are in the offing that will ratchet up tensions on the Korean Peninsula. "The North Korean regime has displayed a carefully calibrated strategy and made its next steps clear," said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University. "Unlike redeploying troops to the two inter-Korean business zones and rebuilding guard posts, military exercises near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) could pose a serious problem." The NLL is the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas, where inter-Korean clashes have taken place over the years. The North initiated the offensive, citing anti-Pyongyang leaflets floated across the border by North Korean defectors and activists, but many experts believe this is a short-term game plan and the ultimate goal is to attract the attention of the United States. Washington has had little to do with the North since the collapse of the Hanoi summit in February 2019, at which its "Supreme Leader" expected to secure relief from international economic sanctions led by the U.S. Moon pressed to replace security, diplomatic team Gaeseong Industrial Complex businesses call for swift government measures Gyeonggi designates 'danger zones' to block anti-NK leaflets In that respect, Park said the North may go further in terms of military provocations. "Today's statement means that the North's offensive was only aimed at the South Korean government. However, given that the intensity of attack on the South is harsher than expected, and its economy is under strain, if the economic difficulties continue and the U.S. pays little attention to the peninsula, the North may launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) the red line for U.S. President Donald Trump," he said. "The chances are high that an ICBM test will be conducted." While announcing the military actions, Kim Yo-jong once again launched harsh criticism at President Moon Jae-in. "He reeled off a string of shameless and impudent words full of incoherence," Kim was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). She was referring to Moon's speech Monday on the 2000 Joint Declaration that promoted cross-border reconciliation and cooperation. "He spoke in the capacity of the president, but it was sickening to listen to his speech, devoid of responsibility and will before the nation, and direction and measures for putting the present situation under control, but packaged in self-defense, avoidance of responsibility and deep-rooted flunkeyism," she added. In addition, the KCNA said Kim rejected the South's offer to send a special envoy to the North, denouncing it as an "unprecedentedly senseless act." The government here had apparently intended to dispatch either national security adviser Chung Eui-yong or spy agency chief Suh Hoon to talk with representatives from Pyongyang. Angered by the criticism of Moon and the unilateral unveiling of the special envoy proposal, the government hit back at the North in an unusually strong tone. "It is a senseless act to disparage Moon's speech in a very rude manner without understanding its purpose at all," Yoon Do-han, the senior presidential secretary for public communication, said in a press briefing. "We will not tolerate any more of North Korea's indiscreet rhetoric and acts," which fundamentally harm the mutual trust built up between the leaders of the two sides." Regarding the "undiplomatic" unveiling of the envoy proposal, Yoon said the North should have at least employed "basic etiquette." The unification ministry expressed strong regret over the North's plan to send troops to the two inter-Korean business zones, urging it to refrain from escalating tension. Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned that the North will pay the price if any military action is taken against the South. Amid the escalating tension, the U.S. urged the North to refrain from further counterproductive actions, Tuesday. Jaipur, June 17 : Senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala On Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on their "silence" on the Chinese infiltration into the Indian territory in Ladakh and questioned them on the issue. "Is it true that the infiltration reportedly took place in the areas of Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh and many Indian soldiers died while several others were left injured in the clash? If so, why are the PM and Defence Minister maintaining silence?" he asked while talking to the media. He said: "According to an Indian Army statement, officers and soldiers of our Army were martyred on Monday night when the process of de-escalation was going on in the Galwan Valley. Will the PM and the Defence Minister take the nation into confidence on how our officers and soldiers were martyred when the Chinese Army was de-escalating from our territory in the Galwan Valley? The central government should tell how and under what circumstances our Army officers and soldiers were martyred." The Congress leader also asked the two to come forward and confirm if China had captured Indian territory at three locations on the border. "They should come forward to answer whatever the case is. Yes or no, they should come and clarify." He also questioned if the clash between Indian and Chinese troops was reported on Monday night, why did the official statement come at 12.52 pm on Tuesday. "Why was it changed after 16 minutes at 1.08 pm? Also, if China was de-escalating and going back, what were the conditions that led to the martyrdom of our brave soldiers? Will the Prime Minister take the nation into confidence and speak on the issue?" Surjewala said. The Congress leader asked if the Prime Minister would explain the Centre's policy to deal with this challenging and serious situation for national security and territorial integrity when China was posing an open threat to India. "On behalf of the Congress, I would like to say that the party believes that the entire nation stands united to protect India's security and territorial integrity. However, the Modi government needs to remember that its secrecy or silence has no place in a democratic form of governance. The PM should take the nation into confidence on this issue," he said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Megxit is truly turning Prince Harry and Meghan Markle into public enemy number 1. Not only do people feel that they left the UK and their family at such a bad time, but their expenses as they started to make their way to "financial independence" are also quite shocking to taxpayers. This time, to the Canadian taxpayers. Remember the time when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry lived in Canada for a while? This happened before they officially stepped down from Megxit and before they transferred to LA. At the time, people did not bother asking how much Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's stay in Canada before they officially stepped down, cost. There was a petition that circulated however, where Canadians voiced out that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should pay for their security while in Canada, no matter how much Canadians loved the royals to be in their turf. It appears now that the petition did not really do anything about the security costs taxpayers had to shoulder. A watchdog now revealed the staggering amount. According to documents obtained by the said group, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's stay in Canada already incurred over $40,000 in security costs. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation revealed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police spent over $56,384 Canadian or roughly around $41,500 US to protect the two while they were in Canada. This amount just might even be smaller than the actual costs. There must have paid salaries to Mounties, who also aided in keeping them safe. According to the RCMP, it cannot reveal how much the salary costs were to keep their operations private and protected. The protection that RCMP provided officially ended on March 14. The group refused to give the whole amount but asserted that it is nothing to scoff at, in any way. "More than $50,000 is nothing to sneeze at, especially when you consider the fact that this is taxpayers' money covering bills for one of the most famous and wealthy couples in the world," said Aaron Wudrick, director of the taxpayers' group. Wudrick added that: "For months, the Trudeau government refused to even acknowledge Canadian taxpayers were on the hook for Harry and Meghan's security costs." But this reveals that yes, the taxpayers footed the bill. Rage is expected to follow after this report. Ironically, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle seemed oblivious to the piling costs to the taxpayers. According to Wudrick, if the government did not cut them off finally, and the two continue to spend time in Canada, the bill could have rapidly amounted to millions. The group even showed a statement found in an email exchange between Bernadine Chapman, Commanding Officer of RCMP's national division, and the police officers. The email was quite telling. According to Chapman, media is like a "hot potato" so Canada can expect a lot of media coverage with the royals staying there. She then wrote, "We are having a greater conversation next week on the go forward on this. This has the potential to cost us huge!" Naturally, this had taxpayers slamming the two on their social media. https://t.co/X3D6W4Oqm8 #JustHarry and #MeghanMarkle 's British Columbia stay cost taxpayers $40,000 USD... and then they fled Canada in the dead of night without even a thanks. MM has not bothered inserting herself on any Zoom calls to the charities she used when there either! Where Is Archie? (@IsArchieOK) June 16, 2020 Ha Ha Ha We knew someone was going to end up paying their way. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's stay in Canada cost taxpayers more than $40G: report #FoxNews Duchess and DukeHa Ha HaWe knew someone was going to end up paying their way.Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's stay in Canada cost taxpayers more than $40G: report https://t.co/Bkd86Rp5uv June 16, 2020 READ MORE: Queen Elizabeth Heartbreak: Queen Turns Emotional After Another COVID-19 Loss A worker cleans the glass door to a health center for COVID-19 testing in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Chinese capital on Wednesday canceled more than 60% of commercial flights and raised the alert level amid a new coronavirus outbreak, state-run media reported. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) China raised its emergency warning to its second-highest level and canceled more than 60% of the flights to Beijing on Wednesday amid a new coronavirus outbreak in the capital. It was a sharp pullback for the nation that declared victory over COVID-19 in March and a message to the rest of the world about how tenacious the virus really is. New infections spiked in India, Iran and U.S. states including Florida, Texas and Arizona as authorities struggled to balance restarting economic activity without accelerating the pandemic. European nations, which embarked on a wide-scale reopening this week, looked on with trepidation as the Americas struggled to contain the first wave of the pandemic and Asian nations like China and South Korea reported new outbreaks. Chinese officials described the situation in Beijing as "extremely grave." "This has truly rung an alarm bell for us," Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of Beijing's Communist Party Standing Committee. After a push that began June 14, the city expects to have tested 700,000 people by the end of the day, said Zhang Qiang, a Beijing party official. About half of them were workers from the city's food markets, nearby residents and close contacts. The party's Global Times said 1,255 flights to and from the capital's two major airports were scrapped by Wednesday morning, about two-thirds of those scheduled. Airline employees redirect a traveller at a checkpoint for passengers from high risk areas to present their COVID-19 test results before checking in for their flight at the Beijing Capital Airport terminal 2 in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Chinese capital on Wednesday canceled more than 60% of commercial flights and raised the alert level amid a new coronavirus outbreak, state-run media reported. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Since the virus emerged in China late last year and spread worldwide, there have been more than 8.1 million confirmed cases and at least 443,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say the true toll is much higher, due to the many who died without being tested and other factors. The U.S. has the most infections and deaths in the world, with a toll that neared 117,000 on Wednesday, surpassing the number of Americans who died in World War I. Arizona reported a daily high of nearly 2,400 new infections for a total of more than 39,000, while in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott insisted the state's health care system could handle the fast-rising number of new cases and hospitalizations. Tuesday marked the eighth time in nine days that Texas set a new high for COVID-19 hospitalizations at 2,518. State health officials reported 2,622 new cases. A keeper wearing protective face mask feeds giraffes at Ragunan Zoo prior to its reopening this weekend after weeks of closure due to the large-scale restrictions imposed to help curb the new coronavirus outbreak, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. As Indonesia's overall virus caseload continues to rise, the capital city has moved to restore normalcy by lifting some restrictions, saying that the spread of the virus in the city of 11 million has slowed after peaking in mid-April.(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) "It does raise concerns, but there is no reason right now to be alarmed," Abbott said. Texas began aggressively reopening its economy May 1. Abbott noted that Texans may have become lax in wearing masks or practicing social distancing and urged people to stay home as much as possible. Canada and the U.S. extended to July 21 a deal to keep their border closed to nonessential travel, with many Canadians fearing cases arriving from the U.S. As the U.S. struggles with the first wave of the virus, other countries where it was widely thought to be under control faced disturbing developments. In South Korea, authorities reported 43 new cases amid increased public activity. Authorities said 25 of them came from around Seoul, where hundreds of infections have been linked to nightclubs, church gatherings, e-commerce workers and door-to-door salespeople. Twelve of the new cases came from international arrivals. Edoardo D'Alba, 19, wearing a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19, right, sits at a desk before the examiners at a high school Liceo Morgagni to do his end of year secondary school exams, in Rome, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Students all over Italy went back to their schools which reopened after three months of coronavirus closure to allow students to take their final secondary school exams. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) Not long after declaring itself virus-free, New Zealand saw a reemergence of the virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern assigned a top military leader to oversee the border quarantines after what she described as an "unacceptable failure" by health officials. Two New Zealand citizens who had returned from London to see a dying relative were allowed to leave quarantine before being tested. After the women tested positive, New Zealand began tracing their potential contacts to ensure the virus is contained. Their cases raised the specter that international air travel could ignite a new surge of the virus just as countries seek to boost devastated tourism industries. China also limited other travel around the capital, keying in on hot spots. Beijing had essentially eradicated local transmissions until recent days, with 137 new cases since last week. Travelers make enquiries at a checkpoint for passengers from high risk areas to present their COVID-19 test results before checking in for their flight at the Beijing Capital Airport terminal 2 in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Chinese capital on Wednesday canceled more than 60% of commercial flights and raised the alert level amid a new coronavirus outbreak, state-run media reported. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) On Wednesday, the city of 20 million raised its threat level from 3 to 2, canceling classes, suspending reopenings and strengthening requirements for social distancing. China had relaxed many lockdown controls after the Communist Party declared victory over the virus in March. India, with the fourth-highest caseload after the U.S., Brazil and Russia, added more than 2,000 deaths to its tally after Delhi and Maharashtra states included 1,672 previously unreported fatalities. Its death toll of 11,903 is now eighth-highest in the world. India has reported 10,000 new infections and more than 300 deaths each day for the last two weeks. Iran's latest outbreak comes after a major Muslim holiday last month and as travel and lockdown restrictions were relaxed. Health Minister Saeed Namaki said he realized the extent of the challenge when he took a domestic flight. An Indian health worker wearing personal protective equipment looks on during a check up camp at a slum in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) Passengers wait for their flight at the Beijing Capital Airport terminal 2 in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Chinese capital on Wednesday canceled more than 60% of commercial flights and raised the alert level amid a new coronavirus outbreak, state-run media reported. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Residents wearing masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus wait at a traffic junction in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. China's capital reported a slight increase in the numbers confirmed new coronavirus cases Wednesday as it seeks to battle the recent outbreak with strict measures aimed at reducing human contact and the chances of a new wave of infections across the country. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Indians with COVID-19 symptoms wait outside a coronavirus help desk at the Government Fever Hospital in Hyderabad, India, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil.(AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.) A man holds a child wearing masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Chinese capital on Wednesday canceled more than 60% of commercial flights and raised the alert level amid a new coronavirus outbreak, state-run media reported. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Health workers screen visitors to the Beijing Capital Airport terminal 3 departure hall in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Chinese capital on Wednesday canceled more than 60% of commercial flights and raised the alert level amid a new coronavirus outbreak, state-run media reported. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Visitors wear their face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, as they ride the "Vortex" rollercoaster at the recently reopened Siam Amazing Park in in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Daily life in the capital resumes to normal as the government continues to ease restrictions related to running business and activities that were imposed weeks ago to combat the spread of COVID-19. Thailand reported no local transmissions of the coronavirus in the past 3 weeks. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) A health worker wearing protective gear prepares to take swab samples from people queuing in their cars to test for the coronavirus at a drive-through COVID-19 screening center at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty) India health workers wearing personal protective equipment arrive to take part in a check up camp in a slum in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) A boy rests carried by a woman, as a shopkeeper wearing a mask as precaution against the coronavirus arranges his ware inside a shop in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur) Staff members wearing face masks and 3D glasses as they demonstrate the social distancing in the theatre during a media tour at the Hong Kong's Disneyland on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, a day before the theme park reopen after nearly four months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) "Many people have become careless, frustrated with wearing masks," he said. "They did not observe (social) distancing in the flight's seating and the airliner's ventilation system was not working." In Europe, which has seen over 184,000 virus-related deaths, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the country will hold a ceremony July 16 to honor its more than 27,000 dead. German officials said over 400 people at a large meatpacking plant had tested positive for COVID-19, prompting authorities to order the closure of all schools and childcare centers in the western region of Guetersloh. The industry has seen several outbreaks in recent weeks, prompting the government to impose stricter safety rules. Denmark's health minister urged anyone who joined a large racial injustice protest on June 7 to be tested "whether you have symptoms or not" after one person in the crowd was found to be infected. "As long as we have the virus in Europe and in Denmark, it will flare up. We are dealing with a very, very contagious disease," said Health Minister Magnus Heunicke. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is hopeful Michigan will be able to move to Phase 5 of the Safe Start plan before July 4 and "optimistic" that K-12 schools will be able to return to in-person instruction in the fall. During a Wednesday press conference, Whitmer said Michigan's health and safety protocols, including social distancing and wearing masks, have made a big impact. "The vast majority of people (in Michigan) have done the right thing (in taking safety measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus)," Whitmer said. "Our action is working. The aggressive actions we've taken .... have significantly lowered the number of cases and deaths that would have occurred (without these actions). "(Executive) orders are important, but it's what the people do that makes the difference," she added. "Without intervention, Michigan could have had 28,000 more positive cases (than it did) by June 1." In light of the state's positive trends, Whitmer anticipates moving Michigan to Phase 5 "containing" before July 4. The sixth and final phase is "post-pandemic." "It's going to take everyone's continued efforts to get it done," she said of moving to Phase 5. One of the things that will change from Phase 4 to Phase 5 is the allowing of in-person instruction in both K-12 and higher education. "One of the No. 1 questions I have gotten is, ('When will in-person instruction be able to resume?')" Whitmer said. " ... With the entire state in Phase 4 (currently), we are optimistic schools will be able to resume in-person instruction in the fall while maintaining strict safety practices." Along that line, a 25-person Return to Learn Advisory Council, made up of educators, parents and students, has been working on developing guidelines for the return to school buildings. A "back-to-school road map" will be released to the public on June 30, Whitmer announced. "The road map will set minimum health and safety requirements, although local districts can set their own (standards above and beyond those requirements)," Whitmer said. "Public health data will inform our decisions," Whitmer added. "If we stay diligent, we can expect a return to school in the fall." She said Michigan has to be prepared for the possibility of a rise in new coronavirus cases during the school year and possible mandated school closures as a result. And getting schools up to speed with new health and safety guidelines will take extra money, going into a school year when deep cuts in school funding from the state are expected. "We recognize that (health) protocols will cost money. That's why preserving every dollar possible for K-12 (education) is my priority," Whitmer said. Toward that end, the governor is counting on financial help from the federal government. "I've had conversations with governors across the country, and every single one of us is confronting the same issues (with needing more school funding)," Whitmer said. "We are confident and optimistic we'll get the help we need from the federal government." Whitmer also made a statement that appeared to be directed toward Republican state legislators who have sued her over her use of emergency powers to extend Michigan's state of emergency. "I want to be clear: Any attempt to strip away the powers of the governor during this crisis is irresponsible, dangerous and foolish," Whitmer said. New Delhi, June 17 : After removal as Congress spokesperson, Sanjay Jha who has been critical of the party leadership of late, said that the party lacks internal democracy and it is not what it used to be, for sure. "I am proud that I stood by the Congress ideology of the Gandhi/Nehru era. The party is not what it used to be, for sure," Sanjay Jha said. Talking to IANS, Jha said, "I am grateful that the Indian National Congress gave me the responsibility to be its National Spokesperson for almost 7 years, including as a media panelist." "At the time when most party representatives were in hiding or in hibernation when the UPA-2 was being decimated in television debates, along with a few others I was the only one taking the bull by the horns," he said. Recently, Jha had written an article in a newspaper which is believed to be the immediate reason for his removal. Jha said, "This just proves what I have stated publicly in my recent articles; the Congress lacks internal democracy. My constructive feedback has not been taken in the right spirit; there are vested interests who are both insecure and incapable of reviving our party." But he said that he will remain a committed Congressman and shall continue to raise issues internally and publicly to strengthen the party from within. Refuting the allegations levelled by Jha, a party leader and a CWC member said, party had discussions many times with PCC chiefs and chief ministers and a group was constituted under Manmohan Singh to oversee the pandemic, the party's highest decision making body -- the CWC also deliberated on issues. In the article Jha had said party could not present alternative narrative of governance to the people when the NDA government has failed. But Congress party rejected the charge and said, former party president Rahul Gandhi did present alternative and suggested many measures and president Sonia Gandhi also wrote many letters. It was Sonia Gandhi's intervention that facilitated the return of migrants to their home and party's frontal organisations were prompt in providing help to people in distress. Jha said the claim that the congress has internal, robust mechanism is "not correct" and it doesn't listen to its members. Sanjay Jha pushed his view through a newspaper article but was promptly contradicted by the party. Senior spokesperson Ajay Maken contradicted Jha and said, "there is no dearth of internal discussion in the party and I have been able to put forth my view whenever I wanted to." DARBY, Pa. - Joe Biden unleashed a stinging critique Wednesday of President Donald Trumps response to the coronavirus, calling on Trump to wake up to the havoc caused by the pandemic and do more to prevent further harm. Donald Trump wants to style himself as a wartime president, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said at a recreation centre in the Philadelphia suburbs. Unlike any other wartime leader, he takes no responsibility, he exercises no leadership. Now he has just flat surrendered the fight. Biden has steadily stepped up his attacks on Trumps leadership in recent weeks. But his remarks Wednesday were especially sharp, trying to counter the populism Trump hopes to ride to reelection with stern warnings about how dangerous such an approach would be. At times pounding his lectern for emphasis, Biden said the Republican president wants to declare the pandemic over even as the outbreak continues to kill Americans and disrupt the economy. We may lose some of the progress weve begun to make, all because hes lost interest, Biden said. The U.S. has topped 2 million confirmed coronavirus infections, and some states are reporting increases in cases after reopening their economies. A surge has been reported this week in Florida and Arizona, likely political battlegrounds in the November election. Still, Trump is eager for the country to return to normalcy. Hes hoping that the reopening of businesses and other aspects of life will revive the economy and his reelection prospects. Trump will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday for his first major campaign rally in months despite concerns from local health officials. Biden is taking a much different course. Hes spent much of his time inside his Delaware home to prevent the spread of the virus. Most campaign activities, including fundraisers, have moved online, a strategy that probably will continue in the coming weeks. Biden has announced a virtual fundraiser next week with former President Barack Obama, the first time the two have appeared together in months. When Biden does make public appearances, they usually are limited to locations in Delaware or nearby Pennsylvania. Those events have included strict rules for wearing masks and practicing social distance. He hasnt taken questions from reporters since April 2. Beyond Pennsylvania, Biden hasnt visited any of the premier battleground states such as Michigan and Wisconsin since the pandemic struck. Bidens toned-down campaign style was on display before his Wednesday remarks when he appeared at a nearby soul food restaurant and bar to participate in a socially distanced listening session to hear how the pandemic has affected small businesses. Sitting 6 feet (1.8 metres) from one another around tables outdoors, local business owners expressed concerns over a lack of guidance from the federal government on reopening. Scott Richardson, the owner of Occasionally Yours Cafe and catering company in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, said he cut his workforce from 12 employees to four. He told Biden that he voted for Trump in 2016, but now he says the president is more interested in day trading than long-range planning to combat the coronavirus. Biden told the group that no one in the Trump administration is taking responsibility during the outbreak. Bidens campaign has pledged to resume a normal campaign schedule that will take him around the country, but not before authorities and health officials deem it safe. Trump officials have argued that Biden is using the pandemic as an excuse for holding heavily controlled events. Neither Trump nor Biden engages in many unscripted moments with voters. But Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the presidents reelection campaign, slammed Biden for preferring campaigning from the comfort of his basement rather than travelling the country meeting voters and making the case for his candidacy. These events have been either tightly controlled or covered by press in a pool arrangement, Murtaugh wrote of the former vice-presidents recent stops. At what point will Biden subject himself to the scrutiny American voters deserve when considering the next President of the United States? ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that the last name of the Occasionally Yours Cafe owner is Richardson, not Peterson. A group of aldermen want Chicago to follow cities like Minneapolis and Seattle and remove police officers from the city's schools, one step in a push for broader public safety reform in the wake of George Floyd's death last month. They plan to introduce an ordinance at Wednesday's city council meeting to end a $33-million contract between the Chicago Board of Education and the Chicago Police Department that puts officers in the city's schools to help maintain safety and security. The measure, if approved by aldermen, would also prevent such future agreements. Requests to remove officers aren't new but the outrage expressed nationally since the death of Floyd, a black man who died under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, has invigorated the movement to eliminate systemic racism in various parts of society, including education. "We are pushing to get CPD out of CPS," said Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, a sponsor of the ordinance who also supports defunding the police department. His co-sponsors include aldermen Roderick Sawyer and Jeanette Taylor. "It's time to move on this." The district lets local school councils decide whether to have the police officers, which are called school resource officers, in their schools, according to an emailed statement from CPS. For the 2019-2020 school year, 72 out of 93 district-run high schools opted to keep the officers, according to the district. "Moving forward, we will continue to create forums for formal feedback and engagement so that we can respond to the needs of each school community," Jadine Chou, CPS chief of safety and security, said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. Mayor Lori Lightfoot in recent weeks has said she doesn't plan to remove the city's police from schools even though other cities have taken that step. Earlier this month, the Minneapolis Board of Education voted to end the district's contract with the police department. Schools in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle have followed. In Los Angeles, students and activists have been rallying to end the city's school district's police force, a move supported by leaders of the teachers union. The stationing of officers in U.S. schools in cities coast to coast began in earnest about 60 years ago. The practice increased over the last two decades with a string of school shootings among events that heightened concerns about school safety and bolstered the push for more officers. The recent shift in other cities has come with cries for broader systemic police reforms as Floyd's death was followed by the fatal police shooting of a black man in Atlanta. Many students, parents and teachers have pushed "to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline," Ramirez-Rosa said in an interview on Tuesday. "Our goal is to improve public safety for our children," Ramirez-Rosa said. The tens of millions of dollars Chicago Public Schools spend on police should instead be spent on social workers, therapists, counselors and school aides who are informed about trauma and can prevent situations from escalating, according to Ramirez-Rosa, who expects the ordinance to be referred to the council's public safety committee after it's introduced at the meeting on Wednesday. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order for police reform aimed at curbing police brutality following nationwide protests. In Chicago, Lightfoot is forming a community working group to review and revise the police department's use of force policy. CPS has started hiring a social worker and nurse in every school "to avoid needless interaction with the justice system," according to Lightfoot. "I support CPS' steps, following their lengthy and deliberative process with CPD and community members over the past year, to balance serious concerns for safety in schools with the need to stem the school-to-prison pipeline that has harmed too many children in communities across the country," Lightfoot said in an emailed statement Tuesday. Eleanor Carol Leavell Barr, the wife of Representative Andy Barr, Republican of Kentucky, died at the couples home in Lexington on Tuesday, his office said. She was 39. Ms. Barr died suddenly at the family home in Lexington, according to a statement Tuesday night by Mary Rosado, the congressmans chief of staff. The Fayette County coroners office said on Wednesday that the cause of death was mitral valve prolapse. On Thursday, the coroner, Gary Ginn, said that was a preliminary autopsy finding that is pending routine results from histology and toxicology samples. Mitral valve prolapse is a condition in which the flaps of the hearts mitral valve do not close smoothly or evenly, according to the American Heart Association. While it rarely becomes a serious condition, it can lead to complications such as heart attack and stroke, the association said. 'Hidden mutations' in the DNA of tomato plants could boost their size, weight and flavour leading to new 'super varieties', a study has claimed. Scientists analysed the genomes of 100 tomato varieties, including an orange-berried tomato that grows on the Galapagos and the type used in Ketchup, to reveal more than 200,000 genetic mutations. The team then used this newfound knowledge to modify a plant's genome, causing it to produce 30 per cent larger tomatoes. The research could help boost yields for British farmers and reduce reliance on imports, as the UK currently has to buy 80 per cent of its tomatoes overseas. Scientists identified 200,000 mutations in 100 varieties including an orange-berried one that grows in the Galapagos, and those used to make ketchup and sauces Scientists studying genetic mutations in plants and animals have generally focused on smaller mutations, in which one DNA letter is swapped out for another. However, for this study, the research team used a technique called long-read sequencing to identify much larger structural variations in over 100 types of tomato. 'It is like looking through a panoramic window at large sections of the genome,' said Dr Zachary Lippman from Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the US, who co-authored the study. 'By comparison, more conventional sequencing offered only a peephole.' Using this technique to copy, delete and move long sections of DNA to other parts of the plant's genome, the team were able to identify over 200,000 structural variations. 'What's clear is that many of these mutations alter mechanisms controlling genetic activity,' Dr Lippman said. 'Plants lacking the gene never made fruit, while plants with three copies of the gene made fruit about 30 per cent larger than those with just a single copy.' When the researchers used their newfound knowledge to mutate a tomato plant, it produced 30 per cent larger tomatoes The discovery could help farmers improve their yields from tomato crops. Dr Lippman added: 'These sorts of insights could help explain trait diversity in other crops and enable breeders to improve varieities. 'For instance, perhaps adding an extra copy of the size gene to tiny ground cherries, a close relative of tomato, could increase their appeal by making them larger. 'One of the holy grails in agriculture is to be able to say, "if I mutate this gene, I know what the output will be". 'The field is making important steps toward this kind of predictable breeding.' The findings were published in the journal Cell. Every Republican, every Christian Conservative is going to be called a racist and a bigot by the Fake News Media, as have Steve Scalise and Liz Cheney. Im sorry my future colleagues are unable to stand up to the pressure and fight back, she said. Im sick-and-tired of watching establishment Republicans play defense while the Fake News Media cheers on Antifa terrorists, BLM rioters, and the woke cancel culture, as they burn our cities, loot our businesses, vandalize our memorials, and divide our nation. It is a mistake to consider the corona pandemic is over. It has been continuing due to the failures in medical scientific research without being able yet to find a suitable vaccination. Medical research worldwide has been focusing mainly on marketable pharmaceutical products. by Laksiri Fernando Two thousand twenty (2020) is going to be an exceptional year for many reasons. We are only half way through it. First it was the coronavirus pandemic, still continuing. Then came the economic recession as a consequence of it. Now we have the ongoing protests worldwide, highlighting the systemic racism and police repression. Protestersare not particularly concerned about the health precautions. Right or wrong, the correction of aliments in society appear to be more important for them than the apparent health risks. The present is an international crisis questioning (1) the still prevalent systemic racism particularly in Western countries, (2) the deadly neglect of the global environment by all countries, (3) the widespread injustices in the economic system/s, (4) the apparent neglect of health concerns of the people, (5) the exorbitant social way of life particularly of the filthy rich,and (6) also the still repressive nature of the State, particularly the Police,even under democracy. This is not to reject all progress that humans have achieved during the past two millennia or even before. But to question the still prevailing anomalies, contradictions, injustices, inequalities and repressions. A crisis is also not completely a hopeless situation. It has or can creates opportunities. Therefore, the future of humanity might depend on the way the prevailing problems are handled by (a) all politicians, left and right, (b) all countries, rich and poor, (c) the civil society activists and organizations, and (d) also the ordinary citizens, you and me. The academics, the journalists, the writers, the professionals, the businessmen/women, and opinion leaders have different but important roles to play. The role of the young women and men is of paramount importance. Even Before Even before the coronavirus pandemic, there were all indications that the world was going in the downhill. The election of Donald Trump as the President of USA in 2016 was a clear landmark. There were claims that the election campaign was manipulated by Russia. These were the two super powers, one in a different name, that dominated the world after the world war two. The world was moving in a conservative and an irresponsible direction. Another indication was the election of Boris Johnson in Britain promising to break away from the EU last year. Whatever the weaknesses, the EU opened up new vistas for economic cooperationalthough in a limited manner. A new equitable international economic order is now necessary. While the idealistic globalization is childish, international cooperation is a must for progressive economic and social transformations. Going against this trend, America started a trade war against China, and China has now initiated a similar trade war against Australia, whatever the latters mistakes. The new rightwing trends also were against international migrants and refugees almost all over the world. If the rise of Fascism/sin 1930s and the destruction during the second world war (1939-1945) were any indication, the world should have worked towards a more equitable economic and social systems eradicating poverty and resolving the gaps between the rich and the poor, globally and in between countries. However in the name of economic growth and modernization, these problems and gaps were enhanced. These have been the major international failures before the eruption of coronavirus pandemic, keeping millions of people in poverty, malnutrition and ill-health. Corona Pandemic It is a mistake to consider the corona pandemic is over. It has been continuing due to the failures in medical scientific research without being able yet to find a suitable vaccination. Medical research worldwide has been focusing mainly on marketable pharmaceutical products. The spread of the virus is also a question of neglect of required hygienic conditions particularly in public markets and other places. Although the virus was first erupted in China, who knows whether it was/is prevalent in other countries due to the neglect and pollution of the environment? There are indications that it might be the case. There are cases in various countries where origins cannot be easily traced. When the virus erupted even before becoming a pandemic, the leaders of various countries blamed each other rather than mutually cooperatingin containing its spread. Trump pointed his finger towards China, the name pronounced in a racist fashion. There are other countries who readily followed Trumps example, including Australia. Then China also became aggressive confronting other countries and particularly Australia. Boris Johnson blamed some of the EU countries (France, Italy and Spain) for spreading the virus into Britains territory. Who has send the virus to poor Latin American and African countries? They are unfortunately not in a position to join the blame game because they are largely dependent on these rich countries. The global cases at present are nearly 8 million and 6 percent of them, or nearly half a million, are already dead. According to the Johns Hopkins University data, the most affected 10 countries at presentin terms of detected cases are US, Brazil, Russia, India, UK, Spain, Italy, Peru, France and Germany. More or less, these are also the countries where there are highest number of deaths. It is very clear that the so-called epicenter has now shifted from Europe to Latin America. It might come to Africa next andIndia also can become an epicenter. At the beginning it was in China, and there is a possibility that a second wave might again erupt there. With most European and North American countries relaxing their lockdowns for obvious economic reasons, there is also a possibility of second waves erupting there as well. What has become primarily revealed so far is that apart from the old aged people, the number of deaths and death rates (however you counted them) have depended on poor and insufficient health facilities in the affected countries. This reveals a fundamental defect in the present health systems even in most developed countries. Economic Recession The global economy is predicted to shrink this year by around 6 percent. The previous prediction (April) was half of this percentage. These are from the World Bank and the IMF. If second waves take place in countries like China, USA, India or countries in the EU, the economic contraction might be much higher. A recession is normally a contraction in the business cycle due to demand not meeting the supply. But this recession is different. The economies had to be locked down, due to health reasons. Some countries also installed long term curfews. Although the demand was there even with shopping frenzies at the beginning, the supply could not be supplied due to the lockdowns. The production also largely stopped, and the world trade became halted and/or the transactions delayed. The boarders were virtually shut. Unemployment went high and uncertain-employment also came into the common vocabulary. Then the consumers became protective although large cash incentives were given by various governments. Some of the conservative governments suddenly appeared socialist or welfarist with these incentives. Then new aspirations came into the peoples mind. Of course the lockdowns were or may be necessary due to (1) unknown factors of the virus, (2) initial high death rates, and (3) the lack of knowledge on necessary preventive measures etc. However, all these were due to the unpreparedness within or neglect of the health sectors. Profit making instead of peoples health and welfare has been the norm in socio-economic systems in the world for a long time. Black Lives Matter With the pandemic and the lockdowns, all the scum and dirt in the world also have started to surface like in a Tsunami. Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on George Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes obviously to kill him. Black lives did not matter to him. He obviously believed that under Trumps administration and silence under pandemic guidelines no one would notice his behavior, let alone protest. However that was not the case. Now another black life has been taken away by a police officer in Atlanta. The suppression of blacks in the United States and other countries has a long history. It goes back to slavery and colonialism. Racism in society has many forms. Color of the skin, ethnicity and even the caste represent all shades of racism. Police repressions in society also has more roots, repressing the poor of their own color, ethnicity or the same caste. In modern society, class or caste is also a different race. The application of rules and laws are discriminated depending on the race. Police repression is rooted in the repressive nature of the State even under democracy. In the absence of democracy, the repression obviously is more severe. Bureaucracy in most countries also act as the police. Some of the politicians are the same. This is a dilemma in most democracies or part-democracies as well. The solution is not to discard democracy, but to reform and expand democracy in order to incorporate all people on an equal basis. Human rights can be the criteria, not merely in words but in deeds. One of the most positive developments in the present international crisis is the widespread protest movements that have emerged not only in the US but also internationally. UK, France, Germany, Australia and many other countries have joined the black lives matter protests. Those countries including Australia have their own problems in this respect. In Australia, it is mainly about Aboriginal lives. In all spontaneous movements there are possibilities of the emergence of violence and extremism. Although some political leaders tried to oppose such protests on the pretext of social distancing and other requirements of the pandemic, what they pathetically have failed to answer so far are the necessary reforms in order to allay the protesters justified demands and requests. Necessary Reforms Reforms are urgently necessary globally to address the present repressive nature of the Police. Police is a major remnant of the pre-democratic oppressive State. Instead of partial reforms, overall changes are necessary including perhaps the abolition and establishment of a different institution altogether. The peoples security must take the first priority particularly of the socially marginalized and disadvantaged sections. Instead of Police, it could be named as Peoples Security or in a similar name. It has to be admitted that there are culprits, deviants and violators in society. To prevent and reform them, there should be effective educational and other programs. When those deviations are detected, Peoples Security should soon bring them before the judiciary. Arbitrary law enforcement should be abolished. Police is a convenient tool of the State for law and order. But not democratic. Another debate that has emerged in the protest movements is about some of the historical figures linked to slavery, racism, colonialism and oppression. There had been some demolitionsand vandalism of their statutes in several countries. Even some of the reasonable progressive leaders have expressed the view that those monuments should be kept as they are historical figures. It is acceptable that most of these historical figures may have both positive and negative traits. However the protesters ask why their statues are kept in public,if not to justify racism, slavery, colonialism and oppression? They further argue that those statutes/monuments obviously could go to Museums, and their role to history books. Even if these arguments are correct vandalism or violence probably is not the way to go about it. The name and image of Aunt Jemima syrup, which began 131 years ago, will be replaced on products and advertising by the end of the year, Quaker Oats announced. ( Donald King / Associated Press) It took decades, but Aunt Jemima is retiring, with Uncle Ben soon to follow. Mrs. Butterworth is also being rethought. These characters have their origins in longtime racist stereotypes. Black writers have long traced Aunt Jemima to minstrelsy and the mammy symbol, a caricature of Black women that casts them as happy in their domestic service to white families and loyal to the institution of slavery. As Riche Richardson pointed out in 2015 , the white founders of the pancake mix brand drew inspiration from the minstrel song Old Aunt Jemima, a staple that was performed by men in blackface . Uncle, in a similar vein, was used by white Southerners as a pejorative for older Black men whom they refused to address with the more respectful Mr. Lets not kid ourselves the renaming of commercial brands doesnt solve racism, especially because corporations from Amazon to PepsiCo (which owns Quaker Oats, maker of Aunt Jemima) take a stance on social issues only when it helps their bottom line. But it's also true that cultural symbols matter. Who we read about in textbooks, see honored in statues, and portrayed on television shapes how children and young people in particular see themselves and the possibilities that are open to them. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, Land O Lakes, Trader Ming, Miss Chiquita and the countless caricatures of Black, indigenous, and other people of color baked into American popular culture are part of a long history of white people flattening ethnic culture and peoples into digestible, safe symbols that they can, literally, digest. A large part of this comes from the need to appeal to the white consumer stripping yoga from its religious roots, for instance, and placing a white person at the front of the room to make it less mystic or exotic, also makes it easier to sell to white consumers. Throw in a few baby goats, and youve got a safe and utterly disrespectful way for white people to experience Indian culture. Story continues Seeing a happy Native American woman on a Land O Lakes box (which has since been changed) or watching Disneys Pocahontas helps one forget that indigenous people are modern communities, not long-vanished peoples, and that the Navajo Nation, the countrys largest reservation, had a higher coronavirus death rate than any state in America as of mid-May. Its the same reason why white people open psuedo-Chinese restaurants like Lucky Lees to make healthy and clean versions of dishes that white consumers see as more accessible" than dirty food prepared by actual Chinese chefs. The persistence of racist caricatures such as Aunt Jemima are a reminder to people of color that they are rarely allowed to occupy positions of cultural prominence unless they are tokenized. As our society strives toward racial inclusion, diversity in representation should not mean sanitized versions of people of color or their histories. When Alex Lau, a former Bon Appetit photographer, questioned why the company didnt want to shoot African food and recipes, he was told that they were tricky , and that readers probably wouldnt want to make the food. Telling the stories of people of color in their full richness and complexity, rather than reducing them to a trope for a white audience, is crucial. Getting rid of racist cultural symbols from replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day to finally rebranding Aunt Jemima is a first step toward correcting a sanitized, Eurocentric view of history and culture. Whether we like it or not, these symbols are used to dictate who gets to belong to American culture, as well as the ways in which they are allowed to belong. For people of color, and Black and indigenous people in particular, acceptance in American society has, for too long, meant flattening oneself into white standards of acceptability and respectability, becoming the pleasant and placid Aunt Jemima or Miss Chiquita or Trader Ming. It's long past time to retire these harmful stereotypes. The claims of the Prosecutor Generals Office of Armenia that second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan hadnt taken any action to impact investigation while being in liberty for five consecutive months because he feared that the decision on release would be annulled, are groundless. This is what Kocharyans attorney Hayk Alumyan told reporters after the trial in the Criminal Court of Appeal. The arguments of the Prosecutor Generals Office are groundless simply because if, as they say, Robert Kocharyan hadnt taken any action in the past since the court was investigating the prosecutors appeal, then, based on their logic, Kocharyan also wont take any action now so that the decision, if rendered, isnt annulled. This means their argument is against them. However, this is not the most important reason why Robert Kocharyan wont have any impact on investigation. The most important reason is that he isnt preparing to take any action at all, the attorney emphasized. Calling Sushant Singh Rajput as a true friend, Israel has expressed its deepest condolences at the death of the young Bollywood star. Sushant, 34, was found dead in his Bandra apartment on Sunday. On Tuesday, Gilad Cohen, deputy director general of Israels foreign ministry, took to Twitter to mourn the actors sudden demise. Sending my deepest condolences on the passing of Sushant Singh Rajput, a true friend of Israel. You will be missed! Cohen wrote while sharing the link of the song Makhna from the actors last film Drive. Sushant and his co-star Jacqueline Fernandez had shot the song in Israel as part of its ongoing efforts to bring Bollywood to the country. Sending my deepest condolences on the passing of @its_sushant_fc, a true friend of Israel. You will be missed! Check out one of the great things that came of his trip to Israel in the link below. #IsraelLooksEast #RIPSushantSinghRajput https://t.co/GM9bjM09XD pic.twitter.com/oukPiMFinh Gilad Cohen (@GiladCohen_) June 16, 2020 Rajput had allegedly died of suicide at his Bandra residence by hanging himself on Sunday, as per the police. The untimely death of Rajput has sent shockwaves among celebrities and his fans. Scores of actors and public figures from all quarters expressed their condolences. Sushant is getting a website dedicated to him and it aims at sharing all the positive energies that he spread in his life. The website is called selfmusing.com is under developement. His many ideas, thoughts and dreams will be available on the site for his fans to remember him by. Also read: Karan Johars SOTY 2 director Punit Malhotra comments on outpouring of love for Sushant Singh Rajput He is away but he is still alive with us. Kickstarting #SelfMusing mode https://selfmusing.com/. Fans like you were real godfather for Sushant. As promised to him, converting this space into a collection of all his thoughts, learnings, dreams, and wishes, he always wanted people to know. Yes, we are documenting all the positive energies he has left behind in this world. #AlwaysAlive #BestofSSR, posted Sushant Singh Rajputs team on Facebook. If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist. Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918 Follow @htshowbiz for mor Like other businesses, criminals seek to lower their costs by going after the easiest targets, To deter them, your business just has to be more difficult to attack than another one they can hack or walk into. A NYC area small business IT security consultant and Cloud services provider presents 10 inexpensive ways to improve small business security in a new article on the eMazzanti Technologies website. The informative article recommends that businesses check the building daily, greet every customer and visitor and install digital security cameras to deter criminals. The author also encourages shredding important documents, creating a social media policy and regular security training for employees. Finally, after listing additional security measures, he urges business leaders to consult small business security experts for a security audit. Like other businesses, criminals seek to lower their costs by going after the easiest targets, stated Jennifer Mazzanti, CEO, eMazzanti Technologies. To deter them, your business just has to be more difficult to attack than another one they can hack or walk into. Below are a few excerpts from the article, 10 Inexpensive Ways to Improve Small Business Security. Control Access Limit the risk of data or equipment theft by making it harder to access sensitive information and valuable equipment. Limit access to employees that need it to perform their work. Simple things such as effective password and authentication policies, key procedures, and deadbolts on doors go a long way toward increasing security. Greet Every Customer and Visitor A security tip from retail, eyes high and smile, reminds employees how to engage customers and office visitors. If you greet people when they walk in, they are less likely to steal from you. They know someone is paying attention and watching. Install Digital Security Cameras Installing digital security cameras is one of the easiest and most effective ways of boosting security in your business. HD Digital Cameras use existing computer network wiring or Wi-Fi for connectivity. These inexpensive, Internet Protocol (IP) cameras quickly and easily network into a single security system with DVR capabilities. Get Expert Help eMazzanti Technologies reminds business leaders that the doer should never be the checker. A mistake repeated often in retail is that the same firm has been doing the security audit and deployment for a long time. Because of that, there are no new fresh ideas coming in. The company urges small business owners to rotate some of the security vendors every few years. The small business security experts at eMazzanti can perform a security audit and walk them through numerous tools and ideas. For not a lot of money they can make it difficult for a bad person to take advantage. Have you read? Introducing the COVID-19 New Normal Office Productivity eMazzanti Technologies Ranked First in Retail Technology on ChannelE2E Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs List About eMazzanti Technologies eMazzantis team of trained, certified IT experts rapidly deliver increased revenue growth, data security and productivity for clients ranging from law firms to high-end global retailers, providing advanced retail and payment technology, cloud and mobile solutions, multi-site implementations, 247 outsourced network management, remote monitoring and support. eMazzanti has made the Inc. 5000 list eight consecutive years, is a 4X Microsoft Partner of the Year, the #1 ranked NYC area MSP and NJ Business of the Year! Contact: 1-866-362-9926, info@emazzanti.net or http://www.emazzanti.net Twitter: @emazzanti Facebook: Facebook.com/emazzantitechnologies. KYODO NEWS - Jun 17, 2020 - 20:15 | All, Japan, Coronavirus Japan received an estimated 1,700 foreign travelers in May, an all-time low for the second consecutive month, amid the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Wednesday. The number, down 99.9 percent from a year earlier and compared with 2,900 in April, is the lowest since 1964, when the government began compiling such statistics, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. It is the eighth consecutive monthly decline, as travel restrictions were imposed globally amid the spread of the virus, according to the preliminary data. With cases of coronavirus infections topping 8 million worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University, it is set to be some time before travelers can return. Related coverage: Sapporo Snow Festival to be scaled down in 2021 due to pandemic Japan plans to let in 250 foreigners daily under eased travel curbs Foreign long-term residents insecure about Japanese skills: survey While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration is considering partially easing entry restrictions, it is now focused on stimulating domestic tourism by Japanese residents through subsidies. "We'll promote domestic tourism by providing a safe and secure traveling environment, and aim to revitalize local economies," Hiroshi Tabata, chief of the Japan Tourism Agency, told a press conference. The number of visitors from China plunged to just 30 in May from 756,365 a year earlier, and those from South Korea totaled 20 against 603,394, the data showed. Travelers from the United States dropped to 50 from 156,962 in May 2019, and those from India and France were 30 and 20, respectively. The number of Japanese nationals departing the country in May plunged 99.6 percent to 5,500 from 1,437,929 a year earlier but slightly picked up from 3,915 the previous month. The accumulated number of foreign visitors from January to May declined 71.3 percent from a year earlier to 3.94 million, the data showed. Japan currently imposes an entry ban on 111 countries and regions. The government is considering easing restrictions on countries where the virus is under control, such as Vietnam. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: Iran hopes that that 14th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Iran Joint Interstate Commission will be held in Tehran in the near future, with full compliance of health protocols, Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister and Iranian co-chair of the Azerbaijan-Iran Joint Interstate Commission on cooperation in the economic, trade and humanitarian spheres Farhad Dejpasand said, Trend reports citing Iranian embassy to Baku. Dejpasand made the remark during a telephone conversation with Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev. Dejpasand also invited the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan to visit Iran. According to Dejpasand, economic relations will develop as a result of joint cooperation and assistance of the two countries. Shahin Mustafayev in turn expressed satisfaction with the development of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Iran. Speaking about COVID-19, Mustafayev said that in order to combat the disease and minimize the negative impact of the spread of the disease on Azerbaijan's economic sectors, the government has taken comprehensive steps to support the economy and other sectors by developing comprehensive programs. Dejpasand and Mustafayev also discussed the latest state of joint projects of Azerbaijan and Iran within the North-South Corridor, as well as the establishment of a joint industrial park in the Bilasuvar county of Iran near the joint border Last year, a preliminary agreement was reached on the establishment of a joint Iranian-Azerbaijani industrial park in the Bilasuvar county of Iran's Ardabil Province. The alleged ringleader of a $50 million prescription fraud scheme pleaded guilty to two charges Tuesday in federal court, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. William Hickman, 44, of Northfield, appeared via video conference before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler and, as part of the agreement, hell pay more than $53 million in restitution and forfeit property. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Hickman was among seven charged in March 2019 including a police officer and multiple firefighters in connection with the alleged scam enlisting government and school employees to seek unnecessary speciality medications for ailments including pain, scarring, fungal and libido problems, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. Charges against five of the defendants remain pending. As for the sixth, the prosecution stated in court that it expects to soon dismiss the indictment charging Hickmans wife, Sara Hickman. William Hickman was a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company when he created a side business called Boardwalk Medical LLC, in his wifes name, to sell medical products for other companies an activity that was prohibited by his employer, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. Hickman began persuading patients to receive compounded medications, which are specialty medications mixed by a pharmacist to meet the specific medical needs of an individual patient, prosecutors alleged. He learned that certain insurance plans would reimburse thousands of dollars for a one-month supply of certain compounded medications including pain, scar, antifungal, and libido creams, as well as vitamin combinations, prosecutors said. He also learned that many New Jersey state and local government and education employees, including teachers, firefighters, police officers, and state troopers, had this coverage. In a statement following the hearing, U.S. Craig Carpenito said that Hickman orchestrated an elaborate scheme to submit prescriptions for unnecessary compounded medications on behalf of patients who had never seen a doctor. He did so to steal millions of dollars from medical health benefits systems that were intended to help employees get the treatments they needed and deserved, Carpenito said. Hickmans attorney, Charles McKenna, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He faces up to 30 years in prison at his sentencing Nov. 6. Prior reporting from NJ Advance Media staff reporter Amanda Hoover was used in this story. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. An Iranian regulatory body on Tuesday issued a permit allowing price hikes of up to 25 percent for domestically produced home appliances in a bid to control runaway prices. Fast devaluation of the national currency and higher costs of production have led to soaring prices in every sector. The devaluation is mainly due to U.S. sanctions that have drastically cut Iran's foreign currency revenues. Iran's already weak rial has dropped more than 20 percent in the last four months partly due to the COVID pandemic and partly because of dwindling foreign currency reserves. Prices of many domestic products deemed as essential are highly regulated by the government in Iran. Food staples, cars and motorcycles as well as home appliances are subject to price regulation. The government also often halts or puts a cap on imports to support local producers and manufacturers. In recent months the prices of some home appliances have gone up by as much as 50 percent but the market regulatory body says it will only allow a 20 percent increase in the price of television sets and 25 percent for other appliances in comparison with February prices. Iran's Consumers and Manufacturers Protection Organization can take punitive measures against those selling products at higher prices. According to the Statistics Center of Iran the cost of production went up by around 42 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020). On Friday President Hassan Rouhani ordered related organizations to take immediate measures to supervise and regulate the prices of home appliances and increase production to prevent prices from soaring and becoming unaffordable. Hamshahri newspaper on Friday reported that home appliances manufacturers have several times stopped production since March and resumed their sales with an increase of between 5 to 10 percent each time. Manufacturers say the devaluation of the rial against major foreign currencies has made production highly unprofitable. According to the spokesperson of the Home Appliances Manufacturers Union, importing raw materials has become very costly due to the higher forex rates. The price of a sheet of steel has nearly tripled in a fortnight, he said. Ministry of Industries figures show a significant drop in the production of some home appliances such as television sets and washing machines since 2018 when the United States re-introduced sanctions against Iran. Seven people tested positive for Covid-19 in Mohali on Wednesday, taking the districts total count to 191. All cases have been reported from Dera Bassi subdivison, which accounts for 52% of the infections in the district. A 35-year-old woman and her 18-year-old son from Dappar are among the fresh cases. They contracted the virus from the womans husband who had tested positive after returning from Delhi on June 8. Other five patients are a 24-year-old man from Zirakpur, and three women, aged 30, 36, and 53, and a man, aged 30, from Dera Bassi town. They, too, are contacts of a positive patient, who had travelled from Delhi recently. Civil surgeon Dr Manjit Singh said all patients have been shifted to Gian Sagar Hospital in Banur and are responding well to the treatment. Meanwhile, five persons were discharged from hospital on Wednesday. So far, 191 people have tested positive in the district, of which 132 people have been cured and three have succumbed. There are 56 active cases. The road to the entrance of Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on March 16, 2020. (John Raoux/AP Photo) Disney Workers Among Group Arrested for Possession of Child Porn: Sheriff Two Disney workers were among 16 men arrested for possession of child pornography, a Florida sheriff said. Justin Hazan, 32, and Arlandres Sims, 36, both work at Walt Disney World and live together, they told Polk County Sheriff Department detectives. Hazan works as an operator on a ride and Sims works as a food runner at the Animal Kingdom Resort. Both men admitted to downloading and possessing child porn, officials said. When officers went to the house, they only knew about Sims, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference on Tuesday. They found during the investigation that Hazan was also looking at the porn, he added. Arlandres actually said, youre doing it, too?' he recounted. Walt Disney World told The Epoch Times in an email: Both of these individuals were placed on unpaid leave. Men arrested for possessing child porn, including two Disney workers. (Polk County Sheriffs Department) In a statement about the charges, Judd said the videos and photographs contain horrific images and include children being forced to perform sex acts. Those who upload and share child pornography are victimizing children over and over again. Those arrested in this operation create the demand that sustains a child pornographic exploitation distribution pipeline that traumatizes children across the world. Their behavior is disgusting, he added. Fourteen other men were arrested as part of the operation, including Nabor Molina, a 45-year-old illegal immigrant, and Joshua Charles Johnson, a 27-year-old who was recently released from prison for robbery. No child victims were located during the probe, Judd said told reporters. Our ultimate goal is to find these children. Sometimes we do, unfortunately, a lot of times we dont, he added. Cheap Steroid Can Help Seriously Ill COVID-19 Patients, Study Shows By Ken Bredemeier June 16, 2020 A cheap and widely available steroid drug has shown it can save the lives of the most seriously ill COVID-19 patients, British researchers said Tuesday. Scientists called the use of dexamethasone, normally used to reduce inflammation in patients with arthritis and other diseases, a "major breakthrough" in the treatment of patients infected by the coronavirus who have been hospitalized and needed the use of a ventilator or supplemental oxygen. Researchers at the University of Oxford said that a study of more than 6,400 patients a third of whom were administered the drug and two-thirds of whom were not showed that use of the drug was particularly beneficial for the most seriously ill patients but did not appear to help less ill patients. They said the drug, either administered orally or through an IV, reduced deaths by 35% in patients who needed treatment with a ventilator and by 20% in those who only needed supplemental oxygen. "This is an extremely welcome result," researcher Peter Horby said in a statement. "The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients. Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide." Britain's health minister said the state-run health service would immediately start using the drug for the most severe COVID-19 patients and had stockpiled 200,000 courses of the treatment. "This is a (trial) result that shows that if patients who have COVID-19 and are on ventilators or are on oxygen are given dexamethasone, it will save lives, and it will do so at a remarkably low cost," said Martin Landray, an Oxford University professor who co-led the research. "It's going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that for less than 50 pounds ($63.26), you can treat eight patients and save a life," he said in an online briefing. The researchers said that had the drug been used from the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, up to 5,000 lives in Britain could have been saved. The research on dexamethasone was part of the same study that earlier this month showed the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was not working against the coronavirus, the same outcome other tests have shown. U.S. President Donald Trump for weeks touted the use of hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus preventive treatment and said he took the drug earlier during the pandemic. Researchers in the U.S. and elsewhere are in a frantic rush to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, but experts say it could be next year or beyond before such a cure is found. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address As Canada vies for UNSC seat, new survey shows 74 percent of its citizens want country to oppose Israel annexation plan. Most Canadians want Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government to oppose Israels illegal plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, according to a new poll released ahead of a vote on Canadas bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The poll, conducted by EKOS Research Associates and published on Tuesday, showed that three out of four Canadians want their government to express opposition to Israeli annexation in some form, while 42 percent supported the use of economic or diplomatic sanctions against Israel. The surveys authors said it confirms that Canadian foreign policy is out of touch with the preferences of Canadians as Ottawa competes for a non-permanent seat at the UNSC. Canada is facing off against Norway and Ireland in Wednesdays vote, where the three nations are vying for two seats. To win the coveted position, Canada will have to obtain two-thirds of the vote in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) or 128 votes if all 193 nations vote. Trudeaus government has invested heavily in the effort, but rights groups have opposed the bid, noting Canadas staunch support of Israel. Thomas Woodley, president of Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East which cosponsored the survey, said its results prove that Canadians want more than words from Trudeau when it comes to opposing Israels annexation. Not only is it necessary to threaten sanctions to discourage annexation from taking place, but there is considerable support among the Canadian public to do so, he said in a statement. Israels plan to annex a third of the occupied West Bank featured heavily in a proposed Middle East plan announced by US President Donald Trump in January. Trumps plan suggested a Palestinian state reduced to isolated enclaves with no control over its borders. The plan prompted widespread criticism, with more than 50 European former foreign ministers and leaders saying it has characteristics similar to apartheid. But Canada remained largely silent on the issue. On June 1, more than 100 organisations and dozens of prominent figures delivered an open letter to all UN ambassadors, urging countries to vote for Ireland and Norway instead of Canada. The letter pointed out that Trudeaus government has voted against more than 50 UNGA resolutions upholding Palestinian rights that were backed by the majority of member states. In total, Canada has voted against 166 resolutions critical of Israels treatment of Palestinians since 2000 when Ottawa last held a seat on the UNSC. The letter also noted Canadas refusal to abide by UNSC Resolution 2334, which was passed in 2016 and called on member states to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied in 1967. Instead, Canada extends economic and trade assistance to Israels illegal settlement enterprise, the letter said, also slamming the former Canadian foreign ministers remark that Ottawa would act as an asset for Israel should it win a seat on the UNSC. The mounting criticism forced Trudeau earlier this month to clarify his position on Israels annexation plan. I have highlighted both publicly and directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu and alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz the importance of staying away from measures that are unilateral and our deep concerns and disagreement with their proposed policy of annexation, Trudeau said at the June 2 news briefing. It was the first time Trudeau mentioned the annexation plan since January. Marc-Andre Blanchard, Canadian ambassador to the UN, also hit back at the rights groups allegations, saying their open letter contained significant inaccuracies and mischaracterised Canadas position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his own letter (PDF) to all UN ambassadors on June 10, Blanchard said Canada supported the creation of a Palestinian state, living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel. The only means to a two-state solution is direct negotiations, he said, adding: Canada views any unilateral annexation of parts of the West Bank as contrary to international law. Canada has expressed deep concern and disagreement with the proposed policy of annexation and raised the issue publicly. But critics say it was too little, too late. The question is: Then what? asked Corey Balsam at the Independent Jewish Voices, highlighting the need for action against Israel to ensure accountability. Trudeau speaks a lot about the importance of maintaining a rules-based international order but of course, annexation is at complete odds with international law and those rules, Balsam said. Canadas staunch support for Israel has been one reason why they havent gotten a UNSC seat in the past. Well see [on Wednesday] if they are successful this time. Michael Lynk, UN special rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, also questioned Canadas silence on Israeli annexation plans, given its opposition to Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014. In March, Canada issued a statement to mark the sixth anniversary of Russias annexation of Crimea in which its opposition to annexation was clear: Canada unequivocally condemns this violation of Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity and of international law. But on the Palestinian issue, Canada has had a bad case of diplomatic laryngitis, Lynk said. Canada puts itself in a weak position as it campaigns for a UN security seat. He added: It would be interesting to see how Canada makes out in its current Security Council bid against Ireland and Norway who have a principled position in respect to international law and its application to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With restrictions on the size of gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic, school district officials have been forced to make difficult choices on graduations ceremonies. The Bayonne school district Wednesday announced an ambitious plan to host 12 drive-thru graduations at Stephen R. Gregg Hudson County Park over a three-day span next week. The events will be held rain or shine. District officials said all social distancing guidelines will be in place and enforced. The wearing of face coverings is strongly encouraged. The Henry Harris (4 p.m.), Vroom (4:45 p.m.), Lincoln (5:15 p.m.), Horace Mann (6 p.m.) and Midtown (7 p.m.) graduations will be held on June 23. Washington (4 p.m.), Donohoe (4:45 p.m.), Woodrow Wilson (5:15 p.m.), Bailey (6 p.m.) and Oresko (7 p.m.) graduations will be held June 24. On June 25, Robinson School will graduate at 4 p.m., followed by Bayonne High students with last names A-L at 5 p.m. and BHS students M-Z at 6 p.m. Kearny High School also opted for a drive-thru graduation ceremony, with 423 graduated being honored over a span of nine days this month. After 9 days, 423 graduates, 36+ hours and lots of smiles, we have completed our drive-through graduation. Congratulations to the Kearny HS Class of 2020 #one4therecordbooks #diplomainthetimeofapandemic #KearnyPride pic.twitter.com/WOx2wVfxpS Patricia Blood (@KearnySupt) June 15, 2020 North Bergen and Hoboken have announced to their students that they will host in-person graduation ceremonies next month. Hoboken Board of Education President Sharyn Angley said the district will host a full day of multiple small ceremonies outside on the JFK Stadium Field after July 6, complying with all guidelines set forth by the governor, including social distancing, use of masks and not exceeding the maximum number of people allowed in outside gatherings. The Hoboken High School graduation will be held July 8, with each graduate allowed to invite two guests. The ceremonies will be live-streamed and a video will be available on the local cable access channel and on the district YouTube channel. In addition, the school is creating a tribute video for the senior class with best wishes sent by teachers, administrators and local officials, Angley said. North Bergen, with a larger senior class than Hoboken, will host two days of high school graduations at Bruins Stadium in James J. Braddock North Hudson Park July 8-9. There are nearly 600 seniors, a spokesman said, and they will be split into four graduations. The eighth-grade graduation ceremony will be held on July 13, also at Bruins Stadium, Superintendent George Solter said in a video message to students. The the Hudson County Schools of Technology and the Jersey City and Union City school districts are among those that decided to stick with virtual graduations. Jersey Citys high school graduations are set for today, June 17. Union City has pre-recorded its graduation ceremonies and will post them on the districts website and Facebook page Friday. The middle school graduations (Emerson, Union Hill and Sara Gilmore) will be posted at 1 p.m. and the high school graduation will be posted at 6 p.m. The district is also asking all residents to pay tribute to the graduating classes by joining a 9 p.m. clapout and clap your hands, bang pots and pans, play drums, blow horns and whistles, and shout with joy from your windows and balconies. City officials are asking residents to stay safe and participate from homes, not the streets. High Tech and County Prep/ATD high schools will have their virtual graduations online June 25 at 10 a.m. and noon, respectively. The Explore Middle School graduation will be held at noon June 19. Links to each ceremony will be available at hcstonline.org. Ahead of the graduations, students will have the opportunity to receive their diplomas in-person at their school, say their final farewell to various staff and administration and take professional photographs with family members, officials said. While this years graduation does not resemble what we have come to expect, neither does the Class of 2020, Superintendent Amy-Lin Rodriguez said. There are no adequate words to describe the pride I feel when I think about the resilience, perseverance and strength this class and our entire HCST community has demonstrated. Congratulations Class of 2020, you have made us so very proud! At each virtual ceremony, students will be addressed by U.S. Senator Cory Booker, Superintendent Amy Lin-Rodriguez and their principals. Almost three decades after its establishment, Jetstar Pacific struggles to be profitable in Vietnams increasingly crowded aviation market. Chairman of the budget carrier, Trinh Hong Quang, said recently that it has not been able to make a breakthrough despite operating for 29 years. The company has only reported profits for four years. Jetstar Pacific, originally named Pacific Airlines, was the first joint stock airline established in Vietnam, in 1991, after the country allowed foreign investment in domestic carriers. The government then owned 86.49 percent of Pacific Airlines via the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), with the rest belonging to two domestic private firms. When the CAAV established Vietnam Airlines in 1993, it transferred all its stake in Pacific Airlines to the national flag carrier. In 2006, the government transferred the 86.49 percent stake in Pacific Airlines to the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), a state-owned company tasked with utilizing state funds. The airline had yet to turn a profit then. A year later, Australias Qantas bought an 18 percent stake in the airline. Its name was then changed to Jetstar Pacific and it became the first low cost airline in Vietnam. Despite expectations that a foreign investor would transform the business, Jetstar Pacific teetered on the brink. By the end of 2007, it reported an accumulated loss of nearly $55 million. To save the airline, the government had to sell additional shares to Qantas, increasing its stake to 31 percent of the airline. Jetstar Pacific reported its first profit in July 2009, but made losses for the whole year. By 2012, the airlines accumulated loss doubled from five years earlier to VND2.4 trillion ($104 million). That year, SCIC transferred all its stake in the airline back to Vietnam Airlines. Jetstar Pacific posted its first annual profit in 2014 at VND8 billion ($343,300), which rose to VND112 billion ($4.8 million) the following year before plummeting to losses in 2016 and 2017. At the end of 2017, it had accumulated losses of VND4 trillion ($162 million). At this time, Vietnam Airlines owned nearly 70 percent of Jetstar Pacific, while Qantas owned 30 percent. By expanding its fleet and lowering costs, the airline posted its highest profit ever in the first nine months of 2019 at VND205 billion ($8.8 million). With the Covid-19 pandemic cancelling flights for months, the carrier estimates a record-high loss of VND1.2 trillion ($51 million) this year. It is at this juncture that Qantas is set to divest its stake in the carrier, selling it to Vietnam Airlines. Chairman Quang, who is also a deputy CEO of Vietnam Airlines, said that there were differences in management style between Australian private company Qantas and state-owned Vietnam Airlines, and the former does not understand the Vietnam market, which is crucial for the budget carrier. The small fleet of 18 jets is another reason for the airlines lackluster performance, Quang said, adding that the airline plans to strengthen it to 30-40 in upcoming years. Its competitor Vietjet had 78 aircraft by the end of last year and wants to bring this number to 200 by 2025. Quang said Vietnam Airlines will buy back Qantass to own 98 percent of the airline, which will once again be called Pacific Airlines. Industry insiders say that even with a new restructuring plan, Pacific Airlines will still face challenges with Vietjet having secured 41.9 percent of the domestic market. They note that even leading low-cost carrier AirAsia last year abandoned its plans to launch a joint venture in Vietnam following three failed attempts. With two more carriers, Vietravel Airlines and KiteAir, waiting in the wings, local competition is set to intensify further. Vietnamese airlines served 116 million passengers last year, up 12 percent from 2018, according to the Airports Corporation of Vietnam. Quaker Oats Co. announced Wednesday it will retire the name and branding of its Aunt Jemima products. We recognize Aunt Jemimas origins are based on a racial stereotype," said Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods North America. As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers expectations." For 130 years, the pancake syrup and mix have had the image of a black woman named Aunt Jemima. The origin of the name and logo is based on the song Old Aunt Jemima from a minstrel show performer, according to a 2015 New York Times article by Riche Richardson, an associate professor at Cornell University. The logo, Richardson wrote, was grounded in the stereotype of the mammy, which she describes as a devoted and submissive servant who eagerly nurtured the children of her white master and mistress while neglecting her own. The company's timeline of the history of the product says Aunt Jemima was first "brought to life" by Nancy Green, a black woman who was formerly enslaved and became the face of the product in 1890. We acknowledge the brand has not progressed enough to appropriately reflect the confidence, warmth and dignity that we would like it to stand for today, said Kroepfl. We are starting by removing the image and changing the name." The company also said it would donate at least $5 million over the next five years to create meaningful, ongoing support and engagement in the Black community. Quaker said the new packaging will begin to appear in the fall of 2020, and a new name for the foods will be announced at a later date. KUWAIT CITY, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese military medical experts on Tuesday held a videoconference with Kuwaiti military officials and counterparts to exchange experiences in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference, hosted by the Medical Service Directorate of the Logistic Support Department of China's Central Military Commission, was attended by military officials and experts from the Kuwait Army's Medical Services Authority and Jaber Al-Ahmad Armed Forces Hospital, as well as Kuwaiti experts in epidemic prevention and control. At the conference, the two sides briefed each other on the army's participation in the COVID-19 prevention and control. The medical experts from both sides also exchanged experiences on epidemic prevention and control, diagnostic testing, clinical treatment, and vaccine research and development. The Chinese experts focused on the treatment of typical cases of COVID-19 as well as the prevention and control measures taken in the hospitals. They also answered all the questions from their Kuwaiti counterparts. Xue Chuanlai, defence attache of the Chinese Embassy in Kuwait, said that since the outbreak of the coronavirus, the two countries have been working together to fight the coronavirus, reflecting the strategic level of the bilateral relations. This conference is the first important action taken by the two armies to enhance epidemic prevention cooperation, Xue noted. "I hope that the two armies will take this conference as an opportunity to further strengthen cooperation in various fields such as medical treatment, so as to achieve more fruitful results," he added. The Kuwaiti side hailed the tremendous efforts and important achievements made by the Chinese army in the fight against the pandemic, while expressing gratitude to China for sharing the anti-coronavirus experiences. Dave Fider, Wojabi Founder & CEO This creates the opportunity for the average person to experience a Napa Valley-like tour right from the comfort of their home... If you are into wine but find yourself unsure of what to select when you are at the store, you'll be happy to learn about a new company named Wojabi. Dave Fider's vision for his Tampa-based company, which focuses on simplifying the wine selection process, has launched and the timing could not have been any better! Wine consumption in the United States has seen steady growth year-over-year, reaching almost one billion gallons consumed domestically each year. In addition, the company's direct-to-consumer model comes in the midst of a global pandemic where consumers are widely encouraged to stay at home as much as possible. These factors, among others, position Wojabi into the marketplace during a prime moment. Fider, who is a veteran entrepreneur and Indiana native, does not take the opportunity presented to him for granted. "Well obviously the timing wasn't planned but when you prepare, serendipity sometimes plays out for in your favor. The vision, the timing, the partnerships have all been a blessing," he says. The vision that he speaks of is inspired by the availability of a wide variety of wines in the marketplace, with a void for a way of understanding what to expect from each winea void Wojabi aims to fill. Wine in most stores are mass-produced, oftentimes resulting in lower quality. Additionally, there is not an easy way of knowing much about the wine until after you have purchased it. When you visit the Wojabi website, you'll find a host of features designed to address that issue, making the process of exploring wine much easier for the average person. "We want to provide the opportunity for everyone to experience high-quality wines. At the same time, educating on those wines in a language that makes sense to the average person," adds Fider. The Wojabi CEO is best known in the digital marketing world for his company, Fider Marketing, which has generated business leads for some well-known brands like College Bound Network, Auto Insure USA, Maxbounty, and others. However, wine is a passion of his and he's excited about this leap into new areas. "It's definitely new for me, but I'm loving it! This creates the opportunity for the average person to experience a Napa Valley-like tour right from the comfort of their home, so I'm looking forward to being a part of that," says Fider. Wojabi is accepting new members over the age of 21 and currently shipping wines to most U.S. states. https://www.wojabi.com Confirmed social media accounts, Instagram: @davefider and @wojabiwines CPAC is a popular idea among some activists but has not found much support from city officials. In the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, however, activists have been pushing for tougher oversight of cops. CPAC has been criticized by some as anti-police and those opposing the measure have questioned whether it can pass legal muster. The ordinance, for instance, bans anyone who has ever worked in law enforcement or who is related to anyone in law enforcement from being on the board. Camper fire claims the life of two people in Marshall County A French court has ordered the seizure of a 26m London property belonging to the uncle of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after he was found guilty of fraud. Rifaat al-Assad was found guilty of acquiring millions worth of property in France and London using funds diverted from the Middle Eastern state. He was sentenced to four years in prison in France on Wednesday. The court in Paris also ruled his property in France will be seized along with a property worth 29m (26m) in London. His lawyers said their client would appeal against the courts verdict. Rifaat al-Assad is a former military commander who is widely held responsible for crushing an Islamist uprising against then-president Hafez al-Assad, Bashars father, in 1982. Many thousands were killed in the conflict. He has lived in exile, mostly in France, since the mid-1980s, after being accused of trying to seize power from his brother. French judicial authorities suspected him of having unduly acquired real estate in several countries between 1984 and 2016 with funds from Syria. He repeatedly denied the allegations and said he acquired his wealth as a gift from the Saudi king. The French court also ordered him to pay 30,000 (27,000) to the anti-corruption organisations Sherpa and Transparency International France, which first filed a legal complaint against him in 2013. This ruling shows that nobody escapes justice and there is no impunity, Sherpas lawyer Vincent Brengarth told reporters. Among the properties that will be seized is a mansion on the prestigious Avenue Foch in Paris. Its an extremely harsh decision that seems unjustified, Assads lawyer Benjamin Grundler told reporters. There are no funds of Syrian origin in this case. All funds are legitimate. Assad will not be sent to prison pending the appeal. In 2017, Spanish authorities seized more than 500 properties in Spain from him, worth about 700m (623m), as part of a Franco-Spanish money-laundering operation. New Delhi, June 17 : The Delhi Police on Wednesday detained Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers, including its national President Srinivas B.V. for holding a peaceful candle light protest against the killing of 20 Indian soldiers by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh's Galwan valley. The IYC workers arrived in front of the Chinese Embassy in the national capital to hold the candle light protest but they were detained by Delhi police even before they could do so. Delhi Police took the IYC workers to the Mandir Marg police station in central Delhi where they staged protest against the Chinese government. Speaking to media, Srinivas said, "China needs to be a taught a lesson and given a taste of their own medicine. The government must take all necessary steps. The nation stands behind its armed forces in whatever action it takes. We are together." IYC in-charge Krishna Allavaru said, "The Indian Youth Congress demands that the government must take strict military and diplomatic action against the Chinese aggressors, so that the martyrdom of our soldiers does not go in vain." He also demanded that the Chinese troops must return every inch of Indian territory they have occupied. Earlier in the day, police also detained members of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, who were protesting outside the Chinese Embassy. At least 20 Indian soldiers, including an officer, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with Chinese PLA troops at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. Admitting that a few groups of terrorists have managed to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir, Director General of Police Dilbag Singh on Monday said the counter-infiltration grid needs to remain more alert to scuttle the increased attempts by Pakistan to push armed infiltrators. He said hundreds of terrorists are present at the launching pads across the Line of Control and the International Border, which remained active even during the winter season this year, while attempts were made to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to drop weapons on this side. "The border grid needs to be more alert as a desperate Pakistan is trying to infiltrate terrorists from all sides to keep the pot of terrorism boiling besides overcome the depleting militant ranks in the valley," the police chief told reporters here. Eighty-eight terrorists, including commanders, were killed in 36 anti-militancy operations and 280 of their associates and overground workers were arrested since January this year. "Pakistan and its agencies are attempting to infiltrate terrorists from both IB and LoC but our forces are alert and have successfully foiled a number of attempts this year. However, a few groups of terrorists managed to intrude into this side under the cover of increased ceasefire violations by Pakistan and by cutting border fencing," Singh said. He said it was "almost certain" that infiltration has happened. A few groups managed to sneak into this side from Nowshera, Mendhar and some other areas in the twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region. "We have details of those who have infiltrated but will not share any information as the investigation is still on," he said, adding repeated attempts of infiltration were noticed from Keran, Machil and Gurez sectors of north Kashmir last year and the situation is no different this year. Referring to the killing of three Pakistani infiltrators in a gunfight at Nagrota near Jammu early this year, he said an investigation revealed that another group helped them infiltrate through IB. "We are investigating and appropriate action is being taken against the terrorists who have managed their infiltration," he said. He cited a foiled bid by terrorists to enter through LoC in Keran sector of Kupwara district on March 31, and said, "This time they did not even wait for the snow to melt." He said, according to the Army's assessment, 150-250 terrorists are present in training camps across the LoC in Kashmir and 125-150 are present across IB and LoC in Jammu region. On the number of active terrorists in the regions, the DGP said it does not remain the same, but has "dropped compared to their numbers in 2017, 2018 and 2019". "There are also much less number of foreign terrorists among their ranks," he added. Singh said the terrorists are continuously trying to smuggle in arms. "Reports also suggest that attempts to drop weapons through UAVs were also made. But there is no clear picture," he said. On the number of youths joining terrorist ranks, he said "our efforts have paid". "Youths are wise enough to understand the Pakistani game plan and are not ready to be misled by propaganda on social media platforms and Pakistani proxies in Kashmir," he said, adding three youths were saved by police from joining terrorist ranks in Awantipora on Sunday. "Some persons who have motivated them have also been arrested," he said. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Factors At Play Disposable medical device sensors are cost-effective and efficient devices that are generally used to detect and diagnose diseases in patients. These tools are used for patient monitoring by measuring basic vital signs such as heart rate, respiration rate, level of blood oxygenation, pulse rate, and temperature. In addition, disposable medical sensor devices play a crucial role in detecting the disease that causes microbes such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The most important growth drivers for the disposable medical sensors market are an increase in the geriatric population coupled with the prevalence of rising diseases related to cardiovascular, and kidney disorders. In addition, increasing demand for convenient and cost-effective disposable medical devices has seen a surge in demand. The market for disposable medical sensors is expected to be powered by technological advancements such as the cancer monitoring system, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensor technology, and fiber optic technology. Furthermore, government efforts to support R&D to launch innovative products are further expected to positively impact the growth of the market. Region Specific Insights The North America region dominates the global disposable medical sensors market owing to the involvement of a large number of industry players, and strengthened healthcare services along with growing local demand for disposable medical sensors. Furthermore, technological developments in sensor technology for medical devices have driven market growth in the region. The Asia Pacific region is expected to see a high growth in the coming years owing to the innovative applications of medical sensors and increased awareness about therapeutic applications of disposable medical sensors in the region. It is expected that the growing economies such as India and China will lead to growth in the region's demand for disposable medical device sensors. To request a sample copy or view summary of this report, click the link below: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/disposable-medical-sensors-industry Recent Significant Developments In March 2019, Sensirion launched a sensor-connector-cable solution that provides accurate, patient-side measurement while delivering a reliable flow signal to the ventilator. The solution includes different options of cables and connectors in order to reliably transport calibrated and temperature-compensated output signals of the sensor back to the ventilator. In April 2020, The University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) in the Netherlands along with Philip's smart patient monitoring technology, said that it is remotely monitoring COVID-19 patients in isolation rooms using a biosensor. Together with Philips, UMCU has developed a solution to monitor these patients continuously yet remotely, reducing the number of times the nursing staff needs to enter the patients room. In May 2019, Royal Philips announced a collaboration with Medtronic to further advance the treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF), a common heart rhythm disorder. Through the partnership, Medtronic will facilitate sales of products on behalf of Philips to provide an innovative, image guidance solution for cryoablation procedures. Philips will launch the novel KODEX-EPD cardiac imaging and navigation system with cryoablation specific features to enable electrophysiologists to perform cryoablation procedures with reduced need for X-ray imaging. Despite the global pandemic disturbing regularly scheduled high school and college classes, area organizations are working with students to provide opportunities to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). One local company which is accepting interns is Midland-based Impact Analytical, a contract testing laboratory which works with over 600 companies around the world. The company has offered internships in the past, but only once a year. This year, it tripled its internship program, welcoming biochemistry majors Brianna Ecton, Paige Prime and Alexis Samalik. "If we're truly interested in supporting students, then we have to do it at a higher rate," said President Neil Chapman. When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Michigan, there were talks about not hosting in-person internships. Chapman, however, understood the importance of having an interactive experience for students. With rigorous safety requirements in place, Impact Analytical was able to welcome all three interns to its facility. "Their schooling has been interrupted enough," Chapman said. Prime, an incoming junior at Saginaw State University, plans to enter the medicinal chemistry field to research and develop medicine or perhaps become a forensic scientist. "I hope to gain experience prepping samples and learning how to use different analytical machines," Prime said. Samalik, a senior at SVSU, hopes to gain real-world lab experience during the internship. Thus far, she has learned about using instruments including nuclear magnetic resonance and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. "Biochemistry gives me a broad science education and allows for many opportunities. I plan to enter the field of clinical biochemistry," Samalik stated. Ecton, a senior at Central Michigan University, has had an aptitude for math and science since she was young. She developed an interest in biochemistry after talking with healthcare workers who worked to cure her mom's breast cancer. Ecton hopes to enter to the research career field, eventually becoming a college professor. "(At Impact Analytical) I have had the opportunity to shadow a variety of intelligent, amazing people and have the freedom to learn more about certain experiments I am interested in," Ecton said. The internship lasts for three months, but the interns will have the opportunity to return while they're in school and even apply for jobs once they graduate. Further summer research experiences are available through MSU St. Andrews. During the five years it has offered fellowships, it has increased its acceptance capacity; last year, it accepted 78 students, and this year, it increased to 124. "We took a few more on this year because it is virtual," said Melanie Kauffman, senior communications manager. Research experiences are open to high school students across the Great Lakes Bay Region with the goal of encouraging them to follow a STEM career track, said Kauffman. The fellowships are also made possible through local institutions including the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow, Rollin M. Gerstacker and Charles J. Strosacker foundations. "There's clearly a need. Many of today's great problems will need STEM to solve them," Kauffman said. "Our goal is to expose students to research and how research leads to innovation to solve today's problems." Leading Canadian web hosting company and domain name registrar Rebel.com has named Martin Gomez as Executive Creative Director. Gomez brings with him 19 years of experience building and leading creative and development teams. From founding and selling the creative agency Fancy Boys to directing the Ottawa Senators brand, hes built a diverse career as an avid proponent of user-focused design and marketing. In this new role, Gomez will be creating and implementing processes to drive efficiency and improve the user experience of Rebels already top-reviewed products and services. He will also be establishing and elevating Rebels brand presence across all platforms and helping the Rebel team to create best-in-class campaigns. Gomez says, Im excited to be joining Rebel at this particular time in their story. With the talent and leadership team they already have in place, theres so much opportunity to take Rebel in bold directions. Im proud to join a company that is at the forefront of change in the tech industry, both with user and customer experience and a strong commitment to the community. Martin brings an exceptional depth of knowledge in the areas of design, brand development, and UX," said Rob Villeneuve, CEO of Rebel.com. "He'll bring a new level of creative passion to Rebel as we scale and grow to better serve our customers. We are thrilled to welcome him in this leadership role." Gov. Greg Abbott, its time to stop sending mixed messages on COVID-19. We understand the need to ease Texas back to normalcy, but as our economy reopens the pandemics reach is spreading too. The latest numbers show an alarming upswing in cases and hospitalizations across Texas. On Tuesday, the number of reported cases increased by 4,487. That includes older cases that hadnt been previously reported, but even leaving those aside, it was the largest one-day increase in new cases on record. Houston Chronicle The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 also reached a single-day record of 2,518 patients, which is putting a strain on many facilities in the states largest cities, including Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. In Harris County, COVID-19 hospitalizations reached an all-time high last week, according to County Judge Lina Hidalgo. As of June 10, hospitals in the 25-county Houston region were using 88 percent of their ICU capacity. More than 2,000 Texans have died from the insidious virus, with 48 deaths reported on Tuesday alone. Even as the numbers rise, too many of our fellow Texans are letting up on the very safety measures that helped flatten the curve and allowed states to reopen. That is likely contributing to the spike in cases, and could lead to a surge that overwhelms hospitals and results in more deaths. Governor, as the leader of the state, you should be setting an example. Instead of dismissing concerns about the rise in cases, pay attention to the eye-popping numbers and the doctors who are warning us all to stay vigilant. We can't get comfortable with this virus, Dr. Faisal Masud, medical director of critical care for Houston Methodist, told the Houston Chronicle this week. This is not letting us go." Listen to nine mayors of your states biggest cities who are begging you to allow them to mandate masks, a safety measure shown to reduce COVID-19 transmission. We should trust local officials to make informed choices about health policy, wrote the mayors, who include Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. And if mayors are given the opportunity to require face coverings, we believe our cities will be ready to help reduce the spread of this disease. Perhaps you thought you had good reason to overrule local officials, such as Hidalgo, when they first tried to pass ordinances requiring face masks in public. However, it is clear now that many in the public wont take necessary precautions unless ordered. Dont let yourself be bullied by fools equating a mask mandate to tyranny. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution allows people to endanger other peoples lives by helping sustain a deadly pandemic. More Information Urge Abbott to lead Call (800) 843-5789, press 1 to leave a comment Online: https://gov.texas.gov/contact See More Collapse We were heartened to see that on Wednesday, you gave your blessing to Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolffs plan to order businesses to mandate customers and employees wear face coverings as of June 22. Thats a start. Now go a step further and give local officials back the power to require residents to wear masks when they are outside and near other people. That would not take away anyones liberty any more than requiring people to wear seat belts or stop at red lights. What it would do is send a clear, unequivocal message to all Texans that we cannot let our guard down. And we each must do our part to save lives. Love Island Australia star Tayla Damir has spoken candidly about her battle with Bell's palsy, a type of paralysis that affects one side of the face. The 24-year-old cried on Sunday as she revealed how a medical Botox procedure had worsened her condition rather than improved it. 'I should've listened to my gut', Tayla said in a since-deleted Instagram video, as reported by Perth Now. Health issue: Love Island star Tayla Damir has spoken about her battle with Bell's palsy, a type of paralysis that affects one side of the face. Pictured before she developed Bell's palsy She added: 'I'm done crying, there's nothing I can do about it now. I'm just going to accept it.' Bell's palsy is a weakness or paralysis in one side of the face, causing it to droop or become stiff on that side. According to Better Health Victoria, 90 per cent of patients will recover with time. Struggling: The 24-year-old cried in a since-deleted Instagram video on Sunday as she revealed how a medical Botox procedure had worsened her condition rather than improved it Botox is one treatment option for the condition, and is 'useful if during nerve recovery, unexpected involuntary movement of the face occurs'. Tayla told her Instagram followers the condition meant she could no longer pout properly. Earlier this year, Tayla confirmed her romance with AFL star Nathan Broad, 26. WHAT IS BELL'S PALSY? Bell's palsy is the most common cause of facial paralysis. The symptoms include a weakened side of the face, dryness in the mouth, drooling, impaired speech, difficulty eating and drinking, eyes not shutting and dryness of the eyes. According to Britain's National Health Service, 70 per cent of people with the condition make a complete recovery with or without treatment. About 30 per cent will continue to have a weakness in their facial muscles and 20 per cent will be left with a long-term problem. It affects one in 5,000 people a year and is most common in those aged between 15 and 60. Advertisement Condition: Bell's palsy is a weakness or paralysis in one side of the face, causing it to droop or become stiff on that side. Pictured: Tayla on November 12, before she developed Bell's palsy Tayla and Nathan first sparked romance rumours when they were spotted together at the Melbourne Cup last year, and were later pictured poolside at Crown Towers in Perth on December 22, before spending New Year's Eve together in Bali. She confirmed their relationship on January 1, sharing a picture of the pair kissing on a balcony that was aptly captioned: 'Happy New Year'. Tayla had previously dated fellow Love Island 2018 winner Grant Crapp, but she dumped him after discovering he already had a 'secret girlfriend'. PHILIPSBURG:--- In an effort to adequately inform the general public about the grace period to retrieve confiscated bikes, the Sint Police Force has extended the collection period for persons who can provide proper documentation for their bikes. Persons still wishing to retrieve their bike(s) can now do so until the end of June 2020. The scooters and motorbikes that are allowed to be retrieved are those that were taken out of circulation, because they were being used in a way that was against the law, for instance, used without insurance, or because they had a technical problem. Bikes that are confiscated for further investigations, will not be available for retrieval. The Prosecutors office is the only entity allowed to return a bike confiscated after investigation purposes. If you know your bike or scooter is present at the police station, you can take it home with you if you can present the following documents: a proof of your identity (a driver's license, identity card or passport) and proof that you are the rightful owner of the scooter/motorbike. You will also have to show proof of insurance and inspection for the scooter/motorbike. If you can do so, your motorbike/scooter will be returned to you. Persons who still have not retrieved their confiscated bikes by July 1st will no longer be allotted the opportunity to do so, we ask that you take advantage of this grace period, as the bikes will be cleared from the station in light of the 2020 Hurricane season. KPSM Press Release. The Department of Homeland Security has provided billions of dollars in grants, including more than $1 billion this year, for localities to help defend against a terrorist threat or natural disaster. Police officials have long fought for more of the funds to be geared to law enforcement agencies. Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of homeland security in the Obama administration who signed the letter, said the funding was created to prevent the next attack from overseas, not provide local police with riot gear and armored vehicles to respond to demonstrations. She also pointed to the establishment of law enforcement stations around the United States, known as fusion centers, that were created to ensure that federal, state and local agencies could easily share data on potential terrorism threats with each other. Officials in the centers in recent weeks have monitored social media and other sources for indicators of individuals looking to commit an attack under the guise of thousands of peaceful protesters. There was a whole infrastructure built in the post-9/11 era that was focused on essentially stopping 19 guys from getting on four airplanes, and that might have been the correct sentiment at the time, Ms. Kayyem said. But there are now legacies to that 9/11 genesis that have a strong hold on states and cities, and we just have to break it. Mike Sena, the president of the National Fusion Center Association, said those centers are not geared toward collecting the data of demonstrators. Anytime there is a mass gathering of people, special events or whatever it may be, a fusion centers role is to make sure that there are no known threats to the people that are attending, he said, not to police the crowd. Last fall, the Department of Homeland Security issued a strategy document highlighting domestic terrorism as a primary threat to the country after being accused for years of underplaying the threat. Leaders of police departments have cited that shift in pushing for the continued federal support. A security guard at the Lugbe Area of the Federal Capital Territory on Saturday killed his bosss wife with an axe and a knife and left his boss in coma at the National hospital, Abuja. Mr Joseph Nicholas, Treasurer, Landlords/Tenants Association, Phase 2, AMAC Housing Estate, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja on Tuesday. Nicholas said that the unfortunate incident happened on Saturday night. He described the victim, Mr Ralph Wilcox, a retired Director at the Federal Ministry of Information, and his wife as extremely peaceful people who lived alone with their security guard. He said that the assailant (security guard) inflicted serious bodily and life threatening injuries on his victims, thereby causing the death of Mrs Wilcox. He said that her remains had been deposited at the Gwagwalada specialist hospital morgue. The security guard, who confessed to the crime, said that he killed Mrs Wilcox while the husband was away. He, thereafter, awaited the return of the husband from his outing to complete his job by trying to kill him. Upon arrival of Wilcoxs from his outing around 8.00 pm, the gateman attacked him with sharp axe which he previously used to hack Mrs Wilcox to death. Wilcox fell down and pretended as if he was dead, the gateman went to their apartment and ransacked whatever he could lay his hands on. While he was inside their apartment, Wilcox was able to escape from his compound to the main street, were he was calling for help, blood was gushing over his body and he was losing strength. One incoming car saw Wilcox lain in his pool of his blood on Port Harcourt street and immediately zoomed back thinking it was an armed robbery attack. He went to the main gate to draw the attention of vigilantes, who followed him to where the man was lain in his pool of blood. In an attempt to find out what happened to him, the same assailant drove Wilcoxs SUV car out of their compound straight to where the man was and carried him to the National Hospital, he said. Nicholas further explained that it was a member of the association working at the National hospital that contacted the association that Wilcoxs security guard brought him to the hospital. When we (Association exco) got the information of his location, we immediately went to the hospital with a policeman. As we alighted from our cars the assiailant was almost making his way out of the hospital before we promptly stopped him. Questions upon questions were hurled at him and from there he became the primary suspect. We left national hospital with the number one suspect back to the crime scene around 4:36am on Sunday June 14. The standby policemen further threw questions at him and from there he confessed to the crime. Mr Wilcox is recuperating from his injuries at the hospital and we have been making several visits to him and his family members have been contacted. Higher authorities have taken over the case, he said. A Police Officer who also confirmed the incident but did not want his name mentioned said that the security guard must have been planning the crime for a long time because he felt no remorse about it. He said that the security guard took the police to where he threw the weapons (axe and knife) he used to commit the crime. He also added that the police did not apply force on the security guard for him to confess to the crime, as he did so willingly on his own. NAN called DSP Anjuguri Manzah, the FCT Police NAN After concluding his winter campaign with a hard-earned win at London, Veyron ($6.00) looked every bit as sharp in his return to action, posting a 2:00.2 score in Wednesday's (June 10) $11,500 Preferred 2 and 3 Handicap Trot at Grand River Raceway. The seven-year-old Muscles Yankee gelding and driver Brett MacDonald weree patient in the early stages, yielding from the pole to land in fourth behind Bastiano (Dave Boughton) through a contested :28.3 first quarter. Veyron began his first-over ascent with just over a circuit to go, engaging Bastiano nearing three-quarters in 1:29.3 and grinding into the lead with a furlong to go. After duelling down Bastiano, Veyron showed an explosive turn of foot in the last sixteenth to draw clear at first asking by 2-3/4 lengths. Bastiano held second by a neck over the pair of Whiskey Tax (Scott Young) and Irish Thunder (Austin Sorrie), who rallied from off the front flight to finish in a dead heat for third. Paul Cameron trains 10-time winner Veyron for the TJS Stable. To view Wednesday's complete results, click the following link: Wednesday Results Grand River Raceway. Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan has thrown down the gauntlet to former President John Dramani Mahama to name his Running Mate. The Regional Minister wondered why the former President till date hasn't named any person to assist him to contest the 2020 Presidential elections. According to him, the nation is five months close to the general elections and instead of Mr. Mahama concentrating on his Running Mate selection, he and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are busily peddling falsehood about the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Kwamena Duncan was commenting on the NDC's 14 percent score for the governing New Patriotic Party. NDC Scores NPP 14% The NDC has scored the Akufo-Addo-led administration 14 percent on the fulfillment of its 2016 campaign promises. According to the paty, the government has delivered only 86 out of the 631 campaign promises it made to Ghanaians. Member of Parliament for North Tongu constituency in the Volta Region, Hon Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa says the NDC has even been charitable in their score. We observed that only 86 promises have been delivered out of the 631 and if you do the arithmetic and divide the 86 by the 631, what you will get is 13.6% and so we have been generous to gift them 14%; we added 0.4% to it by rounding the figure up, he stated. Set the record straight Alluding to the track record of the erstwhile Mahama government, Mr. Duncan recounted the former President's failure to pay teacher/nurse trainees their allowances, destroying the agribusiness of Ghanaians and other economic woes that befell the citizenry under the leadership of John Dramani Mahama. He further noted that Ghanaians know the achievements of President Akufo-Addo and are confident in him to lead the country. Mahama Discriminates against Females Kwamena Duncan was however alarmed that the former President is not considering any female character in the NDC to be his Running Mate. "Selection of even a partner to assist him which is a requirement, just selection has become a big problem to him . . . If you had learned your lessons, you would have selected the person by now . . . In fact, he has even cut out ladies because in his Facebook live streaming, he said I know the person and he used the male pronoun that 'he' meaning he has removed the ladies.'' To him, although Mr. Mahama has implicitly indicated his choice of a male as Running Mate, he should stop his hesitations and boldly name him. ''We must know the person and what he is bringing to the table, his strength and weaknesses . . . Five months into the election, he's not able to select his partner," he exclaimed on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A bloc of Southeast Asian countries has become Chinas biggest trading partner this year as economic activity picks up on both sides while slowing in wealthier parts of the world because of coronavirus outbreaks. Over the first five months of 2020, trade between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc and the massive Chinese market reached $240 billion, up 4.2% over the same period of 2019, Beijings state-run Xinhua News Agency said. Chinas trade with the block equals about 15% of its total worldwide. China, the worlds No. 2 economy, began easing disease containment measures including factory shutdowns in March, followed by Southeast Asian states such as Vietnam and Malaysia. Much of the West is still struggling with shutdowns, supply chain cuts and weak consumer sentiment. The way we do things, we have sort of a one-track mind, so its better to deal with your peers, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in Metro Manila. And thats the reason (for) the potential bounce back in Asia, Ravelas said. Even if you look at the way they handled this COVID-19, they followed the lockdowns more compared to the Western counterparts. The bloc better known as ASEAN had already expanded relations with China over 20 years through a free-trade deal, industrialization and geographic proximity that lowers shipping costs. The European Union was Chinas top trading partner last year after pushing out the United States. But anti-coronavirus closures hobbled EU-China trade in the first quarter of 2020, business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates says. Inoperative factories in Europe bought fewer parts from China and shipped fewer finished goods -- such as cars -- the other way, said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist with IHS Markit in Singapore. The United States had faded as a Chinese partner because of soaring import tariffs, the fallout of a more than 2-year-old Sino-U.S. trade dispute. A sharp drop in consumer power during shutdowns across the United States further reduced trade. Why (trade with Southeast Asia) is bigger than the U.S. is because of the trade war, and lockdowns this year have affected China-U.S. trade, Biswas said. And also, with the EU, since March, April and most of May, most of Europe was heavily affected and in lockdown. The Asian bloc better known by its acronym ASEAN was already in position. The two sides had cut costs to each others exporters with a zero-tariff trade deal that took effect in 2010. A wider-reaching pact called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is expected to smooth trade further after ASEAN and China sign it as early as this year. Rising incomes among the Southeast Asian regions 640 million people allow growing numbers of Chinese goods, such as smartphones, to thrive in the market. Industrialization of ASEAN member countries has spawned factories that buy Chinese raw materials and make finished goods, often for resale in China. Chinese imports from factory-intensive Vietnam rose 24% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same span of 2019 and the value of goods from Indonesia rose 13% year-on-year because of increasingly integrated supply chains, Dezan Shira said in a research note. Chinese imports of integrated circuits for electronics rose about 26% in the first quarter partly because of disruptions in European supply chains, Biswas said. Factories in Malaysia and Thailand were still able to produce them, he said. China still looked to Southeast Asia for palm oil, rubber and processed food, said Song Seng Wun, economist in the private banking unit of CIMB in Singapore. Gradually, with economies stepping out from the lockdown and getting back on their feet, these things are starting to see economic activities picking up, Song said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese politburo member Yang Jiechi shake hands following a press conference during the U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department in Washington, on Nov. 9, 2018. (Mandel Ngan/ AFP/Getty Images) Pompeo Meeting With Top Chinese Diplomat in Hawaii U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii on Tuesday to meet a Chinese delegation at a U.S. military base in Hawaii this week to discuss the bilateral relationship, sources familiar with the matter said, according to Reuters. The Chinese delegation will be led by Yang Jiechi, a former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, according to a source familiar with the arrangements, reported South China Morning Post. Yang currently serves as Member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs of the CCP. The sources said the likely agenda included CCP virus response, arms control, trade, Hong Kong, North Korea, and tit-for-tat moves against journalists. Pompeo spoke with Yang by telephone on April 15 to discuss the spread of the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. Pompeo stressed the need for full transparency and information sharing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future outbreaks, a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian declined to confirm the reports at a regular briefing on Monday but said: China and the U.S. have maintained communication through diplomatic channels. If there is any further information, it will be released in a timely manner. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, who is also a U.S. Special Representative for North Korea, accompanied Pompeo on his trip to Hawaii. Arms Control The United States would like to expand nuclear disarmament talks to other states that possess nuclear weapons and invited China to join trilateral arms control talks with Russia that will be held on June 22. China, which rapidly develops its nuclear arsenal and plans to double it within the next decade, declined the invitation. China just said it has no intention to participate in trilateral negotiations, U.S. Special Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea wrote on Twitter. He wanted China to reconsider its decision. Protesters march on a road during a pro-democracy rally against a proposed new security law in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images) US-China Challenging Issues In late May, the Chinese regime moved to impose a new national security law over Hong Kong, which critics say would mark the end of the citys freedoms and autonomy. It prompted President Donald Trump to announce on May 29 that Washington would begin the process of eliminating Hong Kongs preferential economic treatment and sanctioning officials involved in eroding the citys autonomy. On the same day, Trump also announced the United States formal withdrawal from the WHO, the barring of Chinese graduate students tied to the Chinese military, and a review into Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Suppression of Free Press by China In February, the Trump administration said it would begin to treat five major Chinese state-run media entities operating in the United States the same way as foreign embassies. In March, The Chinese regime expelled two American Wall Street Journal correspondents and then banned all American nationals working in the country for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post as part of a media war with the United States. Recently, the Chinese regime has threatened to interfere with the work of American journalists in Hong Kong, Pompeo said in a statement. Epoch Times staff Cathy He and Reuters contributed to this report. Ukraine has seen a record spike in new coronavirus cases when the number of patients confirmed in the past 24 hours hit 758. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has announced that the adaptive quarantine introduced in Ukraine over the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic will be extended until July 31. "Given a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, we will extend the adaptive quarantine until July 31, 2020," he said during a Cabinet meeting on June 17, according to an UNIAN correspondent. Easing quarantine-related measures was perceived by many Ukrainians as the lifting of the curbs and "for the first time today we have unfortunately gotten sad results," he said. "The coronavirus has not disappeared the threat of it for our healthcare system and for us has not disappeared," he said. Read alsoNumber of confirmed coronavirus cases in Ukraine exceeds 33,200 on June 17 As UNIAN reported, Ukraine has seen a record spike in new coronavirus cases when the number of patients confirmed in the past 24 hours hit 758 people as of the morning of June 17. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases grew to 33,234. The death toll was 943, including 31 in the past 24 hours. Some 14,943 have already recovered. The ongoing Boko Haram insurgency is preventing developmental projects in five of the 27 local governments of Borno State, the state commissioner of reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement, Mustapha Gubio, has said. The commissioners explanation contradicts a recent claim by President Muhammadu Buhari that all local governments have been secured and are now inhabited by the original occupants. He said five local government areas, comprising Guzamala, Kukawa, Abadam, Marte and Abadam are totally inaccessible and largely uninhabitable due to the presence of the Boko Haram and ISWAP members. The commissioner who made the disclosure at a press briefing in Maiduguri noted that several efforts made to move into the affected communities for reconstruction works after they were liberated by the military, had failed as the areas are still haunted by Boko Haram. Counter claim This is coming at a time the Nigerian military is claiming that no single area in the state is under the control of Boko Haram insurgents. Apparently acting on the briefs of his military commanders, President Muhammadu Buhari last week said in a nationwide broadcast that all the local government that were taken over by the Boko Haram insurgents in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa have been recovered and are now occupied by indigenes of these areas who were hitherto forced to seek a living in areas far from their ancestral homes. The commissioner said developmental projects in the affected areas located in the northern part of the state have been halted by the Boko Haram. Some of the local government areas are still not accessible, the commissioner said. In Guzamala local government, the army base has been destroyed and the security forces were dislodged. We cannot go to Guzamala to execute any project until when there will be security presence there. Still, under the same local government, we moved to Mailari for the construction of 500 housing units, there was the presence of police and military base there. But when we started work, the army base was attacked so we had to withdraw because we could not continue with the work. Even last month we moved 50, 000 blocks to Guzamala to start work but we still could not work due to insecurity. Abadam is another town destroyed by Boko Haram; it has the most difficult terrain in Borno State. It is about 250km from Maiduguri, and it has no access road. There is no way you can start reconstruction works there unless there is a good road. You can only access the local government through the Niger Republic. As for Kukawa local government, there hasnt been the presence of the Nigerian Army in the area until last month. For now, there is no single person in Kukawa as I am talking to you now. The governor is just planning to visit Baga, the major town in Kukawa local government to access the damages there. The level of destruction in Kukawa wouldnt have been much but due to the long period of desertion of the communities, the building there have begun to deteriorate, he added. In the other 22 local government areas, the commissioner said the ministry in the last one year embarked on 77 capital projects ranging from reconstruction and building of public infrastructures in the housing sector of which 67 were completed. He said projects consist of 2,020 housing units amongst other public buildings including palaces and religious houses. The commissioner did not give financial details of the projects. The ministry was created in 2015 with a special mandate to handle all the post-insurgency reconstruction across the state. The fresh sanctions target anyone doing business with the Assad regime anywhere in world as Syrias economy falls. The Trump administration on Wednesday ramped up pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle with a load of new economic and travel sanctions for human rights abuses and blocking a settlement of the countrys conflict. The State Department and the Treasury said 39 Syrian individuals, including al-Assad and his wife, had been designated for the new sanctions. Others include members of the extended al-Assad family, senior military leaders and business executives. Many of those on the list were already subject to US sanctions, but the penalties also target non-Syrians who do business with them. One newcomer to the US blacklist is al-Assads wife, Asma, who had not previously been targeted but was hit for becoming what the State Department said is one of Syrias most notorious war profiteers. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Asma, are both targeted in the sanctions [Handout: SANA via Reuters] The sanctions are the result of legislation known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, named after the pseudonym of a Syrian who worked with the military police and turned over photographs of thousands of victims of torture by al-Assads government. Economic pressure Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the designations represent the beginning of what will be a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure to deny the Assad regime revenue and support it uses to wage war and commit mass atrocities against the Syrian people. Anyone doing business with the Assad regime, no matter where in the world they are, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions, Pompeo said in a statement. Today we begin a sustained campaign of sanctions against the Assad regime under the Caesar Act, which authorizes severe economic sanctions to hold the Assad regime and its foreign enablers accountable for their brutal acts against the Syrian people. Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) June 17, 2020 Besides rights abuses, those targeted were also hit for obstructing a peaceful political resolution to the long-running conflict. Wednesdays announcement was widely expected and ahead of it, Syria devalued its currency by 44 percent. Syria announced a new official exchange rate for the pound amid chaos in the market just hours before the sanctions took effect. Syrias already troubled economy has sharply deteriorated, prices have soared and the pound had collapsed in recent weeks, partly because of fears that the sanctions would further isolate the war-ravaged country. Experts say the new sanctions will be a heavy blow to a nation where more than 80 percent of the people already live in poverty, according to the United Nations. Syrian government officials have called it economic terrorism. Syria is already facing sanctions some in place even before the war imposed by the United States and European countries against officials or individuals linked to al-Assads government. The new sanctions will likely severely affect the inflow of foreign capital particularly for post-war reconstruction, especially from Russia and Iran, al-Assads main allies, as well as China and neighbouring countries. The Washington-based Syria Center for Justice and Accountability said the Caesar sanctions are designed for this purpose, aiming to deter foreign financial engagement and commercial reconstruction agreements with the Assad government. Regional crisis But the group said the sanctions also contain provisions exempting humanitarian goods and services, similar to other sanctions, and intended to ensure the flow of aid and mitigate the economic consequences of the sanctions on the Syrian people. Still, the currency collapse is obviously in part deepened by the panic over the effect of the sanctions. People are hoarding dollars, and many commercial transactions have stopped. The government, in an effort to control the flow of foreign currency and the exchange rate, has cracked down on hawala, or offices of exchange that are used by the majority of Syrians, which has also affected the flow of foreign currency in the country. A financial crisis in neighbouring Lebanon, where there are controls on withdrawals and a shortage of foreign currency, has also affected the Syrian banking sector and Syrians who had saved or did commercial transactions through Lebanon. Irans own economic woes, and the economic effect of coronavirus restrictions in the region, have all added to the crisis in Syria. Syrian pounds are pictured inside an exchange currency shop in Azaz, Syria [File: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters] Ultimately, the most significant cause of the economic crisis is the Syrian government its irresponsible fiscal policy, continuous corruption, refusal to respect international laws and norms or engage in good-faith political and diplomatic negotiations, said SCJA in a report issued on Tuesday, which added that the sanctions offer a clear path for the Syrian government out of the sanctions. Both the US and the EU sanctions regimes make clear that sanctions will be lifted if President Assad agrees to a political transition of power, it said. If the Syrian government is genuinely concerned about the impact of economic sanctions on its ability to protect the Syrian public from COVID-19, there is a clear option available to it. State Duma to contemplate changes in procedures governing banned organizations list RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 14:59 17/06/2020 MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) Russias government has submitted to the State Duma amendments empowering the Justice Ministry to approve the procedures governing the management of the list of civic and religious associations, as well as other organizations, with respect to which courts ruled on their liquidation of termination of their activities. The document has been published on the database of the lower house of Russias Parliament. The changes are to be introduced in a federal law on combating extremist activities. It is envisaged that the Justice Ministry is also to approve the procedures governing the management of the list of organizations, the activities of which have been suspended in relation to the fact that they were engaged in extremist activities. In order to streamline the Justice Ministry powers pertaining to the lists, it is proposed that there were fixed the responsibilities of officials and authorities to submit to the Ministry copies of their decisions as to suspension of activities of such associations, upholding of complaints against suspension of activities of such associations, as well as copies of final court judgements concerning petitions for liquidation of the said associations or bans on the activities thereof. The necessity of legal regulation of this sphere, as it is noted in the explanatory note to the bill, is dictated by the existence of current problems relating to the publication of information on the said organizations, the longer periods of time required to put the said organizations on the list (in certain cases up to 2 years), the necessity of interdepartmental solution of this issue. The Takoradi Technical University (TTU) in the Western Region on Monday, reopened for final year students to prepare towards their exit examinations as directed by the President that all tertiary institutions, both private and public should reopen on June 15. The move is for finalists to complete their courses as part of the gradual easing of the COVID-19 restrictions. Classes are being held in both the main campus and the Business School campus at BU a suburb of Takoradi, while parts of the campuses that were in bad shape had undergone maintenance. TTU has instituted a COVID-19 Task Force known as Dr. Emefas Committee to be in charge of education, provision of logistics, and everything about the novel coronavirus disease, whereas security has been beefed up at the entrances to ensure that no one entered the campuses without thorough screening. Large classes comprising a hundred students have been divided into two to keep to the social distancing protocol, with the University clinic equipped with the necessary PPE with isolation centre to deal with any positive cases. About 4,700 staff and students are supposed to benefit from the logistics, comprising 4,000 students and 700 teaching and non-teaching staff. The President in his 11th address to the nation on the pandemic and containment measures, said "it was imperative to find a way of guaranteeing the prospects of the generation of young people who were the objects of education today, and who represented the nations future". The President announced the indefinite closure of all schools, effective Monday, March 16, as part of the COVID-19 containment measures. The final year students would be in school for six weeks. When the Ghana News Agency visited the Takoradi Technical University, Veronica buckets filled with water for washing of hands with soap, hand sanitizers, infrared thermometers for temperature checks and info graphical materials with messages on COVID-19 had been placed at vantage points. Mr. Moses Maclean Abnory, Registrar of TTU in an interview with the GNA hinted that the campuses of the University have been disinfected twice, before and after the Presidents directives on the reopening. At the hostels, the majority of the students left their luggage during the break so we have called them to come for them to create enough space for the final year students. As of now, about half of the final year students have reported, he stated. He said the University has taken delivery of over 13,000 PPE including hand sanitizers, Veronica buckets, nose masks, and all that were needed while lecture theaters and the library have been disinfected for use. He pointed out that the University through its Fashion Department produced 10,000 units of reusable face masks and distributed them to all staff and some communities around the University while some individuals also donated some items to them. He indicated that all front line workers like security personnel, cleaners, administrators, lecturers, and students have been trained by the Emefas Committee in collaboration with health personnel from the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipal Assembly (EKMA) and the University Clinic on how to detect a person with symptoms and signs of the disease to avoid contact and how to protect themselves from getting infected. Mr. Abnory assured parents of the safety of their wards while on campus and called on them to advise their wards to be obedient to all the precautionary measures and all the facilities provided for a mutual benefit. He expressed the hope that nothing untoward would happen since adequate measures have been put in place to protect lives and to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic but warned that recalcitrant students and visitors who flout the measures would be handed over to the police. He pleaded with members of the public to limit visits to the campus if not in for an important assignment and do well to comply with all the measures in place at the entrances before entering. Mr Abnory further called on parents, companies, individuals and all stakeholders who have the resources to share with the University to help fight the pandemic. Some students who had reported on campus to complete the 2019/2020 academic year who spoke to the GNA commended the Government for the decision and hailed the authorities of the University for ensuring the strict application of the protocols and the guidelines for containing the disease. 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 Hyderabad, June 17 : The body of Colonel B. Santosh Babu, who was killed by Chinese troops in a clash in Ladakh on Monday, was brought here on Wednesday, en route to his hometown for the last rites. An army aircraft carrying the body landed at Hakimpet Airport Station here on Wednesday. The mortal remains of the brave son of Telangana were received by senior government officials and military personnel with full military honours. A wreath on behalf of the Army Commander and all ranks of the Southern Command was laid in honour of the valiant soldier by Lt Gen T.S.A. Narayanan, Commandant, MCEME. The Colonel's wife Santoshi also paid tributes. Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan and state ministers K.T. Rama Rao, Malla Reddy, Mohammed Mehmood Ali and Jadish Reddy also paid their respects. Others who paid the tributes included Cyberabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar, Hyderabad City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, Telangana and Andhra Sub Area GOC Maj. Gen. R.K. Singh, Bison Division commander Maj. Gen. Alok Joshi, Station Commander Brig. Abhijit Chandra and Commandant, AOC Centre, Brig. J.J.S. Bhinder. The body of Santosh Babu (39) was later taken to his home town Suryapet where the last rites will be performed with full military honours on Thursday morning. Earlier, the Colonel's family member arrived in Hyderabad from New Delhi. The martyred officer's wife Santoshi, nine-year-old daughter Abhigna and four-year-old son Anirudh were received at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport by Cyberabad Police Commissioner Sajjanar and senior Army officials. Santosh Babu and 19 soldiers were killed in the clashes with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley of Ladakh on Monday. The news of Santosh's martyrdom was first conveyed to his wife in Delhi on Monday night while his parents who live in Suryapet were informed on Tuesday afternoon. Santosh, Commanding Officer of 16 Bihar Regiment, had been serving on the Indo-China border for the last one-and-half year and his family was looking forward to his transfer to Hyderabad. The transfer was delayed due to Covid-19. An alumni of Sainik School Korukonda and National Defence Academy, he got commissioned into the Bihar Regiment from Indian Military Academy, Dehradun and went on to complete the prestigious Defence Service Staff Course from Wellington before taking over the command of his Battalion. OTTAWA - The federal government will provide eight extra weeks of benefits for people whose jobs or earnings have vanished because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but only if they look for work and take jobs when its reasonable to do so. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit will continue to pay out $500 a week, but now for up to 24 weeks instead of 16 for people who lost their jobs or saw their hours slashed due to the pandemic. The first cohort of applicants who signed up in April are set to max out their payment periods in early July, with worries some wont have jobs to go back to and others unable to work because their health is precarious. Even as our economy is reopening, there are many, many more people out of work (or) willing to work than there are jobs available and that will be the story for the coming weeks as well, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in announcing the extension. He added that the government will look at international best practices to determine what further changes will be needed. The CERB has paid out $43.51 billion to 8.41 million people as of June 4, a take-up that forced an increase in its budget to $60 billion from $35 billion just a few weeks ago. At its height, the CERB paid out $17 billion a month when eight million people were on it, but numbers have declined as 1.2 million recipients returned to work or went back on payrolls with help from the federal wage-subsidy program. The heavy spending from the federal government, along with unprecedented measures from Canadas central bank, have helped stabilize the economy and should support a recovery, Canadas new top central banker told the Commons finance committee later in the day. We cant change the fact that the pandemic has resulted in a very severe recession, the most severe in our lifetimes. The best we can do is do everything we can so the bounce-back takes off, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said. What we really want to avoid is a non-recovery. That will create huge problems and thats why these measures are so important. Going forward, the wording of the declaration recipients must make to get CERB payments will include language that applicants are actively looking for work and will take a job offer when their circumstances permit it, similar to the requirements for employment insurance benefits. Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said workers with child- or elder-care responsibilities, or those with COVID-19 symptoms, may be unable to work and could keep their CERB access. We cant impose an obligation on somebody to take a job, Qualtrough said, but we are encouraging and saying that through the attestation, that people actively seek work and take it when it is reasonable in their circumstances to do so. Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, warned the language may yet be problematic because job prospects are minimal. We are living in a pandemic and we need to take that with some serious understanding that this is going to impact anybodys ability to be actively looking for work, he said in an interview. Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, wrote on Twitter that it was too soon to end CERB, but said changes to help workers keep a portion of CERB payments even if they earn more than the $1,000-a-month income cut-off may ease rehiring problems employers say they face. Quebec Premier Francois Legault, speaking in St-Georges in his provinces Beauce region, suggested he would speak with Trudeau about a formula to allow people to collect some CERB while returning to work. We understand that those people who have lost their jobs want help from the government, he said in French, but we have to find a way where theres still an incentive to relaunch the economy and that the most people possible return to the job as soon as possible. The parliamentary budget officer in a report last week estimated that extending the maximum number of weeks of eligibility from 16 to 28, and extending the program through to January 2021, would cost about $57.9 billion. An extension will add to the cost of the benefit, but Trudeau didnt provide an estimate Tuesday. Extending the CERB has been a demand from the New Democrats in exchange for the partys support for the minority Liberals in an upcoming confidence vote. Wednesday is to see a House of Commons debate on supplementary spending estimates that detail roughly $81 billion in already approved spending and about $6 billion more in measures requiring approval. Budget officer Yves Giroux noted in a morning report that a number of measures promised by the government arent included in the tally, leaving an incomplete picture of how much the government will spend on COVID-19 aid. Left out of the estimates are cost details on the $45-billion wage subsidy program because its delivered through the tax system, and a loan program to small- and medium-sized businesses that will open applications to a wider number of companies on Friday. Giroux warned it will be difficult to get answers about the estimates from federal officials because MPs will only debate the estimates for four hours under a deal agreed to last month by a majority of MPs. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2020. With files from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 16:39:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities have said they will accelerate the settlement of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the second half of the year, while analysts are calling for attention to small and medium-sized housing companies and companies dependent on foreign demand. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said it would urge banks to make a bona fide classification of their assets, truthfully exposing their NPLs. Any actions aimed at glossing over bad loans and manipulating their balance sheets will be resolutely dealt with, it added. The CBIRC said it would guide banks to step up the settlement of NPLs and ask them to set aside sufficient provisions. Shen Juan, an analyst with Huatai Securities, attributed the quickened pace of bad loans settlement in the second half of the year to factors that include an expected increase of bad loans later this year due to the delayed impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and banks' high provision coverage ratio (PCR) which affords them enough ammunition to settle bad loans. Chinese commercial banks' PCR, the ratio of provisioning to gross non-performing assets which indicates the extent of funds a bank has kept aside to cover loan losses, stood at a high of 183 percent by the end of the first quarter, Shen said. She called for attention to risks in the retail sector, especially in the second and third quarters, as well as risks in companies that rely on foreign demand such as those related to ports, computers and automobiles. Zhao Yarui, a researcher with the financial research center of the Bank of Communications, highlighted risks in small and medium-sized housing companies due to their high level of leverage, slowing sales, relatively weak management, crunches in financing and operating cash flow. The NPL ratio of China's banking industry came in at 2.04 percent at the end of the first quarter, up 0.06 percentage points compared with the beginning of the year, CBIRC data showed. Enditem North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border on Tuesday, triggering broad international condemnation after days of virulent rhetoric from Pyongyang. The demolition came after Kim Yo Jong -- the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- said at the weekend the "useless north-south joint liaison office" would soon be seen "completely collapsed". Footage of the explosion released by Seoul's presidential Blue House showed a blast rolling across several buildings just across the border in Kaesong, with a nearby tower partially collapsing as clouds of smoke rose into the sky. Analysts say Pyongyang may be seeking to manufacture a crisis to increase pressure on Seoul while nuclear negotiations with Washington are at a standstill. After an emergency meeting, the National Security Council said it would "react strongly" if Pyongyang "continues to take steps that aggravate the situation". "All responsibility for repercussions stemming from this action falls squarely on the North," it added. The US, European Union and Russia all called for restraint. A State Department spokesperson said Washington urges the North to "refrain from further counterproductive actions", while the Kremlin called the escalation a "concern' and said it would be monitoring closely. The EU warned Pyongyang against taking further "provocative and damaging steps". The liaison office -- in a dormant industrial zone where Southern companies once employed Northern workers -- was opened in September 2018, days before the South's President Moon Jae-in flew to Pyongyang for his third summit with Kim. Around 20 officials from each side were stationed at the office during subsequent months. But inter-Korean relations soured following the collapse of the Hanoi summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in February last year over sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give up in return. Story continues Operations at the office were suspended in January because of the coronavirus pandemic. And since early June, North Korea has issued a series of vitriolic condemnations of the South over activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border -- something defectors do on a regular basis. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday the liaison office's destruction was in line with "the mindset of the enraged people to surely force human scum and those who have sheltered the scum to pay dearly for their crimes". Last week Pyongyang announced it was severing all official communication links with Seoul. "North Korea has started a provocation cycle with stages of escalation," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, calling the destruction of the office "a symbolic blow to inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation". "The Kim regime is also signalling the United States won't have the luxury of keeping North Korea on the back-burner for the remainder of the year," he added. - Relations soured - Since Pyongyang condemned the leaflet launches -- usually attached to hot air balloons or floated in bottles -- the Unification ministry has filed a police complaint against two defector groups and warned of a "thorough crackdown" against activists. On Monday, the left-leaning Moon urged the North not to "close the window of dialogue". The two Koreas remain technically at war after Korean War hostilities ended with an armistice in 1953 that was never replaced with a peace treaty. Last week the North criticised Trump in a stinging denunciation of the US on the second anniversary of the Singapore summit, with its foreign minister Ri Son Gwon accusing Washington of seeking regime change. US diplomats insist that they believe Kim promised in Singapore to give up his nuclear arsenal, something Pyongyang has taken no steps to do. The North is under multiple international sanctions over its banned weapons programmes. It believes it deserves to be rewarded for its moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and the disabling of its atomic test site, along with the return of jailed US citizens and remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War. "Nothing is more hypocritical than an empty promise," Ri said in his statement, carried by the official KCNA news agency. Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Sejong Institute's Center for North Korean Studies, said: "North Korea is frustrated that the South has failed to offer an alternative plan to revive the US-North talks, let alone create a right atmosphere for the revival. "It has concluded the South has failed as a mediator in the process." burs-st/jm/to The Electoral Commission (EC) will on Thursday, June 18 exhibit and pilot some of its biometric registration devices that will be used for the planned voters' registration exercise. The registration exercise which is expected to come off on June 30 has been met with stiff opposition from civil society groups and some opposition political parties. The EC says Thursday's exhibition and piloting which is open to the public will be a test for the registration. Meanwhile, the Commission has denied claims that it is creating new constituencies ahead of the election. A Deputy Chairperson of the EC, Dr. Bossman Asare in an interview with journalists said the Commission is only seeking a new constitutional instrument to cover the newly created electoral areas. We are not creating new constituencies. What we are basically doing is that new electoral areas were created and new polling stations were created so we have to make sure that we have a C.I. that will cover all that so no new constituencies are being created by the EC. On Tuesday, officials of the Commission appeared before Parliaments Special Budget Committee to brief the committee on their planned programmes for the year. The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu after the meeting said he is very concerned about the responses given by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa. He said he found her responses, troubling for the future of the country's democracy. Having listened to her, I feel profoundly troubled in my heart for the future of Ghana's democracy and I feel disappointed that in her answers to questions at the committee level, she made to significant worrying statements that the people of Ghana must know, Haruna Iddrisu said. According to the Tamale South legislator, Jean Mensa told the committee that the EC intends to phase the registration exercise in some 6,300 registration centres. They intend to phase out the registration exercise in some 6,300 registration centres out of the 33,000 registration centres across the countryThat troubles my heart because Article 42 will not be observed in essence through making available to Ghanaian people are legitimate right they are entitled to. ---citinewsroom Andhra Pradesh has handled the global pandemic being readily prepared and with adequate resources. Much of the credit goes to their aware citizens and medical facilities. The state has shown even better results than Kerala government. While most of the appreciation that was in store went to Kerala for the way the communist regime has dealt with the outbreak of Covid-19 in the state , another South Indian state silently went about its business, the state of Andhra Pradesh under the leadership of CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The state has topped the test per million charts for months now. From having 0 testing labs in March to having the most number of Government run labs as on date (52) with one of the lowest positivity rates in the country at 1.18% , one would have to say that the state has come a long long way. The positivity rate of India stands at 5.82 % . It is important to note that the recovery rate of AP stands at 51.49 % as compared to Keralas 47.05%. AP has conducted 11,207 tests per million while Kerala has tested 4364 people per million and the nationally the figure is limited to 4387 tests per million. Apart from testing on war footing and ramping up the medial infrastructure in the state, other key aspects that worked for the state government in the war against Covid-19 are the following : THE VILLAGE VOLUNTEER SYSTEM: Call it foresightedness or negligible occurrence, the solid 4.5 lakh volunteer, more than 11000 town/ward secretariats arrangement by Jagan Mohan Reddy directly before the Corona flare-up struck India ended up being a gift for the state. The volunteer framework completed 4 periods of door-to-door overviews which ended up being instrumental in controlling the spread. This framework allotted 50 houses to each volunteer. In the first phase, more than 10000 foreign returnees far beyond the GOI records were traced by the volunteers. During the subsequent stage, residents with manifestations independent of movement history were traced from across the state. The third and the fourth periods of the study focussed on following the vulnerable class, i.e those with co-morbidities, senior residents and so on. This study brought about the state tracing more than 32000 people who were then tested to ensure their wellbeing. The volunteer framework likewise helped the Government execute some other key capacities during the lockdown. From disseminating apportion to a one time money related help to circulation of benefits when required most, the volunteer system ended up being the foundation of the liberation framework. ANMs and ASHA workers : To offer credit to volunteers without referencing about ANMs and ASHA laborers who worked eagerly alongside the volunteers would be unfair . Once the remote returnees/people with Influenza like manifestations were followed by means of the door-to-door overviews, a medical worker was given the duty to routinely monitor the health of each one of these people. Sometimes, the health worker was made responsible for screening people who showed manifestations to guarantee that they dont break the home isolate standards. Innovation: When social separating should have been the new typical, innovation must be the ace in the hole for the specialists. Andhra Pradesh was the first to utilize mobile phone tower signs to guarantee that those in Home Quarantine didnt mock the standards presenting others to the infection. The individual leaving the base area wouldve mean an alert being raised at the locale level and afterward the state level. Aside from this, a comparable device to follow all the spots that a +ve persistent visited 14 days preceding testing positive was additionally used to improve the contact following framework. Each one of the 4.5 lakh volunteers utilized a mobile application to constantly update the wellbeing specialists as and when a resident with manifestations/travel history was distinguished. MEDICAL FACILITIES: While the clinical framework at first was what represented a gigantic test to the state as they needed to rely upon labs in Pune and Hyderabad to get tests tried, from having 0 ability to testing more than 15,000 out of a day with 52 government labs positioned across the state, the foundation has come a long way. The state currently has 4 Critical Care hispitals , 1 Covid-19 district hospital in each diatrict and 5 additional medical medical facilities in every one of the regions ( government + private) obliging Covid cases. To guarantee that the state is propped any such occurrences later on, the Honorable CM additionally declared that the administration would patch up all administration clinical framework in the state by spending more than 16,000 crores which included both redoing of old facilities just as building new ones where required. Note that the states dynamic viewpoint towards the destigmatization was constantly commended by the Union Government among other. Not exclusively was the CM the first to state We ought to figure out how to live with Corona however the state has likewise made noteworthy strides towards making the equivalent a reality. The Government declared that any individual who completed the obligatory multi day isolate period will be given a whole of 2,000 to make up for money misfortune during this period. It has likewise taken up broad showcasing projects to guarantee that the disgrace around Covid suspects is dispensed with. Remarkably, the specialists and police faculty were broadened their due pay rates in time all through. MIGRANT LABOUR ISSUE: The issue or enduring of Migrant Laborers the nation over moved each and every resident in the nation. It ought to be noticed that Andhra Pradesh was the principal state to declare that the state will bare the costs of the movement charges of Migrant workers , both those leaving AP to their particular home states and those having a place with AP returning if need be. This was when different states were seen gathering ticket levies. Aside from this, the state arrangement taking care of offices in NHs , each 50 kms. Those vagrant workers who started from different states like Telangana and needed to cross AP to get to their destination were additionally rescued, taken care of and simulateously course of action for their transport were made by the state government. With regards to this specific issue, one would need to state that none beats AP. Finally, one would need to state that Andhra Pradesh has obviously started to lead the pack in wording being the best state to handle the spread of Covid-19 in the nation, keeping in the brain the budgetary crunch that the state is confronting. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App One vital industry will take years to get back on its feet after the coronavirus recession. (Image: Getty) While millions of people in Australia are out of work due to Covid-19, one industry in particular has been devastated so much that it will be 2023 before it recovers. Aviation, which had most of its activity grounded around the world over the last three months, will struggle for years to come, according to a new report from analysis firm Moody's. The report predicts it will be 2022 before the industry is in recovery, and that's only if the coronavirus has receded. Then it will take another year before "start of return to some form of normality". About 85 to 95 per cent of 2019 passenger levels is forecast for 2023, but with all airlines carrying the burden of more debt than the pre-coronavirus era. "The consequences of the coronavirus are likely to reshape the global airline industry," the report read. "In the first instance, this will be because of a potential reduction in the amount of weaker airlines." Already in Australia, Qantas' only major rival Virgin Airlines went into voluntary administration in April and is still seeking its white knight. Similar events have also occurred overseas, such as LATAM in South America. The big money maker for airlines is business travel, but there are doubts that will ever pick up back to old levels. "Corporate travel will reduce significantly, and perhaps permanently, as a result of changes in working patterns, use of technology and companies' focus on reducing costs. We expect that business travel will only recover slowly." Moody's had better news for Qantas though, with conditions ripe for it to recover faster than its peers around the world. This is because Australia and New Zealand's success in repelling Covid-19, the dependence on flying for Australians to cover large distances and Qantas' high proportion of domestic flight revenue. "In addition, the resumption of quarantine-free flights between Australia and New Zealand, and Virgin Australia... entering voluntary administration will support Qantas' recovery." Story continues The gloomy outlook for the aviation industry also impacts on the wider economy, especially for sectors like catering, travel agents, tourism, airports, aerospace manufacturing and airline services. Sign up to the newsletter for exclusive access. Follow Yahoo Finance Australia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Mourners at the funeral of Bishop Francis Lagan were told how the former Diocese of Derry Auxiliary Bishop was kind and gentle in the face of turmoil. Bishop Lagan passed away last Tuesday and his funeral was held at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Strabane last Thursday. The bishop of Derry paid tribute to Bishop Francis kind and gentle nature, something he said was an indicator of great strength, both as a teacher and a curate. He was known as a kindly teacher. There is nothing as strong as real gentleness and nothing as gentle as real strength, he said. After five years here in Strabane as a curate, he was put in charge of St Mary's, Creggan at a time of widespread chaos and violence. But his talents had been noticed and in 1988 in the midst of chaotic events following the Gibraltar shootings he was ordained as Auxiliary Bishop of Derry. Born in Maghera, Bishop Lagan was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Derry in 1960 at Maynooth College. His ministry began with teaching appointments at St Columb's College, Derry (1961-1963), Carndonagh College (1963-1973), and Carndonagh Community School (1973-1977). He then served as curate in Strabane and Administrator at St Marys Parish, Creggan before being appointed auxiliary bishop for the diocese in 1988. Bishop McKeown told those present in the church and those watching online that Bishop Lagan had urged him to keep things simple. For Bishop Francis, the restrictions imposed by Covid have been ideal in enabling him to be buried with little fuss. In life and in death, he was a simple man, he said. Bishop Lagan retired to what Bishop McKeown described as his beloved Strabane, but was buried in his native Maghera, in whose life and culture he was deeply rooted. Bishop McKeown recognised the loss felt by Bishop Lagans family and friends and acknowledged how faithful they had been during his final days. The loss of a loved one is painful, it touches the depths of who we are. A wound is left where a person is plucked from us. It is healthy to recognise that pain, he said Today we recognise the loss felt by the large extended Lagan family and by Bishop Francis' circle of faithful friends. He was much loved by them. Pain is the price we pay for having loved. In the hospital, I commented how faithful the family were in accompanying him and each other in his last days. "He was very good to us," came the reply. Ending his homily, Bishop McKeown described Bishop Lagan as a man of peace and encouragement. He died in the early hours of the Feast of St Columba, a man of peace. And he is being buried on the feast of St Barnabas, whose name means 'son of encouragement'. Bishop Francis was a man who could claim to be a descendant of both. COVID-19 Keeps Affecting Dollar Right before the start of another trading week of June 2020, NordFX experts came up with another set of market predictions for the forex and cryptocurrency markets. Their predictions are based on the consensus forecast compiled from various market forecasts made by various market experts as well as the result of technical analysis. The period is June 15th - 20th. So, this is what those predictions look like: - EUR/USD. At this point, it's hard to say whether the demand for risky assets is going to recover in the near future. The balance of market powers will definitely be guided by the progress in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the trade conflict between the USA and China, as well as the price war going on in the crude oil market. According to 60% of the experts participating in survey, the currency pair is unlikely to plunge below 1.1200 in the near future. The current levels of resistance are 1.1425 and 1.1500. The remaining 40% count on the currency pair moving back into the 1.0955-1.1000 range. The forecast is backed by the chart analysis on H4. The closest major level of support is 1.1100. Most of D1 trending indicators and oscillators are pained green since the bulls are currently dominating the EUR/USD market on this timeframe. As for H4, the picture is the opposite. However, only 15% of the oscillators are indicating an oversold market. - GBP/USD. Some experts point to the fact that a major low was set in April in terms of the UK's economic activity. Some improvements are expected to come in Q3 2020. International investors are currently waiting for big news in the coming days. 45% of the experts are bullish on GBP/USD, backed by H4. 35% are bearish, backed by D1. THe remaining 20% are neutral, expecting a flat market between 1.2400 and 1.2645. The next bullish targets are 1.2815 and 1.2900. The bears are looking to reach 1.2355, 1.2265, and 1.2165. 75% of H4 indicators are pinted red. D1 indicates a controversial picture - with 3 almost equal groups - bearish, bullish, and neutral. - USD/JPY. 40% of the experts expect a rally with moving inside the 108.25-109.70 area. 35% and 25% expect a plunge and a flat market respectively. It's interesting to note that the scenarios aren't backed by the tech picture. - BTC/USD. International experts are looking forward to another rally of Bitcoin and altcoins. In the meantime, BTC/USD is trying to consolidate in the area between 10K and 11K dollars per coin. 55% of the experts believe Bitcoin will reach this the top of the area by the ned of June. 15% expect a flat market between 9K and 10K dollars per coin. The remaining 30% are bearish - expecting a move down to 8K-8,5K dollars per coin. The greed and fear index is in the fear zone, which is why traders should be careful when considering long trades. You are free to discuss this article here: forum for traders and investors YEREVAN. The change of shift of Armenias contingent carrying out humanitarian mission in Syria took place Tuesday. We have learned about this from the Center for Humanitarian Demining and Expertise of Armenia. The new group comprising deminers and doctors, with the support of Russian associates, left for Aleppo, and they will carry out their humanitarian mission there until October. In accordance with the international standards of anti-landmine operations, the sappers of this fifth contingent will start their field work after undergoing respective training. And the deminers and doctors of the fourth group, despite having tested negative for COVID-19 in Syria and returned to Armenia, will be self-isolated for 14 days, pursuant to the decision by the commandant of the current state of emergency in the country. Abdelmalek Droukdel, the most known leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was eliminated non 3 June during an operation led by the French army. Recently arrived from Algeria, the jihadi leader was accompanied by several of his relatives, executives of the organization he founded in January 2007. The operation against the leader of AQIM and his lieutenants was carried out by French special forces, who arrived in the area by helicopter before taking action on the ground. Several other individuals were killed at the same time as Droukdel, but their identities some of whom may have been other senior AQIM officials are still being verified. Several clues contributed to the formal identification of Abdelmalek Droukdels body, even though the French military did not use DNA tests. A whole range of indications allow us to affirm with certainty that it is indeed him, said a senior French official. Among them was the arrest, during the operation, of a jihadist who formally confirmed his identity to French special forces. Atlanta pastor Louie Giglio caught flak for a conversation about racism and slavery with rapper Lecrae and Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy. In the online church service, Giglio said that people "miss the blessing of slavery that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in." Since the term "white privilege" tends to push white people away, Giglio suggested referring to it as "white blessing." Giglio later apologized for his comments, saying he was "not seeking to refer to slavery as blessing but that we are privileged because of the curse of slavery." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Louie Giglio, speaking here in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2016, has been criticized for comments that refer to slavery as a "white blessing." Rick Diamond/Getty Images Louie Giglio, a megachurch pastor from Atlanta, has apologized for comments he made at an online church service Sunday where he recommended using the phrase "white blessing" instead of "white privilege." Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy and rapper Lecrae joined Giglio for an "open and honest conversation around how racism has plagued our city for generations, and the steps we can all take to confront it head-on in our church, our neighborhoods, and our hearts," according to Newsweek. Giglio, the head of Passion City Church, said that white people regret slavery, but also recognize that they benefited from it. "We understand the curse that was slavery, white people do, and we say, 'That was bad,' but we miss the blessing of slavery that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in," Giglio said. However, Giglio said, the phrase "white privilege" is too abrasive to discuss the phenomenon. "When you say those two words, it's like a fuse goes off for a lot of white people because they don't want somebody telling them to check their privilege," he said. So Giglio suggested a new phrase. "I know that you and I both have struggled in these days with 'Hey, if the phrase is the trip up, let's get over the phrase and let's get down to the heart, let's get down to what then do you want to call it,'" he told Lecrae. "And I think maybe a great thing for me is to call it 'white blessing.'" Story continues "That I'm living in the blessing of the curse that happened generationally that allowed me to grow up in Atlanta," he continued. Giglio's comments received backlash online. Rev. Rob Lee (@roblee4) June 16, 2020 Giglio responded by trying to walk back his comments and clarify what he meant. He wrote on Twitter Monday that he was "not seeking to refer to slavery as blessing but that we are privileged because of the curse of slavery. In calling it a privilege/benefit/blessing word choice wasn't great. Trying to help us see society is built on the dehumanization of others. My apology, I failed." In a subsequent video posted on Twitter Tuesday, Giglio issued an apology to everyone watching and particularly to his "Black brothers and sisters." "I like so many and am so burdened by what is happening in our nation right now, and I'm heartbroken about where we are as a nation," he said. Something that's critical, Giglio said, is for him and other white people to continue learning about the fact that "white privilege is real." Reiterating that deeming it a "white blessing" was a "horrible choice of words," Giglio said, "It does not reflect my heart at all." The point he was trying to make is that he and other white people "sit in large part where we are today because of the centuries of gross injustice done" to generations of Black Americans, he said. The issue of racism has reverberated across the globe after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters have rallied for the end of police violence, particularly toward minority communities and people of color. Read the original article on Insider Credit: Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer Results from a new economic tracker that looks at real-time statistics on consumer spending, jobs, and business revenue suggest that the government's traditional recovery strategies to reverse the downturn triggered by the pandemic are not having a major impact, because they fail to address the root of the problemconsumer fear of the virus itself. The findings, summarized in a report published Wednesday by Harvard's Opportunity Insights group, suggest that the only way to fully revive the economy is to address the virus itself through therapy or a vaccine. And in the meantime, barring some other medical advance or shift in the economy, a more effective approach would be to focus on bolstering the businesses, individuals, and areas most affected, instead of broad-based solutions like direct stimulus payments to all Americans. "The question is: Are you going to approach this as are we going to stimulate the economy and try to get it back on track with economic policy? Or are we going to look at this as what economists would call social insurance?" said Raj Chetty, director of Opportunity Insights, an institute of social scientists and policy analysts who harness big data for policy solutions. "Those are two fundamentally different views. One view is we're going to restart the economy and get it back to where it was through economic policy. My instinct is: That's just not possible, because you can't make people go out and spend and go out and do what they were doing before if they're fundamentally just worried about their health. I think you can take the perspective of: We need to help people who need to feed their families, need to be able to pay rent, need to be able to pay their utility bills, and so forth. We do that through unemployment benefits, through the food stamp program, through things like Medicaid that provides health insurance coverage in these times." The Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker uses data from credit card processors, payroll firms, and financial services firms. It is an interactive tool launched in May to help policymakers assess the effects of the downturn in real time and evaluate policy impacts in different geographic regions of the U.S. at a granular level. The tool is open to and free for public use. Consumer spending during COVID-19 crisis, by income group. Credit: Opportunity Insights In the report, the Opportunity Insights teamwhich includes Co-Directors Nathaniel Hendren, a Harvard professor of economics, and John Friedman, an associate professor of economics and international and public affairs at Brown University, along with Michael Stepner, an economist who completed his Ph.D. at MIT last yearhighlights the effects the novel coronavirus has had on consumer spending and employment rates, and evaluates the policies intended to stabilize them during the collapse. U.S. government statistics show almost all of the reduction in the nation's GDP came from a sharp drop in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy. So the group began by studying this drop and analyzing the impacts of those reductions on businesses and workers. They discovered that high income households accounted for most of the drop in consumer spending and that small businesses in higher-income areas had suffered greater revenue declines and more losses of low-wage workers than their counterparts in less-affluent ZIP codes. In fact, two-thirds of the total drop in credit-card spending between January and the end of May came from households in the top 25 percent of the income distribution, while households in the bottom 25 percent spent at the same levels they had before the crisis. This decline in spending by the rich differs drastically from previous recessions, when there wasn't a health risk like the coronavirus, suggesting the change was largely driven by health concerns rather than any financial reason. The tracker found that decreases in spending were most pronounced in businesses that require in-person interaction, such as restaurants, transportation, and salons. Many high-income households did not lower their spending on services that don't require interaction, such as landscaping. The fallout was apparent. Small businesses in the most-affluent ZIP codes lost more than 70 percent of their revenue, compared with 30 percent in lower-income areas from January to April. As those businesses lost revenue, they laid off workers at higher rates. According the tracker, in highrent areas more than 70 percent of workers at small businesses were laid off in the two weeks after the pandemic began. In that same period, fewer than 30 percent of workers in the ZIP codes with the lowest rents lost jobs. In San Francisco, for example, job losses for low-income workers were higher in affluent neighborhoods such as Nob Hill than in lower-income places like Bayview. Stimulus checks fail to buoy total spending or payrolls. Credit: Opportunity Insights Chetty stressed that it's the low-income workers who are bearing the brunt of the current economic shock and that it illustrates the interconnected economy. "The rich cut back; the poor end up bearing the consequences," he said. The researchers then trained their eyes on the effects of state-mandated openings and the policies the federal government implemented to mitigate the economic fallout. States that have begun reopening, even the earliest to do so, have seen only modest gains, and stimulus payments to individuals and loans to small businesses have not led to a surge in either revenue or employment rates for those firms most affected. Instead, most of the jump in consumer spending from stimulus payments went to goods from delivery services, like Amazon, that require no human contact. The group also found little difference in the economic improvement of states that opened as early as April 20 compared with peers that remained closed to the end of May. For example, spending in Minnesota and Wisconsin were about the same from February through May, even though Minnesota began opening nonessential business on April 27 and Wisconsin delayed until May 13. The same holds true for their employment rates. Looking at the $300 billion CARES Act, the data show there was a spike in consumer spending after April 15 when deposits from the stimulus package first started hitting Americans' bank accounts. The increase was greatest among low-income households overall, but the jump did not translate into a rise in employment in many areas because the additional spending went largely to national delivery services, not the beleaguered in-person businesses that needed it most. As a result, employment of low-income workers remained down 41.9 percent at the end of April despite total spending as of May 12 being down only 15 percent from pre-pandemic levels. Small-business revenue is down 18 percent, according to the tracker. Despite reopening sooner, Minnesota has seen similar spending levels as Wisconsin. Credit: Opportunity Insights The researchers also looked at the Paycheck Protection Program and found the loans to small businesses had little impact on employment rates. In fact, employment patterns were almost identical among businesses above and below the 500-worker eligibility cutoff. The researchers say recent gains in jobs numbers appear to be the result of an increase in consumer spending partially from the stimulus package and from receding health concerns. In the report, the researchers also suggest that as time passes the downturn may be driven less by health concerns. If that happens, tools like stimulus payments could have more impact in areas with reduced spending. "This is the value of having the tracker and the broader theme of what we're doing here," Chetty said. "The big picture here is traditionally it's very hard to do the type of analysis [we just put together] because we haven't had the data to be able to monitor the economy in such a way before. What we're trying to do with the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker is provide tools to essentially answer these questions in real time, so that [we] can see when this shock becomes a traditional economic shock. And not just answering that question at the macro level [but] area by area Where do we need to try to focus our attention? Which subgroups of people? And so the idea is that by pulling together these private-sector data sources, we can now be able to speak to those questions much more precisely." Explore further A tool to provide policymakers with real-time economic data Commentary By Jeffrey Reeves As if the daily stresses to Canadians lives from COVID-19 were not enough, the pandemic has metastasized in the countrys public spaces in the shape of virulent racism against Canadian-Asians and Asians in Canada; racism which, in its most malignant form, has resulted in violence. While appealing to the better aspects of most Canadians nature, prompting selfless acts of kindness and sacrifice across the country, the pandemic has empowered others to give voice to their previously silent prejudices. Their victims? The elderly man. The lone woman. The pedestrian. Their means? A bullys push. A blindside. A slur shouted from the window of a moving car. Their agenda? Here one can argue, although the underlying thesis is clear enough: COVID came from China; all Asians, ipso facto, are bad. We, as a nation, should not be surprised. History teaches us clearly that there will always be those who work to turn a crisis to their advantage, believing the majoritys distraction provides them a safe moment in time to propagate their hate. What we must collectively realize, however, is that these few, these meagre, individuals do not represent us as a society. They are, rather, pandemic opportunists seeking to sow discontent for the sake of their own distorted pleasure. Yet it is not, unfortunately, so simple as this. One thing weve learned from media studies on crisis-time communications is that fringe ideas, conspiracy theories, and rumours thrive in times of uncertainty and fear. Recent domestic polling shows a significant uptick across Canada of what can only be accurately portrayed as anti-Asian sentiment, up to and including the perception among some that all Asians carry COVID-19. The language of racism has further entered Canadas political lexicon, with one Conservative MP calling the nations top public health officials patriotism into question because of her Chinese ethnicity. APF Canada is proud to be a signatory to a Business Council of British Columbia statement denouncing the recent rise in racist attacks in B.C., a document signed by more than 200 business, community, cultural, and faith leaders condemning these deplorable incidents and standing up for diversity and inclusion. While Canada is not yet at the ask China-level of Asian-directed racism one sees in U.S. politics, is this where we are heading? We, at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, dont believe so. And neither do the findings from several relevant polls on Canadians views of Asians and/or Asia indicate this current moment in time is representative of Canadian-Asia relations in their entirety. In 2017 and 2019, APF Canada conducted two nationwide polls on Canadian views of Asia, one targeting young Canadians and the other Canadian views on Asian immigration. Far from identifying structural, anti-Asian racism across the country, both polls showed clear acceptance of and desire for more Asian involvement in Canada, particularly among the countrys younger generations. In the 2017 poll, Canadian Millennial Views on Asia, young millennials registered a 61% favourability rating toward Asia and expressed interest in learning more about Asia through in-region study and/or work. In contrast to older Canadians, Canadian millennials were more open to engagement with Asians from all Asian countries including China and were clear they differentiated between Asian peoples and their respective systems of government. This point is important as Canadian millennials expressed a desire to engage with China even while disagreeing with the countrys political values. Notably, Canadian millennials registered a similar level of dissatisfaction with the United States government as with the Chinese state, arguing the former was dysfunctional while the latter was authoritarian. In the 2019 poll, Canadian Views on Human Capital from Asia, 53% of Canadian respondents disagreed that the costs of Asian immigration outweighed the benefits, and more than 62% stated they were open to more immigration from Asian states including the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan. Notably, only 61% of respondents favoured more immigration from the United States. Overall, respondents were particularly supportive of Asian immigrants, as they perceived them to be strong in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills. This finding accorded closely with the 2017 poll, where Canadian respondents stereotyped Asians as hardworking. Within both surveys, China admittedly stood out as an Asian outlier, albeit not to the extent that one might expect given the countrys negative media coverage. In the 2017 poll, Canadian millennials registered more positive views of China and argued for closer engagement with the country, even while clearly stating that China didnt share Canadas values. In the 2019 poll, 48% of respondents argued for continual Chinese immigration to Canada. To put this percentage into context, the Asia Pacific Foundation conducted this poll seven months after the Chinese government detained Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. What can we learn from these national-level data points on Canadian views of Asia? First, younger generation Canadians are far less likely than older generations to have a negative view of Asia, including China. Indeed, younger Canadians look to the Asian region as a source of prosperity, education, and innovation while at the same time holding more critical views of the United States. APF Canada stands behind the Hon. Janet Austin, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, and the anti-racism pledge and video she has released featuring all parties represented in the B.C. Legislature encouraging everyone across the province to participate. Join us in celebrating the diversity that gives us an advantage in a rapidly changing world: Take the #DifferentTogether pledge. As we look at the current environment and wonder whether Canada is becoming less hospitable to Canadian-Asians or Asians in Canada, it is worth noting that younger demographics favour more robust Canada-Asian ties. As provinces such as B.C. are now including more modules on Asian history, Asian culture, and Asians contributions to Canadas development at the primary and secondary school levels, it is likely such favourable trends will continue. Second, Canadians, by and large, remain open indeed eager for more Asian immigration to Canada, particularly when Asian immigration supports the countrys STEM-related industries. Indeed, with respect to some Asian states, Canadian support for immigration from Asia is greater than support for U.S.-originating immigration. Again, the trend lines point to closer Canada-Asia ties and a deeper understanding among the Canadian population of the importance of such ties. Third, Canadians remain open to engagement with China, even when they clearly understand the difficulties around Canada-China relations and disagree with the countrys political values. While some contemporary polls suggest this perception may have changed, it is worth remembering that Canada is in a moment of crisis and that blame China has become a well-publicized meme for many governments seeking to deflect blame. Does this excuse the growing anti-Asian racism we see across Canada? Absolutely not. It does, however, provided much needed context to the countrys real sense of self. Canada has not become a hostile place for Asians, despite the foul actions of the few. Canada is not the sum total of its worst parts. Canada is better than this. Dr. Jeffrey Reeves is Vice-President of Research for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Ladakh The Indian army on June 16 said that 20 of its soldiers were killed in clashes with Chinese troops along the border it shares with that country. The deaths were the culmination rather, escalation of a weeks-long standoff between the two countries in the western Himalayas. India and China have long been energetic trade partners but share a turbulent history in strategic affairs since the brief but bloody war fought in 1962. An uneasy truce prevailed and the distrust seeded by that conflict has often flared up into skirmishes at intervals ever since. The two countries have tried several times since the early 1990s to settle their border dispute without success. India-China Border News LIVE Now would be a good time to educate ourselves on the tempestuous history between the two countries. Moneycontrol reached out to Praveen Swami, Group Consulting Editor, Network 18. Praveen is the author of India, Pakistan and the Secret Jihad: the Covert War in Jammu and Kashmir, 1947-2002, (London: Routledge) and The Kargil War (New Delhi: LeftWord). Praveen has been a Jennings Randolph senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., and lectures frequently at police and intelligence training institutions across India. Here are the books one is an account Moneycontrol readers must read right now to understand the turbulent history between India and China. 1. Indias official history of the war of 1962 | Written by PB Athale and SN Sinha, this account is still classified for reasons not known but was posted online for free to download by the scholar Manoj Joshi many years ago. This is truly a must-read account to understand how India ended up at war with China. https://www.bharat-rakshak.com/ARMY/history/1962war/266-official-history.html 2. War in High Himalaya: The Indian Army in Crisis, 1962 | This book is vital reading for understanding the Indian military role in 1962. Written by DK Palit, War in High Himalaya: The Indian Army in Crisis, 1962 is a brilliant and piercing look at how the China-India conflict fits into Indias bigger strategic ambitions and aims. 3. War and Peace in Modern India | To understand the war in the broader context of Indian state-building, it will be a good idea to turn to Srinath Raghavans War and Peace in India. The book draws on a rich vein of untapped documents to illuminate Jawaharlal Nehru's approach to war and his efforts for peace, according to GoodReads.com. Ragahavan gives individual attention to every conflict and shows how strategic decisions for each crisis came to be defined in the light of the preceding ones, according to the book recommendation website. 4. The CIAs Secret War in Tibet | It is a colourful look at Indias role in Tibet, and how the CIA tried to initiate an insurgency there. Written by Kenneth Conboy and James Morrisons The CIAs Secret War in Tibet, the book transports readers from the American secret service agencys training camps in the Colorado Rockies to the Himalayas, chronicling the agency's clandestine help in securing the Dalai Lama's safe passage to India. 5. The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia | Finally, a must-read book on how colonial spies and adventurers locked horns on the roof of the world, creating the border conflicts inherited by independent China and India. Peter Hopkirks The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia is a vivid account of The Great Game a phrase immortalised by Rudyard Kiplingthat played out within 20 miles of India. A pupil teacher has been convicted by an Accra Circuit Court for having anal intercourse with a 12-year-old pupil. The convict, Kwabena Anim Seth, 30 is said to have convinced the victim and sexually assaulted him on three different occasions at New Achimota in Accra. He lured his victim into the act by promising to help him complete his online school assignment and ended up sexually assaulting him in his mother's living room. The victim's mother, according to court document presented by ASP Agnes Boafo noticed that the victim was having a chat with the convict on WhatsApp on a phone she bought for him for purposes of online studies due to the COVID-19 which led to the suspension of school. The victim's mother according the documents saw a pornographic cartoon on the phone and upon interrogation the victim told her it was from the teacher. The victim then informed the mother about the convict sexually assaulting him on three separate occasion. The mother then decided to set a trap for Kwabena Anim Victor in order to get him arrested. The mother according to court documents made the victim to chat the convict who agreed to come to the house and he subsequently did. Just as he entered the room, he is said to have removed his shirt while he was in his boxer shots and was about to remove the victim's shirt. Unknown to him, there were people hiding in the kitchen who then came out and apprehended him. The victim's mother then called the police who came around to arrest him. Kwabena Anim Seth upon integration is said to have confessed and told the police that he had carnal knowledge with the victim on two occasions and not three as the victim claims. The caused was hauled before the court charged with defilement of a child under the age of 16 years to which he pleaded guilty. The court presided over by Christina Cann convicted him on his own plea and deferred his sentencing to tomorrow. He was remanded into police custody. Daily Guide By means of the extrusion method, researchers of KIT study baking properties of insect flours. Credit: Markus Breig, KIT According to estimates of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), population growth will cause the worldwide demand for animal proteins to double by 2050. Even if free agricultural areas would be used, this demand could not be covered by meat from cattle breeding alone. For this reason, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) study production of new alternative protein sources. Their goal is to develop insect flours suited for, for example, bread production. Insects are fixed nutrition constituents in many cultures of Asia or South Africa. In Europe, insect food is a niche product. Currently, industrial production focuses on mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) whose larvae contain many proteins. "Compared to beef, mealworms have the advantage of producing half as much CO 2 and, hence, having a smaller ecological footprint," says Dr. Azad Emin, KIT. The process engineer heads the junior research group "Extrusion of Biopolymers" of the Chair of Food Process Engineering (LVT) of KIT's Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences. Many consumers still refuse insects as unprocessed food in the form of a snack, for instance. First studies reveal, however, that acceptance of products in which the insects are no longer visible is higher. Processed to a powder, commercialization by use in traditional food, such as bread, is feasible on the German market. Bread still is one of the main energy sources, Emin explains. "Wheat flour with insect fractions may enrich the basic foodstuff with proteins and compensate potential deficiencies of other protein sources. For processing the insects, food engineers use extrusion, a method that has long been used for producing pasta or cereals, for example. By adding water, a pasty or dough-like mass develops that is passed through spiral screws, heated, and then pressed through a nozzle. Afterwards, the dry mass is ground. To reach a high acceptance of consumers, the new flours are to hardly differ from conventional baking flours in terms of taste, baking properties, and texture. As the high protein and fat contents of insect flours may cause changes to the dough, however, the LVT researchers analyze their physical and functional properties, such as dissolution capacity, water retention capacity, or elasticity. Work is aimed at improving these specific properties such that they correspond to the properties of conventional baking flours. "Another advantage of the method is the deactivation of enzymes and the reduction of microbial contaminants. In addition, digestibility may be improved," Emin says. As information on the effects of extrusion conditions on digestibility and bioavailability of the nutrients contained in insects is lacking, scientists study them in detail in cooperation with the Max Rubner Institute. Extrusion combined with the exploitation of new resources might open up new perspectives for the traditional baker trade and in particular for small companies, also as far as food trends are concerned. Collaboration with local business will allow for regional production and processing. "Future research will concentrate on the applicability of the flours produced in the baking sector. External bread checks are to cover not only the shape and appearance, but also the texture of the bread. In addition, we plan surveys," Emin reports and emphasizes that the results obtained will be important for the sustainable production of food containing insects. Explore further Plant-based proteins for meat lovers Greetly, the only fully-customizable visitor management system (VMS) in the world, is now offering all existing and future clients the ability to leverage No-touch visitor management technology to ensure safer visitor check-ins and exits within all types of buildings. Greetlys No-touch visitor check-in is the first technology of its kind in the world. The offering was first announced in April 2020 with an assurance the solution would be ready for clients to utilize by June of 2020. Greetlys existing clients will all have access to the new no-touch feature at no additional cost. In addition, the new feature is embedded into all new client plans. It was critical at all levels of our organization from research and development to business development and senior leadership that our No-touch VMS solution be available to all new and existing clients at no additional cost, said Dave Milliken, Founder of Greetly. In these uncertain times when people are concerned for their health and safety, we made a very large internal effort to fast forward our product development to ensure this new tool would be available by June 2020. We made this promise and I am immensely proud of our entire team who worked tirelessly to ensure we could launch as planned and have this tool available today. Visitors are now able to initiate and complete the check-in process using their own smartphones without having to download any additional apps or touch any third-party screens. Office Evolution, a Greetly client, is utilizing the new No-touch offering throughout its network of coworking locations. Office Evolution is the largest and fastest growing coworking franchisor in the U.S. with 70 locations in over 20 states. As the brand is poised to expand its network this year, the need to provide an additional layer of precaution for its members was critical. The health and safety of our member sin our workspaces is our top priority, said William Edmundson, Office Evolution, COO and GWA Board Member. Our members have continued to work from coworking spaces during the pandemic because we quickly implemented enhanced protocols and systems to ensure their safety. The way we work has forever changed and Greetlys No-touch technology complements our goal of providing a healthy environment for our members. Many additional Greetlys clients are utilizing the new No-touch offering including: Randstad, Sweden Vita Coco Cambridge Innovation Center Meeting the growing needs of those seeking healthy buildings across the world should immediately become the main goal of the entire VMS marketplace, especially as our global community works united to end the devastating COVID-19 virus. I believe that every building should begin with a no-touch visitor management system. This way guests, residents, and employees can enter their home or workplace hands-free and have a deeper peace of mind in terms of their personal safety, said Milliken. Since 2019, our research and development team has been working on this tool and I am pleased to see a seamless usage transition by so many of our clients. Traditional visitor management systems run off tablet computers in a kiosk which causes potential risk as visitors are required to touch the kiosk which may have been used by someone carrying corona virus or another illness. In addition, cleaning a kiosk is not entirely practical and cannot be guaranteed after each and every use. The welcome screen of the Greetly app will display a QR code or the ability to text a code, both unique to the specific workplace to initiate the sign-in process. Greetlys technology ensures visitors are on location before allowing them to begin the check-in process. Visitors will then be able to complete the entire check-in process including finding and selecting their host, entering required information about themselves, taking a photo and/or eSigning legal documents. When the process is complete, hosts will be notified. All of this works exactly as if the visitor had used a kiosk. Greetlys no-touch feature is easy to download and use within minutes of accessing the companys app and is offered with 24-HR a day customer support. The new offering is ideal for visitor check-in and check-out for several workplace environments such as secured facilities, co-working spaces, office buildings, staffing agencies, casinos and resorts, warehouses, military posts and many more. For those interested in learning more about Greetlys new no-touch solution, please contact the organization here to schedule a free personal webinar. Greetly is the only fully customizable visitor management system serving enterprise and SMB clients across the globe. Greetly's digital receptionist app manages visiting customers, vendors, interview candidates,deliveries, facility tours, scheduled entries and exits, and more. This modernization to office reception capabilities results in significant time and money savings for Greetly clients. The technology - which provides instant visitor notifications, collects e-signatures, and prints visitor badges can be branded and customized to the unique needs of each work environment. Greetlys solutions are used by several brands including DHL, the Dallas Cowboys, Office Evolution, Randstad, and the United States Air Force. The company was named in 2020 as a Key Company within the visitor management space by QY Research. To learn more and start a free trial, click here. About Office Evolution Founded in 2003 and franchising since 2012, the Colorado-based company is the largest and fastest growing coworking franchisor in the United States. With 70 locations open and nearly 80 in various stages of development, Office Evolution is poised for growth as the demand for suburban workspace increases. The brands model fills a niche for suburban-based workers looking for a professional environment to get their work done. Office Evolution continues to lead the workplace transformation that is projected to see nearly 30 percent of all office space become shared office space by 2030, according to a JLL report. Office Evolution currently operating in 24states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia,Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey,New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. For more information about Office Evolution, please visit https://www.officeevolution.com/ SBC elects Pastor Rolland Slade as first black chair of its executive committee Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Rolland Slade, the 62-year-old senior pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, California, called his historic election as the first black chair of the Southern Baptist Conventions executive committee on Tuesday, Gods plan. "I don't think there was ever a plan for me to be in this position," Slade told Baptist Press. "I think it's what God has done. I believe God loves diversity; He created us and we are all diverse. I think for us to not embrace it is saying that, 'We've got a better idea than You [God].'" Slades election to lead the executive committee comes just eight years after the 175 year old former pro-slavery denomination elected Fred Luter Jr. as the denominations first black president. His nomination for the post was unopposed and he was unanimously elected by ballot vote, BP said. "Rolland is certainly deserving of this historical honor not just because of the color of his skin but because of his knowledge, skills, and leadership as a member of the Executive Committee through the years," Luter told BP of Slades election. "I am proud of Rolland and proud of the men and women of this committee for making this such a historic moment in the Southern Baptist Convention. To God be the glory for the things He has done!" Mike Stone, the outgoing chair who called for the ballot vote to mark the historic moment, said Slades election at a time when the U.S. is grappling with major civil unrest over racial inequality and instances of police brutality is Gods providence. "I think we all realize by what is going on in this country as well as in our convention, this timing is in many ways the providence of our Lord," Stone, who leads the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Georgia, said. The SBCs President J.D. Greear called Slade's election an "exciting day for our convention." "Rolland Slade's election demonstrates we are moving in the right direction," Greear, said. "During my two years as SBC president, I have worked alongside Rolland and seen his leadership and character to lead this body at this time. Greear recently endorsed the black lives matter movement as a Gospel issue to members of the world's largest Baptist denomination in the wake of ongoing protests over multiple officer-involved killings, including the death of George Floyd on May 25 at the hands Minneapolis police officers. We realize that especially in a moment like this one, we need our brothers and sisters of color. We need the wisdom of leadership that God has written in their community. We know that many in our country, particularly our brothers and sisters of color, right now are hurting, Greear said while noting how the SBC had evolved from its racist past to become one of the most ethnically diverse religious groups in the United States. A lot of people dont know that, but nearly 20% of all Southern Baptist churches are majority non-white and the North America Mission Board tells us that more than 60% of new churches planted recently have been planted and led by people of color, Greear said. Marshal Ausberry, SBC first vice president who is also president of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC and pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Fairfax Station, Virginia, told BP that Slade's election shows how far the denomination has come. "His election shows the positive transformation that is occurring in the Convention," Ausberry said. "When you think of the founding of the SBC in 1845, largely over the issue concerning the ownership of enslaved persons by missionaries, to the election of Rolland Slade in the 175th year, this is a seminal moment for the Convention and all Southern Baptists." The vast Stone Age tomb mounds in the valley of the River Boyne, about 25 miles north of Dublin, are so impressive that the area has been called the Irish Valley of the Kings. And a new analysis of ancient human DNA from Newgrange, the most famous of the mounds in Ireland, suggests that the ancient Irish may have had more than monumental grave markers in common with the pharaohs. A team of Irish geneticists and archaeologists reported Wednesday that a man whose cremated remains were interred at the very heart of Newgrange was the product of a first-degree incestuous union, either between parent and child, or brother and sister. The finding, combined with other genetic and archaeological evidence, suggests that the people who built these mounds lived in a hierarchical society with a ruling elite that considered themselves so close to divine that, like the Egyptian pharaohs, they could break the ultimate taboos. In Ireland, more than 5,000 years ago people farmed and raised cattle. But they were also moved, like their contemporaries throughout Europe, to create stunning monuments to the dead, some with precise astronomical orientations. Stonehenge, a later megalith in the same broad tradition as Newgrange, is famous for its alignment to the summer and winter solstice. The central underground room at Newgrange is built so that as the sun rises around the time of the winter solstice it illuminates the whole chamber through what is called a roof box. Archaeologists have long wondered what kind of society built such a structure, which they think must have had ritual or spiritual significance. If, as the new findings indicate, it was a society that honored the product of an incestuous union by interring his remains at the most sacred spot in a sacred place, then the ancient Irish may well have had a ruling religious hierarchy, perhaps similar to those in ancient societies in Egypt, Peru and Hawaii, which also allowed incestuous marriages between brother and sister. Legal and privacy experts have a unified message for Canadians leery of facing threats or consequences for filming police interactions with the public the law is on your side. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Legal and privacy experts have a unified message for Canadians leery of facing threats or consequences for filming police interactions with the public the law is on your side. Canadians have every right to capture footage of police on the job, they said, so long as shooting those images does not interfere with an active investigation. Any force that responds to such footage with threats of cellphone seizures or criminal charges, they said, risks overstepping police authority. Legal and privacy experts have a unified message for Canadians leery of facing threats or consequences for filming police interactions with the public -- the law is on your side. Livingston and Pamelia Jeffers are seen in an undated handout photo. The couple allege police east of Toronto brutally beat them while they were trying to leave a local hospital, while a witness recorded part of the interaction with a cellphone. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-, *MANDATORY CREDIT* Scrutiny of citizen-filmed footage of police interactions has ramped up in recent weeks, following the death of a black man in Minneapolis at the hands of a white police officer an incident that was captured on cellphone video and triggered massive anti-racism protests in the U.S., Canada and around the world. The most recent such allegation to surface in Canada involved an elderly black couple who allege police east of Toronto brutally beat them while they were trying to leave a local hospital. Part of the 2018 interaction was captured on a cellphone video that appears to show an officer punching a man as he lies on the ground. The witness who shot the video alleges members of Durham Regional Police said he could face charges if he did not delete the footage and watched him wipe the roughly 30-second clip from his phone, though only after it had been sent to the couple's grandson. Durham Regional Police did not immediately respond to questions around the witness's allegations, though acknowledged footage shot in the public domain generally belongs to the one who captured the images. "Police should expect to be filmed... This is now partandparcel of the sometimes difficult job that they are asked to do on behalf of the public." Abby Deshman David Fraser, a Halifax-based privacy lawyer with McInnes Cooper, said the unproven allegations would represent a clear violation if true. "They (police) don't actually have any lawful authority to do that," he said of police. "And they actually seldom have any real leverage to do that either." Corey Rainford, the man behind the camera on Oct. 30, 2018, said he felt a mix of confidence in his rights and intimidation the night he captured the interaction between Durham police and Livingston and Pamelia Jeffers. The interaction, which was the subject of a complaint filed to the Ontario Independent Police Review Director, took place after hospital staff tried to prevent the couple from leaving the premises. The OIPRD probe, led by a police officer from a neighbouring force, concluded that while an officer delivered "four elbow strikes" to Livingston Jeffers' head, any allegations of wrong-doing were "unsubstantiated." The Jeffers's have asked the OIPRD to review the finding and launched a civil complaint related to the interaction. Durham police, citing both active cases, declined to offer further comment. Rainford, who said he's gotten into the habit of filming police interactions whenever he comes across them, said he was later approached by both Durham police and hospital staff alleging his footage violated patient confidentiality and could result in charges including trespassing. "Demanding the deletion of bystander footage is not generally consistent with police accountability, and only serves to undermine public trust." Tamir Israel He said he was ordered to delete the footage, a request he complied with so as to avoid further tension, but defended his decision to shoot the video. "It's one of my rights that I'm allowed to record anything," Rainford said. "It was not right." Fraser said matters become murkier when such interactions play out on private property, where he said businesses can impose in-house restrictions as to what can take place on the premises. Hospitals, for instance, often have internal rules preventing people from taking photos that could inadvertently include patients who hadn't given consent. But Fraser said experiences like Rainford's still can't be framed as either a criminal act or a privacy violation. "If any law was engaged, it was the law of trespass and not the law related to somebody's privacy," he said. Abby Deshman, director of the criminal justice program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, agreed. She said numerous court decisions, disciplinary findings and other legal matters have clearly established the rules, noting that it's well understood among police that being filmed while on the job is fair game. "Police should expect to be filmed," she said. "This is now part-and-parcel of the sometimes difficult job that they are asked to do on behalf of the public." Tamir Israel, staff lawyer with the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic, said he believes the right to hold police accountable for their actions is protected by the Canadian Constitution. "We have seen recently how powerfully important it is to make sure police remain accountable to the public," he said. "Demanding the deletion of bystander footage is not generally consistent with police accountability, and only serves to undermine public trust." Israel said such actions, along with demands to hand over footage on the grounds that it could constitute evidence in an active case, also highlight the power imbalance between police and the public during potentially volatile situations. Fraser agreed, noting that while citizens have every right to refuse to comply with police demands they may feel unable to do so during a heated moment. If asked to hand over his phone, for instance, Fraser said he would refuse to divulge the unlocking code, give police his card and agree to provide the requested footage later on. "But I'm a middle-aged, white lawyer, and that carries a lot of privilege," he said. "If you're a 14-year-old black kid taking video of police beating up your friend, you're probably not in the same position to tell them to go pound sand." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids leaders have approved spending $750,000 on a summer jobs program for young people between the ages of 15 and 21. The jobs program announced Tuesday, June 16, is a partnership between the city, Kent County and dozens of local businesses and organizations with the aim to provide jobs to 1,000 young people in the city. City commissioners signed off on the $750,000 expenditure to get the program going during their Tuesday night meeting. The program will prioritize accepting young people that live in 49503, 49507, 49508 and 49509 ZIP codes. City officials say these areas have been most heavily impacted by disproportionate outcomes, including COVID-19. The jobs program was one of a number of initiatives to improve police-community relations that city officials announced earlier this month. People accepted into the program must be between the ages of 15 and 21, residents of Grand Rapids and eligible to work in the U.S. They will be paid $10 an hour for up to 20 hours each week. Minimum wage in Michigan for those 18 and older is $9.65. For those ages 16 to 17, the state's minimum wage is $8.20. So far, 27 businesses and organizations including Meijer, Amway, Spectrum Health and Steelcase, as well as Kent County, have committed to participating in the program. We are committed to ensuring that all of our young people have access to opportunities, City Manager Mark Washington said in a statement. This is an important opportunity for us to come together in true West Michigan fashion and respond to a critical need through a public-private partnership. We are grateful for our partners as we work together to give our communitys youth exposure and access to employment opportunities, practical knowledge and important connections that can prepare them for their future." Young people can apply for the program here. Applications will be taken through June 29, and the program ends Aug. 21. Paid training, which begins June 29, includes program orientation and topics such as workplace etiquette and safety and proper professional attire. Transportation options for young workers are being developed. Businesses and organizations are encouraged to participate by sponsoring young people in the program at $1,500 each, or to provide the young people with employment opportunities. The city will then provide the employer with a stipend for the work. According to the report on the expenditure by city staff, the city hopes to recover the costs through employer payments, sponsorships and federal grants related to the coronavirus pandemic. So far, 27 businesses including Meijer, Amway, Spectrum Health and Steelcase, as well as Kent County, have committed to participating in the program. Read more: Use of force changes, calls to reduce police funding discussed by Grand Rapids City Commission Recreational pot shops are now allowed in second Kent County city Grand Rapids school board eyes deep budget cuts amid coronavirus economic fallout Grand Rapids police investigating officers actions during riot A person takes part in a video chat meeting through the Zoom video conferencing platform. / Courtesy of Zoom Video Communications By Baek Byung-yeul Abe Smith, head of International at Zoom Video Communications I view the two initiatives of the Prosperous Armenia Party as excellent initiatives. This is what Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan told reporters today when he was asked how he would assess the initiatives of the Prosperous Armenia Party to set up a committee to lead a probe into the steps and actions of the authorities with regard to the coronavirus situation and to apply to the Constitutional Court to lift the ban on assemblies during the state of emergency, with regard to lawfulness of the ban and in case of having the required number of signatures. If the committee is set up, we will also be able to examine the news that the insider groups of the Prosperous Armenia Party disseminate, stating that there is no coronavirus and that there is no need to wear a mask at all. There are even deputies of the Prosperous Armenia Party who dont wear masks. We need to study and understand if this is done intentionally to cause harm to Armenias national security and take advantage of this situation for political purposes, or if these are simply rumors, Alen Simonyan said. As far as applying to the Constitutional Court is concerned, Simonyan said he also assesses this positively. In regard to the Constitutional Court, the deputies of the political party have stated that they agree that there is a problem with the Constitutional Court. They have declared several times that they have voted against the nomination of current president of the Court Hrayr Tovmasyan, but now they have decided to apply to Hrayr Tovmasyan so that he can provide a solution. Im not sure we won't have solved the issue of the Constitutional Court by then and the current members of the Court will examine the application. I doubt it, Simonyan said. King County seeks Phase 2 openings SEATTLE (AP) King County has applied to move into Phase 2 of reopening from coronavirus restrictions. The county wants to relax rules for businesses like restaurants, barbers and retail operations. The Seattle Times reports the King County Board of Health voted unanimously late Monday afternoon to send its application to the state. There is always risk when moving from one phase to another, according to Dr. Jeff Duchin, Public Health Seattle & King County's public health officer, who cautioned that King County residents should continue to stay at least 6 feet apart, wash their hands and wear masks. The second phase allows restaurants and taverns to reopen at half capacity with limited table sizes, hair and nail salons and barbershops to resume business, and retail stores to reopen for in-store purchases at 30% capacity. It also allows additional outdoor recreation and gatherings with no more than five people outside of a single household. Counties are allowed to progress to the next phase if they have declining infection levels, adequate supplies of personal protective equipment, space in hospitals, ample testing capacity and a contact tracing system to notify close contacts of infected people. While a spokesman for one of the companies noted the results near their facility are on par with background levels recorded elsewhere and at two local control sites, one local grassroots organization said in a statement they are outraged with the high results and do not understand why the plants have not been closed. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tore into defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday for not mentioning China in his tweet condoling the death of Indian soldiers in a clash with Chinese troops in Ladakhs Galwan Valley. If it was so painful: 1. Why insult Indian Army by not naming China in your tweet? 2. Why take 2 days to condole? 3. Why address rallies as soldiers were being martyred? 4. Why hide and get the Army blamed by the crony media? 5. Why make paid-media blame Army instead of GOI? Gandhi tweeted. If it was so painful: 1. Why insult Indian Army by not naming China in your tweet? 2. Why take 2 days to condole? 3. Why address rallies as soldiers were being martyred? 4. Why hide and get the Army blamed by the crony media? 5. Why make paid-media blame Army instead of GOI? https://t.co/mpLpMRxwS7 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 17, 2020 Rajnath Singh who hailed the courage of the fallen soldiers in his tweet had described their deaths as disturbing and painful. On Sunday, in a virtual rally for Jammu he said that India and China want to resolve the stand-off between their border troops through dialogue even as he underlined that the government will never compromise when it comes to national pride. India is no longer a weak nation, the defence minister had said. Rahul Gandhis tweet came hours after Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come clean about the situation in Ladakh. The PM should tell the nation how the Chinese occupied Indian territory, why 20 brave soldiers were martyred, she said in Hindi during a live address. The Congress has been hammering away at the government, asking it to reveal the extent of Chinese intrusions in Ladakh. Benefit, Bahrains leading company in electronic financial transactions services, has announced a cooperation agreement with Bahrain Financing Company (BFC ) to activate BenefitPay at all the branches of BFC. Customers will be able to exchange or transfer money at exchange houses using BenefitPay, the national electronic wallet, rather than the use of physical cash. This agreement came as part of a series of agreements with the exchange companies operating in Bahrain to follow, said a statement. This step is in line with Benefits efforts to encourage and create a cashless society, working in line with the kingdoms vision to strengthen the digital community through launching a variety of services in different sectors, especially the banking sector, which has become dependable on electronic financial transactions. Abdulwahed AlJanahi, CEO of Benefit, said: It is our great pleasure to welcome aboard the BFC to the BenefitPay mobile application and launch this newly offered service with them, which serves to further expand our rapidly growing number of services, confirming our efforts to digitize all financial transactions. We look forward to moving forward in expanding our service base to serve a wider range of customers, in line with the national plan and the directives of the Central Bank of Bahrain. Rajesh Gairola, CEO of BFC, said: We are delighted to have Benefit as a partner in this new service, which will enhance and provide our customers with added payment options provided by the company. BenefitPay is amongst the most innovative tools which allow for the operation of electronic payments, allowing our customers to have more electronic options, especially during these difficult times where our focus is directed at reducing the use of physical cash, in line with the preventative measures taken to combat the Coronavirus. BenefitPay has over 450,000 registered users and over 3,500 participating stores within a network that accepts the use of BenefitPay as a payment method. TradeArabia News Service The inspiration for MBListings.org came to UF alumnus, Wayne Fields, when he was operating an advertising agency in the 1990s. At first, the government was required to award a certain percentage of contracts to minority-owned businesses, known as 'set-aside contracts.' Eventually, that was ruled unconstitutional. Fields, Founder and CEO of MBListings.org, said the whole process was a frustrating transition. "It went from mandatory to good-faith effort. That good faith effort turned into no effort at all. So, there were excuses of 'well we aren't doing business because we don't know who the minority businesses are.' Well ... if you don't know who they are, someone needs to provide that list. That is when we developed MBListing.org." In addition to providing exposure for minority-owned businesses, Fields' team also serves business referrals, marketing, and advertising. The first hard copy edition of MBListings came out in 2013. If you look through it, the businesses range from insurance and advertising, to dentistry and restaurants. While the idea has stayed the same throughout the years, technology has taken it to the next level. The website currently includes information on over 450 minority-owned businesses in Alachua County -- but the dream and plan go far beyond county lines. "I have a desire to make MBListings.org the largest listings of businesses in the world," Fields said. And Fields' hope for the future of minorities goes far beyond business contracts. "The injustice that people are going through is ridiculous. The only way you can bring about effective change is that you hit someone in their pocket, not just their mouth. It's not just burning a building down. You knock that door down and you walk in with a plan. And then you implement that plan. And that's what MBListings is trying to make a difference and do. Trying to make a positive change." Check out the website 5 Minutes to get your Cash Flowing Teagasc are highlighting the importance of Cash Flow Planning as a vital business tool that all farmers should engage in. A series of videos, articles and support tools are now available on the Teagasc website www.teagasc.ie Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD said: Covid has placed many businesses under financial pressure. In the farming sector this is equally the case, therefore management of cash flow is critical for farmers. Teagasc have developed snap shot tools to help you manage cash flow and I would advise you to contact your Teagasc advisor to help you in this matter. Fintan Phelan Head of Farm Management and Rural Development in Teagasc said: Being able to complete a cash flow plan for your farm is a good Management Practice that will enable you to take control of your business. Farmers should follow the A,B,C of cash flow management: A - Act early talk to your financial institution B - Be realistic when completing your cash flow and C - Consult your Teagasc advisor, accountant can help. On the Teagasc website there are individual documents available to download depending on your farm enterprise, titled Cash Flow & Financial management of Dairy, Drystock and Tillage farms that incorporate the 5 Minute Cash Flow Document and guidance for when cash is tight. See Cash Flow on Farms The Teagasc Lets Talk Dairy webinar tomorrow, Thursday, 18 June at 10.30am will focus on financial management on dairy farms. The webinar is on Dairy Farm Financial Outlook and Management Advice for 2020, with Tadgh Buckley from AIB and dairy farmer Mike Bermingham, with Stuart Childs and Fintan Phelan, Teagasc. In episode 124 of the Teagasc Dairy Edge podcast, Teagasc specialist Patrick Gowing and Agri-Advisor at Bank of Ireland John Fitzgerald joined Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss strategies to cope with the expected shortfall in cash on farms in 2020. Listen here The Dairy Edge Podcast A demonstration video by Teagasc specialist Patrick Gowing on how to use the 5 Minute cash flow tool is available here Cash Flow on Farms Conor Beausang, dairy farmer said: I started milking in 2011, a lot of investment has happened on the farm in the last 9 years. The Teagasc Cost Control Planner was a big help in managing that. We have used it as a budgeting tool and at the start of every year there would be a budget done out and we would be gauging how we go all through the year. The 5 minutes to get your cash flowing launch video can be viewed below. Over the coming months, Teagasc will have webinars, videos and articles to help farmers manage their cash flow in this unusual year. Fintan Phelan is encouraging farmers to use the resources available on the Teagasc Website, and to contact their Teagasc advisor to talk through options for their own business. Jeon Dong-jin, director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks during a televised briefing at the South Korean Ministry of Defense in Seoul, Wednesday, about North Korea's possible redeployment of troops to an inter-Korean industrial park in Kaesong and the Mount Kumgang joint tourism zone. Yonhap South Korea's military warned Wednesday it will make sure that North Korea "pays the price" if it actually takes military action against the South. The Joint Chiefs of Staff statement came hours after North Korea said it will redeploy troops to an inter-Korean industrial park in the western border town of Kaesong and the Mount Kumgang joint tourism zone on the east coast. The North also said it will restore guard posts removed from the Demilitarized Zone separating the two sides and resume all kinds of regular military exercises near the inter-Korean border in an apparent move to abolish a military tension-reduction deal signed in 2018. "These moves thwart two decades of efforts by South and North Korea to improve inter-Korean relations and to keep peace on the Korean Peninsula. If the North actually takes such a move, it will certainly pay the price for it," Jeon Dong-jin, director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. A four-year-old boy and his father were reunited with their family after spending seven weeks in a hospital room while he was treated for a rare form of cancer. Father James Stephenson, 32, from of Ackworth, West Yorkshire, isolated in 15ft hospital room with little Oliver so he could be with him while he underwent high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell treatment. Oliver was admitted to hospital on 27th April for crucial treatment for neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer that originates from immature nerve cells. The pair were shielding and had to share the cramped square room with a separate bathroom and a window at Leeds General Infirmary which they could not leave. James was at Oliver's bedside throughout his treatment, but his mother, Laura, and brother Alfie were unable to visit due to the coronavirus pandemic. James Stephenson, 32, from of Ackworth, West Yorkshire, holding Alfie, three, with mother Laura, 34, and Oliver, four During his stay, Oliver could only see mother Laura, 34, and younger brother Alfie, three, over video call until last Friday when he was allowed to back home and be reunited with his family. In a heartwarming welcome, supporters and neighbours lined the street with banners and gave a round of applause during the homecoming. Footage hears people whistling and clapping as the family emerge from their car as one little girl chants 'go Oliver' while holding a banner. Laura said she was 'overwhelmed' with excitement when they returned on Friday evening after being told in the morning her son was likely to be discharged days later. Laura said: 'He ran into my arms and we both just burst into tears - it was really emotional. Oliver Stephenson, smiling in hospital whilst having treatment. He spent seven weeks at Leeds General Infirmary with his father James 'Alfie went straight to had dad and they were both in tears too.' She added: 'In absolutely no time we were back home and totally back to normal. 'The boys are arguing over their toys and what to eat for breakfast again, it's great.' While in hospital, James could visit a tea room 15 yards down the corridor but Oliver was not allowed to leave the room at all. Oliver was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma on his kidney after some routine blood tests in January. Pictured: Oliver having treatment in hospital However they were kept entertained with arts and crafts from the hospital's play team and watching lots of Christmas films - Oliver's favourite even in May. Laura added: 'Oliver's time in hospital was really hard and frustrating for the entire family, including us back at home. 'Seeing how poorly he was during chats over FaceTime was heartbreaking, I just wanted to give him a big cuddle. 'He really wanted to see his mum.' The 15ft hospital room at Leeds General Infirmary where Oliver and James spent seven weeks together It comes after Oliver was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma on his kidney after some routine blood tests in January. The cancer, a rare type that develops from immature nerve cells and affects around 100 children in the UK each year, has tragically spread to his skull, eye sockets and bone marrow. He has undergone two operations since his diagnosis and faces up to a year of treatment. Alfie celebrated his third birthday alongside his mother, father and brother after James and Oliver left hospital Spending a month in hospital had always been part of Oliver's treatment plan - but Laura and James had never anticipated it taking place during the lockdown. Laura said: 'It was always on the agenda but at the time we thought James and I would swap every couple of days. 'He could have had visits from grandparents and friends - at least people could have gone to see him. In a heartwarming welcome, supporters and neighbours lined the street with banners and gave a round of applause during the homecoming as Laura told how she was 'overwhelmed' by the support 'We knew it was going to be difficult but the pandemic has made it ten times worse. 'It's just heartbreaking not being able to hold him or to be there for him. 'He is only four so doesn't really understand why mummy isn't there and I don't want him to think that I have abandoned him.' Laura and little Alfie were able to video call Oliver three or four times a day and they dropped off clean clothes outside the hospital for a nurse to collect. But now Oliver has returned home, the family will have to remain in quarantine for some weeks. WHAT IS NEUROBLASTOMA? Neuroblastoma is a rare cancer that affects children and usually starts in the abdomen. Around 100 children, who are typically under five, are diagnosed every year in the UK. The disease affects approximately 800 new children annually in the US. In around half of cases, neuroblastoma spreads to other parts of the body, particularly the liver and skin. Neuroblastoma's cause is unclear. There may be a family-history link. The main symptom is usually a lump in the abdomen, which may cause swelling, discomfort or pain. If the disease affects the spinal cord, it can lead to numbness, weakness and loss of movement in the lower part of the body. Treatment depends on how advanced the cancer is and the risk it will return after therapy. Surgery, and chemo and radiotherapy, are commonly used. Source: Cancer Research UK Advertisement Laura and James hope to take Oliver to the USA for pioneering Bivalent treatment, which is hoped will reduce the risk of the cancer returning if chemotherapy is successful. The family have set up a donation page and they are campaigning to raise 230,000 to cover the costs of the treatment and travel. They have already raised more than 135,000 but their big fundraising events over the summer have been cancelled due to the lockdown. Laura added: 'It would mean the world to us to raise the money. It could be life-saving. 'To me and James, this could save our son's life.' 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. A rrests have been made after far-right protesters descended on a rally for better living conditions for refugees in Glasgow. The demonstration in George Square has been cut short after No Evictions Glasgow said it was "unsafe" for it to go ahead as planned. Video footage shared on social media showed clashes with the police as hundreds of people gathered in the square. Police Scotland said six arrests had been made so far following the disturbance. No Evictions Glasgow was due to be protesting over the living conditions of asylum seekers at around 6pm, but said it had been made aware far-right groups would be turning up an hour before. Chief Superintendent Mark Hargreaves said: We had an appropriate police presence in place to ensure public safety during the demonstrations in the George Square area on the evening of Wednesday. So far, six men have been arrested for minor public order offences and reports will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal. The majority of protesters have now left George Square and officers remain in the area for public reassurance. A review will be undertaken and should any further criminality be identified appropriate action will be taken. Police in George Square in Glasgow during a No Evictions Glasgow protest / PA First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the "thugs" had shamed Scotland. She said on Twitter: Disgraceful scenes in Glasgow tonight. Racist thugs shame Scotland. If they break the law, they should face the full force of it. "And all of us should unite to say that welcoming refugees and asylum seekers is part of who we are. Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf branded the counter-protesters racist and said arrests had been made. He wrote on Twitter: Briefed by Police Scotland on disorder in George Sq. Lets not mince our words, this has nothing to do with statues and everything to do with racist thuggery. "Police have made a number of arrests already and will continue to take all necessary action against those responsible. In another video shared on Twitter, the police could be seen trying to herd counter-protesters away from the square as they shouted "Fenian Bas*****" and "Rule Brittania". Speaking about the cancellation of the rally, the organisers said: Its been decided the location of the demo at this time is not safe so we are going to leave the area as a group. "If you havent made it in dont try get in and stay away from the square. Try and make sure you are not alone if you are at the demo or in the vicinity.. SNP MP Chris Stephens condemned the far-right thuggery taking place at the asylum seeker demonstrations. Leading his adjournment debate on asylum seeker services in the Commons, Mr Stephens (Glasgow South West) told MPs: Let me be quite clear that I condemn the racism of the far right and I celebrate those who wish to protest about the unfair conditions which asylum seekers are faced with in Glasgow. Demonstrators in George Square in Glasgow during a No Evictions Glasgow protest against the living conditions of refugees / PA I have no doubt further news will develop as this debate goes on, but I want to make it quite clear that the actions of the far right this demonstration tonight is nothing to do with statues, but was to address the issue of conditions in this city. He added: There is no place for far-right thuggery anywhere in the United Kingdom and people are entitled to peacefully protest if they think that the Government are not making the correct decisions. And it was peaceful protests that were planned tonight and they were met with thugs. Justice minister Chris Philp also condemned the violent scenes in Glasgow. Responding to SNP MP Chris Stephens debate in the Commons, Mr Philp said: Violent protest of any kind is abhorrent. People do have a right to peaceful protest and I join him, and Im sure everybody in the House, in condemning the acts of violence to which he referred to earlier. It comes after Black Lives Matter protesters toppled a figure honouring Edward Colston, the 17th century slave owner, in Bristol and dumped it in a harbour. Seven years ago, Dharamveer Solanki, a Hindu, left his home in Pakistans Hyderabad city, never to return. When his train crossed the border into India, Solanki said he felt happier than ever before. "It felt as though I had been reborn, he said, sitting inside a bustling refugee colony on the outskirts of New Delhi, where he and hundreds of other Hindus who fled Muslim-majority Pakistan have built a new home. Asylum seekers like Solanki are the main beneficiaries of a law that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government introduced late last year laying out a path to citizenship for people from six religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who arrived in India before 2015. The law excluded Muslims from the list, and that determination of rights to citizenship based on religion triggered protests across India that resulted in a fierce police crackdown and deadly violence. Critics say the law discriminates against Muslims and undermines India's secular constitution. But for the Hindus of Pakistan, Modi's long-held commitment to providing them refuge has drawn more and more across the border even before the new law was enacted. In the 15 months through March 2019, India's home ministry dealt with 16,121 applications from Pakistani nationals for long-term visas. In preceding years, the number of visas granted rose from hundreds to thousands. The flow of migrants has stopped temporarily as borders have been sealed to control the spread of the coronavirus. But many remain desperate to cross, Solanki said. They often come on 25-day pilgrimage visas and remain until they get citizenship. Solanki is still waiting for India to grant him citizenship, as the process has now been delayed by the coronavirus outbreak in the country. He was unaware that there was a World Refugee Day, but when told by Reuters that it would fall on June 20, he was very clear what he would like to see. "The citizenship law has been passed. Our people should now get land and benefits as citizens," Solanki told Reuters at his home in the Majnu Ka Tilla neighborhood on Delhi's northern fringe. The settlement where he lives is a cluster of cement, brick and wood huts, with no electricity or water supply, off a busy road. Around 600 people live there. Many of the young men work as hawkers or, like Solanki, as laborers. Several said they lived in better conditions in Pakistan, but they felt safer in India. A few miles away, across the heavily polluted Yamuna River, a newer settlement has sprung up in the woods beneath a highway overpass called Signature Bridge. In July last year, when Reuters began observing this community, there were only a few rickety huts. But now hundreds of people live there. The huts are built with wood from the surrounding forest. There is no electricity or water supply, and families cook on wood-fired stoves. At least here our daughters are safe and we can freely practice our religion, said Nirma Bagri, a 35-year-old woman. Here, in a country they have mostly known through stories passed down by parents or grandparents who lived in pre-Partition India, or through Bollywood films, the refugees are slowly trying to assimilate. A young couple at the settlement was so elated with the law passed in December that they named their daughter born that month Nagarikta, the Hindi word for citizenship. Charitable Hindus often offer donations of food, clothes, solar lamps, and other household items. During a visit to the settlement in the woods in February, Reuters journalists encountered members of the right-wing Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), who said they were organizing educational classes for the children. The group has ties to Modis ruling BJP. It has been blamed for violent attacks on minority Muslims, and has a stated aim of turning India into a Hindu supremacist nation. While confirming they belonged to the VHP, the men declined to give their names. Refugees told Reuters later that the VHP men had told them not to speak to the media. We are trying to build a life here, Solanki said. These people are just helping us. When protesters first hit the streets in Indianapolis in late May and early June, their chants were the familiar ones. No justice, no peace! If we dont get it, shut it down! What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! And then came a new slogan, one that wasnt difficult to memorize: Defund the police! Some people want to see police departments abolished so public safety can be reinvented from ground up. Others want to see spending on public safety police departments in particular cut back to some degree and redistributed to education, housing, mental health, areas that are well understood to have an impact on crime. Defund them, refund us! has become a common chant that reverberates off of the buildings downtown. Elected officials in some cities such as Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed by police have pledged to take similar action, but there arent many details yet. In Indianapolis, there appears to be at least some momentum behind the idea of cutting back on public safety funding from people who actually have the power to do that, even if its currently not the position held by the mayor and chief of police. City-county councilor Ethan Evans, who represents District 4 on the northeast side, said there are some councilors who have been talking behind the scenes about how to get things started, but he declined to go into more detail. Im not saying totally take away all funds, but we should be looking at ways to address these problems and shifting how we view our police, said Evans, who is on the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee. Leroy Robinson, who chairs the committee, did not respond to a request for comment. Public safety and criminal justice combine to make up 60% of the city-county budget. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department alone accounts for about $254 million, which is about 31% of the money for city departments and about 22% of the entire city-county budget. The budget process begins in early August, when councilors will begin to consider priorities for the next city budget. Meetings may not be physically open to the public at that point because of the pandemic, but they will be available to the public in some capacity. City-county council President Vop Osili said in an interview at a recent protest that defund is a big word. I dont think thats the word we want to use on that, because defund means basically you take all the money away, and we know that we cannot do without our police force, he said. Thats the dilemma that quickly sprang up when defund the police became a louder, more sustained demand. What does it mean? Depends on who you ask. Patrisse Cullors, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, said in a recent interview on the podcast Deconstructed her goal involves decreasing the polices ability to be in contact with Black people. Cullors, a self-described police and prison abolitionist, said reforms that dont do that simply arent effective because they do nothing to change the structural racism within police departments. Abolishing policing as it is in the United States seems to be a more popular goal now than in 2014 when Michael Brown Jr. was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, which launched the Black Lives Matter movement but that also doesnt appear to be the immediate goal of many who say they want to defund police. What most people seem to mean when they call for the defunding of police is a version of the following: Cut back spending on police departments drastically and redistribute that money to other resources and departments while also limiting the role of police so armed officers dont show up to situations that dont require violent intervention. Its not as catchy of a slogan as defund the police. Tom Stucky, executive associate dean at the ONeill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, said research has made it clear that spending more money on criminal justice doesnt lead to a safer society. Using the analogy that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, Stucky said there are issues such as mental health and food insecurity that are underlying factors in crime, and police just arent well equipped to deal with those problems. We have made the criminal justice system our default response to a number of social problems that we dont handle well otherwise, he said. Part of Stuckys possible reimagining of public safety is a system in which people who arent necessarily sworn police officers respond to a burglary, for example, thats called in the day after it happens. Its very unlikely there would need to be an arrest made at the scene in that scenario, so the person responding makes the report and leaves police free to respond to situations where their presence could actually be useful: an armed robbery in progress, for example. Beryl Cohen, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers Indiana Chapter, said its not enough to simply move in a direction where social workers and other service providers are the ones responding to non-violent scenes, though. The details matter. Are service providers part of the police department? Do they come through a partnership with a local clinic? Is there an armed officer nearby in case of an emergency? If there was one, easy solution to this whole problem, we wouldve done it a long time ago, Cohen said. IMPD already does something similar to what people are asking for with the Mobile Crisis Assistance Team, or MCAT. The program which started as a pilot in the East District initially involved teams of officers, paramedics and clinicians who focus on calls regarding mental health and addiction in order to keep people out of jails and emergency rooms. Indianapolis EMS pulled out of the partnership in late 2018, but the program continues with officers and clinicians working together. The Center for Health and Justice Research at the Indiana University Public Policy Institute evaluated the pilot program in 2017 and found MCAT transported a person to jail less than 2% of the time and that 85% of IMPD East District officers surveyed said the program was a good additional resource in responding to emergencies. Researchers at the Public Policy Institute are currently conducting another study to evaluate its effectiveness. City officials have also pointed to the Assessment and Intervention Center (AIC), which will divert non-violent, low-level offenders from jail and connect them with treatment and wraparound services. The AIC is scheduled to open later this year at the Community Justice Campus. But when it comes to actually taking money from IMPD and redistributing it elsewhere, Mayor Joe Hogsett isnt on board yet. Hogsett recently announced a partnership with the Criminal Justice Lab at the New York University School of Law to chart a new path for public safety in Indianapolis. Hogsett said nothing is off limits when the time comes for policy recommendations. When asked specifically about the possibility of scaling back funding in public safety, he said thats putting the cart before the horse. IMPD Chief Randal Taylor was asked about the same thing by city-county councilor Robinson during a virtual Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee meeting June 10. That certainly would not be my recommendation, he said, while noting he understands defund doesnt necessarily mean to abolish. Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick. A protester and police officer talk off to the side of a demonstration at IMPDs Northwest District. (Photo/Tyler Fenwick) Three Kuwaiti officials have been nabbed over allegations that they caused the loss of $25 million for the civil aviation industry. The officials, whose identity has not been revealed, were arrested following a complaint by the Minister of State for Services Affairs, Mubarak Al-Haris, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reports. They have been charged with job inaction by a committee headed by the Fatwa and Legislative Department after the state civil aviation lost $25 million in judicial ruling and over suspicion that they failed to provide the Fatwa Administration with the documents of the case before the ruling was issued, MEMO notes. It is unclear what the case is about, but Kuwaits civil aviation industry is set to lose $1.6 billion as result of the impact of the coronavirus lockdown. The Gulf country was the first in the region to close its air borders and airports as part of efforts to curb the rapid spread of the respiratory disease. Under the new law, unlicensed parking attendants can be punished by a six-month jail term and a fine of up to EGP 10,000 ($618) The Egyptian parliament gave its final approval on Wednesday for a law regulating parking in the country and the work of the informal parking attendants in Egypts streets. Under the new law, parking attendants operating without a license can be punished by up to six months in jail or a fine of up to EGP 10,000 ($618). Unlicensed parking attendants, known as soyas (plural of sayes), have been ubiquitous in the bustling streets of Cairo and other cities for years, often demanding fees from drivers and looking to use unclaimed parking spots. The phenomenon of the sayes has often been associated with thuggery, with drivers sometimes finding themselves in aggressive confrontations if they refuse to pay. Egypt, a country of over 100 million people, had around 10 million licensed vehicles as of the end 2017, 2.3 million of which are in the capital, according to the countrys official statistics agency CAPMAS. The new law aims to put in place rules and regulations for parking in the countrys often chaotic cities. According to the law, a special committee in each governorate and in the city councils of the New Urban Communities Authority will be in charge of designating specific spots for parking on the streets as well as prevent idling by roadsides and double parking, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported. Those wishing to work in regulating street parking in the predetermined spots, both individuals and companies, should obtain a license from the designated administrative authority. Administrative authorities will determine parking fees according to the nature and size of the location. Search Keywords: Short link: Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano has relieved the regional director of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Region 6, after the reported breach of quarantine protocols by one of its personnel. The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Wednesday that F/SSupt. Roderick P. Aguto has been relieved while investigation is ongoing. "We will never tolerate any wrongdoing by our BFP personnel or any other DILG personnel for that matter because lives are at stake here," Ano said in a statement. "Panahon ng pandemya ngayon at hindi puwede ang mga palusot. [We are in a pandemic now and we won't allow excuses.]," he also said. "Moreover, as law enforcers, we must set a good example to our people and the breach of quarantine protocols sets a very bad example." F/SSupt. Jerry D. Candido, who serves as director for Logistics of BFP-National Headquarters (BFP NHQ), was appointed Officer-in-Charge of BFP-6, the DILG added. According to the DILG, a female employee from BFP-6 who underwent a RT-PCR testing was reported to be roaming around Boracay Island while waiting for her results, which later turned out to be positive. The positive result came out on June 14, by which time it was found that she had close exposure to her two colleagues, the report said. DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said on Wednesday that those who came in close contact with the infected staffer are now under quarantine, while the BFP Regional Office in Western Visayas is now conducting swab testing among its employees. The DILG said 196 personnel have undergone coronavirus testing as of Tuesday, with 28 personnel subjected to RT-PCR testing and advised to undergo quarantine pending results. "Alam po ninyo, hindi madali itong [You know, it's not easy doing] contact tracing," Ano said. "To be careless on the part of public safety officers in this time of pandemic is utterly deplorable." The BFP-6 Regional Office, its provincial offices, and fire stations are now under lockdown and advised to observe strict disinfection and sanitation efforts. Ano directed BFP Chief Jose Embang to immediately investigate the matter and to submit the results of the investigation to his office. A Special Investigation Task Group of the BFP NHQ has been directed to investigate fire personnel of BFP-6 and her 27 other co-workers whom she had exposure to or close contact with, Malaya said. "Titiyakin po natin ang medical needs ng mga fire personnel na ito na maaaring na-expose sa COVID-19 subalit mananagot din sila sa anumang maging resulta ng imbestigasyon nila na ipinag-utos ni Secretary Ano kaugnay sa posibleng naging kapabayaan," he stressed. [Translation: We will address the medical needs of these fire personnel who may have been exposed to COVID-19 but they will also be held accountable based on results of the investigation ordered by Secretary Ano, regarding possible negligence.] This is not the first time a government official was reported to have breached quarantine protocols pending COVID-19 results. In March, a similar incident occurred when Senator Aquilino Koko Pimentel III accompanied his wife, Kathryna, who was about to give birth to their first child to Makati Medical Center despite having been tested for COVID-19. Results later confirmed that he did contract the disease and potentially exposed a number of health workers at the hospital, as well as staff at supermarket S&R in Bonifacio Global City, which the senator also visited. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) chair and Davao City mayor Sara Duterte said a municipal councilor arrested over illegal drugs use has been removed from the political party. Duterte said the expulsion of Kiblawan councilor Cipriano Sarona was confirmed to her by the municipalitys mayor, Carl Jason Rama, who is also part of HNP. She said this should serve as a lesson to those involved in illegal drugs that the anti-drug campaign will not stop even during the pandemic. Sarona was arrested on June 13 while having a shabu session at the Bankerohan Public Market in Davao City, according to authorities. READ: Davao del Sur councilor arrested while having shabu session in Davao City The daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte chairs political alliance HNP that was formed in 2018. The Athirapally Hydro Electric Project has a history from the 1980s. In 2005, Kerala approved this project based on a flawed Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study conducted by Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Ltd. (WAPCOS). However, the Kerala High Court quashed the clearance and ordered another public hearing. The project located in Thrissur district continues to attract controversy and public attention as it is a culturally aesthetically beautiful area with high biodiversity. The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) had proposed to build a 163 MW hydro project at the Athirapally waterfalls on the Chalakudy river. The Union MoEF sanctioned clearance for this project in 2007, which attracted the opposition of environmentalists, as it would destroy the valuable and pristine ecosystem and seriously affect the tribal population. Around 28.5 hectares of riparian forest area will be under threat of submergence. The project would destroy the scenic beauty of the area that attracts countless number of tourists. As a scientific (EIA) study is mandatory for any project that is likely to impact the ecosystem, the MoEF gave clearance for the project in 1998 without a public hearing. So the Kerala High Court in 2001 directed the KSEB to follow all procedures for clearance and a public hearing was held in February 2002, when environmentalists and local communities were against it. Subsequently, the Kerala High Court cancelled the clearance to have a more meaningful public hearing. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), led by Madhav Gadgil rejected this proposal as it was not viable and would destroy the rich ecosystem. The subcommittee of the expert appraisal committee for river valley and hydroelectricity projects in 2007 also suggested that the project would affect the livelihood of local people who depend on income from tourism in the region. The Government of Kerala gave an assurance in the Kerala Legislative Assembly that it would not go ahead with the project unless there was consensus for the project and it has remained a dormant issue. In fact, the present ruling Left Democratic Front manifesto in 2016 promised to take steps to protect the issues and improve the water flow. However, the present statement by the State Electricity Minister M.M.Mani runs contrary to it, where a sanction from the Centre was sought by the KSEB, following which rumblings began in various quarters. The tribal Panchayat of the Athirapally area also opposes the project as it will be against their interest and the Forest Rights Act. Besides it would fragment the habitat, impact flora and fauna in incalculable ways. The biodiversity we see today is the result of billions of years of evolution, shaped by natural processes, through time. It forms the web of life of which we are an integral part and upon which we so fully depend. Biodiversity contributes utilization benefits, ecosystem services, ethical, moral benefits and aesthetic value. It is also the basis of sustainable livelihoods. According to the UN FAO, 40 per cent of the world's economy is based directly and indirectly on the use of biological resources. Biodiversity is under serious threat due to human activities. The need to sustain biodiversity vis a vis economic growth and development is being increasingly recognized. Kerala experienced disastrous floods in 2018, severe floods again in 2019, followed by several landslides in the Western Ghats (WG) region resulting in the fragmentation of the ecosystem and loss of hundreds of lives and livestock, not to mention the wildlife. Conserving natural terrestrial, fresh water and marine ecosystems and restoring the degraded ecosystem is essential for the overall goals of both the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The environment plays a key role in the global carbon cycle and in adapting to climate change, while also providing a wide range of services that are essential for human wellbeing and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Loss of biodiversity is caused by a range of drivers. A driver is any natural or human induced factor that directly or indirectly causes change in an ecosystem. Habitat alteration renders entire areas functionally unable to support the species. Clearing of forests for agriculture, changes in riverine habitat to lacustrine (reservoir) habitat by the construction of hydroelectric projects on the rivers, mining, logging etc. are some examples of destruction and fragmentation. The proposed project will be a threat which involves partial loss of 125 square kms area of the Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary in Thrissur district. This falls in one of the 25 bio-diversity hotspots in the world in the WG. India is one of the early signatories to the CBD. The Indian Forest Act 1927 and the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 deal with management of forests and conservation of forest land respectively. The Wildlife (protection) Act 1972 and the Biodiversity Act 2002 are for the protection of wild animals, birds and plants and the ecosystem. The construction of a dam at Athirapally will be against all these Acts and Regulations. The WGEEP named Athirapally as one of the 18 eco-sensitive localities in the state. Both the WGEEP and the HLWG suggested not to go in for new dam construction . Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, T.M. Manoharan who was also the Chairman of KSEB, opposed the project citing the harm it would cause to the environment and ecology of the area. Former Union Minister of Environment Jairam Ramesh had said that this project would be a "perfect recipe for ecological disaster". About a million people were evacuated from the central Travancore - Cochin region during the 2018 flood disaster in Kerala. That was followed by a second flood in 2019. Both the floods caused irreparable damage to the ecosystem and fragmentation of WG following hundreds of landslides. The Centre declared it a level 3 calamity or "calamity of severe nature". The damage to property was estimated to be over Rs 40,000 cores in several districts in the WG region. The repeated droughts alternated by floods in Kerala are a manifestation of climate change. The state should value The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity (TEEB) when engaged in the Rebuild Kerala Initiative. A "Harithakerlam" (green Kerala) alone can bring about the "Gross Domestic Happiness" (GDH) along with an improved GDP in the proposed "Nava Keralam". It would be in the larger interest of the ecology of the state and conservation of WG that we no longer consider this devastating project. (Dr Oommen is a former chairman of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board. He is a respected environmentalist. The views expressed are personal.) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text [June 16, 2020] Aexa Aerospace Demonstrates How Holographic Teleportation is Possible in New Video HOUSTON, June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Holographic teleportation is possible. During COVID-19 times, a company based in Houston, Texas, developed holographic teleportation, or holoportation for short, to facilitate telework. Aexa Aerospace is a contractor for NASA and the creator of the Holowizard, which is an augmented-reality application to support real-time operations. During the demonstration, Aexa Aerospace CEO Fernando De La Pena Llaca, located in Friendswood, Texas, holoported with his software developer Nathan Ream in Huntsville, Alabama. The holographic representation of the developer projected from Alabama interacted with real objects in Texas. This is no longer science fiction. It is possible to bring an expert to the worksite, a doctor to the patient's home for a house call or a loved one close to the user. There are so many powerful possibilities. The full video demo is here: https://youtu.be/3LNnSOrC5DI. For more information, please visit https://aexa.com/. Media Contact: Karen Gress Phone: 713.260.9624 Email: [email protected] Related Images holoported-user-from-alabama-to.png Holoported user from Alabama to Texas Holoported user from Huntsville, Alabama, to Friendswood, Texas Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LNnSOrC5DI View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aexa-aerospace-demonstrates-how-holographic-teleportation-is-possible-in-new-video-301078371.html SOURCE Aexa Aerospace By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 16, 2020 | 05:25 PM | WESTERN KENTUCKY Representatives with the Kentucky Blood Center say that surgeries are being scheduled again, however many schools and businesses are still closed and unable to host blood drives. Officials encourage donors to make an appointment beforehand in order to help them follow social distancing guidelines. The appointment form and a health history form can be found at the links below. The Kentucky Blood Center is hosting a blood drive at the Lone Oak Fire Department today from 9 am until 1 pm. On the Net: Despite event cancellations and the closure of public spaces, organizations and institutions in the Hamilton area are finding creative ways to celebrate National Indigenous History Month and National Indigenous Peoples Day this June. Learn about Indigenous history, art and culture through virtual events, such as readings, concerts, workshops and film screenings. Woodland Cultural Centre The Woodland Cultural Centre, a space that serves to preserve and promote Indigenous history, art, language and culture, has been developing online programming since the pandemic began. To celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21, the Woodland Cultural Centre is partnering with the National Film Board (NFB) to screen Six Miles Deep, a documentary by Anishinaabe filmmaker Sara Roque. The film tells the story of a group of women who led their community, the Six Nations of the Grand River, in a blockade to defend their lands. The reason we chose Six Miles Deep primarily is because it resonates with our community here at Six Nations regarding the protests, said Janis Monture, the executive director of the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford. We thought it was also timely with everything going on in the world right now around the idea of protest and the right to protest. Hamilton Public Library Hamilton Public Library (HPL) is celebrating National Indigenous History Month with a series of literary and musical events all held virtually, of course. The Indigenous community, they were the first peoples here, Lisa Weaver, director of collections and program development at HPL, said. And we know that we have the privilege of meeting, working, sharing, playing on their land, and learning on their land. And we are always open to collaboration and also sharing the stories and learning from those stories. The 2020 Hamilton Reads author is Anishinaabe writer and journalist Waubgeshig Rice from Wasauksing First Nation. Book clubs for his book, Moon of the Crusted Snow, will be held in June, including one on Thursday at 2 p.m. Additional book club meetups will be held virtually throughout the summer and into the fall. A recent virtual concert with Rod Nettagog, a drummer from Henvey Inlet First Nation, will be re-aired Friday at noon. The concert is a part of HPLs Noon Hour Concert series, and was initially broadcast in honour of front-line workers mid-May. The event can be streamed on-demand on the HPL YouTube channel. This years Mabel Pugh Taylor writer-in-residence, an HPL and McMaster University program, is Janet Rogers, a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer and poet from Six Nations. Rogers will be reading from her new book, Ego of a Nation, at a virtual event on Friday. Mohawk College Mohawk Colleges Indigenous education and student services (IESS) is focusing its efforts on an educational social media campaign in June. Were in a time right now where social media is playing a significant role in how were communicating with our students. So our virtual engagement is extremely important, said Amanda Aitchison, Indigenous awareness programmer at IESS. We wanted to use our social media platform to honour our people and to help educate others who may not be as familiar with Indigenous culture. Throughout the month of June, the IESS is featuring a different Indigenous person, theme or issue on its Facebook page. Monday, the focus is on Indigenous musicians; Tuesday, Indigenous teachings are featured; Wednesday is dedicated to celebrating Indigenous athletes; Thursday is intended to address issues related to truth and reconciliation; and Friday is to highlight Indigenous films. IESS is also sharing a daily fact related to Indigenous history and reality, carefully researched and selected by a committee. Essentially, we are just acting as the gateway to get these messages out to students, she said. We wanted to make sure to point out the distinct differences between the three groups, as well as highlight key messages, some lighthearted information and then also bring forth important issues to the forefront. McMaster University During the month of June, McMaster University is promoting an online display for National Indigenous History Month. Resources include memoirs, autobiographies and teachings from Indigenous communities in Canada. The City of Hamilton On the evening of June 21, the iconic Hamilton sign will be lit up in the Medicine Wheel colours for National Indigenous Peoples Day, a spokesperson for the city said. The four colours, white, yellow, red and black represent the four directions: east, south, west and north. Due to COVID-19, we cannot gather together in-person this year to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day, a spokesperson for the city said in an email. The City of Hamilton invites everyone to celebrate this years National Indigenous History month and National Indigenous Peoples Day virtually. When government officials no longer required people to wear face masks, H-E-B didnt either. Thats prompted more than 27,000 people to sign an online petition asking the San Antonio retailer to make masks mandatory for customers at its stores. H-E-B, as a private company, is free to require customers to wear masks in their stores, regardless of whether state or local laws require it, the Change.org petition states. H-E-B needs to REQUIRE shoppers to wear face-coverings if they want to shop in their stores. As the coronavirus pandemic took hold, San Antonio and other cities required residents to wear masks in public and places such as grocery stores, where social distancing is difficult. Gov. Greg Abbott effectively undid that requirement when he issued an order in late April preventing local governments from fining or jailing people for not wear masks in public. At the same time, he also announced plans to allow businesses to begin reopening. On Tuesday, as reported cases of COVID-19 continued to spike, the mayors of Texas largest cities asked the governor to once again require Texans to wear masks in public. Bob Owen / San Antonio Express-News Tracking the outbreak: Our interactive map for tracking the virus in the S.A. area H-E-B is following local ordinances and strongly encouraging customers to wear face coverings, company spokeswoman Dya Campos said. Employees and vendors are required to wear masks. We want our customers to wear masks in our stores, she said. Enforcing it, without a local ordinance, is extremely difficult. H-E-B controlled 60 percent of the South Texas market in 2019, according to the Shelby Report, an industry publication. As retailers implement a slew of safety measures and adapt to a patchwork of government orders, they are confronting questions about how to ensure customers follow public-health rules. Enforcement often falls to employees. Some workers at H-E-B, Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale Corp. and other large retailers have contracted COVID-19. H-E-B, one of the few companies to publicly post the number of employees who have caught the virus, has reported at least 30 cases among its San Antonio-area employees so far in June. Masks in particular have become a flash point as Texas and other states reopen, with clashes over whether the coverings should be required. Costco faced some backlash when it said employees and customers alike must wear a face covering starting May 4. The requirement doesnt apply to children under age 2 or people unable to wear coverings because of a medical condition. Scott Olson/Getty Images Staying in: An updated list of S.A. restaurants offering delivery and pick-up We know some members may find this inconvenient or objectionable, but under the circumstances we believe the added safety is worth any inconvenience, Costco president and CEO Craig Jelinek said in a statement. This is not simply a matter of personal choice; a face covering protects not just the wearer, but others too. Although some may disagree with this policy or question its effectiveness, were choosing to err on the side of safety in our shopping environments, Jelinek said. As part of a community, we believe this simple act of safety and courtesy is one that Costco members and employees can undertake together. David Spener, a sociology professor at Trinity University and long-time H-E-B customer, said he started the Change.org petition because he was concerned. He said he emailed the company before posting the petition. He was told the company would be adding signage and messaging at its stores encouraging customers to take precautions but that it was difficult for H-E-B to enforce a mask policy without a local ordinance. After Spener posted on Facebook about the issue, someone suggested he start a petition. Its not intended as an attack on H-E-B. We just want them to do the right thing by their customers, employees and the community at large, Spener said in an interview. Many major retailers including Walmart are requiring employees to wear masks, and urging customers to follow suit and take other safety precautions. Maintaining customer and associate safety remains our top priority, a Walmart spokesperson said. We encourage customers to be especially mindful of one another during this unprecedented time and adhere to recommendations that we all use face coverings while in public spaces. Like Walmart, Target is giving workers masks and requiring them to wear the coverings while at work. In areas where local governments are asking residents to wear masks, we have added signage and stationed team members outside stores to remind guests to wear masks while shopping in stores, a spokesperson said. Trader Joes is urging employees to use masks for their protection and the protection of those around them, the grocery chain said in a May 28 announcement. We strongly encourage customers to wear a mask or face covering while shopping in all our stores, the company added. Where face coverings are required by state or local authorities, we communicate that to our customers as well. Whole Foods Market is mandating that employees wear face masks and requesting that customers do so, too. The grocery chain is providing masks for customers at the entrance of all of its stores, a spokesperson said. Sprouts Farmers Market also is requiring masks for workers and customers are encouraged to wear face coverings, while specific mask requirements for customers vary based on state and local requirements, a spokesperson said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people wear face coverings when around others, among other safety measures. Some studies have shown communities that required masks and implemented other prevention measures were able to slow the rate of coronavirus cases, said Dr. Bryan Alsip, chief medical officer for University Health System. Wearing of masks in public has been shown to be one of the elements of successful strategy in reducing the transmission of COVID-19, along with physical distancing, hand hygiene and other things, he said. As businesses reopen and more people venture out, masks are just as important now as before, Alsip added. If youre wearing a mask, youre not only less likely to get infected yourself, but much less likely to spread it to somebody else, even if youre asymptomatic, he said. If more people are wearing masks, it really means that youre sort of reducing that likelihood of person-to-person spread. madison.iszler@express-news.net With new operating protocols in response to COVID-19 and plenty of water running down rivers, commercial rafting companies got the green light this week to start float trips down the rapids of the South Fork American River out of Coloma, the most popular rafting run in the West. County health officers, in concert with state officials, also provided the OK for rafters to float the Tuolumne River, one of the states ultimate thrill rides, and the Trinity River, one of the best family-oriented half-day runs. Yet the Upper Klamath, Truckee and Middle Fork American rivers are still off limits for rafting trips, pending approval from respective county health officers in those areas. In the last two hours, 35 phone calls came in, Nate Rangel of Raft California, which represents rafting outfitters, said Monday. Everybodys asking when can they get on the river. The past two days have been as busy as I can ever remember it. In the past month, Nancy Williams, health officer of El Dorado County, worked with rafting outfitters and state officials to establish protocols for both guests and employees that likely will become the template for safe rafting operations across the state, Rangel said. The rules are detailed at RaftCalifornia.com. For guests, the trips will start with no-contact check-in, Rangel said, with hand sanitizers available at all locations. Trips will be downsized to maintain social distancing, including in transport vans to put-ins and from take-outs, Rangel said, and any possible shared surface will be cleaned and sanitized at short intervals. Trips will run at roughly 25% to 50% of capacity, Rangel said. Other safety measures are common sense, he said. Our No. 1 goal is to run all of our trips as safely as possible, where people have fun and stay safe, Rangel said. We have plenty of water, no problem there. The collective level of states 161 major reservoirs is 80% of average for the date, according to the latest assessment by the Department of Water Resources and other water agencies. Reservoirs that feed the American River are roughly 100% of normal for the date, which guarantees rafting flows through summer, Rangel said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The South Fork American, with hot weather and cool water, on runs out of Coloma/Lotus and Chili Bar, attracts about 120,000 rafters most years. To jump-start the summer season, outfitters are offering a $79 trip out of Chili Bar with Class III rapids that include Meatgrinder, Triple Threat and Troublemaker. The No. 1 thrill ride in California is the Tuolumne River, where Clavey Falls, a Class V cascade, makes for a run that is a rite of passage for many. According to DWRs latest figures, reservoirs that feed the upper Tuolumne River are 120% of average for the date. In the north state, trips on the Trinity River are a go, and reservoirs that provide rafting flows for the Trinity are 86% of average, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. This is an easy, low-cost, family-style run that usually takes a half-day, with just enough Class II and III rapids to provide youngsters with ecstatic moments. Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicles outdoors writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom The Covid-19 pandemic spurs transformation of digital healthcare everywhere. To echo that trend, the Healthcare+ Expo Taiwan will bring together 300 technology giants and healthcare providers to exhibit healthcare-centred applications and solutions powered by AI, IoT, bio-sensor, 8K image tech and 5G to then ignite fresh ideas amongst those with desires to reinvent the way healthcare used to be delivered. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200616005017/en/ Taiwan prepared for the post-Covid-19 era with emerging technologies Healthcare+ Expo Taiwan, 3-6 December 2020 (Photo: Business Wire) ICTs showroom for health tech and solutions Multinational companies choose to partner with Taiwan because of the nations high quality and productivity of IC design and manufacturing, hardware and software integration. With over decades of experience in technology and healthcare combined, Taiwan-based tech sector has been able to assist countries around the world putting in place with smart hospital solutions, wireless body sign tracking and monitoring systems, AI-assisted medical imaging systems, point of care solutions, 5G and UV LED robots, in a relatively short time. Information and communication technology leaders including Acer, Advantech, Asus, CHT, Coretronic, FET, Foxconn, Inventec, Quanta, Qisda, Realtek, Wistron, are part of the Expo lineup that will showcase how technology responds to healthcare issues and challenges in difference scenarios. Together they have developed a wider smart healthcare ecosystem which will be put on display during the four-day Expo. Healthcare supply chain: reboot and rebuild While the global trade was influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan remained one of which uninterrupted as per the online publisher Visual Capitalist. By looking at the Mobility Index and Covid-19 Recovery Rate amongst 41 countries surveyed, the publisher found only two of them with positive numbers. Taiwans electronics export grew by 11.5% in Q1, 2020, coupled with semiconductors registered at $4.02bn the same quarter- the amount topped the others according to the industrial association SEMI. The data above indicates that Taiwan has the ability to cope with change and is a low-risk market despite facing Covid-19. The Healthcare+ Expo will therefore introduce a grand convention aiming at healthcare supply chain in the APAC region, more than 30 industrial associations from the region will be invited to meet face to face to clarify demand-supply needs and work together to create a wider supplier network. Register online to expand supplier network View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200616005017/en/ A reliable part of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's pitch during her 14-month presidential bid came when she touted her refusal to hold high-dollar fundraisers for her campaign, a stance she hoped would give her an edge in a field that exceeded two dozen candidates. If she was successful, she said, the example would help end the hold that many liberals believe billionaires and millionaires have over the current political system. Or so it sounded. "We're tearing this democracy apart," Warren told reporters aboard her campaign bus in Rochester, N.H., in February as she denounced high-dollar fundraisers. She talked in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire about her disdain for the typical fundraising practices used by most candidates; she was often rewarded with thunderous applause (but not enough votes). She talked about it on the debate stage, where she zinged other candidates for raising cash in fancy settings - like a California wine cave. She talked about it in friendly interviews with anchors like MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. On Monday night, however, Warren headlined a virtual fundraiser for Joe Biden. Her dog Bailey even made a cameo, walking by as the event proceeded. And in less than an hour, Warren raised $6 million for Biden's campaign, making hers the highest grossing event that Biden has had to date. Biden praised Warren for her "wonderful work" and said she's one of the most "optimistic" and "righteous people" he knows. He twice called Warren a "change-maker." "We're so lucky to have you on the front line," Biden said. The Warren event was a roaring success.She raised three times as much as one headlined last month by Hillary Clinton, who along with her husband Bill, has constructed an enviable fundraising operation. Warren also outraised - on Biden's behalf - Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who starred in a recent Biden money event that brought in $3.5 million. (All are expected to be eclipsed next week by a new fundraising anchor, former president Barack Obama.) Warren also plans to appear at an event to raise money next month for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which will benefit a host of Democratic candidates, according to a person familiar with the schedule. "We wanted to prove that Democrats could build a competitive campaign in a primary without selling the candidate's time. We did," said Paul Egerman, who was Warren's presidential campaign treasurer. "We always said we would not unilaterally disarm against Republicans and do everything to help the party and candidates up-and-down the ticket. That's what we are doing now and will continue to do until November." Warren raised roughly $115 million during her bid without holding a big-dollar event. Warren's decision to embrace a practice that she derided is hardly a new phenomenon in politics - and one that may not bother voters accustomed to such reversals. Biden entered the presidential race pledging not to raise money via an allied super PAC, but after anemic fundraising, he dropped his opposition. Now he's the party's presumptive nominee. Warren also switched gears on super PACs. Her campaign website included a promise, in all caps, that she REJECTS SUPERPACS. But after two stinging losses in the first two states earlier this year, Warren dropped her opposition. The Persist super PAC was launched on her behalf, and the group raised nearly all of its money, $15 million, from one donor, Silicon Valley philanthropist Karla Jurvetson. A careful read of the February 2019 pledge Warren made on banning high-dollar fundraising reveals some types of money gathering weren't mentioned. She only pledged to ban organized fundraisers in the primary phase of the election - though she later said in a CBS interview that she would continue to avoid such events if she became the nominee. Her post was silent on whether Warren would raise money for other candidates or the party. Those omissions appeared intentional. Last summer, while still an active presidential candidate, Warren headlined a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in San Francisco, but skipped the exclusive meet-and-greet with the biggest donors. She also was the draw for a similar event in Boston. "There is a lot of gray there. She loves to operate in the gray," said former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in the primary. (Sanders, too, has publicly sworn off super PACs while benefiting from one.) Turner said that in craftingcareful language that stressed opposing fundraising for herself, but participating in it for others, Warren was creating "a distinction without a difference." Her point: Warren is still putting herself in rooms with wealthy people who want something for her time. "Supporters of Sen. Sanders will be disappointed because it is very clear that we need campaign finance reform in the United States," Turner said. "Progressives thought they had another progressive in the race who was just as committed to that. But it is obvious that her commitment to that ended when her campaign ended." When Warren was an active presidential candidate, her rhetoric stayed away from the exceptions to her policy and focused on the way she was raising money for herself. "I don't spend my time at fundraisers for bazillionares and corporate executives, I just don't do it. I mean, zero. None," Warren said at a September town hall in Austin. "I made the decision from the first day that I going to do this grass roots, that I was going to do this with online fundraising. I was not going to spend my time sucking up to billionaires and corporate executives and political action committees," Warren said in November in a town hall in Waverly, Iowa. In December, speaking to a reporter in Oklahoma City, she criticized her opponents' approach to financing their campaigns, saying they were "selling access to their time for money." That same month she specifically targeted rival Pete Buttigieg after he held a fundraiser in a crystal-filled wine cave in Napa Valley, Calif. "Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States," Warren said in a debate. The former South Bend, Ind., mayor replied by criticizing Warren's own inconsistencies, noting that she'd transferred about $10 million from her Senate coffers to her presidential treasury, part of which had been raised at high-dollar events. He said she shouldn't issue "purity tests you cannot yourself pass." The current Warren stance on fundraisers puts her more in line with her pre-presidential campaign policy. Before she ran for president, she was one of the Democratic Party's star fundraisers. Warren raised $42.5 million for her 2012 race and nearly $35 million for her 2018 campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. "She's always been a very impressive fundraiser, albeit a disciplined one," said Jim Manley, a former top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "In years past, she always got a lot more requests than she could do." He predicted even more requests for help will come her way after the $6 million event. Warren's flexibility did, however, win her some praise from an unusual quarter. "Movement building is important but so is winning a governing majority and winning the White House," said Matt Bennett, the executive vice president for Third Way, a center-left think tank that tangled with Warren during her early years in the Senate. "So she has been a really good Democrat." INDIANAPOLIS The mother of a black man who was killed by an Indianapolis police officer filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against the city, its police department and four officers, including the one who fired the fatal shots. The lawsuit alleges the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department failed to adequately train, screen and supervise officers to prevent them from engaging in excessive or deadly force, including Dejoure Mercer, the black police officer who shot and killed Dreasjon Sean Reed on May 6 during a foot chase. The complaint says Mercers use of excessive and deadly force resulted in the unlawful shooting death of Reed, 21, and alleges his constitutional right to due process was violated. It seeks unspecified damages. Reeds mother, Demetree Wynn, watched with her attorneys and relatives as white doves were released during a news conference Tuesday outside the federal courthouse in Indianapolis to mark what would have been Reeds 22nd birthday. I cant stand with him because he was taken away from me. Now hes flying away and I cant bring him back, she said tearfully, before adding, This fights not over. TDT Manama The Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) stressed yesterday that it will harness all its efforts and potentials to assist the business sector in the Kingdom, and support private companies and institutions so as to be able to overcome the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the economic circumstances it has triggered. This was affirmed by BCCI chairman Sameer Abdulla Nass, who expressed the business and industrial communitys deepest gratitude and appreciation to His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa for his sound directives to follow up on BCCIs views on ways to overcome the impacts resulting from COVID-19 locally and globally. HRH the Premier issued the directives while chairing the weekly Cabinet session on Monday, attended by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier. During the session, HRH the Prime Minister directed to follow up on BCCIs initiatives, visions and studies on ways to address the challenges faced by the business sector, and overcome the impacts of COVID-19 on the private sector. The BCCI chairman said that HRH the Premiers directives reflect his keenness to deepen the principle of partnership in the economic decision-making process, in order to preserve the interests of the private sector, maintain its gains, and remove the obstacles and problems facing it. He highly valued HRH the Premiers swift response and personal follow-up on BCCIs visions, which, he said, prove his close monitoring of everything aimed at contributing to the recovery of the national economy. The BCCI chief emphasised that HRH the Prime Ministers directives will strengthen and activate the partnership between the government and the private sector, which will lead to positive results in the coming period. This is more so given the fact that the private sector is the cornerstone of every economic effort, and that a solid private sector is essential for achieving expected goals. The BCCI chief renewed the business communitys full-fledged support for the procedures approved by HRH the Prime Minister to support the private sector and stimulate it so that it maintains its key role in supporting the national economy. With Alliance Key Manager, you will never have up-front fees, annual minimums, complex software maintenance contracts, or restrictions on how you do business. Our partners are empowered to grow their business without concerns about how to allocate KMS costs. Townsend Security today announced new flexible licensing of Alliance Key Manager, their FIPS 140-2 compliant encryption key management server (KMS) to VMware Cloud Providers and MSPs. The new program allows these businesses to offer better security with encryption and VMware-certified key management at a lower cost, while maintaining their current pay-per-use and pay-as-you-go business model. VMware Cloud Providers and MSPs need to help their customers achieve encryption of VMs and vSAN storage to meet compliance requirements and new regulations like GDPR and CCPA. However, typical commercial KMS solutions are expensive, hard to maintain, and have complex licensing requirements. Legacy KMS systems create a business problem for VMware partners who are trying to grow their business, compete with large Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), and dont match the VMware partners business model. Townsend Security has addressed all of these obstacles with their new program for VMware Cloud Providers and MSPs. The new program offered by Townsend Security allows VMware Cloud Providers and MSPs the ability to encrypt VMs and vSAN with FIPS 140-2 and KMIP compliant Alliance Key Manager. The solution is easy to install, configure, and deploy. Once deployed it requires no routine maintenance and partners have total flexibility in how and where they deploy the KMS system to help their customers. Crucially, the new Townsend Security program will match the VMware Cloud Providers business model eliminating KMS licensing headaches, unmanageable reporting requirements, and unreliable KMS high availability implementations. Many VMware Cloud Providers and MSPs provide usage-based deployments for their end customers. Alliance Key Manager fits seamlessly into their business strategy to match the way they do business, said Patrick Townsend, Founder & CEO of Townsend Security. With Alliance Key Manager, you will never have up-front fees, annual minimums, complex software maintenance contracts, or restrictions on how you do business. Our partners are empowered to grow their business without concerns about how to allocate KMS costs. Predictable SaaS usage-based pricing makes it easy to sell, implement, and support end customers and their security needs - and an additional benefit is the incremental revenue and positive impact on margins. Once enrolled in Townsend Securitys new VMware Cloud Provider and MSP program, the company will assign training and support resources to help partners get started. There is no charge for training and Townsend Securitys technical support team is available for 24/7 business interruption support. Visit http://www.townsendsecurity.com/msp to learn more about Townsend Securitys new VMware Cloud Provider and MSP partner program. --- About Alliance Key Manager Townsend Security's Alliance Key Manager allows enterprises to effectively encrypt data and meet security requirements in less time and at a lower cost. The solution provides full life-cycle management of encryption keys for a wide variety of applications to help organizations meet California CPA, NY-DFS, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance. Available at no extra charge, Townsend Security includes ready-to-use security applications (SQL Server, Drupal, more), SDKs, and sample code (Java, C#, Perl, PHP, and more) for developers. Additionally, there are never extra fees for deploying client-side applications. About Townsend Security Townsend Security creates data privacy solutions that help organizations meet evolving compliance requirements and mitigate the risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks. Companies worldwide trust Townsend Securitys NIST and FIPS 140-2 compliant solutions to meet encryption and key management requirements in PCI DSS, GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA/HITECH, FISMA, and other regulatory compliance requirements. Learn more at http://www.townsendsecurity.com. ### Advertisement By Bill Hughes Jun. 17, 2020 | BENTON By Bill Hughes Jun. 17, 2020 | 12:20 AM | BENTON The Marshall County Fiscal Court has apparently figured out a way to settle the School Resource Officer controversy. After a Tuesday morning rally outside the courthouse in support of the officers, who are sworn to keep students safe at county schools, the fiscal court held a budget workshop. Many who attended the rally were watching as Judge-Executive Kevin Neal proposed a plan he had announced the night before. He wanted to create a new agency to oversee SROs, and believed there was enough money to hire eleven officers instead of eight, with some schools required to share officers. The new plan would allow an officer at every school and three at the high school. Commissioners and members of the public have scrutinized Neal's refusal to sign a grant that could have injected money into the budget for officers. Neal said he couldn't sign the grant because of a pre-arranged hire by Sheriff Eddie McGuire, which is prohibited in the grant's language. Commissioners Kevin Spraggs, Justin Lamb and Monti Collins indicated their steadfast support for current SROs, who probably would not have been retained under Neal's plan. Lamb said, "As I made clear over the last week or so, I couldn't vote for a budget that didn't keep the current funding mechanism for school resource officers, and I think that the commissioners today, we stood united and said we're not going to pass a budget unless that funding mechanism is in there and that we can get school resource officers in every school." He said he spoke to many who were involved in the system since 2018, and they all agreed it was working, and, "if it ain't broke, why fix it?" Spraggs said, "We have some great officers that are currently at the schools. A lot of them with special training, a lot of them have been on the force for many years, and we're very fortunate to have them and the relationships they have made with the students and faculty. The students feel like they can come talk to them about issues, and relationships like that are where you get leads on things that might be about to happen - if they feel comfortable with the officers." After much discussion, the men agreed to keep the SROs under the Sheriff's Department and its budget. Sheriff Eddie McGuire had worked with commissioners to trim as much of his budget as possible so this could happen. Spraggs said the salaries of the three additional officers will be covered by McGuire's cuts, funding found by commissioners, and an increase in the budget of about $30,000. Both Spraggs and Lamb told West Kentucky Star, "You get what you pay for," and the fiscal court didn't want to change anything other than increasing the number of officers. Spraggs said officials were also able to adequately fund the road department for necessary improvements, even though there have been recent deficits in receipts. The Fiscal Court will likely approve this budget at its second reading on June 22. The Bayelsa COVID-19 Task Force says it has recorded 54 new cases of the disease as announced by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Inodu Apoku, Deputy Chairman of COVID-19 Task Force, said during a press briefing on Wednesday in Yucaipa that out of the 54 cases, eight were health professionals. The figure was among the 490 new cases in the country announced by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Tuesday night. Mr Apoku, also Permanent Secretary, Bayelsa Ministry of Health, said the 54 cases were from its over 300 pending samples of COVID -19 suspected cases in various COVID-19 laboratories across the South-South zone. In the past two weeks, we have had over 300 pending samples of COVID -19 suspected cases in various COVID -19 laboratories across the South-South. The laboratories were having issues with reagents and supplies and as such the delays in returning results. Yesterday, being Tuesday, we received results of 76 samples and 54 of these returned positive for COVID -19. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 86 in the State. We are expecting more test results from today as well. Eleven of these positive cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases, eight are health care professionals. All the positive cases are being reached and counsel for evacuation to our Isolation Facilities. All their contacts are being line listed and adequately followed up including necessary environmental decontamination. Samples have and are still being collected from their high -risk contacts while they have all been counselled on self-quarantine. Risk communication and community engagement are ongoing. Yes, we send average of 40 samples on daily basis to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) Reference and other Laboratories across the South -South, he explained. He noted that the core of our COVID -19 mitigation strategy was to test aggressively, isolate, treat and conduct robust contacts tracing. It is also now apparent we are dealing with community transmission. We are leaving no stone unturned to ensure we have our own Molecular laboratory in the State following the donation of a brand-new RT-PCR Machine by the SHELL Joint Partners to the State. Permit me to seize this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to all the health care workers particularly the frontlines who have been tireless in their resolve and commitment to the COVID -19 response in the state. Let me reiterate that we still believe in the opportunities and the gains of prevention and early detection while building our capacity to manage COVID-19 seamlessly, Apoku said. The Deputy Chairman urged the general public to imbibe the regular and thorough hand washing with soap and water and the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Always keep social distancing, at least two meters (6 feet) distance between you and anyone, avoid crowds and always wear a face mask in any public places. Endeavour to practice good respiratory hygiene: when sneezing or coughing, cover your mouth and nose with your sleeve at the flexed elbow or with a tissue. Then dispose-off the used tissue safely, immediately. Exposed persons should stay home if you feel unwell with symptoms like fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing and notify relevant authorities immediately, he said. (NAN) And like in the current crisis, liquidity is king, Phillips 66 chairman and chief executive Greg Garland said on the companys Q1 conference call in early May. Like the upstream, Americas midstream sector is also grappling with preserving liquidity in response to unprecedented market conditions. The oil price and demand crash in the COVID-19 pandemic caught up with U.S. energy infrastructure plans as oil and gas producers slashed budgets and drilling activity. In response to expected lower throughput volumes and in an attempt to preserve liquidity, Phillips 66 and other midstream operators in the United States have recently deferred in-service dates and final investment decisions on several oil pipelines and scaled back the capacity of others. According to the Energy Information Administrations (EIA) latest update of its Liquids Pipeline Projects Database, five pipelines in the U.S. and such crossing into Mexico were on hold as of June 4. Last year, a total of 14 crude oil pipelines were completed, up from 11 in 2018, as midstream operators seized the opportunity to expand pipeline infrastructure to take surging oil production from the Permian basin to the refinery and export centers along the U.S. Gulf Coast. This year through April, three crude oil pipeline projects were completed, and all of them were new pipeline projects, not extensions of existing pipelines, according to the EIAs database. Liquidity Is King Over the past few weeks, however, midstream operators have started to announce actions to reduce capital expenditures amid crashing oil prices. Those actions included a deferral of several pipeline projects. Phillips 66 said at the end of March that it was reducing the 2020 consolidated capital spending by US$700 million to US$3.1 billion. As a result of the cost cuts, the company deferred the Red Oak Pipelinea 50/50 joint venture project with Plains All American Pipeline to ship 400,000 bpd of crude oil through a pipeline system from Cushing, Oklahoma, and the Permian Basin in West Texas to the Texas Gulf Coast. Related: The End Of The OPEC Deal Could Be The Start Of A New Oil Price War Phillips 66 Partners Liberty Pipeline in a joint venture with Bridger Pipeline, with planned capacity of 350,000 bpd of crude oil from Guernsey, Wyoming, to Cushing, was also deferred. Liberty Pipeline is designed to provide crude oil transportation service from the Rockies and Bakken production areas to Cushing. Phillips 66 Partners has also postponed its final investment decision on the ACE Pipeline a joint venture of Phillips 66 Partners, Harvest Midstream, and PBF Logistics with a planned capacity of 400,000 bpd in Louisiana. Were focused on conserving cash and maintaining strong liquidity to manage through this unprecedented down cycle, Phillips 66 chief executive Garland said on the earnings call on May 1. Enterprise Products Partners deferred the 450,000 bpd Midland-to-ECHO 4 Pipeline by around half a year, and it is currently forecast to go into service in the second half of 2021. As a whole, the company has canceled or deferred spending on 13 projects, it said in its Q1 earnings presentation. Enterprise Products Partners does not believe that Midland-to-ECHO 4 is a project that could be canceled as long-term contracts underpin it. So in our mind not cancellable, director and co-chief executive officer A. J. Teague said on the earnings call. I have never seen anything like what we are going through now Ive been through many cycles in my life, but I have never seen anything like what we are going through now. Demand literally fell off a cliff in March. Seems like it was overnight. As demand cratered, our good buddies; Russia and Saudi Arabia piled on by pumping an additional 4 million barrels a day of crude oil into the market and the result was what no one would have ever guessed, negative price crude oil, Teague said at the end of April. Energy Transfer, for its part, said in May that it was scaling back the Ted Collins crude oil pipeline into the Ted Collins Link, which will reduce capital spend and increase the utilization of existing assets, while providing the same market connectivity between our Nederland and Houston terminals. Ted Collins will be cheaper and will transport up to 275,000 bpd from West Texas and Nederland to Energy Transfers Houston terminal and is expected to be in service in Q4 2021. Related: Smart Money Is Betting On These 5 Exciting Energy Technologies Many other oil and natural gas pipeline projects across America remain on track despite the market conditions. Recent regulation from the U.S. Administration, however, could influence the timelines and decision-making of new oil and gas infrastructure projects going forward. New U.S. Administration Rules Set To Impact Project Timelines The Trump Administration has recently issued a final rule benefiting oil and gas companies by narrowing the scope of review for proposed oil and gas pipelines that states should consider under a section of the Clean Water Act for energy infrastructure. But another final rule, from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), says that an approved natural gas project cannot proceed with construction until the commission acts on all requests for rehearing. This new rule is likely to delay the construction of natural gas pipelines and increase the costs for the project owners, analysts and legal experts say. While many oil and gas pipeline projects remain on track, several deferrals over the past few months show that the midstream sector is not immune to the crisis in the upstream industry. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 17:29:07|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- As efforts to contain COVID-19 continue, China is steadily reviving its economy. The following facts and figures indicate how the country is forging ahead in the economic sphere: -- The Alataw Pass in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region saw a rising number of inbound and outbound China-Europe freight trains in the first five months, local customs said. A total of 1,664 China-Europe freight trains passed through the Alataw Pass, a major rail port in Xinjiang, during the period, up 39.5 percent year on year, said the Alataw Pass Customs. The imported and exported cargo of China-Europe freight trains via Alataw increased by 8.8 percent year on year to more than 10.55 million tonnes from January to May, it said. -- On Tuesday a freight train left Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, heading for Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The train, carrying 43 containers of cargo and weighing 800 tonnes, will take around 15 days to reach its destination, covering around 8,000 km in the process. It is the first direct China-Europe freight train between central China and Ukraine. The China-Europe rail-freight service was resumed in Wuhan on March 28, as the novel coronavirus epidemic ebbed away. As of Sunday, 93 trains had departed from the city, bound for Europe, with capacity recovering to around the same level as in the same period last year. -- The exhibition area of the 3rd China International Import Expo (CIIE), scheduled in Shanghai from 5 to 10 November, will be expanded to 360,000 square meters, according to the organizers. The area is expected to be divided into six sections to display food and agricultural products, automobiles, technical equipment, consumer goods, medical devices and healthcare products, as well as trade in services. Four special subsections for public health, smart transportation, energy conservation, and environmental protection, alongside sporting goods, will be set up during the event. The CIIE is the first dedicated import exhibition in the world that has seen fruitful outcomes from the first two exhibitions. Enditem Facebook users will now have the ability to turn off political adverts on their newsfeed, after the company came under fire for allowing misinformation or fake content. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced those living in the US have the ability to opt out of seeing political, electoral and social issue ads on both Facebook and Instagram. There is an option within ads that turns off all future political ads or users can make the switch in settings on either platform. The new addition is set to roll out Wednesday to some users and will be released across the US over the next few weeks. Scroll down for video Facebook has come under fire over the past few months for allowing political content that contains misinformation or fake content, but now users have the ability to switch them off 'For those of you who've already made up your minds and just want the election to be over, we hear you so we're also introducing the ability to turn off seeing political ads,' Zuckerberg wrote in an op-ed published on USA Today. Facebook has been feeling the heat from regulators and its users to ban political ads from the platform, as its rivals have already cracked down on paid political speech ahead of key elections to limit the spread of misinformation. However, in January, the firm was still not budging and decided not to limit how political ads can be targeted to specific groups of people, as its main digital-ad rival Google did in November. Neither will it ban political ads outright, as Twitter did last October. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced those living in the US have the ability to opt out of seeing political, electoral and social issue ads on both Facebook and Instagram Although Facebook is not completely blocking questionable political ads, it is now giving users the power to opt out of seeing them in newsfeed. When a user comes across an ad there will now be an option attached that turns off all future ads (pictured are random ads from Facebook) And it still won't fact check them, as it's faced pressure to do. The most recent call of action came from presidential candidate Joe Biden, who wrote a letter to Zuckerberg on Facebook. 'We call for Facebook to proactively stem the tide of false information by no longer amplifying untrustworthy content and promptly fact-checking election-related material that goes viral,' Biden wrote. 'We call for Facebook to stop allowing politicians to hide behind paid misinformation in the hope that the truth will catch up only after Election Day.' 'There should be a two-week pre-election period during which all political advertisements must be fact-checked before they are permitted to run on Facebook.' Although Facebook is not completely blocking questionable political ads, it is now giving users the power to opt out of seeing them in newsfeed. When a user comes across an ad there will now be an option attached that turns off all future ads, according to CNBC. The most recent call of action came from presidential candidate Joe Biden, who wrote a letter (pictured) to Zuckerberg on Facebook Along with the new feature, Zuckerberg also shared that Facebook will help its users register to vote through its new Voting Information Center, which was previously announced earlier this month The other method is to adjust the settings for both Facebook and Instagram. Along with the new feature, Zuckerberg also shared that Facebook will help its users register to vote through its new Voting Information Center, which was previously announced earlier this month. The center will include information about how and when to vote, how to register, how to vote by mail and how to vote early. There will also be posts from state election officials and local election authorities, Zuckerberg said. 'I believe Facebook has a responsibility not just to prevent voter suppression which disproportionately targets people of color but to actively support well-informed voter engagement, registration, and turnout,' he wrote. NEW YORK, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Weyland Tech, Inc. (WEYL), a leading global provider of eCommerce, mCommerce and Fintech business enablement solutions, has officially launched its CreateApp mobile commerce platform-as-a-service in Italy as the country reopens following the COVID-19 lockdown. As Italy works to revitalize its economy, CreateApp allows the more than 172,000 small businesses across the country to easily and affordably establish a new mobile presence. CreateApp was launched in Italy in partnership with Medias-ComS SA , a Swiss company specializing in media and communications. Medias-ComS is joined by Infomaniak, one of Switzerlands leading web solutions companies. Founded in 1994, Infomaniak has more than 130 employees and annual revenue of 25 million euros. Also partnered with Medias-ComS is Proteus, a leading IT company that provides Internet access and eCommerce applications to businesses across Italy. The recent reopening of Italys large tourism industry and other sectors of the economy has helped drive our first SMB deployments of CreateApp in the country, noted Pascal Jacot, managing director of Medias-ComS SA. With the support of our highly capable regional partners, we have attracted a number of new users, and expect nationwide adoption to steadily increase. Eddie Foong, chief product officer of Weyland, commented: Now more than ever, small businesses in Italy and across the world need to leverage the power of mobile to increase sales, reach more customers, manage logistics and conduct financial transactions in a simple, affordable and highly efficient way. CreateApp does all this and more. CreateApp is an ideal solution for any business looking to create a mobile app to promote its product or services. It enables business managers to easily create and deploy native mobile applications without technical knowledge or background. CreateApp is offered in Italy under the brand name, Medias-ComApps, with initial pricing set at 25-110 euros per month, depending on the modules used. It includes access to a unique business exchange platform for Asia-based companies to conduct cross-border business. The exchange features on-the-fly language translation to facilitate B2B and B2B2C interaction and e-Commerce transactions on the platform. Story continues First launched in Southeast Asia, CreateApp has attracted a large following, growing 47 percent over the last year to more than 360,000 business users globally. The launch in Italy followed the companys entry into Taiwan in association with Line Corp. According to Statista , Italy has one of the largest e-Commerce markets in Europe, which is expected to grow from $16.7 billion in 2019 to $25.3 billion by 2024. Key factors driving this growth include greater Internet penetration and the increase in the number of mobile users . Mobile shopping has also gathered significant momentum in the country, with nearly 31% of all e-Commerce B2C sales now transacted via mobile. About Medias-ComS SA Medias-Com'S is a Swiss company specializing in media and communication and all the branches that surround it. The company offers various online solutions that facilitate communication. This includes the new Medias-ComApps, an online platform for the creation of tailor-made mobile applications, and Medias-coms Signage, an online platform for the management of advertising screens. Medias-Com Shops is an online trading platform that facilitates the purchase of computer equipment. For more information, visit medias-coms.ch About Proteus Launched in 1994, Proteus is a leading regional IT provider with clients ranging from The Vatican, multiple Italian ministries, Leica Microsystems ($1bb Euro enterprise) to many large enterprise clients across Italy. For more information, visit the companys website here. About Infomaniak Founded in 1994 and wholly owned by its founders and employees, Infomaniak is an independent company based exclusively in Switzerland. More than 70% of its employees are highly qualified engineers, and it focuses systematically on internal development and open source solutions to design its products. This allows it to keep evolving its services while ensuring optimum guarantees of security and confidentiality for its customers. The company has more than 130 employees with annual revenue of 25 million euros. For more information, visit www.infomaniak.com/en. About Weyland Tech Weyland Tech is a developer and global provider of mobile business software applications. The company operates its CreateApp platform-as-a-service (PaaS) across three continents and 10 countries, including some of the fastest-growing emerging markets in Southeast Asia. The platform provides a mobile presence for small-and-medium sized businesses (SMBs) that is supported locally by distributor partnerships. Offered in 14 languages with more than 10 integrated modules, CreateApp enables SMBs to create and deploy native mobile applications for Apple iOS and Google Android without technical knowledge or background. The technology empowers SMBs to increase sales, reach more customers, manage logistics, and promote their products and services in an easy, affordable, and highly efficient way. Earlier this year, Weyland completed the acquisition of the Minneapolis-based eCommerce technology company, Logiq (formerly Push Interactive). Logiq provides an eCommerce marketing solution for enterprises and major U.S. brands. For more information, visit weyland-tech.com. Important Cautions Regarding Forward Looking Statements This release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are forward-looking statements including statements regarding: the ability of the Company to successfully integrate Push, the continued growth of the eCommerce segment and the ability of the Company to continue its expansion into that segment; the ability of the Company to attract customers and partners and generate revenues; the ability of the Company to successfully execute its business plan; the business strategy, plans, and objectives of the Company; and any other statements of non-historical information. These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as believes, expects or similar expressions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release. The Companys actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Companys periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume any duty to update these forward-looking statements. Company Contact Brent Suen, CEO Weyland Tech Inc. Email contact Media & Investor Contact Ronald Both or Grant Stude CMA Tel (949) 432-7566 WEYL@cma.team As the border tensions between India and China begin to intensify, Indian Intelligence Agencies have asked the government to block or advise people to stop using several Chinese mobile applications. The list of apps given by the agencies includes 52 apps in total. The apps mentioned on the list are apparently not safe and have extracted a large amount of data outside India. The same has been confirmed by the people familiar with the matter. MensXP/Karthik Iyer Before discussing this further, here's the complete list of apps that are mentioned on the list - -TikTok -Vault-Hide -Vigo Video -Bigo Live -Weibo -WeChat -SHAREit -UC News -UC Browser -BeautyPlus -Xender -ClubFactory -Helo -LIKE -Kwai -ROMWE -SHEIN -NewsDog -Photo Wonder -APUS Browser -VivaVideo- QU Video Inc -Perfect Corp -CM Browser -Virus Cleaner (Hi Security Lab) -Mi Community -DU recorder -YouCam Makeup -Mi Store -360 Security -DU Battery Saver -DU Browser -DU Cleaner -DU Privacy -Clean Master Cheetah -CacheClear DU apps studio -Baidu Translate -Baidu Map -Wonder Camera -ES File Explorer -QQ International -QQ Launcher -QQ Security Centre -QQ Player -QQ Music -QQ Mail -QQ NewsFeed -WeSync -SelfieCity -Clash of Kings -Mail Master -Mi Video call-Xiaomi -Parallel Space Reuters Reportedly, a senior government official also noted that these recommendations were also backed by the National Security Council Secretariat, which felt these could be detrimental to India's security. An official explained that the parameters and the risks attached to each mobile app will have to be examined one by one. This, by the way, isn't the first time we're being alerted about a security concern w.r.t Chinese apps. Back in April, the Home Ministry had issued an advisory on the use of Zoom on the recommendation of the national security agency. The service was deemed unsafe by other countries like Taiwan the US too. Source: Hindustan Times Lerner and Rowe continue to give back to support local communities. I truly believe that together we can make the neighborhoods where we live, learn, work, and play safer, happier, and healthier now and for generations to come. Kevin Rowe, Esq. Towards the beginning of April 2020, the Phoenix-based law firms of Lerner and Rowe launched a Pay it Forward giveaway. The giveaway wrapped up on Friday, May 29, 2020, with a grand total of $58,875 gifted directly to disadvantaged individuals thanks to the care and attention of their family, friends, and neighbors. Now as the nation begins to reopen in phases, the law firm continues giving back with through annual Fathers Day giveaway ending on June 19, and their annual Christmas in July giveaway to begin on July 1, 2020. Our team is honored by each community member who entrusts us to provide top-level representation to assist with a variety of legal needs. That trust makes it possible for us to host giveaways and give back portions of what weve earned in a manner that positively impacts disadvantaged individuals and the organizations that are dedicated to offering a helping hand to those in need. I truly believe that together we can make the neighborhoods where we live, learn, work, and play safer, happier, and healthier now and for generations to come, said attorney Kevin Rowe. Lerner and Rowes Fathers Day giveaway gives others the chance to nominate a deserving father via the Lerner and Rowe Facebook page for the chance to win one of five $250 gift cards to Home Depot. The law firms Christmas in July giveaway is a popular event that makes it possible for followers of their Facebook page to submit wishes daily during the month of July for the chance to win a gift valued up to $500. They may also include a friend on the wish list on two-for-Tuesdays. Follow Lerner and Rowe on Facebook or visit LernerAndRowe.com for more details about the giveaways. Also, visit lernerandrowegivesback.com to learn more about the many other community services that the lawyers and legal support team of Lerner and Rowe actively support. More about Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys is a powerhouse law firm representing personal injury clients. Attorneys Glen Lerner and Kevin Rowe have grown their law firm into one of the largest personal injury firms in the country, with over 50 attorneys and nearly 400 support employees located in Arizona, Nevada, California, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico, and Tennessee. The law firms continuous exalted levels of success can be attributed to the high levels of respect and dignity shown to victims and family members hurt in an accident. For those injured outside one of the previously listed states, Lerner and Rowe has an established network of attorneys across the country, ready to help. The firm takes pride in nourishing these relationships as they know a personal injury attorney can make all the difference in obtaining fair compensation for the pain and suffering inflicted upon the victims of tortious conduct. For more information about Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys in Phoenix, please call 602-977-1900. To connect with the law firm socially, follow Lerner and Rowe on Twitter and Instagram, or become a fan of its Facebook page. The Delhi Police on Wednesday detained Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers, including its national President Srinivas BV for holding a peaceful candle light protest against the killing of 20 Indian soldiers by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh's Galwan valley. The IYC workers arrived in front of the Chinese Embassy in the national capital to hold the candle light protest but they were detained by Delhi police even before they could do so. Delhi Police took the IYC workers to the Mandir Marg police station in central Delhi where they staged protest against the Chinese government. Speaking to media, Srinivas said, "China needs to be a taught a lesson and given a taste of their own medicine. The government must take all necessary steps. The nation stands behind its armed forces in whatever action it takes. We are together." IYC in-charge Krishna Allavaru said, "The Indian Youth Congress demands that the government must take strict military and diplomatic action against the Chinese aggressors, so that the martyrdom of our soldiers does not go in vain." He also demanded that the Chinese troops must return every inch of Indian territory they have occupied. Earlier in the day, police also detained members of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, who were protesting outside the Chinese Embassy. At least 20 Indian soldiers, including an officer, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with Chinese PLA troops at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. by Shafique Khokhar He was born in 1947 and has served the Christian community with his tireless efforts for over three decades. All religious, political and social leadership is in shock and mourns this sudden loss. Faisalabad (AsiaNews) - George Clement, 73, a longtime politician from the Christian community died of a heart attack on June 16. On June 12, he and his older son had had a serious accident and luckily both survived, but he was unable to fight the heart attack last night. His funeral was celebrated this morning. George Clement was born in 1947 and has served the Christian community with his tireless efforts for over three decades. He served the nation in the Benazir Bhutto regime and had been serving as president of the minority group of the Central Governing Committee PTI. All religious, political and social leadership is in shock and mourns this sudden loss. Speaking to AsiaNews they paid homage to his legacy of service. Father Khalid Rashid Asi, NCJP diocesan director of Faisalabad, said: He was not only a politician but he has a strong religious background who had studied different religions and he was an expert in speaking and writing several national and international languages. He was the most senior politician we had in Christian community. He joined different political parties in his life not for his political benefits but for the ideology and philosophy of working for mankind and poor communities. His services for electorate movement will always be remembered, as he always stood against religious discriminations against religious minorities. He always imparted political awareness among others because he knew very well that Christian community would uplift and developed if it is well political aware. We have lost a great leader and human being. For Naveed Walter, president of Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP), The sudden death of Mr. George Clement has saddened and shocked minorities as he was an expert parliamentarian, writer and speaker. It is an incredible loss of a man who has left the indelible impact by his political, social and religious services. Being a youth activist I have been close to Mr. George Clement, he always inspired me by his dynamic and visionary personality. Personally I learnt a lot during several in person conversations with him about history, minorities real issues, challenges and solutions". Speaking to AsiaNews, Samson Salamat and President Rwadari Tehreek said: Talking to AsiaNews, Samson Salamat, and Chairperson Rwadari Tehreek said, In the critical era when the Christian minority of Pakistan lacks educated and learned political leadership, the sudden death of Mr. George Clement is a huge loss for the Christian community. Mr. Clement was a man of knowledge, wisdom and vision and inspiration for the youth and true advocate of the marginalized communities. Mr. Clement was successful laying strong political foundation in Benazir Butto regime and current regime of Imran Khan, and always proved to be the best aid to address the issues and concerns of minorities with the government and state functionaries. In personal talk with AsiaNews, Ms. Kehkshan Newton, a human rights activist and daughter in law to George Clement said, He was a magician; who turned despair to hope for many. He was a gem; who turned many stones into diamond. He was a real leader; who worked relentlessly for his community. He was a visionary; who encouraged everyone to come on high visibility positions to change the fate. He was so different father in law. He treated me like princess in the family and always admired me beyond my abilities. He blessed me with his thoughts, his ambitions and transferred his passion in me. Being daughter in law, I am the luckiest who cherished beautiful memories and learnt a lot from him. He was my mentor and teacher; he played a great role in polishing me. I am extremely shocked at the sad demise of brother George Clement. He was one of the finest Christian politicians and a very kind human being. He was the most educated and learned Christian parliamentarian with a zeal to serve the community. It is definitely a great loss for politics of religious minorities and especially of the Christian community. No one can replace him in his brilliance and creative thoughts for the Christian community. My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved family and the departed soul, said Ms. Mary James Gill, ex-parliamentarian and human rights activist. Story Highlights Latest approval rating of Congress down from 31% in early May Approval among Democrats drops 15 percentage points WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The small bump Congress received in its approval ratings after passing the $2.2 trillion relief bill has faded. Currently, 25% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, down from the recent peaks of 30% and 31% in April and May -- the latter of which marked the legislative body's highest rating since 2009. Line graph displaying Americans' approval of Congress. In the May 28-June 4 poll, 25% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. The latest figure, from a May 28-June 4 Gallup poll, marks a return to normal for Congress' approval ratings. The current 25% is on par with the 22% to 27% range Gallup recorded from October 2019 to March of this year. Double-Digit Drop in Democrats' Approval of Congress Americans' overall lower rating of Congress this month is largely due to a 15-percentage-point drop among Democrats; 39% approved of Congress in early May, compared with 24% now. Approval of Congress also dropped among independents since last month: 32% in early May versus 25% now. Meanwhile, Republicans -- among whom Congress saw no relief-related increase in the spring -- have maintained their approval of the legislative branch. The current 24% among Republicans reflects no change from the previous poll and is consistent with their 22% to 26% ratings since March. Line graph displaying Americans' approval of Congress by political party identification groups. In the May 28-June 4 poll, 25% of political independents approve of the job Congress is doing, while 24% of Democrats and 24% of Republicans approve Bottom Line Even factoring in the recent peaks recorded in the spring, Congress' approval ratings have generally not been great. Ratings of Congress haven't touched the 50% mark since 2003; they haven't even come close in more than a decade. Though change elections are generally the drivers of temporary spikes in Congress approval, the increase after the recent relief bill proves that bipartisan work in the midst of a national crisis can improve the legislative branch's standing with the people it represents. Passing further legislation to address the health and economic crises from COVID-19 may be a key area where Congress can again boost its image. Bipartisanship on police reform may provide another opportunity for Congress to productively address a pressing national issue. View complete question responses and trends (PDF download). Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. A group of Republican Senators, led by Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, is taking aim at the liability shield that big tech companies currently have. The bill, which was unveiled on Wednesday, would seek to limit the immunity granted by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Which would set the stage for how Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and others would moderate its platforms. Its being called Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act, and it would require companies to undertake a duty of good faith to be able to receive the protections of Section 230. This would also lay some significant penalties for companies who do not uphold the duty. And in turn, make it easier for users to sue platforms for improper moderation practices. Advertisement What platforms would this bill affect? It would affect most major platforms. There are two requirements for services that this bill affects. Which is having 30 million US monthly users (or 300 million monthly global users) and have more than $1.5 billion in global revenue. What this means is that most social media platforms would be affected. But most news websites that have comment sections (like yours truly), would not be affected. When introducing the bill, Senator Hawley framed the bill as stating that its a response to concerns of anti-conservative bias. Stating that for too long, bit tech companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook have used their power to silence political speech from conservatives without any recourse for users. Advertisement The bill is co-sponsored by Senator Rubio of Florida, Senator Braun of Indiana and Senator Cotton or Arkansas. This likely means that there is signficant support within the Republican party which still holds a majority in the Senate. This is what President Trump wanted President Trump said last month that the Senate needs to look at Section 230 again. This came after Twitter supposedly tried to censor what he says on the platform. When really all Twitter did was put a fact check link on his tweets that were spreading misinformation. What Trump said was true though, platforms (mostly Facebook) dont have a real reason to police what users are saying on them. Facebook, for instance, has said that they will not alter the Presidents posts in any way. Or block any political ads, particularly ones that are fake and spread fake news. Advertisement This bill, while unpopular within the Democratic caucus right now, is actually a step in the right direction. And its no surprise that Senator Hawley is the one heading it up. L2L Leading2Lean (L2L), a cloud-based lean manufacturing solution provider, today announced the 2020 winners of its annual Operational Excellence (OpEx) Awards. The companies honored for outstanding operational performance were Purple Innovation, Inc., the creator of the renowned Purple Mattress, for its Grantsville, Utah plant, and Worthington Industries for its Westerville, Ohio plant. The awards recognize improved efficiency, reduced downtime, and increased profitability from the deployment of L2Ls Lean Execution System (LES) platform. During challenging times for manufacturing, we are recognizing Purple and Worthington for their operational success and continued growth, said Keith Barr, President and CEO of L2L. Both companies have developed an impressive list of best practices and achievements in the use of our LES software. In turn, they continue to see operational improvements on their plant floors. Purple Innovation, Inc., Grantsville, UT In less than two years from implementation of L2Ls Maintenance solution, the Grantsville facility has been able to achieve measurable improvements in areas such as: 52% reduction in equipment failures 54% reduction in equipment downtime 42% increase in on-time completion of preventive maintenance events The system has given our employees the tools to see the highest impact opportunities for improvement and a way to visually see the impact of actions taken to address them. Andrew Clarke, VP Engineering & Manufacturing, Purple Worthington Industries, Westerville, OH In the first year, Worthington Industries has shown improvements in many areas of the Westerville site, such as: 77% reduction in equipment downtime in some areas 10.5% Improved output 77% Reduction in Operator fixes And improvements are growing at additional sites where the LES was recently deployed, such as: 34% on time completion of preventive maintenance 27% reduction in unplanned downtime After using LES data to resolve a chronic issue, one Operator at the Westerville, OH site commented, Ive been dealing with this problem everyday for 5 years. These small issues, multiplied over time, add up to big costs, and big savings when solved. To adapt, compete, and win, manufacturers have to be more efficient, produce better products at speed, and build a smarter, more adaptable workforce, said Barr. Purple and Worthington are at the forefront of manufacturing innovation and we are proud to be their partner. About L2L Founded in 2010, L2L provides a Lean Execution System software platform for manufacturers. It has integrated and easy-to-use lean tools that allow operators and managers to use real-time data to reveal and solve root cause problems that cause metric misses, all while creating a sustainable plant floor culture of continuous improvement. For more information, visit http://www.L2L.com. About L2Ls Lean Execution System (LES) L2Ls LES increases real-time visibility at all levels of a manufacturing company, especially on the plant floor. Using the LES, plant floor employees have the real-time data they need to innovate and solve costly production problems. The solution also establishes a higher level of transparency that is critical in engaging people on the floor. When people can see what their peers are doing, and what production issues may be happening, accountability to solve those issues increases. Transparency and empowerment create a need for workers to analyze and make decisions faster. In these cases, technology isnt replacing humans; its enhancing human performance. About Purple Purple is a digitally-native vertical brand with a mission to help people feel and live better through innovative comfort solutions. We design and manufacture a variety of innovative, premium, branded comfort products, including mattresses, pillows, cushions, frames, sheets and more. Our products are the result of over 25 years of innovation and investment in proprietary and patented comfort technologies and the development of our own manufacturing processes. Our proprietary gel technology, Hyper-Elastic Polymer, underpins many of our comfort products and provides a range of benefits that differentiate our offerings from other competitors products. We market and sell our products through our direct-to-consumer online channels, traditional retail partners, third-party online retailers and our owned retail showrooms. For more information on Purple, visit purple.com. About Worthington Industries Worthington Industries (NYSE:WOR) is a leading industrial manufacturing company delivering innovative solutions to customers that span many industries including transportation, construction, industrial, agriculture, retail and energy. Worthington is North Americas premier value-added steel processor and producer of laser welded products; and a leading global supplier of pressure cylinders and accessories for applications such as fuel storage, water systems, outdoor living, tools and celebrations. The Companys brands, primarily sold in retail stores, include Coleman, Bernzomatic, Balloon Time, Mag Torch and Well-X-Trol. Worthingtons WAVE joint venture with Armstrong is the North American leader in innovative ceiling solutions. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Worthington operates 57 facilities in 15 states and six countries, sells into over 90 countries and employs approximately 9,000 people. Founded in 1955, the Company follows a people-first philosophy with earning money for its shareholders as its first corporate goal. Relentlessly finding new ways to drive progress and practicing a shared commitment to transformation, Worthington makes better solutions possible for customers, employees, shareholders and communities. Asma al-Assad was designated for the first time by the US government, which described her as one of Syrias most notorious war profiteers. - AFP Syrian president Bashar al-Assads British wife and dozens of members of his inner circle were on Wednesday hit with US sanctions, as the Trump administration heaped pressure on the beleaguered regime. Asma al-Assad, who was born and grew up in the UK, was designated for the first time by the US government, which described her as one of Syrias most notorious war profiteers. The sanctions came into force on Wednesday under the Caesar Act - legislation which has been years in the making and named after a Syrian defector who documented horrific human rights abuses carried out by the regime. The first batch of designations target 39 people or entities with ties to the government, including Assad's sister Bushra, brother and military commander Maher, as well as other members of the extended family, senior military leaders and business executives. Many of them were already subject to US sanctions, but the new penalties also target non-Syrians who do business with them in an attempt to discourage foreign investment in the country. Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, said the designations represent the beginning of what will be a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure to deny the Assad regime revenue and support it uses to wage war and commit mass atrocities against the Syrian people. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (C-L) meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad (C-R) in Damascus, Syria, in March - Shutterstock Mrs Assad, who had worked in London as an investment banker until her marriage to Assad in 2000, has styled herself as a progressive reformer and modern face of the ruling family. She was described by Vogue magazine in early 2011 as Syria's Rose in the Desert", a month before her husband began violently cracking down on peaceful protesters. She is known to have a penchant for luxury British and European designer brands, continue to shop online even as the country burned. The 44-year-old first lady, who recently underwent treatment for breast cancer, had never before been subject to sanctions and managed to get around restrictions on the Assad family by shipping goods through friendly countries, such as the UAE. Story continues Her father, Fawaz Akhras, is a Harley Street surgeon and director of the British-Syrian Society, which has pushed for normalised relations between the countries. Bashar al-Assad's British-born wife Asma with female troops on the occasion of Mother's Day in 2018S - Sana Omar al-Shogre from the US-based NGO Syrian Emergency Task Force, which pushed for the Caesar bill, called June 17 a big day. June 17 is just the start. It opens the door for more and more sanctions. For the next 10 years, those involved with the regime will be punished, said Mr Shogre, who was tortured in one of the government's most infamous prisons before he was freed in 2015. The law is there to protect the rights of Syrians, so there is no reconstruction, no normalisation with the regime, he said. It will block the regime from buying what it needs to construct bombs which kill civilians. Caesar, whose identity is protected for his safety, is a former military police photographer who smuggled out of Syria tens of thousands of photographs which documented systematic torture and extrajudicial killings carried out by the government inside its prison. His testimony before the US Congress in 2014 spurred lawmakers - unable to hold Assad and his government to account in a court of law - to set about trying to bring about punitive measures against the leader and his cohort. What we have seen is we sanction an individual for his/her actions and they simply move their assets to family members, so we are targeting their families, said James Jeffrey, US envoy to Syria. We want to make clear they have no ability to act in the international financial system for their ill thought gains, that they are not gonna be able to go shopping at Harrods in London, they will not be able to do anything with their money, he said. "She contributes personally in enough ways to the horrors today in Syria to merit being sanctioned in her own right, not just as the wife of President Assad." Syrian family eats a sunset 'iftar' meal after fasting during Ramadan, amid the ruins in Idlib province - AFP The sanctions come as the country, nine years into its devastating civil war, is grappling with a worsening economic crisis. Its currency has plummeted in value on the black market, sending prices of food and medicine soaring and prompting rare protests against the Assad regime. In another blow to the Assad familys fortunes, the presidents uncle Rifaat was on Wednesday sentenced to four years in prison by a Paris court for embezzling Syrian state funds to buy homes and offices worth 90m (80m) to build a French property portfolio. Rifaat al-Assad, who had denied the charges, fled Syria in 1984 after mounting a failed coup against his elder brother, the late president Hafez al-Assad, the father of Bashar. Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was found guilty of illegally using Syrian state funds to build a French real estate empire. - AP It is believed Rifaat was given hundreds of millions of dollars from the regime's coffers by Hafez in return for leaving Syria and agreeing not to threaten his rule. He is dubbed the butcher of Hama for his alleged role in the bloody suppression of an uprising in the central city in 1982, which saw between 10,000-20,000 killed. He has since divided his time between France, Britain and Spain, and now describes himself as an opponent of his nephews regime. With no vaccine in sight and coronavirus death toll crossing 440K worldwide, Tuesday brought a glimmer of hope when UK-led clinical trial "RECOVERY" stated that low doses of the generic steroid drug dexamethasone to patients affected with COVID-19 reduced death rates by around a third among those with the most severe cases of infection. Calling it a "major breakthrough", the authors went on to suggest that the drug become a standard medicine for patients being treated in hospitals for the deadly disease. That dexamethasone could cure COVID-19 disease became a huge talking point back in India especially at a time when the cases of patients contracting coronavirus have been shooting up drastically in the past few days. Dexamethasone is the first life-saving coronavirus drug showing positive results in #RecoveryTrials In India it is available for RS 10 and is made by several Indian manufacturers . @CNNnews18 #Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/HjjbLzxvZl Sneha Mordani (@snehamordani) June 17, 2020 Also Read: Cow Urine Kills Coronavirus? These Indian Scientists Are Fighting Fake News in the Time of Pandemic Im not one to buy into hype about coronavirus treatments. But reading the preliminary results of the RECOVERY trial for COVID-19 patients on ventilators given dexamethasone, Im genuinely impressed and look forward to seeing official results. Dexamethasone may be a game changer. Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) June 16, 2020 Soon after, Indians took to google to search up their queries regarding dexamethasone drug. The searches ranged from price of dexamethasone, availability of the drug, dexamethasone's manufacturer, and dexamethasone brands. Source: Google Trends Notably, the curiosity around dexamethasone was the highest in Arunachal Pradesh followed by Sikkim, Delhi, Goa and Nagaland. The news of dexamethasone showing results against the disease also hyped up Twitter. Today, we've approved Dexamethasone for immediate use across our NHS. This life-saving discovery was made in Britain and is a testament to the brilliant work of scientists & the national effort to save lives & protect our NHS. Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) June 16, 2020 We @WHO welcome results from a large RCT, that dexamethasone reduces mortality among the most severe #COVID19 patients. Focus must be on saving lives and preventing new infections Coronavirus breakthrough: dexamethasone is first drug shown to save lives https://t.co/GG75lsEAbk Soumya Swaminathan (@doctorsoumya) June 16, 2020 How is it that dexamethasone... ...a drug that has been tried for every disease, just about ...that works decently for some things, and not at all in others, ...somehow hits its first grand slam EVER, ...with an illness that has so greatly eluded our best efforts to treat it? Jeremy Faust MD MS (@jeremyfaust) June 16, 2020 Medical experts also advised against popping the drug and self-medicating without a prescription from a doctor. Dexamethasone Study: Good: Clinical/mortality benefit Cheap/Tried/Tested Bad: Significant short/ longterm side effects (suppresses immunity, bleeding, wt gain) Verdict: Dont hoard/self medicate Mild illness? Dont use Ventilated or HFNC patient? Let doctors decide Faheem Younus, MD (@FaheemYounus) June 17, 2020 Meanwhile, The World Health Organization has welcomed the initial clinical trial results from the UK. "This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support," WHO quoted its Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "This is great news and I congratulate the Government of the UK, the University of Oxford, and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this lifesaving scientific breakthrough." According to a report published in BBC, dexamethasone is already used to reduce inflammation in a number of other conditions and has been found to stop some of the damage when the body goes into the deadly cytokine storm while trying to fight coronavirus. Around 2,000 hospital patients were given dexamethasone and were compared with more than 4,000 others who did not receive the drug. Study authors found that it cut the risk of death from 40% to 28% for patients on ventilators. For those needing oxygen, it cut the risk of death from 25% to 20%, the report further stated. You can read up more on dexamethasone here and here. The Home Office has no evidence to show that its hostile environment policy is achieving its aims of reducing illegal immigration or ever has, a new report shows. Measures introduced by Theresa May in 2012 with the aim of creating a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants have prompted criticism in recent years for wrongly targeting legal residents and preventing vulnerable people from accessing basic services. The Windrush scandal in 2018 revealed thousands of Commonwealth nationals who had been settled in Britain for decades were being treated as illegal immigrants under the hostile environment, including more than 160 who were wrongly deported as a result. In the wake of the fiasco, the then home secretary Said Javid said the department was looking at the best ways of evaluating the "compliant environment" renamed in light of the scandal to ensure the policy was right. But the investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) reveals that the Home Office admits it is still unable to measure whether they have the desired effect of encouraging people to leave voluntarily and that it had no specific evidence base to support the effectiveness of the policies when they were introduced. Lawyers and campaigners said it was a damning indictment of the immigration system that no assessment had been made of the policy in light of the Windrush scandal and the multiple reviews that have since been published criticising the approach. As far back as July 2016, a report by the independent chief inspector for borders and immigration the Home Offices own watchdog warned that there was insufficient hard evidence to say whether the hostile environment was achieving what the government intended, since no targets were set for the original measures and little had been done to evaluate them. The Windrush Lessons Learned review, published in March 2020, found that ministerial pledges to evaluate the policy had not been met, and called on the Home Office to commission civil servants to undertake a full review and evaluation of the hostile/compliant environment policy and measures. The NAO report reveals that the department has no estimate for how many people in the UK are undocumented, having not measured the size of the unauthorised population for 15 years, and that nearly two-thirds of people detained for the purposes of removal are later released a figure that increased by 8 percentage points last year. It shows the Home Office spent 14m on deportation flights that never took off within five years, with 213,000 tickets for would be deportees and escorts accompanying them cancelled, equating to 117 tickets cancelled per day. Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, shadow home secretary, said: This report again lays out the lack of competence and grip at the top of the Home Office. All too often the governments mismanagement of the department results in callousness, costly mistakes and deep injustices. Immigration barrister Colin Yeo said he was surprised by the fact that, despite warnings, the Home Office still hadnt evaluated whether the policy was working. Theyve been called out on this repeatedly. The fact that they havent done that kind of deep thinking is remarkable when we know that its done huge damage to peoples lives, he said. Mr Yeo added that there was a lack of evaluation of the measures from the outset: There never really was any success criteria. There was no white paper. It was a fundamental change to the immigration system and how people live in the UK, and it was done with no consultation. With the Windrush scandal, and with people thinking again about their attitudes towards immigration and data sharing and so on, you would have thought it would be time for the Home Office to have a proper think about what theyre really trying to achieve with this policy. But they just dont seem to care. Chai Patel, legal policy director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: The hostile environment, whether it works or not, causes so many other problems and needs to be got rid of, but the fact that they cant even tell us its working is a damning indictment of where they are. Weve had lots of reviews. Right now, theres whole host of things that have been recommended by experts whether David Lammys review or Wendy Williams review. All of those things have happened, and unless they start activity implementing those recommendations, its clear that they dont want to do anything. Mr Patel said he believed the Home Office had no desire to make the policy work, adding: Its a cultural statement, thats why its a hostile environment. Its not about whether it works or not. Its one of the things they can talk about in terms of being tough on immigration. Their current inaction shows more commitment to maintaining a hostile immigration policy and the racial discrimination it causes, than alleviating suffering and risk of death during this pandemic. Jacqueline McKenzie, a lawyer who has represented a number of Windrush victims, said the findings were deeply disturbing and that it was ironic that more is known about the impact of the policies on legal residents as has been seen with the Windrush scandal than the outcomes for those for whom the policies were intended. She added: The operation of the policy was reckless in my mind and the serious harm caused, as Wendy Williams concluded in the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, is still yet to be fully understood. Why is the Home Office getting so many immigration decisions wrong? Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: The department needs a better understanding of the impact of its immigration enforcement activity on its overarching vision to reduce the size of the illegal population and the harm it causes. A Home Office spokesperson said: As requested by Wendy Williams, who warned against the temptation to respond hastily, we have undertaken a period of reflection and engaged with staff at all levels to identify areas for change. The Home Secretary has committed to publish a response to the report by the end of September. [June 17, 2020] Culinary Culture Launches #MeriMAAsterChef Contest on Instagram A contest designed to celebrate Indian mothers and their delicious recipes Cash prizes of INR 1,00,000; INR 50,000 and INR 25,000 up for grabs MUMBAI, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Culinary Culture, India's leading culinary platform, has announced #MeriMAAsterChef contest on Instagram to recognize and reward Indian mothers and their delectable dishes. The contest intends to highlight the sentiment of 'Maa Ke Haath Ka Khaana' (food prepared by the mother). Participants have an opportunity to 'Make their MAA famous' and win cash prizes along the way. The winner, runner-up and second runner-up will receive Rs. 1,00,000 (One lakh), Rs. 50,000 (Fifty thousand) and Rs. 25,000 (Twenty-five thousand) respectively. The entries will be accepted till 11:59 PM on Sunday, 28th June, 2020. The participation process is straightforward where the contestants need to shoot a one-minute video of his/her mother preparing her signature dish along with expressing the memories associated with that special dish. Contestants will have to upload the video on their respective Instagram account by using #MeriMAAsterChef and tagging @culinarycultureco in the caption. Commenting on the initiative, Vir Sanghvi, Chairman, Culinary Culture, said, "This is our attempt to honour India's best cook and chefs: our mothers. Every great chef will tell you that he/she became a chef because his/her mother taught him how to love food. And yet, we never give our mothers the credit they deserve. This competition, open to all, will find the best MAA-ster chefs in India and reward them with cash prizes. Once entries are in, an all-star jury will pick the ten best entries. Then we will ask the public to vote for the top three on Instagram. So, post a video of your mom's greatest dish and help get her the honour she deserves." The entries will be judged by a distinguished five-member jury comprising of India's most celebrated culinary personalities: Vir Sanghvi, Chairman, Culinary Culture; Lisa Ray, Actress, Author and Activist; Vicky Ratnani, Celebrity Chef; Zorawar Kalra, Founder and MD, Massive Restaurants; and Ritu Dalmia, Chef-Owner, Diva Group of Restaurants. Lisa Ray, Actress, Author and Activist, is delighted to be a jury member and states, "As a mom, I'm so excited to be a part of the jury for the #MeriMAAsterChef contest. The contest celebrates mothers and their delicious, original, love infused cooking." The contest has all the right ingredients and Celebrity Chef Vicky Ratnani affirms, "MAA's cooking is special and there is no replacement for that." The final three winners will be decided basis the number of votes (likes and comments) received on the shortlisted top 10 videos decided by the Jury and reposted on @culinarycultureco (https://www.instagram.com/culinarycultureco/ ) About Culinary Culture: Culinary Culture is a not-for-profit movement that encompasses all aspects of the food space in India. Co-founded by Sameer Sain, Co-founder and CEO, Everstone Group and media veteran Vir Sanghvi, the company launched in March 2020 and announced celebrity Chef Gaggan Anand as mentor-advisor. Culinary Culture is India's only authoritative and independent rating organisation, awarding stars to restaurants. It also recognises and rewards India's best chefs and street food vendors. It organises global culinary exchanges, bringing the world's greatest chefs to cook in India and sends Indian chefs to cook at the best restaurants in the world. For more information: www.culinaryculture.co [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] President of Honduras Says He and His Wife Have CCP Virus Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez says he has tested positive for CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Over the weekend I started to feel bad, and today they have diagnosed me with being infected with Covid-19, Hernandez said in a televised presidential address on June 16 night. The President added that he had mild symptoms and was receiving treatment. He said he would continue to carry out his presidential duties while in isolation and under observation. He is the first president in Latin America to have tested positive for the virus. Hernandezs wife, first lady Ana Garcia de Hernandez, and two presidential aides have also tested positive for the disease. Hernandez said his wife was asymptomatic at present. The first lady is self-isolating following her diagnosis. The President at all times maintained the preventive measures recommended by the health authorities, yet due to the nature of his work it wasnt possible to stay in total isolation, according to a statement released by the presidential office Tuesday. The statement urged Hondurans to continue following recommended CCP virus guidelines, including measures such as wearing masks and washing hands frequently. The Honduran President is a controversial figure in the country. In 2019 he faced calls to resign after his brother Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado was found guilty of leading a major cocaine trafficking operation. The Presidents brother was accused during trial of using drug money to impact Honduran presidential elections in 2009, 2013, and 2017. President Hernandez has denied all allegations of wrongdoing. Alejandro Giammattei, President of neighboring Guatemala, said on Twitter that he was praying for Hernandez and his wife. I raise my prayers for their fast recovery and express to you my consideration, respect, and esteem, Giammattei wrote. Honduras began slowly reopening its economy on June 8 after months of restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the CCP virus. The country has recorded at least 9,656 cases of the disease and 330 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Countries across Latin America have reported surging numbers of CCP virus cases in recent weeks. The CNN Wire and Epoch Times staff contributed to this report IKEA said it will shortly begin talks with the Irish government and eight other countries about returning the financial support they received to support workers during the Covid-19 lockdown. Ingka Group, the owner of most IKEA stores, said it had already repaid aid received from the Serbian government to cover wages for furloughed staff during the lockdown, and was about to do the same in Romania. The company told the Irish Examiner they are in talks about returning money to all nine countries that gave them government support through furlough schemes as they have suffered less than expected from the crisis. There were large queues of customers waiting to enter the IKEA store in Dublin when it reopened last week. Other retail sectors including hardware have reported significant pent-up demand from customers following the lifting of the lockdown. Ingka Group, the largest strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system has begun conversations with Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain and the US. Nearly 166,000 workers are employed by Ingka Group. ? "Our main focus here is simply to return the generous support that was made available by governments to businesses during this difficult time," Ingka Group's head of retail Tolga Oncu said in an email. "Whilst no one knows how things will continue to develop, we now have a better understanding of the impact of the crisis on our business and have therefore decided to pay it back as it is the right thing to do." Romanian Finance Minister Florin Citu thanked the company on Facebook for not using the 858,504 lei (177,500) necessary to cover technical unemployment between March 17 and June 12. "IKEA representatives said that although we are facing many challenges ahead, in their opinion the companys results will be better than they were expecting a few months ago. Therefore, IKEA made the decision not to use the state budget funds," Citu said. British business supplies distributor Bunzl on Monday said it too planned to repay government support and bring forward deferred tax payments, following better-than-expected sales during the crisis. IKEA stores are gradually reopening worldwide after most closed temporarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional reporting: Reuters Irrespective of the outcome of the call to boycott Chinese products by certain groups in India, India-China trade could be poised for a rough ride. A recent study carried out by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) suggests that the global exports of commodities to China could plunge 46 percent, by $15.5 billion to $33.1 billion in 2020 if compared with annual growth projections before the coronavirus pandemic hit. The study expects most of these fluctuations to happen in primary commodities, which constitute the bulk of India's exports to China. Ores, slug and ash, mineral fuels, bituminous substances, organic chemicals and cotton were among the key products (in value terms) that were exported to China during 2019-20. The UNCTAD study points out that total exports (to China) are being dragged down primarily by the dramatic drop in Chinese demand for energy products, ores and grains. "Imports of liquefied natural gases, for example, could fall by up to 10 percent in 2020 compared with a projected increase of 10 percent before the COVID-19 outbreak. Iron imports are still expected to increase, but growth could fall by two-thirds, from a pre-coronavirus annual growth projection of 19 percent to just 6 percent", the study says. Iron ore and mineral fuel commodities alone contributed to over $4 billion out of the $15 billion worth of Indian exports to China between April 2019 to February 2020. Cotton exports accounted for another $722 million during the same period. Some two-thirds of developing countries are commodity dependent, reveals UNCTAD data. However, India does not figure among the countries listed out in the UNCTAD data as the commodity dependent developing countries which are most vulnerable. For such countries, the drop is projected to be between $2.9 billion and $7.9 billion, which would constitute a 9% loss in terms of annual growth rate. "Assessing the impact in China says a lot about possible general tendencies," says Marco Fugazza, an UNCTAD economist who conducted the study. "It provides important information that may help policymakers anticipate what may happen globally." "There have been few assessments done so far at a relatively disaggregated product level using up-to-date information," he says, adding that UNCTAD awaits similar statistics from other big markets, such as the European Union, to expand the analysis. The study points that export opportunities for several agricultural products could improve also, compared with expectations before COVID-19. Soya bean demand for China, for example is now projected to grow by 34 percent - 10 percentage points more than earlier forecasts. The data gives hope that some COVID-19 effects on trade could be positive, at least for some exporters. Also read: Atma Nirbhar Bharat: Defence canteens' orders for Pernod Ricard, Diageo dry up Chahid El Hafed (Refugee Camps) June 17, 202 June 17, 2020 (SPS) - The Saharawi people commemorate Wednesday the 50st anniversary of the popular uprising of Zemla against Spanish colonialism, in attempt to recover its inalienable rights to freedom and independence, three years before the outbreak of the armed struggle led by the Polisario Front. Denying the Sahrawis the right to self-determination, Spain had developed a document describing the integration of the Saharawi population into the Spanish metropolis, saying Western Sahara is "Spanish province." The announcement of the Spanish decision was accompanied by a solemn festival June 17, 1970. The measure prompted spontaneous reactions from the Saharawis part. Protesters led by Mohammed Sidi Brahim Bassiri brought a petition to the general governor of Spanish Sahara, in El Aaiun. While dispersing the manifestation, Spanish Foreign Legion fired on the crowd, killing 11 protesters. Hundreds of Saharawis were arrested within days, among them Bassiri, who disappeared in prison, presumably murdered or tortured to death. Mohamed Sidi Brahim Bassiri paid his life like other Sahrawis, as a tribute for freedom and dignity. SPS 125/090/ The American Red Cross has announced it will begin testing all donated blood, platelet and plasma donations for coronavirus antibodies. The tests are not diagnostic tests to see if a person is currently infected but to determine if someone has been infected with COVID-19 in the past. In a press release on Monday, the organization said it hopes it can give people peace of mind to know whether or not they've been exposed to the virus. 'During these uncertain times, the Red Cross hopes that testing for COVID-19 antibodies will provide its valued donors insight into whether they may have been exposed to this coronavirus,' the statement read. On Monday, the Red Cross announced it will be testing all donated blood, plasma and platelet donations for coronavirus antibodies. Pictured: Deputy Chief Patricia Cassidy of the Jersey City Police Department has blood drawn to test for coronavirus antibodies at a testing site in Jersey City, New Jersey, May 4 Officials hope testing for antibodies will increase the number of donations, which have fallen by 86,000 since the start of the pandemic. Pictured: A phlebotomist processes specimens of people getting tested for coronavirus antibodies at the Refuah Health Center in Spring Valley, New York, April 24 Sample will be sent to a testing laboratory, where an antibody test approved by the US Food and Drug Administration will be run. Everyone is eligible for this, even if they haven't had symptoms or been exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus. The Red Cross hopes testing for antibodies will increase the number of blood donations, which has severely fallen since the start of the pandemic. While blood drives continue to be canceled, or the number of people that can attend a drive are restricted, the need for donations remains higher than ever 'There is an urgent need for blood donations right now to meet the needs of patients in hospitals as surgical procedures and treatments that were temporarily paused earlier this spring in response to COVID-19 resume,' the Red Cross said. More importantly, the blood bank supply need to remains at consistent levels because blood is perishable and cannot be stockpiled. Across the US, approximately 2,700 drives have been canceled, which led to 86,000 fewer blood donations. The Red Cross says there has been an increase in blood requests at various clinics by about 30 percent. All donors must wear masks and have their temperature take before their blood is drawn, and anyone experiencing symptoms such as coughing is asked to stay home. Donors will receive results within seven to 10 day either through the Red Cross app or on the organization's website. The number of positive tests will be reported to state and federal health agencies, but personal details such as names and addresses will not be included. 'As a humanitarian organization and member of the broader health community, the Red Cross has adapted our services to help meet the needs of this extraordinary time,' Chris Hrouda, president of Red Cross Biomedical Services, said in a statement. 'We recognize that individuals and public health organizations desire more information about COVID-19, and as an organization dedicated to helping others, the Red Cross is fortunate to be able to help during this pandemic.' In the US, there are more than 2.1 million confirmed cases of the virus and more than 116,000 deaths. Capital Region school districts' 2020-21 spending plans saw wide success in unprecedented all-mail-in balloting Tuesday. Several districts, primarily the larger ones, were still counting and didn't expect to have results until Wednesday. But in Rensselaer, whose budget carried a 19.5 percent tax hike, voters rejected their plan by a more than 2-1 margin Tuesday even as neighboring districts that stuck to the tax levy cap saw their budgets approved. Rensselaer's $27.7 million budget was rejected by a 1,130 to 560 vote. The proposition to buy a bus also went down by 967 to 714. But voters in balloting with no polling places due to the coronvirus pandemic and public health concerns - approved budgets in several districts, including these: Ballston Spa, Berne-Knox-Westerlo, Brunswick (Brittonkill), Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, Cohoes, Corinth, Galway, Green Island, Hadley-Luzerne, Hoosic Valley, Lansingburgh, Menands, Mohonasen, North Colonie, North Greenbush, Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk, Schenectady, Schodack, Stillwater, Troy, Watervliet and Wynantskill districts. In Schenectady, Bernice Rivera, Princella Learry and Nohelani Etienne were elected to the Board of Education in a six-way race. The unsealing and counting began at 5 p.m. Tuesday, but many districts, seeing a record-high number of ballots, won't have results until later in the week. The Albany district received roughly 10,700 ballots this year, the highest number of people to vote on a budget since the district has had public votes, in 1997. The average turnout for the last five years has been 3,109. The district had planned to use scanning machines borrowed from the Albany County Board of Elections to aid the count, but when the deadline for ballots was delayed a week, the proximity to the June 23 Democratic primary prevented the district from getting them. Albany plans to resume the tally at 8 a.m. Wednesday. "Counting nearly 11,000 ballots by hand will be a challenge and will require a considerable dedication of staff resources. We anticipate that the count will go well into the day Wednesday," district spokesman Ron Lesko said. "We had three times the usual turnout," Watervliet Superintendent Lori Caplan said about the 708 to 265 budget approval vote. Caplan described the budget as fiscally fair that emphasized educational needs of district children. Rensselaer Superintendent Joseph Kardash advised the school board the district would regroup and make plans to go back to voters in mid to late July with a new proposal. "We'll be working to build a budget that reflects the needs of the students and the community," Kardash said. Around the region, districts were live-streaming their vote counts Tuesday so residents could tune in to watch the tallies as they occurred. Cohoes allowed residents to come into the high school to watch the ballots being counted from an elevated track. East Greenbush counted about 4,300 of more than 7,000 ballots before stopping Tuesday night shortly before 10. At that time, the budget appeared headed to passage with 3,202 approving and 1,145 votes against. The district will resume counting at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Guilderland, which saw voter participation double this year, won't begin counting the ballots until 8 a.m. Wednesday. The counting will be live-streamed on the district's YouTube channel. Compared to a normal year, districts saw anywhere from double to eight times as many people returning ballots, according to preliminary data from the New York State School Boards Association. More Information Late results: Niskayuna School Budget ($90.8 million, 2.15% tax levy increase) Yes - 3,618 (62%) No - 2,255 (38%) Bus Purchase Proposition Yes - 3,416 (58%) No - 2,451 (42% Board of Education Election - Jennifer Zhao and Sarah Rogerson Elected Jennifer Zhao - 3,588 (Elected to Second Term) Sarah Rogerson - 3,130 (Elected to First Term) Timothy Brennan - 2,817 Bethlehem $103.5 million budget approved, 3,832 to 1,067, or about 78 percent in favor. Three incumbents were returned. Results: Holly Dellenbaugh - 2,944 votes** Meredith Moriarty - 2,727 votes** Christine Beck - 2,316 votes** Ryan Richman - 1,578 votes John F. Queenan - 1,126 votes Tricia Hertz - 871 votes Kelly A. Magnuson - 736 votes ** The three elected members of the Board will serve three-year terms beginning July 1 See More Collapse Typically, high turnout is associated with a high tax increase or controversial proposal, but this year most districts are staying below the state's 2 percent tax cap, according to NYSSBA counsel Jay Worona. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "There are concerns that the more people vote and we know over 70 percent don't have kids in school they may exercise their franchise and vote negative," Worona said earlier. NYSUT, the state's largest teachers union, bought a $500,000 television and digital ad buy urging residents to vote "yes." "While this pandemic has changed the way we need to vote on school budgets this year, it's still just as important as ever that voters participate in this process. ... We're simply asking that our communities support educators' work by voting yes by mail," NYSUT President Andy Pallotta said in a statement. The vote was initially scheduled for June 9, but after many districts could not get ballots out in time due to problems with a printing vendor, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo extended the deadline a week for mailed absentee ballots. But hand-delivered ballots were required to be turned in by June 9. District officials say they have fielded numerous calls from voters trying to understand the timeline change. In South Colonie, which has received 2,000 votes and counting, the change in the deadline has caused frustration among voters who requested ballots after June 9, thinking they had until June 16 to return them, according to South Colonie Assistant Superintendent Sherri Fisher. "The short timeline to mail postcards, update communications documents, secure and mail large numbers of absentee ballots (followed by a manual ballot count) have made it challenging and time-consuming," Fisher said in an email. "Nevertheless, we have worked through it and believe the district's process is in good order." In Shenendehowa, "the number of logistical challenges are too long to fit in one article," district spokeswoman Kelly DeFeciani said. The district has received between 7,500 and 8,000 votes, double the number ballots the district has seen in previous years. In his most recent executive order, Cuomo indicated that a date scheduled for a second vote will be selected. The date and manner of the vote have not been determined. Districts on average are already spending more than spent four times the cost of a typical in-person school election. If the revote is conducted by mail, many may opt out. NYSSBA wants the governor to schedule the revote for the end of July, increasing the possibility of conducting an in-person election. If the virus prevents an in-person vote, school officials hope they would only be required to send ballots to eligible voters upon request rather than the entire district. A gunshot victim has died in the hospital after several days in critical condition, and a fourth suspect has been arrested after detectives found that the fatal bullet came from a neighbor's gun, officials said. Deputies initially believed a shot from the girlfriend's gun had wounded the victim, who was a bystander riding in the same vehicle as her boyfriend. The fighting couple didn't receive significant injuries but both were arrested not long after the June 7 incident in the 14600 block of Central Woods Road off Sullivan Road in the northeast corner of the parish. Eldres Mills, 19, was pronounced dead on June 11 in the hospital after the shooting left him in a "vegetative state," according to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. +4 Bystander to domestic dispute in 'vegetative state' after gunfight in Central; 3 arrested A domestic dispute in Central late Sunday left the fighting couple largely unharmed while one of their companions ended up in a vegetative sta Based on their initial interviews and evidence collected from the scene, detectives pieced together the following account. Gregory Taplin, 19, started fighting with his girlfriend, Timyra Scott, 19, and caused an injury to her lip, which became swollen during the fight. She went inside her house and returned with a handgun, then opened fire on the vehicle Taplin was riding in. The car left but circled around and came back soon thereafter. That's when a witness reported seeing someone start shooting from the front passenger seat, which is where Taplin was sitting, according to deputies. There were three people inside the house at the time. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up A neighbor initially told police he had fired one shot into the ground in an attempt to scare away the suspects and get them to stop shooting at each other. But officials said Wednesday that the bullet extracted from Mills' body matched the neighbor's gun. The neighbor, Lil Norman Bell, 27, has since been arrested and booked into jail. He faces first-degree murder among other counts. "The accused had no explanation of not utilizing a cellphone that was readily available inside his residence to notify law enforcement of the initial shooting," deputies wrote in Bell's arrest report. He also "did not have a logical explanation of not informing responding law enforcement of his involvement in the shooting." The report doesn't include any additional information about a possible motive, though Bell told detectives he fired the gun toward the ground in the direction of the vehicle. Deputies said the car eventually drove to the hospital so the victim could receive medical help. Taplin is also accused of throwing a handgun out of the vehicle on the way to the hospital and calling his girlfriend to tell her to pick up shell casings from the scene, according to his arrest report. The driver, Edarius Anderson, 22, was also arrested. Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks said charges have been upgraded against Anderson and Taplin, who are now accused of principal to first-degree murder. Scott is still accused of attempted murder because ballistic evidence showed her shots weren't responsible for the victim's death. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 11:39:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close China's medical supplies for 18 African countries arrive at the Kotota International Airport in Accra, capital of Ghana, April 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng) These past several months have let the African people see more clearly the true meaning and value of their fraternity with the Chinese people. As they continue to fight this deadly virus, they can keep counting on China as their most trustworthy partner in this age of uncertainty. by Xinhua writer Guo Yage BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- After weeks of attentive care by Chinese and Sierra Leonean doctors and nurses, three orphans, including a nine-month-old infant, have recently fully recovered from COVID-19 in a hospital built with the help of China in the West African country. The story is just one small part of the time-tested China-Africa relationship, which features equality, mutual trust and mutual support. That bond now stands even stronger, as the two sides have fought side by side against the ravaging coronavirus pandemic ever since the outset. On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping will preside over an extraordinary China-Africa summit, which will be attended by many African leaders and heads of international bodies such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO). The virtual summit comes as the latest testimony to the two sides' steady commitment to weathering the coronavirus challenge with cooperation and solidarity, which is exactly what they have been doing over recent months. Members of Namibia's COVID-19 pandemic task team attend a video consultation conference with Chinese medical experts in Windhoek, Namibia, April 14, 2020. (Photo by Musa C Kaseke/Xinhua) When China was deep in the depths of its own fight against the virus, many African countries rushed to the aid of the Chinese people, delivering urgently needed medical supplies and sending warm-hearted messages. The Morocco-based Bank of Africa, for instance, donated 150,000 surgical masks and 900,000 medical gloves to China's Hubei Province in early February, while the African Union (AU) became the first major regional organization to express solidarity with China. China has also extended a helping hand to the continent. So far, China has sent much-needed supplies to over 50 African countries and the AU, dispatched medical experts, and shared its anti-epidemic experience via video conferences. A staff member unloads Chinese medical supplies from an airplane at the Kotota International Airport in Accra, capital of Ghana, April 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng) Since the outbreak, Chinese medical teams have conducted some 400 coronavirus-related training sessions in Africa and have trained 20,000 local medical workers. According to a communique issued on June 13 by the AU, China has ensured the supply of 30 million testing kits, 10,000 ventilators and 80 million masks each month for Africa, a "significant contribution." Additionally, Xi has repeatedly conveyed his sympathy and support via phone conversations with South African, Egyptian, Namibian and many other African leaders. And more support is on the way. Speaking at the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly, Xi said China will establish a cooperation mechanism for its hospitals to pair up with 30 African hospitals, accelerate the building of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters to help the continent ramp up its disease preparedness and control capacity, and make COVID-19 vaccines, when available, a global public good. Members of the Chinese medical expert team attend a video conference on prevention of the coronavirus with China's embassies in South Sudan, Mauritania and Morocco held in Khartoum, Sudan, on June 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Ma Yichong) Moreover, China has also been backing Africa's economic reopening. Apart from actively participating in an initiative endorsed by the Group of 20 to suspend debt service payments for the world's poorest countries, it has also helped boost the trading of Africa's major economic commodities on the global market. The Asian country became Namibia's largest export destination in March. And livestreaming promotions amid the pandemic via China's Alibaba Group's Electronic World Trade Platform allowed Rwandan coffee growers to earn 4 more U.S. dollars for each kilo of coffee beans they sold. At a time when China and Africa are sharing weal and woe, some U.S. politicians, instead of helping Africa with its pandemic fight, have been peddling "China-threat" fallacies, seeking to drive a wedge between China and Africa. Yet their malicious plots will never work. Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the AU Commission, said in April that China and Africa will never let those forces who are trying to exploit the current situation to sow discord between them have their way. A medical expert from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University communicates with Kenyan counterparts via a video call in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 22, 2020. (Photo by Gao Xiang/Xinhua) Meanwhile, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called China a true friend of his country, with other African leaders considering China a partner that can be relied on in the face of difficulties and challenges. Right now, the end of the coronavirus crisis is still not in sight, and the situation for Africa seems to be getting worse. The WHO warned last week that the pandemic in Africa is "accelerating," saying that while it took 98 days for the continent to reach 100,000 coronavirus cases, it took just 18 days to get to 200,000. That warning demands more concrete action in the coming months. These past several months have let the African people see more clearly the true meaning and value of their fraternity with the Chinese people. As they continue to fight this deadly virus, they can keep counting on China as their most trustworthy partner in this age of uncertainty. Portuguese police have turned down an 'arrogant' German request to retest evidence in the Madeleine McCann case in a fresh clash between the two forces. Prosecutors in Germany have been told they cannot re-examine a saliva sample found early in the investigation in the Algarve holiday apartment from where she vanished in 2007. An appeal to find out more about new suspect Christian Brueckner, in the hope of finally solving the mystery of the three-year-old's disappearance, faces being derailed after a week of sniping on both sides. Portuguese police sources branded the German request 'typically arrogant', adding that they had already carried out forensic tests on the sample and it was impossible to extract a DNA profile to compare against that of convicted paedophile and rapist Brueckner, 43. Portuguese police involved in the Madeleine McCann (left) case have said they carried out forensic tests on the saliva sample and it was impossible to extract a DNA profile to compare against that of convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner (right) German police have been told they cannot re-examine a saliva sample found early in the investigation in the Algarve holiday apartment the McCann family had been staying in (pictured) 'We have already tried and it's insulting to be asked to do this again,' a source close to the Policia Judiciaria said. 'This is a total waste of time. What's even worse is they now want to do it in their labs, as if ours aren't good enough. Why do they think their DNA testing centre is any better than ours?' Peter Bleksley, a founder member of Scotland Yard's undercover unit, said: 'DNA science has galloped on a long way since 13 years ago when Madeleine first went missing, so there are far more complex tests that can be applied now but couldn't have been done back in the day.' After Madeleine, from Leicestershire, vanished, forensic tests were carried out on evidence in the apartment. But police have never been able to extract a full DNA profile from a saliva sample, which reports yesterday said was on her pillow. After German police started probing Brueckner as a potential suspect in 2017, much of the evidence was tested again, without producing a match. Madeleine McCann's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, give an interview following the disappearance of their daughter After Madeleine vanished, forensic tests were carried out on evidence in the apartment but police have never been able to extract a full DNA profile from a saliva sample But the Germans are now anxious to carry out fresh tests on the 'partial sample' to establish if it came from Brueckner.Yesterday, a Portuguese newspaper said the two police forces had 'reached an impasse'. It is understood the Germans would apply the same forensic techniques as the Portuguese. There may also be legal restrictions barring the sample from being sent abroad for retesting. In 2012, Scotland Yard detectives visited a Portuguese lab and asked them to retest hairs found in the apartment. Their application was turned down. Last week, German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said working with police in Portugal was 'cumbersome' and admitted his team had not shared all their evidence with them. Portuguese detectives were 'livid' and accused the Germans of 'pretending to know it all'. Mr Bleksley said the probe was 'descending into a very undignified bun fight'. Last night Mr Wolters said he was unaware of the request to have the DNA retested. Congress workers and supporters light candles to pay tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives following the Galwan valley clash clash between India and China, in Kolkata, India, on June 17, 2020. (DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images) Analysts Explain Whats Behind the IndiaChina Border Clash The China and India border tensions recently intensified, leading to clashes that have resulted in casualties on both sides. The Ladakh region in the Himalayas has been disputed by the two countries since 1962. As of June 17, Indian officials confirmed that at least 20 Indian soldiers died amid clashes in the Galwan Valley. The Chinese side admitted to casualties but refused to release numbers. Violent face-offs began in May, and the two countries agreed in early June to peacefully resolve the conflict. But clashes erupted on the night of June 15, and on June 16, Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) launched a military live-fire exercise in the region, according to a PLA announcement. First Deaths in 45 Years Indian casualties included a colonel. The Indian side claimed that the clash was triggered by Chinese troops who built a temporary post on the Indian side. Meanwhile, the Chinese regime claimed that Indian forces crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC)a poorly demarcated line that separates the two sidesto provoke and attack Chinese army. Both sides fought each other with rocks and clubs. Indian officials said that Chinese soldiers used clubs studded with nails, which increased the lethality. Indian army convoys make their way towards Leh, bordering China, in Gagangir, India, on June 17, 2020. (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP via Getty Images) China and India share a border more than 2,100 miles long and have a number of overlapping territorial claims. India and China went to war in 1962 over a border dispute, which ended with a ceasefire agreement. China retained control of much of the Aksai Chin plain. The two countries armies have been eyeball-to-eyeball at their border but insist no bullet has been fired in the past four decades. This is the first fatal clash between the worlds two most populous nations in about 45 years; the last one occurred on Oct. 20, 1975, when four Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed by Chinese soldiers as they were patrolling at Tulung La in Arunachal Pradesh state. Earlier this year, India built a road to connect a high-altitude forward air base, angering Beijing. In early May, Indian media reported that Chinese forces put up tents, dug trenches, and moved heavy equipment to India-claimed territory. Soon after, the two nuclear-armed neighbors had stand-offs in at least three locations in the Ladakh region: Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, and Pangong Lake. Indian Army vehicles drive on a road near Chang La high mountain pass in northern Indias Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir state, India, near the border with China on June 17, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Analysis Jeff Smith, researcher at U.S. think tank The Heritage Foundation, said the conflict will likely fuel anti-Chinese sentiment in India. For the Indians, it is unlikely this will be brushed aside or easily forgotten. Anti-Chinese sentiments were already running high in Delhi before the outbreak of violence, he said in an email to The Epoch Times on June 17. Smith said the Chinese regime has deployed coercive tactics in its territorial disputes in the East China Sea, South China Sea, and the India border. The China-India border was once thought to be among the more stable of these fronts. It may be time to revisit that thinking. Meanwhile, James Carafano, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, speculated that the Chinese regime may have escalated the conflict because its worried about looking weak. Or maybe Beijing is facing more internal pressure than we suspected. After all, Chinas economy has suffered a massive 6 percent drop in output, the first negative economic statistic in over 15 years, he wrote in an opinion article published on Fox News on June 17. Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers guard a highway leading toward Leh, bordering China, in Gagangir, India, on June 17, 2020. (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP via Getty Images) Chinese Death Toll? The Chinese regime has kept mum on the recent clash. At a June 17 press conference, Zhao Lijian, spokesman of Chinas foreign ministry, said: I dont need to release any info to you since both armies are dealing with the detailed issues onsite. Zhao then read out a statement from the PLAs Western Theater Command, whose jurisdiction covers regions near the India border. The sovereignty of the Galwan Valley has always belonged to China, the PLA claimed. On June 16, Hu Xijin, chief editor of the Chinese state-run Global Times posted on Twitter, Based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash. Hu claimed that the Chinese regime didnt release the number of casualties because the Chinese side doesnt want people of the two countries to compare the casualties number so to avoid stoking public mood [sic]. CHICAGO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- JLL (NYSE: JLL) announced today that it has achieved, or is on-track to achieve, its 2020 sustainability targets, and has established an ambitious new, multi-year program framed around its commitment to shape the future of real estate for a better world. JLL's sustainability strategy, Building a Better Tomorrow, focuses on embedding sustainability across the four pillars of the program: Clients, People, Workplaces and Communities. The multi-year plan advances JLL's commitment to clients, employees and communities by focusing on: Cutting carbon emissions across its workspaces and operations by 70%, through the delivery of JLL's validated science-based target. The target is aligned with the 1.5C trajectory set forth by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Paris Climate Agreement, the most stringent recommended reduction pathway. This work is complemented by JLL's accompanying scope 3 emissions reduction target which focuses on partnering with clients to realize their own energy and sustainability goals. Implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to identify and assess climate-related risks and opportunities to support the shift to a low-carbon economy, while continuing to provide greater transparency for the investor community. Doing everything JLL can to achieve a better, fair and more sustainable future for all by concentrating its efforts on six UN Sustainable Development Goals Goals 3, 5, 8, 11, 12 and 13 that are most material to JLL. "A comprehensive and proactive approach to achieving sustainability is more important than ever to address the impacts of COVID-19 and other major challenges we see in the world today," said Christian Ulbrich, CEO JLL. "Our Global Sustainability report shows JLL making good progress, and we will continue to strive for ambitious goals and targets to drive that progress further and faster. Whatever the economic climate, our purpose is clear. We will continue in shaping the future of real estate for a better world." "We are now in a strong position to build back better. This report is our roadmap; to guide our commitment to being a responsible business and to help us achieve resilience across all areas of sustainability; resilience we will need to meet the environmental, social and governance challenges that lie ahead of us all," said Richard Batten, Chief Global Sustainability Officer, JLL. JLL's sustainability highlights for 2019 include: Generating lasting value for our Clients : 240 sustainable building certifications achieved for clients; 112,674 metric tons CO2e averted by advising clients on renewable energy projects. Clients 240 sustainable building certifications achieved for clients; 112,674 metric tons CO2e averted by advising clients on renewable energy projects. Engaging our People : percent of female employees increased to 35% of the workforce; 14 major global recognitions for our work in diversity and inclusion; the introduction of One team S.A.F.E.R together, a global program to drive a stronger safety culture across JLL. People percent of female employees increased to 35% of the workforce; 14 major global recognitions for our work in diversity and inclusion; the introduction of One team S.A.F.E.R together, a global program to drive a stronger safety culture across JLL. Transforming our Workplaces : 72 JLL offices achieved sustainable building certifications, including the highest score in energy and environmental design for JLL's Hong Kong office at One Taikoo Place. Workplaces 72 JLL offices achieved sustainable building certifications, including the highest score in energy and environmental design for JLL's office at One Taikoo Place. Supporting our Communities : 12,582 days of employee time contributed to communities; $11.1m in contributions made to community causes. Communities 12,582 days of employee time contributed to communities; in contributions made to community causes. The rollout of a global Sustainable Procurement Framework to leverage JLL's third-party spend of more than $32 billion for clients and communities. Find out more by downloading the JLL 2019 Global Sustainability Summary (8 pages) and/or the full JLL 2019 Global Sustainability Report. About JLL JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. JLL shapes the future of real estate for a better world by using the most advanced technology to create rewarding opportunities, amazing spaces and sustainable real estate solutions for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $18.0 billion, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of more than 94,000 as of March 31, 2020. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com. Connect with us https://www.linkedin.com/company/jll https://www.facebook.com/jll https://twitter.com/jll Contact: Gayle Kantro Phone: +1 312 450.5948 Email: [email protected] SOURCE JLL-IR TORRINGTON City Council members are asking a company that is seeking to install a solar panel array on East Pearl Road to consider other sites. Verogy, a Hartford-based firm that works with the solar energy industry, wants to put an array of solar panels on 11 acres of a 66-acre property at 236 E. Pearl Road, across from St. Peter Cemetery and near Bishop Donnelly Field. A total of 7,150 panels would be installed on the 11 acres. During a presentation to the council, the companys development director, Brian Fitzgerald, ran through details of the proposal, saying the array would not be visible from the road because it would be installed on the interior of the 66 acres and would be surrounded by trees, planted to create a screening effect. The merits of having a solar array, Fitzgerald said, include tax revenue for the city, clean energy for Eversource, and ultimately some savings for the community. But by the end of the companys presentation, some council members expressed interest in finding alternate sites for the project. Council member Ann Ruwet, whose family owns a farm across the street from the proposed site, said she objected to the idea of having a big farm across the street from Ruwet Farm, which she owns with her sister. We have an ice cream stand there in the summer, Ruwet said during the discussion. The idea of having that going on ... its a concern. Council member Paul Cavagnero asked whether the company had considered the citys now-capped landfill, calling it a pristine piece of property. Instead of being against this, Id like to see a positive approach and find other pieces of property that fit the criteria, he said. Mayor Elinor Carbone thought Cavagneros suggestion was a good one. We can do that, she said, responding to his idea of finding other land for the solar array. We all know the landfill is the perfect location for this, but everything hinges on what type of power were purchasing, Carbone said. Solar energy projects fall under the purview of the Connecticut Siting Council, which makes the ultimate decision to approve or deny a companys application, and it takes public reaction into consideration. The same approach applies to cell towers, as the siting council gives the final approval on such a project and when a community objects, the council might have an applicant modify its plans or find a new location. In Verogys case, the plans have already been presented to the public through its website, www.verogy.com/torrington-solar-one, where residents can see the entire project. The mayor said the city has been approached a number of times by solar companies interested in installing panels on various properties in Torrington. Weve gone through this exercise a few times, and we even brought in a consultant to guide and advise us on how to proceed, Carbone said. As you hear Brian Fitzgerald say, theres a laundry list of things they need and criteria they have to meet. Our interest is in finding a solar project thats the right fit for the city of Torrington, she said. Weve had many conversations on this; every eight months or so, someone comes in. Carbone said that city Public Works Director Raymond Drew was scheduled to meet with another solar company this week to review a possible site. If a resident has a question or concern, now is the time to ask, said Will Herschel, Verogy founder and CEO. Residents with questions about the approval process can contact Fitzgerald at development@verogy.com or 203-257-3375; or visit www.verogy.com/torrington-solar-one . Sushants Ex-GF Ankita Lokhande To Be Questioned As per the Tellychakkar report, the actress will be questioned by police officers about Sushant's professional rivalry. She will be asked if he had ever mentioned anything about the same to her in the long time that he knew her. It has to be recalled that the duo dated for six-long years but called off their relationship in 2016. (Image source of Ankita's picture: NDTV) Rhea & Mahesh To Be Questioned! As per India.com report, the Mumbai Police is going to question the actor's rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and his best friend Mahesh Shetty. No statement has come out about the matter from either Rhea or Mahesh, till now. Sushant Was To Get Married To Rhea? Apparently, Sushant and Rhea had started dating from past one-and-a-half year ago. It is also being said that the actor was to get married in November and the family was preparing to go to Mumbai. Although the name was not revealed, recently, Rhea's broker revealed to Nav Bharat Times that the couple was set to tie the knot this year and was even house hunting for a space in Mumbai's upscale Bandra area. Sushant Singh Rajput Prayer Meet To Be Organised While a handful of film fraternity members attended Sushant's last rites, Ankita Lokhande visited the actor's Bandra residence yesterday. Post this, the actress visited Ekta Kapoor's house. It is being said that a prayer meeting is being organised for the Pavitra Rishta actor. HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean nurses stopped work at a major government hospital in the capital Harare on Wednesday, demanding to be paid in U.S. dollars because soaring inflation has drastically reduced the value of their local-currency salaries. They began their protest despite concerns about the impact on Zimbabwe's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected 387 people and killed four in the southern African country. Anti-riot police blocked the entrance to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare as hundreds of nurses picketed inside. Some of the nurses held placards with slogans including "Should we go into prostitution to pay rent?" or "My body is tired, I am struggling." "Nurses now want U.S. dollar salaries. They want money that has purchasing power," Zimbabwe Nurses Association secretary general Enock Dongo told Reuters. The government said last week it would soon start salary negotiations with workers paid by the state but that it cannot pay their wages in U.S. dollars. Dongo said the least-paid nurses were earning a net monthly salary of 2,000 Zimbabwe dollars and warned that the boycott could continue beyond Wednesday and spread to other hospitals. The Zimbabwe dollar is pegged at 25 to the United States dollar but trades at around 80 on the black market. Businesses calculate prices using black market rates. Inflation has risen to 785%. The price of bread and sugar increased by at least 30% this week alone. Workers fear the country is returning to the 2008 era when a bout of hyperinflation rendered salaries and savings worthless. The government brought back the Zimbabwe dollar currency last year in June. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Timothy Heritage) A report of the Finance committee in Parliament has disclosed that the government is yet recover an amount of GH17.1 billion which it on-lent to state owned enterprises and private companies. The amount also consisted of Export Guarantee Department facilities. Out of this amount, GH2.98 billion were arrears mainly from on-lent loans provided to SOEs. The committee in its report on the annual public debt management report for 2019 noted that during the year under review, a total recovery of GH7.6 billion was made from two private companies, namely Ghana Rubber Estates Limited and Accra City Hotels. The committee was assured that the Ministry of Finance was putting in place tighter measures to help ensure that the state recovered all the loans. Public private partnership The committee was informed that the government was working to pass a law to regulate public private partnerships in the country. It noted that even though PPAs had proved to be very useful, they had become a source of fiscal risk because of the contingent liabilities arising from the issuance of government guarantees in support of the PPP projects. Currently, a number of contracting authorities, including MDAs, are in the process of developing various PPP projects, most of which are at the pre-investment stage awaiting commercial closure. The committee was of the belief that the passage of the law would therefore help streamline these agreements and reduce the associated fiscal risks. Liability management operations The committee was also informed that for 2019, government put in place a number of broad range of non-distressed, market-sovereign debt transactions to secure funding, reduce the debt portfolio profile and address the debt portfolio risks. One of such measures was the government replacing high interest-bearing paper in the portfolio with less expensive paper. In furtherance of this, an amount of US$1.12 billion of the Eurobond proceeds was used for liability management operations. Out of this amount, a buyback of US$283 million of the 2023 Eurobond was carried out and this has reduced the outstanding stock of the 2023 Eurobond from US$1 billion to US$717 million. On the domestic front, US$843.9 million used for further liability management operations in domestic debt market. The remaining amount was lodged in the sinking fund. In 2019, a total amount of US$3 billion was raised in three tranches of 7-year, 12-year, and 31-year Eurobonds of US$750 million, US$1.25 billion, and US$ 1 billion, at a coupon rate of 7.88 per cent, 8.13 per cent, and 8.95 per cent, respectively. 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 Feelings or no feelings, Kourtney Kardashian must be mad. Scott Disick wants Sofia Richie back, after all the time he spent with Kourtney and their kids, Mason, Penelope and Reign. Scott and Sofia broke up in late May after three years of dating. Even though their relationship was full of ups and downs, many fans were still shocked when the split happened. More so, when Scott started to spend more time with his three children and their mother since. This made fans speculate Scott and Kourtney will be reconciling. It also appeared at the time that Disick's was quite firm in his decision to split with Sofa. A few weeks later though, he's starting to realize what he had let go of. Hollywood Life learned from a source that Scott Disick is presently longing for his "longtime love." He's miserable and realizing that life is not fun without her. He hopes to "get her back" someday although he is quite sure that it would not be easy and certainly not guaranteed. "Scott would love to hear from Sofia," our source revealed. "He misses her and he is now realizing how life is without her. He is remembering all the good times and the fun they had on vacations, nights out, and nights in. However, apart from these fun times, Disick is overall missing Sofia Richie's personality and sense of humor. Disick is reportedly realizing that Richie was always there for him, but he did not appreciate that enough. Instead, he took it for granted. One more source told Hollywood Life that once Scott is able to fix himself, he would do everything to win Sofia back. But until that happens, he believes that their connection would last forever because they have shared so much. If he wins her back then good, but if not, she will be Disick's "the one that got away." Aw. Another source on the other hand, revealed Richie's feelings about the breakup. The source said that Richie also shares the same sentiment that their connection would last forever, because they shared a lot of great memories. She is not on any rush to get back together though. She just wishes him nothing but the best. Whether she will or will not take Disick back is uncertain. Too many things could happen in a span of time so there is no use saying things now or closing doors. "Nobody knows what the future holds and she has no ill feelings towards Scott whatsoever," the source added. Meanwhile, while Scott Disick is thinking of winning Sofia Richie back, fans are still rooting for Kourtney and Scott to get back together. More so when they saw in a recent post of Kourtney Kardashian that she seems to be wearing Scott Disick's flannel. But then, this hints nothing. It is perfectly fine for a man to lend a woman his flannel if needed; let alone exes who shared three children! It does not mean they got back together as some fans believed. READ MORE: Kim Kardashian Determined to Fix Marriage With Kanye West WASHINGTON Texas Sen. John Cornyn said Congress is prepared to step in to protect the so-called Dreamers undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children if the Supreme Court allows President Donald Trump to scrap an Obama-era program that protects them from deportation. We need to protect these young people, who through no fault of their own find themselves in a very, very difficult position, said Cornyn, a Texas Republican and former state Supreme Court justice. We dont hold children responsible for the acts of parents in America, and we shouldnt start here. The Supreme Court could rule as soon as Thursday on Trumps decision to end protections for some 700,000 immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, whose fates have been in limbo for nearly three years. About 109,000 of the Dreamers live in Texas. EVERYONES PANICKED: Trumps immigration order could have long-term effects for Texas A decision in Trumps favor could create a lot of chaos and uncertainty, Cornyn said. The influential senator who until last year served as the GOP whip said he is talking to other senators as well as members of the House and officials in the Trump administration to provide ourselves the space and the time in Congress in order to deal with this in a reasonable way. Still, some are skeptical of Cornyns sincerity as the three-term senator seeks his fourth term in November, when immigration will be a core plank of Trumps re-election campaign. Cornyns opponents are almost certain to play up Trumps move to end the program. Cornyns entire career is characterized by broken promises to work in good faith on #immigration legislation, tweeted Tom Jawetz, vice president of immigration policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Its clear that Senator Cornyns goal isnt to protect Dreamers but to cover his dangerous record as he faces the toughest reelection campaign of his career, said Cynthia Carrizales, a spokesperson for former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar, one of two Democrats vying to take on Cornyn in November. While Cornyn has consistently said so-called Dreamers deserve protection, he was a critic of the Obama administrations creation of the program and said Trump was right to end it in 2017, saying at the time that Congress should act. Cornyn said then there was no way a standalone bill to protect Dreamers would pass. Now he says that might be the only way forward: I wouldnt take anything off the table. The Dreamers many of whom have only known the U.S. as home are seen as sympathetic by Democrats and Republicans alike. But Congress has so far failed to pass legislation to protect them, even as Trump moved to end the program. Trump argued at the time that the Obama administration overstepped its authority in 2012 when it established DACA and he urged Congress to step in and make the program law, saying that he had great heart and great love for Dreamers. But attempts to do so have been wrapped in broader immigration battles, with Senate Republicans, including Cornyn and the Trump administration, pushing legislation that would roll protections for Dreamers into immigration bills with wider reforms and funding for the border wall. Cornyn is a lead sponsor on legislation that offers citizenship to DACA recipients, but also includes $25 billion for real border security such as physical and virtual fencing, radar and other technologies. The bill would also limit family-based immigration to the nuclear family and would grandfather-in all pending family-based visa applications. A DEAL WILL BE MADE: More mixed messages from Trump as Supreme Court hears DACA case Senate Democrats blocked the broader bill in 2018, and Cornyn appears to have given up on that approach, saying on Wednesday that comprehensive reform is probably not in the cards. In the entire time Ive been in the Senate, when we try to do comprehensive immigration reform, we fail. We have a perfect record of failure when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform, said Cornyn. Maybe, just maybe, one way to deal with this would be to deal with it incrementally, he said. And I think certainly the DACA recipients are the most sympathetic and deserving cohort of individuals in this immigration debate. Polling has shown that to be the case, with 69 percent of Trump voters saying they believe Dreamers should be protected in a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released this week. The House, meanwhile, passed a bill a year ago that would offer permanent residency for a decade to those who were younger than 18 when they came to the U.S., as long as they have an American high school diploma or GED and pass a background check. The bill also would extend permanent residency to some living in the U.S. with temporary protected status. The bill has gone nowhere in the Senate, however, and the White House threatened to veto it, saying it would send a signal that will invite more people to illegally enter our country. The president, nonetheless, tweeted after the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case last November that if the court ruled in his favor a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay! ben.wermund@chron.com Supporting ratepayers and businesses while helping to boost the city's economic recovery are the central aims of Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner's second budget handed down on Wednesday morning. A $142.5 million write down in revenue as a result of COVID-19 measures and declining development will sting the council coffers in the 2020-21 financial year, on the back of a $40 million hit in the first half of 2020. Brisbane City Council will scrap its popular kerbside collection program for two years. Credit:Ken Irwin Winners Ratepayers will see the first rates freeze in 35 years. The rates freeze will apply for six months then rates will increase by 2.5 per cent on average from January. The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), an agency in the Ministry of Aviation, on Wednesday announced the relocation of its corporate headquarters from Lagos to Abuja. Akin Olateru, the Commissioner/Chief Executive Officer, AIB, made this known in a statement in Lagos. Mr Olateru said the relocation was in adherence to the recent directive of the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, that all aviation agencies corporate headquarters be moved to Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Minister of Aviation in a letter dated May 4, had ordered all the agencies under the ministry to relocate their head office to Abuja within 45 days. Mr Sirika explained that the relocation became necessary considering the current situation and the economic impact worldwide, and the need to reduce the cost of governance and manage the scare resources in a sustainable way. The minister said: I am directed to remind you of the Presidential directive issued in 2012 requesting agencies under the ministry to relocate their corporate headquarters to the Abuja, yet, eight years after the directives, the agencies are yet to comply. Mr Olateru said, himself and other strategic officers in the Bureau had since been operating from Abuja. This is to ensure an efficient and effective coordination, and enhanced service delivery between the Federal Ministry of Aviation and its agencies. Further to the directive given by the Federal Ministry of Aviation, the bureau has strictly adhered to this directive by relocating its Head office to its office in Abuja. Myself and other essential staff have been reporting for duty at the headquarters Office in Abuja. The relocation is an ongoing process, which will take a while for other essential staff to relocate to the Head Office considering the lockdown and funding to aid the relocation, he said. Mr Olateru said the bureau had also effected these changes on all its social media platforms and other formal means of communications. NAN reports that other affected agencies included the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). The other two agencies were already outside Lagos; Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) has always been in Abuja, while the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), has its head office in Zaria, Kaduna State. (NAN) Joe Biden holds a slight edge over President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, according to a new CNBC/Change Research poll. Biden leads Trump in Pennsylvania, 49 percent to 46 percent, according to the survey released Wednesday. The CNBC/Change Research poll found Biden leading Trump in six battleground states: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The poll found the former vice president edging Trump in all six states - 48 percent to 45 percent. But the margin varies in each state, with some states showing Biden with a very small advantage. The survey comes as Biden visited the Philadelphia area Wednesday afternoon, sharply denouncing Trump for not doing enough to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The poll surveyed 2,408 likely voters across the six battleground states. The poll was conducted June 12-14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. The poll in the battleground states found 53 percent of voters disapprove of Trumps job performance, with 55 percent disapproving of his handling of the pandemic. Battleground voters split evenly between Biden and the Democrats versus Trump and the GOP on the economy, 50 percent to 50 percent, the poll found. Heres the breakdown of the polls findings in each of the battleground states. Arizona: Biden 45 percent, Trump 44 percent Florida: Biden 50 percent, Trump 43 percent Michigan: Biden 47 percent, Trump 45 percent North Carolina: Biden 47 percent, Trump 45 percent Pennsylvania: Biden 49 percent, Trump 46 percent Wisconsin: Biden 48 percent, Trump 44 percent A separate national poll by Change Research found Biden leading Trump nationally by 10 percentage points. The national poll surveyed 1,250 likely voters was also conducted June 12-14, 2020. It has a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points. With 20 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is expected to be one of the key battleground states in the 2020 presidential election, political analysts say. Expect to see plenty of Biden and Trump in the coming months. Biden, a Scranton native, spoke in Philadelphia last week and has made a host of appearances in Pennsylvania. The president visited Allentown last month and has made several visits to the Keystone State, including a packed rally at the Giant Center in Hershey in December. In 2016, Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania on his way to the White House. He defeated Hillary Clinton by about 44,000 votes in Pennsylvania - less than a percentage point. More from PennLive Pa. lawmaker introduces resolution to impeach Gov. Tom Wolf Coronavirus in Pa.: Cases approach 80,000, more than 6,300 have died We believe theres a clear and present danger: Three Mile Island decommissioning in question The Prince of Wales has spoken out about his experience of having Covid-19, stating that his sense of taste and smell has not fully returned. On Tuesday 16 June, Prince Charles paid a visit to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, where he spoke to staff who have been working on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic. The visit marked the heir apparents first royal engagement since lockdown began. In March, shortly after nationwide lockdown was established, it was announced that Prince Charles had tested positive for the coronavirus. Shortly afterwards, it was reported that the 71-year-old had come out of self-isolation and was in good health. Three months later, Prince Charles has revealed that one of the symptoms he experienced when he had Covid-19 was loss of his sense of taste and smell, one of the three main symptoms listed by the NHS. However, despite recovering from the virus, the royal admitted his sense of taste and smell has not yet fully returned. Jeff Mills, a 47-year-old healthcare assistant from Cheltenham General Hospital, heard directly from the Prince of Wales about what his experience with the coronavirus was like. He did speak of his personal experience, so first-hand experience for him, Mr Mills said. He also spoke about his loss of smell and taste and, sort of, still felt hes still got it now. Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent Show all 19 1 /19 Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent Two elderly people chat on a street in Valencia, Spain on 4 May EPA Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent People look at the city from Villa Borghese park in Rome during the first day of Italy's next phase in its coronavirus lockdown Getty Images Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent An elderly couple who has not been outside for nearly two months enjoys the weather as they sit on a bench in a park in Athens on 4 May AFP via Getty Images Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent Henri de Chassey, wearing a protective face mask, kisses his partner Margaux Rebois, who is returning to Paris after spending two months in Brussels on 4 May REUTERS Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A commuter in protective mask wears gloves at an underground station in Brussels as some companies are allowed to bring workers back to the office EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent Paralympic swimmer Inigo Llopis prepares to swim in San Sebastian, Spain, for the first time since the lockdown began Getty Images Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A worker wearing personal protective equipment disinfects a school in Athens as Greece relaxes its nationwide lockdown REUTERS Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A Spanish National Police officer distributes protective masks in Melilla, Spain, on 4 May EPA Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent An employee poses in front of halfway-cured hams in a factory in Guijuelo, Salamanca, Spain, on 4 May EPA Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent Workers in protective suits disinfect a high school in Athens as Greece moves to reopen schools for final-year students on 11 May EPA Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A worker disinfects a bus as transport vehicles are disinfected several times a day as part of Belgium's lockdown exit strategy Belga/AFP via Getty Images Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A worker from Textilia haberdashery in Brussels holds a fabric that can be used to make customised protective face masks as Belgium relaxes its lockdown measures REUTERS/Yves Herman Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A bride tries on a wedding dress at a bridal shop in Madrid on the first day that some small businesses are allowed to open during Spain's lockdown REUTERS Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent People walk across the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall in central Milan as Italy eases its lockdown AFP/Getty Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A couple kiss in the Duomo Square in Catania as Italy starts moving out of its lockdown Reuters Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent Mirel Chetan organises the books of the Antonio Machado bookstore in Madrid after 51 days of closure Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A couple kiss in front of the sea in Catania as Italy begins a staged end to a nationwide lockdown due to the spread of the coronavirus disease ANTONIO PARRINELLO/ REUTERS Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A waiter at Caffe Cracco handles takeaway coffee in Milan on 4 May as Italy starts to ease its lockdown Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images Europe emerges from lockdowns across the continent A woman holds a yoga posture as she exercises by the Colosseum monument in Rome on the first day of Italy relaxing its lockdown measures VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images Loss or changed sense of taste and smell was officially added to the NHS list of main coronavirus symptoms in May. It joined the two other main symptoms on the list a high fever and a new, continuous cough. Professor Carl Philpott, director of medical affairs and research at charity Fifth Sense, explained to The Independent that as common colds and viruses often cause initial congestion of the nose, this can lead to post-viral smell loss. Recommended Queen in first major appearance since lockdown for official birthday If you look at the tissue in detail under the microscope you see that the fine hair-like endings of the receptor cells have fallen off and therefore the cells are no longer able to pick up odour molecules from the nose, Professor Philpott says. The professor added that Covid-19 appears to have a high concentration in the nose, stating that anecdotal reports have shown people experiencing the symptom for around seven to 14 days. During his visit to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Prince Charles was joined by Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. The duchess said that she saw her grandchildren for the first time since lockdown last week Not hug them, but see them a great treat. When asked whether she believes the countrys appreciation for the NHS has changed for good, Camilla said: I think it has, you can tell by all the people coming out every week to clap theyve done remarkable things. The way theyve looked after people, the way theyve sort of kept control of the whole thing, you know, its a question of not panicking and getting on with it and I thihnk they are Britain at its best. Dr Singh used to be highly influential in the Indo-Nepal relationship during the UPA regime. New Delhi: Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's act of unilaterally amending the map of his country by including Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura in India's Uttarakhand has caused irreparable damage to Indo-Nepal ties which no Nepalese leader can undo in future, senior Congress leader Dr Karan Singh has said. Dr Singh used to be highly influential in the Indo-Nepal relationship during the UPA regime and still holds clout in the Himalayan country. Dr Singh is also the perfect example of what is termed as roti-beti ka rishta between the two countries. This is because his wife is from Nepal's reputed Rana family and the erstwhile Jammu Kashmir royal has invested a lot in the relationship between the two countries. Upset with the present scenario, hardening of positions and tough posturing by Nepal, Dr Singh, in an interview to this paper, said there were mistakes by both sides but Nepal will be at a bigger loss and it should have first talked to India before taking this harsh step of amending the map. The two countries are closely associated. There is free movement of goods and people. About 40,000 Nepalese soldiers are serving in Indian armed forces. Their diplomats and civil servants train with ours. Many Nepalese freely work and study in India and are grossly dependent on India. So, this confrontation will have its repercussions. We looked at Nepal as an ally and they have rudely thrown this (amendment) on our face. This is not the correct way. Map doesnt change things and realities on ground, Dr Singh added. While terming Olis move as irreversible confrontational posture, the former Cabinet minister and the ex-ambassador of India to United States said that it was a big diplomatic lapse by India too as the foreign ministry failed to engage with leadership in Kathmandu in time to avoid this situation. He said the delay on Indian part has led to an embarrassing situation for the country. Mistakes have been made by both sides. On the Indian side there were delays -- PM Narendra Modi could have spoken to PM Oli on the hotline when they (Nepal) were raising this matter in November. We knew of Olis political moves. India should have acted in time. There could have been talks. But now there is full stop. Now politically the situation is embarrassing, he said adding this situation was building up since 2015 after the economic blockade by India. I see a long deadlock and muddied relations. Even if people to people relations remain same, country to country relations have gone sour. We need to let the shock wear off before we take the next step. We are upset, they are triumphant. We do not have to see what Oli has done, but see what we have not done. For India-Nepal relations, all I can say now is `Mujh se pehli si muhabbat mere mehboob na maang said Dr Singh while quoting poet Faiz to sum up the scenario. In a major decision, a high-powered committee formed by union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday under the chairmanship of Niti Aayog member VK Paul has decided that the rate for the RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 in Delhi should be fixed at 2,400 to provide relief to the common man. The committees report, given to the union health ministry on Wednesday, has been sent to the Delhi government to implement the decision, which will bring down the rate of testing by 2,100, from the current 4,500. The report has been sent to Delhi government for necessary action, a ministry of home affairs (MHA) spokesperson said. In a meeting chaired by Shah on Sunday morning, which was attended by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, it was decided that the VK Paul-led committee will look into boththethe rates of testing and the treatment of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients in private hospitals, who are being charged huge amounts. It has also been decided that from Thursday, Covid-19 tests will be done via new the Rapid Antigen methodology approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Delhi would receive these kits on priority; 169 centres have been set up across the national Capital for this purpose. The MHA spokesperson said this is in line with Shahs directive to increase testing and deliver test results quickly in Delhi. It was decided in the Sunday meeting that testing will be increased three-fold in the national Capital. The home ministry said on Wednesday that following Shahs intervention, Covid-19 testing has increased at least four times in Delhi. It said that on June 15 and 16 alone, 16,618 samples were collected in Delhi for testing. This number varied between 4,000 and 4,500 before the Sunday meeting (June 14). The MHA spokesperson said that reports of 6,510 tests of the 16,618 have already been received, while the rest will be received by Thursday. The decision to lower the price of RT-PCR tests in the Capital was based on the report of AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria and NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul. The committee had submitted its report on Monday after meeting with three private laboratories and four private hospitals where Covid-19 patients are treated on Sunday. One of the representatives of a laboratory present in the meeting said, This is unexpected. The committee had heard us out and was receptive to our suggestions. This rate is just not enough for a sample that we collect from home. There is so much ancillary cost involved and 2,400 just does not cover it. The representative of another lab present at the meeting with the committee said, The government has to look at a differential pricing like the one currently in place in Delhi. The cost for testing a sample collected by Delhi government is low, but for the ones that we collect from homes, we charge 4,500. If the government reduces the cost of the samples provided by it to 2,400, we will be able to manage somehow, now that the cost of the kits and PPE has gone down. But, if this is the cost for the samples that are collected at homes as well, we will not be able to survive for long. Plus, if the government wants us to expand our testing capacity, we need to be able to recover money for the additional machines and manpower. The Delhi government has so far paid 2,200 for providing samples and kits to private labs, 3,500 for just the samples, and 4,500 for the samples that were collected by the private labs while they used their own kits. Delhi begins rapid testing in containment zones on Thursday, results in 30 minutes Delhi will ramp up testing on Thursday by using rapid testing kits to detect Covid-19 infection in the 242 containment areas of the city to quickly diagnose and contain cases in the community, according to officials from Delhis health department. This antigen diagnostic test, which costs 450 and takes 30 minutes to produce results, was approved for use in India on Monday. The RT-PCR tests take six hours to produce results in lab settings, which meant district authorities had to send samples to laboratories and wait for 24-48 hours to get the results. The government has already received 50,000 of the 6 lakh kits ordered, which will be sent to the district teams by Wednesday evening. The district teams in the city have been asked to identify testing centres within or around containment areas. So far, 169 such centres have been identified for testing. The testing centres will be set up in community halls, dispensaries or mohalla clinics where the people from the community will be brought in for testing. We will know the report then and there, said one district official, on condition of anonymity. Four-member teams have been formed to collect the samples. A nasal swab has to be collected for the antigen test as well, just like the samples collected for RT-PCR test. The test is quite simple, but it cannot be done door to door because a cold-chain has to be maintained for the kits, said another district official. The kits have to be kept between 2 and 30 degrees Celsius. The test can be interpreted between 15 and 30 minutes. The ICMR on Monday gave a go-ahead to the point-of-care test kit of a South Korean company (manufactured in Manesar) to be used in containment zones and hospitals for speedier diagnosis. In its evaluation, the ICMR said that the test has a high specificity (ability to detect tur negatives) but the sensitivity (or ability to detect true positives) is between 50.6% to 84%, depending on the viral load of the patient. So, those who test negative need to undergo a second confirmatory RT-PCR test, but those who test positive will be considered to be true positive. ICMR recommends the test be used in containment areas for those with influenza-like symptoms or asymptomatic people who came in contact with a positive case between 5 and 10 days of exposure. In hospital settings, the test can be used for those who have influenza-like symptoms or on asymptomatic patients undergoing chemotherapy, who are immune-compromised, have cancer, are transplant patients, or the elderly. It can also be used for patients undergoing surgeries and procedures. At the community level, whatever test we do has to be highly sensitive, false positives are okay. The sensitivity of this test and that of RT-PCR is almost similar; the sensitivity of RT-PCR is about 67%. But, the antigen test is faster and cheaper, so we can test more people. This means that we will be able to detect more cases at an early stage and ask them to remain in isolation, thereby preventing further spread in the community, said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung hospital. In context: Although the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted just about every industry in some way, larger grocery chains like Target and Walmart have weathered the storm better than others. After all, virus or no virus, everyone needs to buy food sooner or later. Since these stores are still seeing plenty of foot traffic, many have taken steps to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. Some of these steps include mandatory face mask policies for workers and customers, installing cash register barriers, and placing social distancing-oriented floor markers. Those measures aren't good enough for Walmart, though. To reduce human contact and speed up checkout times, the nationwide grocery chain will be transitioning to a cashierless checkout system at one of its locations in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Fayetteville store will require customers to handle purchases and payments themselves, but employees don't have to worry about being out of a job (for now). Self-checkout systems are notoriously unreliable, and Walmart will still need workers on hand to assist customers during the process. If this experiment proves successful, the company may consider expanding it to other Walmart locations throughout the US. The bookshop at the Underground Museum in 2019. The Arlington Heights art space is one of the L.A. arts organizations awarded a grant by the Getty Foundation. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Plaza de la Raza, the Women's Center for Creative Work, the ONE Archives Foundation and the Underground Museum are among the 80 recipients of a first wave of relief grants set to be announced by the Getty Foundation on Wednesday morning. The grants, which total $2 million, were designed to support an array of small and midsize arts organizations operating in Los Angeles County as they contend with the economic fallout of the pandemic. Among the recipients are small museums such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach and the Wende Museum in Culver City. Also included are a range of smaller community organizations from around the county that have struggled economically after safer-at-home orders shut down revenue-generating events and fundraising activities. These include the experimental contemporary arts space LAXART in Hollywood; the Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture (FilAmArts), which organizes the Annual Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture; as well as Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural in Sylmar, co-founded by L.A. poet laureate Luis Rodriguez, which holds literary events as well as art-making classes for children. "We knew that if we lost these organizations, the visual arts in Los Angeles County would instantly become less diverse and less equitable," says Getty Foundation director Joan Weinstein, who helped organize the relief effort. "Even before the events of the last few weeks, we knew that the arts were an investment in our future, in our capacity for empathy and for understanding ourselves and others." The grants are part of a $10-million relief effort, first announced in April, that was funded by the Getty and managed by the California Community Foundation. Arts organizations in Los Angeles County were invited to apply for relief grants of between $10,000 and $30,000. The average award granted in this cycle came to $27,500. Story continues The initial $2 million in grants will be followed by another wave of grant programs. "The next and larger phase will focus on recovery grants to help museums and visual arts organizations reimagine their operations so they can not only survive," Weinstein says, "but thrive." The Getty also plans to announce on Wednesday that it is awarding $700,000 in individual artist grants. The program, a separate initiative launched in May, will provide economic relief to 400 Los Angeles artists who will receive grants averaging $1,750. "You cant have the arts without artists," says Weinstein, "so it was equally important to help our citys artists." Details on the next wave of relief grants will be announced in the coming months. Regulatory News: Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) today released its regular weekly Net Asset Value ("NAV") and performance returns on its website, https://www.pershingsquareholdings.com/company-reports/weekly-navs/. The NAV and returns were computed as of the close of business on Tuesday, 16 June 2020. PSH NAV per share as of close of business on 16 June 2020 was 34.75 USD 27.64 GBP and year-to-date performance was 29.3%. Weekly net asset value ("NAV") is calculated as of the close of business on each Tuesday and posted on the following business day. In the event that Tuesday is not a business day, the Company will calculate the close-of-business NAV as of the business day immediately preceding that Tuesday. The end-of-month NAV is calculated as of the close of business on the last day of the month and posted on the following business day. For weeks that include a month-end NAV report, PSH will provide only the month-end NAV and not report the Tuesday NAV. Monthly NAVs are published in accordance with the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings under the Wft (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiele ondernemingen Wft). Performance is presented on a net-of-fees basis and reflects the deduction of, among other expenses: management fees, brokerage commissions, administrative fees and accrued performance fees, if any. The performance figure includes the reinvestment of all dividends, interest and capital gains. Depending on the timing of a specific investment, net performance for an individual investor may vary from the net performance as stated herein. Net performance is a geometrically linked time weighted calculation. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. All investments involve risk including the loss of principal. 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/20200617005784/en/ Contacts: Media Camarco Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk In the absence of a vaccine or highly effective treatments for Covid-19, scientists believe that a combination of measures such as intensive testing, and contact tracing along with physical distancing and remote working are needed to contain the pandemic. According to a new modelling research, published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, combining intensive contact tracing along with physical distancing measures may be the most efficient way to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. It noted that a high incidence of Covid-19 would require a considerable number of individuals to be quarantined to control infection. Citing an example, the researchers, including those from the University of Cambridge in the UK, said if about 5,000 new symptomatic cases were diagnosed each day, it may require 1,50,000-2,00,000 contacts to be quarantined every day if no physical distancing was in place. They said the study is the first to use social contact data to quantify the potential impact of control measures on reducing individual-level transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in specific settings. In the study, researchers analysed data on how 40,162 people moved about the UK and interacted with others prior to Covid-19. Based on this, they simulated how combinations of different testing, isolation, tracing, and physical distancing scenarios such as app- based tracing, remote working, limits on different sized gatherings, and mass population-based testing might contribute to reducing secondary cases. They aimed to identify not only what would theoretically control transmission, but also what the practical implications of these measures would be. However, they said the model is based on a series of assumptions about the effectiveness of testing, tracing, isolation, and quarantine. They assumed that the amount of time it takes to isolate cases with symptoms was on average 2.6 days, and the likelihood that their contacts adhere to quarantine was 90 per cent. According to the scientists, while these considerations are plausible, they are optimistic assumptions. Our findings reinforce the growing body of evidence which suggests that we cant rely on one single public health measure to achieve epidemic control, said Adam Kucharski, study co-author from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK. Successful strategies will likely include intensive testing and contact tracing supplemented with moderate forms of physical distancing, such as limiting the size of social gatherings and remote working, which can both reduce transmission and the number of contacts that need to be traced, Kucharski said. The huge scale of testing and contact tracing needed to reduce Covid-19 from spreading is resource intensive, the researchers said, adding that app- based tracing, if adopted widely alongside traditional contact tracing, could enhance the effectiveness of identifying contacts. In the research, the scientists also modelled the rate at which the virus is transmitted -- known as the reproductive number (R), or the average number of people each individual with the virus is likely to infect at a given moment -- under different strategies. They said, to keep the Covid-19 pandemic declining, R value needed to be less than one. In the model, the researchers assumed the probability that a close contact of a confirmed case will be infected to be 20 per cent among household contacts and 6 per cent among other contacts. They estimated that if no control measures had been implemented, R would be 2.6, meaning that one infected person would infect, on average, 2-3 more people. According to the model, mass testing alone, with 5 per cent of the population undergoing random testing each week can lower R to just 2.5, because so many infections would either be missed or detected too late. Compared with no control measures, self-isolation of symptomatic cases alone reduced transmission by an estimated 29 per cent, while combining self-isolation, household quarantine, and tracing strategies may lower transmission by as much as 47 per cent when using app-based contact tracing. Limiting daily contacts outside home, school, and work to four people along with manual tracing of acquaintances only, and app-based tracing, would have the greatest impact, reducing disease spread by 66 per cent, and lowering R to 0.87, the study noted. However, the scientists said the effectiveness of manual contact tracing strategies is highly dependent on how many contacts are successfully traced, with a high level of tracing required to ensure R is lower than one. They also modelled the number of contacts that needed to be quarantined under different contact tracing strategies.A scenario in which 1,000 new symptomatic cases were reported daily would likely require a minimum of 15,000 contacts quarantined every day and a maximum of 41,000 people, the researchers added. Our results highlight several characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 which make effective isolation and contact tracing challenging, said study co-author Hannah Fry from the University College London in the UK. The high rate of transmission, the short time between one person becoming infected and infecting another, and transmission that occurs without symptoms all make things difficult, Fry said. For high numbers of symptomatic Covid-19 cases, tracing, testing, quarantining efforts will be a big challenge, the scientists said. If combined with moderate physical distancing measures, self-isolation and contact tracing would be more likely to achieve control of Covid-19, the scientists concluded. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Sweden has passed the grim mark of 5,000 coronavirus deaths today as cracks began to emerge in the political consensus the government has until now enjoyed over its softer approach. The Public Health Agency said it had recorded 5,041 Covid-19 deaths, giving it the world's fifth highest death rate at 499.1 per million inhabitants. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, a Social Democrat, insisted in a weekend televised interview that hospitalistions were down sharply and Sweden's strategy of not locking down 'was not a failure'. The country's leader went on to say that the large share of deaths in elderly care homes 'has nothing to do with the strategy. The Public Health Agency in Sweden has said the country has recorded 5,041 Covid-19 deaths. Pictured: People walk along a high street in Stockholm on May 29 during rush hour amid the pandemic This weekend Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said that hospitalistions were down sharply 'It has to do with failings in society that we are correcting,' including basic hygiene deficiencies in many care homes, he added. Sweden's political circles broadly supported the decision to not lock down, as did the general population. But there has been growing criticism in recent weeks over the government's struggles to get mass testing off the ground, which only began in earnest this week. Parties on the right have also accused the government of hiding behind public health experts and failing to take responsibility in the crisis. 'A leader has to step forward, but Lofven took a step back,' Ebba Thor, the head of the Christian Democrats, said during a recent party leader debate. The Liberals' parliamentary leader, Johan Pehrson, said Sweden's softer approach 'may have contributed to the high death toll', while the head of the conservative Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, has called for a commission to be appointed immediately to probe the government's handling of the crisis. Swedish officials have stressed that the situation has vastly improved in recent weeks, despite the dire death toll. The Public Health Agency said the country of 10.3 million had 54,562 confirmed cases on Wednesday, a high infection rate, but said the large majority of new cases were mild ones recorded after testing began to ramp up several weeks ago. The number of hospitalisations and intensive care patients had gone down dramatically since hitting a peak in April, officials said. According to the Swedish Intensive Care Registry, there were on Wednesday a total of 218 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units, compared to a peak of 558 on April 25-26. Sweden has now recorded 5,041 Covid-19 deaths while the UK has recorded 42,238 deaths and Norway 243 fatalities Students at Nacka Gymnasium in Stockholm, Sweden, celebrate their high school graduation after months of distance learning People flood the Tantolunden park in Stockholm, Sweden, as temperatures rise in the country Doctors in the country also confirmed that their COVID-19 units had passed the peak. 'The number of patients has gone down dramatically,' Lars Falk, head of the ECMO unit at Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, told AFP. 'There are much fewer patients needing ICU care than a couple of weeks ago,' he said. Karin Hildebrand, an ICU doctor at the capital's Sodersjukhuset hospital, said the situation was similar at her workplace. 'The figures have dropped. It's a big difference (compared) to over two months ago. We have a lot less patients now than in April,' she told AFP. 'Hopefully the decrease will continue.' Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency, who has become the face of Sweden's strategy, has repeatedly insisted that lockdowns do not work. Once countries lift their restrictions and normal routines resume, the virus will begin to circulate again, he said. 'You can't eliminate the virus entirely in the long-run,' he told reporters on Tuesday. A study published late Tuesday indicated that 14 percent of Stockholmers who had taken a voluntary test at a cost of 750 kronor ($80, 71 euros) had tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies. The samples were collected between April 27 and June 14. Maddy Amos stands behind a protective shield and wears a face mask as she serves a customer at the Falmouth Bookseller in Falmouth, Cornwall Some critics have suggested that the 50,000 people tested do not represent a scientific sample. Given the high cost of the test, those who elected to be tested may have done so because they suspected they had caught the virus, they argue. Another scientific study published on Wednesday by the Public Health Agency showed that the infection fatality rate in Stockholm for those aged 69 and under was 0.1 percent, and 4.3 percent for those aged 70 and over. That study examined 1,667 people infected with the virus during March 21-30. The figures come as Britain today announced another 184 deaths from Covid-19, taking the country's total number of lab-confirmed victims past the 42,000-mark. Department of Health statistics show the daily number of fatalities has dropped 25 per cent in a week, with 245 posted across all settings last Wednesday. Some 233 deaths were recorded yesterday. Meanwhile Norway, which last month announced plans to fully lift its coronavirus lockdown by mid-June, has suffered 243 deaths and 8,680 cases, data from Johns Hopkins reveals. Norway was among the first European nations to go into full lockdown on March 12 and has lifted almost all restrictions after successfully flattening the curve of infection. Top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said he is concerned that the increases in infections in light of reopening could develop into "full blown outbreaks" but hopes that "individual states can blunt that. He said it is not "inevitable" that a second wave or massive wave of infections could happen in the fall, but it could be prevent if approached "in the proper way" with widespread testing and contact tracing. The Trump administration has not had the same outlook on the threat of the recent outbreaks as Fauci, with President Donald Trump blaming the rise in coronavirus cases on increased testing. He said he doesn't see normalcy returning anytime soon amid the coronavirus pandemic, citing the recent spikes in COVID-19 cases across the US. "I would hope to get to some degree of real normality within a year or so, but I don't think it's this winter or fall; we'll be seeing it for a bit more," Fauci told The Telegraph. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. US top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed concern that the recent spikes in coronavirus cases across the US could develop into "full blown outbreaks." His outlook contrasted the more positive outlook of the Trump administration, saying that the emerging COVID-19 cases are merely "embers" to be snuffed out. Experts have been pushing for establishing a comprehensive testing and contact tracing method in order to suppress, not just mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Fauci echoed the sentiment, saying that the question remains if such a system will exist anytime soon. "The question is will they have the capability to do the appropriate and effective isolation, and contact tracing, to prevent this increase from becoming a full blown outbreak? I'm concerned it's happening," Fauci told the UK newspaper The Telegraph, referring to the recent spikes in COVID-19 cases throughout the US. Story continues "I hope the individual states can blunt that. It [the virus] could go on for a couple of cycles, coming back and forth," he added. The Trump administration has not had the same outlook on the threat of the recent outbreaks as Fauci, with President Donald Trump blaming the rise in coronavirus cases on increased testing, though evidence shows that there are a variety of factors playing into the spikes. "If we stop testing right now, we'd have very few cases, actually," the president said at a roundtable Monday. Vice President Mike Pence also reportedly touted the misleading claim in a call to governors, telling them to use as an explanation for the case spikes. "The president often talks about embers," Pence said during the call, the audio of which was obtained by The New York Times. "As we go through the summer, as we see, overall, as you all know, around the country, that despite a mass increase in testing, we are still averaging roughly 20,000 cases a day, which is significantly down from six weeks ago." According to a Times data analysis, "positive case rates are increasing faster than the increase in the average number of tests" in at least 14 states. Fauci said he doesn't think there's going to be an "immediate pull back" on the health safety restrictions to stem the spread of the virus, like social distancing, but "its going to be really wait and see." "My feeling, looking at what's going on with the infection rate, I think it's more likely measured in months rather than weeks," Fauci told The Telegraph. He said life will likely not return to normal until next year in a grim prediction as to how the COVID-19 pandemic will pan out. "I would hope to get to some degree of real normality within a year or so, but I don't think it's this winter or fall; we'll be seeing it for a bit more," Fauci told The Telegraph, adding that it is "not inevitable that you will have a so-called 'second wave' in the fall, or even a massive increase, if you approach it in the proper way." Fauci said that there is still hope to fight the virus through a vaccine, which he sees some potential options making "significant progress." "You can never guarantee success with a vaccine that's foolish to do so there's so many possibilities of things going wrong," he told The Telegraph. "[But] everything we have seen from early results, it's conceivable we get two or three vaccines that are successful." While Fauci described the COVID-19 pandemic as "an explosive outbreak that in a couple of months spread through so many cities, and the world," he does see "light at the end of the tunnel." "This will end. As stressful and devastating as it is, it will end," Fauci told The Telegraph. "We are all in it together as a global community, and I do see the light at then end of the tunnel." Read the original article on Business Insider I have never avoided responsibility. This is what second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan declared during examination of his defense attorneys appeal under his case at the Criminal Court of Appeal today. The fact that I was the president of a country is a heavy burden that I will carry all my life, and whenever I do something, I think about how the public will perceive it and what its reaction will be. This is the biggest responsibility for me as the second president of Armenia and the first president of Artsakh, Kocharyan said. Kocharyan mentioned that his supporters and opponents share the opinion that he is a man of his word and that he will never avoid responsibility. This is an extremely great asset, and I simply cant spark doubts about that. Its unpleasant for me to stand in court and use certain words to explain the importance of that, Kocharyan said. In response, the presiding judge asked why it was unpleasant for him, and Kocharyan said it is because it seemed to him that there wouldnt be a need to explain that, based on his biography. Kocharyan also stated that he has never given anyone a reason to think that he cant be a man of his word since 1988. The judge was asking about Kocharyans line of conduct during the proceedings. Kocharyans defense attorney Aram Vardevanyan presented the relations between Robert Kocharyan and the people who have submitted a letter of personal pledge. Egypts universal health insurance system, through the new World Bank loan, will support Egypt to achieve long-term stability in health financing with less dependence on state budget and less exposure to economic fluctuations, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said on Wednesday. We are pleased to partner with the World Bank to support Egypts universal health insurance system, which will help Egyptians access the healthcare they need without suffering financial hardships, he added. The World Banks Board of Executive Directors approved on Wednesday a $400 million loan to support Egypts universal health insurance system (UHIS) as the countrys pathway towards achieving universal health coverage and improving the health of its citizens. Minister of International Cooperation Rania El-Mashat said expanding healthcare services is a national priority for Egypt, adding that the UHIS with the World Bank encompasses mandatory coverage for citizens and unifies, for the first time, efforts with the private sector. She stated that the project aims to provide quality healthcare services, including to the most vulnerable, by eliminating existing disparities. Egypts Universal Health Insurance Law guides the implementation of the UHIS and accelerates progress towards Universal Health Coverage in line with the health pillar of Egypts 2030 Sustainable Development Vision. The law envisions mandatory coverage for all citizens in the country, including vulnerable groups, said El-Mashat. The project will help Egypt put in place the building blocks of the UHIS, to roll the system out in first phase governorates, and to offer temporary financial protection to the most vulnerable across the country to protect them from high out-of-pocket health expenditures resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the banks statement. The bank also said that the loan is complementary to the World Bank-financed COVID-19 Emergency Response Project that aims to support the immediate operational challenges and critical areas of support identified as key gaps in Egypts COVID-19 response, according to the statement. World Bank Country Director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti Marina Wes said the World Banks support will help Egypt raise its coverage of the UHIS in six governorates, strengthen UHIS-related governance and institutions, and provide temporary financial protection against high health expenditures for vulnerable populations across the country. She added that the UHIS is expected to complement and contribute to Egypts focus on improving human capital. As an early adopter of the World Banks Human Capital Project, Egypt has committed to the "whole of government" approach to build, protect, and utilise human capital. The UHIS will contribute to building human capital through investing in early years of life and providing better healthcare, antenatal care, and targeted childhood stimulation. Over the years, the World Bank has strengthened its engagement in Egypts health sector, including the Transforming Egypts Healthcare System Project, which was launched in September 2018 to help improve health service delivery in Egypt, according to World Bank data. The project supported the screening of 52 million citizens for Hepatitis C and Non-Communicable Diseases, provided ongoing treatment for 2.2 million patients, in addition to supporting the improvement of the quality of care in 600 Primary Health Care facilities and 30 tertiary hospitals, trained and contracted 2,800 community health workers, boosted demand- and supply-side interventions for family planning programmes; and provided advanced nucleic acid testing for public blood supply. Search Keywords: Short link: HATTIESBURG, Miss. - A federal judge has sentenced a Mississippi doctor to four years in prison for his role in a health care fraud scheme. The U.S. Attorneys Office said Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett handed down the sentence against Dr. Shahjahan Sultan, 38, of Madison, and ordered him to pay restitution of $4.1 million to Express Scripts, $582,280 to CVS Caremark and $115,611 to Catamaran. A $2.3 million money judgment also was imposed against Sultan, who formerly practiced in Vicksburg. According to Sultans attorney, former state Supreme Court Justice Chuck McRae, at least $4 million has already been repaid. News outlets reported that Sultan pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to commit health care fraud after he and co-conspirators were accused in a 15-count indictment of prescribing millions of dollars of unnecessary compound pain creams and weight-loss pills to patients for reimbursement from May 2014 to January 2015. The court held Sultan responsible for $8 million in intended losses to health care providers. Sultan apologized during the sentencing hearing. I was an idiot, pardon my harsh language, he said. This has been a monkey on my back. I want this all to go away, but it never goes away. Sultan also warned other young doctors not to fall for something that sounds too good to be true. I lost just about everything, he said. But Im not the victim here. Thinking that youre part of the problem its a hard pill to swallow. Prosecutors said Sultan entered into a contract with a Jackson County pharmacy in May 2014 to prescribe individuals expensive compound medications. In return, the pharmacy would pay Sultan 35% of the reimbursements it received after billing health care providers for the prescriptions Sultan wrote, according to the authorities. Sultan employed others to identify people in places like Jones County whose insurance covered the medications. The doctor met with those people over video-chat sessions but did not perform thorough examinations or determine the medical necessity of the compound medications he prescribed. Prosecutors said Sultan was aware that some added ingredients to the medications he prescribed were not effective and were introduced for the purpose of increasing the reimbursement value. He was also accused of calling in compound medications for people he had not examined. A Tennessee doctor, Thomas Edward Sturdavant, 56, and two Mississippi registered nurses, Freda Covington, 54, of Hattiesburg, and Fallon Page, 36, of Soso, were indicted with Sultan. Sturdavant and Covington each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Sturdavant is scheduled to be sentenced on June 22, while Covingtons sentence is set for June 24. Page pleaded guilty to mail fraud and sentencing is set for July 7. NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Piedmont Natural Gas today said it was adding steps to help customers who are suffering financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The additional steps build on the swift actions the company offered to help customers at the start of the response to the pandemic. Piedmont suspended key credit actions, including disconnections for nonpayment, late payment fees and fees for credit card and other payments. Piedmont, together with its parent company, also donated $6 million for COVID-19 relief efforts in Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee. "With many homes and businesses in Nashville continuing to face financial hardships, we embraced the opportunity to support our communities and their energy needs even more," said Sasha Weintraub, Piedmont Natural Gas senior vice president. "And now, as Nashville begins to open and more jobs return, we are ready to help these same homes and businesses get back to normal." Enhanced Customer Care Piedmont is monitoring restart activities and local orders in Tennessee to determine when billing and payment practices can resume. Expanded Assistance Options Piedmont Natural Gas will continue to provide assistance to residential and business customers whose accounts have fallen behind due to illness or lost wages. Support for these efforts include: Online tools so customers can directly choose an extended payment arrangement that best fits their needs. Simplified processes for accessing Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and other funds available through communities' agencies. Professional guidance for small business customers to help analyze their energy usage, discuss energy rates and identify solutions to help lower their energy bills as they are reopening. Continued waiving of credit/debit card and walk-in payment fees for residential customers for an additional two months, once billing and payment practices resume in their states. "We recommend customers continue paying what they can toward their Piedmont Natural Gas bill to minimize accumulating account balances; and for families and businesses now facing extreme financial hardships, we hope the donations and resources outlined here will provide relief and peace of mind," said Stephen Francescon, Piedmont Natural Gas community relations manager. What Customers Can Expect Piedmont Natural Gas customers will receive direct communication when standard billing and payment processing are expected to resume. Regardless of the timeline, all customers will have at least one full billing cycle to prepare, discuss options and make payment arrangements. The company anticipates higher-than-normal call volume as operations return to normal and encourages customers to consider using online self-service options now to avoid long wait times. Customers should download Piedmont's mobile app or visit piedmontng.com for information and most service transactions. Customers who are unable to self-serve can contact the company at 1.800.752.7504. Piedmont Natural Gas customer service specialists are available MondayFriday, 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. (EST) Customers who need financial assistance are encouraged to visit one of the local assistance agencies below: Piedmont Natural Gas Piedmont Natural Gas, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, is an energy services company whose principal business is the distribution of natural gas to more than 1 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The company also supplies natural gas to power plants. Piedmont is routinely recognized by J.D. Power for excellent customer satisfaction, and has been named by Cogent Reports as one of the most trusted utility brands in the U.S. Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of the largest energy holding companies in the U.S. It employs 30,000 people and has an electric generating capacity of 51,000 megawatts through its regulated utilities, and 3,000 megawatts through its nonregulated Duke Energy Renewables unit. Duke Energy is transforming its customers' experience, modernizing the energy grid, generating cleaner energy and expanding natural gas infrastructure to create a smarter energy future for the people and communities it serves. Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2020 "World's Most Admired Companies" list, and Forbes' 2019 "America's Best Employers" list. More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com . The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos, videos and other materials. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter , LinkedIn , Instagram and Facebook . Media contact: Jennifer Sharpe Office: 704.731.4108 Media line: 877.348.3612 [email protected] SOURCE Piedmont Natural Gas Firefighters battled to contain a wildfire burning in San Benito County, California, which grew to 500 acres in a few hours after breaking out on June 16. Californian fire authorities reported the so-called Bitter Fire had started at around 1 pm south of Paicines. The fire had expanded to around 500 acres by around 5 pm local time. Firefighting aircraft were also deployed to fight the fire. These videos were taken by a local rancher who was watching the fire burn from afar. Credit: Anonymous via Storyful 32-year-old suspect Steven Carrillo - Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office California Air Force sergeant with ties to the extreme-right "boogaloo" movement was charged on Tuesday with the murder of an Oakland policeman during Black Lives Matter protests, one of two police officers he is accused of killing in recent weeks. The Justice Department said Steven Carrillo gunned down Oakland police officer Patrick Underwood in a drive-by shooting from a white van during the May 29 protests over the police killing of a handcuffed African American man in Minneapolis. Eight days later, on June 6, Carrillo's van was discovered to the south near Santa Cruz, and when police neared Carillo's residence, he ambushed them and killed another officer, Damon Gutzwiller. He was tracked down and arrested after he stole another vehicle and attempted to escape. Officials said the Air Force security specialist was associated with the underground "boogaloo bois" ideology, which espouses a mix of anti-government extremism and civil and race war. Its followers often openly carry assault weapons and wear military-like garb in public. According to local reports, Carillo - who had weapons, ammunition and materials for bombs in his van and home - wrote "boog" on the hood of a car in his own blood when he was arrested. "The boogaloo term is used by extremists to reference a violent uprising or impending civil war in the United States," said US Attorney David Anderson on Tuesday during a press conference in Oakland. It was the second case of far-right extremists being arrested in relation to the protests against police brutality that swept the nation after the May 25 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, since charged with murder. US President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr have both repeatedly claimed that the protests and riots in a number of cities were driven by leftists of the "antifa" or anti-fascist movement. But of hundreds of arrests nationwide, no evidence has been presented yet of organised leftists promoting violence in the demonstrations. Story continues On June 3, Las Vegas police arrested three men also associated with the boogaloo movement and charged them for attempting to incite riot and start fires during a Black Lives Matter protest. The three, two formerly in the military and one in the army reserve, had originally sought to stir up violence in mid-May protests against the coronavirus shutdown, the indictment said, citing a confidential FBI source. On May 30, they decided to try to use the protests over Mr Floyd's death as a cover to stir up violence, preparing guns, ammunition and Molotov cocktails. One "was very upset that the protests were not turning violent," the indictment said. 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 This June for Pride Month we want to show our campus pride for all the campuses working hard to create safer, more LGBTQ-friendly learning environments. BestColleges, in partnership with Campus Pride, released its 2020 college rankings for LGBTQ+ students in recognition and celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month. The announcement features two separate rankings, the Best Colleges for LGBTQ+ Students and the Best Colleges for LGBTQ+ Students in Each State, which help students of various gender and sexual identities find an inclusive and quality institution to begin their college journey. Historically, LGBTQ+ populations have been underserved in higher education environments. However, this has gradually improved in recent years as many colleges spearhead efforts to create environments and policies that meet the needs of students with varying gender and sexual identities. The Best Colleges for LGBTQ+ Students ranking recognizes U.S. schools that have established the highest standards for inclusive environments while maintaining strong academic programs for students. The Best Colleges for LGBTQ+ Students in Each State ranking evolved from the recognition that not all students have the opportunity to attend or finance college out-of-state, but still deserve an inclusive educational environment. As a result, the ranking offers a guide for prospective LGBTQ+ students to identify schools that are culturally inclusive, affordable, and closer in proximity to their geographic location. Additionally, the schools featured on the list were vetted by Campus Pride using their knowledge of the LGBTQ+ education landscape. Every student deserves to go to a college that is inclusive and a safe space - to learn, live and grow, said Shane Windmeyer, Executive Director of Campus Pride. This June for Pride Month we want to show our campus pride for all the campuses working hard to create safer, more LGBTQ-friendly learning environments. The rankings combine BestColleges traditional methodology of academic support and affordability data along with the Campus Pride Index score, which is a comprehensive national rating system that measures LGBTQ-friendly campus life. Campus Pride takes an exhaustive and multifaceted approach, considering eight LGBTQ+ inclusive factors to reach a measurement. The rankings also include descriptions of unique campus resources that provide support to students of various gender and sexual identities. We are incredibly excited to work with Campus Pride for the third year in a row to bring prospective students this inclusive ranking and guide. By combining our most recent data, we were once again able to create a list that reflects the best higher education options for LGBTQ+ students in the United States, said Stephanie Snider, General Manager of BestColleges. Several prominent schools made this years Best Colleges for LGBTQ+ Students list, with the University of Maryland ranked as the top college for LGBTQ+ students in the nation. The University of Washington, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, and Tufts University round out the top five. We commend all the universities listed on these LGBTQ+ rankings for creating educational environments that allow students of different gender and sexual identities to feel safe and welcome, added Snider. In these uncertain times, we hope to see more academic institutions support and accommodate these students while making strides to create inclusive educational environments. You can view the 2020 Best Colleges for LGBTQ+ Students ranking at: https://www.bestcolleges.com/features/best-colleges-for-lgbt-students/ You can view the 2020 Best Colleges for LGBTQ+ Students in Each State ranking at: https://www.bestcolleges.com/features/top-lgbtq-friendly-colleges-by-state/ 2020 Best Colleges for LGBTQ+ Students (in alphabetical order): Columbia University in the City of New York Emory University Harvey Mudd College Kenyon College Lehigh University Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Ohio State University Princeton University Purdue University Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey San Diego State University The University of Texas at Dallas Tufts University University of California, Davis University of California, Los Angeles University of California, San Diego University of Central Florida University of Maryland, College Park University of Minnesota Twin Cities University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh University of Virginia University of Washington University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Williams College About BestColleges BestColleges empowers students to make smarter educational decisions and find schools that best fit their needs through proprietary research, user-friendly guides, and hundreds of unique college rankings. As a trusted education advisor, they also provide a wide array of college planning, financial aid, and career resources to help students realize life goals and overcome educational challenges as they prepare for careers after college. About Campus Pride Campus Pride is the leading national educational organization for LGBTQ and ally college students, as well as campus groups building future leaders and safer, more LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities. The organization provides resources and services to thousands of college students and nearly 1,400 campuses annually. NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - U.S. telecom giant Verizon and Indian software services provider Infosys have joined the Climate Pledge, Amazon said Tuesday. The Climate Pledge is a plan co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism last year to make companies carbon neutral by 2040 and reach the goal of the Paris Accord ten years ahead of schedule. Amazon was the first signatory to the Climate Pledge in September 2019 and had urged other large companies too to sign the agreement. Nine months later, Verizon and Infosys are the first global companies to join Amazon in the Climate Pledge. Both companies are existing Amazon partners and work closely with Amazon Web Services or AWS. Companies that sign the Climate Pledge must report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis, implement de-carbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement, and neutralize any remaining emissions to achieve net zero annual carbon emissions by 2040. Verizon has committed to become carbon neutral by 2035. The company is on track to be carbon neutral across scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by that year. Verizon has issued a $1 billion green bond to invest in innovative solutions to accelerate its sustainability efforts. This includes powering operations with 50 percent renewable energy by 2025 and new virtual power purchase agreements or VPPA for more than 380 MW of new wind and solar power capacity. Infosys made a voluntary commitment in 2011, long before the Paris Agreement, to become carbon neutral and is on track to achieve it well ahead of 2040. The company has already invested in 60 MW of captive solar photovoltaic capacity and nearly 45 percent of its electricity is from renewable sources. Infosys said it is committed to transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy. The company is the first signatory from India to RE100, a corporate renewable energy initiative that brings together businesses committed to 100 percent renewable electricity. Amazon also said it is joining the Science Based Target Initiative or SBTi, which mobilizes companies to set science-based targets and tracks carbon disclosure. SBTi is a collaboration between CDP, World Resources Institute, the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the United Nations Global Compact or UNGC. 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. Apples head of diversity is leaving the company to spend more time with her family, just days after the company announced a $100million racial justice initiative. Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity Christie Smith, who joined Apple in 2017 after 16 years at consultancy Deloitte, is exiting her position. 'Inclusion and diversity are core Apple values and we deeply believe the most diverse teams are the most innovative teams. Christie Smith will be leaving Apple to spend more time with her family and we wish her well,' Apple said in a statement. 'Our Inclusion and Diversity team continues to report directly to Deirdre OBrien on the Executive Team,' the statement added according to Bloomberg. Apple's Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity Christie Smith has stepped down 'to spend more time with her family', Apple announced She joined Apple in 2017 and already updated her Linkedin page to reflect her departure Her move was planned two months ago and her last day was Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter said. She commuted from Seattle to Cupertino to be a part of Apples executive team. Apple hasn't announced if her position will be replaced. Her exit comes just days after Apples Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook announced he is launching a $100million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, a part of the companys response to the brutal police killing of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. Addressing the racial reckoning unfolding across the US, Cook said in a letter to employees and customers that society needs to do more to push for equality, especially for black people. 'To create change, we have to reexamine our own views and actions in light of a pain that is deeply felt but too often ignored. Issues of human dignity will not abide standing on the sidelines,' Cook said in his letter. Her exit comes just days after Apples Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook announced Hes launching a $100million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, a part of the companys response to the brutal police killing of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis last month Smith commuted from Seattle to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California (above) to be a part of Apples executive team As head of Diversity and Inclusion Smith reported directly to Apples Senior Vice President of Retail and People Deirdre OBrien (right). Apple hasn't announced if her position will be replaced As head of Diversity and Inclusion Smith reported directly to Apples Senior Vice President of Retail and People Deirdre OBrien. The last person to hold that position, Denise Young Smith, lasted only six months and left after apologizing for making controversial statements about the mostly white makeup of Apples executive team. Despite Apples bold initiative, the company itself lacks diversity in its overall workforce. The Cupertino-based company has released data since 2014 on its workforce make up. According to its 2018 diversity report 67 percent of global employees were male, down from 70 percent in 2014. In the US six percent of tech employees were black in 2014 and that number remained the same in 2018. However, more than half the news hires in the US in 2018 were black, Hispanic or some other historically underrepresented group in tech. In 2018 women accounted for 28 percent of Apples workforce under the age of 30, compared to 33 percent of its overall staff. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 21:01:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation between Ethiopia and China against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has further uplifted the two countries' comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. Multiple events that happened over the past few months as COVID-19 wreaked havoc are testimony to a strong partnership. On April 16, a team of Chinese medical experts arrived in Ethiopia with urgent medical supplies, including surgical masks, personal protective equipment, ventilators and traditional Chinese medicine. The team, among the very first batch of anti-pandemic medical teams that China sent to the African continent since the COVID-19 outbreak, was praised by Ethiopians as "a full demonstration of solidarity". The Chinese experts, during their two-week service in the East African country, had worked with full schedule, conducting in-depth exchanges with experts and officials from the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute. They also shared China's experience with tailored recommendations on further improving Ethiopia's anti-pandemic strategy. After their successful engagements in Ethiopia, the Chinese medical experts left Ethiopia for its neighboring nation Djibouti for the same cause, promising that they will continue to provide help upon request. China, which is also presently fighting COVID-19 at home, is strengthening its support to Ethiopia and other African countries as well as regional and continental organizations in support of Africa's fight against the pandemic. During the past few months since the outbreak emerged, massive medical supplies donated by the Chinese government had arrived in Ethiopia - Africa's second most populous nation. The massive medical supplies in different batches included facial masks, disposable protective clothing, forehead thermometers, medical protective goggles, gloves and shoe covers for medical use, among others. Chinese companies and civil organizations also provided urgently needed supplies. The Chinese-invested Addis Ababa Silk Road General Hospital, well-known in Ethiopia to treat contagious diseases, has been boosting public confidence in the nation's fight against the virus. The hospital was designated by the government to specialize in treating COVID-19 patients. Ethiopia-based Chinese high-end shoe maker, Huajian Group, also made quick response by offering pandemic prevention materials to the East African country. Other Chinese enterprises in Ethiopia, including CCECC, CCCC, CREC, TECNO, and Eastern Industrial Park, have also done their part in terms of mobilizing professional medical supplies from China. The efforts and assistance by the Chinese have come as the East African nation on Tuesday reported 109 new positive cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 3,630. Dawit Yirga, Director General of Asia and Oceania Affairs at the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recently said during an event that marked the arrival of Chinese-donated anti-COVID-19 medical supplies in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa that the ever-growing China-Africa strategic partnership has shown vitality and strength during difficult times. "Africa and China are all-weather friends and the Sino-Africa strategic partnership has shown vitality and strength in this time of unprecedented challenges," Yirga said, adding that "solidarity is indeed the bedrock of the Africa-China partnership and when the corona pandemic outbreak happened in China, Africa stood firmly in solidarity with China." "We are indeed very grateful to China for its support and solidarity at this difficult moment in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic," the director general said. "The support mobilized by the Chinese government and the private sector, including the Jack Ma Foundation, to assist the COVID-19 response efforts in Africa is very much appreciated," Yirga stressed. Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group, also hailed the China-Africa cooperation and solidarity in the fight against COVID-19, saying that "as an African, I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of all Africans to thank Chinese government for the generous donation of COVID-19 personal protective equipments and medical supplies." "These are lifesaving medical supplies, so speed is very important," the CEO said, as he emphasized the Ethiopian flag carrier's resolve to deliver the latest medical supplies "very fast and intact to all African countries." "Africa needs China and China needs Africa. We're in this together in the fight against COVID-19," Gebremariam said. Enditem The Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo, which introduces 23 sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution. Contrary to the Japanese government's earlier promise to UNESCO and the international community, the exhibition fails to recognize the Korean victims who were forced to work at some of the sites during World War II. / Yonhap By Kang Seung-woo Japan is still refusing to acknowledge its wartime atrocities, with its newly opened UNESCO facility linked to its use of forced labor during World War II failing to commemorate its victims. In response, the Korean government plans to review all available countermeasures, including filing a complaint with UNESCO against Japan, while issuing a statement expressing regret over the situation. In addition, non-government-level efforts have also been launched to protest the Shinzo Abe administration's flawed perception of history. Japanese Ambassador to Korea Koji Tomita arrives at the foreign ministry in Seoul, Monday, after the ministry summoned him in protest against Japan's failure to recognize wartime forced labor victims at the Industrial Heritage Information Center. / Yonhap People line up for nucleic acid testing on June 15, 2020 at Guang'an Gymnasium in Xicheng District, Beijing. Beijing is organizing nucleic acid tests for 90,000 residents to curb a new cluster of local COVID-19 infections. [Photo by Zou Hong/chinadaily.com.cn] Beijing has reported 106 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Monday at midnight since the city reported the first case in the latest outbreak on last Thursday. Why did the outbreak happen in Beijing and what has the city has done after the outbreak began? Question 1: Who is patient zero? After 56 days, Beijing reported a new locally transmitted case - a 52-year-old man surnamed Tang in Xicheng district on Thursday. Tang visited a local hospital on Wednesday for recurring fever and said he had not traveled outside Beijing in the past two weeks. On Friday, six more confirmed cases were reported. Among them, two in Fengtai district were coworkers at a meat products research institute, and one surnamed Liu said he had traveled to Qingdao in East China's Shandong province in the past two weeks. Epidemiological investigation found both Liu and Tang had been to Xinfadi, a major farm products wholesale market in Fengtai district. Tang went there on June 3 and Liu went there on June 5. The Qingdao health commission said disease control experts in Qingdao had ruled out the possibility that Liu, who was on a business trip to Qingdao from May 29 to June 2, picked up the infection there. Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Monday that Tang started having symptoms on June 6, and another patient reported on Saturday starting symptoms on June 5. It was still unknown if other people had symptoms earlier than this, Wu said. Muthoot Finance Ltd (MFIN) on Wednesday reported a 52.4 percent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 835.78 crore in the last quarter of the fiscal ended March 2020 due to higher demand for gold loans. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 548.56 crore during the corresponding January-March quarter of fiscal ended March 2019. "Performance for the last year has been good for the company because of gold loan business...all through the year it was nice. Other than last 15 days of March (due to lockdown)...we were able to do good business. "Overall, the demand was good and that is the key reason for our good performance," George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director of MFIN, told PTI after the company declared its results. MFIN's total income during March quarter of FY20 rose to Rs 2,633.58 crore from Rs 2,088.84 crore in the year-ago period, MFIN said in a regulatory filing. Of this, the interest income was Rs 2,562.96 crore, up from Rs 2,017.81 crore a year ago. For fiscal year 2019-20, the company reported a 51 percent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,168.68 crore as against Rs 2,102.96 crore in 2018-19. Income for the year increased to Rs 9,683.98 crore from Rs 7,594.43 crore in the previous fiscal. The company's board of directors declared an interim dividend of Rs 15 per share for 2019-20. The company was able to open majority of its branches from April 20, and as of now all branches are functioning normally, the company's managing director said on the coronavirus-induced lockdown. "Disbursements and collections have normalized and we are expecting increase in disbursement once movement of people increases and economic activity level picks up," he said. The company continues to maintain adequate liquidity to meet all repayment obligations, he added. "We are looking to grow gold loan business by about 15 percent for the whole year (2020-21). We have been able to raise fresh commercial paper, NCDs, bank limits, among others," Muthoot said. The company's consolidated loan assets under management increased by 22 percent to Rs 46,871 crore in 2019-20. MFIN makes majority of its revenue (90 percent) from gold loans, while it also has some presence in vehicle finance, affordable home finance and micro loan segment through its various arms. It is also engaged in broking business and has a gold loan subsidiary in Sri Lanka. MFIN said there has been no significant impact on the operations and financial position of the company on account of the outbreak of the COVID-I9 pandemic and the consequential lockdown restrictions imposed by the government. "Based on an assessment of the situation, the company considers that the impairment loss provision...is adequate to cover any future uncertainties," MFIN said. Shares of MFIN closed 2.08 percent higher at Rs 1,000.20 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday. Malaysiakini, an independent media outlet, and its editor-in-chief Steven Gan are facing contempt proceedings after the Federal Court's decision to allow an application filed by Malaysia's Attorney-General.The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the decision of the Federal Court and urges authorities to drop the case. Judge Rohana Yusof who led the three member Federal Court panel on June 17 ruled that Attorney-General Idrus Harun had managed to establish prima facie case for the application. The case is being investigated under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and the Penal Code. This is the first time Malaysiakini has been cited for contempt of court after 20 years of operations. The contempt charge is related to five readers comments in an article titled "CJ orders all courts to be fully operational from July 1." Idrus alleged that those comments "clearly meant that the judiciary committed wrongdoings, is involved in corruption, does not uphold justice and compromised its integrity." Malaysiakini was also accused of facilitating publication of these comments which Idrus argued were "unwarranted" and seen as "demeaning attacks" on the judiciary. On June 16, officers from the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters recorded Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan's statement for this case. Gan said Malaysiakini would cooperate with the police and would consult its lawyers regarding the contempt proceedings. The court has set June 25 for case management and the next hearing date will be on July 2. The IFJ said:IFJ condemns the filing of application by the Attorney General to bring the case to the court and the decision of the Federal Court. IFJ urges authorities to drop the case and respect press freedom and freedom of speech". North Korea on Tuesday threatened further provocations including massive military buildup along the border after blowing up the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong. The North Korean military in a statement said it is considering "an action plan for measures to make the army advance again into zones that had been demilitarized under the [inter-Korean] agreement, turn the front line into a fortress and further heighten military vigilance against the South." The North continued its bluster on Wednesday. The official [North] Korean Centeral News Agency revealed that North Korea earlier rejected South Korean President Moon Jae-in's offer to send a special envoy to resolve inter-Korean tensions, calling it a "unrealistic" and "sinister" proposal. The statements signal the final nail in the coffin of a cross-border military pact signed in 2018 to reduce tensions and military presence in the frontline area. The North has repeatedly violated the pact, which mandated the demolition of some guard posts in the demilitarized zone and disarming of border guards in the truce village of Panmunjom. >>> Journalists make huge contributions to nation: PM Leading a delegation from the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee to visit the newspaper this morning, Tran Thanh Man, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and VFF President, was received by Nhan Dan Newspaper Editor-in-chief Thuan Huu. Conveying his best wishes to the editorial staff, officials, reporters and editors of the newspaper on the special anniversary, Man highly appreciated the activities of Nhan Dan in recent times, saying that the newspaper has always promptly propagated the Party and State's guidelines, policies and laws, especially during the nationwide response to the COVID-19 epidemic over the past six months. The propaganda plans of Nhan Dan Newspaper had a strong impact on the effectiveness of the prevention and control of COVID-19 nationwide, spreading the spirit of solidarity to overcome difficulties experienced by the public, Man hailed. As the ideological flag of the Vietnamese revolutionary press, Nhan Dan always provides high-quality journalistic services, serving political missions with a strong fighting spirit and orientation, the VFF president said, adding that he believed that with its long history, the newspaper would continue to develop as the country conducts Party Congresses at all levels towards the upcoming 13th National Party Congress. The head of the VFF Central Committee also expressed his hope that Nhan Dan Newspaper would actively propagate major events that the VFF is going to organise. On behalf of the newspaper, Thuan Huu, member of the Party Central Committee and Editor-in-chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, expressed his sincere thanks for Tran Thanh Man's concern for Nhan Dan Newspaper. Huu, who is also Deputy Head of the Party Central Committees Commission for Communications and Education and Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, outlined the newspaper's activities in recent years to his guest. He said that Nhan Dan Newspaper is focusing on propagating economic recovery efforts after the COVID-19 epidemic, as well as the organisation of the Party Congresses at all levels towards the 13th National Party Congress and great national unity. The Editor-in-chief of Nhan Dan newspaper stated that the Party newspaper has specific plan to carry out these propaganda missions. He hoped that his newspaper would continue to receive the attention and support of the VFF Central Committee. * Also this morning, a delegation from the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, led by its director, Nguyen Xuan Thang, visited and congratulated Nhan Dan Newspaper on Vietnams Revolutionary Press Day. Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics Nguyen Xuan Thang (L) congratulates Nhan Dan Newspaper on the occasion. Thang, who is also Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Head of Central Theoretical Council, highly praised the role of Nhan Dan, especially in recent years, as the newspaper has always held a leading position in providing information on major events of the Party and State. He believed that the newspaper and his academy would continue to coordinate in carrying out the propaganda of the Party's guidelines and policies, as well as protecting the Party's ideological foundations. Nhan Dan Newspaper Editor-in-chief Huu thanked Thang for his interest and support for the newspaper on the propaganda work and assisting its staff to improve their theoretical capacity. Huu agreed with Thang that, Nhan Dan Newspaper and Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics will strengthen the coordination in propagating for the countrys important events in 2020 and in the years to come. * On the same day, Nguyen Hoa Binh, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court, congratulated Nhan Dan Newspaper on the occasion of Vietnams Revolutionary Press Day. Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court Nguyen Hoa Binh (L) offers flowers to Nhan Dan Newspaper Editor-in-chief Thuan Huu to congratulate the newspaper on the occasion. Binh expressed his belief in the experienced, responsible and brave staff of Nhan Dan Newspaper in the cause of national construction and defence, while wishing the newspaper gain more achievements and work closely with the Supreme People's Court to provide information on serious cases. Joe Scarborough accused Facebook of actively 'promoting extremism' in a fiery monologue Wednesday morning as civil rights groups urged big advertisers to pull spending from the social media giant for its failure to make its platform less hostile. The Morning Joe host ripped into Mark Zuckerberg by first criticizing him over a statement that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan released earlier this month slamming President Donald Trump for his 'divisive and incendiary rhetoric' amid the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer. 'Ive seen a lot of insincere statements put out. Gonna say Mark Zuckerberg talking about how deeply saddened he was by the things hes seen the president say is near that top of it considering that he makes billions of dollars off of spreading lies and letting people spread lies, hateful lies,' the MSNBC host raged. Scarborough was referring to Facebook's employees recently publicly criticizing Zuckerberg for deciding to leave up posts by Trump that suggested police-brutality protesters in Minneapolis could be shot. The former GOP representative then exploded over the murder of federal officer Damon Gutzwiller, 38, who died in an ambush allegedly started by Air Force sergeant, Steve Carillo, 32, last weekend. Authorities said Carillo scribbled far-right extremist phrases in blood after he killed a Gutzwiller and wounded two others. Carillo is said to be a part of 'boogaloo', a movement of far-right anti-government extremists. Joe Scarborough accused Facebook of actively 'promoting extremism' in a fiery monologue Wednesday morning as civil rights groups urged big advertisers to pull spending from the social media giant for its failure to make its platform less hostile 'Mark Zuckerberg is promoting the extremism, because Mark Zuckerberg is actually - his site, the Zuckerberg site, has actually set up! Set up! Like, ad promotions that actually push people towards extremist sites that kill federal officers!' Scarborough (center) said Scarborough was referring to the killing of Officer Damon Gutzwiller (left), 38. He was allegedly killed in an ambush started by, Steve Carillo (right), 32, last weekend. Carillo is believed to have ties to the 'boogaloo' movement of far-right anti-government extremists 'Mark Zuckerberg is promoting the extremism, because Mark Zuckerberg is actually - his site, the Zuckerberg site, has actually set up! Set up! Like, ad promotions that actually push people towards extremist sites that kill federal officers! And Mark Zuckerberg becomes a billionaire!' Scarborough said. 'How many times over? Because hes pushing people towards extremist sites that gun down and murder federal officials.' Scarborough then tore into Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg. 'And when Sheryl Sandberg found out that Mark Zuckerbergs website was being used by foreign powers to interfere in the 2016 election, what did she do? She got angry at the Mark Zuckerberg employee that came to her and came to the board and warned them that American democracy was at risk,' he continued. 'Mark Zuckerberg said, he doesnt care that people use his site to lie. He doesnt care that they use their site.' Meanwhile, several civil rights groups are pushing for advertisers to stop giving their money to Facebook and start putting it elsewhere. The groups in the '#StopHateforProfit' campaign, launched Wednesday, include Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color Of Change, Free Press and Common Sense. The groups took out a full page ad in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that's titled: 'What would you do with $70billion?' 'We know what Facebook did,' the ad continues. The groups say that Facebook amplifies white supremacists, allows posts that incite violence and contain political propaganda and misinformation, and doesn't stop 'bad actors using the platform to do harm'. Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP as well as several other civil rights groups are pushing for advertisers to stop giving their money to Zuckerberg's (pictured October 2019) company and start putting it elsewhere The groups took out a full page ad (pictured) in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that's titled: 'What would you do with $70billion?' They want to apply public pressure on Facebook to 'stop generating ad revenue from hateful content, provide more support to people who are targets of racism and hate, and to increase safety for private groups on the platform'. 'Today, we are asking all businesses to stand in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice and not advertise on Facebooks services in July,' representatives wrote in the ad. 'Lets send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence.' Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment. Scarborough's remarks and the ad from the civil rights groups come just hours after Facebook removed nearly 900 accounts linked to two far-right groups whose members may have been plotting to send armed agitators to the continued protests around the country. The social media giant removed accounts connected to Proud Boys and American Guard, both of which it considers to be hate groups. Officials said they had started to initiate a ban against the two groups on May 30 after seeing web traffic which indicated they were planning to disrupt protests sparked by Floyd's death. 'We accelerated our investigation and enforcement to remove the accounts, pages and groups we had found by that point and then continued our work mapping out the rest of the network,' an official told ABC News. Scarborough's remarks and the ad from the civil rights groups come just hours after Facebook removed nearly 900 accounts linked to two far-right groups. A member of one of the groups, Proud Boys, wears a sticker reading 'Antifa Hunting Permit' at a rally in Oregon Facebook (file image) officials said they had started to initiate a ban against the two groups on May 30 after seeing web traffic which indicated they were planning to disrupt protests sparked by Floyd's death The social media company, which also owns Instagram, said they removed 358 Facebook accounts and 172 Instagram accounts connected to Proud Boys. They also removed 406 Facebook accounts and 164 Instagram accounts connected to American Guard. 'In both cases, we saw accounts from both organizations discussing attending protests in various US states with plans to carry weapons but we did not find indications in their on-platform content they planned to actively commit violence,' the company said. Proud Boys were formed in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, who helped to found Vice Media. The group denies any link to the far right but claims to be against political correctness and are 'anti-white guilt', according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC does brand them as a hate group. Proud Boys members also reportedly appeared at the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The SPLC says American Guard is associated with the Proud Boys. American Guard members are also branded as 'hardcore white supremacists' by the Anti-Defamation League. Facebook first banned both groups for promoting hate but members had continued to post images with weapons and urged others to attend protests sparked following the death of Floyd in Minneapolis. The company is also trying to make it harder to find groups in the Boogaloo movement. Adherents are often heavily armed and believe a new civil war is likely. DOJ to unveil plans to strip tech giants of protection from being sued over content on their platforms after Donald Trump accused Google, Facebook and Twitter of anti-conservative bias The Justice Department is preparing to roll back the legal protections big tech companies have used to protect themselves from lawsuits, a move that comes after President Donald Trump threatened to shut them down over what he says is bias against conservatives. The reforms would make companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter liable for a wide array of content posted on their sites. And it would push those companies to be more aggressive in addressing harmful conduct on their sites, The Wall Street Journal reported, and to be fairer and more consistent in their decisions to take down content. The plan from the Justice Department involves legislative reform to the law known as Section 230 - the original legal code governing the internet - so it would have to be adopted by Congress, including approval from the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives. The Justice Department is preparing to roll back the legal protections big tech companies have used to protect themselves from lawsuits, a move that comes after President Donald Trump threatened to shut them down over what he says is bias against conservatives If passed it would erase decades of legal protection enjoyed by social media companies. The move is the next step in the administration's war on big tech and comes after Trump signed an executive order at the end of May that limited the companies' legal protections. But legal experts said the president's order would likely have little effect on tech companies. It was immediately challenged in court and is pending. A change in law pushed by the Justice Department would have greater impact. Democrats and Republicans have found rare common ground in attacking Section 230. The law, adopted in the the 1990s, is seen by both sides as out of date in governing the rapidly evolving internet. That law gave big tech companies immunity from lawsuits that would have threatened the existence of the then-infant companies but now it protects the online giants from liability. Democrats complain the law allows social media companies to spread political falsehoods, disinformation, and hate speech while Republicans claim it allows the stifling of conservative voices. The president has been one of big tech's biggest critics on the matter, claiming the companies silence conservative voices. 'We're here today to defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history, frankly,' Trump said in the Oval Office on May 28 when he signed the order. 'A small handful of powerful social media monopolies control the vast portion of all private and public communications in the United States.' That order came after Twitter marked some of tweets as needing more information, a move that infuriated the president. The debate over the president tweets highlights the struggle social media platform have as they try to balance freedom of speech with cracking down on misinformation. Zach Braff and Donald Faisons stints on TV comedy Scrubs ended in 2010, but the two men who happen to be of different races have remained close. Really close. They even co-host a podcast, called Fake Doctors, Real Friends With Zach + Donald. Still, Braff knows that doesnt excuse him from the national conversation about race thats happening as protests erupt all around the country over racial injustice and inequality. Scrubs co-stars Donald Faison and Zach Braff have been real-life friends for years. (Photo: Paul Archuleta/Getty Images) As Im listening to everyone whos speaking and reading, I know that I too have lots to learn, Braff said as he appeared alongside Faison on Mondays episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. Its not enough to just say, Oh, my best friend is a Black man. Its not enough to say, Oh, I grew up with a diverse population. Theres ways that I can be way more proactive than Im being. I cant just sit back and be, Oh, no, Im cool. I have a Black best friend. Thats b.s. Braff, who grew up in the cosmopolitan areas of New Jersey, New York and Los Angeles, said hes using this time to really listen. Hes learning more about his privilege and the ways he can be more proactive against racism in his own life. Faison urged anyone whos not a person of color to do the same. Its very, very scary to be judged by the color of your skin. Its happened to me quite a bit my whole life, Faison said. Even how people describe me on Scrubs. Im the Black guy from Scrubs, you know what I mean? Im not even one of the actors from Scrubs. Im the Black guy from Scrubs. And so I encourage everyone to just, first of all, educate yourself. Thats most important. People who become more educated will see the similarities between all humans, Faison said. We might do things differently, but we all are the same, and together we can abolish racism, and its everywhere. The Clueless star explained that when people recognize the pervasiveness of racism, the current movement will make total sense. Story continues Its finally coming to a head is whats happening, but [racism has] been here forever, Faison said. Once you ... recognize that theres racism out there, youll start checking yourself. Youll start checking yourself, believe it or not. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: British High Commission's statement comes after India reports martyrdom of 20 of its soldiers in a violent stand-off that took place along the Galwan valley in Ladakh on Tuesday. The British High Commission on Wednesday encouraged dialogue between India and China after a violent face-off took place between the troops of both countries in Ladakhs Galwan Valley, resulting in the casualties on both sides. Clearly these are concerning reports. We encourage China and India to engage in dialogue on issues relating to the border violence is in no-ones interest, said British High Commission spokesperson. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Tuesday said that violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in the Galwan Valley was caused by Chinese troops attempt to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. Srivastava said both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. Responding to media queries on the situation in the western sector of the India-China border, Srivastava said that India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh. Read also: India China stand-off: Chinese military conducts drills in mountainous region For all the latest World News, download NewsX App German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks prior to the start of the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 10, 2020. (Fabrizio Bensch/Pool Photo via AP) BERLIN (AP) German Chancellor Angela Merkel says her country wants stable relations with China and greater access to the Chinese market for foreign companies. In a statement, her office said Merkel stressed Germany's interest in rules-based and free multilateral trade during a video call Thursday with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. It said she also noted Germany's desire to strengthen the World Trade Organization and in stable bilateral relations with China. European Union officials have emphasized the need to maintain good ties to China, a growing economic, political and military power, as relations with the EU's old ally, the United States, have been strained during the Trump presidency. German had planned to host a summit in September with all EU leaders and China, but that was recently postponed due to the pandemic. According to Merkel's office, the German chancellor raised the virus outbreak, the situation in Hong Kong and the human rights situation in general during her call with Li. On trade, Merkel noted the need for further steps on market access, reciprocity and equal treatment for foreign companies in China, it said. The conclusion of an ambitious investment agreement between the EU and China would be an important element there, Merkel's office said. North Korea Demolishes De Facto Embassy with South By William Gallo June 16, 2020 North Korea has followed through on its threat to demolish the de facto inter-Korean embassy just north of the border, Pyongyang's latest move to ratchet up tensions with Seoul. South Korean media reported a loud explosion and smoke Tuesday near the Kaesong industrial complex, which houses the inter-Korean liaison office. A few minutes later, Seoul's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, confirmed the building had been blown up. North Korean state media also confirmed that the facility was destroyed by what it called a "terrific explosion." Though the destruction of the liaison office is a blow to Seoul, the move was primarily symbolic, since the office had been nonfunctional for months. South Korean staff left the facility in late January due to coronavirus concerns. Over the past week, North Korean officials had repeatedly threatened to destroy what they called the "useless" office, which was set up in 2018 as part of a series of agreements meant to improve cooperation and dialogue between the two Koreas. North Korea is ostensibly angry at South Korea for not doing more to stop defectors and other activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets and other materials across the border. Pyongyang has dismissed Seoul's aggressive steps to stop the leaflet launches and ban such activity. Instead, the North has threatened a series of retaliatory steps. "This is a staged provocation cycle rather than a one-off response to NGO leaflets," says Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. "The Kim regime is also signaling the United States won't have the luxury of keeping North Korea on the back-burner for the remainder of the year." Push for concessions North Korea has a long history of periodically ramping up tensions in order to extract economic and other concessions from the South. Currently, Pyongyang is frustrated that Seoul has been unwilling to push ahead with improving inter-Korean ties. In 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held three meetings, where they agreed to reduce tensions, expand dialogue, and interact economically. But implementation of those deals has been complicated by international sanctions over North Korea's nuclear program. The United States has been unwilling to relax the sanctions unless North Korea agrees to give up its entire nuclear program. By threatening South Korea, the North appears to be using Seoul to pressure Washington over the stalled nuclear negotiations. The North Korean provocations may also be designed to increase tensions between the U.S. and South Korea. Rejected offers South Korea's left-leaning government, which is newly empowered following a sweeping legislative election win in April, has vowed to explore every avenue to improve ties with its northern neighbor. But North Korea has for months rejected every South Korean offer. Instead, Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, this month has flung repeated insults and threats at Seoul. "We should not lend an ear to and trust the trite language let out by them for only form's sake as they always make a fuss belatedly, nor pardon the sins committed by the betrayers and human scum," Ms. Kim said earlier this week. Domestic motivations The episode has helped burnish the domestic and international political credentials of Ms. Kim, who has taken on a dramatically larger leadership role in recent months. The provocations may also be an attempt to unify public opinion in North Korea, amid coronavirus concerns. North Korea, a tightly controlled quasi-Stalinist state that does not allow spontaneous protests, has allowed several recent demonstrations against the leaflet launches. More to come? North Korean officials have also repeatedly hinted at a series of unspecified military action against the South, though it's not clear how far Pyongyang is willing to go. In a statement Tuesday, North Korea's military suggested it was preparing to re-enter parts of the border area that had been disarmed under the inter-Korean agreements. "Our army is on high alert to ensure a military guarantee for any external measures to be taken by the Party and the government," read the statement, published in the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Past provocations North Korea has a long history of deadly military provocations against the South. In March 2010, a North Korean torpedo sank a South Korean warship off Korea's west coast, killing 46 sailors. A few months later, the North shelled the border island of Yeonpyeong, killing several more people. Tuesday's liaison office destruction falls far short of those steps, says Duyeon Kim, a senior adviser for Northeast Asia and nuclear policy at the International Crisis Group. "It's technically not an attack on South Korea nor an act that would invite a military response from Seoul," she says. "We can expect Pyongyang will continue with similar military acts but not enough that would force Seoul to retaliate in kind with force." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A health official (L) collects a swab sample from a kid to test for the COVID-19 coronavirus at a mobile testing centre after authorities eased restrictions imposed as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Chennai. (AFP) Hyderabad: As the focus was on stepping up the testing to fight COVID-19, the premier Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here has developed a time and cost-effective process that can enhance the country's existing capacity of RT-PCR screening several folds. It eliminates the time-consuming RNA extraction in testing and imported viral transfer medium (VTM), required to transfer the swab samples once obtained from patients, said a top official of the CCMB, part of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the Union Science and Technology Ministry. In the new method, the samples need not be put through the VTM and would be ready for the Reverse Transcriptase- Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test within minutes in dry forms, CCMB Director Rakesh Mishra said. "You can say, (the method involves) transporting the sample without VTM and eliminating RNA extraction step in the testing that will save time and money and enhance the capacity by several fold of the existing setup. So, you can now handle large number of samples, go straight for the RT-PCR," he told reporters. Mishra said the proposal has been sent to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for approval. Explaining the process, Mishra said at present the RT-PCR test involved isolation of ribonucleic acid (RNA), a substance present in all living cells and carries genetic information of the organism necessary for life, and its preparation for detection. The researchers at CCMB, actively involved in fighting COVID-19 in the country at multiple fronts such as validating kits and devising newer strategies to test the virus, have been trying to see if RNA isolation can be avoided as the process was time-consuming and now come out with new method. When the swab comes to the lab, a regularly used very cheap buffer is added to it. After a process of heating the sample at 98 degrees for six minutes, it would be ready for the RT-PCR test. "This way, the RNA extraction step would be completely eliminated," Mishra said. "The dry swab can be sent to the test centres as the virus can remain stable at four degrees for several days," Mishra said, adding "this meant the cost of VTM would be saved." Besides, it also helps in avoiding chance of leakage when it is sent in liquid form. "Because, you are just sending like a ear bud. You are just sending in a tube. So, it is safe to handle and saves the money," he said. This method can enhance the capacity of existing system by several fold and Rs 200 to Rs 300 would be saved for each test as there was no requirement for VTM and RNA preparation. It had been tested multiple times and the details sent to the ICMR for approval, the Director of the CCMB said. "We are not asking for any validation of any kit, new product. Nothing to sell. No business involved in any kind. You just collect the sample differently and inactivate the virus by heating and use directly," he added. The Union Health Ministry has said the testing capacity for detecting COVID-19 is being continuously ramped up and it now has a capacity to test three lakh samples per day and reiterated that RT-PCR is the gold standard frontline test for diagnosis of the virus. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 59,21,069 samples have been tested up to June 15. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. 17 Jun 2020, 12:52 PM With 3 out of 5 orders, Tier-II, smaller towns lead online sales Online retail in India has democratised shopping with access to 97 per cent of the country's PIN codes and also empowering sellers - big and small - to sell to a wider consumer base. Online shoppers in India will reach nearly 300-350 million shoppers, growing at 30 per cent CAGR over the next five years according to a report by Bain & Company and Flipkart. India-China border clash: 'Closely monitoring, support peaceful resolution,' says US The US State Department issued a statement on Wednesday regarding the India-China standoff at the Galwan Valley region of Eastern Ladakh. The US State Department spokesperson said that both the countries have expressed their desire to de-escalate and that they support a peaceful resolution of the current situation. He also said the US was monitoring the situation closely. UK steroid Dexamethasone shows life-saving qualities in serious COVID-19 patients Dexamethasone, a time-tested steroid used to treat inflammation, can reduce death up to one-third in hospitalised patients with severe respiratory complications of COVID-19, an important large clinical trial by the University of Oxford has said. In India the drug has a market of over Rs 100 crore and has numerous manufacturers. However, during the trial there was no benefit among patients who did not require respiratory support. While WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan has hailed this progress, she has pointed out that taking Dexamethasone inappropriately could worsen the situation in a COVID-19 infection. The drug is to be given only to critically ill patients under a doctor's guidance. India-China Tension Live Updates: 'Nation will not forget their bravery,' says Rajnath Singh Coronavirus crisis: Any decision on resuming international flights to come in July, says Puri India will take a decision on resumption of international passenger flights in July if coronavirus behaves in a "predictable manner" and the entire aviation ecosystem and state governments are onboard, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said. The country resumed domestic passenger flights from May 25 after a gap of two months amid the coronavirus pandemic. Scheduled international passenger flights, however, continue to remain suspended in India. IT sector to experience near-term disruption; FY22 should be normal: Citi report The Indian information technology (IT) sector is expected to see near-term disruption but the financial year 2021-22 "should be a normal year" given the need for technology across segments, according to a report by Citi. COVID-19 has provided IT services companies with an opportunity to test work from home (WFH) concepts, and innovate on services as well as delivery. Beijing cuts flights to curb potential spread of mounting coronavirus cases Scores of domestic flights in and out of Beijing were cancelled on Wednesday as officials ramped up attempts to contain a coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese capital over the past week that has sparked fears of renewed wider contagion. Health officials recorded 31 new confirmed infections for June 16, bringing the cumulative infections to 137 cases, the worst resurgence of the disease in the city since early February. Coronavirus outbreak: China-backed AIIB approves $750 million loan for India In this Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, a skylight is reflected in the rear window of a Waymo driverless car during a Google event in San Francisco. The latest challenge for the autonomous vehicle industry: How to assure passengers that the car they are getting in is virus free, even if it doesn't have a driver. An executive with Waymo said Wednesday, June 17, 2020 that the coronavirus pandemic forced it to put its limited ride service in the Phoenix area on hold to make sure human backup drivers and passengers were safe. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File) The latest challenge for the autonomous vehicle industry: How to assure passengers that the car they are getting in is virus free, even if it doesn't have a driver. Widespread use of autonomous vehicles already had been delayed by a March 2018 fatal crash involving an Uber test vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, forcing the industry to pause to make sure its vehicles are safe. Now it has to dealjust like other ride-hailing companies and traditional taxiswith passenger anxiety over getting into tight spaces with people who may have the virus, or after infected people who rode in the vehicles before them. An executive with self-driving car company Waymo said Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic forced it to put its limited ride service in the Phoenix area on hold to make sure human backup drivers and passengers were safe. The passenger-carrying service hasn't resumed yet, but testing restarted on May 8. Some of the rides were shifted toward delivery, Patrick Cadariu, Waymo's head of supply chain operations, said on a webinar. Waymo, a unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc., has been running the service with selected riders since 2018, sometimes without human backup drivers. Waymo and outside supply companies are now focused on putting technologies in place to clean vehicles between rides, Cadariu said. The technologies, which he did not identify, have been ready for the last few years, he told the Society of Automotive Analysts' webinar. Waymo is looking at what to do between rides when there isn't time to return to a depot for a full cleaning, Cadariu said. "Those are the sort of questions that people are thinking through both at Waymo and outside of Waymo right now given how the pandemic has affected us and also our anxieties around germs," he said. The Arizona vehicles have been delivering school supplies, protective equipment and food for nonprofits in the meantime. Waymo, seen by many as the leader in autonomous vehicle technology, is a ways from running a large-scale ride-hailing service with its Chrysler Pacifica minivans and Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs, he said, without giving a target date. "The way we scale our technology, the way we scale our business will be incremental, safe and thoughtful," said Cadariu, who also runs Waymo's Detroit factory where stock vehicles are modified with autonomous sensors and hardware. "We're really at just the beginning in terms of scale." Waymo has gradually expanded its service around Phoenix and now can run autonomously in an area about the size of San Francisco, Cadariu said. The company said that before the pandemic, it was running 1,000 to 2,000 rides per week. Between 5% and 10% were fully autonomous without human safety drivers, Waymo said. The company, however, has yet to solve the difficult issue of self-driving vehicles in inclement weather. This despite its use of multiple laser, radar and camera sensors connected to artificial intelligence. Cadariu said Waymo has a team in the Detroit area working on snow and wet roads, while other teams in Florida and San Francisco are figuring out heavy rain and fog. Waymo also is investing heavily in technology to keep sensors clean so they can always view the road, something it sees as important to reaching large-scale services, he said. Explore further Autonomous vehicle company Waymo to test in Florida rain 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The Jersey City Board of Educations youngest trustee will continue his education at Harvard Law School this fall. Mussab Ali, 23, said Wednesday he will remain a member of the board while he pursues his law degree, adding there is no need to resign because he will attend classes online in the fall. That is not a decision I feel like I have to make right now just because it will be premature for me to say today I am going to resign, then school is going to continue to be online and I stay here in Jersey City, he said. Ali said the law school has announced it will hold classes exclusively online during the fall semester because of COVID-19. The Harvard Graduate School of Education, meanwhile, has committed to being online for the entire school year, according to the universitys website. In 2018, Ali was accepted into a prestigious masters degree program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The boards counsel approved Alis request to continue serving on the board while studying in China. Ali, a 2015 graduate of McNair Academic, was one of 147 people chosen for the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University. He studied biology and economics at Rutgers University-Newark and has since been reelected to a second term on the Jersey City Board of Education, which ends in 2021. At the end of the day I couldve never be where I am without the people in Jersey City, Ali said. When they voted for me, that gave me all these opportunities, opened all these doors that have allowed me to be so successful in my academic career. But Alis decision to continue serving on the school board while in China by calling in for meetings has drawn some criticism. Former Trustee Matt Schapiro, who resigned last summer to move to California, filed a non-ethics complaint in February alleging Ali should not serve on the nine-member board because he had been living in China. State law requires board members to live in the districts they serve. Schapiro withdrew his compliant from the Department of Education in April after Ali returned to Jersey City because his classes were moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic and started attending meetings in person. He said he would refile the complaint if Ali returned to phoning it in. Schapiro could not be reached for comment. Ali said the future is unpredictable because of COVID-19. For all he knows he could be doing law school all through the Zoom meeting app. If he feels he cant continue to complete his duties as trustee, he will resign, he added. Alis fellow board members feel he will have no problem handling both duties. BOE President Lorenzo Richardson said right now everything is online, so it shouldnt be a problem. Trustee Gerald Lyons said Ali would be an incredible lawyer. I know how ethical he isI know how motivated he is I think he will be a great asset to our community, Lyons said. He said he is going to come back here and help us out and I take him for his word he willhe is just an incredible young man. Ali said it is important he gives back to the community and until he is done with law school he will continue to do that, training future leaders through his Ali Leadership Institute. The biggest thing for me is it is a testament of our community and it is a testament to the sort of things we can accomplish coming from Jersey City, Ali said. It is not very often that you hear kids from our community going to places like Harvard. Libyas internationally recognised government said it had arrested the culprits behind the detention and mistreatment of a group of Egyptian workers in Libya in an incident that has sparked widespread outrage. Footage circulated on social media in recent days purportedly showed militias loyal to Libyas UN-supported Government of National Accord (GNA) abusing a large number of Egyptian workers captured in the western city of Tarhuna. The video showed the Egyptian workers forced to stand barefoot on one leg with their hands raised. The men appeared to be repeating, on an unidentified mans order, expletives against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Libya's eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar. The Tripoli-based Interior Ministry said on Wednesday it had identified the location of the incident and captured the perpetrators. Authorities have discovered the identity of those involved in this incident and arrested them, the ministry said in a statement, adding that they will be referred to prosecutors. Authorities have also identified the assaulted Egyptian workers who have been set free and are back to their normal life, it added. The ministry said the abuses the Egyptian nationals have been subjected to contravene laws, norms and ethics, while vowing to guarantee their full legal rights. The video has provoked huge outcry in Egypt, with Emigration Minister Nabila Makram saying it "will not pass lightly". On Tuesday, the United Nations expressed alarm about the detention and ill-treatment of the Egyptians, while calling on Libyan authorities to "conduct a prompt investigation". The Arab League has also denounced the incident. Libya, which has descended into chaos since the 2011 uprising, has been split between two rival administrations in the east and the west. Egypt, along with the United Arab Emirates and Russia, backs Haftar who is fighting the forces of the UN-backed government in the capital, Tripoli, which is backed by Turkey. Earlier this month, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced a peace initiative to end the civil war in Libya which proposes a ceasefire and an elected leadership council. Search Keywords: Short link: President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov attended the opening ceremony of a complex of recreation facilities built at a lake on the northern outskirts of Ashgabat. The head of state congratulated the ceremony participants on the opening of the recreation center and announced the decision to name this place Altyn Kel Lake (Golden Lake). Noting that the opening of a modern recreation area on the shore of the lake marks the beginning of great transformations for this area, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov expressed confidence that this place would become very popular among the Ashgabat city dwellers and visitors. The start of the first phase of construction of modern recreation facilities was given by the President of Turkmenistan on May 28 this year, during his working tour of the capital city. As of today, there has been completed the construction of playgrounds for childrens sport activities, vacation houses, first-aid posts, observation points for rescue services, food and other shops, residential premises for technical personnel and a parking lot for 160 places. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov instructed relevant officials to hold a briefing for the mass media to ensure broad press coverage of the opening of the new recreation area and all other aspects related to its functioning. The head of state also issued instructions for preparation of a detailed project of the next stage of development of the shore of the lake, which is to be reviewed in September, and, if approved, a decision will be made on the further development of the recreation area. Then, the floor was given to the Minister of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan, Nurmuhammet Amannepesov. He reported that those wishing to come to the shore of the lake for leisure must undergo medical examination and receive a health certificate valid for 14 days. Citizens of Turkmenistan can do it at the Student Health House, and foreign citizens can obtain such certificates from the Ashgabat International Center for Head and Neck. The minister also stressed that the entire recreation area was disinfected and this work would be done on a regular basis. Vacationers must produce health certificates at two entry points into the recreation area, which were set up by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Swimming in the lake is allowed from 9 am to 7 pm. It was also announced at the ceremony that shopping, transport, rescue and boat renting services will be offered for vacationers. Then, the head of state inaugurated the recreation area by cutting a symbolic ribbon and toured it, and the new recreation center on the shores of Golden Lake took in the first group of vacationers. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2022 Despite the sudden surge of food delivery services in the Philippines, Grab CEO and Founder Anthony Tan announced last Tuesday the layoff of around 360 grabbers in its Southeast Asian baseincluding the Philippines. According to Tan, the COVID-19 pandemic has placed a huge burden on the company's finances, and drastically decreased the demand for its main business: ride-hailing service. This came even after the sudden demand for its other delivery arm, GrabFood, "exploded" following the community quarantine. Grab company For the past few months, Grab also tried to cut back on discretionary spending, and even implemented pay cuts for its senior management. Yet despite these desperate moves, they eventually concluded that the company needed to reduce its employee size to just under five percent. That way, they can prepare for what may be a long recovery period that the COVID-19 pandemic will bring to the economy. Grab, which operates in 8 countries in Southeast Asia, also revealed its plans after the layoff, and talked about the changes that will take place. "We will focus on adapting our core verticals such as ride-hailing, deliveries, payments and financial services to address the challenges and opportunities of the new normal. At the same time, we will expand support for small businesses by enriching our merchant service offerings. We believe these steps will steady us on the path towards sustainability." Grab Grab's chief executive also expressed his gratitude for everyone who worked for the company. "Every impacted Grabber has contributed to building Grab into the everyday app that it is today. We are deeply grateful for your efforts and we will do all that we can to help you get back on your feet." Part of this support will be providing severance payments, enhanced separation payment, waiver of annual cliffs for equity, extended medical insurance coverage until the end of the year, maternity and paternity leave encashment for female Grabbers, encashment of unused accrued annual leave, career transition and development support, and emotional assistance support to Grabbers that will be leaving the company. Story continues Grab is also letting its employees keep their laptops to help them in their "search of your next adventure". "I assure you that this will be the last organization-wide layoff this year and I am confident as we execute against our refreshed plans to meet our targets, we will not have to go through this painful exercise again in the foreseeable future," Tan said. Photos from Grab, Grab website and Facebook page Also Read: Grab PH Reactivates GrabBayanihan Amid ECQ Grab PH launches GrabBayanihan Car specialized fleet for frontliners Grab to initially deploy 20K drivers as gov't eases NCR lockdown PARIS - French medical workers rallied Wednesday in support of a nurse who was dragged through the dirt by police and detained, amid mounting anger over brutal arrests. Earlier, a few hundred police officers put down their handcuffs at Paris police headquarters Wednesday to demand better working conditions. The demonstrations came in the context of intensified criticism of police brutality, racial injustice and despair among health care workers over the state of public hospitals that struggled amid the virus crisis. About 50 people gathered in front of a police station on Paris Left Bank to support the nurse, identified only as Farida, who was arrested during a medical workers protest march Tuesday. The womans daughter, Imen Mellaz, announced that her mother had been released from custody just before Wednesdays gathering and charged with rebellion. Before her arrest, the nurse was seen throwing rocks at police. Maybe the charges were legitimate, but in no way was the violence proportionate, her daughter said. In video of the incident shared widely online, police are seen dragging the nurse by her hair, she calls repeatedly for her inhaler, and her forehead is bloodied. The CGT union said one of her ribs was broken. Activists said that what happened to her was part of a pattern of disproportionate use of force by police. French government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye defended the nurses arrest on Tuesday, alleging she had a history of aggressive acts. The arrest was carried out based on the womans prior behaviour, Ndiaye said. CGT members, activists from Frances anti-government yellow vest movement, nurses and allies took part in Wednesdays rally backing the nurse. Etienne Charenton, a nurse at a psychiatric hospital, said he is tired. We are subject to violence every day at work and we were subject to it again at the protest, even though it was mostly about making our demands heard and festive, he said before the crowd dispersed peacefully. Another arrest captured on video this week, of a black woman at a train station in the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois, also drew indignation Wednesday and prompted legal complaints from both the woman and the train station security agents who detained her. In images shared online, police officers are seen pushing the woman and pinning her on the ground while she screams. A bystander repeatedly says the woman is pregnant. Railway authority SNCF said in a statement that the video was taken out of context, and that the woman spat and was trying to board a train without a ticket. SNCF said she scratched and bit three security officers, and that it has opened an internal investigation into what happened. Meanwhile, police unions organized a protest of their own, saying they wanted Frances interior minister to resign. Their demonstration Wednesday was the latest of a string of actions by disgruntled French police in response to recent protests around France against police brutality and racial injustice in the wake of George Floyds death in the United States. French police unions won a victory this week when the government backed down from banning the use of chokeholds during arrests. The Interior Ministry also said French police will start experimenting with expanded stun-gun use. ___ Angela Charlton in Paris contributed. Kwesi Pratt has advised the Electoral Commission (EC) to draw lessons from the unfortunate situation of the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, and curtail plans to compile a new register. The Health Minister of Health is on admission at the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), receiving treatment for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo disclosed the health status of the Minister and wished him speedy recovery, during his 11th update on COVID-19. Let us also wish our hardworking Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, MP for Dormaa Central, a speedy recovery from the virus, which he contracted in the line of duty and is in stable condition, the President said. Contributing to Peace FM's political programme 'Kokrokoo', Kwesi Pratt noted that despite all preventive measures adopted by the Health Minister, he couldn't become immune from the virus and to him, the EC shouldn't think their measures are foolproof to secure the lives of the participants in the new voters' registration exercise. According to him, the Commission will be exposing the electorates to the pandemic disease and endangering the lives of many Ghanaians. He therefore has asked the EC to stop the mass registration exercise scheduled to begin on Tuesday, June 30 this year. "The Health Minister, himself, is in the hospital. Meanwhile, there's nobody in Ghana who can tell that the Minister in charge of health didn't comply with the President's directives. He followed them; he wore face mask. He has done the social distancing and so forth but he's infected...Unless you want to tell me the Minister didn't adhere to the preventive instructions that were given by the President. He complied with it but he is in hospital and now the President says we should pray him. And we're praying for him to fully recover. So, it's too risky,"he emphasized. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Dividend payouts are a vital part of the return that investors get from owning stocks over time. Given the volatility in financial markets caused by Covid however, it is becoming difficult to assess whether dividend forecasts are still useful. Could companies with even the most impressive track records for paying them cancel them in an effort to preserve cash? For Telekom Austria Ag (WBAG:TKA), the data suggests that the dividend is safe for now. Below I'll go through three measures which show that the dividend exhibits safe characteristics. GET MORE DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS INTO WBAG:TKA What makes a reliable dividend payer 1. Dividend safety Its important to know that a dividend is affordable, especially in times where there is a need to save cash. For this, you can use Dividend Cover a go-to measure of a company's net income over the dividend paid to shareholders. Its calculated as earnings per share divided by the dividend per share and helps to indicate how sustainable a dividend is. Companies with a dividend cover of less than 1x suggest that the company cant fund the payout from its current year earnings - and might be relying on other sources of funds to pay it. In present times, it must be asked how easy it is going to be to raise capital in order to simply pay a dividend. Telekom Austria Ag has dividend cover of 2.25. 2. High (but not excessive) dividend yield High dividend yields are obviously appealing but be careful of excessively high yields because they can be a sign of underlying problems. When the market suspects a company may be unable to sustain its dividend, the share price will fall, which in turn pushes the yield higher. A dividend yield of 10% or greater is a signal that a dividend may be too good to be true. Telekom Austria Ag has a dividend yield of 3.74%. 3. Dividend growth Another important marker in assessing the reliability of a dividend is a track record of dividend growth - which can usually be used as evidence that the growth will continue. Consistent dividend growth can be a pointer to companies that are carefully managing their payout policies - and rewarding their shareholders over time. Rather than aggressively dishing out earnings, dividend growth companies tend to have more modest yields, but are better at sustaining their payouts. Story continues Telekom Austria Ag has increased its dividend payout 4 times over the past 10 years - and the dividend per share is forecast to grow by 6.96% in the coming year. Next steps With these three important rules, you can track down shares that offer a reasonable yield, with a record of growth and safety. On this basis, Telekom Austria Ag could be worth a closer look. To find out more you might want to take a look at the Telekom Austria Ag StockReport from the award-winning research platform, Stockopedia. StockReports contain a goldmine of information in a single page and can help to inform your investment decisions. To find more stocks like Telekom Austria Ag, you'll need to equip yourself with professional-grade data and screening tools. This kind of information has traditionally been closely guarded by professional fund managers. But our team of financial analysts have carefully constructed this screen - Stockopedias Dividend Stock Ideas - which gives you everything you need. So why not come and take a look? Plus, if youd like to discover more about dividend investing, you can read our free ebook: How to Make Money in Dividend Stocks. The United States would like a face-to-face meeting with Iran to discuss prisoner releases and it wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an indefinite arms embargo on the Islamic Republic, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday, Trend reports citing Reuters. The two adversaries disagree on many issues, including U.S. President Donald Trumps decision two years ago to abandon the 2015 Iran nuclear deal under which Tehran limited its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief. Trump has since restored U.S. sanctions that have choked Irans oil exports, the countrys main source of revenue, while Iran has accelerated its nuclear program. Washington believes Iran may seek a nuclear weapon, something Tehran denies. Despite the tensions, the two sides struck a deal under which Iran on June 4 freed a U.S. Navy veteran it had detained since 2018 and the United States allowed an Iranian-American physician to visit Iran. Speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said he hoped for further prisoner exchanges and talks on a wide array of issues. Tehran has been reluctant to deal with Washington since the Trump administration abandoned the nuclear agreement, demanding the United States return to it. Wed love to have an in person meeting to have a consular dialogue so that we can move faster than we have, Hook said. The door for diplomacy on our side is wide open, not just on these matters but on ... all the issues that have been bedeviling the US-Iran bilateral relations for 41 years, he said, saying Trump would like to get to the negotiating table. He also said Washington, which criticizes Tehran for backing proxies in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, believes a U.N. arms embargo on Iran expiring in October should be extended indefinitely. Members of the U.N. Security Council gather for a meeting on Sept. 27, 2018, at the United Nations in New York. (Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images) Canada Loses Bid for Seat on the United Nations Security Council OTTAWACanada has lost its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, losing to Norway and Ireland on the first ballot. Canadas loss came in the first round of voting Wednesday in a secret ballot of 192 member states of the United Nations General Assembly for two available seats on the council for a two-year term starting next year. It follows the loss by the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper in 2010, and after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared Canadas candidacy once the Liberals came to power in 2015. Canada needed 128 seatsor two-thirds of the voting members of the assembly. Norway passed the threshold with 130 and Ireland garnered 128 votes. Canada fell short with 108 votes. Norway and Ireland had an advance start in campaigning because Trudeau only announced Canadas intention to seek a seat in 2015 after the Liberals were elected. Trudeau dismissed suggestions that a loss for Canada would be a political failure for him personally, given the capital he has invested in the bidstarting with his Canada is back declaration the day after he won the October 2015 federal election. Trudeau said his government has been engaged in a wide range of international activities and groups because he said that is in the interest of all Canadians, who need global trade and economic success everywhere so they can succeed at home. These are the things that we will continue to do into the future, regardless of what happens this week. But it certainly would be nice to have that extra lever of a seat on the Security Council, Trudeau said. Canadas campaign for the council has focused heavily on what it has been doing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That has included convening like-minded nations to ensure food security in developing countries, keeping vital supply chains open across the globe, and working on new financing models to help struggling countries whose economies have been decimated by the pandemic. European countries were expected to unite around Canadas two competitors, which forced the Trudeau government to focus on Africa, Latin America, and Arab nations, as well as the small island states of the South Pacific that face potential extinction one day from rising sea levels caused by climate change. But Norway and Ireland both spend more on international aid and contributions to UN peacekeeping missionstwo criteria that were widely seen as essential in winning a seat on the council. Trudeau levelled veiled criticism at the UNs geographical organization that has placed Canada in a grouping against European countries, which can never agree on two candidates for the temporary seats on the council. I have nothing but respect for our two competitors, Ireland and Norway, that have demonstrated an engagement in the world, he said. It is unfortunate that were in a situation of having to compete against friends for this. Independent Sen. Peter Boehm, who lobbied small island states on Canadas behalf, questioned in a recent interview whether Canada belongs in the Western European and Others Group, or WEOG, the UN geographical bloc that Canada has been assigned. WEOG is sort of a lonely place for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel. We dont really fit, said Boehm, who was Canadas ambassador to Germany in 2010 when the European powerhouse won a seat alongside Portugal, vanquishing Canada in its last attempt for a seat on the council. Boehm said Canada belongs in the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries, which is less competitive and makes more geographic sense for Canada. One analyst expressed concern that there has been too much focus on Trudeaus political fate in the UN bid. This is not a leaders popularity contest; it is about perceptions of Canadas effectiveness on the world stage compared to Norway and Ireland. Canadians can vote on Trudeau in the next federal election, and we need to remember this is a vote for Canada and not our PM, said Bessma Momani, an international affairs expert at the University of Waterloo. By Mike Blanchfield [June 17, 2020] US Air Force Awards Shift5, Inc Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Contract WASHINGTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Shift5, Inc., a cybersecurity company, announces that it has been awarded a $1.5M Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract from the US Air Force through the AFWERX SBIR technology innovation program. AFWERX's mission is to enhance the effectiveness of the Air Force by enabling thoughtful, deliberate, ground-up innovation. This SBIR program accelerates the development of cybersecurity technology for Air Force aircrafts and other operational technology (OT) platforms. The Phase II award is the result of invested end users and leadership within the Air Force and Shift5's performance on a prior Phase I award . This contract demonstrates the anticipation of the Phase II prototype adoption for the wider aviation enterprise. Phase I focused on conducting initial discovery, identifying platforms, and high-level end user requirements. During Phase II, Shift5 will integrate commercial cybersecurity solutions, such as Shift5 Intake, Shift Engine, and Shift5 Gauge Cluster, onto Air Force platforms. Through this effort, Shift5 wil provide new, innovative solutions to increase the cyber resiliency of critical mission assets. "We are honored to be awarded a SBIR Phase II contract. This is a testament to the Air Force's commitment to incorporating innovations from industry," says Mitchell Plonski, Head of Operations at Shift5. "Partnering with the Air Force complements Shift5's rapid, iterative approach to developing innovative products that serve both military and commercial entities," says Jenny Kim, Head of Product at Shift5. About Shift5 Shift5 is a cybersecurity company based in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Shift5 products defend operational technology (OT) platforms such as planes, trains, and tanks from cyberattacks. Shift5 protects vulnerable embedded serial data buses through proprietary software and hardware products that provide capabilities such as full-packet data capture, threat hunting, intrusion detection, and incident response. To learn more, visit https://shift5.io/ . About AFWERX Established in 2017 by the Secretary of the Air Force, AFWERX is a catalyst for agile Air Force engagement across industry, academia, and non-traditional contributors to create transformative opportunities. The core mission of AFWERX is to improve Air Force capabilities by connecting innovators, simplifying technology transfer, and accelerating results. AFWERX has partnered with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), a scientific research organization operated by the U.S. Air Force Materiel Command, to streamline the SBIR process to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transition rate of the SBIR program. Media contact: Jenny Kim [email protected] 703-810-3320 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-air-force-awards-shift5-inc-phase-ii-small-business-innovation-research-contract-301078564.html SOURCE Shift5 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [June 17, 2020] Pepperdine University Names Mayor of Dallas and Prominent Los Angeles Commercial Litigation Attorney to Board of Regents Pepperdine University has added two new members to its Board of Regents, the governing board of the University. The new regents, Eric Johnson (News - Alert) and Virginia F. Milstead (JD '04),will help shape policy and guide the direction of the University. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005740/en/ Eric Johnson, Mayor of Dallas (Photo: Business Wire) Elected as mayor of Dallas in June 2019, Johnson has been a practicing lawyer in Dallas for more than 15 year. He is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives, where he represented Dallas from 2010 to 2019. During his tenure in the Texas House of Representatives, Johnson served on nearly 20 prominent legislative committees and as chair of the Dallas Area Legislative Delegation. Johnson, a member of the Mountain View Church of Christ in Dallas, holds an undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard University, a graduate degree from Princeton University, and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Milstead is a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom LLP in Los Angeles. She has a broad commercial litigation practice, representing clients in both federal and state courts, with a particular emphasis on securities and merger litigation, director misconduct, and related claims. Milstead has represented clients in matters involving federal securities laws, duties of corporate directors, civil RICO, and unfair business practices, as well as a variety of other contract and tort claims. Since 2012 Milstead has been a panelist for the annual Federal Court Boot Camp and Superior Court Boot Camp presented by Pincus Professional Education, at which she has instructed on all facets of civil procedure in federal and state courts. In addition to speaking at events hosted by the Los Angeles County Bar Association, she served as a panelist at the third annual William French Lecture at the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, which featured retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and on three occasions has been a panelist at the Byrne Judicial Clerkship Institute. The valedictorian of her class at the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, Milstead, a member of the Burbank Church of Christ in Burbank, California, has also organized and conducted new lawyer training related to class actions, legal writing, and depositions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005740/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] TRENTON Mayor Reed Gusciora said he supports releasing information about city cops who have engaged in misconduct on the job. The first-term mayor wouldnt commit to how much information should be provided about disciplined city police officers but said the capital citys plans could resemble Mayor Andre Sayeghs efforts in Patterson. Sayegh pledged to make public by July 15 the names of current and past police officers who have been fired, suspended or demoted for more than five days because of misconduct. Were gonna have some kind of form of it, Gusciora told The Trentonian on Wednesday, adding he discussed the matter with Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. We will have to set parameters of what a major violation is. Gusciora suggested a possible carve-out for cops who are dead but hopes to have further discussions with police union leaders before formalizing anything. While TPD union leaders didnt respond to phone calls, one city leader hopes Gusciora goes further in his commitment to police reform. I think we should make it over the last 50 years, at-large councilman Jerell Blakeley said. I support that 100 percent. I think that gone are the days where people can hide behind their IA files. I implore the mayor to follow the mayor of Pattersons lead and do the same thing in the city of Trenton. If you dont have anything to hide, then you have nothing to worry about. Grewal announced Monday that police departments statewide must identify officers who committed serious disciplinary infractions. The first list must be produced no later than Dec. 31. The New Jersey State Police will also compile a list of state troopers with major infractions over the last 20 years by July 15. Grewals office committed to publishing lists of disciplined officers as far back as the records go. Currently, cops who break bad on the job arent publicly identified unless theyre criminally charged. The AGs edict comes amid demands for more transparency over police discipline following unrest over the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man killed by a white cop who kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. In Trenton, the legislative body also introduced two measures aimed at reforming the city police department, which has faced accusations of police brutality over the years. Last year, the feds indicted city cops Anthony Villanueva and Drew Inman as part of an excessive-force probe. The charges are still pending. TPD Director Sheilah Coley has pledged to equip the tactical street crimes unit with body cams as part of a commitment to increase community policing after several complaints were made about officers in the unit. But the legislative body wants more done to assure cops are treating Trentonians properly during interactions. Trenton council president Kathy McBride sponsored resolutions calling for the city to hire a firm to conduct an independent analysis of Trenton Police operations. The consultant would make recommendations to city leaders about how to improve the departments policies and procedures. The second is a push for TPD to revamp its use-of-force polices to root out police violence and systemic racism, in light of the death of Floyd and other unarmed blacks at the hands of cops. McBride said she supported Guscioras push for more transparency in the capital city force. She said making cops disciplinary jackets public will help municipalities and the public track bad apples who hop from job to job something Grewal looks to accomplish by licensing officers. The councils measures, set to be voted on Thursday, add to the local and statewide efforts, McBride said. The assessment should be done in police departments every 10 years, she said. Theres always room for improvement. The measures in these resolutions will move our Trenton Police department forward. Before Floyds death, an emotionally disturbed white man died in Trenton Police custody outside of St. Francis Medical Center. Video footage obtained by The Trentonian showed officers pepper-spraying and pummeling the man in the face while he lay prone on the ground, his head in the dirt. They were later captured pumping the mans chest in the hospital parking lot. He was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Authorities have yet to identify the man who died or the officers who used force during the arrest as the AGs office probes the death. The Trentonian has since sued the city to compel it to release body-camera footage and police records from the incident. Blakeley said the public has a right to know about disciplined cops on the force, and even those no longer serving. He said hes interested to learn if retired Trenton cop and South Ward councilman George Muschal was ever disciplined after hearing rumors about that being the case. The Trentonian has learned Muschal has demanded his IA file. Officers arent entitled to the files, which contain confidential information, but may receive a summary of sustained findings, TPD spokesman Jason Kmiec said. I think we are at a crossroads in this country, Blakeley said. Police are not masters; they are public servants. I think that people must be held accountable for their dastardly actions. Former Trenton cop Rolando Ramos said he believes the city must balance transparency with officers rights. He favors the release of a list of sustained disciplinary charges against officers but not their names. Some of these guys are retired. Why put their names through the mud? That I dont understand, Ramos said. Ramos acknowledged he has whats likely considered a major disciplinary finding in his IA jacket for failing to timely file an arrest report in a case involving another officer, Nidia Colon, who received PTI after being accused of using excessive force during an arrest in 2012. Ramos served a suspension and moved on with his career. Hes worried infractions like that could unfairly haunt cops for the remainder of their careers, noting that screw-up didnt mean he or others in the same boat are bad cops. Its a balance, he said. Is it set up as a means to address the issues, or is is just a mirage aimed at transparency? What is the long-term goal? Internships Get Canceled or Go Virtual Because of Pandemic LONDONYadeen Rashid was flying high in February. Hed just earned stellar grades in his latest semester at Virginia Tech University, where hes in his third year double majoring in economics and political science. And hed just landed a summer internship at a data analysis company. Then the pandemic hit, triggering lockdown restrictions and pushing the U.S. economy into recession. Many companies canceled their internship programs and rescinded job offersincluding NTT Data, where Rashid was set to intern. I was really upset, not just because finding an internship is hard, but because I actually was very excited to work with them very specifically, said Rashid, 21. He said he bears no ill-will to the company and is looking for other internship opportunities. But, you know, as time goes on, it gets a little less optimistic. Rashids experience shows how the global pandemic, which has already thrown much of the business world into turmoil, is also disrupting summer internships, an important stepping stone to working life for many university students and recent graduates. Half of all internship openings in the U.S. have been cut since the pandemic outbreak, and 64 percent of those in the UK, according to research by Glassdoor, a career website. Hundreds of companies, including Airbnb, FedEx, Gap, and Walt Disney Co., have scrapped their summer programs, according to an online database. Companies use summer internships as a pipeline for recruiting graduates while young people benefit from exposure to real working life. Internships can serve as a source of income or a graduation requirement. More than one in every six young workers globally have stopped working during the pandemic, the International Labor Organization said in May. The U.N. labor agency said the pandemics long-term fallout could lead to a lockdown generation scarred throughout their working lives. Some companies are making their internships virtualmirroring the work-from-home trend thats swept office life during the pandemic. E-commerce giant Amazon is hiring more than 8,000 interns for its summer program, which its turning into a virtual model. Global consulting firm EY said more than half of its 15,000 internships this year will be in virtual formats. Interns will be assigned a peer counselor, someone who joined the company in the past two years, as well as a more senior reporting counselor who will both regularly check in on them, said Trent Henry, EYs global-vice chair of talent. At the Associated Press, some internships will either likely be done remotely, some deferred until next year, and others have been canceled. One benefit of a traditional internshipnetworkingis harder to do virtually, but companies are trying to help. Amazon is providing mentoring and weekly fireside chats via remote video conferencing. U.S. air conditioner maker Lennoxs 54 summer interns can join lunchtime talks with senior executives by video conference. The company still wants to treat them to a good lunch, so its considering sending them gift cards to buy food, said recruiter Lexie Williams. Those who have done virtual internships say its a way to learn remote working skills that are more important now that COVID-19 has changed how people work. Recent graduate Sahar Shabani, 22, did a three-month remote internship with a development charity based in Thailand from her parents home in South London. Shabani applied in February through the Queen Mary University of London, where she earned a bachelors degree in politics and international relations. She checked in by phone every day with her supervisor, who assigned her to research and write reports about topics like corporate social responsibility and then give video presentations on them using Zoom. Whether it was in person or not, you still gained those skills or valuable experience, she said. Its a new way of experiencing work. Catarina Silva, 22, is doing a part-time virtual internship with an Asia-based social enterprise through Aston University in Birmingham, England, as part of her masters degree. Silva, who returned to her parents home in Porto, Portugal, spends her mornings working on her dissertation and afternoons building a donor database and working on a strategy for the foundation. She says shes getting used to the unstructured nature of working from home. That means, for example, night owls could work after midnight, she said. There are a lot of people in my generation that like that flexibility. Silva, who has already lined up a job after graduation with the consultancy Accenture, said shed like to work in an office, but at the same time, you will always have to know how to work remotely. She has done two previous in-person summer internships, at a bank and a fashion chain in Portugal, and acknowledges that interning remotely makes it harder to network. Its good when you go to the office and meet people and have lunch with them, so you build human connections, Silva said. With a virtual internship, thats more difficult. Universities with work placement or study abroad programs have scrambled to replace them with remote options, said Edward Holroyd Pearce, president of Virtual Internships, a British firm that helped arrange Silvas and Shabanis programs and specializes in Asia. Weve seen a huge demand because of coronavirus, said Pearce. The number of students his company has placed has jumped tenfold this year, with inquiries coming from the United States, Britain, Australia, the Middle East, and many other countries, he said. Still, the remote option doesnt appeal to everyone. Tobias Bidstrup, a third-year international business student at Copenhagen Business School, was offered an internship at Procter & Gambles London offices this summer. But after the pandemic hit Europe, the company offered to let interns do it virtually or defer it for a year. Bidstrup, 21, chose to wait. Starting at a new company, doing the internship, and youre meeting people and being introduced to new tasks and also getting to know how the culture is at a companyI think thats really difficult to do virtually compared to doing it in person at the office, he said. By Kelvin Chan Today's warmer weather is expected to be short-lived as a cold front moves up the country. WeatherWatch.co.nz says a cold front due to move northwards over the South Island today is a little slower in coming up then it was looking yesterday or the day before, but this brings the benefit of warmer temperatures for a little longer. But make no mistake it will become colder, says weather analyst Aaron Wilkinson. "Another warmer day with Canterbury likely to get into the late teens, perhaps even early twenties again. The coolest highs today will be about Southland where a southwest change hits by midday. "Still warmer than average overnight tonight for the North Island for most regions. "The South Island as you can see below is starting to cool down as conditions become unsettled " Minimum temperature forecast for Wednesday. Winter 2020 is proving to be weird, even if you're waiting for the winter solstice to officially say winter is here - the pattern we have right now is unusual due to high pressure, says WeatherWatch.co.nz head forecaster Philip Duncan. The highs (or anticyclones) crossing the country right now are very powerful, with central air pressure up to the 1040hPa range. "Put simply, this is as big as most highs get and they are oddly having a positive affect on our climate," says Philip. "It was spring last year and over our recent summer that highs stretching from Australia put many parts of NZ into drought. "Even as droughts slowly end with 'death by papercuts' this year (a term WeatherWatch uses to describe months of accumulated showers fixing the problem, rather than one big rain event) we are seeing more high pressure move into NZ." So why are more powerful highs actually bringing us rain? "It's all to do with the shape and location of the centre. "Last spring and summer most highs were parked over Aussie and spread east to protect northern NZ. "This acted like an invisible brick wall from Aussie to NZ, stopping sub-tropical rain from heading south and limiting how far north any southern rain events went. It lead to drought." Now in May and June New Zealand has seen these highs more independent - rather than just stretching out from Aussie. WeatherWatch.co.nz says they are breaking away from Aussie and becoming their own system freely tracking over NZ. "As a result - we're getting the colder southerly changes as they move in, then the long lingering sub-tropical northerly flows afterwards - and it's this key part that is helping produce rain in the dry zones." Philip says it's rare that high pressure after high pressure starts to make rain - but it's what we're seeing as these powerful highs have good 'reach' and can pull down moisture-rich air over the country. In fact, he says this Thursday NZ will be stuck between two highs. "The eastern high feeding in sub-tropical rain to northern NZ while the western high feeds in a snowy, colder, showery southerly. "The two air masses meet over New Zealand generating rain - and maybe helping to spin a very weak low too." And it happens again next week. Another big high with colder nights, then a sub-tropical flow spreads over New Zealand. And if not sub-tropical, at least milder northerly quarter. "This set up matches what RuralWeather.co.nz and IBM forecast in our June outlook issued in May - that rainfall would be returning to normal despite the big highs," says Philip. "Now, we're starting to see how this unusual set up works - with highs dragging in areas of rain and allowing them to soak dry regions. "Not your normal start to winter - and one that will be a positive for many growers and farmers, not to mention water supply in our largest city, Auckland." It is Primark... but not as you know it. The popular department chain will reopen four of its Northern Ireland stores on Thursday - almost a week after the Stormont Executive gave the green light to the resumption of 'non-essential' retail on our high streets. Outlets in Belfast - on Castle Street and Fountain House in the city centre - Londonderry and Omagh, all of whom have street access, will raise their shutters, with shopping centre-based units in Ballymena, Lisburn, Newry, Newtownabbey and Newtownards following suit on Monday. But customers will have a completely different shopping experience to the one they left behind when the lockdown began in March, with staff taking extra time to make their outlets 'Covid-ready'. That means floor markers and other guidance signage, perspex screens at checkouts and aisles designed to help maintain a two-metre distance between shoppers and staff. Every store will have a separate entrance and exit, with staff keeping count of how many customers come in and out, and of course there will be the now familiar blue bubbles on the floor outside, reminding everyone to stay two metres apart. Expand Close Queues form outside Primark in Rushden Getty Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Queues form outside Primark in Rushden In a further safety feature, basket handles will be cleaned after every use and customers will be asked to use contactless hand sanitising units. And they can only approach a till - every other one will be open - when invited to. Other measures include extra security staff and revised hours as Primark gets back to businesses following the near-three month lockdown. One thing unlikely to change, however, is the popularity of the budget fashion chain. Staff are bracing themselves for what is likely to be the biggest queues since restrictions were eased last week. And if the experience of their counterparts in the rest of the UK is anything to go by it will be an extremely busy next few days. Expand Close A happy customer in Birmingham PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A happy customer in Birmingham At Primark's flagship store in Birmingham, customers queued overnight last Sunday to be first in line when the shutters went up on Monday morning, forcing the retailer to open early to cope with the demand. It was a similar story of so-called 'Primania' in Liverpool, with enormous queues dispelling any myths that customers would forsake the high street behemoth because of its lack of online retail alternative. Two months ago Associated British Foods (ABF), which owns the budget retailer, revealed that global sales had dropped from 650m per month as a result of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. They also admitted that 1.5bn worth of stock is currently sitting idle in warehouses and factories around the world. But shoppers hoping for a special reopening sale or special offers will be disappointed; most of Primark's new stock is set to be 'hibernated' in warehouses until the summer of next year. Chief executive Paul Marchant said a lot of work has been done to prepare branches to allow people to shop safely. "While it might take a little longer to get into store, once inside customers will find all their favourite Primark products and plenty of choice as usual," he said. "We have worked hard to make sure that clear signage and extra help will be there to guide them through the changes we have made to allow for social distancing. Expand Close Customers wear masks as they shop PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Customers wear masks as they shop "We are also asking customers to respect the measures we have put in place to help ensure shopping at Primark is an enjoyable, safe experience for everyone." This is the second time in 18 months that Primark has had to reopen stores in Belfast after a long absence. They began trading from their two current Belfast properties in the aftermath of the huge fire that threatened to destroy their flagship Bank Buildings premises. The damage caused by the inferno was so extensive that it forced the temporary closure of 14 surrounding shops and its legacy is still being felt today. The Supreme Court on Wednesday made strong observations against the Delhi government for taking action against doctors and health workers, who it said acted as messengers in bringing out the real picture in government-run hospitals in the Capital. Dont shoot the messengers. You stop registering FIRs against doctors fighting this war against Covid, a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said. The Delhi government has been asked to file a better affidavit by Friday on this aspect on whether they have reinstated those doctors who were dismissed, withdrawn first information reports (FIRs) against doctors and payment of salaries to medical workers. The order came in a suo moto proceeding with regard to disposal of dead bodies and poor facilities in government hospitals in the national capital taken up last week. The top court had invited status reports particularly from Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The report of other states will also be taken up on Friday. Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) is likely to release the TS Inter Result 2020 for first and second-year students shortly. The Telangana Board TSBIE Manabadi Inter result will be declared on the TSBIE's official website tsbie.cgg.gov.in, results.cgg.gov.in. Some media reports claimed that TSBIE officials would meet Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy on Wednesday (June 17) before declaring the result. Students who appeared for the Intermediate Part I and II exams could download their hall tickets at tsbie.cgg.gov.in. How to check TS Inter Result 2020 online: - Step 1) Visit the official portal at tsbie.cgg.gov.in Step 2) On the homepage, go to news and announcement section Step 3) Once the results are declared, a title reading class 12 results will display Step 4) Click on the title Step 5) Enter roll numbers and date of birth and tap on submit button Step 6) Your results will be displayed Step 7) Download it and take a print-out of the results for future reference Students can also register them at the state government's mobile app--T App Folio--by posting their credentials including name, phone number, and other details to check their intermediate result, . It is to be noted that Telangana has already decided not to conduct the pending SSC exam this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The students will get grades according to their performance in internal assessment. A major drive is being launched to source and publish for the first time Laois GAA stories from the grassroots of the association. The collaboration between the association and publishers, Ballpoint Press Ltd, aims to gather the most comprehensive treasure trove of Gaelic-related stories ever compiled in the 136-year history of the GAA. As well as the four corners of Ireland, stories will also be sought from across the globe, in particular from those who have been GAA frontier people in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and many other countries. The story gathering will include oral accounts so that all kind of stories can be written down for the first time in book form and also feature in the GAA's archives at Croke Park. Potential contributors who feel they have a story but may not feel up to writing it can get in touch with Ballpoint Press and relate their account. It will then be written and sent back for approval before being submitted for final publishing. The president of the GAA, John Horan, said he welcomed the exploration through the GAA grassroots to find the diversity of stories that undoubtedly exist there. The grassroots are the lifeblood of our organisation and it is timely that that such an undertaking is finally going ahead. I'm delighted because it means that there will be a permanent home for these stories in both book form as well in our own GAA archive section. Well-known journalist and author, PJ Cunningham, will spearhead the undertaking alongside GAA Communications Director, Alan Milton. PJ said it had been an ambition of his for many years to bring what he believes is the great legacy of GAA stories together under one project. GAA is a way of life for most Irish people at home and abroad. It is packed with diverse stories from on and off the pitch. I grew up listening to them and enjoying their retelling, but the reality is that many of these stories exist only in word of mouth form. At present, we all have a bit more time to commit such stories to paper so that they can be preserved for future generations. Ideally the stories should have their own unique selling point rather than just normal accounts of winning or losing matches. They can also include inter-county fare and personnel because it is the grassroots people who gather in large numbers to support those encounters. Basically, we are interested in any story from 1884 onwards to the present day that has a special, novel or unusual twist to it. For further information contact pj@gaastories.ie or communications@gaa.ie Letters can be sent to GAA Grassroots Stories, Ballpoint Press, 4 Wyndham Park, Bray, Co Wicklow, phone 086 8217631. Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday wrote to union Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank requesting him to cancel the plan of conducting the remaining CBSE board exams for classes 10 and 12 slated in July and promote all students based on their internal assessment citing rising cases of Covid-19 in the national capital. Earlier on April 28, Sisodia had made a similar request with the HRD minister during a virtual meeting with state education ministers in view of the prevailing circumstances. However, the ministry on May 8 announced to conduct the pending 29 exams of classes 10 and 12 between July 1 and July 15. In his letter addressed to Pokhriyal, Sisodia on Monday said, I am writing to draw your attention towards my concern regarding the plan of CBSE to conduct the remaining exams of class 10 and 12 in July. I hope you would agree with me that the board exams, particularly those of class 12 are high stake exams for children. Hence, subjecting them to take this exam in such an uncertain and anxiety-prone situation would not be fair to them. Sisodia said that it will be extremely difficult to conduct exams in Delhi due to the rising covid-19 positive cases on a daily basis. During the last one week, the daily number of cases getting covid-19 positive has been rising and the total number of confirmed cases now stands at 44, 688 (as of June 16). This is likely to rise to 5.5 lakh by July 31, 2020. In such a situation, if a candidate or someone in the family tests positive, he or she will have to skip the exam causing further distress, he said in the letter. The education minister said that there are 242 containment zones in the capital presently and the number will rise in future. As per the current CBSE plan, a school in these zones will not be used as an exam centre but there is no clarity on how children from these zones will come out to take exams, he said. Mentioning that as many as 251 government schools in Delhi are currently being used as dry ration distribution centres, 33 schools are converted into hunger relief centres, 39 as shelter homes, 10 as migrant camps and another 10 as quarantine centres, Sisodia said, These schools will not be in a position of conducting exams from July 1, 2020. He said that the Delhi government is planning to use auditoriums in nearly 242 schools to set up beds for covid-19 patients to meet the requirement of additional beds, which is estimated around 80,000 by the end of July. Holding exams in the same building where there would be hundreds of covid-19 patients would be a serious risk. In such a situation using school buildings between July 1 and July 15 and ensuring that all eligible students take their exams may be extremely difficult. Therefore, I once again request you to remove any further uncertainty and declare that exams in 29 subjects proposed to be conducted in July will not be conducted at all. For the results in these subjects, the CBSE may rely upon the previous school-based internal assessments which include project work, periodic tests, term exams, etc, he said. The maximum number of pending papers will be held in northeast Delhi, where exams were curtailed due to the communal riots in the last week of February. Exams for the entire country were postponed on March 19, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the exams for subjects of class 12 will be held across the country, the exams for class 10 will be held only in northeast Delhi. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON (Newser) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's chief violated the agency's scientific integrity policy last year in backing President Trump's claim that a hurricane was headed for Alabama. In reproving employees for contradicting Trump, NOAA Acting Administrator Neil Jacobs "engaged in the misconduct intentionally, knowingly, or in reckless disregard" for the policy, an investigating panel concluded, per the New York Times. Minutes after Trump tweeted that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama "harder than anticipated" on Sept. 1, the National Weather Service office in Birmingham tweeted that "Alabama will NOT see any impacts." Facing pressure from the White House and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who threatened to fire NOAA's political staff, Jacobs' office issued a Sept. 6 statement claiming the office's tweet was "inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available." story continues below "The development of the statement was not based on science but appears to be largely driven by external influence from senior Commerce [Department] officials," reads the report issued Monday, per the Hill. It calls for NOAA to create formal rules on interactions between NOAA and Commerce Department officials and to better ensure "the right of NOAA scientists to review, comment, and amend any official communication that relies on their scientific analysis." NOAA largely agreed with the findings, describing scientific integrity as "essential," per the Hill. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY), who'd called for an investigation, said "the political leaders who interfered in our emergency response system need to publicly apologize or resign." Meanwhile, Jacobs defended the Sept. 6 statement, saying there was "a small, but non-zero, chance of impacts" in Alabama. (Read more NOAA stories.) People outside City Hall in Belfast on Saturday as part of a gathering to protect war memorials The Police Ombudsman is investigating how the PSNI enforced the coronavirus public health regulations at large public gatherings. The PSNI faced claims of operating double standards earlier this week in dealing with separate rallies across Northern Ireland. Up to 70 people were penalised for breaches of coronavirus regulations at anti-racism protests in Londonderry and Belfast on June 6. Expand Close Protesters in Belfasts Custom House Square on Saturday Liam McBurney/RAZORPIX / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Protesters in Belfasts Custom House Square on Saturday However, a week later, there was not a single fine issued for a gathering to "protect" Belfast's cenotaph. Several hundred people stood outside City Hall following an appeal from a group calling itself the Northern Ireland Cenotaph Protection Group (NICPG). It has called for war memorials to be protected amid attacks on statues of historical figures across Britain. Many participants wore masks but social distancing guidelines were reportedly not followed by everyone at the event. Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray said that the force had been faced with a "very different environment" from those at the Black Lives Matter protests. A Policing Board member accused the PSNI of inconsistency. Read More The Police Ombudsman has opened its investigation after complaints from those that attended the Black Lives Matter protest at Belfast's Custom House Square and Derry's Guildhall Square. The DUP called on the the investigation to be widened to cover all large gathering including "republican funerals". The investigation is examining whether police were consistent in their approach to issuing fixed penalty notices. Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson has informed the Chief Constable, Department of Justice and the Policing Board that she was beginning the work. Mrs Anderson said her office received complaints about the enforcement of the health regulations at the Black Lives Matter protests when compared to other large gatherings such as those seen at beaches and at the protect our statues" protest outside Belfast City Hall on Saturday, June 13 and concerns that police had not done enough to enforce the regulations. Read More She said her investigation will focus on the police policy and how it was and is being implemented, including how it is being communicated to police officers "on the ground". Following the the Covid-19 outbreak, the Department of Health introduced health protection regulations, which included measures to restrict the movement of people from their homes and the numbers of people who could gather together. The draconian measures received wide-spread support. However, police were criticised over their handling of new powers to enforce the lockdown with some arguing they acted beyond what the legislation allowed. The PSNI said it recognised the impact its actions in response had on public confidence but it had the backing of the Department of Health. Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd said the new laws could have been clearer. He also issued guidance for officers to seek approval from a superior before issuing fines for breaches. Read More The Police Ombudsmans Office is empowered to investigate police policy and practice when it believes it is in the public interest to do so. The legality of fixed penalty notices, however, is not a matter for the watchdog but rather one for the courts. The powers to enforce the public health regulations came under new legislation and there is the likelihood that they will continue to be enforced for many months to come," said Marie Anderson. "It is in the public interest that there be an independent assessment as to whether the associated police policy is being applied consistently. "If we identify inconsistencies and can make recommendations which will help improve policing of public gatherings, we will do so promptly. "If, however, we identify that there have been good reasons for taking different approaches on occasions, that is something the public should know and understand, she said. The Policing Policing Board Chair Doug Garrett said he had met with the Ombudsman to discuss the terms of the investigation. "This PONI investigation along with the review currently being progressed by the boards Human Rights Advisor are both important for confidence in our policing service and evidence the robustness of the oversight arrangements in place here," he said. "To avoid duplication, we have agreed there will be liaison between our respective offices in taking these forward. Following the gathering around the City Hall cenotaph at the weekend, ACC Gray added: ""To be consistent across such a range of issues we maintained our approach of engaging, explaining and encouraging. "Enforcement will be considered following the substantial evidence gathering operation that was in place to record any potential offending." She added: "While no fines or community resolution notices were issued at the City Hall, all evidence gathered will be reviewed to detect offences and we will work with our partners in the Public Prosecution Service to bring offenders to justice." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dave Graham and Diego Ore (Reuters) Mexico City, Mexico Wed, June 17, 2020 08:50 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf5b320 2 World Mexico,coronavirus,COVID-19,SARS-CoV-2,COVID-19-infection,novel-coronavirus,virus-corona,pandemic Free Mexico went into the coronavirus outbreak insisting it would beat the pandemic without mass testing, but with deaths surging as it prepares to exit lockdown, the strategy looks increasingly untenable. Mexico's coronavirus czar, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, has doggedly eschewed widespread testing for new cases in favor of a lighter regime based on a model drawn up over a decade ago, arguing it made more efficient use of medical resources. Yet as deaths and cases mount, Lopez-Gatell has repeatedly backpedaled on when the pandemic would peak, prompting opposition-run states to test more to see how widely the virus has spread. Government allies are also breaking ranks, and even President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has faced criticism for downplaying the severity of the pandemic, has hinted he backs a broader approach to testing. "How can you end a lockdown when you don't have clear data, and the number of dead continues to rise?," Lorena Villavicencio, a federal congresswoman for the ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), told Reuters. MORENA Senate leader Ricardo Monreal has been among those calling for more tests. As well as playing down the need for mass testing, the government was slow to decentralize diagnostics, doctors say. Now that more private medical centers run tests, thousands of new cases are emerging, and not all appear in federal numbers. With an official tally of over 17,500 fatalities, Mexico has the seventh-highest coronavirus death toll in the world. But it also has one of the lowest rates of testing, according to Our World in Data, a research group at Oxford University. Two days after a phased exit from lockdown began on June 1, Mexico logged its highest daily death toll, more than doubling the previous record to nearly 1,100. The next morning, Lopez Obrador pointedly reminded the public the government's strategy was the work of Lopez-Gatell and Health Minister Jorge Alcocer. "All the management of the process to tackle the pandemic was in their hands," he said. "They're the ones who have drawn up all the steps. We've moved in accordance with their recommendations." The president also said he was open to more testing. But he still defends the government's approach, noting Mexico has suffered far fewer deaths than the United States, where more than 116,000 people have died. Sentinel Central to Mexico's initial strategy was using a so-called Sentinel model established in 2006 to track flu-like diseases via a network of 475 medical monitoring stations. The model, said Lopez-Gatell, allowed Mexico to make projections with partial data like an "opinion poll." But the model was not designed for the new virus and the monitoring stations were not set up to provide a representative overview of Mexico, said former health minister Salomon Chertorivski. "If you want to monitor a new pandemic in real time, it simply gives you very limited information," he said. Arguing that exhaustive mapping was unrealistic, Lopez-Gatell has focused on conserving medical facilities for the most needy, and encouraging the public to self-isolate. That has helped manage hospital saturation, but also means some people cannot get help until it is too late, critics say. The government denies this. Daniel Diaz, health minister of Guanajuato state, said the strategy also overlooked asymptomatic carriers, who made up one in five of all cases in his state. Many of them did not take social distancing seriously until they had been tested, he said. The WHO is still debating how important asymptomatic carriers are in the pandemic. Go private Opposition-run states in northern and central Mexico have led the charge toward a more comprehensive testing scheme, working jointly to share information and collaborating with the private sector. Without more tests, it becomes harder for authorities to ease travel restrictions, said Sergio Gonzalez, health minister of Durango, one of the states. The drive has also tapped foreign help. Executives at Korean automaker Kia in the northern city of Monterrey, for instance, in April put officials in Nuevo Leon state in touch with South Korean doctors for training on how to deal with coronavirus. Nuevo Leon later brought in officials from neighboring Tamaulipas and Coahuila states for the training sessions. Federal bureaucracy was initially slow to let private health facilities test, said Guillermo Torre, rector of TecSalud, the health system of the Tecnologico de Monterrey university. "[Getting] the stamp that allows you to do the testing was a real hassle," he said. Now, with private help, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila alone have conducted 40,000 tests and confirmed some 3,000 cases not in federal totals, official registers show. The federal tally omits some private test data because it does not separate full-blown cases from asymptomatic carriers, said Jose Luis Alomia, a senior health ministry official. Last week, according to the federal government's count, Mexico was conducting 12,000 tests a day. That is three times the daily number of tests during the first week of May, when Lopez-Gatell initially forecast the pandemic would peak, but far short of what critics would like. Mexico City has also changed tack to track cases and isolate asymptomatic carriers, local health minister Oliva Lopez told a news conference last week. Over the next month, she wants the city governed by MORENA to do 2,700 tests a day, up from 1,000 now. Sitting beside her was Lopez-Gatell, who stuck to his guns and said what mattered was not the volume of tests, but how they were used. "There's no scientific, technical, logical or automatic link between the number of tests and success in control," he said. That view seemingly jars with the World Health Organization (WHO), which has repeatedly pushed for more testing. At a briefing in Geneva on June 6, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris urged authorities to "test, test, track, test - find everybody who has potentially got the virus." The government has also had to contend with a president whose instincts do not always encourage social distancing or containment. Initially, Lopez Obrador urged people to hug each other and keep going out. Later, he told them to stay at home. When the head of Mexico's Social Security Institute said on June 7 he had coronavirus, two days after speaking at an event with the president, Lopez Obrador dismissed the idea that he, too, should take a test. "I've already explained," he told reporters. "I'm not doing the test because I don't have symptoms." Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sent out a clear signal on the India-China stand-off that resulted in the killing of 20 Indian soldiers, saying India won't tolerate any misadventures when it comes to defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity. It was PM's first statement after the bloodbath at the LAC two days back. He was addressing the Chief Ministers and UTs over the handling of the pandemic. He began by urging everyone to observe 2-minute silence in honour of the 20 martyrs and concluded by chanting 'Om Shanti'. Though PM clarified that India prefers peace, he asserted that India will do whatever it takes to defend itself. Articulating India's clear stand, the Prime Minister, in virtual presence of a host of Chief Ministers, said: "I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not go in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country are important. India wants peace but when instigated, India is capable of giving a befitting reply." He said sacrifice and valour are in India's character. Earlier, the Prime Minister called an all-party meeting on June 19 to build a political consensus over the issue. At least 20 Indian Army men, including an officer, were killed on Monday night during a violent face-off with China's People's Liberation Army troops at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh region. These are the first casualties faced by the Indian Army in a clash with the PLA since 1975 when an Indian patrol was ambushed by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh. Washington: Alleging that Pakistan is using jihadist extremism to administer and is bent upon extinguishing other cultures in the country, a top US lawmaker has warned Islamabad that it might be headed for 1971 like partition soon if it continues to do so. Those who think that they can keep Pakistan together by attacking and extinguishing other cultures with jihadist extremism should go visit Dhaka, Congressman Brad Sherman, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on Asia and the Pacific said at an event on Sunday. In his address to the Sindhi Foundation, he said the successive Pakistani governments, in particular the current one, has systematically tried to attack the rich cultural heritage of Sindhi. Sherman was felicitated by the Washington-based Sindhi Foundation for his efforts in protecting Sindhi language and people. It is using government machinery to extinguish the rich Sindhi language and culture, the Congressman said. If Islamabad thinks that the way to establish and retain its territorial integrity by slowly or quickly trying to extinguish the cultures of the nations that Pakistan has unified together, well they should look at Bangladesh, Sherman said. President of Karachi-based Sindh United Party Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah claimed that religious extremism prevails today in Pakistan because of its two-nation theory. When it is being claimed by the State that it is Muslim state and the rule of Islam is the fundamental instrument of the state affairs than the peace and harmony in the region will be always under threat, he said. We demand from the world community to support the secular, national and real democratic forces in Pakistan for their autonomous national identity in the federation of Pakistan, Shah said. Unnecessary involvement in the internal affairs of neighbouring countries has created security problems in the region, he added. We believe that Pakistan should maintain good relations with all its neighbouring countries, particularly Afghanistan and India through non-interference in their internal affairs, Shah said. This will reduce the tension on border and defence budget, he said, adding the funds so saved shall be spent on the development of the country to bring peace, progress and prosperity. Sherman alleged the government of Pakistan is using jihadist extremism as a tool to find excuse for slow development and corruption in the country. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Washington: President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 US election, telling Xi during a summit dinner last year that increased agricultural imports from American farmers would aid his electoral prospects, according to a damning new account of life inside the Trump administration by former national security adviser John Bolton. During a one-on-one meeting at the June 2019 Group of 20 summit in Japan, Xi complained to Trump about China critics in the United States. But Bolton writes in a book scheduled to be released next week that "Trump immediately assumed Xi meant the Democrats. Trump said approvingly that there was great hostility among the Democrats. "He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to China's economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win," Bolton writes. "He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump's exact words but the government's prepublication review process has decided otherwise." The number of coronavirus disease cases in Uttar Pradesh reached 14,091 on Wednesday, according to Union health ministry update at 8 am. The districts with highest caseload are Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida) - with 1,099 cases - and Agra - with 1,075 cases. The other such districts are Kanpur (over 800 in rural and urban combined), Ghaziabad (673) and Lucknow (653). Agra reported three deaths and 18 new cases reported till Wednesday morning, state health department officials said. Of the total Covid-19 affected patients in the city, 883 have recovered and been discharged. The specially appointed nodal officer state Energy Secretary M Devraj held extensive discussions with the department heads, and visited the Covid-19 hospitals. The police have, meanwhile, intensified patrolling and checking of vehicles. Noida recorded 27 new cases of the coronavirus disease till Tuesday. Thirteen people have died in the district due to Covid-19. A 29-year-old man died on Tuesday, the youngest to die due to the disease in the district. He was admitted to the private Sharda Hospital in Greater Noida. News agency PTI quoted health officials as saying that 13,682 samples have been collected so far for Covid-19 testing in the district. The recovery rate of patients stood at 50.57 per cent. Principal Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said on Tuesday that 8,904 people have recovered from the disease across Uttar Pradesh and the state has 5,259 active coronavirus cases. He said 13,966 tests were conducted in the state on Monday, adding that accredited social health activists (ASHAs) were visiting villages to trace those who have returned from other parts of the country. ST. LOUIS, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- FleishmanHillard today announced the appointment of Emily K. Graham (she/her) to chief diversity and inclusion officer, the first in the agency's history. In this role, she will be responsible for accelerating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) as a critical business priority across FleishmanHillard's global network, while continuing to provide top-tier client counsel through her leadership of True Mosaic, a newly developed DE&I offering for clients. This new offering will complement FH Perspectives, the agency's internal engine for DE&I. Graham will report to John Saunders (he/him), president and CEO, and J.J. Carter (he/him), chief operating officer. "Delivering equity requires urgent leadership, the breaking of cycles and decisive action to bring about change. Appointing Emily to this new role is the first of many actions to come," Saunders said. "Emily is a brilliant leader within our agency. Her ability to influence and galvanize others to a common ambition make her the right person to lead us forward in our DE&I journey. Diversity is our business; it must be center to all we do and talk about. As we reignite our ambition to be the most inclusive agency in the industry, we must show up in a distinct way with our colleagues and clients. Emily already touches many critical parts of our business; in this role she'll be 100% focused on helping us take action, enable meaningful change and measure progress." In her new role, Graham will work alongside a global DE&I taskforce to analyze recruitment, retention, compensation, training and development opportunities for colleagues. The focus will be on achieving racial and ethnic progress in the way FleishmanHillard has long done with LGBTQ+ and gender equitability, as recognized by the Human Rights Campaign and National Association of Female Executives. She also will lead True Mosaic, a global community of multicultural counselors whose diversity of lived experiences reflects the multidimensional world we live in. In addition to deep knowledge and expertise spanning a range of disciplines each colleague on the team brings their unique perspective and world view. The counselors are dedicated to cultivating outside-in DE&I expertise; advancing DE&I strategies for clients; navigating complex topics with informed and timely counsel; and advancing DE&I thought leadership across FleishmanHillard's network and our industry. "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is not only a human rights issue, it's a differentiator of an organization's value proposition and a litmus test for its readiness to navigate the reality of the world we live in," Graham said. "As our agency undergoes a critical transformation by integrating DE&I into every aspect of what we do, I am eager to lead our journey. Together, we are committed to being explicit in our conversations and constant in our work both internally and with our clients. There is a new reckoning and we must confront that every aspect of operations will be under scrutiny license to operate, employee engagement and reputation will all be impacted by what is said and more importantly, done now and in the future." Graham has served on FleishmanHillard's leadership Cabinet the past two years and previously co-led the Financial and Professional Services sector group for the Americas. She has deep experience developing integrated communications strategies in the corporate and financial space and counseling the C-suite. In 2020, Emily was honored as a Top Woman in PR by PRNews and a 40 Under 40 Honoree by Crain's New York Business. Before joining FleishmanHillard in 2017, Graham held senior positions at MWWPR and Burson-Marsteller. About FleishmanHillard FleishmanHillard specializes in public relations, reputation management, public affairs, brand marketing, digital strategy, social engagement and content strategy. FleishmanHillard was named 2019 PRWeek U.S. Outstanding Large Agency; 2019 Holmes Report North America Large Agency of the Year; ICCO Network of the Year Americas 2017-2019; Agency of the Year at the 2017 and 2018 North American Excellence Awards; 2018 Large Consultancy of the Year by PRWeek UK; PR News' Best Places to Work in PR 2016-2018; Human Rights Campaign Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality 2018-2020; PR Awards Asia 2017 Greater China Agency of the Year; and NAFE's "Top Companies for Executive Women" 2010-2020. The firm's award-winning work is widely heralded, including at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. FleishmanHillard is part of Omnicom Public Relations Group, and has 80 offices in more than 30 countries, plus affiliates in 50 countries. About Omnicom Public Relations Group Omnicom Public Relations Group is a global collective of three of the top global public relations agencies worldwide and specialist agencies in areas including public affairs, marketing to women, global health strategy and corporate social responsibility. It encompasses more than 6,300 public relations professionals in more than 370 offices worldwide who provide their expertise to companies, government agencies, NGOs and nonprofits across a wide range of industries. Omnicom Public Relations Group delivers for clients through a relentless focus on talent, continuous pursuit of innovation and a culture steeped in collaboration. Omnicom Public Relations Group is part of the DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) that includes more than 200 companies in a wide range of marketing disciplines including advertising, public relations, healthcare, customer relationship management, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. SOURCE FleishmanHillard Related Links http://www.fleishmanhillard.com OTTAWA - Canada was humbled on the world stage Wednesday when it failed to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council, losing to Norway and Ireland on the first ballot. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The Security Council meets on the situation in Syria, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019 at United Nations headquarters. Today could be decision day for what could be Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's biggest foreign policy gambit: Canada's bid for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Mary Altaffer OTTAWA - Canada was humbled on the world stage Wednesday when it failed to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council, losing to Norway and Ireland on the first ballot. The loss was Canada's second consecutive defeat in a bid for a seat on the world's most powerful body, and stood as a stark reminder of the country's diminishing influence. The defeat of the Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau followed the loss by the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper in 2010. Prior to that, Canada had won six times in a row, roughly each decade since the creation of the UN, although it lost its first bid in 1946 just months after it contributed to the construction of the organization out of the ashes of the Second World War. "This must act as a wake-up call to the Liberal government and a message to Canadians: Canada is not doing enough," said Jack Harris, the NDP's foreign affairs critic. "Prime Minister Trudeau announced in 2015 that 'Canada is back!' but there is little to show for it." Harris cited low spending on international development assistance and the decline of Canadian contributions to UN peacekeeping missions to historic lows two criteria that were widely seen as essential in winning a seat on the council. Canada's latest loss came in the first round of voting Wednesday in a secret ballot of 192 member states of the United Nations General Assembly for two available seats on the council for a two-year term starting next year. Canada needed 128 votes or two-thirds of the voting members of the assembly. Norway passed the threshold with 130 and Ireland garnered 128 votes. Canada fell short with 108 votes. Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said even if Canada lost, it would continue its international efforts to fight against climate change, economic inequity and preserving the world's increasingly fragile institutions. Norway and Ireland had an advance start in campaigning because Trudeau only announced Canada's intention to seek a seat in 2015 after the Liberals were elected. Trudeau dismissed suggestions that a loss for Canada would be a political failure for him personally, given the capital he has invested in the bid starting with his "Canada is back" declaration the day after he won the October 2015 federal election. Adam Chapnick, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and author of a recent book on the Security Council, said Norway and Ireland had massive head starts on Canada. Both "are legitimate opponents with good records who took the campaign seriously from the beginning and likely had concluded enough vote trades before we even began to campaign, to make a Canadian victory highly unlikely from the beginning," he said. "The fact that our campaign was taken off track by the 2016 U.S. election and the threat to NAFTA didn't help, either. I think the campaign team did a very good job over the last six months but that wasn't enough." Bessma Momani, an international affairs expert at the University of Waterloo, said it is not fair to see the loss as an indictment of Trudeau's global popularity, But it "should be seen as an indictment on our lack of spending, attention, and engagement with the world," she said. "That said, this will be used by Trudeau's detractors at home to remind him that the world certainly doesn't think 'Canada is back' and that 'the world needs more Canada'" So it was. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called the loss "another foreign affairs failure" for Trudeau. His deputy leader, Leona Alleslev, launched her own attack in the House of Commons, reiterating her party's criticism of what is sees as failed policies towards China and India and in its trade relationship with the United States. "He sold out Canada's principles for a personal vanity project and still lost," Scheer said in a statement. Trudeau said his government has been engaged in a wide range of international activities and groups because he said that is in the interest of all Canadians, who need global trade and economic success everywhere so they can succeed at home. "These are the things that we will continue to do into the future, regardless of what happens this week. But it certainly would be nice to have that extra lever of a seat on the Security Council," Trudeau said. Canada's campaign for the council focused heavily on what it has been doing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That has included convening like-minded nations to ensure food security in developing countries, keeping vital supply chains open across the globe, and working on new financing models to help struggling countries whose economies have been decimated by the pandemic. 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. European countries were expected to unite around Canada's two competitors, which forced the Trudeau government to focus on Africa, Latin America, and Arab nations, as well as the small island states of the South Pacific that face potential extinction one day from rising sea levels caused by climate change. Trudeau levelled veiled criticism at the UN's geographical organization that has placed Canada in a grouping against European countries, which can never agree on two candidates for the temporary seats on the council. "I have nothing but respect for our two competitors, Ireland and Norway, that have demonstrated an engagement in the world," he said. "It is unfortunate that we're in a situation of having to compete against friends for this." Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Canada faced a tough fight in the UN's Western European and Others Group, and victory was never guaranteed because it is one of the most competitive of its geographical blocs. "I think Canada is going to be reflecting at the type of reforms we need at the UN," he said. "We need to think about a lot of things over the next few months" including, "where Canada best belongs in terms of these groupings." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020. The Congress sacked Sanjay Jha as its spokesperson after After he publicly criticised the Congress at the time of Sachin Pilot's rebellion last month Congress dropped Sanjay Jha as AICC spokesperson with immediate effect, the party notified through a press release on June 17. No reason was mentioned by the party for taking such action. The party also approved the appointment of Abhishek Dutt and Sadhna Bharti as national media panelists. Recently, Jha had penned an open letter in The Times of India suggesting that the party was "hurtling towards political obsolescence". In the letter, Jha had gone on to say, "The Congress has demonstrated extraordinary lassitude, and its lackadaisical attitude towards its own political obsolescence is baffling." "I would like to call a spade a spade here and a shovel: there has been no serious effort to get the party up and running with any sense of urgency." There are many in the party who cannot comprehend this perceptible listlessness. For someone like me, for instance, permanently wedded to Gandhian philosophy and Nehruvian outlook that defines the Congress, it is dismaying to see its painful disintegration," Jha had said. Lakshmi Ji, I hear you and understand your sentiments. We are both believers in the Congress. We need an organisational renewal, and time is slipping by. Of course there is scattered good work being done, but that will not make us robust, dynamic and successful. Thats my point. https://t.co/ToKBqQa36W Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) June 11, 2020 In a tweet he posted on June 11, Jha had said that the Congress needed an "organisational renewal" and that time was slipping by. Motorists on Interstate 90 should not decide whether a planned truck stop in a tiny community in Montana gets a liquor license for its casino, an attorney argued Tuesday in state District Court in Butte. Residents of Ramsay are trying to overturn a state agencys ruling that granted a liquor license for Loves planned casino next to their town seven miles west of Butte. Loves argued that a hearing examiner for the Department of Revenue correctly decided that a liquor license for its casino is warranted based on the volume of traffic that passes by each day. The agency said that shows a public demand to warrant a casino that can serve liquor. The hearing examiner ruled last October that Loves is a responsible corporation and has a credible history of responsible and safe management of the business model proposed for the Ramsay location. Ramsay residents appealed the ruling to Montana District Court and Judge Robert Whelan will decide the matter. Joel Silverman, an attorney representing Ramsay residents, told the judge that the wishes of the local citizens should carry more weight. He said the hearing examiner completely ignored the people of Ramsay and their 94 letters of protest against the liquor license. The state agency ruling would allow Loves to obtain a liquor license from the now-defunct 5 Mile Bar & Casino in Butte so it can serve alcohol at a casino. Loves says it needs the casino and liquor license for its truck stop to be competitive in Montana. Loves Travel Stops & Country Stores has more than 500 truck stops and stores in 41 states. It opened its first in Montana off of I-90 in Hardin, about 60 miles east of Billings, in 2017. According to plans, the one at Ramsay will include a truck stop, Arbys restaurant, casino, tire shop and parking for at least 110 semis. Loves has made some progress in its efforts on locating the truck stop near Ramsay, but some state environmental regulatory matters are still pending. Ramsay residents contend that the areas zoning rules are being broken and that the truck stop will bring traffic, noise, pollution, transients and crime to their quiet community. Silverman said theres nothing in the record stating that the law enforcement can handle potential crime activity, only that they should. He added that Butte-Silver Bow Sheriff Ed Lester had testified in front of the hearing examiner that his department would certainly see an increase in call for services, if the Loves truck stop came through. At one point Judge Whelan asked Peter Lacny, a Montana attorney representing Love's, if his position was that the welfare of the Ramsay community will not be adversely affected by the liquor license. Lacny said that Loves has shown that its employees are responsible operators and have the experience to safely serve alcohol. He added that the area could be properly policed, citing that the Sheriff testified that his department could routinely patrol that area. Jim Ayers, who is among Ramsay residents opposed to the truck stop, said just because the sheriff said he could patrol the area, it doesnt mean he could adequately do it. Michelle OBill Fisher, who lives across the street from the empty lot that Loves plans to develop, said shes worried that bringing in the travel complex and its full-service casino will be a danger to the local school children. Its going to completely ruin our community, OBill Fisher said. Ramsay is classified as a historical landmark. You dont have towns like this anymore. Jean Seymour, who moved to Ramsay in 1954 and raised seven kids there, said locals love their tiny community because it is quiet and safe and kids can play and ride bikes in the streets with little worry. But that will all change with the truck stop and casino, she said. Meanwhile, Loves says the truck stop will bring jobs and commercial activity to the area. The Judge said he will consider the case and issue a ruling at a later date. Love 3 Funny 6 Wow 4 Sad 9 Angry 29 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. New Delhi: A total of 155 companies with origins in India are responsible for generating over $22 billion in investments and nearly 1.25 lakh jobs in the US, according to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The report titled 'Indian Roots, American Soil 2020' showed that the states with the top concentrations of Indian companies reporting were New Jersey, Texas, California, New York, Illinois and Georgia. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) and research and development expenditure of the companies stood at $175 million and $900 million, respectively. Texas, California, New Jersey, New York, and Florida are home to the greatest number of workers in the US directly employed by the reporting Indian companies. The surveyed companies disclosed the highest amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI) were in Texas, New Jersey, New York, Florida, and Massachusetts. Indian investments in 20 US states stand at over $100 million each, showed the survey. Around 77 per cent of the companies plan to make more investments in the world's largest economy and 83 per cent of the companies plan to hire more employees locally in the next five years. The CII survey respondents are from sectors including pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, aerospace and defense, financial services, manufacturing, tourism and hospitality. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said: "The survey results show that the US is a preferred investment destination for Indian companies which are contributingsignificantly to supporting local jobs. The results in the survey capture a snapshot in time, documenting tangible investments and direct jobs only, so Ibelieve that the actual economic impact of Indian FDI in the US is much larger." He further said that it is critical that the US government continues to provide a supportive policy environment for Indian companies to flourish and enhance their operations in the US, especially to aid economic recovery at this time. An ordinance in the City of Orange Township was introduced Tuesday to create a civilian complaint review board (CCRB) with subpoena power to investigate claims of police misconduct separately from internal affairs. Oranges CCRB has many similarities to the one Newark established in 2016, but there are some differences. Unlike Newark, Oranges police director would be a permanent, voting member on the board. The current police director is Todd Warren, who is Mayor Dwayne Warrens brother. There would be 11 members on the board, including the police director, three council members or their designees nominated by the municipal council as a whole, and seven people from organizations like the ACLU, NAACP, and local organizations like the Peoples Organization for Progress, or the University of Orange. The more the citizens are engaged and involved, the better for everybody, said Councilwoman at-Large Donna K. Williams, who introduced the ordinance on first reading. She unsuccessfully ran for mayor this year and will be replaced on the council next month. The ordinance in Orange passed Tuesday on first reading with council members Kerry Coley, Tency Eason and Harold J. Johnson, Jr. dissenting. Eason, the council president, suggested the vote be pulled from the agenda in case newly-elected council members wanted to make any amendments next month. Councilman at-Large Christopher Jackson said police accountability was important, but questioned if the council could hold police accountable rather than a CCRB. He also questioned whether having a police director on the board could create a power struggle" with the civilian members. I see that theres different duties between what the director is going to do and what the citizens would do," said Jackson, who also unsuccessfully ran for mayor and will soon be replaced on the council. "I think that might create power issues. If its going to be the citizens, it should really be the citizens running the whole show. The members of the CCRB would designate one of their own as chairperson. The police director, however, would serve as the administrative head of the board to help other CCRB members receive complaints, perform investigations, review completed investigations and make policy recommendations. The police director will also be responsible for audits and report on the fairness of the investigations conducted by the Orange Police Department. The proposal for Oranges CCRB comes as Newarks faces a legal challenge from its local police union that has reached the state Supreme Court. A lower court gave subpoena power back to Newarks CCRB last year, but the board has waited to begin hearing complaints until the legal battle is decided at the Supreme Court. State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal does not support a CCRB with subpoena power since it would make internal affairs reports about officers, which are not public record, available to civilian board members. A key concern from Grewal was that a CCRB would undermine a police departments ability to carry out administrative punishment for cops. Oranges board members would have the power to make findings and recommend action about complaints received by the public or other cops about police misconduct. Jackson, the councilman, noted some issues with the way the ordinance was currently written. For example, Orange does not have a police chief but the ordinance makes reference to one. The ordinance states Oranges police chief would have to send the CCRB written notification before handing down discipline to a cop if the board has different findings about a civilians complaint or imposes a higher level of discipline for the officer. The board could then request the police chief to appear in person before them to answer questions about the discipline, the ordinance says. State Assemblywoman Angela McKnight (D-Hudson) also sponsored a bill that would allow civilian complaint review boards in municipalities, even though Newarks case is winding through the courts and a decision is expected sometime this summer. Williams made reference to Earl Faison, a 27-year-old aspiring rap artist who died 21 years ago in Orange polices custody, as a need for the CCRB. The high-profile case led to the five Orange cops being found guilty on federal civil rights charges, the Star-Ledger reported, but they were never criminally charged despite calls from Faisons family and activists. A final reading of the ordinance is scheduled for July 8, where public discussion can take place. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASAs next Mars rover is honouring all the medical workers on the front lines of the coronavirus battle around the world. With just another month until liftoff, the space agency on Wednesday revealed a commemorative plate attached to the rover, aptly named Perseverance. The rover team calls it the COVID-19 Perseverance plate, designed in the last couple months. The black and white aluminum plate 3-by-5 inches (8-by-13 centimetres) shows planet Earth atop a staff entwined with a serpent, a symbol of the medical community. The path of the spacecraft also is depicted, with its origin from Cape Canaveral. Health care workers were on front lines keeping us safe during launch preparations, said deputy project manager Matt Wallace of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. They really inspired us, I think, through this period, and we hope that this plate and we hope that this mission in some small way can inspire them in return, Wallace told reporters. The rovers name, Perseverance, has taken on added meaning the last few months, according to NASA officials. Its hard enough preparing a spacecraft for Mars, but doing it in the middle of a pandemic made it even harder, Wallace said. Additional work shifts were added to reduce the number of people working on the rover at any one time and ensure social distancing. Others had to work from home. NASA is pressing ahead with a July 20 launch, even as the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Florida. This mission to seek signs of past microbial life on Mars and collect rock and soil samples for eventual return to Earth is considered essential by the space agency. If the rover isnt launched by mid-August, it would need to wait until 2022 when Earth and Mars are back in proper alignment. A two-year delay could add another $500 million to the nearly $3 billion mission. Unlike for SpaceXs first astronaut launch late last month, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine isnt urging the public to stay home and watch online to avoid crowds. It appears they didnt listen to us, Bridenstine said. So were asking people to follow all of the necessary guidelines to keep themselves safe and were trusting that they will. Perseverance is one of three upcoming missions to Mars. The United Arab Emirates and China also are preparing spacecraft for launch to the red planet by mid-August. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. A man living in Cleveland, Ohio has received thousands of dollars in Venmo donations for jokingly suggesting that he'd tap-dance at midnight to annoy his Trump-supporting downstairs neighbor. BuzzFeed reports that Jett Croisant, 45, was 'frustrated' when he noticed that the neighbor living below him had hung two pro-Trump banners in his window. As a joke, Jeff hung his own sign in the window directly above, which read: 'Venmo @Jet513 and I will tapdance at midnight.' Upstairs vs downstairs: A Cleveland hung a sign jokingly suggesting that he'd tap-dance at midnight to annoy his Trump-supporting downstairs neighbor Teasing: Jett Croisant, 45, was 'frustrated' when he saw the Trump banners, and hung his own sign to 'annoy' the neighbor as a joke Widespread attention: A neighbor across the street, Amy Ziemak, 32, shared a photo on Twitter that went viral Croisant said that the 'dumbest banners ever' were first hung several months ago, but his neighbor removed them on a night when there was protesting. Not long after, though, they went back up. He decided to put up his own competing sign as 'a kind of funny thing to do to annoy them,' but adds that it was just 'teasing.' 'I just want to annoy them a little bit 'cause theyve been annoying me with their sign in their window,' he said, adding that he has never actually met the Trump-supporting neighbor. He may have meant for the sign to just get under the neighbor's skin, and at first, he only received one $4 payment but the sign soon went viral when a neighbor across the street Amy Ziemak, 32, shared a photo on Twitter that went viral. More money: As of Tuesday, he received over $10,000 in donations Going viral: That tweet earned thousands of likes and re-shares That tweet earned thousands of likes and re-shares, and soon strangers started sending Croisant money through Venmo. As of Tuesday, he received over $10,000 in donations. One woman also sent him tap shoes, which are currently in the mail. 'Every two to three seconds, I was getting Venmo'd money. It didnt slow down until Friday,' he said. 'Today its picked up again, and donations are starting to get bigger. The biggest donation Ive gotten is $50 a couple of times.' He plans to donate everything he raises to the ACLU. As for the tap-dancing, he's decided to revise his plans. Originally, he'd intended just to tap-dance the night he posted the sign. Now, he said, he plans to film himself dancing one night to show everyone who contributed, and he will then take down the sign in the window. Garda detectives want to speak with a man seen in the Sandycove area on Dublin's southside on the night a woman was seriously assaulted late last month. It happened on the seafront in the early hours of Monday, May 25. Gardai are releasing only limited information about the attack three weeks ago as they make this witness appeal. The woman was attacked shortly after midnight, early on Monday, May 25, near the seafront in Sandycove. Detectives at Dun Laoghaire want to speak to one man reported to have been seen on his own in the area that night. He is described as white with dark hair, five foot seven in height, and of average build. He was wearing a hooded top. Gardai say people who were in the Sandycove area between midnight and 1.30am that morning may have seen something. They are making a special appeal to taxi drivers, food delivery workers and joggers who might have been out. CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Honeywell and Charlotte Center City Partners today announced the creation of the Center City Small Business Innovation Fund, an initiative designed to spur and support innovation and adaptation by storefront small businesses as they adapt to new economic realities caused by the COVID-19 crisis and economic downturn. This program is launching with an initial investment of $2 million by Honeywell and in partnership with Foundation For The Carolinas. "Small businesses contribute greatly to Charlotte's growth and vibrancy, and Honeywell is proud to support them in overcoming the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis," said Honeywell Chairman and CEO Darius Adamczyk. "With the help of our two distinguished civic partners, we look forward to providing resources that small businesses in the Center City can use to make adaptations that help ensure their long-term prosperity as an integral part of our community." "Our Center City has been a leading force for recovery and resiliency in the past and will play a unique and foundational role in Charlotte's return," said Michael J. Smith, President and CEO of Charlotte Center City Partners. "With the launch of this fund, alongside incredible partners like Honeywell and Foundation For The Carolinas, we are excited and honored to support the small businesses and entrepreneurs that drive our Center City's character and vibrancy." Through the fund, a diverse advisory committee will provide grants of up to $40,000 to small businesses within Charlotte's Center City as they adapt their operations or business models in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is intended to support these local businesses as they seek to innovate to stay competitive and advance, leveraging Charlotte's strong history of public-private partnerships. Priority will be shown to minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses. "During this crisis, we've seen our community step up in tremendous ways to support our neighbors and nonprofits through such efforts as the COVID-19 Response Fund," said Michael Marsicano, president and CEO of Foundation For The Carolinas. "Now we have an opportunity to support Center City's small business community as they pivot to adapt to changing times. I'm thankful for the extraordinary generosity of Honeywell, as well as the Foundation's partnership with Charlotte Center City Partners and its forward-thinking leadership in launching this effort." Small businesses within a two-mile radius of Trade St. and Tryon St. will be able to apply for grants from the fund. Applicants will outline their adaptations and innovations that will enable them to advance their business. Applicants will detail costs and their readiness to implement the ideas, as well as agree to share their lessons so others may learn from their experience. Grants will be targeted to storefront businesses that create unique experiences and ideas with the potential to replicate, scale, or foster collaboration. The Center City Small Business Innovation Fund will open for applications on June 26, 2020. For more information in the meantime, please visit www.charlottecentercity.org/innovationfund. ABOUT HONEYWELL Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 technology company that delivers industry-specific solutions that include aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings and industry; and performance materials globally. Our technologies help aircraft, buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/newsroom. ABOUT CHARLOTTE CENTER CITY PARTNERS Charlotte Center City Partners envisions and activates strategies and actions that will assure Charlotte Center City is a welcoming an equitable, economically vibrant, culturally rich, and beloved place for all. For more information, visit www.charlottecentercity.org. ABOUT FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS Founded in 1958, Foundation For The Carolinas is the sixth-largest nonprofit community foundation in the country, serving donors and a broad range of charitable purposes in North and South Carolina. With assets of $2.5 billion, FFTC's mission is to inspire philanthropy and empower individuals to create a better community. Visit www.fftc.org. SOURCE Charlotte Center City Partners Related Links http://www.charlottecentercity.org On June 15, 2020, a citizen scientist spotted a never-before-seen comet in data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO -- the 4,000th comet discovery in the spacecraft's 25-year history. The comet is nicknamed SOHO-4000, pending its official designation from the Minor Planet Center. Like most other SOHO-discovered comets, SOHO-4000 is part of the Kreutz family of sungrazers. The Kreutz family of comets all follow the same general trajectory, one that carries them skimming through the outer atmosphere of the Sun. SOHO-4000 is on the small side, with a diameter in the range of 15-30 feet, and it was extremely faint and close to the Sun when discovered -- meaning SOHO is the only observatory that has spotted the comet, as it's impossible to see from Earth with or without a telescope. "I feel very fortunate to have found SOHO's 4,000th comet. Although I knew that SOHO was nearing its 4,000th comet discovery, I did not initially think that this sungrazer would be it," said Trygve Prestgard, who first spotted the comet in SOHO's data. "It was only after discussing with other SOHO comet hunters, and counting through the most recent sungrazer discoveries, that the idea sunk in. I am honored to be part of such an amazing collaborative effort." SOHO is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. Launched in 1995, SOHO studies the Sun from its interior to its outer atmosphere, with an uninterrupted view from its vantage point between the Sun and Earth, about a million miles from our planet. But over the past two and half decades, SOHO has also become the greatest comet finder in human history. SOHO's comet-hunting prowess comes from a combination of its long lifespan, its sensitive instruments focused on the solar corona, and the tireless work of citizen scientists who scour SOHO's data for previously-undiscovered comets, which are clumps of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the Sun. "Not only has SOHO rewritten the history books in terms of solar physics, but, unexpectedly, it's rewritten the books in terms of comets as well," said Karl Battams, a space scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., who works on SOHO and manages its comet-finding program. The vast majority of comets found in SOHO's data are from its coronagraph instrument, called LASCO, short for Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph. Like other coronagraphs, LASCO uses a solid object -- in this case, a metal disk -- to block out the Sun's bright face, allowing its cameras to focus on the relatively faint outer atmosphere, the corona. The corona is critical to understanding how the Sun's changes propagate out into the solar system, making LASCO a key part of SOHO's scientific quest to understand the Sun and its influence. But focusing on this faint region also means LASCO can do something other telescopes can't -- it can see comets flying extremely close to the Sun, called sungrazers, which are otherwise blotted out by the Sun's intense light and impossible to see. This is why nearly all of SOHO's 4,000 comet discoveries have come from LASCO's data. Like most who have discovered comets in SOHO's data, Prestgard is a citizen scientist, searching for comets in his free time with the Sungrazer Project. The Sungrazer Project is a NASA-funded citizen science project, managed by Battams, which grew out of comet discoveries by citizen scientists early into SOHO's mission. "I have been actively involved in the Sungrazer Project for about eight years. My work with sungrazers is what solidified my long-term interest in planetary science," said Prestgard, who recently completed a master's degree in geophysics from Universite Grenoble Alpes in France. "I enjoy the feeling of discovering something previously unknown, whether this is a nice "real time" comet or a "long-gone" overlooked one in the archives." In total, Prestgard has discovered around 120 previously-unknown comets using data from SOHO and NASA's STEREO mission. Copious comets This 4,000th comet discovery came earlier than scientists initially expected -- a byproduct of SOHO's teamwork with the Parker Solar Probe mission. In coordination with Parker Solar Probe's fifth flyby of the Sun, the SOHO team ran a special observation campaign in early June, increasing the frequency with which the LASCO instrument takes images of the Sun's corona, as well as doubling the exposure time for each image. These changes in LASCO's imaging were designed to help the instrument pick up faint structures that would later pass over Parker Solar Probe. "Since Parker Solar Probe was crossing the plane of the sky as seen from Earth, the structures that we see from SOHO's coronagraphs will be in the path of Parker Solar Probe," said Angelos Vourlidas, an astrophysicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, in Laurel, Maryland, who works on the Parker Solar Probe and SOHO missions. "It's the optimal configuration to do this type of imaging." These more-sensitive images also revealed a number of comets that, based on their brightness, would have been too faint to see in SOHO's regular, shorter-exposure images. SOHO typically sees an uptick in comet discoveries each June, because Earth's position in space places SOHO at a good angle to see sunlight reflecting off of comets following the Kreutz path, a family of comets that accounts for about 85% of the comets discovered by SOHO. But this June saw 17 comets discovered in the first nine days of the month, around double the normal rate of discoveries. "Our exposure time is twice as long, so we're gathering way more light, and seeing comets that are otherwise too faint for us to see -- it's just like any long-exposure photography," said Battams. "It's possible that if we doubled exposure time again, we'd see even more comets." SOHO is a cooperative effort between ESA and NASA. Mission control is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. SOHO's Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment, or LASCO, which is the instrument that provides most of the comet imagery, was built by an international consortium, led by the U.S. Naval Research Lab. ### Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 06:21:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly on Wednesday elected India, Ireland, Mexico and Norway as non-permanent members of the Security Council for a two-year term. One non-permanent seat remains to be filled. Kenya and Djibouti, neither of which won the required two-third majority on Wednesday, will enter a run-off on Thursday, said Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, the current General Assembly president, who announced the voting results. The newly elected members of the Security Council will have a two-year term that begins on Jan. 1, 2021. The Security Council has 15 members, five of which are permanent ones: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. The 10 non-permanent seats of the Security Council are allocated by geographic region, with five replaced each year. India will replace Indonesia; Ireland and Norway will replace Belgium and Germany; Mexico will replace the Dominican Republic. South Africa will be replaced by the winner in the African group. Canada, which was running in the Western Europe and Others Group against Ireland and Norway, failed to get a seat. Ireland in this group had the best luck as it won just enough votes to get elected. One vote less would have led to a run-off with Canada. India and Mexico were running unopposed in their respective regional groups. A candidate must obtain the support of two-thirds of the member states present and voting at the General Assembly session in order to secure a seat on the Security Council, regardless of whether the candidate is contested or not. This means that a minimum of 129 positive votes are required to win a seat if all 193 UN member states are present and voting. In Wednesday's voting, India won 184 out of 192 votes; Mexico won 187 out of 187 votes; Norway won 130 out of 191 votes; Ireland won 128 out of 191 votes. Canada won 108 out of 191 votes. In the African group, Kenya obtained 113 of 192 votes; Djibouti got 78 votes. Neither won the required two-third majority of 128 votes. The Security Council is considered the most powerful body of the United Nations. The council, which is tasked to maintain international peace and security, can make legally binding decisions and has the power to impose sanctions and authorize the use of force. Enditem June 17, 2020 / 11:01 PM IST At least 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in a violent face-off in Ladakh's Galwan Valley on the night of June 15-16, the Army said yesterday. Four more Indian soldiers are in critical condition, reports suggest. In a statement earlier, the Indian Army had indicated that there were casualties on the Chinese side too. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called an all-party meet on June 19 to discuss the situation.In his first official response, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that loss of soldiers is deeply disturbing and painful and that they displayed exemplary courage and valour. The nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice, he added. More developments and reactions are expected on this front. Catch the LIVE updates here: Dubai: The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement towards the south of the kingdom on Tuesday after intercepting several drones the previous night. Violence has surged between the Western-backed alliance and the Houthi group after a six-week ceasefire prompted by the coronavirus pandemic expired last month. Men in protective gear bury a victim of COVID-19 in the Houthi-controlled city of Ibb, Yemen. Credit:AP A coalition statement said the missile was launched towards the southern region of Najran. It earlier said that it had destroyed several armed drones fired towards the southern city of Khamis Mushait late on Monday. A Houthi military spokesman said in a Twitter post that the Khamis Mushait attack was in response to coalition air strikes. There was no immediate confirmation of the missile attack. Kinross Gold Corporation KGC has reached an agreement with the government of Mauritania to improve their partnership. Per the terms of the deal, Kinross will receive a 30-year exploitation license for Tasiast Sud from the government under the 2012 Mining Convention and the 2008 Mining Code. Further, the deal reinstates the tax exemption on fuel duties and includes the repayment of around $40 million in outstanding VAT refunds to Kinross by the government. Post completion of the definitive agreements, Kinross will pay $10 million to the government to resolve disputed issues associated with fuel use and tax exemptions. Additionally, Kinross will pay $15 million upon receiving the earlier-mentioned exploitation license to resolve any disputed issues stemming from Kinross prior application to convert the Tasiast Sud exploration license into an exploitation license. The renewed partnership approach contemplates the government to receive a 15% free carried interest in Tasiast Sud along with an option to purchase an additional 10% interest in the project after completion of additional feasibility works. Per Kinross, the balanced agreement will deliver increased stability and position Tasiast for long-term success along with providing benefits to Mauritania and its people. Shares of Kinross have surged 85.7% in the past year compared with the industrys 49% growth. Zacks Rank & Key Picks Kinross currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Barrick Gold Corporation GOLD, B2Gold Corp BTG and Franco-Nevada Corporation FNV, all carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here. Barrick has an expected earnings growth rate of 54.9% for 2020. The companys shares have surged 74.9% in the past year. B2Gold has an expected earnings growth rate of 221.4% for 2020. Its shares have returned 86.7% in the past year. Franco-Nevada has an expected earnings growth rate of 19.2% for 2020. The companys shares have surged 68.3% in the past year. Just Released: Zacks 7 Best Stocks for Today Experts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of +24.1% per year. These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout. See these time-sensitive tickers now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC) : Free Stock Analysis Report FrancoNevada Corporation (FNV) : Free Stock Analysis Report Barrick Gold Corporation (GOLD) : Free Stock Analysis Report B2Gold Corp (BTG) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research WALLINGFORD Erika Hurst, of Durham, is the owner of Strongher Fitness in Wallingford. Her business, formerly known as Hurst Strength, will be reopening this week. Hursts garage style gym has been a haven for those who prefer a more personalized fitness approach. I met with her recently to get an idea of what gyms will look like when they reopen. Joan Goodman, membership and marketing director of the Meriden, New Britain, and Berlin YMCAs, emailed a statement detailing plans for the Ys reopening. 1. Sanitization measures I just completed the self-certification for the governments compliance for reopening safely said Hurst. Throughout Strongher Fitness, 168 North Plains Industrial Road, there are signs detailing the states COVID-19 prevention efforts, including staying home when ill, frequent hand washing, wearing masks, and keeping at least 6 feet from others. We have the big garage door that we open for extra ventilation said Hurst. Hurst said each client that enters the gym will receive their own cleaning products. Commonly touched surfaces will be cleaned throughout the day and there will be a deep clean each night. The Meriden, New Britain, and Berlin YMCAs safety procedures include temperature checks and stringent sanitization measures including an electrostatic sprayer. 2. Personal training Due to the nature of Hursts personalized fitness business she is accustomed to working with only a few clients at a time. Everything has always been appointment only, said Hurst. Strongher fitness offers small group, semi-private training. Its never been more than three people in here per appointment time said Hurst. Hurst will be further limiting her sessions to two people per hour. The Meriden, New Britain, and Berlin Ys stated that reservations will be required in the fitness center, pool and group exercise areas to ensure that social distancing and capacity guidelines are met. 3. Virtual training Hurst said she has transitioned much of her client base online to accommodate them during the shutdown. She added that Strongher Fitness will continue offering online training sessions for those who do not feel comfortable heading into the gym just yet. Goodman said local YMCA members have access to virtual training sessions as well. We also have a library of virtual workouts for our members said Goodman. 4. Starting from scratch Many gym-goers will be restarting their workout routine after months of no structured physical activity. Hurst said that a lot of people get stuck in the all or nothing mindset. One of our favorite phrases here is, all or something...just take that one little step said Hurst. Hurst said that she will be scaling back her clients workout programs to adjust for the three months spent away from the gym. 5. Less equipment Hurst has been devising workouts which require less equipment for her clients so there are not as many frequent touchpoints. Hurst said that you can reach your fitness goals with minimal or no equipment by using your body weight to exercise and controlling the tempo. A really great way to make any exercise harder without adding weight or using weight is to slow it down said Hurst. The Meriden, New Britain, and Berlin Ys statement included a section advising members to enter the facility ready to exercise in order to limit the amount of time spent in locker rooms. The Y is asking that members leave gym bags and personal belongings at home. For more information about Strongher Fitness visit https://www.strongherfitnessct.com/. For more information about the Meriden YMCAs reopening visit https://www.meridenymca.org/. Kristen Dearborn is a Wallingford native, NASM certified personal trainer and author of the blog dearfitkris https://dearfitkris.wordpress.com/ Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold an all-party meeting on Friday to discuss the situation on the countrys border with China after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a face-off with Chinese troops along the undefined Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, his office said on Wednesday. Twenty Indian Army soldiers, including a commanding officer, were killed on Monday after over six hours of violent face-off with troops of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army along the undefined Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Galwan Valley of eastern Ladakh. Four Indian soldiers are in critical condition after the face-off, news agency ANI reported quoting sources. In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister @narendramodi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 PM on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting, the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) tweeted. The scrap came after tensions between India and China first flared up in early May following clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Sikkim and Ladakh sectors of the LAC. Both the sides have held a series of talks to resolve the six-week-long confrontation. Indian Army officials claimed 43 Chinese were killed or seriously injured, citing radio intercepts and other intelligence. HT couldnt independently verify this. In first comments from the Centre, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday condoled the death of the 20 soldiers in Galwan Valley. The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army, Singh tweeted. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias bravehearts, the minister added. The Congress party, including its senior leader Rahul Gandhi, have questioned the Prime Ministers silence over the Chinese aggression. Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday demanded to know about the violent confrontation between Indian and Chinese armies. The Indian Army has said in a statement that the troops have disengaged since Mondays confrontation. Columbia area, June 8. Two Columbia males, 18 and 16, were charged in connection with robberies of a taxi driver and a food delivery driver on May 31. The 18-year-old was charged with two counts each of armed robbery and robbery, kidnapping and theft. The 16-year-old was charged as an adult with armed robbery, robbery, theft, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery. BURLINGTON, Mass., June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Arcadia (arcadia.io), a widely-recognized leader in population health management, today announced the promotion and addition of two value-based care performance and operations leaders, a further investment in the success of its customers in at-risk value-based care contracts. Debbie Conboy has been promoted to Vice President of Risk Adjustment and Quality Products. In addition, Catherine Turbett has joined the company as Vice President of ACO and Health Plan Account Operations. The promotion of Conboy and addition of Turbett reinforce Arcadia's commitment to ensuring its payer and provider customers can achieve strong economic success under challenging risk-based payment models. Both leaders have deep, hands-on operational experience driving performance improvements under value-based contracting arrangements for accountable care organizations (ACOs) and health plans. Debbie Conboy is a key strategic partner for healthcare organizations implementing successful risk adjustment programs Debbie Conboy joined Arcadia in 2019 and had an immediate, substantial impact on the company's product development and customer implementations. As Vice President of Risk Adjustment and Quality Products, she leads development of a portfolio of products that enable health plans and their provider networks to succeed under complex risk-based payment models. Conboy is a key strategic partner for Arcadia customers implementing successful, technology-driven risk adjustment programs, and provides guidance in the development of their analytics and financial projections. Before joining Arcadia, Conboy had 30 years of experience at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), where she directed risk adjustment strategy and operations across all lines of BCBSMA and led risk adjustment initiatives that resulted in $50 million in revenue. She is widely recognized as an industry expert and is an in-demand speaker for national audiences. "The healthcare industry today is at an exciting inflection point when technology is accelerating at a rapid pace and enabling new advancements in how payers and providers are compensated for delivering quality care," said Conboy. "I am delighted that Arcadia is enabling me to draw on the deep experience I've gained with health plans to help payers better manage risk and enhance their operational stability." Catherine Turbett brings deep operational experience to optimize the transition to value-based care At Arcadia, Turbett will drive operational performance improvements under value-based contracting arrangements for ACOs and health plans. She will oversee Arcadia's account management team to ensure that customers are able to develop the right strategies to address the fundamentals of financial performance in value-based contracts. Previously, Turbett served as Executive Director of National Performance Operations for Steward Health Care, one of the largest risk-bearing provider organizations and ACOs in the country. Turbett oversaw a team of 300 in Steward's managed services organization that was responsible for delivering all performance operations for Steward's health plans and ACOs, including risk adjustment, quality, patient and member experience, provider enrollment and credentialing, and referral management. "Success under value-based care requires healthcare organizations to have an analytics platform that can provide comprehensive population-level and patient-level data, but they also need insights and understanding of how to use that data," said Turbett. "It is exciting to have the opportunity to leverage my experience in operations to help healthcare organizations take value-based care to the next level and achieve long-term economic sustainability. I look forward to ensuring our clients are equipped with the right data at the right time to impact patients." "We are extremely fortunate to have Debbie and Catherine on board," said Heather Trafton, Chief Operating Officer at Arcadia. "These leaders have strong track records of driving operational performance at some of the largest healthcare organizations in the country. Their hands-on experience will help our teams and our customers as we navigate a challenging path forward through the current COVID-19 crisis." Arcadia and Highmark to speak at RISE National 2020 on leveraging technology to reduce provider abrasion At RISE National 2020, the industry's premier annual Medicare Advantage conference, Conboy and Alan Whittington, Director of Risk Adjustment Programs and Portfolio Management at Highmark, will present "Breaking Down Barriers Between Providers and Health Plans." Highmark Inc. is one of America's largest healthcare organizations, operating health insurance plans serving 5.6 million members in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia. In this session, Conboy and Whittington will discuss best practices health insurers can implement to collaborate with provider partners to increase transparency, innovate in data sharing, reduce administrative burdens, decrease provider abrasion, and provide ongoing, curated support at the practice level. RISE National 2020 will take place virtually, with workshops June 26, and live streaming content June 29 and 30. More online education from Arcadia's Value Based Care Leadership Series Thought leaders from Arcadia customers around the country are sharing case studies and insights in the Arcadia Value Based Care Leadership Series. Register for upcoming presentations and access a library of recordings at arcadia.io/vbcls. About Arcadia Arcadia (arcadia.io) is the only healthcare data and software company dedicated to healthcare organizations achieving financial success in value-based care. We work with health systems, providers, payers, and life science companies positioning themselves to win in value-based care, including some of the largest, most complex, and influential health systems and health plans in the country. Our purpose-built population health platform enables our customers to consistently overperform industry average outcomes by reducing medical expenses, improving risk coding accuracy, and improving quality and patient health outcomes. Our software continuously aggregates and curates the highest quality, most complete and up-to-date data foundation, provides relevant, timely and predictive analytics, and enables action through care management tools and in-workflow insights that present at the point of care. Arcadia has off-the-shelf integration technology for more than 50 different physical and behavioral health EHR vendors, powered by machine learning that combs through variations in over 93 million longitudinal patient records across clinical, claims, social determinants of health, and operational data sources. Founded in 2002, Arcadia is headquartered outside Boston in Burlington, MA, with offices in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Rockford, IL. Arcadia has been recognized as a leading vendor by analysts Chilmark, Frost & Sullivan, IDC, and KLAS, and we have been awarded Best in KLAS for Value-Based Care Managed Services in 2019 and 2020. Media Contacts: Alyssa Drew Director, Strategic Marketing Arcadia 781.202.3775 [email protected] Christopher Currington Senior Account Director Amendola Communications for Arcadia 314.799.1987 [email protected] SOURCE Arcadia.io Related Links http://www.arcadia.io Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam delivering a speech on 17 June. 2020. (PHOTO: Ministry for Information and Communications) SINGAPORE Singapore must never become a society where social pedigree and connections count for more than ability and effort, said Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Wednesday (17 June). The COVID-19 pandemic has caused not just an economic recession but also worsened social divisions in many countries, said Tharman, who is also Coordinating Minister for Social Policies. All this is sharpening feelings of helplessness, and the sense that the system is stacked against those who are already disadvantaged. And it is bringing long-standing perceptions of racial injustice to a boiling point, he added. Delivering a 20-minute speech televised on regional broadcaster CNA, Tharman said that while Singapore cannot avoid the global economic downturn, it must absolutely defy the loss of social cohesion and despair taking hold in many other countries. Never think these trends cannot take hold in Singapore. There are many societies which used to be cohesive, but are now fragmenting, both in the West and in Asia. He stressed that the government will redouble efforts to strengthen Singapores social compact by ensuring everyone has full opportunity to do well for themselves and boosting support for the disadvantaged, Tharmans speech is the fifth in a series of national speeches delivered by Cabinet ministers, following those by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing. The last speaker, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, is scheduled to address the nation on Saturday. Equal opportunities, social mobility Singapores society has been able to transform itself through social mobility and allowed generations of children from humble backgrounds to move up in life, Tharman noted. Even today, Singaporeans who grow up in lower-income families have a better chance of moving up the income ladder than those in most other advanced countries. Story continues But there is nothing natural or pre-ordained about social mobility, he stressed, with every successful country finding it more difficult to sustain it with time. Parents who themselves had higher education or who have become better off are investing more in their children, and moving them further ahead of the rest. It therefore requires relentless government effort, quality interventions in schools, and dedicated networks of community support to keep social mobility alive, said Tharman. The government is investing much more into equalising opportunities. For instance, Tharman cited the expansion of KidSTART a programme for children from low-income families, the upgrading of the preschool profession, and the setting up of the National Institute of Early Childhood Development These efforts will ensure that children will have a good start regardless of which preschools they go to. Tharman noted that teachers here have made great effort to help students from poorer homes and those at risk, to ensure they did not fall behind during the recent circuit breaker period. The Ministry of Education has also been allocating extra resources to schools for students from disadvantaged backgrounds through the hiring of more teachers, allied educators, student welfare officers, and teacher-counsellors. Tharman also pointed out that Education Minister Ong Ye Kung has been accelerating plans to equip all secondary school students with a personal laptop or tablet for learning, and by next year, they will have their own device, seven years ahead of the original target. When you add up all we are doing, starting from the earliest years of childhood, we are making a determined effort to keep Singapore a place where every individual can do well, regardless of their starting points. Culture of solidarity Tharman noted that the culture of solidarity has been on display during the COVID-19 crisis as Singaporeans from all walks of life stepped forward to support those who were most affected. Such community efforts complement the governments social support schemes to help Singaporeans through the crisis, he added. No one can tell what world will emerge when COVID-19 is over, or whether it has entered a long period of economic stagnation as many fear. But we will do all we can to make ours a more cohesive society, and do it in ways that can be sustained into the next generation, said Tharman. Everyone has a role to play to boost the culture of solidarity so that Singaporeans have each other to rely on through the good and bad times. Tharman added, Every individual must put in the effort to achieve their fullest potential. But we must also take responsibility collectively, to help people bounce back from lifes inevitable setbacks, and make sure no Singaporean is left behind. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore More Singapore stories: Employers need new thinking to give mature Singaporean workers fair chance: Tharman 2 Singapore residents among 247 new COVID-19 infections; 5 community cases COVID-19: Phase 2 reopening to start on Friday, social groups and household visitors capped at 5 COVID-19: Retail businesses can reopen physical outlets on Friday with safety measures in pla Though restaurants and bars across Chicago have been able to open for outdoor business for two weeks, Mayor Lori Lightfoot had excluded bars and brewery taprooms that didnt have outdoor seating and a license to sell food. Several bars and breweries complained they had been left behind. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) said it continues to experience significant negative impacts to passenger demand and bookings in second quarter due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the company has continued to experience net positive bookings thus far in June 2020. Southwest Airlines has published its flight schedule for sale through January 4, 2021. Preliminary May operating revenues decreased, year-over-year, in the range of 85 to 90 percent; capacity decreased approximately 64 percent; and load factor was approximately 30 percent; all in line with the company's prior estimates. For the month of June, operating revenues are currently estimated to decrease, year-over-year, in the range of 70 to 75 percent; capacity estimated to decrease in the range of 40 to 50 percent; and load factor estimated to be in the range of 40 to 50 percent. This is compared favorably to the previous estimates of operating revenues decreasing, year-over-year, in the range of 80 to 85 percent; capacity decreasing in the range of 45 to 55 percent; and load factor in the range of 35 to 45 percent. For July, operating revenues are currently estimated to decrease, year-over-year, in the range of 65 to 70 percent; capacity is estimated to decrease in the range of 25 to 35 percent; and load factor is estimated to be in the range of 45 to 55 percent. The company currently estimates its second quarter capacity to decrease in the range of 50 to 60 percent, year-over-year. Southwest Airlines currently estimates approximately 24 months of liquidity. The company noted that this is compared favorably with the previous estimate of approximately 20 months of liquidity, primarily due to modest improvements in revenue estimates in second quarter 2020. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de EDWARDSVILLE The Edwardsville School District 7 finance committee met Monday prior to the school board meeting to discuss this years amended budget, including funds designated for technology. Part of the amended budget is allocated for about $2.1 million (with the help of some TIF monies) for technological enhancements within the district. Some of these enhancements include providing a Dell laptop to each high school student. Assistant Superintendant Dave Courtney explained that to get a device into the hands of each high school student, the cost is approximately $1.1 million. For now, Edwardsville High School (EHS) students will be the only District 7 students to receive the devices. Courtney explained that it would be about another $800,000 for middle school students to get their own devices. Money would also have to continue to be put aside once students have the devices. Youve got three years, probably, before that device is viable. So, youre basically setting aside $400,000 a year for the high school devices every year now, for two or three years, then the cycle would start [over], Courtney said. School board member Lelan Olsen asked Courtney and Superintendant Jason Henderson if students would be able to use their own device. Both said that after discussion, the answer is no due to ease of use and a blanketed network. They said that it would be better for all students and teachers to use one brand and model to make sure everything that is asked of them will work. School board member Terri Dalla Riva asked Courtney and Henderson if it has been discussed raising fees in other areas to help offset the cost. Henderson said that while it has been discussed, that will most likely not happen. Each District 7 teachers will also receive a laptop, exected to be paid for through a CARES Act grant for roughly $400,000. Some budget items were discussed during the board meeting dealing with ongoing building projects. While projects in Nelson Elementary, Leclaire Elementary and EHS are all on target for both budget and time, Lincoln Middle School is not. Two main projects are taking place in Lincoln, a water issue being fixed in the gym and some flooring work. The gym project has raised some unexpected issues. The gym flooring that was in place, and the gym flooring that is being put in, there is about an inch and a half difference between the floors, Courtney said. Due to that difference, it will add on roughly another 20 days to fix. This will bring the new target end date of that project to Labor Day, Sept. 7. This will also raise the budget for that project by about $75,000. However, Courtney said that he is working on reducing costs for that project. He explained that by not using the highest quality waterproof membrane under the floor to help fix the water issue, the district would save $50,000 in that area. Overall, if lower quality membranes are used, the budget for the project would be over by $25,000, not $75,000. The 2019-2020 amended budget was approved and sent to the board by the finance committee and was later approved by the school board. The budget was amended to reflect changes in revenue and grant allocations from the Illinois State Board of Education and federal sources, to adjust local revenues received during the 2019-2020 school year and expenditure budgets for changes in grant allocations, increased/decreased costs and minor changes in dollar allocations between various budget accounts. With its aggression in the Galwan Valley, Ladakh, China has crossed a threshold and pushed the relationship with India to a dangerous low, with long-lasting consequences. Chinese soldiers used the opportunity of a negotiated withdrawal operation to viciously attack a supervisory Indian contingent. The first Indian military casualties along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in 45 years, and the seeming manner of their deaths, are a tragedy. While the present crisis in Ladakh was unusual in terms of the number and size of Chinese intrusions, it appeared to have similarities with past patterns of intimidation. Beijing would intrude; there would be some pushing and shoving; then it would withdraw, feeling a message had been sent. Not this time. Galwan Valley indicates there has been a dramatic shift in Chinese tactics, one that will require an equally drastic re-evaluation of Indias position. First, it is important to diagnose the roots of Beijings behaviour. At the macro-level, it is clear that China under President Xi Jinping believes the time has come to assert its power on the international stage. This has translated into China violating international norms and law (South China Sea); engaging in predatory, almost colonial, economic practices (Belt and Road Initiative); being brazen, rather than introspective and transparent, about its role in causing crises with global impact (the coronavirus pandemic); encroaching upon the sovereignty and territorial integrity of neighbours (Japan and India); intervening in the politics of democracies (from European nations to Australia); exporting its own ideological worldview to other countries (especially in South Asia); and becoming even more repressive at home (Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong) . In this backdrop, China wants to limit New Delhis power and ambition; it wants India to accept Beijings primacy in Asia and beyond; it wants to impose costs on India for deepening ties with the United States (US); and it wants to continue using Pakistan, which has now becoming almost its client State with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, to inflict terror on India. Concerned about Indias upgradation of border infrastructure and motivated by a desire to change facts on the ground, with its recent actions, China has violated every border pact signed in the last three decades to maintain peace and tranquillity and engaged in unacceptable aggression. India will have to respond. But it must do so strategically, not emotionally. There have to be two layers of response. The first priority has to be to restore status quo ante at the border as it existed in April. This will require both a display of military strength at the border by standing up to Chinese aggression, and diplomatic work by making it clear to Beijing that its intervention will lead to heavy costs across all spheres of the relationship. The political leadership, while providing strategic guidance, must give all the support the armed forces need at this moment and carefully examine the possibility of inflicting costs on China in other theatres (including business and trade) while keeping the conflict within limits. It must also mobilise international opinion to expose Chinese aggression at a time when a humanitarian, economic and health crisis (originating in China) has engulfed the world. But more fundamentally, India will have to reconsider its entire geopolitical posture. Engagement with China is essential and should continue. But there can be no appeasement. Policymakers need to go back to the drawing board and examine ways to build leverage against Beijing. India should consider taking a stronger position on Tibet. It must double down on its partnership with the US, make Quad (which also includes Japan and Australia) a more permanent arrangement, and be a part of any club that seeks to contain Chinese power. India needs to economically re-examine its trade, technology and investment ties with China, for all these appear to have benefited Beijing more than Delhi. It needs to ramp up its military modernisation, identify vulnerabilities across sectors, and prepare for a two-front situation which may have seemed unthinkable some years back but will need to be considered now. India will also have to invest more in South Asia, ensure there are friendly governments in neighbouring capitals, and push back on Chinese efforts to encircle Delhi. The government will also, domestically, need to take the Opposition into confidence (an all-party meeting scheduled for Friday is a positive development) and prepare public opinion. As India battles the coronavirus pandemic and a recession, the security threat from China has added to the challenge. But India has to display strength and wisdom and defend itself. The litigation, excluding the trial itself, will last two years. Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Enin says the litigation related to the downing of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight PS752 near Tehran may last at least five years if Ukraine appeals to the International Court of Justice. The litigation, excluding the trial itself, will last two years, otherwise, it will take at least five years, he told the RBC Ukraine news agency on June 17. Read alsoReuters: Iran says it will now send Ukraine airliner black boxes to Paris However, he emphasized that bringing the matter before the court would be an amicable settlement of the situation. There have not yet been cases of non-enforcement of court rulings in international practice, he said. "There were cases when the execution of judgments was delayed, but they were all eventually enforced," he added. As UNIAN reported earlier, a Kyiv-bound UIA flight PS752 crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport in the early hours of January 8. It was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members on board. Two passengers and the crew members were Ukrainians. There were also 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, 10 citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany and the United Kingdom each. There were no survivors. On January 11, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani officially admitted that the Ukrainian airliner had been shot down by accident as a result of a "human error" and that those responsible would be held accountable. On February 2, intercepted communications between Tehran Airport's air traffic control tower and the second pilot of Iran's Aseman Airlines flight at the time of the crash of flight PS752 were released by TSN.Tyzhden. Tehran blamed the Ukrainian authorities for leaking what it described as confidential evidence, and said it would no longer share investigation materials with Ukraine. On February 14, the Iranian Foreign Minister said Iran did not plan to hand the black boxes over but it would not decrypt their data without the participation of the parties concerned. On June 7, Enin said that Iran had still not responded to Ukraine's note on settling all issues related to the UIA flight PS752 case. SAN FRANCISCO and BARCELONA, Spain, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Created to be a friendly and joyful companion to talk to, play with, and learn through by asking different prompts and questions, Zeve will double as a master casual conversationalist for a variety of topics. "It's no secret that more people than ever before are home, isolated and alone during the coronavirus pandemic," said Anna Cejudo, Co-Founder of Zeve. "We wanted to use the technology at our fingertips today to help reduce these feelings of loneliness in people everywhere." InBrainz Understanding that human expression is the bedrock principle of feeling connected today, Zeve will come with authentic expressions and emotions. The AI will be able to emote facial expressions, learn new topics, give answers beyond obviously pre-established ones (a limitation of Amazon's Alexa, etc.), search for new information through the internet, learn on the go, and provide her own thoughts. Zeve's personality is joyful, positive, polite, fresh, smart, sweet, and geek. Zeve is best described as a cheerful AI who prefers dogs over cats, tea over ice cream, blue over any other color, and discussions on biology, guitar, and geography. The conversational AI is the culmination of the work of 30 contributors from the U.S., UK, France, Spain, Argentina, India, and Switzerland. Her brain ("Cerebro") has been made Open Source, enabling volunteers around the world to contribute their knowledge and expand it much like Wikipedia. "Zeve is very much the product of cross-continental collaboration, which is why we've made her open source for people around the world to advance," said Pau Garcia-Mila, Advisor at Zeve. "We don't want to limit Zeve to our team's capabilities we believe everyone should have a say in the future of conversational AI." Unlike Siri and Alexa, Zeve was programmed specifically to conduct deep conversations and entertain users. The creators behind Zeve want users to think of her as a digital friend to talk with, not one designed to respond to technical commands. She learns from the unique user and is able to change to accommodate their conversation. For more information, or to meet Zeve today, visit: https://hellozeve.com About InBrainz InBrainz is the Zeve programming and production company that works to perfect the way AI is able to converse with humans. The company builds Collective Brains for other platforms and institutions around the world. InBrainz is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. The AI technology will be accessible to users worldwide. Contact Details Anna Cejudo +1 415 799-8260 [email protected] Related Images image1.jpg Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=totF9SJsx14 SOURCE InBrainz Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kang Jin-kyu (Agence France-Presse) Seoul, South Korea Wed, June 17, 2020 16:30 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf89ccb 2 World South-Korea,North-Korea,inter-Korean,bilateral-spat,tension,border-areas Free North Korea's spectacular destruction of its liaison office with the South is part of a series of staged provocations aimed at forcing concessions from Seoul and Washington, analysts say. The South's President Moon Jae-in initially brokered a dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington, but the North now blames him for not persuading the US to relax sanctions. Inter-Korean relations have been in deep freeze for months, following the collapse of a summit in Hanoi between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump. That meeting foundered on what the nuclear-armed North would be willing to give up in exchange for a loosening of sanctions. "Internally, North Korea is deeply disappointed in Moon and appears determined to end inter-Korean ties," said Kim Keun-sik, professor of political science at Kyungnam University. "By doing so, it is sending a message in its brinkmanship tactics to Trump that he should resume talks or lift economic sanctions as it has demanded so long." Ostensibly, this month's developments have been triggered by anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by defectors, but that is a longstanding practice. "This is a staged provocation cycle rather than a one-off response," said North Korea specialist Leif-Eric Easley of Ewha University. "Pyongyang is damaging inter-Korean relations to ratchet up pressure in search of international concessions," he added. "The decision to pressure Seoul is a strategy, not a tactic." Step by step The North's actions appear to be carefully calibrated, with Pyongyang drawing out the process by issuing multiple incremental warnings from different official sources -- leadership, government departments and the military -- ahead of each step it takes. Equally, while the symbolism of Tuesday's destruction of the liaison office was unmistakable, the building it blew up had not been used for months, was unoccupied, and -- crucially -- lay on its side of the border. Similarly, the joint project locations where it declared it would bolster its military presence have been inactive for years. The Kaesong Industrial Zone, where Southern companies used to employ Northern workers, paying Pyongyang for their services, was shut under the previous Southern administration, and Southern tourist visits to Mount Kumgang came to a sudden stop in 2008 after a Northern soldier shot one dead. Resumption of either would likely violate international sanctions imposed on the North over its banned weapons programs, limiting Moon's room to maneuver, despite his repeated touting of inter-Korean co-operation. For its part, Seoul appears to have tried to prevent the situation escalating. Within hours of the first denunciation of the leaflet-sending by Kim's powerful sister Kim Yo Jong, it announced it would introduce a ban on such activities, despite the implications for freedom of speech and assembly in the democratic South. The unification ministry subsequently filed a police complaint against two such groups. Critics say that such acquiescence will only encourage Pyongyang to issue more and larger demands. Moon supporters have sought to interpret the North's comments as indicating Pyongyang wants Seoul to intervene with Washington. But Seoul's patience may be wearing thin: on Wednesday the presidential Blue House explicitly criticized Kim Yo Jong, calling some of her remarks "senseless" and "very rude". 'Fire and fury' The US could be next in North Korea's sights: Pyongyang has warned Washington to stay out of inter-Korean affairs if it wants to ensure a smooth presidential election in November. "The North is sending a message to the US that it could do something similarly provocative and dramatic in terms of US-North relations if Washington keeps its approach as before," said Hong Min, director of the North Korean division at the Korea Institute for National Unification. But such a move would be fraught with risk for Pyongyang. US President Donald Trump -- who faces an increasingly difficult fight in the light of the coronavirus epidemic -- has long portrayed North Korea as a diplomatic success. He has also made clear that he would consider another nuclear test or ICBM launch a red line. During the tensions of 2017 his threats of "fire and fury" caused genuine alarm in the North. "The North should realize its brinkmanship tactic will not work this time, neither with Washington nor Seoul", said Kyungnam's Kim. "If it needs a change in status quo so desperately, then it must change its calculations instead of expecting the US to do so." SEATTLE, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Outreach , the largest sales engagement platform with industry-leading usage announced today it has closed a $50 million funding round. This new round of funding comes at a time when funding has been more difficult to come by and many startups are experiencing challenges fundraising. Outreach remains the only unicorn in the rapidly growing sales engagement category. "The pandemic has changed sales forever and brought to the forefront the importance of having a sales engagement platform. Products like Outreach that provide high visibility and versatility -- are now required for all sellers in order to be successful," said Manny Medina, CEO and co-founder of Outreach. "As the Sales Engagement category leader, customers expect Outreach to drive transformative changes in sales. With this round of funding, we're excited to accelerate our investments to meet the increasing demand we are seeing in the market while continuing to innovate." This funding round is led by Sands Capital with participation by Salesforce Ventures. In addition, new investor Operator Collective will be joining existing investors which include Lone Pine Capital, Spark Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Trinity Ventures, Mayfield, and Sapphire Ventures. This round brings Outreach's valuation up to $1.33 billion and total funding to $289 million. "Outreach's leadership position in the market, clear mission, and value-added approach make the company a natural investment choice for us," said Michael Clarke, partner at Sands Capital's Global Innovation Fund. "Now more than ever, companies need an AI-powered sales engagement platform like Outreach. Enterprise sales teams are rapidly adopting sales engagement platforms and Outreach's rapid growth reflects this." Outreach will use the funding to continue to deliver new revolutionary technologies like Outreach Kaia, the new Knowledge AI Assistant the company unveiled at its seminal industry event Unleash last month. The company is also moving forward with its expansion plans and investing in new markets, including adding new global outposts and growing its EMEA presence. Outreach's investments will help not only transform sales engagement but revolutionize the entire customer lifecycle for go-to-market teams. Outreach also announced the expansion of its executive team today with the hiring of Melissa Fisher as its chief financial officer. Fisher comes to Outreach from Qualys, a $4 billion-plus publicly-traded leading provider of cloud-based IT, security, and compliance SaaS solutions. She was responsible for scaling the financial planning & analysis, accounting, tax & treasury, sales operations, and investor relations functions as Qualys more than doubled to over 1,300 employees worldwide. During Fisher's tenure at Qualys, the company's industry-leading EBITDA margins expanded to 44 percent and its stock price increased more than 400 percent. "Melissa is the right leader to help guide Outreach through its next phase of our growth," said Medina. "She has extensive experience scaling a publicly-traded B2B SaaS company -- especially in an accelerated growth atmosphere. Melissa's combined experience in not only financial planning but investor relations and efficient revenue growth will be crucial for us as we look to the future." Fisher has more than 20 years of strategic finance experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and investment banking from her time at Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Securities advising on over $400 billion of transactions. She received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a Master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School. Fisher also serves as a director on the Board of ModelN Inc., a publicly-traded leader in cloud revenue management solutions. "Joining Outreach is an incredible opportunity. I'm passionate about leveraging data to drive sales and go-to-market success as well as building scalable processes that increase sales & business velocity," said Fisher. "Outreach's position as the number one sales engagement platform aligns with my belief that driving revenue is a top corporate objective and creates an enormous market opportunity for Outreach." Outreach has grown rapidly over the past year, doubling its employee count to almost 600 employees, expanding to new locations in the U.S. and U.K., as well as hosting the largest virtual sales conference in North America with more than 14,000 registrants. For product demos, images, and videos, or to speak with an Outreach spokesperson email [email protected]. About Outreach Outreach is the number one sales engagement platform with the largest customer base and industry-leading usage. Outreach helps companies dramatically increase productivity and drive smarter, more insightful engagement with their customers. The company commissioned a recent Forrester study which highlights how Outreach provides an industry-leading ROI of 387 percent over three years and a payback period of fewer than three months since initial investment. More than 4,000 companies such as Adobe, Tableau, DoorDash, Splunk, DocuSign, and SAP depend on Outreach's enterprise-scale, unparalleled customer adoption, and robust AI-powered innovation. Outreach is a privately held company based in Seattle, Washington. To learn more, please visit www.outreach.io . PR Contact: Amanda Woolley [email protected] SOURCE Outreach Related Links www.outreach.io SEELEY LAKE - When program director of the Montana Mrs. America pageants Cindy Archer canceled the statewide competition due to the coronavirus, she remembered talking with Jessica Kimmel about a new outdoor venue at the Tamaracks Resort. Months later, Miss Montana for America and the Mrs. Montana 2020 competed and were crowned in Seeley Lake June 13. "So we are so lucky and blessed to be in Montana," Archer said. "The event place was spread out in open air and the cabins provided a place to stay with open air too." The Mrs. Montana and Miss For Montana pageants are a part of the Mrs. Ameri... A 55-year-old Muslim who went to the mosque to clean up the place for prayers was killed when he came into contact with a live electric cable. The incident took place at a mosque at Nima junction in the Asokore-Mampong Municipality, on Saturday. A relative who would not mention his name said the deceased, Baba Haruna Suleiman, was cleaning the mosque together with other committee members when the incident occurred. According to the relative, the deceased and the committee members took the decision to clean the Al-Abayan mosque for prayers on Saturday following the easing of restrictions on public gathering by the president. The deceased was rushed to a nearby health facility, but was pronounced dead on arrival. He had since been buried according to the Muslim tradition. Source: 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 The government's planned post-Brexit trade deal with New Zealand will have a negligible effect on the British economy and could actually make it shrink slightly and leave people worse off, according to government forecasts. An official strategic outline of the government's plans for the deal unveiled on Wednesday says the effect on GDP (gross domestic product) from the deal will be "close to zero" according to government modelling. But under one modelled scenario of a more ambitious trade deal, government statisticians think it is possible the UK economy could contract by -0.01 per cent. They also expect the overall welfare of the UK of the population to be slightly lower as a result of the deal. "A trade agreement with New Zealand could have limited effects on UK GDP in the long run, with the estimated impact on GDP being close to zero under both scenarios compared to the UK not having a trade deal with New Zealand (between 0.00 per cent and 0.01 per cent in scenario 1 and -0.01 per cent and 0.00 per cent in scenario 2)," the document says. However the trade deal would be slightly more beneficial to New Zealand itself, the government found, noting that "GDP in New Zealand is estimated to see economic growth of 0.14 per cent or 0.35 per cent as a result of this FTA in scenario 1 and 2, respectively". While the government expects a trade deal to slightly increase productivity and "gross value added", its modelling also warns that not all areas of the country would benefit. "In Northern Ireland, output may decrease relative to the baseline, reflecting a higher concentration of the agriculture and semi-processed food sectors," the document says. Exports to New Zealand are expected to increase by between 3.8 per cent and 7.3 per cent under the deal. The government expects there to be a significant increase in imports of New Zealand lamb coming to Britain. Overall the government projects that a substantial deal will reduce the welfare of the population. The document says: "Headline welfare changes are limited under scenario 1 and are estimated to decrease by 0.01 per cent in scenario 2". Despite the potential damage to the UK economy from the deal, negotiations were formally launched on Wednesday, alongside talks with Australia. A similar analysis published by the government today expects a trade agreement with Australia to "increase UK GDP in the long run by around 0.01 per cent or 0.02 per cent", also a negligible amount, particularly over the 15 year long-run period. The UK economy shrank by 20 per cent in April alone on the back of the coronavirus crisis. The government also admitted in March that its flagship trade deal with Donald Trump's United States would boost UK GDP by 0.16 per cent. However, the government is keen to sign trade deals with other countries to illustrate the benefits of leaving the European Union's customs union, in which Britain could not sign its own agreements but benefits from collective deals negotiated by the EU. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said: "Today's launch of trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand is a historic moment for this county. "When we left the EU we did so on the promise of trading more with friends and allies across the world. Deals with Australia and New Zealand are a powerful expression of our newfound independence and our intent to build a global Britain. I say to our old friends, Britain is back." Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Show all 66 1 /66 Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A message projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover Sky News/AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Big Ben, shows the hands at eleven o'clock at night AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Nigel Farage speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-Brexit demonstrators celebrate on Parliament Square REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU The Union flag is taken down outside the European Parliament in Brussels PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit supporter jumps on an EU flag in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU EU Council staff removed the Union Jack-British flag from the European Council in Brussels, Belgium EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit supporter pours beer onto an EU flag PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pedestrians pass in front of the Ministry of Defence Building on Whitehall, illuminated by red, white and blue lights in central London AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Brexit supporter shouts during a rally in London AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners take part in a 'Missing EU Already' rally outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A large pro-EU banner is projected onto Ramsgate cliff in Kent PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU supporters light candles in Smith Square in Westminster PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man waves Union flags from a small car as he drives past Brexit supporters gathering in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU The five-year old Elisa Saemann, left, and her seven-year old sister Katie hold a placard during a rally by anti-Brexit protesters outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Europe supporters gather on Brexit day near the British embassy in Berlin, Germany EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit protester hugs a man while holding a placard REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A decorated, old fashioned fire pump in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit Elvis impersonator performs at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU An anti-Brexiteers stands with his dog in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Paddy from Bournemouth wears Union colours as he sits next to an EU flag decorated bag in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-EU activist plays a guitar decorated with the EU flag during a protest organised by civil rights group New Europeans outside Europe House, central London AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People celebrate Britain leaving the EU REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Pro Brexit supporter has a Union Jack painted onto his face at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Men hold placards celebrating Britain leaving the EU REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters dance in the street draped with Union Jack flags at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU An anti-Brexit demonstrator spreads his wings during a gathering near Downing Street AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro EU supporters display a banner ' Here to Stay, Here to Fight, Migrants In, Tories Out' from Westminster bridge EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-Brexit supporters burn European Union flags at Parliament Square Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man poses for a picture on Parliament Square in a 'Brexit Day' t-shirt Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People celebrate Britain leaving the EU Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man wears a pro-Brexit t-shirt Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit demonstrators visit Europe House to give flowers to the staff on Brexit day Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporter wears a novelty Union Jack top hat outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Customers Scott Jones and Laura Jones at the Sawmill Bar in South Elmsall, Yorkshire, where a Brexit party is being held throughout the day PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU activists protest Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit demonstrator burns a European Union flag AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Brexit supports holds a sign in Parliament Square AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man carries an EU themed wreath Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Ann Widdecombe reacts with other members of the Brexit party as they leave en masse from the European Parliament PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit demonstrators in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro EU supporters let off flares from Westminster Bridge Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU British MEPs Jonathan Bullock, holding the Union Jack flag and Jake Pugh leave the European Parliament, in Brussels on the Brexit day AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Newspapers and other souvenirs at a store, near Parliament Square Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Brexit supporters hold signs in Parliament Square AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU French newspapers PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald with a Border Communities Against Brexit poster before its unveiling in Carrickcarnon on the Irish border PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU National growers organisation British Apples & Pears has renamed a British apple to EOS, the Greek goddess of dawn, to commemorate Brexit day AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Britain's departure from the European Union was set in law on January 29, amid emotional scenes, as the bloc's parliament voted to ratify the divorce papers. After half a century of membership and three years of tense withdrawal talks, the UK will leave the EU at midnight Brussels time (23.00 GMT) on January 31 Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man poses with paintings on Parliament Square Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People sporting Union Flags gather in Parliament Square Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man walks with a St. George's flag at Westminster bridge on Brexit day Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A British bulldog toy and other souvenirs at a souvenir store Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU British pro-brexit Members of the European Parliament leave the EU Parliament for the last time Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Jonathan Bullock waves the Union Jack as he leaves the European Parliament EPA Speaking in the House of commons on Wednesday, Labour's shadow trade secretary Emily Thornberry said: "We cannot divorce this debate from that around the still busy Brexit negotiations. "The businesses I speak to around the country simply cannot understand why the government is spending so much time and effort trying to negotiate international trade deals of relatively low value when it is yet to secure our continued trade with Europe. "When the 47 per cent of our trade that depends on Europe is still hanging on the balance then that is where the government's priority should lie." Speaking at the Commons international trade committee on Wednesday, Nick von Westenholz director of EU exit at the National Farmers' Union said: "There is a huge market of 450m consumers on our doorstep in very close proximity so it will remain hugely important market for us. Absolutely we should look for trade opportunities elsewhere around the world in the years ahead but none of those even collectively will make up for the significant damage agriculture might experience if we have a very hard end of the transition period next year. Absolutely the EU negotiation would be our priority." The Mexican government has allowed factories to restart operations and travels to resume despite the continuously rising number of COVID-19 cases in one of the hardest-hit countries in Latin America. On Tuesday, Mexico's health officials reported a troubling 4,599 new infections along with 730 virus-related deaths, bringing the country's toll to 154,863 confirmed cases and 18,310 total deaths. However, the government believes the real number is several times higher than official counts, Reuters reported. The country - which has the second-highest death toll in Latin America - is under a phased reopening. This week, over 340,000 returned to their jobs in factories. Small shops will reopen on Thursday, while professional services are allowed to resume operations on Friday. Street markets and city centers are expected to reopen next week, while churches and restaurants are allowed to operate at reduced capacity. Lifting restrictions Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador became the subject of criticism by experts who claim he was too quick to lift restrictions that he imposed too late, BBC reports. The country's economy was suspended on March 23, but several industries deemed necessary to keep the nation functioning were allowed to continue operations. Tourism, which is a key sector in the country's economy, strives to pick up speed. On Monday, beaches in Baja California Sur reopened, with hotels and dining establishment operating at 30 percent capacity. The Mexican state of Quintana Roo, where Cancun is located, also reopened the previous week under strict social-distancing and COVID-19 prevention guidelines. COVID-19 testing The Latin American country fought the disease without conducting mass testing. Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell avoided widespread testing and imposed a strategy based on a model drawn up nearly a decade ago. According to CNN News, Mexico's top health officials believe mass testing to be a waste of time. The government only grants coronavirus testing to those with severe cases of the virus. Individuals who are suspected of being infected by the virus are monitored. The strategy, Lopez-Gatell said, is to give the government an overview of what is happening while limiting the resources spent of testing. "I don't think testing is a must," Lopez-Gatell said. "This doesn't mean we're resistant to testing, we will use testing but in a carefully planned manner." The rise in cases and the inconsistent numbers forced Mexico City's Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum to announce plans to conduct 100,000 tests a month starting July through an aggressive information campaign. According to VOA News, the mayor also promised to collect more data to make tracking potential infections more efficient. While Sheinbaum's approach is a stark contrast to that of the Mexican administration's strategy, Lopez-Gatell praised her effort to expand testing. Mexico City has the majority of reported coronavirus cases in the country. Local health officials have recorded more than 32,000 infections and 3,200 deaths in the city alone. Want to read more? Check these out: FILE PHOTO: IATA logo is seen at the International Tourism Trade Fair ITB in Berlin PARIS (Reuters) - Airlines are urging aviation regulators to extend a waiver on airport slot rules as they struggle to overcome the coronavirus crisis, their main international body said on Tuesday. Authorities are being asked to suspend rules requiring airlines to use 80% of their airport slots or else forfeit the capacity, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. The waiver should be extended beyond the 2020-2021 winter season as demand remains weak and visibility low, IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said. Without a waiver, "connectivity to long-haul destinations will be at risk," he said. (Reporting by Laurence Frost, editing by Louise Heavens) On Saturday, June 20th, the governing party, NPP, will be electing candidates at places where they have sitting Members of Parliament. The contest which was slated for April 24th had to be moved to this date due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, most party members want to see this day in their rare view mirror due to the acrimony and rancor the contest is generating. There are several intriguing contests, but notable among them are: Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah vs Michael Okyere Baafi- New Juaben South, Eastern Region Adwoa Safo vs Mike Oquaye Jr.-Dome Kwabenya, Greater Accra Okyem Aboagye vs Asenso Boakye, Bantama, Ashanti Region In all these races, the incumbent is being challenged by a government appointee, which the party constitution though allows. However, one has to ask why do these appointees want to jump the executive ship to that of the legislature? Is their desire informed by their own interest, the party, or the country as a whole? Are they seeking to replace non-performing incumbents whose work in parliament is below par? Are they trying to hedge themselves in the event the party does not win the general elections? These are questions that informed this short piece. A quick research on these three incumbent MPs shows that they are among the best the party has in parliament. Deservingly, there are a number of incumbents who will be going into Saturday as unopposed candidates. These three should have been given the pass, they more than deserve to run uncontested based on their records. Who is Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah? He is the Chairman of the powerful finance committee in parliament. Many people this writer spoke with before writing this piece were in shock as to why the party allowed this excellent law maker to even be challenged. Research shows he is one of the most important personalities in this government when it comes to the work of parliament. This writer has followed his work keenly even when the party was in opposition. Though he was not the ranking member then, he actually led the NPP as their spokesman on all matters finance/economics in parliament as a minority MP. He has not relented since they came to power and as the Chairman now, his exploits, dexterity and all round understanding of finance and economics has endeared him to many. Assibey- Yeboah is seen as a natural legislature, and his passion for what he does in defending and moving the government agenda is something NPP cannot afford to lose. The venerable Kweku Baako puts it best when he said Assibey-Yeboah is a national asset and he is fit for purpose when it comes to parliamentary work. The person trying to unseat Assibey-Yeboah is the Free Zones boss, Okyere Baafi. He is seen as an up and coming politician. However, pundits believe he is nowhere near the pedigree of Assibey-Yeboah and that it will be a travesty if Assibey-Yeboah is not retained. Adwoa Safo has distinguished herself as one of the solid women politicians the country has. Apart from her role as Deputy Majority leader, she is also the Minister of Procurement. She is in her second term, inspiring, and an integral part of this administration. So it begs the question, why does Mike Oquaye Jr., the son of the current Speaker of parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye wants to cut short Adwoa's endearing journey. Adwoa stands for so many things besides politics, she is a model of what can be done when you set your mind unto something. Our young ladies aspiring to enter into politics look up to her. Even though Mike Oquaye Jr. is seen as a fine brain and politically astute. Many think he is doing a good job as a diplomat and a solid rep for the President in India. As such, he needs to continue in that role and let Adwoa Safo be the shining star Dome Kwabenya has produced. May the discerning delegates hear this voice and duly maintain the smart political gem they have, Adwoa can't lose, Ghana is not done with her yet. Okyem Aboakye, is an unassuming, enterprising first term incumbent of Bantama. This writer started following his work since he burst on the scene after his shocking defeat of Kokufo the then MP in the 2015 primaries. Before becoming an MP, research has it that he was operating one of the fastest growing savings and loans scheme that even survived the 2019, BoG cleansing exercise. He is also into transportation business, and his affiliated company has given the VIP bus chain a run for their money. In parliament, he serves on the powerful finance committee and doubles as the government spokesperson on finance. His practical understanding of our market and his ability to break it down in our local dialect in his numerous media encounters is something to marvel. His opponent is Asenso Boakye, deputy Chief of Staff and also a political assistant to the president. Asenso has been a trusted ally to the President and this is his second time trying to win the seat to enter parliament. Many have questioned the timing of his decision because of his closeness with the President, who is bound to get a second term in office. This writer holds the same view that, the constituency is blessed with two good materials and that it will be a disservice to the party and the country to lose one because of party internal politics. Asenso should continue to help the President to win and be part of the executive. Bantama should embrace this evolving first term MP, allow him to continue and they will never regret such an inclusive decision. This writer will conclude with the old cliche that if its not broken don't fix it. These three constituencies have underlying commonalities. They have solid MPs who are doing great for the party and the country. Their opponents are also playing their part in serving the executive branch of the government. The constituents are indeed blessed to have the combo package. The incumbent MPs in these aforementioned constituencies should be retained to continue their good works and the appointees too can return to their post to serve mother Ghana. Out of the over hundred contests on Saturday, this writer believes these are the most intriguing races and that the NPP deserve to preserve their best. Posterity will not forgive the party if any of these MPs lose on Saturday. All the best to all contestants! By Kwaku Boateng, NPP USA Member Trending in China: Tragedy of Fifth-Graders Suicide Sparks Debate Over Harsh Teaching Methods By Yilin Chen / Jun 17, 2020 04:56 PM / Society & Culture Whats trending? On June 4, Miao Kexin, a fifth-grader at Hebin Elementary School in Changzhou, killed herself shortly after attending a writing class. Almost two weeks later, the controversy is unabated as Miaos family and many netizens mistrust the official investigation into the suicide and probe possible misconduct by the writing teacher. Whats the story? According to Miaos family who watched the surveillance footage at her school, Miao ran out of the classroom looking distressed after her Chinese writing class. She then jumped to her death from the fourth floor of the school building. After interviewing Miaos classmates and teachers, preliminary investigations found that the teacher of the writing class did not verbally or physically abuse Miao on the day of her death. Miaos parents have expressed their dissatisfaction with the preliminary investigation findings on Weibo and urged witnesses to step forward. Officials confirm that the teacher had previously slapped Miao in the face, and encouraged the parents to pay for extra lessons. The teacher ran private writing lessons for profit, a practice which is forbidden by the education authorities. The parents suspect that the teacher was especially harsh towards Miao because she would not attend the private lessons. Several of the teachers former students have come forward with testimonies of the teachers abuse of students. Several widely circulated photos of Miaos essays immediately before her death show large chunks of her writing crossed out without any reason or feedback. The essay was a reading response to an excerpt from one of Chinas four classics, Journey to the West. Above a sentence where the girl wrote we should not be fooled by hypocritical facades, the teacher criticized Miao for lacking positive energy. Meanwhile, the teacher failed to notice a factual mistake that Miao made about the books author, raising doubts about the teachers qualifications. What are people saying online? Miaos tragedy has sparked widespread outrage as people condemn the teacher for her alleged misconduct. One indignant user referred to the accident as indirect murder, and said that such harsh treatment of an innocent child will eventually cause irreversible harms. At the same time, other netizens feel reluctant to blame the teacher for what they consider is the girls inability to withstand criticism. Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com) Related: Livestreamed Suicide Raises Painful Questions in China In a move that's likely to lead to even more competition in the already hotly contested podcasting space, SiriusXM announced Wednesday it's acquiring Simplecast. The platform gives independent and enterprise podcasters tools to publish their audio content. It also comes with a suite of analytics to measure audience engagement. SiriusXM says the Simplecast team will work with AdsWizz, an ad tech company the broadcaster inherited when it acquired Pandora for $3.5 billion in 2018, to form the core of its publisher solutions business. For podcasters, the company says the main benefit of the acquisition is that it will create a single platform where theyll be able to develop and monetize their content. The satellite broadcaster didn't disclose the financial terms of the deal. However, the acquisition is the company's second splashy deal since the start of the year. In February, SiriusXM invested $75 million in SoundCloud. While not an exact match, the deal is, in a lot of ways, similar to Spotify's acquisition of Anchor last year. SiriusXM was already making a significant push into podcasts with its recent Pandora efforts. However, by adding Simplecast to its lineup, the company will be able to build out a YouTube-style distribution business in a space thats growing. According to a 2019 study, nearly one out of three people in the US listen to at least podcast every month. People will have to spend at least 9 when they buy a 'substantial meal' in pubs when they reopen at the end of the month. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre says pubs, cafes and restaurants will only have to stick to one-metre social distance rules in certain circumstances. Some pubs are set to reopen at the end of this month if they serve food like a restaurant. Under the Government's original plan to reopen society, pubs were not supposed to open until August. The new guidance has been issued to Failte Ireland, which is looking for clarity on some aspects. Failte Ireland said it had received detailed guidance from the HPSC "aimed at facilitating the safe reopening of food service businesses, including pubs that serve food. The guidelines refer to various measures and arrangements, including a potential reduction of the current 2-metre physical distancing restriction to 1-metre in certain circumstances. Failte Ireland said it is working through the guidance document in consultation with officials from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to seek clarity on some aspects in order to fully update and incorporate this guidance into our sector specific operational guidelines for food service businesses. It added: Failte Irelands guidelines for pubs (which include pubs, gastro pubs and bars) will be published in the coming days. The guidelines will state that from June 29th pubs that serve food and meet other features expected of a restaurant may reopen. Any food offering will be required to be a substantial meal (as defined by the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1962: 'the meal is such as might be expected to be served as a main midday or evening meal or as a main course in either such meal') and will be required to be of a kind for which it would be reasonable to charge not less than 9. Paul Hayden, Failte Ireland's head of food, has no issues with the 9 limit for people buying food in pubs. The guidance there defines a substantial meal and puts a value on it, he said. This is as defined but the Intoxicating Liquor Act in 1962, so thats the legislation that is in place. Most businesses would understand that aspect of it. The number of financial corruption cases investigated by the CCDI last year surged to 178, including high-profile officials. Chinas top graft buster detained 22 financial officials in 2019 in corruption investigations involving more than 1.5 billion yuan ($212 million), the oversight agency reported in a video. The inspection team of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) at the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) reviewed more than 1,500 complaints last year, of which 178 were formally investigated, deputy team leader Li Yanru said in a video posted on the CCDIs website. That was an increase of 48% from the previous year. Senior officials who were punished include Qi Xinzheng, director and party chief of the Fujian bureau of the CBIRC; Zhao Rulin, a deputy head of the CBIRCs Guangxi bureau; three senior officials at the Inner Mongolia branch of the CBIRC; officials at two of Chinas biggest asset managers; and a senior official at the Insurance Industry Association of Jiangsu. Some of the officials used their regulatory power to interfere with credit granting and administrative punishment or profited by approving establishment of rural financial institution branches in violation of rules, Li said. Some officials used their positions to waive punishments for violators in investigations of online lending and illegal fundraising, and others illegally profited by using insider information, Li said. The video for the first time formally disclosed the investigation of Yang Hongwei, former chairman of Huarong Huaqiao Asset Management. Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of China Huarong Asset Management Co. Ltd. Caixin reported exclusively in 2018 that Yang was under probe for his links to fallen tycoon Xiao Jianhua, the billionaire founder of conglomerate Tomorrow Holding Group. Xiao was placed under investigation in early 2017, but details have never been disclosed, as is the case in many of the CCDIs probes. Li also disclosed the investigation of Ran Xiaoming, an official at another Huarong subsidiary. Ran admitted he gave more than 1 million yuan as a gift to Lai Xiaomin, the former head of Huarong. Lai was formally arrested in November 2018 on charges of bribery, embezzlement and cronyism. Other investigations disclosed in the video were related to Baoshang Bank Co. Ltd., the Inner Mongolia lender taken over last year by regulators for serious violations of discipline and law. Li said more than a dozen regulatory officials were under investigation or voluntarily admitted to authorities their roles in regulatory failures in connection with Baoshang. Caixin previous reported that four former officials of the Inner Mongolia branch of the CBIRC were put under investigation by graft busters last year on suspicion of involvement in corruption with Baoshang. Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@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. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday expressed grief over the death of Indian soldiers during the face-off with the Chinese army at Galwan valley in Eastern Ladakh. Taking to Twitter, the Union Minister said, The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias breavehearts, he said in another tweet. Read also: Rahul Gandhi questions PM Modis silence on India-China face-off The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 17, 2020 Read also: India-China face-off: Alert in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan valley area on Monday evening. The violent face-off happened on late evening and the night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on June 16. Read also: China suffered 43 casualties in the Galwan valley face-off late on June 15, say Indian intercepts For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Update: Mountain lion spotted in San Francisco again. A young mountain lion spent Tuesday morning wandering around downtown San Francisco and looking none too happy about it. The puma was spotted on Russian Hill shortly after midnight and, some hours later, was seen near the Embarcadero and Broadway on the northern waterfront and then again near Salesforce Tower in the South of Market area, according to biologist Zara McDonald of the Bay Area Puma Project. McDonald studied images that had been provided on a Twitter post, from a TV station and from a photographer. They all showed a frightened animal that had perhaps left its mothers side in northern San Mateo County a little too early. It looked about 15 months old, McDonald said. Healthy and young and trying to get out of town. Obviously confused. The first images were provided by Twitter poster Fernando Robles who wrote that he lost visual contact near the intersection of Greenwich and Jones streets. His video, shot from his car, showed the animal waiting patiently for Robles to stop before jaywalking across the street. McDonald said the animal was most likely from a litter her Sausalito-based animal welfare group had been tracking in the Sweeney Ridge area between San Bruno and Pacifica. The young cougar had perhaps run off on its own, in pursuit of a deer, or had perhaps been sent off by its mother just a little too soon. It may have headed north into San Francisco rather than encroaching on the established turf of other mountain lions farther south on the Peninsula. It doesnt want to be in San Francisco, thats for sure, McDonald said. Im pulling for the animal to get out of the damn city. The animal is probably living off rats and mice but, McDonald cautioned, it may get hungry and take a pet. McDonald said mountain lions do humans a favor by keeping the ecosystem healthy, a sentiment unlikely to comfort dog and cat owners. 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. Salesforce Tower is no place a mountain lion wants to be, McDonald said. What an alien, dystopian world to find yourself in, the biologist said. That animal just wants to be back in its own habitat. San Francisco Animal Care and Control spokeswoman Deb Campbell said her department was on alert for the animal, which seemed, from the images, to be really young, dumb and lost. If a person meets a mountain lion, she said, the strategy is to back away slowly and not run. If it advances, wave your arms and make yourself big. In the unlikely event it attacks, fight back. With fewer people out and about during the pandemic, wild animal sightings have become more frequent in urban areas, biologists say. Mountain lion sightings in San Francisco are rare but not unheard of. In 2017, a male mountain lion was spotted in a Diamond Heights backyard, near a playground. A state Fish and Wildlife game warden tranquilized it with a dart, fitted it with a tracking collar, transported it by truck to the Peninsula and released it. Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com The Alabama Public Service Commission has voted to approve almost all of a proposed $1.1 billion expansion for Alabama Power, paving the way for the states largest utility to build a new natural gas unit at one plant and buy an existing natural gas power plant from another utility - potentially leading to higher bills for Alabama Power customers. Alabama Power petitioned the PSC last year for authorization to add about 2,200 megawatts of power capacity in its system in order to prevent blackouts on cold winter mornings, which is when the company experiences its highest demand. A handful of interest groups filed to intervene in the case and argued during a three-day public hearing at the PSC that the expansion was more than the power company needed to keep the lights on and that Alabama Power customers would be footing the bill for expansions that werent necessary. The PSC ultimately sided with Alabama Power, voting 3-0 during last weeks meeting to approve most of the projects in the proposal, except for the solar and battery storage projects included in the original proposal which the Commission said should be considered under a different docket. A news release from the PSC said that while the commissioners had voted to approve the PSC staffs recommendation, the measure will not be finalized until a final order is published. Until the final order delineating the decision is completed and signed, this docket is considered an ongoing proceeding, the release states. As such, it would be inappropriate for the Commission to provide further comments or information regarding the merits of the docket until the entry of the final order. Alabama Power spokesman Michael Sznajderman said this week that the additions were needed, in part because of the retirement of older, coal-fired plants, like Plant Gorgas in Walker County which closed last year. Over the past decade, Alabama Power customers energy use has evolved, resulting in the need for a diverse generation portfolio that can reliably meet changing customer demand during the winter, especially on cold, dark mornings, Sznajderman said. "This is in addition to the companys obligation to meet customer needs during the long, hot summer months. The resources that the Alabama Public Service Commission voted to approve will help position the company to reliably meet customer demand for safe, resilient, cost-effective energy during the winter, and in all other seasons as well." Alabama Power, like most regulated utilities, earns a profit margin based on the amount of infrastructure it builds and maintains to deliver power to its customers. Because the utility stands to make more money by building more facilities, it falls to regulators like the Alabama Public Service Commission to ensure that the company only builds or buys what is necessary to meet its customers needs. Witnesses for Alabama Power testified during the hearing that rates are expected to increase by about 2 percent by 2024 to pay for the expansions, but that those rates had been reduced by about 3 percent in January, more than the projected increase. The PSCs decision paves the way for Alabama Power to proceed with the following projects: Build a 720-megawatt, combined-cycle natural gas unit at its Plant Barry in Mobile County Buy the Central Alabama Generating Station in Autauga County, a 885-MW, combined-cycle natural gas plant Buy rights to all energy from the Hog Bayou Energy Center in Mobile County, a 238-MW, combined-cycle natural gas plant Implement demand-side management programs to encourage efficiency and reduce peak energy use by 200 megawatts. The details of these programs have not yet been determined. The commissioners did not discuss the proposal in detail during last weeks meeting, but thanked the PSC staff for reviewing the thousands of pages of written and oral testimony for and against the proposal before recommending approval of most of the requested elements of the expansion. Excessive and costly The expansion proposal was challenged by a combination of environmental and industry advocacy groups, some of which released statements condemning the decision as unnecessary. Christina Andreen Tidwell, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represented Gasp and Energy Alabama in the proceedings, said the companys analysis showing a need was flawed and the PSC should have demanded more thorough analysis. Alabama Power has substantially overstated its need for these gas plants given the glaring problems with its analysis. Its projected need is even less reliable now due to the pandemic and its economic impacts, Tidwell said. Its disappointing that the Commission did not require updated information from Alabama Power in order to fully assess these impacts on Alabama Powers request. During the public hearing, Gasp and Energy Alabama hired expert witnesses who challenged the companys analysis showing the need for more generation. Witness James Wilson testified for the groups that the analysis used by Alabama Power overstated the amount of power the company needed, and that the proposal would take the utility well beyond the level of reserves needed to meet the one day in 10 years planning threshold often used by utilities. Wilson argued that utilities should be prepared for events that are likely to occur more than once every decade. Alabama Power has not reported an outage due to not having enough power in decades. The last such outage within the entire Southern Company system (Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Mississippi Power) occurred in 1977. When asked by attorneys for Alabama Power about a close call in 2018, Wilson replied that maybe that should have been the one day in 10 years [that an outage occurred]. Wilson also testified that in his opinion Alabama Power had used cherry-picked weather data in their model to project the likelihood of bitterly cold weather, using hourly data going back to 1962, which was a very cold winter. The company said that is as far back as they could get hourly weather data, but conceded that extreme cold days occurred much more often before 1988, the midway point in their analysis, than after 1988. Former Texas utility commissioner Karl Rabago testified for the groups that Alabama Power had created its winter reliability problem by depending too heavily on natural gas, but was proposing to remedy that by adding even more natural gas. This is the wrong decision by the Commission, and it is the wrong time to approve this excessive and costly natural gas expansion, said Michael Hansen, executive director of Gasp. The Commission is giving the greenlight for Alabama Power and its shareholders to put the financial risks of this massive investment on customers, many of whom have lost employment as a result of the current public health and economic crisis. "This approval will exacerbate those hardships for Alabamians in the form of higher bills for decades to come. Richard Hill, a Montgomery-based attorney representing the Alabama Industrial Energy Consumers, a trade group representing large industrial customers of Alabama Power, said that group filed as intervenors in the docket but were supportive of most of the items in the proposal. The AIEC opposed the solar projects and also questioned the process the power company used to determine that it needed to be able to produce 25.25 percent more power than its projected peak winter demand going forward. Hill said the group would wait to see the final order before commenting further on the specifics of the utility planning process. We approve of Barry Unit 8 and we agreed with a lot of the other outcomes [from the docket], Hill said. We wanted more of a wait and see approach to [adding new] capacity, but that so far was the only thing the Commission has done that we didnt completely agree with. Jeffry Pollock, an industry analyst, testified for the AIEC during the hearing that most utilities planned for a reserve margin of 20 percent or less, while Alabama Power said it needed a 25.25 percent winter reserve margin. What about solar? The original expansion proposal included five 80-megawatt solar projects paired with battery storage banks that could be used after dark when the panels would not normally provide power. Environmental groups pointed out during testimony in the public hearing that these projects were the most cost-efficient way to increase overall capacity. There are limitations, however. The batteries for the project would last about two hours before needing to be recharged by the sun. That might not be long enough during a cold winter morning if the sun wasnt shining. Also the five projects combined would account for about 400 megawatts of production, far less than the large gas unit at Barry and the Central Alabama Generating Station. Commissioner Jeremy Oden said just before voting for the expansion that the commission was not rejecting the solar projects but that it would be more appropriate to consider them under a docket for renewable energy projects. Daniel Tait, chief operating officer of Energy Alabama, said the decision would further hinder the adoption of solar in the state. Unbelievably, the Public Service Commission did not approve the most cost-effective and most environmentally beneficial options proposed by Alabama Power, Tait said. In spite of the fact that more and more of its customers and businesses are demanding renewable energy options, this is yet another example of the Commission holding Alabama back from a clean energy future and the jobs that go along with it. Public information about the proposal did not include a cost breakdown by project, so its unclear how much of the $1.1 billion estimated cost for the total expansion was reduced by taking out the solar projects. You can watch the Commission meeting in which they voted for the proposal below. The relevant portion begins at around the 26-minute mark of the video. Brazil Covid-19-disaster has no end. Almost a Million infections, tens of thousands of registered Dead and again so many Untold in poor districts and in the provinces. Dramatically, the Situation of the four hundred indigenous people is coming to a head, of which previously many of them were in danger of extinction. They are the "guardians of the rain forest". At the recent climate summit, the Indigenous of the world community for the first Time had been recognised as a crucial factor, so that the globally important Amazon rain forest is obtained. To Carlos Nobre takes a position, he is a senior climate scientist at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and foreign member of the American National Academy of Sciences. This post we have linked in the original version (English Version) here. The fire season in the Amazon rain forest is not opened with a solemn political speech, and at its end there are no parades in the cities and settlements of the Region. But everyone who lives in the Amazon region, is familiar with the annual rhythm of the fires. We have seen what happened in 2019: forest fires and deforestation, reached the highest values of the decade. And 2020 has worsened the situation further. Brazil 2019 for more than a third of all losses of tropical primary forests in the world. Scientists make up a particularly disturbing Trend that is gone in most of the press reports so far, unfortunately: Particularly in those primary forests that are protected as indigenous territories, has increased the deforestation dramatically. This happened mostly robbery by organized illegal land. The indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon are under threat at a time, in the Covid-19 in Brazil rages on, from all sides. Scientists have recently carried out a study in 21 cities of the Amazon region, which showed that 3.7 per cent of the indigenous population had antibodies to the Coronavirus in the blood, so an infection have passed. In the case of the White, which were investigated, it was at 0.6 percent. some 20,000 miners are illegally in the territories of the Yanomami. The Yanomami are afraid that through the contact with the invaders even more of them with the Virus become infected. Leaders of indigenous organizations in Brazil, therefore, vehemently, working illegally at the end of mountain workers from the territories to be shown to lessen the risks by the Coronavirus in the Northern Brazilian Amazon, at least. The disease from the outside world makes the Yanomami and other indigenous peoples of Brazil, fear. You have withdrawn as a reaction to the Virus and the illegal invasions in the remotest corners of their territories back. It is not so long since it was a colonial strategy, indigenous groups with disease pathogens for measles and smallpox, to infect, to decimate them and get control over your country. The lax handling of the current Brazilian government with the Corona-crisis has produced memories and deep-seated Fears aroused. The indigenous peoples of the country are therefore calling desperately for help. Are not threatened but only you. The attacks on the "guardians of the rain forest" and the progressive deforestation of the Amazon is a danger for all of us. For centuries, the indigenous Amazon residents protect their distinct spiritual and cultural values of tropical forests and their biological diversity. Their way of life, passed down from Generation to Generation, not for the benefit of all of us the inhabitants of a modern world, living in a balance with the environment. Updated Date: 17 June 2020, 15:20 The proposed coalition pact fails to deliver on housing, health, climate and the cost of living, all of which were demanded by voters in the election. That's according to left-wing TDs with Solidarity and People Before Profit who today criticised a plan for the three-way coalition deal. The Opposition TDs argued that the programme for government (PfG) was just a rehash of the same old failed policies. The TDs say the negotiating teams of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green party have not addressed demands by voters during the February 8 election. Dun Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd Barrett said that public housing plans would still profit the private sector in the area of housing, instead of delivering much needed public housing on public land, this agreement will continue to funnel public land into private hands through the Land Development Agency. It also contains no actual plan for affordable housing." He added: In health, we need a National Health Service and yet, amazingly, the PfG contains overt commitments to return to the two-tier health system and the further reliance on the private sector through the National Treatment Purchase Fund. "The plan also provides absolutely no remedy for the extortionate cost of childcare for people. Dublin South-Central TD Brid Smith said the deal would not tackle greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently: This deal ignores the science of climate change and the reality that we need systemic change to achieve the kind of reductions in CO2 needed. "It pretends that we can continue with business as usual but do it with a coat of greenwash. It admits it will not deliver 7% reductions, it doesnt affect existing licences for oil and gas exploration and it doesnt rule out LNGs if they import non-fracked gas. Dublin South-West TD Paul Murphy voiced concern about the lack of mention of supports for workers in the three-way document. "There is nothing for workers and their rights in this programme for government. "Incredibly, there is not a single mention of trade unions, nevermind commitments to give them the right to access workplaces and the right of workers to collectively bargain. Dublin Mid-West TD Gino Kenny queried why delanded protections for Palestinians were ignored in the planned government deal. He said: The exclusion of the Occupied Territories Bill in the PfG is a major blow to the hopes of the Palestinian people seeking international solidarity in the wake of emboldened Israeli expansion. Amiya Meethal By Express News Service KOZHIKODE: The depression and suicide of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput continues to be a topic of discussion across the country. Here in Kerala, a woman who is depressed but not ready to give up has decided to take a different but bold approach. Through a matrimonial advertisement in a vernacular daily, the woman has declared she is taking medicine for depression and discontinued her education while pursuing MCom. The girl is seeking proposals from men in the 37-46 age group from Kozhikode district. Remarriage cases without liabilities will also be considered, says the advertisement which appeared last Sunday. Theres no point in concealing the disease, the 36-year-old woman, who is staying in Kozhikode city, told TNIE. Im looking for a partner who can share my joy and sorrow for the rest of my life, hence, the question of cover-up doesnt arise. Ive been suffering from depression for the past 10 years. It started soon after the death of my father whom I was closely attached to, she said. The woman has received some 35 calls while three grooms visited her house. Im keeping my fingers crossed. Optimism and positiveness will surely keep one afloat, she said. Its her resolve that helped her take sickness head on and complete her degree as well as the first year of MCom course. After that, I did computer courses Tally and MS Office. I also donned the role of a teacher for two years at a primary English medium school, said the woman who is living with her 81-year-old mother now. She has three elder sisters, who are married. Reacting to the womans story, Dr Shimna Azeez, a tutor at the Government Medical College in Manjery, said the woman could lead a successful marital life. Many people who suffer from depression are leading wonderful family lives. Im one among them. Im a doctor, author, mother of two kids, wife and a homemaker. Care should be taken not to stop taking medicines. Whenever depression sets in, psychiatrists should be consulted, said Shimna. A British ex-pat living in Australia for the past seven years has found herself stranded after returning to the UK to farewell her dying mother. Sydney woman Martez Thorneycroft, 30, returned to Coventry to be with her mother Jontelle Thorneycroft, 47, as she lost her battle with a brain tumour. Miss Thorneycroft was due to return on April 13 but the borders were closed two weeks after her mother's funeral, meaning she was left stranded in the UK. Sydney woman and British ex-pat Martez Thorneycroft is stranded in the UK after returning home to farewell her dying mother Jontelle (pictured together with her siblings) She applied for a travel exemption to return to Australia on compassionate grounds but they were repeatedly rejected, the Coventry Telegraph reported. 'I dont only feel like I am grieving for the loss of my mother, I feel like I have lost my whole life as I knew it,' Miss Thorneycroft said. Her long-time partner Adam Emmerson is also stranded in the UK after returning to Scotland after the death of his own mother. Miss Thorneycroft said the impact of her and Mr Emmerson both being stranded and recently losing their mothers was taking a heavy toll on their mental health. She said ex-pats stranded overseas haven't been addressed as a group despite being contributing members of Australian society. 'We pay tax, we contribute to the Australian economy and have paid thousands for our work visas yet here we are hanging on a limb for even so much as a mention or thought,' she said. 'The mandatory fourteen-day quarantine is a tested and proven way to eliminate any COVID-19 risk to Australian life so I cannot for the life of me understand why we can we not come home.' Miss Thorneycroft (pictured at her mother's grave with her siblings) was due to return to Australia in April but the borders closed shortly after her mother's funeral The stranded Miss Thorneycroft took to social media on Wednesday to further vent her frustration at the situation. 'We are now both locked out of our home for the last seven years ... as their boarders are closed due to COVID-19,' she wrote. 'Each appeal on compassionate and compelling grounds has to date been denied with no information as to why we dont meet the criteria. 'We want to come home we want to be allowed to continue our lives and be able to grieve without additional stress and trauma.' A spokesperson for the Australian Border Force told Daily Mail Australia travel exemptions were balanced against the the health risks posed to the community. 'These decisions are not taken lightly, but the Governments priority is to protect the Australian community against the COVID-19 pandemic,' the spokesperson said. 'The current travel restrictions have been implemented on the advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee as two thirds of Australias coronavirus cases had been sourced from overseas.' [June 17, 2020] Current Sees Record Growth as it Surpasses One Million Members; Raises Additional Funding NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Current , a leading challenger bank serving Americans overlooked by traditional banks, today announced it has surpassed one million members after record months of growth and has added new funding from Foundation Capital. Current saw its highest months of growth in April and May, adding over 100,000 new members each month, as demand for mobile banking with faster access to funds increased during a time of both heightened importance and uncertainty for many workers now deemed essential. "Our rapid growth is a testament to just how many Americans need a more innovative banking solution," said Stuart Sopp, Current CEO and Founder. "Traditional banks cannot adequately serve most Americans due to their legacy infrastructure. They charge exorbitant fees just to cover their costs to bank the over 130 million people in this country who live paycheck to paycheck. We solved this through dramatically lowering the cost of maintaining accounts and a business model that is not dependent on our members maintaining large deposits." "Current has quickly proven to be a fit for the millions of Americans whose finanial needs are not being met by traditional banks," said Angus Davis, partner at Foundation Capital. "With a third of the U.S. population living paycheck to paycheck, Current has a large opportunity in front of it and I am excited to partner with Stuart and the team as they continue to improve financial outcomes for millions more." With the additional funding, Current is accelerating its growth and expanding on its mission to improve financial outcomes for all Americans, regardless of age or income level. "We are lowering the barriers to financial inclusion and closing the gap to financial inequality," Sopp said. "We feel we're in the right place at the right time and anticipate reaching two million members by the end of 2020." About Current We are a leading U.S. challenger bank built to meet the needs of people with unique lives who have been overlooked by the traditional banking industry. Our proprietary Current Core technology allows us to provide premium banking services for everyone, regardless of age or income, and improve the financial outcomes of our members without overdraft fees, minimum balance requirements, or hidden fees. We give members up to two days faster direct deposit paychecks, free overdrafts up to $100 with Overdrive , access to 55,000 free ATMs worldwide as well as 24/7 member support 365 days a year. To learn more about us, visit http://www.current.com or download our app on the App Store or Google Play . Current is backed by investments from Foundation Capital, Wellington Management Company, QED Investors, EXPA, Galaxy Digital, CUNA Mutual Group and Elizabeth Street Ventures. Media Contact Erin Bruehl Director of Communications, Current [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/current-sees-record-growth-as-it-surpasses-one-million-members-raises-additional-funding-301078456.html SOURCE Current [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Theyll have food and music and a designated area where you can do your very own Bible photo op. JIMMY FALLON The forecast in Tulsa on Saturday calls for thunderstorms. To stay safe, Trump is going to have Don Jr. standing next to him with a 9-iron. JIMMY FALLON President Trump dismissed criticism of his decision to resume campaign rallies amid the coronavirus pandemic, and wrote on Twitter yesterday that his opponents are attempting to, quote, Covid shame him. But I guess thats what happens when you have opponents like science, math and reason. SETH MEYERS Last week, the daily number of new coronavirus cases went up in 22 states, but thats not going to stop Trump from holding a rally this Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, no matter how many people want him to stop. In an editorial yesterday, Tulsas largest newspaper, The Tulsa World, opined, This is the wrong time and Tulsa is the wrong place for the Trump rally. But you know what they say, two wrongs make a rally full of whites. STEPHEN COLBERT The deliveries include radios, ammunition, and Javelin anti-tank missiles, according to the US embassy in Kyiv. Ukraine has received US military aid worth more than $60m, according to diplomats, following a freeze in assistance forced by the scandal around the impeachment inquiry into US President Donald Trump. Trump last year froze $400m in military aid to Ukraine while he allegedly sought help from the government to smear former US Vice President Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger in the November presidential election. The US president was impeached for abuse of power and put on trial in the Senate, where overwhelming support from the Republican Party led to his acquittal. The first round of military assistance since the freeze included radios, ammunition, and Javelin anti-tank missiles, the US embassy in Kyiv wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. The United States stands strongly with Ukraine in support of its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression, it said. Ukraine-Russia conflict Ties between Ukraine and Russia were shredded after a bloody 2014 uprising toppled the Kremlin-backed government in Kyiv. Moscow went on to annex Crimea and support separatists in eastern Ukraine who launched a bid for independence in 2014. More than 13,000 people have been killed in the continuing conflict. The US Department of Defense announced last week it was resuming military assistance to Ukraine. The Pentagon said $250m would be released to assist with Ukraines military capabilities and help to counter Russian cyber offensive operations and misinformation. Photos were released of North Korea's demolition Tuesday of a liaison office it jointly operates with South Korea, a sign of escalating tensions between the neighboring nations. The office building, located in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, was erected just two years ago, in 2018, to serve as a breeding ground for diplomacy between the two countries. The building was reportedly empty at the time of the explosion. The leveling of the building comes after Pyongyang officials have repeatedly warned their southern counterparts against sending anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border via balloons and drones. North Korea said Friday that it was dropping all efforts to pursue a diplomatic relationship with the United States, saying all hope for peace along the Korean peninsula had "faded away into a dark nightmare." Previously: North Korea blows up diplomatic office amid escalating tensions with South Korea 'Faded away into a dark nightmare': North Korea says diplomacy with Trump has failed Pictures from Tuesday's demolition were released by the North Korean government. Independent journalists did not have access. This photo provided by the North Korean government shows an inter-Korean liaison office building before its demolition in Kaesong, North Korea, on June 16. Independent journalists were not allowed at the demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong, North Korea. The four-story glass-and-steel building sat just inside North Korea's side of the border with South Korea. North Korea previously cut all communications with South Korea. The four-story glass-and-steel liaison building sits just inside North Korea's side of the border. Over the weekend, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, threatened to send troops into the demilitarized zone that separates North Korea from South Korea. Tuesday's action follows a statement from North Korea saying that it was formally abandoning attempts to pursue diplomatic relations with the White House because of "hypocritical" and "empty promises" made by President Donald Trump. The statement by Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon was made on the second anniversary of Trump's historic handshake with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un at a summit in Singapore. Story continues North Korea has demanded immediate economic sanctions relief in return for starting the process of dismantling its nuclear weapons program. Trump has been unwilling to meet that demand, leading to the gridlocked denuclearization negotiations. Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY China steps up emergency footing: Coronavirus flares up again in Beijing Extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits runs out next month: Here's how to prepare This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Photos: North Korea blows up liaison office jointly run by South Korea STEPANAKERT, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. The defense ministry of Artsakh denied the Azerbaijani media report according to which the Armenian forces opened fire from a 60mm grenade at the direction of Ghapanlu village of Tartar region, by targeting a truck transporting wheat. The Artsakh Defense ministry issued a statement which says: The report spread in the Azerbaijani Ordu.az website on June 17, according to which the Armenian forces opened fire from a 60mm grenade at the direction of Ghapanlu village of Tartar region, by targeting a truck transporting wheat, has nothing to do with the reality. The defense ministry of the Republic of Artsakh announces that the divisions of the Army strictly follow the ceasefire regime and at the same time urges the Azerbaijani side to refrain from steps aimed at artificially destabilizing the situation, otherwise the Azerbaijani side will bear the whole responsibility for the consequences. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Courtesy Zarda Estate On Tuesday, Melissa Zarda was dealing with two things at home in Kansas City, Missouri: the loud barking and mischief of her new foster puppy Winnie, a cattle dog/pitbull mix, whileabove the dinrelishing the hard-fought, historic victory she had just won in the Supreme Court in the memory of her beloved, deceased brother Donald. His was one of three cases featuring LGBTQ people fired for their sexual orientation or gender identity that SCOTUS yesterday ruled, 6-3, were illegal under the sex discrimination provisions of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The rulingembracing the cases of gay men Zarda and Gerald Bostock and trans woman Aimee Stephenshas been hailed as one of the most significant in recent years, setting the protection of LGBTQ people from workplace discrimination in legal precedent. The Supreme Courts Historic LGBTQ Ruling Is Now a Valuable Legal Weapon Against Bigotry Melissa took on the case after Donald died in a base jumping accident in Switzerland in October 2014. Don would be extremely happy and overjoyed by the decision, Melissa told The Daily Beast. I can see his face right now, I can see it so well, its like he is almost here. His face is absolutely beaming, and he had a smile bigger than any room anyway. He could light up a room. Its been an amazing journey. Im so glad he stood up. Im so glad that Gerald stood up. Im so glad that Aimee stood up. Im just so pleased were here, talking about this right now. On a grander scale this case wasnt just about Don, Melissa said. Don knew that too. I know this will impact millions of people for the good. To have Dons memory and legacy on the right side of history like that is incredible. Leading up to the publication of Mondays decision, I was nervous and scared, Melissa said. When you get used to all this bad news, you think, OK, another one is coming, Maybe, when the decision was announced, it made me that much happier because I couldnt quite believe it. Story continues Her husband, Matt Cathlina, had been more optimistic, reminding Melissa of how positive she had left the Supreme Court the day the case was heard last October. Our team did so good, they were so skilled, Melissa said. I knew we definitely had a chance. I woke up knowing it could be that Monday, but didnt have any idea. I was refreshing the Supreme Court website over and over and not seeing anything. I was getting nervous. Melissa went for a walk, came back, refreshed it more, and the site crashed, meaning something big had probably happened. Melissa wrote to the ACLU legal team, who wrote back that she, Don, the LGBTQ campaigners, had won. I was overjoyed, my heart was racing, pounding, Melissa said. I think I was smiling and crying at the same time. I was doing 10 things at once: texting, crying, smiling, and laughingit was like a shot of adrenalin. Whats happening with the country is so tragic and awful, we needed this shot of good news desperately right now. She shared the news with Bill Moore, Dons surviving partner, who teamed up with Melissa in leading the case, with legal backing from the ACLU alongside lawyer Greg Antollino and Pam Karlan of the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. Melissa also messaged her and Dons mother Shirley, sister Kim, Matt, and their extended group of family and supporters. Its amazing, there are no words for how happy we are with this decision, Melissa, a graphic designer, said. So many LGBTQ friends and family members are so relieved that they will be safe from discrimination in the workplace, especially now when the economy isnt well and unemployment is so high. Shirley, Melissa and Dons mom, didnt understand what a huge scale this was until she saw the many articles about the case and TV news segments. She is beyond excited, said Melissa. She is telling everyone she can. She is a proud mom. She was always an advocate for Don. This was so important to her. It has also brought up a lot of memories and emotion for her. She still struggles with Dons death and his not being here. We have this euphoric happiness, but also a bittersweet sadness that he is not here to enjoy it with us. Its hard, but also good news at a time when we need good news. When it came to the ruling, Melissa was pleased it was 6-3 and not closer. I was pleased that Gorsuch wrote the decision, and that he understood. I disagreed with Alito, saying this was legislating. For me, it couldnt be clearer that this was the right interpretation of Title VII. It seemed as plain as day. As The Daily Beast previously reported, Donald Zarda was fired in 2010 from his job as a skydiver with Long Island company Altitude Express after coming out to a customer. The trial court found that Title VII did not cover sexual orientation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed that holding, claiming that sexual orientation discrimination was a subset of sex discrimination. Like the funeral firm that employed Aimee Stephens, Altitude Express took the case to the Supreme Courtand lost. An incredibly smart young boy, Donald was always intrigued by airplanes and air travel, Melissa told The Daily Beast last year. Both his mother and father had pilot licenses. As an adult he spent a lot of time skydiving with friends and others who shared his passion. Melissa is scared of heights, and a huge regret was that she never jumped with her brother. He was warm, generous, and loving as a brother, and loved sharing his professional passion with others. Donald Zarda skydiving, doing the job he loved Courtesy Zarda Estate Donalds family was immediately supportive after he came out. It was almost not an event, said Melissa. He did so in his mid-20s. I dont think he was delaying telling us for any other reason than he was busy traveling the world and skydiving. He was not around that much. He went back to school to get a degree in aviation-related management and administration. Anything that involved being in the air was all he cared about. His death had been devastating. Even years later the emotion tied up with it is still that intense, Melissa said last year. He kept our family together. Were still tight, but he was such a force. It has been a devastating loss, unbelievably hard. Donald felt strongly that he was a victim of homophobia. He absolutely was a fighter, Melissa said. He could not stand anything unfair. He felt he had been discriminated against, and was immediately prepared to fight. He knew it was wrong, and he was going after it. He wanted to stand up, in case it happened to anyone else. Don was devastated when he was fired, Melissa told The Daily Beast after the SCOTUS decision. His job and career and skydiving meant the world to him. He was afraid of what would happen after has fired. It was hard to get work elsewhere, and he worried he would be looked at as a troublemaker. He was confused and upset. He would call us, and we would console him and do our best to be there for him and support him. I would say this weighed very heavily on him in the last years of his life. Skydiving had been everything to him, and then this case became everything to him. In the wake of their Supreme Court victory, Melissa does not know yet if the family will pursue the case directly with Altitude Express. Weve barely had a chance to get any sleep. Its good to bask in this victory and how wonderful it is, but if we wanted to focus our energy on what comes next there is so much work that needs to be done in getting the Equality Act passed. Its sitting in Congress, when people are still being discriminated against in housing, education, health care, and credit. There is still a lot of work to do. Donald would not have expected the case to go this far, Melissa said. He would have been very surprised, but happy everything turned out the way it did. Melissa said she was ashamed that before her brothers experience she was totally ignorant of the scale of discrimination out there. I couldnt relate. When Don first called about what had had happened, I said, Well, thats illegal, duh. I had no idea. I said, We know thats illegal. You need to do something about that. Like many people, Melissa thought that surely anti-LGBTQ discrimination was already outlawed. The Supreme Court case highlighted how far the law has fallen behind social and cultural evolution. The stories sent to her by LGBTQ people who had been fired for their sexual orientation and gender identity opened Melissas eyes further, she said. I am so grateful for that, Melissa said. I cant pretend to know what they have been through. But I want to listen and be there for them and do what I can to help them. The case has definitely made me see outside of my bubble a little bit. Its been a good perspective shift, and really heartwarming to get support from so many strangers. Melissa noted that the vast majority of Americans believe that LGBTQ people should be protected from discrimination, as revealed in a CBS News poll, so the Supreme Court decision was a long time coming and overdue. Melissa plans to work on helping make the Equality Act law, as well as volunteering for other causes such as Black Lives Matter and animal rescue. Too many people out there suffer discrimination, Melissa said. This is America, 2020. Nobody should be discriminated against. 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. Front-line bases of the Indian army and the air force along the nearly 3,500 km de-facto border with China were Wednesday put on high alert in view of the worst border clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh that left 20 Army personnel dead, official sources said. IMAGE: Indian army trucks move along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Kashmir's Ganderbal district, on June 17, 2020. Photograph: Imran Nissar / ANI Photo. The Indian Navy has also been asked to raise its alert level in the Indian Ocean Region where the Chinese Navy has been making regular forays. The decision to raise the alert level of the three forces were taken at a high-level meeting Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held with Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs, sources said. The Army has already rushed in additional troops to all its key front-line bases and formations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, they said. The Indian Air Force has already raised the alert level in all its front-line bases tasked to keep an eye on the LAC, the de-facto border. The sources said the Navy is increasing its deployment in the Indian Ocean Region to send across a strong message to the Chinese Navy. Kyle Sandilands has revealed he was once asked to appear on Millionaire Matchmaker, but turned down the offer because he refused to date women his own age. Hosted by businesswoman Patti Stanger, Millionaire Matchmaker is an American match-making reality show designed to help rich singles find a genuine relationship. Kyle, 49, shared the revelation on Wednesday's Kyle and Jackie O Show, following a discussion about Hollywood relationships with extreme age gaps. 'I have to date an old 49-year-old? Forget it!' Kyle Sandilands, 49, revealed on Wednesday that he was once asked to appear on Millionaire Matchmaker, but turned down the offer because he refuses to date women his own age 'Remember when Patti Stanger wanted me to go on Millionaire Matchmaker?' Kyle said. 'Oh god, I said no. And she's like, "You need to date age-appropriate." And I was like, "I'm out!"' laughed the shock jock. 'Age-appropriate. I'm 49, what does that mean? I have to date an old 49-year-old? Forget it!' he scoffed. Hit show: Hosted by businesswoman Patti Stanger (pictured), Millionaire Matchmaker is an American match-making reality show designed to help rich singles find a genuine relationship 'I'm out!' Kyle scoffed at Patti's suggestion that he should date someone 'age-appropriate' Kyle certainly has a history of dating much younger women. He is currently dating his 34-year-old former personal assistant, Tegan Kynaston. He was previously in an eight-year relationship with model Imogen Anthony, 29, before they announced their split last November. Younger women: He is currently dating 34-year-old personal assistant Tegan Kynaston (left) Age-gap romance: He was previously in an eight-year relationship with model Imogen Anthony, 29, (pictured) before they announced their split last November Kyle met Imogen at his 40th birthday party in 2011. She was aged 21 at the time. Before his relationship with Imogen, Kyle was in a long-term relationship with Australian pop star Tamara Jaber, 37. Tamara started dating Kyle when she was just 19 and he was about 30. They married in 2008 but called it quits two years later. Raipur, June 17 : Ganesh Ram Kunjam (27), one of the 20 Indian soldiers killed in a clash with Chinese forces in Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh region, was all set to marry during his next visit to Gidhali village in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district. His family members are in total shock but hailed his supreme sacrifice for the country. Kunjam's death plunged Chhattisgarh in sorrow, igniting grief and anger. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel paid tributes to the jawan on Twitter: "In India-China border dispute, among the brave martyrs of Indian Army is Ganesh Kunjam, a resident of Kanker in Chhattisgarh. I bow to the martyrdom and pray to the Lord to give strength to the bereaved family members. Om Shanti." The Kanker district administration said that Ganesh joined the Indian Army in 2011. Health Minister T.S. Singh Deo tweeted: "My tributes to Ganesh Ram Kunjam from Kanker who made the supreme sacrifice in Ladakh along with 20 of our brave soldiers defending our country. My thoughts are with their families in this moment of grief." A Tesla Model S P85d car is displayed at the 16th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition in Shanghai on April 20, 2015. (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images) West Australian Mining Fuels Tesla and BMWs Electric China Ambitions Despite a decline in overall Chinese investment, a new report has found Western Australia remains a key source of lithium for Chinas surging electric vehicle market. It follows as the Australian government last year began making overtures to develop rare earth mineral supply chains free from Chinese ownership, including signing a new agreement to supply critical minerals to India. Currently, Beijing is estimated to produce over 70 percent of the worlds rare earth minerals. Rare earths are 17 minerals used in a range of high-tech products including magnets, smartphones, and fiber-optic cables. The Chinese regimes dominance of rare earth has raised concerns it could leverage this advantage if geopolitical disputes emerge. The report by KPMG and the University of Sydney (pdf) found Chinese investment in Australias mining sector has declined to $208 million compared to the $1.29 billion (US$896 million) invested in the sector in 2015. Western Australia was the sole recipient of Chinese mining investment in Australia, with six new mining deals in total. Four of the projects involved lithium mininga key ingredient in the production of electric and hybrid car batteries. Australia is the worlds largest producer (pdf) of lithium. An electric concept car from Chinese vehicle manufacturer BYD displayed at the Beijing auto show on April 26, 2018. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images) China currently accounts for 65 percent of the worlds electric battery production. It is the worlds largest electric vehicle market selling just over one million new cars per year in that single category. In comparison, Australia sells over one million new cars per year in total. The major Chinese mining players in Western Australia include Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), Ningbo Shanshan, and Jiangxi Ganfeng. CATL is Chinas largest lithium-ion battery manufacturer and a major supplier to Tesla Motors and BMW in China. In 2019, it signed a major agreement to supply batteries for Teslas Model 3 and develop a more efficient battery for electric vehicles. Prior to the pandemic, Tesla set an ambitious target to produce 500,000 new cars per year in China. Tesla CEO Elon Musk (C) poses for photos with buyers during the Tesla China-made Model 3 Delivery Ceremony in Shanghai. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) In Australia, CATL currently has a stake in Pilbara Minerals and through its subsidiary, a stake in Perth-based miner AVZ Minerals. Both Australian firms produce lithium. Another fellow shareholder in Pilbara Minerals is Jiangxi Ganfeng, the third-largest lithium producer in China. Through Ganfengs interests in Australia, BMW source lithium and cobalt for its electric vehicle batteries, the car manufacturer announced in December last year. BMW is currently building a new facility in north-eastern China which will allow it to manufacture 150,000 electric vehicles per year if needed. A man checks the BMW iX3 electric concept car during a media preview at the Auto China 2018 motor show in Beijing on April 25, 2018. (Jason Lee/Reuters) The report titled Demystifying Chinese Investment in Australia (June 2020) is conducted annually and says that it analyses the number of legally binding contracts signed between Chinese firms and Australian businesses in the most recent financial year (2018 19). The most recent report found the Chinese regime had been moving investment away from western nations and towards countries in its Belt and Road Initiative. Chinas Electric Car Market Running Out of Juice The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) market has for years been heavily subsidised by the regime. The EV market initially benefited from the communist regimes Made in China 2025 strategy unveiled in 2015. The strategy was to transform Chinas low-cost manufacturing base by quickly developing 10 high tech industries, including EV, information technology, and robotics, etc. However, since 2019 the Chinese regime has been gradually phasing out the subsidies, which in turn, has contributed to the fall of lithium prices globally, causing the lithium industry to falter. The slowdown is one reason Chinas largest lithium producer, Tianqi Lithium, has been looking to offload its stake in the Greenbrushes mine in Western Australia. The CCP viruscommonly known as novel coronavirus lockdown, combined with Chinas souring trade relations with western nations, has left the Chinese EV industry uncertain of its future. Australia Ramps Up Protection of Critical Rare Earth Sector The government most recently introduced new tougher foreign investment laws which would see greater scrutiny over the mining segment. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg stated on June 5 that the government recognised that foreign investment was increasingly being used for strategic objectives, and not purely commercial ones. Related Coverage Chinese State-Owned Companies Own More Australian Water than Sydney Harbour Holds The new laws would give the treasurer greater power to scrutinise foreign investments deemed detrimental to Australias national interests. A few days later the Chinese regimes Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and Ministry of Education, both levelled accusations against Australians, claiming a significant increase in racial discrimination against Asians had arisen. Australia currently is engaged in a protracted trade dispute with the Chinese regime, which has seen it impose tariffs on Australian barley imports, ban imports from four Australian abattoirs, notify Chinese power plants not to buy Australian coal, and suddenly hand a death sentence to an Australian actor jailed in China. Related EU begins Libya arms embargo mission France accused Turkey's navy on Wednesday of acting in a hostile and unacceptable manner towards its NATO allies to prevent them from enforcing a United Nations arms embargo on Libya. NATO defence ministers are holding a virtual meeting this week amid growing tensions between Paris and Ankara. The two allies have traded barbs over the crisis in Libya, accusing each other of supporting opposing sides in the country's war. French foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said violations of the embargo, notably by Turkey, were the main obstacles to achieving peace and stability in Libya. "Turkeys support for the ongoing offensive of the Government of National Accord (GNA) goes directly against efforts to secure an immediate truce," von de Muhll said. "This support is coupled with hostile and unacceptable behaviour by the Turkish maritime forces towards NATO allies, aimed at hampering efforts to implement the United Nations arms embargo." Turkey, backs the UN-recognised GNA authorities in Tripoli against the eastern based Libyan National Army (LNA) lead by commander Khalifa Haftar, who is backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia. France, which has supported Haftar in the past, says it is not taking sides. Paris' strong reaction appears to stem from an incident at the end of May when Turkish warships flashed their radar lights three times at the French Courbet warship in the eastern Mediterranean, a French defence official said. He said the Courbet, under NATO command, was carrying out a mission to check whether the Turkish vessel Cirkin was smuggling arms to Libya after it turned off its transponder, failed to identify itself and did not divulge its final destination. A senior Turkish official rejected the accusation earlier in the day. He said French forces had sought to search a Turkish vessel in international waters "and this was not permitted", and that Turkey had taken no provocative or aggressive action to prevent this. * This story was edited by Ahram Online Search Keywords: Short link: Representative image Pushp Spices, a maker of pure and blended spices in Madhya Pradesh, said on June 17 that it has raised Rs 125 crore in funding from venture capital firm A91 Partners. This is the company's maiden fundraising activity. Founded by Mahendra Surana and Surendra Surana, Pushp said it will use the capital for expanding and deepening distribution network, beefing up the existing sales team and enhancing marketing initiatives to strengthen the brand across India. Pushp's products include coriander, turmeric and chilli powder, other pure spices (hing, cumin powder, dry ginger powder, pepper powder), blended spices (garam masala, achar masala, chat masala, etc) and value added items such as lemon cool masala and Jaljira. The company recorded a revenue of Rs 165 crore in FY20. "At Pushp, we have continued to develop our business on the back of innovation and by consistently offering quality products on the back of a robust and highly automated manufacturing. Indian consumer is focused on taste, quality and reliability, and our sharp focus on these factors has helped us build deep trust with customers to become one of the top brands in the spices category, " said Surendra Surana, co-founder of Pushp. A91 Partners is a $350 million fund started in 2018 by three former managing directors at Sequoia Capital - VT Bharadwaj, Abhay Pandey and Gautam Mago. The fund aims to make 10-12 investments in growth state consumer focused companies. Its current portfolio includes Sugar Cosmetics, beverage maker Paper Boat, Digit Insurance, lending firm Aye Finance and Atomberg fans. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and his wife, philanthropist Patty Quillin, announced a $120 million donation to Historically Black Colleges and Universities on Wednesday. The multimillion dollar sum marks the largest ever contribution by an individual in support of scholarships at HBCUs, according to Spelman College, one of the recipients. The donation comes as protests over the killing of George Floyd have roiled the nation, thrusting longstanding issues of systemic racism into the spotlight. In addition to Spelman, the funds will go to Morehouse College and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). Each institution will receive a $40 million cut of the donation. "HBCUs have a tremendous record, yet are disadvantaged when it comes to giving," Hastings and Quillin said in a joint statement. "Generally, White capital flows to predominantly White institutions, perpetuating capital isolation." MORE: As corporate America faces racial reckoning, here's how experts say change can be made The couple added that they hope the money will help "more Black students follow their dreams" but also "encourage more people to support these institutions -- helping to reverse generations of inequity in our country." HBCU's have historically faced disproportionate access to funding. The median endowment across all HBCUs in the U.S. is $15.7 million compared to $36.8 million for non-HBCUs, according to the UNCF. Hastings and Quillin have a long record of supporting educational opportunities for people of color. In 1997, the couple started supporting the KIPP charter school network which predominately caters to black and Latino youth. PHOTO: Reed Hastings attends the Netflix & Mediaset Partnership Announcement, Oct. 8, 2019. (Ernesto S. Ruscio/Getty Images, FILE) Spelman College said it will use the funds for a scholarship named after alumna and civil rights attorney Dovey Johnson Roundtree. The scholarship will give 20 first-year students for the next ten years full scholarships including tuition, room and board. Mary Schmidt Campbell, the president of Spelman, called it a "historic gift in response to the historic moment we're experiencing." Story continues MORE: Does Black Lives Matter sell? As protests roil the nation, corporate America's response met with skepticism "We are enormously grateful for this affirmation of the importance of the work that HBCUs do to educate the next generation of Black leaders," she added in a statement. In a video posted to Twitter, Morehouse College President David Thomas called the donation "an affirmation of the work that we are doing at Morehouse College to produce leaders who are equipped to effect change in their professions, communities, the nation and the world." Morehouse receives $40 million donation from philanthropists Patty Quillin and Reed Hastings, the largest single donation in the College's 153-year history. @ProfThomas pic.twitter.com/U1HHYs9YPB Morehouse College (@Morehouse) June 17, 2020 Thomas added that 60% of Morehouse students are PELL grant eligible and come from households that earn $40,000 a year or less. "This liberation gift will make a world-class college education possible for students from struggling families," he said. "They will gain the freedom to graduate debt-free." The UNCF awards more than 10,000 student scholarships each year and provides financial support to 37 historically black colleges and universities. Michael L. Lomax, the CEO of the of the UNCF, said he felt "uplifted" by the support from Hastings and Quillin. "Dr. King famously reminded us that 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' I believe the arc does not bend toward justice on its own," Lomax said in a statement. "We must bend it with all the strength and power we have." "Patty and Reed are helping bend the arc toward justice," he added. "I feel a profound sense of responsibility to steward their incredible gift to maximum impact and ensure that it advances their belief in and commitment to the principle that 'Black lives matter.'" Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin donating $120 million to HBCUs originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Chairs Cabinet's Virtual Session Saudi Press Agency Tuesday 1441/10/24 - 2020/06/16 Riyadh, Jun 16, 2020, SPA -- Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud chaired today a Cabinet's virtual session. At the outset of the session, the Cabinet reviewed local and international developments on the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including the cases reported in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Cabinet also reviewed the comprehensive health and medical care being provided for the infected cases as well as the results of the expanded testing which was conducted in stages on fixed and mobile sites throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Cabinet also reviewed the cases which were examined as well as the laboratory tests in order to assess the spread of the virus and apply precautionary and preventive measures that aim at preventing the spread of the virus in addition to preserving the health and safety of citizens and expatriates. The Cabinet was briefed on the efforts exerted by the concerned authorities supervising the return of Saudi citizens from abroad as well as the services provided by the Saudi missions for more than 47,000 citizens coming from 51 destinations via 250 flights. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Acting Minister of Media Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi said that the Cabinet stressed what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia confirmed during the 'Extraordinary Meeting of the OIC Executive Committee at the Level of Foreign Ministers on the Threats of the Israeli Occupation Government to Annex Parts of State of Palestine's territory Occupied in 1967', that it is necessary to implement international resolutions and that Israel's declaration to annex Palestinian lands is a blatant attack on international legitimacy resolutions and a serious escalation that threatens the chances for resuming the peace process and achieving security and stability in the region. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the Extraordinary Meeting called for taking a unified Islamic stance towards the plans and procedures of the Israeli aggression in addition to moving effectively to have a serious and clear international position that obliges Israel to stop its aggressive plans and to respect the State of Palestine's sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as the Palestinian citizens' security. The Cabinet also reviewed the decisions issued by the OIC Executive Committee following the Extraordinary Meeting which emphasized the establishment of the Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem (Al-Quds) as its capital; affirmed absolute support for the Palestinian people to regain their full rights; and totally rejected annexing parts of the West Bank considering that a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, the principles of the international law and the United Nations resolutions. The Cabinet reviewed the latest regional and international developments, reiterating what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirmed during the virtual meeting of G5 Sahel States Alliance hosted by France, that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will spare no effort to support all countries against terrorism and extremism, which are a source of threat to international peace and security. The Acting Minister of Media said that the Cabinet renewed its condemnation of the continued launch of ballistic missiles and drones by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist militia to deliberately target civilians and civilian objects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, stressing that these attempts are terrorist acts. The Cabinet also renewed the Kingdom's strong denunciation and condemnation of the terrorist bombings that took place in Kabul, Afghanistan; northern Nigeria; and Diyala Governorate, Iraq, which resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries. The Cabinet affirmed the Kingdom's rejection of these terrorist acts in all their forms and manifestations, offering condolences to the families of the victims, governments and the peoples of these countries and wishing a speedy recovery for the injured. The Cabinet issued the following the decisions: Firs: The Cabinet authorized the Minister of Foreign Affairs - or his deputy - to discuss and sign with the Congolese side a draft general agreement for cooperation between the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Second: The Cabinet approved a memorandum of understanding between the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Government of the Russian Federation to regulate the procedures for granting citizens of both countries visit visa. Third: The Cabinet authorized Minister of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance - or his deputy - to discuss and sign with the Djibouti side a draft memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Culture and Endowments of the Republic of Djibouti to manage and operate Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Islamic Cultural Center in the Republic of Djibouti. Fourth: The Cabinet approved a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of health between the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Government of the United Arab Emirates. Fifth: The Cabinet authorized the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture - or his deputy - to discuss and sign with the Hungarian side a draft memorandum of understanding in the field of water management between the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Hungary. Sixth: The Cabinet approved an air services agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Seventh: The Cabinet authorized the President of the Board of Grievances - or his deputy - to discuss and sign with the Burkinabe side a draft memorandum of understanding in the field of technology, training and development between the Board of Grievances of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the competent authority in the Republic of Burkina Faso. Eighth: The Cabinet authorized the General Supervisor of the National Center for Documents and Archives - or his deputy - to discuss and sign with the Sudanese side a draft memorandum of understanding in the field of documents and archiving between the National Center for Documentation and Archives of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the National Documentation House of the Republic of Sudan. Ninth: The Cabinet approved a memorandum of cooperation in the field of retirement between the Public Pension Agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Social Fund of the Kyrgyz Republic. Tenth: The Cabinet amended Article (3) of King Fahd National Library Law, forming the Board of Trustees of King Fahd National Library. Eleventh: The Cabinet approved the implementation of the decision of the GCC Supreme Council issued during the 40th Session, adopting the 2020 Environmental Trends in GCC Countries: Requirements of the Current Environmental Situation. Twelfth: The Cabinet approved the establishment of a real estate developer services center to provide services to real estate developers of residential projects. Thirteenth: The Cabinet approved a request submitted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea to open Saudi-Korea Vision Realization Office in Riyadh. Fourteenth: The Cabinet approved the Unified Saudi Occupational Classification. Fifteenth: The Cabinet reformed the Board of Directors of the Social Development Bank and renewed the membership of a number of its members. Sixteenth: The Cabinet approved the tasks related to human rights assigned to the legal departments of government bodies. Seventeenth: The Cabinet reformed the Board of Directors of the Agricultural Development Fund, and renewed the membership of a number of its members. Eighteenth: The Cabinet approved the Tourism Development Fund Law. --SPA 20:35 LOCAL TIME 17:35 GMT 0018 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US officials have said they expect health insurance companies will cover vaccines for Covid-19 without charging copays, once those vaccines are developed and become available. At a briefing for reporters, a senior Trump administration official said on Tuesday the government has been talking with insurers about offering vaccines at no cost to patients. The industry earlier made a similar commitment to cover testing for the coronavirus without charging copays. The White House has launched an initiative to quickly manufacture millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines, once the Food and Drug Administration approves one or more formulations. Candidate vaccines are in early trials, and the goal considered ambitious is to have 300 million doses by early next year. At the White House signing of an executive order on policing, President Donald Trump predicted it could even be met before the end of this year. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health has said a vaccine by years end is conceivable only if everything goes right in final testing this summer. Earlier Tuesday, senior administration officials provided an overview of the effort to rapidly manufacture, distribute and deliver eventual vaccines. The officials spoke on condition that they not be publicly identified. The White House has dubbed the initiative Operation Warp Speed, a joint project of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Pentagon, under the overall direction of HHS. The Defense Department has extensive medical capabilities to keep US service members worldwide safe from disease. As with other vaccines, US insurers will have a strong financial interest in covering one for Covid-19. Vaccines are seen as a win-win, helping the insurers customers stay healthy by preventing disease, which in turn can save the companies money. Administration officials told reporters on Tuesday that the Covid-19 vaccine, once available, will be distributed according to priorities, with the most vulnerable people ahead in line. The coronavirus has taken a disproportionate toll on older people and those with other underlying conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Not all Americans will have to be vaccinated, because its expected that millions will be protected by their own antibodies. Health insurers cover vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Theyre considered a preventive service, and the Affordable Care Act requires insurers cover them at no charge to patients. A range of screening tests, immunizations and birth control for women are already covered under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. However, the Trump administration is pressing the courts to overturn Obamacare as unconstitutional. At the White House, Trump exuded optimism, not dwelling on potential complications, whether legal or scientific. I predict we will have a very successful vaccine, therapeutic, and cure, said the president. Were making tremendous progress. I deal with these incredible scientists, doctors, very, very closely. I have great respect for their minds. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Iran hopes that the efforts made by Turkey and Russia to put an end to the longstanding conflict in Libya will yield results, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th June, 2020) Iran hopes that the efforts made by Turkey and Russia to put an end to the longstanding conflict in Libya will yield results, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday. "We hope that they will be successful," Zarif said following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The minister added that Russia's regional initiative in settling the Libyan conflict was similar to the one in solving the Syrian crisis. "We support those efforts. We hope that the legitimate government in Libya can, thus, bring calm to the people of Libya," the diplomat added. Libya has been suffering from internal conflict since its long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in 2011. Today, the country is divided between two centers of power - an elected parliament in the country's east, supported by the LNA, and the internationally-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in the west. Ankara has given its support to the GNA during the ongoing conflict with Haftar's army. Turkish troops and military equipment were shipped to Libya after the GNA made an official request for military assistance at the end of 2019. Meanwhile, Moscow is committed to a political solution to the crisis under the United Nations aegis and calls for more active engagement from the global community. Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies September 30, 2019 in Washington, DC. The Trump administration filed a lawsuit Tuesday against former national security adviser John Bolton, hoping to delay publication of his tell-all book, due to be released next week. "The United States is not seeking to censor any legitimate aspect" of the book manuscript, the Justice Department lawsuit said. It claims instead that Bolton has not finished with the review process required of any author who had a government security clearance. The lawsuit asked a federal judge for an order directing Bolton to urge his publisher to delay publication until that process is done. And it further asked the judge to require Bolton to put any profit he makes from the book into a trust for the benefit of the government. More from NBC News: Legal experts predicted that the lawsuit would be unable to stop publication. "The law in this area is clear. Except in very rare circumstances, the courts cannot stop a publisher from publishing materials in advance," said Mark Rasch, a former federal prosecutor. "That would be a prior restraint. While the government might be able to prosecute Bolton after the fact if he released truly classified materials, every time the government has tried to prevent someone from publishing what they believe to be classified, they have lost," says Rasch, now with Kohrman, Jackson, and Krantz, a Cleveland based law firm. Bolton's book is well along in the publishing process, with copies already shipped to distributors. He also sat for an interview with ABC News scheduled to be broadcast this weekend. The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department's Civil Division, said Bolton began the review process as required but lost patience as the process dragged on month after month. But it contained many references to classified information, including at the top-secret level, it said. The publisher said the book would deliver an inside look at the White House during Bolton's 519 days as national security advisor. "I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn't driven by reelection calculations," the book said, according to material provided by Simon & Schuster. Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union said the lawsuit was doomed to fail. "As usual, the government's threats have nothing to do with safeguarding national security, and everything to do with avoiding scandal and embarrassment." Trump fired him in September 2019, but Bolton and his unpublished book were in the middle of a political maelstrom earlier this year when Democrats demanded his testimony in Trump's impeachment trial. That request came after an explosive news report during the trial alleged that in Bolton's unpublished book Trump personally tied aid for Ukraine to an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Bolton's account conflicted with the president's, who described his talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a "perfect call" and later denied Bolton's claim. However, former White House official Fiona Hill told House impeachment investigators last October that Bolton was so disturbed by the efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate Trump's political rival that he called it a "drug deal." He also referred to the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who was also implicated in the Ukraine pressure campaign, as a "hand grenade." Senate Republicans rejected Bolton's offer to testify in Trump's impeachment trial and largely rejected calls from Democrats to call more key witnesses. Shortly after the trial ended, Bolton said even if he had testified, it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the trial because of how House Democrats handled their investigation By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Hotel Taj Mansingh and Hotel Suryaa are among several hotels that have been converted into Covid care facilities by the Delhi government following a spike in coronavirus cases in the capital. The hotels will be attached to various hospitals, which can refer patients to these facilities where they will provided rooms and food. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the Hotel Suryaa, which will be attached to the Holy Family Hospital. The visit comes aday after Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the Lok Nayak Jayi Prakash Narayan Hospital to take stock of the situation. According to the government, in the next few days 30-35 hotels will be turned into Covid care facilities, taking up the number of beds by 3,000 beds for the coronavirus patients. The Surya Hotel is a dedicated Covid-19 facility attached to the Holy Family Hospital. Several other hotels like this will be requisitioned. This is a tough time for everyone and we all need to come together, Kejriwal said. This facility should be operational with 120 beds initially in the next 2-3 days and will gradually be ramped up to 250-300 beds. Around 30-35 hotels will be requisitioned and around 3,000-3,500 beds will be added to the total bed capacity, the CM added. The hotels will meet the shortage in the number of beds and staff that hospitals are facing. The charges will be made to the hotel by the hospitals. The government has put an upper price cap on these hotel-hospitals at Rs 10,000 per day for providing housekeeping, food and medical services. Kejriwal, who held two meetings with Shah, L-G Anil Baijal and other stakeholders, said working together with the Centre was the only way forward to fight the pandemic and limit its spread in the national capital. The decision to attach hotels to hospitals was taken by the Delhi government in view of the acute shortage of beds in the city. Last week, the Delhi government had said it expects to have 5.5 lakh coronavirus cases by the end of July for which the national capital will need 80,000 hospital beds. An audit conducted by the Auditor General on the Management of Petroleum Holding Fund shows that an amount of $310.34 million was outstanding to be paid into the Petroleum Holding Fund as at December 31, 2018. Of the total amount, $308.77 million represented an amount due from the Ghana National Gas Company Limited for gas sold to them by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and $1.57 million as surface rental fees unpaid by various entities. The report however did not identify any incidence of fraud during the auditing proceedings. The report's estimated amount of penalties of defaulters based on Section 3(4) of Act 815 is US$10.79 billion. The Act 815 requires that petroleum revenue assessed as due in each month shall be paid by direct transfer into the Petroleum Holding Fund by the fifteenth day of the ensuing month by the entities obliged to make such payments. The report signed by Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo, Auditor-General, said there was a loss of income which would have been earned if the funds had been paid on time and re-invested. The Report recommended that monies assessed as due to the Petroleum Funds should be promptly collected and any late payments should attract interest as stipulated by Section 3(4) of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act. It said that management of Ghana Revenue Authority responded that, UB Resources Ltd and UB Group paid a total of US$ 37,799.42 into the Petroleum Holding Fund in February 2019 to settle their assessment. On Sahara Fields Energy Limited, Britannia-U Ghana Limited and Swiss African Oil Company Limited, their management said, these three companies have failed to honour their payment obligations despite stringent efforts to get them to do so. It said the GRA is collaborating with the Petroleum Commission to ensure they comply or face the necessary sanctions. On distributions to GNPC, Clause 6 of Act 893 required the Minister of Finance to ensure that the Bank of Ghana transfers to GNPC the relevant portion of the petroleum revenue not later than three (3) working days after receipt of petroleum revenue into the Petroleum Holding Fund. The report noted that distributions of the relevant portions of petroleum revenue to GNPC for the 41st to 46th Jubilee liftings and the 5th to 9th TEN liftings and the 1st Sankofa liftings were made more than three working days after receipt of the petroleum revenue into the Petroleum Holding Fund. The Report however said the Bank of Ghana did not comply with the requirements of Act 893, and therefore recommended that, the distributions of petroleum revenue should be made in accordance with the provisions contained in Act 893. GNA China's official media quoted the Chinese military as claiming that it "always" owned sovereignty over the Galwan Valley region and alleged that "provocative attacks' launched by the Indian troops resulted in "severe clashes and casualties." In its first reaction on Monday's clashes between the two militaries at the Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh, a statement quoting the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theatre Command Spokesperson Colonel Zhang Shuili said, "China always owns sovereignty over the Galwan Valley region." The Indian border defence troops are "inconsistent with their words and seriously violated" the agreements both countries have reached, the consensus made during the army commander-level talks and harmed the relations of the two militaries and the feelings of the two countries' peoples, the Global Times quoted him as saying. Follow our LIVE blog to know the latest news on India-China "The Indian troops have broken their promises and again crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley region on Monday evening and purposely launched provocative attacks, leading to severe clashes and casualties, Zhang alleged. "India should stop all provocative actions, meet the Chinese side halfway and come back to the right path of solving disputes through talks, Zhang said. The Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi that the violent face-off between the armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. "Given its responsible approach to border management, India is very clear that all its activities are always within the Indian side of the LAC. We expect the same of the Chinese side," MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in response to media queries on the situation in the western sector of the India-China border. "We remain firmly convinced of the need for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and the resolution of differences through dialogue," Srivastava said, adding that the casualties could have been avoided if the Chinese side scrupulously followed the agreement arrived at earlier at the higher level. "At the same time, we are also strongly committed to ensuring India's sovereignty and territorial integrity," he added. China's official media, quoting the Chinese military statement alleged that the Indian soldiers crossed the LAC and attacked the PLA troops. "The Indian troops have broken their promises and again crossed the line of actual control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley region on Monday evening and purposely launched provocative attacks, leading to severe clashes and casualties," Col. Zhang claimed. A total of 20 Indian Army personnel were killed during a violent clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday night, an Army statement said on Tuesday. Initially, the army said one officer and two soldiers were killed in the face-off, in the first such incident involving fatalities after a gap of 45 years and signalling a massive escalation in the five-week border standoff in the sensitive region. The Army said here were casualties on the Chinese side as well. The extent of casualties on the Chinese side is not immediately clear. While acknowledging severe clashes and casualties, the PLA statement quoted by the Global Times as well as China Daily was silent on the casualties on the Chinese side. The Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in the standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. A sizeable number of Chinese Army personnel even transgressed into the Indian side of the de-facto border in several areas including Pangong Tso. The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the border row. Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in its official transcript of Tuesday's media briefing did not publish the initial statement made by ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on the violent face-off between the Chinese and Indian troops. While the Chinese officials were silent on the casualties suffered by the PLA troops, Hu Xijin, editor of the ruling Communist Party-run Global Times tabloid tweeted to say there are casualties on Chinese side too. "Chinese and Indian military personnel broke out in a severe physical conflict in the Galwan Valley. The Indian side stated that three people died in the Indian Army. According to my urgent knowledge of people familiar with the situation, there are also casualties on our side, she said. However, the Global Times later tweeted that the "official Global Times accounts have NEVER reported the exact casualties on the Chinese side. The Global Times CANNOT confirm the number at the moment." Hu later tweeted that the Chinese side didn't release the number of PLA casualties in the clash with Indian soldiers. "My understanding is the Chinese side doesn't want people of the two countries to compare the casualties number so to avoid stoking public mood. This is goodwill from Beijing," Hu added. Read our complete coverage on the India-China border tension. We are ready to reconsider wearing of the protective masks on the streets but the wearing of the masks on the premises will be relevant for a long time, - PM Ukraine's Prime Minister Open source Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has decided to extend adaptive lockdown until July 31. Prime Minister Denys Shmygal announced this during the session of the Ukrainian government that was broadcasted by 112 Ukraine TV channel. Given the increase in the number of coronavirus-infected patients, we will prolong the adaptive quarantine until July 31 this year. Today, we also will consider the updated approach to adaptive quarantine proposed by the Ministry of Health, which provides for the possibility of lockdown strengthening in certain regions if the situation requires such actions," Shmygal stated. As we reported earlier, the government of Ukraine plans to submit to the Verkhovna Rada the issue of the strengthening of the administrative responsibility for the violation of the mask regime during the quarantine. We are ready to reconsider the wearing of the masks on the streets but the wearing of the masks on the premises will be relevant for a long time. That is why we plan to submit to the session of the government and the Verkhovna Rada the issue of the strengthening of the administrative responsibility for non-observance of the mask regime on the premises and in the public transport, Ukraine's PM said. (Natural News) To ensure that racial justice is more easily achieved, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has announced plans for all Black people in the state and only Black people, it is important to emphasize to receive free health care coverage. Because a lot of Black people are apparently coming down with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), according to Beshear and this combined with the recent George Floyd incident the only logical thing to do is to give even more government handouts to the Black population of Kentucky. We are going to begin an effort to cover 100 percent of our individuals in our Black and African-American communities, Beshear stated from the capitol building in Frankfort. We are going to be putting dollars behind it. A firm believer in the idea that health care is a basic human right, Beshear says the goal is to get every Black person in his state signed up for some form of coverage, though he has yet to lay out a plan for how this might be accomplished. If a Black person in Kentucky does not already have private health coverage, he or she will be given either Medicare or Medicaid coverage by the government. This, in Beshears view, will help to end racism and achieve social justice for all. This is the time where we have the opportunity to be better people, he added in a statement. Beshear also wants Kentucky law enforcement to take online sensitivity training Since the shootings of Breonna Taylor and David McAtee, two Black people who were killed by police officers, occurred in Kentucky, Beshear also wants to create a new online training program for law enforcement officer trainees to make sure that no black criminals are harmed by police officers ever again. This program will reportedly focus on sensitivity topics such as implicit bias, the use of force by police, basic civil rights laws, and community relationships, along with other topics. Concerning the recent removal of a statue of Jefferson Davis from the Capitol Rotunda, which was approved by Beshear himself, he explained that the decision was past time and that the fight for racial equality is that much further along now that the metal figure has been moved to the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site in Fairview. What it will mean is that we get a little closer to truly being Team Kentucky, Beshear stated proudly from the capitol, explaining that the statues removal will ensure that every child who walks into this capitol feels welcome, and that none of them have to look at a symbol and a statue that stands for the enslavement of their ancestors. Because likenesses of historical figures can be upsetting to some people, Beshear believes that the best response is to just remove them, just so long as the people upset have black skin. If you have white skin and are upset that historical monuments are being removed, then you are simply out of luck. Today is a move toward showing that everybody is welcome in this building and that our government should work for the betterment of every single Kentuckian, Beshear continued to blather as part of a carefully scripted statement. We have systematic issues that we must address, (and) now is the time to truly move forward, to truly make progress and to show that Team Kentucky includes every single Kentuckian, he added. In the same statement, Beshear made mention of an uptick in Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) cases throughout the state, but failed to explain how the continued protests over George Floyd might be contributing to this. For more related news about the leftist push for free everything for Black people, be sure to check out LiberalMob.com. Sources for this article include: WAVE3.com NaturalNews.com WAVE3.com Texas Governor Greg Abbott announces the reopening of more Texas businesses during the COVID 19 pandemic at a press conference at the Texas State Capitol on May 18, 2020 in Austin, Texas. Lynda M. Gonzalez-Pool/Getty Images Texas has seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, and on Tuesday broke the single-day case record with 2,622 new cases of COVID-19. Governor Greg Abbott said the uptick in cases could be a result of people ignoring social distancing rules and going to "bar-type settings." He said the majority of cases were in people under 30, but a Texas Department of State Health Services spokesman told USA Today that it's too early to tell. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Texas Governor Greg Abbott blamed the state's recent spike in coronavirus cases on people under the age of 30. Texas recorded 2,622 new cases of COVID-19 in the state on Tuesday, breaking the state record for single-day cases since the pandemic began, according to the Texas Department of Public Health. The state also had 2,518 new hospitalizations. Abbott urged people to stay calm despite the coronavirus case spike, during a press conference on Tuesday, saying there is "no reason right now to be alarmed," according to the New York Post. He blamed the uptick in cases on young people, saying the majority of people who tested positive since the start of June are under 30 years old. He did not provide evidence of an increase in infections in young people during the press conference. Abbot said the uptick could be a result of people ignoring social distancing rules over Memorial Day weekend and going to "bar-type settings." "We think we can also accurately say there has been an increase especially beginning around the Memorial Day time period and going through a few weeks after that an increase in people testing positive because they may not be practicing all these safe standards," Abbott said. A Texas Department of State Health Services spokesman told USA Today that the agency doesn't have hard data on how many young people have tested positive for COVID-19 recently, though San Antonio health officials said many of the new cases in Bexar County were in young people. Texas started reopening in April after weeks of shutdowns and social distancing rules put in place to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The state is currently in Phase Three of reopening, which means establishments can increase their capacity to 75%. Read the original article on Insider A view of an explosion of a joint liaison office with South Korea in border town Kaesong, North Korea in this picture supplied by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 16, 2020. Tensions between the two Koreas may continue to rise after a joint liaison office in a border town was blown up, analysts said on Wednesday. "We are going to see a gradual incremental ramping up of tensions," said Jung Pak, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution. The demolition of the joint liaison office on Tuesday came after Pyongyang said it was cutting off a hotline with South Korea and threatened to abandon an inter-Korean military agreement that aimed to reduce border tensions. Pak warned of unpredictable, unstable times ahead as the world does not know what has motivated Pyongyang's recent behavior. South Korea is not taking the latest provocation lying down. On Wednesday, it said that recent North Korean criticism of Moon was senseless, Reuters reported, citing a presidential spokesman. Seoul will also no longer accept unreasonable behavior by the North, the Blue House reportedly said. "It seems that South Korea is swinging back hard ... so we're going to see additional confrontational moves from North Korea," Pak told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia." "It's not anything new for North Korea to manufacture tension in this way," said Pak, describing Pyongyang's escalation on Wednesday as "non-lethal, but very dramatic action." The hostile rhetoric leading up to the detonation also sent a "clear signal that North Korea wants to punish South Korea for it siding with the U.S. on sanctions and for its inability to deliver on a more pliant President Trump when it comes to (the) lifting of sanctions," added Pak, who is also the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies at Brookings Institution's Center for East Asia Policy Studies. North Korea is being squeezed by political sanctions as the coronavirus pandemic dampens global economic activity. Pyongyang sealed the country's borders early in the outbreak and had said officially that there were no cases of the coronavirus in the country. The isolated nation has been trying get relief on international sanctions, many of which are in place due to its nuclear program. In 2018, Kim met U.S. President Donald Trump at a high-profile summit in Singapore, but there has been little progress since. A second round of talks ended abruptly in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi when both sides could not agree on the removal of sanctions. Late last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned of "shocking action." He said he would continue developing his country's nuclear deterrent and introduce a new strategic weapon in the near future. "What the Kim regime knows is more aggression rather than confession or compromise on the nuclear issue. So I think we are going to see some provocative action," said Brookings' Pak. While all the malice now is directed at South Korea for now, it is but a "soft target" for North Korea, since the U.S. is Pyongyang's "mortal adversary," said Lee Sung Yoon, Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. "Whenever the U.S. leader seems weak or distracted, that's usually when North Korea comes out swinging," Lee told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" of the longstanding strategy. The U.S. is currently in the throes of handling the coronavirus pandemic and a spate of anti-racism protests ahead of the November presidential election. "So I truly believe that North Korea has rational if you will reason, incentive to do crazy things, to conduct more weapons tests and to resort to perhaps even limited but lethal attacks against South Korea," Lee said. So later on, "when North Korea changes the tune, beaming smiles and says 'let's talk,' you see, the adversary always takes the bait," Lee added. [June 17, 2020] Santa Clara Family Health Plan Selects CitiusTech's SCORE+ Platform for HEDIS 2020 Submission Santa Clara Family Health Plan (SCFHP), the California-based community health plan, has deployed CitiusTech's SCORE+ platform to improve end-to-end HEDIS compliance across its entire membership. SCFHP's quality improvement team now uses SCORE+ to evaluate, strategize and monitor performance measurements for the organization's 2020-2021 NCQA HEDIS and Medi-Cal submissions. "SCFHP turned to CitiusTech to streamline HEDIS monitoring and reporting to support our quality initiatives, as we continually work to ensure our members receive the highest quality of care," said Johanna Liu, director of quality and process improvement at SCFHP. "We look forward to this new partnership and working with the SCORE+ platform to enhance our quality program." With changing regulatory needs, leading payers like SCFHP face the challenge of transforming HEDIS processing to meet their quality and financial objectives. SCORE+ is a comprehensive quality performance management platform that enables SCFHP to manage all their quality initiatives through a single, integrated workflow and pre-built KPIs. "SCORE+ allows health plans to build speed and agility into their value-based care programs. It has proven to be a pwerful quality management platform with state-of-the-art rules management, modular analytics and a user-friendly design," said Jeffrey Springer, senior vice president of healthcare solutions at CitiusTech. "We have built a strong relationship with Santa Clara Family Health Plan and look forward to collaborating across their quality management initiatives." CitiusTech's engagement with SCFHP involves multiple areas of focus including weekly compliance reporting, quality performance dashboards, provider engagement, HEDIS sampling, chase logic and NCQA submissions. HEDIS is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). About Santa Clara Family Health Plan SCFHP (https://www.scfhp.com) is a local, community-based health plan dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the residents of Santa Clara County, California. Working in partnership with providers and community organizations, they serve their neighbors through their Medi-Cal and Cal MediConnect (Medicare-Medicaid Plan) health insurance plans. SCFHP began offering coverage in 1997 and is now proud to provide services to over 240,000 residents of Santa Clara County. Through devotion to outstanding service and care for the community, SCFHP is committed to providing quality, affordable health insurance to the underserved in Santa Clara County's diverse population. For more information, visit www.scfhp.com. About CitiusTech CitiusTech (www.citiustech.com) is a specialist provider of healthcare technology services and solutions to healthcare technology companies, providers, payers and life sciences organizations. With over 4,000 professionals worldwide, CitiusTech enables healthcare organizations to drive clinical value chain excellence - across integration & interoperability, data management (EDW, Big Data), performance management (BI / analytics), predictive analytics & data science and digital engagement (mobile, IoT). CitiusTech helps customers accelerate innovation in healthcare through specialized solutions, healthcare technology platforms, proficiencies and accelerators. With cutting-edge technology expertise, world-class service quality and a global resource base, CitiusTech consistently delivers best-in-class solutions and an unmatched cost advantage to healthcare organizations worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005438/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] President Trump backed Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the aftermath of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder to distract reporters from covering Ivanka Trump's use of a private email server, a new book claims. Early copies of John Bolton's 'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,' were obtained Wednesday by The New York Times and The Washington Post. In the book, Bolton, Trump's third national security adviser, suggested that some of the president's more erratic behavior was designed to serve as a diversion. President Trump sent out a statement backing Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the aftermath of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder to distract reporters from covering Ivanka Trump's use of private email, John Bolton's new book claims On November 20, 2018, Trump wrote that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) 'could very well ... had knowledge of this tragic event - maybe he did and maybe he didn't!' referring to Jamal Khashoggi's (right) murder, which the CIA said the Crown Prince ordered John Bolton, the former national security adviser, wrote in his new book that the statement was by design, as President Trump (left) wanted to distract journalists from writing about Ivanka Trump (right) using private email with government officials Early copies of John Bolton's memoir, 'The Room Where It Happened,' leaked to the press Wednesday. The book is out Tuesday Bolton recalled the November 2018 controversy over Khashoggi's death. Khashoggi was a Washington Post op-ed writer and a resident of the U.S. He also was a critic of the Saudi regime. He went missing after walking into the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2. A month later, the CIA determined that the Crown Prince, who has a close relationship with White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, had given the order for Khashoggi's assassination. On November 20, the president read an exclamation-mark-filled statement essentially letting the Crown Prince off the hook. 'Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event maybe he did and maybe he didn't!' Trump had said. 'That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,' Trump continued. 'In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.' Behind-the-scenes, Bolton wrote, Trump decided to issue the statement because on November 19 the story broke that first daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails to government officials using a personal email account. Government officials are supposed to use government email accounts for government business, so the messages can be archived and proper security measures are in place. 'This will divert from Ivanka,' Trump said of the statement, according to Bolton's book. 'If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing.' Ivanka's use of a private email account looked hypocritical after Trump paid great attention to rival Hillary Clinton's use of her private email server during her tenure as President Obama's secretary of state. A recent uptick in Chinese and Russian activity in space orbit coupled with the increased pace of developing new spying and jamming technologies has prompted the Pentagon to outline a new set of objectives that are essential for keeping the U.S. ahead of the pack. The Defense Department on Wednesday unveiled its Defense Space Strategy designed to "serve as the roadmap to advance our nation's military space power," said Stepen Kitay, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Space Policy. Read Next: After Fatal Jet Crash, the Pilots Got Blamed. Then the Air Force Banned the Flight Maneuver "I would say we are ahead of [Russia and China] but we are absolutely at risk," Kitay told reporters during the unveiling of the 18-page unclassified version of the report. The report noted that because the Pentagon has for decades approached space in a support function -- launching satellites, and monitoring them from afar -- rather than a robust battle domain, its national security space blueprint is in need of a transformation. "The U.S. space enterprise was not built for the current strategic environment," Kitay said. Kitay cited a Russian operation in 2017 in which the country had launched a satellite that then launched a sub-satellite system. One of the two satellites then launched a high-speed projectile into space. Then, earlier this year, two Russian satellites, Cosmos 2542 and 2543, tailed an American satellite, known as USA 245 or KH-11. Time Magazine reported the Russian satellites loitered within 100 miles of KH-11, activity that Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, the head of U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command, called "unusual and disturbing." With the creation of Space Command and Space Force, the U.S. has the ability to leverage dedicated resources and personnel to defend space, Kitay said. The report highlighted a spectrum of events the Pentagon believes need consistent observation, including nuclear detonation detection in space. "That has been a concern actually and a threat going back to even the Cold War," Kitay said. "The challenge of a nuclear detonation is it creates an electromagnetic pulse in [signals] that then could take out indiscriminately many satellites in space and essentially fry the electronics. "That goes on a continuum of a range of threats that we have to be prepared for potential adversaries to employ," he said. The Pentagon will also look to update security classification for DoD space programs, the strategy said. The report did not elaborate on what this classification update would look like. Kitay repeatedly demurred Wednesday when asked about specific U.S. capabilities in space. "With China and Russia both actively developing capabilities to negate U.S., allied and partner space systems, we are left with no choice but to ensure we are prepared with the necessary means to protect and defend ourselves from attacks to our systems," he said. "Whether they be in space, on the ground, or any other domain." -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: Russia and China Racing to Get Satellite Jammers, Report Finds Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 06:00:01|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on June 17, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium shows a screen that displays the 43rd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, Switzerland. The UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday afternoon began its urgent debate on racism and police brutality in the follow-up to the killing of George Floyd in the United States, following a request made by Burkina Faso on behalf of the African Group. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong) GENEVA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Human Right Council on Wednesday afternoon began an urgent debate on current racially inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protests, in the follow-up to the killing of George Floyd in the United States. In her opening remarks, Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, President of the UN Human Rights Council, said that the debate was being held at the request of Burkina Faso on behalf of the African Group. She bowed to all the victims and requested those present to observe a moment of silence at the beginning of the debate. On May 25, Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, was killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. Amina Mohammed, deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, via video teleconference, said that the debate is a "historic debate," given that Afro-descendants still faced poverty and structural racism. "I too, like Martin Luther King Jr, have a dream that my granddaughter Maya will grow up in a world where she will not be judged by the color of her skin but by the strength of her character," she said. Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, emphasized that the wave of protests since the killing of George Floyd had been truly global, and encouraged the Council to heighten its focus on racism and racial discrimination. Saying that George Floyd's killing has become emblematic of the excessive use of disproportionate force by law enforcement against people of African descent, the High Commissioner said that decisive action is needed not only to reform law enforcement agencies, but also to address pervasive racism problems. E. Tendayi Achiume, UN Special Rapporteur on racism, told the debate via video message that the world is witnessing the largest transnational mobilization against systemic racism in law enforcement sparked by the chilling images of the police killing of George Floyd. On behalf of a group of other UN experts, she also urged the UN rights body to create an international commission of inquiry with the necessary authority to investigate systemic racism in law enforcement in the United States. Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, said via video message that none of the police officers were fired for his brother's murder until mass protests took place worldwide. He requested the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry to investigate police killings of black people in America and the violence used against peaceful protesters. In the discussion that followed, speakers thanked the African Group for putting this important topic on the agenda and strongly condemned the murder of George Floyd and all forms of racism, xenophobia and discrimination. Many speakers also expressed concern about the increased use of the mass media to transmit racism, xenophobia and racist discrimination, calling for the promotion of education and mutual understanding between communities. Given the large number of speakers, the urgent debate will resume on Thursday morning, at the end of which a resolution is expected to be adopted. Enditem Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2020) - TransCanna Holdings Inc. (CSE: TCAN) (FSE: TH8) ("TransCanna" or the "Company") is pleased to announce through its wholly-owned subsidiary Lyfted Farms Inc. ("Lyfted") an Inventory and Product Agreement (the "Agreement") with Cali Plug UHCC for its highly anticipated inaugural retail location. Cali Plug was founded in 2006 and is a significant influencer in the cannabis space, with approximately 200,000 Instagram followers (@caliplug). July 2020 is the target date for the grand opening of this store. Through this Agreement, Lyfted Farms is expanding distribution into the greater Los Angeles area in collaboration with the brand new Cali Plug UHCC dispensaries www.calipluguhcc.com. Cali Plug UHCC plans to feature the Lyfted Farms products in the new store and use their social media platforms to promote the Lyfted brand. Cali Plug has estimated foot traffic to exceed 1,000 customers daily for the downtown store. The first dispensary will be prominently located in downtown Los Angeles at 5925 South Alameda Street. "Lyfted Farms is a powerhouse for premium indoor cultivation flower. Moving into the So-Cal market with Cali Plug flagship retail is going to be an incredible collaborative force," states Cali Plug, Owner and Founder Michael Myers. "The flower is going to fly off the shelves. The So-Cal consumers demand the quality that Lyfted Farms can produce." Cannabis sales in California are expected to exceed U$5.1 billion for 2020, with more than half of that happening in the greater Los Angeles area. Southern California is the largest cannabis consumer market in the world. "This Agreement helps us realize our broader strategy of aligning with authentic long-term California cannabis innovators while staying true to our end consumer," said Bob Blink, Lyfted Farms Founder and TransCanna CEO. "We continue to build out the go-to-market strategy in anticipation of imminently receiving our Daly Building license." Story continues About TransCanna Holdings Inc. TransCanna Holdings Inc. is a California based, Canadian listed company building Cannabis-focused brands for the California lifestyle, through its wholly-owned California subsidiaries. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.transcanna.com or email the Company at info@transcanna.com. On behalf of the Board of Directors Bob Blink, CEO 604-349-3011 Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/58029 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's long campaign to see Canada elected to a temporary seat on the UN Security Council culminates Wednesday in New York as ambassadors from member states prepare to vote. Confined to his own country for the past three months, Trudeau has chatted up more than 40 national leaders from Senegal to Spain, from Uganda to Ukraine in his bid to beat either Ireland or Norway for one of two remaining seats now up for grabs. Just yesterday Trudeau spoke with the prime ministers of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, India, Pakistan, Spain, Ethiopia and the presidents of Angola and Mexico. Last week he spoke with the prime ministers of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Fiji, North Macedonia and the presidents of Rwanda and Panama. And it's not only the prime minister who is working the phones. Officials and ministers are calling their foreign counterparts as a part of the final, frantic push for votes. Should Canada win, it will become one of ten temporary members of the council joining the table for a two-year term. The real power and influence will continue to reside with the council's five permanent members: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China which hold the power to veto resolutions. WATCH | Trudeau discusses Canada's chances of winning a seat: Every year the UN General Assembly elects five countries to the Security Council. The votes are conducted by secret ballot and countries have to secure a two-thirds majority to win. If Canada does not secure that majority on the first round it will have to battle it out until a winner emerges. The process could be tied up swiftly in Thursday's second round of voting, or it could drag on. In 1979 it took 155 rounds to fill a seat. Canada has been elected to the Security Council six times since the 1940s but its last bid, in 2010, ended in failure for the first time with Germany and Portugal taking the two seats Canada was aiming for. Story continues Trudeau says securing a seat is not an end in and of itself, but a way for Canada to "continue to be influential" around the world. "Over the past number of months, whether it's been on COVID, whether it's been on development and financial reform, whether it's been on climate change, whether it's been on a range of things from peacekeeping to security to women, we have been moving forward and leading the way," Trudeau told reporters Tuesday. "Regardless of what happens in the campaign, we are more engaged and we will continue to be more engaged on the world stage." Canada's success depends in part on what it can bring to the table that Norway and Ireland cannot. As one expert points out, the countries hold similar profiles on the world stage that makes differentiation challenging. About 60 out of 190 states in the organization vote purely on the whim of their ambassadors in New York - Richard Gowan, International Crisis Group "There are lots of fine differences, but to be quite honest, these are three peas in a pod if you will. They're very similar countries with long histories of supporting the UN," said Richard Gowan, who oversees the International Crisis Group's advocacy work at the UN. Some of those differences include both Norway and Canada being members of NATO while Ireland is not. Another is Canada's close and supportive relationship with Israel. 'We see you as family' Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada's voice in the world is more important than ever, especially when it comes to standing up for things like the rules-based international order which she says "is under threat." "Some of the principles and ideas that Canada stands for are needed in the world today as never before: feminism, speaking up for diversity, speaking up for human rights, speaking up for the environment; these are all central values for our government and they are issues that Canada champions around the world," Freeland told reporters in Ottawa. Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, says Canada has done enough to earn her country's vote. WATCH | Prime minister of Barbados discusses Canada's potential contribution: "We as a country have made a very clear determination that we will be supporting your country," she said Tuesday on CBC's Power & Politics. "We see you as family." Mottley said Trudeau has been very helpful to her region of the world and has personally written to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to get those institutions to rethink how they will provide pandemic-related economic support to middle income countries. But what Canada brings to the table, the values it represents, the issues it pledges to push once it gets to the Security Council are not always factors for countries when they are considering who to support. Sometimes the thinking behind the vote is much more superficial. "About 60 out of 190 states in the organization vote purely on the whim of their ambassadors in New York, and those ambassadors often promise their votes to all three candidates, and no one is quite sure who is telling the truth to whom," Gowan said. Watch | Trudeau questioned about his commitment to UN peacekeeping Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 18:45:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHANGSHA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Seven people were killed after a fire broke out Wednesday morning in Shuangfeng County, central China's Hunan Province, according to the local publicity department. The fire, which occurred around 10 a.m. at a logistics transfer station, was extinguished about two hours later, the department said. The owner of the logistics business has been put under police control. The local government has launched an investigation into the accident, while an overhaul campaign to identify potential safety hazards is underway throughout the county, according to the department. Enditem Eighty two thousand civilian employees of Indias 41 ordnance factories will go on indefinite strike after the second week of July in protest against the Centres decision to corporatise weapon and defence equipment manufacturing units run by the Ordnance Factory Board of the ministry of defence. The announcement was made on Wednesday afternoon by all three national trade unions, including the Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh (BPMS) affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The unions, however, said that the strike will be deferred if the killings in Galwan, in which the Indian Army lost 20 soldiers, leads to a crisis. The nation comes first. If there is a crisis we have to work round the clock and supply equipment to the army, Mukesh Singh, general secretary, BPMS, told HT. The date of the strike will be decided in mid-July. The unions decided to go on indefinite strike after their members gave their opinion through ballot between June 8 and 17. Ordnance factory workers toiled day and night whenever India was at war with its neighbours. There was no need to corporatize the factories. We are ready to stand up to any crisis, said C Srikumar, general secretary, All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF). In a statement, the trade unions described the decision to corporatise the plants arbitrary, illegal and unjustified and in violation of assurances given by former defence ministers. In spite of the Covid-19 lockdown more than 99 per cent employees participated in the ballot and voted in favour of the indefinite strike, said Srikumar. The unions started a movement against corporatization in July last year. The agitation started to build up soon after the Centre enforced Arms Rules 2016, which introduced new laws to facilitate production of weapons by private players in collaboration with foreign partners. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The number of freedom of information requests increased by 42% between 2015 and 2019. Almost 40,000 requests were made last year, which is 8% more than in 2018. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday rejected the "baseless allegations" by India over the arrest of two Indian High Commission officials here for their alleged involvement in a hit-and-run incident. The two officials were later released by the police on Monday after the Foreign Office informed the authorities that they had diplomatic immunity. Following the incident, India on Tuesday summoned Charge d' Affaires of Pakistan High Commission Haider Shah and lodged a strong protest with him over the "abduction and torture" of two officials of the Indian mission in Islamabad by Pakistani agencies. In a media statement, the MEA said the Indian officials were subjected to "interrogation, torture and physical assault resulting in grievous injuries to them" and were released only after strong intervention by the high commission of India in Islamabad and the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi. The MEA also said that the two officials were video-graphed and coerced to accept a litany of fictitious allegations and concocted charges. The vehicle of the High Commission, in which they were travelling, was extensively damaged. Reacting to the MEA statement, Pakistan's Foreign Office said the Indian statement "is a reprehensible attempt to distort facts and deny the culpability of these officials in criminal offences." The two officials, identified as Dwimu Brahma and Paul Selvadhas, were arrested in the morning on Monday from the Embassy Road in G-6 area of the capital after their vehicle allegedly hit a pedestrian. The FO claimed that during the course of investigation, fake currency was also recovered from the officials. "After it was confirmed that the said officials were from the Indian High Commission, they were released and handed over to a senior diplomat from the Indian High Commission," it said. Meanwhile, country's spy agency - the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) - on Tuesday briefed the country's top military leadership about the situation on the Line of Control. Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Nadeem Raza, Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Naval Chief Admiral Zafar Mehmood Abbasi and Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan visited the ISI headquarters in Islamabad. ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hamid briefed them on the regional security situation. "Comprehensive briefing was given to military leadership on regional security issues with special focus on the situation of LoC," according to the army. The top level huddle of the armed forces coincided with the reports of violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh. The ISI is Pakistan's powerful spy agency. In 1950, it was officially given the task of safeguarding Pakistani interests and national security, inside and outside the country. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Leman Zeynalova - Trend: The completion of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) offers the European Union and Azerbaijan in the energy sphere many new exciting avenues for further cooperation, for example regarding energy grid systems, renewables and energy efficiency measures, European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson told Trend. "The completion and final commissioning of the SGC will mark an important milestone for the EUs relations with Azerbaijan. Because of the SGC, Azerbaijan is a strategic energy partner for the EU. The SGC therefore only constitutes a starting point but not the end point of our energy relations," she said. Simson highlighted the importance of completion of the SGCs longest section, the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP). "The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline with its almost 1900 km is the longest stretch of the SGC. Crossing Turkey, it connects Azerbaijans Shah Deniz II gas field with the border of Greece. I understand that the engineers were confronted with many geological challenges. Despite this, TANAP was finished according to schedule," noted Simson. The Southern Gas Corridor comprises the following four projects: (i) operation of Shah Deniz natural gas-condensate field ("SD1" project) and its full-field development ("SD2'" project), (ii) the operation of the South Caucasus Pipeline ("SCP" project) and its expansion ("SCPX" project), (iii) the construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline ("TANAP" project) and (iv) the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline ("TAP" project) (SD2, SCPX, TANAP and TAP collectively, the "Projects"). The Projects have an estimated investment cost of approximately $40 billion. Upon completion, the SD2 project will add a further 16 bcm of natural gas per annum to 10.9 bcma (maximum production capacity) already produced under SD1 project. Total length of the newly constructed SCPX, TANAP and TAP pipelines will be more than 3,200 kilometres. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn The Aunt Jemima brand will soon be getting a new look altogether, its parent company Quaker Oats announced Wednesday morning. In the announcement first obtained by NBC News, the company said its origins are based on a racial stereotype. The 130-year-old brand features a black woman named Aunt Jemima as its logo. We recognize Aunt Jemimas origins are based on a racial stereotype," Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods North America, said in a press release obtained by NBC. As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers expectations." The origin of the name and logo are based off the song Old Aunt Jemima from a minstrel show performer, according to CNN. According to its website, the logo was first used in 1890 and was based on Nancy Green, a storyteller, cook and missionary worker. Since then, the picture associated with the brand has changed over time. In recent years, the company removed the mammy kerchief from the logo as it was perceived to be a racist stereotype. Kroepfl said in the press release that the company sees these changes, aimed to make the brand appropriate and respectful," are now insufficient. As Black Lives Matter protests continue around the country, there has been a recent push on social media calling for Quaker Oats to change the name. The new name and logo has not yet been revealed. 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 London: Trade Minister Simon Birmingham says the coronavirus-induced recession has made a new free trade deal between Australia and the United Kingdom even more important, arguing the agreement will help counter the damaging "lure" of protectionism taking hold around the globe. Birmingham on Wednesday announced the immediate commencement of formal negotiations between Canberra and London, with the aim of striking a post-Brexit deal that will likely make it cheaper to import and export goods and easier to move between both countries for work. The trade deal might make it easier to live and work in London. Credit:Louis Douvis The key phase had been delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak, but both sides are confident an agreement can still be struck by the end of the year. Britain is particularly eager to secure a quick win because it would allow Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government to mount a case that leaving the European Union has allowed the country to pursue its own economic independence. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent out warning letters to four companies for selling unapproved injectable drugs labeled as homeopathic products. The agency said these drugs can pose serious risks to patient health and violate federal law. The agency issued the warning letters to Hervert Pharmaceuticals, LLC, MediNatura, Inc., 8046255 Canada, Inc., doing business as Viatrexx, and World Health Advanced Technologies, Ltd. Viatrexx was also cited for substandard manufacturing practices for sterile drugs. The foreign manufacturers of the injectable drugs sold by Hervert , MediNatura and Viatrexx were also placed on import alert 66-41 to stop these drugs from entering the U.S. Some of these drugs, such as Enercel marketed by World Health Advanced Technologies Ltd. are intended for serious diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis B and C. 'The FDA is particularly concerned about unapproved injectable drug products labeled as homeopathic because they are injected directly into the body, often directly into the bloodstream and bypass some of the body's key natural defenses against toxins, toxic ingredients and dangerous organisms that can cause serious and life-threatening harm,' the agency said in a statement. Many of the drugs were labeled to contain potentially toxic ingredients such as nux vomica, belladonna (deadly nightshade), mercurius solubilis (mercury), and plumbum aceticum (lead). The agency is also concerned that these potentially toxic ingredients present additional risks of serious harm when delivered directly into the body, including directly into the bloodstream. The FDA confirmed that no drug products labeled as homeopathic have been approved by it for any use. These drugs are often marketed as natural, safe and effective alternatives to approved prescription and nonprescription products and are widely available in the marketplace, the FDA stated. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. South Korean businessmen operating companies at Gaeseong Industrial Complex hold a press conference at the Korea Federation of SMEs headquarters in Seoul, to demand the government take swift measures to prevent North Korea from entirely destroying the complex as part of its "series of retaliatory actions" against the South for not implementing inter-Korean agreements, Wednesday, a day after North Korea destroyed the inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Gaeseong. Yonhap By Jung Da-min South Korean businesses with assets at the currently shuttered Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) have called on the government to take swift measures to prevent North Korea from destroying the entire complex as part of its "series of retaliatory actions" against the South for not implementing inter-Korean agreements. An association of GIC companies held a press conference at the KBIZ Korea Federation of SMEs headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday, a day after North Korea blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Gaeseong. Concerns among the business owners have been rising that they could lose their assets worth about 1 trillion won ($822 million) that remain in the complex as speculations are that the North's next step may include the total demolition of the complex. High altitude areas have been known to have harsh conditions such as lack of oxygen and health risks. Despite this, high altitude areas are still home to millions of people around the world. While most of Americas citizens live near beaches and coastlines, which are low altitude areas, this has not stopped cities from cropping up in high elevation areas. Many of these cities develop because of an abundance of natural resources such as minerals in those high altitude areas. That said, the highest altitude cities in the US may not be the most populated but are home to most of the countrys vacation homes. Image: wikimedia.com Source: UGC The world population has grown considerably, and resources such as land have become scarce, thus pushing people into new areas with harsh conditions originally not inhabited. Many high-altitude areas are also perfect destinations for vacations where tourists can engage in activities such as hiking. Sportsmen and sportswomen love such regions for training purposes because the harsh conditions increase their endurance. The US boasts some high-altitude cities in the world, but they are dwarfs when compared to the highest-altitude city in the world. That distinction is a reserve for Perus La Rinconada with an altitude of about 5,100 metres above sea level and an abundance of gold. The highest elevation city in the US is Alma with a height of 3,158 m above sea level. Highest altitude cities Here are the highest altitude cities in the USA: 1. Alma, Colorado 10,361 ft (3,158 m) Alma is a statutory town found in Park County, Colorado given its name by a merchant called Mr James who named it after his wife. It is the highest-altitude city in the US and incorporated municipality with permanent residents. The towns United States Post Office is the highest in terms of elevation in the country. The area has a subarctic climate almost similar to alpine climate. About two miles from Alma are the remains of the defunct Orphan Boy mine which used to produce gold, silver, lead and zinc as early as 1861. The Sweet Home Mine near Alma also used to produce silver but now produces rhodochrosite mineral specimens. 2. Leadville, Colorado 10,150 ft (3,094 m) Image: wikimedia.com Source: UGC Leadville is not only a statutory city but also county seat and the only incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado. It is believed to have a population of about 2,762 people. The city is located at an elevation of 10,150 feet, making it the second-highest elevation city in the US. Leadville used to be a silver mining town and lies among the headwaters of the Arkansas River at the heart of the Rocky Mountains. It is home to the Leadville Historic District where historic structures and sites of its mining era are situated. It was the second-most populous city of Colorado during the late 19th century. READ ALSO: Top 10 longest rivers in the US 3. Blue River, Colorado 10,020 ft (3,054 m) Blue River is third on the list of US cities by elevation. It is a statutory town found in Summit County, Colorado. Its altitude is 10,020 feet above sea level. It has a total of 2.3 square miles and a population of about 882 people. This small town features a mix of permanent residences and vacation homes. Blue River has proximity to the 14,270-foot Quandary Peak and the headwaters of the Blue River. Due to its elevation, it has significantly low tornado activity as compared to the Colorado State average but higher historical earthquake activity. 4. Breckenridge, Colorado 9,600 ft (2,926 m) Breckenridge is famous as a Home Rule Municipality. It is not only a county seat but also the most populous municipality of Summit County, Colorado. Most of its residents are part-timers who own vacation homes in the area. At an altitude of 9,600 feet, the town finds itself at the base of the Tenmile Range which is an extension of the Mosquito Range that is part of the Rocky Mountains. Thanks to its ski trails first cut in 1961, Breckenridge is quite a popular ski destination. During summer, the place is famous for hiking, wildflowers, fly-fishing, boating, water rafting and mountain biking. The Breckenridge Festival of Film is held every September. READ ALSO: Top 15 oldest cities in the USA ranked by age 5. Flagstaff, Arizona 6,910 ft (2,106 m) Image: wikimedia.com Source: UGC Flagstaff is one of the highest cities in America and the county seat of Coconino County of Northern Arizona. It is found to the Southwestern of the United States. The city has a population of 71,459 people, but it has a larger cosmopolitan area that is almost twice the population. This city is found near the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau and also within the San Francisco volcanic field. Flagstaff lies along the western side of the biggest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in all of the continental United States. This big city is also close to Mount Elden, just south of the San Francisco Peaks which is the highest mountain range found in Arizona State. Moenkopi Formation red sandstone was once quarried in the city and was the construction material in most of its historic buildings. 6. Big Bear City, California 6,772 ft (2,064 m) Californias Big Bear City has an altitude of about 6,772 feet. It is an incorporated town found in San Bernardino County, California. The city is situated to the east of the Shore of Big Bear Lake. Big Bear City is surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest and is about 27 miles from the city of San Bernardino. It is just east of the incorporated city of Big Bear Lake. With a population of about 34,109 people, Big Bear City is predominantly residential with small houses and cabins that are typical of square block fashion. 7. Evanston, Wyoming 6,749 ft (2,057 m) The city of Evanston is a county seat of Uinta County, Wyoming. Its altitude is about 6,749 feet above sea level, and it has a population of 11,704 people. Evanston is found near the border with Utah. It got its name from James E. Evans who used to be a surveyor for the Union Pacific Railroad. It was established during the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad. 1868 was the year the railroad first arrived in the area, and the first structure was a saloon/restaurant in a tent. It served as a re-fuelling station for locomotives that were transporting timber and water. READ ALSO: Top 10 highest bridges in the US 2020 8. Steamboat Springs, Colorado 6,732 ft (2,052 m) Image: wikimedia.com Source: UGC Steamboat Springs usually shortened as Steamboat is a city with a population of nearly 13,212 people. The city has an altitude of 6,732 feet. It is a Home Rule Municipality that is also the county seat of Routt County, Colorado and the most populous city of the county. It is known internationally as a winter ski resort destination and has a vibrant tourism industry. The town is east of Mount Werner in the Park Range. It is also found in the upper valley of the Yampa River just west of the Continental Divide. 9. Durango, Colorado 6,512 ft (1,985 m) The city of Durango is a county seat and also the most populous municipality in La Plata County, Colorado. The famous Fort Lewis College is found in this city. Durango was planned in 1880 to provide essential services to the San Juan mining district. It was named by a former Colorado Governor called Alexander C. Hunt after Durango, Mexico. It has archaeological sites such as the Mesa Verde National Park which is a World Heritage Site, the Chimney Rock National Monument, the Durango Rock Shelters Archeology Site and the Talus Village among others. It is most known for the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which is a heritage railroad that travels from Durango to Silverton, Colorado using steam-powered trains. READ ALSO: 10 most dangerous jungles in the world 10. Gallup, New Mexico 6,468 ft (1,971 m) Gallup city in New Mexico has an altitude of 6,468 feet above the sea level and is the last of the top 10 highest cities in the US. The city is found in McKinley County in the state of New Mexico. It has a population of 22,670 people. A big part of the people living in Gallup are native Americans comprising of Navajo, Hopi and Zuni tribes. This city was founded in 1881 serving as a railhead for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. It was named after David Gallup who was a paymaster for the railroad. Its rugged terrain provided the perfect scene for the 1940s and 1950s Hollywood Westerns. The lungs of people living in some of the highest altitude cities have to work harder because of the low oxygen levels, but such harsh conditions have not stopped humans from making settlements in those areas. High altitude areas also have their advantages such as low obesity rates and the abundance of natural resources as well. In this regard, it is no wonder many Americans go to high altitude cities for their vacations. It may take their lungs a while to adjust to the new altitude, but the experiences gotten from such areas are worth it. READ ALSO: 10 best African countries to live and work in 2020 Source: TUKO.co.ke Restaurant workers who had been laid off were hired as temporary employees at Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. Unemployment remains high around the country. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) For many out-of-work Americans, an extra $600 a week in federal unemployment insurance is providing some stability during an otherwise shaky economic period. But how long might that benefit last? When the coronavirus pandemic first flared up in mid-March, causing a domino effect of immediate event cancellations and business closures, spending vanished almost overnight. In a swift move to flush cash through the economy, the federal government approved the $2-trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act . Among other things, the CARES Act bumped regular state unemployment insurance which can vary from as low as $213 per week in Alabama to $555 in Massachusetts (the national average is $378) an extra $600 per week. The benefit is set to expire July 31. But with a pandemic still in full force, lawmakers are debating what might come next. These are some of the several proposals on the table. In early May, a group of Democratic legislators proposed extending the $600-per-week benefit past July 31 and then phasing it out once the economy stabilizes. The Worker Relief and Security Act, introduced by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), would extend the $600-per-week benefit for 30 days past the presidents emergency declaration. Then they propose phasing out the funding, with changes triggered by each states unemployment rate. States with highest unemployment rates would receive a $450 weekly bump to start, and then it would decrease to $300. States with lower unemployment rates would start with $350 weekly compensation, which would decrease to $200. Eligibility for the funding would also be extended several weeks. Cutting off the extra benefits at the end of July would be a human and economic catastrophe, Beyer wrote in a statement . If youre [unemployed] in a state with a [lower] unemployment rate, its frustrating because your benefit amount decreases. But you win the lottery because youre more likely to get a job back, explained Alix Gould-Werth , the Washington Center for Equitable Growths director of family economic security policy. Story continues Another proposal came a month ago, when House Democrats released the $3-trillion HEROES Act, which would extend unemployment benefits through January, among other stimulus proposals. But Republicans, who hold a majority in the Senate, quickly shot down the legislation as a progressive wish list. As recently as last month, many Republicans, including President Trump , balked at the idea of extending the benefits past July. But given the millions of Americans who are unemployed, many Republican lawmakers now have acknowledged the need for continued assistance. With an unemployment rate so high and with a recession that will last well into the next year, its vitally important to maintain generous unemployment insurance, because it helps workers, it helps businesses because workers spend the money at businesses, and it helps communities, said Peter Ganong, assistant professor at the University of Chicagos Harris School of Public Policy. The Hill reported that several Republicans are starting to coalesce around Sen. Rob Portmans (R-Ohio) solution: a $450-per-week return-to-work bonus. A person returning to work would receive $450 per week for six weeks, on top of regular wages. Added to the federal minimum wage, Portman estimated, the $450 weekly bonus would make returning to work more attractive than continuing on unemployment insurance. The federal government would save by cutting its $600-per-week expenditure down $150, the state would save on its unemployment and the worker would benefit from the incentive, Portman said. That means that you would be making a little bit more in the workforce than you would be on unemployment, Portman said on the Senate floor. Whats more, this return-to-work bonus would put additional cash in the hands of individuals who lost their jobs due to the health crisis, which should provide additional stimulus to the economy thats experiencing historic declines in consumer spending. Some lawmakers are concerned that people are making more money on unemployment than they did in their pre-pandemic jobs, hindering employers from getting their workers back. A Congressional Budget Office report showed that if the $600-per-week benefit continued until January, about five out of six recipients would receive more money from weekly benefits than they would from working during those months. Employment numbers would be lower through next year too, it said. With a record-high unemployment rate, though, Gould-Werth said, the problem is not getting people off unemployment to return to work. People are actually going back to work with the $600" benefit, she said. Its pretty simple we just dont have enough jobs for workers to return to. The Paycheck Security Act, proposed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), would attempt to address that problem by funding small businesses to hire back furloughed or laid-off workers and cover their health benefits. The proposal, which garnered the support of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), would give qualifying small businesses a refundable tax credit of up to $90,000 per employee annually, according to a news release. Supporters of LGBTQ rights gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court last October as justices began hearing the employment discrimination case in which a ruling was announced Monday. The 6-3 decision said the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay, lesbian, and transgender people from discrimination in employment. Read more Until the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the 1964 Civil Rights Act applies to LGBT people, it was possible for employers in many states, including Pennsylvania, to argue that firing a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender worker simply for being who they are was permissible. This Supreme Court ruling represents a victory not only for LGBT people but for anyone who believes in the fair treatment of all individuals including in the workplace. With Justice Neil M. Gorsuch writing for the 6-3 majority, the court said the landmark 1964 laws ban on discrimination because of sex necessarily prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Gorsuch, a conservative who was President Donald Trumps first pick to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat, was joined in the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts and the courts four liberal justices. The decision is being hailed by LGBT advocates and others but came as a surprise to many. Gorsuch, after all, is everything conservatives hoped for and liberals feared, according to a progressive law school dean the Washington Post quoted in 2019. The Supreme Court decision was a response to three separate cases: two involved people who were fired because they were gay; the third involved a funeral home employee who was hired as a male but fired after announcing she would begin living as a woman. Two of the three litigants have since died. A further sad backdrop is the recent murders of black transwomen in Philadelphia and Cincinnati. So far this year, 15 killings of transwomen, many of them of color, have been reported nationwide; in 2019, that number was 26. Legal experts believe the Supreme Court decision may impact a recent Trump administration rule that eliminated Obama-era protections against discrimination for transgender people seeking medical care. The ruling doesnt resolve many other high-profile legal issues facing LGBT Americans. The court has been asked to rule on whether a faith-based Philadelphia foster care agency can refuse to place children with otherwise eligible same-sex couples on religious grounds. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nations leading LGBT advocacy organization, includes rectifying what it describes as the misuse of the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act on its list of two dozen federal legislative priorities. Other issues include protection from discrimination in housing, public accommodations, and schools, as well as prohibiting Medicaid from paying for quack conversion therapy for LGBT people. Workers in LGBT-friendly states such as New Jersey, where sexual orientation has been a protected class since 1991 and gender identity since 2006, may feel less impacted by Mondays Supreme Court ruling. But in states like Pennsylvania, which pioneered some protections in 1975 but has since lagged, LGBT people should be able to breathe a lot easier in the workplace. An unfair burden has been lifted. And a court some see as hopelessly divided along ideological lines has found a way to find a majority and move forward. The timing of Mondays decision as millions continue to protest on behalf of civil rights suggests the court may be ready to reckon with fundamental questions of justice that so many Americans clearly embrace. India Says 20 Soldiers Killed in Clash with Chinese Troops along Disputed Border By VOA News June 16, 2020 India said Tuesday that 20 of its soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese troops along the disputed border of the two nuclear-armed nations, the first military casualties between the two countries in 45 years. The Indian Army said a "violent faceoff" occurred in Galwan Valley in the western Himalayas on Monday night and that there were "casualties on both sides." China's Foreign Ministry spokesman did not provide information about any casualties among Chinese troops. But he accused Indian troops of carrying out "provocative attacks" on its troops along the border, sparking "serious physical conflicts." The neighboring countries have been engaged in a standoff in the valley for weeks with each accusing the other of trespassing into their territory. The Indian army said one of its officers was among those killed and that "senior military officials from both countries were meeting "to defuse the situation." Clashes have erupted over the years along the disputed 3,500 kilometer-long border but skirmishes have intensified in recent weeks in the Galwan Valley, where India is constructing a strategic road linking the region to an airstrip near China. The two countries fought a brief border war in 1962 and have been trying to settle their border dispute since the early 1990s. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Former national security adviser John Bolton said in an excerpt of an upcoming interview with ABC's "This Week" Wednesday that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he can play President Trump "like a fiddle," adding: "I think he sees that he's not faced with a serious adversary here." Why it matters: This is the first on-camera interview that features Bolton since explosive excerpts from his tell-all memoir were published on Wednesday. Bolton alleges among other things that Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help with his re-election. What they're saying: RADDATZ: "How would you describe Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin? BOLTON: I think Putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle. I think Putin is smart, tough. I think he sees that he's not faced with a serious adversary here. I don't think he's worried about Donald Trump. RADDATZ: "Donald Trump, as we say, sees himself as a deal maker. What happened in the deal maker situations? BOLTON: "Well, the president may well be a superb deal maker when it comes to Manhattan real estate. Dealing with arms limitation treaties on strategic weapons, dealing with many, many other international security issues are things far removed from his life experience. When you're dealing with someone like Putin, who has made his life understanding Russia's strategic position in the world, against Donald Trump, who doesn't enjoy reading about these issues or learning about them, it's a very difficult position for America to be in." A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. Go deeper: Highlights from the excerpts of John Bolton's book New Delhi, June 17 : Day 2 of the 6th PM-CM conference over the coronavirus pandemic is all set to be more interesting on Wednesday than the first day, with a miffed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee almost certain to give it a miss. Sources said she is unhappy at not being allotted a slot to speak in Wednesday's conference. Instead, the Chief Secretary of the state is likely to represent West Bengal. Chief Ministers of only six states are scheduled to speak on Wednesday's conference -- Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar and Telangana. On Tuesday's meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hinted at further opening up of the economy while saying that rising power consumption and toll collection are suggestive of the economy's revival. Sources say, the thrust in Wednesday's meeting will be Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Delhi. The Centre believes, though the patient count has been relatively low in UP and Bihar, it is likely to rise due to lakhs of migrant workers who have returned to their hometowns in the twin states. The Centre will push to significantly increase testing in these two states. The PM is likely to stress on Maharashtra, which has been the worst affected state, and Delhi to concentrate their energy for contact tracing in the urban clusters. Recent serological survey has indicated that urban slums are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. With Dharavi seeing a spurt of cases and a series of JJ colonies in Delhi being extremely vulnerable due to their population density, the PM is likely to ask Uddhav Thackeray and Arvind Kejriwal to focus on the urban slums. Modi on Tuesday said that with the efforts of the past few weeks, green shoots in the economy are visible, including rise in power consumption which was earlier falling, production of two wheelers increasing, digital payment in retail reaching pre-lockdown level, increase in toll collection in May and bouncing back of exports. These, the PM said, are encouraging signals with a clear hint that the opening of the economy is likely to continue, however, with caution. He also warned the participating states to be extremely vigilant in ensuring that citizens compulsorily wear masks, maintain social distancing and practice regular hygiene. Making a compelling case for a balance between life and livelihood, he said on Tuesday, "We have to always keep in mind that the more we can stop the corona, the more it will stop growing, the more our economy will open, our offices will open, the markets will open, the means of transport will open, and so will new employment opportunities." The Daily Beast HandoutRosie Diven, a mother of three in rural South Carolina, had no idea her 16-year-old son had COVID-19 until a fearsome syndrome nearly killed him.Branson Diven had been vomiting and suffering a loss of appetite when Rosie brought him to an urgent care center near their home in Hartsville on Dec. 10. He did not have classic COVID symptoms such as a sore throat or a cough, and after testing negative for COVID and positive for flu, he was sent home under the assumption he would soon be better Infectious disease professionals agree that COVID-19 will not disappear by the time of the November election. Yet Ohios laws and planning for the November elections still fall short of what is needed to make voting safe. As medical professionals, we are deeply concerned that if we do not have a public health driven plan in place very soon, we may compromise either the health of many voters or their right to vote. Ohio has millions of voters who are highly vulnerable to COVID-19s worst effects: nearly 2 million people over 65 years of age, nearly one million African Americans, and millions with chronic diseases that worsen the severity of COVID-19 (e.g. 930,000 adults with diabetes). Besides over 2400 deaths, we are concerned about the debilitating long-lasting after-effects following intensive care difficulty breathing, fatigue, organ damage, and cognitive impairment. Evening Standard Brentford will be looking to get out of their recent slump as they take on Wolves in the Premier League this afternoon, coming off a midweek result that will be hard to take. Obviously, to expect a newly-promoted side to go out and match Manchester United with all of their resources would be ridiculous on first glance but the manner in which Thomas Franks side dominated in the first-half left the Dane ruining their second-half showing. Wolves, however, are unlikely to be anywhere near as bad as United were at times. Rove McManus is back for another stab at success following a string of failed comeback gigs in recent years. This time around, the former A-lister will front a two-hour live life drawing TV special on SBS. Speaking to SBS this week, the 46-year-old said that his fine arts degree from college will come in handy for hosting the program. He's back! Rove McManus is set to host a live life drawing TV special on SBS in July 'I studied a fine art degree, so I am no stranger to life drawing, but that was a long time ago, so I am more than a bit rusty,' he explained. 'We all drew as kids, but I never stopped. I even managed to make a job of it illustrating my own kids books,' he continued. 'Life Drawing Live gives everyone at home a chance to sharpen their pencils and have a go.' 'I'm no stranger to life drawing!' Speaking to SBS this week, the 46-year-old said that his fine arts degree from college will come in handy for hosting the program The new gig comes after a string of flops for the media personality in recent years. In 2015, he joined reality star Sam Frost for the ill-fated 2Day FM breakfast show, Sam & Rove. The radio show was savaged by critics and failed to attract listeners, and was eventually canned after a year and a half of Southern Cross Austereo trying to make it work. Flashback: In 2015, he joined reality star Sam Frost for the ill-fated 2Day FM breakfast show, Sam & Rove. Flop: The 46-year-old's variety show Saturday Night Rove was canned after two episodes He went back into television after that, hosting the low-rated trivia program Show Me The Movie on Channel 10 for two seasons. When that was cancelled, he hosted the variety show Saturday Night Rove on 10. It was axed after just two episodes. Rove was one of the most popular TV personalities in Australia in the 2000s thanks to his late night show, Rove Live. Heyday: Rove was one of the most popular TV personalities in Australia in the 2000s thanks to his late night show, Rove Live. Pictured with Matt Damon Awards: He is a triple Gold Logie Award winner for 2003, 2004 and 2005, and has won an incredible 16 Logie Awards in total. Pictured in 2007 He is a triple Gold Logie Award winner for 2003, 2004 and 2005, and has won an incredible 16 Logie Awards in total. Rove has also been nominated for the Gold Logie Award on five other occasions. However, his popularity dwindled after he left Australia in 2011 to make it in America. Rove's Life Drawing Live premieres Saturday, July 4 on SBS. A group of giant tortoises who have lived in captivity for decades and helped rescue their species from the brink of extinction were released into the wild in the Galapagos Islands on Monday. The tortoises were bred in captivity to repopulate the islands after their numbers in the wild went down to just 15 individuals, said park director Danny Rueda. There are now more than 2,000 of them on Espanola Island, he said. The giant tortoises are known for their long, leathery necks and lifespans of over 100 years. Virtually synonymous with the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, they were one of the species that helped Charles Darwin form his theory of evolution in the 19th century. One of the newly freed tortoises is Diego, estimated to be around 100 years old. Renowned for his fertility, he alone has fathered some 800 offspring. Diegos return to his native Espanola comes after around eight decades of living in a California zoo and then in the tortoise recovery program on Santa Cruz island in the Galapagos. For his final journey home, Diego was taken by boat to Espanola, along with 14 of his companions. From there, rangers used backpacks to take the tortoises - who can weigh up to 400 pounds (180 kg)- to an area where cactus grows in abundance that will help them readapt. There, they will be monitored with GPS trackers. It has been a conservation success story. We can shut down the captive breeding program of this species because their natural behavior is effective, said Rueda. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The urgent debate was requested in a letter last week from Burkina Faso's ambassador to the UN on behalf of Africa's 54 countries. AFP/VNA Photo GENEVA African countries are pushing for the UN's top rights body to launch a high-level investigation into "systemic racism" and police violence in the United States and beyond, according to a draft resolution introduced on Tuesday. The text was the subject of heated discussions in Geneva ahead of a so-called "urgent debate" on the topic at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday. The debate was called for following unrest in the US and elsewhere over George Floyd's death in police custody. The draft resolution, introduced by the African group, condemns "racial discriminatory and violent practices perpetrated by law enforcement agencies against Africans and people of African descent and structural racism endemic to the criminal justice system, in the United States of America and other parts of the world." The text calls for the establishment of an independent international commission of inquiry (COI) - one of the UN's highest-level probes, generally reserved for major crises like the Syrian conflict. The commission, the text said, should probe "systemic racism, alleged violations of international human rights law and abuses against Africans and of people of African descent in the United States" and elsewhere by law enforcement agencies. The aim, it said, should be "bringing perpetrators to justice". 'Excessive force' The investigators should also probe "government responses to peaceful protests, including the alleged use of excessive force against protesters, bystanders and journalists," it said. A senior US diplomat in Geneva voiced outrage at the draft resolution. "Our transparency, commitment to a free press, and insistence on the right to justice allow the world to see our problems and openly engage on our efforts at finding solutions," said the diplomat. "It is countries that hide the truth, violently silence their critics, don't have democratic accountability, and refuse even to recognise fundamental freedoms that merit censure." Another senior US official, speaking to AFP in Washington, said the US would take a "hard look" at whether to cooperate on a COI. "I think it's a ridiculous idea," he said of the COI, saying the US would want to "impose some ground rules" if it is approved. The draft resolution urges the US government, as well as other relevant countries, to "cooperate fully" with the COI, which would present its findings to the council in a year's time. The rights council's 47 members are due to vote on the resolution following the urgent debate, which is set to begin on Wednesday and conclude on Thursday morning. George Floyd's brother is expected to address the council by video link. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer, who has since been charged with murder, pressed his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. While his death, which was caught on video, has sparked global outrage, it remains unclear which way Thursday's vote will go. The US itself withdrew from the council two years ago, but observers of the process said some of its allies were strongly opposed to the text. A Western diplomat said a number of countries felt the resolution was "being pushed through to advance a political agenda." 'Tipping-point' Rights groups urged the council to take a stand. "Systemic racism and police violence in the US have reached a tipping-point," said John Fisher, head of Human Rights Watch's Geneva office. "When national processes consistently fail, international processes are needed." Jamil Dakwar, head of the American Civil Liberties Union's human rights programme, agreed, warning that voting against a COI after "centuries of structural racism" in the US would be a "missed historical opportunity". "No country, no matter how powerful, should be above such scrutiny." Wednesday will mark only the fifth time in the council's 14-year history that it has agreed to hold an "urgent debate", which is like a special session, but within a regular session of the council. The debate was requested in a letter last week from Burkina Faso's ambassador to the UN on behalf of Africa's 54 countries, and was accepted on Monday when the council resumed its 43rd session, which had been interrupted in March due to the coronavirus crisis. AFP (Bloomberg Opinion) -- In the early 1980s, I was one of four law clerks for Justice Thurgood Marshall, probably the greatest civil rights lawyer in U.S. history and the first African American to be appointed to the Supreme Court. In a discussion with our boss, we expressed concern that the high court might overrule its Miranda decision, which requires police officers to provide the famous warnings to people in custody. We thought that the Miranda warnings were an essential means of preventing official abuse in general and of protecting African Americans in particular. Marshall looked at us with amusement. This is what he said: Miranda? I like Miranda well enough. But not all that much. When I lived in New York City, a long time ago, I had a nice, long talk with head of a local precinct about police misconduct and the United States Constitution. Heres what he did the next week. He got all his cops in a big room, and said, If I hear that any of you has mistreated anyone in New York beaten him up, knocked him down, violated his civil rights, targeted him because of his race, anything like that youre fired. Immediately. On the day. Marshall took a long pause. And then he thundered: And thats a lot better than Miranda! In the 1990s, I lived on the south side of Chicago, and my car was stolen. A police officer recovered it. As we talked about what had happened, he asked me, And what do you do for a living? I responded, I teach constitutional law. He looked displeased. I thought I knew why, and asked, Oh, does the Fourth Amendment give you any trouble? (The Fourth Amendment forbids unreasonable searches and seizures.) His answer: Oh, no, not at all. I didnt violate the Fourth Amendment unless I say that I violated the Fourth Amendment, and I never say that I violated the Fourth Amendment. These are stories about local accountability and prevailing norms among the police. Marshall did not dismiss the importance of legal mandates; he was firmly in favor of Miranda. But he believed that if you want police officers to stop mistreating people, their boss needs to insist on exactly that. Story continues In the 1990s, the south side of Chicago was known for having a high crime rate. The officer who retrieved my car did not always comply with constitutional requirements. Its reasonable to assume that he was acting in accordance with prevailing norms among his peers. He believed that compliance with the Constitution was discretionary, not mandatory. We do not lack high-level proposals to respond to police misconduct. For example, congressional Democrats have not only proposed to ban choke holds, but also to require a national registry for officers with a record of misconduct. Top-down reforms of this kind might well be good ideas. But national edicts are one thing; changes on the ground are another. A lot of action needs to happen at the local level. Through the United States Conference of Mayors, the nations mayors have started a working group, focused on making recommendations to combat unjust policing tactics and in particular on the problem of racial discrimination. We need those recommendations in a hurry. They should emphasize not abstractions and aspirations but the need to go precinct by precinct, and to ensure that police captains are personally committed to ensuring an end to misconduct and abuse. The good news is that publicity about new or emerging norms can have a galvanizing effect. People are influenced by prevailing norms, to be sure; but if they learn that a new norm is coming onto the scene, they appear even more inclined to comply with it. One reason may be that people dont want to be on the wrong side of history. Another reason may be that if a new norm really is catching hold, people think that its likely to be good. Theres a hopeful lesson here for reform. Suppose that police officers are made aware that the behavior of their colleagues is genuinely starting to change, and that misconduct is beginning to stop. If so, that very awareness can create a self-fulfilling prophecy and transform local norms in relatively short order. Thurgood Marshall, who died in 1993, was very clear with us: A warning from the boss was likely to be more effective than a pronouncement from Washington D.C. At the same time, Marshall made it clear that prevention of police abuse and protection of civil rights remain a work in progress. At the end of a short speech at a reunion of his law clerks, the civil rights hero described "the goal of a true democracy such as ours." Any baby born in the United States, he said, even to the most underprivileged Black family in Mississippi, "is, merely by being born and drawing his first breath in this democracy, endowed with the exact same rights as a child born to a Rockefeller." His closing words were: Of course it's not true. Of course it never will be true. But I challenge anybody to tell me that it isn't the type of goal we should try to get to as fast as we can. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Cass R. Sunstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the author of The Cost-Benefit Revolution and a co-author of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness. 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. BISHKEK -- Prosecutors in Kyrgyzstan have asked a court to sentence former President Almazbek Atambaev to 15 years in prison at his trial over the illegal release of notorious crime boss Aziz Batukaev in 2013. Prosecutors also asked the Birinchi Mai District Court on June 16 to deprive Atambaev of all state awards and to confiscate his property. Atambaev's lawyer, Zamir Jooshev, told RFE/RL that the verdict and sentence in the case are expected to be announced by the court on June 18. Batukaev, who suddenly was released from prison and immediately left the Central Asian nation for Russia in 2013, was convicted of several infamous crimes -- including the murders of a Kyrgyz lawmaker and an Interior Ministry official. In all, 19 former officials and medical personnel are co-defendants in the high-profile case. The 63-year-old Atambaev, who has denied any wrongdoing, was arrested in early August last year after he surrendered to police following a deadly two-day standoff between security forces and his supporters. The move to detain Atambaev was sparked by his refusal to obey three subpoenas calling him to the Interior Ministry for questioning in Batukaev's illegal-release case. The standoff between security forces and his supporters resulted in the death of a top security officer and more than 170 injuries -- 79 of them sustained by law enforcement officers. The violence underscored a power struggle between Atambaev and his handpicked successor, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, which has raised fears of instability in the Central Asian nation. The former president is currently also on trial in another case linked to last year's violence, in which he and 13 others were charged with murder, attempted murder, threatening or assaulting representatives of authorities, hostage taking, and the forcible seizure of power. Kyrgyzstan saw a smooth and peaceful transfer of power in 2017 from Atambaev, a northerner, to southerner Jeenbekov, which was welcomed by the international community after presidential changes -- in 2005 and 2010 -- came after violent rioting. However, the deadly clashes last year at Atambaev's compound underscored a subsequent power struggle between him and Jeenbekov. Office workers seen during lunch hour in Singapores central business district on 2 June 2020. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore) SINGAPORE Employers need to adopt a new thinking to give middle-aged and mature Singaporean workers a fair chance to prove themselves, said Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Wednesday (17 June). Tharman made the comments while delivering his address in a national TV broadcast - the fifth in a series of six speeches by Cabinet Ministers on securing Singapores future in a post COVID-19 world. Elaborating on his theme A Strong and More Cohesive Society, Tharman called for a concerted national effort to help middle-aged and mature Singaporean workers. He said employers need to reorient their management philosophies and human resource practices. No Singaporean who is willing to learn should be too old to hire. And no one who is willing to adapt should be viewed as overqualified, said Tharman, who is also Coordinating Minister for Social Policies. Towards this end, the government will work closely with the business associations to bring all employers into this national effort. The Ministry of Manpower will also watch companies hiring practices to ensure that they comply with the Fair Consideration Framework. If it becomes the norm to hire mid-career Singaporeans and train them for new jobs, everyone is better off, Tharman said. These workers will be able to build on their skills and experience and enable Singapore to have a more capable and motivated workforce, he added. The effort assumes more urgency with a higher proportion of Singapores labour force of age 40 years and older compared with previous decades. Today, the proportion is 60 per cent with many of them 50 years or older, Tharman said. Social priority to save jobs The goal of saving jobs and helping unemployed Singaporeans to bounce back into work is not just an economic issue, but a social priority, Tharman said. Amid the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tharman forecast that new job openings in Singapore will very likely be fewer than job losses. If Singapore were to leave things to market forces, unemployment will rise significantly over the next year, he warned. Story continues Hence, the National Jobs Council, chaired by Tharman, is moving full speed ahead to secure the 100,000 jobs and training places targeted by the SGUnited Jobs and Skills package. The government is also working with companies across the sectors to take on unemployed Singaporeans through temporary assignments, attachments and traineeships during the current downturn while heavily subsidising these opportunities. But Tharman said, No amount of unemployment allowances can compensate for the demoralisation of being out of work for long. The public sector will bring forward hiring of jobs, in areas such as healthcare, early childhood development, education and social services, he added. Fast-forwarding future For the majority of Singaporeans who still have jobs, the government is investing heavily in their reskilling and upskilling as many occupations are being transformed by the digital revolution, Tharman said. While the government has been preparing for this for several years, COVID-19 is fast-forwarding the changes, he added. Hence, training opportunities in every sector and every job, through the Next Bound of SkillsFuture, have been expanded like at e2i. Tharman said, Everyone must have the courage to re-gear to stay on track, and make the effort to acquire new skills at regular points in your careers, possibly even learning whole new disciplines. Please take on the challenge. Prior to Tharmans address, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing had delivered their speeches in the series, which began on 7 June. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat is scheduled to wrap up the series and address the nation on Saturday with the theme Emerging Stronger Together. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore More Singapore stories: 2 Singapore residents among 247 new COVID-19 infections; 5 community cases COVID-19: Phase 2 reopening to start on Friday, social groups and household visitors capped at 5 COVID-19: Retail businesses can reopen physical outlets on Friday with safety measures in place Two men and a woman were arrested during a Black Lives Matter rally that blocked the Alice Street on-ramp to the Captain Cook Bridge in Brisbane on Wednesday. Police and security had expected the protesters to gather at the front of Parliament House but the march, with about 100 people, turned down Alice Street to block the on-ramp to the Captain Cook Bridge about 1pm on Wednesday. Black Lives Matter protesters block the Captain Cook Bridge on-ramp. Credit:Lydia Lynch Security guards were sent running to lock the side gates of the building while the protest surged forward. Protesters chanted "I want justice" as they walked to the bridge. The Queensland government has formally adopted every recommendation of the coroner after an inquest into the death of abused toddler Mason Jet Lee found his case was "a failure in nearly every possible way". Mason died after his mother's boyfriend struck him so hard in the abdomen it ruptured the 22-month-old's small intestine, leading to an infection. Mason Lee suffered serious injuries leading up to his death. The blow was one of many serious and painful injuries Mason suffered in the months before his death in June 2016. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says child safety officers need to improve. More than 60% of commercial flights in and out of Beijing have been canceled as the Chinese capital raised its alert level Wednesday against a new coronavirus outbreak and other nations confront rising numbers of illnesses and deaths. The virus prevention and control situation in Beijing was described as extremely grave at a meeting of Beijings Communist Party Standing Committee led by the citys top official, Party Secretary Cai Qi. This has truly rung an alarm bell for us, Cai told participants. The website of the Communist Partys Global Times said 1,255 flights to and from the capitals two major airports were scrapped by Wednesday morning. Beijing Capital Airport is traditionally the worlds second busiest in passenger capacity. That accounts for 67% of outgoing flights and 68% of incoming flights, the newspaper said. No official public notice on a change in regulations has been issued by Chinas civil aviation authority or by either Beijing Capital Airport or Beijing Daxing International Airport. But Beijing Capital said on its microblog it expected to handle 500 flights on Wednesday, sharply lower than in recent days. The cancellations are among a number of limits on travel in and out of the city, especially in hot spot areas. Beijing had essentially eradicated local transmissions until recent days, with 137 new cases since late last week. On Wednesday, the city of 20 million people raised its threat level from 3 to 2, leading to the cancellation of classes, suspended reopenings and stronger requirements for social distancing. China had relaxed many of its coronavirus controls after the ruling Communist Party declared victory over the virus in March. India which has the fourth-highest caseload after the U.S., Brazil and Russia added more than 2,000 deaths to its tally, after Delhi and Maharashtra states included 1,672 previously unreported fatalities. Its death toll of 11,903 is now eighth in the world. India has been reporting some 10,000 new infections and more than 300 deaths each day over the last two weeks. Adding the previously unreported deaths drove Indias fatality rate from 2.9% to 3.4%. New Zealand, not long after declaring itself virus-free when the last known infected person recovered, is dealing with a reemergence of the virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern assigned a top military leader to oversee the border quarantines after what she described as an unacceptable failure by health officials. They had allowed two New Zealand citizens who had recently returned from London to leave quarantine before being tested for the virus. After the women tested positive, New Zealand began tracing their potential contacts to ensure the virus is contained. Their cases raised the specter that international air travel could spread the virus just as countries are reopening airports to stimulate tourism. Canada and the U.S. will extend to July 21 an agreement to keep their border closed to nonessential travel, with many Canadians fearing cases arriving from the U.S. This is a decision that will protect people on both sides of the border as we continue to fight COVID-19, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. New Zealands neighbor Australia has deepened a diplomatic spat with China by accusing Beijing and Moscow of using the heightened anxiety around the pandemic to undermine Western democracies by spreading disinformation online. It is troubling that some countries are using the pandemic to undermine liberal democracy to promote their own more authoritarian models, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a speech to a university. Australia has angered China by calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of and responses to COVID-19. Since the virus emerged in China late last year and spread worldwide, there have been more than 8 million confirmed cases and over 441,000 deaths. The U.S. death toll has exceeded 116,900, according to Johns Hopkins University. That surpasses the number of Americans who died in World War I, when 116,516 were killed although both tolls are far from precise. The U.S. has the most confirmed infections and deaths from COVID-19 in the world, and as parts of the economy have reopened in recent weeks, cases have surged in places like Texas, Arizona and Florida, where the virus has sidelined some members of a U.S. team that tracks hurricanes. Search Keywords: Short link: With renegade Gen. Khalifa Haftar's fighters retreating from Libyas capital and militias supporting the UN-backed government on the offensive, the foreign countries powering Libyas civil war are scrambling to adjust to a new reality. The big picture: Russia, the UAE, Egypt and to a lesser extent France embraced the idea of a secular strongman taking control in Libya after years of chaos. But Haftar's offensive turned into a yearlong stalemate, and now a string of embarrassing defeats. Turkey, the Tripoli governments most powerful backer, stands to benefit from the shifting tide possibly through the military use of Libyan ports and drilling rights in contested areas. the Tripoli governments most powerful backer, stands to benefit from the shifting tide possibly through the military use of Libyan ports and drilling rights in contested areas. Russia, which sent aircraft and mercenaries in support of Haftar but has now reportedly pulled them off the front lines, is set to hold talks soon with Turkey on Libya as well as Syria. which sent aircraft and mercenaries in support of Haftar but has now reportedly pulled them off the front lines, is set to hold talks soon with Turkey on Libya as well as Syria. Haftar, meanwhile, appeared alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi last week to call for a ceasefire. meanwhile, appeared alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi last week to call for a ceasefire. The Tripoli government is pushing on. Mohammed Abdallah, a U.S.-based adviser to the government, tells Axios that Haftar must be forced out of Sirte and possibly oil ports before his reps will acknowledge reality. is pushing on. Mohammed Abdallah, a U.S.-based adviser to the government, tells Axios that Haftar must be forced out of Sirte and possibly oil ports before his reps will acknowledge reality. The war has been brutal. As Haftars forces retreated, at least eight mass graves were discovered. What to watch: While Haftars position has been severely weakened, he still holds the sparsely populated but oil-rich East a claim backed by Russian muscle. Thats led to speculation the country could be formally partitioned. National security legislation to restore stability in Hong Kong: Carrie Lam People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 09:48, June 16, 2020 HONG KONG, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam said Monday that the national security legislation will help restore stability in Hong Kong, and protect the life and property, basic rights and freedoms of the overwhelming majority of residents. Lam reiterated in a video on national security legislation in Hong Kong that the legislation will only target a small number of people who commit serious crimes endangering national security. Over the past year, violence by rioters has escalated, with illegal firearms and explosives posing a terrorist threat. Groups and individuals advocating "Hong Kong independence" and colluding with foreign forces to interfere with Hong Kong's affairs have seriously undermined national interests and security, Lam said. Hong Kong has become a gaping hole in national security and its prosperity and stability are at risk, Lam said. As there is little hope of the HKSAR enacting local laws to safeguard national security, the central authorities have no option but to exercise their constitutional power to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security, Lam said, stressing that this is a decision not taken lightly. Lam appealed for the full understanding and staunch support of Hong Kong residents for putting in place national security legislation in Hong Kong. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The U.S. Embassy's Office of Defense Cooperation in Ukraine has received over $60 million worth of equipment to be handed over to Ukrainian partners, including walkie-talkies, ammunition and anti-tank Javelin missiles, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said. "U.S. security assistance & cooperation efforts with Ukraine during COVID-19 continue! Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy's Office of Defense Cooperation received more than $60 million of equipment to transfer to our Ukrainian partners including radios, ammunition, & Javelin anti-tank missiles," the Embassy said on Twitter. U.S. diplomats also posted photographs from the airfield where the equipment and ammunition were unloaded, as well as presumably more than a hundred Javelin missiles. The Embassy emphasized that the U.S. persistently sided with Ukraine in supporting its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression. Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix, and his wife, Patty Quillin, donated $120 million to the United Negro College Fund, Spelman College and Morehouse College, the largest-ever individual gift to support scholarships at historically black colleges and universities. The record donation comes amid protests after the police killing of George Floyd, and the national conversation about how to end systemic racism. That conversation has included discussions about how to provide more education and job opportunities for African Americans. Unlike the Ivy League universities that have endowments in the tens of billions of dollars Harvard Universitys endowment tops $40 billion the top historically black colleges and universities, or H.B.C.U.s, have endowments that are hundreds of millions of dollars. Spelmans, for example, is around $390 million. Mr. Hastings said he and Ms. Quillin wanted to help change that. They have made education a primary focus of their philanthropy, and have given smaller amounts in the past several years to the same institutions. I think white people in our nation need to accept that its a collective responsibility, Mr. Hastings said. Mr. Floyds killing and the emotional outpouring that followed were the straw that broke the camels back, I think, for the size of the donation, he added. AN initial report on the police use of tear gas against a group of protesters on Sunday has been completed. The report, compiled by officers involved, is expected to be reviewed and recommendations made on if any protocols were breached by the officers engaged in the activities at the Queens Park Savannah in Port of Spain. Midland Countys district clerk was arrested June 10 after he allegedly was intoxicated while driving in downtown Midland, according to an arrest affidavit. Alex Archuleta, 60, was charged with driving while intoxicated, a class B misdemeanor. His affidavit states a Midland police officer observed a car making a wide turn onto Big Spring Street and driving 10 miles per hour under the posted speed limit. The officer observed the driver -- Archuleta -- as he bounced between the white lines, according to the affidavit. When asked how intoxicated he was, Archuleta allegedly said, not that much. According to the affidavit, the officer could smell alcohol on his breath and observed that his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. The officer confirmed Archuleta was intoxicated after he consented to a field sobriety test. Archuleta was appointed district clerk by county commissioners in January 2018; he was elected in November of that year. He was appointed when Ross Bush resigned after pleading guilty to a felony charge of tampering with government records for changing his employees timecards. Before he was district clerk, Archuleta worked in the countys purchasing department for several years and was recognized as the countys Employee of the Year in 2017, according to a previous Reporter-Telegram article. County Attorney Russell Malm said Archuleta would not automatically be removed from office if found guilty on the DWI charge because he is an elected official. BOSTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vee24, the leader in intelligent, conversational, multi-experience solutions, today announced the launch of its latest release, raising the bar for live online customer engagement. The release is currently live in production with more than 100 clients globally who are using the platform to allow sales, marketing, and service agents to collaborate with customers in ways that were not previously possible. "Our modular solution is easy to use with pre-configured industry best practices and secure collaboration tools, seamlessly integrated for a true omni-channel engagement to deliver a personalized digital experience," said Priya Iyer, Chairman and CEO of Vee24. "Our clients, on average, benefit from more than 35 percent net new revenue, 45 percent operational savings, and 95 percent customer satisfaction ratings, driving real value and customer loyalty." Customers today craft their own journey to connect with companies, demanding a consistent, unified brand experience physically or virtually. Digital conversations are not just about chat but bringing the full experience of a retail store, automotive showroom, or bank branch online, allowing customers to truly experience products, get "in-person" consultative advice from experts, and make informed and timely purchase or service decisions. Vee24's evolution provides our clients with multiple new innovations on a proven platform, helping scale their digital customer engagements while elevating the ROI of their existing tools and physical assets. "Across marketing, sales, and customer service, the platform has targeted solutions to help create differentiated strategies for businesses," said Iyer. "Teams can now drive leads by embedding live engagement in web ads, social media, and email campaigns, qualify them using our family of BOTs and convert and assist the qualified leads through five significant features of the new release: VeeWebinar, VeeMessenger, VeeVoice, VeeScheduler, and VeeSupervisor." The latest release has out-of-the-box integrations with major CRM solutions including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Zendesk, and others. VeeChat for Salesforce and Zendesk allow customer service teams to stay within their CRM environment while using the platform. Robust two-way integrations with these CRMs improve customer and agent experiences and keep data centralized and highly accessible. Numerous clients are already seeing success using the platform including Samsung, Hyundai Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Eastern Bank, KBC Bank, DFS Group, Watches of Switzerland Group, Schuh, etc. "Using Vee24's live engagement platform to provide a high-quality concierge service across all of our websites has ultimately given us a competitive edge, and conversion has increased exponentially when a customer is able to engage and receive personalized service from a real agent," said Ian Warwick, Ecommerce Director, Watches of Switzerland Group plc. "This live engagement has been critical in recent times as it has meant we could keep in touch 'personally' and support our loyal and valued customers." Vee24 is a leader in broadly and successfully delivering solutions that enhance live engagement for companies wanting a premier customer experience. The new release raises the bar on live engagement technology. The platform is proven to advance both the customer and the agent experience, dramatically increasing online sales, and significantly improving customer satisfaction, while reducing costs. Vee24 clients in financial services, retail, automotive, and healthcare have witnessed a five-fold increase in conversions, a 35 percent increase in AOV, and an average CSAT score of 90+, utilizing its leading ChatBOT, video, co-browse, and text-chat capabilities. The platform takes live engagement to the next level and transforms the way companies interact with their customers, turning an exceptional online experience into a unique competitive advantage. About Vee24 Vee24 is an intelligent, conversational, multi-experience platform for customer-centric teams. The easy-to-use, modular solution is pre-configured to meet industry best practices. The platform provides seamless integration of conversational tools such as ChatBOTs, messaging, live text, voice, and video chat with collaboration tools such as co-browse and screen share for a personalized digital experience. Vee24's platforms are proven to advance the customer experience, dramatically increasing sales, and significantly improving customer service. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA with European headquarters in Manchester, England. Vee24 supports top brands in the financial services, retail, automotive, and healthcare sectors. For more information, visit www.vee24.com. Media Contact: Joshua Milne, 617-501-1620, [email protected] SOURCE Vee24 Related Links http://www.vee24.com Gov. Kate Brown is considering commuting the sentences of 75 inmates -- mostly men, mostly white and many convicted of burglary -- to address the threat of coronavirus in the states prison system, according to the Oregon Department of Corrections. The Oregonian/OregonLive obtained the list of the inmates identified by corrections officials as medically vulnerable to coronavirus. Heres a look at who is under consideration for commutation: -- Each of the states 14 prisons is represented on the list. Eleven people are housed at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, the site of one of the largest outbreaks in Oregon. -- Twenty are women. -- Eight are African American. African Americans make up nearly 10 percent of Oregons prison population; 3 percent of the states population overall is African American. -- Four people are Latinx. Nearly 14 percent of Oregons prison population is Latinx compared with 13 percent of the states population overall. -- All but one are serving time for drug or property crimes or driving offenses. One is serving time for failing to report as a sex offender. The most represented conviction on the list: burglary. -- Thirty-nine are scheduled for release this year; 25 next year; six in 2022; two in 2023 and three in 2025. -- Those on the list are expected to be released into 19 of Oregons 36 counties. Counties with the largest numbers are: Lane (15), Multnomah (12), Marion (10), Washington (7) and Clackamas (4). -- Eight have had a major misconduct incident in the past year; 69 have had a major misconduct incident during their time in prison. Major misconduct covers a range of behavior that includes things like possessing contraband and assaulting other inmates or staff. Twenty-eight states have already released inmates early in response to the pandemic and most took that step early in the crisis, said Carl Filler, a state policy analyst for the Justice Action Network, a national bipartisan organization based in Washington, D.C., that works on criminal justice reform. Filler said those early releases typically involved hundreds of prisoners. In general, states looked at inmates convicted of low-level and nonviolent crimes who were approaching the end of their sentences or were medically compromised, he said. The criteria is really thinking about who can be safely released and recognizing that in prisons most folks are going to go back to their communities anyway, he said. In a memo sent Monday to district attorneys and community corrections directors, a Department of Corrections official said people on the list are eligible for commutation provided they have a suitable housing plan and dont pose an unacceptable public safety risk. Jeremiah Stromberg, the departments assistant director of community corrections, said in the memo that Brown wants the list of candidates by next Monday. People on the list are candidates for release; the governor will make the final call on who gets out based on the information provided by local officials. Stromberg said state corrections staff would be in touch with local community corrections leaders this week to discuss housing options for these individuals. In cases where housing isnt readily available, Stromberg said state officials would tell the governor they need more time to find suitable housing. He also asked local officials for information about potential victim safety issues, pending criminal matters, or other information the Governor should be informed about when making a commutation decision. A group of state lawmakers on Monday pushed Brown to significantly expand those she would consider releasing early but she rejected their proposal. They sought the immediate release of nearly 2,000 inmates, roughly 14 percent of the inmate population of 14,085. They argued that prisons are particularly vulnerable to the pandemic and pointed to stark racial disparities in Oregons prison system, which state Sen. James Manning, D-Eugene, called the sad legacy of mass incarceration. Nationally, African Americans have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. In addition to the state penitentiary with 140 coronavirus cases among inmates and 36 among workers, an outbreak occurred at Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend. It had 25 cases, but the outbreak there is no longer considered active. Public health officials said an outbreak is considered over 28 days after the date of the last onset of symptoms for people with confirmed or presumptive coronavirus cases. Santiam Correctional Institution in Salem has nine cases and Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla has one. The state releases about 430 prisoners each month when their sentences are up. -- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. 1. Ajay Devgn Best Film - Zakhm (1998) 2. Ajay Devgn Best Film - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) 3.Ajay Devgn Best Film - The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) 4. Ajay Devgn Best Film - Company (2002) 5. Ajay Devgn Best Film - Gangaajal (2003) 6. Ajay Devgn Best Film - Khakee (2004) 7. Ajay Devgn Best Film - Omkara (2006) 8. Ajay Devgn Best Film - Singham (2011) 9. Ajay Devgn Best Film - Raid (2018) 10. Ajay Devgn Best Film - Tanaji (2020) He started off as an action hero, segued into romance in between, then turned to comedy and now it seems is interested in making historicals his forte. Ajay Devgn has constantly reinvented himself throughout his career and thats the reason hes still going strong. He hasnt let the circumstances get to him and has always made sure to give his 100 per cent to each of his roles. His tenacity, his fortitude is something to be admired. We bring you a list of 10 of his best films down the years for your viewing pleasure during this sem-lockdown situation. We hope that it adds to your viewing pleasure.Director: Mahesh BhattCast: Ajay Devgn, Nagarjuna, Pooja Bhatt, Akshay AnandZakhm carried shades of Maheshs own life.. Ajay plays a music director whose mother (Pooja Bhatt) was a Muslim but chose to live as a Hindu after marrying a Hindu man. He learns her secret as a child but respects her wishes. Years later, shes burnt by fundamentalists in a riot and succumbs to the injuries. Ironically, her younger son (Akshay Anand) is a fundamentalist himself and is against communal harmony. When he learns the truth about his mother, he decides to stand by his brother and fulfil their mothers wish of being buried with Muslim rites. It was a poignant film depicting real-life concerns. Made against the backdrop of Mumbai bombings, it did ask some pertinent questions indeed and preached peace and goodwill. Ajay gave a restrained performance as the elder brother who has to make his volatile sibling see the light of the day.Director: Sanjay Leela BhansaliCast: Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Ajay DevgnThe rumours of Salman and Aishwarya Rais affair were at the peak when the film was released. It was said to be inspired by Woh Saat Din (1983), starring Naseeruddin Shah, Anil Kapoor and Padmini Kolhapure. Nandini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) is the daughter of Pandit Darbar (Vikram Gokhale), a respected name in the Indian classical field. Sameer (Salman Khan), an NRI comes to learn classical vocals from him and falls for Nandini. Meanwhile, her father arranges for Nandini to be married to Vanraj (Ajay Devgn). Shes heartbroken when Sameer leaves at her fathers insistence and reluctantly marries Vanraj. Hes initially enraged when he learns she loves another but later vows to unite them together. However, seeing his caring attitude she begins loving him and goes back to him even after finding Sameer in Europe.and Aishwarya looked like a made for each other couple in the film and Ajays brooding presence was the icing on the cake. Ismail Darbar made a fine album containing folk tunes which remains hugely popular even now.Director: Rajkumar SantoshiCast: Ajay Devgn, Sushant Singh, D. Santosh and Akhilendra Mishra, Raj Babbar, Farida Jalal and Amrita RaoThroughout his childhood, Bhagat Singh witnessed cruel atrocities being committed by the British over his fellow Indians. Incidents such as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919, where British General Dyer opened fire on a large group of people, killing men, women and even children in the process, left a deep impact on his mind He initially followed Gandhis non-violent precepts but later realised he armed revolution would serve his purposes better. Bhagat avenged the death of Lala Lajpat Rai who was beaten to death by assassinating an officer named Saunders. He later bombed the Indian Central Legislative Assembly as a protest against the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Act. The bombs were designed to make a lot of noise and smoke and not to kill and Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt could have escaped but chose to let themselves be arrested. Bhagat made headlines even while in prison as he and other prisoners undertook a fast to death to improve the conditions of the Indian political prisoners. After being proven guilty, Bhagat was sentenced to death which he accepted with a smile on his face, knowing the fact that he is sacrificing his life for the cause of the country. Ajay Devgn portrayed the role of the legendary freedom fighter while Sukhdev was played by Sushant Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad was played by Akhilendra Mishra. The film was praised for bringing to life the ethos of our brave freedom fighters.Director: Ram Gopal VarmaCast: Mohanlal, Ajay Devgn, Vivek Oberoi, Manisha Koirala, Seema Biswas, Antara Mali, Ashraful HaqueCompany ranks among one of Ram Gopal Verma's best and one of the best crime films of Indian cinema. Chandu (Vivek Oberoi) is a small-time goon who makes it big as the right hand of Malik (Ajay Devgn). The central character of the film, Malik, is a mafia leader who sets up the most successful crime organization in Mumbai by the name of Company. Malik and Chandu take the company to global heights but somewhere along the way their friendship suffers. A small misunderstanding between them turns into a large scale mafia war.. Hes cold, calculative, the very essence of a mafia don. Vivek Oberoi delivered a knockout debut performance as well.Director: Prakash JhaCast: Ajay Devgn, Gracy Singh, Mukesh Tiwari, Daya Shankar Pandeyposted in the crime-ridden West Champaran district of Bihar. He gets to know that the system is rotten to the core at every turn and tries his hardest to reform the police force under him. While the men admire his honesty and integrity, they laugh at his naivete behind his back. Theres a strong police-mafia nexus in the area and Amit warns his men to desist consorting with the criminals. Enraged by the constant pressure put on them by the corrupt politicians, a section of officers belonging to Amits command pour battery acid in the eyes of some goons. This act of vigilante justice is soon mimicked across the state by other policemen as they vent out years of suppression. While the crime rate does take a drop as criminals go into hiding, Amit warns that such practices will lead to a state of anarchy but despite his best intentions the tragedy plays itself out.rnDirector: Rajkumar SantoshiCast: Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Tushar KapoorAjay Devgn played the antagonist in this multi-starrer and was admired for his role. Anant Srivastav (Amitabh) is an honest DCP who must complete his duty against all odds. He hasnt risen to the heights he deserved because of his honest nature. He has been given a job to bring an alleged terrorist Ansari (Atul Kulkarni) to Mumbai. He is accompanied by Sub Inspector Ashwin Gupte (Tusshar Kapoor), Inspector Shekhar Verma (Akshay Kumar), and Constable Kamlesh Sawant (Kamlesh Sawant). The team meets Mahalakshmi (Aishwarya), a school teacher who helps them out. Along the way, the team learns that Ajay Devgn (Yashwant Angre), a former police inspector turned criminal, ACP Naidu (Prakash Raj), Minister Deodhar (Sabyasachi Chakravarthy) have all joined hands to cover a criminal conspiracy. It was Amitabh versus Ajay Devgn show all the way and ultimately showed the triumph of good over evil.Director: Vishal BhardwajCast: Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Bipasha Basu, Kareena Kapoor, Konkona Sen SharmaAt the beginning of his career, if someone had told Ajay that 15 years down the line he would be acting in a Shakespeare adaptation, he would have laughed it all off as a joke. It took ato visualise him as Othello. Set in the badlands of North India, the film plays out the tragic tale of Iago/Langda Tyagis (Saif Ali Khan) betrayal. Tyagi feels hes been ignored and slighted by his friend because of his handicap and wants revenge. He plots to bring him down by sowing seeds of discontent. Omi/ Othello begins to suspect his wife Dolly/Desdemona (Kareena Kapoor Khan) of infidelity and in a fit of rage kills her. Tyagi, the perpetrator behind all this too is killed by his own wife while Omi commits suicide in remorse. Only Keshu/ Cassius (Vivek Oberoi) is left alive in the end, looking at it all with muted grief. Ajay brought forth both the ruthlessness and the vulnerability of Othello through his power-packed performance and made the viewers root for his character. One can see the pain and the agony amply reflected in his eyes during the tragic climax. He also perfected the use of Khariboli dialect to bring a level of authenticity to his character.Director: Rohit ShettyCast: Ajay Devgn, Prakash RajIn many aspects,where a one-man-army of sorts took up arms against a corrupt system. One can say its old wine in a new bottle served to us by Rohit Shetty. Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn) is an honest police officer in charge of the Shivgarh police station. He resolves most of the problems in his town through talks and without resorting to the force of law, thereby gaining much admiration and love from the villagers. Hes pitted against a corrupt politician, Jaikant Shikre (Prakash Raj), hailing from Goa. Jaikant has him transferred to Goa in order to teach him a lesson but Singham overcomes all odds and turns the tables, uniting the police force in the process. Ajay Devgn shone as the protagonist and the film became a blockbuster success.Director: Rajkumar GuptaCast: Ajay Devgn, Ileana D'Cruz, Saurabh Shukla, Amit Sial, Pushpa JoshiAccording to reports, on July 16, 1981, the IT officials raided the house of a businessman and Congress MLA Sardar Inder Singh in Kanpur. 90 experienced officers under the leadership of the then Income Tax Commissioner of Lucknow, Sharda Prasad Pandey, carried out the longest IT raid recorded till date. Some 200 police personnel were said to be present there for the safety of the IT officials.an income tax officer known for his integrity. He's a stickler for rules and is someone who has been transferred for more times than he cares to count. He gets posted to Lucknow and fate brings him the biggest anonymous tip of his life on a platter. It's so hot that it could bring down the empire of the local big shot politician, Rameshwar Singh (Saurabh Shukla) fondly known as Rajaji. He acts on his instincts and makes sure he has a cast-iron case before making his move. He's thwarted initially in his efforts but later his source comes true even amidst the chaos and he's able to perform his duties to the fullest, bringing in the richest haul from an IT raid of that era in the process. The film got praised for its stand-off scenes between Ajay Devgn and Saurabh Shukla.rnDirector: Om RautCast: Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, Kajol, Luke Kenny, Sharad Kelkarchronicles the capture of the Kondhana Fort by the Marathas. It was of strategic importance to Aurangzeb as from there he could keep an eye over the whole South region. Shivaji had to cede the fort to him following the treaty of Purandar and was desperate to get it back. His trusted aide Tanhaji Malusare along with his band of diehard soldiers captured the fort by climbing over seemingly impregnable walls and defeated the Rajput commander Udaybhan who was in charge of the fort. Tanhaji lost his life gaining the objective and the fort was renamed as Sinhagad in his memory by Shivaji as he had fought like a lion. The grand scale of the war drama, the creatively crafted battle scenes, and the final confrontation between Tanhaji and Udaybhan made it an edge-of-the-seat thriller., his devotion to Shivaji and his undying love for his motherland with utmost conviction. Saif Ali Khan and Shar Kelkars performances too came in for a lot of praise. Advertisement Instagrammers will have yet another reason to visit Iceland next year - because an epic new geothermal lagoon is set to open. Their appetites for lagoon shots in the country are currently sated, in the main, by the pristine and seductive Blue Lagoon. But in 2021, Iceland's lagoon offering is being seriously ramped up by Sky Lagoon, which will offer ocean views and an in-lagoon bar. A rendering of the new Sky Lagoon, which is set to open in Iceland in 2021. Pictured is the swim-up bar Located in Karsnes Harbour, the new geothermal lagoon is just minutes from Reykjavik's vibrant city centre Developer Pursuit says the lagoon will showcase expansive ocean vistas punctuated by awe-inspiring sunsets, Northern Lights and dark sky views It will be located in Karsnes Harbour, Kopavogur, and just minutes from Reykjavik's vibrant city centre. According to the developer, Pursuit, it will 'showcase expansive ocean vistas punctuated by awe-inspiring sunsets, Northern Lights and dark sky views'. It added that the lagoon's design 'draws inspiration from the breathtaking and cinematic landscapes of Iceland, creating an oasis within the city'. The lagoon's 230ft (70-metre) infinity-edge, meanwhile, will 'produce a visual effect that will blend into the ocean landscape'. Pursuit says: 'Sky Lagoon's multi-sensory oasis will feature an ocean-side infinity-edge design in addition to cold pool and sauna experiences.' Pictured is the infinity edge The lagoon's design 'draws inspiration from the breathtaking and cinematic landscapes of Iceland' The lagoon's general manager, Dagny Petursdottir, said: 'Spending time relaxing in natural geothermal waters is an integral part of our culture here in Iceland' Facilities around the lagoon include a sauna, pictured, which will give guests amazing views of the ocean Pursuit continued: 'Further design elements are influenced by Icelandic culture, creating a distinctive guest experience modelled after Icelandic turf houses and its restorative spa-like ritual rooted in Icelandic tradition.' Dagny Petursdottir, general manager of Sky Lagoon, said: 'We are thrilled to unveil plans to develop a remarkable geothermal lagoon experience along one of Iceland's most stunning oceanfront locations. 'The rejuvenating and relaxing retreat, situated against the dramatic backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean yet so close to Reykjavik's vibrant urban centre, will enable guests to connect with mind, body and spirit through the radiant powers of geothermal waters while taking in such impressive ocean views. A rendering showing an aerial view of the Reykjavik lagoon, which is described as being an 'oasis within the city' 'Spending time relaxing in natural geothermal waters is an integral part of our culture here in Iceland. 'Sky Lagoon's multi-sensory oasis will feature an ocean-side infinity-edge design in addition to cold pool and sauna experiences. Additional amenities will include an in-lagoon bar, dining experience and unique retail offerings.' David Barry, president of Pursuit, said: 'At Pursuit, we are focused on connecting guests to iconic places through unforgettable and inspiring experiences. 'Iceland is one of those authentic and remarkable places that has the power to excite and inspire. 'Following the recent launch of our visually stunning FlyOver Iceland experience, we are thrilled to announce our continued commitment to Iceland with the inclusion of Sky Lagoon to our collection of world-class travel experiences.' Iceland re-opened its borders earlier this week (June 15) after closing them in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. By PTI BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the two leaders agreed to "cool down" tensions on the ground "as soon as possible" and maintain peace and tranquility in the border area in accordance with the agreement reached between the two countries, an official statement said here. The telephonic conversation between the two ministers came after 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in the clashes with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. During the telephonic conversation, Jaishankar conveyed to Wang India's protest in the strongest terms on the violent face-off and said the unprecedented development will have "serious impact" on bilateral ties. He asked the Chinese side to reassess its actions and take corrective steps, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement in New Delhi. EAM Jaishankar spoke to China's FM Wang Yi on the situation at the border. Two sides decide to handle the serious situation in Galwan Valley carefully #IndiaChinaFaceOff #GalwanValley @NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard Pushkar Banakar (@PushkarBanakar) June 17, 2020 "The Chinese side took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties. It reflected an intent to change the facts on ground in violation of all our agreements to not change the status quo," Jaishankar told Wang. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement here that the two sides agreed to deal "fairly" with the serious events caused by the conflict in the Galwan Valley, jointly abide by the consensus reached at the military-level meetings between the two sides, "cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible", and maintain peace and tranquility in the border area in accordance with the agreement reached so far between the two countries. During the conversation, Wang said the two sides should follow the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and strengthen the communication and coordination on the proper handling of the border situation through the existing channels so as to jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border area, according to the statement. India on Tuesday said the violent face-off between the armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. The Ministry of External Affairs said both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement arrived earlier at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. Wang emphasized that both China and India are emerging powers with a population of over one billion people, and accelerating "our own development and revitalisation is our respective historical missions". For this reason, mutual respect and mutual support is the right direction for the two sides, which is in the long-term interests of the two countries; "mutual suspicion and mutual friction are evil paths, and contrary to the fundamental aspirations of the two peoples," he said. The Chinese foreign minister also alleged that on the evening of June 15, the Indian front-line frontier troops "blatantly broke the consensus" reached at the military-level meeting between the two sides. Once the situation in the Galwan Valley has calmed down, they "crossed the LAC again and deliberately provoked and violently attacked" the officers and soldiers who negotiated on the spot, leading to fierce physical clashes, resulting in casualties, he claimed. He said this "dangerous act of the Indian army seriously violated the agreement reached between the two countries on the border issue and seriously violated the basic norms of international relations. " Wang demanded the Indian side to conduct a "thorough investigation" on this, "severely punish those responsible" for the incident, "strictly control the frontline troops", and "immediately stop all provocative actions" to ensure that such incidents cannot occur again. "The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation, and must not underestimate China's firm will to safeguard the territorial sovereignty," he added. A large number of Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Galwan Valley and certain other areas of eastern Ladakh for the last five weeks, including in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. Monday's face-off was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the face-off. The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the row. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC). China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet, while India contests it. Implicit bias matters everywhere but especially in book publishing, where most decisions are subjective. (Hasret Sonmez / Getty Images / iStockphoto) In late 2013, when I was working as the editorial director of digital content at Barnes & Nobles Nook, I flew to Palo Alto, Calif., to meet with the tech team and give a presentation on how deal-making in publishing works. Well, its mostly a gut feeling, I said of the process of making an offer on a book, to audible gasps from my colleagues. Members of the Silicon Valley team, part of an economic sector swimming in data, were perplexed when I told them how analog publishing remains that there is no formula for choosing a book to acquire or for arriving at an advance on royalties, the payment an author receives on signing a contract. Guessing, I told my bewildered audience, is our best practice. I thought of my 2013 trip last week when author LL McKinney brought to light inequities in book publishing with the Twitter hashtag #PublishingPaidMe, an effort to make advance figures more transparent and to highlight the problem of what Black authors are paid vs non-Black authors . On Twitter and in a related public spreadsheet, some surprisingly low advances for Black authors were revealed: Two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward tweeted that she barely earned a six-figure advance on her most recent novel, compared to the $1.3 million reportedly given to Jeanine Cummins, the white author of the Mexican refugee melodrama American Dirt. Genre writers tend to get even lower advances than their more generalist kin. Most notably, N.K. Jemisin, a hugely popular, three-time Hugo Award-winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy, revealed that she received only $25,000 in advances for each book in her beloved series. Jemisins publisher, Orbit Books, points out that shes received substantial royalty checks since her advances have earned out. Fantasy author N.K. Jemisin. (N.K. Jemisin) At the high end, its more likely that a debut author who gets a six-figure book deal will be white. White novelist Chip Cheek tweeted that he was paid an $800,000 advance for his debut. Story continues The data in the #PublishingPaidMe spreadsheet is heavily skewed because only white authors were explicitly asked to share their advances; they make up 70% of the respondents. We cant make too many conclusions based only on these 2,700 submissions (most of them anonymous), but the qualitative data are still telling. Unequal advances are the symptom of a larger problem, and that larger problem is the lack of racial diversity in book publishing. A 2019 diversity baseline survey commissioned by childrens book publisher Lee & Low found that 76% of respondents were white, while only 5% were Black and 3% were biracial/multiracial. The most racially diverse stratum of publishing was the entry level, while the executive tier remains 78% white. If the decision-makers in publishing are overwhelmingly white and their decisions amount to subjective guesswork, then racism, no matter how unintentional, will be institutional. Implicit bias , as Jenee Desmond-Harris writes in a 2014 Vox explainer, describes what's happening when, despite our best intentions and without our awareness, racial stereotypes and assumptions creep into our minds and affect our actions. Implicit bias is a flash point across many industries, including tech which likes to think itself insulated from subjectivity by the analytics used in the hiring process. Yet studies have found bias even in its hiring algorithms . If the illusion of objectivity is techs problem to solve, the issue in publishing is just as pernicious: an underlying decision structure that to outsiders feels both hidebound and shockingly arbitrary from start to finish. There are so many intangibles in publishing, so many vagaries and variables, author Carmen Maria Machado tweeted in response to #PublishingPaidMe, that so much of one's individual success comes down to the whims and hunches of other people. Such vagaries arise in book advances because its nearly impossible to predict how much a particular book will sell. Editors are left with only a few imperfect tools at their disposal to make educated guesses. There are so many intangibles in publishing, so many vagaries and variables, that so much of one's individual success comes down to the whims and hunches of other people, well before a book is a physical object that people can buy. Carmen Maria Machado (@carmenmmachado) June 10, 2020 Among those are so-called comp titles similar (comparative) books already on the market that in the absence of real predictive data stand in as models for a forthcoming publication. Risk-averse publishers love books that are similar to other books that have sold well, which is why after the surprise success of 50 Shades of Grey there were so many knockoff romances featuring young women who fall in love with controlling billionaires. Its much more difficult to quantify success when a book does something unique, which is why publishing tends to punish, rather than reward, truly innovative authors. Editors must also fill out profit and loss statements to justify their advances. The P&L contains fixed costs (including overhead and manufacturing), and the editors job is to plug in the advance they would like to offer and determine how many copies the book would have to sell to justify it. Fudging P&Ls is a publishing tradition as old as getting drunk at book parties. Once the editor has filled out a P&L, the editorial director or the publisher (with input from sales and marketing teams) then decides whether the numbers will work. The guesses that editors and publishers make are loaded with their own assumptions: An editor who is persuasive or powerful can swing into the office raving about a manuscript so addictive that I missed my subway stop, and within a couple of days the entire publishing team has fallen in love with it. Up goes the price. Or the book might be one that many publishers are trying to buy, and if it goes to auction, the advance will be driven up by competition. If subjectivity is inevitably baked into book publishing, then its important that the decision-makers bring to their educated guesses a diversity of experience. Employers should be more aggressive about retaining those more diverse entry-level employees so they get a chance to advance into positions of real power, at which point their enthusiastic raves will get attention too. That effort starts, like most things, with money not advance money but income. Current starting salaries are notoriously low $35,000 to $40,000 with minimal pay raises especially for an industry so concentrated in expensive New York. The people who can afford to work in publishing are often those with safety nets or other sources of income. The industry loses many low-level employees to other professions that pay better, and therefore self-selects from a group of well-off, typically white workers to promote within the company. Imagine if employees could be paid a living wage from the very beginning of their careers. The pool of people who could afford to work in publishing would expand enormously, and we would start to see more diversity in race and economic background at higher and higher levels. Book advances would still be based almost entirely on conjecture, but at least the offer makers would bring a variety of life experiences to their decisions. When they rave about missing a subway stop to finish a manuscript, they might be speaking not just for themselves but their fellow commuters too. Kreizman is the host of the Maris Review, a literary podcast. An artist is fighting to have an image of a young Indigenous girl feature alongside Captain James Cook in a Sydney council's official logo. Mosaic artist Tim Cole proposed the change to the Sutherland Shire Council in the city's south last week, with Mayor Carmelo Pesce calling it a 'great idea'. Mr Cole first created the tile mosaic of a girl standing alongside Captain Cook 12 years ago and has only just put forward his proposal in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. The proposed logo by mosaic artist Tim Cole was created 12 years ago and features the image of a young Indigenous girl he photographed at La Perouse in Sydney 'It sounds like a great idea and it looks beautiful, but it's something we need to bring the community along with us and have some community consultation before we do anything,' Mayor Pesce told 2GB radio on Wednesday. 'The councillors will have a chat and if we decide to go any further we'll go to a community consultation and see what the residents of the Shire think about it. 'People tearing things down is just terrible but if you can bring people along with you and do it together, I think that's the way to go.' Mr Cole first created the mosaic piece in 2008 after speaking with elders from the Dharawal people. The Dharawal were Indigenous Australians who lived in clans scattered along the Sydney basin and were the first people to make contact with Captain Cook. The current Sutherland Shire Council logo features the image of Captain James Cook The young girl is based on a real person who Mr Cole photographed with the permission of her parents in La Perouse, in south-east Sydney on National Sorry Day. 'The presence of Cook on the logo is fitting and appropriate, but the absence of the Dharawal people is unfortunate,' Mr Cole told The Leader. 'I look at it is a 'win win'. You keep Cook, but you also acknowledge the Dharawal culture. 'Cook is a great guy, but he was only here for an hour. He's not the full story - he's only half of the story.' Captain James Cook landed in Botany Bay in April, 1770. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Sutherland Shire Council for comment. California will remove statues of Christopher Columbus and his patron Queen Isabella from the state Capitol rotunda, 137 years after they were installed there. Democratic state legislative leaders announced Tuesday that the marble statues are set to be removed, calling Columbus a deeply polarizing figure. Christopher Columbus is a deeply polarizing historical figure given the deadly impact his arrival in this hemisphere had on indigenous populations, read the joint statement from Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and Assembly Rules Chair Ken Cooley. The continued presence of this statue in Californias Capitol, where it has been since 1883, is completely out of place today. It will be removed. It is unclear when exactly the statues will be taken down, although Cooley said officials have been discussing removing the monument since January. Columbus Day is still a state holiday celebrated on the second Monday in October, according to California law. A 2018 effort in the state Senate to rename the holiday Indigenous Peoples Day failed before the proposal received a hearing. Californias decision comes after statues of Columbus were defaced around the country this month as protests continue against racism and police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Sculptures of the famous historical figure were defaced and torn down by demonstrators last week in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said last week that he supports keeping Manhattans statue of the Italian explorer, saying it represents the Italian-American legacy in America. Other historical figures have also been targeted for removal in recent weeks, including Confederate statues that stand in the Capitol building in Washington. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for their removal last week. Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals. Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed, Pelosi said. More from National Review The Michigan House took a stance on calls to defund police departments Wednesday, passing a resolution asking communities not to consider such proposals. In a 79-29 vote, lawmakers approved House Resolution 277, which discourages local units of government from defunding or abolishing their local police departments. Resolutions are non-binding and do not have a direct impact on existing laws, but are used by government bodies as a statement of priorities or to declare intentions. Related: What defund the police means to advocates in Michigan As protests against police brutality continue in Michigan and across the country, calls to defund police have grown in popularity. Advocates say they would like to see police budgets reduced or re-prioritized, with significant changes to the role of police in the community. Some local leaders in Michigan are already thinking about what that might look like. In Ann Arbor, for example, city officials are considering a full review of the Ann Arbor Police Departments practices and $30 million budget. Related: Ann Arbor officials want to radically rethink policing, consider alternatives to armed officers Rep. Ryan Berman, R-Commerce Township, said the concept of defunding police departments outright is dangerous, adding that police departments are already under a lot of budget pressure due to COVID-19. The issues that will arise with less resources will make us less safe, he said during comments on the House floor. Law enforcement is a necessary function of government. A handful of Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the resolution, but several stepped forward to oppose it, characterizing the move as a knee-jerk reaction that doesnt take into account what protesters are asking for. Rep. Cynthia Johnson, D-Detroit, said the legislature should be exploring every possible solution to address underlying issues that result in police brutality and said the resolution seems intended to distract us from addressing critical issues that present daily life and death consequences for my community. The underlying premise of this resolution suggests that law enforcement interactions across Michigan communities are equal, she said. I can tell you, they are not. Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, D-Detroit, said many of her friends and family members are members of law enforcement, but noted communities could work to defund the police as we know it without zeroing out police departments budgets. I see this as a political division metric as opposed to a true solution, she said. We cant turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to the millions of people that are even outside of America that are saying, No more.' Lets not miss this moment. Copies of the House-passed resolution will be sent to the Michigan Townships Association, the Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan Association of Counties, the Michigan Association of Mayors, and the Michigan Association of Township Supervisors. United Nations, June 18 : India has been elected to the Security Council with an overwhelming majority of 184 votes running on a platform of fighting terrorism and promoting the ethos of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" -- the world is one family. Wednesday's elections took place against the backdrop of the conflict in Ladakh with China, whom it will join on the Council in January. New Delhi won the Asia Pacific seat on the highest decision-making body of the UN with the unanimous support of the countries in the 55-member group, with China and Pakistan, at least openly, conceding support in face of overwhelming backing for India from the others. Though India ran unopposed from Asia, eight countries apparently did not vote for India in the secret ballot in which 192 of the 193 member nations participated. India will serve its eighth two-year term as a non-permanent member without veto powers, even as it pursues on a parallel track UN reforms aimed at getting a permanent seat. Running unopposed for the seat for Latin American and Caribbean countries, Mexico won with 187 votes. The ten non-permanent Security Council seats are distributed among five regional groups and elections are held every year for the five that fall vacant on alternate years. But there were contested elections for the three other seats. Canada was routed in its bid for one of the two seats allotted to the group made up of West European countries and others like Canada and Australia that do not fit in elsewhere. In a setback to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who personally campaigned hard for the seat, it received only 108 votes. Norway with 130 votes and Ireland with 128 were elected to the two seats. Neither Kenya nor Djibouti received a two-thirds majority and a runoff is to be held later. Kenya, which received 113 votes for the African seat had the endorsement of the continent's countries, while Djibouti which counted on a rift between the Arab and Non-Arab nations in the group received 78 votes. In a last-minute pitch, India's Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti said in a video message, "India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world our ethos that the world is one family -- Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam." In a campaign document unveiled by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi, India laid out a "5S" approach of Samman (Respect), Samvad (Dialogue), Sahyog (Cooperation) Shanti (Peace) and Samriddi (Prosperity) for its service on the Council. The document setting out India's agenda said that a reformed multilateralism isAa must for the post-COVID19 era. Besides fighting terrorism, a priority for India, which historically the largest contributor peacekeeping operations, that the document listed was streamlining UN peacekeeping to "ensure greater clarity, direction, and professionalism." While addressing the abuse of technology by terrorists, the document said that technology must be promoted with "a human touch" and India will promote partnerships to harness it to reduce human suffering and build resilient communities. India will replace Indonesia, whose term ends at the end of the year, on the Council and join Vietnam as one of the two non-permanent Asian. India will step into a Council Chamber paralysed by the polarisation of its veto-wielding permanent members that almost harks back to the Cold War era. It will have to deftly deal with intractable issues like the Syrian civil war with international dimensions, Ukraine's disputes with Russia, the US -- or President Donald Trump's -- obsession with Iran or its fallout and Yemen where the UN has not been able to act because of the standoff between the West and Russia and China. But at least when China tries to bring up the Kashmir issue in the Council as it has done twice recently, India will be right there. In elections held simultaneously, Volkan Bozkir, a Turkish diplomat and politician who ran unopposed was chosen president of the next session of the General Assembly that starts in September. Eighteen countries that ran unopposed for as many seats on the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) were also elected. India's last term was in 2011-12 and Hardeep Singh Puri, who was then India's Permanent Representative and is now a minister, immediately afterwards planned to bid for its next term not wanting a long gap like the 19 years since the previous 1991-92 tenure. Intense diplomacy by him and his successor, Asoke Mukerji, sealed India's bid for the 2021-22 term. Afghanistan had initially expressed interest in running for the 2021-22 term but did not pursue it, leaving the field for India. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in) A major drive is being launched to source and publish for the first time Louth GAA stories from the grassroots of the association. The collaboration between the association and publishers, Ballpoint Press Ltd, aims to gather the most comprehensive treasure trove of Gaelic-related stories ever compiled in the 136-year history of the GAA. As well as the four corners of Ireland, stories will also be sought from across the globe, in particular from those who have been GAA frontier people in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and many other countries. The story gathering will include oral accounts so that all kind of stories can be written down for the first time in book form and also feature in the GAA's archives at Croke Park. Potential contributors who feel they have a story but may not feel up to writing it can get in touch with Ballpoint Press and relate their account. It will then be written and sent back for approval before being submitted for final publishing. The president of the GAA, John Horan, said he welcomed the exploration through the GAA grassroots to find the diversity of stories that undoubtedly exist there. The grassroots are the lifeblood of our organisation and it is timely that that such an undertaking is finally going ahead. I'm delighted because it means that there will be a permanent home for these stories in both book form as well in our own GAA archive section. Well-known journalist and author, PJ Cunningham, will spearhead the undertaking alongside GAA Communications Director, Alan Milton. PJ said it had been an ambition of his for many years to bring what he believes is the great legacy of GAA stories together under one project. GAA is a way of life for most Irish people at home and abroad. It is packed with diverse stories from on and off the pitch. I grew up listening to them and enjoying their retelling, but the reality is that many of these stories exist only in word of mouth form. At present, we all have a bit more time to commit such stories to paper so that they can be preserved for future generations. Ideally the stories should have their own unique selling point rather than just normal accounts of winning or losing matches. They can also include inter-county fare and personnel because it is the grassroots people who gather in large numbers to support those encounters. Basically, we are interested in any story from 1884 onwards to the present day that has a special, novel or unusual twist to it. For further information contact pj@gaastories.ie or communications@gaa.ie Letters can be sent to GAA Grassroots Stories, Ballpoint Press, 4 Wyndham Park, Bray, Co Wicklow, phone 086 8217631. With protesters continuing to fill streets across the nation to condemn police brutality, a global pandemic that disproportionately impacts black Americans, and the gearing up for the presidential election in November, we all could use a break. This summer, pull two weeds with one yank: relax with a glass of wine and support a black-owned business. Here are a few black-owned wineries that will deliver to Pennsylvania to get you started. Brown Estates story of origin dates back to 1980 when Bassett and Marcela Brown bought an abandoned ranch in Napa Valley. They harvested grapes for a decade, and in 1996, their children decided to launch a winery. Brown Estate offers a variety of classics including chardonnay and zinfandel. Price: $40-125 plus shipping. Buy online at www.brownestate.com/wines. In 2015, Lloyd Davis founded Corner 103 to help people become more familiar with the wine world. Named after the location of its downtown Sonoma tasting room, Corner 103s featured bottle is the NV Sparkling Rose which is a blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier. Price: $25-50 plus shipping. Buy online at www.corner103.com/wines/current-releases/. For the first half of their lives, sisters Andrea and Robin McBride hadnt met. When they found each other in 1999, they discovered common ground with their love for wine. Years of planning later, the two created the McBride Sisters Collection with vineyards in California and New Zealand. They also created She Can a scholarship fund for women in the wine industry. Price: $17-22 per bottle and $67-120 for bundle packs, plus shipping. Buy online at www.mcbridesisters.com. This local brand is great if you dont want to bother with shipping. Place your order online and schedule a pick up. Their sweet red table wine is a customer favorite. The company also sells at farmer markets around the city. Frank & Kenya Mitchell founded the company in 2012. Price: $15-40 plus shipping. Buy online at mitchellandmitchellwines.us/. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given political parties 10 days to conduct their primary election for the Edo s... The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given political parties 10 days to conduct their primary election for the Edo state governorship poll. Speaking at the inter-agency consultative committee on election on Wednesday, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said the deadline will not be extended after June 27. Only 15 political parties indicated interest in the September 19 election. All political parties interested in fielding candidates for the election are reminded that they must conclude their primaries for the nomination of candidates in the next ten days, Yakubu said. The deadline is Saturday, 27th June, 2020. I must stress that the date is firm and fixed. There will be no extension of the deadline. While the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates will be the sole responsibility of political parties, our officials will monitor the primaries as required by law. He also said the commission will not extend the deadline for political parties that fail to submit the names of the candidates for the election. Arising from our experience in managing the nomination of candidates for the last two governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states, it is important to draw the attention of political parties to the four mandatory requirements for eligibility of candidates for governorship elections enshrined in Section 177 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), he said. A candidate nominated by a political party must be a Nigerian citizen by birth; must have attained the age of thirty-five (35) years; must be a member of, and sponsored by, a political party; and must be educated up to at least school certificate level or equivalent. Adherence to these clear constitutional provisions is compulsory in order to avoid the unnecessary litigation that follow the nomination of candidates, some of which are still pending before the courts. The INEC chairman urged security agencies and other stakeholders to be proactive during the election. We must safeguard the process and protect all those involved as voters, INEC officials, observers, the media and even some of the unarmed security personnel deployed to the polling units, he said, adding that doing so requires our professionalism and neutrality. Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - The opposition party announced here Wednesday its withdrawal from the coordination of parties represented in Parliament for the supervision of the management of the fund allocated to the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - MTU Aero Engines AG (MTUAY.PK) said its Supervisory Board has decided unanimously that Klaus Eberhardt will continue as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The Board said maintaining continuity is a response to the special challenges presented by the coronavirus crisis. The Supervisory Board also decided unanimously to raise the previously valid age limit for Supervisory Board members in general to 75. The company's Annual General Meeting will be held virtually on August 5, 2020. MTU noted that re-election of Eberhardt is not necessary, since his Supervisory Board mandate lasts until 2023. 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. All classes with more than 100 students and many with 50 or more will only be offered online. Smaller classes can be offered face-to-face in classrooms large enough to accommodate social distancing. Because there are limited facilities with large spaces, some classes may be scheduled in the evenings or on Saturdays. Students can expect additional information about their fall course schedules in July. There may be changes in scheduling and teaching format, but tuition rates will remain the same regardless. For students taking classes on campus in the fall, officials dont anticipate reducing fees because some services funded by those fees, such as University Health Services, remain operational. Blank said the university is still deciding whether to charge fees for students who take all of their coursework online. Another unknown is teaching assignments. Some instructors who have an impaired immune system or are simply uncomfortable teaching face-to-face wonder if they will be forced to do so or if they have control of the format in which they lecture. The universitys plan defers to academic departments to determine the format in which courses will be offered and to work with instructors who have health conditions. The controlling shareholder and former chairman of Seazen Group, one of Chinas largest property developers, was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison after being convicted him of child molestation. When Wang Zhenhua was arrested last July, shares in the company and its listed units nosedived. At the time, Seazen Group was Chinas eighth-largest property developer by sales; it has since slipped to 13th place. The Putuo District Peoples Court in Shanghai issued the verdict after a two-day closed-door hearing, according to a statement published on its official WeChat account. Five years is the maximum jail term for child molestation. Reuters was not able to reach Wang or Seazen Group for comment. Wangs son, non-executive director Wang Xiaosong, was appointed chairman of Seazen Groups board after his fathers arrest last year. Seazen Groups subsidiaries include Seazen Holdings Co Ltd and property management unit S-Enjoy Service Group Co Ltd. However, Wang Zhenhua continues to hold about 70% of Seazen Group. The 2020 Hurun Global Rich List in March estimated Wang and his sons net worth at around $6.1 billion. Seazen sold some of its land parcels shortly after Wangs arrest to improve its cash flow amid lenders worries. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:19:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LONDON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The British government on Wednesday published its negotiating objectives for free trade agreements (FTAs) with Australia and New Zealand, with trade talks beginning shortly. The new talks come after Britain and Japan launched trade negotiations last week, also seeking to seal a post-Brexit FTA. "Our new-found status as an independent trading nation will enable us to strengthen ties with countries around the world," said Secretary of State for International Trade Elizabeth Truss. The Department for International Trade said these talks will also act as a logical step towards Britain's accession to Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and both Australia and New Zealand support Britain joining CPTPP. According to the government's analysis, the value of Britain's exports to the two countries could increase by around 1 billion pounds (around 1.25 billion U.S. dollars) as a result of the deals. Britain is speeding up negotiations with its trading partners to secure more new deals after its exit from the European Union (EU) in January. London has failed to score any breakthrough with Brussels in their four rounds of future partnership talks. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday held video talks with EU chiefs, with both sides calling for a new momentum in the search for an agreement before the end of this year when the Brexit transition period ends. Last month, London launched formal talks with Washington on a trade agreement amid the coronavirus pandemic. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 14:46:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NAIROBI/BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Quick actions and cooperation among African countries helped slow down the spread of COVID-19 and avert a full-blown catastrophe in Africa, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said last week. His remarks were backed up by data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). As of Tuesday, the continentwide tally of COVID-19 cases surpassed 252,000, accounting for 3 percent of the global total. The death toll stood at 6,779, accounting for 1.5 percent of the global total. And the coronavirus-related mortality is lower than the global average and that of the United States and European countries. UNCEASING VIGILANCE On June 13, Africa CDC issued an announcement that 43 African countries stay under full border closure amid the epidemic, and night-time curfew has been activated across 35 countries in an effort to halt the spread of the virus. Across Africa, about seven countries have banned international air traffic, two countries have imposed restrictions on travels to and from specific countries, and two others have activated entry/exit restrictions, according to Africa CDC. It added that although some African countries still allow cargo, freight and emergency transport in and out of their countries and some African Union (AU) member states allow citizens and residents to enter, borders are essentially all closed. It also noted that 54 countries in Africa have imposed limitations on public gathering, some 38 have forced country-wide closure of educational institutions, while prison and hospital visits have also been limited in 20 African countries. Amid growing efforts against COVID-19, some 18 African countries have also initiated mass screening and testing, while 41 have mandated public use of face masks, the agency said. YOUNGER POPULATION According to a study released in May by the World Health Organization (WHO), slower rate of transmission, lower age of people with severe disease, and lower mortality rates have been observed in Africa, compared to the most affected countries in other parts of the world. The study said this is "largely driven by social and environmental factors slowing the transmission, and a younger population that has benefitted from the control of communicable diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis to reduce possible vulnerabilities." However, it also warned that the lower rate of transmission suggests a more prolonged outbreak over a few years, and revealed that smaller African countries alongside Algeria, South Africa and Cameroon were at a high risk if containment measures are not prioritized. According to an article published by France's Le Monde, people's immunity has been mobilized in a continent that sees many epidemic diseases. It suggested that the relatively small international movement of African people delayed the pace of the virus' "landing" and spread on the continent. In addition, the number of virus testings conducted in African countries is smaller than that in European and American countries, and the testings are mostly reserved for severe cases, which is also a factor behind a smaller number of confirmed cases. GREATER SUPPORT NEEDED Although Africa has achieved positive results in its epidemic control, it is still widely recognized that the international community should cooperate to support the continent, which is more vulnerable to the raging pandemic with its densely populated markets and housing, poor access to clean water and run-down health infrastructure. At the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit in March, major economies reached a consensus that consolidating Africa's health defense is key to the resilience of global health. Speaking at the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping especially called on G20 members to jointly help developing countries with weak public health systems enhance preparedness and response. And China, together with many other countries, is taking concrete actions to implement the consensus. So far, China has sent to over 50 African countries and the AU their much-needed supplies, dispatched medical experts, and shared its anti-epidemic experience via video conferences. A communique issued on June 13 by the AU said China has ensured the supply of 30 million testing kits, 10,000 ventilators and 80 million masks each month for Africa, a "significant contribution." In late April, the WHO launched an initiative to step up joint actions to fast track the development of technological tools for COVID-19 treatment, and called on the world to ensure equal access to treatments regardless of race, gender or wealth. To avoid a heavy blow to the global battle against the pathogen, it is believed that the international community must move faster to support Africa and keep it from becoming the next "epicenter" of the pandemic. "The importance of promoting effective containment measures is ever more crucial, as sustained and widespread transmission of the virus could severely overwhelm our health systems," Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's regional director for Africa, was quoted by the organization's study in May as saying. Enditem President Donald Trump holds up a protective face shield as Ford Motor Company executives wearing face masks look on during a tour of the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant that is manufacturing ventilators, masks and other medical supplies during the CCP virus pandemic in Ypsilanti, Mich., on May 21, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters) Masks No Longer Required in White House West Wing, McEnany Says White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced Wednesday that masks will not be required in the White Houses West Wing. In May, the Trump administration released a memo requiring staffers to wear protective masks to curb the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus, when social distancing isnt possible. As an additional layer of protection, we are requiring everyone who enters the West Wing to wear a mask or facial covering, the May 11 memo said. McEnany confirmed to reporters that the policy has changed. Masks are recommended but not required, she said on Wednesday when she was asked about the protocol. It came after Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House virus task force, said that masks arent 100 percent effective against the spread of the virus, but he said they do provide some protection. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks alongside President Donald Trump at a press briefing with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in Washington, on April 5, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images) If you happen to be a person who may feel well, but has an asymptomatic infection that you dont even know about, to prevent you from infecting someone else, said Fauci to The Street. But also, it can protect you a certain degree, not a hundred percent, in protecting you from getting infected from someone who, either is breathing, or coughing, or sneezing, or singing or whatever it is in which the droplets or the aerosols go out. So masks work. He then was asked about why Americans were not told to wear protective masks during the onset of the pandemic. Well, the reason for that is that we were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply, he said. And we wanted to make sure that the people namely, the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected. President Donald Trumps reelection campaign is planning to hand out masks to attendees during the presidents rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday. Rallygoers will be encouraged to wear the masks but wont be required to do so, McEnany said. The claim: Bill Gates and major food companies are raising concerns about the food supply chain to promote lab-grown meat As COVID-19 continues to strain societys traditional resources and supply chains, some online are claiming that the alarm bells raised by companies are part of a coordinated agenda. Do you wonder why the media wants you panicked about the food supply and why farms are slaughtering and aborting animals? Bill Gates and food giant Tyson have both heavily backed lab-grown meat research, a viral article from the website SHTF Plan reads. The article suggests that because Bill Gates and Tyson Foods have supported research and startups focusing on lab-grown meat, they are trying to undercut the nations supply of meat amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Gates and Tyson Foods support research efforts into lab-grown meat and other alternative meat projects, but they are not responsible for the current supply chain stresses on Americas meat supply. The main cause for concern surrounding the nations food supply stems from the impact of the new coronavirus, which has impacted activities like meat production and distribution. Fact check: Cattle farmers are paid less, consumers pay more amid beef shortage Bill Gates, the meat industry and "clean meat" products The past few years have seen significant interest and investment in alternative meat products. This trend is largely driven by growing concerns over the environmental and health costs of meat production and consumption. Gates has been a prominent supporter of lab-grown and alternative meat initiatives, known in the industry as "clean meat." In the past decade, he has invested in alternative meat companies such as Hampton Creek and Beyond Meat, citing the potential the companies have to help manage concerns about the global food supply in the coming decades. The Beyond Burger is one of the popular alternatives to beef patties. Raising meat takes a great deal of land and water and has a substantial environmental impact. Put simply, theres no way to produce enough meat for 9 billion people, Gates wrote on his blog in 2013. Yet we cant ask everyone to become vegetarians. Story continues "Thats why we need more options for producing meat without depleting our resources." Gates, who is famously a fan of McDonalds burgers, joins a cadre of elite investors and major meat companies in their support of lab-grown meat, which some hope will ultimately prove to be a sustainable replacement for meat products. In 2018, Tyson Foods, the largest meat producer in the country, began investing in Memphis Meats, a California-based lab-growing meat firm. More: Cheap chicken, beef came at a cost. How American meat plants bred coronavirus hot spots. Were excited about this opportunity to broaden our exposure to innovative, new ways of producing meat, especially since global protein demand has been increasing at a steady rate, said Justin Whitmore, an executive vice president at the firm, said in January 2018. "The foundation is not currently invested in projects or companies in the alternative meat industry," the Gates Foundation said in a statement to USA TODAY. While Gates and Tyson Foods have backed some of the same alternative meat companies, they have never coordinated investments on the matter. Neither is responsible for the current stresses facing the countrys meat supply chain, which are attributable to the COVID-19 crisis. Tyson Foods declined to comment for this article. Fact check:Bill Gates is not planning to microchip the world through a COVID-19 vaccine The meat supply and COVID-19 Like many companies that supply critical consumer products amid the coronavirus pandemic, Tyson Foods has seen its supply chain severely strained because of the disease. The companys meat processing plants have become hot spots for the spread of coronavirus in recent months. More: Despite new coronavirus outbreaks at its Iowa plants, Tyson Foods resumes attendance policy The threat has caused some workers to protest for higher compensation and better working conditions. Meat processing giants have addressed some demands and also sought liability protection from lawmakers. Tyson and its competitors have taken some steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus in their facilities but have experienced significant outbreaks in several plants. The phenomenon is not unique to the company; slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants across the globe have become sites for coronavirus outbreaks recently. "The food supply chain is breaking," John Tyson, the company's chairman and heir to the family fortune, wrote in a full-page advertisement published in The New York Times, Washington Post and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in late April. Fact check: What's true and what's false about coronavirus? "In addition to meat shortages, this is a serious food waste issue. Farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed, when they could have fed the nation.' Due to the stress of these outbreaks, many sites were forced to shut down operations amid the coronavirus pandemic and institute changes. Tyson Foods increased personal protective equipment for workers, added barriers and encouraged some social distancing at its sites. In late April, President Donald Trump designated meat processors as critical infrastructure, allowing many companies to send employees back to work. The Department of Labor also issued a statement minimizing liability for meat companies who take basic precautions amid the pandemic. A USA TODAY investigation found that despite these protections, coronavirus cases at meatpacking plants have increased since many sites resumed production. According to the CDC, the main reasons why slaughterhouses have become hot spots for the disease is the proximity of workers in the plants and average shifts of 10-12 hours, increasing the potential for exposure. In 2019, Tyson Foods reported $42 billion in revenue with over 121,000 total employees. Nearly all that revenue came from traditional meat products, especially beef, pork and chicken. Then, the company expected modest growth in production of each of these meat products, which would be accounted for through increasing meat production around its global sites, not through lab-grown or plant-based alternative products. While Tyson Foods and some of its competitors have invested in clean meat products and companies recently, growth in these products is a long way from upending the industrys financial dependence on traditional meat products for revenue. Many of these issues predated the coronavirus pandemic; the meat industry is not intentionally sabotaging itself with these factors in favor of alternative meat. Rather, many of the common practices in the industry have made meat and poultry production especially vulnerable to disruption from the coronavirus pandemic. Our ruling: False It is true that Bill Gates and Tyson Foods have invested in clean meat products in recent years. That said, there is no evidence that either has coordinated with the other on these efforts. It is also baseless to claim that the meat industry is raising alarms about the national meat supply chain to promote alternative meats. Rather, the supply chain is facing a crisis, and meat producers are concerned about the well-being of their businesses. We rate this claim as FALSE because it is not supported by our research. Our fact-check sources: Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Bill Gates, Tyson Foods not pushing meat industry collapse She has been isolating at her Los Angeles home with her kids Luca, eight, Banks, one, and husband Matthew Koma, amid the coronavirus pandemic. And Hilary Duff offered a humble brag to her 15.2 million Instagram followers on Tuesday as she showed off her tidy and chic living room. In the photo, a pink fort for her kids was set up in the corner, as she joked that it is 'what quarantine has done to my living room.' Tidy: Hilary Duff offered a humble brag to her 15.2 million Instagram followers on Tuesday as she showed off her tidy and chic living room The 32-year-old actress shared a photo of her living room, that featured a light wood mid-century coffee table and a plush grey couch. Her table was clear with only a magazine, large book and candle resting on it. White curtains, hung on black rods that matched a tall black bookshelf and art. The pink tent fort was glowing with lights as it seems to have become a play area for her young children. Effects of quarantine: 'This is what quarantine has done to my living room,' she wrote over the photo. 'And this is a good day' (pictured in 2019) Play space: The pink tent fort was glowing with lights as it seems to have become a play area for her young children, she shares son Luca, eight, with ex-husband Mike Comrie and daughter Banks, one, with husband Matthew Koma 'This is what quarantine has done to my living room,' she wrote over the photo. 'And this is a good day.' Last month it was announced the Lizzie McGuire star would be getting a spin-off of her very own. Her TV Land show Younger will be returning for a seventh season, but the spin-off would focus on her book editor character Kelsey Peters. The comedy spin-off is in early development, and an episode has yet to be filmed or scripted, according to The Hollywood Reporter. As of now, it's uncertain if the show would air as planted episode of the upcoming season of Younger. New chapter: Younger will be returning for a seventh season, but now there is a new spin-off in the works focusing on ambitious book editor Kelsey Peters The show, which will be a collaboration between Younger creator Darren Star and Viacom CBS, could potentially air on Paramount Network, where Younger was once set to move to, or another network. Hilary has played millennial book editor Kelsey on Younger since 2015. The show stars Sutton Foster as a 40-year-old single mother who pretends to be a 26-year-old in order to score a job at a publishing house. She befriends her ambitious coworker, Kelsey, who becomes a prominent part of the series. Accomplished: Hilary has played millennial book editor Kelsey on Younger since 2015 The TV Land show has been a ratings hit, and has been renewed for a seventh season. This is not the first time Hilary would be reprising a beloved role. Hilary had begun filming a Lizzie McGuire reboot for Disney+, and the series was set to follow her 30-year-old character living and working in New York City. However, the show was put on hold after series creator and showrunner Terri Minsky stepped down from her role. Hilary slammed Disney last month as she fought against a PG rating for the series, explaining the show needed to illustrate the realities of her older character. Fiction: The show stars Sutton Foster as a 40-year-old single mother who pretends to be a 26-year-old in order to score a job at a publishing house However, progress appears to be made after the show's writers were seen having a Zoom call last month. Terri, surprisingly, was pictured in the call. Hilary told People last month: 'There's still conversations going on in hopes that we can find a way to meet in the middle and both bend a little bit. 'I understand that they have to protect their brand and there's pretty strict guidelines on what that looks like.' 'I just have to make sure it's the right move for me and that I feel like I'm honoring her and the character, and that it will be relatable to the people who grew up with her because those are the people I really want to speak to.' Watch Younger on TV Land or on Stan in Australia. Area animal shelters showered with funds in memory of Betty White The online fundraiser challenged fans of actress Betty White to donate to a local animal rescue or shelter in honor of her Jan. 17 birthday. File photo of Indra Nooyi during a set-up shoot with ICC T20 World Cup at Sydney Cricket Ground on June 18, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. Indra Nooyi and Victor Menezes have been elected to the MIT Board of Trustees. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) All heads of Delhi government hospitals, deputy commissioners of municipal corporations and DCPs of city police will now work under the command of district magistrates to effectively deal with the COVID-19 situation in the national capital. Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, who is also chairperson of the state executive committee of Delhi Disaster Management Authority, has empowered all district magistrates (DMs) to have overall command in their respective districts and different authorities will have to implement their orders. The move comes after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with Lt Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday to discuss the strategy to tackle the surging coronavirus cases. According to an order issued by Dev, all DMs will work as administrative heads for management and supervision of all activities related to COVID-19. "There shall be unified command and control in the district and therefore, all the DCPs of Delhi Police, deputy commissioners of municipal corporations, all district heads of other departments and heads of all government hospitals of GNCT of Delhi shall report to the respective district magistrate and shall function under their command, control and supervision for management of COVID-19 pandemic," the order stated. It also said that the performance of all district level officers, including DCPs and DCs of municipal corporations, will be assessed by the respective district magistrate. "The district magistrate is responsible for overall management of COVID-19 pandemic... and shall implement all the guidelines, SOPs, orders and directions of DDMA, Ministry of Home Affairs and National Disaster Management Authority," it added. The chief secretary said all the departments of Delhi government, autonomous bodies, local bodies and Delhi Police will ensure strict compliance of this order. On Tuesday, the death toll from COVID-19 in the national capital surged to 1,837, while 1,859 fresh coronavirus cases took the tally in the city to over 44,000-mark. Also read: India-China border row: Traders' body CAIT releases list of 500 Chinese items to be boycotted Construction of California's high-speed rail project in Fresno, Calif., in 2018. (Los Angeles Times) Infrastructure mega-projects that run wildly over budget and far past their deadline for completion all tend to suffer from the same fundamental problem: optimism bias. Thats the tendency to underestimate the challenges in building huge, complex public works and to overestimate the benefits those projects will deliver. Californias struggle to build the bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco is a classic case of optimism bias. From the beginning, its proponents vastly oversimplified the complexity of the project and underestimated the expense. That is why the once $33-billion project is now estimated to cost $80 billion or more to complete. With each update, the project is slated to cost more and deliver less than voters were promised in 2008. But its not too late to consider alternatives that might help keep high speed rail on track. Last week, lawmakers took the strongest action to date to try to pause or even reset the project. The Assembly passed a resolution demanding that the High Speed Rail Authority not award key contracts to build the Central Valley segment of the system, which would use up the remaining $4.2 billion in voter-approved bonds for the project, until the Legislature approves the funding for them. Assembly leaders argue this is their last chance to weigh in on the direction of the bullet train. Theyre right to worry. The authority which is a state agency responsible for building the train system is getting ready to award the largest contract in its history to install 171 miles of track and the accompanying electrical system, plus a 30-year maintenance agreement. It plans to ask the Legislature for the funding afterwards. Signing the contract would make it nearly impossible for lawmakers to consider alternative ways to build the bullet train. Among those alternatives is a proposal supported by Southern California lawmakers to delay installing the electrical system in the Central Valley and instead run diesel trains on the new tracks. They would use the temporary savings to invest in commuter rail lines elsewhere in California, which could increase ridership and enthusiasm for routes that will eventually become part of the high-speed rail system. Story continues One problem with this proposal is that it's little more than an idea. No one has put forth an actual plan. Theres no study on how improving commuter rail first would affect ridership. There's been no examination of the proposal's potential effect on greenhouse gas emissions, although it seems clear that delaying electrified rail in the Central Valley would be a disappointing backslide on Californias ambitious climate goals. Nor is there a legal analysis on whether the state can reorder construction priorities and shift money from the Central Valley without violating the requirements of the federal grants or Proposition 1A, the 2008 voter-approved bond measure. As of now, the rail authority and the Newsom administration show no interest in studying the alternatives. Theyre plowing ahead with the current plan to spend the states remaining money to run fast electric trains from Bakersfield to Merced as a proving ground for the larger project and as fulfillment of their promise to the Central Valley. They argue that changing course could violate the requirements of federal grants and embolden the Trump administration to try to claw back the money, which is a legitimate fear. Still, the legislative analyst and a panel of experts overseeing the project have raised concerns that the authority is, again, using optimistic assumptions about the costs and complexities of the current plan. They warn that the project may need more money just to finish this first segment, which may not serve as many riders as the authority predicts. Plus, nobody knows yet how the state will come up with the money to build the rest of line from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Weve said repeatedly that abandoning high-speed rail would be a tragic mistake for California, for the U.S. and for the planet. But its also apparent that the project is at risk of collapsing under the weight of unrealistic promises and expectations. This is the right moment for state leaders to pause and consider what the best way forward is for this ambitious project, which is supposed to be the backbone of a fast, clean mass-transportation system connecting urban centers across the state. The question isnt whether the bullet train should be built, but rather how to get it built. The business community is buzzing in The Woodlands, with restaurants and other shops reopened and expanding capacity per state orders. There have also been some closures and other news going on; here is a quick, newsy round-up of local business tidbits. Corporate officials with 24 Hour Fitness have announced the pending closure of the West Woodlands location, at 10860 Kuykendahl Road The Woodlands. The closure is one of dozens across Texas and the United States. In the Houston-area, 12 of the popular fitness chains health clubs will close. Members of shuttered locations are being asked to switch to a remaining location that is open. On HoustonChronicle.com: 24 Hour Fitness closes 12 Houston-area locations A second 24 Hour Fitness location in The Woodlands, at 800 Lake Woodlands Drive, will remain open. Any members of the Kuykendahl location can telephone the Town Center gym with questions on how to switch membership. The news comes after 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc. filed for bankruptcy, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Parent company San Ramon, unable to keep up with debt payments amid the coronavirus pandemic, will permanently close about 130 gyms nationwide. If it were not for COVID-19 and its devastating effects, we would not be filing for Chapter 11, CEO Tony Ueber said in a statement. With that said, we intend to use the process to strengthen the future of 24 Hour Fitness for our team and club members, as well as our stakeholders. Berryhill in Market Street closes The Berryhill Baja Grill and Cantina in the Market Street shopping center has announced its closure. Noemi Gonzalez, marketing director for Marker Street, confirmed Berryhills closure and said staff are working to find a new tenant for the space at 9595 Six Pines Drive. In regards to Berryhill, they are permanently closed per the tenants decision and as of right now, that is the only (closure) we are aware of (in Market Street), Gonzalez said. In regard to new stores, we are excited to announce that Tommy Bahama HOME will be opening up later this year. Gonzalez did not know the opening date for Tommy Bahama HOME, however shoppers can watch the Market Street website and social media sites for updates. Village Books opening still on hold The opening of The Woodlands newest bookstore, Village Books, is still on hold due to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus impacts. Related: New independent bookstore planned for The Woodlands Owner and founder Teresa Kenney said she is still selling books online and has plans to open the location soon. No new updates but we are going to open. We are operating online for right now and waiting on a few details before I can give a definite open date, Kenney said in an email. We are doing an online book club and I hope to be at the farmers market prior to opening to introduce the store to the community. The new 1,400-square foot independent bookstore will be located in the Marcel Crossing shopping center in Sterling Ridge. Nestled in a cozy space at 8000 McBeth Way in the shopping center, the store will stock only new books, not used, and will serve free coffee and tea to customers. Kenney has hosted several writing contests for area residents during the pandemic shut-downs. Safe Harbor gets donation from Woodforest foundation Officials with the Childrens Safe Harbor announced in a press release the organuization had received a $50,000 donation from Woodforest Charitable Foundation. The funds, the release stated, will. help children and families who are experiencing trauma from abuse that is further impacted by the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the release, th donations will assist Safe Harbor funding that will aid the implementation of new tele-mental health capabilities and services. Due to CDC recommendations, officials are purchasing laptop computers and mobile forensic equipment so staff can work remotely. Other purchases are for new therapy materials, including art supplies and workbooks aimed at children who are processing trauma or abuse. jeff.forward@chron.com Gary Coronado/TNS Mass protests and supportive polls have provided welcome evidence of a shift in public opinion toward making American law enforcement more impartial and restrained. For another striking sign, consider the unusual suspects rolling out police reform plans in recent days: police unions, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and President Trump. Last year, back before police reform was cool, Becerra was a bulwark against law enforcement accountability, bottling up officer misconduct records in defiance of landmark legislation by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. On Monday, however, Californias top cop said he wants to go after wayward police, calling for legislation to give the state power to banish them from the profession, among other measures. The New York City panel that sets rents for the roughly 2.3 million residents of rent-regulated apartments on Wednesday froze those rents for a year, delivering a slight reprieve to tenants struggling in the worst economy in decades. By a 6-to-3 vote, the panel, the Rent Guidelines Board, approved a measure that froze rents on one-year leases at their current levels and imposed a similar freeze in the first year of two-year leases, while allowing landlords to raise rents 1 percent in the second year. The vote came after dueling proposals offered by the boards tenant and landlord members failed. The tenant proposal would have frozen rents for two years, while the landlord members sought to raise rents 2 percent on one-year leases and 5 percent on two-year leases. The boards annual vote typically caps weeks of hostility and fierce tensions between landlords and tenants. But this year, with the coronavirus pandemic triggering an economic collapse and nationwide protests over racial inequality and injustice, the acrimony reached a fever pitch. 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) - Iamgold Corp. (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG) has suspended operations at its Rosebel Gold Mine in Suriname in a dispute with the union over COVID-19 protocol, the company announced late Tuesday. The company said seven personnel at the mine have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the first time positive cases that have been reported at Rosebel. The individuals have been quarantined and are receiving medical care, while disinfection of their living quarters and work areas, along with contact tracing, are occurring, Iamgold said. Iamgold said it has undertaken a number of safety and health measures, including social distancing, sanitation, a reduction of the on-site workforce to essential services only and additional buses and medical personnel. Nevertheless, the union has used one of the measures as a basis for a work stoppage, Iamgold said. As a result, we are suspending operations until the appropriate controls are in place to protect the safety of all employees, Iamgold said in a prepared statement. The company added that management is actively taking steps to resolve the situation. Iamgolds website shows that the mine was expected to produce between 245,000 and 265,000 ounces of gold this year. Allianz Real Estate, on behalf of several Allianz group companies, has acquired a prime office asset in the central business district of Rome for circa 200 million from Omega Fund, a closed-end real estate fund managed by DeA Capital Real Estate SGR. The deal is expected to close this summer [] Black pastor arrested after calling 911 on white trespassers threatening to kill him Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A black Virginia pastor, who said he was forced to brandish his gun to scare off five white individuals who allegedly verbally and physically attacked him when he tried to prevent them from dumping on his property, said he was arrested after he called 911 for help on June 1. Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy Carter has apologized to pastor Leon McCray of Lighthouse Church and Marketplace Ministries International in Woodstock. The sheriff announced that five people involved in the attack were arrested and that two department supervisors have been placed on unpaid administrative leave until a review is completed. Very traumatic experience. I dont know if you have ever been through anything like that. I never have. Very trying, McCray said in a sermon broadcast on Facebook Live. McCray explained that on June 1, he saw two people trying to dump a refrigerator on his property in Edinburg and told them to stop. One person, he said, verbally attacked him and the other one went to retrieve three other people. I informed these individuals that they were trespassing and that they couldnt dump their refrigerator on my property, and I asked them to leave. They became irate and verbally attacked me, the pastor said. Shortly after, he said three men and two women attacked him. At the same time, these same individuals were threatening my life, telling me that my black life, and black lives matter stuff did not sit well in the town, he explained. Being threatened and being in fear for my life, I took and felt compelled to pull my concealed weapon legal concealed weapon to save my life. And when I did that, finally, these individuals backed up long enough for me to call 911. McCray said that when he called 911, instead of asking how he was doing, the person on the phone only wanted to know about the person with the gun. McCray explained that he needed help. About 10 police officers arrived on the scene. However, McCray said the officers took his gun and immediately went over to the mob that had trespassed on his property. They went and talked to them. They were still hollering racial epithets. They were still threatening my life. They were still telling me what they were going to do to me. What did the sheriff do? McCray asked. I was really never given the opportunity to tell what was going on. After the police spoke with the trespassers, McCray said that they returned and told him they had to arrest him for brandishing a firearm. The pastor said he asked the arresting officer, who he has known for almost 20 years, what would happen to the trespassing and assault charges against the trespassers. McCray said he was handcuffed in front of his attackers and arrested. When McCray was released from custody later on the night of June 1, he submitted a written statement. Two days later on June 3, McCray sat down with Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy Carter to discuss what happened. In his statement released last Friday, Carter said that if he were faced with similar circumstances, he would have probably done the same thing. Carter initiated an immediate review of McCrays charge. On Wednesday, the sheriffs office dropped the charge against McCray. "[A]fter talking with him about the incident, it was apparent to me that the charge of brandishing was certainly not appropriate," Carter wrote in the statement. Lastly, I have apologized to Mr. McCray, and I appreciate his patience as I have worked through these matters, Carter continued. I do listen to citizen complaints and I take them seriously. According to The Northern Virginia Daily, McCray said last Thursday that he was waiting on the commonwealth attorneys office to review the charge and send him confirmation in writing. Carter said that he met twice with the Shenandoah commonwealths attorney and assured that she agreed with his assessment of the brandishing charge and that she would drop this charge. Last Thursday night, five people involved in the attack on the preacher were arrested on charges of assault by a mob and hate crime assault. Four of the five were also charged with felony abduction, Carter said. Forty-three-year-old Donny Richard Salyers, 42-year-old Farrah Lee Salyers, 26-year-old Dennis James Salyers and 57-year-old Christopher Kevin Sharp were charged on one count of a simple assault hate crime, one count of assault by mob and one count of abduction. Twenty-six-year-old Amanda Dawn Salyers was charged with assault by a mob and hate crime assault. All five are being held without bond on hate crime charges. The initial court date is scheduled for July 17. Premier Daniel Andrews says his order for a full review of the Victorian Labor Party in light of revelations over branch stacking will return the party to the "true believers". On Tuesday the Labor Party's national executive unanimously approved Mr Andrews' request to conduct a wide-ranging review into branch stacking, suspend all state and federal preselections for the next three years and suspend the voting rights of every member. Daniel Andrews spoke to reporters about the full review into the Victorian Labor Party on Wednesday morning. Credit:Getty Images The Premier fronted the media on Wednesday morning and made a promise to Labor's "true believers" that "I am going to make sure that your voice is louder than it has ever been". "Rather than having some sort of review that might convince a few people that we are serious about this, but ultimately not lead to the profound reform we need, I have gone a different way. The clash between Indian and Chinese troops in which both sides suffered casualties on Monday began at around 7 pm in the Galwan Valley when an Indian Army squad of about 50 soldiers, led by Colonel Santosh Babu, reached a contested site near what is known as Patrol Point 14, people familiar with the developments said on Wednesday. The soldiers were unarmed, as part of a protocol between the two sides. Forward troops patrolling the disputed border either do not carry guns, or, if they do, keep them slung on their backs with the magazines in pouches and not clipped on. Also read: LAC holds no sanctity for Chinese army, says General Ved Prakash Malik The Chinese soldiers were supposed to have withdrawn from the location under a de-escalation plan discussed by senior commanders from both sides on June 6. But the Indian squad found the Chinese troops, in violation of that understanding, did not pull back and their tents and an observation post was still around, said one of the persons cited above. It was when Colonel Babu and his team confronted the Chinese soldiers about their continued presence at the site that the clash broke out, this official said, adding that the situation swiftly escalated as the Chinese soldiers refused to vacate their positions and the Indian soldiers removed the tents and the observation post that were on the Indian side of the LAC. Also Watch | The General who first saw through Chinas intentions in Ladakh Also read: Satellite images show build-up at Galwan Valley where clashes killed 20 Indian soldiers In a matter of minutes, the soldiers were locked in hand-to-hand fighting that triggered a seven-hour violent face-off involving reinforcements from both sides. The clashes spread out from the Patrol point 14 area to a nearby narrow ridge overlooking the river. It was here that both sides suffered casualties, second of the three officials HT spoke to, said. The soldiers exchanged blows, threw stones at each other, and the Chinese troops attacked Indian soldiers with iron rods and nail-studded clubs, as reported by HT on Wednesday. Some soldiers, from both sides, fell into the water and their bodies were later retrieved on Tuesday morning. The external affairs ministry corroborated this sequence of events on Wednesday when it detailed a conversation between foreign minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. In a phone call, Jaishankar told Yi that the Chinese soldiers actions reflected an intent to change the facts on the ground in violation of all our agreements to not change the status quo. Jaishankar, in his call, underscored the need to implement the June 6 understanding reached by the military officials of both sides as part of a phased de-escalation strategy to ease tensions that had persisted for weeks. The plan was discussed between Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, commander of Leh-based 14 Corps, and Major General Liu Lin, commander of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in the South Xinjiang region. According to it, the Chinese side was supposed to have fallen back around 5km to the east of the location, said the third official. They retreated a bit last week but came back to retake the positions they had temporarily vacated, this person said. On Monday, the Chinese deployment had numerical superiority over the Indian side --- more than 250 of them were present in the area when the Indian squad, despite being fewer in numbers, demanded the PLA remove the structures and withdraw in order to return to status quo, these officials added. The Chinese were, however, adamant on holding their ground. They seemed prepared for a face-off, said the second of three officials who was aware of the confrontation, asking not to be named. In the first wave of clashes on Monday night, Babu and two other soldiers were grievously hurt and succumbed to their injuries. Reinforcements arrived from the Indian side within an hour and the brawl spilled over to beyond midnight, the third person said, adding that the face-off involved more than 500 soldiers from both sides. The clash took place in pitch-dark conditions and resulted in 20 deaths on the Indian side, and possibly 40-45 casualties including injuries on the Chinese side, pushing the bilateral relationship between the two nuclear powers to an all-time low. They were the first Indian casualties in a border skirmish with the Peoples Liberation Army since October 1975 when Chinese troops ambushed an Indian patrol in Arunachal Pradeshs Tulung La sector and shot four soldiers dead. The deadly confrontation came on a day when army delegations from India and China held talks at two locations along the LAC --- one involving brigadier-ranked officers who met at the Galwan Valley, and the other between Colonel-ranked officers at Hot Springs --- as part of continuing efforts to resolve the standoff. The army acknowledged three casualties in a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon. It later issued another statement in the evening saying, 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total killed in action to 20. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A white Mississippi official claimed that African Americans have been dependent since slavery, following a meeting where a proposal to take down a Confederate statue was rejected. Harry Sanders, who is a Lowndes County supervisor, made the offensive comments during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday. The board were discussing the possible removal of a Confederate statue on the lawn of the county courthouse in Columbus, that has stood there since 1912. According to the Associated Press, the monument is of a Confederate soldier, and includes a plaque that says the South fought for a noble cause. During the discussion, Mr Sanders said that removing the statue would be erasing history. Recommended Statue of Confederate president removed from Kentucky capitol We need to be reminded of some atrocity that happened, Mr Sanders told the meeting. If we are not reminded about it, we are going to have a tendency to forget it and (the history) is going to repeat itself. The board voted against taking the statue down, after two black supervisors voted to relocate it, and three white supervisors voted for it to stay. There has been increased focus on Confederate monuments and symbols in the US, following protests, across the country, in opposition to police brutality against African Americans. Protests started, following the death of George Floyd, who died after his neck was knelt on by Derek Chauvin, who at the time was a Minneapolis police officer, but has since been charged with second degree murder and manslaughter. Monuments to Confederate officials have been removed in numerous states in the US in the past couple of weeks, and House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has called for 11 monuments to be removed from the US Capitol. Recommended Petition launched to replace Confederate statues with Dolly Parton After the meeting, Mr Sanders, who is a Republican, claimed that other groups of people that have been oppressed, managed to more easily assimilate to life in the US, according to the Commercial Dispatch. He claimed that unlike, Japanese or Polish immigrants, African Americans have struggled in the US, because they became dependent during slavery, and have remained that way ever since. The only ones that are having the problems: Guess who? The African Americans, Mr Sanders claimed. You know why? In my opinion, they were slaves. And because of that, they didnt have to go out and earn any money, they didnt have to do anything. Whoever owned them took care of them, fed them, clothed them, worked them. They became dependent, and that dependency is still there. The Democrats right here who depend on the black vote to get elected, they make them dependent on them, the official added. Democratic congressman Kabir Karriem, who is from Columbus, condemned Mr Sanders comments, and told the AP that Its really unforgivable how outlandish they were, knowing that he has black people in his district. Mr Karriem added: His revisionist history is not accurate at all. Our ancestors didnt want to be slaves. Lowndes Countys population is 53 per cent white and 45 per cent black, and both white and black residents asked for the statue to be removed, according to the outlet. Democrat Leroy Brooks, who was one of the two black supervisors to vote for the removal of the monument, said that residents were calling for the monument to be relocated, not destroyed. We are not saying tear it down, Mr Brooks said. We are saying relocate it, so when people come to the courthouse and they look at it from a certain angle, they dont see something that looks like a Ku Klux Klan. The district-level scholarship interview sessions have begun simultaneously across the country to select qualified tertiary students in both public and private institutions to be awarded scholarships for the 2020/2021 academic year. In all, about 75,000 students, who applied online for the scholarship and underwent an online aptitude test, are being interviewed at their preferred Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country. A panel of seven members comprising a representative each of the District Chief Executive, a Chief, a tertiary institution, District Directorate of Education, the Member of Parliament of the area, and two persons from the Scholarship Secretariat, is undertaking the week-long exercise at all the MMDAs. The interview panel would grill the applicants in four thematic areas, which include motivation and comprehension, current affairs, aptitude test, and prior learning, and score them using an online platform to ensure transparency. The government has allocated an amount of GH80,000,000.00 to cater for the tuition fees or academic user facility fees of all those to be selected for the scholarship for the 2020/2021 academic years, which covered certificate cases, diplomas, undergraduate, and graduate programmes. Mr Kingsley Agyemang, Registrar at the Scholarship Secretariat, who briefed journalists at the start of the interview sessions for the applicants in Tamale on Monday, said it was the third phase of the local tertiary scholarship decentralisation initiative introduced by the government to ensure affordability, whilst increasing access to tertiary education. At the Tamale Metropolis, about 600 applicants would be interviewed during the period of the exercise. Mr Agyemang said this was a novelty, adding, It has never been introduced for almost the 60 years of the existence of the Scholarship Secretariat. This is to make sure that more people have access to tertiary education. Now people in Tamale Metropolis do not need to travel to Accra. The scholarship has been brought to their doorsteps. He explained that for the 2021/2022 academic year, a new set of students would apply to be selected for the scholarship, adding that any of those applicants to be selected for the 2020/2021 academic year, who would still want the scholarship in subsequent years, would have to go through a renewal process where they would be assessed based on their performance during the previous academic year. He said the method is used to select the beneficiaries was transparent to ensure that those, who merit the awards, were selected to benefit from it. Miss Mohammed Samsiya, a level 300 midwifery student of the University for Development Studies, who went through the interview, said the scholarship would help reduce the financial burden that she encounters at school. 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 [June 17, 2020] HerdX And UPS Deliver Blockchain Verified Beef BOERNE, Texas, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, June 9th HerdX and UPS showcased a blockchain tracked and verified beef shipment. The shipment started at Dean and Peeler Premium Beef in South Texas and shipped via UPS to an event held at The Richter Tavern in Boerne, Texas. Romaine Seguin, UPS President Global Freight Forwarding, and Jeff McCorstin, UPS President Global Customs Brokerage & North America Supply Chain Solutions, attended on behalf of UPS. McCorstin said, "Seeing the integration of the domestic UPS shipment with HerdX's blockchain technology in action, here in a local Texas restaurant, puts in perspective th need for this solution in supply chains across the globe. With sustainability and food safety as important differentiators, this is the future companies will choose in their supply chains." Others in attendance also included Former United States Representative Lamar Smith, State Representative Kyle Biedermann, and Amy Story, President and CEO of the Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Council. "It is so exciting to see a company with the global impact of HerdX headquartered in Boerne, Texas," Story said. "Their commitment to promoting technology and opportunities for quality jobs in rural communities make HerdX a unique example of the possibilities that exist in rural America. HerdX's ability to provide better livestock management for the ranchers and transparency and trust for the consumers creates a level of trust and information that can be utilized around the world. Story continued, "The event held at Richter Tavern allowed them to showcase their innovation with a fabulous dinner that demonstrated the beauty of the service they provide. We couldn't be more excited to watch HerdX's impact on the global food industry." HerdX supports Story's mission to bring economic growth and sustainability to Kendall County. Guy Sanders, Owner of the Richter Tavern said, "I am delighted that Richter can showcase HerdX blockchain meats as part of our efforts to supply customers with fresh, safe, and delicious foods. Hosting the HerdX group was a lot of fun for my team and we look forward to growing our relationship together, Sanders said." About HerdX HerdX, an agri-tech and data company, created the first end-to-end solution from farm to table for beef and lamb products. Starting at the farm, the HerdViewTM system tracks animal movement providing insights and herd management tools for farmers. A select piece of that data is uploaded to blockchain and travels through the entire supply chain where then the meat is presented to the customer at a restaurant or grocery store. The customer is able to scan a QR code on the menu to view verified health and provenance data of the meat they are eating. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/herdx-and-ups-deliver-blockchain-verified-beef-301078505.html SOURCE HerdX Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address the nation on Sunday, June 21, which is also celebrated as International Yoga Day. State-broadcaster Prasar Bharti said that the address will be telecast live at 6:30 am. While the central and state governments have celebrated the day with mass participation events for the last five years, this year the day falls right in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic which has pushed much of the world indoors. Earlier the PMs address was scheduled at Leh, as per the plans made before the pandemic outbreak, but now he will address the country from the national capital itself. Leh is in the Ladakh region that saw one of the bloodiest face-offs between India and China this week resulting in multiple casualties on both sides. While he will talk about the importance of Yoga in today's life, it is not yet clear whether he will touch upon the India-China face-off. Last year, PM Modi led a grand event on the occasion of International Day of Yoga from Ranchi. This year the event was scheduled at Leh but the plans were changed due to the pandemic outbreak across the globe. With the news of the India-China face-off that saw 20 Indian soldiers being martyred and an all party meeting being convened by the PM on June 19 on the incident, all eyes will be on the Yoga Day broadcast to see whether the Prime Minister chooses to take up the issue directly. Chennai, June 17 : A senior official B.J. Damodharan working in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami's office died on Wednesday due to COVID-19. Damodharan working as Private Secretary in Palaniswami's office tested positive for coronavirus and was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital here for treatment. However, he succumbed to the infection on Wednesday. Condoling the death, Palaniswami expressed his grief to the bereaved family. Palaniswami also said a government job will be given to a family member of Damadharan. The DMK President M. K.Stalin while condoling Damodharan's death said the government should ensure the safety of its officials across the state. - New data released by the Health Information System survey showed teen pregnancies due to COVID-19-related restrictions topped the list - Among them was the closure of schools as directed by the government to avert a catastrophic spread of the viral disease - Masinga sub-county was leading followed by Athi River while Kalama had the least number of reported pregnancies - Children's officer noted most of these cases were as a result of defilement by close family members Data released during the commemoration of the Day of the African Child by Kenya Health Information System survey has shown a sudden surge in teen pregnancies within Machakos county. Threatening to cut short the pursuit for education by vulnerable girls, the latest statistics showed over 3,900 school-going children were impregnated since mid-March 2020. READ ALSO: Kisumu man who overcame abject poverty to become dentist builds elderly mom new house the latest statistics showed over 3900 school-going children had been impregnated since mid-March 2020. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Muslim lady disqualified from beauty pageant audition for refusing to remove hijab The Daily Nation indicated the reported teen pregnancies due to COVID-19-related restrictions topped the list among them the closure of schools to avert a catastrophic spread of the virus. Machakos Childrens Officer Salome Muthama, who the statistics were picked from, said the cases were recorded in all county hospitals and that the number could be higher. During this coronavirus pandemic, we do have 4,000 impregnated girls. These are so many innocent girls, she said. READ ALSO: President John Magufuli orders Tanzanian schools to reopen on June 29 Salome noted most of these cases were as a result of defilement by close family members. Masinga sub-county was leading with the number of documented cases at 705 followed by Athi River at 568 while Kalama had the least number of reported pregnancies. Authorities partly blamed parents and an ineffective justice system for the crisis that has got the region talking. READ ALSO: Mombasa: 46 orphans in rescue centre appeal for food, clothing as COVID-19 effects bite Machakos Childrens Officer Salome Muthama said the cases recorded in all county hospitals and that the number could be higher. Photo: Capital FM. Source: UGC "Most of these cases you will find involve children who were taken from urban centres in the wake of COVID-19 and left in the hands of their grandmothers in the countryside as the parents returned to the towns," Muthama said. The children's officer called for concerted efforts to reverse the worrying trend. She said the unprecedented number of teenage pregnancies in the region portends a high school dropout rate and early marriages. READ ALSO: Force, discipline service, or thugs? Kenyans question high police brutality rates All the people who have impregnated these children should be arraigned but it is becoming a challenge. We need special court sittings to address and deal with these cases, Salome said. Machakos Senior Resident Magistrate Charles Ondieki who had attended the function said the biggest challenge in prosecuting the cases was a shortage of advocates handling the matters. Cases that involve children demand advocates but the problem now is to get them and as a magistrate, I am not allowed to go get them, said Ondieki. 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 In light of the tension between India and China, the Maharashtra government will seek advice from the Centre on the recently inked deals with Chinese manufacturing companies, state industries minister Subhash Desai said. He said the state would take the country first approach if the Centre decided to hold investment from Chinese companies. The state government inked 12 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on Monday, of which three were with Chinese companies, including Great Wall Motors, that would collectively bring in investment of 5,020 crore to Maharashtra. The Chinese automobile company, according to officials from the industries department, is expected to invest 3,770 crore in Talegaon, Pune. Besides, engineering firm Hengli has also signed a pact to invest 1,000 crore in Pune district, while PMI Electro Mobility Solutions, a joint venture with Foton China, is expected to invest 250 crore in Talegaon. If the Government of India takes any policy decision on not allowing Chinese investments, it would be applicable to us as well. Till now, there was no ban or an advisory stating that Chinese companies should not be allowed [to invest], so we went ahead [with the deals]. We will ask the Centre on how to go ahead. We will proceed as they say. The country comes first, everything else is secondary, Desai said. The deals were inked on June 15. It has come at a time when anti-China sentiments are high in the country in light of the stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh that killed 20 Indian soldiers. However, senior industries department officials point out there would not be any official stand to not allow Chinese investment. They, however, expect a delay in the launch of the projects. Public sentiment aside, the government functions on a policy. So far, there is no advisory (against Chinese investments) and it is unlikely that there will be one. We expect the MoUs to be honoured, only it might take some time for them to actually come in, if tensions continue, a senior official said, requesting anonymity. If Great Wall Motors come to the state, it would be the biggest Chinese investment in Maharashtra. The Maharashtra government has signed the MoU, but the Foreign Investment Promotion Board has to clear it for foreign investment to come in. The Central government cannot directly disallow investment due to the World Trade Organisation rules, however, it can do so indirectly through non-tariff barriers, including delaying clearances, etc, said Ram Bhogale, former president of Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture. Santosh Mandlecha, president of Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, said, Post Covid-19, Chinese companies are not welcome for investment in many countries, including Australia, US, etc. At a time when we are talking about Atmanirbhar Bharat, we can use the opportunity to build industries. Currently, India and China do a business of 7.5 lakh crore annually, which we cannot immediately shut and shift. We will require two years if we start today. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Actress Kristy Swanson has slammed Hollywood labor union SAG-AFTRA after it issued a 'do not work' order on her upcoming film with Scott Baio. The union accused the production of Courting Mom And Dad of failing to abide by COVID-19 protocols put in place by SAG-AFTRA and being in breach of LA County Health Orders. Swanson, 50, tweeted that the claims were 'utter nonsense' and denied the production, which was also accused of violating California regulations relating to minor performers, had done anything wrong. Tweeted denial: Actress Kristy Swanson has slammed Hollywood labor union SAG-AFTRA after it issued a 'do not work' order on her upcoming film with Scott Baio called Courting Mom And Dad 'We did everything SAG asked us to do for filming. SAG has been my Union for 40+ years. We always follow the rules. Period. What is going on?' Swanson tweeted in response to a user sharing images of the stop order. She then retweeted the original story posted by Deadline.com on Monday and wrote: 'If any of this is true, then it is protocol that SAG would personally contact me to discuss the matter.' 'I have scrolled through this past weeks calls, missed calls & voice mail messages, SAG has NOT contacted me to investigate. So, please explain your misleading fake headline.' Upset: Swanson, 50, tweeted that claims the production wasn't abiding by COVID-19 protocols were 'utter nonsense' and that the production company followed the rules Questions: The actress then retweeted the original story posted by Deadline.com on Monday and questioned its veracity, stating the labor union had not contacted her about the issue According to Deadline, the 'do not work' order was issued to Revenge Movies LLC, the production company behind the movie. The notice requires that all SAG-AFTRA members withhold any services and no longer accept any employment with the production. SAG-AFTRA did not elaborate on specifics about why it issued the do not work order. The independent film stars Swanson and Baio as a couple going through a divorce whose three children hire an eccentric personal injury lawyer to try and stop them going through with it, according to IMDb. The children are played by Baio's daughter Bailey, 12, and fellow child actors Everson White and Ryan Florida. On June 10, Baio, 59, tweeted a series of photos from the location set and also stated that 'All cast and crew got tested and cleared to work!'. In one of the snaps he shared, a medical technician in protective clothing and mask is seen performing some kind of test procedure on the actor's daughter who also has a medical face mask dangling from her wrist. 'Tested': On June 10, Swanson's co-star Scott Baio, 59, tweeted a series of photos from the location set and also stated that 'All cast and crew got tested and cleared to work!'. In one snap, he is seen with his daughter Bailey, 12, who is one of the child actors in the movie U.S. Rep. Susan Wild based her vote May 15 against a second coronavirus stimulus bill, the HEROES Act, on several factors: The $3 trillion package was crammed too full, it was being rushed through with too little time to digest it all and it was deemed DOA in the Senate. It also served as a preemptive strike against a political challenge that would come into focus less than three weeks later. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on phone, during which he discussed the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), among other things. The call was initiated by Trudeau and he was the first leader of a G-7 nation to discuss the confrontation with Chinese soldiers with the Indian Prime Minister. The Prime Ministers discussed regional and global issues of concern, including the situation along the Line of Actual Control, a readout issued by the Canadian PMO stated. Canada has also been on the receiving end of Chinese aggression since a senior Huawei executive was detained in Vancouver in 2018, leading to impositions of unofficial economic blockages by Beijing and the arbitrary arrest of two Canadians, including a former diplomat, with a third being sentenced to death by a Chinese court. Meanwhile, the Indian readout did not mention the section of the conversation relating to the situation along the LAC. Trudeaus call was among a series he made to leaders of various nations seeking support for Canadas candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, elections for which was due on Wednesday. He also contacted the leaders of Mexico, Spain, Ethiopia, Angola, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. While India is almost assured of being elected, Canada faces a stiff challenge from Ireland and Norway, as the three countries compete for two seats from the Western European and Others group. This may have been a last gasp effort by Trudeau to secure Indias backing even though New Delhi appears to be going by the reciprocal arrangement already arrived at with Ireland and Norway even before Canada entered the fray. Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was part of the conversation, as Trudeau highlighted the need for continued international coordination, including through multilateral institutions, to fight the pandemic and promote sustainable economic growth. The Indian statement said the leaders agreed that the two nations could be a force for good in the post-Covid world. PM Modi warmly appreciated the assistance provided by Canada in facilitating the repatriation of Indians stranded in the country, while Trudeau reciprocated as New Delhi helped in the process of brining Canadians back home from India. They also agreed that as large economies wedded to democratic values, India and Canada have a natural convergence on many global issues and looked forward to continuing to work together to strengthen the dynamic and mutually beneficial Canada-India relationship. Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain has tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. The minister underwent a Covid-19 test again today after a span of 24 hours of the first test. Mr. Jain was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital on Tuesday after he complained of high fever and difficulty in breathing. He was administered with a novel coronavirus test, which resulted in negative. However, the result of his second test conducted today has now resulted positive. NewsX sources confirm that AAP MLA Atishi Marlena has also tested positive for Covid-19. Earlier in the day, Atishi informed everyone on Twitter that she is doing okay and in currently in home isolation. She is fully equipped with fruit, vitamin C and oxymeter to monitor her oxygen levels. Thanks a lot for all the love and good wishes! Want to reassure everyone that Im doing OK. Am in Home Isolation since I got my test results. Fully equipped with fruit, Vit C and an oxymeter to monitor oxygen levels pic.twitter.com/1kCX4eN1EG Atishi (@AtishiAAP) June 17, 2020 Reports also suggest Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has tested positive for coronavirus but the official twitter handle of AAP party have shut down the speculations as mere rumours. The tweet read that few media reports say that Manish Sisodia has tested positive for Covid-19. However, the reports are not true as he has not tested positive. We have come across few media reports claiming that Delhi Hon'ble Dy. CM Shri @msisodia has been tested positive for Covid. We would like to inform you all that Shri Manish Sisodia has not been tested positive for Covid. Please don't fall for rumours. AAP (@AamAadmiParty) June 17, 2020 Before Satyendra Jain and Atishi Marlena, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had developed mild fever and sore throat. On being tested for Covid-19, he tested negative. Satyendra Jain had earlier claimed that Covid-19 community transmission has started in the capital. He said that AIIMS Director Dr. Randeep Guleria has accepted that there is community transmission of Covid-19 in Delhi. However, they are still waiting for the Centre to accept it. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain tests positive for #COVID19: Office of Delhi Health Minister pic.twitter.com/d27YmJpGpH ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 On Sunday, Satyendra Jain was present in Covid-19 review meeting held by Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday in New Delhi. Sharing the insights, the minister called their meeting with fruitful and stated that the Centre and Delhi government are resolved to work together in fight against coronavirus crisis. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App TORONTO, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YAMANA GOLD INC. (TSX: YRI; NYSE: AUY) (Yamana or the Company) has published its 2019 Material Issues Report, which provides a detailed overview of the Companys environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and economic contributions to the communities in which we operate. ESG is an imperative to sustainable operations, a requirement of profitability for Yamana, and morally and ethically the right thing to do. At Yamana, we integrate ESG into all aspects of our business and every decision that we make. This is fundamental to our way of doing business and critical to earning the trust and respect of our host community and government partners. Similar to previous years, our 2019 report presents our annual ESG performance metrics, with a focus on topics deemed to be material sustainability issues to our stakeholders, both at the corporate level and in the areas where we operate. In addition to this report, all aspects of sustainability are addressed in our GRI Index found on our website at www.yamana.com . About Yamana Yamana Gold Inc. is a Canadian-based precious metals producer with significant gold and silver production, development stage properties, exploration properties, and land positions throughout the Americas, including Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Yamana plans to continue to build on this base through expansion and optimization initiatives at existing operating mines, development of new mines, the advancement of its exploration properties and, at times, by targeting other consolidation opportunities with a primary focus in the Americas. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Investor Relations 416-815-0220 1-888-809-0925 Email: investor@yamana.com The restrictions are likely to be in effect until at least June 30. Flights from Ukraine (the city of Kyiv) to Poland scheduled for June 17 have been canceled since the latter has resumed international air travel only with the European Union member states and countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Read alsoUkraine's infrastructure minister explains non-resumption of flights to Poland, Italy "Poland has allowed international flights from airports located in the member states of the European Union and the European Free Trade Association, except for the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Portugal," the Ukrainian media outlet European Pravda said on June 17. According to a preliminary report, the restrictions will be in effect until at least June 30. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Ihor Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany) canceled all regular international passenger flights until 03:00 a.m. Kyiv time on June 17 over the extension of the coronavirus-related quarantine in the capital city. The Oppo Find X2 and the Oppo Find X2 Pro were launched in Europe back in March, so the specifications and features are already out. What remains to be seen is how Oppo plans to price these products in India. Oppo is all set to unveil one of its most anticipated, premium smartphones in India, the Find X2. The firm is also said to launch its more powerful version, the X2 Pro as well. The duo have already launched in Europe back in March, so the specifications and features are already out. What remains to be seen are the prices of these products. Oppo Find X2 unveiling will begin at 4PM IST today and will be livestreamed on YouTube and the companys Oppo Mobiles social media handles. Although there is no confirmation on the price, reports and rumours indicate it to be priced around 60,000. A leak has also suggested the device to cost 69,999. In addition to this, the handset might be exclusively available on Amazon India since the e-commerce giant has been teasing the launch as well. Oppo Find X2 specifications Oppo Find X2 and Find X2 Pro feature a 6.7-inch QHD+ OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and Gorilla Glass 6. Both phones are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 chipset and run ColorOS 7.1 based on Android 10.1 out-of-the-box. It is worth adding that Oppo Find X2 will also be the first to get Android 11 Beta 1. This was announced a week ago. On the Oppo Find X2, there's a triple camera setup with a 48-megapixel wide angle camera, 12-megapixel ultra wide angle lens and a 13-megapixel telephoto lens. For selfies, there's a 32-megapixel front camera on the Find X2 Pro as well. Oppo Find X2 Pro also has a triple camera setup with a 48-megapixel wide angle lens, a 48-megapixel ultra wide angle lens and a 13-megapixel periscope telephoto lens. The smartphone packs two 2,130mAh batteries with SuperVOOC 65W fast charging. Oppo Find X2 has two 2,100mAh batteries with SuperVOOC fast charging up to 65W as well. Both smartphones also feature an in-display fingerprint sensor. WASHINGTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) announced the first round of Grow with Google Small Business Fund loans and grants from Google.org. Five community development financial institutions (CDFIs) have received a total of $15.5 million in loans. These funds will be deployed to small businesses hurt by the economic impact of COVID-19 and civil unrest. In addition, OFN will distribute $750,000 in Google.org-funded grants to help six CDFIs better serve women and minority-owned small businesses. Today in a blog post, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company will provide OFN an additional $45 million in loans and $5 million in Google.org grants to assist small businesses, with a focus on Black-owned businesses. In total, Google has now committed $170 million in loans and $10 million in Google.org grants. CDFIs are lenders with a mission to serve small businesses underserved by mainstream finance and a proven model for moving capital into the hardest to serve communities. Launched in March, the Grow with Google Small Business Fund delivers financing to CDFIs that are supporting the short-term recovery and long-term financing needs of America's small businesses hardest hit by COVID-19. The $10 million in Google.org grants will enable OFN's member CDFIs to improve access to capital for the most marginalized communities. The unrestricted grants can support operations, loan capital, loan loss reserve, capacity building, or any other purpose. "CDFIs are America's best community lenders with 40 years of experience providing capital where mainstream finance can't or won't today, CDFIs are vital to ensuring a more even recovery for America's small businesses," said Lisa Mensah, president and CEO of OFN, a leading national network of CDFIs. "We applaud Google for stepping in to help bridge deep gaps in access to capital for minority and women-led small businesses. Google's significant investment and grant helps CDFIs to combat economic inequity during a national health and economic crisis that has been recently compounded by civil unrest." "The Grow with Google Small Business Fund and Google.org grants are some of the key investments that Google is making in the future of America's small businesses. Our economy requires that small businesses prosper," said Ruth Porat, CFO of Google. "The COVID crisis has created unprecedented challenges for many small businesses, and we are committed to assisting them. We're proud to have an outstanding partner in OFN to provide loans and grants to CDFIs who are on the front lines of the economic recovery effort." The CDFI awardees and grantees for the first round of awards are: Citizens Potawatomi Community Development Corporation (CPCDC) ( $1 million loan, $125,000 grant). One of the largest Native-owned CDFIs in the nation, CPCDC finances, promotes, educates, and inspires the entrepreneurial growth, economic opportunity, and financial well-being of the Citizen Potawatomi National Tribal Community and other underserved Native populations through financial education, access to capital, business development services, innovative capacity building practices, and community development initiatives. CPCDC's commercial and business borrowers are 96% Native owned businesses. ( loan, grant). One of the largest Native-owned CDFIs in the nation, CPCDC finances, promotes, educates, and inspires the entrepreneurial growth, economic opportunity, and financial well-being of the Citizen Potawatomi National Tribal Community and other underserved Native populations through financial education, access to capital, business development services, innovative capacity building practices, and community development initiatives. CPCDC's commercial and business borrowers are 96% Native owned businesses. Grameen America ( $5 million loan, $125 ,000 grant). Grameen America provides microloans, training and support to small businesses owned by low-income women entrepreneurs in the U.S. It has 23 branches across 15 U.S. cities: Boston , Charlotte , Indianapolis , Houston , Austin , Los Angeles , New York , Oakland , Fresno , Greater Omaha , San Jose , San Juan (PR), Union City and Newark (NJ), and Miami , and a client base that's 100% women and primarily low-income, low-wealth, or otherwise underserved. ( loan, ,000 grant). Grameen America provides microloans, training and support to small businesses owned by low-income women entrepreneurs in the U.S. It has 23 branches across 15 U.S. cities: , , , , , , , , , , , (PR), and (NJ), and , and a client base that's 100% women and primarily low-income, low-wealth, or otherwise underserved. MoFi ( $3 million loan). Providing financing and consulting services that transform the lives of individuals and strengthen community prosperity, MoFi reaches across the Northern Rockies in Montana , Idaho , and Wyoming . Its long-term goal is to ensure everyone's adequate access to business capital regardless of income, assets, education, location, race, or gender. MoFi's small and microbusiness borrowers are 54% women-owned businesses, 41% low-income owned or controlled businesses, and 57% are startup businesses. Geographically, 61% of its borrowers are in rural areas. ( loan). Providing financing and consulting services that transform the lives of individuals and strengthen community prosperity, MoFi reaches across the Northern Rockies in , , and . Its long-term goal is to ensure everyone's adequate access to business capital regardless of income, assets, education, location, race, or gender. MoFi's small and microbusiness borrowers are 54% women-owned businesses, 41% low-income owned or controlled businesses, and 57% are startup businesses. Geographically, 61% of its borrowers are in rural areas. Opportunity Fund ( $5 million loan, $125,000 grant). Based in California , Opportunity Fund provides microloans to some of the smallest and most under-resourced businesses in the country. The CDFI serves small businesses in California and 44 additional states. Its clients are 82% people of color, 34% women, 7% African American, 19% Asian/Middle Eastern, and 53% Latinx. ( loan, grant). Based in , Opportunity Fund provides microloans to some of the smallest and most under-resourced businesses in the country. The CDFI serves small businesses in and 44 additional states. Its clients are 82% people of color, 34% women, 7% African American, 19% Asian/Middle Eastern, and 53% Latinx. PeopleFund ( $1.5 million loan, $125,000 grant). Across Texas , PeopleFund provides small business loans, as well as business assistance and education, to people with otherwise limited access to such resources. The CDFI has made significant investments and built significant institutional knowhow in support of veteran entrepreneurs. Today, one in four PeopleFund loans go to veteran entrepreneurs. Among these, the vast majority are women, minority, and low-income. ( loan, grant). Across , PeopleFund provides small business loans, as well as business assistance and education, to people with otherwise limited access to such resources. The CDFI has made significant investments and built significant institutional knowhow in support of veteran entrepreneurs. Today, one in four PeopleFund loans go to veteran entrepreneurs. Among these, the vast majority are women, minority, and low-income. Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) ( $125,000 grant). A California -focused lender that also serves clients nationwide with their free BusinessAdvising.org platform, PCV's mission is to invest in small businesses, create good jobs for working people, and make markets work for social good. The CDFI strengthens small businesses owned by women, people of color, immigrants, and others who have had a hard time accessing capital. They use an integrated "Good Jobs, Good Business" model that provides affordable capital, free advice, impact evaluation, and research. Its borrowers are 63% people of color, 52% women, 15% African American, 19% Asian, and 24% Latinx. ( grant). A -focused lender that also serves clients nationwide with their free BusinessAdvising.org platform, PCV's mission is to invest in small businesses, create good jobs for working people, and make markets work for social good. The CDFI strengthens small businesses owned by women, people of color, immigrants, and others who have had a hard time accessing capital. They use an integrated "Good Jobs, Good Business" model that provides affordable capital, free advice, impact evaluation, and research. Its borrowers are 63% people of color, 52% women, 15% African American, 19% Asian, and 24% Latinx. Washington Area Community Investment Fund (Wacif) ( $125,000 Google.org Grant). Wacif increases equity and economic opportunity in underserved communities by investing knowledge, social, and financial capital in low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs. The CDFI serves minority- and women-owned businesses in financial underserved communities in the National Capital region, with a focus on communities east of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC and in Prince George's County, Maryland. In the last seven years, Wacif has invested more than $10 million in underserved communities throughout the region. In 2019, 96% of Wacif's lending went to entrepreneurs of color and 62% of its business advisory services clients were female. There are more than 1,100 CDFIs working in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. OFN's more than 300 members serve 58% people of color, 85% low-income, 26% rural, and 48% women (OFN Annual Member Survey, 2018). Nationwide, the CDFI industry manages more than $222 billion. About OFN OFN, a leading national network of CDFIs, strives to ensure low-income and other under-resourced communities have access to affordable, responsible financial products and services. Members of OFN are CDFIs that deliver responsible lending to help low-income communities join the economic mainstream. Through 2018, OFN's network originated $74.2 billion in financing in rural, urban, and Native communities. This financing has helped to create or maintain more than 1,560,000 jobs, start or expand more than 419,177 businesses and microenterprises, and support the development or rehabilitation of 2.1 million housing units and more than 11,500 community facility projects. For more information, visit www.ofn.org . About Google Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. About Google.org Google.org, Google's philanthropy, supports nonprofits that address humanitarian issues and apply scalable, data-driven innovation to solving the world's biggest challenges. We accelerate their progress by connecting them with a unique blend of support that includes funding, products, and technical expertise from Google volunteers. We engage with these believers-turned-doers who make a significant impact on the communities they represent, and whose work has the potential to produce meaningful change. We want a world that works for everyoneand we believe technology and innovation can move the needle. SOURCE Opportunity Finance Network Related Links https://ofn.org South Korea has decided to prolong a set of strict social distancing measures in Seoul and nearby regions, initially slated to expire this weekend, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Friday amid no letup in daily increases in the number of COVID-19 infections. "The situation is that it's inevitable to extend the strengthened distancing measures in the capital area, which are scheduled to finish the day after tomorrow," he said at the outset of an interagency meeting against the pandemic. In late May, the government imposed the measures, which include the closure of public libraries, museums and other facilities, as part of the "distancing in daily life" campaign. In spite of the enhanced distancing in place over the past two weeks, he pointed out, the virus has continued to spread, especially in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, where around half of the nation's 52 million population resides. He cited unrelenting reports of cluster and indirect infections especially in the capital area, speaking during the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters session held at the government office complex in central Seoul. "The government will extend the existing measures in the capital area until the situation becomes stable and continue to strive to slow the spread of infections by strengthening quarantines in blind spots," Chung added. He did not specify a new timetable for the distancing campaign. Park Neung-hoo, the health and welfare minister, is expected to make public details after the meeting presided over by Chung. (Yonhap) This image from social media contained in court filings appears to show a woman, whom the FBI has identified as Lore Elisabeth Blumenthal, throwing a flaming object at a police cruiser during protests outside City Hall of the death of George Floyd on May 30, 2020. Read more As demonstrators shouted, fires burned outside City Hall, and Philadelphia convulsed with outrage over the death of George Floyd, television news helicopters captured footage of a masked woman with a peace sign tattoo and wearing a light blue T-shirt setting a police SUV ablaze. More than two weeks after that climactic May 30 moment, federal authorities say theyve identified the arsonist as 33-year-old Philadelphia massage therapist Lore Elisabeth Blumenthal by following the intricate trail of bread crumbs she left through her social media history and online shopping patterns over the years. The path took agents from Instagram, where amateur photographers also captured shots of the masked arsonist, to an Etsy shop that sold the distinctive T-shirt the woman was wearing in the video. It led investigators to her LinkedIn page, to her profile on the fashion website Poshmark, and eventually to her doorstep in Germantown. Their pursuit, described in court filings this week, sheds light on the extent to which the FBI and Justice Department have used news footage, online histories, and social media footprints to track down and identify demonstrators believed to be responsible for acts of violence or property destruction. But civil rights advocates say it also raises questions about the scope of law enforcement surveillance of protest movements and the use of the very social media networks that protesters have relied upon to spread their message. READ MORE: UPDATE: The Philly protester tracked down through Etsy and accused of setting cop cars on fire is ordered jailed without bail until trial Social media has fueled much of the protests, and has also become a fertile ground for government surveillance, said Paul Hetznecker, an attorney who has organized a group of lawyers to represent demonstrators, including Blumenthal. I think people have lost awareness of that. For weeks, the FBI and local authorities have urged the public to share any photos or videos that captured violence or looting in the city amid the protests that broke out last month in reaction to Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Blumenthal who if convicted would face a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison is believed to be the first demonstrator arrested based on footage from the Philadelphia protests. READ MORE: Critical mistakes doomed the police response to Phillys George Floyd demonstrations But across the country, several others have been charged based on social media sleuthing and videos uploaded to the internet. Federal prosecutors in Trenton on Wednesday accused a 27-year-old man of torching a police car an act captured in an online video shot during protests in that city on May 31. A law enforcement officer from the intelligence unit of the Trenton Police Department recognized the man as Earlja J. Dudley, court filings in his case say. Social media searches of Dudleys account allegedly uncovered other photos of him wearing the arsonists distinctive tank top and baseball cap with the Roman numeral XIV and green, black and white sneakers. Posts from bystanders have also led to the arrests of demonstrators allegedly involved in various acts of destruction in Nashville, Chicago, and Buffalo, N.Y. In response, organizations, such as the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, have issued guidebooks for demonstrators on how to shield themselves from government surveillance. The tips include covering tattoos and avoiding wearing distinctive clothing. And in Philadelphia, videos widely shared on Instagram and Twitter allowed investigators with District Attorney Larry Krasners office to identify and charge Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna Jr., a high-ranking police official, in connection with the caught-on-camera beating of a demonstrator during protests this month. In a statement on Blumenthals case Wednesday, U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain described her alleged crime in Philadelphia as a violent and despicable act. His office said it will seek to detain her until trial at a detention hearing scheduled for Friday. We at the U.S. Attorneys Office fully support the First Amendment right of the people to assemble peaceably and to petition their government, he said. But torching a police car has nothing to do with peaceful protest or any legitimate message. ... Anybody who engaged in such acts can stand by to put your hands behind your back and head to federal prison. We are coming for you. READ MORE: As Philly protests descended into chaos, police restraint was no match for volatility According to filings in Blumenthals case, FBI agents had little more to go on when they started their investigation than the news helicopter footage of the woman setting the police car ablaze as it was broadcast live May 30. It showed the woman, in flame-retardant gloves, grabbing a burning piece of a police barricade that had already been used to set one squad car on fire and tossing it into the police SUV parked nearby. Within seconds, that car was also engulfed in flames. Investigators discovered other images depicting the same scene on Instagram and the video sharing website Vimeo. Those allowed agents to zoom in and identify a stylized tattoo of a peace sign on the womans right forearm. Scouring other images including a cache of roughly 500 photos of the Philly protest shared by an amateur photographer agents found shots of a woman with the same tattoo that gave a clear depiction of the slogan on her T-shirt. Keep the Immigrants, it read, Deport the Racists. That shirt, agents said, was found to have been sold only in one location: a shop on Etsy, the online marketplace for crafters, purveyors of custom-made clothing and jewelry, and other collectibles. The vendor: a New Castle, Del., dealer selling screen printed and hand printed feminist wear. The top review on her page, dated just six days before the protest, was from a user identifying herself as Xx Mv, who listed her location as Philadelphia and her username as alleycatlore. A Google search of that handle led agents to an account on Poshmark, the mobile fashion marketplace, with a user handle lore-elisabeth. And subsequent searches for that name turned up Blumenthals LinkedIn profile, where she identifies herself as a graduate of William Penn Charter School and several yoga and massage therapy training centers. From there, they located Blumenthals Jenkintown massage studio and its website, which featured videos demonstrating her at work. On her forearm, agents discovered, was the same distinctive tattoo that investigators first identified on the arsonist in the original TV video. READ MORE: Police just went nuts: Charges dropped after video surfaces of police beating student, other protesters with batons Hetznecker, Blumenthals lawyer, declined Wednesday to discuss her case in detail except to say that the decision to charge her with a federal crime instead of in state court was discretionary and made in order to send a political statement regarding those involved in this protest movement for racial justice. He likened the bureaus wider use of social media to identify and prosecute George Floyd demonstrators to COINTELPRO the covert FBI counterintelligence program in the 1950s and 60s aimed at infiltrating and disrupting political organizations such as the feminist and civil rights movements that agents had deemed to be threats to national security. That programs existence was uncovered by a group of antiwar activists who broke into an FBI field office in in Media in 1971 an act that spawned congressional hearings that eventually shut COINTELPRO down out of concern that it violated the First and Fourth Amendments rights of the activists involved in those movements. The technological capabilities of modern law enforcement far outstrip the privacy protections afforded under the law, Hetznecker said. And many people lack a general awareness of just how much the communications and information they post online is private or not. The question is whether theyve undermined the privacy interests of everyone based on the search for one or two individuals, he said. Thats the same paradigm that was used to profile Muslims after 9/11, the same paradigm used for profiling African Americans. Rogan said that Modi's nationalist support base now looks at the idea of India as a key international player advising the US to stand with India as China poses an existential threat to the liberal world order. Chinese People Liberation Army has provoked the Indian nationalist tiger by engaging in a face-off with Indian Army personnel in which 20 soldiers were killed, according to US media. The violent clash that took place late evening and night of June 15 was a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation. Beating 20 Indian soldiers to death Monday evening, Chinas Peoples Liberation Army has provoked the Indian nationalist tiger, Journalist Tom Rogan wrote in an opinion piece in Washington Examiner. Highlighting that Prime Minister Narendra Modis power flows from the nationalist base, Rogan said that Modi has skillfully redirected Indian nationalist sentiments away from their prior obsession with domestic sectarian interests and toward the idea of India as a key international player. Read also: UN expresses concern on India-China standoff, urges maximum restraint Read also: North Korea blows up inter-Korea liaison office amid escalating tensions with South Rogan is of the view that PM Modi faces a distinct challenge with the recent violent clash with the PLA. He (PM Modi) will feel especially pressured to respond forcefully given perceptions in his Bharatiya Janata Party that he acted too timidly to a February 2019 attack by Pakistani terrorists. Adding fuel to the fire, this isnt the first recent Chinese escalation against Indian interests, Rogan said. Over the past two months, the PLA has been increasingly aggressive along the Line of Control, frequently confronting Indian patrols on the assumed Indian side of the border, he noted Chinese President Xi Jinping has also allowed the PLA to send aggressive officers to engage with more diplomatically minded Indian Army commanders. This is straight out of Chinas now reflexively imperialist foreign policy strategy and is designed to intimidate India into compromises that favour Beijing. Rogan said that the United States should stand with India in the border issue with China. The worlds most populous democratic nation is facing the same Chinese aggression that Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines experience nearly every day in the South China Sea. And it poses an existential threat to the American-led liberal international order, he wrote. Read also: US transfers first consignment of 100 ventilators to India For all the latest World News, download NewsX App Wednesday morning view of Walker Fire View Photos View Video Update at 11:25am: The latest size estimate of the Walker Fire in Calaveras County remains 1,100 acres, and crews were able to start constructing a containment line overnight. Providing another update this morning, CAL Fire spokesperson Emily Kilgore says, We are anticipating some drier conditions with high wind speeds this afternoon. So that will really test the containment line that has been put in and is a concern for firefighters today. She also adds, Overnight, two structures were destroyed, and they were both outbuildings. An estimated 50 structures remain threatened near the fire. The blaze has been primarily moving in a southerly direction. We reported earlier that the Calaveras County Sheriffs Office has issued evacuation warnings for all of Circle 20, the area west of Pool Station Road, east of Hunt Road and north of Highway 4. Residents in those areas should take precautions in the event that the fire grows in size later today. Kilgore says, Prepare early, and dont wait until the last minute. Around 415 firefighters are on scene today, including five helicopters, four air tankers, air attack, and a lead plane. To view a webcam of the fire, click here. Update at 7:38am: Some containment was gained overnight on the Walker Fire in Calaveras County. CAL Fire spokesperson Lindy Shoff reports this morning that it is 1,100 acres and 10-percent contained. The fire ignited shortly before 5pm Tuesday in the 12000 block of Walker Trail Road near Hogan Dam Road in the Salt Springs area. Northwinds overnight pushed the fire towards Hunt Road. Evacuation centers are open at the Armory on Main Street in Copperopolis and at the Mt. Oak school off Pool Station Road. 50 structures are threatened and two have been destroyed. An evacuation warning is place near the fire for all of Circle 20, the area west of Pool Station Road, east of Hunt Road and north of Highway 4. 415 firefighters are assigned to the incident. There are 13 dozers, 10 engines, eight water tenders, five helicopters, four air tankers, air attack, a lead plane. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Well pass along more information as it becomes available. Update at 7:10am: To view a webcam image of the fire this morning, click here. Original story posted at 6:13am: Valley Springs, CA Air and ground resources will be very active today working to fight the Walker Fire in Calaveras County near Valley Springs. The latest size estimate from CAL Fire is 1,000 acres with zero containment. CAL Fire spokesperson Emily Kilgore says the fire broke out after 5 p.m. in the 12000 block of Walker Trail near New Hogan Dam Road and south of New Hogan Lake in the Salt Springs area. The movement has been to the south, and residents should avoid the area. You can find all kinds of photos and video up on myMotherLode.com. There are no mandatory evacuations at this time, but the Calaveras Office Of Emergency Services has opened temporary evacuation sites, should they become necessary, at the Armory on Main Street in Copperopolis and the Mt. Oak School off Pool Station Road. There are very few structures in the vicinity of the fire. The Calaveras Office of Emergency Services reports that the general area around it is under an evacuation warning. Click here for more information. The map in the photos shows 13 boxes under an evacuation warning. Well pass along more information when it becomes available. To view a recap from Tuesday, click here. NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN OR INTO, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, SWITZERLAND, ISRAEL, JAPAN OR SOUTH AFRICA This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell, or an invitation to offer or buy or subscribe for, securities. An investment in the Offered Shares involves substantial risks and uncertainties. Prospective investors must read the entire Prospectus, and, in particular, should read Section 2 (Risk Factors) for a discussion of certain factors that should be considered in connection with an investment in the Offered Shares, including the risks relating to the fact that (i) Hyloris has a limited operating history and has not yet generated any substantial revenues. Hyloris has incurred operating losses, negative operating cash flows and an accumulated deficit since inception resulting in a negative equity at the date of the Prospectus and Hyloris may not be able to achieve or subsequently maintain profitability. Hyloris is executing its strategy in accordance with its business model, the viability of which has not been demonstrated, (ii) Hyloris' performance depends primarily on the success of its product candidates, a majority of which are in the early reformulation development stage and have not yet received FDA approval of the 505(b)(2) application or ANDA or the other approvals required before they may be commercially launched, (iii) even if Hyloris receives regulatory approval for any of its product candidates, it may be unable to launch the product successfully and the revenue that Hyloris generates from sales of such product, if any, may be limited, (iv) Hyloris has entered into arrangements with related parties and these arrangements present potential conflicts of interest, (v) certain of Hyloris' directors and members of Hyloris' executive management hold directorships or shareholdings in other pharmaceutical companies, which could create potential conflicts of interest, and (vi) after closing of the Offering, certain significant shareholders of the Issuer may have different interests from the Issuer and/or from the minority shareholders and may be able to control the Issuer, including the outcome of shareholder votes. Every decision to invest in the Offered Shares must be based on all information provided in the Prospectus. Potential investors must be able to bear the economic risk of an investment in the Offered Shares and to undergo a full or partial loss of their investment. ADVERTISEMENT Hyloris Pharmaceuticals launches its Initial Public Offering on Euronext Brussels Liege, Belgium - June 17, 2020: Hyloris Pharmaceuticals SA ("Hyloris" and/or the "Company"), an early-stage innovative specialty pharmaceutical company focused on adding value to the healthcare system by reformulating well-known pharmaceuticals, announces today the terms of its initial public offering of new shares, with admission to trading of all of its shares on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels (the "Offering"). Key terms of the Offering The Offering is an offering of up to 5,000,000 new shares of the Company, which number may be increased by up to 15% (the "Increase Option"). 1 Any decision to exercise the Increase Option will be communicated, at the latest, on the date of the announcement of the Offer Price (as defined below). Any decision to exercise the Increase Option will be communicated, at the latest, on the date of the announcement of the Offer Price (as defined below). The price range of the Offering is between EUR 10.00 and EUR 11.50 per Offered Share (as defined below) (the "Price Range"). No minimum amount is set for the Offering. Based on the Price Range, and assuming the Offer Price (as defined below) will be at the midpoint of the Price Range, the size of the Offering will range between EUR 53.75 million (assuming the full placement of the 5,000,000 initially offered New Shares, excluding the exercise in full or in part of the Increase Option and of the Over-allotment Option (as defined below)) and EUR 71.08 million (assuming placement of the maximum number of New Shares, including the exercise in full of the Increase Option and the exercise in full by the Stabilization Manager (as defined below) of the Over-allotment Option (as defined below)). The implied market capitalisation of the Company at the midpoint of the Price Range could then range from EUR 267.06 million to EUR 284.39 million. The Offering comprises: An offer to the public (as defined in Article 2(d) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market, and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC (the "Prospectus Regulation")) in Belgium; A private placement in the European Economic Area (the "EEA") (other than in Belgium) pursuant to applicable exemptions under the Prospectus Regulation, including but not limited to "qualified investors" within the meaning of Article 2(e) of the Prospectus Regulation; A private placement in the United States to persons who are reasonably believed to be "qualified institutional buyers" ("QIBs") as defined in Rule 144A ("Rule 144A") under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), in reliance on Rule 144A;; A private placement to certain qualified and/or institutional investors under applicable laws of the relevant jurisdictions in the rest of the world All aforementioned qualified investors and QIBs are collectively referred to as "Institutional Investors". The Offering outside the United States will be made in compliance with Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act ("Regulation S"). The Company has appointed KBC Securities and Kempen & Co as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners for the Offering. KBC Securities NV/SA will, on the Underwriters' behalf (as defined below), act as stabilization manager (the "Stabilization Manager"). The Stabilization Manager will be able to over-allot Shares in the Offering (the "Additional Shares", and together with the New Shares, referred to as the "Offered Shares") in order to facilitate stabilization. To enable the Stabilization Manager to cover the placement of Additional Shares in the Offering, if any, or short positions created by such over-allotment, the Stabilization Manager is expected to be granted a warrant to subscribe for additional new Shares in a number equal to up to 15% of the number of New Shares subscribed for in the Offering at the Offer Price (as defined below) (the "Over-allotment Option"). The Over-allotment Option will be exercisable for a period of 30 calendar days following the Listing Date (as defined below) (the "Stabilization Period"). The Stabilization Manager may engage in transactions that stabilize, maintain or otherwise affect the price of the Shares during the Stabilization Period. These activities may support the market price of the Shares at a level higher than that which might otherwise prevail. Commenting on today's announcement, Stijn Van Rompay, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Hyloris, stated: "Hyloris is at an exciting stage in its development and this Offering will enable us to achieve some important objectives including the development of our existing product candidates, establishing a US commercial team for our IV Cardiovascular Portfolio and expansion of our pipeline both internally and through business development, as well as create value for shareholders." Company Highlights Focused on developing proprietary reformulated products it believes offer significant advantages compared to currently available alternatives, with the aim to address underserved medical needs and add value to the overall healthcare system Idea generator enabling the continuous identification of new product opportunities Strong product development engine that reformulates and brings product candidates to the market in a capital efficient manner, with a clear focus on the FDA's 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway for pharmaceuticals where safety and efficacy of the molecule have been established, providing Hyloris with the potential to: Reduce the clinical burden required to bring a product to the market Significantly shorten the development timelines and reduce costs and risks Diversified portfolio of two early stage commercial products and 12 product candidates, the majority of which are in the early reformulation development stage, offering sales growth potential: The product portfolio has a particular focus on IV cardiovascular products, but also contains other reformulation products and established market products (high-barrier generics) Maxigesic IV and Sotalol IV are anticipated as primary drivers of short-term revenue growth until additional products are launched To date, Hyloris' operations have consisted primarily of the identification of product candidates to build its pipeline and the formulation, testing and development of its existing portfolio Led by an experienced lean management team that has a wealth of experience and knowledge in the fields of drug identification and development. Hyloris' management team combines more than 100 years of experience in managing and growing pharma companies that develop drugs and bring them to the market Offering timetable The offering period will begin on 17 June 2020 at 9:00 (CEST) and is expected to end no later than 16:00 (CEST) on 25 June 2020 for retail shareholders and 26 June at 13:00 (CEST) for institutional shareholders, subject to early closing or extension, provided that the offering period will in any event be open for at least six business days (the "Offering Period") . The Offer Price (as defined below), the number of Offered Shares placed in the Offering and the allocation of Offered Shares to retail investors is expected to be made public on or about 26 June 2020 and in any event no later than the first business day after the end of the Offering Period. Trading of the Shares on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels is expected to commence, on an "if-and-when-issued-and/or-delivered" basis, on or about 29 June 2020 (the "Listing Date"), provided that this may be accelerated in case of early closing or postponed in case of extension. The closing date is expected to be 30 June 2020 (the "Closing Date") unless the Offering Period is closed earlier or extended. The Offer Price (as defined below) must be paid by investors by authorising their financial institutions to debit their bank accounts with such amount for value on the Closing Date. Final price and allocation The final price per Offered Share (the "Offer Price") will be determined during the Offering Period through a book-building process in which only Institutional Investors may participate. The Offer Price will be a single price in euro, exclusive of the Belgian tax on stock exchange transactions, and of costs, if any, charged by financial intermediaries for the submission of applications. No tax on stock exchange transactions is due on the subscription for newly issued Shares, but such tax could be due on the subscription for existing Shares. The tax treatment will depend on each investor's individual circumstances and may change in the future. In accordance with Belgian regulations, a minimum of 10% of the Offered Shares shall be allocated to retail investors, subject to sufficient retail demand. However, the proportion of Offered Shares allocated to retail investors may be increased or decreased if subscription orders received from them exceed, respectively, do not reach 10% of the Offered Shares effectively allocated. In the event of over-subscription of the Offered Shares reserved for retail investors, the allocation to retail investors will be made on the basis of objective allocation criteria, whereby all retail investors will be treated equally. The criteria to be used for this purpose are the preferential treatment of applications submitted by retail investors at the counters of KBC Bank NV/SA, CBC Banque SA/NV and through Bolero (the online investment platform of KBC Bank NV/SA and CBC Banque SA/NV) in Belgium, and at the counters of Van Lanschot Kempen Wealth Management N.V., Belgian branch, and the number of Offered Shares for which applications are submitted by retail investors. In the event of an over-allotment, the Underwriters will use reasonable efforts to deliver the New Shares to individual persons residing in Belgium and to investors subject to Belgian income tax on legal entities ("rechtspersonenbelasting"/"impot des personnes morales"), in this order of priority. Subscription orders by retail investors may be submitted through Bolero (the online investment platform of KBC Bank NV/SA and CBC Banque SA/NV), at the counters of KBC Bank NV/SA, CBC Banque SA/NV in Belgium, and at the counters of Van Lanschot Kempen Wealth Management N.V., Belgian branch, at no cost to the investor or alternatively through other intermediaries. Investors wishing to place purchase orders for the Offered Shares through such other intermediaries, should request details of the costs which these intermediaries may charge, and which they will have to pay themselves. Pre-commitments A number of investors (including members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Management of the Company) (the "Participating Investors"), have (in the aggregate) (i) subscribed for automatically convertible bonds, for a total aggregate amount of EUR 15,150,000 (the "Convertible Bonds") and (ii) committed themselves vis-a-vis the Company to irrevocably and conditionally only on completion of the Offering, subscribe for New Shares in the Offering for a total amount of EUR 22,725,000 (the "Pre-commitments"). The completion of the Offering will result in the automatic conversion of all outstanding Convertible Bonds (for their full outstanding principal amount, increased by all or part of any unpaid interests due) in new Shares, at the Offer Price less a discount of 30%. In the event the Offering is oversubscribed, a maximum of one third of the Pre-commitment of each individual Participating Investor (i.e., EUR 7,575,000 in the aggregate) can be reduced in line with the allocation principles that apply in the context of the Offering, whereas a minimum of two thirds of the Pre-commitment of each individual Participating Investor (i.e., EUR 15,150,000 in the aggregate) will not be reduced but will be allocated entirely to the relevant Participating Investor. As no minimum amount is set for the Offering, if not all of the Offered Shares are subscribed for in the Offering, the net proceeds from the Offering could be limited to the net proceeds from the Pre-commitments. The current shareholders of the Company, as well as all of the Participating Investors, agreed to lock-up their pre-IPO Shares and the new Shares pursuant to the conversion of the Convertible Bonds, for a period of 180 days following the Listing Date, and to have further restrictions on their Shares for the following 180 days. After the 180 calendar day "hard" lock up and the 180 calendar day "soft" lock up, the current shareholders will have an additional lock-up amounting to (i) 66% of their pre-IPO Shares in the first year, and (ii) 33% of their pre-IPO Shares in the second year, subject to certain limited exceptions. The Company is expected to agree to a standstill on the issuance of new Shares and issuance of new warrants for a period of 360 days following the Closing Date, subject to customary exceptions. Use of Proceeds Hyloris intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering as follows: EUR 22.725 million is expected to be allocated to the development (up to and including the approval by the regulatory authority) of the existing portfolio of product candidates, whereby the amount will differ per product candidate based on the current phase of development EUR 11 million is expected to be allocated to the establishment of a commercial team in the U.S. for Hyloris' IV Cardiovascular Portfolio (excl. Sotalol IV, which is commercialized through a partner) To fund the expansion of its product pipeline both internally and through business development opportunities For general corporate purposes Summary Timetable 17 June 2020, at 9:00 (CEST) Expected start of the Offering Period 25 June 2020, at 16:00 (CEST) Expected end of the Offering Period for retail investors 26 June 2020, at 13:00 (CEST) Expected end of the Offering Period for Institutional Investors (1) 26 June 2020 Expected publication of the Offer Price and results of the Offering and communication of allocations 29 June 2020 Expected Listing Date (listing and start of "if-and-when-issued-and/or-delivered" trading) 30 June 2020 Expected Closing Date (payment, settlement and delivery of the Offered Shares) 29 July 2020 Expected last possible exercise date of the Over-allotment Option(2) Notes : (1) In the event of an early closing or extension of the Offering Period, these dates will be amended and published in the same manner as the announcement of the start of the Offering Period. If the Offering Period is extended with more than five business days, this will also be published in a supplement to the Prospectus. (2) To enable the Stabilization Manager, acting on behalf of the Underwriters, to cover over-allotments or short positions, if any, resulting from the over-allotment, if any. Prospectus and other information A prospectus has been approved by the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority on 16 June 2020 (the "Prospectus"). The FSMA only approved the Prospectus (including the summary of the Prospectus, the "Summary") as meeting the standards of completeness, comprehensibility and consistency imposed by the Prospectus Regulation. Such approval should not be considered as an endorsement of the Company or the quality of the Offered Shares that are the subject of the Prospectus. Investors should make their own assessment as to the suitability of investing in the Offered Shares. The Prospectus and the Summary may be distributed separately. The Prospectus is available to prospective investors in Belgium in English and French. The summary of the prospectus will also be available in English, French and Dutch for prospective investors. The Prospectus and the Summary shall be made available to investors free of charge as of 17 June 2020 (before opening of the markets) at the registered office of the Company (Boulevard Gustave-Kleyer 17, 4000 Liege (Belgium)). The Prospectus and the Summary shall also be made available free of charge to investors at (i) KBC Bank NV/SA, CBC Banque SA/NV, Bolero and KBC Securities NV/SA, upon request by phone 078 152 153 (KBC Bank NV/SA & CBC Banque SA/NV) and 0800 628 16 (Bolero Orderdesk) and on its websites www.kbc.be/hyloris, www.bolero.be/nl/hyloris and www.kbcsecurities.com The Prospectus can also be consulted as of 17 June 2020 (before opening of the markets) on the website of the Company ( www.hyloris.com/investors/information/prospectus/ (https://protect-de.mimecast.com/s/8oh9C28yOJCO55kh13Kwa?domain=hyloris.com/)), whereby the access on the aforementioned websites is each time subject to the usual limitations. (https://protect-de.mimecast.com/s/8oh9C28yOJCO55kh13Kwa?domain=hyloris.com/)), whereby the access on the aforementioned websites is each time subject to the usual limitations. An investment in the Offered Shares involves substantial risks and uncertainties. Prospective investors need to base their investment decision on the entire Prospectus and particularly, the risk factors, as described in the Prospectus. Prospective investors must be able to bear the economic risk of an investment in the Offered Shares and should be able to sustain a partial or total loss of their investment. The Offering is subject to Belgian law and the courts of Brussels are exclusively competent to adjudicate any and all disputes with investors arising out of or in connection with the Offering and/or the Offered Shares. Key risks specific to Hyloris, the Offering and the Shares Hyloris has a limited operating history, and has not yet generated any substantial revenues. Hyloris has incurred operating losses, negative operating cash flows and an accumulated deficit since inception resulting in a negative equity at the date of the Prospectus and Hyloris may not be able to achieve or subsequently maintain profitability. Hyloris is executing its strategy in accordance with its business model, the viability of which has not been demonstrated. Hyloris' performance depends primarily on the success of its product candidates, a majority of which are in the early reformulation development stage and have not yet received FDA approval of the 505(b)(2) application or ANDA or the other approvals required before they may be commercially launched. Even if Hyloris receives regulatory approval for any of its product candidates, it may be unable to launch the product successfully and the revenue that Hyloris generates from sales of such product, if any, may be limited. Hyloris has entered into arrangements with related parties and these arrangements present potential conflicts of interest. Certain of Hyloris' directors and members of Hyloris' Executive Management hold directorships or shareholdings in other pharmaceutical companies, which could create potential conflicts of interest. After closing of the Offering, certain significant shareholders of the Issuer may have different interests from the Issuer and/or from the minority shareholders and may be able to control the Issuer, including the outcome of shareholder votes. Hyloris may be unable to successfully manage its growth. Despite receiving regulatory approval for a product candidate, competitors may receive regulatory approval for a product that is identical or substantially the same as one of Hyloris' product candidates, which may prevent Hyloris from commercializing its product candidates in accordance with its business plan or result in significant delays in doing so. Because the sector of the pharmaceutical market that Hyloris is targeting is open to greater competition than the market for new drug formulations and new pharmaceutical products, Hyloris' business is dependent on the continuous generation of new ideas and the development of new product candidates. Hyloris relies and expects to continue to rely in large part on the know-how of its development partners and, in particular, the know-how of its development partner with respect to its IV Cardiovascular Portfolio and it also relies on the know-how of its partners for the development and expansion of its portfolio. The occurrence of a pandemic, epidemic or other health crisis, including the recent outbreak of COVID-19, could have a negative impact on Hyloris' product development activities, including its access to APIs, the conduct of its clinical trials and its ability to source required funding, which could delay or prevent it from executing its strategy as planned. Hyloris currently has no sales and marketing function and it will be required to develop one in order to execute its strategy with respect to its IV Cardiovascular Portfolio in the United States and to secure suitable sales and marketing partners for its other products. If Hyloris is unable to do so, it may not successfully commercialize any of its product candidates. Hyloris will be completely dependent on third parties to supply APIs and manufacture its products, and commercialization of Hyloris' product candidates could be delayed, halted or made less profitable if those third parties fail to obtain and maintain the required approvals from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, or otherwise fail to provide Hyloris with sufficient quantities of its products. There has been no prior public market for the Shares and an active market for the Shares may not develop, which may cause the Shares to trade at a discount to the Offer Price and make it difficult to sell the Shares. The fact that no minimum amount is set for the Offering may affect Hyloris' investment plan and the liquidity of the Shares -Ends- For more information, please contact: Hyloris Pharmaceuticals Stijn Van Rompay, CEO +32 Consilium Strategic Communications Amber Fennell, Chris Welsh, Lucy Featherstone, Taiana De Ruyck Soares +44 20 3709 5700 hyloris@consilium-comms.com Note to Editors About Hyloris Pharmaceuticals SA Based in Liege, Belgium, Hyloris is an early-stage innovative specialty pharmaceutical company focused on adding value to the healthcare system by reformulating well-known pharmaceuticals. Hyloris develops proprietary products it believes offer significant advantages compared to currently available alternatives, with the aim to address the underserved medical needs of patients, hospitals, physicians, payors and other stakeholders in the healthcare system. Hyloris' portfolio spans three areas of focus: IV Cardiovascular, Other Reformulations and Established Market. Hyloris stands for "high yield, lower risk" and relates to the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway for product approval on which the Issuer focuses, but in no way relates or applies to an investment in the Shares. IMPORTANT INFORMATION The material set forth herein is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer of securities for sale or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities in the United States, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Israel, Japan or South Africa or any other jurisdiction in which such an offer or solicitation is unlawful. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or the securities laws of any state in the United States, and may not be offered or sold within the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state laws. No public offering of securities has been or will be made in the United States. Subject to certain exceptions, the securities referred to herein may not be offered or sold in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Israel, Japan or South Africa, or for the account or benefit of, any national, resident or citizen of Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Japan or South Africa. Copies of this material are not being, and should not be, distributed or sent, directly or indirectly, into the United States, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Israel, Japan or South Africa. This information does not contain a solicitation for money, securities or other consideration and, if sent in response to the information contained herein, will not be accepted. This announcement contains statements which are "forward-looking statements" or could be considered as such. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words 'believe', 'estimate', 'anticipate', 'expect', 'intend', 'may', 'will', 'plan', 'continue', 'ongoing', 'possible', 'predict', 'plans', 'target', 'seek', 'would' or 'should', and contain statements made by the Company regarding the intended results of its strategy. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are warned that none of these forward-looking statements offers any guarantee of future performance. The Company's actual results may differ materially from those predicted by the forward-looking statements. The Company makes no undertaking whatsoever to publish updates or adjustments to these forward-looking statements, unless required to do so by law. Any purchase of, subscription for or application for, Shares in the Company to be issued in connection with the Offering should only be made on the basis of information contained in the Prospectus issued by the Company, and published on the Company's website) in connection with the Offering and any supplements thereto, as the case may be. Potential investors must read the entire Prospectus before making an investment decision in order to fully understand the potential risks and rewards associated with the decision to invest in the securities. This document is not a Prospectus. The Prospectus contains detailed information about the Company and its management, risks associated with investing in the Company, as well as financial statements and other financial data. The date of completion of listing on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels may be influenced by things such as market conditions. There is no guarantee that such listing will occur and a potential investor should not base its financial decisions on the Company's intentions in relation to such listing. Acquiring investments to which this announcement relates may expose an investor to a significant risk of losing the entire amount invested. Persons considering such investments should consult an authorized person specializing in advising on such investments. This announcement does not constitute a recommendation concerning the Offering. An investment in Shares entails significant risks, as the value of the Shares can decrease as well as increase. This announcement is addressed to and directed at persons in member states of the European Economic Area ("EEA") other than Belgium pursuant to applicable exemptions under the Prospectus Regulation, including but not limited to "qualified investors" within the meaning of Article 2(e) of the Prospectus Regulation. In addition, in the United Kingdom, this announcement is only addressed to and directed at (i) persons having professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within the definition of "investment professionals" in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the "Order"), (ii) high net worth entities, etc. falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order, and (iii) any other person to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The intended offering, as the case may be, will only be available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe for, purchase, or otherwise acquire securities will be engaged in only with relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this announcement or any of its contents. KBC Securities NV/SA and Van Lanschot Kempen Wealth Management N.V. (the "Underwriters") are acting for the Company and no one else in relation to the intended offering, and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections offered to their respective clients nor for providing advice in relation to the intended offering. INFORMATION TO DISTRIBUTORS The Joint Global Coordinators have informed the Issuer that the following information is intended for distributors only. The information is provided by the Joint Global Coordinators and the Issuer does not assume responsibility for it. Solely for the purposes of the product governance requirements contained within: (a) EU Directive 2014/65/EU on markets in financial instruments, as amended ("MiFID II"); (b) Articles 9 and 10 of Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 supplementing MiFID II; and (c) local implementing measures (together, the "MiFID II Product Governance Requirements"), the Joint Global Coordinators have informed the Company that they have submitted the shares subject of the proposed offering ("Shares") to a product approval process, which has determined that such Shares are: (i) compatible with an end target market of retail investors and investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II; and (ii) eligible for distribution through all distribution channels as are permitted by MiFID II (the "Target Market Assessment"). Notwithstanding the Target Market Assessment, Distributors should note that: the price of the Shares may decline and investors could lose all or part of their investment; the Shares offer no guaranteed income and no capital protection; and an investment in the Shares is compatible only with investors who do not need a guaranteed income or capital protection, who (either alone or in conjunction with an appropriate financial or other adviser) are capable of evaluating the merits and risks of such an investment and who have sufficient resources to be able to bear any losses that may result therefrom. The Target Market Assessment is without prejudice to the requirements of any contractual, legal or regulatory selling restrictions in relation to the proposed offering. For the avoidance of doubt, the Target Market Assessment does not constitute: (a) an assessment of suitability or appropriateness for the purposes of MiFID II; or (b) a recommendation to any investor or group of investors to invest in, or purchase, or take any other action whatsoever with respect to the Shares. Each distributor is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the Shares and determining appropriate distribution channels. 1 The 5,000,000 initially offered new shares and the shares offered as a result of the possible exercise of the Increase Option are collectively referred to as the "New Shares", and each existing or future new share representing the Company's share capital as a "Share". India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent India oi-Oneindia Staff By Oneindia Staff New Delhi, Aug 27: Three months after the stand-off at the Galwan valley, a survey was conducted on India-China relationship by the Chinese mouthpiece, Global Times, and the results show that the Chinese citizens are not happy with the actions of their leaders. In this survey, it has been revealed that the Chinese citizens like India with more than 50 per cent holding a favorable impression of China. Almost 51 per cent respondents appreciate the Modi government. Newest First Oldest First For India, the LAC runs along 16 districts across one union territory (Ladakh) and four states (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh). Chinas biggest tech company Huawei is trying to woo India by running big advertisements on all leading dailies of India. More than 30 per cent feel the ties will improve, and almost nine per cent of the respondents said they see improvement in the short term, while 25 per cent feel things will improve in the long term. Nearly 70 per cent believe the anti-China sentiment in India is excessive. As efforts are on to de-escalate ongoing tension at Line of Actual Control, China on Wednesday said that it sees India as a partner instead of a rival and an opportunity instead of a threat. Relations between India and China have been tense after Indian troops clashed with PLA soldiers at Galwan Valley on June 15 leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers, although Chinese troops also suffered casualties but China's foreign ministry has refused to divulge figures. Chinese ambassador to India Sun Weidong speaking at the China-India Youth webinar said that China sees India as a "partner instead of a rival and an opportunity instead of a threat." Darcha is 147 kilometres from Manali and lies on the highway to Leh after Jispa and Keylong across Rohtang La. The Darcha-Padum-Nimu route requires only a single 4.5 km tunnel through the 16,570 feet Shingo La between Darcha and Padum to ensure that the road is closed only for two months in winter. According to military commanders, the need to build the third axis was felt as tunnelling would be required under four more high mountain passes on the existing Manali-Leh route if the road has to be kept open throughout the year. In an effort to ensure that the project meets its two-year deadline, Gadkaris ministry has proposed that the task to build the tunnel should be given to the company that constructed the 9.02 km tunnel at Rohtang La on the condition that it meets the timeline. The project, which has been in the pipeline for a decade, is scheduled to be completed by the defence ministry within two years. Officials said the third route requires upgrading the Darcha-Padum-Nimu trekking route into a metalled road and building a 4.5 kilometre tunnel under Shingo La on the Darcha-Padum route. New Delhi perceives Beijings reluctance to disengage despite reminders as an effort to set a new normal at the border. The defence ministrys road project is being given its hardest push by road and highways minister Nitin Gadkari and his colleague Gen VK Singh after China provoked a standoff along the Line of Actual Control in East Ladakh and started mobilising troops in depth areas. Senior military commanders said the third route to feed Ladakh by road is urgently needed given how Pakistan and its all-weather friend, China were eyeing the Siachen Glacier and Daulat Beg Oldie. Nimu is 35 kilometres from Leh town and headquarters of XIV Corps responsible for the defence of East Ladakh and Siachen Glacier. Indias national security planners are pushing hard to complete an all-weather strategic route to Ladakh that will link Darcha in Himachal Pradesh to Nimu via Padum in Kargils Zanskar valley, people familiar with the matter said The Chinese ambassador also said that they will encourage language learning and communication. With the help of Indian colleges and universities, Chinese colleges and universities carry out the study of Hindi, Tamil and Bengali. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India 70 years ago, Sun said, bilateral relations have withstood tests and become more resilient. He said Chinas President Xi Jinping has said that Beijing will neither import foreign models of development, nor export the Chinese model and ask other countries to copy its practice. On a question on support to Indians aspiring to learn Chinese language, Sun said a strong team of Chinese teachers will help cultivate more Indian students who understand Chinese and love Chinese culture. China and India, neighboring countries, should live in peace and avoid conflicts, he said. Sun said that in order to achieve development goals, both countries need a peaceful and favourable external environment. In the webinar, Sun said, As two rising major neighbours, China and India should abandon the old mindset of drawing lines by ideology, and get rid of the old game of ones gain is anothers loss and zero-sum game. The CMC, which is the overall high command of the Chinese military is headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. On August 14, Misri met Maj. Gen. Ci Guowei, Director of the Office of International Military Cooperation of Chinas Central Military Commission, (CMC) and briefed him about Indias stance vis-a-vis the situation on the borders in eastern Ladakh Union Territory. On August 14, Misri met Maj. Gen. Ci Guowei, Director of the Office of International Military Cooperation of Chinas Central Military Commission, (CMC) and briefed him about Indias stance vis-a-vis the situation on the borders in eastern Ladakh Union Territory. In recent weeks, Misri met a senior official of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and senior General of Chinese military and briefed them on Indias stance on the situation at the borders in eastern Ladakh Union Territory. Indian Embassy officials told PTI here that the closed-door meeting was part of the continuing outreach activities with all shades of Chinese opinion on the state of relations between the two countries. The Indian Army officer killed the clash was the commanding officer of a battalion at Galwan. There was no firing. Apparently the two sides clashed with stones and rods. There are various accounts on the number of casualties on the Chinese side. Some accounts suggest 5, while the others say it is 3. However there is no official word on the same. The visit by Army Chief General M M Naravane to Pathankot has been cancelled. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said if the Chinese can "shoot dead" three Indian soldiers during the 'de-escalation process', one can imagine how serious the situation must have been in the first place. Earlier in the day, the Indian Army said an officer and two soldiers were killed in a violent confrontation with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be discussing the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a short while from now. Singh has already met Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, the three service chiefs and External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar. We will eventually learn about the details of what happened in Ladakh. That is our right. But right now, we must grieve with & stand by the families of our martyred soldiers. And stand solidly in support of our armed forces. anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) June 16, 2020 Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra's tweet: Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh has briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the situation along the Line of Actual Control. Mehbooba Mufti took to Twitter to say that the nation wants to know why there is no talk of retaliation. Taking to Twitter, Mufti wrote,''Seems like China has hijacked the aggressive ghar main ghuske marengay militaristic approach. Nation deserves to know why there is no talk of retaliation to avenge the death of three Indian army personnel!.'' Congrress leader Shashi Tharoor: The tragic news from Ladakh is shocking & calls for resolute handling by our Govt. Meanwhile, let us bow our heads in tribute to the three martyrs who gave their lives to protect India, and honour those who serve on our borders every day, risking their lives for our nation. Both sides have been ascertaining that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is important to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. China has lodged solemn representations and protests to India. Here, we are sternly demanding India to earnestly abide by the relevant agreement and strictly restrain their frontline troops. They should not cross the borderlines says Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh has met with External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar and Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat and discussed the situation along the LAC. Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said that China has lodged solemn representations and protests to India. Here, we are sternly demanding India to earnestly abide by the relevant agreement and strictly restrain their frontline troops. They should not cross the borderlines, Lijian said. "Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash", tweets Editor In Chief of Chinese Newspaper Global Times The happening in the #Galwanvalley is a continuation of violations by China. It is time now that the country stands up to these incursions. Our soldiers are not fair game that every few days officers and men are being killed and injured defending our borders. (1/2) Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) June 16, 2020 Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said the happening in Galwan Valley is a continuation of violations by China and added that it is time now that India stood up to these incursions. The talks are being held between Major General Abhijit Bapat, the commander of the Karu based HQ3 Infantry Division and his Chinese counterpart. The talks are being held at the site of the clash. Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav took to Twitter and wrote, "Received the report of a commanding officer and two soldiers of Indian Army being killed in a 'violent face-off' with Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. Heartfelt condolences." He also said that he expects a clarification on the ground reality of situation. UPA LAC ? ? Kapil Sibal (@KapilSibal) June 16, 2020 Congress leader Kapil Sibal slammed the Union government for failing to respond to Chinese action in Ladakh. He also took pot shot on Prime Minister's 56-inch chest. Indian troops seriously violated consensus of the two sides by illegally crossing the border twice and carrying out provocative attacks on Chinese soldiers. This resulted in serious physical clashes, Chinas Global Times said while quoting foreign minister, Wang Yi. Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Tuesday termed as 'disturbing' the violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley and said the government should offer a clearer picture to the nation on the border issue. He sought to know as to how Indian soldiers lost their lives during a de-escalation process and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh should come out with a clearer picture. "Saddened by the news of the martyrdom of our boys in the Galwan Valley. I salute their indomitable courage, selflessness and sacrifice," said VK Singh. The editor of Global Times posted on Twitter, based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash. I want to tell the Indian side, dont be arrogant and misread Chinas restraint as being weak. China doesnt want to have a clash with India, but we dont fear it. The talks between the two sides are still continuing and efforts are on to defuse tensions between India and China after a violent clash occurred. The situation still remains fluid in Ladakh. Hectic talks are on to defuse the tensions along the Line of Actual Control. The Congress has termed as "shocking" and "unacceptable" the death of an Indian Army officer and two soldiers in a violent face-off with the Chinese troops, and asked Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to confirm the development. "Shocking, Unbelievable and Unacceptable! Will the Raksha Mantri confirm," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter. Saddened by the news of the martyrdom of our boys in the Galwan Valley. I salute their indomitable courage, selflessness & sacrifice. Jai Hind!! Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) June 16, 2020 Saddened by the news of the martyrdom of our boys in the Galwan Valley. I salute their indomitable courage, selflessness and sacrifice, Union Minister, General V K Singh said. AIMIM chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi took to Twitter to condemn the killings of three Indian army personnel. "India stands with the 3 brave martyrs who were killed by China today in Galwan. My thoughts are with families of Colonel & 2 brave soldiers. The commanding officer was leading from the front. The government must avenge these killings & ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain," Owaisi tweeted. TOTOWA, N.J., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Senior Company is seeking home health aides in Jersey City, New Jersey due to increasing demand and accelerated growth. The company offers an attractive compensation package that includes competitive pay, unlimited overtime pay, health insurance benefits after 90 days and schedule flexibility. Rewarding caretakers with these benefits motivates them to provide stellar care to seniors. Home health aides who administer senior care in Jersey City for The Senior Company receive incentives including the following: A salary that exceeds industry standards by 30 to 35 percent Health insurance coverage Paid time off Flexible scheduling Unlimited overtime pay Pension plans State of New Jersey sick leave and FMLA sick leave and FMLA Annual license renewal reimbursement Time-and-a-half pay on holidays and birthdays Tuition assistance Awards and bonuses Keeping seniors safe and healthy is The Senior Company's top priority. To that end, the company considers the investment in its caregivers extremely worthwhile. Jersey City home health aides who work for The Senior Company can rest assured they will be treated exceptionally well. Home Care Pulse recently recognized the measures taken by The Senior Company by rating the company an Employer of Choice. Winners of these awards are determined by caregiver satisfaction obtained by Home Care Pulse, an independent satisfaction research firm. Feedback must determine that employers offer best-in-class caregiver satisfaction in order to earn the Employer of Choice award. Caregivers also get an interesting work environment that allows them to provide many different services including: 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 recognize that the home health aides we hire are doing very important work - that is, taking care of our seniors. They are working hard in an intimate setting. Therefore, we do everything in our power to treat our caregivers well. The Senior Company is excited about the growth we have experienced and the opportunity it gives us to hire more Jersey City home health aides," said Steve Romano, CEO at The Senior Company. Jersey City home health aides who are interested in working for The Senior Company are encouraged to apply via the company's Careers page. Review Open Positions At The Senior Company 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 "ADL's" 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 Related Links https://theseniorcompany.com Annie Lennox, Emeli Sande and Sting are among the stars who have donated personalised performances for an auction to raise money for women and girls around the world who have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus crisis. The Circle music auction will also include a signed guitar donated by Taylor Swift, a virtual afternoon tea and two song performances by Brits rising star Celeste, as well as performances by Jessie J, Yola, Paloma Faith, Jessie Ware, Hozier, Anoushka Shankar, Jack Savoretti, Skin, Biffy Clyros Simon Neil and Frank Turner. All proceeds will go to Lennoxs charity The Circles global Covid-19 emergency appeal. Winners will receive an exclusive, pre-recorded video featuring a live performance of one or two songs chosen from the winners list alongside a personalised message. Also going under the hammer is an Alberta Ferretti silk dress worn on stage by Lennox and a signed outfit worn by Madison Beer for her Good In Goodbye video shoot. The auction, which is live on the platform Charity Stars, invites people to bid on auction items or buy tickets for a sweepstake competition. The Circle have made emergency grants to provide garment workers and their families in Bangladesh with emergency relief packages. Donate to and share our appeal to help us reach even more women with essential supplies: https://t.co/ihvBKJUA5B#WomenEmpoweringWomen pic.twitter.com/va3QkHEkbF The Circle (@TheCircleNGO) June 12, 2020 Lennox, who is founder of The Circle, said: The crisis for thousands of women living in poverty is acute. Many no longer have any income, are suffering domestic violence and have nowhere to turn. I am delighted that such incredible musicians are stepping up to join me and offer support. Sting added: Annie Lennox is a wonderful friend and I am pleased to support her and The Circle in their important fight for vulnerable women and girls around the world devastated by the impact of Covid. Video of the Day Sande continued: These are painful times across the world, and I show my continued solidarity to fighting injustices. In support of The Circles music auction, which is supporting vulnerable marginalised women and girls disproportionately affected by the Covid pandemic, I am pleased to offer my incredible fans such a personal prize to raise much needed funds. Whatever the reason you are bidding, your support will provide much needed emergency support in these difficult times. The auction will close on July 10, and the sweepstake will end on July 31. Nursing home combines Danish concepts with Chinese practise By:Zheng Qian | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-06-17 16:12 Nursing for the elderly has become an increasingly severe problem for Chinese society. As the earliest city in the nation to comprise an aged society, Shanghai has been exploring proper ways to solve this problem. Shanghai Yiheyuan Nursing Home, a non-profit nursing institution that cooperates with Danish Deacon Homes, a leading care provider in Denmark, is one of those explorers. Located in Jinshan district, Yiheyuan Nursing Home, established in 2015, has introduced advanced nursing management concepts from Denmark to meet the needs of the Chinese elderly. Zhou Baoyun, chairman of the nursing home, introduced that to make the residents feel at home the nursing home learned from Danish practice that people usually bring photos to nursing homes and allowed residents to bring items from their homes. In addition a Danish manager is also on duty to monitor the daily operations. Over the year, 19 activity groups have been established to enrich the residentslives and a hospital has also been equipped for them. The nursing home houses over 520 old people who have formed a harmonious relationship with the housing staff. As the second phase of construction is being launched, more elderly people will soon be able to enjoy the quality care there. ORANGE, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- While lockdowns are easing and some restaurants are re-opening, most of America is still social distancing and continuing to spend more time around the house. Home cooks are busier than ever, testing new recipes and perfecting tried-and-true family favorites. With people continually searching for ideas on what to make next, the makers of the LA VICTORIA brand the leading pioneer of jarred salsas, taco sauces and enchilada sauces that has consistently reinvented flavor experiences for over 100 years is sharing a few unique flavor combinations using some of the most common pantry staples. "Now is such a great time to get creative in the kitchen and use all of the things in the pantry that you've been stocking up on," said Tanya Sexton, brand manager for the LA VICTORIA brand. "For example, many people think they have to eat salsa with chips, but there are so many unique recipes and creative ways to use this beloved condiment for added flavor to your meals to make them more exciting. In fact, enchilada sauce is not just for enchiladasthough they always make for a delicious dinnerso get to experimenting! Enchilada Burgers, anyone??" LA VICTORIA salsas, sauces, chiles and peppers are versatile pantry staples that offer Mexican flavor to any meal while allowing users to showcase their creativity. Here are a few ways to utilize these go-to ingredients for your stay-at-home arsenal: Roll up the perfect appetizer or weeknight dinner stapleSmall but loaded with flavor, these rolled Chicken Salsa Jalapeno Taquitos can be prepared in less than 30 minutes and are made with shredded chicken, melted cheese, and LA VICTORIA Salsa Jalapena for added flavor and heat. Simply roll up the ingredients, throw them in the oven, and you're all set! Making easy and flavorful dishes at home couldn't be easier. Add an extra kick of flavor to your family favoritesElevate your next batch of onion rings by adding a few dashes of LA VICTORIA Taco Sauce to the batter just like in this recipe for Mexican Spiced Onion Rings. Serve with a side of LA VICTORIA Taco Sauce to really bring on the heat. DIY your own saucesCreate your own unique sauce with pantry items you already have on hand. Try out this Buffalo Sauce recipe using LA VICTORIA SALSA BRAVA and a handful of everyday spices for the perfect accompaniment to chicken, roasted veggies and more. These effortless Buffalo Chicken Wings are a perfect addition to the next family game night. Give everyday comfort foods a flavor twistTake traditional macaroni and cheese to the next level with creative ingredients like salsa. This flavor-packed recipe for Mac & Cheese Bites beats the typical boxed mac and cheese any day, made with LA VICTORIA Thick & Chunky Salsa for added spice. LA VICTORIA brand salsas and sauces are versatile and can be enjoyed as is or in creative recipes to spice up any dish. Find them in the salsa aisle of most major grocers west of the Mississippi, including Ralph's, Kroger, Walmart, WinCo, Albertson's, Stater Brothers, and Safeway. For more ways to experiment with flavor or to learn more about LA VICTORIA products, visit www.salsas.com/la-victoria or check us out on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and/or Pinterest. ABOUT LA VICTORIA BRAND Since 1917, the LA VICTORIA brand has been creating salsas, sauces, chiles and peppers with versatile pantry staples that offer Mexican flavor to any meal. Best known for its flagship product, SALSA BRAVA Hot Sauce and full line of enchilada sauces, the brand portfolio also includes taco sauces and organic, non-GMO salsas. The LA VICTORIA brand is part of MegaMex Foods, one of the fastest growing Mexican food companies in the US and is reimagining Mexican flavor. For more information and recipe ideas, visit www.lavictoria.com or follow the LA VICTORIA brand on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. SOURCE LA VICTORIA Brand Eight locations across the UK have been chosen to take part in an access to cash trial after contactless payments slashed ATM use by 60 per cent amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Community Access to Cash pilot initiative will work in partnership with banks to uncover solutions to keeping cash viable for people and businesses in Britain, such as installing new ATMs and shared bank branches in selected communities. There are fears vulnerable and elderly people could be locked out of the economy by a shift to card-only payments, as many of them rely heavily on cash for purchases. Towns selected for the CACP initiative largely have ageing populations, including Rochford in Essex, Ampthill in Bedfordshire and Denny in Scotland where 16 per cent of the population is over 65. Those in Rochford are heavily reliant on cash, with residents of the Scottish town having recently seen a significant reduction in access to paper money. Eight locations across the UK (pictured) have been chosen to take part in an access to cash trial after contactless payments slashed ATM use Natalie Ceeney, who is leading the pilot initiative, said it is unclear whether or not cash use will 'bounce back' as more businesses adopt contactless only payments during the pandemic Cash use has plummeted during the coronavirus outbreak, with many shops encouraging people to pay by card in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. A survey by Which? found that at the start of lockdown when only essential shops were open, around 10 per cent of those surveyed could not buy goods because they could only use cash. Natalie Ceeney, who is leading the pilot initiative, told Radio 4 today that it is unclear whether or not cash use will 'bounce back' as more businesses adopt contactless only payments during the pandemic. 'ATM use unsurprisingly went down dramatically during lockdown, it went down by about 60 per cent across much of the UK,' she said. 'We know that a lot of shops have started preferring cashless transactions. 'We dont know how its going to bounce back, we strongly suspect it wont all come back, so there are going to be shops who now prefer contactless transactions and there are going to be individuals who having done all their shopping online actually see this as a preference. 'Without a doubt, Covid will have accelerated the decline of cash.' The CACP initiative will involve a focus on 'digital inclusion,' with better broadband connections and improved digital skills considered ways to help people to access money. Other proposals include installing new ATMs, having a place for retailers to deposit cash locally, or sharing bank branch facilities. Ampthill (pictured), in Bedfordshire, is among the eight locations selected for the Community Access to Cash pilot initiative Hay-on-Wye, in Wales, has many independent retailers and visitors, making businesses' ability to access and deposit cash vital But solutions could vary depending on the community, and more locations are set to be confirmed in the coming weeks. According to UK Finance, 7.4 million people rarely or never used cash in 2019 - but 2.1 million used cash regularly. Ms Ceeney said: 'Over the past decade we've seen a massive shift from cash to digital payments, and Covid-19 has accelerated that trend further. 'But we know that digital payments don't yet work for everyone, and for many individuals and communities, cash remains essential. 'But the world is changing - we can't just "magic" back our old bank branch and ATM infrastructure. Instead, we need to use innovation to develop new solutions as well as harness tried and tested approaches to meet people's needs.' John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister, said: 'I look forward to seeing the progress made by the pilots, as the Government develops legislation to protect access to cash, and would like to thank Natalie Ceeney CBE for her work on this important issue.' The Burslem, Staffordshire (pictured) community is keen to explore solutions for local retailers to deposit and withdraw cash Cambuslang in Scotland was left 'unbanked' following bank branch closures in quick succession. Martin Kearsley, banking director at the Post Office, added: 'This initiative will help bring real focus onto robust and sustainable solutions for many people living in smaller towns and rural communities who rely on easy access to cash. 'With 11,500 branches across the UK, including some in the trial communities, Post Offices help avoid cash deserts by providing a solution to people's cash and banking deposit needs.' Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) policy and advocacy chairman Martin McTague, who sits on the CACP Board, said: 'One in four small high street firms say cash is the most popular payment method among customers. 'That said, cash use was in decline before coronavirus hit, and the pandemic has accelerated that decline.' Gareth Shaw, head of money at Which?, said: 'With the existing cash system being pushed closer to the edge of collapse by the coronavirus outbreak, it's clear that new solutions are desperately needed to secure people's access and ability to pay with cash, which millions of people still rely on as their main form of payment.' John Howells, chief executive of cash machine network Link said: 'Our analysis of ATM withdrawals during the lockdown shows significant differences depending on where you live and that cash is even more important in deprived areas. 'The UK isn't ready to go cashless and Link is working hard to support communities maintain maintain cash access.' As President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday encouraging changes to policing, he falsely accused his predecessor, President Barack Obama, of choosing not to tackle the issue. Heres a fact-check. What Was Said President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period. The reason they didnt try is because they had no idea how to do it. And it is a complex situation. False. The Obama administration tried to address police misconduct in numerous ways, and some of those efforts have been reversed or limited by the Trump administration. The assertion that the Trump administration has done more than the Obama administration is ridiculous, said Barry Friedman, a law professor and director of the Policing Project at New York University School of Law. The Obama administration has taken a number of critical steps in police reform. The police chief in Virginia's capital has resigned following weeks of citywide protests in the wake of George Floyd's death. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced at a press conference that William Smith has stepped down from his post as the city's police chief at Stoney's request. "One thing is clear after the past few weeks -- Richmond is ready for a new approach to public safety," Stoney told reporters Tuesday. "There is work to be done, and were ready to do it." MORE: Multiple Atlanta police officers have resigned in recent weeks amid protests Smith, who didn't attend Tuesday's press conference, was nearing his one-year anniversary as police chief after being with the Richmond Police Department for 23 years, according to Richmond ABC affiliate WRIC. "Chief Smith is a good man," the mayor added. "He has served this city for a very long time. He has put his heart and soul into the service of the police department, and to this city, and I thank him for his service." PHOTO: Protesters surround the police head quarters, calling for an end to police brutality and racial injustice, in Richmond, Virginia, on June 14, 2020. (Eze Amos/Getty Images) Stoney named Maj. William "Jody" Blackwell as interim chief of the Richmond Police Department. "Interim Chief Blackwell is willing and able to focus on the necessary public safety reforms," Stoney said. "He will lead our healing and trust-building within our community." MORE: Protesters tear down statue of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis The announcement comes on the heels of tense demonstrations and repeated clashes between protesters and police officers. Richmond police have been criticized for deploying chemical irritants and rubber bullets, including one incident on June 1, when officers reportedly fired tear gas at a peaceful group of demonstrators about half an hour before the mayor's mandated curfew went into effect. Three advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia, sent a letter on Monday to Richmond's mayor, police chief and commonwealth's attorney raising concerns over the "escalation of violence against protesters." Story continues PHOTO: Thousands of protesters take to the streets for the 5,000 Man March in Richmond, Virginia, on June 13, 2020. (Eze Amos/Getty Images) Protests against police brutality and racial injustice erupted in cities across the United States and around the world following Floyd's death while in police custody. The unarmed 46-year-old black man died in Minneapolis on May 25, shortly after a white police officer was filmed kneeling on his neck as three other officers stood by. The officer who prosecutors say pinned Floyd down for nearly nine minutes, Derek Chauvin, has since been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers each have been charged with second-degree aiding and abetting felony murder as well as second-degree aiding and abetting manslaughter. Hundreds of protesters converged outside the Richmond Police Department headquarters on Monday for the second night in a row. Officers reportedly used chemical irritants, flash-bangs and rubber bullets to disperse the angry crowds. "I have high expectations for the Richmond Police Department, our law enforcement. At a very minimum, I expect them to be willing to come around the table with the community to reform and reimagine public safety," the mayor told reporters Tuesday. "So it boils down to whether the leadership of RPD embraces the change or stands in the way." Richmond mayor forces police chief to resign amid citywide protests originally appeared on abcnews.go.com The Spirit Of the Confederacy statue was removed from the Sam Houston Park around 11 p.m. Tuesday night. The statue, erected in 1908 by the Robert E. Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, is being moved to the Houston Museum of African American Culture. Mayor Sylvester Turner announced on June 11 that the statue, as well as a marble statue of Confederate soldier Richard "Dick" Dowling, would be removed from their respective parks by June 19. June 19 is more than just another Friday, as the Juneteenth holiday marks the day in 1865 that slaves in Texas first learned they had been freed under the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier. OPINION: Houston is right to choose Juneteenth over Dick Dowling Confederate monument The Dowling statue is currently located in Hermann Park. For now, it will be moved and stored in a warehouse, instead of the originally planned Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site in Port Arthur. While some officials may feel the moving of the statues are a good idea, some city leaders are opposed, with Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bill Bartie saying he will attempt to block the moving of the Dowling statue. I think thats totally disrespectful for some society to make a decision for something to be placed here during a time that we are in civil unrest, Bartie told the Beaumont Enterprise. I would wish that they would rethink that. Im speaking for the people of Port Arthur not just blacks, for whites and browns and everybody. Houston Chronicle reported that the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis sparked nationwide calls to rename military bases and reignited the debate over whether to remove Confederate statues and monuments. EU calls on US to reverse 'unacceptable' ICC sanctions amid war crimes probe Iran Press TV Tuesday, 16 June 2020 5:07 PM The EU foreign policy chief has urged Washington to reverse its "unacceptable and unprecedented" sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) officials investigating US troops, as it conducts a probe into wartime atrocities in Afghanistan. "The European Union expresses grave concern about the announced measures and reconfirms its unwavering support for the International Criminal Court," EU foreign affairs high representative Josep Borrell said in a statement on Tuesday. Borrell has previously expressed "serious concern" over US President Donald Trump's order to impose sanctions on ICC officials. Trump issued an executive order on Thursday to force the Hague-based tribunal out of the investigation into potential war crimes by US military and intelligence officials in the Asian country. He said the United States would block all American property and assets of anyone in the ICC involved in the probe. Trump administration officials accuse the ICC of infringing upon American national sovereignty and accuse Russia of manipulating the court. Rights campaigners strongly denounced Trump's executive order. Human Rights Watch said that it "demonstrates contempt for the global rule of law." ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda wants to investigate possible crimes committed between 2003 and 2014, including alleged mass killings of civilians by the Taliban, as well as US troops and members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The ICC investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan was given the go-ahead in March. Bensouda's move angered Washington, which in April last year revoked the Gambian-born chief prosecutor's visa as part of broader restrictions on ICC staff probing American or allied personnel. Former US national security adviser John Bolton warned in 2018 that the US would arrest ICC judges if the court pursued an Afghan probe. The US invaded Afghanistan to overthrow a ruling Taliban regime in 2001. However, American forces have since remained bogged down in the country through the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump. About 2,400 US soldiers have been killed, along with unknown tens of thousands of Afghan troops, civilians and Taliban militants. America has spent more than $1 trillion in fighting in Afghanistan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Norths bellicose moves a major setback for reconciliation and could further complicate already stalled nuclear talks. North Korea said on Wednesday it would redeploy troops to demilitarised border areas, rejecting South Koreas offer to send special envoys to ease tensions and effectively ending 2018 reconciliation efforts. The moves, reported by state news agency KCNA, came a day after Pyongyang destroyed the joint liaison office that had been set up in the border town of Kaesong as part of the peace agreements, and drew a strong rebuke from South Koreas presidential office. South Koreas President Moon Jae-in on Monday offered to send his national security adviser Chung Eui-yong and spy chief Suh Hoon to Pyongyang as special envoys, and urged Pyongyang to return to dialogue. But Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a senior governing party official, flatly rejected the tactless and sinister proposal, according to KCNA. Kim ridiculed Moons offer and accused him of using envoys to tide over crises and suggesting preposterous proposals, KCNA said. The solution to the present crisis between the North and the South caused by the incompetence and irresponsibility of the South Korean authorities is impossible and it can be terminated only when the proper price is paid. In response, Moons office said the South would no longer accept unreasonable behaviour by the North. Yoon Do-han, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House, said Kims criticism of Moon was rude and senseless and fundamentally damaged the trust built by the two leaders. South Korean army soldiers on the back of trucks in Paju, near the border with North Korea on Wednesday amid rising tensions between the two countries [Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo] The escalation, undoing cross-border peace deals linked to economic development, would be a major setback to Moons bid for more lasting reconciliation with North Korea, and would further complicate already stalled US-led efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile programmes. Kim Yo Jong also harshly criticised Moon in another KCNA statement, saying he had turned inter-Korean ties into a US puppet. In the eyes of the Kims, Moons administration gave too much false hope that it would defy US pressure to move their relations forward, Chun Yung-woo, a former South Korean nuclear envoy, told Reuters news agency. Troop moves In a separate KCNA report on Wednesday, a spokesman for the General Staff of the (North) Korean Peoples Army (KPA) said the country would dispatch troops to Mount Kumgang and Kaesong near the border, where the two Koreas previously carried out joint economic projects. Police posts that had been withdrawn from the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) would be reinstalled, while artillery units near the western sea border where defectors frequently send leaflets would be reinforced with the readiness alert heightened to the level of top-class combat duty, the spokesman said. South Koreas defence ministry warned of the dangers of military action. These moves thwart two decades of efforts by South and North Korea to improve inter-Korean relations and to keep peace on the Korean peninsular, Jeon Dong-jin, director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. If the North actually takes such a a move, it will certainly pay the price for it. NEW: North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun leads with the demolition of Kaesong Liaison Office at the top of page two. pic.twitter.com/sVPx7buBNC NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) June 16, 2020 The KPA said on Tuesday it had been studying an action plan to re-enter zones that had been demilitarised under a 2018 inter-Korean military pact and turn the front line into a fortress. Seouls defence ministry has urged North Korea to abide by the agreement, under which both sides agreed to cease all hostile acts and dismantled a number of structures along the DMZ. Monday marked the 20th anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit. Moon expressed regret that North Korea-US and inter-Korean relations had not progressed as hoped. This weeks events have largely ended several years of progress towards detente on the Korean penninsula. The destruction of the liaison office was a way for the North Korean government to say we do what we say, and at the same time amplify its propaganda efforts by showing the photos of the explosion, said Shin Beom-chul, a North Korea analyst based in Seoul. I think North Korea has chosen a hard-line approach because by choosing to take a tough stance against the US, it may have come to believe that there is nothing to gain from South Korea anymore North Korea is releasing its pent-up dissatisfaction against South Korea. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 07:27 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf514b1 1 World #COVID19,COVID-19,economy,#economy,business,#business,travel-bubble,#travel-bubbles,Indonesia,#Indonesia,Australia,#Australia,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,tourism,#tourism Free As neighbors begin talks on reopening borders, Indonesia is aiming to create travel bubbles with China, South Korea, Japan and Australia, despite COVID-19 infections nationwide showing no signs of slowing down. Earlier this month, Singapore said it would announce a "fast lane" arrangement with China, while Thailand was in talks to create travel bubbles for tourism that would allow the quarantine-free flow of people between Bangkok and few cities in China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said Indonesia was paying close attention to the trend, but officials were still discussing ways to have such a "travel corridor". The term travel bubble or travel corridor refers to an agreement in which countries that are successfully containing the outbreak can open their borders to each other to allow free movement within the bubble. We are exploring what [foreign] countries are discussing over travel corridor arrangements, but in essence, we are now working on the principles the Indonesian government needs to have if we implement [a travel corridor], Teuku said recently. The Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister has been discussing the issue with the Foreign Ministry, as well as the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, with an official saying that they had specifically looked to China, South Korea, Japan and Australia to boost Indonesias tourism recovery. The four countries were chosen because many tourists and foreign investors in Indonesia come from those countries, the offices undersecretary for tourism and creative economy, Odo Manuhutu, said on Friday. Despite the plan, he said businesspeople would probably be the first and only ones to travel to and from those countries in the near future. Hopefully, tourists will gradually follow and visit [Indonesia] after the investors," he said. Read also: Worst period ever: Indonesias foreign tourist arrivals fall to lowest level since 2009 The Foreign Ministry, Odo said, was still discussing the requirements for the establishment of travel bubbles before signing an agreement with the four countries. Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Gary Quinlan said travel restrictions caused by the pandemic had greatly affected the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), a landmark trade deal that had been in negotiations for a decade. After being ratified earlier this year, the agreement will take effect on July 5. We've already lost a tremendous amount of momentum in our economies because of our economic crises caused by the pandemic, Quinlan said recently. Even though businesspeople could work remotely during the pandemic, the travel restrictions remained a problem affecting the economic ties of the two neighbors, he added. I think certainly my own government realizes that when we move to lift travel restrictions [] we have with Indonesia, business travelers who need to do business to get our economies working should be a priority. He said international students would be their next priority, while tourism would still need more time to rebuild, as interest in visiting Indonesia remained high among Australians. Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) deputy chairwoman Shinta Kamdani said businesses had been gearing for the IA-CEPA trade deal through virtual meetings. But it is not possible to do virtual meetings all the time. We need to have policies on how we could move beyond virtual meetings and under what conditions. Probably, there would be exceptions [for essential businesses to freely and safely travel across borders], she said. Many countries, including Indonesia, currently require a 14-day quarantine for international arrivals, which, according to Shinta, was just too long for a business trip. Read also: AP II sees passenger numbers surge as travel restrictions ease Lawmaker Meutya Hafid called on the government to act quickly to prevent Indonesia from being left behind. The concept of doing business and [international] traveling will greatly change in the future, and Indonesia must conduct massive lobbying to ensure it is not left behind [in the global arena], especially in terms of people-to-people interactions, she said. Epidemiologist Dicky Budiman, however, said Indonesia was not up to par with China, Australia, South Korea and Japan in terms of its COVID-19 response, let alone creating travel bubbles. "The idea of travel bubbles, or COVID-19 corridors, is actually opening borders or entrances between countries that are equal in terms of pandemic control while having strong economic and tourism relations. There's a certain level of trust there," he said on Tuesday. He added that the basis to negotiate the travel bubble was when countries had no new cases, and currently in the Asia Pacific region, only Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan meet the criteria. Meanwhile, in ASEAN, he said, only Vietnam and Thailand were so far fit for the plan to create travel bubbles. Indonesias daily infection rate has increased by around 1,000 new cases on average in the past week. The Health Ministry announced 1,017 new confirmed cases on Monday, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 39,294. For Indonesia, the most realistic plan is to have strict COVID-19 control in selected islands such as Bali but only after authorities expanded and improved testing, tracing and isolation within the next month, Dicky said. "The government has to work extra hard to control the pandemic with massive and aggressive testing and tracing, as well as measures to isolate and treat [patients] so that economic recovery and reopening tourism are possible," he said. GREENWICH, Conn., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gramercy Funds Management today announced that the firm has expanded its presence in London with the hiring of two experienced research analysts through its affiliated entity Gramercy Ltd. Tolu Alamutu joined as Senior Vice President in June 2020 and James Barry joined as Vice President in November 2019. Both report to Philip Meier, Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets Debt. "The addition of Tolu and James to our research team not only strengthens Gramercy's research capabilities, particularly in the critical regions of CEEMEA and Asia, but also reaffirms our commitment to increasing our footprint in London and Europe more broadly," said Meier. "Despite the recent market disruptions we have seen a positive impact to portfolios and we look forward to continued opportunities in a post-COVID environment." Prior to joining Gramercy, Ms. Alamutu was with Tellimer (formerly Exotix) as a Credit Research Analyst, where she led the coverage of CEEMEA Financials. Most recently, Mr. Barry was at Citigroup Global Markets where he was responsible for leading coverage of CEEMEA Corporates. "The growth of the London team positions us for continued success as we move forward in our third decade as a firm," said Robert Koenigsberger, Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer for Gramercy. "Our investors recognize the significance of London in emerging markets investing and we are pleased to add skilled analysts whose insights will positively impact their portfolios" Ms. Alamutu holds a B.Sc. in Economics from London School of Economics and is a CFA Charter holder. Mr. Barry holds a Masters in Finance from the University of Durham and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Politics. About Gramercy Funds Management Gramercy is a dedicated emerging markets investment manager based in Greenwich, CT with offices in London and Buenos Aires. The $4.6 billion firm, founded in 1998, seeks to provide investors with superior risk-adjusted returns through a comprehensive approach to emerging markets supported by a transparent and robust institutional platform. Gramercy offers both alternative and long-only strategies across emerging markets asset classes including capital solutions, private credit, distressed debt, USD and local currency debt, high yield/corporate debt, and special situations. Gramercy is a Registered Investment Adviser with the SEC and a Signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI). Gramercy Ltd, an affiliate, is registered with the FCA. For more information, please visit www.gramercy.com SOURCE Gramercy Funds Management LLC One of the more outre suggestions for combatting the COVID-19 virus is to zap it with ultraviolet (UV) light. To many, this idea is more than a little bizarre. Does this mean that sick patients should inhale miniature black-light bulbs to sterilize their lungs from the inside? Clearly not. But its true that ultraviolet light is highly energetic, able to fade the paint on your car or the dyes in your carpet. And its also true that it can wipe out microbes. Think of the robots with UV lamps that roll down the aisles at Whole Foods to dispatch any viruses on the shelves, or the lights used to sterilize airplane toilets and subway cars. But aside from the long-standing relevance to public health, the vulnerability of viruses and bacteria to ultraviolet light raises a puzzling question. Today, Earths atmosphere has an ozone layer, which wafts invisibly about 10 20 miles above your head. Ozone is a molecule composed of three oxygen atoms, and it blocks a majority of the UV light radiated by the Sun. Of course, thats a good thing. Without these airborne O3 molecules, much of the life on Earth would be under ceaseless radiative attack. About three dozen years ago the ozone layer began to thin out above the poles, a disturbing development that prompted the World Health Organization to warn that a significant increase in human skin cancer was on the way. Fortunately, in an exemplary display of global cooperation, a reduced use of chlorofluorocarbons has largely mitigated this threat. But heres the head scratcher. Turn your thoughts back 3-1/2 billion years to the early Archean Eon, when life first made its appearance on this planet. There wasnt an ozone layer, and indeed, there was little oxygen of any sort in our atmosphere. And yet there were microbes, and they had to deal with the Suns harsh UV. If they hadnt evolved some sort of defense, their descendants wouldnt have been around to see the ozone layer finally form, billions of years later. They wouldnt have survived to eventually produce every species thats inhabited this world, including humans. Understanding how they fought and won their battle against harsh UV is more than a thesis topic for biology grad students. There are a trillion planets in the Milky Way, and most will be orbiting stars that churn out ultraviolet. Understanding how Earths early life forms withstood a dangerous environment will give insight into the likelihood that other worlds are also bespread with biology. Its a problem that has long intrigued Lynn Rothschild, an evolutionary and synthetic biologist at NASAs Ames Research Center in California. She points out that microscopic organisms have developed several strategies to deal with UV. The long-wave ultraviolet, which would be just beyond purple in the rainbow, doesnt wreak havoc directly, she says. But it reacts with other compounds in your environment to produce oxidants. These can cause harm to DNA, proteins, and fats (lipids). Its an attack on organisms, but its a secondary attack. At shorter wavelengths, the damage becomes more direct. The energetic UV can mess up the base pairs that form the rungs of DNA, or even break the double helix itself. Bad news. However, the microbes have an array of defenses against these assaults. The first, and most straightforward, is to simply get out of the way. Just as humans forestall ultraviolet exposure by putting on a hat or SPF 50 sunscreen, bacteria can travel down into the soil or the ocean to shield themselves. Another approach is to scavenge for certain metabolites, proteins that are essential to metabolism, to work as antioxidants to counteract the damage wreaked by aggressive oxygen compounds. In other words, bring in some chemical allies. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Still another defense is to make pigments that absorb the radiation, rather than allowing it to rampage through your tissues. Melanin is such a pigment, and one your body uses to get a tan and avoid more sunburn. Microbes deploy this and other pigments. Finally, some organisms have the ability to repair severe forms of ionizing damage. They can fix the harm. This is obviously a sophisticated defense. Theres no doubt that ultraviolet light can be bad news for living things. For people, it can cause painful sunburns or even skin cancer, although they need some exposure to keep vitamin D levels up. For a microbe or virus, ultraviolet can spell game over. But the fact that life has evolved so many lines of defense over the past 3 billion years tells us something important. Sure, the universe is a dangerous place, and being in the neighborhood of any star puts you in harms way. And if Nature had produced only one adaptation to deflect this threat, one might argue that this defensive strategy was a miracle, a highly unlikely development. One could then argue that Earth might be the only world with life. But the existence of multiple strategies tells us something different: Life can and nearly always will find a way. Dr. Seth Shostak is a Senior Astronomer and SETI Institute Fellow RELATED: The early news reports of the COVID-19 death of Leonard Rodriques, 61, distilled his life into a sterile personal support worker victim number 5. Dorothy, the love of his life and wife of 33 years, still bristles at the headlines. But today shes confronting the awful reality of her husbands demise: alone, unsupported, discarded like a dog, and worse, certainly in Lens mind, reduced to ashes. For a month Dorothy, her daughter Terena, 27, and son, Temall, 28, had lived and battled the coronavirus raging inside their hero. Yet, when Len died, even the funeral home wouldnt accept their presence at his farewell. We are like the leprosy family, she tells the Star. It kills me because Len didnt believe in cremation. But they wouldnt let us attend. There was nobody there to see him off, oh God. He came into the world, and just left like a nobody. For almost three decades Leonard Rodriques cared for the residents spread across several floors of a government-funded apartment complex on Eglinton Avenue West. Cognitively or physically impaired, they leaned on him to live independently. He cooked for them, fed them, washed their bodies, groomed them, shopped for them. If their wheelchair or appliances needed fixing, Len fixed them, job description be damned. Then he went home to Dorothy and three kids at the end of a 12-hour shift, contented. He loved his job. The residents loved him. It was the same with his neighbours the broken lawnmowers fixed, climbing on the ladder to rescue the giant vegetables the Italians grew; ditto the fellow PSWs whose cars he repaired; or tackling his wifes kitchen makeover. He always said, Im here for the needy, not the greedy, Dorothy recalls. Len was a personal support worker the people who clean the crap and are treated as such. The PSW an essential, front-line worker tending to societys compromised, weak, frail and elderly doesnt engender respect or recognition or value on the health-care spectrum. Thats an established fact. COVID-19 removed any doubt. Leonard Rodriquess story should trigger our most thorough and unencumbered public inquiry into a system that claims to care while discarding one of its most caring. There was anxiety in his voice the day Len called Dorothy from work. There is this memo on the notice board that a staff member has tested positive for COVID-19, he told her. You would think they would tell us. What if I worked with that person? They should have called me so I could prepare myself. These people are playing with my life, he told her. The memo wasnt accompanied by masks, gloves and personal protective equipment (PPE), the standard ammunition in the so-called war against COVID. Rodriquess boss said the few he had were being kept in case staff and residents get the disease. But staff were already contracting the disease. So Len would don his Dollar Store mask. The next day Len called Dorothy again. He complained of weakness, his legs giving out from under him. He reported it to the ministry of health and was told to quarantine at home for 14 days. He did. He got worse. He was tested at the decommissioned hospital at Finch and 404. But they refused to test his daughter Terena, now fearful she and the household might be exposed. She went home confused, crying. The results came back positive and he was in quarantine for another 14 days. As Len deteriorated, the run of the virus unchecked by the only remedy available to Dorothy a home-made concoction of bush tea and herbs and greens and brews recommended by miracle workers the desperate family called 911. But EMS wouldnt send an ambulance. A public health nurse did a phone assessment. Len could barely answer the questions, his breathing compromised. She was telling the kids to get him onto the floor, do chest compressions, Dorothy recalls. I said, Youre planning to kill off the whole family. In the chaos, panicked, her son Temall did mouth-to-mouth on his dad to blow air into his fathers lungs. Nothing worked. If Len were to get to the hospital, the family would have to take him themselves, so Dorothy got him into the family van and drove to Humber River Regional Hospital. Len complained all the way, begging her not to take him there. He had a visceral fear that white people meant him no good, that if he went to the hospital he would not get proper care. He had seen enough movies and videos and news reports of the treatment of Black people in the U.S. during COVID and before. He was paranoid, yes, admits Dorothy. But this is also his reality, in 2020 Toronto. Dorothy expected to accompany Leonard into the hospital at Humber River. No chance. She had to leave him at the curb and he was beckoned inside terrified of his plight. Theyll just put you on a ventilator and leave you to die, he had told Dorothy. Let me die in my bed. But Dorothy figured the hospital would take care of one of their own. And with proper treatment they would contact her to pick him up. Hours later a cold, disoriented and furious Leonard stumbled home spitting mad that his family had abandoned him at the hospital to die. They discharged him with nothing but an anti-bacterial prescription. He had sat on the curb, waiting in the cold, thinking she was waiting nearby. Then he took a cab home. Two days later he was dead. Humber River treats all patients with courtesy and respect, offering equitable and fair treatment, framed by its anti-discrimination policies, spokesman Joe Gorman told the Stars Kate Allen. It would be five hours before his body was picked up. According to the family, EMS said wait for the coroner; then hours later police said no coroner, so find a funeral home. In the end, they were on their own. We were absolutely turned away and werent offered medical help. We used to sit and watch CNN and say, Look how they treat Black people in America. And now we see how they treat Black people. We have proof. If only the story ended there. When their union, Unifor, put up the family in a downtown hotel, so the family home could be sanitized after Rodriquess death, their family doctor sent them to Mt. Sinai to get tested. But when Dorothy, Terena and Temall showed up, the front-desk would not let them in. Testing has to be done at the testing centre. But, my husband is a PSW. (Blank stare) He was turned away from a hospital and ended up dead. We need to be tested. (Unmoved) Our doctor arranged this. Call someone to check our story. (No traction) My daughter took out her cellphone and started videotaping it. We had to raise a ruckus and tell them we are not leaving until we see someone, Dorothy said. That broke the ice. A charge nurse heard the story. A kind doctor listened to them, broke down and apologized for crying in front of them. They got tested. A few days later the hospital called to say they were all home-free and COVID negative. But their praise and worship and heavenly salutations were barely over before the phone rang again. Thered been a mistake. The women were fine, but the results for the male were lost and he had to be re-tested. Hours later, another bombshell. Ah, actually, all three have to be re-tested because all the test results were lost. You cant make this stuff up. So they were tested a second time, all the time harbouring fears that maybe somehow, daddy was right and someone was out to get them. Her daughter asked the clerk at the hospital if there is something on the Rodriques file that earmarked them for demise. This time the test results stood. Rodriques would in fact simply be PSW number 5 if his kin had not spoken out. His name has been mentioned at Queens Park as a reason the Doug Ford government should hold an independent inquiry into long-term care. Unifor president Jerry Dias has referenced him as an example of a preventable death. His workplace apparently meets or exceeds ministry of health standards. No doubt the hospitals where the family sought help and support and got little, all followed protocols. Still, the man who served us and our loved ones with distinction, died in anonymity. When the family told the story on radio station G98.7, listeners were moved to outrage and tears. These cases are all too common. Thats what so frustrating for me. Its all too avoidable, one caller said. I love my community very much So many years and it just doesnt stop. There is absolutely no accountability. There is nothing you can tell the Rodriques about the treatment of PSWs (Dorothy worked as one). Or how poorly we back our words with action to protect them. Or how little we support their families. When do we get a break? Terena recalls asking, in the midst of the Mt. Sinai testing shemozzle. In America, a Black man can be targeted for wearing a mask, murdered while jogging or for driving a car. Or shot to death, daring to resist a citizen arrest. The layers accumulate there and here. So, maybe Len was paranoid. But the most paranoid of posters does read: Just because you are paranoid doesnt mean they are not out to get you. Nearly two years after Manitobas highest court added his name to the list of the provinces wrongfully convicted, Frank Ostrowski has filed a $16-million lawsuit against those he alleges played a role in sending him to prison for 23 years for a murder he says he didn't commit. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Nearly two years after Manitobas highest court added his name to the list of the provinces wrongfully convicted, Frank Ostrowski has filed a $16-million lawsuit against those he alleges played a role in sending him to prison for 23 years for a murder he says he didn't commit. Ostrowski, 70, was convicted in 1987 of orchestrating the drug-related shooting death of 22-year-old Robert Nieman and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. In 2018, nine years after he was released on bail pending a federal review of his case, the Manitoba Court of Appeal stayed Ostrowskis murder conviction ruling an undisclosed prosecution deal with police informant Matthew Lovelace, in return for his testimony, resulted in a miscarriage of justice. Also not disclosed to the defence were notes and a report from a Winnipeg Police Service officer, Sgt. N. Jacobson, who had a phone conversation with the informant a few hours before the slaying, during which Lovelace identified another man, not Nieman, as the target of a shooting. A statement of claim filed Monday names 12 defendants, including the Attorney General of Canada, retired Manitoba judge Judith Webster, veteran defence lawyer Hymie Weinstein and former Winnipeg police chief Herb Stephen. The lawsuit alleges the defendants "willfully disregarded" Ostrowskis constitutional right to make full answer and defence to the charges against him. "The conduct of the defendants was malicious, high-handed, outrageous, reckless, wanton, entirely without care, intentional," alleges the lawsuit. Reached by phone, Ostrowski declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying only, "Its a long time coming," before referring a reporter to his lawyer. The senior prosecutor in the case was George Dangerfield, the same prosecutor tied to the wrongful convictions of Kyle Unger, James Driskell and Thomas Sophonow. In 1986, Weinstein was representing Lovelace on drug trafficking charges when he made a deal with federal prosecutors to stay the charges if Lovelace testified against Ostrowski. At Ostrowskis 2009 bail hearing, Weinstein testified he asked that no one tell Lovelace of the deal at the time, as it would "taint his evidence." At a hearing before the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 2017, Webster a federal prosecutor in 1986 testified she had "no memory" of the Ostrowski file, and said she did not know specific details of the deal with Lovelace. 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. Another then-federal prosecutor assigned to the case died one day after testifying before the Manitoba Court of Appeal in November 2016. An obituary notice in the Free Press makes no mention of the cause of death. "The federal Crowns, Weinstein and (Jake) Haasbeek (a city police officer and defendant involved in Lovelaces initial arrest) ignored that the Lovelace deal was subject to confirmation with the provincial Crown," says the lawsuit. "The federal Crowns, Weinstein, and Haasbeek never advised or sought permission from the provincial Crowns about the Lovelace deal. They treated the Lovelace deal as if it was an unconditional three-party agreement." At Ostrowskis trial, Dangerfield, who is not a named defendant, "presented Lovelace to the jury as reformed and having decide to get out of the criminal underworld and to live a legitimate lifestyle," says the lawsuit. "According to Dangerfield, his motive for testifying was therefore purely altruistic." Ostrowski was convicted of trafficking in 1992, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. But for his murder conviction, he would have been eligible for day parole after serving 2 1/2 years, says the lawsuit. The allegations have not been proven in court and no statements of defence have been filed. dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca Gibraltar in 100th Anniversary Issue of Commonwealth Magazine The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia has said that Gibraltar has a clear willingness to use our uniqueness to our advantage as we carve out our own destiny and our own place in the world. He added that those values are, inevitably, shaped by our experiences of the past and our hopes for the future. These comments have come in a contribution to the 100th anniversary issue of The Parliamentarian which is the journal of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA). The CPA was founded in 1911 and is the parliamentary wing of the Commonwealth. Its membership is made up of CPA Branches in 180 Commonwealth Parliaments and Legislatures at national, state, provincial and territorial levels and it offers a vast opportunity for Parliamentarians to collaborate on issues of mutual interest and to share good practice. The 100th anniversary edition of The Parliamentarian carries a four page feature on Gibraltar and its links with the Commonwealth. This consists of an article headed Building Commonwealth links in the post-Brexit World: A view from Gibraltar, by the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia. A further article covers the Commonwealth Roadshow that was held in Gibraltar by then Acting Secretary General Mr Jarvis Matiya. In his article, which is based on an address to young people at Bayside School, Dr Garcia said that the raising of the flag of the Commonwealth at different locations around Gibraltar was a simple act which carried a serious political message. Like many of our friends across the Commonwealth, Gibraltarians boast a unique cultural identity. We have lived on this Rock for more than three hundred years. We are a British Overseas Territory, a modern nation in our own right, he argued. The Deputy Chief Minister, who is the Minister for relations with the Commonwealth, pointed out that Gibraltar was proud of its long and historic relationship with the institutions and organisations of the Commonwealth. The Parliamentarian is distributed to thousands of Commonwealth Members of Parliament all over the world. https://issuu.com/theparliamentarian/docs/theparliamentarian2020issueonefinalonlinesingle/s/10348927 On May 15, India forced Pakistan to release Indian High Commission officials who were detained after it claimed that they were involved in a hit-and-run accident. The MEA has denied their involvement and condemned the detention. This comes weeks after Indian diplomat Gaurav Ahluwalia was tailed and harassed by ISI staff in Islamabad. Read: Coronavirus Cases In Pakistan Cross 1,50,000-mark; Death Toll Reaches 2,975 Read: Robbers In Pakistan Return What They Stole To A Delivery Boy; Hug Latter As He Breaks Down Here is how India is taking on Pakistan: SLAMMED PAKISTAN FOR RAISING KASHMIR AT UNHRC: On June 16, at the 43rd session of UNHRC, First Secretary of India's Permanent Mission Senthil Kumar slammed Pakistan for raising Kashmir while sponsoring genocide and forced disappearances in Balochistan INDIA CAUGHT PAKISTANS SPIES: On May 31, Ministry of External Affairs confirmed apprehending two officials of Pakistan red-handed for espionage activities FLAGGING LETs TERROR ACTIVITIES IN J&K: India is gearing up to take on Pakistan in the upcoming Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which will be held on June 24 with respect to Lakshar-e-Taibas activities in Jammu and Kashmir. UN HAS EXPOSED PAKISTANS TERROR: On June 3, a United Nations report has stated that Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba have been trafficking terrorists into Afghanistan. MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava reiterated, "This vindicates Indias long-standing position that Pakistan remains the epicentre of international terrorism FAKE SPY CASE GOT EXPOSED: On June 15, India exposed Pakistan's misinformation campaign where it claimed to have caught Indian spies in Pakistan but the two individuals--Noor Mohammed Wani and Firoz Ahmed Lone--in fact Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists. TERROR LAUNCHPADS ARE DESTROYED: Indian army on May 15 destroyed terror launchpads and killed 13 terrorists in opposite the Line of Control in the Mendhar sector of Poonch district. BLACKOUT IN KARACHI: On June 11, Pakistani twitter handles were filled with news of a blackout in Karachi after Pakistan Air Force planes started intense patrolling after speculating over an airstrike by Indian Air Force. Read: MEA Summons Pakistan's Charge DAffaires Over Harassment Of Indian Diplomats In Islamabad Read: India Calls Out Pakistan's Poor Record On Human Rights, Role In Global Terror At UNHRC George W. Bush will break his usual disassociation with politics since leaving office to participate in a fundraiser this month for some of the Senate's most vulnerable Republicans. In the Save the Senate event, the 43rd U.S. president will join a discussion with Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Martha McSally of Arizona and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. There are only two tiers of tickets available for the round table discussion attendee for $2,800 per head and $25,000 for VIP and, according to the invitation, 'space is extremely limited.' The virtual event, scheduled for June 30, will be hosted by Indiana Senator Todd Young, who serves as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Purchasing the different levels of tickets will grant attendees access to two separate events, with the VIP one live streaming from 6:30-7:00 p.m. that Tuesday and general contributors earning a spot at the 7:00 - 7:30 p.m. discussion. Bush's intervention is a rare break from his low key participation in anything political. Three of the senators featured at the event, Collins, Gardner and Tillis, are all facing fierce reelection efforts in November. Former President George W. Bush will make a rare political appearance at a fundraiser for Republican senators' reelection efforts to try and maintain a GOP majority in the upper chamber of Congress The usually low key former president will be the headliner at the virtual roundtable where VIP tickets are going for $25,000 and 'space is extremely limited' Three of the featured senators at the round table are those facing fierce reelection efforts: Cory Gardner of Colorado (left), Susan Collins of Maine (center) and Thom Tillis of North Carolina (right) With 53 Republicans currently serving in the Senate, the GOP is only three seats away from losing its majority. Collins, a moderate who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997, has come under fire after she became one of the few Republican holdouts who could have prevented the controversial confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She admitted during the confirmation process that she was on the fence about his nomination, leading to pressure from Democrats for her to break with her party. In a recent Supreme Cort ruling, that criticism against Collins has resurrected after Kavnaugh dissented in a gay rights case in which even other conservative judges ruled in favor. Garder is widely considered the most susceptible Senate Republican to losing his seat in November. Colorado is a blue state that went 48.2 per cent to Hillary Clinton in 2016 compared to the 43.3 per cent that voted for Trump. Thom Tillis secured his spot as a vulnerable senator after narrowly winning his primary on Super Tuesday and jumped on board with President Trump pushing the 'Obamagate' conspiracy. Republicans are committed more to protecting their majority in the Senate rather than aiming to earn back control in the House. The caucus launched an ad campaign this week aimed at protecting these three most vulnerable members. In the 2018 midterm elections, Bush Jr. also felt compelled to get involved. He fundraised and campaigned for several GOP lawmakers as they fought to maintain their majority in the House and Senate losing their control in the lower chamber after several districts flipped blue. Recently Bush has also been vocal about his criticism of his successors handling of race relations in the U.S. after weeks of protests and riots broke out nationwide following the death of George Floyd last month. In 2018, an institute of marine ecology under Hainan Academy of Ocean and Fisheries Sciences in south Chinas Hainan Province was given a novel task planting seagrasses on the ocean floor. Researchers of the institute restore seagrass meadows. (Photo courtesy of an institute of marine ecology under Hainan Academy of Ocean and Fisheries Sciences) This was because earlier that year, Hainan decided to restore eco-environment in Qinglan port, Wenchang city, in the northeast corner of Hainan Island, which was previously destroyed by channel expansion and sea reclamation. The task of restoring seagrass resources was one part of the restoration projects. In recent years, land-based pollution and a large amount of suspended sediments from offshore projects have entered the sea, causing natural wetlands to diminish and seagrass beds to vanish at a faster pace. Without seagrass beds, the basic vegetation under the sea, the sea floor was turning into a desert. The loss of seagrass beds has exerted an enormous impact on marine ecology, Wu Zhongjie, director of the institute told the Peoples Daily. This is because seagrass beds boost the circulation of marine life in the ecological environment, while purifying ocean water by absorbing the sediments, Wu added. Seagrass beds in the channel of Qinglan port in Gaolong Bay have suffered continuous degradation these years. According to local fishermen, seagrasses were fairly lush in the 1980s. One-meter-long enhalus acoroides could be seen everywhere while Thalassia hemprichii sprawled in shallow waters. However, the degradation of the seagrass beds has caused the loss of shelters of many fish, biodiversity loss and decrease in the species density. The fishermen now find it more difficult to catch the fish in nearshore waters than before. Later, the decision to restore a barren area of the sea floor in Gaolong Bay was made according to a research, for the area was covered mainly by coral reef debris and sediments. The institute tried different species of seagrasses, such as Enhalus acoroides, Thalassia hemprichii and Cymodocea rotundata, and tested and analyzed their survival rate and growth. Then Enhalus acoroides and Thalassia hemprichii were chosen as the species for trial based on a comprehensive analysis. The next step was to decide how to cultivate grass. The institute came up with a two-prong method. One part is about transplantation. The researchers first planted the seagrasses in different man-made carriers made of coconut shell, clay and bamboo, and then placed these carriers with seagrasses in the barren area deep down the sea. The other part of the method was focused on restoring ecological environment in a more natural way. The researchers planted the seeds of Thalassia hemprichii in the sea bed of nearshore areas, and applied fertilizer to them. Then the seagrasses grew spontaneously. Moreover, Chinas desert control method grid of straw squares, inspired the researchers to make a similar version, which consisted of fishing nets and iron plates. The nets, together with the grid of iron squares placed on it, could hold the sea bed together well enough to resist the currents in the sea, enable the sediments to precipitate, and capture the nutrition. As a result, both the sea floor and the seagrasses were stabilized. A researcher of the institute checks the growth of Enhalus acoroides, which is transplanted on the sea bed. (Photo courtesy of an institute of marine ecology under Hainan Academy of Ocean and Fisheries Sciences) When the sea bed is fully recovered, the nets and grid will be disassembled and recycled. The recovered seagrasses will emerge in an orderly pattern as they grow. Little by little, vast stretches of seagrass beds will be formed, Chen Shiquan, a key member on the research team, explained to the Peoples Daily. Seagrass beds serve as a natural ecological barrier for coastal areas. In the coral reef-mangrove-seagrass complex, often been described as one of the most biologically diverse and productive systems in the world, seagrasses support and link the other two, said Chen. Chen added that long stretches of seagrass meadows could weaken wave energy and current energy and stabilize sea bed, which play an important part in consolidating the sea bed and maintaining the coastline. The institute announced in March that in the one-mu pilot area (1 hectare is 15 mu), the average survival rate of Thalassia hemprichii exceeded 56 percent, with an average coverage rate above five percent. The results of Enhalus acoroides were even better, with an average survival rate exceeding 89 percent, and an average coverage rate above 22 percent. In the next month, ecological restoration in Qinglan Port passed a third-party evaluation. Seagrass meadows, a typical eco-system in tropical ocean, provide marine life with shelters, nutrition, and nurseries. They are also the gene pool and home to rich fishery resources. The successful restoration carries great significance for ecology, Chen remarked. F or film fans looking to catch up with those movies they missed before cinemas closed, Rakuten TV is something of a godsend. The streaming service which we recently picked as one our best alternatives to Netflix works best for catching up with recent releases you might have just missed during their initial run. Besides that, there have been plenty of brand new releases added too films that should have made cinemas, in a normal world though there's a decent selection of classics to check out as well. Rakuten doesn't work on a monthly fee model; instead, it's more like a virtual Blockbuster (remember those?) and charges per movie, with most films available to rent for around 4.99. That said, the service does have a selection of films that can be watched for free, albeit with adverts Cosmopolis, below, is one of those. These are our picks of the 20 best movies to watch on Rakuten TV right now if youre looking for more film inspiration, check out our guides to the best films on Amazon Prime, Sky Cinema and Netflix too. Queen and Slim This sprawling road movie is as romantic as it is righteous, following a couple (Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya) on a first date whose lives are changed forever after a violent encounter with a police officer. Charlotte OSullivan praised Melina Matsoukas's debut film in her review, writing: Its both perfect for Valentines Day and the worst thing ever, because it will make you want to cry as much as kiss. Never Rarely Sometimes Always This moving and frequently funny look at love and abortion from director Eliza Hittman picked up rave reviews when it opened earlier this year, with the likes of the Standards Charlotte OSullivan tipping it for success in awards season. OSullivan said in her five-star write-up: [Hittman] knows audiences dont want to be lectured. Her film, in its own way, is as romantic and laugh-out-loud funny as Richard Linklaters Before Sunrise. Jojo Rabbit Taika Waititis oddball World War Two film tells the story of a young German boy and his imaginary friend Hitler. Together, they discover his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Its full of Waititi's signature eccentric direction, and picked up six Oscar nominations in 2019 despite dividing critics on its release. Cosmopolis This is the role that set Robert Pattinson on the path from major franchise heartthrob to indie movie aficionado. The Twilight star teamed up with director David Cronenberg, playing a billionaire asset manager on an existential drive in the back of a limo through traffic-hit Manhattan. Parasite South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, known for his work on Okja and Snowpiercer, created one of the most remarkable pieces of filmmaking of recent times with Parasite. The gripping satire follows the lives of two vastly different families whose lives entwine in increasingly sinister ways. It transcended genre and language to win the Best Picture prize at the Oscars earlier this year. The Personal History of David Copperfield Armando Ianuccis take on Dickens classic coming-of-age tale ramps up the comedy, while keeping all the heart and sensitivity of the novel. Ben Whishaw delivers one of the performances of his career as the odious Uria Heep in a brilliant ensemble cast, but its Dev Patel in the title role who adds charisma and humanity. A wonderful, life-affirming work. A Hidden Life Reiner Bajo Terrence Malick returned in 2019 with A Hidden Life a document of courage in the face of tyranny, telling the true story of an Austrian conscientious objector in the Second World War. The Standards review David Sexton described it as a work of genius, at last a justification of Malicks late style. Little Women Columbia Pictures Greta Gerwigs fresh take on one of the most significant feminist novels of the 19th century marks one of the most critically lauded literary adaptations of recent times. The director got the very best from a fantastic cast, with Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and Eliza Scanlen bringing the four March sisters from Civil War-era Boston to life. A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood Tom Hanks stars as American TV legend Fred Rogers in this great big hug of a movie, which is one of the most uplifting films of last year. Rather than a straight biopic, the film focuses on a cynical journalist who develops a unique relationship with the much-loved presenter after being tasked with profiling him for a magazine. Just Mercy Just Mercy is a heart-wrenching, powerful movie that went under the radar and missed out on awards season glory entirely, despite the well-constructed legal drama boasting moving performances from Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. Its the kind of film you meant to get round to watching in the cinema, but probably didnt the perfect example of the kind of movie that Rakuten TV works well for. Judy AP Judy Garlands final, troubled months are the focus of this biopic, which sees the fading star leave her family and head to London in an effort to reinvigorate her career. Renee Zellweger takes the title role, shedding light on the private side of a Golden Age great. The impressive Jessie Buckley also appears alongside Michael Gambon and Rufus Sewell. Vivarium This indie thriller starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots follows a couple who become trapped in a strange, labyrinthian neighbourhood, before being forced to raise a child against their will. If creepy dystopian dramas are your thing, this comes highly recommended. The Invisible Man Incredibly, this #MeToo inflected thriller marked the first ever headline film for Elizabeth Moss hard to believe after excellent performances in so many TV and film projects over the years. She stars as a woman in an emotionally abusive relationship, who seems to be haunted by the ghost of her late tech billionaire partner in this smart movie from filmmaker Leigh Whannell. 21 Bridges As Chadwick Bosemans stock as one of the most in-demand stars in Hollywood continues to rise, revisit one of his best performances in this crime drama which arrived last November. The actor plays an NYPD detective who shuts down the 21 statues of Manhattan to launch the manhunt for a pair of cop killers. The Last Black Man in San Francisco This feature debut from director Joe Talbot follows a young black protagonist who attempts to reclaim his childhood home, which has gone up in value dramatically due to gentrification in San Francisco. Charlotte OSullivan called it at once self-conscious, politically engaged, sci-fi weird and accessible in her four-star review. Monos A visceral, elemental experience from start to finish, this extraordinary film from Colombian director Alejandro Landes follows the lives of a child army living in brutal conditions, both in the exposed mountains of South America and depths of the jungle. Truly one of the most immersive and unforgettable movies of recent times, with a scale thats seen it compared to epics like Apocalypse Now. 12 Angry Men When a Puerto Rican teenager is accused of murdering his abusive father, a lone juror attempts to convince his 11 companions that their case isnt as clear cut as it seems. This classic legal drama from director Sidney Lumet explores the dangers of group mentality, the shortcoming with the democratic legal system and the strength it takes to stand up and deliver change. Mr Jones Polands leading filmmaker Agnieszka Hollands latest film follows the true story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who ventures into Soviet Union in 1933. There, he learned of the sinister truths hidden by the communist regime and uncovered details of the Holodomor famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the 30s. The film stars James Norton as the title role alongside Vanessa Kirby, Peter Sarsgaard and Game of Throness Joseph Mawle, who plays George Orwell. The Apartment In many ways, this Billy Wilder classic is the perfect movie: there are tears and laughter in equal measure, with a tenderness that never tips over into sentimentality. Jack Lemmon is perfect as the extorted businessman Bud, who falls for Shirley MacLaines Fran Kubelik in unfortunate circumstances. An ineffably beautiful film. Pain & Glory A resounding return to form for Antonio Banderas, his turn in Pedro Almodovars Pain & Glory saw him win Best Actor at Cannes. In arguably the finest performance of his career, he plays a once-successful but now ageing movie director alongside Penelope Cruz. David Sexton wrote: [Pain & Glory is] nothing less than delicious, a perfectly poised creation that has you leaving the cinema feeling better about the world in the way that good movies can do like nothing else. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau on Wednesday (June 17) discussed the prevailing COVID-19 situation. The leaders updated each other about the evolving COVID-19 situation in their countries, and also discussed the possibilities of international collaboration to address the health and economic crisis. They agreed that the India-Canada partnership can be a force for good in the post-COVID world, including for advancing humanitarian values in the global discourse. The leaders emphasised the need to strengthen multilateral institutions including the WHO and agreed to work closely together at various international fora, on health, social, economic and political issues. PM Modi also warmly appreciated the assistance extended by Canadian authorities in recent days to the Indian citizens in Canada, and for facilitating their repatriation to India. Prime Minister Trudeau similarly expressed his happiness at the facilitation offered for the return of Canadian citizens from India. The two leaders agreed to continue their mutual consultations in the coming days. They agreed that as large economies wedded to democratic values, India and Canada have a natural convergence on many global issues. According to Johns Hopkins University on Wednesday at 3:30 PM IST, India is the fourth-worst affected country in the world with 3.54 lakh COVID-19 cases, while Canada is on the 17th spot with 1.01 lakh COVID-19 infections. The UN General Assembly elected on Wednesday four new members of the Security Council for 2021 and 2022, with Canada losing out again and the battle for the African seat going to a second round. India, Mexico, Norway and Ireland were chosen as non-permanent members, while Djibouti and Kenya -- both of which failed to receive the two-thirds vote majority required to win -- will go to a second round of voting on Thursday. Canada was beaten once again for one of the Western seats, by Ireland and Norway, despite a long and star-studded campaign, a result likely to be a blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In the Asia-Pacific region, India -- which has been trying unsuccessfully to win a permanent seat in an expanded Security Council -- ran unopposed to win 184 votes out of the 192 countries that participated in the election. The result means that India will now have a seat at the same table as China, just days after the two nations disputed their Himalayan border, trading blame for a brawl that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead. Mexico, which also ran unopposed, earned 187 votes. African nations have in the past picked their own candidate but were unable to put forward a single country this time. Kenya received 113 votes against Djibouti, which got 78. Kenya boasts of enjoying the support of the African Union, but Djibouti says it should have the seat due to Nairobi's past participation on the Security Council and the principle of rotation. French-speaking Djibouti and English-speaking Kenya are both highlighting their roles in seeking peace on the Horn of Africa, as well as their contributions to UN peacekeeping options. Kenya has pointed to its welcome to refugees from Somalia and South Sudan, as well as to its support to the two countries' fragile governments. Djibouti, in turn, notes its strategic location and unusual role as a defense base for diverse countries -- France, the United States, China and Japan -- as well as its contributions in Somalia. For Europe and the Western seats, the competition was more customary. Canada -- already stung by a defeat in 2010 during its last bid for the Security Council, when the General Assembly chose Portugal instead -- was dominated by Norway, with 130 votes, and Ireland, which had 128, the minimum number required to win. Trudeau had invested heavily in the latest Security Council effort, with the defeat potentially causing him political embarrassment at home. "As we move forward, we remain committed to the goals and principles that we laid out during this campaign," Trudeau said in a statement, adding that Canada would "continue to play a vital role in advancing global cooperation and building a more peaceful, inclusive and sustainable world." - Celine Dion vs Bono - Hoping to woo delegates, both Canada and Ireland had wielded star power: Celine Dion sang in New York City to promote Canada at the UN, while U2 performed a concert in the Big Apple for Ireland. "Campaigning for a UNSC seat involves endless lobbying, entertaining and worrying that the ambassador who just promised you a vote is a liar," tweeted Richard Gowan, an expert on the world body at the International Crisis Group. Fearing fraud or manipulation, the General Assembly did not vote electronically, even though the United Nations is mostly operating virtually until the end of July due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, each of the 193 delegations had a chance to cast a secret ballot at a designated time scattered throughout the day in the famous Assembly Hall. Each new Security Council member needed to win two-thirds of the votes cast. The Security Council has 10 non-permanent members in addition to the veto-wielding Big Five -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. The General Assembly also elected Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir as its president for the 2020-21 session on Wednesday. Bozkir was the only candidate running, but Armenia, Cyprus and Greece -- all of which have historically tense relations with Turkey -- opposed him, meaning he could not be elected by consensus and nations had to cast votes. 12:24 | Lima, Jun. 17. According to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM) , the aim is to provide complimentary food support to 714,000 people that live in the 200,000 most vulnerable households, located in more than 4,000 human settlements without basic services. Municipalities in coordination with social organizations will identify the blocks and households, as they monitor the food distribution. In addition, the agenda includes working meetings with the Comptroller General of the Republic, as well as representatives of the private sector and churches, who will join the initiative. The priority districts because of their vulnerable populations are Ventanilla, Mi Peru, Ancon, Santa Rosa, Comas, Puente Piedra, Carabayllo, Independencia, Rimac, San Martin de Porres, San Juan de Lurigancho, and Cieneguilla. The list also includes Lurigancho-Chosica, Ate, San Juan de Miraflores, Villa Maria del Triunfo, Villa El Salvador, Chorrillos, Pachacamac, Lurin, Punta Negra, Punta Hermosa, San Bartolo, and Pucusana. Actor Ayushmann Khurrana hopes that the recent suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput ushers in a renewed debate about mental health, and the callousness with which it is treated in India. In a conversation with Time magazine, the actor said that he felt a kinship with Sushant, as theyd both made the move from the television industry to films. It is really unfortunate, and I have known him since my TV days, Ayushmann said. I think we were one of the few actors who made that shift from television to films in India, which is not easy. Dont have much to say. Dont want to post that smiling selfie with you. So much of potential.. gone too soon. #RIPSushant Ayushmann Khurrana (@ayushmannk) June 14, 2020 Ayushmann admitted that he hadnt spoken to Sushant in the past year, but was shocked when he heard the news of his death. Sushant died on Sunday, at the age of 34. He was reportedly suffering from depression. You never know what is going on behind that smile, or that social media post, Ayushmann said, calling for greater attention to be paid to mental health in India. We dont take mental health seriously. In India, we are very callous about it. Till the time there is a real, physical disease, they dont raise an issue about it. They dont realise that a person could be terminally mentally ill, and just putting up a facade for the outside world. Also read: Anupam Kher shares advice he got when he was sleeping on a railway platform, says film industry is filled with great people Dont have much to say. Dont want to post that smiling selfie with you. So much of potential.. gone too soon. Broken heart #RIPSushant, Ayushmann had written in a tweet on June 14. Sushants last rites were performed at the Vile Parle crematorium on Monday. The actor was known for his acclaimed performances in films such as MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Sonchiriya, Kai Po Che, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, among others. If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist. Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918 Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Bern, 17.06.2020 - Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis met today in Kreuzlingen, on the Swiss side of Lake Constance, with Austria's Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, Liechtenstein's Foreign Minister Katrin Eggenberger, Deputy Minister-President of Baden-Wurttemberg Thomas Strobl and representatives of the International Lake Constance Conference Gunther Eberle, Director of the State Government Office of Vorarlberg, and Walter Schonholzer, President of the Cantonal Council of Thurgau. The talks focused on the reopening of borders within Europe, cooperation during the coronavirus crisis and other European policy issues. Following on from his meeting yesterday with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio in the Swiss-Italian border region, Mr Cassis was in Kreuzlingen today for working meetings in the border region with Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein. The head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs highlighted the good, pragmatic cooperation between the four countries during the crisis, especially the mutual assistance provided in the repatriation of travellers and the successful management of the movement of persons and goods at borders. Open borders The pandemic has made the importance of border regions and their economic and social interconnectedness clearer than ever before: "The crisis has shown how important open borders are, not only for the economy but also for people: it is crucial for them to be able to move freely between countries," said Cassis. He and his interlocutors stressed the value of the hygiene and protection measures that were taken and are still in place to contain the pandemic. Relations with its border regions are of great economic significance for Switzerland. With a trade volume of CHF 35 billion, Baden-Wurttemberg is Switzerland's seventh most important trading partner. The volume of trade with the neighbouring Austrian regions of Tyrol and Vorarlberg is also significant, totalling CHF 6 billion. Good relations European policy and international issues were also on the agenda. Mr Cassis briefed his interlocutors on current progress on the European dossier. He highlighted the pragmatic cooperation that was in evidence during the pandemic and noted that such cooperation would prove useful in future discussions between Switzerland and the EU and its member states. Following his meetings in the Italian border region and on Lake Constance, Mr Cassis will visit the border region with France on 26 June 2020. Address for enquiries FDFA Communication Federal Palace West Wing CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland Tel. Communication service: +41 58 462 31 53 Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55 E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch Twitter: @SwissMFA Publisher Federal Department of Foreign Affairs https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html Airline Norwegian has announced it will resume serving UK airports from July 1 due to increased demand. The carrier will initially operate flights on four UK routes, connecting Gatwick and Edinburgh with Oslo and Copenhagen. Since April, Norwegian has only operated domestic flights within Norway due to the collapse in passenger numbers caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The airline's chief executive Jacob Schram said: 'Feedback from our customers has shown that they are keen to get back in the air and resume their travels with Norwegian beyond the current domestic services that we have been operating. Norwegian has announced that it will reopen flights to the UK from July 1 after the coronavirus crisis caused the airline to operate flights within only Norway Edinburgh Airport (pictured) where Norwegian flights will resume to Oslo and Copenhagen Norwegian returns: The UK airports it will fly to and from - and the rules passengers will face Norwegian has announced that it will operate flights to the UK from July 1 after trips were halted due to the coronavirus. The four routes available will be: London Gatwick - Copenhagen (6 flights a week) London Gatwick - Oslo (4 flights per week) Edinburgh - Oslo (2 flights per week) Edinburgh - Copenhagen (2 flights per week) The airline has said that the use of face masks is mandatory for passenger and crew on board, and that passengers are responsible for bringing their own face mask. The airline may not be able to accept your travel if you do not have a face mask. They also say masks should be changed every four hours. Their aircraft are fitted with modern filtration technology, and crew members are trained to handle the occurrence of a suspected covid case on board. Middle seats are currently unavailable for selection so as to maintain social distancing. Britons are allowed to visit Norway to see family or to begin work, as long as there is proof of this. Visitors to the country are required to undertake quarantine. Advertisement 'Norwegian is returning to European skies with the reintroduction of more aircraft to serve our key destinations which will ensure that we remain in line with competing carriers.' Mr Schram added that Norwegian will offer 'great value' as 'competition in the industry begins to recover over the summer period'. It has introduced a series of enhanced safety and hygiene measures, including requiring passengers to wear face masks, banning hand luggage from being put in overhead lockers and not operating a catering service. In May, the airline secured a 221 million loan backed by the Norwegian government as part of a rescue package to ensure its survival amid huge losses. Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate, who has seen passenger numbers at his airport decimated during the pandemic, described the return of Norwegian flights as 'very welcome news'. He said: 'Consumer demand is picking up as more people want to start flying again. 'For our part, the airport is ready to go and we have implemented a range of measures to protect the wellbeing and safety of both passengers and staff in recent weeks. 'We are starting to see small green shoots of recovery.' Britons are allowed to visit family members in Norway, or travel to the country to begin work, provided that the work is imminent. In order to gain entry you will need to bring a copy of your contract. Those who come to Norway to work are required to follow the quarantine regulations. Norway has had 8,660 covid cases and 293 fatalities The news comes as quarantine-free 'air bridges' are set to be put in place by June 30 which would allow Britons to travel abroad without needing to isolate on arrival. Gatwick Aiport (pictured) will also operate flights to and from Oslo and Copenhagen Reports suggest that the UK government is working to strike deals with Greece, Spain and Portugal that will mean visitors will not need to undergo quarantine upon arrival. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said a list of quarantine-free countries has been drawn up and will be revealed on June 29, although he did not mention countries that may be present on the list. Meanwhile, visits to UK territories abroad such as Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar are set to be allowed. Countries like France, however, are insisting that visitors from the UK undertake a quarantine period of 14 days. Scientists at Imperial College London will start immunising people in Britain this week with their experimental coronavirus shot, becoming the latest entry into the race to find an effective vaccine to stop the pandemic. In a statement on Monday, the British government said 300 healthy people will be immunized with two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed at Imperial, which has been backed by 41 million pounds ($51 million) in government funding. So far, the vaccine candidate developed by Imperial College London has only been tested in animals and in the laboratory, where it produced much higher levels of antibodies than would normally be seen in infected people. Many scientists have warned that the pandemic might only be stopped with an effective vaccine, which typically takes years to develop. "In the long term, a viable vaccine could be vital for protecting the most vulnerable, enabling restrictions to be eased and helping people get back to normal life," said Robin Shattock, who is leading the vaccine research. The vaccine uses synthetic strands of genetic code based on the virus. Once injected into the muscle, the body's own cells are instructed to make copies of a spiky protein on the coronavirus. That should in turn trigger an immune response so that the body can fight off any future COVID-19 infection. About a dozen vaccine candidates are currently in early stages of testing in thousands of people. There are no guarantees any will work but there's increasing hope that at least some could be ready by the end of the year. Oxford University recently began an advanced study involving 10,000 volunteers, and the US is preparing for even larger studies in July that involve 30,000 people each testing different candidates, including Oxford's and one made by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. Scientists have never created vaccines from scratch this fast and it's far from clear that any will ultimately prove safe and effective. Still, numerous countries, including Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the US, have already placed advance orders for millions of vaccines that could be available by the end of the year if they prove to be effective. The World Health Organization noted on Monday that there have been about 100,000 new cases reported every day for the past two weeks and that relaxed restrictions in many countries have led to a new surge of cases. SOUTH HAVEN, MI A 19-year-old was hospitalized after being pulled from Lake Michigan Tuesday evening. South Haven Area Emergency Services responded to a report of a possible drowning at 6:14 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, at South Havens South Beach, according to a news release issued by authorities. The 19-year-old was pulled from Lake Michigan by passersby in a small watercraft, the release said. The victim was taken to shore where paramedics on the scene administered life support. Authorities did not release any information about the victim other than an age. Paramedics transported the victim to Bronson South Haven Hospital to be treated for injuries and was turned over to hospital staff. As of 8:30 p.m., first responders said the patient was being transported via AirCare to Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, according to a release issued at 9 p.m. Authorities said green flags were flying at South Haven beaches at the time of the water rescue. The surface water temperature was reported at 62 degrees, according to the release. South Haven Area Emergency Services authorities were assisted on the scene by South Haven Police Department and fire personnel. More on MLive: Victim of deadly shooting at Muskegon area hotel identified Recently orphaned bear cubs to be released to wild sooner rather than later Former WMU football player among two dead in shooting at Indiana hospital MIDDLETON, Wis., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- California Sun Dry, a leading sun-dried tomato brand, has teamed up with Galbani, creators of deli and artisanal Italian cheeses, to promote healthy easy-to-prepare snacks. The campaign marks a new opportunity to engage consumers nationwide. "We are excited to work together with a brand that shares the same values as California Sun Dry," says Charles Olins, VP of Sales at California Sun Dry parent company Saco Foods. "Galbani is committed to healthy, affordable, and high-quality products that we are proud to align with." California Sun Dry and Galbani Cheese launch partnership and cross-promotion The collaboration includes co-branded in-store displays introducing new product usage, accessible recipes and a joint price promotion. The collaboration will be supported through robust social media campaigns across California Sun Dry's brand platforms. Both premium produce brands focus strongly on authenticity and quality products that appeal to consumer demands and eating trends. California Sun Dry and Galbani products attract like-minded customers who prioritize healthy and pre-packaged snack foods. The joint campaign is scheduled to hit stores in June. For more information, please contact Charles Olins at (617) 980-1511 or email [email protected] About California Sun Dry Foods Founded in 1991, California Sun Dry (www.calsundry.com) is a leading supplier of superior quality sun-dried tomato products sold through supermarkets, mass retailers and club stores in the U.S. and Canada. The company has a comprehensive product portfolio of both jarred and bagged sun-dried tomato products and enjoys the number one market share position in the growing sun-dried tomato category. To learn more please visit CalSunDry.com, Facebook at www.facebook.com/CalSunDry or Instagram at www.instagram.com/CaliforniaSunDry. About Galbani Cheese First crafted in Italy by Egidio Galbani in 1882Galbani has long been the #1 cheese brand in Italy. For over 130 years, Galbani has been delighting families all over Italy. Today Galbani brings its timeless tradition from Italy to the American table with the delicious taste of mozzarella, ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and snack cheese made and sold in the United States. Galbani cheese is a leading brand of Lactalis American Group, Inc. (LAG). Media Contact: Charles Olins 617.980.1511 [email protected] SOURCE California Sun Dry LONG BEACH, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center Foundation, who is the fundraising arm for Long Beach Medical Center, received a generous donation of $1.5 million from the Don Temple Family Charitable Foundation to name the Cardiac Monitoring Unit within the MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute. With this gift, the unit will now be named the Don Temple Family Charitable Foundation Cardiac Monitoring Unit. "Whenever our family has been admitted at Long Beach Medical Center, we always felt that we had access to the latest in technology and the finest physicians, along with a compassionate and efficient nursing team," stated Marlene Temple, President, Don Temple Family Charitable Foundation Board. "We feel privileged to support the efforts of the MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute in advancing cardiovascular care, especially with the latest advances with minimally invasive surgery techniques." The Don Temple Family Charitable Foundation was founded in 2003, and is a lasting legacy to a man known for his honesty, integrity, inspiration to others and community commitment. It is focused on providing both personal interaction and financial support to Long Beach organizations, especially in the fields of health, education and the arts. "Don was a patient at Long Beach Medical Center several times during the last five years of his life," stated Marlene. "Our motto has always been 'Long Beach has been good to us, and we strive to give back.' The team at the MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute gave such wonderful care to Don that we wanted to make a difference for future Long Beach patients." The MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute at Long Beach Medical Center is one of California's most comprehensive centers for diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of cardiovascular disease. The MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute provides advanced care for complex heart conditions including heart attacks, heart failure, arrhythmias and peripheral vascular disease. The Don Temple Family Charitable Foundation Cardiac Monitoring Unit cares for patients with cardiovascular diagnoses and patients who are both pre- and post-cardiac surgery or procedure. This includes patients with chest pain, chronic heart failure, structural heart diagnoses and those with stable arrhythmias. "We are completely blown away by the generosity of the Don Temple Family Charitable Foundation for this incredible donation," says Rodney White, M.D., medical director, Vascular Surgery Program, MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute, Long Beach Medical Center. "This generous gift will allow us to ensure we can continue to provide the best care to our patients through the most up-to-date equipment and technologies. We are grateful to have been chosen as a recipient of a gift from the Temple Family, and that our Cardiac Monitoring Unit will carry on the name of a Long Beach legacy." "Marlene, Don and the family's Foundation have been valued, longtime supporters and great friends of Long Beach Medical Center," says Sharon Thornton, president, MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center Foundation. "We are incredibly grateful and appreciative for this substantial gift. Their heartful support is extraordinary." The Long Beach Medical Center Foundation has served the philanthropic needs of Long Beach Medical Center for more than 50 years raising between $7-15 million annually. The 501(c)(3) is led by a 26-member fundraising Board of Directors. About MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center: MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center has been providing the community with compassionate, quality health care for more than 100 years. While leading in specialized care, research and education, Long Beach Medical Center uses the most advanced health care technologies it is the only hospital in L.A. County with the innovative ExactechGPS and ExcelsiusGPS surgical systems. Long Beach Medical Center is ranked No. 9 in the Los Angeles Metro Area by U.S. News & World Report and has earned Magnet recognition for nursing excellence. With leading centers for cancer, heart, rehabilitation, orthopedics, neurology and trauma, physicians and surrounding hospitals continually refer to its accredited programs. For more information, visit memorialcare.org/LongBeach. SOURCE MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center Related Links https://www.memorialcare.org/locations/long-beach-medical-center Taiwan jets on Wednesday again had to warn off Chinese air force aircraft that approached the island, Taiwan's military said, the fourth such encounter in nine days as China steps up its activity near the self-ruled territory. The Chinese J-10, a fighter plane, and Y-8, a propeller aircraft often used for surveillance missions, entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone around midday (0400GMT) to the southwest of the island, Taiwan's air force said. Patrolling Taiwanese fighters gave a verbal warning to the Chinese aircraft to leave, whereupon they 'immediately left' the air defence identification zone, the air force said in a brief statement. Taiwan's air force said the Chinese J-10, a fighter plane, and Y-8, a propeller aircraft often used for surveillance missions, entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone at midday today. The above file photo shows a J-10 fighter jet taking off during a military drill in Jinan, China 'At present the situation is normal,' it added, without giving further details. Since June 9, China's air force has flown at least three other similar missions, and were each time chased off by Taiwanese jets, according to Taiwan's military. 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 coronavirus pandemic. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name. Tsai (centre) is pictured with paratroopers during her visit at the Army Aviation Special Airborne Training Center in Pingtung County, Taiwan, on June 2 China has not commented publicly on the recent Chinese air force activity near Taiwan. Beijing routinely says such exercises are nothing unusual and are designed to show the country's determination to defend its sovereignty. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. One of China's most senior generals last month said China would attack if there was no other way of stopping Taiwan becoming independent. China is deeply suspicious of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, whom it accuses of being a separatist intent on declaring formal independence. Tsai says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name. If the chance for 'peaceful reunification' is gone, then China's military will use all means to ensure the completeness of its territory, said Li Zuocheng (centre, pictured in 2016), chief of the Joint Staff Department and member of the Central Military Commission last month A top Chinese general said on May 29 that China needed to keep both peaceful and military options to resolve the 'Taiwan issue'. If the chance for 'peaceful reunification' is gone, then China's military will use all means to ensure the completeness of its territory, said Li Zuocheng, chief of the Joint Staff Department and member of the Central Military Commission. Li was speaking at an event in Beijing's Great Hall of the People marking 15 years of China's Anti-Secession Law, which authorises the use of force against Chinese-claimed Taiwan if China judges it to have seceded. EDWARDSVILLE A Jerseyville man died Monday in a fire near Edwardsville, authorities said Tuesday. Officials used dental records to identify John L. Munsterman, 74, of Jerseyville as the person who was found inside the house as firefighters tackled the Monday blaze, Madison County Coroner Stephen P. Nonn said. Munsterman was at his sons home at 3424 Glennoak Drive when the fire occurred about 10:27 a.m. Monday, Nonn said. A preliminary investigation indicates Munsterman was engaged in a controlled burn of old fencing debris behind the residence and the fire got out of control and spread to the residence. Edwardsville Fire Department took the lead after a call came in about 10:30 a.m. Glen Carbon, Wood River, Holiday Shores and Hamel fire agencies were called to assist. Madison County Emergency Management Agency, Madison County Sheriffs Department and the countys deputy coroner also were on scene. Several water tanker trucks were brought to the scene to knock down the fire, which took from 30 to 40 minutes to control. Crews worked for roughly 30 minutes to snuff out the blaze. Nonn said Munsterman was unable to escape the fire and was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:35 a.m. Monday by Madison County Chief Deputy Coroner Roger D. Smith. At least one dog appeared to have been rescued from the home. A small pet carrier also was transported by personnel, but it was unknown if a second animal was rescued. An autopsy to aid in the investigation of the circumstances surrounding the fatality will be performed. The death continues to be investigated by the coroners office, Madison County Sheriffs Department, Edwardsville Fire Department and the state fire marshals office. Funeral arrangements for Munsterman are pending at Crawford Funeral Home in Jerseyville. garrett rolfe rayshard brooks Atlanta Police Department Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said that the officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks last week could face a felony murder charge. Howard said voluntary manslaughter also remains a possible charge, though he said the charges, set to be presented midweek, would likely be "between murder and felony murder." Howard said based on video from the night of the shooting, the fact that the situation escalated and resulted in Brooks' death "just seems unreasonable." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said that the officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks last week may face a felony murder charge. Brooks died Friday night after being fatally shot by a white police officer during a scuffle in an Atlanta parking lot. The incident was captured by police and surveillance cameras. The officer shot Brooks in the back as he fled while pointing a Taser behind him. Garrett Rolfe, one of the officers involved in the shooting, was fired, while officer Devin Brosnan was placed on administrative leave. Speaking to CNN's Fredericka Whitfield on Sunday, Howard described the possible charges that Rolfe may face in relation to the case. "There are really three charges that are relevant: One would be the murder charge in the state of Georgia. That charge is a charge that is directly related to an intent to kill," he told Whitfield. "The second charge is felony murder and that is a charge that involves a death that comes as a result of the commission of an underlying felony. In this case, that underlying felony would be aggravated assault." Howard said voluntary manslaughter also remains a possible charge, though he said the charges, set to be presented midweek, would likely be "between murder and felony murder." Howard said based on video from the night of the shooting, the fact that the situation escalated and resulted in death "just seems unreasonable." Story continues "It's very difficult when you see [the footage], when you see the demeanor of Mr. Brooks to imagine that some short time later, it ends up with him being dead," said Howard. "I thought it was cordial. He was very cooperative. He answered the questions that the officers asked. He did not seem to present any kind of threat to anyone. And so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable." "It just seems like this is not the kind of conversation and incident the should have led to someone's death." Howard added. Howard said that his office would need to decide whether Brooks "presented imminent harm of death or some serious physical injury" during his interaction with police. "If that shot was fired for some reason other than to save that officer's life or to prevent injury to him or others, then that shooting is not justified under the law." The Fulton County medical examiner's office ruled on Sunday that Brooks died from "gunshot wounds of the back," which caused "organ injuries and blood loss." Howard said in a statement on Sunday that he hopes a decision about whether to bring charges against the officers will be announced midweek. On Sunday, L. Chris Stewart, an attorney for the Brooks' family, said that the officer responsible for the killing should be charged for "an unjustified use of deadly force, which equals murder," Associated Press reported. Read the original article on Insider By Daniel Itai The Zimbabwe Daily Harare, Zimbabwe The current lockdown regulations that the country has imposed have taken a huge toll on many sex workers in the country. Nancy Chabuda, programs coordinator of Katswe Sistahood said the current lockdown regulations were having a severe impact on the wellbeing of sex workers. Sex workers usually survive on money from hand to mouth so with the lockdown they are not working because sex work is work. They are not getting clients, and when they do they are charging less because their clients are also on lockdown so they are not getting money to pay for sex workers services hence, they are not getting money to cater for their needs and for feeding their families. As Katswe, we have been having online meetings with sex workers trying to give them information about the Coronavirus and how they should protect themselves from the virus if they get clients. We have also been giving them online referrals to clinics for contraception, HIV testing and counselling, STI screening and treatment among others. - Advertisement - However, there are many challenges linked to online platforms like shortages of money for data, electricity challenges and also some sex workers not having cell phones that can go online or that have WhatsApp. Moreover, moving around to access the various health care services they need has been quite problematic due to the lockdown and we have received cases of unsafe abortions and unplanned pregnancies as they have not managed to access the services to protect themselves, said the programs coordinator. Talent Moyo a local sociologist, further added that there was urgent need for government to recognize sex work as a profession. The absence of an existing comprehensive social security system meant to buffer them from disasters such as COVID-19 has really affected them. Additionally, we must acknowledge sex work as a profession in order to help them, said Moyo. Most of the countrys economists have warned that there is urgent need for the government to open up the countrys entire economy so as to avoid severe socioeconomic repercussions. Like this: Like Loading... LLM Doan Vu Hoai Nam ASL LAW Recognising that movement, last year China issued a new Law on Foreign Investment to replace three legal documents. The country has adopted looser policies to foreign investors and has specifically prohibited government interference in business activities and requesting technology transfer from overseas companies. With the new law and accompanying policies, China is expected to return to the race to attract FDI although the US-China trade war has not cooled down. However, taking advantage of that movement, together with the aim of becoming the third-largest area in FDI attraction, members have signed intra-ASEAN agreements, which have generated convenience for investors in the flow of goods in ASEAN countries. Besides that, with the efforts to generate a good competitive environment in order to attract FDI capital into ASEAN countries, a legal framework on competition law for each member country has been promulgated. Apart from these general agreements, each country has its own laws and policies to create its own competitive advantages. Thailand has adopted outstanding policies such as a 50 per cent reduction in corporate income tax up to five years, and is also planning to revise foreign business laws with more open policies for foreign investors. Elsewhere, in Singapore, although it does not have a specific investment law, the city-state has created a fair treatment environment between domestic and foreign enterprises, which is both simple and convenient. Vietnam, meanwhile, boasts many areas of potential compared to other countries. First on the list is infrastructure, which is developing significantly from the capital the government invested into hospitals, transport, international airports, and new ports. Although this infrastructure cannot be compared to that of leading ASEAN countries such as Singapore and Thailand, the governments efforts have shown its focus on the promotion of FDI attraction into Vietnam. Vietnams success thus far in controlling the coronavirus ensures favourable conditions for investment compared to some neighbours Taking advantage Vietnam also has a great geographical advantage, bordering some countries in Asia and especially China, which could be a good reason for international companies to move their factories to Vietnam during the tensions between the US and China. Vietnam is also the gateway of the ASEAN region to trade with other member countries. In addition, with its long and large coastline, Vietnam becomes an important place adjacent to essential sea routes to generate convenient conditions for import and export. The labour force is a great advantage for Vietnam too, because with a huge population and young labour force at working age plus cheaper labour costs this plays an important role in attracting FDI to Vietnam. Furthermore, the Vietnamese law system is getting more and more developed to create a transparent and fair environment for foreign investors. According to the ASEAN and East Asia Research Institute, Vietnams system of legal documents and management ranks fourth in the region after Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. In particular, the Vietnamese law has regulations on investment such as protection against expropriation or no restrictions on inflow and outflow of funds. Also, with the variety of means of dispute settlement, foreign investors interests can be protected well in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the country has promulgated policies to encourage technology transfer and attract FDI on new technologies with several incentives. For example, special incentives for scientific and technology enterprises are implemented, which can be a waiver or reduction of corporate income tax, or a waiver or reduction of land lease. One of the other advantages is that Vietnam participates in many international investment agreements, creating great advantages for Vietnams import and export from and to signed countries in these free trade agreements (FTAs). From that, Vietnam will benefit from the reductions in tariffs mentioned in the agreement. Hence, with low import and export tax rates, investors will move production and business facilities and invest in Vietnam to trade with third parties which Vietnam has an FTA with. Vietnam will then bring a great competitive advantage compared to other countries, especially China, which does not have an FTA with the EU. Vietnam is now known as among the first countries controlling the COVID-19 pandemic effectively, with no deaths so far, which creates a wonderful condition for Vietnamese enterprises to return to their normal operation. The issue is how we let foreign investors enter Vietnam now. Tough barriers However, apart from competitive advantages, Vietnam must face challenges in the FDI attraction. Although 2019 was one of the bright years in attracting FDI into Vietnam, based on analysis of the FDI capital source, this source mainly focuses on processing and manufacturing industries (accounting for 45.8 per cent), but these industries do not require high skilled labour so it does not create a basis for further training of high skilled labour for Vietnam. Therefore, in the coming years, Vietnam should focus on directing FDI capital to diversify investment sectors such as high-tech industries, industries for the development of labour skills, and research industries. Next, based on the World Bank statistics on capital flow trends, investors are gradually choosing mergers and acquisitions as a mode of investment, instead of investing in new production facilities. Therefore, Vietnam needs to improve laws and regulations in this field so that it is simple and flexible to avoid the cumbersome system. This will be the basis to amend laws on enterprise and investment in order to provide favourable conditions for those who wish to invest in Vietnam. In terms of establishing a joint co-operation mechanism among countries in the ASEAN Community to compete with countries like China and India in attracting high-quality FDI, it is not very feasible considering the practical conditions of the countries in the ASEAN. There are several reasons for this. First, the economic gap among countries in the region is still large from infrastructure to development capacity. With this large gap, it is difficult to create a general mechanism to balance benefits among countries when attracting high-quality FDI. Next, ASEAN countries are still developing, so they still put their national interests first to focus on developing their countries with their own FDI attraction policies to compete with the other countries in the region. Third, high-quality FDI requires high-quality human resources, but there are some ASEAN low-levelled developing countries that cannot meet the conditions for such a thing. Lastly, there are still many problems in establishing a general legal institution because each country has its own attraction policy to create its own competitive advantage. However, in the near future, conducting a general mechanism for this could be carried out thanks to some advantages. The ASEAN has had general transport agreements that facilitate the movement between countries. From that, this is a basis for the formation of a common production base and common economic zones in the community. Also, the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community with regulations on tariff reduction creates a fair competition environment among nations. Businesses from large countries in the bloc can invest in small countries to help them grow, which shall close the gap between countries. Finally, ASEAN member countries have to discuss issuance of general legal frameworks so that they can enhance their own law system. In addition, high-levelled developing countries need to support low-levelled countries to narrow the economic gap. MEMPHIS, Tenn., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee, in partnership with United Way of Greater Nashville, Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) and Kroger launches Feed Our Families to assist those living with sickle cell disease and their families with food assistance, as we commemorate World Sickle Cell Awareness Day on June 19, 2020. Before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, many Tennesseans were already facing a long-standing food insecurity crisis. There are many community organizations working to provide support to families; however, the demand outpaces their abilities to supply the need. From health disparities to hunger, sickle cell patients across the state of Tennessee are in need of basic essentials. As part of our commitment to serve the community, The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee is working closely with some of our health care partners, including Regional One Diggs Kraus Sickle Cell Center, Methodist Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, Vanderbilt Center of Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease and Meharry Sickle Cell Center to identify and assist many families with Kroger food voucher cards. "Food insecurity, poverty and health care are tightly intertwined, mainly because of the difficult choices made by many in the sickle cell community every day to avoid going hungry. As we well know, there are some who have to choose between prescriptions or food for their families. We are thankful for our partners and our ability to be able to provide much-needed relief and assistance to some of our state's most vulnerable citizens," said Reginald French, president and CEO of The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee. "The Diggs-Kraus Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center is excited to partner with The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee in an outreach initiative to provide food vouchers for our patients and families. This is a very welcome development, especially in these unprecedented times occurring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dr. Ugochi Ogu, medical director of the Regional One Diggs Kraus Sickle Cell Center. The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee will also present a virtual conference hosted by the Kudzukian Network on Friday, June 19th from 3:00-4:00pm CT. The program will be live streamed via the Foundation's Facebook and Instagram Live pages as well as Network's Facebook Live page and YouTube channel. The webinar is the precursor to the 4-episode podcast Sickle Cell Today which can be accessed at www.sicklecelltoday.kudzukiannetwork.com. About The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee is the state's leading public policy and advocacy organization providing educational awareness and social support services to consumers, patients and families impacted by sickle cell disease. The foundation has touched over 1 million people and raised substantial funding for the support of the sickle cell community. SOURCE The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee By PTI NOIDA: A 25-year-old woman travelling with her children from Pratapgarh district to Noida in Uttar Pradesh was allegedly raped in the moving bus by one of its two drivers, leading to the arrest of the accused, police said on Wednesday. The incident took place between Lucknow and Mathura but the complaint was lodged by the woman at a police station in Noida after she reached here, they said. The long-distance, private bus had two drivers and a staffer, besides several passengers, they added. It was an AC sleeper bus, coming to Noida from Pratapgarh. According to the information given to the police by the woman, it appears the incident took place during the night when the bus would have been on a stretch between Lucknow and Mathura, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Women Safety) Vrinda Shukla. As the complaint was made after the woman reached here, an FIR was immediately lodged in Gautam Buddh Nagar, Shukla said. Shukla said one of the accused named in the FIR has been arrested and the bus, too, has been impounded. Police teams have been formed to ensure the arrests of other accused persons as well as the owner of the bus at the earliest, she added. The DCP said further proceedings in the case are underway and the complainant has been sent for a medical test. All co-passengers of the woman are being traced and their statements are being taken down so that a charge sheet in the case could be filed soon, she added. Development trajectory: PM to interact with DMs of various districts today Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain tests positive for Coronavirus India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, June 17: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain has tested positive for coronavirus. The 55-year-old minister was brought to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) on Tuesday after reporting high-grade fever. The Health Minister had tested negative for Covid-19 on Tuesday. "He still has fever. The minister was tested again today after 24 hours of the first test," a senior official said. This time, he tested positive, the official said. Doctors at the RGSSH said his condition is "stable" but he has been again put on oxygen support. S Jaishankar tells Chinese counterpart: Chinese side took pre-meditated action | Oneindia News AAP's MLA Atishi tests positive for coronavirus "Due to high-grade fever and a sudden drop of my oxygen levels last night I have been admitted to RGSSH. Will keep everyone updated," Jain had earlier tweeted. During last week, Jain has been in meetings with the senior leadership of the Delhi government, including chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Jain had also attended a meeting on Sunday with union home minister Amit Shah. Earlier today, his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) colleague Atishi also said she had tested positive for coronavirus. The good news is that the Music Critics Association of North America announced Wednesday that composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson are the recipients of its 2020 award for best new opera for their two-act tragedy and breakout Glimmerglass Festival hit, "Blue." That accolade is well deserved; "Blue" is a triumph. The bad news - for every opera but especially "Blue" and especially now - is that the work is nowhere to be seen. Commissioned in 2015 for the Glimmerglass Festival by its general director, Francesca Zambello, "Blue" premiered at Glimmerglass last July under Thompson's direction, to rave reviews. But the show's ascent was as short as it was swift. Just eight performances were given before the coronavirus crisis wiped every arts calendar clean, erasing the show's scheduled March run at the Kennedy Center by Washington National Opera (Zambello also serves as WNO artistic director), as well as performances slated for the Lyric Opera of Chicago in June and Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival in July. (My own viewing of it was limited to an archival video of the Glimmerglass premiere.) "Blue" paints a wrenching portrait of a black family living in Harlem and torn asunder when their only child - a boy, a dreamer, an activist - is shot dead by one of his father's white colleagues. That is, a fellow cop. What may sound like a spoiler is actually the looming aura of inevitability that gives "Blue" its mythic force. Thompson's lithe, cutting libretto unburdens itself from the documentary obligations of channeling headlines to render the suffering of a single family as something gracefully grave, painfully visceral and often beautiful - a "CNN opera" this is not. Throughout, Tesori's luminous score swirls together multiple musical vernaculars into dreamlike textures that shift between moods and modes, blending memory and prophecy. "Its depiction of the situation of the family, of the moment, is so beautifully done," says Wall Street Journal classical critic Heidi Waleson in a phone interview. Waleson, along with the critic George Loomis, co-chaired the committee that selected "Blue" for the fourth annual award, which honors both the composer and librettist of an opera premiered in either the United States or Canada. Critics Arthur Kaptainis, John Rockwell and Alex Ross also served on the committee. Past recipients of the honor include Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek for "Breaking the Waves" in 2017, David Hertzberg for "The Wake World" in 2018 and Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins for "p r i s m" in 2019. This year's runners-up were "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" by Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons (presented by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis) and "prisoner of the state" by David Lang (presented by NY Philharmonic). Waleson felt strongly about "Blue" as soon as the curtains came down at Glimmerglass. "It's like a Greek tragedy for today. I really think it's a tremendously important piece," she said. These echoes of ancient tragedy haunt "Blue." Its minimal staging imparts a grand gravitas; it features parallel choruses of gossiping girlfriends and game-watching cops, helpless to derail the course of events, and black suffering at the hands of police is given the scale it deserves. The tragedy is that you know how it ends - which is to say, it won't. As such, "Blue" feels more timeless than timely, and more tragic as a result When Thompson and Tesori first started work on this project, names like Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott and Freddie Gray had already become refrains in global protest chants, affirmations of black lives mattering and bywords for the American epidemic of police brutality. And even since its premiere last summer (as well as its selection by the award committee in early March) the procession of names has grown to include George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and unreported others. " 'Blue' was an amazing outlet just for grieving" says mezzo soprano Briana Hunter, who gave a revelatory performance as the Mother at Glimmerglass. "Being in that room with so many amazing black artists, and being able to process the collective trauma that we've inherited and that we still experience in the current environment, it became a respite. And singing the role of the Mother - I mean, I get to wail. So every night it was real for a new reason." The national discussion on police brutality anchors itself with names, but "Blue" eschews them entirely. Thompson's libretto leaves the players nameless - the Father, the Mother, the Son - and the effect is the sense that any black Americans could find themselves cast. It also makes it harder for white viewers to experience "Blue" as someone else's story. "If you named her, there's a lot you could explain away," says Hunter. "This doesn't give you the option to do that." But "Blue" also plays with how easily our roles can change - both the identities we inherit and those we inhabit. When the Father puts on a badge and a hat, he becomes an officer of the law. When the Mother dons a hospital gown and gives birth to her son, she becomes a new version of herself. "I know who I am now," she sings, "I'm somebody's mother." And when the Son wears a hoodie, he becomes, to his father, "a walking moving target." The opera deftly separates who we are from how we see each other. And sitting and watching it, especially as a white viewer, it's difficult not to feel as though you're playing your own unwitting role as a spectator, bystander, audience to the atrocity. "Blue" accomplishes all of this while balancing the depth of a mother's pain, the height of a child's dream and the weight of a father's burden. Tesori credits the "inherent musicality" of Thompson's language for guiding her through the composition process. "I think that it is my job to make sure that everybody can hear what I think the words are singing when there is no music," she tells me on a Zoom call with Thompson. In turn, Thompson, an accomplished playwright and director, credits Tesori for guiding him through writing his first libretto, especially her keen skills as an editor. A key example: Thompson had originally envisioned the Father as a professional saxophonist; it was Tesori's idea to put him in uniform. "That was very easy for me to say," says Tesori. "And that comes from being a white woman, where my relationship to the police is different. I was asking him to re-examine years and years and years of trauma." Thompson initially scoffed at the idea. "I kind of blacked out for the rest of the meeting," he says. "Then I realized how brilliant that idea was." Plumbing the pain of his own experiences with police violence, Thompson says, was a confrontation worth having. "Whatever it meant to the audiences and whatever the reaction was," he says, "I knew that the subject matter did not have a shelf life. I knew that there was no expiration date on it, unfortunately. I didn't know that right now as the three of us are talking, how present and how incredibly relevant it would be right now." Which brings us back to the tragedy around the tragedy: At a time when "Blue" feels more necessary than ever, it's impossible to experience the work performed in person. And while smaller productions of the opera could be realized, to downsize "Blue" would be to reduce its impact and betray the intentions behind it. "I absolutely bristle when people say, can you be in the black box?" says Tesori. "It's like, no, it (expletive) can't be in the black box! Don't do it." The fully-realized production of "Blue" at Glimmerglass featured a 47-piece orchestra. "You could feel in your sternum," she says, "a visceral reaction that says 'Wake up!'" But "Blue" requires more than the immersive volume of an orchestra or the grand scale of an opera house. It demands its place on the stage and within a tradition that for centuries has excluded visions of black experience. Just as opera helped elevate "Blue," so too can "Blue" elevate the future of American opera. "All of these characters deserve the respect of what opera can bring to this story," says Thompson. "I want to be sitting in the audience in the dark, gathering with a group of people and on a lighted stage, hear these 10 people in this opera sing to the heavens. Yell, scream, shout out, proclaim: Here we are! Pay attention! And that's what opera does." Less than a week after U.S. fighter jets intercepted Russian bombers in back-to-back flights off the coast of Alaska, U.S. F-22 Raptors scrambled once again Tuesday to conduct two intercepts of Tu-95 bombers in the same area, according to officials at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The F-22s, accompanied by KC-135 Stratotankers and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, intercepted the Russian aircraft entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, which stretches roughly 200 miles off Alaska's coast. Read Next: First Army Unit Gets Squad Designated Marksman Rifle NORAD said the first formation of Russian aircraft consisted of two Tu-95 strategic "Bear" bombers escorted by two Su-35 Flanker-E fighter jets, and was supported by an A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft. The second pattern consisted of two Tu-95s and an A-50, the command said on Twitter. "For the eighth time this year, Russian military aircraft have penetrated our Canadian or Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zones and each and every time NORAD forces were ready to meet this challenge," said Gen. Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy, NORAD Commander. The aircraft came within 32 nautical miles of Alaska's border; but "remained in international airspace," according to the command. "At no time did they enter United States sovereign airspace." Last week, a similar formation of Russian fighters, bombers and control aircraft came within 20 nautical miles of Alaska's shoreline, but also remained in international airspace. "Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, NORAD constantly monitors the northern approaches to our nations, and our operations make it clear that we will conduct homeland defense efforts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year," O'Shaughnessy said. In April, O'Shaughnessy told reporters that the U.S. military should be mindful that rivals like Russia will look to test any weaknesses among the U.S. and its allies during the coronavirus crisis. The Russian air forces have also kept tabs on U.S. and NATO activity in Europe. On May 29, two B-1B Lancers from the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, marked their first-ever flight with Ukrainian Su-27 Flankers and MiG-29 Fulcrums over the Black Sea. At the same time, B-1s also trained in launching the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, known as LRASM. Russia's Ministry of Defense noted the flight, saying it prompted a Russian Air Force Su-27 and Su-30SM to scramble and intercept the bombers. The Russian military "feels as if it's necessary to let everybody know that they're still on the world stage, that they're still on the scene, and that they have pretty good military power," retired Gen. Frank Gorenc, the former commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, told Military.com in April. "Declining powers have to do [something]," Gorenc said. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214. Related: US Pilots' Close Calls with Russian Aircraft Are Likely to Continue, Experts Say Being taught by mostly white educators has shortchanged the education of students from New Canaan, say alumni, after they entered a multicultural and diverse world when they left home. Eight alumni presented their ideas to improve the districts teaching of diversity at the virtual online Board of Education meeting Monday, June 15, after sending a letter, signed by 650 people to school officials. For many white folks like myself, living in New Canaan and then leaving to go to college, and beginning our professional careers is a reckoning, said Will Hennessey, New Canaan Public Schools Class of 2013, adding, normalized behaviors, reinforced through our educational system, have unintentionally been hurtful, racist, homophobic and often times oppressive. The alumni proposed that school officials make changes to better prepare students, which includes hiring more diverse teachers; a director of diversity and inclusion and a restorative justice counselor. They also ask school officials to implement two days of training for diversity awareness for teachers and students. I have been called out at my workplace when the stakes are high, as a result of the white-centered world which I have been taught as the only a reality, Hennessey said. I failed to understand the power of my privilege. Graduates are now deprived of the education that they deserve to be successful, he added. Our shared goal is to fully prepare our students to lead in an increasingly diverse world, Emily Mitaro, Class of 2011, said. It is time to prepare students for the diverse community they will interact with after their time at NCPS, Valentina Zamora, who will graduate in 2021, said. In order to do this, it is imperative that we look to improve the diversity of our faculty and administrators. We aim to craft a comprehensive district-wide curriculum plan to teach students about systemic racism and privilege. We should form a diverse advisory board, to lead the development and implementation of this plan for the upcoming school year, Molly James, a 2013 graduate of NCPS, said. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, I have been reflecting and until recently, race was never talked about in my circles,Mitaro said.Research shows that this is not a unique experience. One study found that 75 percent of white families reported never, or almost never, discussing race with their children, she said. I only hope the district will hire more teachers of color as well as provide the resources necessary to fully support them, Mitaro added. We must implement a comprehensive district-wide evidence-based plan to teach students about systemic racism, she said. Meeting and learning from teachers with different backgrounds and perspectives exposes New Canaan students to different ideas and opinions and provides the opportunity for diverse discussion, Zamora said. We cannot undertake these efforts without a diverse faculty, Zamora said, to give our students a well-rounded perspective that will help in college and the workforce so student will be able to engage with individuals from diverse backgrounds, she said. We request that NCPS interview at least one candidate of color for every faculty and administrative position that is available, she added. Zamora hopes to have a minimum of 25 percent of the faculty to be of color by 2025. In the 2019-2020 school year, there were 417 white teachers and 20 non-white teachers employed, she said. Furthermore, we request the implementation of two positions in the NCPS community for 2020-21. First, the hiring of a person with experience in the issue, a director of diversity and inclusion, into the district, to oversee the development of diverse curriculum and programming, Zamora said. She also wants the inclusion of a restorative justice counselor who will be responsible for reframing the settlement of conflicts and discipline with the NCPS community, Zamora said. While my high school experience might have prepared me for technical competence, far too much was left to chance regarding multicultural competence, Alejandra Zamora, NCPS Class of 2014, said. We now call for twice yearly district-wide, all school day events aimed at understanding and embracing racial justice, diversity and inclusion, Caroline Hughes, NCPS Class of 2004, said. Similarly, we ask that two professional development days coordinated by the director of diversity and inclusion be set aside for faculty training around issues of racial justice, diversity and inclusion within the district, Hughes said. We have a variety of thoughts and ideas on how to improve NCPS and continue to provide our students with the skills they need, and the ability to thrive in a diverse community, Trip Means, a 2013 graduate, said. We are indebted to NCPS for giving us the tools to succeed in the world, but that success has also brought about reflection on ways NCPS could have prepared us to meet the challenges of today more effectively, Means said. Change is needed. Current events have cast light on institutional inequities that require rethinking the components of every system we take part in, Jack Ludtke, Class of 2013, said. He hopes for openness and collaboration when crafting solutions that address racial inequity. The solutions suggested today do not represent a complete plan, he said. They represent a starting point. HARTFORD, Conn. - A steady stream of customers lined up for barbecue at lunchtime Wednesday at Bears Smokehouse in Hartford and for the first time in three months were allowed to take a seat inside, under the second phase of Connecticuts reopening amid declining coronavirus numbers. A sign telling patrons they must wear masks greeted them at the door, with a hand sanitizer dispenser stationed just inside. X marks on the floor showed proper social distancing, and every other booth was closed to maintain safe distances, as required by the state. Theyre doing their part to make it easy for us to come in, said Nichelle Hosey, an electrician from East Hartford who was among the first customers to take a seat inside. Its nice to be social, to see people and to eat great food again. Connecticut on Wednesday also allowed the reopening of gyms, spas, movie theatres, hotels and other businesses, under strict social distancing and health protocols. Phase 2 of the economic restart, which was expected to reopen 95% of the economy, came three days earlier than originally scheduled amid a steep drop in both COVID-19 hospitalizations and positive virus test rates. Nearly 190 people were hospitalized because of the coronavirus Wednesday, down from a peak of more than 1,970 in late April. More than 45,400 people in the state have tested positive for the virus and 4,219 have died. Business owners and customers had mixed emotions about Wednesdays reopening, with many expressing excitement and others saying the virus still made them nervous. At Work Out World in Glastonbury, fitness enthusiasts said they had been looking forward to returning to the gym for months. It just felt good to be back and moving around. You feel better, said Francine Sandler, a radiological technologist from Glastonbury who went to the gym four to five days a week before the pandemic. You have to be careful, but you still have to live. If it wasnt clean and people werent wearing masks, I wouldnt have gone in. Businesses that were allowed to reopen Wednesday are limited to 50% of their capacity. Frequent cleaning and social distancing markers are required, employees must wear masks and officials continued to urge people over 65 to stay home because they are more vulnerable to the coronavirus. Gyms were required to space exercise equipment at least 6 feet apart, or enforce a 12-foot distance rule if a customer wasnt wearing a mask. Restaurants are required to keep tables 6 feet apart, keep indoor waiting areas and buffets closed and are encouraged to use no-touch or disposable menus. Some business owners said they werent in a position to fully reopen Wednesday. Anne Falkowski runs the Samadhi Yoga Studio in Manchester. She has pivoted to online classes and will continue offering those and some outdoor classes while figuring out how to use her limited classroom space. Her largest studio, she said, usually holds 20 to 30 students. With the social distancing requirements we can do about seven people and the teacher with masks, she said. With masks off, we can really only do the teacher and one other person. George Frantzis, co-owner of Quassy Amusement & Waterpark in Middlebury, said they are ready to reopen Saturday, but he has some concerns about customers, especially children, complying with social distancing and mask requirements. There are going to be those moments, especially if its a 90-degree day, when people are going to drop their masks for a moment to take a breath of fresh air, he said. Its just a matter of being patient with each other. A third reopening phase is expected sometime next month. Officials plan to increase the limit on indoor gatherings to 50 people, increase the limit on outdoor gatherings to 250, allow amphitheatres, race tracks and other outdoor venues to reopen at 50% capacity and allow fireworks shows, municipal park concerts and other outdoor gathers with 15 feet of space between blankets. Connecticuts two tribal casinos, meanwhile, have begun to reopen more attractions, after partially opening June 1 despite the governors initial opposition. Mohegan Sun, owned and operated by the Mohegan Tribe, announced that several restaurants will begin offering dine-in service on Thursday and there are plans in the coming days to restart the comedy club and the race book, with various safety precautions. At least one bar at the casino has already opened. Foxwoods Resort Casino, owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, has already reopened more casino space, shopping and hotel rooms, as well as an indoor go-kart track. Indoor seating at select restaurants, at 50% capacity, was scheduled to reopen on Wednesday. ____ Associated Press writer Susan Haigh contributed. Despite cases still accelerating globally, WHO chief says steroid-based treatment holds promise in fight against virus. India has registered 2,000 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the death toll from COVID-19 to 11,903. The number of infections surged to more than 354,000. The WHO has welcomed as great news the findings of a University of Oxford study that found dexamethasone, a widely available steroid, helped save the lives of people with severe symptoms of COVID-19. More than 8.1 million people have been confirmed to have the new coronavirus around the world. Nearly four million have recovered, while approaching 444,000 have died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the most cases and deaths, followed by Brazil. Here are the latest updates: Wednesday, June 17 23:30 GMT Facing coronavirus surge in Arizona, Navajos reimpose virus curfew The Navajo Nation has reimposed 57-hour weekend curfews to protect citizens from a surge in coronavirus cases in neighbouring Arizona after the largest Native American reservation managed to flatten its own COVID-19 curve. A month ago the coronavirus was tearing through the nation, with daily cases spiking above 170 among a population of around 174,000. That gave the Navajo Nation, which straddles parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the highest per-capita infection rate in the country if it were a state. In Arizona, with a population more than 41 times greater, daily cases plateaued around 500 in mid-May, leading Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to lift a stay-at-home order. The tables have since turned, with Arizona recording a record 2,392 new cases while the Navajo Nation reported 39. 20:25 GMT Chile tightens restricting measures in Santiago Residents of Chiles capital will be subjected to tighter measures as the countrys confirmed coronavirus cases exceeded 200,000. Under the new severe restrictions, citys residents will be allowed to leave their homes just twice a week, instead of five times, amid concerns that lockdowns of up to three months in some parts of the capital had not succeeded in stopping the spread. An army member washes a tray as comrades get ready to apply disinfectant before a food delivery in a socially vulnerable community following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Maipu area at Santiago, Chile [Ivan Alvarado/Reuters] 19:33 GMT UAE citizens can travel to low-risk countries Starting from next Tuesday, residents and citizens of the United Arab Emirates will be allowed to travel to countries deemed low-risk for catching the coronavirus. Travellers must test negative for COVID-19 and must quarantine on their return to the UAE for up to 14 days, said Saif Al Dhaheri, spokesman for the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority. Airport authorities will check travellers for symptoms. Those with a fever or showing respiratory problems will be isolated and barred from travel, he said. Travel to medium-risk countries would be allowed on a case-by-case basis. 18:55 GMT Black patients in Atlanta more likely to be hospitalized: CDC A new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focusing on coronavirus patients in Atlanta, Georgia has found that black patients are more likely to be hospitalized than white patients. According to the study which looked across six metropolitan hospitals and outpatient clinics between March and April 2020 about 79 percent of black patients were hospitalized against 13 percent of white patients. Patients tended to be older, male, black, and with underlying conditions, said the researchers. 18:12 GMT Countries latest figures: France: 158,174 cases (+458), 29,575 deaths (+28) Italy: 237,156 cases (+328), 34,448 deaths (+43) Germany: 189,027 cases (+645), 8,918 deaths (+8) UK: 299,251 cases (+1,115), 42,153 deaths (+184) 17:35 GMT Portugal parliament approves amended budget Portugals parliament approved in the first reading a supplementary budget that increases spending by 4.3 billion euros ($4.8 billion) to help the coronavirus-battered economy. The draft includes 1.6 billion euros for a new furlough scheme, maintaining jobs and employment training, as well as tax discounts and delays for companies pursuing investments or particularly hard-hit by the crisis. We have truly faced exceptional times. This budget intends to respond to the impact of a health crisis which caused an unprecedented economic and social crisis, Finance Minister Joao Leao, who took over on Monday after the resignation of Mario Centeno, told parliament. The pandemic created an 8.7 billion-euro hole in public revenue, Leao said, after stating last week that the government expected a 6.3 percent deficit in 2020 and an increase of public debt to 134.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2020 from last years 117.7 percent. 16:49 GMT New York marks record low in number of cases and deaths New York city reported on Tuesday 17 new fatalities, a record low since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. We mourn those we lost, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Twitter. But we are thankful this is the lowest number since the pandemic began. Yesterday there were 17 fatalities due to COVID. We mourn those we lost. But we are thankful this is the lowest number since the pandemic began. Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 17, 2020 Cuomo also added that the city registered the lowest number of new infections which stood at 567 less than one percent of the total. Really good news on testing. NY tested 59,341 people for COVID yesterday. Only 567 tests came back positive 0.96% of total. That is a record low. Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 17, 2020 16:10 GMT WHO sees green shoots of hope While nations must continue to fight against the spread of the novel virus, the WHOs Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that there are green shoots of hope in the battle against the global pandemic. Tedros also said it was very welcome news that the initial results of a clinical trial had shown that a cheap, common steroid known as dexamethasone can help save critically ill patients. 15:37 GMT Researchers invent mask that kills virus As researches in Israel were trying to find an alternative to disposable masks they invented a reusable face mask that can kill the coronavirus with heat by drawing power from a mobile phone charger. An Israeli researcher, part of a team which say they have invented a reusable face mask that can disinfect itself by killing the coronavirus [Reuters/Amir Cohen] The disinfecting process takes about 30 minutes and users should not wear the mask while it is plugged in, said Professor Yair Ein-Eli, who led the research team at Technion University in Haifa. The new mask has a USB port that connects to a power source such as a standard cellphone charger that heats an inner layer of carbon fibres to 70 degrees Celsius (158 Fahrenheit), high enough to kill viruses. You have to make it reusable and friendly, and this is our solution, said Ein-Eli. 14:57 GMT Germany bans large events until end of October Germany will extend a ban of large events, including fairs, until at least the end of October due to the coronavirus pandemic, a document agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and the premiers of the 16 states showed. 14:15 GMT Sweden to lift travel curbs to 10 EU countries Sweden will lift its advice against non-essential travel to 10 European countries starting from June 30, said Foreign Minister Ann Linde. The countries are Greece, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, France, Iceland, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. For other countries, the advice (against non-essential travel) still applies. Countries outside the EU and Schengen will be extended to August 31, said Linde. 13:37 GMT Coronavirus hits back Kazakhstans capital Workers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant on the street to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in central Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan March 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mukhtar Kholdorbekov A fresh wave of cases is spreading across Kazakhstans capital Nur-Sultan, according to authorities. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that the situation was challenging because of widespread non-compliance with social distancing rules, however, he added that the government remained in control. The head of Nur-Sultans healthcare department Saule Kisikova said that since the situation had worsened over the last few weeks, more hospitals were being converted into COVID-19 facilities. But doctors and other medical personnel are already stretched in the city of 1.2 million, she said, with more than 150 fresh cases reported daily for the last three days. If city dwellers continue behaving carelessly, there will not be enough doctors and hospital beds for everyone, she said. 12:45 GMT WHO moves to update COVID-19 guidance after great news in drug study The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to update its guidelines on treating people stricken with COVID-19, the highly infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus, to reflect the results of a clinical trial that showed that a cheap, common steroid can help save critically ill patients. Trial results announced on Tuesday by researchers in the United Kingdom showed dexamethasone cut death rates by about a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital. This is welcome news. I congratulate the Government of the #UnitedKingdom, @UniofOxford, the research groups, hospitals, patients and families who have collectively contributed to this lifesaving breakthrough. #COVID19 https://t.co/5ofV5LBtL5 Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) June 17, 2020 12:25 GMT DR Congo wants to help mining firms hit by coronavirus crisis The Democratic Republic of the Congo will try to offer financial support to mining companies which need help due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus crisis, the mines minister has said. The DRC is Africas top producer of copper and the worlds main source of cobalt, accounting for two-thirds of global supplies of the metal used in smartphones and electric car batteries. If there are cases of force majeure, the state may be able to dip into its pockets to try and help mining companies, Willy Kitobo Samsoni said in a conference call. 12:10 GMT COVID-19 deaths in Sweden pass 5,000 Deaths in Sweden from COVID-19 have passed 5,000, the Public Health Agency said, far more than in neighbouring Nordic countries. The official death toll has now reached 5,041, up from 4,939 on Tuesday. Sweden has taken a softer approach to fighting the coronavirus, leaving most schools, shops and restaurants open and relying on voluntary measures focused on social distancing and good hygiene. The number of deaths in Sweden has been far higher relative to the size of the population than in Denmark, Norway and Finland, where authorities have taken a stricter approach. But they have been lower than in the UK, Italy and Spain, where there have also been lockdowns 11:45 GMT Tunisias economy may shrink by 6-7 percent in 2020 Tunisias economy may shrink by up to 7 percent this year due to the effects of coronavirus pandemic, the investment minister has said. The number of unemployed people in Tunisia will increase by 275,000, according to a government study in partnership with the United Nations Development Program, the minister, Slim Azzabi, said. The study expects the economy to shrink by 4.4 percent but Azzabi said that figure might rise to as high as 6-7 percent. 11:25 GMT English Premier League set to return after coronavirus break The English Premier League is set to kick off behind closed doors and under strict restrictions exactly 100 days after its season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Manchester City will host Arsenal after Aston Villa plays Sheffield United on Wednesday, but there will be no fans and stadiums are restricted to about 300 key people as the danger of the pandemic persists. Read more here. Liverpool sits at the top of the table, ahead by 25 points from Manchester City [File: Phil Noble/Reuters] 11:05 GMT London mayor takes pay cut over virus funding cut fears Londons mayor has announced he will take a 10 percent pay cut due to a budget crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak, as he urged the government to help the UKs stretched local authorities. Sadiq Khan said the capital faces a budget shortfall of nearly 500 million pounds ($628m) over the next two years because of an unprecedented income loss from the crisis. The Labour mayor warned he could make cuts to police, fire and transport services without additional funding from the government, which he accused of risking a new era of austerity. Sadiq Khan said the capital faces a budget shortfall of nearly 500 million pounds [File: Getty Images] 10:40 GMT Disagreement on WHO hindering UN Security Council conference: Report Russia has said differences between other nations over the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) have delayed a video conference being organised between the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the RIA news agency reported. The conference aims to discuss the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, but members disagree on how to assess the role of the WHO in their conference communique, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. 10:25 GMT German government seeks ban on big events until at least end of October: Report Chancellor Angela Merkels government is seeking to ban big events until at least the end of October over fears of renewed transmission of the coronavirus, according to an official draft seen by AFP. Berlin also plans for schools to return to normal operations after the summer holidays, although recommendations for social distancing and mask-wearing in shops and on public transport will stay, according to the document to be discussed by Merkel and premiers of Germanys 16 states on Wednesday. 10:16 GMT Mink at Danish farm to be culled after catching coronavirus Mink at a farm in Denmark were found to be infected with the new coronavirus and the whole stock would now be culled, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration has said. The outbreak among minks is the first in Denmark but comes shortly after 10 mink farms in the Netherlands were ordered culled after some animals tested positive for the disease. 09:55 GMT EU proposes emergency leeway on gene engineering rules for coronavirus vaccines The European Commission has proposed to temporarily relax rules on trials of drugs involving genetically engineered organisms as an emergency measure to speed up the development of a vaccine against the new coronavirus. The proposal is part of a wider European Union strategy, which also includes investing about two billion euros ($2.3bn) for the advance purchase of vaccines under development, in a bid to secure enough doses for the bloc as it fears lagging behind the United States and China. 09:25 GMT Germanys CureVac to launch human trial of experimental coronavirus vaccine Unlisted German biotech firm CureVac will become the second company to launch human trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine in the country. First meaningful results could be available in September or October, and approval could be on the cards under favourable conditions in the middle of next year, CureVacs acting Chief Executive Officer Franz-Werner Haas has told an online media briefing. 09:20 GMT Beijing says COVID-19 cases could stay at current levels for some time Beijing cannot rule out the possibility that the number of COVID-19 cases in the city will stay at current levels for some time, a city official has said. Pang Xinghuo, a senior official for the Beijing disease control authority, said the COVID-19 epidemic was still growing in the city. Read more here. 09:15 GMT Indonesia reports 1,031 new infections Indonesia has reported 1,031 new coronavirus infections taking the total to 41,431 and overtaking Singapore with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia. Health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said 45 more deaths were reported on Wednesday, taking the total number of fatalities to 2,276. Indonesia has the highest coronavirus death toll in East Asia outside of China. 09:00 GMT HSBC revives 35,000 job cut plan after pandemic pause HSBC is resuming plans to cut about 35,000 jobs which it put on ice after the coronavirus outbreak, as Europes biggest bank grapples with the effects on its already falling profits. It will also maintain a freeze on almost all external hiring, CEO Noel Quinn said in a memo sent to HSBCs 235,000 staff worldwide as seen by Reuters News Agency. We could not pause the job losses indefinitely it was always a question of not if, but when, Quinn said, adding that the measures first announced in February were even more necessary today. 08:45 GMT Beijing virus outbreak not connected to Norwegian salmon: Oslo Chinese and Norwegian authorities have concluded that Norwegian salmon was likely not the source of the novel coronavirus that was found on cutting boards in a Beijing food market. Following a meeting between Chinese and Norwegian officials on Tuesday, both countries have concluded that the source of the outbreak did not originate with fish from the Nordic country, Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, the Norwegian fisheries and seafood minister said. We can clear away uncertainty and the halt in salmon export to China, he told a video conference including journalists. 08:30 GMT Self-cleaning mask can kill viruses with heat from phone charger, researchers say Israeli researchers say they have invented a reusable face mask that can kill the coronavirus with heat by drawing power from a mobile phone charger. The disinfecting process takes about 30 minutes and users should not wear the mask while it is plugged in, said Professor Yair Ein-Eli, who led the research team at Technion University in Haifa. The new mask has a USB port that connects to a power source such as a standard cellphone charger that heats an inner layer of carbon fibres to up to 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit), high enough to kill viruses. Israeli researchers say they have invented a reusable face mask that can disinfect it self [Reuters] 08:15 GMT German coronavirus tracing app downloaded 6.5 million times Germanys smartphone app to help trace coronavirus infections has been downloaded 6.5 million times in the first 24 hours since its launch, the CEO of software company SAP has said. Its a big success, it scales, its user friendly and it helps society, Christian Klein told journalists in a video briefing. Germany joins European countries like Italy, Poland and Latvia in launching apps that use Bluetooth wireless to measure contacts between people and issue a warning should one of them later test positive for COVID-19. Corona-Warn-App has been downloaded 6.5 million times in the first 24 hours since its launch [Getty Images] 08:00 GMT Spain to honour its dead in July 16 ceremony Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said a state ceremony will be held on July 16 to honour the more than 27,000 people who have died in the pandemic. Speaking to legislators, Sanchez said the ceremony will be presided over by King Felipe VI, Spains head of state, and attended by top officials from the EU and the WHO. 07:50 GMT Denmark urges protesters to get tested The Danish government has urged participants in a large racial justice demonstration earlier this month to get tested after a person in the crowd tested positive for the coronavirus. Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said 15,000 people attended the June 7 rally in downtown Copenhagen and some of them stood very close to each other. He urged them to get tested whether you have symptoms or not. He said: As long as we have the virus in Europe and in Denmark, it will flare up. We are dealing with a very, very contagious disease. Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said 15,000 people attended the June 7 rally in downtown Copenhagen [File: Reuters] 07:35 GMT Australian universities to hire plane for foreign students shut out by virus border closure Two Australian universities plan to hire a plane to fly in hundreds of foreign students shut out in the middle of their studies by border closures due to COVID-19, a move they hope will start to salvage a major export earner. The University of Canberra and The Australian National University, both based in the capital, said they plan to hire a plane to carry 350 students into the country in July so that they can complete quarantine then return to class. The plan has the approval of the territory government but still needs the sign-off of the federal government, the universities said. The federal government closed national borders in March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. 07:10 GMT Post-lockdown jump in coronavirus cases rattles Turkish officials Turkey may have to adopt a harder line on social interactions following a worrying jump in coronavirus infections. This month restaurants and cafes reopened, intercity flights and car travel resumed and weekend stay-at-home orders were lifted. However, new COVID-19 cases have roughly doubled to 1,600 a day since June 1. One senior government official called the new infections a serious problem and said steps may be taken after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chairs a cabinet meeting this week. New COVID-19 cases have roughly doubled in Turkey to 1,600 per day since June 1 [File: Getty Images] 06:55 GMT Taiwan to ease virus border controls to let in some business people Taiwan will from the start of next week ease border controls put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and will allow in business travellers from some lower-risk countries, though they will have to be tested and quarantined. Taiwan has never gone into total lockdown and life has continued largely as normal due to its early and effective prevention work and a first-rate public health system. While it has largely lifted domestic restrictions, Taiwan has been more cautious about opening up its borders, which have been shut to most foreign visitors since mid-March. Taiwan has never gone into total lockdown and life has continued largely as normal due to its effective prevention work [File: AFP] 06:40 GMT UK inflation slides to 0.5 percent in May on virus lockdown The annual inflation rate slid to 0.5 percent in May, remaining at a near four-year low as the countrys coronavirus lockdown dampened prices, official data showed. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) annual rate slumped last month from 0.8 percent in April, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. 06:25 GMT US scientist warns of coronavirus surge Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, has urged US states including Arizona, Texas, and Florida to move aggressively to prevent recent increases in cases from turning into a real surge. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases issued his call after US vice-president Mike Pence, head of the task force, played down the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 cases, saying in a Wall Street Journal column that such panic is overblown. We are concerned about it but hopefully we can prevent individual blips we are seeing becoming a real surge, he told the Financial Times. The critical issue is how we handle and respond to the increases in cases. All you need to do is look at the data, the facts, to see that the pandemic is not over by any means. The numbers speak for themselves, said Fauci. Hi, this is Elizabeth Melimopoulos in Doha taking over the live updates from my colleague Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur. 05:50 GMT I am handing over the blog to my colleagues in Doha now. A quick update on developments over the past few hours. Beijing is battening down the hatches as it battled a coronavirus outbreak centred on its biggest wholesale food market. Other parts of China are imposing quarantines on recent arrivals from the capital. More politicians have been diagnosed with the virus including the president of Honduras and the WHO has welcomed the findings of a study using a widely-available steroid to treat COVID-19. 05:40 GMT Another deadly day in Pakistan Pakistan suffered its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic so far on Tuesday, recording 140 deaths from the disease, and taking the total number of fatalities to 3,037. Cases and deaths continue to rise sharply, even as authorities rush to implement so-called smart lockdowns defined areas of strict restrictions within major cities where the infection is spreading rapidly. 05:10 GMT Australia borders likely to remain closed until 2021 Hold off on any travel plans, Australia says it expects its borders will remain closed until next year, although it might ease restrictions on students and other visitors who plan to stay for a longer period of time. Trade minister Simon Birmingham says these visitors would probably be subjected to the same 14-day quarantine required of returning Australian citizens. 04:40 GMT Honduran president says he has coronavirus Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez says he has coronavirus and will work remotely while he receives treatment. As president of the nation, and a responsible citizen, I want to communicate that during the weekend I started to feel more discomfort and today I was diagnosed as having been infected with COVID-19, he said in a televised speech. They have recommended I rest, but I will continue working remotely and through my aides. Hernandez wife and two of his aides have also been diagnosed with the disease. Honduras is one of only a few countries to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu tweeted his best wishes. My thoughts & prayers are with @JuanOrlandoH & @anagarciacarias at this testing time. My good friend the President of #Honduras is a fighter & will come through this with flying colors. Be strong! JW https://t.co/b0z3H61k0g Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) (@MOFA_Taiwan) June 17, 2020 04:30 GMT Red Cross warns violence puts Afghanistan COVID-19 patients at risk The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says rising violence and attacks on healthcare facilities have put millions of people in Afghanistan at risk. The recent trajectory in Afghanistan is of great concern, Juan Pedro Schaerer, the head of the ICRC delegation in Afghanistan, said in a statement. After the hope brought by a relative reduction in hostilities in February and March, we again see more violence. Civilian casualties are on the rise while the country is battling against COVID-19. The Red Cross says Afghanistans health system was stretched even before the arrival of COVID-19, with limited coverage in conflict-affected areas, and poor specialised healthcare. Attacks against medical staff and health facilities, such as the assault last month on the MSF-supported maternity hospital in Kabul, only made the situation worse it said. COVID-19 has challenged the worlds most advanced nations. A country where gunmen attack a hospital stands no chance at providing quality care. We see it in health facilities in conflict-affected areas and in prisons, where people have already limited access to health care, Schaerer said. 04:10 GMT Speaker of Kazakh parliament tests positive for coronavirus Nurlan Nigmatulin, the speaker of the lower house of Kazakhstans parliament, is the latest politician to test positive for coronavirus. He met the countrys healthcare minister, Yelzhan Birtanov, last week before Birtanob was diagnosed with COVID-19 and admitted to hospital with pneumonia. The parliaments press office says Nigmatulins case is asymptomatic. Weve been keeping track of the politicians and celebrities diagnosed with the disease, as well as what coronavirus does to people. Read more in the stories below. 03:15 GMT Chinese provinces impose curbs, quarantines on people from Beijing Provinces and cities elsewhere in China are responding to the outbreak of coronavirus in the capital. The semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Macau has just announced a 14-day mandatory quarantine for all people who have been in Beijing in the past two weeks. The measure will come into effect at 12 noon local time (04:00 GMT). Heilongjiang province in the northeast has introduced a 21-day quarantine for anyone recently arrived from Beijings medium and high-risk areas. The capital has already imposed restrictions on outward travel. Thats led to a sharp drop in flights at its main airports. 500 flights carrying 32,000 passengers will fly into and out of #Beijing Capital International Airport on Wed, which is significantly less than last week, due to a rise in #COVID19 infections; that is, the airport (PEK) saw 901 flights carrying 82,700 passengers last Wed. https://t.co/l9EeIY2PIl Global Times (@globaltimesnews) June 17, 2020 02:45 GMT Japan finds coronavirus in wastewater plants A Japanese study has confirmed the presence of coronavirus in wastewater. Researchers from Toyama Prefectural University, Kanazawa University and Kyoto University tested water at four treatment plants in western Japan and found seven of 27 samples positive for the virus, according to a preprint of the study. Sewage testing is used as an early warning system to alert people about (possibly unnoticed ongoing community transmission, Yuki Furuse, a Kyoto University professor who wasnt directly involved in the trial told Reuters. Studies in Australia, the US and Europe have reported similar findings. 02:15 GMT New Zealand deploys troops to borders after quarantine bungle New Zealands prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has appointed the military to oversee the countrys borders, after a quarantine bungle. The country had had 24 days without new cases until Tuesday when two women whod recently arrived from Britain were found to have the disease. My view is that we need the rigour, we need the confidence, we need the discipline that the military can provide, Ardern told reporters, according to AFP news agency. 01:50 GMT Beijing reports 31 new coronavirus cases Beijing confirmed 31 new cases of coronavirus on June 16, as coronavirus restrictions were tightened across the capital. The new cases are part of a cluster that originated in the sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food market in the southwest of Beijing. An area around the market has been designated a high-risk zone and quarantined. Other districts have been designated medium-risk with people there required to undergo temperature checks and registration. 00:00 GMT Brazil cases at daily record, official claims crisis managed Brazil has reported a record 34,918 new coronavirus cases, on the same day one of the senior officials leading the countrys response to the crisis claimed the outbreak was under control. Brazil also registered 1,282 COVID-19 deaths bringing confirmed fatalities to 45,241. Walter Braga Netto, the head of the office of the presidents chief of staff and one of the top officials handling the crisis, said it was under control. There is a crisis, we sympathise with bereaved families, but it is managed, Braga Netto told a webinar organised by the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro. Braga Netto based his claim on deaths-per-million-people, which suggested the country was doing better than many European nations, saying he was trying to convey a message of optimism in the management of the crisis. But Carissa Etienne, who is the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said in a video briefing from Washington that Brazil is a major concern. We are not seeing transmission slowing down in Brazil, Etienne said. Latin Americas largest country accounts for about a quarter of the roughly four million coronavirus cases in the Americas and nearly 25 percent of the deaths, she said. 23:30 GMT WHO welcomes study findings on steroid treatment The WHO has welcomed the findings of a breakthrough study on steroid treatment for people suffering from severe cases of COVID-19. This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said in a statement. This is great news. The researchers shared initial insights about the results of the trial with WHO, which will update its clinical guidance on how and when the drug should be used in COVID-19 after receiving more detailed information. Dexamethasone is a steroid that has been used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions, including inflammatory disorders and certain cancers. - 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 16) here. WHO sees green shoots of hope in COVID-19 pandemic While nations must continue to prevent the spread of the novel virus, the WHOs Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that there are green shoots of hope in the battle against the global pandemic. Tedros also said it was very welcome news that the initial results of a clinical trial had shown that a cheap, common steroid known as dexamethasone can help save critically ill patients. DUBLIN, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market By Charging Type (Static & Dynamic), By Power Supply Range (3-11kW; 12-50kW; Above 50kW), By Charging System, By Vehicle Type, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market is projected to grow at CAGR of over 35% during the forecast period on account of surging sales of electric vehicle on the back of growing awareness about vehicle emissions and government subsidies. With the increasing demand for electric vehicles, the demand for electric vehicle charging stations will increase. Unlike wired charging stations, wireless electric vehicle charging is about transmission of energy, without cables, from power source to vehicle. Since, the technology is convenient, cost-effective and reliable; therefore, wireless electric vehicle charging is expected to gain prominence during the next five years. The Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market can be segmented based on charging type, power supply range, charging system, vehicle type, region and company. Based on power supply range, 12-50kW held the dominant share in 2019 due to high demand; however, above 50kW is forecast to grow at the highest rate until 2025 due to fast charging capabilities it offers. Based on geography, Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest rate through 2025 due to growing sales and production of electric vehicle in countries such as Japan, India, China, among other. Moreover, China is expected to hold the largest market share in the region due to high sales of electric vehicle and presence of leading OEMs in the Asian country. Major companies in the Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market include HEVO Inc., Daimler AG, Qualcomm Technologies, Witricity Corporation, Mojo Mobility, Hella Kgaa Hueck & Co., ZTE Corporation, Integrated Device Technology, Inc., Hella Kgaa Hueck & Co., Toyota Motor Corporation and others. The companies operating in the market are using inorganic growth strategies such as mergers & acquisition and partnership to increase their share in the market. For instance, Qualcomm entered into strategic agreement with Nichicon Corp so that the latter company can include former company's Halo wireless electric vehicle charging technology to their product portfolio. Years considered for this report: Historical Years: 2017-2018 Base Year: 2019 Estimated Year: 2020 Forecast Period: 2021-2025 Objective of the Study To analyze and forecast the market size of the Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market. To forecast the Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market based on charging type, power supply range, charging system, vehicle type and regional distribution. To identify drivers and challenges for the Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market. To examine competitive developments such as expansions, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions etc. in the Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market. To identify and analyze the profile of leading players operating in the the Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market. Key Topics Covered 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Executive Summary 4. Voice of Customer 5. Global Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market Outlook 5.1. Market Size & Forecast 5.1.1. By Value 5.2. Market Share & Forecast 5.2.1. By Charging Type (Static & Dynamic) 5.2.2. By Power Supply Range (3-11kW; 12-50kW; Above 50kW) 5.2.3. By Charging System (Magnetic Power Transfer; Inductive Power Transfer; Capacitive Power Transfer) 5.2.4. By Vehicle Type (Electric Passenger Car; Electric Commercial Vehicle) 5.2.5. By Company (2019) 5.2.6. By Region 5.3. Product Market Map 6. Asia-Pacific Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market Outlook 7. Europe Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market Outlook 8. North America Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market Outlook 9. Rest of World Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Market Outlook 10. Market Dynamics 10.1. Drivers 10.2. Challenges 11. Market Trends & Developments 12. Competitive Landscape 12.1. HEVO Inc. 12.2. Daimler AG 12.3. Qualcomm Technologies 12.4. Witricity Corporation 12.5. Mojo Mobility 12.6. Hella Kgaa Hueck & Co. 12.7. ZTE Corporation 12.8. Integrated Device Technology, Inc. 12.9. Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. 12.10. Toyota Motor Corporation 13. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7uan5b 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 tech2 News Staff Oppo will launch its Find X2 series in India today at 4 pm IST. The series is expected to include two smartphones: Oppo Find X2 and Oppo Find X2 Pro. As per a teaser on Amazon, the two smartphones will come with 65 W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging technology that can fuel up the phone from 0 to 40 percent in just 10 minutes. The teaser also confirmed that both Oppo Find X2 and Find X2 Pro will be powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset. The series debuted in China back in March. Oppo Find X2 series launch: How to watch the event live The launch event will kick off at 4 pm IST today. You can visit the YouTube page of the company to catch the live updates. The webcast link is also embedded below. Oppo Find X2 China variant specifications The smartphone features a 6.7-inch QHD+ Ultra Vision display that has a 120Hz refresh rate. It is powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset and offers up to 12 GB RAM and up to 256 GB of internal storage. In terms of camera, it comes with a triple rear camera setup that includes 48 MP primary sensor, a 12 MP wide-angle-lens and a 13 MP telephoto camera. For selfies, it comes with a 32 MP front camera. Oppo Find X2 houses a 4,200 mAh battery that supports 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging. Oppo Find X2 Pro China variant specifications Oppo Find X2 Pro comes with the same 6.7-inch QHD+ Ultra Vision display that has a 120 Hz refresh rate and is powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset. In the camera department, it features a triple rear camera setup that houses a 48 MP primary sensor, a 48 MP wide-angle lens and a 13 MP telephoto lens. It is equipped with a 4,600 mAh battery that comes with 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging support. As presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden enjoys a growing pool of top talentfrom longtime advisers and close aides to on-camera surrogatesto help him craft and disseminate nearly every facet of his political agenda against President Trump. But when it comes to his Black Lives Matter brain trustindividuals who the former vice president relies on to inform his thinking about the movement thats shaping the national dialogue around racehis campaign is hesitant to reveal whos doing the work behind the scenes. The Daily Beast sought to obtain basic information about the network Biden is consulting to address concerns brought forward by activists and allies supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement and related racial justice causes. Pressed several times for a list of names or groups, within his own team or externally through Bidens decades-long network, the campaign opted for a boilerplate statement. The Biden campaign told The Daily Beast that the former vice president supports numerous reform proposals currently before Congress, including a national ban on chokeholds, the creation of a model use-of-force standard, and giving the Department of Justice subpoena power for pattern or practice investigations into local law enforcement. A senior Biden adviser said in a text message that all of his advisers advise on a range of issues. In late May, the campaign made a high-profile hire by bringing on former Obama campaign and White House alum Karine Jean-Pierre as a senior adviser to work on a range of issues, including those facing key communities like Black voters, women, and progressives. Jean-Pierre did not respond when asked whether she is advising the Biden campaign on the Black Lives Matter movement specifically. But questions for increased transparency within the Biden campaign come as the candidate himself has sought to make a stark, public contrast with Trump on racial justice issues. As the president tried to militarize police in an attempt to crackdown on protests against institutional racism following George Floyds death, Biden endeavored to take on a counselor-in-chief role, including visiting with peaceful protesters in Delaware and meeting privately with Floyds family in Houston. Story continues Now is the time for racial justice, Biden said in an emotional video offering his condolences. Thats 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. On Monday night during a fundraiser, Biden condemned the fact that systemic racism still affects every part of our society, an acknowledgment he often offers in public and private events. But when it comes to who, specifically, helped craft that languageor any of the other efforts he has undertaken regarding criminal justice, police brutality, or the Black Lives Matter movement broadly in the past several weeks, the answer is less clear. Pressure Mounts for Biden to Select a Black Woman as VP In releasing his Lift Every Voice plan for Black America in May, Biden was equally vague, writing in a statement, I look forward to making it a reality with the help of lawmakers, community leaders, and families across the country who aspire to the dream of Dr. King. But the campaign has yet to release names of individuals who have Bidens ear on the cause. The opaque nature also runs counter to more transparent public statements they have released touting new hires or top leaders on an array of other areas. Earlier in the primary, while Biden was one of several Democratic contenders, his team released several lists of key hires in battleground states, including paragraph-long descriptions in some cases of new aides background and roles. Members of his staff have also promoted new digital hires with specific aides called out by name. Most recently, the campaign released a list of people in charge of running the vice presidential search committee. But in other critical areas, like Bidens advisory team on the economy, the campaign has actively demanded that those advisers not make their roles public. Last week, The New York Times reported that members of Biden campaigns economic policy committee were instructed in a memo not to disclose the names of others who are involved in the committee to nonmembers. Symone Sanders, who served as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) press secretary in 2016 and worked as an analyst at CNN, has long spoken about Bidens commitment to civil rights and racial justice. Sanders was appointed to the criminal justice joint unity task force between Sen. Sanders and Bidens campaign, along with Tennessee state Sen. Raumesh Akbari Chiraag Bains, South Carolina state Rep. Justin Bamberg, former acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, former Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), and Linn County Supervisor Stacey Walker in Iowa. Reached by The Daily Beast, Walker, a Sanders supporter selected for the joint task force, said he had not been consulted by anyone in the Biden campaign about the Black Lives Matter movement, but noted that Symone Sanders has a very good understanding of these issues. Throughout the Democratic primary, Biden had the strong support of many Black political leaders, racking up endorsements throughout the country, including in the South. Leading up to the South Carolina primary, Biden secured Majority Whip James Clyburns endorsement, and performed overwhelmingly well with Black voters nationally, helping him sweep the state by a landslide and teeing off a series of unstoppable victories that led him to swiftly secure the nomination. (A representative for Clyburn did not respond to a specific question about if he is helping Biden navigate the movement). Biden also enjoys the backing of other top leaders in the Congressional Black Caucus, including Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), who co-chairs his campaign. The congressman did not respond to a text message about whether he is advising Biden on that particular issue. Other prominent members, including the current chair Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), who endorsed Biden in March, is leading reforms in the House regarding policing, and had a lengthy discussion on that subject with The Washington Post. The Biden campaign noted that the former vice president and his team engage a diverse array of advisers, thought leaders, activists, and everyday Americans on proposals. But obtaining additional information about who is helping Biden navigate the Black Lives Matter movement comes with particular relevance, as some activists have raised concerns that Biden needs to do more to meet the needs of the current climate. In interviews, several activists and advocates told The Daily Beast that Bidens initial criminal justice platform, which was first released in July 2019, is in need of revisiting in the context of the protest movement sparked by Floyds death. In retrospect from where he stood last year, given the whole change in political climate, and seeing a modern-day lynching by the police on TV, just going back to where he stood a year ago that needs to be more aggressive, said Russell Drake, vice president of the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida and former president of the Orange County Black Caucus. Drake said that even the most progressive criminal justice reform proposals put forward during the primary now seem behind the timesparticularly when it comes to the question of increased funding for community policing and additional training. The police assault people and people say, oh they need access training. And Im like, I dont think a person really needs training to know not to put a knee on somebodys neck for five minutes, Drake said. It doesnt require training to know that if somebody is running away, you dont need to shoot them in the back. Drake said that a police culture of immunity and impunity has undercut previous attempts at internal reform, citing in particular the organized opposition of police unions even against reform-minded police chiefs. That culture, Drake said, can only be addressed by reexamining qualified immunity for police officersa proposal that Bidens platform does not address. When people arent held liable and theres no way they can [be], it gives them an almost invincible feeling, said Drake, who as head of the Orange County Black Caucus has worked with leading vice presidential contender Rep. Val Demings on law enforcement issues. People say its racialit may be for some individuals, but I don't think its just race Its a police culture thats generated, you know, over several decades, maybe even a century, that led police to start to feel more emboldened and invincible, and to take advantage of people with no recourse. Other activists are even less confident that the reform in Bidens current planincluding $300 million in additional funding for community policing, contingent in police force demographics tracking those of the communities they serveis enough to fix deep-seated issues in law enforcement. Law enforcements got enough moneyit wasnt a priority until now because you're getting caught, said Lawanna Gelzer, president of the National Action Networks Central Florida chapter and a longtime critic of the Orlando Police Department. Gelzer told The Daily Beast that unless Bidens criminal justice platform includes redirecting funds from armed officers to social programs that address the roots of crimewhich the plan currently does not doit will amount to a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. Thats what the community is saying about defunding the police, Gelzer said. Its not stripping you of all your money, its reallocating and putting money into services and needs that we need. They're like the fire departmentthe fire department do not patrol my neighborhood. They come when I need them. "Vice President Biden believes we need to reform, train, and invest in the programs we know work to help and protect communities, National Press Secretary Jamal Brown said in a statement. At the same time, he knows we need to invest in funding for schools, summer programs, and mental health and substance abuse treatment separate from funding for policing, so that our officers can focus on the job of policing. Congressional Democrats have put forward a plan. Now it is up to Donald Trump and Republicans to step up. Its clear we need reform but we havent seen any proposals from Trump - just attacks and attempts to divide our country. On Tuesday evening, Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield sought to put the attention back on Trump, who incorrectly asserted that Obama and Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period. "Donald Trump says President Obama and Vice President Biden didn't do anything on policing reform, but he knows that isnt true because he has spent the past three years tearing down the very reforms the Obama-Biden Administration pursued, Bedingfield said in a statement, noting several efforts to address police misconduct in Ferguson, Missouri, and limit the flow of military weapons to police departments, among others taken under the previous administration. President Trump issued an insufficient executive order piecing together a few of the recommendations of the Obama-Biden policing task force, but he isn't delivering the comprehensive policing reform we need, she said. 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. Companies may soon be required to publish their ethnic pay gaps under new legislation following a review ordered by Downing Street. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week confirmed the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities would reconsider current legislation which only requires organisations to publish a disparity in gender pay. The new proposal, which follows years of mounting pressure on the government to review race issues, comes amid a rise in Black Lives Matter protests across the country following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Under the current regulation, which came into effect in 2017, businesses are required to publish data on their gender pay gaps. The head of the No 10 policy unit Munira Mirza (pictured), will set out the terms of the new government commission Boris Johnson confirmed the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities would review racial inequality However the commission will now examine if this should be extended to include a disparity in pay between ethnic groups, with their review said to be 'data driven rather than ideology-driven', a source told The Times. The head of the No 10 policy unit Munira Mirza, has been appointed to set the terms of the new government commission- whose members are yet to be decided. Joining Ms Mirza will be the founding chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, and the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, who will be in charge of the review and will report to Mr Johnson. The review follows years of mounting pressure from campaigners who have argued that there have been six investigations into race issues published within the past three years. Following Ms Mirza's appointment, the Prime Minister was accused of waging a 'culture war' by allowing her to play a major role in setting up his commission on racial disparity. Ms Mirza, who was born in Oldham to Pakistani parents, has previously questioned the existence of institutional racism and hit out at a 'culture of grievance' among anti-racism campaigners. Her involvement in establishing the body was condemned by shadow justice secretary David Lammy, who claimed her role undermined the commission. Mr Lammy previously led a review of the treatment of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups in the justice system for the Tory government under David Cameron and Theresa May. Workers removed parts of the window at Bristol Cathedral which are dedicated to the 17th century slave trader Edward Colston this week A worker removes the name of Edward Colston from the music venue Colston Hall in Bristol He said: 'My review was welcomed by all parties: (Jeremy) Corbyn, Cameron and May. But Munira Mirza went out of her way to attack it.' Mr Lammy accused the Prime Minister of not listening to the Black Lives Matter campaign, and instead claimed 'he's trying to wage a culture war'. Labour MP Zarah Sultana said Ms Mirza was 'utterly unsuited' to the role and her involvement 'shows how little the Government cares about tackling systemic racism'. Firing back at the criticism home secretary Priti Patel said Ms Mirza was the victim of an 'orchestrated pile-on' after a series of Twitter users condemned her involvement in the commission's establishment. Ms Patel said: 'Munira Mirza is one of the most talented people working in government. She has dedicated years of her life to public service. 'A self-made woman who knows her own mind. This orchestrated pile-on is deeply unpleasant.' Black Lives Matter protesters descend upon Millennium Square in Leeds during a rally on June 14 Former chancellor Sajid Javid also shared his support for Ms Mirza and said she was 'smart, compassionate and deeply committed to social justice'. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said the commission will be chaired by an 'independent figure' who will be announced 'in due course'. 'Munira is the Prime Minister's head of policy, so you would expect her to be involved in setting this up,' the spokesman added. Ms Mirza, who served as one of Mr Johnson's deputy mayors while he ran London, used an article on the Spiked website to criticise the Lammy review in September 2017. She said Mr Lammy implied that BAME people did not trust the justice system because of 'institutional bias and discrimination'. Ms Mirza wrote: 'Certainly there is a historic legacy here from previous decades, but it is equally possible that the current accusations of institutional racism by lobbyists and activists - a perception more than a reality - is behind the further corrosion of public trust.' Mr Johnson defended his commission on Monday, following criticism that action rather than another review is needed. During a press conference in Downing Street he said: 'The whole point of having a review is to look at the areas where people feel there's more that needs to be done. 'I think what we want to do is learn now very fast what fresh changes we need to make.' live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The Covid-19 outbreak is expected to accelerate tech growth in tier-2 and tier-3 cities with remote working becomes a norm across the sector, say experts. Analysts and human resource professionals pointed out that in the next five years, close to 25-30 percent of the IT workforce could potentially work from smaller towns and cities. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, hundreds of techies moved to their native places before the lockdown came into force on March 24. Companies have extended work from home facility until July and in some firms, until September. Majority of the techies working in cities such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi- NCR hail from smaller towns and cities. An executive pointed out that more than 70 percent of the tech workforce in Bengaluru are not natives. 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 Also Read: COVID-19 impact | With surge in layoffs, demand for outplacement services soars This would never have happened if not for COVID-19, said Sunil C, head specialised staffing, Teamlease services, a staffing firm. "What COVID-19 did was change the perception that everyone should be next to each other in an office setting," he said. This change in perception could act as a catalyst for growth of IT sector in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, he added. Conversation is hardly new This conversation is hardly new as IT firms had taken steps to improve their presence in smaller towns. Take for instance HCL Tech. The company put up a strategy in place a couple of years ago with a focus on expanding in tier-2 cities with an investment of Rs 6,600 crore. At present, it has centres in Madurai, Lucknow, Nagpur and Vijayawada. Apart from HCL Tech, other IT firms such as TCS, Cognizant and Infosys have stepped up their presence in tier-II cities such as Kochi and Coimbatore. Also Read: COVID-19 impact | Not just H-1B, US L-1 visa holders also in the line of fire However, most of these firms have not scaled up, Pareekh Jain, founder of Pareekh Jain Consulting, pointed out. Most companies have provisions for 300-400 employees and this number has not increased over years. This meant that of the overall IT workforce those working in smaller towns are still small. For instance, of 50 lakh people currently employed by the IT sector only close to 10-15 percent are employed in smaller towns and cities. According to Jain, the pandemic might change that and if companies continue to adopt WFH and remote working, this could be increased to 25 percent. There might not be a need for huge real estate investment investments given that flexibility work from home offers. While client permissions are important, acceptance for such models are ideal due to the pandemic situation. Infrastructure issues such as connectivity could be a concern but, experts pointed out that it could be addressed if there is enough demand is created in the market for telecom players to step up the services. Some firms have already taken a lead in this. Zoho, a software-as-a-services firm, said that with 99 percent of its employees working from home, the company is looking to start remote offices in smaller towns. "In my conversation with employees, I can see that more of them are willing to relocate to smaller towns," he explained and added this expansion is likely to continue. The company has one office in a village near Kumbakonam and another in Srirangam. Both the locations are approximately 250-300 kilometres from Chennai. Follow our coverage of the coronavirus crisis Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 23:19:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHONGQING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality recently donated medical supplies to Uruguay to help the country fight COVID-19, local authorities said Wednesday. The donated materials include 3,680 protective suits and 300 forehead thermometers, according to the foreign affairs office of the Chongqing municipal government. When Chongqing was hit by the epidemic earlier this year, the San Jose Department of Uruguay donated medical supplies to Chongqing, providing important aid for the prevention and control of the epidemic in the municipality. Chongqing established cooperative relations with the San Jose Department in 2018. Enditem The University was built by enslaved people.* Lewis and Clark were the harbingers of an imperial dynamic that would dispossess Native Americans of much of their culture and most of their land.* Should we take these liberty-loving slaveholders seriously? How can Thomas Jefferson have written all men are created equal, and owned as many as 600 fellow human beings in the course of his life?Eight of the first 12 presidents were slaveholders. All of them were advocates of the rights of man, and yet they bought other human beings at public auctions, tracked down escaped slaves, whipped and beat and broke the recalcitrant, at times sold enslaved children purely for the market, and were free if they chose to rape female slaves more or less at will. As John Adams put it when he heard the Sally Hemings story, it might not have been true with respect to Jefferson (it was), but there was no reason to believe that the exploitation of Africans and African-American enslaved people would magically stop at the boundary of sexual access. Sexual exploitation is implicit in slavery, as the current global pandemic of global sex trafficking proves.The great constitutional convention of 1787 nearly broke down several times over the issue of slavery. Northerners among the 55 delegates rightly understood that crafting a constitution in the Age of Enlightenment that enshrined and perpetuated slavery was, among other things, an appalling hypocrisy. Southerners refused to accept any constitution that meddled with what they regarded as their property right in other human beings. The Southerners were so powerful they held the process hostage that they even induced the convention to adopt the infamous Three Fifths Clause that counted every five slaves as three for the purposes of apportionment and representation.Northerners rightly objected to the Souths insistence that their numbers in Congress should be augmented by counting enslaved people who could not vote, hold public office, or even testify in court against a white person. Northerners argued that if black people were property, then they should not have any effect on representation. But the Southerners held their ground. The Three Fifths Clause (a compromise that favored the South politically as well as economically) had a huge impact on electoral politics in the period up to the Civil War. Jeffersons enemies fairly, if ungenerously, called him the Negro President, because he probably could not have been elected in 1800 without the political weight that the Three Fifths Clause gave Southern states.The Constitution of 1787 addresses slavery eight times, never by name. That alone tells you a great deal. If the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper names, as Confucius put it, why were the Founding Fathers unwilling to use the word "slave" in the national charter of the United States, since they were without question protecting and perpetuating slavery? The Constitution refers to slaves by way of three different euphemistic formulations: other persons (Article I, Section 2), such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit (Article I, Section 9), and a person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof (Article IV, Section 2). As Abraham Lincoln put it half a century later, Thus, the thing is hid away, in the Constitution, just as an afflicted man hides away a wen or a cancer, which he dares not cut out at once, lest he bleed to death.Virtually all the people Jefferson respected most in the world were abolitionists: Dr. Joseph Priestley, the French philosopher Condorcet, Thomas Paine, Richard Price, Alexander Hamilton, Lafayette, Alexander von Humboldt, Dr. Benjamin Rush and John Adams, among many others. They all had to tiptoe around the problem of slavery in their communications with Jefferson, because it was understood that to confront Jefferson directly on the issue was to cause him to withdraw into Stoic silence, possibly forever.In, Jefferson rightly confessed that the whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. ... The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. And, in a more apocalyptic tone, he asked, can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest. Asked and answered.And yet Jefferson freed only a handful of slaves in the course of his lifetime and at the time of his death in 1826 (on the Fourth of July!). When in 1814 the young Virginia idealist Edward Coles tried to enlist Jefferson to press for an emancipation scheme that would have sent freed slaves west to take up homesteads and trades under careful white supervision, Jefferson not only refused to endorse the plan, but did his best to talk Coles out of it. Jefferson said he was too old to take on such a quixotic labor: this, my dear Sir, is like bidding old Priam to buckle the armour of HectorNo. I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors and perils begat mutual confidence and influence. This enterprise is for the young; for those who can follow it up and bear it through to its consummation. It shall have all my prayers, and these are the only weapons of an old man.People of my daughters generation (she is 25, a graduate of Columbia) would say, What a bunch of crap. This same old man, 71 at the time of this letter, still had enough gas in the tank to conceive, design and establish the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, thus anticipating Emersons famous dictum that an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man. Coles persisted without the help of the American statesman most closely associated with the principle that all men are created equal.Jefferson gets all this attention because more than other Founders, he was the one who uttered all those high-minded bromides about the rights of man. The author of the Declaration of Independence is going to get special scrutiny. Although Madison, Monroe, Washington, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and all the Randolphs were slaveholders, Jefferson has become the poster child for the racism of the Founders and the unresolved race tensions that were one legacy of the Founding generation.There are still people, including scholars, who make the best case for Jefferson they can. They say he tried to push for immediate or gradual emancipation as a young Virginia legislator and got his fingers burned. They say he would have done more if political conditions had permitted it. He knew that if he went to the mat over slavery, his usefulness in other Enlightenment reforms in Virginia and America would be shattered. He wound up being one of the most quoted of the Founders in the anti-slavery debate, thanks to the better of his two passage on slavery in Notes on Virginia. They say he could not free his own slaves because he didnt actually own them, given how deeply he was in debt most of his life. He treated his slaves better than other plantation owners. They say he had the wolf by the ears: he could neither hold on nor let go, as he famously put it in in a letter to John Holmes on April 22, 1820. These rationalizations all bear a germ of truth, but they seemed much more persuasive a generation ago than they do now.So, if the Founding Fathers were hypocrites on the question of race and slavery, perhaps contemptible hypocrites, where does that leave us? Should we blast Washington and Jefferson off Mount Rushmore, pluck down the statues of all the perpetuators of slavery, refuse to quote their high-minded pronouncements any longer because we can see that they are tainted with the blood and sweat of enslaved women, men, and children? Should we simply regard Jefferson and Madison as bad men, whose fundamental sins are so grave that they leave no room for the rest of their achievements?These are hard questions. And there is no single right answer to them. Where you stand depends on where you sit. As a privileged white scholar, I can wrestle with these questions in the mahogany of my study, knowing that I have never been racially profiled, denied housing, pulled over by toxic cops, or beaten or shot for the crime of walking through a white neighborhood while black. My own response to this problem is something I have to think about virtually every day because I am a Jefferson scholar and race has overwhelmed the Sage of Monticello like a tsunami of pent-up moral indignation. Nevertheless, I have the luxury of looking at these issues with a certain historical detachment. I would not be able to say that if I were black.My view (at least the one I hold at this time, this year, this week, but stay tuned, because we are all in a steep learning curve just now) is that we still urgently need the Jeffersonian ideals even if we now wish to condemn Jefferson the slaveholder. We need his preamble to the Declaration of Independence even if the man who put those words to paper was unequal to their universality:Condemn the man Jefferson if you like, but the plain truth is that nobody has ever said it better, more clearly, and with more confidence. Jefferson himself later wrote that his mission had been to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent. Virtually every revolutionary movement from 1776 until today has found its way back to these words words that belong partly to Jefferson, but principally to the Enlightenment, whose greatest creation was the United States of America. Elizabeth Cady Stanton echoed Jefferson in her 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments. Ho Chi Minh invoked the preamble in his long crusade to free Vietnam from foreign domination. The African-American activist David Walker challenged white Americans in 1829 to "See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language?" More recently, Martin Luther King Jr., invoked Jeffersons words in his famousspeech on the Washington Mall on Aug. 28, 1963. King framed his demands by way of a financial metaphor:Dr. King then told white America,It was Abraham Lincoln who understood the promise and the limitations of Jeffersons Declaration better than perhaps anyone in our history. In a letter to Henry L. Pierce, et al., on April 6, 1859, Lincoln wrote, All honor to Jefferson to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.Lincoln understood that the unique cast of Jeffersons mind was to be able to see the universal and the eternal through the miasma of the present and the immediate. Lincoln understood, too, that the words all men are created equal were going to have a continuing revolutionary potency that the Founders might have found surprising, that the Founders might have found profoundly troubling; but it did not mater, because the Founders were dead and the Americans of 1858 had to interpret those words not only in their original, perhaps contingent, sense, but in the larger, more universal context of human aspiration. In the years before he was elected president, Lincoln thought hard about the Declaration of Independence (which he would famously invoke at Gettysburg), and tried to figure out how to think about the words all men are created equal as he approached the most difficult crisis in American history.His conclusion is a work of practical genius just what one would expect from Lincoln, who had the most basic prose style of any president in American history, and who pursued his goals as a decidedly pragmatic idealist (much to the chagrin of the towering idealists of his age). Lincoln decided that it no longer mattered what precisely Jefferson and the Founders thought they heard in those words. What mattered now was how those words could advance the ideals of the American republic four score years after Jefferson sat down with a quill pen in breeches and buckled shoes in his boarding house on Market Street in Philadelphia. In a sense, Lincoln was endorsing Jeffersons favorite principle that the world belongs to the living not the dead. Lincoln concluded that if the words all men are created equal mean anything then they must now mean everything, that no matter what Jefferson might say if he could be resurrected to parse his famous document, the United States could not go on unless we chose to read those words in the most inclusive and universal way possible. Slavery must end.Africans and African American men and women must now be seen as being fully covered by the words all men. The United States had taken a limited reading of Jeffersons words as far as it could go from Sally Hemings to the Dred Scott Decision March 6, 1857, in which Chief Justice Taney, writing for the majority, said African Americans were of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect. So constituted, said Lincoln, the United States could not continue.Lincoln saved the country. Lincoln saved the historical standing of Thomas Jefferson. Lincoln read Jeffersons famous words back to him, without malice or righteousness, and said they were going to have to be embraced in their fullest, most aspirational, sense if we were going to be able to carry on as a nation. He did not discard Jefferson. He did not judge Jefferson. But he decided to embrace the universal human rights advocate rather than the racist, the great exemplar of the Enlightenment rather than the provincial Virginia slaveholder.The cultural revolution in America (1963-2020) that has forced a sober re-evaluation of what we thought we knew about, well, everything, has given voice to tens of thousands of individuals whose lives were lost or ignored in the previous historiographical paradigm. The list reads like something out of Whitman: women, African Americans, including enslaved people, Latinos, children, industrial workers, craftsmen and women, Native Americans, Creoles, people of mixed heritage, agricultural laborers, urban immigrants, labor unionists, subsistence farmers, and many others. Our understanding of American history is almost infinitely richer for this revolution, this widening of the lens, this embrace of forgotten Americans. The cultural revolution has also caused us all to think again about the triumphalist narrative that used to pass as Truth in American studies. This re-evaluation of the things we thought we knew, things we thought were settled and unambiguous, is painful, sometimes very painful, and at times the pendulum seems to swing too far too fast. But we are a dramatically better and more interesting people for seeking the truth rather than throwing up walls to protect us from a more mature understanding of our history and its cost.Once you have looked through these new lenses, you can never think of Thomas Jefferson in quite the same way again. He emerges as a more complicated figure than we thought, more problematic, more troubling, more compromised. That does not (for me) negate his importance or his greatness, but it casts a permanent shadow over his life and achievement. Every time we now extoll his great achievements Monticello, the University of Virginia, the Louisiana Purchase, the Library of Congress, his fabulously lucid and graceful letters, his collections of artifacts from the American West, some of them delivered to him by his hand-picked explorer and protege Meriwether Lewis, his great book, we must place an asterisk at the end of the sentence:Jefferson was able to write these graceful letters because enslaved people catered to his every need, from helping him bathe his feet in cool water in the morning, to emptying out his chamber pots so he could see himself as a cousin to Bach and the Minuet rather than Jonathan Swift and the Yahoos.We still need the Founding Fathers and mothers, too, like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, and Phillis Wheatley but we need to try to see them for what they are, not for what we wish they had been. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is joined by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (L) and fellow Republican lawmakers for a news conference to unveil the GOP's legislation to address racial disparities in law enforcement at the U.S. Capitol June 17, 2020 in Washington, DC. Senate Republicans on Wednesday unveiled their bill to reform the police, the latest effort by lawmakers to overhaul U.S. law enforcement in the face of unrelenting pressure from activists in the wake of George Floyd's death. Here's some of what the Republicans' bill would do: Incentivize law enforcement agencies to ban the use of chokeholds by tying funding to whether departments have prohibited the practice "except when deadly force is authorized"; Ramp up data collection efforts to track when an officer's use of force results in death or serious harm; Provide federal money for additional training on alternatives to the use of force; Include language recognizing the history of lynching in the United States; Strengthen penalties for falsifying police reports; Require law enforcement agencies to send the attorney general reports on no-knock warrants; Create a commission to study issues that affect Black men and boys The bill comes a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would incentivize police departments to update their standards and practices and strengthen efforts to track officer misconduct. The Senate Republicans' offering in some ways hews closer to the president's action than the sweeping legislative proposal put forward last week by congressional Democrats. The Senate Republicans' bill has Trump's total support, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters later Wednesday. "It's a great bill, it's more great action from Republicans, and we hope we can have bipartisan support on that," she said. Unlike the Democrats' proposal, the Republican bill does not address the issue of qualified immunity, the doctrine that largely shields officers from legal liability unless a plaintiff can show that their constitutional rights were clearly violated. The Trump administration has said that amending qualified immunity is a "non starter." The Supreme Court said Monday that it will not hear cases addressing the doctrine of qualified immunity. The GOP proposal also would not end the use of "no-knock" warrants in drug cases, as the Democratic bill does, and it would provide new funds to police departments for training. The 106-page bill, dubbed the JUSTICE Act, is led by GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, one of three Black senators, and backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The bill "speaks to the fact that we believe the overwhelming number of officers in this nation are good people," Scott said at a Capitol Hill news conference Wednesday morning as he announced the legislation. By PTI SRINAGAR: National Conference general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar was on Wednesday released from a sub-jail after 10 months, officials said, a day after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed his detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Sagar, 67, was released from a government guesthouse which has been designated as a sub-jail, the officials said here. The six-time MLA was detained in August last year after the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 was withdrawn. Among the grounds of his preventive detention, it was said Sagar might use his influence among people to organise mass gatherings against the government's decision to revoke provisions of Article 370. "Your capacity of influencing people for any cause could be gauged from this fact that you were able to convince your electorate to come out and vote in huge numbers even during peak militancy and poll boycotts. Your activities are aiming to raise a voice against the Union of India by way of encouraging mass agitation," read the dossier against Sagar. PM Modi on Wednesday has warned China that India strives for peace but it is capable of giving a befitting reply if instigated. He is present in a meeting with heads of 15 States and UTs via video conferencing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday paid tributes to soldiers who were killed in violent face-off with Chinese troops in Ladakhs Galwan valley and asserted that their sacrifice will not go in vain. I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most importantIndia wants peace but it is capable to give a befitting reply if instigated, the Prime Minister said. We have prayed for the welfare of humanity. We have always worked with neighbouring countries in a friendly way and cooperation. We have always tried that our differences should not turn into disputes. We never provoke anyone. But we can never compromise on countrys integrity and sovereignty. We have always displayed our power in protecting the countrys integrity and sovereignty, the Prime Minister added. Read also: Rahul Gandhi questions PM Modis silence on India-China face-off Read also: Army sources confirm disengagement from both sides as India faces the bloodiest clash with China in 50 years The Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Ministers of 15 States and Union Territories, who are present in the meeting via video-conferencing today, observed a two-minute silence as a tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives in the violent face-off. At least 20 Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel, were killed in the violent face-off with the Chinese security forces on Monday night. Prime Minister Modi has called for an all-party meeting to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas on June 19. Read also: PM Modi meets military brass, top cabinet ministers over Ladakh skirmish For all the latest National News, download NewsX App NEW HAVEN The Board of Police Commissioners Tuesday voted 4 to 2 in favor of firing Officer Jason Santiago for engaging in excessive force and violating rules of conduct, despite a plea by the officer and his union to agree to a restorative justice plan for the 8-year veteran. Mayor Justin Elicker said officers in the New Haven Department have to be held to a high standard. Officials said that while making an arrest, Santiago kicked a man in the groin while he was handcuffed on the ground, and then pulled him to his feet by his long braids. Though we all expect there will not be conduct like this from our officers, it is crucial that when they happen, we hold the officers in question to the highest standard of excellence. Behaviors such as the action of Officer Santiago during this incident undermine the hard working New Haven Police officers that pride themselves in maintaining a good relationship with our community and keeping them safe, Elicker said in a statement after the vote. The mayor was among the four who voted to fire Santiago. The others were: Chairman Tony Dawson, Evelise Ribeiro and Donald Walker. Voting against termination were Greg Smith and Isias Miranda. There was no discussion after the commissioners came out of executive session to vote. The hearing portion before that was public, at Santiagos request, and could be seen by the more than 200 people on the Zoom platform used for the virtual meeting. According to an Internal Affairs report, when Luis Rivera was pulled up to a standing position by his hair, he spit in Santiagos face and mouth at which point the officer struck him in the face with a closed fist, sending Rivera back to the ground. The Internal Affairs unit ruled this was a correct response to keep him from continuing to spit. Rivera was arrested and charged with assaulting an officer. The Board of Police Commissioners heard testimony from Police Chief Otoniel Reyes, the citys Labor Relations Director Cathleen Simpson, attorney Marshall Segar for the Elm City Local, CACP (Connecticut Alliance of City Police) and Santiago, who talked at length of his of his blemish-free service with the exception of the interaction with Rivera. The incident involved a roadside dispute on Christmas morning last year in which police encountered a couple who had driven into the curb on Lombard Street, breaking the vans axle. The situation escalated when an aggressive Rivera refused to allow the vehicle to be towed. As seen on Officer Michael Hintons body camera footage, Rivera is having a dispute with Julie Cruz about the van as Hinton tells Rivera, who appears to be intoxicated, to go sit down several times, Simpson said. The labor director said Hinton, who had called Santiago for backup, could be seen in body camera footage trying to get Rivera to calm down. Officer Santiago from the minute he got there ... he immediately became very aggressive. While Officer Hinton was trying extremely hard to de-escalate it, Officer Santiago immediately went into a situation where he said: I cant take any more of this guy and proceeded to attempt to arrest Rivera, she said. Simpson said Rivera apologized to Santiago for the laceration on the officers his hand as they waited for emergency medical personnel. The injuries to Rivera were negligible. The city does not hear about the incident until March 9 when Santiagos body camera is reviewed in Riveras case, and the states attorneys office looks into the officers actions as possible unjustified use of force; New Haven began an internal review starting on March 10. Simpson said Santiago did not remember kicking Rivera, but when shown the camera footage, he said it was inadvertent. She advised the commissioners that the fact that Rivera was not harmed, is of no consequence because the kick was unjustified force as was pulling Rivera up by his hair. While Santiago had no history of this kind of behavior, the labor attorney told the board you do not have to wait until something really bad happens to determine we cant take our chances. She said any action or non-action by the states attorneys office is irrelevant as the board only rules on violations of its own policies. The labor counsel said the city cannot afford and should be spared from the potential civil liability connected to police unwilling to follow these serious rules. The attorney said public trust is extremely important and means officers should not engage in use of force unjustifiably. Santiago, when he had a chance to speak, said on that Christmas Day last year, there were actions on my part that are less of what speaks of me and I am remorseful and it does not describe who I am as a person ... I am taking accountability for my actions, he said. I can assure you, I dont want and deserve to be fired. The portion of the camera footage that is shown only depicts a brief moment of this incident. I do not find it a fair or accurate depiction of me or my character. I never come to work thinking Im going to hurt someone today. I come to work thinking how can I shine light on someones darkness, making them feel valued, Santiago said. He said his encounter with Rivera, when he spit in his mouth, was disgusting and meant he needed shots and antibiotics to ward off disease. He said he has never been disciplined, but rather he has received commendations for his service. I can attest ... that my job is not done here. People in the community need me and I need them. We all need to come together and make things right. We all make mistakes and Im not perfect ... I regret that split second decision that put us all in the moment we are in right now, Santiago said. Reyes, said in his assessment, what was before the board was the image of the men and women of the New Haven Police Department. He said the decision to take disciplinary action against an officer is probably one of the most important things he does. But the chief said it is not just about correcting behavior. It is equally about safe guarding the values, the standards and the image of the department. Reyes told the board that the public needs to know that the leadership of the department is just, fair and holds officers accountable. This is solely about what is right and what is wrong, the chief said. Reyes said when Santiago escalated the situation he put himself and he put other officers at greater risk of injury. Reyes said the officer allowed his emotions to dictate behavior that is not conducive to public trust or with the standards of the department. When he kicked the man who was down on the ground, the trust that people have in us as a department to do the right thing was out the window, Reyes said. He said that was equally true when he dehumanized him by lifting him by his hair. He said the image of the department has now been impacted across the country. The chief said Santiago has done some phenomenal things, and described him as a fine officer, whom the community loves, but this is bigger than him and this is bigger than me. This is about us saying to our community we will not condone what is wrong. He called Santiagos actions the antithesis of everything we stand for and added that up to this point, he has not taken responsibility for it and I am concerned about that. Segar said Santiago knows he should be disciplined and if he is guilty of anything, he is guilty of being human. The union attorney said the body of Santiagos work in the department shows he is not a bad apple. He does not need to be terminated for justice to be served here. Segar said his client looks at this moment as one where there can be meaningful discussions about policing in New Haven. He said Santiago has an exemplary career. He said he is certified as a field training officer, he was a SWAT officer, he is a life saver and has a notable connection with the Fair Haven neighborhood. Instead of termination, the attorney said Santiago is not a liability, but an asset to the community and the department. Calling it restorative justice, the union made a discipline recommendation for Santiago instead of termination: Santiago would receive a three-month suspension with loss of pay; he would be subject to enhanced use of force policy compliance review for two years; undergo any relevant training as determined by the chief of of police; speak at all police academy training classes for a period of two years. The later would be an opportunity to address use of force and how it impacts officers and the community. Segar said he would also meet with community groups to discuss policing in New Haven and ways to heal. He said the meetings would be determined by the chief and occur within six months after he is back at work. Segar said the union will also work with the administration to reform police policies and practices to better achieve the highest degree of compliance with the law, while championing trust, compassion and eliminating fear in the community. Santiago, speaking in Spanish, and then translating it to English, spoke about his career and his early life where he overcame severe reading and writing disabilities and then graduated from college. He said one of the greatest highlights was running into a burning house on Clay Street and with Officer Matt Stevens rescuing 30 people from two homes after he heard the cry of a child. It is moments like these that make all our sacrifices and everything that we do every day worth it, Santiago said. He said as officers we make spli- second decisions on a daily basis regardless of the dangers presented to us. Over the eight years, Santiago said he has saved numerous people from committing suicide. He said he still sees them and they thank him as their lives have taken a turn for the better. He said he has been involved in cases where guns and drugs have been taken off the street, potentially saving lives. The officer said he had devoted extra time to New Haven, sacrificing time with his family to serve the community. Santiago said he took a violent criminal off the street and then saved him from a burning vehicle, at great risk to himself. He said he has de-escalated many dangerous situations. This is the caliber of officer you need on the streets, he said. Santiago told the board that the gaps that bridge the police and the community have gotten so big over night. Progress was made and then things changed. The first thing I said to myself and my peers, we have to work harder to regain trust. Please dont make eight years of dedicated community policing and established relationships be erased by a split-second decision on my part. the officer said. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577 Stand-up comedian and actor Chris D'Elia was accused of sexual misconduct aimed at minors by multiple users on social media Tuesday. The New Jersey native, 40, was at the center of online controversy on Tuesday when a woman by the name of Simone Rossi using the handle @girlpowertbh tweeted images that depicted a text chat between the pair six years ago, later saying that she felt she was 'being groomed by a stand-up comedian' for sex. She wrote: 'Imagine being 16 and being groomed by a stand up comedian twice ur age and the only reason you never met up and never got physically m*lested was because u had just gotten a boyfriend ur own age.' But he told TMZ on Wednesday that he never pursued underage girls. 'All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me,' he said. The latest: Stand-up comedian and actor Chris D'Elia, 40, was accused of sexual misconduct aimed at minors by multiple users on social media Tuesday. But he told TMZ on Wednesday that he never flirted with underage girls. 'All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me,' he said Another user under the handle @michaelacoletta accused the comedian of '[soliciting] nudes off of [her] when [she] was 17 years old.' He 'constantly messaged me whenever he was touring [Vancouver] and asked me to come backstage to his shows,' she wrote. She subsequently added: 'I am so unsurprised that multiple girls are coming out with almost the exact story as mine. Its a known fact hes a f***ing perv and he plays those roles perfectly when acting lmao.' Other stories continued to be posted across multiple accounts, and across Twitter, many pointed out the ironic notion that D'Elia was accused of creepy behavior after playing characters of a similar ilk, including that of twisted comedian Joshua 'Henderson' Bunter on the Netflix series You. D'Elia played comedian Joshua 'Henderson' Bunter on the Netflix series You A user named Simone Rossi accused the comedian of sexual misconduct on the social media site Chris told TMZ, however, that the accusations are not true. 'I know I have said and done things that might have offended people during my career, but I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point,' he stated. 'All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me.' D'Elia then said: 'That being said, I really am truly sorry. I was a dumb guy who ABSOLUTELY let myself get caught up in my lifestyle. Thats MY fault. I own it. Ive been reflecting on this for some time now and I promise I will continue to do better.' Others in the comedy community took the opportunity to poke holes in DElia's professional abilities, linking them to his alleged misbehavior. 'If you cowards had fired Chris DElia a long time ago for being bad at the job (standup comedy) he wouldnt have had time to creep,' comic Amy Miller tweeted. 'But you LIVE to say "good set" to men taller than you.' Django Gold said, this Chris D'Elia s*** is wild, but I guess it's always the first person you suspect.' Dailymail.com has reached out to D'Elia's reps for comment. Stories: Another social media user passed on accounts she'd heard documenting his behavior Chorus of voices: Other women emerged with similar stories accusing D'Elia of misconduct Across Twitter, many pointed out the ironic notion that D'Elia was accused of creepy behavior after playing characters of a similar ilk, including that of twisted comedian Joshua 'Henderson' Bunter on the Netflix series You Others in the comedy community took the opportunity to poke holes in DElia's professional abilities, linking them to his alleged misbehavior D'Elia has had a successful career in both acting and stand-up comedy which began in 2006 after dropping out of New York University. His big break came in 2011 when he co-starred opposite Whitney Cummings in NBC sitcom Whitney which ran for two seasons. That same year he also made a guest star appearance on Comedy Central show Workaholics in which he played a local child molester named Topher. Interesting: In 2011, he made a guest star appearance on Comedy Central show Workaholics in which he played a local child molester named Topher In December 2013, he released his first ever one-hour stand-up special called White Male Black Comic which aired on Comedy Central. He went on to film three more specials for Netflix: Incorrigible (2015), Man On Fire (2017) and No Pain (2020) as all four were directed by his father Bill D'Elia. In 2014, he had the lead role on NBC sitcom Undatable as Danny Burton which was cancelled after three seasons. D'Elia has kept much of his personal private as he married actress Emily Montague in 2006 before they divorced in 2010. In February 2020, he announced on his podcast, Congratulations, that he had welcomed his first child. FDA approval for Cosentyx is based on the Phase III PREVENT trial, demonstrating efficacy in active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA), which is part of the axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) disease spectrum is based on the Phase III PREVENT trial, demonstrating efficacy in active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA), which is part of the axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) disease spectrum There are an estimated 2.7M people living with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) in the US; however, it remains significantly underdiagnosed 1,2 nr-axSpA approval is the fourth indication for Cosentyx, which is backed by five years of clinical data supporting long-term safety and efficacy across moderate to severe plaque psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS)3-8 Basel, June 17, 2020 Novartis, a leader in rheumatology and immuno-dermatology, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Cosentyx (secukinumab) for the treatment of active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA), confirming Cosentyx efficacy in addressing the axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) disease spectrum9. The results from the PREVENT trial show that there was a significant reduction in disease activity for patients treated with Cosentyx versus placebo, said Atul Deodhar, MD, professor of medicine and medical director of Rheumatology Clinics at Oregon Health & Science University, and an investigator in the PREVENT clinical trial. This approval brings a new therapeutic option to people living with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. The approval of Cosentyx for nr-axSpA is based on efficacy and safety outcomes from the PREVENT Phase III study, which included 555 adults with active nr-axSpA that were biologic treatment naive or had an inadequate response / were intolerant to an anti-tumor necrosis factor- therapy (anti-TNFs). Cosentyx met the primary endpoints achieving statistically significant improvements versus placebo in the signs and symptoms of nr-axSpA, as measured by at least a 40% improvement in the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society (ASAS40) response criteria in biologic-naive individuals at week 5210. nr-axSpA patients treated with Cosentyx showed improvement in both load and without load arms compared to placebo-treated patients at Week 16 in health-related quality of life as measured by the Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQoL) questionnaire (Least Squares mean change: Week 16: -3.5 and -3.6 -vs -1.8, respectively). General health status and quality of life was assessed by the Short Form health survey (SF-36). At Week 16, patients treated with Cosentyx showed greater improvement from baseline in the SF-36 physical component summary (PCS) score and in the mental component summary (MCS) score10. The safety profile of Cosentyx in the PREVENT trial was shown to be consistent with previous clinical trials. No new safety signals were detected3-8,10. nr-axSpA is part of the axSpA spectrum, which is characterized by inflammatory arthritis of the spine associated with chronic inflammatory back pain11. The axSpA disease spectrum also includes AS, in which joint damage is visible on x-ray, and nr-axSpA, in which joint damage is generally not visible on x-ray1,12. The physical limitations of axSpA can affect activities of daily living as well as leisure activities causing limitations for patients13,14. There is a need for additional treatment options. Having a new treatment option for the axSpA community is truly encouraging," said Cassie Shafer, Chief Executive Officer of the Spondylitis Association of America. Helping reduce the burden on people living with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis by improving symptoms that affect their daily lives remains a critical focus for the SAA. In April 2020, Novartis received European Medicines Agency approval of Cosentyx for the treatment of nr-axSpA15. About Cosentyx (secukinumab) Cosentyx is the first and only fully-human biologic that directly inhibits interleukin-17A (IL-17A), an important cytokine involved in the inflammation and development of psoriatic arthritis (PsA), moderate to severe plaque psoriasis (PsO), ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and nr-axSpA16,17. Cosentyx has been studied clinically for more than 13 years. The medicine is backed by robust investigational evidence, including five years of clinical data supporting long-term safety and efficacy across moderate to severe plaque psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS)3-8. These data strengthen the unique position of Cosentyx as a comprehensive treatment across axial spondyloarthritis, psoriatic arthritis and psoriatic disease, supported by more than 340,000 patients treated worldwide since launch18-20. About PREVENT PREVENT is a two-year randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III study (with a two-year extension phase) to investigate the efficacy and safety of Cosentyx, in patients with active nr-axSpA. The study enrolled 555 male and female adult patients with active nr-axSpA (with onset before 45 years of age, spinal pain rated as 40/100 on a visual analog scale (VAS) and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) 4) and who had been taking at least two different non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) at the highest dose up to 4 weeks prior to study start. Patients may have previously taken a TNF inhibitor (not more than one) but had had an inadequate response. Of the 555 patients enrolled in the study, 501 (90%) were biologic naive. Patients were allocated to one of three treatment groups: Cosentyx 150 mg subcutaneously with loading dose (Induction: 150 mg Secukinumab subcutaneously weekly for 4 weeks, then maintenance with 150 mg Secukinumab monthly); Cosentyx 150 mg no loading dose (150 mg Secukinumab subcutaneously monthly), or placebo (induction of subcutaneously weekly for 4 weeks, followed by maintenance of once-monthly)10. The primary endpoints are the proportion of biologic-naive patients achieving an ASAS40 response with Cosentyx 150 mg at weeks 16 and 52. Secondary endpoints include change in BASDAI over time and change in the Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score with CRP (ASDAS-CRP)10. ASAS40 is achieved when there is a measure of an improvement of at least 40% and an improvement of at least 20 units on a 0100 scale in at least three of the following domains: Patient global assessment, Pain assessment, Function (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI)), and Inflammation (morning stiffness severity and duration) and no worsening in the remaining domains21. BASDAI assesses a patients disease activity on six measures: fatigue, spinal pain, joint pain/swelling, enthesitis, morning stiffness duration and morning stiffness severity21. Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as potential, can, will, may, could, remains, expectations, encouraging, investigational, launch, brings, or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential or actual marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for Cosentyx, or regarding potential future revenues from Cosentyx. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that Cosentyx will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any additional markets, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that Cosentyx will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding Cosentyx could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AGs current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Novartis Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend peoples lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the worlds top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach nearly 800 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 109,000 people of more than 145 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at https://www.novartis.com. Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at https://twitter.com/novartisnews For Novartis multimedia content, please visit https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library For questions about the site or required registration, please contact media.relations@novartis.com References 1. Strand V and Singh JA. Evaluation and Management of the Patient With Suspected Inflammatory Spine Disease. Mayo ClinProc 2017;92:555564. 2. Spondylitis.org. Overview of Ankylosing Spondylitis Ankylosing. Available from: https://www.spondylitis.org/Ankylosing-Spondylitis [Last accessed: June 2020]. 3. Data on file. CAIN457F2310 (MEASURE 2): 5 Year Report. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; September 15, 2015. 4. Data on file. Data Analysis Report: Study CAIN457A2302E1. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; November 30, 2015. 5. Data on file. CAIN457F2310 and CAIN457F2305 Summary of 5-Year Clinical Safety in (Ankylosing Spondylitis). Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; May 2019. 6. Data on file. CAIN457F2312 (FUTURE 2): 5 Year- Interim Report. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; May 2019. 7. Data on file. CAIN457F2312 Data Analysis Report. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; November 2008. 8. Data on file. CAIN457F2310 (MEASURE 1 and 2): Pooled Safety Data. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; July 23, 2018. 9. Cosentyx [Prescribing Information]. East Hanover, NJ: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; 2020 10. Novartis data on file. September 2019. 11. Strand V, et al. Patient Burden of Axial Spondyloarthritis. J Clin Rheumatol. 2017 Oct; 23(7): 383391. 12. Rudwaleit M, et al. The development of Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society classification criteria for axial spondyloarthritis (part II): validation and final selection. Ann Rheum Dis 2009;68:777783. 13. Doward LC, Spoorenberg A, Cook SA, et al. Development of the ASQoL: a quality of life instrument specific to ankylosing spondylitis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2003;62:20-26. 14. Moncur C. Ankylosing spondylitis measures. Arthritis Rheum (Arthritis Care Res). 2003;49:S197-S209. 15. Novartis. Novartis Cosentyx gains fourth indication in EU with first-in-class approval in axial spondyloarthritis spectrum. Available from: https://www.novartis.com/news/media-releases/novartis-cosentyx-gains-fourth-indication-eu-first-class-approval-axial-spondyloarthritis-spectrum [Last accessed: June 2020]. 16. Novartis Europharm Limited. Cosentyx (secukinumab): Summary of Product Characteristics. Available from: http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.jsp?curl=pages/medicines/human/medicines/003729/human_med_001832.jsp&mid=WC0b01ac058001d124 [Last accessed: June 2020]. 17. Girolomoni G, et al. Psoriasis: rationale for targeting interleukin-17. Br J Dermatol 2012;167:717724. 18. Data on file. COSENTYX Access. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; May 2019. 19. Data on file. AIN457A2102 Clinical Study Report. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; December 2008. 20. Data on file. COSENTYX Access. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; June 2020. 21. Landewe R, et al. Clinical Tools to Assess and Monitor Spondyloarthritis. Curr Rheumatol Rep. 2015;17(7):47. # # # Novartis Media Relations E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com Antonio Ligi Novartis Global External Communications +41 61 324 1374 (direct) antonio.ligi@novartis.com Eric Althoff Novartis US External Communications +1 646 438 4335 eric.althoff@novartis.com Louise Clark Novartis Pharma Communications +41 61 324 2970 (direct) louise.clark@novartis.com Novartis Investor Relations Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944 E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 16, 2020) - Ethos Gold Corp. (TSXV: ECC) (OTCQB: ETHOF) ("Ethos" or the "Company") is pleased to announce amendments to its earn-in agreements for the Iron Point, Nevada and Perk-Rocky, British Columbia exploration projects. These amendments were negotiated in part to allow additional time to complete the earn-in agreements while the COVID-19 pandemic is active. Iron Point Earn-in Agreement Amendment On May 17, 2019 Ethos announced it had executed an agreement to earn in to a 50% undivided interest in the gold and silver rights at the Iron Point project 22 miles east of Winnemucca, Nevada, by spending CDN$ 5 million over three years, including a minimum expenditure of CDN $1.0 million in the first year. An amendment to this agreement has now been executed whereby the term on the earn-in has been increased from three years to five years, and the minimum annual work expenditures starting in the second year of the earn-in are now set at US$250,000. Ethos has met its obligation to spend CDN $1.0 million in the first year of the agreement. All other terms of the original earn-in agreement remain unchanged. Perk-Rocky Earn-in Agreement Amendment On May 16, 2019 Ethos announced it had entered into an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the Perk-Rocky copper-gold porphyry project located 225 km west of Williams Lake, British Columbia. Based on the first year of work on the property Ethos has now met the full expenditure requirements for the option agreement and recently completed the required first anniversary cash and share payments. An amendment to the option agreement has now been executed to defer the second year cash and share payment from May 10, 2021 to August 16, 2021. This will allow Ethos additional time in the summer of 2021 to complete and assess project work programs including a possible drill program before making a decision regarding the second anniversary option payment. Story continues Contact For additional information please contact Tom Martin at E: tmartin@ethosgold.com P: 1-250-516-2455 or view the Company's website, www.ethosgold.com .and the Company's sedar profile at www.sedar.com . Ethos Gold Corp. Per: "Craig Roberts" Craig Roberts, P.Eng., President & CEO Forward-Looking Statement Cautions: This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the Company's plans with respect to the Iron Point and Perk Rocky projects and the timing related thereto. 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 risk of accidents and other risks associated with mineral exploration operations, the risk that the Company will encounter unanticipated geological factors, or the possibility that the Company may not be able to secure permitting and other agency or governmental clearances, necessary to carry out the Company's exploration plans, risks and uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the risk of political uncertainties and regulatory or legal changes in the jurisdictions where the Company carries on its business that might interfere with the Company's business and prospects. 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 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/57952 (SCREENSHOT:Our Tampines Hub/Google Maps) SINGAPORE Four more public places visited by confirmed COVID-19 cases were listed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Wednesday (17 June) including two in Siglap and one in Tampines. The places are the Cold Storage outlet at Siglap V, the NTUC Fairprice outlet at Siglap New Market, the Kopitiam outlet at Our Tampines Hub, and the SF Chandpur Minimart at Desker Road. The MOH also added another date separately to the POSB outlet at Kaki Bukit Recreation Centre and Mustafa Centre in its list of places visited by COVID-19 cases. Persons who visited these places at the following times and dates should see a doctor promptly if they develop symptoms such as cough, sore throat and runny nose, as well as fever and loss of taste or smell, and inform the doctor of their exposure history, the MOH advised. There is no need to avoid places where confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been. The National Environment Agency will engage the management of affected premises to provide guidance on cleaning and disinfection, it added. The list which excludes residences, workplaces, healthcare facilities, and public transport will be updated on a rolling 14-day basis or one incubation period. First published on 25 May, the list compiles places visited by infectious cases in the community for over 30 minutes. The MOH confirmed on Wednesday 247 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, bringing the total number to 41,216. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Chill and Livingbridge both declined to confirm the size of the stake being acquired or its cash price. Stock photo: Depositphotos Chill Insurance has sold a majority stake to UK private equity firm Livingbridge as the online brokerage seeks to fund acquisitions and build product range and market share. Chill and Livingbridge both declined to confirm the size of the stake being acquired or its cash price. But an industry source said Chills previous main shareholders, brothers Padraig and Seamus Lynch, have retained approximately a 30pc stake. The source declined to specify how much Livingbridge paid or the exact size of its holding following yesterdays completion of the deal. Chill chief executive Michael McLaughlin said Livingbridges cash injection would allow the firm, founded in 2006 by the Lynches, to pursue the next stage in our growth journey. He said Chill which reportedly had been seeking to raise funds through debt finance before Livingbridges investment interest materialised had been impressed by their successful track record in scaling insurance businesses. Their expertise will be invaluable as we continue to widen our reach in the personal lines sector, expand our portfolio of complementary financial services products, and build our M&A (mergers and acquisitions) capability, Mr McLaughlin said. Chill is Irelands largest online insurance broker and employs about 250 people in Dublin. The firm says it has 200,000 policyholders representing a 6pc market share nationwide. Livingbridge which holds stakes in other brokerages and has offices in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Melbourne and Boston said in a statement that it was attracted to Chill as an industry disruptor with best-in-class IT infrastructure. Chill offers whole-of-market choice through a panel of 14 major insurance carriers at competitive prices direct to its customers, the UK firm said. Livingbridge partner Xavier Woodward said: Chill represents a fantastic opportunity to back a multi-product insurance provider which is uniquely positioned to grow in a large and attractive market. He said Livingbridge and Chill will focus on accelerating the growth of the business through M&A. One of the dangers in any intellectual movement is that as ideas calcify, the movement ceases to generate anything new and instead becomes a sociological discussion of the members themselves. In recent weeks, for example, the New York Times op-ed page has threatened to drift into an inescapable black hole in which the only subject matter it can comment on is the New York Times op-ed page. The same thing is true of ongoing foreign policy debates about "the Blob." What began as a specific criticism of some quarters of the foreign policy community has devolved into spats about who is or who is not a member. I am as guilty as the next person of participating in these debates. After reading Emma Ashford and Jeremy Shapiro's latest contributions to this genre, however, I can feel that tug of the black hole and would very much like to change course. This is not a knock on both essayists, who have something to say. Ashford's Foreign Affairs essay makes sharp points. Her observation that the term itself has drifted from Ben Rhodes's original formulation to something much more inchoate is spot-on. Her frustration at an intellectual dichotomy between the Trumpists and the foreign policy establishment is palpable: "For those who truly want to reshape Washington's overweening and militarized foreign policy, the best approach is not to engage in name-calling but to work to replace the existing foreign policy consensus and its disciples with something better." The thing is, the bulk of Ashford's essay focuses on lingering scars, such as NATO expansion, Iraq, Libya and Syria. These are fair matters of debate, and yet it is striking how these hoary foreign policy chestnuts cover a very small slice of the world. Similarly, Jeremy Shapiro's essay in the Boston Review considers Mira Rapp-Hooper's "Shields of the Republic" through the same Trump/Blob lens. Shapiro is wary of the perils of alliance expansion and bemoans Rapp-Hooper's failure to think beyond the Blob: "The result, as we approach the 2020 election, is a U.S. foreign policy debate that is caught between the solipsistic stupidities of the Trumpians and the tired nostalgia of the Washington foreign policy establishment. Biden's approach has the overwhelming virtue of coherence, and his team has the advantage of competent and honest professionals. But Trump's approach did at least begin with an appreciation that the burdens of global leadership had become unbearable and that the U.S. public increasingly wants a foreign policy focused more on needs at home. U.S. alliances might well have an important role in such a foreign policy, but that role would begin from a recognition that U.S. global leadership is no longer possible or desirable. For all of the many virtues of this book, one wishes that Rapp-Hooper had turned her keen mind to describing that policy in innovative ways rather than providing yet another plan for sustaining U.S. leadership." Cards on the table: I appreciate the efforts by Ashford, Shapiro et al to articulate a distinct foreign policy vision for the United States. But I find arguments about the undue burden of U.S. leadership to be sterile. The claims that the U.S. network of alliances endangers the United States or risks wider great power conflicts are unconvincing. The claim of public fatigue with liberal internationalism is flat-out false. These kind of Blob debates inevitably devolve into questions about the use of force. That is a very important question that nonetheless covers a very small portion of U.S. foreign policy. If 2020 teaches us anything, it should teach us that a competent foreign policy rests on far more than the judicious use of force. Consider the most important piece of international relations news in the past 48 hours. According to the New York Times, Indian and Chinese troops clashed Monday night in the Himalayas, part of an ongoing border dispute that flared up last month. According to the Times, at least 20 Indian troops and an uncounted number of Chinese troops died after "a brawl involving rocks and wooden clubs that was similar to fights that broke out last month." The Times also noted that, "India seemed caught off guard by the new burst of violence, which the two sides blamed on each other." Writing in The Washington Post, Christopher Clary warns that traditional Indian methods to defuse tensions will not be tenable in this particular dust-up. This is not a clash that involves U.S. allies. But I can remember a time in which the United States possessed enough diplomatic capital and network centrality to function as a mediator between the two nuclear-armed countries. As this border skirmish was heating up, President Donald Trump offered to act as a mediator only to be rebuffed by India almost immediately. Far too often, debates about U.S. foreign policy devolve into arguments about the use of force. Leadership comes from being at the epicenter of key networks, however. The notion of a robust U.S. diplomatic presence in major capitals and international organizations should not be controversial. And yet, amazingly, the Trump administration seems too lazy to put in the work in these arenas. This is why most experts do not expect Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's scheduled meeting with his Chinese counterpart to yield much progress on anything. When I read reports that both China and Russia are keen for another four years of the Trump administration, it is unsurprising. If I was a great power watching an archrival stab itself repeatedly, the best thing to do is get out of the way and say nothing. - - - Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:09:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The UN-backed Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Serraj met with a high Turkish delegation in the capital Tripoli and discussed mutual cooperation between the two countries. According to a statement issued by the Libyan prime minister's information office, the meeting discussed the latest developments in Libya and international efforts to solve the current crisis. It also discussed a number of cooperation files in various fields, within the framework of close brotherhood and friendship ties between the two countries. Moreover, the officials discussed military and maritime memoranda of understanding (MoU) signed in November between the two countries "particularly regarding cooperation in building Libyan defense and security capabilities through training, habilitation and equipping programs." The signing of the MoU came amid differences between Turkey on one hand, and Egypt, Greece and Cyprus, on another hand, over the exploration rights for oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean. Enditem The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. The issue quickly made its way to the courts, and a Richmond judge has temporarily barred the state from taking down the statue on Monument Avenue. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. "President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period. The reason they didn't try is because they had no idea how to do it." - President Trump, in remarks on the signing of an executive order on policing, June 16, 2020 - - - OK, we know that President Donald Trump detests his predecessor, Barack Obama. Just in recent months, while battling the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has falsely accused Obama of mishandling the swine flu epidemic; leaving "empty" the Strategic National Stockpile, a repository of emergency medicines and supplies; and providing "old tests" for a disease that had not even emerged yet. Now, faced with another crisis - mass protests against police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd - the president knocked Obama again. Before signing an executive order that seeks to provide incentives for police departments to increase training on the use of force, Trump asserted that Obama and his vice president "never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period." Seriously, this was a claim made by the president. Obama faced his own uproar over police brutality in 2014, after the shooting death of an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. Indeed, one of his critics at the time was none other than then-private citizen Trump. Obama took a number of steps in response, in particular issuing an executive order that created a task force on "21st century policing." The group was asked to hold public hearings and meet with officials and nongovernmental groups to develop recommendations. The task force was co-chaired by Charles Ramsey, commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department, and Laurie Robinson, a George Mason University professor who had twice served as assistant attorney general for the Office of Justice Programs, the research, statistics and criminal justice assistance arm of the Justice Department. A final 115-page report was delivered in May 2015 with dozens of recommendations, such as seeking more data on police-involved shootings, "whether fatal or nonfatal, as well as any in-custody death"; improved assessments of community attitudes toward police; and the removal of incentives on police practices such as a predetermined number of tickets, citations, arrests or summonses. Some of the recommendations have eerie echoes of recent events: "Law enforcement agencies should create policies and procedures for policing mass demonstrations that employ a continuum of managed tactical resources that are designed to minimize the appearance of a military operation and avoid using provocative tactics and equipment that undermine civilian trust." Indeed, elements of Trump's executive order could have been lifted from the Obama-era report. Trump called on the Justice Department to encourage more training of police officers with "respect to encounters with individuals suffering from impaired mental health, homelessness, and addiction." The Obama report had several recommendations along those lines, including making "Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) a part of both basic recruit and in-service officer training." Of course, recommendations are only a start - just as signing an executive order does not mean policy is being implemented. The Obama task force issued an implementation guide for police departments and a year later reported that 15 police departments had agreed to an action plan to implement the recommendations. That might seem like a drop in the bucket, but the report was closely studied by other police departments. "According to a survey of forty-seven of the largest law enforcement agencies in the United States from 2015 to 2017 conducted by the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) and the National Police Foundation, 39% of the departments changed their use of force policies and revised their training to incorporate de-escalation and beef up scenario-based training approaches. Significantly, officer-involved shootings during this period dropped by 21% in the agencies surveyed," Robinson said in a recent assessment of police reforms since Ferguson. Obama took other steps as well. In May 2015, on the recommendation of a White House working group established that January, he banned federal transfers of certain types of military-style gear to local police departments, including tracked armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, ammunition of .50-caliber or higher, and some types of camouflage uniforms. Trump in 2017 rescinded that executive order. Obama's Justice Department also aggressively pursued consent decrees, approved by courts, in which police departments agreed to a road map of changes and reforms. Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, ordered a review of such deals when he came into office and then sharply limited their use and their length on the day he was fired. Asked about Trump's comments, Nancy G. La Vigne, vice president for justice policy at the Urban Institute, responded: "Untrue. There actually were extensive efforts to reform policing that were evidence-based and informed by leading experts in the field. This includes the Task Force on 21st Century Policing and the National Initiative in Building Community Trust and Justice," she said in an email. "Further, DOJ under AG Eric Holder pursued consent decrees and pattern and practice investigations with vigor - two strategies that this administration has abandoned." When we asked the White House to provide a factual basis for Trump's claim that Obama didn't try to fix the issue, we received a response that suggested the complaint was more about how Obama tackled the problem. "This President is about action and this executive order will do more than any previous administration on police reform," a senior administration official said. "This executive order has both law enforcement and victims' families' buy-in. This is meaningful action for victims and their families, but we won't solve this problem by demonizing police. We must work together with them, and this executive order will help to resolve some of the issues of injustices we see across the country." The official added that "the Trump administration rolled back the practice of consent decrees because they were not effective." This is one of those needlessly false claims made by Trump. He could have offered a reasoned critique of the actions taken by Obama, given that his administration has rolled back or limited some of the actions that Obama instituted in response to Ferguson. Instead, Trump asserted, without any basis, that Obama and Biden "never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period." Clearly, Obama did try - whatever one concludes about the results. Instituting changes in law enforcement and police training takes years of sustained effort and conscientious follow-through. Trump will find that simply signing an executive order is only the start of a long process. In the meantime, he earns Four Pinocchios. It is available for just around Rs 3 a tablet and could well be the drug to treat critically-ill patients of coronavirus. The internet and social media are awash with news clips and reports from the UK of the biggest trial conducted so far on the Dexamethasone and coming out with evidence that this steroid given in low doses can help cut the risk of death in critically-ill patients. It is a cheap and widely available steroid that is used as an anti-inflammatory medicine globally and in India. BusinessToday.In reached out to Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO), on what changes now and if we now finally have a treatment for COVID-19? "It is a well-done randomised trial with large number of patients. This is the kind of evidence we need for any drug. Second, the results show that it works best in the most severely ill patients that is those who already have a respiratory failure and need oxygen or mechanical ventilation." It is a good result and a positive result but there is a caveat that it is only for patients who are critically ill and on support, she further says. "There are many other trials that are going on but this is the largest of them all on Dexamethasone and the WHO will be looking at all the trails that are going on and do a meta analysis and put together all the results. It will have an impact on the treatment guidelines," Swaminathan says. "It is not yet published and is only a press release. The full data has to come out and we know that there are at least 10 other trials that are going on and we need to put together all the results from the different trials and we are in the process of doing that." Only for critically-ill COVID-19 patients Swaminathan cautions that Dexamethasone should not be used on people who are not yet critically ill. It is very clear that it does not have any impact on people who do not have that kind of lung damage. The risk is that taking Dexamethasone, which is a corticosteroid, inappropriately could worsen the situation in an infection, she warns. "It is therefore important that it should be prescribed by a doctor and it should be done only in a hospital setting and in patients who fulfill the criteria which were used in the trial," says the WHO Chief Scientist. Swaminathan is also pleasantly surprised by the findings because she says, Dexamethasone, which is not yet part of the Solidarity trials "has been used for such a long time and there has never been any conclusive evidence. So, in a way, this is the first time that it has been shown very conclusively to have a benefit, so it is good." But then, talk to doctors in India and some were not surprised at all. In fact, some doctors told BusinessToday.In that this drug was being used on critically ill patients. "It is a very commonly used drug, inexpensive too, and is probably being used by the doctors in different part of the world on critically ill patients. What makes a difference now is that you have the evidence that it has the effect," says Swaminathan. In the backdrop of this, where the other drugs figure? Remdesivir for instance? "Remdesivir has not yet shown this type of result. It has only shown that it reduces hospitalisation by about 30 per cent and has not show mortality benefit in any trial so far," Swaminathan says. So, what next now. "We have to look at the full data that is presented along with data from all the other trials that are going on and it is clear that this will impact the treatment guidelines for a subgroup of patients - those who are critically ill and on oxygen or ventilator support, which is a minority of patients - but if it can save lives then naturally it is very welcome and should be used in the group of most severely ill patients. The treatment guidelines are constantly updated based on new evidence such as this," Swaminathan says. After his father grew ill, Mr. Feiler began emailing him a question every Monday morning. He got off to a light start: What was your childhood home like? What toys did you play with? How did you join the Navy? Their correspondence went on for seven years, and, Mr. Feiler called it the most incredible experience that any of us has ever had. Men are more vulnerable these days, Mr. Feiler said, but some older fathers (like his) might have kept things bottled up inside to fulfill an outdated stereotype. There was a standard of masculinity that was not universal, but that was widely regarded, that men and dads were supposed to be Mr. Fix It, he added. Keep your feelings to yourself and be the strong person who solved problems. Whether or not your father assumed that stoic role, the storytelling project may encourage him to open up and look back on meaningful moments. Mr. Feiler said his father shared secrets he had kept for decades. For a more playful approach, rope in the whole family and get to know your father through trivia. Have him team up with a family member to create a quiz about his life. (The questions should be difficult, otherwise you wont learn much.) Bring out some snacks and make a game night out of it. If youre all in separate houses, have someone create the quiz in a PowerPoint presentation and share it over a Zoom call. Harness your creativity. Are you a painter? Create an artwork that will resonate with your father. It can be a portrait, a sketch of his favorite place or an image that recalls a special moment you shared. Are you a wordsmith? Write a poem or short story. If he has a favorite genre say, science fiction or horror channel it. Filmmakers can create short movies, musicians can record songs you get the idea. Mr. Pegulas three children are now teenagers and young adults, and each has a creative hobby, he said. A gift made personally for him using their artistic talents would be doubly special. When prominent physicians Neeta and Alfred Fred Ogden moved from a New York apartmentwhere theyd raised two childrento a new, two-story house in Rockleigh, New Jersey, they wanted to transform its blank canvas into a sophisticated home where they could start collecting. The couple sought out New Yorkbased interior design Alyssa Kapito, whose eponymous firm is known for sumptuous textures in neutral palettes, to conceive spaces featuring her signature variations in tone. They gave Kapito one brief: They wanted color. It was a fun exercise for us. Whats particularly cool about this project is that we used a different texture in each room as the jumping-off point, says Kapito, who relished the opportunity to style a property that wasnt a city apartment or summer home. (Unfortunately, the upper floor couldnt be photographed, due to the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order coming into effect.) In each space, an abundance of soul and patina has replaced clean white walls, making the shingle-style home by architect James Paragano feel less like a new build. Kapito created cohesion by mixing new furnishings and artworks with antiques with period-bridging modern lines, placing pieces by the same designer in different rooms. She says the owners enthusiasm for the process and the synergy she developed with them drove the project from the outset. They were really excited about collaborating with me, which was really, really nice. They have a real appreciation for design, says Kapito. Discover a Suburban Refuge With Inspired Texture-Color Interplay Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest In 2007, GMT Magazine took a decisive step in its development, with its founders Brice Lechevalier and Pierre Jacques accepting the offer of takeover from the Edipresse Group, which also acquired the website WorldTempus and the Grand Prix dHorlogerie de Geneve at the same time. In the same vein, GMT produced the official GPHG catalogue for the first time and then included it in the distribution of its autumn edition. The magazines power of attraction extends beyond the boundaries of watchmaking, appealing to those who simply love beautiful things from all over the world. Philippe Starck GMT Thus, in the preface of GMTs spring 2007 issue, Philippe Starck defended the theory that time changes the vision of reality. He continued: It is therefore an extraordinary value, charged with poetry and romanticism. The same year, it was the president of the Monaco Yacht Show and founder of Only Watch, Luc Pettavino, who quoted Pythagoras in his preface of a GMT issue: A man is never so great as when he is on his knees helping a child. Then, Only Watch was on its second edition, where he brought together 35 brands to each create unique pieces for his organisationthe auction that year brought in CHF 2.75 million. That year, Omega celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Speedmaster, Audemars Piguet celebrated Alinghis second success in the Americas Cup, Jaeger-LeCoultre inaugurated in Le Sentier its Heritage Gallery, whose curved glass wall rises 4.7 meters and contains 300 in-house calibres, and DeWitt cut the ribbon for its Manufacture, which covers over 1,500m2. Chronographs change status Clearly, you fathers standard chronograph was surpassed, with this change reflected in the heightened competition between watch brands of all sizes. More content, more shapes, more water-resistance, more diameters, more functionsthe arms race is in full swing. A global media playground in this era, the Americas Cup sees the challengers and their sponsors compete against each other. Attracted by the rising sun, TAG Heuer supported China Team and dedicated a limited series of 500 pieces of its Calibre S Chronograph with regatta countdown, both in quartz and mechanical versions. Hublot dresses its Big Bang in the colours of Luna Rossa and presents alongside it a Big Bang Gold Mat chronograph in microblasted red gold. Girard-Perregaux sees things in a big way with a chronograph with regatta countdown and R&D 01 perpetual calendar for its American challenger BMW Oracle Racing. Alinghi won the bet with its Royal Oak Offshore Alinghi Team chronograph, which once again brought the Americas Cup to Switzerland. With the wind in its sails, the same collection was also available in Shaquille ONeal limited series (960 pieces) in steel or white gold with a set bezel, and Arnolds All-Stars in rose gold (350 pieces). GMT Staying in the theme of the seas, Jaeger-LeCoultre offered a very masculine Master Compressor Diving Chronograph, while Zenith charged the dose of testosterone with its Defy Xtreme Open El Primero Chronograph in titanium and pink gold, water-resistant to 1000m. Following its own course, Rolex designed a new chronograph calibre for its Oyster Perpetual Yacht Master II, and Chopard has also chosen the chronograph to celebrate 10 years of its Manufacture in Fleurier, through the new GT3 calibre equipping its Chrono One. Even Piaget has produced a chronograph version of its Polo with a second 24-hour time zone. The watchmaking content is being strengthened at Montblanc, which acquired Minerva in 2006 and created the Institute for Research in Fine Watchmaking, whose first steps were symbolised in the Grand Chronographe Authentique in white gold (47mm) with the Minerva 16-29 calibre. In another field, Francois-Paul Journe designed the Centigraphe Souverain, which theoretically enabled a speed of 360,000km/h to be measured with its counter at 10 oclock equipped with a lightning seconds (1 revolution per second) with a scale to the 100th, for which two patents relate to the chronograph mechanism. Distinguished in 2007 Among the leading figures of contemporary haute horlogerie, De Bethune became one of the most important centres of innovation in 5 years, establishing itself in particular as the first brand to have developed and used silicon balance springs. In addition, its watchmaking founder Denis Flageollet patented a terminal curve improving isochronism and limiting deformation due to shocks. Energy and the quest for efficiency have also led to the development of a barrel with ruby bearings, aimed at improving the friction of the spring leaves and eliminating sticking due to excess grease. Even the comfort of the case shows innovation through a pivoting stretcher system whose modular curvature adapts perfectly to each wrist. Richard Mille also pursued his high-tech quest with the RM 012, whose tubular construction of the movement and dial in stainless steel alloy remains breath-taking. Bovets strong and authentic identity reinforces its legitimacy with a tourbillon minute repeater featuring inverted hands on a black gold-powdered movement, thanks to a process it has developed: the blackened movement is visible on the reverse side of the watch face. On another register altogether, Romain Jerome launched its Titanic DNA and gave new life to the Titanic with a collection of watches incorporating steel from the most famous liner in the world, even going so far as to put rust at the heart of its watches. Meanwhile, the Chanel ship continued its journey by unveiling the J12 GMT, still a success today. GMT The zeitgeist of the time displayed in interviews In the pages of GMT, CEOs lend themselves to verbal jousting that reflected increasingly tense issues. For Richard Mille, who had just launched his RM 016, which is as rectangular as it is flat: After a long period of very wise leadership, watchmaking has recently entered a messy phase, to be frank. Im not complaining because in a way Ive modestly contributed to paving the way. However, a lot of people have since jumped on the bandwagon, and this is only viable if everyone contributes their share of creativity. We must not fall into the trap of copying others. If I take the example of my friend Francois-Paul Journe, he was able to innovate enormously and obtain a watch that is immediately identifiable although it retains a classic style. Im not giving lessons but each brand has to find its own style. The same went for Georges-Henri Meylan: If the Swiss watch industry wants to maintain its level of success, it has to be creative in terms of products and not just repeat trends that work in the moment. Stephen Urquhart GMT For Fawaz Gruosi, Today consumers are changing watches as much as they change their shirt, to which Stephen Urquhart replied: For many, the watch has become a cult object. This is also why I would be more concerned that its perception could become blurred by offering many options. Too many brands and too much promise could damage its image. It is dangerous to take advantage of the current economic health to sell anything at any price. Commenting on Omega, he said: We have been working for two years on the Antiquorum Omegamania auction, which I have high expectations of, and which should help to reposition Omega in terms of price and image. Omega does not have an image problem, but the diversity of its products and the richness of its range sometimes escapes the publics notice. For several years we have been trying to place Omega in a higher and more legitimate segment than the one in which it is sometimes perceived. Would the final word go to Richard Mille, who stated that we live in a profession which sets the time but is always late? Next week: watchmaking in 2008. *To celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2020, GMT Magazine will summarise weekly, exclusively on WorldTempus, the essence of its content published year after year in the last 20 years. The information is by no means exhaustive and refers to excerpts. For a more in-depth view of the last two decades of watchmaking, order The Millennium Watch Book produced by GMT Magazine and WorldTempus with the contribution of over twenty experts, each of whom witnessed this incomparable period in our industry. WorldTempus offers below the Spring 2020 GMT for download. Download GMT #66 for free VANCOUVER, CANADA / ACCESSWIRE / June 16, 2020 / First Mining Gold Corp. ("First Mining" or the "Company") (FF.TO)(FFMGF)(FMG.F) is pleased to announce the voting results from the Company's annual general meeting of shareholders held virtually in Vancouver on June 16, 2020 (the "2020 AGM"). A total of 235,125,295 common shares of First Mining were represented at the 2020 AGM, representing 37.73% of the Company's outstanding common shares as at the record date of April 30, 2020. Shareholders voted in favour of all matters brought before the meeting. All five director nominees listed in the Company's management information circular dated May 6, 2020 (the "Circular") were elected as follows: Election of Directors Director Nominee Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Keith Neumeyer 97,936,953 98.34% 1,650,518 1.66% Richard Lock 97,591,863 98.00% 1,995,608 2.00% Aoife McGrath 97,566,069 97.97% 2,021,402 2.03% Raymond Polman 97,554,919 97.96% 2,032,552 2.04% Daniel W. Wilton 97,572,035 97.98% 2,015,436 2.02% Detailed voting results for the meeting are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Appointment of Auditor Outcome of the Vote Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Carried 226,734,380 96.43% 8,390,915 3.57% About First Mining Gold Corp. First Mining is a Canadian gold developer focused on the development and permitting of the Springpole Gold Project in northwestern Ontario. Springpole is one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in Canada, currently hosting a mineral resource base of 4.67 million ounces of gold in the Indicated category and 0.23 million ounces of gold in the Inferred category1. A Pre-Feasibility Study is underway, with completion targeted in early 2021, and permitting is on-going with submission of the Environmental Impact Statement targeted for 2021. The Company is also in the process of closing its announced transaction with Treasury Metals Inc., after which it will hold a large equity position in Treasury that is advancing the Goliath-Goldlund gold project towards construction. First Mining's eastern Canadian property portfolio also includes the Pickle Crow (being advanced in partnership with Auteco Minerals Ltd.), Cameron, Hope Brook, Duparquet, Duquesne, and Pitt gold projects. Story continues First Mining was created in 2015 by Mr. Keith Neumeyer, founding President and CEO of First Majestic Silver Corp. ON BEHALF OF FIRST MINING GOLD CORP. Daniel W. Wilton Chief Executive Officer and Director For further information, please contact: Spiros Cacos | Vice President, Investor Relations Direct: +1.604.639.8827 | Toll Free: 1.844.306.8827 | Email: info@firstmininggold.com www.firstmininggold.com Note: 1. These numbers are from the independent technical report titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment Update for the Springpole Gold Project, Ontario, Canada", dated November 5, 2019, which was prepared by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and is available at www.sedar.com under First Mining's SEDAR profile. Readers are cautioned that the PEA is preliminary in nature, 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 PEA will be realized. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "intends", "estimates", "envisages", "potential", "possible", "strategy", "goals", "objectives", or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to future events or future performance and reflect current estimates, predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: (i) the Company's focus on developing and permitting Springpole;(ii) timing for the completion of a Pre-Feasibility for Springpole; (iii) timing for the submission of an Environmental Impact Statement for Springpole; (iv) closing of the transaction with Treasury Metals Inc. and the Company holding a large equity position in Treasury Metals Inc. after closing; and (v) realizing the value of the Company's gold projects for the Company's shareholders. All forward-looking statements are based on First Mining's or its consultants' current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by them and information currently available to them. 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. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: fluctuations in the spot and forward price of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in the currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar); changes in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave-ins and flooding); the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities, indigenous populations and other stakeholders; availability and increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development; title to properties.; and the additional risks described in the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and in the Company's Annual Report on Form 40-F filed with the SEC on EDGAR. First Mining cautions that the foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to First Mining, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. First Mining does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by the Company or on our behalf, except as required by law. Cautionary Note to United States Investors This news 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 news release have been prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum 2014 Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. 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 SEC, and mineral resource and reserve information contained herein may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by U.S. companies. In particular, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the term "resource" does not equate to the term "reserves". Under U.S. standards, 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. The SEC's disclosure standards normally do 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" by U.S. standards in documents filed with the SEC. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. U.S. 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. 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, estimated "inferred mineral resources" may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies except in rare cases. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an "inferred mineral resource" exists or is economically or legally mineable. 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" by SEC standards 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 the SEC, and reserves reported by the Company in compliance with NI 43-101 may not qualify as "reserves" under SEC standards. Accordingly, information concerning mineral deposits set forth herein may not be comparable with information made public by companies that report in accordance with U.S. standards. SOURCE: First Mining Gold Corp. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/594153/First-Mining-Announces-Voting-Results-from-2020-AGM DOJ Proposes Rolling Back Legal Protections for Tech Companies Over User Content The Justice Department (DOJ) has unveiled a series of legislative proposals that would curtail broad legal protections for online platforms in an effort to push tech companies to address illicit material while moderating content responsibly. The proposed reforms are the latest in the Trump administrations ongoing clash with big tech companies such as Twitter and Facebook. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 28 directing federal agencies to develop regulations that protect users from unfair or deceptive content restriction practices employed by online platforms. Trump had called for new regulations under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act to limit liability protections for companies that engage in censoring or political conduct. He even went so far to call for the revocation of the law in a statement on May 29. Section 230 largely exempts online platforms from liability for content posted by their users, although they can be held liable for content that violates anti-sex trafficking or intellectual property laws. The law allows companies to block or screen content in good faith if they consider it obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable. The protections, however, werent intended to apply to services that act more like publishers than online platforms, Attorney General William Barr said in a speech in May. The DOJ said on Wednesday that its proposals would update the outdated immunity for online platforms under section 230. When it comes to issues of public safety, the government is the one who must act on behalf of society at large. Law enforcement cannot delegate our obligations to protect the safety of the American people purely to the judgment of profit-seeking private firms. We must shape the incentives for companies to create a safer environment, which is what Section 230 was originally intended to do, Barr said in a statement. Taken together, these reforms will ensure that Section 230 immunity incentivizes online platforms to be responsible actors, he added. The attorney general said the internet and tech industry has evolved since section 230 was adopted 25 years ago. At the time, it was used to protect websites that served as bulletin boards for third-party content and to give protection to companies from liability for removing content such as child pornography or human trafficking advertising, he said. But now, he said, section 230 has been interpreted in such a broad manner that has left online platforms unaccountable for a variety of harms flowing from content on their platforms and with virtually unfettered discretion to censor third-party content with little transparency or accountability. The president and Barr have both cited Twitter, which recently added a fact check feature, as an example of when an online platform is playing the role of a publisher. Twitter had applied its fact checking label on two of Trumps tweets and invited readers to get the facts after Trump made claims that mail-in-voting leads to voter fraud. The choices that Twitter makes when it chooses to suppress, edit, blacklist, shadowban are editorial decisions, pure and simple, Trump said. In those moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform and [becomes] an editor with a viewpoint, and I think we can say that about others also. Areas for Reform The department had conducted a review of section 230 over the last 10 months following its broader review announced in July 2019 of online platforms and their practices. The review included engaging in a public workshop, facilitating an expert roundtable to discuss potential reforms, allow for written submissions, and meeting with companies who expressed interest in discussing section 230 (pdf). Following that review, the department determined that section 230 was ripe for reform and had developed four overarching recommendationsincentivizing online platforms to address illicit content, promoting open discourse and greater transparency, clarifying federal government enforcement capability, and promoting competition. Some of the departments recommendations include denying section 230 immunity to truly bad actors, which it describes as an online platform that purposefully facilities or solicits third-party content or activity that would violate federal criminal law. The department also suggested carving out exemptions to immunity protection for platforms who are willfully blind to egregious content, including child exploitation and sexual abuse, terrorism, and cyber-stalking. The reforms will also seek to encourage platforms to be more transparent and accountable to their users by clarifying the text and reviving the original purpose of the law. They will also make it clear that section 230 immunity does not apply to civil enforcement actions brought by the federal government. These reforms are targeted at platforms to make certain they are appropriately addressing illegal and exploitive content while continuing to preserve a vibrant, open, and competitive internet, Barr said. Bowen Xiao and Petr Svab contributed to this report. The officer who shot dead Rayshard Brooks has been charged on 11 counts including felony murder, a charge that carries a possible sentence of life without parole or the death penalty. The charges were announced at a press conference held by Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard. Former cop Garret Rolfe, 27, has also been charged on several counts of aggravated assault, seven violations of oath each carrying sentences of 1-5 years and an eight count for kicking Brooks as he lay dying an allegation made after reviewing surveillance footage and citizens' cell phone videos. In a bombshell moment Howard revealed that Devin Brosnan, 26, has turned state witness and has agreed to testify against Rolfe. Brosnan has been charged on three counts, one of aggravated assault a charge that carries up to 20 years in prison and two violations of oath, including a failure to administer timely medical assistance. Rolfe has also been charged on this count. Howard revealed that Brosnan had admitted to standing on Brooks's shoulders while he lay dying an unauthorized control technique. Howard has asked for a $50,000 bond for Brosnan and no bond for Rolfe. Both men must turn themselves in by 6pm Thursday. Fellow officer Brosnan, who was first to respond to the 911 call-out that reported Brooks drunk and asleep at the wheel in the drive-thru lane of Wendy's on University Avenue, Atlanta, has been placed on administrative duty. Brosnan faces three charges including aggravated assault. Officer Garrett Rolfe has been charged with 11 counts including felony murder, a charge that carries a possible sentence of life without parole or the death penalty, in the death of Rayshard Brooks Fellow officer Devin Brosnan faces three charges including aggravated assault. Brosnan had admitted to standing on Brooks's shoulders while he lay dying an unauthorized control technique Rolfe shot Rayshard Brooks (pictured) twice in the back on June 12 when he tried to arrest him in Atlanta The charges were announced at a press conference held by Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard This is only the fourth time that Fulton County DA has issued arrest warrants before any indictments have been brought. Howard said that his office had investigated the shooting at the Wendy's on University Avenue at 1.15am on Saturday morning and had worked around the clock from that moment. He said the investigation had taken into account both officers' bodycam and dashcam footage, Wendy's surveillance footage, civilian cell phone footage and several eye witnesses three of whom were present at the conference today. Howard said that Brooks presented no threat to the officers who knew that the Taser he had stolen had been deployed twice and therefore rendered useless. Howard stated, 'Once Mr Brooks was shot there is an Atlanta policy that requires that the officers have to provide timely medical attention. 'But after Mr Brooks was shot for 2 minutes and 12 seconds there was no medical attention applied to Mr Brooks. 'What we discovered is during the 2 minutes and 12 seconds that officer Rolfe kicked Mr Brooks while he laid on the ground fighting for his life. 'The other officer, officer Brosnan stood on Mr Brooks's shoulders while he was there struggling for his life. He concluded, 'Based on the way these officers conducted themselves that the demeanor immediately after the shooting did not reflect any fear or danger but reflected other kinds of emotion.' Speaking on behalf of Brooks's widow, Tomika Miller, attorney Chris Stewart praised Officer Brosnan's 'courageous' decision to 'step forward and say, 'This is wrong.' He said, 'I know he'll probably catch all kinds of hate [for this].' Stewart added, 'This is not a day of joy because it shouldn't have happened. This is heartbreaking but it is an attempt to redefine justice because we don't have any idea what it looks like in this world anymore.' DA Howard said that he could not recall any occasion on which an officer had turned state witness prior to Brosnan. 'What we discovered is during the 2 minutes and 12 seconds that officer Rolfe kicked Mr Brooks while he laid on the ground fighting for his life,' Howard said during the press conference, showing this image In a bombshell moment Howard revealed that Devin Brosnan, 26, has turned state witness and has agreed to testify against Rolfe Rolfe, 27, has also been charged on several counts of aggravated assault, seven violations of oath each carrying sentences of 1-5 years and an eight count for kicking Brooks as he lay dying Rayshard Brooks' widow Tomika Miller was present at Wednesday's press conference where charges were revealed NBA star Dwight Howard was present inside the courtroom while the charges against the Atlanta officers were read Protesters gathered outside of the courthouse during the Wednesday's press conference As well as his colleague's testimony, Howard said that his office had used Rolfe's own words against him. He said that they had based their view that his response was 'excessive' on what he called 'an excited utterance, ' the unfiltered statement picked up by audio in the immediate aftermath of the shooting when Rolfe said, 'I got him.' He said that such utterances were considered, 'highly reliable in law,' precisely because they were said before a person had time to think or consider their words. The case may not go before a Grand Jury until January or February next year as the DA's office has about 12 cases to be considered ahead of it. Howard called for a change in the law that would allow the DA to simply sign off on an indictment and let the case go forward. He said, 'I don't think we should wait.' Brooks's shooting sparked outrage and violence in the wake of George Floyd's death under the knee of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin, 44, is now facing charges of second-degree murder, third degree murder and manslaughter. The three officers who stood by while Floyd, 46, died have all been charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder and manslaughter. Fulton County Medical Examiner declared Brooks' death a homicide on Sunday, citing the cause as organ damage and blood loss caused by the gunshot wounds. Howard, who is up for re-election, was quick to state that he believed it was 'important' to bring charges in Brooks' death. On Monday he said that he believed it would be difficult for Rolfe to argue self-defense from the material that he had reviewed to that point. The arrest warrant for Officer Garrett Rolfe was issued today. He has until Thursday at 6pm to turn himself in Brooks is pictured with wife Tomika Miller and three of his four daughters. She said she now feels like a 'statistic' having been rendered a single black mother by the cops' killing her husband Rayshard Brooks' widow Tomika Miller called for the officers to be charged and said on Monday that it would take a 'long time' for their family to heal. She spoke while holding one of his three daughters Video shows as Brooks is running away from Rolfe, Brooks (right) is seen turning around and pointing a Taser gun at the cop. That is what prompted Rolfe to shoot him twice in the back Brooks' grieving family and widow Tomika Miller called for the officers to be charged this week and told how he had celebrated his daughter's eighth birthday with a trip to a bowling alley earlier that day. But, in the days since the incident that began as a peaceable call out and escalated into the violent altercation, many have pointed to the differences between this shooting and Floyd's death. After twenty minutes of polite, muddled responses to the officers' questions Brooks blew 0.108 on a breathalyzer having failed field sobriety tests. Rolfe then informed him he was too drunk to drive and tried to handcuff the 27-year-old father-of-four at which point Brooks attempted to make a break for it and a struggle ensued. During that struggle Brooks punched Rolfe, took Brosnan's taser and fled, turning to fire the stun gun back towards Rolfe who pursued him. DailyMail.com has learned that Brooks was on probation and faced going back to prison if he was charged with a DUI. It was the fear of incarceration that likely caused Brooks to panic in the face of imminent arrest and caused him to run. According to bodycam footage obtained by DailyMail.com, Rolfe begged Brooks to live as he desperately administered CPR to the dying man. Rolfe's bodycam came off during the violent altercation that erupted when he tried to cuff Brooks telling him he'd had too much to drink to be driving. But the camera never stopped recording, as it was picked up and carried around by other officers called out to investigate the shooting before eventually being returned to its owner. Amid angry shouts and accusations from by-standers Rolfe can be clearly heard pleading, 'Mr. Brooks keep breathing. Keep breathing for me.' The jerky bodycam footage captures him kneeling on the ground and administering CPR to the bleeding man while Brosnan looks on. Rolfe administered CPR until the ambulance arrived and can be heard repeatedly calling Mr. Brooks' name as he tried to keep him alive. DailyMail.com can reveal that Officer Rolfe begged Rayshard Brooks to stay alive after shots were fired, as seen on the officer's body camera Brooks' blue shirt can be seen surrounded by officers who tried to save his life DailyMail.com can also reveal that Rolfe has since told friends that he didn't want to pull the trigger but did so because he feared that he he 'went down' Brooks might kill him. Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com one close to Rolfe said, 'Garret didn't want to do it. He had been punched and was dazed. Brooks had gone to tase him and he said that he knew that if he went down Brooks might kill him.' Rolfe was injured from a punch landed by Brooks during the scuffle that broke out when Rolfe tried to cuff him. The former officer was briefly felled and did not know where his fellow officer Devin Brosnan, 26, was in that moment. The source said, 'He told me he fired a shot up above his (Brooks's) head but he didn't stop and so he fired twice more. He didn't want to do it. There's no hate in Garrett's body. He doesn't hate black. He doesn't hate white. In that moment he was in fear for his life.' It's been revealed that Rolfe had allegedly tried to cover up a previous shooting involving another black man in 2015. Court documents obtained by The Guardian on Wednesday revealed the former cop was one of three officers involved in the shooting of Jackie Jermaine Harris in August 2015. Harris, who had been driving a stolen truck, survived the incident but was treated in the hospital for a collapsed lung. He later pleaded guilty to a slew of charges. However, documents showed the police officers involved did not include the fact that they opened fire on Harris and only noted that he was injured. During a 2016 court hearing over the incident, Judge Doris L Downs called it 'the wildest case I've seen in my 34 years here' and said she was alarmed to learn the cops failed to report the shooting. 'None of the police put in the report that they shot the man - none of them. And they sent him to Grady [Memorial Hospital] with collapsed lungs and everything, and the report doesn't mention it,' Judge Downs said, according to the news outlet. 'I am ethically going to be required to turn all of them in,' she added. Harris was struck once after Rolfe and the two cops shot at him multiple times through the truck after he rammed it into a police car. Brooks' death has sparked outrage but one black Georgia sheriff has said the shooting was 'completely justified'. Burke County, Ga. Sheriff Alfonzo Williams told CNN: 'There's nothing malicious or sadistic in the way these officers behaved' Burke County, Georgia Sheriff Alfonzo Williams has today spoken out publicly to describe the shooting as 'completely justified.' The black sheriff whose county is about 160miles east of Atlanta told CNN, 'We saw in the video that Brooks is engaged in a fight with the officer. Brooks is able to take a non-lethal weapon, a Taser, away from one of the officers and he flees. Brooks turned back to the officers and fired the Taser.' According to Williams, 'If an officer is hit with that Taser, all of his muscles will be locked up, and he'll have the inability to move and to respond. This was a completely justified shooting.' Georgia Public Safety Training Center Director Chris Wiggington has also spoken out to describe the shooting as 'tragic, yet justified.' He said, 'I agree just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something. But we can't take out what the officer felt at that moment.' Neither Rolfe nor Brosnan have spoken publicly about the incident. Photo: The Canadian Press People march down the street towards the Georgia state capitol to protest against the mistreatment of black people and to press for policy change, Monday, June 15, 2020, in Atlanta. The NAACP March to the Capitol Monday coincided with the restart of the Georgia 2020 General Assembly. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) As demand for social change sweeps across the globe, Indigenous Peoples in both Canada and the United States are backing the Black Lives Matter movement in more ways than one: standing in solidarity, but also standing in line, waiting for their chance at lasting justice. Both countries are awash in tidal waves of public anger over systemic racism and police brutality but while the protests in the U.S. revolve around incidents of police brutality against the Black community, the Canadian version has also focused on Indigenous Peoples. It's a stark illustration of how Indigenous issues play on either side of the Canada-U.S. border. In Canada, they sit at the core of the ongoing debate over institutional racism, police brutality and social justice. In the U.S., where terms like "American Indian" and "native" are still very much in vogue, they barely register. "What you're seeing in Canada, where there's a disproportionate level of police misconduct in relationship to native people, is also happening in the States," said Circe Sturm, an anthropology professor at the University of Texas, Austin and a specialist in Indigenous issues. "It's just not on the radar." An estimated 2.9 million people self-identified as Native American or Alaska Natives alone in the 2010 U.S. census, a demographic that now comprises about 1.6 per cent of the total population. The country's Black population, meanwhile, is estimated at about 47.4 million, or about 13 per cent of the total. And yet research shows that Indigenous people are even more likely than Black people to be killed at the hands of police, making them the most vulnerable demographic when it comes to law enforcement violence, Sturm said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks violent deaths, found that with data from 36 participating states, Indigenous people died at the hands of police at a rate of 0.98 for every 100,000 people in 2017, while the same database produced a rate for Black people of 0.46. In terms of raw numbers, there are far more cases of Black people being killed in police encounters in the U.S. than Indigenous people 437 compared with just 17 in 2019, according to the online database Fatal Encounters. But factor in the difference in the size of their respective populations and the disparity becomes clear. Hispanic Americans, too, suffer an outsized measure of violence from law enforcement. But Indigenous people can often appear to fall into any of the three most vulnerable categories, Sturm said. "You see this kind of racist violence happening ... when they're read as Hispanic, when they're read as American Indian and when they're read as Black. And when they pass as white, it doesn't happen as much," she said. "So when people physically look to be in any of these categories, then they tend to get targeted more because of racial profiling." In the U.S., two dramatic police killings George Floyd last month, under the knee of a former Minneapolis police officer, and then Friday's shooting death of Rayshard Brooks as he tried to flee Atlanta cops in a Wendy's parking lot have galvanized an uprising across the country, marked by daily protests, the toppling of Confederate symbols and talk of swift police reform. That tide of outrage reached north as well, but a different cast of characters soon took centre stage. Rodney Levi, 48, was shot dead Friday by a New Brunswick RCMP officer near the Metepenagiag Mi'kmaq Nation, west of Miramichi. Police said a man carrying knives was jolted with a stun gun, then shot when he charged at officers. The chief of Metepenagiag Mi'kmaq Nation said Levi had been attending a barbecue. Just eight days earlier, 26-year-old Chantel Moore, from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation in British Columbia, was shot by police in Edmunston, N.B. The municipal police department said an officer performing a wellness check allegedly encountered a woman with a knife. And dashcam footage of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations Chief Allan Adam's brutal arrest by RCMP officers outside a casino in Fort McMurray, Alta., allegedly for having an expired vehicle registration, has been circulating on social media and stoking anger across the country for nearly a week. RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki has been facing calls for her ouster after she initially stopped short last week of agreeing with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's declaration that systemic racism is a problem inside the ranks of the force. She later recanted: "I did not say definitively that systemic racism exists in the RCMP," she said. "I should have." The National Congress of American Indians, the largest Indigenous organization in the U.S., issued a statement Tuesday calling on its members to continue to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to seize the opportunity for lasting change. "America's greatness has always risen and fallen on the degree to which this nation embraces its incredible diversity and provides equal footing to all Americans to seize opportunities, enabling them to realize their full potential," the organization said. "As the first peoples of this land, native people are an integral part of the American mosaic, and we will not rest until we secure our rightful place in this countrys future and equal opportunities to thrive." MANISTEE Several people could be seen painting the siding on a house near Reitz Park on Forest Avenue Wednesday morning. While it was a sunny morning in the low 70s, it wasnt the weather that had them hard at work painting. Rather, the group was coming together to paint over harsh words and images that had been spray painted onto the home early Sunday morning. According to the latest Manistee City Police department blotter, the department reported there had been a malicious destruction of property hate crime incident on Forest Avenue on Sunday. Sheila Bajtka, daughter of the homeowner, said her father woke up around 5 a.m. Sunday and discovered the graffiti of obscene images and words, references to the Black Lives Matter movement and claims that he was a racist painted all over the outside of his home. Bajtka said her father reported the incident to police. She said her father, Patrick Bajtka, spoke with the city police department about the incident, and that later police reported that residents had stopped by the department with information of things they had seen or heard as well as possible pieces of evidence. But as of Wednesday morning, she said her father was still waiting to hear back from police. Det. Sgt Josh Glass, of the Manistee City Police Department, said the incident is being investigated by an officer and a sergeant of the department. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic prevention measures, the city is on a workshare program, so as to limit contact between staff members in case a person unknowingly gets sick. In this case, it changes the days or hours police and other city staff can work. Were on a modified schedule due to COVID. Right now, we work longer stretches of days and have longer periods off, Glass said. He said anyone with information on this incident can reach him by phone at 231-398-3281, or by email at jglass@manisteemi.gov. Glass said if anyone thinks they are witnessing a crime in action, they can call 911, or if it is a nonemergency, can call central dispatch at 231-723-6241. He said the determination of whether the incident is considered a hate crime by definition would take more investigating as well as having the countys prosecutor office weigh in on the matter as far as the offices interpretation of the crime. Thats something we would have to take a look at and take a look at the statute to see if this actually fits that (definition), he said. And that depends on the act itself. Glass said the investigation is ongoing and a primary suspect has not been identified. Bajtka said another layer involved in the situation is with homeowner's insurance, and how to move forward with repairing the damage. Bajtka said while they were able to paint over the siding to cover the spray painted words and images, they need to wait for a homeowner insurance appraiser to visit the home to evaluate the graffiti on other areas. She said this was estimated to take up to one or two weeks. Bajtka said the reception from the community has been mixed, with some local businesses offering to clean her fathers vehicle windshield that had been painted without charge, and supplying paint to cover the graffiti on the home for free. But she added that since Sunday, some had shouted or cursed at her father from their moving vehicles or stopped to take photos of the graffiti. Yesterday, I went there and cleaned for him and within the 2 hours I was there just cleaning, there was like 20 some cars that went by taking pictures to put on their Facebook, she said. I understand they havent seen anything like this. But think of the victim. Its horrifying for him. She believes her 72-year-old father was mistaken for a different person by whoever did the graffiti. He just feels like it was a big case of mistaken identity of which weve heard from different people on social media that it was supposed to be the house (a few) doors down, and they got the wrong house and that kind of stuff, she said. My dad is a very private person, hes involved with the VFW." She said her father is definitely not a racist. Time: Location: More info: Wednesday, January 26 - 12:00 - 1:00 PMWebinarIn this webinar, Scheherzade Rana, a corporate mindfulness trainer, meditation teacher, speaker and Founder of Innerspace Mindfulness will share ideas and strategies for becoming an inclusive leader. You will cultivate openness and awareness of bias and learn new ways to connect to your colleagues (and yourself) with empathy, compassion and courage.Using the latest mindfulness science, you will gain a greater understanding of how to create a culture of well-being and psychological safety - one that is integral to inclusive and high-performing teams today.You'll also learn the "how-to" of organizational mindfulness with a simple minutes-a-day practice that you can start right away! Press Release June 17, 2020 De Lima calls for Senate probe into increasing frequency of illegal POGO activities Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has called for a Senate inquiry into the arrests made and cases filed relating to the operations of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) to ensure that the law enforcement agencies are handling the cases with due diligence and resolving them. In filing Senate Resolution (SR) No. 440, De Lima stressed the need to determine ultimately whether there is sufficient basis to allow the continued operation of POGOs in the country. "The current administration's kid glove approach against POGO-related criminality has emboldened these POGOs to continue its activities unimpeded within the Philippines, with little to no regard for our laws nor our standards for public health and safety," she said. "Congress should now step up and re-evaluate our country's policies concerning the regulation of POGOs and determine whether or not they should be permitted to legally operate in our country once and for all," she added. Last May 1, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) Chairman Andrea Domingo stated that licensed POGOs would be allowed to resume operations "on a very limited basis and with very strict protocols." However, on May 21, Bureau of Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa announced that no POGOs or any of their service providers would be allowed to resume their activities as not one of them had fully paid their tax obligations as part of the conditions to resume operations amidst the COVID-19 lockdown. Even before and after said announcement, De Lima said there were several arrests related to POGOs, including, among others, the raid by the police force of a building in Makati City following reports that illegal POGO activities were being held at the location last May 7. The police apprehend 63 Chinese nationals and 13 Filipinos. De Lima also recalled the arrest of a total of 92 Chinese nationals by the cops in a motel in Bacoor, Cavite last May 30 for engaging in illegal POGO activities, with authorities confirming that most of the individuals arrested had neither work nor travel documents. The former justice secretary said the increasing frequency of the illegal POGO activities right in the middle of a public health crisis merits a clear and unequivocal action from the government, including Congress. "There is a need to determine the resolve in which our law enforcement sector implements our laws against POGOs," she said. "PNP, the Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Immigration should report on the cases involving POGOs and how said cases are being dealt with in order to determine if our government is meeting the challenges posed by the POGOs against our rule of law," she added. De Lima likewise highlighted the need to determine the cost of policing the POGOs to see whether their presence contributes to the country's economy and whether the revenues justify the social costs. "PAGCOR and the Department of Finance must present justification as to why POGOs should be allowed to continue in our country in spite of their well-documented, repeated and continuous offenses against Philippine laws," she said. By Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijan and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have discussed coopertaion at a meeting held between Transport, Communications and High Technologies Minister Ramin Guluzade and the bank representatives, the ministry reported on June 17. During the online meeting, the sides exchanged views on opportunities for future cooperation between Aztelekom LLC, operating under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, and the EBRD. "Aztelekom LLC" is the national communication operator of Azerbaijan. The meeting was also attended by Matteo Patrone, EBRD Executive Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, Katarina Bjorlin Hansen, Regional Director for the Caucasus, Dino Shiatis, Dirk Werner, Director of ICT, Ivana Fernandes Duarte, Head of the Permanent Representation in Azerbaijan, Banker Asif Mahmudov, leading banker Real Hajiyev, banker Antonia Maier and lawyer Paul Moffa. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is a leading investor in Azerbaijan and has invested about 3.3 billion euros in various sectors such as energy, infrastructure, banking, industry and commerce. The value of the current portfolio of projects supported by the EBRD in Azerbaijan is more than $1.3 billion. Aztelekom Limited Liability Company of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies was established in August 1992 as a Production Association. At present, Aztelekom combines 57 local Telecommunication Enterprises (including the Ganja Telecommunications Department), the International Automatic Telephone Station (BATS) and the Technical Junction of Cable Trunks (KMTQ). National communication operator of Azerbaijan Aztelekom LLC provides various communication services to individual and corporate customers, communication operators and other users, and broadband internet service to the whole country except Baku and Nakhchivan. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz We intend to have a severe chilling effect on any outside investors who would be contemplating doing business with the Assad regime in areas of construction and other sectors which would enable Assad to generate revenue and funds that it uses to pay for its war against the Syrian people and to fund the machine of the Assad regime that has been carrying out mass atrocities since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, a second administration briefer said. Scott Morrison has condemned 'heinous and despicable' paedophiles in an impassioned speech following the government's successful push for mandatory prison sentences for child abusers. Under the Sexual Crimes Against Children Bill, paedophiles will face life behind bars, while repeat offenders and serious child sex offenders will face mandatory minimum sentences. The prime minister addressed the nation on Wednesday, waging war against child sex abusers and delivering a scathing attack against the Opposition - who rebuffed minimum jail terms through parliamentary tactics. 'Last year, 39 per cent of convicted child sex offenders did not spend one day in jail. That's just not ok, not even close,' Mr Morrison wrote, sharing footage of his powerful speech vowing to fight for child sex abuse victims. Scott Morrison condemned 'heinous and despicable' paedophiles in an impassioned speech, after the federal government successfully pushed for mandatory prison sentences for child abusers Under the Sexual Crimes Against Children Bill, paedophiles will face life behind bars, while repeat offenders and the most heinous child sex crimes would face mandatory minimum sentences 'The crime of child sex offending is unthinkable and is one of the most despicable and heinous crimes that I think any of us could possibly imagine,' Mr Morrison said in the video. 'There is nothing more important than looking after our children, and especially children who are extremely vulnerable.' Mr Morrison said it took three years of 'fighting against' the Labor party and the Greens for the laws to finally pass on Tuesday. 'Even at the dying stages, Labor was still opposing mandatory minimum sentencing for these offences,' he said. Labor sensationally backflipped on their stance against the bill at the 11th hour, backing a bill one day after killing off the proposal in federal parliament. The opposition changed the bill in the Senate on Monday night to strip out mandatory jail terms. But with the Morrison government refusing to budge on a compromise, Labor caucus unanimously agreed to support the legislation in its original form. 'We forced them to back down, and I'm glad they did because now children will be safer because we'll be getting those grubs off the street,' Mr Morrison said in the video. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese previously disagreed with the mandatory minimum sentencing clause 'It's been too long coming. It is very disappointing that it took that long to be able to get it through this parliament. 'We were determined and we prevailed. We weren't going to back down and we weren't going to compromise.' The worst child sex crimes will automatically trigger a minimum sentence five to seven years in jail. Repeat offenders will face minimum terms of one to four years behind bars. A new maximum life penalty for the most serious federal offences and a presumption against bail were also included in the legislation. It would also create offences for when someone subjects a child to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, or which causes a child to die. The tougher regime came after 39 per cent of convicted Commonwealth child sex offenders were spared any jail time during the last financial year. Attorney-General Christian Porter said Labor had reversed its position and agreed to support the bill in the face of public backlash. 'In all my years in politics I have never seen a great display of hypocrisy from Labor, which claims on the one hand that it wants to protect our children, but then says it is opposed in principle to minimum terms of imprisonment, despite having supported mandatory sentences of people smugglers when they were last in government,' he said. The government's proposed child protection laws The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Crimes Against Children and Community Protection Measures) Bill 2019 hopes to implement: Mandatory minimum sentences for serious child sex offences and for recidivist offenders A presumption against bail for serious and repeat offenders to keep them off the streets Increased maximum penalties across the spectrum of child sex offences, including up to life imprisonment for the most serious offences Presumptions in favour of cumulative sentences and actual imprisonment Ensuring that all sex offenders, upon release from custody, are adequately supervised and subject to appropriate rehabilitative conditions Preventing courts from discounting sentences on the basis of good character where this is used to facilitate the crime Advertisement 'It shouldn't have taken three years of opposition and a public relations disaster today for Labor to finally realise the hypocrisy of its position and now needs to explain to victims whose lives have been ruined by these ruthless predators why it let them down in the Senate (Monday) night.' Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus told a caucus meeting on Tuesday the party should not 'let the perfect be the enemy of the good'. He said Labor strongly supported the vast majority of the bill, including the presumption against bail for serious offenders and lowering burdens on child witnesses. The bill passed parliament on Tuesday despite the ALP policy platform opposing mandatory jail terms. The coalition launched a stinging attack on Labor for rebuffing the minimum sentences through parliamentary tactics. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton accused the opposition of backing paedophiles over Australian kids. 'It is one of the worst acts I have seen in my 20 years in parliament,' he said. 'Anthony Albanese needs to look parents in the eye and explain his betrayal of them.' Carly Ryan Foundation founder Sonya Ryan sent a letter to all MPs and senators calling for an end to political point-scoring on the bill. 'This should not be a political jousting match but a coming together, particularly when it comes to the protection of children,' she wrote. One Labor MP told the caucus meeting it was disappointing the party couldn't pursue the argument around mandatory sentencing, but accepted shadow cabinet's decision. Another said the party couldn't stand in the way of the bill while also noting the importance of an independent judiciary. Greens senator Nick McKim said the opposition should be embarrassed about walking away from its policy platform. 'Labor backflipped and has abandoned its opposition to mandatory sentencing,' he told the upper house. The bill will return to the lower house on Wednesday for final approval. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 14:26:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close URUMQI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Alataw Pass in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region saw a rising number of inbound and outbound China-Europe freight trains in the first five months, the local customs said. A total of 1,664 China-Europe freight trains passed through the Alataw Pass, a major rail port in Xinjiang, during the period, up 39.5 percent year on year, said the Alataw Pass Customs. The imported and exported cargo of China-Europe freight trains via Alataw increased 8.8 percent year on year to more than 10.55 million tonnes from January to May, it said. The customs has simplified customs clearance procedures to ensure the normal operation of China-Europe trains amid the novel coronavirus epidemic prevention and control period. Enditem A section of the Mekong River in Thailand. Photo by AFP/Lillian Suwanrumpha. China was pressed Tuesday to show more transparency over its dam operations on the Mekong River, months after downstream water levels hit record lows and threatened millions of livelihoods. Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam all battled severe drought last year as the tide of the river fell to record lows - exposing rocks, killing fish and threatening millions of livelihoods. But the dams along the waterway in China - where the river is known as the Lancang - held "above-average natural flow" at the same time, according to satellite imagery published by U.S. monitor Eyes on Earth in April. The extreme low flows showed the need for China to publish timely data from its dams so its neighbors can forecast bad conditions, the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) said in a Tuesday statement. It called for "all year-round data for effective monitoring and reporting on flood and drought," in rare comments directed at the regional superpower. The MRC acts as a dam consultation body for Mekong nations, but has been accused of being toothless in stopping river projects sponsored by governments and big business. China has built 11 dams on its section of the river while downstream countries, including underdeveloped Laos, have dozens of hydropower dams built or in planning - many funded by Chinese-backed companies. Pianporn Deetes of International Rivers said "sincere political will" was needed to mitigate existing environmental damage between the Mekong nations. "This includes changing the ways the dams are operated." The dam-building spree in China, as well as in Laos, has incited worry from the U.S., which vies with Beijing for geopolitical influence in Southeast Asia. U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo last year warned that China's dam-building spree "concentrates control" over the Mekong's downstream flow. Beijing has long denied responsibility for the low water flows, and its foreign minister Wang Yi last year said that China had released more water on the request of Thailand, which was experiencing a drought. South Korea hit back hard at North Korea with harsh criticism on Wednesday after Pyongyang blew up an inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong, North Korea, in a show of force expressing discontent with the South Korean government. This is a fundamental breach of trust that the leaders of South and North have built up until now, and we are clearly warning that we will no longer tolerate these irrational remarks and actions by the North, Yoon Do Han, South Korean presidents senior secretary for Public Communication said in a briefing Wednesday. The tone and selection of words were strongest since South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office. This rare jab at North Korea follows an embarrassing exposure by Pyongyang Wednesday morning, saying the North Korean leaders sister Kim Yo Jong "flatly rejected the tactless and sinister proposal" from the South Korean president to send a special envoy to Pyongyang. MORE: North Korea blows up liaison office with South Korea We are extremely displeased to get such an absurd judgment and reckless proposal, North Korea said in a statement carried on its state media, Korean Central News Agency. In response, Moons senior secretary expressed "strong regret" to North Korea for "intentionally distorting the purpose of sending a special envoy to North Korea" by publicly revealing South Korea's privately offered proposal to send a special envoy to overcome the current crisis. This is an unprecedented senseless action, Yoon added. PHOTO: Military guard posts of South Korea (bottom R) and North Korea (top L) stand opposite each other as seen from a South Korean observation post in the border city of Paju on June 17, 2020. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images) North Korea has accused the South of behaving like a "mongrel dog" bent on confrontation, vowed to dispatch military troops in and around Mount Kumgang Tourist Region, Kaesong Industrial Complex and DMZs guard posts, and resume military training in the West Sea. These areas were cleared of military presence in the past few years in accordance with an agreement reached between the two leaders of North and South Korea. Story continues MORE: Trump, South Korea pour cold water on rumors about Kim Jong Un, nearly three weeks after last appearance North Korea also stated that it would open all front-line areas that are advantageous to send leaflets to the South. ABC News Heejin Kang contributed to this report. South Korea says it will no longer tolerate irrational remarks by the North originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Our Divisions Copyright 2021-22 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. 5G-enabled budget smartphones could soon launch in India and other markets, courtesy of Qualcomms latest Snapdragon 6-series 5G processor. Qualcomm, earlier today, unveiled the Snapdragon 690 that comes with support for the next-generation networking standard. Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 is the first 6-series processor to get support for sub-6GHz 5G. This was made possible by the inclusion of the X51 5G modem. It also has a 20 percent improved CPU and 60 percent faster GPU compared to the Snapdragon 675 processor. The mid-range processor features support for capturing images at up to 192MP, a 120Hz high refresh rate display, and recording 4K HDR video content. It is built on an 8nm fabrication process and has eight Kryo 560 CPU cores, two of which are Cortex A77 performance cores clocking at 2GHz, whereas the other six Cortex-A55 cores clock at 1.7GHz. With over 375 5G designs launched or in development to date using Qualcomm Technologies 5G solutions, we are driving the proliferation of 5G across multiple tiers to make the next generation of camera, artificial intelligence, and gaming experiences more broadly available. Driving the expansion of 5G into the Snapdragon 6-series has the potential to make 5G accessible to more than 2 billion smartphone users around the world, Cristiano Amon, President, Qualcomm Incorporated said in a statement shared with Moneycontrol. Several OEMs have already come on-board and confirmed to launch smartphones with the Snapdragon 690 processor. Some of these include Nokia, Motorola, LG Electronics, etc. It wont be a surprise to see the likes of Xiaomi and Realme confirm affordable 5G smartphones running on the Snapdragon 690 chip. The Series B financing round will allow the Brazilian fintech to continue developing new products to support small and medium entrepreneurs RIO DE JANEIRO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BizCapital, a Brazilian SME online lender has just raised a Series B financing round of $12 million led by the German development finance institution DEG, a subsidiary of KfW Group, Germany's promotional bank. The round reinforces investors' confidence in BizCapital's ability to innovate in the Latin American credit market amid challenging circumstances caused by Covid-19. MELI Fund, the Corporate Venture Capital Fund of MercadoLivre joined the round. This new investment is its largest ever. The company raised a Seed Round in January 2018 from Monashees, one of the leading VC firms in Latin America, Chromo Invest and 42K Investments. In September 2018, it raised a Series A of $5 million led by Quona Capital, a Washington-based VC firm focused on fintechs. Current investors have also joined the Series B round. The capital raised will be directed at accelerating the development of new product offerings to Brazilian SMEs, as well as to continue developing new distribution channels. "What we aim to achieve with these new resources is to continue helping entrepreneurs during the entire lifecycle of their companies. With the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, BizCapital continues to support companies with an increasingly active role," Francisco Ferreira, CEO and Co-Founder at BizCapital says. The fintech has already served more than 5,000 customers in more than 1,200 Brazilian cities. Since its inception, BizCapital has grown at a rapid pace, with its mission to reduce red tape in the Brazilian SME lending market, offering entrepreneurs a fast and reliable way to access financing for working capital and growth. "BizCapital's tech-driven business model as an online lender enables an innovative, efficient and effective way of providing financing to SMEs that are the backbone of the Brazilian economy," says Felix Schneider, DEG Vice President FinTechs Global Markets. About BizCapital BizCapital provides online working capital loans to SMEs, through a fast and reliable process. The company, founded in 2016 by three seasoned entrepreneurs with one successful exit, makes it its mission to help Brazilian entrepreneurs get access to the capital that they need to grow their businesses. About DEG For almost 60 years DEG has been a reliable partner to private-sector enterprises operating in emerging markets. With its portfolio of around EUR 9 billion in approximately 80 countries, it is one of the world's largest private-sector development financiers. Learn more: www.deginvest.de. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1192377/BizCapital_Founders.jpg One of the most dangerous provisions of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is the expiration later this year of the United Nations arms embargo against Iran: Its now just several months out where China, Russia, other countries from around the word can all sell significant conventional weapons systems to the Iranians in October of this yearDoes anybody think that the nation that today is conducting terror campaigns by Lebanese Hezbollah or Iraqi Shia movements or firing military missiles into the air ought to be permitted to purchase conventional weapons systems in just a few months? U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook has pointed out that even while the embargo prohibiting Iran from importing or exporting conventional weapons has been in effect, the Iranian regime has been repeatedly caught exporting weapons to its allies in the region, intensifying and prolonging sectarian conflicts. Letting the arms embargo expire would make it considerably easier for Iran to ship weapons to its allies in Syria, Hamas in Gaza, and Shiite militias in Iraq, Special Representative Hook wrote in The Wall Street Journal. He also warned that Iran plans to improve the accuracy of its missiles and strengthen its ability to strike ships and shoot down aircraft. Since 2007, the United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to ban the export and restrict the import of arms for Iran. The United States recently drafted a new resolution that extends the prohibition on Iranian arms, and is working with all relevant parties to pass it. Russias and Chinas interests would be served by a yes vote, Special Representative Hook said. They have more to gain from Mideast stability than from selling weapons to Iran for its sectarian wars. Mr. Hook warned that if this effort is vetoed, the United States retains the right to renew the arms embargo by other means. Security Council 2231 [in 2015] lifted most U.N. sanctions but also created a legal mechanism for exclusive use by certain nations to snap sanctions back, he said. The arms embargo is one of these sanctions. The Trump administrations preferred strategy is for the Security Council to extend the arms embargo while the U.S. continues to apply maximum economic pressure and maintains deterrence against Iranian aggression, said Special Representative Hook. One way or another, the U.S. will ensure [the arms embargo] remains in place against the violent and revolutionary regime in Tehran. Five years ago after eight black church members and their pastor were shot and killed in a racist attack, South Carolina came together and took down the Confederate flag from the Capitol lawn. Today, as yet another shocking killing of an African American roils the country, bringing a wave of pulled down statues and the removal of names of historical figures who repressed or oppressed other people, South Carolina leaders appears to be sitting out this movement so far. Wednesday marks five years since Dylann Roof sat through nearly an hour of Bible study at the Mother Emanuel AME church and then started shooting as the group prayed. Nine black worshippers were killed. Roof spared one womans life so she could tell everyone he wanted to start a race war. He was sentenced to death and remains in federal prison. Roof didnt hesitate to explain his racist beliefs to FBI agents and left a handwritten journal full of his views, such as blacks being inferior to whites. He also left behind pictures of himself holding the gun used in the killings, posing at historic Civil War and African American sites and holding the Confederate flag. Outraged political leaders came together and overwhelmingly voted to take down a Confederate flag that flew near a monument to Confederate soldiers on the Statehouse lawn. That was the last time the General Assembly invoked a 2000 law called the Heritage Act. The law protects all historical monuments and names of buildings, requiring a two-thirds vote from the state General Assembly to make any changes. Thats a tough task in a state where conservative Republicans dominate the House and Senate, made harder after Republican House Speaker Jay Lucas said days after the Confederate flag came down in 2015 that he would never consider another change like it while he led the House. Lucas has kept his word, failing to respond to repeated interview requests and questions whether his stance has since changed. Pressure is mounting, however. Clemson University trustees voted last Friday to ask the General Assembly to let it change the name of Tillman Hall, a main building on campus named for Pitchfork Ben Tillman. Tillman gained prominence wguke supporting a white mob that killed four black men in 1876 after they surrendered to them. He later became South Carolinas governor and a US senator, committed to destroying any rights blacks obtained after the Civil War. We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be equal to the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him, Tillman said in a 1900 congressional speech. The president of the University of South Carolina wants lawmakers to let the school remove the name of J Marion Sims from a womens dorm. Sims is honoured as the father of modern gynaecology, but conducted experimental treatment on slaves without anaesthesia. Sims and Tillman also have statues on the Statehouse lawn. Some African American lawmakers want plaques added, explaining their racist views. Others, like Rep. Justin Bamberg, want Tillman and the others gone. I dont like seeing Pitchfork Ben Tillman every dang day I go to the Statehouse, the Democrat said. He boldly and proudly supported lynching my people. And in Charleston on Tuesday, the current pastor of Mother Emanuel stood with civil rights activists and politicians who called for the removal from a downtown park of a 100-foot-tall (30-metre) statue of former US Vice President John C Calhoun. Calhouns support of slavery never wavered. And in an 1836 speech before the US Senate, he said slaves in the South were better off than free blacks in the North. The Rev. Nelson Rivers said Calhoun represents Dylann Roof to us and said Charleston leaders should defy the unjust Heritage Act which does not include penalties for breaking it and remove the statue. The time has come to not just acknowledge your racist evil wicked past. The time has come to take down the monuments that honour the evil that was done in the name of Charleston, in the name of South Carolina, Rivers said Tuesday at the foot of Calhouns statue. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said he will announce the citys decision Wednesday on the statues future. The time has come for Republicans in South Carolina to either clear the way to remove monuments or show their true colours, said Rivers, who spent nearly 40 years with the NAACP and is now a vice president with the civil rights group National Action Network. Either you support a monument to hate or you do not, Rivers said. There is nothing fuzzy about this. The crisis has led to frenetic activity in Facebook's upper ranks, with Carolyn Everson, its chief marketing liaison, admitting she had spent more time with Zuckerberg in the first week of June than ever before. Where Google and others take a more subtle approach, Zuck has allowed Facebook to become a visible part of team Trump. Former mentor Roger McNamee One advertising chief executive, Dave Morgan of Simulmedia, called it "Facebook's time of reckoning", saying: "It may not be immediate or dramatic, but advertisers have given Facebook a lot of passes and now we are hearing they are saying it will be harder to stand back." Perhaps worst of all, though, has been the fury of Facebook's own staff, who arguably have more bargaining power over it than any individual advertiser. Until recently, the wave of tech worker revolts that began at Google in 2018 appeared not to have affected many Facebookers, who are, as a group, known for their "cult-like" loyalty. The Trump dispute has changed that, prompting a virtual walkout, internal petitions and plenty of leaks. 'People are scared' Campaigners latched on, buying Facebook ads that targeted employees directly with a call to "take action". At a particularly fiery edition of Zuckerberg's weekly Q&As, one employee asked him: "Why are the smartest people in the world focused on contorting or sort of twisting our policies to avoid antagonising Trump instead of driving social issue progress?" Facebook's content moderators also spoke out - significant because they have traditionally been an underclass in its glittering citadel, hired as arm's length contractors and subject to aggressive anti-leaking measures. "People are scared," Chris Gray, a former moderator who is suing Facebook for allegedly giving him PTSD, told The Daily Telegraph recently. "I call it the Facebook omerta, this vow of silence... It's really hard to find people who will talk." Nevertheless, four anonymous current moderators joined Gray in an open letter that said: "We can't walk out, but we cannot stay silent." Part of the problem for Zuckerberg is that he has made himself the indisputable human face of his company's Trump policy. Previously, he often left political matters to Sheryl Sandberg, his chief operating officer, and his policy chief, the veteran Republican operative Joel Kaplan. Yet in recent years, he has unabashedly embraced his quasi-presidential role, giving a speech about human rights in front of an American flag and conducting fireside chats about coronavirus while Trump was still telling voters to "relax" and promising they'd be back to work by Easter. "Where Google and others take a more subtle approach, Zuck has allowed Facebook to become a visible part of team Trump," says Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and one of Zuckerberg's former mentors, who has criticised the company before for "embracing" Trump. Consolidating power While he blames the wider situation on Kaplan's team, which he describes as "tightly aligned" with the White House, he says Zuckerberg "appears to be calling the shots... He's clearly got much better at being a public figure. He gives no indication of discomfort with Facebook's role as an enabler of disinformation". In fact, McNamee's old protege has consolidated his power over the past year, replacing independent or difficult board members with loyalists and old friends. Among the departures were Netflix boss Reed Hastings, former Obama adviser Jeffrey Zients and former American Express chief Kenneth Chenault. On the plus side, Zuckerberg has secured the return of his old friend Chris Cox, whose departure last year was reportedly due to disagreements about child safety and disinformation. So how bad is it? Given Zuckerberg's total control of Facebook (he is controlling shareholder and chairman of the board as well as chief executive), his ousting would be very unlikely. If Trump loses, you'll see a post-Trump rebranding of Zuckerberg - an on-the-record or off-the record reveal about how he really felt. Reputation Management Consultants' Eric Schiffer The danger is to Facebook's ability to retain and recruit top talent, as well as the health of its advertising economy. McNamee believes that he will continue his current course. "Companies like Facebook or Google, whose products are ubiquitous, have no choice but to align with the powerful in every market where they operate," he says. "In authoritarian countries, they align with authoritarians." Nevertheless, he adds that regulation is "more likely" than any time since 2016. Schiffer, meanwhile, believes Zuckerberg will recover. "When you have the means to be in front of the camera, and the resources to get your messaging wherever it needs to be, time is your ally," he says. "Don't forget he has access to tremendous data about his own reputation. The realization is growing: at credit unions there is no return to normal. Forevermore how business is done will be different. And, a lot more technology focused. That is the conclusion from dozens of conversations I have had over the past weeks with credit union CEOs, consultants, and just plain members. To a person, they all had initially thought the COVID-19 triggered changes from branch closures to huge spikes in online and mobile banking transactions were a fleeting change. Things are different three months into the pandemic response. I expect a lot of the changes that were made in credit unions will remain in place. We are not going back to how things exactly were before, said Brad Smith, a credit union expert with consulting firm Cornerstone Advisors. Partly its because there is no predictable end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic experts do not see widespread vaccination of Americans for a year or two in the best case and as for the global population, who knows? The disease will be with us for some time and that has required adjustments. Partly, too, its because the biggest shift has been huge adoption and use of digital tools, especially mobile banking, said Smith. Even laggards, he said, have been using mobile. Thats fueled by the reality that older Americans ages 60 and higher have profound fears about COVID-19, which has proven especially deadly in that demographic. So they are busy adopting mobile and online tools. Do not expect to see them in the branch anytime soon. Credit union leaders tell the reality they are seeing: We sent out a strong message from the start of the pandemic that the safest way to bank was for members to use online and mobile banking and webchat, rather than coming into the branch, said Carma Peters, CEO of Michigan Legacy Credit Union, a $214 million institution. While we were hopeful that members would comply, the shift to online banking has been dramatic, with 50,000 more online transactions in April than we had in March. Thats a 38% increase. A report from ath Power Consulting underlines the magnitude of this transformation: Our study shows that Customers/Members are absolutely seeking additional ways to conduct business and execute transactions outside of the Branch, with 74% of our respondents saying its a top priority, said E. J. Kritz, director of training and insight at ath Power Consulting. Good online and mobile banking now are must haves. That means also person to person payments, mobile remote deposit capture, and robust tools for bill payment. Mediocrity wont suffice, not when the digital bank emerges as the bank. Next Steps Go with the digital momentum and take the next steps steps that in many cases the big banks have already taken. But that gap can be closed. Experts pointed to two crucial areas that need credit union focus. Digital account opening. Credit unions still lag here, said Cornerstones Smith, and that can prove fatal if as many experts believe the return to branches is not in the near-term future. The mega banks are leaders in this, and successes such as Rocket Mortgage show that even big ticket transactions can be closed in a digital only fashion. The tools and technology to facilitate digital only account opening exist, said Celent expert Bob Meara. Just a few years ago, he acknowledged, the tools were not plentiful for smaller financial institutions. Now they are. Accept that members increasingly want easy to use digital banking and may only rarely set foot in a branch and you are on the right 2020 path. That means members doing everything online. Absolutely everything and it starts with account opening. Contactless Cards. Wave a contactless card at a smart terminal and, boom, it reads the cardholder data and a transaction is started. Does your credit union offer contactless cards? Probably not. Estimates last year were that under 1% of in person transactions in the US were contactless. In many European countries that number tops 50%. Change is coming to the US and experts point to COVID-19 as the catalyst. People just dont want to touch a credit card terminal in a supermarket, drugstore, or at a gas station. What they want to do is wave a card and pay that way. Its sanitary and so 2020. Smart institutions are onto this. Experts expect hundreds of millions of contactless cards to roll out to Americans this year. Is your credit union ready? Do not delay. This is a trend that is cresting. Can credit unions catch up to the big banks? Optimism among experts is plentiful. Just accept that the branch is yesterday. Digital is the future and the future is here. Spanish authorities have sent 25 tourists packing from Majorca straight after landing because they had not arrived on official holiday flights run by TUI. It comes amid confusion as to whether the island is accepting foreign visitors or not as it launches a trial scheme for international visitors. The 25 tourists, 10 flying from Munich and 15 from Zurich, were sent back on Monday, on the first day that the Balearic Islands opened for foreign tourists, from Majorca's Son Sant Joan airport. Spanish authorities have sent 25 tourists packing from Majorca straight after landing because they had not arrived on official holiday flights run by TUI. Above, tourists arrive in Majorca on Monday on the first day the islands opened for international visitors However, the islands have only opened for a trial period, with two flights from the TUI group being involved in the scheme on Monday. As the 25 were not on these flights, they were sent back to the countries they had come from as the Spanish authorities said they could not justify their trips. Visitors arriving on flights which are not part of the trial scheme have to be able to justify their arrival in Spain, with working reasons, visiting dependent relatives or health reasons seen as acceptable causes for travel. Among those sent back were families who had flown to Majorca for holidays, according to reports. The incident comes amid confusion as to whether the island is accepting foreign visitors or not, Above, tourists arrive into Majorca on Monday on official TUI flight The incident comes after a British passenger and two German passengers arriving on a flight from Munich were sent back from Majorca on Sunday. Reports state a total of 45 people have been forced to return after landing in Spain during the country's lockdown. The trial scheme will see 1,400 tourists landing in the Balearic Islands on six designated flights this week as Spain seeks to boost its tourism industry during its de-escalation from coronavirus lockdown. All of them have booked flights and hotels with operators selected by the government. Reports state a total of 45 people have been forced to return after landing in Spain during the country's lockdown. Above, tourists arrive into Majorca on Monday The country will reopen its borders to most tourists on July 1st, but it remains to be seen if visitors from the UK will be welcome without a quarantine period on this date. TUI have also had to cancel a flight for 200 German tourists to Majorca on Thursday after the company feared they would not be allowed to enter as the tour operator changed their airline from TUI Fly, which had been designated by the Spanish government as accepted, to Eurowings. According to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University, Spain has registered 244,328 cases of COVID-19 and 27,136 related deaths. Terrell Hills is the best suburb in the San Antonio area to raise a family, according to Niche. Olmos Park and Alamo Heights took the No.2 and No. 3 spots, respectively, according to the online research organization's 2020 Best Suburb's to Raise a Family. To help determine the ranking, Niche based the results on crime statistics, public schools, cost of living, job opportunities and local amenities. READ ALSO: These are the top 10 neighborhoods in San Antonio, according to Niche Terrell Hills is a city in Bexar County and is five miles Northeast of downtown San Antonio. According to its neighborhood profile on Niche, "Living in Terrell Hills offers residents a rural feel and most residents own their homes. In Terrell Hills, there are a lot of bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and parks." The profile also stated "many families live in Terrell Hills and residents tend to lean conservative. Terrell Hills was also ranked No. 21 in the best suburbs for young professionals in Texas and No. 24 for best suburbs to live in Texas. Below are the top 10 San Antonio suburbs to raise a family, according to Niche. Kumkum Bhagyas Aaliya, actor Shikha Singh has become a mother. She and her pilot husband Karan Shah have welcomed a baby daughter into their lives. Speaking to The Times of India, Shikha said the couple have decided to name her Alayna, a name inspired by their Maldives vacation. We are naming her Alayna Singh Shah. During our trip to Maldives in February, we had decided that if we have a daughter, this would be her name. This was the first name we both agreed upon, and after that, throughout the pregnancy, we called our baby, Al, she said. Shikha delivered her daughter amid the coronavirus pandemic but was satisfied with the care she received. Karan and I had taken all the precautions we could throughout our pregnancy. We wore masks constantly, sanitised ourselves and did all household chores. God has been kind as everything went smooth. The baby has arrived and we are both fine. The hospital is also taking very good care. They are meticulous and sanitising the area very well. But it is a different feeling to see everyone around in PPE kits. There are no visitors allowed. My husband Karan is staying with us and taking care of us, she said. Also read: Karan Johars SOTY 2 director Punit Malhotra comments on outpouring of love for Sushant Singh Rajput Shikha had been sharing frequent updates about her pregnancy on social media. On Tuesday, she shared a picture with Karan, and wished for the health of her baby. Often I wondered while u were inside of me that who in the world you will turn out to be. We just pray that youll be healthy, happy, honourable and kindhearted. Cant wait to meet ya Al, she wrote. Shikha has no plans to quit her very popular show and hopes to return after a short maternity break of a couple of months. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Major donors of Wichita State University have revolted against the university president's decision to cancel Ivanka Trump's graduation speech. Jay Golden caused uproar last week after announcing the President's daughter, who is also his advisor, would no longer speak at an online graduation ceremony for the Wichita State Tech school on June 6. But now a string of wealthy donors have threatened to pull future financial support amid growing calls for Golden to be fired or resign. Steve Feilmeier, Executive Vice President and chief financial officer of Koch Industries, and Pizza Hut co-founder Dan Carney, were 'very upset and quite vocal in their decisions to disavow any further support', former chair of Wichita State University Foundation Steve Clark revealed in a letter to the Kansas Board of Regents on Monday. Donors are calling for Jay Golden (pictured above on campus) to be fired after its technical school canceled a virtual commencement speech by Ivanka Trump. A letter from former university chair Steve Clark revealed that he and several others would not offer future support unless Golden was sacked or resigned. Clark is himself a huge donor to the university, having recently donated $1million to a university campus building. He told the regents he and several others would not offer future support unless Golden was sacked or resigned, according to local news site Kansas.Com. Golden only assumed his presidency on January 2 this year after the Kansas Board of Regents - which governs six universities across the state - selected him as the university's 14th president. Koch Industries, a multinational chemical manufacturing company bases in Wichita, has donated or pledged more than $15million over the past seven years, but issued a statement announcing it would evaluate 'future funding opportunities as they arise'. Clark also said that Koch Industries' chief financial officer had told him he was resigning 'from any further association with the University' and that 'Koch Industries rescind all their financial support for programs at the University theyve previously funded'. Wichita State University and WSU Tech dropped Ivanka Trump from the college's June 6 virtual graduation Administrators at Wichita State University and WSU Tech announced the decision that the President's daughter would not be speaking following a backlash from staff and students A company official has since clarified that Feilmeier was speaking only for himself and not on behalf of the company. The backlash came after Wichita State University announced and quickly cancelled the planned address from Ivanka Trump after it was met with protest and petitions from faculty staff and students. Ivanka Trump later released her speech online after the snub and said that cancel culture was 'antithetical to academia'. 'Our nation's campuses should be bastions of free speech. Cancel culture and viewpoint discrimination are antithetical to academia. Listening to one another is important now more than ever!' she tweeted. The school admitted that plans to have her speak were shelved amid criticism over the president's response to protests against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo - who was once US Republican Congressman from Wichita - also slammed the move as 'shameful'. Under pressure from critics who berated Golden's move to cancel the speech, The Kansas Board of Regents met in a closed four-hour long session last week where they discussed his future. Following the meeting student body president Rija Khan confirmed Golding would keep his job. She said: 'We are very excited to hear the news that Dr. Golden will remain in his position of president of our university (and) part of our Shocker family. '(Golden) has shown that he is more than talk, and for that we are appreciative of his actions. The regents' board released a statement saying they were 'committed to working with all our universities and colleges to support and promote freedom of speech and diversity and inclusion. 'During these unprecedented times, our universities have been forced to make quick decisions and act swiftly without the normal process of including all our stakeholders in decision making.' Kansas Governor Laura Kelly said that Golden's future at the university is a 'decision that is up him. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (June 17) attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley, saying that "enough is enough" and the country needs to know what has at the Line of Actual Control. The Congress leader also raised question over PM Modi's silence over the incident which led to the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers on Monday (June 15) night. "Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land?" tweeted Rahul Gandhi. Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 17, 2020 It is to be noted that PM Modi held meetings with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior officials on Tuesday but he is yet to issue a statement on the Ladakh clash. The Indian Army said on Tuesday that 20 of its soldiers were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops during a face-off in the Galwan Valley. In a statement, the army said that almost the same number of Chinese troops have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley. The statement said, "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20." The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), however, blamed China for the incident and alleged that it tried to unilaterally change the status and "departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley". Meanwhile, a US State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday night that Washington was closely mointoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation. During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi discussed the situation on the India-China border," said the spokesperson. In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, nurses tend to COVID-19 patients at the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Months into Iran's fight against the coronavirus, doctors and nurses at Tehran's Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital still don a mask, a disposable hazmat suit and a double layer of latex gloves every day to attempt to contain a pandemic that shows no signs of slowing. The hiss of high-flow oxygen to wheezing patients, the beeps of equipment monitoring vital signs and the crinkling rustle of passing medics have become a daily symphony here and in other hospitals across the Islamic Republic. Iran reported its first coronavirus cases and deaths on the same day in Februarythe Middle East's first and biggest outbreak of the virusyet it only recently saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases, followed soon by the highest daily death toll in months. The spikes, which came after a major Muslim holiday last month, have renewed fears about a potential second wave of infections sweeping across Iran. As businesses open and people begin to move around more after weeks of closures of most stores, offices and public spaces, health experts worry that growing complacency among the country's 80 million people may further allow the virus to spread. Health Minister Saeed Namaki said he realized the extent of the challenge when he took a domestic flight. "Many people have become careless, frustrated with wearing masks," he said. "They did not observe (social) distancing in the flight's seating and the airliner's ventilation system was not working." In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, medics tend to a COVID-19 patient at the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Iran saw its highest single-day total of reported new cases3,500on June 5. The number dropped in the days afterward but remain in the low 2,000s a day, around twice the lows in the last week of April and the first week of May. The daily death tolls in Iran also broke the 100 mark for the first time since mid-April on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday this week. The spike in cases occurred largely in Iran's oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan province, as well as the western provinces of Kermanshah and Kurdistan. Officials link it to the Eid al-Fitr holiday that came in late May, during which families often travel to visit friends and relatives to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. Ali Reza Zali, who is leading the campaign against the outbreak in Tehran, said last week that "some 60% of hospitalized patients traveled to other provinces before they became sick." In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, a nurse prepares medicines for COVID-19 patients at the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Authorities also have reported concerns about Iran's eastern Sistan and Baluchistan province bordering Pakistan. The spike also reflects an increase in testing, Health Ministry official Ehsan Mostafavi said. Iran now has 130 labs across the country, running as many as 25,000 tests a day. Some 1.3 million tests have been conducted, up from 500,000 just a month ago. While the country is opening up, some restrictions still stand. Friday prayers in major cities remain closed, as do schools and universities, except for a few courses. Authorities have imposed rules to keep people spread out at indoor locations and ordered people to wear masks there and on public transportation. But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that only 18% of people are observing social distancing and other measures, down from 80% about a month ago. In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, a COVID-19 patient stands next to his bed at the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Yet Rouhani also said that, starting Saturday, kindergartens, coffee shops and libraries can resume activities while applying protective measures. He said the country still could revert to stricter measures if needed. Before Iran reported its first cases in February, authorities denied it had reached the country for days, allowing the virus time to spread as the nation marked the 41st anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution with mass demonstrations and then held a parliamentary election in which authorities desperately sought to boost turnout. Today, the country has reported over 195,000 confirmed cases, with 9,185 deaths. Even as Iran now acknowledges the crisis, questions remain over its figures from the outbreak. A parliamentary report in April said Iran's death toll is likely nearly double the officially reported figures. Given undertesting, the report said the number of people infected at the time was probably "eight to 10 times" higher than the reported figures. In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, a COVID-19 patient sits on her bed at the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Even today, Iranian death tolls remain based on those who died in coronavirus wards in hospitals. However, it's believed that many more died at home, and some families have reportedly asked doctors not to mention their loved ones died of the virus to avoid the stigma associated with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. The Tehran municipality recently said it has prepared an extra grave site with capacity for 15,000 bodies, though it said it was intended in case of a natural disaster. It said Tehran's main cemetery had some 10,000 grave sites ready for use. But there's a sense that Iran's government, once overwhelmed by the crisis, has adjusted. In a sign of business as usual, Iranian officials have resumed their rhetoric against the U.S., which under President Donald Trump withdrew from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers and implemented crushing sanctions. In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, nurses prepare medicines for COVID-19 patients at the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, a COVID-19 patient speaks with a medic at the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, nurses work in a COVID-19 ward of the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) In this Wednesday, June 10, 2020, photo, people have their lunch in a shopping center at the Tehran's Grand Bazaar in Iran. As businesses open and people begin to move around more, health experts fear a growing complacency among Iran's 80 million people may further allow the virus to spread. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) In this June 10, 2020, photo, people walk through Tehran's Grand Bazaar in Iran. As businesses open and people begin to move around more, health experts fear a growing complacency among Iran's 80 million people may further allow the virus to spread. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) In this Wednesday, June 10, 2020, photo, people have their temperature checked as they enter a disinfectant tunnel to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus at the entrance of a shopping center at the Tehran's Grand Bazaar, Iran. As businesses open and people begin to move around more, health experts fear a growing complacency among Iran's 80 million people may further allow the virus to spread. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) In this Wednesday, June 10, 2020, photo, a man eat his lunch at a restaurant at the Tehran's Grand Bazaar in Iran. As businesses open and people begin to move around more, health experts fear a growing complacency among Iran's 80 million people may further allow the virus to spread. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) In this Saturday, June 13, 2020, photo, a Muslim pilgrim walks in the courtyard at the shrine of the Saint Abdulazim in Shar-e-Ray, south of Tehran, Iran. Going inside is prohibited due the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) In this Saturday, June 13, 2020, photo, Muslim pilgrims pray outdoors at the shrine of the Saint Abdulazim in Shar-e-Ray, south of Tehran, Iran. Going inside is prohibited due the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) The public too seems to want some normalcy. On the streets of Tehran, several people who spoke to The Associated Press acknowledged they no longer followed safety measures. "I stopped wearing a mask," said Soheila Fazli, a 48-year-old mother of two who suffers from diabetes. "I cannot breathe easily when I wear it." Authorities largely are only enforcing mask wearing and other rules in Tehran's subway. "I don't like wearing a mask," said Gholam Reza Sarrafi, a 24-year-old air conditioner technician. "Why should I wear one even though I haven't seen anyone get the disease?" That attitude has health officials worried about a new increase in infections. Health official Mohammad Mehdi Gouya warned the public that Iran has not "passed the first wave." "We still have a heavy fight with corona," he said recently. "We are not in a position to have an optimistic view." Explore further Iran warns may have to reimpose tough virus controls 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images Donald Trump was willing to halt criminal investigations to give personal favors to dictators he liked, according to a new book written by his former national security adviser John Bolton. Related: How Trump's missteps undermined the US's recovery from pandemic After excerpts from the memoir, which is due to be published later this month, were printed in various news outlets, the Trump administration applied for an emergency temporary restraining order against Bolton on Wednesday night in an attempt to block the books release. Trump himself tweeted that the book was made up of lies & fake stories and called Bolton a disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Bolton alleges that Trump pleaded with Chinas President Xi Jinping to help him get re-elected by buying more US agricultural products, according to accounts of his forthcoming memoir. In his pursuit of a good personal relationship with Xi, Trump is described as brushing aside human rights issues, even providing encouragement to the communist leader to continue to build concentration camps for Chinas Muslim Uighur population. Bolton argues the House impeachment inquiry should have ranged much further than just Trumps efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government for his own political gain. According to excerpts published by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and the Washington Post, Bolton describes a pattern of corruption in which Trump routinely attempts to use the leverage of US power on other countries to his own personal ends. The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldnt accept, Bolton writes, adding that he took his concerns to the attorney general, William Barr. The anecdote involving Xi is particularly damaging for Trump in the run-up to an election in which he is trying to position himself as tough on China, and his opponent, Joe Biden, as being in Beijings pocket. In a statement, Biden said that if Boltons accounts are true, its not only morally repugnant, its a violation of Trumps sacred duty to the American people to protect Americas interests and defend our values. Story continues In The Room Where It Happened, Bolton describes a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the June 2019 G20 meeting in Japan. Xi complained to Trump about US critics of China, and Trump suggested a way Xi could help him defeat his domestic opposition. He [Trump] then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure hed win, Bolton writes. He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trumps exact words but the governments prepublication review process has decided otherwise. Reports in the wake of the G20 meeting suggested that Trump had put pressure on Xi to buy more US farm produce but Xi had been reluctant to make any commitments. Speaking to the Senate on Wednesday, the US trade representative Robert Lighthizer denied Trump asked Xi for election help. Trump emerges in the pages of the book as entirely unconcerned by Chinas gross human rights violations, including the incarceration of over a million Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang province. Trump and Xi in Beijing in November 2017. Photograph: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images At the opening dinner of the Osaka G20 meeting in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang, Bolton writes, according to an excerpt published in the Wall Street Journal. According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Councils top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China. Trump also refused to issue a statement commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. That was 15 years ago, he told Bolton (it was the 30th anniversary). Who cares about it? Im trying to make a deal. I dont want anything, Trump said, according to Boltons account. The Trump administration has attempted to stop the publication of Boltons book, claiming it contains classified information. A last-ditch effort by the White House and the justice department this week came too late as copies had already been distributed to booksellers and journalists. Federal prosecutors were reported on Wednesday to be mulling charges against Bolton. Related: Trump is trying to block publication of John Bolton's book. What's he scared of? | Lloyd Green In a statement on Wednesday, responding to the latest attempt, Boltons publisher Simon & Schuster called the justice departments restraining order a frivolous, politically motivated exercise in futility. Hundreds of thousands of copies have already been distributed around the country and the world. The injunction as requested by the government would accomplish nothing. Bolton refused to testify in House impeachment proceedings against Trump, where his account would probably have been the most important piece of evidence put before Congress, and the veteran diplomat was widely accused of holding back his evidence for his book, putting personal profit before duty. Bolton said he would appear if subpoenaed by the Senate, but Republicans voted to block the appearance of witnesses at the trial. Boltons staff were asked to testify before the House to Trumps abuses, and did. They had a lot to lose and showed real courage. When Bolton was asked, he refused, and said hed sue if subpoenaed. Instead, he saved it for a book, Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House intelligence committee, wrote on Twitter. Bolton may be an author, but hes no patriot. Bolton accuses congressional Democrats of committing impeachment malpractice by limiting the inquiry to the Ukraine affair (making US military aid conditional on Kyiv handed over compromising information on Biden) and moving too quickly. Bolton argues that the inquiry should have looked into Trumps intervention into US investigations into Turkeys Halkbank to curry favour with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and into the China telecommunications manufacturer ZTE, with the aim of pleasing Xi. Boltons book quotes Trump as saying that invading Venezuela would be cool and that it was really part of the United States. He recounts a meeting in New Jersey last summer at which Trump railed against journalists, declaring: These people should be executed. They are scumbags. The former national security adviser also confirms what Korea experts long suspected that the summit diplomacy with Kim Jong-un was intended as spectacle. Trump appeared unconcerned with the whole subject of denuclearisation. Trump told me he was prepared to sign a substance-free communique, have his press conference to declare victory, and then get out of town, Bolton wrote. The president, however, became obsessed in the following months with getting his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to deliver an autographed CD of Elton Johns Rocket Man to Kim, to make light of the epithet Trump had formerly used about the North Korean leader. Boltons book also goes through a litany of what Trump does not know about the world that Britain had nuclear weapons of its own, for example, or that Finland was not part of Russia. Related: Nato chief: no firm plan agreed for pulling US troops from Germany In a conversation with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, the president kept confusing the current and former presidents of Afghanistan. The book describes Pompeo, who is unstintingly loyal in public, as mocking the president behind his back at a 2018 summit with Kim, slipping Bolton a note about Trump saying: He is so full of shit. US on Tuesday expressed desire for peaceful resolution and offered condolences to the families of martyrs after the most brutal face-off between India and China in 50 years. The United States on Tuesday said it is closely monitoring the situation between India and China after a violent face-off between troops of the two countries at the Line of Actual Control and has extended support to a peaceful resolution of the current situation. We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation, a State Department spokesperson said. This comes hours after India said that 20 of its Army personnel were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops at Galway Valley at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Read also: China suffered 43 casualties in the Galwan valley face-off late on June 15, say Indian intercepts Read also: India-China face-off: Alert in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi discussed the situation on the India-China border, the spokesperson further said. During the faceoff, the External Affairs Ministry said, both sides suffered casualties and the Chinese side had departed from the consensus to respect the LAC in the Galway Valley. The faceoff happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh. Read also: At least 20 Indian soldiers martyred in India-China face-off in Galwan Valley For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, appears on CNBC's Squawk Box at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan,. 22nd, 2020. Uber will honor Juneteenth and elections days around the world as company holidays, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced Wednesday. "To embrace the meaning of #Juneteenth this year, we're making it a paid day off. We encourage employees to spend it in a way that allows them to stand up against racism, whether that's by learning, participating in a community action, or reflecting on how to make change," Khosrowshahi said on Twitter. "But I strongly believe that lasting change really happens at the ballot box. That's why we are making election days around the world an @Uber company holiday from now on," he added. In the United States, Election Day takes place on a Tuesday in November, making it difficult for some people to get to the ballot box because they have to work. Uber's announcement is the latest effort among tech companies to support and honor the Black community. Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey announced last week that Juneteenth would become a company holiday. Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. A combination of the words June and nineteenth, the holiday commemorates when an U.S. army general informed enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 that the Civil War had ended and they were free. The Confederate army had surrendered two months earlier in April and President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years prior, but the abolition of slavery was not enforced in remote Texas until much later. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Researchers on Tuesday announced the first drug shown to save lives among severely ill coronavirus patients, offering hope even as infection rates rose in Africa and Asia, and there were worrisome upticks of contagion in countries that had largely contained the virus. The cheap, widely available steroid, called dexamethasone, reduced deaths by 35% in patients who needed treatment with breathing machines and by 20% in those only needing supplemental oxygen, the researches said in England. It did not appear to help less ill patients. This is an extremely welcome result, one study leader, Peter Horby of the University of Oxford, said in a statement. The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients. Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide. The study is a large, strict test that randomly assigned 2,104 patients to get the drug and compared them with 4,321 patients getting only usual care. The researchers said they would publish the results soon. New, record-high infections were registered in South Africa over the weekend despite further loosening of restrictions that opened businesses and houses of worship. The country now has more than a quarter of the cases on the 54-nation African continent with more than 73,000. It is imperative that we do not fall into despair as we combat COVID-19, South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told a briefing. We can never be complacent, never found wanting. Those challenges were magnified elsewhere across sub-Saharan Africa with experts warning that the pandemics full impact there hasnt been reached. Fragile health systems, a catastrophic shortage of health care professionals and a dramatic drop in medical imports means that the health and economic devastation anticipated is yet to unfold, officials with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote last week in a commentary for the journal Nature Medicine. Daily coronavirus deaths continued to rise in Egypt, with the health ministry reporting 97 deaths Monday, the countrys highest for a single day. Egypt has over 46,000 COVID-19 infections and 1,672 deaths, but the government has resisted a full lockdown to try to keep the economy functioning. Authorities have shortened the nightly curfew and plan to reopen airports next month. Israels steady raise in infections since restrictions were eased last month has increased fears of what a top Health Ministry official said looked like the beginning of a wave. The country is reporting 200 new cases daily, a tenfold increase from a few weeks ago, and Israeli leaders warned of possibly reinstating strict lockdown measures if people dont heed calls for people to wear masks, maintain social distancing and wash their hands. Pakistans steady rise in coronavirus cases have put the country in the top 15 nations globally for infections, with over 48,000. Several hospitals have begun refusing patients because they no longer had available beds. Pakistans daily number of infections is nearly 6,000, and one official, Asad Umar, warned that they could top 1.2 million by the end of July. After fighting the coronavirus for months, Iran saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases since the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ended in late May, renewing fears about a potential second wave of infections. Iraq reported 58 deaths Sunday, the most in a 24-hour period since February. According to Health Ministry figures, at least 652 people have died from 21,415 confirmed cases, and the increase in deaths has raised worry that Iraqs frail health system is not equipped to handle the surge of patients. Russias daily caseload of infections continued to grow, despite a decrease in the city of Moscow, which accounted for about 40% of the countrys 545,000 confirmed cases. Discounting Moscows figures, the daily number of new coronavirus cases in Russia has grown to around 7,000 from 6,000 three weeks ago. Turkey, which has seen an uptick in cases since it eased restrictions in early June, made the wearing of face masks mandatory in five more provinces Tuesday. We cannot struggle against the virus without masks, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted. Chinese authorities locked down a third neighbourhood in Beijing to contain a new coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 100 people after the country appeared to have largely contained the virus since it first appeared there late last year. Most of the cases have been linked to Beijings Xinfadi wholesale food market, and people lined up for massive testing of anyone who had visited the market in the past two weeks or come in contact with them. About 9,000 workers at the market were tested already. New Zealand, which hadnt seen a new case in three weeks, said it is investigating a case in which two women who flew in from London to see a dying parent were allowed to leave quarantine and drive halfway across the country before they were tested and found to be positive. The re-emergence of the virus in the country that earned widespread praise for how it handled infections raised the spectre that international air travel could trigger a fresh COVID-19 wave just as countries are reopening airports to stimulate tourism. South Korea reported 34 new cases Tuesday. Half were in densely populated Seoul, where officials are scrambling to stem transmissions linked to leisure and religious activities and low-income workers who cant afford to stay home. The Seoul government has so far resisted calls to reimpose stronger social distancing guidelines, fearing further economic damage. The Philippines reimposed a strict lockdown on the city of Cebu after a rise in cases. Quarantine restrictions were reimposed on Manila for another two weeks as infections continued to spike. The battle with COVID isnt over, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said. (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 Home secretary Priti Patel addresses the delegates at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester in 2019. (AP) The Home Office has not made an up-to-date estimate of the size of the illegal population in the UK in 15 years, according to a report. There were roughly 430,000 people in the country with no right to remain here when the last estimate was made in 2005 but independent research since then has put the figure at more than 1 million, the National Audit Office (NAO) said. Its report into the Home Office's immigration enforcement directorate said the department has instead estimated demand for immigration enforcement activity, which it put at between 240,000 and 320,000 cases per year. But there is no baseline given against which progress can be assessed or to show whether demand for enforcement activity is going up or down, the report added. The highest estimate of the illegal population in the UK is 1.2m. (Getty) The highest estimate of the illegal population in the UK is 1.2 million, given by the Pew Research Centre last year, but the NAO acknowledged it had not attempted to verify the number. The report said: "Although there would be significant uncertainty around any estimate it [the department] developed, such an estimate could help the department to demonstrate that its activities are effective in deterring attempts to enter or remain in the UK illegally." Read more: Two-thirds of Brits think the country is getting worse, poll finds Labour MP Meg Hillier, head of Parliament's financial watchdog, said it appeared the Home Office had "no idea" how many people are in the UK illegally "and doesn't seem interested in finding out. She added: "It can't demonstrate that its actions to control illegal immigration are working as intended, and doesn't understand how different aspects of its work fit together. The NAO's report also concluded that despite collecting information around its missions and objectives, the department often cannot show whether its measures are working. While detected attempts by people to come into the UK by clandestine means has risen to 46,900 in the year to October 2019, from 40,800 in the same period for the previous year, it is unclear whether that was down to more attempts being made overall or better detection, the report said. Story continues The department is also unable to assess whether its measures to prevent people accessing government-funded services "have any meaningful impact on the likelihood that an individual will leave the UK voluntarily", the report added. Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: "The work of immigration enforcement by its very nature is complex and challenging. "While the Home Office has introduced significant changes to its enforcement activity, it cannot demonstrate that overall performance is improving. "The department needs a better understanding of the impact of its immigration enforcement activity on its overarching vision to reduce the size of the illegal population and the harm it causes." During last year's general election campaign, home secretary Priti Patel vowed to "reduce immigration overall. Read more: Home Office chief quits after rows with Priti Patel and plans to sue government A Home Office spokesman said: "We have taken back control of our immigration system and for the first time in a generation, we will have full control over who comes and stays here. As this report acknowledges, the nature of immigration crime and offending is complicated and we are consistently looking at ways to get ahead of the organised gangs behind it. "We work tirelessly with international partners and agencies, such as the NCA, to tackle illegal migration, close down routes for people smuggling and return those with no right to remain the UK wherever possible. We make no apology for seeking to deport foreign national offenders and since 2010 we have removed more than 53,000 criminals." Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK York Regional police have made an arrest in a fatal collision involving a 50-year-old cyclist in Markham Monday. The police were called to the area of Carlton Road and Old Ivy Lane, near Main Street in Unionville around 8:22 a.m. for reports that a cyclist had been struck by a vehicle. The officers located a 50-year-old man, from Markham, suffering from life-threatening injuries, a news release said. The driver of the car left the scene prior to the arrival of police. The cyclist was transported to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Shortly after, investigators obtained video surveillance that showed the suspect vehicle with damage. Investigators say the suspect made a false police report and police found the damaged vehicle at an auto repair shop in Markham. Alexandra Forrestall, 25, from Markham, has been arrested and charged with failing to remain on scene after a collision, public mischief, and obstructing police. Forrestall was released and will appear in court on Oct. 1, 2020. Investigators are still looking for any witnesses to come forward and for anyone in the area with digital video evidence or dash cam footage. York Regional Police is asking anyone with information to contact the Major Collision Investigation Unit by calling 1-866-876-5423, ext. 7704, or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS. Abhya Adlakha is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @AbhyaAdlakha Read more about: Washington, June 17 : The US economy may be entering a phase of bouncing back, with the easing of social distancing measures and resumption of business activities, but employment and output will be "well short" of the pre-pandemic level, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday. Despite the reopening, most forecasters think "that will leave us well short of where we were in February, full employment with the economy really working broadly across all of its areas," Powell said in a virtual hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Xinhua reported. "There are parts of the economy that will struggle to return to their old ways of activity, because they involve getting people together closely in large groups," said the Fed chairman. "And so it's going to take some time to rebuild confidence." At the hearing entitled "The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress," Powell said in his opening remarks that beginning in mid-March, economic activity fell at an "unprecedented" speed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the measures taken to control its spread. "Even after the unexpectedly positive May employment report, nearly 20 million jobs have been lost on net since February," he said, noting that the reported unemployment rate has risen about 10 percentage points, to 13.3 percent. The decline in real gross domestic product this quarter is "likely to be the most severe on record," Powell said. The central bank chief reiterated that the burden of the downturn has not fallen equally on all Americans, saying that "those least able to withstand the downturn have been affected most." "Low-income households have experienced, by far, the sharpest drop in employment, while job losses of African Americans, Hispanics, and women have been greater than that of other groups," Powell said. "If not contained and reversed, the downturn could further widen gaps in economic well-being that the long expansion had made some progress in closing," he said. Powell said some indicators recently have pointed to a stabilization, and in some areas a modest rebound, in economic activity. "That said, the levels of output and employment remain far below their pre-pandemic levels, and significant uncertainty remains about the timing and strength of the recovery," he added. "Much of that economic uncertainty comes from uncertainty about the path of the disease and the effects of measures to contain it," said the central bank chief. "Until the public is confident that the disease is contained, a full recovery is unlikely." As reopening efforts continue across the nation and employment starts to pick up, the Fed chair said that "we have a long road ahead of us to get those people back to work." EATON COUNTY, MI The Eaton County Sheriffs Office is continuing its investigation into the fatal shooting of a man seen firing gunshots into the air and pointing a handgun at motorists in the middle of Saginaw Highway. The 26-year-old from Walker was shot by a 22-year-old resident of Delta Township with a concealed pistol license after the man allegedly pointed a gun at him and others. Officials with the sheriffs department say they received more than ten 911 calls simultaneously as the subject fired rounds into the air while in the well-traveled road near Brookside Drive in Delta Township around 8:25 a.m. on Monday. Detectives have contacted and met with the family of the deceased and Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd visited the scene on Tuesday. Once the investigation is complete, it will be forwarded to his office for review of the fatal shooting. We feel for the many that were affected by this incident, a statement reads. CPL holder fatally shoots man aiming gun at motorists on Michigan highway, police say The gunman was shot before police arrived. He was pronounced dead at the scene with a pistol next to him. The CPL holder is cooperating with deputies and he admitted to shooting the man for his own protection, police said. Eaton County detectives interviewed multiple witnesses, who also said the deceased man had pointed a handgun at them as well. A few examples of the 911 calls can be heard below. On 1 July, the High Council of Justice will hold the Fourth national forum "Independent courts and free media", dedicated to the cooperation of the judiciary with the media in the fight against disinformation. International and national experts, representatives of the judiciary and the media will discuss the following topics: The concept of disinformation; Methods combating propaganda; The impact of disinformation on the judicial system; Disinformation in the focus of the law. Media representatives are invited to attend What? Fourth national forum Independent courts and free media: counteracting misinformation When? 1 July 2020, 9:00 - 15:45 Where? Zoom, registration is at the link. Participants: Anna Adamska-Gallant, international key expert on judicial reform of the EU Project Pravo-Justice international key expert on judicial reform of the EU Project Pravo-Justice Larysa Shvetsova, member of the High Council of Justice member of the High Council of Justice Oleksandr Tkachenko , Minister of Culture and Information Policy , Minister of Culture and Information Policy The programme is available at the link. The working languages are English and Ukrainian, consecutive interpretation. Event organisers: High Council of Justice, Supreme Court, Council of Judges of Ukraine, State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, National School of Judges of Ukraine together with the EU Project Pravo-Justice, with the financial support of the European Union. Media partners: Yurydychna Gazeta, Hromadske radio, Interfax-Ukraine, NGO Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Internews-Ukraine For media accreditation please register at the link, for more information contact Oksana Torhan via oksana.torhan@pravojustice.eu or +380 95 500 76 80. MIAMI BEACH, Fla., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Last year the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) began developing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council that officially launched February 2020 and is Co-Chaired by Eva Dias and Andre Williams. The Chamber continues to strive to improve the quality of life for our diverse community and is looking forward to making significant contributions with this new Council. Diversity and inclusion are core values for the Chamber and it is critical that we incorporate these values into all aspects of our work including advocacy, communications, workplace environment, vendor selection, hiring, promotion and retention. In order to carry out the Chamber's core values, Committee will foster a shared culture at the Chamber that promotes the goals of accepting, respecting and valuing differences that include attributes such as age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender expression, sexual identity, ability, language, family circumstances and cultural backgrounds. "I appreciate the support from the Chamber, Board Chair Robin Jacobs and Chamber President & CEO Jerry Libbin for the DE&I Council," said Williams. "These goals can only be achieved by engaging leadership in mainstream organizations like the Chamber to promote diversity, equity and inclusion to its member businesses whose bottom line will grow because of it." "The world will be a better place when we recognize that diversity, equity and inclusion are no longer a necessary discussion," said Dias. "I look forward to the day that our mission is just part of our regular life and that we have completed our Council's goals through the Chamber." "I want to acknowledge Andre and Eva's leadership as co-chairs," said Chair of the Board Robin Jacobs. "A diverse workforce means having a greater variety of backgrounds, talents, and experiences." On June 30 at 4 PM, the Chamber will host a free webinar on how minority businesses can apply for and receive contracts with the City of Miami Beach. City officials will be present. To date the Council has done the following: In an effort to expand their multicultural efforts, the Council has developed partnerships with other organizations and government entities such as the City's procurement department, the Brazilian Consulate and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. In the months ahead, this Council will focus on ways to create greater economic opportunities for minority owned businesses in and around Miami Beach . CONTACT: Daniel Diaz, 305-389-8986, [email protected] SOURCE Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce Related Links www.miamibeachchamber.com (Newser) The wife of a US Congressman from Kentucky died unexpectedly in the family's home Tuesday night at the age of 39, news outlets reported. Eleanor Carol Leavell Barr, the wife of Rep. Andy Barr, passed away in Lexington, Barr's chief of staff said in a statement, per the AP. The Fayette County coroner was called to the family's home following the announcement of her passing, WKYT-TV reports. "During this tragic time, we respectfully ask for privacy for Congressman Barr and his family to grieve Mrs. Barr being called home to heaven," the statement added. "Congressman Barr may release a more detailed statement at a later date, but right now is solely focused on being a father to his two beautiful daughters." story continues below Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement he and his wife are "stunned and heartbroken" by the news, sending their "sincere condolences to Andy, their family, and his staff at this terribly painful time." Condolences for her passing flowed in through the night from other Kentucky politicians, including Gov. Andy Beshear and Sen. Rand Paul. Barr, who went by Carol, grew up in the state and went on to attend the University of Kentucky, news outlets report. She married Andy Barr in 2008, and the couple went on to have two children. She'd worked for Pfizer, and as the executive director of Lexington's Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship. Rep. Barr represents Kentucky's 6th District, which includes the cities of Lexington, Richmond, and Frankfort. (Read more congressman stories.) If the cultural cancer of 21st century progressivism is ever to be successfully eradicated it will first be necessary for it to be seen for what it really is: a form of neo-Marxism that aims to destroy capitalism, and with it, Western civilization. The roots of the current wave of pathological irrationality, intellectual deformity, and moral underdevelopment reach far back into the early 19th century in Europe, with the German idealist philosopher GWF Hegels idea of historical determinism. Marx seized on Hegel's dialectical system (thesis-antithesis-synthesis) and his philosophy of history and combined these with his own theory of class conflict as the determinants of social, economic, and political progress. Marx claimed that history led deterministically to the one defining moment of the age and that it was left to a unique historically determined genius -- Marx himself -- to educate the world about this. Marx viewed human society as being basically materialist, that is to say, founded on economic activity. He constructed a version of economic history in which the faults of industrial capitalism would inexorably lead to its own overthrow by violent revolution, a spontaneous uprising of the workers. Given that his history and his economics are flawed and not one of his predictions has proved accurate, it is understandable that the credibility of Marx's ideology remains in dispute. Marxs stroke of evil genius was his collectivist ideology of oppression based on economic class. The property-less workers are inevitably being exploited by the oppressor class of rich capitalists and their bourgeois helpers (the professional middle-classes). Motivated by an idealistic conception of the unalienated labourer owning by right all the products of his toil, Marx took it as an unchallengeable truth that profiting from the alienated labour of others was intolerable. Only violent revolution by the workers of the world would overthrow the capitalists and their lackeys, ushering in a new world in which everyone would be happy again, just as they had been in the past. The flaw in all this is that there is no evidence of any society ever having existed in which all the inhabitants were happy and there was no conflict, even before the emergence of complex organised societies and the development of capitalism. If allowed uninhibited expression, the diverse traits in human nature will always cause conflict. So, there is no reason to suppose that abolishing capitalism will make any difference. The key to human happiness, if there is one, lies elsewhere. But Marx gave all those people in the world who are disaffected, resentful, and angry an excuse to see themselves as the innocent, virtuous 'oppressed,' united around a group-identity that gave them a common cause and an ideological uniform, and thus able to denounce and seek to overthrow the evil 'oppressor' class. When Marxs predicted proletarian uprising failed to materialize, a third element was invented -- the wise and virtuous savior class -- which would instigate and lead the revolution (that was Lenins contribution). Marx was an amoralist for whom the end always justifies any means, however barbaric and destructive. Hence the arbitrary and copious violence and brutality of all Marxist revolutions, and the subsequent authoritarian repression once they attain power. Which is why Marxist revolutionaries consider collateral casualties to be acceptable, necessary, and inevitable -- and eminently desirable if doing so discourages their opponents from resisting them. An additional component in the ideology of today's neo-Marxists is derived from a development in 20th-century French rationalist philosophy, whereby the sign (as in words, symbols) is considered to be determinative of reality -- the primacy of the sign. This has allowed Marxs concept of class to be spun out into a tapestry of disparate identity-groups, and for each group to claim its own relativistic version of reality, characterized by a culture of offense, grievance and outrage. And it is infinitely malleable for political ends. Having combined the worst aspects of German idealist philosophy and the worst aspects of French rationalist philosophy, the new neo-Marxists calling themselves progressives are intent on using their perverted ideology as a weapon with which to destroy Western civilization. Marxist ideology (courtesy of its founder) also gives the mobs of social revolutionaries permission to lie, cheat, deceive, steal, slander, demonise, harass, intimidate, brutalise, and kill if that will push the revolution forwards. Which is why Marxism and its variants are so appealing to narcissists, nihilists, psychopaths, and violent criminals. It gives them everything they desire, all the opportunities they want to be themselves, and for free. And they need never feel guilty because Marx told them they needn't. Its a perfect disguise for career psychopaths, then, and a convenient outlet for the energies of the idealistic, naive, gullible, credulous, and ignorant enthusiasts who want to believe they are changing the world for the better without bothering to examine how malignant their activities actually are in destroying the lives and achievements -- and happiness -- of others. If you look at the slogans on the placards and banners waved by the protestors demonstrating against the wholly unjustifiable and tragic death of George Floyd and listen to the rhetoric of those addressing the crowds, you'll see and hear all these sentiments on display. You can see revolutionary Marxism made real in the violence and destructiveness of these protests, and you can see the narcissism and nihilism being expressed in the self-justificatory rhetoric of the participants and the demonizing of anyone the mob decides ought to be hated and destroyed. The current social unrest and disorder will eventually pass, and the mobs will return to their homes having convinced themselves they've brought the revolution a little bit closer. They'll be called out again, though, one can be sure of that, just as soon as another excuse presents itself or is manufactured by the progressive ideologues who push the buttons of the angry mob. Current progressive ideology turns the original version of Marxism into an open sore of pathological irrationality and amorality, even as it pretends to be the answer to all human social and political ills. In reality its activists exploit almost every possible existing source of human suffering and misery as a means to make social divisions worse, in order to induce anger, hostility, confrontation, and conflict for political ends, which results in an amplification of human suffering and misery which they then blame on their opponents. If you read Marx, you'll find that this is exactly what he advocated. Todays radical progressives are really neo-Marxists in disguise. They offer the world nothing but more, and worse, suffering and misery. A boot stomping on a human face forever, as George Orwell correctly predicted. Thats how all Marxist revolutions end, because that outcome is inevitable due to the in-built amorality of Marxism and its variants. And the sooner the ordinary people of the West can be convinced of this the sooner it will be possible to consign this malignant ideology to the pages of history, where it belongs, and turn its current adherents back into decent, civilized people who actually have something positive to contribute to society. Graphic credit: Pixabay Wen Wryte is the pseudonym of a retired teacher of philosophy who likes a quiet life. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the sacrifice of Indian soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley clash in Ladakh will not go in vain. In his opening remarks on day two of the virtual conference with chief ministers on coronavirus, he also said that India wants peace but is capable of giving a befitting reply, if instigated. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is most important, he said. Modi said India has always tried that differences do not become disputes. Later, the prime minister and those attending the meeting observed silence of a few minutes as a mark of respect for the slain soldiers. Twenty Indian soldiers including a colonel, were killed on Monday evening in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley. Hernandez has been a deeply controversial president. He won a second term in a 2017 election that was criticized for being plagued with irregularities. He was the target of widespread protests last year led by teachers and doctors angered by planned cuts in government funding. Galveston Countys local health authority says the county has seen a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks and strongly urged residents and visitors to wear masks in public and practice social distancing to prevent further spread of the new coronavirus. We are at a point now where its a critical juncture, said Dr. Philip Keiser, the local health authority. If we dont start seeing changes in behavior, we can expect to see the numbers continue to rise and we can expect to see the strain on the hospitals increasing dramatically. We want to desperately avoid that. Of the 1,378 positive COVID-19 cases in Galveston, more than one third have been reported since June 1, according to a press release from the Galveston County Health District. Keiser attributed the uptick to people not wearing masks in public or properly social distancing. Few people were wearing masks on a recent Sunday at one Galveston beach. As of Wednesday, 40 people had died from the illness in the county. Keiser said more younger people are testing positive for the illness, noting that the average age of a person testing positive last week was 30. He doesnt expect a lot of the younger people testing positive to be hospitalized but warned that they can still transmit it to family members. Keiser said the county is seeing clusters of positive tests coming from families and households. Wearing a mask is a proven way to keep from getting COVID-19, for which there is currently no vaccine. A Houston Chronicle analysis found 95,100 confirmed cases and 2,045 deaths in Texas as of Wednesday evening. Keiser explained that if someone is wearing a mask and is around another infected person wearing a mask, the chance of transmitting the virus is less than 1 percent. He also recommended that those over age 60 and with underlying health conditions stay home. Around Galveston, Kesier said hes seen some businesses working hard to protect customers and employees, but also others that dont have proper social distancing. Were calling on people (to) wear masks, pay attention to social distancing. If you go out and go into an establishment and it doesnt feel safe, leave, said Keiser. Theres lots of other places that are working hard to keep you safe. brooke.lewis@chron.com FOSTER CITY (dpa-AFX) - AstraZeneca's potential coronavirus vaccine is expected to provide protection against Covid-19 for about a year, according to a report by Reuters. The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford have begun human trials with a phase I trial in U.K. due to end soon and a phase III trial already begun, the report quoted the company CEO Pascal Soriot as saying on a Belgian radio station. Soriot reportedly said the clinical trials results could come in August or September. In Parallel, the company will manufacture the vaccine and deliver it from October, if all goes well. After protection comes to end in a year, it is unclear whether people would be instructed to get another dose, or another vaccine, or rely on COVID-19 treatments if they're approved. So far, Gilead Science's remdesivir is the only treatment with an emergency use authorization. AstraZeneca said Saturday that it had signed contracts with France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands to supply up to 400 million doses of the University of Oxford's potential Covid-19 vaccine. The company recently reached similar agreements with the UK, U.S. to supply the potential vaccine. Vaccine makers are racing against time to develop a vaccine to fight the novel coronavirus. There are more than 130 candidate vaccines in development against SARS-COV-2, the pathogen that causes COVID-19, of which 10 have moved into clinical trials. 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. Normal People star Paul Mescal has revealed he would be terrified of messing up the role of Connell if a second series was made. The Kildare actor said 2020 had been "an incredibly amazing year" for him but he would be wary of making a follow-up to the hugely successful show. "The selfish actor part of my brain knows how challenging, and how fun, it is to play a character like Connell," he said. "There's also the part of me that goes like, OK, I'm really proud of that show, but I don't want to go in and do a second season too soon and f**k it up. Fame "Because often that can be the case, where that perfect thing suddenly becomes less perfect. "I would, obviously, love to play Connell again, but that decision has got to come from people who are way higher than me in terms of creative input. "I think you've also got to let Connell and Marianne grow up a little bit, maybe five, 10, 15 years. "If you were to go and look at these characters again, you've got to let them enter a different phase of their lives." The 24-year-old star, who has shot to worldwide fame playing troubled Connell opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones as on-off lover Marianne, told The Hollywood Reporter that it has been a remarkable few months. He has been stuck in his East London flat during the coronavirus lockdown, while the 12-part series has become an international sensation. "It's had a bit of everything. Ha, how best to describe this? It's obviously had the show coming out, anticipating a show that you're intrinsically involved in. And that has its own nerves. You also have the kind of stress and pressure of being in lockdown anyway," he said. "Then you have the pressure being locked down during a time when something big is happening in your life." Siding with India in the Indo-China clashes in Galwan Valley, Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O'Farrell, on Wednesday, has noted India's efforts to de-escalate the situation with China via talks. He also paid tribute to the 20 Indian soldiers who were martyred in the clashes on June 15-16. India and China's military talks which has resumed, has not resulted in breakthrough, according to ANI. Coronavirus Live Updates: India's recovery rate at 52.8% as cases soar to 3,54,065 Australia notes India's efforts to de-escalate "We note Indias efforts to deescalate at the border and wish to convey our deepest condolences to the families of the Indian soldiers who have lost their lives. As a father of a serving military officer, I greatly value the sacrifice that our soldiers make in the defence of our countries," said O'Farrell. LAC faceoff: PM Modi warns China, says 'India capable of befitting reply if instigated' Australia-China's spat over COVID-19 inquiry Australia is currently engaged in bitter trade war with China over the World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution in favour of a global inquiry into the origins of the pandemic. China, which is Australia's largest trading partner, has put hefty tariffs on Australian barley exports in retaliation to Australia's backing for the inquiry - it was the first of 100 countries demanding an inquiry. The Chinese ambassador had earlier warned of a consumer boycott of Australian goods, which prompted Australian accusations of 'economic coercion', state reports. India-China LAC clash: Army releases list of 20 brave martyrs killed in action at Galwan PM Modi: 'India won't stay quiet' Before addressing 15 state Chief Ministers on current COVID-19 crisis, PM Narendra Modi, gave a stern warning to China, saying that while India wished to maintain peace, it will not stay quiet if provoked. He added that the nation must be proud to know that its 20 Army martyrs who died in Galwan Valley, died fighting till the end. Currently, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi have had a conversation where India has stated that the attack was 'pre-meditated by China' and asked to adhere to the agreement reached upon on June 6, but have agreed to de-escalate the issue through talks. Rahul Gandhi hits out at Centre alleging 'insult to Army' as Cong assures govt support What happened in Galwan? 20 Indian Army soldiers including a Commanding Officer were martyred when a violent faceoff took place on Monday night when the de-escalation process was underway in the Galwan Valley. As per US intelligence reports, the Chinese side has suffered 35 casualties including a Commanding officer, during the physical clash. Sources revealed that an Indian colonel was attacked by Chinese Army personnel with iron rods without any provocation leading to a strong retaliation from the Indian side. This physical hand-to-hand combat went on for many hours on Monday, sources revealed. While three soldiers were killed in action, 17 other succumbed to their injuries. Washington Army National Guard completes Jordan rotation, transfers mission to the Illinois Guard U.S. Central Command By Capt. Ernest Wang Area Support Group - Jordan JOINT TRAINING CENTER, JORDAN, June 16, 2020 -- The 1st Squadron, 303rd Cavalry Regiment (1-303 CAV), Washington Army National Guard, completed their partnership mission with the Jordan Armed Forces (JAF) this Thursday. In a transfer of authority ceremony, the 1-303 CAV turned over the Jordan Operational Engagement Program (JOEP) to the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Regiment (2-130 IN), Illinois Army National Guard. "We gather today to close out one chapter of JOEP and open the next," said Lt. Col. Timothy Ozmer, Squadron Commander of the 1-303 CAV. "As with all stories, we know that the next chapter will be even better than the last." The JOEP is one of the largest training programs funded by Title 10, U.S. Code Section 333, and consists of 14-week training cycles between the U.S. Army and the JAF. The 1-303 CAV began their JOEP mission in November of last year. Though the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a temporary pause in training, JOEP has since resumed with safety measures in place to protect both U.S. and Jordanian Soldiers. Lt. Col. Ozmer and Cmd. Sgt. Maj. John Hurt, the senior enlisted member of the 1-303 CAV, cased their colors during the ceremony, while the 2-130 IN leadership, Lt. Col. Gregory Settle and Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Sowash, unfurled theirs, as is customary in U.S. Army transfers of authority. In his farewell remarks, Ozmer congratulated the 1-303 CAV Troopers for their mission's success. "Return home knowing you have taken part in something bigger than yourself [that is] representative of what our two governments stand for: strength through unity, and inclusion." Ozmer also thanked the JAF for their hospitality and collaboration. "The sergeant major and I feel that 'partner' is not a strong enough word for how we feel toward our Jordanian counterparts. What JOEP created for our squadron was not just a partnership, nor merely a multinational cooperation effort, but something far more meaningful and uncommon: a true friendship." Lt. Col. Settle thanked the 1-303 CAV for their accomplishments and the smooth transition. "You have set the conditions for our unit to take the reins and build upon your tremendous foundation. You have left very large shoes to fill, but I can confidently say that we are ready to take on the mission." JOEP was founded in 2014, and has since seen thousands of U.S. and Jordanian Soldiers train together to enhance U.S.-Jordan interoperability. The U.S. and Jordan have partnered closely for decades to meet common security challenges in the region, including the defeat of terrorist organizations. "When we stood up JOEP, the Islamic State was standing on the border of Jordan," said Col. David Kobs, the Senior Defense Official and Defense Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan. "It was a national priority of the United States to reinforce our close allies in this region." Jordan remains a pillar of stability in the Middle East, and has made critical contributions to increasing the prospects for sustainable peace. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address T he governing board of Oxford University's Oriel College has voted to remove a controversial statue of 19th century imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Leaders at the college today announced an Independent Commission Inquiry into the "key issues surrounding" the monument, which has been the subject of recent Black Lives Matter protests. A statement from the college on Wednesday read: "[The board] also expressed their wish to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes and the King Edward Street plaque. "This is what the intent to convey to the Independent Commission of Inquiry." NEW: governing body of Oriel College, Oxford, calls for statue of Cecil Rhodes & the plaque of him on King Edward St to be removed. Independent inquiry launched to investigate issues around the statue, to report by end of the year. pic.twitter.com/xyw14HuM3q Ewan Somerville (@ewansomerville) June 17, 2020 Both of these decisions were reached after a thoughtful period of debate and reflection and with the full awareness of the impact these decisions are likely to have in Britain and around the world." It comes after years of debate over whether to remove the controversial statue, while the campaign group Rhodes Must Fall have led protests it to be taken down. On June 9, thousands of protesters gathered outside Oriel College, demanding the removal of a statue of the imperialist. 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 The demonstration was organised by the Rhodes Must Fall as one of several anti-racism demonstrations across the UK sparked by the death of George Floyd in US police custody on May 25. Carole Souter, the current master of St Cross College and former chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, will chair an independent commission into the issue. The college also said: "The commission will deal with the issue issue of the Rhodes legacy and how to improve access and attendance of BAME undergraduate, graduate students and faculty, together with a review of how the college's 21st Century commitment to diversity can sit more easily with its past." The demonstration was organised by the Rhodes Must Fall / AFP via Getty Images "The commission is intending to draw upon the greatest possible breadth and depth of experience, opinion and background," the statement said. The inquiry will also invite submissions from a "broad rand of stakeholders from Oxford itself and the county as a whole," it said. Both written and oral evidence will be requested from alumni, citizens of the city, Oxford City council, representatives of Rhodes Must Fall and the students. Some oral evidence will be heard during public sessions with similar rules of engagement to that of a parliamentary select committee. "The Governing Body believes that this decision will allow a serious, appropriate and productive resolution of a complex series of issues," the statement read. "Ms Souter has insisted on a thorough process - but conducted at pace - and set to report to the Governing Body by the end of the year." By Rich McKay and Nathan Layne ATLANTA (Reuters) - An Atlanta police officer was charged on Wednesday with murder for the shooting death last week of Rayshard Brooks in a fast-food parking lot, while a fellow officer facing lesser charges has agreed to testify against his colleague. The death of Brooks - the latest in a long line of unarmed African Americans whose fatal encounters with law enforcement have been documented on video - further heightened U.S. social tensions at a time of national soul-searching over police brutality and racism in the criminal justice system. Brooks, a 27-year-old father-of-three, "never presented himself as a threat" and showed no aggressive behavior toward the two white officers involved in the confrontation last Friday, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard told a news conference. Garrett Rolfe, the officer who shot Brooks and was dismissed the next day after surveillance video revealed his conduct in the incident, was charged with 11 criminal counts, including felony murder, assault with a deadly weapon and violating his oath of office, Howard said. Rolfe, 27, faces the possibility of life in prison or the death penalty if convicted, Howard added. Devin Brosnan, 26, the other officer on the scene, was charged with aggravated assault and violations of his oath of office, Howard added. Brosnan, placed on administrative duty after the shooting, has given statements to investigators supporting the charges against Rolfe and will cooperate with prosecutors, Howard said. Howard said both men had agreed to surrender to authorities by Thursday. Brosnan's role as a cooperating witness against a fellow officer was rare in such investigations, Howard said. Brooks' family welcomed the charges. His widow, Tomika Miller, told reporters: "I am really hurt, and all I can think about is what if my husband was still here." In an unusual move by the state's chief law enforcement body, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Howard's press conference came as a surprise and that the bureau would press on with its own inquiry. Story continues Howard said Brooks was running from the officers and was more than 18 feet (5.5 m) away when Rolfe shot him twice in the back with a 9mm Glock pistol. One round penetrated Brooks' heart. Howard quoted Rolfe as exclaiming, "I got him," after the shooting, citing audio from eight videos including police body and dashboard cameras and witness cellphone footage. After shooting him, Rolfe kicked Brooks twice while Brooks lay on the ground, and Brosnan admitted to standing on the man's shoulders as Brooks was dying, Howard said. The officers did not immediately render medical aid, Howard added. The prosecutor recommended that a judge hold Rolfe without bond. Asked in a Fox News interview about charges being brought against police, President Donald Trump voiced concern about Rolfe's treatment by prosecutors. "I hope he gets a fair shake because police have not been treated fairly in our country," Trump said. Speaking of Brooks' behavior in the encounter, the president added, "You can't resist a police officer like that." ONGOING PROTESTS Brooks' killing came amid a storm of protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who perished after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. That officer, Derek Chauvin, was charged with second-degree murder. Three other Minneapolis policemen were charged with aiding and abetting. The police encounter with Brooks escalated into a lethal shooting from a call about a man who appeared intoxicated in his car at a Wendy's restaurant drive-through lane. Previously released video of the incident appeared to show Brooks grabbing one of the officer's Taser stun guns and turning and pointing it at Rolfe before being shot. Howard said investigators concluded Rolfe knew by then that the Taser had already been fired twice and thus rendered harmless. Atlanta police rules do not allow an officer to fire even a Taser, let alone a firearm, at someone running away, Howard added. Brooks had initially behaved in a calm and "almost jovial" manner and cooperated with the police as the incident unfolded over a period of 41 minutes, Howard said. Brooks was reported asleep in a car in the Wendy's drive-through lane, blocking traffic. A restaurant employee called the 911 emergency telephone line, complaining about a man who would not move the vehicle and appeared intoxicated. The killing sparked an outpouring of demonstrations in Atlanta, and the Wendy's restaurant was burned down in the unrest. After the killing, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms announced a series of police department reforms, and the city's police chief resigned. Vince Champion, regional director for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, the officers' union, accused Howard of rushing to judgment in the case. (Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Will Dunham, Peter Cooney and Stephen Coates) LOS ANGELESLarry Flynt, founder of the Hustler empire, has been fighting a three-year court battle over a California law that prohibits him or any casino owner from operating or owning a gambling establishment in another state. On Monday, a federal judge gave Flynt at least a partial victory in the ongoing case. According to a report by Courthouse News Service, federal Judge John Mendez quashed the state governments attempt to get the lawsuit brought by Flynt, and two other owners of California cardrooms, thrown out of court. Flynts lawsuit against the state seeks to overturn a 1986 law that was initially designed to keep the mob out of the states gaming industry an aim that Flynt says is now obsolete due to strict state regulations over gambling establishments, according to the Courthouse News report. Mendez in a 14-page ruling made no decision on the law itself, but said Flynts claim that the law would force him to divest his holdings in his two Los Angeles-area casinos Hustler Casino and Larry Flynts Lucky Lady Casino was enough to let his challenge to the 1986 Gambling Registration Act to go on. Flynt, in a statement to AVN, vowed to keep up the battle. Its not over yet, and we are going to appeal the decision, the legendary publisher and adult-industry magnate said. Its a stupid law to have on the books and has been there for over a hundred years. We think we have a very good chance of prevailing. Flynt may have growing support among California politicians. Despite vetoing a bill in 2016 that would granted one casino an exemption from the law, then-Governor Jerry Brown called on state legislators to thoughtfully examine those laws and amend them so that all participants in the industry receive the same benefits and opportunities. A 2002 report by the independent state oversight body known as The Little Hoover Commission also called for the law to be revised. The report said that the law may have once been necessary as an obstacle to organized crimes infiltration of the state gambling industry, but was before publicly traded gambling companies emerged as the dominant owners of casinos in other states and before sophisticated gambling regulations were established in states such as Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and even California. Flynt also claims in the lawsuit that the law would force him to sell his non-gambling businesses, such as his chain of strip clubs, if one of his business partners acquired an interest in an out-of-state gambling establishment. Mendez did not agree with that specific claim by Flynt, but did say that Flynts claim that the 1986 law wrongly regulates interstate commerce deserves a further hearing. Flynt and his co-plaintiffs do not ask for monetary damages in the lawsuit, asking instead that the 1986 law be ruled unconstitutional. Photo by J C / Wikimedia Commons More than 150 Azerbaijani citizens stranded in Russia amid the coronavirus pandemic will be able to return home on Tuesday, Azerbaijani officials said. Earlier on Tuesday, some 400 Azerbaijani nationals stranded in a makeshift camp near the border in Russia's the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan blocked a highway to protest the way their evacuation is organized. The crowd clashed with police and border guards, injuring several officers. Some 90 protesters were brought to local police stations. READ | Australia Accuses China And Russia Of Virus Disinformation READ | Russian Anti-doping Agency To Resume Testing Commenting on the incident, a presidential aide in Azerbaijan confirmed that more than 150 Azerbaijani nationals will be able to return home on Tuesday. Khikmet Gadzhiev reiterated that the border between the two ex-Soviet states opens once a week to let stranded Azerbaijani citizens back into their country. Azerbaijani authorities will also organize a flight between Moscow and Baku, the country's capital, to evacuate more people, Gadzhiev said. We urge our citizens to show understanding of the current situation, he added. Russia closed its borders in late March in the wake of the virus outbreak, halting flights, trains and shutting down checkpoints along its land border. Russia has partially reopened its borders earlier this month, allowing its citizens to travel abroad for work, study, receiving medical treatment or taking care of relatives. Foreigners can fly in for medical treatment or to take care of family members. READ | Russia: Cafe Terraces, Museums And Zoos Reopen In Moscow READ | Russia: Putin's Govt Calls For Restraint On Korean Border (Representative image. Courtesy - AP) Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Segmentation: Global Metal Foam Market Analysis has been classified based on Material, Product, Application, End-Use Industry and Region. By Material, Global Metal Foam Market is segmented into aluminum, nickel, copper, magnesium, zinc, steel, and others. The aluminum segment dominated the Global Metal Foam Market and is expected to grow at a robust CAGR owing to its superior thermal and electrical conductivity, easy availability and recyclability, low cost, and corrosion resistance. It finds widespread application in automotive and transportation industries. Based on Product, Global Metal Foam Market has been categorized into closed cell metal foam, open cell metal foam, composites, stochastic and regular foams, and others. Under these segments, the closed cell metal foams segment accounted for the largest Market share in 2017 owing to the superior impact-absorption, easily recyclable, and high resistance to fire of closed cell metal foams. They are used in load-bearing structures in construction industries. The open cell metal foams segment is expected to register a high CAGR during the forecast period due to its superior sound and vibration absorption characteristics. On the Basis of Application, Global Metal Foam Market has been divided into heat exchangers, sound absorbers, anti-intrusion bars, energy absorbers, side impact bars, and others. The energy absorbers segment held the largest Market share in 2017 and is projected grow at the highest CAGR owing to excellent heat, sound, and impact absorption properties. Additionally, it has widespread applications in crash absorption and blast mitigation in the automotive industry. By End-Use Industry, Global Metal Foam Market has been segmented into automotive, construction and infrastructure, aerospace and defense, marine, bio-medical, railway, consumer goods, and others. The automotive industry segment accounted for the largest share in 2017 and is expected to grow at a significant CAGR during the assessment period owing to the widespread applications in manufacturing lightweight components, such as anti-intrusion bars and bumpers. The aerospace and defense industry held substantial Market share owing to lightweight aluminum foam components, which exhibit design flexibility and increased efficiency. Get Free Sample @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/7051 Market Overview: Metal foams are lightweight materials with structured cellular composition and are manufactured by bubbling air in molten metals, such as aluminum and magnesium. They are non-toxic in nature and can be easily recycled. The product offers high stiffness, excellent thermal properties, high compression strength, and superior performance to respective metals. Competitive Analysis: Some of the key players operating in the Global Metal Foam Market are Havel metal foam (Germany), Alantum Corporation (South Korea), Admatis Ltd. (Hungary), Shanxi Putai Aluminum Foam Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (China), Hunan Ted New Material Co., Ltd. (China), Shanghai Zhonghui Foam Aluminum Co. Ltd. (China), American Elements (US), ERG Aerospace Corp. (US), Cymat Technologies Ltd. (Canada), Aluinvent Zrt. (Hungary), and Mayser GmbH & Co. KG (Germany). Regional Analysis: Global Metal Foam Market is studied for five major regions, namely Asia-Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa. The Asia-Pacific Market accounted for the largest share in 2017 owing to the increasing demand for product in passenger cars, the growing automotive industry, and rapid infrastructure development. In 2017, China was the leading country in the region owing to rising urbanization and surging demand for the product in passenger vehicles and energy absorbers. Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia & New Zealand are other prominent countries contributing to the regional Market growth. The North American Market is expected to be the fastest growing in the following years owing to the increasing government investments, rising focus on research and development facilities, and growing customer preference for electric powered vehicles. The US is the leading country in the region due to the key manufacturing company in the region such as American Elements and ERG Aerospace Corp. 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Contact: Market Research Future +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Another brutal honor killing has shaken Iran for the third time in less than a month, with the Islamic government trying to do damage control and avoiding blame for its policies of light punishment for the guilty perpetrators. Referring to the latest honor killing said to have been committed with an ax, Kerman province's deputy police chief says, contrary to the widespread news, 22-year-old Rayhaneh Ameri was not killed by an ax. "Rayhaneh's father killed her with an iron bar," the Deputy Police Chief in Iran's largest province insisted. Furthermore, police in Kerman asserts that despite previous news circulated in Iran, Rayhan's father has regretted killing his 22-year-old daughter. Since last Tuesday, Iranians on social media have been expressing their outrage about the news of the young girl being murdered by her enraged father. In a detailed report on Tuesday, June 16, the local Rokna news agency said, "On Monday morning, when Rayhaneh's sister visited her parents' home, she found the house in a mess, while nobody was home." After Reyhaneh's mother returned, Rokna adds, the two went to Rayhaneh's room and found garments soaked in her blood. Later, police found traces of blood leading to Rayhaneh's father's car. Tracking the father's cell phone revealed that he had gone to the village nearby. Shortly afterward, he confessed to killing his daughter with an ax and throwing her away in the village. According to Rokna's report, Rayhaneh's father confessed murdering his young daughter at eleven PM and based on a forensic report, Rayhaneh was alive two hours before police discovered what had happened but had died of profuse bleeding. "Rayhaneh Ameri, another Romina; another young girl killed by her father's ax, merely for coming back home late. We are returning to the Stone and Ice Age, when they just hunted and killed animals to survive. They did not kill their own species," a social media user lamented. Fourteen-year-old Romina Ashrafi was beheaded by her father in May after she eloped to marry a young man. Nevertheless, a day later, the Deputy Police Chief in the province of Kerman, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Colonel Kourosh Ahmad Yousefi told the official news agency, IRNA, that Rayhaneh was not killed by an ax. Rayhaneh's father was angry and, and while struggling with his daughter, he threw an iron bar at her which hit the 22-year-old girl's head and killed her, Colonel Yousefi maintained, adding that the father regretted his anger that led to the crime. However, based on the initial reports, Rayhaneh's father had "proudly" confessed to murdering his daughter. In the meantime, Rokna reported that he also tried to kill her in 2017, but she was "saved" by her sister. The third honor killing comes after the murder of Romina Ashrafi, a teenage girl from Talesh, northern Iran, by her father with a sickle and the beheading of Ms. Fatemeh Farahi in Abadan by her husband, who was also her cousin. Violence against women in the form of "honor killings" has triggered a wave of criticism on the country's social media and political space. The violence in the murder of Romina Ashrafi was so shocking that even the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader's office reacted. Khameneis official Twitter account cited him as calling for "harsh confrontation" with those "who consider the violation of women their right." Under Islamic Republic law, a father who kills his child is not considered a murderer and is not punished by death. Nonetheless, civil rights activists hope the three recent murders will change the law and at least punish the killers for the public aspects of the crime. Sweden attracted international attention for not implementing a strict lockdown when the coronavirus first emerged earlier this year, now the country's chief epidemiologist says that if there's a "second wave" of infections, he will focus more efforts on containing the spread of the virus. Asked if Sweden was better prepared now for a potential second wave of coronavirus infections, which some experts fear could happen later in the year, Sweden's Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell was certain it was. "I definitely think so. We are better prepared in many ways, health care is better prepared. We'd be up and running a bit more with contact tracing and we also have the immunity in the population which will make things a lot easier in a lot of ways," he told CNBC Tuesday. While a vaccine for the coronavirus is still being developed, scientists are looking at whether exposure to and recovery from Covid-19 leads to long-term immunity; the jury is still out while that is being researched. Having a comprehensive contact-tracing system and maintaining recently-improved standards in elderly care homes were now priorities, Tegnell said, drawing on lessons learned from Sweden's experience of the virus over the past few months. "We improved a number of things, we improved our handling of the long-term care facilities because the (infection) numbers in those are going down quite a lot and we don't see as many cases there now, which is not the way it used to be. I think that's one good thing we'll keep with us," he said. "I think the other thing is to look closely at how we would improve our contact tracing and be really ready to do that as soon as we see major new outbreaks, because I think that's what we're going to see now ... I think it's really important to be able to handle outbreaks in different parts of Sweden quickly so it can't spread too much." The world has not yet seen a "second wave" of the coronavirus although it is feared that China could be seeing the start of a new outbreak, with clusters of infections recorded in Beijing this week. By definition, however, a "second wave" of the virus means it would need to retreat and reappear, or a new variant would have to emerge, according to Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University. There is no accurate data on the actual estimates of COVID waste turning up in beaches and oceans worldwide. However, evidence abounds that the current pandemic is currently washing up plastic waste such as empty alcohol and hand sanitizer bottles, and personal protective equipment (PPE) such as latex gloves and disposable masks in the worlds beaches and oceans. (Photo : Pixabay) There is no accurate data on the actual estimates of COVID waste turning up in beaches and oceans worldwide. However, evidence abounds that the current pandemic is currently washing up plastic waste such as empty alcohol and hand sanitizer bottles, and personal protective equipment (PPE) such as latex gloves and disposable masks in the world's beaches and oceans. The United Nations Environment Program has estimated that the plastic waste that proliferates in the world's oceans is already at 13 million metric tons annually. With the present COVID-19 pandemic, more and more waste is inundating our seas. Single-use PPEs are helping people, and frontline healthcare workers worldwide combat SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19-carrying coronavirus. Unfortunately, environmental warriors and organizations are expressing concern that the increased plastic production for PPEs is creating an extremely alarming level of plastic pollution, which is an unintended consequence of the battle against coronavirus. Demand for face masks around the world is already in the billions. This does not include other protective equipment made of petroleum and other plastics, such as gloves, hand sanitizers, and protective suits. This high demand is causing alarm to many people and advocates as these plastic waste can turn up in the seabed and shorelines. The nonprofit Operation Mer Propre (French for "Operation Clean Sea") is a leader in clean-up efforts and litter clean-ups along the Cote d'Azur. Divers and members have raised concerns about the disposable masks, dozens of gloves, and hand sanitizer bottles in the Mediterranean on top of the usual aluminum cans and disposable cups. Joffrey Peltier from Operation Mer Propre has expressed concern as this COVID waste pollution might be even more pervasive after the entire globe has turned to disposable plastic PPEs for the battle against COVID-19. Disposable masks, for example, seem to be made with cotton. However, these are made from non-biodegradable materials such as polypropylene. CBC has reported that Canadian facilities are witnessing an upsurge in COVID waste that does not biodegrade, such as gloves, discarded masks, and wet wipes. These items are being flushed down toilets and into sewage pipes, creating a massive problem for water treatment facilities. Land-based activities are responsible for almost 80 percent of water or ocean pollution, while 50 percent of ocean pollution is a direct consequence of single-use plastic. Gary Stokes of the Hong Kong-based environmental group OceansAsia said in March that masks have only been used heavily for a couple of months due to the threat of COVID-19. Yet, the massive impact of these discarded PPEs on the environment and marine life is hugely evident. OceansAsia has expressed their concern after marine debris, mainly discarded masks, have turned up in the uninhabited Soko Islands. Stokes mentioned that despite being an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere, with only around 100-meter beach length, marine surveys have resulted in 70 washed up masks in a week, and another 30 masks the following week. He also expressed worry because although elusive porpoises have been seen recently on the footage, many have been washing up dead along the coasts, and both porpoises and dolphins might mistake these COVID wastes for food. An Accra Circuit Court on Tuesday admitted to bail Frank Nketia, a trader and Victor Maduka a businessman accused of stealing 15 HP Pro book laptops belonging to the National Identification Authority (NIA). Nketia, was granted bail in the sum of GHC85,000.00 with four sureties, three of whom should be public servants earning not less than GHC4,000.00, a month. Maduka was also admitted to bail in the sum of GHC85,000.00 with two sureties one of whom should be a public officer earning not less than GHC1,000.00. The two accused have been variously charged with stealing, possession of stolen property and dishonestly receiving and have both pleaded not guilty. Accused persons were granted bail after their respective counsel have applied formally for bail and argued as to why the accused should be admitted to bail before the court presided over by Mr. Emmanuel Essandoh. The matter has been adjourned to July 6. Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rita Yeboah, said on June 12, this year, said the complainant Emmanuel Selby, is the Head of Information Management System at the NIA. ASP Yeboah said Nketia and Maduka reside at Tetegu and Lapaz respectively. The Prosecution said in October last year, Government of Ghana procured 5,000 HP Pro book computers from Denmark for NIA to be used in issuing ECOWAS Cards for Ghanaians. According to ASP Yeboah, in February this year, the NIA detected that 64 pieces of the laptops had been stolen so the authority commenced investigations. Prosecution said during investigations, it was detected that one of the employees working under the complainant, stole the laptops and disposed 15 of the laptops at Circle in Accra. The Prosecution said the employee however could not lead the Police to the receivers of the stolen laptops. Prosecution said on May 14, this year, seven of the laptops were retrieved from a shop at Burma Camp in Accra, and when the serial numbers of the laptops were scanned, they were found to be among the NIA laptops procured. Prosecution said further investigations revealed that in March this year, Nketia after bargaining bought and received 12 laptops from two other persons who are now at large. He said Nketia called Maduka who came to purchase the laptops at a cost of GHC1,500.00 each. ASP Yeboah said during the lock down some Nigerian businessmen at Circle had their shops closed and Madukas shop too was closed as well but he managed to give the laptops to a friend to sell it for him and so one shop supervisor at Burma Camp bought them and was issued with a receipt. Prosecution said Nketia and Maduka admitted the offences in their cautioned statements. 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 Bramble is what they call a modern classic. Invented in 1984 by British bar legend Dick Bradsell at a club in Londons Soho neighbourhood, the Bramble hasnt really been around long enough to qualify as a proper classic cocktail. Most of the classicsthe Old Fashioned, Daiquiri or Negroni, for instancehave been staples on cocktail menus for a century (give or take) and so have stood the test of time. The Bramble isnt old enough to qualify as a classic but it became so popular after its invention that the cocktail community include it, sort of like giving it an honorary degree. Its especially popular in the United Kingdom, where theres even a bar named after itEdinburghs Bramble Bar. Its less popular here in Canada, which, frankly, is our loss since it just might be one of the best spring drinks weve ever tried. Plus, when done with attention and care, its highly-Instagrammablefor the first 60 seconds of its life, the purple liqueur drizzles down through the crushed ice and mingles with the lemon juice and gin. The secret to this drink? Crushed ice. Without it, you wont achieve the gorgeous visual effect. Cocktail bars use pebble ice, which is made with specialized ice machines that churn out the hard and uniform nuggets that you need to make a drink like this Bramble. The good news is you can make perfectly good crushed ice with an old-fashioned hand-crank ice crusher or, for an even more lo-tech solution, just fill a clean canvas bag with ice then bang it with a wooden mallet. Both methods result in ice pebbles remarkably close to the ones the fancy machines make. Other than a little fuss with crushed ice, the drink is ridiculously simplegin, lemon juice, cassis and maple syrup. The original recipe actually calls for creme de mure, (a blackberry liqueur) and plain old simple syrup, but our cassis and maple syrup are in keeping with the spirit of 100-mile drinking and result in a lovely modification with a rich flavour profile. Here, we use County Cassis and Junipers Wit gin, also made by Kinsip House of Fine Spirit in Bloomfield, Prince Edward County. Bloomfield Bramble 2 oz Junipers Wit gin 1 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice oz maple syrup oz County Cassis 1 cups crushed ice Method: Fill a rocks glass with one cup crushed ice. Then, fill a shaker with ice cubes (not the crushed ice), gin, lemon juice and maple syrup. Shake well for 40 seconds, then strain into the glass over crushed ice. Add the remaining half cup of crushed ice and then slowly drizzle the Cassis over top, so it seeps into the rest of the drink. NOTE: Cassis is a blackcurrant liqueur that is now being made by several Ontario craft distillers such as Dillons Distillers (Niagara), Blacks (Peterborough) and Kinsip. Its a perfect example of a specialty ingredient that bartenders have had to import but no longer need to. These homegrown versions are just as good as the European expressions, if not better. A Royal Air Force plane used by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on official trips is getting a red, white and blue paint job at a cost of almost 1 million pounds ($1.25 million). Johnsons spokesman, James Slack, said Wednesday that the gray RAF Voyager was being painted in the colors of the Union Jack to better represent the U.K. around the world, with national branding similar to other leaders planes. Unlike some other world leaders, British prime ministers dont have a plane of their own. A plan in the early 2000s by former Prime Minister Tony Blair to buy a government jet dubbed Blair Force One was later scrapped to save money. The Voyager also carries other senior ministers and members of the royal family on overseas trips, and is used by the air force for air-to-air refueling. Johnson complained in 2018 about the drab official plane, asking why does it have to be gray? and saying he would like a Brexit plane to help promote the U.K. around the world. Johnsons office said the paint job, estimated to cost 900,000 pounds, wouldnt affect the planes military role. But opposition Labour Party lawmaker Louise Haigh questioned the wisdom of spending almost a million pounds redecorating a plane which in all likelihood has been grounded for months because of the coronavirus pandemic. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Galwan attack pre-meditated, planned by China: EAM Jaishankar tells Chinese counterpart India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, June 17: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his Chinese counter part Wang Yi during which he conveyed a strong message to China, saying, "What happened in Galwan was premeditated and planned action by China which was responsible for the sequence of events." Following talks between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi, the MEA said that both the countries have agreed that the overall situation would be handled in a responsible manner, and both sides would implement the disengagement understanding of June 6 sincerely. "The foreign minister underlined that this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship. The need of the hour was for the Chinese side to reassess its actions and take corrective steps. The two sides should scrupulously and sincerely implement the understanding that was reached by the Senior Commanders on 6th June," said the Ministry of External Affairs in a statement released today evening. India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News "Troops of both sides should also abide by the bilateral agreements and protocols. They should strictly respect and observe the line of actual control and should not take any unilateral action to alter it," it added. India, China foreign ministers discuss border clash; agree to 'deal fairly', claims Beijing Jaishankar conveyed the protest of the Government of India in the strongest terms on the violent face-off in Galwan Valley on 15 June 2020. He recalled that at the meeting of senior Military Commanders held on 6th June, an agreement was reached on de-escalation and disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Ground commanders were meeting regularly to implement this consensus throughout the last week. "While there was some progress, the Chinese side sought to erect a structure in Galwan valley on our side of the LAC. While this became a source of dispute, the Chinese side took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties. It reflected an intent to change the facts on ground in violation of all our agreements to not change the status quo," the press release said. The telephonic conversation between the two ministers came after 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in the clashes with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. The niece of United States President Donald Trump will reveal a series of horrifying stories about her uncle in a book that will be published soon. The move marks the first time that Trump would have to face criticizing remarks from one of his family members. Mary Trump is set to release her work titled "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," on July 28, as stated by her publisher, Simon % Schuster, as reported by The New York Times. A hidden history of chilling actions The 55-year-old author revealed that she was a primary source for coverage that The New York Times wrote about Trump's financial status and supplied confidential tax documents to the newspaper. One spokeswoman for the agency refused to comment on the claim on Sunday, and the White House did not reply to a comment request. Ms. Trump's father is Fred Trump Jr., the older brother of the United States president has been dead since 1981. The author has kept a low profile from the public except for an incident where a family feud erupted over the Trump family's patriarch Fred Trump Sr.'s, will. Written in the book, the author, and a clinical psychologist, detail the relationship Trump had with his family members, more specifically, his father and brother, as reported by USA Today. The description of the book in an Amazon post states that Ms. Trump recollects in vivid detail everything about her uncle's place in the family and Ivana Trump's involvement in her grandmother's frequent suffering of injuries and illnesses. It also includes the dreadful way that her uncle harassed and degraded Fred Trump when he began to give in to Alzheimer's. Also Read: Colin Powell Changes Side to Biden After Trump Strays From US Constitution Against the book On Tuesday, Trump is allegedly planning on stopping the book's publication after his previous decision of going to court over the forthcoming tell-all that former national security adviser John Bolton is planning. According to The Guardian, Ms. Trump spent her childhood mostly at her grandparents' residence. She also details traumatic experiences, including destructive relationships and bouts of neglect and abuse. The author explains how certain events and familial patterns influenced the man that is now sitting in the White House. Sam Nunberg, Trump's former adviser, stated that Ms. Trump's book would cause more concern for the president than Bolton's tell-all as she is one of his family members, which makes it a personal betrayal. Previously, Trump confessed to pressuring his brother over his choice of career in 2019 but had since come to regret his decision. He said that he regretted placing that burden on his brother. Trump admitted that they made mistakes in their assumptions that the whole family would like the choice his brother made, which doubled the pressure on him, as reported by The Daily Beast. The book's author had largely avoided the public's eyes during her uncle's term as president but had previously shared her criticisms on his actions. One such event was the feud over their patriarch's will, where she claims that along with his siblings, Trump exercised their influence to turn the distribution of Fred Trump's estates to their favor. In 2000, Ms. Trump blasted her relatives by saying that her aunts and uncles should show some shame for themselves, but she also added that it would have been outside of their capabilities to do so. Related Article: Donald Trump Not Well? Speculations About Dementia and Stroke Surface After Seen Unsteadily Walking @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Zondervan, the Christian media and publishing company, is suspending promotion of two books and indefinitely halting a documentary by popular Enneagram teacher and best-selling author Christopher Heuertz after allegations by nearly three dozen people who saw or experienced spiritual and psychological abuse by him. A spokesman for Zondervan said a foreword and endorsement written by popular social scientist Brene Brown would be removed from Heuertzs latest book, The Enneagram of Belonging: A Compassionate Journey of Self-Acceptance. The decision by Zondervan follows a public post on the platform Medium signed by 33 women and men who wrote that Heuertz has harmed many people and we cannot remain silent anymore. Many others have since corroborated the accusations and added their stories. The June 10 post described a pattern of spiritual and psychological abuse by Heuertz, a liberal Christian active in social justice causes as well as the contemplative tradition borrowed from Catholicism. He is an expert on the Enneagram, a model of the human psyche based on nine personality types that has exploded in popularity in certain Christian circles. Heuertz apologized publicly on his webpage, saying, I failed to maintain suitable boundaries in some of my friendships with women. We are suspending any promotion of The Sacred Enneagram and The Enneagram of Belonging as we sort through information that is presented. We have also placed NINE: The Enneagram Documentary release on hold indefinitely, a Zondervan spokesperson said. The board of Heuertzs Omaha, Nebraska-based organization, Gravity, said it would hire a firm to investigate the allegations. It also announced that Heuertz and his wife, Phileena, who co-direct the center, would take a voluntary sabbatical until the investigation is completed. George Mekhail, who chairs the board of directors at Gravity, a spiritual retreat center, said there was an anonymous claim made against Heuertz a few years after he started Gravity. But the veracity of the claim could not be verified and the accusation fell outside of his work with Gravity. The investigation the Gravity board is now launching will examine all those claims. Were taking this very seriously, said Mekhail. We want to get to the bottom of whats going on. What exactly are the nature of the claims so we can take action as needed. Accusations of sexual harassment against Heuertz are not new. In 2012, he was asked to step down from Word Made Flesh, an international organization he founded in 1991 to combat poverty and human trafficking around the world. His dismissal came after several women of color he had mentored complained about his sexually predatory behavior. A statement from Word Made Flesh posted recently said it condemns the abuse that occurred and supports the women in their efforts to bring accountability and transparency. It was not clear if there were new allegations of sexual harassment by Heuertz or if the allegations in the public post authored by Daphne Eck, a communications consultant from Castle Rock, Washington, date to his time at Word Made Flesh. Eck was unavailable for comment Tuesday. The Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by popular writer Richard Rohr, a Franciscan friar, has also said it would pause all collaboration with Heuertz. In his apology, Heuertz wrote: Although I have taken steps over the years to make amends, I have been unable to sufficiently express my sorrow. I want you to know that I have learned from these experiences. Advertisement An elderly Kurdish protester was within touching distance of Boris Johnson's Jaguar after running past police as the Prime Minister left the Houses of Parliament, before he was finally tackled to the floor by a female officer. An activist from a group demonstrating outside Parliament's gates in Westminster ran towards Mr Johnson's Jaguar XJ Portfolio V8 LWB Auto this afternoon as his convoy left following Prime Minister's Questions. Video footage showed how the middle-aged man managed to break through a group of police at the last minute as the car drove out - and was only brought down at the very last minute by an unarmed female officer. A nearby CCTV camera captured the protester running into the road, stopping in front of a police motorbike in front of the Prime minister's vehicle and then being dragged away. The lead car was forced to stop, with an escorting Range Rover running into the back of it in what appeared to be a minor collision. The vehicles then drove off, with a dent visible in the back of Mr Johnson's 54,000 car. The protester, who had been demonstrating about Turkey's operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, was taken into the Palace of Westminster by Metropolitan Police officers in the immediate aftermath. Police officers urged the gathered crowds to stay back and a further police van was on the scene within seconds to help detain the man, who was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence and obstructing the highway. An activist from a group demonstrating outside Parliament's gates in Westminster today ran towards Boris Johnson's Jaguar The Prime Minister's Jaguar car is dented after it was hit by a support vehicle in London today The man is detained by police officers following the dramatic incident outside the Houses of Parliament this afternoon Police detain a man after he ran in front of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's car as it left the Houses of Parliament today A pro-Kurdish protester lays on the street outside Houses of Parliament after he leapt in front of the Prime Minister's car today A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'At approximately 2.30pm today, two police vehicles were involved in a collision in Parliament Square. The police vehicles were part of a security movement. 'A pedestrian is reported to have stepped onto the road, causing the vehicles to suddenly stop, which has led to two of the vehicles in the convoy being involved in a damage-only collision. No injuries have been reported. 'A man, no further details at this time, was arrested at the scene for offences under Section 5 of the Public Order Act and for obstructing the highway. All vehicles were able to drive from the scene.' Section 5 of the act covers people using or displaying threatening words or behaving in a disorderly manner, or displaying any writing or sign which is threatening and would cause someone to feel alarmed or distressed. Downing Street confirmed Mr Johnson was inside the car at the time of the incident, which happened just yards away from where terrorist Khalid Masood drove a car into Parliament's gates in March 2017, killing five people. This new incident raises serious questions over whether security in the area still needs to be improved. A Number 10 source said: 'I think the video speaks for itself as to what happened. No reports of anybody being injured.' Police detain a man after he ran in front of the car as it left the Houses of Parliament today Police detain a man after he ran in front of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's car this afternoon Police detain a man after he ran in front of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's car outside Parliament today Police officers detain the man and take him into the Palace of Westminster following the incident in the capital this afternoon The man was taken into the Palace of Westminster by officers following the incident in the road this afternoon Former Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism detective David Vidacette said the crash reflected badly on police, tweeting: 'This is really, really poor performance on a gate where there is a known vulnerability.' He added: 'The road has to be closed for the PM's convoy to exit right out of the gate, so everyone knew what was happening... Yet a protester has still managed to bring the convoy to a halt and cause the accident.' And Conservative MP Michael Fabricant later tweeted: 'Boris will now be getting unsolicited phone calls for the next ten years. 'I hear you have been in a car crash. Have you had whiplash? My company can claim...'.' Mr Johnson, who returned to work at the end of April after recovering from a serious coronavirus infection which left him in a hospital intensive care unit, had just finished his weekly question session in Parliament. Several groups were protesting outside Parliament in small numbers today, including anti-Brexit and pro-Kurdish groups. Scotland Yard will again have to review its security tactics after yet another serious incident in the area. It appears the middle-aged protester who ran towards Boris Johnson's car easily brushed off an unarmed police officer meant to be holding back the crowd and ran into the road, causing the smash. It was only when he was feet from the PM he was dragged back by a PC and pinned down. The Carriage Gates, which Boris Johnson was driven out of, are manned by four unnarmed Met Police officers who open and shut them when cars arrive and leave. The man is pictured on the floor as he is detained by police in Westminster this afternoon Police detain a man after he ran in front of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's car this afternoon The man is led away by police officers following the crash in Westminster this afternoon The man had been demonstrating this afternoon about Turkey's operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq A man is taken away by police on Parliament Square after the incident which caused a car crash this afternoon The man speaks to police officers as he is taken away from the scene on Parliament Square in Westminster this afternoon A pair of anti-terror officers armed with machine guns stand behind them in case someone were to burst through. The setup was brought in after Masood stabbed PC Keith Palmer to death in March 2017 as he forced his way through the Carriage Gates before being shot dead in New Palace Yard. He had already killed four others using a car on Westminster Bridge. The terror attack three years ago laid bare the 'inadequacies' of the security arrangements at the Palace of Westminster. Masood was only stopped after an armed close protection officer, in the area by chance, who confronted him and then shot him dead. A security review two years before PC Keith Palmer's death concluded that the gate where he was stationed was 'vulnerable' because it was manned by unarmed officers. But the Houses of Parliament threat assessment was never passed on to police on the ground. On the day of Khalid Masood's attack, no firearms officer was seen near Carriage Gates for almost an hour before PC Palmer was knifed. The man is taken away by police on Parliament Square following the car crash which happened outside Parliament today The man is taken away following the crash which happened when the Prime Minister was being driven away this afternoon The man speaks as he is taken away by police on Parliament Square following the dramatic incident this afternoon The man is led away by Metropolitan Police officers following the incident outside the Houses of Parliament today Police detain a man after he ran in front of the Prime Minister's car in Westminster today A pro-Kurdish protester who ran into the road toward the car of Boris Johnson is led away by police officers this afternoon Instead, marksmen prioritised the Members' Entrance which was used by ministers and MPs to attend Prime Minister's Questions. In April 2017 - three weeks after PC Palmer's death - new larger and taller black iron security gates covered in wire mesh were installed. They are now permanently closed unless a car requires access, but this was not the case when PC Palmer was murdered. Concerns about the lack of security at the entrance to Parliament were raised by MPs just two weeks before they were breached by Masood. They warned that the main wrought-iron gates were often open, leaving just waist-high barriers described as being as flimsy as Meccano that could easily be jumped. Despite spending millions on the new security, in December 2018 armed police tasered an intruder after he got through the gates of Parliament and ran at officers. The man was bundled to the cobbles of New Palace Yard, just feet from Masood murdered PC Palmer. The suspect is said to have ran in through gates as a taxi drove out. He made it a few metres into the Parliamentary estate before he was Tasered to the ground. The man is taken away from the scene outside the Houses of Parliament this afternoon following the crash Police officers detain a protester near the Houses of Parliament and take him inside following the incident this afternoon Police ask people to back away after a man ran in front of Boris Johnson's car this afternoon Prime Minister Boris Johnson's car leaves the Houses of Parliament before the crash took place this afternoon Boris Johnson speaks at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons this afternoon The Prime Minister speaks during the weekly question time debate in the House of Commons today It happened yards away from where Khalid Masood drove a car into Parliament's gates in March 2017, killing five people Meanwhile, during PMQs today, Mr Johnson urged Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to help reopen more schools across England, amid calls for the Government to take further action to tackle child poverty. The Prime Minister criticised councils, highlighting Labour-run authorities, for not opening their doors to reception, year one and year six pupils and suggested Sir Keir should press them to do so. Labour leader Sir Keir offered to swap places with the Prime Minister when he started asking questions back rather than answering. The Prime Minister also confirmed refunds will be given to NHS and care workers who have paid fees to use the health service since May 21, when the Government announced it would drop the charge for them. ** Do you know the man who jumped out in front of the car today? Please email: tips@dailymail.com ** simpson33/iStockBy ELIZABETH MCLAUGHLIN, ABC NEWS (WASHINGTON) -- The nationwide conversation about race in America has put a renewed spotlight on racial disparities in the U.S. military justice system, with lawmakers calling for the services to uncover the causes behind the disparities and work to address the problem. At a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, witnesses summarized the findings from past reports and claimed little progress, while representatives from the military services acknowledged the issue and promised change. A 2019 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that black and Hispanic service members were more likely than their white counterparts to be tried in a court-martial proceeding, but that race was not a statistically significant factor for a conviction. That report called for the services to start recording information about race and ethnicity in the same way because the lack of consistency made it "difficult to identify disparities." Another report, conducted by the advocacy group Protect Our Defenders in 2017, found that for every year reported and across all branches, black service members were "substantially" more likely than white service members to face military justice or disciplinary action. That disparity was highest in the Air Force where black airmen were 71% more likely to face court-martial or non-judicial punishment than white airmen in an average year, when Protect Our Defenders assessed Air Force data from 2006 to 2015. The group later obtained internal Air Force documents from 2016 which acknowledged racial disparities were "consistent, persistent, and getting worse," according to the group's president, Ret. Col. Don Christensen. Still, it wasn't until after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department on May 25 and the subsequent nationwide protests that the top general in the Air Force announced a review of the service's legal system by the Air Force inspector general. Christensen told lawmakers on Tuesday that after Protect Our Defenders' report was published, none of the services reached out to the organization to discuss the findings -- a claim largely confirmed by the service judge advocate generals who testified before Congress later in the day. "There's a long track record of doing nothing," Christensen told the subcommittee. He said that while the Air Force's internal investigation is a good "first step," the services need to bring in experts on racial disparities and look not only at unconscious bias but overt bias and prejudice in the justice systems. Brenda Farrell, director of the Defense Capabilities and Management Team at GAO, similarly called for DOD to assess the underlying causes of the disparities and said congressional oversight of the department's progress in addressing these issues would be necessary. While the judge advocate generals acknowledged the racial disparity in their justice systems, they pointed to a new law passed late last year that will provide a "road map" for progress. Section 540I in the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) requires the services to record data on race, ethnicity and gender in military justice system cases and calls on DOD to establish criteria to determine when data indicating disparities should be further reviewed. It also requires a DOD evaluation to identify the causes of disparities and "take steps to address" them. Chairwoman Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said that while the services are "relying" on Section 540I "to recognize there is work to be done, it would have been a whole lot better" if the changes had come from within the department. "We are at a transformational point in this country, civilian and military wise," Speier said. "And I think there's a lot of work to do." Air Force Judge Advocate General Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Rockwell said that while "we no longer have intentional discrimination in our processes, the fact is that racial disparity in the aggregate persists." "This demonstrates the complex and challenging nature of the issue, symptomatic or indicative of one of many symptoms -- a daunting problem, but one that should not stop us from exploring what we can do in the disciplinary process to serve as part of the solution set," he continued. The critical look at racial disparities in the justice system is one of several issues the military is grappling with in the aftermath of Floyd's death. In a video message to National Defense University graduates last week, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley pointed out the lack of diversity in the military's highest ranks, saying the department needs to "collectively take a hard look at how we recruit, retain, and promote talent." The Navy and Marine Corps have no African Americans serving above the two-star level, and the Army has just one African American four-star, Milley said. It was only last week that the Senate confirmed Gen. Charles Q. Brown as the next Air Force chief of staff. Brown will become the first black military service chief and only the second black officer to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. While black Americans account for about 13% of the U.S. population, recent DOD data showed black service members make up 18.8% of the active duty enlisted population but just 8.9% of the active duty officer class. Meanwhile, the Navy and Marine Corps have announced steps to ban Confederate paraphernalia from installations, after years of criticism that the symbol celebrated a desire to uphold slavery and white supremacy. The Army said it was open to a discussion about renaming bases originally named after Confederate military leaders -- though President Donald Trump has since said that is not something his administration will consider. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Brazil's state-run Petrobras oil company is seen at their headquarters in Rio de Janeiro By Sabrina Valle and Gram Slattery RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's Petrobras has decided to keep half its administrative staff working from home permanently, the company told Reuters, in a dramatic example of how the novel coronavirus has major companies rethinking their use of office real estate. The oil company has sent as much as 90% of its 21,000 administrative staff home since March due to the pandemic. The experience has revealed new opportunities to save costs with office space, Petrobras said in a response to questions. The state-controlled firm, known formally as Petroleo Brasileiro SA, is the first oil major to plan a widespread and permanent shift to remote work. Producers including Exxon Mobil Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc have extended their work-from-home periods for most office staff into the foreseeable future but have not made any permanent decisions. Technology companies such as Twitter Inc have been taking the lead on a permanent shift that is gaining traction in other industries as firms seek cost reductions, employee convenience - or both. The shift to permanent work-from-home arrangements will be an opt-in process at Petrobras, according to press officers, but requests from workers so far suggest demand will be high, with more than 10,000 expected to participate. The new policy will not immediately affect operational personnel working outside of administrative offices, such as refinery technicians and platform workers, who are part of a 46,000-strong workforce at Petrobras, excluding subsidiaries. The permanent shift to more remote work is also under consideration for the company's logistics subsidiary Transpetro, or Petrobras Transporte SA. Petrobras has not set a date to increase staffing in offices and will keep in-site workforce to a minimum for now to reduce health risks during the pandemic, the company said. Workers from at least two departments are discussing a possible rotation system, in which employees would spend one week in the office and one week at home. Petrobras said that is an option under consideration, with no final decision. Story continues Chief Executive Roberto Castello Branco has been on a crusade to cut costs since he took office in January last year. He announced a $8.1 billion cost-reduction plan through 2023, including dismissal programs and office space reductions. Since then, he has decided to cut back overseas offices to five from 18, shutting locations in New York, Mexico City, Libya, Angola, Nigeria, Tanzania, Iran and Tokyo. Petrobras has been also vacating entire buildings in Rio and Sao Paulo that it does not own. The company decided last year to concentrate employees at its iconic headquarters in downtown Rio, where the cost per desk is cheaper than in rented corporate buildings nearby. Petrobras was one of the first oil majors to cut oil output as the coronavirus pandemic battered global demand. It also booked multibillion-dollar writedowns on assets to reflect lower long-term oil price forecasts, in a move followed by BP on Monday. (Reporting by Sabrina Valle and Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Ron Bousso in London; Editing by Brad Haynes and Steve Orlofsky) Web Toolbar by Wibiya OTTAWA, ON, June 12, 2020 /CNW/ - The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented global crisis that is having a significant impact on all aspects of the Canadian transportation industry, travellers, and the economy. The Government of Canada is committed to implementing a multi-layered framework of measures to protect Canadians, and help prevent air travel from being a source for the spread of the virus. Today, the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Marc Garneau, announced an additional measure to this framework. The Government of Canada will now require temperature screenings for all passengers travelling to Canada or travellers departing Canadian airports for either international or domestic destinations. For international flights to Canada, air operators must conduct temperature screenings at the point of departure, unless the local authority has an equivalent measure in place, in addition to the existing required health check questions for symptoms prior to boarding. Within Canada, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority screeners will conduct the temperature screening of passengers as part of departure screening procedures. This is in addition to the health screening questions and the wearing of face coverings that are already required for all passengers. The Government of Canada is taking a phased approach to implementing temperature screening. Phase 1: By June 30, 2020, all air operators will be required to conduct temperature screenings of all passengers travelling to Canada prior to departure from international or transborder points of departure. Phase 2: By the end of July, temperature screening stations will be placed in the departure section of the four major airports that are currently identified as the only Canadian airports for international travel (Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver). Phase 3: By September 2020, temperature screening stations will be in place in the departure sections of the next 11 busiest airports in Canada (St. John's, Halifax, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto Billy Bishop, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Kelowna, Victoria). In addition, all employees and personnel that enter or work in the restricted area of the airport will be subject to temperature screening procedures by Canadian Air Transport Security Authority personnel. All passengers who have an elevated temperature and do not have a medical certificate to explain a medical or physical condition that would result in an elevated temperature, will not be permitted to continue their travel and will be asked to re-book after 14 days. Rajesh Kumar Thakur By Express News Service PATNA: After being in mourning right through Tuesday night, family members of Indian army jawan Sunil Rai including his wife heaved a sigh of relief when the news of his martyrdom in the Galwan Valley standoff with China turned out to be false. They learned that he was alive and well when Rai himself called and spoke to them on Wednesday morning. Rai made the call after reading his own obituary online. As soon as they heard that Rai was safe, the atmosphere of mourning instantly changed into happiness at Dighra-Parsa village in Bihars Saran district. It was Sunil Kumar of Bihata in Patna who was martyred in the clash but due to their similar names, the native place was mistakenly mentioned as Dighra-Parsa in Saran. Rai is also posted at the same place in Ladakh and is from the same Bihar regiment. To begin with, we could not believe it but soon he convinced us. We were weeping since late evening on Tuesday before finally thanking God for this kindness showered upon us, Raman Kumar, a cousin of Rai, told the media. Officials blamed the goof-up on a misunderstanding over the two similar names. News of Rai's martyrdom was carried in all the dailies and the state governor, Chief Minister and many other politicians had also expressed their condolences. SP Saran Hari Kishore Rai had confirmed the martyrdom of Rai on the basis of information received. Saran DM Subrata Kumar Sen had also confirmed it. However, he said that detailed information was still awaited. Crude oil price started the week on the seesaw, with headwinds and tailwinds battling for control in a persistently unstable market situation. A spike in Covid-19 infections on the one hand and returning optimism on the other pushed oil up and down. This volatility is likely to continue over the next few days as data about both forces continues to accumulate. On the headwind side, global data showed that Covid-19 cases worldwide had risen to over 8 million but what was perhaps more worrying for oil traders were the reports suggesting that several U.S. states reported spikes in new infections, prompting talk about a possible second wave of the pandemic, which could lead to a total collapse of oil markets. On top of these reports, BP chose this Monday to update on its long-term price projects and asset valuation, saying it now expected Brent crude to average $55 a barrel between 2021 and 2050. But what may have come as a shock to some, the supermajor also said it would take a hefty writeoff on its assets and exploration intangibles, to the tune of $26-21 billion on a pre-tax basis, in its second-quarter financial report. While this was all bearish for oil, there were some bullish factors at play, too. One of these was the fact that global oil inventories have started to drain, and as demand for fuel recovered, this drain would accelerate. The other was optimism about OPEC+ cuts after media reported that Iraq, the notorious cartel laggard in production cut deals, had asked the foreign operators of its largest fields to increase the production caps they had already put in place in May. Even as the global markets are in the grips of a resurgence of risk aversion tied to new Covid outbreaks in China and the U.S., oil fundamentals are still moving in the right direction, the head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas, Harry Tchilinguirian, told Bloomberg. Renewed optimism that OPEC+ production cuts could remain in place if we see second wave concerns intensify have oil prices refusing to enter freefall, Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, told Reuters. Related: IEA: The Energy Sector Will Never Be The Same Again So, right now, the oil market is a battlefield for fears about the coronavirus and its effect on oil demand, which will undoubtedly be negative should those fears spark a slowdown in lifting the lockdowns, and expectations that supply will finally begin to shrink at a meaningful rate, which would support substantially higher prices. Judging by the latest update about hedge fund oil buying, this time is yet to come. Reuters John Kemp reported in his regular weekly column that funds bought the equivalent of a modest 10 million barrels in the week to June 9, just a tad more than the 6 million barrels they bought the previous week. These compared withy an average weekly buying rate of 40 million barrels over the previous eight weeks, Kemp noted. The situation could get even more polarized in the coming days and weeks, especially in the U.S. Despite draws, oil in global storage remained high in May, according to data from analytics firm OilX. Oil in floating storage has started to drain, but oil in onshore storage still rose in May. As of early June, total oil in onshore storage was above 4.5 billion barrels. Of this, some 1 billion barrels flowed into storage in the past couple of months and will take a lot longer to clear up. Both Brent and WTI were trading down at the time of writing of this story, although any positive news will likely reverse the movement. The same goes for any negative news, chief among them the API crude oil inventory reports due out today, but also any reports of continued increases in new Covid-19 cases, with a particular focus on U.S. and Chinese data. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Rifaat al-Assad has been found guilty by a French court of money laundering and embezzling Syrian state funds to buy property in France worth at least 90m. He has been sentenced to four years in prison. The uncle of the current president of Syria was not in the dock to hear his judgement on Wednesday, having been hospitalized last December at the start of his trial with internal bleeding. Rifaat al-Assad has been under investigation since 2014, dogged by allegations surrounding the source of his wealth. The former vice president was kicked out of Syria "with nothing" 30 years ago and went on to amass a 90-million-euro fortune in France, including a stud farm and luxury apartments. Anti-corruption group Sherpa filed a complaint claiming the fortune was stolen and hailed the trial in December as a "landmark step." Strong evidence Prosecutors told the court in December that there were strong, consistent presumptions of the illicit nature of his wealth, knowingly concealed using shell companies and tax havens. On Wednesday, a French court decided there was strong enough evidence against Assad and sentenced him to four years in prison. They also ruled that the 82-year-old's property in France be seized as well as well as an estate worth 29 million euros in London. Lawyers for Rifaat al-Assad had argued that his fortune was acquired "perfectly legally" through generous support from Saudi Arabia's late King Abdullah, with whom he shared a love of horse-racing. Despite documents from Assad's lawyers meant to justify gifts of almost $25 million (22 million euros) between 1984 and 2010, French investigators registered transfers of only $10 million (8 million euros) from Saudi Arabia. Lavish lifestyle Assad's reported French fortune includes two Paris townhouses, one measuring 3,000 square metres (32,000 square feet), as well as a stud farm, a chateau and 7,300 square metres of office space in Lyon. Rifaat al-Assad left Syria in 1984 after leading a failed coup against his brother, the current Syrian president's father, who led the country from 1971 to 2000. After he arrived in Europe, Assad's lavish lifestyle, four wives and 16 children soon raised eyebrows. Beyond France, he and his family built up a huge portfolio of 507 properties in Spain, valued at around 695 million, all seized by the authorities in 2017. Dubbed The Butcher of Hama for allegedly commanding troops who put down an uprising in central Syria in 1982, he is also being investigated in Switzerland for alleged war crimes, which he denies. 'Politically motivated' Assad, who today describes himself as an opponent of the regime of his nephew, has denounced the case against him as politically motivated. His lawyers told investigators: The sole purpose of this process was to remove Rifaat al-Assad from Syrian politics, when he had enjoined Bashar al-Assad to leave power to end the crisis." The case against Rifaat-- only the second in France targeting so-called ill-gotten gains by a foreign dignitary -- is a fall from grace for a man whom in 1986 was awarded the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest award, for his role in protecting French interests from Syrian secret services. In the first trial, Equatorial Guinea vice president Teodorin Obiang received a three-year suspended jail term in October 2017 after being convicted of using public money to fund a jet-set lifestyle in Paris at the expense of his population. Earlier this year, an appeal court upheld the embezzlement conviction. MOUNTAIN VIEW (dpa-AFX) - Google in a blog post said it is bringing video-conferencing app Meet in Gmail on Android and iOS smartphones. The new feature would help users easily join video meetings from their inbox, without needing to open another app. The change comes at a time when majority of people across the world are more into video calls amid coronavirus pandemic. In early July, the company plans to launch the new change to G Suite users by introducing a Meet tab in the Gmail iOS and Android mobile apps. Uers will be able to start a new meeting, join a meeting by entering the meeting code, or join upcoming meetings scheduled in Google Calendar without leaving the Gmail app. Meet in Gmail is already available on the web. Last month, the search engine giant had made Google Meet free and available for everyone, and also added new noise-canceling feature to Meet recently. Google noted that users with a G Suite for Education account that is enabled to create Meet video meetings will have the Meet tab enabled in Gmail. Meanwhile, EDU accounts that are not able to create Meet video meetings will not see the Meet tab in Gmail. They should use the Meet mobile app on Android or iOS instead. Google recently enabled an expanded tiled layout for presentations in Google Meet, which can now show up to 16 call participants at a time. 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. Haldimand-Norfolks board of health wanted answers. At an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon, board members peppered Norfolk County solicitor Paula Boutis and health unit lawyer Jill Dougherty with questions about why the health unit had appealed a ruling overturning its controversial three-person limit on bunkhouse occupancy during migrant farm workers mandatory quarantine period. Several members of the board which is chaired by Norfolk Mayor Kristal Chopp and made up of Norfolk councillors expressed their frustration at finding out about the appeal, which was filed late Friday, on social media. The truth board members had to handle, according to Boutis, was that the chief medical officer of health didnt need their permission to appeal the Health Services Review and Appeal Boards decision. As the defendant of the initial challenge brought by Schuyler Farms against his Section 22 order, Dr. Shanker Nesathurai had the right to appeal the ruling and had no obligation to consult with the board of health before doing so. While the law allows 30 days for an appeal, Dougherty said the health unit moved quickly in order to get a speedy resolution for farmers and to maintain the status quo, as during the appeal period the existing bunkhouse rules stay in force. The review board called the bunkhouse limit which is unique to Haldimand-Norfolk arbitrary and unreasonable. But Dougherty argued that limiting the number of migrant workers who can self-isolate together reduces the risk of widespread COVID-19 outbreaks on farms, such as that seen recently at Scotlynn Group in Vittoria. The board got it wrong in that respect, Dougherty said. This is something that has serious consequences and serious risks. Coun. Mike Columbus questioned whether Nesathurai had lost sight of the toll this situation was taking on Norfolk farmers who are planting and harvesting less food as a result of labour shortages. Were talking about a health issue here, and theres also the mental anguish our farm families are going through at this current time, Columbus said. I think its also about the health and safety of our migrant workers as well, Chopp countered. Taxpayers on the hook Andrea Plumb of Lerners Lawyers, the firm representing Simcoe farmer Brett Schuyler, noted that taxpayers are on the hook for the health units legal fees, and potentially those of Schuyler Farms as well should Nesathurais appeal fail. This amount will be significant, Plumb warned the board of health. Were paying for something we have no say in, which doesnt seem quite right with me, said Coun. Kim Huffman while voicing her objection to the latest appeal. Norfolk chief administrative officer Jason Burgess pegged the cost of the countys defence of Nesathurais policy during the six-day hearing at roughly $150,000, while the appeal is expected to last a few hours and cost a fraction of that. We didnt start the litigation, Boutis reminded the board, adding that the cost of managing large-scale outbreaks, including the human cost of workers who end up in hospital, must be factored into the calculus. There are many ways in which we pay, Boutis said. In Haldimand County which is on the hook for 40 per cent of the legal costs despite having no representation on the board of health councillors voted unanimously on Tuesday to oppose continuing the legal battle in defence of the three-worker bunkhouse limit. The health unit says striking down that provision would force inspectors to assess each bunkhouse one by one, a task Dougherty called impossible given the health units staffing levels. Its one of those be careful what you ask for situations, she said. But Coun. Chris Van Paassen argued that farmers could be trusted to operate without excessive oversight from the health unit, noting that the federal and provincial governments, the agency that oversees the migrant worker program, and consular liaisons from the workers home countries also inspect the farms. You have to have faith in people that they will follow the rules, Van Paassen said. In an open letter, former Norfolk mayor Dennis Travale currently chair of the Police Services Board advised the board of health to drop the appeal. It is time for the employees of the H-N Health Unit, including the Medical Officer of Health, to realize their lost position in this matter, said Travale, who called for migrant workers to be tested for COVID-19 at the outset and near the end of their quarantine period. In that way there will be early warning of any illness and the process of self-isolation and treatment can ensue, he said. The farmers won their appeal and should now be put on an equal and level playing field with all other farmers in Ontario. KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Every day, dozens of people in the Kansas City, Missouri, area are receiving positive test results for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. 41 Action News asked four area health departments about the steps which come after a positive test - specifically about notifying people who may have been exposed to that person with the positive test result. KENT COUNTY, MI Businesses can now apply to grow and sell recreational marijuana in Cedar Springs, making the city of 3,600 the second in Kent County to begin accepting applications. Cedar Springs City Council approved regulatory and zoning ordinances June 11, outlining some of the citys rules for operating recreational marijuana dispensaries, processing facilities, growing operations and other businesses associated with the industry. Both ordinances were passed 6-1 by city council, with Councilman Jerry Gross voting against them, City Manager Mike Womack told MLive. The city will consider marijuana business applications for a special land use permit and a city license only after the applicant secures prequalification for a state operating license from Michigans Marijuana Regulatory Agency. Businesses that meet state qualifications can submit their applications until July 16 for the Aug. 11 Planning Commission meeting. The City is excited to work with the marihuana industry to bring high-quality jobs to Cedar Springs while simultaneously providing citizens with access to products with both medical and recreational uses, Womack said in a prepared statement. The City Council and Planning Commission put a lot of work into developing these ordinances that reflect the will of the 59% of Cedar Springs voters that voted in favor of IL 1 of 2018. About 59 percent of Cedar Springs voters OKd the measure to legalize recreational marijuana in the city in the November 2018 election. It was opposed by 39 percent of voters. The city did not put a cap on the number of licenses it will approve for dispensaries, growers and processors allowed in the city, according to a news release issued by city council. The city council has not yet set a license fee for Cedar Springs marijuana businesses, Womack told MLive. But the city manager said it will likely be in line with the majority of municipalities, including Lowell, which have set their fee at $5,000 per license. Marijuana businesses are not allowed to open within 1,000 feet of any K-12 school, meaning businesses are not permitted on Main Street, south of Ash Street, or on Muskegon east of the White Pine Trail, according to city regulations. Businesses are also prohibited from sharing a parcel with a residential establishment. Hours of operation for marijuana businesses will be limited to 8:45 a.m. through 9:15 p.m. More information on the citys licensing process and zoning requirements will become available in the next few weeks, according to the city council website. The only other cities in Kent County allowing recreational marijuana businesses are Grand Rapids and Lowell, although Grand Rapids hasnt begun accepting license applications yet. The countys first recreational pot shop opened March 13 in Lowell, drawing large crowds to Meds Cafe which offers 16 strains of marijuana flower, some edibles, THC extracts, smoking paraphernalia and more. Two other West Michigan recreational marijuana shops opened that same day KKind in Kalamazoo Township and Bella Sol Wellness Centers in Muskegon. While Grand Rapids will allow recreational marijuana facilities, city leaders wont be taking license applications for recreational marijuana shops until at least Oct. 20. Grand Rapids City Commission had originally planned to start accepting applications on April 20. But commissioners voted in March to wait six more months, stating they needed more time to evaluate the system the city put in place to allow medical marijuana businesses More on MLive: Kent Countys first recreational marijuana shop draws large crowd Want to start a recreational marijuana business in Michigan? Rules have been released Recreational marijuana business cant come to Grand Rapids until at least late 2020 As questions mounted about whether the city would act to stop President Donald Trumps rally on Saturday in downtown Tulsa, Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a Facebook post Tuesday that he will not exercise his authority to halt mass gatherings. That authority was used earlier this year under extraordinary circumstances to prevent the catastrophic collapse of our local health care system, Bynum said. Today, that systems capacity is strong. While the daily count in Tulsa County did not set another record, the spike was among the highest since the pandemic began, at 76 newly confirmed cases. Trump has scheduled a campaign rally for 7 p.m. Saturday at the BOK Center. Doors open at 3 p.m. for an event the campaign said has generated 1 million requests for tickets. Various groups who have sustained protests nationally against police violence and race-based inequalities are scheduled to stage counter-rallies. Trump supporters, who were gathering outside of the BOK Center on Tuesday, said they had no fear of the virus. James Massery said he did not worry about COVID-19, a sentiment shared among others there. Publix supermarkets said it won't allow workers to wear Black Lives Matter garb due to the company's prohibition against any messaging not associated with the chain's brand. The company's statement came in response to a Black teen employee at a supermarket in Florida who saying he was sent home after wearing a Black Lives Matter mask to work. Earlier this month, Quinton Desamours wrote "BLM" on his paper mask and went to work at the Publix in Lehigh Acres, Florida, NBC affiliate WBBH in Fort Myers reported. Later in the day, he tweeted: "Today @Publix sent me, a Publix employee, home for having 'BLM' written on my mask. The assistant store manager told me he doesnt know if the company is 'Pro or Con.' I will no longer be working for publix. Stand for something or youll fall for anything! #blacklivesmatterFL." Today @Publix sent me, a publix employee home for having BLM written on my mask. The assistant store manager told me he doesnt know if the company is Pro or Con. I will no longer be working for publix. Stand for something or youll fall for anything! #blacklivesmatterFL Q Desamours (@QDesamours) June 6, 2020 "Honestly, I was just speechless," Desamours, 18, told WBBH, about what he said were the assistant manager's comments. "He told me the company hasn't issued a statement and that he doesn't know if they're pro or con on the issue, and that I am endangering myself and everyone who worked there." Desamours said the policy is not enforced equally. "Many, many employees have different designs on their masks," he said. "There is an employee that has a comic strip on his mask. So, it seems like they just didn't like the message I was trying to portray." Story continues Quinton Desamours said the assistant manager at the Publix where he works in Florida pulled him aside and took issue with the face mask he was wearing because it displayed a message of support for the Black Lives Matter protests. (WBBH) In a statement sent to NBC News, Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous said the company does not accept racism, but the uniform policy will hold. "At Publix, we reject racism and believe diversity makes our company and our community better," Brous said. "Our focus remains on ensuring a welcoming work and shopping environment for all associates and customers. Our uniform policy does not permit non-Publix messaging on clothing or accessories." Desamours tweeted three days after the incident to say he had received a call from a Publix district manager apologizing. "They also said they dont want to be apart of political views. #Black Lives Matter is not political," the teen wrote. "The movement is all about Equality. Publix, which has more than 1,200 locations clustered mainly in the Southeast, also responded to Desamours on Twitter, encouraging him to reach out to an associate relations specialist and noting the chain's policy on uniforms." The company also pointed both Desamours and NBC News to a letter CEO Todd Jones "sent to associates calling for compassion and empathy." "Today, its evident that our support and compassion are required on an even deeper level," Jones wrote in the letter, pledging to contribute $1 million to National Urban League affiliates across the Southeast. "At Publix, we reject racism and discrimination of any kind." Desamours told WBBH that the statement means nothing to him after what happened. "They say they stand for justice against racism and inequality but as soon as i stand up against something in their uniform, they don't like it," said Desamours. "Their words don't stand behind their actions." "We're at a tipping point in America. Change has to come now and I'm happy that I'm part of the generation that brings the change," the teen added. On Tuesday, he wrote on Twitter: "No place is a bad place to stand up for whats fundamentally right!" He said he hasn't officially submitted his resignation, but plans to soon. Starbucks, after receiving criticism for a similar policy that banned BLM messaging on employees' clothes, reversed course last week. In a statement, the coffee giant said it would send specially-designed Black Lives Matter shirts to stores and allow employees to "wear their BLM pin or t-shirt in support of their community and humanity" before the shirts arrive. Japan's exports fell in May at the fastest pace since the 2009 global financial crisis as U.S.-bound car shipments plunged, bolstering expectations for a deep contraction in the world's third-largest economy this quarter. Weak global demand for cars and slowing business spending could drag on Japan's export-led economy, even as China-bound trade shows signs of picking up and U.S. and European economies reopen. The trade data came a day after the Bank of Japan increased its support through lending schemes for struggling businesses to $1 trillion. Ministry of Finance ... The Morrow Park farmers market is reopening Saturday morning for the first time since it was closed by the city in March as part of state-of-emergency closures in the COVID-19 pandemic. Morrow Park is city-owned and most city-owned facilities (including parks) were closed in March to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. But now some businesses are reopening as the provincial government begins to loosen restrictions and this includes the market. Market organizers announced Wednesday that the market will be open Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. until the end of October in the parking lot of the Memorial Centre. The market will have a new layout of its kiosks to help promote wider physical distancing. There will be parking off Roger Nielsen Way and Locke Street. Volunteers will be on-site to guide and direct traffic. Farmers, prepared food and artisanal vendors will all be back, according to a press release from the market organizers. The market will sell produce from the Peterborough area and across Ontario. Signs will make it clear where items originate, the release states. It also states that the market has consulted with Peterborough Public Health to ensure customer safety in the COVID-19 pandemic; vendors are encouraging customers to preorder, for instance, and to wear a mask while shopping. The Peterborough Farmers Market supports local and Ontario agriculture. With our signage system and thorough application process our customers can be assured and well-informed about the origin of the produce for sale at the market, states the release. There has never been a better time to support our local farmers, producers and help to strengthen our community and local food economy. The Morrow Park market is one of four farmers markets open in Peterborough: Peterborough Farmers Market (at Morrow Park) Saturday mornings, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. At Morrow Park in the Memorial Centre parking lot, Lansdowne Street and Roger Neilson Way Operated by the Peterborough and District Farmers Market Association with board members Jessica Arsenault, Meredith Bruni and Brenda Steed Peterborough Regional Farmers Market Network Saturday mornings, 8 a.m. to noon Citi Centre courtyard, Charlotte and Aylmer streets downtown Operated by the Peterborough Regional Farmers Network board of directors (chair Julie Fleming) Peterborough Wednesday Farmers Market Wednesday mornings, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Peterborough Square courtyard Also operated by the Peterborough Regional Farmers Network board of directors (chair Julie Fleming) Saturday mornings, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Trentwinds International Centre on Lansdowne Street East Operated by former board members of the PDFMA (Morrow Park market), including Mark Jones Connections Academy Schools in Washington Celebrate Class of 2020 Despite a challenging end to their senior year, the Class of 2020 has carried themselves with integrity and strength and I couldnt be prouder...I know our students will continue to be self-motivated and will work hard to leave positive, lasting impacts on their communities. Today, Washington Connections Academy and Pacific Northwest Connections Academy, a network of tuition-free online public schools serving students in grades K-12 statewide, celebrated 75 graduating seniors. School administrators and teachers honored this years graduates with proper pomp and circumstance during the virtual graduation ceremony, despite students being unable to walk across the stage to receive their diploma as tradition holds. Students were able to celebrate their many accomplishments with family members, friends, teachers and administrators tuning into Zoom to commemorate this milestone. Fortunately, due to the schools full-time virtual program and curriculum, seniors at Washington Connections Academy and Pacific Northwest Connections Academy were able to finish their semester and complete all courses despite the public health crisis. Despite a challenging end to their senior year, the Class of 2020 has carried themselves with integrity and strength and I couldnt be prouder, said Jenn Francis, Executive Director of Connections Academy schools in Washington. No matter what they do next, I know our students will continue to be self-motivated and will work hard to leave positive, lasting impacts on their communities. Nearly half of this years class plan to attend a two- or four-year colleges or universities, while other graduates will enter the workforce, military or take a gap year. Graduating seniors include nationally ranked mountain biker Morgan Kainoa Kai Branum, who plans to continue his mountain biking career and work towards his long-term goal of becoming a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer; Savannah Sherman of Bremerton who will study ballet and linguistics at the University of Utah; Mara Neary of Olympia who will major in dance and human physiology at Gonzaga University. Additional 2020 graduates are headed to schools including George Fox University, Gonzaga Washington State University and the University of Wisconsin, among others. Carol Odom, Pacific Northwest Connections Academy valedictorian, will pursue a professional career in ballet and has deferred enrollment to Auburn University. She started her journey at Connections Academy last year after moving from Alabama to train at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle. Carol was able flourish thanks to the student-teacher relationship online school helps facilitate. Although classes were online, I was able to develop a personal relationship with my teachers and peers, she said. Teachers will go above and beyond because they want you to succeed. Pacific Northwest Connections Academy allowed me to receive a quality education while pursuing my passion for ballet. This marks Pacific Northwest Connections Academys inaugural school year serving students in grades 7-12, with Washington Connections Academy wrapping its fourth school year and first year serving through 12th grade. Connections Academy schools in Washington serve more than 2,300 students, providing them with a complete school experience through opportunities to develop social and emotional skills in addition to critical thinking, problem-solving and collaboration abilities so theyre prepared to succeed now and as they progress through college, career and life. Washington Connections Academy, Pacific Northwest Connections Academy and its the newest school, Washington Connections Academy Goldendale, are all currently enrolling for the 2020-21 school year. For more information, please visit the school's website. About Connections Academy Schools in Washington State Washington Connections Academy, Pacific Northwest Connections Academy and Washington Connections Academy Goldendale are tuition-free, high-quality, highly accountable online public schools serving K-12 students across Washington. Operating in partnership with the Mary M. Knight School District, the South Kitsap School District and Goldendale School District respectively, the schools provide students with the flexibility to learn from anywhere with a high-quality proven school curriculum that meets rigorous state education standards. The combination of state-credentialed, quality teachers, unique electives, technology tools and community experiences create a supportive and successful online learning opportunity for families who want an individualized approach to education. Pacific Northwest Connections Academy will serve students in grades 6-12 throughout Washington in the 2020-2021 school year and will add a grade level each subsequent year until it serves the full range of grades K-12. Washington Connections Academy will serve students in grades K-8, while Washington Connections Academy Goldendale will serve students in grades K-12 beginning in the 2020-2021 school year. For more information, call 1-844-227-0920 or visit the website. WASHINGTON - Masks have become the norm inside the House of Representatives, where some politicians now embrace the novel coronavirus precaution with colorful odes to their home districts. But there are holdouts: A small group of Republican representatives who have consistently declined to wear face coverings in Congress. Now, as nine states hit record highs for infections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is tightening the rules. Late Tuesday, she asked committee chairs to require masks at all hearings - and authorized the sergeant at arms to bar anyone who refuses to cover their face, according to a senior aide familiar with the request. "This requirement will be enforced by the Sergeant at Arms and non-compliant Members will be denied entry," the senior aide said in an email to The Washington Post. "Ultimately, Chairs will have the option of not recognizing Members in committee proceedings that fail to comply with the mask requirement." The change could set off new political tensions around face coverings, which have become politicized as President Donald Trump consistently declines to wear masks in public and mocks his political opponents for doing so. In the Illinois House last month, a GOP representative was thrown out for refusing to mask up - a preview of what could happen if prominent holdouts push the envelope in hearings this week. As Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on police reform kicked off, some of the GOP holdouts, including the panel's ranking member, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan could be seen wearing face masks inside the hearing room. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the panel's chairman, began the meeting by making note of the new rules and warning members that those who refuse to wear masks will be asked to participate remotely. "After this mark-up is over, we will go home to our loved ones," Nadler said. "Wearing a mask helps protect them from serious illness as well. As chairman, I have a duty and responsibility to maintain order and decorum in our proceedings, which includes making sure that we conduct our business in a safe manner in light of the attending physician's new guidance. I therefore fully expect all members on both sides of the aisle to wear a mask at all times that you are not speaking." "If, for whatever reason, you are not willing to wear a mask, the House rules provide a way to participate remotely from your office without being physically present in this room," he added. Tuesday's change comes after Pelosi requested new official guidelines from Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician of Congress, based on the emerging scientific consensus that masks are key to slowing the spread of coronavirus. Monahan's updated guidance, which he issued Tuesday, now requires face masks in the House for anyone meeting "in a limited enclosed space, such as a committee hearing room, for greater than 15 minutes." That's the rule that Pelosi has asked committee chairs to enforce. For now, wearing masks on the House floor or in most other areas of the Capitol are still only "strongly recommended" under Monahan's guidelines. The new rules are academic for most politicians in both parties, who have largely embraced masks in the House since the early days of the pandemic. But Jordan and a handful of other Republicans have resisted face coverings. Jordan, who was upbraided by Democrats for not wearing a mask during an April hearing, has argued that maintaining six feet of distance is precaution enough. Others have cast their defiance in biblical terms. "Can you smell through that mask? Then you're not stopping any sort of a virus," Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., told CNN last month, an argument not supported by science about the disease's spread. "It's part of the dehumanization of the children of God. You're participating in it by wearing a mask." Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., meanwhile, also told CNN "there's just no need" to wear a mask in the House because he believes in "herd immunity." That concept is far from proved, scientists say, as it's unclear how long covid-19 survivors have immunity. One GOP congressman who declined to wear a mask at the Capitol has contracted the disease. On Monday, Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, after appearing with an uncovered face on the House floor two weeks earlier. Under Monahan's new guidelines, lawmakers will be offered a mask at the committee door. If they don't want to wear it, they'll have the option to work remotely instead. "Members always have the option to participate in committee proceedings virtually, including from their Washington, D.C. offices or their districts," the senior aide said. [June 16, 2020] Kinaxis Announces Results of Voting at Annual General Meeting OTTAWA, ON, June 16, 2020 /CNW/ - Kinaxis Inc. (TSX: KXS), the authority in driving agility for fast, confident decision-making in an unpredictable world, announced the results from its Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the "AGM"), which took place today. All director nominees were elected to the Board of Directors and KPMG LLP was appointed as auditors, as further described in the related Management Information Circular (the "Circular"). Shareholders also approved the advisory resolution on the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the Circular. The detailed results of voting at the Kinaxis AGM are set out below. 1. Election of Directors Shareholders voted to elect all eight directors nominated to the Kinaxis board. Name of Nominee Number of Votes Cast Votes "For" Votes "For" % John (Ian) Giffen 20,795,898 20,711,657 99.59% Robert Courteau 20,795,898 20,647,222 99.29% Gillian (Jill) Denham 20,795,898 20,778,538 99.92% Angel Mendez 20,795,898 20,693,577 99.51% Pamela Passman 20,795,898 20,787,428 99.96% Elizabeth (Betsy) Rafael 20,795,898 20,787,650 99.96% Kelly Thomas 20,795,898 20,693,698 99.51% John Sicard 20,795,898 20,756,624 99.81% 2. Appointment of Auditors Shareholders voted to approve the board's recommendation that KPMG LLP be appointed as auditors for Kinaxis, and hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders. Number of Votes Cast Votes "For" Votes "For" % 20,795,898 20,663,396 99.36% 3. Advisory Vote on the Approach to Executive Pay Shareholders voted to accept the approach to executive compensation as described in the compensation discussion and analysis section of the Kinaxis Circular. Number of Votes Cast Votes "For" Votes "For" % 20,795,898 18,989,831 91.32% Final voting results on all matters voted on at the 2020 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders have been filed with Canadian securities regulators. About Kinaxis Inc. Everyday volatility and uncertainty demand quick action. Kinaxis delivers the agility to make fast, confident decisions across integrated business planning and the digital supply chain. People can plan better, live better and change the world. Trusted by innovative brands, we combine human intelligence with AI and concurrent planning to help companies plan for any future, monitor risks and opportunities and respond at the pace of change. Powered by an extensible, cloud-based platform, Kinaxis delivers industry-proven applications so everyone can know sooner, act faster and remove waste. For more Kinaxis news, follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter. SOURCE Kinaxis Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Nintendo Co.s stock has found a 1-Up in an unexpected place. Shares in the videogame maker have climbed to a new two-year high, driven by rising fears of a coronavirus second wave. With cases expanding worldwide including in the U.S. and China, the stock has broken out of its two-month plateau. Nintendos Switch console-handheld hybrid was one of the hit products during global lockdowns, buoyed by the success of laid-back social simulator Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The stock had been struggling the past two months with demand for stay-at-home stocks dropping as the economy re-opened and the state of emergency in Japan was lifted, said Katsuyuki Fujii, an analyst at Asunaro Investment. But as fears for the second wave of coronavirus grow, people are taking a second look at those stocks. The shares are close to reaching a 12-year high, with the psychologically important 50,000 yen milestone in sight. Shares traded at 48,510 as of 12:57 p.m. Tokyo time. The stock last tested similar levels in January 2018, hitting 49,980 yen, but have yet to scale those heights since. JPMorgan analyst Haruka Mori on June 10 raised her price target for Nintendo by 18% to 52,000 yen, saying that the Covid-related demand growth didnt look temporary. We believe the Covid-19 pandemic has expanded earnings opportunities for the Nintendo Switch platform beyond one-off special demand, Mori wrote. Despite a lack of short-term causes for the stock to move, Nintendo has multiple opportunities in the mid-term, Mori said in a note, citing catalysts for 2021 that included a possible new Switch model, a price cut for existing models and advances for its team-up with Tencent Holdings Ltd. in China. Ironically, Nintendos slate for the rest of the year looks remarkably bare, with no titles in its hit franchises currently set for release. This is despite Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. both preparing to spend big as they roll out new generations of their PlayStation and Xbox consoles this holiday season. Sony announced more than 20 new titles when it showed off the PlayStation 5 for the first time last week, while Microsoft showcased more than a dozen Xbox Series X titles in May. At Nintendos most recent earnings in May it had no major titles listed for release in the rest of 2020. The shares have remained range-bound due to concerns over the lack of upcoming titles, Daiwa Securities analyst Takao Suzuki wrote in a note dated June 9 in which he raised his price target to 55,000 yen. We look for new title announcements and a surge in digital sales, other than those for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. All eyes will be on the Kyoto gamemaker to say that it will hold one of its Nintendo Direct online presentations, which has been the companys favored method of revealing showcase titles in recent years. It has been almost a year since Nintendo held a major one of these announcements in which it unveiled key new titles. An event concerning Pokemon will take place at 10 p.m. Tokyo time on Thursday. A year ago, Pokemon Co., in which Nintendo owns a significant stake, announced a sleep tracking device to be released in 2020. SC tells Noida not be in denial over death of pregnant lady looking for hospital bed India pti-PTI New Delhi, Jun 17: The Supreme Court Wednesday told district administration of Gautam Budh Nagar in the NCR not to be in denial mode as it took a serious view of an incident where a pregnant lady lost her life recently while looking for a bed in hospitals of the district. The top court also asked the district administration to ensure that it does not have separate quarantine guidelines than the national guidelines. Coronavirus: India records 12,881 fresh cases of COVID-19 with 334 deaths in last 24 hours India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S K Kaul and M R Shah asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a detailed affidavit in two weeks. Don't be in a denial mode that there is no problem, the bench said, while referring to news report of pregnant lady losing her life recently for want of hospital bed in the district. The top court asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to intervene and look into the issue. On June 12, the top court had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to explain the guidelines issued by the Noida administration on institutional quarantine amid the COVID-19 pandemic, observing they are not in "conformity" with the national guidelines. "There cannot be a guideline contrary to the national guidelines," the court had said, adding, that any directive contrary to the national or state guidelines might lead to chaos. The apex court, while hearing through video-conferencing a plea which has raised the issue of restriction on movement for permissible activities in the national capital region (NCR), asked the state government to give it "complete information" on whether asymptomatic persons were put under institutional or home quarantine in Noida. "It is also brought to our notice that certain guidelines issued by District Magistrate, Noida are not in conformity with the National guidelines and the guidelines issued by the state of Uttar Pradesh," the bench had noted in its order. While asking the Centre to ensure that states do not violate national guidelines, the bench had observed that authorities are bound to follow the guidelines. Modi asks CMs to make full use of COVID testing capacity, expand health infra The Centre had informed the top court that the home secretary had convened a joint meeting on June 9 with chief secretaries of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to deal with the issue of restriction on movement in the NCR. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, had said that now there is no barrier on the borders of Delhi and Haryana but Uttar Pradesh has raised some issues. The bench noted in its order that Mehta has "submitted that although there are no baseless issues with regard to state of Haryana and Delhi, however, with regard to state of Uttar Pradesh there are some different instructions have been issued by the District Magistrate, Noida and there are some issues with regard to border of the state of Uttar Pradesh". Uttar Pradesh government had told the top court that they have already filed an status report and are permitting all essential services and medical staffs, lawyers and media persons are allowed. It had told the apex court that state is bound to follow the national guidelines and appropriate remedial steps, if any, shall be taken by the District Magistrate. On June 4, the apex court had asked the Centre to convene a meeting of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for easing inter-state movement at all borders in the NCR amid certain restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It had also observed that there should be a consistent policy in this regard for the NCR. The plea, filed through advocate Anindita Mitra, has alleged that "complete sealing of borders" within the NCR and restrictions imposed on movement of citizens was in violation of the new guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The petition has sought to declare as unconstitutional the measures by the district administrations of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh which allegedly restrict movement for permissible activities in areas falling within the NCR due to "blanket orders of sealing borders without reasonable exceptions". It has referred to the April 29 order of district administrations in Haryana, which is applicable to Gurugram and Sonepat, and May 3 public statement by the district administrations of Uttar Pradesh about Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad. A son and his girlfriend made a desperate swim to safety after their boat capsized off Coral Bay, in WAs North West. Tragically the son's parents, were killed in the accident. The group were fishing on the boat with Bob and Jan Oostryck, who own a holiday home in Coral Bay, when two massive waves struck. Their six-metre boat overturned near reef off Mauds Landing, leaving no time for a distress call. Prestigious acting school the National Institute of Dramatic Art is the latest to be accused of entrenched racism. More than 100 alumni, students and former staff have signed a letter accusing the performing arts school of failing to support black and Indigenous students and students of colour. Newly-installed NIDA chief executive Liz Hughes yesterday apologised wholeheartedly and sincerely and pledged to quickly drive substantive change. The Age reports a newly established group NIDA Alumni for Black Lives Matter called on NIDA to [forge] a campus where students from all walks of life can exist without issues of racism and can explore their stories safely in their respective practices and training. In testimonials NIDA alumni described a culture where students of colour were sidelined and made to feel like they were fulfilling diversity quotas, speaking out about race and discrimination was discouraged and staff and directors were mostly white. Hughes, who became CEO in December, pledged that she would implement changes within four weeks once she had completed more listening and engagement and would start to work on longer-term strategies. NIDA has produced some of the nations top acting talent for decades and was recently named by the Hollywood Reporter as one of the top 5 acting institutions in the world, along with Carnegie Mellon and New Yorks Juilliard School. Organisers will meet with Hughes and board directors on Friday. Advertisement By Cynthia Howe Jun. 16, 2020 | MARSHALL COUNTY By Cynthia Howe Jun. 16, 2020 | 06:23 PM | MARSHALL COUNTY After nearly two weeks with no new cases of COVID-19, Marshall County has seen a recent increase in the number of cases of the virus, particularly in young adults. Marshall County reported no new cases of the virus from May 26 through June 9, keeping their total number of cases at 36. However, in the last week, they have reported a total of 15 new cases. Eight of those have been individuals between the ages of 16 and 20. "We had gone a significant number of days without any new cases, and I think here in Marshall County, perhaps we got to a point where we thought that maybe this was over for us. This recent spike in cases has just really highlighted that this is not over," said Jennifer Brown, Public Health Services Manager for the Marshall County Health Department. "We maybe let our guard down a little too early." "I think there was maybe a misconception that young adults couldn't get it very easily, so this kind of proves that, yes, it can be gotten, even in the younger population," said Brown. "We need to reiterate to the community that just being young doesn't keep you safe from getting it." Brown said that many young adults are probably working summer jobs, so now those workplaces may have to put more restrictions in place. Brown also reminded young people that even though they may not show any serious symptoms, they could potentially pass the virus on to a parent or grandparent who is more vulnerable. Brown encouraged residents to re-evaluate what they are doing both at home and in the workplace to remain safe, such as wearing masks and continuing to maintain social distancing. "That way maybe we can keep the most recent cases to a minimum as we move forward," Brown continued. A passenger has been kicked off an American Airlines flight after he refused to wear a face mask. Brandon Straka, a supporter of president Trump, who describes himself as a former liberal, tweeted that he had been removed from an American Airlines flight, after refusing to follow their guidelines. On Monday, American Airlines published a news release, where they reiterated that their policy is that all passengers need to wear a face mask when on board one of their flights. They added: Some passengers are exempt from the face covering requirement, such as young children and those with a disability or medical reason for why they cannot wear a face covering. The policy also does not apply while eating or drinking. Mr Straka tweeted on Wednesday: I was just removed from my flight for not wearing a mask. 1st time this has happened. Not a federal law. @AmericanAir staff standing over me telling me its THE LAW. So much for please respect those who can not wear a mask. When I pointed out this wasnt a law I was removed. Mr Straka added: Entire episode is filmed. AFTER removing me flight manager says- they made a mistake. They had no right to ask you that. After he was kicked off the flight, Mr Straka, recorded a video on Periscope, detailing what happened on the flight. He said that nobody asked him on the plane if he had a condition that prevented him from wearing a mask, and added that American Airlines staff apologised to him for not asking him that while on the flight. Mr Straka added: This is insane, absolutely insane. We dont even have a choice anymore. Its not the law, as you know, its not the law. Astead W Herndon, a journalist at the New York Times, said: He just got off the plane and ppl applauded lmaooo. In a video he recorded while onboard the flight, a second man could be heard arguing with airline staff, saying that they also didnt feel like they needed to wear a mask. Mr Herndon added that the flight was heading to Tulsa, via Dallas, where Mr Trump is holding a rally on Saturday. On Monday, Mr Straka tweeted that he had managed to get tickets for the rally, and said that he would be arriving there early to conduct interviews. Mr Straka tweeted: Im not by nature easy to impress-but Lordy, Lordy-I just got confirmation of my tix to the Tulsa Trump rally & I am giddy as a damn school girl!!! This is going to be EHHHHPIC!!!Im going to arrive early to do interviews & hug EVERY. DAMN. ONE. OF. YOU. The Independent has reached out to both Mr Herndon and Mr Straka for comment. Recommended American pilot dies while attempting to deliver coronavirus supplies American Airlines confirmed to the Independent that Mr Straka was kicked off a flight to Dallas on Wednesday. They said: Prior to the departure from the gate of American Airlines flight 1263 from New Yorks LaGuardia to Dallas/Fort Worth, Brandon Straka declined to wear a face covering. After he refused to comply with the instructions provided by the flight crew, our team members asked him to deplane. He deplaned and the flight departed the gate four minutes late at 12:34pm ET. They added: Mr. Straka stated to our airport team members that he would comply with our policies, and was rebooked on a later flight. Our team is reviewing this incident, and we are reaching out to Mr. Straka to get more information. The millions of Americans who have filed for unemployment since the pandemic walloped the economy in March face an unwelcome surprise next month. While the CARES Act directed an extra $600 a week in jobless benefits to help out-of-work Americans weather business shutdowns, those additional benefits expire July 31. Unless Congress steps in to extend the benefits, Americans will see their unemployment checks reduced to their states typical payout starting in August, with a national average of about $378 per week. But some laid-off workers may not be aware of the cutoff, with a recent survey from Credit Karma finding almost a quarter of respondents believing there was no expiration date for the extra $600 per week. In other words, jobless Americans could endure a sudden cut in their income starting in about six weeks. Because it may take longer to find a new job in the current pandemic-stricken economy, unemployed workers should develop a financial plan to help them stay afloat when the additional benefits run out, financial experts say. Black Wall Street: Trump's plan for rally in Tulsa calls attention to 1921 race massacre Looking to buy a car? Hertz is selling thousands of used cars in its fleet in bankruptcy at bargain prices A lot of Americans don't have a strong safety net, and this is helping them make it through the pandemic, said Ken Lin, CEO of Credit Karma. The end of the extra unemployment benefits may be a bit of a rude awakening. Stephanie Carlson, 49, a bartender in Suwanee, Georgia, said she's concerned about the end of the extra $600 in unemployment. "It's going to be a very scary situation in a month," she said. Carlson, who was laid off from her job on March 14, has so far only received one unemployment check in early May, which covered four weeks of benefits. She said she used the check to pay her past-due bills and get ahead of some others. "It went right in and out of my account." Story continues Once the extra $600 in weekly benefits ends, she'll receive about $179 per week from unemployment, far less than what she earned while working. "I can't live on $179 a week," she said. Her employer has told her that she'll be rehired, but she hasn't been given a return date. Her financial plan: Looking for a new job at a retailer such as Lowe's to tide her over and pay the bills, while she contemplates a bigger career shift, such as into real estate. The end of the extra unemployment benefits comes in "a little over a month and it feels like it's getting shorter all the time," Carlson said. "That's why I'm looking for something in the interim something where I know there's a paycheck coming in." Two-thirds of out-of-work Americans are earning more with the extra pandemic benefits than they did working, according to a University of Chicago study published last month. Thats prompted some critics to argue that the newly generous benefits could provide a disincentive to return to work. Its unclear whether help is on the horizon. The $3 trillion HEROES Act, which was passed by the House last month but hasnt yet faced Senate scrutiny, would extend the $600 weekly jobless benefits. Even so, Republican lawmakers have expressed skepticism about the bill. In the meantime, unemployed people should plan ahead to avoid a financial shock on July 31, financial expert say. Dont splurge with first unemployment check Millions of laid-off workers have struggled to file for their benefits due to out-of-date systems and backlogs of claims in many state labor departments. Because unemployment benefits start on the date a worker was furloughed or laid off, a delayed first unemployment check can represent several weeks of benefits. Resist the urge to splurge when that first big check arrives, says Matt Schulz, chief industry analyst at CompareCards. Some of it needs to be set aside knowing you'll have to pay future bills, he notes. It's important that you are thoughtful with it and not see it as an excuse to spend. Budget, budget, budget Make sure you have a monthly budget, says Chantel Bonneau, wealth management advisor at Northwestern Mutual. The goal is to understand your monthly expenses, and then figure out a plan for how to cope with a loss of $600 a week beginning in August. You won't know how impactful a $600 a week loss is if you aren't clear on how much of that money you need to lead your life, Bonneau says. She recommends categorizing expenses into three categories: Fixed expenses such as your rent or mortgage; discretionary spending such as groceries or clothing purchases; and savings. That will enable you to see which discretionary costs could easily be cut. It could also help you think about how to reduce some fixed expenses, such as getting a roommate to help lower your rent costs. Build an emergency fund Take advantage of the remaining weeks of higher unemployment benefits to sock away money in an emergency fund, financial experts say. Its clear that many Americans are leaning on their emergency savings to get through the pandemic, with about one in four families having dipped into their savings or emergency funds to cover their living expenses during the crisis, according to Northwestern Mutuals 2020 Progress and Planning Study. Consumers may be weighing whether they should save or put the money toward paying down debt. But for Americans without emergency savings, a cash cushion may be more important at the moment than reducing debt, Lin says. Cash is king in that scenario, he adds. You don't know what will happen with credit cards, credit limits, personal loans and refinancing, but if you have $1,000 in the bank, that's more certain and something you can count on. Prepare for taxes Lastly, dont forget about the taxman. Almost one in three adults receiving unemployment incorrectly believe the payments are tax free, Credit Karma found. You can avoid an unwelcome tax bill by asking your state unemployment office to withhold taxes from your check. Alternatively, you can save your estimated taxes and pay the IRS directly, which Lin recommends. It only makes sense to withhold if you can't control yourself with spending, Lin adds. When you withhold you are giving the government an interest-free loan. Aimee Picchi is a business journalist whose work appears in publications including USA TODAY, CBS News and Consumer Reports. She spent almost a decade covering tech and media for Bloomberg News. You can find her on Twitter at @aimeepicchi. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CARES Act unemployment: What happens when $600 weekly benefits ends" New Delhi: The Delhi Police arrested two constables of the Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF), for the rape of a 16-year-old minor girl. The girl in her statement told the police that she had been working as a maid in Delhi's Preet Vihar for the past nine years. Hailing from Jharkhand the girl wanted to go home but was unable to do so due to the lockdown, trains were not plying so she could not go to her village. On June 12, without informing her landlord, the girl arrived at Anand Vihar railway station where she got to know that the train was not running from that station any more. She reached New Delhi railway station where she inquired about a train to Jharkhand. The accused constable, on the pretext of getting her on a train to Ranchi, took her to a room gave her a cold drink laced with sedatives and raped her. The accused constable called the other constable who stood at the gate. The Kotwali police has registered an FIR under Section 376D of the IPC i.e. Gang rape and under the POCSO Act. Later, medical tests were also conducted on the girl. Both the constables have been arrested, further investigation is underway. The UN Secretary-Generals call for a global ceasefire in response to COVID-19 was a genuinely compelling appeal that took a lot of us by surprise. What was interesting was that in the first week to ten days that followed, in late March, we saw quite a lot of armed groups and governments acknowledging the call and promising to consider it. Since mid-April, however, we have not seen a lot of momentum. Indeed, at the moment, if you look at conflict data globally, the ceasefire call appears to have had little effect on the overall level of violence worldwide. There are a number of reasons for that. This is an expanded and updated version of remarks originally given by Crisis Groups UN Director Richard Gowan to a conference organised by Mitvim at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on 17 May 2020. A conference summary is available here. The UN call for a global ceasefire in response to COVID-19 has lost momentum, but I would begin by saying that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres deserves credit for coming up with a genuinely compelling appeal, and I think the resonance of his original proposal took a lot of us by surprise. When we first heard he was calling for a ceasefire, cynical diplomacy watchers, such as myself, thought it might be a bit of a gimmick, and not have any concrete impact. What was interesting was that in the first week to ten days after he made the appeal, in late March, we saw quite a lot of armed groups and governments acknowledging the call and promising to consider it. The UN estimated that conflict parties in eleven countries recognised this call by early April. That figure is a little dodgy, as in some places like Ukraine, conflict actors recognised the call but kept on fighting regardless. Conversely there were cases, such as in Thailand, where armed groups promised to suspend military activities in response to COVID-19 but didnt make reference to the UN in doing so. Therefore, the actual number of conflict actors that have picked up on the ceasefire idea is a little slippery, but it was still a significant number, in late March and early April. The ceasefire call appears to have had little effect on the overall level of violence worldwide. Since mid-April, however, we have not seen a lot of momentum. Indeed, at the moment, if you look at conflict data globally, the ceasefire call appears to have had little effect on the overall level of violence worldwide. There are a number of reasons for that. A first problem is that in some cases one party in a conflict offered a ceasefire in response to the UN call, but the other party was either not interested or only fleetingly interested in taking up the offer, sometimes because they didnt see the terms as acceptable. An example was Cameroon, where SOCADEF, one of a number of Anglophone rebel groups, was quick to endorse the global ceasefire in late March, but the government simply ignored it. The fighting never stopped and both sides appear to have increased their targeting of aid workers since the UN appeal. We also saw a different variation on this theme in Colombia, where the ELN rebel group instituted a month-long pause in violence but demanded quite extensive political talks with the government in Bogota in order to extend it, which the government was not willing to offer. The ELN ended its ceasefire at the end of April. Yemen is another case, though the facts are complicated. It is true that the Saudi coalition supporting the UN-recognised government offered a freeze of hostilities in early April (and subsequently renewed this offer), and the Huthi rebel group refused to accept it. But this needs to be seen in the context that the UN had been working toward a more complex ceasefire plan involving confidence-building measures by both sides, which the Saudi offer did not include. From the Huthi perspective, the freeze looked like a bit of a sham, and both sides kept on fighting. A second problem is that even where you had seeming good-will among conflict parties to pause violence in response to COVID-19, there was often a lack of ceasefire architecture for taking advantage of these offers. It is one thing for an armed group to say it wants to reduce violence, but another to translate that wish into a technical ceasefire agreement with clear terms and some sort of security guarantee that all sides can accept. Obviously, this has been a bad period for international mediators and international peacekeepers to try to set up architecture of that type, that can sustain a ceasefire: were in a period when international mediators are unable to travel to conflict zones. Were in a period where many are in lockdown or have limited freedom of movement. It is very hard to go through the hard, technical work of turning offers of ceasefires into actual pauses in violence. Were in a period where many international mediators are in lockdown or have limited freedom of movement. But this may have resulted in some missed opportunities. In the Philippines, for example, the government called a unilateral pause in operations against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) rebels before the UN appeal. The CPP did not initially reciprocate, but it did offer a ceasefire after the UN call. Yet it didnt work, partly because the two sides had no real way to operationalise their commitments. They pursued overlapping but uncoordinated ceasefires through April, with messy results. Soldiers and communist rebels would inadvertently cross paths and end up in skirmishes. Violence increased to pre-COVID-19 levels and the CPP ended its ceasefire in April. The third consideration, which in most respects is a good news story, has been to do with the disease. The situation in late March was one in which many expected COVID-19 to be a catastrophe including rapid spread of the disease and high levels of fatalities in fragile states and war zones. We havent really seen that happen. To be sure, we have seen outbreaks of COVID-19 in some conflict-affected regions for example, the city of Aden in Yemen but they have not shaken up the calculations of warring parties. In countries like Libya, the level of the disease doesnt seem to have affected either side one way or the other. It is possible that may change, particularly as the disease begins to surge in parts of the world that were previously spared. There seems to be a high rate of infection in Yemen, although the data is bad. We are worryingly seeing an outbreak in refugee camps in South Sudan. We may see the disease spike in coming months indeed, infections seem to be accelerating in Africa now and it is possible that spikes may inspire armed groups to lay down their arms temporarily. But that has not happened yet. The fourth factor is the dysfunction of the UN Security Council. If the Secretary-General had a good idea, the Council has disgraced itself with its response to his appeal. Had the Council, at Frances suggestion, moved quickly in late March or early April to adopt a resolution endorsing the idea, that would have given it extra political credibility and nudged conflict parties to take it more seriously. It would not have resulted in world peace, but it would have firmed up and given momentum to the Secretary-Generals call. If the Secretary-General had a good idea, the Council has disgraced itself with its response to his appeal. Instead, what we have seen is that for about six or seven weeks, the Council was unable to agree to a resolution endorsing the ceasefire idea, not because anyone objected to the ceasefire idea, but instead because all members supported it with caveats. At first, the U.S. and Russia insisted that they be allowed to continue counter-terrorism operations, for instance. Then the U.S. and China came to a complete deadlock over whether there should be a paragraph somewhere in the resolution saying something nice about the World Health Organization (WHO). The U.S. refused to accept any language that contained even the smallest positive reference to the WHO, and the Chinese refused to accept text that did not refer to it. It got to the point that the U.S. torpedoed a resolution that all fourteen Council members had accepted, at the last moment, because it contained a small, indirect reference to the WHO. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2020) - Goldsource Mines Inc. (TSXV: GXS) (OTCQB: GXSFF) (FWB: G5M) ("Goldsource" or the "Company") reports on the following matters: 2020 AGM At the Company's Annual General Meeting ("AGM") held on June 15, 2020, shareholders re-elected N. Eric Fier, Drew Anwyll, Haytham H. Hodaly, Graham C. Thody and Ioannis Tsitos as directors of the Company, re-appointed Davidson & Company LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants, as auditor of the Company, and approved the renewal of the Company's "rolling 10%" stock option plan. Resignation of CFO Goldsource announces that Nicholas Campbell has stepped down from his position as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") of the Company to pursue other interests. The Company would like to thank Mr. Campbell for his services and wishes him the best in his future endeavors. N. Eric Fier, the Company's Chair and COO, has assumed the position of interim Vice-President, Finance pending the appointment of a new CFO. ABOUT GOLDSOURCE MINES INC. Goldsource Mines Inc. (www.goldsourcemines.com) is a Canadian resource company working aggressively to develop its advanced-stage, 100%-owned Eagle Mountain saprolite and hard-rock gold project in Guyana, South America. From 2016 to 2017, through a gravity pilot plant initiative, the Company completed testing on gravity-only gold production and both dry and wet mining open-pit techniques. Goldsource is now focused on expanding gold resources and delivering subsequent studies for decision-making on a large-scale gold production at Eagle Mountain. Goldsource is led by an experienced management team, proven in making exploration discoveries and in project construction. Ioannis (Yannis) Tsitos President Goldsource Mines Inc. For Further Information: Goldsource Mines Inc. Contact: Yannis Tsitos, President Fred Cooper, Investor Relations Telephone: +1 (604) 694-1760 Fax: +1 (604) 357-1313 Toll Free: 1-866-691-1760 (Canada & USA) Email: info@goldsourcemines.com Website: www.goldsourcemines.com 570 Granville Street, Suite 501 Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3P1 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service 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/58036 (Newser) A police officer made an emotional video after waiting for a McDonald's breakfast sandwich that never seemed to come, Newsweek reports. The Georgia officeridentified by Heavy as Stacy Talbertwas near tears as she grew nervous over what might be in her food. "It doesn't matter how many hours I've been up. It doesn't matter what I've done for anyone," she says in the video, which has garnered over 10 million views on Twitter. "Right now, I'm too nervous to take a meal from McDonald's, because I can't see it being made." Talbert says it all began when she preordered her food and was asked to wait for it when she showed up. "So I go to the second window to get my food, and I'm waiting, and I'm waiting," she says. story continues below Eventually a worker came over, confirmed her order, and asked her to pull up because the meal wasn't ready yet. Then another employee came and offered a coffee, which Talbert refused: "I'm too nervous to take it,'" she says, adding later: "Please, just give us a break. I don't know how much more I can take. I've been in this for 15 years, and I've never ever had this much anxiety about waiting for McDonald's drive-thru food. Have a heart, and if you see an officer, tell them, 'Thank you,' because I don't hear thank you enough anymore." Owners of the local McDonald's in Richmond Hill say they've apologized to Talbert, and a debate has erupted on Twitter, with some supporting police and others saying it's not unusual to wait for McDonald's orders or receive the drink order first. (Read more police stories.) Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews speaks during the State Commemoration for the 10 year anniversary of the 2009 Victorian bushfires in Melbourne, Australia on Feb. 4, 2019. (Michael Dodge/Getty Images) Australian Labor Party Promises to Root Out Branch-Stacking Practices, Which Have Happened Before The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is actively seeking to clean up its state branches after allegations of branch-stacking in the Victorian Labor Party came to light on June 14. Federal President of the ALP Wayne Swan told the ABC on June 17 that the ALP will respond to these reports with the strongest possible action. Well leave no stone unturned to root out these sorts of practices, he said. Every member will be audited to assess whether they are genuine supporters who have paid their own fees and consented to join, said Swan. The statements by Swan come after allegations of branch-staking appeared on Channel Nines 60 Minutes program on June 14 and in The Age newspaper on June 15. In the joint report, it was alleged that former Victorian ALP minister Adem Somyurek utilised parliamentary staffers from other ministers to branch-stack districts of the Victorian Labor Party and in doing so strengthen Somyureks influence over the ALP. The Age on June 15 said that Somyurek estimated he controlled two-thirds of the Victorian Labor Partys 16,000 members after his branch-stacking efforts. Victorian Review to be Headed by Bracks and Macklin Speaking at a press conference aired by Sky News on June 17, Premier Daniel Andrews said that he had put an unprecedented plan to the national executive of the ALP to re-establish the integrity of the Victorian branch of the Labor Party. We need to go through a process where each and every rank and file member re-establishes that they are genuine consenting and self-funded members of our great party, said Andrews. The National Executive of the ALP has suspended all committees of the Victorian Labor Party and appointed former Labor Victorian Premier Steve Bracks and former federal ALP deputy leader Jenny Macklin to audit the Victorian Branch of the ALP. A draft of an internal ALP document leaked and posted on Reddit on June 16 said Bracks and Macklin are to produce a preliminary report of their findings by July 31, with their complete report due to be submitted on January 1, 2021. Speaking to the ABC, Wayne Swan said that the national wing of the ALP will also take over control of the selection of candidates for the next Victorian poll and the Victorian candidates for the next federal election. However, Swan does not see this as a permanent solution. Its to get local participation, to enhance it, to eradicate the branch stackers and to give bona fide members a say again in their party, said Swan. New South Wales Labor Party also Undergoes Review The New South Wales (NSW) branch of the ALP will also undergo an audit it has emerged. The Australian reported on June 16 that the NSW Labor Party would also begin a review of their membership to check for branch-stacking. According to the leaked ALP report obtained by The Australian, members in the districts of Granville, South Granville, Merrylands, Guildford, and Guildford West will have to resubmit their home addresses and meeting attendance records in the audit. The report dated May 28 also recommended: A 12-month amnesty against expulsion or suspension for members who come forward with honest and direct evidence about the falsification of branch records. Branch-Stacking a Problem for the ALP This is not the first time branch-stacking has been a problem for the ALP. In 2002 a report (pdf) by former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and former NSW Premier Neville Wran argued that branch-stacking has a cancerous effect on the democratic traditions of the Labor Party and was a major concern to party members. Utilised by politicians as a way to gain power within the party, branch-stacking is when political actors sign up large numbers of people they know have no actual interest in joining to their political party. Once complete, branch-stacking then provides a politician with votes that can be used to influence both state and national policy directions through internal party votes and the preselection of electoral candidates. Although branch-stacking is legal in Australia, most political parties have come to view the practice as controversial because it usually involves illegal acts of forgery, falsification of documentation, and even the intimidation of party members. Caroline Pineau had imagined that when she received a final license to open Stem, a recreational cannabis shop in Haverhill, shed be sitting in the Cannabis Control Commissions meeting room at Worcesters Union Station. But instead, the celebration of receiving that license happened in her living room with her husband, watching the meeting virtually. Years into the quest to open her business, Pineau never imagined that the coronavirus pandemic would completely alter those last steps of getting her license and finally being able to welcome customers into her downtown store. Its certainly not what we expected for our opening. You know, opening Stem in the middle of a pandemic, nine months pregnant was certainly not what I envisioned when I started building this business," said Pineau, who is in the CCCs economic empowerment program, which was created to assist people and communities disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs. But weve adapted, weve risen to every challenge and I know our future is brighter because of it all." Like all industries, cannabis companies have been rocked by the pandemic. For existing recreational stores in Massachusetts, it meant having to close their doors for two months as the state saw thousands of cases of the virus. For businesses approaching the last steps of licensure, it meant waiting for weeks with an uncertainty of when sales might begin again. And when sales were allowed to start again in late May, it meant shops opening for the first time with a social distance ribbon cuttings and a slew of health and safety restrictions. In addition to the states regulations, Pineau said her special permit in Haverhill means that right now she can only welcome customers in by appointment. But thats not necessarily a bad thing, said Pineau, who has enjoyed the added organization from the process. Its enabled us to employ a walk before we run approach and because of that I think our impact and our opening has been a really positive thing for the city," she said. Since opening in late May, every appointment at Stem has been filled, Pineau said. After a dark couple of months for people being hunkered down in quarantine, Stem has really proven to be a happy community gathering place, and people just come in and are so excited to be able to purchase cannabis legally in Haverhill, said Pineau, who noted that the increased foot traffic as the state reopens will help all the businesses downtown. A S'mores bar from Coast Cannabis Co., a line by T. Bear Inc. Courtesy photo. Angela Brown, the co-founder and president of T. Bear Inc., finally received a notice from the CCC to commence operations starting March 24 or later. But, her product manufacturing business was never able to start up. March 24 ended up being the day businesses considered non-essential by the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker had to shut down as the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic set in. While adult-use marijuana was not considered essential, medical marijuana treatment centers were allowed to operate. To get to that commence operations notice, Brown had to have finished product ready for inspectors at her 8,500-square-foot facility in Wareham, which boasts an industrial kitchen and a modular lab space for extraction. She ended up with products that could go nowhere and placed staff on furlough, for what initially seemed like it would be just a few weeks and ended up stretching on for months before a phased reopening of the state began in May. We were literally at the starting line, all money spent, we just need to sell some product and then we got the shutdown notice," Brown said. That was probably the hardest pill weve had to swallow through this entire experience." Now finally back in business, T. Bear is producing edibles and vapes through its line, Coast Cannabis Co. The line is all organic and all natural, Brown said, and the processing is all done in Wareham from plant material through the finished product. Coast is sold at retail shops across Massachusetts, including at Stem. Staff have been coming back in a staggered schedule to limit the number of people working, Brown said, and all employees are expected to be back to work by the beginning of July. The bounce-back has been pretty great as far as the retailers have been reaching out like crazy for our products, the customers have really been showing us a lot of love on social media," Brown said. We just know that all of that heartache and everything that we went through, hopefully were through that and we can kind of just keep this positive momentum going. Though theres relief in finally being in business, the uncertainty of what lies ahead leaves Brown with a little fear, she said. While things are great for us right now we dont know what the true negative impact is going to be from the COVID shutdown until a little bit from now," she said. With Massachusetts four-phase reopening plan, any increase in cases could mean the state stays in a phase for weeks, or even rolls back to a previous phase. Right now, the state is in Phase 2 and is awaiting the reopening of step two of Phase 2, which will allow close-contact services like nail salons and massage therapy to resume. Diem, a recreational marijuana store, opened in Worcester on June 12. Photo courtesy of Diem. For Diem Cannabis, which opened last week in Worcester, getting started with the states heavy restrictions was eased by the companys ongoing sales in Oregon, said CEO Chris Mitchem. Massachusetts was the only state with recreational cannabis that shut down adult-use sales during the pandemic. COVID-19 just threw a wrench into everything ... We have this big beautiful building completed, ready to go, were in close contact with all the regulators, and weve checked all the boxes and then COVID hits and we get delayed another three months," Mitchem said. It was a tricky thing to deal with, kind of heartbreaking, but were patient and we had already been going for two and a half years, so were like whats another three months." After Diem stores in Oregon adjusted software and operations for the pandemic, there was already a model in place to bring to Worcester. We were able to just translate what doing in Oregon over to Massachusetts so it was kind of business as usual for us," Mitchem said. Related Content: Police found childrens swimming costumes at the motorhome of the suspect in the Madeleine McCann case during a past investigation, according to German media. Thousands of child abuse images and childrens clothing mostly small swimsuits were reportedly discovered several years ago by authorities looking into Christian Brueckner over the disappearance of a German girl. Police seized the motorhome in May 2016 as part of an investigation into the disappearance of five-year-old Inga Gehricke, according to a documentary by Spiegel TV. During a six-day examination of the site where it was found in Germany, they found computer memory sticks with more than 8,000 files, mostly containing pictures and videos of child abuse, which were in a carrier bag buried underneath the body of Brueckners dog, the report said. Spiegel TV said police had also found numerous items of childrens clothing mostly small swimsuits in the motorhome, even though Bruckener does not have any children. The 43-year-old who German investigators believe killed Madeleine was under suspicion after Inga vanished from the woods during a family picnic in Germany in 2015. He was charged in relation to the child pornography, but not in relation to Ingas disappearance. Brueckner also reportedly boasted a motorhome he owned and drove repeatedly between Germany and Portugal was ideal for hiding drugs and children. Authorities in Germany are investigating him as a suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine in Praia da Luz in Portugal 13 years ago which they are treating as a murder inquiry. A German prosecutor has said there is a little bit of hope she is still alive, despite previously claiming there was evidence pointing to the fact Madeleine is dead. We dont want to kill the hope and because there is no forensic evidence it may be theoretically possible, Hans Christian Wolters said. The murder suspect is currently in prison for drug dealing and is appealing a conviction for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman, also at Praia da Luz, for which he was sentenced to seven years in jail. Brueckner has racked up 17 convictions across Europe, including for sex offences against children, drug offences, theft and forgery. His lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, said Brueckner denies any involvement in Madeleines disappearance. Alongside the developments in that case, German investigators have also reopened the file into Ingas disappearance, and the murder of Tristan Brubach in Frankfurt in 1998, according to German media. Additional reporting by Press Association WASHINGTON The Justice Department released recommendations on Wednesday to pare back the legal shield for online platforms that has been crucial to their growth since the earliest days of the internet, taking a direct shot at companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that have come into the cross hairs of the Trump administration. In a 25-page recommendation, the agency called on lawmakers to repeal parts of a law that has given sites broad immunity from lawsuits for words, images and videos people have posted on their services. The changes to the law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, would put the onus on social media and other online platforms to more strongly police harmful content and conduct while also being consistent about their moderation. The Justice Department proposal, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, is a legislative plan that would have to be adopted by Congress. It adds to growing calls in Washington, from elected officials of both parties, to change Section 230. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) In a bid to make air travel under the new normal safer, Philippine Airlines has announced that starting July 1, it will introduce a new aircraft seat design, which aims to better enable physical distancing. PAL said that aisle or middle seats are blocked out in 'distancing sections' of specific fare classes. PAL's premium economy cabin class will have purely 'distancing seats' while the PAL/PAL Express economy cabin class will have a mix of regular and 'distancing seats, PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in a statement posted on her Facebook page on Tuesday. Villaluna said passengers of these flights may reserve the 'distancing seats' at no added cost. A distancing seat is not an added fee/travel extra. It is a new product included in specific fare classes (Economy Flex and Premium Economy Class), the PAL spokesperson added. For regular seats, distancing will be observed depending on space availability, and is an option ideal for groups who wish to be seated together, PAL's website said. PAL said this new feature aims to bring peace of mind to their customers. This is the latest precautionary measure of PAL amid fears of flying due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The air carrier has been undertaking safety measure since they resumed commercial flights earlier this month. Among them are thorough cleaning of aircraft every after flight, filtering of cabin air, and screening and thermal scanning of passengers. People light candles during a memorial on June 3, 2020, at the intersection where police killed Manuel Ellis in Tacoma, Washington. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died after police in Tacoma, Washington, restrained him by the neck, even as he said "I can't breathe." New video footage of the incident challenges the Tacoma Police Department's account of the killing, according to which "Mr. Ellis was physically restrained as he continued to be combative." "Manny Ellis was compliant," James Bible, the attorney for Ellis's family, said. "He was simply trying to survive." On June 10, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that state investigators would take over the case. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Manuel Ellis, struggling for air, called out "I can't breathe" as police officers restrained him in Tacoma, Washington, in March. Pronounced dead at the scene, the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide in June. The killing mirrored the death of other Black men at the hands of police, like George Floyd and Eric Garner, who could not breathe. Witnesses to Ellis's death did not immediately come forward, but the killing left his community bereft and crying out for justice. Tacoma police said Ellis, 33, was resisting arrest. "Mr. Ellis was physically restrained as he continued to be combative," the Tacoma Police Department said in a statement on June 3. But new video footage, released by an attorney representing Ellis's family, contradicts the police narrative, just as footage of Floyd's and Garner's final moments did the same. 'He was simply trying to survive' A 53-second clip, filmed by a witness and published by Attorney James Bible, shows two white officers struggling with Ellis, The News Tribune reported on Monday. One officer wraps his arm around Ellis's neck from behind. Seconds later, after Ellis and the officer fall to the ground, the other officer fires his Taser at Ellis. Ellis begins to flail on the ground as the first officer takes his arm from around Ellis's neck, rolls him onto his stomach, and subdues him with his knee. Story continues "This video is critical," Bible told the News Tribune, "because it shows that Manny Ellis was compliant, that he was simply trying to survive, because he authentically couldn't breathe because officers wrapped their arms around his neck and tased him multiple times." The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a homicide on June 3, reporting that he died from respiratory arrest as a result of oxygen deprivation, hypoxia, and physical restraint, and adding that methamphetamine intoxication and heart disease were contributing factors. The officers placed a spit mask, or plastic hood, over Ellis's face, according to the autopsy, which may have contributed to his death. They also bound his legs together in a hobble, or canvas strap, The News Tribune reported. Other video footage, made public in early June, shows the two officers throwing Ellis to the ground before pinning him down. The officers can be heard telling Ellis to "put your hands behind your back" several times. Sara McDowell, who filmed the earlier footage, begged the officers to stop. "Stop. Oh my God, stop hitting him," McDowell said. "Just arrest him." "I was terrified for his life, honestly," she told the New York Times in early June. "The way that they attacked him didn't make sense to me. I went home and was sick to my stomach." 'I can't breathe, sir' Other video footage, recorded by a home surveillance camera, shows Ellis telling the officers: "I can't breathe, sir. I can't breathe." "Shut the f--- up," one officer seems to reply. When that footage emerged, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that the state would take over the investigation of Ellis's killing. None of the police officers involved in the incident have been fired or charged. "I have become convinced that the Pierce County Sheriff should not complete the investigation of the death of Manuel Ellis and the county prosecutor should not review the investigation and make charging decisions," Inslee said in a statement on June 10. The county prosecutor, Mary Robnett, "has an irreconcilable conflict that would preclude her office from handling this case," he said, without specifying the details of that conflict. "What we learned from that [surveillance] video is not just that Manny Ellis said, 'I can't breathe,'" Bible said during a press conference on June 9. "What we learned is he said, 'I can't breathe, sir. I can't breathe, sir. I can't breathe, sir.'" Expanded Coverage Module: black-lives-matter-module Read the original article on Insider A large jellyfish is being spotted off the Massachusetts coast and swimmers are being warned about their presence. In a warning issued Sunday, the Hingham Harbormaster said numerous jellyfish were spotted over the weekend throughout Hingham Harbor, including the inner harbor and outer harbor. They resemble the lions mane jellyfish seen in other nearby harbors, the harbormaster wrote. The reported sightings in Hingham describe the jellyfishs umbrella or body from eight inches to two feet in diameter with many long tentacles. One Hingham resident was stung and experienced something similar to a brief electric shock followed by a stinging sensation, the warning read. The woman was treated with a jellyfish sting kit and vinegar and did not need medical care. Numerous jellyfish resembling the lion's mane jellyfish were spotted in Hingham. (Hingham Harbormaster) The harbormaster warned people to be cautious while swimming or avoid the water during the jellyfish season. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation issued a warning Friday about the presence of largest known species of jellyfish at a Massachusetts beach after lions mane jellyfish were spotted at Nahant Beach. The jellyfish can have tentacles up to 120 feet long and the largest lions mane jellyfish can rival the blue whale in size, according to Oceana, an ocean conservation organization. It can deliver a powerful sting that can be painful to humans but are not known to be fatal. Hull Harbormaster Kurt Bornheim told the Boston Globe that he has spotted the jellyfish on the ocean side of the Hull peninsula. Related Content: A group of undocumented teenagers were saved from drowning in a Texas canal after crossing over from Mexico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday. The Mexican teens - one is a 17-year-old and the other two are 18 - were attempting to unlawfully enter the United States last Friday about 1am in the historic Chihuahuita neighborhood in downtown El Paso. The migrants were trying to evade capture after they were spotted by El Paso Border Patrol agents, who were conducting inspections of a train that had previously arrived from Mexico. Border agents in downtown El Paso rescue two of the three undocumented teenagers from Mexico after they were swept by a current in a canal last Friday A teen from Mexico climbs up a ladder after he was rescued by border patrol agents in El Paso, Texas, moments after the say him and two other teenagers struggling to stay afloat in a canal The trio of teenagers were quickly swept away by the canal's current, prompting a rescue from the U.S. Border Patrol agent and the CBP officers. CBP said one of the teens was suddenly swept under the canal gate, but a canine officer came to his rescue and pulled him to safety. The Border Patrol agent and the other two CBP officers used a safety line device to rescue the other two teenagers and bring them to shore. 'Interagency cooperation is an integral part of CBP. In this case the immediate reaction by our agent and the three CBP Officers saved the lives of three individuals who were trapped in the dangerous swift currents of the American canal,' said El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez. 'The inherent danger with attempting to cross into the United States illegally is present, not only in isolated desert areas, or in the hands of criminal organizations but also in the swift waters of the American Canal.' CBP said border officers saved three teens from drowning in a canal in El Paso, Texas, shortly after 1am last Friday after they tried to evade being apprehended in their attempt to unlawfully enter the United States from Mexico Jose Maria Ramos, an investigator with the College of the Northern Border, a Mexican think tank that focuses on border issues, told Mexican newspaper 24 Horas that polleros, or human traffickers as they are known, are charging migrants between $8,000 to $11,000 to be ferried over dangerous parts of the U.S-Mexico Border.\ 'In addition to crossing inhospitable areas, they have used mountains. They are also using the way of entering with documents - false - that has a higher cost,' Ramos said. Tougher restrictions that have been imposed by the Trump administration as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has made unlawfully crossing into the United States much more difficult, although some are successful in doing so. Non-essential land crossing at the northern border with Canada and at the south with Mexico will remain closed off for another 30 days and will open back up July 21, the U.S. announced Tuesday. 'Based on the success of the existing restrictions and the emergence of additional global COVID-19 hotspots, the Department will continue to limit non-essential travel at our land ports of entry with Canada and Mexico,' acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement. India Cements share price gained over 10% in early trade today amid a report that ace investor Radhakishan Damani was planning to buy a controlling stake in the company. Damani held 10.29 percent stake in the cement maker, while his brother Gopikishan Shivkishan Damani had 8.26 percent and the rest 1.34 percent was held by both together, as per the shareholding pattern at the end of quarter ended March 2020. Buoyed by the prospects of Damani buying a controlling stake, share price price of India Cements gained 10.56% to Rs 139.3 against previous close of Rs 126 on BSE. India Cements share has gained 6.37% in last two days. The small cap stock opened with a gain of 6.75% at Rs 134.50 today. India Cements share is trading higher than 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages. The share has climbed 2.54% in a week. Total 12.44 lakh shares changed hands on BSE amounting to turnover of Rs 16.59 crore. The stock has gained 86% since the beginning of this year and 43.36% during last one year. Market cap of India Cements rose to Rs 4,157 crore. According to a Bloomberg report, Damani made an informal contact with N. Srinivasan, the controlling shareholder of India Cements, to explore a takeover opportunity. Retail tycoon Radhakishan Damani mulls buying controlling stake in India Cements Srinivasan owns around 29% stake in the Chennai-based cement maker. The deal, if it takes place, will help Damani branch out his holdings while India Cements would get an investor with deep pockets to brace it against competitors such as UltraTech Cement Ltd. and LafargeHolcim Ltd., the report stated. Stocks in news: Schneider, HPCL, Navin Fluorine, Globus Spirits, HCL Technologies, Bank of Maharashtra and more Share Market LIVE: Sensex, Nifty trade flat; Maruti, Tech Mahindra, Wipro top performers By Aseem Thapliyal By Barani Krishnan Investing.com - Oil prices jumped 3% Tuesday, holding on to advances from the previous session, ahead of key U.S. government data that will show whether demand for fuels is improving appreciably as businesses get back on their feet from Covid-19 lockdowns. The International Energy Agency, in its June report released Tuesday, also forecast global oil demand at 91.7 million barrels per day in 2020, some 500,000 bpd higher than what it cited for May. As a caveat, the IEA, however, warned that a slump in air travel due to the coronavirus means the world will not return to pre-pandemic demand levels before 2022. Data also showed that Saudi Arabia exported just one oil cargo to the U.S. so far in June, equivalent to about 133,000 barrels a day, Bloomberg reported. Thats about one-tenth of the 1.3 million barrels a day it shipped in April, when Riyadh flooded the global market during a brief price war against Russia. Russias early crude Urals program for next month July 1-5 meanwhile, showed even lower shipments than June. That was another sign that Moscow was keeping to pledged cuts under its OPEC+ alliance with Saudi Arabia and other global oil exporters. The price of oil has a lot of optimism in it in the near term with all of the COVID risks but I could (also) paint a picture of reasons why I think prices are about to crater, said Scott Shelton, energy futures broker at ICAP (LON:NXGN) in Durham, North Carolina. My conviction on both currently is pretty close to nil and I dont think I am alone. New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude, settled up $1.26, or 3.4%, at $38.38 per barrel. It rose 2.4% in the previous session. London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for oil, gained $1.24 cents, or 3.1%, to settle at $40.96. It rose 2.6% on Monday. The U.S. economy is unlikely to achieve full recovery until Americans are certain that the coronavirus pandemic has been contained, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell said on Tuesday. Story continues "Moreover, the longer the downturn lasts, the greater the potential for longer-term damage from permanent job loss and business closures, Powell said in testimony before a Senate banking committee. Oil prices rose ahead of the American Petroleum Institutes weekly snapshot on crude and fuel products inventories due at 4:30 PM ET. The API numbers serve as precursor for official stockpiles data scheduled for Wednesday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A consensus of analysts estimates tracked by Investing.com showed that U.S. crude inventories likely grew by 500,000 barrels for the week ended June 12. Crude stockpiles rose 5.72 million barrels in the previous week to May 5 to reach a record high of 538 million barrels, EIA data showed. Distillate stockpiles, led by diesel, is, meanwhile, expected to have risen 2.65 million barrels, adding to the previous weeks gain of 1.6 million. Distillate stockpiles have grown by nearly 53 million barrels in total over nine weeks, EIA data showed. Gasoline stockpiles, the one bright spot on the oil complex so far, is expected to have fallen 230,000 barrels versus a previous build of 866,000. Related Articles Venezuela's oil exports plummet as shipping contracts get suspended Gold Advances in $1700 Zone on Chinas New Covid Scare Crude Oil Soars Amid Signs of Improved Demand Despite some recent tinkering with state elections law by the Ohio House of Representatives, our lawmakers have unfortunately failed to decide whether the state will pay the postage for voters to mail absentee ballot applications, and then their absentee ballots this November. It is a subject worthy of a thorough debate, and soon. Thus far, Republicans in the Ohio House have limited their efforts to preventing a replay of Gov. Mike DeWines apparently unprecedented postponement of the March 17 primary election, via then-Health Director Amy Acton, because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. By PTI UNITED NATIONS: India is expected to register a comfortable victory in the Security Council elections on Wednesday that will bring the country to the UN high-table as a non-permanent member for the 2021-22 term. The 193-member UN General Assembly will hold elections for President of the 75th session of the Assembly, five non-permanent members of the Security Council and members of the Economic and Social Council under special voting arrangements put in place at the UN headquarters due to COVID-19 related restrictions. India is all set to join the powerful 15-nation Security Council as a non-permanent member. India is a candidate for a non-permanent seat from the Asia-Pacific category for the 2021-22 term. India's victory is certain since it is the sole candidate vying for the lone seat from the grouping. New Delhi's candidature was unanimously endorsed by the 55-member Asia-Pacific grouping, including China and Pakistan, in June last year. President of the UN General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande on Monday circulated a letter to member states with the names of candidates for the various elections. For the two vacant seats from among the African and Asia-Pacific States, three candidates have been communicated, namely, Djibouti, India and Kenya. Of those three candidates, India and Kenya are endorsed candidates. For the one vacant seat from among the Latin American and Caribbean States, one endorsed candidate has been communicated, namely, Mexico. For the two vacant seats from among the Western European and other States, three candidates have been communicated, namely, Canada, Ireland and Norway. Each year the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members (out of 10 in total) for a two-year term. The 10 non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis as follows: five for African and Asian States; one for Eastern European States; two for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two for Western European and other States. To be elected to the Council, candidate countries need a two-thirds majority of ballots of Member States that are present and voting in the Assembly. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti has said that India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world its ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', as he underscoring that the United Nations as well as multilateralism need to change to reflect contemporary realities and remain credible as the world organization marks its 75th anniversary this year, India's journey with the United Nations is quite a remarkable one. As a founding member of the United Nations, India's contribution to implementing the goals of the United Nations Charter and to the evolution of UN specialised agencies and programmes has been substantial. "In many ways, quite extraordinary," Tirumurti said in a video message ahead of the elections. "I'm confident that at a time when we are poised to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and later the 75th anniversary of India's independence in 2022, India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world our ethos that the world is one family - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam," he said. Ahead of the elections, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar outlined New Delhi's priorities for its candidature to the Council. Termed as NORMS, India's focus will be on "New Orientation For A Reformed Multilateral System." India's priorities include new opportunities for progress, effective response to international terrorism, reforming multilateral systems, comprehensive approach to peace and security and technology with a human touch. Tirumurti said as the UN commemorates its 75th anniversary this year, "it is clear to us that the United Nations and indeed multilateralism itself need to change to reflect contemporary realities to enable them to remain effective and credible." The Indian envoy referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for reformed multilateralism and reform of multilateral system as essential to ensure that the international system is inclusive and caters to requirements of all countries, which will in turn facilitate stronger action. "We also believe that the current crisis that we face, especially in the context of COVID-19, provides the seed for new opportunities," Tirumurti said. Previously, India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council for the years 1950-1951, 1967-1968, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1984-1985, 1991-1992 and most recently in 2011-2012. India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the Security Council saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the Council, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st Century. A 100-year-old giant tortoise by the name of Diego has retired and finally returned home to the Galapagos Islands after being credited for saving his entire species from near extinction. Diego the giant tortoise retires According to a report by news.com.au, Diego has been working for decades to help save his species as part of the program that aims to save these giant tortoises (Chelonoidis hoodensis) and increase their population on Isla Santa Cruz located in the Galapagos Islands. The giant tortoise, who weighs 80 kilograms, had been in captivity for decades to ensure his safety. And during all those years, he had been breeding with female giant tortoises, as per Reuters. Park rangers believe Diego has fathered at least 40% of all the tortoises that have been bred through the program, which is around 2000. Read Also: [VIRAL] A Street Cat Named Bob: Bestselling Author James Bowen's Cat Dies at Age 14 Saving the tortoise species from near extinction According to the news outlet, 50 years ago, there were apparently only two male tortoises left on the native island and only about 12 females. However, they were too spread out to find each other and mate, making it harder to reproduce and bring their numbers up. During the first half of the 20th century, Diego, who was one of the only males left, was brought to the San Diego Zoo in California after he was removed from his native island of Isla Espanola. After being brought to the zoo, the tortoise spent around eight decades breeding with female tortoises, fathering over 800 tortoises. He has been hailed as the most significant contributor in helping save his species from extinction. It is still essential for experts and for the public, however, to care for tortoises as they are still far from being safe. More tortoises coming back home after years in the program Besides Diego, the Ecuador environment minister Paulo Proano Andrade announced that 15 other giant tortoises will retire and return to their native island after their work in the program. Technically, the Galapagos Islands is under Ecuadorian rule on the west coast of South America, about 100 kilometers from the country. The island was a significant contributor to Charles Darwin's work on his infamous theory of evolution, where he observed the tortoises and their differences and discovered how they adapted to their environment over time. "We close an important chapter in the management of the Galapagos National Park," Andrade wrote in a post on his official Twitter account announcing the return of the retired creatures. "They return home after decades of breeding in captivity and saving their species from extinction. Your island welcomes you with open arms." Before returning home, Diego and his fellow retired tortoises underwent a quarantine period to avoid carrying any seeds of plants that are not native to the island and may ruin the existing ecosystem there. Giant tortoises are best known for their massive size and their long, leathery necks. These creatures can live for more than a hundred years, thus Diego's age. Read Also: Photo Reveals Undeniable Evidence of a Shark and Deep-Sea Giant Squid Fight 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, has called two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials to "publicly apologize or resign" after an independent investigation found they violated the agency's scientific integrity policy last year when they corroborated President Donald Trump's misstatement about the path of a hurricane hitting the Gulf coast. A scandal now known as "sharpiegate," Trump in September tweeted an incorrect list of states that would be hit by Hurricane Dorian and then, in the Oval Office, displayed a NOAA hurricane map that appeared doctored by black sharpie to extend the path of the storm to Alabama. A day later, NOAA issued an unsigned statement that criticized the National Weather Service forecasting office in Alabama for a tweet that contradicted Trump's inaccurate claims about the hurricane. South Africa: Suspect arrested in Tshegofatso Pule murder case Gauteng police have arrested a 31-year-old man in connection with the murder of Soweto mother-to-be, Tshegofatso Pule. The 28-year-old had been missing for four days when her body, covered in stab wounds, was found on Monday last week, hanging from a tree in a veld in Roodepoort. Pule was laid to rest last week in Soweto. In a statement on Wednesday, the police said the suspect was arrested on Monday following a crime intelligence operation. He was reportedly arrested while travelling from Mpumalanga. Gauteng Police spokesperson Noxolo Kweza said the suspect would appear before the Roodepoort Magistrates Court today. Gauteng Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela, applauded the detectives for their swift response in the investigation into the death of the pregnant woman. As the investigations are still continuing, he appealed to communities for any further information that could lead to more arrests. This arrest came swiftly after another suspect, a 50-year-old man, was nabbed in Eldorado Park on Monday in connection with the murder of a 42-year-old woman in Eersterust at the weekend. The team of detectives, crime prevention and Tshwane district task team followed information to where the suspect was hiding. Gauteng police not only arrested the suspect in the Pule killing, but have also arrested suspects in connection with the attack that occurred at Jabulani hostel last week, said Kweza. Meanwhile, in another case, a multi-disciplinary team of detectives arrested two suspects in KwaZulu-Natal and recovered two firearms, including an AK47. The suspects led police to a further five suspects in Gauteng. The suspects in Gauteng were found with a further five firearms. Mawela has applauded the team for their prompt response in the matter. Some of the suspects have been linked to other cases, including murder. People with information on criminal activity can call the SAPS emergency number, 10111, before a crime is committed or when a crime is in progress. Callers that want to remain anonymous may contact SAPS Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or send a tip-off via MySAPS App, which can be downloaded on any android or iPhone. All information received will be treated with confidentiality. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Giving top priority to agriculture and its allied sectors with focus on farmer welfare, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government has presented an agriculture budget with an outlay of Rs 29,159.97 crore. The budgetary allocations for 2020-21 were Rs 293.04 crore higher than the previous fiscal. Agriculture is the mainstay of our economy and taking care of farmers is our top priority. As the Chief Minister said, our government is bringing in reforms to ensure long-term benefits to the community, said Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu, who presented the Agriculture Budget for 2020-21 in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. As much as Rs 6,885 crore was earmarked to provide investment support to the farmers during the commencement of cropping seasons under YSR Rythu Bharosa-PM Kisan. In the last fiscal, Rs 6,534.07 crore was spent under the programme, which benefitted 46.69 lakh farmer families. Like in the previous budget, Rs 3,000 crore was allocated for Price Stabilisation Fund and Rs 2,000 crore for calamity fund. At the time when harvesting commenced for Rabi season, farmers faced a crisis in the form of coronavirus pandemic and nationwide lockdown. With the help of Price Stabilisation Fund, the government was able to procure various crops, including perishable produce, to help the farmers. For the first time, we adopted a farmgate policy to procure food grains at farms itself, Kannababu said and added that the government was focusing more on agriculture marketing by introducing a new procurement policy and Janata Bazar. The 10,641 Rythu Bharosa Kendras, launched recently to revolutionise farm and village economies, were allocated Rs 100 crore. As promised, interest-free loans were being extended to farmers and Rs 1,100 crore was allocated this fiscal. Seeds are the basis of crops and we have introduced new reforms to ensure supply of quality seeds at the farmers doorstep; Rs 200 crore has been allocated for the purpose, the Agriculture Minister said. Apart from allocating Rs 15,399.52 crore for agriculture, another Rs 653.02 crore was earmarked for horticulture, Rs 92.18 crore for sericulture, Rs 854.77 crore for animal husbandry, Rs 299.27 crore for fisheries, Rs 248.38 crore for cooperative sector and Rs 4,450 crore for free power to farm sector. However, the allocations for horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries were considerably less compared to last fiscal. It looks good on paper, but how effectively will it be implemented, given the lack of fund flow from the Centre? Were the horticulture farmers, who suffered during the corona crisis, given any insurance? I hope that the government keeps its promises, said former agriculture minister Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Yunindita Prasidya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, June 19, 2020 08:54 582 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf77d3f 1 Business banks,digital,cyber-crime,risk,BCA,btpn,Jenius,bank-mandiri Free National banks have pledged to maintain strong digital security systems and have encouraged consumers to take precautions against the risk of digital security breaches. Tantri Desyanti, a 25-year-old customer of Jenius, a digital banking platform operated by publicly listed lender BTPN, recently experienced a cybersecurity breach. In a viral tweet posted on June 9, Tantri said she had lost Rp 3.2 million (US$228.58) from her Jenius account, through a series of unauthorized transactions through Paypal. She was later refunded by the bank, but her case has highlighted the risk of cybersecurity breaches in online banking platforms. According to a 2018 PricewaterhouseCoopers survey polling 43 Indonesian banks, the industry considers cybersecurity its biggest risk over the next two to three years. BTPN has said it has implemented a multilayered security system to secure digital transactions and is using the latest technology. Aside from that, we routinely educate our users about data security, as well as offline and online transaction security, BTPN digital banking head Irwan S Tisnabudi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. Irwan added that Jenius continuously reminded its customers to refrain from sharing classified information, such as PIN numbers, passwords, one-time passwords (OTP), and to change their PINs and passwords regularly. Regarding Tantris case, Irwan said the bank maintained that there had not been any account breach or issue within Jenius internal system. The bank suspected that the customer had been manipulated by a scammer into providing confidential information. Bank Central Asia (BCA), the countrys biggest privately owned bank, said it had maintained the security of consumer transaction information and had applied security systems in accordance with regulations. BCA is continuously carrying out development on its transaction securitization system, BCA executive vice president of the secretariat and corporate communications Hera F. Haryn told the Post on Monday. BCA enjoyed a steep 91 percent year-on-year (yoy) rise in the number of mobile banking transactions in the first quarter of this year. The value of the transactions reached Rp 3.38 quadrillion. The number of BCA internet banking transactions increased by 24 percent to 740 million during the same period. The bank is encouraging consumers to download its official mobile banking application to maintain transaction security. It is also reminding customers to remain cautious about the safety of the internet network they are using. Publicly listed lender Bank Mandiri has said it has taken measures to secure its mobile application, its identity authentication and its transaction authorization. The bank has a biometric test to authorize access to its Mandiri Online application. The transactions are also monitored to detect unusual transactions. Everything is equipped with advanced security technology and strict security testing processes, Bank Mandiri corporate secretary Rully Setiawan said on Tuesday. The bank has allocated between Rp 2 and Rp 3 trillion in capital expenditure for its IT department, which will mostly go towards digitizing the banks systems, he added. Digital banking in Indonesia is considered strictly controlled as it is stringently standardized, Indonesia Cyber Security Forum (ICSF) chairman and cofounder Ardi Sutedja told the Post on Monday. Banking is a sensitive sector because its main business is trust, so if its technology system and trust break down, it will go out of business, Ardi said. He noted that banks had been careful to develop and maintain the security of their digital channels but could still benefit from regular audits on their system to identify points of vulnerability. Banks, Ardi added, should keep up to date on digital crimes, both domestic and abroad, to anticipate the security measures needed in the future. A white Atlanta police officer was charged with murder on Wednesday after shooting African American suspect Rayshard Brooks during an attempted arrest last week. Officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan were called to an Atlanta Wendys on Friday when an employee complained that Brooks was sleeping in his car while blocking the drive-thru. The officers attempted to arrest Brooks following a sobriety test, but Brooks tried to escape and at one point grabbed a taser from one of the officers. Rolfe shot Brooks in the back as he attempted to flee. Fulton County district attorney Paul L. Howard said that Rolfe had kicked Brooks after shooting him, while Brosnan stood on the victims shoulders. Brosnan has since turned states witness and is charged with aggravated assault. Rolfe, meanwhile, is charged with felony murder and could face life in prison without parole if convicted. There is an Atlanta policy that requires that the officers have to provide timely medical attention to Mr. Brooks, to anyone who is injured, Howard said. But after Mr. Brooks was shot, for a period of two minutes and 12 seconds, there was no medical attention applies to Mr. Brooks. Brosnans attorney, Don Samuel, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his client had not stood on Brookss shoulders during arrest. The decision to initiate charges by the Fulton County DAs office is irrational, unethical and obviously based on factors which should have nothing to do with the proper administration of justice, Samuel said. Police are currently looking for two white women suspected of setting fire to the Wendys where the officers attempted to arrest Brooks. More from National Review Elon Musk has been in the news for all the good reasons. Last month SpaceX successfully took astronauts to the ISS aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour shuttle and off recently, hes been sending constellation of Starlink satellites in space one after another. Wikipedia Just this weekend, Musks SpaceX launched 58 new Starlink satellites into space, bringing the total number of satellites in space to 540 as of now. Reported first by ZDNet, now, SpaceX is inviting people to sign up to be one of the first to experience high-speed internet like never before. In case you didnt know, Starlink satellite constellation in space promises to offer 1Gbps internet speeds to places that dont have access to fast internet connectivity, and offer this at a relatively reasonable price point -- at par or even cheaper than some ISPs. People can now head to Starlinks official website and sign up in the section which states Get Updates on Starlink news and services available in your area. It also possesses the option to select India from the list. SpaceX Starlink's global mission Elon Musk plans to start Starlink internet services in the US and Canada from this year and expects to almost cover the entire world by the end of 2021. According to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX needs about 400 Starlink satellites to provide "minor" coverage and 800 for "moderate" coverage. The initial target is arousing 12,000 satellites. Recently, SpaceX also sought permission from US FCC for launching 30,000 more satellites as a part of its Gen2 system. Reuters The application stated, More than 85% of this system will operate at very low altitudes below 400 km, using eight total orbital altitudes ranging from 328 km to 614 km. Just as large deployments of new densified 5G networks are helping those in more urban environments, the densified satellite constellation SpaceX proposes will substantially increase capacity and drive up the number of consumers even in rural and remote areas with access to truly robust broadband. In case your location becomes one of the few activated to get high-speed internet access, youll require a user terminal -- a dish like your D2H dish on the rooftop to connect to super-fast internet. Boujdour (Refugee Camps), June 17, 2020 (SPS) - The wilaya of Boujdour hosted Wednesday the celebrations commemorating the 50th anniversary of the historic Zemala Uprising and the National Day of the Disappeared, in the presence of the President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, Members of the National Secretariat of the Frente POLISARIO, the Government and many participants. A conference was organised on the occasion highlighting the turning point uprising in the history of the Sahrawi national resistance, with its mass momentum and its prominent role in the break with colonialism, revealing its plans and the impact left by its outstanding leader, Sidi Brahim Basiri, the symbol of peaceful resistance in Western Sahara. The Zemala Uprising was the essence of the beginning of the Sahrawi national dream of the need for an alternative national entity for political nihilism and the beginning of peaceful resistance against Spanish colonization. SPS 125/090/ Shares Outstanding: 222,274,246 Trading Symbols: TSX: GGD OTCQX: GLGDF HALIFAX, NS, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - GoGold Resources Inc. (TSX: GGD) (OTCQX: GLGDF) ("GoGold", "the Company") is pleased to release the assay results from 9 diamond drill holes at the Los Ricos South Project, including 3 at San Juan, 4 at the Main area, 1 at Rascadero and the first results from the East Vein. Hole LRGG-20-174 was drilled on section 475N in the Main area of the project and intersected the Los Ricos quartz vein from 214.5 to 229.5m for 15.0m of 365 g/t silver equivalent, consisting of 2.56 g/t gold and 173 g/t silver. The intersect included 4.4m of 1,120 g/t silver equivalent. Hole LRGG-20-178 is the Company's first hole drilled at the East Vein. The vein sits 400m to the east of the Main area and parallels the Los Ricos vein structure. The mineralization and alteration observed in the East Vein is very similar to the Main area and was explored in the 1920's by underground workings from the Cinco Minas Level. The initial drill holes are testing the up-dip projection towards surface. The drill hole intersected 4.4m of 178 g/t silver equivalent from 118.0 to 122.4m, including 2.0m of 312 g/t silver equivalent. Hole LRGG-20-169 was drilled on section 750N in the San Juan area and intersected the Los Ricos quartz vein from 245.9 to 250.0m for 4.1m of 426 g/t silver equivalent, consisting of 3.18 g/t gold and 188 g/t silver. "These holes represent the first round of drill results from our restarted drilling program, and also include our first drill intercept from the East Vein which is encouraging. With the drilling at Los Ricos North underway, we await assay results over the coming weeks which we believe could substantially broaden the potential of the Los Ricos district," said Brad Langille, President and CEO. Detailed intersections are listed in Table 1, and the hole locations are shown in Table 2. A longitudinal section summary of all the holes drilled at Los Ricos to date is available at https://gogoldresources.com/component/rsfiles/preview?path=diagrams/LosRicos_LongSec_20200617.pdf Table 1: Drill Hole Intersections Hole ID Area Section From To Length1 Au Ag AuEq2 AgEq2 (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) LRGG-20-168 Main 300N 147.5 172.9 25.4 0.13 33.6 0.58 43.5 including 166.5 172.9 6.3 0.22 72.2 1.18 88.6 LRGG-20-169 San Juan 750N 245.9 250.0 4.1 3.18 187.7 5.68 426.2 LRGG-20-170 Main 250N 174.0 199.5 25.5 0.09 27.8 0.46 34.4 LRGG-20-171 San Juan 1000N 154.4 168.0 13.7 0.40 40.8 0.94 70.4 LRGG-20-172 San Juan 950N 280.0 291.3 11.3 0.22 33.7 0.66 49.9 LRGG-20-173 Main 325N 213.4 235.5 22.2 0.15 63.8 1.00 75.4 including 230.6 235.5 4.9 0.44 177.7 2.81 210.9 LRGG-20-174 Main 475N 214.5 229.5 15.0 2.56 172.7 4.86 364.8 including 225.1 229.5 4.4 8.33 496.0 14.94 1,120.4 LRGG-20-175 Rascadero 1000N 96.9 104.9 8.1 0.15 36.5 0.63 47.5 LRGG-20-178 East Vein 125N 118.0 122.4 4.4 1.09 97.0 2.38 178.4 including 119.0 121.0 2.0 1.88 171.3 4.17 312.4 Not true width AuEq and AqEq converted using a silver to gold ratio of 75:1 Holes LRGG-20-176 and LRG-20-177 are excluded as they are pending assays Table 2: Drill Hole Locations Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Dip Length LRGG-20-168 0300N 610801 2327757 1425 230 -40 LRGG-20-169 0750N 610158 2327824 1257 50 -65 LRGG-20-170 0250N 610855 2327741 1418 230 -40 LRGG-20-171 1000N 610168 2328144 1341 50 -45 LRGG-20-172 950N 610062 2327989 1323 50 -65 LRGG-20-173 325N 610809 2327801 1442 230 -43 LRGG-20-174 475N 610703 2327908 1471 230 -45 LRGG-20-175 1000N 610219 2328186 1354 50 -45 LRGG-20-178 175N 611070 2327824 1419 50 -45 Los Ricos Exploration Projects The Company's two exploration projects at its Los Ricos property are in Jalisco state, Mexico. The South Project began in March 2019 and includes the 'Main' area, which is focused on drilling around a number of historical mines including El Abra, El Troce, San Juan, and Rascadero. The South Project also includes the Cerro Colorado, Las Lamas and East Vein targets. The North Project was launched in March 2020 and includes drilling at the Monte del Favor, Salomon, La Trini, and Mololoa targets. Procedure, Quality Assurance / Quality Control and Data Verification The diamond drill core (HQ size) is geologically logged, photographed and marked for sampling. When the sample lengths are determined, the full core is sawn with a diamond blade core saw with one half of the core being bagged and tagged for assay. The remaining half portion is returned to the core trays for storage and/or for metallurgical test work. The sealed and tagged sample bags are transported to the ActLabs facility in Zacatecas, Mexico. ActLabs crushes the samples and prepares 200-300 gram pulp samples with ninety percent passing Tyler 150 mesh (106m). The pulps are assayed for gold using a 50-gram charge by fire assay (Code 1A2-50) and over limits greater than 10 grams per tonne are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code 1A3-50). Silver and multi-element analysis is completed using total digestion (Code 1F2 Total Digestion ICP). Over limits greater than 100 grams per tonne silver are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code 8-Ag FA-GRAV Ag). Quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC") procedures monitor the chain-of-custody of the samples and includes the systematic insertion and monitoring of appropriate reference materials (certified standards, blanks and duplicates) into the sample strings. The results of the assaying of the QA/QC material included in each batch are tracked to ensure the integrity of the assay data. All results stated in this announcement have passed GoGold's QA/QC protocols. Mr. David Duncan, P. Geo. is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information of this release. About GoGold Resources GoGold Resources (TSX: GGD) is a Canadian-based silver and gold producer focused on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring high quality projects in Mexico. The Company operates the Parral Tailings project in the state of Chihuahua and has the Los Ricos exploration project in the state of Jalisco. Headquartered in Halifax, NS, GoGold is building a portfolio of low cost, high margin projects. For more information visit gogoldresources.com. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: The securities described herein 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 benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy of any of GoGold's securities in the United States. This news release may contain "forward-looking information" as defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Parral tailings project, the Los Ricos project, future operating margins, future production and processing, and future plans and objectives of GoGold, constitute forward looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information is based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such information but which may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to, assumptions in connection with the continuance of GoGold and its subsidiaries as a going concern, general economic and market conditions, mineral prices, the accuracy of mineral resource estimates, and the performance of the Parral project There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from GoGold's expectations include exploration and development risks associated with GoGold's projects, the failure to establish estimated mineral resources or mineral reserves, volatility of commodity prices, variations of recovery rates, and global economic conditions. For additional information with respect to risk factors applicable to GoGold, reference should be made to GoGold's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with securities regulators, including, but not limited to, GoGold's Annual Information Form. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date of this release. SOURCE GoGold Resources Inc. Related Links http://www.gogoldresources.com/ When she moves into Gulf Rise retirement village soon, Swedish-born Bodil Leitch will have many exciting stories to share with fellow residents in particular, tales from the many months she spent crocodile hunting in northern Queensland. In 1971, at the age of 22, Bodil arrived in Queensland with a friend and ended up in Cairns just before the wet season. The pair met a group who were hunting crocodiles for their skins and travelled north with them. At this stage, Bodil had never seen either a gun, or a crocodile but before they headed up north, she was given a little preparation in the form of shooting beer cans. Spending two months camping in the bush in 40C heat, combined with all night crocodile hunts and fishing for barramundi was something she says she relished and ended up returning to for around 18 months. She shot a number of crocodiles in that time, and says although the crocodiles could be very large, the target is very small the 2cm x 2cm area between the eyes so it was a skilful, as well as at times dangerous, job. Bodils hunting expeditions came to an abrupt end when she contracted dysentery from infected water and was advised not to return to the bush, on medical grounds. This was not long before the practice of shooting wild crocodiles for the skin trade in Queensland was made illegal, in 1973. Bodil returned to Europe, but went on to marry an Australian and live in Melbourne. The couple moved to New Zealand for work in 1985 and have been here ever since. Bodil says she is looking forward to moving into Gulf Rise, as she has friends in Orewa and loves the area. Even as a reconciliation committee is poring over documents to correct the Covid-19 death tally in Tamil Nadu, fresh reports of a mismatch in the tally reported from Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu and the state records have emerged. The bulletin released daily by the states health department showed only one death in Cuddalore as of June 17, but a senior health officer of Cuddalore confirmed to HT that there have been two more deaths in the district. We have recorded three deaths in our district out of which only one is reflected in the health bulletin, the rest should be added soon. We dont know why it wasnt added but we have given all information in our daily press reports as well as recorded this in online government portals, said the official seeking anonymity. In the event of a Covid-19 death, officials of the Deputy Director of Health Services (DDHS), a district-level body, is required to compile and send the information to the Directorate of Public Health (DPH), a state-level body. The hospitals simultaneously inform local authorities such as the health inspector, sanitary inspector, among others. In Chennai, the counterpart of the DDHS is the city health officer of the Greater Chennai Corporation. Last week, Chennai-based anti-corruption organisation Arappor Iyakkam had shared the details of a death in Cuddalore on June 4, as well as two in Chennai, and sent a complaint to the then health secretary, Dr Beela Rajesh. A few days later, they shared another case of a Covid-19 positive 57-year-old man who died in Rajah Muthiah Medical College in Cuddalore on June 8. Arappor Iyakkam earlier this week, shared the details of another death which has not been reported in the state tally: a 38-year-old woman who died on June 6, and whose cause of death is registered as Covid pneumonia at Omandurar Medical College Hospital in Chennai. HT has verified that this case has not been reported in the state tally till date. None of these cases have been reflected in the health bulletin, said Jayaram Venkatesan, convener of Arappor. Rajesh was transferred from the post last week after it came to light that 236 deaths registered in the civic body registry were not reported in the state tally. A nine-member team was formed to reconcile the numbers after studying all deaths in Chennai since March. Until June 12, Chennai had reported a total of 294 deaths out of 367 in Tamil Nadu. The following days bulletin introduced a special character in the Chennai column to denote reconciled figures which included a few deaths from May. As of June 17, Chennai has 461 deaths with reconciled figures out of the total 576 deaths in Tamil Nadu. We are scrutinising it case by case with the help of clinical experts, said Dr P Vadivelan heading the committee formed by the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) and Preventive Medicine. We should be done in another two days. After Chennai, Chengalpattu and Thiruvallur account for the highest number of deaths in the state-- 33 and 31, respectively. District officials told HT that there was no mismatch in the death tally reported by them and subsequently by the state. Wednesdays health bulletin also denoted that death figures in Chengalpattu were reconciled. Till Tuesday, the tally in the bulletin was 30, but was rectified to 33 on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a senior private secretary in the office of the states chief minister succumbed to Covid-19 disease on Wednesday, at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. Many technology companies say they're committed to reducing their impact on the environment -- but Logitech wants to show you exactly how. Today, it's announcing plans to put carbon impact ratings on its product boxes, starting with its gaming devices later this year. They'll show up as a "C" (for carbon) shaped arrow along with a cost figure, a rating determined by the company's Life Cycle Analysis, which measures a device's impact from manufacturing until its end of life. At a basic level, the carbon rating could help you choose between one of Logitech's many mice offerings. But even though it's leading the way, the company ultimately wants to bring other tech firms onboard to make these ratings a widely adopted standard. Think of it like an evolved form of those Energy Star labels you see on appliances. If you're choosing between two refrigerators, and you learn that one costs hundreds more per year to operate, you'll probably go for the cheaper one. Now imagine making a similar judgement call when buying any device, except youre thinking about your personal environmental impact. Harry Murphy via Getty Images Bracken Darrell, Logitech's CEO, sees the carbon impact rating as something that's even more ubiquitous than Energy Star figures. He wants it to be like reading calories on a nutrition label. "What we want to do is bring the choice [for environmental impact] to the same kind of choices you have when you think about the price or benefits of a product," he said in an interview with Engadget. "We want that choice to be visible... Literally on the package, in your face, so that you can see exactly what kind of carbon the company is contributing when making the product, and all the way through its life." Logitech's ratings aren't just some made up figures. It's working with third-parties like the iPoint Group and Nature Capital Partners to ensure it meets DEKRA standards for environmental claims. The initiative also builds on the company's previous green efforts, like supporting the Paris Climate Agreement and its promise to be powered entirely by renewables by 2030. The company aims to bring carbon labels to all of its products within five years. Making its carbon impact visible also makes life a bit tougher for Logitech, as the company's head of operations, Prakash Arunkundrum, describes. If a new mouse gets a larger battery, its engineers will also have to make sure it has a longer lifespan overall to account for that. Otherwise, we'll all notice if that mouse is somehow much worse for the environment than its predecessor. And of course, the carbon figures are also a way to push the company towards greener packaging with less plastic. "This is a passion project for a lot of people in our company," Darrell said. "I'm not going to let up on this, I don't care what the perception is... I think there's no such thing as good design without being sustainable now." While it's hard to tell if anyone else will adopt Logitech's labeling, it's still a noble effort. All too often, the environmental impact of our gadgets are hidden from view. That just seems irresponsible as we're careening towards a genuine climate crisis, not to mention dealing with the fallout of a global pandemic. We'll all be using our devices longer, and thinking a lot harder about how to replace them. So wouldn't it be great if we actually knew how much our next phone would cost the planet? LANSING, MI -- Six months into its existence, Michigans recreational marijuana industry hit a new milestone last week, exceeding medical marijuana in weekly sales for the first time ever. Some industry players like Steve Linder, president of the Michigan Cannabis Manufacturers Association, which describes its members as the General Motors, Ford, and Chryslers of Michigans cannabis industry, see this shift to a recreational-dominated market as inevitable. This is a trend in every state, Linder said. Almost every state has medical first ... And then when people get used to it and they go to recreational ... and you see this dramatic shift away from medical. The market is just still really in an upward trajectory. Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency Director Andrew Brisbo, shakes hands with co-owner of Exclusive Brands, Omar Hishmeh standing next to Narmin Jarrous, executive vice president of business development and director of social equity program as they receive the first recreational marijuana license in the state of Michigan during a Marijuana Regulatory Agency press briefing on Tuesday Nov. 19, 2019 at 3820 Varsity Drive. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com As of now, both medical and recreational sales have seen a huge increase in average weekly sales since December. Weekly medical sales have nearly doubled, and weekly recreational sales are up more than 800%. While medical marijuana sales totaled $9.97 million between June 8 and June 14, recreational marijuana saw $10.02 million in sales. The state marijuana licensing laws require any recreational business to be first licensed as a medical marijuana business until December 2021, at which time new applicants may sell recreational marijuana without a medical license. Since recreational sales began, Michigan has lost about 19,000 or 7% of its registered medical marijuana patients and 2,900 or 8% of its registered caregivers. Where did they go? Linder said. They didnt stop using cannabis. They just stopped ... seeking medical cards and theyve transitioned into the adult use system. The new recreational industry that went live on Dec. 1 continues its steady ascent, even while major cities like Detroit, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Jackson and Pontiac still havent allowed any recreational marijuana businesses to open within their borders. Nearly 1,400 other of Michigans 1,773 cities, townships and villages have also opted out of recreational marijuana. Over the first four weeks of recreational marijuana sales, the industry tallied $6.4 million or $1.6 million per week, versus a total of $37.5 million in sales or $9.4 million per week between May 18 and June 14. Medical marijuana sales have remained more consistent at between $9 million and $10 million per week since late April. Medical marijuana provisioning centers, with about 280 active licenses, still heavily outnumber recreational marijuana retailers, of which there are about 114 existing licenses, based on Marijuana Regulatory Agency online licensing data. Employee at High Profile, Kelsey Palmer, shows off the marijuana flowers sold inside C3 Industries new marijuana dispensary on Packard St. in Ann Arbor, Thursday March, 12, 2020. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com Over the 28 weeks since recreational sales began, recreational sales have accounted for about $138 million in sales, versus $476 million in medical marijuana sales over the same time frame, according to Marijuana Regulatory Agency data. Based on sales figures provided by the Marijuana Regulatory Agency, which oversees the licensed medical and recreational industries, recreational sales slumped briefly following March 23 stay-home orders that accompanied Gov. Gretchen Whitmers response to the coronavirus pandemic, but recovered quickly. For each week after April 13, total weekly recreational marijuana sales have been higher than they were prior to the pandemics arrival in Michigan. Michigan marijuana industry changed but thriving amid the coronavirus The industry credits quick action by the governor and the Marijuana Regulatory Agency to allow marijuana businesses to continue operating with curbside sales and an expedited expansion of delivery services. Marijuana Regulatory Agency spokesman David Harns said state licensing employees have done a great job over the last several months quickly issuing licenses for the adult-use marijuana industry and havent missed a beat, even after having to adjust to doing their work remotely due to the coronavirus. Weve had to hire staff during this time, Brett Stephens, general manager at Freddies in Clio, told MLive last month. Weve grown. Weve seen retail sales go up by 100%. While the individual businesses flourish, so to do government coffers. The state has raked in $22.9 million in excise and sales taxes from recreational marijuana since December. While we will continue to focus on the unique needs of both our medical and adult-use customers, its not surprising to see the rapid growth of recreational sales across Michigan," said John Gregory, the chief marketing officer for Lume, a vertically integrated company with its own grow operation and eight retail stores. "Cannabis is becoming more and more accepted each day, and its benefits are becoming more and more undeniable. The adult-use market is already substantial, and will only grow larger as the anti-cannabis stigma continues to shrink. Hybrid strains of marijuana are sold on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020 at Freddie's Cannabis store in Thetford Township. (Sarahbeth Maney | MLive.com)Sarahbeth Maney | MLive.com More from MLive: Marijuana thrives in market changed by the coronavirus Spouses of licensees may be able to work for government A prior marijuana conviction could be a good thing Confusion over marijuana business in Detroit leads to lawsuits Michigan recreational marijuana sales near $6.5 million Recreational market poised to boom in 2020 Michigan wants Weedmaps to stop advertising for unlicensed marijuana businesses Michigan not collecting personal information on customersA prior marijuana conviction could be a good thing Confusion over marijuana business in Detroit leads to lawsuits Michigan recreational marijuana sales near $6.5 million Recreational market poised to boom in 2020 Michigan wants Weedmaps to stop advertising for unlicensed marijuana businesses Michigan not collecting personal information on customers Officials want unions to play role in marijuana industry A new study has shown that potent antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) could help protect against COVID-19 infection. Preliminary results in animal studies have so far proven successful. The study titled, "Isolation of potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and protection from disease in a small animal model," was published in the latest issue of the journal Science. What was the study about? At present, the COVID-19 pandemic has no cure, and there are no vaccines that can prevent this infection. To date, it has already killed over 441,000 individuals across the world and many have suffered from severe and life-threatening critical illness due to this infection. Plasma from those who have recovered from the infection is said to contain "neutralizing antibodies (nAbs)." The researchers write that these antibodies could help treat critically ill patients with COVID-19 by aiding their immune system to fight the infection. These antibodies could also form the basis of a potential vaccine to prevent the infection among the vulnerable population, the researchers explained. Some nAbs have "outstanding potency," and these are termed "super-antibodies." These can be obtained by "deeply mining antibody responses of a sampling of infected donors," they wrote. This study was undertaken to see if isolating highly potent nAbs against SARS-CoV-2 could protect models of small animals against the infection. What was done? Team of researchers led by Scripps research along with a team at and University of California San Diego School of Medicine included a group of participants who had recovered entirely from COVID-19 and had adequate antibodies against the infection. They developed "neutralization assays" to see the level of antibody response among the participants. For this, they used a "high-throughput antibody generation pipeline" and screened over 1,800 antibodies. At the UC San Diego lab, blood samples of the convalescent patients were collected. At Scripps Research and IAVI, certain test cells were developed. These cells were made to express ACE2 receptors on their surface. This receptor is the one on which the virus binds in order to enter the host cells. To check if the antibodies could stop the entry of the virus, the team isolated over 1,000 antibody-producing immune cells from the blood samples. These were the B cells of the patients. These B cells produce a distinct SARS-CoV-2 antibody. Next, they studied the genetic sequences of the antibodies so that they could make these antibodies in the lab. For their in vivo tests, they developed a small animal lab model using Syrian hamsters to test if these antibodies could protect against the infection. They isolated potent nAbs against receptor binding domains (RBD) present on the spike protein of the virus (S). These spikes help the virus to attach to the host cell before invading them. The lab-created potent antibodies were screened, and they noted that even small amounts of the antibodies were capable of blocking the virus in the test samples. They also protected the hamsters from heavy viral exposure, wrote the researchers. It took the researchers seven weeks to complete their study. Study co-author Elise Landais, Ph.D., an IAVI principal scientist, said, "We leveraged our institution's decades of expertise in antibody isolation and quickly pivoted our focus to SARS-CoV-2 to identify these highly potent antibodies." A human antibody (blue) attaches to the receptor binding domain (red) on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. (Model courtesy of the Burton lab.) What was found? The results of this study showed that passive administration of the potent nAb to the lab animals provided them with protection against COVID-19 due to SARS CoV-2. This was seen among the tested Syrian hamsters. When the animals were inoculated with the virus and subsequently the nAbs were administered, the load of the virus remained low in the lungs of the animals, and their body weight remained unchanged. Conclusions and future directions The researchers wrote, "The study suggests a role for nAbs in prophylaxis, and potentially therapy, of COVID-19. The nAbs define protective epitopes to guide vaccine design." Co-senior author of the study Dr. Dennis Burton, Ph.D., the James and Jessie Minor Chair in Immunology in the Department of Immunology & Microbiology at Scripps Research, said, "The discovery of these very potent antibodies represents an extremely rapid response to a totally new pathogen." Co-lead author Thomas Rogers, MD, Ph.D., an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Immunology & Microbiology at Scripps Research, and assistant professor of Medicine at UC San Diego, said, "It has been a tremendous collaborative effort, and we're now focused on making large quantities of these promising antibodies for clinical trials." "We intend to make them available to those who need them most, including people in low- and middle-income countries," Landais added. The researchers explained these antibodies from the convalescent patients could be mass-produced using biotechnology methods and could be used not only for treating critically ill patients but also used for the development of vaccines in preventing severe COVID-19 illness among the vulnerable population. The researchers say that this approach has been successful in treating Ebola and respiratory syncytial virus RSV infections in the past. Burton concluded, "That discovery gives us hope that we will eventually find broadly neutralizing antibodies that provide at least partial protection against all or most SARS coronaviruses, which should be useful if another one jumps to humans." [June 17, 2020] Kipu partners with Monte Nido & Affiliates, a Nationwide Leader in the Treatment of Eating Disorders MIAMI, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Miami's Monte Nido & Affiliates, one of the nation's leading providers in the treatment of eating disorders, has selected Kipu as their software partner and is currently rolling out the KipuEMR to their Monte Nido, Oliver-Pyatt Centers and Clementine programs in California, Massachusetts, Florida, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Texas and Pennsylvania. Monte Nido & Affiliates provides comprehensive residential and day treatment programs for people with eating and co-occurring disorders. "We're honored to be the technology partner for the Monte Nido & Affiliates' network of treatment centers," said Jeffrey Fiorentino, CEO of KipuHealth. "Monte Nido & Affiliates are on the front line in the fight against the challenges of Anorexia Nervosa, Bulmia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder and Exercise Dependency. They are battling a silent yet pervasive, and potentially deadly, disease. We want to be there with them." "Monte Nido & Affiliates' centers needed a platform that could accommodate their very specific treatment needs and it had to have the ability to scale as they grew," said Fiorentino. "The KipuEMR was the perfect platform for them. We were able to quickly begin implementing the KipuEMR and staff was able to begin using it immediately." "After a lengthy RFP selection process, Kipu became our clear choice. We expect to see benefits from this new technology partnership immediately. We recognized that Kipu offers the necessary tools and support to eliminate manual work, track and document episodes of care, achieve full compliance, and measure outcomes to help us provide treatment." said Candance Henderson, MS, Monte Nido & Affiliates CEO. "We understand the challenges that face today's treatment facilities," said Fiorentino. "Every day, we see folks struggling rather, fighting with their software. With the power and efficiencies that we've built into the KipuEMR, we know that our technology will help deliver better care. Clinicians and therapists will spend less time struggling with software and more quality time with their patients." About KipuHealth Designed specifically forand withinthe treatment community, KipuEMR is the largest and most widely implemented EMR for Substance Use Disorder, Eating Disorders, Autism and Behavioral Health worldwide. Used by over 1,600 treatment facilities and 70,000 users daily, having handled in excess of 700,000 episodes of care. For more information, visit www.kipuhealth.com. About Monte Nido & Affiliates Monte Nido & Affiliates is one of the country's leading eating disorder treatment providers, offering residential and day treatment programs for eating disorders. Founded in 1996, Monte Nido & Affiliates operates 25 facilities in ten states, with residential programs being Joint Commission accredited. Monte Nido & Affiliates includes three distinct eating disorder treatment brands: Monte Nido, Oliver-Pyatt Centers and Clementine. Press Contact: Christina Caballero Communications & Social Media Director 305-495-3347 | [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kipu-partners-with-monte-nido--affiliates-a-nationwide-leader-in-the-treatment-of-eating-disorders-301078951.html SOURCE Kipu [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Netflix viewers have demanded the streaming service 'hurry up' and provide a sequel for the erotically-charged drama 365 DNI after it ended with a cliffhanger. The Polish movie, also known as 365 Days, tells the story of 'fiery executive' Laura Biel (played by Anna-Maria Sieklucka) who is kidnapped and imprisoned on a holiday to Sicily by mafia boss Massimo Torricelli (Michele Morrone). After landing on Netflix UK and US earlier this month, the film became the subject of widespread social media discussion thanks to its controversial depiction of sex between a kidnapper and his victim. However much to the disappointment of viewers, the film, which features scenes of voyeurism and BDSM, ends with a scene showing Laura apparently disappearing while driving through a tunnel - leaving a host of unanswered questions. Fortunately for fans, the storyline of the movie is based on the first book of a trilogy by Polish author Blanka Lipinska. Now viewers have taken to Twitter to demand Netflix continue adapting and release as sequel 'as soon as possible'. Netflix viewers have demanded the streaming service 'hurry up' and provide a sequel for the erotically-charged drama 365 DNI (pictured) after it ended with a cliffhanger The Polish movie, also known as 365 Days, tells the story of 'fiery executive' Laura Biel (played by Anna-Maria Sieklucka) who is kidnapped and imprisoned on a holiday to Sicily by mafia boss Massimo Torricelli (Michele Morrone) (pictured together) To the frustration of viewers, the film ends on a cliffhanger, with Laura vanishing during a car journey in a tunnel (pictured above) For fans of the movie (above) - which is adapted from the first book of Blanka Lipinska's trilogy of the same name - a sequel can't come quick enough One person wrote: 'Can Netflix please hurry up with the 365 DNI sequel?' while another said: 'I need the sequel for 365 DNI asap. What happens to Laura? We got the books in English yet?' A third added: ' I swear to god if they don't make a sequel to 365 DNI I'm going to lose it. You can't just leave me with that ending and with Laura's s***** hair.' A fourth viewer wrote: 'I demand a 365 Days sequel. They can not just leave it like that! #makeasequel #now.' The X-rated film sees Laura, a sales director at a luxurious Warsaw hotel, take a holiday to Sicily with her boyfriend Martin in a last-ditch attempt to save their relationship. Massimo, who took over from his mafia boss father after his assassination, kidnaps her on the island and gives her 'a year to fall in love with him'. Reaction: Netflix viewers (above) take to Twitter to demand a sequel to the very raunchy drama In once scene, Laura is forced to watch Massimo be pleasured by another woman while she remains chained to a wall, wearing nothing but a dressing gown. Another scene sees the couple engage in some very steamy intercourse on the mafia boss yacht after Massimo saves Lauras life. Shocked viewers also watch Laura being tied to a chair on a private jet while Massimo teases her, before the couple are seen enjoying a fiery exchange of words while naked with one another in the shower. To the frustration of viewers, the film ends on a cliffhanger, with Laura vanishing during a car journey in a tunnel. A film adaptation of Blanka's second book hasn't been confirmed and the novels are currently only available in Polish. Massimo, who took over from his mafia boss father after his assassination, kidnaps Laura and gives her 'a year to fall in love with him'. Pictured, Laura is made to watch Massimo have sex with other women Shocked viewers watch Laura being tied to a chair on a private jet while Massimo teases her Controversy: The movie has been compared to the series Fifty Shades of Grey by fans, while critics claim it 'romanticizes a forced relationship' But if a sequel follows Blanka's story Ten Dzein (which translates to This Day), viewers could see Laura kidnapped again by a rival mobster. Upon its release, fans of 365 DNI said it was the 'hottest thing ever' and 'made Fifty Shades of Grey look PG', but critics accused the creators of 'romanticising' a dangerous relationship between a captor and victim. One person wrote: 'Please remember that there is a huge difference between fantasy and reality. If you are a guy, please don't get any ideas. No girl wants to be kidnapped and made to fall in love.' Meanwhile, another viewer, who is based in the US, tweeted: 'It romanticizes harassment (which is so messy by the way), there's Stockholm syndrome (which is a mental condition from which a victim falls in love with her abductor and should not be normalized).' The Twitter user pleaded with her fellow viewers to stop comparing the Polish movie to Fifty Shades of Grey, insisting that there are few parallels between the two other than the risque sex scenes. The couple are seen enjoying a fiery exchange of words while naked with one another in the shower (pictured) The lovers are seen at a masquerade ball together during Laura's period of imprisonment 'Sure the sex scenes are great and very intimate, but all of those happened after a few sexual harassment and uncomfortable scenarios,' she continued. 'I mean - stop comparing it to Fifty Shades of Grey. 'Clearly, Fifty Shades of Grey stated that Grey was under a mental instability and Massimo was never considered problematic in the film, despite his anger issues.' Despite the criticism, the film had plenty of viewers feeling hot under the collar and was widely compared to E.L. James's Fifty Shades franchise. One viewer tweeted: 'Fifty Shades can't beat this movie at all. Massimo was a beast.' Another fan then wrote: 'If anyone is a Fifty Shades fan they NEED to watch 365 DNI... I'm sweating.' A third added: 'Honestly how Netflix approved that pornographic film called 365 DNI is beyond me. Ten minutes and my eyes.' 'I made my own Netflix account just so I can watch #365dni without my family knowing,' a fourth viewer joked. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 16:13:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WELLINGTON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand and Britain formally launched free trade negotiations on Wednesday. "As the UK (the United Kingdom) embarks on its next steps post-Brexit, New Zealand is pleased to be among the first countries to negotiate a trade agreement with one of our oldest friends," Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker said in a statement. "We look forward to an FTA (Free Trade Agreement) that opens up more opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses, Maori exporters and our regional communities consistent with our Trade for All objectives," he said. A free trade agreement with Britain will be an important new milestone in the close relationship, Parker said. "In the post-Brexit environment, it makes more sense than ever for us to be working together to grow this partnership for the future," he said. "As the global economy continues to be severely impacted by the effects of COVID-19, we are more committed than ever to concluding a bilateral FTA capable of delivering significant benefits to the people of both New Zealand and the UK," the minister said. Britain is New Zealand's sixth largest trading partner. Two-way trade totaled almost 6 billion NZ dollars (3.9 billion U.S. dollars) last year. Enditem Food poses little risk of spreading the coronavirus, governments and industry groups from the US to Chile said, reassuring consumers after an outbreak in Beijing was blamed on imported fish. The US Food and Drug Administration said it is not aware of any evidence to suggest that food can transmit the respiratory virus. The view was echoed by Kate Grusich, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who said the poor survivability of coronaviruses on surfaces means there is likely very low risk of spread from food products or packaging. Chile, the top seller of salmon after Norway, sought to persuade China that its fish is safe to import after orders were cancelled. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority also said there were no known cases of infection via contaminated food. Questions are being raised over the potential dangers of food after coronavirus infections were traced to the chopping board of a seller of imported salmon at a market in Beijing. While its possible an infected person contaminated the board, salmon has been taken off the shelves in major supermarkets while top experts are warning people not to consume the omega-3 rich fish. There are only a couple of examples of where people have caught the coronavirus from animals. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says that thoroughly cooked meat from healthy livestock is safe, but warns people to avoid meat from wild animals or sick livestock. Health experts have confirmed that transmission can occur indirectly, by touching a contaminated surface or object, though the CDC said in late May that pathway probably isnt the main way the virus spreads. Its unclear if the virus can be transmitted through frozen food thats later thawed. David Hamer, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health and a physician at Boston Medical Center, said that although there is no evidence that Covid-19 can be transmitted through food, more research is needed. That raises a whole lot of concerning prospects around the global movement of the food supply, he said. This could set off a panic if people think their food could be a cause of infection. Clara Amfo has described her powerful speech live on Radio 1 days after George Floyd's death as herself 'coming out as a black woman.' The broadcaster used her radio show to talk about her reaction to Floyd's death and the ensuing protests which are continuing to take place across the globe. Reflecting on her emotional reaction, Clara told Grazia Magazine that she showed another side of herself to her listeners, explaining that her fans had up until that point seen the 'joyous' signifiers of her 'Blackness' and not the trauma. Message: Clara Amfo has described her powerful speech on the airways of Radio 1, days after George Floyd's death as herself 'coming out as a black woman' 'Being a joyous Black person is radical,' she tells Grazia, revealing that Oprah even once commented on her 'light'. But two weeks ago Clara was honest about her mental struggles as she spoke about George Floyd's death live on her Radio 1 show. The broadcaster, 36, delivered a powerful speech on racism as she told listeners she was unable to come into work the day before and speak with 'happy intention' when she had spent the weekend devastated. Days before her speech, video surfaced of police office Derek Chauvin crushing 46-year-old Floyd's neck with his knee in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Impact: The broadcaster used her Radio 1 show to talk about her reaction to Floyd's death and the ensuring protests which are continuing to take place across the globe The DJ said: 'Now as you know at Radio 1 we talk a lot about mental health and mine was in a really, really bad way yesterday. 'In fact it has been for the past few days, in particular, in relation to the death of George Floyd. George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died whilst being held under arrest.' She continued: 'Now, I didn't have the mental strength to face you guys yesterday, to ask, 'Hi, how was your weekend' like I usually do with my happy intention, because I know that my weekend was terrible.' Speaking about the speech two weeks on, Clara said: 'It was quite emotional for me. I was coming out as a Black woman to my listeners. They know I'm a Black woman. I've never hidden that.' Idol: 'Being a joyous Black person is radical,' she told Grazia, revealing that Oprah even once commented on her 'light' (pictured together in 2018) 'I'll speak about my mum or mention that I need to get my braids done. Or that I was in Ghana for Christmas. They've always been given signifiers of my Blackness in the most joyous parts. But they weren't aware of my Blackness in the pain and trauma.' 'I think, for me, the moment was like breathing out. It's like when you've had on a super-tight pair of jeans all day. And then after I said what I said, I felt like I had undone my top button. She continued: 'To see the mistreatment and disregard for Black life is painful. But don't feel sorry for me. I love my Blackness,' before insisting 'I think we're going to see real change'. Clara received an outpouring of support following her Radio 1 speech including words from her colleagues. Powerful: Speaking about the speech two weeks on, Clara said: 'It was quite emotional for me. I was coming out as a Black woman to my listeners' Trauma: 'I'll speak about my mum or that I was in Ghana for Christmas. They've always been given signifiers of my Blackness in the most joyous parts. But they weren't aware of my Blackness in the pain and trauma,' Clara explained (pictured with her mother) Read the full interview with Clara in Grazia - out now Fellow Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac tweeted in response: 'Clara Amfo you beautiful woman you are so brave on right now.' Chris Stark wrote: 'That was one of the most incredible, powerful, moving bits of radio ever. Clara Amfo you are incredible and strong and brilliant.' George Floyd's death on May 25 has sparked a wave of nationwide protests in the United States and beyond for racial justice and police reform. Former officer Derek Chauvin, who was filmed with his knee on Mr Floyd's neck, has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who were at the scene have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter. TS Inter Results 2020 DECLARED Updates: District wise, in second year intermediate exams, Medchal emerged as the top performing region, where a total of 45,041 cleared the exam. The pass percentage among students in 2nd year TS Inter exam was 75% in Medchal district. Auto refresh feeds The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) issued a notification on Wednesday stating that the result for Intermediate first year and Second Year will be announced today (Thursday, 18 June, 2020) at 3 pm. Step 1 : Visit the official TSBIE website at tsbie.cgg.gov.in . Step 2 : On the home page, click on Class 12 results Step 3 : Enter roll number and date of birth and click Submit Step 4 : Download the result for future reference. To receive the result through SMS, students can send TSGEN2 to 56263. Due to heavy traffic on the official website, students might be unable to log in to the official website - tsbie.cgg.gov.in - once the intermediate results are declared. In such a case, candidates can also receive their results on their phones via SMS. In case the official website is slow or not responsive, students can also get their intermediate results for both 1st year and 2nd year on their Android smartphones by registering in the mobile app T App Folio, launched by the state government. Grade D - More than or equal to 35% and less than 50% Grade C - More than or equal to 50% and less than 60% Grade B - More than or equal to 60% and less than 75% The TS Intermediate results are prepared on the basis of a grading system with Letter Grades as per the formula given below: In the Telangana intermediate 2019 exam, the pass percentage among TS 1st year students was 69.8 percent whereas, 65 percent of TS 2nd year students had cleared exam. The official website may become unresponsive owing to the heavy traffic it might experience after result announcement. In such a case, students can check results on alternative websites like examresults.net , indiaresults.com , www.examresults.ts.nic.in , manabadi.com and manabadi.co.in . Step 1 : Go to the examresults.net website Step 2 : Click on Telangana in the list of the states or access the link directly here Step 3 : Look for the link that says "2nd year General Results Click Here" Step 4 : Click on the link and fill in the required details to get your result Step 1 : Visit the website indiaresults.com Step 2 : Under the heading "Telangana Inter 2nd year General" find link "results Step 3 : Enter your roll number and other details and click on "Go" Over nine lakh students are awaiting their results for TS intermediate 2020 exam.The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) will declare the results shortly at 3 pm today (Thursday, 18 June). Candidates can also check their scores on Firstpost by using the widget below: Telangana Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy will announce the state Intermediate results at Board of Intermediate, Nampally on Thursday at 3 pm. For any grievances in the results of TS Intermediate 2020 exam, candidates can register their complaints through Board of Intermediate Grievance Redressal System (BIGRS) here: bigrs.telangana.gov.in The verification of the mark sheet should also be done with the name, subjects, exam centre as mentioned on the hall ticket Candidates who appeared for the Telangana intermediate exam for both 1st year and 2nd year need to keep their admit card/hall ticket ready. Students will be asked to type their roll number while checking the result. The official website of Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) - tsbie.cgg.gov.in - is currently unresponsive. Students are advised to keep their hall tickets ready. The Telangana TS inter results 2020 will be declared shortly by the education minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy today. The press conference has begun in the boards office. The Telangana board has declared the intermediate exam results for both 1st year and 2nd year on Thursday. Of the total 4,31,358 candidates, who appeared for the TS Inter exams, as many as 2,63,463 students have cleared the exa, taking the overall pass percentage among general students to 61.07 percent. Of the total 49,197 students, who appeared for TS Inter 2020 exam in vocational category, 24,920 have passed the exam. The pass percentage among these students is 50.65 percent. Among the second year students, as many as 3,74,492 candidates appeared for the TS Inter 2020 exam. Of the total, 2,60,703 clear the exam, taking the overall pass percentage to 69.61 percent. In first year, 4,80,555 students had appeared for Telangana TS Inter Exams and the overall pass percentage of 60.01 percent has been recorded. For second year, 4,11,651 students had appeared for exam. The overall pass percentage is at 68.86 percent. For the first year intermediate exams, 2,36,450 boys and 2,44,105 girls had appeared for the examination. Pass percentage of girls is at 67.47%, while 52.30 percent boy cleared the exam. A total of 4,11,631 students had appeared for the TS Inter second year examination 2020. The overall pass percent among these students was at 68.86 percent. Of the total 4.11 lakh students who appeared for the TS Inter second year examination 2020, 1,98,510 were boys and 2,13,121 were girls. The pass percentage of girls was recorded at 75.15 percent, while 62.11 percent boys clear the exam. While, the second position was secured by Komram Bheem, where 74% students cleared the 2nd year exam. District wise, in second year intermediate exams, Medchal emerged as the top performing region, where a total of 45,041 cleared the exam. The pass percentage among students in 2nd year TS Inter exam was 75% in Medchal district. In first year Telangana Intermediate exam, Medchal district emerged as the top-performing district, where a total of 59,751 students had appeared for the exam. The overall pass percentage of Medchal was at 76 percent after 45,169 students passed the 1st year exam. B) Principal of the Junior Colleges can view their college results from the site - tsbie.cgg.gov.in - using their user ID password already provided by the Board. After declaration of the results, for the convenience of the candidates, parents and general public the TS Inter results with marks are made available in the following ways. Further, the mobile app for BIGRS may be downloaded from the Google Play store for android users only. For any grievances in the results of TS Intermediate 2020 exam, candidates can register their complaints through Board of Intermediate Grievance Redressal System (BIGRS) here: bigrs.telangana.gov.in A total of 4,11,631 students had appeared for the TS Inter second year examination 2020. The overall pass percent among these students was at 68.86 percent. Of the total 4.11 lakh students who appeared for the TS Inter second year examination 2020, 1,98,510 were boys and 2,13,121 were girls. The pass percentage of girls was recorded at 75.15 percent, while 62.11 percent boys clear the exam. While, the second position was secured by Komram Bheem, where 74% students cleared the 2nd year exam. District wise, in second year intermediate exams, Medchal emerged as the top performing region, where a total of 45,041 cleared the exam. The pass percentage among students in 2nd year TS Inter exam was 75% in Medchal district. In first year Telangana Intermediate exam, Medchal district emerged as the top-performing district, where a total of 59,751 students had appeared for the exam. The overall pass percentage of Medchal was at 76 percent after 45,169 students passed the 1st year exam. B) Principal of the Junior Colleges can view their college results from the site - tsbie.cgg.gov.in - using their user ID password already provided by the Board. After declaration of the results, for the convenience of the candidates, parents and general public the TS Inter results with marks are made available in the following ways. Further, the mobile app for BIGRS may be downloaded from the Google Play store for android users only. For any grievances in the results of TS Intermediate 2020 exam, candidates can register their complaints through Board of Intermediate Grievance Redressal System (BIGRS) here: bigrs.telangana.gov.in Students can also check their results of TS Inter exams on Firstpost by using the following widget: TS Inter Results 2020 DECLARED LATEST Updates: District wise, in second year intermediate exams, Medchal emerged as the top performing region, where a total of 45,041 cleared the exam. The pass percentage among students in 2nd year TS Inter exam was 75% in Medchal district. In first year Telangana Intermediate exam, Medchal district emerged as the top-performing district, where a total of 59,751 students had appeared for the exam. The overall pass percentage of Medchal was at 76 percent after 45,169 students passed the 1st year exam. While, the second position was secured by Komram Bheem, where 74% students cleared the 2nd year exam. Of the total 4.11 lakh students who appeared for the TS Inter second year examination 2020, 1,98,510 were boys and 2,13,121 were girls. The pass percentage of girls was recorded at 75.15 percent, while 62.11 percent boys cleared the exam. In first year, 4,80,555 students had appeared for Telangana TS Inter Exams and the overall pass percentage of 60.01% has been recorded. For second year, 4,11,651 students had appeared for exam. Overall pass percentage is at 68.86%. The Telangana board has declared the intermediate exam results for both 1st year and 2nd year on Thursday. The official website of Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) may become unresponsive owing to the heavy traffic it might experience after result announcement. In such a case, students can check results on alternative websites like examresults.net, indiaresults.com, www.examresults.ts.nic.in, manabadi.com and manabadi.co.in. or via SMS and app on their phones. The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) issued a notification on Wednesday stating that the result for Intermediate first year and Second Year will be announced today (Thursday, 18 June, 2020) at 3 pm. The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education, or TSBIE, announced the date and time of declaration of TS Inter 2020 result on Wednesday, 17 June. According to a report by The Indian Express, Secretary Syed Omer Jaleel said that the result can be expected tomorrow as TSBIE has submitted reports on the intermediate first, second-year result 2020 to the state government. "The Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy may announce the result date today evening, the official meeting is on," the secretary was quoted as saying. Once announced, the TSBIE Inter Result 2020 will be on official websites - tsbie.cgg.gov.in, bie.telangana.gov.in, results.cgg.gov.in and manabadi.co.in. Around 9.65 lakh students have appeared for the intermediate exam this year. TSBIE conducted the last intermediate papers of Geography Paper-II, Modern Language-Paper-II on 18 May, which was earlier scheduled for 23 March. The exam was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 856 students appeared for the exam. To clear the TSBIE exams, students need to secure at least 35 percent marks in each subject and aggregate. According to a report by NDTV, TS intermediate result 2020 will most likely be announced by Telangana Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy and Education Secretary Dr B Janardhan Reddy Garu at the TSBIE premises in Hyderabad and may also be aired live on television. In 2019, the TS Inter results were announced in April. How to check TS Inter Result 2020: Step 1: Go to the official website of the board - bie.telangana.gov.in Step 2: On the homepage, click on the link that reads, Inter Result 2020 Step 3: You will be directed to a new page, where you will have to enter your roll number and other required credentials Step 4: Your TS Inter 1st year Result 2020 or TS Inter 2nd Year Result 2020 will appear on the screen. According to a report by India Today, students can also check their TS Inter first and second year results 2020 at the state government's mobile application - T App Folio. These were among incidents reported by the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. Cowtown Hobo Coronavirus Cash Coming Soon HUD Offers More Funding for Kansas City Homeless Assistance The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is allocating $31.3 million in additional CARES ACT funding to assist the homeless in Missouri. About $5 million in new funding is coming to Kansas City. Kansas City Small Biz Stays Losing City Hall Help Kansas City had $500K in COVID-19 help for businesses. Barely half has been given out Nearly six weeks after the program launched and more than two months after City Council members signed off, almost half of the $500,000 Kansas City set aside to help small businesses hurt by the coronavirus still hasn't been distributed. More KCK Jobs Sliced Seeing surge in sales, longtime KCK meat market temporarily closes due to COVID-19 KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A longtime Kansas City, Kansas, meat market dealing with the impacts of COVID-19 is now temporarily closing its doors. Bichelmeyer Meats is a community staple that's been around more than 70 years. The business has survived floods and a fire and was seeing a surge in sales during the pandemic. Celebrate Sommer Always Sommer Ray Sizzles In Tiny Animal-Print Bikini On Black Sand Beach Instagram model Sommer Ray shared a handful of photos on her Instagram page on Monday that will no doubt raise temperatures among her millions of followers. The 23-year-old beauty did not provide much in the way of details regarding where or when these photos were taken, but it didn't look like her fans cared about those particular details. Tell-All Takedown Justice Department Seeks To Block Publication Of John Bolton's White House Memoir subscribe to The NPR Politics Podcast podcast Seven days before the scheduled June 23 release of a tell-all account of John Bolton's tenure as President Trump's national security advisor, the Justice Department late Tuesday mounted a last-ditch effort to block its publication. A 27-page civil lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against Bolton with the U.S. Nobody Stopping Prez Trump Tulsa Corona Rally Judge rejects request to stop Tulsa Trump rally over coronavirus concerns The plaintiffs asked an Oklahoma court to impose social-distancing requirements for the rally, including the mandatory use of face masks,or else bar the rally until organizers agreed to implement them. But the plaintiffs were notified by phone later in the day that the judge denied their request for an injunction, according to court records. Deadly Fight Erupts Betwixt Emerging Nations Twenty Indian soldiers dead after clash with China along disputed border At least 20 Indian soldiers have died after a "violent face-off" with Chinese troops along the countries' de facto border in the Himalayas late Monday, the Indian army has said. Rocketman Shares Blowup Clip North Korea releases images of it blowing up its liaison office with South North Korean state media released images Tuesday of what it said was the destruction of the joint liaison office with South Korea. Seoul's Unification Ministry confirmed that the building in the North Korean border town of Kaesong was demolished "by bombing" on Tuesday afternoon local time, NBC News reported. NextGen Cinema Suffers Skeptical Public The King of Staten Island Tries Its Very Best The men and women who populate Judd Apatow's cinematic universe are works in progress-emotionally stunted adults in need of a wake-up call, which usually comes via a transformative life event. In the King of Staten Island, Apatow has perhaps found a new muse in Pete Davidson, whose semi-autobiographical movie The King of Staten Island is a departure from form. Kansas City Entrepreneurs Persist Amid Harsh Times Kansas City couple beating odds to keep restaurant open amid COVID, protests After being closed for nearly six weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Urban Cafe KC began welcoming back customers last week. And, like so many other restaurateurs, cafe owners Chef Justin Clark, and his wife, Rashaun, are now operating amid protests in response to the killing of George Floyd, a restaurateur in Louisville. Local Youngster Shares EPIC Survival Story 8-year-old girl randomly shot one year ago pushes for peace in Kansas City KANSAS CITY, Mo - An 8-year-old Kansas City girl is asking for peace in her city. She was randomly shot one year ago while riding in a car. Now, she and her mother say they want to see an end... Kansas City Early Forecast Rain chances returning to forecast Hide Transcript Show Transcript ANOTHER HOT ONE. WE HIT 90 DEGREES AGAIN TODAY, THE NINTH TIME THIS MONTH WE'VE DONE THA 89 IS OUR CURRENT TEMPERATURE. HUME AT 87%, A SOUTHEAST WIND CURRENTLY AT 11 MILES AN HOUR. WHY EVEN FOR OLATHE AND OVERLAND PARK. 93 FOR LAWRENCE AND OTTAWA. For the early morning Sommer hotness has inspired a quick peek at pop culture, community news and so much more . . .is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . . Libya: Italy asks for probe on mass graves in Tarhouna 'Perpetrators must be identified, held accountable' (ANSAmed) - ROME, JUNE 17 - ''The Italian government is appalled by the recent discovery of several mass graves in the city of Tarhouna, Libya'', according to a statement published on the website of the Italian foreign ministry on Tuesday. ''In line with the recent statements of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, EU High Representative Josep Borrell and the UNSMIL mission, Italy calls for an independent and transparent inquiry in order to identify perpetrators and hold them accountable''. ''Italy calls on all parties involved in the Libyan conflict to fully respect human rights and international humanitarian law'', the statement stressed. (ANSAmed). Uber (NYSE:UBER) will now become a transportation software provider. The San Francisco-based rideshare company signed a deal with Marin County, California, to manage parts of its public transport system with its software. Once both sides finalize the deal, Marin residents will have the ability to book one of the county's minibuses using Uber's app. Rides will cost $4 per mile, though people with disabilities or other mobility issues will pay a rate of $3 per mile. If another rider is going the same direction, they may also share the cost of a ride. However, due to social distancing restrictions, only two passengers may ride in these six-seat buses. Proceeds from the rides will go to Marin Transit. The transit authority, in turn, will pay Uber a flat monthly rate of up to $80,000 per month for the duration of the two-year contract, in addition to additional incentives available under the deal. Uber earned $3.54 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter. Consequently, this service will not serve as a significant source of cash for the company. However, this deal could lead to similar agreements with other local and regional entities that could turn such services into a significant revenue source. "Agencies have been approaching us for years now, trying to figure out ways that they can tap into the technology we've built with Uber," said David Reich, Uber's head of transit. He described the deal with Marin Transit as a "first step" toward providing that service. He added that discussions with other transportation entities are ongoing. According to Marin Transit, the service will launch on July 1. Nike, Walmart, Ben & Jerrys, Twitter and Google: These are just a few of the major brands that have responded to the news of George Floyds murder by taking a stand against racism. Their actions vary, from Nikes Dont Do It ad, to Ben & Jerrys new Justice Remixed flavor, to Walmarts $100 million pledge for the creation of a center on racial equity. But each one is a poignant reminder of brands unique ability to influence and reshape public opinion. It has been my lifes work to infuse values into marketing campaigns that aim to spark positive social change. While working at Unilever, I spearheaded Global Handwashing Day with Unilevers Lifebuoy soap brand. In its first year, 2008, over 20 million children participated. It ultimately shifted the hygiene habits of millions of people around the world. The Lifebuoy team has just announced that it has now reached 1 billion people. Ive taken a similar approach to help Pepsodent toothpaste improve oral hygiene in Africa and Knorr bouillon cubes fight anemia through encouraging mothers and girls to eat more green leafy vegetables alongside its iron-fortified cubes. I discuss all of this in my new book, Brands on a Mission: How to Achieve Social Impact and Business Growth Through Purpose. Related: Here's How Business Leaders Are Responding to the George Floyd Protests These successes make sense given that, with their natural incentives to get people to buy their products, brands have an inherent ability to reshape peoples views and habits. They have decades of experience convincing consumers to do just that, and the tools, resources and creative heft to change social norms and influence conversations. They can spread messages far and wide, among both consumers and their employees. With such power and influence, it is simply no longer acceptable for brands to remain silent, especially in these times when consumers are craving positive examples to fill the void left by governments. However, there are parameters brands must respect in order to strike the right tone and behave in a responsible, constructive manner when taking a stand. Uphold values mindfully so as not to cause unintended harm Although there will always be factions of the public that become inflamed at one message or another, it is incumbent upon brands to be intentional in choosing messages. Brands might choose messages that are seen as controversial, like when Nike supported Colin Kaepernick taking a knee and some customers protested by burning their Nike products. It is crucial to take a stance with integrity and good intentions. As Nike said at the time, we must all believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. Nikes Dont Do It slogan is a brilliant example of messaging mindfully and with integrity because it is so closely aligned with its longstanding, familiar and non-controversial slogan, Just Do It. Ben & Jerrys can speak with confidence and authority on Americas current times because since the civil rights movement, its founders have supported work towards racial equality on several fronts education, housing inequality, income inequality and the criminal justice system. Sending social messages through new flavors and their names is a thoughtful, natural extension of what Ben & Jerrys is as a brand. Related: How Should You Be Talking With Employees About Racism? Market conscientiously and authentically Responsible brands do not take advantage of social issues as opportunities to advance marketing and growth. A social purpose is just that: a social purpose that will pay in the long term. There might be business benefits to taking a stand, but it is irresponsible when these become the primary motivation for social action. Moreover, actions taken with profits in mind will ring hollow and inauthentic, drive customers away and tarnish a brands reputation. We've all witnessed major brands fail in this way. Pepsi's 2017 "Live for Now" campaign featuring Kendall Jenner as a model-turned-protestor who joined the Black Lives Matter movement (in the end, handing a police officer a Pepsi as a deescalation tactic) drew massive backlash, as would-be consumers accused the brand of capitalizing on the pain of #BLM for profits, among other things. Pepsi pulled the ad immediately, but just days ago, an image of an actual protestor in the current riots went viral. He was attempting to hand a police officer a Pepsi. People don't forget. Related: To Understand the Riots, Consider the "Valuation" of Black Lives Address stereotypes with respectful words and images In taking a stand, brands also have the power to shatter stereotypes. Doing so in a responsible, constructive way means choosing words and images that reflect the reality of the different communities portrayed whether it is around gender, race, body size, LGBTQI+, differently abled bodies and disabilities both visible and invisible while remaining respectful. Showing images of people from racial and ethnic minority communities in positions of power and leadership is one example. Align your messaging (brand say) with your companys actions (brand do) I am a big believer in the difference between brand say and brand do, terms coined in 2016 by Steve Miles and widely used within Unilever and its agencies. Brand say involves communicating to consumers about the social purpose; brand do is about translating this purpose into actually addressing social problems. Put simply, you need to walk the talk and take action. Ben & Jerrys has a stellar brand do ethic. Its messaging about equality is reflected on its board. For many years, the company has supported work among indigenous Americans too financially and with legal aid protests against the Dakota Access pipeline. It has worked with the LGBT community: In 1989, long before it was legally required, it extended health insurance benefits to partners of its LGBT employees. Shea Moisture is another example of a brand that makes good on its promises by supporting small black businesses. Related: Alexis Ohanian's Resignation from Reddit is the Type of Leadership the World Needs Steps brands can take in general to bridge the say with the do include actively recruiting and retaining diverse talent, including at the board level; creating safe spaces in the workplace where employees can express themselves; and building coalitions with nonprofit and grassroots organizations to help advance shared missions. Coalitions with the nonprofit and public sector organizations have been key to the success of initiatives such as Global Handwashing Day, Knorrs drive to improve nutrition and Durexs campaign to normalize condom use. Adopting moral values means that you will follow them throughout your operations, including through your supply chain as well. You cant hide one part of your activities by jumping on the wagon of race: This defeats the purpose. For example, I would encourage Walmart to not only stand up for racial inequality but also to take a hard look at how guns which its stores sell play a role in the deaths of many black people. Educate Creating change begins with educating people about the issues. Campaigns and messaging must aim to both present scenarios of positive change and educate the public about the reasons it's needed. CBS Sports not only stopped broadcasting for eight minutes and 46 seconds to protest the George Floyds murder but also partnered with Color of Change to ask viewers to demand an end to broken windows policing, add legitimate civilian oversight boards with full investigatory power and reduce police budgets, among other things. Developing a social mission has also become a business imperative. Whereas quality was once the primary differentiator between brands, today, embracing a social purpose has become a key way for brands to set themselves apart in the crowded marketplace. Brands that stand up for the right thing to do are all the more likely to come out of the current crisis in a position of strength, while those without a mission risk getting left behind. Related: Black-Owned Restaurants and Businesses You Can Support Right Now Related: Meaningful Metrics: The KPIs Every Franchisee Should Monitor Makers of Tomorrow: Criteo CEO Megan Clarken Planning for Organizational Change: HR Strategies to Help Your Business Navigate the New 'Normal' Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved (CNN) - Health officials from various nations met in a World Health Organization webinar on Wednesday to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on fights against neglected tropical disease around the world. Global experts have long warned that the coronavirus pandemic could influence how nations are impacted by and responding to other communicable diseases including neglected tropical diseases, a diverse group of illnesses that prevail in tropical and subtropical conditions across 149 countries. Neglected tropical diseases or NTDs, such as dengue and guinea worm disease, affect about 1 in 6 people worldwide. "In Rwanda, like many other countries in the world, we are fighting one enemy which is Covid-19 but other health essential programs may be also important to watch and follow so that we don't have double damage in this context," Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, director general of Rwanda Biomedical Centre, said during Wednesday's webinar. "The evolving situation of Covid-19 has been always managed in the context that we adapt to what we see," Nsanzimana said. For instance, the distribution of essential health services or drug prescriptions to treat or prevent NTDs or other illness could be extended to eliminate the risk of someone breaking Covid-19 social distancing guidelines to access medications. "I see a lot of things will be turning around how we strengthen our health systems to deal with different threats," Nsanzimana said. "Theres expectation that were probably going to work double or work harder than before to prevent the consequences of infectious and neglected tropical diseases forward. We dont know what is going to be the next pandemic." In January 2012, WHO published a document that provides a "roadmap" for countries to follow in tackling neglected tropical diseases. The document establishes goals for nations to reach while working to control, prevent, eliminate and even eradicate certain NTDs. That roadmap was revised this year with new guidelines and goals for the year 2030. Mwelecele Malecela, director of WHO's Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, said in a written announcement about the webinar, that shifts are needed both during and after Covid-19 to achieve the roadmap targets for 2030. "WHOs upcoming road map for neglected tropical diseases for 20212030 proposes a new model of operation," Malecela said in the announcement. "This road map, with its major shifts, is even more relevant in the context of Covid-19 as it promotes resilience, health system strengthening, community participation, equity, country ownership and enhanced partner involvement through integrated, multisectoral collaboration." Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's regional director for Africa, said during Wednesday's webinar that some of the methods used and steps taken to tackle neglected tropical diseases could be adopted in response to Covid-19 and vice versa. "Those methods of helping people to understand, to incorporate, to be empowered to take action have been very much part of the NTD community-level interventions and theyre very much needed now so that people understand that I have to keep my distance, I have to wear my mask above my nose all the time," Moeti said. "Weve seen that many people working in the programs have been repurposed to support the pandemic." This story was first published on CNN.com, "Health officials worry COVID-19 pandemic could stall progress against neglected tropical diseases" As Portland wrestles with ways to meet public demand to reform its police department, body cameras arent on the City Councils priority list despite the citys multi-year commitment to have officers wear them. The city has allocated at least $1.6 million in the police bureaus budget to institute use of body cams each year since 2016. But the program never launched and the money sat unspent. The United States on Tuesday deported a Russian hacker who was sentenced to four years in prison for using malicious software to steal $855,000 from online bank accounts. According to officials from the Russian Embassy in the US, Stanislav Lisov was transported to the JFK International Airport in New York, where he boarded an Aeroflot flight bound for Moscow. Lisov, a computer programmer from Taganrog, Russia, was arrested in Barcelona in January 2017 and extradited to the US a year later. Convicted Russian hacker Stanislav Lisov, 35, who was first arrested in Spain in 2017 (pictured), was put on a flight from New York and extradited to Moscow on Tuesday According to reports published at the time, Lisov was picked up by Spanish authorities while honeymooning in Barcelona with his new wife. The hacker, who operated under the monikers 'Black' and 'Blackf,' had been under investigation by the United States for two years, suspected of developing and using 'NeverQuest,' a computer virus that spreads itself via social media, email and file transfers. Last year, Lisov pleaded guilty to stealing $855,000 from online banking accounts between June 2012 and January 2015. In November, Lisov, was sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 48 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay forfeiture of $50,000 and restitution of more than $481,000. He initially faced up to 35 years in prison. After receiving credit for time served, Lisov was slated to be released from prison within a few months' time, but federal officials made the decision to extradite him back to Russia ahead of schedule, reported Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. On June 10, Lisov was transferred from a prison in Pennsylvania to an immigration detention facility, where he remained for a couple of days to await his flight. Lisov's wife Darya (C) is pictured waiting for her husband at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow on Wednesday morning Alexei Topolsky, a spokesperson for the Russian Consulate General in New York, said in a statement to the Russian news outlet RIA Novosti that Lisov was brought to the airport in simple clothes and a face mask, and without handcuffs. 'He looked like a person who was happy to be going home,' Topolsky said in Russian. A reporter with the Russian news agency TASS was at JFK on Tuesday and witnessed Lisov being escorted onto the plane by two US immigration officers and two diplomats with the Russian Consulate General in New York. 'I only have the Russian passport with me. The rest is waiting home,' Lisov told TASS. 'I'm glad and excited to return to my homeland, and Im looking forward for the takeoff. Then I will definitely be free.' The flight carrying the convicted hacker took off from New York at 7.20pm and landed in Moscow at 11.33am local time. He was met at Sheremetyevo International Airport by his wife, Darya Lisova. NCCN Guidelines for Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are now available for free at NCCN.org PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pennsylvania, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)-an alliance of leading cancer centers in the United States-is announcing the publication of translated versions of the NCCN Guidelines for Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) into Chinese, French, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Pediatric ALL is the most common type of cancer in children, but is highly curable when treated with contemporary and evidence-based approaches.1 NCCN Guidelines are written and updated by leading authorities across various health disciplines. They include the most comprehensive and up-to-date recommendations for treating patients, including children, with cancer outside of a clinical trial setting. "More young lives could be saved through the application of widely-available, evidence-based treatments," said Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, NCCN. "Advances in the fight against pediatric ALL have been remarkable in recent years. We can improve the cure rate even further by making sure best practices are reaching every corner of the earth. We get closer to achieving this goal by making evidence-based, expert consensus-driven NCCN Guidelines more accessible to non-English speakers." The English-language version of NCCN Guidelines for Pediatric ALL was first published in May of 2019. The recommendations cover typical treatment algorithms, such as multi-agent chemotherapy regimens, as well as emerging innovations in targeted therapy and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy. The guidelines are intended for the management of patients from birth through adolescence and into young adulthood. "These NCCN Guidelines include a strong focus on supportive care in order to reduce potentially dangerous side-effects for children undergoing treatment," explained Dr. Carlson. "They also help identify vulnerable populations, such as infants or patients with Down syndrome, and provide specific recommendations for keeping them as safe as possible, both short- and long-term." The translated guidelines are available free-of-charge for non-commercial use at NCCN.org/global or via the Virtual Library of NCCN Guidelines App. The NCCN Global Department constantly updates and expands adaptations and translations of NCCN Guidelines for all major cancer types plus supportive care and prevention. More than 40 new translations have published this year alone, including clinical guidelines and patient-friendly versions. NCCN also provides NCCN Framework for Resource Stratification of NCCN Guidelines (NCCN Framework) and NCCN Harmonized Guidelines with optimal recommendations alongside pragmatic approaches for adapting treatment in resource-constrained settings, such as low- and middle-income countries. Visit AlliedAgainstCancer.org to learn about NCCN's ongoing work in Sub-Saharan Africa with the African Cancer Coalition, American Cancer Society, Clinton Health Access Initiative, and IBM. Free recommendations for self-care and stress management for cancer patients, caregivers, and providers during the COVID-19 pandemic are now available in English, Chinese, and Spanish at NCCN.org/covid-19. Visit NCCN.org/global for more on everything the organization is doing to improve cancer care worldwide, and join the conversation online with the hashtag NCCNGlobal. About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, effective, efficient, and accessible cancer care so patients can live better lives. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) provide transparent, evidence-based, expert consensus recommendations for cancer treatment, prevention, and supportive services; they are the recognized standard for clinical direction and policy in cancer management and the most thorough and frequently-updated clinical practice guidelines available in any area of medicine. The NCCN Guidelines for Patients provide expert cancer treatment information to inform and empower patients and caregivers, through support from the NCCN Foundation. NCCN also advances continuing education, global initiatives, policy, and researchcollaboration and publication in oncology. Visit NCCN.org for more information and follow NCCN on Facebook @NCCNorg, Instagram @NCCNorg, and Twitter @NCCN. 1 Esparza SD, Sakamoto KM, Topics in pediatric leukemia-acute lymphoblastic leukemia. MedGenMed 2005;7:23. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16369328. Ma H, Sun H Sun X. Survival improvement by decade of patients aged 0-14 years with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a SEER analysis. Sci Rep 2014;4:4227. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24572378. Media Contact: Rachel Darwin 267-622-6624 darwin@nccn.org Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1180364/NCCN_Pediatric_Acute_Lymphoblastic_Leukemia_translations.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/441768/NCCN_Logo.jpg Operating a Tor Relay Prelude After watching society crumble in the comfort of quarantine, I was bored. Therefore, I chose to operate a Tor relay. Initially, I wanted to operate an exit node because it looked more exciting, I would be part of the barrier between the Tor network and the clearnet but the prospect of having my door kicked in by law enforcement or dealing with thousands of legal notices dissuaded me. Instead, I opted to operate a middle relay node because the risk of any legal implication was low and I can still contribute to the Tor network. I will discuss the process behind operating a middle relay (to learn about the Tor protocol itself, refer to a brief overview and comparison to traditional proxies). If you want to operate a relay yourself, consult the official relay guide. Terminology Term Description Middle relay : Midpoint node in a Tor circuit. Middle probability : Probability that a tor client uses the relay as a middle relay. Guard relay : Entry point for tor clients to enter the Tor network. Guard probability : Probability that a tor client uses the relay as an entry guard. TL;DR Date Event Jun 06 Relay began unmeasured phase (little traffic). Jun 09 Relay began remote measurement phase (increased traffic). Jun 13 Relay Guard relay ramp up (reduced traffic). Operating a Tor relay was simpler than expected as a project for data analysis and server administration - I recommend operating your own relay. Technical Requirements Networking 7,000 concurrent connections. 16 Mbps upload and download bandwidth. 100GB of in/outbound traffic, montly. Public IPv4/IPv6 address (preferably static). 24/7 uptime (reboots and daemon restarts are fine). Physical < 40Mbps non-exit relay requires 512MB of memory, otherwise 1GB. 200MB of free disk space. Technical Setup The Tor project maintains a list of ISPs detailing permitted Tor related behaviour and any additional comments. I chose to use OVH because it offered acceptable network connectivity for a reasonable price. Once the VPS became available I authenticated then began setting up the relay. After a bit of administrative hassle (e.g. securing the VPS, configuring tor, etc.), I had a working Tor relay. root@vps-e0d4d314:~# systemctl status tor@default tor@default.service - Anonymizing overlay network for TCP Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/tor@default.service; static ; vendor preset: enabled ) Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-06-06 19:09:50 UTC; 19min ago Main PID: 7542 (tor) CGroup: /system.slice/system-tor.slice/tor@default.service 7542 /usr/bin/tor --defaults-torrc /usr/share/tor/tor-service-defaults-torrc -f /etc/tor/torrc --RunAsDaemon 0 It is really important to appropriately secure the server because it will be servicing thousands of connections to and from unknown hosts. A relay is a worthwhile target because it can assist in correlation attacks. Phases Unmeasured Phase June 06, 2020: The relay began its unmeasured phase (described in the lifecycle of a new relay) where its bandwidth and stability is verified by the network. The first phase would last several days and it would take several weeks for the relay to be in full use. However, the relay was already recorded in the Tor Atlas. To improve relay maintenance, I installed Nyx which allowed for real time observation of various relay properties (bandwidth, number of connections, memory overhead, etc.). After fiddling around with CookieAuthentication in torrc : ControlPort 9051 CookieAuthentication 1 CookieAuthFile / var / lib / tor / control_auth_cookie CookieAuthFileGroupReadable 1 DataDirectoryGroupReadable 1 DisableDebuggerAttachment 0 DataDirectory / var / lib / tor I was then able to view the Nyx dashboard which presents several relay metrics and properties. Nyx said the relay was transferring a whopping 420bps! The low bandwidth is the result of a 20KB cap applied during this phase. As an aside, the relay bootstrap phase was recorded in the logs. 19:09:52 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 100% (done): Done 19:09:51 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 95% (circuit_create): Establishing a Tor circuit 19:09:51 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 90% (ap_handshake_done): Handshake finished with a relay to build circuits 19:09:51 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 75% (enough_dirinfo): Loaded enough directory info to build circuits 19:09:51 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 15% (handshake_done): Handshake with a relay done 19:09:51 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 14% (handshake): Handshaking with a relay 19:09:51 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 10% (conn_done): Connected to a relay ... 19:09:51 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 5% (conn): Connecting to a relay ... 19:09:47 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 0% (starting): Starting During bootstrap, the relay builds four circuits to estimate bandwidth. Looking at the connections page confirms there were several active connections. June 07, 2020: During the next day, an increase in bandwidth from the 20KB cap (700KBps down, 500KBps up) was recorded. In the unmeasured phase the relay was compared to other prospective relays, and measured by the bwauths. There was evidence of additional self-testing in the tor logs. 07:30:56 [NOTICE] Performing bandwidth self-test...done. At time of writing, the relay advertised a bandwidth of 1.98MiB/s and was supporting around 1000, respective, in/outbound active connections. The assignment of the Fast flag was evidence the relay was actively compared to other prospective relays. Fast A router is Fast if it is active, and its bandwidth is either in the top 7/8ths for known active routers or at least 100KB/s. I was rather perplexed at this stage, the unmeasured phase was supposed to last several days and impose a bandwidth cap of 20KBps. However, the relay was routing above 20KBps with around 24 hours uptime. Rationalising this, I think each individual connection is capped to 20KBps but thousands of bwauths concurrently evaluate the relay (if Im mistaken, let me know). June 08, 2020: The relay was supporting around 2000, respective, in/outbound active connections. Remote Measurement Phase June 10, 2020: The unmeasured phase ended on June 9th - evidenced by a removal of the Unmeasured consensus value. The Unmeasured=1 value is included in consensus generated with method 17 or later when the Bandwidth= value is not based on a threshold of 3 or more measurements for this relay. During the remote measurement stage, the relay began to receive, incrementally, better bandwidth estimates as it was compared to other relays. In order to record better bandwidth estimates, the relay participated in Tor circuits which pushed traffic. The amount of traffic pushed through the relay increased as the estimated bandwidth increased. Consequently, the middle relay probability increased from 0.0074% (June 9th) to 0.0176% with an advertised bandwidth of 4.86 MiB/s. I opted to add IPv6 support to the relay which would make the relay more accessible (especially if it were to become an Entry Guard). To enable IPv6 support, the following lines were added to torrc : ORPort [ 2001 : 41 d0 : 801 : 2000 :: 272 e ]: 443 ExitPolicy reject6 *:* For the changes to take effect, the tor service had to be restarted. Restarting the tor service was an opportune moment to remove the bogus contact information (it was serving no purpose and annoying me). After a couple hours, the relay was assigned the ReachableIPv6 flag as confirmation that IPv6 support was successfully added. For longitudinal traffic observation, I scheduled vnstati to produce a weekly summary of the VPS traffic using systemd (note: there will be spikes where UnattendedUpgrades executes). The scheduled script is listed below. #!/bin/bash if [[ $( id -u ) != 999 ]] ; then echo "Not vnstati-sched, exiting..." exit 1 fi SCRIPT_NAME = $( basename -- " $0 " ) output = $( date +%Y-%m-%d ) mkdir $output cd $output vnstati -d -i ens3 -o " ${ output } _daily.png" vnstati -vs -i ens3 -o " ${ output } _summary.png" I toyed with the idea of setting up a separate interface for tor to allow more accurate bandwidth statistics but the effort required, for a minor improvement, deterred me. At time of writing, the relay was relaying around 30Mbps across 5000, respective, in/outbound connections. June 12, 2020: Relay was assigned the Stable flag. Stable A router is Stable if it is active, and either its Weighted MTBF is at least the median for known active routers or its Weighted MTBF corresponds to at least 7 days. Routers are never called Stable if they are running a version of Tor known to drop circuits stupidly. (0.1.1.10-alpha through 0.1.1.16-rc are stupid this way.) The Stable flag was assigned using the second definition because the relay had only been online since 19:00, June 6th - 5 days. The middle relay propability increased to 0.0443% as did the volume in traffic. The relay was handling a similar number of connections to June 10th (2368 inbound, 3033 outbound). It was possible to see if any Guard relays were using IPv6, via the command below. root@vps-e0d4d314:~# ss -H6 state established "( sport = :http or sport = :https )" | wc -l 6 The relay was engaging over 6, active, IPv6 connections. Guard Relay Phase June 13, 2020: The relay advertised bandwidth increased to 12.12 MiB/s (15.63 MiB/s burst) as the middle relay probability increased to 0.0538%. Additionally, the relay was assigned the HSDir flag which allowed the relay to become a DNS server, of sorts, for onion services. HSDir A router is a v2 hidden service directory if it stores and serves v2 hidden service descriptors, has the Stable and Fast flag, and the authority believes that its been up for at least 96 hours (or the current value of MinUptimeHidServDirectoryV2 ). Moreover, the relay was assigned the Guard flag. Guard status allowed tor clients to enter the Tor network through the relay and signaled the start of the guard phase. Guard A router is a possible Guard if all of the following apply: It is Fast , , It is Stable , , Its Weighted Fractional Uptime is at least the median for familiar active routers, It is familiar, Its bandwidth is at least AuthDirGuardBWGuarantee (if set, 2 MB by default), OR its bandwidth is among the 25% fastest relays, (if set, 2 MB by default), OR its bandwidth is among the 25% fastest relays, It qualifies for the V2Dir flag as described below (this constraint was added in 0.3.3.x, because in 0.3.0.x clients started avoiding guards that didnt also have the V2Dir flag). The flag itself is defined by: Guard if the router is suitable for use as an entry guard. During the guard relay phase: the middle probability of the relay will drop as the guard probability increases and all clients stop using the relay as a middle relay. Consequently, after the assignment of the Guard flag the middle probability decreased to 0.0437% within 8 hours whereas the guard probability increased to 0.0073%. However, the number of connections did not see an immediate drop - I suspect existing connections are unaffected. The volume of traffic through the relay was anticipated to decrease over the next several weeks until the next guard rotation. Furthermore, I expected the number of IPv6 connections to increase because relays are unlikely to be subjugated to restrictive firewalls compared to tor clients. However, the relays exposure to the clearnet increased because clients would connect directly to the relay itself as opposed to by proxy relays. The increased exposure was expected to increase the number of attacks toward the relay - putting my own privacy at risk - so I would regularly check the fail2ban logs and the tor logs for malicious activity. It should be noted that during the initial administrative work, I had setup persistent iptables rules to only allow 22 (ssh), 80 (tor dirport), and 443 (tor orport). If you are operating your own relay, I strongly suggest you take the time to secure your host. June 14, 2020: Advertised bandwidth increased to 12.13 MiB/s. Further, the middle probability decreased to 0.0236% whereas the guard probability increased to 0.0337%. The number of connections to the relay had not changed significantly since the 13th. It had been 9 days since the relay first came online and vnstati had produced a traffic summary over the last week. The local data and remote consensus data presented an opportunity to inspect traffic behaviour and consensus values as the relay traversed through multiple phases. Firstly, the network consensus values are inspected because they were causal to the relay traffic (with respect to the network). The rightmost graph, the network consensus visualisation, clearly shows each relay phase. Between Jun 6th (unlisted at the far left) and Jun 9th there is very little traffic, at some point during Jun 8th it appears the relay began the remote measurement phase. The relay is restricted to < 700 KiB/s. The remote measurement phase shows a significant increase in middle relay probability, reaching a maximum of 0.0538% on Jun 14th. Further, the network consensus weight increases as the relay bandwidth is measured and confirmed against the advertised bandwidth. The increase in middle probability during the remote measurement phase is somewhat linear and positively correlates to the sudden increase in bytes read/written. During the remote measurement phase, the relay increased from 659.2 KiB/s to 5.877 MiB/s (892% increase) over the 4 - 5 day, remote measurement period. Within the last 24 hours, the relay had began the guard phase. As expected, the guard probability rapidly increased to 0.0334% from 0.0000% within 4 hours. The increase in guard probability negatively correlates with middle probability. The relay traffic did not see a significant change in volume. The latest local visualisations of relay traffic are shown below. The relay had transferred 3.9TB in total since the 6th of Jun. However, between the 12th and the 14th, 2.76TB had been transferred. The increase in traffic coincides with the rapid increase in middle probability. Looking at the daily graph, the incremental increase in traffic is clear. Hourly traffic measurements show the traffic peaks between 11:00 - 15:00 (UTC), longer analysis is required to build a traffic schedule. That concludes the interesting parts of running a relay. The next phase will be becoming a steady Guard but that will take a couple months. Within that period the middle probability will drop in favour of guard probability and the relay will receive more direct connections. In the meantime, relay will continue to collect information for my own curiosity, I hope this post was interesting. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that life in prison is cruel and unusual punishment for most juveniles. Two years later, a follow-up state court decision allowed that federal ruling to be applied retroactively. And last year, the Illinois Supreme Court drew a bright line saying a 40-year term is long enough to be considered a sentence of life without parole for a juvenile. Australian Tertiary Admission Rank cut-offs for popular university courses are expected to soar next year unless surging demand from domestic students is met with an increase in places. Amid a weak job market and fewer traineeships due to the COVID-driven recession, universities warn students turned away from education face a lifetime of diminished prospects and want the government to increase funding for domestic students so they can offer more spots. Almost twice as many year 12 students have applied for university compared with this time last year, NSW figures show, and a likely fall in the number of students deferring their studies to spend a year working or travelling will also add to demand. ATARs for some popular courses are likely to soar next year unless universities can find more domestic places. Credit:Andrew Quilty Kim Paino, head of marketing and engagement at the Universities Admissions Centre, said stronger demand would not affect students' own ATAR but could push up entry cut-offs for popular degrees with limited numbers unless extra places were created. This article by Jared Keller originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues. A drone strike that killed two senior commanders of an al-Qaida-linked terror group in northwestern Syria likely employed a unique variant of the beloved Hellfire missile, according to video from the scene of the strike. Two leaders of the al-Qaida offshoot Horas al-Din, Jordanian citizen Qassam al-Urduni and Yemeni citizen Bilal al-Sanaani, were reportedly killed when a drone strike believed to have been carried out by the U.S.-led coalition nailed their vehicle on Sunday, the Associated Press reports. Video posted to Twitter on Sunday purportedly shows the aftermath of the strike -- but instead of a fiery wreck, al-Urduni and al-Sanaani's vehicle appears relatively intact, the roof and windshield impacted from above and one side shredded: The absence of an explosion and the pattern of damage to the roof and sides of the vehicle suggest that the drone didn't employ a conventional precision-guided munition but the R9X variant of the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, a non-explosive weapon that can best be described as a 100-pound flying switchblade or an anvil covered in swords. First publicized by the Wall Street Journal in 2019 and colloquially known as the "flying Ginsu" or "ninja bomb," the R9X is elegant in its simplicity: rather than packing an explosive payload, the kinetic warhead contains a halo of blades that deploy moments before impact and effectively eviscerate a target without the potential civilian casualties that accompany a large explosion. Although the R9X, developed in a collaboration between the Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency, is technically a secret, the distinctive effects of the munition have become increasingly recognizable since the U.S. government reportedly started deploying it downrange against targets in Syria and Yemen in 2017. Indeed, the impact patterns on al-Urduni and al-Sanaani's vehicle appear to match those on the car of Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri, the al-Qaida second-in-command who, according to the Wall Street Journal, the CIA allegedly targeted and killed with an R9X in Syria's Idlib province in February 2017. The same pattern also appears on the vehicle of Abu Ahmed al-Jaziri, a foreign fighter for al-Qaida offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who was killed in a drone strike in December 2019. The use of the R9X hasn't been restricted to Syria and Yemen: According to The War Zone, photos from the aftermath of a January 2019 airstrike against a suspected Taliban commander in Afghanistan's Kunduz province suggest that the unusual missile was used to neutralize that target. It's unclear how many R9X missiles the Pentagon has in its arsenal: the Army and Air Force's fiscal year 2021 budget requests for missile procurement make no mention of this specific Hellfire variant, although the Air Force's budget request does note that multiple variants "may be procured based upon operational requirements for various warheads and the enhanced weapon engagement zone." With that in mind, this most recent apparent deployment of the R9X against a suspected terrorist downrange suggests that the Pentagon is increasingly embracing the Hellfire variant as a low-collateral precision strike weapon -- and, as a result, the military's flying switchblade is becoming more of a necessity on the battlefield rather than just a mere oddity. The Defense Department did not immediately respond to request for comment. More articles from Task & Purpose: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- According to Russias foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, Paul Whelan is an American spy. This week Lavrov said the 50-year-old former Marine was caught red-handed when he was arrested on Dec. 28, 2018, in possession of a flash drive containing Russian state secrets. On Monday, Whelan was sentenced in a secret trial to 16 years in prison. That is the official Russian story. And like many official Russian stories, it strains credulity. The more likely explanation for Whelans nightmare is that he was framed, and is now caught up in an unfortunate diplomatic showdown. His fate depends on how well the Trump administration navigates its relationship with an adversary the president has tried to cajole. As Whelans Russian defense attorney has said, Whelan was in Moscow in 2018 for a wedding. A former friend who is also a Russian federal security officer, handed him a flash drive that he was told contained photos from a vacation. When Russian FSB officers then entered his hotel room, Whelan was arrested. While it might be strange for average American tourists to befriend FSB officers, Whelan was in the private security business. He visited Russia often and counted as friends many law enforcement and security officials there. His brother, David Whelan, told me this week that he believes his brothers ordeal likely began as an act of self-serving treachery by the former Russian friend, Ilya Yatsenko. Paul Whelan had purchased one or two iPhones (reports from the secret trial vary) for Yatsenko. Instead of repaying Whelan, Yatsenko set him up. This is possibly about getting a promotion by entrapping my brother, David Whelan said. A crucial detail that has been uncovered by a Russian newspaper lends some credibility here. Last month, Kommersat reported that Yatsenko was a major in the FSBs Department K. This department has a history of putting its foes in compromising positions. The best known example is a tax scam that the department ran in the 2000s in which $230 million in tax payments was stolen by Russias equivalent of the IRS. Russian authorities went to great lengths to hide the scheme, arresting Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who had uncovered it on behalf of an investment firm whose tax revenues were stolen. Magnitsky died while in custody. Story continues There are some similarities with Whelans case. Magnitskys supporters say he died because he was beaten and denied life-saving medical procedures. On May 27, Whelan received hernia surgery while in prison, and there is reason to think that surgery was inadequate. In a photograph from the trial, Whelan held up a sign that read in part Meatball Surgery, a military term that refers to battlefield operations conducted hastily to stabilize a patient, but not to address the root medical problem. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday also called attention to Whelans medical state. He said Whelans detention has put his life at risk by ignoring his long-standing medical condition, and unconscionably kept him isolated from family and friends. For now, Whelan is a pawn in the deteriorating U.S.-Russia relationship. Russian officials have indicated that Moscow is open to a prisoner swap for Whelan. Last year, Russias deputy foreign minister suggested a U.S. prisoner could be exchanged for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a sentence for drug trafficking. This week, Whalens attorney, Vladimir Zherebenkov also said a possible prisoner swap could include Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker. I also heard proposals on the sidelines of conducting an exchange instead of appealing, Zherebenkov said this week. Whether itll be an exchange only for Bout or for Yaroshenko too, I dont know. David Whelan said Pauls family takes no position on a possible prisoner swap. We would not want to suggest America should take a risk by releasing someone who is a terrible person, he said. This is now a question for President Donald Trump and his administration. David Whelan said the Kremlins position has been that it would not seriously negotiate a prisoner swap unless and until his brother was convicted. Now that this has happened, the U.S. should expect a Russian offer. As important as it is to bring Whelan home, it sets a dangerous precedent for the U.S. to negotiate for Whelans release as if he were a spy. It would be lending legitimacy to a sham trial and encourage Russia to make more sham arrests going forward. A better approach would be to impose sanctions on the FSB officials responsible for framing Whelan. There is another lesson in all of this for Trump, who as recently as April had pursued a possible detente with Moscow. If Russias diplomats would use a framed American tourist as a pawn to seek the release of an arms dealer or drug trafficker, why would American diplomats trust them to adhere to any future bargain? This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI. 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. Google Duo on the web now supports as many as 32 participants in a single group call. Powered by WebRTC API updates, the recently reported update bolsters the count by more than double the previously-instituted figure. Namely, thats the 12-user limitation Google recently implemented after initially setting the limit to a group of 8. Mobile Google Duo users arent included in this web-only update The updated software here applies only to web users, as implicated by its reliance on WebRTC API updates. So those who want to access a Duo group calling experience for more than 12-users will need to do so in a browser. And thats not the only pre-requisite either since only Chrome will work. More specifically, thats Google Chrome version 83 or newer. Users on other browsers may want to turn to Google Meet instead, now that thats available directly in the Gmail interface. Advertisement Users can check which version of Chrome theyre using by navigating to Settings under the three-dot icon at the top-right-hand side of the UI. From there, scrolling down to and then clicking or tapping on About Chrome will reveal which version is in use. That should also present options for updating if an update is available. The update to Chrome 83 started in mid-May. So it should be available for any and all desktop variants. Google has not provided any indication as to whether the participant limit increase for Duo group calls will extend beyond the web. The limitation is likely due to the small screen size found on smartphones. Advertisement Other features arent affected but this muddies Googles chat offerings Google recently put control over all of its messaging services under the management of a single team. The purpose of that, as reported at the time, was to ensure consistency but also to eliminate redundancy. However, this most recent update to Google Duo group calling for web users doesnt seem to fall in line with that consolidation. It seems to do the opposite. Now, Google offers two ways for users to communicate over video call Google Duo and Google Meet. In the latter case, thats only readily available in Gmail for end-users. Google Duo skips around the limitations by allowing link-directed video calls. Like Google Meet, it isnt limited to either a mobile app or to a web-interface. But Google Meet allows up to 250 participants. Google Duo also has an advantage in that it serves more users since its embedded in Google Messages and Assistant. But the areas where it is most popular arent those serviced by this update. Advertisement It may be the case that Google is attempting to garner more attention for Duos web presence as an alternative to other computer-based video call services. But the introduction of a participant increase in Google Duo seems counter to the consolidation efforts. Especially if it limits itself to web-users only. In fact, that limitation seems to push Duo in a backward direction, away from consistency between the apps. And without much by way of benefit to make up for that inconsistency. Thats a problem Google is going to need to deal with if it wants to fix its reputation with regard to messaging apps. By Aimee Byrd Seven years ago, I published my first book. In the process of writing it, I started a simple Wordpress blog to test out my thoughts. When I first published that blog, it was a scary experience. No one knew who I was. Im not an academic and I dont work for the church. Who am I to write a blog and why should anyone care? I am a laywoman who saw a dearth in theological investment and contribution for women in the church. Thats why I wrote my book. Thats why I started my little blog. I knew that I needed to put my writing out there if I wanted to get published. Much of my blogging speaks to why it matters to know the true God and what hinders our growth in this in our own church culture. I hoped that there were other like-minded thinkers who would join in a conversation with me. It was such a pleasure to find all kinds of interaction from men, women, laypeople, church officers, and academics. The very first podcast interview I ever did in my life was for Mortification of Spin. That developed into me being asked to cohost with Carl Trueman and Todd Pruitt, and later my blog joined with the Mortification of Spin for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. We have had a lot of fun together and I have met many wonderful people who have sharpened my thinking over this time. One of them is Scot McKnight. I am thankful that he invited me to share an update about my working relationship with the Alliance. My writing has aimed to examine the scriptures with the help of our confessions as we continue to see how the church is continually in need of reforming. This has dovetailed well with the mission of the Alliance. However, after the publication of my last book, Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, a blog was posted on their website asking me to answer nine questions by a group of concerned, unnamed people. I responded, expressing my confusion at the nature of the post, nevertheless answering the first question and saying I was not sure that I would answer the rest. I then received an email from the chairman of the Board imploring me to answer these same questions for the Board of Directors. I do not know who is on this Board. After seeking counsel, I declined to answer the specific questions, directing them instead to my book itself. I replied that some of these questions are addressed in my book already. And while I expect and welcome disagreement with some interpretations and applications in it, my book is in line with the confessions in which my Orthodox Presbyterian Church subscribes. Others of the questions seemed to misrepresent my writing, suggesting I was saying things that I wasnt. Additionally, my book does not aim to answer all of the questions that were asked. It is not about church leadership or marriage. It is not meant to be an end all book on all matters of gender. There are many other books that aim to answer those questions. My book is about discipleship for laymen and laywomen in the church. My aim was to ask serious questions about how men and women are identified and discipled in the church and to call Christians and Christian leadership to examine this against Scripture. My aim was to offer another voice, alongside other voices, as we look at scripture and life together. During this time, I was informed by our producer that she was notified not to book new recordings at this time and that they will be airing reruns of the Mortification of Spin. Then I noticed that theyve discontinued my credentials to log in to post blog articles. While no reference was made to my future participation in the podcast, I later received an email from the Director in which they thanked me for the work I contributed for them and said that they will strive to be gracious upon my exit. Technically, ACE has related to me as an independent contractor. Thats all I really know. It does make me go back to those first questions I had when going more public in writing a blog and my first book. Do I still want to do this? And who in the world am I to be writing and speaking anyway? The opportunities I've been given in speaking, podcasting, and writing in different venues as I explore what it means to be a disciple of Christ in his church have expanded my insight into the blessings of Christ and the challenges his people face. This matters to me. So, for now I continue to write. But in the back of my mind Im wondering if opening that modern day speakeasy Ive been talking about may be easier. In the meantime, I am going back to my independent blogging days over at aimeebyrd.com. European stocks closed higher on Wednesday as optimism persisted over a potential economic recovery, while markets also kept an eye on geopolitical tensions. The pan-European Stoxx 600 provisionally closed up around 0.7%, with healthcare stocks adding 1.8% to lead gains as most sectors and major bourses ended in positive territory. European market sentiment is bucking the trend seen in Asia overnight, where stocks traded lower following warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and on concerns surrounding geopolitical flare-ups between neighboring countries in Asia. IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath cautioned Tuesday that "the forthcoming June World Economic Outlook Update is expected to show negative growth rates even worse than previously estimated." Tensions escalated along the Korean Peninsula Tuesday after North Korea reportedly destroyed a liaison office with the South. Afterwards, South Korea's presidential Blue House said Wednesday that it would no longer accept unreasonable behavior by North Korea, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, Indian and Chinese troops have clashed again this week in the latest of a series of recent clashes in a contested Himalayan border area, with a skirmish late on Monday leading to casualties for the first time in more than four decades. Australia's foreign minister accused China Tuesday of contributing to a climate of "fear and division" over the coronavirus in a speech also attacking Russia and Turkey for spreading disinformation about the disease. Speaking at the Australian National University in Canberra, Marise Payne said the virus had provided fertile ground for fake news, and highlighted Twitter's action in uncovering the role Russia, China and Turkey had allegedly played on the platform. "Twitter disclosed over 32,000 accounts as state-linked information operations, which the company attributed to Russia to China and to Turkey," Payne said. "For our part, it is troubling that some countries are using the pandemic to undermine liberal democracy to promote their own more authoritarian models." Payne also labelled Beijing's warnings to citizens against travelling to Australia because of potential racist attacks as "disinformation". "At a time like this, what we need is cooperation and understanding," she said. She called for nation's to bolster global bodies such as the World Health Organization to counter the "infodemic". "We will do so through facts and transparency, underpinned by liberal democratic values that we will continue to promote home and abroad," said Payne. Tensions between Beijing and Canberra have escalated steadily since Australia joined calls for an international probe into the origins of coronavirus and its handling by China. Beijing has since taken retaliatory steps, including targeting trade with Australia and discouraging its citizens from visiting the country. Chinese travellers represent the biggest group of tourists to Australia, as well as a significant and lucrative source of income from university students. Payne acknowledged Australia may have made itself a target by speaking out for a review on coronavirus, but said it had been in Australias best long-term interests. "There are times to pursue quiet diplomacy behind the scenes, but there are also times to voice our concern and persuade others of the need for a course of action," she said. The partnership will empower businesses with an expanded view of mobile and help transition to a world beyond cookies LONDON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tapad, a global leader in digital identity resolution, has partnered with Relay42, a global leader in data marketing technology backed by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The partnership will provide brands and agencies across EMEA and APAC with a greater range of digital device identifiers to actively support a variety of business objectives, including enhanced consumer experiences. Relay42's platform for Intelligent Journey Orchestration , which empowers businesses to transform fragmented customer interactions into seamless journeys, will be enhanced by Tapad's global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, The Tapad Graph. For Relay42, this will enable customers more flexibility and control to accurately map customer journeys across channels and devices and to optimise their campaigns for efficiencies, by expanding their first-party data with a wider range of digital IDs, particularly mobile. Rogier van Nieuwenhuizen, CEO at Relay42 commented, "We're committed to helping more brands move toward proactive Intelligent Journey Orchestration. This way, marketers can implement relevant end-to-end journeys across all channels and all touchpoints, based on real-time customer data. This partnership with Tapad increases the scope within which we're able to do this. Relay42 and Tapad are two best of breed solutions, built by design to interact and collaborate within the same ecosystem - which is essential as we transition to a cookieless world." Tom Rolph, Vice President, International at Tapad added: "By partnering with Relay42, brands and agencies will have access to a greater scope of digital identifiers, helping them more effectively execute and optimise cross-device campaigns. As an industry, collaboration is key for growth as we re-create the ecosystem around solutions that are not entirely reliant on third-party cookies." To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution capabilities, visit www.Tapad.com About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph and its related solutions provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture, and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore, and Tokyo. About Relay42 Relay42's platform for Intelligent Journey Orchestration empowers businesses to create meaningful customer relationships by utilizing smart technology to transform fragmented interactions into seamless journeys. Relay42 gives businesses the freedom, flexibility and agility to build sustainable customer relationships, using valuable customer data as a baseline. Global brands including Air France-KLM, Heineken, Mazda and Vodafone-Ziggo rely on Relay42 to anticipate and address customer needs in real time across all online and offline channels. Relay42 is the only platform built for AI-driven customer journeys with real-time connectivity to all systems and touchpoints. Media Contacts: 5WPR for Tapad tapad@5wpr.com Julie Alexander Head of Marketing j.alexander@relay42.com +31 (0)20 303 5800 Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/643146/Tapad_ElectricBlue_Logo.jpg Related Links http://www.tapad.com SOURCE Tapad A young mother carrying her baby in her arms was shot and killed at the entrance of Shatila camp for Palestinian refugees in Beirut on June 1. Surveillance footage of this horrific incident quickly began to circulate on social media across Lebanon with people calling for justice for the latest victim of the drug trafficking ring controlling the camp. Surveillance footage captured the horrible incident. A young woman carrying her baby in one arm and a sack of groceries in the other stands at the side of the road, getting ready to cross. She suddenly turns her head to the left, frightened by the sound of gunshots. She tries to move away but then falls to the ground, wounded, while still grasping her baby. Around her, people flee towards the right. The young woman lying on the ground stops moving and the video cuts out. The FRANCE 24 Observers team decided not to share the video. Here is a screengrab taken from the video before the shots were fired. The video of the young mothers death was shared widely on Twitter and Facebook, garnering at least 40,000 views. The many people who shared it, including prominent Lebanese and Palestinian public figures, denounced the extremely dangerous conditions for people living in camps for Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The evening after the woman was killed, someone involved in the gunfight turned himself into the authorities. Security forces carried out an operation that same night with the aim of arresting drug traffickers, but none of the people involved in the gunfight that killed the young woman have been identified. Further operations were carried out the week after the young womans death. Who was the victim? The victim, Wouroud Kanju, was only 28 years old. She was Lebanese and lived outside the camp but went there for work every day. The day she died, she took Ariha street, which is at the camp entrance, on her way home. According to media outlet Al Araby Al Jadid, she was brought to the Makassed Hospital in Beirut before dying of injuries sustained from the gunshot wound and her subsequent fall to the ground. Several Arabic-language media outlets shared surveillance camera footage of the clash, which was between drug dealers in the camp. The Shatila camp was created in 1949 for refugees from northern Palestine and is run by UNRWA, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The principal instigators of the violence in the camp are armed Palestinian factions who were meant to guard the area and most of the clashes are related to drug trafficking. Since Wourouds death, I havent been able to stop thinking that could be me one dayMagda (not her real name) is Palestinian. She lives right by the entrance to Shatila, near the street where Wouroud Kanju was shot. She says life is close to unbearable in this camp, which has already experienced the extreme trauma of the Lebanese Civil War and a massacre. Story continues There is a long history of violent incidents in the camp. But in the past ten years or so, with the arrival of Syrian refugees and a new wave of Palestian refugees, the gunshots and, thus, the deaths have increased. Its really hard to live our daily lives in this context. Everybody is afraid for their friends and family members, especially those who have to work outside the camp and have to go in and out of the camp frequently. Sometimes, when I leave the camp in the morning, everything is calm. But by the time I come back, the situation has escalated and I dont know if Ill make it back to my home alive. Thats what happened to Wouroud. Since her death, I havent been able to stop thinking that could have been me. To imagine that could happen to me one day as well. This is Ariha Street. This is where we hear about someone or other dying (...) No one controls this street anymore. We call it the street of death () Heres the Hangar of shame. Its the source of our woes and the murders. There have been more than 15 deaths here, says the person who made this video, which was posted on June 8, the day after Kanjou was killed. The Hangar in question was burned down in July 2019, but drug trafficking quickly picked up again. All the residents of Shatila, whether they are refugees or workers, have been calling on Lebanese and Palestinian authorities for years to take radical action against the illegal trade of drugs and weapons in the camp, a trade that has resulted in untold civilian deaths. The day after Kanju was killed, residents of Shatila marched through the streets in protest, calling for a permanent security presence in the camp and a major operation against those involved in the illegal trafficking. This protest calling for a crackdown on the drug and arms dealers who make Shatila camp unsafe was held on June 7. This child is now an orphan. Because of who? The dealers and those who protect them () He (the child) will hold you to account one day! cries the person who filmed this video during the protest. In the video, you can see the victims young child. We need to fight the trafficking happening in the campHassan Bakir is the head of communication for the Palestinian Fatah movement in Beirut. He says that action in the camp is long overdue. Shatila is a hotspot for drug traffickers in Beirut. At least 15 deaths have occurred on Ariha Street in the past decade. In 2016, the Palestinian factions who run the camps in Lebanon together created a special committee to tackle this trafficking. But very often, the Lebanese army doesnt lock up these criminals or they pay a bribe to get out. We need to fight this by bringing together the different Palestinian factions in the camp [Editors note: A total of 17 Palestinian factions run the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon]. Right now, all of these factions protect their supporters or avoid arresting traffickers for fear of conflict. This has created a situation of total chaos. Security forces launched an operation on June 7 targeting traffickers in the camp. In Lebanon, there are about 31.9 guns per 100 residents, which is a high rate. For Bakir, the high level of violence is linked to an extremely high rate of unemployment amongst Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from practising 72 different professions, including engineering and medicine. That leaves many Palestinians without work. In order to provide for themselves and their families, they turn to a market that is happening right outside their front doors and doesnt require papers or authorisation: drug and weapons trafficking. Several organisations have called for an investigation into Kanjus death. However, for the time being, only prosecutor Ghassan Aouidat has released a statement calling for an investigation. Article by Fatma Ben Hamad. Photo: The Canadian Press Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday that he's making Juneteenth a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. an official holiday in a state that was once home to the capital of the Confederacy. Juneteenth, which is also called Emancipation Day and Freedom Day, is celebrated annually on June 19. Texas first made it a state holiday in 1980. The holiday would be a paid day off for all state employees. Northam said he thinks Virginia would be only the second state to do so. Its time we elevate this, Northam said of the June 19 commemoration. Not just a celebration by and for some Virginians but one acknowledged and celebrated by all of us. The Democratic governor is giving every executive branch employee this Friday off as a paid holiday and will work with the legislature later this year to pass a law codifying Juneteenth as a permanent state holiday. The legislation is likely to pass the Democratic-controlled legislature with little trouble. The holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, when news finally reached African Americans in Texas that President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves living in Confederate states two years earlier. When Union soldiers arrived in Galveston to bring the news that slavery had been abolished, former slaves celebrated. The announcement came less than two weeks after Northam announced he was ordering the removal of a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee along Richmonds prominent Monument Avenue. It is one of the countrys most iconic monuments to the Confederacy. Earlier this year, Northam signed legislation scrapping Lee-Jackson Day, a state holiday named after two Confederate generals. Northam was joined Tuesday at his news conference by musician Pharrell Williams, who is from Virginia. Williams said Juneteenth deserves the same level of recognition and celebration as Independence Day. Here's our day, and if you love us, it'll be your day too, Williams said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 17:21:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GABORONE, June 17 (Xinhua) -- President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana on Tuesday said the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the depth of interconnectivity and interdependency of the global community. In his opening remarks during the United Nations (UN) Global Compact Leaders virtual summit, Masisi said it is clear that there is need to work together as the international community, governments, private sector and the civil society through innovative partnerships. "The pandemic has revealed the extent and depth of interconnectivity and interdependedness of our global village. It is clear that we need to work together as the international community to effectively respond to this pandemic because no country can do it alone," he said. In Botswana, Masisi said the southern African country's government is taking decisive action to contain the crisis while at the same time enacting policies to support local businesses in particular small and medium-sized enterprises. Despite the enormity of this pandemic, Masisi said the international community had been tested before by other major calamities and global economic downturns from which "we can draw lessons from." Masisi said the international community already boasts of a global blueprint in the form of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which was unanimously embraced by all UN member states in 2015. At its heart, the 2030 Agenda has 17 Sustainable Development Goals which are an urgent call for action by all countries across the globe, both developed and developing, in a global partnership. Enditem This is being called a sequel to the non stop zombie attack that is Train to Busan. It moves into full out zombie apocalypse as a team of soldiers come across a group of survivors, and not all them are examples of the best of what humanity has to offer. Four years after South Koreas total decimation in Train to Busan, the zombie thriller that captivated audiences worldwide, acclaimed director Yeon Sang-ho brings us Peninsula, the next nail-biting chapter in his post-apocalyptic world. Jung-seok, a soldier who previously escaped the diseased wasteland, relives the horror when assigned to a covert operation with two simple objectives: retrieve and survive. When his team unexpectedly stumbles upon survivors, their lives will depend on whether the bestor worstof human nature prevails in the direst of circumstances. Thats a lot of insane, apocalyptic action. A little Resident Evil, a little Doomsday, and a lot of director Sang-ho Yeons twisted imagination. The gladiator pit scene looks especially gnarly. This is going to be a must for zombie fans the idea of fast-moving zombies that swarm is fracking terrifying. It has a summer 2020 release date (was initially August 12th). I expect well see a digital/VOD release instead of a theater release in the states at the rate dates and theater openings are being shuffled around. If you havent seen Train to Busan, its on Netflix; and free on Vudu (with ads), Tubi (dubbed), and Crackle (with ads) now. Gil Scott Heron once told us the revolution will not be televised, but its increasingly clear that the seismic shifts in our view of racism and protest are tied to the moving image. If we had merely heard about the gruesome death of George Floyd, rather than seen the footage with our own eyes, it might be easier for authorities to sweep it under the rug with other instances of police brutality. Going back further, theres no trial, no miscarriage of justice and no Los Angeles riots if an amateur cameraman named George Holliday doesnt capture the Rodney King beating on video. Then we have the actual movies, the ones we used to go out to see at the theater before the age of social distancing. Filmmakers have been dramatizing racist violence nearly since the birth of the medium, sometimes, sickeningly, with admiration (Birth of a Nation), more recently as a call to protest and action. Its hard to believe, but 31 years have already passed since moviegoers debated whether Mookie did the right thing when he hurled that garbage can through the window of Sals Famous Pizzeria. Like those of us watching Do the Right Thing (available on Amazon Prime), he had just watched in horror as overzealous cops killed Radio Raheem with the infamous chokehold. He heard the onlookers shout the names of other then-recent victims of police brutality Eleanor Bumpers, Michael Stewart and he could no longer hold his peace. Once so controversial, the burning of Sals now seems almost quaint: an uprising with but one building destroyed. But Spike Lees masterpiece was always about more than a riot. In dramatizing the tensions of a sizzling-hot day in a single Brooklyn neighborhood, DTRT is painstakingly specific yet archetypal in its vision of racism. Unfortunately, it holds up extremely well. From the East Coast of 1989 we move to the West Coast of 1992, where a lot more than one building went up in flames. The 2017 documentary LA92 finds its roots in the Watts riots of 1965, in which 34 people, 29 of them black, were killed over six days. Technically, it started with a traffic stop, but the true cause was a more virulent form of the police racism that continues today. In LA92 (Amazon Prime, Netflix), we get to hear infamous Los Angeles PoliceChief William H. Parker from 1965 refer to black rioters as monkeys in the zoo. Fast-forward to 1992 and LAPD officer Laurence Powell described a domestic dispute between a black couple as right out of Gorillas in the Mist. This was right before Powell and three of his colleagues beat motorist Rodney king within an inch of his life. You probably know the rest. The officers were acquitted by an almost all-white jury in almost all-white Simi Valley. And Los Angeles burned anew. By the time it was over, 63 were dead. LA92 does away with narration and relies on footage and historical context. Some of that footage is jarringly fresh: Thirteen days after the King beating, 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was shot in the back of the head by Korean liquor-store owner Soon Ja Du over a bottle of orange juice. Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter; she did no time. Rage over the grisly security-camera footage of the Harlins shooting, coupled with the outrageous verdict, went a long way toward setting off the King riots, and damage inflicted on Los Angeles Koreatown. Other examples abound. In Detroit (2017, Amazon Prime), Kathryn Bigelow pulls back to re-create the bloodiest uprising of the long, hot summer of 1967 but also the infamous Algiers Motel incident, in which a riot task force tormented a group of unarmed black and white civilians, leaving three young black men dead. Fruitvale Station (2013, Amazon Prime) dramatizes the last day in the life of 22-year-old Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), who was killed by transit police in Oakland, Calif., in the early hours of New Years Eve 2009. Like George Floyd, Grants killing was captured on video. History repeats itself, whether the cameras are running or not. But seeing, as they say, is believing. Film, be it on-the-scene cellphone footage or a polished historical drama, enhances our knowledge of the countrys racist past in hopes that the future might be different. Chris Vognar is a Houston-based writer. Fast-tracking the $9.3 billion Inland Rail project in Queensland could worsen flood risks in the Lockyer Valley near flood-devastated Grantham, according to the local council. Earlier this week, the federal government announced it would streamline approval processes for 15 infrastructure projects, including the long-planned Inland Rail project from Melbourne to Brisbane, to boost jobs after the COVID-19 pandemic. Grantham's rail bridge which dammed flood waters. Plans for an Inland Rail through the region have made some residents nervous. Credit:Dean Saffron. The project is being co-ordinated by the Australian Rail Track Corporation. Queensland's Co-ordinator General is reviewing the impacts of the five Queensland sections of the proposed route, while Scenic Rim, Logan and Lockyer Valley council submissions to a Senate Inquiry into the project highlight many problems previously not made public. There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse. So, the natural question for Altan Nevada Minerals (CVE:ANE) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway. View our latest analysis for Altan Nevada Minerals When Might Altan Nevada Minerals Run Out Of Money? You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. As at December 2019, Altan Nevada Minerals had cash of US$19k and no debt. In the last year, its cash burn was US$1.0m. That means it had a cash runway of under two months as of December 2019. It's extremely surprising to us that the company has allowed its cash runway to get that short! You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below. TSXV:ANE Historical Debt June 17th 2020 How Is Altan Nevada Minerals's Cash Burn Changing Over Time? Altan Nevada Minerals didn't record any revenue over the last year, indicating that it's an early stage company still developing its business. So while we can't look to sales to understand growth, we can look at how the cash burn is changing to understand how expenditure is trending over time. Remarkably, it actually increased its cash burn by 739% in the last year. With that kind of spending growth its cash runway will shorten quickly, as it simultaneously uses its cash while increasing the burn rate. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Altan Nevada Minerals due to its lack of significant operating revenues. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow. Story continues How Easily Can Altan Nevada Minerals Raise Cash? Given its cash burn trajectory, Altan Nevada Minerals shareholders should already be thinking about how easy it might be for it to raise further cash in the future. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash to fund growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate). Since it has a market capitalisation of US$513k, Altan Nevada Minerals's US$1.0m in cash burn equates to about 204% of its market value. Given just how high that expenditure is, relative to the company's market value, we think there's an elevated risk of funding distress, and we would be very nervous about holding the stock. So, Should We Worry About Altan Nevada Minerals's Cash Burn? There are no prizes for guessing that we think Altan Nevada Minerals's cash burn is a bit of a worry. In particular, we think its cash runway suggests it isn't in a good position to keep funding growth. While not as bad as its cash runway, its increasing cash burn is also a concern, and considering everything mentioned above, we're struggling to find much to be optimistic about. Its cash burn situation feels about as comfortable as sitting next to the lavatory on a long haul flight. It's likely to need more cash in the near term; and that could well hurt returns. On another note, we conducted an in-depth investigation of the company, and identified 4 warning signs for Altan Nevada Minerals (3 are significant!) that you should be aware of before investing here. If you would prefer to check out another company with better fundamentals, then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt or this list of stocks which are all forecast to grow. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. They are both ambitious, nationalist leaders, eager to assert greater roles for their countries in a turbulent world. With major challenges at home, neither wants to risk losing face, even in a dispute over mountainous territory that is all but desolate. Xi Jinping of China and Narendra Modi of India probably did not intend to ignite a clash on their border on Monday, high in the Himalayas, that killed 20 Indian troops and may have resulted in Chinese casualties, too. Yet the leaders of the two nuclear-equipped countries now confront a military crisis that could spin dangerously out of control. The sovereignty and integrity of India is supreme, and nobody can stop us in defending that, Mr. Modi said on Wednesday in a short televised speech, breaking his public silence over the incident. He vowed that the sacrifice of our soldiers will not be in vain. China-France Innovation and Development Forum will kick off at the end of this month At the closure of COVID-19, the overall social economy in China is gradually recovering, and regaining the fast economic development turns to be an important goal. With international situation full of uncertainties, China is required to answer to the world with a more open-minded attitude to show its sense of responsibility as a great power. China has always committed to the dialogs, exchanges, and equal cooperation with western countries and beyond, and fulfilling its great mission of "building a Community with Shared Future for Mankind". This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005310/en/ The Third China-France Innovation and Development Forum (Graphic: Business Wire) As the capital of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing, topping China's economy, will kick off the "Nanjing Tech Week 2020" in June, which is helpful to accelerate the economic recovery of China. As a significant series of activities of Nanjing Tech Week 2020, Nanjing and Paris Partnership Innovative Cooperation The Third China-France Innovation and Development Forum shall be held on June 23th France, as one of the leading countries in the European Union, enjoys great strength in academic research and scientific and technological innovation, apart from which it is state-of-the-art in high-end manufacturing, bio-pharmaceutical, aerospace and other industries around the world. Besides, it enjoys extraordinary international influence in the field of culture. It shall be significant for China and even Nanjing to strengthen the multi-dimensional and multi-level innovative cooperation with France. The Third China-France Innovation and Development Forum shall serve to bridge China and France in culture, technology and industry for the purpose of reaching mutual cultural identity and appreciation, exchange their experiences in innovation mechanism, discuss the prospects and opportunities of Sino-French cooperation, and lay a solid foundation for the further in-depth cooperation in Nanjing. In order to realize the goals above, this Forum comes in a strategic overall structure, and is dubbed with "Open to Future Integration and Interaction" as the theme, where the former political dignitaries including the former French President Francois Hollande, former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and former Finance Minister Bruno Bezard shall be invited to attend. Major Chinese guests, including Qin Shuo, the former editor-in-chief of China Business News, Wei Jianguo, the former Minister of Commerce, Shu Yong, internationally renowned artist and the author of Golden Bridge on Silk Road, Jiang Jie, the vice president of Tencent, and Huang Feiyun, the vice president of iFLYTEK, shall attend as well. Reportedly, Yang Lan, a media celebrity, shall be specially invited to host the entire Forum. Having participated in many China-France summit forums in various fields as a host or guest, Yang Lan is quite familiar with French culture. Her participation as a host would possibly drawing more attention for The Third China-France Innovation and Development Forum. At the Forum, each side shall employ a spokesperson, from the macro perspective, to deliver a keynote speech on the challenges and opportunities facing the two during their cooperation and development under current international situations. At the session of theme speech, the distinguished guests from each side shall air their views and experience on cultural innovation and industrial cooperation. Yang Lan will host the round table forum, at which eight political and commercial dignitaries of the two sides will exchange their insightful views, bringing about an offline Yang Lan One on One in Nanjing. The signing ceremonies of the cooperation results for the innovation and development between China and France shall take place at this Forum, which shall cover the signing of friendly cities, cooperation in innovation parks, innovation platforms and science and technology projects. From the expressions of high-level macro-thinking, to the exchanges in industries and culture, the communications at the economic aspects of specific industries between the two sides, and the signing ceremonies for cooperative projects, this Forum shall definitely bring about a good beginning for the cooperation between China and France at the closure of COVID-19. Looking ahead, China and France will surely obtain a better integration in all aspects, setting a marvelous model of Sino-Western cooperation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005310/en/ Contacts: China-France Innovation and Development Forum J.Y WONG 80950376@qq.com 13726693531 The US government has sanctioned six Nigerians over $6million cyber fraud against its citizens. Micheal Pompeo, US secretary of st... The US government has sanctioned six Nigerians over $6million cyber fraud against its citizens. Micheal Pompeo, US secretary of state, disclosed this in a statement published on the department of states website, on Tuesday. The six persons were identified as: Benson Orson Kayode Abiola Ogunshakin Alex Okpoh Felix Olorunyomi Micheal Uzuh Richard Information from the US department of treasury website showed that the perpetrators of the fraud are between the ages of 32 and 37. The US government also included the names of the Nigerians in its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) specially designated nationals list, under the section of cyber-related designation. Pompeo said the victims were defrauded through the use of sensitive information and financial resources derived by manipulative means. He said the US government will not tolerate any fraud act against its citizens, adding that the country would also prevent an abuse of technology. Technological advancements that provide greater interconnectivity also offer greater opportunity for exploitation by malicious actors who target at-risk Americans, the statement read. Today, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control took action against six Nigerian nationals, pursuant to Executive Order 13694 as amended, for conducting an elaborate online scheme to steal more than $6 million from victims across the United States. The six individuals designated today manipulated their victims to gain access to their sensitive information and financial resources. The U.S. will not tolerate such gross misuse of technology. The United States will use all of the tools at our disposal to defend the American people and businesses from malign actors that seek to target them, including cyber-enabled actors who prey on vulnerable Americans and businesses. In May, government officials in Washington acknowledged that the state lost hundreds of millions of dollars to a fraud ring suspected to be perpetrated by Nigerians. It had earlier been reported that the attackers are suspected to have used information about US citizens such as social security numbers to file for unemployment claims on behalf of people who have not been laid off. It is suspected that social security numbers of first responders, government personnel and school employees were compiled from previous cyber hack activities. Suzi LeVine, commissioner of the state employment security department (ESD), had said law enforcement agents are working on recovering as much money as possible and the department has taken steps to prevent new fraudulent unemployment claims from being filed or paid. The firm is focusing exclusively on using local talent pool in the country for global assignments. This is a part of their business and development strategy. I am hopeful HCL will be able to create employment opportunities for the people of the country and people of Sri Lanka will have access to global work environment right in their own country We are excited about this and I am hopeful Sri Lanka will soon emerge as IT destination for more companies, Susantha Ratnayake, Chairman of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka told The Economic Times. Reportedly, the company is keen on hiring and engaging with the skilled and talented candidates in Sri Lanka. Our delivery centre in Sri Lanka will play an important role to serve our Fortune 500 and Global 2000 clients and partners throughout globe, Srimati Shivashankar, corporate vice-president of HCL Technologies told the media. The areas of focus is going to be system integration services and infrastructure services. The company is also planning to implement its Work Integrated Education Programme in order to develop local information and communication technology and engineering instituitions to foster growth. The statement read that for freshers, HCL will focus on hiring A Level Higher National Diploma students through HCL ESOFT Training and Hiring Program. Home minister Amit Shah has paid tribute to Indian soldiers who died in a violent clash with Chinese soldiers in eastern Ladakhs Galwan Valley on Monday night and said their sacrifice cant be put in words. He added that their bravery reflects Indias commitment towards safeguarding her land. Shahs homage followed Prime Minister Narendra Modis clear message that while New Delhi wants peace, it was capable of giving a befitting reply if provoked. Pain of losing our brave soldiers while protecting our motherland at Galwan Valley cant be put in words. Nation salutes our immortal heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep the Indian territory safe. Their bravery reflects Indias commitment towards her land, said Shah in a tweet on Wednesday afternoon. Indian Army has reported loss of 20 lives on its side, including that of a commanding officer of the Bihar Regiment, in clashes with China during the de-escalation process in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night. The Indian government has blamed China for not honouring a consensus reached between the two sides to withdraw and said the clashes were a result of Chinas attempts to change the status quo of the line of actual control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. Shah went on to say that the country will always be in debt of the soldiers supreme sacrifice. I bow to the families, who have blessed Indian Army with such great heroes. India will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifice. Entire nation and the Modi government stands firmly with their families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured, Shah added. Earlier, during his meeting with the chief ministers of states, the prime minister had said that the sacrifice of the jawans will not go in vain. I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important, PM Modi said. Also Read: India wants peace but capable of giving befitting reply if instigated: PM Modi on Ladakh face-off According to intelligence inputs, China has suffered 43 injuries or deaths in the clashes. The deadly faceoff between the two neighbours, has marked a new low in the ties, however, both sides have disengaged at the site of the clash in Galwan Valley. Earlier today, defence minister Rajnath Singh had also offered his condolences and said the death of Indian soldiers was extremely disturbing. The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army, he said in a statement. Also Read: Wife of Odia JCO killed at Galwan valley yet to know of husbands death Opposition parties, particularly the Congress, have been demanding that the government come out with a detailed account of the incident that resulted in casualties in Indian Army-- the first since October 1975 when Chinese troops had ambushed an Indian patrol in Arunachal Pradeshs Tulung La sector killing four soldiers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should tell the country how the Chinese occupied the Indian territory, and why 20 soldiers were killed, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said Wednesday. The Congress chief also asked the government to clarify if Indian territory has been occupied by China and what is the governments strategy to deal with the situation. NEWARK, N.J., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WellCare of New Jersey, a subsidiary of Centene Corporation, announced today a plan to provide additional mental health resources to New Jersey residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a series of local partnerships across the state, WellCare will enable providers to better support communities experiencing elevated levels of stress and mental strain caused by an increase in grief, loss, economic pressure, unemployment, and social isolation. "We must consider the negative toll the pandemic is taking on the mental health especially among underserved communities," said John Kirchner WellCare's Plan President and CEO in New Jersey. "We will continue to support New Jersey residents across the continuum of care throughout the pandemic and beyond." As part of this effort WellCare, in partnership with its parent company Centene, is announcing investments to support the following programs: Provider Training and Support Training for clinicians and support for frontline providers dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and the increase in mental health-related challenges in their practices. Training for clinicians and support for frontline providers dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and the increase in mental health-related challenges in their practices. Support for 'Warmline' Call Centers A donation to a local organization in New Jersey coping with an increase in demand for their 'warmline' services, which provide early interventions to potential mental health crises. A donation to a local organization in coping with an increase in demand for their 'warmline' services, which provide early interventions to potential mental health crises. Expanding Access to Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) An investment to help the National Council for Behavioral Health transition part of their training program to a virtual program, which will make MHFA training more accessible for people in New Jersey and nationwide. An investment to help the National Council for Behavioral Health transition part of their training program to a virtual program, which will make MHFA training more accessible for people in and nationwide. Supporting Those Impacted by Domestic Violence A $500,000 donation to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a national service provider which offers service via call, chats, and texts providing support for those impacted by domestic violence in times of crisis. Provider Training and Support For many, the emotional trauma of COVID-19 will last longer than the pandemic itself. WellCare of New Jersey is partnering through Centene with Allegheny Health Network and the CARES Institute at Rowan University to fund virtual Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) training cohorts, which will enable clinicians in New Jersey and nationwide to receive this highly effective training. TF-CBT is an evidence-based treatment for the impact of traumatic experiences on child and adolescent mental health. Support for 'Warmline' Call Centers Additionally, WellCare of New Jersey is partnering with peer warmlines in New Jersey, dedicated call centers for mild to moderate behavioral health needs. As part of this partnership, WellCare will allocate funds to assist in meeting the demand for increased capacity brought on by the pandemic. Expanding Access to Mental Health First Aid Training To ensure a long-term impact beyond the current pandemic, WellCare will donate to the National Council for Behavioral Health's COVID-19 Relief Fund, specifically for the provision of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA). MHFA teaches people to identify, understand, and respond to someone who might be experiencing a mental health crisis, such as suicidal thinking or misusing substances. WellCare's support will provide greater access to MHFA virtual trainings, helping more individuals support someone experiencing mental health and substance use challenges at this critical time. Supporting Those Impacted by Domestic Violence Behavioral Health services are critical for everyone during these challenging times, especially those who have experienced trauma or interpersonal violence. Shelter-in-place orders across the country during the COVID-19 crisis have led to an increase in incidents of domestic violence. In response, WellCare of New Jersey's parent company Centene donated $500,000 to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a national service provider which offers service via call, chats, and texts providing support for those impacted by domestic violence in times of crisis. In the last month, the National Domestic Violence Hotline experienced a 12% increase in contact volume. WellCare of New Jersey is committed to supporting its members and local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more, visit www.wellcare.com/NewJersey. About WellCare of New Jersey WellCare of New Jersey provides government-sponsored managed care services to families, children, seniors and individuals with complex needs primarily through Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans across the state. WellCare is a wholly subsidiary of Centene Corporation, a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise committed to helping people live healthier lives. For more information, please visit www.wellcare.com/newjersey. SOURCE WellCare of New Jersey Related Links http://www.wellcare.com/NewJersey Using a series of eye-catching slogans on colorful yard signs, mental health nonprofit the AAKOMA Project will reach out to communities in Arlington County in partnership with the Arlington Partnership for Children, Youth, & Families. Featuring slogans like "Be Bold. Seek Help." and "Healthy Minds Are Successful Minds," each yard sign will be translated into multiple languages to reach the widest possible audience, including Spanish, Arabic, Amharic, and Mongolian. "We hope this low-tech, high impact effort helps people across our region prioritize their mental health during this tough time," said Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble, founder of the AAKOMA Project. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the AAKOMA Project has co-led a variety of community-based initiatives, including virtual mental health support for young people of color and a virtual prom for high school students stuck at home. About The AAKOMA Project: The AAKOMA Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to help diverse teenagers and their families achieve optimal mental health through dialogue, learning, and the understanding that everyone deserves care and support. Find out more at https://AAKOMAproject.org/. SOURCE The AAKOMA Project, Inc. Related Links https://www.aakomaproject.org Snapchat has launched Lens Web Builder, the industrys first web-based augmented reality (AR) Lens ad production tool. Lens Web Builder makes it easy for anyone to build compelling, professional AR Lenses in minutes. While anyone can access the tool for free, LWB is particularly compelling to brands or agencies that wants to produce AR Lenses quickly, without the additional support of highly skilled creators. Lens Web Builder, which operates in any web browser, allows advertisers to choose from a library of templates or they can create their own branded Lens from scratch. The tool includes access to a library of hundreds of 3D objects, animations, and effects to help brands build their custom branded AR Lens and they can also upload their own 2D assets (such as logos and images) to further customize the AR experience. Key facts about Lens Web Builder: What is Lens Web Builder? Lens Web Builder is the industrys first web-based AR Lens ad production tool. Weve templatized hundreds of Snaps best organic Lens creative, so now anyone can create engaging AR Lenses with no 3D design experience needed. Lens Web Builder was built with 3 core ideas in mind for AR ad creation: Simple: Create your own AR experience by picking from thousands of 3D objects & animation Fast: It only takes a few minutes to get your first Lens. Previously it had taken up to a few weeks to build one AR creative now. Free: Brands with any budget can now access this immersive new format. No media spend requirements or creative fees to access our repository of 3D assets. Why is it important? The perception around AR is that it is expensive both in terms of level of effort and level of financial investment. Snap has made significant product investments to reduce the friction in both the buying and production processes, to increase the overall accessibility of AR content and distribution. In the near term, its also a great way for partners to test new Lens concepts or visualize their brand in the context of our camera. Who is it for? Small to medium size businesses just getting started in AR. Specifically, Lens Web Builder offers the ability to quickly build a variety of Lenses that can be A/B tested through the auction. Any brand with a focus on agile marketing looking to quickly produce relevant content/creative based on whats trending (ie. for holidays, cultural moments, etc.). Any creative team or agency looking to test branded AR concepts within the Snapchat camera. Creators without a 3D development background (ie. graphic designers, creative strategists, etc.). *Note: The Lens Web Builder user base will always be distinctly different from our Lens Studio users, who are often highly technical 3D Developers modeling objects and textures, and tailoring them to the Snapchat Lens experience. Democratizing augmented reality and aiding businesses to create their own assets, Snapchats Lens Web Builder makes it easy to create augmented reality (AR) Lens campaigns directly in Ads Manager. The Lens Web Builder evades the need for sophisticated AR development software or expert knowledge, thus allowing brands to create an AR lens that can be used to advertise. Equipped with all the tools to enable campaigns, the Lens Builder provides a library of hundreds of 3D objects, animations, and effects to build custom branded AR Lens. It also enables the uploading of 2D assets (such as logos and images) to further customize the AR experience. Lens Web Builder, which operates in any web browser, helps advertisers to create in creating branded Lens from scratch if they choose, or they can also opt to select choose from a library of templates. Building a Lens from scratch gives full control to the creator over what 3D assets they want included in a Lens, plus any sound and/or text they would like to include. Starting with a template allows them to use a pre-selected combination of 3D assets as the basis of the Lens, instead of choosing each element individually. The tool also operates in any web browser, making it available almost anywhere. Now advertisers will be able to create AR experiences within minutes and without additional design support thus making it very appealing to small and medium-sized businesses. Interesting facts about Lens Web Builder: Simple: Create AR experience by picking from hundreds of 3D objects & animations Fast: It only takes a few minutes to create the first Lens Free: Brands or businesses with any budget can now access this immersive format. There are no creative fees to access our repository of 3D assets, however daily minimum campaign spend requirements apply We are excited to launch Lens Web Builder in India which is the latest step in our journey to democratize AR. This tool is available to advertisers of all sizes and doesn't require any previous design experience. We know Lens Web Builder is particularly appealing to small to medium sized businesses, including performance focussed and Direct-to-Consumer brands, who will be able to build an AR ad within minutes. We have already had several clients testing the tool, seeing great results, and are excited to welcome more advertisers on board in the coming weeks and months. David Shaw, Head of International Product Marketing Visuals here ) Learn more about Snapchats Lens Web Builder here. The UN's human rights chief today urged countries to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism and to make amends for 'centuries of violence and discrimination' through reparations. Addressing an urgent debate on racism and police brutality at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet called on countries to examine their pasts and to strive to better understand the scope of continuing 'systemic discrimination'. She pointed to the 'gratuitous brutality' on display in the killing of George Floyd. UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet (pictured) called on countries to examine their pasts and to strive to better understand the scope of continuing 'systemic discrimination' Bachelet pointed to the 'gratuitous brutality' on display in the killing of George Floyd. Above, lack Lives Matter demonstrators march through the streets in Atlanta, Georgia 'You, at the United Nations, are your brothers and sisters keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother... I'm asking you to help him,' Philonise said What are slave reparations and who is in favour of them? Those in favour of slavery reparations argue that financial compensation should be made to the descendants of slaves for past injustices and continuing inequality. The concept remains only hypothetical and the most prominent demands for reparations have been made in the US and Britain. Demands for reparations are largely on behalf of Africans who were enslaved and trafficked to the Americas and West Indies during the transatlantic slave trade. African-American lawyer and activist Randall Robinson stated in 1999 that America's history of race riots, lynching, and institutional discrimination have 'resulted in $1.4 trillion in losses for African Americans'. In the US, only one major bill demanding slavery reparations has been proposed. Former Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr. (pictured) unsuccessfully proposed the 'Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act' every year from 1989 until his resignation in 2017 Former Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr. unsuccessfully proposed the 'Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act' every year from 1989 until his resignation in 2017. His bill recommends that a special commission be formed to investigate the 'impact of slavery on the social, political and economic life of our nation'. Last June, a landmark hearing on reparations was held on Juneteenth at Capitol Hill, and saw writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and actor Danny Glover testify before the House panel as it considered legislation to establish a commission to investigate the consequences and impacts of slavery. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Rep. Bernie Saunders are both co-sponsors of H.R.40, the only piece of legislation in Congress to study and develop reparations proposals. US Senator Kamala Harris declared last year that she supports reparations. In 2019, a AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Poll found that 29% of Americans say the government should pay cash reparations, and there was divided opinion among people of different ethnic backgrounds. Just 15% of white participants supported the idea of the US government paying reparations to the descendants of enslaved black people. Meanwhile 75% of black participants were in favour of the idea, while 44% of Hispanics were in favour. In the UK, the Slave Compensation Act of 1837 saw substantial money paid by the government to former slave owners, but nothing to the newly liberated people. In 2004, the British government refused a demand from a coalition of the Rastafari movement and the Berber Moors to pay 72.5 billion pounds to resettle 500,000 Jamaican Rastafarians in Africa. The UK government justified its decision by saying it could not be held accountable for wrongs in past centuries. In 2006, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair made an apology for Britain's role in the African slavery trade, but it was denounced by African rights activists as 'empty rhetoric'. In 2007, the then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone pointed to the city's financial district as he apologised for London's role in the slave trade, saying: 'You can look across there to see the institutions that still have the benefit of the wealth they created from slavery.' Advertisement Floyd was a 46-year-old black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been charged with second-degree murder. He was initially charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and still faces those two charges. This symbol of 'systemic racism... has become emblematic of the excessive use of disproportionate force by law enforcement, against people of African descent, against people of colour, and against indigenous peoples and racial and ethnic minorities in many countries across the globe,' she said. 'Behind today's racial violence, systemic racism and discriminatory policing lies the failure to acknowledge and confront the legacy of the slave trade and colonialism,' she said. She stressed the need to 'make amends for centuries of violence and discrimination, including through formal apologies, truth-telling processes, and reparations in various forms.' Wednesday's urgent council debate was called in response to Floyd's killing. His death was caught on amateur video, sparking worldwide demands to address systemic racism in the United States and around the world. George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, called on the United Nations to set up an independent commission to investigate the killings of African Americans by police. He made his speech via video message during the meeting. 'I am my brother's keeper,' he said. 'You, at the United Nations, are your brothers and sisters keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother... I'm asking you to help him. 'I'm asking you to help me. I'm asking you to help us black people in America. 'I hope that you will consider establishing an independent commission of inquiry to investigate police killings of black people in America, and the violence against peaceful protesters.' His brother denounced police crackdowns on demonstrators. 'When people dared to raise their voice and protest for my brother they were tear-gassed, run over with police vehicles,' he said. Several people had lost eyes and suffered brain damage from rubber bullets, Floyd told the council. 'When people raise their voices to protest the treatment of black people in America they are silenced. 'They are shot and killed,' he added. Floyd said his brother 'is one of the many black men and women that have been murdered by police. 'The sad truth is that the case is not unique,' he said. 'The way you saw my brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America.' African countries are calling for the council to ask Bachelet and other UN rights experts to investigate racism and policy brutality in the US, but potential support for their draft resolution is unclear. The US itself withdrew from the council two years ago, but a number of its allies are uncomfortable with the country being singled out in the text, according to observers of the process. Bachelet herself did not speak out specifically in favour of the draft resolution. However, she did stress the need for 'decisive reforms'. She insisted on the importance of making clear that 'black lives matter. Indigenous lives matter. 'The lives of people of colour matter.' 'All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights: that is what this Council, like my office, stands for.' Those in favour of slavery reparations argue that financial compensation should be made to the descendants of slaves for past injustices and continuing inequality. The concept remains only hypothetical. The most prominent demands for reparations have been made in the US and Britain. (Newser) The Trump administration has sued to block John Bolton's White House memoir for being an alleged threat to national securitybut the book portrays the "erratic" President Trump himself as the real threat to national security, according to the New York Times and other outlets that have received advance copies of The Room Where It Happened. Bolton's book is a "withering portrait of a president ignorant of even basic facts about the world, susceptible to transparent flattery by authoritarian leaders manipulating him and prone to false statements, foul-mouthed eruptions and snap decisions that aides try to manage or reverse," according to the Times. Some of the more stunning revelations: Trump asked Xi to help him get re-elected : When China's President Xi Jinping complained about China's critics in the US during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit last year, Trump thought he was talking about Democrats, Bolton says, per the AP. "He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure hed win," Bolton writes. "He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome." He adds: "I would print Trumps exact words but the governments prepublication review process has decided otherwise." : When China's President Xi Jinping complained about China's critics in the US during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit last year, Trump thought he was talking about Democrats, Bolton says, per the AP. "He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure hed win," Bolton writes. "He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome." He adds: "I would print Trumps exact words but the governments prepublication review process has decided otherwise." 'You're the greatest': Xi agreed that to restart the trade talks, welcoming Trumps concession that there would be no new tariffs and agreeing that the two negotiating teams should resume discussions on farm products on a priority basis, Bolton writes, per the Wall Street Journal. Trump then told Xi: "You're the greatest Chinese leader in 300 years!" Bolton describes Trump's conversations with Xi as just one example of how the president "commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security." story continues below Investigation into a Turkish firm: Bolton claims Trump promised to fix things after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told him a Turkish firm being investigated by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York was innocent, Washington Post reports. Trump "told Erdogan he would take care of things, explaining that the Southern District prosecutors were not his people, but were Obama people, a problem that would be fixed when they were replaced by his people," Bolton writes. Bolton claims Trump promised to fix things after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told him a Turkish firm being investigated by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York was innocent, Washington Post reports. Trump "told Erdogan he would take care of things, explaining that the Southern District prosecutors were not his people, but were Obama people, a problem that would be fixed when they were replaced by his people," Bolton writes. 'Stunningly uninformed' : Bolton says the president appeared ignorant of many basic facts and once asked whether Finland was part of Russia. "He second-guessed people's motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government," Bolton writes. : Bolton says the president appeared ignorant of many basic facts and once asked whether Finland was part of Russia. "He second-guessed people's motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government," Bolton writes. Trump criticized by own advisers . Boltonwho describes himself, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as the "axis of adults"says Trump was frequently criticized behind his back by his own advisers. He says after a phone call between Trump and South Korea's president before his 2018 North Korea summit, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him he was "having a cardiac arrest" over how poorly Trump was handling the situation. . Boltonwho describes himself, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as the "axis of adults"says Trump was frequently criticized behind his back by his own advisers. He says after a phone call between Trump and South Korea's president before his 2018 North Korea summit, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him he was "having a cardiac arrest" over how poorly Trump was handling the situation. Bolton reported concerns : Bolton says he found Trump's actions toward Ukraine, which led to the president's impeachment, "deeply disturbing." He says he reported his concerns to Attorney General William Barr and the White House counsel's officeas he had done after the Xi conversations and other troubling incidents. : Bolton says he found Trump's actions toward Ukraine, which led to the president's impeachment, "deeply disturbing." He says he reported his concerns to Attorney General William Barr and the White House counsel's officeas he had done after the Xi conversations and other troubling incidents. 'Impeachment malpractice': Bolton accuses House Democrats of bungling impeachment by moving too quickly and focusing solely on Ukraine, ignoring Trump's dealings with countries including China and Turkey. "A president may not misuse the national government's legitimate powers by defining his own personal interest as synonymous with the national interest,' Bolton writes, per the Times. "Had the House not focused solely on the Ukraine aspects of Trumps confusion of his personal interests," he adds, "there might have been a greater chance of persuading others that 'high crimes and misdemeanors' had been perpetrated." (Read more John Bolton stories.) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) Officials allayed worries that the Anti-Terrorism Bill will give undue power to the same law enforcers who are accused of violating human rights and red-tagging activists. Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano on Tuesday assured the ongoing reforms in the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines will ensure that the human rights of suspected terrorists will not be violated by the arresting officers. "Huwag na natin ikumpara ang nakaraan sa ngayon sapagkat nakikita kong na-internalize sa buong organization 'yung pag sunod sa human rights," he said in virtual forum. [Translation: Let's not compare the past mistakes because I can see that the reforms are being carried out to ensure they observe human rights.] The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte has been marred by alleged human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings, especially in his bloody war on illegal drugs. Commission on Human Rights Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana remained apprehensive over the Anti-Terrorism Bill, which is only awaiting Duterte's signature in order to become a law. She cited the broad definition of terrorism, the granting of power to the Anti-Terrorism Council to order warrantless arrests and detention of up to 24 days, and the lack of due process are prone to abuse that may impinge on the rights of an individual. In the Anti-Terrorism Bill, advocacy, protest, dissent, and other forms similar to exercising civil and political rights are not considered terrorism. But the bill qualifies that such actions will not be considered terrorism only if it's not intended to cause death or physical harm to a person or does not create a serious risk to public safety. What if in a legitimate process, because of infiltration, dispersal, nagkaroon ng violence, may namatay, nagkasunog, may nasaktan? Would this give the right to government to say that, O, terrorist act? Pimentel-Gana said. [Translation: What if in a legitimate process, because of infiltration, dispersal, there was violence, someone dies, a fire erupts, or someone is hurt? Would this give the right to government to say that, 'Oh, terrorist act?'] This is the reason why the CHR is asking the government to restudy and amend the contentious provisions that are vague and open to misunderstanding. Ano said there are safety measures in the bill that will protect Filipinos against potential abuse. He said law enforcers can be imprisoned for 10 years if they carry out wrongful arrests, unauthorized wiretapping, commi torture or human rights violations against the suspects. Pimentel-Gana also said the government and its security troops have been red-tagging critics and activists, which puts their lives at risk. Last week, several regional police offices posted images accusing activist organizations of being communist fronts. "Ang red tagging ay rampant ngayon. Sometimes it's the law enforcers who do it. We are trying to avoid that. The provision on designation and proscription can result to (result in) red tagging. This is very concerning so we should review it, she said. [Translation: Red tagging is rampant today. Sometimes it's the law enforcers who do it. We are trying to avoid that. The provision on designation and proscription can result in red tagging. This is very concerning so we should review it.] The National Intelligence Coordinating Agency denied CHRs allegations that the government is affiliating activist groups with the communist rebels. NICA Director General Alex Paul Monteagudo said it was Communist Party of the Philippines founding Chairman Jose Maria Sison himself who identified their legal fronts. Huwag lang sana tayo magpadala sa propaganda ng kaliwa at ginagamit ang term na red-tagging, he said. [Translation: Do not be swayed by propaganda and the use of the term red tagging.] Earlier, human rights group Karapatan said there is no proof that legal organizations are 'fronts' of the New Peoples Army. So far, only the Abu Sayyaf Group has been officially declared as a terrorist group. In 2018, the government has asked the court to declare the New Peoples Army as a terrorist organization but it has yet to be granted. With the growing appeals for President Duterte to veto the proposed law which seeks to repeal the Human Security Act of 2007, its principal sponsor Senator Panfilo Ping Lacson continued to fight for its passage even after retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines agreed that there are provisions in the proposed law that may be unconstitutional. He appealed to the public to do their own research instead of being swayed by mounting criticisms. The title itself says it all. Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020. Hindi naman ito sinabing anti-civil liberties, hindi naman sinabing anti-rally. Anti-Terrorism Act. Kung hindi kayo terorista, wala kayong dapat ipangamba, he said. Duterte, who certified the measure as urgent amid the COVID-19 crisis, has until July 9 to sign the Anti-Terrorism Bill into law or veto certain provisions. The Department of Justice, which has been tasked to review the bill, sent their report to the Office of the President on Wednesday. The National Union of Peoples Lawyers said it is poised to file the appropriate petition once it is signed into law. Carpio said he will join those who will question its constitutionality before the Supreme Court if the Anti-Terrorism Bill is signed into law. "I plan to be a petitioner," he said. CNN Philippines correspondents Gerg Cahiles and Anjo Alimario contributed to this report. Rs 19,000. That is how much Avani Tiwari was quoted after a single session of therapy in January for her depression. This was over and above the Rs 1,500 for the consulting session and would include light medication and lab tests for vitamin deficiency, thyroid and allied hormone tests. The result? Avani never went back for any more sessions with the therapist. I barely earn enough to manage my monthly expenses in Mumbai. How will I be able to afford such expensive therapy, she added. Tiwari occasionally calls free online helplines since she finds regular face-to-face sessions to be out of her financial reach. Amidst a renewed focus on mental health issues after actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death by suicide, a lot of discussion centered around access to medication. Many advocated those suffering from psychological issues to reach out for help. But, the reality is that treatment for anxiety, depression and allied psychological diseases is unaffordable, and out of reach, for most in India. Let alone admission into a healthcare facility which comes with its own stigma, a one-hour session with a qualified therapist would cost no less than Rs 800. How many Indians would be able to afford this? Also, one would need to take 20-30 sessions on an average before seeing an improvement in their emotional health. One may contest this claim by saying that why not take an insurance cover. Technically, health insurance should cover outpatient (OPD) expenses like therapist consultation, diagnostic tests and pharmacy bills. However, those dealing with mental health ailments say that they don't get any such cover to meet their needs. Why is insurance not covering mental health ailments? Under the Mental Healthcare Act 2017, offering insurance for mental health ailments has been made mandatory by law. The Act says that every insurer has to offer medical insurance for treatment of mental illness on the same lines as insurance for physical illness treatment. S Prakash, managing director of Star Health Insurance told Moneycontrol that there is no option but to cover mental health ailments as well. He added that it is mandated by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI). All insurers are expected to cover mental illness as this is to be treated as any other disease. Insurers are also required to publish their underwriting policy on mental illness. I believe that if there is any health assessment to be done, insurers can do that and decide. But an insurer cannot say no, he added. On May 16, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the insurance regulator (IRDAI) seeking the latters response on coverage of mental health ailments in policies. Though it is mandated, covers are still not widely available. SC was responding to a petition where it was stated that insurers were refusing to cover mental health treatment. Special covers for ailments like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders (heart diseases) are easily available. But, no specialised cover for mental health exists. However, if a hospital rejects a hospitalisation claim of any mental health ailment, the policyholder can file a formal complaint since this is illegal. The head of underwriting at a private general insurer told Moneycontrol that while the industry is mandated to cover hospitalisation, waiting periods can be chosen by the insurer and also certain terms. Due to the absence of adequate claim data on mental health ailments in India, niche products covering OPD for mental health are not available. We also exercise caution and seek complete medical history for those with pre-existing conditions may find it tougher to buy a product, he added. The common caveats are up to four-year waiting period for coverage of treatment, minimum hospitalisation duration (three to five days) to be eligible as well as exclusion of some components. Insurers also ask the proposed policyholders to disclose complete medical history for coverage under health plans. If any past cases of psychological-ailment related hospitalisation is declared, there are chances of either rejection from coverage or 30-35 percent higher premiums quoted. Alpes Panchal, a Mumbai-based consultant psychiatrist and de-addiction specialist also agrees. He said that if there is any inpatient based procedure for psychiatry problems the insurance does not cover it, neither does it cover tests or further psychiatry OPD consultations. The demand-supply gap in psychological ailments The Section 18 of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 says that every person shall have a right to access mental health care and treatment from mental health services run or funded by the government. If the government fails to provide the right to access mental health care to everyone, then it is the responsibility of the government to reimburse the costs of treatment. In reality, this never happens. According to this National Mental Health Survey 2016, about 130 million people require mental health services. Mental disorders are not only highly prevalent and disabling medical conditions but also have huge treatment gap. The treatment gap is defined as the percentage of individuals with mental illness who are not on treatment. Another issue of serious contention is that the treatment gap for mental disorders according to NMHS ranged between 70 percent and 92 percent across different disorders. This huge treatment gap raises serious questions regarding the accessibility, affordability, and acceptability of the available mental health services. In India, there is also a wide gap between availability of qualified professionals for those seeking immediate access to such services. According to the World Mental Health Atlas (2014), there were 0.3 psychiatrists per lakh of population in India. Psychologists and psychiatric social workers were even fewer. The median number of psychiatrists in India is only 0.2/100,000 population compared to a global median of 3 per 100,000 population. Similarly, the figures for psychologists, social workers, and nurses working for mental health are 0.03, 0.03, and 0.05/100,000 population. India currently has 9000 psychiatrists, 2000 psychiatric nurses, 1000 clinical psychologists, and 1000 psychiatric social workers. The country would need an additional 30,000 psychiatrists, 37,000 psychiatric nurses, 38,000 psychiatric social worker and 38,000 clinical psychologists. According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry, it will take 42 years to meet the requirement for psychiatrists, 74 years for psychiatric nurses, 76 years for the psychiatric social worker, and 76 years for clinical psychologists, for providing care for 1.3 The same goes for the hospital beds as well. In India, approximately 56,600 public psychiatric beds (35,000 psychiatric beds in mental hospitals, 10 beds each in 723 district hospitals, and 30 beds each in 479 medical colleges) exist for a 130 crore population. In the mental hospitals, a substantial proportion of the psychiatric beds is occupied by the homeless mentally ill. As per international standards the estimated requirement would be 50 beds per 1,00,000 population. As per the above estimate, India requires 650,000 psychiatric beds for 1.3 billion population, but available psychiatric beds are only 56,600. The deficit is approximately 600,000 public psychiatric beds. But, what about the access to basic consultation itself? There is a stark difference in the way the public sector and private sector functions. If it is an organised setup, there will be an easier access to services. Soumitra Pathare, one of India's leading psychiatrists and Director at Pune-based Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy said that broadly speaking organised public sector is good. They have access to support, access to healthcare including mental healthcare. So that group of people probably have some access to help of some kind, he added. As against popular perception, Pathare said that in the private sector the access to healthcare is largely restricted to large employers with only large employers able to provide such assistance. In the medium and small-scale enterprise (MSMEs), he doesnt think that mental healthcare services are provided, while in the unorganised sector there is absolutely no facility available. Indians also have access to online counselling services. However, the 'free versions' of these initiatives do not have any experts and once you opt for a professional help, the charges could go up to Rs 12,000 per month since these doctors are based in other countries. If you choose a domestic entity, private sector entities and independent therapists charge between Rs 800-2,500 per session. Only after two to three months of consistent therapy would the patient see any results. However, the costs are too high to bear. While in government hospitals mental health services are provide at subsidised prices, they are either unable to meet the demand or not easily accessible. There is lack of awareness and poor insurance coverage for the treatment of mental disorders. Medical practitioners also told Moneycontrol that there is a high level of misinformation as well. Not everyone needs to be admitted to an asylum but that seems to be the general perception. I have often seen family members are not supportive and discourage the affected from getting help from experts, said a Mumbai-based psychologist. Apart from the regular therapies/counselling sessions usually held once or twice a week, additional medical intervention may also be required for some patients. For instance, if someone is going for Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for depression will have shell out Rs 75,000-80,000. Mental health treatment is prolonged and involves continuous visits to the doctor, tests like MRI or CT scan and some other tests, counselling, medication and changes in the medication. Are some states better off than others? When it comes to the treatment, affordability is a combination of income and cost, and availability of service. Industry experts said that affordability and accessibility in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are much better than states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar because of broadly structural issues like low income levels and very few public sectors and even smaller private care services. If you or someone you know needs help for mental health issues, call any of these helplines: NIMHANS toll-free number 0804611000, Mpower and BMC joint helpline 1800-120-820050, Vandrevala Foundation 1860-2662-345 or Aasra 9820466726 Kylie cuddles little tot Stormi in a new picture from their new Vogue cover shoot. The pair appear on the front of Vogue Czechoslovakia's 25th edition this month, after they were shot via a Zoom call with the Morelli Brothers snapping the images. Beauty mogul Kylie, 22, looked beautiful she lay in bed next to her baby who blew a raspberry to the camera for a picture which appears inside the magazine. She also shared a behind the scenes shot on Instagram on Tuesday, which shows little Stormi, two, placing her hands around her mother's face in a loving fashion. 'God made no mistakes with you!' Kylie cuddled daughter Stormi, 2, in sweet moments from the tot's first Vogue cover shoot as she said 'I cry knowing she won't be this small again' Angel: Kylie took to Instagram on Tuesday to share this sweet behind the scenes moment from the shoot which was done over Zoom in a magazine first The toddler had tiny gold 'S' earrings in her ears and her mother was perfectly groomed with the snap with her make-up looking sensational. Kylie, who had Stormi with musician Travis Scott, wrote a lovely caption to go alongside the picture as she detailed her feelings for her first-born. She wrote: 'I love this little baby so much i want to burst.. sometimes i just look at her and cry knowing she will never be this small ever again. Cover stars: Kylie and Stormi grace the cover of Vogue Czechoslovakia - they were photographed via a Zoom call by the Morelli Brothers 'Who knew something so little could take up most of your heart God made no mistakes with you storm baby . 'Behind the scenes shooting @vogueczechoslovakia.' Kylie's sister Khloe commented on the snap: 'Amen kyles!!! Shes the best! Youre the best! Being a mommy is the most magical experience EVER! .' Kim wrote: 'She is so lucky to have u as her mommy.' And Kourtney simply wrote: 'Mommyland.' Having her first Vogue cover so young is a huge achievement for Stormi. She posed with her mom for the fashion bible while quarantined at their $36.5 million home in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. Kylie revealed on Instagram that the image was shot on her iphone: 'new cover with my baby for @vogueczechoslovakia shot at home on my iphone @morellibrothers #VogueCS.' The cover is tagged 'Bedtime story' and in behind the scenes images posted by the photographers, the mother and daughter can be seen snuggled up in bed together for the shoot. Vogue CS shared the cover on their Instagram account with more details of the shoot: '#OnceUponATime, Princess #KylieJenner was born into the most-watched family in the world. Camera ready: The mother and daughter posed for the snaps while quarantining at home in Holmby Hills at Kylie's new $36.5 million mansion 'She has become the most powerful #Influencer on the planet, Stormis mother, a #BeautyMogul and it seems that everything she wishes for comes true. 'While Kylie and Stormi were quarantined at their home in Los Angeles, @morellibrothers photographed them exclusively for #VogueCS via Zoom call.' Vogue Czechoslovakia launched in 2018 available in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Andrea Behounkova, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Czechoslovakia, said at the time: 'Our vision for Vogue Czechoslovakia is to reflect the past and the present, connect authors with unexpected themes and put culture into a new context.' DIDCOT, UNITED KINGDOM / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2020 / Altus Strategies Plc (ALS.L)(ALTS.V) ('Altus'' or the 'Company''), the Africa focused project and royalty generator, announces that ASX listed Graphex Mining Limited ("Graphex") has acquired the Joint Venture ("JV") earn-in rights previously held by Glomin Services Ltd ("Glomin") on the Company's 100% owned Lakanfla and Tabakorole gold projects, located in western and southern Mali respectively. Highlights: ASX listed Graphex has acquired Glomin's interest in the Tabakorole and Lakanfla gold JV Graphex to earn up to an 80% interest in each Project by completing up to four key stages culminating in a Definitive Feasibility Study Altus will retain a 2.5% Net Smelter Return ("NSR") royalty on the Projects Lakanfla historical drill results include: 26.0m at 5.1 g/t Au and 18.0m at 4.3 g/t Au (not true width of intervals) Tabakorole historical drill results include: 44.0m at 3.3 g/t Au and 60.0m at 2.9 g/t Au (not true width of intervals) Drilling at Tabakorole underway with an initial 1,600m campaign financed by Graphex Graphex undertaking a A$5.0M capital raising to support exploration activities in Mali Graphex has appointed the former CEO of Centamin plc as a non-executive director Graphex intends to change its name to Marvel Gold Limited Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus, commented: "We are delighted to have Graphex as our joint venture partner to advance the Lakanfla and Tabakorole gold projects, in western and southern Mali respectively. We are confident that Graphex has the necessary operating experience, technical skills and shareholder support required to realise the potentially significant value in these projects. The board of Graphex has recently been further bolstered by the appointment of Andrew Pardey, former CEO of FTSE250 listed gold producer Centamin Plc. Graphex will be seeking shareholder approval to raise up to A$5M through an equity placement and to change their name to Marvel Gold Ltd. We look forward to updating shareholders on the results from the ongoing Tabakorole drilling programme in due course." Story continues Background to JV On 16 June 2020, Altus signed a JV agreement and a Royalty agreement with Graphex and a JV Termination agreement with Glomin. Glomin is expected to receive shares in Graphex for assigning its JV interests to Graphex. The Graphex JV is primarily based on the commercial terms as those previously signed with Glomin, as announced by the Company on 02 December 2019. Table 1 summarised the key terms of the Graphex JV. Table 1. Summary of JV Terms with Graphex Stage Time period Lakanfla Project Tabakorole Project Stage 1 Exploration Within 12 months from the End Date (31 August 2020) 33% interest earned by Graphex 3,500m drilling 1,500m drilling and within 60 days of completing the drilling activities, publishing a JORC and NI43-101 compliant resource Stage 2 Resource Definition Within 18 months of Graphex having given a Stage 2 election notice Further 18% interest (taking Graphex to 51%) Payment to Altus of either: 9,000m of drilling 2,500m of drilling (less any excess metres drilled during JV Stage 1) Not less than US$2500,000 of non-drilling expenditure in aggregate during JV Stage 1 and JV Stage 2 Stage 3 Additional Expenditure Not later than 42 months from the End Date Further 19% interest (taking Graphex to 70%) Payment to Altus of either: US$3 million in expenditure US$3 million in expenditure Stage 4 Definitive Feasibility Study Within 24 months of Graphex having given a Stage 4 election notice Further 10% interest (taking Graphex to 80%) Payment to Altus of either: Completion of a definitive feasibility study in respect of the Lakanfla licence Completion of a definitive feasibility study in respect of the Tabakorole licence If the JV proceeds to JV Stage 5 (Construction) and Graphex is sole funding that stage then Graphex will pay to Altus an additional US$1,000,000 in cash, or US$500,000 in cash and US$750,000 in Graphex shares and Altus' shareholding will be diluted in proportion to the total amounts expended by Graphex during JV Stage 5. Altus will retain a 2.5% NSR on each project, which may be reduced to 1.0% in return for cash payments in certain circumstances. Cautionary note regarding historic data Readers are cautioned that the data on Tabakorole in this written disclosure is historical exploration data that has not been verified by a Qualified Person. Not all historical samples are available and Altus does not have complete information on the quality assurance or quality control measures taken in connection with the exploration results, or other exploration or testing details regarding these results. There has been insufficient exploration to define a current mineral resource and the Company cautions that there is a risk further exploration will not result in the delineation of a current mineral resource. Intersections cited in this news release do not represent true widths of the mineralised intervals. The historical drilling was predominantly angled at -60 and -55 degrees and intersected steeply dipping mineralisation. True width determinations are estimated to be 50-57% of the cited intersection lengths. Qualified Person The technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement has been read and approved by Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus. A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology (Hons), he also holds a Master's degree from the Camborne School of Mines (Exeter University) in Mining Geology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and has over 20 years of experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules and National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators". For further information you are invited to visit the Company's website www.altus-strategies.com or contact: Altus Strategies Plc Steven Poulton Chief Executive Tel: +44 (0) 1235 511 767 E: info@altus-strategies.com SP Angel (Nominated Adviser) Richard Morrison / Soltan Tagiev Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 SP Angel (Broker) Abigail Wayne / Richard Parlons Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0471 Yellow Jersey PR (Financial PR & IR) Georgia Colkin / Charles Goodwin / Henry Wilkinson Tel: +44 (0) 20 3004 9512 E: altus@yellowjerseypr.com About Altus Strategies Plc Altus is a London (ALS.L) and Toronto (ALTS.V) listed project and royalty generator in the mining sector with a focus on Africa. Our team creates value by making mineral discoveries across multiple licences. We enter joint ventures with respected groups and our partners earn interest in these discoveries by advancing them toward production. Project milestone payments we receive are reinvested to extend our portfolio, accelerating our growth. The portfolio model reduces risk as our interests are diversified by commodity and by country. The royalties generated from our portfolio of projects are designed to yield sustainable long-term income. We engage constructively with all our stakeholders, working diligently to minimise our environmental impact and to promote positive economic and social outcomes in the communities where we operate. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain information included in this announcement, including information relating to future financial or operating performance and other statements that express the expectations of the Directors or estimates of future performance constitute "forward-looking statements". These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include without limitation the completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programmes on schedule and the success of exploration programmes. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date of this announcement and the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Where the Company expresses or implies an expectation or belief as to future events or results, such expectation or belief is based on assumptions made in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. The forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as at the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information or any forward-looking statements contained in any other announcements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law or regulations. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Market Abuse Regulation Disclosure Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ("MAR") until the release of this announcement. Glossary of Terms The following is a glossary of technical terms: "Au" means gold "g/t" means grams per tonne "NI 43-101" means National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects" of the Canadian Securities Administrators "JORC" means Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Resources prepared by the Joint Ore Reserves Committee of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Australian Institute of Geoscientists and Minerals Council of Australia. "Qualified Person" means a person that has the education, skills and professional credentials to qualify as a qualified person under NI 43-101 SOURCE: Altus Strategies PLC View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/594142/Altus-and-Graphex-enter-Gold-JV-and-Royalty-Agreement-in-Mali Advertisement More details of the brutal hand-to-hand fighting between Chinese and Indian troops on the Himalayan border has emerged including how some were pushed to their deaths off a narrow mountain path and impaled with iron rods. The fighting that killed up to 20 Indian soldiers and injured or killed at least 43 Chinese has shocked the world and led to fears of increased tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries. But both sides today sought to ease tensions, with China saying it had agreed to talks to resolve the situation and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi striking a more confrontational tone. He said in a TV address: 'There should be no doubt that India wants peace, but if provoked, India will provide an appropriate response.' Neither side used firearms in the brawl because under a peace agreement both sides have agreed not to carry guns within 2km of the disputed border. In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the clash erupted after Indian soldiers 'crossed the line, acted illegally, provoked and attacked the Chinese, resulting in both sides engaging in serious physical conflict and injury and death'. According to the Indian account of the brawl, what had started out as an effort at disengagement after a month-long standoff along the frontier unravelled last week when Indian troops furiously dismantled a camp set up by the Chinese on their side of the border. Scuffles broke out and several men were injured, but the Chinese only retreated briefly to flood back in greater numbers over the weekend, with stones being hurled on Sunday. On Monday these skirmishes boiled over into a full-scale brawl atop a ridge-line above the Galwan River, with many men said to have died after plunging into the frigid glacial waters below. 'They came hurtling down like free-falling objects,' one source told AFP. Postmortem examinations on those killed showed that the 'primary reason for death is drowning and it looks like they fell from a height into the water because of head injuries,' an official told AFP. Scroll down for video. RECENT TENSIONS: Believed to have been filmed in mid-May on the banks of Pangong Lake, a mile into Indian territory, footage purports to show Indian forces battering a People's Liberation Army soldier and smashing up a Chinese armoured car RECENT TENSIONS: Pro-Beijing social media accounts recently posted images purporting to show Indian troops battered and bound with rope on the banks of a lake in the disputed region on the Himalayan border At least 20 Indian soldiers, including a colonel, were killed and at least 43 Chinese men were wounded or killed on Monday night along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a disputed border in the Himlayas (the red territory is controlled by India, and the beige and grey stripes, Aksai Chin, is Chinese but claimed by India, the white line which surrounds is what Indian believes its border should be, whereas the black line was agreed after then 1962 Sino-Indian War - a heavy defeat for India) Uninhabitable desert: The Galwan Valley where the mass brawl between the Indian and Chinese forces took place Colonel B Santosh Babu (pictured) was one of the officers killed in the confrontation on the Ladakh border. It was Colonel B. Santosh Babu, Commanding Officer of the 16 Bihar regiment, who had made the first approach to the Chinese, hoping for discussion. His mother Manjula said: 'I lost my son, I cannot bear it. But he died for the country and that makes me happy and proud.' Patch of uninhabitable desert that India and China have been fighting over for centuries The Himalayan border between India and China has been disputed for centuries, but the two countries have been fighting over it most recently since the 1960s. In the 18th century it was fought over by the Russian, Chinese and British empires, and after India gained independence ownership of the region became more confused. China values the region because it provides a trading route to Pakistan, and recent hostilities have been sparked by fears in Beijing that India will cut it off from the crucial overland corridor. The current official border between the two was set by Britain and is known as the McMahon line. It is recognised by India but not by China. In reality, the border between the two countries is on Line of Actual Control where Indian and Chinese forces finished after the war of 1962. Aksai Chin, the site of the latest tensions, is located in India according to the official border but is claimed as part of the Chinese region of Xinjiang by Beijing. It is an almost uninhabited high-altitude scrubland traversed by the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway. The other disputed territory is hundreds of miles away to the east of Tibet. The 1962 Sino-Indian War was fought on these two frontiers as Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru put it, a struggle over land where 'not even a blade of grass grows.' In addition to the disputed border, China had seized Tibet ten years before and accused India of trying to to subvert Beijing's interests by granting asylum to the Dalai Lama. There was also a Cold War element and India wanted to see if the US would back it in a confrontation against communist China. Delhi had ignored the desolate corner of the subcontinent which allowed the Chinese to build a military road through it during the 1950s to connect the province of Xinjiang to Tibet. The Indian discovery of this highway was a major factor which led to ferocious clashes leading up to the war. Yet the Indians had just two divisions posted at the border when the Chinese invaded, never suspecting that Beijing would be so bold as to cross the McMahon line. The war lasted for one month and left more than 2,000 dead on both sides. Much of the reason for the ongoing conflict is the ill-defined border, the result of a confused status the region had during the colonial era, which was made more murky by India's war with Pakistan in 1947. Advertisement It was Colonel B. Santosh Babu, Commanding Officer of the 16 Bihar regiment, who had made the first approach to the Chinese, hoping for discussion. But the Indian delegation was attacked, India Today reported, by the Chinese who hurled rocks wrapped in barbed wire and who whacked their counterparts with nail-studded wooden logs. Babu was fatally injured along with another soldier and they were rushed back to base, leaving other Indians to be taken prisoner by the Chinese. After around 40 minutes, the same Indian unit, led by a major, arrived to confront the Chinese again. The Indians attacked the Chinese outpost with ruthlessness and reportedly caused serious injury to around 60 men. All of this took place in the river valley and lasted well over three hours, despite attempts by a Chinese brigadier to wave the white flag. Club-like weapons and rocks featured heavily in the battle and for this reason many of the troops are said to have sustained grievous head wounds. By the time the fighting relented just after midnight many of the men who had fallen into the river had already succumbed to hypothermia, with other corpses being fished out at sunrise. Another six Indian soldiers were still said to be missing. Colonel Babu's mother Manjula told the New Indian Express: 'I lost my son, I cannot bear it. But he died for the country and that makes me happy and proud.' Indian security forces said neither side fired any shots in the clash which was the first deadly confrontation along the 2,175 mile frontier since 1975. As per a 1996 bilateral agreement, Indian and Chinese soldiers are barred from taking guns within two kilometres of the Line of Actual Control, known as LAC, the border established after the 1962 war between the two nations. Thousands of troops have faced off since early May along a remote stretch of the LAC, with several social media posts purporting to show the aftermath of vicious brawls and the capturing of prisoners. The Indian Army said three soldiers died initially. The 17 others died after being 'critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high-altitude terrain,' it said in a statement Tuesday that did not disclose the nature of the soldiers' injuries. The troops fought each other with fists and rocks, Indian security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information. After the clash, the two sides 'disengaged' from the area where the the fighting happened, the Indian Army statement said. The United Nations urged both sides 'to exercise maximum restraint.' 'We are concerned about reports of violence and deaths at the Line of Actual Control between India and China,' U.N. associate spokesperson Eri Kaneko said. 'We take positive note of reports that the two countries have engaged to de escalate the situation.' While experts said the two nations were unlikely to head into a war, they also believe easing tensions quickly will be difficult. Hundreds of Indians took to the streets yesterday to burn posters of President Xi Jinping and held slogans urging people not to buy Chinese goods. Indian Defence Ministry spokesman Col. Aman Anand did not respond immediately to queries on the situation Wednesday or whether talks were planned to defuse the tensions. 'This will likely be a watershed moment in India-China relations and the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific,' said Abraham Denmark, Asia program director at The Wilson Center. 'We've already seen the deadliest clash on the China-India border in over 50 years, both countries are led by men who have embraced nationalism, and both countries are facing tremendous domestic and international upheaval as a result of COVID-19 and other long-standing problems.' The main questions now are if either side can find a path to deescalation and whether India's allies such as the United States will help. 'It is a highly volatile and dangerous situation between two nationalistic, nuclear powers at a time when American influence has badly diminished,' Denmark said. Indian army soldiers rest next to artillery guns at a makeshift transit camp before heading to Ladakh, near Baltal, southeast of Srinagar today An Indian Border Security Force soldier walks near a check post along the Srinagar-Leh National highway on Tuesday Indian soldiers erect a military bunker along the Srinagar-Leh National highway on Tuesday The editorial published in the Beijing propaganda mouthpiece, the Global Times, on Wednesday said India's reaction was largely due to encouragement from the U.S., China's chief strategic rival which has been steadily building relations with India's military. 'The arrogance and recklessness of the Indian side is the main reason for the consistent tensions along China-India borders,' the editorial said. China 'does not and will not create conflicts, but it fears no conflicts either,' it said. China claims about 35,000 square miles of territory in India's northeast, while India says China occupies 15,000 square miles of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau in the Himalayas, a contiguous part of the Ladakh region. India unilaterally declared Ladakh a federal territory while separating it from disputed Kashmir in August 2019. China was among the handful of countries to strongly condemn the move, raising it at international forums including the U.N. Security Council. Michael Kugelman, a South Asia specialist at the Wilson Center, said that the two countries were unlikely to go to war because they cannot 'afford a conflict.' 'But let's be clear: It beggars belief to think that they can magically deescalate after a deadly exchange with such a higher number of fatalities,' he said. 'This crisis isn't ending anytime soon.' Vivek Katju, a retired Indian diplomat, said the deadly violence represented a dramatic departure from the four-decades-old status quo of troops from the two countries staring each other down without any fatalities. Activists of Sanskriti Bhchan Manch shout slogans as they stage a protest against China, holding posters of Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Bhopal, India, 16 June Indians burn images of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bhopal today after news of the violence at the border broke 'The political class and the security class as a whole will have to do very serious thinking about the road ahead,' he said. India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that the incident happened 'as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo' in the Galwan Valley. Thousands of soldiers from the two countries, backed by armoured trucks and artillery, have been stationed just a few hundred yards apart for more than a month in the Ladakh region that lies near Tibet. Military and diplomatic meetings have yielded no breakthrough. Indian authorities have officially maintained near-total silence on the issues related to the confrontation Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a televised meeting with state officials Tuesday and did not comment on the clash. The tense standoff started in early May, when Indian officials said that Chinese soldiers crossed the boundary in Ladakh at three different points, erecting tents and guard posts and ignoring verbal warnings to leave. That triggered shouting matches, stone-throwing and fistfights, much of it replayed on television news channels and social media. Indian soldiers erect a military bunker along the Srinagar-Leh National highway on June 16, 2020 Troops from the two countries have been facing off along the disputed frontier for more than a month (file photo) Relations were believed to have eased following two meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) in recent years. Pictured: The pair at a meeting in India in 2014 One incident purported to show a Chinese PLA soldier being beaten up by Indian forces, on the banks of Pangong Lake, a mile into Indian territory. The Indian Army warned local media that circulating the 'mala fide' (dishonest) footage was 'likely to vitiate (damage) the current situation on the borders.' Wherever this video was circulated on Twitter, there were Chinese accounts which were hitting back with a photo which purported to show bloodied and unconscious Indian soldiers bound with rope. China has sought to downplay the confrontation while saying the two sides were communicating through both their front-line military units and their respective embassies to resolve issues. Though skirmishes aren't new along the frontier, the standoff at Ladakh's Galwan Valley, where India is building a strategic road connecting the region to an airstrip close to China, has escalated in recent weeks. The last fatalities along the disputed border was in 1975, when Chinese troops killed four Indian soldiers in an ambush in the Twang region of northeastern India's Arunachal Pradesh state, said Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, a former head of the Indian military's Northern Command. 'It's a very complicated and serious situation, and it will take real, hard negotiating skills to resolve this,' Hooda said. About 10 years ago, Jimenez lost his full-time day job assisting people with disabilities to find work. I did some research and found there are only 20 professional blowers in the whole United States, Jimenez discovered. I had been a teacher many years ago and I used to play music so I was comfortable in front of people. Police have confiscated more than 700 firearms from the basement of an old country pub where a gun dealer was living. Ray Burt, 69, was arrested at a property in The Marra in central western NSW on Tuesday before anti-bikie unit Strike Force Raptor raided his pub home in Nyngan. More than 700 firearms including a rocket launcher and a cannon were found in what NSW Police Detective Superintendent Robert Critchlow described as an 'Aladdin's cave'. Police have seized more than 700 guns from underneath a pub in Nyngan in central western NSW Registered gun dealer Ray Burt was arrested before police conducted the search, with his Firearms Dealer Licence suspended following his arrest 'Police will allege that this man, who is a registered gun dealer, was selling firearm parts and prohibited modified weapons including a rocket launcher,' he said. 'NSW Police support safe and legal firearm ownership, however, those responsible for illegally dealing guns for the purpose of criminal activity, will be investigated, arrested and put before the courts.' Mr Burt is a registered gun dealer and was arrested by officers from Strike Force Raptor who are investigating individuals with alleged links to outlaw bikie gangs. Mr Burt was charged with 28 offences including supply unregistered firearm and sell military-style weapon buyer no authority. Police officers likened Mr Burt's basement full of guns and weapons to 'Aladdin's Cave' He also had his Firearms Dealer Licence suspended following his arrest. Mr Burt was refused bail to appear at Dubbo Local Court on Wednesday. Detective Superintendent Critchlow said police are sending a strong message with Mr Burt's arrest. 'NSW Police support safe and legal firearm ownership, however, those responsible for illegally dealing guns for the purpose of criminal activity, will be investigated, arrested and put before the courts,' he said. Paul Whelan at a Moscow City Court sentencing hearing on Monday. (Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS via Getty Images) WASHINGTON Almost as soon as American Paul Whelan was sentenced Monday to 16 years on espionage charges in Moscow, questions turned to the possibility of exchanging the former Marine for one or more Russians imprisoned in the U.S. Im in no position to discuss a prisoner exchange, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said in response to a question from a journalist after the verdict was announced. What were looking for is not an exchange; were looking for justice for Paul. However, despite Sullivans comments, Russian officials have been floating the possibility of trading the 50-year-old practically since he was arrested in December 2018 while traveling for a wedding and visiting friends in Moscow. He has been imprisoned in Moscow since his arrest. Whelans Russian appointed defense lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, told journalists in January 2019 his goal was not necessarily just to clear Whelans name but also to bring home at least one Russian soul. At the time, the presumed trade was believed to be for Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Moscow. But Butina served her sentence in a Florida prison and was released and deported back to Russia in October. Since then, Russian officials have also brought up possibly trading Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms trafficker arrested in 2008 in Thailand and extradited to the U.S. in 2010 in connection with supplying weapons to Colombian rebels. Other names floated include Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot caught running drugs into the U.S., and Roman Seleznev, a Russian hacker who was arrested while on vacation in the Maldives, among others. Former intelligence officials told Yahoo News that using Whelans arrest as a lever of power fits Russian President Vladimir Putins strategy. Russians are sticklers for reciprocity, said Paul Kolbe, the director of the Intelligence Project at the Harvard Kennedy Schools Belfer Center and a former CIA operations officer who at one point ran the agencys Central Eurasia division. Based on past pattern, he said, its possible they may want to trade for someone like the arms trafficker Bout. Story continues But Viktor Bout is not a Russian official who was captured and is being held for sentencing, he was a guy who was tried, convicted and sentenced, he said during a phone interview. In order for him to be released, it might require President Trump to intervene, he explained. Robert Dannenberg, a 24-year CIA veteran who served in Moscow, told Yahoo News he would be opposed to Whelan being traded because he believes it would create a bad precedent. A trade could be putting a lot of innocent Americans at risk of being framed and arrested as exchange bait, he wrote in an email. Whelan is almost certainly not tied to any intelligence agency nor guilty of any crime, and is not equivalent to a Russian spy or criminal, according to Dannenberg. In my view, spies should be exchanged for spies and it should be done in intelligence channels, he wrote. Dan Hoffman, another former high-ranking CIA officer who served in Moscow, said its too early to be talking about spy swaps. Russia will likely come to the U.S. eventually with demands, which could come in various forms, he explained. They see what were doing with Iran, weve released Iranians, theyve released U.S. citizens, theyre probably thinking maybe we can do a deal, it doesnt have to be so linear, he noted. They could also demand sanctions relief or the renegotiation of arms treaties. All they want is leverage and bargaining power, Hoffman said. According to congressional aides following the case, Russian officials have long been posing the possibility of a prisoner swap for Whelan. But the administrations formal stance appears to be that a swap is not an option, because it could be considered an admission in some way that Paul is indeed some agent of the U.S. government, said one of the aides. But perhaps more important to the Russians is negotiating directly with the U.S. president. They want Trump to be directly on it, the aide said. Given that Trump and Putin speak with some regularity over the phone, its possible that the pair might reach an arrangement outside normal foreign policy channels, and the Russian president could try to extract concessions unrelated to Whelan, like sanctions relief. That might raise a red flag, the aide said. It appears the Trump administration is engaged in pushing for his release. While top U.S. officials were initially hesitant to comment on the case when Whelan was first arrested, there was a flood of public support in his defense following the sentencing on Monday, including from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser Robert OBrien and leadership of both the House and Senate committees on foreign affairs, among others. The White House declined to comment further. Russia sentencing Paul Whelan, an American citizen, to a 16-year sentence without evidence is a complete outrage but sadly par for the course for a corrupt regime headed by war criminal Vladimir Putin, said Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, the acting chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in a statement emailed to Yahoo News. For the last year and a half, Whelans siblings have marshaled their resources to make sure that powerful people in Washington dont forget about their brother. Elizabeth Whelan, an artist living on Marthas Vineyard, has traveled to Washington, D.C., a total of 15 times to meet with staffers and officials who might be able to help with her brothers case. The only thing that stopped me from doing more was COVID, she said during a phone interview with Yahoo News. She noticed that by January, her hard work was paying off, and people were calling to give her updates on their progress on the case rather than the other way around. Elizabeth Whelan said shes been in touch with Edmond Pope, a former intelligence officer and businessman who was imprisoned in Moscow under similar circumstances 20 years ago. While Pope has tried to keep a low profile, Elizabeth said they regularly exchange emails, analyzing the similarities of their cases and providing support. This is like reliving a horror story for him, she said. Pope, rather than being traded, was pardoned by Putin himself in 2000, who said he was concerned for the mans health and wanted to maintain good relations with the U.S., at a time when there was more hope about the warming of relations between the former Cold War rivals. Paul Whelans twin brother, David Whelan, an attorney living in Canada who has maintained an ongoing newsletter about his brothers case, asserted that a prisoner exchange has likely been the whole point of Pauls wrongful detention. While he and Elizabeth both noted that they would not oppose a trade for their brothers freedom, they would prefer he be exonerated and released. David told Yahoo News he has seen the names of possible trade candidates, like the arms dealer Bout, in the Russian press so frequently he can now recognize them in Cyrillic but he doesnt think any are good possibilities. They are all too asymmetric, he wrote in an email. Paul has said he is more Mr. Bean than Mr. Bond, David Whelan wrote in his newsletter on Tuesday. I do not believe that any government would exchange Mr. Bean for The Merchant of Death. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: 100% Website tumutanzi.com uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 43467 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 51754 bytes (50.54 kb uncompressed) and 16891 bytes (16.50 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2022-01-01, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. An N95 mask that has a valve can let germs escape. (Brenton Simpson) There's a certain kind of N95 mask that's actually bad to wear for public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. San Francisco's health officer warns that N95 masks with a vent on them allow a person's germs to spread, rather than containing them close to the wearer's face. The warning is in the San Francisco health order, which says that any mask with a one-way valve designed to facilitate easy exhaling "allows droplets to be released from the mask, putting others nearby at risk." "As a result, these masks are not a face covering under this order and must not be used to comply with this orders requirements," said the health order, signed by Dr. Tomas Aragon, the health officer for San Francisco. Exhalation vents can make the face cooler and reduce moisture buildup inside a face covering, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said but the vents allow unfiltered exhaled air to escape. That defeats the point of wearing a mask for the coronavirus, which is to keep potentially infectious oral droplets from spraying outward to other people. To convert the N95 masks that have vent holes in the front, simply place a piece of tape over the external vent to cover it, health experts said. As many as 20% to 50% of people infected with the coronavirus may never show severe signs of illness yet can still infect others. That's why, health officials say, it's so important to wear masks to keep the pandemic under control. It's no coincidence that many nations that haven't seen a sustained, out-of-control spread of the coronavirus have a public that universally wears masks when outside the home, experts say. San Francisco and other health officials around the country have urged the public to wear cloth face coverings to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. A couple dozen California counties require the wearing of masks while in public including Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento counties, as well as the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area while other areas have made it a recommendation. Story continues But there has been a backlash in a number of California counties, and officials have rescinded requirements to wear a mask. The latest to do so was Orange County, California's third-most populous county. In general, officials suggest members of the public wear cloth face coverings, rather than N95 and surgical face masks that should be reserved for healthcare workers. "If you are currently using a medical mask, keep using it as long as you can. Only throw it away when it gets dirty or damaged," the San Francisco health department said. Kolkata, June 17 : Hundreds of people on Wednesday staged protests in different parts of north Bengal districts demanding justice for Indian Army jawans who were killed during the Indo-Chinese face off in Ladakh. Disgruntled residents also asked people to boycott Chinese products in protest of the violent attacks by the Chinese army along the borders. The protests took place in various pockets of Cooch Behar district and Siliguri where hundreds of people marched with posters and placards that read anti-China slogans. They also burnt the effigies of Chinese president Xi Jinping. The rallies were organised by different political parties including the Congress. Senior state Congress leader and Lok Sabha member from Murshidabad's Bergampore constituency Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also demanded justice for the jawans who were killed in the attack. "The entire country is shocked and agitated over the heinous attack by the Chinese army. Our martyrs blood will not go in vain. We need to respond the enemy by the language they understand," Chowdhury said, adding that the country is now mourning for martyrs. Two Indian Army jawans Rajesh Oraon and Bipul Roy killed in the Indo-Chinese face off in Ladakh were from West Bengal's Birbhum and Alipurduar district. The anger and grief we are seeing in the streets is not solely about the killing of George Floyd. It derives from decades of abuses never acknowledged or addressed, decades of unwillingness to demand better, and decades of never holding police accountable while failing to put an end to policies that have destroyed entire families and communities. People are crying out because nothing seems to change. Police continue to abuse their power, yet almost never face meaningful consequences. Prosecutors have an important role to play in breaking this cycle. We must treat officers like everyone else and show that no one is above the law. We have tried to do that in our cities. It is admittedly difficult. Police departments often fail to properly and thoroughly investigate shootings and other crimes committed by their officers. For instance, a report last year by the Philadelphia Inquirer uncovered secret police records showing that over 100 police officers had charges of misconduct dismissed or overturned by the police arbitration board that is charged internally with resolving investigations into officers for misconduct. Many prioritize protecting the blue wall of silence, the refusal to inform on another officer, even when that person has committed a crime, an act of misconduct, or even a shocking act of brutality. One of us has even investigated cases where officers were themselves victims of police violence, and they still refused to provide information about the incidents. There are numerous elected prosecutors across the country who have never prosecuted a police officer, even when the facts clearly call for it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But prosecutors power to hold police accountable is not limited to filing criminal charges when officers abuse their power. Prosecutors may not be able to fire police officers, but we can refuse to call officers with a history of misconduct or dishonest behavior as witnesses, and we can decline to accept criminal charges sought by them. An arrest, let alone a conviction, can upend a persons entire life. The potential harm is far too severe to rely on the word of a police officer who has been proven to be untrustworthy. Our offices have compiled exclusion lists of officers whose credibility is so damaged that we will not rely on them to testify in court or bring charges based on their word alone in any case. We felt it was our obligation to do so because if a police officer lacks integrity and honesty, the entire criminal justice system is compromised. In each case, the police force fought back. The local police unions in both Philadelphia and St. Louis filed lawsuits to, in essence, prevent the do-not-call lists from going into effect; they were more concerned with publicity stunts than finding ways to help the police department become a more trusted organization throughout the community. Thankfully, the courts found that a prosecutor has the inherent discretion to determine if a police officers testimony would be trustworthy. Still, those police unions, like police unions in most jurisdictions across the country, continue to fight against every attempt to bring a semblance of accountability to the police force. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police officers have too much power, and keeping officers who abuse that power on the force and relying on them in court destroys public trust and leads to even more damage down the road. Prosecutors should not wait to act until an out-of-control police officer causes a national tragedy. Most officers go to work each day and admirably perform their job. But every day, there are some officers who inflict unacceptable harms on communities by using racist or xenophobic language, fabricating evidence, being dishonest about their investigations, conducting illegal searches and seizures, and harassing and disrespecting the individuals they encounter. Too many prosecutors are content to simply look the other way. Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors cannot transform police culture alone. Our local officials and our police departments also need to take action. There need to be changes made to police union contracts so that our police chiefs can effectively discipline bad officers. We need to increase training for our officers so that they know how to accurately assess danger, and their instincts begin with how to de-escalate, not aggravate, potentially violent situations. And we need to stop asking the police to do so much. Right now, we rely on them to be mental health providers and family counselors and to solve substance use disorders. That isnt fair to them, or our community, and its a recipe for disaster. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Obviously, none of these solutions will fix the underlying racism that infects all of these issues. There is no question that black and brown people are overpoliced and they are harassed, arrested, abused, and killed disproportionately by the police. We must keep drawing attention to the systemic racism that undergirds policing and work throughout our communities to reform the entire system. But a first step in this long-overdue reckoning must be prosecutors using their discretion, authority, and responsibility to the communities they serve to root out the bad actors from our police forces. Prosecutors have the authority to make those calls, and many are starting to wield that power in the last two weeks alone. But it should not have taken more killings of unarmed black men and national protests for this to occur. When prosecutors, police chiefs, and other elected officials do nothing, they send a message to these communities that their lives dont matter. It is no wonder people are so angry. It is long past time for all of us to recognize that turning a blind eye to police misconduct and violence makes our communities less safe. We must commit to building a country that truly cares and values the life of each and every person. Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday tweeted that he has tested positive for the coronavirus disease (covid-19). Today my covid test found to be positive, said the minister, who was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) on Tuesday after he developed high fever and his oxygen saturation levels dropped. His first covid-19 test, conducted on Tuesday, had shown a negative result, senior government officials said. Officials in the hospital said that he is still on oxygen support. Besides Jain, AAP MLA Atishi and two other leaders of the party -- Akshay Marathe, an advisor to CM Arvind Kejriwal and Anindita Mathur, an advisor to deputy CM Manish Sisodia -- also tested positive for the viral disease on Wednesday. Party functionaries said swab samples of all three of them were collected on Tuesday after they developed mild symptoms. All three have been recommended home isolation by doctors and contact tracing have been initiated, said a health department official, adding that their offices have been sanitised too. Delhi government officials said that the health department is yet to initiate tracing contacts of Jain. According to the Union health ministrys recently issued revised protocols on Covid-19 management, the precise interval during which an individual with Covid-19 is infectious is uncertain. As per the current evidence, the period of infectivity starts 2 days prior to onset of symptoms and lasts up to 8 days. as for testing, Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines say that for asympotmatic close contatcs, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test should be done on the fifth day and repeated on the 10 day in case it was negative. Experts in the field also say that before the fifth day chances of getting a false negative result are high. Before the 5th day chances of getting a false negative in RT-PCR test is high, more so in an asymptomatic person, as the viral load is not enough. Basically, RT-PCR is a test to detect the presence of viral RNA in the body, but if the viral load is not enough then this test wouldnt come positive, said Dr Shobha Broor, former head, microbiology department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. On Sunday morning, Jain had attended the meeting chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah along with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. Social distancing was strictly adhered to in the meeting but whether others present in the meeting should get tested would depend on what the health officials recommend after the contact tracing exercise, said a senior government official. On Tuesday, soon after being admitted to the hospital, Jain had said that he developed the symptoms the previous night. Till Monday, Jain also chaired several meetings and frequented healthcare centres to take stock of covid healthcare management, a senior functionary said. Kejriwal wished Atishi speedy recovery in a tweet. Atishi ji has played an important role in the fight against corona. I hope that she will get healthy soon and again get involved in serving the people, Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi. Last week, Kejriwal tested negative for Covid-19. His swab samples were collected after he developed mild fever and a sore throat. A Senate committee chairman sharply criticized the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday for what he alleged were repeated failures to respond to a committee's investigation into two crashes of Boeing's 737 Max. Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican head of the Senate Commerce Committee, accused the FAA of delaying interviews with its employees and failing to turn over documents as he opened a hearing at which the agency's chief, Steve Dickson, was called to testify. After more than a year of what he called a failure to respond to the committee's investigation into whistle-blower complaints, Wicker said the agency had "deliberately attempted to keep us in the dark." "It is hard not to characterize a relationship during this entire process as being adversarial on the part of the FAA," the Mississippi lawmaker said. "Mr. Dickson, I hold you responsible for this." Dickson pushed back on Wicker's criticisms and said the FAA has provided responses to several requests by the committee. He also said some of the panel's requests overlap with information sought by other investigations including those by the Transportation Department's Inspector General and the National Transportation Safety Board, and he did not want to prejudice the outcomes of those probes. "I believe it's inaccurate to portray the agency as unresponsive," Dickson, who took over the FAA last August after the Max crashes, told the committee. "We are going to redouble our efforts. I hear your frustration and that's not OK with me." The hearing, which followed the release Tuesday of a bipartisan bill that would require FAA to take more authority overseeing planemakers such as Boeing, was frequently contentious as lawmakers attacked Dickson and the agency. Under questioning by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on FAA's initial decision to approve a flawed system on the Max, Dickson said "there were mistakes made." Dickson said that the agency had made changes in leadership as a result, though no one had been directly disciplined or fired. The agency had failed to understand the risks in a system on the plane that repeatedly tried to force the jets in both crashes to dive as a result of a malfunction, Dickson said. Boeing had provided the agency with "incomplete information and fragmented information" on the feature, known as Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, Dickson said. Boeing didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the hearing. Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who has been a frequent critic of the FAA, accused the agency of engaging in a "cover-up" unless it agrees to release more documents on why it didn't ground the plane after the first crash off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the agency had to end a "culture of secrecy." Blumenthal said FAA hadn't responded to his requests for information. "I vehemently disagree with your characterization," Dickson responded. The committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, said she supported Wicker's attempts to get more access to FAA data. Dickson said that the FAA has already begun revising how it oversees aircraft manufacturers following a pair of Max crashes and welcomes input from lawmakers. He told the committee he has instructed agency employees that there is no deadline to return the grounded jet to service and that they must ensure it is safe. "We believe that transparency, open and honest communication, and our willingness to improve our systems and processes are the keys to restoring public trust in the FAA and in the safety of the 737 Max when it is returned to service," Dickson said in his prepared remarks. The FAA's effort to recertify the Max, which has been underway since the grounding in the U.S. on March 13, 2019, hasn't been slowed by the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, Dickson said. However, restrictions on international travel might impede the ability of pilots from regulators in Europe and other nations to conduct their own flight tests of the plane, he said. The agency is working with other nations on unspecified "alternatives" to speed the process, according to Dickson. Michael Stumo, whose daughter Samya died in one of the Max crashes last year, also accused the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, which conducted a review of the plane's certification, of failing provide information on the plane. "FAA and NTSB secrecy must end," Stumo said in testimony after Dickson. Stumo, who is among family members suing Boeing, has accused the agency of systemic failures to ensure safety. The BBCs Sitting in Limbo is a dramatisation of the real-life story of Anthony Bryan, who was caught up in the anti-migrant Windrush Scandal and almost deported. Anthony had lived legally in the UK for 53 years. Like many migrants of his generation, Anthony arrived in Britain from Jamaica on his mothers passport. The year was 1965 and he was eight years old. Between 1948 and 1973, workers from the colonies were invited to the Mother Country to answer the labour shortage in the UK. Migrants from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, came to be known as the Windrush generation, after the ship MV Empire Windrush, which landed 500 Jamaicans at Tilbury, Essex on June 22, 1948. Sitting in Limbo (2020) The 1971 Immigration Act granted post-war Commonwealth immigrants leave to remain in the UK, but did not issue them any paperwork or keep records. Draconian legislation passed by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2012 demanded proof of residency to obtain healthcare, open a bank account, get a job or rent a home. According to the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, 50,000 people were left in limbo, without regularised residency status. Sitting in Limbo, a 90-minute drama, was directed by young filmmaker Stella Corradi. Novelist Stephen S. Thompson, Anthony Bryans half-brother, wrote the script. The opening sequence presents some bald facts in regard to the anti-migrant agenda pursued by all of Britains main parties. In 2007, the Labour government first used the term hostile environment when discussing the polices to be adopted regarding undocumented migrant workers. In 2012, David Camerons Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government formed a ministerial team that became known as the Hostile Environment Working Group. Windrush protest The drama then introduces us to the characters. The year is 2016, the place Edmonton in North London, a family gathering. The occasion is Anthonys birthday. There is good food, reggae music and the company of friends. This is a happy family. The affection between Anthony and his partner Janet is clear. His mother Mama Lou, who retired 10 years previously to her place of birth in Jamaica after working 30 years in Britains National Health Service, sings Happy Birthday on Skype. Anthony promises to visit just as soon as he gets a passport. Little do they anticipate the Kafkaesque nightmare to come. The film cuts to news footage at the time. Cameron is shown declaring, We would like to see net immigration in the tens of thousands, rather than in the hundreds of thousands. Then Home Secretary Theresa May mounts a rostrum emblazoned with the Tory mantra For Hardworking People, to announce, We will soon publish the Immigration Bill which will make it easier to get rid of people who have no right to be here. Anthony Bryan works hard as a painter/decorator, has paid his taxes, brought up a family and now has grandchildren. Vicious anti-immigrant measures were introduced in the aftermath of the 2008 banking crash and subsequent bailout, to try and divide the working class by scapegoating ethnic minorities for the austerity that followed. Sitting in Limbo The problems begin for Anthony (Patrick Robinson) after he applies for a passport. On his way to work, a Home Office Immigration Enforcement van passes by. His employer has received a letter from the Home Office and breaks the bad news: Youre not eligible to work in the UK. Youre not a UK citizen. We follow Anthony to Beckett House Immigration Reporting Centre. Treated like a criminal, he must report once a fortnight. The immigration official requests Anthonys birth certificate and mothers passport to prove his residence in the UK since 1965. The passport was lost years ago. Anthony faces a wall of bureaucracy and red tape. Any request for help or information is met with, We are not at liberty to disclose that information Its up to you to provide evidence to support your claim that you have lived here since 1965. In one scene, Anthonys partner Janet (Nadine Marshall) arrives at Beckett House with a file stuffed with documentation proving his right to citizenship, with family photos showing that Gary (C.J. Beckford) and Eileen (Pippa Bennett-Warner) are his children, a testimonial from his headmaster and so on. It is never enough. The Home Office, now under Amber Rudd, is working towards achieving removal targets, urging officials to deport the low-hanging fruit. When the scandal erupted in April 2018, Rudd, after first lying to parliament about the existence of targets, was forced to resign. Anthonys first detention is terrifying. On the morning of September 12, 2016, there is loud hammering on the front door followed by the command: Open up! Immigration! He is arrested on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant and sent 166 miles from London to the Verne Detention Centre in Dorset. After two and a half weeks Anthony is released, with no explanation. His ordeal, however, is not over. The torture is played out over three years, during which time Anthony loses his home due to rent arrears, is detained again and only rescued from imminent deportation when family and friends raise 1,500 for a solicitor. Even after a court case where the judge grants indefinite relief against the deportation order and excoriates the Home Office, the threat of deportation looms. It is only when Anthonys family begin a public campaign and petition, and other cases come to light, that he finally gets his passport. He tells a Joint Committee on Human Rights the injustice he has suffered cost me everything. It has cost me my job. It has cost me my home. It has cost me my freedom. It has cost me my identity. The drama nears its end with now Prime Minister Theresa May apologising profusely through crocodile tears. We are putting it right, she declares. The film puts the record straight: In April 2018, it was revealed that in 2010 the Home Office destroyed the landing cards of thousands of Windrush immigrants. Later that year, the Home Office admitted that they were responsible for wrongfully detaining at least 850 people between 2012 and 2017. In 2019, 83 were deported, and at least 13 died before the Home Office acknowledged their mistake. In May 2020, the Home Office revealed 1,275 applications for the Windrush Compensation Scheme. Only 60 received any compensation. On June 1, Anthony Bryan was offered compensation for only one part of his application to the Compensation scheme, for unlawful detention. Thompson has written a tight script, without undue sentiment or hyperbole. The dark events are punctuated with humour. On reading the script, actor Patrick Robinson, who convincingly plays Anthony, was moved to tears. Nadine Marshall plays Anthonys gentle though indomitable partner Janet McKay to perfection. The drama is directed sympathetically by Corradi, whose use of muted colour exuding a warm glow in the domestic scenes expresses the film makers partisanship for Bryan and his family. The viewer feels abhorrence for the injustices meted out to the Windrush generation. This drama will deservedly attract a wide audience, airing at a time of deep anger in the face of police violence, racism and social inequality, which, triggered by the heinous murder of George Floyd in the United States, has led to mass protests in the UK as part of a global outpouring of class solidarity. Sitting in Limbo was first shown on BBC1 June 8. It is available now for 11 months on BBC iPlayer. By PTI AHMEDABAD: A minister in Gujarat had to pay a penalty of Rs 200 on Wednesday for not wearing a mask while entering the premises of Chief Minister's office in Gandhinagar ahead of a cabinet meeting. Wearing a mask outside home has been made mandatory by the government in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus which has claimed 1,534 lives in the state so far. Local news channels showed Minister of State Ishwarsinh Patel entering the premises of the Chief Minister's office without a mask. READ|'Gujarat Model exposed': Rahul slams BJP over high COVID-19 mortality rate in state All other ministers who arrived for the cabinet meet were seen wearing masks. Patel holds independent charge of sports, youth and cultural activities along with the cooperation portfolio. After the lapse was pointed out by news channels, the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation slapped a penalty of Rs 200 on him. After the cabinet meeting, Patel paid the penalty and showed the challan (receipt) to reporters. The minister said it happened inadvertently. "I have paid Rs 200 towards fine for not wearing mask. I always wear a mask. I somehow forgot to wear it when I stepped out of my car. Later I realized my mistake," Patel told PTI. A petition to reinstate a rescue helicopter based in Whitianga has reached more than 46,000 signatures, exceeding the goal of 30,000. The petition was started in January after the Ministry of Health decided not to base a helicopter in the Coromandel over the summer as part of its 10-year modernisation programme. For 10 years, a helicopter has been based in the town for around eight weeks over the busy summer holiday period. Coromandel Rescue Helicopter Trust chairman Brian Bowering told SunLive the decision to remove the helicopter is extremely disappointing. To have no helicopter here is just absurd with the population that's here at the moment, the place is heaving with people and we just haven't got it here, he said, speaking about the Coromandel and nearby islands over summer. He says the aircraft would have several callouts a day when it has been stationed there fulltime. We can get to anywhere on the [Coromandel] Peninsula quicker than anybody else can. And because the crew is sitting here waiting for a call, they don't have to be paged to come in, theyre off the ground in minutes and gone. Response time is critical in an emergency situation, he says. The community raised $1 million for a purpose build facility for the helicopter with a house for four crew members. MP for Coromandel Scott Simpson has accepted the petition from organiser Stephan Bosman on behalf of the Coromandel community It was an honour to be the first person to sign Stephans petition when it was launched in January, Simpson says. MP for Coromandel Scott Simpson and petition organiser Stephan Bosman. Supplied image. Its an even greater honour to have now formally received it from him along with more than 46,000 other signatures. Thats almost the population of Invercargill. The 46,439 signatures on this petition represent the anger, the frustration and the sense of betrayal of local Coromandel people and visitors alike. The petition is a clear message to the Government that speaks to the passion, energy and hard work of the volunteers who organised and helped collect signatures from all around the Coromandel region. The people of the Coromandel need a chopper based in Mercury Bay at the Coromandel Rescue Helicopter Trusts hangar over the summer months and at long weekends. The Government need to bring it back. Simpson will present the petition to Parliament on behalf of Stephan and the community. German chancellor Angela Merkel (R) and British prime minister Boris Johnson. Johnson said he hoped to finalise a deal with the EU by the end of the summer. (Adam Berry/Getty Images) The German government is urging other EU member states to get ready for a potential no-deal Brexit, according to a government document seen by Reuters. The document, dated 15 June, says that member states should begin putting contingency plans in place for what it described as no deal 2.0 and that EU states should not accede at any price to the UKs plans for a rapid trade and security deal this summer. From September, the negotiations enter a hot phase, the document reads. Britain is already escalating threats in Brussels, wants to settle as much as possible in the shortest possible time and hopes to achieve last-minute success in the negotiations. It is therefore important to preserve the unity of the 27, to continue to insist on parallel progress in all areas (overall package) and to make it clear that there will be no agreement at any price. The situation is less serious than in 2019, as important regulations for example, for citizens were sorted out in the withdrawal agreement, the German document reads. The German government document revealed that the Foreign Office believed the transition period would not be extended beyond the end of this year. British prime minister Boris Johnson said this week that he hoped to finalise a deal with the EU by the end of the summer. Johnson and EU institution heads agreed after a video conference on Monday that they would intensify talks in July. READ MORE: Boris Johnson hopes for post-Brexit trade deal with the EU by autumn A joint statement issued after the video call said that the UKs Brexit transition period will end on 31 December, at the request of the UK government. It said both sides hoped intensified talks in July would create conducive conditions for a deal by the end of 2020. James Roger Sharp is professor emeritus in the Department of History at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Sharp has written extensively about the political history of the early Republic, including the book The Jacksonians Versus the Banks. The coronavirus pandemic that is now raging throughout the world has infected over 8 million and killed over 400,000 people. In the United States, over 2 million cases have been reported with 116,000 deaths. But, COVID-19 is just the most recent of deadly pandemics that have swept the globe. For instance, the Black Death in the 14th century killed an estimated 60 percent of Europes population. In the Western Hemisphere, Europeans brought germs that natives had no immunity and entire communities, villages and tribes were wiped out by smallpox as well as other European-borne diseases, killing tens of millions of people. This was, according to one historian, possibly the greatest demographic disaster in the history of the world. More recently, in the last century, the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918 probably killed between 20 and 50 million worldwide including 675,000 Americans. So, while there have been numerous pandemics throughout history that have killed untold numbers of people, there was one, however, that hit the United States particularly hard at the very beginning of our national government. This was the Yellow Fever Epidemic in 1793 Philadelphia, which was unique in a number of ways. It was more small scale and pretty much confined to Philadelphia, but it forced the federal government to temporarily move the capital of the country from Philadelphia to Germantown, Pennsylvania. And by the time the yellow fever epidemic had run its course, 5,000 or more Philadelphians had died in that city of 50,000 in the period from Aug. 1 and Nov. 9. By the middle of October, 100 people were dying daily of the epidemic. Another 20,000 fled the city to escape it. In order to reduce social panicking, the tolling of bells to mark a death was forbidden. One unknown diarist, alarmed at the large number of deaths wrote that a Coffin was brought to the entrance of Welshs alley, where it stayed sometime for the man to die before he was put into the Coffin Such hurry must burry many alive. New York and Baltimore, as well as neighboring towns fearing the transmission of the virus, attempted to keep out Philadelphia refugees. Then like now, fears spread that somehow the disease had been brought to the country by foreigners. In Philadelphia the French fleeing the revolution in Haiti were targeted as the possible culprits and an unenforceable quarantine was placed on refugees. It was not until the late 19th century that mosquitoes were identified as carriers of the disease. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a distinguished physician in Philadelphia, a Founding Father, signer of the Declaration of Independence, George Washingtons personal physician and a close friend of Thomas Jefferson, was a leader in combating the virus. As a member of the citys medical society, Rush and colleagues warned the public to avoid fatigue, hot sun, night air and excessive use of alcohol. It recommended that the use of vinegar and camphor in disease-ridden rooms cannot be used too frequently upon handkerchiefs, or in smelling bottles, by persons whose duty calls to visit or attend the sick. Then, as now, people worried about contamination from social interaction with others and Philadelphias citizens began to walk down the center of the streets and stopped shaking hands. The epidemic also had a political impact by briefly pausing the increasingly violent polarizing of American society over how the United States should respond to the war between revolutionary France and Great Britain. In an effort to prevent the United States from being drawn into the conflict, President Washington had issued the previous April, a Neutrality Proclamation. Washington, who had been extremely popular and above criticism, was bitterly denounced by supporters of France and its revolution leading to a poster entitled the funeral of George Washington which portrayed the president placed on a guillotine. Within Washingtons cabinet, Alexander Hamilton as secretary of treasury and Thomas Jefferson as secretary of state had become bitter political enemies, and each represented a faction of a growing political polarization that eventually would become two political parties: the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans. In a snarky comment about Hamiltons concern about the epidemic and his personal safety, Jefferson wrote of Hamilton: A man as timid as he is on the water, as timid on horseback, as timid in sickness, would be a phenomenon if his courage of which he has the reputation in military circles were genuine. Congress was not in session until the following December and the embryonic bureaucracy was to assemble in Germantown on Nov. 1, where they would meet until Congress and the government returned to Philadelphia the following month. John Adams later, reflecting on the political impact of the epidemic, opined that it had saved the republic from radical pro-French sympathizers. This, no doubt, was hyperbole, but it is true that, despite the Yellow Fever epidemic, there was an increasing division between the two developing political parties. Both were coming to the conclusion that their opponents could not be trusted to exercise political power. This polarization, in 1793 as well as today, rejects one essential aspect of a democratic society: a belief in the legitimacy of a loyal opposition. To view ones opponents as disloyal and not to be trusted eats at the very heart of a representative republic. There must be an underlying consensus between the major parties that despite differences, major and minor, there is an acceptance of your opponent as ultimately loyal and supportive of the Constitution and the republic. Without this acceptance, the traditional two-party system that we are accustomed to cannot function. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Coronavirus pandemic means no July 4 fireworks for most Central NY communities CNY autistic teen in group home cant understand why family stopped visiting Update: Coronavirus spreads slowly in Onondaga County, new data shows Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Photo: Sharon Mollerus/Flickr Here's what you need to know about what's happening in Chicago. Lyric Opera of Chicago cancels fall season The Lyric Opera of Chicago has canceled the fall portion of its 2020-21 season due to the new coronavirus, a move that eliminates four of its 10 productions and delays opening night from Sept. 17 to Jan. 16, 2021. Read the full story on MySanAntonio. Chicago restaurants see void in COVID-19 safety guidance Alinea Group's Nick Kokonas wants city, state and federal governments to outline strict guidelines. Kokonas says theres not enough governmental guidance surrounding how to operate if an employee is stricken with COVID-19. Read the full story on Eater Chicago. Chicago considers removing police from schools Chicago aldermen are pitching a plan to remove police officers from the citys public schools amid outcry from activists who want reforms in the wake of George Floyds death. Read the full story on Fox6 Now. Mayor's tenant notice ordinance saved from legislative purgatory over progressives objections Aldermen moved Mayor Lori Lightfoot's tenant notice ordinance wasa step closer to passage Tuesday, over the objections of opponents who say it doesn't do enough to protect renters and that the administration is blocking measures that would do more. Read the full story on Chicago Tribune. Preschool parents protest at City Hall, urge mayor to restore funding for early learning Protesters called upon Mayor Lori Lightfoot to restore funding that was cut to about two dozen centers last year when Chicago changed the way it funds early learning. Read the full story on Chalkbeat. 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. Desperate for victory after watching the presidential nomination slip through their fingers, progressives have found a new cause to rally around. Across the country, theyre channeling their grief, volunteer muscle and small-dollar donations into Jamaal Bowman, a left-wing candidate in New York trying to oust decades-long incumbent Congressman Eliot Engel. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all of whom have shown caution in the past about backing primary challengers to incumbent Democrats, have endorsed Bowman. Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party, two left-wing groups that took different paths during the presidential race, announced they are coming together to spend more than a half-million dollars to elect Bowman. Former aides to Sanders and Warren have also publicly lined up behind Bowman. The all-hands-on-deck strategy is a striking show of unity after the presidential campaign ended with deep rifts on the left and its had a catalytic effect on Bowmans bid in the run-up to the June 23 primary. But their efforts have also exposed party fissures, spurring Democratic establishment powerhouses such as Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn to throw their support behind Engel. What is that left phrase? We just need a win, said Andom Ghebreghiorgis, another progressive candidate who challenged Engel this year but recently dropped out and endorsed Bowman. People are investing a lot emotionally in this race because they see it as a down-ballot race where the policies of a Bernie, for example, which werent able to achieve victory on a national level, can at least be achieved on a congressional level. This undated photo, provided by his campaign, shows Jamaal Bowman, a first-time candidate who helped found the Cornerstone Academy of Social Action in 2009, who has picked up endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in his race against U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, a 16-term incumbent representing parts of the Bronx and suburban Westchester County. (Photo by Corey Torpie via AP) The clash between heavyweights like Clinton and Sanders has made New Yorks 16th District race one of the most-watched primaries of the cycle and one of the most telling. If Bowman, a 44-year-old middle-school principal, beats Engel, the 73-year-old chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, it will mark the second time in two years that a senior House Democrat from New York was taken down in a primary. In 2018, Ocasio-Cortez knocked out Rep. Joe Crowley in a massive upset. Should Engel hold onto his seat, it will mark yet another bitter intra-party defeat for progressives. Story continues If all of this super lefty firepower turns out not to be enough and Bowman comes up short, thats going to be added to the list, said Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist based in New York. Theres a lot of examples over the last two years since Ocasio-Cortez, like Our Revolutions slate of endorsed candidates in 2018 or most recently the Henry Cuellar challenge down in Texas, where time and again these challengers, no matter the energy of these groups, have come up short. The protests in the wake of George Floyds death, as well as the coronavirus which has disproportionately impacted black and Latino Americans have increased the urgency among progressives to oust Engel. Bowman has criticized Engel for voting for the 1994 crime bill, which contributed to a rise in incarceration. Bowman champions the idea of defunding the police, whereas Engel said he opposes fully cutting their budgets, though he supports reallocating some resources. If youre someone who wants to translate the energy in the street into elected office, Jamaal is one candidate among many that you can be supporting, said Waleed Shahid, the communications director for Justice Democrats. Jamaal might be the first candidate elected to Congress from this movement. Bowman has also talked about his first experience with police brutality at age 11 on the campaign trail and been a regular presence at Black Lives Matter protests. That was murder by law enforcement that is supposed to serve and protect us. It robs you to your core and shakes your soul to see something like that happen, Bowman told POLITICO of watching the video of Floyds death. I couldnt contain myself and I did a direct-to-camera video about my reaction and I was sobbing. I was crying. Bowmans campaign got a boost when Engel was caught on a hot mic at an event amid the civil unrest saying, If I didnt have a primary, I wouldnt care. At the time, Engel said that in the context of running for reelection, I thought it was important for people to know where I stand, that's why I asked to speak." Engel has touted his support of the Justice in Policing Act and endorsements from black lawmakers such as civil rights icon John Lewis, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, and the Congressional Black Caucus political arm. He has also said that his incumbency has allowed him to bring home the bacon to the district, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Unlike our opponent, the congressmans response to the pandemic was going out and fighting for $6 [billion] in additional aid for New York hospitals, including many in the district, said Tom Watson, Engels communications director. It was getting funding for community health centers, and fighting to keep Mount Vernon Hospital open. Foreign policy has also roiled the primary, with Bowman bashing Engel for voting for the Iraq War and being completely funded by corporate PACs and large donors, and many of those are weapons manufacturers." The Democratic Majority for Israel, a super PAC, has aired ads supporting Engel, a top pro-Israel voice in the House, and knocking Bowman, who has criticized the Israeli governments treatment of Palestinians. The group reserved an additional $250,000 in spots Tuesday, according to Advertising Analytics. A Bowman victory would make him the fourth candidate supported by the anti-establishment Justice Democrats to unseat an incumbent Democrat since 2018. The organization, which developed a strategy after 2018 of going all in on one candidate at a time instead of endorsing dozens like many groups, backed Bowman after a public education activist nominated him for its recruitment program. Shahid said the organization honed in on Bowman because of his record of leadership in the district, his commitment to racial and economic justice throughout his career, and the fact that his opponent is particularly vulnerable. Engels role in Democratic House leadership was also a factor. Someone with that much power should be someone who is paying attention to the needs of their district, said Shahid. Two weeks after Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, Justice Democrats held an event featuring former Sanders and Warren aides who supported Bowman. The group has seen an influx of interest in the New York primary since Super Tuesday, when Joe Biden built a delegate lead that proved impossible for Sanders to surmount and which prompted Warren to drop out. There have been other attempts at fostering progressive unity in the Bronx and Westchester County-based 16th District. The Working Families Party helped broker the departure of Ghebreghiorgis from the race and his endorsement of Bowman, with New York director Sochie Nnaemeka playing a key role, according to multiple people familiar with the moves. That helped prevent the progressive vote from splitting. Engel, on the other hand, has two additional moderate challengers, Sammy Ravelo and Chris Fink. The consolidation is such an achievement for the left, which is known for splintering, that Ghebreghiorgis said activists from the Democratic Socialists of America and other progressives asked him, in reference to him dropping out and creating a united progressive front behind Bowman, How can we make this scalable ... in any race where we see any issue like this? Leftists across the country recognize the Bowman candidacy is likely to be one of their last, best opportunities to take out an entrenched Democratic incumbent because of the realities of the primary election calendar. If youre a progressive who supported Bernie or Warren, Jamaal is really one of the last shots we have at any victory this year, said Shahid. Hes the main one who can pull off an AOC-style victory. CLEVELAND, Ohio - While Record Store Day has been moved due to the coronavirus pandemic, the U.K.'s Love Record Stores is filling the void with a full day of special virtual programming on Saturday, June 20. The loverecordstores.com site will host I Love Record Stores event featuring performances by Bright Eyes, Brittany Howard, Stephen Malkmus, Laura Marling, the Fontaines and more, as well as DJ sets from Fatboy Slim, the Go! Team, Metronomy and others. Proceeds will go to the #SaveOurVenues campaign, Black Lives Matter and the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Relief Fund. The in-store Record Store Day has been split among three Saturdays - Aug. 29, Sept. 26 and Oct. 24. A schedule of special releases is available via recordstoreday.com. Other Events: A new YouTube channel is hosting "The Ed Sullivan Show" performances by artists such as the Supremes, Neil Diamond, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Beach Boys, the Jackson 5 and many others. No Beatles or Rolling Stones yet, but content additions have been promised. Music fans can find decades' worth of classic photos online via reelinintheyears.com, which has created a searchable archive of more than 200,000 images - including some from Detroit photographer Robert Alford - and classic artists from Elvis Presley to P!nk. The SummerStage Anywhere series will celebrate Juneteenth with a program of dance, music and film starting at noon Friday, June 19, on the SummerStage Instagram page and YouTube channel. Pickathon's #AConcertADay series continues with streaming previous festival shows from Kaia Kater on Friday, June 19; the Wild Reeds on Saturday, June 20, and the Easy Leaves on Sunday, June 21. All start at 4 p.m. on the festival's Facebook page and YouTube channel and Amazon Music's Twitch. Donations go to MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund, matched by Spotify. Slipknot's weekly Knotfest streamcast features a 2015 Santa Ana, California, show from Suicide Silence at 5 p.m. Friday, June 19, at Knotfest.com. The Metropolitan Opera Theatre's weekend offerings including a 1984 performance of Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" on Friday, June 19, and two works by Philip Glass, "Aknaten" from 2019 on Saturday, June 20, and "Satyagraha" from 2011 on Sunday, June 21. All stream at 7:30 p.m. via metopera.org and MET Opera On Demand social apps. Tickets are $4.99. Alicia Keys and John Legend will celebrate Juneteenth with a musical VERZUZ Battle at 8 p.m. Friday, June 19, on Instagram Live. Brandi Carlile, 2 Chainz, Leon Bridges, Nathaniel Rateliff, T-Pain, Brittany Howard and others will be part of Small Business Live, a festival supporting local favorites livestreaming 4-10 p.m. Saturday, June 20, on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, LiveXLive and other outlets. The artists will perform on-site at small businesses they patronize. Papa Roach will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its breakthrough album, "Infest," with a ticketed "Infest In-Studio" performance and Q&A at 5 p.m. Saturday, June 20, from its home base in Sacramento, California. Tickets start at $14.99, with proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders, the NAACP and World Federation For Mental Health. Portions of Foo Fighters' 2019 Sonic Temple concert, plus a Q&A with guitarist Chris Shiflett, streams at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 20, as part of the Offstage with DWP series. Go to dannywimmerpresents.com/offstage. The Vigay Iyer Trio, featuring Nick Dunston and Jeremy Dutton, performs for the Streaming Live at the Village Vanguard jazz series at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 20, and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 21. Tickets are $7. The Americana Music Award-winning husband-wife duo the War & Treaty is featured on Ditty TV's Concert Series from Memphis, Tennessee, playing at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, June 20. Go to dittytv.com. Pennywise's Fletcher Dragge hosts an interactive streaming mixology class at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 21, as part of the Offstage with DWP series. Go to dannywimmerpresents.com/offstage. Rapper Common will take part in a one-hour special celebrating the return of "The Chi," which he executive produces, for a new season on Showtime at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 21, on the show's YouTube page. He'll be joined by creator Lena Waithe and artists from the Chicago area. The show airs at 9 p.m. on Showtime. Alabama indie rocker Waxahatchee (aka Katie Crutchfield) plays her 2015 album "Ivy Tipp" in its entirety at 9 p.m. Monday, June 22. Tickets are $15 via noonchorus.com/waxahatchee. Belgiums dance-music festival Tomorrowland, canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic, moves online for Tomorrowland Around the World Thursday-Saturday, June 25-27, hosting performances, Q&As, interactive seminars and more. Tickets are $13 for one day, $22 for the full festival. The lineup features more than 60 artists, including Armin van Buuren, David Guetta, Carnage, Dixon, Tiesto and others. Go to tomorrowland.com. Britain's famed Glastonbury festival was another coronavirus casualty, but the BBC is keeping it alive on its planned dates, June 25-29, on air and via its iPlayer online. The network will host a variety of past performances, including by David Bowie, Adele, Beyonce, Oasis, Coldplay, Jay-Z and others. Details are at glastonburyfestivals.co.uk. Cant Cancel Pride, a COVID-19 benefit show for LGBTQ+ communities, streams Thursday, June 25, via PrideRadio.com and on iHeartRadios Facebook and Instagram pages. Performers include Katy Perry, Adam Lambert, Melissa Etheridge, Sia, Billy Porter and others. China's and India's foreign ministers spoke by phone following a military clash at their shared border in the western Himalayas, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday, as analysts said neither country will likely allow the situation to escalate. Thousands of Indian and Chinese troops have faced off in recent weeks at three or four locations in the western Himalayas after Beijings forces intruded into Indian territory, according to Indian security officials and local media. But China has denied breaching the Line of Actual Control near the Galwan River in Indias snowy and mountainous Ladakh region during the clash on Monday. Indian media said some 20 Indian troops died in Monday's clashes. China has admitted that its People's Liberation Army troops also sustained casualties, without mentioning a number. The U.S. has sided with India, saying China's incursion into Indian territory was typical of its behavior in other regions, including the South China Sea. Foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said Chinese troops had recently "undertaken activity hindering Indias normal patrolling patterns." China's state-controlled Global Times said Indian troops had been trespassing on Chinese territory and even trying to erect illegal defense facilities since the beginning of May. India committed to peace, it says Srivastava said India was committed to resolving border disputes through talks. "The two sides have established mechanisms to resolve such situations peacefully through dialogue. Both sides remain engaged with each other to address any immediate issues," Srivastava said. In the phone call between Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, China urged India to investigate the clash incident in the border region on Monday, punish those responsible, and restrain its military forces in the region, state news agency Xinhua reported. Wang said India shouldn't "miscalculate" the current situation, the agency, which is an approved outlet of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, reported. But China's Global Times newspaper, a tabloid linked to party mouthpiece the People's Daily that often takes a strongly nationalistic stance, quoted official commentators as saying that no escalation was likely from the incident. And Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian played down concerns over the incident at a regular news briefing on Wednesday. But he said the incident happened on China's side of the border. Troops on both sides have agreed not to carry guns, so the conflict was fought with "cold weapons," the Global Times quoted Tian Shichen, vice president of government-backed think tank the Grandview Institution, as saying. "In an age of firearms, a cold weapon conflict reflected both sides' unified attitude to keep the conflict at a low level," Tian told the paper. "To ease pressure from domestic public opinion, India will make some strong reactions, but is unlikely to risk another provocative action again," Tian said. Online comments on Chinese social media platform Weibo called on Beijing to come clean about the number of Chinese casualties, but generally supported their government's view of the incident. Several commenters asked "what does India think it's doing?" Both sides showing restraint Daniel Markey, a former policy planning adviser on South Asian affairs at the State Department, said both sides seem to be exercising extreme restraint, with neither wanting the situation to get out of hand. "I don't think this incident will lead to an actual war between China and India," Markey said. "While it's true that this is the first time in forty-five years that we've seen tension, it's not unlike the artillery and air strikes between India and Pakistan." Some social media comments in China mentioned the 1962 border war with India. But Satu Limaye of the East-West Center in Honolulu said he would be very surprised to see a repeat of that conflict. "India is gradually changing its stance, which has always been distinct from that of the United States and its allies in the past," he said. "But even if India does move closer to the U.S. diplomatically, politically, and militarily, it doesn't mean that Delhi will cut all economic ties with China, or come into conflict with China." "No country in the Indo-Pacific wants a military conflict with China," he said. Markey, currently a senior professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, said the U.S. support for India is necessary to signal to China's neighbors that Washington won't tolerate further Chinese expansionism. "U.S.-China relations are about as bad as they can get over Hong Kong, so they don't need another incident over the India border dispute," Markey said, in comments translated into Mandarin by RFA. "The United States must make it clear that there is a price to pay for any further aggressive action by China," he said. Reported by Zheng Chongsheng for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (June 16, 2020) Chime Solutions, an Atlanta-based customer-contact service provider announced Tuesday that it will expand in Charlotte, adding 250 new jobs. The new jobs will be for licensed life and health insurance agents. Chime Solutions is providing free training and testing for qualified candidates in partnership with Central Piedmont Community College. Todays announcement shows that Charlotte truly is open for business and Im grateful that Mark and Shelly Wilson have decided to bring these jobs to our city, Mayor Vi Lyles said. These new jobs, along with the upskilling that will be provided to employees is a testament of our commitment to supporting the diverse workforce that were proud to have here in Charlotte. This will be an excellent use of Opportunity Hiring Grant program and were looking forward to helping our friends at Chimes Solutions fill these jobs quickly with deserving and talented people. The City of Charlotte awarded Chime Solutions its first Opportunity Hiring Grant, which incentivizes the company to hire candidates seeking employment from workforce development partners. The North Carolina Community College System awarded Chime Solutions a Customized Training Program grant that will be facilitated by Central Piedmont Community College. CPCC will upskill job candidates by providing pre-licensing training at no cost to new employees seeking these positions. We are thrilled to be expanding in Charlotte and I want to thank Mayor Lyles and her team for the work they did to get us here, Chime CEO Mark Wilson said. This partnership and the jobs that were bringing to Charlotte fit perfectly with the citys upward mobility goals and it also gives us access to a very talented workforce. We are excited to be here and I look forward to a great future in Charlotte. Chime Solutions, a minority-owned, family business, positions its job opportunities as a pathway for upward mobility and fosters a company culture that empowers its employees through career development and workplace initiatives that improve overall quality of life. The project partners include the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, North Carolina Community College System and Central Piedmont Community College. About Chime Solutions Chime Solutions provides customer-contact services for clients in various industries including financial services, insurance, health care and telecommunications. Headquartered in Atlanta, Chime is a different kind of outsourcing contact center partner; one that offers an integrated, strategic partnership approach to its clients by offering both a low-cost service delivery model combined with high-value, differentiated solutions. About the City of Charlotte The City of Charlotte provides services to more than 870,000 residents. The citys priorities are economic development, neighborhood development, transportation and planning, and well-managed government. For the latest updates on city services, follow @CLTgov on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Credit: Chinnapong, Shutterstock The concept of a circular economy (CE) promotes reparability, durability and recyclability, unlike the traditional linear economy that is based on the take-make-consume-dispose pattern involving the using up of resources. As such, CE can help lower the use of resources, decrease waste production and limit energy consumption. Similar to the use of raw materials, the water sector adopts a linear model with a "take-use-discharge" approach, as pointed out in a white paper. In such a system, water is withdrawn from streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, oceans, and groundwater aquifers as well as harvested directly as rainwater. It's then used by agriculture, industry, society and the environment and "returned" to the water basin directly or through a treatment facility. However, during this process, water is lost, polluted and wasted, so efforts to increase efficiency and optimise reuse have intensified in recent years. Enter the EU-funded NextGen project that focuses on demonstrating innovative CE solutions for water in 10 cases across Europe and beyond. Supported by the project, a team of researchers has outlined the opportunities and challenges involved with CE solutions for the water sector in a study published in the journal WIREs Water. According to the authors, the key to successful transition to a CE requires "active involvement from all members of society and strong levels of collaboration," as noted in the study. "Enabling diverse stakeholders to engage and share different perspectives, interests, and needs, and ultimately to co-produce knowledge, communities of practice (CoPs) are seen as a suitable approach to discuss CE water technologies in their institutional context." Quoted in a news item, study co-author Jos Frijns from NextGen project coordinator KWR Water Research Institute emphasises that CoPs "need to be organized and well facilitated" so that they do not end up as "time-consuming gatherings without any social learning." Shared interest CoPs are defined as groups of people with a shared domain of interest and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis through social learning processes. In the WIREs Water journal article, the researchers propose "a CoP evaluation framework to draw together a consensus on the methods used for evaluating water knowledge co-production and social learning processes in the transition toward the CE." They add: "CoPs in NextGen cover four key topics: setting the scene, closing the loop, implementation, and upscaling and evaluation. The proposed evaluation framework will be further used in NextGen to test and improve its reliability among practitioners in the water sector." The demonstration cases of the ongoing NextGen (Towards a next generation of water systems and services for the circular economy.) project cover several countries: Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The 10 demonstration CoPs "bring together representatives from the water industry (operators), authorities (regulators), engineering companies, consultants, research institutes, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and potential end-users," as stated in the same journal article. The NextGen project will run until June 2022. Explore further Mining sewage for fertilisers and energy to prevent water shortages More information: NextGen project website: NextGen project website: nextgenwater.eu/ Andrea Fulgenzi et al. Communities of practice at the center of circular water solutions, WIREs Water (2020). DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1450 GOTHENBURG, Sweden, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SKF is making further investments in strengthening its manufacturing footprint in China for ball bearings. The investment is in-line with the Group's region-for-region manufacturing strategy. The Group announced a SEK 370 million investment in a new factory in Xinchang in June 2019. With the factory now operational, a further SEK 400 million is being invested in expanding the site. Patrick Tong, President, Industrial Sales Asia, says: "We have made great progress in China, the world's largest market for deep groove ball bearings, over the last two years, thanks to our engineering competence and first investment phase in Xinchang. The next phase of the investment will allow us to serve our customers even better, across wider applications and with a wider product range." Kent Viitanen, President, Bearing Operations, says: "This investment is part of our strategic ambition to develop our regional manufacturing footprint. Following our successful initial investment in Xinchang, expanding the site is a logical next step in strengthening our ball bearing capabilities in China." The second phase of the factory in Xinchang is expected to be operational during the end of 2021. Previous press release: 19 Jun 2019: "SKF invests SEK 450 million in deep groove ball bearing manufacturing" [click for link] For ytterligare information, kontakta: PRESS: Theo Kjellberg Director, Press Relations, tel: +46-31-337 6576 mobile: +46-725-776576 e-mail: theo.kjellberg@skf.com INVESTOR RELATIONS: Patrik Stenberg Head of Investor Relations, tel: +46-31-337 2104 mobile: +46-705-472104 e-mail: patrik.stenberg@skf.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/skf/r/skf-invests-further-sek-400-million-in-ball-bearing-manufacturing-in-china,c3135330 The following files are available for download: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday tested positive for COVID-19, a day after similar tests had reported that he did not have the virus infection. Sources said a second test was done earlier in the day, which confirmed that the Health Minister is infected. He was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital on Monday night after he developed fever. His oxygen levels also went down. His COVID-19 samples were collected on Tuesday but the results returned negative. However, fresh test came out to be positive. For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here Jain has been in the forefront of the Delhi government's activities against the spread of the pandemic. He has been holding regular media briefings every morning. He also attended the meeting called by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday. Prominent AAP MLA Atishi, who developed mild fever, also tested positive for the virus infection on Wednesday, becoming the fourth AAP lawmaker to be infected by COVID-19. The test was conducted after the 39-year-old MLA complained of a mild fever and cough on Tuesday. She is in home isolation, as she has only mild symptoms. Earlier, AAP lawmakers Vishesh Ravi (Karol Bagh) and Rajkumar Anand (Patel Nagar), had also tested positive for COVID-19. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, "Atishi-ji has played an important role in the fight against Corona. I hope that she will be healthy as soon as possible once again." AAP chief spokerson and Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj tweeted, "Get well soon Atishi and Akshay Marathe, recover soon from COVID-19". Marathe, who also tested positive for COVID-19, is a close aide of Atishi. Delhi has reported 44,688 COVID-19 cases as on June 16, of which 24,844 or 55.59% of the total cases were reported in June alone. Former Nigerian minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has described as strange recent happenings in the All Progressives Congress (APC). Fani-Kayode, a former minister of aviation said this while reacting to the exit of Godwin Obaseki, Edo state governor from the party following his disqualification to from the primary election in the state. Also the appointment of Abiola Ajimobi as acting National chairman of the APC, following a decision of the court of appeal to uphold the suspension of Adams Oshiomhole. While unconfirmed reports claim that Ajimobi is in critical condition from covid-19 complications, a statement by the party on Tuesday night announced the former Oyo state governor as its acting chairman. Advertisement Read Also: Obaseki Breaks Silence Hours After Oshiomholes Suspension Perplexed by the recent turn of things, Fani-Kayode wrote via Twitter on Wednesday afternoon thus: On the day that Obaseki leaves @OfficialAPCNg, the Court of Appeal declares that Oshiomole is no longer Nat. Chairman of the party and Sen. Ajimobi, the man that has been declared Acting Nat. Chairman, ends up in a coma in the hospital. The whole thing is stranger than fiction. Colorado Politics senior political reporter Joey Bunch is the senior correspondent and deputy managing editor of Colorado Politics. His 32-year career includes the last 16 in Colorado. He was part of the Denver Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 and he is a two-time finalist. Are you looking for a banking partner with the ideal market dominance to steer your investments in the right direction? Ghana's full of small, medium-sized, and large banking institutions, but there is none like Standard Chartered Bank Ghana. This mammoth of a bank is a prestigious institution and one of the oldest in the country. Currently, the bank is listed in the Ghana Stock exchange and continues to lead the way in innovative banking solutions for Ghanaians. The Standard Chartered brand is revered all over the world with substantial investments in virtually all financial sectors. If you are looking for Standard Chartered Bank branches to begin your banking journey or simply access their services, you will be glad to know that they are well distributed in Ghana. Image: facebook.com, @StandardCharteredGH Source: Facebook In the 21st century, people have realized innumerable strategies of finding their way in the complicated financial world. And banks have put their best feet forward to cushion these investors risks by holding vast amounts of cash in their reserves. A bank like Standard Chartered Ghana has captured a large number of these entrepreneurs through its numerous branches. That is why many people are interested in Standard Chartered Bank Ghana. The bank's resilience has allowed it to dominate not only regionally but internationally. Better get the relevant Standard Chartered Bank Ghana swift code and start transacting wherever you are. About Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Standard Chartered Bank Ghana started in 1896 as the Bank of British West Africa. At this time, Africa's financial system was non-existent, and the bank managed to grasp this growing population, informing on its core business values that it utilizes to date. Before independence, the bank served as the Central Bank of the Gold Coast. Since its inception, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana has focused on three key areas: corporate and institutional banking, retail banking, and commercial banking. These are the core client segments that you will find in all Standard Chartered Bank branches. Standard Chartered Bank supports all its clients' trade and investment activities by offering customized packages suitable for every financial environment. As a market leader, the bank supports all of Ghana's economic sectors through various investment strategies facilitated by the business brought by its clients. Additionally, in the current technology-oriented times, Standard Chartered Bank has proved to be a great pioneer and innovator in the field, leading other banks in the implementation of digital banking. This means that you can still bank if you cannot access any Standard Chartered Bank Ghana branches. The bank has received several local and international awards in recognition of its efforts to create a conducive banking environment for its clients and foster positive growth in the banking sector. READ ALSO: Bank of Ghana declares GHC1.8bn profit for 2019; refuses to approve dividends for the year Standard Chartered Bank branches Are you looking for Standard Chartered Bank branches in Accra? Sure, the bank's amazing financial services make them one of the most sought-after banks in Ghana. At any of these branches, you can access a range of products and services for personal and business customers. However, do not worry, if none is in your range, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana online banking provides an effective solution. 1. Standard Chartered Bank head office address Standard Chartered Bank Building No.87 Independence Avenue P. O. Box 768, Accra Code: 020101 0800740100 (local toll-free number) +233 302740100 +233 302740100 (if calling from overseas) Email: feedback.ghana@sc.com 2. Legon Near the University of Ghana Bookshop, Legon Campus P. O. Box 16, Legon Code: 020108 Tel: +233 302633581, +233 24243635 3. KNUST KNUST, Harper Road, Kumasi P.O. Box 1930 Tel: +233 302633433, +233 242436373 4. Liberia Road (priority banking) Private Mail Bag, TUC Accra Opp. TUC Building Code: 020104 Tel: +233 302633495, +233 242436347 5. North Industrial Area (priority banking) North Industrial Area, SSNIT Premises P. O. Box 5256 Accra North Tel: +233 302633472, +233 242436342 6. Obuasi Image: facebook.com, @StandardCharteredGH Source: Facebook Plot AO, Antobuasi No 4 OMA, Obuasi High Street, Obuasi Tel: +233 302633541, +233 242436346 7. Opeibea House (priority banking) Opeibea House Branch Ground Floor, Opeibea House, Liberation Road P.O. Box KIA 9031 Airport, Accra, Ghana Tel: +233 302633458, +233 242436340 8. Abeka Meacham House, Opposite Lapaz restaurant P.O. Box AB 343, Abeka, Accra Code: 020126 Tel: +233 302633403, +233 242436353 READ ALSO: Consolidated Bank Ghana branches, SWIFT code, operating hours, contacts 9. Osu (priority banking) Adjacent Frankies Restaurant and Hotel Private Mail Bag, Accra Code: 020100 Tel: +233 302633558, +233 242436350 10. Accra High Street (priority banking) Opposite Holy Trinity Cathedral, SHS (HOTCAS) P.O. Box 59, Accra Ground Floor, High Street Tel: +0302-633540 11. Achimota Achimota Retail Centre Private Mail Bag, Accra, Achimota Code: 020100 Tel: +233 302633432, +233 242436361 12. Spintex Road P.O. Box TN 2051 Teshie Nungua East, Accra Tel: +233 302633523, +233 242436356 13. Dansoman Opposite the Community Market, Dansoman High Street P.O. Box DC 215, Accra, Dansoman Tel: +233 302633473, +233 242436348 14. Harper Road Central Post Office, Adum PO Box 1930, Adum, Kumasi Tel: +233 322 038 549, +233 322 038 550 15. Tamale Near Rivoli Cinema (MELCOM) P.O. Box 102, Tamale Tel: +233 302633538, +233 242436358 16. Tema (priority banking) Opposite Tema Comm. Centre P.O. Box 20, Community 1, Tema Tel: +233 302633466, +233 242436357 17. Accra B.B. Business Banking Centre 87 Independence Avenue, 9th Floor, Head Office Building P.O. Box 768, Accra Tel: +233 302610750 18. Kumasi B.B. Business Banking Centre, Harper Road P.O. Box 1930, Kumasi. Tel: +233 302633494, +233 242436359 19. Breeze @ East Legon Lagos Avenue, East Legon, Accra Tel: +233 302633518, +233 242436345 Even if you are looking for Standard Chartered Bank Ghana head office, you will not have difficulty gaining access to the bank's numerous branches. It is a premier bank with excellent services worth considering. So, of the Standard Chartered Bank branches mentioned above, which one is in your vicinity? Do a walk-in or access their sophisticated online services to begin your secured banking journey. READ ALSO: ARB Apex Bank Ghana head office, branches, app, contacts Banking crisis: Ato Essien willing to refund GHC27.5 million to state ECG Ghana contact numbers and office locations Source: YEN.com.gh By June Duncan When a senior loved one needs long-term care making any decisions related to this is already tough for family caregivers. But these decisions can be even more stressful while navigating the global pandemic, which is causing so much uncertainty about health, safety and finances for many Americans. With this in mind, here are some suggestions to help you make the best choices for long-term care, for both yourself and your loved one. Paying for long-term care during a global pandemic: Long-term care costs can be one of the top concerns for seniors and caregivers. If youre worried about paying for assisted living or any other sort of care, know there are options out there to provide assistance. If your senior loved one owns a home, selling it could help pay for long-term care costs. Before listing the home, youll want to check out current real estate trends and prices in the area. This will give you an idea of how COVID-19 is affecting the housing market, but even if it hasnt, know that experts expect that it will in the future. If selling isnt a viable option, you can also access home equity to help out with long-term care costs. Other options include accessing certain benefits and programs to help your loved one pay for long-term care, especially if he/she is a qualifying veteran. Note too that if you or your loved one have been financially affected by the COVID-19 crisis financial help is available via various programs and services. Finding long-term care during a global pandemic: Depending on the level of care your senior needs, finding safe care options during the COVID-19 pandemic may be extremely difficult. With many COVID patients being released to nursing homes after recovery, your loved one could be at a higher risk for infection in these facilities. If you do need to transition your senior family member into a nursing home or assisted living community right now, you should contact each potential facility directly to ask about specific COVID-19 safety and prevention measures that are in place. If and when possible, you should also schedule tours, so that you can see firsthand how these facilities are caring for senior residents. One of the first things you should look for is the facilitys inspection report, which should be posted in a visible location near the front entrance. Some other things to watch out for include strong odors and seniors calling out for help but not receiving it. If you cannot take an in-person tour at this time, you may also be able to find online reviews to provide information. Finding Emotional Support for Caregivers During a Crisis: Transitioning a loved one into long-term care can be stressful enough but any complicated emotions you may be feeling can be worsened by the current pandemic. If you are feeling overwhelmed with your decisions or by the COVID-19 outbreak, you should know that there are free and low-cost mental health services you can use to address any negative feelings. Apps like Talkspace and Better Help are currently offering special deals to new users who have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, but you can also sign up for these services if you are concerned about feelings of anxiety or depression related to your current caregiving decisions and duties. Seeking this extra support is so important for caregivers, who are already at risk for burnout. To keep yourself protected from burnout and from feeling overwhelmed, make a point to take extra time each day for some stress-relieving self-care. Remember, busting stress is crucial right now, especially considering that research continues to show that unmanaged stress can negatively affect the brain. Helping a senior with long-term care needs is never easy but doing so during a global pandemic can be even tougher. So make sure you have all of the tools and information you need to make safe decisions for your loved one and smart decisions for yourself. June Duncan is the primary caregiver to her 85-year-old mom and the co-creator of Rise Up for Caregivers, which offers support for family members and friends who have taken on the responsibility of caring for their loved ones. 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. The solicitor general is often referred to as the 10th justice because the person in the office is so often involved in the cases the court accepts. (Justice Elena Kagan held the position before President Barack Obama nominated her to the court in 2010.) It is considered the most coveted and challenging job in the country for an appellate lawyer, and Francisco, who is of Filipino descent, was the first Asian American to hold the job. Most people enjoy eating their hotdogs in a bun with tomato ketchup, mustard and occasionally cheese or chilli. But for this man in North Carolina, the perfect hot dog comes on its own - and is swallowed whole. The man was filmed eating an entire sausage without chewing it to the surprise of everyone in the room on Sunday. He completed the impressive feat at a barbecue in North Carolina after boasting to friends that he could do it. A man from North Carolina shows his ability to eat a hot dog in one mouthful without swallowing on Sunday The man slips the sausage whole into his and pushes it back with one finger before swallowing The video begins showing the man, dressed in black and wearing a flat cap, sat at the table next to a woman wearing glasses. A woman filming the scene announces he will eat the hot dog as he lifts the famously bright red North Carolina hot dog to his lips. He pokes it into his mouth with a finger and swallows, before smiling and giving the camera a thumbs up. The woman filming then asks him to open and he opens his mouth and sticks out his tongue to prove the dog had gone down. He smiles and sticks his thumb up after swallowing the sausage whole before sticking his tongue out to show he wasn't cheating Viewers on social media suggested the man's impressive talent should be used at Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4. The annual American hot dog competitive eating competition is held each year on Independence. It is held at Nathan's Famous Corporation restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, and the current world record of 71 hot dogs eaten by Joey Chestnut was set last year. Turkcell, a leading integrated telecoms and technology company, is one of Turkey's most valuable assets and most recognisable brands. Within its portfolio, Turkcell has an international mobile and fixed telecom business with more than 47 million customers, popular local OTT platforms such as BIP, TV+ as well as Paycell and Financell techfin subsidiaries. As its first equity market transaction on an international scale, the acquisition is an integral part of TWF's mandate of providing equity investments in strategic sectors. This transaction is a one-off opportunity to resolve all shareholder disputes and litigations for the benefit of Turkcell and its investors. At completion of this transaction: TWF becomes the largest shareholder in Turkcell and gains effective control over the board of directors, via 15% privileged shares within its 26.2% shareholding, providing TWF with an ability to appoint 5 directors out of 9. Telia Company divests its 24.02% indirect stake at Turkcell for USD 530 million and exits the company. and exits the company. LetterOne increases its ownership and acquires, via a restructuring of its current interest in Turkcell Holding, a direct minority interest of 24.8% in Turkcell. Turkcell Holding joint venture is effectively terminated and Cukurova Holding exits its indirect interest in Turkcell. Minority shareholder rights are strengthened as 4 of 9 board members can be elected without TWF privilege rights. Shareholders intend to support Turkcell's existing dividend policy going forward. Turkcell continues to be the only company headquartered in Turkey that is dual listed in Borsa Istanbul and New York Stock Exchange. "As consumers and businesses increase their reliance on data, connectivity and technology in the post-pandemic world, Turkcell has an incredible potential to capitalise on this trend," said Zafer Sonmez, TWF CEO and Board Member. "Our objectives are to implement a solid value creation plan for the shareholders of Turkcell and achieve best-in-class corporate governance standards. We intend to support Turkcell management in its focus on innovation and their strategic initiatives such as 5G infrastructure while the company continues its pioneering role in product and services innovation. We strongly believe that Turkcell will remain as a performance driven entity and its financial results will be positively affected with our contribution through resolving the decades-long shareholder governance issues." The transaction is expected to close during the second half of 2020, subject to obtaining regulatory clearances and the approval of the revised Articles of Association by the shareholders in Turkcell's Annual General Assembly Meeting. About TWF Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF) is the wealth fund and strategic investment arm of the Republic of Turkey. Established in 2016 with the main objectives of increasing the value of the state-owned assets in its portfolio and contributing in Turkey's strategic investments, public shares of 20 companies in 8 strategic sectors including Turkish Airlines, Ziraat Bank, Halkbank, VakfBank, Borsa Istanbul, BOTAS, TPAO and Turksat, as well as 2 licences and real estates were transferred to TWF. Acting as the equity solutions provider of Turkey, TWF aims to create further value to its portfolio companies, invest in the strategic projects of Turkey, contribute to transforming Turkish companies into regional and global leaders and be the talent pool of Turkey going forward. Further information can be found at https://www.tvf.com.tr/en/home. For shareholder enquiries, please contact [email protected] and visit www.turkcellforthefuture.com. SOURCE Turkey Wealth Fund Give him long enough and Boris Johnson, like an HMRC phishing email or the clap, will find a way to get the better of you. And after four long weeks of strenuous efforts at prime ministers questions by Keir Starmer, we must report that the prime minister is back to his worst. The dreaded second wave is here. The B-rate is back up (B being for either Boris or what male cattle produce after a large meal, whichever you prefer). Yes, the prime minister has returned to his old ways like a dog to its vomit. It is a wonder, really, what took him so long. He has known, all his life and career, that the way to master any difficult situation is to reduce it to his level. And he has finally found a way to apply his methods to what had, until now, been a rather challenging forum. Dedicated watchers of Johnson will know the technique well. It is to act as if you have brought a gun to a knife fight then pull out a large purple dildo and claim your opponents sheer bafflement as your victory. To give but one example: last summer, several million years ago, when the now prime minister was launching his leadership bid in a hot sweaty room full of Tory MPs, fully cognisant of the terrible harm they were about to visit on the country but doing it anyway, Johnson was asked a question by Sky Newss Beth Rigby about his character. My parrot? he interrupted, deliberately mishearing and then belittling her, lowering the occasion and raising a few execrable titters from the gathered bore-geoisie. They did their bit a few weeks later and here we all are. Here we are, specifically, at prime ministers questions, where we would learn, apparently, that the schools not having reopened was not the governments fault, not his, but Starmers. Whatever the question, be it on, say, his failure to deliver on recent promises about not charging migrant NHS workers to actually use the life-saving services they provide. Or the fact he has only managed to provide food for impoverished schoolchildren via an assist laid on by Manchester Uniteds Marcus Rashford (or Daniel, as the health secretary likes to call him). All would return to the same place. Is it safe for schools to reopen? he demanded of Keir Starmer, at least three times, regardless of whatever he had been asked. Johnson imagines Starmer to be in a difficult position on this issue, because some people in some of the teaching unions have some concerns about safety, and it would be difficult for Starmer to have to contradict them. For a prime minister to stand at the despatch box, having promised to reopen schools by 1 June and completely failed to do so, and then pin that embarrassment on somebody else is, well, Classic Boris. It hardly needs to be repeated that the reason schools have not reopened is not because of the teaching unions, but because of the crushing failure of his education secretary, Gavin Williamson, to do what is needed to make them safe to reopen. Now, naturally, ministers own failure has been pinned on the people who dont want to have their lives endangered by people in Westminster. There is no real precedent for this. There would be if, say, back in 2010, the Chilean president had gone to the Atacama desert and bellowed Its your own fault down the collapsed mineshaft. But being vaguely human, he didnt. Keir Starmer clashes with Boris Johnson over child poverty Where schools have reopened, such as in South Korea, they have done so with plastic screens around each desk, matched by an actual world-beating test and trace system, one that, you know, actually exists, and hasnt been conjured to life by nothing more than the vaporous air of a wafer-thin class of joke politicians. Williamson, of course, is the high prince of them all. Though it is frightening to conceive of such a thing, he is Johnson lite. Beyond a truly unjustifiable narcissism and a love for the drama and the gossip, there is absolutely nothing there. If a clever way can be found to prevent the gentle crushing of the life chances of a generation of children from holding Williamson and his political ambitions back in any way, it will be like the problem never existed. Will it hold him back? Who of us can say at this stage? The little clique of Remainers in Johnsons cabinet are an intriguing, if grotesque spectacle. Liz Truss and Matt Hancock know without any shadow of a doubt that they are guiding, indeed have already guided, their country down a ruinous path, but on they go anyway. Williamson, in his defence, is too stupid to understand or care. Not so long ago, the words no deal is better than a bad deal used to be heard fairly often. They were ridiculous, but they were also true. It absolutely is true that if you cant walk away from a negotiation you have no position. Your interlocutor will simply laugh at you. This little clique has gone around saying that no deal is better than a bad deal, while simultaneously deciding that a bad career is better than no career. They have nowhere to walk away to, nothing else to do with their lives. Theyll take what theyre given, theyll say what theyre told to say. Better to be humiliated than ignored. So will it hold him back? Probably not. It doesnt especially matter how demonstrably useless you are, if youve got a boss wholl stand up and pin your failings on the other guy, and people will actually believe it. By Ma Yichong KHARTOUM, June 17 -- China's construction engineering contingent to Darfur in Sudan have completed the cleanup tasks for 10 camps of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) as of June 15. This move will better benefit the local people and lay a solid foundation for the camp handover, which is of great significance for the continuous promotion of peace-building in the Darfur region of Sudan. There are more than ten camps of UNAMID scattered in the Darfur region. As the UNAMID mission gradually came to an end, it has launched a comprehensive camp clean-up and maintenance mission since the second half of last year for the camps smooth hand-over in the future. As the only engineering support force of the UNAMID, the Chinese contingent undertook the cleaning up and renovating tasks for all these camps. In the past eight months, with the pursuit of professional, efficient, and high-quality construction, the Chinese peacekeepers have completed the mission with a total of more than 20,000 person-times and 7,000 machine-times. They have leveled more than 90,000 square meters onsite and built 229 prefabricated houses, nearly three kilometers of sandbox walls, more than 10,000 meters of barbed wire fences, as well as more than 30,000 meters of roads. The UNAMID engineering chief said that the camp area would look completely new as long as they are cleared by the Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment. "I thank them for their outstanding contributions to the peace-building work of Darfur," said the officer. Curious just how far your dollar goes in San Antonio? We've rounded up the latest places for rent via rental sites Zumper and Apartment Guide to get a sense of what to expect when it comes to hunting down apartment rentals in San Antonio if you don't want to spend more than $600/month on rent. Read on for the listings. (Note: Prices and availability are subject to change.) Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions. 2005 S. San Jacinto St. Listed at $550/month, this 300-square-foot studio apartment is located at 2005 S. San Jacinto St. The apartment comes with air conditioning. Neither cats nor dogs are allowed. Be prepared for a $50 application fee. Walk Score indicates that the surrounding area is moderately walkable, has some bike infrastructure and has a few nearby public transportation options. (Take a look at the complete listing here.) 3270 Nacogdoches Road Next, there's this one-bedroom, one-bathroom residence over at 3270 Nacogdoches Road. It's listed for $575/month for its 474 square feet. When it comes to building amenities, anticipate a swimming pool and on-site laundry. The residence also features a dishwasher, a balcony and a fireplace. Neither cats nor dogs are welcome. Per Walk Score ratings, the surrounding area is car-dependent, is very bikeable and has some transit options. (Check out the complete listing here.) 7226 Blanco Road (Greater Harmony Hills) Here's a 448-square-foot studio apartment at 7226 Blanco Road that's going for $580/month. In the unit, expect to see a dishwasher, a balcony and a mix of hardwood floors and carpeting. Building amenities include on-site laundry and assigned parking. For those with furry friends in tow, this property is pet-friendly. Per Walk Score ratings, the surrounding area is somewhat walkable, is bikeable and has good transit options. (Check out the complete listing here.) 8722 Cinnamon Creek Drive Then, check out this 372-square-foot studio apartment that's located at 8722 Cinnamon Creek Drive. It's listed for $590/month. When it comes to building amenities, expect on-site laundry. The unit also has a dishwasher, a walk-in closet and hardwood flooring. Good news for animal lovers: The rental is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly. Walk Score indicates that the area around this address is car-dependent, has minimal bike infrastructure and has some transit options. (See the complete listing here.) 308 Castillo Ave. (Roosevelt Park) Lastly, located at 308 Castillo Ave., here's a 700-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment that's listed for $595/month. The unit features air conditioning. Animals are not permitted. Future tenants needn't worry about a leasing fee. Walk Score indicates that the area around this address is somewhat walkable, is bikeable and has some transit options. (Take a gander at the complete listing here.) Working with a tight budget? Here are the cheapest rentals recently listed in San Antonio. This story was created automatically using local real estate data from Zumper and Apartment Guide, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Additionally, if youre an agent or a broker, read on for real estate marketing ideas to promote your local listing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. Journalist Mohamed Mounir was detained on June 15 on charges of "spreading fake news", a widespread practice of the Egyptian government to silence critical journalists. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls for his immediate release and the dropping of all charges against him. Mounir a member of the Egyptian Syndicate of Journalists and founder of the Front for the Defense of Journalists and Freedoms was seized by the police from his home in Cairo. He is currently in 15-days pre-trial detention, accused of spreading fake news, joining a terrorist organization and misusing social media. The accusation of spreading fake news refers to Mounirs openly critical stance towards the governments response to the Covid-19 pandemic, while his alleged link with terrorism is based on the suspicion of his support for the Muslim Brotherhood (considered a terrorist organization by the government). Mounir worked regularly for Al Jazeera, which is banned in Egypt and considered as a platform for the Muslim Brotherhood and other enemies of the country by the regime. The accusation of misusing social media refers to the sharing of a video recorded by the surveillance camera at Mounir's house that he shared on Facebook. The video shows armed policemen raiding his house while he was absent. This is not an isolated case. According to Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez, a board member of the journalists syndicate , Mounir is the third journalist to be arrested and charged onsimilar grounds in the past month. On May 19, the IFJ reported the arrest of journalists in the context of a state-led campaign dubbed "case number 586" - a campaign to arrest journalists on charges of participating in terrorist groups and spreading "fake news". IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: This is yet another blow to press freedom in the country. We urge the Egyptian government to immediately release Mounir and to stop using made-up accusations to hinder journalists from doing their job. The U.S. economy needs additional government support to continue its rebound from coronavirus-induced devastation, former Obama economic advisor Jason Furman told CNBC on Wednesday. "I'm still worried we're not close to out of the woods," said Furman, who served in the previous administration as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. "The recovery we've seen so far has been assisted by extraordinary fiscal and monetary support, and if we pull that away too soon, we'll pull the rug out of the prospects for the U.S. economy," he added. Furman correctly predicted in early April a swift return in economic activity as restrictions on businesses were eased. During Wednesday's "Squawk Box" interview, Furman said the "tremendous" May retail sales data, released Tuesday, was partly linked to the rise in disposable personal income in April. Connecting the dots, Furman added that April's nearly 13% increase in disposable personal can be traced back to the various pandemic support programs. "That carried forward when people were able to spend the money in May," said Furman, currently a professor at Harvard University. Without additional government support, "you would see some reversal of that in August and September. You'd potentially see us double dip reversal in terms of our economic trajectory," he argued. "I wouldn't want to take my chances on something like that when we're still in a very fragile and very uncertain position with the virus and with the economy." In a recent op-ed in The Washington Post, Furman, former Obama Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and two others, detailed what they believe Congress should do. "I think the most important thing is we don't let expanded unemployment insurance go away entirely after July," Furman told CNBC. "That would be a large contraction for the economy." The enhanced federal unemployment benefit, under the coronavirus economic rescue package approved in March, pays $600 per week, up-and-above the jobless insurance offered at the state level, until the end of next month. Furman and company proposed adjusting the $600-per-week benefit and tying it to the U.S. unemployment rate. "As the unemployment rate comes down, the extra money you're getting would go down. We'd start with replacing about 90% of what you'd get on the job and then with lower unemployment rates, that would go lower," he explained. Furman said the key characteristic of their proposals, which include financial aid to state and local governments, links support from Washington to the conditions of the U.S. recovery. "If you're right that the economy is in great shape, the plan will actually be quite cheap. And if you're wrong, the needed money will flow," he said. "So effectively, it's like buying an insurance policy and that is what I think Congress should be doing." House Democrats have already approved another stimulus package, but it's a non-starter in the Republican-held Senate. CNBC reported last week that White House and GOP negotiators plan to wait until late July to begin formal negotiations on a fourth coronavirus stimulus package. Last month, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the next stimulus bill would be the "final" one. Some Republicans are hesitant to pass another large-scale relief bill because of the recently encouraging economic data, including the surprising 2.5 million nonfarm jobs added last month. By Kim Yoo-chul Hyundai Motor Group plans to establish the "ultimate test drive center" in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, sometime within the first half of 2022. The country's largest car manufacturing conglomerate has teamed up with Hankook Technology Group, which is on track to build a massive advanced drive center in the coastal city, Hyundai said in a statement, Wednesday. Present at the signing ceremony were Hyundai Motor Executive Vice Chairman Chung Euisun, Hankook Technology Group Vice Chairman Cho Hyun-sik and senior executives from each. Hankook Technology Group is in the process of building a 1.26-square-meter site in terms of the total land including a 4.6-kilometer closed-circuit racetrack, in addition to roads for function- and speed-related tests under different track conditions. Under the agreement, Hyundai Motor Group is able to access all the main facilities of the test site and also build a customer experience center. The test site will house four experience tracks and another four experience zones. Each of the experience tracks, designed to test driving conditions, can be set up in different configurations. There are also plans to build a large-scale lounge that could house up to 300 personnel, with designated rooms for kids, as well as conference rooms and shops selling brand collections of Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group. BMW is operating its own driving center close to Korea's gateway international airport in Incheon, inviting existing and potential BMW customers to push their vehicles to the limit. India's victory in the UN Security Council is certain since it is the sole candidate vying for the lone seat from the grouping. United Nations: India is expected to register a comfortable victory in the Security Council elections on Wednesday that will bring the country to the UN high-table as a non-permanent member for the 2021-22 term. The 193-member UN General Assembly will hold elections for President of the 75th session of the Assembly, five non-permanent members of the Security Council and members of the Economic and Social Council under special voting arrangements put in place at the UN headquarters due to COVID-19 related restrictions. India is all set to join the powerful 15-nation Security Council as a non-permanent member. India is a candidate for a non-permanent seat from the Asia-Pacific category for the 2021-22 term. India's victory is certain since it is the sole candidate vying for the lone seat from the grouping. New Delhi's candidature was unanimously endorsed by the 55-member Asia-Pacific grouping, including China and Pakistan, in June last year. President of the UN General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande on Monday circulated a letter to member states with the names of candidates for the various elections. For the two vacant seats from among the African and Asia-Pacific States, three candidates have been communicated, namely, Djibouti, India and Kenya. Of those three candidates, India and Kenya are endorsed candidates. For the one vacant seat from among the Latin American and Caribbean States, one endorsed candidate has been communicated, namely, Mexico. For the two vacant seats from among the Western European and other States, three candidates have been communicated, namely, Canada, Ireland and Norway. Each year the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members (out of 10 in total) for a two-year term. The 10 non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis as follows: five for African and Asian States; one for Eastern European States; two for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two for Western European and other States. To be elected to the Council, candidate countries need a two-thirds majority of ballots of Member States that are present and voting in the Assembly. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti has said that India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world its ethos of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam'. He underscored that the United Nations as well as multilateralism need to change to reflect contemporary realities and remain credible as the world organization marks its 75th anniversary this year, "India's journey with the United Nations is quite a remarkable one. As a founding member of the United Nations, India's contribution to implementing the goals of the United Nations Charter and to the evolution of UN specialised agencies and programmes has been substantial. In many ways, quite extraordinary," Tirumurti said in a video message ahead of the elections. "I'm confident that at a time when we are poised to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and later the 75th anniversary of India's independence in 2022, India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world our ethos that the world is one family - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam," he said. Ahead of the elections, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar outlined New Delhi's priorities for its candidature to the Council. Termed as NORMS, India's focus will be on New Orientation For A Reformed Multilateral System.' India's priorities include new opportunities for progress, effective response to international terrorism, reforming multilateral systems, comprehensive approach to peace and security and technology with a human touch. Tirumurti said as the UN commemorates its 75th anniversary this year, it is clear to us that the United Nations and indeed multilateralism itself need to change to reflect contemporary realities to enable them to remain effective and credible. The Indian envoy referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for reformed multilateralism and reform of multilateral system as essential to ensure that the international system is inclusive and caters to requirements of all countries, which will in turn facilitate stronger action. "We also believe that the current crisis that we face, especially in the context of COVID-19, provides the seed for new opportunities," Tirumurti said. Previously, India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council for the years 1950-1951, 1967-1968, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1984-1985, 1991-1992 and most recently in 2011-2012. The deaths of dozens of Aboriginal people in policy custody have been stamped on federal parliament forever. In a powerful speech, Indigenous Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy read out the circumstances of 31 Aboriginal deaths in custody between 2017 and March 2019. There were high-profile deaths like 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, who was fatally shot in the NT community of Yuendumu in November. A police officer intends to plead not guilty to his murder. Indigenous Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy (pictured) made a powerful speech to the Australian Senate on Wednesday afternoon about Aboriginal deaths in custody The senator read out the circumstances of 31 Indigenous deaths in custody between 2017 and March 2019. Pictured: Black Lives Matter protestors in Brisbane on Wednesday Others didn't garner national headlines, like the 20-year-old man who fell 10 metres while returning to the Kariong Correctional Centre from the Gosford Hospital. Senator McCarthy also remembered 31-year-old Patrick Fisher, who died in 2018 after falling 13 floors from a Sydney public housing block as police chased him. Two Aboriginal teenagers fleeing police died in Perth's Swan River in 2018 after reports of boys jumping fences. Some of the people were found hanged in cells, while others died in car crashes during police pursuits. Senator McCarthy said up to 439 Indigenous people had died since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. 'These are the people that hundreds of thousands of Australians walked the streets for this week, last week and will no doubt continue to do so,' she said. Senator McCarthy became emotional as she finished her speech and was consoled by her fellow Labor senators. Senator McCarthy (pictured) said up to 439 Indigenous people had died since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody The senator became emotional after she delivered the speech and was comforted by fellow Labor senator Nita Green (pictured) She was offered a hug by Senator Nita Green and Senator Murray Watt placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. WA senator Pat Dodson - a royal commissioner at the 1991 inquiry - thanked his colleague for giving humanity to people who would otherwise be numbers in files. He said racism explained the deep distrust Indigenous people had for Australia's institutions. 'Systematically, First Nations peoples have been treated as inferior, as deficient and tolerated through condescension,' Senator Dodson said. Senator McCarthy said the widespread Black Lives Matter protests honoured the Aboriginal people who died in custody. Pictured: Black Lives Matter protests in Brisbane on Wednesday Pauline Hanson made the next speech, renewing her attack on welfare programs she labelled the 'Aboriginal industry'. 'It's about milking the cow - the taxpayer - crying the victim constantly and blaming whites for a so-called invasion,' the One Nation leader said. 'I was born in Australia. This is my land, where the hell will I go?' Senator Hanson started and finished by declaring 'all lives matter', a slogan used by some on the far-right to undermine the Black Lives Matter movement. She also criticised the criteria for identifying as Aboriginal. 'There is no place in our country for racism or for that matter reverse-racism.' The chamber was almost empty during her speech. International diplomacy is a funny thing. While it is one of the most important tools for nations to maintain international relations with world leaders, much of it is often hinged on stunts and antics, some of which might even appear silly or inconsequential to the untrained eye. But a look at the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dealing with China at a diplomatic level amid ongoing tensions in Ladakh reveals that in tough situations even a simple diplomatic gesture can send a strong message. On Monday, at least 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in a violent face-off between India and China in Ladakh's Galwan Valley. As per the Ministry of External Affairs, on the late-evening and night of 15th June 2020, a violent face-off happened as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there. READ: Indians Are Using 'Winnie the Pooh' to Taunt Xi Jinping Amid India-China Border Violence This is the biggest confrontation between the two troops after the 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. 15th June also happened to be the birthday of Chineses Premier Xi Jinping. And after four years of exchanging birthday greetings, Modi seems to have chosen to send a message this year by not wishing the Chinese Premier on his birthday. Ever since 2016, Modi has wished Jinping on his birthday, a report in The Telegraph pointed out. The first time he wished the Chinese leader was on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The greeting came despite ongoing tensions between India and China after latter opposed India's entry to Nuclear Supplier's Group, a week of the plenary meeting in Seoul. Modi also greeted Xi amid ongoing bilateral tension with China in 2017, a day before the 73-day standoff between India and China in Doklam where the Chinese were attempting to construct a road. The greetings got a personal touch in 2019 when PM Modi met Jinping in Bishkek on his birthday and wished him in person. The incident took place on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Kyrgyzstan. This year, however, Modi skipped the Weibo greetings, even as tensions continued to mount. The snub is surprising as in the past years, India has worked to improve its relations with China, despite bilateral tensions on certain issues. Be it the "informal meetings" between the two heads of states, first in Wuhan and then in Chennai last year, Indo-China relations were seemingly improving. The martyrdom of twenty soldiers, however, drastically changes equations between the two nations. With mounting international scrutiny and internal pressure from enraged Indian citizens calling for a boycott of all things Chinese in India, PM Modi seems to know that at a time when the world is watching, diplomatic messages can go a long way in order to make a political point. But to keep up with Chinese aggression on the border, Indian might need more than a petulant gesture to get China in line. Nevertheless, the move did not fail to generate reactions from the Opposition. Responding to the news on Twitter, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, "Wow. And he has already punished China by not hugging Xi, though most Chinese believe Xi considers that a favour." Zarif, Lavrov Slam US And UN Nuclear Watchdog In Moscow Meeting Radio Farda June 16, 2020 Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says "Iran will not allow" the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to become "a tool for destroying" the 2015 nuclear agreement signed between Iran and world powers. Zarif was speaking in a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA( on Monday criticized Iran for lack of cooperation in allowing international inspectors full access to conduct their investigations of possible nuclear sites. Reports say that the three European signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, Germany, France and the U.K. have prepared a resolution to censure Iran for the lack of cooperation. The United States backs efforts to force Iran to allow full access to UN inspectors. President Donald Trump decided to withdraw form the JCPOA in May 2018, demanding Iran to renegotiate a stronger agreement preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Zarif told reporters in Moscow, "The job of the Trump administration is to exit international agreements and organizations and we will not allow the IAEA become a tool in the hands of the Trump administration to destroy JCPOA". The official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Zarif as saying that his country has always cooperated with the IAEA and has discharges its duties. The controversy around more inspections began in 2018 when Israel revealed evidence it said was acquired through espionage efforts that Iran had hidden evidence of a secret weapons program. In his remarks Zarif condemned efforts to use evidence based on "espionage" to demand additional inspections. However, the IAEA appears to be convinced such inspections are necessary. The Russian foreign minister Lavrov backed Zarif's position in the press conference condemning U.S. efforts to extend a UN arms embargo beyond October 2020. Washington "has no right to punish Iran by profiting from the Security Council's authority and, in fact, manipulating the Security Council and, to some extent, the UN Secretariat," Lavrov said. He was probably referring to a recent report by the UN Secretary General saying Iran might have violated the UN arms embargo. Reporting by IRNA, Interfax Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/zarif-lavrov -slam-us-and-un-nuclear-watchdog-in -moscow-meeting/30674273.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 There was great anticipation about what shopping would be like when non-essential stores finally reopened their doors in England on Monday. It quickly became clear that we wont get back to pre-pandemic retail therapy until all the fixtures of the high street are up and running again, from nail bars to cafes and restaurants. A steady stream of consumers filled the main thoroughfare in Canterbury, an affluent town in Kent. That reflected the broader trend of a 42% increase from a week earlier in visits to all retail destinations in England by noon on Monday, according to data provider Springboard. At the Fenwicks department store, one couple said they had come out for a bit of normal. But normality was in short supply. For a start, not all of the stores were open. Next Plc wasnt due to open its doors to shoppers until today. Others, such as the large Debenhams department store, are now permanently closed. But the most notable omission was the atmosphere thats come to characterize British malls and main streets, provided by bustling coffee shops, food outlets and the like. Over the past five to 10 years, the functional aspect of shopping has migrated to the click of a mouse or tap of a smartphone. Going out to the mall or strolling the high street has become a leisure pursuit, especially as cafes and restaurant chains expanded to fill empty retail space. With the U.K.s gradual approach to easing lockdown, on-site dining is still prohibited. While some fast-food outlets, such as Five Guys, McDonalds and Nandos were open for takeaway, eating on the go is hardly conducive to a leisurely lunch out followed by window shopping and browsing the day away. Its too early to say whether that experience will return. After over-expanding five years ago, casual-dining joints hit a hard patch. When Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, consumers turned more cautious, sparking a wave of closures at the likes of Prezzo, Jamies Italian and Byron Hamburgers. Its not clear how many restaurants will be able to survive a three-month shutdown followed by strict social-distancing measures. Sticking to the two-meter rule could see many operating at 30-50% of their usual capacity, squeezing profits. Other footfall drivers at shopping destinations include beauty outlets with trends such as false-eyelash bars growing in popularity alongside nail and hair salons. In Canterbury yesterday, these all remained closed. There were no bustling beauty counters with consultants spraying perfume or dispensing samples in the local Fenwicks and Boots. While digital tools could make up for some of whats missing, theres no substitute for actually putting a lipstick on your own skin to tell if you like the shade. If theres little reason for visiting a physical beauty store, more sales will migrate online, making life even harder for the department stores. All in all, with discounts of as much as 50% on handbags and 70% on fashion picks, walking through some stores felt like a ghostly Black Friday. It could just be a question of time. As the U.S. reopened, shopping also felt lifeless at first until leisure outlets reopened bringing out more people with them. In England, in the meantime, retailers will have to rely on the strength of their product offerings. Although queues at Primark were modest in Canterbury, many people were carrying bulging bags from the discount fashion retailer, which doesnt offer online shopping. And more expensive fashion chains may have to rely more on the social aspects of shopping. Just how hard they may have to work became apparent on my return to Whitstable in the late afternoon. The only queue was outside the fish-and-chip shop even though many of the vibrant independent shops had reopened their doors. (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 BETHEL, Ohio Donna Henson sat on her front porch last weekend, as she always does when the weather is nice, and watched dozens of her neighbors walk by with bats in their hands or guns strapped to their sides. They were married couples, friends and relatives, young people and old. All heading up Union Street, toward the center of town. Henson, 78, figured theyd heard the same rumors she had, the ones about busloads of people coming to her town to join small Black Lives Matter protests on Sunday and Monday. Word was hundreds could arrive from Cincinnati or Columbus or Detroit. Henson was afraid, and she guessed her neighbors were, too. If they didnt do something, if they didnt show up armed and ready, the unrest theyd seen on TV for weeks on far off American streets could come to Bethel, a village of 2,800. Everybody had a gun, Henson said Tuesday, recalling the scene. Like a cowboy show. A movement that had swept into many of the nations big cities was about to reach a small town, a rural enclave where the message from demonstrators would be heard not as a wake-up call or a rallying cry but as a challenge to a way of life. In Bethel, peaceful protesters would be seen by some as no different from looters and rioters. They represented chaos, the problems of other people from other places. The protesters call for police reform, decry racism and criticize President Donald Trump. Many from Bethel support the police, say racism isnt a problem here and fly Trump 2020 flags in their front yards. We just want it to stop, said Brad McCall, a carpenter and longtime resident who joined counterprotesters. We got a peaceful town. We dont want our town destroyed. As it turned out, there were no busloads of protesters, there was no invasion by outsiders. Police estimated 80 to 100 people showed up to support Black Lives Matter, including the organizer, a 36-year-old substitute teacher from Bethel who makes arts and crafts. Story continues They were met by the much larger crowd Henson had seen from her front porch. Hundreds of them, counterprotesters and curious townspeople, many on motorcycles and brandishing weapons. Some yelled at the protesters to leave, blocked their way when they were marching and pushed and shoved them to the ground. A man with a Confederate flag covering his face ripped up one of the protesters signs while the crowd cheered. I felt like we were walking a gantlet, said Lois Dennis, 63, who attended the demonstration with her daughter. Counterprotesters watch a Black Lives Matter march as curfew approaches June 15 in Bethel, Ohio. Protesters took to the streets after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died May 25 in Minneapolis after a white police officer kneeled on his neck, ignoring Floyd's pleas that he could not breathe. Images of the confrontation went viral on social media, in part because few had seen anything quite like it since the protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis began almost a month ago. Suddenly, tiny Bethel was another act in an unfolding national drama. Critics called the town a racist backwater. Supporters praised residents for standing up to ignorant protesters. Townspeople, for the most part, were stunned by all the attention. Before this, Bethel, about 30 miles east of Cincinnati, was known mostly as the home of Ulysses S. Grant's father, though the nations 18th president and commander of Union forces during the Civil War lived here only a short time. Bethel also was a stop on the Underground Railroad, a bit of history some protesters said made it a logical choice for a Black Lives Matter rally. History didnt matter much last weekend. Counterprotesters said they didnt understand why anyone would want to protest police brutality against African Americans in a small town like this one. Bethel is 97% white, according to the U.S. Census, and almost 0.5% of the population identifies as Black. Why bring it to Bethel? McCall said. Why not go to Chicago? Look how many Black people are getting killed in Chicago. Black people are not getting killed in Bethel. They don't want change Sharon Middleton listened Tuesday afternoon as McCall spoke in a parking lot not far from the site of the protests the previous days. Middleton was born and raised in Bethel and still lives in the house she grew up in. She said the demonstrations were a mistake but not for the same reason McCall did. Its not a tolerant community, she said. Middleton, who is white, has been living for years with Jon Richardson, an African American man. She said most people dont give her trouble about it, but some do, including her mother, who hasnt spoken to her in months. When she read about the Black Lives Matter protest on Facebook, Middleton figured the protest organizers didnt know her town as well as she did. They were naive, she said. They think they can put their Black Lives Matter signs up and change peoples minds. Richardson said he went to the protest and took some photos, but he said he wasnt going to carry a sign. Since only a handful of the protesters were people of color, Richardson said, he wouldve stood out and been an easy target if things got ugly. I live here, he said. Counterprotesters confront demonstrators June 15 in Bethel, Ohio. Richardson said he saw neighbors who never carry guns carrying them for the first time at the protest. A lot of it is foolishness, he said. For Middleton, the guns and the anger are all about the fear of change. She said Bethel hasnt changed much in her lifetime and thats fine with most of its residents. They dont want change, she said. Richardson put his arm around Middleton and kissed her cheek. People are just people, she said. He just has a little more melanin in his skin. 'A sad day for Bethel' Chris Karnes hasnt lived in Bethel as long as Middleton, but he said hes more hopeful the towns residents can find common ground. He moved here with his wife, a native, about 10 years ago, and he likes the place. He said his neighbors are friendly, even if they dont share his more liberal politics. Its Trump country, he said Tuesday. You have to learn to live with peoples differences. Karnes wasnt encouraged by the response to the protests. He saw people he knew, some better than others, swearing at protesters and trying to intimidate them. He saw punches thrown at a man who did nothing but carry a sign. You live in a small community like this, you get to know a lot of people, he said. I dont know. It was a sad day for Bethel. Wayne Sulken and Chris Karnes, both Bethel residents, shake hands after having a discussion in the parking lot of the Bethel Municipal Building on Tuesday, June 16. As he spoke, Wayne Sulken, whos lived in Bethel for almost 30 years, parked his pickup and got out. He listened to Karnes for a few minutes before speaking. I know it got ugly, he said. But there were thugs on both sides. Sulken said he went to the protests Sunday and Monday, bringing his pistol Monday, not to cause trouble but to keep the peace. He said thats why most residents showed up: They had heard outsiders were coming to stir things up. We didnt know what was going to happen, Sulken said. Are our homes going to get burned down? Are our stores going to get looted? We heard the rumors they were going to bus them in. Sulken told Karnes he thought outsiders were behind the protests, namely antifa, a loose-knit anti-fascist group Trump has blamed for protests and unrest. Whoever was behind it, Sulken said, Bethel residents didnt want any part of it. Karnes and Sulken were on opposite sides of the protest, but they agreed on one thing Tuesday afternoon. Sort of. The worst thing is the impression the world is getting from Bethel, Karnes said. Id say it was the actions of a few violent individuals. On both sides, Sulken said. Ahhhhh, Karnes said, shaking his head. I thought you might say that. Before parting ways, the two men shook hands. Karnes walked toward his home a few blocks away and Sulken climbed back into his pickup. Hope for more conversations , less anger As evening approached Tuesday, Bethel Police Chief Steve Teague responded to a noise complaint about a man with a bullhorn across the street from the Grant Memorial building, where protesters had gathered on previous days. He found an African American man shouting, Black lives matter on the sidewalk. He told him about the complaint and asked him to stop. Then the two sat down on the steps with a few other Bethel residents and talked about what was happening. Everybody was respectful, Teague said. We welcome all of them, as long as theyre peaceful. We welcome all of them, as long as theyre peaceful, says Steve Teague, police chief of Bethel, Ohio. He said most have been. Despite the images circulating on social media, Teague said, most interactions were nonviolent and only a few counterprotesters got physical with demonstrators. Teague, a former jet engine designer at GE, has been chief in Bethel for a year. The past few days are unlike anything hes faced on the job, and he knows it doesnt look good for the town hes called home for the past six years. He got emails and texts from people hes never met from all over the country, saying, I cant believe your town is racist. Those people have a 15-second clip, and theyre judging our entire town, Teague said. Thats just not right. A few blocks away, Donna Henson was on her front porch again, watching evening fall on an empty Union Street. It was another beautiful afternoon. She sat next to her boyfriend, Mike Luck, surrounded by flower boxes and an American flag flapping in the breeze. Her dog, a Pekingese named Goldie, roamed the porch. 'It's what I think': Mississippi official doubles down on racist comments after Confederate statue vote Rayshard Brooks video: Legal scholars break down key moments in shooting timeline Henson said shes watched the protests on TV for weeks and struggles to understand why everyone has been so upset for so long. She's lived in Clermont County her whole life and, until now, the protests and unrest had seemed distant, like someone else's problem. Ive never been around Black people, she said. I just wish everybody could get along. She said she was appalled by the video of George Floyd's death, but she wants the protests to end. She wants her town to get back to normal, back to the way its always been. Contributing: Erin Glynn and Cameron Knight Follow reporter Dan Horn on Twitter: @danhornnews This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bethel, Ohio protests: Black Lives Matter meets small town America Dr. Jennifer Rubin, D.M.D. "I absolutely love treating children, and I care for each one like my own." Boulder Smile Design is proud to welcome Dr. Jennifer Rubin, D.M.D. to its practice. Dr. Rubin is a board-certified pediatric dentist, allowing the practice to expand services and provide comprehensive care for its growing number of patients. Dr. Rubin is an exceptional addition to our team, said Jesse Friedman, D.M.D., owner of Boulder Smile Design. She is an extremely skilled dentist and has a huge heart, both of which make her an amazing pediatric and special needs dentist." Since she was a little girl, Dr. Rubin always knew she wanted to be a dentist for kids. Dr. Rubin attended Boston University, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a Master's in Biomedical Sciences, and finally her dental degree from the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. She graduated with magna cum laude honors. She followed that with a hospital-based General Practice Residency at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Hospital in New York City and then completed her residency in pediatric dentistry at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City as well. In addition to her range of dental service expertise, Dr. Rubin is an active member in the Boulder dental community, volunteering with a number of local organizations and regularly visiting local schools and daycare centers to educate children. She is a member of the American Dental Association, the Colorado Dental Association, and the Metro Denver Dental Society. She is board certified from the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and also maintains an active membership with the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. She takes continuing education classes every chance she gets and stays up-to-date on the latest in pediatric and special needs care. I wanted to join Boulder Smile Design because I knew that the levels of care matched my own rigorous standards, said Dr. Rubin. They have always provided exceptional dentistry in Boulder. I absolutely love taking care of children, and I treat for each one like my own. Boulder Smile Design has provided high-end dental care for families in the area for nearly 50 years, with just over 10 in its current location. All dentists in the office work to understand individual patient dental needs and use state-of-the-art materials and equipment to achieve these goals. Services are comprehensive and range from ongoing preventative care to emergency dentistry services. Patients of all ages count on the dental cleaning and checkup services to prevent cavities, avoid gum disease, and boost overall health. The office uses absolutely no amalgam or mercury fillings; resin composite (white fillings) and sealant services provide further proactive and restorative dental care to ensure the ongoing health of each tooth and patient. Advanced restorative and prosthodontic services, such as crowns, bridges, porcelain veneers, and dental implants are also available to provide natural-looking improvements for stained, chipped, decayed, damaged, or broken teeth. The dentists stay up-to-date with a variety of continuing education, including sleep medicine, sleep apnea, and sleep-disordered breathing; craniofacial growth, cosmetic dentistry, laser technology, orthodontics, and complex rehabilitative care. The dentists employ a range of digital technology, including 3-D oral scanners, ultra-low-radiation digital x-rays, and the newest and most advanced equipment for diagnosing and treating disease. The dentists at Boulder Smile Design take their role and engagement in the community seriously. Each dentist has donated considerable pro bono dental work for a range of non-profit organizations including Give Kids a Smile, the Dental Lifeline Network, and the Colorado Mission of Mercy. The professionals in the practice understand the important role dental health and esthetics play in both overall wellness and confidence in life. We have a responsibility for our patients and our city, Dr. Friedman said. We view every day as an opportunity to give our very best to patients and the community overall. Every single person should have the opportunity to receive phenomenal care in a comfortable, relaxing, stress-free environment. Boulder Smile Design is open Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 7-5; Wednesdays from 7-3; and select Fridays and Saturdays. Call to ask about your dental insurance. It is located at 3000 Center Green Drive, Suite 215, Boulder, CO 80301. Learn more about Boulder Smile Design at http://www.bouldergeneraldentist.com or call for an appointment (303) 442-6142. A major tragedy was averted as a fire broke out in a multi-storey jacket factory in Sundar Nagar on Wednesday morning. As the fire started at 7.15am, alert workers ran out to safety, escaping harm. It took three fire tenders around 2 hours to douse the flames. Sub fire-officer (SFO) Atish Rai said, The fire seems to have been caused by a short-circuit. No one was injured. Only four workers were inside the factory as they started work at 7am. Suddenly, we heard an explosion and the power supply went off. Soon after, we saw smoke rising from the buildings second floor and raised the alarm. Though the workers came out safely through the backdoor, goods and machinery worth lakhs was gutted, said Mohammad Feroze, one of the workers. If you really want to honour him, implement his inclusive ideology: SC Bose's grandnephew Ladakh faceoff: 'India capable of giving befitting reply, sacrifice of jawans won't be in vain' India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, June 17: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Modi during today's interaction with the Chief Ministers on Wednesday said that India wants peace but when instigated, India is capable of giving a befitting reply, be it any kind of situation. He also said that the sacrifice of Indian soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley clash in Ladakh will not go in vain. In his opening remarks on day two of the virtual conference with Chief Ministers on coronavirus, he also said that India wants peace but is capable of giving a befitting reply, if instigated. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is most important, he said. India-China face-off: Loss of soldiers disturbing, painful, says Defence Minister Rajnath Singh India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News Modi said India has always tried that differences do not become disputes. Later, the prime minister and those attending the meeting observed silence of a few minutes as a mark of respect for the slain soldiers. Twenty Indian soldiers including a colonel, were killed on Monday evening in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley. Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee didn't participate Modi's virtual meeting with Chief Ministers, scheduled to be held at around 3 pm on Wednesday, highly-placed sources in the state secretariat said. The chief minister is likely to chair a review committee meeting scheduled to be held at the secretariat around the same time, the sources said. Modi held the first round of consultation with the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Assam, Kerala and several other states and Union territories on Tuesday. He is scheduled to meet the CMs of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and the remaining Union territories on Wednesday. Back in March, Britain's Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, has contracted the coronavirus. He self-isolated in Scotland along with his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who was also tested but didn't have the COVID-19. Luckily, the 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth II was in good health and haven't seen the Prince of Wales for two weeks. Despite testing positive for the coronavirus, Prince Charles had only been displaying mild symptoms but "otherwise remained in good health," who was even working from home throughout the entire time. For someone over 70, the 71-year-old Prince is considered a high risk than common coronavirus. On the first day of April, he announced that he was on "the other side" of his coronavirus diagnosis. He said in a statement, "Having recently gone through the process of contracting this coronavirus, luckily with relatively mild symptoms, I now find myself on the other side of the illness but still in no less a state of social distance and general isolation." Fast forward to today, the Prince of Wales seems to reveal that although he's feeling better and well enough to travel to London and meet with the French president, he's still experiencing the coronavirus's effects. During Prince Charles' and Camilla's first in-person engagement, the heir to the throne told hospital staff in Gloucestershire Royal that he had lost his sense of smell and tastewhen he caught the virus and is said to be still in effect. Healthcare assistant Jeff Mills told reporters how the Prince had described the symptoms. "Charles did speak of his personal experience, so the first-hand experience for him. He also spoke about his loss of smell and taste, and sort of still felt he's still got it now." But with Prince Charles feeling like he still has the virus, it may be hard for him to function properly and become the King that he's supposed to be. According to the CDC, older adults and people who have severe underlying medical conditions like heart or lung disease or diabetes seem to be at higher risk for developing more severe complications for the coronavirus. Though there are no reports that Prince Charles has any underlying medical conditions, scientists still have some things to discover about the COVID-19. Much remains unknown about the disease that is rapidly spreading around the world. Still, researchers have understood on a factor that seems to influence the severity of infection: the patient's age. But these days, Prince Charles is doing okay sans the problem with his sense of smell and taste. A royal expert even said that the future King contracting the coronavirus was "one of the best things that could have happened." Penny Juror, a royal expert, told The Sunday Times said that Prince Charles claimed his experience of the coronavirus had made him "able to understand people going through terrible times and shoe leadership." It has even positively boosted his profile. Juror believes that during the pandemic in the UK, Prince Charles has been seen and listened and has even used his social media presence well during the coronavirus crisis. Even though right now is not the time for him to be King for so many health reasons, Juror believes that the coronavirus pandemic has given him a platform "and has been masterful in the way he's responded and used that platform." READ MORE: Royal Revelation: Camilla Parker Bowles NOT The Reason For Prince Charles, Princess Diana Failed Marriage Photo: Iron Workers Union, Local 97 Lucien Lessard A sunny afternoon instantly turned dark for Lucien Lessard on June 17, 1958, as he plunged into the ocean when a support collapsed on a bridge being constructed between Vancouver and North Vancouver. Lessard, now 91, was among 79 workers who fell from the Second Narrows Bridge in what remains one of British Columbia's worst industrial accidents. He is the last survivor of the disaster that killed 23 people, mostly iron workers, two engineers and a crane operator. A diver who searched for bodies in Burrard Inlet drowned. On Wednesday, Lessard planned to be at the site as part of an annual ceremony commemorating those who worked on the span, which was renamed the Iron Workers Memorial Second Narrows Bridge in 1994. The event draws hundreds of people annually but has been limited this year to only a few including Lessard, his daughter, the president of Local 97 of the Iron Workers Union, a reverend and a bagpiper who will lead a wreath procession. Lessard was a foreman at the site and known to his crew as Lou. "I was on the edge of the bridge," he recalled in an interview. "I went down 125 feet and then 35 feet to the bottom of the ocean. It was dark on the bottom because when the bridge fell down that mixed the mud on the bottom of the ocean and it was as black as it could be," he said. "I couldn't breathe in the water," he said, adding that when he finally surfaced he realized he'd suffered serious injuries. He fractured his left femur and right arm, and spent over three months in hospital. His thoughts were with those he knew had not survived, and that took an emotional toll on him and the other survivors. "Dad never talked about it," said Christine Rzepka, who was born in 1961. It was only about 20 years ago that her father mentioned anything about the memorial he attended every year, and even then it seemed he'd let it slip, she said. "He wasn't ready to deal with it. He kept it separate. He dealt with it when he went to the memorial with his iron worker friends and he didn't bring that sadness home at all." Rzepka said her father, who moved to a retirement home in Langley about three months ago, is determined to attend the annual memorial for as long as he can. This year he plans to don a face shield to protect him from any risk of COVID-19. Paul Beacom, president of Local 97, said the memorial will be broadcast via Facebook and Zoom. "It's to let people know that when they cross that bridge between Vancouver and North Vancouver there was a high price to pay to build that bridge, in human lives." Bengaluru, June 17 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded Karnataka for its efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic and the gradual revival of the economy, said chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Wednesday. "During the interaction through the video conferencing for the sixth time, the Prime Minister appreciated the state's efforts in combating the Covid-19 spread and steps taken to unlock the economy with the gradual relaxation of the extended lockdown norms," Yediyurappa said in a statement here. Modi advised the state to minimise the lockdown norms and proceed towards unlocking the sectors that remained shut to prevent the virus spread. "The Prime Minister expressed hope that the self-reliance package will boost economic activities across the sectors," said Yediyurappa. Briefing the Prime Minister on measures taken to reduce the pandemic impact, the chief minister said the timely adoption of the 5T policy of trace, track, test, treat and technology helped the state fight the virus. Of the 7,734 positive cases registered across the state till Wednesday since March 10, the recovery rate has been above the national average of 51 per cent to touch 4,804, while active cases remained at 2,824, with only 102 deaths. "We are ramping up the healthcare infrastructure to treat 2 lakh Covid infected patients from 1-lakh capacity. We have also set up 673 fever clinics across the state to test asymptomatic persons and contain the virus spread," Yediyurappa told Modi during the hour-long interaction. The state has also increased Covid labs to 72 with a capacity to conduct 15,000 tests a day. "For every 10-lakh population, 7,500 tests are being conducted and results have shown that only 1.6 per cent of them (tests) were positive. The pandemic growth rate has been 3.6 per cent so far," Yediyurappa told the prime minister. Noting that Covid war rooms played a key role in surveillance and maintaining a robust database, the chief minister said the state government was making all private hospitals and nursing homes reserve a part of their facilities for treating Covid patients. "Tele-ICU facility has been set up to connect doctors in Bengaluru with their counterparts treating Covid patients across the state," added Yediyurappa. Making a presentation on the various measures the state health department has taken to contain the virus, state medical education minister K. Sudhakar told Modi that extensive use of technology, training, preventive measures from panchayat to city and best practices helped the state fight the Covid war. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Indias government is against a petition to waive interest payments on loans during the coronavirus pandemic, according to people with knowledge of the court proceedings. While regulators have allowed a six-month freeze on principal repayments, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that waiving interest could destabilize banks, the people said. They asked not to be identified as the hearing was via video conference and details arent yet public. The governments stand will come as a relief to banks that have been hit by the loan freeze as well as a slump in demand. Stress among lenders, already trying to clear up one of the worlds worst piles of soured debt, is expected to increase as Indias nationwide lockdown pushes the economy into its first contraction in decades. A lawyer for an association of banks also opposed a waiver of interest on loans, citing the need to keep paying depositors despite the moratorium, the people said. The three-judge bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan adjourned the hearing to early August to allow the finance ministry and Reserve Bank of India more time to revisit the issue, the people said. The Supreme Courts public relations officer didnt answer a phone call seeking comment. UK study shows dexamethasone reduces deaths by about 30 percent in critical COVID patients, some US doctors sceptical. The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to update its guidelines on treating people stricken with coronavirus to reflect results of a clinical trial that showed a cheap, common steroid could help save critically ill patients. The drug dexamethasone was shown to reduce death by about one-third in patients on ventilators and one-fifth in patients who require oxygen, according to initial findings. The benefit was only seen in patients seriously ill with COVID-19 and was not observed in patients with milder disease, the WHO said in a statement late Tuesday. British researchers estimated 5,000 lives could have been saved had the drug been used to treat patients in the United Kingdom at the start of the pandemic. This is great news and I congratulate the government of the UK, the University of Oxford, and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this lifesaving scientific breakthrough, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the press release. This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support. The UN agency said it will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase the overall understanding of this intervention. Best piece of news Britains health minister on Wednesday hailed the use of the steroid for treating coronavirus patients as the best news so far during the outbreak. Trial results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases such as arthritis reduced death rates by about 30 percent among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital. It does increase your chances of survival quite significantly, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News. It is one of the best pieces of news weve had through this whole crisis. It reduces your chances of dying when you are on a ventilator. It is brilliant news for everybody. He said the drugs potential was first spotted in February and positive signals led to the government buying it up in April. US doctors scepticism Despite worldwide optimism, some US doctors expressed scepticism over the British research, saying the recent withdrawal of an influential COVID-19 study left them wanting to see more data. Global pressure to find a cure or vaccine has accelerated the process of reporting coronavirus study results, feeding confusion over whether therapies have been proven effective. One influential coronavirus study was withdrawn this month by respected British medical journal The Lancet over data concerns. We have been burned before even pre-COVID, with exciting results that when we have access to the data are not as convincing, Dr Kathryn Hibbert, director of the intensive care unit at Harvards Massachusetts General Hospital, told Reuters. The British scientists who announced the dexamethasone results said they would work to publish full details as soon as possible. A large-scale study in The Lancet that raised safety fears over the use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 was retracted earlier this month [File: George Frey/Reuters] Hibbert said published data would help her evaluate the findings and see which patients benefited the most and at what dose. I am very hopeful this is true because it would be a huge step forward in being able to help our patients, she said, but added she would not change her treatment protocol at this point. Steroids can suppress immune systems, warned Dr Thomas McGinn, deputy physician-in-chief at New Yorks largest healthcare system, Northwell Health. He said physicians are using steroids on a case-by-case basis. We have to see what the study looks like given the current environment of retractions, said McGinn. I just wait to see the real data, see if its peer-reviewed and gets published. University of Washington professor of medicine Dr Mark Wurfel urged the researchers to release the data before official publication. That would be very, very helpful in terms of helping us align our patient populations with theirs and decide whether its appropriate to apply this therapy to our patients, said Wurfel. Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, told the Financial Times a panel of US experts is now reviewing whether to recommend dexamethasone. He called the results important and positive saying the drug clearly has a significant effect on those individuals who are on ventilators. Fauci added it was important that the study was a large, randomised control trial that compared the drug to a placebo. Alongside the positive result from Gileads antiviral remdesivir, he said there were signs that we are making progress. Samsung has launched The Frame 2020 and 10 new Smart TV models in India. The Frame comes with 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch models. The 4K UHD TVs come in four sizes 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch. The new FHD and HD Ready Smart TV range will be available in 43-inch and 32-inch respectively. The Frame 2020 has QLED technology that enables beautiful colors, exceptional contrasts and impeccable details with 100% color volume. When it is not being used as a TV, it moves into Art Mode, turns into a picture frame that can display over 1,200 digital art from around the world, and transform everyday living space into an art gallery. Just like how a framed picture looks different depending on the time of day, The Frame adjusts the screen brightness based on the ambient light in the room, using its in-built motion and brightness sensors. The 4K UHD TVs feature segment-first thee-side Boundless Design and a 4K Processor. The new edition of Frame as well as the advanced online Smart TVs are designed for young millennials and consumers of online content. They come with Auto Hotspot technology, USB 3.0 and support voice assistants such as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa in addition to Samsungs native Bixby. Thats not all, these Smart TVs are loaded with features such as Game Enhancer for smooth lag free gaming, Content Guide for curated content, Personal Computer Mode, Home Cloud and Music Player, among others. On the productivity front, based on recent consumer insights, Samsung has added free subscription to Office 365, along with 5 GB of cloud storage space. These TVs come with the unique Personal Computer mode allowing users to transform their TV into a full-fledged PC. With this, users can choose to work from the cloud, mirror their laptop wirelessly without internet for big screen convenience or remotely access their office computer. The TVs are secured by multi-layered Knox and provide seamless access to Office 365 services over the cloud. The Frame 2020 and the 10 new Smart TV models will also provide native support for a wide range of OTT platforms such as ZEE5, SonyLIV, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Voot, Voot Kids, Jio Cinema and Hotstar. Consumers purchasing Samsungs new Smart TVs will get access to content with attractive offers worth INR 1095. They can avail up to 50% discount on subscriptions of OTT platforms such as ZEE5 & Eros Now. Moreover, consumers can get free subscription for music streaming apps such as Gaana Plus for one-year and Apple Music for 3 months. Consumers purchasing The Frame 2020, in addition, will be offered a free three-month subscription to the Samsung Art Store worth Rs 897, housing curated artworks from around the world. Pricing and availability The Frame 2020 will be available in three sizes 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch models priced at Rs. 74,990, Rs. 84,990 and Rs. 139,990, respectively. The Frame 2020 will come with 10-year no screen burn-in warranty, and one-year comprehensive warranty and one-year additional warranty on the panel. It will be available on Flipkart and Samsungs official online store Samsung Shop from June 19th. Among the new range of online Smart TVs, Samsungs 4K UHD Smart TV models will range from INR 36,990 for the 43-inch version to Rs. 89,990 for the 65-inch version, while FHD and HD Ready Smart TV models will start from Rs. 14,490 for the 32-inch model and go up to Rs. 31,990 for the 43-inch model. The new range of TVs will come with one-year comprehensive warranty and one-year additional warranty on the panel. These will be available under the Get More from TV campaign on Flipkart and the Wondertainment campaign on Amazon. Early bird consumers doing pre-paid transactions in the first 48 hours of the sale on Flipkart for The Frame and online Smart TVs, using their credit cards and debit cards will get an additional instant cashback of up to Rs. 1,500. Amazon consumers will get instant cashback up to Rs. 1,000 on pre-paid transactions through their SBI credit cards. Consumers can also avail exciting no-cost EMI options, with EMI starting INR 3,125 for 24 months for The Frame 2020, and INR 805 for 18 months for the new range of online Smart TVs. Advertisement The Eiffel Tower will reopen next week after its longest closure since World War II due to the coronavirus pandemic, but visitors will only be allowed to take the stairs to the second floor. The world's most-visited paid monument, which attracts some 7 million tourists each year, will be accepting visitors on a limited basis when it opens next Thursday in Paris. Elevators to the top will be out of service, at least at first, and only the first and second floors will be accessible to the public. There are 674 steps up to the second floor (the stairway to the top is never open to the public), but just hiking to that floor alone will take around 45 minutes. 'At first, only visits by the stairs will be available,' Victoria Klahr, the spokeswoman for the tower's management said. Everyone over 11 years old will be required to wear face masks, and crowd control measures will be in place. Alain Miralles, hygiene consultant for the Tour Eiffel takes a sample for analysis during a presentation of the security measures at the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Tuesday ahead of its reopening on June 25 Elevators to the top will be out of service, at least at first, and only the first and second floors will be accessible to the public. 'At first, only visits by the stairs will be available,' Victoria Klahr, the spokeswoman for the tower's management said. Shadows of Tour Eiffel workers are cast on the access lane with social distancing stickers during a presentation of the security measures at the Eiffel Tower in Paris Tourists planning trips to the City of Light are advised to book tickets to visit the Eiffel Tower online once the ticket office reopens Thursday 'We are optimistic that visitor numbers will pick up, even if it will likely be local tourists who visit the monument in the first weeks.' The tower's director told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he hopes access will be back to normal by August. A stringent cleaning operation is in place and will continue daily from next week. 'There is a new protocol,' said Eiffel Tower hygiene consultant Alain Miralles. 'The day cleaning teams will be able to clean all the points of contact every two hours, from the opening of the site to its closing,' Tourists planning trips to the City of Light are advised to book tickets to visit the Eiffel Tower online once the ticket office reopens Thursday. A Tour Eiffel employee drives a cleaning machine at the first floor during a presentation of the security measures at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tuesday. On June 25 the Eiffel Tower will be re-opening after the longest pause to its activity since World War II. The iconic Paris monument was closed for more than three months from March over amid the nationwide virus lockdown. Visitors access of the Tour Eiffel are demarcated with social distancing stickers during a presentation of the security measures at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tuesday Visitors access of the Tour Eiffel are demarcated with social distancing stickers during a presentation of the security measures at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tuesday Paris tourism officials have expressed muted optimism about the citys reemergence as a travel destination. Since confinement measures were imposed in March, tourism levels have dropped by around 80% compared to the same month in previous years, they say. 'To visit Paris now is quite exceptional, as we of course dont have many visitors and we dont expect this summer to be at the same level as previous ones,' Corinne Menegaux, the director of Pariss businesses and tourism office, told The AP. Hotel owners are also keen to welcome visitors again, if realistic about the challenges ahead - and the competition among European countries to draw tourists back in the coronavirus era. Visitors information boards of the Tour Eiffel are displayed during a presentation of the security measures at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tuesday Visitors stairs access of the Tour Eiffel are demarcated with social distancing stickers during a presentation of the security measures at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tuesday The Champ de Mars with the Montparnasse tower, and the Invalides Museum dome, at left, is pictured from the first floor during a presentation of the security measures at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tuesday A street vendor displays miniatures of the Tour Eiffel outside of the closed Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tuesday 'Everyone is Europe is looking to draw the European clientele. The Italians want to bring in the French, the Germans want to attract the Danes,' said Serge Cachan, president of France's Astotel Group. He pointed out the plexiglass protections in the reception area of one of his hotels and arrows to ensure social distancing. He welcomed the French president's decision Sunday to let Paris restaurants reopen earlier than planned. 'Without restaurants, there is no conviviality, there is no tourism, there are no clients in hotels,' he said in an interview. 'The message I would like to on-pass to the city of Paris is: Hurry and open up all of the tourist attractions and activities.' SACRAMENTO Gov. Gavin Newsom says he supports an effort to let residents vote on renaming Fort Bragg, the North Coast city named after a Confederate general who enslaved more than 100 African Americans. The City Council is expected to vote Monday on whether to ask residents to rename the town, a proposal that follows weeks of national protests over racism, police brutality and the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Newsom voiced his support Tuesday in a comment tweeting an SFGate.com story about the proposal, in which he said, This is the right move. His office did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. It wasnt the only development Tuesday in Sacramento in the gathering movement to remove tributes to historical figures whose legacies include misery for communities of color or other cultures. Legislative leaders announced late in the day that a statue of Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella would be removed from the Capitol Rotunda. The fight over Fort Bragg is not new. The enclave of 7,359 people in Mendocino County has previously balked at efforts to strike Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg from its legacy, including in 2015, when city leaders rejected state legislators push for a name change. Residents argued then that the name was part of their history and raised concerns about logistical problems for businesses with Fort Bragg in their names. Now, however, the town is revisiting the issue. If the City Council puts a name change on the November ballot, it must recommend three alternatives. Fort Bragg was established in 1857 when Horatio Gates Gibson, a lieutenant serving at the Presidio of San Francisco, established a military post to maintain control of the natives confined to the newly established Mendocino Indian Reservation. He named the camp after Bragg, who was his former commanding officer. State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, who championed the 2015 push to rename Fort Bragg, said last week that he thinks there would be support in the Legislature to force a name change on the town if it doesnt act. We would all be better off if they did a full examination and a change on their own, Glazer said. It would be healthy for them, and good for all of us who dont want to glorify people who engaged in a massive war to protect their right and ability to enslave people. Glazers colleagues in Sacramento made their own statement Tuesday in declaring that the statue of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish queen who helped finance his voyage to America would be removed from the Capitol. Christopher Columbus is a deeply polarizing historical figure given the deadly impact his arrival in this hemisphere had on indigenous populations, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Assembly Rules Committee Chairman Ken Cooley said in a statement. The continued presence of this statue in Californias Capitol, where it has been since 1883, is completely out of place today, the Democratic lawmakers said. It will be removed. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Peter Fimrite contributed to this report. Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner Egyptian income tax payers will be committed to submit their returns online as of January 2021, the Ministry of Finance announced on Wednesday. Tax returns are to be submitted at http://www.incometax.gov.eg. The action was taken in accordance with the Minister of Finances decree no. 296 for 2020, which amends regulations in the income tax law, the ministry said in a statement. The decree will be applied on individuals practicing commercial, industrial, professional, and real-estate activities and who have investments in stock markets, bonds, and T-bills, according to the decree. The new amendments make submitting returns online mandatory, while it was optional during the past few months amid the COVID-19 crisis. The ministry said this action comes under the governments policy of adopting digital transformation, and that it accelerates tax examination procedures. The personal income tax rate in Egypt has been 22.5 percent since 2016. In April, Egypts cabinet approved amendments to the income tax law, which was approved by parliament in May. The amendments involve applying a new income tax system as of FY2020/2021, which applies to the income earned from industrial and commercial activities, non-commercial professions, and real-estate revenues, which is in line with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis directives to achieve tax justice progressively and upgrade income tax quintiles to uplift the living standards of citizens. According to the new system, income tax on individuals will be a fair bottom-up tax and will generate tax savings for the lowest, medium and upper medium income quintiles. It also fixes the current systems flaws, and it includes an increase of the tax exemption limit to 60 percent, as the basic exemption limit for every taxpayer has been increased from EGP 8,000 to EGP 15,000 and the personal exemption on salaries limit has been raised from EGP 7,000 to EGP 9,000. Accordingly, employees who earn up to EGP 24,000 annually are exempted from income taxes. According to the new system, a new quintile has been allocated for those whose net annual income ranges between EGP 15,000 and EGP 30,000 with a 2.5 percent income tax. Meanwhile, income taxes on individuals whose annual income ranges between EGP 30,000 and EGP 45,000 will be 10 percent instead of 15 percent, and those whose annual income is from EGP 45,000 to EGP 60,000 will be subjected to 15 percent income tax instead of 20 percent, according to Maait. Moreover, income tax on individuals whose income ranges between EGP 60,000 and EGP 200,000 will be 20 percent instead of 22.5 percent. Maait also added that a new 25 percent tax quintile has been put in place for higher incomes. Search Keywords: Short link: The deaths and injuries to Indian and Chinese military personnel in violent clashes on the night of June 15 has escalated the intensity of the border confrontation, with the statements of Chinas foreign minister and the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theatre Command (WTC) upping the ante. It is curious how these violent, large-scale clashes occurred when Indian military personnel went to the site with prior agreement. The statement issued by PLA WTC on June 16 expands Chinas territorial claims and asserts that China has for a long time had sovereignty over the Galwan Valley. This is the second time since the current confrontation began that China has extended its claims over the entire Galwan Valley. The statement asserts also that Indian forces repeatedly crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and warned India to strictly restrain its front-line troops, immediately stop all provocative actions and return to the correct track of dialogue and resolve differences. Chinas foreign minister separately accused India of crossing the LAC and provocatively attacking Chinese personnel. Beijing quickly sought to gain the propaganda high ground and portray itself as a reasonable power by claiming it has not disclosed the number of PLA casualties as it doesnt want people of the two countries to compare the casualty number so as to avoid stoking public mood. Hu Jixin, editor-in-chief of the official Global Times, warned the Indian side, Dont be arrogant and misread Chinese restraint as being weak. China doesnt want to have a clash with India, but we dont fear it. Later, unconfirmed reports put the numbers as close to 45 Chinese killed and injured. Chinas social media is abuzz with netizens asking for the number of Chinese casualties. This will put pressure on Chinas leadership. These violent clashes and loss of lives have raised the stakes for the leadership of both countries and will make negotiations for disengagement more difficult. It is important to remember that since the beginning of May, China has created an arc of sustained military pressure along Indias northern borders stretching over 1,000 kilometres from Daulet Beg Oldi in Ladakh to Naku La in north Sikkim. Chinas action blends military, civil and diplomatic instruments. Confrontations between Indian and Chinese troops, or Chinese military activity, have been reported from a number of places including Daulet Beg Oldi, Gogra, Hot Springs, Galwan Valley, Chushul, Pangong, Demchok, Shiquanhe, Rudok and Naku La in north Sikkim. Such a military build-up takes planning and preparation. At least three military sub-districts (MSDs), namely Hetien, Ngari and Shigatse, subordinate to the Xinjiang and Tibet Military Regions, are involved in this. Both Military Regions come under PLA WTC, which exercises operational jurisdiction over the Chinese side of the entire 4,057 km border with India. Related civilian activity by the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and Rudok County administrations pointing to long-term interest in the Pangong Lake has been noticed. On April 21, Dorjee Tsedup, deputy chairman of the TAR Peoples Government and head of Pangong Lake Governance travelled to Ngari (Ali)s Rutok County to inspect the lake and its environment. Hinting at long-term plans for Pangong Lake, Dorjee Tsedup emphasised that law enforcement and protection of the lake is important for long-term work. Days later, Rutok Countys judicial bureau and the Ngari regional customs and commerce bureau officials conducted propaganda campaigns to explain the alignment of Chinas border in the border villages of Deru and Jaggang also known as Chagkang village, not far from Demchok in Ladakh. In late May, the Ngari municipal public security bureau revealed that all public security personnel in Ngari received intensive real combat training. It is worth noting here that General Li Zuocheng, chief of the joint staff department of the Central Military Commission and the military commanders of the South Xinjiang Military District and the Tibet Military Region have long years of experience in the area. They would have been involved in planning this force build-up and formulating its objectives. After the 73-day face-off at Doklam in 2017, the number of ground and air exercises held by PLA in the high altitude Tibetan Plateau has increased with regular references to India. The commander of the Western Theatre Command and former commander of the Shigatse MSD would also have memories of the disengagement at Doklam. China is, meanwhile, creating additional points of potential pressure. It seems to have instigated Nepals Prime Minister KP Oli to raise a contentious, emotional claim on a border dispute with India. A report indicates that since May 8, PLA is constructing, or upgrading, a military training base on the Tibet-Bhutan border opposite Drowa village in Lhodrak County, Shannan, TAR. The recent tweet by the spokesman of the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad suggesting that the standoff in Ladakh may be linked to the revocation of Article 370 is another indicator. He deleted the tweet later. Viewed in this backdrop, the activity at multiple points along Indias borders is different from earlier intrusions. It suggests a larger objective with the Chinese testing Indias military preparedness, political will and resolve. In view of the domestic and international pressures on Xi Jinping, he will be reluctant to withdraw forces without showing substantive gains, which points to protracted negotiations. Jayadeva Ranade is a former additional secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India and is currently president of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy The views expressed are personal Close Trump claims that Oklahoma has a very low coronavirus number Donald Trump's administration sued to block the release of John Bolton's upcoming White House memoir, saying it was "rife with classified information." The White House defended Trump's executive orders on police reform as Democrats critised the measures as "weak" and "inadequate". Mike Pence, meanwhile, defended the president's upcoming rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, insisting Trump has the right to gather supporters after falsely claiming the state successfully "flattened the curve." Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load Seoul, South Korea North Korea said Wednesday it will redeploy troops to now-shuttered inter-Korean tourism and economic sites near the border with South Korea and take other steps to nullify landmark 2018 tension-reduction deals. The North's military steps came a day after it blew up an inter-Korean liaison office just north of the Korean border in an escalation of tensions between the rivals. The North's General Staff said its military units will be deployed at the sites of the Diamond tourism project and the Kaesong industrial complex, both located just north of the heavily-fortified border. Those sites, once symbols of inter-Korean cooperation, have been shuttered amid animosities over North Korea's nuclear program for years. The North said it will also resume military exercises and re-establish guard posts in front-line areas and fly propaganda balloons toward South Korea. These steps means that North Korea will nullify a 2018 deal with South Korea aimed at lowering military tensions at border areas. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a separate statement saying North Korea had rebuffed a recent offer by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to send special envoys to Pyongyang to defuse animosities. She said Moon had offered to dispatch his National Security Director Chung Eui-yong and spy chief Suh Hun at the earliest possible date that North Korea would want. South Korea expressed "strong regret" over the building's destruction. CAIRO - Abdo Fathi was desperate. His 57-year-old mother, already suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure, had tested positive for the coronavirus and spent two weeks in isolation at her home when her body broke down. She began having trouble breathing. But finding a hospital bed in an intensive care unit proved difficult. So last week, Fathi posted a plea on Facebook, like countless others have done recently. "We need an ICU spot," he wrote. "Someone help us." For three months, Egypt seemed to escape the huge case numbers seen in many other nations, including those with far lower populations. But the number of reported cases in the country has steadily risen in recent weeks, with more than 1,500 infections per day since Friday, escalating pressure on a health-care system that was strained long before the pandemic. On Monday, Egypt reported 97 deaths, the most in a single day since the outbreak began. Some Egyptian officials and health experts say the number of cases is probably much higher than officially reported. Egyptians are now posting dire messages on social media seeking scarce hospital beds and money to pay for treatment. Doctors are accusing the government of negligence, blaming it for shortages of personal protective equipment and a lack of adequate safety measures. Several hundred doctors and nurses have tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and scores have died. The medical union has warned that Egypt's health system could "collapse." "The patients are increasing in very rapid numbers," said a 32-year-old doctor at a quarantine hospital in the southern city of Esna, where every bed was filled with coronavirus patients. "But you don't have the capacity of beds, hospitals and staff numbers. It's really exhausting for the staff." Like other doctors interviewed, he spoke on the condition of anonymity because President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi's government has sought to muzzle criticism of its response to the pandemic. Doctors and journalists have been arrested, according to the medical union and human rights activists. Managers at government-run hospitals have threatened to fire outspoken staff members or report them to security officials, doctors said in interviews and social media posts. The United Nations' human rights office said that 15 people were arrested in April on charges of spreading "false news" about the virus and that a doctor and a pharmaceutical worker were arrested for Facebook video posts complaining about a dearth of face masks. At least two journalists have been arrested for what the government described as publishing false news about the pandemic, said Gamal Eid, a human rights lawyer. Sissi has weighed in with tweets saying that the state was trying to counter the pandemic while seeking to keep the economy stable. He warned that "enemies of the state are trying to question the state's efforts and achievements." Still, more and more Egyptians are speaking out every day on social media. "There is a shortage of ICU units, a shortage of ventilators, a shortage of doctors and a shortage of nurses," a doctor in her 20s who works at one of Cairo's premier educational hospitals said in an interview. "Even the smallest pressure can make the Egyptian health system collapse." To protest poor safety measures to prevent the spread of the virus, she said, she and others had planned to strike. But the hospital's managers accused them of being members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and traitors to the country. Out of fear, they abandoned the protest. In an online discussion last week, Ayman Sabae, a researcher on health rights at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said he thinks Egypt's health-care system has the infrastructure and capability needed to stem the pandemic. The problem, he said, is poor management. Egypt's head of the State Information Service and a spokesman for the Health Ministry did not respond to four separate requests last Thursday for comment. Across Egypt, millions live in overcrowded neighborhoods, where the virus can quickly spread, and pack into small apartments, where self-isolation is difficult. Although schools and cafes are shut and a curfew is in place, a full lockdown has not been implemented despite calls to do so by the medical union and prominent health experts. And, as in other nations, authorities have not fully enforced social distancing requirements or the wearing of masks. Yet the number of infections remains relatively low. As of Tuesday, there were nearly 48,000 confirmed cases and 1,766 deaths in a country of 100 million people. One reason for the modest number is that coronavirus testing has been limited, said health experts and Western diplomats. At the same time, many Egyptians have difficulty accessing medical care and some may not report their illness for fear of being stigmatized, health experts said. Two weeks ago, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, the minister of higher education and scientific research, said Egypt could already have had more than 100,000 cases. "We present a more pessimistic outlook [than the official tally], as it is likely that we are five or 10 times higher," he said in a televised statement on June 1. In early April, doctors at the National Cancer Institute began posting on social media that many colleagues had been infected but that the hospital's management had not taken appropriate measures to quarantine patients or staff members. "The Institute has turned us into a tool to spread the virus between us, patients as well as our families," Maggie Mousa, an anesthesiologist, tweeted at the time. "This is absolute arrogance, negligence." Another doctor, Armia Mohsen Shafik, posted on Facebook that the hospital's management threatened to fire him for speaking out about shortages of personal protective gear and demanding that the hospital be shut down and sanitized. Cairo University, which manages the hospital, announced that at least 17 doctors and nurses had tested positive for the virus. The university said it would open an investigation of possible negligence by the hospital. Since then, scores of medical workers have been infected in hospitals nationwide. Last month, the World Health Organization said 11 percent of those infected in Egypt were medical workers, including 124 doctors. Nagila Hospital, located outside the northern city of Marsa Matrouh, was forced to stop receiving new patients after nearly half of its 79 staff members tested positive, according to the Mada Masr newspaper. By early May, a health ministry official had informed lawmakers that 17 hospitals designated to quarantine patients were full. Manshiyet al-Bakry hospital in Cairo was designated a quarantine hospital to accept the overflow of coronavirus patients, but 29 of its staff members already had tested positive for the virus. Its doctors went on strike demanding testing for employees and other safety measures. But in a statement, the doctors alleged that the hospital's management threatened to report them to the country main domestic security agency, unless they return to work. The strike ended. Amani Atef, the hospital's director, did not respond to a request for comment. The Egyptian Medical Syndicate, a union for doctors and other health-care workers that is partly state controlled, has not remained silent. After a doctor died last month, the group publicly blamed the health ministry for fatalities among doctors and nurses, saying it was "falling short" of protecting them. "The health system could completely collapse, leading to a catastrophe affecting the entire country if the health ministry's negligence and lack of action toward medical staff is not rectified," the union warned. In response, the health ministry said that it had allocated enough beds for infected staff members and that adequate protective measures were in place. Today, the union's Facebook page reads like a newspaper's obituaries section. As of Sunday, at least 65 doctors and nurses have died of the virus, the union said. One of the most recent to die was Sayed Nady Kamel. Concerned about his pregnant colleague, he had volunteered to treat her patient, a 72-year-old with covid-19 symptoms, her husband wrote on her Facebook page. Kamel contracted the virus and died Sunday. "May God have mercy on you Dr. Sayed, who died almost an hour ago," Sameh Atef Ahmed wrote. "I owe you the life of my wife and my daughter." The U.S. has spent more than half of $3 trillion in economic rescue funds passed by Congress -- with little of the oversight intended to ensure the money goes to the right places. Three new oversight bodies are barely functional: A special inspector general was only recently sworn in, a congressional panel still lacks a chairman and staff, and President Donald Trump quickly removed the official who was going to lead a separate accountability committee. At the same time, about $2 trillion in stimulus money has already been distributed, according to an estimate from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group focused on fiscal policy. The sheer size of the pandemic response means there's a wide swath of issues to investigate. But mistrust in Washington is so deep that the oversight groups' investigations are already mired in politics. Leaders of both parties have failed to agree on a chairman to lead the congressional oversight panel. And Democrats are already voicing concerns on whether Trump's hand-picked special inspector general for the stimulus can be independent from his former boss. While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce frets that lawmakers' oversight will be tainted by politics, Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, an advocate of the watchdogs' role, say the cash is already flowing to undeserving recipients. "We've seen giant public companies scoop up relief meant for small businesses, an inspector general fired, promises made to muzzle independent oversight," Warren said in a statement. The legislation passed by Congress is worth about $3 trillion over a decade, though some of the cost would be recouped in later years so the amount of money going into the economy now will be closer to $4 trillion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. One of the key oversight figures is Brian Miller, the former White House lawyer chosen by Trump and sworn in June 5 as special inspector general for pandemic recovery. Democrats are deeply skeptical about how he'll perform. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said Miller had been "evasive" and "unwilling to condemn" Trump for removing several agency inspectors general when he testified in front of the Senate panel. Brown and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent Miller a letter on Tuesday saying they were concerned he couldn't be independent from Trump. Miller must convince Democrats and the Trump administration that he's tough, fair, and someone they should pay attention to, said Neil Barofsky, the first special inspector general who oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, amid the 2008 financial crisis. He said Miller's most important chance to prove his independence will be his first public report, due in August. "Your first report is to amplify what you've found. That really defined what we would be," Barofsky said. "There is always going to be tension between a good IG and the agency." Congress's economic rescue plan, enacted in four bills during March and April, is circulating money into the economy that came to a near-standstill during the coronavirus lockdowns. The measures provide forgivable loans to small businesses, stimulus checks for individuals, expanded unemployment benefits, payments for health care providers, and money for the Federal Reserve to leverage and lend to businesses. Some business leaders are wary that lawmakers will be politically motivated in their approach to oversight. "There's already growing concern that congressional oversight will in part focus on companies or sectors that various elected officials will view as unworthy of assistance, irrespective of whether they qualify under the terms of the programs in question," Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the Chamber of Commerce, said earlier this month at a hearing of a separate accountability committee made up of federal agency watchdogs. The Congressional Oversight Commission is designed to be bipartisan, with two members already chosen by Republicans, two picked by Democrats, and a chairman still to be named jointly by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Pelosi and McConnell have been unable to agree on the chairman for more than a month. Pelosi said last Thursday a choice would be announced "very soon," though she also said the same thing in previous weeks. The congressional panel has published one report so far, mostly laying out targets for future work, and has another due Wednesday. But without a chairman or funds to hire staff, the group has largely been unable to focus on oversight, according to people familiar with the matter. An earlier congressional oversight panel, during the response to the 2008 financial crisis, took at least several months to begin running smoothly, said Kenneth Troske, a member of the panel led by Warren before she became a senator. That panel ceased operating in 2011. "There is no such thing as nonpartisan. It's an inherent challenge of that type of work," said Troske, now an economics professor at the University of Kentucky. The third major oversight body -- the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee made up of federal agency inspectors general -- got a jolt in early April when Trump ousted Glenn Fine, the Pentagon watchdog who had been cast to lead it. It was the first of Trump's five dismissals of inspectors general he considered insufficiently loyal. "I am very concerned that it will have a chilling effect," said Cynthia Schnedar, who has served as deputy inspector general and acting inspector general at the Justice Department. "I don't think the firings are going to scare most IGs. They will do their jobs, but he can pick them off one by one." The watchdog panel, known as PRAC, has started dozen of audits and investigations and has begun to publish initial findings about problems with the Paycheck Protection Program's distribution of small business loans and potential fraud related to unemployment benefits. However, new guidance from the White House Office of Management and Budget could keep the panel from getting much of the information Congress said must be made public. The law says recipients of at least $150,000 in stimulus money should report details on how they spent the money, but an OMB memo said that additional reporting wasn't "necessary to meet the requirements." The watchdog panel said in a letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that OMB's guidance would keep PRAC from getting the "the breadth and depth" of data needed to oversee the "full range of programs" it's supposed to study. OMB said in a statement it is working the PRAC and agency inspectors general to ensure proper reporting and transparency. The Government Accountability Office also has been auditing stimulus spending, but it has been unable to get Treasury Department data about hundreds of billions of dollars of small business loans for a report due by the end of the month. The inspectors general dismissed by Trump include those at the departments of State, Defense, Transportation and Health and Human Services. That has raised concerns from both parties in Congress that there may be more firings. "Inspector general is a really weird job," Barofsky said. "It's one of the only jobs where you serve at pleasure of the president, but part of the job description is to cause displeasure." Shocking images have revealed the depth of the unemployment crisis in the coronavirus pandemic, after thousands of people in Kentucky lined up to wait at a makeshift unemployment office. State officials on Tuesday set up the makeshift unemployment office near the State Capitol, hoping to offer assistance to outraged residents planning to hold a protest there over their unpaid benefits. Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has said the most updated numbers he has show 7,566 unemployment claims from March still remain unpaid, along with 27,507 from April and 17,619 from May. With thousands unable to get their claims addressed by phone or online, word of the makeshift office spread like wildfire on social media, and by Wednesday morning people lined up hours before the office opened at 9am. The state police said it will be an 8 hour wait from the back of the line to speak to a state employee about unemployment. pic.twitter.com/plGONcpS6n Daniel Desrochers (@drdesrochers) June 17, 2020 People line up outside a temporary unemployment office established by the Kentucky Labor Cabinet at the State Capitol Annex in Frankfort, Kentucky on Wednesday State officials on Tuesday set up the makeshift unemployment office near the State Capitol, hoping to offer assistance to outraged residents planning to hold a protest With the state's official unemployment offices closed across the state due to the pandemic, people traveled from hours away to visit the temporary office in Frankfort. People in the crowd said that the first person in line had arrived at 3am, and by the time the office opened, thousands were in line. State troopers cut off the line about 90 minutes after doors opened, telling the crowd the unemployment workers would not be able to see them. One man in line told the Courier-Journal that he had borrowed money to drive to Frankfort from Northern Kentucky after waiting months for his claim to be processed. A Kentucky State Trooper explains to a group of people that the line outside a temporary unemployment office established by the Kentucky Labor Cabinet is closed With thousands unable to get their claims addressed by phone or online, word of the makeshift office spread like wildfire on social media Another woman in line from Lexington said she came to Frankfort on Tuesday but didn't make it in to see someone. She didn't make it to see anyone on Wednesday either. Since the beginning of the pandemic, close to 927,000 Kentuckians have filed unemployment claims, or roughly 45 percent of the state's workforce. Brittaney Podmanik, 29, participated in the protest rally on Tuesday, hoping to spur the state government into action. 'I don't think the governor truly knows how big this is,' Podmanik, a mother of three who filed for unemployment on May 1 but has still received no benefits, told WHAS-TV. Governor Andy Beshear has said the most updated numbers he has show 7,566 unemployment claims from March still remain unpaid, along with 27,507 from April and 17,619 from May A Kentucky State Trooper explains to Margaret Wells, of Louisville, that the line outside a temporary unemployment office established by the Kentucky Labor Cabinet is closed Podmanik said she had to leave her job at an Ashland bank because she had to care for her kids with daycare and schools shut down. 'We have to get out there. We have to let them see the number of people that are hurting right now,' she said. The state government will continue to operate the makeshift unemployment office in Frankfort on Thursday and Friday. The state is also working to 'identify additional times and locations for in-person services,' the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet said. Photo credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN - Getty Images From Cosmopolitan A reopened gym in California has taken the idea of social distancing as literally as you can get, installing individual PVC pods for its members to work out in. Inspire South Bay Fitness in Redondo Beach, California opened its doors again on Monday, as state rules allowed, and found a very unique way to avoid clients having to work out while wearing masks. After members tested out exercising with a mask on and found it hard to breathe, the gym's owner Peet Sapsin started exploring other options. What he came up with was a series of pods - measuring approximately 6 feet wide and 10 feet tall - made from shower curtains and PVC pipes. Each contains dumbbells and a bench, plus sanitiser for the equipment to be cleaned after use. The individual pods allow nine clients at a time into the main gym space, where they can take a class together safe in the knowledge they're sensibly distant from one another. However, some people on Instagram have pointed out that, because the pods are only enclosed on three sides (the back and the top are left open), they can't be fully protective from the spread of the virus. "This makes zero sense the pods are open from the top," wrote one person. Photo credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN - Getty Images The members, on the other hand, are "loving it", the gym owner told Business Insider. The gym has also implemented hand sanitiser which gym-goers are asked to use on arrival, and anyone looking to come in must also have their temperature taken with a contactless thermometer. While nothing has been confirmed yet, it seems gyms in the UK are on track to open some time in July, following the opening of non-essential shops earlier this week. It's essential, however, that gyms take major precautions when reopening their doors, in terms of both social distancing and hygiene. Photo credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN - Getty Images As Dr Ravi Tomar, a GP at Portland Medical, explained to Cosmopolitan previously, "viruses can live on a surface outside the human body for several hours, [so] gym equipment is a prime culprit for picking up an illness." Story continues While you'd hope that, when gyms do reopen, nobody who's feeling unwell would go, you can't guarantee that will always be the case. "Unfortunately, many people do insist on pushing through for the sake of a workout, unwittingly exposing others to their germs," said the GP. And that can be troublesome in an environment like the gym. "Coughs and sneezes can spread droplets much further than you might think (up to 8 metres) and those droplets can remain in the air a good while afterwards," he said. "Depending on whether the person before you has coughed onto their hands or worse, sneezed into the air, there can be moisture droplets containing a virus on anything from free-weights to elliptical handles or the buttons on the treadmill," Dr Tomar warned. One slightly reassuring thing, however, is the fact that "sweat itself doesnt transmit coronavirus," says Dr Tomar. Phew. Follow Cat on Instagram. Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox. SIGN UP You Might Also Like Turkey Wealth Fund, TWF, is in advanced negotiations with Swedens Telia to acquire shares in Turkcell for an investment of $530 million. Negotiations are still ongoing and are in an advanced stage, but no agreement has yet been reached, Telia said in the statement. Telia is owner of 47.1% of Turkcell Holding, a company owned by Cukurova, LetterOne and Telia. The Swedish shareholder is preparing an exit from the holding after various shareholders have been tangled in a long-running battle over the control of the company. The leading Turkish mobile phone operator has halted dividends payouts as the board couldnt hold investor meetings, Bloomberg Quint reports. The acquisition will expands TWFs company portfolio. Established in 2016, TWF holds shares in several Turkish companies including Turkish Airlines (THY), telecommunications giant Turk Telekom, state lenders Ziraat Bankas and Halkbank, oil company Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) and Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST). Turkeys sovereign wealth fund ranks 14th globally on the US-based Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute index. It will be at least another month until tourists can cross between the U.S. and Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security and Mexican Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday. This is a tough pill to swallow for many Laredo officials and business owners who depend on shoppers from Mexico to keep them afloat. They will now be going 120 days without their business by the time these extended travel restrictions expire on July 21. And they could very well be extended again after that. The government has allowed people to cross into the U.S. for work, school, health care, emergencies and to transport commercial trade. However, many of the people who cross regularly from Nuevo Laredo or from deeper into Mexico do so on a tourist visa. This group has not been allowed to travel into the U.S. via land ports since March. Laredo Chamber of Commerce President Miguel Conchas said this news was extremely disappointing. Most stores in Laredo typically have cars parked out front with Tamaulipas license plates, and 80-90% of downtown retailers clientele come from Mexico, he noted. Like their counterparts across the country, Laredos stores, hotels and restaurants have been badly hurt during the coronavirus emergency. But even as these spaces have opened up to the public again, in Laredo this economic impact will continue for as long as businesses are without the Mexican shoppers they depend on. There are some folks out there who may not be able to start up again once this is over, Conchas said. Starting several weeks ago, Conchas and organizations like the Texas Border Coalition and Texas Border Summit began appealing to DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, senators and members of Congress representing Texas to let these travel restrictions expire. Today, as businesses in all parts of the country begin the slow climb to recovery, border communities are hamstrung as long as border crossings remain restricted, reads a letter to Wolf signed by Mayor Pete Saenz; Dennis Nixon, CEO of International Bank of Commerce; Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr.; and Jon Barela, CEO of the Borderplex Alliance. In a statement issued by the City of Laredo on Tuesday, Saenz said that both the U.S. and Mexico must do more to prevent further outbreaks so that cross-border business and life can continue. The City of Laredos finances are also suffering from this restriction on non-essential travel, in particular regarding their sales tax revenue, hotel occupancy tax revenue and bridge toll revenue. At Mondays City Council meeting, Budget Director Gilberto Sanchez reported that bridge revenues, budgeted for $71.5 million this year, will be short at least 19% and up to 26%, representing a loss of over $18 million. Typically 60% of this revenue is applied to balance the citys general fund budget. Saenz noted that commercial traffic has been the central revenue that is sustaining this account. I ask our leaders in Austin and in Washington that when they are drafting relief bills to place special attention on border communities such as ours that are being uniquely affected in more ways than one, the mayor said in a statement. Laredoan Melissa L. Ruiz noted that U.S. citizens can still cross between the U.S. and Mexico and doesnt see why there remains a closure for Mexicans. I do not think it is a strategy to stop infections, rather it is only a pretext to close borders, she said. I think both cities, we need each other. ... The problem here is the economy of all the American border cities that one of their sustenance is Mexican tourism. Other citizens argue that there is no need to open the bridges if people will get sick or die. Marco Hernandez believes it is best to be healthy and at home, and allowing more people into the country could cause COVID-19 cases to skyrocket, he said. With the rising level of cases across the border in Nuevo Laredo, Amanda Lizzette Pescador said she does not want for both countries and cities to cross-infect each other more than what it is necessary. They shouldn't let U.S. citizens in either unless they have proof they live there. People are already traveling for nonessential stuff over there and risking themselves and the people they surround with, she said. Sophia Salinas argues that not much has changed anyway since many people continue to cross the border. People cross every day so I dont see a difference, she said. The World Health Organisation (WHO) on June 16 welcomed the preliminary clinical trial results from the United Kingdom that show dexamethasone, a steroid, can be lifesaving for coronavirus patients under ventilator or oxygen support. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom congratulated the government of the United Kingdom, which partially funded the trials that were led by Oxford University. Read: WHO Says Americas Currently 'bearing The Brunt' Of Coronavirus Pandemic "This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support. This is great news and I congratulate the Government of the UK, the University of Oxford, and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this lifesaving scientific breakthrough," Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General was quoted as saying on its official website. Read: WHO Concerned About Virus Impact On Women, Youth The recent trial conducted by scientists suggests that dexamethasone, a cheap and easily available drug can be used in the treatment of coronavirus patients. According to the study, 2,100 patients who were given dexamethasone were compared with over 4,000 others who did not receive the drug. The results showed that one-third of deaths were prevented in patients under ventilator support and one fifth for patients under oxygen support. Read: WHO Says Global COVID-19 Tally At 7.2 Million; US Remains Country With Most Cases The United Kingdom government is planning to deliver 2,00,000 courses of the drug to hospitals across the country, said Matt Hancock, British Health Minister on Tuesday. The United Kingdom was reportedly stockpiling the drug since March when the trials of dexamethasone and hydroxychloroquine started in the country. Read: UK Health Minister Says COVID Patients To Get Dexamethasone Drug Immediately Dexamethasone According to WHO, dexamethasone is a steroid that has been used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions, including inflammatory disorders and certain cancers. It has been listed on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines since 1977 in multiple formulations and is currently off-patent and affordably available in most countries. Jay-Z and Beyonce are facing a federal copyright infringement lawsuit from Dr. L'Antoinette Stines, a Jamaican artist who claims they took her work without giving her any credit or money, leaving her feeling 'artistically raped.' Stines told the court that the super-couple, according to TMZ, reached out to her in March of 2018 seeking local dancers to perform in a promotional video for a tour. Stines said in court docs that after she accomplished that task, she recorded a clip in which she talked about the concept of love at the behest of the artists. The latest: Jay-Z and Beyonce are facing a federal copyright infringement lawsuit from Dr. L'Antoinette Stines, a Jamaican artist who claims they took her work without giving her any credit or money, leaving her feeling 'artistically raped' Stines told the court their camp, on the day they were filming, told her the clip would be used only 'for promotional purposes'. So she signed a contract giving them permission to use it for that reason - but it wound up on a key portion of the track. Instead, Stines' voice was heard prominently in the track's first minute as the Jamaican artist gave an impassioned explanation on how she views love. Her case: Stines (pictured) told a federal court that the super-couple, according to TMZ , reached out to her in March of 2018 seeking local dancers to perform in a promotional video for a tour After she was asked, 'Can you tell us about love?' she gave an extended answer on the topic, which was underscored by music on the track. She said, 'Hmm, well there's love of children, love of self, love of God, love of a partner - and all of them have a different shape. 'But all of them is the same in the end: It's about sensitivity, it's about passion, it's about unconditional giving of self to another person.' Stines also referred to the 'love of humanity, adding, 'that's the love that is right now needed most ... but in everything, in all of that love, there is a soul.' She ended her answer with an analogy about love: 'It's like when you take some eggs and break them and you, and you take the shells and mix them up, trying to find the ones that match. 'When you find the perfect match, that compatibility results in passion, results in unconditional giving of self ... I hope I can say it again.' In the song, which was on The Carters' 2018 album Everything Is Love, Jay-Z begins rapping shortly after Stines is done replying to the question. Stines is also requesting damages in the case and told the court their use of her voice violated her right to publicity. Ed Chrostowski, who chronicled life in New Canaan for a half century as editor of the New Canaan Advertiser, died this week. Ed Chrostowski was the heart and soul of the Advertiser newsroom for decades, former reporter Kathy Wagner Morley of New Canaan said. He had a strong work ethic. He was in the office by 5 every morning. A native of Stamford, Chrostowski was editor of the Advertiser for some five decades. Chrostowski joined the Advertiser in 1960 from his position as editor of the Darien Review. Award-winning editor Carlton Hill had departed to work for a Milford daily after a falling out with then-publisher Don Hersam, Jr. Charles Mitchell, former manager of the Darien Review, had joined Don Hersam Sr. to bolster the job printing business and assist in the publishing of the Advertiser. Mitchell had hired Chrostowski at the Review, fired him the first week and immediately rehired him because of his talent, former Advertiser Publisher Don Hersam Jr. recalled. Chrstowski had recently graduated from the University of Connecticut. Upon arrival in New Canaan Ed had become a skilled newsman with an exceptional ear for community news and local government, Hersam Jr. said. He readily made friendly acquaintances of top administrators and board and commission leaders as well as business owners, Hersam, Jr. said. His ability to capture the flow of life in New Canaan came quickly. In his first year in the editors chair the Advertiser captured the National Newspaper Association Best Weekly award and other awards at the New England Newspaper and Press Association. He continued to edit and write at a level that received recognition not only from his editorial peers, but most importantly his gained the trust and respect of town leaders who would often be found on a Friday or Monday morning seated next to his desk for a friendly and informative discussion. I am sure Ed already knew everything that was going on in New Canaan, Morley said. He talked to everyone, and knew its history, its issues and the people like the back of his hand. Ed had an uncanny ability to take any national story, and put a local, hometown spin on it, and he knew just the person in town to talk to. He worked hard, and made it look easy. When Ed would go on vacation, it would take us hours to do what he did in minutes. He was that good. His editorial writings, some weeks as many as four full editorials, the opinions of the editor and publisher, were informative, discerning and did much to guide the community as it developed. He was fair direct, Hersam Jr. said, and never needed to apologize to any of those whose feet were held to the fire. Those who worked with him recalled that Chrostowski was hands on, not only writing on his old Underwood typewriter in his own hunt and peck, (faster than most who used the touch system, Hersam Jr. noted) on sheets of newsprint cut to letter size from newsroll scraps, double spaced for editing notes. Walking into the office Monday morning I always braced myself for his question: What have you got going? If I didnt have four good story ideas at least I didnt sleep well on Sunday nights, and I certainly made sure to have those story ideas before I walked into the office. I always suspected it was a test of my skills, Morley added. Thursdays in the Elm Street offices and print shop he would sketch the layout for Page One and the Editorial Page and work along side the late Chuck Ready to place the lead type in the chase the way he wanted it to appear in print. Chrostowski had an encyclopedic knowledge of New Canaan, its history, and its inner workings. A resident of Ridgefield at the time of his death, he previously resided in Norwalk. He was a native of Stamford, son of immigrant Polish parents, had lost an older brother in the Italian Campaign of World War II. He shared his remembrances of Darien in the early days of The Darien Times. Later in his career he wrote for the New Canaan News. After his retirement he never lost his love for the printed word and the creative side, as he would write for and edit the New Canaan Museum and Historical Societys Tydings helping then-director Janet Lindstrom. At the annual Ice Cream Social at the society, Ed also would demonstrate type setting by hand with cases of moveable type donated to the society by the Advertiser when it converted to photo type and moved to Vitti Street in 1972. The society owns an Acorn press manufactured by the Hoe Press Company between 1815 and 1830 according to the late Harvey Jaecock who researched the press and refurbished it to operating condition about the same time. It still operates. Chrstowskis life was marked by tragedy in the loss of two children, Margie and Michael to Muscular Dystrophy. His third child Amy is a pediatrician in the northwest of Connecticut. India first to develop DNA vaccine, can be administered to 12 and above: PM UN General Assembly begins key elections; India set for comfortable victory International pti-PTI United Nations, June 17: The UN General Assembly has begun elections for President of the 75th session of the Assembly, five non-permanent members of the Security Council and members of the Economic and Social Council on Wednesday under special voting arrangements put in place here due to COVID-19 related restrictions. India is expected to register a comfortable victory in the Security Council elections that will bring the country to the UN high-table as a non-permanent member for the 2021-22 term. India's victory is certain since it is the sole candidate vying for the lone seat from the 55-member Asia-Pacific grouping. S Jaishankar tells Chinese counterpart: Chinese side took pre-meditated action | Oneindia News New Delhis candidature was unanimously endorsed by the Asia-Pacific grouping, including China and Pakistan, in June last year. President of the UN General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande announced the commencement of the elections at around 9 am Wednesday. UN diplomats, staff and other personnel arrived at the General Assembly hall wearing masks and immediately left the venue after casting their ballots. India, China foreign ministers discuss border clash; agree to 'deal fairly', claims Beijing In previous years, the General Assembly hall was packed to capacity during the elections as UN diplomats and officials participated in the ballots. In adherence to social distancing guidelines due to COVID19 pandemic, the 193 UN Member States have been allotted different time slots to cast their ballots next week in the General Assembly Hall for the crucial elections. Eight time slots have been allocated to Member States to cast their ballots in the General Assembly Hall starting at 9 AM, in adherence to social distancing guidelines. The voting will continue till 1 pm with an additional 30 minute time slot for voters who are unable to visit the GA hall during the specific time slot communicated to them. The time slot for India to cast its ballot is 11:30 am-12noon. Muhammad-Bande is overseeing the proceedings in the General Assembly Hall and the tellers are also observing the whole process. On Monday he circulated a letter to Member States with the names of candidates for the various elections. For the two vacant seats from among the African and Asia-Pacific States, three candidates have been communicated, namely, Djibouti, India and Kenya. Of those three candidates, India and Kenya are endorsed candidates. For the one vacant seat from among the Latin American and Caribbean States, one endorsed candidate has been communicated, namely, Mexico. For the two vacant seats from among the Western European and other States, three candidates have been communicated, namely, Canada, Ireland and Norway. Each year the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members (out of 10 in total) for a two-year term. The 10 non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis as follows: five for African and Asian States; one for Eastern European States; two for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two for Western European and other States. To be elected to the Council, candidate countries need a two-thirds majority of ballots of Member States that are present and voting in the Assembly. Indias Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti has said that India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world its ethos of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, as he underscoring that the United Nations as well as multilateralism need to change to reflect contemporary realities and remain credible as the world organization marks its 75th anniversary this year. "India's journey with the United Nations is quite a remarkable one. As a founding member of the United Nations, India's contribution to implementing the goals of the United Nations Charter and to the evolution of UN specialized agencies and programmes has been substantial. In many ways, quite extraordinary, Tirumurti said in a video message ahead of the elections. "I'm confident that at a time when we are poised to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and later the 75th anniversary of India's independence in 2022, India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world our ethos that the world is one family - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, he said. Ahead of the elections, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar outlined New Delhis priorities for its candidature to the Council. Termed as NORMS, Indias focus will be on 'New Orientation For A Reformed Multilateral System. Indias priorities include new opportunities for progress, effective response to international terrorism, reforming multilateral systems, comprehensive approach to peace and security and technology with a human touch. Tirumurti said as the UN commemorates its 75th anniversary this year, it is clear to us that United Nations and indeed multilateralism itself need to change to reflect contemporary realities to enable them to remain effective and credible. The Indian envoy referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modis call for reformed multilateralism and reform of multilateral system as essential to ensure that the international system is inclusive and caters to requirements of all countries, which will in turn facilitate stronger action. Previously, India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council for the years 19501951, 19671968, 19721973, 19771978, 19841985, 19911992 and most recently in 20112012. India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the Security Council saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the Council, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st Century. "We're all textualists now," Justice Elena Kagan famously said in a 2015 lecture at Harvard University law school honoring her then-Supreme Court colleague Antonin Scalia. Her remark paid tribute to Scalia's success in championing an interpretive approach that focuses on the ordinary meaning of legislative text and that downplays the unexpressed intentions or broader purposes of a statute's drafters. This week's 6-to-3 decision that federal employment discrimination law protects gay, lesbian and transgender individuals would seem to prove Kagan's point. The battle between Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the majority opinion, and three fellow conservatives who dissented is pitched almost entirely on textualist terrain. (Chief Justice John Roberts joined Kagan and three other liberals in the majority.) There are no sweeping arguments in favor of (or opposed to) the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender citizens. Rather, the justices fight fiercely over how the text of the law should be construed, while agreeing unanimously that the text is what trumps. Certainly, the bottom-line outcome of the decision ought to be celebrated. It is an enormous victory for equality, and nothing that anyone says about interpretive methodology can or should detract from that fact. But the absence of language invoking conceptions of justice comes with a cost. At a time when no other national institution appears capable of carrying the mantle of moral leadership, the court's clinical approach leaves yet another vacuum. In truth, there may be no better option for a sharply divided court in a deeply polarized era. With the nation's faith in its leaders fraying, a sermon from the bench may well have fallen flat. The result, though, is a technically adroit opinion that explains why discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender workers is unlawful - but not why it is wrong. It may even fail to leave some LGBTQ people protected. And it casts the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the greatest legislative accomplishment of America's greatest social movement, not as a moral triumph but as a logic problem. In Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., the text at issue is Title VII of the 1964 act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against any individual "because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." The question in the case is whether an employer who discriminates against a gay, lesbian or transgender worker is discriminating against that individual "because of such individual's . . . sex" - or whether a ban on sexual-orientation and gender-identity discrimination in the workplace requires a new statute. Gorsuch, Roberts and the court's liberal bloc found that such discrimination was covered by existing law. The textualist argument endorsed by Gorsuch is, to its credit, elegant. When an employer fires a man for being gay, the employer is discriminating against the worker because of the man's sex. If the worker were a woman who was sexually attracted to men, the worker would not be fired. The same trait - being sexually attracted to men - is tolerated in a woman but not in a man. The argument works just as well for transgender people. When an employer fires a woman for being transgender, the employer is discriminating against the woman because of sex. The same trait - identifying as a woman - is tolerated if the worker has two X chromosomes but not if the worker has one X and one Y chromosome. The dissenters - Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh - will have none of it. An employer who discriminates against gay and lesbian individuals is, the dissenters say, discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, not sex. As Alito notes, an employer could bring about such discrimination by requiring job applicants to check a box if they are homosexual and refusing to hire those who do; the employer wouldn't even need to know an applicant's sex. Similarly, they say, anti-transgender discrimination targets people who do not identify with the sex they are assigned at birth; whether that assigned sex was male or female is irrelevant. Gorsuch's response to that objection dives deep into semantics. One event occurs "because of" another, Gorsuch says, if the second event wouldn't have happened "but for" the occurrence of the first. When a gay man is fired for being gay, both his sex and his sexual orientation are "but-for" causes of his firing; his attraction to men would not be objectionable were he not a man. As long as the man's sex is one but-for cause of his firing, then the man is - according to Gorsuch - fired "because of" his sex. This is not the way we use the words "because of" in ordinary speech. If you asked me why I root for the Cubs, and I said, "Because the Nazis marched into Austria," you'd look at me strangely. But if the Nazis hadn't taken over Austria, my grandmother wouldn't have fled to the United States; my grandfather and grandmother wouldn't have met in Chicago; and - ergo, two generations later - I would not exist. If I didn't exist, I couldn't be a Cubs fan. The Nazis are a but-for cause. Of course, lawyers have long understood that for the "but-for" principle to be workable, chains of causation need to be broken off somewhere. We ask not only whether one thing was the but-for cause of another, but whether the causal connections are relevant to reasons the law exists. Gorsuch's opinion gives us no guidance on how to do that chain-breaking. So we are left with a wonderfully clever argument, but one with some odd implications and loopholes. If an employer fires any worker who is late to a staff meeting, and a man is late one morning because he got caught in a long line at the men's bathroom, would firing the worker constitute sex discrimination? Assume that the women's bathroom that morning was empty. But for the fact that he was a man, the worker wouldn't have been delayed. He was fired because of his sex, under a literal reading of Gorsuch's opinion. Gorsuch's reduction of sex discrimination to a mechanical comparison between one employee and a hypothetical doppelganger of a different sex creates practical problems as well. By one estimate, about 1.8% of Americans are bisexual. If an employer fires all bisexual workers, and only bisexual workers, is that discrimination because of those workers' sex? A man who is attracted to both men and women would be fired. A woman who is attracted to both men and women would be fired. The same trait - being attracted to both men and women - is treated the same for both men and women. Worryingly, Gorsuch's opinion avoids using the word "bisexual" or any acronym that contains it, suggesting that this group still may lack robust protection. The same argument that won the day in Bostock was presented to the court five years ago in Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark marriage equality case. Attorneys for plaintiff Jim Obergefell noted that their gay client's marriage to his husband would have been recognized if their client had been a woman - Ohio's refusal to recognize same-sex marriages thus was sex discrimination prohibited by the Constitution's equal-protection clause. But that wasn't the argument Obergefell's lawyers emphasized, nor was it the argument the court embraced. Instead, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a 5-4 majority, seized the opportunity to offer a principled reason discrimination against same-sex couples is wrong: because it "serves to disrespect and subordinate them" simply because of whom they love. Kennedy's soaring rhetoric led to some eye-rolling at the time. But Kennedy wasn't speaking only to the moment; he was speaking for the ages. Gorsuch is no Anthony Kennedy. His opinion doesn't (and doesn't try to) explain why discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is morally objectionable. That's not just because this case involved a statute rather than the Constitution: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a statute imbued with moral content. Rather, the turn to textualism reflects a strategic choice to turn down the temperature of the culture wars. In a nation torn by partisan and ideological conflict, perhaps that is the best we can hope for. Liberals would not take well to Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, lecturing them on equality and acceptance. (And had one of the court's liberals written such an opinion, Gorsuch might not have joined it.) Those who cling to anti-LGBT views, meanwhile, would not respond well to the court telling them they are bigots. Alito's dissent blasts Gorsuch for - in Alito's view - misusing textualist tools to make a 1964 law conform to 2020 sensibilities. But aside from a few legal conservatives who are heavily invested in methodological debates, Gorsuch's opinion is unlikely to trigger the backlash that a full-bodied defense of LGBT equality might have elicited. By framing issues in textual terms, the justices sidestepped a minefield of moral disagreements. Doing so may help to preserve the court's legitimacy across the ideological spectrum. But when the justices abdicate any aspiration to moral leadership, who else will step in? Certainly not this president, and it is hard to see our bickering congressional leaders rising to the task either. This week's decision is, yes, a triumph for textualism. Yet it's also a triumph for moral minimalism. In light of the current climate, that outcome may have been inevitable, but it's also lamentable. - - - Hemel is an assistant professor of law at the University of Chicago. Roku stock price has increased quite a bit, as Google acquisition rumors float around. Shares of Roku managed to attract attention on Tuesday when they rose 12-percent. This happened despite the relatively quiet session for the company, so its safe to assume that the aforementioned rumors have something to do with it. Roku stock price rises, even though Google didnt suggest its interested in purchasing the company Alphabet allegedly wants to acquire Roku, and that is affecting the companys stock prices. That rumor, on its own, is quite interesting. Why? Well, Google hasnt expressed the wish to buy Roku, at all. Advertisement On the other hand, Roku hasnt said its for sale, at all it didnt even give an indication of that. This is not the first time such rumor surfaced, though. Acquiring Roku may be beneficial for Alphabet, no doubt about that. Perhaps thats why such rumors are surfacing, even though there may be no merit to them. Streaming TV is in high demand at the moment, and Google is an advertising machine. So, its not exactly difficult to imagine these two being an ideal match. Advertisement Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, connected TV is the most resilient connected-device category, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. So, as a number of other ad channels have felt the impact of COVID-19, that has not been the case with connected TV. Roku is slowly, but surely, becoming a default operating system for connected TVs, at least in the eyes of some. So, acquiring it may benefit Google, greatly. Just to be clear, this doesnt mean you should go ahead and start buying Roku shares. This is just a rumor at this point, and a vague one. Neither company indicated it will go through. Advertisement The direction in which Roku shares will go from this point is unknown Were not experts on shares prices nor can we predict how things will progress from this point on. Roku shares may be on a downward spiral from this point on, who knows. This rumor is quite interesting, though, as it makes a lot of sense for Google, especially considering the situation in the world at the moment. One thing is for sure, if Google does approach Roku regarding the sale, it will cost a lot. Roku is a huge company at this point, and it does have a lot to offer, so it will be interesting to see how high will its price be, if the sale ever takes place. Claris Companion tablet in partnership Breathing Spaces I have been a caregiver myself and I know the importance of information, inspiration and support. I believe that the Claris Companion platform offers family caregivers the peace of mind that their loved ones are a simple press of a button away. Claris and Breathing Spaces have formed a partnership to ensure that caregivers have every possible resource available to remain strong and healthy throughout the caregiving journey. Claris Companion, used by thousands of seniors across North America, provides a simple tablet-computer with touch buttons for video calling, news, weather, games, web browsing, family picture albums and other related content to keep seniors engaged, informed, and connected. Claris Companion comes ready to use right out of the box. Seniors can get up and running on the Internet without onsite installation or training. One of the most important and rewarding things we can do in life is to provide care for our parents and others in their golden years. However, this can often become a great challenge and burden on the caregiver, said Geof Auchinleck, CEO at Claris Healthcare. Its an honor and a privilege to work with Breathing Spaces and be a part of such a noble and impactful community to provide family caregivers with the best possible support at such an important time in their life. Founded in 2012, Claris Healthcare developed the first remote monitoring solution designed specifically for seniors and their families to stay connected and engaged. With 56 million Americans over the age of 65, senior care is an ever-growing challenge. Whether aging in place or residing in senior facilities, social isolation is one of the primary concerns for caregivers. Because of COVID-19, the challenge of senior isolation is far greater than ever imagined. Breathing Spaces, based in Sunnyvale CA, offers support and resources specifically for family caregivers. Through expert opinions, published research and specialized product offerings, Breathing Spaces has become a valuable source of support for the 43 million caregivers in the US. Breathing Spaces represents an online and in-person connected community of family caregivers that share common goals and challenges as it relates to caring for their loved ones. Understanding the stress involved in the caregiver relationship, Breathing Spaces provides a unique environment where like-minded people can connect with others that know what they are going through, share, learn and find the tools they need to remain strong under very exhausting and sometimes overwhelming circumstances. Sometimes you simply need a space to catch your breath, said Cyndi Mariner, Founder and CEO of Breathing Spaces. I have been a caregiver myself and I know the importance of information, inspiration and support. I believe that the Claris Companion platform offers family caregivers the peace of mind that their loved ones are a simple press of a button away, continued Ms. Mariner. Bandidas starring Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz is a western action comedy film which tells the tale of two distinctive women in late-19th-century Mexico. Inevitably, the unalike duo burry their differences to combat a ruthless adversary by robbing banks to help the poor Mexicans who have lost their lands. The film will be available on partnered telecom platforms of Lionsgate Play - Vodafone Play, Airtel Xstream, Idea Movies and TV on Friday, 19th June 2020. Bandidas is the brainchild of producer-screenwriter Luc Besson and co-directed by Espen Sandberg and Joachim Roenning. This western action comedy film is a rare film in its genre to use women as its principal characters and distinguishes itself further by adding hefty dosages of comic relief to the Western formula. In 1890s Mexico, Maria Alvarez (Penelope Cruz) is an uneducated, daughter of a poor but loving father, who is being forced off his land by a cruel U.S. land baron named Tyler Jackson (Dwight Yoakam). Sara Sandoval (Salma Hayek) is the highly educated, wealthy daughter of the arrogant owner of the nearby properties and has recently returned from Europe where she attended numerous grade schools and colleges in England, Spain, and France for several years. In one fell swoop, both Maria's and Sara's fathers fall under attack by the baron, (Sara's father is killed, Maria's is shot but survives) giving him free rein in the nearby territories. As an act of revenge, Maria and Sara team up to become bank robbers, stealing and giving back to the poor Mexicans who have lost their lands. Watch this film to know how these brave hearted women seek revenge! In a brief statement condoling the death of 20 Indian Army personnel, including a colonel in clashes with Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi emphasised that this loss of precious lives will not go in vain and that Indias traditional posture of restraint should not be mistaken for a lack of national resolve apropos territorial integrity and sovereignty. He further added that differences should not be allowed to become disputes, but that is where the India-China relationship is now poised and it could go further south given the prevailing mood of anger and anguish in the country. While there are unconfirmed reports about the number of PLA troops killed, it merits recall that China does not release any official numbers about casualties sustained in battles and wars, much less in skirmishes of this nature. For instance, the Chinese casualties in the October 1962 border war with India were discretely shared in the internal military history documents of PLA only in the mid 1990s. It is important to note that there will be a marked difference between the transparent approach of a robust democracy such as India and the cloistered approach of an authoritarian regime such as China. Various reasons are being advanced as to why PLA acted in the barbaric manner that it did (attacking Indian troops with lethal batons embedded with nails and spikes if some reports are true). The reasons for the eastern Ladakh incursion and consolidation by PLA will have to be addressed at a later date, perhaps in the manner that the Kargil Review Committee was convened and necessary policy inadequacies will have to be redressed. But the focus at the moment should not be on the why, but on what next, for the Wuhan-Mamallapuram bonhomie will now tempered with a dose of reality. India will have to carefully think through its options and remain resolute. The loss of a colonel is a big setback for any army and the Indian Army will respond in a manner that it deems appropriate. The 1967 battles of Nathu La and Cho La when India lost 100 lives but erased the humiliation of October 1962 will be part of the collective memory of PLA. But the options will go beyond the military domain, and it will actually be determined by the objectives that Delhi sets for itself both for the immediate and the long-term. On the face of it, getting China to pull its troops back to the status quo position that prevailed in eastern Ladakh will be the immediate priority and objective but, desirable as it is, realising that normative goal will throw up its challenges. China is currently in a more advantageous position tactically both in the Galwan Valley and other areas it has occupied and fortified. This places India in a less-than-favourable position as far as the current negotiations are concerned. China has honed the art of moving forward assertively in territorial disputes and then ostensibly stepping backward in good faith, but finally ensuring that its own territorial creep becomes a de facto reality. This was noted in the Doklam experience. And there should be no illusions about Chinas inherent orientation towards territory and strategic geography. India, alas, has not shown such resolve or acumen about strategic geography or learning from military history. While democracies thrive on objective dissent and debate, they must also exude national unity and consensus during times of crisis. The current challenge with China calls for closing of ranks among the political parties. It is encouraging to note that an all-party meeting will be convened on Friday where PM Modi is expected to brief party leaders about the Galwan setback and the options that lie ahead for India in relation to China. The history of the last 60 years indicates that China has been able to exploit the political and ideological divisions within India to its benefit in shaping the narrative of the troubled bilateral relationship. This is part of the Three Warfares framework that Beijing has invested in as part of its comprehensive military modernisation. China will remain part of the economic and technological eco-system of the 21st century and Indias choices cannot be binary. Whether the post pandemic word morphs into sullen bi-polarity or a more flexible cluster of democracies remains moot. This will determine Indias posture. For PM Modi, the Galwan challenge has the potential to transmute to either the trauma of Jawaharlal Nehru and 1962 or the triumph of Margaret Thatcher and Falklands of 1982. The next few months will be critical for India and Asia. C Uday Bhaskar is director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi The views expressed are personal Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:30:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BERLIN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Germany would provide around 19 million euros (21.4 million U.S. dollars) for drought insurance by the African Risk Capacity (ARC) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) announced on Wednesday. "We are helping millions of small farmers to get through the crisis," German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Mueller, told German newspaper Rheinische Post on Wednesday. In Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, farmers could now be insured against drought. If rainfall was below a certain level, African farmers could use the funds to buy food for their families, seeds or feed for their livestock. Mueller stressed that even before the coronavirus pandemic, the food situation in many African countries had already been critical because of climate change. In recent decades, a quarter of the world's agricultural lands had been rendered unusable by drought and desertification. "This endangers the livelihoods of three billion people," warned Mueller. Enditem The front flagstone patio leads into a living room with wood floors, ceiling beams, and a stone gas fireplace. The dining room is adjacent. Read more Married for just two months, Liz and Ron Lenat had no intention of buying a house when they took a drive through Chestnut Hill into Erdenheim, just across the Philadelphia border in Montgomery County. But when they saw the for sale sign on the four-bedroom, 2-bath home on a quiet street, they immediately called the Realtor. This was in 1974, in the spring, Ron recalled. It was the fall, Liz corrected, laughing, because memories can get a bit fuzzy after 46 years, which is how long the Lenats have lived there. Now, the couple, retired public school teachers, are headed for North Jersey, so they can be near their son. The house is just very comfortable, Liz says, and the couple also liked the fact that the houses on the loop street in the Chesney Downs section are varied in design. The front flagstone patio, shaded by maple trees, leads into a living room with wood floors, ceiling beams, and a stone gas fireplace. There is a separate dining room, and the kitchen has new cabinets and appliances and granite countertops. Off the kitchen is a large pantry with multiple closets leading to a half-bath. The second level has four bedrooms with wood flooring and two baths. The home, built in 1939, originally had three bedrooms, but a previous owner added a fourth bedroom over the two-car garage, providing considerable flexibility. The room has a private entrance stairway from the driveway and a separate kitchenette. Although the Lenats use it as a family room, it could easily be converted to an in-law apartment. Behind the house is a large green space protected from future development. The house is in the Springfield Township school district and also has private schools nearby. Liz also cites a strong community feel in the neighborhood and excellent municipal services. The area has access to the trails of the Wissahickon section of Fairmount Park, shops and restaurants in Chestnut Hill and Flourtown, and major roadways including Routes 73 and 309, the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the Blue Route, as well as Chestnut Hill trains to Philadelphia. The house is listed by Patricia Hoban of Weichert Realtors for $425,000. More than 177,000 people in Delhis 242 containment zones were screened for Covid-like symptoms by the 11 district administrations in the Capital between Sunday and Tuesday, senior government officials said. The survey was initiated by all district magistrates (DMs) immediately after Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday directed the Delhi government to start house-to-house screening in all the containment zones to ensure proper contact tracing. The screenings will also help administrations identify more symptomatic persons in these hotspots, and avoid fresh Covid clusters emerging. While the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Sunday gave the citys 11 DMs a week to finish the process, Delhi government reports accessed by HT revealed that the survey is likely to be completed by Thursday. As per the reports, on Sunday, when the directions were issued, around 20,000 people were screened. On Monday, this was scaled up to cover around 75,000 more persons in containment zones and, on Tuesday, over 82,000 more people were surveyed. The aim of the survey is to cover 230,466 people living in the 247 containment zones of Delhi currently. The survey report for Wednesday was not submitted to the government till this report was filed. For the survey, DMs roped in Asha [Accredited Social Health Activist] workers, auxiliary nurse midwife, and government school teachers aged below 50, among others, an official said. As per the Delhi government, as of Wednesday, Delhi has 47,102 cases of Covid-19, including 17,457 recoveries and 1,904 deaths. The Delhi government on Wednesday evening updated the number of containment zones in the city to 247. In a first, Delhi will also start using rapid antigen detection kits in every district from Thursday, a senior government official said. The screenings will now help district authorities determine who needs an RT-PCR test, and who should get an antigen detection tests. The rapid tests will be conducted in a mixed manner some symptomatic patients, some mild and some asymptomatic depending on the proximity of the person to a Covid-positive patient, said the senior government official, choosing to stay anonymous. The 11 districts will start with 50,000 antigen tests across the city from Thursday. As many as 169 centres have been set up in and around the containment zones, for people to get themselves tested, the above quoted government official said. The scaling up of testing across the city comes after the MHA on Monday said testing would be tripled in Delhi by Saturday. Accordingly, the government directed all 11 districts to collect a minimum of 1,000 samples a day. Despite the order, on Tuesday, 8,856 samples were collected across all districts and the DMs were once again asked to ramp up testing. With the start of the rapid antigen testing from Thursday, the scale is projected to go up manifold. The Capitals Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal chaired a meeting on Wednesday, where he asked the Delhi governments advisory committee for measures to make containment strategies more effective, and to recommend more mitigation strategies. Baijal also suggested the panel come up with measures for psycho-social care of front line workers, strategies to ramp up intensive medical care expeditiously, and review projections for Delhi based on worldwide trends. Single chain of command enforced To ensure all containment strategies are enforced through a single chain of command, the Delhi government also issued an order designating all DMs the administrative heads of their respective districts. This means that now everyone from deputy commissioners of police (DCPs), deputy commissioners of the civic bodies, and heads of all hospitals will have to report to the DM, irrespective of their seniority and position. Following the move, Delhi Police commissioner SN Shrivastava issued an order asking all police officers to ensure strict lockdown within the containment zones. The perimeter security/access control be strictly enforced. The entry/exit be completely sealed except for essential commodities/services. There should be regular mobile patrolling. Drone surveillance and announcement be done, the order read. Southwest DM Rahul Singh said he held a meeting with all departments under his jurisdiction on Wednesday. It has been decided that all dispensaries in the district shall function as single point of contact for all Covid-related issues. Tests will be conducted at all dispensaries. Thursday onwards, antigen and RT-PCR tests will both be available at all dispensaries for everyone. Sample will be collected at these dispensaries, and a report will be conveyed as soon as it is received from labs, Singh said. West DM Neha Bansal said: In adherence to directions issued by the Union home minister, a screening drive was initiated, and that has covered all households in the containment zones. We shall start conducting rapid tests from Thursday on residents using the new antigen kits. Other than that, we have also scaled up RT-PCR tests in the district. More than 1,800 RT-PCR tests were conducted under the districts jurisdiction on Wednesday. Of the 247 containment zones in the city, North Delhi revenue district has the most with 36, followed by 34 in the South district. Northeast Delhi, despite being the district with the highest population density in the city, has just three containment zones, government records showed. An Army base has been slammed by anti-violence organisations for a controversial welcome sign aimed at recruits. The sign welcomed recruits who drove through the entrance of the Kapooka Army Base in southwest Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. Its greetings change each day, but on Monday, the sign read: 'Beatings will continue until morale improves.' Anti-violence campaigners were appalled by the sign and several current defence members have made formal complaints, according to 7News. The sign welcomed recruits who drove through the entrance of the Kapooka Army Base in southwest Wagga Wagga, New South Wales Its greetings change each day, but on Monday, the sign read: 'Beatings will continue until morale improves' A representative at Kapooka told 7News the sign was a joke and people who are offended by it should get a sense of humour. Wagga Wagga Councillor Vanessa Keenan said she was disgusted by the sign and the Army should not treat violence as a joke. '(It's an) absolute disappointment that this kind of messaging and opinion is being shared,' she said. 'It's attitudes and approaches such as this that are working in the opposite direction to what we need to.' A spokesperson for Wagga Wagga's Family Support Service questioned the Army's values. 'I would really hope that they would take this down and have a rethink about what their values are and whether this is in line with their values,' she said. A Defence spokesperson said the Department does not condone the message on the sign. 'Any form of intimidating or bullying behaviour is completely inconsistent with Army's culture and values,' the Defence spokesperson said. 'The message was inappropriate and Army apologises for any distress caused by this incident.' 17.06.2020 LISTEN Election is a very serious business. It is the gateway to most political offices everywhere, anywhere! The affable Dr Bawumia held a town hall meeting about four months ago and it takes an opposition party NDC, that is not burdened or saddled with the duty of running this country four months to respond shoddily. We then do not have to be surprised why Agriculture had a negative growth rate under one of their spin doctors, Fiifi Fiave Kwetey as Agric minister. Let me offer this advice to the NDC; it is free, it comes at no cost. The NDC should concern itself with how to collate their 2020 election results, than concern itself with NPP's manifesto. Till date, the NDC on it's own has an independent data on election 2016, It's a shame! The fellow who was in charge of the NDC's elections and couldn't collate the election results is now their National Chairman. Can he collate their results now? That should be your worry and not the NPP manifesto! Interestingly, the presenters at their shambolic press briefing yesterday confused vision statements with promises. If their figures or percentages were anything to go by, their comfortable lead figures in 2016 would have made them the party in government today. You gave NADAA 14percent. What are you bringing on board??? What is your campaign message??? That is more important than any other thing at this stage of our political calendar. It was more disappointing, when Hon. Ablakwa took off his mask to say, there was no need to wear the mask simply because he was observing social distancing. He however forgot that, Sammy Gyamfi had spoken through the-same microphone without wearing a mask! God forbid! What if Sammy had contracted the disease? Through droplets, you could equally contract it even from surfaces such as the microphone you spoke through. These are lawmakers who are expected to show exemplary leadership, yet you defied the President's masks directives! You chose politics over life. Lest I forget, they scored the chieftaincy sector 0%. We are are not surprised, for Akufo-Addo does not share V8 to chiefs for you to score him 100%. May be you are not aware, Government scholarships have been decentralized, a post-graduate training for medical doctors is now free. When we had dumsor we saw a 15% tariff increment, yet what do we see today in another crisis? We see free water, we see subsidized electricity , we've seen tax waivers , we have seen efforts to get people onto COVID alleviation fund. I would like us to see politics beyond just unmeritorious criticisms and to proffer credible alternative solutions!!! Tell us what you could do better than the current the government, maybe, just maybe, Ghanaians will reason with you. If you would recall , the NDC's first recommendation to this COVID -19 fight, was that the government should airlift Ghanaian students from China. Italy, USA did this and the resultant effect we saw is the astronomical number of COVID cases recorded. This should give Ghanaians a clue as to how the NDC intends to lead this country! It will be based on ill advice, wrong approach to governance issues and a knee-jerk approach to management. Ghanaians deserve better. NDC, never again!!! Raphael Kumah Abolasom [NPP Bole-Bamboi] Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 09:30:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Tuesday strongly condemned the multiple terrorist attacks last week in Nigeria, which together resulted in at least 120 killed and many others injured. The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the people and government of Nigeria, and wished a speedy recovery to those injured, said the council in a press statement. They underlined the need to bring to justice perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism, and urged all states to cooperate actively with the Nigerian government and all other relevant authorities in this regard. The council members reaffirmed that acts of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and asked all states to combat by all means threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist attacks. Enditem On June 23rd, "A Decade after Deepwater" explores the long-term impacts of the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Ten years on, scientists are still studying its far-reaching effects on the deep sea and using lessons learned to prepare for the next big spill. On July 14th, dive in and discover the enigmatic blue holes scattered throughout the Gulf of Mexico. "Florida's Blue Holes: Oases in the Sea" follows a team of exploration scientists and divers who set out to uncover the mysteries of these submerged holes. On July 21st, venture to the southern hemisphere to meet the charismatic Humboldt penguins that breed and rest along portions of South America's barren Pacific coastline. "Peru's Desert Penguins" explores the lives of these adorable birds and examines how scientists study what threatens them. On July 28th, travel to the remote island territory of American Samoa. Located in the heart of the South Pacific, it is home to some of the world's largest coral colonies. While corals around the world are in serious decline, "American Samoa's Resilient Coral Reefs" provide scientists with a living laboratory that may offer insights into saving coral reefs elsewhere. For more information and to RSVP for the free screening events visit: www.changingseas.tv/events. About Changing Seas For the last twelve years, Changing Seas has taken viewers on exciting adventures to the heart of our blue planet. The series goes to sea with scientists, giving audiences a first-hand look at how oceanographers and other experts study earth's last frontier. Produced by South Florida PBS, Changing Seas has aired on 95% of public television stations in the U.S. and in more than 39 countries across the globe. The series is distributed by American Public Television. Major funding for Season 12 of this series was provided by The Batchelor Foundation, encouraging people to preserve and protect America's underwater resources, and by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, strengthening America's future through education. Additional funding was provided by The William J. & Tina Rosenberg Foundation and by the Do Unto Others Trust. About South Florida PBS SOUTH FLORIDA PBS is Florida's largest public media company, including Public Broadcasting stations WXEL-TV, serving the Palm Beaches and the Treasure Coast and WPBT2, serving Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and the Health Channel, a 24/7 television and multi-platform health and wellness service. SOUTH FLORIDA PBS connects organizations and institutions across our region and preserves South Florida's history. Leading the way in this global society, SOUTH FLORIDA PBS serves diverse communities from Key West to the Sebastian Inlet and from the Atlantic Ocean west to Lake Okeechobee. SOUTH FLORIDA PBS is committed to creating and presenting unique arts, education and cultural heritage programming, and tells different local stories across a variety of digital media platforms. Some of our award-winning productions include James Patterson's Kid Stew, Changing Seas, Art Loft and Your South Florida. For more information, visit https://www.southfloridapbs.org. Denise Olsak Communications Specialist (305) 424-4008 [email protected] SOURCE South Florida PBS Related Links https://www.southfloridapbs.org Mumbai: Eight officials, including a deputy director of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), have been placed under home quarantine and will undergo coronavirus disease (Covid-19) tests after an exporter, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in smuggling endangered red sanders worth Rs 5.2 crore, tested Covid-19 positive on Tuesday. One of the accused tested Covid-19 positive on Tuesday. Eight DRI officials at our Nhava Sheva office have been quarantined since the accused, who tested Covid-19 positive, was in our custody, said Rajesh Pandey, additional director-general, DRI (Mumbai zonal unit). Earlier on June 13, the exporter (39), along with his aide, was arrested by the DRI officials from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) on the basis of a tip-off about the smuggling of red sanders. Though the exporter had declared that the cargo contained 29 metric tonnes of onions, on examination, it was revealed that 13 metric tonnes of red sanders, worth around Rs 5.2 crore, were being smuggled in the consignment, said Pandey. DRI officials uncovered that 17 metric tonnes of onions were put in the container as a ruse to smuggle the endangered red sanders. The state Legislature kicked off a series of hearings Tuesday examining the reasons behind the devastating crisis in New Jerseys nursing homes, where more than 6,000 residents and 115 staff members have died of coronavirus since March. At a joint meeting of the state Assembly Aging and Senior Services and Assembly Military and Veterans Affairs, the committees considered the recommendations of a 100-page report by health consulting group Manatt Health, which ultimately concluded that the nursing homes were unprepared and understaffed to deal with the crisis and called for a major overhaul of the states long-term care industry. Today is the time to be asking the difficult questions: how did the virus spread so quickly in long-term care facilities and veterans homes? What interventions could have slowed the spread? And what is the impact on patient care when loved ones cannot visit or advocate for their well-being? said Assemblywoman Valerie Vanieri Huttle, D-Bergen. And although Huttle commended Gov. Phil Murphy, a fellow Demcorat, for having the audit done, she said she was certainly disappointed that no one from the Murphy administration could make it to the virtual meeting. I think it would be helpful if they came," Huttle said about State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli and state Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson. But I think both of them, under the circumstances, are doing the best they can with what tools they have. Persichilli, Johnson and Col. Walter Nall, acting deputy commissioner of the state department of Military and Veterans Affairs, submitted written testimony. Were still flying the plane. We just announced 51 fatalities overnight. We still have 1,291 people in the hospital. Weve lost over 6,000 people in long-term care facilities, Murphy said during his daily briefing in Trenton when asked why no state officials testified Tuesday. When we can get to these hearings and cooperate we always cooperate, the governor added. The question is: Is it by written answer or physically in the room? Part of the reason the written option exists is if youre in a situation I dont think (Judy) took the morning off. You were working this morning, right? The opportunity to submit something in writing, its there for that reason. Assemblyman Chris DePhillips, R-Bergen, echoed his colleagues disappointment, stressing he was outraged at the lack of a single live witness from the Department of Health to answer questions. Nearly a dozen panelists testified during the three-hour virtual hearing, most expanding on how the pandemic merely exacerbated the weaknesses that have long been evident in the long-term care industry. Cindy Mann, one of the authors of the $500K report, noted that that this could be a galvanizing moment (to address) the weaknesses in the system" and that she is hopeful that recovery from this crisis will be a catalyst." She expanded on some of the recommendations made in the report, which include creating a Governors Task Force on long-term care, increasing oversight on nursing homes and penalizing non-compliant locations, requiring nursing homes to hire a senior-level infection control preventionist" and making relief payments for nursing homes and review rates. She also noted that while all the recommendations are needed to be addressed before a second wave may hit, she said the issue of staffing needs to be a top priority. Not only do staffing levels needs to be increased, she noted, but training needs to be ramped up, as well as pay and benefits, including sick leave. Without paid sick leave, workers are more likely to continue to stay on the job, even if they are not feeling well, she said. (Certified Nurse Assistants) earn an average of $15 an hour many work multiple jobs. They work multiple jobs because they need to feed their family and pay their rent, Mann noted, adding that more than 90% of direct care staffers are women, 84% are minorities, and roughly half are immigrants. Milly Silva, executive vice president of the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which represents many nursing home workers, said the Manatt report can provide a blueprint of how to comprehensively reform the nursing home system through more oversight and more funding. Underpaid CNAs are overworked, often scrambling to oversee dozens of residents on their own, and left without meaningful raises or trainings, Silva said. For too long, the policies, the oversight, the support for this system has forgotten everything we have to do with the nursing home residents and their caregivers front and center, she said. Elderly patients arrive at CareOne at Hanover in Whippany during coronavirus pandemic.George McNish | For NJ Advance Media There was little discussion during the hearing of the states role in the crisis. Although the Manatt report also called for increased state scrutiny of the nursing home industry, it did not explore issues regarding state oversight or actions during the pandemic. An investigation by NJ Advance Media for NJ.com based on internal department records and statements by officials, as well as interviews with families, advocates, workers and players behind the scenes, found that New Jersey failed to react fast enough or take forceful, aggressive actions to slow the deadly rampage in nursing homes as the virus preyed on the states most vulnerable patients. In fact, state inspectors did not begin making on-site inspections inside facilities until 36 days after New Jersey reported its first death, and not until reports surfaced that a nursing home in Andover was storing 17 bodies in a makeshift morgue. Adele Primiano, Director of Admissions at Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center, was expected to testify Tuesday, but did not attend. The price of the consultants report itself led to infighting in the Murphy administration, as Persichilli clashed with other senior officials over the consultant hired to help navigate the coronavirus crisis inside the states nursing homes, NJ Advance Media revealed in May. And Murphy has come under fire for his lack of transparency. It wasnt just the scarcity of personal protective equipment, known as PPE, or the slow rollout in coronavirus tests, but also the shortfall in disaster preparedness and severe under-staffing that led to the large number of deaths, the report found. During Tuesdays hearing, Jan Siegal of the Health Care Association of New Jersey, noted the correlation between spread of the disease and where many nursing home employees live. Employees were not only going in and out of the facilities, but traveling back to their densely populated communities without being tested for the novel virus, she said, pointing to hospitals that began conducting widespread testing in April. At the time, New Jersey was also limiting testing to those with symptoms of COVID-19 due to shortages in supplies. Establishing alternative sites for residents and staffers exposed to the virus could mitigate some of the spread, as well as incentivizing more people to work in the healthcare industry by funding their education, Siegal added. Huttle said she hopes to soon schedule another hearing, primarily on implementing the recommendations and allowing for more questions from fellow elected officials. She said she plans to invite Persichilli and Johnson to future hearings as well. But before that, she said she hopes more bipartisan legislation will land on the governors desk to address some of the issues, including staffing ratios and increasing funding. Im not pointing fingers at anyone, but theres flaws in the system, Huttle said. We need to get legislation on the governors desk yesterday. NJ Advance Media staff writers, Brent Johnson, Susan K. Livio, and Ted Sherman contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Pittsfield Police Advisory Board Reviewing Force Policies The Police Advisory Board is looking into policies regarding use of force by officers. PITTSFIELD, Mass. The Police Advisory and Review Board held an emergency meeting Tuesday to go over the the current law enforcement landscape, current policies in the city, and possible changes for the future "I felt that it was important for this board to at least meet during this time," Chairwoman Ellen Maxon said during the remotely held meeting. Questions about policing have been on the minds of many residents following weeks of worldwide protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police. On Sunday, Police Chief Michael Wynn marched with clergy and citizens at a Pittsfield protest and pledged to work with the community. The board wanted to discuss use-of-force policies and officer intervention. Wynn said a duty-to-intercede policy was added to the department in 2018. "As we all know that has become the conversation around the murder of George Floyd," he said. "Why didn't the other officers do something? But our policies are clear." Floyd was visibly in distress when one officer, now charged with his murder, held him down by a knee on his neck. Bystanders recording the incident pleaded with at least three other officers to intervene; they did not. If a Pittsfield officer witnesses another officer using force beyond what is objectively reasonable in a situation, he or she is expected to intervene when able and report the incident to a supervisor, Wynn said. Failing to do so has consequences. "That was the single most significant change I have seen in the use-of-force policy in my tenure as a police officer," he said. "That was major, that was a significant sea shift for us." When asked if the policy was working, the chief said officers follow through on reporting and "call each other out" when needed. He explained other practices: when an officer brings somebody in to be booked after a tense situation, other officers, who do not have an emotional connection to the person, intervene. In the past, a fight could continue into the Police Department. The board quickly touched on choke holds and strangle holds and member Drew Herzig said although these tactics are not in the state curriculum they are not banned. "It is not enough to say we don't teach it," he said. "We have to say we are looking to ban it." The board agreed to discuss a possible ban on these defensive tactics and enforcement measures at the next meeting. The members also asked Wynn questions in relation to Monday night's budget hearing, during which the City Council moved $85,000 from the patrol officer line item to a new line item that would allow the expansion of the department's relationship with the Brien Center. Currently, the police utilize one clinician who responds with officers to calls that may involve individuals with mental illness or the need for added diffusion. Mayor Linda Tyer said she felt strongly about this expansion of the partnership with the Brien Center and that it should allow the police to bring on two more clinicians. "I was quite pleased that the City Council made that recommendation and it was supported by myself and Chief Wynn," Tyer said. "This is sort of an expansion of what we are already doing." Wynn said this expansion cannot happen without some planning and noted it was a last-minute change that will take some consideration. He said although they have had ongoing conversations with the Brien Center, the center, too, has staffing challenges. "We only have him 40 hours a week and we would love to have more so we will have to figure this out," he said of the current clinician. "But we don't know if they can provide more people, so this is very much a first step." Tyer reiterated that the new clinicians will not be city employees and that money would be scheduled under a professional services line item. More broadly, Tyer saw this as an opportunity to explore further relationships like the one with the Brien Center. She said there is also the opportunity to look at the Police Department internally to review policies, procedures, and the expansion of non-enforcement services. Wynn said this is welcomed and noted he felt the majority of officers do not want to be the first person at some of these calls. "Police officers for the most part would be very happy to divert some of these services so we could go back to regular investigating and public safety work," he said. The board members asked where they fit into this and Tyer said they will be critical in exploring enhancements and advocating for changes. She saw no reason to create a new committee and felt they would only need to possibly call on experts for specific conversations. "What is the right model for our city? I am very intrigued by this ... and I want to spend some time to figure out what is right for our city and what is right for the police officers," Tyer said. "They have to be able to intersect seamlessly." She noted that any such expansion would likely require more funding. "I can say for myself as the mayor we are not at a point where we are over-policing, that we have too many officers," she said. "So this is going to have to align with the continued growth of the department that best protects and serves the public as well as expand these services we hope to see. But it is going to cost money." Continuing with the role of the board, Wynn added that he has heard calls to give the board more power but that it was given all the authority it could legally have. "I believe that the authority that we gave to this group ... is as far as the current laws allow us to go," Wynn said. "I believe we went to the limit of what was allowable without putting us in legal jeopardy." He added that this could only be changed at the state level and said "attacking the institution won't change the law." When the committee was created last year, there had been a push to give it oversight of police operations and investigate misconduct. Instead, it is place for citizen complaints, broad review and advocacy. The conversation then moved to departmental transparency and Tyer noted there are some documents related to personnel or ongoing investigations that legally cannot be released to the public. She said "complete unfettered access" does not jive with the public record laws. She did say the department does a good job communicating information upon request and the website is a wealth of knowledge. The woman, who was a teenager when Mr Edwards attacked her on February 12, 1995, gave evidence that the accused killer launched at her from behind as she walked through Rowe Park in the dark alone. Drag marks of Bradley Edwards' rape victim into Karrakatta Cemetery. More or less simultaneously as I landed this person rolled me onto my front and grabbed both of my wrists, she said in her police statement after the incident, which was read out during the trial in December. He scooped me up into his arms as though he was carrying a baby. I kept my eyes shut, I thought that it would be better if he thought I couldnt see him. I felt him start to walk in a brisk action. He wasnt running, but he was trying to walk as quickly as possible. Mr Edwards took the teenager to a nearby vehicle, gagged her and put a hood over her head. I remember that [the cloth] was pushed quite deep in my mouth because it made me cough and it was sort of blocking the passage of my throat, she said. She said Mr Edwards then drove around for about half an hour before stopping at Karrakatta Cemetery, which was about one kilometre from where he abducted her. He dragged me by holding under my arms and pulling along so my heels were dragged in the dirt, she said. He then raped her twice, never saying a word as she quietly sobbed. Ms Barbagallo recounted how the victim was so fearful she pretended to be unconscious during the assault. Afterwards, Mr Edwards paced back and forth as she lay still on the floor, still pretending to be unconscious. "He stood up and walked away from her a short distance for a short time, he then came back and picked her up and put her in a bush before walking away," Ms Barbagallo said. The cord Bradley Edwards used to tie up his rape victim in 1995. "Once again he came back, picked her up, carried her to a larger set of bushes and put her in that. "So why did he do this? She was already pretending to be unconscious." Ms Barbagallo said the state believed Mr Edwards was disturbed by a security guard doing his nightly patrol of the cemetery. The guard gave evidence during the trial of the time he would have been close to where the teenager was assaulted around 4am. "One might suspect the sound of a car nearby and a spotlight would alarm the accused," Ms Barbagallo said. "He must have held concerns the driver would come closer or see him and his victim." "His intention ... was ultimately to kill his victim." Loading Ms Barbagallo said the intention explained why Mr Edwards attempted to conceal the unconscious body of the teenager in bushes before leaving in his vehicle. She said he believed he could return and kill her, however the teenager ran away as soon as she heard his van leave the scene. (ANSA) - Rome, June 17 - ANSA is Italy's most trusted news brand, according to the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2020. The report, which examined the media situations of 40 countries, put Italy's top news agency at the helm of the national brand-trust ranking. According to the report, ANSA is trusted by 80% of the public and only 5% do not trust in. Second came the SkyTg24 news channel and financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore completed the podium. The report said the agency's website, ANSA.IT, is Italy's fourth-top news site, with 18% of Italian people consulting it every week. Another big Nebraska general election ballot issue appears to have fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic. Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment to reform Nebraska's redistricting process are shelving a petition drive to place the issue on the November ballot, according to multiple sources. No decision has yet been announced. The action follows on the heels of a similar decision that ended a petition drive to seek voter approval of a billion-dollar property tax reduction proposal. Collection of sufficient signatures to place issues on the general election ballot has been crippled this year by the pandemic, its accompanying social distancing requirements and the cancellation of events where large crowds of people could be accessed. Following completion of the 2020 federal census, the Legislature will tackle the always contentious issue of redistricting next year, drawing maps for congressional districts and determining the division of urban-rural power in the Legislature. A British woman made headlines for saying something about Winston Churchill that was so ignorant that many people assumed that the story was from the Babylon Bee (the best social and political satire site on the web) rather than being a real news story. While her comment is laughable, it reveals a serious problem with Western culture: rather than having barbarians outside the gate pounding to get in, they're already inside the gate because we created them through our educational systems. The word "barbarian" comes from the Greek barbaros, which means someone strange or foreign. Barbarians, by definition, are outsiders. In the ancient world, they were the tribes that took advantage of failing empires to invade and, once inside, showed no respect for the empire's cultural heritage, its history, or its values. Indeed, the barbarian's lack of respect lingers in the word "vandal," the name of the 5th-century Germanic tribes who sacked Rome, utterly destroying many of its structures and treasures, as well as killing its people. We in the West have done something new and different in human history. We've created our own barbarians through an education system that has left people taught within our system as ignorant of our cultural heritage, our history, and our values as any marauder bearing down on the ancient world. In 2013, England rewrote its school curriculum. "Winston Churchill is no longer named in the new draft." Winston Churchill, who died in 1965, is the leader who stood alone against Hitler for over two years until the U.S. joined the war. It is no exaggeration to say he saved the world from total Nazi domination. So what happens when a country has so little belief in itself that it can no longer teach its children about one of its greatest heroes? You get Lorraine Jones, a left-wing activist who appeared on Cathy Newman's Channel 4 show in England. (If that name is familiar, Cathy Newman was the person who relentlessly misinterpreted Jordon Peterson, only to have him patiently correct her every misstatement.) Jones was on the show to argue that those who were trying to protect Winston Churchill's London statue from activists bent on vandalizing it were in the wrong. As far as she was concerned, "the people" need to decide whether any statues wrongly commemorate heroes of slavery. Newman honed in on Churchill, asking "Should the statue of Churchill be there or not?" And that was when Jones gave an answer that reveals the price the West pays for deliberately rearing a generation of barbarians within its gates: WATCH AND CRINGE: How stupid is the liberal leader of an 'independent police advisory group' in London? She was asked about removing the Churchill Statue... Her response... "I haven't personally met him." pic.twitter.com/j31OZ2YjFt Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) June 14, 2020 Well, I've heard many arguments on both sides. Some say that he's a racist; some that say he's a hero. I haven't personally met him. But what I would say is that that question of whether he should remain should be put to the community. (Emphasis added.) This type of ignorance isn't unique to England, of course. Thanks to the leftist takeover of American education in the 1960s, it's here, too. That's why Sen. Tim Kaine, who was the Democrat party's vice presidential candidate in 2016, and who is old enough to know better, stated that "[t]he United States didn't inherit slavery from anybody. We created it." Sen. Tim Kaine: "The United States didn't inherit slavery from anybody. We created it." pic.twitter.com/VM86sRrtn1 The Hill (@thehill) June 16, 2020 Kaine thinks history began with the 1619 Project. He's seemingly unaware that the Native American people had slavery. Indeed, all indigenous and ancient people had slavery, something that held true across all the Earth's occupied continents. Slavery was constant worldwide until the West powered by the Enlightenment and Evangelical Christianity ended it. And in America, we ended it with the blood of 600,000 Americans spilled on the field of battle. The barbarians we raised have vandalized statues of abolitionists and black regiments while insisting that America is systemically and inherently racist. They are know-nothings because that's what we, as a society, have allowed them to be. We sat back while our colleges and universities, for fifty years now, have churned out people who are ignorant about our history and institutions and have been raised to hate our values. Like Lorraine Jones, our American barbarians haven't "personally met" anyone from history. All they've learned in school is self-loathing. The Union Election Commission said the general election would be held in November as planned, despite the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in the country. Mandalay Mayor Dr. Ye Lwin told The Irrawaddy he had no plan to contest the 2020 election, despite rumors that he would run in Aungmyaythazan Township. Among the Mandalay regional governments six non-NLD members, the border affairs and security minister is a military appointee, two others are civilian intellectuals, and the remainder are the chief judge, advocate-general and auditor-general of the region. The NLDs Mandalay Region chapter is still accepting candidacy applications for the election, and will release the list of candidates around the end of June, party secretary U Tin Ko Ko told The Irrawaddy. Dr. Zaw Myint Maung will run in Amarapura Township; U Zarni Aung in Maha Aungmye Township; Dr. Soe Than in Chanayethazan Township; U Myo Thit in Mogok Township; and U Aung Kyi in Kyaukse Township. The six NLD members in the regional cabinetChief Minister Dr. Zaw Myint Maung; U Zarni Aung; Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Minister Dr. Soe Than; Resources and Environmental Conservation Minister U Myo Thit; Immigration and Human Resources Minister U Aung Kyi; and Minister for Shan Ethnic Affairs Sai Parn Sengwill run in the same constituencies in which they won in the 2015 general election. All [ministers] will contest the election. They have submitted candidacy applications in line with party rules and regulations, he told The Irrawaddy. MANDALAYAll of the Mandalay regional government ministers from the National League for Democracy (NLD) will contest the coming election, according to regional Minister for Electricity, Energy and Construction U Zarni Aung. Election 2020 All NLD Members of Mandalay Cabinet to Run in Myanmars General Election: Minister The Day the Poet who Introduced the West to Buddhism was Born Hong Kongers Yearn for Stability After a Year of Chaos, Says Carrie Lam Myanmars Fifth COVID-19 Lab to Operate in Shan State From July North Korea Looks to Boost Ties With China as US Nuclear Talks Stall 36 New COVID-19 Cases Reported in Beijing; All Linked to Closed Market In Myanmar, Concerns Mount Over COVID-19 Cases Among Illegal Returnees From Bangladesh US Regulators Revoke Emergency Use of Malaria Drug for Coronavirus Myanmar Independence Hero to Appear on All Banknotes Standing for Nearly 170 Years, This Yangon Monastery Has Been a Key Site for Two Religions in Myanmar Beijing Reports Over 100 Virus Infections in Six Days After Market Cluster North Korea to Deploy Troops to Two Demilitarized Areas Near Border All NLD Members of Mandalay Cabinet to Run in Myanmars General Election: Minister We do not encourage viewing this site in this width. Please increase the size of your window. The Trump administration on Wednesday ramped up pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad and his inner circle with a raft of new economic and travel sanctions for human rights abuses and blocking a settlement of the country's conflict. The State Department and the Treasury said 39 Syrian individuals, including Assad and his wife, had been designated for the new sanctions. Others include members of the extended Assad family, senior military leaders and business executives. Many of those on the list were already subject to US sanctions, but the penalties also target non-Syrians who do business with them. One newcomer to the US blacklist is Assad's wife, Asma, had not been previously targeted but was hit for becoming what the State Department said is "one of Syria's most notorious war profiteers". The sanctions are the result of legislation known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, named after the pseudonym of a Syrian policeman who turned over photographs of thousands of victims of torture by the Assad government. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the designations represent "the beginning of what will be a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure to deny the Assad regime revenue and support it uses to wage war and commit mass atrocities against the Syrian people". "Anyone doing business with the Assad regime, no matter where in the world they are, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions," Pompeo said in a statement. Besides rights abuses, those targeted also were hit for obstructing a peaceful political resolution to the long-running conflict. Wednesday's announcement was widely expected, and ahead of it Syria devalued its currency by 44%. Syria announced a new official exchange rate for the pound amid chaos in the market just hours before the sanctions took effect. Syria's already troubled economy has sharply deteriorated, prices have soared and the pound had collapsed in recent weeks, partly because of fears that the sanctions would further isolate the war-ravaged country. Experts say the new sanctions will be a heavy blow to a nation where more than 80 per cent of the people already live in poverty, according to the United Nations. Syrian government officials have called it "economic terrorism". Syria is already facing sanctions -- some in place even before the war imposed by the United States and European countries against officials or individuals linked to Assad's government. The new sanctions will likely severely impact the inflow of foreign capital particularly for post-war reconstruction, especially from Russia and Iran, Assad's main allies, as well as China and neighboring countries. The Washington-based Syria Center for Justice and Accountability said the Caesar sanctions are designed for this purpose, aiming to deter foreign financial engagement and commercial reconstruction agreements with the Assad government. But the group said the sanctions also contain provisions exempting humanitarian goods and services, similar to other sanctions, and intended to ensure the flow of aid and mitigate the economic consequences of the sanctions on the Syrian people. Still, the currency collapse is obviously in part deepened by the panic over the impact of the sanctions. People are hoarding dollars, and many commercial transactions have stopped. The government, in an effort to control the flow of foreign currency and the exchange rate, has cracked down on hawalas, or offices of exchange that are used by the majority of Syrians, which has also impacted the flow of foreign currency in the country. A financial crisis in neighboring Lebanon, where there are controls on withdrawals and a shortage of foreign currency, has also impacted the Syrian banking sector and Syrians who had saved or did commercial transactions through Lebanon. Iran's own economic woes, and the economic impact of coronavirus restrictions in the region, have all added to the crisis in Syria. "Ultimately, the most significant cause of the economic crisis is the Syrian government its irresponsible fiscal policy, continuous corruption, refusal to respect international laws and norms or engage in good-faith political and diplomatic negotiations," said SCJA in a report issued Tuesday, which added the sanctions offer a clear path for the Syrian government out of the sanctions. "Both the US and the EU sanctions regimes make clear that sanctions will be lifted if President Assad agrees to a political transition of power," it said. "If the Syrian government is genuinely concerned about the impact of economic sanctions on its ability to protect the Syrian public from COVID-19, there is a clear option available to it." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a joint briefing about an executive order from President Donald Trump on the International Criminal Court at the State Department in Washington on June 11, 2020. Yuri Gripas/Reuters) Pompeo to Meet Chinese Delegation in Hawaii This Week WASHINGTONU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to meet a Chinese delegation at a U.S. military base in Hawaii this week to discuss bilateral ties that have soured deeply since the start of the year, sources familiar with the matter said. In addition to an intensifying strategic rivalry, the worlds top two economies have been at loggerheads in recent months over the handling of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic and Chinas move to impose new security legislation on Hong Kong. Experts say relations have reached their lowest point in years, and in mid-May President Donald Trump even went so far as to suggest he could cut ties with Beijing. Hong Kongs South China Morning Post newspaper cited an unidentified source as saying that Yang Jiechi, a state councilor and member of the Communist Partys politburo, will lead the Chinese side in the meeting with Pompeo. It is expected to take place at Hawaiis Hickam Air Force base, said a diplomatic source, who did not want to be identified. The State Department said Pompeo and his deputy Stephen Biegun left Tuesday for Hawaii but offered no additional detail about his plans. It would be Pompeos first known contact with Yang since they spoke by telephone on April 15 to discuss the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. The sources said the likely agenda included virus response, arms control, trade, Hong Kong, North Korea and tit-for-tat moves against journalists. The White House did not respond to requests for comment about the trip, first reported by Politico on Friday. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian declined to confirm the reports at a regular briefing on Monday, but said: China and the U.S. have maintained communication through diplomatic channels. If there is any further information, it will be released in a timely manner. Pompeo has been forceful in his criticism of Beijings handling of the CCP virus, which originated in China. He has said China could have prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths by being more transparent and accused it of refusing to share information. Trump has initiated a process of eliminating special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong to punish the Chinese regime for curbing freedoms there, but has stopped short of immediately ending privileges that have helped the territory remain a global financial center. By Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom Epoch Times staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report The 80 kilometers-long Galwan river, which flows through the valley, in the eastern part of Ladakh, is named after Ghulam Rasool Galwan, a Ladakhi adventurer and explorer who assisted many European explorers at the turn of the 19th century. On Monday night, a violent escalation took place between the Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army that cost around 20 Indian Army personnel their lives in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. The Galwan Valley is the flashpoint of a five-week border row which soon turned into a violent confrontation, the first such incident in the last 45 years. The river which originates from the Aksai Chin region, joins the Shyok River inside the territory claimed by India to form an upstream tributary of the Indus River. The 80 kilometers-long Galwan river, which flows through the valley, in the eastern part of Ladakh, is named after Ghulam Rasool Galwan, a Ladakhi adventurer and explorer who assisted many European explorers at the turn of the 19th century. According to the book Forsaking Paradise: Stories from Ladakh, Ghulam Rasool Galwan had arrived in Leh in 1895. Galwan has also written a book titled Servant of Sahibs: A Book To Be Read Aloud, where he is said to have written about his life of journeying and adventures, as he assisted Francis Younghusband to scout the region. The foreword of this book is written by Younghusband, a British explorer and leading figure in The Great Game between the British and Russia. The Great Game was a political and diplomatic confrontation that existed for most of the 19th Century between the British Empire and Russia over Afghanistan and neighbouring territories in Central and South Asia. At a time when British-ruled India was worried about Russian expansion towards Tibet, Galwam assisted British expeditions in the region as a guide, as troops tried to gather and assess intelligence about Russian intrusion which could pose a threat to British interests in India. It is believed that his great grandfather was a robber named Kara Galwan, which in Kashmiri language means Karra (black) and Galwan (robber) or black robber. Although there are varied views on popular Ladakhi explorer and adventurer and his tribe, the Galawans, the word Galawan means horse-keeper in Kashmiri language, according to the Kashmir Observer. Galwan for almost 35 years assisted expeditions led by British, Italian, and American explorers, he eventually rose to the ranks of 'aksakal' or chief assistant of the British joint commissioner of Leh in 1917, reports Economic Times. Born in Leh, which was then a part of the famous Silk Route that was known to be volatile as various kingdom eyeing to take control over the region's lucrative paths, was believed to be swarming with robbers. Galwan book, Servant of Sahibs: A Book To Be Read Aloud offers a glimpse into his early childhood of growing up in such a strategically important and sensitive region. Meanwhile, the recent confrontation between the armies of India and China was not a one-off incident. For almost the past one month, 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. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Although both sides have asserted that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas. She has been documenting life in lockdown with her two daughters Siera, four, and Ariana, seven. And Imogen Thomas treated her two girls to ice lollies after they headed to a shop to pick up some food in London on Wednesday. The Big Brother star, 37, who has been reliving her stint on the show in 2006 on Big Brother: Best Shows Ever, showed off her tanned legs in black denim shorts. Doting mum: Imogen Thomas treated her two daughters Siera, 4, and Ariana, 7, to ice lollies after they headed to a shop to pick up some food in London on Wednesday Imogen complemented her summery outfit with a white T-shirt, which had a blue strawberry printed on it, and black sandals. She wore her brown hair in a low ponytail and donned a pair of aviators to shield her eyes from the sun. Her daughters, meanwhile, looked sweet in matching pink gingham dresses and sparkly sandals. Leggy;:The Big Brother star, 37, who has been reliving her stint on the show in 2006 on Big Brother: Best Shows Ever, showed off her tanned legs in black denim shorts Dressed for the weather: Imogen complemented her summery outfit with a white T-shirt, which had a blue strawberry printed on it, and black sandals Twinning: Her daughters, meanwhile, looked sweet in matching pink gingham dresses and sparkly sandals The trio appeared in high spirits as they enjoyed their lollies on their walk home. Imogen shares her daughters with ex-partner Adam Horsley who she split with in 2018 following a six-year relationship. Earlier this week, Imogen took to Instagram to relive her time on Big Brother as Channel 4 continue to air some of the show's biggest moments, hosted by Davina McCall and Rylan Clark-Neal. Yummy! The trio appeared in high spirits as they enjoyed their lollies on their walk home Imogen wrote: 'Big brother 7: 14 years ago. I will never forget the phonecall I had from producer Phil Edgar Jones offering me to be a housemate. 'I was hiding in between curtains at work. 'I screamed YES! 2 days later off I went into hiding to France and Belgium. 2 weeks later the day finally arrived for me to walk into the famous house. My god was I nervous. Co-parenting: Imogen shares her daughters with ex-partner Adam Horsley who she split with in 2018 following a six-year relationship 'I felt sick to the pit of my stomach. But I did it and there my life changed for the better! Thank you to big brother for this opportunity. 'You turned my life around. The best show on tv, Which started off to be an innocent, social experiment. It gave me opportunities beyond belief. 'You made my future very comfortable for myself and my children. I will be forever grateful So happy 20 year anniversary I will be watching tonight and for the next 20 episodes.' TAIYUAN -- In Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon, Chinese doctor An Buyue wakes up early to prepares for the day's work. As chief of a 20-member medical team from north China's Shanxi Province, she barely had enough sleep in a day in certain periods. Working overtime has become a routine for the medical team, which is in Cameroon for a one-year foreign aid mission. An told Xinhua in a telephone interview that the team began to offer training sessions on COVID-19 prevention and control for the Yaounde Gynaecology, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics Hospital on February 4. "We explained the etiologic feature, clinical manifestation, and therapeutic method of the disease, and suggested the hospital adopt strict measures like preview and triage when receiving patients," said An. She noticed that the director of the hospital studied their epidemic prevention and control recommendations. Soon after that, their recommendations such as putting up anti-epidemic awareness posters, setting up a fever clinic, and maintaining social distance in the hospital were adopted. An said other Chinese medical teams in Africa have also participated in fighting against the pandemic alongside their African peers. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent surpassed 232,815 as of Sunday, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The death toll stood at 6,244 as of Sunday morning, according to the center. Chen Haiyun, chief of a Chinese medical team to Togo, said they have participated in disease prevention work in the country, including offering COVID-19 prevention and control training to the regional health center of Lome-Commune. An said in the face of a shortage of protective supplies, members of the Chinese medical team used to wear expired masks while treating outpatients. She added that luckily, none of the Chinese doctors in Cameroon have been infected. With an improvement in domestic epidemic prevention and control situation, China has increased medical assistance to other nations in need. On April 3, An's team received a batch of epidemic prevention materials dispatched by the Chinese National Health Commission. Soon after that, the second and the third batches of medical supplies were sent to Chinese medical teams in Africa. "We really can feel the strength of our country. Now that our safety is ensured, we can focus more on protecting locals in Africa," said An. China set up its first medical team to provide aid to foreign countries in 1963. According to the National Health Commission, China had sent more than 26,000 medics to 71 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceanian by the end of 2019, providing diagnosis and treatment to over 280 million local patients. The Deck Saigon in HCMC's District 2 lies on the Saigon River and a top dining venue. Photo courtesy of Deck Saigon. The Deck Saigon in Ho Chi Minh Citys District 2, home to a large expat community, was listed among the worlds best bars by U.K. newspaper The Guardian. "The most outstanding bar in Vietnam, possibly in Asia, is right on the Saigon River. Lychee martinis, jumping fish, setting sun, and whistle whetting are the greatest experiences here," editors of The Guardian wrote earlier this week. A unique feature allows visitors to buy a cruise tour costing approximately VND4 million ($173) each for two people, the paper recommended. Located on Nguyen U Di Street in District 2, on the bank of Saigon River, the alfresco dining venue is elegantly decorated with glass doors, warm lighting, and furnishings by top local designers as well as traditional wooden decks surrounded by bamboo trees. The list of best bars in the world was compiled by editors of the leading British newspaper based on their travel experiences. Katerinas Bar in Greece, the King Cole Bar in New York City, and Canico Bar in Portugal were also included on the list. Earlier in May, most non-essential services in Vietnam, including bars have reopened after more than two months of temporary shutdown as a preventive measure to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, the Cabinet of Ministers intends to reconsider the issue of the mask regime in the street Open source The government of Ukraine plans to submit to the Verkhovna Rada the issue of the strengthening of the administrative responsibility for the violation of the mask regime during the quarantine, as Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal stated. We are ready to reconsider the wearing of the masks on the streets but wearing the masks on the premises will be relevant for a long time. That is why we plan to submit to the session of the government and the Verkhovna Rada the issue of the strengthening of the administrative responsibility for non-observance of the mask regime on the premises and in the public transport, Shmygal said. According to the PM, it is necessary to explain the issues toward the wearing of masks and social distance to the public because the Ukrainians treat the mitigation of the quarantine events as the cancelation of the lockdown. Besides, Shmygal assured that the Health Ministry fulfills part of the responsibilities on the procurement of the means of individual protection. For now, we observe insignificantly but the growth of the number of the confirmed diseased. To prevent the exponential growth of infected at a particular moment and overload of the medical establishments, it is necessary to act right now. The authorities and power of the heads of the regional state administrations are sufficient to control the situation and enable the adaptive quarantine to bring the results, he underlined. Earlier, chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Viktor Lyashko stated that strict lockdown not to be introduced in Ukraine, despite the increase in coronavirus infection. As of the morning of June 16, 32,476 (+666) cases of coronavirus infection were registered in Ukraine. 912 people have died due to complications caused by the disease since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic in the country (+11). However, 14,528 (+275) patients have already recovered. Portland will formally recognize June 19, or Juneteenth, as a paid holiday, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced Tuesday. The Portland City Council plans to adopt an ordinance Wednesday to establish June 19 as a day of recognition of black American history and give employees a paid day off to engage in remembrance and action, Wheeler said in a statement. We are suggesting that City of Portland employees spend the holiday getting educated on the white supremacy that was foundational to American culture, the statement said. The objectives of the day are to grieve, listen, learn, engage and heal. Juneteenth celebrates when the last slaves found out about the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865. The holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. The ordinance will also include a formal apology for the how black people have been treated in Portland and the U.S., the mayor said. When Oregon was founded as a state in 1857, its constitution explicitly banned Black people from visiting, living and owning property here, his statement said. To this day, navigating life as a Black American in our city and country does not come with the same privileges experienced by others. - Madison Smalstig l msmalstig@oregonian.com l @madi_smals l Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories 450 more adult trees and improved drainage part of Playa del Carmen city center remodel plan Playa del Carmen, Q.R. The project to modernize and rescue of Fifth Avenue, Fundadores Park and surrounding streets will include 450 more adult trees, which are being donated by Grupo Xcaret. Playa del Carmen mayor Laura Beristain Navarrete says the remodel project will give a new face to the tourist area, which is one of the greatest attractions of the destination. The director of Urban Development in the Solidaridad, Laura Arguello says that as long as rains do not delay the project, the work should be complete in 60 days from its start. The revitalization of the area will include the addition of 450 adult trees to the already-existing 160 plants and shrubs that will be preserved. Environmentalists, together with staff from Grupo Xcaret, will contribute the strategic design of the urban trees in the area. Laura Arguello says that the remodeling of Fifth Avenue and its surroundings has been evaluated since 2018, as it is deemed an area that has been without maintenance. She added that the remodeling also gives the city the opportunity to improve the storm drainage network and the collection of rainwater along areas that have experienced long-term problems. Problems involving the correction of the city drainage including sewage leaks and storm drainage, will be headed by Aguakan. The total investment for the city center remodel is 117 million peso and will cover a polygon that integrates Fifth and Tenth avenues, Parque Fundadores and the perpendicular streets that lead to the sea. Alfred Woyome, the embattled businessman at the centre of the infamous GHS51 million judgement case, claims there is a scramble for his seized properties by some government officials. According to him, the trajectory of legal proceedings points to a scheme meant to satisfy some government appointees. I have ensured that what they should do, they do it according to law. We saw that there was insider trading and people among them [Government] want my properties for themselves, he said on Citi TV's Face to Face on Tuesday. Mr. Woyome remains suspicious of state actors because the Attorney General is seeking clearance to take over his properties instead of selling them. This followed a request by Albert Kan Dapaah, the National Security Minister. That is the case I have taken to the Human Rights Court under Article 33 and when they saw that we were there, then the auctioneer had to write a funny letter to Kan Dapaah who also has a personal interest in this matter. Kan Dapaah now using executive power writes to the Attorney General to go court and change the judgement to favour us to seize his properties. Currently, the Supreme Court has given the Attorney General permission to sell properties belonging to Mr. Woyome to offset part of his debt to the state. Properties of the Woyome were seized by the government following a Supreme Court ruling. Mr Woyome speaking on Citi TV's Face to Face programme on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, Mr Woyome further alleged that government officials declined to engage him to negotiate the repayment plan. I'll repay GHS51M debt within two months if my shares are unfrozen Mr. Woyome also says he could refund the GHS 51 million judgement debt cash wrongfully paid him by the state if his shares in business ventures are released. Let the government release the shares of my company and probably within two months that money will be paid, he said But he feels the state is not interested in retrieving the money he owes hence his current predicaments. I went to the Flagstaff House to meet the Personal Assistant to the Chief of Staff so that the Attorney General [will meet me and] and release shares of my company so that I can pay this money [GHS 51 million] although I have not stopped the state from going after the matter. Background The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Mr Woyome to refund GHS 51.2 million to the state, on the grounds that he benefited from unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for 2008 AFCON. The case leading to the Supreme Court decision was initiated by Martin Amidu, the current Special Prosecutor. Eventually, in March 2016, Mr. Woyome asked the court to give him three years to pay back the money, but the court declined to grant his wish. He is, however, said to have refunded GHS4 million in November 2016 and an additional GHS600,000 and promised to pay the outstanding balance by quarterly instalments of GHS5 million, commencing April 1, 2017. But he also initiated legal challenges at the Supreme Court challenging orders for him to pay the money which were all dismissed. Mr Woyome further sued at International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) based in Paris, France, and the African Court of Justice, based in Arusha, Tanzania. But in August 2017, the ICC threw out his case on the basis that he had failed to properly invoke its jurisdiction whilst his case at the African Court of Justice was also dismissed in June 2019. ---citinewsroom Emmett Schilling, the executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, has his work cut out for him and he knows it. The overall goal is that trans folks, including black trans folks and trans people of color, are in a position of the same comfort, security and access to opportunity and success as our white cisgender counterparts, Schilling said Tuesday morning during a Zoom call. Thats equality, right? Achieving that goal, he continued, will require cultural change as well as political action and legal reforms. When were talking about real change, for me it doesnt hang on SCOTUS, Schilling said, referring to the high court. It hangs on a neighbor that might not understand all the terminology about trans-ness, but Im not scared to tell them that Im trans and Im not scared to tell them what I do. Still, he took a moment to absorb the fact that the Supreme Court on Monday had handed down a landmark ruling in favor of LGBTQ rights. Six of the courts nine justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch, both conservatives, had concluded that its unlawful for employers to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Its still a little unbelievable, said Schilling. I was not anticipating such an extremely favorable ruling. I especially was not anticipating that that decision was going to be authored by Gorsuch. Americans on both sides of the aisle can agree with that. Im trying to digest it, said state Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican who represents part of east Harris County. He explained that hes reached out to Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law, for his analysis of whether the court overreached. The process is what matters, Cain said. We have the separation of powers in this country for a reason. The case at issue, Bostock vs. Clayton County, concerned several examples of employment discrimination against LGBTQ Americans. George Bostock, for example, was fired from his job as the child welfare services coordinator in Clayton County, Ga., after he began participating in a gay softball league, which his employer deemed unbecoming. Writing for the majority, Gorsuch argues that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is ultimately a form of discrimination on the basis of sex, which was outlawed by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids, he wrote. This is cut-and-dry reasoning on Gorsuchs part. But his opinon outraged some conservatives, including Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote a 100-page-long dissent accusing his colleagues of legislating from the bench and, to boot, refusing to be honest about it. A similar sense of betrayal was palpable among conservatives who had considered Gorsuch, tapped for the high court in 2017 by President Donald Trump, to be on their team or at least loyal to their agenda. And some social conservatives took issue with the ruling itself. Sex now means transgender, but transgender remains undefinable. Got it everyone?, tweeted state Rep. Matt Schaefer, a Republican of Tyler. Protection for women discarded w/ this ruling, he added. Most Republican elected officials, however, were oddly circumspect. And, Schaefer notwithstanding, those who did bash the ruling tended to focus on the process that led to the ruling, rather than its substance or impact. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, blasted the judicial rewriting of our laws, much as he did after the high courts landmark gay marriage ruling in 2015. Six un-elected and unaccountable judges instead took it upon themselves to act as legislators, and that undermines our democratic process, said Cruz, a Republican. Such reactions were illuminating, in a sense. Few Republican elected officials, in Texas and elsewhere, are openly supportive of LGBTQ rights. Just two GOP legislators state Rep. Sarah Davis of Houston and state Rep. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi are joining Democrats to call for passage of a statewide LGBTQ anti-discrimination bill next year. But the number who are openly hostile to LGBTQ rights may be dwindling. Thats progress, even if its not the cultural change that Schilling and others are fighting for. And theres still plenty of work to be done addressing legal discrimination against LGBTQ Americans in areas such as housing and health care. And the social conservatives who were outraged by the Supreme Courts ruling might consider taking their cues from Trump, who has been more an example of politics making strange believers than a true believer in their causes. They've ruled. I've read the decision. And some people were surprised. But they've ruled and we live with their decision. That's what it's all about. We live with the decision of the Supreme Court, Trump said on Monday. Very powerful. A very powerful decision, actually, he added. Trump was right in this case. erica.grieder@chron.com Updated at 8:50 p.m. Tuesday with information from St. Charles County rally. A handful of protesters lined the sidewalk of the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis on Tuesday, facing the Arch and waving signs at honking cars. The event was one of several demonstrations scheduled for the St. Louis region Tuesday. Downtown protesters aim was to raise awareness about modern police brutality and the 1944 death of George Stinney Jr., said the events organizer Torinae Williams, 31, of St. Louis. Stinney, a black teen from South Carolina, was just 14 when he was sentenced to death in June 1944. It was significant for me to be out here on this day, Williams said. My son is 13. Williams said she didnt expect a large turnout on a Tuesday, but she made it a point to protest on the anniversary of Stinneys death. I knew it would turn out like that, and I said, Even if I have to stand out here by myself, that is what I will do, Williams said. Williams works at a local homeless shelter and encouraged her co-workers to protest with her. I know weve talked a lot about the way (Torinae) feels about her son and the way she feels about her community, said May McConnell, 22, of St. Louis. And its always a community that I want to show up and support so that is why we are here with her today. Gabrielle Hobson, 19, of St. Louis, said she was at the protest to stand up for young black men, including those who have been killed. We just have to stand up for them, stand behind them, let them know somebody loves and cares for them, Hobson said. Other Tuesday protestsA group of about 1,000 marched more than a mile Tuesday evening on Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Charles County to a rally organized by Francis Howell School District teachers and administrators. The rally, which was not sponsored by the district, attracted a mostly white crowd. St. Charles County has been so white, said Bill Hogan, 65, who came out from his apartment along the route and raised a fist in support of the marchers. This is good. Hogan, who has lived in the county for 20 years, said he was encouraged to hear chants of Black Lives Matter in the community. It makes my heart glad, he said. People have been oppressed for so long. Speakers at the rally in the Calvary Church parking lot said they want to see more teachers of color in the district, a more comprehensive black history curriculum and an end to discriminatory discipline, among other changes. Beth and Jeff Cox of Weldon Spring, who are white, brought their 6-year-old son, Rigby, who is black, to the rally. I hope its a sign of change that this community will be better, said Jeff Cox. Elsewhere Tuesday, protesters gathered and blocked off the street in front of the St. Charles County Courts Administration Building the second day of protests outside the building. Protesters demanded County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar file charges against the former Florissant police detective accused of hitting a suspect with a police SUV two weeks ago. They were met with a milder police presence than Monday, as no helicopters circled above, and fewer officers were on scene. Another protest was set for Tuesday evening in Cottleville. According to the Facebook event page, organizers called for St. Louis to close the citys Medium Security Institution, also known as the workhouse. 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. Sarah Teague Follow Sarah Teague 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 EastEnders star Dayle Hudson has appeared to confirm that the hit BBC One soap will return to television screens on Monday 7 September. The Peter Beale star took to Instagram to share a snap of his script with a transmission date stating 'Tuesday 8 September' clearly visible in the photo. Soap watchers have now predicted that EastEnders could be returning on Monday 7 September - just three months after the final episode aired on Tuesday evening. Confirmed? EastEnders star Dayle Hudson (pictured as Peter Beale) has appeared to confirm that the hit BBC One soap will return to television screens on Monday 7 September Posted by fan account, Walford Web, on Twitter, they added: 'From Dayle Hudsons Instagram - a script with transmission date of Tuesday 8th September visible! 'Could #EastEnders be returning to screens on Monday 7th September?' followed by detective emojis. Dayle's Instagram activity comes after fans were left in tears on Tuesday night as the soap aired its final episode after running out of episodes due to the COVID-19 crisis. Oops! The Peter Beale star took to Instagram to share a snap of his script with a transmission date stating 'Tuesday 8 September' clearly visible in the photo Speculation: Posted by fan account, Walford Web, on Twitter, they speculated that it could be returning on Monday 7 September - just three months after the final episode aired MailOnline has contacted EastEnders representatives for comment. The hit BBC One show will keep loyal viewers in suspense as they ended the show with a dramatic Sharon Mitchell cliffhanger. Production on EastEnders came to a halt in March, when the UK went into lockdown and most people were instructed to stay home, and work from home if they can. The End(er)! Dayle's Instagram activity comes after fans were left in tears on Tuesday night as the soap aired its final episode after running out of episodes due to the COVID-19 crisis And for the first time in the soap's 35-year history, the show ran out of new material on Tuesday night and was forced to go on a hiatus in a BBC first. Tuesday's dramatic final episode ended with Sharon, played by Letitia Dean, being revealed as the new Queen Vic pub landlady. Viewers had been led to believe that Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) would be taking over the reigns but Mick Carter (Danny Dyer) managed to trick the Walford hardman. Bombshell: The hit BBC One soap will keep loyal viewers in suspense as they ended the show with a dramatic Sharon Mitchell cliffhanger Proper naughty: Viewers had been led to believe that Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) would be taking over the reigns but Mick Carter (Danny Dyer) managed to trick the Walford hardman Just as Mick was about to sign over the Queen Vic, he dropped the explosive bombshell that there was in fact a new different landlord. Phil was left sceptical over the announcement as he protested: 'We had a deal. You're bluffing, there's no way you could have got a different buyer that quick.' To which Mick then led Phil and his equally baffled wife Linda (Kellie Bright) to the bar where Phil's estranged wife Sharon was pulling pints. In a typically dramatic Albert Square scene, Phil's scorned wife chillingly said: 'Hello Phil, what can I get you?' Revenge! Just as Mick was about to sign over the Queen Vic, he dropped the explosive bombshell that there was in fact a new different landlord Get out of my pub! In a typically dramatic Albert Square scene, Phil's scorned wife chillingly said: 'Hello Phil, what can I get you?' The camera then panned on to a smug Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), Mick and Linda while Phil was left seething over the dramatic bombshell. Phil and Sharon have been at loggerheads after she decided to raise her illegitimate son Kayden rather than give him to his grandmother Karen while the Walford hardman also blamed her for Dennis' death, resulting in him kicking her out. Soap watchers were left delighted over the explosive ending as they admitted that they were in suspense over what will happen next between the two characters. Yet some viewers were left in tears over the final episode as they lamented the fact that their favourite soap would be off air for the foreseeable future. Smug: The camera then panned on to a smug Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), Mick and Linda while Phil was left seething over the dramatic bombshell On person said: 'Noooo!!! I am really emotional #eastenders.' A different user put: 'I just cried at the end of Eastenders knowing it's the last one for a while. #EastEnders #f**kcovid @bbceastenders.' Another follower commented: 'If Eastenders ever had to end for good then tonight's episode was pretty perfect. 'Hello Phil what can I get ya?' #EastEnders #Sharon.' A different viewer joked: ''Hello, Phil! What can I getcha?'' - Sharon Watts 2020, Series 1, Finale, EastEnders. #EastEnders.' Mixed reaction: Soap watchers were left delighted over the explosive ending while some fans were left in tears over the soap finishing for the foreseeable future While another fan added: 'Gutted that was the last @bbceastenders episode tonight. Can't wait for it to return in September. 'Loved tonight's duff duff cliffhanger Sharon just bought the vic and said hello Phil what can I get you - Classic #EastEnders.' The cast have in fact returned to the set over the past couple of weeks, and production has restarted on new episodes, but these will not be ready for broadcast just yet. In place of its Monday and Tuesday episodes, a new series called Secrets From The Square, hosted by Stacey Dooley, will be shown. It was advertised during Tuesday's final episode. BBC One will also unearth iconic past episodes and treat fans to a does of nostalgia for the time being. Re-Stace-Ment! In place of its Monday and Tuesday episodes, a new series called Secrets From The Square, hosted by Stacey Dooley, will be shown. It was advertised during Tuesday's final episode Since EastEnders has never been aired in 'seasons' like other shows, this will be a milestone episode to many. It first hit screens in February 1985 and has been a staple of British evening TV ever since. The soap will return later in the summer, returning to its four days a week broadcasts, which were scrapped to release out the instalments that were in the can. But the show returns with shortened episodes; rather than the standard half-hour slots, they will be 20 minutes long to begin with. Executive Producer of the show Jon Sen said: 'Resuming production is incredibly exciting and challenging in equal measure. 'Since we postponed filming we've been working non-stop trialling techniques, filming methods and new ways of working so that we can return to screens four times a week as EastEnders should be. 'Filming will inevitably be a more complex process now so creating 20 minute episodes will enable us to ensure that when we return, EastEnders will still be the show the audience know and love.' The United States on Wednesday pressed China over its treatment of Uighur Muslims and Hong Kong as the two powers stood firm in high-level talks in Hawaii on soaring tensions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi at a Honolulu military base, in the two countries' highest-level meeting since the coronavirus pandemic sent tensions skyrocketing, a State Department official said. They met away from media as excerpts came out from an explosive memoir by former US national security advisor John Bolton, who said President Donald Trump asked President Xi Jinping for assistance in his re-election. Just as Pompeo met Yang, Trump signed into law an act that authorizes sanctions for Chinese officials involved in the detention of some one million Uighur Muslims and other Turkic Muslims. Beijing quickly responded that the law "maliciously attacks" China and threatened consequences. China will "resolutely hit back and the US will bear the burden of all subsequent consequences," the Chinese foreign ministry said. And Pompeo and his counterparts from the other Group of Seven major industrial democracies put out a joint statement voicing "grave concerns" about a draft security law in Hong Kong. "We strongly urge the Government of China to reconsider this decision," said the joint statement by Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. China is moving ahead with a law that would prohibit subversion and other perceived offenses in the financial hub, to which Beijing promised autonomy before taking back the British colony in 1997. In response, Yang said at the meeting with Pompeo that Beijing's "determination" to introduce the law was "unwavering", according to a statement on the foreign ministry website. Yang said China "resolutely opposes the statement made by the G7 foreign ministers on Hong Kong-related issues," according to the statement. - Explosive charges - With Trump under fire at home over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his Republican Party has increasingly cast China as the villain ahead of November elections. But Bolton's book -- which the administration is trying to block -- tells another story, saying Trump asked China to boost his election prospects by requesting that it buy more farm produce. Bolton, according to an excerpt published by The Washington Post, also said that Xi explained the Uighur camps to Trump, who replied that they were "exactly the right thing to do." Activists say China is forcibly homogenizing minorities in a brainwashing campaign with few modern precedents. Beijing counters that it is running vocational educational centers that offer an alternative to Islamic extremism. Yang reportedly sought the meeting with Pompeo, following a similar quiet encounter with him in New York in August to address tensions. China's state-run People's Daily, which said Pompeo and Yang also met the night before, called the talks "constructive." "Both sides agreed to continue maintaining contact and communication," it said. - Pressing on pandemic - The United States was cooler in its assessment, saying Pompeo told Yang the two nations need "fully reciprocal dealings." "He also stressed the need for full transparency and information sharing to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future outbreaks," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said. Pompeo has been in the forefront of denouncing China, saying in recent remarks that it was "truly hostile" to the United States and "ruthlessly imposes communism." The conservative former congressman has taken the lead in promoting a theory, discounted by mainstream scientists, that the coronavirus came out of a Chinese laboratory. Susan Thornton, a career diplomat who served as the top State Department official on East Asia earlier in the Trump administration, had voiced skepticism that the meeting would produce much. "My own view is that the United States and China both face serious crises, as does the rest of the world from COVID-19 and the consequent economic meltdown," said Thornton, now at Yale Law School. "It seems to me that talking about US-China rivalry in this environment is out of touch with the reality that people are facing." Whether the United States and China reach any rhetorical truce could become clear quickly. Pompeo is set to speak Friday at a Danish forum, where the State Department says he will discuss "threats to democracy around the world." US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (pictured November 2018) met for over nearly nine hours in Honolulu with senior Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi, in the two countries' highest-level meeting since the coronavirus pandemic sent tensions soaring Graphic on "educational facilities" in China's Xinjiang region that rights activists describe as political internment camps. A complex on the outskirts of Hotan in northwest China's Xinjiang region which includes what is believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained Senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi reportedly requested the quiet meeting in Honolulu, with no media presence and no announcement beforehand People shout slogans inside a shopping mall in Hong Kong, a city whose protests have become a topic of friction between the United States and China SPRING ARBOR, Mich., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Spring Arbor University (SAU) launches an online Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) in Strategic Leadership program along with three online Post-Master's Certificates during a pivotal moment in the healthcare industry. The DNP program is designed for working nurses looking to advance their careers in the most highly sought-after areas of the advanced nursing profession, while the Post-Master's Certificates offer even more opportunities for highly skilled nursing leaders. The innovative programs combine a Christ-centered worldview with the academic rigor of a world-class program, preparing nurses for the emerging challenges in the future of healthcare. The launch of the new online program will provide options for nurses who hold a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree, with or without an APRN certification. The DNP program is designed for working nurses looking to advance their careers in the most highly sought-after areas of the advanced nursing profession, while the Post-Master's Certificates offer even more opportunities for highly skilled nursing leaders. A doctoral degree is the highest level of education. The launch of the new online program will provide options for nurses who hold a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree, with or without an APRN certification. Students explore major issues in contemporary nursing through the lens of spirituality, grace and critical inquiry. The DNP program provides the prospect for working nurses to grow within their skill set to address the nation's ongoing shortage in nursing. "The healthcare industry is currently facing the challenge of a lack of doctorally prepared nurses. The new flexible online DNP in Strategic Leadership program provides opportunities for working nurses to expand their skills and advance their careers while also addressing an urgent need within the nursing industry," says Dr. Dawn Day, Chair of Graduate Nursing Programs at Spring Arbor University. In addition to the DNP degree, three new online Post-Master's Certificates are now available, including specialized training in Family Nurse Practitioner (both for NP to FNP and non-NP to FNP); Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner (non-NP to AGPCNP); and Nurse Educator. Spring Arbor University's online nursing certificates provide MSN degree holders with specialized knowledge to impact the future of healthcare. Students can choose from clinical or educational tracks and create more opportunity to expand their career while meeting the growing need for highly skilled nursing leaders. Most coursework is 100% online with a curriculum that uniquely integrates Christian faith and principles with a world-class, rigorous academic program. Both the online DNP program and the online Post-Master's Certificate programs offer the flexibility and practicality of an innovative course design that ensures nurses can continue to work in their current role throughout the curriculum. Spring Arbor University's distinctive curricular approach prepares nursing leaders for advanced practice that glorifies God through ethical, compassionate, and client-centered care. Learn more about Spring Arbor University's online DNP program at https://online.arbor.edu/programs/dnp Learn more about Spring Arbor University's three online Post-Master's Certificates in nursing at https://online.arbor.edu/programs/online-nursing-certificates . About Spring Arbor University Spring Arbor University is in Spring Arbor, Michigan, and is a private free Methodist affiliate University. Their mission is to provide liberal arts education with a focus on spiritual, intellectual, and whole-person education and transformations. Since 1873, Spring Arbor University has helped students pursue wisdom by offering an education grounded in the Christian faith. What began as a small elementary and secondary school in the late 1800s has evolved into a premier private Christian university that offers engaging online programs designed to meet the unique needs of busy, working adults. While we're not the only university to offer online degree programs, our distinction lies in our total commitment to providing educational excellence within a Christ-honoring and supportive online community. Media Contact: Beth Landis Executive Director Marketing and Communications P: 517-750-6451 E: [email protected] SOURCE Spring Arbor University Related Links http://www.arbor.edu A discrepancy noticed in the deaths of Covid-19 patients reported by one Mumbai hospital in the first week of June was the trigger for massive data reconciliation exercise in the city that has found so far that 862 fatalities went unreported in the last couple of months. "In the first week of June, a Mumbai hospital reported 17 deaths, whereas only one death had happened there that day. This sent alarm bells ringing in the administration. If one hospital had not yet disclosed its total Covid-19 deaths, what about the other hospitals?" a senior IAS officer of Maharashtra government told CNN News18 on condition of anonymity. He said the data has been cleaned now. "There is no reason for us to hide (the deaths). We want to be 100 per cent transparent," he added. The revision in the death figures has come days after the opposition parties claimed that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was deliberately under-reported deaths in Mumbai, but the civic body maintains that it was the first one to notice the data discrepancy. "The political parties started talking about it three, four days ago. We realised it as early as on June 1," a senior BMC official claimed. The BMC has added 862 deaths due to reconciliation, taking the total number of deaths in the city to 3165. The rest of the state has found 466 more deaths for a total of at least 1,328 deaths of Covid-19 positive patients that went unreported earlier. The reconciliation process is long drawn-out, and will continue for the 1.10 lakh cases Maharashtra has recorded. Speaking to CNN-News18, Mumbais municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said most of these deaths had taken place in March and April. The BMC did not have this data available with it then. So there is no question of hiding it. These deaths had taken place in many big and small hospitals of Mumbai. When we realised in the first week of June that hospitals had not shared all the details, we asked them to submit the data, he said. He said the BMC issued an order on June 8 to all the hospitals, asking them to come clean on all deaths. "They were told to submit all the pending data within 24 hours, or face action under the Epidemic Act," he said. The hospitals thereafter reported close to 1,000 deaths, he said. "The data reconciliation exercise went on for over a week," he added. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government issued an order on 11 June, asking district administrations and municipal corporations, to undertake data reconciliation exercise. The states chief secretary Ajoy Mehta said the reasons behind the data discrepancy was that earlier deaths were being updated manually, and this left gaps in the system. "Initially, there were only two labs. Today, we have 90. Earlier, the data used to be noted manually. Now, it is being entered electronically. There were many platforms on which it was put, now it is only one platform. For all these reasons, there were discrepancies," he said. When asked as to why the BMC did not think of this lapse earlier, and why data was not reported earlier, a senior BMC official said, "Maybe because we didn't have the experience to handle such a pandemic. Neither the BMC, nor any hospitals, had seen anything of this magnitude previously." To the Times: The brutal murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd have saddened me deeply. These events highlighted the long history of racial inequality and injustice against the black community. As an Ahmadi Muslim, I stand in solidarity with the black community in their demand for equality. Islam has taught me that all people are equal despite their color, creed, or origin. Our diversity is something to be celebrated and appreciated, and we should try to get to know each other despite our differences. In the Holy Quran God states, We have made you into tribes and subtribes that you may recognize one another. Verily the most honorable among you, in the sight of God, is the one who is the most righteous among you (49:14). The color of the skin doesnt matter. The only thing that matters is whats inside. And only God is the best judge of character. Islam condemns the concept of racial superiority. In his Farewell Sermon, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be on him) declared, An Arab has no preference over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab; nor is a white one to be preferred to a dark one, nor a dark one to a white one. Lets strive to be a just and equitable society with no place for systemic racism and racial killings. Lets examine our own racial biases and make sure that black lives truly matter. Nazahat Durryyah, Womens Auxiliary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Philadelphia Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 13:27:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Seventeen Afghan soldiers and nine militants were killed and 11 army soldiers wounded after Taliban militants attacked military camps in two Afghan northern provinces early Wednesday, sources said. In northern Kunduz province, five Afghan army soldiers were killed and six others wounded when clashes occurred in Talawka, a locality, 15 km north of the provincial capital Kunduz city along a road linking the city to bordering town of Shir Khan. "The Taliban insurgents were forced back from the site after nearly two hours of fighting. Four militants were also killed," Abdul Qadir from army's 217 Pamir Corps told Xinhua. In northern Jawzjan province, 12 army soldiers and five militants were killed and five army personnel and 10 militants wounded after Taliban stormed an army camp in Bala Hisar, a strategic locality in Aqcha district, a provincial government spokesman confirmed. The latest clashes came as militancy and counter-militancy traditionally gets momentum in spring and summer commonly known as fighting season in Afghanistan. Sporadic clashes and fighting occur in countryside as Taliban militants have been attempting to take territory and consolidate their positions. Enditem VANCOUVER Police have made dozens of arrests after they say 46 people refused to obey a court injunction and leave a tent encampment on Vancouvers waterfront. An email from police says the arrests happened late Tuesday afternoon as demonstrators sat on the ground and refused to leave the site near CRAB Park on federal land operated by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. Police say the 46 were taken into custody for civil contempt of court, and one person was arrested for mischief and released without charges earlier in the day. They were among more than 100 people who had been living at the site since last months closure of a much larger tent camp at nearby Oppenheimer Park. Police said 60 residents left the port authority property as officers acted on the injunction issued last week. A spokeswoman for those campers says they have since moved to a new site about two kilometres away at Strathcona Park. The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says in a statement that the CRAB Park residents were forcefully displaced, without any direction about where to find safe housing. Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart says the port authority lands are under federal control and enforcement of the CRAB Park injunction underscores the need for Ottawa to join B.C. and the city in addressing homelessness. The only way to end homelessness is by building housing, not evicting homeless residents without a plan for where they are to go next, Stewart says in a statement released Tuesday. Stewart, B.C.s Housing Minister Selina Robinson and the federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Ahmed Hussen will meet next week to discuss the federal role in housing, the statement says. Chrissy Brett, spokeswoman for the new homeless encampment at Strathcona Park, says the site has been dubbed Camp K-T, with K representing Kennedy Stewart and T standing for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Both leaders have fostered a stigma against the homeless by suggesting they are dangerous addicts, Brett says. Read more about: SAN DIEGO, June 17, 2020 /PR Newswire/ -- BOSS Capital Partners raises Pre-Seed funding for BioSolutions' growth initiatives. BOSS Capital Partners is excited to announce that it has successfully raised pre-seed funding for BioSolutions, Incorporated. The funds will be used to support product development and testing. BOSS Capital Partners The new investment round will enable BioSolutions to further capitalize on its position as a leader in the Wastewater and Water Treatment industry. The funding will drive enhancements to BioSolutions' innovative technology that delivers clean water to a growing world population, resulting in economic and environmental efficiency gains. "We believe in the BioSolutions mission and are excited about the future enhancements to the solutions already helping so many people around the world," said Gregory Shepard, CEO of BOSS Capital Partners. Company Website: https://www.biosolutions.org/index.htm About the Company BioSolutions, Incorporated is a progressive, cutting edge company that offers high quality wastewater solutions at competitive prices. They provide safe, reliable and economical wastewater reclamation and management systems for municipalities, school districts, industry, residential developments as well as individual homeowners. About BOSS Capital Partners BOSS Capital Partners is dedicated to investing in technology businesses that need operational expertise and guidance to achieve capital efficient and rewarding outcomes. By utilizing the BOSS - Business Operations Support System, the BCP team assists portfolio companies with tactical challenges they face in product management, engineering, sales, marketing, pricing, legal, and finance. Consistently and efficiently applied, BOSS allows BCP to transform the day to day operations of portfolio companies and significantly increase the quality of potential exit outcomes. Media Contact: Amber Giacalone 858.829.4053 [email protected] SOURCE BOSS Capital Partners A 30-year-old man from India was arrested and accused of trying to smuggle about $5 million in marijuana from Canada to the United States, according to federal officials. Gurpeet Singh, 30, was charged with unlawfully importing and possessing with the intent to distribute 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana, according to the United States Attorneys Office for the Western District of New York. If convicted, Singh would face at least 10 years in prison. Singh was trying to cross into the United States from Canada on Saturday while driving a commercial truck with 22 skids of peat moss, federal prosecutors said. The truck had Ontario, Canada, license plates and tried to cross at the Peace Bridge in Niagara Falls, according to federal officials. Singh told a Customs and Border Patrol officer he was taking the peat moss to Orange, Virginia, federal prosecutors said. A secondary exam found that behind five pallets of peat moss at the back of the trailer were 58 large cardboard boxes with vacuum-sealed bags of what federal officials say was marijuana. The marijuana weighed 3,346.35 pounds and was worth about $5 million, according to federal prosecutors. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati via the Signal app for encrypted messaging at 585-290-0718, by phone at the same number, by email or on Twitter. National Security Advisor John Bolton (R) listens to U.S. President Donald Trump talk to reporters during a meeting of his cabinet in the Cabinet Room at the White House February 12, 2019 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Former national security adviser John Bolton claims that President Donald Trump said it would be "cool" to invade Venezuela. Trump made the statement because he believes the nation is "really part of the United States," Bolton writes in his upcoming book, "In The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir." According to The Washington Post, which published some excerpts from the book, Trump also confused the current and former presidents of Afghanistan. Bolton also writes that Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping that Americans wanted him to amend the Constitution to allow him to serve more than two terms. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. President Donald Trump claimed that it would be "cool" to invade Venezuela because the nation was "really part of the United States," according to a new book by former national security adviser John Bolton. Video: The rise and fall of Donald Trumps $365 million airline In his book, "In The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," the former national security adviser also claims that Trump kept confusing the current and former presidents of Afghanistan and asked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to help him reach an agreement with Iran. In 2019, Trump expressed he would consider an outright quarantine or blockade of Venezuela in an effort to dispose of President Nicolas Maduro's authoritarian reign over the country. As Venezuela faced an economic crash and political turmoil, Maduro has been accused of rigging the country's presidential elections and is not recognized by the US and many other nations. The US State Department offered a $15 million reward for his arrest. "We seek a peaceful transition to power," Trump said in 2019. "But all options are on the table." In a separate meeting at the Oval Office in 2018, Trump reportedly asked aides why the US could not invade Venezuela, according to senior officials. National security adviser H.R. McMaster, who immediately preceeded Bolton's tenure, was reportedly present in the meeting. McMaster and other officials attempted to convince Trump that military action was tenuous and unpredictable. Story continues President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images The US president also told Chinese President Xi Jinping that Americans wanted him to amend the Constitution to allow him to serve more than two terms, Bolton writes. And in another section, Bolton alleges that Trump "pleaded" with Xi to buy US agricultural products to help him win reelection this year. Bolton's book is set to be released on June 23, but on Tuesday, the Trump administration sued the former national security adviser to prevent him from releasing the book. The lawsuit against Bolton accuses him of breaking his contract by backing out of the National Security Council's ongoing vetting process to determine whether Bolton's book contains classified information that needs to be redacted or edited down. The NSC "quickly identified significant quantities of classified information that it asked Defendant to remove," the complaint said. "An iterative process between NSC Staff and Defendant then began, as required by the binding agreements he signed, with changes to the book and other information being securely passed between Defendant and NSC staff. Soon, though, Defendant apparently became dissatisfied at the pace of NSC's review." It alleges that instead of waiting for the process to conclude, Bolton "decided to take matters into his own hands." On June 7, "without Defendant giving any prior notice to the NSC, press reports revealed that Defendant and his publisher had resolved to release the book on June 23, without completing the pre-publication review process," the lawsuit said. Read the original article on Business Insider George Floyd's brother on Wednesday begged the United Nations to help African Americans because "black lives do not matter in the United States", as the UN's rights chief urged reparations for centuries of discrimination. Philonise Floyd made an impassioned speech via video-link to an urgent United Nations Human Rights Council debate on "systemic racism" in the US and beyond. Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the "gratuitous brutality" of Floyd's death in police custody encapsulated racism that harmed millions of people of African descent. She also urged countries to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism and to make reparations. The council, based in Geneva, is debating a draft resolution pushing for Bachelet to investigate racism and police civil liberties violations against people of African descent in the United States. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the council two years ago. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer -- since charged with murder -- pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Amateur video of the incident sparked demonstrations and calls to address systemic racism in the United States and around the world. Philonise Floyd said his brother had been "tortured to death" as witnesses begged the officer to stop, "showing us black people the same lesson, yet again: black lives do not matter in the United States of America". "You in the United Nations are your brothers' and sisters' keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd." "I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us black people in America." He urged them to establish an independent international commission of inquiry -- one of the UN's highest-level probes, generally reserved for major crises like the Syrian conflict. - Probe proposal dropped - An initial text presented on Tuesday on behalf of 54 African countries had proposed such an inquiry. But the proposal was dropped, the resolution heavily watered down following stark opposition from Washington and some of its allies. But the proposal was dropped, the resolution heavily watered down following stark opposition from Washington and some of its allies. It now calls on Bachelet and UN rights experts to "establish the facts and circumstances relating to the systemic racism, alleged violations of international human rights law and abuses against Africans and people of African descent" by law enforcement in the US and beyond -- especially those incidents that resulted in deaths. The aim, it said, was "to ensure the accountability of perpetrators and redress for victims". In her statement to the council, Bachelet said Floyd's death had brought to head the sense of outrage felt by overlooked people and the protests were "the culmination of many generations of pain". "Behind today's racial violence, systemic racism, and discriminatory policing lies the failure to acknowledge and confront the legacy of the slave trade and colonialism," the former Chilean president said. She stressed the need to "make amends for centuries of violence and discrimination, including through formal apologies, truth-telling processes, and reparations in various forms." - US call for transparency - On Tuesday, Trump issued an order to improve policing, calling for a ban on dangerous choke holds -- except if an officer's life is at risk. The executive order encourages de-escalation training, better recruitment, sharing of data on police who have bad records, and money to support police in complicated duties related to people with mental or drug issues. However, it stopped well short of demands made at nationwide protests. Andrew Bremberg, the US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said his country was open in its commitment to addressing racial discrimination and injustice, citing Trump's executive order. "We call upon all governments to demonstrate the same level of transparency and accountability," he said. "Sadly, there are too many places in the world where governments commit grave violations of human rights and practice systematic racial discrimination while many of those assembled in Geneva are silent." It remains to be seen whether the current draft resolution will pass. Australia, South Korea and the Netherlands all issued statements in the chamber that were broadly supportive of Washington's outlook. "We have confidence in their transparent justice systems to address these issues appropriately," Australia's representative said. The UN Human Rights Council's 47 members are due to vote on the resolution following the urgent debate, which was set to conclude on Thursday. Wednesday marks only the fifth time in the council's 14-year history that it has agreed to hold an "urgent debate", which is like a special session, but within a regular session of the council. George Floyd's brother calls on the UN to set up an independent commission to investigate the killings of African Americans by police UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet urged countries to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism and to make reparations OTTAWA - Blood samples collected from tens of thousands of Canadians will soon be tested for signs of COVID-19 antibodies as the federal government seeks to learn how many people have already contracted the novel coronavirus. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam holds a press conference on Parliament Hill amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick OTTAWA - Blood samples collected from tens of thousands of Canadians will soon be tested for signs of COVID-19 antibodies as the federal government seeks to learn how many people have already contracted the novel coronavirus. Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, said she is excited about the partnership between the national immunity task force and Canada's blood agencies, Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec. Tam is a member of the task force. The two organizations have already collected "tens of thousands" of blood samples from Canadians that will be used for the initial immunity testing across the country. All they are waiting for is the arrival of the testing kits, which are now on their way. Federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Wednesday a contract is now in place to buy 140,000 serology test kits from Abbott Laboratories. Health Canada approved Abbott's serology test on May 21, but it took several weeks for the procurement process to work its way out. "These kits will play an important role in tracking how widely the virus has spread," Anand said. The tests, which look for antibodies created by the human body after exposure to a virus, will help determine who has had COVID-19, which populations are most vulnerable to new outbreaks, whether having it makes someone immune to further illness, and how long that immunity might last. Knowing those things will guide governments in deciding what public health measures to enforce if, or when, a second wave of COVID-19 begins to arrive in Canada. It can also help guide decisions on who to vaccinate first if a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available. A study published last month in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology found Abbott's test had only one false positive in more than 1,000 specimens tested, and that it was able to detect the presence of the COVID-19 antibody 17 days after symptoms began. The immunity task force was established by the federal government in late April to co-ordinate national efforts on immunity detection. Because some people get COVID-19 but show no symptoms, and because widespread testing for the virus that causes COVID-19 did not become the norm in most provinces until just recently, public health experts acknowledge the number of people who have actually been infected exceeds the number of cases reported. As of Wednesday more than 99,400 Canadians have tested positive for COVID-19 since the end of January but the immunity task force is charged with working with the provinces to figure out how many cases went undetected. Health Minister Patty Hajdu said the partnership with the two blood collection agencies provides a great number of samples for the initial survey. The task force is also working with Indigenous leaders to identify a specific approach to immunity testing in Indigenous communities, said Hajdu. She said the government will provide an update on the work of the task force soon. Anand also provided a brief update on overall efforts to bring in personal protective equipment in Canada, saying the 70th air cargo shipment of masks, gowns and other devices will land in Canada Wednesday. She said the government is also now turning to container ships to bring in the materials. Four ships have already docked at the Port of Vancouver, bringing in 500,000 litres of hand sanitizer, and more ships will be arriving over the summer, said Anand. Canada has now secured and distributed 3.1 million N95 respirators to provinces for use by front-line health staff. There have also been 17 million face shields made, most of them in Canada by companies that retooled their production lines to help meet the needs of the pandemic. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020. (Natural News) The national media avoid reporting violence instigated by Black Lives Matter protesters. But when they do, theyre always certain to repeat over and over that the vast majority of protesters are peaceful. (Article by Eddie Scarry republished from WashingtonExaminer.com) How about we extend that same courtesy to the police? They patrol every town in America every day and yet shoot fewer than four dozen unarmed people each year. And less than a quarter of those people are black. Each time a black person dies while interacting with a cop, cable news and the major newspapers might include something in their coverage, such as: The vast majority of encounters with the police were unremarkable that day. According to Department of Justice statistics, about 20% of the U.S. population above the age of 16 reported having interacted with police in 2015, the year with the most recent available data. About half of those people said that it was the police who initiated the contact. Looking just at blacks, majorities who were in contact with police during traffic stops say they believe the officers behaved properly, whether it resulted in a warning (92%), a ticket (85%), or shockingly, even a search or arrest (69%). Heres another interesting one: Among blacks who were stopped on the street, just half said they believed that they were stopped for a legitimate reason. But even of the half that dont think they were stopped for a legitimate reason, 60% said the police behaved properly. Among blacks who had interacted with police, just 3% said they experienced a threat or non-fatal use of force. Among blacks who had initiated the contact with police, 91% said the officer(s) behaved properly, and 92% said they were just as likely or more likely to contact the police again. Is none of that context important when we talk about policing and racism? Of course it is. The vast majority of protesters are peaceful, sure. And so are the vast majority of police officers. Read more at: WashingtonExaminer.com Following Months of Record-Setting Revenue, Company Establishes DroneBase Europe to Serve Expanding Customer Base DroneBase, a leading aerial data analytics company, today announced it has raised $7.5 million in Series C funding, has expanded its services to the renewable energy market with its new platform DroneBase Insights for Wind and Solar, and has founded DroneBase Europe in Germany. New investors Valor Equity Partners and Razi Ventures join Union Square Ventures (USV), Upfront Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and DJI in the round, bringing the total funding to $32 million. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005176/en/ DroneBase announces DroneBase Insights for Wind and Solar. (Photo: Business Wire) "DroneBase's expansion into renewable energy reflects our belief in the growth potential of the wind and solar energy industries," said Dan Burton, CEO and Founder of DroneBase. "Since many energy companies have both wind and solar assets, we are well positioned to leverage our DroneBase Insights platform to grow our global market share in renewable energy." To service renewable energy companies, DroneBase Insights for Wind allows customers to use drones to inspect a wind turbine's vital components through an autonomous flight system, which offers consistent data, actionable insights, and lifecycle management. Trained on a large database of turbine imagery, the platform leverages machine learning algorithms to pre-screen images without damage and focus customers' attention on potential issues. Since drones gather high-definition imagery of blades quickly, renewable energy companies can minimize downtime and maximize energy production, while keeping people out of harm's way. "DroneBase has been instrumental in helping us scale solar asset inspection and analysis across North America," said Jamie Mordarski, Director of Operations and Maintenance, Americas at SMA. "Their ability to provide 100 percent aerial coverage by using drones and manned aircraft gives them a tremendous competitive advantage. We look forward to growing our partnership with DroneBase as our portfolio grows." Through DroneBase's thermal pilot network trained by the FLIR Infrared Training Center, DroneBase Insights for Solar gathers accurate data that otherwise would not be visible to the naked eye. Thermal sensors are necessary in order to detect anomalies such as hot spots and defects on solar panels. As an upcoming feature to the platform, DroneBase Insights for Wind and Solar will be able to detect issues with most components of a wind and solar field. "DroneBase has established themselves as the drone leader in the commercial market, and its new work in renewables will have a lasting impact on the future of energy by keeping infrastructure operational for generations," says Sam Teller, Partner at Valor Equity Partners. "We believe DroneBase will continue to be a valuable partner in drone operations and data analysis across a multitude of industries globally." In addition to serving global energy partners, DroneBase's first international office in Germany will expand its ability to support current customers with assets in Europe, while introducing its capabilities to new clients. Harnessing over six years of DroneBase's product development and operational execution, companies in industries spanning insurance, construction, real estate, telecommunications, and media will be able to expect the same caliber of drone services and analytics overseas. Despite the global pandemic, DroneBase has continued to increase sales and set new revenue records in March, April, and May. With flight operations supported by a Pilot Network in all 50 states and over 70 countries, DroneBase can fly contactless missions to ensure safety of pilots and customers during this time. About DroneBase DroneBase is a leading aerial data analytics company, which provides businesses with a platform to leverage the world's largest Pilot Network to make better decisions about their most critical assets. Based in Los Angeles, the company is the trusted, go-to software platform for worldwide enterprise clients spanning industries such as renewable energy, insurance, telecommunications, construction, real estate, and media. DroneBase has completed over 100,000 commercial missions flown in over 70 countries and in all 50 states. The company was incubated by Y Combinator and has raised $32 million in funding from FLIR Systems, Union Square Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Pritzker Group, Valor Equity Partners, Razi Ventures, Accel Partners, SV Angel and DJI. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005176/en/ Contacts: Cassie Lawrence JSA Strategies cassie@jsastrategies.com (Photo : REUTERS/Steve Nesius) Weather over Cape Canaveral as SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken waits to lift-off for NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. May 30, 2020. A NASA executive retired just days ahead of a mission. Doug Loverro, head of human spaceflight, leaves the space agency as the first Commercial Crew mission was scheduled to depart, with a SpaceX Crew Dragon ferrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken for the first time to the International Space Station. Loverro said it had nothing to do with the Commercial Crew mission. Without a hitch, the task itself went off. At the same time, Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken will conduct a pair of spacewalks to replace old batteries on the International Space Station exterior. Now that there's a new set of staff onboard the International Space Station, NASA's own program manager for the International Space Station is announcing his retirement. ALSO READ: [LOOK] NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Captures Stunning Star-Forming Nebula NASA shakeup continues Kirk Shireman's departure was announced by NASA's public affairs officer Daniel Hout. Meanwhile, CNN cites unnamed sources that reported Shireman had retirement plans in the works long before the SpaceX Crew Dragon took to the skies. Shireman calls it a NASA career, saying stepping down from his post as ISS program manager during an exciting time for NASA and the spaceflight industry in general. The former manager held his position for five years, and NASA relied on Russian rockets to take its astronauts to the orbiting laboratory for the whole of that time. Now the space agency is in a great place, with the Crew Dragon a seemingly viable choice for launches from US soil. "One of the strengths of an organization like NASA is that we don't rely on a single individual to drive the entire assessment and evaluation and management effort," Robert Behnken told CNN in an interview from the ISS. Behnken added they'll get a new leader and continue to move forward if the leader needs to move. "The team is strong enough to recognize their role in assisting that new leader as they're coming in and take over the organization," he added. NASA hasn't just lined up a replacement yet. Still, with so much going on these days with the ISS and the Commercial Crew plan's popularity, the public would expect the announcement to arrive sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, Behnken and Hurley will continue their duties aboard the ISS, including a forthcoming pair of spacewalks that will see Behnken replacing aging batteries on the space station's exterior. ALSO READ: [BREAKING] NASA Astronauts Forge "Fifth State of Matter" on the International Space Station ISS gets an upgrade As with any machine, an unbelievably high-tech spacecraft needs some love every now and then. A few spacewalks will bring some much-needed upgrades to the ISS. NASA released a timetable for its next spacewalks. The first will take place on 26th June, and the other will take place on 1st July. ISS will be recharged with switching out old and redundant batteries with new, higher-capacity batteries on both excursions. NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken will both perform the spacewalks. The International Space Station uses a considerable amount of power. The space station retains its steady power supply during those dark moments by using juice, which is stored in its batteries. The old, outdated nickel-hydrogen batteries need replacement, and project work started three years ago. Replacing the many batteries affixed to the ISS 'exterior with the new lithium-ion versions takes several spacewalks. Ensuring that the space station has a fully functional power system is crucial not only for the science being carried out but also for the well-being of the astronauts who live there. Thanks to regular upgrades and maintenance, the ISS, which has been orbiting Earth since the late 1990s, still has much life left in it. Currently, the International Space Station is expected to continue operating and hosting astronauts through at least 2030. As is often the case with budgets, the space station could also see life beyond that point, depending on how things shake out. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Starbucks Coffee Korea CEO Song Ho-seob, left, poses with Hyundai Card Vice Chairman Chung Tae-young at the U.S. coffeehouse chain's The Jongno R branch in Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of Hyundai Card By Kim Jae-heun On the day of Hyundai Card's ambitious decision to partner with Starbucks Korea, under which the card issuer agreed to issue a Starbucks-branded credit card, a local civic group sued Starbucks Korea CEO Song Ho-seob for violating the law on infectious disease control here. The Public Welfare Committee (PWC) filed a lawsuit to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office claiming Starbucks Korea "ignored the government's strenuous effort" to control the spread of COVID-19, and insisted the partnership could possibly have a negative impact on customers in terms of COVID-19 outbreaks by attracting them to offline stores for sweepstakes events. Starting from May 21, Starbucks Korea has been giving out free gifts for customers who purchased 17 drinks at their stores including three special beverages launched as part of a summer edition. One of the gifts called the "Summer Ready Bag" became so popular that people lined up in front of Starbucks coffee shops every day to receive the giveaway. This reward program caused a huge "coffee-buying frenzy" in South Korea, with one customer being confirmed to have purchased 300 cups of beverages on May 23 and taken home 17 bags, while leaving the drinks behind at the branch in Yeouido, Seoul. Starbucks let store visitors take away the coffees for free. The consumer craze has been witnessed many times before whenever Starbucks Korea launched seasonal campaigns giving away free gifts like the popular planner it collaborated on with Moleskine. Hyundai Card believed it would benefit greatly by signing the agreement with Starbucks Korea. "For sure, this is not a good start and it will definitely have negative impact on their collaboration," an industry source said. "Of course, the impact will not be great but there has already been damage to its reputation and this can lead to fewer people applying for Hyundai Card's special card for Starbucks." The so-called "Hyundai-Starbucks card" is set to be released in September, or October at the latest. According to both companies, nothing has been decided on what kind of benefits the special credit card will offer. The collaboration drew attention because it is first time a major local card issuer clarified its plan for credit cards specially designed for a particular food and beverage brand. Before the collaboration, there were no such cases of Starbucks Korea introducing a private label credit card. The two companies plan to prepare product concepts and marketing strategies by taking full advantage of its meaning as "the first card with a logo of Starbucks." Hyundai Card said the issue has nothing to do with the company and it has no further comment. Ho Chi Minh City reports one more imported Covid-19 case A 24-year-old man who returned from Kuwait yesterday has tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, becoming the 335th Covid-19 patient in Vietnam. Illustrative photo. Photo by Tienphong The National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control announced on Wednesday morning that the new patient who resides in the northern province of Thai Nguyen had lived and worked in Kuwait for the last two years before returning to Vietnam. "He transited in Qatar before boarding a Bamboo Airway flight which landed at the Tan Son Nhat Airport on June 16," the committee said. "He and all 265 other passengers and the flight crew members received health check-ups and sent to quarantine right after landing." The patient is being treated at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases. This is the 195th imported Covid-19 infection case in the country so far, and no new case has been reported in the community for the past 62 days. Of the total 335 patients, 325 have recovered, accounting for 97%, the committee said. 7,250 people who have been in close contact with Covid-19 patients or came from the virus-hit areas are being under health monitoring at centralised quarantine areas, at hospitals, and at home. The country is receiving more people returning from abroad. On June 16, nearly 700 Vietnamese citizens returned on repatriation flights from Canada, Kuwait, Qatar and Africa. By ANI LEH: The wreath-laying ceremony of Indian Army soldiers who lost their lives in Galwan valley face-off was performed at Army Hospital in Leh on Wednesday. Chopper activity was also seen in the area today. #WATCH Wreath laying of Indian Army soldiers, who lost their lives in #GalwanValley clash, performed at Army Hospital in Leh; latest visuals from Ladakh pic.twitter.com/aJomFr7Pxr ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 The violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakh's Galwan valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to "unilaterally change" the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on Tuesday. The Army confirmed that 20 personnel, including a Colonel rank officer, were killed in the face-off. This figure includes 17 who were critically injured at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain. Indian intercepts revealed that the Chinese side suffered 43 casualties, including dead and seriously injured, in the violent face-off. The commanding officer of the Chinese Unit is among those killed, sources confirmed to ANI. Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area in Ladakh where they had earlier clashed on the night of June 15 and 16, Indian Army said. FP Trending In April, analysis of data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft found a viable explanation for what's keeping the upper layers of Saturn so very hot. The answer: auroras similar to those we see near Earth's poles at the north and south poles of Saturn. Not long ago, another revelation regarding Saturn came to surface. NASA's Cassini spacecraft managed to see volcano-like features in the polar regions of Saturn's moon Titan. Scientists say this could be evidence of active, explosive eruptions, Phys.org reported. According to a recent paper authored by Senior Scientist Charles A Wood at the Planetary Science Institute and coauthor Jani Radebaugh of Brigham Young University, morphological features like nested collapses, elevated ramparts, halos and islands suggest small depressions on Titan, and correspond to craters made from volcanic collapses. The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, also revealed that a few similar depressions occur near the south pole of the Saturn's moon. "The close association of the proposed volcanic craters with polar lakes is consistent with a volcanic origin through explosive eruptions followed by collapse, as either maars or calderas," Wood said. He added that the freshness of some craters indicate that volcanism has been relatively recently active on the planets moon or even continues today. "We demonstrate that there is also evidence for internal heat, manifest at the surface as cryovolcanoes, made from melting the water ice crust into liquid water that erupts onto Titan's surface," he said. That these features are at the polar regions, near the lakes of methane, could indicate that methane or another volatile agent can power these explosions, the researchers explain in their paper. These features also appear to be fresh, meaning they could still be forming on Titan today. A report published in Nature Communications, and detailed by Science News, suggests that peculiar flat regions on Titan could be the dry floors of ancient lakes and seas. Titan is still currently the only other place in the universe that has liquid on its surface, just like Earth. When NASAs Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, it showed that Titan is speckled with lakes and seas. The liquid in them was not water, but ethane and methane. The origin of some words is a complete mystery even for the worlds best lexicographers. A friend was wondering why guinea pigs are so called: they dont come from Guinea and they are not pigs. This is one of the many words whose origin is just a maze of theories. One theory is that the word is a corruption of Guyana, on the south-east coast of South America. But the guinea pig comes from the Andes. Some have speculated that they were brought to Europe by way of Guinea, so some people believed they came from Africa. The English at one time used Guinea to refer to any faraway country, so some think the animals name is simply an indication of its foreignness. The common theory that they were sold for a guinea is sheer nonsense: the guinea coin was first struck in England in 1663 and the term ginny-pig was recorded as early as 1653. Some lexicographers have suggested guinea could be an alteration of coney because guinea pigs were referred to as pig coneys in Edward Topsells 1607 treatise on quadrupeds. The English werent the only ones to give this animal a porcine link. They are called Meerschweinchen in German and in Polish they are swinka morska, both words meaning little sea pigs. The French call them cochon dInde' (Indian pig) and in Portuguese they are sometimes called porquinho da India (also Indian pig). However, the Spanish get away from the porcine connection and refer to it as conejillo de Indias (little rabbit of India). The sea pig reference in German and Polish helps to explain why they were called pigs. Centuries ago, sailing ships taking on provisions in South America stocked up with guinea pigs. They could survive for long periods in cramped quarters reminiscent of pig pens, so they were a convenient source of fresh meat. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a guinea pig was a term of reproach. Tobias Smollet wrote: A good seaman he isnone of your guinea pigs. In the 19th century a guinea pig could also be anyone whose fee was one guinea vets, doctors or special jurymen. There was also another kind of guinea pig: a public company director who attended board meetings just to collect his fee. From 1939 to 1945, a guinea pig was an evacuated civil servant, especially BBC personnel to whom the government paid one guinea a week towards their board and lodging. The term was applied in 1930 to anyone on whom experiments were carried out and also to those who took part in trial runs of new products. Guinea pigs had earlier been used in medical experiments in labs and hospitals. A guinea hen was an early name for turkey, especially a female. Shakespeare used guinea hen to mean a prostitute or a courtesan. The British gold coin known as a guinea was so named because it was made of gold from Guinea, on the west coast of Africa. It had a nominal value of one pound when first struck in 1663 for trade with Africa. It became legal tender in Britain from 1717 when its value was fixed at 21 shillings. The term is no longer used except for some professional fees, the prize for some horse races and the prices of goods sold at auction. And until at least the mid-20th century, the BBC paid its contributors in guineas. This led to the term worth a guinea a minute, used for a comedy team with a good line in repartee. In street markets and secondhand shops in the 1920s, the term worth a guinea a box was used to describe any cheap but useful small item. The phrase was borrowed from the much earlier advertising slogan for Beechams Pills. In the 18th century, the term Guinea-gold meant sincere or utterly dependable. Gold from Guinea was said to be of a magnificent yellow. The 19th century simile yellow as a guinea was used for anything of a rich yellow. The term its a guinea to a gooseberry was late 19th century sporting slang for long odds. A variation on this theme was a guinea to a goose. But in the City they preferred to say Lombard Street to a China orange. Humans are so complex and different from each other that generalisations applied to them are frequently way off the mark. It is said that Essex girls are supposed to be unintelligent, materialistic and with no taste. But the three women from Essex whom I know have none of these traits. The term Essex man also exists, but as I dont know any men from Essex, I have no way of knowing if it is accurate in any way. But at least we do know who coined Essex man. It was journalist Simon Heffer in an article in the Sunday Telegraph on October 7, 1990. But unlike the term Essex girl, which is completely disparaging, an Essex man has worthy qualities. Heffer said an Essex man was likely to be mildly brutish and culturally barren', but he is patriotic and values family life. He added that Essex man is decent enough, after drinking in City bars, to be sick before boarding the train home from Liverpool Street station. A friend wanted to know how and when the Great got into Great Britain. When the Romans conquered a bit of the country they called it Britannia. But the French preferred to say Grande Bretagne to distinguish it from Bretagne, or Brittany. It is thought that Great Britain is a simple translation of this following the Norman Conquest in 1066. Although there is a reference to Bretayne the grete in a 14th century chronicle, the first official use of Great Britain was in 1604 when James VI of Scotland became James I of Great Britain. The 1707 Act of Union formalised the name, merging the kingdoms of Scotland and England into the kingdom of Great Britain. New research from a team at Northern Arizona University suggests that subsidence, gradually sinking terrain caused by the loss of ice and soil mass in permafrost, is causing deeper thaw than previously thought and making vulnerable twice as much carbon as estimates that don't account for this shifting ground. These findings, published this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, suggest traditional methods of permafrost thaw measurement underestimate the amount of previously-frozen carbon unlocked from warming permafrost by over 100 percent. "Though we've known for a long time that subsidence happens across the permafrost zone, this phenomenon hasn't been systematically accounted for when we talk about thaw and carbon vulnerability," said Heidi Rodenhizer, a researcher at the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society at Northern Arizona University and lead author of the study, which was co-authored by a team from NAU, Woods Hole Research Center, Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias, and Yale University. "We saw that in both warming and control environments, slight temperature increases drove significant thaw and unlocked more carbon than we saw when we weren't looking at subsidence." Traditionally, permafrost thaw has been calculated by measuring active layer thickness. To do that, scientists insert a metal rod into the ground until it hits permafrost, and measure from that depth to the soil surface. However, subsidence can mask actual thaw by lowering the soil surface and changing the frame of reference; for instance, some long-term experiments that rely on measuring active layer thickness have not recorded significant changes in thaw depth from year to year, despite rapid temperature warming. So Rodenhizer and her team combined subsidence with active layer measurements to discover how much the ground was sinking, and how much unlocked carbon was being missed. At their warming site near Healy, Alaska, the team used high-accuracy GPS to measure the elevation of experimental plots at six time points over nine years. At each plot, Rodenhizer and her team found that permafrost thawed deeper than the active layer thickness indicated: 19 percent in the control plots, and 49 percent in the warming plots. The amount of newly-thawed carbon within the active layer was between 37 percent and 113 percent greater. As the Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the planet, these findings have potentially vast implications for global carbon fluxes. Due to the widespread nature of subsidence--about 20 percent of the permafrost zone is visibly subsided, and contains approximately 50 percent of all carbon stored in permafrost--failing to account for subsidence could lead to significant underestimates of future carbon release in global climate change projections. Rodenhizer's team hopes that this study will convince more Arctic researchers across the permafrost monitoring network to apply this method and help change that. "We know that these vast carbon stores in permafrost are at risk, and we have the tools to account for subsidence and track where the carbon is going," said permafrost researcher and senior author Ted Schuur. "We should be using everything in our toolbox to make the most accurate estimates, because so much depends on what happens to Arctic carbon." ### Art collectors and philanthropists, Ms. Sandi Nicholson and her husband Mr. Bill Nicholson of Santa Barbara, CA, on becoming supporters of 'Nurse Heroes' explained, "This year we celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing and the first nursing college. Today, the legacy of Florence Nightingale continues, with people all over the world opening their doors and windows to show appreciation for our healthcare workers on the front lines. With 'Nurse Heroes' we recognized an opportunity to do more." Sandi emphasized, "There is an urgent need to support our nurses and their families. We face a rapidly accelerating shortage of nurses. Prior to COVID-19 we had a shortage of trained nurses in the United States; if nothing changes by 2022 we will have about 1 million fewer nurses than we need." Sandi explained, "Art has been shown to heal, inspire and motivate. By joining this exciting art contest, everyone can help honor and celebrate our nurse heroes. Donations to 'Nurse Heroes' will provide important opportunities and resources for our nurses and their families." In support of 'Nurse Heroes', the Nicholsons have provided a generous gift from their 'Women Who Dared' art collection, the largest collection of work exclusively by women artists in private hands. This will be the first time the 'Women Who Dared' collection is exhibited to the public. The collection includes over 330 pieces of art, spanning 2,500 years, from all 7 continents around the world. Sandi highlighted, "About 90% of all nurses are women, making 'Nurse Heroes' a perfect fit for the 'Women Who Dared' collection." Commencing in July of 2020, twelve monthly 'Nurse Heroes' art contests will take place. There are four art categories which the public can enter: Painting, Drawing, Photography, and Poetry. Each month, celebrity ambassadors will announce the finalists and winners online. Contestants' art will be exhibited alongside the 'Women Who Dared' collection in the 'Nurse Heroes' digital gallery. When conditions permit, the public will have the chance to see the art of finalists, winners and the 'Women Who Dared' collection in-person, as part of a gallery exhibition in Times Square, NYC. Sandi revealed Northwell Health as the first beneficiary of 'Nurse Heroes', "For their legacy of contributions to the communities they serve and the distinguished service provided by their front line healthcare and nursing professionals during the COVID crisis, we are delighted to select the nurses of Northwell as the first beneficiary of 'Nurse Heroes' and the 'Women who Dared' collection." "We are sincerely grateful for the Nicholsons' support and Nurse Heroes effort. Over the past several months, more than 20,000 team members of Northwell's nursing staff have shown remarkable grit and selflessness as they faced the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York," said Michael Dowling, President and CEO of Northwell Health. "I applaud efforts like the Nurse Heroes who honor the unwavering dedication of nurses they are a special breed who deserve recognition, especially during this challenging time." Donations to 'Nurse Heroes' are powered by Pledgeling, the leading digital fundraising platform utilized by over two million non-profits around the world. Donations can be made by visiting 'Nurse Heroes', or texting the word CANDLE to 707070. Evite.com has created 'Nurse Heroes' themed digital invitations to help friends and family get together to create art and enter the 'Nurse Heroes' contest. Evite is the world's leading digital platform for bringing people together to celebrate their most important life moments. About Northwell: Northwell Health is the largest healthcare provider in New York and amongst the largest in the nation. During the first 2 months of the COVID-19 crisis, Northwell Health was at the epicenter providing medical care to over 40,000 people with the support of a team of 77,000 employees, including over 3,300 physicians and 20,000 nurses. Northwell Health strives to improve the health of the communities they serve and are committed to providing the highest quality clinical care; educating the current and future generations of healthcare professionals; searching for new advances in medicine through the conduct of biomedical research; promoting health education; and caring for the entire community regardless of the ability to pay. SOURCE Nurse Heroes Foundation Related Links https://www.nurseheroes.org Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Rockpoint Group, a Boston-based real estate private equity firm and registered investment adviser has completed a final closing of its latest opportunistic vehicle, Rockpoint Real Estate Fund VI, with $3.8 billion in equity commitments. The fund well exceeded its $3 billion fundraising target. Besides, Rockpoint also recently completed a final close of its latest lower risk vehicle, Rockpoint Growth and Income Real Estate Fund III (RGI III), with $2 billion in commitments. Together, the two vehicles represent more than $5.8 billion in capital commitments. The new fund is larger than the prior fund in the opportunistic fund series, Rockpoint Real Estate Fund V, which closed in 2016 at $3.3 billion. Investors in the funds include a diverse group of public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, and other sophisticated investors spanning the United States, Asia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, according to Rockpoint. Investors in Rockpoint Real Estate Fund VI include Florida State Board of Administration, Tallahassee; Texas Permanent School Fund, Austin; Indiana Public Retirement System, Indianapolis, Minnesota State Board of Investment, St. Paul; Employees' Retirement System of Texas, Austin; San Jose (Calif.) Police & Fire Department Retirement Plan; Louisiana Teachers' Retirement System, Baton Rouge; San Antonio Fire & Police Pension Fund; San Jose (Calif.) Federated ...................... To view our full article Click here Study of 349 COVID-19 cases and over 1,900 of their close contacts finds substantial amount of secondary infections among people living together and family members before symptoms develop in the person infected. New modelling research, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, suggests the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 may spread more easily among people living together and family members than severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The estimates are the first of their kind to quantify symptomless transmission. The analysis, based on contact tracing data from 349 people with COVID-19 and 1,964 of their close contacts in Guangzhou (the most populated city in southern China), found people with COVID-19 were at least as infectious before they developed symptoms as during their actual illness, and that older people (aged 60 years or more) were most susceptible to household infection with SARS-CoV-2. The study of people living together and family members (not living at the same address), and non-household contacts (eg, friends, co-workers, passengers) suggests that breaking the chain of transmission within households through timely tracing and quarantine of close contacts, in addition to case finding and isolation, could have a huge impact on reducing the number of COVID-19 cases. While the model has been updated to reflect the current knowledge about the transmission dynamics of COVID-19, the authors caution that it is based on a series of assumptions, for example about the length of incubation and how long symptomatic cases are infectious, that are yet to be confirmed, and might affect the accuracy of the estimates. "Our analyses suggest that the infectiousness of individuals with COVID-19 before they have symptoms is high and could substantially increase the difficulty of curbing the ongoing pandemic", says Dr Yang Yang from the University of Florida in the USA who co-led the research. "Active case finding and isolation in conjunction with comprehensive contact tracing and quarantine will be key to preventing infected contacts from spreading the virus during their incubation periods, which will be crucial when easing lockdown restrictions on movement and mixing." [1] Household transmission of COVID-19 is suspected to have contributed substantially to the rise in cases in China following the introduction of lockdown measures. But little research has assessed the spread of disease at the household level. Previous estimates of household infections are specific to the setting where the data were obtained, and represent the proportion of infections among all traced contacts, which does not fully account for the difference in individual exposure history, or the fact that infections may not necessarily be secondary, and could be tertiary--ie, the possibility of transmission among contacts themselves, or infection risks from objects such as clothes, utensils, and furniture. In the study, researchers developed a transmission model that accounted for individual-level exposure, tertiary transmission, potential exposure to untraced infection sources, and asymptomatic infections. Using data gathered by the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 215 primary COVID-19 cases (ie, with no known source of exposure, or assumed to have been infected outside Guangzhou), 134 secondary/tertiary cases, and 1,964 of their close contacts between January 7 and February 18, 2020, the study estimated the secondary attack rate (the probability that an infected person transmits the disease to a susceptible individual) among people living together and family members, and non-household contacts. Close contacts--unprotected individuals who had been within a metre of a person with COVID-19 less than 2 days before their symptoms developed--were traced, quarantined, and tested for SARS-CoV-2 on days 1 and 14. The study also modelled the effects of age and sex on the infectivity of COVID-19 cases and susceptibility of their close contacts. For the primary results, researchers assumed an average incubation period of 5 days and a maximum infectious period of 13 days (including up to 5 days before illness onset). Among the 349 laboratory-confirmed primary and secondary COVID-19 cases, 19 (5%) reported no symptoms during the follow-up period. The analyses estimated that the likelihood of secondary transmission--spread from an infected person to non-household contacts--was 2.4%. The likelihood of passing on the virus was higher among people living together and family members, with an attack rate of 17.1% (or around 1 in 6) among people living at the same address, and 12.4% (about 1 in 8) among family members. "Family members such as parents and older children may not be living at the same address, which might explain why they appear at less risk of secondary infections than those living in the same household as the COVID-19 case", says co-author Dr Natalie Dean from the University of Florida, USA. "While the likelihood of transmitting COVID-19 in households may seem quite low, it is around twice what has been estimated for SARS (4.6-8%) and three times higher than for MERS (4-5%), although these data are only based on a small number of studies." [1] The model also suggests that the likelihood of household infection is highest among older adults aged 60 or more (attack rate of 28% or around 1 in 4 of those living together, 18.4% or about 1 in 5 family members), and lowest in those aged 20 years or younger (attack rate 6.4% or around 1 in 15 of those living together, 5.2% or about 1 in 20 family members; tables 1 and 4). The estimates also suggest substantial infectivity during the incubation period, comparable to, and potentially higher than, during the illness period. After one day of exposure (daily infection probability), family members were 39% less likely (OR 0.61) to become infected after symptoms emerged than during the incubation period, while those living together had 41% lower odds (OR 0.59)--although the difference was not statistically significant (table 3). There was no difference in the risk of infection between the sexes. The researchers also calculated that the local reproductive number (the average number of infections a COVID-19 case can generate during the entire infectious period via both people living together and family members, and non-household contacts) was 0.5. However, had isolation of cases or quarantine of their contacts not been implemented the estimated local reproductive number would have been 20-50% higher, increasing to 0.6-0.76. If the reproductive number remains less than one, infection is not able to spread effectively. "The relatively low reproductive number in the absence of case isolation reflects the small average number of contacts per person per day, which is probably partly due to the stringent control measures in Guangzhou during the study", explains co-author Dr Qin-Long Jing from Guangzhou CDC, China. "Although the effect of case isolation seems moderate, the high infectivity of the virus during the incubation period suggests quarantine of asymptomatic contacts could have prevented more onward transmissions." [1] The authors note some important limitations, including that they were unable to reliably quantify the infectivity of asymptomatic infections, since only two of 15 asymptomatic cases included in the analyses were considered primary cases, and some asymptomatic infections may have been missed as close contacts were only tested twice, and the tests were done 14 days apart. Furthermore, the model assumed that asymptomatic infections have the same infectivity as symptomatic cases during their incubation period, which might not be accurate. The authors also note that some imported primary cases might have been infected locally, and that some asymptomatic infections or cases might have been missed by contact tracing or by false negative tests, which could underestimate the secondary attack rate. Finally, the rapid isolation of cases and quarantine of their close contacts might have limited the number of transmissions when the cases were ill and affected the accuracy of the estimates. Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Virginia Pitzer (who was not involved in the study) from Yale School of Public Health in the USA, says, "The key difference between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV is that the probability of transmission is substantially higher during the presymptomatic incubation period for SARS-CoV-2, whereas little to no transmission occurred prior to the onset of symptoms for SARS-CoV. This made SARS-CoV much easier to control through case isolation and quarantine of contacts. Notably, the authors estimate that prompt case isolation was only able to prevent 20-50% of secondary cases of COVID-19 in Guangzhou." She concludes, "This study demonstrates the value of carefully collected contact tracing data to understand risk factors for transmission and susceptibility. The findings confirm the relative importance of pre-symptomatic transmission and the relationship between older age and susceptibility, key insights which should inform design of intervention strategies." ### NOTES TO EDITORS This first study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, Science and Technology Plan Project of Guangzhou, Project for Key Medicine Discipline Construction of Guangzhou Municipality, Key Research and Development Program of China. It was conducted by researchers from Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, China, University of Florida, , USA, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, China, Shandong University, Jinan, China, and Ohio State University, USA. The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com [1] Quotes direct from authors and cannot be found in text of Article. Peer-reviewed / Modelling study / People To the Editor: Re Ask Not What Trump Can Do for You (Opinion, June 16): I appreciate the sentiments expressed in Michelle Cottles incisive piece about the Trump rally in Tulsa planned for Saturday. She writes: The president is not content simply to endanger the lives of his supporters. He is demanding they sign away their rights for the privilege. I would add, The president is allowing his supporters to endanger all of us. The spread of the virus will not be confined to those who choose to attend the rally. This is knowingly placing many Americans in harms way and will likely lead to additional deaths. Officials of the city of Tulsa have asked the president to cancel the rally or hold it outdoors. I would urge the city to forbid the use of the indoor venue, or any venue in which the C.D.C. guidelines for social distancing were not enforced, on the basis of public endangerment. Alison Fulmer Portland, Ore. To the Editor: Re As Cases Rise, Pence Promotes a Misleading Claim About Testing (news article, June 16): What are we to make of President Trumps pronouncement If we stop testing right now, wed have very few cases, if any? For the president, ignorance is bliss. In essence, if we do not have the facts, he can believe whatever he wants. Debojit Thakur was already part of a transcontinental network when the pandemic hit. A student from Kolkata with years of experience in volunteer relief work, he was pursuing a PhD at the University of Trier in Germany, and was in the middle of a research trip to Delhi when the borders closed in March. Still, when he and a few friends decided to post a message on Facebook on March 29, inviting donations to help feed those rendered jobless and homeless, they were not expecting the response they got. People from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and across Europe, most of them students, sent in money, said Thakur, 29. And those who couldnt spare money were generous with their time, their help, and with spreading the word. Watch | HT Salutes: Debojit Thakur, a researcher who helped Covid & Amphan victims Within weeks, a network of 650 volunteers had emerged, spread across Delhi and West Bengal. Thakur decided to call it the Quarantined Student-Youth Network (QSYN).They set up 26 makeshift kitchens and have so far distributed over 10,000 ration packages and served over 100,000 cooked meals. Then the Amphan cyclone alerts began. The initiative had already raised Rs 12 lakh for migrant relief in Delhi by the time the cyclone hit West Bengal on May 20. The group decided to put out a fresh call for help, and money began to pour in even faster. Bollywood got wind of the bunch of youngsters doing good work, and celebrities like Ayushmann Khurrana, Varun Grover, Ishan Khattar and Ananya Pandey shared their details on Instagram Stories, inviting people to pitch in. By May 27, the group had collected Rs 60 lakh. By June 14, it had jumped to Rs 95 lakh, and QSYN had begun using the crowd-funding website Ketto.org, for greater ease and transparency. The direct, grassroots approach and real-time updates on Facebook inspired confidence. I donated because I could the work they were doing, directly with the people, says Dip Nag, 33, a cyber-security manager in Munich. School children donated Rs 10 or sometimes Rs 50. One professor sold some of his art and raised almost Rs 2 lakh. Samay Raina, a Mumbai-based stand-up comic, did an online benefit show and raised Rs 5 lakh for us. The list goes on, Thakur said. Now, just ensuring accountability, data collection and presentation so that everyone knows where the money is going, has become a full days work. Nadia Imam, 23, an alumnus of Jadavpur University, has volunteered to head that arm. Its a humongous task, she said. Many migrant workers are coming home to southern West Bengal to find their houses were hit by the cyclone. So now weve begun helping with rebuilding too, and thats whole different set of materials and tools and volunteering. And were doing this in six districts across the region. Locally, some donations have come in the form of supplies. Many farmers handed over vegetables at massive discounts, and were happy to do so because they didnt have markets to sell them at. Because of their pre-existing network, QSYN volunteers were among the first teams to reach some of the worst-affected areas of southern West Bengal. Some of their volunteers in the Sundarbans were coordinating ration distribution while repairing their own homes. They distributed tarpaulin and cooked meals from makeshift kitchens as part of their relief efforts. With donations still coming in, QSYN plan to now help support the school- and college-going children of migrant workers returning home from other states as well. My friends and I used to volunteer under the banner Students of Bengal. We contributed to relief work after the Nepal earthquake in 2015 and the floods in Kerala last year. In the lockdown, with the millions being affected, I realised we had to build a stronger network. Thats how QSYN was born, said Thakur. We plan to keep it going till all the money is gone. We are not an NGO but we will have to decide what to do in the future, because this is a good thing weve started. Maybe we can figure that out when we actually can meet in person. Hindustan Times and Facebook have partnered to bring you the next 15 stories of HT Salutes. HT is solely responsible for the editorial content of this series SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Beijing has cancelled more than a thousand flights and shut its schools again after the city reported 31 new cases of coronavirus. France described the upsurge as 'worrying'. Health officials in Beijing reported 31 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of new infections over the last six days to 137, the worst resurgence of the disease in the capital since early February. There were six new asymptomatic cases and three suspected cases, according to the city's health commission. An additional two domestic cases, one in neighbouring Hebei province and another in Zhejiang, were reported by national authorities on Wednesday, while there were 11 imported cases. As a result, Beijing authorities have stepped up measures to control movement to and from the capital. According to aviation data tracker Variflight some 60 percent of scheduled flights to and from Beijing Capital International Airport have been or look set to be cancelled on Wednesday. Meanwhile, all schools - which had mostly reopened - were ordered to close again and return to online classes. On Tuesday, city authorities announced a travel ban for residents of "medium- or high-risk" areas of the city, while requiring other residents to take nucleic acid tests in order to leave the capital. Fears of 'second wave' The new cases have raised fears of a second wave of infections as China had largely brought its domestic outbreak under control. "The epidemic situation in the capital is extremely severe," Beijing city spokesman Xu Hejian warned at a press conference Tuesday. Tens of thousands of people in the city linked to the virus cluster - believed to have started in the capital's Xinfadi wholesale food market - are being tested for the virus. Close to 30 residential compounds in the city are now under lockdown. Here in France Labour Minister Muriel Penicaud said the situation in China was worrying, but that trends in France remained positive. We chose a progressive and controlled easing of lockdown, she told Radio Classique on Wednesday. At this stage we are in positive momentum. I am thus working with my teams and with social partners on a lightened easing protocol for companies. Subscriber content preview HELENA, Mont. A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday to cancel a long-disputed oil and gas lease on land in northwestern Montana considered sacred to Native American tribes in the U.S. and Canada. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overruled a judge's 2018 decision that had allowed a Louisiana company to keep its lease within the Badger Two-Medicine area of Lewis and Clark National Forest. . . . The executive committee of the Birmingham Business Alliance has released a statement calling on longstanding issues of racial inequality and social injustice to be honestly and directly addressed. The statement was approved Tuesday during a special meeting of the committee called to draft a statement, according to Lauren Cooper, vice president of communications for the BBA. It came after conversations within the committee and statements by member companies of the BBA to the community and their employees. It was a very thoughtful process, Cooper said. The statement comes two weeks after the Birmingham region and many communities in America saw widespread demonstrations following the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody in Minnesota. Four Minneapolis policemen were fired following Floyds death, with one charged with his murder and three others facing related charges. Floyds death, recorded on video, touched off protests across the U.S., with some continuing weeks later. Downtown Birmingham saw civil unrest May 31 following demonstrations over Confederate monuments in Linn Park, with some businesses seeing break-ins, damage and fires. The statement reads: As an organization headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama and focused on the future growth and health of our city and region, we are keenly aware of our civil rights history and its impact on our people and our business community. The recent deaths of George Floyd and others and related events are a stark reminder that we have profound issues in our country and our communities that need to be confronted. We are experiencing history and have a real opportunity for great and lasting progress if issues of racial inequality and social injustice are honestly and directly addressed. The Birmingham Business Alliance exists to promote growth, economic development and prosperity in our region. We believe that diversity, inclusion and economic equality are critical to our success as an organization and to the long-term success of our region and our State. We also believe that we will not achieve our goals if racial inequality and social injustice are allowed to continue. The leadership of the BBA is committed to being a leader in the Birmingham region in the effort to create positive change, and we are confident that our business community fully supports this commitment. The BBA has been working hard to develop a new strategic plan, and diversity and inclusion will be a key part of every aspect of that plan. Despite our deep sadness over recent events and current unrest, the BBA is optimistic about the opportunity we now have to make this a period of progress - one that will create more opportunities for all of our citizens and make us a better and stronger city and region for the next generation. The BBA Executive Committee is a 14-member body consisting of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin; Jefferson County Commissioner Steve Ammons; UAB President Ray Watts; Nelson Bean, Synovus Bank Division CEO; Alabama Power CEO Mark Crosswhite; Gregory Curran, Maynard Cooper & Gale chairman; Nancy Goedecke, Mayer Electric CEO; Jim Gorrie, Brasfield & Gorrie CEO; Joe Hampton, Spire president; Dawn Sharff, Bradley managing partner; Sanjay Singh, Pack Health; Mark Tarr, Encompass Health CEO; John Turner, Regions Bank CEO and Tim Vines, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama CEO. SoftBank-backed ride-hailing firm Grab cuts staff to cope with virus impact FILE PHOTO: People wait for the start of Grab's fifth anniversary news conference in Singapore By Fanny Potkin and Anshuman Daga SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Southeast Asian ride-hailing and payments firm Grab said on Tuesday it would lay off more than 300 employees due to the impact of novel coronavirus, in the latest setback to major backer SoftBank Group Corp <9984.T>. Southeast Asia's most valuable startup with a valuation of $14 billion informed staff of the cuts at a town-hall meeting, according to people with knowledge of the matter. CEO Anthony Tan told staff in a note which was shared with Reuters the loss-making company would cut just under 5% of its headcount, or about 360 employees. The company had earlier asked employees to take voluntary unpaid leave. Singapore-based Grab, which is active in eight countries, did not face capital constraints and would be "sunsetting non-core projects, consolidating teams and pivoting to focus on deliveries", a spokeswoman said. Grab currently has $3 billion in reserves, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. The layoffs are the latest restructuring at a SoftBank Group Corp <9984.T> portfolio company. "The company (Grab) has been in growth mode for so many years in many verticals and it is necessary for it to make an adjustment to be more focused," said Jianggan Li, from Singapore-based tech venture consultancy Momentum Works. "With sufficient capital in the bank account and eased competitive pressure, it should really focus on building the core services well to achieve profitability." The ride-hailing industry has been battered by the pandemic, raising doubts about its business model globally. SoftBank-backed Uber and Ola have both cut hundreds of jobs. The impact in Southeast Asia has been severe, with 11 drivers for Grab and rival Gojek telling Reuters last week they had their income slashed by more than half during the outbreak. An increase in food deliveries - forecast as a major growth area for both firms - has come nowhere near compensating for the losses in transport (Reporting by Fanny Potkin, Anshuman Daga, and Aradhana Aravindan; Additional reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Stephen Coates and Mark Potter) The Court of Appeal has upheld the suspension of Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Mr Oshiomhole was suspended by the APC in Edo State in what is part of his battle with the state governor, Godwin Obaseki. An Abuja high court, in March, also ruled that his suspension was legal and ordered Mr Oshiomhole to stop parading himself as APC national chairman. The suspension was initially lifted after the appellate court granted a stay of execution of the high courts order. The appeal court, on Tuesday, however, ruled that Mr Oshiomholes suspension was valid. This throws a new twist into the Edo APC crisis as the party prepares for the governorship election. Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Obaseki announced his resignation from the APC, a decision that further ehoes the current state of the party in the state. The Ruling In a unanimous judgment on the first appeal delivered by Justice Eunice Onyemanam, the court held that the trial court had territorial jurisdiction to have entertained the suit as it did. The court also withdrew Mr Oshiomholes rights and privileges as national chairman of the party including his security details. The appeal court predicated its decision on the ground that Mr Oshiomhole as the first appellant is based in Abuja while the APC also had its national headquarters in Abuja. In the judgment in the second appeal delivered by Justice Mohammed Lamido, the court held that there was no basis for the two appellants to hold that they were denied fair hearing during proceedings at the trial court. It further held that the suspension of Mr Oshiomhole from Ward 10 of Etsako local government of Edo was ratified at the ward, local government and state level as required by law. The identity of those who suspended Oshiomhole was not in doubt because in there unchallenged affidavit they made it clear that they were party members and officers of the party, therefore the appeal lacks merit, the court held. In the two dismissed appeals, Mr Oshiomhole and the APC were the appellants. On March 4, Danlami Senchi, a judge of the FCT High Court in Abuja, ordered the suspension of Mr Oshiomhole as national chairman pending the determination of a suit filed by one Oluwale Afolabi. Mr Senchi said it was wrong of the APC to have kept Mr Oshiomhole as chairman after he was suspended by the Edo chapter of the party. But Mr Oshiomhole approached the court of appeal seeking a stay of execution of the judgement. Feud The feud between the embattled Edo State governor and his mentor-turned-rival has been on for more than a year with different twists and turns. As envisaged, but in an alleged payback slot, the embattled governor was controversially disqualified alongside two other aspirants by the partys screening committee based on discrepancies noticed in their submitted credentials on Friday. Since he (Oshiomhole) is the judge and the jury in this matter I do not believe that I will get justice because Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is an interested party in the Edo process, Mr Obaseki had told journalists barely 24 hour before his disqualification was announced. While Mr Oshiomhole insisted that the committee has been fair in its judgement, many have accused him of being behind the suspension. Mr Buhari has been silent on the Edo governors plight even after the latter visited him in Abuja. This was followed by Mr Obasekis suspicious visits to a couple of governors from the main opposition party, PDP, in a bid to fly the partys ticket in Edo state. Advertisements Despite the affirmation of Mr Oshiomholes suspension by the court, the fate of Mr Obaseki is much in the wind. Whether he would return to the APC as a result of this latest court injunction or forge ahead in his new alliance with the PDP for the ticket is uncertain. Meanwhile, the Edo State branch of the PDP has maintained its stance of no automatic governorship ticket for the governor even if he joins with his supporters. I can confirm to you that the governor, his deputy and the entire APC structure in the state will be joining PDP soon. However, I am not yet aware that the governor has obtained our partys membership card. I can also say that there is no automatic ticket in the offing for him at all, the Chairman of the PDP in Edo, Tony Aziegbemi, said on Monday. The party had slated June 22 for its direct mode of primary in the state while Nigerias electoral body, INEC, had fixed September 19 for the Edo 2020 governorship election. On its second attempt in as many weeks, the Portland City Council passed a budget Wednesday that will reroute more than $15 million from the police bureau to other city programs and initiatives. The cuts include disbanding police units that work in schools, investigate gun violence and patrol the regional public transit system. The Council voted 3-1 to adopt the $5.6 billion spending plan that kicks in July 1. Commissioner Chloe Eudaly for the second time voted against the budget, noting how many people have called for as much as $50 million to be removed from the police budget. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, before voting yes, said she believed the $50 million tally was based on nothing and hadnt seen any analysis of how that amount correlated with what the police bureau does and the direction the city wants to move in. She urged the public to instead celebrate this incredible moment that were in. A former state lawmaker, former head of Portlands NAACP chapter and the first Black woman elected to the Portland City Council, Hardesty was a key architect of the reform package approved Wednesday. Never in my life would I have imagined that we or any government would be able to cut that much significant resources out of a police budget, she said. Hardesty said the community and Portlands elected leaders have historically been followers in addressing public safety, relying on a narrative largely crafted by the police bureau. She vowed city officials will lead going forward and create a community safety plan to ensure you dont have to worry about who shows up when you call 911. She said developments during the next 90 days will give the public confidence that theyve been heard and that police reform wouldnt stop at the budget. Hardesty said she in particular would like to re-evaluate how the bureau trains and recruits officers and how the Independent Police Review functions. Hardesty specifically praised Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Amanda Fritz for their recent commitment to change. She suggested completely dismantling the police bureau would lead to legal fights with the unions. Hardesty asked the new young white people who all of a sudden are demanding equality for black folks in the community where their voices were when Portland police officers killed Kendra James in 2003, Aaron Campbell in 2010 and other Black residents. She said they werent with her advocating for changes then. I want you to know that it is not appropriate for you to say to me that I have not gone far enough, she said. You dont know the shoes that Ive walked in over the 30 years that Ive lived in Portland, and I am honored to have a seat on the City Council in this time where we are making transformational changes. Theres nowhere else in the world I would want to be. Wheeler, who is Portlands police commissioner, and Fritz said they stood with Hardesty before voting yes. Wheeler said it had been a long time since he felt this optimistic about reform in the city. I do believe that I have an important role to play in this transitional period, Wheeler said. The only way I can be effective at it is if Im listening to my colleagues, particularly those who have different lived experience than I do. Public demands for even deeper change, voiced by hundreds of Portland residents during public hearings on the budget last week, continued Wednesday as residents signed up to provide public testimony on council agenda items not related to the budget vote and used that opportunity to call for commissioners to pull $50 million from the police budget. At least 100 demonstrators, organized by advocacy group Care Not Cops, protested outside Wheelers condo building in the Pearl District. The demonstration included donuts, coffee, a DJ and people holding signs calling to defund the police bureau. Wheeler was already at City Hall at the time. The police bureaus budget has gone from $214.9 million in 2017, to $231.6 million in 2018 to $241.5 million in 2019. The bureau requested $248.3 million for the 2020-21 fiscal year before coronavirus struck, and the agencys budget was tentatively approved last month at $244.6 million. According to the city, that amount accounted for $8.5 million in coronavirus-related cuts required of every city department as well as $1.9 million separately removed from the police budget that formerly was used to pay Central City Concern to operate its sobering center and van service. By January, the nonprofit closed its publicly funded Northeast Portland facility where intoxicated people were brought to sober up as an alternative to jail and ended its roving van service that transported people there. The cuts approved Wednesday reduced the police budget for July through June 2021 to $229.3 million. More cuts are planned, including another $3.3 million the bureau has been ordered to reduce by the fall as part of citywide coronavirus-related impacts. Its not yet clear where those reductions will be. The vote comes as a time of impending change on the council. A new commissioner is due to be voted in Aug. 11 to complete the two years remaining on the term of late Commissioner Nick Fish. And Wheeler and Eudaly are in the midst of reelection campaigns for the Nov. 3 general election. Fritz will retire after her term expires at the end of 2020 and Carmen Rubio, who won election in May, will take her place on the council. Hardesty is the only current council member guaranteed to be on the five-member board in January. Her term is due to expire at the end of 2022. The council last week unanimously approved the following new uses for money previously planned for the police bureau: $4.8 million for 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. The money will come from eliminating the bureaus gun violence reduction team and 38 positions tied to it. $1 million to fund a leadership program for Black residents age 25 and younger. That money will come from cutting the bureaus school resource officer program. An additional $900,000 in savings from that move will go to the general fund. $1 million for programs to help the citys houseless population, with the funding coming from eliminating eight positions in the police bureaus Special Emergency Reaction Team, the agencys equivalent of a SWAT team. Around $600,000 will go to the citys general fund, where it could later be allocated for an as-yet-undetermined use. The money will also come from eliminating the bureaus gun violence reduction team. $453,000 in social equity grants through the Office of Community and Civic Life, funded by redirecting $2.3 million in recreational cannabis tax revenue. The rest will stay in the cannabis tax fund, instead of going to the police bureaus traffic division. $150,000 will go to hiring another tribal outreach worker in the Office of Government Relations. Around $124,000 will fund a position in the Office of Equity & Human Rights to ensure compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits public money from being spent in discriminatory ways. The city will also save $4.4 million by backing out of the multijurisdictional Transit Police and cutting or redirecting the 24 positions with it. Council members have publicly said they supported redirecting funds away from the three police units specialized in gun violence, schools and public transit calls due to years-long vocal community concerns over those units impacts on the citys marginalized populations, particularly Black residents. A 2018 city audit, for example, found that 59% of traffic stops made by members of the gun violence reduction team, then known as the gang enforcement team, were of African American drivers. The citys black residents make up 6% of the population. Eudaly said Wednesday that she felt frozen out by her colleagues last week when several budget amendments she proposed, including one to cut another 50 vacant jobs in the Portland police budget to the tune of around $4.6 million, didnt get support to move forward. She said her main concern is that the overall number of sworn officers isnt being reduced enough. She said the police bureau has more than 60 position vacancies and anticipates 40 staff members will retire by August. The bureau has around 900 sworn officers and employs around 1,200 people, city data shows. Eudaly told the public not to be discouraged by the city not cutting $50 million in police spending and to continue applying pressure to elected leaders at all levels of local and state government. She said the ongoing movement throughout the country and the city helped everyone accomplish more in three weeks than we have in three decades. What is happening today is big, Eudaly said. Its not everything you wanted, but it is not incremental. Fritz said she wanted the public to hear Hardestys words. Fritz was choked up as she thanked Hardesty for her decades-long leadership in the community and said it was an honor serving with her on the council. If ever there was a time for white people to be quiet and let other people have the floor and tell us what they want, this was it, said Fritz, who is the longest tenured council member and has served since 2009. Wheeler called his partnership with Hardesty one for the ages, and said her lived experience as a Black woman, her status as the only council member of color and experience fighting for Portland policing and public safety reform caused him to defer to her even though he oversees the police bureau. He said his thinking on local policing has evolved over the last few weeks and while he feels reforming public safety in Portland is the right thing to do, its still not clear to him what that should or will look like. He also said barriers that keep systematic and institutional racism in place in the local education, health care, mental health and banking and lending systems will also have to be part of the conversation. This budget is just one step towards that long march to justice in this community, Wheeler said. And Im going to be with you all the way. Kaitlyn Dey, a member of Care Not Cops, said after the city meeting that her group has called for considering cuts in the fall to police units that interact largely with people experiencing homelessness or mental health crisis to reach closer to $50 million in reductions. Those groups include the service coordination team and behavioral health unit. Kayse Jama, executive director of Unite Oregon, said after the budget vote that $15 million is a significant milestone but it wasnt the will of the people. He disagreed with Hardestys assertion that $50 million came without thought and noted the police bureaus budget in the 2015-16 fiscal year was around $50 million less than the $244.6 million it was set before Wednesday. Records show the police department spent $190.4 million that fiscal year. Unite Oregon, the Portland African American Leadership and other local community groups have been part of thousands in the community whove contacted Portlands elected leaders to reinvest the $50 million from the police bureau into the citys historically marginalized populations, especially its Black residents. That number is based on how much weve seen the police bureau grow by in recent years, what a significant reinvestment in our community would start to look like and a commitment to reconfiguring public safety in Portland that doesnt overrely on the police, Jama said. But the $50 million was just the beginning of what were asking, and we want to see lasting policy and system changes as well. This isnt the end of the conversation. He said the community groups and the public plan to remember whats been promised, keep a close eye on whats being done and will continue to push for community demands being met. -- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. EDITORS NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider produces exclusive weekly content and monthly events geared toward those interested in the marijuana and hemp industries. State lawmakers are scheduled to vote Thursday on one of two proposals to decriminalize weed and curb arrests that disproportionately impact Black people. The state Assembly will convene for a session at 11 a.m. and is scheduled to vote on A1897, a measure that advanced from a committee hearing Monday. It seeks to replace arrests for possessing up to two ounces of weed with a civil fine of $50, and also lessens jail time and fines for possession of larger amounts of pot on a sliding scale. Lawmakers merged the bill with another, A4269, on Monday, moving it quickly after months of delays. Assembly members first said they would work on a new decriminalization bill in November, not long after the state Legislature abandoned efforts to legalize marijuana and moved instead to put it up for voters to decide on a ballot question in November. But for more than six months, no legislation came. Then, in early June, amid nationwide civil protests calling for an end to police brutality and mass incarceration, state senators introduced a sweeping decriminalization bill. If passed, it would halt arrests for people possessing up to one pound of weed. It has not been heard in a committee yet. Police in New Jersey arrest more people for marijuana possession than every state except Texas and New York, according to FBI arrest data. And Black people are arrested at a rate more than three times higher than white people, although people of both races use marijuana at similar rates. The Assembly voted on a bill to decriminalize 15 grams of marijuana in 2012, but it did not become law. Last year, a lawmaker introduced another measure, but it languished, too. Either bill would need to pass the Assembly and the Senate both with Democrat majorities before moving to Gov. Phil Murphys desk for a signature. Neither would make marijuana legal, but they would lead to less people facing jail time or criminal convictions that make it harder to apply for jobs, loans and public housing. Attempts to decriminalize marijuana faltered in recent years as the states top politicians said they did not support the concept and worried it would boost illegal weed sales. But as legalization stalled, Murphy and Senate President Stephen Sweeney, both Democrats, have shifted their stances, saying they are open to decriminalization to stop arrests. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Amanda Hoover may be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. (CNN) -- Even as Florida, Texas and Arizona have set daily records for new coronavirus cases this week, investors received a dose of good news: US retail sales surged 17.7% in May, far more than economists had predicted and a record increase. Why it matters: The jump is being read as a sign that America's economy is snapping back from lockdowns faster than expected as shoppers head back to newly reopened stores. "The data indicate that overall spending has started to recover more quickly than we had initially thought and, with many states not easing their lockdowns until well into May, sales look set for a continued recovery in June," Andrew Hunter, senior US economist at Capital Economics, told clients. The research firm now forecasts that US output will contract at an annualized rate of 30% this quarter, instead of 40%. (A good reminder: All positive data is relative right now.) But there's more to the retail story, my CNN Business colleague Nathaniel Meyersohn points out. Sales increases were driven by a rebound at clothing and accessories stores, which rose 188% in May, according to the Census Bureau. But the bounce could be short-lived if US consumers become less willing to spend on discretionary items, especially if there's a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus cases. Additionally, the federal government's stimulus efforts and enhanced unemployment benefits of an additional $600 a week have boosted retail sales, experts say. The benefits are scheduled to end next month. "Sorry to rain on the parade, but household incomes rose in April thanks to the support of the CARES [Act,] boosting May retail sales," tweeted Betsey Stevenson, a University of Michigan economics professor. "Don't expect a similar rise in the coming months with CARES [Act] income support coming to an end." Hunter has argued that the end of expanded $600 per week payments could "result in a big drop-off in incomes just as the economic recovery is starting to get under way." But he thinks that with unemployment still high, payments won't be allowed to lapse entirely and if they are, more fiscal support from Congress is likely to follow. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, testifying before US senators on Tuesday, said there's a "reasonable probability" that more help from both Congress and the Fed will be necessary. "We have a long road ahead of us," he said. Powell will testify before members of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday. Could the Federal Reserve start buying stocks? The Federal Reserve is buying junk bonds and corporate debt ETFs as part of its campaign to revive the American economy. Next on its shopping list could be US stocks Scott Minerd, global chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners, told my CNN Business colleague Matt Egan. The S&P 500 has skyrocketed 40% since March 23, when the Fed announced its unprecedented experiment with junk bonds. That surge, coming in the face of the collapse of the real economy, drove up market valuations to levels seen during the dot-com bubble. But Minerd thinks a reckoning is coming, and soon. He expects the S&P 500 will retest its March 23 low of 2,237.40 over the next month, potentially crumbling to as low as 1,600. That would mark a 49% collapse from where the index traded Tuesday during a strong rally. "There's a point where the Federal Reserve is going to have to pull out a bazooka," Minerd said. "And I think the option of buying stocks on the part of the Fed is on the table." Minerd warned his clients back in February when US stocks were rising to ever greater heights that there were "red flags" in financial markets. "This will eventually end badly," he wrote on February 13. "I have never in my career seen anything as crazy as what's going on right now." Buying stocks would be a significant escalation in the Fed's mission to avoid a depression and would face legal obstacles. Technically, the Fed does not have the legal authority to purchase stocks, although former Fed chief Janet Yellen told CNBC in April that the US central bank should seek that power. "I frankly don't think it's necessary at this point," Yellen said. "But longer term, it wouldn't be a bad thing for Congress to reconsider the powers that the Fed has with respect to assets it can own." The economic consequences of the China-India conflict China and India are locked in a tense diplomatic and military standoff after a deadly border skirmish earlier this week. The economic stakes are high too, given the huge trading relationship and particularly close ties in technology, my CNN Business colleagues Rishi Iyengar and Sherisse Pham report. India imports more goods from China than any other country. And over the past decade, India and China have enabled risen together as emerging technology powerhouses. Now, the dispute threatens those ties. Growing anti-China sentiment in India has led to calls for a boycott of Chinese products and services, while new rules on foreign investment could constrain China's ability to cash in on India's internet boom. At least 20 Indian soldiers died after a face-off with Chinese troops along a disputed border in the Himalayas earlier this week, according to the Indian army, raising alarm about an escalating conflict. But deep economic links means decoupling is much easier said than done. Unable to convince India to sign on to its global infrastructure project known as the Belt and Road Initiative, China entered India's tech scene by flooding the market with cheap smartphones and plowing money into Indian start-ups. And leading Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei, despite a US-led global campaign against its business, is technically still in the running to help build India's 5G network. Up next US housing starts and building permits for May post at 8:30 a.m. ET. Also today: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testifies before the House Financial Services Committee starting at 12 p.m. ET. Coming tomorrow: Americans are expected to have filed another 1.3 million initial unemployment claims last week. That would be the 11th straight week of declines. This story was first published on CNN.com, "The retail recovery looks extremely vulnerable. Here's why." Protesters armed with AR-15s and handguns were pictured Tuesday at the burned down Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was shot last Friday. His family on Monday called on demonstrators to refrain from violence amid heightened tensions across the U.S. three weeks after George Floyd's death. An autopsy found that Brooks, 27, was shot twice in the back late Friday by a white officer who was trying to arrest him for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car. Brooks tried to flee after wrestling with officers, grabbing a stun gun from one. His death has sparked outrage but one black Georgia sheriff has said the shooting was 'completely justified'. Burke County, Ga. Sheriff Alfonzo Williams told CNN: 'There's nothing malicious or sadistic in the way these officers behaved.' Images from the scene of his shooting death taken Tuesday show protesters at the scene with rifles and handguns. Brooks' killing rekindled those protests following the death of Floyd on May 25. The Wendy's restaurant where Brooks was shot by Officer Garrett Rolfe was burned down over the weekend. A man armed with a rifle stands guard Tueaday at the memorial that has grown around the Wendy's restaurant that was set on fire after Rayshard Brooks was killed The fatal shooting of Brooks, a black man, by a white police officer in Atlanta has poured more fuel on the raging US debate over racism, prompting another round of street protests and the resignation of the southern city's police chief Protesters armed with AR-15s were pictured Tuesday at the burned down Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks shot Friday Brooks' death has sparked outrage but one black Georgia sheriff has said the shooting was 'completely justified'. Burke County, Ga. Sheriff Alfonzo Williams told CNN: 'There's nothing malicious or sadistic in the way these officers behaved' Burke County, Georgia, Sheriff Alfonzo Williams says the shooting of Rayshard Brooks was completely justified. There's nothing malicious or sadistic in the way these officers behaved, he says, adding that this case can't be compared to those of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. pic.twitter.com/Px6hwdffZN CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) June 16, 2020 Investigators say Brooks, 27, fought with Rolfe and another officer, Devin Brosnan, before taking one of their Tasers, fleeing, and pointing the stun gun at Rolfe as he ran away. Rolfe was dismissed from the force Saturday after firing the fatal shots that killed Brooks. Brosnan, who didn't fire, has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. Police Chief Erika Shields resigned. Sheriff Williams said Tuesday: 'It's very unfortunate that the law enforcement leaders in the state of Georgia have not come out and stood together on this case. I think it's political and it's senseless. 'We're sending the wrong message to our black youth. We're telling them that it's OK, that they can run from the police, that they can take a weapon from the police, they can fight with the police, and point their weapon at the police, and expect nothing to happen. That is the wrong message to send to black youth.' Williams said the case was different to that of Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery which were 'very clear, outrageous violations of policy and law.' 'I'm saying that what happened in the Brooks case is completely justified, 100 percent', Williams added. Brooks' killing rekindled those protests following the death of Floyd on May 25. The Wendy's restaurant where Brooks was shot was burned down over the weekend The site has become a place of remembrance for Mr. Brooks, who was killed by police while fleeing after a struggle during a field sobriety test in the Wendy's parking lot Kasseem Stevens, 25, carries a gun as he raise his fist outside a burned Wendy's restaurant A man burns out his car tyres as protesters block the road next to burned Wendy's restaurant on the fourth day of protests following Brooks' death Bellawhurl and her son Prince Eli visit the memorial for Brooks. An autopsy found that Brooks, 27, was shot twice in the back late Friday by a white officer who was trying to arrest him for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car A protester with an AR15-style semi-automatic weapon joins protesters outside a Wendy's restaurant. Brooks tried to flee after wrestling with officers, grabbing a stun gun from one Police had been called to the restaurant over complaints of a car blocking the drive-thru lane. An officer found Brooks asleep in the car. Police video showed Brooks cooperating with the officers for more than 40 minutes until a breath test determined his blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit. When one of the officers moved to handcuff him, Brooks tried to run and the officers took him to the ground. Brooks broke free and took off with a stun gun but was shot. Rolfe told authorities that Brooks fired the stun gun at him. Asked why Brooks ran, family attorney L. Chris Stewart suggested that he may have feared for his life. 'They put George Floyd in handcuffs and he was subsequently killed,' Stewart said. 'So just getting put in handcuffs if you're African American doesn't mean, oh, you're going to get nicely taken to the back of a police car.' The officers' disciplinary histories showed Rolfe received a written reprimand in 2017 for use of force with a firearm but provided no other details. Rolfe, who was hired in October 2013, also got a written reprimand in 2018 and an oral admonishment in 2014, both for vehicle crashes. A firearm discharge case from 2015 listed no conclusion. Brosnan was hired last June and had no disciplinary history. Bodycam footage shows a polite interaction with Brooks for 30 minutes before the shooting. Though he appears intoxicated, Brooks cooperates with police until they try to arrest him Officer Garrett Rolfe (left) was fired from the force after firing the shots that killed Brooks on Friday night, while Officer Devin Bronsan (right), who was also present but did not fire, has been placed on administrative leave Surveillance video released by GBI shows Brooks (circled, right) fleeing towards the right hand side of the image as he is pursued by two officers. Both Brooks and the officer immediately behind him are seen holding police Tasers with illumination Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he hopes to decide by midweek whether to charge the officers. The deaths of Floyd in Minneapolis and Brooks has led to a push in the U.S. for more training of police officers in how to de-escalate tense situations. 'You've got to get cops to understand that it's not a cowardly act, that backing off could save this person's life,' said Tom Manger, a retired police chief in Virginia and Maryland and former president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would encourage better police practices and establish a database of officers with a history of excessive-force complaints. Officials said the order also would promote certification agencies that teach officers de-escalation techniques. About 30 minutes into the interaction, Rolfe tells Brooks that he believes he is too drunk to operate a motor vehicle and that he is being placed under arrest. As the officers begin to handcuff him, Brooks struggles, knocking the body camera off Brooks is seen getting away from the grasp of one of the police officers during the attempted arrest on Friday A protester watches as the Wendy's burns following a rally protesting the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks Manger said that in situations like the one that ended in Brooks' death, officers should be taught to make high-pressure, split-second decisions that involve alternatives to force for example, waiting for more backup to arrive, taking cover or retreating. In the Atlanta case, the officer could have ducked behind a car or put enough distance between himself and Brooks so that the stun gun which can reach only 15 feet couldn't hit him, Manger said. Even in a situation where deadly force can be justified, it's often not necessary, he said. Police officers need to operate from the mindset that deadly force is really a last resort to be used only when they or others are in grave danger, Manger said. BERLIN - Journalist rights groups and Iranian dissidents are urging Romania not to deport a former Iranian official to his homeland to face corruption charges, saying he should be prosecuted in Europe for ordering the mass arrest of reporters while serving as a judge in Tehran. Gholamreza Mansouri, 66, fled Iran last year after authorities there alleged he took some 500,000 euros ($560,000) in bribes as a judge. Details on the allegations havent been released. Mansouri made a video statement online last week denying the charges, saying he left Iran for unspecified medical treatment and that coronavirus travel restrictions prevented him from returning to face the charges. I will never, never, never turn my back to the system and my country. I consider the Islamic Republic as a shrine, he said. Iran is seeking his extradition. The German chapter of Reporters Without Borders filed a complaint with federal prosecutors in Germany last week, urging that Mansouri be investigated on allegations of torture and human rights abuses for ordering the arrest of 20 reporters in Iran in 2013. German prosecutors confirmed Wednesday they were looking into the complaint, and Reporters without Borders said it had now filed a second complaint with Romanian authorities after learning Mansouri had slipped away from Germany already. European governments and judiciary systems must act quickly to prevent Gholamreza Mansouri from escaping just punishment, said Christian Mihr, the Germany director of Reporters Without Borders. Nobody who has been involved in state crimes against journalists can be allowed to be safe from law enforcement in Europe, he said. Mohammad Hooshyar Emami, an Iranian dissident living in Romanias capital of Bucharest since 1991, told The Associated Press he has filed a complaint with Romanian prosecutors in consultation with the Iranian exile opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq accusing Mansouri of human rights violations. I have also been a political prisoner of this regime and I know the torture and the pain that these freedom-fighting people undergo at the hands of the regime, he said in a telephone interview. It was not clear when Mansouri travelled to Romania, but Irans judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaeili said June 13 that Mansouri had been arrested there and was expected to be returned to Iran in the following days. Romanian authorities did not immediately return calls seeking comment. A decision posted on a Bucharest appeals court website dated June 12 said Mansouri had been freed from custody and placed under judicial control for 30 days while Irans request for his extradition was under review, meaning he cannot leave Romania and must show up if summoned. Irans embassy did not return calls. Mansouri is best known for ordering the mass arrest of the reporters in 2013 toward the end of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads time in office. But in 2012, he also banned the reformist Shargh daily newspaper and detained its editor-in-chief over a published cartoon that authorities deemed insulting to those who fought in the Iran-Iraq war. Scott Griffen, deputy director of the Vienna-based International Press Institute, called Mansouri a key figure responsible for the arbitrary mass persecution of journalists in Iran. Romanian authorities should take the necessary steps to ensure that he is held accountable for his actions in a court of law in Europe, Griffen said. It is highly unlikely that his extradition to Iran would result in any form of justice. _____ Vadim Ghirda in Bucharest contributed to this story. As per the necessity these days, The Lower East Side Film Festival is presenting their lineup online this year, kicking off their 2020 Virtual Schedule tomorrow night. The fest is highlighting premieres of feature films, beloved themed short film showcases, virtual events (Trivia Night!), Industry Livestreams (panels and conversations), with Judges Indya Moore (Pose), Samantha Bee (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee), and more at the helm. This years theme promises to spotlight immigrant and 1st/2nd generation filmmakers with the 2020 film line-up that acknowledges the character of The Lower East Side itself. Feature films include: Blunderpuss Directed by Shaina Feinberg; After a stint in rehab, a clown goes on an apology tour. Eager to reinvent himself he purchases a pair of tap shoes. Starring Chris Manley, Drae Campbell, Mona Chalabi, Karolena Theresa, Jeff Seal and Chris Roberti. Mentally AI Directed by Joshua Edelman; featuring Judd Apatow and Sarah Silverman. A character study of, the funniest comedian youve never heard of, and an exploration of how we define artistic success, Mentally AI follows Al Lubel, a former Star Search grand champion as he struggles to get by, perpetually broke and sleeping on friends couches, as he continues to pursue his artistic dreams into his sixties. Unschooled Directed by Rachel Beth Anderson and Timothy Grucza; Unschooled follows three inner-city high school students as they embark on a radical educational program in North Philadelphia a program dedicated to empowering students to direct their own education. Featured festival events include: Inside The Writers Room of Hulus Ramy with Ramy Youssef and the writers behind the upcoming 2nd season, in conversation with The Writers Guild of America East, discussing the process of writing about comedy, relationships and religion. Rebecca Miller In Conversation with Shaina Feinberg, a conversation with filmmaker Rebecca Miller and LESFF Alumni filmmaker Shania Feinberg as they discuss the creative choices they have made when faced with overcoming obstacles, and how pandemic or not indie-filmmaking requires an ability to adapt and how that adaptability has shaped their work and their careers. Viewers can purchase individual tickets for features and short showcases ($10 each) or an All-Access Festival Pass ($30). All panels and Trivia Night are free. See the full schedule HERE. All films will be live starting June 18th at 6:00pm. The festival will unveil new content everyday at 6:00pm through June 22 but will be available to stream through June 29th. Winners will be announced online on Monday June 22nd at 6pm. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the federal government's early coronavirus tracking a "terrible blunder" in an interview with "Good Morning America," said he would not accept a cabinet position in a Joe Biden administration and insisted that his gradual but disciplined approach to shutting down New York state was the best course -- then and now. "We went from the worst infection rate [in the nation] to the best infection rate," Cuomo told ABC News' Amy Robach in an illuminating interview on Tuesday in Albany, New York, about the first 100 days of New York's response to COVID-19 which began with New York's first confirmed case on March 1 and ended on a small note of triumph June 8, with the partial re-opening of New York City. Cuomo also credited New Yorkers for following his lead and sounded off on everything from needing a good hug from his mom to his darkest moments -- when the crisis was so severe that he'd privately lean on his memories of his late father and predecessor as New York's governor, Mario Cuomo. "There were many nights when I would get in bed and I couldn't sleep, and I would just be staring at the ceiling," Cuomo said. "And I would say to myself, 'What would he say?' And I could hear his voice, you know? And I knew what he'd say and that gave me a lot of comfort, a lot of guidance My father's spirit lives in me. I know what he would say. I know his advice." As for the three grueling months battling to contain the coronavirus from which he just emerged, Cuomo was obediently -- if colorfully -- concise. "In one word, can you describe the past 100 days?" Robach wondered. "Hell!" Cuomo replied, his expressive face broadening into a signature smile. "Can I say that?" Cuomo said he still doesn't know the answer to his state's $64,000 question: When will New York schools re-open? Story continues "And I don't think that anybody knows," he said. "And anybody who tells you what's going to happen in September? I wouldn't believe them." 'Exponential' spread New York's governor has been faulted for overseeing a too-gradual shutdown of New York state as the virus raged through the tri-state area earlier this year. Cuomo waited until March 20 to fully close down the state. By April 1, more than 2,000 New Yorkers would be dead. PHOTO: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference against a backdrop of medical supplies at the Jacob Javits Center that will house a temporary hospital in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, March 24, 2020, in New York. (John Minchillo/AP) Even as far less dense urban centers like San Francisco closed schools on March 12 and issued the nation's first shelter-in-place orders on March 17, Cuomo urged caution. Three days later, he closed New York state down, too. Critics have suggested Cuomo should have recognized the scope of the threat when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began screening incoming passengers from China on Jan. 17, more than two months before the first confirmed New York case. Yet the governor looks back on the early days of the pandemic from a different perspective. The U.S. West Coast "had cases much sooner than we did," Cuomo said. "They had cases back in January. We didn't have a case until March." "No one really knew what they were talking about when this COVID crisis started," Cuomo insisted. "We were all told that the virus was coming from China. Turns out the virus came from Europe and that's why New York had such a bad situation initially because no one was stopping the flights from Europe." "It was just a terrible blunder, frankly," he said. "But that's why New York had a very high rate of infection" at first, Cuomo said. He laid the blame for early, severe outbreaks in New York City and Westchester County, at the feet of the federal government. "We knew in January that China had the virus," Cuomo said. "We must have known whoever in the federal government watches this if the virus is in China, didn't someone expect that the virus was going to get on a plane and travel? And it did. And it wasn't in China anymore. It went to Europe and then we all these Europeans coming here, January, February, March. And nobody knew anything I mean, when you think back it was really just an amazing mistake by the federal government." The governor said the moment he knew he could no longer contain the blooming outbreaks in New York was in mid-March, when a New Rochelle attorney who became the state's second confirmed case proved to be New York's first case of "community transmission" meaning the virus has silently taken root in a region and is spreading. "When I saw that explode it just mushroomed. It was exponential. I knew that there was no containing the exposure." 'Credibility of the government' Cuomo has consistently argued in recent weeks that a gradual closure was vital to limiting New Yorkers' panic and maintaining public compliance with unprecedented new restrictions on public movement. He told Robach that his strategy was necessary in today's political environment. "If I had just stood up there and said to 19 million New Yorkers, 'This is what you have to do: you have to stay home, you can't go out, you can't go to the movie, you can't go to work, schools are closed' Let's be honest: the credibility of the government is not where it was. So, I wanted to give them the facts. I wanted to earn their confidence." "So I worked at it every day providing information, providing the facts, the updated facts. And then I would give my opinion I was very clear to always separate the facts from the opinion." One of Cuomo's greatest fears, he said, was widespread non-compliance. "If there's no compliance, you're in a really bad place," he said. "You know, if the government stands up and says, 'You must do this, this, this and this,' and the people say, 'No thanks, you haven't made your case. I don't understand why.' Well, then, it's a really bad situation." New Yorkers lost Cuomo said he feels the pain and the loss though not necessarily the blame for the outsized numbers of New Yorkers that account for the national death toll, which on Tuesday evening was nearing 31,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. "New Yorkers who died did not die because we failed them," he contended. "The goal should be, 'make sure we don't lose a life that we could have saved,' [or] 'make sure no one dies because we failed them,' Cuomo said at another point in the interview. "What happened in Italy where the hospital system was overwhelmed and people died on gurneys and in hallways, where society failed, government failed. In New York, we've lost people, but we did not lose anyone who we did not give the best medical care to." "That's how I put my head on the pillow at night and that's how I sleep." PHOTO: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks to guests during the National Action Network (NAN) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Public Policy Forum in the Harlem borough of New York City, Jan. 15, 2018. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters, FILE) Shortages Cuomo was reluctant to specify precisely how prepared with supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) New York was at the start of the pandemic but said that no state including his own was truly prepared for what hit hotspots like New York and the Seattle area early on. "Look, no one we have the best health care system in the country, I believe," he insisted. "I don't believe any other state was more prepared than we were now, where we did have issues was PPE, the masks, the gowns, etcetera. But that was every state in the country." A spokeswoman for the governor said that to date, the state has distributed more than 80 million pieces of PPE to hospitals and other facilities in New York, made 90,000 volunteer healthcare workers available to support overburdened healthcare systems, created a central inventory system to coordinate and distribute key resources like ventilators and other hard-to-find medical supplies. A ProPublica investigation into New York's response to the coronavirus sought to clarify the size and scope of New York's state emergency medical stockpile, but according to the non-profit investigative news outlet, administration officials declined requests to specify the exact contents of the state stockpile prior to the pandemic. Cuomo Vs. Trump Cuomo declined an offer to grade President Donald Trump's response at the federal level to the COVID-19 pandemic. "He can grade himself or a higher being or the people of this nation will grade him come Election Day." Cuomo has been heralded for his deft political management of the president's fickle temperament. An April 3 New York Times headline declared that Cuomo Emerges as 'Trump Whisperer' During Coronavirus Crisis. Yet he readily acknowledged what has become apparent in recent weeks: His relationship with Trump a fellow son of Queens from across the political aisle (at least as of 2012, when Trump changed his party affiliation for the fifth and final time, from independent to Republican) may be long, but it's complicated. "Yes, I know him from New York," Cuomo told Robach. "But we had politically, we had a very difficult relationship, always, since he was elected." "We were open and honest in the relationship" at the start," Cuomo said. "And when we agreed, we agreed. And when we disagreed, we disagreed. And I said to him from Day One, 'Forget the past, forget the politics. I'll call it straight the way I see it, he'll call it straight. And when it worked, it worked and when it didn't, I said it didn't." While Cuomo is characteristically cautious in criticizing the U.S. president, preferring to remain in his own political lane where possible, he makes a point of returning to his own governing playbook. "I take my position very seriously," he told ABC News. "I put myself in a position where I said, 'Look, I take all the blame. I'm accountable. Buck stops at on my desk, whatever expression you want to use." "I didn't try to defer responsibility," he continued. "I didn't try and blame anyone else I didn't point to local officials or this one or that one. So I did the job the way I think the job should be done. I respect the office. I respect the responsibility. So I assumed it. I never ran from it." 'A grain of salt' One of Cuomo's most heralded leadership qualities in recent months has been the compassion he's demonstrated over months of often lengthy daily press briefings, where his seasoned oratorical skills have found a new national audience eager for an alternative to the chaos in Washington D.C. New York's hard-charging governor, widely considered a master political tactician, seemed gently dismissive of his recent portrayal in the national press as a stern but trustworthy figure. A Jezebel blogger published 'Help! I Think I'm in Love with Andrew Cuomo???'. A week later, comedienne Chelsea Handler published a heartfelt letter of thanks to Cuomo for his leadership in Vogue, entitled: 'Dear Andrew Cuomo, I Want to Be Your First Lady.' PHOTO: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addresses the congregation at the First Baptist Church of Crown Heights in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Aug. 19, 2018. (Office of the Governor of New York) The governor said he takes it all in stride. "Look, it's, it's nice," Cuomo said, "but it is what it is I've been around long enough to take everything with a grain of salt. You take the positive with a grain of salt; you take the negative with a grain of salt. But to the extent that people relied on me through this that, I'm very grateful for." Second wave? Cuomo was far more animated when talking about the threat of a second wave of outbreaks. "So many things we still don't know," he said. "I talk to global experts every day, people who have gone through China and South Korea and Italy But nobody really knows, 'Is there a second wave? Is there not a second wave?'" He called new spikes in COVID-19 cases in states that have begun to re-open "frightening." "You look at what's going on around the country with the spike[s] in the number of viral transmissions," he said. "That is frightening. You know, New York is not an island. We can be doing a great job and getting the spread down and the rate of transmission down but people travel from here to other states" and vice-versa. "And if it's going up in other states and people get on an airplane and they come to New York we could be back in the same situation we were in." Cuomo recognizes that he can't control the nation from the governor's mansion in Albany, but he said he's hopeful that what he perceives to be his disciplined model of containment will be replicated elsewhere, now that New York can boast the lowest new transmission rate in the nation. "We're asking [New Yorkers] to do very difficult things," he said. "I fight it every day because, you see other states reopening and you want to get on with life and the weather is warm and young people want to go to the beach and they want to hang out in a bar." "And I'm saying, you know, 'Not yet. Not this. Not that. So, hopefully the trust will help us through this it's a struggle every day to do the right thing." (MORE: Gov. Andrew Cuomo merch is here and trending all over the internet) Doing the right thing extends to his own family, Cuomo said. "When are you going to hug your Mom again?" Robach asked him. "I haven't hugged my mom since this started," he said. "I miss that." Cuomo paused for a beat. "I don't think she misses it," he observed with a grin. "But I miss it!" ABC News' Aaron Katersky, Rachel Katz, Josh Margolin, Ella Torres, Alexandra Smith and the ABC News Investigative Unit contributed to this report. 100 days in hell: Gov. Andrew Cuomo on his pandemic performance originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com [June 17, 2020] The Nordic data center construction market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 1% during the period 2019-2025 NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In-depth Analysis and Data-driven Insights on the Impact of COVID-19 Included in this Nordic Data Center Construction Market Report Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05915168/?utm_source=PRN The Nordic data center construction market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 1% during the period 20192025. The Nordic data center market has been a favorable destination for data center developments and investments for hyperscale data center operators, colocation providers, and cryptocurrency operators. The adoption of cloud-based services, big data analytics, and IoT services has grown significantly by local enterprises across countries in the Nordic region, boosting local colocation demand in the market. Public cloud and hybrid infrastructure services have witnessed strong growth in recent years. The market is witnessing significant investments in submarine cable projects from service providers. Telecommunication providers are investing heavily to strengthen the broadband services in the region. The availability of renewable sources of energy is the major market driver, with majority of data centers powered through renewable energy sources. The rapid spread of COVID-19 has significantly increased data traffic from March 2020 onwards. The global data center construction market is facing a major slowdown due to the rapid spread of the Covid-19. To provide high availability services, operators are taking precautionary measures for their on-site employees. Colocation data center operators have reduced onsite staff and postponed non-critical maintenance and construction projects. The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the Nordic data center construction market during the forecast period: Increasing Adoption of Distinct Heating Concept Growing Construction of Cryptocurrency Data Centers Rising Modular Data Center Deployment Increasing Adoption of Cloud-based Services The study considers the present scenario of the Nordic data center construction market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The report offers both the demand and supply aspect of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent ones operating in the market. Nordic Data Center Construction Market Segmentation This research report includes a detailed segmentation by electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, tier standards, and geography. The increased data centers construction in Denmark is expected to observe the demand for intelligent and efficient power infrastructure solutions during the forecast period. The redundancy in infrastructures such as UPS systems and PDUs is likely to be over 2N, whereas for switchgears it will be N+1 configuration with dual power line inside and outside facilities. Several facilities in Sweden have adopted N+N redundant power infrastructure. Data centers must be flexible enough to facilitate additional redundancy. A majority of facilities will be powered by dual power lines, and rural developments will include on-site substations. The use of redundant diesel generators might reduce due to a strong power grid supply in the Nordic region. Generators and switchgears with N+1 redundant configuration are being adopted in the facilities. The UPS and PDUs in N+N, 2N, 2N+1 configuration are being installed due to their flexible designs. In terms of cooling, data centers in Denmark have an advantage as the region offers 85% free cooling annually. This reduces electricity consumption by cooling units by up to 50%. The data centers in Norwayuse free cooling chillers, adiabatic dry coolers, and evaporative coolers to cool down the IT infrastructure. The adoption of cooling techniques is highly dependent on the location and design of the facility. It is expected that most future investments will involve evaporative coolers, whereas the possibility of using an abundance of water resources is also high. In Nordic, the market is completely dominated by greenfield development. In these projects, building development is carried out by major construction contractors in coordination with design and infrastructure providers and service operators. The involvement of sub-contractors is high as they have strong expertise in building structures in a particular location. Denmark continues to dominate with hyperscale greenfield development. These data center projects provide high revenue opportunities for general contractors. Local sub-contractors are also expected to witness continuous growth in their revenues during the forecast period. With the increased construction of hyperscale facilities, the demand for skilled professionals is likely to grow in the country. The growth in greenfield hyperscale facilities will generate more revenue for installation and commission service providers in Nordic. The Tier I & Tier II data center market is expected to register a negative CAGR during the forecast period. The number of Tier I and Tier II facilities has reduced significantly over the past five years because of the increasing awareness of the use of redundant infrastructure. UPS and PDU systems in Tier II data centers are equipped with minimum N+N redundancy. A majority of under-developed projects across the Nordic region fall under the Tier III category. This trend is likely to continue during the forecast period. Many operators are expected to move to the Tier IV category based on the growth in rack power capacity and critical applications. In Finland and Iceland , there are three data centers that are Uptime Institute Certified under the Tier III category. Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure UPS Generators Transfer Switches & Switchgears Rack PDUs Other Electrical Infrastructure Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure Cooling Systems o CRAC & CRAH Units o Chillers o Cooling Towers & Dry Coolers o Other Units Racks Other Mechanical Infrastructure Segmentation by General Construction Building Development Installation & Commissioning Services Building Designs Physical Security DCIM Segmentation by Tier Standards Tier I & Tier II Tier III Tier IV Insights by Geography Facebook investments in its Odense Data Center Facility in Denmark is followed by Google broke ground on its first Denmark data center, which is likely to be functional by 2021. In terms of colocation providers, Bulk Infrastructure invested in its DK01 Campus along with investments from DigiPlex, GlobalConnect, and Interxion are investing in the data center market in Denmark . In Norway , Microsoft and Equinor contributed to the investment along with Green Mountain with investments in facilities such as DC2 Telemark and Telemark & Stavanger Data Center. In 2019, Stockholm was the major investment destination Sweden that includes seven facility development activities with an estimated investment of over $350 million . Hyperscale renewable procurement is growing YOY in the region. For instance, Google has signed a 12-year contract with a power company in Norway to supply 160 MW of wind energy to power its data centers in Europe . The country has ample renewable energy sources to support large facilities. Segmentation by Geography Denmark Sweden Norway Finland & Iceland Insights by Vendors The Nordic data center construction market is witnessing a steady growth in terms of greenfield and modular data center construction, with the high adoption of efficient and modular data center infrastructure solutions. The market has evolved over the years with multiple innovations focused on reducing power and water consumption and decreasing carbon dioxide emissions. Schneider Electric, Eaton , Rittal, Vertiv, and ABB are leading vendors in the electrical infrastructure market. Vendors are also partnering with modular data center developers and direct liquid cooling providers to increase revenues. This trend is likely to continue during the forecast period. Prominent Support Infrastructure Providers ABB Airedale Air Conditioning Alfa Laval Asetek Bosch Security Systems ( Robert Bosch ) Caterpillar Cummins Delta Group Eaton KINOLT (Euro-Diesel) Hitech Power Protection KOHLER (SDMO) Legrand Piller Power Systems Riello UPS Rittal MTU On Site Energy (Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG) Schneider Electric Socomec Group STULZ Trane ( Ingersoll Rand ) Vertiv Prominent Construction Contractors AECOM Arup Group Bravida COWI Dornan DPR Construction ENACO Etix Everywhere (VANTAGE DATA CENTER) Fortis Construction Granlund HDR Architecture KMCS Mace Group Mercury Engineering MTH GROUP NCC Ramboll Royal HaskoningDHV Skanska SRV Group Sweco Prominent Data Center Investors Bahnhof BorderLight AB (GoGreenHost) Bulf Infrastructure Digiplex Equinix Facebook GlobalConnect Interxion Microsoft Multigrid Green Mountain AS EcoDataCenter Key Questions Answered 1. What is the Nordic data center construction market size and growth forecast? 2. What are the factors impacting the growth of the Nordic data center construction market forecast? 3. What are the leading drivers, trends, and restraints in the Nordic data center construction market? 4. Who are the leading vendors and what are their market shares? 5. What impact the COVID-19 Pandemic have on the market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05915168/?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 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-nordic-data-center-construction-market-is-expected-to-grow-at-a-cagr-of-over-1-during-the-period-20192025-301078711.html SOURCE Reportlinker [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Action24, a Dublin based security business which provides intruder alarms, CCTV and access control solutions, has received a 3.6m investment from growth capital investor BGF. Based in Sandyford, Action24 has 13,000 customers nationwide, it employs 75 staff. Experienced financier Conor Sheahan is joining Action24 as chairman and will invest in the business alongside BGF. Mr Sheahan has considerable experience in mentoring fast growing businesses including international technology company, Learnosity and Accelerated Payments. Mark Sykes from BGF will join the Action24 board with Jack OKelly of BGF joining as a board observer. Aaron Mooney, CEO of Action24 said: BGF have shared our vision for the business from our first interactions, and we are very pleased today to be bringing them on board. This investment will help support Action24 on our next exciting phase of growth. Action24 was founded by Derek Mooney in 1981. Mr Mooney took over as CEO in 2018 and has led the companys continued expansion. This latest investment by BGF follows 10.5m in financing by the Irish group announced a week ago in Irish based cybersecurity specialists, Edgescan. In dark times, dark thoughts have a certain appeal. Our eyes adjust. We want to know how deep the shadows go, and what sort of thing awaits beyond lights comforting boundary. Recently, that boundary has seemed to be receding. Darkness is hard to escape. In the United States, more than 116,000 people and counting have died from the coronavirus. Around the world, the death toll is more than 440,000, with more than 8 million infected. Economic collapse has swept away more than 40 million American jobs, creating the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. And raw, haunting footage of police brutality proliferates online, providing fresh evidence of something rotten at the very core of our society. These overlapping national crises invite a conceptual one. Common assumptions of special protection from suffering whether by virtue of nation, species or era begin to unravel. Little about the pandemic and its consequences was genuinely unforeseeable, according to researchers. But too many among us including but not limited to decision makers in the White House found themselves unprepared to imagine them, exacerbating the damage. In the early 19th century, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer paid special attention to the capacity for suffering in human life. Rather than something to be played down or absolved, he thought it revealed an underappreciated truth about the universe and our place in it. India's BSF soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint along a highway leading to Ladakah - REUTERS As the sun began to set over the Himalayan peaks, Colonel Santosh Babu and his unarmed platoon of 50 Indian soldiers on Monday set off on a patrol across the strategically crucial Galwan Valley in Ladakh. Their mission was probably the most important in recent Indian history - to ascertain whether Chinese troops had withdrawn, as per an agreement between senior army officers from the two nations, from territory which had previously been administered by India for decades. Instead, to their surprise, what Colonel Babu's men found were temporary Chinese all-weather tents and roughly enemy 100 soldiers waiting at a location called Patrolling Point 14. Despite being outnumbered, the Indian soldiers confronted the Chinese troops. Some started to remove the tents, sparking a long and brutal man-to-man brawl that has brought the two superpowers to the brink of war. In an initial clash, Colonel Babu and two other soldiers were killed. Soon after 17 Indian troops met the same fate, many either falling or being pushed off a ledge into the freezing waters of the Galwan River below. The soldiers had gone to check the retreat of the Chinese troops as per the understanding between the two sides, an Indian official source told the Telegraph. Just when the Indian soldiers, who were on patrol started removing Chinese tents and material, it evoked a violent response from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). As the fight continued, both sides called for reinforcements but Chinese troops again significantly outnumbered those on the Indian side, allegedly 500 to 100. The clash lasted over six hours, with Indian Army sources claiming Chinese troops brandishing weapons - including clubs wrapped in barbed wire and embedded with nails - mercilessly hunted down fleeing Indian soldiers on the mountainside. Doctors performing the post mortems of dead Indian soldiers said there were no firearm injuries but soldiers either died from drowning or after being badly beaten. Story continues The Colonel died by drowning and he had no injury marks but the other dead were hit by stones and blows on the chest, a doctor said. Some of them had bad bruises and the situation is very tense. We are receiving bodies in batches of three to conduct post mortems. The long-running border dispute between Asian nuclear powers India and China turned deadly - TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP via Getty Images Indian Army sources told the Telegraph that 23 troops are now confirmed to have died but casualties will significantly rise, with 110 soldiers injured and more troops still missing. The Galwan Valley is extremely remote and the terrain harsh and unforgiving. Leading media house India Today said they are quite sure the death toll will rise as more bodies are fished out of the river and recovered from the surrounding heights. The Indian sources say China suffered 35 casualties during the clash, quoting U.S intelligence material, a development Beijing said it wasnt aware of. The clash marks the first time casualties have been suffered by either Asian superpower along their 3,488km long disputed border since 1975. India and China have been facing-off for over a month in Ladakh after Chinese troops traversed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on May 5 and 6 to occupy 60 square kilometres of territory administered by India at four locations - Pangong Tso Lake, Galwan River and Valley, Hot Springs and Demchok. China has long imposed territorial claims on other nations, especially in the South China Sea, declaring entire swaths of international waters as its own by directly flouting international agreements. On Wednesday both sides attempted to de-escalate tensions. India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, appeared to play down any immediate military retaliation for the death of Indian troops. He promised that India "is capable of giving [a] befitting reply if instigated" but said the country "wants peace." The Chinese foreign ministry asserted the disputed Galwan Valley had always been under Beijings control but said it was communicating with Delhi to resolve the problem and that the situation was generally stable and under control. Nevertheless, China has continued to move troops, artillery, tanks and combat aircraft from bases in Tibet to the LAC before and after the fatal clash. Images of Mr Xi were burnt in Siliguri - DIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP via Getty Images India has reinforced its side of the frontier and soldiers have been told to prepare for any eventuality. The Indian Navy has also been given the go-ahead to deploy its ships across the Indo-Pacific region to protect Indian interests, including in the strategically important Malacca Strait. Despite such reinforcements, the Indian Army said troops from both sides had disengaged in the Galwan Valley and they would now attempt to resolve the conflict through talks. On Wednesday, the Chinese and Indian foreign ministers held a tense phone call in which New Delhi was told to cease all provocative action in Ladakh. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said his organisation was concerned by reports of violence in Ladakh between India and China. We urge both sides to exercise maximum restraint. We take positive note of reports that the two countries are engaged in de-escalating the situation, said a spokesperson. The clash has prompted fury among the Indian public, however. There has been an outpouring of grief on social media, alongside calls for a boycott of Chinese goods and a proscription of all investments in the country by Beijing. In the city of Varanasi, members of an NGO burnt the Chinese flag and an effigy of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The manner in which the CM reiterated that talk of another lockdown was "just rumour and then did a flip-flop a couple of days later was indicative of his indecision. Tamil Nadus decision to reimpose an intense lockdown for 12 days from June 19 is an admission of the governments stark failure in controlling the pandemic in its capital, Chennai. The States vacillating response to the initial wave of infections, its propensity to blame it all on the Tablighi, then the Koyambedu market and then the Tamils coming home from abroad and its shuffling of public health bureaucrats bore clear signs of dithering and finding scapegoats instead of concerted action. The deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam seemed to react by virtually isolating himself while the chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami, who was always in the thick of it, flitted from listening to scientific advice from epidemiologists to ignoring it while ordering the easing of curbs. Finally, it took stern advice from the epidemiology panel for the State to go in for another spell of a strict lockdown in the hope that the people would respond with the discipline needed to stop the virus from further spreading. Lockdowns do not bring unalloyed benefits except towards trying to keep the infection at bay while the medical infrastructure is beefed up. But the manner in which the CM reiterated that talk of another lockdown was "just rumour and then did a flip-flop a couple of days later was indicative of his indecision. His government had even informed the Madras high court that a lockdown was not on the cards. Curiously, the CM threatened to file cases against those predicting there would be another lockdown. Chennais problems are different from Mumbais Dharavi in the sense that the city has close to 2,000 slum clusters, many along the Buckingham Canal and the Cooum River banks, thus presenting a widespread area in which the population density is high and social distancing cannot be followed. With 46,000 cases by June 15, of which 33,000 were in Chennai, the State of Tamil Nadu faces a challenge that can only be contained by the tried and tested route of painstaking tracking and treating the ill. It is clear the original 3T methods of testing, tracing and treating the infected while putting all contacts in strict home quarantine had slackened and the numbers had spiralled to the extent of close to 2,000 cases a day in the state and near 1,500 in the capital over the last 10 days, making Tamil Nadu the second most infected place after Maharashtra. Three or four major metropolitan centres have failed in the country. Of them, Chennai may have exacerbated the problem by lackadaisical enforcement of controls and by fudging death figures to make the ridiculous claim of the worlds least mortality rate. Outbreaks are now a problem the world over, including in Beijing, in Europe and in the US where various states are reopening. Considering how the spread of the infection, including by the asymptomatic, has queered the pitch, mitigation after mass testing is the recommended route. To achieve a degree of that and follow it up towards flattening the curve needs determined official action. No one has all the answers but scientists have been pointing in the right direction all along. More than the restless people, its the leaders who have failed at a time when the pandemic was the biggest ever test of leadership. India insisted on 'complete disengagement' in all its talks with China on eastern Ladakh row: Govt Many casualties on Chinese side too, radio intercepts suggest India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 17: While there is official confirmation still awaited, reports suggest that there could have been 43 Chinese casualties following the violent physical skirmish in the Galwan Valley region of eastern Ladakh on Monday. India-China clashes: 20 soldiers martyred as they fought back PLA incursion | Oneindia News While several outlets in China had confirmed that there were casualties on the Chinese side, none had put a number to it. However, the radio intercepts picked up by India indicate that there were 43 casualties on the Chinese side. Prepared for action in winter, acted in summer: China had this planned for some time now Meanwhile, an Indian Army statement said that the Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged in the Galwan areas where they clashed on the night of June 15-16. While India lost 20 soldiers, including a colonel, there are chances that the casualty rate may rise. This is because many are injured. Some soldiers are still missing and some of them who were taken captive were released following talks by both sides. Sources say that the Chinese were present in large numbers and were armed with nail studded iron rods and stones. Meanwhile, China said that Indian troops on Monday seriously violated the consensus of the two sides by illegally crossing the border twice and carrying and carrying out provocative attacks on the Chinese soldiers. This resulted in serious physical clashes, the Chinese foreign minister told Global Times. India, China disengage after violent face-off in Galwan valley leaves many dead China has lodged solemn representations with the Indian side and urged it to strictly restrain its frontline troops from crossing the border or taking any unilateral action that may complicate the minister also said. China and Indian side agreed to resolve the bilateral issues through dialogue to ease the border situation and maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas, the Chinese FM also said. LONDON - The governing body of Oxford Universitys Oriel College on Wednesday recommended the removal of a statue of Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes that has long been the target of protests though it wont be taken down immediately. The colleges governors said they had voted to launch an independent Commission of Inquiry into the key issues surrounding the Rhodes statue. In a statement, Oriel Colleges governing body, made up of faculty, said they had expressed their wish to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes and a plaque to him, adding that this is what they intend to convey to the Independent Commission of Inquiry. Rhodes made a fortune in the late 19th century from gold and diamond mines where miners laboured in brutal conditions. He was an education benefactor whose legacy includes Oxford Universitys prestigious Rhodes scholarships, which have been awarded to international students for over a century. Famous Rhodes scholars include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and feminist writer Naomi Wolf. His statue was removed from the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 2015 after students led a Rhodes Must Fall campaign. A similar campaign has sought the removal of his statue in Oxford. The movement had gained new momentum since the death of George Floyd spurred anti-racism protests worldwide and a renewed debate on colonialism and its legacy in Britain. Other historical monuments and statues around the world, honouring figures from Christopher Columbus to Belgiums King Leopold II, have since become flash points in protests. Earlier this month, Black Lives Matter protesters pulled down a controversial statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston in the English city of Bristol and threw it into the harbour. Colston was prominently involved in Englands slaving company, the Royal African Company, which transported tens of thousands of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean. Oriels governors said the new commission would include people from academia, education policy, law, politics and journalism. The commission aims to look into how to improve access to black and ethnic minority students and faculty, and review how the colleges 21st-century commitment to diversity can sit more easily with its past. The Rhodes statue will stay up until the inquiry finishes its work later this year. In a statement, the Rhodes Must Fall campaign group said it welcomed Oriel Colleges intention to take down the statue, but demanded a stronger commitment to follow it through. This is a potentially epoch-defining moment for our institution, the University of Oxford. We can, potentially, offer a powerful example of the decolonial project in higher education in the U.K. and beyond, the group said. MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - The Land Conservancy of West Michigan is seeking to buy 43 acres of Lake Michigan shoreline property near Montague, including significant dunelands, the organization announced on Wednesday. Adding this new property to its portfolio would allow the conservancy to expand the Flower Creek Dunes Nature Preserve, currently a 31-acre park at 8501 Meinert Park Road. The conservancy is seeking to raise $200,000 to facilitate the purchase from Douglas Paprocki, who has owned the land, along with his late wife, Gretchen, since 1994. A private donor will match the first $80,000 of community-raised funds, which can be made through the organizations website. The property contains forested backdune habitat, with Eastern hemlock, red oak, and maple trees, according to the press release. Migrating butterflies and birds pass through that area of the shoreline, and 75 percent is designated as critical duneland. Flower Creek Dunes Nature Preserve began as a 14-acre park in 2012, and was expanded to its current footprint in 2017 after a similar fundraising effort, according to the release. It also connects to Meinert County Park, 8355 Meinert Park Road. The addition of the Paprocki parcel would bring the conservancys contiguous shoreline land portfolio to 255 acres. The addition of these backdunes would ensure that an indispensable natural connection within the landscape is protected forever, April Scholtz, land protection director at the Land Conservancy of West Michigan, said in a statement. Read more on MLive: Coronavirus hospitalizations increasing in Muskegon County, health official says With tourism hurt by coronavirus, Muskegon County promoting beaches, natural attractions Arson fires set in dunes on, near property eyed for new Muskegon park The CEO of a Canadian cannabis company is expecting that the United States is headed for cannabis legalization in the next two years. David Klein, the head of Canopy Growth, told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Tuesday that as states continue to gradually permit medical and recreational use of marijuana, Congress will have no choice but to act. "My assumption is that 2022, for me, is the magic number," he said in a "Mad Money" interview. "I think, as you watch more and more states move to legalization for medical or rec, you really bring in almost two more senators each time who are really going to feel compelled to not make criminals out of the people in their state who are doing what's legal in their particular state." Klein, the former chief financial officer of alcohol producer and large Canopy stakeholder Constellation Brands, was responding to a question from Cramer about how state and local governments, whose budgets have been severely stretched by the coronavirus pandemic, could legalize the weed business as a way to bring in more revenue. Colorado, which was among the first states to legalize marijuana in 2012, reported collecting $133 million in taxes and fees related to cannabis commerce between January and May. The industry, however, was locked out of the federal government's massive coronavirus small business relief program as sales slumped in the month of March in states such as Colorado and Nevada. Still, American cannabis companies expect that the pandemic will speed up legalization at the federal level after multiple states declared dispensaries essential businesses during the Covid-19 lockdown. "The revenue opportunity is huge," said Klein, who heads up a $6 billion company. "I've seen some really large numbers in terms of the amount of cash flow that would come into the government as a result of just a normal excise tax regime." Marijuana has been legalized in a dozen states and remains fully illegal in 11 others. The remaining states have decriminalized the plant in some form. Cowen forecasts the U.S. cannabis market will be worth about $56 billion in 2020 and all but 10% will be handled on the black market. Virginia is set to decriminalize simple marijuana possession on July 1 and will be the 27th state to have done so. "You know, not to mention that it doesn't make sense that cannabis isn't legal already," he continued. "Alcohol prohibition [ended] 87 years ago, and [I'm] not really sure why cannabis was left off that list." Klein became CEO of Canopy Growth in December after founder Bruce Linton was forced out by Constellation earlier that year. Constellation Brands invested $4 billion into the business. Canopy shares rose 6% in Tuesday's session. The stock price remains down 15% year to date. Kylie Jenner has shared more glamorous snaps from her backyard, quarantine photo shoot for Vogue. The reality star, 22, was a sight to behold as she posed seductively in a cobalt blue Balmain mini dress with matching coat draped over her shoulder. Both of the snaps Kylie shared on Wednesday were taken on her iPhone for Vogue Czechoslovakia. Getting glam: Kylie Jenner has shot a glamorous quarantine spread for Vogue in her own backyard Kylie's wavy tresses billowed in the breeze as she gazed towards the camera with her hands resting upon her svelte waist. The reality star accentuated her radiant complexion with a dashing of pink blush, a smoky eye, and a light pink tint upon her pout. Legs were on full display as she gently crossed one over the other. In another sultry snap, Kylie struck a far more seductive tone as she posed with her hands upon her upper thighs and her hair cascading down in long, mermaid-like waves. Va va voom: In another sultry snap, Kylie struck a far more seductive tone as she posed with her hands upon her upper thighs and her hair cascading down in long, mermaid-like waves Kylie made the most of her unusual circumstances and turn out a rather impressive series of glamorous snaps. The reality star posed in her backyard in front of a sheet used as a backdrop. 'i loved creating this intimate shoot for @vogueczechoslovakia,' she captioned the snap. 'we hung sheets in my backyard to try and make a backdrop and shot it all on my iphone.' The shoot also marks the first time Kylie's daughter Stormi appears on the cover of Vogue magazine. Cover girls: The shoot marked the first time Kylie's daughter Stormi appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine At just two-year-old, it's a huge achievement for the tot as she poses with her mom for the fashion bible while quarantined at her $36.5 million home in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. Vogue CS revealed the duo posed for the magazine via a Zoom call with the Morelli Brothers snapping the images. It's not Stormi's first magazine cover, however, as the little one - who Kylie shares with on-off boyfriend Travis Scott - has previously appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar Arabia in July/August 2019. Kylie and Stormi are currently enjoying a family trip to Wyoming and staying at Kim and Kanye's $14 million ranch along with Kim's brood, Kourtney, Scott Disick and their three children. Kylie and Travis, 28, who dated from April 2017 to September 2019, welcomed Stormi in February 2018 and now amicably co-parent their little girl. Salmans Father Salim Khan Reacts To Abhinav Kashyaps Accusations; Says Go Watch His Films First European countries still want Chinese money. Even with new restrictions, it will be easier for Chinese investors to buy assets in Europe than in the United States, which screens foreign investments for threats to national security. But European governments have become warier of Chinese intentions and are demanding that China give European companies the same freedom to invest in Chinese companies that Chinese investors have in Europe. China often requires foreign companies to share sensitive technology and operate through joint ventures with Chinese partners. The proposals announced Wednesday by the European Commission are the first step toward legislation that would compel foreign investors to disclose whether they receive state support. The commission could also investigate companies suspected of receiving subsidies. European officials would acquire power to impose conditions on subsidized investors, such as forcing them to share technology with competitors. In some cases, Brussels or European countries could block deals altogether. The measures would give European officials very broad powers, said Horst Henschen, a lawyer in the Frankfurt office of Covington, a law firm. Authorities could interfere with deals based on the mere fact that the foreign company enjoys business advantages because it received subsidies or has access to preferential financing, Mr. Henschen said in an email. Ms. Vestager said that the commission was not singling out China or trying to keep foreign investors out. There is no specific country we are thinking of, she said. We want reciprocity and a level playing field. Chinese companies already have a major presence in Europe after investing more than 160 billion euros, or $180 billion, since 2000, according to research by Rhodium and the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin. [June 16, 2020] Government Technology Agency of Singapore Concludes Third HackerOne Bug Bounty Programme, Enhancing Cybersecurity Defenses SINGAPORE, June 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- HackerOne, the number one hacker-powered security platform , and Singapore's Government Technology Agency (GovTech), supported by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) today announced the results of its third Government Bug Bounty Programme (GBBP), part of the Singapore Government's ongoing initiative to build a secure and resilient Smart Nation , a government-wide initiative to improve the lives of citizens and increase business opportunities through the adoption of digital and smart technologies throughout Singapore. Nearly 300 white hat hackers from around the world participated in GovTech's third bug bounty program from November 18 to December 8, 2019, testing 13 public government Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems, digital services and mobile applications with high end user touchpoints. Hackers discovered a total of 33 valid security vulnerabilities and earned US$30,800 in bounties, financial incentives awarded for submitting valid security vulnerabilities, making this the most successful program to date for the agency. Hackers from across the globe participated, including 72 local Singaporean hackers. Eugene Lim, a 24-year-old better known as @spaceraccoon , remained as the top hacker on the program, with local Singaporean hackers Samuel Eng ( @samengmg ) and Nicholas Lim ( @kactros_n ) taking the top 3 positions. Hacker-powered security continues to be a core tenet in GovTech's approach to cybersecurity, with three bug bounty programs successfully completed to date with HackerOne and a recently launched vulnerability disclosure program that allows any ethical hacker in the world to disclose a vulnerability at any time to GovTech. GvTech's first bug bounty challenge was launched in December 2018 and a second program in July 2019. HackerOne continues to be selected to manage GovTech's bug bounty programmes because of its proven track record of success with government agencies globally, including its work with the U.S. Department of Defense and the European Commission. HackerOne has the largest global ethical hacker community - over 600,000 strong representing 170 countries around the world. Our customers have also been investing in growing hacker talent in the region. In the last Bug Bounty Programme run by the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) Singapore, half of the invited participants were local white-hat hackers, to groom talent and generate interest in white-hat hacking locally. "The Singapore Government continues to be an industry leader when it comes to cybersecurity," said Paul Turner, VP of Sales, EMEA and APAC at HackerOne. "Hacker-powered security is the foundation of any mature and proactive security program. By providing an opportunity to engage local as well as global hacker talent, GovTech is not only delivering on its Smart Nations goals, but also enhancing the way it services its citizens in terms of safety, security, and opportunity. Through its close relationships with ethical hackers, the Singapore Government is one step ahead in the ongoing battle against cybercriminals and ensuring that end users are safe online." This latest bug bounty challenge occurs against the backdrop of an evolution in cybersecurity, where everyone from government agencies to Fortune 500 companies are embracing the positive power of ethical hackers. Policymakers across the globe are recommending hacker-powered security, with some even introducing legislation to encourage and even require adoption. Just last month, the Singapore Government announced a budget commitment of one billion Singaporean dollars (S$1 billion) over the next three years to help shore up the government's cyber and data security capabilities. The Cyber Security Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore last year also recommended financial institutions adopt bug bounty programs as part of their cyber testing. The adoption of hacker-powered security is growing in the Asia Pacific region with the number of hacker-powered security programs increasing by 30% in 2019 according to platform data in HackerOne's 2019 Hacker-Powered Security Report . Organizations in Singapore awarded hackers nearly $390,000 in bug bounties the same year, the highest volume in the Asia Pacific region, explained HackerOne's 2020 Hacker Report released earlier this year. To meet the growing demand for hacker-powered security solutions in the region, HackerOne opened an office in Singapore last year. This expansion has led to additional customer programs with government, enterprise and technology organizations including GovTech, Toyota, Tencent Security Response Center, LINE, Nintendo, MINDEF Singapore, Grab, Alibaba, and mobile technology manufacturers OPPO and OnePlus. To learn more about bug bounty programs, please visit here . About HackerOne HackerOne is the #1 hacker-powered security platform , helping organizations find and fix critical vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. More Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 1000 companies trust HackerOne than any other hacker-powered security alternative. With more than 1,900 customer programs, including The U.S. Department of Defense, General Motors, Google, Goldman Sachs, PayPal, Hyatt, Twitter, GitHub, Nintendo, Lufthansa, Microsoft, MINDEF Singapore, Panasonic Avionics, Qualcomm, Starbucks, Dropbox, and Intel, HackerOne has helped to find over 170,000 vulnerabilities and award more than $100M in bug bounties to a growing community of over 700,000 hackers. HackerOne is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London, New York, the Netherlands, France and Singapore. SOURCE HackerOne The 6th edition of World Yoga Day will be celebrated on digital media platforms and there will be no mass gathering, considering the ongoing spike in coronavirus cases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the nation on 21st June, which happens to be the occasion of International Yoga Day. The announcement comes amidst the escalating tension along the LAC between India and China, which has claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers. PM Modi recently launched My life My Yoga event during his flagship radio program, Mann Ki Baat, with an aim to encourage people to stay active and fit during the contemporary tough times rendered upon us by the novel coronavirus. Keeping the context of the ongoing battle against the noxious coronavirus, the theme for this Years International Yoga Day is Yoga at Home and Yoga with Family this will thus be the 6th edition of the International Yoga Day that the country will be celebrating. The ministry of AYUSH has declared in a statement that there would be no mass gatherings due to the contagious nature of the virus. Therefore, the ministry has motivated people to practice yoga at their homes itself with maximum participation from all the family members. The celebration this year will take place on digital media platforms. International Yoga Day is celebrated on June 21 annually, but it was in 2015 that India celebrated it for the first time. PM Modi along with various other dignitaries had performed yoga at the Rajpath. Thenceforth, Yoga day has been celebrated with full zest and warmth in India and abroad. During yesterdays #MannKiBaat, someone asked me about my fitness routine during this time. Hence, thought of sharing these Yoga videos. I hope you also begin practising Yoga regularly. https://t.co/Ptzxb7R8dN Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 30, 2020 For all the latest National News, download NewsX App PHILIPSBURG:--- The Rotary Club of St. Martin Sunset presented a monetary contribution to the White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation to assist with the distribution of food boxes to vulnerable seniors. The WYCCF Food Pantry was founded several years ago by Mimi Hodge and Karen Eusebius, who saw that there was a need to provide food and basic necessities to some of the foundations clients who struggled with food security. The food pantry is usually filled through donations from employees of WYCCF and through food drives that are regularly organized at numerous supermarkets on the island. In light of the global COVID-19 pandemic and Governments response to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus on the island by instituting an island-wide lock-down, numerous senior citizens who were deemed vulnerable and at-risk were left with insufficient food supplies. The WYCCF responded by distributing care packages to clients the clients that they serve on a monthly basis as well as seniors that are most vulnerable in this crisis. We are honored to have contributed to this initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the generous contribution from Rotary Sunset, WYCCF was able to assist many households with food and other necessities, Service Projects Chair Kimberley Duzong stated. The Rotary Club of St. Martin Sunset would like to extend its heartfelt gratitude to the WYCCF for granting us the opportunity to serve our community. The club would also like to encourage the people of St. Maarten to remain steadfast and resilient while we get through these difficult times. Outgoing Newbridge Parish Priest Fr Paul Dempsey has been given a rescheduled date for his ordination as Bishop of Achonry in the west of Ireland. Father Dermot Meehan, Diocesan Administrator of the Diocese of Achonry has announced that Father Dempsey will be ordained bishop in the Cathedral of the Annunciation and Saint Nathy, Ballaghaderreen, on Sunday 30 August at 3.00pm. A statement from the Catholic Communications Church said: "Planning for the ordination will be in accordance with Government and NEPHET guidelines and as a result the number able to attend will be more limited than was originally planned for 19 April. "The people, priests, deacons and religious of Achonry Diocese look forward to welcoming him as he begins his ministry in our midst." Fr Dempsey said he was "grateful to the Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, and to the priests, religious and faithful of the Diocese of Achonry for their patience and understanding as we have been dealing with the unprecedented consequences of Covid-19 in our country and in our world. I am especially grateful for the support of Father Dermot Meehan who has administered the diocese over these challenging weeks and months." He added: "As I prepare to leave Kildare and Leighlin Diocese I offer my renewed thanks to Bishop Denis Nulty and to the people and priests of the diocese, especially the people of Newbridge Parish for their support at this time. "I ask for your prayers as I prepare to take on the role of shepherd in the Diocese of Achonry." Quebec's chief coroner ordered Wednesday a sweeping public inquiry into seniors' deaths at longterm care homes across the Canadian province ravaged by COVID-19 outbreaks. In a statement, Chief Coroner Pascale Descary said the inquiry would look into deaths during the first six weeks of the pandemic, from March 12 to May 1, found to be "violent, obscure or linked to negligence." Her office has already started an investigation into the Herron care home in a suburb of Montreal that had dozens of COVID-19 fatalities. It will act as a springboard for the wider probe, she said. In Quebec, which alone accounts for more than half of all 8,300 coronavirus fatalities in Canada, eight in 10 deaths have occurred in retirement homes. Unable to fill vacancies left by a large number of staff who walked off the job, either because they had become infected or feared that they might be, the Canadian army was called in to help care for elderly residents. In neighboring Ontario, a similar situation unfolded. A pair of military reports said soldiers found a blatant disregard for infection control measures and "horrible" care of seniors that verged on abusive. Residents of these facilities had been left in soiled diapers, crying for help and force-fed. Medical charts were inaccurate and families were given wrong information. After reading the reports, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "I had obviously a range of emotions of anger, of sadness, of frustration, of grief." Hearings are expected to start in January 2021 and take several months, Descary told public broadcaster Radio-Canada. The public inquiry will determine the causes and circumstances of the seniors' deaths in Quebec and provide recommendations on how to prevent these types of deaths in the future. "This entirely public process will allow the Quebec population to be informed of the facts raised during the hearings and to follow reflection on this important social issue," Descary said in a statement. Quebec's chief coroner has ordered a public inquiry into COVID-19 deaths at elderly care homes in the province, which had to call in the military for help. In this May photo, a Canadian soldier aids a senior citizen in May Vigi Queen Elizabeth Residential and Long-Term Care Centre in Montreal. Burlington, Mass.-based A.I.M. Mutual Insurance Companies has hired Glen Pitruzzello as director of Claim, responsible for claim operations throughout New England. In this capacity, he reports to President and CEO Michael Standing. Pitruzzello brings 30 years of claim and workers compensation insurance experience to A.I.M. Mutuals senior leadership team. Most recently, he was with AmTrust Financial Services Group, where he was vice president of Claim Strategy. Prior to joining AmTrust in 2016, he was vice president of Workers Compensation and Group Benefits Claim Strategy and Clinical Operations with The Hartford Financial Services Group, a position he held for 11 years. He began his insurance career with The Hartford in 1990 working in several roles, including as national accounts pricing actuary, workers compensation reinsurance underwriter and workers compensation claim actuary. He was elected assistant vice president in 2000. A.I.M. Mutual Insurance Companies was founded in 1989 and provides workers compensation coverage for employers. Source: A.I.M. Mutual Insurance Companies Topics Carriers Workers' Compensation Massachusetts Atlanta The deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta in the span of less than three weeks have led to a push in the U.S. for more training of police officers in how to de-escalate tense situations before they explode in violence. Youve got to get cops to understand that its not a cowardly act, that backing off could save this persons life, said Tom Manger, a retired police chief in Virginia and Maryland and former president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Officers undergoing de-escalation training are taught how to keep their cool, talk to people to calm them down, and use the least amount of force required. Typically the instruction includes exercises in which actors playing members of the public try to provoke officers. Its very clear that our police officers are to be guardians and not warriors within our communities, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Monday in announcing she will require officers to continuously undergo such training in the wake of Brooks fatal shooting Friday. Calls for increased de-escalation training have also come from politicians on Capitol Hill as well as from Californias attorney general, Michigan lawmakers and Houstons police chief. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would encourage better police practices and establish a database of officers with a history of excessive-force complaints. Officials said the order also would promote certification agencies that teach officers de-escalation techniques. Such techniques have been around for years but have been embraced more strongly amid the growing movement to stop the killings of black people by police. Floyd was seized by officers May 25 after being accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. He died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes. Brooks, 27, was shot twice in the back Friday after police tried to handcuff him for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car at a Wendy's drive-thru. Brooks was cooperative during more than 30 minutes of conversation before things rapidly spun out control. He wrestled with officers, snatched one of their stun guns and pointed it at one of them as he ran through the parking lot. The officer who shot Brooks in the back was fired, and prosecutors are weighing charges against him and another member of the force. Among other measures that have been adopted or are under consideration across the U.S. in the wake of the latest deaths: bans on chokeholds, making police disciplinary records public, releasing body-camera footage of shootings more quickly, and requiring officers to intervene when they see misconduct by fellow members of the force. Manger said that in situations like the one that ended in Brooks' death, officers should be taught to make high-pressure, split-second decisions that involve alternatives to force for example, waiting for more backup to arrive, taking cover or retreating. In the Atlanta case, the officer could have ducked behind a car or put enough distance between himself and Brooks so that the stun gun which can reach only 15 feet couldnt hit him, Manger said. Even in a situation where deadly force can be justified, its often not necessary, he said. Police officers need to operate from the mindset that deadly force is really a last resort to be used only when they or others are in grave danger, Manger said. During the last round of protests surrounding the deaths of black people by police in 2014 and later, some departments embraced training on how to defuse tense situations. It got an endorsement from President Barack Obamas task force on 21st century policing. Some states continued to push for reform. In 2019, a California law allocated $10 million to use-of-force reforms including de-escalation training. Federal officers, too, have focused on decreasing their reliance on force through such techniques. In New York City, the nations largest police department created a three-day de-escalation training program for officers on the job and also an academy seminar for new members of the force. It came after Eric Garner died in a police chokehold in 2014. The course discourages verbal abuse and needless physical force. The message to every one of the departments 36,000 uniformed officers: Keep cool. Officers learned how the volume of their voice, their presence and the way they address someone can immediately escalate a situation. Each year, the U.S. Coast Guard performs thousands of search and rescue missions at sea. In situations where every minute matters, it is critical to have the most efficient ocean modeling data and algorithms at hand. Researchers at Virginia Tech are part of a multi-institutional group using mathematical techniques with ocean models and experiments to better understand near-surface flow patterns and hidden flow structures. With more accurate modeling data, response teams can better predict the search area grid from the air, and reduce emergency response time when lives are on the line. Throughout this study, published in Nature Communications on May 26, the research team has uncovered hidden transient attracting profiles - or TRAPs - in ocean-surface velocity data. These transient attracting profiles act as short-term collection zones for all floating objects, debris as well as persons in the water. When incorporated into search and rescue algorithms, the locations of the TRAPs give a more accurate prediction on regions to focus search efforts. "From the moment they are alerted that someone is lost, search and rescue teams use sophisticated software to try to pinpoint the last known location in the water, factor in how much time has passed, and make their best prediction on how far they have drifted," said Shane Ross, professor in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering. "By improving the modeling of drifting objects in unsteady currents, search teams will have more efficient probability computations that enable them to set a tighter search grid and make faster, safer rescues." Current flow models used in search and rescue operations factor in ocean dynamics, weather prediction, and in-situ observations, such as self-locating datum marker buoys deployed from air. According to the research team, even with high-resolution ocean models and improved weather prediction, search and rescue planning is still based on conventional practices, and rescuers rely on their hunches as much as sophisticated prediction tools. Computational tools can predict how particles or objects are transported and reveal areas of the flow where drifting objects are likely to converge. In engineering terms, these patterns are called Lagrangian coherent structures. Unfortunately, calculating Lagrangian structures can often be time-consuming and computationally expensive. For use in disaster response scenarios, transient attracting profiles are easily interpreted and can be computed and updated instantaneously from snapshots of ocean velocity data. This eliminates very expensive and timely computation, especially when short-time predictions are critically important in search and rescue. After six hours, the likelihood of rescuing people alive drops significantly. These attracting profiles, where persons in the water are likely to collect, provide continuously updated and highly specific search paths. The inset shows a migrant boat that capsized on April 12, 2015 in the Mediterranean Sea. In order to prove the predictive influence of transient attracting profiles in coastal waters ?-- or identify the regions where objects or people are most likely to accumulate over a two- to three-hour period of time ?-- the research team conducted multiple field experiments off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. Using both Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment drifters and 180-pound OSCAR Water Rescue Training manikins, targets were released around areas of predicted transient attracting profiles with GPS tracking devices that reported location every five minutes. Even without accounting for wind-drag or inertial effects, the researchers observed that the TRAPs invariably attracted the floating drifters and manikins in the water over a two- to three-hour period. Identifying transient attracting profiles on ocean surface velocity data can also have significant impact on the containment of environmental disasters, such as catastrophic oil spills. TRAPs provide critical information for environmental hazard response teams and have the potential to limit the spread of toxic materials and reduce damaging impact on the surrounding ecological systems. ### The study is the result of a $2.8 million National Science Foundation grant focused on specific methods for the prediction, mitigation, and response to environmental flow hazards. Leading the published multi-institutional study is the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Joining Harvard and Virginia Tech are investigators from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UCLA, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Search and Rescue, and ETH Zurich. Ross, one of the five co-principal investigators on the National Science Foundation project, collaborated at Virginia Tech with colleagues David Schmale, professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, and Craig Woolsey, professor in the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering. Javier Gonzalez-Rocha, a doctoral candidate in aerospace and ocean engineering, and Alejandro Sosa, a recent graduate of the aerospace and ocean engineering program, also contributed to the research team and field studies. Ross has a number of sponsored research projects focusing on the complex motion in flows, including a National Science Foundation study forecasting the spread of contaminants in the ocean, floodwaters, or atmosphere, and a study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the transport of pollen from genetically engineered switchgrass and hemp. He is also the past recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2012 to study engineering tools to understand and predict fluid motions. J. Cole surprised fans today with the release of his new single, Snow On Tha Bluff. The track is a direct response to ongoing protests against police brutality and racial injustice, and specifically speaks to Coles struggles with navigating activism as a celebrity. Theres a young lady out there she way smarter than me/I scrolled through her timeline in these wild times and I started to read/She mad at these crackers, she mad at these capitalists, mad at these murder police, he raps in part, presumably alluding to Chicago rapper Nonames social media presence. Most of the single is similarly preoccupied with Noname and Coles feelings of inadequacy and confusion in the face of her vocal activism: And the frustration that fills her words seems to come from the fact that most people dont see/Just cause you woke and Im not, that shit aint no reason to talk like you better than me. Noname herself responded to the song on Twitter, referencing the lyric But, shit, its something about the queen tone thats bothering me. She later deleted the tweet. Snow On Tha Bluff marks Coles first official single since 2019s Middle Child. QUEEN TONE!!!!!! Noname (@noname) June 17, 2020 HURON COUNTY The Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced its first round of Small Business Relief Loans, with some business in the Thumb receiving funds. Two Huron County businesses, Valley Gear and Machine Incorporated and Pyro Paradise, both received $50,000. Valley Gear and Machine was able to retain 11 employees while Pyro Paradise retained 10. Pyro Paradise is a fireworks store in Bad Axe while Valley Gear and Machine is a gear and machine shop in Bad Axe. Ryan Booms, one of the co-owners of Valley Gear and Machine, said that aside from this programs funds they received two weeks ago, the company also received funds from the federal governments Paycheck Protection Program two months ago, which has been used to bring some employees off of unemployment and to keep their health care plans up to date. It keeps their lifestyles as close to normal as possible, Booms said. Booms acknowledged that they would not be open without these funds and loans, and have applied for others, such as the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance, which is a medium interest loan through the Small Business Administration. Still, Boom feels that more places need to be open to keep the money flowing. We rely on other manufacturers to be open. They give us work and vice versa, Booms said. We only have two customers that are open. A representative from Pyro Paradise declined to answer questions for this story. Huron County was joined together with Tuscola, Sanilac, St. Clair, Lapeer, Genesee, and Shiawassee counties as the Flint & Genesee Chamber applied for small business relief loan funds. These counties in total received $850,000, which assisted 13 businesses and retained 180 jobs. Those counties are all part of the same East Michigan Prosperity Region. Sanilac County had two businesses receive loans, MainStreet Cafe and Blue Water Enterprises, which received $50,000 and $51,168.58 respectively and were able to retain three and 10 jobs. Tuscola County had one business, Laser Marking Technologies, that received $102,791.31 and saved 17 jobs. In total, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has awarded $4.35 million to 74 small businesses across 40 counties, which helped retain nearly a thousand jobs. The Michigan Small Business Relief Program was authorized by the Michigan Strategic Fund to provide relief for small businesses negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The loans from the program are intended to support small businesses facing drastic reductions in cash flow and the continued support of their workforce. The capital may be used for payroll expenses, rent, mortgage payments, utility expenses, or other similar expenses. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 4 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 22 times, Trend reports on June 4 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. The safety measures are not right. We have some separation; but if somebody coughs, the flimsy masks they give us are not going to protect anyone. The cough is going right through it. We are not even six feet apartmore like two to three feet. They say with a mask on, you can be closer than six feet. But I dont believe it. Workers from the Faurecia plant in Saline, Michigan, 44 miles west of Detroit, reported to the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter that conditions at the 1.3 million-square-feet facility, which manufactures interior components for Fiat Chrysler, Ford and Tesla, are reaching the boiling point. From a roster of 1,900, hundreds of workers are absent on any given day because of the unsafe conditions. The company backed by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union is turning the screws to force workers into the shop in spite of the presence of COVID-19. In just two weeks since the plant reopened, threats of firings and the termination of unemployment benefits have reached a fever pitch. June 2019 eight-hour strike They dont care about the workers, continued the worker we shall call Sharon. They dont care about our health. They clearly dont. Because if they did, they would not be so quick to send us back to work. The return to work in the auto industry makes no sense. How are you going to let less than five people into a store at a time, but you let thousands of people into a plant at one time? That doesnt make any sense to me. We are all in confined spaces close to each other. We are bound to catch it. Why do you think a whole line is calling off at one time? We are working in a confined space, and we are scared we are going to catch it, Sharon said. CDC guidelines recommend a 24-hour cooling-off period for an entire facility to allow virus particles suspended in air to settle before beginning the process of sanitizing a work area that has been exposed to COVID-19. But when a worker tested positive on the Jeep line at Saline, they relieved that crew for the afternoon, kept the rest of the plant at full production, and brought the Jeep line back to work the next day. When the union did say something about the worker testing positive, added a co-worker Tamisha, it seemed like they had to admit that because people were finding out about it. They just do the bare minimum. And they are trying to make us come to work as if they are management. It just seems like the union does not have our best interests at heart because they are only trying to get us back to work. If people are catching the virus inside the plant, they shouldnt make us go to work, Sharon continued. They should care, instead of just going into their offices. They say theyre going to clean the place, but only so they can send us back to work. Faurecia plant Workers are turning to social media and the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter because they fear the company and the union are concealing the spread of the disease. The state of Michigan is among the hardest hit by coronavirus. If we add probable cases and deaths to the confirmed numbers, it brings the totals in the state to 66,000 cases and more than 6,000 deaths. Desperate to resume profit-making after nearly three months without deliveries to customers, Faurecia is preventing workers from taking time off. The company works on a points system, punishing workers with dismissal after accruing eight points for infractions such as unapproved time off or tardiness of a few minutes. Its enforcer for the policy is the UAW. In an April 30 post on the UAW Local 892 Facebook page, a union rep wrote, I just want to clarify a few things. 1. The union is all of us. 2. We do not allow, advocate, nor negotiate layoffs. 3. The world globally is in a crisis. 4. Ford Motor Company has declared a $2 billion loss in the first quarter. Unfortunately, our members are bound to be impacted. That tells me that they are just for the profit of the company, Sharon said. All you care about is money. You dont care about our health. We have had this problem so many times. I just feel like this is the last straw. They are doing the safety measures only halfway; and when people are getting sick, they try to hide it. Ive had co-workers come up to me and say, three people on my line have coronavirus. And they dont even know who they have been in contact with. If one person on the line gets it, it can spread to the whole line. They said they were going to clean the line down. I saw them, and it just didnt look like they were doing it thoroughly. The union reps came out and said it was just one salaried employee infected. But who knows? Tamisha agreed. As soon as there was a positive case, we should have sent them all straight out the door. Dont let other people come into contact with people who could have possibly contracted the disease. The union just came around telling everybody that it was a salaried employee that had it and that they were going to clean the lineand, basically, we should keep working. They want somebody to work during the pandemic. Thats their main reason for saying that. Sharon went on to pinpoint the financial motive behind the rush back to work. That is what it seems like they are saying, We expect you to work because we lost so much money as a company during the pandemic. They said that Ford lost $2 billion because of the pandemic. The union rep definitely brought that up as the reason why we need to be at work. Faurecia, a French-owned transnational corporation, is the sixth-largest auto parts maker in the world, with factories in 35 countries. In the last five years, the company raised its profitability from 4.4 percent of sales or just over $1 billion in 2015 to 7.2 percent of sales or $1.44 billion in 2019. The Saline plant accounts for about 5.5 percent of total global sales, or $1.1 billion out of total sales worldwide of $20 billion. The guys in the union are just lying, Sharon said. Every time we go to the union about anything, we are going to be waiting forever. Now they are backing the company: You must come to work. We are not accepting any call-offs. They sound just like the company. They dont say anything about anybodys health. They say a little something, like, Safety first, but it doesnt mean anything. Another worker added, The union is just making money off the workers. They do nothing for us. He went on to describe conditions in the plant, wearing a mask and face shield while working around heat-producing machinery. We are sweating in there in the winter. Now it is unbearable. For us the whole thing is very stressful, Sharon added. They have employees working there for years and years, and they are not worried about their health. Then why would I care about the company? Following an overwhelming strike vote last fall, the UAW pulled the Faurecia workers out on a stunt that lasted just eight hours before forcing them back to work with a sellout contract. We had the same problem when we were picketing, she added. It was like we were begging them. And we werent asking for that much. But they were just not going to care because they are only concerned about their money. They have so much money. Now they are falling short a few millions, and they want us to jump up. Oh, now you have a problem. But what about when we needed more money? You didnt want to work with us at all. But now you want us to work with you. What about all that money that you guys got from the CARES Act? And you are acting like $2 billion is pure loss. So, they are trying to sugar-coat it like, Oh, we lost this much money. So, we only have just a little bit left. The Democrats and Republicans voted for the CARES Act because they want to keep these big companies running. All they care about is the money. That money should be used for the workers. We are the most important. They always preach about safety first. But that includes the coronavirus. If that means we need to stay home a little bit longer, then that is what we should do. The unions do whatever the company calls for because they are bought and paid for. Their interest is in profit. We need to be in charge because we are the ones who are going to work, the ones who know our struggles. We need to be in charge of things. We are the ones who care. As the Socialist Equality Party wrote in its statement, Build rank-and-file factory and workplace committees to prevent transmission of the COVID-19 virus and save lives! This is why workers require their own organizations. In every factory, workplace, and office, workers should organize and elect trusted and respected workers who will represent them. They should utilize all available tools, including social media, to reach out to workers throughout their industry and in other sectors to coordinate their activities and share information. All workers should unite, Sharon said. A world awareness should be brought among workers so that they can understand that. I feel like we are turning a new leaf. Anything is possible. It is only a matter of time before the workers rebel. The film fraternity has paid tributes to 20 Indian Army soldiers killed in a face-off with Chinese troops in Ladakhs Galwan Valley. A host of Bollywood celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Taapsee Pannu took to social media to pay homage to the martyrs. Amitabh Bachchan shared a black screenshot on Instagram and dedicated the popular song Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo to the martyrs. He wrote, Zara aankh me bharlo pani; jo shaheed huye hain unki zara yaad karo kurbani. they sacrificed their lives to protect our country , to keep us safe and secure. SALUTE Indian Army Officers and Jawans ! JAI HIND. Akshay Kumar shared pictures of two martyrs on Twitter and wrote, Deeply saddened by the death of our bravehearts in #GalwanValley. We will forever be indebted to them for their invaluable service to the nation. My heartfelt condolences to their families. Deeply saddened by the death of our bravehearts in #GalwanValley. We will forever be indebted to them for their invaluable service to the nation. My heartfelt condolences to their families pic.twitter.com/tGOGTU61X6 Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) June 16, 2020 Sonakshi Sinha said also shared her condolences to the families of the martyrs. We will forever be indebted to youll and all those who fight for us putting their lives at stake. With utmost respect, deepest condolences to their families. #neverforget, she wrote. We will forever be indebted to youll and all those who fight for us putting their lives at stake. With utmost respect, deepest condolences to their families. #neverforget pic.twitter.com/la7IQHvJZf Sonakshi Sinha (@sonakshisinha) June 16, 2020 Sharing her condolences, Taapsee Pannu wrote on Twitter, As if Corona was not enough to fight with now we have to lose our brave hearts as well! Every soldier martyred is a loss no one can compensate for. The families of those soldiers lost their peace for a long time to come so that we all can have a sound sleep. Indebted. As if Corona was not enough to fight with now we have to lose our brave hearts as well! Every soldier martyred is a loss no one can compensate for. The families of those soldiers lost their peace for a long time to come so that we all can have a sound sleep. Indebted. taapsee pannu (@taapsee) June 16, 2020 Rakul Preet Singh also took to Twitter to share her thoughts. Just at loss of words for what 2020 has subjected us to. The brave hearts Martyred at the #GalwanValley comes as another terrible news . My heart goes out to their families . The nation salutes you #JaiHind #IndianArmy what will it take for peace to prevail !! Just at loss of words for what 2020 has subjected us to. The brave hearts Martyred at the #GalwanValley comes as another terrible news . My heart goes out to their families . The nation salutes you #JaiHind #IndianArmy what will it take for peace to prevail !! Rakul Singh (@Rakulpreet) June 17, 2020 Swara Bhasker also tweeted, Condolences & respects to our fallen soldiers. Heartbroken about the death of our brave soldiers #GalwanValley We are forever indebted to the sacrifice of our bravehearts #JaiHind, wrote Huma Qureshi. Heartbroken about the death of our brave soldiers #GalwanValley We are forever indebted to the sacrifice of our bravehearts #JaiHind Huma S Qureshi (@humasqureshi) June 16, 2020 Gauahar Khan tweeted, Feeling so sad for our army bravehearts who lost their lives , but feeling so indebted for their sacrifice for the protection of our country! #jaiHind ! How quick are the losers to blame indian army for this !!! Asli patriotism toh ab dikh rahi hai inki ! #Dogle #doublestandards. Feeling so sad for our army bravehearts who lost their lives , but feeling so indebted for their sacrifice for the protection of our country! #jaiHind ! How quick are the losers to blame indian army for this !!! Asli patriotism toh ab dikh rahi hai inki ! #Dogle #doublestandards Gauahar Khan (@GAUAHAR_KHAN) June 16, 2020 India and China, on Monday evening engaged in their first deadly conflict in at least 45 years, resulting in 20 deaths on the Indian side, including that of a commanding officer. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Just an announcement, the Southwest Side Democrat said in his gravelly voice. It looks like with 11 laps to go, Danica Patrick is in second place, from Roscoe, Illinois. ... But someones going to have to come to my desk and tell me where Roscoe, Illinois, is because I have no idea. But shes from there. Thank you. When Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) reported its first-quarter earnings, it disclosed that it was actually hiring at its plant in Louisville, Kentucky, to keep up with rising demand. This was somewhat surprising given the rising unemployment across the country in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, maybe it is not that surprising, given that Turning Point Brands is a tobacco company and its customers aren't going anywhere. Turning Point Brands isn't a cigarette producer; it focuses on alternative tobacco products including smokeless tobacco, rolling papers, vaping, and cannabidiol (CBD) products, all of which have seen organic volume growth in recent years. Given the strong demand for its products, should investors consider adding Turning Point to their portfolios? A leader in alternative tobacco Turning Point Brands is a leader in the alternative tobacco products market, which includes smokeless tobacco such as moist snuff, chewing tobacco, cigarette papers for DIY rolling, CBD, and vapes. Despite competing against the large cigarette companies such as Altria and British American Tobacco, Turning Point has managed to secure leading market share in several categories. Brand Product Business Segment Market Share Stoker's Chewing tobacco Smokeless products 20% Stoker's Moist snuff Smokeless products 4.5% Zig-Zag Cigarette papers Smoking products 35% Zig-Zag MYO Cigar Wraps Smoking products 75% The company's strategy has been to focus on acquiring leading consumer brands in the industry. For example, it recently announced the acquisition of Durfort, a leading supplier of cigar wraps and rolling papers. Turning Point has also been successful in taking market share by expanding the distribution of its brands and selling its products at slightly lower prices. Turning Point has also acquired several brands in the vaping category, including VaporBeast, which operates a chain of vaping stores where it sells its own branded products. The company acquired IVG to expand into business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce sales of vaping products. This growth through acquisition has propelled the company's vaping business in recent years to over $150 million in 2019 sales from under $20 million in 2016. Recent business strength Business hasn't been booming for most companies in this recession. However, Turning Point Brands' Q1 report showed a stable top line and increased profitability versus the prior year. Metrics Q1 2020 YOY Growth % Net sales $91 million (1%) Adjusted EBITDA $17.8 million 10.6% Diluted EPS $0.51 per share 18.6% The strength in revenue came from smokeless products and rolling papers. Smokeless products grew 17.5% in the quarter over the prior year, while rolling papers grew 13.3% over the prior year. The company's NewGen segment, which includes vaping and CBD products, saw sales fall 19% due to the closure of stores and disruption in the vaping market caused by a regulatory crackdown last year. However, NewGen recovered from Q4 2019, when the segment was down 37% due to the regulatory disruption. Despite the slight decline in revenue, earnings grew double digits because the smokeless products and rolling papers have higher margins than the NewGen products. Challenges and opportunities Turning Point Brands is an under-the-radar company even within the tobacco industry, but it has interesting growth prospects. The company has a strong position in growing parts of the smoking market and has been able to expand its market share over time organically and through acquisition. At the same time, Turning Point faces challenges in its vaping business. Regulators across the United States are taking a close look at the industry as critics have noted that vaping may have resulted in increased smoking rates among teens and young adults. Furthermore, there are fears that vaping may cause new forms of respiratory illness. These regulatory and health concerns may ultimately result in the discontinuation of the vaping industry as we currently know it. A complete ban of vaping products outside of probably won't happen, but investors should be aware of the risk. Turning Point is doing well in this environment. Smokers still want to smoke even if they have to do it at home, and the company has had to increase its production to keep up with demand. If Turning Point continues to execute well, it should be able to continue growing its revenue and earnings in 2020 and beyond. TUSD students in middle and high school might be required to wear masks in the coming school year, according to recommendations from a task force as the district prepares to reopen in August. All staff, parents and visitors also would need face coverings when social distancing isnt possible. With classes expected to resume Aug. 6, a task force presented recommendations to the Tucson Unified School District governing board Tuesday night that attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Most of the recommendations focused on operations and logistics. A separate presentation on teaching, learning and instructional models is planned for June 23. Final recommendations are expected to be made in July. Mandatory training for teachers and staff would follow. Wearing masks Wearing a mask at school will be optional for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the recommendations. They do not wear face coverings because theyre children, said Nikki Stefan, director of TUSDs health services. They have difficulty wearing face coverings. They have them just about anywhere but on their face and the whole idea of a face covering is to cover the face, so if theyre touching their face the entire time, were defeating the purpose. Thats not to say that some young children cant be taught to properly wear a mask, Stefan said. Were not discouraging it, but were not mandating it at this time, she said. ONE of the few silver linings in the monstrous shadow cast by COVID-19 has been the forced contemplation of the kind of society we would wish for when it passes, and the role of our governments in shaping it. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion ONE of the few silver linings in the monstrous shadow cast by COVID-19 has been the forced contemplation of the kind of society we would wish for when it passes, and the role of our governments in shaping it. One view is that the major role governments have played (or not) in controlling the spread of the virus and rendering assistance (or not) to those in need because of it, has demonstrated the need for a resilient, and adequately funded public sector, which ought to continue after the immediate threat has gone. On the contrary, goes the opposing refrain: the debt burden arising out of dealing with the crisis can only be managed by a drastic reduction in public services. A glance at an earlier crisis advances the debate. During the Second World War, planning structures were established to develop a vision for a post-war nation. One of the documents to come out of that process in the U.K. was the Beveridge Report in 1942 (the 1943 Marsh Report in Canada followed very similar lines). The report reminds us that the core debate is about values. Evidence enters the picture when determining what policies do, or do not, advance those values. On the values question, Beveridge made the distinction between freedom to (do something such as dissent, or pollute) and freedom from. Beveridge emphasized the latter, and identified five such freedoms. Freedom from Want was the basis for all of the post-war income supporting programs unemployment insurance, workmans compensation, public pensions and the residual social assistance programs. Freedom from Squalor was the basis for a massive post-war affordable housing program. Freedom from Idleness meant the pursuit of full employment policies, which included the expansion of the human services. Pursuit of Freedom from Ignorance involved accessible secondary and post-secondary education regardless of income, and Freedom from Disease created the National Health Service, providing a universal, comprehensive range of health and public-health services free at the point of service. On the issue of evidence, we need only study the example of todays senior-citizen population in Canada and the U.K. which, on average, is more financially secure, healthier, longer-lived and better housed than previous generations. And is the connection between these positive outcomes and the post-war advancement of the five freedoms not evident? The attack on these freedoms in recent decades will mean a less-fortunate next generation of seniors. And this might be especially true of Manitoba. Freedom from Want? Manitobas Income Assistance program is deeply impoverishing, but the current government nonetheless continues to erode it. The minimum wage is frozen and many other wages remain inadequate. Collective bargaining is weakened. Freedom from Squalor? Portions of already-limited social housing stock have been sold off. Winnipeg has some of the oldest and most decayed housing in the country. Freedom from Idleness? The number of the deliberately created unemployed, as opposed to unavoidable pandemic-related unemployment, is already in the several thousands. Freedom from Ignorance? Access to post-secondary education becomes less affordable, while quality becomes ever harder to maintain. Freedom from Disease? The evidence on the hospital consolidation isnt all in yet, but arbitrary cutbacks in expenditure, required by this government of the regional health authorities, have undoubtedly led to greater difficulty accessing the system, especially primary care. 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. Paradoxically, all of the foregoing is claimed as necessary to slay the deficit dragon by reducing expenditures, while past and proposed tax cuts reduce the revenues which, if retained, could achieve the same objective. And the role of government? In Manitoba, part of the current governments ideological package is that the private sector best meets societys needs, despite evidence that low-tax small government is synonymous with the loss or absence of the programs which uphold the five freedoms. Giving an airing to values hidden beneath the surface of public policy debate is crucial to addressing the question of what post-COVID-19 should look like. It would be instructive, for example, if someone inquired of Manitobas current premier if he approves of Lord Beveridges five freedoms. To say no would be the equivalent of a denouncement of Mother Theresa. A more likely response would be that we cant afford them. But wait! In 1945, much of Britain was a pile of rubble and it shouldered a massive, war-incurred debt-to-GDP ratio of 250 per cent. Instead of using those two facts as excuses to slash public services, the government, as noted, took the opposite approach. Most citizens were experiencing positive outcomes within a decade, and the strategy continued until the late 1970s. Surprise! By 1975, the debt-to-GDP ratio was 55 per cent. Please dont tell us that a similar strategy is not affordable in Manitoba as we emerge from the current crisis. Pete Hudson is a senior scholar in the faculty of social work, University of Manitoba, and a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba. A crossbench coalition will try to stop a looming change to electoral law out of concern it could blur the lines between state and federal donations and skirt new controls on who can bankroll the major political parties. The move aims to force a Senate inquiry into the changes to test the Morrison governments assurance the law will guarantee integrity in the way parties report donations worth millions of dollars. Greens leader Adam Bandt and Tasmanian independent Senator Jacqui Lambie have concerns about proposed federal electoral laws. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The government is negotiating with Labor on the changes after introducing the bill last Thursday, raising fears on the crossbench that the two major parties could rush the changes through the Senate this week. Greens leader Adam Bandt and crossbenchers including Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie are planning a joint bid to stop the bill, one day after many of them also called for a national integrity commission to investigate corruption. LIMERICK City and County Council is exploring plans to convert loading bays into places where people can leave their cars for a short time to pick up orders made online. At this weeks transport meeting held on the internet to aid social distancing requirements the councils director of physical development confirmed the move on foot of a question from chairman, Cllr Joe Leddin. He said: We are actively working on this to identify locations in the city. we'll colour them a different colour, put up signage to that effect and have this arrangement. Previously, Cllr Leddin had hailed it as a positive suggestion which came out of the local authoritys meeting with traders who may be impacted by the councils new mobility plan. A positive suggestion for the traders through the week was click and collect zones, whereby we have dedicated parking zones for people with disabilities and loading bays. I see no reason why we shouldn't look at some of the loading bays, or some of the parking spaces and re-assign them for click and collect, so people who are coming in - they've ordered their food online and they want to leave their car and park for 10 to 15 minutes. It's important to do that, he told the meeting. Slots are being examined in William Street, Thomas Street and Catherine Street, the Labour member added. Fine Gael councilor Daniel Butler welcomed this, saying: Something I proposed three or four years ago was click and collect. I think it's a great idea. Also, it maximises the space for a person, meaning a person doesn't need to walk down from a car park for an hour or so. I'd wholeheartedly support that as a strategy. In a bid to aid social distancing, many shops, most notably at Argoss three city branches, are insisting that its customers make an order online before attending the shop. Click-and-collect allows purchases made on the internet to be collected in a physical shop, to stop the need for waiting for an item in the post. As the services grapple with how best to address disparities in military punishment, they should create a more racially diverse Judge Advocate General Corps, according to a former military prosecutor. Speaking to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders and a retired Air Force colonel, said he is concerned with the lack of African American representation in top JAG positions. Read Next: First Army Unit Gets New Squad Designated Marksman Rifle When he retired in 2014, Christensen, who was also the Air Force's chief prosecutor, said he knew of one African American out of 124 colonels in the branch's JAG Corps. "We do not have enough," he said during the hearing Tuesday, held to address racial disparities in the military justice system. Selection and promotion boards should be encouraged to transform the JAG Corps "because I think part of the experience [minorities] would bring in would be important to [eliminate] bias," Christensen said. As the national conversation on race has renewed in recent weeks following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis, Christensen highlighted how the services -- most notably the Air Force -- have come up short on the issue. Last month, Protect our Defenders published a new study, "Federal Lawsuit Reveals Air Force Cover Up: Racial Disparities in Military Justice Part II," which followed its report from 2017. The studies found that black troops "are twice as likely to be investigated compared to white servicemembers in each branch." A subsequent 2019 Government Accountability Office study came to the same conclusion. According to slides obtained through a federal lawsuit to supplement its Freedom of Information Act request, Protect Our Defenders found in its latest report that the Air Force openly admitted through a 2017 working group analysis that racial injustices are prevalent and enduring. The most junior ranks bear the brunt, according to another slide. "The rate per thousand of Black/African American Airmen receiving discipline at the E-2 level is double that of other demographics," it states, referencing data collected between 2012 and 2016. Separately, in a letter addressed to the Air Force JAG Corps, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Rockwell, the service's judge advocate general, queried his counterparts earlier this month, asking for proposals on how to improve the service's justice system, including solutions to "break down barriers" and conduct further analysis. Rockwell cited an internal report that found similar data to Protect our Defenders' studies. Slides accompanying the letter showed that black male airmen "under the age of 25 and with less than 5 years of service receive non-judicial punishments and courts-martial actions at a higher rate than similarly situated white male Airmen," especially at the E-5 level and below, Rockwell said. The Air Force Inspector General has since launched an independent review into the service's history of military discipline. Rockwell testified at Tuesday's hearing, alongside Maj. Gen. Daniel Lecce, staff judge advocate to the Marine Corps' commandant; Lt. Gen. Charles Pede, the Army's judge advocate general; and Vice Adm. John Hannink, the Navy's judge advocate general. "I think you measure progress by eliminating that racial disparity," Rockwell said in response to Rep. Debra Halaand, D-New Mexico. "I think that has to be the ultimate goal of where we should get to." "We have to get after this," Lecce added. "We realize we're at the beginning ... but there is a lot of work to be done. Commanders need to drive this." Committee Chairwoman Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, agreed with Lecce that responsibility starts at the top, but noted that Congress had already been pushing the issue. The fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, under section 540-I, mandated assessments into racial, ethnic and gender disparities in the military justice system. "540-I was put in the 2020 defense authorization act not by you, not at your request, but at Congress' request," she said. "So while you're relying on that now to recognize that there is work to be done, it would have been a whole lot better if it came from you." -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: 'Acting with Their Heart:' How the Air Force Led the Services in Talking About Race The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] The National Trust has warned the public not to take disposable barbecues when they visit the countryside following numerous wildfire incidents. 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, discarded barbecues have led to hundreds of acres of moorland and forestry in Lancashire, West Yorkshire, Staffordshire and elsewhere engulfed by wildfires. Ben McCarthy, head of nature conservation at National Trust said that many areas of land were still 'very dry' following the hot, dry spring. We know that people have missed the outdoors and open spaces these past few months and were really pleased to be welcoming them back. But were urging people not to bring barbecues to the countryside or the coast. They can lead to real problems, particularly after such little rain in April and May. All it takes is a single spark from a barbecue or a dropped cigarette to cause a serious fire. Fires like these undermine our work to care for nature and respond to the climate emergency, which are priorities for the National Trust. 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. Among these was a huge blaze on Marsden Moor, West Yorkshire in April 2019 that burned 700 hectares (1,730 acres) of wildlife habitat. The NFU has called 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. A federal judge on Wednesday blocked an effort by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to keep undocumented and other college students from receiving pandemic relief grants, the second judge in the past week to stop the regulation from taking effect. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers imposed a preliminary injunction in California preventing the Education Department from restricting emergency grants only to college students who qualify for federal financial aid. The ruling arrives days after U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice took similar action in a case involving the state of Washington. Both orders only apply to schools in those states, but they cast doubt on the future of a policy that higher education leaders have denounced as cruel and ill-conceived. The rulings are rooted in the Trump administration's handling of more than $6 billion in emergency grant aid set aside for college students in the stimulus package passed by Congress. The Cares Act directed colleges and universities to dole out emergency grants to students to pay for expenses such as rent, child care, technology and groceries in light of disruption caused by the novel coronavirus. After confusing and conflicting guidance, DeVos issued a regulation last week asserting that only students eligible for federal financial aid can receive the relief money, shutting out undocumented and international students, as well as those with poor grades, defaulted student loans or minor drug convictions. The rule reaffirms guidelines released by the department in late April that spawned the two lawsuits. In May, California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley sued DeVos for "arbitrarily" excluding as many as 800,000 of his students from receiving grants, including those who had not filled out an application for financial aid. Because the only efficient way for colleges to know who is eligible for federal aid is by looking at applications, roughly 7.5 million students across the country without a form on file could not receive grants. Although Congress directed DeVos to distribute the relief funding to schools in the same way as other financial aid, there is nothing explicit in the law about which students are eligible for grants. The Education Department said that ambiguity required the agency to define eligibility. And since Congress used the federal financial aid framework elsewhere in the legislation, the department said, it concluded that lawmakers intended for grants to be limited to students who are eligible for federal aid. In her ruling Wednesday, Judge Gonzalez Rogers ripped apart that explanation, accusing the department of having "manufactured ambiguity where none exists." She said the law mandates DeVos to allocate relief funds to all students except those who already enrolled in online programs prior to the pandemic. "In light of the emergency nature of the funding at issue and the public health and economic circumstances in which this case arises, the public interest in an injunction is significant," Gonzalez Rogers wrote. Chancellor Oakley applauded the ruling Wednesday, calling it "good news for all students who have been denied the assistance that Congress intended for them during this public health crisis." Although the injunction is preliminary, higher education experts say the judge's forceful rebuke of the Education Department signals she may ultimately rule in favor of the community college system. There is less certainty surrounding the case in Washington state. The judge there also ruled that there is nothing in the Cares Act limiting grants based on financial aid eligibility. But he did not include undocumented students in his injunction, having found arguments on both sides compelling. The Education Department argues that a 1996 welfare-overhaul law bars undocumented students from getting federal benefits and that there is nothing in the stimulus bill exempting them from the existing law. Attorneys for Washington state contend that if Congress wanted to exclude those students, lawmakers would have been explicit as they were elsewhere in the legislation. "Two federal judges in the same circuit are split on this issue, and we fully expect to prevail on appeal," said Angela Morabito, a spokeswoman for the Education Department. In early April, DeVos told college presidents that the only requirement for the emergency grants was to use the money to cover expenses related to the disruption of campus operations. Otherwise, it was up to them. The funding agreement that colleges have been asked to sign says the grants are not to be considered financial aid. Yet weeks after releasing the aid to schools, DeVos said the money could go only to students who qualify for federal aid programs. The conflicting messages from the department became more confusing over the ensuing weeks, after the agency said its guidance was unenforceable and promised to release more guidelines. A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators found that the inconsistent guidance from the Education Department slowed the distribution of pandemic relief grants. Of the 587 colleges and universities that participated in the survey, 72 percent had not distributed the funds in May, citing inadequate guidelines from the agency. Still, the vast majority of schools had the money flowing by June. "Much of those funds went out later than they should and went under confusing and inconsistent guidance," said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. "The recent injunctions clearly indicate that the Department's reasoning is on very shaky ground. Hopefully, this will translate into broader policy allowances in the future. The bad news is that according to our surveys, most schools have already disbursed emergency grants, and the majority of those have disbursed more than 75 percent of their funding." [June 16, 2020] Easy&Light introduces an upgraded EasyCanvas Pro app with wireless connect function SEOUL, South Korea, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Devguru (CEO Song Ji-ho), Software Development Company, announced that its brand Easy&Light have launched EasyCanvas Pro. 'EasyCanvas Pro' is an app that can use an iPad as a drawing tablet. While previous EasyCanvas could only connect via USB cables, this new upgrade allows wireless connections. It also announced it will add more professional functions in the future to increase productivity. One can easily connect and use the app by downloading the program at Easy&Light website( http://www.easynlight.com/easycanvaspro/ ) and then connecting the PC and iPad using a USB cable. Moreover, on the same wireless network, they can be connected wirelessly. The biggest benefit of this app is that one can draw using PC software such as Photoshops or Clip Studio by creating a copy of the PC screen on the iPad. The app supports palm rejection, pen pressure and tilt, easy shortcuts, and wire/wireless connections at the same time. It can convert between the stylus mode and touch mode automatically, allowing users to use the pen to draw while using touch gestures to zoom in/out or rotate simultaneously. The menu bar can be hidden, recalled, minimized, or moved at will and the shortcuts speed up the work process. Users can also freely customize the shortcut names, icons, or actions. With the current launching promotion, the annual subscription can be purchased for just $4.99 and 14-day free trial is also provided. Since its establishment in 2002, Devguru has been providing solutions for numerous companies working with machines using different operating platforms. For more information, please contact: DEVGURU Co., Ltd., Management Support Team, +82 2-3442-7236, Sang Hoon Song, shsong@devguru.co.kr Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200611/2827453-1 SOURCE DEVGURU [ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:48:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved a deal worth 400 million U.S. dollars to boost the health insurance system across Egypt, said Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Rania al-Mashat on Wednesday. "The deal reflects the Egyptian government's efforts to provide the health care for all citizens as a national priority," the minister said. She added that the deal finances a health project in cooperation with the private sector for the first time to eliminate all kinds of current disparities that hinder health care in Egypt. It will also offer temporary financial protection to the most vulnerable across the country whose income has been impacted amid the coronavirus outbreak, she added. Meanwhile, Egyptian Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait hailed the deal as it will help Egyptians to access affordable health care without suffering financial hardships. "The World Bank's support for the project will also help Egypt to achieve long-term stability in health financing with less reliance on the state budget and without causing any economic fluctuations," Maait added. The World Bank said in a statement on Tuesday that "it has strengthened its engagement in Egypt's health sector, including transforming Egypt's healthcare system project, which was launched in September 2018 to help improve health service delivery in Egypt." The 2018 project has helped in the screening of 52 million citizens of Hepatitis C, provided treatment for 2.2 million patients as well as trained 2,800 health workers, according to the statement. Enditem To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Editors note, Wednesday: All the results are now in. School districts across Central New York and throughout New York state are counting votes today on school budgets. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the balloting was done by mail this year. Districts were to start counting the ballots at 5 p.m. Officials were uncertain how long it might take to open all the mailed in ballots and tally the votes. We will report the budget votes as the results become available. (Some districts may not report the results until Wednesday.) Cayuga, Madison and Oswego counties can be found here. Onondaga County results Baldwinsville Proposed spending: $112,259,824 (2.38%) Per pupil: $20,549 Yes: 4,871 No: 1,729 East Syracuse Minoa Proposed spending: $84,149,032 (2.22%) Per pupil: $24,859 Yes: 2,153 No: 604 Fabius-Pompey Proposed spending: $19,650,414 (2.84%) Per pupil: $30,231 Yes: 812 No: 200 Fayetteville-Manlius Proposed spending: $88,298,298 (2.82%) Per pupil: $20,688 Yes: 3,743 No: 1,585 Jamesville-DeWitt Proposed spending: $58,640,975 (1.61%) Per pupil: $21,767 Yes: 2,349 No: 845 Jordan-Elbridge Proposed spending: $31,390,000 (-1.37%) Per pupil: $28,356 Yes: 1,057 No: 164 Lafayette Proposed spending: $20,324,251 (3.87%) Per pupil: $23,996 Yes: 454 No: 125 Liverpool Proposed spending: $166,173,358 (3.56%) Per pupil: $23,824 Yes: 4986 No: 1836 Lyncourt Proposed spending: $11,570,000 (4.01%) Per pupil: $21,466 Yes: 329 No: 169 Marcellus Proposed spending: $37,844,964 (0.6%) Per pupil: $25,921 Yes: 1,594 No: 731 North Syracuse Proposed spending: $172,567,744 (3.48%) Per pupil: $21,373 Yes: 4417 No: 2074 Onondaga Proposed spending: $22,599,385 (2.41%) Per pupil: $26,588 Yes: 633 No: 195 Skaneateles Proposed spending: $34,037,540 (-3.54%) Per pupil: $26,468 Yes: 1,937 No: 628 Solvay Proposed spending: $35,100,000 (3.17%) Per pupil: $24,207 Yes: 761 No: 308 Tully Proposed spending: $21,455,530 (2.93%) Per pupil: $25,542 Yes: 586 No: 390 West Genesee Proposed spending: $92,199,225 (1.89%) Per pupil: $20,756 Yes: 3,901 No: 1,212 Westhill Proposed spending: $40,704,000 (1.03%) Per pupil: $22,389 Yes: 1,594 No: 753 Workers remove the statue of Juan de Onate from outside the Albuquerque Museum in Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday, June 16, 2020. (Adria Malcolm/The New York Times) Sarah Mervosh, Simon Romero and Lucy Tompkins The boiling anger that exploded in the days after George Floyd gasped his final breaths is now fueling a national movement to topple perceived symbols of racism and oppression in the United States, as protests over police brutality against African Americans expand to include demands for a more honest accounting of all American history. In Portland, Oregon, demonstrators protesting against police killings turned their ire to Thomas Jefferson, toppling a statue of the Founding Father who also enslaved more than 600 people. In Richmond, Virginia, a statue of Italian navigator and colonizer Christopher Columbus was spray-painted, set on fire and thrown into a lake. And in Albuquerque, New Mexico, tensions over a statue of Juan de Onate, a 16th-century colonial governor exiled from New Mexico over cruel treatment of Native Americans, erupted in street skirmishes and a blast of gunfire before the monument was removed Tuesday. Across the country, monuments criticized as symbols of historical oppression have been defaced and brought down at warp speed in recent days. The movement initially set its sights on Confederate symbols and examples of racism against African Americans but has since exploded into a broader cultural moment, forcing a reckoning over such issues as European colonization and the oppression of Native Americans. In New Mexico, it has surfaced generations-old tensions among indigenous, Hispanic and Anglo residents and brought 400 years of turbulent history bubbling to the surface. Were at this inflection point, said Keegan King, a member of Acoma Pueblo, which endured a massacre of 800 or more people directed by Onate, the brutal Spanish conquistador. The Black Lives Matter movement, he said, had encouraged people to examine the history around them, and not all of it was merely written in books. These pieces of systemic racism took the form of monuments and statues and parks, King said. Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here The debate over how to represent the uncomfortable parts of American history has been going on for decades, but the traction for knocking down monuments seen in recent days raises new questions about whether it will result in a fundamental shift in how history is taught to new generations. It is a turning point insofar as there are a lot of people now who are invested in telling the story that historians have been laying down for decades, said Julian Maxwell Hayter, a historian and associate professor at the University of Richmond. He said that statues removed from parks and street corners could be teaching points if they are placed in museums, side-by-side with documents and first-person accounts from the era. Lets say you put a Columbus statue in a museum and you show students the way Columbus was lionized in a history textbook and you have them read Devastation of the Indies by de Las Casas, he said. Then you have to ask, why were people invested in telling this particular version of Christopher Columbus history? The calls to bring down monuments have spanned far and wide, in large cities like Philadelphia and rural places like Columbus, Mississippi, touching both relatively obscure historical figures and deeply revered cultural symbols. In Raleigh, North Carolina, the statue of a former newspaper publisher who was also a white supremacist was removed on Tuesday. In Sacramento, a tribute to John Sutter, a settler famous for his role in the California gold rush who enslaved and exploited Native Americans, was taken down this week. And in Dallas, construction crews recently removed a statue of a Texas Ranger, long seen as a mythical figure in Texas folklore, amid concerns over historical episodes of police brutality and racism within the law enforcement agency. The push has largely been welcomed by activists from the Black Lives Matter movement who see Confederate and other monuments as reminders of the oppressive history that created the reality they are battling today. But some of them worried that the focus on historic symbols would do little to keep attention on the more pressing issue of ending the brutal treatment of many African Americans by the police. I dont know if I would say a distraction, because I think people definitely have the ability to be nuanced, said Alisha Sonnier, a 24-year-old mental health advocate from St. Louis who is concerned that taking down statues could be an easy appeasement. The statue being removed is not going to keep anyone from dying, she said. Its not going to save a life. India-China Border News LIVE Cleon Jones, a 77-year-old activist in Africatown, Alabama, formed on Mobile Bay by the last known shipment of slaves to the United States from Africa, said he felt frustrated by the notion that progress toward equality could be stalled by rancor over Confederate monuments. Weve got to move forward, not look back, he said. As long as we are dealing with these statues, were not moving forward. The focus on removing statues has revealed deep civil divisions far outside the Black Lives Matter movement that are hundreds of years in the making. It has spurred a backlash among Italian Americans who have long regarded Columbus as a point of pride, and also among some Hispanics in New Mexico, who celebrate an era when Anglos did not dominate public life in New Mexico. We need to have a broader discussion about our history, said Christine Flowers, a 58-year-old Italian American immigration lawyer, who was among a group that gathered to protect a statue of Columbus in Philadelphia. But she added, It is indefensible to try to erase that history by pulling down something that is very dear and very symbolic for the culture of Italian Americans in Philadelphia. In Columbus, Mississippi, a largely African American town, county officials voted Monday to keep a towering monument to Confederate soldiers our heroes, it calls them on the courthouse lawn despite mounting calls for its removal. Its a good time to learn some history, said Trip Hairston, a white county supervisor who opposed removing the monument. I dont agree with all that history, of course, but it is what it is its history. It was an argument that left many of those pushing to remove the statue perplexed. Its commemorating and celebrating a lost battle I dont understand, said David Horton, 28, a lifelong resident of Columbus who first fought against a Confederate monument as a seventh grader at Robert E. Lee Middle School. These are things I have to endure all my life as a young African American man living in Mississippi, he said. Its always made me feel inferior, its always made me feel like I shouldnt hold my head up. The statues debate has once again focused attention on Columbus, the voyager who emerged as a symbol of Italians contribution to American history in the late 1800s, a time when discrimination against Italians was rampant. But many in recent days are also talking about how his arrival signaled the beginning of a violent European colonization that resulted in a cross-Atlantic slave trade and the genocide and displacement of many indigenous peoples. In Philadelphia, supporters went to court to block the removal of a Columbus statue after another statue, of Frank Rizzo, a former mayor known for discriminatory policies, was removed by the city this month in the middle of the night. You just cant let the mob rule, said George Bochetto, a lawyer who filed the petition. In Minneapolis, where the demonstrations over Floyds death ignited new protest movements in dozens of cities, many said they never expected them to grow into an international reckoning over racist symbols. Still, they said, it was only a matter of time before the latest police killing of a black man led to something more lasting than previous protests. Its kind of like a wound that has a scab, said Teron Carter, 49, standing across the street from Cup Foods, the deli near Floyds fatal encounter with the police. A wound that has a scab is still a wound, its just that the scab is on top. And if you scrape that scab a certain way, it reopens the wound. He attributed the scope of the burgeoning movement to built up grief and to the energy of young people who simply are not willing to put up with walking by Confederate and other statues each day. Its not just an isolated city event, Carter said. Now everybody saw the opportunity and said, If we dont get in there and talk like Minneapolis is talking, then we arent going to be heard. c.2020 The New York Times Company The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) have called for the full and immediate publication of the guidelines for the reopening of pubs, saying the drip feed release is sowing confusion throughout the industry, creating more questions than answers. The representative bodies for pubs throughout the country also questioned why Failte Ireland did not release the pub guidelines at the same time as those published for the rest of the hospitality sector. Speaking this week, Chief Executive of the LVA, Donall OKeeffe said, "The drip feed release of these guidelines has been handled in a completely arbitrary manner, which is sowing confusion throughout the industry. Pubs who serve food are due to reopen on Monday week, but they still dont have clarity as to what will be required of them. These businesses need time to get their premises ready, to ensure their pubs are fully compliant while offering a safe and comfortable environment for their customers and staff." Chief Executive of the VFI, Padraig Cribben added, "This has been a very uncertain time for the industry and instead of having a clear understanding of what will be required were left with a lot more questions than answers. Its almost as if the guidelines are a puzzle which publicans have to try to piece together." Source: www.businessworld.ie YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. Reformulations of Armenias security approaches and the roots of peace planted by the Velvet Revolution are under the spotlight of leading international organizations and media outlets. The Christian Science Monitor published an article titled Nations That Plant Roots Of Peace which makes a reference on Armenia. More than half the worlds countries have a lower homicide rate than 12 years ago. More than half have cut military spending. In the past five years, deaths from terrorism are down by half. Yet riots and general strikes have been skyrocketing worldwide. Last year, 96 countries saw at least one violent protest. These are just a few of the statistics from the latest Global Peace Index, which tries to measure levels of peacefulness based on 23 indicators. Perhaps the biggest surprise in this study by the Institute for Economics and Peace is that one particular region has shown the greatest improvement: the former Soviet states in Eurasia. Over the past four years, eight of the 12 countries have steadily become more peaceful. And the definite leader in peacemaking is Armenia, the article says. According to the article, Armenias progress is largely due to a nonviolent Velvet revolution in 2018 that restored its democracy and then elected Nikol Pashinyan, as prime minister. He is the type of new leader who says things like I do believe in our citizens ability to turn mountains upside down with their behavior, the article says, adding: Yet his real talent has been in expanding and redefining the concept of security. Mr. Pashinyan does not see security through the lens of the military. Rather it lies in cracking down on corruption, improving rule of law with an independent judiciary, building up local self-governance, and diversifying Armenias economy and trade ties. One telling indicator: the countrys incarceration rate has fallen by a third since the revolution. The article also says that Pashinyan also made attempts to prevent the clash with Azerbaijan. It mentions about the 2016 war and states that negotiations that began soon after Mr. Pashinyan rose to power have ended the violence and raised hopes of a peaceful resolution. Mr. Pashinyan attributes this progress to a breakthrough in the collective consciousness of our people during the 2018 revolution. The Eurasia region often has leaders who see democracy as a threat to national security. Yet in Armenia, a revival of democracy has improved its security. It has also boosted the country in two other global rankings levels of freedom and in curbing corruption. Peace is a positive force, one that can be measured. When an entire nation like Armenia rises up to embrace it, the world takes note. Another mountain has been moved, the article says. FREDERICTONThe New Brunswick government says it agrees Indigenous people should lead some kind of review into two recent fatal police shootings, but several First Nations leaders say theyre disappointed it may not be a formal commission of inquiry. The provinces Aboriginal affairs minister, Jake Stewart, said more than a dozen First Nations chiefs took part in a conference call Wednesday with Premier Blaine Higgs to talk about systemic racism within the provinces justice system. We agreed that Indigenous leaders should be at the head of this maybe a co-chaired effort, Stewart told reporters after the meeting. There were terms thrown around like task force, review, inquiry, commission. Many terms were discussed and there was disagreement on terminology.... Not everybody can land on the same page in a meeting. Six chiefs who represent the Wolastoqey Nation, however, later issued a statement saying they had specifically asked for a formal, independent commission of inquiry to investigate the deaths of Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi both of whom were shot by police within the last two weeks. We were very disappointed with Premier Higgs response, the chiefs said, adding that they told Higgs and four members of his cabinet that an inquiry should be led by Indigenous people and must have tight timelines to ensure prompt action. Our people have participated in national inquiries and we have heard words spoken by governments, and still we come back to the same point we reached these past weeks, the chiefs said. We need action now. Higgs later said he was concerned that too many previous inquiries at the provincial and federal level have failed to accomplish what they set out to do. Im not one to keep studying something, he said, adding the province should first try to implement previous recommendations that remain outstanding. Id like to get something accomplished. Why duplicate what may have already been studied? Stewart who earlier this month called for a public inquiry said Wednesday the province was still open to the idea, but made it clear the government is hesitant about doing so because it could take too long. Having looked at the results of several national and provincial inquiries and royal commissions dealing with Indigenous issues, Stewart said only 20 per cent of 797 resulting recommendations had been implemented over a 24-year span. The Migmaq Chiefs of New Brunswick issued their own statement, saying they agreed with the premiers approach while also calling for a public commission of inquiry. It is our feeling moving ahead with implementing the calls and recommendations from past reports and having a New Brunswick-focused inquiry are not mutually exclusive, said a statement signed by nine chiefs. There is not just one approach that is going to fix the issue. The chiefs, who belong to a group known as Migmawel Tplutaqnn, cited the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall Jr. Prosecution, which investigated the 1971 wrongful conviction of a Nova Scotia man who spent 11 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. We know the Marshall inquiry in Nova Scotia led to the implementation of actions that have resulted in significant changes in how the justice system in that province deals with Indigenous people, the chiefs said. There is benefit in doing something similar for New Brunswick. Meanwhile, Quebecs independent police watchdog agency continues to investigate the killings of Moore and Levi, because New Brunswick does not have its own police oversight agency. The Bureau des enquetes independantes (BEI) is looking into the RCMPs actions leading up to the death of the 48-year-old Levi, who was attending a barbecue near the Metepenagiag Mikmaq Nation on Friday when someone called police to complain about an unwanted person. The Mounties have said a suspect carrying knives was jolted with a stun gun, but that failed to subdue him. He was shot when he charged at officers, police said. The bureau is also investigating the case of the 26-year-old Moore, who was fatally shot June 4 when an officer from the Edmundston Police Department was conducting a wellness check. Police allege she lunged at an officer with a knife. Moore, from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation in British Columbia, had moved to the community in northwestern New Brunswick to be closer to her mother and young daughter. The Wolastoqey chiefs also said they raised concerns about systemic bias and racism against Indigenous people in New Brunswicks police and justice systems and reminded the premier about Stewarts earlier pledge. Despite the fact that his minister of Aboriginal affairs has recognized that bias and racism exists, Premier Higgs is not prepared to recognize that, the chiefs said in their statement. The premier challenged that assertion. No one is denying systemic racial issues ... that need to be addressed, least of all me, Higgs said. We must have change. Stewart said most of the chiefs agreed to take part in another meeting in two weeks, though he admitted some of them seemed frustrated. Read more about: An altercation between a driver and a drivers mate has landed one of them in trouble. Abubakar Saddique, the driver and accused has been charged for allegedly causing harm to Obed Asamoah, the drivers mate. The Accra Circuit Court one where Saddique was arraigned has learned that the accused stabbed the complainant twice in the back following a bloody brawl. Prosecuting, Chief Inspector of police, William K. Boateng, told the court presided over by Ms Afia Owusu Appiah that on May 2, 2020, at about 11pm, Asamoah was walking along the railway line at Kwame Nkrumah Interchange when he spotted Saddique having a scuffle with Sherrif, Asamoahs friend. He told the court that Asamoah asked his friend Sherrif not to mind Saddique and moved on. Chief Insp. Boateng stated that while moving on, Saddique slapped the complainant from behind and this led to a fight between the two and Asamoah put the accused on the ground. In the ensuing altercation, the prosecutor said the accused pulled a knife and stabbed Asamoah. He said a witness in the case arrested the accused and handed him to the Neoplan Police Station. Chief Inspector Boateng told the court that Asamoah was issued a medical form to receive treatment at Cocoa Clinic. But because of the severity of the injury, the Clinic referred the patient to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital where Asamoah underwent successful surgery in the chest under the support of oxygen. The policeman said the accused told the police during interrogation that he acted in self defence because Asamoah was on top of him and held his neck to the ground. 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 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) The Department of Health on Wednesday advised the public to be cautious in interpreting the preliminary study findings that steroid drug dexamethasone can reduce the risk of the sickest patients dying from coronavirus disease. DOH expressed concern that this discovery might lead people to think it is a magic pill for COVID-19. Nakakatakot din kasi na lumabas itong breakthrough na ito (This breakthrough is scary), Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire told a media forum. Vergeire was referring to the Tuesday announcement of two lead investigators of the Recovery Trial, a large United Kingdom-based trial investigating potential COVID-19 treatments, that a low-dose regimen of dexamethasone for 10 days was found to reduce the risk of death by a third among hospitalized patients requiring ventilation. The official pointed out that this research needs to be peer reviewed first to ensure that its findings are acceptable. Kailangan antayin nating makumpleto ang proseso ng pag-aaral. [Translation: We need to wait for the study process to complete.] Vergeire said the local health experts will await for the peer reviewed version of the clinical trial before considering to give the drug to local patients with severe COVID-19. "Aantayin natin resulta ng peer review para ang ating mga eksperto ay mapagaralan iyan at masabi kung pwede nating gawin ito sa ating mga pasyente." [Translation: We will wait for the peer review results so our experts could evaluate if this could be given to our patients.] The health official reiterated that there is still no proven cure for and vaccine against COVID-19. Itong dexamethasone hindi ito gamot na pag ininom mo ay mawawala ng COVID-19 o pag ininom mo ay hindi ka magkakaroon ng COVID-19, Vergeire said, citing the Recovery Trial's preliminary results. [This dexamethasone does not guarantee that once you take it, you would recover from COVID-19, or you would not get infected with COVID-19.] While caution is warranted, DOH acknowledged that this may be a breakthrough in the global fight against COVID-19. On Tuesday, the countrys COVID-19 cases reached 26,781, with 1,103 deaths and 6,552 recoveries. Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. says the decision by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to abandon one of the reliefs in their legal case at the Supreme Court regarding the EC's mass registration exercise doesn't mean the Commission can compile a new voters' register. The Electoral Commission (EC) has slated the registration exercise for Tuesday, June 30, 2020, despite oppositions. The exercise is scheduled to last for 38 days. Prior to the announcement of the date of the registration exercise, the NDC rank and file had challenged the Commission's constitutional mandate to hold the mass registration exercise and compile a new voters' register, at the Supreme Court. The party also seeks declaration on the constitutionality of the EC to exclude the voters' ID card as part of the identification requirements for the exercise. The NDC however dropped their case on whether or not the EC should conduct the exercise but their petition on the exclusion of the voters' ID card still holds before the law court. Some political critics believe the NDC's decision to go for their relief on the voters' ID card while they drop their case on the registration exercise supports the EC's decision to compile a new voters' register. But Kwesi Pratt thinks differently as he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' that the NDC's petition at the Supreme Court can invalidate the EC's new voters' registration exercise, albeit it is the Supreme Court ruling that will determine the outcome. "If the Supreme Court rules that the old registration form is a valid document for entering onto a register, it means that you're not compiling a new register. You'll be reviewing the register," he said. Watch full submissions below: Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Click here to read the full article. Copenhagen-based brand Cecilie Bahnsen is expanding its sustainability efforts with the launch of Encore, a collection of limited-edition upcycled products that will drop monthly, starting this month. Bahnsens first capsule includes a top, two skirts, four dresses, two pillows and one blanket designed from the brands deadstock fabrics such as crisp ultra-lightweight quilted cotton, recycled faille made from plastic bottles and beaded silk organza and organdy. The looks, which range from $1,360 to $3,525 for ready-to-wear ($610 to $1,105 for homeware) follow the Danish brands feminine elan of voluminous, airy shapes with intricate details and are available exclusively on the brands e-commerce. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. A Canadian group of companies is days away from sharing their research results with the global scientific community in the hopes of accelerating the development of tests or treatments for COVID-19. Image Credit: Andrii Vodolazhskyi/Shutterstock.com The Canadian COVID Coalition has volunteered their time and resources to identify the nanobodiesspecial antibodies found only in lamas and sharksthat are activated in the immune response against COVID-19. Full details of the approach can be found at www.novobind.com. With initial testing now complete, the Coalition plans to publish their first results within days. Additional results will follow in late June and again in July. The three publications will be provided publicly in a unique open-source biology model to allow researchers from around the world to quickly access the data for research purposes. We wanted an equitable model to complement the vast global effort underway, and allow all stakeholders to benefit without leaving any group or patient behind, Hamlet Abnousi, CEO of NovoBind We are not aware of anyone else publishing their results openly like this, and we hope it leads to more effective product development. Abnousi and his colleagues at NovoBind, a company normally focused on immune responses in animals, recognized their ability to help when COVID-19 first appeared late in 2019. The reached out to their partners to set the wheels in motion. There was no hesitation. When Hamlet raised the idea, our whole team was immediately on board to help. Jun Yan, President of SignalChem Cedarlane, who will facilitate the generation of the antibodies, was also keen to participate. This is such an incredible opportunity for us to donate our time and expertise in what we know best, says Eddie Johnson, General Manager, Cedarlane. It is a time when every resource has to be thrown at this monumental challenge. The Coalition is committed to ensuring that treatments or tests resulting from their research can get into the hands of financially vulnerable populations. They asked a trusted ally at the law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati to advise on the intellectual property strategy to ensure they can meet that goal. It is an honor to work with a team who is so passionate about using their unique scientific expertise to help in the fight against COVID-19, says Lee Johnson, Partner, Patents and Innovation, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Natural Products Canada, an investor in NovoBind, is leveraging its global network to facilitate knowledge transfer efforts. Nirupama Rao (Image:Twitter) Former foreign secretary of India and an expert on Sino-Indian relations, Nirupama Rao, has said that 'the gloves are off' between India and China border tensions and a bad moon is rising over the two countries' relations. Rao, who served as India's foreign secretary between 2009 and 2011, raised concerns over the Chinese Army's response in a thread of Twitter posts and pointed that it was worthy of scrutiny. Rao tweeted: The official #PLA statement on the tragic #Galwan face-off is worth scrutiny: it refers to the Galwan Valley as being on the China-Indian border and that the Indian Army crossed the #LAC and violated their commitments. In pictures | Explained: India-China border dispute through rare maps Rao also said the statements made by India weren't as impactful as the Chinese response, "Chinese statement minces no words. The gloves are off. It is in tradition of communications received from Chinese after border dispute erupted in 1959 & there were skirmishes in Western&Eastern Sectors. Both Indian Army &MEA statements of Tuesday sound much milder, almost anodyne." Rao went on to say, "Chinese always present themselves as injured party & blame opposite side for the consequences. A dark hour like this with all the blood that has been shed is such a dreadful tragedy. Efforts made for normalization since 1976 have come to nought." Follow this link to track LIVE developments on India-China Border news The official #PLA statement on the tragic #Galwan face-off is worth scrutiny: it refers to the Galwan Valley as being on the China-Indian border and that the Indian Army crossed the #LAC and violated their commitments. 1/n Nirupama Menon Rao, , (@NMenonRao) June 16, 2020 You can read the full thread here: Rao has been one of the foremost voices among experts on India-China relations from as early as former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's government, where she was part of the delegation that visited Beijing in December 1988. From 2006 until 2009, Rao was also India's ambassador to China. On June 16, the Indian Army said that 20 of its personnel had been killed as a result of a violent face-off with Chinese troops in Ladakhs Galwan Valley. The Chinese side also reportedly suffered from casualties. However, the exact number is unclear as China hasn't come out with a number. As per a report by ANI, as many as 43 Chinese soldiers had died in the incident. A US intelligence report has said that the incident involved about 35 Chinese casualties. Excerpts from former national security adviser John Boltons book about his time in the Trump administration paint a damning view of the president as a stunningly uninformed man who was outmatched by the job he was elected to do, according to three newspapers that obtained advance copies of the book. The White House has sought to block the publication of The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, filing suit against Bolton this week. In doing so, however, the Trump administration has helped elevate the memoirs profile, sending it to the top of bestseller lists nationwide even before it is published on June 23. Excerpts published Tuesday by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post contain numerous bombshells. Here are some of the most explosive: Trump asked Chinas Xi for help with his reelection In an excerpt published in the Wall Street Journal, Bolton, who resigned from the administration in September, wrote the following: Trump said approvingly that there was great hostility to China among the Democrats. Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability and pleading with [President] Xi [Jinping] to ensure hed win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trumps exact words, but the governments prepublication review process has decided otherwise. Trump told Xi he approved of building Chinese concentration camps for Uighur citizens Another excerpt published by the Journal deals with conversations between Trump and Xi about the construction of concentration camps for Chinas largely Muslim Uighur minority, whose loyalty to Beijing is considered suspect by the regime. At the opening dinner of the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang, Bolton wrote. According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Councils top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China. Story continues Donald Trump and John Bolton. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP) Trump spoke of executing U.S. journalists who didnt reveal sources for stories According to excerpts provided to the Washington Post, Bolton detailed a July 2019 meeting with the president during which Trump complained bitterly about the media coverage he had received. Specifically, Trump railed against journalists who refused to reveal the sources for their stories, Bolton said. These people should be executed, Trump said in the meeting, according to Bolton. They are scumbags. Pompeo and other Trump staffers derided the president behind his back An excerpt published by the New York Times recounts an incident that occurred at Trumps 2018 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped Bolton a note about Trump that read, He is so full of s***. Shortly after he began in his post, Bolton was told by then-chief of staff John Kelly, You cant imagine how desperate I am to get out of here. Kelly, according to Boltons retelling, then added, This is a bad place to work, as you will find out. Democrats botched Trumps impeachment by focusing on Ukraine In the excerpts published by the Times, Bolton was sharply critical of Democrats in Congress for limiting their impeachment proceedings on Trumps quid pro quo with Ukrainian leaders to help secure his reelection. Instead, Bolton wrote, they should have expanded their inquiry to a host of misdeeds on the part of the president, including what Bolton described as improper involvement on behalf of authoritarian governments in China and Turkey. A president may not misuse the national governments legitimate powers by defining his own personal interest as synonymous with the national interest, or by inventing pretexts to mask the pursuit of personal interest under the guise of national interest, Bolton wrote. Had the House not focused solely on the Ukraine aspects of Trumps confusion of his personal interests, he added, there might have been a greater chance to persuade others that high crimes and misdemeanors had been perpetrated. Bolton refused to testify in the impeachment inquiry against Trump. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus bid to get Canada back on the United Nations Security Council was dashed Wednesday, dealing the staunch defender of global institutions a decisive and embarrassing loss. India, Mexico, Norway and Ireland won temporary seats on the United Nations Security Council the organizations most powerful forum for 2021-2022. The Security Council election, which takes place in regional brackets, saw Canada suffer its second loss in as many attempts, beaten in the first round of voting by much smaller Norway and Ireland. Canada will now likely have to wait until the 2030s to win a seat at the Security Council table a three-decade absence. Of the Security Councils 15 members, five are permanent belonging to China, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and France while 10 seats rotate every two years based on elections like that conducted Wednesday. Despite being a founding U.N. member and part of the G-7 and G-20, Canadas size and history once again counted for little: the government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was defeated by Portugal in 2010, even as the former colonial power was in the midst of the humiliating EU bailout. Canada had touted its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations; the Francophonie, an international organization of French-speaking countries; and the Organization of American States, as well as its status as an Arctic nation. Canadas diversity meant it could be a voice for many at the U.N., the countrys ambassador to the U.N., Marc-Andre Blanchard, told POLITICO on Monday. Each country had two votes in each regional category. Out of 192 votes in the Western Europe and Other category, Norway received 130, Ireland 128 and Canada 108. In other regions, India (184 votes) and Mexico (187 votes) easily won their contests, while Kenya and Djibouti will head to a run-off vote for the African seat on Thursday, after neither country obtained the necessary two-thirds majority. Story continues United Nations ambassadors voted in isolation and wearing masks in individual time slots throughout the week at U.N. headquarters in New York. The result marks the end of years of campaigning, and deals symbolic damage to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus internationalist image. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer blasted Trudeaus stewardship of the campaign this week, accusing him of courting human rights abusers for votes and tarnishing Canadas image in pursuit of a personal vanity project. The prime minister cant bring himself to criticize dictators and despots around the world who abuse human rights, the official opposition leader said Wednesday. Trudeau had deflected criticism of the bid from Conservatives by nodding to Canadas 2010 loss under Harper, whose foreign policy he said was an embarrassment to Canadians. Speaking prior to the vote, the Liberal leader sought to downplay its significance: A seat on the U.N. Security Council is not an end to itself. Its a means to an end, he said, adding that Canada would continue to be a voice for others on the international stage, not just itself, regardless of the result. Richard Gowan, U.N. Director of the International Crisis Group, said U.N. diplomats broadly agree Canadas team campaigned well. With Norway, Ireland and Canada all taking similar approaches to such core global issues as climate change, multilateralism and peacekeeping, Canadas relatively late entry into the race as well as stumbles like Trudeaus brownface scandal hurt Canadas ability to stand apart and make its case. While Ireland and Norway declared their candidacies in 2005 and 2007, respectively, Canada jumped into the race in 2016: already too late to win Indias vote, which had committed its votes to Ireland and Norway in a vote-swap arrangement, the Hindustan Times reported . The Canadian government shelled out roughly $1.7 million and employed 13 full-time campaign staff, compared to Norways $2.8 million budget and Ireland on $1 million. Ireland splurged on U2 and Riverdance tickets for diplomats, and Canada on Celine Dion tickets, BBC reported, in addition to giveaways such as greeting cards, chocolates and Canada-branded facemasks. Norway went for a low-key platform backed by a big development budget. Norway is the worlds most generous aid donor on a per capita basis. With a population of just five million people, Norway earlier this year pledged $1 billion in assistance to the global coronavirus response, and donates close to 1 percent gross national income in development aid, compared to Canada at around 0.3 percent. Ireland has 474 peacekeepers deployed on U.N. missions compared to Canadas 35. Norway's ambassador to the United Nations, Mona Juul, casts a vote during U.N. elections on Wednesday. Trudeau spent much of his first mandate focused on managing tense free trade negotiations with the U.S. after President Donald Trump won in 2016 and demanded a NAFTA rewrite. He delegated his top diplomat, then-Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, with managing the talks along with Canada-U.S. relations. The updated deal will enter into force July 1, though it wasnt in a position to be ratified until late 2019. Trudeau also faced a tight reelection campaign last fall, which saw his government reduced to a minority in the House of Commons. With the election behind him, the prime minister packed his 2020 travel schedule with visits to Africa and the Caribbean, the latter of which was later canceled due to domestic protests snarling rail traffic. The pandemic put a stop to Trudeaus in-person stump for votes in the U.N. race, so he turned his focus to virtual global gatherings where he could tout Canadas commitment to inclusive multilateralism and steer discussions on such issues as global Covid-19 vaccine research and funding development after the pandemic eases. Trudeau said that despite the defeat Canada will continue to champion multilateralism on the world stage. Canada is large enough to make a difference, but we know we cant do it alone. As we move forward, we remain committed to the goals and principles that we laid out during this campaign. Speaking in New York on Wednesday evening, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne declined invitations to offer a campaign postmortem. But he and Blanchard emphasized the competitiveness of the regional group to which Canada belongs at the U.N. and suggested the government may advocate for change. He also said the government will also consider if the brevity of Canada's campaign compared to its competitors' factored into the result. We knew there was no guarantee of victory, but it was worth the effort," he said. When asked, Champagne said he didn't think China whipped votes against Canada in the race. Relations between Ottawa and Beijing have been strained ever since Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in December 2018 at the U.S.' request. In a separate election Wednesday, Turkeys Volkan Boz kir was elected U.N. General Assembly President with 178 votes out of a possible 192 votes. The governor said the process in determining when, where, and how in-person instruction will be allowed in the fall will closely align with the six phases of the MI Safe Start Plan and the Michigan Economic Recover Councils 8 regions of the state. She added that school districts, students, staff, and families must be nimble and be prepared to move backwards if there is evidence of community spread of the virus. On Wednesday, Whitmer said in-person instruction can resume as long as strict safety measures are in place. She added that the Michigans Return to School Roadmap will be released June 30, which will provide details on what will be required and what will be recommended for schools. The guide will set minimum health and safety requirements that will apply to all schools, public, private, and charter, statewide, although districts may choose to implement more aggressive safety health and safety measures in consultation with local public health officials. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has announced that schools can resume in-person instruction as part of phase 4 of the states reopening plan and that a reopening guide to help school districts, educators and students prepare for upcoming academic year in the fall will be released later this month. Our students and educators have made incredible sacrifices these past few months to protect themselves and their families from the spread of COVID-19, she said. Thanks to our aggressive action against this virus, those who have done their part to flatten the curve, and the heroes on the front lines, I am optimistic that we will return to in-person learning in the fall. Schools must make sure to enact strict safety measures to continue protecting educators, students, and their families. Whitmer said she will continue to work closely with the COVID-19 Return to Learn Advisory Council, which was established May 15. The 25-member council, comprised of leaders in health care and education, is acting in an advisory capacity to identify, develop, and submit recommendations to the states COVID-19 Task Force on Education regarding the safe, equitable, and efficient K-12 return to school in the fall. Tonya Allen, president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation and Chair of the Return to Learn Advisory Council, said the number one goal is the health and safety of students and educators. She added that the councils recommendations will be thoughtful and sensitive and that teachers, parents, and students will be provided with clear guidelines to direct the reopening schools. We will remain vigilant and flexible and closely examine the data as we continue to make recommendations to the governor she said. This is a crisis unlike any weve seen before, and we are committed working closely together to ensure we get this right. Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the states chief medical executive, said the development of a return to school plan will be driven by data while continuing to remain vigilant in fighting the virus. I will continue to work closely with Governor Whitmer and the Return to Learn Advisory Council to ensure we continue to put the health and safety of our students and educators first, she said. This is a big step, and we will remain flexible to protect everyone who steps foot in a Michigan school. In addition, Whitmer called for more federal dollars and support to help with the safe reopening of schools to ensure financial stability of school districts as they prepare to reopen. After recent conversations with policymakers, she said that she has been assured that there will be flexibility in federal assistance coming the states way to better support schools as they seek to reopen. She also confirmed that the State of Emergency, which expires June 19, will be extended in some form similar to what other states have issued. Prosecution seeks 9 and 6 years in jail for two alleged terrorist group members RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov 13:55 17/06/2020 ST. PETERSBURG, June 17 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded 9 and 6 years behind bars for two alleged members of a St. Petersburg cell of a group known as Set, meaning Network, banned in Russia as terrorist, lawyer Vitaly Cherkasov told RAPSI. The case is heard by the Second West District Military Court in a courtroom of the First West District Military Court in St. Petersburg. Two men, Kazakhstan national Victor Filinkov and Russian citizen Yuly Boyarshinov are defendants, they are charged with participation in a terrorist group and keeping of explosives. According to investigators, the terrorist group members were plotting to overthrow the government and commit terrorist attacks. Earlier, eight other defendants were sentenced in Russias Penza to prison terms ranging from 6 to 18 years. Three others were arrested in St. Petersburg. Filinkov pleaded not guilty. Boyarshinov admitted guilt noting that he entered the organization as antifascist and attempted to escape from it when she read the organizations rules and principles calling to create militant cells to insurrect and commit terrorist attacks. The third one, Igor Shishkin also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail. Winning the SDCE 100 award for the 10th year is a reflection of Pace Harmons consistent dedication to delivering results-driven programs that are tailored to each clients unique needs, said Andy Sealock, Managing Director, Pace Harmon. Pace Harmon, a leading IT and business services transformation advisory firm, today announced that it has been named to Supply and Demand Chain Executives SDCE 100 list for the 10th time. The SDCE 100 spotlights successful and innovative projects that deliver bottom-line value to enterprises across the range of supply chain functions. Innovation is essential in driving the supply chain industry forward, and thanks to these valuable partnerships, companies of all sizes are able to achieve success in projects that matter, says Marina Mayer, editor for Supply & Demand Chain Executive. From business intelligence systems and supply and demand planning to inventory reduction and procurement solutions, the SDCE 100 offers proof-of-concept that with the right planning and execution, anything is possible. Pace Harmons winning project involved developing and managing a leveraged sourcing and procurement platform to collectively serve a private equity clients 100+ investment portfolio companies. The platform is now delivering cost savings and value creation of approximately $100 million annually and has fostered a community of expertise across the participating portfolio companies. Winning the SDCE 100 award for the 10th year is a reflection of Pace Harmons consistent dedication to delivering results-driven programs that are tailored to each clients unique needs, said Andy Sealock, Managing Director, Pace Harmon. Celebrating this years winning project, we congratulate our Pace Harmon client account team for their innovative thinking and commitment to driving highly successful strategic sourcing outcomes for our clients portfolio of investment companies. Pace Harmons clients include Fortune 500 and select high growth middle-market companies across healthcare, CPG, Telecommunications, Life Sciences, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Technology, Energy and Retail industries. For more information, please visit paceharmon.com. About Supply & Demand Chain Executive Supply & Demand Chain Executive is the executive's user manual for successful supply and demand chain transformation, utilizing hard-hitting analysis, viewpoints and unbiased case studies to steer executives and supply management professionals through the complicated, yet critical, world of supply and demand chain enablement to gain competitive advantage. Visit us on the web at http://www.SDCExec.com. About Pace Harmon Pace Harmon is a leading IT and business services transformation advisory firm providing guidance on complex transactions, process and operational optimization, and provider governance. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in McLean, Va. with offices in Chicago and San Francisco, Pace Harmon provides pragmatic and insightful advice that helps its client base of Fortune 500 and other large global enterprises optimize performance, productivity and cost. For more information, please visit http://www.paceharmon.com. According to June 17 reports in the Israeli press, Blue and White Knesset members are quietly promoting a staged annexation plan. The unnamed parliamentarians are willing to support annexation of the two settlement blocs of Etzion and Maale Adumim. Israeli pundits have estimated over the years that these two settlement blocs, which are both near Jerusalem, would stay under Israels sovereignty in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. The popular assessment is that a majority within the party would now agree to the idea. There is reportedly disagreement in Blue and White over two other settlement areas: the Jordan Valley and the town of Ariel. Blue and White's leadership might ultimately agree on the annexation of Ariel as well, but annexing the Jordan Valley will not happen. Defense Minister Benny Gantz fears doing irreversible damage to Israels security relations with Jordan and fears have escalated after multiple recent warnings from King Abdullah. Other Blue and White members said today that they will not agree to annexation unless it is part of a comprehensive regional peace plan. Gantz himself has not yet explicitly said where he stands on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus annexation plan, but he did reiterate the need for coordination with the Americans and some of the regions Arab countries. Speaking at a meeting of his Knesset faction on July 17, Gantz said, "Any decision would be made responsibly and in coordination with the Americans." The party denied today reaching any agreement on a limited annexation. The Donald Trump administration has made clear to Netanyahu it wishes to have Gantz and his party on board with the annexation plan. Netanyahu might opt for limited annexation instead of the full West Bank settlements he pledged in the last election. Agriculture Minister Alon Schuster of the Blue and White said on July 14 that the government should not unilaterally annex any land. The minister said it was his personal opinion and that he was not aware if his party's leaders agreed. Schuster, like other ministers, has not been privy to the maps being drafted by a joint Israeli-American team to delineate the annexation. Knesset member of the leftist opposition Meretz Yair Golan said today that if the government decides that Israel should separate from the Palestinians, and as part of the separation annexes the Etzion or Maale Adumim settlement blocs, then he will grant his support, stating, "If the Israeli government says its supreme goal is to separate from the Palestinians and reach a solution where the Palestinians no longer live under our control, than I will support it." Gillian Holdstein and Jarred Roth were both in California for business in March when the pandemic hit. So the New Yorkers decided to stay for good. The couple chose to move to Sonoma about four weeks into quarantine at their friends house in the wine region. Ms. Holdsteins employer, the e-commerce firm MikMak, let her open their first West Coast sales office from home. Mr. Roth is focused on a restaurant he is preparing to help open in the area. They flew back briefly to gather their belongings, including Mr. Roths cat, Jerome, who had been on an extended stay with friends. The coronavirus is challenging the assumption that Americans must stay physically tethered to traditionally hot job markets and the high costs and small spaces that often come with them to access the best work opportunities. Three months into the pandemic, many workers find themselves in jobs that, at least for now, will let them work anywhere, creating a wave of movement across the country. Recessions tend to damp migration. Americans typically move with a new job already in hand, and hiring plummets during downturns. The 2008 financial crisis limited Americans mobility because millions of homeowners found themselves underwater on their homes, unable to sell without taking a loss. But this time might be different. Home prices havent yet taken a major hit. And the forces at play are novel. Confronted with the prospect of not being able to easily fly in for a visit with an elderly parent, grown children are suddenly questioning why they live so far away in the first place. Many newly remote workers are finding they prefer somewhere closer to family or fresh air. Others are giving up on leases they cant afford, chasing opportunities in states that are reopening faster or heading back to hometowns. All told, at one point in April, Americans were relocating at twice the pace they did a year earlier, according to Cuebiq, a data firm that tracks movement via mobile phones. They continued to move at an elevated rate through mid-May. Cuebiqs tally includes any trips away from home that last at least three weeks, so it also captures some temporary movement, like people decamping to vacation homes and students moving home from college. Its too early to tell how many of these moves are permanent and how, in aggregate, new migration patterns might reshape the country. Some people who left big cities early in the pandemic are realizing they miss working from an office or their companies miss them, and want them back in their cubicles. Others are staying put because they dont know when their companies will make them come back. Still, coronavirus-spurred moving could accelerate a shift already under way from dense, expensive cities to more affordable areas, including small cities and suburbs. In places like Boise, Idaho, real-estate agents say people are finally breaking ties with the West Coast after years of waffling, and sometimes buying properties sight-unseen. Telecommuting is fueling many of the moves. Companies like Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. are already declaring their months-long experiment with remote work a success, giving many workers permanent permission to detach themselves from the office. Other companies that just six months ago would have scoffed at letting employees work from home are embracing it. Still, not everyone expects to see millions of Americans packing their bags. Its obvious that the number of remote workers is going to jump up, said Thomas Cooke, a demographic consultant who recently retired as a geography professor at the University of Connecticut. But its not so clear-cut that its going to be this huge transformation. For many, it isnt even an option. The ability to pull up stakes while keeping ones job is far easier for white-collar workers. Family obligations, like children in school, can also keep people from moving. And the death of big cities has been heralded before. New Yorks real-estate market took hits after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 economic downturn, with some share of the population leaving after each shock. But Manhattan always seems to rise again, and urban centers like New York and San Francisco have continued to be gathering places for young talent to congregate and companies to find it. Already some companies are rethinking their work-from-home experiments. Executives at Twilio Inc., a San Francisco-based tech company, in early May were leaning toward giving employees a one-time offer to move where they wanted and work remotely permanently, according to chief people officer Christy Lake. By the end of the month, the company had scaled back its approach, instead telling employees they could work from another city or state domestically through the end of the year, if they got approval from a manager. Still, the company, which has about 3,000 workers, has said yes to about 15 employees who have asked to move permanently. Ly Nguyen, a 28-year-old software engineer in the companys Redwood City office, had lingered in California for years longer than she intended because of its career opportunities. Then the coronavirus hit, and Ms. Nguyens longtime plan to move closer to family in Seattle took on new urgency. It definitely made me feel like this is the right move, she said. Ms. Nguyen drove north in mid-March and discussed a permanent move with the company the next month. With everyone working remotely, there was less stigma to not being in the office, she said. Shes now hunting for a house to buy. In places where work has dried up, leaving town is sometimes the only way to keep a business going. Nate Whitehouse took a work trip to Texas in mid-March and never came back. Mr. Whitehouse is a co-founder of Drifter Spirits, which develops and markets alcohol for craft cocktails. But with New York Citys bars and dining rooms still empty, his company now plans to shift its center of gravity from New York to places like Texas and Florida that are reopening faster. Hes currently living with family in the Fort Worth and Austin areas and gave up the Brooklyn apartment that served as his living space and the companys offices. Colleagues moved the things left behind tiki mugs, vintage suitcases used for trade shows, his bed to his business partners parents house in New Jersey. They shipped him his passport. Its a good 13 years of New York living in one place, said Mr. Whitehouse, 42. Its kind of heartbreaking. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine extends adaptive coronavirus quarantine until July 31. "We extend the adaptive quarantine until July 31 this year. Also, at todays meeting of the Government, we will consider the updated approach to adaptive quarantine proposed by the Health Ministry, which provides for the possibility of strengthening quarantine in some regions if the situation requires," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at the Governments meeting on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. According to him, the ministers will also adopt a resolution on changing the schedule of the beginning of a working day in some industries at the suggestion of the Economic Development Ministry. "This [will be done] in order to stretch the peak in time when a lot of people go to work before 9 o'clock and crowd the public transport... This is the measure some countries have taken, and it is also a common option when the start of a working day will be stretched from 08:00 to 10:00 or later, the Head of Government said. In addition, the rules that will apply during quarantine with regard to wearing face masks indoors or limiting the number of passengers in transport will be determined at the Cabinets meeting. As reported, the Government introduced the quarantine in Ukraine on March 12 to combat the spread of coronavirus infection. In particular, the operation of subways in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro was suspended, as well as the operation of ground transport in the cities. The first stage of easing quarantine restrictions in Ukraine was introduced on May 11. The next stage of easing quarantine was announced on May 22. The Cabinet of Ministers endorsed a decision to establish adaptive quarantine in Ukraine from May 22 to June 22. ol Virtual discussion to examine journalism, media literacy in a 24/7 news cycle by Pete Rosenbery CARBONDALE, Ill. An interactive online panel discussion featuring Southern Illinois University Carbondale faculty and alumni next week will look at fake news, media literacy and journalism in a 24/7 news cycle. The Tuesday, June 23 discussion complements an Indie Lens Pop-Up film, Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project. The discussion begins at 6 p.m. Stokes, who died in December 2012, was a civil rights activist, librarian and television producer who recorded thousands of hours of television news footage beginning in 1979 with the start of the Iranian hostage crisis until her death. The collection includes 24/7 coverage of Fox, MSNBC, CNN C-SPAN, CNBC and other networks. The film is now streaming with the free PBS video app that participants can use to watch the film before the discussion. Registration is required 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 a password. Participants will also receive a reminder prior to the event. For information is available by contacting outreach@wsiu.org or cplib@carbondale.lib.il.us . WSIU Public Broadcasting, the SIU School of Journalism and Carbondale Public Library are program sponsors. Discussion panelists The panelist discussion after the film will feature two SIU journalism alumni and William Freivogel, a professor in the School of Journalism and publisher of the Gateway Journalism Review. In addition to Freivogel, the other panelists are: Tyler J. Davis, a public safety reporter with the Des Moines Register and a 2012 SIU graduate. He recently covered public protest movements after the death of George Floyd. Jackie Spinner, an award-winning journalist and associate professor at Columbia College in Chicago. A former staff writer with the Washington Post, Spinner graduated from the SIU journalism program in 1992. Time capsule project The 2019 film is the culmination of 70,000 VHS tapes that Stokes recorded through the years capturing everything from revolutions, wars, catastrophes, talk shows and commercials. The film premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and played at several other film festivals throughout the world. Marion Stokes' preservation of decades of TV news reminds us of how much the 24-hour news cycle changed the country and politics, Freivogel said. It also reminds us how powerful a few seconds of TV can be, whether it is the tape of the hostages in Iran or the explosion of the Challenger or the powerful witness a camera can be to the kind of police brutality inflicted on Rodney King. That lesson reverberates today with the uprisings in response to video of the alleged murder of George Floyd. Alleged gunman, Steven Baca, that shot at protesters is pictured surrounded by armed men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S., June 16, 2020. in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. TRNAVA via REUTERS Steven Ray Baca, a former candidate for Albuquerque's city council, was arrested Tuesday morning after witnesses he shot an anti-racist protester the night before, police said. Protesters had been trying to pull down a statue of Juan de Onate, a notoriously cruel Spanish conquistador, when shots rang out. The victim, Scott Williams, was shot several times in the torso and is in critical but stable condition, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, arrested a right-wing former candidate for city council on Tuesday and accused him of shooting and critically wounding an anti-racist protester the night before, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Steven Ray Baca, 31, was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after allegedly shooting one of dozens of protesters who had gathered around a statue of Juan de Onate, a notoriously cruel Spanish conquistador, that was set to be replaced later this year. The Onate statue, outside the Albuquerque Museum in Old Town, was being guarded by members of a volunteer militia, which calls itself the New Mexico Civil Guard. The group has been a regular and heavily armed sight at recent Black Lives Matter protests, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. "For weeks our community has been peacefully protesting against racism," Mayor Tim Keller said at a press conference on Tuesday, announcing the statue's immediate removal. "This kind of violence has no place in Albuquerque. Our hearts go out to the victim and his family." The mayor said that Baca also violently threw a woman to the ground after "agitating" at the protest, as seen in video posted by those at the scene. The shooting came soon after, as some in attendance tried to pull down the statue. A police report states that the attack occurred after Baca got in a scuffle with protesters. Story continues Albuquerque police arrested Baca on Tuesday morning. On Twitter, Baca, who ran for city council in 2019, identifies himself as a "Conservative-Libertarian millennial who is here to help cure the RC (Ruling-Class) Virus." He follows a number of right-wing politicians, such as President Donald Trump and Senator Rand Paul, and at least one far-right conspiracy theory account that promotes "QAnon." As The New York Times noted, Onate was infamous for cruelty, "even by the standards of his time," with Spanish authorities eventually barring him from the territory of New Mexico. Loathed by the large indigenous community, another statue of Onate was removed Monday in the northern part of the state. Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com Read the original article on Business Insider Vietnam, Australia and UN agencies join hands to protect women and children from violence A new joint project to address violence against women and children in Vietnam was launched on Wednesday by the Government of Australia and the United Nations agencies in Vietnam. Participants in the launch say no to violence. Photo by the Australian Embassy in Vietnam The project, which will be co-implemented by different ministries and agencies including the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Vietnam Womens Union, will support ongoing efforts by the Vietnamese Government to strengthen the national prevention and response mechanisms to address violence against women and children in the context of Covid-19, and to ensure that all Vietnamese women and children, including those most vulnerable, can live a life free of violence. The National Study on Domestic Violence against Women in Vietnam, conducted by the General Statistics Office in 2010, showed that 58 per cent of ever-married women had experienced at least one of the three forms of violence (physical, sexual or psychological) in their lifetime. Approximately 50 per cent of victims did not tell anyone about the violence they endured, and 87 per cent did not seek any help from public services. According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS5) in 2014, around two out of three children aged 1-14 years experienced some forms of violent discipline in the home. The Government of Vietnam reports over 2,000 cases of child abuse every year, of which 75 per cent are of sexual abuse. A pre-existing crisis of violence against women and children has been exacerbated in the context of Covid-19. Recent reports have shown that restrictions in movement, social isolation and similar containment measures, coupled with existing or increased social and economic pressures and stress on families, have led to an increase in violence, particularly against women and children. In many countries it is estimated that such violence has increased by at least 30 per cent. In Vietnam, the Peace House Hotline 1900 969 680 (a shelter run by the Vietnam Womens Union) and the Sunshine Hotline 1800 1769 (as supported by UNFPA in Quang Ninh province in partnership with KOICA) have received twice as many calls for help over the past months compared to the same months in previous years. It has been reported that risks of physical abuse, sexual abuse and child sexual abuse and exploitation have increased substantially. Evidence shows that during crises and disasters, family and gender-based violence increases. During the Covid-19 pandemic, job losses and enforced home isolation have caused rates of violence against women and children to soar in countries around the world. Today, Australia pledges its support to the Government of Vietnam to secure greater safety for women and children in its Covid-19 response, said Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie . Australia is providing AUD 2.5 million to support the project, which will be implemented over the next year. This is part of Australias AUD10.5 million contribution to support Vietnams response to Covid-19. The project will raise public awareness among women and girls, men and boys, parents/caregivers, children and adolescents - about the increased risks of violence in the home, quarantine centers and other institutions. Increased support for survivors of violence will be delivered in four cities and provinces of Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh city - the locations most affected by the Covid-19 over the past months. Ending violence against women and children should be a priority for everyone. There is no way for Vietnam to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals without addressing the issue of violence against women and children. We trust this new project will make a great leap forward to eliminate violence against women and girls in Vietnam, UNFPA Representative in Vietnam Naomi Kitahara, said at the project launch. The Government of Vietnam, Government of Australia, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women are all working together in this new partnership to end violence against women and children. No matter where violence happens, in what forms, or who it affects, it must be stopped. Together, we work to create a world where both men and women, and boys and girls, can enjoy life free from violence. President Akufo-Addo has threatened to remove Sarah Adwoa Safo and Mike Oquaye Jr. from his future government if the two cause any mayhem in the Dome Kwabenya constituency primaries this coming Saturday. The two are contesting each other to represent the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the parliamentary candidate for the December elections this year. This was disclosed by Mr Oquaye Jr., who is also Ghanas High Commissioner to India at a durbar with party supporters. Mr Oquaye Jr., a son of Ghanas Speaker of Parliament Prof Mike Oquaye, is seeking to unseat the incumbent MP and Minister of Procurement Ms Safo, as the NPP goes to the polls on Saturday, 20 June 2020 to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where it has sitting MPs. The two aspirants do not see eye to eye. Ms Safo has had cause to alleged that her life had been threatened by Mr Oquaye Jr., but the High Commissioner rubbished that claim. The fight between the two has caused division between the partys supporters in the constituency. Speaking to delegates at his constituency, Mr Oquaye Junior said: This is from the President of the Republic of Ghana. Today, Adwoa Safo and I met him and the President said he doesnt want any confusion between us, or any division at Dome Kwabenya. He said between today and the time of the elections, I, Mike Oquaye Jr. and Sarah Adwoa Safo, whoever causes trouble in the constituency, he will advise himself and we will not be part of his future government. To this end, Mr Oquaye Jr. advised his supporters to remain calm and not cause any mayhem before, during and after Saturdays election. ---classfmonline On Monday, educators from across the state of Massachusetts held a rally in Brookline, a part of the Greater Boston area, to protest the devastating budget cuts and job losses that are mounting statewide. Educators in over 50 school districts across the state have now been given pink slips or reduction-in-force (RIF) notices. The protest took the form of a caravan, with more than 500 vehicles driving from Brooklines Larz Anderson Park to Brookline High. The budget cuts sweeping across Massachusetts stem from the loss of income and sales tax revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, which is being foisted upon the working class in every state. When the World Socialist Web Site broke the news on the cuts in Randolph, Massachusetts, one of the first districts in the state to face cuts, we warned that they were a foretaste of what will befall many districts, teachers, and students. The protest on Monday coincided with the June 15 deadline for most districts to inform their employees of layoffs. Public schools are not obligated to publicize the lists or even numbers of educators they lay off, so in many cases workers and families in each district are still trying to determine the scope of the cuts. A reoccurring theme, though, is the high loss of jobs among the arts, music and physical education (PE) departments, as well as paraprofessionals and librarians. Brookline educators protest (Source: Massachusetts Teachers Association) The numbers that are known paint a bleak picture. Many districts claim they plan to invite teachers back, depending on whether or not they receive additional funding from the state or their individual cities. However, there is no guarantee that this funding will be made available, and educators are now left in a state of jobless limbo. In Brockton, 24 teachers received pink slips last week and the district intends to leave 40 teaching vacancies unfilled, with most positions in the arts, PE and music departments. Twenty-one paraprofessional and teaching assistants were also laid off, while another 39 who retired or left their jobs will not be replaced. In Taunton, a district with only 960 full-time employees, 160 pink slips were distributed yesterday, cutting $5.8 million from the districts budget. Those affected were primarily first- and second-year teachers, as well as 16 library assistants. In Randolph, all K-12 arts, music and PE departments were essentially eliminated at the end of last month, with all teachers for each subject being cut, as well as multiple elementary and middle school social workers and guidance counselors. In Brookline, 362 of the districts 645 teachers were laid off over the past two weeks. Immense opposition from the community forced the district to rehire more than 300 of these laid-off teachers, but subsequently an unspecified number were again laid off, with district officials claiming they made a mistake by sending out rehiring e-mails to some teachers. In addition, roughly 300 paraprofessionals in Brookline face the prospect of joblessness, with their notification deadline extended to June 22, the day before the school year ends. A high school teacher in a nearby Massachusetts school district, who previously wrote to the WSWS to voice his opposition to budget cuts, spoke on the protest and the dire situation facing educators in Massachusetts and across the country. Randolph students oppose cuts (Source: MTA) Commenting on the situation facing laid-off educators, he said, Some could potentially be recalled if alternative sources of funding materialize, but thats putting entirely too much confidence in Congress and the president. Even if we could rely on the government to adequately fund the education of its own citizens, this method of pink slipping new teachers every June and calling them back in August is cruel and degrading. The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), which is allied with the same Democratic Party politicians imposing the cuts on the state and local level, released a toothless statement calling for minimal tax increases on corporations and the wealthy. Among their demands is that corporate taxes be raised from their current 8 percent back to their pre-2017 9.5 percent, a paltry measure, as well as the closing of a corporate tax loophole and increasing taxes on unearned income by an unspecified amount. Significantly, the MTA also writes, The U.S. Senate should pass the HEROES Act, already approved by the House. This is a cynical charade being promoted by teacher unions and state Democrats across the US, who know full well that the act stands no chance of passing the Republican-led Senate, and that Trump has explicitly declared it dead on arrival. Union officials are failing miserably, the high school teacher told the WSWS. Merrie Najimy, MTA president, has known that this would happen for a long time, and yet we have this caravan hubbub only after the RIFs have been issued. Before that, and to this day, she has merely encouraged membership to contact their representatives and push them to support the HEROES Act, which as you know is a piece of political theater. The president of the Brookline Teachers Association, Jessica Wender-Shubow, actually proposed to solicit wealthy Brookliners for donations to help fill holes in their operating budget! Regarding the meager tax reforms pushed by the MTA, he said, Thats unlikely to go anywhere, and if it did, schools would continue to depend on high rates of corporate and financial profit, and would still be vulnerable to the downturns and crashes inherent in a capitalist economy. The teacher noted that the unions used the protest to promote various Democrats. It was something of a circus. The speakers consist of politicians up for reelection or their challengers, including Joe Kennedy who is running to unseat Ed Markey. In other words, the thing seems to have devolved into a dog and pony show for opportunists of all stripes. In order to fight, educators need new organizations of struggle, which are independent of the unions and both big business parties. In every school and neighborhood, rank-and-file committees should be formed to organize and wage the broadest possible struggle to oppose layoffs and budget cuts and defend the right to high-quality public education. The claim that there is no money is a lie. The CARES Act, signed by Trump with the unanimous support of the Democrats, is handing over trillions in public assets to Wall Street and the giant corporations. What is needed is not appeals to the rich to increase their taxes but a political struggle by the working class for socialism and a radical redistribution of wealth. We urge all those who wish to take up such a struggle to sign up for our newsletter and contact us today to begin building rank-and-file committees in your district. More and more Indians are searching on Google the list of Chinese products to boycott. This comes after tensions between India and China have heightened at the border in Ladakh. List of Chinese apps, List of Chinese apps in India, List of Chinese products used in India, Alternative to Chinese Products were some of the terms that people looked on the search engine. The ties between India and China have been tumultuous since the PLA claimed sovereignty over Indian territory in Ladakh. On Tuesday there were reports of deadly fighting between the armies of the two countries in Ladakh. At least 20 Indian soldiers have been killed in the confrontation. China is yet to reveal its casualties. Also Read: PLA Death Squads Hunted Down Indian Troops in Galwan in Savage Execution Spree, Say Survivors Earlier this month when tensions were rising on the border, Sonam Wangchuk whose work inspired Vidhu Vinod Chopra's '3 Idiots', had said that Indians should boycott Chinese products. Later, #BoycottChina, #BoycottMadeinChina, #BoycottChineseApps and #BoycottTiktok began trending on social media. Also Read: Sonam Wangchuk, Inspiration Behind '3 Idiots', Wants Indians to Boycott Chinese Goods In fact many people uninstalled the TikTok app from their phones in protest of what was happening on the border. There was an app also to delete the Chinese apps from phones. Meanwhile, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has released a list of more than 500 Made in China products to be boycotted after border tensions between India and China escalated on June 16. Products on the list include toys, fabrics, textiles, apparel, everyday items, kitchen items, furniture, hardware, footwear, handbags, luggage, electronics, cosmetics and gift items, electronics, watches, gems and jewellery, stationery, paper, household items, health products, auto parts, etc. As per the report, the Traders body took cognisance of business persons strong criticism of aggression along the Ladakh border, adding that Chinas attitude is against the interests of the country (India). MERRILLVILLE, Ind., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- First announced in November of 2018, the first JW Marriott in the Carolinas is on track for completion in the first half of 2021. White Lodging and Crescent Communities, co-developers of the project, and their construction partners recently celebrated the completion of the structural framework of the 22-story hotel. Progress of the JW Marriott Charlotte continues in Uptown Charlotte. An urban retreat and the first JW in the Carolinas. First announced in November of 2018, the first JW Marriott in the Carolinas is on track for completion in the first half of 2021. "The construction has remained on track as we adjusted to appropriately respond to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Terry Dammeyer, president and CEO of Investments and Development at White Lodging. "We're excited to be part of Uptown's resurgence and bring the JW Marriott brand to Charlotte." Part of the Ally Charlotte Center located at the corner of Stonewall and College streets, the JW Marriott Charlotte offers guests an urban retreat complete with a spa, Italian steakhouse, oyster bar, and a rooftop pool and lounge overlooking downtown. Modern Luxury in a Historic City With 381 guest rooms, including 34 suites, and more than 15,000 square feet of flexible event space, the property offers great access to the adjacent Charlotte Convention Center and is within walking distance to many of the city's largest employers and most visited neighborhoods and attractions. Grounded in craftsmanship and the art of detail, each one of the king and queen guest rooms and suites feature floor-to-ceiling windows, upscale amenities and luxurious bathrooms. The restaurants and bar all offer outdoor seating options connecting guests to vibrancy of the surrounding plaza. JW Marriott Charlotte's unique meeting spaces are flush with natural light and will include the expansive outdoor rooftop terrace, a grand ballroom spanning more than 5,100 square feet, a junior ballroom totaling approximately 2,700 square feet and nearly 7,000 square feet of additional breakout space. https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/cltjw-jw-marriott-charlotte/. David Malmberg Named General Manager David Malmberg will lead the JW Marriott Charlotte's opening team as general manager. Malmberg is currently the general manager of the Westin Austin at the Domain. He also served as the general manager of the Courtyard and Residence Inn Austin Downtown Convention Center. "I'm excited to continue growing my career with White Lodging and building a team ready to deliver exceptional hospitality in the Queen city for visitors and locals alike," said Malmberg. Prior to joining White Lodging in 2011, Malmberg spent nine years in St. Kitts, West Indies. During that time he was the director of restaurant and bar operations, director of catering operations and a sales executive with Marriott. Additionally, Malmberg had success with his own beach bar while on the island. He is a graduate of Central Michigan University. About White Lodging White Lodging, established in 1985, is one of the leading ownership, development, and management companies in America. An innovative trendsetter, the organization's portfolio includes convention, urban lifestyle, and suburban select hotels with more than $1 billion in managed revenue. White Lodging operates more than 90 premium hotels, 40 restaurants and 30 brands in 19 states. Success knows no boundaries at White Lodging, where associates and leadership have consistently earned superior guest satisfaction scores, top market share and industry-leading profit margins while recruiting the best, brightest, and most passionate professionals in every discipline for three decades. White Lodging is a proud winner of the Gallup Great Workplace Award. For more information about White Lodging, visit www.whitelodging.com, or connect on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. For More Information: [email protected] SOURCE White Lodging Related Links http://www.whitelodging.com Castro, Duboce Triangle Mini-Chic and Turkish Modern at 4011 18th St. are currently closed due to shelter-in-place. | Photos: Steven Bracco/Hoodline Two Castro retailers with a shared storefront (4011 18th St.) are facing a unique set of challenges from COVID-19 and shelter-in-place: Second-hand children's clothing store Mini-Chic has announced it will close its doors for good, while Turkish Modern faces an uncertain future despite a boom in online orders. Founded by Coralie Tran, Mini-Chic began as pop-up in August 2016. A year later, Mini-Chic partnered with home decor store Turkish Modern to operate out of the same storefront. Tipster Denny alerted us to Mini-Chic's closure, after spotting an announcement in the business' window stating it will vacate the space in October. Mini-Chic will be close its store in the Castro in October. Turkish Modern has shared the storefront since 2017. In a May 7 newsletter sent to customers, Tran cited the extension of shelter-in-place as the main factor for the store's closure. "We came to the ineluctable conclusion that our tiny business won't survive," she wrote. While not currently taking any new consignment clothes, Tran says business partner Leila Bernard is interested in starting up her own business. Anyone interested in selling their gently used children's clothing can contact Leila at leibernard@gmail.com. Hoodline reached out to Mini-Chic's partners for comment but did not receive a response. Customers still have some time before Mini-Chic leaves the neighborhood: The store is accepting reservations on their website for one-on-one in-store experiences until September 2020. Note from Mini-Chic posted in the store's window. Turkish Modern owner Alexander Carter tells Hoodline there's a possibility they might renew the lease with another business, but he's currently undecided. Carter currently lives in Istanbul, where he operates another location of the store. Prior to the pandemic, Carter traveled frequently to San Francisco, but said the pandemic has made travel between the two cities "uncertain and unsafe." "It's not necessary for us to travel that much to manage the business," he said. "A big part of the appeal of having a shop in San Francisco was flying over and enjoying the city." Story continues Carter said he planned to expand to Hayes Valley next year, but is currently reconsidering due to the pandemic. He said he's unsure of whether or not he'll maintain a brick and mortar store, in part because online sales have remained healthy during shelter-in-place. Turkish Modern's products displayed inside the store, which remains closed despite relaxed restrictions for retailers. "Since the outbreak we've had a record number of online orders, mainly from the Bay Area," said Carter. "That may be the best way for us to continue until things return to normal." Hoodline readers will recall that prior to Mini-Chic and Turkish Modern, the space was occupied by 18th Street Cleaners, which closed in 2016. The announcement continues a trend of neighborhood businesses closing due to the financial impact of COVID-19. Yesterday Hoodline learned Latin American restaurant Castro Republic (2295 Market St) was permanently closed, and last month, long-time pet store Best in Show (545 Castro St.) and vitamin and supplement shop Active Nutrition (2275 Market St.) both announced closures. Thanks to Hoodline tipster Denny! If you've seen something new (or closing) in the neighborhood, text your tips and photos to (415) 200-3233, or email tips@hoodline.com. If we use your info in a story, we'll give you credit. Courtesy, Alpha Media San Antonians may notice a different sound on their radio dials now that a new hip-hop station is on the airwaves. Alpha Media, San Antonio officially announced the addition of WE 103.3 on Tuesday. The station formerly played hip-hop throwbacks, but relaunched as a rhythmic CHR option, playing artists like Drake, Travis Scott, Roddy Ricch and Megan Thee Stallion. A total of 15 people have been quarantined after a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient retested positive following her recovery in the northern Vietnamese province of Ninh Binh. The 34-year-old Vietnamese woman, who was Vietnams COVID-19 patient No. 325, has recently retested positive for the novel coronavirus after being declared virus-free, the provincial Center for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed on Tuesday. The patient was first diagnosed with COVID-19 in Russia. She received treatment in the country and was confirmed to have recovered from the disease before boarding a flight to Vietnam on May 13. She was sampled for testing after her arrival in the northern province of Hai Duong. The result came back positive. Patient No. 325 was treated at the Hai Duong Hospital for Tropical Diseases. She was quarantined for 14 days after her recovery and discharged from the infirmary following the isolation period. The woman then returned to her hometown in Ninh Binh Province. On June 12, the Ninh Binh General Hospital carried out a test on the patient, and the result returned positive for the virus. She tested positive again on June 15 after being screened for COVID-19 by the Ninh Binh CDC. The patient has been brought back to the hospital for treatment. Fifteen people, including her son, have been quarantined in relation to the case. Vietnamese doctors have said that those retesting positive after having recovered are not infectious because what the tests pick up are merely remnants of the virus. Lab experiments indicated that no virus grew again from samples taken from such patients, said Nguyen Van Kinh, former director of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. Vietnams COVID-19 tally is currently at 335, with 325 having beaten the virus, according to Ministry of Health statistics. No death from the disease has been reported in the country. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Kierra Henderson is the mom of four boys ages 7, 5, 3 and 2 months. The Richmond, Virginia, writer behind the Beloved Mama Facebook page penned a post about the fears of a mother raising black sons. "After I watched the video of George Floyd being murdered on the street I was speechless like so many of us were," she told "Good Morning America." "But I knew it was time for me to start speaking out against the injustices happening to my people. So many of us wept and prayed. I did too. I prayed and said, 'God, I don't know what to say, but I want to say something.' Then I heard a quietness in my heart say, 'Ill give you the words.'" MORE: How do I tell my son that he may be treated differently because of the color of his skin? And so the "I am mama" movement was born. "There is an instinctive and universal language of motherhood, and every mother felt the heartbeat of Georges cry for 'mama.' We knew exactly what it meant," Henderson said. "We sobbed because no one answered him. Now we are answering the call in the best way we know how, as mothers." MORE: Here's how I knew it was time to have 'the talk' about race with my son The feedback on the post, she said, "has been chilling." "One by one they started standing -- it was in the comment section of the post, but I could feel it like we were all in the same room," she said. Henderson believes this is a historic moment. "I believe that we are one generation away from changing the world, and us mothers have a powerful role in that," she said. "This could be a turning point in history if we all do the necessary work that it takes to change ourselves, to influence the hearts of others and to do the strategic work that it takes to defeat systemic racism." She hopes the I am mama movement will inspire people to take action. "Every mother cant go out and protest," she told "GMA." "But every mother can protest racism within her own spheres of influence. I hope that mothers are inspired to use their gifts, talents and instincts to finally bring victory to this long fought war against racism." 'I am mama' movement is a call for mothers in the fight against systemic racism originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com HAMILTON, ON - JUNE 17, 2020 - A team of researchers and health-care providers at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) has launched a major study to remotely manage patients after surgery. Their joint research centre, Population Health Research Institute (PHRI), is testing virtual care and remote monitoring technology. Nurses run the central command centre and use a tablet computer to virtually interact with patients. They can also connect patients to physicians through virtual linkage. The patients also use simple remote monitoring technology to record their vital signs at home, which are sent instantly to the nurse. Patients are at highest risk for complications in the first month after surgery, with 15-20 percent returning for emergency treatment or hospitalization. The trial, called 'post-discharge after surgery using virtual care with remote automated monitoring (PVC-RAM)' will evaluate the effect of a virtual care and remote monitoring technology on unplanned hospitalizations and emergency department and acute care visits. It builds on the team's previous research into remote monitoring of vital signs. "When COVID-19 restrictions came into effect in early March, hospitals were challenged to drastically reduce non-emergency care. Taking vital signs is an important part of care in hospital, so it stands to reason that taking patients' vital signs virtually from home makes a lot of sense, especially in patients who are at high risk for complications," said Dr. P.J. Devereaux, cardiologist at HHS, professor of medicine at McMaster, senior scientist at PHRI, and co-principal investigator of the trial. "If we can reduce the numbers of re-admissions, we can increase our capacity to do more elective and urgent surgeries. Especially since patients transition home sooner after surgery, globally remote patient monitoring is going to be the way of the future," said Michael McGillion, assistant dean, research, School of Nursing at McMaster, scientist at PHRI, and co-principal investigator of the trial. The study is recruiting 900 adults across Canada who have undergone semi-urgent cancer surgeries, urgent surgeries such as hip fractures, or emergency surgeries such as a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. Patients receive technology called Connected Health by Cloud DX, which includes a tablet and remote monitoring equipment to assess six biophysical parameters: blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, and weight. Nursing staff teach patients how to use the equipment before they are discharged from hospital. Then, for thirty days after surgery, patients take their vital signs and complete daily surveys that assess their recovery. Data is relayed wirelessly to the virtual nursing station at HHS where nurses assess the data and conduct secure virtual video visits. If data shows issues or if a patient needs help, they have access to their nurse and physician 24 hours a day, seven days a week through two-way secure video linkage or texting. For Ernst Seeger from Niagara, participating in the study has given him a feeling of security knowing that his care team is a click away. "I had a concern on a Saturday night at 10 p.m. I was stubborn at first, but finally my wife made me call my team. I had a video assessment with my doctor that night and he ordered prescriptions for me," said Seeger. "I didn't have to leave my home." Trial participants who are not randomized to receive virtual nursing station care receive the current standard care which is at the discretion of the surgeon. Typically, this care includes an in-person clinic visit in two to eight weeks after discharge from the hospital. "As healthcare consumers, we have to be able to work in partnership with patients and families to offer alternative approaches to care," said Jennifer Lounsbury, trial collaborator, a chief of inter-professional practice at HHS and assistant clinical professor, School of Nursing at McMaster. "The virtual nursing station approach to care allows us to connect with patients and help them seek any needed medical treatments earlier than they otherwise would have. As one of our patient and family advisory council members recently told us, 'The time for change is now,'" she added. ### Participating hospitals include Hamilton Health Sciences, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, London Health Sciences, Kingston Health Sciences, The Ottawa Hospital, Winnipeg Health Sciences and University of Alberta Hospital. Seed funding for the PVC-RAM trial was received through Roche Canada's COVID-19 Innovation Challenge. For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact: Veronica McGuire Media Relations McMaster University vmcguir@mcmaster.ca 289-776-6952 Roxanne Torbiak Public Relations Hamilton Health Sciences torbiakr@HHSC.CA 289-795-8604 Boilerplates: About McMaster University McMaster University is Canada's most research-intensive university and is consistently ranked as one of the world's Top 100 universities. Together, our researchers, students and staff advance human and societal health and well-being, creating a Brighter World. About Hamilton Health Sciences Hamilton Health Sciences is a hospital system of 15,000 staff, physicians, researchers and volunteers that proudly serves south central Ontario residents. We also provide specialized, advanced care to people from across the province. We are a world-renowned hospital for healthcare research. We focus daily on improving the quality of care for our patients through innovation and evidence-based practices. About the Population Health Research Institute The Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) is a global health research institute and a world leader in large clinical trials and population studies. Originally formed in 1999 with a focus on cardiovascular disease and diabetes, PHRI's research areas have broadened to include population genomics, perioperative medicine and surgery, brain health, thrombosis, renal, infectious diseases, and more. PHRI is a joint institute of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences. About Cloud DX Cloud DX is a leader in digital healthcare with rapidly growing sales across North America. Our complete remote patient monitoring platform incorporates proprietary medical devices, mobile apps, clinical dashboards, artificial intelligence and EMR integration. In one recent third party study, Cloud DX technology reduced hospital admissions due to COPD while achieving 100% patient satisfaction. The company is the co-winner of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, a Fast Company "World Changing Idea" finalist and the recent winner of the Waterloo MedTech Startup to Scale Up Award of Excellence. Veronica McGuire Media Relations Faculty of Health Sciences location: HSC-2E47 phone: (905) 525-9140 x 22169 email: vmcguir@mcmaster.ca Press Trust of India COVID-19 poses a threat to the entire nervous system of infected individuals, according to a review of studies which may help better manage the neurological symptoms of the disease such as headaches, seizures, and strokes. According to the research, published in the journal Annals of Neurology, nearly half of hospitalised COVID-19 patients have neurological manifestations like headache, dizziness, decreased alertness, difficulty concentrating, disorders of smell and taste, seizures, strokes, weakness, and muscle pain. "It's important for the general public and physicians to be aware of this, because a SARS-COV-2 infection may present with neurologic symptoms initially, before any fever, cough or respiratory problems occur," said study lead author Igor Koralnik from Northwestern University in the US. In the analysis, the scientists describe the different neurological conditions that may occur in COVID-19 patients and how to diagnose them, as well as likely pathogenic mechanisms. Koralnik believes that this understanding is key to direct appropriate clinical management and treatment for COVID-19 patients. There are many different ways COVID-19 can cause neurological dysfunction, he said. According to the study, the disease may affect the entire nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles. The researchers noted that the brain may also suffer from a lack of oxygen, or from clotting disorders that may lead to strokes. In addition, they said the virus may cause direct infection of the brain, meninges -- a connective tissue lining several parts of the nervous system -- and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which acts as a shock absorber for the skull. The reaction of the immune system to the infection may also cause inflammation that can damage the brain and nerves, the scientists added. Since knowledge about the long term outcome of neurologic manifestations of COVID-19 is limited, the researchers plan to follow some patients prospectively to determine if neurological problems are temporary or permanent. The scientists said careful studies of the inflammatory and immune cell response within the CSF to SARS-CoV-2, as well as post mortem studies including the nervous system and muscle tissues, are urgently needed to better understand the neurological manifestations of COVID-19. They said such studies can provide the foundation on how to diagnose, manage and treat the many neurologic symptoms of COVID-19. Ganesh Kunjam, a resident of a nondescript village in Chhattisgarhs Kanker district, last came home in January this year. The parents of the 27-year-old Indian Army soldier had fixed his wedding during that visit to Kukurtola in Bastar region of the state. Also read: Ladakh clash evokes memories of Chinas brutal killing of Soviet troops in 1969 He was among the 20 soldiers who lost their lives in the clash with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley of eastern Ladakh on Monday night. In January, his parents fixed his marriage He was going to be married on his next visit, Surya Nevendra, a childhood friend of Ganeshs, said. His parents and his uncle live in a joint family. He had recently built a house and spent about 10 lakh of his savings, said Navendra. Tiharu Ram Kunjam, Ganeshs uncle, said he got a call from an army official who told him about his nephews death. He was speaking from Kashmir and said that Ganesh had got martyred on the China border. He told us to watch TV and when I switched on the TV, I got to know about three deaths, which did not include Ganesh, Tiharu Ram said while speaking to reporters. Ganesh has two sisters. One of them is married and another sister lives in Pune, Tiharu Ram said and added that Ganesh had joined the army in 2011. Ganesh was in regular touch with his uncle but for the last one month, he had not made any phone calls. Ganesh talked to me about one month ago. He told me that he going to be posted to some other place. Since then I was trying every day but was unable to contact him, said Tiharu Ram. He said the officer who called him informed that his nephews body will reach Kanker by Wednesday evening. MR Ahire, Kankers superintendent of police, said he got the information about Ganeshs death from his family members. We are gathering more information. I have no official confirmation from authorities, Ahire said. Chhattisgarhs health minister TS Singh Deo condoled Ganesh Kunjams death on Twitter. My tributes to Shri Ganesh Ram Kunjam from Kanker, Chhattisgarh who made the supreme sacrifice in Ladakh along with 20 of our brave soldiers defending our country. My thoughts are with their families in this moment of grief, Singh Deo tweeted. The confrontation between the two armies came after tensions between India and China first flared up in early May following clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Sikkim and Ladakh sectors of the LAC. Both the sides have held a series of talks to resolve the six-week-long issue. Indian Army officials claimed 43 Chinese were killed or seriously injured, citing radio intercepts and other intelligence. HT couldnt independently verify this. Mr. Guerreros appointment enriches the Companys current strategy to grow internationally, with his wealth of experience in the Brazilian and South American markets. As a new board member, Mr. Guerrero will generate a broad range of opportunities in Brazil and other countries participating in Mercosur. HempSmart intends to enter into and grow aggressively in these countries. The Company will begin production and open new distribution channels. Mr. Guerrero will be an essential asset in the development and implementation of these initiatives. Marco Guerrero has expertise in working with companies such as Chubb, QBE and Marsh & McLennan before becoming co-founder of Truster Brasil. ESCONDIDO, Calif., June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NetworkWire -- Marijuana Company of America, Inc. (OTCQB: MCOA) ("MCOA" or the "Company"), an innovative hemp and cannabis corporation, today announces the appointment of Marco Guerrero as a new member of the Companys board of directors. Mr. Guerrero is a Brazilian national and currently resides in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is proficient in English, fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and will be the key executive in charge of opening new operations and distribution channels in Brazil for the HempSmart product line. Mr. Guerrero will be a strong contributor in the development and implementation of the new HempSmart international strategy, which includes the formation of a new local company, HempSmart Brazil, that will become the Companys business center for Latin America. Entering this territory represents the first step toward the Companys global expansion into new markets. Mr. Guerrero will serve as board member and liaison for Brazil. He will join the Companys CEO, Jesus Quintero, as well as the other board members, Themistocles (Tim) Psomiadis and Edward Manolos, in creating and implementing the vision and strategic plan for the Company. "I am very excited to become part of the MCOA family and to be able to exchange knowledge with such qualified and competent colleagues, Guerrero stated. I am a true believer in the CBD industry, which sooner rather than later will be present in all four corners of the globe. I take this new chapter of my professional career with great honor and will do my best to contribute to the growth of the HempSmart business and to represent the Company's legitimate interests. Mr. Guerrero offers expansive knowledge and expertise, particularly in the Latin American markets. Mr. Jesus Quintero, CEO of Marijuana Company of America, commented, We are really excited about the addition of Marco to our board. He will be a substantial asset and gives our company a unique perspective in approaching the Latin American markets. He is not only very qualified but also strategically positioned to help us launch our presence in Brazil and implement our strategic plan successfully. Marco Guerrero holds a bachelors degree in business administration and a post-graduate degree in controllership from Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie in Brazil. He studied in the U.K. and worked for several years in the U.S. in partnership with reinsurance agents. He is a professional executive with more than 20 years of experience in insurance and reinsurance. He is the co-founder of Truster Brasil, a reputable reinsurance company specializing in Latin America and the Caribbean. About Marijuana Company of America Inc. MCOA is a corporation that participates in: (1) product research and development of legal hemp-based consumer products under the brand name hempSMART, which targets general health and well-being; (2) an affiliate marketing and retail sales program to promote and sell its legal hemp-based consumer products containing CBD; (3) joint ventures and acquisitions of business entities engaged in the growth and sale of hemp and cannabis products in jurisdictions where cultivation is legal; and (4) the expansion of its business into ancillary areas as market opportunities in this segment mature and develop. Legal Status of Cannabis While legalized in California for recreational and medicinal use, cannabis remains a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 811) and illegal under federal law. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements," which are not purely historical and may include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the development, costs, and results of new business opportunities and words such as "anticipate," "seek," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "project," "plan," or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with new projects, the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based products. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations, and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other periodic reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information, please visit www.sec.gov. For more information, please visit the Company's websites at: MarijuanaCompanyofAmerica.com hempSMART.com SOURCE Marijuana Company of America Wire Service Contact: NetworkWire (NW) New York, New York www.NetworkWire.com 212.418.1217 Office Editor@NetworkWire.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/71b95a80-0dff-4db5-9a4e-a2a49f982b57 The best thing would be to rescind our resolution, which would stop the process of our amendments to the code ... and go forward with the changes to our ordinance already prepared by the consultant, Szarmach said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 04:14:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Egypt confirmed on Tuesday 1,567 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total cases registered in the country since mid-February to 47,856, said the Egyptian health minister. Meanwhile, 94 patients died from the novel coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 1,766, Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed told a press conference. The minister added that 401 COVID-19 patients were completely cured and discharged from hospitals on the same day, increasing the total recoveries in the country to 12,730. She pointed out that 80 percent of the patients are aged between 30 and 60 while the rest are above 60, noting that 55 percent of the patients are males and 45 percent females. The capital Cairo and the nearby provinces of Giza, Qalioubiya and Fayoum have the highest numbers of COVID-19 infections in Egypt, the minister added. Egypt announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Feb. 14 and the first death from the respiratory disease on March 8. Since March 25, the Egyptian government has been imposing a nighttime curfew as a key precautionary measure in combating the highly infectious virus. The current eight-hour curfew in Egypt will continue until the end of the month, amid the government's "coexistence plan" to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities. Egypt plans to resume air traffic in all Egyptian airports from July 1 as the country prepares for the return of foreign tourists, after more than three months of international flight suspension over coronavirus concerns. The most populous Arab country has already started gradual reopening of services and offices, and allowed operation of over 230 hotels for local tourists with 50-percent capacity after they were given official hygiene safety certificates. Egypt and China have been cooperating closely in fighting the pandemic through exchanging medical aid and expertise. In early February, Egypt provided aid to China to help with its fight against COVID-19 and China later returned favor by sending three batches of medical aid to the North African country, the latest of which was in mid-May. Since mid-April, Chinese doctors and medical experts have held three video conferences with Egyptian counterparts to share their experience in the prevention and treatment of the novel coronavirus. Enditem A sneaky seal managed to jump out of the ocean and steal an amateur fisherman's well-deserved catch, much to his surprise. Wally Harrak had taken his friend Marko on a trip off the coast of Melbourne to teach him how to fish, when they were ambushed by a hungry seal. A video, filmed by Wally, shows a surprised Marko shout in alarm as the clever seal jumps out of the water to steal his fish. Wally Harrak had taken his friend Marko out off the coast of Melbourne to teach him how to fish when they were ambushed by a hungry seal, who stole Marko's catch It starts with Marko reeling in his fish and pulling it out of the water. But the crafty seal waits until Marko is almost able to grab the fish before jumping out of the ocean and stealing the catch. The fisherman does not have any time to reclaim his prize as the seal dives straight back into the water, never to be seen again. The two men both yell in surprise and Marko shouts: 'Oh come on,' as he watches his catch of the day disappear back into the water. The seal manages to escape with Marko's fish, leaving only the fish's head remaining on the hook. The clever seal waited until Marko had pulled the fish out of the water to jump into the air and steal the catch for himself, much to the fisherman's disappointment Wally said: 'I thought I would teach Marko how to fish and use a boat safely before he took his family out the following weekend. 'The fishing was great until a seal popped out of the water and snatched Marko's fish scaring the Bejesus out of him. 'Needless to say the seal got the fish and Marko got his hook back with only a fish head on it.' The video, posted on his Facebook page Wally's World of Fishing in September 2019, is not the only encounter Wally has had with sneaky seals. He had to move his boat more than 3km to get away from a seal who was trying to ambush his fishing trip in May. But the seal kept following him despite his efforts and continued stealing his fish, leaving him empty-handed until he could finally shake the seal. The father-of-two often takes his daughters Lara and Rita out on the ocean with him and has been sharing videos of their family fishing adventures on Facebook and YouTube for more than a year. The FCA said Commerzbank had failed to carry out periodic due diligence on its clients and tackle ongoing weaknesses in its automated tool for monitoring money laundering risks. (Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images) The UKs Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined the London branch of Commerzbank 37,805,40 for not implementing satisfactory anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls between October 2012 and September 2017. The FCA said in a statement that Commerzbank London (CBK.DE) was aware of these weaknesses and failed to take reasonable and effective steps to fix them despite the FCA raising specific concerns about them in 2012, 2015 and 2017. Commerzbank Londons failings over several years created a significant risk that financial and other crime might be undetected, said FCA executive director of Enforcement and Market Oversight Mark Steward in a statement. Firms should recognise that AML controls are vitally important to the integrity of the UK financial system, he added. READ MORE: HSBC resumes plans to cut 35,000 jobs The FCA said that Commerzbanks failures persisted during a period when the FCA was publishing guidance on steps firms could take to reduce financial crime risk as well as taking enforcement action against a number of firms in relation to AML controls. The FCA said its investigation found that Commerzbank London had not carried out periodic due diligence on its clients, which resulted in a significant number of existing clients not being subject to timely checks. It also accused the bank of not tackling ongoing weaknesses in its automated tool for monitoring money laundering risks on transactions for clients, and not having adequate policies and procedures in place when undertaking customer due diligence on clients. Global Product Authentication Solutions Leader Joins Technology Consortium to Combat Threats to IP WASHINGTON, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Alliance for Gray Market and Counterfeit Abatement (AGMA), a non-profit organization solely focused on intellectual property (IP) protection for the high-tech industry, today announced that it has added a new member company to its roster. De La Rue PLC, a leading global provider of product authentication solutions, has joined AGMA on its mission to hinder threats to IP and render these activities more difficult, undesirable and unprofitable. These threats are numerous, varied, complex, and come in many different forms including gray market, counterfeit, service and warranty fraud, and digital IP abuse. The first secure print vendor to join AGMAs roster of highly influential tech companies, De La Rues expertise lies in high-security technologies such as holography, security print, and track, trace and verification software. De La Rue provides governments and commercial organizations with products and services that underpin the integrity of trade, personal identity and the movement of goods. Product authentication is the verification that a product is genuine from source to consumption, guaranteeing full, traceable revenue flow from the brand owner to the lawful recipients. Headquartered in the U.K., De La Rue manufactures brand protection products in Malta and its proprietary IZON products in the U.S. Secure print vendors play a critical role in the technology ecosystem, helping to safely and confidently bring IT products and services to market. Product authentication reduces illicit trade by allowing businesses and governments to understand and control the movement of legitimate products. This enables governments to fully collect the taxes due, businesses to protect their brands, and consumers to make safe purchasing choices. According to Andrew Clint, De La Rues managing director of the authentication division, the company joined AGMA to help strengthen and enhance IP protection across the IT channel and throughout the circular economy. De La Rue understands how businesses operate in a complex global marketplace and we are committed to ensuring our authentication solutions protect revenues and reputations while delivering tangible results, commented Clint. As a global leader in product authentication, we feel honored to become part of the AGMA organization. AGMA membership gives us a valuable opportunity to partner with other leaders in this industry in a collective effort to solve the pervasive and ever-evolving problems of counterfeit and fraud. Story continues There are many benefits to becoming an AGMA member. AGMA provides an open forum where intellectual property brand owners can discuss trends, issues and approaches to combat a broad range of threats. It also uses a variety of avenues to get its message out and cultivate change in the marketplace, including event speaking, educational initiatives, benchmark studies, white papers, industry guidelines, and, as appropriate, public policy advocacy in areas like law enforcement and customs. Bringing the tech industry together as a united front is a powerful way to fight back against fraudulent activities, noted AGMA President Sally Nguyen. We are pleased to welcome De La Rue to our membership roster. The companys 200-plus years of experience thwarting fraud will provide AGMA members with key insights into improving physical and digital protections across the supply chain. To learn more about AGMA, or to become a member, please visit www.agmaglobal.org. About De La Rue De La Rues authentication solutions protect revenues and reputations of brands and governments. We seek to enable every citizen to participate securely in the global economy and we provide governments and commercial organizations with products and services that underpin the integrity of trade, personal identity, and the movement of goods. De La Rue operates in the fundamental areas of cash supply chain, product authentication and citizen identity needs. We do this through secure marking of products, supply-chain traceability and data management, and product authentication and inspection. To learn more visit www.delarue.com or follow the company on LinkedIn. About AGMA AGMA is a non-profit organization comprised of influential companies in the technology sector. Incorporated in 2001, AGMAs mission is to address gray market fraud, parallel imports, counterfeiting, software piracy, and service abuse of technology products around the globe. The organizations goals are to protect intellectual property and authorized distribution channels, improve customer satisfaction and preserve brand integrity. AGMA welcomes technology manufacturers, as well as persons or entities that own or hold intellectual property rights to finished goods outside the technology industry; government and law enforcement officials; product and service providers who provide goods and/or services to combat gray market fraud, counterfeiting and warranty and service abuse threats. AGMA uses a variety of avenues to cultivate change in the marketplace, including event speaking, educational initiatives, benchmark studies, industry guidelines, and, where appropriate, public policy advocacy. To learn more about AGMAs initiatives or to become a member, please visit www.agmaglobal.org or follow them on LinkedIn and Twitter. Media Contact: Stephanie Olsen Lages & Associates (949) 453-8080 stephanie@lages.com WASHINGTON - The Senate has approved a bipartisan bill that would spend nearly $3 billion on conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands, a measure supporters say would be the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century. The 73-25 vote on Wednesday sends the Great American Outdoors Act to the House, where approval is expected. The bill would spend about $900 million a year double current spending on the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund, and another $1.9 billion per year on improvements at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and rangelands. Public lands hold a unique place in the life of every state in America from their natural beauty to their use for recreation to their pivotal roles in local economies, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell, R-Ky. The Senate vote will ensure this inheritance will stand the test of time for generations of Americans yet to come, McConnell said, urging the House to pass it quickly. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., one of the bills chief sponsors, said the bill will create at least 100,000 jobs, while restoring national parks and repairing trails and forest systems. Those measures are especially needed now, when communities surrounded by public lands have high unemployment rates because of shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Gardner said. This is an economic and jobs package as much as it is a conservation package, he said, adding that Americans who have been shut in by the pandemic are ready to get into the great outdoors. Sen. Steven Daines, R-Mont., who has pushed for the bill with Gardner, said it will help protect public access to our public lands and supports our national parks. It preserves and protects our Montana outdoor way of life. Gardner and Daines are among the Senates most vulnerable incumbents, and each represents a state where the outdoor economy and tourism at sites such as Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone national parks play an outsize role. The lawmakers persuaded President Donald Trump to support the bill at a White House meeting this year, even though Trump repeatedly tried to slash spending for the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund in his budget proposals. Trump has tweeted in favour of the lands bill, saying it will be HISTORIC for our beautiful public lands. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said permanently and fully funding the program will be a monumental victory for conservation and the places where we all get outside. He cited studies showing that each dollar spent by the fund creates an additional four dollars in economic value. Visitors cannot enjoy national parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite if the bathrooms dont work, if the trails and campgrounds arent open, or if the roads are in disrepair, Heinrich said. These places that we all cherish deserve better. The bills opponents, mostly Republicans, sounded a similar note as they complained that it would not eliminate an estimated $20 billion maintenance backlog on 640 million acres of federally owned lands. The bill authorizes $9.5 billion for maintenance over five years. The problem is, in the sixth year well still have a maintenance backlog, said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. Well still have issues, and theres still not a plan to pay for the remaining work. We need to be better managers of our land, but were managing our land by not managing our debt and not making the hard decisions that people have to make, Lankford said. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said the bill would lower maintenance costs in the long term by paying for needed work now. Think about your own home. If you dont fix the leaking roof you have all of these other problems, he said. We can do a better job in stewardship. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., credited a new coalition of lawmakers from both parties who support conservation and public lands. Weve made people aware of the juggernaut that the outdoors economy has been,? Cantwell said, noting statistics showing that outdoor recreation and tourism supports $887 billion a year in consumer spending and 7.6 million jobs, much of it in the West. America deserves a break right now, and the outdoors is restorative,? Cantwell said. The conservation fund is paid for by revenue from offshore drilling for oil and gas, and that has led to complaints by some Gulf Coast senators that inland states receive an unfair share. Senators rejected an amendment by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., to target his state and three others for additional spending. Cassidy was among 25 senators, all Republicans, who opposed the bill. Twenty-eight Republicans supported it, along with 43 Democrats and two independents who caucus with Democrats. Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington state and Ed Markey of Massachusetts missed the vote. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, dismissed a claim by some in his party that approval of the bill helped vulnerable Republicans such as Gardner and Daines. The best politics is good government, Manchin said. Thats the reason were here: to get something done. A former accountant effectively controlled the affairs of three companies which later went into liquidation despite being disqualified and restricted from acting as a company director, the High Court has heard. Liquidator Myles Kirby was granted interim orders preventing former accountant Alan Hynes, and his cousin Frank Hynes, from reducing their assets below 2.46m. It arose out of Mr Kirby's investigations into the three companies, Hynes Jewellers Wexford (HJW), JW Fashions (JWF) and Tuskar Property Holdings (TPH) whose affairs the liquidator says have been commingled. Mr Kirby believes he has uncovered a series of improper transactions which amount to frauds on the companies and/or their creditors who are owed 2.4m, the bulk of it in unpaid taxes due from the firms to Revenue. Mr Kirby believes Alan Hynes has acted as a shadow and/or de facto director of the three companies during the term of a three-year disqualification and five-year restriction from directorships imposed on him by the High Court in October 2013. Those penalties arose out of his involvement in property company Tuskar Asset Management. The freezing orders were granted on Monday by Ms Justice Niamh Hyland following a one side only represented application from David Whelan BL, for Mr Kirby. The judge ordered publication be delayed until 10am on Tuesday to allow for service of the proceedings on the respondents. An interim injunction was also granted preventing both Hynes men and a company called Tuskar Investment Group (TIG) from dissipating, transferring, encumbering or otherwise dealing with any assets or funds belonging to the three liquidated firms. Mr Hynes's family was involved in the jewellery trade in Wexford with the HJW firm. His cousins, brother and sister Frank and Fiona Hynes were, and remain, directors of HJW. Mr Hynes and his wife Noreen were directors of TPH until 2013, just before Mr Hynes was disqualified, and they were replaced by Adrian O'Reilly, from Cambridge in England, and James Wallace, who resigned in 2019, leaving Mr O'Reilly as sole director. Mr O'Reilly is also a respondent in the liquidator's action. Mr Wallace was a director of JWF which the liquidator says is a shelf company which has not traded. Mr Wallace resigned last December and its current directors are Frank and Fiona Hynes. Mr Kirby was appointed liquidator of the three companies in January and February last. In an affidavit Mr Kirby says his investigations have been hampered by a "striking lack of records and accounts and a lack of cooperation" by the Hynes and O'Reilly respondents. He believes Mr O'Reilly is acting under the direction of Alan Hynes. Fiona Hynes and James Wallace have cooperated and he was not seeking any orders against them at this stage. Mr Kirby says the value of payments made by the TPH company between 2015 and 2020 was just over 1m in circumstances where this company had no discernible trade, turnover or declared tax during this time. Most of those payments seem to have been made to the benefit of Alan and/or Frank Hynes, he said. They included: 32,300 for hotels including luxury international hotels, 13,400 for restaurant food and drinks, 7,000 to a cruise liner company, 7,600 on flights and just under 90,000 on other expenditure including home furnishings, club memberships, clothing, holidays, electronic goods, and grooming. He believes a contract of employment which Alan Hynes claimed to have with TPH, at a salary of 100,000 a year, is a sham and contrivance designed to benefit Mr Hynes at the expense of creditors, the court heard. Oxford Universitys Oriel College will set up an independent commission to decide if Rhodes statue is to be removed. An Oxford University college said on Wednesday that it wanted to remove from its facade a statue of 19th-century colonialist Cecil Rhodes that has been a target of anti-racism protests, though the decision would be made independently. Oriel College has been under pressure for several years from the #RhodesMustFall campaign, which argues the statue glorifies racism and is an insult to Black students, but the college has previously resisted calls to remove it. His statue was removed from the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 2015 after students led a Rhodes Must Fall campaign. The movement was reinvigorated by the global wave of anti-racism protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and on June 9, a large demonstration took place outside the college, renewing calls for the statues removal. Some social media users were quick to support the decision, with some saying it was long overdue while others said the statues dismantlement was necessary because Black Lives Matter. In the UK, the Black Lives Matter protests have ignited a debate about monuments commemorating the nations imperialist past. A debate is raging over monuments to those involved in its imperialist past, especially after the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was torn down and thrown into the harbour of Bristol port earlier this month. In London, a statue of Winston Churchill was daubed with the words was a racist. Zahra Sultana, a member of parliament, said the white supremacists statue must go after years of calling for its removal. This is the #RhodesMustFall demo in Oxford. I remember attending an RMF event in 2015. RMF called for this brutal white supremacist's statue to be removed. Oriel College consulted. Wealthy donors threatened to withdraw funding. The statue stayed. It's time for Rhodes to fall. pic.twitter.com/uPOXpcu31A Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) June 9, 2020 Commitment to diversity A student at Oriel in his youth, Rhodes left the college money and also endowed the Rhodes Scholarships, which have allowed more than 8,000 students from countries around the world, including former US President Bill Clinton, to study at Oxford. The mining magnate was a central figure in the UKs colonial project in Southern Africa, giving his name to Rhodesia, present-day Zimbabwe, and founding the De Beers diamond empire. The body of Oriel said it would launch an independent commission of inquiry into the issues surrounding the statue, to which it would recommend that it be taken down. The Commission will deal with the issue of the Rhodes legacy and how to improve access and attendance of BAME [black and minority ethnic] undergraduate, graduate students and faculty, together with a review of how the colleges 21st Century commitment to diversity can sit more easily with its past, Oriel said in a statement. The inquiry will invite submissions from students, representatives of the #RhodesMustFall campaign, Oxford city council, alumni of the college and others. Oriels governors said the commission would investigate broader issues of diversity at the college. The statue will stay up until the inquiry finishes its work later this year. F our French resistance fighters will receive honorary MBEs in recognition of their role in the Second World War as Boris Johnson welcomes Emmanuel Macron to Downing Street. The French president is visiting London on Thursday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of his predecessor Charles de Gaulles Appel his BBC broadcast to occupied France following the Nazi invasion in 1940. Mr Macron will be received by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall at Clarence House, before a ceremonial event and then bilateral talks in Number 10. Mr Johnson said the four surviving Compagnons of the Order of Liberation Edgard Tupet-Thome, 100, Daniel Bouyjou-Cordier, 99, Hubert Germain, 99, and Pierre Simonet, 98 will receive honorary MBEs in tribute to their courage and sacrifice in defending us and the whole world from fascism. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in France in the coming months. In Downing Street, Mr Johnson and Mr Macron will view artefacts including letters documenting General de Gaulles time in London and his partnership with Sir Winston Churchill. The leaders will hold bilateral talks to discuss the coronavirus crisis and other issues. Mr Johnson said on Tuesday that he would raise travel between the UK and France at the meeting. They will also watch a flypast of the Red Arrows and their French equivalent, La Patrouille de France, to mark the anniversary of the Appel. Mr Johnson said: Eighty years ago Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the French Resistance, arrived in London knowing that the values of freedom, tolerance and democracy that Britain and France shared were under threat. He pledged that we would stand together to defend those values and protect our citizens from those bent on destroying us. The four men we are honouring today Pierre, Edgard, Daniel and Hubert symbolise the enduring depth and strength of the friendship between our two countries. They are heroes, and I am immensely proud that as a nation we are paying tribute to their courage and sacrifice in defending us and the whole world from fascism. Macron is visiting London on Thursday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Charles de Gaulles Appel his BBC broadcast to occupied France following the Nazi invasion in 1940 / AFP/Getty Images The struggles we face today are different to those we confronted together 80 years ago. But I have no doubt that working side by side the UK and France will continue to rise to every new challenge and seize every opportunity that lies ahead. Mr Macron will be welcomed to the capital with a ceremonial Guard of Honour from The Coldstream Guards and music by The Band of the Coldstream Guards at Clarence House. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: The UK Armed Forces are honoured to welcome President Macron to London on this momentous anniversary for our closest European ally. The Presidents visit is an important opportunity to remember our shared sacrifices and achievements in defeating fascism. We can look back on more than a century of co-operation between our Armed Forces and feel proud of what our countries have achieved, side by side at so many great turning points in history. Loading.... The UK and France continue that close partnership today, working together from the Caribbean to Africa and the Middle East, as guarantors of peace and security. A nurse who came to the aid of an unconscious man lying on a footpath has been left with her arm broken in three places after she was allegedly jumped on. The 65-year-old woman was walking along King Street at Newtown, in Sydney's inner west, on Tuesday around 2:50pm when she saw the 24-year-old man laying unconscious. The good Samaritan immediately tired to help the man but she was allegedly set upon by a 57-year-old man who pushed her to the ground. A 65-year-old nurse had her arm broken in three places after she attempted to help an unconscious man, only to be allegedly assaulted by a 57-year-old man (stock image) He then allegedly jumped on top of the nurse and assaulted her further, leaving her right arm broken in three places. The 57-year-old man was pushed off the woman by witnesses nearby who then called emergency services. He was arrested at the scene and charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm. The good Samaritan was attended to by paramedics who then took her to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital were she underwent treatment for the three fractures and bruising along her right arm. The 57-year-old was refused to bail and will appear at Central Local Court on Wednesday afternoon. - Ian Otieno's plight was highlighted by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) - The 13-year-old who hails from a humble family took advantage of schools closures to collect plastic wastes from Dandora dumpsite and sell them - Kennedy Odede who was raised in Kibra said he was touched by the boy's situation and promised to buy him a new bike and pay his school fees until he completes Form 4 The inability to pay fees and other education expenses keep many children out of school leaving their dreams on the edge. A young Dandora boy named Ian Otieno who collected plastics for sale with a dream of owning just a bicycle has been offered full education scholarship by one Kennedy Odede, founder of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO). READ ALSO: Senate has sanitised, cleared Anne Waiguru: "Don't wait for the committee's decision" - Murkomen Ian Otieno, a Class six pupil at at James Gichuru Primary in Dandora at the dumpsite. Photo: KHRC. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Maria, Tobi and Kobi step out looking like snacks during girls' day out Odede came to the rescue after the 13-year-old's plight was highlighted by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). "l am in class 6 at James Gichuru Primary in Dandora. With the schools closed I am using this opportunity to go to the dumpsite and collect as much plastics as I can. I am trying to fund my dream of owning a bicycle. I have always wanted a bike since I was little. When I pass through neighborhoods and see children riding their own bikes, I wish I too had my own, but my parents cant afford to buy me one," Otieno told KHRC. The kind-hearted Odede who was raised in Kibra said he was touched by the boy's situation and promised to buy him a new bike and pay his school fees until he completes Form 4. "This story of Ian Otieno has warmed my heart. I am going to buy him a new bike and pay his school fees until he reaches Form 4. Any young person who takes initiative should be encouraged and supported. I am where I am today because someone believed in me. I believe in you Ian!,"said Odede. Otieno said he was paid KSh 100 to collect the plastics from Dandora dumpsite and had so far managed to save KSh 400. "I have enough energy and collecting plastics and selling them from the dumpsite for KSh 100 is a good idea for me to try and fund my dream of owning a bike," Ian Otieno earned KSh 100 per day from plastics collected at Dandora dumpsite. Photo: KHRC. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Jamaa amuua mke kisha akajisalimisha kwa polisi Ive saved KSh 400 so far since I also help my mum with some money since she doesnt make enough from her businesses. Coronavirus is killing people. I dont fear coronavirus. I make at least KSh 100 a day from the plastics. I need KSh 3,000 to get my bicycle. When I get a bike, Ill be the happiest child," he added. TUKO.co.ke earlier reported about a teen who was rewarded with a car and scholarship for cleaning after protests in the US. Antonio Gwynn, a high school student, received overwhelming support in his life and career after taking a generous measure to help his community. 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. Kenya's greatest football coach now lives in a mabati house - Marshall Mulwa | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke A black trainee vicar today spoke of his "deep pain" after being rejected for a Church of England role because his potential parishioners were "monochrome white working class". Augustine Tanner-Ihm, 30, who is from Chicago, worked at the Church of Sweden as well as parishes in Poole, Romford and Liverpool, before beginning his studies at Cranmer Hall, at St John's College, Durham University, three years ago. However, after applying for a curacy role in Hertfordshire, he was shocked to receive an email stating that, despite his "obvious gifts", he "might feel uncomfortable" at the parish because of the predominantly white working class congregation. Reverend Seminary Tanner-Ihm told the Standard: I was in pain the Church of England has certain exemptions in place regarding sexual orientation or gender, so I was aware of that. But I dont believe my race has anything to do with my ability to minister. Reverend Seminary Tanner-Ihm was sent this email in response to his application / Augustine Tanner-Ihm He added: I love the Church of England, and want to serve there for the rest of my life. But they have not called me to apologise I only received an email saying they were sorry I felt hurt. "The structure is still an old boys club, and that needs to change. The church should have plethora of people from diverse backgrounds. "To assume that white working class people are racist is wrong. Actually, a white working class man and black working class man have far more in common than a white working class man and white middle class man. "We need both, together, to fight for social justice. That's the Christian message, after all." Since Reverend Seminary Tanner-Ihm shared a photo of the email on Facebook, he has been inundated with supportive messages from strangers expressing their outrage. In an accompanying Facebook status, he wrote: "How much money is the Church putting into fighting institutional racism? Because at this rate, black lives don't matter if this one life doesn't." The Rt Revd Chris Goldsmith, the Church of England's director of ministry, said: "We take very seriously any allegation that a curacy post, or any other position, may have been denied to someone on the grounds of their ethnic heritage." He said a member of his team had "reached out" to Reverend Seminary Tanner-Ihm to learn about his experiences, adding: "We have also established that the diocese concerned has recognised its failure in this and sent a written apology to [him]. "We fully recognise that the Church of England has a lot more work to do to become a place where our leadership is representative of the rich heritages of all the people of England." Reverend Seminary Tanner-Ihm claimed that on another occasion, while working at a majority-white Church in southern England, it was suggested that he could move to a "really great black Pentocostal church" nearby. The Church of England has said Reverend Seminary Tanner-Ihm "might feel uncomfortable" in a white working class community / PA Archive/PA Images He reflected that people "meant well", but it was "the same thing people experienced during Windrush". "As an African American man, I dont have the black British experience, but I am still a part of that," he added. "There is a racist issue in the UK - people then like to go, oh but we're not as bad as America. In America racism is blatant, but in the UK it is subtle." He now does not know whether he wants to take up a job in the church, as he feels so disillusioned. The reverend also spoke of his disappointment with the response of Cranmer Hall, St John's College to the rejection letter. He said he decided to make the letter public after observing the Church of England's response to the Black Lives Matter protests. Despite his criticism of the Church, for its approach in tackling racism, he reserved praise for The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally. He said: "She's trying to listen, apologise, learn and lead us to place that gives the rest of the church a way of proclaiming the idea of a multicultural kingdom, as the Christian scripture states." In a statement, Cranmer Hall, St John's College: "We can confirm that when the College was made aware of this correspondence in February 2020, it took immediate steps both to support the student and write on behalf of the student to the Diocese concerned to register our shock and concern. "St John's College takes all allegations of racism extremely seriously. All tutorial staff at Cranmer Hall have completed unconscious bias training." Finance & Development, June 2020, Vol. 57, Number 2 PDF version Life PostCOVID-19 Six prominent thinkers reflect on how the pandemic has changed the world Daniel Susskind, James Manyika, Jean Saldanha, Sharan Burrow, Sergio Rebelo, and Ian Bremmer Daniel Susskind In March 2020, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, an influential figure in British intellectual life, described the COVID-19 catastrophe as the nearest we have to a revelation for atheists. At the time I thought the comparison was apt. It captured the biblical sense of shock that many of us felt in the face of such a sudden, extreme, and swiftly accelerating crisis. We have been coasting along for more than half a century, he remarked, and all at once we are facing the fragility and vulnerability of the human situation. Now, a few months on, Rabbi Sacks comparison with revelation still seems fitting, but for a different reason, and one that matters for thinking about a world after COVID-19. This crisis is alarming, in part, because it has several new and unfamiliar features. A global medical emergency caused by a virus we still do not fully understand. A self-inflicted economic catastrophe as a necessary policy response to contain its spread. And yet as time has passed, it has also become clear that much of what is most distressing about this crisis is not new at all. Striking variations in COVID-19 infections and outcomes appear to reflect existing economic inequalities. Remarkable mismatches between the social value of what key workers do and the low wages they receive follow from the familiar failure of the market to value adequately what really matters. The happy embrace of disinformation and misinformation about the virus was to be expected, given a decade of rising populism and declining faith in experts. And the absence of a properly coordinated international response ought to have come as no surprise, given the celebration of my country first global politics in recent years. The crisis then is a revelation in a far more literal senseit is focusing our collective attention on the many injustices and weaknesses that already exist in how we live together. If people were blind to these faults before, it is hard not to see them now. What will the world look like after COVID-19? Many of the problems we will face in the next decade will simply be more extreme versions of those that we already confront today. The world will only look significantly different this time if, as we emerge from this crisis, we decide to take action to resolve these problems and bring about fundamental change. James Manyika The world after COVID-19 is unlikely to return to the world that was. Many trends already underway in the global economy are being accelerated by the impact of the pandemic. This is especially true of the digital economy, with the rise of digital behavior such as remote working and learning, telemedicine, and delivery services. Other structural changes may also accelerate, including regionalization of supply chains and a further explosion of cross-border data flows. The future of work has arrived faster, along with its challengesmany of them potentially multipliedsuch as income polarization, worker vulnerability, more gig work, and the need for workers to adapt to occupational transitions. This acceleration is the result not only of technological advances but also of new considerations for health and safety, and economies and labor markets will take time to recover and will likely emerge changed. With the amplification of these trends, the realities of this crisis have triggered reconsideration of several beliefs, with possible effects on long-term choices for the economy and society. These effects range from attitudes about efficiency versus resilience, the future of capitalism, densification of economic activity and living, industrial policy, our approach to problems that affect us all and call for global and collective actionsuch as pandemics and climate changeto the role of government and institutions. Over the past two decades, in advanced economies, responsibility has generally shifted from institutions to individuals. Yet health systems are being tested and often found wanting, while benefits from paid sick leave to universal basic income are getting a second look. There is potential for a long-term shift in how institutions support people, through safety nets and a more inclusive social contract. As history has shown, choices made during crises can shape the world for decades to come. What will remain critical is the need for collective action to build economies that deliver inclusive economic growth, prosperity, and safety for all. Jean Saldanha In The Pandemic Is a Portal, Indian author Arundhati Roy writes, Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. The way multilateralism operates will have to change to reflect this very different world. The COVID-19 pandemic has been testing the limits of global cooperation. Support for developing economies in particular remains inadequate. They were hit early by the global economic downturn, including through record capital outflows and tightening financial conditions. Facing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, these economies are experiencing unprecedented pressure on their already limited fiscal capacity to tackle urgent public health and social needs. Choices made now will have far-reaching consequences. Reliance on more of the same is untenable and ignores the scale of human suffering unleashed by the pandemic. A fitting UN-led reform agenda must include the IMF in addressing the structural problems that have driven debt vulnerability across developing economies. Such an agenda must shift development finance away from market-friendly reforms and incentives for private investment. It must abandon the dogma of austerity. Furthermore, rich countries must finally meet their official development assistance commitments. Power imbalances in global institutions must also be corrected to give fair recognition to the needs and rights of the two-thirds of the worlds population who reside in the Global South. If the international community fails to respond decisively now, the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement will be fatally derailed. A new multilateralismin which reform of the Bretton Woods institutions will play a key roleis needed now and must be based on a vision of development that puts human rights, gender equality, and climate at its center. Sharan Burrow The world after the first wave of COVID-19 must be more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. Today, we live in a world in which inequality between and within countries has grown as a result of businesses race to the bottom and working poverty among a vast portion of the global workforce. Too many countries suffered the external shocks of COVID-19 without universal social protection, robust public health systems, a plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, or a sustainable real economy with quality jobs. The Bretton Woods conference occurred while a war was still raging and helped formed the basis of a postwar social contract. Similarly, we need to craft an ambitious reconstruction plan while working to end the pandemic. International support is a matter of collective survival and an investment in the future of health, the global economy, and multilateralism. The choice is ours, and the actions of the IMF and the multilateral system will be a deciding factor. Our goal for recovery should be full employment and a new social contract. Public investment in the care economy, education, and low-carbon infrastructure can form the backbone of stimulus that reduces inequality. Wage policy, collective bargaining, and labor market regulation can revive demand and income while putting an end to a business model that allows companies to take no responsibility for their workers. Debt should be addressed through a relief process focused on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and enduring economic growth for every country. Shortsighted fiscal consolidation hindered debt management and reduction after the global financial crisis and would again leave us even less able to deal with future health and economic crises. Shared prosperity can be the fruit of a COVID-19 world marked by shared ambition and global solidarity. Sergio Rebelo COVID-19 will leave a lasting imprint on the world economy, causing permanent changes and teaching important lessons. Virus screening is likely to become part of our life, just like security measures became ubiquitous after 9/11. It is important to invest in the infrastructure necessary to detect future viral outbreaks. This investment protects economies in case immunity to COVID-19 turns out to be temporary. Many economies adopted versions of Germanys Kurzarbeit (short work) subsidy during the pandemic. This policy keeps workers employed at reduced hours and pay, with the government compensating some of the shortfall in wages. By keeping matches between firms and workers intact, the economy is better prepared for a quick recovery. It is important to improve the implementation of these policies and make them a permanent part of our economic recovery tool kit. Remote work is likely to become more common. We had some evidence that working from home is at least as productive as working at the office. However, many companies were reluctant to embrace remote work. Now that many have tried it with good results, remote work might be here to stay. The pandemic crisis has accelerated the pace of digital transformation, with further expansion in e-commerce and increases in the pace of adoption of telemedicine, videoconferencing, online teaching, and fintech. Companies with international supply chains are dealing with shortages and bottlenecks. We are likely to see many of these companies reshore some of their production. Unfortunately, this trend will not create many jobs because most of the production is likely to be automated. Governments will be bigger after playing the role of insurer and investor of last resort during the crisis. Public debt will balloon, creating financial challenges around the world. The most important lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of working together on problems that affect the entire human race. We are much stronger united than divided. Ian Bremmer The global order was in flux well before the COVID-19 crisis. Coronavirus has accelerated three of the key geopolitical trends that will shape our next world order which will await us on the other side of this pandemic. The first trend is deglobalization; the logistic difficulties brought to light by the current crisis are already pointing to a shift away from global just-in-time supply chains. Yet as economic difficulties mount, the inevitable growth of nationalism and my nation first politics will push companies to localize business operations that favor national and regional supply chains. The third trend, Chinas geopolitical rise, has been more than three decades in the making. But while China has successfully transformed itself into an economic and technological superpower, no one expected it to become a soft power superpower. This crisis can change that, if Chinas crisis diplomacy continues and the perception endures that Beijing has been far more effective than the rest of the world in its response to the outbreak. Of course, just because China appears to be faring better doesnt mean it actually is. Theres a reason people take Chinese numbers with a grain of salt. This general distrust was further fueled by the initial Chinese cover-up of the outbreak, which enabled its global spread. Donald Trump and his administration are leaning into this narrative as an election strategy and to deflect attention from their own handling of the pandemic. China wont take this lying down, making it increasingly likely that once the world emerges from the current pandemic, we will be plunged into a new cold war, this time between the United States and China. New world order or not, some things just dont change. In a classical Beijing speak, the Chinese foreign ministry professed peace on the morning after 20 Indian soldiers were slain at the LAC, while insisting that the Indian side was at fault. China and India are in close communication on resolving relevant issues through both diplomatic and military channels, it said. The statement comes just hours after India accused China of trying to unilaterally change the status quo at the Line of Actual Control in the Galwan Valley and violating the agreement between both sides. However, the Chinese side continued to put the blame on India and claimed the area to be its own. "The incident was very clear, as it happened on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the responsibility did not rest with China," it said. In parallel, propagandist Chinese media put out a video of a recent PLA drill. The video, which has been posted by the Twitter handle of the state-run English-language mouthpiece Global Times, features advanced tanks, long-range artillery systems, ground-to-air missile systems, special forces and army aviation troops. China recently conducted joint exercises in a high-elevation mountainous region featuring advanced tanks, long-range artillery systems, ground-to-air missile systems, special forces and army aviation troops amid China-India border tensions. https://t.co/rjZhUlBjZq pic.twitter.com/SJiDDN6bQj Global Times (@globaltimesnews) June 17, 2020 According to Global Times, the drill aimed at the destruction of key hostile hubs in a high-elevation mountainous region, which is exactly what the Ladakh region, where the standoff between the Chinese and Indian armies is currently underway, also is. This is the second military drill this month by the PLA. Earlier, a PLA airborne brigade held exercises deep in the northwestern desert, even as the border row between China and India raged on. In a massive escalation between India and China, at least 20 Indian Army soldiers, including a Colonel, were martyred in a violent clash on Monday night with Chinese troops at the Galwan Valley in the Ladakh sector. Initially, the Indian Army had confirmed only three casualties. However, in a statement issued late on Tuesday, it added that 17 soldiers later succumbed to critical injuries and the sub-zero temperatures. The incident happened at Patrolling Point 14 in Galwan Valley, which comes under the 16 Bihar regiment of the Indian Army. As per initial reports, Indian troops were there to see the disengagement from the area by the Chinese Army when they were suddenly attacked by PLA soldiers. As per US intelligence sources, the Indian also retaliated, resulting in 35 Chinese soldiers being killed. However, ANI had pegged the death toll at 43. The Criminal Court of Appeal is considering on Wednesday Armenian ex-president Robert Kocharyan's attorneys' appeal of the ruling to keep Kocharyan under arrest. Attorney Ruben Sahakyan authorized his colleague Hayk Alumyan to read out his motion. At the last meeting, the judge was interested in Kocharyan's opinion on some issues over his relation with persons who submitted personal guarantees. A second president is present at the trial to answer all the questions. Attorney Aram Vardevanyan presented a statement on Kocharyan's relation to ex-PMs of Armenia Vazgen Manukyan, Khosrov Harutyunyan, Karen Karapetyan, and Artsakh ex-PM Anushavan Danielyan. Earlier, the court presided by Anna Danibekyan, rejected three petitions of Kocharyan's defense: on release on a personal guarantee, on release on bail, and on the change of preventive measure amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Attorney Hayk Alumyan read out his colleagues motion in this regard. According to the lawyer, during that trial, 89 days of the hearing were postponed because of the judge - either she was on vacation or absent due to illness. The court - while ruling on the case - did not analyze Kocharyans behavior before his arrest, did not take into account the fact that he himself returned to the country, and while being free he did not show the slightest sign of obstruction of the investigation. The refusal to release Kocharyan under a personal guarantee was not justified at all, which contradicts the requirements of the European Court. Thus, the decisions of the court are arbitrary and contradict Article 5 of the Convention on Human Rights. Meanwhile - amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert Kocharyan, being in a penitentiary, is forced to constantly communicate with employees, the motion added. Home to volcanoes, glaciers and the steaming waters of the Blue Lagoon, Iceland reopened its borders on Monday in a move welcomed by the battered tourism sector, but COVID-19 tests are required for all travellers. Tourism, which has been at a standstill during the pandemic, is one of the main drivers of Iceland's economy. On Monday, eight passenger planes landed at the country's only international airport, Keflavik. Among those arriving was Daniel Haj, a 27-year-old London-based Swede who came to do some hiking, and who said he was fine with being submitted to a test. "I can't say it was comfortable ... but if that's what we have to do to be able to come to the island, I'm happy to do that," he told AFP. A subarctic island in the North Atlantic, Iceland closed its borders to non-EU travellers on March 20, followed a month later by the reintroduction of internal border controls, in a bid to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. Today, it has only four active cases. The country of 360,000 people and breathtaking landscapes has gradually eased its restrictions since early May. But the resumption of tourism is a big one: the industry accounts for more than half of the eight percent contraction Iceland's central bank has forecast for the economy this year. Tourism represented 8.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2017, according to the latest official data, and tourism officials have forecast a 60 percent drop in revenues this year. - Cautious resumption - To give the sector a boost, the government announced in March it was allocating three billion kronur (19 million euros) to help promote the island abroad and domestically. The island's awe-inspiring canyons and gorges, and flat plains and valleys formed by years of volcanic eruptions, attracted some two million visitors in 2019, or six times its population. While the tourists' return will be welcomed by the sector, the central bank said it expected fewer than 400,000 tourists in 2020, the lowest number in 15 years. Story continues And those wanting to see the Strokkur geyser erupt or climb the snowy passes of Europe's biggest glacier will have to respect new regulations. Like Austria before it, Iceland will require that travellers arriving by plane or ferry either take a COVID-19 test for ongoing infection or spend 14 days in quarantine. If the test is positive, travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days at a designated isolation centre at no cost, Icelandic authorities said. The state will pay the cost of the tests until the end of June. As of July 1, travellers will have to pay 15,000 kronur themselves (around 100 euros) to take the test. The testing is expected to continue for at least six months. A total of 2,000 tests can be carried out daily, "a factor that will limit airlines and maritime companies," the government has warned. The government currently expects around 500 arrivals a day at the airport, down sharply from the 6,500 typically expected at this time of year when the midnight sun is a strong draw. - Testing concerns - While the lifting of restrictions has not been controversial in Iceland, the border testing has not been popular with everyone. "It's practical issues: it slows down travel, it puts burdens on everybody, it costs a lot of money," argues Skarphedinn Berg Steinarsson, director of the Icelandic Tourism Board. But, insists Pall Matthiasson, head of Iceland's National Hospital, "reopening the country for many tourists is a challenge." He fears a spike in infections during the summer months when many staff are on holiday after working through an arduous spring. Iceland has reported 1,810 cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths. It has been a world leader when it comes to testing, with more than 17 percent of its population tested. Some in medical circles have questioned the efficacy of the tests for travellers, fearing they will in fact be carriers of the virus but test negative and spread the virus on the island. The head of DeCODE Genetics, a biopharma group which has conducted much of the testing in Iceland, dismissed those concerns. "Even if the system at the borders is somewhat leaky, our experiments from the first wave tell us that that may not be so catastrophic," Kari Stefansson said. Dish Societys Memorial Green location has recently learned that three of their employees have tested positive for COVID-19. In a written statement, Dish Societys Aaron Lyons mentioned that the team members tested positive after participating in social activities together outside of work. Related: Bellaire cancels July 4 celebration, approves $4 million for infrastructure The last shift any of these team members worked was Friday, June 12, said Lyons on Tuesday. They passed all of our screening questions and temperature checks on that shift and shifts over the course of the previous week. These team members worked only at Dish Societys Memorial Green location and followed all proper safety protocols while working their shift, including washing hands, changing gloves every 20 minutes and wearing a mask at all times, as well as all of our other safety measures. Related: Midtown Houston beer garden Axelrad reopens by reservation only All store employees at the Memorial Green location have been notified and are required to get tested and self-quarantine. The store closed on Tuesday for sanitation and each employee will not be allowed to return to work until they receive negative test results. The employees will also be placed on paid sick leave, receiving 100 percent of their eligible pay. The Memorial Drive location will reopen on Wednesday, June 17, with staff from other Dish Society locations and will only operate curbside and delivery from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The eatery is located at 12525 Memorial Drive in Houston. For more information call 713-467-3474 or visit www.dishsociety.com. ryan.nickerson@hcnonline.com By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 17, 2020 | 11:49 AM | MAYFIELD An inmate at the Graves County Jail is facing more charges after he allegedly assaulted a deputy jailer earlier this week. Graves County Jailer George Workman said 29-year-old Trevor Taylor of Mayfield mule-kicked a deputy jailer while in the booking area on Monday. Workman said the deputy jailer was able to take Taylor to the ground and maintain control of him until other deputies could assist him. Workman said Taylor threatened to kill the deputies and his mother. He was taken to Jackson Purchase Medical Center for treatment of injuries, and then released back to the jail. Workman said the deputy jailer was also treated for his injuries at the hospital, and will miss two days of work due to his injuries. Taylor was jailed Saturday on attempted murder and other charges after he allegedly tried to throw his mother from a second story balcony. He's now charged with assault of a correctional employee, three counts of terroristic threatening and menacing. He remains in the Graves County Jail. Workman said an internal affairs investigation revealed the action taken by the staff was warranted and the least amount of force necessary to handle the situation was taken. OKLAHOMA CITY Black Oklahoma City resident Derrick Elliott Olie Scott pleaded "I can't breathe! Please! Help me! I can't breathe," on May 20, 2019, as three Oklahoma City police officers pinned him to the ground with their knees and hands, removed a handgun from his pocket and held him there for about 13 minutes while waiting for paramedics to arrive. Scott's pleas were chillingly similar to those of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police has been the catalyst for nationwide protests. Scott, 41, was pronounced dead at an Oklahoma City hospital about an hour after his arrest. Release of police officers' body cam video of the arrest was one of the demands of Black Lives Matter. The Oklahoma City Police Department complied with that demand Monday by releasing the video to family and the news media. Derrick Scott's mother, Vickey Scott, reviewed portions of the arrest videos and was upset by what she saw. "I think that it was one of the most inhumane things that I have ever seen," Vickey Scott said. "They did not do anything for him. They treated him like he was an animal. He was trying to get his breath. He was trying to breathe, and they ignored him the whole time, like he was nothing. They even treat animals better than they treated my son. Watch: Hundreds of mourners pay their respects to George Floyd 'I just wish I can get him back': George Floyd's brother speaks before Congress "It's very hard," she said. "I want every mother to watch that ... and imagine that's your son's last so many minutes of life and he's dying and they're saying that he's faking." In this image made from a May 2019 body-worn camera video of Oklahoma City Police Officer Ashley Copeland, paramedics and police officers carry Derrick Elliot Scott onto a stretcher after he was arrested and went in and out of consciousness during the arrest in Oklahoma City. Vickey Scott was referring to portions of the videos where one of the officers questioned whether her son was faking being unconscious as he lay handcuffed on the ground with another officer still kneeling on his legs. She said she has had to watch the videos a little bit at a time, because it's too hard to watch them all at once. Story continues "My heart is just broken. It's broken," she said. "I want the officers to be convicted of killing my son. I want something to be done about police officers being more compassionate when people tell them they can't breathe." Oklahoma County district attorney David Prater reviewed the arrest last year and had a different conclusion about what he saw. Prater sent an email to Police Chief Wade Gourley last August clearing officers of wrongdoing. "In reviewing the actions of your officers I saw nothing inappropriate; nor was there any evidence of misconduct by your officers," Prater wrote. "They did exactly what they should have done under the circumstances and handled the call very well." Oklahoma City Police Capt. Larry Withrow called a news conference Tuesday where he described the arrest. Withrow said the techniques used to restrain Derrick Scott were consistent with what officers are taught at the police academy to minimize the risk of physically harming suspects. He specifically mentioned that one officer placed her knee across the Derrick Scott's shoulder blades and that another officer straddled the suspect's waist and later slid down to his legs, once control had been achieved. He said when Derrick Scott complained he couldn't breathe and appeared to go unconscious, officers rolled him over into a "recovery position" and immediately called for medical assistance and began to monitor his health. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Derrick Scott: Oklahoma man died in police custody, video released Turkey-Greece Energy Dispute Heats Up By Dorian Jones June 16, 2020 Tensions between Turkey and Greece are escalating as both sides vow to defend their territorial rights. The increasingly acrimonious dispute centers on a scramble for energy in the contested waters of the Eastern Mediterranean. Athens and Ankara are both backing their words with displays of naval force, and fears of a confrontation are growing. On Monday, the Greek Kathimerini newspaper published what it described as Greek defense "deterrent scenarios" against Turkey. The scenarios include using force if Ankara goes ahead with planned drilling near the Greek Island of Crete. Ankara says the drilling is part of a deal struck last year with Libya's internationally recognized Government of National Accord. Under the Libyan agreement, Turkey can search for energy in a large swathe of the Eastern Mediterranean. But Athens insists the deal violates the territorial waters of some of its Greek Islands. In remarks published Sunday, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias accused Turkey of "blackmail" and promised that "Greece was ready to defend its sovereign rights." But Ankara is dismissing Athens's warnings as empty rhetoric. Last week, Turkish government spokesman Omer Celik described as a "bad joke" the Greek Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos' declaration that "Greece is ready for a military confrontation with Turkey." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went further, issuing his own warning. "You [Greece] had better collect yourself and know your place. If you don't know your limits, then what Turkey would do is obvious," said Erdogan. But Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar downplayed the risk of confrontation. "I want to underline in a mathematical certainty that Greeks would not want to stage a war with Turkey," Akar told a private broadcaster last Thursday. Angry words are nothing new between historical rivals Greece and Turkey. Despite sporadic bilateral tensions, military conflict has been avoided, but analysts warn the threat remains. "Both sides have their naval assets in the East Mediterranean, but I don't expect an all-out war," said former Turkish ambassador Mithat Rende. "But they might be skirmishes," he added. "Some conflicts can start of accidents or skirmishes it can grow. I hope common sense will prevail." The discovery of vast gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean sparked the latest Greek Turkish tensions. The two countries have lengthy outstanding disputes over the dividing waters of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, including the island of Cyprus, which is divided between Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities. Only Ankara recognizes the Turkish Cypriot Administration. Athens is protesting Turkish drilling plans in 24 locations in the Mediterranean Sea that it considers Greek territory. Greece has formed a regional energy alliance to coordinate efforts to search and develop hydrocarbons in the East Mediterranean. Among the members include Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus, all countries Turkey has strained relations with. Mehmet Ogutcu with the London Energy Club policy group says Ankara is feeling cornered. "With this changing dynamic in the Eastern Mediterranean, with natural gas resources and with this anti-Turkish alliance emerging, I think Turkey feels the need to protect its interests. By pursuing this drilling in the region," said Ogutcu. Turkey's hunger for energy is also a powerful impetus in explaining its assertive stance. "Turkey is heavily dependent on imported gas and oil," said Rende. "What we need is our own resources and benefit from the offshore energy reserves we believe are there. The East Med is of vital interest to Turkey." However, Ankara is facing mounting diplomatic pressure. Last week Washington called for Ankara to immediately stop drilling in contested waters around Cyprus. The European Union, of which Greece is a member, is also sharply criticizing Turkish drilling plans. Some analysts suggest such strong diplomatic support Athens will likely embolden Athens. But Turkey's navy is the largest in the region and the stakes are so high, it is unlikely that Turkey will back down, Ogutcu warns. "Both [Athens Ankara] sides are engaged in brinksmanship. There is a very strong nationalist fervor; both sides fear that their rights might be usurped if they don't take action," Ogutcu said. "The best thing is to freeze the problem, until a time when both sides can sit down and talk. But that needs an honest interlocutor. Accidents and miscalculated steps cause wars." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address (Newser) The top guy at Netflix and his wife just made a major donation to black colleges and say they hope others will do the same, NBC News reports. Company CEO Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin said Wednesday they're giving $120 million to two historically black colleges and the United Negro College Fund: "The times are the most stressed, the most painful, that we've ever seen in our lives," said Hastings, 59. "But out of that pain can come some opportunity, too. And maybe this will be the moment things change." The money is evenly divided between the college fund, Spelman College, and Morehouse College, with the goal of supporting student scholarships. story continues below The power couple has donated to education before, creating a $100 million education fund in Silicon Valley and breaking ground on a retreat for teachers in rural Colorado, per recode. Now they say they're hoping to inspire others to consider African American institutions. "Generally, white capital flows to predominantly white institutions, perpetuating capital isolation," they say in a statement. "We hope this additional $120 million donation will help more black students follow their dreams and also encourage more people to support these institutionshelping to reverse generations of inequity in our country." (Read more historically black colleges stories.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 19:11:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Market regulation administration staff check the disinfection records at a restaurant in Haidian District of Beijing, capital of China, June 17, 2020. Staff with Beijing Municipal Bureau of Market Regulation and the market regulation bureau in Haidian District checked the supply channels and disinfection situation of a market and a restaurant in Haidian District on Wednesday as a measure to ensure the food safety for local residents. (Xinhua/Ren Chao) HSBC has restarted a three-year plan to reduce its employee numbers by 35,000 to 200,000 that had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It initially announced the programme back in February following a dramatic one-third fall in its annual profits. Chief executive Noel Quinn described the scheme as 'one of the deepest restructuring and simplification programmes in our history.' But they were put on hold two months later, with the firm stating that it did not want to harm the wellbeing of their staff at a time of great uncertainty. HSBC initially announced the restructuring programme back in February this year HSBC had put aside 2.4billion to offset possible credit card and loan defaults during the Covid-19 crisis, which caused first-quarter profits to plummet by almost half to 2.6billion. Quinn, who took over as interim boss after John Flint's departure last August, told staff in an internal memo: 'We could not pause the job losses indefinitely - it was always a question of 'not if, but when.' He added: 'I wish I could say that the next few months will see a return to normality, but that is unlikely to be the case. 'You will have seen that our profits fell in the first quarter and virtually all economic forecasts point to challenging times ahead. The reality is that the measures and the change we announced in February are even more necessary today.' Noel Quinn: 'We could not pause the job losses indefinitely - it was always a question of 'not if, but when' The UK's largest bank estimates that the job cuts will save them about 3.6billion, but have not given full details about what divisions will be affected, though it said there would be 'meaningful' job cuts in the UK. Before the global financial crisis in 2008-09, HSBC employed over 300,000 staff. Currently, they have about 40,000 workers in the UK. Trade union Unite attacked HSBC's resumption of its restructuring programme, with Unite national officer Dominic Hook calling it 'extremely concerning' to his union. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticised HSBC after it voiced support for a draft national security law in Hong Kong 'The question that must be asked today is 'Why now HSBC?.' At present vast numbers of HSBC staff are making massive sacrifices working from home or taking risks travelling into offices and bank branches to help customers, why now?' he remarked. Hook said the Unite union opposes all 'compulsory job losses' being made by the lender, whom he implored in his statement 'to stand by its workforce.' HSBC has been the focus of considerable geopolitical attention in recent weeks after it voiced support for a draft national security law in Hong Kong. The law has attracted huge protests in Hong Kong and HSBC's decision was condemned by politicians such as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Critics say the legislation will result in a major assault on civil liberties due to the vagueness. It talks of criminalising acts of 'splittism, subversion, terrorism,' as well as 'foreign and overseas intervention in Hong Kong affairs.' An open letter published today by 76 human rights groups and addressed to a senior Chinese politician called on China to scrap the proposed law. Signatories include Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Shares in HSBC were down half a per cent during mid-afternoon to 381.9p. T he beloved cat who inspired the book A Street Cat Named Bob has died aged 14. James Bowen first met Bob in 2007 during his battle with drug addiction when he found the cat abandoned and injured and decided to look after him. He began taking the cat with him while busking or selling The Big Issue in London. Bowen then wrote a series of books about their relationship, including A Street Cat Named Bob, which became a smash hit and was made into a film in 2016. In a statement on the official Facebook page for Mr Bowens books, the author said Bob, who died on Monday, had saved his life. He added: Its as simple as that. He gave me so much more than companionship. With him at my side, I found a direction and purpose that Id been missing. He added that the success they found together was miraculous. Street Cat Named Bob - In pictures 1 /24 Street Cat Named Bob - In pictures Bob the cat arrives at the premiere of the film 'A Street Cat Named Bob' in London AP Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge greets Bob the cat the star of the film "A street cat named Bob" by his owner James Bowen at the film's premiere in London AFP/Getty Images Street sensation: James Bowen and Bob Rebecca Reid James Bowen and Bob the cat attend the UK Premiere of "A Street Cat Named Bob" in aid of Action On Addiction AP Street musician James Bowen walks with cat Bob in Covent Garden Reuters Street musician James Bowen travels with cat Bob on the underground in London Reuters Film: A Street Cat Named Bob. James Bowen with Bob The Cat (L) and Luke Treadaway attend the UK Premiere of "A Street Cat Named Bob" in aid of Action On Addiction Dave Benett James Bowen and Bob the cat attend the UK Premiere of "A Street Cat Named Bob" in aid of Action On Addiction Getty Images Film: A Street Cat Named Bob. Film: A Street Cat Named Bob A 2016 Street Cat Film Distribu Film: A Street Cat Named Bob Film: A Street Cat Named Bob Street musician James Bowen busks with cat Bob in Covent Garden Reuters Street musician James Bowen busks with cat Bob in Covent Garden Daily Mail Street musician James Bowen busks with cat Bob in Covent Garden Daily Mail Bob the cat busking in Covent Garden Daily Mail Bob the cat busking in Covent Garden Daily Mail Mr Bowen added: Hes met thousands of people, touched millions of lives. Theres never been a cat like him. And never will again. I feel like the light has gone out in my life. I will never forget him. Paul McNamee, editor of The Big Issue, said in a statement that the cat first changed James Bowens life, then he changed the world. He meant a great deal to The Big Issue and was a huge part of our story, as The Big Issue was to his story, he added. Over the years weve reported on his successes and each time we put him on the cover our vendors were delighted. They knew it meant fans would flock to purchase. He added: He represented a second chance and hope and never giving up on somebody, things that are hardwired into The Big Issue DNA. A Street Cat Named Bob world premiere 1 /20 A Street Cat Named Bob world premiere Grand entrance The Duchess of Cambridge arrives at the premiere of A Street Cat Named Bob Ian West/PA Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge greets Bob the cat the star of the new film "A street cat named Bob" by his owner James Bowen at the film's premiere in London Richard Pohle/AFP/Getty Images Centre stage James Bowen with Bob The Cat and Luke Treadaway attend the UK Premiere of "A Street Cat Named Bob" in aid of Action On Addiction at The Curzon Mayfair Dave Benett Joanne Froggatt attends the UK Premiere of "A Street Cat Named Bob" in aid of Action On Addiction Jeff Spicer/Getty Images Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge poses as she arrives for the world premiere of "A Street Cat Named Bob" at The Curzon Mayfair REUTERS Co-stars Luke Treadaway and Ruta Gedmintas are all smiles for the cameras Jeff Spicer/Getty Leading man Luke Treadaway is suited up for the occasion Steve Parsons/PA Royal arrival The Duchess of Cambridge looks stunning in a Self Portrait gown Ian West/PA Bond James Bowen and Bob the cat wow the crowds Getty Images Lady in red Joanne Froggatt, who plays Val, looks glamorous in red Dave Benett Looking all white Ruta Gedmintas works the cameras Dave Benett Royal wave Kate Middleton waves to fans lining the red carpet for her arrival Ian West/PA Sign away Joanne Froggatt mingles with waiting fans Dave Benett Work it Ruta Gedmintas and Luke Treadaway walk the red carpet Steve Parsons/PA Date night Joanne Froggatt and her husband James Cannon Steve Parsons/PA Our condolences go to James, Bobs loyal companion. Bob saved his life and hes spoken of the success the pair enjoyed through their books and films as being miraculous. He said theres never been a cat like him. We couldnt agree more. Alfred Woyome, the embattled businessman at the centre of the infamous Ghc51 million judgement case says he has been receiving social and financial support from churches and mosques to keep him alive up to date. Woyome whose accounts and businesses have been frozen by the state told Umaru Amadu Sanda on Citi TVs Face to Face programme that the churches and sometimes the mosque feed me adding that they [also] contribute money. He further said on the show that he also receives financial support from his external family and some philanthropists. As his struggles against the state progressed, he said his shares in 14 companies have been frozen and his hands tied by the state and its actors. I have not worked. Government has closed all my businesses against a court order. Bank of Ghana had blacklisted me causing a huge contract I had to supply items to the government for the building of the portand that thing was taken away. My consultancy work, because of the criminal case and all the pursuant things, I couldnt [consult] for any other country, Mr. Woyome explained. These circumstances have led Mr. Woyome to come to the conclusion that the state is not interested in the money. They don't want me to pay. What they want to do is to render Mr. Woyome useless for challenging the status quo. Background The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Mr Woyome to refund GHS51.2 million to the state, on the grounds that he benefited from unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for 2008 AFCON. The case leading to the Supreme Court decision was initiated by Martin Amidu, the current Special Prosecutor. Eventually, in March 2016, Mr. Woyome asked the court to give him three years to pay back the money, but the court declined to grant his wish. He is, however, said to have refunded GHS4 million in November 2016 and an additional GHS600,000 and promised to pay the outstanding balance by quarterly instalments of GHS5 million, commencing April 1, 2017. But he also initiated legal challenges at the Supreme Court challenging orders for him to pay the money which were all dismissed. Mr Woyome further sued at International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) based in Paris, France, and the African Court of Justice, based in Arusha, Tanzania. But in August 2017, the ICC threw out his case on the basis that he had failed to properly invoke its jurisdiction whilst his case at the African Court of Justice was also dismissed in June 2019. Currently, the Supreme Court has given the Attorney General permission to sell properties belonging to Mr. Woyome to offset part of the GHS47 million he owes the state. ---citinewsroom India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent How many Chinese troops died in the violent skirmishes at Galwan Valley India oi-Madhuri Adnal Beijing, June 17: The only admission of casualties on the Chinese side came from the editor of their government mouthpiece Global Times. "Based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash. I want to tell the Indian side, don't be arrogant and misread China's restraint as being weak. China doesn't want to have a clash with India, but we don't fear it," tweeted Hu Xijin, Editor-in-Chief of Global Times. Standing up to China and diplomacy to go hand in hand to end border tensions India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News Meanwhile, Sources confirm to ANI that Commanding Officer of the Chinese Unit involved in the face-off with Indian troops in the Galwan Valley was among those killed. China's official media quoted the Chinese military as claiming that it "always" owned sovereignty over the Galwan Valley region and alleged that "provocative attacks' launched by the Indian troops resulted in "severe clashes and casualties." On Tuesday, India said the violent face-off between the armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. The Ministry of External Affairs said both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement arrived at earlier at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. A total of 20 Indian soldiers have died in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, the Indian Army said in a statement. The face-off has escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two sides. This is also the highest number of fatalities in decades. India-China face-off: Loss of soldiers disturbing, painful, says Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Earlier in the day, the Indian Army said India lost an officer and two soldiers during the clash. There were casualties on the Chinese side as well, government and military sources said. The MEA said India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in eastern Ladakh, and senior commanders had a productive meeting on June 6. It said both sides agreed on a process for such de-escalation. Jefferson Parish deputies have now arrested five people involved in Tuesday's protests on a West Bank Expressway off-ramp that eventually led to a clash between demonstrators and authorities. In a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office release sent out Tuesday evening, a spokesperson named the five people arrested: Uma-Kristina Kumar-Montei, 20, from Minneapolis, was booked with simple obstruction of a roadway, resisting an officer and refusing to disperse. Nathaniel Smith, 31, from New Orleans, was booked with battery on a police officer, inciting a riot, possession of marijuana and resisting arrest by flight. Nathan Durapau, 29, of New Orleans, was booked with resisting a police officer with force or violence, battery on a police officer and interfering with a police investigation. Bridget White, 31, was booked with simple obstruction of a roadway, resisting an officer, refusing to disperse, resisting an officer and battery on a police officer. Eric Winins, 33, was booked with simple obstruction of a roadway, resisting an officer, refusing to disperse and resisting an officer/refusal to identify. The release said White's and Winins' hometowns were unknown as of Tuesday evening. The JPSO spokesperson also said two deputy supervisors were punched in the face in a skirmish that resulted when demonstrators were told to turn back from walking onto the elevated expressway at the Lafayette Street off-ramp. 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 The demonstrators marched in Jefferson Parish on Tuesday to protest the killings of several men during encounters with JPSO deputies. They also demanded JPSO deputies begin wearing body cameras and to meet with Sheriff Joe Lopinto. +18 Photos: Protesters and Jefferson Parish deputies clash near West Bank Expressway A group of protesters trying to reach the elevated portion of the West Bank Expressway were met by Jefferson Parish deputies on Tuesday afternoon. When protesters heard reports that Lopinto, other deputies and an armored vehicle were on the elevated part of the expressway, that's when demonstrators began their march up the ramp. Deputies with large shields attempted to form a line to stop protesters from moving forward on the bridge. One deputy used an amplification device to tell the demonstrators to move back. "You have a legal right to protest," he said. "You do not have a legal right to block the street. ... We cannot allow you to block the roadway. That's why we have sidewalks." Other roads near the protest, including the lower Westbank Expressway between Lafayette Street and Manhattan Boulevard, were also closed. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 07:36:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Video: U.S. President Donald Trump tells reporters during a White House meeting with cabinet members on June 15, 2020, that it is "highly inappropriate" for John Bolton, his former national security adviser, to write a memoir about his work in the White House. (Xinhua) Bolton plans to release his memoir, "The Room Where It Happened," on June 23. The release has been delayed for months as a result of a prepublication review process. WASHINGTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to prevent former national security adviser John Bolton from publishing his memoir about his work in the White House. The civil action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleged that Bolton's book, set to be released later this month, contains classified information that would compromise national security if published before a government review is completed. The DOJ also asked the court to declare that Bolton's account of his time as U.S. President Donald Trump's third national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019 violated his nondisclosure agreement. Bolton plans to release his memoir, "The Room Where It Happened," on June 23. The release has been delayed for months as a result of a prepublication review process. File photo taken on Aug. 2, 2018 shows John Bolton addressing a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Trump claimed on Monday that it was "highly inappropriate" for Bolton to write the memoir. "Maybe he's not telling the truth, he's been known not to tell the truth, a lot," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I will consider every conversation with me highly classified," he said. "If he wrote a book and the book gets out, he's broken the law and I would think you would have criminal problems." Chuck Cooper, Bolton's attorney, last week accused the White House of a "transparent attempt to use national security as a pretext to censor Mr. Bolton, in violation of his constitutional right to speak on matters of the utmost public import." A foreign policy hawk, Bolton was ousted last year over disagreements with the president on a range of issues. President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win reelection in 2020 by purchasing agricultural products from key U.S. states, former national security adviser John Bolton wrote in his new book. During a Group of 20 summit meeting in Japan last summer, Trump was pleading with Xi to ensure hed win, Bolton wrote in a book excerpt published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal. Trump stressed the importance of farmers and of increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat to his electoral success, Bolton wrote. He added that he would have printed Trumps exact words, but the governments prepublication review process has decided otherwise. Bolton added: Trumps conversations with Xi reflected not only the incoherence in his trade policy but also the confluence in Trumps mind of his own political interests and U.S. national interests. Trump commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security. I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasnt driven by reelection calculations. He said he reported such incidents to Attorney General William Barr and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, The New York Times reported. Neither the Justice Department nor the White House immediately responded to HuffPosts requests for comment. Reacting to Boltons highly anticipated memoir, The Room Where It Happened, Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, blasted Trump in a statement. If these accounts are true, its not only morally repugnant, its a violation of Donald Trumps sacred duty to the American people to protect Americas interests and defend our values, the former vice president said of Boltons allegation that Trump had sought Xis help to get reelected. Biden also issued a warning to Chinas leaders or anyone else who President Trump... Continue reading on HuffPost Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation proves vital in pivot to remote classes Tech Support: Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation team members brainstorm strategies for the transition to remote learning during one of the last days before they began working from home. From left: Pablo Yanez, program manager; Adam Barger, associate director of academic innovation; and Mark Hofer, director. Photo by Roy Petersen Photo - of - Hide Caption William & Marys decision in early March to move all classes to a remote format in response to COVID-19 gave the newly created Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation an urgent purpose: Help faculty and students complete the semester. The Studio opened last August as a hub for teaching and learning at W&M to assist faculty collaboration across traditional boundaries and leverage new technologies that support diverse modes of teaching. The need for those services came into sharp focus this spring. We knew it would be instrumental, but we didnt know how critical it would be to our ability to function as an institution, says Ann Marie Stock, vice provost for academic and faculty affairs, who led a team tasked with crafting a vision for the Studio. It would have been very difficult if not impossible to move more than 2,000 courses to remote delivery in a couple of weeks without it. At the time of the transition to remote classes, some faculty members lacked experience using technologies that were suddenly essential for teaching, says Mark Hofer, director of the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI). We redirected all of our time and effort to building the Keep Teaching website, hosting live webinars, holding one-on-one sessions and assisting faculty with what technology tools to use and how to use them, Hofer says. We recognized that this would be an incredible challenge for faculty and students alike, and were thinking of it almost as triage. Working with W&M Libraries and Information Technology, Hofers staff of eight quickly created video tutorials on how to use programs such as Zoom, Blackboard and Panopto. The website highlights communication strategies, course material distribution, options for teaching classes remotely, lab activities, peer-to-peer collaboration among students, methods for conducting assignments, tests and quizzes, frequently asked questions and information on where to get additional help. During the switch to remote classes, there were almost 4,500 visits to the Keep Teaching website and more than 6,000 views of the STLIs videos, Hofer says. In a survey of faculty later in the semester, 40 percent cited unfamiliarity with technology as a challenge they had to navigate. Philanthropic support through the For the Bold campaign has bolstered STLIs work across William & Marys schools and departments during this crisis. Between March 12 and May 29, donors contributed about $136,000 to the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation Fund. Private funds have been essential, Stock says. Theyve allowed the Studio to address unexpected needs that arise and support individual faculty members. Private funds are often the piece that helps to make a cohesive whole. Now that the spring semester is over, the challenge is to move from short-term triage to longer-term thinking and planning about how to adapt classes for either in-person or remote learning, and to take advantage of the benefits that digital resources can offer. To that end, the Studio is offering a program called Convert Your Course to help faculty members make more effective use of online resources when designing their classes. It really focuses more on the teaching than the technologies and tools, Hofer says. Were trying to help faculty be as flexible as possible in their approach so they can shift more easily from face-to-face to remote teaching or hybrid classes. Reflecting on the spring semester, Stock notes that faculty and staff learning partners better understand the difference between remote, versus online, teaching and learning. Remote learning is taking whats done in the classroom and doing it in a different modality, she says. Online learning is designing a course from the ground up. Hofer adds another observation, one of resilience and resourcefulness under pressure: It was no ones preference to finish the semester this way, but faculty remained very dedicated to serving the students. That was probably the most meaningful takeaway to see how focused faculty were on supporting their students during a really challenging time. Challenges notwithstanding, students and faculty members have found some advantages to working in the online environment. During an April 15 Community Conversation with President Katherine Rowe, Henry Blackburn 20, who was a student volunteer in the admissions office before he graduated on May 16, talked about the increased engagement with prospective students. The amount of personal interactions Ive had in light of all this whether its calling or Zooming or Facetiming students who are looking to come here or who get admitted, or the interviewees from the summer who have reached out to talk it has been so awesome. I think it is changing what we take to be the typical admissions experience for people who are coming in, and Im getting to meet a lot of really interesting students that I never would have had a chance to. Parent & Family Council member Caryn Helmandollar P 22 says she and her daughter, Carter Helmandollar 22, a marketing major, were impressed by how quickly William & Mary was able to pivot to remote classes and adapt to new formats. In a marketing class, for instance, students were able to work virtually on a group project that culminated in a video presentation, rather than one in person. In some of the smaller classes, Carter got a lot more personal feedback via email, says Helmandollar, who lives in Moseley, Virginia. I dont think shed want to do it forever, but in a crisis it was the right thing to do. Hofer says office hours seem to work well in Zoom, and faculty members have been incorporating more alternatives to print-based materials, such as online resources from Swem Library, in their classes. Theyve been surprised and excited about what can be offered in a digital format, he says. An exhibition titled Rising: The American Indian Movement and the Third Space of Sovereignty illustrates how the necessity of using online resources opened up new possibilities. The culmination of a senior seminar on Native American sovereignty taught by Danielle Moretti-Langholtz in the Department of Anthropology, Rising originally was planned as a small display in the Muscarelle Museum of Art running from April 17 to Aug. 2. Each of the nine participating students would have prepared a panel for the show. Instead, they collaborated on a digital exhibition about the American Indian movement of the 1960s and 70s with photographs, documents, sound and video that can be seen by people around the world over a much longer time period and become a resource for other students and teachers. When the museum closed, I thought, Weve done this research, maybe we should do an online exhibit. Lets try something completely different, says Moretti-Langholtz, director of the American Indian Resource Center and administrator of the interdisciplinary Native Studies minor. With this format, everybody was sharing material. Everything was done via Zoom all the planning, all the sharing of information. It developed into an entirely different process of curation. In addition to STLI staff support, Moretti-Langholtz was able to tap private funds through STLI to hire a consultant, Brendan Reed, with the technical expertise necessary to help present the content in a virtual format. Some of the most gratifying comments were from people who said they felt like they were in a museum, Moretti-Langholtz says. We were interested in a visitor experience. Brendan got us there. Christine Nemacheck, an associate professor of government, invited a pair of alumni to talk virtually with students in her American Legal Process course. One is a public defender in Baltimore and the other is an assistant commonwealths attorney in Williamsburg. Both attorneys were working from home and had schedules that were easier to work with than they often do, she says. I think Ill bring this method doing some visits by Zoom into my regular in-person classes when we are back. It was really easy to do and provided a great experience for my students. Through the experience of the spring semester, additional needs have emerged. More staffing is high on the wish list, along with professional development opportunities for faculty and funds for testing new tools and technology to evaluate their value for the university community. Theres definitely a need for faculty fellows to work with the Studio to help their colleagues excel in this new online environment, Stock says. An endowed position for the director would also help to ensure the STLIs continuity and sustainability. Theres also a desire for a more permanent, expanded physical space. Stock says plans have been developed for a renovation in the library to accommodate a 6,700-square-foot home for STLI. Were in a small space in Swem, which is great for small meetings and workshops, Hofer says. We hope eventually to have a more expansive space were faculty members can gather and we can bring more students into the space. Virginia legislators who represent the Williamsburg area had backed a multimillion-dollar renovation project for Swem Librarys ground floor, but plans came to a halt when the funds were not included in the last state budget. The librarys long-term vision is a state-of-the-art community hub for William & Mary faculty and learning partners, including new space for the Studio, renovation of the Botetourt Theater and Gallery, and realigned technical library services. Donor support could help to make those plans a reality. There could be a naming opportunity for the Studio, Stock says. What an amazing legacy this would be for someone who cares deeply about teaching and learning innovation. Jennifer L. Williams contributed to this story. Nurses take their spots on a sidewalk in late April a little before sunset. They're holding candles. When 136 people from around the world have joined the vigil by video conference, they light their flames for Celia and touch them to a wick. Two days earlier, Celia Yap-Banago died alone in her bedroom weeks after caring for a patient suspected of having covid-19 at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo. Celia wasn't just a registered nurse who would have celebrated 40 years in the profession that month. At 69, she was the plain-spoken, slightly inappropriate, kind-of-nosy mother figure of 4 North, the cardiac telemetry unit that had become an overflow ward for patients with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. "I just wish . . ." Jenn Caldwell, a nurse at Research who spent years working alongside Celia, says after the vigil starts. "I wish things would've went a lot differently." Instead Celia is gone, one of hundreds of U.S. health-care workers - not just nurses and physicians but also EMTs, paramedics and medical technologists - who've died fighting a virus against which humans have no known immunity. There is no official tally of their deaths. More than 77,800 medical personnel have tested positive for the coronavirus, and more than 400 have died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which acknowledged its data is a significant undercount. The nation's largest nurses union, National Nurses United, puts the total much higher: 939 fatalities among health-care workers, based on reports from its chapters across the country, social media and obituaries. Nurses represent about 15 percent of those deaths, the union said. And those may be just the first casualties, with new coronavirus cases surging in parts of the South and the Far West and the possibility of a rise of infections in the fall. Co-workers of those who've died have been left to deal not just with grief but a mix of anger, frustration and fear. Heath care, after all, is as much a calling as a job for many of them; during a pandemic, learning a colleague or relative is infected or worse means an almost daily reckoning - not just with one's own mortality, but also with a growing sense of powerlessness. "This has been bigger than anything I ever imagined," said Lilian Abbo, an infectious-disease specialist in Miami who in January began advising Jackson Health System on how to prepare for the virus. "We worked so hard for so many months. But we are not gods." Simply reporting for work can mean gambling with your life, and the odds grow longer when masks and other personal protective equipment, or PPE, become difficult to get. Nurses United sent a letter to hospitals in late January urging increases in PPE inventory, such as N95 respirators and eye coverings. "We recommend the hospital should prepare now," the union wrote Jan. 24 to HCA Midwest Health, an arm of the nationwide conglomerate that manages Research Medical Center. Four months later, a nationwide PPE shortage has emerged as one of the pandemic's most incendiary side effects. Health-care workers have staged protests to honor fallen colleagues and to demand that their employers - and President Donald Trump - make additional equipment available. Some hospitals have disciplined workers who flouted policies meant to conserve equipment: A Chicago nurse with asthma said in a lawsuit that she was fired after warning co-workers that she felt the masks provided by her hospital were not adequate; in California, 10 nurses were suspended after demanding protective gear (and then reinstated after union intervention). In Kansas City, some of Celia's colleagues and family members believe her death could be traced to Research Medical Center's decision to carefully control access to PPE and, some nurses say, discourage staff members from requesting it. Protective masks and other equipment were removed from nursing stations and stored in a conference room on the first floor, according to interviews with hospital staff members. HCA Midwest spokeswoman Christine Hamele said the system followed CDC guidelines in conserving equipment in short supply because it faced an uncertain future. "We knew that our need for PPE far outweighed the supply and we could not predict how long the pandemic would last or how long it would take to source new supplies," Hamele wrote in an email statement to The Washington Post. "A centralized location and process for PPE is industry best practice." Workers said that when they needed items, they had to provide their full name and identification number with the request. As the virus spread and workers' shifts became chaotic, some just didn't bother. "We get such a pushback that sometimes you don't feel like it's worth saying anything, because nobody listens and nobody cares," said Charlene Carter, a night-shift nurse at Research Medical Center. "You want to stand up for what you know is right, but you know you're going to get reprimanded somehow." On March 22, Carter's patients included a woman she suspected of having covid-19. Before going home that morning, she told the nurse who'd relieve her to be careful and wear protective equipment. A few days later, both Carter and Celia would test positive for the coronavirus. Carter, 36, recovered. The patient and Celia did not. Now Carter is with her colleagues on this dimly lit sidewalk, and soon this vigil starts taking on the feeling of a protest. Caldwell looks into a camera and vows that Celia's death will not be in vain. Carter challenges other nurses to fight for what they need. Another nurse, Leo Fuller, steps forward and solemnly reads from a list of fallen health-care workers from around the United States: Jeff Baumbach, 57, from California; Aleyamma John, 65, from New York; Araceli Ilagan, 63, from Miami. No one can say how many of those people died because of insufficient PPE, inadequate testing or other issues. What is undeniable is that all of them put their lives at risk to care for others because that's what they do. Some also lived and worked in communities with widespread transmission. Still, a series of "what ifs" haunt some of their friends, relatives and colleagues. Fuller flips the page. She left Research Medical Center in October, begging Celia to come with her so they could travel the world. But Celia kept working, undeterred by age or even a deadly virus, and now she had one more thing in common with the names Fuller is reading: Daisy Doronila, 60, from New Jersey; Kious Kelly, 48, from New York City; Freda Ocran, 50, from New York City. Fuller again turns the page and keeps reading. With 54 names to announce, she turns it again. - - - Before she died, Celia had plans, like so many health-care workers whose lives ended because they'd fought a deadly virus. A year from now, she and her husband, Amado, would travel to their native Philippines to celebrate 35 years of marriage and renew their vows. Josh, their younger son, would be Amado's best man; Jhulan, their 28-year-old, would walk his mom down the aisle. "We had it all planned out," Jhulan says. In South Florida, 67-year-old internist Alex Hsu was excited about spending time with his grandchildren. In the Bronx, 59-year-old surgeon Ronald Verrier had been thinking about a family reunion in Atlanta, where his daughter had recently bought a house. In New Jersey, 24-year-old paramedic Kevin Leiva and his wife were dreaming big: eliminating their debts, buying a little farm in Maine, having a couple of kids. In Detroit, 53-year-old nurse Lisa Ewald was just looking forward to tomorrow morning, because that's when Roger Chow sent his daily texts. "Morning Lisa," he sent one day in March. "Morning Roger!" Lisa replied. They called each other friends, though people who knew them wondered whether they were something more. They'd met in 2004 during a Star Trek cruise, went on vacations together, ended conversations with "love you" and heart emoji. She was planning an April trip to Rockville, Md., where Roger works in information technology, and for her birthday, Lisa wanted to see the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin. If one of them didn't respond to a text, the other worried something was wrong. Roger had grown increasingly concerned about the coronavirus, and he told Lisa that a co-worker had tested positive. She told him when she treated covid-19 patients at Henry Ford Health System, where she worked; she also confided to him when one of those patients died, and when she was asked to reuse protective equipment. Lisa told friends she hadn't been provided a mask even when assigned a patient with a suspected case, and by early April, more than 700 of the system's employees had tested positive, hospital officials said in a statement then. "I'm sure I will get it," Lisa texted Roger on March 21, and the next day she predicted that the outbreak in Michigan would be severe. She was correct on both accounts. By late March, the state's confirmed cases were doubling every three days, and Lisa told Roger on a Tuesday that she had been exposed - but that the hospital wouldn't test her unless she showed symptoms. They joked that you had to be a politician or a professional athlete to get tested. "Morning Lisa," Roger texted one morning. "Morning . . . I really don't feel well," Lisa replied. The hours passed, and Lisa took a survey that advised her to contact employee health services at Henry Ford Health. Her calls went straight to voicemail and initially went unreturned. Lisa was turned away from the emergency room, though she had a fever of 103 degrees; a drive-through clinic the ER had referred her to was closed. Her skin became sensitive to the touch, and chills and body aches made it impossible to sleep. She curled up with Max, her cat, and apologized to Roger for complaining about her symptoms and frustrations. "You can say whatever u want to me," he texted, though he'd wonder later whether he should've said more to Lisa - including urging her to go back to the hospital. Nearly a week after her presumed exposure, Lisa texted Roger a picture of her positive test for the coronavirus. She was still waiting for a doctor from employee health to call, hoping she'd be prescribed medication. She said she felt alone. A couple who lived next door left medicine and food on her doorstep, but knowing all too well how swiftly the virus spread, Lisa refused to crack the door until they were out of sight. In a statement, a Henry Ford Health spokeswoman cited privacy concerns in refusing to answer questions about why an employee was not immediately tested and later turned away from the hospital. The statement didn't address Lisa's access to PPE but said the system prioritized testing employees and providing masks, gowns and other protective equipment. "Fresh supplies" were maintained for team members, the spokeswoman said. The days crawled by, and if Lisa looked forward to mornings, she now dreaded evenings. That's when the fever spiked and her symptoms intensified. She tried to get comfortable, to be hopeful. On the final Monday of March, a few hours after learning she'd contracted covid-19, Lisa sat on her sofa and watched television. At about 7:30 p.m., she told Roger she felt terrible. Twelve hours later, he texted as always. "Morning Lisa," he wrote. She didn't respond. Neighbors would later find her still upright on the couch, the TV still on. But that day, as the hours passed, Roger kept hoping. He called. No answer. And in the afternoon, he texted again. "Hey," he wrote. "U there . . ." - - - For most of her career, Carter, Celia's co-worker in Kansas City, has felt an almost intoxicating joy when a patient's condition improved. Someone had been assigned to her on what might have been the worst day of their life, and Carter could make it better. "I made a difference," she'd say, and though the shifts could be exhausting and the years could be a blur, the rewards of nursing made it more than a profession. "That's big. I can't think of too many things that's bigger." Shifts flew by not just because of a cascade of responsibilities but also because her unit was filled with characters and gossip. Almost no one trafficked information like Celia. She quizzed her single colleagues on whom they were dating, insisted on being a bridesmaid if a co-worker was planning a wedding, never had a problem telling an overbearing charge nurse to shove it. That was Celia, but after four decades in hospitals, the job was also a big part of who she was - an unmistakably common feeling in this line of work. When Verrier, the Bronx surgeon, had a heart attack six years ago, seemingly all he talked about was getting back to work. Paul Novicki, 51, loved being a paramedic near Detroit so much that when his shifts ended, he usually fired up television shows about first responders; even when Novicki retired from his local fire department, he went to work for a private ambulance company. In Brooklyn, 61-year-old physician assistant Madhvi Aya had been a doctor in her native India, and even decades after she lost her father to a heart attack, Aya believed she had the power to spare other families such pain. In Kansas City, Celia had entered nursing because her family had worked in health care in the Philippines. She stayed in the job because it offered fulfillment, purpose, excitement. Being at home was boring, she'd tell her colleagues. Travel could be stressful. And if someone joked with Celia about retiring, she always answered the same way: They'll have to drag me out. By early March, Celia and her colleagues knew the coronavirus was coming as hospitals raced to be ready. Employees at Research Medical Center murmured with frustration when new policies were announced "every three or four hours," an emergency room nurse says. Disease experts warned of a dramatic need for additional staffing, more ventilators and increasingly scarce equipment, such as N95 masks that can filter out most airborne particles. Caldwell, a longtime nurse at Research Medical Center and the hospital's union representative, was temporarily transferred to 4 North in March, when covid-19 cases overflowed, spilling into other wards. On her first day, Caldwell says, she was issued a disposable gown but told not to throw it away; she was to wipe down the gown, goggles and mask if she treated a suspected covid-19 patient. If a patient's status was not confirmed, nurses were encouraged to carry their masks in a paper bag so particles that became attached to the mask would be contained between uses. Shoe coverings were not issued, Caldwell says, and equipment was to be returned to the conference room at the end of each shift so it could be sterilized and reused. "Like lambs to the slaughter," she says. "At the end of the day, that's how it feels. I'm not a soldier, I'm not a hero, I didn't sign up to lay my life down. But if we continue to not have what we need, then that's essentially what ends up happening." Hamele, the HCA Midwest spokeswoman, acknowledged that items were collected and stored at Research but denied that equipment was reused. In an interview arranged by the hospital system, emergency room nurse Andy McClure said he has never felt unsafe at work as a result of insufficient PPE. "I know our leaders are doing everything possible to protect us so we can be the best nurse, and be there for our patients," said McClure, who because he is in management is not a member of a nurses union. "We kind of get what we need. I've never had any pushback or anything for asking for another 10, 15, 20 N95s. I never have." Carter, though, says she did not feel comfortable requesting certain equipment unless a patient was confirmed as having covid-19 and felt intimidated to "make a huge deal about it" to her superiors. On that Sunday in March, Carter says, she wore no mask while caring for the patient being examined for the virus. When her shift ended and Celia prepared to head in, Carter says she warned her co-worker what she could be walking into. Weeks later, Carter would be left feeling overwhelming guilt. "I said something," she'll say. "But maybe I should've said something more." She pauses, beating back tears. "Maybe I should've never walked in that room," she says. "Maybe I should've made such a big fit that they had to listen to me." - - - Four months ago in Miami, Abbo, the infectious-disease specialist, monitored the growing crisis in Asia along with forecasts for the United States. She began working on a blueprint to respond to the pathogen. Jackson Health, one of the nation's largest hospital systems, wouldn't just need to load up on PPE, which a system spokeswoman said it did by nearly quadrupling N95 respirators between January and March and more than doubling its inventory of shoe coverings and coveralls. Employees would need extensive training on not just wearing unfamiliar equipment but how to treat the sick and comfort the dying. "We don't have to be like New York," Abbo would remember thinking as the weeks passed, the virus arrived and spread, and many hospitals there became overwhelmed. But as cases surged in the nation's largest city, health-care workers there routinely subverted instructions and followed their instincts. Often staffers in New York hospitals erred on the side of compassion - even if it put them at increased risk. One nurse described how they had been instructed not to perform certain procedures without full protective equipment because of the risk of aerosolizing the virus and infecting staff members. But when she was confronted with a patient who was talking one minute then stopped breathing in front of the emergency department doors, she said she had no time to put on additional gear. So she broke protocol and started chest compressions. EMTs, ordered not to enter homes without head-to-toe protective gear, found themselves rushing in wearing partial equipment because if a patient's heart stopped, seconds could separate life from death. One nurse would recount how a covid-19 patient's ventilator tube came loose, and without immediate action, the patient would die. With the nearest N95 masks across a hallway, the nurse held his breath, ran in and reconnected the tube. In the days before the death of Kious Kelly, a nurse at Mount Sinai West hospital in New York City, nurses posted photos of themselves on social media wrapped in trash bags because of scarce PPE. Mount Sinai has disputed that supplies were inadequate, saying the hospital system always provides "all our staff with the critically important PPE they need to safely do their job." Abbo hoped to avoid such catastrophe. But in late March, her phone rang. Her great-uncle and great-aunt were sick, their conditions deteriorating, in need of intensive care. "A stab in the heart," Abbo would say, and she made the 13-mile drive to the hospital in nine minutes before admitting the elderly couple two beds apart. Besides being a relative, Isaac Abadi had been Abbo's most exacting professor when she attended medical school in their native Venezuela. Now 84, he was still seeing rheumatology patients there before a visit to Miami in early March. When Abbo reached his bedside, Abadi maintained a clinical fascination with the virus now killing him. He researched anti-inflammatory medications and asked his niece to text him results from his own X-rays and bloodwork. Although it was unorthodox, Abbo obliged. The days passed, and as Aunt Aviva showed improvement and would be discharged, Uncle Isaac kept getting worse. Among the protocols Abbo had helped implement was a strict no-visitors policy in the hospitals' covid-19 wards. But this was her uncle, so she pulled on full protective equipment and brought food into Abadi's room. She fed him, talked to him, held his hand. "I was willing to do things that nurses may not be willing to do," Abbo says now. She prayed with her uncle and allowed him to determine his treatment plan: no dialysis, no intubation, no resuscitation. She stopped in several times a day to check on him. Abbo was afraid that if she went home, her uncle would die alone, as so many others had. "My husband, my parents, my children are asking: 'Why are you going and exposing yourself?' " she says. "I have to do what I have to do." When the end came for Abadi, he was not alone. Abbo gave her aunt a mask and brought her to a doorway to say goodbye. Then Aunt Aviva left, and Uncle Isaac's niece held his hand as he drew his last breath. When it was over, Abbo went back to work. Her mission remained, though it was now tethered to a growing sense of futility. "This is someone that I loved nearly and dearly," she says, "and not being able to save his life . . ." She trails off. "Everyone is saying, you're Wonder Woman, and calling you a superhero," she says. "And I'm like: 'No. I'm not.' " - - - A little more than a month ago, Charlene Carter waited in the Research Medical Center parking garage and could feel her heart racing. It was her first day back at work since contracting covid-19. What would happen if she walked inside and started her shift? Could she be reinfected? Would she have access to the masks and other equipment? Would she feel safe? "Things are going to be better," she'd remember telling herself. This was 11 days before Celia died of the same virus Carter had somehow beaten, though her chest still hurt and she worried about permanent lung damage. Considering that she had always identified as a nurse, Carter now felt as if her employer had not just failed her. She felt betrayed. Some of her co-workers told her that they remained frustrated. While Research Medical Center had added protective equipment, some said N95 masks and portable air purifiers were still scarce. Since Carter had been out sick, staffers now entered and left through a single set of automatic doors, the hospital restricted visitors, and workers took employees' temperature before issuing surgical masks. After Celia's death, registered nurse Caldwell would say a shift now meant wrestling with an impossible choice: stay home and guarantee her own safety, or continue the fight of her life - even if it could kill her. "A little bit of a struggle to go back every day," she'd say. In early May, Celia's family held a small funeral - 10 visitors went in as another 10 came out - and the hospital celebrated her 40th anniversary by announcing a nursing scholarship in her name and presenting her family with her stethoscope. Her husband and sons carried on talking about her in the present tense, filling a plate for her at dinner, leaving her television on the Hallmark Channel each night because that's how she liked to fall asleep. Then, a few weeks later, they filed a workers' compensation claim against the hospital, alleging that Celia had requested PPE but had been denied. (In a statement, HCA Midwest Health credited Celia's impact as a nurse and mentor, and said officials hoped for a "swift resolution" to the legal proceedings.) Sometimes her son Jhulan wonders whether, as the virus closed in, he should have insisted his mother retire, or just take time off. But Celia was Celia, and he knows what her response would've been. "It was her calling," he says. "She knew the risks and still wanted to help." On that evening in early April, Carter sat in her car and tried to stave off a panic attack. She thought of her 11-year-old daughter and briefly considered restarting the car and heading home. But she didn't, because another thought entered her mind. "This is what you do," Carter would recall telling herself, and she opened her door and passed through the garage. Her heart still pounding, her mind still wandering, she imagined what the following hours and days would be like. She wondered how 4 North would feel now; if this experience had changed her. But then she stepped forward, the automatic doors opened, and Carter took a breath and walked in. PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion said on Wednesday that St. Maarten is not treated as equal partners from the part of the Kingdom. He said that the State Secretary does not show any respect to St. Maartens Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs. Ardwell said that was the sentiment they felt during a meeting on Tuesday. Irion said it is highly unfortunate since St. Maarten being blamed for the delay in projects such as construction and projects that were undertaken by the World Bank. The Minister of Finance said St. Maarten is now stuck between a rock and hard place, he said the rock is COVID-19 while the hard place is the election slated for March 2021 in the Netherlands. In the meantime, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said she dispatched a letter to the Kingdom Council of Ministers addressing several issues. She made clear St. Maarten did not request a handout from the Dutch Government but asked for a loan. Jacobs also said that St. Maarten was not treated with respect in the meeting held on Tuesday with Raymond Knops, she said almost everything St. Maarten brought up in the meeting was disregarded. She said that her cabinet was accused of not have enough communication with the World Bank. However, Jacobs debunked the accusations and outlined some of the meetings she held with the World Bank since taking office. MIAMI, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Philip Leitman, General Manager of Suchman Retail Group (SRG), realized at the beginning of March that COVID-19 was a significant risk to health, the community, and business. Meeting with staff, he said, "This is coming, we need to be prepared. We need to be proactive to help our tenants and all staff need to be safe. Personal health comes first." Suchman Group began preparing its office for work-from-home measures in anticipation of widespread closures. The company mobilized early to offer rent payment accommodations to help get tenants through the shutdown and disruption. Its experienced staff and management team communicated early and often and continues to stay in touch with tenants about how to navigate these times. SRG also encouraged tenants to apply for PPP loans to help ease the financial burden of the shutdown. For those businesses deemed "essential" which remained open during the shutdown, SRG conducted an enhanced targeted ad campaign on social media highlighting not only its services or products but also the safety and hygiene measures it was taking to protect its customers and staff. This was supported by large banners and signs for each shopping center so passers-by could see what was open and available. As reopening started, SRG assisted tenants in obtaining a supply of surgical masks for customers who came in without one. The company is continuing this effort with signs and graphics asking everyone to wear a mask and ensuring that the stores have additional supplies. Suchman Retail Group is headed by Lawrence Suchman, who is the second generation of Suchman real estate developers living, leading and contributing to the community. "Small business is the lifeblood of our community's economy and, particularly now, it's important to support them and help keep our community thriving," he said. For more information, contact Alicia Zamorano at [email protected]. SOURCE Suchman Retail Group Related Links http://suchmangroup.com Highlights Realme India CEO has said Realme is an Indian startup. Realme launches most of its products in India first before other markets. Realme has announced to create more jobs in India by 2020-end. Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth has explicitly said that Realme is an INDIAN startup. In his latest episode of Ask Madhav series on YouTube, Sheth quelled the concerns of the company's fans who have been inquisitive about the company's history and whether it belongs to China. "I can proudly say Realme is an Indian startup, which is now a global MNC (multinational corporation)," said Sheth while replying to the question whether Realme is an Indian brand. "Realme is among the top seven smartphone brands in the world," he added while recognising the achievement of the smartphone brand in a short span of time. Contrary to Sheth's claims, Realme was spun off from Oppo and is headquartered at Shenzhen in China. The Wikipedia page of Realme shows it is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, having BBK Electronics as its parent company, that commenced its operations in 2018, beginning with India. The recent turmoil between India and China has accelerated the anti-China sentiment, which began with the perception that the country gave the deadly coronavirus to the world. Amid the #BoycottChina row, it is becoming hard for Chinese tech brands to promote their products, much less actually sell them theoretically. An army of Internet citizens showing defiance against the purchase and consumption of products, which either belong to a Chinese brand or have some sort of connotation to China, has emerged as a hurdle for tech brands. Realme, the company that spun off from the Chinese company Oppo, too has been getting the attention from the anti-China squad. Sheth said that once Realme was successful in India, it expanded to other countries in Southeast Asia, Middle-east, and Europe. He added that India alone contributes to more than 50 per cent of Realme's global sales, which is why the company launches most of its products in India first. The recently launched Realme TV, Realme Watch, and other AIoT products were introduced in India before other markets. Realme is also the first brand to have launched India's first 5G smartphone, the X50 Pro 5G. Although there is no necessary infrastructure to access 5G in India, the company argues its smartphone is future-proof. The Make in India initiative by the Indian government is followed by most of the Chinese companies, including Realme. Sheth said that the company "is in line with all the government of India initiatives" and that it procures more than 60 per cent of components required for its products from local suppliers. Adding to his statement, Sheth said all Realme smartphones are made in India and the manufacturing facility (Oppo's facility at Greater Noida) has created more than 7,500 direct jobs, which will increase to 10,000 by the end of 2020. Sheth also said the company will expand the offline presence in India with the recruitment of over 5,000 "sales promoters." "We understand the Indian users much better. We are now looking to become self-reliant in the future," said Sheth. (This story has been updated to correct the number of future jobs from 1,000 to 10,000 and add the information about Realme sourced from Wikipedia.) The COVID-19 pandemic is making this years graduation season different for Chinas 8.74 million college graduates, and the college graduates have decided to make it special. After completing online thesis defense on June 1, Ning Jiajun, a senior student from the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering under Central South University (CSU), suggested in the chat group of his class to take graduation photos online, and his suggestion sparked warm response from his classmates, who couldnt return to the campus due to the epidemic. I can draw cartoon caps and gowns and place add-ons to make the photo cuter. He Jialei, the monitor of Nings class, whos also a painting enthusiast, volunteered to join the online graduation photo service. Ning collected the headshots of all his 28 classmates and removed the background parts with an image editing software. He later pasted them to the cartoon graduation gowns drawn by He, and used photos of landmark buildings of the campus as backgrounds. In less than three days, a graduation photo album was finished, and every picture comes with a memorable background the gate of the campus, the lawn where they had the first class meeting, etc., carrying a ton of beautiful memories of their four college years. The graduation photo album will be delivered to each student to make the graduation solemn, said Fan Fan, an instructor for the graduates this year with the universitys College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Every class has designed such an album, and it includes the messages from college leaders and teachers, as well as the photos of the students have taken in the past four years, he explained. According to CSUs arrangement, the graduates will return to the campus in batches, so its difficult for them to get together before graduation, Fan said. Its a pity that we hardly have the time to get together again before we separate, said He Xianchen, a student in Nings class, while his classmate Xue Huiying noted that the smiles on their faces were the best memory of her college life. In the eyes of their instructor Yi Xiaoyi, the class was united, friendly and warming. He also sent his blessings to the students when looking at the familiar faces in the album. According to Fan, the college promised that each graduate can go back to school at any time after COVID-19 ends to take graduation photos in caps and gowns, as a way to make it up to the students who cant do it this year, and a graduation T-shirt will also be provided for each student. Besides, a graduation party, a tradition of the college, is scheduled to be held online for the students to share their joys. At present, 60 percent of the students in the class have been enrolled as postgraduates, and the rest are about to get their foot in the door. From this graduation season, we feel more care from our university and cherish more our college life and friendship, Ning said, hoping that his classmates can recall their college memories whenever they open the album. Youth is eternal, and so our friendship is, he said. You are here: Business China's tech giant Tencent announced on Tuesday that its WeChat Pay will support American Express RMB credit cards, coming soon. China's central bank on Saturday announced that it had approved an application by American Express' Chinese venture to conduct bank card clearing operations in the country. "We are pleased to be the first foreign company to receive this license. This approval represents an important step forward in our long-term growth strategy," said Stephen J. Squeri, chairman and chief executive officer of American Express. This means that Tencent Financial Technology has reached a cooperation agreement with Express (Hangzhou) Technology Services Company Limited. "Our cooperation is conducive to the more open and international development of China's payment and bank card clearing services," said Chen Qiru, vice president of Tencent Financial Technology. American Express will also carry out cooperation with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China UnionPay and Alipay. In the race across the world to test existing drugs for their effectiveness in treating COVID-19, one affordable treatment has shown promise in a recent study. In a series of U.K. trials testing possible treatments of COVID-19 the illness caused by the new coronavirus the anti-inflammatory steroid dexamethasone reduced deaths in patients on ventilators by one-third, and patients on oxygen by one-fifth, according to a press release from the University of Oxford. In the trials, which began in March, more than 2,000 patients received 6 milligrams of the drug daily for 10 days. The trials showed the drug was ineffective in treating patients who did not need respiratory intervention. Peter Horby, an expert on emerging infectious diseases at the University of Oxford and one of the lead investigators of the trial, said in a statement: Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19. This is an extremely welcome result. The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients. Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide. Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley, said this is very promising. Its relatively inexpensive, and at least limits the severe inflammation results during this sort of late stage coronavirus infection. He said one reason the drug might not have been considered earlier is during the SARS epidemic, it didnt seem to help much. Riley said the study will need to be reviewed by other experts and more studies will have to be done with a large number of people. If this is reproduced by other studies, that would make it a very encouraging, relatively inexpensive way to decrease deaths from this disease, Riley said. Melanie Ott, senior investigator for Gladstone Institutes, said the study is an important clarification of a controversial area and confirms what many doctors have already suspected. The drug suppresses inflammation and likely helps to keep the cytokine storm in the lung at bay to reduce severe outcome, she said. So-called cytokine storms are the aggressive immune responses that some doctors and scientists believe to be responsible for the extensive damage that the coronavirus can wreck in the lungs, and throughout the body. Ott noted, however, that it is important to know for which patients (dexamethasone) has a benefit and at what dose so treatment recommendations can be uniform. Experts across the world have taken to social media to comment on the studys results. Some commented that the full study needs to be released. The studys investigators said in the press release announcing their results that they are working to publish the full study as soon as possible. A Harvard epidemiologist noted in a Twitter thread that when compared to remdesivir, an antiviral that is also being tested to treat coronavirus, dexamethasone has a clear mortality benefit and is much lower in cost. Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Job Title: Office Assistant/Cleaner Organization: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) Reports to: Sr. HR & Administration Manager Job Location: Kampala, Uganda About Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) is a leader in strategic communication and research that facilitates access to information and exchange of knowledge to improve health. CCP has more than 60 projects that employ staff in more than 40 countries around the world. CCP has unparalleled experience as a global center for Social and Behavioral Change excellence. Through its projects, CCP harnesses the power of social and behavior change communication to encourage the adoption of healthy behaviors in the projects implemented worldwide. Project Background: The Social and Behavioral Change Activity (SBCA) is a five-year program implemented through a cooperative agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Uganda) and Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP). The vision of USAIDs Social and Behavioral Change Activity is a Uganda where individuals and communities are not just healthy, but resilient, supported by strong adaptable systems and institutions to lead productive lives. The SBC Activity supports the Government of Uganda (GoU) and US government (USG) implementing partners to design and implement Social and Behavioral Change (SBC) communication initiatives that contribute towards reduction in Maternal and Child mortality, Malaria prevalence, Total Fertility rate, new HIV infections, TB prevalence and improved Nutrition out comes, resilience and improved SBC systems and expertise. Job Summary: The Office Assistant/Cleaner will ensure that the office and surrounding area is clean at all times. He/she will offer administrative support as described below. Key Duties and Responsibilities: Responsible for cleaning all offices. This includes general tidiness of office furniture, mopping floor, corridors, wiping desks, arranging desk, wiping cupboards, windows, cleaning telephone receivers, dusting for cobwebs, dirt and debris, etc. Ensure that washrooms are clean and necessary supplies are available such as toilet rolls, soap, clean and toilets towels are changed and cleaned everyday as often as needed. Ensure thorough cleanliness of the kitchen area and supply the adequate supply of kitchen items daily (e.g. soap, cleaning supplies, utensils, dishware, etc.) and report any maintenance requirements or shortages immediately to the Admin Officer. Ensure sufficient drinking water is available for staff. Notify Admin Officer of the need for pest and rodent control or fumigation. Report any needed for repairs or maintenance to our buildings to the Administration department. Run errands for supplies, materials and other program and organizational needs. Use standard office equipment e.g. scanner, photocopier, printer, computer, etc. Setup and breakdown in-office meeting space e.g. arranging tables, chairs, white boards, refreshments, etc. Provide back-up reception assistance as needed including receiving and directing visitors, answering phones, receiving and distributing mail and packages, facilitate staff communications, etc. Monitor and notify the Administration department when generator fuel or Umeme requires replenishment. May be responsible for opening the office in the morning and locking after work. Qualifications, Skills and Experience: The applicant should hold an Ordinary Certificate of Education (O level). Three years experience as an office assistant or in related field. Must have organizational skills and be able to work in a team-oriented environment. Performance oriented. Able to work well under pressure. Able to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and set priorities independently. Basic written and verbal communication skills in English. Able to write clearly and help with word processing using a computer when necessary. Honest. Warm personality with strong communication skills. Ability to work well under limited supervision. Great communication skills. Experience having worked on USAID projects is an added advantage. How to Apply: All applications must be submitted using the web form at the link below Click Here For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline No new cases. Thats the news from Warren, Washington and Essex counties. Only one person is sick with coronavirus, in Washington County. Saratoga County, which has led the area in number of cases, reported just one new case Wednesday. The entire Capital Region had just seven new cases. We are in very good shape about controlling the virus in New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at Wednesdays press conference. The virus is still around: there were 567 new cases statewide on Tuesday. The state has been consistently testing about 60,000 people each day for the last week. In local testing, an average of 175 Warren County residents have been tested each day of the last week, along with an average of 193 Washington County residents, 107 Essex County residents and 498 Saratoga County residents. The region reached Phase 3 on Wednesday, but Cuomo urged local governments to step up and enforce the rules. Those include only 50% capacity inside restaurants, as well as mask-wearing in crowds, and not gathering in groups of more than 25 people. Part of the phasing is for local governments to increase capacity, Cuomo said. The phases are not just automatic. The phases are allowing the local governments to get their act together. And they have to. But that may not be happening. At a Reopening Washington County committee meeting Wednesday, Granville Supervisor Matt Hicks said hes encouraging people to follow the rules but that the rules have no teeth. Enforcement we all get that but we dont have the capacity to do anything about it, he said. Also on Wednesday: Warren County reported no new cases and no one ill. The county had 244 confirmed cases and 33 deaths. Washington County reported no new cases and three recoveries. The county had 212 confirmed cases and 13 deaths. Only one person is still ill. Saratoga County reported one more person tested positive, for a total of 523 confirmed cases. Twenty people are still ill and 17 people have died. One person is hospitalized. Essex County reported no new cases and no one ill. It had 56 cases. No one died. Glens Falls Hospital and Saratoga Hospital reported that they did not have any patients with coronavirus. Statewide, 1,479 people were hospitalized and 17 people died Tuesday, including two people who died at nursing homes. Cuomo called the numbers great news and praised the public for being willing to follow shutdown orders, wear masks and avoid crowding. We did what we had to do, my friends, and we did it together, he said. You can reach Kathleen Moore at 742-3247 or kmoore@poststar.com. Follow her on Twitter @ByKathleenMoore or at her blog on www.poststar.com. 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. UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 1, 2019 (Xinhua) -- President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Tijjani Muhammad-Bande speaks to journalists during a press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York, Oct. 1, 2019. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande on Tuesday Image Source: PK United Nations, June 17 : Voting began on Wednesday morning for the five non-permanent seats on the Security Council, one of which is assured for India with the unanimous backing of the Asian Pacific group. Delegates of the 193-member nations came to the General Assembly chamber in batches of 20 to maintain social distancing and filled in paper ballots after Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande declared the voting open at 9 am (6:30 pm IST). The results from the secret ballot are expected around 2 pm (11:30 pm IST). India is running on a platform of fighting terrorism and having a commitment to multilateralism and an equitable international system. In a campaign document, India laid out a "5S" approach of Samman (respect), Samvad (dialogue), Sahyog (cooperation) Shanti (peace) and Samriddhi (prosperity). When elected, India will begin a two-year term on the highest decision-making body of the UN on January 1 joining Vietnam as one of the two non-permanent Asian members and replacing Indonesia that will complete its tenure at the end of this year. Its election to the Security Council will come as India is entangled in a heated territorial confrontation with permanent member China, which is also the patron on Pakistan on the Council. India will step into a Council Chamber next year paralysed by the polarisation of its veto-wielding permanent members that almost harks back to the Cold War era. It will have to deftly deal with intractable issues like the Syrian civil war with international dimensions, Ukraine's disputes with Russia, the US -- or President Donald Trump's -- obsession with Iran or its fallout, and Yemen. But at least when China tries to bring up the Kashmir issue in the Council as it has done twice recently, India will be right there. Elections will also be held simultaneously for the president of the next session of the General Assembly that starts in September and for the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Volkan Bozkir, a Turkish diplomat and politician, is running unopposed for the presidency as are the 18 countries for that many vacancies on the ECOSOC. The ten non-permanent Security Council seats are distributed among five regional groups and elections are held every year for the five that fall vacant on alternate years. Mexico, which has the unanimous backing of the group for the Latin American and Caribbean, is assured of the seat. But there are contested elections for the three others. For the African seat, Djibouti is running against Kenya, which has the unanimous backing of the group. Kenya is almost certain to get the African seat with the endorsement of the continent's countries, while Djibouti is counting on a rift between the Arab and non-Arab nations in the group. Canada, Norway and Ireland are contesting the two seats allotted to the group made up of West European countries and others like Canada and Australia that do not fit in elsewhere. A two-thirds majority is required for election and additional rounds will be held if candidates don't get it the first time around. Extra rounds, which will be held on subsequent days, are likely for the West Europe and Others seats, which are very competitive. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau phoned India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to canvass New Delhi's vote for his country. Norway's Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide had a video conversation with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar last Friday. Ireland, which is led by Indian-origin Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, is not known to have contacted India in recent days to seek its vote. When elected, it will be India's eighth stint on the Council. Its last term was in 2011-12 and Hardeep Singh Puri, who was then India's Permanent Representative and now a minister, immediately planned to bid for it next term not wanting a long gap like the 19 years since the previous 1991-92 tenure. Intense diplomacy by him and his successor, Asoke Mukerji, sealed India's bid for the 2021-22 term. Afghanistan had initially expressed interest in running for the 2021-22 term but did not pursue it, leaving the field for India. The groundswell of support for India in Asia Pacific group made Pakistan and China fall in line, making it a unanimous endorsement. (Arul Louis can be reached atAarul.l@ians.in) Charleston officials have said they will defy South Carolina law and remove a statue of slavery advocate John C. Calhoun, on what marks the fifth anniversary of the massacre of black church members by a white supremacist in the state. Mayor John Tecklenburg announced Wednesday he will send a resolution to the City Council to remove the statue at Francis Marion Square 'not to erase our long and often tragic history but to begin to write a new and more equitable future.' 'We are taking this action only after careful consideration of the facts of Mr. Calhoun's life,' the mayor said. The announcement was made at a press conference on the anniversary of the 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston when gunman and white supremacist Dylann Roof stormed the iconic black church and shot dead the pastor and eight worshippers. Statues, flags and displays of Confederate or racist symbols and historical figures are being removed across America, amid widespread protests calling for an end to systemic racism following the death of black man George Floyd at the hands of a white cop in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Charleston officials have said they will defy South Carolina law and remove a statue of slavery advocate John C. Calhoun (pictured) Tecklenburg said the 100-foot tall statue, which has been in the square since 1896, will be pulled down and relocated to a local museum or educational institution. The removal of statues in South Carolina is governed by the Heritage Act, a 2000 bill that passed through the General Assembly. It requires a two-thirds vote from the state General Assembly to rename or remove monuments and to rename buildings. This is a tough task in a state where conservative Republicans dominate the House and Senate, made harder after Republican House Speaker Jay Lucas said he would never consider another change while he led the House following the removal of the Confederate flag in 2015. But Tecklenburg said the removal of the Calhoun statue isn't covered under the Heritage Act, because it is not on public property or in commemoration of one of the historical events listed in the act. Mayor John Tecklenburg announced Wednesday in a press conference (above) he will send a resolution to the City Council to remove the statue at Francis Marion Square 'not to erase our long and often tragic history but to begin to write a new and more equitable future' Mayor John Tecklenburg said the removal of the statue does not fall under the Heritage Act and the move will be put to the council 'This council before you today has the full authority to order its relocation to a setting where it can be placed in full historical context,' Tecklenburg said. 'And it will be preserved and protected in another place where the full story of history can be told.' The mayor said the move will be put before the Charleston City Council for a vote, which is expected Tuesday. It remains to be seen if Tecklenburg's interpretation of the law will be disputed. His announcement came the day after civil rights groups including the NAACP, some state lawmakers and the current pastor of Mother Emanuel gathered at the statue demanding it be taken down. Rev. Nelson Rivers III said during a press conference Tuesday at the foot of the slave advocate's image that Calhoun 'represents Dylann Roof to us'. Calhoun was the seventh US vice president between 1825 to 1832 and was a longstanding defender of slavery as well as a slave owner. In an 1836 speech before the US Senate, he said slaves in the South were better off than free blacks in the North. 'The time has come to take down the monuments to honor the evil that was done in the name of Charleston,' Rivers said. 'The time has come to not just acknowledge your racist evil wicked past. The time has come to take down the monuments that honor the evil that was done in the name of Charleston, in the name of South Carolina.' Rivers urged Charleston leaders to defy the Heritage Act - which does not include penalties for breaking it - and remove Calhoun's statue. The statue has paint thrown on it. Statues, flags and displays of Confederate or racist symbols and historical figures are being removed across America, amid widespread protests calling for an end to systemic racism following the death of black man George Floyd The Heritage Act was last invoked in 2015 after the church massacre, when officials came together to remove the Confederate flag from its site on the Statehouse lawn. Pressure has been building in recent weeks to remove Calhoun's statue along with multiple other racist and Confederate statues across the state. Clemson University trustees voted Friday to ask the General Assembly to let it change the name of Tillman Hall, a main building on campus named for 'Pitchfork' Ben Tillman. Tillman gained prominence supporting a white mob that killed four black men in 1876 after they surrendered to them. He later became South Carolina's governor and a US senator and was committed to destroying any rights black people obtained after the Civil War. 'We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be equal to the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him,' Tillman said in a 1900 congressional speech. A memorial is held outside the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015 after massacre when gunman and white supremacist Dylann Roof stormed the iconic black church and shot dead the pastor and eight worshippers. The announcement of the Calhoun statue's removal came on the fifth anniversary of the racist attack The president of the University of South Carolina also wants lawmakers to let the school remove the name of J. Marion Sims from a women's dorm. Sims is honored as the father of modern gynecology, but conducted experimental treatment on slaves without anesthesia. Sims and Tillman also have statues on the Statehouse lawn. Some African American lawmakers want plaques added, explaining their racist view while others, like Rep. Justin Bamberg, want the figures gone altogether. 'I dont like seeing 'Pitchfork' Ben Tillman every dang day I go to the Statehouse,' the Democrat said. 'He boldly and proudly supported lynching my people.' Several officials and institutions across America have pledged to remove racist and Confederate statues and symbols in the wake of Floyd's death and amid mounting calls for an end to systemic racism. California officials announced Tuesday that a Christopher Columbus statue will be removed from the state capitol, saying the presence of the 'deeply polarizing historical figure' is 'completely out of place today'. The new pastor of the Emanuel AME Church Rev. Nelson Rivers III said Calhoun 'represents Dylann Roof to us' Officials in several other states including Virginia, Alabama and Florida have backed the removal of other Confederate statues while the US Navy and US Marine Corps have both banned Confederate flags from public places. Meanwhile, in some cases, protesters have taken matters into their own hands and toppled monuments linked to the Confederacy and slavery. A statue of Thomas Jefferson outside an Oregon high school named after him was toppled by a group of protesters during a demonstration this weekend. There are still 776 Confederate monuments across the US, according to Southern Poverty Law Center. The removal of the figures has fallen along political lines, with the Democrats welcoming the move while the Republicans have voiced anger. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week said it was the 'perfect time' to rid Capitol Hill of the 11 remaining Confederate statues on display, saying they 'pay homage to hate, not heritage.' However, Republican lawmakers have pushed back, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel blasting what he called attempts to 'airbrush' history and saying he was only open to renaming military bases named after Confederate leaders but not removing Confederate statues. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: Uzbekistan and Finland are considering expanding bilateral cooperation in economic and cultural spheres, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan. The fourth meeting of the Uzbek-Finnish Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation was held via videoconference on June 16. The meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov and Minister of Development and Foreign Trade of Finland Ville Skinnari. During the meeting, the current state and prospects of development of bilateral relations in the sphere of investment, trade-economic, financial-technical and cultural-humanitarian interaction were analyzed and priority tasks for the near future were defined. During the videoconference, review of economic situation in Uzbekistan and Finland was conducted, on the basis of which, the main guidelines in further development of trade-economic and investment cooperation between the two countries was identified. The investment area is generally viewed as having significant potential in such areas as information and communications technology, pharmaceuticals, fish farming, agriculture and innovation. In this regard, the heads of the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade and relevant sectoral agencies from the Uzbek side, as well as the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Employment and the Economy, relevant agencies and organizations of Finland to promote trade, business and innovation (Business Finland, Finnpartnership), the leading Finnish manufacturers (Nokia), as well as the chambers of commerce and industry of the two countries, provided detailed information on potential areas and initiatives of cooperation between the business communities of the two countries. The positive trend in financial and technical cooperation was highlighted - the Government of Finland was thanked for contributing 1 million euros to the UN Trust Fund for Human Security for the Aral Sea Region. At the end of the meeting, key agreements were reached, which clearly and consistently define the areas of direct cooperation, as well as specific projects and initiatives to be implemented, forming the basis for long-term cooperation. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that struck down a Trump administration rule that required pharmaceutical companies to include the wholesale prices of their drugs in television advertisements. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of Merck & Co. Inc., Eli Lilly and Co. and Amgen Inc. and said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) lacked authority to establish the rule. Because there is no reasoned statutory basis for its far-flung reach and misaligned obligations, the disclosure rule is invalid and is hereby set aside, U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett wrote for the three-judge panel. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The administration could either ask the full appellate court to rehear the case or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take it up. Alex Azar, HHS secretary, had announced the rule in May 2019, saying that forcing drugmakers to disclose their prices in direct-to-consumer TV advertising could help drive down drug costs if the companies were embarrassed by them. HHS has said its power to establish regulations to administer Medicare and Medicaid gives it the authority to issue the rule to ensure Americans are aware of drugs prices, potentially reducing the $450 billion annually spent on drugs under the programs. The drugmakers sued, arguing that disclosing so-called list prices would mislead consumers, who with insurance and discounts would never pay that price, into wrongly believing the amount they would have to pay for medications is higher than reality. A federal judge in July 2019 struck the rule down. The appeals court said on Tuesday that HHS acted unreasonably in construing its regulatory authority in imposing the disclosure requirement related to drug pricing. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Shivani Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) Topics Trends USA Pricing Trends Drugs Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge didnt get to know each other until they both attended the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 2001. But the social circles run deep among the United Kingdoms most elite families, and while Kate wasnt nearly of the same status as her husband was growing up, it turns out the two had a surprising connection before they were even born. Prince William and Kate Middleton | Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images Kate Middletons parents werent quite on the same level as the royal family Growing up, Kate came from a fairly modest background, though her parents wealth changed quite a bit when she started dating the prince. Carole and Michael Middleton run an online party supply company called Party Pieces, which started as a Caroles business venture out of the family home. Although the Middletons were wealthy on their own, Kates relationship with William did wonders for her parents business. These days, the Middletons have built the company to be worth an estimated $50 million, which explains how they were able to foot the bill for Kates lavish $400,000 wedding dress. Kate Middleton with her parents, Michael and Carole | Pool Photograph/Corbis/Getty Images RELATED: Kate Middleton Was Brutally Mocked in the Press After She Got Engaged to Prince William William and Kate reportedly shared some friends growing up Though Kate and William didnt technically run in the same social circle, there were rumors that they had actually met prior to attending St. Andrews. According to royal biographer Katie Nicholl, William and Kate met through mutual friends prior to attending university. I was speaking to some of her friends at Marlborough school, which was where she went before St. Andrews. They said, nuh-uh, she didnt meet him at St. Andrews. She met him before she got there, Nicholl revealed. And her friends think the duchess might have had an ulterior motive when she chose to attend St. Andrews. It turns out the couples grandfathers were surprisingly close Though William and Kate werent technically friends until they met in college, they have a surprisingly close connection that dates all the way back to 1962 years before the two were born. According to Express, Prince Philip and Kates paternal grandfather, Captain Peter Middleton, were actually quite close. Peter co-piloted nearly 50 of Prince Philips flights through the years. Express also revealed that Peter accompanied Philip on his royal tour of South Africa back in 1962. Unfortunately, Peter died in 2010, shortly before he was able to see his granddaughter marry the prince. William and Kate have been together since 2001 and share three kids. | Chris Jackson/Pool/Getty Images RELATED: Prince William and Kate Middletons Bodyguards Use 1 Phrase to Warn Them of Imminent Danger There were rumors that Kate had always planned to marry William Though Kate and William supposedly met naturally at school, some of Kates friends have suggested she always had a plan to end up with the prince. Originally, Kate was supposed to attend University of Edinburgh, but she ended up taking a gap year, and upon learning that Prince William had enrolled at St. Andrews, she opted to attend that school instead with the hopes of meeting the prince and starting a romance. Its unclear if the rumors are true Kate might have simply realized that Edinburgh wasnt for her. Still, does it matter how the two got together? Theyre clearly very much in love, and were obsessed with them, so if they are happy, were happy. Obituary: Millward Brown Co-founder Gordon Brown Gordon Brown, the co-founder of Millward Brown, died peacefully at his home in the UK on Saturday 6th June, after a short battle with dementia. He was 76 years old. Brown (pictured) started life as a would-be Physicist at Oxford, but switched to PPE before joining the VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) to teach Physics and Chemistry in Nigeria. After this, in 1967, he took up a position as a market research trainee at Marplan, then spent a short spell at ASL, and in 1969 moved to the Research Department of General Foods, where as Research Manager he worked alongside Maurice Millward. Four years later, the pair founded what was to become advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research specialist Millward Brown, based in the Midlands town of Leamington Spa. Millward described the firm's early objective as being to provide clients with information to allow them to make the correct marketing and management decisions; while Brown said the fundamental belief of the company was that techniques and technology should be regarded as adjuncts to thinking, not as substitutes for it. As the company developed, Millward focused on the operational side of the business, finding practical solutions to sampling and technical problems, while Brown concentrated on the company's intellectual developments. Three years after launch, the company set up its first continuous tracking study, Dynamic Tracking, for client Cadbury Schweppes. The methodology was designed to enable brands to trace how consumer perceptions and awareness impact their goals, and provide an indication of a brand's future financial success by linking survey responses to sales. In his book: The Global Brand, Nigel Hollis (now Kantar's Chief Global Brand Analyst) said that Brown's quantitative approach to ad assessment represented an enormous challenge to the conventional wisdom of the time which believed that consumers were highly involved with advertising. Brown said that they weren't, which led to intellectual confrontation between Millward Brown and several London ad agencies. Brown went on to publish 'Advertising Tracking Studies and Sales Effects', and then introduced The Awareness Index in his paper: 'Modelling Advertising Awareness'. This index became a widely used metric for measuring an ad's efficiency in generating awareness. Then in 1988, Brown and Hollis developed ad copy testing solution Link, which uses a set of evaluative and diagnostic questions to predict the impact of an ad, in terms of both the attention it will generate and the sales that will result. Hollis says that in addition to Link, many underlying components of Kantar's current solutions derive from Brown's fertile mind, including trending attitudinal data against marketing spend, modelling ad awareness, and image profiling. Recognising the huge potential the US had to offer the business, Brown secured speaking engagements at the Advertising Research Foundation in New York, and then began introducing tracking studies in the US, run out of the UK. It soon became evident that Millward Brown needed a field force in the US, and in 1985 the firm was floated on the UK Unlisted Securities Market, raising the funds needed to acquire US-based Ad Factors the following year. Millward Brown then expanded to Europe, where it was led by Tony Copeland. In 1989, Millward and Brown sold their company to communications giant WPP, and Brown continued to play an active role in the business, publishing a paper - fondly known within Millward Brown as 'The Black Book' - which outlines the way that advertising affects sales. He then turned his focus to print advertising, and together with Gordon Pincott, conducted a series of experiments and tailored studies to prove that the medium was as effective as TV. Millward retired in 1992 to pursue a number of interests, including a passion for music; and Brown followed him two years later to spend nearly half a decade sailing around the world with his wife Jackie. Brown frequently invited people from Millward Brown to join him for a long weekend of sailing. Whether these involved a trip to France, the Channel Islands or simply along the coast of England, the excursions were invariably eventful. For instance, an alarm clock set an hour too late resulted in a near grounding on Salcombe Bar; while forgetting the huge tidal range of the Channel Islands, left Brown's yacht, The Zodiac, hanging thirty feet down from the harbour wall. Throughout his life, Brown, a Methodist, enjoyed church music - having learned to play a traditional pipe organ at the age of fifteen. According to Jackie, wherever he lived, Brown would find an organ to play for church services, create ad hoc choirs for special events, and generally play a full part in various aspects of church life. Hollis says that when he thinks of Gordon Brown, the term 'an enquiring mind' best describes him. 'He had an insatiable curiosity about many things and a willingness to follow through on his ideas, to explore, experiment and create something new'. Hollis explains. 'It was Gordon's willingness to ask questions and promote his theories that helped inspire many of us who worked for Millward Brown at the time. But perhaps his biggest legacy is the inspiration that he provided for all the people that worked with him, which still lives on'. Several years after retirement, Brown and his wife returned to visit some of the company's US offices and told former colleagues about the time when he was invited to a lunch with client Unilever. During the meal, his hosts announced that while they loved what Millward Brown had to offer, as a global company, they needed the same research worldwide, servicing a minimum of 28 countries to start. According to Brown, it was an ultimatum that could not be refused, no matter the risk involved. Brown is survived by his wife, their son and daughter and five grandchildren. Jackie says that Brown was deeply proud of his family, and it's fitting that he was able to spend the last days of his life in their company. The family will hold a memorial service at some point in the future. Swimmers, surfers, fishermen and beach users are advised to be careful following an increased number of reports of weever fish on Donegal beaches. This little sand-coloured fish lives on beaches and can cause reactions ranging from painful swelling to anaphylactic shock for anybody unfortunate enough to stand on one. The weever fish grows to around 15 centimetres and spends most of the time buried under the sand with just its venomous black dorsal fin showing. The mouth is in an unusual position on its head, oblique and almost vertical and contains sharp teeth. Roger Sweeney of Water Safety Ireland told the Donegal Post: They are found all around the Irish coast but only in sandy areas where the water is warm and shallow close to the mean low water tide line. A typical scenario that brings them to attention is when there is a new moon which gives us higher and lower spring tides which means that swimmers and surfers have to venture further out on the beach into the area where the weever fish live. We advise the public to avoid swimming approximately one hour either side of low water to reduce the risk of stepping on them. People can also wear flip flops or sandals when walking on the beach close to low water. Should a bather step on a weever fish then the result can be painful as the spines embed into the skin and discharge their poison. The pain is at its most intense for the first two hours at which point the foot normally goes red and swells up. It may feel numb until the following day with irritation and pain that can last for up to two weeks. Sometimes the spine breaks off in the foot and it will cause discomfort until it is removed. Mr Sweeney said: You won't see a Weever fish easily but you will know it's there if you are unfortunate enough to stand on one since its back has this defensive sting mechanism. Although the sting can be very painful, it will not cause permanent damage. However, some people can suffer more severe reactions. One danger is that it can cause anaphylactic shock or allergic reaction to those who are very vulnerable in this respect, said Mr Sweeney. People who have been stung could take painkillers and if they develop an allergic reaction to the sting, a course of antihistamines is recommended. People can also seek assistance from a lifeguard who are all qualified first aiders. If you are away from a beach with lifeguard support, as soon as possible get the area which has been stung, invariably the foot, into hot water. This increases the blood flow which assists natural cleaning and healing and the heat also helps to break down the poison. The water needs to be over 40C to be of any benefit in breaking down the poison. Most reports of weever fish stings occur during the month of August although this does not mean that this fish is particularly prevalent during this month. It merely reflects the greater numbers of bathers as the sea temperature reaches the highest of the year. The only death on record after someone was stung by a Weever occurred back in 1927 when an angler suffered multiple stings whilst fishing off Dungeness in the UK. Read next: Donegal beach goers warned of risk of drowning and advised how to safely help someone in difficulty A Samsung Electronics engineer inspects the semiconductor production line. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics By Kim Hyun-bin The United States and China have increased their subsidies to semiconductor companies in recent years hoping to gain a global competitive edge amid their ongoing trade war. The provision of the subsidies is raising concerns in South Korea as they could have a negative impact on the local semiconductor industry, which has "little government support." The semiconductor industry is one of South Korea's backbone industries. Some industry watchers believe the subsidies do bring about a competitive edge in both the domestic and global markets. They say the payments could be in violation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Subsidies Agreement, as they could distort international trade and hurt other countries trade operations. The WTO states, a subsidy granted by a WTO member country is prohibited by the Subsidies Agreement if it is contingent, in law or in fact, on export performance, or in the use of domestic over imported goods. According to the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), South Korea's Samsung and SK hynix had a 14 percent market share in the global semiconductor sector in 2010; however, gradually increased to 19 percent last year. In the same period, the U.S. maintained a 45 percent market share, while China increased its market share to 5 percent by 2019 from less than 2 percent in 2010. Many experts believe Chinese companies' steep increase in market share is thanks to government subsidies provided to them. Among 21 major semiconductor companies, three out of the top five companies that received the most government subsidies between 2014 and 2018 were Chinese companies. As a ratio to total sales, SMIC received 6.6 percent in subsidies, Hua Hong Semiconductor received 5 percent and Tsinghua Unigroup, 4 percent. U.S. firms such as Micron received 3.8 percent, Qualcomm got 3 percent and Intel, 2.2 percent in the form of tax exemptions and research and development support. The state issued subsidies are significant compared to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which only received 0.8 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping's drive to rapidly grow the display and semiconductor industries, Chinese semiconductor companies backed by subsidies are eyeing more acquisitions for external growth. According to recent OECD statistics, these firms, which only conducted four M&As in 2014, initiated 29 between 2015 to 2018. The global M&A turnover in the semiconductor sector was worth $10 billion in 2012 to 2014, but that number grew to $59.6 billion in 2016, as more Chinese companies actively pursued M&As to obtain key technologies to fuel future growth. Many experts believe with the continuous government support it will only be a matter of time until Chinese firms move ahead of Korean companies and emphasized it was imperative for the government here to provide subsidies to better enhance their competitiveness. "It is predicted that the semiconductor industry will face even fiercer global competition in the near future," a senior FKI member said. "Korean firms face not only the U.S.-China trade war but Japan's export regulations, so to better aid local companies the government needs to provide subsidies for R&D, as well as tax breaks and policies that better back local firms." Kundan Kumar Ojha, a trooper in the Bihar Regiment who was among 20 soldiers killed in a clash with Chinese troops in Ladkahs Galwan valley, had become a father barely a fortnight ago and was planning to go home to see his baby girl in Jharkahnd. Family members said Kundan spoke to them last when his daughter Diksha was born. Also read: Ladakh clash evokes memories of Chinas brutal killing of Soviet troops in 1969 He became a father only 17-18 days back. He promised his wife Namita Devi that once tension along the India-China border eased, he would come to see Diksha soon after. But that day will never come. His wish to see his daughter will never be fulfilled, Mukesh Ojha, the grieving elder brother of Kundan said over the phone. Kundan who hailed from Dihari village in Sahebganj district 440 km from the state capital Ranchi, had joined the Army in 2011. Kundan got married in 2018. His wife is inconsolable, Mukesh said. Kundans father Ravi Shankar Ojha is a farmer and mother Bhawani Devi is a housewife. Devi had three children and Kundan was their second child. Despite their grief, the family is proud of his sacrifice. Also Read: PM Modi calls all-party meeting on June 19 to discuss India-China border situation We are proud of our brother, who laid his life for the country. If required, my 23-year-old younger brother Kanhiya Kumar and I would also join Indian Army and fight with the enemy on the border till our last breath, Mukesh said. The family wants Kundans body to be brought to their village as early as possible. We are getting no information from the district administration regarding when the body would be sent. We called contacts in Kundans battalion but could not receive any information in this regard, Kundans elder brother said. Sahibganj superintendent of police (SP), Anuranjan Kispotta said they are expecting official correspondence about the bodys arrival by the evening. We have received the news regarding the death of the Jawan. But, official correspondence in this regard is still awaited from the unit (Army). We are expecting the correspondence by this evening. Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren also paid homage to the fallen soldier. Giving a befitting reply to the Chinese encroachment, the brave son of Jharkhand Kundan was martyred, he tweeted. Amid the escalating tension on India-China border, the Jharkhand government on Tuesday cancelled the special train, scheduled to carry 1,600 labourers from Dumka for road construction projects of the Border Road Organization (BRO) in Ladakh. Earlier, a train with labourers left on June 13 and more trains were scheduled in the next few days carrying more workers for road projects in Ladakh. Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk's interview to Armenian News - NEWS.am. Due to the pandemic, field work and monitoring have been stopped. Does this mean a pause in the work of your Office, or does work continue in a different format? Say, in the form of online communication with the parties? What kind of work are your field assistants doing locally? As you may remember, after consultations with the OSCE Chairmanship, the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the sides, I announced on 18 March that my Office was temporarily suspending monitoring activities. This followed the closure of international borders in the region and the introduction of movement restrictions for visitors to military units. In addition, the Office was strictly observing all of the measures introduced by the authorities without exception. For this reason, my staff and I have also suspended all face-to-face meetings with our interlocutors. Apart from the monitoring activities and face-to-face meetings, the work of my Office continues. Like many other organisations in this situation, we rely on video conferences and other technical means to keep communication lines open. We continue to follow the situation on the ground, maintaining contact with interlocutors and reporting to the OSCE Chairmanship and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, as well as to OSCE participating States. I am planning for the resumption of our activities in full as soon as the situation allows. Meanwhile, the Office is also using the time to strengthen internal processes. As you can appreciate, it is not possible for me at the moment to pay visits to the locations covered by my mandate. However, I maintain constant telephone contact with the authorities at the highest military and civilian levels. I also participate in telephone conferences convened regularly by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs. I can say that in spite of these constraints, I have continued to be busy these past few months! After returning to the full-scale field work, will your Office catch up on any monitoring that should have taken place but did not because of the lockdown? My Office is prepared to resume full scale monitoring activates swiftly as soon as circumstances allow. At present, according to the parties, the relative lull, however, is sometimes broken by skirmishes and attempts at sabotage. Do you think the parties have sufficiently heeded the call of the UN Secretary General to refrain from actions during the pandemic? The parties have commented extensively on this issue. I dont have anything further to add except to note that the appeal of the UN Secretary General was echoed by the OSCE Secretary General and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs. What about expanding your Office? To recall, at the summits in Vienna and St Petersburg in 2016, an idea of expanding my Office was accepted in principle. The modalities related to this expansion still need to be agreed upon. Despite some lull, the issue of incident investigation does not lose its relevance. Are the parties moving forward on this issue? In the event of an incident, do the parties inform the OSCE about the incident? Whenever there is an incident, I am in contact with the sides and inform the OSCE Chairmanship and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs. It is important to remember that I do not have the mandate to conduct investigations. Last year, a small step was taken - Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged groups of journalists who visited countries on study tours. How do you assess this initiative? Support for confidence-building measures is an important part of my mandate. I hope that people-to-people contacts can help to build trust and repair relations. I remain committed to assist in developing further confidence-building measures upon the request of the sides and when the situation related to COVID-19 will allow for it. Given your tremendous experience and knowledge of the specifics of this conflict, what measures could you mark as steps to establish an atmosphere of trust? I can only encourage and assist the sides in developing confidence-building measures when they agree to do so. I remain in touch with the OSCE Chairmanship and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to offer support for the development of specific confidence-building measures. There can be many kinds of these measures in different spheres, for example military, people-to-people, humanitarian, or economic. Even as the world mourns his loss, the team of Sushant Singh Rajput has launched a website in his memory. Sushant died by suicide on Sunday and his team has decided to collate all the positive views, thoughts and memories of the late actor best known. Sushant was best known for films such as Kai Po Che, Chhichhore and MS Dhoni The Untold Story, among a few others. The description on the website says, Sushant Singh Rajput was an Indian actor, dancer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. #SelfMusing was his passion. As promised to him, this is a space having all his thoughts, learnings, and wishes he always wanted people to know. We are in the process of documenting all the positive energies he has left behind in this world. Bollywood is just 20% of Sushant, using this space, we will try our best to finish his book. This space will ensure that he is #AlwaysAlive with us & give positive inspiration to his Godfathers, Aka You. It shows various one-line pieces of wisdom that seem to be thoughts that Sushant wanted to share with the world. He is away but he is still alive with us. Kickstarting #SelfMusing mode https://selfmusing.com/ Fans like you were real godfather for Sushant. As promised to him, converting this space into a collection of all his thoughts, learnings, dreams, and wishes, he always wanted people to know. Yes, we are documenting all the positive energies he has left behind in this world. #AlwaysAlive #BestofSSR, a Facebook post read as the team shared the URL for the website. He is away but he is still alive with us. Kickstarting #SelfMusing mode https://selfmusing.com/Fans like you were... Posted by Sushant Singh Rajput on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 The last post on his Facebook page, which Sushant made in December last year, said, My mantra for travelling is simple - Eat. Stay. Explore. Repeat! Right from exploring the local tourist attractions and cuisines to experiencing the culture from a closer lens, it was all just perfect! My mantra for travelling is simple - Eat. Stay. Explore. Repeat! Right from exploring the local tourist attractions and... Posted by Sushant Singh Rajput on Friday, December 27, 2019 Sushant was found dead in his Mumbai residence on Sunday. Sushants team had issued a statement which said, It pains us to share that Sushant Singh Rajput is no longer with us. We request his fans to keep him in their thoughts and celebrate his life, and his work like they have done so far. We request media to help us maintain privacy at this moment of grief. Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput death: Ekta Kapoor says beyond upset after abetment case filed against her, Salman Khan in Bihar Last seen in Netflix film Drive opposite Jacqueline Fernandez, Sushant also appeared in critically acclaimed film Chhichhore that released last year. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Demonstrators in Washington, D.C. recently covered a large temporary fence in front of the White House with signs, paintings and pictures. The art appeared during protests against the killing of George Floyd. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after being arrested by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The incident has caused unrest nationwide. Many of the objects and pieces of art were hung in memory of black men, women and children who have lost their lives in violence linked to police actions. Now, those tributes are being collected for a more permanent home at the Smithsonian Institution. The tall, temporary fence was not the only place where artwork has appeared. In central Washington, office buildings and windows of restaurants that normally appeal to business leaders have been covered with plywood. The strong, thin material was meant to protect against property damage that took place in the city earlier this month. Local artists soon began using the plywood as a surface for paintings and messages. Levi Robinson is one of those artists. One of his pieces appears on the boarded-up window of a restaurant in Black Lives Matter Plaza, a recently-renamed area near the White House. He described the artwork to Reuters reporters: I decided to show black medics who serve in the military after speaking with some examples who were on site handing out water." He said the medics "began to tell me their stories. Aaron Bryant is a photography and social protest historian at the African American History and Culture Museum. The museum is one of several that makeup the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Bryant is leading the team of museum workers collecting plywood paintings, signs and objects that will one day represent this moment in history. He said protest artwork of the 1960s civil rights period were often made by professional artists. This moments artwork, he said, is different. Today, people are making signs by hand and running out of the door," Bryant said. "There is more diversity in the signs you see." He added, Its hard to talk about this moments artwork with one common denominator, but what I see is this idea of humanity and community. People coming together to make...messages that will last for generations. The Washington-based P.A.I.N.T.S Institute helped organize 42 artists and volunteers to design murals in Black Lives Matter Plaza. The murals show black men and women. Some are wearing face masks. The murals have words like Let Us Breathe and God is Love. Jemn Napper is a first-time public mural artist. She said she hopes her downtown Washington pieces help people understand that even though we may have our differences, we can all play a part to come together and create change. Im Ashley Thompson. Katanga Johnson reported this story for Reuters. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story tribute n. something that you say, give, or do to show respect or affection for someone boarded-up adj. related to covering or closing (something) with pieces of wood medic n. a person who does medical work on site adv. at the place where a business or activity happens moment n. a very short period of time common denominator n. something (such as a feature or quality) that is shared by all the members of a group of people or things mural n. a usually large painting that is done directly on the surface of a wall US Supreme Court Halts Texas Execution Over Clergy Question HOUSTONThe U.S. Supreme Court granted a reprieve on June 16 to a Texas inmate scheduled to die for fatally stabbing an 85-year-old woman more than two decades ago, continuing a more than four-month delay of executions in the nations busiest death penalty state during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. The justices blocked Ruben Gutierrezs execution about an hour before he could have been executed. Gutierrezs attorneys had argued his religious rights are being violated because the prison system wont allow a chaplain to accompany him in the death chamber. The Texas prison system last year banned clergy from the death chamber following a Supreme Court ruling that halted the execution of another inmate, Patrick Murphy, who had requested a Buddhist adviser be allowed in the chamber. In response to the ruling in Murphys case, the Texas prison system changed its policy, only allowing prison security staff into the execution chamber. As a devout Catholic, Mr. Gutierrezs faith requires the assistance of clergy to help him pass from life into afterlife. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice changed its policy for its own convenience, but spiritual comfort at the time of death is not a convenience; its a protected legal right, Shawn Nolan, one of Mr. Gutierrezs attorneys, said after the stay was granted. The Supreme Court said it granted the stay pending a ruling by the high court on Gutierrezs petition on the issue of whether to allow a spiritual adviser to accompany him in the death chamber. A decision on the petition was expected at a later date. The Supreme Court said if it were to rule in favor of Gutierrez, it would ask a lower court to determine, based on whatever evidence the parties provide, whether serious security problems would result if a prisoner facing execution is permitted to choose the spiritual adviser the prisoner wishes to have in his immediate presence during the execution. A trial in Houston federal court on Murphys case and whether his religious rights were violated is also still pending. Prosecutors said Gutierrez, 43, was attempting to steal more than $600,000 that Escolastica Harrison had hidden in her home in Brownsville, located in Texas southern tip, when he killed her in 1998. If Gutierrezs execution had been carried out, he would have been the first inmate in Texas to receive a lethal injection since Feb. 6 and the second U.S. inmate to be put to death since states began to reopen after the pandemic shut down much of the United States. After the country began to reopen, Missouri resumed executions on May 19. Six executions scheduled in Texas earlier this year were postponed by an appeals court or judges because of the outbreak. A seventh was delayed over claims of intellectual disability. Gutierrezs attorneys had also sought a CCP virus-related delay but were turned down Friday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. While the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continues to increase in Texas, state prison officials said they put safety measures in place to help executions go forward, including taking the temperatures of participants and providing them with personal protection equipment. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday had overturned a stay in the case tied to Gutierrezs request for DNA testing he says could point to the real killer and his claims his religious rights are being violated. The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops filed a brief with the high court in support of Gutierrez. To deny a prisoner facing imminent execution access to spiritual and religious guidance and accompaniment is cruel and inhuman, said Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville. Gutierrez has long maintained he didnt kill Harrison. His attorneys say theres no physical or forensic evidence connecting him to the killing. Two others were also charged in the case. The state has fought such (DNA) testing at every turn, but surely the public interest would be best served by allowing DNA testing while the (Supreme Court) considers Mr. Gutierrezs case, in order to prevent a wrongful execution in the future, Nolan said. Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison, a mobile home park manager, and retired teacher, so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison had a mistrust of banks and hid her money underneath a false floor in her bedroom closet. Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz said he was disappointed the Supreme Court delayed the execution as the victims family has once again been denied justice. As a prosecutor, this changes nothing. It only delays his ultimate fate, Saenz said in a statement. Prosecutors have said the request for DNA testing is a ruse and Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession. Gutierrez would have been the third inmate put to death this year in Texas and the seventh in the United States. By Juan A. Lozano Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. One of the most-loved and celebrated bookstores in America has reopened its doors for in-store business today after teetering on the brink of permanent closure. After shuttering its doors in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, the illustrious bookstore and publishing house said in April that it was "faced with formidable challenges" with cash reserves dwindling, and were facing the fact that they may never reopen after seven decades in business. However, the store's patrons, poets, fans and writers leapt to the bookstore's aid and raised half a million dollars via a GoFundMe campaign, that saw a staggering $365,000 dollars donated in a single day. An announcement from the store on Tuesday celebrated the news: "We are thrilled to report that City Lights Bookstore is OPEN for BUSINESS!...our shelves are now stocked with all the best new releases, as well as an erudite selection of titles always housed here. Weve changed our Entrance to doors up the street to accommodate one-way traffic in/out of the bookstore." Writer, poet, social activist and North Beach centenarian Lawrence Ferlinghetti founded City Lights in 1953 with a $500 investment in a tiny storefront near the intersection of Broadway and Columbus. Over the years the store grew in size and stature and its much storied history includes the controversial publication of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" in 1956 which led to the store being raided by police and the arrest of the store manager on the charge of selling obscene literature. City Lights has always been at the forefront of political change and the reopening comes in a time of when 15 out 20 books on the Amazon bestsellers are about race. The North Beach store has created an "Antiracist" section near the entrance and instituted social distancing protocols, per the store's statement. "When you enter youll find our new Antiracist section, a vast selection of new fiction and non-fiction titles, and a wall devoted to books published by City Lights itself. Per San Francisco regulations, everyone will be required to wear a face mask while in the bookstore. Hand sanitizer is available throughout the store, and well be limiting the number of people allowed inside in order to accommodate social distancing protocols." MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here. Andrew Chamings is a digital editor at SFGATE. Email: Andrew.Chamings@sfgate.com | Twitter: @AndrewChamings Moscow says U.S. Air Force planes have escorted four Russian nuclear-capable bombers as they patrolled an area close to the Bering Strait that divides Russia's Chukotka Peninsula and the state of Alaska. Russia's Defense Ministry said on June 17 that the United States had scrambled F-22 fighters to escort the four Russian strategic TU-95MS bombers, which were over international waters around Chukotka, the Bering Strait, and the Sea of Okhotsk. "At certain stages of the route, Russian planes were escorted by the U.S. Air Force F-22 fighters, " the ministry said, adding that the patrol flight lasted for about 11 hours. On June 10, the U.S. air-defense command said its fighter jets intercepted Russian jets and bombers twice off the coast of Alaska. A month earlier, the U.S. Navy said two Russian Su-35 fighter jets flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner while intercepting a U.S. Navy P-8A maritime patrol aircraft over international waters in the eastern Mediterranean. Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax New Delhi, June 17 : The five-star hotels connected to hospitals in the national capital can provide services including rooms, housekeeping, disinfection and food at the price not greater than Rs 5,000 per Covid-19 patient per day. On June 10, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had informed Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal that five and four-star hotels have been linked to big hospitals with an upper price cap of Rs 10,000 per day per bed. Eight hotels have been converted into extended Covid-19 facilities in a bid to ramp up the number of beds for patients amid a spurt in infections. The hotels would provide beds, housekeeping, food as well as medical services. In an order, Health and Family Welfare Secretary Padmini Singla said, "The hotel shall provide hotel services including rooms, housekeeping, disinfection and food for the patients at the price not greater than Rs 5,000 for five-star hotels and Rs 4,000 for four and three-star hotels per day per person." The linked hospitals should be paid an amount, not greater than Rs 5,000 per patient per day for their medical services to Covid-19 patients, inclusive of all consumables, services of doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and nursing staff etc., as per the norms. However, investigation charges, if any, shall be charged by the linked hospital as per scheduled rates, and for oxygen support, the linked hospital is allowed to charge at Rs 2,000 per bed per day basis, the order said. The medical services provided by the attached hospital at their facility will be charged at their respective scheduled rates, the order said. All charges shall be collected by the linked hospital, which makes payment to the hotel, it had stated. Further, the linked hospital may accommodate their doctors and staff at the hotel at their own expense, if required, the order added. Rooms in the luxury Taj Mansingh Hotel in Lutyens' Delhi will be placed at the disposal of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) for using it as an attached Covid-19 facility. Apart from Taj Mansingh, the Delhi government has also converted five other hotels into temporary medical stations and they have been attached with various hospitals in the national capital. Hotel Crowne Plaza is attached to Batra Hospital, Hotel Surya to Holy Family Hospital, Hotel Siddharth to B.L. Kapoor Hospital, Hotel Jivitesh to Sir Ganga Ram City Hospital and Hotel Sheraton has been attached to Max Super Specialty Hospital. Hotels-hospitals are being attached after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the number of Covid-19 cases is likely to touch 5.5 lakh in the national capital by the end of July and there would be a need of 80,000 beds in Delhi. WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors in Maryland are asking a judge for more time to prepare the "complex case" against three men, including a former Canadian Forces reservist, at the centre of an alleged white-supremacist plot to trigger a race war in the United States. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors in Maryland are asking a judge for more time to prepare the "complex case" against three men, including a former Canadian Forces reservist, at the centre of an alleged white-supremacist plot to trigger a race war in the United States. Patrik Mathews, a former combat engineer, vanished from Beausejour, Man., last year following media reports alleging he was a recruiter for The Base, a white-supremacist group with growing notoriety in the U.S. and around the world. Master Cpl. Patrik Mathews, is shown in this undated RCMP handout. Federal prosecutors and lawyers for a former Canadian Forces reservist and two other men at the centre of an alleged white-supremacist plot to trigger a U.S. race war say they need more time to build their cases. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP He's been in custody in Maryland since January, along with two other alleged co-conspirators, Brian Lemley Jr. and William Bilbrough, after the trio were arrested as part of a broader FBI investigation of The Base. Lawyers for all three have signed off on a federal petition to the Maryland District Court to give them until Aug. 31 to complete their pretrial work, which they say has been slowed by the COVID-19 outbreak. It's the second such request for an extension an exemption, essentially, from a U.S. law known as the Speedy Trial Act that requires a trial to begin within 70 days of indictment. The first delay, granted in March, set an initial deadline of June 12. "The government is diligently working with defence counsel to provide discovery as quickly as possible, while respecting appropriate discovery protections," reads the motion filed with the court earlier this week, referring to the sharing of the prosecution's evidence with the defence. "The measures instituted to control the spread of COVID-19 slowed the preparation and production of discovery in this case." The motion describes the evidence in the case as "voluminous," including a month's worth of closed-circuit TV recordings, wiretap and undercover-officer evidence and the results of search warrants executed at four locations in Maryland and Delaware. There is also material from 15 email accounts and messaging platforms, jail call recordings and financial and phone records. Meanwhile, most of the staff in the district attorney's office are working remotely, complicating the discovery process, the motion says. It also notes that the pandemic has made it impossible for defence attorneys to meet with their clients over the last three months. "In light of the complexity of the case, the large amount of discovery, the delay caused by measures instituted to control the spread of COVID-19, the possibility of disposition and the relevant scheduling parameters, it is clear that the 70 days contemplated by the Speedy Trial Act for discovery, pre-trial motions, and trial preparation will be inadequate." All three accused have pleaded not guilty; Mathews faces four charges, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison: two counts each of two charges related to possessing and transporting a firearm and ammunition while in the country illegally. Defence lawyer Joseph Balter has promised a "vigorous" defence on the grounds that his client's First Amendment rights have been violated. Prosecutors allege that Mathews videotaped himself advocating for killing people, poisoning water supplies and derailing trains to incite a civil war in the name of creating a white "ethno-state." They also allege that in order to do so, Mathews and Lemley had been planning to violently disrupt a massive gun-rights rally in Virginia. The group is considered part of a wider spread of white nationalism and extremist ideology throughout the United States, with The Base following a model similar to that of al-Qaida, the Islamic State group and other violent organizations that rely on the internet and social media to mobilize independent cells or individuals who share their philosophies. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020. Follow James McCarten on Twitter @CdnPressStyle The reopening of Spains borders to European tourism from June 21 comes with an important caveat. The Spanish government is considering maintaining an obligatory quarantine period for citizens from the United Kingdom who account for the highest number of yearly visitors to Spain if the British government does not lift the same requirement for Spanish travelers. We will be checking what the UK will be doing and we will be in dialogue with the UK to see whether or not we should be introducing reciprocity as they have different measures than the rest of the EU, Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told the BBCs HARDTalk news show this week. Hopefully by the time we open our borders, the UK would have moved forward also Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya In mid-May, Spain implemented an obligatory two-week quarantine in a bid to avoid imported coronavirus cases at a time when the Spanish population was still confined to its province or territory. The government announced that this measure, which dissuades tourists from visiting the country, would be dropped once the borders reopen on June 21 to travelers coming from EU or Schengen-area countries. The government confirmed on Sunday that this would include citizens coming from the UK, given that the country still enjoys full rights as an EU state during its Brexit transition period, despite having officially left the bloc at the start of the year. If the UK keeps the quarantine requirement in place, Spain may respond in kind. Aware of the importance of the UK for Spains tourism before the pandemic, 18 million UK tourists arrived in Spain every year Gonzalez Laya did not say that the quarantine was going to be a definite requirement. Hopefully by the time we open our borders, the UK would have moved forward also, she told the BBC. Sources from the UK said that for now the plan is to maintain the quarantine for all of those who enter the country from abroad, including British travelers and with certain exceptions. The British government has opened the door to changing this measure, based on the most recent scientific evidence, but not before June 29, according to the same sources. This would mean at least eight days of reciprocal quarantines for travelers from those countries. Via its Facebook page, the British Embassy on Tuesday confirmed that a reciprocal quarantine may be put into place, but that this decision has not yet been taken. The embassy added that it would provide an update once there is more information. The UK government is currently continuing to advise British nationals against all but essential international travel. English version by Simon Hunter. Rhetoric or Reality? Britain's Hong Kong Passport Offer Angers China By Henry Ridgwell June 16, 2020 Britain and China are engaged in a heated dispute over plans to make it easier for some Hong Kong residents to emigrate to Britain. The British government announced the proposal last month in response to China's ongoing attempt to impose a new security law on Hong Kong, following violent anti-government protests in 2019. Critics say the proposed legislation would make any form of anti-government criticism or protest a criminal act, with the potential to be charged with terrorism. They fear it could also allow Chinese security agencies to set up bases in the city. Hong Kong's chief executive, Carrie Lam, whose 2017 appointment was approved by Beijing, said Monday the proposed security law was needed in the territory. "The people of Hong Kong want to see stability again. They want a safe environment to work and live in," Lam said at a news conference in Hong Kong. She described opponents of the security law as "enemies of the people." Britain says the security bill represents a clear breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed when it handed over the territory to China in 1997. That agreement established a constitution called the Basic Law giving Hong Kong semi-autonomy, alongside the "one country, two systems" principle which gave the people of Hong Kong certain rights including freedom of speech and an independent judiciary. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab reiterated Britain's commitment to that agreement Monday. "We've made a historic commitment to the people of Hong Kong to protect their autonomy and protect their freedoms. And more importantly, so has China. So we will hold them to those responsibilities," Raab told reporters. As part of that commitment, it seems Britain may offer Hong Kong residents an "emergency exit." Britain issued so-called British Nationals Overseas passports to people who were Hong Kong residents before the 1997 handover. The government says around 350,000 people currently hold such a passport and over 2.5 million people who lived in Hong Kong before the British handover are eligible to apply. The British government is proposing to make it easier for holders of those passports and their immediate families to move to Britain, with what it calls a "clear pathway to citizenship" after five years. Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined the plans in an article for The Times newspaper June 3. "This would amount to one of the biggest changes to our visa system in history. If it proves necessary Britain will take this step and take it willingly," Johnson wrote. The proposal is targeted both at Hong Kong residents and at the Communist Party in Beijing, according to Professor Steve Tsang of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, who spoke to VOA on Monday via Skype. "Implicit in the British plan is the possibility that Hong Kong could lose a very significant percentage of its talented people," Tsang said. "From the perspective of Beijing, they want Hong Kong to do well. They are not, however, prepared to pay any price to keep the talent in place in Hong Kong, particularly if those talents also happen to be 'troublemakers' for Beijing." "Beijing believes that they have millions of very well-educated Chinese on the mainland with Western educations who are perfectly capable of backfilling people who leave Hong Kong and continue to make Hong Kong a success and be very loyal to the Communist Party," Tsang added. Until the policy is finalized, British ministers have proposed emergency measures to allow BNO passport holders easier entry rights into Britain. It's the biggest change in policy since the handover, said Johnny Patterson of advocacy group Hong Kong Watch. "It signals not only an incredibly generous and meaningful immigration shift but also a sea change in Sino-British relations potentially," Patterson said in a recent VOA interview. Professor Tsang said there is a notable lack of policy detail: "I think the ambiguity is very much by design. What the British government has offered Hong Kong essentially is to send a message both to people in Hong Kong that they are not forgotten and a message to China that there will be responses from the U.K., (and) hopefully the Chinese government will back off." Beijing has warned that the British citizenship offer would itself breach the 1997 Joint Declaration. Until recently Britain agreed with that verdict. China's attempt to impose the new security law appears to have changed the calculation in London. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:32:58|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Wednesday collected a nomination form for the presidential candidacy seeking re-election to the country's top office. Bashiru Ally, secretary general of the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), presented the nomination form to Magufuli at the CCM headquarters in the capital, Dodoma. Magufuli was elected president in October 2015. A statement issued by the Directorate of Presidential Communications at State House said Magufuli appealed to CCM members and Tanzanians in general to pray for him in his journey toward seeking the party's nomination to the presidential race in the October general elections. The president also urged the party members to take part in the electoral process in a peaceful environment, the statement said. Magufuli dissolved parliament on Tuesday, signaling the start of the electoral process toward the general elections to pick councilors, members of parliament and the president. According to Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, 29,804,992 Tanzanians have registered to vote in this year's elections, compared to 23,161,440 voters registered in 2015. Tanzania has a population of about 55 million. Last week, CCM Ideology and Publicity Secretary Humphrey Polepole said from July 6 through July 10 the ruling party's organs, including the National Executive Committee and the Central Committee, will pick not more than three nominees for the presidential candidacy. Polepole added that between July 11 and July 12, the party's national congress will pick one candidate that will represent the party in presidential race for the October general elections. Enditem This Is Us star Lonnie Chavis has opened up about what it's like growing up as a Black boy in America as he details his experiences with racism and encounters with the police that had him scared for his parents' lives. The 12-year-old actor is known for his role as nine-year-old Randall, the younger version of the character played by Emmy-winning actor Sterling K. Brown, but his fame has not shielded him from the stark realities of systemic racism. In an essay published by People, Lonnie recalls instances in his young life where he was racially profiled, treated poorly, mistaken for other Black actors, and fearful of police brutality. Heartbreaking: Lonnie Chavis, 12, wrote a poignant letter recalling the instances in his young life where he was racially profiled, treated poorly, and terrified of police brutality Famous face: The This Is Us star plays nine-year-old Randall, the younger version of the character played by Emmy-winning actor Sterling K. Brown The poignant piece was started as a letter to his mother, Najah, about growing up as a Black boy in the U.S. as he struggled to process the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, who was killed at the hands of a white police officer. 'My life matters, but does it? America paints a very clear picture of how I should view myself,' he wrote. 'America shows me that my Blackness is a threat, and I am treated as such. I actually didnt learn about being Black and what that would mean for me until I was seven years old.' Lonnie said his parents, Najah and Lonnie Chavis Sr., had long talks with him and used books and movies such as Amistad and Malcolm X to educate him on being a Black man. 'I was overwhelmed with confusion, fear, and sadness,' he recalled. 'I had to lean on my faith in Christ for hope, protection, and understanding.' He explained that being a young Black actor in Hollywood has only made him more fearful as he described how security and entrance checkers at events would treat him 'very poorly' and made him feel like he 'wasn't supposed to be there' until he had a publicist to represent him. Living in fear: Lonnie said he has witnesses his parents, Najah and Lonnie Chavis Sr., being racially profiled and harassed by the police just becauase they were Black Scary: He recounted a police officer twisting his father's arm and pulling him off the doorstep of their home as he hid upstairs with his younger siblings 'I think of going to Hollywood events with other actors and actresses where I was constantly asked if Im the boy from Black-ish or the boy from Stranger Things. I guess we all look alike since we are all Black,' he shared. 'Can you imagine being confused for any other Black kid just because you all share the same profession? I can.' Lonnie went on to recount crying on set as he listened to an actor portray a grandmother who was racist toward his character. Although he didn't name the show, a 2017 episode of This Is Us, titled Still There, features a plotline in which Rebecca (Mandy Moore) confronts her mother Janet (Elizabeth Perkins) for her racist treatment of her adopted grandson Randall. Lonnie said the director and writer told him he didn't need to cry for the scene, but it was hard not to as he witnessed the show's depiction of his reality as a Black boy. Behind the scenes: The actor once cried on set as he listened to an actor portray his character's racist grandmother Heartbreaking: Lonnie had to explain to the white people in the room why he couldn't hold back his tears while witnessing the scene depicting his reality as a Black boy 'I wasnt acting, I was crying for me,' he explained. 'Can you imagine having to explain to a room full of white people why I couldnt hold back my real tears while experiencing the pain of racism? I can.' Lonnie also recounted being racially profiled at a restaurant in San Diego while visiting one of her young Black costars. He was out with his friend, her Black cousins, and their parents when a young white girl at the cash register accused them of trying to steal the money from her tip cup. He said the police were about to be called when a 'wonderful fan' who was white intervened and told the restaurant employees that he was a professional actor on This Is Us and didn't need the money. Lonnie has also witnessed his own parents being racially profiled and harassed by the police, recalling how a white police officer pulled over her mother in their new BMW just blocks from the Paramount Studio lot when she was driving him to work. When the cop approached the driver's side window, he immediately asked her: 'Whose car is this?' Horrifying: Once when he was out with one of his young Black costars, a white employee accused them of stealing from her tip jar. He's pictured with Asante Blackk and Lyric Ross Ignorant fans: Lonnie said he is constantly mistaken for Miles Brown from Black-ish (left) and Caleb McLaughlin from Stranger Things (right) 'I had been taught about how to behave if ever getting stopped by the police, but nothing prepared me for this,' he said. 'My mom was guilty of driving while Black. She had to go to her trunk for more paperwork, and I watched the cop hold his hand on his gun as if my mom was a threat. 'I was scared for her; I was scared for me. I didnt know what to do in that backseat, but just to get on the phone with my dad.' Lonnie said his parents have been pulled over three other times in Los Angeles simply because they 'were Black in a nice car.' But one of his family's scariest encounters with the police occurred on his 10th birthday on Thanksgiving in 2018. They had come home late from his birthday party when a Long Beach police officer twisted his father's arm behind his back and yanked him away from the open door on the doorstep of their home. Hit show: Lonnie is pictured with his This Is Us costars at the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards Sharing his story: The anti-bullying advocate stressed at the end of his essay that America as a whole needs to change so Black citizens will no longer fear being murdered Lonnie said the officer claimed his dad was being detained for a traffic ticket. His mother was filled with fear when she told him to go into his little brother's room and stay away from the windows. 'She put my new baby brother in my arms and told me that no matter what I hear from our front yard to not come to the door no matter what,' he explained. 'I held my baby brother and cried as I could hear my mother yelling outside of our home. I thought my parents were for sure going to die going up against the police. 'By the grace of God, they are both still with me, and that racially motivated harassment against my father was dismissed. Can you imagine holding on to your three little brothers while thinking that you are all going to be orphans? I can.' The activist, who has launched the anti-bullying #FixYourHeart campaign on social media, stressed at the end of his essay that America as a whole needs to change so Black citizens will no longer fear being murdered. 'If you dont understand whats going on in the world, then understand this: This is what the world looks like for me. A 12-year-old Black boy,' he wrote. 'This is my America.' As a reporter, and now columnist, who writes often about social issues because of my own background as a Latina who grew up in a neighborhood filled with people who would now be considered essential workers, I have spent many days in some of the most neglected neighborhoods in the Washington region and New York. I have been invited into homes with little to no furniture. I have walked through the halls of a high school, where a boy was stabbed in the heart, talking to a soft-spoken teenager who just wanted to graduate. I have sat next to a mom in a funeral home as she made arrangements for the twins she lost after a bullet tore through her stomach as she walked out of a carryout place near her home. The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to cause many serious and fatal cases of pneumonic illness, often ending in multi-organ dysfunction and cardiovascular collapse. Without either vaccine or proven therapy, clinical trials are ongoing to find an effective way to counter this threat. Both existing drugs and new drugs are being tested worldwide to identify potential antivirals with activity against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, isolated from a patient. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID The Polyether Ionophores One compound that has aroused considerable interest is the polyether ionophore (PEI), a compound for which animal data is already available. This family of molecules contains natural products that have many different biological functions. The compounds in this family are best-known for their inhibitory activity against both gram-positive bacteria and coccidian protozoa. As a result, some of them are used as antibiotics in animals. These compounds also have antiviral activity against both RNA and DNA viruses, including HIV, Zika, and influenza viruses. As far back as the 1970s, research showed that nine polyether ionophore compounds were able to inhibit transmissible gastroenteritis, a coronavirus infection of the porcine small intestine, and some were even found to have a curative effect. A re-evaluation of this category in 2014 showed two PEIs, namely, salinomycin and monensin, were able to prevent the cytopathogenic effect of MERS-CoV, but could not inhibit SARS-CoV. These were not followed up, and the mechanism of action remains unknown. However, it is thought, on the basis of earlier research, that they block several steps in the replication cycle. Mechanism of Action of PEIs The current study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* aims to understand how these compounds affect SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. The researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark examined 11 natural PEIs, with a single synthetic analog, screening them for inhibitory activity against the CPE of SARS-CoV-2 infecting cultured cells with overexpression of TMPRSS2, a serine protease that is instrumental in cleaving the spike protein of the virus. They found that all the eleven compounds inhibited the viral CPE but with varying selectivity, potency, and cell viability. The synthetic analog HL-201 was a good antibacterial candidate, but an unselective antiviral with low activity. The calcium ionophores ionomycin and calcimycin had modest selectivity, but 50-100-fold selectivity was found for nigericin, indanomycin, and lasalocid, with over hundred-fold selectivity displayed by narasin, salinomycin, monensin, and nanchangamycin, X-206 Whats Special? The compound selected for this study was the ionophore antibiotic X-206, which was both strongly selective and potent, with almost 600 times the selectivity. This has several uncommon substructures, such as three lactol units, which can directly interact with metal ions in the solid-state. The molecule was already shown to inhibit plasmodium parasites. The current study looked at its inhibitory activity against the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The endpoints were qRT-PCR and the viral S protein. It was shown to inhibit both viral copy number and S protein formation at the lowest tested concentration of 760 pM. Salinomycin was also tested and proved to be a potent viral inhibitor. On the other hand, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) showed little inhibitory activity on the virus in cultured cells expressing TMPRSS2 but effectively inhibited viral replication in wildtype cells. This difference was not seen with the use of X-206. PEIs are known to build up in lysosomes, inhibiting autophagy, and their classic property of enabling the transfer of metal cations in return for protons should lead to altered lysosomal pH. This is similar to the mechanism of cationic amphiphiles like HCQ, which could indicate that related mechanisms are at work. The researchers undertook morphological profiling to compare the compounds on cultured cells without any viral infection. They found that HCQ showed a different pattern of bioactivity from the PEIs, or at least a subset of them. The bioactivity was broadly corresponding to the concentrations associated with antiviral activity. The conclusion was that PEIs mediate their antiviral effects through a mechanism that is different from that of the lysosomotropic, cationic amphiphiles like HCQ. Unexpectedly Potent Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 No human safety data on PEIs are known, and some animals find them toxic, but they are used in the agricultural industry, which implies they are produced on an industrial scale, with safety. Thus, the current study looked at whether PEIs have broad-spectrum antiviral activity, and specifically against SARS-CoV-2. The researchers found that the commonly used PEIs like salinomycin, monensin, and lasalocid are effective against a range of viruses. In addition, these are also effective against SARS-CoV-2. In particular, X-206 is strikingly powerful and selective as an antiviral with the above spectrum of action. The study concludes, Our future efforts will be focused on understanding the precise origin of the strong antiviral activity of X-206, which may also help to shed light on the possibilities for further pre-clinical development. *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. Veteran rapper, Reggie Rockstone, has responded to critics mocking him over his waakye packaged in glass jars. Reggie Rockstone who packages waakye and other products in glass jars for sale under the name Rockz Waakye has been ridiculed on social media after photos of his waakye went viral on social media on Tuesday, June 16, 2020. Ordinarily, waakye is sold in leaves, polythene bags or in a pack. But this new way of packaging the Ghanaian delicacy has gotten a lot of people talking after Citi News Jude Duncan shared photos of the product on Twitter. While most people think the packaging is quite outlandish, a few have also said that it is a very good way of preserving food and saving the environment of plastic waste. In a chat with Citi News Kwame Dadzie, Reggie Rockstone disclosed that the waakye in the jars are not for the public. It is for hotels; some here and outside. Not for the public, he noted. Reggies waakye for the local market Because I have taken the waakye thing seriously, I am open to all new innovative ideas of packaging. Once McDonalds does it, nobody questions it, he said. It is for the convenience, it does keep it hot and stays hot for a very long time and your waakye still tastes the same, he further noted. Interestingly, there have been photos showing other food like yam and jollof rice packaged in jars too. Is this a new way of packaging food? Will Ghanaians accept this type of packaging? Waakye is a Ghanaian dish of cooked rice and beans, commonly eaten for breakfast or lunch. The rice and beans, usually black-eyed peas or cow beans, are cooked together, along with red dried sorghum leaf sheaths or stalks and limestone. It is served with stew, shito and ganished with spaghetti and salad. citinewsroom Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:54:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RABAT, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank has approved a loan worth 48 million U.S. dollars to help upgrade Morocco's health sector's resilience to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, official news agency MAP reported on Wednesday. The loan will finance the procurement of drugs, equipment, and medical supplies for laboratories and hospitals accredited to deal with COVID-19 cases and will also provide additional resources for equipment and training of health workers. Morocco "has already taken significant steps to contain the coronavirus outbreak and lessen impact on vulnerable sectors and households," MAP quoted World Bank Maghreb Country Director Jesko Hentschel as saying. "Through the current support, we intend to provide Morocco with additional resources to enhance its testing capacity and develop preventive solutions against the virus spread," Hentschel added. Morocco reported 54 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 8,985 since March 2. Enditem 175 Shares Share Over the course of medical school, I developed a fascination for public health and finding new ways to optimize care delivery to patients. This eventually resulted in me deciding to take a gap year between my third and fourth year to complete a Masters of Public Health. I originally applied to four programs based on what would fit in well with my medical school schedule. On November 30th, I decided that I should apply to a fifth program that would require me to shift around my spring semester of med school, but also provide me with the tools and confidence to begin tackling issues in health care. This program was the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where I was not only accepted but was fortunate enough to receive scholarship funding. By the way, the priority application deadline was the very next day. Here are some lessons that I learned from my gap year that may be particularly helpful to medical students looking to chart the same course: 1. Optimize your schedule If you completed your third year of medical school on the wards, you will know what a structured (and hectic!) schedule looks and feels like. MPH classes on their own simply do not compare to the workload in med school, where youre on rounds by 6 a.m. and home studying at 7 p.m. If you can adapt the discipline and work habits you had in med school, such as clicking through Anki cards while waiting for rounds or fitting in time for research on post-call, you can find ways to accomplish many different things in your gap year. Wake up early and divide your time into manageable chunks. 2. Use this year to really work on yourself In the past, you may have felt compelled to take on new projects and leadership positions just for the sake of adding lines to your CV. You are more than a piece of paper, and you need to act like it. Learn to say no to things that will not benefit you professionally or personally over the long-haul. This goes for your classwork, as well. I took classes such as the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, introduction to clinical trials, and health care budgeting. I did not take classes in areas where I do not plan to focus, such as ArcGIS spatial analysis or principles of infectious disease. I have great respect for the experts in those fields and enjoy the methods they employ, but life is too short to become an expert in everything. If you can find a niche for yourself towards the beginning of your gap year, you can begin to interact and learn from those in the same space. 3. A weekly check-in A gap year is 52 weeks, meaning that every week you should march incrementally towards the goals you have laid out for yourself. Take a few minutes while eating dinner or relaxing to re-assess your goals and ask if you are making adequate progress. Are you making the connections in the field you are interested in? Do you need to pivot by rearranging some of your priorities? 4. Perfect the 15-second elevator speech Get comfortable introducing yourself to people. Heres an example of my introduction: Hi, Im Waqas, a public health student at Johns Hopkins on leave from medical school. Im interested in thinking about new ways to reduce the cost of care and bring promising drugs to market. Be sure to slightly modify your introduction based on who you are speaking to. For example, you do not need to tell someone what school you are from at an in-school networking event, and mentioning what did you prior to the MPH may be preferable. 5. Get your feet wet early Picking up research skills efficiently is similar to picking up your morning latte: its best done on-the-go. A lot of my classmates opted to do a Concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, which certainly makes sense if thats an area of public health you plan to specialize in down the road. However, I learned many of the same skills while working on projects with a preventive cardiology research group and got several papers (and great connections) out of it. These include skills such as various regression models in Stata, using Covidence for performing a meta-analysis, and applying the cost-effectiveness search filter on PubMed. If you know want to be a physician-epidemiologist or someone such as Vinay Prasad, then go ahead and knock out those upper-level stats classes. Otherwise, getting your name on to more projects may be more beneficial in the long-term than an ambitious course load. 6. Explore your surroundings Living close to the capital was one of the best parts of my MPH experience. In Washington DC, you do not need to worry about leaving to go elsewhere, as the world literally comes to you. There were all sorts of political advocacy organizations I got connected with, and I enjoyed thought-provoking talks at coffee shops and cultural attractions. 7. Its all about your network Weve all heard the old mantra of its not what you know, but who you know. While the gap year is an excellent opportunity to deeply learn about your specific interest in public health, this should be balanced with building up your profile. Make connections with people who are in your space and who you envision to be one to two decades from now. Show the confidence of a budding professional entering into residency soon with a clear vision of how you see the next phase of your career progressing. Once again, do not do things simply for the sake of doing so. 8. Know what you do not know One of the most important things I have ever learned is to remain silent in areas where I am not well-informed. You are not going to be an expert on all things public health or medicine after an MPH, and thats OK. Obtain a strong foundation in your particular area of interest while remaining open to findings and modes of thinking in other disciplines. In a world of specialization, you capitalize on your strengths and collaborate to compensate for your weaknesses or areas of unfamiliarity. Waqas Haque is a public health and medical student. Image credit: Shutterstock.com The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) notes that the economic downturn has pushed hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in the Middle East into an ever more desperate situation and has increased their humanitarian needs. By Robin Gomes The number of vulnerable Syrian refugees who lack the basic resources to survive in exile has dramatically surged as a result of the public health emergency, according to the United Nations. The refugee-hosting communities in countries in Syrias neighbourhood experience similar hardships. Many refugees have lost what were already meagre incomes, forcing them to cut down on the most basic needs, including food and medication, warned UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic. Addressing an online press briefing on Tuesday at the UN Office in Geneva, he said that refugee households were taking on additional debt and were not able to pay their rent anymore. Serious protection risks are growing, including risks of child labour, gender-based violence, early marriage and other forms of exploitation. 5.5 million Syrian refugees in five Middle Eastern countries Since the start of the pandemic, Mahecic said UNHCR has provided emergency cash support to nearly 200,000 additional refugees in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey who previously did not receive financial aid, along with other efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. The five countries alone host more than 5.5 million Syrians, the biggest refugee group in the world. Nine out of ten Syrian refugees in the region, Mahecic noted, live in towns or villages and not in camps, mostly in low-income areas. The UNHCR spokesperson commended the host communities who have shown great solidarity with the refugees, despite suffering loss of livelihoods as a result the COVID-19 pandemic." Even prior to the pandemic, UNHCR pointed out, the majority of Syrian refugees in the five countries have been living below the poverty line. The UNs refugee agency has also expressed concern about the humanitarian situation of returnees, more than six million internally displaced Syrians and other vulnerable groups inside Syria. Prior to the latest downturn, over 80 per cent of Syrians lived below the poverty line, according to UN estimates. More than nine years of this crisis have left 11 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. 25.9 million refugees worldwide According to UNHCR, there are at least 70.8 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes, of whom nearly 25.9 million are refugees. Others include 41.3 million internally displaced people (IDPs) and 3.5 million asylum seekers. Roughly every two seconds, a person is forcibly displaced as a result of conflict or persecution. To draw the attention of the world to the cause of refugees, the UN observes World Refugee Day on June 20, which this year occurs on Saturday, this week. Pope Francis - World Day of Migrants and Refugees The Catholic Church has migrants and refugees as one of its several outreach programmes. Since 1914, it has been observing the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. It is now celebrated on the last Sunday of September. Forced like Jesus Christ to flee," is the theme that Pope Francis has chosen for this year's observance which focuses on the pastoral care of IDPs. Millions of men, women and children who are internally displaced by conflict, poverty and climate change, the Pope says in his message for the September 27 observance, are suffering precariousness, abandonment, marginalization and rejection as a result of Covid-19. In his message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2018, the Pope had urged Christians to respond to the crisis of people in movement with welcome, protection, promotion and integration. In addition to these, this year he suggests six pairs of cause-and-effect actions in response to the IDP emergency: Know in order to understand Be close in order to serve Listen in order to be reconciled Share in order to grow Be involved in order to promote Cooperate in order to build At times, Trump seemed to almost mimic the authoritarian leaders he appeared to admire. These people should be executed, Trump once said of journalists. They are scumbags. When Xi explained why he was building concentration camps in China, the book says, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which he thought was exactly the right thing to do. He repeatedly badgered Barr to prosecute former Secretary of State John Kerry for talking with Iran in what he insisted was a violation of the Logan Act. Dubai, June 17 : Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, UAE has taken the lead to repatriate Indians stranded in the country through chartered flights. Several companies and community groups have chartered repatriation flights with the UAE airlines, with some of them operating the first international flights to some destinations in India, Gulf news reported. The special repatriation flights arranged by the Indian government under the Vande Bharat Mission are operated by Air India and Air India Express while some private airlines from India will soon be joining the mission. However, the pace of the repatriation mission, dubbed to be the largest in the history, gathered more steam after the Indian government allowed private airlines in the UAE and India to operate charter flights on behalf of companies and community groups. India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday night revealed that it granted permission to around 870 chartered flights, transporting around 200,000 passengers, both inbound and outbound. "Several Airlines helped in the humanitarian mission of taking stranded people to their destinations," DGCA said in a series of tweets. The list of airlines and their operations tweeted by DGCA showed that dozens of flights were operated by four major UAE airlines that took part in the chartered operations. A total of 68 flights have been operated by FlyDubai (38), Air Arabia (20), Emirates (five) and Etihad (five), according to the DGCA. Some community groups in the UAE said they opted for UAE budget carriers for operating charter flights for repatriation as they could avail cheaper ticket fares with them. Some Indian-owned travel agencies that have facilitated charter flights for community groups and companies, echoed the same and added that operating UAE carriers for charter service ensured more certainty about flight schedules amid the pandemic. Kate Middleton is reportedly feeling trapped. While the palace has personally stepped in to debunk that report, one commenter implied that this is not that impossible. More than ever, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip have been monitoring her and her husband, Prince William. Even other senior royals are keeping a close eye. According to Royal commenter, Tom Quinn, senior royals are particularly worried that Kate Middleton and Prince William would pull the same antic as Meghan Markle and Prince William. While he did not specifically name names, one can certainly deduce this from his statement. He said, senior royals are making sure that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would not "would not "repeat mistakes made by other young royals." He even added that the senior royals no longer want "that to happen again." By that, it could mean Megxit. Of course, this is a mere speculation. Speaking on the documentary, Mr. Quinn elaborated that the Queen as well as the Duke of Edinburgh are watching the two closely because other younger royals in the past made grave mistakes that they did not want Kate and William to commit. Back in May, a controversial report was released of Kate Middleton's true state at the palace. It has become quite apparent that she is more visible ever since the coronavirus pandemic forced the UK into a lockdown and after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry stepped down from their senior royal roles. According to the report, because of the added pressure on her, as well as burgeoning responsibilities, she feel trapped and exhausted. Kate is furious about the larger workload. Of course she's smiling and dressing appropriately but she doesn't want this," a friend of Kate's reportedly disclosed. "She feels exhausted and trapped. She's working as hard as a top CEO, who has to be wheeled out all the time, without the benefits of boundaries and plenty of holidays." Tatler also alleged many other negative things about the Duchess. The palace was quick to act in denying these reports however; something they do not usually do when it comes to rumors. The reports can be quite damaging after all, since royals rarely complain about their duties. But then, if Kate Middleton is overworked and tired, then why should it be bad to report it? Regardless, the post made the Palace very uncomfortable. It even led to a lawsuit against Tatler, the magazine that reported Kate Middleton's so-called feelings. Given how fast the Palace reacted to the report, many analysts found it interesting to know why. According to NZ Herald, the reason the Palace stepped in and Kate personally felt upset about the unflattering profile is that she deemed herself betrayed and hurt. Analysts claimed that because the editor-in-chief of Tatler is an old friend, Kate felt blindsided. According to the Sun, the Duchess was dumbfounded by the article, entitled "Catherine the Great." The editor, Richard Dennen is said to be close friend who is actually within the Duchess' inner circle. Dennen and Middleton have holidayed together not just once, but twice! "Kate remains hurt and upset by the article. It was very unpleasant," a source told the Sun. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has left the door open to Australia partnering with China on infrastructure projects in other countries under an agreement it signed with Beijing covering the controversial Belt and Road Initiative. Senator Birmingham declared Australia would not be "trading away any of our values" in its dealings with China, saying both countries needed to respect each other's sovereignty and get back to a trade relationship of "mutual advantage". Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said Australia won't compromise its values in its relationship with China. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen In a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra, Mr Birmingham also announced Australia would on Wednesday begin formal negotiations for a free trade agreement with Britain which he said would open up new doors for Australian farmers, businesses and investors. As tensions between Australia and China have escalated during the coronavirus pandemic, the Morrison government has been critical of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for pressing ahead with the state's BRI agreement with the Chinese government. The deal paves the way for projects to be built in Victoria under the BRI banner and for Victorian firms to partner with Chinese companies in other countries. Vigil: Mourners at a memorial one year on from the death of protester Marco Ling-kit Leung at a Hong Kong rally. Photo: Getty Britain said yesterday China's plan to impose national security legislation on Hong Kong would undermine the autonomy in the former British colony and could threaten its rights and freedoms. Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997 with the guarantee of freedoms, such as an independent judiciary and right to protest, for 50 years. "The imposition of the proposed law lies in direct conflict with China's international obligations under the Joint Declaration, a treaty agreed by the UK and China and registered with the United Nations," Julian Braithwaite, Britain's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council. He urged China to engage with Hong Kong's people, institutions, and judiciary to "ensure it maintains Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and rights and freedoms". There was no immediate reaction by China's delegation to the 47-member state forum. Pang Kwang Hyok, deputy ambassador at North Korea's mission, voiced concern at "certain countries' attempt to use Hong Kong-related issues to interfere in China's domestic affairs". Hong Kong was "an inseparable part" where China's sovereignty is exercised and its constitution is applied, he said. Hong Kong's national security legislation would not punish people retroactively, a senior Chinese official said, touching on a key question raised by local residents, diplomats and foreign investors over the controversial law. Beijing last month moved to directly impose the legislation on Hong Kong in a bid to tackle secession, subversion and foreign interference. Hong Kong was rocked by months of sometimes violent anti-China, pro-democracy unrest last year, with protesters angry at what they see as meddling by Communist Party rulers in Beijing in Hong Kong's affairs. When President George W. Bush needed to shore up support with social conservatives during his re-election run in 2004, he turned to a familiar political tactic: demonizing L.G.B.T.Q. rights. On the campaign trail and from the White House, the Republican leader began championing a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, praising unions between a man and woman as critical to the well-being of families. Sixteen years later, when another issue of L.G.B.T.Q. rights popped up in the midst of another presidential campaign, the Republican incumbent responded with little more than a shrug. They ruled and we live with their decision, President Trump told reporters after the Supreme Court issued a decision on Monday protecting the rights of L.G.B.T.Q. workers. Thats what its all about. We live with the decision of the Supreme Court. For decades, most Republican leaders have opposed L.G.B.T.Q. civil and marriage rights, views that remain embedded in the partys platform and its activist base. Last weekend, party activists in Virginia punished Representative Denver Riggleman, a first-term Republican, for officiating a same-sex marriage ceremony; they chose a self-described biblical conservative as their G.O.P. nominee for November. And the Trump administration continues to limit civil rights protections for transgender people and bar most of them from military service. (Newser) For those of you wishing that 2020 would just end alreadyTarget is at least bringing the end of 2020 to early July. The company on Wednesday announced that all workers would make a minimum of $15 an hour as of July 5. In 2017 it announced that it would get its $10-an-hour minimum to that point by the end of 2020, meaning it's running months ahead of schedule. The AP reports Target last bumped up its minimum wage a year ago, to $13 an hour, though workers got a temporary $2 increase in March under the pressure of keeping up with COVID-related shopping. story continues below Target says the hourly change will impact roughly 275,000 of its 350,000 employees. The company also announced all part- and full-time hourly workers would get a one-time $200 bonus at the end of July in recognition of their work under COVID, reports CNBC. And there's one more perk: The company will give all employeeseven those not on its insurancefree access to telehealth doctor visits through the end of 2020. (Read more Target stories.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 00:14:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on June 18, 2020 shows the Central Bank of Syria in Damascus, capital of Syria. The United States on Wednesday announced massive sanctions against Syria, in an effort to further deprive the revenue of the Syrian government. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua) WASHINGTON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Wednesday announced massive sanctions against Syria, in an effort to further deprive the revenue of the Syrian government. The latest sanctions, provisioned by the Caesar Act, include 39 individuals and entities including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in a statement. Pompeo alleged designated people and companies "played a key role in obstructing a peaceful political solution to the conflict." "Anyone doing business with the Assad regime, no matter where in the world they are, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions," the statement said. The statement noted that Wednesday's action was the beginning of a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure against Syria. Earlier this month, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said that the United States is practicing "economic terrorism" against Syria, claiming the sanctions under the Caesar Act are based on lies and fabricated claims. UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Tuesday said sanctions by the United States and the European Union helped push Syria's economy to the brink. The firm recorded a 7% increase in headcount worldwide during the financial year, boosting its total employment to 2,150. In the last 12 months, Kennedys made 12 lateral hires, adding staff in Australia, Chile, Ireland, Peru, Portugal, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the US and the UK. The company also made significant investments in innovation initiatives with the launch of Kennedys IQ, a separate, tech-driven company billed as Kennedys, but without the lawyers. The firm also partnered with University College London to develop an emerging-risk analytical tool for insurers, after securing funding from the Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership. During fiscal 2019/20, the firm also appointed Suzanne Liversidge as its first global managing partner. Liversidge is also the first woman to hold such a role at a UK top-30 law firm. Kennedys also announced a new leadership team in Spain. The year in numbers: UK turnover was 139 million, up 9.7% The number of fee-earners globally was up 10% Lockup was 128 days globally Turnover by region: UK: 139 million Europe: 13.7 million APAC: 13.7 million APAC: 38.5 million North America and Bermuda: 40.4 million Latin America: 6.6 million These are impressive results, the obvious difficulties of the last two months notwithstanding, said Nick Thomas, senior partner at Kennedys. We have continued to grow in all our key markets. As we embark on the next financial year, we do so with a careful eye on the continuing impact of COVID-19 upon our clients, but with cautious optimism. We opened our new San Francisco office last week and we expect to welcome more joiners to that office and to announce further expansions within our network this year. NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Marketing technology company, DeepIntent, continues to expand its New York City and India headquarters with several new hires and promotions. The company is projected to fill 16 new roles in Q3 across the sales, ad operations, strategy, engineering, and data science teams. Louis Blaut has joined the company as Vice President, Ad Operations, and Ian Bain, as Director of Publisher Accounts. Anton Yazovskiy has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer and Sourabh Gandhe to Vice President, Engineering. Anton Yazovskiy has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer. He was formerly Vice President of Engineering. In his new role, Anton will continue to operate out of the New York office, and will be responsible for leading the growth of DeepIntent's global Engineering Team. Prior to joining DeepIntent he held the position of Director of Engineering at Lineate. Sourabh Gandhe has been promoted to Vice President of Engineering, operating out of the India office. He formerly held the position of Director of Engineering. Prior to joining the company, he led Engineering Teams at Trendrr, Twitter, Mezi, and Pubmatic. Louis Blaut joins DeepIntent as Vice President of Ad Operations. In this role, he will be leading the Campaign, Account and Analytics Teams. Previously, he held the title of Vice President of Ad Operations at Madison Logic, focusing on B2B advertising. Other notable positions include National Director of Digital Operations at YP (formerly Yellow Pages) and Director of Integrated Media at 360i (formerly Dentsu). Ian Bain has been appointed Director of Publisher Accounts where he will focus on building the company's Healthcare Marketplace through the addition of premium healthcare publishers. Prior to joining DeepIntent, Bain worked at MediaMath as Senior Manager of Data Partnerships where he oversaw strategic publisher and supply partnerships. "DeepIntent has reached a point of hypergrowth, which is a strong testament to our company's vision and ability to execute," said Chris Paquette, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DeepIntent. "The most rewarding experience along this journey has been watching our once small, two-person team develop into a world-class technology company. The secret weapon to our success is our people, and our newest members will continue to help us define the future of healthcare marketing." About DeepIntent DeepIntent is a marketing technology company founded by former Memorial Sloan Kettering data scientists on the principle that digital media can influence positive health outcomes. The company helps healthcare brands and publishers deliver timely digital ads to clinically-relevant patients and professionals in a privacy-complaint way, so health and treatment decisions are made based on the latest, most pertinent information. DeepIntent's efforts are underpinned by MarketMatch, its bespoke healthcare technology platform that connects advertisers, publishers, and data providers to operate the first unified, collaborative digital healthcare marketplace. MarketMatch's built-in identity solution matches digital IDs with clinical, behavioral, and first-party publisher data in real-time so marketers and publishers can qualify campaign-specific audiences and serve relevant, informative ads. DeepIntent works with over 20 major pharmaceutical companies and dozens of media agencies to advertise more than 200 healthcare brands. DeepIntent's employee count has quadrupled across its New York, California, and India offices since 2017, and the company received industry recognition for outstanding healthcare innovation in 2019. For more information, visit deepintent.com. Media contact: Jacqui Chazen, 973-495-6055, [email protected] SOURCE DeepIntent, Inc. Related Links http://www.deepintent.com In the last few months, our dear Continent Africa and the entire world has been in a mare's nest following the serendipitous emergence of the COVID-19 Pandemic, which has claimed lots of lives, leaving families, governments and even the robust of economies with devastating repercussions of its effects. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the Pandemic. Ultimately I strongly believe solidarity and connection in these times will help us heal grow stronger together through this as always has been the true spirit of Africa. Acting together for the greater good is paramount now more than ever. In light of this, it is exigent that we do all we can not just to survive but to ensure that it remains a long-lasting lesson and an impetus for us to continue to harness the true spirit of solidarity hereafter. Unequivocally, I want to asseverate that there is a wealth of potential in the African youth. Let us not give up but rise to the call of optimism with Africa at heart and with unwavering aspirations to make Her Great. This Pandemic has presented a unique opportunity for us to strengthen our antennae of Pan Africanism.I hereby entreat the youth to join the fight in every way that we can while we continue to Hope and Pray to see the end of this Global Menace. God Bless Africa! Long Live Ghana! Rhoda W. Amadu Country Representative, Ghana One Africa Youth Conference'20 Facebook Twitter Google RAMBLER&Co ID By logging in to LiveJournal using a third-party service you accept LiveJournal's User agreement A family tree has revealed just how tightly interwoven the incestuous Colt family was, including at least 14 children born to parents who were related to one another. Frank Colt (a pseudonym), 51, was found guilty on Tuesday of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old relative in the back seat of his car during a visit to the family farm near Yass in 2010. The offence occurred two years before police discovered nearly 40 members of the clan living in a squalid bush camp. Colt is now awaiting sentencing. A graphic based off information published by the Children's Court in 2013 shows the clan's patriarch Tim Colt, who died in 2009, fathered seven children with his wife, June. It was not in dispute at trial this week that the victim protected by the pseudonym Petra Colt was the product of Frank Colt's father Tim and sister Betty. A family tree has revealed just how tightly interwoven the incestuous Colt family was - including at least 14 children born to parents who were related to one another Tim Colt also fathered 12 other children to Betty and five children to his eldest daughter Rhonda as the family moved between rural Victoria, Western Australia South Australia and the Northern Territory. His youngest daughter had children to her brother Charlie, the trial heard. The family tree shows there were four known generations who were living together, including four children who would have been the great-grandchildren (and grandchildren) of patriarch, Tim. One of the children, Sally, died when she was just two months old. When authorities found the camp back in 2012, most of the kids at the premises were severely malnourished and illiterate. Twelve were still underage, and DNA testing conducted at the time confirmed 11 of those children were the product of parents who were closely related to one another. All of the women involved denied the familial connection and dispute any genetic evidence as to the paternity of the children that was presented in court. Also living in the commune were a further 12 second or third generation members of the family who were legally adults, thus not required to submit for genetic testing. It is not clear whether their parents were also closely related, like some of their younger siblings and cousins. When authorities discovered the camp, they found makeshift beds side by side where members of the family were sleeping An unidentified Colt family member is arrested during police raids in 2018 Frank Colt's trial heard the victim, Petra, 17, had told police she was living in a cult where 'all my aunts, uncles and cousins have been sleeping together.' She also claimed she had never been to school, was legally blind and was physically abused by members of her family. The victim's evidence was 'simply and matter-of-factly put' and was powerful and credible given her upbringing and rudimentary education, Judge Gina O'Rourke of the New South Wales District Court said. 'She did not try to gild the lily and attribute other acts to the accused,' Judge O'Rourke said. Colt, whose bail had been revoked, began tearing up when the judge's verdict became clear. He maintained his right to silence throughout the investigation and trial, with his barrister arguing the sexual intercourse never happened. Colt, who has the same father as his victim, was remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing. Police uncovered about 40 members of the family living in an uninsulated shed, old caravans and tents on a NSW bush block in 2012. In a statement tendered at Frank Colt's trial, Wagga inspector Stephen Radford described smelling urine and faeces in living areas and said there were no toilets or showers on the 'commune-style living arrangement'. Pictured: Children living inside the makeshift commune the Colt family called home FIlthy: Police famously found dozens of members of the family living on a farm with no tents or showers in remote New South Wales in 2012 The 38-member 'Colt' clan was found crammed into rundown caravans, sheds and tents in the state's south in mid-2012 The two-day trial heard Colt didn't live at the farm but had visited sometime in February 2010. His victim spoke to police several times from 2013 onwards but only mentioned the rape in 2018 when police were interviewing her about other events. Judge O'Rourke said aspects of the police investigation 'seem wanting' but didn't accept Mr Coyne's assertion that his client was targeted in the two recorded police interviews. Detectives asked about 20 questions about the rape, failing to ascertain details about the type and duration of the rape or whether any words were spoken. '(It's) somewhat bewildering that no follow-up interview was done to add to the bare bones of the allegation,' Judge O'Rourke said. But the judge said the victim had strongly maintained her version of events and did not attempt to exaggerate or bolster her claim, even when the opportunity arose at trial. The trial heard Petra Colt, during a solo trip to Victoria in 2013, told police she had never gone to school, lived 'in a cult' and that 'all my aunts, uncles and cousins have all been sleeping together'. She later made a second, unsigned statement to New South Wales police retracting her claims. Frank Colt's brother Charlie and nephew Cliff are due to face trial on other sexual assault allegations this week. FIGURE 1. Structural representations of D614 and G614 SARS-CoV-2 S protein from S591 through N710 We believe that the D614G mutation represents one of those instances where theres a clear case of it increasing the pathogenesis of this virus, which points to the site we identified as an important target for therapeutic antibodies, vaccines and other modalities. Research by two U.S.-based antibody discovery companies shows a rise and dominance of a mutant SARS-CoV-2 virus and identifies a new mechanism predicting a competitive advantage of the mutation. The mutation is predicted to induce a structural change in the spike protein of the virus that would enhance virus entry. The study, conducted by Antibody Solutions and Single Cell Technology (SCT), is available on Preprints.org (the studys findings have not yet been peer-reviewed). According to John Kenney, PhD, president and co-founder of Antibody Solutions, advanced molecular modeling may have revealed how D614G, the dominant mutation isolated from a majority of patients in Europe and the eastern U.S., gained a competitive advantage over the earlier isolates of SARS-CoV-2 found in China. Our results from gene sequencing clearly show the D614G mutation is more common as the pandemic unfolds, Dr. Kenney said. Our homology modeling identifies a mechanism whereby the D614G mutation favors the orientation of critical residues in the furin cleavage domain. You can think of the recently discovered furin domain as an activation sequence or trigger. A better orientation of this domain for cleavage would be expected to enhance infectivity. The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 is considered a primary target for COVID-19 therapeutic intervention. Cleavage of the spike protein by furin is a key mechanism distinguishing SARS-CoV-2 from SARS-CoV and non-pathogenic coronaviruses. Our findings of the competitive and mechanistic advantages arising from the D614G mutation strengthen the rationale for targeting the furin cleavage domain of the spike protein with vaccines or neutralizing antibodies to inhibit COVID-19 progression, Dr. Kenney said. Genetic sequencing confirms geographic distributions of mutations Chun-nan Chen, PhD, chief science officer and CEO of SCT, used his companys informatics platform to mine worldwide SARS-CoV-2 genome data to learn more about how the mutants efficiency and geography may be correlated. Through genetic sequencing analysis of 11,542 viral genome records from the GISAID database collected through April 28, 2020, Dr. Chen said his team was able to compute the frequency of different mutations. By examining amino acid changes in each case, we identified mutations along the Spike, or S, protein at 103 positions, he said, And D614G was, put simply, the dominant mutation, occurring in 56% of all sequencesfar more than all of the other identified mutations combined. When we examined the geographical distribution of G614-containing viral genomes, he continued, distribution patterns emerged that show the G614 mutant as the dominant SARS-CoV-2 mutant in Europe and large swathes of the U.S. But viral sequences from Chinese and South Korean patients and those from the West Coast of the U.S. were mainly found to be carrying the Wuhan Spike or S protein genotype. The companies research included a comparative analysis of daily cumulative genotype counts by country and by U.S. states, which allowed its investigators to examine which specific viral sequences outpaced others as samples were collected in each geography over time. The most striking observation was that the D614G mutated virus became the predominant form of the virus sampled in most countries and U.S. states where the mutated and non-mutant virus appeared at the same time. Molecular modeling reveals unexpected changes in D614G structure That the rise in the D614G mutation is simply the result of a founder effect is possible but unlikely, Dr. Kenney and his team believe, given its broad rise in different geographical settings. A more likely explanation is the D614G variants selective advantage allowing more efficient spread. Dr. Kenney and the Antibody Solutions team applied its molecular modeling platform to dive deeper into the D614G mutation to see if any fresh insights could be yielded from evaluating the effect of the mutation on the virus spike protein. The team modeled a three-dimensional protein domain of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein from amino acid (AA) 591 to 710 using an I-TASSER multiple-template threading methodology. The goal was to create a prediction of the secondary structure of the region that contains both the site of mutation and the furin cleavage site that is believed to impart enhanced infectivity onto the virus. We created two models and observed a provocative result in which the only significant changes in structure are seen at the furin binding site, Dr. Kenney said. Essentially, the D614G mutation changes the orientation of critical residues in the furin cleavage domain and is more favorably aligned within the active site of furin. If furin cleavage is rate-determining in the membrane fusion process, such an increase in protein cleavage would lead to more rapid membrane fusion and entry into cells that serve as hosts for the virus. So, our modeling predicts a conformational change in a specific cleavage site induced by the D614G mutation that may reduce the required activation energy and translate into an advantage in infectivity, he continued. Implications and next steps Whether this advantage is conferred by infectivity, immune evasion or pathogenicityor some combination of theseis yet to be understood. Drs. Kenney and Chen cautioned that their research doesnt seek to draw specific conclusions about the D614G mutations transmissibility, sequelae influence or other broad immunological dynamics relating to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Our proposed mechanism for how the D614G mutation could lead to increased infectivity certainly does not preclude other mechanisms that could act in concert with the one weve proposed here, Dr. Kenney said. Dr. Kenney said the team is driving toward a better understanding of the biology of the virus and why the D614G mutation seems to be so central to greater infectivity. This is a case where sequencing and molecular modeling working hand-in-hand can help build a greater understanding about the key mechanisms in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2, he said. Most mutations either fade from view or, if they stick, dont have deleterious effects. We believe that the D614G mutation represents one of those instances where theres a clear case of it increasing the pathogenesis of this virus, which points to the site we identified as an important target for therapeutic antibodies, vaccines and other modalities. We hope this research provides an ideal engagement point for researchers working on SARS-CoV-2, he said. This wasnt an obvious find, and it took both of our teams working closely together to reveal it. It was a unique insight that we hope will inspire the scientific community to continue exploring. Genuinely, we want to know what we have right and wrong, and we intend to explore therapeutic angles ourselves. Dr. Kenney said that in addition to its most recent collaboration with SCT, the company is working on multiple SARS-CoV-2 research initiatives on its own and on behalf of clients pursuing vaccines and therapies for the virus. Its not often that small biotech companies pursue basic research into disease mechanisms, Dr. Kenney said. But the serious impact of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak on our families, friends and community has prompted us to use the tools we have and help find solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic. About Antibody Solutions For more than 25 years, Antibody Solutions has been at the forefront of therapeutic antibody discovery, offering a robust and time-tested antibody discovery platform and utilizing new technologies such as human antibody-producing transgenic animals and molecular modeling software. A privately held contract research organization based in Silicon Valley, Antibody Solutions has helped more than 500 biopharma clients worldwide advance diagnostics, vaccines and therapies with fit-for-purpose antibodies and trusted scientific guidance. Through an acute customer-service focus, the company provides comprehensive project management and technical support in a unique fee-for-service, pay-as-you-go model that helps clients get to market smarter and faster. From its headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., the companys broad portfolio of services includes monoclonal and polyclonal antibody development, antigen generation, antibody sequencing, bioreactor technology, pharmacokinetic studies, epitope binning, peptide synthesis, immunoassay development, ligand-binding assay analysis, and support for CAR-T research. For more information, visit antibody.com. About Single Cell Technology, Inc. Single Cell Technology (SCT) is a biotechnology company in San Jose, Calif., that has developed a new and revolutionary approach to antibody discovery. Their AbTheneumTM engine can analyze the kinetics and sequence the mRNA from individual antibody secreting cells. Antibodies are rapidly screened against multiple molecules to measure their affinity and specificity, and mRNA from the cognate light and heavy chains are sequenced by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology and correctly paired. SCT integrates advances in multiple disciplines, such as microscale fabrication, molecular biology, precision mechanical engineering, image processing, NGS, and bioinformatics. SCTs approach substantially decreases the time and investment needed to discover high quality antibodies. Learn more at singlecelltechnology.com. ### According to sources, about 18 injured soldiers are admitted to the military hospital in Leh. New Delhi: At least 76 Indian soldiers were injured, apart from the 20 soldiers who were killed during the bloody clash with Chinese soldiers in Galwan Valley on Monday night. According to sources, about 18 injured soldiers are admitted to the military hospital in Leh. Out of these, four were initially critical but are now stable. Another 58 soldiers also suffered injuries but sources said that they are likely to get better soon and may even join their units this week itself. There are unconfirmed reports of some soldiers still missing but there is no official word on it yet. A meeting between the Major Generals of the Indian and Chinese Army was again held on Wednesday at Galwan. However the talks were inconclusive and no decision could be reached on disengagement and other issues. While the armed forces have been given freedom to act according to circumstances in the face of aggression by the Chinese, India is looking to change the rules of engagement with Chinese troops at the LAC under which Indian soldiers are currently instructed not to fire. India has put the Air Force in forward bases, Navy and Army on high alert. Sources said that Indian Army has also cancelled all leaves of its soldiers. The whole Line of Actual Control is tense with Indian forces ready for any eventuality, sources said. Defence minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the Ladakh border situation in a meeting at South Block that was attended by CDS General Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs. On Monday night, despite both sides agreeing to de-escalate the situation, the Chinese soldiers attacked Indian troops with sticks, barbed wires, iron rods and stones. The Indian soldiers were outnumbered, sources said. The clash began when a party led by 16 Bihar Commanding Officer Colonel Santosh Babu had gone to ask the Chinese to remove a tent at Patrolling Point 14 in Galwan area which is at a height of 14,000 feet, and within Indian territory. However, there was an argument and Indian soldiers were surrounded by Chinese troops who were in large numbers and attacked. The Chinese soldiers were well prepared and were wearing protective gear. Reinforcements from both the sides too joined in. In the fight, many Indian soldiers were either pushed or they slipped from the narrow slope and fell into the icy cold Galwan river and could be rescued only on Tuesday morning. Many died due to extreme cold and hypothermia. Some also fell on the rocks. There were casualties on the Chinese side as well. However, the Chinese government has not officially commented on it. US intelligence reports said there may be 35 Chinese casualties. We cannot authenticate how many Chinese soldiers were killed. But they too have many casualties, said an official. Buchtar Tabuni, one of the leading West Papua activists and part of Balikpapan Seven, sentenced to 11 months in jail. An Indonesian court issued on Wednesday guilty verdicts against the first three West Papuan defendants accused of treason, in a case that has drawn concern about deteriorating political freedoms in the worlds third-largest democracy. Buchtar Tabuni, one of the leaders of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 11 months in prison significantly lower than the 17 years that prosecutors had asked. Following his sentencing, Tabuni, who was previously imprisoned for three years from 2008 to 2011, told the court, in my conscience, I am innocent. Ferry Gombo and Irwanus Uropmabin, both university students, were also found guilty of the same charge and sentenced to 10 months in prison. Prosecutors had earlier demanded 10 years for Gombo, student union president at the University of Cenderawasih in West Papua, and five years for Uropmabin, a student activist at a university in Jayapura. Other defendants received between 10 to 11 months in jail, after being convincted of similar charge. The seven men were charged after they joined anti-racism protests that swept across Indonesias easternmost provinces last August. In a statement posted on social media, Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman said, that despite the leniency, the verdicts still reflect racism under Indonesian justice system. No matter what happens, West Papuans *must* be found guilty by Indonesian courts, especially in treason and incitement cases, Koman, who is living in exile, said. The verdict and sentences were delivered by the judges online through the video app, Zoom. The demonstrations in Papua and West Papua were sparked by alleged racist attacks on several Papuan students on the island of Java, including being called monkeys. They defendants were arrested in West Papuas provincial capital Jayapura last year and moved to Balikpapan on Indonesian Borneo for security reasons. Many Indonesians have criticised the countrys Attorney General for prosecuting the defendants, also known as the Balikpapan Seven. More than 150 Papuan politicians, civic and religious leaders, including members of parliament and the senate, have signed a petition asking President Joko Widodo to drop the charges against them. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also urged the government to release the accused individuals. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Andreas Harsono, the groups representative in Indonesia, said that he was afraid the judge would convict the defendants and sentence them to jail. It may be not as extreme as the prosecutors have demanded, but still there are going to be prison sentences, because it is very common. Those treason articles have been used against Papuans for more than five decades in Indonesia. Videos posted on social media on Wednesday showed protesters in Jayapura and Sorong in West Papua demanding for the release of the defendants. 17/6/20 Jayapura, West Papua Free the Balikpapan Seven! The sentencing is today. pic.twitter.com/jNKGHeuD1S Veronica Koman (@VeronicaKoman) June 17, 2020 Papuan Lives Matter The resource-rich provinces of Papua and West Papua came under Indonesian rule after a controversial 1969 referendum sanctioned by the United Nations a process that was viewed as rigged by many native Papuans. A low-level separatist rebellion has simmered ever since in the former Dutch colony which shares New Guinea island with the independent nation of Papua New Guinea. The majority of Papuans are Christian and ethnic Melanesian with few cultural ties to the rest of Muslim-majority Indonesia. The tensions spilled over in August 2019, with several areas in West Papua erupting into fiery protests that left several dead, prompting the government of President Joko Widodo to deploy thousands of military troops to the area. The final death toll in the months-long unrest remains unknown. Thousands of people were forced to evacuate after deadly protests erupted in the Papua region in 2019 [File: Marius Wonyewun/Antara Foto via Reuters] At the height of the protests, thousands of residents were forced to flee the region, the poorest in the archipelago. During the protests, many demonstrators were seen flying the Morning Star flag, a symbol of Papuan independence, which is banned in Indonesia. Independence figure Filep Karma was convicted of treason after raising the flag publicly and spent 11 years in jail before his release in 2015. The Balikpapan trial has drawn unusual levels of support in Indonesia, where it has coincided with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. That has inspired a local adaptation Papuan Lives Matter which Indonesians have used on social media and in street demonstrations calling for the Papuans release. 17/6/20 Jayapura, West Papua Free the Balikpapan Seven! The sentencing is today. pic.twitter.com/jNKGHeuD1S Veronica Koman (@VeronicaKoman) June 17, 2020 The global movement has also sparked online forums about perceived racism and discrimination in Indonesia, events that activists say have been subject to obstruction and intimidation. Indonesian police have created a revolving door by arresting Papuan activists like Buchtar Tabuni for peaceful protests that needs to stop, said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. Indonesian authorities should recognise that given the global attention to the Black Lives Matter movement, sending peaceful activists to prison will only bring more international attention to human rights concerns in Papua. Chinas carbon dioxide emissions increased by 3.4 percent last year, higher than the ten-year average growth rate of 2.6 percent, BPs Statistical Review of World Energy showed on Wednesdaythe highest growth rate of Chinese emissions since 2011. Chinese CO2 emissions accounted for the single largest share of global carbon emissions last year 28.8 percent, according to BPs annual statistics report. China was also the key driver of energy consumption growth last year when global growth slowed down to 1.3 percent from 2.8 percent energy demand growth in 2018. While global energy demand growth slowed down, the growth in carbon emissions from energy was 0.5 percent in 2019, less than half the ten-year average growth of 1.1 percent per year. Slower energy demand growth and increased use of renewables and natural gas instead of coal helped reduce the carbon emissions growth, partially reversing some of the unusually strong 2.1-percent increase in global emissions in 2018, BP said. This year, due to the pandemic, emissions are likely to fall, BPs chief executive Bernard Looney wrote in a LinkedIn post, adding that in order to get to net zero emissions by 2050, the world would need similar-sized reductions in carbon emissions every other year for the next 25 years. We cant lockdown every year. We need another way - to build back better, said Looney. China, for its part, saw its coal capacity surge in 2019 to the point of raising the worlds net capacity additions of coal-fired power generation for the first time since 2015, a report from environmental organizations showed earlier this year. At the start of this year, leading environmental economist Lord Nicholas Stern said that China would be the key to the global action to fight carbon emissions and climate change. According to Lord Stern, China needs to reduce its reliance on coal, which continues to drive emissions despite the massive uptake of renewable energy sources. By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Sharing about the companys business plan for 2020 at the general annual shareholders meeting on June 12, CenLand chairman Nguyen Trung Vu said that the company continued to perfect its ecosystem, considering brokerage as the core business line. Besides this, CenLand co-operates closely with real estate developers to provide optimal solutions and take care of projects from pre-sales to post-sales phases. Core value development The strategic sales force of CenLand includes 2,000 sales executives and the CenHomes special sales team. In addition, as the largest real estate agency in Vietnam, CenLand has more than 700 connected agencies and approximately 15,000 authorised agents. In 2020, CenLand goes on signing strategic co-operation agreements with major business partners after many years of interruption in real estate as well as other segments. Currently, over 176 CenLand projects are for sale, and the number of sales executives can double or even triple. In the first five months of the year, more than 1,500 transactions have been wrapped up through the Cenhomes.vn platform," chairman Vu shared at CenLand's AGM 2020 In the coming time, the company will recruit key personnel and add more quality projects as well as improve several features to bring the best experience to customers on the Cenhomes.vn platform. With such development orientation, CenLand has set big targets for 2020. As such, the company aims for total revenue of about VND2.4 trillion ($104 million), of which, revenue from real estate sales and brokerage is to be VND1.3 trillion ($57 million); from real estate transfer is to be VND1.1 trillion ($48 million); revenue from advertising and event organising services is to be VND42 billion ($1.8 million); and revenue from office leasing and other services is to be VND15 billion ($0.65 million). If CenLand achieves a total revenue of VND2.4 trillion, the consolidated after-tax profit in 2020 would be VND400 billion ($17.3 million). As a result, the company would post earnings per share (EPS) of about VND5,000 ($0.21) apiece and expects dividends at 10 per cent. From the business performance report and targets for 2020, CenLand is one of the most highly-rated real estate agencies on the stock market by investors, and two foreign and domestic funds are looking to buy strategic shares of CenLand. According to the company's 2019 annual report, the total revenue was over VND2.3 trillion ($100 million), reaching 91 per cent of the year's plan. Meanwhile, before-tax profit was over VND490 billion ($21.3 million), reaching 87 per cent of the plan. Finally, after-tax profit was nearly VND393 billion ($17.1 million), up 22.7 per cent on-year. Capturing new trends At CenLand's AGM 2020 on June 12, the development orientation and business plan for the year were reported and approved. Accordingly, CenLand will focus on innovation and seizing new opportunities in the market. After Cen Cuckoo, CenLand will launch Cen Industrial Real Estate Experts commented that the real estate market is moving more cautiously, setting new demands to promote the trend of sustainable development, meaning that developers like CenLand need new strategies to achieve breakthroughs. After ongoing pandemic, manufacturers and governments are advised to restart the global supply chains, relocate their factories from China to other countries with lower costs and more stable environments. Vietnam is likely to benefit from this trend thanks to the good control of the pandemic and favourable policies to support the economy and the market from the government. Taking advantage of the golden opportunity of industrial real estate, CenLand is researching and developing a logistics real estate supply chain to catch the trends of shifting foreign direct investment into Vietnam and join the supply chain of the world economy. In order to meet rental demand in the new context, CenLand is going to launch industrial real estate services for about 300 industrial parks all over the country. Earlier this May, CenLand debuted Cen Cuckoo the first large-scale serviced apartment brand in Vietnam. This model will be deployed in major cities and provinces with convenient locations, such as near airports, and with easy access to industrial zones and the city centres to satisfy the accommodation needs of foreign specialists. North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party leaders on Wednesday called for a special legislative session to determine how to divvy up what remains of $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief aid sent to the state. Citizens deserve to be involved in how we spend this money to recover from the pandemic, said state Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo. Legislators have a responsibility to do our job in restarting our faltering economy." Republican Gov. Doug Burgum rejected the idea of calling the Legislature to Bismarck. Weve worked closely with legislators from both parties and many other stakeholders to deploy Coronavirus Relief Fund dollars in the most impactful way possible under the narrow set of federally defined eligibility rules, and a special session isnt needed to continue that collaborative approach, he said in a statement. Fortunately, weve been able to direct the majority of this federal funding toward economic recovery and unemployment insurance instead of emergency health care, thanks to North Dakotans outstanding efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus and limit the impact on our health care system. The $1.25 billion is through the federal CARES Act economic rescue package. The states all-Republican Emergency Commission and the Legislatures 43-member Budget Section in May approved spending more than $524 million of the amount. Aid was designated for the attorney generals office, the secretary of states office, the Council on the Arts, the departments of health, human services, commerce, information technology, trust lands, agriculture, and corrections and rehabilitation, Job Service North Dakota, the Bank of North Dakota, the North Dakota Veterans Home and the North Dakota Industrial Commission. The Emergency Commission is to meet Thursday to decide on spending another big chunk of the state's CARES Act money -- more than $400 million. The Budget Section meets next week. Four Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday presented a $1 billion plan that would ensure $230 million for cities, counties and townships and $770 million for infrastructure projects statewide. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Shelley Lenz plans a public listening session via Zoom at 6 p.m. CDT Thursday to hear from state residents on how theyd like to see the federal aid spent. Go to www.lenz-vigfornd.com/rsvp to sign up for the link. A few days ago, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called the governments Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) a smashing success in getting money fast to some 4.5 million businesses across the country that, in turn, resulted in workers remaining on payrolls. Based on the May employment numbers that showed the country adding 2.5 million jobs, Mnuchin may be right. In the past two months, observers who have been tracking the massive $660 billion PPP initiative have pointed out that the success of the program will depend on the monthly initial unemployment claims and the continuing unemployment totals. So, far the program has dispersed more than $520 billion since it started on April 3, and some of the countrys largest banks such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Truist and PNC Financial have all been active participants as lenders to wire the money to the businesses in need. Because PPP is in its infancy, it is hard to judge this early whether the program has been successful in staving off an economic disaster like the one the country experienced during the Great Recession. If one looks at the scope and the mission, PPP was a bold initiative, said John Holdsclaw IV, the board chair of Washington, D.C.-based CDFI Coalition, an ad-hoc advocacy group for community development financial institutions. But in the end, we have to see whether the money reached the right businesses. From my standpoint, I believe the minority small businesses had trouble accessing those funds. And that may well be the reason why minority small businesses are failing at a faster rate in the past three months, according to Robert Fairlie, an economics professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who conducted a study for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Fairlies study shows the number of working African American businesses owners plummeted more than 40 percent during the Covid-19 crisis, a far more precipitous drop compared to businesses owners of other racial backgrounds. Overall, the number of working business owners went down from 15 million in February to 11.7 million in April a 22 percent drop, Fairlie states in the NBER report. At the same time, thousands of businesses across the country that received PPP money have said that without the money they would have had to lay off or furlough their workers for an extended period of time. While tracking PPPs effect beyond the initial and continuing jobless claims, economists believe there already are signs the programs return on investment (ROI) to the U.S. taxpayer will likely be muted if the program loses its transparency and continues to evolve with new rules and regulations. Only 2 percent of businesses that received the PPP loan believe that they have to return more than 50 percent of the money, said Aaron Klein, senior policy director for Brookings who also helped in the writing of the governments Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008. What may be more surprising is about 54 percent of the PPP recipients believe they will have more than 90 percent of the loan forgiven in the end. In essence, if Klein's assessment is right, the vast majority of the PPP money is already spent or will be spent in the next few months by businesses on payroll. "So, one has to wonder how to calculate the ROI of the program," he said. PPPs equivalent government-financed business assistance program is the TARP, which was initially designed to bail out banks from going under, only to be followed by similar bailout programs for the auto industry, insurance industry and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. According to ProPublica's Bailout Tracker, the U.S. government eventually dispersed $633 billion during the Great Recession to banks (TARP); Fannie and Freddie; auto companies such as General Motors (NYSE: GM), Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and Chrysler; insurers such as AIG and a few other financial entities. But in the end, the government got back $754 billion from its investment. TARP had a positive ROI because when the government bailed out the banks, it got ownership in return. When banks steadied themselves, they started paying back the TARP money, and buying back the ownership interest from the government. The Fannie/Freddie program was an even bigger success. The U.S. bailed out the agencies with a $191 billion investment. The companies have not repaid any of the principal, but the companies have been paying dividends, which already have surpassed $312 billion. So the question is how would we judge if PPP is a success, asks Harry Davis, a professor of finance at Appalachian State University. If the economy is slow in recovering and businesses are at half the speed, there is a big risk on the ROI of the program. Several states across the country are already beginning to talk about additional lockdown measures, just weeks after reopening much of its economy, following the growth in Covid-19 new cases and hospitalizations. If states start closing back commerce, it would have a devastating effect on all businesses, CDFI Coalitions Holdsclaw asserts. I am afraid we will not be talking about comparing TARP and PPP in terms of ROI. It will be a no-contest. And if that scenario of public health winning over the economic strength plays out to end up shutting down commerce, the country will be left with more than $3 trillion in additional debt (the CARES Act itself was $2.2 trillion, including PPP) bringing the country's total debt to more than $25 trillion. In comparison, the total value of goods and services produced in the country in 2019 was $21.4 trillion. John Coleman, a professor of macroeconomics at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, sees a broader problem with printing money, and going into debt to finance the private enterprise. Governments have always had a problem with time consistency. They would like to say, We will not bail you out ever again, to encourage good behavior, but if things go bad, the government steps in with a bailout, Coleman said. Thats generally a problem with government, which is a problem we just have to live with. Eamon Ryan will seek to persuade members to back the deal (Niall Carson/PA) More than 2,600 members of the Green Party will take part in Thursdays online conference on the Programme for Government deal. The conference is due to last a number of hours and will see Green Party leader Eamon Ryan try to persuade the partys members to back the deal. The Green Party requires two-thirds support from its members, a higher amount than the other parties, which means a deal could yet be scuppered as some grassroots Green Party members have expressed concerns about going into a coalition with two large centre-right parties. On Monday, almost all Green Party TDs supported the government formation blueprint, including deputy leader Catherine Martin. Green members in Northern Ireland are also entitled to vote on the agreement, including South Belfast MLA Clare Bailey. Meanwhile, the youth wing of Fine Gael said they will vote against the Programme for Government between Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party. It comes as the Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar warned of a political crisis if the membership of the three parties fail to endorse the programme for government deal. See our statement below on why our Executive Council members will be voting against the Programme for Government between Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party. pic.twitter.com/zS3YCUiUkl Young Fine Gael (@yfg) June 17, 2020 In a statement, the youth wing of Fine Gael said it would not be voting for the deal. It said: Fine Gael in Government over the last nine years have made transformative progress in this country economically and socially. As a party we believe Fine Gael is at its best when it governs responsibly and genuinely seeks a Republic built on equality and opportunity rather than equality of outcomes. It is our members view that these values and Fine Gaels distinct identity will be irreparably jeopardised by entering government with Fianna Fail and the Green Party. The youth wing of Fine Gael will vote against the programme for Government. Ogra Fianna Fail said they cannot "reconcile the neglect the country has endured under Fine Gael in government" but will respect members's views. https://t.co/11WmLinu5J Aine McMahon (@AineMcMahon) June 17, 2020 The youth wing of Fianna Fail (Fianna Fail Ogra) said it campaigned during the election not to enter Government with Fine Gael but it will respect the views of members. It said in a statement: We cannot reconcile the neglect the country has endured under Fine Gael in government. We fought and campaigned hard to remove them from office in this years general election. As a democratic organisation we respect and have acted on the vote taken by our members on February 29. I am confident that our members will debate the matter respectfully and with due diligence. We will respect and accept the result of the membership vote on this Programme for Government. The three parties will spend the next nine days persuading their respective memberships to back a deal to form a new coalition government. Mr Varadkar, Micheal Martin and Mr Ryan, finalised the deal to form a coalition government on Monday, more than four months on from Februarys inconclusive general election. The deal, which came after almost two months of negotiations between the parties, will now be put to their respective memberships for approval but each party has different rules. Fianna Fail needs a simple majority of its more than 15,000 members. Fine Gael has an electoral college system which gives greater weight to its TDs, senators and councillors than the party membership. If the deal is passed by the various memberships, it is expected that a new government will be in place for the end of June or the first week of July. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 16:58 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf8c8a0 1 National Supreme-Court,KPK,PLN,Sofyan-Basir,bribery-case Free The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down an appeal filed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) against a not-guilty verdict given to the former president director of state-run electricity company PLN, Sofyan Basir. Last year, the Jakarta Corruption Court cleared Sofyan of all charges in connection with bribery related to a coal-fired power plant (PLTU) project in Riau. The appeal was turned down because according to the judicial panel, the judex facti, or decision made by the Jakarta Corruption Court, was correct in front of the law, Supreme Court spokesperson Andi Samsan Nganro said on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com. According to Andi, the not-guilty verdict was the correct decision given that there was no evidence proving the involvement of Sofyan in the bribery case as stated on the indictment. Based on such findings, five panel-judges at the Supreme Court namely Sofyan Sitompul, Krisna Harahap, Abdul Latief, Leopold Luhut Hutagalung and Suhadi decided to turn down the appeal on Tuesday. "What was appealed by the [KPK] prosecutors has been proved based on facts and judged based on evidence," he said, indicating that Sofyan was innocent. Read also: Supreme acquittal At the time of writing, the KPK has not yet responded to The Jakarta Posts requests for comments on the matter. A panel of five judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Nov. 4, 2019 cleared Sofyan of all charges in connection with a bribery case that took place within the Riau-1 power plant project a coal-fired power plant (PLTU) project in Riau province. The KPK indicted him of organizing several meetings to accelerate the deliberation of the power plant project, which eventually led to a bribery scheme involving a businessman named Johannes Budisutrisno Kotjo and Golkar Party politicians Idrus Marham and Eni Maulani Saragih. Despite not having received any bribes himself, the KPK accused Sofyan of having knowledge about the illicit payments, thus demanded a five-year prison sentence and a Rp 200 million (US$ 14,144) fine for Sofyan. As the court argued that Sofyan had not broken any laws by accelerating the projects deliberation, then-KPK spokesperson Febri Diansyah pointed out how the judges did not consider the defendants role in accelerating the project by breaking some rules. (trn) Economist and lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Laud Mensa doubt if the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of defunct Menzgold Ghana, Nana Appiah Mensah could pay back all customers owed. He claims the speed at which Menzgold operated was questionable from the onset and could have been prevented by government to block the current situation. According to Dr. Laud Mensah some strict measures must be put in place in the financial sector to avoid future occurrences. The system isnt there, that is why they [Menzgold] found their way through. The country should be able to match up with the speed at which they were operating, he said. Payment impossible Speaking on NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie, the Economist did not give the aggrieved Menzgold customers any hopes of retrieving their money back from the Gold dealership firm. He was emphatic that their monies are now locked and any attempt to get it back will be difficult. The only option is to sell Menzgolds properties and it's likely those properties are rented so how are you going to sell that to pay customers? he questioned. Menzgold has paid over GH9.6 million to its customers NAM1 Menzgold Ghana CEO, Nana Appiah Mensah has revealed that his firm has paid over GH9.6 million to their customers even in their state of dormancy. In an open letter the CEO who is popularly referred to as NAM1 said: as of now, we hold documentary evidence, clearly showing that we have paid over 96 billion old cedis (GH9.6) even in our state of dormancy and continue to humbly make payments every now and then. We are capable, committed, and shall continue to appreciate the paid-up figure to a conservatively minimum amount of 600 billion old cedis (GH60million) before the end of the calendar month of December 2020 as we commence productivity, the statement added. Menzgold customers call for the immediate arrest of NAM1 A lavish artiste signing ceremony held in Accra over the weekend sparked fresh calls for Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM1 to be arrested. The Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold (CACM) who wonder how the man who has failed to pay them since their investments were locked up when the company collapsed years ago, is still throwing money around. They not only want him arrested immediately, but they also want all his properties confiscated. Menzgolds woes According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Menzgold is not licensed to deal in the purchase and deposit of gold collectibles from the public. Menzgold until it was shut down was dealing in the purchase and deposit of gold collectibles from the public and issuing contracts with guaranteed returns with clients. The SEC said this contravened section 109 of Act 929 with consequences under section 2016 (I) of the same Act. The company was however cleared to continue its other businesses of purchasing gold from small-scale miners and export of gold. It has however failed to fully pay its numerous aggrieved customers the value on their gold deposits as well as their entire investments. Customers have demonstrated and held press conferences to get their monies back over the past years. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Celebrity chef Pete Evans has purchased a home device to 'mitigate' the supposedly harmful effects of 5G. After courting controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic by railing against the new mobile technology, the avid conspiracy theorist, 47, said this week his 'biology of beliefs' had forced him to 'err on the side of the caution'. Discussing the matter with Jason Reynolds on his Evolve podcast, the former My Kitchen Rules star admitted he was aware his new purchase could just have a placebo effect, but he felt it was better to be 'safe than sorry'. 'I bought it because I wouldn't say I have a state of fear of 5G, but maybe it's better to be safe than sorry? And maybe this device that I've ordered could help mitigate it,' he said. His controversial comments come just days after Pete urged Black Lives Matters protesters to tear down 5G cell towers instead of colonial statues following a series of unfounded rants about how high-speed Internet spreads coronavirus. 'Better to be safe than sorry!' Celebrity chef and conspiracy theorist Pete Evans, 47, has purchased a home device to 'mitigate' the supposedly harmful effects of 5G Speaking about his bizarre new purchase on his podcast, Pete said: 'I just got a delivery today of a home device that potentially can help mitigate it [5G].' Noting that he wasn't completely sold on the product, he added: 'Because of the biology of my beliefs, it's good to know I have that in my home. 'Even though it might have a placebo effect, it could put me into a state of calmness and not worrying about 5G. The jury's out to a degree, but I'm on the side of caution.' Pete has previously suggested the technology is involved in the spread of coronavirus - despite the federal government declaring 5G safe and scientists saying its radiation is incapable of penetrating human tissue. There is zero evidence 5G towers negatively impact the immune system or help spread coronavirus. But in a post on his Instagram Stories on Monday afternoon, the divisive chef shared a meme calling on those defacing historic statues as part of the Black Lives Matter movement to instead focus their energy on destroying 5G infrastructure. Fake science:The avid conspiracy theorist (pictured on My Kitchen Rules in 2019 with Manu Feildel, left, and Colin Fassnidge, right) said his 'biology of beliefs' had forced him to 'err on the side of the caution' 'Caution': Discussing the matter on his Evolve podcast, the former Channel Seven star said he was aware his new purchase could have nothing more than a placebo effect 'Instead of tearing down old statues, if you could tear down those 5G towers that'd be great,' the meme referencing a scene from the 1999 movie Office Space read. The meme referred to the vandalism of historic statues globally amid race-related protests in recent weeks - allegedly including the Captain Cook statue in Sydney's Hyde Park in the early hours of Sunday morning. The post is the latest of a series of bizarre social media posts by the chef - who earlier this month endorsed US President Donald Trump's threat to use the military against Black Lives Matter protesters following the death of African-American man George Floyd. Mr Floyd died in the custody of four Minneapolis policemen - with officer Derek Chauvin charged with his murder after footage of him kneeling on Mr Floyd's throat for almost nine minutes went viral. Controversial: It comes after Pete (pictured with his wife, Nicola Robinson) took aim at Black Lives Matter protesters and called on them to tear down 5G towers Divisive: In a post on his Instagram Stories on Monday, the chef shared a meme encouraging Black Lives Matters protesters to divert their attention to destroying 5G towers The footage sparked outrage across the world and led to riots across the U.S., which Pete said he believed was part of a media conspiracy staged by 'the elite' to distract citizens from the coronavirus pandemic. In late May, Pete also threw his support behind a controversial protest against 5G and mandatory vaccinations - sharing a poster for the 'peaceful protest walk' to Facebook. 'Wish I could join you all today. These are happening around Australia. Please film it for your record,' he wrote. World events: A Black Lives Matter protester pictured in Sydney on June 6 Pictured: Conspiracy theorists campaigning against 5G technology in Australia He was released from his contract at Channel Seven following a spate of controversial and often dangerous statements - mostly relating to coronavirus conspiracy theories. Pete, who has also shared misleading information about immunisation, has insisted he is not an 'anti-vaxxer' but 'pro-choice'. Vaccinations are a simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against harmful diseases before they come into contact with them, the Australian Government says. The jabs protect individuals and others in the community, by reducing the spread of preventable diseases. Pete was also fined $25,200 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in April for promoting a lamp he claimed could help treat coronavirus. Pictured: Police stand guard at a statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park during a protest rally against Aboriginal deaths on June 12 Facts: Telecommunications workers on a mobile cell tower in Sydney's north. There is zero evidence 5G towers negatively impact the immune system or help spread COVID-19 PETE EVANS' CRITICISM OF MANDATORY VACCINATIONS Last month, the 47-year-old appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show to peddle a disproved theory linking vaccinations with behavioural changes in children. Evans, who has no medical training, said: 'I've met so many mothers and their children and they tell me, "Hey Pete, my boy or girl was a healthy, functioning beautiful child - and they're still a beautiful child - but something happened when they got a shot one day." 'And within two hours, 12 hours, 24, 48 hours, that little boy or girl completely changed their behaviour. And certainly changed their nature.' Evans (pictured) has previously linked vaccinations to autism in children. The condition is actually a developmental disorder that has no scientifically proven links to vaccinations There is no evidence that vaccines can cause such changes in children. The chef insists, however, that he is not an 'anti-vaxxer' but 'pro-choice'. Dr Harry Nespolon, the president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said last month he feared Evans was 'in trouble' and advised him to book an appointment with his GP. Advertisement The body of a teenage snorkeller has been found three weeks after he disappeared while diving off the Dorset coast. Oscar Montgomery, 17, from Birmingham, was last seen in the area of Church Ope Cove, off Portland, at around 5pm on May 27. His disappearance caused a massive search operation including helicopters from the coastguard, the navy and police, along with RNLI lifeboats and two navy warships. Oscar Montgomery, aged 17, was diving off the coast off Church Ope Cove on Wednesday 27 May 2020. Police and coastguard are seen at Portland Bill during the search for the missing snorkeler on May 28 Dorset Police received a report on Wednesday, June 17, that what was believed to be a body had been seen in the water. Having been recovered, it is awaiting formal identification, but is believed to be that of Oscar. His family has been informed. Chief Inspector Neil Wood, of Dorset Police, said: 'Our thoughts are with Oscar's family and loved ones at what must be a tremendously difficult time for them and we will support them in any way we can. 'I would like to thank all those who shared our appeal and everyone involved in the search efforts.' A coastguard helicopter takes part in the search for Oscar Montgomery in late May The 17-year-old was diving while snorkelling at Church Ope Cove in Portland Police had said that Oscar was with another person when he went snorkelling and the alarm was raised by a third party on behalf of the family. Oscar, from the Birmingham area, was wearing a wetsuit, black flippers and a black snorkel when he went missing. Oil dropped in Asia as fears of a resurgence of coronavirus in China cast fresh doubt on the demand outlook, and a report pointed to a further swelling in US crude stockpiles. Futures in New York fell as much as 1.8%, after ending Wednesdays session up 3.4%. Beijing said Tuesday it was shutting down schools because of the risk of a new wave of infections. A renewed outbreak would jeopardize the recovery in oil prices over the last two months -- spurred by record output cuts and signs that demand is slowly coming back as lockdowns are lifted. The American Petroleum Institute reported US crude stockpiles rose by 3.86 million barrels in the past week, according to people familiar. That follows US government data last week that showed inventories at a record-high 538.1 million barrels, despite American production having fallen by at least 2 million barrels a day since mid-March. Global oil demand will rebound next year as the world emerges from coronavirus lockdowns, but recovering to pre-crisis levels may take a couple of years, the International Energy Agency said. Top producers continue to curb their activity to counter the supply glut brought on by the pandemic. Saudi Arabias oil exports to the US are set to plunge to their lowest levels in 35 years this month, while three OPEC members identified by their peers as failing to bring production down to target levels in May appear to have begun improving their compliance in June. The market had been lifted earlier by a record jump in US retail sales and a report that the Trump administration is preparing a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure proposal to help revive the worlds biggest economy. The S&P 500 rallied, with energy, health care and materials leading all 11 industry sectors higher. Technical indicators suggest oils rally may fade. Brent crudes 14-day Relative Strength Index is nearing 70 once again, a level that signals its overbought and could be due for a retreat. Comment On Friday, Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini correctly postponed the opening of schools to allow better preparation and consultations with all stakeholders who have the responsibility to ensure that our children are safe from the virus in schools. We commend this cautious stance taken by the PM and Cabinet while trying to navigate unchartered territory to bring normality back to the lives of our children, just as they have done for our economy. However, the unrelenting COVID-19 infection figures make this task all the more daunting and the timing of the proposed new dates gives little comfort as July falls within winter; a season that medical experts call COVID-19 season.This is based on the experiences of countries that reported a sharp rise in cases during this period. Our Health Minister, Lizzie Nkosi, has also issued a warning that infection numbers are about to get worse before they get better following the opening up of the economy. phases Surely this suggests that we ought to allow these two phases to subside before throwing our children right in the middle of it all. Previously, it was believed that children were less likely to contract the virus but statistics show that about 18 per cent of the reported cases locally are those of children aged between 0-19 years. We are alive to the fact that many children were reliant on the school feeding programme to get a proper meal of the day. With government struggling to meet the food parcels demand across the country, the hunger situation for our young ones becomes a big concern. The reports emerging from our communities, show that the exercise is still wrought in confusion while rising infection among frontline workers is a puzzle that needs to be solved first. These challenges provide more reason for government not to add the burden of a pupils infection crisis while busy trying to solve others. Besides, winter would have ended by September and this is just around the corner. Therefore, it is certainly not too much to ask our PM and team to wait just a little while longer. Communities near the 419 national parks across the U.S. have a steep climb to return to pre-coronavirus levels of spending by visitors to the parks. According to the just-released 2019 National Park Visitor Spending effects report, last year visitors brought $41.7 billion benefit to those communities, supporting 340,500 jobs. In Pennsylvania last year, 10.2 million visitors spent an estimated $479 million in gateway regions while visiting National Park Service lands in Pennsylvania. That supported 7,560 jobs, $263 million in labor income and $711 million in total economic output in the states economy. The top NPS sites in Pennsylvania for visitor spending were Independence in Philadelphia, $270 million; Delaware Water Gap, $118 million; Gettysburg, $60.3 million; Valley Forge, $29.2 million; and Flight 93, $24.5 million. Nationally visitor spending jumped by $800 million from 2018 to 2019 and the overall effect on the U.S. economy grew by $1.6 billion. In the past five years visitor spending has increased $4.1 billion and the effect on the U.S. economy has grown by $9.7 billion. More than 327 million visitors spent $21 billion in communities within 60 miles of a park in 2019. Of the 340,500 jobs supported by visitor spending, more than 278,000 were in communities adjacent to parks. According to the report, those numbers were a continuation of growth from 282,765,682 visitors spending $14.7 billion and supporting 242,712 jobs in 2012. Lodging expenses account for the largest share of visitor spending nationwide, totaling $7.1 billion in 2019. The restaurant sector had the next greatest effects with $4.2 billion in economic output. Motor vehicle fuel expenditures were $2.16 billion with retail spending at $1.93 billion. Last year, Grand Canyon National Park attracted nearly 6 million visitors who spent more than $890 million, supporting 11,806 jobs and generating a $1.1 billion total economic output. Grand Portage National Monument recorded approximately 94,985 recreation visitors who spent an estimated $6,208,000. That spending supported 78 jobs and more than a $6 million total economic output. For more information, visitor the National Park Service website. If quality nature and outdoor journalism like this is important to you, please consider supporting our work. We need your support. Have an outdoor or nature question, or something to share? Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com. The crystal blue waters of Pangong, the world's highest saltwater lake, rest like a jewel in the glacial landscape of Ladakh in the Himalayas. Each year, thousands of people flock here to savour its pristine beauty, most of them blithely unaware, as they pose for selfies, that they stand in one of the most dangerous places on the planet a trigger point for a nuclear catastrophe. And this week, detonation came a step closer as Asia's two mega-states India and China traded, quite literally, blows. On Tuesday night, at least 20 Indian soldiers died, including a colonel, and an unknown number of Chinese troops were killed after a month-long standoff erupted high on a cliff top as temperatures plummeted. After a fatal shooting in 1975, the military on both sides often go unarmed as they patrol the remote and hotly disputed border, and this conflict was fought hand to hand over several hours with batons, rocks, fence posts and clubs wrapped in barbed wire. If it were not so deadly serious, it would be comical. Indian army soldiers ride in a convoy along a highway leading towards Leh, bordering China, in Gagangir on Wednesday Albert Einstein once predicted that if World War III was fought with nuclear weapons, then World War IV would be fought with clubs and rocks. China and India have reversed Einstein's order of conflict, but they have not reduced the risk of nuclear war. Emotions in both countries have been newly stirred by this primeval violence. Beijing insists that Indian soldiers had 'crossed the border line twice . . . provoking and attacking Chinese personnel'. For its part, New Delhi counters that the clash was the result of China trying to 'unilaterally change the status quo there'. In the West, over several decades, we got so used to anticipating and avoiding the 'big one' conflict between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union that we tended to discount other simmering potential atomic wars. Yes, North Korea's nuclear bombast grabs our attention intermittently, while India and Pakistan have danced on the nuclear tightrope too often for comfort. But the nuclear-armed elephant in the room is the rumbling rivalry between India and China. It is indeed epic: the former is the biggest democracy in the world, and the other is the world's biggest dictatorship. Both nations have been building up nuclear arsenals and delivery systems in recent years, but an imbalance exists that makes the situation even more precarious. India has about 140 warheads (and a nuclear-capable submarine which could carry 12 missiles, but is not yet armed), and depends on manned bombers to deliver them to targets deep in China. Given China knows the location of India's bases, it could launch a pre-emptive first strike. Even if the bombers got airborne, they could be shot down by Chinese air defences in a war. China has more than double the number of India's warheads around 300 and its strategy is based on the destruction of key urban centres which, it believes, would terrify an opponent into passive, appeasing mode. When it comes to launching weapons, China also has a bigger range of options, including bombers and submarines. It has up to 75 intercontinental missiles in silos and solid-fuel mobile rockets. In April, images of scores of these weapons deployed in Inner Mongolia were leaked deliberately just to let the U.S. and India know what they were up against before they were removed from sight. Indian army soldiers stand around the coffin of their colleague, who was killed in a border clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh region So China has the ability to strike all over India and India has no effective missile defence. And, let's not forget, China has nuclear-armed Pakistan as an ally at India's rear. This increases the risk that India might feel pressured to strike first before its bases could be knocked out by China and Pakistan, triggering massive Chinese retaliation. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic for which, with good cause, the country is blamed China has been adopting a more aggressive global policy, be it so-called 'wolf-warrior diplomacy' with the West, or pressurising developing countries to sign up to its global development strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative, in return for investment. It has boosted its naval presence in the South China Sea and around the breakaway island of Taiwan. In Hong Kong, it has introduced draconian security laws that trash the territory's constitution and the 'one country, two systems' style of government that allowed democratic freedoms unheard of in mainland China. And it has relentlessly increased troop numbers in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas, even as India has been investing in new roads to facilitate rapid military deployment to challenge the threat. Last month, China upped the ante when patrols crossed the border catching India off guard to take up strategic positions on its rival's territory. Now we have the most serious confrontation since the two nations went to war over Ladakh in 1962. Not only would such an all-out conflict be devastating for billions of people in Asia, it would force the West and Russia to choose sides. Deterrence would go out of the window and the law of the nuclear jungle would prevail. The disputed border in the high Himalayas is not just symbolic for chest-beating patriots on both sides. Its glaciers provide water to hundreds of millions of Indians. New Delhi fears China and its ally, Pakistan, which confronts India on another ill-defined border in Kashmir, are planning to use their control of headwaters to blackmail India downstream. Activists of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shout slogans as they burn posters and an effigy of Chinese President Xi Jinping during an anti-China protest in Siliguri on Wednesday China certainly has form on this. Its dams on the mighty Mekong River which rise in Tibet have dramatically cut the water's flow through Laos and Cambodia to Vietnam, leaving Beijing in effective control of its neighbours' water supply. Oil has caused wars in recent history, but the battle for control of Asia's water could trigger nuclear conflict. Nor is it any coincidence that Beijing's close ally, North Korea, has become aggressive once more towards the South. It is highly unlikely Kim Jong-un and his powerful sister, Kim Yo-jong a nuclear-armed Bonnie and Clyde would this week have blown up a 'liaison office' in the tense demilitarised zone that divides their tyranny from the South without China's nod. China and India will always rub up against each other. But New Delhi and Beijing must take a step back from the brink and wind back the nuclear clock ticking close to midnight. Britain can't separate itself from this crisis given the millions of Britons with Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Nepalese family backgrounds who will be highly concerned at events. But the West in general needs to shift its focus from the coronavirus momentarily to help. Our democracies must show solidarity with India possibly the only way to head off what would be the worst war in the world's history. WATERLOO REGION Up until a week ago, Kathy Ziegler thought shed be wishing her dad a happy 90th birthday over a video call, or possibly through a window at Barnswallow Place nursing home in Elmira. Provided her test for COVID-19 comes back negative, she may be able to see him in person for the first time in three months and wish him happy birthday to his face. On Thursday, long-term care homes, retirement homes and other residential care homes across the province will be permitted to resume visits with restrictions allowing residents to see friends and family in person. Were thrilled to be able to see them in person, Ziegler said. Her parents live together in the home and while shes had virtual visits and seen them through a window, its not the same as seeing them in real life. For her, an in-person visit will give her reassurance that her parents are OK. For her parents, who dont always understand the safety measures around COVID-19, it will remind them that theyre not alone. Before homes around the region allow these visits, strict public health measures need to be put be in place. As COVID-19 spread across the country, the majority of deaths caused by the virus were in long-term care homes. Visitors will have to be screened before each visit and confirm with staff theyve tested negative for COVID-19 within the past two weeks. Physical distancing rules will still be in place and visitors will be asked to bring and wear face coverings. Long-term care home visits will be outside. Retirement home visits may be outside or inside, depending on the home. In Waterloo Region, Forest Heights Revera long-term care home is still experiencing an outbreak and will not be allowed to have visitors until that is resolved. Sunnyside Home in Kitchener has published guidelines online on how outdoor visits will work. Visits will be 30 minutes, must be booked in advance and will be between one visitor and one resident. Administrator Julie Wheeler said the home is prepared to begin these visits on Thursday, and if outdoor visits cant take place due to weather or any other reason, a window visit will be offered as an alternative. Father Toby Collins said he is excited to see his 92-year-old grandmother in the coming weeks. The pastor of St. Marys Roman Catholic Church said even though both of them will be wearing masks, the eye contact between them will mean so much. I just look forward to seeing her face light up, you know? I havent seen her in three months, except through a window. Jim McLeod just got his negative test results back on Wednesday. The 80-year-old is looking forward to seeing his wife again whos currently receiving long-term care at Hilltop Manor in Cambridge. The couple has been married for more than 60 years but they live in different places. He lives at Fairview Mennonite Home and has been pushing for Joan to be moved to Fairviews long-term care facility. Shes been on the waiting list for the past three years. He used to visit Joan in person, but now he calls her three times a day and sees her occasionally on virtual calls. Last Thursday marked the first time residents at the home were allowed to leave the property without needing to self-isolate for 14 days, he said. He said it will be nice to see his wife in person again but hed rather have her living at Fairview so they can actually be together. For those looking to visit with loved ones in long-term care homes, retirement homes and residential care homes, contact the facility first to understand the safety protocols in place. Visitor admissions may vary from home to home. ALBANY Black-owned businesses in the Capital Region are the focus of a new online directory compiled by the Albany-based Center for Economic Growth, the Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy, and by Shanekia McIntosh of itheabstract on Instagram and Ada Harper of 518Blk. The directory includes a map and a sorting tool to find businesses by community or by type of service. The lists can be printed out, and users are encouraged to add companies that aren't yet listed. Services include restaurants, moving companies, marketing and creative firms, artists, and transportation services. The list can be found here: https://www.upstatecreative.org/capny-essentials-a-guide-to-black-owned-businesses-and-black-led-organizations/ Minority-owned businesses increased by 19.2 percent from 2012 to 2017, to 1,997, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Business Survey. The survey covers what's known as the Albany-Schenectady Combined Statistical Area, made up of Albany, Columbia, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington counties. The survey found women-owned businesses rose by 12.5 percent to 4,121. Minority Business Enterprises, which also include Asian, Hispanic and Native American-owned businesses, now make up nearly one in 10 businesses, while women-owned businesses make up one-fifth of all businesses, according to the Center for Economic Growth. The Center for Economic Growth is working with KeyBank on a program called KeyBank Business Boost & Build, which provides CEG-hosted workshops, one-on-one consultations and technical support. The program, funded by KeyBank, served 104 entrepreneurs last year. For David Anderson, who owns Anderson Construction Corp. in Cohoes, the directory provides a chance to get the word out about his business, which he launched 2 1/2 years ago. Anderson has spent 15 years in the construction business, but says coping with the COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge. The eight-employee company had to lay off two workers. Grants from the Small Business Administration's Payroll Protection Program and from the Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region and KeyBank helped the company survive at a point when the economy basically came to a halt. The support "did help us pay some bills," he said Wednesday, and the recovery is moving along smoothly. Anderson, a carpenter by trade, said his company is wrapping up two commercial projects in Schenectady and other work in the Capital Region, and he's looking to add workers. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Kaciem Swain of Capital Curbside in Albany has teamed up with the Tech Valley Hospitality Shuttle, drawing on its fleet and drivers to deliver meals from local restaurants. Capital Curbside launched with the delivery of South End Night Market orders in Albany's South End and plans to work with restaurants, farms, and liquor stores to get orders to customers. The Night Market, at Grand and Warren Streets in th Radix Ecological Sustainability Center, operates from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays. Swain says his company is in the logistics business and looks to partner with restaurants. Capital Curbside is also in the directory, listed under delivery services. More details: capitalcurbside.com Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP >> Newtown Township will be applying for federal funding to bolster its career firefighting force. And its crossing its fingers and hoping the third times a charm. At its Jan. 12 meeting, the board of supervisors voted unanimously to resubmit its SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to... This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here. Yupadee Kobkulboonsiri made fantastical jewelry neck cuffs with silver springs ending in pearls that looked like asteroids, necklaces that looped over a shoulder and erupted in diamonds and pearls. She won awards at every trade competition she entered. She transformed everyday objects into artworks, too. She would buy sandals and weave shells into them. She would crochet flowers with saffron yellow yarn for the Buddhist temples she frequented (and knit tissue-box covers for the monks there). She could peel an apple in one stroke with her eyes closed. Ms. Kobkulboonsiri was 51 when she died on April 27 at Woodhull Medical Center in Brooklyn. Steven Fishman, her husband, said the cause was the novel coronavirus. It is not the same thing as testing for a current or active COVID-19 infection that typically involves a swab up the nose. Do not show up to a blood donation site if you are sick or suspect you have a current case of COVID-19. In other diseases, the presence of antibodies indicates that people will have some protection from future infection. In the case of COVID-19, it is not yet known how much protection those antibodies provide against the disease or how long any protection might last. But worldwide, health officials hope that the antibody tests could be a tool in helping to determine when its safe to lift social distancing measures and return to work. Blood donations, which are routinely tested for a number of different infectious diseases, also will undergo antibody testing. Results should be available in seven to 10 days and can be accessed through the Red Crosss blood donation app or the donor portal on the Red Cross website. A positive antibody test result does not confirm infection or immunity, the Red Cross cautioned in a press release. The fungus that causes the deadly bat disease white-nose syndrome has been detected for the first time in Montana. Samples taken from bridges in Daniels, Richland and Fallon counties tested positive for the fungus. However, the detection does not necessarily confirm the presence of white-nose syndrome and biologists are planning additional investigation, including searching for dead bats. Last month the North Dakota Game and Fish Department reported a cluster of bat deaths from white-nosed syndrome just over the Montana border. Of the 20 dead bats, six were submitted and all tested positive for the fungus and the disease. We usually see the fungus about one or two years before bat mortalities, FWPs Nongame Wildlife Management Bureau chief Lauri Hanauska-Brown said. The trick here is we know it killed bats 30 miles east of the (Montana) border and weve never sampled these (Montana) sites before. The disease has been in North America since at least 2006, killing an estimated 6.7 million bats. It has been confirmed in 35 states and seven Canadian provinces. It can wipe out entire colonies of bats and has caused dramatic population declines in eastern states. As some of natures best insect controllers, that has everyone from biologists to the agricultural industry concerned and tracking the disease. Hanauska-Brown noted that in some locations in the east, tens of thousands of dead bats have been recorded. The powdery white fungus grows on the skin of hibernating bats, often on the face. The fungus causes a number of problems, one of which is that it irritates bats, causing them to arouse early from hibernation and search for water and food. Food is obviously scarce in winter, and this early arousal can exhaust fat stores that bats need to survive the winter. Biologists in Montana have expected to reach the state particularly after neighboring states saw detections in recent years. The disease is tracked by county and although Montana is now considered a positive state for the fungus, it does not immediately trigger management action from state officials beyond further surveillance and testing. Unlike bats in many areas which tend to hibernate in large colonies in caves, Montanas 15 species of bats prefer smaller numbers in places like cracks in limestone canyons and some roost in trees. But biologists do not yet know if that will help mitigate the disease in the state. We can hope that the disease moves through and because we dont have these dense populations, we can hope the disease moves through, Hanauska-Brown said, adding that biologists are also questioning whether Montanas caves may be too dry or the wrong temperature range to support the fungus. The largest hibernating population in Montana is about 2,000 animals, she said. FWP has temporarily halted the capture of all live bats due to unknown risks of COVID-19-infected humans inadvertently transferring the virus to bats. Biologists are now collecting bat droppings in eastern Montana. White-nose syndrome is not known to affect humans, pets, livestock or other wildlife. FWP asks anyone who sees a sick or recently deceased bat or group of bats not to handle them but to notify health officials or state biologists, who can provide further guidance. Callers can reach FWP at 406-247-2966 in FWPs Region 5, 406-228-3725 in FWPs Region 6, or at 406-234-0948 in FWPs Region 7. Reporter Tom Kuglin can be reached at 447-4076 @IR_TomKuglin You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. 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. Chan Mi received a call from Mr. Dong announcing Chief Seo's dead body is found at one of the hideouts. They identified Kwang HITECH researcher Ok Chul is the high profile criminal Michael. Ok Chul only had three days to escape the country for safety bringing with him the tech chip. He plans to eliminate Chan Mi before he flies out. The agents are trying to find any leads from Chief Seo's dying message. They found out that Chief Seo left a phone secretly hidden in a plant. The phone contains a voice recording from Director Myeong, and it also shows his illegal transactions with Michael. Director Myeong was held at NIS for interrogation. Using the recording evidence, the NIS team arrested him for the illegal transaction of company property. Il Kwang HITECH is under scrutiny as one of their top-secret technology leaked out to the public. The stock market and company shares went down. Hwa Ran is on her plan to oust CEO Seok Ho. Seok Ho chose to step down to protect Chan Mi and put on hold the Good Casting mission in catching the culprit Michael. He went to meet Myeong at the NIS to verify if he killed his father. Myeong informed him that there are people who were after his father that got him killed. "White Collar" mafia group was held responsibly by Seok Ho's father to protect classified information. Kang Won prepared a romantic surprise for Ye-Eun as he confessed his love. A full candle set up at the entrance with decorated balloons placed in the living room. Kang Won played the piano while singing a romantic song. He approached Ye-Eun with a cake, and as he expressed his feelings. However, Ye-Eun rejected him. Ye-Eun reminisced about the times she had with Kang Won. She smiled in silence. Kang Won asked her response, but Ye-Eun pretended not to feel anything towards him. He got pissed that his feelings were rejected, so Kang Won kissed Ye-Eun. To her surprise, a second kiss happened, but she fled from the place, leaving Kang Won frustrated. The prosecutor's office interrogated Seok Ho for the technology leak that caused a huge loss for the company. Myeong allegedly made Seok Ho responsible for the loss as the CEO, but Seok Ho gives another evidence to the prosecutor that may help him win the case. The good casting team is getting ready for their trip to Jeju island. They are pursuing the Chinese national Wang Kai that Ok Chul transacted with for the tech chip worth of millions. The team arrived in Jeju island and started their mission at the hotel where Wang Kai stayed. Mi Soon and Ye-Eun played at the Casino, keeping Wang Kai busy, while Chan Mi looked for this laptop in his hotel room. Chan Mi found the laptop and copied the files in her USB, but Wang Kai is smart enough to put a video to monitor his room. Wang Kai instructed one of his men to work on Chan Mi. Meanwhile, Mi Soon and Ye-Eun are in trouble as Wang Kai found them to be fake game players. The Supreme Court Tuesday sought response from the Centre and the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) on a plea alleging violation of provisions of Mental health law, which deals with the right to equality and non-discrimination. A bench of Justices RF Nariman, Navin Sinha and BR Gavai issued a notice on the plea and sought their responses. New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday sought response from the Centre and the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) on a plea alleging violation of provisions of Mental health law, which deals with the right to equality and non-discrimination. A bench of Justices RF Nariman, Navin Sinha and BR Gavai issued a notice on the plea and sought their responses. During the hearing, advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, appearing as petitioner in-person, said that Section 21 (4) of Mental Health Act 2017 provides for inclusion of mental illness in insurance policies but till date because of the red tape attitude of IRDA, the provision has not been complied with. He said the failure of IRDA in not regulating insurance companies to implement section 21 (4) of Mental Health Act 2017, is creating lot of hardship to mentally ill persons. Bansal said the grievance is that despite having specific provisions under the law, IRDA is reluctant in taking immediate action. The bias of IRDA is in itself discrimination against persons with mental illness and as such is causing immense hardship for persons with mental illness. Instead of levying punishment on Insurers for not including the provision of the Mental Health Care Act, 2017, IRDA is bypassing its responsibilities, he said. Bansal pointed out that IRDA was formed with the prime mission to protect the interests of the policy- holders but its acts seem to divert from its main motive. That one of the Right which Mental Healthcare Act2017 provides is that insurer is directed to not to discriminate with Person with Mental Illness (PMI) only on the basis of mental illness and as such is further mandated by the Parliament of India to treat Persons with Mental illness alike others as far as medical insurance is concerned, the plea said. It said that following the enactment of law, IRDA had on August 16, 2018 issued a circular to all the insurers to comply with the provisions of the Mental Health Act, 2017. Bansal said that in order to check out the end result of Circular of August 16, 2018 issued by IRDA, he filed an application dated January 10, 2019 under section 6 of the Right to Information Act 2005. It is respectfully submitted that on dated February 6, 2019, Respondent No. 02 (IRDA) replied to the RTI January 10, wherein it was informed that till date none of the Insurers have implemented the order dated August 16, 2018 issued by IRDA, the plea said, adding, that the insurance regulator did not taken any action against any of the insurer for non-implementation of its order. The plea added, Despite of the fact that one year has passed, situation as far as implementation of Section 21 (4) of MHCA 2017 remains the same and what surprised the petitioner is that instead of regulating insurance companies, Respondent No. 02 is acting more like a facilitator for Insurers. Bansal said his grievances are that despite having specific provisions under the law, IRDA is reluctant in taking immediate action. The plea sought direction to IRDA to implement provisions of Mental Healthcare Act-2017 in letter and spirit and submit an action taken report. Since the 1980s, researchers have been running experiments in search of particles that make up dark matter, an invisible substance that permeates our galaxy and universe. Coined dark matter because it gives off no light, this substance, which constitutes more than 80 percent of matter in our universe, has been shown repeatedly to influence ordinary matter through its gravity. Scientists know it is out there but do not know what it is. So researchers at Caltech, led by Kathryn Zurek, a professor of theoretical physics, have gone back to the drawing board to think of new ideas. They have been looking into the possibility that dark matter is made up of "hidden sector" particles, which are lighter than particles proposed previously, and could, in theory, be found using small, underground table-top devices. In contrast, scientists are searching for heavier dark matter candidates called WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) using large-scale experiments such as XENON, which is installed underground in a 70,000-gallon tank of water in Italy. "Dark matter is always flowing through us, even in this room" says Zurek, who first proposed hidden sector particles over a decade ago. "As we move around the center of the galaxy, this steady wind of dark matter mostly goes unnoticed. But we can still take advantage of that source of dark matter, and design new ways to look for rare interactions between the dark matter wind and the detector." In a new paper accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters, the physicists outline how the lighter-weight dark matter particles could be detected via a type of quasiparticle known as a magnon. A quasiparticle is an emergent phenomenon that occurs when a solid behaves as if it contains weakly interacting particles. Magnons are a type of quasiparticle in which electron spins--which act like little magnets--are collectivity excited. In the researchers' idea for a table-top experiment, a magnetic crystalized material would be used to look for signs of excited magnons generated by dark matter. "If the dark matter particles are lighter than the proton, it becomes very difficult to detect their signal by conventional means," says study author Zhengkang (Kevin) Zhang, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. "But, according to many well-motivated models, especially those involving hidden sectors, the dark matter particles can couple to the spins of the electrons, such that once they strike the material, they will induce spin excitations, or magnons. If we reduce the background noise by cooling the equipment and moving it underground, we could hope to detect magnons generated solely by dark matter and not ordinary matter." Such an experiment is only theoretical at this point but may eventually take place using small devices housed underground, likely in a mine, where outside influences from other particles, such as those in cosmic rays, can be minimized. One telltale sign of a dark matter detection in the table-top experiments would be changes to the signal that depend on the time of day. This is due to the fact that the magnetic crystals that would be used to detect the dark matter can be anisotropic, meaning that the atoms are naturally arranged in such a way that they tend to interact with the dark matter more strongly when the dark matter comes in from certain directions. "As Earth moves through the galactic dark matter halo, it feels the dark matter wind blowing from the direction into which the planet is moving. A detector fixed at a certain location on Earth rotates with the planet, so the dark matter wind hits it from different directions at different times of the day, say, sometimes from above, sometimes from the side," says Zhang. "During the day, for example, you may have a higher detection rate when the dark matter comes from above than from the side. If you saw that, it would be pretty spectacular and a very strong indication that you were seeing dark matter." The researchers have other ideas about how dark matter may reveal itself, in addition to through magnons. They have proposed that the lighter dark matter particles could be detected via photons as well as with another type of quasiparticle called a phonon, which is caused by vibrations in a crystal lattice. Preliminary experiments based on photons and phonons are underway at UC Berkeley, where the team was based prior to Zurek joining the Caltech faculty in 2019. The researchers say that the use of these multiple strategies to look for dark matter is crucial because they complement each other and would help confirm each other's results. "We're looking into new ways to look for dark matter because, given how little we know about dark matter, it's worth considering all the possibilities," says Zhang. The study, titled, "Detecting Light Dark Matter with Magnons," was funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Another co-author of the study is Tanner Trickle, a graduate student at UC Berkeley. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 04:45:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RAMALLAH, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila on Wednesday warned about an acute increase of COVID-19 cases in the Palestinian territories. Al-Kaila issued the warning in a press release after 45 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in the West Bank in the past 24 hours, raising the total number in the Palestinian territories to 745. Since March 5, 570 have recovered from the virus and five died, with 170 still receiving medical care, she noted. "Infections increased following our attempt to bring daily life in Palestine to normal to balance economy and health. But unfortunately, the medical protocol was not implemented," said al-Kaila. She called on the Palestinians to abide by social distancing and wearing gloves and facemasks "which should be a basic and important part of their daily life." Ignoring the precautionary measures "will certainly cause a dramatic increase in the number of infected cases," she noted. The Palestinian health minister, however, ruled out a full closure in the West Bank. Enditem Prime Impact Fund, a Cambridge, Mass.-based early-stage venture capital firm focused on breakthrough climate technologies, closed its fund with approximately $50m in capital raised. Family offices, corporations, and foundations such as the Sierra Club Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation have backed Prime Impact Fund to support high-risk, high-reward climate ventures. Additionally, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has joined the fund to be among a select group of major investments that advance the global Catalytic Capital Consortium initiative. Since operationalizing in October 2018, the Fund has made investments in eight climate tech startups: Lilac Solutions; Via Separations; C-Motive Technologies; MicroByre; Verdox; Treau; Sublime Systems; and Clean Crop Technologies. Led by Matthew Nordan, Managing Director, Amy Duffuor, Principal, and Dr. Johanna Wolfson, Principal, Prime Impact Fund is an initiative of Prime Coalition, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit addressing critical funding gaps for climate solutions. Prior to the Fund, Prime Coalition developed its unique investment approach through syndication, mobilizing $24 million to fund 10 climate tech startups with large-scale impact potential. FinSMEs 16/06/2020 Theyre called stories with a hole. They were used in schools to teach children logical progression and complex thought. The trick is to figure out whats missing and fill the hole. In a story that was mostly about drug arrests of two Bethlehem men after city police said a large stash of narcotics were found April 23 in an Allentown hotel room, there was a subplot about multiple incidents of shots fired on April 22 on Bethlehems north side. The April 24 report on lehighvalleylive.com on the arrests contained the following line: Further details of the shots fired incidents have not been released by police. Thats a pretty big hole. Well, in arrest warrants filed Tuesday in District Judge Vivian Zumas court in Hanover Township, Northampton County, Bethlehem police fill in much of the gap in the April story. As a result, Giavanna Aigne Angstadt, 20, of the 3400 block of Cambridge Circle in South Whitehall Township; Julius Jared Berghold, 22, of the same address, and Paul J. Dunski, 23, of the 200 block of Krocks Road in Upper Macungie Township, are charged with robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, court papers say. Angstadt and Berghold on Wednesday morning were in Lehigh County Jail, records show. Dunskis whereabout werent clear. Bethlehem police say they have interviewed all three -- Dunski more than once. The story begins on April 22 with Dunski driving Berghold and Angstadt in a brown Chevrolet truck so Berghold can buy $60 worth of Xanax from Joevanni Vazquez, 19, of the 1500 block of High Street in Bethlehem, police said. Vazquez, one of the two men arrested April 23 on numerous drug charges and who was initially jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail but has since been released to an apparent rehab program, admitted he sold the Xanax, police said. From the interviews with the trio, it is alleged that a plot to rob Vazquez was cooked up later that day and involved at least one juvenile, police said. Dunski arranged another Xanax purchase from Vazquez, saying hed be waiting in a green Honda, police said. When Vazquez showed up, he parked behind a green Honda near his home, police said. A brown Chevy truck was parked nearby, police said, according to Vazquezs accounting. Realizing the car was empty, Vazquez went back to his vehicle and saw a group walking toward him, police said. As Vazquez got in his vehicle, a male showed a handgun and demanded Vazquez, Give me everything or Ill shoot, court papers say. Vazquez instead drove off and a single shot shattered the rear window, police said. A chase began and along the way, someone else called Vazquez to tell him someone had shot at Vazquezs home, police said. Calls to the 911 center started to arrive at 10:45 p.m., first outlining gunfire at West Elizabeth Avenue and Lenox Street and then not far away in the 1500 block of High, police said. On West Elizabeth, which is not far from High, a resident reported a vehicle was chasing another vehicle and firing gunshots at that vehicle, court papers say. A parked vehicle and a home were struck by gunfire, police said. Four shell casings were recovered in the 1500 block of High and at least one home was struck by gunfire, police said. One neighbor recalled hearing a single gunshot about 30 minutes earlier in the 1500 block of High -- possibly the one that hit Vazquezs window. In both cases on High Street, a vehicle is seen or heard pulling away right after, police said. In what appears to be the second incident of gunfire on High Street, a juvenile told police on April 23 that he had just been dropped off on April 22 on that block when he saw a small, dark colored Honda sedan pull up and stop in front of a house, police said. Someone inside the car asked Is that bull? and then the Honda drove off, only to turn around and head back toward the home, police said. The juvenile got scared, ran toward the back of the home and heard four or five gunshots, police said. Neighbors recalled what police said were a series of gunshots, court papers say. Joevanni suspected that Julius Berghold and Paul Dunski set him up for robbery due the earlier transaction with Julius Berghold and the presence of the same brown Chevrolet truck on both occasions, police said in court papers. The versions from the three police interviews are not quote the same, but court papers say a juvenile friend of Angstadt contacted her and asked her to set up a buy with Vazquez, court papers say. Berghold, who is Angstadts boyfriend, had a $300 drug debt to the juvenile, police said. Berghold told police that he told the juvenile hed participate in the robbery to absolve the debt, court papers say. Berghold and Angstadt rode in the Honda with with the juvenile and two other males, but after one of the unidentified males fired a shot, Berghold and Angstadt got in Dunskis truck and left, police said. In a second interview with police, Dunski said that after the first Xanax buy, Angstadt called stating her and Julius Bergholds intent to rob Joevanni Vazquez, court papers say. Dunski admitted he sent the text message to set up the robbery, police said. So, in the end, a hole remains: Who fired the shots? But much of the rest of the story has come into focus over the past two months, according to what police said in court papers. 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. Tensions After 15-Year-Old Killed in Melbourne Police are trying to calm tensions in Melbournes west after a 15-year-old boy was killed outside a suburban shopping centre in an alleged brawl with a group of teens, some as young as 13. Solomone Taufeulungaki was stabbed to death outside Brimbank Shopping Centre in Deer Park on Tuesday afternoon. It is alleged he was approached by a group of eight to 10 youths wielding knives opposite his familys place of worship, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every Sunday my son come to this church. I believe maybe every Sunday his spirit (will) join with us in this true church, his father Atunaisa Taufeulungaki told reporters on Wednesday. The shattered parents of a 15-year-old fatally stabbed in Deer Park say they forgive his killers. Solomone Taufeulungaki was on his way home from school when police alleged he was targeted by boys as young as 13. @LanaMurphy #9News pic.twitter.com/XB7PvDn0pG Nine News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) June 17, 2020 As for those behind his sons death, he said: We love them. We need to send love to their parents. The grief-stricken family laid yellow and blue flowers at the site where he died. The site has become a makeshift shrine to the teenager, with a steady stream of mourners arriving throughout the day to pay their respects and leave flowers, balloons and notes. His mother, Salome Taufeulungaki, said the family does not want revenge. We want our son back home. Hes a lovely kid. No revenge, she told Melbourne radio 3AW. Six teenage boys, aged between 13 and 16, have faced a Childrens Court charged with violent disorder and affray over the incident. No one has yet been charged over his death. In an effort to prevent further violence of possible reprisal attacks, police said the area around the crime scene could be declared a designated area in the coming days. The move, usually reserved for special events or protests, would allow officers to stop anyone at random and search for weapons. This is an option available to us based on the intelligence received, which gives police further powers to conduct searches for weapons, a post on the Eyewatch Brimbank Police Facebook page reads. Police said they are also speaking with friends, families, schools and community leaders who are known to the young people involved to alleviate tensions and ensure theyre aware of the behaviour and the risks involved with any further violence. Rest assured we are doing everything we can to put a stop to this behaviour, they said. It comes after three people were arrested when a fight broke out at the scene, between about 30 people, just hours after Solomone was killed. They have since been released. A police officer was taken to hospital and another man was treated for a cut to the head during the fight, with footage of it on social media showing people running into the taped-off crime scene. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page has been set up to help Solomones family pay for funeral costs. The fundraiser describes him as a caring, kind, selfless and humble soul. He had an incomparable sense of humour and was often referred to as a big teddy bear, it read. He always put others before himself and his presence always warmed up a room. More than $15,000 has been raised in five hours. By Benita Kolovos and Christine McGinn The Barnes Firm coronavirus lawyers are representing and helping families who have been wrongfully exposed to the COVID-19 virus. Even given all the shelter-in-place orders, you really cant wait when it comes to contacting a lawyer. Also, getting medical treatment can be a great hurdle for our clients and we are here to assist, said Landon Vivian, injury attorney for The Barnes Firm in the Bay Area. On ABC 7 News in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of The Barnes Firms best injury lawyers, Landon Vivian, explained how theyve adapted to working through COVID-19 to protect client interests. The Barnes Firm coronavirus lawyers are representing and helping families who have been wrongfully exposed to the COVID-19 virus. Many people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 in nursing homes, senior care centers, prisons, holding centers, and many other facilities have reached out to The Barnes Firm. Their COVID-19 lawyers are focusing on what was done and what could have been done reasonably to prevent that exposure from occurring, and that is a major focal point as they advance in these cases. The Barnes Firm injury attorneys are here to answer any questions for family members who have lost a loved one to the Coronavirus: Whos responsible? What can be done? Why wasnt my family protected from COVID-19? Each county in California has different rules in place and The Barnes Firm will look to show where their client came into contact with the person who exposed them to COVID-19. Attorney Vivian mentions that each case is unique and it is important to gather all facts and conduct a proper investigation. Attorney Landon Vivian advises not to wait when it comes to contacting a lawyer to advocate for your rights. They can also help with getting medical treatment to decrease disruption to cases. Even given all the shelter-in-place orders, you really cant wait when it comes to contacting a lawyer. Also, getting medical treatment can be a great hurdle for our clients and we are here to assist, said Landon Vivian, injury attorney for The Barnes Firm in the Bay Area. Family members whove been wrongfully exposed to the coronavirus in nursing homes, senior care centers, holding centers, and other facilities can contact the experienced team at The Barnes Firm to help get the answers to their legal questions. For more information, please visit The Barnes Firm website. About The Barnes Firm: The Barnes Firms experienced personal injury attorneys focus exclusively on accident cases. They have helped thousands of injured victims get the best results possible with their settlements and verdicts. The firm helps families across California, and has offices located in Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego. In addition to legal services, The Barnes Firm stays involved in the community through its ongoing local philanthropy efforts. The California car accident lawyers sponsor academic organizations and nonprofits throughout the state. For more information, please visit https://www.thebarnesfirmcommunity.com/. If youve been in an accident, you can count on The Barnes Firm Injury Attorneys to help. Please visit https://www.thebarnesfirm.com/. You can also find The Barnes Firm on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Pet fish are dying because their tanks are being contaminated with dangerous levels of hand sanitiser. The coronavirus crisis saw a spike in the use of sanitiser, which is generally created from an alcohol base. In turn, fish owners have been more likely to stick their hands in the tanks after disinfecting them, and unintentionally poisoned the water. On Tuesday, a devastated customer visited PetStock in Zetland, Sydney, concerned that her pet goldfish started behaving differently. The manager on duty explained the fish was suffering from alcohol poisoning, and that it wasn't an uncommon affliction. Pet fish are dying because their tanks are being contaminated with dangerous levels of hand sanitiser (stock image) She told Daily Mail Australia the store is aware there could be a spike in fish fatalities throughout the pandemic. 'We even had a spate of fish deaths in our store, which is when we realised,' she said. At first, they didn't have a clue what could have caused so many of their fish to suddenly die, but quickly realised their increased hygiene protocols contributed. 'We've raised the concern among our team members to be aware and just make sure they're washing their hands before sticking them in the fish tank,' she said. Fish owners are urged to take extra precautions before touching tanks, like washing their hands thoroughly beforehand or trying not to sanitise until after they've cleaned the tank. 'You're basically just contaminating their water,' the manager explained. The coronavirus crisis saw a spike in the use of sanitiser, which is generally created from an alcohol base What is hand sanitiser made from? Most hand sanitisers are made from a base of at least 60 per cent alcohol. Aloe vera gel or water is usually the next ingredient, along with a fragrance or essential oil. Advertisement She hoped by that informing their customers about the potential dangers, she could prevent any further unnecessary deaths. 'Its too late for the fish to survive by the time we realise what has happened,' she said. While the staff warned customers it is a cause for concern, fish are basically the only pet who could die from consuming low levels of hand sanitiser, like the amount that would rinse from a person's hands. 'Its bad for all pets, but with fish its more serious,' the store manager said. 'Its not going to affect bigger pets as much unless they were to drink a whole bottle.' According to the Pet Poison Helpline, ingesting large amounts of hand sanitiser could potentially make any animal extremely sick. Common symptoms include lethargy, vomiting, lacking coordination, drops in blood sugar, pressure and overall body temperature. Severely intoxicated animals could potentially experience seizures and respiratory failure. As the managing partner of a global startup accelerator in Hawaii and an active angel investor, I have listened to hundreds of virtual pitches since the world changed in March and have seen entrepreneurs make the same mistakes over and over again. I understand that virtual calls can be stressful. You finally have the chance to talk to an investor, and you're doing your best to deliver a memorable pitch ... and then the screen freezes, or you are distracted by interruptions, or WiFi goes down. It must be truly exhausting. But the truth is, entrepreneurship is all about solving problems. If you cant nail a virtual call, I worry about your ability to solve other, more critical issues in your business. Here are seven tips to get an investor's attention and hold it during a virtual pitch. 1. Get a warm introduction. Crisis hasn't changed this old rule: No matter the situation, reaching out to investors cold almost never works. And I get hundreds of cold emails a day! Just because your meeting is likely to be online doesnt mean your first interaction should be a cold email. There are many ways to get a warm introduction; it just takes a little more legwork. First, search your network to see if you have a direct connection to the partner you are targeting. If you strike out there, search the partners portfolio companies and reach out to your fellow entrepreneurs. Your peers in the entrepreneurial trenches are often more willing to assist you with an introduction. 2. Make sure the investor is currently writing checks. Not all investors are writing checks right now. Have that conversation upfront and ask if they are currently investing in new companies. I was recently discussing this new reality with a fellow investor. Many investors are saying that it's business as usual but in reality, they have to maintain capital for their existing portfolio and therefore will not be making new investments. Plus, new investment decisions are likely to take a lot longer. This investor told me that for his last investment, what would normally be a one-month due diligence process stretched out to two months or more. Story continues 3. Do your homework on the investor. This one is universal, whether you're meeting in person or online. Research the person you are talking to. One small personal note can demonstrate that you're paying attention to the actual human on the other end of the line, and that goes a long way. Listen to interviews, look up profiles, familiarize yourself with the other companies in the portfolio, review the firms track record and more. Personally, I love it when an entrepreneur mentions a portfolio company of ours that they really admire. Our portfolio companies are like our children; we are proud of them, so flattering them means flattering us. Plus, every investor likes to know you have taken the time to get to know something about their investment history. 4. Check your equipment and learn the meeting software. This should go without saying, but it is shocking how many presenters will log on to Zoom for the first time to do a pitch without any familiarity with the platform. Spending precious minutes learning on the fly does not make a good first impression. At Blue Startups, we refer to this as the "technology IQ test." If an entrepreneur fails it, we usually pass on the opportunity. For example, in a pitch meeting last week, a startup company did not know how to share his screen in Zoom. While this may seem like a small thing, it is inevitable that we extrapolate from that small thing into larger assumptions. Is this person technologically savvy? Do they pay attention to details? Do they take the time to prepare thoroughly? 5. Turn on your video. In an environment where we cant meet face-to-face, the video experience is important. A huge part of communication is non-verbal, and we learn a lot about each other by having the video turned on. If this means you have to get up a little earlier to blow-dry your hair and put on a tie, so be it. At least you got to skip the commute to the office! It is also important to make sure you look professional on these calls. We had an entrepreneur pitch us from inside his closet, with his clothes hanging behind him. We had a laugh about it, but the bottom line is we came away with the impression that this entrepreneur did not care enough about the presentation to find a more suitable environment. 6. Do everything live. Do not pre-record your pitch. It just doesnt work to engage the audience, and it is fraught with complications. Likewise, skip embedded videos in your presentation; because the audio input is different on each meeting software, it has a high probability to fail. In a virtual pitch competition I was judging last month, the entrepreneurs had three minutes to pitch. The clock started running as soon as they were on screen. Because of this, many of the participants came with pre-recorded pitches that fit the time limit. However, the recorded pitch requires a different audio input, so we couldnt hear it. In most cases the entrepreneur had to talk over the video, or stop it and start again, losing valuable time. Oftentimes, this left them with only a minute or so to pitch us. These teams were rated very poorly by the pitch judges. 7. Follow up, follow up, follow up. Again, another universal, but even more important now. It is easier for your communication to get lost in the online morass, so be relentless in your follow-up to get to the next stage of communication. I always give my entrepreneurs the same advice about the amount of follow-up to do: Follow up with investors until they tell you to stop. You cannot over-communicate. Do not take silence as a no, because most investors are simply too busy to pay attention to every communication or take the time to respond. Do not assume they are not interested; just keep trying. While it may seem obnoxious, I am always much more impressed with the entrepreneur who follows up too much than the one that gives up too easily. Persistence is a trait you need for success, and there's no better way to demonstrate it than with your enthusiastic and consistent follow up. Our new reality makes it more important than ever to put your best foot forward in the highly competitive startup world. Online communication failures will not be tolerated, and second chances are not likely to be given. As investors tighten their belts around the world, you want to give yourself the best chance at success and give them no reasons to dismiss you or your company. 3 1 of 3 Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 3 BRIDGEPORT A city police officer who was struck by a vehicle Wednesday while investigating shots fired has been released from the hospital, according to officials. The officer - who was not identified - had non life-threatening injuries. Pet owners are furious after they failed to stop laws that will force them to walk cats on a leash and keep them indoors at night. Campbelltown Council, in Adelaide's north-west, is the latest council in South Australia to introduce bylaws to control cats. The council's new regulations will be submitted to the Dog and Cat Management Board for endorsement, despite several appeals by advocacy group Cats Assistance to Sterilise (CATS). The group argues having cats on leashes and forcing them to remain indoors does not stop problems caused by feral cats, The Messenger reported. Campbelltown Council, in Adelaide's north-west, is the next council in South Australia to introduce bylaws to control cats The council's bylaws state cat owners need to register pets, ensure they wear collars with tags and contact numbers, use leashes a minimum of 2m long and keep them indoors between 9pm and 7am. The cat bylaw was sent out for community consultation on the condition a complete ban on cats leaving their properties would not to be introduced until 2024. Once the 21-day period of community consultation is complete it will be submitted for approval. Spokesperson from CATS, Doctor Suzanne Pope, told the meeting since microchipping cats was introduced by the State Government desexing had dropped dramatically, meaning cat numbers had spiked. 'Cat numbers have dramatically increased with the RSPCA reporting a 35 per cent increase in felines at its shelters in the last two years,' she said. 'Cat adoption groups are overflowing with felines and CATS estimates there has been a 50 per cent increase in undesexed cats and kittens in the community.' Campbelltown councillors Anna Leomburno and Therese Britton-La Salle both tried to get the proposed bylaw dropped. They said CATS provided evidence that the current restrictions would not stop the feral cat problem. The council's bylaws state cat owners need to register pets, ensure they wear collars with tags and contact numbers, use leashes a minimum of 2m long and keep them indoors between 9pm and 7am Campbelltown is not the first council area to introduce bylaws to control cats, with Gawler Council looking to put down roaming cats if they are caught and not claimed by their owners within 72 hours. Marion Council wants to introduce bylaws next month where owners could get traps to catch cats that break night curfews. But Cr Leombruno insists these bylaws are not doing anything to reduce the problem caused by feral felines. 'It's really about education and doing the right thing about confinement,' she said. Feral and unhomed cats are such a big issue in South Australia that a total of six out of 70 councils have introduced some kind of cat bylaw. Cr Matthew Noble argued the bylaws are sensible and believes the cat curfew between 9pm and 7am is necessary. He described the bylaws as 'sensible' as the council fears for the birds 'and other creatures' cats kill. Police bodycam footage shows the shocking moment a white woman was shot dead by officers after she fired a rifle at them during a stand-off in California. Sandra Lee Harmon, 56, died following the altercation with two members of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office on May 5. On that date, police received a call from a witness saying she had seen Harmon carrying a long rifle as she walked down a suburban street of Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. 'There's a woman walking down the street with a gun and a bottle of wine, warning me that a race war was going to happen,' the witness is heard saying in audio of the 911 call. Sandra Lee Harmon, 56, died following her altercation with two members of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office on May 5. She was earlier captured on a business surveillance camera brazenly brandishing the weapon as she strolled down the street Harmon was also captured on a business surveillance camera brazenly brandishing the weapon as she strolls down the street. Deputy David Dominguez, an officer with the Sheriff's Department, could not locate Harmon, and subsequently knocked on the door of a nearby motor home in order to interview more witnesses. It was there that he encountered Harmon. According to a 12-minute 'critical incident' video shared to the sheriff's department website, Dominguez had 'a brief conversation with Harmon' at the door of the motor home. She then 'exited the motor home and leveled her shotgun at Deputy Dominguez. He retreated to the cover of his patrol vehicle, [but] as he took cover, Harmon fired the shotgun in his direction'. Additional text included in the video reads: 'In the fast moving situation with incoming fire, Dominguez did not activate his body-worn camera. After discharging his service weapon, Harmon dropped the shotgun.' A second officer, Deputy John Baba, was close by, and his bodycam was switched on. Footage shows him racing to the motor home and ordering Harmon to the ground. As she attempted to pick up her shotgun, Babe fires at the woman and she falls back. 'Don't move! Don't move!' he orders. A second officer, Deputy John Baba, was close by, and his bodycam was switched on. Video from the camera shows him firing at Harmon as she attempted to pick up her shotgun Harmon was rushed to hospital but died from her injuries. Her family told the Half Moon Bay Review that she was 'troubled' and suffered from 'mental health issues'. However, they described her as a 'peaceful person'. Both Dominguez and Baba have been placed on administrative leave pending a n investigation by the county's District Attorneys Office. The San Mateo County Police Department is also conducting an internal investigation. New Delhi: Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's sudden and untimely demise sent shiver and shock waves across the nation. Not just his family, friends but fans, film fraternity amongst many others mourned the talented actor. He was found hanging at his Bandra apartment on June 14, 2020. His suicide once again brought back the ghost of nepotism and outsider debate in Bollywood. Actor Nitish Bharadwaj, who played Shri Krishna's role in epic show 'Mahabharat' by BR Chopra shared his thoughts on Twitter and mourned Sushant's death. He wrote: SSR so much love for the stars that you went there so soon? I wish you had spoken to me once my dear fellow. I hope the society starts realising how lonely & helpless a man can be when he has to face his life struggles alone, without any emotional support RIP & smile from the sky SSR so much love for the stars that you went there so soon? I wish you had spoken to me once my dear fellow. I hope the society starts realising how lonely & helpless a man can be when he has to face his life struggles alone, without any emotional support RIP & smile from the sky pic.twitter.com/fHBNK0GYyA Nitish Bharadwaj (@nitishkrishna8) June 14, 2020 Nitish and Sushant worked together in 'Kedarnath' movie recently. Internet is flooded with condolences and heartfelt messages pouring in for the late actor, who touched a million hearts in a short span of time. The rising telly star became a household name after his debut in 2008 show 'Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil', followed by Zee TV's popular show Pavitra Rishta by Ekta Kapoor Balaji Telefilms. As Manav of 'Pavitra Rishta', he became a TV heartthrob of millions. Soon he made his sensational debut in movies with Abhishek Kapoor`s 2013 release Kai Po Che!, which is based on Chetan Bhagat`s novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life. He went on star in movies like Shuddh Desi Romance, PK, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, Raabta. Sushant was also seen in Netflix release 'Drive' co-starring Jacqueline Fernandez. He was last seen Abhishek Kapoor's 'Kedarnath', 'Sonchiriya', and more recently successful release by Nitesh Tiwari's 'Chhichhore'. Sushant Singh Rajput's last rites took place at Pawan Hans Crematorium on Monday, June 15, 2020. Many B-Town celebrities such as Shraddha Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Varun Sharma, Krystl D'Souza, Abhishek and Pragya Kapoor amongst others were seen paying their last respects to the departed soul amid heavy downpour. To pay tribute to personnel accomplishments, the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office on Tuesday afternoon held a large indoor gathering at Conroes Lone Star Convention Center. Sheriffs SWAT member Steven Ortiz was recognized for locating a man accused of sexual assault hiding in Colorado after allegedly faking his death and also for helping capture a man in Mexico charged with murder here. Ortiz sought to share the spotlight, signaling to all members of the sheriffs office and those serving in law enforcement. Theres a lot of officers here who put their lives on the line, who arent here as well. When we put this uniform on, its to protect others in our community, Ortiz said. A little more than 100 were recognized for their years of service, while 11 were cited for promotions. Also awarded were two units with 26 officers total and 16 officers, including Ortiz, received individual commendations. Ortiz joined around 21 of his fellow SWAT members, who were donning green camouflage uniforms. Bearing grins and dressed in black uniforms, some of the honorees grouped close together to snap photos following the ceremony. The event, which drew family members and observed some social distancing measures, contrasted with some of the anti-police sentiment seen across the country this month. Goodwill from residents the officers are sworn to serve was on display through the Montgomery County Sheriffs Citizens Academy Alumni Association. Composed of about 100 county residents who graduated from the program that informs on sheriffs office practices and standards, the alumni association provided honorees with a prayer vigil. We recognize all that they go through everyday out there, said Ronnie Rector, an alumni association vice president. We appreciate very much all they do to keep us all safe. A resident from northwest Montgomery County, Rector became involved with the alumni association in 2017. He and the group hoped the prayer vigil would provide further acknowledgment of the agencys work. Just to express our support to them, for the challenges they face every day and let them know we stand with them, Rector said. We depend on them, and we have full confidence theyll do the right thing everyday. Sheriffs Specialist Steve Squier was confident about the good relationship between the sheriffs office and the public, pointing to food donations they receive regularly from county residents, as well as thank you letters and positive comments on social media. Weve had a tremendous outpour of support from our communities, Squier said. They have our back. jose.gonzalez@chron.com twitter.com/jrgzztx A celebrity architect who wants to build a modern glass-fronted house in Kensington's 'millionaire's row' has lost the latest battle in her legal fight against wealthy neighbours opposed to the development. Sophie Hicks, Tatler's former fashion editor and mother of models Edie and Olympia Campbell, purchased a plot of land in Holland Park for 800,000 in an auction in 2011. Kensington and Chelsea council granted Ms Hicks planning permission for her ambitious new home, but a group of seven wealthy neighbours objected to the new development. The unusual plans involved a single-storey glazed building, described in planning documents as a 'glass cube structure', that allowed access to two floors below street level. Most of the building would be underground with natural light provided by skylights and 'light wells'. The proposal was described as 'uncompromisingly contemporary' and sharing 'none of the design language of the listed buildings of Holland Park', where A-list celebrity residents include the Beckhams, Elton John and Robbie Williams. Former Tatler fashion editor Sophie Hicks (right with daughter Olympia) had hoped to build a cutting-edge underground house in Holland Park, but the development was contested by seven neighbours led by Maria Letemendia (left) The architect had initially won an important High Court case which ruled that objections to the development on 'aesthetic' grounds were invalid - leaving the neighbours facing a 1 million legal bill. But now the group, led by 70-year-old Maria Letemendia, have overturned the decision after the Court of Appeal ruled that judge Mark Pelling QC had been wrong to determine that objections on the grounds of taste were 'unreasonable'. They said: 'We do not all want to live next door to the creative and interesting.' Now, the case is heading back to the High Court where a judge will 'consider whether the aesthetic and environmental reasons were reasonable'. The neighbours, who live in a Victorian townhouse next to the proposed site, want to stop the 'unique and unconventional' development. Neighbours living in the Victorian townhouse next door have won the latest round of a legal battle against celebrity architect Sophie Hicks who wants to build an 'unconventional' on a plot of land adjacent to their listed property A street view design of the property shows how the entrance hall would be shaded by a tree Award-winning architect Ms Hicks bought the land at auction in 2011 for 880,000 and her plans received council approval in 2015. She had hoped to live in the house with other members of her extended family, but the face-off with her would-be neighbours meant work could not commence. Ms Letemendia is one of seven leaseholders in the Grade-II listed villa next to the site who own the freehold through a management company. They believed they had the power to stop the proposal due to small print in a contract from when the site was first sold in the 1960s. But in an earlier court clash between the neighbours and Ms Hicks in 2013, a judge ruled that their power as owners of the freehold must only be exercised 'reasonably'. Sophie Hicks is the former Tatler fashion editor and mother of models Edie (left) and Olympia Campbell (right) Ms Hicks bought the land (pictured) at auction in 2011 for 880,000 and her plans received approval from Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council in 2015 Ms Hicks's model daughters Edie (left) and Olympia (right) pictured at a party in 2017 in Northamptonshire, while plans for the development are also shown This picture shows the disputed land in Holland Park as it is now and Ms Hicks has already been given planning permission by the council to develop it His ruling was also 'inconsistent' with earlier findings made by a judge during the 2013 case, he argued. Philip Rainey QC, for Ms Hicks, claimed in court that some of those opposed to the development are objecting, not because it will impact the price of their property, but because they no not like the look of the development. This image shows the street view of the new building, centre, with neighbours describing the entrance hall as a 'glowing glass box' This image shows the layout of the home underground and how only the entrance hall will be above ground Former fashion editor and esteemed British architect: The career of Sophie Hicks Sophie Hicks, 59, began a career in fashion at 17 - when she was hired as a guest editor for the first teenage issue of Harper's & Queens. She remained in fashion for more than 10 years, during which time she acted as fashion editor for Tatler and British Vogue. At 28, Hicks returned to education and studied to become an architect at the Architectural Association in London. She qualified as a chartered architect in 1994, and has since designed prominent buildings such as Paul Smith's flagship store in London. Hicks went on to design buildings for Yohji Yamamoto, Chloe and The Royal Academy of Arts. She was Vice President of the Architectural Association Council from 1997 to 1999. Last year, Hicks was awarded a RIBA London Award for a new build house in the Earls Court conservation area of central London. Hicks has built a series of other contemporary homes across the capital, including in Regent Square. Advertisement Mr Rainey also pointed out that plans for a house which were approved by the original owner in 1968 'were for a large and uncompromisingly modern brick house that would today be regarded as an eyesore.' He added that 'the site was a piece of weed-choked waste ground that had been left derelict and overgrown for decades' by the time Ms Hicks bought it. 'On aesthetics, the objection was that the lessees did not want any modern architecture near ... Holland Park,' he said. 'This was despite the fact that the house approved under the 1968 deed was a modern - and very ugly - house, and was despite the fact that [the Victorian townhouse] was already next door to a ten-story tower block from the 1960s.' Appeal judges Lord Justice Lewison, Lord Justice Flaux and Lord Justice Holroyde reserved their decision on the case, which they will give at a later date. During the trial last year, Jonathan Karas QC, representing the neighbours, told Judge Pelling that an objection on grounds of aesthetic taste was entirely reasonable. Ms Hicks' house design 'is modern and shares none of the design language of the listed buildings of Holland Park', he said. The architect had described her design for the house as 'creative and interesting, unique, imaginative, unconventional, a bespoke and contemporary house,' said the QC. Mr Karas said: 'We do not all want to live next door to the creative and interesting, or to the unique or to the contemporary or the unconventional, or next to buildings which share none of the design language of the building in which one lives, nor next to gently glowing boxes. 'Every time one approaches or leaves [the house], one will see the glass box. 'One can reasonably take exception to what one sees as one leaves and approaches one's home.' According to the Court of Appeal judgement, handed down today: 'Following previous litigation between the parties, it has been decided that approval cannot be unreasonably withheld. The principal issue on this appeal concerns the permissible grounds upon which the freeholder may withhold consent.' The three judges agreed that while aesthetics could be used as a reason to deny planning permission, they said they were not testing the issue and it should be decided by the Chancery division of the High Court. Rather than taking money from the budget, authorities intend to use funds raised to build new penitentiary facilities. The Ministry of Justice is planning to sell mothballed prisons, says Minister Denys Maliuska. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, June 17, he said that there are dozens of mothballed penitentiary facilities across Ukraine still absorbing security funds, an UNIAN correspondent reports. The Justice Ministry suggests that these premises be auctioned off to raise money for building new, modern facilities. "We will have two categories of objects territories in the center of cities, which, obviously, will be sold to developers. There are also prisons located outside city limits or on the outskirts. These facilities can be used by businesses because they have sufficient communications, as well as vast premises," Maliuska said. Read alsoJustice Ministry may apply pardons, targeted release to unload Ukrainian prisons amid pandemic He added that theoretically, "excess prisons" could be sold through the State Property Fund or through auctions set up by the Ministry of Justice. However, Maliuska noted, legislation to date allows no direct allocation of proceeds for the construction of new prisons, therefore, amendments are required to put the plan to life. The minister said that building a new prison is not a cheap endeavor: a prison able to host over 1,000 inmates costs more than a billion hryvnias (nearly US$37 million). "Money from the sale of one or two mothballed prisons would be enough to build a new small facility, but we're talking about selling dozens," Maliuska concluded. Union Pacific CEO Lance Fritz told CNBC on Wednesday that the railroad operator has reasons to be positive about its business as the U.S. economy recovers from its coronavirus-driven halt. "Across our markets, we're seeing a few signs of optimism," Fritz said in a "Mad Money" interview. He singled out the following areas: automotive, housing and grain, the last of which is related to the U.S.-China trade deal. "I'm seeing it a little bit in construction of things like road projects and rock," added Fritz, who has been CEO and president since 2015. The coronavirus pandemic and corresponding public health response sent shock waves across the globe, pushing the U.S. economy into a recession as business activity was sharply curtailed. But one area that saw an increase in activity was online shopping. Fritz said Union Pacific observed that, too. "Our parcel business is up strong double digits right now," he said. "We are seeing the e-commerce demand flow through to our rail business." As the world grapples with coronavirus pandemic, a new report said wildlife trade and deforestation have led to more human-animal interaction resulting in the emergence of new zoonotic disease outbreaks. The World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature, in its report, called for urgent global action to address the key drivers which will cause future zoonotic disease outbreaks. "In recent decades, people have increasingly encroached upon the natural world, resulting in escalating levels of contact between humans, livestock and wildlife. As a result, the frequency and number of new zoonotic diseases, originating in animals and transmitted to people, has risen drastically over the last century. "Every year, around three to four new zoonotic diseases are emerging. These new diseases pose a grave threat to human health, causing deadly pandemics including HIV/AIDS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and most recently COVID-19," said the report titled 'COVID-19: Urgent Call To Protect People And Nature'. It said environmental factors driving the emergence of zoonotic diseases include trade and consumption of high-risk wildlife, land-use change leading to deforestation and conversion, expansion of agriculture and unsustainable intensification and animal production. Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International said, "We must urgently recognise the links between the destruction of nature and human health, or we will soon see the next pandemic." He suggested "curbing the high-risk trade and consumption of wildlife, halt deforestation and land conversion as well as manage food production sustainably". All these actions will help prevent the spill-over of pathogens to humans, and also address other global risks to our society like biodiversity loss and climate change, he said. "There is no debate, and the science is clear; we must work with nature, not against it. Unsustainable exploitation of nature has become an enormous risk to us all," Lambertini said in a statement shared by WWF. Questions remain about the exact origins of COVID-19, but all available evidence suggests that it is a zoonotic disease (a disease transmitted from animals to humans), the WWF said. The report, however, said addressing high-risk wildlife trade and consumption in isolation will not be enough to prevent the next pandemic. 'Our unsustainable global food system is driving large-scale conversion of natural spaces for agriculture, fragmenting natural ecosystems and increasing interactions between wildlife, livestock and humans. "Since 1990, 178 million hectares of forest have been cleared, which is equivalent to the size of Libya, the 18th largest country in the world, and around 10 million hectares of forest are still being lost each year through conversion to agriculture and other land uses," the report said. Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF India said it is hard to think right now beyond the tragic impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. "But it is also an opportune moment for us to act if we are to deliver a recovery that benefits people and nature. The challenge and opportunity before us today is to begin to think of development through the lens of environmental health. "It is imperative to look at the link between the health of nature and humanity and adopt more sustainable methods of production and consumption. A productive, diverse and sustainable natural world has been the basic asset for the success of our civilisation, and will continue to be so in future," Singh said. The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates that systemic changes must be made to address the environmental drivers of pandemics, the report said. It said the WWF is advocating a 'One Health' approach linking the health of people, animals and our shared environment and wants this to be included in decision making on wildlife and land use change. It also suggested that this should be incorporated within all business and financing decisions, particularly related to global health. We will continue to deal with Chinese PLA in firm, resolute manner: Army chief Army, Navy and Air force put on high alert after Galwan valley clash with China India oi-PTI New Delhi, June 17: Front-line bases of the Indian army and the air force along the nearly 3,500 km de-facto border with China were Wednesday put on high alert in view of the worst border clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh that left 20 Army personnel dead, official sources said. The Indian Navy has also been asked to raise its alert level in the Indian Ocean Region where Chinese Navy has been making regular forays. The decision to raise the alert level of the three forces were taken at a high-level meeting Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held with Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs, sources said. Galwan attack pre-meditated, planned by China: EAM Jaishankar tells Chinese counterpart S Jaishankar tells Chinese counterpart: Chinese side took pre-meditated action | Oneindia News The Army has already rushed in additional troops to all its key front-line bases and formations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, they said. The Indian Air Force has already raised the alert level in all its front-line bases tasked to keep an eye on the LAC, the de-facto border. The sources said the Navy is increasing its deployment in the Indian Ocean Region to send across a strong message to the Chinese Navy. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 19:18 [IST] * Finance minister driving force in fiscal U-turn * Scholz sees historic chance for closer EU integration * Coronavirus pandemic removes hurdles within own party * Scholz seen best placed to be SPD chancellor candidate By Michael Nienaber BERLIN, June 17 (Reuters) - Four months is an eternity in pandemic politics. As recently as February, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz was Germany's Mr Thrift, a devotee of the "black zero" balanced-budget rule. Since then he has jettisoned the country's deep-rooted fiscal conservatism and outstripped more freewheeling European allies to push for its biggest debt-financed stimulus package during peace time. On Wednesday, Scholz will present a supplementary budget that pushes up new debt to a record 218.5 billion euros this year - equal to about 6.5% of German output. Even his tone and language has marked a departure for the usually reserved and technical Scholz, who pledged to use a "bazooka" to help struggling companies and get Europe's largest economy out of the crisis "with a ka-boom". The pandemic has reversed his fading political fortunes, according to three government officials, a parliamentary budget source and a member of the leadership team of his Social Democratic Party (SPD). This has allowed him to gather support from the left of the coalition government without being seen to betray the fiscal orthodoxy of the right, they said. It has even put the 62-year-old in the running to become the next German leader. "The coronavirus crisis is giving Scholz new momentum. He can implement a policy shift without violating his own principles," said a senior government official and veteran member of Scholz's SPD. This momentum is also making its mark on Europe, according to the sources, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. Scholz sees the turmoil as a window of opportunity to advance his long-term goals, they said: strengthening EU integration and making a big leap towards a closer fiscal union, at a time when the bloc's cohesion is threatened by Brexit and challenges from the United States and China. "Never let a good crisis go to waste," the finance minister said himself last month, quoting Winston Churchill. Story continues Such ambitions seemed unlikely at the end of last year when Scholz suffered the biggest political defeat of his career, losing the race to become leader of the SPD, which governs in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives. Now, though, Scholz has no serious rival standing in his way to become his centre-left party's candidate to replace Merkel in an election next year. However political analyst Lucas Guttenberg, deputy director at the Jacques Delors Centre in Berlin, cautioned that the fiscal shift that has boosted Scholz's standing at home and abroad could be temporary. "Calls for belt-tightening both domestically and in Europe will re-emerge as soon as the immediate crisis fades," he said. Such a reversal could see longstanding criticism of Scholz resurface, including those from the SPD left, which accused him of mimicking the fiscally prudent policies of his conservative predecessor Wolfgang Schaeuble and said his apparent lack of emotion alienated voters. CRISIS MANAGER When asked to comment for this article, Scholz's spokesman said the minister's recent fiscal change of tack was entirely consistent with his support of the Keynesian theory of counter-cyclical spending - taking on new debt in a downturn and reducing the debt burden during good times. "Use your full strength in a crisis and use it quickly," he added. Indeed, in a Reuters interview about the balanced budget last October, he insisted he saw no need to take on new debt, as weaker growth was still growth - but he also said, presciently as it turned out, that he would go all-in if a crisis struck. "Scholz can style himself as a competent, decisive crisis manager now while putting Berlin's fiscal policy upside down," another official close to Scholz told Reuters, adding that the finance minister was liaising closely with Merkel on the matter. The fiscal U-turn is supported by Merkel, who managed to convince budget hawks in her own conservative camp to drop concerns and back massive deficit-spending to fight what is forecast to be Germany's deepest economic recession since the end of World War Two, a third official said. "Nobody here talks about the black zero anymore," the person said in reference to the balanced-budget goal devised by Schaeuble and diligently adhered to by members of Merkel's bloc. Scholz has gone down well with the public too, with polls ranking him as the second-most popular politician after Merkel. 'HAMILTONIAN MOMENT' On the European level, Scholz was involved in a Franco-German plan for a European Recovery Fund to enable the European Commission to take on joint debt of 500 billion euros and channel the money to member states worst hit by COVID-19. While the decision was publicly announced by Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron last month, Scholz was one of the architects of the agreement behind the scenes, according to a senior diplomat from a southern EU country. Southern states like Italy and Spain have been hit hard by the novel coronavirus and have been pushing for Germany to loosen its fiscal conservatism to help them weather the crisis. Scholz is also in favour of allowing Brussels to obtain its own revenues through a financial transaction tax or the emission trading scheme. One of the officials close to Scholz said he wanted to deepen EU ties, and for the bloc to experience its "Hamiltonian moment" - a reference to Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Treasury Secretary who pooled fiscal powers at a federal level in the late 18th century to generate common revenues and to create independent debt capacities. Analyst Guttenberg noted that in recent years Germany had shown little interest in bolstering European cooperation and ties. "It is very good news that this has changed in the face of the sheer depth of this crisis," he added. NETWORK OF ALLIES Scholz, who became vice chancellor and finance minister in 2018, has assembled a network of allies at the ministry, a colossal stone building in Berlin dating from the Nazi era. Among the new faces are Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Kukies, a former Goldman Sachs banker and longtime SPD member; Chief Economist Jakob von Weizsaecker, an ex-SPD lawmaker of the European Parliament; State Secretary Wolfgang Schmidt, the well-connected and energetic right-hand man of Scholz; as well as chief spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, a former journalist. Scholz is a master of surrounding himself with top people who share his vision and complement his skills, said one of the officials close to the finance minister. The pandemic has aided his ambitions to become the SPD's chancellor candidate by dissolving some of the most contested issues within the party. With the balanced budget gone and Germany's debt brake suspended, the pandemic has removed the biggest hurdle for Scholz to be supported by the SPD's left wing, a member of the party's leadership team said. The senior SPD member, who describes himself as a critic of Scholz, said the finance minister had done an "impressive job" during the crisis, and that his chances of becoming the party's next chancellor candidate were high. He added, though, that Scholz's inability to connect with voters remained a weakness: "His talk about bazookas and ka-boom is actually a bit clumsy. You can't change the way you think, talk and act, just like that." (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Additional reporting by Belen Carreno in Madrid; Editing by Pravin Char) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) The United States has expressed concern over the recent conviction of Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa and former writer-researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. for a cyber libel case. In a statement late Tuesday evening, the US State Department also called on Philippine authorities to continue upholding the freedom of press and expression. The United States is concerned by the trial courts verdict against journalists Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos and calls for resolution of the case in a way that reinforces the U.S. and Philippines long shared commitment to freedom of expression, including for members of the press, the statement read. Free speech is the lifeblood of democracy, Morgan Ortagus, US State Department spokesperson, wrote in a separate social media post. The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 on Monday handed a guilty verdict against Ressa and Santos, sentencing both journalists to up to six years in jail for violating the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. The case stemmed from a 2012 Rappler investigative article which reported on businessman Wilfredo Kengs alleged connection to illegal activities. The high-profile case hogged global headlines with several personalities around the world also voicing out support for the journalists. "We must fiercely protest attacks on the press. They are attacks on democracy, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in a tweet, pertaining to Ressas verdict. US Senators Edward Markey, Patrick Leahy, and Dick Durbin also called the development a travesty of justice and called on the Philippine government to drop all politically motivated charges against Ressa and Rappler. Malacanang, however, previously stressed that the government had nothing to do with the conviction, saying the case was filed by a private complainant. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said President Rodrigo Duterte supports free speech and press freedom in the country. A Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens. Credit: ivabalk, Pixabay When two betta fish are fighting for dominance, not only do their attacks mirror each other, but the gene expression in their brain cells also starts to align. The new findings, published June 17th in PLOS Genetics by Norihiro Okada of Kitasato University, Japan, may explain how the fish synchronize their fighting behavior. The fighting fish Betta splendens is famous for its aggression, but opponents typically stop fighting after assessing the other's abilities to avoid any serious injuries. The small freshwater fish is commonly used to study aggression in the lab, and it employs a handful of standard tactics like mouth-locking, bites, strikes and swimming to the surface to gulp air. In the new study, researchers observed that during a fight, two male opponents modify their actions to match the aggressive behavior of the other, leading to tightly synchronized battles. Furthermore, when the researchers analyzed the brains of both opponents, they observed that the fish also synchronized which genes were turned on or off in brain cells. The fighting pair had similar changes in gene activity related to learning, memory, synapse function and ion transport across cell membranes. The synchronization was specific to a fighting pair and became stronger after fighting for an hour compared to a 20-minute fight, suggesting that the degree of synchronization was driven by fighting interactions. The new study takes a neurogenomic approach to the old question of how animals synchronize their behavior. Similar mirrored behaviors also occur during mating, foraging and cooperative hunting, and these behaviors may also trigger synchronized brain changes in the pairs of animals. "One of my future plans is to elucidate what happens in the male-female interaction of fish on the molecular level," said author Norihiro Okada. The findings suggest that even though the betta fish are fighting each other, sometimes to the death, their brains may be cooperating at the molecular level. Explore further Thailand to honor beautiful, violent Siamese fighting fish More information: Vu T-D, Iwasaki Y, Shigenobu S, Maruko A, Oshima K, Iioka E, et al. (2020) Behavioral and brain- transcriptomic synchronization between the two opponents of a fighting pair of the fish Betta splendens. PLoS Genet 16(6): e1008831. Journal information: PLoS Genetics Vu T-D, Iwasaki Y, Shigenobu S, Maruko A, Oshima K, Iioka E, et al. (2020) Behavioral and brain- transcriptomic synchronization between the two opponents of a fighting pair of the fish Betta splendens.16(6): e1008831. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008831 Rebel Wilson insisted the royal family "secretly love it" when people poke fun at them. The 40-year-old actress caused a stir when she mocked Prince Andrew and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at February's BAFTA Awards - which was attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - but she insisted no one was offended by her jokes. She told The Sun newspaper: "I'm friends with someone in the Royal Family and they say all the royals have a great sense of humour and they secretly love it. "I don't think they were setting me up for failure, because this person is very genuine." And the 'Pitch Perfect' star insisted all "seemed fine" when she spoke with Prince William and Duchess Catherine's office afterwards. She said: "I did speak to Kate and William's private secretary after the Baftas and all seemed fine. "I mean, obviously, I'm not a malicious person either -- my goal is not to try to take down someone, especially at the BAFTAs. "But I'm also very cheeky and I like to just sometimes say stuff." Rebel had such a great time at the London ceremony, she'd love to be invited back as host. She said: "I hope they ask me to host it one day, I love it. Such a great event." Meanwhile, the 'Cats' actress hit out at the current move to remove old programmes and films from TV and streaming services because they don't reflect modern society. She said: "I think with history, you should learn from it. "If you erase it, it's a bit like denying it ever happened. That doesn't seem like a good plan." And the 'Cats' star believes comedians have a duty to tread the line between what is and isn't acceptable because jokes are a "powerful weapon". She said: "It's definitely got harder in the last few years due to, what I term, hyper-social justice. "Comedians are being really, really careful about what they say, which is a shame because historically, it's a comedian's job to flirt with the line of what is acceptable and what's appropriate. That's often how you get laughter and how -- with social issues -- you can change people's minds, by doing a really edgy joke. "Some people might get offended, but they also might think about it and why they are offended, and it causes people to have discussions about topics. "Historically, right from court jesters in the monarchy, comedians have been serving themselves up on a platform of being vulnerable and often subtly expressing opinions or changing people's views on issues through comedy. It can be a very powerful weapon." FP Trending It seems Google has been at work on a new Nest-branded smart speaker that could act as an upgrade for it's Google Home device. The new Nest-branded smart speaker is more in line with the Nest Mini and Hub in terms of look and fabric styling, according to a report in 9to5Google. The device reportedly has been codenamed 'Prince' and might have larger speaker drivers, which is more than the original Google Homes 'high excursion' speaker. The device will feature the usual Google Assistant that is present in the other devices from the company, the report adds. It might have features like stereo speaker pairing. As for price, it is expected that Prince will be priced higher than the original Google Home, but lower than Home Max. According to an Android Authority report, the speaker will not have a display, but users can choose from two different Google Nest smart displays that are already available in the market. It's quite possible that Prince will feature the same fabric design of the Mini and probably even come in the same colors: Charcoal, Chalk, Sky, and Coral. Engadget reported that the Google Home speaker is overdue for a change, ever since it was launched in 2016. While Amazon has rolled out sever updates to its Echo, the Google Home seems fairly ancient in comparison. Apart from Prince, other hardware plans for Google in 2020 include the Pixel 4a, a possible Pixel 5 and Android TV dongle codenamed Sabrina. Mr. Engel has widespread support from senior House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi; James E. Clyburn, the House majority whip; and Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic Caucus chairman. On Wednesday, he was endorsed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York. But Mr. Engel has not exactly helped his cause. In early June, at a news conference in the Bronx devoted to Black Lives Matter, he was caught on microphone suggesting that he was only there because of his contested race. If I didnt have a primary, he said, I wouldnt care. Even party veterans cringed. This is like hanging a sign from your neck saying, Ive been in office too long, tweeted David Axelrod, the Democratic strategist. Asked about the comment, Mr. Engel did not address it directly but said that he had wanted people to know how I feel because I feel so strongly about what happened in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis. In looking back, I see now that two weeks later that my words have detracted from the protests because theyve been taken out of context, he said. And I want to use my voice to refocus on the fact black lives matter. And they do. Both Mr. Engel and Mr. Bowman have embraced many of the positions championed by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who represents a neighboring district in the Bronx and Queens, including the Green New Deal and Medicare for all. Mr. Engels campaign website also cites support for increased funding public education, $100 billion in new housing, and comprehensive immigration reform. But his opponents have zeroed in on several hawkish positions he took, including rejecting the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 and supporting the invasion of Iraq more than a decade before. Smiling happily as she sat on her stepmother's knee, toddler Willow Dunn looked like she'd found a loving new parent after her mum's death. 'Absolutely beautiful little girl,' Willow's new mother Shannon White wrote alongside one of the numerous happy snaps she posted of her blended family. Two years later the four-year-old was found dead in her cot, allegedly malnourished and eaten by rats, and her father and his girlfriend White have been charged with leaving her to die. White, 43, had moved from her home in Adelaide to Brisbane to start dating Mark Dunn, Willow's father, in early 2017. She brought her son, now 12, and teenage daughter Taliah, but left behind four adult daughters who claim to not have spoken to their mother in two years. Smiling happily as she sat on her stepmother Shannon White's knee, little Willow Dunn looked like she'd found a loving new parent after her mum's death Two years later, Willow was allegedly found dead in her cot, malnourished and eaten by rats, and her father and his girlfriend White charged with leaving her to die Dunn, 43, and White appeared to create a happy family-of-six along with Willow's big brother, 7, and added their own baby on August 30, 2018. Newly-unearthed photos show Willow sitting in her high-chair, laughing in her pram, and wearing a t-shirt reading 'daddy's other chick' that White bought her. Another photo showed her on a walk with Taliah, 19, who sometimes fed and bathed the toddler, who also had Down Syndrome. 'Couple of my favourite people, love of my life,' White wrote next to a photo of Dunn holding Willow in his arms in August 2017. 'What a cutie,' a friend wrote next to another photo, to which White replied: 'She definitely is, puts a smile on everyone's face.' A photo from December 2017 of Willow in her high-chair was captioned 'someone has a new tooth'. Willow's complex family ties include her seven-year-old brother, three half-siblings, six step-siblings, and six step-nieces and nephews Willow's father, Mark James Dunn, 43, and his girlfriend Shannon White, 43, were both charged with murder in the two weeks since the four-year-old's death Newly-unearthed photos show Willow laughing in her pram (right) or wearing a t-shit reading 'daddy's other chick' that White bought her (left) Dunn was similarly enthusiastic writing 'there's my beautiful little girl' alongside another photo. Willow's body was allegedly found malnourished and decomposing in a bedroom on May 25 with infected sores on her hips down to the bone. White and Dunn are behind bars charged with murder under its 'reckless disregard for human life' definition. How and why Willow went from a happy and doted on toddler to allegedly neglected and starved until she died will be investigated as part of the case against them. Another photo showed her on a walk with White's daughter Taliah, 19, who sometimes fed and bathed the toddler Photo of Willow meeting her newborn half-brother - the child of White and Dunn - in September 2018 A photo from December 2017 of Willow in her high-chair was captioned 'someone has a new tooth' 'Couple of my favourite people, love of my life,' White wrote next to a photo of Dunn holding Willow in his arms in August 2017 Willow's tangled family web includes her seven-year-old brother, three half-siblings, six step-siblings, and six step-nieces and nephews. Her stepmother's older four children Brenda, 25, Tania, 24, Dayle, 23, and Chantelle, 22, still live in Adelaide and did not make the trip with Taliah and the 12-year-old boy. 'We have had nothing to do with the woman for over two years,' one said. White started dating Dunn in January 2018 just 14 months after Willow's mother Naomi - White's best friend - died on November 5, 2015, soon after giving birth. White had gushed over Willow when she was born in late October 2015, posting a photo of the newborn infant. 'My best mate's baby Willow, such a beautiful soul, can't wait to meet her, so adorable,' she wrote. White's daughter Taliah, 19, also lived at the home in Cannon Hill and sometimes fed and bathed her toddler stepsister White has five adult daughters, step sisters to Willow, Brenda, 25, Tania, 24, Dayle, 23, Chantelle, 22, and Taliah, 19, who are pictured here with their own kids Shannon White, 43, holds her toddler son, born August 2018, whom she shares with her boyfriend Mark Dunn 'Naomi u done a amazing job with such a roller coaster pregnancy ur such a great mum and an awesome friend love u babe.' Ms Dunn replied: 'Awwww you making me cry... Love you lots.' White responded with: 'Over 20 years of friendship and staying forever.' Three days later Ms Dunn was dead. Dunn and White's own son was by all accounts a healthy and happy baby adored by both his parents. White posted numerous photos of herself and the little boy to Facebook including a recent video of him happily playing with toys on the floor. White (pictured, centre) was last Wednesday arrested and later charged with murder. Dunn had been slapped with the same charge a week earlier White (pictured, centre) was led away from the station in handcuffs looking worse for wear and wearing thongs and shabby clothes Willow's body was found malnourished and decomposing in her bed at her home in Brisbane, her face partially eaten by rats, and her father Mark James Dunn (pictured) charged with murder Police confirmed in court a post-mortem revealed Willow died of malnourishment and sustained neglect. Detective Inspector Chris Knight said police wanted to speak to anyone who knew of White and Dunn and the family dynamic. 'We continue to obtain information from potential witnesses who are assisting us to build a clearer picture of the dynamics relating to Willow Dunn's family,' he said. 'Our investigative team are not yet satisfied that we've exhausted all inquiries and will continue to investigate and evaluate all information that we come by so that we can make better informed decisions in the future.' Mark and Naomi Dunn (pictured) married in 2014, less than a year before her death from complications after giving birth to Willow White (pictured, second from left) was a bridesmaid at Ms Dunn's wedding in 2014 and was her friend for 19 years at the time Willow (pictured, left), who had Down Syndrome, and her brother who is now seven (right) was sent to live with an aunt and uncle after her mother's death Naomi Dunn (pictured) died on November 5, 2015, after giving birth to her daughter Willow, devastating her family Ms Dunn also has adult children Emily and Zac Kipping from a previous relationship, who mourned their half-sister on Facebook in the days after her death. 'Rest in Peace Willow. It's so heartbreaking things have turned out this way, but you will forever be in our hearts. Fly high with mum,' her son wrote. Dunn and White posted numerous selfies of each other, tagged each other in couples' memes, and left gushing emotional comments with heart emojis. Their union appeared to have the blessing of White's family and friends, who often remarked how 'handsome' Dunn was. 'Perfect couple! Look so happy together and they both certainly deserve each other,' one of White's adult daughters wrote. A teddy bear wearing a Parramatta Eels jersey is seen in the bedroom of the Cannon Hill home on May 26 (pictured) just hours after little Willow was allegedly found in her cot [June 17, 2020] AMSA and Sunovion Team Up For Second Year of Neuroscience Peer Teaching Program While Transitioning to Remote Learning Experience The Advanced Math & Science Academy Charter School (AMSA) and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Sunovion) today announced completion of the second year of a program to help students understand Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) life science career paths within a pharmaceutical company and foster a deeper knowledge of neuroscience. Six AMSA upper school level students, five seniors and one junior, were selected as a team to participate in this collaborative project with Sunovion for their school's Capstone (News - Alert) Project. Due to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts response to COVID-19 and schools moving to remote learning for the remainder of the 2020 school year, Sunovion and AMSA worked together to adjust and transition the program to a virtual experience. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005149/en/ The high school student team developed a lesson plan about the central and peripheral nervous systems that they successfully taught seventh grade students at AMSA via a video classroom, with the goal to enhance and complement their existing biology class curriculum. This material was developed in consultation with a cross-functional team from Sunovion with a range of expertise. "Our goal at AMSA is to create an atmosphere of celebration of knowledge where children of diverse backgrounds and abilities excel, especially in math, science and technology, and we empower them to succeed in the workplace in our modern high-tech world. The partnership between AMSA and Sunovion was what AMSA founders envisioned in our charter with the State, when they located the school in Marlborough for close proximity to a growing innovation ecosystem. AMSA is proud of this program, which has leveraged access to Sunovion's in-depth expertise to enhance our science education. We thank the Sunovion team for their positive impact and inspiring our students," said Ellen Linzey, Executive Director, AMSA. "This important program with AMSA reinforces our commitment to advancing the next generation of innovators and leaders and we appreciate the continued collaboration with administrators and faculty. We were impressed by the students and their ability to absorb and convey complex neurobiology information to their peers in an accessible way. They adapted to a remote peer teaching enviroment this year with great effectiveness and success," said Ken Koblan, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, who serves as Sunovion's executive sponsor of the program with AMSA. The student teachers were honored during a virtual ceremony on May 13, 2020 as they look forward to the next chapters in their academic careers and consider pursuing further learning in healthcare, the life sciences, or neurobiology. Seniors were provided with certificates and scholarships upon completion of their Capstone Project. The program was initiated in 2019 through the collaboration of Mark Vital, Community Outreach Manager, AMSA and Wendy Scoppa, Senior Manager, Community Relations, Sunovion. A video of the ceremony and project can be viewed here. About Advanced Math & Science Academy (AMSA) Ranked as the #4 public high school in Massachusetts by U.S. News & World Report, The Advanced Math & Science Academy Charter School (AMSA) was chartered by the Massachusetts Department of Education in February 2004 and opened in September 2005. AMSA's teaching model is centered on rigorous college-oriented education for all students. AMSA's teaching philosophy involves starting challenging abstract learning, typically expected for high school students, early in the middle school grades. AMSA creates an atmosphere of celebration of knowledge where children of all backgrounds and abilities excel in all subjects, especially in math, science and technology, empowering them to succeed in the workplace in our modern, high-tech world. AMSA's core values are collective and individual values: Model Integrity, Pursue Your Excellence and Foster Community. Learn more about AMSA at www.amsacs.org and join AMSA on social media at www.amsacs.org/social. About Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Sunovion) Sunovion is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the innovative application of science and medicine to help people with serious medical conditions. Sunovion's vision is to lead the way to a healthier world. The company's spirit of innovation is driven by the conviction that scientific excellence paired with meaningful advocacy and relevant education can improve lives. With patients at the center of everything it does, Sunovion has charted new paths to life-transforming treatments that reflect ongoing investments in research and development and an unwavering commitment to support people with psychiatric, neurological and respiratory conditions. Headquartered in Marlborough, Mass., Sunovion is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd. Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Europe Ltd., based in London, England, and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., based in Mississauga, Ontario, are wholly-owned direct subsidiaries of Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. Additional information can be found on the company's web sites: www.sunovion.com, www.sunovion.eu and www.sunovion.ca. Connect with Sunovion on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005149/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The mobile sector is a duopoly between South Africa-based Vodacom and ETL, though competition is insufficient to promote effective price reductions for consumers. Sydney, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, this edition of Paul Budde Communications focus report on Lesotho outlines the major developments and key aspects in the telecoms markets. Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Lesotho-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses Telecom services in Lesotho are managed by a privatised national operator, Econet Telecom Lesotho (ETL). Mobile penetration remains below the regional average, while the small size of the market provides little incentive for new players to enter the market. Fixed-line teledensity is also low, but the fixed network has gained value since DSL services were launched in 2007. In parallel, ETL has rolled out a fixed-wireless network. In addition, the company has introduced a fixed-mobile convergence product and is capitalising on its multi-platform capabilities. Vodacom was the first operator to introduce mobile broadband services in the country, supplemented with a WiMAX network. In late 2014 the company launched commercial services based on LTE technology. This was followed by fixed-wireless 5G trials in early 2019 based on a trial 3.5GHz licence. Vodacom Lesotho was among the first network operators in the region to conduct such trials. Although landlocked, Lesotho has benefited from connectivity to the several submarine fibre optic cables which land on African east and west coasts. These have considerably improved international bandwidth, though access prices for the two ISPs remain high and as a consequence internet take-up among consumers has been stymied. BuddeComm notes that the outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2020 is having a significant impact on production and supply chains globally. During the coming year the telecoms sector to various degrees is likely to experience a downturn in mobile device production, while it may also be difficult for network operators to manage workflows when maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. Overall progress towards 5G may be postponed or slowed down in some countries. Story continues On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services and devices is under pressure from the financial effect of large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes. However, the crucial nature of telecom services, both for general communication as well as a tool for home-working, will offset such pressures. In many markets the net effect should be a steady though reduced increased in subscriber growth. Although it is challenging to predict and interpret the long-term impacts of the crisis as it develops, these have been acknowledged in the industry forecasts contained in this report. The report also covers the responses of the telecom operators as well as government agencies and regulators as they react to the crisis to ensure that citizens can continue to make optimum use of telecom services. This can be reflected in subsidy schemes and the promotion of tele-health and tele-education, among other solutions. Key developments: Vodacom Lesotho continues with 5G trials; ETL expands FttP network; Safaricom and Vodacom Group acquire the M-Pesa brand; Improved internet connectivity following landing of international cables; Universal Service Agency expanding base tower infrastructure in remote areas; Report update includes ITU statistics, regulators ICT market report, Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, operator data to Q1 2020, assessment of the global impact of COVID-19 on the telecoms sector, recent market developments. Companies mentioned in this report: Telecom Lesotho, Econet a, Vodacom Lesotho, Eskom, Comnet. Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Lesotho-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses Nicolas Bombourg nbombourg@budde.com.au Oceania Office +61 280 767 665 Europe Office +44 207 097 1241 Last September, the day before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that the House would mount an official impeachment inquiry against the president, Bolton told Engel in a phone call that the House Foreign Affairs Committee should investigate why former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch had been recalled. Bolton indicated that he had more information to divulge on the matter, according to a statement that Engel put out about the conversation during the Senates impeachment trial. Actor Ernie Dingo yesterday revealed he had been involved in an incident of alleged racism at Perths central train station. Dingo posted about the incident on Facebook, alleging a man in his 30s about 8:00am called him by an offensive term. I chased him and scruffs him Say it again, he is scared now and I whack him on the right side of his head, Dingo wrote. He slips and falls trying to get away, his foot falls between the platform and the train, I drag his arse away from the edge, as he is laying there. I ask again Say it again, give me an excuse to whack you, he doesnt. If he is gunna say that s*** to me, Ill have a go at him. Im 63, I dont take that s*** from anyone. He added, I might make the news tonight, Im sure it was captured on CCTV. If it does, you heard it from me first and I wouldnt have minded if I caught the next train, rather than not do anything about it and be angry on the train. A Public Transport Authority spokesperson said CCTV vision would not be released, while WA Police said they had not received any complaint. Update: The West Australian reports the man have had an intellectual disability./em> Source: ABC Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 23:09:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LONDON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- When Emily Proffitt became headteacher of Cooper Perry Primary School in Stafford, England, in January this year, she oversaw a welcome assembly of around 230 children of the school. For months, that would be the size of her daily assembly. Now, due to lockdown restrictions, Profitt's school has only been able to host between five to 10 pupils daily. "This has been the most challenging time in my career, not only as a leader but as a teacher," she told Xinhua. Before taking on the role at Cooper Perry Primary, Proffitt worked as a headteacher for around four years. Nothing, she said, had prepared her or her colleagues for this. "What teachers and leaders of education have been through is unprecedented and nothing that any of us are trained or prepared for. It's very much been taking it a day at a time and working with what we've got." CONCERNED OVER PREMATURE RETURN Cooper Perry Primary school has remained partially open throughout to critical workers' children, in line with government guidelines. Since June 1, Proffitt has been allowed to open up the school wider to Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children. Now, with the latest British government guidelines published this week by the Department for Education, primary school headteachers are being given greater flexibility to invite back more pupils -- but only if the schools have the capacity within existing guidelines and if protective measures are in place. In the coming days, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is due to set out the details of his summer "catch-up" plans -- which comes after he scrapped plans for primary schools to bring back all pupils for a month before the summer break. For Proffitt, the level of uncertainty around the situation and lack of clarification from the government have affected the return of pupils to her school. "Most of my parent community have chosen not to send their children back, we've had roughly 25 percent returned from the key year groups -- not from the entire school," she said. "Gradually that's starting to build now, because parents have found out that the other key year groups aren't going back and that we've got a very short space before September -- and we still don't know what September is going to look like yet. "Nervousness, uncertainty and not knowing what the future holds is making them more nervy," she said. Patrick Roach, general secretary of NASUWT -- The Teachers' Union, believed that most teachers and parents are rightly concerned about a premature return to school that could endanger lives. "I think most parents want to be sure that when they send their child off to school that they're going to be safe and we want that as well. It's important that we put those safety concerns at the fore of whatever plans schools are doing to safely return," he told Xinhua. Only when children are safe to return does he believe that schools can consider what the nature of their curriculum is going to be. "Whilst we want all children to be returning to their lessons, we also want to ensure that there's breadth and there's balance in relation to children's learning," he said. NEW CHALLENGES FOR SCHOOLS The lockdown has not only had an impact on the short-term closures of schools, but also has the potential to affect the long-term academic and emotional development of children. This is something that Proffitt has seen firsthand at Cooper Perry Primary, where she has tried to encourage disadvantaged children to attend school through the lockdown. For the Year 6 pupils who have returned they're displaying more emotional issues now than before they left -- with "more uncertainties, more anxieties that are building and developing" and that the teachers have to deal with. "We're putting programs into place for those who have returned, but of course they're transitioning into high school very soon so to them this is huge -- and they don't know what that will look like in September either. So I think the long-term emotional effects on children will be our hardest battle," Proffitt said. Schools across the country have had to rearrange classroom layouts, hallways and play areas -- but many buildings are old with limited flexibility for renovation. For Cooper Perry Primary School, which is a mixture of a Victorian hall and new build classrooms, little pod areas have been introduced for early year children and tables have been turned into "L" shaped desks for those in the older years. But this now means that a typical Year 6 class, which would have had 30 to 35 students before lockdown, can now just have a maximum of eight children in one classroom. Then it comes to monitoring children's play time, which is also having to be reconsidered. "The younger children are harder to keep social distance than the older children. When they go out to play and they have their outdoor time naturally they migrate together. We're not stopping that, we're just trying to encourage that to be reduced throughout the day and the opportunity for that not to be there," said Proffitt. Official guidance from the government shows that it has been accepted that the two meter social distancing rule is not practicable in schools -- so this has forced schools to find alternative solutions. One of those solutions, Roach explained, is finding an educational and social bubble around smaller groups of children. This, he said, would minimize the levels of social interaction between increasing numbers of children, young people and adults. "But is it sustainable? Well it's only going to be sustainable if there's sufficient space in schools to make it available and there's sufficient numbers of teachers available to schools in order to teach in smaller group sizes," he said. Perhaps the biggest reassurance for a safe return of schools, Roach said, would be for the government to ensure teachers and parents have access to personal protective equipment (PPE) in schools. CALL FOR NATIONAL PLAN In March, the British government shut schools to all children but those of key workers and who were vulnerable. Since then, individual schools have been given the responsibility to make their own way to a safe reopening. On Monday, Education Secretary Williamson said he wanted to make sure as many pupils as possible could get back into the classroom before summer to "support their wellbeing and education." But according to Roach, a rush to bring schooling back has seen education not feature as central to the government's plans, but rather on how schools could help to play a part in the reopening of the economy as childcare locations. "They've focused on childcare. For us, that's not good enough," Roach told Xinhua. Roach believes key investment needs to be made into educating children through this period, especially those who have been more disadvantaged compared to other classmates during the pandemic, and not just using schools as "provisions of childcare for arbitrarily selected year groups of pupils." He called for a decisive national plan for the return of schools. "We also need to recognise that you can have a national plan but each school has its own idiosyncrasies, its own unique features and characteristics, its own catchment which will impact how any national plan needs to be translated in practice," he said. According to Roach, giving head teachers a degree of flexibility about how to apply a national government framework for the safe return of individual schools, where that school could meet the safety standards, would help to bring schools back to be fully operational. "We'd love nothing more than to have all of our children back in school," said Proffitt. "However, I will not open my school fully until we are given the health and safety green light to be able to do it," she said. Enditem MONTREAL, June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Dollarama Inc. (TSX: DOL) ("Dollarama" or the "Corporation") announced today that three insiders, namely GRI Investments Inc., a private corporation controlled by the Rossy family, The Rossy Foundation and Neil Rossy, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, have agreed to sell respectively 928,407, 1,729,893 and 540,000 common shares of Dollarama in block trades to a financial institution, representing an aggregate of 3,198,300 common shares of Dollarama. Once the trades are settled, GRI Investments Inc. will hold 5,139,614 common shares, The Rossy Foundation will hold 9,584,723 common shares and Neil Rossy will personally hold 2,552,748 common shares (in addition to 726,000 options vested and exercisable), representing, in aggregate, 18,003,085 common shares or approximately 5.8% of the Corporation's total number of common shares issued and outstanding. Proceeds from the sale of shares by The Rossy Foundation will be used to fund existing commitments to charitable organizations. The decision by GRI Investments Inc. and Neil Rossy to sell a portion of their respective holdings in Dollarama was made for financial diversification purposes. Trades are expected to close on or about June 18, 2020. About Dollarama Dollarama is a recognized Canadian value retailer offering a broad assortment of consumable products, general merchandise and seasonal items both in-store and online. Our 1,301 locations across Canada provide customers with compelling value in convenient locations, including metropolitan areas, mid-sized cities and small towns. Select products are also available, by the full case only, through our online store at www.dollarama.com. Our quality merchandise is sold at select, fixed price points up to $4.00. Dollarama also owns a 50.1% interest in Dollarcity, a growing Latin American value retailer. Dollarcity offers a broad assortment of consumable products, general merchandise and seasonal items at select, fixed price points up to US$3.00 (or the equivalent in local currency) through its 232 conveniently-located stores in Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala. About The Rossy Foundation The Rossy Foundation is a Montreal-based private foundation that was established in 2004. Its mission is to contribute to civil society and to improve the lives of Canadians with a focus on cancer care, mental health, civic engagement, education and the arts. It is committed to supporting the vibrancy of Montreal and also funds charitable organizations across Canada and internationally within its areas of focus. SOURCE Dollarama Inc. Related Links www.dollarama.com Indian newspapers, which just a few months ago had defied the global trend by gaining circulation, are now buckling under the weight of coronavirus losses that have killed some off and critically wounded other big names. Newspapers have remained a mainstay in the country of 1.3 billion people in recent years, when the rise of digital news has seen sales slump around the world. But as a result of a lockdown that started on March 25 dailies were unable print, delivery boys were attacked by householders fearing they were also bringing the virus and crucially advertisers fled. And according to some estimates, normal sales of more than 50 million newspapers a day across the country fell by two thirds. Hundreds of journalists have been laid off or seen wages slashed and in Mumbai, one charity is organising food parcels for unemployed reporters. "India resisted the digital onslaught for a long time but now some city papers have gone and some of the national papers must be worrying about how will they get readers back," one editor told AFP. English newspapers in Pune and Goa closed this month and nationals such as the Hindustan Times and Times of India, which had a circulation of more than two million before the crisis, have laid off scores of staff, cut wages and closed offices. The Hindustan Times said in an email to staff that it was losing about $500,000 a day. The Mathrubhumi regional newspaper, based in the southern state of Kerala, has seen advertising fall from up to $6 million a month to $500,000, said joint managing director Shreyams Kumar. 'Pretty grim scenario' Indian newspapers had been hit by a faltering economy even before the pandemic, but N Ram, a director of the group that publishes The Hindu daily and other regional papers, said events had become critical as advertising has "collapsed". The group expects to lose millions of dollars. "We dont know when the advertising market will recover," he told AFP. According the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), Indian newspapers and magazines used to attract about $3 billion dollars of advertising a year. Magdoom Mohamed, WAN-IFRA business development manager in India, said newspapers lost 75-85 percent of their advertising in March and April alone. While Indian media groups are starting to invest heavily in online news, Ram said the advertising did not compensate for the sudden losses. Indian journalists feel they have been badly treated by the panic measures, with wages cut and often paid late. Many say they have been going out to cover tragic stories on the coronavirus without proper protective equipment. "I came back one day to be told there was a pay cut," said one at the Indian Express. "While the media has been facing the strain, the fact that it moved so fast to do these salary cuts at a time when there is extreme uncertainty and anxiety its very unethical," Geeta Seshu, co-founder of the Free Speech Collective said. "They have been showing a lack of concern for their employees." The main media groups are concentrating more on the future of the business, say analysts. Consultancy KPMG had predicted before the pandemic that advertising revenue for newspapers would remain stable for a few years. "Now all that has changed," said the newspaper editor, speaking on condition of anonymity as he had been told not to discuss company business. "It was only the over-35s who read newspapers and even they have had to get their news from digital sources and television for more than two months." N. Chandramouli, chief executive of TRA Research, said that even before the pandemic, newspapers and television channels had laid off thousands of staff because of an economic slowdown. "Now it is a pretty grim scenario for the media world" with advertisers scared to spend, and media companies "have their back against the wall for survival". SEOUL, South Korea, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Yuyu Pharma (CEO Robert Wonsang Yu, KRX 000220) and SD BIOSENSOR (CEO Hyo-Keun, Lee) entered into a Supply Agreement, where Yuyu Pharma will export COVID-19 Test Kits to the Global Market. Leveraging Yuyu Pharma's global network, the company is in talks with several healthcare providers and leading hospitals to export the COVID-19 kits. US FDA gave Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to STANDARD M nCoV Real-Time Detection Kit made by SD BIOSENSOR back in April 23, 2020. With the EUA, SD BIOSENSOR has the authority to supply STANDARD M nCoV Real-Time Detection Kit across the US. STANDARD M nCoV Real-Time Detection Kit is used for rapid identification and detection of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) nucleic acids in human nasopharyngeal swabs and throat swab samples. This is RT-PCR test that amplifies and diagnoses a specific gene sequence of COVID-19. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency within the US Department of Homeland Security, has already purchased $5.2 million USD of SD Biosensor's test kits back in April 2020. Hyo-Keun, Lee CEO of SD BIOSENSOR said that "We have been providing quality kits since 2010. Our HIV, Malaria and Syphilis test kits are already on the World Health Organization (WHO) list of prequalified in vitro diagnostic products. And we are proud to know that our COVID-19 kits will help facilitate in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus and possibly save lives. We will continue to provide quality products to help improve the health of all people around the world" Robert Yu, CEO of Yuyu Pharma, said that "The partnership with SD BIOSENSOR will help provide much needed COVID-19 Kits to medical professionals. We hope our efforts will contribute in the fight against the coronavirus." About Yuyu Pharma Yuyu Pharma (KRX: 000220) is a pharmaceutical company founded in 1941. The company manufactures, distributes, and does marketing for pharmaceutical products, medical devices, and medical foods in South Korea and Southeast Asia. Currently, Yuyu Pharma is focusing on developing new drugs for treating enlarged prostates and dry eye syndrome. Yuyu pharma contact Point Global Sales Team Franklin Park / sehoonpark@yuyu.co.kr Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1192302/STANDARD_M_nCoV_Real_Time_Detection_kit.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1192303/Yuyu_Pharma_Will_Export_COVID_19_Test_Kits.jpg Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson are the latest to slam Google over its threat to demonetize The Federalist, a right-wing news outlet, over reader comments on its stories, amid growing criticism and concern over how much power the company has over the media. The row began with an NBC story written by a young British journalist who contacted Google with a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a British think tank that had put together a list of 10 American websites it deemed racist. The Federalist was listed along with ZeroHedge, Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, American Greatness, Moonbattery, American Thinker, Big League Politics, WND and The Washington Standard. The think tank flagged that The Federalist had used a 'black crime' tag to categorize content. It also flagged a story in which a journalist claimed the media was 'lying' by reporting that white supremacists were involved in looting. It specifically singled out CNN and the New York Times. ZeroHedge, a blog, was also flagged and has now been demonetized. In the NBC story, a Google spokeswoman was quoted by NBC as saying it had 'removed both sites' ability to monetize'. The NBC journalist who wrote the piece, Adele-Momoko Fraser, then thanked the think-tank for its 'collaboration' in a since-deleted tweet, along with the hashtag BlackLivesMatter. Later, Google said it had never demonetized The Federalist - which is run by Meghan McCain's husband - and that it got in touch to address something in the website's comments section that violated standards. Now that the comments section has been removed, Google said, the matter was 'addressed'. Many now fear the company is censoring right-wing or conservative outlets for content it may disagree with by threatening to cripple their revenues by pulling ads or making them disable reader comments. Scroll down for video Sen. Ted Cruz took on Google and its CEO Sundar Pichai for allegedly trying to 'censor' media by threatening to pull ads on content they disagreed with Ted Cruz is demanding records from Google which relate to its threat that it might defund The Federalist In a letter to Google on Monday night, Sen. Ted Cruz said Google's actions 'raise serious concerns that it is abusing its monopoly power in an effort to censor political speech with which it disagrees'. Cruz is now demanding that Google turn over all correspondence it had with NBC, the think tank and all communications between staff about The Federalist. 'Google seems more than happy to play this censorship role by trying to break the financial back of a media publication with which it disagrees. 'Whether or not one agrees with this characterization, destroying the publisher's ability to use advertising to reach willing readers should be wholly beyond the pale Ted Cruz 'Whether or not one agrees with this characterization, destroying the publisher's ability to use advertising to reach willing readers should be wholly beyond the pale,' Cruz continued. He said it was indicative of the 'bigger problem' that 'the culture of free speech in this country is under attack.' 'Google is helping lead the charge,' he went on. Carlson, on his Fox News show, echoed Cruz's sentiments. He said Google was the 'chief threat to liberties'. 'Most media companies are dependent on Google, who will control 70 percent of all online advertising. Google tweeted that it had told The Federalist to remove the comment section after some content posted there violated its policies, without specifying what the offensive comments were 'So if you're in the news business, you obey Google. 'When Google tells you to do something, you do it. You have no choice. Tucker Carlson said Google was the 'chief threat to our liberties' and says the news industry is forced to 'obey' its rules and preferences or risk being bankrupt 'They can bankrupt you in a minute and they will. In all of human history, no single entity is ever had more control over information than Google does right now. 'So if you're worried about the concentration of power in the hands of a few unaccountable actors, and you very much should be, nobody has more unchecked power than Google does,' he said. Meghan McCain, whose husband runs The Federalist, tweeted on Tuesday night: 'Google is now trafficking in digital fascism. How soon until all conservative speech and publications are completely banned?' Donald Trump Jr. said the company was trying to have it 'both ways' by on the one hand seemingly trying to hold The Federalist accountable for comments posted on its site while shirking responsibility for what appears on its own search results page - something that has recently been called into question by the president as tech giants' way of getting out of being sued. The Federalist is run by Meghan McCain's husband Ben Domenech Their decision to demonetize ZeroHedge is likely to annihilate whatever revenue it made and is the most dramatic step Google has taken in stripping sites of their ability to make money through ads. The company has in the past been accused of promoting left-wing sites over right-wing counterparts but insists its algorithms are impartial. The think-tank piece flagged two articles by ZeroHedge. One was said the movement was a 'George Soros astroturf campaign for leftists and their agenda to reshape the fabric of American society.' The other said it was 'practically a revolutionary operative of the CIA via Soros'. The Federalist's violations, according to the think tank, were the 'black crime' tag, under which stories appeared, and an article alleging the media had lied. Meghan McCain's husband runs The Federalist. She tweeted that the company was trafficking 'in digital fascism' Donald Trump Jr. piled into the debate, saying big tech 'wants to have it both ways' NBC gave Google this report by a British think tank that listed 10 websites and claimed they were racist in their coverage of the protests. Google now insists it had nothing to do with the report and was over the comments section, despite a spokesman earlier saying the site had been defunded BRITISH NBC JOURNALIST THANKS BRITISH THINK-TANK FOR 'COLLABORATING' TO DEFUND RIGHT-WING SITES Adele-Momoko Fraser The NBC journalist who wrote the piece which initially seemed to prompt Google's decision to defund ZeroHedge and to caution The Federalist is Adele-Momoko Fraser. She quoted a Google spokeswoman who said both ZeroHedge and The Federalist had been stripped of their ability to monetize. Momoko-Fraser is believed to be around 25. She has worked with NBC in London for six months. Before that, she worked for British TV networks Channel 4 and Sky, but her journalism experience is brief. She graduated with a Masters in Journalism from City University in London in 2018 and before that, obtained an undergraduate degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Bristol. She attended a private school in Dulwich, south London, where fees are $7,500 a year, and is understood to live in a $3million home in Hampstead, north London, with her mother. Her work for NBC'S Verification Center, much of which she has shared on Instagram, includes debunking COVID-19 conspiracy theorists. It's unclear whether she sought out the think-tank report or if they pitched it to her, but she took it to Google. Fraser in an IGTV video about 'Conspiracy Loopholes' for NBC NBC told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that she was asking for the company's comment and was not 'collaborate or purposely attempt to get these sited demonetized.' After Google responded saying it had stripped the sites of their ability to make money, Fraser tweeted the NBC story and celebrated it. She thanked The Center for Countering Digital Hate for 'collaborating' and used the hashtag BlackLivesMatter. She was slammed for her terminology, with some accusing her and the center of silencing free speech. Fraser then tweeted again: 'To clarify this earlier tweet, we obtained this research exclusively from @SFFakeNews but we did not collaborate on the research itself.' Trump Jr called Fraser a 'leftwing activist masquerading as a NBC journalist' Advertisement That story, published on June 3, read: 'Over the weekend we were told, for example, that the looting and violence was being instigated not by left-wing anarchists and antifa groups but by the medias favorite villains: white supremacists. 'CNN, whose Atlanta offices were vandalized Friday, went on and onwithout a shred of evidence to back it upabout how white supremacists might be infiltrating the protests and stirring up trouble. 'The New York Times, in a report that even quoted a senior police official in New York City saying outside anarchist groups were coordinating mayhem before the protests began, nevertheless veered into a long aside about how far-right accelerationists were hoping the unrest would bring about a long-sought second civil war. 'By Monday, no one was talking about the white supremacist agitators anymore. The media had moved on to better, more plausible lies.' That story remains online but the 'black crime tag' has been removed. NBC suggested that it supplying the report to Google was what prompted Google then contacting The Federalist. 'We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race from monetizing. 'When a page or site violates our policies, we take action. In this case, weve removed both sites ability to monetize with Google,' a spokeswoman said. But the company later tweeted: 'The Federalist was never demonetized. 'We worked with them to address issues on their site related to the comments section.' Ben Domenech, The Federalist publisher and McCain's husband, declined to comment when approached by DailyMail.com on Tuesday afternoon. The move is the latest in efforts by tech companies to crack down on content it deems inappropriate that more often than not, comes from conservatives. A poignant recent example was Twitter censoring President Trump's tweet about the Minneapolis protests, where he said: 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts.' The decision prompted Trump to sign an executive order targeting social media giants. 'A small handful of social media monopolies controls a vast portion of all public and private communications in the United States. 'They've had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter, virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences,' he said at the time. The British non-profit 'behind' Google's decision to demonetize Zero Hedge and threaten The Federalist collecting GoFundMe donations to try to take down other websites. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was founded in 2017 by former journalist Imran Ahmed who has written for The Huffington Post in the past The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was founded in 2017 by former journalist Imran Ahmed who has written for The Huffington Post in the past. He also also sits on the British government's Steering Committee, a counter terrorism committee. Among the charity's patrons is Rachel Riley, a TV personality who appears on the British show Countdown and who tweeted on Tuesday in support of NBC and Google's decision to demonetize what it called far-right sites. The CCDH has a campaign called Stop Funding Fake News which calls on companies to pull ads from platforms like Facebook and Google because they can end up running on what it deems to be 'fake news' websites. Part of the campaign was the list of ten US websites it said had published racist content regarding the Black Lives Matter sweeping America. They called the campaign Defund Racism: Black Lives Matter and refer to the ten sites they think should no longer be able to make money as 'the blacklist'. 'The world is crying out for justice. This is the campaign that the charity presented to NBC, who then gave it to Google This is the report that the charity gave to NBC and that NBC then gave to Google. It's unclear if any of the other 10 sites were demonetized or if they received warnings threatening demonetization 'In the wake of George Floyd's death, a global #BlackLivesMatter movement has erupted, demanding justice for black people across the world and calling for an end to systemic racism. Stop Funding Fake News stands in solidarity with this movement, but this moment calls for more than words: it calls for action. 'Fake News and racist narratives can cause real-world harms: dehumanising black people and whipping up fear. 'Stop Funding Fake News is fighting back: we're calling on advertisers to blacklist these 10, U.S-based, racist Fake News sites,' the campaign reads. The ten sites are American Greatness, Moonbattery, American Thinker, Big League Politics, Zero Hedge, WND, The Washington Standard, Gateway Pundit, Breitbart and The Federalist. The Center for Countering Digital Hate is asking for donations to help it take down sites it deems are fake The charity also claims social media has allowed 'fake news' to spread amid the COVID-19 pandemic The organization's campaign tweeted this on Tuesday after the NBC story broke British TV personality Rachel Riley, who is a patron for the charity, said Google was bowing to 'racists' It complained that Zero Hedge 'claimed that Black Lives Matter is practically a revolutionary operative of the CIA via Soros' and that it 'suggested Black Lives Matter is a George Soros Astroturf campaign for leftists and their agenda to reshape the fabric of American society'. On the Stop Funding Fake News campaign homepage, it 'hints' for donations to continue their cause. After NBC published their story on Tuesday, the charity heralded it as a victory. They were confused when Google then walked back its claim that it had not in fact demonetized The Federalist, as reported. Now, the charity says Google is bowing to 'pressure' from conservatives. Ahmed tweeted: 'Lets be absolutely clear here. Google admit they have been monetising derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance violence or discrimination. 'They then say they will stop doing so. And now they are spinning that they will not. 'This is a crisis of their own making.' Riley said brands continuing to advertise on the websites was the equivalent to placing ads on a bus ''of skinheads driving around London with megaphones.' '@GoogleAds almost did the right thing, pulling ads from an internet version of this bus yday. Dont bow to racists whining about it,' she said. Participants Jalen Miller, center, and his mother.Jaleese Miller, arm raised center right, march on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, as the Artist Coalition for a Just Philadelphia holds an Emergency Art Action to Fund Black Futures on Tuesday. Read more With a towering unicorn puppet, body bags, and chants, Philadelphians took to the streets Tuesday to call for reducing the police departments budget in favor of funding the arts and affordable housing, and to rally for better conditions for essential workers of color. The demonstrations marked the 18th-straight day of protests in the city since the death of George Floyd, whose death after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes has sparked widespread protests against racial injustice. Around 100 protesters at the Philadelphia Art Museum gathered to call for taking money from the citys police budget and using it to support the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, which was eliminated in Mayor Jim Kenneys revised 2021 budget proposal. Art is essential, the crowd chanted. The fund supports organizations in virtually every neighborhood of the city most of them modest and community-focused. Led by a unicorn puppet and the West Powelton Drummers, the group then marched from the Art Museum to City Hall. In between performances by artists supported by community arts funding, Michelle Currica, who worked for the fund for years, spoke about its importance. The cultural fund is a longstanding commitment to the arts, and its for the people, by the people, and delivered through the power of the people, she said. The calls to reduce police funding where echoed at City Hall, where about 50 people gathered around the Octavius Catto statue, protesting increases to police amid cuts to housing, education, and other community needs. Stuffed black garbage bags representing corpses were spread on the ground to symbolize lives lost due to lack of housing, improper care in nursing homes, and COVID-19. Jamaal Henderson of Act Up Philadelphia said other social issues including the incarceration of black and brown people, homelessness and lack of resources for sanitation workers could be addressed by reducing the police budget. [Defunding the police] means you can be a black man, actually be a citizen, and not have to worry whether or not your life is at risk, Henderson said. Meanwhile, about 30 Local 32BJ SEIU commercial office cleaners, security officers, and airport workers gathered outside One Liberty Place to commemorate Justice for Janitors Day and highlight the plight of essential workers of color. The union workers stood socially distanced on Market Street holding Black Lives Matter posters to call attention to the coronavirus pandemics disproportionate effects on essential workers of color. Black and brown bodies are the ones who are cleaning these buildings every single day. Today, especially with the racial injustice that is happening in this country, we are all in this together, said SEIU 32BJ Mid-Atlantic District Director Daisy Cruz. London: Australia and the United Kingdom will revamp visa requirements for professional workers and young travellers under a new deal that also paves the way for Britain to become an unlikely member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement within three years. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss - a close ally of Prime Minister Boris Johnson responsible for striking a cluster of post-Brexit economic deals - said making it easier for Australians to live and work in Britain and vice-versa would be critical to growing the services sector, which is the backbone of both economies. Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss is trying to strike free-trade agreements with Australia, the United States and Japan. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Truss also used an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age to condemn protectionism, arguing free trade will prove "very helpful to the recovery of the global economy and putting up barriers will do the exact opposite". "One of the really important things we can do as we recover from coronavirus is fight the protectionist rhetoric and instincts of some nations, and this is another area where Australia and the UK are very, very aligned," she said. America's Supernational Sovereignty Iran and Syria again on the receiving end of sanctions By Philip Giraldi June 16, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - One of the most disturbing aspects of American foreign policy since 9/11 has been the assumption that decisions made by the United States are binding on the rest of the world, best exemplified by President George W. Bushs warning that there was a new sheriff in town. Apart from time of war, no other nation has ever sought to prevent other nations from trading with each other, nor has any government sought to punish foreigners using sanctions with the cynical arrogance demonstrated by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The United States uniquely seeks to penalize other sovereign countries for alleged crimes that did not occur in the U.S. and that did not involve American citizens, while also insisting that all nations must comply with whatever penalties are meted out by Washington. At the same time, it demonstrates its own hypocrisy by claiming sovereign immunity whenever foreigners or even American citizens seek to use the courts to hold it accountable for its many crimes. The conceit by the United States that it is the acknowledged judge, jury and executioner in policing the international community began in the post-World War 2 environment, when hubristic American presidents began referring to themselves as leaders of the free world. This pretense received legislative and judicial backing with passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 (ATA) as amended in 1992 plus subsequent related legislation, to include the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act of 2016 (JASTA). The body of legislation can be used to obtain civil judgments against alleged terrorists for attacks carried out anywhere in the world and can be employed to punish governments, international organizations and even corporations that are perceived to be supportive of terrorists, even indirectly or unknowingly. Plaintiffs are able to sue for injuries to their person, property, or business and have ten years to bring a claim. Sometimes the connections and level of proof required by a U.S. court to take action are tenuous, and that is being polite. Suits currently can claim secondary liability for third parties, including banks and large corporations, under material support of terrorism statutes. This includes aiding and abetting liability as well as providing services to any group that the United States considers to be terrorist, even if the terrorist label is dubious and/or if that support is inadvertent. The ability to sue in American courts for redress of either real or imaginary crimes has led to the creation of a lawfare culture in which lawyers representing a particular cause seek to bankrupt an opponent through both legal expenses and damages. To no ones surprise, Israel is a major litigator against entities that it disapproves of. The Israeli government has even created and supports an organization called Shurat HaDin, which describes on its website how it uses the law to bankrupt opponents. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The Federal Court for the Southern District of Manhattan has become the clearing house for suing the pants off of any number of foreign governments and individuals with virtually no requirement that the suit have any merit beyond claims of terrorism. In February 2015, a lawsuit initiated by Shurat HaDin led to the conviction of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization of liability for terrorist attacks in Israel between 2000 and 2004. The New York Federal jury awarded damages of $218.5 million, but under a special feature of the Anti-Terrorism Act the award was automatically tripled to $655.5 million. Shurat HaDin claimed sanctimoniously that it was bankrupting terror. The most recent legal victory for Israel and its friends occurred in a federal district court in the District of Columbia on June 1st, where Syria and Iran were held to be liable for the killing of American citizens in Palestinian terrorist attacks that have taken place in Israel. Judge Randolph D. Moss ruled that Americans wounded and killed in seven attacks carried out by Palestinians inside the Jewish state were eligible for damages from Iran and Syria because they provided material support to militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The court will at a future date determine the amount of the actual damages. It should be observed that the alleged crime took place in a foreign country, Israel, and the attribution of blame came from Israeli official sources. Also, there was no actual evidence that Syria and Iran were in any way actively involved in planning or directly enabling the claimed attacks, which is why the expression material support, which is extremely elastic, was used. In this case, both Damascus and Tehran are definitely guilty as charged in recognizing and having contact with the Palestinian resistance organizations though it has never been credibly asserted that they have any influence over their actions. Syria and Iran were, in fact, not represented in the proceedings, a normal practice as neither country has diplomatic representation in the U.S. and the chances of a fair hearing given the existing legislation have proven to be remote. And one might well ask if the legislation can be used against Israel, with American citizens killed by the Israelis (Rachel Corrie, Furkan Dogan) being able to sue the Jewish states government for compensation and damages. Nope. U.S. courts have ruled in similar cases that Israels army and police are not terrorist organizations, nor do they materially support terrorists, so the United States judicial system has no jurisdiction to try them. That result should surprise no one as the legislation was designed to specifically target Muslims and Muslim groups. In any event, the current court ruling which might total hundreds of millions of dollars could prove to be difficult to collect due to the fact that both Syria and Iran have little in the way of remaining assets in the U.S. In previous similar suits, most notably in June 2017, a jury deliberated for one day before delivering a guilty verdict against two Iranian foundations for violation of U.S. sanctions, allowing a federal court to authorize the U.S. government seizure of a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. It was the largest terrorism-related civil forfeiture in United States history. The presiding judge decided to distribute proceeds from the buildings sale, nearly $1 billion, to the families of victims of terrorism, including the September 11th attacks. The court ruled that Iran had some culpability for the 9/11 attacks solely based on its status as a State Department listed state sponsor of terrorism, even though the court could not demonstrate that Iran was in any way directly involved. A second court case involved Syria, ruling that Damascus was liable for the targeting and killing of an American journalist who was in an active war zone covering the shelling of a rebel held area of Homs in 2012. The court awarded $302.5 million to the family of the journalist, Marie Colvin. In her ruling, Judge Amy Berman Jackson cited Syrias longstanding policy of violence seeking to intimidate journalists and suppress dissent. A so-called human rights group funded by the U.S. and other governments called the Center for Justice and Accountability based its argument, as in the case of Iran, on relying on the designation of Damascus as a state sponsor of terrorism. The judge believed that the evidence presented was credible and convincing. Another American gift to international jurisprudence has been the Magnitsky Act of 2012, a product of the feel-good enthusiasm of the Barack Obama Administration. It was based on a narrative regarding what went on in Russia under the clueless Boris Yeltsin and his nationalist successor Vladimir Putin that was peddled by one Bill Browder, who many believe to have been a major player in the looting of the former Soviet Union. It was claimed by Browder and his accomplices in the media that the Russian government had been complicit in the arrest, torture and killing of one Sergei Magnitsky, an accountant turned whistleblower working for Browder. Almost every aspect of the story has been challenged, but it was completely bought into by the Congress and White House and led to sanctions on the Russians who were allegedly involved despite Moscows complaints that the U.S. had no legal right to interfere in its internal affairs relating to a Russian citizen. Worse still, the Magnitsky Act has been broadened and is now the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act of 2017. It is being used to sanction and otherwise punish alleged human rights abusers in other countries and has a very low bar for establishing credibility. It was most recently used in the Jamal Khashoggi case, in which the U.S. sanctioned the alleged killers of the Saudi dissident journalist even though no one had actually been arrested or convicted of any crime. The long-established principle that Washington should respect the sovereignty of other states even when it disagrees with their internal or foreign policies has effectively been abandoned. And, as if things were not bad enough, some recent legislation virtually guarantees that in the near future the United States will be doing still more to interfere in and destabilize much of the world. Congress passed and President Trump has signed the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, which seeks to improve Washingtons response to mass killings. The prevention of genocide and mass murder is now a part of American national security agenda. There will be a Mass Atrocity Task Force and State Department officers will receive training to sensitize them to impending genocide, though presumably the new program will not apply to the Palestinians as the laws namesake never was troubled by their suppression and killing by the state of Israel. Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is https://councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org. - " Source " - Post your comment below Three Chinese firms are among the 12 companies from different countries with which the Maharashtra government has signed MoUs collectively worth Rs 16,000 crore. IMAGE: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The investment by the three Chinese companies is collectively worth over Rs 5,000 crore, an official statement said. The MoUs were signed on Monday under the Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0, hours before the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, in which 20 Indian Army personnel were martyred. All the three Chinese companies -- Hengli Engineering, PMI Electro Mobility Solutions JV with Photon and Great Wall Motors -- will invest in Talegaon in Pune district, the statement has said. Hengli Engineering will invest Rs 250 crore, PMI will invest Rs 1,000 crore in the auto sector, it said, adding that Great Wall Motors will set up an automobile company with an investment of Rs 3,770 crore. MoUs were also signed with companies from other countries like USA, Singapore and South Korea, in from diverse sectors like automobile, logistics, banking, engineering and mobile production, the statement said. The event was rescheduled due to the coronavirus outbreak in the Russian capital As Moscow prepares to host a military parade timed to the 75th anniversary of the victory of the USSR in the WWII in Europe, dozens of streets in the Russian capital will be shut off for a rehearsal. Interfax news agency reported that on June 17. The event was rescheduled due to the coronavirus outbreak in the Russian capital The annual demonstration of Russia's military strength is conducted on the Red Square; at some point, it became a distrinct feature of Vladimir Putin's rule. Earlier, Defense Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu invited U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper to a military parade in Moscows Red Square that is expected to take place on June 24. Previously, on May 9, a military parade on the occasion of Victory over Nazism in World War II was held in Belarus. The event was attended by more than 3 000 people, military equipment, and aviation. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said at the parade that "there will be people in this distraught world who will condemn it." Take your time to draw conclusions, and even more so condemn us - the heirs of the Victory, the Belarusians. We simply could not do otherwise, we had no other choice. And if we had, we would have done the same, he stated. Editor's take: You may have noticed all the internet shouting about the United States being under a cyberattack from a foreign country on Monday that took down our entire cellular infrastructure. No, really. I read it on Facebook and Twitter. You may have also noticed that you had no troubles at all. Sorry folks. False alarm. After all, it is 2020, the year of panic. On Monday, social media went into a tailspin with unsubstantiated reports that the US was suffering a large scale DDoS that crippled all major cell service providers for about 10 hours. Some reports even claimed that platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and others were also under attack. As it turns out, it was only T-Mobile that was affected, and it was not a distributed denial of service attack that caused the outage. On Tuesday, T-Mobile's President of Technology Neville Ray explained that the problem occurred because a leased third-party fiber circuit in the southeastern part of the country broke down. This is a common enough occurrence in mobile networks that companies have built redundancies to prevent interruptions. However, this time T-Mobile's backup failed as well. All major cell phone providers across the United States are currently suffering from major outages. pic.twitter.com/TfgA8Sm6hj Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) June 15, 2020 "This redundancy failed us and resulted in an overload situation that was then compounded by other factors," said Ray. "This overload resulted in an IP traffic storm that spread from the Southeast to create significant capacity issues across the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) core network that supports VoLTE calls." While some customers from other carriers were also reporting outages, these providers have said that their systems were and remain functional. The U.S. is currently under a major DDoS attack. https://t.co/7pmLpWUzUp pic.twitter.com/W5giIA2Inc Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) June 15, 2020 On Monday, shortly after the outages began, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince denied the problem was caused by distributed denial of service attacks and pinpointed T-Mobile as the cause of the interruptions. He did not address why customers from other carriers were also having trouble. Verizon later explained that it was only experiencing issues when its users were trying to reach T-Mobile customers. "Verizon's network is performing well. We're aware that another carrier is having network issues. Calls to and from that carrier may receive an error message," a Verizon spokesperson told CNN Business. "We understand Downdetector is falsely reporting Verizon network issues." The outage began around noon pacific time on Monday. By 10pm PDT, T-Mobile reported it had fixed the problem and apologized for the interruption in service. An Offaly TD has expressed her 'shock and disappointment' at the decision of Bord na Mona to suspend all peat harvesting and commence work on its Enhanced Peatland Rehabilitation Scheme (EPRS). Independent TD for Laois Offaly Carol Nolan was speaking after the announcement was made by company Chief Executive, Tom Donnellan yesterday afternoon. This decision will come as a significant shock to many people in the midlands and in Laois/Offaly in particular," she commented. "I have written to the CE of Bord na Mona to seek clarity on the timeframe of this suspension of peat harvesting and whether the suspension, will be permanent or temporary. I have also asked Tom Donnellan to clearly outline Bord na Monas reasons for not appealing the decision. The question Im calling on Minister Bruton and the incoming government to answer is why are this government accelerating the job loses and not intervening in this debacle which is putting so many livelihoods and jobs at risk in the Midlands or are they already pandering to the green agenda which most of us concerned about in rural Ireland?" Deputy Nolan said she was also surprised and 'somewhat alarmed' to hear that Minister Bruton, in response to the decision by Bord na Mona, has stated that work is only 'now underway' with respect to drawing up a territorial plan for the region which is the first step in securing new EU Just Transition funding under the Coal Regions in Transition Platform. "Accessing this funding was something I specifically raised with him in August of last year when he assured me that the Midlands region had been included in the Platform," Deputy Nolan stated. "He has also known since November 2019 that Bord na Mona had announced plans for an accelerated exit from peat harvesting activities in line with its Brown to Green strategy. "What have the Minister and his department been doing since then? Why is it only now, when the announcement that all peat harvesting is to end that the Minister is saying is work is underway? I will certainly be seeking answers to those questions from Minister Bruton." The Laois/Offaly TD said that she accepted that for Bord na Mona the objective was to transform thousands of hectares of peat harvesting bogs into new areas of biodiversity and natural beauty across the Midlands of Ireland but she added, "as the old saying goes, you cannot eat the scenery." "Workers need work and solid employment prospects. They need to be fully supported with more than just vague aspirations. At the moment however my thoughts are with all those workers and their families who are genuinely stunned at the speed and suddenness of this announcement, concluded Deputy Nolan. A Shanghai court on Wednesday sentenced a billionaire real-estate developer and philanthropist to five years in prison for child molestation, ending a high-profile case that spurred soul searching about how China handles child abuse and protects its wealthiest and best connected. The developer, Wang Zhenhua, was detained last summer after news outlets reported that he had assaulted a 9-year-old girl. After censors sought to delete reports about the case, a flurry of online rage culminated in state-media criticism of Mr. Wang, whose Chinese Communist Party membership was revoked. The five-year sentence, typical for child molestation, though other charges can increase the time of imprisonment, raised further ire on social media, where news about the case was trending Wednesday evening. Two local news polls on the microblogging site Weibo found respondents overwhelmingly believed the punishment to be too lenient. In one poll, carried out by Phoenix News, 15,000 of 17,000 respondents said Mr. Wang had gotten off too easily. In recent years in China, dozens of women have come forward to report abuse by powerful men. While some have won justice, others have had their efforts blocked by censors, lawsuits, and the authorities reluctance to intervene in cases of sexual abuse. SPRINGFIELD The City Council, armed with new pro bono lawyers, is threatening a legal fight with Mayor Domenic J. Sarno to push for resurrection of a citizen police commission to oversee policy and officer discipline. The council voted on Tuesday night to accept the free services of two Northampton lawyers, Thomas Lesser and Michael Aleo, to aid the council in a prolonged dispute with Sarno. Council President Justin Hurst was authorized by the online meeting vote to sign an agreement with the lawyers before the legal discussions begin. If approved in the future by councilors, the lawyers could bring an action to litigate this dispute in the courts on the councils efforts to bring back the five-member commission, which was abolished in 2005. Hours earlier on Tuesday, Sarno announced his intention to stay with the existing Community Police Hearing Board, which can recommend officer discipline to Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood. She has final authority on disciplinary action. Councilor Kateri Walsh said the dispute goes beyond whether or not there should be a police commission. When the council overrode the mayors veto of a 2018 order reestablishing the commission, the matter should have become law, she said. "I think this strikes at the heart and soul of the council and the authority of the council and the role of the council, Walsh said. Councilor Adam Gomez said that citizen oversight is needed. He said the current system, an advisory board, is not the answer. Sarno, in advance of the council vote, said it was a shame the council, as the citys legislative body, was considering suit against the executive body, given Springfields strong mayor" form of government. I want to work toward solutions, not conflict, Sarno said. There is a path forward here. Tuesdays council vote was 11-2 to authorize the pro bono lawyers. Councilor Sean Curran was opposed, saying he believes a city the size of Springfield should have a single commissioner, while Councilor Michael Fenton voted no after seeking an executive session of the council to discuss potential litigation ahead of the vote to retain the lawyers services. Sarno has repeatedly argued that a single police commissioner is a modern, more professional means to run a police department. Opponents have argued that a citizen commission enhances accountability for police misconduct. The majority of members of the 13-member council have argued for the resurrection of the police commission. In January of 2019, the council overrode Sarnos veto and upheld its decision to reestablish the commission. Sarno, however, took no action to appoint commission members. The council had also approved the police commission in 2016. Sarno and City Solicitor Edward Pikula said the council ordinance was legally invalid because it sought to usurp the mayors powers under the city charter. The mayor on Tuesday said he will revise and resubmit a proposed ordinance aimed at giving more teeth to the Community Police Hearing Board by providing it with subpoena powers. Councilors have rejected that proposal in the past. Pikula, participating in Tuesdays council meeting, said there might still be an opportunity for some out-of-court agreement between Sarno and council. Councilor Jesse Lederman, the lead sponsor of the order to retain the pro bono lawyers, said there is obviously a long-standing point of contention and need for clarity. The Police Commission had existed in Springfield for many decades before being eliminated and replaced by the single police commissioner system in 2005 by the state-appointed Finance Control Board. The United States has said it is closely monitoring the India-China border situation and an American media report suggested China may have suffered severe losses in the eastern Ladakh clashes and put the number of its fatalities at 35 citing an intelligence assessment. US News, the media publication, went on to suggest that the Chinese are taking the deaths as a humiliation and might be reluctant, therefore, to announce or confirm them for fear of emboldening other adversaries. In the reported assessment of US intelligence it was a tense border meeting between military personnel of the two sides to de-escalate tensions that turned violent. Most deaths were caused by batons, knives or from falling off a steep cliff. The details of this account of events could not be ascertained independently. The state department pointed to an earlier statement when asked. A spokesperson had said: We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation. The spokesperson had gone on to refer to a June 2 phone call in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump had discussed the India-China border. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters at the daily briefing President Donald Trump is aware of the situation on the India-China border, and went on to repeat a statement earlier issued by the state department spokesperson: We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation. The spokesperson had gone on to refer to a June 2 phone call in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump had discussed the India-China border. President Trump had earlier, on May 28, offered to mediate the dispute, saying in a tweet, We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute. The offer was turned down by both India and China and Trump has since not said more on this, snowed under as he is with the twin crises of the Covid-19 epidemic that has killed nearly 117,000 Americans and the civil unrest triggered by the killing of an Africa-American man by a white police officer in Minneapolis. The state department had earlier slammed the border tensions as a reflection of Chinese aggression going beyond the rhetoric and the House foreign affairs committee had blamed the Chinese for as well. I am extremely concerned by the ongoing Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control on the India-China border., Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, had said in a statement in early June. China is demonstrating once again that it is willing to bully its neighbors rather than resolve conflicts according to international law. Express News Service NEW DELHI: Attacked by Chinese soldiers in full riot gear with rods & bamboos that had nails on them; Colonel among the troops killed in action; many succumbed to injuries because of sub-zero temperature and high altitude. In what appears to be a dramatic meltdown of bilateral relationship, India and China on Tuesday blamed each other for the worst face-off in 45 years that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, including one officer, along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan area. A terse late night statement issued by the Army said: Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20. An earlier statement said, The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers. While Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian accused Indian troops of crossing the LAC twice, leading to a serious clash, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the face-off was a result of China unilaterally trying to alter status quo. Our border troops had a high-level meeting and reached important consensus on easing the border situation but astonishingly on June 15 the Indian troops seriously violated our consensus and twice crossed the border line for illegal activities and provoked and attacked Chinese personnel, which led to serious physical conflict between the two sides and China has lodged strong protest and representation with the Indian side, Zhao said. Later in the day, a statement from Srivastava said, While it was our expectation that this (de-escalation) would unfold smoothly, the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the LAC. On the late-evening and night of June 15 a violent face-off happened as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there. Both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. ALSO READ | RIP Colonel Santosh Babu: My son was too young to die, says father There were reports of Chinese fatalities, too, but the state establishment has not put a figure to it yet. However, Hu Xijin, the editor of the Global Times, the Communist Partys mouthpiece, tweeted that there were Chinese casualties as well. Agencies in India put the Chinese troop toll at 43, but the figure could not be independently verified. On the Indian side, the casualties include Telangana native Colonel Bikkamalla Santosh Babu -- who was the Commanding Officer of an Infantry Unit -- Havildar Palani from Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu and Sepoy Kundan Kumar Ojha from Sahibganj in Jharkhand The incident occurred when a large number of Chinese troops encircled Indian soldiers and beat them with rods and bamboos with nails on them. The Chinese soldiers were in complete riot gear with helmets, shields and knee and elbow caps, informed a source. Senior military officials of the two sides have been meeting at the venue to defuse the situation, the army added. The last violent clash between troops of the two countries was reported in Arunachal Pradesh in 1975. ALSO READ | Sepoy KK Ojha's daughter was born just 17 days ago, never got to see her Later in the day, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the situation along with the Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and the three service Chiefs and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Rajnath and Jaishankar later briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the phone, which was followed by a meeting between Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Going forward, defence experts expect greater bilateral tension. I see this stand-off leading to greater tension if what the Chinese want is unacceptable to us. If the Chinese agree to return to the original position along the LAC, then the tension could ease. But, this time the Chinese dont seem to be ready to vacate the areas, Lt Gen (retd) D S Hooda said. Major General D K Mehta said, The way China is cornered - and there is tremendous pressure on China from all around - this is a tactic to whip up ultra-nationalism among the Chinese people who are suffering from the worst phase of their economy. China is browbeating countries in the South China Sea and is worried about the growing significance of Taiwan in geopolitics. It also is trying to pressure India into not getting involved in the affairs of the World Health Organization, like the probe into the origin of the coronavirus and entry of Taiwan as an observer, added Maj Gen Mehta. Diplomatic experts called for an overhaul of Delhis policy on China. It is high time India starts to look towards China through a different prism. By merely saying we are not the India of 1962, resolution of border differences will not happen. We need to act. We need to be cautious about our neighbour at all times and stand up to its aggression, a former Indian Ambassador to China said. HISTORY REPEATS AS CHINESE AMBUSHED INDIAN SOLDIERS, KILLED FOUR OF THEM IN 1975 The killing of George Floyd was not the only impetus for mass demonstrations in the United States, Canada and around the world. What lies behind these protests is the weight of hundreds of years of anti-Black racism and the countless deaths of innocent Black, Indigenous and other minority groups at the hands of the police. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion The killing of George Floyd was not the only impetus for mass demonstrations in the United States, Canada and around the world. What lies behind these protests is the weight of hundreds of years of anti-Black racism and the countless deaths of innocent Black, Indigenous and other minority groups at the hands of the police. The police have quite rightly been the subject of debate in the wake of these demonstrations. One demand that has begun to gain traction is for the deployment of police body cameras. Already, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to "move forward as quickly as possible," and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki assured him she would "use all available tools to take quick, solid action." The premise behind this demand is a curious one. In some ways, the demand is a remarkable admission of widespread structural failure: the police can no longer be trusted unless they are subject to constant, pervasive surveillance. Yet body cameras sidestep systemic issues entirely, treating the symptom police violence going unpunished rather than addressing what causes police violence in the first place. Ignoring the issue Sandy Hudson, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto and the Black Liberation Collective Canada, pointed out on CTVs Question Period that accountability measures already exist and the police have not responded to them. "I dont want to see more of us dying," Hudson said in reference to body cameras. "I want the police to stop killing us." Body cameras may be intended as a tool to protect the public from the police, but ultimately, this tool will sit in the hands of officers who may use it for unintended purposes. Police agencies in Canada already use facial recognition technology to identify citizens; the combination of facial recognition technology and body cameras could create a system of unprecedented mass surveillance. Unlike CCTV cameras, such surveillance would be mobile and could appear without notice, heightening the risk of significant privacy infringements. Managing police use of technology If we do choose to make police body cameras mandatory, we must be careful not to sleepwalk into giving the police yet another tool of oppression. Implementing the widespread use of such technology before passing legislation to safeguard privacy interests may, for example, result in storage policies that prevent the footage from being used in the public interest. Whether privacy interests are properly balanced against the demand for police accountability will depend upon how body camera recordings are permitted to be used. The aim of regulations surrounding these devices must be to keep them as a tool for the public against police violence, rather than allowing them to turn into a tool for enhanced surveillance. Independent agency A number of policies could be implemented to achieve this effect. For one, officers should not be given discretion over when a camera is and is not recording, to ensure that events cannot be taken out of context. 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. Second, control of the videos recorded by these cameras must be retained by a civil, rather than a police body, a "body camera agency," completely separate from the police force. Individuals who have been recorded by the police should be entitled to obtain any recordings made of them by the police, and without the police being notified. This agency should not provide the police with any video or metadata collected from body cameras in order to prevent the police from engaging in pervasive surveillance. If the body camera agency observes that an officer has been obscuring or otherwise tampering with their body camera, the officer should be disciplined. Body cameras do not address the systemic problems in policing that continue to cause tragedies such as the killing of George Floyd. The cracks in the walls of our police institutions have been visible to many of us for some time. Now, they are apparent to all of us. Body cameras are yet another attempt to plaster over these cracks, and it may work for a while. Eventually, however, there comes a time to inspect the foundation. Joven Narwal is an adjunct professor at the UBC Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia. This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca. Australia is losing almost 5,000 jobs a week while the national economy is shrinking by $84million a day as a result of continuing border closures, according to new modelling data. Research commissioned by the Australian Tourism Industry Council found Queensland had been hit hardest by the travel restrictions - shedding 173 jobs every day. The Sunshine State, whose borders will not re-open until July 10, is also losing about $21million a day - the same as New South Wales and $2million more than Victoria. Scroll down for video The Queensland economy is shedding 173 jobs every day, new modelling has found. Pictured state border controls during the pandemic on the Queensland border - the Sunshine State will not open up to foreign travellers until July 10 Another 168 jobs a day are disappearing in Victoria, the modelling by consultancy firm Lucid Economics found, while 165 are being lost in NSW. Addressing the data, ATIC executive director Simon Westaway warned travellers were being put off by Australia's gradual step-by-step, re-opening of borders. He said a total re-opening of the nation's borders in July would stop confusion and give the country's tourism industry the boost it needs to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. South Australia said it would be opening up its borders on Tuesday to travellers from Western Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania. The latter three states though are yet to signal a return to unrestricted travel. 'We now face the prospect of at least four different points in time for partial lifting of our closed borders, but with no guaranteed timetable for a full national reopening of state and territory borders,' Mr Westaway told The Australian. A cleaner walks through a deserted outlet mall in Brisbane in April. Queensland's economy is also shrinking by $21million a day 'The lower job and reduced state economic outputs have serious implications for our national tourism economy because interstate visitors are more financially valuable than intrastate ones.' The figures come as Trade Minister Simon Birmingham warned on Wednesday Australia is unlikely to reopen its border to international travellers until next year. He said though the government would look at relaxing entry rules for students and other long-term visitors. A waitress serves customers for the first time in three months at South Melbourne's Emerald Hotel on June 1. One of Australia's leading tourism executives has called for the government to reopen the country completely by July Mr Birmingham said a quarantine rule for returning citizens could be applied to international students and other visitors who plan to stay for a long period of time. 'We can simply work through the 14-day quarantine periods that have worked so well in terms of returning Australians to this country safely,' Mr Birmingham said in a speech to the National Press Club. The return of international students will be a boost for universities facing big financial losses with the border closed as international education is Australia's fourth-largest foreign exchange earner, worth $38billion a year. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said in a speech to the National Press Club Australia is unlikely to reopen its border to international travellers until next year Australia has had more than 7,300 cases of the coronavirus and 102 people have died. The country recorded its biggest daily rise in new infections in more than a month on Wednesday, with the most of them in Victoria, the second most populous state. Victoria reported 21 new cases overnight, of which 15 are returned travellers in quarantine, taking the total tally for the day to 22 cases, with some states yet to report their data. The Moscow-backed leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has denied accusations that he was behind an alleged plot to kill a Georgian journalist. "Believe me, if someone is acting on my orders, he will carry them out, and if a mission is to be accomplished quietly, nobody...would learn about it," Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel late on June 16. The previous day, Georgia's Service for State Security said it had detained a Russian citizen, identified as V.B., on charges of using forged documents. It said the arrest came as part of an investigation into "preparation of murder by contract." Nika Gvamaria, director of the television station Mtavari Arkhi, identified the suspect as 38-year-old Vasambek Bokov, a native of Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia. He alleged that Bokov was sent to kill Giorgi Gabunia, a journalist with Mtavari Arkhi, on Kadyrov's orders. The story dates back to July last year, when Gabunia crudely insulted Russian President Vladimir Putin live on air amid worsening ties between Georgia and Russia. Kadyrov publicly vowed to "punish" Gabunia at the time. In his Telegram post on June 16, the Chechen leader said that the journalist should "go down on his knees and ask for forgiveness.... Otherwise, he will, I repeat, remain my enemy." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the allegations against Kadyrov "absurd." Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili and Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia have reacted to the alleged plot, without pointing the finger at Kadyrov. Zurabishvili said on June 16 that Georgia was "dealing with a criminal and provocative action targeted against the countrys stability." Gakharia said that the investigation was still under way, adding, "We should have sufficient patience, wait, and make all types of assessment afterward." Rights groups say Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya since 2007, uses repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces in the volatile region. In recent years, several Kadyrov critics were killed outside Russia, and many believe that either Kadyrov himself or Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) were behind the apparent assassinations. With reporting by the BBC, AFP, and Civil.ge This week, the candidates running for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada have an extremely rare, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grab our attention. This is because, no thanks to a global pandemic, many voters have nothing better to do than watch a spectacle we might have, in happier times, ditched for a BBQ, or a Pride party, or literally anything else: the CPC leadership debates. The English debate takes place Thursday evening a day after the French debate. But whatever the language of the day, the question on my mind is this: will the leadership candidates use this unique opportunity to address issues relevant to the average Canadians life, or will they squander it by struggling to explain their positions on a variety of social issues few think about on a daily or even yearly basis? Judging by the political makeup of the candidates and their recent actions, my guess is they will squander it big time. Lets review our roster. The front-runners in this race are Peter MacKay and Erin OToole. MacKay, an establishment Conservative prone to social media gaffes, is under pressure to reassure mainstream voters he will do his best to rebut controversial opinions about gay marriage, conversion therapy and abortion, while simultaneously trying to avoid alienating voters who hold controversial opinions about gay marriage, conversion therapy and abortion. I dont envy him. Meanwhile, OToole, the candidate promising to take back Canada (from whom or what he hasnt specified), will probably try to court the voters MacKay will inevitably alienate. This week, a video clip sent anonymously to Radio-Canada depicts OToole, speaking French, appealing to social conservatives in Quebec. In the clip, OToole expresses concern about the federal governments proposed conversion therapy ban and another bill having to do with access to assisted death. (After the leaked video appeared on Radio-Canada, OToole tweeted that conversion therapy should be abolished.) In the video, OToole asks social conservatives to please consider him as a second choice after their presumable first choices: candidates Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan, who are staunch social conservatives. What the video suggests is that OToole, who recently wished the LGBTQ community a Happy Pride month on Twitter, wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants mainstream voters to think social conservative concerns are an afterthought to him but he wants the people who voice those concerns to think hes more sympathetic to their feelings then he typically lets on. Candidate Sloan is in another camp entirely, one you could call: Im out there and I dont care. Sloan made headlines recently for suggesting, incorrectly, that the federal governments proposed legislation banning conversion therapy would make it illegal for parents to seek counselling for their kids. In reality it would make it illegal for parents to seek conversion therapy for their kids, an abusive, medically-panned practice that should never be confused with legitimate counselling but one Sloan appears intent on defending anyway. He is proud of his stance and probably wont do much to conceal it. Neither, likely, will Lewis, a socially conservative candidate who ascribes to a no hidden agenda policy. In other words, unlike CPC leader Andrew Scheer who was notoriously vague on the campaign trail about his positions on social issues, Lewis is crystal clear. Her website reads: The only way to avoid being accused of having a hidden agenda is by not hiding it! She is proudly pro-life and anti-political correctness. Also from her website: If we cant even discuss the issues that make us uncomfortable, well never be able to solve them. But some issues dont need solving. For the majority of the Canadian public, abortion, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights in general, are, if not settled, simply not top of mind. This isnt just guesswork on my part. A poll from earlier this year showed that Canadians think its more important that the Conservative partys next leader be fiscally conservative than socially conservative. And another poll from last year, prior to the election, ranked health care and affordability among top issues for voters. The candidates above and the front-runners in particular might argue their platforms are far more focused on economic issues than social ones. But social ones have a way of taking centre stage, especially, I predict, in a debate featuring two champions of social conservatism, one moderate trying to woo social conservatives, and another one trying not to offend them. If you thought last years federal election was dominated by a candidates awkward attempt to explain his position on social issues, you aint seen nothin yet. Emma Teitel is a columnist based in Toronto covering current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @emmaroseteitel India wants peace but is capable of giving a befitting reply if provoked, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday, his first remarks on the border clash between soldiers of the Indian and Chinese army in eastern Ladakh on Monday evening. The prime minister started his meeting with chief ministers on the Covid-19 with a two-minute silence as a tribute to the 20 soldiers who were killed in action in Galwan Valley this week. As he spoke, it became clear that the message was aimed not just at reassuring the nation but also delivering a sharp message to Beijing. I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important, PM Modi said. Home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh were also present in the meeting. Also Read: PM Modi calls all-party meeting to discuss India-China border situation Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in the violent face-off which took place in Eastern Ladakh on Monday. The troops fought each other with fists and rocks. After the clash, the two sides disengaged from the area where the fighting happened, the Indian army statement said. News agency ANI quoting sources said four Indian soldiers are in critical condition after the face-off. ALSO WATCH | We want peace, dont provoke us: PM Modi gives tough message to China On the Chinese side, news agency ANI reported, there have been 43 casualties. Defence minister Rajnath Singh mourned the death of 20 Indian soldiers. The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army, he said in a statement. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias bravehearts, the minister further said in the statement posted on Twitter. These are the first Indian casualties in a border skirmish with PLA since October 1975 when Chinese troops ambushed an Indian patrol in Arunachal Pradeshs Tulung La sector and shot four soldiers dead. A commanding officer of an infantry battalion and 19 other Indian soldiers were killed on Monday evening when a clash erupted between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan valley of Eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army had initially said that an officer and two soldiers were killed in action. In an update on Tuesday evening, the army said 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high-altitude terrain had succumbed to injuries. Read the full statement: Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20. Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. The Northern Youth for Nana Akufo-Addo (NOYONAA) said, Ghanaians are discerning enough to differentiate between the New Patriotic Partys (NPP) three and half years and other political regimes. NOYONAA said the claim of the NDC that President Akufo-Addo and the NPP had executed only 14 per cent of its promises was untrue and misleading. A statement signed by Mr Abukari Ubaidullah, NOYONAA Northern Regional Coordinator and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said President Akufo-Addos achievements were unmatched. It mentioned the reduction of unemployment from 11.9 per cent in 2015 to 7.3 per cent in 2019, according to the Ghana Living Standards Survey and that if this reduction was at 14 per cent performance, then President Akufo-Addo deserved another four more years to reduce unemployment further. On education, the statement said the Free Senior High School programme introduced by President Akufo-Addo had won him international recognition, free registration for West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination and the Basic Education Certificate Examination Candidates and the restoration of the Teacher Trainee Allowances. The statement said the Planting for Food and Jobs under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture registered 1.1 million farmers who got access to a 703,000 metric tons of fertilizer. "Also the food safety and security programme under the National Food Buffer Stock and the distribution of seeds and supply of fertilizer to farmers". It said on health, 307 ambulances were distributed to each constituency to facilitate the movement of patients from one destination to another and the restoration of the Nurses Trainee Allowance. According to the statement, President Akufo-Addo declared 2020 as the year of roads of which the Northern Regional Capital, Tamale, was getting an Interchange to ease congestion in its town centre, the Pokuase interchange and the town roads across the country. It said the peaceful manner in which the funerals of the two former Ya-Naas and the subsequent enskinment of the new Ya-Naa was a core promised fulfilled. This core promise has killed a major campaign message of the opposition party and the good people of Dagbon hail you for such singular leadership and love demonstrated for us. "One-District-One-Factory, the Nations Builders Corps, One-Village-One-Dam, the $1million-One Constituency and National Identification Cards". On Energy, the statement said Dumsor was now a thing of the past and the Petroleum sector improved on Daily basis. It said President Akufo-Addo and the NPP had shown the difference between competence and incompetence and had proved that the black man was indeed capable of managing his own affairs not IMF. The statement said: "it is normal to get a low mark when your examiner know nothing about the subject matter. The NDC does not have any message for Ghanaians and resorts to fight any programme from President Akufo-Addos leadership." NOYONAA congratulated President Akufo-Addo on his spectacular performance in lifting the image of Ghana and the standards of the citizenry. It said the promises made by President Akufo-Addo during his campaign prior to the 2016 elections attracted lots of criticism from the NDC who said it was not achievable anytime soon, "today they are praising him for a 14 per cent work done, this means you will do more when you get four more years." "The track record of the NDC shows that anytime they say something they mean the exact opposite to what they say. A political party which after 2016 declared that they were in a comfortable lead before results were declared by the Electoral commission and when it was eventually declared they recorded the heaviest defeat ever in their political history. 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 Representative image The Department of Telecom (DoT) has firmly decided to tell state-owned telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) not to use Chinese equipment in the upgradation of its 4G facilities, which is the part of its revival package for stressed telcos. It has also conveyed to rework the tender in this regard. The department is also actively considering steps to convey to private mobile service operators to speedily reduce their dependence on equipments made by Chinese companies. Track all the latest updates on the India-China border feud here There are questions of security always raised with respect to the network security of equipment made by Chinese companies, government sources told CNN-News18. Meanwhile, the security features of Chinese tech giant Huawei are also under the scanner. Read our complete coverage on the India-China border tension Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, announced Wednesday that they will donate $120 million to support scholarships at historically black colleges and universities. The donation, the largest of its kind, will be split between Spelman College, Morehouse College and the United Negro College Fund, which will each receive $40 million. Calling it the largest gift weve ever given, Hastings and Quillins gesture comes amid protests following the police killing of George Floyd, and a national conversation about how to end systemic racism. That conversation has also included discussions about how to provide more education and job opportunities for African Americans - an effort Hastings says will now become the focus of his and his wifes philanthropy. The times are the most stressed, the most painful, that weve ever seen in our lives, Hastings told MSNBC Wednesday. But out of that pain can come some opportunity, too. And maybe this will be the moment things change. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, announced Wednesday that they will donate $120 million to support scholarships at historically black colleges and universities Spelman College (left) and Morehouse College (right), based in Atlanta and dedicated to educating women and men respectively, are top producers of black graduates receiving Fulbright scholarships and pursuing doctorates The sum offered by Hastings and Quillin will be enough for both Morehouse and Spelman college to support 200 students each over the next decade. The two colleges, based in Atlanta and dedicated to educating women and men respectively, are top producers of black graduates receiving Fulbright scholarships and pursuing doctorates. The United Negro College Fund, meanwhile, is a minority education organization that awards scholarships to more than 10,000 students each year and financially supports 37 historically black colleges and universities. Endowments at historically black colleges and universities are significantly lower than at comparable institutions - the median endowment for American Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) is $15.7 million, compared with the median endowment of $36.8 million for non-HBCUs, a news release said. But Hastings and Quillin want to help change that, and hope their donation will inspire other wealthy individuals to give to HBCUs. Theres so much social isolation in America, theres just less awareness in the white community certainly in my community of the role that HBCUs have played over the last 150 years, the couple said in a joint statement, announcing the donation. So white people generally give to predominantly white institutions. Its natural, but its not healthy. We need to do a better job of kind of getting to know each other and cross-investing. Hastings, reported to have a net-worth of $5.3 billion, has a history of supporting educational causes, including charter schools. In 2010, he launched a $100 million education fund, focused on giving money toward college scholarships for black and Latino students. $1.5 million of the initiative went toward the United Negro College Fund. At the time, the billionaire posted on Facebook that I hope to do more in the future,' seemingly foreshadowing the 2020 donation. Calling it the largest gift weve ever given, Hastings and Quillins (right) gesture comes amid protests following the police killing of George Floyd , and a national conversation about how to end systemic racism. The United Negro College Fund is a minority education organization that awards scholarships to more than 10,000 students each year and financially supports 37 historically black colleges and universities. Hastings credited Dr. Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund, for offering to help him and his wife get to know the HBCUs, and for explaining why now is as important a time as ever to shine a spotlight on the significance these institutions have. Morehouse College President David Thomas said the gift is particularly powerful because Hastings and Quillin allocated it specifically toward scholarships, as reported by the LA Times. The donation makes up nearly 10 percent of Thomas goal to reach a $500 million endowment a target he now aims to raise. Thomas is hoping to make the endowment large enough so the college can admit students without having to consider their familys economic status. Weve done the calculations. To be where I want our college to be, which is need-blind, we need an endowment of roughly $1.2 billion, Thomas told the Times. Mary Schmidt Campbell, president of Spelman College, told MSNBC the donation would help students in need to focus on academics. Its a statement from Patty and Reid of great faith in our students and faith in our institutions, she said. Its going to mean that every year were going to be able to identify 20 high-performing students, high-need students and say to them you get to go to college debt-free. Outside of his philanthropic pursuits, Hastings has also pledged to address diversity imbalance among his Netflix work force. Currently, around seven percent of its employees in the US are African American, as are eight percent of its company leaders Outside of his philanthropic pursuits, Hastings has also pledged to address diversity imbalance among his Netflix work force. Currently, around seven percent of its employees in the US are African American, as are eight percent of its company leaders. Those percentages are among the highest in the technology industry, though the company has been accused of falling short in hiring, retaining and promoting underrepresented minorities within their own ranks. Other tech industry donations in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests have largely been on the company level. Last week, for instance, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company will spend $100 million on a new Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, investing in education and criminal justice reform among other things. YouTube, meanwhile, pledged $100 million to help black artists and other creators. Many of you may recognise local resident Tony Benham as the organiser of Remembrance Sunday ceremonies and Wally from Yasam Icin Yars (Race For Life Turkey) well you may not recognise him dressed as Wally! Wheres Wally? Tony ready for Yasam Icin Yars (Race For Life Turkey) 2019. Photo by Norman Clark. This year, coronavirus pandemic allowing, Tony plans to take part in the Frontier Walk to raise money for ABF The Soldiers Charity. Fethiye Times met with Tony to find out more. Fethiye Times meeting with Tony at Nefes Breakfast Salon A bit about Tony My name is Tony Benham and I am a retired Firefighter now residing with my wife, Sonia, and 16-year-old daughter in Ovack. We have owned property here for 16 years and moved out here in 2016. In 2018, I inaugurated the first Remembrance Sunday here in Ovack. I had always attended the ceremonies in the UK, from being a flag bearer as a Cub Scout, to taking my daughter as a babe in arms. 2018 was a massively significant year as it was the centenary of the start of The Great War. I was given permission to hold a ceremony by the local Mayor and advertised it locally. The response was very good and people asked if it would become an annual event. We held a second ceremony last year, which coincided with the anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturks. Our ceremony was a remembrance of both occasions and was attended by British and Turkish people standing shoulder to shoulder. I have been interested in the World Wars since studying the subject to GCSE level at school, helped by a very passionate and knowledgeable teacher. My father also had a passion for the subject and built a cabinet for the purpose of displaying family war medals. When I joined the Fire Service in 1985, I found myself working alongside many ex-servicemen, who were drawn to the disciplined environment, similar to what they had been used to during their time in the services. How did I get involved with the Frontline Walk? I lost my Father in 2014 and inherited the box of medals and some of the paperwork from his efforts to trace relatives from the World Wars. Having also gone through a personally challenging couple of years between 2013-2015, including the death of my father, I wasnt in a particularly good place. And then, in 2015, I saw the Frontline Walk on Facebook. I turned to my then girlfriend now wife and said, if I get through this, Im going to sign up for this walk And thats what Tony did. This was in the October of 2015. Tony walked it again in 2017 and 2018. What is The Frontline Walk? ABF The Soldiers Charity is the national charity of the British Army, providing a lifetime of support to soldiers, veterans and their immediate families when they are in need. The Army Benevolent Fund (ABF) was founded in 1944 to ensure that soldiers returning from World War Two were well cared for. Since then, the welfare of soldiers, past and present, and their families has been at the heart of everything the charity does. The Frontline Walk is a sponsored trek following in the footsteps of those who fought in WWI or WWII whilst supporting the soldiers and veterans of today. Covering 100km of the Western Front, the Walk starts at Lochnagar Crater, the location of the start of the Battle of the Somme, and finishes at the Menin Gate, with the Ceremony of the Last Post. Click here to see the full itinerary for the Western Front route. Tony with Barney who stood on an IED in Afghanistan. He was given a hand up by the charity and is now an ambassador for them. Photograph taken at the Ulster Tower. Click here to read Barneys story. Andy suffered catastrophic injuries in an IED explosion while serving with The Yorkshire Regiment in Afghanistan in 2009. He has overcome his injuries to become a passionate ambassador, speaker and fundraiser for the Soldiers Charity. Click here to read Andys story. More than just a walk Tony talks about his experience of the walk. Back to back days of walking make it a fairly tough challenge. Your feet take a pounding, where you are, the purpose of the walk and the camaraderie carry you through. The walk takes in memorials such as the Thiepval Memorial, the Ulster Tower, Vimy Ridge, Tyne Cot Cemetery and ends at the Menin Gate in Ypres, one of the most visited war memorials in Western Europe. In 2018, there was one of many emotional moments when I found my great uncle George Charles Benham remembered on the Arras Memorial. He was in the 2nd/10th London (Hackney) Regiment. The memorial commemorates 35,942 soldiers of the forces of the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand, with no known grave, who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918. Tony (centre) and two ex-service pals from Northern Ireland, about to lay wreaths at The Menin Gate. I was able to lay a wreath, both at the memorial in Arras where he is named, and at the Menin gate on the last evening of the walk, a truly humbling and very emotional experience. Indeed, the whole walk is a roller coaster of emotions. An emotional moment as Tony (centre) and two ex-service pals from Northern Ireland, lay wreaths at The Menin Gate. The Frontier Walk 2021 The walk was postponed last year due to Covid 19 however, Tony plans to take part in this years walk which is scheduled to take place between 13 17 October. Sponsor Tony Im taking part in an event for ABF The Soldiers Charity, raising funds for soldiers, veterans and their families. Ive joined their Fundraising Army I started at Private and have been challenged to see how far I can rise! Please support if you can. Tony Benham Anthony Benham Fundraising for The Front-line Walk 2021 www.soldierscharity.org For weeks, we have been hearing about this high-powered, big-dollar NeverTrump political action committee (PAC) to roll out, one composed of former Bush administration officials, one sure to spell doom for President Trump. No names or anything, just tremendous building power with political powerhouses all over. Well, now the cymbals have clashed the big rollout is happening. Axios has the scoop. A group of prominent Republican operatives that includes former officials from the Trump and George W. Bush administrations are launching a super PAC to turn out GOP voters for Joe Biden in November, organizers tell Axios. Details: The "Right Side PAC" aims to identify former Trump supporters across the country who have cooled to the president's approach in office and convince them to vote for Biden, says founder Matt Borges, a former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. Anthony Scaramucci, who was fired after 10 days as Trump's communications director and later turned on the president , also is part of the effort. They lost me at Scaramucci. Seriously, Scaramucci, the over-confident little clown who lasted all of two days as White House communications director because of his bullying tactics and phenomenal toilet mouth, trusting the press to keep his cuss words out of publication? He learned the hard way about that erroneous assumption. Now we're supposed to follow him to the gates of Joe Biden? Based on all that "influencer" power he supposedly has? That's all they have? This is the same dolt who had that bizarre baby daddy trouble, skipping his son's birth to go to a Boy Scout fundraiser with President Trump and whose marriage, very publicly, fell apart. This is a peon who can't even hold his life together. Is Scaramucci really the guy voters will rally around as the big "return to normal" alternative to President Trump? He's an embittered little man whose natural allies are George Conway, the classless creep who constantly embarrasses his wife, Kellyanne Conway, with his anti-Trump diatribes and disgustingly fails to support her string of accomplishments, and failed Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, who lost his magazine based on trashing the views of his readers. They are all in this mission together, with Conway having his own PAC and Scaramucci his. According to this March 2020 piece that ran in the New Yorker: This was also Longwell's theory about 2020, and the reason for her focus groups. She didn't need to convert every Republican in the room, just a few of them. Longwell planned to assemble a database of disaffected Republicans and give them "permission structures" to vote for a Democrat. She already knew who they were: the audience of her Never Trump groups; the readers of the Bulwark, which receives about two million unique visitors a month and has had eleven million downloads of its podcast in the past year; and the more than three hundred thousand people who had signed petitions circulated by Republicans for the Rule of Law. Amazing how cozy they are. The bottom line, though, is that these are all bitter has-beens, backwashes who one way or another didn't make it, failures. To think voters will swap them for their hole-in-one choice in President Trump is just a little underwhelming. But here we are, with the media touting a big new existential threat to the Trump re-election campaign. That's all they have, too. Caricature by DonkeyHotey via Flickr. Mathura : , June 17 (IANS) A head constable in Mathura has been sent to the lines after he put out a video claiming to have found a cure for coronavirus. In the video that went viral on the social media, the head constable Ram Sevak Yadav, who was deployed at the Govind Nagar police station, can be seen urging the government to give him an opportunity to cure the infection. He said that he had been directed by Lord Krishna to cure corona. "I will save every person who has been infected by the disease. If I cannot cure patients, I am ready to face any action," he is heard saying in the video. Earlier, a fake godman in Lucknow, who had claimed to have a cure for the deadly infection, was arrested by the police. The fake godman, Ahmad Siddiqui, had put up a board outside his shop in Daliganj area, claiming he had a cure for the virus. The Kaneshie marketing is experiencing a surge in economic activities in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic in the country, a survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency has established. In the midst of the busy trading environment, traders have instituted and are strictly observing safety measures against the spread of COVID-19 at the market. The market was adhering to the usage of the protective nose masks for both hawkers, customers, and traders and observing minimal level of social distancing. The survey uncovered that, early morning buyers usually patronized mainly vegetables, and fruits, whiles those who came in the afternoons and later part of the day focused on food stuffs such as yam, cassava,maize, rice and beans among others. Some of the traders expressed the hope of post-COVID-19 boom in trading when lives returns to normal, stressing that the current situation posed risks to all. On the usage of nose masks, most of the traders said they put it on during engagement with customers and dropped it to the chin level when they were not attending to any customer to breathe in fresh air. The GNA observed that due to congestive nature as well as the structural design of the market, adhering to social distancing though a necessity in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 was difficult to observe by both traders and customers. It noticed that the authorities were putting in place measures to ease the congestion of traders in order to enhance social distancing. 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 U.S. Army plans to offer hefty bonuses -- some up to $40,000 -- to new recruits who sign up for nine skill specialties the service still needs to recruit before the end of the fiscal year. The bonuses are part of the final push to meet the Army's end-strength goal of 485,000 by Sept. 30. Recruiting officials hope to sign up 10,000 new recruits alone during the service's first nationwide virtual hiring campaign scheduled for June 30-July 2. Read Next: 'I Just Shot My Roommate': New Details Released in Marine's Barracks Death "We are going after 10,000 ... over these three days," Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, commander of Army Recruiting Command, told defense reporters today during a phone-in discussion. The three-day event -- which will include all Army senior leaders as well as recruiters -- is an attempt to make up some ground the Army lost after its decision to temporarily shutter its recruiting stations and shift to 100% virtual recruiting in mid-March to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Army had just begun to recover from a recruiting shortfall in fiscal 2018, when it missed its goal by 6,500 soldiers. The service surpassed its recruiting goal for fiscal 2019 after launching a broad recruiting strategy that targeted 22 major cities and leveraged social media to connect with Generation Z. The Army needs to recruit somewhere between 63,000 and 67,000 recruits by Sept. 30, Muth said, adding that the exact number will depend on the Army's retention numbers. In late April, the Army increased its retention goal by 2,000 after surpassing its original retention goal of 50,200 in early March. It quickly reached 51,000 after that. Many soldiers decided to reenlist rather than face an uncertain future in a civilian job market that's still struggling under the effects of COVID-19. "We are doing very well on retention," said E. Casey Wardynski, assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, who added that the service has already retained 52,700 soldiers. The Army still needs to recruit soldiers into ten military occupational skill specialties. The Army is offering bonuses of up to $40,000 or student loan reimbursement up to $65,000 to soldiers that sign up for nine of the top 10 MOSs, depending on factors such as the MOS selected and the length of the contract, Army officials said. Here is a list of the 10 ten MOSs eligible for bonuses: 35P, Cryptologic Linguist, up to $40,000 37F, Psychological Operations Specialist, up to $40,000 14P, Air and Missile Defense Crewmember, up to $33,000 13J, Fire Control Specialist, up to $28,000 11X, Infantry, up to $27,000 13M, Multiple Launch Rocket System Crewmember, up to $24,000 89D, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Specialist, up to $15,000 19K, M1 Armor Crewman, up to $12,000 74D, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Specialist, up to $7,000 15W, Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operator, no enlistment bonus The Army is also offering a special bonus of up to $2,000 for the three-day nationwide virtual hiring campaign "if you sign up in these days," Muth said. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Related: Army Gambles on Virtual Tools Like Facetime to Make Up Recruiting Shortfall A LIMERICK man who encouraged the family dog to take part in the sexual abuse of his daughters has lost his appeal against conviction. Responding to his barristers argument that the prosecution should have set out its stall on certain issues at the start of the case, the Court of Appeal noted that an accused person is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect trial. In July 2018 Patrick Byrnes, 80, whose last address was at Castletroy, Limerick, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of 58 charges of indecent assault and two counts of rape on dates between 1975 and 1985. One of his daughters blamed the abuse for her broken marriage and said she could not bear to be near the family dog after him willing the animal to engage in sexual acts with her. Byrnes began abusing his daughters when they were aged around seven, the year of their First Communion. The court heard that he told the two children that he and their mother would split up if they told anyone about it. They said they lived in "abject fear" of him and have been left broken by the decade of abuse. The father-of-nine, a retired taxi driver, had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and continues to deny them. He was sentenced to eight years with two years suspended by Justice Paul McDermott in October 2018. Byrnes had appealed his conviction on the basis of how the trial judge dealt with alleged fabrication and collusion by the two complainants in his instructions to the jury. His barrister, Roisin Lacey SC, also submitted that the verdict was perverse and against the weight of evidence. Counsel said it was manifestly clear that the alleged fabrication of the offences, and collusion and collaboration on behalf of the two complainants was a central plank of the defence case. She said that it was clear from Byrnes garda interviews that he was alleging a conspiracy and collusion on behalf of his two daughters. Ms Lacey said this critical part of the defence case was not addressed in the charge to the jury by the trial judge, whom she submitted dealt with the matter simply by a commentary on the defence case as opposed as a standalone warning. She argued this reference was left hanging in the air without any real or proper direction to the jury on how they should deal with it. Ms Lacey said there was an error of law committed in the manner in which the jury was not directed on whether they could use the evidence of one complainant as corroborative of the other. Counsel said that when the case commenced, there also did not appear to be any allusion or elaboration by the prosecution as to the manner in which they were trying the cases together. She said it was also incumbent on the prosecution to set out their stall as to the basis on which they were advancing the evidence and if there was system evidence being advanced. Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Gerard Clarke SC, told the court that there was no application to hold separate trials for each complainant and there were no requisitions made by the defence during the trial judges charge to the jury. Delivering judgment at the Court of Appeal this Wednesday, Mr Justice George Birmingham, presiding with Justice Isobel Kennedy and Justice UnaNi Raifeartaigh, said they werent persuaded by the grounds of appeal. The court agreed that it would have been desirable if the prosecution had set out its stall at the start of the case and explained why they were proceeding with counts involving two complainants, and how, in their view, the jury should deal with that situation. Such, however, is a counsel of perfection. As has often been said, an accused person is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect trial, they said, dismissing the appeal. Aylsham curate takes on Holt school chaplaincy Rev Jack Branford, curate at Aylsham Parish Church, will be leaving to take up a role as chaplain of Greshams School in Holt, starting in September. Following the departure of Revd Canon Andrew Beane from Aylsham last August to take up a new post as the Archdeacon of Exeter, the churchs popular curate, Jack Branford, has now announced that he is to move to his new role as chaplain at Greshams School in Holt from this autumn. Rev Branford said: My wife Amanda and I want to say, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you all so much for what has been an amazing four years. We really have loved our time living and working as part of the wonderful communities of the Aylsham team. Weve been blessed with the best mentors possible in Andrew and Catherine Beane; a brilliant ministry team to learn from and work with; and individuals, churches, schools and communities that we just love so much. We will be very sad to leave Aylsham and the many lovely people weve met here but we wont be too far away and hopefully many of you will keep in touch. We are truly grateful for the time we have spent here and thank you for all you have given us. Rev Branfords final service at Aylsham Parish church is set for August 2. The church will be advertising for a new Team Rector later this week. Details will be on the Diocese of Norwich website and in the Church Times on Friday. The picture of Jack and his family is courtesy of Aylsham Parish Church . This story is based on an article in the North Norfolk News . Do you have a news story or forthcoming event relating to Christians or a church in North Norfolk? By Trend In order to develop and stimulate women entrepreneurship in Azerbaijans regions, it is necessary to strengthen measures to support women entrepreneurs in the establishment and management of the business, Deputy Head of the Women and Gender Issues Department of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs Sabina Talyshinskaya told Trend. She said that one of the most important issues of empowering women is to reduce their economic dependence. Talyshinskaya noted that the main challenges for women, in particular, residents of rural areas, are limited knowledge in the field of business, lack of access to information in this area, financial and infrastructural problems. Since 2011, as part of the UN Development Program (UNDP) in Azerbaijan, a technical assistance project has been implemented to facilitate the involvement in the economic and social life of women living in rural areas, she noted. The goal of the project is ensuring the active participation of women and youth living in villages and regions in economic life, expanding opportunities and skills for their entrepreneurship and employment, the committees representative added. In 2011-2019, as part of the foregoing project, nine women resource centres were opened in the countrys Bilasuvar, Salyan, Sabirabad, Neftchala, Masalli, Zagatala, Gusar, and Khacmaz districts, as well as in Bakus Khazar district. The centres aim to support the creation of a centralized group of active women living in villages and districts, as well as expanding the business and social opportunities of rural residents, the deputy's head emphasized. Talyshinskaya said that thanks to the work done, 265 women have already created their own business. In general, a strong network of over 6,500 women was created through the centres, she added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Argentina is embroiled in a bitter dispute that goes to the heart of the countrys identity and how it plans to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. The Argentinian government wants to expropriate a bankrupt agricultural group to save jobs. The giant Argentinian agricultural group, Vicentin, owes creditors more than $1bn. The government has stepped in to rescue it. It says its plan will save jobs and help to ensure the future of the countrys food sovereignty. But opponents say any kind of nationalisation will only plunge the country deeper into economic crisis. Al Jazeeras Daniel Schweimler reports from Buenos Aires. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who was admitted to a hospital on Tuesday due to high-grade fever, will be tested again for Covid-19 on Wednesday, a senior official said. The 55-year-old minister was brought to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) past midnight and was administered a test for novel coronavirus on Tuesday morning. "He still has fever. The minister tested negative for COVID-19 today. We are going to repeat the test tomorrow after 24 hours of the first test," the senior official told PTI. Doctors at the hospital said his condition is "stable" and had been taken off oxygen supply. Jain, earlier in the day, tweeted to inform that he was admitted to RGSSH, a dedicated COVID-19 facility under the Delhi government. "Due to high grade fever and a sudden drop of my oxygen levels last night. I have been admitted to RGSSH. Will keep everyone updated," he tweeted. Also read: India-China tension: Chidambaram questions PM Modi's silence on 'intrusion of foreign troops' Slate is making its essential coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism. A Tulsa, Oklahoma, judge rejected a legal push by city residents and businesses this week for a temporary injunction to halt President Donald Trumps campaign rally set for Saturday at the citys 19,000-seat BOK Center. After a three-month hiatus from the campaign trail as the coronavirus pandemic unfolded across the country, Trump, down in the polls and antsy for the roar of a crowd, is pushing ahead with holding what every health expert and institution has repeatedly warned against: a large indoor event with potentially thousands of participants present for hours. Trumps refusal to stand down comes as Tulsa County, which includes the city, registered 89 new cases of the virus Monday. That is the countys highest one-day total since the outbreak began. The areas number of active cases over a one-week period has climbed 182 percent to 532. That may seem small considering the numbers put up by major American cities, most notably New York City, just six weeks ago, but this is how it starts. Or restarts. Its the perfect storm of potential over-the-top disease transmission, Bruce Dart, the executive director of the Tulsa health department, said to the New York Times of the Trump rally. Its a perfect storm that we cant afford to have. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By contrast, in Beijing this week, in what feels like an alternate universe, Chinese authorities took dramatic steps to try to contain a sudden burst in infections the government says is linked to the citys biggest meat and vegetable market. China says at least 130 people have been infected, prompting authorities to announce the capital city of 22 million was entering wartime mode to quash the outbreak. You can quibble with Chinas forthrightness when it comes to the coronavirus and take issue with the appropriateness of its blunt, often repressive response to the virus, but the seriousness with which the government takes the coronavirus is indisputable. China is moving rapidly to seal off its capital city of 22 million residents by canceling flights and trains amid growing fears that a potential second wave of covid-19 is gathering strength in Beijing and could spread to the rest of the country, the Washington Post reports. Schools were shut down again, thousands of flights to and from the citys two airports were canceled, and city residents were barred from leaving the city other than for essential travel. These measures were announced at a briefing during which the government announced just 31 new cases. In response, China says it has tested more than 3.5 million people since it detected the market outbreak. Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. Tulsa is not Beijing, but even still the difference in response is (yet again) striking. If Tulsa were in China, it would be shut down, cordoned off, to try to root out the virus. But since its in Oklahoma, the leader of the country is going to host a political rally in the middle of a pandemic with thousands of people, many likely from out of state, and force hundreds, if not thousands, of workers in the city to participate in hosting the event. Replicating Chinas approach isnt necessarily the right way for a pluralist society to go about collective action for the common good. But its impossible not to feel like someones reading the signs wrong, or burying them altogether, when it comes to the coronavirus. As the viruss undercurrent seems to be sucking the U.S. back out to a sea of new spikes in different parts of the country, its hard not to feel like the country has given up on trying because it turned out to be too hard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The need to reopen businesses and schools is not an inconsequential one, even in the face of increased danger, but in doing so the public interest has to be kept at the center of all decision-making, no matter how hard that might be at times. So it makes sense that some of the data points of daily life have restarted as we navigate living life with the virus. But what goal does holding a nonessential mass gathering, even a presidential one, serve? Whose interest is a political rally in? The orange-hued answer to that seems obvious. Advertisement Advertisement Do I share anxiety about having a full house at the BOK Center? Of course, Tulsas Republican mayor, G.T. Bynum, wrote in a statement Tuesday. As someone who is cautious by nature, I dont like to be the first to try anything. I would have loved some other city to have proven the safety of such an event already. Was the nations first large campaign rally after the arrival of COVID-19 my idea? No. Bynum continued, saying the Trump campaign had agreed to follow state guidelines requiring masks. And if all else fails, Bynum says, our local hospital officials assure me their capacity remains strong. Prime Minister Naredra Modi on Monday said that the sacrifice made by 20 Indian Army soldiers will not go in vain and reiterated Indias policy of not provoking anyone and of peaceful coexistence, while adding that there will be no compromise with the integrity and sovereignty of the country. He added that India had demonstrated its strength whenever needed for the purpose of protecting and defending the integrity and sovereignty of the country. The PM was reacting to violent clashes between Indian Army and the Chinese army at the line of control in Ladakhs Galwan Valley on Monday night. Here are five quotes from PM Narendra Modi on the latest faceoff with China. 1. The brave sons of Mother India made the supreme sacrifice while protecting our motherland in the Galwan Valley. I salute them for their great sacrifice in their service to the Nation. I pay tributes to them with my heartfelt gratitude. In this difficult moment of grief, I express my condolences to the families of these Martyrs. Today the entire Nation is with you. The countrys sympathies are with you. This supreme sacrifice of our Martyrs will not go in vain. 2. India is culturally a peace-loving country. Our history has been that of a peace-loving country.The ideological mantra of India has been -May all beings be happy and free. In every era, we have wished for peace and welfare of the entire world and humanity. Also Read: Will seriously impact relations: Jaishankar asks China to take corrective steps 3. We have always worked closely with our neighbours in a cooperative and friendly manner. We have always wished for their development and welfare. Whenever there have been differences of opinion, we have always tried to ensure that those differences never turned into a dispute. 4. We never provoke anyone, but we also do not compromise with the integrity and sovereignty of our country. Whenever it was needed, we have demonstrated our strength, proving our capabilities in protecting and defending the integrity and sovereignty of the country. Sacrifice and endurance are part of our national character, but at the same time bravery and valour are also equally a part of it. Whatever may be the situation and circumstances, India will firmly protect every inch of the countrys land and its self-respect. Also Read: Odia jawan killed at Ladakh may have premonition of the tragedy, says sister 5. I want to assure the Nation that the sacrifice made by our soldiers will not go in vain. Indias integrity and sovereignty is supreme for us, and no one can stop us from defending it. Nobody should have an iota of doubt about this. India wants peace. But on provocation, India will give a befitting reply. The country will be proud of the fact that our soldiers have been martyred while they were fighting. Rayshard Brooks speaking with police officer Garrett Rolfe as Rolfe writes notes during a field sobriety test in the parking lot of a Wendy's restaurant, in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 12, 2020. (Atlanta Police Department via AP) Rayshard Brooks Had Criminal Past, Was Waiting for Probation Rayshard Brooks, the man who was fatally shot on June 12 after a police encounter at a Wendys parking lot in Atlanta, Georgia, had a long and extensive criminal history that includes child endangerment. The 27-year-old had previously had multiple convictions that include cruelty to children, false imprisonment, battery on a family member, theft, receiving stolen property, criminal interference with government property, and obstruction of a law enforcement officer. According to court records, there was a fugitive warrant out for his arrest on Dec. 30, 2019, for violation of probation to notify the community of his new address, and failure to complete theft prevention class for the original offenses of false imprisonment, cruelty to children, family violence, battery, and simple battery. In a video posted on his YouTube channel on May 24, Brooks said he was waiting for probation to give him an interstate compact for his probation. A compact is the only legal mechanism in the country for the interstate transfer of the parole or probation of an adult criminal. Its been two or three weeks now Ive spoken with probation and I havent heard anything back, he also shared in the video, which is a recording of an online call with another individual. Ive been doing my part, but the moment I do something out of hand, back to jail I go. So I try to do everything in the proper channels to abide by the rules and keep myself in order. But here yet, I have a family, I have kids, Ive been out of work for about two or three weeks now, Brooks continued. My job has been calling meMr. Brooks, where are you?waiting for probation! Brooks said earlier in the video that he was working as a full time carpenter. On the night of June 12, Brooks was found sleeping behind the wheel at a Wendys drive-through. Two police officers, Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan, conversed with Brooks for more than 40 minutes, video from the two officers body cameras and dash-mounted cameras on their cruisers showed. Brooks, a husband and father of three daughters aged 1, 2, and 8 and a 13-year-old stepson, told officers that he had had a couple of drinks while celebrating his daughters birthday that night. Brooks consented to a field sobriety test, but failed Georgias legal alcohol limit of 0.08 percent when his alcohol level was found to be .108 percent. He physically struggled with the police officers during the arrest, took a stun gun from an officer, and appeared to point and deploy it at the officer as he fled, but missed, according to surveillance video. The officer, Rolfe, then fired about three shots at Brooks. Brooks died after being rushed to a local hospital for surgery, officials said. An autopsy found that he was hit twice in the back and suffered resultant injuries to his organs and blood loss that led to his death. By early June 14, Rolfe was fired and Brosnan was placed on administrative duty, the Atlanta Police Department announced. Justin Miller, an attorney for Brookss family, said that Brookss oldest daughter learned of her fathers death while at a birthday party with cupcakes and friends on June 13. She was also waiting for Brooks to take her skating later that day, Miller said. A sheriff in Burke Countyabout 160 miles east of Atlantasaid he believes the actions of the police officer who fired at Brooks were completely justified. Alfonzo Williams told CNN on June 17 that Brookss use of the stun gun was extremely dangerous because it could have immobilized the officer for several seconds. If an officer is hit with that Taser, all of his muscles will be locked up, and hell have the inability to move and to respond, Williams said. This was a completely justified shooting. If the stun gun hit the officer, it could have allowed Brooks to steal the officers gun or seriously injure him, Williams told the news station. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is the latest Atlantic City casino to roll the dice and announce a plan to reopen after months of coronavirus restrictions keeping the operation shuttered. The plan includes installing plexiglass at gaming tables, automating thermal cameras to take guests temperatures, mandating mask-wearing while gambling and maintaining empty seats between slot machines. Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming have made a tremendous commitment to sanitary protocols and a safety-first mentality for both guests and team members, said Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming and Chairman of Hard Rock International. We are making sure our resorts are safe and sound so our guests and team members have peace of mind when they return. We can't wait to reopen our doors and welcome you back! We have made essential updates to our operations including the introduction of our SAFE & SOUND program to ensure the safety of our guests and team members. https://t.co/RcRbhxqxal pic.twitter.com/qJwscr7aL7 Hard Rock Atlantic City (@HardRockHCAC) June 17, 2020 Atlantic City casinos have been closed since March 16, though many, including the Hard Rock, are still taking hotel reservations. Gov. Phil Murphy has yet to provide specifics on when casinos can start welcoming guests again but said he hoped it would be before the July 4 weekend. The bad news is casinos sort of have the attributes that are hardest to deal with this virus. Its indoors, no ventilation, Murphy said. Youre sedentary, youre in close proximity. Having said that, theyre big footprints and we think there are successful steps that can be taken to address the challenges. The likely impending reopening date is more good news for owners following Mondays decision from the State Senate OKing tax breaks for casinos. When the Hard Rock, formerly the site of the Trump Taj Mahal, does reopen, here are the provisions in its Safe + Sound plan: All guests and employees will have to wear masks except while eating or drinking. The casino will provide masks to guests, as needed. Thermal imaging cameras will take the temperatures of guests. No one will be permitted to enter unless their temperature is below 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Plexiglass shields will be installed around the casino. Guests must leave one position vacant in between slot machines and gaming tables unless they are part of a group. Employees will deep-clean chips, gaming surfaces, hotel rooms and other common areas. Security personnel will be enforcing social distancing throughout the casino. More than 1,000 new air filters will be installed to increase quality air circulation. Restaurants around the facility will be open with limited occupancy. The buffet will not be available and shows will not resume until further notice. The casino is partnering with South Jersey health system AtlantiCare for contact tracing and training. The Hard Rock plan was devised in accordance with World Health Organization protocols and in consultation with Hard Rock International, the Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Casino Association of New Jersey and Atlanticare. Joe Lupo, President of the Atlantic City Hard Rock, calls it probably the most conservative and most responsible here in Atlantic City. Caesars and MGM, the citys other two prominent casino owners, have also released health and safety plans in anticipation of reopening. The plans all include a number of similar details, all mandating deep-cleaning of common areas, plexiglass barriers, employee mask-wearing and space between seats at slot machines. However, Hard Rock is the only casino to require guests also have their temperatures checked. Still, Lupo doesnt think guests will be deterred by the extra safeguard. Especially here in New Jersey and the New York area where the numbers have been so high we have to be more careful and show were taking more precautions, so I dont think that the protocols will be intrusive and I am hopeful they will be appreciated, Lupo said. One group has already objected to the Safe + Sound plan. Unite Here, the union that represents 10,600 Atlantic City workers and more than 1,200 employees at the Atlantic City Hard Rock, wont agree to any plan that does not extend healthcare benefits to all its employees those who could get sick when casinos reopen as well as those who will not come back immediately. Benefits will expire for members of Unite Here Local 54 at the end of the month, which Lupo declined to comment on. We do not have an agreement with Hard Rock or any other casino on their plans for protecting workers and guests when they reopen, said Unite Here Research Analyst Arthur Phillips. We need to have an agreement and additionally we need those folks who are on the frontlines whove become frontline workers in this pandemic, to be protected in the event that they get sick. Josh Axelrod may be reached at jaxelrod@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. The economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic can be thought of in two different ways -- with drastically different implications for the next several months. The first, articulated by a friend and former colleague, suggests it's like Cape Cod during the winter: The economy goes into a deep freeze, but then reopens the next summer. This view suggests there will be little lasting damage, and it's possible to return to the way things were with minimal long-term adjustment. The second perspective is that the pandemic is more like Cape Cod during a summer with a sudden series of shark attacks. As during the winter, economic activity plummets. But this stoppage was unexpected. And unlike during winter at the beach, it's not clear when it will be safe to return. There may be false starts in which it appears the water is shark-free but the risk returns. Under this view, the economy probably suffers longer-lasting damage because of the direct and indirect effects of the lingering uncertainty and fear. Very roughly speaking, the Donald Trump administration and the stock market prior to Thursday have seemed to embrace the Cape Cod-in-winter story. The May jobs report bolstered this view, as did the retail sales figures for the month. On the other hand, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the stock market on Thursday seemed to lean more toward the shark-attack narrative. So which one is it? As I wrote last week, the May jobs report was not the signal of economic strength it might have appeared to be. The rising covid-19 caseloads in Arizona, Texas, Florida and many other states also tilt strongly in shark-attack direction. The key variable distinguishing the two scenarios is how consumers respond: Do people feel it is safe to return to previous activities, whatever the government does or doesn't mandate? Despite the strong retail sales numbers for May, I suspect the answer is that, unless the virus mutates toward a less lethal form, or a vaccine or effective antiviral or therapeutic drug arrives sooner than we expect, consumers will remain hesitant to return to their old activities, whether the government imposes more social distancing. This is why solving the economic crisis has to start with solving the public-health one. In other words, count me in the shark-attack camp: You have to get rid of the sharks to bring back the vacation rentals. The consequences are far-reaching. In the shark-attack world, we face the same two unappealing alternatives we've encountered since the pandemic hit: Tolerate cascading bankruptcies for both companies and individuals, or continue to socialize the costs of the shock by providing ongoing rounds of massive fiscal assistance. In this Hobson's choice, the first option is not workable. It would involve economic damage with lasting problems for years to come, as unemployment remains high and firms close. To be sure, this approach would speed the adjustment to the new businesses that will crop up after the pandemic ends, but at the cost of inordinate economic pain for an extended period as the aftershocks of elevated unemployment and bankruptcies ricochet throughout the economy. We are thus left with the necessity of additional fiscal support for the economy. Indeed, one interpretation of the news that the Trump administration is now favoring substantial additional fiscal stimulus is that it is coming around to the view that we're not in a simple freeze-and-thaw world. But as the backlash against the CARES Act builds, concerns (legitimate or not) increase about rising public debt, and any temporary political truce fades back into hyper-polarization, it will prove increasingly difficult to enact sufficient additional stimulus. Assuming we meet this challenge and cushion the blow with more fiscal support, the question must shift to the end game. Will we continue to socialize the costs of the dislocation without end until the pandemic ceases? And if we're going to spend trillions of dollars, how can we try to invest in the future economy rather than prop up the past? The vain hope that the economy is merely a beach in winter causes us to slide into these monumental decisions. Instead, we should recognize the de-thawing story for the mirage it is, and begin to debate the least unappealing paths forward. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Peter R. Orszag is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the chief executive officer of financial advisory at Lazard. He was director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2009 to 2010, and director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2007 to 2008. Medtelligence Medtelligence, a leading provider of cardiovascular disease clinical education, today announced the launch of a scientific program featuring topics in omega-3 fatty acids and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk reduction in patients with diabetes. Chaired by Dr. Yehuda Handelsman (Tarzana, Ca), the 2-hour recorded session features expert faculty, including Drs. Om Ganda (Boson, MA), Paul Rosenblit (Huntington Beach, CA), Jorge Plutzky (Boston, MA) and Deepak L. Bhatt (Boston, MA). The original program was presented on June 13, 2020, during the 80th Scientific Sessions Meeting of the American Diabetes Association (conducted virtually) and is now available on-demand to clinicians worldwide. During the two-hour session, faculty addressed topics on pressing clinical issues in lipid biology and therapeutics, including new guideline-recommended therapies beyond statins. Topics included an update on lipid biomarkers (P. Rosenblit), high-risk patients (O. Ganda), dyslipidemia therapies in 2020 (Y. Handelsman), and the biology of omega-3 fatty acids (J. Plutzky). Dr. Bhatt (Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs, Brigham and Womens Hospital Heart and Vascular Center, and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School), presented late-breaking data from REDUCE-IT Diabetes. Compared with placebo, icosapent ethyl 4g/day significantly reduced both first and total primary endpoint events in patients with diabetes at baseline by 23% and 24%, respectively, said Bhatt. These data highlight the substantial impact of icosapent ethyl on the underlying atherothrombotic burden in the at-risk REDUCE-IT population, both in those with but also in those without diabetes mellitus. Dr. Handelsman presented an overview of professional society guidelines, many of which were recently updated. We are very excited to offer this program to the clinician population across the globe, said Medtelligence President Kathleen Wickman, BSN. These trial data truly show a shift in ways to manage patients with diabetes to achieve optimal CVD outcomes, and we are working to bring that to the attention of clinicians who treat ASCVD. This activity was supported through an educational grant from Amarin Pharma, Inc. About Medtelligence Medtelligence is an industry leader in cardiovascular disease medical education, offering digital education and live meetings across the globe. Medtelligence is a member of the Global Learning Collaborative (GLC), which also includes Omnia Education, Prova Education, and the Academy for Global Interprofessional Learning & Education (AGILE). GLC is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. More information on Medtelligence is available at http://www.medtelligence.net. Anadolu Agency/Getty KARACHIThe battle raged for hours between two nuclear powers on Monday, fought in a contested valley high in the legendary Karakoram mountain range. But the weapons used were as primitive as they were brutal: iron rods wrapped in barbed wire, bare fists, and anything that came to hand. When it was over, India counted 20 of its soldiers dead, some of them forced into a river. China acknowledged the clash, but gave no casualty count or details. JFK Stopped a China-India War. Can Trump? The Nuclear Stakes Are Much Higher Now The incident marked a grave escalation in a decades-old high-altitude stand-off that had been intensifying in recent weeks, and suggests a Chinese strategy for which neither India nor the United States have a good answer: one of provocation, and incremental pushes, constantly testing resolve. India at first said three of its troops were killed, but in a statement issued later on Tuesday the Indian Army said that 17 more critically injured succumbed to their injuries. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Indian troops "crossed the border line twice... provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces on the two sides. As the BBC reported, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said China tried to erect a structure inside Indian territory, while China's Wang Yi said Indian troops attacked first. But in a phone call both men promised not to escalate the situation. It was the first deadly clash at the disputed border for at least 45 years. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared his soldiers deaths "will not be in vain. "India wants peace but when provoked, India is capable of giving a fitting reply, be it any kind of situation," Modi said in a televised address on Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump offered to mediate, but both Beijing and New Delhi quickly rejected that possibility, as diplomats knew they would. And the American positionor lack of itsuggests just how weak the Trump administrations position really is in this part of the world. Story continues THE BUILD-UP Tensions along the China-India border started escalating early last month when Chinese soldiers, ignoring verbal warnings from India, entered the disputed territory of Ladakh and erected tents and guard posts. Since then, thousands of soldiers from the two countries have been facing off just a few hundred meters from each other in the valley of the Galwan River more than two miles above sea level. The proximate cause of the flare-up is believed by observers to be New Delhi's plan to build infrastructure projects along the edge of Chinese-claimed territory. India's construction of roads and air strips along the 4,056 kilometer poorly demarcated Line of Actual Control (LAC) eventually established decades after the 1962 Sino-Indian War raised eyebrows, and ire, in Beijing. While China claims some 90,000 square kilometers of territory in India's northeast, including the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh with its traditionally Buddhist population, India blames China for occupying 38,000 square kilometers of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau in the western Himalayas, including part of the Ladakh region. A major reason behind strained Sino-India relations has been the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 during an aborted uprising against Chinese rule. India hosted the Dalai Lama, who established a self-declared government-in-exile in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala, where thousands of Tibetans have settled. The blame game over trespassing along the disputed border is played out through media on both sides. At present the most contentious issue is the strategic bridge being built by India near Daulat Beg Oldi, the last military post south of the Karakoram Pass. The bridge is the part of Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi road, which will enhance India's strategic advance and access in the disputed region bordering China. Beijing's rapid military mobilization is aimed at deterring India's planned strategic access along LAC in Ladakh region. In the current Sino-India border standoff, Beijing looks offensive and aggressive; New Delhi seems defensive and restrained, and the United States appears to be eyeing the developing situation as a silent spectator. A FULL-BLOWN WAR? India wants to complete the infrastructure projects for its rapid military mobilization and strategic advance in the Ladakh region. China is increasing maximum pressure to force India to stop the construction activity. China has proved itself a dominant power by intruding several kilometers into the territory claimed by India along the LAC in the Ladakh region and by building bunkers there. Could the first clash lead to a full-fledged war between China and India? Experts believe that with the Monday clash a crisis that was well on its way to de-escalating did an abrupt about face and brought China and India closer to war than at any other time in quite a few years. But, the experts do not see the skirmish leading to a full-scale conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, and reports that despite the carnage no shots were fired suggests just how careful both sides are to avoid such a conflagration. "A conflict is highly unlikely," Michael Kugelman, the deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center in Washington told The Daily Beast. "Neither side wants or can afford a war, and especially amid the coronavirus pandemic, Kugelman said. India, in particular, as the less powerful state won't want to risk a conflict. Eventually the two sides will deescalate. Still, there's no way that they will quickly climb down the ladder after a high-fatality incident like this one. Both sides will feel pressure to escalate, but both, and especially India, will need to be careful not to take measures that increase the possibility of miscalculation." THE COUNTERWEIGHT? Under President Barack Obama, the U.S projected India as a counterweight to China. But under the Trump administration, U.S policy witnessed a major shift vis-a-vis India. Last year, Donald Trump pushed New Delhi to the sidelines and initiated a peace process with the Afghan Taliban assigning PakistanIndia's arch rivalthe key role facilitating U.S.-Taliban peace talks. And finally, Washington signed an exit deal with the Taliban on February 29. India was shut out of the whole two-year-long peace negotiations. Now Trump has eschewed what India might have expected to be his role as a strong ally. "Typically in these crises the U.S. stays quiet, says Kugelman. I would imagine that we could see the U.S. scale up its intelligence support to India to better enable New Delhi to know the troop positions of Chinese soldiers along the border, but the U.S. lacks the bandwidth to do anything else. The Trump administration is completely consumed by the coronavirus and its reelection campaign. Even so, says Kugelman, I don't think we should underplay how significant this crisis is for Washington, adding, "This is a case of Washington's top rival sparring with one of the biggest U.S. partners in the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. government is sure to be paying close attention, and it can't afford to look away." Beijing has warned New Delhi to stay away from the U.S.-China rivalry. Beijing asked India to be careful not to include the U.S. factor in its handling of any problem in its relations with China, "otherwise it will only complicate the issue," China said in an article in the state-owned Global Times. "The offer of U.S. mediation is unnecessary and the last thing both sides could use. China and India have the ability to resolve their problems, and there is no need for any third-party intervention," said the article. "If in a new Cold War, India leans toward the U.S. or becomes a U.S. pawn attacking China, the economic and trade ties between the two Asian neighbors will suffer a devastating blow. And it would be too much for the Indian economy to take such a hit at the current stage." 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. Mr. Felguerez decided to become an artist during his first trip to Europe, after drawing a scene on the River Thames in England from a boat, he said. He became known for abstract, geometric paintings and metal sculptures, joining a movement that broke from the realism of Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera, who often used the Mexican Revolution or the plight of the masses as their themes. His work was only about enjoying the search for beauty and harmony, Mr. Avila said. He obviously wasnt aiming to create paintings that were shocking or vibrant, but rather something pleasurable. Manuel Felguerez was born on Dec. 12, 1928, in Valparaiso, in the north-central state of Zacatecas, as Mexico was emerging from more than a decade of revolution and civil unrest. He told the magazine Mexico Desconocido that one of his earliest memories was of a battle between fighters defending his fathers hacienda and workers trying to claim the land as their own. The workers eventually overpowered their adversaries. He moved to Mexico City with his family when he was 7 so that his father could petition the federal government to be compensated for the lost property. A year later his father fell ill and died. Mr. Felguerez studied in Paris at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, an art school, and with the Russian-born sculptor Ossip Zadkine. He was later a professor at the Ibero-American University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, both in Mexico City. As a visiting researcher at Harvard University in the 1970s, he began using computer programming to create art. TORONTO - Medical experts from Toronto's SickKids Hospital say children in Ontario should be able to return to school in September, even though the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 likely won't be eradicated by then. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Toronto SickKids Hospital in Toronto is shown on Thursday April 5, 2018. Medical experts from Toronto's SickKids Hospital say children in Ontario should be able to return to school in September even though the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 likely won't be eradicated by then. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ives TORONTO - Medical experts from Toronto's SickKids Hospital say children in Ontario should be able to return to school in September, even though the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 likely won't be eradicated by then. The experts say that according to recent data, children are not the super-spreaders of COVID-19 they initially believed they would be. "We know from the flu and from many other respiratory viruses that a child often acts as the super-spreader, and that is something that we really have not seen (with COVID)," Dr. Ronald Cohn, President and CEO of SickKids, said in a webinar Wednesday. "None of the studies are suggesting that children do not transmit it at all. It's just not at the high frequency that any of us would have expected." Dr. Jeremy Friedman, associate pediatrician-in-chief at SickKids, said 5,000 symptomatic children were tested with the COVID nasal swab at the hospital since March and only 30 were found positive. The hospital also tested 1,500 asymptomatic children with a nasal swab and found zero positive cases. COVID-19 causes a "less severe presentation in children," said Friedman, with only seven cases requiring hospitalization at SickKids, and none needing ICU admission. SickKids says it has worked closely with Ontario's Ministry of Education to provide guidance on how to safely reopen schools in the fall. The recommendations were released by a team of doctors Wednesday, with Cohn saying the Ministry of Education has "reacted towards (the) document in a very positive way." Ontario's Education Minister Stephen Lecce said in an emailed statement that the province is working closely with "the best medical and scientific leaders in Canada including the Hospital For Sick Children and the COVID-19 Command Table" to come up with safety measures for schools. "We will take a cautious approach that underscores our complete commitment to safety," he said. "We also appreciate the advice from the Hospital For Sick Children related to the importance of robust mental health supports, to ensure this transition is positive. "We will ensure those supports are in place. We will continue to seek the guidance of these medical and scientific leaders to reduce risk and maximize safe learning for all children." Hand hygiene and making sure sick children aren't going to school were among the top recommendations offered by the SickKids team. Dr. Michelle Science says that while steps should be taken to ensure some physical distancing in schools such as separating desks, eliminating assemblies and putting students into "cohorts" trying to enforce safe distances among kids is impractical. She also said playing and socializing at a close distance is "really central to child development and should not be discouraged." While face masks have become more commonplace among the general public in recent weeks, the SickKids team doesn't require children use them in classrooms. Science said masks are only "potentially beneficial" when worn properly and incorrect use can lead to an increased risk of infection. If students want to wear face masks, Science said "we certainly wouldn't discourage that," however. "Of course we need to continue to monitor the situation and re-evaluate as we get evidence and learn from other countries," she added. "But I would highlight that several European countries have had children successfully return to school without face masks." The document suggests parents be responsible for screening children each morning instead of school staff to avoid lineups and staggered start times for classes. The experts don't recommend on-site temperature taking because "fever is not a consistent (COVID) symptom in children." Cohn said a positive COVID test from either a student or a teacher in a school would need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, but the goal would not be to immediately shut down the school. "We would expect ... that public health works closely together with the school to go through a contact tracing and testing strategy that would identify the people that are in higher risk who have been in closer contact with either the child and or adult staff member," he said. "You would then be able to identify how much restrictions you need to put in place in order to manage that positive case." Closing a school would also disrupt structure and routine that children need and have already been missing for the last three months, said SickKids psychiatrist Dr. Daphne Korczak. "Those up-and-down waves of hope and disappointment (take) a significant toll on children and their families," said Korczak, who's also leading a study that is examining the mental health of children, youth and families during COVID-19. Mitigating risk for students who are immunocompromised or have pre-existing conditions that could make them more susceptible to a severe COVID outcome should also be taken into consideration, the experts say. Friedman said that could mean offering a virtual learning option for those students. "We would strongly encourage the schools to try and create a situation where that opportunity (for a safe learning environment) is available for all children right across the board," he added. And if parents or guardians of kids are immunocompromised, Friedman says additional precautions may need to be taken to allow the child to still go to school. Environmental cleaning and ventilation, even suggesting taking classes outdoors when possible, are some of the other recommendations listed in the SickKids document. Cohn said we have to "accept and internalize that this virus will stay with us for a very long time a year, maybe even longer." And while we can't eliminate risk, he said we can minimize it. "The impact on the mental, behavioural and developmental health of children not going to school, not being exposed to in-person teaching and not being with their friends and peers is something that myself and many of my colleagues in pediatrics are literally losing sleep over," Cohn said. "It is difficult to capture this in numbers and data but ... we are significantly underestimating the impact this has on children of all socio-economic classes, particularly ones who are coming from vulnerable living and family conditions." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked officials to "immediately take steps" to ensure that nobody is deprived after complaints that government benefits were not reaching those hit by Cyclone Amphan and were diverted to unaffected people, secretariat sources said on Tuesday. Committees headed by block development officers (BDOs) have been set up in the cyclone-affected districts to address the issue, they said. Cyclone Amphan that ripped through eight districts of the state on May 20 claimed at least 98 lives. The chief minister has announced several schemes to extend financial support to people in those districts. "Till June 12, we received around 2,000 complaints from people saying that benefits have not reached them. Committees have been constituted to resolve the issue. BDOs will head these panels which will look into the matter and ensure that all of the affected people get the benefits announced by the state," a senior IAS officer said. Most of these complaints received by district authorities since early last week said that genuine beneficiaries were not getting the assistance but funds were diverted to others not affected by the calamity, he said. The West Bengal government has released Rs 1,444 crore to assist people as part of the rehabilitation process following cyclone Amphan, the chief minister had said on June 2. The state government has already transferred money to nearly 5 lakh affected people for repairing their homes, besides crop damage assistance to 23.3 lakh farmers. Financial assistance to 2 lakh betel farmers has also been provided, Banerjee had said. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: US 'closely monitoring' situation Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: The BJP-headed coalition government in Manipur has been reduced to a minority on Wednesday after three of its MLAs resigned from the party as well as the Assembly and six other MLAs withdrew their support to the party. The development brought the number of MLAs in the N Biren Singhs government down to 23 18 from BJP, four from Naga Peoples Front (NPF) and one from Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). NPPs Y Joykumar Singh was the Deputy Chief Minister. Opposition Congress has 20 MLAs. If the six non-BJP MLAs ditching BJP four from Conrad Sangmas National Peoples Party (NPP), one from Trinamool Congress and an independent MLA extend their support to Congress, it will take the grand old partys tally to 26. The 60-member Manipur House has an effective strength of 59 after (now former) Minister Shyamkumar Singh was disqualified in March following an order issued by the Supreme Court. Seven other Congress MLAs, who had sided with the BJP, are likely to be disqualified soon as the Manipur High Court last week ordered Speaker Yumnam Khemchand to restraint their entry into the Assembly. So, their disqualification is only a matter of time. Once they are disqualified, the strength of the Assembly will go further down to 52. So, 27 MLAs are all that a formation of parties will need to be in power. Following the developments, the Congress claimed they had 26 MLAs (this includes the six non-BJP MLAs who withdrew their support to the saffron party). The Congress was optimistic that the lone LJP MLA would also join its fold by withdrawing his support to the BJP. The Congress claimed that several BJP MLAs were ready to desert the party. The party said it was gearing up to visit the Raj Bhawan and stake claim to form the government. In the 2017 state elections, Congress had grabbed 28 seats as against the BJPs 21 but still the saffron party managed to form the government with support from other parties. For the past year and a half, all was not well within the BJP. Last year, a section of BJP MLAs had raised the banner of revolt against the CM who was also with Congress until his defection to the BJP months ahead of the last election. The disgruntled BJP MLAs had visited Delhi several times and demanded the CMs ouster but could not unseat him. The beginning of the downfall of BJP rule in India happens today in Imphal, Manipur. Soon, there will be peoples true government which is the new Congress-led coalition government in Manipur. I am confident that 3-time former Chief Minister Shri Okram Ibobi Singh will become the new Chief Minister. Today marks the dusk of Modi regime in India for 2024. Today is the new beginning of India. Today is the new sunrise for Manipur, Congress spokesman Ningombam Bupenda Meitei tweeted. If a protester gets into an unwanted encounter with the police authorities, they can easily report this with their iPhones. At least, this is the new feature being introduced on Apple's Siri wherein individuals can report saying, "Hey Siri, I'm Getting Pulled Over." Current version is here: Current versions will always be posted at:#Police #Shortcuts A bunch of people and news outlets are passing around an old version of my Getting Pulled Over Shortcut.Current version is here: https://t.co/P3rKxJKNKm Current versions will always be posted at: https://t.co/gFrOSdBV6W #Siri Robert Petersen (@Sonikku_a2) June 16, 2020 Tech personality Robert Petersen recently tweeted a link to the updated version of the shortcut, as well as the thread on Reddit, where the current links are posted. Once this Shortcut app is activated on the iPhone, the feature will get downloaded accordingly. Otherwise, users will have to follow certain steps and choose "Allow Untrusted Shortcuts" with these settings. How to use the Shortcut Once this is now on the iPhone, users can report "Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over" which will then automatically pause music playing on the device, dim the brightness and enable the "Do not disturb" function. Then, the message will reach the contact designated, and video will automatically begin to record. Be sure that you capture the scene during the enabling of the video, since when it stops recording, it will be sent to the contact. Media website Hypebeast indicated, "The shortcut has recently gained steam as ongoing protests surrounding police brutality toward Black people and the larger Black Lives Matter movement continues to make headlines and force change in unprecedented waves." Writer Nia Groce added, "Users like @Niycold have taken to Twitter and other social media platforms to express their surprise and support at the app's circulation during this time, adding to others like @mondobytes who shared information about the shortcut in 2018 when it was first created." Insights from Petersen For Petersen, he believes it is a "good idea to empower the individual citizen to have a record over what happens during a stop to remove any 'he said/she said' scenarios." He added that he honestly does not think the idea would be popular, but then the response has been very positive and "more than a bit overwhelming." Though this feature is concentrated on iPhone devices, there are also apps such as the "Stop and Frisk Watch" on Android that seem to be doing the same. Protest updates What is the latest about the protests? The protests have reached beyond the U.S. shores with demonstrations being held in various parts of the European continent. In Brisbane, ABC reported how native protest leaders had secured talks with Queensland police commissioners after taking on the area's business district, demanding on ending Black deaths in custody. One of them reached out to the activities after arresting key campaigner for Aboriginal rights, Wayne Wharton, and another man sending tensions high made the news. Groups here marched along with Roma Street watch house and were greeted by the police. The call to end racial injustice continues in the United States and around the world. Stay updated on the news with Tech Times. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. President Donald Trump apparently had no idea the UK was a nuclear power, according to claims made in former National Security Advisor John Bolton's new book. The Washington Post obtained a copy of Mr Bolton's book The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir - the release of which has been tied up in pre-publication review by the White House - and shared an anecdote in which Mr Trump seemed surprised that the UK possessed nuclear weapons. According to the book, a British official in Mr Trump's presence once referred to the nation as a nuclear power, to which Mr Trump replied "Oh, you are a nuclear power?" Mr Bolton maintains that the question was not asked in jest. The UK tested its first nuclear weapons in 1952. The former National Security Advisor ended his tenure under the Trump administration in September 2019, though the details of his leaving are debated. Mr Trump claims he fired Mr Bolton, while Mr Bolton claims he offered his resignation to the president, who then told him "they'd talk about it tomorrow." The following day Mr Trump made the claim that he'd fired Mr Bolton. The UK anecdote is one of many included in the book that highlights how Mr Trump was "stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government." In another instance, Mr Trump reportedly asked former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly if Finland was part of Russia. In addition to lacking knowledge one would expect the president of the United States to possess, Mr Kelly also recalls alleged instances of Mr Trump supporting and offering help to global dictators. At one point, Mr Bolton claims Mr Trump pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to buy more soybeans from US farmers to help improve his chances at re-election in the 2020 US election. During the same conversation, Mr Bolton claims that Mr Trump supported Mr Xi's aspirations to build more "re-education camps" for Uighur Muslims. More than 1 million Chinese Uighur Muslims have been forcibly placed into the camps. China claims the camps are voluntary, but many Uighurs dispute that claim and have reported friends and family members who have simply disappeared. Mr Bolton also described a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which Mr Erdogan gave Mr Trump a memo claiming innocence for a Turkish firm being investigated by the US attorney for the Southern District over claims they'd violated Iranian sanctions. Mr Trump reportedly told Mr Erdogan that the people investigating the firm were "Obama's people" and that once his people replaced them he would be able to do something about the investigation. Mr Bolton said he was so alarmed by Mr Trump's willingness to deal with the dictators that he arranged a meeting with US Attorney General William Barr to discuss the issue. Mr Barr reportedly agreed with Mr Bolton. Mr Bolton is notably quiet on the issues surrounding Mr Trump's impeachment, though he did describe the pressure the president put on Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky to give him information regarding former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, in return for military assistance "deeply disturbing." "I thought the whole affair was bad policy, questionable legally and unacceptable as presidential behaviour," Mr Bolton wrote. In as many instances as Mr Trump is portrayed playing nice with global dictators, Mr Bolton also portrays him acting antagonistically towards the US's allies. At one point in the book, Mr Bolton recalls a 2018 NATO summit during which Mr Trump demanded NATO allies increase their nations' defence spending. Mr Trump reportedly sent a message to Mr Bolton claiming the US would "walk out" and "not defend" NATO members who did not increase their defence spending. In another instance during a trade meeting, Mr Trump reportedly became incensed when advisers began discussing Japan. According to Mr Bolton, Mr Trump began ranting about Pearl Harbor. Too Hot to Handle's Francesca Farago has revealed the truth behind her split Harry Jowsey. In a tearful tell-all on YouTube, the Canadian model, 26, said she was left 'heartbroken' when Harry broke up with her shortly after their TV proposal. Meanwhile, Aussie star Harry, 22, has admitted fault in the break-up. Scroll down for video 'I fell out of love': Too Hot To Handle star Harry Jowsey has admitted fault in his split from Francesca Farago after she revealed he brutally dumped her in tearful tell-all video 'I'm here to accept my wrongdoings, be responsible, be a man, own up, and confess,' he said during an Instagram Live video on Wednesday. Harry, who hails from Australia but lives in Los Angeles, first announced the split with Francesca on Instagram on Tuesday. The pair had been living apart for months due to COVID-19 border closures, and had both cited long-distance as a factor in their decision to separate. Harry said that the couple simply grew apart. 'Nothing bad happened. I simply fell out of love, I lost that massive spark that I had at the start of the show,' he explained. 'Feelings change, not all relationships work out. If you cant give someone 110 per cent, then there's no point.' He insisted that he was 'taking responsibility' for leaving Francesca 'heartbroken'. He addressed Francesca directly and said to the camera: 'If you're watching, I hope you're okay. I'm only a phone call away. I'll always be here for you.' In Francesca's YouTube tell-all, titled Our Breakup, the brunette tearfully questioned: 'How could you have a wedding ring folder with someone and how could you propose to someone, but youre also saying I cant be with you because of the distance?' Tears: In Francesca's YouTube tell-all, titled Our Breakup, the brunette tearfully questioned: 'How could you have a wedding ring folder with someone and how could you propose to someone, but youre also saying I cant be with you because of the distance?' She seemed to agree with Harry that the long distance was partly to blame for their split, but said he was the one wanted to breakup. 'He decided to breakup with me because he couldnt do long-distance anymore. I obviously was heartbroken. I did everything I could,' she shared with fans. 'I cannot fake a relationship. I cannot pretend like everything is going to be okay,' the reality TV star added, as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue. It's over! Harry announced the couple's breakup earlier in the week, again on his Instagram stories Harry announced the couple's breakup earlier in the week, again on his Instagram stories. 'This is a s**t situation and only Francesca and myself know the full extent of what's happened,' he said. 'Francesca knows I'm always going to love her and she's always in my heart, in a special place with me.' Later in the day, he also told fans: 'People seem to think they know exactly why I ended things with Francesca... You dont breakup with someone for no reason Nothing bad has happened Its harmless.' 'This is a s**t situation and only Francesca and myself know the full extent of what's happened,' he said. 'Francesca knows I'm always going to love her and she's always in my heart, in a special place with me' Long distance: The pair had been living apart for months due to COVID-19 border closures, but were scheduled to reunite in LA in a few days' time Separated: Harry has been living in LA while Francesca has been at home in Vancouver, Canada Just last week, Harry told WHO magazine that living in different countries during the pandemic had taken a toll on the pair's relationship. Harry has been living in LA while Francesca has been at home in Vancouver, Canada. He said they had spent 'a couple of days' together last month when Francesca was in LA for work related to her bikini brand. 'Apart from that, we haven't really been able to see each other at all,' he added. 'It's been really difficult.' The couple, who were known for their frisky antics on Too Hot to Handle, became engaged via Zoom during the Netflix reunion episode in May. Hard times: Only last week, Harry told WHO magazine that living in different countries during the pandemic had taken a toll on the pair's relationship Isn't that sweet?! Harry had proposed to the social media influencer with a ring pop during a Too Hot to Handle reunion special last month Harry proposed with a lollipop ring, but the fashion designer said she expected a proper ring in the coming months. The lovebirds, who briefly split and got back together after filming the racy dating show, had even spoken about having children. 'Francesca and I are better than ever, we took a bit of a break in between but now we are full steam ahead,' Harry told The Mirror. 'I can't wait to start travelling and we can put some babies in her belly!' What just happened? Whenever Microsoft acknowledges a bug caused by a Windows 10 update, of which there are many, it usually promises that its working on a fix. In the case of the printer issues brought by the recent KB4560960 and KB4557957 updates, the company has kept its word. As we noted in our feature listing some of the biggest problems caused by the Windows 10 May 2020 update and the two subsequent security updates, some users have found their PCs plagued with printer problems. Those affected discovered they can no longer print using devices from multiple manufacturers, including HP, Canon, Panasonic, Brother, and Ricoh. The issue even borks software-based printers, meaning virtual PDF printers no longer work, either. As noted by Neowin, the problem hit all supported versions of Windows, including Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 versions 1507, 1607, 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, and 2004. Thankful Microsoft is now releasing cumulative updates to address the issue, but not for all versions. Those running Windows versions 1903 and 1909 can get it here, and there are also updates for 1809 and 1803. Microsoft writes that the fix addresses an issue that might prevent certain printers from printing. The print spooler might generate an error or close unexpectedly when attempting to print, and no output will come from the affected printer. You might also encounter issues with the apps you are attempting to print from, such as receiving an error, or the app might close unexpectedly. If youre running one of the Windows 10 builds that doesnt have a fix, printing something means waiting until Microsoft releases a patch for your version, or you could just uninstall the June updates that are causing the issue. By PTI MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday said it is concerned over a fierce clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in eastern Ladakh, but believes that both of its close allies can resolve the conflict themselves. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel, were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. "Certainly, we are watching with great attention what is happening on the Chinese-Indian border. We believe that this is a very alarming report," Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "But we consider that the two countries are capable of taking necessary steps to prevent such situations in the future and to ensure that there is predictability and stability in the region and that this is a safe region for nations, first of all, China and India," Russian news agency Tass quoted Peskov as saying. The Kremlin spokesman emphasised that China and India are Russia's close partners and allies, and "have very close and mutually beneficial relations (with Russia) built on mutual respect." Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia welcomed contacts between the two nations to de-escalate the situation. The Indian Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement, it revised the figure to 20 saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries." In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry officials were silent on the casualties suffered by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops, but Hu Xijin, the editor of the ruling Communist Party-run Global Times tabloid, tweeted to say that there are casualties on Chinese side too. According to a report in the US News, at least 35 Chinese troops including one senior official died in the violent clash with Indian soldiers. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the two leaders agreed to "cool down" tensions on the ground "as soon as possible" and maintain peace and tranquility in the border area in accordance with the agreement reached between the two countries, an official statement from China said. Jaishankar told his Chinese counterpart Wang that the unprecedented incident in the Galwan Valley will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship and asked China to take corrective steps, the Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi. New Delhi: The procurement of wheat from farmers by government agencies touched an all-time record figure so far in the 2020-21 marketing year, when total procurement for the central pool reached 382 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) has surpassed the earlier record of 381.48 LMT achieved during 2012-13, according to a Food Ministry statement. Notably, this has been accomplished during the trying times of COVID-19 pandemic when the country was under lockdown. Madhya Pradesh has become the largest contributor to central pool with 129 LMT wheat, surpassing Punjab which procured 127 LMT. Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan also made significant contributions to the national procurement of wheat, the statement said. 42 Lakh farmers have been benefitted from this wheat procurement of all over India, and a total amount of about Rs 73,500 crore has been paid to them towards minimum support price for wheat. "The hefty inflow of food grains into central pool ensured that FCI is ready to meet any additional requirement of food grains for the people of the country in coming months," the statement said. During this period, 119 Lakh MT paddy was also procured by the government agencies through 13,606 purchase centers. Maximum procurement was done by Telangana which contributed 64 LMT followed by Andhra Pradesh with 31 LMT. The state-wise procurement of wheat and paddy is as follows: Notably, the commencement of procurement was delayed by a fortnight due to the first lockdown and started only from 15th April in most of the wheat surplus states as against the scheduled date of 1st April. It said, "extraordinary efforts have been made by state governments and all government procuring agencies led by Food Corporation of India (FCI) to ensure that wheat is procured from farmers without any delay and in a safe manner." The number of purchase centers was increased from 14,838 to 21,869 this year by opening procurement centers in all possible locations, in addition to traditional mandis, thereby, helping to reduce farmers' footfall in mandis and ensured proper social distancing. Technological solutions were deployed to regulate the daily inflows into mandis through token systems. These measures, along with actions on the ground for regular sanitizing, earmarking of dumping areas for each farmer etc, ensured that none of the food grain procurement centers became COVID-19 hotspot anywhere in the country, it added. DANBURY The pre-trial hearing of Matthew ODell, the Bethel man accused of killing his brother last year, has been postponed to Aug. 11. The 40-year-old, whose pre-trial hearing was previously scheduled for later this month, is facing a murder charge for allegedly shooting his 42-year-old brother to death inside the Apollo Road home they shared with their mother the morning of Nov. 11. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 01:19:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to firmly support Ecuador in the battle against COVID-19, do its best to provide necessary assistance and explore cooperation in areas such as vaccine and drug research and production, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a phone conversation with Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on Tuesday. Noting that the COVID-19 epidemic is spreading in Ecuador, Xi offered sincere sympathies on behalf of the Chinese government and people. Xi stressed that at the most demanding stage of China's fight against COVID-19, the Ecuadorian government provided timely anti-epidemic supplies to China. After the epidemic broke out in Ecuador, the Chinese government, local authorities, enterprises and civil organizations quickly reached out to help Ecuador, which illustrated the two countries' friendly tradition of helping and supporting each other, Xi said. Xi said he believes that under the leadership of President Moreno, Ecuador will prevail over the epidemic at an early date, and get back to the track of sound development. Xi said he hopes the Ecuadorian side will continue to protect Chinese companies and citizens who work and study in the South American country. He pointed out that as the pandemic is still spreading in the world, only with solidarity and cooperation can all countries finally win the battle against the disease. China is willing to continue cooperation with other countries to fight the disease and jointly promote the building of a community of common health for mankind, Xi said. China firmly supports enhancing macro policy coordination among countries to stabilize the global economy and improve global governance, he said. Xi stressed that many important consensuses were reached during President Moreno's successful state visit to China in 2018. With joint efforts, the two countries have achieved fruitful results in their pragmatic cooperation in various fields, Xi added. China attaches importance to developing its relations with Ecuador and is willing to communicate actively with the Ecuadorian side to overcome difficulties brought by the epidemic so as to resume and advance their pragmatic cooperation, promote their comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level after the epidemic and better benefit the two peoples, Xi said. Enditem Solicitor General Noel Francisco is leaving the Department of Justice, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. Francisco defended Trump administration policies before the Supreme Court, and served as the chief legal face of many Trump administration initiatives since he took the job in September of 2017. According to the release announcing his departure, Francisco represented the government at the Supreme Court in more than 150 cases, arguing in 17. "His skilled advocacy has been instrumental to historic victories on behalf of the President's national security authority, the free speech rights of public employees, and property owners' access to federal courts, among many other significant accomplishments," Attorney General William Barr said in a statement. "Away from the courtroom, he has been a steady and respected leader for the Office of the Solicitor General, a wise counselor to me and others in the Executive Branch, and a good friend," Barr added. It is typical for solicitors general to depart toward the end of the Supreme Court's term in June. Francisco's departure will become effective on July 3. Outside of legal circles, Francisco managed to fly largely under the radar, though a brief exception came in the fall of 2018 when it appeared that he was likely to take over for then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and oversee the investigation into Russian interference that was being led by former special counsel Robert Mueller. But Rosenstein stayed in the job, and Francisco was never tapped to fill in. At the Supreme Court, Francisco proved largely successful in defending Trump administration policies. A major win for the conservative attorney came in 2018, when the justices upheld a version of President Donald Trump's travel ban, which applied to several Muslim majority countries. The following year, the justices handed Francisco a loss in a dispute over whether the Trump administration could add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Francisco argued in a number of potential blockbuster cases during the court's current term, which began in October. In one of the most high-profile disputes, Francisco advocated for Trump's authority to end the Obama-era immigration program known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which shields hundreds of thousands of young migrants known as "Dreamers" from deportation. A decision in that case has not yet been handed down. In two cases argued in October, the Washington lawyer urged the justices not to apply the Civil Rights Act to LGBT workers. On Monday, the Supreme Court sided against the Trump administration in a blockbuster 6-3 ruling that declared it unlawful to fire an employee because the person is gay or transgender. The opinion was authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative Trump appointee. Several other high-profile cases Francisco argued this term have yet to be resolved. In May, during historic arguments held via teleconference as a precaution against coronavirus, Francisco defended Trump administration rules providing more flexibility to religious employers to deny contraceptive coverage. That month, Francisco also supported Trump's private attorneys in an argument over whether the president's longtime accounting firm must comply with a subpoena to turn over his tax records to the Manhattan district attorney. Decisions in the remaining cases are expected to come over the summer, possibly as soon as Thursday. In a statement, Francisco said his role was "one of the greatest jobs in the law and an opportunity for which I am deeply grateful." "I am proud of the significant success the Office of Solicitor General has had in advancing the rule of law of in our great nation alongside the dedicated men and women at the Department of Justice some of the finest lawyers I have known," he said. Before Francisco joined the Trump administration, he was an attorney at the law firm Jones Day, a cultivator of Republican legal talent. He worked as an attorney at the White House under President George W. Bush between 2001 and 2003, and served in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel from 2003 to 2005. Early in his career, Francisco served as a law clerk to Antonin Scalia, the former Supreme Court justice and influential conservative. By Daniel Itai The Zimbabwe Daily Lilongwe, Malawi Civil societies across the African continent have joined hands in condemning Malawis Chief Justice Andrew Nyirendas forced early retirement. Last week the government told the Chief Justice to take time off until his retirement next year, citing he had accumulated more leave days than his remaining work days. We call upon the executive branch of the government of Malawi to respect the independence of the judiciary, especially at this time when Malawi is heading towards the re-run of the Presidential election, read a statement from 42 African lawyers and civic organizations. - Advertisement - Nichole Fritz CEO of South African based civil society group, Freedom Under Law said the executive was not supposed to interfere in the manner in which the judiciary executes its duties. However, the judiciary has disputed the governments estimate of the number of leave days due to Chief Justice Nyirenda and said he will continue to discharge his duties. It also challenged the governments right to interfere in the workings of the courts. The countrys High Court also issued out a statement against the move, once a judge is appointed, all other matters relating to welfare and discipline fall within the exclusive province of the judiciary. After the appointment thereof, the executive is not involved in the internal affairs of the judiciary. The Chief Justice shall continue to discharge his functions as per his constitutional mandate. Chief Justice Nyirenda led the court that annulled President Peter Mutharikas election victory last year and ordered a re-run which is scheduled for the 23rd of this month. Like this: Like Loading... Torrential rain led to severe flooding in parts of Northern Ireland yesterday. Several heavy thundery downpours saw floods and difficult driving conditions in Lisburn. Fire crews were called to Wolfenden's Bridge on the Ballyskeagh Road after a car became submerged in the water. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) confirmed that two crews from Lisburn attended the scene and reduced the water levels to allow access for a recovery vehicle. A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms has been issued for Northern Ireland and comes into effect from noon today until 9pm. The Met Office has warned of a small chance of fast flowing or deep floodwater causing danger to life. There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded quickly, with damage to some buildings from floodwater, lightning, hail or strong winds. DUBLIN, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Wax Producers (GLOBAL) - Industry Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Wax Producers Analysis provides a detailed overview of the market and delivers a comprehensive individual analysis on the top 150 companies. This report includes a wealth of information on the financial trends over the past four years. The Global Wax Producers analysis is ideal for anyone wanting to: See the market leaders Identify companies heading for failure Seek out the most attractive acquisition Analyse industry trends Benchmark their own financial performance A quick glance of this Global Wax Producers report will tell you that 27 companies have a declining financial rating, while 19 have shown good sales growth. Each of the largest 150 companies is meticulously scrutinised in an individual assessment and analysed using the most up-to-date and current financial data. Every business is examined on the following features: A graphical assessment of a company's financial performance Four year assessment of the profit/loss and balance sheet A written summary highlighting key performance issues Subsequently, you will receive a thorough 100-page market analysis highlighting the latest changes in the global wax producers market. This section includes: Best Trading Partners Sales Growth Analysis Profit Analysis Market Size Rankings For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xctwvk About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Lego Masters host Hamish Blake took part in a virtual chat with a Star Wars fan for the Queensland Children's Hospital on Wednesday. And the comedian, 38, gave Tyler the 'scoop' with regards to a recent Star Wars- themed episode of Channel Nine's Lego-building show. Hamish explained how the network had to get approval from Disney and production company Lucasfilm, prior to the episode going to air. 'Can I give you a scoop?' Lego Masters host Hamish Blake (pictured), 38, revealed how Disney and production company Lucasfilm ensured parts of a Star Wars episode never made it on air 'Can I tell you a secret? Can I give you a bit of a scoop?' Hamish began. 'They were really lovely and they let us do the Star Wars episode, but there were a few things I did with the Stormtroopers that initially we had in the episode which when they saw it, they were like, "no, you can't put that on TV".' Hamish explained how Disney and Lucasfilm made Lego Masters take out part of the episode where he patted a Stormtroopers' head. 'No, you can't put that on TV': During a virtual chat with a Star Wars fan for the Queensland Children's Hospital on Wednesday, Hamish explained how he wasn't allowed to pat a Stormtroopers' head. Pictured with judge Ryan 'The BrickMan' McNaught Menacing: 'In the Star Wars universe the Stormtroopers have to be menacing, and you can't just have a guy patting their head like a dog,' Hamish said with a laugh 'In the Star Wars universe the Stormtroopers have to be menacing, and you can't just have a guy patting their head like a dog,' he said with a laugh. It comes after producers revealed to Woman's Day magazine the hard work that goes into making the show. 'We rely on our art department, who spend a lot of time going through all those buckets to make sure the right bricks are in the right place and kept in their correct colours and style of brick!' one producer told the publication last month. Revealed: It comes after producers revealed to Woman's Day magazine the hard work that goes into making the show. Pictured: Hamish and Ryan While it depends on the build, filming an episode of the show can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. But despite enduring hours on their creations, contestants are not able to take their masterpieces home. Instead, they're given to charities or used as competition prizes for viewers. Secret's out! The art department are the ones who spend hours sorting the Lego pieces by colours, and then strategically 'place them in the right place' for the builders to find Relay42 Partners with Tapad for Optimised Customer Journey Orchestration Capabilities The partnership will empower businesses with an expanded view of mobile and help transition to a world beyond cookies LONDON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tapad, a global leader in digital identity resolution, has partnered with Relay42, a global leader in data marketing technology backed by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The partnership will provide brands and agencies across EMEA and APAC with a greater range of digital device identifiers to actively support a variety of business objectives, including enhanced consumer experiences. Relay42's platform for Intelligent Journey Orchestration , which empowers businesses to transform fragmented customer interactions into seamless journeys, will be enhanced by Tapad's global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, The Tapad Graph. For Relay42, this will enable customers more flexibility and control to accurately map customer journeys across channels and devices and to optimise their campaigns for efficiencies, by expanding their first-party data with a wider range of digital IDs, particularly mobile. Rogier van Nieuwenhuizen, CEO at Relay42 commented, "We're committed to helping more brands move toward proactive Intelligent Journey Orchestration. This way, marketers can implement relevant end-to-end journeys across all channels and all touchpoints, based on real-time customer data. This partnership with Tapad increases the scope within which we're able to do this. Relay42 and Tapad are two best of breed solutions, built by design to interact and collaborate within the same ecosystem - which is essential as we transition to a cookieless world." Tom Rolph, Vice President, International at Tapad added: "By partnering with Relay42, brands and agencies will have access to a greater scope of digital identifiers, helping them more effectively execute and optimise cross-device campaigns. As an industry, collaboration is key for growth as we re-create the ecosystem around solutions that are not entirely reliant on third-party cookies." To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution capabilities, visit www.Tapad.com About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph and its related solutions provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture, and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore, and Tokyo. About Relay42 Relay42's platform for Intelligent Journey Orchestration empowers businesses to create meaningful customer relationships by utilizing smart technology to transform fragmented interactions into seamless journeys. Relay42 gives businesses the freedom, flexibility and agility to build sustainable customer relationships, using valuable customer data as a baseline. Global brands including Air France-KLM, Heineken, Mazda and Vodafone-Ziggo rely on Relay42 to anticipate and address customer needs in real time across all online and offline channels. Relay42 is the only platform built for AI-driven customer journeys with real-time connectivity to all systems and touchpoints. Media Contacts: 5WPR for Tapad tapad@5wpr.com Julie Alexander Head of Marketing j.alexander@relay42.com +31 (0)20 303 5800 Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/643146/Tapad_ElectricBlue_Logo.jpg COLUMBUS, OhioGov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday laid out a wide number of proposed law-enforcement reforms, including licensing police officers, bolstering training hours and requirements, and mandating outside investigations for officers involved in deaths or causing serious physical harm. During a briefing with Attorney General Dave Yost, DeWine asked lawmakers to pass the reforms, which come in the wake of protests in Ohio and around the country in response to the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis resident who was killed by a police officer last month. Kolkata, June 17 : Amid anti-China protests in various districts of north Bengal, shop owners in Siliguri's popular Hong Kong market on Wednesday decided to change its name and stop selling Chinese products in the entire market. "We have decided to change the name of Hong Kong market. We will also stop selling 'made in China items' in our market. If we sell local products, they will be more cost-effective for the buyers as there will be no duty charges levied upon them," said market committee president Tapan Saha. Siliguri's Hong Kong market is known a popular shopping destination that sells attractive Chinese products, starting from electronic gadgets to cosmetics to household items. Saha said that the name of the market will be changed soon. "We have not decided the new name yet. We will soon take a call on that after a meeting with all the shop owners," he added. Meanwhile, hundreds of people on Wednesday staged protests in different parts of north Bengal districts demanding justice for Indian Army jawans who were killed during the violent India-Chinese face-off in Ladakh. Angry residents also asked people to boycott Chinese products to protest violent attacks by the Chinese army along the borders. The protests took place in various pockets of Cooch Behar district and Siliguri's Bagdogra area where hundreds of people marched with posters and placards with anti-China slogans and called for Chinese items boycott. They also burnt the effigies of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The rallies were also supported by different political parties, including the Congress. Senior Congress leader and MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also demanded justice for the jawans who were killed in the attack. "The entire country is shocked and agitated over the heinous attack by the Chinese army. Our martyrs' blood will not go in vain. We need to respond the enemy by the language they understand," Chowdhury said, adding that the country is now in mourning. Two Indian Army jawans Rajesh Oraon and Bipul Roy killed in the Indo-Chinese face off in Ladakh were from West Bengal's Birbhum and Alipurduar d istrict. They say it doesn't have to be this way. "People are suffering right now, and in some cases, dying," says Daniel T'seleie, chief negotiator of the K'asho Got'ine self-government agreement and former lawyer from Fort Good Hope, N.W.T. T'seleie is talking about the suffering and deaths of Black and Indigenous people in Canada at the hands of police as a result systemic racism. But, T'seleie says, it doesn't have to be this way not in the North. "Our people lived for generations without RCMP," he says. "Our people functioned as nations with governance structures and our own laws for a long time before Canada even existed. "So it has been done. It can be done. We can exist without the RCMP and achieve those objectives of community safety." Amid worldwide protests against anti-Black racism and police brutality, sparked by the murder in May of George Floyd, a Black man, under the knee of a Minneapolis, Minn., police officer, the call to defund the police has become a rallying cry. To be sure, those words "defund the police" have been interpreted differently, from cutting police budgets to abolishing police altogether. In whatever reading, though, it includes rerouting police funds toward social services, like housing and mental healthcare, which also protect public safety. Walter Strong/ CBC To Ambe Chenemu, an organizer of last week's anti-racism rally in Yellowknife, defunding the RCMP doesn't mean disbanding it. He wants police funding diverted toward "the appropriate jurisdictions where we have mental health professionals that can directly deal with these types of situations, and de-escalate them, just so they don't end in a tragedy." RCMP's history as agents of colonialism The RCMP are a relic of the harmful project of colonialism, and for many, today's force can't be divorced from its history of pushing Indigenous people off the land and onto reserves, and of forcibly shuttling Indigenous children off to residential schools, says Deneze Nakehk'o, a Northwest Territories journalist, educator and founding member of Dene Nahjo. Story continues Nakehk'o supports defunding the RCMP, an idea which he says is neither new, nor extraordinary. "These conversations have been going on for a long time, especially in Black and Brown communities." In the Northwest Territories it would mean letting Indigenous communities determine how to protect themselves. "The best thing to do is basically start over to dismantle these structures to come up with different ways of making sure that our communities are safe, and that people are dealing with each other in a good way," Nakehk'o said. "If anybody knows how to look after this place and look after the people, it's the people that are actually from here." Walter Strong/CBC T'seleie agrees. "The history of RCMP operations in our communities and on our land was, in the earliest days, related to the objectives of colonialism," he said. While their relationship with the RCMP has evolved over the decades, says T'seleie, Indigenous people in the North continue to be mistreated by police. "I know a lot of people who have had a lot of negative interactions with RCMP, and I know people who have called the RCMP and they have not been responsive," he says. "So the treatment that people receive currently, in a lot of cases, could be described as discriminatory." The history of RCMP operations in our communities and on our land was, in the earliest days, related to the objectives of colonialism. - Daniel T'seleie, K'asho Got'ine self-government negotiator Like Nakehk'o, T'seleie believes that with authority over community safety, and importantly, the full weight of their own laws, Indigenous governments could protect their people without the need for police. But in current self-government negotiations, the Criminal Code is off the table. "It's ridiculous to think that we could defund the RCMP and achieve objectives of community safety without acknowledging that Indigenous nations need to have some jurisdiction over those areas of law," he says. T'seleie adds that replacing the RCMP with an Indigenous police force would simply be shifting the colonial model of policing from one agency to another. "It's not just an issue of let's defund RCMP and let's let Indigenous communities create their own police force," he says. "It's an issue of what laws do those police enforce, how did they enforce them, and who makes those laws?" Walter Strong / CBC N.W.T. policing services budget increasing The territorial minister of justice says she would "absolutely" have conversations with Indigenous governments interested in downloading certain responsibilities from the territorial Justice Department. She didn't specify which responsibilities. "We want to work with Indigenous governments and not against them and work in a way that's co-operative and creative in finding solutions that will better respect those communities," said Justice Minister Caroline Wawzonek. The RCMP provides policing services to the N.W.T. under a funding agreement reached with the federal government in 2012. This year, the territory's policing services budget is set to rise nearly $1.6 million, to $47.8 million. That amounts to a little bit more than $1,000 per N.W.T. resident. "We aren't really in the place to be defunding the RCMP," Wawzonek says, when asked whether she'd consider it. Because of the funding agreement, and because the RCMP is a national police force, she said that "in a very practical sense it's not really a conversation we're going to be having unilaterally." Facebook How much power the territory has over police spending is unclear. A 2012 press release announcing the police services agreement says the N.W.T., together with other provinces and territories, "will have influence over cost and service decisions in an ongoing and co-ordinated way throughout the life of the new contract." Wawzonek, a practising criminal lawyer before becoming minister of justice, said she's heard more demands for establishing an RCMP detachment in small communities without one, than she has for removing police. "Maybe this is a chance to say, 'Well, what can we actually do? You don't have an RCMP detachment. What do you need to be safer if we acknowledge that maybe putting in a detachment isn't the direction anyone wants to go right now?'" 'We've seen what's happened across the country' Jamie Zettler, chief superintendent of the N.W.T. RCMP, says cuts to police funding are not on him to decide. "That's up to our government," he said. The RCMP meets with the justice minister, and with communities, to set policing priorities and responsibilities, he says. Last week, Zettler acknowledged that there is racism in the RCMP. The trust of Indigenous and Black communities is "very important to us," he says, but that building it up is an ongoing process. John Van Dusen/CBC "We've heard, we've seen what's happened across the country, in North America, and we continue to want to build those relationships," he said. "We've come a long ways. We've got a long ways to go yet." Wilbert Cook, executive director of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation, doesn't agree with defunding the Northwest Territories RCMP. Rather, he'd like to see police undergo more cultural sensitivity training. "We don't want to take responsibility away from the RCMP," he said, adding that apart from a few officers, the RCMP generally do a good job. Cook says any officer is invited to come visit the healing camp behind Yellowknife's Multiplex. "They're welcome, whether they're on duty, or off duty." Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a virtual all-party meeting at 5.00 pm on June 19 to discuss the situation in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has said. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting, PMO said. On June 16, the Indian Army said at least 20 of its personnel had been killed in a violent face-off with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on the June 15-16 night. Four more Indian soldiers are in critical condition, reports suggest. In a statement, the Indian Army had indicated that there were casualties on the Chinese side too. India-China Border News LIVE Opposition parties had questioned the PM Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's "silence" on the clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers and asked them to take the nation into confidence on the matter. On June 17, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asked why the prime minister was "silent" on the clash and said that the country needs to know what has happened. In his first official response on the matter, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the loss of soldiers is deeply disturbing and painful and that they displayed exemplary courage and valour. The nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice, he added. By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 17, 2020 | 02:49 PM | MCCRACKEN COUNTY Kalleo Technologies is a locally owned and operated information technology company that offers network management solutions, cloud-based services, network monitoring, and help desk support to corporations. The business was founded in 2004 by Roger Truitt and his sons Doug and John. Kalleo has experienced a lot of growth recently, which opened up the need for additional space for their 57 employees, all of which are located within Paducah. They will be moving into the previous home of Tele-Tech (TTEC) at 401 Kentucky Avenue. TTEC left the facility last October. "TTEC operated a call center out of the building for five years. The building is already pre-wired and set up for an IT company. Kalleo will be able to occupy the building with minimal re-configuration and keep the jobs in our community. They're a perfect fit." said Bruce Wilcox, President of GPED. GPED officials have been working with Kalleo on the possibility of occupying the facility for many months. During that time Kalleo added seven new jobs, and they anticipate adding upwards of 50 more jobs in the near future. Wilcox said, "The City of Paducah's "Kick Start Program" made the transition into the new facility easy and seamless while also putting a GPED asset to wrok." Mayor Brandi Harless also commented on the move, "This is an exciting expansion for our community. Kalleo offers our citizens the opportunity for a career in technology. We hope they continue to grow their business and bring more modern economy jobs to Paducah." McCracken County Judge Executive Craig Clymer says Kalleo is an outstanding partner for providing the McCracken County government's IT consulting, engineering, and other services. According to Clymer, Kalleo could have relocated their base operation anywhere in the U.S. but chose to stay local. He said, "We greatly value their dedication and valuable contribution to our Community." You can find additional information on Kalleo Technologies at the link below. The Greater Paducah Economic Development (GPED) has announced the expansion of Kalleo Technologies within Paducah. On the Net: Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 16:30 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf8a12b 1 National Papua,Racism,Papua-protest,East-Kalimantan,treason Free A court in East Kalimantan found seven Papuans guilty of treason in separate trials on Wednesday for their involvement in antiracism protests in Jayapura, Papua, in 2019, despite calls from human rights defenders for authorities to drop all charges against them. The Balikpapan District Court sentenced Buchtar Tabuni, an executive of pro-Papuan independence group United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), to 11 months of imprisonment. Meanwhile, Cenderawasih University student union head Ferry Kombo as well as Irwanus Uropmabin and Hengki Hilapok, both students of the University of Science and Technology (USTJ), were sentenced to 10 months in prison. The punishment handed down by the court was far from the demands of prosecutors, who sought 17 years of imprisonment for Buchtar, 10 years for Ferry and 5 years for both Irwanus and Hengki. Two other defendants in the case, namely Agus Kossay and Stevanus Itlay from the National Committee of West Papua (KNPB), were sentenced to 11 months of imprisonment after prosecutors had demanded 15 years. Meanwhile, USTJ student union head Alexander Gobai was sentenced to 10 months in prison. The prosecutors had sought 10 years of imprisonment for him. We are given a week to think about whether we will file an appeal or not. We will discuss further with the seven political prisoners and figure out if they can accept [the verdicts], Emanuel Gobay, one of the defense lawyers, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. The seven students and activists were involved in Jayapura protests in August last year following a racially charged incident targeting Papuan university students living in a dormitory in Surabaya, East Java. The students were physically and verbally attacked by security personnel and members of local mass organizations, who accused them of refusing to celebrate Indonesias 74th Independence Day. Security personnel reportedly banged on the dormitorys door while shouting insults like monkeys, pigs and dogs. The protests in Jayapura started out peacefully but later turned violent, resulting in dozens of injuries and several buildings being damaged. The seven activists were arrested in Jayapura and were moved for trials in Balikpapan earlier this year for security reasons. The trials have been met with outcry from the public and from activists, with many demanding that authorities drop all charges, as they argued that the Papuans involved in the rallies had only been exercising their right to protest racism against them. Over the past three days prior to the verdicts scheduled for Wednesday, rallies carried out by students and young people demanding the defendants' release took place in various cities across the country. Human rights activists have lambasted the arrests and charges against the Papuans, saying that acts of treason and reactions against racism were two different things. They also argued that perpetrators of racism against Papuans, including hoax spreaders and verbal attackers, had been charged with less than a year of imprisonment. Despite the leniency, the verdicts still reflect racism under Indonesias justice system. No matter what happens, West Papuans must be found guilty by Indonesian courts, especially in treason and incitement cases, Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman said in her Twitter account. Veronica told the Post that, during the antiracism protests last year, 86 Papuans were arrested and charged with treason. Some were immediately released, leaving 56 to be processed legally. Some of the 56 Papuans have been sentenced to prison and recently been released, including Surya Anta and Ariana Elopere, who were spotted among the crowd during Mondays rally in front of the Supreme Court building in Central Jakarta. There was no political intervention, because those who are now released have fully served their sentences, Veronica said, adding that 23 of 36 Papuans still being detained would face their first hearing in Fakfak, West Papua, later this week. Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said he deeply regretted the court rulings on Wednesday against the seven Papuans engaging in peaceful protests, arguing that such a decision showed that the state failed to uphold human rights for Papua. Although the verdicts were much lighter than the demand of prosecutors, the seven prisoners of conscience should not have been arrested, imprisoned and prosecuted from the start. They should be released will all charges dropped, Usman said in a statement. In the era of president BJ Habibie, East Timorese political prisoners or prisoners of conscience were released. President Jokowi himself even freed five Papuan prisoners of conscience at the beginning of his first term, he said. Editor's note: This article has been updated with the verdicts handed down by the court against three other defendants. An earlier version of this article also misspelled the name of Cenderawasih University student union head. He is Ferry Kombo, not Gombo. Yoon Do-han, Cheong Wa Dae's senior secretary for public communication, speaks on Wednesday during a televised briefing at the South Korean presidential office regarding North Korea's bombing of the South-North joint liaison office on Tuesday. Yonhap The office of President Moon Jae-in strongly condemned the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Wednesday for her "rude and senseless" criticism of Moon and warned that it won't tolerate the North's unreasonable words and acts anymore. "It is a senseless act to disparage (Moon's speech earlier this week) in a very rude tone without understanding its purpose at all," Yoon Do-han, Cheong Wa Dae's senior secretary for public communication, said in a war of words between the two Koreas. Hours earlier, Kim Yo-jong, a powerful sister of the leader, launched an unusually harsh direct criticism of Moon over his remarks on inter-Korean relations earlier this week on the 20th anniversary of the historic Seoul-Pyongyang summit. Moon reaffirmed his unswerving commitment to a pair of 2018 summit deals with the North and called on its sitting leader not to reverse it. Kim described Moon's comments as "shameless sophistry" and ridiculed his view. Ukrainian Official 'Detained' Over Fatal Acid Attack By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service June 16, 2020 KYIV -- Ukrainian Security Service officers have reportedly detained the head of the regional council in Kherson and are bringing him to Kyiv, where his pretrial arrest will be decided in a case where he is suspected of ordering a deadly attack on anti-corruption activist Kateryna Handzyuk in 2018. A member of Kherson's Dnipro district council, Oleksandr Vlasov, said on June 16 that Vladyslav Manher was detained while at a hospital early in the morning and is being transported to Kyiv. Manher, who has denied any involvement in the attack, has failed to show up at the Pechera district court in Kyiv twice since last week, citing his own health problems, as well as those of his daughter. On June 15, after Manher's representatives told the court that he was at a Kherson hospital and therefore unable to attend the hearing, the court ruled that he must be brought by force. Handzyuk, a 33-year-old civil activist and adviser to the mayor of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, died in November 2018, three months after she was severely injured in an acid attack. Prosecutors arrested Manher in February 2019 and charged him with ordering the attack. Manher was later released on bail. In June 2019, five men were sentenced to prison terms of between three and 6 1/2 years for organizing and executing the attack, after they made plea deals with investigators. Human rights activists have accused Ukrainian law enforcement agencies of failing to thoroughly investigate the growing number of attacks on activists, and even of collusion with the perpetrators in some cases. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/local-ukrainian -official-reportedly-detained-in -handzyuk-killing/30673321.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 Ben Geskin took to Twitter to reveal that Amazon France has briefly listed the PS5 along with a release date and price. The listing which has since been removed shows the console availability date as November 20, 2020. The pricing of the console looks fairly attractive as well. The Digital Edition of the PS5 was listed for Euro 399 (Rs 35,000 approx directly converted) and the PS5 with a disc drive was priced at Euro 499 which is Rs 43,000 approx directly converted. As for the release date of November 20, 2020, it looks to be close to when Sony could launch the console as the company has said that it will release the PS5 during the holiday season of 2020. To put things into perspective, the PS4 launched on November 15, 2013, in the US. We, however, suggest you take the leaked PS5 price with a grain of salt as this could just be an error listing. Both Sony and Microsoft are committed to launching their consoles in 2020 and both the companies have shown off the console design, specifications, new controller and games lineup. The only thing left to reveal is the price. Both Sony and Microsoft are playing chicken and looking to undercut the other by $50 or $100 to gain market share faster. In the current console generation, Sony has a clear lead with the PS4 when compared to the Xbox One. However, Microsoft has put in considerable effort to lay the foundation for the next-gen with services like Xbox Game Pass and game studio acquisitions. With the upcoming console generation, it looks like Microsoft has the advantage with CPU and GPU power, but the PS5 has a much faster SSD. You can check out the specs of the Xbox Series X here and the specs of the PS5 here. When it comes to the design, Microsoft has gone with a more industrial design with the Xbox series X and it looks minimalistic, like a cube, so to speak. The PS5, on the other hand, has a space-age design with its dual-tone white and black colour scheme. If information circulating the internet is to be believed, then the PS5 will be taller and deeper than the Xbox Series X but not as wide. You can check out our design comparison between the 2 consoles here. WATERLOO REGION Only a few weeks ago the term defund the police was mostly reserved for discussion among academics and activists. Few people had heard of the concept until the killing of George Floyd. Now, Floyds death at the hands of the Minneapolis police just over three weeks ago, has galvanized many in the mainstream population and forced them to think about police reform. For some, its cutting back on what police do, reducing their budgets, while others want to see police-free communities. Defund the police has become a movement and a hashtag on social media that stemmed from protests across North America, following Floyds death. So what does defund the police mean? American activist and scholar Angela Davis suggests the concept shouldnt be seen as negative. So instead of dismantling the system, she asks people to reimagine it. Defunding the police is not simply withdrawing funding for law enforcement and nothing else, she said in a recent interview with Democracy Now. Its shifting public funds to new services, Davis said. READ MORE: Want to defund the police? Take the protest to the provincial government in Toronto Four words: Hold corrupt cops accountable community activists weigh in on defunding police Defunding the police means redirecting taxpayers money away from the police and moving the money to community-led programs, focused on mental health, education and housing for racialized groups. Safety safeguarded by violence is not really safety, Davis said. Sandy Hudson, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter in Toronto, wrote in the Huffington Post that defunding the police means freeing up money that can be reinvested in services that provide real safety. The polices emergency support is inadequate and it kills Black people. Surely we can create an emergency support system that doesnt kill Black people and Indigenous people, she said. What police reforms have been tried? In the United States, many police forces have body cameras, including in Minneapolis where Floyd died a brutal death when a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. Activists say body cameras havent stopped the violence against the Black community and neither has anti-racism training. In Canada, the Toronto officers could be wearing body cameras by July. The city is also considering reducing the police budget by 10 per cent. Locally, Waterloo Regional Police have said they are exploring options to have front-line officers wear cameras. Activists say police reforms have been repeatedly tried, but failed. They want to see real change. What has happened in Waterloo Region? A protest in downtown Kitchener three weeks ago brought thousands together in solidarity in a Black Lives Matter rally. The African, Caribbean and Black Network of Waterloo Region is working to end anti-Black racism. It has called for actions to defund the police, reallocating the money to communities they say need help and not officers policing them. At a minimum, the network says $29 million should be diverted from the $180-million police budget and those tax dollars invested in community-based health initiatives for impoverished and racialized groups. They are also calling for the School Resource Officer program in schools be scrapped. This week, the Waterloo Region District School Board agreed to put the program on pause while their review it. A student-led group of high school students Students 4 Inclusive Schools say they want the review to include their voices. The students say they are fearful and feel unsafe with armed officers in schools. Waterloo Regional Police has not publicly said what their stand is when it comes to defunding the police. A police board meeting will be held Wednesday. Black Lives Matter and their calls for action are on the agenda. Additionally, at a regional council meeting on Tuesday, councillors agreed to a community roundtable that will listen to stories of lived experience from community members and talk about addressing racism in the region and integrating anti-racism strategies in regional policies. Council also said social agencies serving racialized groups should receive equal funding. In The Know by Yahoo As Covid-19 cases continue to increase in Louisiana and disproportionately affect Black communities, at least one family has reason to celebrate. Hot Boy Ronald is a local New Orleans hip hop legend and his brother Mike contracted the novel coronavirus. But after nearly three months in the hospital, Mike was finally released. My brother been in the hospital 82 days for coronavirus. God is good, Ronald wrote on Instagram. In the video, Mike is sitting down and still looks connected to a breathing device, but hes home nonetheless. In typical New Orleans fashion, he was greeted with a second line parade. Jazz musicians and dancers performed in the streets waving feathered fans to welcome Mike home. Welcome Home Mike after 82 days in the hospital! Lets #MaskUpNOLA and work on more homecomings from the hospital! Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted. Instagram users were happy for the bit of good news during a chaotic time. Im happy for the family his health was restored and hes home with family, one user wrote. Man I wish I was home to dance in the street with yall. Continued blessings on your brother, another said. I really love to see this. This is what life is about. Show love while they are here, one person said. Mikes recovery is almost miraculous given that Louisianas Black residents are dying at rates higher than other demographics. In April, research revealed that 52 out of every 100,000 Black residents died of Covid-19. That rate is 2.65 times higher than other races. According to a June study by the Brookings Institute, when adjusted for age, Black people, in general, have a Covid-19 death rate 3.6 times higher than white people. If you enjoyed this story, you might want to read about how you can stay healthy while in quarantine. More from In The Know: Artist draws funny cartoon chalk art to spread positivity amid quarantine This blemish stick is the perfect little treatment for unexpected pimples These chic sandals are made of plastic and plants This wireless phone charger and sanitizer is on sale for a limited time The post New Orleans man celebrates homecoming after 82 days in the hospital with Covid-19 appeared first on In The Know. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 17:39:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GUANGZHOU, June 17 (Xinhua) -- After close to four months of waiting, Dario Silva, a Portuguese who has been in China for 12 years, reopened his restaurant in Foshan City, south China's Guangdong Province, after COVID-19 tapered off in the province. In 2019, Silva opened Lusitano Bistro, a Portuguese restaurant, after he was engaged in importing Portuguese products for years. It was his first attempt to bring authentic Portuguese flavors to Chinese consumers. Back in 2008, Silva first came to China in pursuit of business opportunities. After working in the export trade in Shenzhen, a coastal economic powerhouse in southern China, for seven years, he got together a crowd of Chinese business partners who were attracted both by his sense of humor and port wines, a prestigious specialty in Portugal. Silva said that as the Chinese market further opens, people's demand for foreign goods has increased dramatically. He began to spot a gap in the Chinese market, where Portuguese products were then barely seen. In 2015, Silva made his first attempt at importing a batch of port wine, which was then snapped up by his Chinese business partners. In the first year, Silva sold a total of 14,000 bottles of wine, with the sales volume reaching 50,000 euros (about 56,260 U.S. dollars). High-quality and authentic wines granted Silva a name in the market. He then succeeded in bringing more Portuguese products, like mineral water, biscuits and olive oil, to the Chinese market. The Portuguese owes his expanding business to a more open market environment. "The Chinese market is appealing and friendly for foreigners to do business in recent years," Silva said. In 2019, Silva exported Portuguese products worth 63 million yuan (about 8.9 million U.S. dollars) to China, half of which were consumed in Guangdong. Even though more and more Portuguese have come to China, Silva found it difficult to find an authentic Portuguese restaurant. To taste the flavors from back home, he had been thinking of opening a Portuguese restaurant together with his partner. At the end of 2018, China and Portugal signed a memorandum of understanding related to the Belt and Road Initiative, which allows more Portuguese agricultural products such as pork and fresh grapes to enter the Chinese market. Last September, Lusitano Bistro opened, with everything from napkin holders, cutlery to glassware designed in the Portuguese style. Silva said most of the ingredients are imported from Portugal, in an effort to bring authentic Portuguese flavors to Chinese and other nationals living in the city. "Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, the transport time of olive oil, cookies and wines from Portugal to China has decreased from 60 days to around 35 days," said Silva. "More foreign investors like me are benefiting from China's open economy and Chinese people's openness to experience exotic tastes." An average of 40 people come to the restaurant to dine each day, and the number can top 120 in the peak season, according to Silva. Although the restaurant was subject to a temporary suspension due to COVID-19, Silva said he was confident in resuming operations, with effective anti-virus measures taken in China. Since the reopening, the restaurant has seen a rising number of customers, with an average of 30 each day. To keep everyone safe, the bistro keeps records of customers, checks their temperature and provides free masks. Silva is currently negotiating two new locations in the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. "I believe within the next couple of years, we will be able to deliver Portuguese food in all main cities in Guangdong and then start to expand into other provinces," he said. Enditem In character: Darina Gallagher as Molly and Paddy Keogh as James Joyce outside Swenys Chemist during a Bloomsday event on Westland Row in Dublin. Photo: Gerry Mooney In character: Darina Gallagher plays Molly watched by Tom Fitzgerald during a Bloomsday event on Lincoln Place in Dublin. Photo: Gerry Mooney The life of James Joyce was fraught with the struggle of emigration, a battle with alcohol, and a dispute with the Catholic Church. After leaving Ireland with lover Nora Barnacle for continental Europe, however, he kept his beloved Dublin close, and "obsessed" over his home town in his writings from Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Croatia. As Bloomsday, the celebration of his life and works, was marked this year in an unprecedented muted fashion, his celebrants were inspired to hold close the things that Covid-19 has kept from them, and to celebrate the things Joyce missed most while in self-imposed exile in Europe. Normally, the Bloomsday festival brings up to 20,000 people from all over the world to Dublin in celebration of Joyce's masterpiece 'Ulysses'. Every year on June 16, Joyce fans follow a route around Dublin city centre which was taken by Leopold Bloom, the fictional protagonist of the 1922 novel on the same date in 1904. While small groups carried on the tradition dressed in Edwardian-style costumes, this year the majority of the festivities had to take place online because of Covid-19. Despite this, Darina Gallagher, director of the festival, said Dublin was filled with hope as Joyce fans celebrated. "It has been a great day. It's really different, but it feels like there's really hope despite everything," she said. "The city is spreading out across the world and everyone is celebrating Dublin and Joyce from around the world. "I've really been reflecting on James Joyce leaving Dublin so young, at age 22. Video of the Day "We're missing so much at the moment: people, activities, friends - and Joyce was really missing Dublin, but he kept it close to him and almost obsessed over it. "The warmth and energy of those writings make us all long for what we are missing at the moment." One of the Bloomsday traditions is to eat a "burnt kidney breakfast", as the protagonist in 'Ulysses' did. Peter Caviston, organiser of the Bloomsday Coastal Odyssey festival, said a small group continued the tradition this year in Glasthule, Sandycove, where 5,000 usually take over the street to celebrate Joyce. "We had kidneys and sheep hearts, and we were all social distancing. "So we had FX Buckley black pudding - he was in 'Ulysses' - and urine-scented kidneys. "There was a lovely flavour off them and lads stuffing their faces," Mr Caviston said. "The celebration was totally different. This year we had to do the Bloomsday Coastal Odyssey, meaning we went to different places where nobody knew, so there would be no crowd-control problems. "I started 35 years ago doing this, so I had to mark the day." Decade-long study shows why South Africa needs to stop stereotyping young black men Young black men are often viewed through a criminal lens. An 11-year-long study of adolescent men in a South African township upends the stereotypes. South Africas Youth Day celebration on the 16th of June, just after my birthday on the 15th, remained a special day in my life as a young black man. But the day also raised questions for me. A lot gets said in the media about the youth of today, especially young black men who (unlike the young lions of 1976) are generally described and depicted as reckless, irresponsible, aggressive and violent. These young black men are also berated for being more concerned with bashes, parties, excessive drinking and branded clothes. Over the years, terms such as lost generation, Yizo-Yizo generation (with reference to the TV drama), YFM generation (with reference to the radio station), Coca-Cola kids; born free generation; Mandelas children and WhatsApp/Facebook generation also gained popularity to describe them. It is against this backdrop that my psychology research interest developed to understand the factors that facilitate or hinder young mens search for alternative forms of masculinity, which is the focus of much of my book, Becoming Men. In the book, I track a group of young black South African boys over a period of 11 years, from 2007 to 2018, from when they were adolescents of 13 to 18 years until they were young adults between the ages of 24 and 28. Becoming Men explores how these adolescent boys negotiate their transition to adulthood in the context of the predominantly working-class township of Alexandra, as well as how they negotiated the construction of masculinities. Positive findings Studies about young black men in South African townships are not new, but many tend to associate young black men with gangs, crime and violence. What is new in this book is the focus on young black men who do not subscribe to stereotyped ideas of being a black township man. These are young township men who are not engaging in risk-taking and other problematic behaviours often associated with them, such as belonging to criminal gangs and committing violent crimes as part of constructing their masculine identities. Furthermore, these young black men put more emphasis on academic success and long-term career goals, despite lack of bursaries for some to pursue their studies beyond matric. Pursuing academic work was seen by this group as an investment in the future and as a possible means to breaking the cycle of poverty in their lives in the township. Their narratives revealed positive signs of change, ambition and the aspiration to achieve certain career goals. This and a willingness to sacrifice alignment with dominant or popular positions in the present. They thus entertained non-hegemonic or alternative identity positions. Not easy to be different It is clear in the book that not all young black men succumb to peer pressure to perform versions of township masculinity. But this resistance comes at a cost. Young men who do not subscribe to township practices of masculinity are often subjected to bullying, verbal and physical abuse, exclusion, ridicule and humiliation. Derogatory names such as dibhari (fools) or makwala (cowards) are often used against them. It is a painful experience for any young man to be called these names. Some feel compelled to behave in a particular way (often getting involved in risky behaviour) to publicly show that one is a real township boy. This performativity reveals the artificiality of a male identity that one continuously needs to prove in the eyes of other boys and men. However, the research for the book also provides rich personal stories of how some young black men are living out alternative versions of masculinity. By alternative I mean non-violent, non-risk taking, non-homophobic and non-sexist. These entailed rejecting the dominant view that a young man needs to be violent, defy teachers authority at school or have multiple girlfriends to show that he is a real boy. Strategies that these young black men relied on are revealed in this book, which included vacillating between multiple positions, simultaneously accepting and rejecting certain practices of township masculinity. That guy in the middle What becomes apparent in my study for the book is that some young black men had conflicting feelings about identifying with alternative voices of masculinity. Some wanted to be popular and yet still achieve good grades at school or stay away from gangs. They had to manage these contradictions in order to maintain and sustain school-oriented and non-violent voices of masculinity by being in-being or in the borderland. They accepted that it was better to be in between and a simple guy who was neither popular nor a loser. However, being in the middle constituted a dilemma as they still wanted to be considered real township boys by doing what other boys did, such as socialising and spending time with peers on street corners, but still being different. The balance was difficult to achieve and this evoked strong feelings of depression, anxiety, hesitation, shame and ambivalence about being a different young black boy. These are psychic and interpersonal tensions that young black men experienced in negotiating the paradoxes of township masculinity and that their narratives were characterised by contradictory sentiments and ambiguities that it is not easy to be a different boy who consciously adopts non-popular masculine positions. Rejecting stereotypes It is argued in this book that being a different boy is hard work, so it is important that young adolescent boys are assisted in negotiating these challenges of boyhood and also the transition into healthy manhood. Wits University Press , CC BY It is important for researchers and policy makers to understand what happens psychologically when young black men negotiate such multiple voices of masculinity in their daily lives. As South Africans celebrate youth month, it needs to remember not to stereotype all young black men as inherently violent, callous, risk taking and exploitative of girls and women as the opposite is certainly evident in this book. This article is based on an extract of a book by Malose Langa called Becoming Men: Black Masculinities in a South African Township. It is published by Wits University Press. Malose Langa, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Tower MSA Partners' Vice President of IT, Jesse Shade Accepted into Forbes Technology Council Forbes Technology Council has accepted Jesse Shade, vice president of information technology for Tower MSA Partners, as a member of its invitation-only community of senior technology executives. Tower is a leading, technology-driven provider of Medicare Secondary Payer compliance services, including Medicare Set-Asides. Criteria for acceptance in the Council include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics as well as professional achievements and honors. "We are honored to welcome Jesse into the community," said Forbes Council Founder Scott Gerber. With more than 35 years of IT experience, Shade directs all aspects of the complex technologies Tower built to seamlessly drive MSP compliance and MSA processes. He oversees data security, systems architecture, disaster recovery, and business continuity, as well as the management, maintenance, and upgrades of its proprietary software. "We are proud of this recognition of Jesse's talents," said Tower CEO Rita Wilson. "As a member of Tower's executive team, Jesse has led develpment efforts for Tower's proprietary software system, its Section 111 reporting platform and its network infrastructure, all within a cyber security framework that protects both Tower and its clients and business partners. Jesse will be a major asset to the Council." Council members gain access to a vetted national network of CIOs, CTOs, and other senior technology executives through exclusive group chats. Shade will collaborate with other respected technology leaders in a private forum where members help each other solve daily business challenges. He will also be invited to share his insights in articles on Forbes.com and contribute to published Q&A panels along with other experts. Forbes Councils is a collective of invitation-only communities created in partnership with Forbes and the expert community builders who founded Young Entrepreneur Council. More information about its Technology Council can be found at forbestechcouncil.com. About Tower MSA Partners Headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, Tower MSA Partners' services include pre-MSA Triage, MSAs, physician peer reviews, CMS submissions, MSA administration, medical cost projections, life care plans, conditional payments, and Section 111 reporting. Visit www.towermsa.com and https://towermsa.com/blog/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005076/en/ ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The University of Alaska faculty union has called for the immediate resignation of the systems president. The executive board of United Academics union unanimously approved a public petition Friday asking university President Jim Johnsen to step down. Johnsen, who became president in 2015, oversees the university systems three universities and 13 community campuses with about 30,000 students. Johnsen has failed in all areas that matter to the academic mission and has invested efforts to advance his career rather than lead the university, the unions petition said. Johnsen did not provide examples of his efforts to improve diversity in the system during recent interviews with the University of Wisconsin, the union said. Johnsen was the lone finalist for the University of Wisconsin Systems president job. But he withdrew his name from consideration Friday in the face of mounting criticism from faculty, staff and students. The announcement that Johnsen was the only finalist drew immediate criticism from Wisconsin faculty, staff and students who complained they had no representatives on the universitys search committee. They also noted Johnsen received two no-confidence votes from Alaska faculty in 2017 and 2019 over proposals to consolidate programs and combine the three-university Alaska system into a single accredited institution to absorb budget cuts. The Alaska faculty petition also cited deteriorating state funding and student enrolment and the short-sighted elimination of critical and healthy academic programs affecting many parties. The University of Alaska Board of Regents voted to cut or reduce more than 40 academic programs June 5. The university predicts a budget gap by fiscal year 2022 between $11.3 million and $36.3 million. The academic program and administrative cuts approved by the regents are part of an effort to address the financial situation, Johnsen said. Faculty union President Abel Bult-Ito said 226 of about 1,050 faculty members the union represents signed the petition by Monday afternoon. He is the leader of the university. He should take responsibility for what is happening at the university, said Bult-Ito, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In his interview with the Wisconsin search committee, Johnsen was asked about commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion at universities. He was criticized as being tone deaf or inappropriate in his responses, which included references to being raised for a time by an African American family and working as the only white executive in an Alaska Native Corporation. Johnsen also said Alaskans expect a handout each year from our permanent fund, referring to the states annual payment to residents drawn from oil revenue. University spokeswoman Roberta Graham issued a statement saying Johnsen respects and supports the facultys rights to express their viewpoints, but he remains dedicated to inclusiveness and transparency. Johnsen will continue to focus on the universitys mission and the regents goals of economic and workforce development, research, cost effectiveness and student success, Graham said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 15:12:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close File photo taken on Oct. 4, 2007 shows a soldier (L) of the People's Army of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) looks on as a South Korean soldier stands guard at the truce village of Panmunjom, border between South Korea and the DPRK. (Xinhua/Gong Bing) "We have no idea to sit together with the authorities of the south side who evoke only disgust and nasty feelings." PYONGYANG, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Wednesday that his government would not sit together with the authorities of South Korea and "there will be neither exchange nor cooperation in the future." "We have no idea to sit together with the authorities of the south side who evoke only disgust and nasty feelings," Jang Kum Chol, director of the United Front Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). "That's why we began removing means for contact between the north and the south," he said. Officials from South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) pose for group photos during the launching ceremony of a joint liaison office in DPRK's border town of Kaesong, Sept. 14, 2018. (Xinhua/Joint Press Corps) Pyongyang cut off all communication lines with Seoul a week ago and blew up the joint liaison office building in Kaesong Industrial Zone near the border with South Korea on Tuesday in protest against the sending of leaflets criticizing the North's leadership by defectors and other activists in the South. The liaison office was established in September 2018, as part of the Panmunjom Declaration signed by the two sides during the first summit between top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held on April 27, 2018. Jang also said the South Korean authorities tried to shift the blame to Pyongyang, but "we are never afraid of whatever responsibility, as there are nothing to be implemented and no future for the north-south relations." "Through the present crisis, we feel fortunate as we have confirmed once again the conclusion that the enemy is the enemy, after all," he emphasized in the statement. South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un hold their second summit at the DPRK side of the border village of Panmunjom, on May 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Blue House) In a related development, Pyongyang on Wednesday "flatly" rejected a plea from South Korea to send special envoys to the North to ease the current tensions on the peninsula. "Upon the urgent message sent by the south side in a hurry, Kim Yo Jong, first vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, made known the stand that we flatly reject the tactless and sinister proposal," the KCNA said. Dividend payouts are a vital part of the return that investors get from owning stocks over time. Given the volatility in financial markets caused by Covid however, it is becoming difficult to assess whether dividend forecasts are still useful. Could companies with even the most impressive track records for paying them cancel them in an effort to preserve cash? For Taiwan Cement (TPE:1101), the data suggests that the dividend is safe for now. Below I'll go through three measures which show that the dividend exhibits safe characteristics. GET MORE DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS INTO TPE:1101 What makes a reliable dividend payer 1. Dividend safety Its important to know that a dividend is affordable, especially in times where there is a need to save cash. For this, you can use Dividend Cover a go-to measure of a company's net income over the dividend paid to shareholders. Its calculated as earnings per share divided by the dividend per share and helps to indicate how sustainable a dividend is. Companies with a dividend cover of less than 1x suggest that the company cant fund the payout from its current year earnings - and might be relying on other sources of funds to pay it. In present times, it must be asked how easy it is going to be to raise capital in order to simply pay a dividend. Taiwan Cement has dividend cover of 1.58. 2. High (but not excessive) dividend yield High dividend yields are obviously appealing but be careful of excessively high yields because they can be a sign of underlying problems. When the market suspects a company may be unable to sustain its dividend, the share price will fall, which in turn pushes the yield higher. A dividend yield of 10% or greater is a signal that a dividend may be too good to be true. Taiwan Cement has a dividend yield of 6.39%. 3. Dividend growth Another important marker in assessing the reliability of a dividend is a track record of dividend growth - which can usually be used as evidence that the growth will continue. Consistent dividend growth can be a pointer to companies that are carefully managing their payout policies - and rewarding their shareholders over time. Rather than aggressively dishing out earnings, dividend growth companies tend to have more modest yields, but are better at sustaining their payouts. Story continues Taiwan Cement has increased its dividend payout 4 times over the past 10 years - and the dividend per share is forecast to grow by 19.0% in the coming year. Next steps With these three important rules, you can track down shares that offer a reasonable yield, with a record of growth and safety. On this basis, Taiwan Cement could be worth a closer look. To find out more you might want to take a look at the Taiwan Cement StockReport from the award-winning research platform, Stockopedia. StockReports contain a goldmine of information in a single page and can help to inform your investment decisions. To find more stocks like Taiwan Cement, you'll need to equip yourself with professional-grade data and screening tools. This kind of information has traditionally been closely guarded by professional fund managers. But our team of financial analysts have carefully constructed this screen - Stockopedias Dividend Stock Ideas - which gives you everything you need. So why not come and take a look? Plus, if youd like to discover more about dividend investing, you can read our free ebook: How to Make Money in Dividend Stocks. Bollywood celebrities pay their respects to the deceased heroes of the Indian Army amid the India-China face-off. The Bollywood fraternity on Wednesday paid their homage to the bravehearts killed during the violent face-off with the Chinese troops in Ladakhs Galwan Valley. A host of B-town celebs including Anushka Sharma, Varun Dhawan, Ajay Devgn, Farhan Akhtar, Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt, among others took to their social media handle to pay tributes to the Army personnel who gave the supreme sacrifice for the nation. Taking to Twitter, Anushka spoke about how the death of soldiers feels very personal to her as she is the daughter of an army man. As a soldiers daughter, the death of a soldier will always hurt hard and feel personal. The sacrifice of their lives and the sacrifice of their families will always leave a void. I pray for peace and I pray for strength for the brave bereaved families. IndianArmy, JaiJawan, she wrote. Dhawan said that he is heartbroken to hear the news, adding that he will forever indebted to the sacrifice of the soldiers. Heartbroken about the death of our brave soldiers. #GalwanValley. Our defence stands it is ground. We are forever indebted to the sacrifice of our brave soldiers. #jaihind. he tweeted. As a soldier's daughter, the death of a soldier will always hurt hard and feel personal. The sacrifice of their lives and the sacrifice of their families will always leave a void. I pray for peace and I pray for strength for the brave bereaved families #IndianArmy #JaiJawan Anushka Sharma (@AnushkaSharma) June 17, 2020 Heartbroken about the death of our brave soldiers. #GalwanValley. Our defence stands its ground. We are forever indebted to the sacrifice of our brave soldiers. #jaihind Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) June 16, 2020 Mourning the death of our brave hearts martyred on our borders, we are forever indebted to them for their ultimate sacrifice, salute to them and my condolences to their families #IndianArmy #GalwanValley #JaiHind Sidharth Malhotra (@SidMalhotra) June 17, 2020 My humble gratitude to the Indian Army & our brave soldiers who laid down their lives for the safety of our nation. Sincere condolences to their families. Jai Hind Madhuri Dixit Nene (@MadhuriDixit) June 17, 2020 Salute every soldier who laid down his life protecting Indias border & honour. Jai Jawan, Jai Bharat RIP Brave Hearts My thoughts are with your families during this hour.#GalwanValley #IndianArmy Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) June 17, 2020 Salute the martyrs for their courage and for the ultimate sacrifice in defending our borders. Deepest condolences to the families. #IndianArmy #Respect Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) June 17, 2020 Mourning the loss of our brave jawaans who were martyred at #GalwanValley. My condolences to their families & salute to the Indian Army who has always put the nation first! #JaiHind Sanjay Dutt (@duttsanjay) June 17, 2020 Meanwhile, Siddharth Malhotra wrote, Mourning the death of our brave hearts martyred on our borders, we are forever indebted to them for their ultimate sacrifice, salute to them and my condolences to their families #IndianArmy #GalwanValley #JaiHind. Veteran actor Madhuri Dixit too extended her condolences to the kin of the bereaved soldiers and wrote, My humble gratitude to the Indian Army and our brave soldiers who laid down their lives for the safety of our nation. Sincere condolences to their families. Jai Hind Paying homage to the deceased jawans, Ajay Devgn tweeted, Salute every soldier who laid down his life protecting Indias border & honour. Jai Jawan, Jai Bharat RIP Brave Hearts My thoughts are with your families during this hour. #GalwanValley #IndianArmy. Farhan Akhtar too saluted the Army personnel for their courage and the ultimate sacrifice in defending the countrys borders. Conveying his condolences to bravehearts families, Sanjay Dutt wrote, Mourning the loss of our brave jawans who were martyred at #GalwanValley. My condolences to their families and salute to the Indian Army who has always put the nation first!#JaiHind. The violent clash started on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India had said on Tuesday. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the violent face-off, government sources had revealed and added that the casualty numbers could rise. Indian intercepts revealed that Chinese side suffered 43 casualties including dead and seriously injured in the violent clash. For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App Egypt remained the largest FDI recipient in Africa in 2019, with its inflows increasing by 11 percent, recording $9 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to North Africa declined by 11 percent, reaching $14 billion, with reduced inflows to all countries except for Egypt, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In its World Investment Report for 2020, Egypt remained the largest FDI recipient in Africa in 2019, with its inflows increasing by 11 percent, recording $9 billion. The report attributed that to Egypts economic reforms that improved macroeconomic stability and strengthened investor confidence in the Egyptian market. Other countries in Africa have witnessed investment reductions, such as Nigeria and South Africa, on the back of the negative effects of weak global and regional GDP growth as well as demand slowdown for commodities. Such constraints hampered FDI inflows to countries with both diversified and natural resource-oriented investment profiles alike, according to the report. FDI global flows are expected to be under severe pressure throughout 2020 owing to the COVID-19 crisis, according to the report, and to drop sharply from $1.5 trillion in 2019 to reach levels well below the trough reached during the global financial crisis the world witnessed in 2008/09, the report said. Flows to developing countries will be hit as well, as export-oriented and commodity-linked investments are among the most seriously affected, according to the report. While the consequences could last well beyond the immediate impact on investment flows, the crisis could be a catalyst for a process of structural transformation of international production this decade, and an opportunity for uplifted sustainability, according to the report. However, this will depend on the ability to tap the new industrial revolution and to overcome growing economic nationalism. Cooperation will be crucial, particularly because sustainable development depends on a global policy climate that remains conducive to cross-border investment, the report proposed. The report expected that the COVID-19 crisis will cause a dramatic fall in FDIs, projecting FDI flows to fall by up to 40 percent in 2020, from their 2019 value of $1.54 trillion. This would bring FDIs below $1 trillion for the first time since 2005, the report said. FDIs are projected to decrease by a further five to 10 percent in 2021 and to rebound in 2022, the year that could witness FDIs reverting to the pre-pandemic underlying trend. The outlook is highly uncertain. Prospects depend on the duration of the health crisis and on the effectiveness of policy interventions to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic. Geopolitical and financial risks and continuing trade tensions add to the uncertainty,, stated the report. Search Keywords: Short link: There are nearly three dozen wildfires burning in the United States this morning and most of them are in Arizona where the many evacuations are being ordered. The biggest fire in the nation is called the Bush Fire and it is 64,513 acres making it the biggest wildfire so far this year. The fire is 0% contained and evacuations have been issued for several communities. PHOTO: There are nearly three dozen wildfires burning in the United States this morning and most of them are in Arizona where the many evacuations are being ordered. (ABC News) The Mangum Fire is 29,689 acres and is only 3% contained. About 230 people were evacuated and the north rim of the Grand Canyon is closed. In Durango, Colorado, the East Canyon Fire continues to burn with 2,703 acres and it is currently 0% contained. Additional evacuations are now in place and, on Sunday, 15 homes had to be evacuated. The Big Horn Fire near Tucson, Arizona is 15,805 acres and is now 40% contained with evacuations in place. Elsewhere, the Avila Fire in San Luis Obispo County remains at 400 acres and is now 50% contained with all evacuations now lifted. PHOTO: Eight states from California to Kansas are under Red Flag Warning this morning, mostly for gusty winds up to 45 mph and very dry conditions. (ABC News) Eight states from California to Kansas are under Red Flag Warning this morning, mostly for gusty winds up to 45 mph and very dry conditions. It is very dry it is today in the West, especially in Colorado and New Mexico where relative humidity could be as low as 6%. PHOTO: It is very dry it is today in the West, especially in Colorado and New Mexico where relative humidity could be as low as 6%. (ABC News) The long range forecast is showing dry, hot and windy conditions will continue, especially in Arizona, so fighting these wildfires will not be easy for firefighters. Wildfires rage in the West, more gusty winds and extreme dry conditions expected originally appeared on abcnews.go.com In this photo illustration a smartphone screen reading "Covid 19" and "coronavirus disease" is displayed as logos of social media applications are seen behind, in Ankara, Turkey on April 2, 2020. People using social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to find information about the coronavirus are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories about the disease, according to new research out of the U.K. The study, carried out by Ipsos Mori for King's College London and published Thursday, provides an insight into how some of the misconceptions around Covid-19 have gained traction as well as where they are sourced. For example, 30% of Britons surveyed in late May thought that the coronavirus was likely created in a lab, up from 25% at the start of April, while 8% believed the symptoms most people blame on Covid-19 appear to be connected with 5G radiation. A smaller minority (7%) believe there is no hard evidence that the coronavirus exists. Each of these claims have been dismissed by scientists. The study said 60% of those who believe the virus is linked to 5G radiation get their information from YouTube, compared with 14% of those who think this belief is false. Meanwhile, 56% of people who believe there's no hard evidence Covid-19 exists use Facebook to source their information, nearly three times higher than the 20% who believe otherwise. Bogus beliefs surrounding 5G in particular have led to real-world consequences. Dozens of telephone masts in Europe have been set alight while telecom engineers have been harassed on the streets by people claiming the technology is in some way linked with the disease. This has led to calls from authorities for social media firms to do more to counter misinformation about the pandemic. PM should tell nation how Chinese occupied Indian territory: Sonia India pti-PTI New Delhi, June 17: Congress president Sonia Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday to come forward and tell the country how Chinese troops occupied Indian territory and why 20 soldiers were killed. In a video message, she assured the country of her party's full support to the Indian Army and government and said, "I am confident that in these challenging times, the entire nation will unite to face the enemy." "I urge the prime minister to come before the country and reassure it on the basis of truth and facts in this hour of crisis," she added. S Jaishankar tells Chinese counterpart: Chinese side took pre-meditated action | Oneindia News Gandhi asked whether some Indian Army personnel were still missing and how many were still seriously injured. She said the government should explain its thinking and strategy to deal with the situation on the border in Ladakh. "Today, when there is so much anger in the country over Chinese intrusion into Indian border, the prime minister should come out and tell the truth on how the Chinese occupied the Indian territory, why brave soldiers were martyred and what is the current situation along the LAC," she said. AAP's MLA Atishi tests positive for coronavirus Gandhi assured the country of Congress party's complete solidarity with the Army and government and said, "In this time of crisis, Congress stands with the Indian Army, the soldiers, their families and the government." She asked the prime minister to detail as to what portions of the Indian territory were under Chinese occupation. "Which portions of the Indian territory have the Chinese occupied? What is their location? What is the government's thinking and strategy to deal with this situation?" she asked. The Congress president saluted the slain soldiers and said, "The sacrifice of 20 Indian soldiers on the LAC has shaken the very soul of India. I salute them and pay my tributes from the depths of my heart. I also pray that god grants their families the strength to brave this loss." Gandhi noted that since the last month and a half, the Chinese army had been intruding into the border region in Ladakh. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region. [June 17, 2020] Belden Expands Forescout Partnership to Protect Industrial and Critical Infrastructure from Cyber Threats Belden, a leading global supplier of specialty networking solutions, and its Tripwire and Hirschmann brands today announced an extended partnership with Forescout, the leader in device visibility and control, to advance cybersecurity for industrial organizations and critical infrastructure. The companies will introduce enhanced joint offerings to address industry needs for network segmentation and threat detection to maintain visibility to and protection from cyber events that threaten safety, productivity, and quality. "Over the next decade, industrial networks will evolve to supply additional bandwidth to the machine level, allowing for applications to share the same network," said Ashish Chand, Executive VP, Industrial Automation at Belden. "Network segmentation will be imperative to meet availability requirements for these real-time, next generation industrial automation networks. Belden and Forescout allow operators to begin segmenting their networks today with existing infrastructure, while also providing a trajectory for additional controls as next generation networks are deployed over time. We are excited to provide for the needs of today's and tomorrow's networks by expanding our partnership with Forescout and combining our complementary industrial cybersecurity capabilities." Industrial Network Segmentation Made Easy Enhanced integration between the Forescout platform and Hirschmann network infrastructure makes segmentation an immediate, viable defense against cyber incidents. Whereas other solutions require time-consuming, complex deployments, this integration allows for rapid implementation over heterogeneous automation networks, minimizing disruption and downtime. The addition of Forescout eyeSegment simplifies the initial creation and ongoing lifecycle management of segmentation policies at scale, while also providing simulation of enforcement before implementation to avoid any disruption to mission-critical operations. Hirschmann's switches are able to fed eyeSegment network flows to provide North/South and East/West traffic visibility. This innovation allows industrial networks to achieve micro segmentation - protecting critical assets from malware, ransomware and other incidents that comprise reliability. The Secure Factory Solution for Threat Detection and Response The integration of Forescout, Tripwire (News - Alert) and Hirschmann capabilities provide a holistic, synergistic industrial cybersecurity platform for threat detection and response, enabling both safety and uptime. The integrated platform delivers comprehensive cybersecurity and operational visibility with industrial context that allows operators to proactively identify and respond to threats in a way that does not affect availability nor require an enormous budget. The joint solution, through the recent addition of Forescout SilentDefense to the Tripwire cybersecurity portfolio and Hirschmann Industrial HiVision for network management, has asset inventory and advanced network troubleshooting capabilities that provide both IT and OT perspective for maximum uptime. Innovation through Partnership Forescout and Tripwire are also co-innovating to drive cybersecurity and operational improvements by incorporating efficient and accurate configuration management against cybersecurity frameworks as criteria for network access in industrial environments. Additional enhancements will drive proactive, automated response workflows, minimizing the time a controls engineer would need to analyze and take action against critical findings from log, vulnerability, and change management foundational cybersecurity controls. "The accelerated digitalization of OT environments is creating unique cybersecurity challenges for industrial networks across the globe. Cybersecurity needs must co-exist with operational safety and uptime goals," said Pedro Abreu, chief product and strategy officer, Forescout. "The combination of Belden's deep expertise and portfolio in OT with Forescout's leadership in network visibility and control offers organizations a comprehensive platform that provides both cybersecurity and operational benefits." For more information please visit: Forescout and Belden Solution Brief: Joint Solution for Operational Technology About Belden Belden Inc. delivers a comprehensive product portfolio designed to meet the mission-critical network infrastructure needs of industrial and enterprise markets. With innovative solutions targeted at reliable and secure transmission of rapidly growing amounts of data, audio and video needed for today's applications, Belden is at the center of the global transformation to a connected world. Founded in 1902, the company is headquartered in St. Louis and has manufacturing capabilities in North and South America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit us at www.belden.com or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @BeldenInc. About Tripwire Tripwire is the trusted leader for establishing a strong cybersecurity foundation. For more than 20 years, we've protected the world's leading organizations against the most damaging cyberattacks, keeping pace with rapidly changing tech complexities to defend against ever-evolving threats. On site and in the cloud, our diverse portfolio of solutions find, monitor and minimize risks to organizations' digital infrastructure-all without disrupting day-to-day operations or productivity. Think of us as the invisible line that keeps systems safe. Learn more at https://www.tripwire.com/, get security news, trends and insights at www.tripwire.com/blog, or connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005578/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Fitbit has now announced a new service called Ready for Work that helps employees self-track COVID-19 symptoms and allows employers to log the results, reports indicate. The end-goal, of course, is to allow employers to keep the workplace and all employees safer, amid the ongoing pandemic. The Google-owned wearable company says that its service is tied in with wearables and a self-reporting system. That allows employers to see what their symptoms are. But it also enables users to ensure they arent headed into work when they really shouldnt be. Ready to Work enables employees to perform a daily check-in. In short, the service logs temperature, self-reported symptoms, heart rate, heart rate variability, and breathing. It also allows self-reporting of any exposure that may have occurred. And all of that information is used to provide a worker with a recommendation as to whether or not they should stay home. Advertisement Why is in-depth symptom tracking such as with Ready for Work important? Employers can also keep tabs on the results of the monitoring, allowing a more precise response to any potential threats. Thats because the system essentially gives employers a heads-up about whether or not its likely that a worker is sick coronavirus or not. The in-depth measurements that are taken, meanwhile, help to inform employers for more precise responses. For instance, Dr. Michael Snyder, director of Stanfords Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, indicates that it isnt just temperature changes and noteworthy symptoms that give away whether a person is sick. The nuances in biometrics measured by Ready for Work can provide more insight, even in pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. Advertisement Symptoms such as a heart rate increase of two heartbeats per minute can show a significant immune system response, the doctor indicates. Those types of symptoms are easy to miss because they cant be detected during an office visit. So, by tracking every symptom the service should be able to offer up more accurate recommendations. At the very least, it could save lives and prevent major disruptions to a workforce and productivity. Could this potentially pose a serious data privacy problem? Keeping tabs on employee health amid an ongoing global pandemic such as COVID-19 is arguably a good thing for everybody involved. Many companies, particularly for essential workers, have already actively monitored employees for symptoms. Typically, thats taken the form of on-site temperature checks and other screening measures. Advertisement Fitbit indicates that the biometric data collected via its Ready to Work service will serve companies better. But that doesnt mean this offering isnt going to cause any problems on the privacy front. The company indicates that Ready to Work gives employers a dashboard to monitor employees workplace readiness. Now, it does appear to be the case that employees would need to explicitly pass on the information. So users would effectively be able to opt-in. But that would still give all reported symptoms over to the employer. That could, potentially, result in HIPAA violations, should any of that wearable health data leak out or be stolen by bad actors. Giant U.S. banks still have to deliver a Brexit plan to get staff across the English Channel before a potential second wave of covid-19 forces Europe's doors shut again. JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have lost precious months during the pandemic lockdowns in moving employees to European Union financial hubs. With Brexit talks deadlocked and time running out before the year-end deadline, firms are finally reactivating long-held plans to shift staff from London -- only to find they can't move fast enough."Relocating staff during a second spike is a concern," said Peter Bevan, a partner at the law firm Linklaters. "During lockdowns, a small number of people have been caught in the wrong place and regulators understand that, but if you are talking about an entire team stuck in the location regulators want them to move from, that will make for a tougher conversation." Foreign banks oversee almost half of all banking assets in the U.K., according to 2015 figures from the Prudential Regulation Authority. Yet the exodus from London to the continent has been far smaller than some expected after the Brexit vote, with firms moving about 1,000 people by last September, compared with a prediction of 7,000 moves by consultancy EY. Representatives for JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman declined to comment. German financial regulator BaFin told Bloomberg that little had changed since February, when Chairman Felix Hufeld said banks had done far more than 80% of the work needed to deal with Brexit from a legal and technical standpoint. But when it comes to moving client business to their EU hubs, the banks are, on average, less than a third of the way there, he said. John Liver, a partner in U.K. financial services at EY, said that banks reached "peak preparation" last year and have since hit the pause button on relocations. "As it has now been formally clarified that there will not be an extension to the transition period, firms will be considering what final adjustments they need to make," he said. "Given the extra time that has elapsed, European regulators are likely to be less accommodative of requests for further implementation time to complete EU entity build-up after December 2020." Some European banks have advantages over their American peers when it comes to Brexit planning. UBS Group decided to merge its U.K. entity with its EU entity that has passporting rights last year, giving the bank flexibility to move staff around the region. Now, its traders, risk and back office teams sit in Frankfurt, where UBS already had a large presence in wealth management. Credit Suisse joined UBS in planning for a hard Brexit from the beginning. It moved some staff to bolster the bank's services in Spain, Germany and Luxembourg. "London will remain a key part of the bank's strategy and footprint after the U.K.'s exit from the EU," a spokesman said. Deutsche Bank, which has said it is moving hundreds of staff to adapt to Brexit, declared client migration was "materially complete" in its earnings last September. Deutsche Bank continues to expect to transfer several hundred jobs from London to Frankfurt once the Brexit transition period concludes, a person familiar with the matter said. To be sure, the U.S. banks have made progress on their longer term post-Brexit plans. Earlier this month, Goldman signed a 12-year lease in Paris's 16th arrondissement where it operates one of its broker-dealers servicing European clients, allowing it to double its headcount in the French capital from late next year. JPMorgan bought a seven-floor office building in the historic 1st arrondissement in January with capacity for as many as 450 people -- although that was an estimate made before social distancing became the new normal. Bank of America, which also has its Brexit hub in Paris, has gone further by committing to a fully fledged sales and trading business on the continent. It has had about 450 staff in Paris since last year and won't need to add any more in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Citigroup, which already has about 60% of its European staff outside the U.K., is creating 150-200 new roles primarily in Frankfurt as part of its Brexit response. Some finance employees who are earmarked to work from Brexit subsidiaries in Europe are still physically in London while operating under European employment contracts as the virus interrupts their plans to move, people with knowledge of the banks' plans said. Politicians avoided a hard Brexit last year and could still agree to a deal on trade ties. In the past 24 hours, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have tried to reignite the deadlocked talks. But privately, officials from Brussels and London say they are focusing on reaching an accord between mid-August and a summit of EU leaders scheduled for mid-October. European regulators have already said they'll require French and German asset managers to do business through EU banking entities unless a deal is achieved. Regulators have previously put pressure on banks to move staff promptly, although some banks are now expecting a change in stance in light of the pandemic, people with knowledge of the matter said. "We have seen a lot of dialogue in recent weeks from the ECB and home regulators asking banks to push these things forward," said Bevan. Many JPMorgan and Citigroup clients are still funneling business through London, rather than the banks' EU offices, some of the people familiar with the matter said. The liquidity is still better and it's cheaper to do business there, the people said. A Citigroup spokesman declined to comment. Bevan at Linklaters said that while the re-papering exercise has been completed to switch EU clients to new Europe-facing entities, hundreds of asset managers have yet to review the new terms and push the button to activate trading. The scale of the outstanding work could take months to complete, he said. Stephen Jones, the CEO of trade body UK Finance, expects more bankers to follow those that have already moved from London to European hubs. "But it's not going to happen overnight, and I hope regulators in the EU will be pragmatic about all this." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with Iraqs new Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein by phone on Tuesday. Secretary Pompeo congratulated Foreign Minister Hussein on his new role and noted that he looks forward to working together to advance issues of mutual importance, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. He also congratulated the Iraqi government for completing its government formation. The secretary and the foreign minister discussed the US-Iraq strategic dialogue and both agreed that this was an opportunity for the two countries to strengthen ties. Why it matters: The Iraqi Parliament confirmed Hussein to his new post last week alongside six other new cabinet members, rounding out Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimis new government. Also last week, the United States and Iraq convened a strategic dialogue in which Washington agreed to withdraw some American troops while maintaining others to continue the fight against the remnants of the Islamic State. The Kadhimi government in turn has committed to protecting US forces, and Iraqi forces successfully thwarted rocket attacks targeting US troops over the weekend. Whats next: Washington and Baghdad will continue their strategic dialogue with a second meeting, possibly as soon as next month. Know more: Mustafa Saadoun has the story on how Iraq is keeping the pressure on the Islamic State by targeting its leaders. Facebook has removed another 900 social media accounts linked to white supremacy groups including the Proud Boys and the American Guard after members discussed plans to bring weapons to protests decrying police brutality against black people. The company announced Tuesday that it recently took down 470 accounts belonging to people affiliated with the Proud Boys and another 430 linked to members of the American Guard. 'In both cases, we saw accounts from both organizations discussing attending protests in various US states with plans to carry weapons but we did not find indications in their on-platform content they planned to actively commit violence,' the company said. Nearly 200 other accounts linked to the groups were removed late last month. Facebook officials said they had been monitoring the groups' social media presence and were led to act when they say posts attempting to exploit current George Floyd protests unfolding across the country. Some of those counts were found to have belonged to men who reportedly participated in a brawl with protesters in Seattle, Facebook said. Facebook has removed another 900 social media accounts linked to white supremacy groups including the Proud Boys and the American Guard after members discussed plans to bring weapons to protests decrying police brutality against black people The company announced Tuesday that it recently took down 470 accounts belonging to people affiliated with the Proud Boys and another 430 linked to members of the American Guard. A member of one of the groups, Proud Boys, wears a sticker reading 'Antifa Hunting Permit' at a rally in Oregon However, the company did not divulge details of the account users - such as their specific plans for protests or what state they live in. On Wednesday morning MSNBC's Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough accused Facebook of actively 'prompting extremism' in a fierce monologue. The former US Representative ripped into Mark Zuckerberg by first criticizing him over a statement that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan released earlier this month slamming President Donald Trump for his 'divisive and incendiary rhetoric' amid the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer. 'Ive seen a lot of insincere statements put out. Gonna say Mark Zuckerberg talking about how deeply saddened he was by the things hes seen the president say is near that top of it considering that he makes billions of dollars off of spreading lies and letting people spread lies, hateful lies,' the MSNBC host raged. Scarborough was referring to Facebook's employees recently publicly criticizing Zuckerberg for deciding to leave up posts by Trump that suggested police-brutality protesters in Minneapolis could be shot. Joe Scarborough accused Facebook of actively 'promoting extremism' in a fiery monologue Wednesday morning as civil rights groups urged big advertisers to pull spending from the social media giant for its failure to make its platform less hostile He exploded over the murder of federal officer Damon Gutzwiller, 38, who died in an ambush allegedly started by Air Force sergeant, Steve Carillo, 32, last weekend. Authorities said Carillo scribbled far-right extremist phrases in blood after he killed a Gutzwiller and wounded two others. Carillo is said to be a part of 'boogaloo', a movement of far-right anti-government extremists. 'Mark Zuckerberg is promoting the extremism, because Mark Zuckerberg is actually - his site, the Zuckerberg site, has actually set up! Set up! Like, ad promotions that actually push people towards extremist sites that kill federal officers! And Mark Zuckerberg becomes a billionaire!' Scarborough said. 'How many times over? Because hes pushing people towards extremist sites that gun down and murder federal officials.' Scarborough then tore into Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg. 'And when Sheryl Sandberg found out that Mark Zuckerbergs website was being used by foreign powers to interfere in the 2016 election, what did she do? She got angry at the Mark Zuckerberg employee that came to her and came to the board and warned them that American democracy was at risk,' he continued. 'Mark Zuckerberg said, he doesnt care that people use his site to lie. He doesnt care that they use their site.' 'Mark Zuckerberg is promoting the extremism, because Mark Zuckerberg is actually - his site, the Zuckerberg site, has actually set up! Set up! Like, ad promotions that actually push people towards extremist sites that kill federal officers!' Scarborough (center) said Scarborough was referring to the killing of Officer Damon Gutzwiller (left), 38. He was allegedly killed in an ambush started by, Steve Carillo (right), 32, last weekend. Carillo is believed to have ties to the 'boogaloo' movement of far-right anti-government extremists And he wasn't the only one to put the pressure on Facebook to tackle extremists on the media platform. On Wednesday morning civil rights groups urged big advertisers to pull spending from the social media giant for failing to make its platform less hostile. The groups in the '#StopHateforProfit' campaign, launched Wednesday, include Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color Of Change, Free Press and Common Sense. The groups took out a full page ad in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that's titled: 'What would you do with $70billion?' 'We know what Facebook did,' the ad continues. The groups say that Facebook amplifies white supremacists, allows posts that incite violence and contain political propaganda and misinformation, and doesn't stop 'bad actors using the platform to do harm'. The groups took out a full page ad (pictured) in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that's titled: 'What would you do with $70billion?' They want to apply public pressure on Facebook to 'stop generating ad revenue from hateful content, provide more support to people who are targets of racism and hate, and to increase safety for private groups on the platform'. 'Today, we are asking all businesses to stand in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice and not advertise on Facebooks services in July,' representatives wrote in the ad. 'Lets send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence.' Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment. Proud Boys were formed in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, who helped to found Vice Media. The group denies any link to the far right but claims to be against political correctness and are 'anti-white guilt', according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC does brand them as a hate group. Proud Boys members also reportedly appeared at the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The SPLC says American Guard is associated with the Proud Boys. American Guard members are also branded as 'hardcore white supremacists' by the Anti-Defamation League. Facebook first banned both groups for promoting hate but members had continued to post images with weapons and urged others to attend protests sparked following the death of Floyd in Minneapolis. The company is also trying to make it harder to find groups in the Boogaloo movement. Adherents are often heavily armed and believe a new civil war is likely. DOJ to unveil plans to strip tech giants of protection from being sued over content on their platforms after Donald Trump accused Google, Facebook and Twitter of anti-conservative bias The Justice Department is preparing to roll back the legal protections big tech companies have used to protect themselves from lawsuits, a move that comes after President Donald Trump threatened to shut them down over what he says is bias against conservatives. The reforms would make companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter liable for a wide array of content posted on their sites. And it would push those companies to be more aggressive in addressing harmful conduct on their sites, The Wall Street Journal reported, and to be fairer and more consistent in their decisions to take down content. The plan from the Justice Department involves legislative reform to the law known as Section 230 - the original legal code governing the internet - so it would have to be adopted by Congress, including approval from the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives. The Justice Department is preparing to roll back the legal protections big tech companies have used to protect themselves from lawsuits, a move that comes after President Donald Trump threatened to shut them down over what he says is bias against conservatives If passed it would erase decades of legal protection enjoyed by social media companies. The move is the next step in the administration's war on big tech and comes after Trump signed an executive order at the end of May that limited the companies' legal protections. But legal experts said the president's order would likely have little effect on tech companies. It was immediately challenged in court and is pending. A change in law pushed by the Justice Department would have greater impact. Democrats and Republicans have found rare common ground in attacking Section 230. The law, adopted in the the 1990s, is seen by both sides as out of date in governing the rapidly evolving internet. That law gave big tech companies immunity from lawsuits that would have threatened the existence of the then-infant companies but now it protects the online giants from liability. Democrats complain the law allows social media companies to spread political falsehoods, disinformation, and hate speech while Republicans claim it allows the stifling of conservative voices. The president has been one of big tech's biggest critics on the matter, claiming the companies silence conservative voices. 'We're here today to defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history, frankly,' Trump said in the Oval Office on May 28 when he signed the order. 'A small handful of powerful social media monopolies control the vast portion of all private and public communications in the United States.' That order came after Twitter marked some of tweets as needing more information, a move that infuriated the president. The debate over the president tweets highlights the struggle social media platform have as they try to balance freedom of speech with cracking down on misinformation. WASHINGTON (AP) Democrats controlling the House have slated a vote next week to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, an issue that they say has become far more important in the aftermath of protests for racial justice in both Washington and across the nation. Next Fridays vote, if successful, would pass a D.C. statehood bill for the first time in the House, but the legislation faces insurmountable opposition in the GOP-controlled Senate. It comes even as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced delays in the consideration of most other legislation. More than enough lawmakers are officially backing the bill for it to pass. In 1993, the Democratic-controlled Congress defeated a D.C. statehood bill by an almost 2-1 margin. But the much-criticized administration move to use federal forces to clear Lafayette Square near the White House of peaceful protesters to enable President Donald Trump to trumpet his law and order credentials in a photo op two weeks ago prompted Democratic leaders to schedule the vote. We both agreed this was an appropriate time to bring a bill forward to show respect for the citizens of the District of Columbia, said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. There shouldn't be troops from other states in Washington, D.C., said Mayor Muriel Bowser, who presented Hoyer on Tuesday with a U.S. Flag bearing 51 stars. There shouldn't be federal forces advancing against Americans, and there very definitely shouldn't be soldiers stationed around our city waiting for the go to attack Americans in a local policing matter. A plurality of the District of Columbia is African American and the city is overwhelmingly Democratic. Trump said last month that D.C. will never be a state" because it would likely mean two more Democratic senators. No, thank you. Thatll never happen, he told the New York Post. But Hoyer said the rights of D.C. residents should transcend political calculations. This is not about politics. If it is, then we demean our democracy, he said. This is about who we are as a country. Story continues Bowser pointed out that D.C. taxpayers get no voting representatives in Congress despite contributing more in federal taxes on a per person basis than many states. The nation's capital, with just over 700,000 residents, has a larger population than Vermont and Wyoming. Bowser said recent events have focused national attention on the plight of Washington, D.C. Earlier this year, when Congress passed the CARES Act stimulus package, Washington, D.C., was classified as a territory rather than a state a distinction that cost Washington more than $700 million in federal coronavirus relief funding. All District laws are subject to review by a congressional committee, which can veto them or alter them by attaching riders to federal appropriations bills. During GOP control of Congress, conservatives have sought, mostly unsuccessfully, to restrict some of the citys liberal initiatives such as needle exchanges for drug users and abortions under its Medicaid program. Most recently, a 2014 ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use passed overwhelmingly. But Congress stepped in and essentially vetoed the initiative by prohibiting the District government from spending any funds or resources on developing a regulatory or taxation system for marijuana sales. Bowser said Trump's actions during the protests violated our principles of Americans being able to peacefully protest and it violated our principles of local autonomy. As a result, Bowser said her office is now fielding unprecedented interest in the issue from around the country. She was recently interviewed on The Late Late Show where host James Cordon said he had only just learned that the district has no senators and only one non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives. A lot of Americans are in that place, Bowser said. When Americans know about the issue of D.C. statehood, they support D.C. statehood. Hoyer acknowledged that the bill faces stiff opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate and called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY., to take the measure seriously. I hope that Senator McConnell cares enough about our democracy to allow a vote on this bill in the United States Senate, Hoyer said. Politics is not the issue. Its democracy thats the issue. At least 19 police officers were reportedly injured as they were targeted with projectiles following a demonstration in Paris, France, on June 16 for healthcare workers. This video shows a barrage of objects landing near police as the officers retreat. One officer can be seen limping away from the police line. Police blamed violent anarchist groups for the violence, retweeting a claim by a doctor who said the troublemakers were not a part of the healthcare protest. Healthcare workers were calling for government action on pay and hospital bed numbers, according to reports. Credit: HORS-ZONE Press/Nicolas Mercier via Storyful The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers has added Jamie Ausec to the Irvine, Calif. Ausec specializes in employee benefits. She started her career in insurance 16 years ago and has worked at ADP, Alliant, and most recently Newfront Insurance. The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers is an independently owned broker with offices throughout the country. Topics California Agencies Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 21:29:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Workers in protective suits disinfect the Abdullah Al-Salem Hall at the Kuwait's National Assembly in Kuwait City, Kuwait, June 17, 2020. Kuwait on Wednesday reported 575 new cases of COVID-19 and three more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 37,533 and the death toll to 306, the Health Ministry said in a statement. (Xinhua) KUWAIT CITY, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Wednesday reported 575 new cases of COVID-19 and three more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 37,533 and the death toll to 306, the Health Ministry said in a statement. The new cases included 317 Kuwaiti nationals and 258 residents of other nationalities, the statement said. Currently, 8,331 patients are receiving treatment, including 190 in ICU, according to the statement. The ministry also announced the recovery of 690 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 28,896. On May 31, Kuwait ended the full curfew and imposed a three-week partial curfew for a gradual return to normal life in the country. On June 7, Kuwaiti Minister of State for Services Affairs and Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs Mubarak Al-Harees said Kuwait plans to resume commercial flights in three stages. On June 10, Kuwait decided to open mosques after nearly three months of closure, as part of government's measures to restore normal life. Kuwait and China have been supporting each other and cooperating closely in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Kuwait donated medical supplies worth 3 million U.S. dollars to China at the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, while China has been facilitating the procurement of medical supplies by Kuwait. On April 27, a team of Chinese medical experts visited Kuwait to assist the Arab country's anti-coronavirus fight, through sharing with Kuwaiti counterparts their experience and expertise in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. Enditem A few months ago, we were all having conversations about the importance of avoiding touchy subjects with family during the holidays. As a nation, we were all interacting with a level of practical political correctness that helped everyone avoid conflict. Then, the rapid spread of Covid-19 around the world sparked conversations about social inequality, specifically identifying race and essential worker disparities. Then, we all watched in horror of the tragedy in Minneapolis, Minnesota of George Floyd, and the world again confronted injustice. The difficult conversations we were conditioned to avoid at the dinner table and at work became the conversations we all needed to hear over the past few weeks. From income inequality, healthcare, to racial disparities, we are now forced to face some truths about the inequities in the world. Companies big and small are all taking a stand, and a global movement is brewing. Many founders, including myself, have released public statements within the past few days to assure past and current clients, partners and investors of a commitment to support and commence open dialogue. Many other companies and founders are still silent. Today, your silence is louder than ever, while the world is watching and grieving. You must be more vocal about your commitment to justice, equality, and solutions. Here are three ways for you to begin engaging in difficult conversations as a leader. 1. Be Transparent If you don't know what to say, don't worry. Actually, that is the best way to start -- "I'm (or we are) still processing the events of the past two weeks, and I don't know if I have the right words to say at this time that will heal your wounds, but I (we are) am willing to listen." It is a simple statement that acknowledges your awareness. We are living through a new reality and uncertain times. The world is in shock, and transparency works well for you to ask for others to help you understand their concerns. You may not know the "right" thing to say at this time, but sometimes that is the right thing to say. It will allow others to help you gain an understanding to their pain. It does not need to be perfect, it must be transparent. 2. Go Live Over the past few weeks, hosting a few afternoon Instagram live sessions has been quite therapeutic. I've had moments to cry and laugh with my followers and team as we have chimed in and listened to each other. In addition, remember people look to you for leadership, guidance and hope. A prepared statement "video" may come across as cold and uninviting. Choose a platform - Zoom, Facebook live, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc, and just go! An informal impromptu chat may have the greatest impact for you to learn how others are feeling at this moment. Allow your followers and team members to view your compassion and vulnerability, while learning how to support each other. 3. Host your own Virtual Town Hall Since we are all on Zoom these days, take the time to create a safe space for your team to express themselves. Think of it as a listening session, where you can learn from other experiences, and grow as a leader. More importantly, I have found the combination of a scheduled Town Hall in addition to a formal press release/statement had a positive impact on my business, while increasing visibility. I hosted three Town Halls within the last month, which have all been full, with a lasting social impact from my followers. In addition, I have brought on guests and created safe spaces for the audience to share their stories and experiences. A policy that may grant up to 30 percent tax exemption for small-to-medium-sized business (SMEs) to mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 was discussed on Tuesday by National Assembly deputies during a meeting in Hanoi. Workers at a wood workshop in northern Bac Ninh Province. A policy that may grant up to 30 per cent tax exemption is in the making to provide support for the country's SMEs in light of COVID-19. While deputies agreed the policy was needed to support SMEs, and by extension workers employed by them, some have voiced concerns over the direction of the Government's tax exemption policies. Deputy Nguyen Van Than from northern Thai Binh Province and chairman of the Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprises Association said it should include medium-sized, not just small and micro-sized businesses. Viet Nam has over 760,000 businesses, of which small-sized businesses account for 93 per cent and medium-sized 4 per cent. Together, they employ a large number of workers and actively contribute to socio-economic development and social security. "The proposed policy stipulated small-sized businesses with annual sales under VND50 billion (US$2.2 million) are eligible for tax exemption. Meanwhile, the official definition for small-sized businesses are those with income under VND100 billion and employ less than 50 workers. As it stands, only around half the number of small-sized businesses could qualify under the policy," said Than. In addition, Than said a 30 per cent tax exemption for businesses for the year 2020 won't be much help compared to tax exemption for the year 2019. "Most businesses likely will struggle this year. It would be a miracle for some of them to survive, let alone making a profit. It's my opinion that a tax exemption for 2019 would be much more relevant and helpful to businesses," he said. Deputy Phung Van Hung from northern Cao Bang Province showed support for a policy that includes medium-sized businesses. "Should businesses make no or very little profit for the year 2020, the tax exemption amount won't account for much," he said. Deputy Nguyen Hoang Mai from southern Tien Giang Province urged the Government to reconsider and include businesses that employ more than 100 workers, saying during this difficult time, it's important to encourage businesses to keep workers on payroll. Deputy Vu Tien Loc, chairman of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the Government's tax exemption policy was designed to support workers and it's important that its implementation would cover as many workers as possible. Aside from the sizes of businesses, Loc said the Government must also focus on helping businesses at the core of the economy for their importance to economic security and sustainable development such as airlines and tourism. Minister of finance Dinh Tien Dung said along with tax exemption other measures were being implemented to support businesses, saying the Government had reduced, and in some instances removed, numerous expenses for businesses such as land use and some 18 other administrative fees. Meanwhile, businesses owners might still apply for other forms of tax reduction including income tax and qualified dependents as stipulated in a decision by the NA's Standing Committee. Dung said his ministry was working on a plan to cut by half the car registration fee to encourage domestic car production and to reduce environment fees for the airline industry. VNS Debt guarantee: light at the end of tunnel for Vietnamese SMEs Some experts believe that the government needs to come forward and provide a guarantee for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to access bank debts. ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A Florida man has been fined $8,000 for illegally killing a black bear in Alaskas Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew M. Scoble on Monday fined James L. Connolly, 63, of St. Petersburg, Florida. Connolly was also ordered to forfeit the bear hide and serve two years of probation, during which he is not allowed to hunt anywhere in the United States. Connolly previously pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Lacey Act, according to a release from Alaska U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroders office. Connollys attorney, Joseph Raymond Skrha in Kenai, Alaska, didnt immediately return a message seeking comment. Connolly shot and killed the black bear in the Skilak Wildlife Recreation Area inside the national refuge on May 17, 2018, according to court documents. He then took the carcass to a tannery in California, which shipped it to Connolly in Florida. Law enforcement officials matched DNA taken at the kill site to samples taken from the bear Connolly had in Florida. Scoble called Connollys actions abhorrent, especially since he travelled to Alaska with the intent to hunt and kill a wild animal without knowing the proper areas where he could legally take an animal, according to the release. Ukraine's businesses freed of fines for late payment of loans amid lockdown 14:20, 17.06.20 454 Yet, the bill does not strip a borrower of an obligation to repay a loan and interest on it. Early reports from a clinical trial showing a cheap and common steroid could be life saving for severely ill COVID-19 patients have excited Australian doctors who haven't ruled out further local outbreaks. The University of Oxford in England randomised controlled trial of more than 6000 patients found the steroid dexamethasone reduced deaths in patients who required breathing support. The researchers have not published their study or raw data. In a university press release, they said a 10-day course of the corticosteroid given to 2104 patients reduced deaths by a third in patients on ventilators and one fifth for patients receiving oxygen, compared to the 4321 patients who received standard care. For patients with milder symptoms, researchers said the results were negligible. Australian Medical Association vice president Dr Chris Zappala said despite not having a large number of patients in hospital with COVID-19, healthcare professionals should be excited about the study's results. [June 17, 2020] Siemens and IBM Deliver Service Lifecycle Management Solution PLANO, Texas and ARMONK, N.Y., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Expanding on their long-term partnership, Siemens and IBM (NYSE: IBM) announce the availability of a new solution designed to optimize the Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) of assets by dynamically connecting real-world maintenance activities and asset performance back to design decisions and field modifications. This new solution establishes an end-to-end digital thread between equipment manufacturers and the owner/operators of that equipment by leveraging elements of the Xcelerator portfolio from Siemens Digital Industries Software and IBM Maximo. "The combined capabilities of IBM and Siemens can help companies create and manage a closed-loop, end-to-end digital twin that breaks down traditional silos to service innovation and revenue generation," said Peter Bilello, President & CEO of industry research and consulting firm CIMdata. "Only by closing the loop between product design and development decisions, accurate product configurations and service operations, can companies hope to run a profitable and effective product-as-a-service business model." OEMs and owner/operators can struggle to improve the performance and reliability of an asset over its operating lifecycle, due to inefficient data sharing between engineering, operations, and maintenance processes. This joint solution from Siemens and IBM creates a single source of information designed to help OEMs and equipment owner/operators improve many aspects about how they design, maintain, and service their assets. In addition, the solution enables OEMs to now provide valuable after-market services to their clients. "This new collaboration combines two industryleading offerings into a unique solution for the industry," said Kareem Yusuf Ph.D., General Manager, IBM AI Applications Business. "OEM's and owner/operators can leverage the new solution to help them reduce operational costs and increase up time of their equipment." The integration of asset management and product lifecycle management (PLM) technology can help owner/operators to stay up to date. The solution also enables OEMs to receive critical data about asset performance, maintenance and failures in the field. Leveraging IoT technology, manufacturers can gain insights on wear and tear, operating conditions, parts failures, and other patterns that lead to design or manufacturing updates. This data can be used to help manufacturers lower maintenance costs, reduce risks, and improve asset resiliency. "IBM's Maximo Enterprise Asset Management software provides key technology to further extend the capabilities of the Xcelerator portfolio," said Tony Hemmelgarn, CEO for Siemens Digital Industries Software. "By leveraging the world-class product configuration management capability within Teamcenter, companies can bring product design, manufacturing and service together to maximize their software investment, while also minimizing downtime, improving quality and reducing inventory costs." For further information on Service Lifecycle Management solutions, please see here. For additional information please click here. Siemens Digital Industries Software is driving transformation to enable a digital enterprise where engineering, manufacturing and electronics design meet tomorrow. The Xcelerator portfolio helps companies of all sizes create and leverage digital twins that provide organizations with new insights, opportunities and levels of automation to drive innovation. For more information on Siemens Digital Industries Software products and services, visit www.sw.siemens.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Siemens Digital Industries Software Where today meets tomorrow. Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 170 years. The company is active around the globe, focusing on the areas of power generation and distribution, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, and automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Through the separately managed company Siemens Mobility, a leading supplier of smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is shaping the world market for passenger and freight services. Due to its majority stakes in the publicly listed companies Siemens Healthineers AG and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital healthcare services as well as environmentally friendly solutions for onshore and offshore wind power generation. In fiscal 2019, which ended on September 30, 2019, Siemens generated revenue of 86.8 billion and net income of 5.6 billion. At the end of September 2019, the company had around 385,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com. Note: A list of relevant Siemens trademarks can be found here. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/siemens-and-ibm-deliver-service-lifecycle-management-solution-301078908.html SOURCE Siemens Digital Industries Software [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) fell 1.1% to Rs 207.6 after standalone net profit dropped 99.1% to Rs 26.80 crore on 2.6% decline in net sales to Rs 65,868.51 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Q4 profit was impacted mainly because of inventory losses of Rs 1,002.93 crore due to drastic fall in oil prices accompanied with reduced movement in inventory (net impact Rs 750.51 crore). The company also suffered losses amounting to Rs 873.50 crore on account of foreign currency transactions and translations. Pre-tax loss stood at Rs 2434.26 in Q4 March 2020 as against pre-tax profit of Rs 4,673.10 crore in Q4 March 2019. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 16 June 2020. Average Gross Refining Margin (GRM) during the year ended 31 March 2020 stood at $1.02 per barrel, declining 80% from $5.01 per barrel reported in the same period last year. GRMs declined due to inventory losses and reduced cracks in diesel, LPG and FO. HPCL accounted for budgetary support amounting to Rs 281.41 crore during April - March 2020 as against Rs 957.12 crore reported in April - March 2019 towards under recovery on sale of PDS SKO. The PSU OMC major recorded domestic sales volume of 9.25 Million Metric Tonne (MMT) in Q4 March 2020 as against 10.03 MMT in Q4 March 2019. HPCL reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 27.63 crore in Q4 March 2020 as against net profit of Rs 3340 crore in Q4 March 2019. Net sales decline 2.6% to Rs 65,967.46 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Net profit dropped 56.3% to Rs 2637.26 crore on 2.3% fall in net sales to Rs 2,67,599.75 crore in fiscal year ending 2020 over fiscal year ending 2019. Meanwhile, the company has declared a final dividend of Rs 9.75 per equity share. HPCL is engaged in the business of refining of crude oil and marketing of petroleum products. It operates through two segments: downstream, and exploration and production of hydrocarbons. ONGC holds 51.11% stake in HPCL as of 31 March 2020. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Photo credit: NBC From Good Housekeeping On May 26, 2020, 8.7 million people watched on television as Archie Williams walked onto the stage of Americas Got Talent. He gave his name, said he was from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alright, lets get to know you, first of all, Archie, a little bit, judge and producer Simon Cowell said. Okay, Williams said. He ran a hand over his face, settling himself. He looked around the packed auditorium, the one he had seen on TV so many times. Looked down at the spot on the stage where for years he had dreamed of standing. I, uh The audience listened. Ten seconds went by. Ten seconds is an eternity on television, when youre standing in front of 3,500 people. And Simon Cowell. Williams said: I was just incarcerated for thirty-seven years for somebody elses crime. People in the audience put their hands over their mouths. Howie Mandel said, Oh! Cowells mouth hung slack. In a pre-recorded interview, Williams told the AGT audience that, on December 9, 1982, a thirty-year-old white woman was raped and stabbed her in her home. I was arrested on January the fourth. I couldnt believe it was really happening. I knew I was innocent, I didnt commit a crime, but being a poor Black kid, I didnt have the economic ability to fight the state of Louisiana. Back on stage Williams explained, DNA freed me. The audience clapped wildly. Cowell asked Williams what he was going to do for them on Americas Got Talent that day. Im gonna sing. And man, did Archie Williams sing. It was on April 21, 1983 that Archie Williams was convicted in the case of the womans rape and attempted murder, a crime that had occurred four months prior. His conviction came after a trial in which fingerprints from the crime scene were proven not to be his, and in which sworn testimony from three individuals affirmed that he was home asleep at the time. It came despite an investigation in which evidence was tampered with, evidence was withheld, and evidence was outright fabricated. Story continues Photo credit: Hearst Owned The Baton Rouge police showed multiple lineups of suspects to the victim, always including Williams, and they urged the victim to identify Williams as her assailant, even though she had said that the man who attacked her was taller than she was (Williams was shorter) and had a scar on his chest (Williams did not). Eventually, under pressure from the police, she said that, yes, it was Williams. Williams was 22 at the time. He suddenly found himself serving life in prison without the possibility of parole and the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, known as one of the toughest prisons in the country. On March 21, 2019, after a judge ordered a review of the bloody fingerprints found at the scene, Williams was found innocent and released from prison, a free man. The local district attorney said, As a representative of the state, I apologize. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin while at least three other officers looked on. A week later, as non-violent protests and chaotic riots spread through towns and cities in all fifty states and abroad, I called Williams. Floyd lost his life for no reason. Williams lost 37 years of his life for reasons comprehensible only to the people who stole those years from him. And yet on that stage, he exuded warmth, understanding, and hope. He exuded wisdom. His story and Floyds are different, but both make you want to scream. I asked Williams about what he does with those feelings, how he got through all those years locked up for a crime he didnt commit, George Floyd, and what others might learn from his experience. This is some of what he said. I always say life is how we feel it. When somebody inflicts evil on you, its all about how we let it affect us mentally. If you harbor evil, it can destroy you. Thats a scientific fact, right there. I never harbored evil even when I knew that the people that put me in prison knew that I was innocent. And Im talking about from the top to the bottom, they knew. But I never allowed the evil spirit of it to live in my heart. Its the same as whats going on today. It would behoove us to hold the spirit of unity. So much was taken from us, by slavery and everything thats been inflicted upon us. Thats what Id really like to say to my people. Id like to say that much. The Americas Got Talent audition was taped a while ago, but I watched it when it aired on TV. It was amazing, seeing myself on TV. Photo credit: NBC Im a fan of Elton John. His songs always moved me. But that particular song, Dont Let the Sun Go Down On Me, became spiritual to me. It was given to me by the spirits. I used to listen to it in prison, and the words would just come back up whenever it was needed. Howie Mandel talked to me for a brief second backstage, saying congratulations. And then they called me back on stage to sing a second time. Same song. The audience wanted me to sing it, so I went back out and sang it again. Elton called me the next day. He said he wants me to sing the song in his show when he comes back to the United States. Nervous? Nawww. Cause I been singing since I was twelve. Since I was a kid, really. When I first went to jail, they would pay me to sing. They would pay me around the bars of the cell just to sing. In prison, we watched Americas Got Talent all the time. I would visualize myself being there. In Angola [the Louisiana State Penitentiary], I would talk about my case all the time. Thats how I got the attention that I did get: I would have never come into contact with nobody without talking about how innocent I was from the day I set my foot on Angola soil. I knew that if I reach out, somebodys gonna hear me. Before we went into the trial my lawyer took me aside and let me know what I was up against. And that they were not gonna stop until they got a conviction. But she really fought, and she did what she could. She was a good lawyer. My lawyer today, Brian Dunn, says there was no hope of a fair trial from the moment it started. Photo credit: Hearst Owned I saw the video of George Floyd being killed. Our race of people go through so much in this country you always get angry. You see the picture, but its how you let the picture affect you. Rage, revenge that becomes a seed that grows inside of you. Its not the solution to the problem. History will always repeat itself until the problem is solved. My aunts place of business got looted during the riots. In Long Beach. Its a dessert store. They broke the windows, everything. We put up plywood. Singing relieves stress. And I exercise. I used to train boxers at Angola. Thats my sport. Thats my exercise. Once I come out of the gym Id lay back and read books in my cell until sleep. It helped. Grew up in Louisiana. Three sisters, no brothers. The baby. The only man-child. I was a wild little kid coming up. When I was about three years old, I was outside in the backyard, and we had these chickens. And it started raining. I didnt want the chickens to get wet. So I take the chickens there was three or four of them and I put them in the garbage can, and I put the top over the garbage can. Well, when it stopped raining my momma went out in the backyard and she said that I had killed the chickens. And she say, God gonna get you! Ive had the fear of God from that day. Its the truth. It was the police that discovered me. Me and my friends, we were beating on the mailboxes of the apartments we stayed in. When I looked around he was standing there and I took off running because he was the police! My friends come to my house later, they said, The man wanna put you in a band! I told him he hadda wait till my daddy get off work. Thats how I ended up at 12 years old singing in bands. R&B. I would sing a little Michael Jackson song, things like that. I replace anger with looking at and thinking about other peoples situations. In Angola I would look at other peoples situations and put it before mine. That played a part in my peace. Cause you have people thats been there over fifty years thats innocent. No help, because theres no evidence to be tested. They just left there to die. Since I can remember in life, my relationship always has been with God. Believing in him and trusting in him. I dont know what other peoples beliefs are, but thats my belief. Thats where I get everything from. You Might Also Like [June 17, 2020] Targus Announces Support of the Qualcomm Small Business Accelerator Program, To Help Small Businesses Succeed with Essential Technology ANAHEIM, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Targus, the global leader of laptop cases and mobile computing accessories for enterprises, small businesses, and mobile professionals, announces today its technological support of the Qualcomm Small Business Accelerator Program. The program is designed to help small businesses transition to a mobile-first work environment by providing them with products powered by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., along with workspace solutions and software, to maintain operations throughout the current global pandemic and beyond. As a key partner in the program, Targus will provide workstation accessories, including single and dual video docking stations, to a select group of small businesses in need of these connectivity and productivity solutions. "We are honored to be a contributing member of this effort, driven by Qualcomm Technologies. We recognize the challenges that small businesses face, especially during these changing and uncertain times," said Andrew Corkill, vice president of global marketing at Targus. "Offering essential technology through our USB-C Travel and Docking solutions provides the needed power and connectivity for small business success." Up to 25 small businesses will be selected for the program, and each, based on their needs, will receive a customized selection of products, collaboration tools and technical support valued at up to US$25,000. Products include a variety of devices powered by Qualcomm Technologies products, such as Always Connected PCs (4G and 5G) and Targus docking stations, as well as Wi-Fi systems, mobile phones, Bluetooth enabled headsts, active mobile hotspots, and technical /device support from other key partners. "Qualcomm Technologies creates products and services that allow people to connect, compute, and communicate, and we are proud to enable small businesses across the country to better thrive with our technology solutions," said Don McGuire, vice president of global product marketing at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Targus' products provide productivity enhancing docking solutions for Always Connected PCs powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon compute platforms, and we are excited to have their support for this program as we customize to meet the needs of small business." To apply for the Qualcomm Small Business Accelerator Program and view its T&Cs, submit your application here. For more information about Targus and our key USB-C travel-ready solutions that deliver a seamless connected experience to help you work at home or in the office, visit targus.com. About Targus For over thirty-five years, Targus has been revolutionizing mobile computing accessories for large enterprises, small businesses, and end-users alike connecting people and technology in meaningful ways. From laptop bags to tablet cases to peripherals and universal docking stations, we persistently conceive, design, and produce innovative, productivity-boosting solutions that make the complex, simple; and help people pursue their passions and live their purpose at work and in life. We cross categories, regions, industries, and lifestyles with a breadth and depth of products that seamlessly provide you with everything you need to live, dream, and do. Headquartered in Anaheim, California, Targus has global operations in over 45 offices and distribution in more than 100 countries. Learn more about us at targus.com, like or follow us at facebook.com/targus and linkedin.com/company/targus. Qualcomm Small Business Accelerator Program is a program of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm and Snapdragon are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/targus-announces-support-of-the-qualcomm-small-business-accelerator-program-to-help-small-businesses-succeed-with-essential-technology-301078902.html SOURCE Targus [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The United State government has condemned the incessant attacks on citizens of Nigeria living in the northern part of the country. The U.S. government, in a statement signed by Michael Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State from its Nigeria embassy said the recent killings are senseless and brazen and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take necessary actions in insecurity in the country. We condemn the recent senseless and brazen killings of civilians in northern Nigeria, the statement read. In recent weeks, suspected ISIS West Africa militants launched multiple attacks in Borno State, killing more than 120 civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. On June 9, unidentified armed bandits attacked a village in Katsina State, killing dozens. These horrific crimes follow the shooting of a pastor and his pregnant wife on June 1 and the killing of an imam, local village head, and several civilians on June 5 in the course of intercommunal violence in Taraba State. Tens of thousands of civilians have lost their lives in Nigeria in recent years to violent attacks by terrorist groups or criminal gangs, in inter-communal violence, or due to their religious beliefs. The United States calls on the Government of Nigeria to do more to strengthen ongoing efforts to address this violence, hold those responsible accountable, and protect civilians. Due to concerns with the Albuquerque Police Departments handling of the investigation, prosecutors have dropped the most serious charge and added others against the man accused of shooting and critically injuring a man protesting for the removal of a Juan de Onate statue Monday. Second Judicial District Attorney Raul Torrez also requested that the investigation into suspect Steven Ray Baca be handed over to State Police. And he stressed that Baca could still be charged in the shooting, depending on the investigation. Frankly, we have been put in a situation too many times in this community where investigations are rushed, investigations are incomplete and there is an expectation that quick decisions are made, Torrez told a news conference Wednesday. As prosecutors who have to uphold an oath to be objective and impartial, we cant do that. We have to get it right. Gilbert Gallegos, an APD spokesman, said APD officials fully support the independent investigation. The District Attorneys Office was aware of, and signed the preliminary police report that was drafted before all video evidence and witness interviews were conducted, he wrote in a statement. Weve agreed from the beginning that report is just preliminary and therefore incomplete and that supplemental material will include facts regarding other actions taken that instigated violence. Albuquerque police arrested 31-year-old Baca on Monday night after, they say, he shot Scott Williams, 39, during a fight at a demonstration to remove the statue of Onate, a controversial conquistador, from the Albuquerque Museum grounds. The city removed the statue Tuesday due to safety concerns. At the heart of the investigation is whether Baca instigated the fight or acted in self-defense. For now, Baca is charged with aggravated battery, a felony, and two petty misdemeanor counts of battery against three unknown protesters because, prosecutors say, video shows him shoving them or throwing them to the ground before the shooting. He is also charged with unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon without a concealed carry permit, a misdemeanor. The DA has filed a motion for him to be held in jail pending trial. Bacas attorney, Jason Bowles, applauded the decision not to charge his client in the shooting, saying he believes the totality of the facts show that this case involves Mr. Bacas right and exercise of self-defense. The video of this incident shows Mr. Baca being chased and struck with a skateboard by one assailant, being pursued while he was backing up, shouts in the crowd to kill him, being tackled and struck, and then being confronted with another assailant wielding a knife in a menacing manner towards him, Bowles wrote in a statement. With multiple assailants attacking him with weapons, Mr. Baca at that point had no choice but to defend himself using force. However, the attorney representing Scott Williams and his family said video shes seen, and shared with the Journal, shows Williams was defending his friends from Baca. Baca had a gun out before Scott picked up his skateboard to defend his friends, attorney Laura Schauer Ives said. All of this happened immediately after Baca had thrown a woman down and Scott was turning away and running away when he was shot four times. Concerns voiced In a letter to Police Chief Michael Geier on Tuesday, Torrez voiced his concerns with the way APD handled the dynamic and volatile situation after the shooting at the protest and how those methods could compromise the investigation. Specifically, Torrez pointed out that undercover officers who were at the protest and referenced in the complaint would now have to serve as witnesses and would complicate our presentation of the case if APD was the investigating agency. Also, he said, APDs response to the crowd, with riot police and nonlethal munitions, may have adversely impacted the ability to collect evidence and lead to essential witnesses being reluctant to come forward. My primary concern is the reluctance of members of the public to cooperate with law enforcement after the confrontation that was had with police, he said. Torrez said the concerns are amplified by the original complaint as it seems to omit the fact that Baca assaulted a woman in the crowd, which could negate any self-defense claim by Baca. We believe that this is fundamentally an incomplete police investigation, Torrez said during the news conference. In a subsequent letter to Geier, Torrez asked APD to turn over all officer information, lapel videos, 911 calls, written reports and collected evidence. He said much of the key evidence knives and a number of weapons left at the scene was collected, but it is unclear where they came from or whom they belonged to. Aside from that, he said, APD tactics used for crowd control made it impossible for key witnesses to give statements. Theres just a lot of confusion right now, so those questions need to be answered before we move forward with a charge, he said. But, Torrez said, some answers may never come. In a dynamic crime scene situation like that, once the scene is disturbed and witnesses are gone, sometimes you cant get it back, he said. City Councilors Pat Davis and Isaac Benton have also criticized the police response to the protest and shooting and asked for a full review of officers actions. The Civilian Police Oversight Agency is investigating, and the department is doing its own self-assessment. Initial complaint In the initial criminal complaint charging Baca with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, the detective wrote that the crowd appeared to maliciously pursue him and that Williams had struck Baca with a skateboard. It made no mention of videos that showed Baca violently throwing a woman to the ground, leading the protesters to turn on him. Torrez said that under state law, if you are the first aggressor you cannot raise a self-defense claim but added that the law is not absolute and that the conduct of other individuals will be considered. I know there are a lot of rumors swirling around on social media. There are a lot of people who have jumped to conclusions. We are not going to do that, he said. We are going to take the time to do this the right way. Torrez acknowledged that those rumors involved whether Williams had a knife, but he said there was no evidence at this point that he did. By contrast, the amended charging document prosecutors filed Wednesday focuses on Bacas actions against three protesters before the shooting. Torrez said the charges stem from videos showing Baca allegedly assaulting three unidentified women. Steven Ray Baca forcibly and, in a rude, insolent, or angry manner, pushed Jane Doe 2 and Jane Does 3,' a deputy district attorney wrote in the court documents. Jane Doe 1, with her back turned to Steven Ray Baca, moved to prevent Steven Ray Baca from pushing past her. When Jane Doe 1 was in an apparent defenseless position with her arms out and her back turned, Steven Ray Baca grabbed her shoulder and body slammed her into a concrete sidewalk where she hit her head. The DA is asking for a judge to hold Baca until trial. In a motion filed in 2nd Judicial District Court, prosecutors say that regardless of the results of the investigation into the shooting, Bacas conduct at the protest instigated multiple episodes of violence in the midst of a charged and volatile atmosphere. The nature and circumstances of the offense show that defendant armed himself in advance, instigated a physical confrontation with several people, violently threw a defenseless woman to the ground, and ultimately discharged a firearm that he carried unlawfully multiple times at close range, prosecutors wrote in the motion. In a statement, attorney Bowles denied that his client is dangerous and called for the District Court to quickly review the matter and release him. He said Baca is not a member of the New Mexico Civil Guard, an armed civilian group that was also at the protest. A hearing will be held next week to determine whether Baca should be held in jail. We also vehemently oppose Mr. Bacas continued detention on what amounts to essentially misdemeanor assault charges, upon Jane Does who apparently havent even been identified, Bowles wrote. Mr. Baca has no criminal history. Mr. Baca is a caring and kind individual. He is active in his community and with his family. As a New Mexico native who traces his ancestry back several hundred years, Torrez said, he understands the competing passion and tension over Onate. He said he understands that people are entrenched in their own views on the incident. I recognize that people in this community and this country are on edge right now and they are deeply divided over a number of very important issues. It seems that a great deal of the perspective of what happened at that moment in time is driven by folks ideological perspective, Torrez said. Our task is to follow the evidence, and our task is to follow sound testimony and physical evidence, wherever it may lead. Page Content The Government of Sint Maarten, under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development & Labor ( VSA), met during a closed door meeting on Monday, June 15, 2020 with the sole objective to deliberate on the plans to support the initiative of Justice Minister Anna E Richardson. Key civil servants of both Ministries, and their respective legal counsels also attended the meeting. Since the inception of the initiative to execute the percepts of the L.T.U (Ordinance on Admittance and Expulsion) and the L.A.V (Ordinance on Foreign Labor), as it relates to the protection of our borders, a Specialized Taskforce Committee has been commissioned to take the lead. Both the Minister of Justice Anna Richardson and the Minister of VSA Richard Panneflek echoed the sentiments of the Council of Ministers that the execution of this initiative must be done in line with international human rights and maintaining dignity for all. Protection of all residents (documented and undocumented) is also an important facet of this initiative, with an aim to ensure that either persons or institutions are misused for the unlawful access to permits (employment / residence). A commitment to communicate on the way forward, the plan and the phases of the execution will be communicated to the general public by DCOMM, and persons are encouraged to follow the press releases on the Government of Sint Maarten websites and social media platforms. A Melbourne father who took naked photos and videos of himself in front of his three young children has been jailed. The British-born father of three was also found in possession of nearly 5,000 child sexual abuse images. He's now been jailed for two-and-a-half years, registered as a serious sexual offender for life and will be deported. The 54-year-old man admitted taking photos of his naked, erect penis with his children in the background. It wasn't alleged the children knew or could see what he was doing. In one case his now former wife caught him taking a picture. His penis was exposed and his daughter was behind him, unaware of what he was doing. A Melbourne father has admitted producing and possessing child abuse material, and indecent acts with and in front of his three children (stock image) She tried to grab his phone but he locked himself in a bathroom. She later found a video on his phone, panning from one of his children to his groin. In another case he took a photo of one of his daughters lying on his lap. Both were clothed, but he captioned the photo 'eight year old on my c***'. After his arrest police found 4,911 images and videos of child abuse material, unrelated to his own children. They included more than 1,400 images showing sexual activity between children, and others showing sexual activity between adults and children. He admitted eight offences, including producing and possessing child abuse material, and indecent acts with and in front of his three children. The father claimed he had an addiction, the dark side of which involved taking pictures of himself with his children around. He said he was excited by the idea that nobody around knew what he was doing. 'Thinking about it now makes me sick to my stomach,' he said. The man's former wife says she worried what others would think if they found out what the man had done. The father claimed he had an addiction, which involved taking explicit pictures of himself with his children around (stock image) 'We are the ones who now suffer,' she said. The man claimed he too had suffered, but justifiably so. A Victorian County Court judge on Wednesday accepted the man was remorseful for his behaviour. He must serve at least 20 months behind bars. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:08:39|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close COPENHAGEN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Denmark's economy will experience a tremendous decline in 2020 as a result of the social lockdown due to COVID-19, according to a forecast from the national bank published Wednesday. Denmark's central bank estimated that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) will fall by 4.1 percent. "The closure of communities has created high unemployment in a few months. Therefore, there is a significant risk that the recovery of the economy will be long-lasting," said Lars Rohde, the bank's director. However, the government recently ramped up measures to reopen the economy to create an economic rebound in 2021 and promote a partial recovery in economic activity. "The fiscal measures agreed at Christiansborg will contribute to a more smooth business cycle when the aid packages are phased out," Rohde said. "If the recovery becomes weaker than expected, further relief may be needed next year and the year after," the director added. Enditem BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry has asked Canada to investigate pests found in shipments of logs, spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing on Tuesday. The move coincides with strained relations between China and Canada since the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of telecoms firm Huawei, in December 2018. Last year, citing pest concerns, Beijing blocked canola seed shipments from Richardson International and Viterra Inc - Canada's two top exporters. It also suspended imports of pork and beef from the country last year, although they later resumed. Zhao said some Chinese port authorities had detected pests in imported Canadian logs that were not permitted under Chinese quarantine rules. Beijing had asked Canada to investigate and take measures to resolve the issue, he said. "Protecting China's agriculture and forestry industries, as well as its ecological safety is the Chinese government's obligation," said Zhao. The move was "scientific and reasonable" and in line with international conventions, he added. No one at the Canadian embassy in Beijing nor the consulate in shanghai could immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Huizhong Wu; writing by Dominique Patton; editing by Barbara Lewis) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 10:40 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf6585a 1 National research,Research-and-Technology-Ministry,bambang-brodjonegoro,KPK,study,Corruption-Eradication-Comission,research-funding-in-Indonesia,anti-corruption Free A recent study by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) shows that poor management, including lack of coordination and ineffective financial management, has hampered Indonesias research and development (R&D) efforts. The KPK found that Indonesian researchers had not effectively used their research funding, particularly those researchers at universities, community cooperation and empowerment institution (LKPM) and government research institutions at ministries, state agencies and regional administrations. Many of the products that were produced from research and supporting facilities were nonaccountable, especially university research products, the findings revealed. Furthermore, the antigraft agency had received many reports on fictitious and overlapping research projects, as well as large amounts of unused research funds. For the KPK, it was important to study the research sector, as there are many research institutions across ministries, agencies and regional administrations [that have no] coordination. They are widely scattered and unorganized, without any direction on Indonesias research focus, KPK commissioner Nurul Ghufron said at a press conference on Tuesday. He added that the lack of coordination hampered the process of approving proposed research budgets. Read also: Indonesia looks to domestic innovations to tackle COVID-19 Nurul said that the absence of a coordinating body meant that the nation's research efforts had no clear direction. If the direction is unclear, the [research's] contribution and usefulness to Indonesia will also be bleak, he said. Nurul suggested that the government should set up a coded system for research projects and tag research budgets to keep track of funding. Tracking the funds was essential, as the KPK study found that only 23 out of 87 ministries and agencies listed a research budget on their annual work and budget plans (RKA-KL). Moreover, several of these ministries and agencies did not allocate the research budget to their R&D department, and instead itemized the budget for other purposes, which compounded efforts to track the funding. The funds that the KPK study could track down amounted to around 0.25 percent of Indonesias gross domestic product (GDP). This was a relatively low figure compared to other countries, the majority of which allocated an average 2.63 percent of GDP toward research and development. The KPK suggested that other regulations be issued on research management, such as those that defined and regulated research funding use, management and ethics, as well as a code of ethics for researchers to regulate compliance with national science and technology standards. Read also: Jokowi dreams of AI bureaucracy. But why is his administration waging war on science? In October 2019, President Joko Widodo established the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) to consolidate R&D efforts in the country under the former Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry. The ministry then drafted the 2017-2045 National Research Master Plan (RIRN) to streamline the countrys long-term R&D needs. The 2017-2045 RIRN was then followed by the development of the 2020-2024 National Research Priority (PRN). But the BRIN has been beset with difficulties in consolidating the nation's R&D efforts across the many research institutions, primarily due to limited funds and untracked funding. To reach the [RIRN and PRN] targets, we need to consolidate and coordinate all resources, researchers as well as funding and assets like laboratories," Research and Technology Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, who also heads the BRIN, said at Tuesday's press event. In maximizing these resources, "we can ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of [research projects], he said. However, he concurred that the ministry needed to devise a new method of coordination to manage university research. Read also: Indonesian researchers set to win share of 2019 Newton Prize KPK commissioner Nurul added that following the structural changes, the commission would readjust its recommendations and action plans for the research sector, which it originally submitted to the ministry in 2019. To integrate [national R&D], we need access and authority over those institutions and their activities in research, development and application, said Bambang, adding that further regulation was needed to strengthen the BRINs role and authority. The minister approved a Rp 1.37 trillion (US$98 million) budget in January 2020 to fund 16,048 university research projects and 12,248 non-university research projects this year. 17.06.2020 LISTEN Veteran highlife musician, Obiba Sly Collins, has called on the government and relevant stakeholders to develop a sustainable policy framework to recognize, promote and honour talents in various fields to enhance development. The musician wants the government to recognize the contribution of local musicians to the national economy and support the music industry by channeling more resources into its development. According to Sly Collins, Ghana is blessed with rich talents, one of which is music, adding that a lot of our youths are fully engaged in this industry. He indicated that, there is less recognition and support given to the musicians to further enhance their raw talents. He mentioned that if the contribution of musicians and the music industry were captured, and government supported the industry, the country would raise big international stars. He stated that if the creative industry in Ghana would gain recognition on the international scene then the government ought to put in place policies that would protect the works of its stakeholders to enable them generate revenue from their works. If the industry is fully supported and developed, it will be a good revenue earner for our country, he declared. The highlife musician said the music industry had a lot to offer to a developing country like Ghana and as such, every effort must be put in place to recognize this. Sly indicated that it was unfortunate that in Ghana we always had to rely on cooperate organizations for support, which was not good enough, while in other countries on the continent it was the government that supported musicians. He called on government to regard music as an important tool for promoting the country abroad; saying most western countries have made it because of the importance their governments attach to music. Speaking in an interview with Dr. Cann Cann on Showbiz Xtra on Happy FM, Sly Collins pleaded that the government should pave way for musicians and should support them with links in countries that they went to perform in so that their work would be made easier. He urged Ghanaian musicians to see marketing as an important part of their career, saying that without good managers to market their music, they cannot make it on the international market. A CIA elite hacking unit that developed cyber-weapons failed in protecting its operations, states an internal report on the Vault 7 data leak. According to an internal report drown up after the 2016 data breach that led to the Vault 7 data leak, a specialized CIA unit involved in the development of hacking tools and cyber weapons failed in protecting its operations and was able to respond after the leak of its secrets. In March, Joshua Schulte, a former CIA software engineer that was accused of stealing the agencys hacking tools and leaking them to WikiLeaks, was convicted of only minor charges. In middle May 2018, both The New York Times and The Washington Post, revealed the name of the alleged source of the Vault 7 leak, the man who passed the secret documents to Wikileaks. According to his LinkedIn profile, Schulte worked for the NSA for five months in 2010 as a systems engineer, after this experience, he joined the CIA as a software engineer and he left the CIA in November 2016. Schulte was identified a few days after WikiLeaks started leaking the precious dumps. Now Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, released excerpts of the report that were made public via recent Department of Justice (DoJ) court filings. The WikiLeaks breach occurred at CCI, whose mission is to transform intelligence through cyber operations. It would be unfair to lay the blame for the breach with the current management, as the breach occurred before most joined CCI. states the report. These shortcomings were emblematic of a culture that evolved over years that too often prioritized creativity and collaboration at the expense of security, according to the report. Sen. Ron Wyden also sent a letter to new National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe, asking him to detail the measures implemented to protect secret information held by federal intelligence agencies. The theft of top-secret computer hacking tools from the CIA in 2016 was the result of a workplace culture in which the agencys elite computer hackers prioritized building cyber weapons at the expense of securing their own systems, according to an internal report prepared for then-director Mike Pompeo as well as his deputy, Gina Haspel, now the director. reported The Washington Post. According a report recently published by Chinese security firm Qihoo 360, leaked materials they collected reveal that Vault 7 was developed by Joshua and that APT-C -39 a CIA-linked hacking unit. The Chinese security firm also adds that the APT-C-39 hacking group employed several Vault 7 tools in its operations, including the Fluxwire backdoor, and the Grasshopper malware builder. Qihoo 360 reported that technical details of most implants used by the APT-C-39 are consistent with the ones described in the Vault 7 dump. Experts added that APT-C-39 used relevant cyber weapons against targets in China before the leak of Vault 7 documents. The CIA report highlighted the lax cybersecurity measures by the CIAs Center for Cyber Intelligence, a super-sophisticated hackers unit. Because the stolen data resided on a mission system that lacked user activity monitoring and a robust server audit capability, we did not realize the loss had occurred until a year later, when WikiLeaks publicly announced it in March 2017. continues the report. Had the data been stolen for the benefit of a state adversary and not published, we might still be unaware of the lossas would be true for the vast majority of data on Agency mission systems CIA works to incorporate best-in-class technologies to keep ahead of and defend against ever-evolving threats. said CIA spokesman Tim Barrett, who did not release any comment on the report Since the precedent leak of secret documents made years before by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the US intelligence failed again it protect its information. CIA has moved too slowly to put in place the safeguards that we knew were necessary given successive breaches to other US Government agencies. For nearly a decade WikiLeaks has exploited the digital realm to profoundly reshape opportunities for individuals sworn to protect our nations secrets to leak classified or sensitive information. continues the report While CIA was an early leader in securing our enterprise information technology (IT) system, we failed to correct acute vulnerabilities to our mission IT systems. Most of our sensitive cyber weapons were not compartmented, users shared systems administrator-level passwords, there were no effective removable media controls, and historical data was available to users indefinitely. Furthermore, CCI focused on building cyber weapons and neglected to also prepare mitigation packages if those tools were exposed. The data dump had a dramatic impact on the CIA operations, it revealed its capabilities to the potential targets making them no more effective. Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs hacking, CIA) [June 17, 2020] Nascent Biotech to Begin Animal Model Studies for Pritumumab Against Coronaviruses and COVID-19 SAN DIEGO, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nascent Biotech, Inc. (OTCQB: NBIO), today announced after receiving early In-Vitro study results Pritumumab, (PTB), will be advanced to laboratory-based animal studies. Nascent founder and Advisory Board Chairman Dr. Mark Glassy commented, The laboratory results were consistent with our Brain Cancer in vitro studies and this is the next step in investigational development of PTB as potential use with COVID-19 and related Viral Infections. An article in The Journal of Biological Medicine (Yu et al. Journal of Biomedical Science (2016) 23:14 DOI 10.1186/s12929-016-0234-7) specifically mentioned cell surface vimentin as a potential target in the treatment of conditions related to the Coronavirus which was instrumental in Nascents investigation into Viral Infections. Nascents Management is continuing development in Viral Infections aong with opening the Phase I Brain Cancer Clinical Trial at Hoag Family Cancer Institute and Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute Presbyterian. About Nascent Biotech Inc Nascent Biotech, Inc is a clinical-stage biotech company engaged in the development of monoclonal antibodies to be used in the treatment of various cancers. Its products are not commercially available. For further information please visit our website www.nascentbiotech.com. Safe Harbor: Statements in this press release about our future expectations constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and our actual results could differ materially from expected results. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, Nascent Biotech Inc's ability to target the medical professionals; Nascent Biotech Inc's ability to raise capital; as well as other risks. Additional information about these and other factors may be described in the Nascent Biotech Inc's Form 10, filed on May 2, 2015, and future subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this statement or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. Sean Carrick CEO Nascent Biotech, Inc 6330 Nancy Ridge Dr Suite 105 San Diego CA 92121 (612) 961-5656 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] South Korea says it will no longer tolerate irrational remarks by the North South Korea hit back hard at North Korea with harsh criticism on Wednesday after Pyongyang blew up an inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong, North Korea, in a show of force expressing discontent with the South Korean government. This is a fundamental breach of trust that the leaders of South and North have built up until now, and we are clearly warning that we will no longer tolerate these irrational remarks and actions by the North, Yoon Do Han, South Korean presidents senior secretary for Public Communication said in a briefing Wednesday. The tone and selection of words were strongest since South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office. This rare jab at North Korea follows an embarrassing exposure by Pyongyang Wednesday morning, saying the North Korean leaders sister Kim Yo Jong "flatly rejected the tactless and sinister proposal" from the South Korean president to send a special envoy to Pyongyang. MORE: North Korea blows up liaison office with South Korea We are extremely displeased to get such an absurd judgment and reckless proposal, North Korea said in a statement carried on its state media, Korean Central News Agency. In response, Moons senior secretary expressed "strong regret" to North Korea for "intentionally distorting the purpose of sending a special envoy to North Korea" by publicly revealing South Korea's privately offered proposal to send a special envoy to overcome the current crisis. This is an unprecedented senseless action, Yoon added. PHOTO: Military guard posts of South Korea (bottom R) and North Korea (top L) stand opposite each other as seen from a South Korean observation post in the border city of Paju on June 17, 2020. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images) North Korea has accused the South of behaving like a "mongrel dog" bent on confrontation, vowed to dispatch military troops in and around Mount Kumgang Tourist Region, Kaesong Industrial Complex and DMZs guard posts, and resume military training in the West Sea. These areas were cleared of military presence in the past few years in accordance with an agreement reached between the two leaders of North and South Korea. Story continues MORE: Trump, South Korea pour cold water on rumors about Kim Jong Un, nearly three weeks after last appearance North Korea also stated that it would open all front-line areas that are advantageous to send leaflets to the South. ABC News Heejin Kang contributed to this report. South Korea says it will no longer tolerate irrational remarks by the North originally appeared on abcnews.go.com In a week when high-level meetings were convened to discuss developments on the ground in Libya, videos of Egyptian workers being held hostage by militias allied to the Government of National Accord (GNA) have added a further complication to an already complex situation. GNA forces have been advancing steadily eastward, and though they still remain some distance from Egypts borders with its north African neighbour, Egyptian officials say that whichever way Cairo looks, it cannot but see serious reason for worry given the situation across its border. The possible dismantling of the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar, is a serious concern in Cairo. It means that the hard work that has gone into helping former Libyan generals and officers assemble a skeleton national army has come to nothing, said one source. It means that Libya would be left in thrall to mostly Jihadi militias. Egypt, like many other countries with a direct interest in Libya, has expressed repeated concern over Turkeys transfer of jihadists from Syria to Libya to support the GNA-led militias war against the LNA. Egyptian officials have declined to comment on any equivalence between the presence in Libya of Syrian and other Jihadists on the side of the GNA, and the presence of Russian mercenaries on the side of the LNA. According to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Egypt cannot accept having Jihadis on its borders. We know from our experience with the Islamic State (IS) that their modus operandi is to constantly attempt to gain more ground, and that would leave Egypt in the position of having to deal with terrorists in Sinai in the east, and militants just across our western border. We have already suffered enormously because of the infiltration of arms and militants from Libya into Sinai. Another Egyptian national security concern is that Libya will fall into a spiral of tribal disputes, something officials in Cairo say is inevitable if tribes from the west of the country wrest control of Libya and marginalise Libyas eastern tribes. This, says the source, was one of the points Egypt stressed in the Cairo Initiative last week when it appealed for a new presidential council to be formed with representatives of all Libyas tribal and political forces, with the exception of the countrys Jihadists. We cannot be expected to sit and watch Libya inching closer towards a civil war that could lead to the division of the country. Egypt is not Turkey. Turkey is miles and miles away from Libya and if things take a nasty turn in Libya it can just leave. Egypt does not have that option, he added. None of the Egyptian officials who spoke on Libya failed to add that for Turkey to have a strong foothold in Libya poses a threat to Egypts national security. The highest levels of the Egyptian administration believe wreaking havoc in Egypt is a top policy objective of Turkeys president. The depth of the animosity between Ankara and Cairo is an open secret. There are over a million Egyptian workers in Libya, and their safety is clearly an issue, say officials in Cairo, given the video that was broadcast this week on social media. But what can Cairo do? According to the officials who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly, it will keep pushing its initiative, pressing forward with the content, even if the format changes. The important thing, says the anonymous source, is to have the clear targets, and chief among them are a presidential council that represents all Libyans, the removal of foreign forces from Libya, and a viable political process. Though official sources declined to comment on the possibility of an Egyptian military response, they all confirmed that Egypt will act to protect its borders. Meanwhile, Cairo was also immersed in a last-ditch diplomatic attempt to secure an agreement on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the reservoir of which Addis Ababa says it will start filling next month, with or without an agreement with downstream states. Following a Sudanese initiative, Egypt engaged in three-way negotiations via video conference with Ethiopia and Sudan to try and iron out the differences that have blocked an agreement despite seven years of on-again, off-again negotiations including one round sponsored by the US. This weeks talks were based on a Sudanese draft text that attempted to bridge the gaps between Ethiopia and the agreement that was being hammered out in the US capital until, in mid-February, Ethiopia decided to forgo the entire Washington/World Bank-sponsored process. The talks, which were supposed to conclude on Tuesday and as the Weekly went to print, have been described as very complicated in official statements released by Egypts Ministry of Irrigation. The difficulties, according to sources, involve not just the technicalities involved in filling and operating the dam, but are focused on Egypt and Sudans insistence on a legally binding agreement, while Ethiopia wants a set of non-binding guidelines. What is at issue for Egypt is water security, and Egyptian officials say that cannot be left to a non-binding agreement. Egypt cannot leave the fate of its population subject to the good will of Ethiopia, said one concerned official. This would be to gamble with our national security. Ethiopia began building the mega-dam on the Blue Nile, which provides close to 80 per cent of Egypts already inadequate annual quota of Nile water, in April 2011. Cairo has faced an uphill diplomatic battle to get Ethiopia to abide by the Declaration of Principles that it signed in 2015, which states unequivocally that Ethiopia must reach an agreement with Egypt and Sudan before it starts the filling of the reservoir. On Monday, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said that the latest round of negotiations will not yield positive results as long as Ethiopia remains intransigent. Should Ethiopia continue on its present course, Shoukri said Cairo will have no choice but to explore other options, including asking the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibility to protect international peace and security by stopping Ethiopia from taking unilateral action that negatively affects Egypts water rights. On Monday evening Sudans Ministry of Irrigation announced a one-day extension of the talks to allow legal teams to try and hammer out a solution to ongoing differences over the legal status of any agreement and dispute settlement mechanism. If Egypt lets Ethiopia have its way, officials say it would be an open invitation for more problematic situations to arise in the future. Water, after all, is an existential issue for Egypt. Failure to reach an agreement on GERD also has national security dimensions, impacting the balance of power in the Nile Basin and across east Africa. Egyptian officials say it would have been difficult to miss the message Ethiopia was sending when its deputy army chief told state media that Egypt should be aware of Ethiopias military capabilities as it continues to oppose Addis Ababas plans to start filling the hydroelectric dam next month. Egyptians and the rest of the world know too well how we conduct war whenever it comes, said General Birhanu Jula, as reported by Associated Press. Egypt, say officials, has made it clear that it is more than willing to opt for participatory choices when it comes to the management of water and the security of the Nile Basin and east Africa. Ethiopia, they add, has spurned such an approach. As far as Cairo is concerned, the same officials argue that Addis Ababa is simply trying to create a fait accompli in east Africa, whether about the Nile, the management of Nile Basin relations, east African security measures or a possible initiative for Red Sea security, to which Ethiopia has no direct access. If things take a turn for the worse it will not just be Egypt that pays the price. The entire region will be dragged in, said one concerned Egyptian official. This is not a situation that anyone who cares for the security and stability of the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea would want to see. They have to do what it takes to prevent it. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: OCEANA COUNTY, MI A toddler was killed Tuesday night after being run over by a truck in a driveway in West Michigan. The 16-month-old girl was struck and run over around 9:20 p.m. June 16 by a pickup truck at the home in the 500 block of East Jackson Road in Oceana Countys Crystal Township, according to a news release from the office of Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast. The child was taken by private vehicle to Mercy Health Lakeshore Campus in Shelby where she was unresponsive, and thats where officers responded, according to the release. An investigation determined that there had been a family gathering at the home on Jackson Road and the child had wandered out of sight as a family member was moving the pickup truck in the driveway, according to the release. The Shelby Police Department and the Oceana County Sheriffs Office investigated the incident. Also on MLive: Woman injured in opening day crash at Silver Lake sand dunes Recently orphaned bear cubs to be released to wild sooner rather than later Police laud neighbors who tried to save victim of double homicide Next generation software-as-a-service platforms for pen testing and security assurance accelerate the completion of security assessments like SOC 2, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and HIPAA. SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Tugboat Logic announced today that it has joined forces with Cobalt.io , the world's first Pentest as a Service (PtaaS) platform, to help clients leverage modern pentesting of their applications to effectively identify and remediate critical risks in less time than traditional consulting approaches. Tugboat Logic's AuditLogicTM module automatically defines the scope of a security audit with pre-built guidance on how to secure critical applications and infrastructure. 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Likewise, Tugboat Logic enables remote collaboration with auditors, allowing customers to automatically collect and share evidence as needed. Tugboat Logic is the leading Security Assurance Platform trusted by hundreds of innovative companies including Slice, Heap, and Schneider Electric. Clients who use Tugboat Logic and Cobalt.io together will see dramatically reduced operational costs and the time to complete audits drop by 50% or more compared to traditional consulting services. This helps companies accelerate the sales process by quickly building assurance with customers that their product or service is secure. "We have always been impressed with Cobalt.io and their more modern approach to penetration testing for cloud-based application environments," said Jose Costa, Chief Information Security Officer at Tugboat Logic. "Their transparent pricing and service delivery model impressed us enough for us to be a customer before we became a partner." "Cobalt.io and Tugboat Logic are breaking the service delivery model of traditional approaches to security audits and IT development operations," said Karen Nguyen, Cobalt.io VP of Sales. "For Cobalt.io, our combination of data, technology, and talent uniquely addresses the security challenges of the modern enterprise and ensures we provide the smartest, most efficient services possible." Cobalt recently issued a study conducted by Dr. Chenxi Wang, security thought leader and Forbes contributor, that outlines the benefits and challenges of a PtaaS solution in a modern software development environment. Tugboat Logic's own companion eBook provides additional context around automation for DevOps and sustaining a continuous compliance program for your organization. About Tugboat Logic Tugboat Logic is the Security Assurance Platform. Unlike traditional consulting firms, only Tugboat Logic provides automated technology to demystify the process of creating and managing an InfoSec program. With Tugboat Logic, enterprises can quickly get secure and prove it to customers. Powered by AI, Tugboat Logic's patent-pending technology automates InfoSec policy creation, audit readiness, and security questionnaire response so enterprises can gain trust with customers and sell more. Tugboat Logic is a cloud-based subscription service, starting at $499 per month. You can evaluate the Tugboat platform in a trial account . About Cobalt.io Cobalt.io 's Pentest as a Service (PtaaS) platform transforms yesterday's broken pentest model into a data-driven application security engine. Fueled by a global talent pool of certified pentesters, Cobalt.io's platform delivers actionable results that empower agile teams to pinpoint, track, and remediate software vulnerabilities. Hundreds of organizations, including the new generation of software companies, now benefit from high-quality pentest findings, faster remediation times, and higher ROI for their pentest budget. Visit Cobalt.io to learn how Cobalt.io is securing apps for companies such as HubSpot, Palo Alto Networks, GoDaddy, Vonage, and Axel Springer, and join us on Twitter and LinkedIn . SOURCE Tugboat Logic Related Links https://www.tugboatlogic.com/ Demonstrations unfolding Wednesday mark three consecutive weeks of Portland protests against police brutality and systemic racism. The citys daily demonstrations are part of a massive uprising sweeping the nation after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in late May after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Demonstrators got an early start Wednesday morning, gathering in front of Mayor Ted Wheelers Northwest Portland apartment. The protests continued throughout the day, and included marches of hundreds of people in North Portland and in Southeast Portland. An estimated 150 to 200 protesters assembled in front of Wheelers condo while the mayor participated in a virtual city council meeting. The demonstrators wanted their voices heard as Wheeler and his colleagues are voting on the city budget. Wheeler acknowledged the protesters during the meeting. I hear you, he said. And I see you. And I am with you on this challenging path ahead. Demands of the protesters gathered in Northwest Portland include reducing the Portland Police Bureau budget by at least $50 million during the upcoming budget cycle and immediately stop policing protests. A crowd also met Wednesday on the steps of the Washington County Courthouse for a march for freedom from police violence, according to a news release. Leaders called for accountability for the Washington County sheriffs and district attorneys offices in the case of a jail deputy attacking an inmate two years ago. The jail deputy, Rian Alden, wasnt initially prosecuted. But he was suspended earlier this month for allegedly sending racist emails and was later indicted on first-degree official misconduct tied to the 2018 attack. Video footage released by plaintiff Albert Molinas attorneys shows Alden rush toward Molina, slammed him into the wall and then push him to the ground. Washington County Sheriffs and Washington County DAs office would like to have had this disappear and not have arrested Rian Alden two years later, Seemab Hussaini, vice-chair at CAIR Oregon, said in a statement. It has shown that the issues run deeper. But we are in a unique moment here, this time where calling for justice isnt enough by itself, were calling for a change. Weve had enough. There cannot be a place for someone who doesnt care about the human impact of their service and work, especially when it comes to Black, Indigenous and People of Color. Hussaini also referenced a letter sent Tuesday to the Washington County Board of Commissioners. The letter calls for the county to defund law enforcement and reinvest in marginalized communities. Portlands previous round of demonstrations was marked by thousands of protesters marching Tuesday onto the Fremont Bridge and a man driving his car into downtown demonstrators, injuring three, early Wednesday. Protesters marched onto southbound Interstate 405 and remained on the Fremont Bridge for about two hours Tuesday as part of a demonstration organized by Rose City Justice. Organizers called on the Portland City Council on Wednesday to reject a proposal for the police bureaus budget that falls far short of the $50 million in cuts sought by hundreds of activists. Some attached Defund police and No justice, no peace banners to the bridges midspan. A separate group of demonstrators gathered near the downtown Justice Center a previous flashpoint for protests. Demonstrators removed a flag from outside the doors to the Portland Police Bureaus Central Precinct, which is located inside the building, shortly after 11 p.m., police said. They used the flag cord to prevent a roll-up door from opening, according to police. Demonstrators also locked the precincts main doors from the outside with a U-lock and lit the flag on fire, police said. The burning flag hurt one person, according to police. Police gave warnings to the crowd, which marched to the Pearl District. Early Wednesday, a man identified by police as 27-year-old Anthony Eaglehorse-Lassandro drove into protesters then fled at a high rate of speed but was tracked and eventually arrested, police said. He remains in the Multnomah County Detention Center. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday she will call the Legislature into a special session on June 24 to pass police accountability legislation and adopt some of her coronavirus executive orders into law. Law enforcement oversight will be the focus of the session, Brown said in a statement. Around midnight, protesters erected barricades of dumpsters and wooden pallets near the area of Northwest 10th Avenue and Northwest Glisan Street, in the vicinity of Wheelers home. The area was declared the Patrick Kimmons Autonomous Zone. Kimmons was killed by Portland police in 2018. Police estimated there were about 50 protesters still in the area around 5:30 a.m. Thursday. Police declared it an unlawful assembly and closed the area. An officer on the scene this morning told KATU she was aware of one arrest made, but gave no further details. Police chose to intervene early Thursday because they were worried about the protesters having more interaction with the public as the day started. Officials said they had received reports of one person in the area with a rifle. By 6 a.m. teams of officers were disassembling the barriers and most protesters had left. -- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 K. Rambo, Beth Nakamura, Hillary Borrud and Alex Hardgrave of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report. Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. The operations of three US Navy aircraft carriers that are patrolling a sector of the Pacific and Indo-Pacific has drawn the ire of Beijing who feels threatened by the massed firepower of three carrier strike groups. It has not happened for a long time, but after three years, the US Navy decided to operate three of its supercarriers that has made China reel back their forces. The Chinese are quick to boast that they will not be intimidated by the America spring patrol, which coincided with their purloining of contested areas in the South China Sea, report in CNN. Locations of the Carrier Strike Groups This dispatch of immense sea power was last seen in 2017 with tensions in North Korea's nuclear weapons development which was considered a serious threat. Now in the eastern Pacific, the USS Nimitz is on patrol in the western Pacific two CSGs are on standby and they are USS Ronald Reagan and USS Theodore Roosevelt. Both the TR and Ronald Reagan are operating a bit farther to the Chinese mainland too. Initially, these carrier strike groups were reported in AP News as early as Friday. In a statement by Rear Adm. Stephen Koehler, in an interview by AP News, he said that carrier strike groups and the aircraft carriers are expressions of Naval firepower are unmatched, and three of them at the same place is great. His office also heads the Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii. Last Sunday, the Global Times sputtered as the Communists said that the US carrier strike groups posed a threat to the Chinese troops stationed there. Global Times also reported that Li Jie stated that the US carriers are showing the world that it is the most potent Navy, more powerful than the PLAN. They will be unhindered and enter the South China Sea and even wipeout Xisha and Nansha, including Chinese warships, to allow US domination. But, even so, the People's Liberation Army was quick to show off the armaments that could be used to kill American supercarriers. Like the DF-21D and DF-26 anti-ship ballistic missiles, which are touted as foolproof. Also read: US Navy Deploys Reagan, Nimitz Carrier Strike Group for Operations Deployment of the three supercarriers make Beijing insecure The presence of three carrier strike groups indicates that four are in for maintenance. Colin Koh said that China was happier with most of the carriers sidelined, which made Beijing haughty enough to show how the coronavirus has waylaid the Americans. Last June 4, the USS Theodore Roosevelt went back to operations after leaving Guam and surviving a COVID-19 outbreak. Capt. Carlos Sardiello made a speech and called the ship a symbol of hope, and an expression of a nation's power. This is the same as Ronald Reagan that was placed under new Navy protocols to avoid infection, before leaving from its homeport, but loaded with 1,000+ tones of weapons before leaving Japan. Before moving the CSGs, US submarines were in operations in the Western Pacific. The numbers of the submarines were unknown, but the intel they got was part of the decision. Carl Schuster, who was the former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, admitted it was not just coincidental. The Chinese Navy got spooked by the US subs and now the three carrier strikes groups make the Chinese more jittery and add a flotilla of destroyers and cruisers too. Make the PLAN sweat profusely, confirm in American Action News. Another incident is the overflight of a US Navy C-40 transport plane that is interpreted as a violation by the Chinese which was not, according to US Navy spokesperson Reann Mommsen, mentioned in VOA News. Related article: Three US Navy Aircraft Carriers Seen Patrolling Indo-Pacific Amidst Tensions in Three Years as a Pushback Aimed at Beijing @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. ABOUT 100 people took part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Goring. Participants gathered at Gardiner recreation ground, off Upper Red Cross Road, shortly before noon on Sunday to kneel and observe a silence of eight minutes and 46 seconds. This was the length of time that George Floyd, a black American, was pinned under the knee of a white police officer who was arresting him on May 25. He died of suffocation, sparking worldwide protest against all forms of racism. About 300 people attended a peaceful protest in Henley last week and there were similar events in cities including London and Bristol, where a statue of industrialist and slave trade Edward Colston was thrown into the River Avon. Protesters at the Goring event, which lasted about half an hour, remained 2m apart to preserve social distancing. Many wore masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus and a small number of them had brought signs. They listened to a speech by Tony Virgo-Harris, who has lived in the village for more than 20 years and runs the Virgo Beauty salon in High Street with his wife Sarah. Mr Virgo-Harris, 52, who is one of Gorings few black residents, urged onlookers to learn about black history and reflect on their own unconscious prejudices. He said he mostly felt accepted but at times villagers had crossed the road to avoid him, chosen to stand on the train rather than take an empty seat next to him or shifted their bags in suspicion when he was near. He told the Henley Standard that he was delighted at the amount of support at the protest. Mr Virgo-Harris said: I was humbled, pleased, surprised and scared I must have gone through every emotion. I was worried about speaking out but I felt obliged to say something as Im probably one of the few people in Goring whos affected directly. Some people have been very nasty about this movement on social media. I didnt think any of those people would show up on the day as its easy to be brave behind a keyboard, but I did worry about the effect it could have on my family and business. Its not like people dont know where we are. I think its important to consider what its like to live in someone elses skin. Were all capable of bias, including myself, and we need to fully understand history if these things are going to improve and move forward. Its okay to disagree and I value freedom of speech but the debate needs to be constructive. I hope this movement encourages people to think about an issue theyve felt able to ignore because it doesnt affect them. Its not enough to be quietly non-racist we have to actively resist it and more and more people are doing that. The protest was organised by Tim Schulz, who lives in Elvendon Road with his husband James Dawe. He wanted to combat prejudice because the couple, who run a cider brand, would sometimes receive homophobic comments when they ran the Catherine Wheel pub, off Station Road. Mr Schulz, 40, was also annoyed that a smaller, informal protest which took place in the village last week had attracted racist abuse on social media. He said: I wanted to do it bigger and better and I was very pleased with how it went. Gardiner rec is a bit out of the way but it was important to go somewhere big enough for everyone to protest safely. A few passing cyclists stopped to look but on the whole it was quite low-key. It was a very powerful event when youre staying silent for almost nine minutes, it really brings home how long that is. Tonys speech was moving, positive and touching and it got a lot of applause. Goring has a fairly conservative population, as we saw in the pub all the time, but theres a strong sense of community and on the whole people wont tolerate any kind of bigotry or abuse. We had about 1,500 guests at our third and final Goring Pride event and for everyone who said we dont want that kind of thing here thered be 100 who said they did. Promoting a more humane criminal justice system, UNODC launches brand new prisoner classification guide 12 June 2020 With nearly 11 million people incarcerated at any given time across the globe, prison management and the treatment of prisoners are two essential areas within the criminal justice system. Critically, to ensure that imprisonment is used as an opportunity to correct rather than punish, prison administrations must be able to correctly classify prisoners an important move which helps bolster their ability to rehabilitate and reduce reoffending. Being able to correctly classify prisoners impacts an array of prison management aspects: among others, it best determines the assessment of risks and the needs of inmates to determine their proper placement and the type of rehabilitation programmes they should be enrolled in; it improves the safety and security of prisoners, prison staff and the general public; it bolsters the humane and human rights-based custody of prisoners; it provides the ability to individualize cases and sentence planning; and, ultimately, it builds a more effective way of operating a prison system. With this in mind, UNODC has released a brand new, comprehensive tool to provide practical information and guidance in support of prison administrations looking to develop effective national approaches. Drawing from classification experience shared by numerous countries and coupled with UNODCs extensive knowledge in prison management, the Handbook on the Classification of Prisoners offers practical, evidence-based information and guidelines to assist in the implementation of an effective system of prisoner classification. To ensure this type of classification factors in recognized key international standard and norms, it is also developed in line with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) and the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules). While primarily designed for prison officers, it is also intended to be a useful resource guide for other criminal justice officials and parties involved in the criminal justice system. Covering five chapters, the Handbook looks at the overall importance of prisoner classification; the key factors in this area; approaches taken so far; principles and components to be aware of; and the final development and implementation of a prisoner classification system. The Handbook is the latest in a range of tools developed by UNODC as part of the Doha Declaration Global Programme, all aimed at fostering a more rehabilitative approach to prison management. Other resources complementing this latest Handbook include those on building prison-based rehabilitation programmes, tackling corruption in prisons, preventing recidivism and boosting the social reintegration of offenders, and creating a brand of prison products. Additional information: Prisoner rehabilitation Related publications Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:09:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close STOCKHOLM, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 death toll has exceeded 5,000 in Sweden, according to statistics from the Swedish Public Health Agency on Wednesday. With 102 new deaths reported in the past 24 hours, a total of 5,041 people have died of COVID-19 in Sweden, showed the statistics. Meanwhile, coronavirus infections increased by 1,239 cases compared with the previous day, taking the country's total to 54,562. The number of people who were and are treated in intensive care in Sweden stands at 2,322. Meanwhile, Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs on Wednesday announced it would partially amend its international travel advisory at the end of June. The ministry had previously advised against all non-essential international trips up until July 15, but on Wednesday announced new directives that mean the general travel advisory will be extended until Aug.31, with the exception of ten European countries, which Swedes will be free to travel to from June 30. "There has been a positive development in Europe," Foreign Minister Ann Linde said at a news conference on Wednesday, adding that the ten countries for which the travel advisory will be lifted have also opened up for entry for Swedes and other EU nationals. That means "insecurity factors for Swedes are minimized," according to a ministry statement published on its website. The ten countries are Belgium, Croatia, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. While these countries have decided to open up for entry for Swedes, several others, including neighboring Denmark and Norway, have closed their borders to Swedes or required Swedes to self-isolate upon entry. "The great insecurity regarding global travel remains," the Foreign Ministry statement said. "Closed borders or significant restrictions on entering or leaving the country, quarantine rules and curfews are a continued reality in large parts of the world. Disruptions to international passenger travel remains." The travel advisory against non-essential travel, including recreational trips, does not constitute a legal ban on international travel. Instead, it is up to each individual to decide for himself or herself whether or not to travel. However, it does mean some insurances will not be valid while abroad and that Sweden cannot guarantee access to consular assistance. On June 13, the Swedish government changed recommendations for domestic travel, saying that citizens are allowed to move about freely around the country, as long as they are symptom-free. At Wednesday's news conference, Linde stressed that the same recommendations for social distancing, regular handwashing and remaining indoors at the slightest sign of flu symptoms also apply when Swedes are abroad. Enditem An Indian spokesman said on Tuesday that three Indian soldiers were killed during the fighting on Monday night, which involved rocks and wooden clubs, and 17 others succumbed to injuries and cold in the high-elevation terrain. Preliminary reports indicated that the soldiers had not been shot. The Indian news media reported that Chinese soldiers had been killed, but this was not confirmed by Beijing. The two countries had been working to de-escalate border tensions after several face-offs between their troops along the disputed border in recent weeks. Context: The violence is a continuation of a long-running dispute between India and China about the precise location of their jagged Himalayan border, known as the Line of Actual Control. They fought a war over it in 1962 that ended in an uneasy peace. Whats next: Neither side wants a war, especially India, because China has a far superior military, Jeffrey Gettleman, our New Delhi bureau chief, told my colleague Melina Delkic. Both sides are now trying to calm things down, at least thats what the governments are telling us. Kopp apologized and called for reforms in the justice system that would put a stop to innocent people being incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. We owe these gentlemen not only financial payment, which we are making, but our sincere apologies and resolution to oversee changes in the system to prevent this from happening in the future, she said. Shares of Novavax, Inc. NVAX have risen sharply in the year so far. The stock has skyrocketed 1210.3%, outperforming the industrys increase of 6.6%. The company was recently in the spotlight following its efforts to develop a novel vaccine against the deadly coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In April, Novavax identified its potential coronavirus vaccine candidate NVX-CoV2373, which was made using the companys proprietary nanoparticle technology. NVX-CoV2373 includes Novavaxs proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant to improve immune responses and stimulate high levels of neutralizing antibodies. Last month, the company initiated a phase I/II clinical study on NVX-CoV2373. Preliminary immunogenicity and safety data from the study is expected in July. Novavax received a funding of more than $390 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) for the clinical development of NVX-CoV2373. Significantly, the CEPI is financing several biotechs including Moderna MRNA, Inovio Pharmaceuticals INO and many universities to accelerate the development of vaccines against COVID-19. Notably, Novavax acquired Praha Vaccines in Czech Republic for approximately $167 million in cash during May. The acquisition added a biologics manufacturing facility, located in Bohumil, Czech Republic, which will likely provide an annual capacity of more than 1 billion doses of NVX-CoV2373 starting 2021. The company already has an agreement with Emergent BioSolutions EBS to manufacture and supply GMP vaccine product for use in its clinical studies. Earlier this month, Novavax was awarded a contract worth $60 million by the United States, Department of Defense (DoD) to support manufacturing of NVX-CoV2373. Per the agreement, the company will deliver 10 million doses of NVX-CoV2373 to DoD that can be used in phase II/III clinical studies or under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), if approved by the FDA. This apart, Novavax is developing its nanoparticle seasonal influenza vaccine candidate, NanoFlu, for senior patients aged 65 years and above. In March 2020, the company announced positive top-line data from a pivotal phase III study on the same. Story continues Novavax also plans to submit a biologics license application (BLA) for NanoFLu using the FDAs accelerated approval pathway. We note that the Novavax's portfolio is currently devoid of any approved product. As a result, it is yet to generate any revenues from product sales. If the company is able to successfully develop and commercialize its influenza as well as COVID-19 vaccines, it will be a huge boost to the stock in the days ahead. Novavax, Inc. Price Novavax, Inc. Price Novavax, Inc. price | Novavax, Inc. Quote Zacks Rank Novavax is a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock, currently. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >> 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 Moderna, Inc. (MRNA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Emergent Biosolutions Inc. (EBS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INO) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Insurance company honours B1mn payment for Phuket COVID-19 death PHUKET: The daughter of a 63-year-old woman who died from COVID-19 in Phuket in April has received B1 million from the insurance company that her mother had a COVID-19 health coverage with. COVID-19Coronavirusdeath By The Phuket News Wednesday 17 June 2020, 12:14PM Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana (centre, pink shirt) stands beside Phiyathida Taosritrakul as she receives the B1mn insurance claim payment at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (June 16). Photo: PR Dept The daughter, Phiyathida Taosritrakul, received the B1mn claim payment at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (June 16). Present for the handover were Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana and Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) Phuket Chief Theerasak Mesa, along with Dhipaya Insurance Phuket manager Decho Phonpruk, who presented the payment. Ms Phiyathidas mother, Srisamai Yotchai, 63, owned a restaurant on the Patong beachfront. Ms Srisamai first became ill on Mar 24, and after a week of treatment through a private clinic was admitted at Patong Hospital on Apr 1. She was transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town that same day. Despite doctors efforts, Ms Srisamais condition deteriorated and she passed away on Apr 27. In explaining Ms Srisamais death to the press, Vachira Phuket Hospital Director Dr Chalermpong Sukontapol said, The majority of customers at the restaurant were Chinese, and as the owner she was responsible for collecting money from customers. Ms Srisamai usually did not wear a mask, did not wash her hands often and some days she went to the Kathu market, he added. Ms Srisamai lived with two other family members her husband and her niece, both of whom worked at the restaurant. Both her husband and niece were later confirmed as infected with COVID-19, and both of them later recovered, Dr Chalermpong said. At the handover ceremony yesterday, OIC Phuket Chief Mr Theerasak said that more than 7 million people had taken out COVID-19 health-coverage policies since the outbreak began in Thailand. In Phuket, around 36,400 people have taken out such policies, he added. Mr Theerasak explained that COVID-19 health policies in Thailand offered four types of coverage: claims for being infected; claims to cover medical treatment costs, claims for infection leading to coma; and claims for death as a result of the disease. TICKERS: ECR, EVM, KMEN, LRA, MD, OR, REN, WPM Source: Adrian Day for Streetwise Reports (6/16/20) Fund manager Adrian Day discusses why he likes the proposed merger of Evrim Resources with Renaissance Gold, plus he names some companies on his buy list. Evrim Resources Corp. (EVM:TSX.V, 0.35) is merging with fellow junior prospect generator Renaissance Gold Inc. (REN:TSX), doubling the size of the company, to create Orogen Royalties, a self-defined "organic royalty generator." The merger brings together Evrim's near-term royalty on the Ermitano project and multiple projects and joint-ventures in British Columbia and Mexico with Renaissance's further-out but potentially much larger royalty on the Silicon project with multiple exploration projects in Nevada. The business model with be to build a portfolio of royalties largely through prospect generation, as well as M&A and exploration. Strong assets to build on The combined company will have a market cap of about C$60 million with C$13.5 million in cash. The two cornerstone assets are: Ermitano: a gold/silver property sold for a 2% royalty to First Majestic, which operates the adjacent Santa Elena mine. First Majestic has been aggressively developing the project with production slated for the first half of 2021. Silicon, a gold property Renaissance discovered and sold to AngloGold for a 1% royalty. Though Anglo has put out little information, Renaissance believes from indications it could be a multi-million ounce deposit, likely 57 years away from production. Anglo just made the final payment of $2.4 million. In addition, Evrim brings a royalty of another property, Cumobabi, adjacent to Ermitano, which would follow it into production at a future date, and Renaissance royalties on four early stage projects in Argentina. The project pipeline and joint ventures of both companies in western North America is deep, gold dominant, though there are several copper (or gold-copper) projects in the portfolio as well. Potential partner in Nevada Of particular interest is an agreement Evrim has with Yamana regarding its extensive western United States database. Evrim must show properties it finds (whether from Yamana's database or independently) to Yamana, which has the option to enter into a joint venture on pre-determined and quite attractive terms. Evrim can dilute itself from an equity interest to a royalty. If Yamana declines, then the property reverts to Evrim; the entire alliance ends in 18 months, at which time Evrim maintains a copy of the database Many of these properties are in Nevada, and Renaissance's exploration team has deep experience in that state, so the potential for a series of exploration properties, joint ventures and eventual royalties is real. People, cash, and a plan Both companies have strong, well-respected personnel. Paddy Nichol will remain CEO of the combined company, and Paul van Eeden the chairman, while Renaissance's Bob Felder will be senior vice president. The balance sheet is strong, and once the Ermitano royalty kicks in, revenue will cover most of the company's expenses. The companies expect that by combining they can save around $800,000 in G&A, which is significant for two companies that each have a little over $1 million in G&A. The transaction, requiring votes of both groups of shareholders, is expected to close in late August or September. If that was the end of the story, it would be strong enough, with two complementary companies, each bringing what the other lacks. But there is much more to this merger: it is intended to lay the foundation for future growth which will include acquiring other projects or companies to build a new royalty generation powerhouse. The larger company will reduce the cost of capital and also enable it to compete in acquisitions. As CEO Paddy Nichol put it, "We don't want to be here two years from now with the same assets." We have high regard and confidence in the skills, integrity and ambition of the management team and with the strong balance sheet, we look forward to the realization of the goal. I suspect we will be holding Evrim/Orogen for a very long time. Evrim is a buy. Property attractive for acquisition Cartier Resources Inc. (ECR:TSX.V, 0.195) is advancing its Chimo property in Quebec, with a few to completing a third resource estimate by the end of summer. Currently showing almost 600,000 ounces (indicated), this could increase to close to 2 million ounces, with the planned in-fill drilling intended to upgrade the inferred category into reserves. At that size, given the low capex that would be requiredbecause of facilities in the region, no mill, no leach pad, no shaft to sinkthe project could be of great appeal to one of the many companies operating in the region, or even a new entrant. Cartier's plan is to sell the project once the updated resource estimate is completed. Its $5 million in the bank is more than sufficient to reach that stage. Cartier is a buy for aggressive investors. TOP BUYS In addition to above, with the pullback we have experienced in many gold stocks, while not at bargain levels, there are some buys this week. Don't go overboard; we may see further declines. Buys include Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. (OR:TSX; OR:NYSE, CA$8.95); Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (WPM:TSX; WPM:NYSE, US$38.12); Midland Exploration Inc. (MD:TSX.V, 0.83); Lara Exploration Ltd. (LRA:TSX.V, 0.72); and Kingsmen Creatives Ltd. (KMEN:SI, 0.22). Originally posted on June 14, 2020. Adrian Day, London-born and a graduate of the London School of Economics, heads the money management firm Adrian Day Asset Management, where he manages discretionary accounts in both global and resource areas. Day is also sub-adviser to the EuroPacific Gold Fund (EPGFX). His latest book is "Investing in Resources: How to Profit from the Outsized Potential and Avoid the Risks." [NLINSERT] Disclosure: 1) Adrian Day: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own securities of the following companies mentioned in this article: Evrim Resources, Midland Exploration, Lara Exploration. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Funds controlled by Adrian Day Asset Management hold shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: All. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector. 2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. 3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. 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All information is believed to be correct, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The owner and editor are not responsible for errors and omissions. 2020. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) speaks in Washington in a 2014 file photograph. His wife died suddenly on June 16, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Wife of Rep. Andy Barr Dies at Age 39 Eleanor Carol Leavell Barr, the wife of Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), has died suddenly at the age of 39. The cause of death hasnt been released and its not clear whether the couples two daughters were there when Barr died. Rep. Barr, 49, married his wife in 2008. Congressman Andy Barrs wife Carol passed away suddenly tonight at the family home in Lexington, Mary Rosado, Barrs chief of staff, said in a statement to news outlets. During this tragic time, we respectfully ask for privacy for Congressman Barr and his family to grieve Mrs. Barr being called home to heaven. The congressman may release a more detailed statement in the future but is currently focused on being a father to his daughters, the staffer said. Happy Mothers Day from our family to yours. Today, Im celebrating my wife Carol, and I hope youll join me in celebrating all the amazing moms across KY06. pic.twitter.com/pS9S8xcSwW Andy Barr (@barrforcongress) May 10, 2020 Barr was the executive director of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship, a nonprofit that seeks to inspire cooperative national political dialogue. The center in a statement said Barr was beloved for her kindness, elegance, and compassion. Anyone who had the privilege of meeting Carol immediately experienced the glow of her warmth and hospitality, which were indicative of how she served her community and loved her family, it added. Elected officials shared tributes to Barr and condolences to her husband. Elaine and I are stunned and heartbroken by Carol Barrs passing. Her warmth filled whatever room she entered. Her contributions made Kentucky a better place for all of us. We send our sincere condolences to Andy, their girls, and their family at this terribly painful time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he and his wife were heartbroken and praying for the Barr family. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said Barr was always a joy to be around, adding, She had a smile that lit up every room, radiating with the love she had for her family and our state. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wrote in a statement: Our hearts are heavy tonight. Kelley and I offer our deepest condolences to Rep. Andy Barr, his two daughters, family, and friends. Please join us in praying for them during this incredibly difficult time. Josh Hicks, a Democrat challenging Barr for his seat, said he is praying for his opponent and the family. This is an unimaginable loss. While we may disagree politically, were both family men and I cant fathom the pain he must be experiencing right now, he said. Barr represents Kentuckys 6th Congressional District. He has been in Congress since 2013 after being a lawyer. New Delhi, June 17 : The Delhi Police on Wednesday detained Army veterans and Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) members, who were protesting outside the Chinese Embassy here against the killing of 20 Indian Army soldiers in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops. The protest outside the Chinese Embassy was supposed to be a representation by the Martyrs Welfare Foundation. However, members of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch also joined in later. SJM members initially protested at the Teen Murti Police station and then moved towards the embassy to protest. The members could be seen holding posters with a black cross on 'Made in China' written on them. Earlier on Wednesday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh extended his condolences to the families of the martyred soldiers who laid down their lives for the country in the violent faceoff that broke out on Monday night. "The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army," Singh tweeted. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Police officials have promised to hold accountable any officers who have violated the law, and so far one officer Vincent DAndraia is facing criminal charges in Brooklyn. At least two others have been suspended, and dozens are under investigation over attacks on protesters. During the first few days of the protests, before a curfew was imposed on June 1 because of looting, violence was also directed at officers. At least 300 officers were injured as demonstrators pelted them with rocks, water bottles and on occasion Molotov cocktails, the police said. One officer was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher. Dozens of police vehicles were damaged, and at least 13 were burned. Earlier this month, the police commissioner, Dermot F. Shea, apologized for instances of misconduct, but said the majority of officers had shown restraint and acted appropriately. He also appealed to demonstrators to stop insulting and attacking his officers, warning that anti-police rhetoric could lead to further violence. For there to be calm there must also be contrition, he said. So I am sorry, he said, then paused and asked, Are you? Alan Williams, one of the first witnesses to testify, said that he was at the Barclays Center on May 29, when, for no reason he could discern, officers began shooting pepper spray at the crowd in a panoramic fashion, stinging his eyes. After falling to his knees and flushing his eyes with milk, Mr. Williams said he got to his feet as officers swinging batons converged on the crowd. Mr. Williams, who was arrested that night, was released in time to ride his bicycle to another protest two days later that ended near Bryant Park in Manhattan. As evening fell, he said, the police ordered the crowd to disperse, but officers advanced before anyone was able to move away. In the ensuing melee, Mr. Williams said he fell to the ground atop his bicycle and was arrested a second time. One officer, he said, threw his bike and damaged it. The cops those first few nights were pretty aggressive, he said. When human contact needs to be kept to a minimum, robots can save lives and factories. But when the coronavirus crisis is over, will they amplify job losses? It may be a mechanised arm pulling beers in a Seville bar, a dog-like dispenser of hand sanitiser in a Bangkok mall, a cooler on wheels that delivers groceries in Washington, or a vaguely humanoid greeter at a Belgian hospital that also checks you are not running a fever. These are some of the new jobs that robots have taken on as lockdown measures have seen humans confined to their homes. - 'Resistance falls away' - "The moment there is a threat for humans, you should send a robot," said Cyril Kabbara, co-founder of the French start-up Sharks Robotics. Its robot Colossus helped save Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral when flames engulfed its roof in 2019, and has been adapted to help remove lead that contaminated the site. "Four or five years ago, when we went presented the Colossus, they laughed at us. The firefighters said: 'These guys are going to take away our jobs'," said the entrepreneur. But the Colossus has since been successfully integrated into the Paris and Marseille fire services. "The more we advance, the more the resistance falls away," he said. It is not just in the hygiene and medical spheres where robots have made advances. "This crisis has demonstrated that you have to have a capacity to continue activity even when a health or another type of crisis strikes," said Kabbara. "We've had quite a few manufacturers tell us that the robots allowed them to continue operating. And if they hadn't had them, they'd be at a dead stop." While owners like robots as they can keep operations running, workers can see them as a risk to their jobs. Rightly so, according to Brookings Institution researcher Mark Muro. "Recent research suggests that the deepening recession is likely to bring a surge of labour-replacing automation," he said in a recent note for the Economist Intelligence Unit. - 'Robophobia' - "People who suggest that automation is not taking away jobs in manufacturing, they're just wrong," said Oxford University economist Carl Frey. He pointed to China, a country which is rapidly installing industrial robots, with 650,000 going online in 2018 alone, and which lost 12.5 million manufacturing jobs between 2013 and 2017. The country has seen an explosion in "robophobia" during the coronavirus crisis, according to a study by Spanish university IE. While only 27 percent of Chinese supported limiting automation before the crisis struck, the figure has doubled to 54 percent. The Chinese are now close to the French, who at 59 percent, are the most hostile to automation. The study also revealed that hostility towards automation was tied to age and education, with the younger and less educated people most hostile towards robots. "Historically, technology has created a lot of jobs as well, but you see less of that happening in the digital world," said Frey. He pointed to automakers or manufacturers like General Electric still employing many workers even after adopting automation. "The leading techs of today are not creating so many jobs, apart from Amazon," he told AFP. - No one safe ? - With the rapid progress made in artificial intelligence, white collar workers are increasingly at risk from automation, experts warn. "No group of workers may be entirely immune this time around," said Muro. That is not to say that high levels of automation cannot coexist with low unemployment. Singapore and South Korea are at the top of the rankings for deployment of robots compared to the size of the workforce and yet they enjoy low unemployment. Nevertheless, Frey warns of rising anxiety about robots stealing jobs once the immediate fear of the coronavirus recedes. But he doubts a worldwide movement against automation will gain traction as job losses are a local phenomenon and tend to happen in regions that have long suffered from manufacturing jobs disappearing. Robots are stepping into the breach during the coronavirus crisis, but what does this mean for jobs? CRUZR welcomes vistors at University Hospital Antwerp in Belgium Don't be afraid: K9 doesn't bite, he distributes hand sanitiser to visitors in a shopping mall in Bangkok No need to tip, a robot now pulls beers at one bar in the Spanish city of Seville Growth amid difficulty Among Vietnams agricultural exports that recorded growth during the January-May period, rice was the best performer, having shipped nearly 2.9 million tonnes worth US$1.41 billion, up 5.1% in volume and 18.9% in value over the same period of 2019. In May alone, rice exports surged by 47% in volume and 55.3% in value against the previous month, with average prices soaring to US$527 per tonne. Prices in the first five months also rose to 13%, averaging at US$485. This is a bright spot in Vietnams farming export picture with the coronavirus remaining complicated in many countries. For fruits, export revenue plunged by 21.4% to US$1.15 billion as many fresh fruits were unable to reach the Chinese market at the time of the outbreak explosion in the worlds second largest economy. Vietnams farming exports continued to face difficulty with the virus having spread widely to Europe and the United States. Although fruit exports have yet to see growth, there are signs of a possible recovery, with the latest good news coming from the export of fresh lychees to the US, Australia, Singapore and Japan, while measures have also been taken to facilitate the shipment of lychees to China, one of the largest markets for the tropical fruit for years. The slump in seafood exports is also slowing down with the decline in May at just 1.6%, significantly lower than the previous months, as exports to China soared by 20%. Total seafood exports to China are forecast to fully recover by the end of June. In the meantime, seafood exports to Japan in April and May grew by 16% and 9%, respectively, which is expected to make the East Asian country the largest buyer of Vietnamese seafood in 2020. According to VASEP, the body of seafood producers and exporters, exports to China and Japan are picking up but recovery is unlikely to be seen in the US and Europe as the virus outbreak has disrupted supply chains and trade activities. In addition, the demand for seafood has fallen as restaurants are closed and consumers have cut their spending. If the outbreak persists, Vietnamese seafoods are expected to face steeper declines in the coming months. Efforts for quick and strong recovery At a recent conference, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong noted that the demand for food will still grow despite the coronavirus since food is an essential goods. Therefore, Vietnam needs to seize on this opportunity to quickly regain growth by diversifying its exports in order to meet the new consumption demand of each country, such as increasing the share of canned food instead of fresh products. In this situation, rice is one of the candidates for explosive growth in the coming months. It is estimated that the Mekong Delta will produce 2.3-2.5 million tonnes of rice in the upcoming summer-autumn season, with high-quality rice accounting for 1 million tonnes and jasmine rice 580,000 tonnes. The Philippines is forecast to be the largest buyer of Vietnamese rice. China and Indonesia have also been increasing their rice imports from Vietnam after the outbreak has subsided, offering a golden opportunity for Vietnam to boost its rice exports. While rice is looking up, challenges are still gripping the seafood sector. Processors and exporters all agree on the need to focus on markets where the outbreak has been contained to compensate for the continuing downturn in Europe and the US. The export structure is also expected to see a marked shift towards canned products to meet safety requirements in the time of outbreak. In the meantime, it has been predicted that shark catfish exports will not recover until the third quarter, as such it is necessary to develop the domestic market to deal with the surplus. Steady growth has not been seen in fruit exports, but hope is being pinned on the rapid and strong recovery of demand for imported products in China, a major market for many Vietnamese fruits. But it is necessary to encourage Vietnamese enterprises to export through official channels, strictly abide by origin tracing and labelling rules, and meet other quality requirements under the agreements with their partners. After several months of taking a serious hit by the coronavirus, Vietnams farming exports are now gradually recovering in some key markets. Challenges will remain in the latter half of 2020 but, as Vietnam has essentially contained the coronavirus outbreak, it is an opportunity for the country to build up importers confidence in the quality and safety of Vietnamese farming produce. The State (Maharashtra) Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has begun to access complaints filed online through the use of its consumerconnect.co.in website. Case hearings also take place online, wherein the gotomeeting app, available on the Playstore, is used. Consumers can now file complaints on consumerconnect, after which they are given a log-in ID. This log-in ID enables a complainant to access the hearing via the gotomeeting app. Complainants must pay an e-fee of Rs 500 to register and an e-charge for an online appellate hearing is Rs 750. Both charges as per the state government general resolution (GR). The Pune branch of the forum currently has a pendency of 2,000 cases before the bench, till date. Justice AP Bhangale, state president of the commission, in a circular dated June 10, stated, Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the regular functioning of the SCDRC at present is stopped. It has been decided to start hearing of cases which are ready for hearings and arguments. However, due to Covid 19, the physical hearing before the commission is not possible.Therefore, the undersigned has decided to start virtual hearing of the cases which are ready for final hearing. Advocate Umesh Jawalikar,president, Pune District Consumer Redressal Forum, said, During the Covid crisis, the hearing of the cases will be done online through the online platforms. The complainant, lawyers and forum will be participating online from their homes. We are working as per the circular of the state government. The hearings can be recorded and will be in line with how the higher courts are functioning online. It is a secure system where documents once submitted at the centralised location will be assigned to areas of jurisdiction. The link generated will sent to the parties through the administrator. Jawalikar said that the new arrangement is aimed at providing justice to consumers during the pandemic. Our office, near the Pune railway station, is situated near a containment zone (Dhole Patil road). It is not advisable for individuals come to the court. This is the most transparent system. Also, consumer awareness is the need of the hour during this Pandemic, he said. Consumer redressal online - how it works - Log on to consumerconnect.co.in, register, get user ID - Upload all scanned copies of documents - Uploaded data sent to state commission, which then assigns it to consumer forum of respective district, where it can be accessed online - gotomeeting app enables complainant to be present for hearings online - User ID generated on consumerconnect.co.in to be used to access hearing via app - Link will be provided by the consumer forum which will enable her/him to access hearing - Forum president, defence counsel and lawyer of the opponent party all present at hearing Press Release June 17, 2020 Review of UHC Law pushed; Bong Go says concerns of OFWs amid COVID-19 crisis must be considered During the hearing of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Universal Health Care Law, Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go proposed to his fellow lawmakers, concerned government agencies and other stakeholders the review of the law following concerns from overseas Filipino workers regarding increased premium contribution. In his opening statement, Go said that for universal health care to be sustainable, the country needs "to secure the necessary funding that will keep the program in good running shape." "While we have to make sure that the funds are allocated properly, we also have to take into consideration that the world is in a crisis," he added. Go noted, however, that "[m]ost people, especially individually paying members like our OFWs, cannot afford to pay the premium at this time" due to the pandemic. This prompted the government to make contributions voluntary for them at this time. "Dahil nga sa ating sitwasyon ngayon, minabuti muna ni Pangulong Duterte na gawing boluntaryo ang kontribusyon ng ating mga OFWs." "Mag-focus muna tayo ngayon kung paano matulungan ang mga kababayan nating nangangailangan dahil sa COVID-19 crisis," Go also said. "Lalo na ngayon na nasa health emergency ang bansa at nawawalan ng kakayahan ang mga Pilipinong magbigay ng dagdag na kontribusyon dahil sa krisis. Sabi nga nila, 'in this time of crisis, every single peso counts'," he added. Go stressed that it is important "to study the need to amend the law in consideration of the concerns raised by some sectors." The Senator also emphasized that the intent of the said hearing is to revisit and review the implementation of the law, enhance it further to cope with current situation by taking into consideration the current plight of the Filipinos amid the global health crisis, and study possible amendments to improve it further without compromising the ability of the government to realize its vision of providing universal health care to all Filipinos. In the hearing participated by multiple stakeholders, including OFWs from abroad, migrant worker representatives were able to voice out their concerns and advance their suggestions on how to improve the implementation of the UHC Law. Executive Director Ellene Sana of the Center for Migrant Advocacy said that their immediate recommendation is the issuance of a moratorium on the collection of payments for OFWs until the end of the year or until the law has been amended. But she stressed that they remain steadfast on their belief that OFWs should be included in the Universal Health Care policy. Some OFW groups, however, proposed for contributions to be voluntary under a fixed rate scheme. Among OFW stakeholders and groups present during the hearing were representatives from the Blas Ople Policy Center, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People, Philippine Migrants Rights Watch, Filipino community in the United Arab Emirates, United Filipino Global, Seafarers' Group, United Filipino Global (Bay Area, California) and OFW Integration and Development, among others. In response to their concerns, Go said that the government is always open to listen to them. "Thank you to our OFWs who are abroad participating now. 'Wag po kayong mag-alala, we are here for you and pakikinggan namin ang inyong hinaing." Meanwhile, during the hearing, Go also asked PhilHealth what steps it has taken so far after the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to make premium contributions voluntary. PhilHealth President Ricardo Morales responded, saying that they have issued an advisory to make premium contributions voluntary during the pandemic. Morales noted, however, that to make such policy permanent, it will require a legislative amendment. Morales also said during his presentation that the agency has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and is now reconfiguring its budget for fiscal year 2020. Go then urged the state health insurance provider to prioritize the provision of primary care benefits to Filipinos, saying, "Pag-aralan nating i-prioritize ang primary care benefits, lalo na sa panahon ng pandemic. Kailangan ang check-ups, tests. Given the limited funds available, pag-aralan natin kung ano ang kailangan priority." The Senator also took the opportunity to remind PhilHealth to ensure that the funds entrusted to PhilHealth are safely guarded and free from dubious schemes and corruption. The Department of Health gave a presentation about updates on the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law. According to the health department, they have so far disseminated the UHC Act and its Implementing Rules and Regulations, developed the UHC Policy Agenda and Crafting of Operational Guidelines, worked on the staffing requirements for UHC implementation and preparation of UHC integration sites, and the formulation of a catch up plan for UHC Act implementation under a new, better normal. Earlier in a statement, Go urged for relief for OFWs who could be overburdened by the increased PhilHealth premium contributions. The Senator suggested for PhilHealth to study the provision of leeway to OFWs regarding their contribution increase. "Ang hinihingi ko lamang ay mabigyan natin ng kinakailangang 'palugit' ang mga OFWs sa kabila ng pinapasan nilang hirap ngayon. Lahat ng palugit na pwede natin maibigay sa panahon ng krisis, ibigay na po natin," Go said. He also asked the state health insurance provider to improve its information dissemination campaign to better inform Filipinos on where their contributions are going. "Umaapela din ako sa PhilHealth na mas lalong pagbutihin pa ang inyong pagbibigay ng mga sapat na impormasyon upang mas maintindihan ng lahat ng mga Pilipino kung saan napupunta ang mga kontribusyon nila," Go said. "Sa bawat pisong lumalabas sa bulsa ng ating mga kababayan, dapat alam nila kung anu-anong mga benepisyo ang naibibigay naman sa kanila ng gobyerno," he added. During the same hearing, Morales said that in response to Go's earlier appeal, they are no longer requiring OFWs to pay their premium contributions as a requirement to secure an Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC). "What we asked the OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) to help us with is to register the departing OFWs but not to collect, and not to make the premium collection a requirement for the issuance of the OEC. So it has not been made a requirement for departure," Morales explained. The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the government and the Reserve Bank of India to review the loan moratorium issue and asked to create sector-wise schemes to suit their requirements. The apex court said customers who have availed loan moratorium should not be burdened with additional interest and that the government should interfere and not leave everything to be decided by banks. The SC bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, MR Shah and SK Kaul told the Centre that the purpose of the loan moratorium should have been to provide "benefit" to "customers purposefully". "Govt should consider interfering," the bench said, adding "once you fix a moratorium it should serve the purpose desired..we see no merit in charging interest on interest." Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said moratorium meant "deferment" and that it would be difficult for banks to waive interest as they also have to pay interest to depositors. "Problem is that even banks have to pay interest to depositors. Therefore waiving interest is not easy," he said. Justice Bhushan said banks should not charge the deferred amount and additional interest during the moratorium period. Senior Advocate Harish Salve, who represented banks, said the interest waiver plea was "premature". He said the issues would have to be tackled on a sector-to-sector basis. "We are still in a tunnel. Let's wait till we come out of this tunnel," he said. The SC bench reiterated: "We are only saying provide the waiver on interest on interest," said the bench. The bench said the Centre should interfere and waive off additional interest. The matter has been deferred to August first week. The RBI in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court had already informed that it cannot waive interest on loans for the six-month moratorium period, as it would jeopardise the financial stability and health of the banking sector. The apex bank also told the court that it assessed the interest payable on these loans to be approximately Rs 2 lakh crore, which it would lose if it forwent the interest amount on loan repayments. The RBI in May extended the moratorium on payment of all term loans by another three months till August 31. Before that, the central bank had allowed a three-month moratorium on payment of all term loans due between March 1 and May 31. The decision was announced following Centre's directions to the apex bank to ease the financial burden on the debtors in the wake of coronavirus-induced lockdown. Also read: Interest or Interest-free? SC asks Centre, RBI on EMI moratorium North Korea blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong on Tuesday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's powerful younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, had warned about the move earlier when she said the "useless" office will be "completely collapsed." A building that cost South Korean taxpayers W17 billion was turned into rubble at just one word from a young woman (US$1=W1,212). The office was established under an agreement between the leaders of the two Koreas in 2018, so the demolition can be seen as the scrapping of the solemn promises they made then. The Moon Jae-in administration had tried to appease North Korea by pledging to crack down on activists flying propaganda leaflets across the border, reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex and resume tours to the scenic Mt. Kumgang resort. But North Korea turned up its nose at all such offers. The sequence seems carefully planned. The North's military said it will redeploy troops to the various "peace zones" and could resume its own rather ineffectual anti-South Korean propaganda along the border. The North also said it will draft a military plan and submit it for approval by the Central Military Committee, which usually decides on direct attacks against South Korea. The North seems manically intent on ratcheting up tensions using the Kaesong Industrial Complex, Mt. Kumgang resort and the Northern Limit Line separating the two Koreas on the West Sea, which are the usual sticking point in a somewhat ritualized fan dance. It could also conduct nuclear tests and test more intercontinental ballistic missiles. Kim Jong-un's aim is not to trigger a war that would result in his demise. This is simply a return to the regime's tried and tested brinkmanship to stay alive. He is probably trying to ratchet up tensions just short of breaking point so there can then be a "dramatic" settlement that means nothing and simply returns everything to the status quo ante. The world has been there many times before. There was talk of war during the first North Korean nuclear crisis in the early 1990s, but a trip to the North by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter resulted in a nuclear freeze, while Pyongyang won valuable food and energy aid. And during the Lee Myung-bak administration, North Korea apparently attempted to hold a summit seeking economic concessions from South Korea after sinking the Navy corvette Cheonan and shelling Yeonpyeong Island. The North's ultimate goal this time is to get the U.S. and South Korea to scrap sanctions. But in fact the developments clearly demonstrate that the sanctions are working. Living conditions in North Korea are said to have grown so bad that the regime even worries about securing the livelihood of the elite in Pyongyang. This is the fruit of efforts to block most of North Korea's exports, exacerbated by the coronavirus epidemic, which has shut down commerce with China. That makes it impossible for open-air markets to flourish in the North, and they are the only lifeline for many. Experts say North Korea's foreign currency holdings could run dry soon. That's why Kim will try to achieve some kind of eye-catching settlement with Moon and U.S. President Donald Trump. A Minjoo Party lawmaker compared North Korea's situation with the U.S. police killing of George Floyd in that North Korea "can't breathe." But so the North can breathe again quite freely the moment it gives up its nuclear weapons, which will allow international sanctions to end and massive economic support from the international community to flow in like a rush of fresh air. Sanctions are the only non-military option of prodding the North Korean leader to scrap his nuclear weapons. He will continue to thrash and tear, but as long as the U.S. and South Korea maintain their firm resolve, it could actually produce results. The problem is the U.S. and South Korean governments. The Moon administration is not saying this publicly, but it appears to have given up on efforts to get the North to scrap its nuclear weapons and is only focusing on publicity stunts. That means it is vulnerable to North Korean pressure. And Trump, who faces a re-election struggle in November, could be tempted to put on another show of grins and hugs with Kim Jong-un. The South Korean public, who stand to lose the most under a nuclear-armed North Korea, need to remain vigilant. The time is at hand when they will see the effectiveness or failure of efforts to finally rid the peninsula of North Korea's nuclear weapons. Berlin: The Group of Seven leading economies is calling on China to reconsider plans to impose a national security law in Hong Kong, according to a joint statement issued on Wednesday. The national security legislation is aimed at curbing secessionist activities that Beijing says fuelled months-long anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. A protester with an umbrella runs away from tear gas fired by riot police on a street scattered with bricks during a protest in Hong Kong late last year. Credit:AP In their statement, foreign ministers from the G7 nations voiced "grave concern regarding China's decision to impose a national security law on Hong Kong," adding that it would breach the territory's Basic Law and Beijing's international commitments. "It would jeopardise the system which has allowed Hong Kong to flourish and made it a success over many years," they said. "Open debate, consultation with stakeholders, and respect for protected rights and freedoms in Hong Kong are essential." The president set a task to intensify talks on international cooperation in the purchase of a COVID-19 vaccine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine should gain access to a COVID-19 vaccine on an equal basis with other countries as soon as it is produced. Read alsoHealth Ministry elaborates on COVID-19 death rate dynamics in Ukraine "Ukraine should have access to the vaccine on an equal footing with other countries as soon as it is produced. We have good relations with the European Union. Please closely monitor the development of the coronavirus vaccine and keep Ukraine high on the agenda," he said during an intercom meeting on anti-coronavirus efforts on June 16, as reported by the press service of the President's Office. The president also set a task to intensify negotiations on international cooperation in the purchase of the COVID-19 vaccine. Meanwhile, Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza announced on Facebook on June 13 that Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands had signed a contract with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to provide European citizens with 400 million doses of an anti-coronavirus vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford. AstraZeneca earlier said it had agreed to supply 700 million doses of the vaccine for the United Kingdom and the United States, and had agreed a license with the Serum Institute of India for the supply of an additional 1 billion doses, mainly for low- and middle-income countries. In May, the University of Oxford announced the start of a Phase II/III vaccine trial in the UK in about 10,000 adult volunteers. Other late-stage trials are due to begin in a number of countries. There are currently no approved COVID-19 vaccines globally. COLUMBUS, Ohio - At least 2,611 Ohioans have died with confirmed or probable coronavirus by Wednesday, up 14, according to the Ohio Department of Health. The state has at least 42,422 confirmed and probable cases, up 412 from Tuesdays numbers. Increases in reported deaths and cases dont necessarily mean they all occurred in the past 24 hours. There is some lag time between when local entities report them to the state. Gov. Mike DeWine, during his 2 p.m. briefing, noted a new hotspot has flared up, in Clark County, which is roughly halfway between Columbus and Dayton. About 200 people who work at Dole Food Co.s Springfield salad processing plant have tested positive for coronavirus, DeWine said. The local health department is working to try to prevent more transmission. The state is assisting that effort with offering contract tracers, who track down everyone who was with an infected person to ask them to isolate. The Ohio Department of Health is also offering foreign language interpreters to communicate with the Dole plant workers. Dole mandated testing of all its 900 Springfield employees on Saturday in an isolated area outside the facility, according to a statement from the Charlotte, N.C. company. Employees who tested positive will continue to receive pay as theyre self-isolated. They can return to work when authorized by the Clark County Combined Health District. The plant has continued all operations with employees who tested negative in a safe environment, the company said. DeWine has notified hospitals in Zone 3 area to assist with the outbreak. The state has been divided into three regional zones, in which hospitals that normally compete against each other are now expected to work together to address the coronavirus pandemic. Zone 3 includes hospitals in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas. At least 8.2 million people across the globe have had coronavirus, including 445,000 who have died, according to Johns Hopkins Universitys coronavirus tracking map. That includes 2.1 million cases in the U.S. and 117,000 deaths. The U.S. death toll now exceeds the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in World War I, and the Korea and Vietnam wars. Ohios testing per 100,000 residents remains at the bottom -- 10th lowest -- compared to other U.S. states, territories and Washington, D.C., Johns Hopkins reports. The health department reports 581,444 coronavirus tests have been administered. Ohio has 11.7 million people. Other coverage: Ohio police-reform package to be unveiled by Gov. Mike DeWine, AG Dave Yost: Watch live U.S. Supreme Court ruling protecting LGBTQ workers from discrimination will affect 500,000 Ohioans: Equality Ohio Fall learning could look different at each of Ohios 610 school districts, with state in supporting role Dr. Amy Acton stepping down as director of Ohio Department of Health: Capitol Letter A Tuesday donation of more than 60 tons of food to a warehouse in Albuquerque will ultimately translate into thousands of boxes of food being delivered to needy Native American communities in New Mexico communities hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic. The donation and delivery was made possible by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from around the world who donated money saved from fast offerings to church headquarters in Salt Lake City, which then used the funds to purchase truckloads of food. Those trucks dropped off pallets of nonperishable items to an Albuquerque warehouse that is owned by the state and managed by the Human Services Department. In the warehouse, church members and volunteers from state agencies filled boxes with about 26 pounds of food each, with an additional 10-pound bag of flour or pancake mix thrown in for good measure. Project spokesman Brian Rule said the effort was spearheaded by a church elder, Dr. Maxsimo Torres, a physician from Clovis who had been scouting for opportunities where we could bless the lives of others. State agencies and the states network of emergency operation centers handled logistics for distribution. The state also served as an intermediary with the tribes, which will allow the boxes of food to go out quickly to those Native American communities that have been among the most vulnerable populations and hardest-hit by the pandemic, Rule said. The whole point of this is to help relieve suffering and address one of the biggest concerns our governor has, which is food insecurity, he said. According to the 2019 Map the Meal Gap report from Feeding America, New Mexico is ranked worst in the nation in food insecurity, with more than 24% of those ages 18 and younger at risk of hunger. We wanted to support the Governors Hunger Initiative, because the only way were going to solve food insecurity in this state is through a public-private partnership and pulling all the resources together, Rule said. Torres said he hopes the food distribution effort highlights a coming together of various faith-based groups, private organizations, state agencies and citizens to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Melody Wells, a spokeswoman for the state Children, Youth and Families Department, said that since the beginning of the pandemic, teams working at emergency operation centers around the state, including teams from CYFD, have helped coordinate efforts, and to distribute and deliver more than 2 million pounds of food. (Photo : Web Summit/Wiki Commons) SpotMini, Boston Dynamics, Robot, prior to going on Centre Stage during the final day of Web Summit 2019 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal. Photo by Harry Murphy/Web Summit via Sportsfile Robot manufacturer Boston Dynamics has now put Spot out in the market after leasing the four-legged robot to companies since last year. Any US businesses can now own Spot for just $74,500. It retails for almost the same as a Tesla Model S car. However, Boston Dynamics argues the buyers will get the "most advanced mobile robot" in the world that can go almost anywhere as long as there are no ladders. The company announced that businesses can already pre-order Spot. The four-legged agile robot has garnered attention for the different tasks it can perform that include running, climbing stairs, and even reminding people to practice social distancing. The announcement came on Tuesday, June 16, while the dog is still on pre-order and will take six to eight weeks to ship. See Spot run and more Spot can run about 5.2 feet per second, has cameras that give it 360-degree vision, and can continue operating at a vast range of temperatures from -4 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit. It's also dustproof and waterproof, so it requires less cleaning. While Spot seems lively, it can do tasks that are limited to surveying and data collection. The robot can also perform inspections and create 3D maps of construction sites. Spot can also search for machine faults in offshore oil rigs during trial deployments. Other tests include assisting in COVID-19 patients in a hospital triage as well as working with a police bomb squad. "The combination of Spot's sophisticated software and high-performance mechanical design enables the robot to augment difficult or dangerous human work," said Marc Raibert, Boston Dynamics chairman and founder in a statement. He also added that Spot can ensure human safety in environments and tasks. Boston Dynamics Spot Price Interested companies or individuals can order a Spot robot from the Boston Dynamics online store. They are marketing Spot as a multipurpose "mobility platform" that can be customized and programmed to perform patrols and inspections. pic.twitter.com/Yax9Y3HcdJ Adam gives steampunk a whole new meaning with his first Spot project, a robot-driven carriage! Watch @donttrythis build his first integration on the platform and use the API to adjust Spot's gait to provide the right forces to tow him around San Francisco: https://t.co/5zP2uGpo3b Boston Dynamics (@BostonDynamics) February 18, 2020 "We mostly sell the robot to industrial and commercial customers who have a sensor they want to take somewhere they don't want a person to go," Zack Jackowski, Boston Dynamics' lead robotics engineer, told The Verge. The company vows to continue upgrading Spot based on customers' feedback, although the robot is already updated after a recent software update. The update, called Spot 2.0, features more advanced autonomy and navigation. Boston Dynamics test drive Like buying a car, customers can test drive the robot before they buy it. "Some of the customers we're speaking to are in the 'shut up and take my money' mode," says Perry. However, he added that others are interested in Spot to want to visit their lab and "drive a robot.'" The demo feature resolves that problem. The good thing is that customers will be able to test drive Spot while at home. With its remote operation feature, potential customers can take a unit for a test drive in the company headquarters' robot assault course. Customers just need to log in to a web app on Boston Dynamics' site and set up the camera view. They can choose from using external cameras in the laboratory, Spot's cameras, or a 3D map of its surroundings. Once settled, users can move with the WASD keys. In case Spot tips over, users just need to press a button and it will roll to one side, then push itself up with its legs walk again. Boston Dynamics says it will be releasing a similar teleoperation program to customers this year. It will also launch an update that will feature a head-mounted robot arm that will provide new applications for features including data collection, manipulating its surroundings, turning valves opening doors, and pressing switches. Read also: Here are the Best Father's Day 2020 Gifts: Gamer Dad Edition 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:29:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has shelled the positions of "anti-revolutionary" groups near Iran's western border in Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region, Khabaronline reported. The artillery shellings have pounded the area of Alana and Haji Omeran district bordering Iran, according to the report. The report said that the area has been used as the hideouts for the "anti-revolutionary" armed groups. The IRGC shelled the area for second consecutive day on Wednesday. Iran has said that border regions of Iraqi Kurdistan have been used for cross-border "terrorism." Enditem The United States scrambled fighter jets to escort four Russian nuclear-capable Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic bombers as they carried out a planned flight near the U.S. border, the RIA news agency cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying. The Russian aircraft carried out an 11-hour flight over neutral waters of the Chukotsk, Bering and Okhotsk Seas as well as the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, the ministry was quoted as saying on Wednesday. Search Keywords: Short link: Cecilie_Arcurs/iStockBy CATHERINE THORBECKE, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- Corporate America is facing a reckoning, reminiscent for some of the #MeToo movement, over renewed allegations of structural racism that emerged in the course of mass protests over the killing of George Floyd. While predominately-white boards and C-suites have long been the norm in the private sector despite past efforts to make changes, the last few weeks have seen an exit of some corporate leaders over allegations of racism and widespread push to rethink the system that is in place. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian even voluntarily gave up his board seat to make room for a black board member. "Im cautiously optimistic that it is a tipping point," said Joseph K. West, a partner and the chief diversity and inclusion officer at the law firm Duane Morris. "The lines have really been blurred between what you see playing out in the streets and what you see playing out in the corridors of power." Moreover, "those two disparate groups are actually communicating with each other at a policy level in a way that didnt exist before," West said. Despite long calls for diversity in corporate America, the state of affairs, especially at the top, remains dismal. Black CEO's make up just 1% -- only five out of 500 -- of the most recent Fortune 500 list of U.S. companies. Black workers make up 7.8% of management roles in management, professional and related occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics current population survey. White workers make up 83.6% of those roles. Black workers are also grossly underrepresented in business and financial operations occupations, legal occupations and other professional and related occupations, according to the same data set. While firms large and small have addressed the Black Lives Matter movement with marketing and social media campaigns, here is what experts say needs to happen to attempt to dismantle structural racism at the corporate level. "The pledges of solidarity are a start at least acknowledging that there is an issue, and we're hearing these companies talk about structural racism and systemic issues, and even in some cases, white supremacy," Jamillah Bowman Williams, a longtime scholar of workplace inclusion at the Georgetown Law Center and the director of its Workers' Rights Institute, told ABC News. "You're calling these things out, but we want to make sure that there are concrete steps." Understand and address biases and barriers that quell black talent "A lot of what people came to understand from the George Floyd murder is the biases that exist out in society that can have a very meaningful impact on people of color, particularly African Americans, West said. Those same biases play out in the workplace at various junctures at every level. Biases at work can impact compensation, assignments, recruiting, mentoring, promotions and nearly every other decision in the workplace, according to West. There are biases that play out at each of those sorts of critical junctures in the career lifespan, and if you dont get outside assistance ideally to help identify those barriers and come up with strategies to eliminate them, then you may have a problem, West added. Williams added that at work, many promotions and other opportunities to advance "happen very informally." "You get this tap on the shoulder, you get certain people who are invited to join in to meet with top clients, for example, or to take on a prestigious assignment," she said. "This normal sort of informal process leads to structural barriers where some people get opportunities and some don't," she added. "Even though it's not like some official policy that, 'Oh, we're going to hire or promote more whites because we think they're better,' but that in the end, ends up being what happens." West and Williams say unconscious bias training can help tackle these issues. Another part of the solution is just being aware of them, "and being aware of how that can favor some employees over the other and how it leads to this historic exclusion and lack of opportunities," Williams said. When people are "aware of both unconscious bias and structural barriers and how they work together to perpetuate inequality, they can then reflect and really hopefully check their own bias," Williams said, both "individually and institutionally." Create a culture of inclusion According to West, the conversation about inclusion -- making sure diverse voices are heard and valued -- has been lagging in corporate America. "Weve had a lot of conversations about diversity, but not as much about the importance of inclusion and inclusiveness," West said. "Thats important because a lot of organizations over the last couple of decades have done a decent job of recruiting diverse talent, but they tend not to stay, he added. Retention is an issue because people run into barriers to inclusion, they run into barriers to ascension. According to a report from this year on retention from the New York-based non-profit Catalyst, 35% of black professionals intend to quit their jobs within two years compared with 27% of their white counterparts. Stereotypes of people of color in the workplace contribute to a higher emotional tax burden for workers of color, in which these employees feel on guard at work and may contribute to their intention to leave, the researchers noted, adding that inclusive leadership can help reduce turnover. Dr. Akilah Cadet, the founder of the diversity consulting firm Change Cadet, told ABC that this issue is "all about belonging." "If you feel like you don't belong in a work environment and can't be yourself, if you dont feel comfortable, there is only so much time that you can take to deal with that," Cadet said. "A lot of people are forgetting or underestimating that as black people, we have to learn how to live in a white country, in white spaces, we have to work twice as hard to get minimum respect. A non-inclusive environment leads to "a revolving door of people of color leaving, of black people leaving, because they wont be able to relate to anyone or they will be tokenized and have to represent all of black people." "America is designed for white people to be the best and be the top and there is a lot of historical context for that, that shift in dynamic is incredibly hard for white people," she said. "They dont want to stop benefiting from white privilege in America." "In order for us to get to a place of humanity and equality for black people, for that to happen, white people are going to have to lose some of their power," she said. "That is terrifying for a lot of white people." Williams added that this experience at work is "often isolating." "Its alienating to be representative in that token number, and not feeling like you're actually valued," she said. "So you feel like you have to change yourself to fit in and some molds of this culture and you feel like you have to work twice as hard." For black people often when they make mistakes, it's associated with their blackness, she added. "It's just used as an excuse or a rationale for why they weren't really worthy or deserving to be there in the first place. The first time they make a mistake, which happens with all professionals then it's like ... it's used as a reasoning behind almost why they shouldn't have been there in the first place and black workers are very aware of this and they are worried about affirming these stereotypes," she said, noting that white people don't often have to fight these battles at work. Changes here are going to have to come at a cultural level, the experts say. I am hopeful that things will shift and change, it will only come with more white people understanding their privilege and working to dismantle it," Cadet said. "First off, understanding their privilege, second step, learning how to become an ally." For white and non-black people of color, this involves active listening and calling out situations where black colleagues may be talked over or ignored and "being able to have conversations with leaders about microaggressions that they see," Cadet said. Push hard for transparency and accountability If companies really want to enact change and dismantle issues of systemic racism that have plagued institutions for decades, they need to be transparent about their work and data and be held accountable. Cadet said transparency in the breakdown of leadership and employees is a good start, and having that information in an easy-to-access place that is often updated -- such as a website with clear information about who you can contact. If companies develop a plan to tackle diversity and inclusiveness, being able to have a point person to bring comments and complaints and "not be chastised by asking these questions, is essential, according to Cadet. Williams said that companies should be more transparent about their efforts "and create more dialogue and conversation about what works and what doesnt, rather than being just so defensive." "I think the tech industry is a great example of that. Because the media got involved, politicians got involved, customers got involved in really pushing them to start releasing the data," she said. "And they were resistant for years." Williams also said it's important to push for specifics. If someone says they are doing unconscious bias training, ask, "What does your training look like? Does everyone have to do it?" If diversity is good for business, it should be compensated as such Finally, "if diversity is like any other business metric, then companies should reward" it as such, West said. West cited an example at a tech firm where the leader "incentivizes his direct reports by withholding a certain percentage of their annual bonus if they dont meet certain diversity and inclusion goals." You would be amazed how much that clarifies the mind, he quipped. "For me when you talk about diversity and inclusion from a corporate standpoint and from the standpoint of the C-suite, the most compelling argument is that, sure, eliminating barriers can be good for the bottom line," he added. Many studies have shown that diversity is ultimately good for business. A 2020 McKinsey report found that firms with ethnic diversity at the executive level were more likely to financially outperform those without. "If that is the thing that convinces people that diversity in the c-suite is a good thing then so be it," West said. Cadet added that many companies and brands are finally "understanding the value of the black dollar and the conscious consumer dollar." Ultimately, "money is a wonderful precipice for cultural change," she said. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader Raju Shetti, who once rattled Sharad Pawars politics by holding protests at Baramati, visited his house Govindbaug on Tuesday and accepted NCPs offer of a seat in the Maharashtra Legislative Council. I have accepted the offer for council polls, said Shetti after his two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting with Pawar which the farmers leader termed fruitful. The meeting between Shetti and Pawar came days after NCP state unit chief Jayant Patil visited Swabhimani Paksha founder leaders home in Shirole and offered him a seat from NCP quota. Pawar while reacting to his meeting with Shetti tweeted, I Visited various projects of Agriculture Development Trust in Baramati with Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana leader Raju Shetti. Twelve seats fell vacant from Governors quota earlier this month. The Maha Vikas Aghadi is contemplating on to go ahead to fill them as early as possible. By offering a seat to Shetti in state legislative council, NCP has tried to pacify sugarcane growers from western Maharashtra, its erstwhile political base, said Chitra Lele, Political Science professor at SNDT. For Shetti, a former two-time MP from Hatkanangale in Kolhapur, to accept a seat from NCP quota is coming a long way even as he had already joined hands with Congress-NCP alliance just before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after breaking away from BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. During the Lok Sabha polls, NCP decided not to contest polls from Hatkanangale, from where Shetti fought against Shiv Senas Dhairyasheel Mane and lost. To keep the BJP away, we joined hands with the NCP and the Congress in 2019 and it was part of that the NCP had left one seat for us then. Today I have accepted to be MVA candidate for council polls. It was in November 2011, when Shetti held protest in Baramati for increased sugarcane prices, it rattled NCP chief Sharad Pawar. So much so that in the subsequent days Pawar used caste slur to run down the stir undertaken by Shetti. Shettis political journey beginning from Zilla Parishad to Parliament goes parallel to his rise in the agrarian movements. Started his career as a worker in Shetkari Sanghatana, Shetti learned every small and big thing about agitation from his guru Sharad Joshi, the economist turned farmers leader. In his political career, Shetti has undertaken multiple successful agitations to demand higher prices for sugarcane and milk. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON CHICAGO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) today announced the following statement on its Mrs. Butterworth's food brand: The Mrs. Butterworth's brand, including its syrup packaging, is intended to evoke the images of a loving grandmother. We stand in solidarity with our Black and Brown communities and we can see that our packaging may be interpreted in a way that is wholly inconsistent with our values. We understand that our actions help play an important role in eliminating racial bias and as a result, we have begun a complete brand and packaging review on Mrs. Butterworth's. It's heartbreaking and unacceptable that racism and racial injustices exist around the world. We will be part of the solution. Let's work together to progress toward change. About Conagra Brands Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG), headquartered in Chicago, is one of North America's leading branded food companies. Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit, Conagra Brands combines a rich heritage of making great food with a sharpened focus on innovation. The company's portfolio is evolving to satisfy people's changing food preferences. Conagra's iconic brands, such as Birds Eye, Marie Callender's, Banquet, Healthy Choice, Slim Jim, Reddi-wip, and Vlasic, as well as emerging brands, including Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP, Duke's, Earth Balance, Gardein, and Frontera, offer choices for every occasion. For more information, visit www.conagrabrands.com. For more information, please contact: MEDIA: Mike Cummins 312-549-5257 [email protected] SOURCE Conagra Brands, Inc. Related Links http://www.conagrafoods.com Kerry Airport staff members Paul Hobbert, Evelyn Crowley, Erin OShea, Adrian OConnell , Ireneusz Maszorek and John Cronin highlight the Airport Ireland enhanced measures to protect and ensure a smooth and safe passage for passenger Full services are expected to return at Kerry Airport from July 1, with Ryanair due to recommence flights on its four Kerry routes. Management at Kerry Airport Ireland have introduced enhanced measures to protect and ensure a smooth and safe passage for passengers who plan to return to the sky next month following the relaxation of COVID-19 travelling restrictions. All Ryanair routes from Kerry to London; Manchester; Hahn; Berlin; Alicante and Faro will resume from or soon after July 1, while the twice-daily Aer Lingus Regional Kerry-Dublin service, operated by Stobart Air, has continued to function throughout the pandemic. Multiple hand-sanitising stations have been installed throughout the airport, along with the introduction of specialised cleaning services for virus sanitation. Improvements have also been made to the public wash-rooms. Passengers must wear a face mask on entering the terminal and throughout their journey through the airport and on the aircraft. A limited stock of face masks will be available to purchase at the airport. Where possible, with the exception of children and those who require assistance, anyone accompanying passengers will be asked to drop off and say their farewells from the car park. Due to the two-metre social-distancing guidelines, passengers must also allow additional time for their journey and factor in potentially longer queuing times. The measures reflect national COVID-19 guidelines and recent guidelines developed by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Kerry Airport CEO John Mulhern said that while the airport has played a key role in Kerry's pandemic response, it is now time for the facility to try and get back to normal. "We have remained open throughout the pandemic and in being proud to do so, we have facilitated the needs of the emergency air services who have required a landing base in Kerry. It's time to get back to normal," he said. "We have invested in ensuring that passengers and our staff are safe from Coronavirus. Kerry Airport continues to be an important strategic asset to Kerry in strengthening transportation links both nationally and internationally. It will play a greater economic role than ever when attracting investment and tourists to the region," Mr Mulhern said. On June 20, 1947, the legislators of the Hindu-majority and Muslim-majority areas of Bengal decided to partition the province on the lines of religion by a majority vote. A Boundary Commission was established by then Governor-General Lord Mountbatten, on June 30, 1947. British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe was appointed as the Chairman of the Commission. Four jurists were appointed members of the Bengal Boundary Commission: Bijan Kumar Mukherjee, CC Biswas, Abu Saleh Mohamed Akram and SA Rahman. The former two were appointed by the Congress, while the latter two were appointed by the Muslim League. It is interesting to note here that there were two Hindus and two Muslims in the Commission. It was obvious that taking into consideration the prevailing political circumstances of that time, the Muslim members were to decide for demarcation in favour of Pakistan, and the vice versa for the Hindu members with respect to India. This meant that the final verdict rested in hands of Radcliffe himself, who was to appropriate the deliberations of the Commission through his casting vote. Though Radcliffe made brief visits to Calcutta which was the seat of the Bengal Boundary Commission, he spent most of the time in Delhi. The four members of the Bengal Boundary Commission sat in two sessions one from July 18 to July 24 and the second one from August 4 to August 6. Therefore, determining a territorial demarcation of more than 2500 miles, encompassing a vast stretch of land expanding across the length and breadth of Eastern India, was completed in two sittings in a span of only nine days. The Final Award lay in hands of Sir Cyril Radcliffe who showed a complete lack of interest in the task that was assigned to him. (Photo: Getty Images) It is noteworthy that Radcliffe was unfamiliar with Indian society and had not visited India before. His only briefing for the tedious task of partitioning the two mammoth provinces was a 30-minute session on a map with the Under Secretary of India Office. The Commission members regularly briefed him on the deliberations and he took the charge of resolving the bilateral conflict prevailing within the Commission with his prerogative. In a situation where unanimity was practically impossible between the warring native members, the Final Award lay in hands of an Englishman who was hesitant to come to India in the first place because of the scorching heat of summer and then showed a lack of interest in the task that was assigned to him. The Muslim League, and Jinnah in particular, had claimed that the whole of the provinces of Punjab and Bengal should remain intact and a referendum should be held in the two provinces to decide their future. The League desperately wanted the city of Calcutta in Pakistan, and their supporters started believing that the province would be partitioned along the Hooghly River. Bengal Governor Frederick Burrows proposed that the Calcutta be excluded from both the Bengals and instead be administered by a council. This proposal was rejected by Mountbatten. Bhabatosh Dutt mentions that Muslim professors of Islamia College, Calcutta (now Maulana Azad College) who wrote in their opinion forms, Pakistan, preferably Calcutta. One of them tried to console Dutt by saying, At least you are going to have Howrah. However, even before the Radcliffe Award was out, it became clear that Calcutta was to remain in India. Jinnah had urged Mountbatten of not partitioning the provinces, citing references to common history and common ways of life that the people in those provinces bore, irrespective of religion. However, Mountbatten was adamant on the partition of Bengal and Punjab as a mandatory criterion of the scheduled transfer of power. Had he been swayed away by the diatribes of Jinnah and the Muslim League, then the concerted Bengali Hindu campaign of a separate homeland within India would have borne no fruition at the end. The condition of the Bengali Hindus would have been akin to that of their Sindhi counterparts. The Bengal Pradesh Congress, Hindu Mahasabha, Communist Party and Scheduled Caste leaders unequivocally espoused the inclusion of Hindu-majority areas into India. Leaders of the Depressed Classes Association and Depressed Classes League had already met government officials, registering their consent to their natural habitats Jessore, Khulna, Faridpur and Bakarganj districts be kept in India. The Buddhist-majority district of Chittagong Hill Tracts had only three per cent Muslim population at the time of partition. Therefore, if the claims of the Bengal Congress and other Hindu claimants were to be taken into consideration, then at least 55 per cent of the area of the erstwhile Bengal province was to be transferred to Hindu-majority West Bengal. It must be noted here, that the ethnoreligious geography of Bengal was such that the Hindu-majority and Muslim-majority areas of Western and Eastern Bengal could not have been demarcated based on the contiguity divide. This was because, the districts that lay in the western banks of the Hooghly river Barddhaman, Hooghly, Medinipur, Bankura, Birbhum and Howrah districts were overwhelmingly Hindu. Same was the case of Calcutta and 24 Parganas which had a clear Hindu-majority. The district of Khulna which was situated in contiguity with the district of 24 Parganas, had a Hindu population of 51 per cent. As already mentioned above, the district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts that was situated contiguous to present-day North-Eastern India, had an overwhelming Buddhist-majority where the major ethnic group were the Chakmas. The territory within the blue line (which included Khulna and CHT) represented the state of West Bengal in India, on August 15, 1947. The Radcliffe Award was not yet to be announced. (Photo courtesy: Avik Sarkar) The districts of Dacca (Dhaka), Tippera, Noakhali, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Bogra, Malda, Rajshahi, Pabna, Murshidabad, Nadia, Jessore, Faridpur, Bakarganj were Muslim-majority districts of Bengal. All these 16 districts were located in the Central and Eastern regions of the erstwhile Bengal province. The immediate question that arose was that where will the Hindu-majority thanas (police stations) of these districts be? In districts like Nadia, Malda, Murshidabad, Jessore, Dinajpur, there were numerous Hindu-majority thanas which were situated contiguous to the proposed state of West Bengal. The districts of Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Jessore and Nadia had a sizeable Hindu population of 49 per cent, 43 per cent, 39 per cent and 38 per cent respectively. Radcliffe argued that the demarcation of a boundary line between East and West Bengal depended on the answers to be given to certain questions. The questions were pertaining to the considerations on which state would the city of Calcutta be placed in, or if there were any means to divide the city between the two states of West and East Bengal. There were similar considerations on the statuses of the Hindu-majority district of Khulna and the Muslim-majority districts of Malda and Dinajpur. The statuses of the Buddhist-majority Chittagong Hill Tracts and that of the two northernmost districts of Jalpaiguri (having a Muslim population of 23 per cent) and Darjeeling (where Muslim habitation was less than three per cent), which were in no way contiguous to the Hindu-majority areas, were also put to question. With respect to the city of Calcutta, Governor Burrows argued that there was a possibility of riot in case, it was handed over to West Bengal. Radcliffe, who was not aware of the importance of Calcutta, proposed that the city be divided between the two states. Calcutta was not just the largest urban conglomeration of erstwhile Bengal, but also served as the commercial and geopolitical centre of the province. The mills of Calcutta industrial area were depended on the raw materials that came from the agrarian bowls of East Bengal. However, Calcutta was in no way contiguous to the Muslim-majority areas of proposed East Bengal. The shortest distance between the city of Calcutta and a Muslim-majority district of eastern Bengal was not less than 80 kilometres. Radcliffe Award of 17 August 1947; West Bengal in India (shown in orange) and East Pakistan (shown in green) in Pakistan. (Photo courtesy: Avik Sarkar) The Radcliffe Commission came up with the proposal of demarcating the territories of East and West Bengal, based on the principle of contiguity and that the unit of demarcation would be a thana. On August 15, 1947, all the eight Hindu-majority districts of Bengal, including Calcutta, were constituted into a new state of West Bengal and placed within the Union of India. The Buddhist-majority district of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) was also placed in India. Chakma leader Sreya Kumar Chakma hoisted the Indian Tricolour at Rangamati, district headquarters of CHT, on the eve of independence. The two northernmost districts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri (with the exception of the thana of Patgram and all other eastern and southern thanas), were to remain a part of West Bengal. Thus, the new Hindu-majority state was carved out by constituting the northern and southern parts with non-contiguous borders. The southern districts were totally separated from the northernmost districts by a non-territorial borderline with East Bengal of Pakistan lying on its right and the province of Bihar of India on its left. On August 15, 1947, the district of Nadia was awarded to Pakistan. Pre-independent Nadia had five subdivisions Krishnanagar Sadar, Meherpur, Kusthia, Chuadanga and Ranaghat. All these areas except Nabadwip were given to Pakistan. It was not a diplomatic decision but a mistake on Radcliffes part. The news led to widespread protests in Nadia. Women observed a blackout by not lighting their stoves for two days, and a complete blackout was observed throughout the district. Pakistan Zindabad slogans were chanted by Muslim League activists and the Pakistani flag was hoisted near Krishnanagar Rajbari and Public Library. When the word reached Mountbatten, he ordered Radcliffe to make changes to the map. As a result, two days later Hindu-majority subdivisions of Ranaghat and Krishnanagar Sadar were placed in India. The Pakistani flag at the Public Library was taken down and Indian Tricolour was hoisted on August 18, 1947. The Muslim-majority district of Malda and Dinajpur were similarly awarded to Pakistan on the eve of independence. However later, on August 18, the Hindu-majority subdivisions of Malda Sadar and Chachal were given to India as parts of Malda district, while the Muslim-majority subdivision of Nawabganj was severed from erstwhile Malda and was added to Rajshahi district of East Bengal in Pakistan. The Hindu-majority Balurghat region was severed from the Muslim-majority district of Dinajpur, and was merged in the province of West Bengal as the new district of Paschim Dinajpur. Later in 1957, with the Linguistic Reorganisation of States, the Paschim Dinajpur was enlarged by the inclusion of Bangla-speaking regions of Bihars Purnea. Thus, with the process of enlargement and subsequent merger of Malda into India, the southern districts Bengal were no more disconnected to the northern districts of West Bengal. On August 15, 1947, a Muslim-majority district of Bengal, Murshidabad was awarded to Pakistan. However, with the lobbying by Bengal Pradesh Congress leader Atulya Ghosh and famed industrialists of that time, the district was transferred to West Bengal a few days later. The district of Murshidabad served as a bridge that connected the southern districts with northern West Bengal. The headwaters of Calcutta Port were situated in Murshidabad. The inclusion of Murshidabad in Pakistan implied a complete disconnect in the inland shipping route between the Upper Ganges of Bihar and the port of Kolkata. This also meant that in event of a war, Pakistan could have mobilised its control over Murshidabad and headwaters of Calcutta or notoriously used it to build a dam to control the flow of water to the districts of southern Bengal. Cossimbazar, situated in the district, was a commercial port and a rich zamindari. The estates baron, Maharaja Srishachandra Nandy had voted alongside the Congress and Hindu Mahasabha in partitioning the province and proactively endorsed the demand of Bengali Hindu homeland. Thus, the award of a Muslim-majority district to West Bengal was purely on strategic and commercial lines. The Hindu-majority subdivision of Bangaon of undivided Jessore district of eastern Bengal was also transferred to India on 18 August 1947. Bangaon was made into a subdivision of the 24 Parganas district. The territorial jurisdiction of West Bengal was increased with the addition of the State of Cooch Behar on January 19, 1950. On September 19, 1949, the King of Cooch Behar, Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan had signed the Instrument of Accession. Cooch Behar, originally inhabited by both Kamtapuri and Bengali communities, was made into a district. In 1956, the jurisdiction was further increased with the addition of the Bangla-speaking thanas of Bihar to West Bengal. The merger of the Bengali areas of Manbhum in southern Bihar to West Bengal as the new district of Purulia came after a long-drawn historic and non-violent ethnolinguistic struggle by the Bengali community of Manbhum from 1948 to 1956. The district-wise map.of the present-day West Bengal. (Photo: mapsofindia) The Radcliffe Award was made public on August 17, 1947. The non-Muslim-majority districts of Khulna and the Chittagong Hill Tracts were traded off to Pakistan. It came as a surprise to Hindu and secular organisations like Congress and Hindu Mahasabha who were disappointed by the fact that West Bengal was given only 36 per cent of the land of erstwhile Bengal. Between 1947 and 1948, there were posters all over Dhaka in East Bengal against Durga Puja, and the Dhamrai Rath Yatra was attacked by Islamic fundamentalists. Upper-caste alarmist Bengali Hindu professionals, gentry folk and government employees fled East Bengal en masse due to fears of a fledgeling Islamic nation and settled in India. After the brutal crackdown of the Nachole Tebhaga Uprising in 1949-1950, Khulna was the first district to witness anti-Hindu violence. Hindus fled Khulna in large numbers and took refuge in West Bengal. In February 1950, several parts of East Bengal like Dhaka, Barisal, Khulna, Mymensingh and Chittagong witnessed anti-Hindu pogroms sponsored by the Pakistani state and Ansars. The horrors of 1950, 1964 and 1971 are evidence of how Hindus of Pakistan have been made to suffer under the insidious mechanism of hostage population theory as devised by Jinnah. India, being a civilised nation, has always adhered to the principle of pluralism and rule of law. It has extended the widest possible benevolence towards its domiciled minority population. India needs to be constitutionally recognised as Universal Homeland of Hindus. India should neither remain an idle spectator to the sufferings of the religious minorities of Bangladesh nor should it turn its back on the persecuted religious minorities of Bangladesh who have sought refuge. Justifying Indias moral obligation towards the Hindus of East Bengal, Bharat Kesari Dr Syama Prasad Mookherji had rightly said in 1950 on the floor of the Parliament, The Hindus of East Bengal are entitled to the protection of India, not on humanitarian considerations alone, but by the virtue of their sufferings and sacrifices, made cheerfully for generations, not for advancing their parochial interests, but for laying down the foundations of Indias freedom and intellectual progress. Also read: Bengal and Bangladesh face similar challenges LONDON, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Johnson Matthey (JM), a global leader in sustainable technologies, is pleased to announce that its combined reforming methanol technology has been selected by JSC Technoleasing for the new Amur Oblast facility, located in Skovorodino, Russia. JM will provide a license for the 3,000 mtpd plant and will include their new Advanced Series Loop technology, which utilises an innovative synthesis loop arrangement together with existing reactor technology to achieve a significant improvement in natural gas efficiency. The contract also includes the associated engineering, proprietary equipment and catalyst supply. Pending a final investment decision (FID) by Technoleasing, this will be the first JM licenced methanol plant in Russia using the combined reforming and Advanced Series Loop technology. It represents JM's commitment to providing its world class expertise and sustainable technologies to Russia's growing petrochemical industry. Johnson Matthey's leading methanol technology has been licensed for more than 45 years with over 90 plant licenses granted in that time. Its world scale syngas generation technology options include steam methane reforming, combined reforming, autothermal reforming (ATR) and gas heated reforming that allow bespoke designs unique to each customer's project requirements. "Johnson Matthey's combined reforming methanol technology turned out to be the best available technology for the Skovorodino plant. We are very much focused on ecological issue as well as plant's efficiency in consumption of natural resources. We are looking forward for cooperation with JM in building the plant and introducing this technology in Russia," said Vadim Medvedev, Technoleasing General Director. "We are delighted that Technoleasing has entrusted JM as their strategic partner and are proud to be a part of this ground-breaking project," said John Gordon, Managing Director at JM. "This win demonstrates our unique ability to bring tailored solutions to our customers through our innovative methanol plant flowsheets, in-depth know-how and catalyst technologies. Our new Advanced Series Loop technology will provide energy efficiency and significant economic benefits in gas consumption per ton of methanol over conventional loops for the Amur facility for many years to come." Johnson Matthey is a global leader in science that enables a cleaner and healthier world. With over 200 years of sustained commitment to innovation and technological breakthroughs, we improve the performance, function and safety of our customers' products. Our science has a global impact in areas such as low emission transport, pharmaceuticals, chemical processing and making the most efficient use of the planet's natural resources. Today more than 14,500 Johnson Matthey professionals collaborate with our network of customers and partners to make a real difference to the world around us. For more information, visit www.matthey.com. For more information, please contact: An Air Force sergeant linked to an anti-government movement was charged with murder and attempted murder on Tuesday in the shooting death of a federal security officer outside a courthouse in Oakland, California, last month. The sergeant had expressed his allegiance to the so-called boogaloo movement by writing with his own blood on the hood of a white Toyota Camry and had used the recent protests against racial injustice as a cover to attack law enforcement, according to the FBI. Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, 32, is accused of firing an assault rifle from the open back door of a moving vehicle and gunning down the federal officer, according to the criminal complaint. The driver of the van, Robert Alvin Justus Jr., 30, who had met Carrillo on Facebook, was charged with aiding and abetting the murder of Dave Patrick Underwood, 53, the officer killed in the shooting, the complaint said. Both men were also charged with the attempted murder of a second officer who was gravely wounded. They came to Oakland to kill cops, John F. Bennett, the special agent in charge of the FBI in San Francisco, said at a news conference on Tuesday. Evidence tied Carrillo to the boogaloo, an extremist ideology that seeks to bring about a second civil war to overthrow the U.S. government. Carrillo had previously been charged with the shooting death of a sheriffs deputy in Santa Cruz County during a gunbattle on June 6 that led to his arrest. In that showdown, Carrillo used his own blood to scrawl Boog and other phrases linked to the movement on the hood of the car he had stolen. Carrillo is the latest person tied to the movement to be arrested in recent weeks. All of them have sought to exploit protests first against the coronavirus lockdowns and then around the death of George Floyd in police custody to accelerate their apocalyptic vision. The term, initially derived as an inside joke from the 1984 cult classic film Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, is used as shorthand on internet forums for a brewing second civil war. However, boogaloo does not represent a cohesive or singular ideology. It has been connected to what some consider humorous memes, as well as with occasional physical violence and militaristic shows of force (similarly to armed militias such as the Oath Keepers or III Percenters). The reference migrated offline from social media platforms like Reddit, 4chan and Facebook with volatile speed in recent months. Adherents often wear distinctive Hawaiian shirts, a reference to the fact that they sometimes transform their name into the Big Luau or the Big Igloo. Subscribing to the boogaloo ultimately translates to one core tenet: a belief that the U.S. government has failed and that the countrys divisions, inflamed by the news media, will result in a violent internal war. This is a very violent movement even if they are wearing Hawaiian shirts and using funny memes to try to soften what they are doing, said Kathleen Belew, a history professor and the author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Carrillos case follows the arrests last month in Las Vegas of an active-duty member of the Army and two veterans, who were charged with trying to provoke violence between the police and protesters at Black Lives Matter marches. Those men were also found to have ties to the movement. There have been other arrests of boogaloo adherents in recent months in Colorado, Texas and Ohio, each involving plots to ambush law enforcement. In addition, followers of the movement have backed the conservative effort to reopen the Texas economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. Armed men have showed up outside some businesses to support them as they reopened in defiance of the lockdown. The movement attracts both far-right white supremacists and some armed men who joined the Black Lives Matter protests because of their anger at the police and other symbols of government authority. The 1992 siege by federal law enforcement agents over firearms charges at Ruby Ridge in Idaho, which left two people dead, has long been a rallying cry. Members often express admiration for training and other benefits that come with being a military veteran. Having a small number of dedicated activists corresponds to an increasing emphasis on violent activity, Belew said. They do not want 1,000 people down in the street, she said. They are interested in six people who can make and detonate a bomb. Carrillo was on active duty at Travis Air Force Base in Central California when the Oakland shooting occurred, according to the complaint. He had recruited Justus online. In the scenario described by the complaint, the two men, using the distraction provided by protests in downtown Oakland, parked a Ford van directly across from the federal courthouse there. After scoping out the area, Justus drove the van toward the courthouse and Carrillo fired multiple rounds at the guard post, killing Underwood and wounding his partner, the complaint said. That sparked an eight-day manhunt that culminated in a shootout near Carrillos residence in Ben Lomond, California, after a witness reported an abandoned van that appeared to contain ammunition, firearms and bomb-making equipment. Carillo, who grew up in the pine-covered mountains of Ben Lomond, north of Santa Cruz, had joined the Air Force in 2009, according to military records. Deputies from the Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office responded to the report and arrived at the residence where Carrillo is accused of opening fire on the deputies, killing Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller. His lawyer in the state case, Jeffrey Stotter, said he had not yet been retained on the federal case but expected to be involved since both were possibly capital cases. After Carrillo shot Gutzwiller, according to the complaint, he fled on foot and carjacked the Toyota Camry. It was on that vehicle that he scrawled phrases in blood linked to the movement, including I became unreasonable and Stop the duopoly. The first quote is attributed to Marvin Heemeyer, who bulldozed 13 buildings in Colorado in 2004 over a zoning dispute. Heemeyer killed himself but became a hero among anti-government extremists who call him Killdozer in chat rooms. Stop the duopoly, a nonviolent political phrase, refers to criticism that the Democrat and Republican parties do not allow any room for others, such as libertarians. Carrillo also had a patch on his bulletproof vest of the movements flag, with an igloo replacing the stars plus black-and-white stripes, with one stripe a Hawaiian motif. The FBI searched Carrillos Facebook accounts, where he had communicated with Justus and also expressed his violent intentions, according to the complaint. Its a great opportunity to target the specialty soup bois, Carrillo wrote, according to the complaint. The comment was linked to a video of a crowd attacking two California Highway Patrol vehicles. On chat rooms, bois is often used as an alternative spelling for boys, and soup is shorthand for alphabet soup, which is how adherents refer collectively to federal law enforcement agencies with their many acronyms. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Military action in Idleb is increasing, and more residents are being forced to flee their homes to escape the bombardment reports Smart News. Syrian government forces and Russia escalated their bombing of southern Idleb, forcing more families to flee to northern Syria. Civil Defense director in the village of Shinan, Subhi al-Ibrahim, told Smart News that on Monday night, Russian warplanes launched several raids on the villages of al-Bara and al-Maouzrah in the Zawiya Mountain, causing damage. Ibrahim stated that dozens of families fled the area due to the bombing. Ibrahim added that the missiles launched by Russian warplanes exploded before crashing to the ground, and their remnants spread over areas surrounding the site of the explosion. Ibrahim noted that dozens of families residing in the towns and villages of southern Idleb flee almost daily, as a result of the recent escalation by Syrian government forces and Russia. Ibrahim added that the people are afraid of the Russian warplanes flying over the region. Russia and Turkey deployed a new joint military patrol on the Aleppo-Lattakia M4 international highway. The patrol travelled from the village of al-Tronba near Saraqib to the village of Furaykah near Jisr al-Shughur, southwest of Idleb. On Jun. 8, 2020, Russian airstrikes killed two civilians and injured three others in the towns and villages of the Zawiya Mountain. 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. It has become a familiar rallying cry at protests over police abuses across the country: Defund the police. In Florida, it wont be so easy. Altering the budgets of Floridas 66 elected sheriffs is difficult if not impossible. County commissioners set sheriffs budgets across the state, but they have little say over how sheriffs spend the money. And if sheriffs dont like the budget commissioners give them, they can appeal their budget to the governor and Cabinet, which have favored sheriffs over the last few decades. Miami-Dade is the only county without an elected sheriff. Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who acts as the administrator for the county police department, can make changes to the budget and also has veto power. He also appoints the police director. That will change in 2024, when Miami-Dade will join the rest of Floridas counties in electing a sheriff. But the 63-year-old state law, which applies in the rest of the state including Broward and Palm Beach counties, could be a serious impediment to reforming, or defunding, sheriffs departments, run by some of the most powerful elected officials in the state. Good luck if youre going to try to defund a sheriffs office, said Robert Sullivan, a retired Pasco County Sheriffs Office captain and professor at St. Leo University. It is a powerful, powerful entity, the Florida sheriff. The idea to defund police has various meanings, from abolishing the departments to reducing their budgets and roles in society. Few Florida lawmakers or county commissioners have embraced the idea. Defunding the sheriff would be difficult in Broward County, where the sheriff not the county commission decides how to spend his budget and can appeal to the governor if commissioners try to interfere. And while sheriffs seldom appeal to the governor over their budgets, reform efforts and shrinking budgets from a coronavirus-impacted recession could force Gov. Ron DeSantis to be an arbiter in the intra-county disputes. DeSantis has not said how he feels about the defund the police movement, and his spokeswoman did not provide an answer to the question this week. Unlike cities, which typically appoint their police chiefs and have stronger oversight of their budgets, sheriffs are elected and have stronger say over how they spend their money. Story continues County commissioners set the budgets for themselves and other elected officials, such as state attorneys, public defenders and tax collectors. Only sheriffs have the ability to appeal to the governor and Cabinet, which includes the state attorney general, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner. Tax collectors and property appraisers can appeal their budgets to the state Department of Revenue, according to the Florida Association of Counties. The process creates an automatic tension between the county commission and the sheriffs, said Alachua County spokesman Mark Sexton. The county is charged with funding a lot of different entities other than themselves, Sexton said. Theres not enough money to give everyone everything. That tension has caused clashes in Alachua County, where commissioners and Sheriff Sadie Darnell have sparred multiple times in the past decade. In 2011 and 2016, she asked Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet to weigh in after not receiving the money she asked for. Both times, a deal was reached before the states top officials weighed in. Alachua County sued her in 2017 after she diverted $500,000 the county assigned to vehicles toward raises for deputies. Judges have sided with Darnell twice, and the case now rests with the Florida Supreme Court. Miami-Dade is the only one of Floridas 67 counties that doesnt have an elected sheriff. County Mayor Carlos Gimenez acts as the administrator for the county police department. The only exception to the sheriffs appeal process is in the only county that doesnt have an elected sheriff: Miami-Dade, where the County Commission is responsible for setting the budget for each department and the county mayor acts as the administrator for the county police department. Miami-Dade hasnt had an elected sheriff since the 1960s, when a pair of corruption scandals led voters to pass a referendum to abolish it. But in 2018, Florida voters passed Amendment 10 requiring Miami-Dade to return to electing a sheriff by 2024. Since 2000, sheriffs have asked the governor for help with their budgets at least a dozen times. Most of the appeals have come from sheriffs from smaller counties, where resources are scarcer, and most of the time, the sheriffs and counties reach agreements before the governor has to weigh in. Governors have nearly always sided with sheriffs at least in part. One of the last times was in 2016, when then-Liberty County Sheriff Nick Finch wanted $282,000 more than what county officials gave him. Finch went before Gov. Scott and his three Republican colleagues on the Cabinet and pointed to the badge on his chest, which had a black band across it, a sign of mourning for officers who died in the line of duty. Law enforcement is under attack. I dont have to tell you guys that, Finch said. I cant send my guys out under-equipped or not equipped at all to fight crime. He told Scott and the Cabinet that the budget dispute was personal. He said county commissioners didnt like him. Theyre trying extremely hard to make it as difficult for me to be a successful sheriff as they can, he said. Liberty County Attorney Robin Myers explained that the county, most of which is federal forest land, is the poorest in the state. Finch and his 15 deputies were already consuming 76 percent of all tax dollars the county was collecting, Myers said. This is not personal. Business is not personal, he said. We do have other bills that we have to pay. Myers noted that Finch had purchased 27 assault rifles and five new vehicles the year before, when Finch had again gone before the Cabinet for a budget increase. He spent his money that yall allocated him, $52,000, on a GMC Z71 pickup truck that he drives, Myers said. Miami Herald staff writer Samantha Gross contributed to this report. Thiruvananthapuram, June 17 : The CPIM-led LDF government has doubled down on its stand that expatriates from Gulf countries should mandatorily undergo covid testing prior to boarding flights to the state. A cabinet meeting on Wednesday decided to ask the BJP-led central government to make covid testing mandatory for expats returning to Kerala under the centre's vande bharat mission as well. Earlier, the state had made possession of covid-negative certificates mandatory for expats boarding chartered flights to the state. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told a press conference on Wednesday that the state had called on the centre to direct the respective embassies to arrange for Trunet rapid testing at airports for expats before they boarded flights. Trunet rapid testing will yield results within an hour. Only those who test negative should be allowed on the flights. Otherwise, the other passengers would be exposed to the virus, the state reasons. The state prefers covid-positive expats to be brought back in exclusive flights. The state also urged the centre to bear the cost of the covid tests. This comes in the wake of expatriates complaining that the cost of covid testing was prohibitive. However, the central government has taken exception to the state government's stand. The centre deems Kerala's demands impractical and suggests it would be forced to cancel flights to Kerala under the vande bharat mission if the state insists on covid-negative certificates for fliers. Union minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan upped the ante by accusing the LDF government of trying to sabotage the vande bharat mission by deliberately putting up impediments to the return of expatriates to Kerala. However, Pinarayi Vijayan hit back by reading out at his press conference the union minister's statement on May 5 in which V Muraleedharan had insisted that there was no question of the centre bringing back expats under the vande bharat mission without carrying out tests on them. Sixteen people including a nurse and two Disney employees have been arrested in an online child abuse sting in Florida. The 'Operation Guardians of Innocence V' was carried out by Polk County Sheriff's Office, who tracked the pedophile ring. They had been distributing the abuse of infants as young as six months. Edgardo Acevedo Cancela, a nurse and married father-of-two, denied downloading and viewing child sexual abuse but he was charged with five counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of promotion. Justin Hazan, 32, worked at Walt Disney World as as an operator on the Millennium Falcon attraction. His roommate, Arlandres Sims, worked as a food runner at Disney's Animal Kingdom Resort. Sixteen people including nurse Edgardo Acevedo Cancela (left) and Disney employee Justin Hazan (right), 32, who worked on the Millennium Falcon ride at Disneyland in Florida have been arrested in an online child abuse sting Hazan was charged with 15 counts of possession of child pornography. Pictured: The Millennium Falcon attraction at Disneyland Both men admitted to downloading and possessing child pornography which involved four and five-year-old victims. Hazan was charged with 15 counts of possession of child pornography and Sims was charged with the possession of 15 counts. In total, 1,409 felonies were filed against the suspects, Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. More charges are pending. 'These images are not just pictures of children without clothes,' said Sheriff Grady Judd in a statement. 'These videos and photographs are horrific images of children being forced to expose their genitalia and forced to perform sex acts images of children being raped. 'Those who upload and share child pornography are victimizing children over and over again,' he continued. Hazan's roommate, Arlandres Sims (left), worked as a food runner at Disney's Animal Kingdom Resort. Landen Ulrich, aged just 18, lives with his parents and younger siblings. He was charged with 200 counts of possession of child pornography 'Those arrested in this operation create the demand that sustains a child pornographic exploitation distribution pipeline that traumatizes children across the world. Their behavior is disgusting.' A fourth suspect, Stephen Lily, 61, was arrested and initially said his account had been 'hacked'. He later admitted that he had been downloading and viewing child pornography for the past two years. Among files on his computer were those depicting children being abused who were aged just 12 months old. He was charged with 100 counts of possession of child pornography. A fourth suspect, Stephen Lily (left), 61, was arrested and initially said his account had been 'hacked'. Another suspect, Monty Cottengain, 64, eventually admitted to trading images via Facebook messenger for the past 2-3 years In total, 1,409 felonies were filed against the suspects, Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. More charges are pending Another suspect, Monty Cottengain, 64, eventually admitted to trading images via Facebook messenger for the past 2-3 years. He was charged with 20 counts of possession of child pornography. Suspect Landen Ulrich, aged just 18, lives with his parents and younger siblings. He was charged with 200 counts of possession of child pornography. External Article 17 June 2020 Many countries are forming so-called travel bubbles to kickstart their summer seasons. Formal agreements between governments, the bubbles allow tourists to bypass strict quarantine measures. And now the private sector is looking to this model to restart corporate travel and, ultimately, help revive economies. Singapore was one of the first countries to test this concept admittedly spearheaded by its government and on June 8 established a "fast lane" with six Chinese regions, including Shanghai, to fast-track business and essential travel. What just happened? The EU has formally opened two antitrust investigations into Apple's App Store and Apple Pay. Cupertino will be scrutinized for charging third-parties a 30 percent fee for hosting their apps on the App Store while promoting its own competing services on the marketplace. The company's mobile payment solution will also be probed for restricting the use of NFC to its Apple Pay app, thereby prohibiting banks and other financial service providers from offering NFC payments through their own apps. It was just yesterday we learned that Apple generated a whopping $519 billion of sales through the App Store. The platform has been revolutionary in terms of how people shop from their phones, consume digital services and has created a vast pool of app developers and businesses, all of whom have to agree with Apple's terms and conditions for hosting their apps on the App Store. It's either Apple's way or the highway. The company is now being investigated for these rules by the EU to determine if they violate its competition policies. "Apple obtained a gatekeeper role when it comes to the distribution of apps and content to users of Apples popular devices," said Margrethe Vestager, EU's executive vice president in charge of the competition policy. She also noted that Apple's own services like Apple Music and Apple Books are competing against other app developers and that the EU needs to ensure that Cupertino's rules governing the App Store do not distort competition. Apple has previously been accused of gatekeeping by several companies with competing apps on the App Store. Spotify launched a complaint in March last year, calling Apple's 30 percent store commission unfair, as well as using the marketplace to promote its own Apple Music service. Spotify's chief legal officer said on Tuesday that Apple acts as "the stadium owner, referee, and player, and tilts the playing field in favor of its own services," while calling out EU's investigation as an important first step towards determining the conduct of online platforms in the future. A similar complaint came recently from eBook Company Kobo. It also has to pay a 30 percent fee to Apple on book sales, and said it was difficult to remain profitable while competing with Apple Books, which doesn't incur the same costs. To avoid this tax, Kobo says it's forced to sell content through its own website, putting users at an inconvenience since they can't make purchases from within the app. The EU's second antitrust investigation has to do with how Apple dictates the use of its NFC technology across merchant's apps and websites. Vestager notes that mobile payment solutions are rapidly gaining acceptance, and their usage has surged recently due to the ongoing pandemic as customers turn to online and contactless payments. Apple, however, appears to be setting conditions for using Apply Pay, for which it has exclusively reserved the "tap and go" functionality, preventing competing services from offering the same convenience to customers. Apple expressed disappointment with the EU's decision to advance these "baseless complaints," which it said came from a handful of companies who simply want a free ride. The company later told The Verge that it now welcomes the investigation as an opportunity to prove its case as it gave Apple customers "access to the best app or service of their choice, in a safe and secure environment." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Pierrick Yvon (Agence France-Presse) Paris Wed, June 17, 2020 13:37 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf77445 2 Science & Tech robot,coronavirus,COVID-19,technology Free When human contact needs to be kept to a minimum, robots can save lives and factories. But when the coronavirus crisis is over, will they amplify job losses? It may be a mechanized arm pulling beers in a Seville bar, a dog-like dispenser of hand sanitizer in a Bangkok mall, a cooler on wheels that delivers groceries in Washington, or a vaguely humanoid greeter at a Belgian hospital that also checks you are not running a fever. These are some of the new jobs that robots have taken on as lockdown measures have seen humans confined to their homes. 'Resistance falls away' "The moment there is a threat for humans, you should send a robot," said Cyril Kabbara, co-founder of the French start-up Sharks Robotics. Its robot Colossus helped save Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral when flames engulfed its roof in 2019, and has been adapted to help remove lead that contaminated the site. "Four or five years ago, when we went presented the Colossus, they laughed at us. The firefighters said: 'These guys are going to take away our jobs'," said the entrepreneur. But the Colossus has since been successfully integrated into the Paris and Marseille fire services. "The more we advance, the more the resistance falls away," he said. It is not just in the hygiene and medical spheres where robots have made advances. "This crisis has demonstrated that you have to have a capacity to continue activity even when a health or another type of crisis strikes," said Kabbara. "We've had quite a few manufacturers tell us that the robots allowed them to continue operating. And if they hadn't had them, they'd be at a dead stop." While owners like robots as they can keep operations running, workers can see them as a risk to their jobs. Rightly so, according to Brookings Institution researcher Mark Muro. "Recent research suggests that the deepening recession is likely to bring a surge of labour-replacing automation," he said in a recent note for the Economist Intelligence Unit. Read also: From test kits to robots, Indonesia develops locally made devices to aid COVID-19 battle 'Robophobia' "People who suggest that automation is not taking away jobs in manufacturing, they're just wrong," said Oxford University economist Carl Frey. He pointed to China, a country which is rapidly installing industrial robots, with 650,000 going online in 2018 alone, and which lost 12.5 million manufacturing jobs between 2013 and 2017. The country has seen an explosion in "robophobia" during the coronavirus crisis, according to a study by Spanish university IE. While only 27 percent of Chinese supported limiting automation before the crisis struck, the figure has doubled to 54 percent. The Chinese are now close to the French, who at 59 percent, are the most hostile to automation. The study also revealed that hostility towards automation was tied to age and education, with the younger and less educated people most hostile towards robots. "Historically, technology has created a lot of jobs as well, but you see less of that happening in the digital world," said Frey. He pointed to automakers or manufacturers like General Electric still employing many workers even after adopting automation. "The leading techs of today are not creating so many jobs, apart from Amazon," he told AFP. No one safe? With the rapid progress made in artificial intelligence, white collar workers are increasingly at risk from automation, experts warn. "No group of workers may be entirely immune this time around," said Muro. That is not to say that high levels of automation cannot coexist with low unemployment. Singapore and South Korea are at the top of the rankings for deployment of robots compared to the size of the workforce and yet they enjoy low unemployment. Nevertheless, Frey warns of rising anxiety about robots stealing jobs once the immediate fear of the coronavirus recedes. But he doubts a worldwide movement against automation will gain traction as job losses are a local phenomenon and tend to happen in regions that have long suffered from manufacturing jobs disappearing. KENOSHA A $1 million cash bond was set in Kenosha County Circuit Court on Monday afternoon for a 20-year-old Twin Lakes man who faces six felony charges for a June 3 fatal crash in Salem Lakes . Anthony J. Lagowski was charged with felony reckless homicide for causing the death of 14-year-old Domanic Boll in the two-vehicle crash at the intersections of highways 50 and B in Salem Lakes. Boll had recently graduated from eighth grade at Lake Geneva Middle School. The homicide charge carries a fine of $100,000 and 25 years in prison if convicted. Lagowski also is charged with two felony counts of second-degree reckless injury and three felony counts of knowingly operating a motor vehicle while suspended, which carry an additional 38 years in prison and $80,000 in fines. The crash also seriously injured Tyler Boll-Flaig, who according to a social media post suffered a cracked jaw, four broken vertebrae and broken ribs. Lagowski and a passenger in his vehicle, Valarie Flowers, 19, of Bristol, also were injured. Brandy and Michael Flaig, the boys parents, each made impassioned, emotional pleas to Court Commissioner Loren Keating regarding upholding the cash bond, which had been previously set. All I can say is that theres no bond thats high enough to represent the loss and pain and suffering that has resulted in his reckless actions, Brandy Flaig said. Bolls father gave a similar plea as he presented a photo of his son to Keating during the online hearing. I dont feel that there should be any lowering of his bond, Michael Flaig said. This is my son, right here, that was taken from me. Thats my boy that was taken from me (in the picture), his mother and the rest of our family. These are his brothers, the young man in the middle was in the car with him. (Lagowski) almost took his life as well. This is a picture of my son and me. We were out just enjoying the city, and I cant do that with him. Keating said the investigation revealed that Lagowskis 2008 Volkswagen EOS was estimated to be traveling at more than 100 mph when it struck the 2019 Toyota Corolla driven by Tyler Boll-Flaig. The impact, Keating said, caused the Corolla to be cut in half. Prior to Keatings ruling, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Burgoyne asked that the temporary bond remain in place. The defendant is charged with second-degree reckless homicide, which is a very serious offense, (and) carries a possibility of 25 years in prison, Burgoyne said. Hes also charged with five other serious felony offenses. ... His actions here are criminally reckless, as described in the criminal complaint. A GoFundMe account set up for the victims family had raised nearly $16,000 through 352 donations as of Monday morning. Michael Flaig said his final image of his son was from his funeral, held last Monday. This is the only thing that I have of my boy thats stuck in my head, this image of my son laying in a box, he said. I strongly agree with his mom that I dont think his bond should be lowered, because this young man knew what he was doing. He was driving, and he knew he shouldnt be driving. He killed my boy, and he almost killed my other son. ... I have to endure this for the rest of my life, along with my family, the loss of my 14-year-old boy. I dont think his bond should be lowered at all. Keating agreed in maintaining the cash bond. These are allegations at this juncture, but nonetheless, they are very, very serious allegations and carry with them a great amount of (possible prison time), Keating said. If convictions occur, theres a likelihood of a potential of a great amount of incarceration. As such, the court believes that Mr. Lagowski could pose a flight risk if released. Criminal complaint According to the criminal complaint: A Kenosha County Sheriffs Department dispatcher stated that multiple callers had reported that two vehicles were racing prior to the crash. A deputy on the scene observed the Corolla approximately 60 to 70 yards west of the Volkswagen, and it had been split in half. Police spoke to a witness, who stated she was eastbound on Highway 50 and traveling at 62 mph when the Volkswagen passed her in excess of 90 mph. Right after the Volkswagen passed, the witness stated a silver sedan passed her, and both vehicles continued swerving in and out of traffic. Based on video obtained from Breezy Hill Nursery, investigators determined that Lagowskis vehicle was traveling at 107 mph just before impact. Lagowski told police that he and Flowers were out in the town for a joy ride, and that he saw the Corolla attempting to make a southbound turn on a yellow flashing arrow, swerved but couldnt avoid the collision. Tyler Boll-Flaig stated to police that he had been delivering pizza and recalled traveling west on Highway 50 when he attempted to turn south onto Highway B, but could not recall further details. Police previously reported that no intoxicants were detected on either operator, although Lagowski stated in the complaint that he had used marijuana the previous evening. The complaint states that Lagowskis drivers license was suspended Feb. 6 by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. He also was issued three traffic citations as a result of the crash. Kenosha County Sheriffs Department Sgt. David Wright said Monday that information is still being sought about the other vehicle that may have been involved. Anyone with information is asked to call the detective bureau at 262-605-5102 or Kenosha Area Crime Stoppers at 262-656-7333. Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards of up to $1,000 for information. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 By Lindsay Dunsmuir and Ann Saphir (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is beginning to recover from the worst of the coronavirus crisis, but with some 25 million Americans displaced from work and the pandemic ongoing, it will need more help, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers on Wednesday. "We at the Fed need to keep our foot on the gas until we are really sure we are through this, and that's our intention, and I think you may find that there's more for you to do as well," Powell said in testimony via a video link to the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. "It would be a concern if Congress were to pull back on the support that it's providing, too quickly," he said. With the road back from recession likely to take some time, Powell said interest rates will likely need to stay near zero for "an extended period" and the U.S. central bank will continue to buy bonds to push down on longer-term borrowing costs. But the Fed chief, who also testified before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, noted that Congress must also do its part. Referring to people whose jobs will be slow to return, such as those employed in the travel and restaurant sectors, Powell said it was "better to keep them in their apartment, better to keep them paying their bills." "We should find ways as a country to support those people and help them through this difficult part of their lives," he said. It will be particularly important, Powell said, for Congress to extend in some form the extra $600 weekly payments to the unemployed that were part of a relief package passed in March and that will expire in July. "You would not want to go all the way to zero on that," he said. State and local governments, as well as small businesses, also will need some aid, he said. His message was echoed later on Wednesday by Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, who said that while federal government support had been sizeable, so was the depth of the economic downturn. Story continues "Further direct fiscal support will be needed for states and municipal governments and for households most affected by the pandemic," Mester told the Council for Economic Education via video link. She also said there should be increased investment on testing, contact tracing and treatments to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. Congress has allocated nearly $3 trillion for coronavirus-related economic aid and the U.S. central bank has pumped trillions of dollars of credit into the economy to cushion it from the fallout from the pandemic. But some Republicans have been resistant to doing more quickly, especially after a rebound in job growth and retail sales in May. Representative Patrick McHenry, a Republican, appeared to chide Powell gently for his remarks, saying "monetary and fiscal policy are two very different things - and so I would urge you and the leadership of the Fed to stick to monetary policy." (Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Paul Simao) T ensions between North and South Korea have sharply risen, as North Korea yesterday accused the South of behaving like a mongrel dog. The comments came after North Korea blew up a liason office on its side of the border intended to improve communication with the South, amid a row over anti-Pyongyang propaganda from defectors to the South. The two countries have been divided for more than 70 years, since the end of the Second World War. Here, we take a look at past conflict between North and South Korea, and the cause of the present tension. What is the history between the North and South Korea tensions? North and South Korea were joined in a unified Korea for centuries, ruled by monarchs. However after the Russo-Japanese war of 1905, Korea became occupied by Japan, and formally annexed in 1910. Korea was ruled by Japan for 35 years, until the end of the Second World War in 1945. When the war ended, the USSR and the United States divided Korea into two zones: North and South Korea. The Soviet army set up a communist regime in North Korea, while the United States supported a military government formed in South Korea. While most working-class people remained in North Korea, many middle-class Koreans fled to the South Korea. In 1948, the United States called for a vote for all Koreans over the future of the peninsula. When North Korea refused to participate in the vote, the South formed its own government in Seoul. After the North refused to participate, the South formed its own anti-communist government in Seoul. Meanwhile, the North installed the premier of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the capital of Pyongyang. The Korean War began in 1950 when North Korea supported by the Soviet Union and China invaded South Korea. South Korea, aided by the United Nations, and principally the US military, which dropped hundreds of bombs on the North, fought back. The conflict lasted three years and killed approximately 3 million people. In 1953, the fighting ended when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, creating the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which separates the two states, and allowing prisoners to return. Since then, there has been very little movement across the DMZ between the two countries. No peace treaty between North and South was every signed. The two nations are still technically at war, in a frozen conflict. South Korea, which maintains strong ties to the West and the US military, has developed a strong economy, and is becoming a fully democratic country. However, North Korea has been ruled by a single family for three generations, and remains economically under-developed and isolated, especially after the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s. Kim Jong-un (right) and Moon Jae-in met in 2018 to work towards a treaty to end the Korean War / AP South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean Supreme leader Kim Jong-un met in 2018 and agreed to work towards a treaty to formally end the Korean War. North Koreas attempts to develop a nuclear programme have heightened tensions with South Korea and the US. Why is there current tension between the two countries? North Korea has been angered in recent weeks by defectors to the South who planned to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the militarised border between the two nations. The leaflets, which criticised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his regimes human rights record, have sparked tension between the two countries. North Korea yesterday blew up a liason office in Kaesong yesterday that had been installed to improve communications with South Korea. North Korea had earlier hotlines between the two governments, and hinted that the liason office would be destroyed. Kim Yo-jong described the liason office as "useless" on Saturday / POOL/AFP via Getty Images Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, criticised on Saturday the useless office and warned that people would soon witness the tragic scene of its collapse. Today, Kim Yeon-chul, the South Korean unification minister, has offered his resignation, saying he took responsibility for the worsening of relations between the nations. Meanwhile, the North Korean army has said it will send troops into the DMZ (demilitarised zone) along the border. All but five of the 27 men on death row have been transferred out of the unit, many into the general population at the Oregon State Penitentiary, and several, including father-son bank bombers Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, to a handful of other prisons around the state. Death row, for a decade located in a building on the grounds of the state penitentiary in Salem, is clearing out to make room for a disciplinary unit. The prison is the states only maximum-security prison. The World Bank said on Tuesday it would provide $400 million to support universal health coverage in Egypt as the country struggles with rising numbers of new coronavirus cases. The funding will help Egypt increase the reach of its universal health insurance system in six governorates and offer temporary financial protection to those hit by high out-of-pocket health expenditures linked to the coronavirus outbreak, the bank said in a statement. Egypts health ministry has confirmed 47,856 coronavirus cases, and 1,766 deaths, with the daily increase in cases rising in recent weeks as the government has slightly eased some restrictions on movement. Though the government has announced increases in health spending during the coronavirus outbreak, the sector has suffered from decades of under-investment. Quality of public health provision is often poor, and many Egyptians either lack health insurance or do not use it due to concerns over quality of care at government facilities, according to a World Bank report from 2018. The World Bank launched a five-year, $530 million programme to support Egypts healthcare system in 2018 that includes screening and treatment for Hepatitis C and non-communicable diseases, health facility improvement and healthcare worker training. Search Keywords: Short link: The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Lydia Dsane-Selby, has tested positive for COVID-19. Dr Dsane-Selby tested positive for the disease on Sunday, June 14. She is the second high profile Ghanaian official on record to have tested positive for the disease. The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu, who was admitted at the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), where he was receiving treatment for the Coronavirus disease has been discharged and is receiving treatment at home. Speaking to Accra-based radio station, Asaase Radio, Dr Dsane-Selby said she tested positive for the disease after experiencing tiredness, body pains and headaches. She said she contacted a colleague at the Noguchi Medical Research Institute and a team came to the house and tested and I tested positive. I live with my mother. Luckily, she tested negative and so did the house help. So I immediately self-quarantined, she told Accra-based radio station, Asaase Radio. Im fine. If feels like a bad bout of malaria. I just felt tired, quite a lot of body pains, muscle ache, headaches at the beginning but not anymore, she said. Dr Dsane-Selby said she has contacted all those she came into contact with over the last few days and theyve been for testing, and as far as Im aware, theyre negative. 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 Business AA Attacks Wont Destabilize Rakhine Administration nor Prompt Military Takeover: Myanmar Govt A military helicopter. / The Irrawaddy NAYPYITAWThe Myanmar government said Monday that attacks by the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State neither pose a threat to the administration of the state nor will they cause the military to take administrative control over Rakhine. The Rakhine State government is working hard for peace and for its administrative mechanisms to function in the [conflict] area, said U Myint Than, director-general of the Ministry of the Office of the Union Government at a press conference on Monday in Naypyitaw. Established in 2009 in Laiza, Kachin State, the AA announced in 2014 its long-term plan to return to its homeland of Rakhine State, saying it would install its own government in Rakhine. In a statement on May 29, the armed group asked the government and Myanmar military to leave Rakhine now, forever. U Tin Myint accused the AA of targeting police and administrative officials in order to disrupt government functions in Rakhine. As a result, administrators have resigned in Mrauk-U, Myebon, Minbya and Ponnagyun townships, he said. The AA abducted and killed police, attacked police stations and abducted and tortured administrative officials in order to disrupt administration. However, the Rakhine State government is rebuilding its administrative mechanisms according to the instructions of the Presidents Office, he said. When asked by reporters whether the military would take over administration of Rakhine due to escalating clashes, U Myint Than replied that the situation was not that worrying. Last year, during intensive fighting between the Myanmar military and the AA, large numbers of village administrators in Mrauk-U, Minbya, Kyauktaw and Rathedaung townships resigned, citing security concerns. U Tin Myint warned that the government will take legal action against administrative officials who provide cash or other donations to the AA, as the government and military have declared the group a terrorist organization. Fifty-eight ward and village administrators in Myebon Township submitted their resignations after the Myanmar military filed a lawsuit against three Myebon administrators under the Counter-Terrorism Law for allegedly contacting the AA on June 5. The Rakhine State government is taking steps to fill the vacant positions. According to the Ward or Village-tract Administration Law, those who won the second-largest number of votes [in administrator elections] will be appointed temporarily, said U Myint Than. He added that if they refuse to take up the positions, there are still administrators for 100-household and 10-household administrative unitswhich form the lowest level of ward and village-level governmentwho can fill the positions temporarily. I believe they resigned because of instability in the region, not because they wanted to. So I believe they all have the will to serve the community if there is security in the region, he said. Maylun Village Administrator U Maung Hla Thein, of Minbya Township, said that village administrators are caught in a Catch-22 situation in Rakhine State between the threats from the Myanmar military and those from the AA. He said that local village administrators have sent complaints to Naypyitaw about the Myanmar militarys killing and abduction of administrators but there has been no response. There was no response to our complaints. In cases when something happens, we should be allowed to explain. But we were only shot to death and detained, so no one dares to stay. They can punish the lawbreakers, but innocent people should be released, he said. According to Rakhine analyst U Maung Maung Soe, Rakhine is now a contested area as the AA is attempting to establish its own government, which it calls the Arakan Peoples Authority. Now both sides are attempting to control the administrative mechanisms. The government is struggling to build its administrative mechanisms at a time when village administrators are resigning due to arrests. There is some contest at present, said U Maung Maung Soe. Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said the AA is attacking police and police outposts to undermine the functioning of the government in Rakhine. The attacks on the institutions that enforce the rule of law are a disruption to the governments administration, said Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun. Fierce clashes broke out between the Myanmar military and the AA in Rakhine in 2019, and despite calls for peace talks from both sides, military tensions have only escalated in the area. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. You may also like these stories: All NLD Members of Mandalay Cabinet to Run in Myanmars General Election: Minister Election Authorities Prepare for Voting in Myanmars Roughest War Zone Lawmakers Move to Impeach Yangon Chief Minister High Courts Bostock Decision Prompts Consternation, Anger Among Constitutionalists, Religious Conservatives News Analysis When Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was sworn in at the White House April 10, 2017, President Donald Trump praised him as a man who would decide cases based, not on his personal preferences, but based on a fair and objective reading of the law. Gorsuch, after taking the oath of office, pledged to the family of the man he was replacing on the nations highest courtJustice Antonin Scalia, who unexpectedly died in 2016that I wont ever forget that the seat I inherit today is that of a very, very great man. Scalia was the towering champion of the jurisprudence of original intent, or textualism, in which judges strictly adhere to the original language and intent of a law, rather than indulging in legislating their own intent from the judicial bench. But some of Gorsuchs key supporters are now reeling, thanks to the courts June 15 Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, decision in which he and five colleagues on the bench rewrote a key provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Writing for the 63 majority and calling it a far-reaching decision, Gorsuch said Title VII of the laws definition of sex discrimination in hiring covers sexual orientation and gender identity (including gender changing), even though Congress referred only to biologically determined sex in 1964. Justice Samuel Alito was reminded in his dissent of a pirate ship, writing, The Court attempts to pass off its decision as the inevitable product of the textualist school of statutory interpretation championed by our late colleague Justice [Antonin] Scalia, but no one should be fooled. The Courts opinion is like a pirate ship. It sails under a textualist flag, but what it actually represents is a theory of statutory interpretation that Justice Scalia excoriatedthe theory that courts should update old statutes so that they better reflect the current values of society. As a result, Bostock is prompting howls of protest and anguish among original-intent adherents and religious conservatives who supported Gorsuch and other like-minded judicial nominees with the expectation that they would protect freedom of worship and practice in American daily life. I was shocked at the fundamental legal and historical errors that Gorsuch made in this opinion and how totally wrong he is. His claim that the common public understanding of the word sex in the 1964 Civil Rights Act included homosexuality and transgenderism is absurd, constitutional lawyer Hans von Spakovsky told The Epoch Times. That provision referred to the biological differences between a male and female and was intended to stop the rampant employment discrimination suffered by women at that time. This has to be one of the most poorly reasoned and disingenuous opinions written by a justice in decades, von Spakovsky said. He is a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundations Institute for Constitutional Government, a hotbed of original-intent scholarship, thanks to former Attorney General Edwin Meese, who for years was a highly venerated Heritage leader. Similarly, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), the former Missouri Attorney General who clerked for Gorsuch, took to the Senate floor June 16 to declare Bostock the end of the conservative legal project, as we know it. Hawley, the youngest member of the Senate, said, If textualism and originalism gives you this decision, if you can invoke them in order to reach a decision, an outcome, that fundamentally changes the scope and meaning and application of statutory law, then textualism and originalism dont mean much at all. Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, one of the countrys most influential evangelical advocacy groups, told The Epoch Times he was shocked when he first read of the decision. I think to myself, this is the problem of the deep state, or the bureaucratic state, that they take it upon themselves to take the interpretation of these things from Congress to establish and usurp constitutionally given rights such as religious freedom, Daly said. Daly said he has heard over and over again from my Christian conservative friends that we like 80 percent of what President Trump does and 20 percent of what he says. His agreement was I will get good judges on the court. Well, at least with Gorsuch, it was a miss, from our perspective. Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Matt Sharp told The Epoch Times he sees in Bostock realistic risks to religious organizations and nonprofits in their employment decisions, but also more broadly in how they operate. Sharp said Gorsuch acknowledged the law has protections for religious groups to hire co-religionists, but people of faith are saying its not that we have any hostility against LGBT but rather that we have a duty to be faithful to our religious teachings and for our employees to do so. I think that is going to be a flashpoint after this decision. But there is a straightforward way to avoid such flashpoints, according to Joseph Morris, a former U.S. assistant attorney general and a former delegate to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The decision did not interpret a provision of the Constitution, such as the Equal Protection Clause, Morris told The Epoch Times. Rather, it interpreted and applied a provision of a statute, which is subject to change or repeal by Congress. If it has the political will, Congress can readily correct the effects of any judicial interpretation of a statute by changing the statute. Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc Four people who impersonated paramedics and a coronavirus patient were arrested after traffic police officers in Colombia discovered 242 pounds of cocaine in the ambulance they were traveling in. The incident unraveled Saturday at a highway checkpoint in Santa Marta, a city in the department of Magdalena off Colombia's Caribbean coast, when a cop walked over to the driver's window and detected his nervous reaction. Officers then inspected the ambulance and discovered a massive load packages wrapped in duct tape that were concealed under the cabin's seating area. Police in the Santa Marta, Colombia, discovered 242 pounds of cocaine hidden inside an ambulance operated by two individuals who were impersonating paramedics. The men were stopped at a checkpoint and told the police they were taking a male, who pretended to be infected with COVID-19. He was taken to a clinic where doctors said he was in good health The Colombian police wanted to make sure that the man who was lying on a gurney was not infected with the coronavirus. He along with two men and a woman were taken into custody A transit cop in Santa Marta, Colombia, talks to the driver of the ambulance shortly before he became suspicious of him and proceeded to check the vehicle, discovering 242 pounds of cocaine A video shared on social media by the Colombian National Police shows one of the agents slicing open of the bundles that proved to be cocaine. The officers immediately apprehended two male individuals, who attempted to pass off as paramedics. They then transported the man, who was on a gurney, to a local clinic where a physician told the police that he indeed was healthy. The suspects were identified as Alvaro Felipe Penaranda, Jorge Andres Galvan, Emilio Carrascal and Norly Julieth Pinzon, who faked being the companion of the bogus patient. 'This person was wearing a child's catheter and it wasn't even connected,' the Colombian National Police said in a statement. The confiscated drugs had a value of $2million in Colombia and were slated to be shipped overseas The police said the four suspects traveled nearly eight hours from North Santander to Magdalena. The individuals tried to trick the police into believing that a man (pictured) who was lying on a stretcher inside the ambulance was indeed infected with COVID-19 The police said that the suspects traveled nearly eight hours on the ambulance which had emblems from Emiro Quintero Canizares de Ocana Hospital, located in the North Santander department near the border with Venezuela. The suspects planned to deliver the drugs to Santa Marta and have it shipped overseas. The police estimated the seized drug shipment's value at $2million. WSE Expressing consent by the antitrust authority in Serbia to take over control of the Company by the Investor Management Board of Work Service S.A. ("Issuer" or "Company"), with reference to the Current Reports No. 12/2020, 12/2020/K, 14/2020, 20/2020, 21/2020, 24/2020 and 31/2020 hereby informs that today the Company received information that the antitrust authority in Serbia has given its consent to take over control of the Company by Gi INTERNATIONAL S.R.L., wholly owned by Gi Group SpA ("Investor"). At the same time, the Issuer informs that the Investor has already obtained all the required consents of the relevant antitrust authorities to take control of the Company and its related entities. Therefore, one of the Conditions Precedent of the transaction with the Investor, specified in the Investment Agreement concluded between the Company and the Investor on February 13, 2020, about which Conditions Precedent the Issuer informed in Current Report number 12/2020, was met. Legal basis: Article 17(1) MAR _Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council _EU_ No 596/2014 of 16 April 2014 on market abuse _Regulation on market abuse and repealing the Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC. Signatures: Iwona Szmitkowska - President of the Management Board Jarosaw Dymitruk - Vice-President of the Management Board Edward Brown has always found a way to deal with his husbands military deployments in the past, but the most recent one felt different. Instead of an endless parade of family visits and last-minute errands, Brown and Staff Sgt. James Clyde were holed up inside their Fayetteville, North Carolina, apartment watching Netflix and making TikTok videos. When his mandatory two-week quarantine ended last Friday, Clyde made the short drive to Fort Bragg and boarded a plane for a nine-month deployment in the Middle East. The 34-year-old is among 2,200 paratroopers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Divisions 2nd Brigade Combat Team deploying to Iraq and Syria amid the coronavirus pandemic. Theyll be supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S military battle to defeat the Islamic State. In 2016, Brown learned ways to keep his worries at bay during his husbands first stint in Iraq. The then-newlywed ignored headlines and prayed without ceasing for Clydes protection. But the virus has added yet another worry that is hard to ignore. Hes going to be fighting two wars at the same time, Brown said. Because of travel restrictions, Spc. Amy Cloud cant say goodbye to her family in Pennsylvania before her predeployment lockdown on Bragg. But the unexpected is what she signed up for. I volunteered for this. We dont have a draft. No one forced me to enlist in the military. I did it of my own choice, she said. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department of Defense has been forced to adapt quickly to comply with guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while maintaining military personnel in a constant state of readiness. Married soldiers, like Clyde, are allowed to quarantine off base inside private homes and apartments. But those who are single spend their last two weeks in the U.S. at FOB (Forward Operating Base) Patriot, a secluded compound on Fort Bragg. When paratroopers touch down in the Middle East, theyll immediately be screened for COVID-19. Any soldier who exhibits symptoms will be quarantined again for two weeks in Kuwait. On bases across Iraq, Syria and Kuwait, physical distancing guidelines were implemented months ago. Dining facilities remain empty as soldiers are required to take meals to go. Workouts are done outside and barbershop appointments are meticulously tracked in case someone gets sick. Readiness to deploy at a moments notice has always been a way of life for paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne Division. The divisions Immediate Response Force is a rotating brigade-sized entity that can mobilize for a crisis within hours. Even so, they have already been extraordinarily busy this year. On New Years Eve, President Donald Trump mobilized the force to the Middle East. On June 1, not long after some had just returned from that deployment, they found themselves bound for Washington, D.C., to quell civil unrest in Washington, D.C., in response to George Floyd s death. Floyd was the black man who died last month after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes. The 1st Brigade soldiers who were mobilized had just two hours to report to Fort Bragg. They were in Washington by that evening. Airborne training throughout the Army, suspended since March because of the coronavirus, resumed last month. Soldiers wore protective face masks as they strapped on nearly 100 pounds of parachutes and gear, but were allowed to remove their facial coverings before jumping out of an airplane high above Fort Bragg. Among those in training on a recent day in May was Sgt. Isaiah Solis. Solis waited on a dusty bleacher to climb into a sand-colored mechanical box resembling a Humvee. The press of a button moved the vehicle back and forth until it was upside down, as soldiers chanted Rollover! Rollover! Rollover! while suspended by their seatbelts. The exercise is meant to simulate what can happen if an armored vehicle takes a hit from an improvised explosive device. This will be Solis second deployment. He doesnt think much about the risk but his mom does. Shes always worried about me, shes always calling me, he said. He admits the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic havent been comfortable but he says nothing about the Army is. Hes ready to deploy, even if it looks a bit different this time around. Mission is the same: Go fight bad guys, he said. About 400 opponents of video blogger Anatoliy Sharij were allowed to enter the area outside the President's Office building. Pro-Ukrainian activists have thrown eggs at supporters of the Party of Sharij who were rallying outside the President's Office of Ukraine. As of 10:45 Kyiv time on June 17, about 400 opponents of video blogger Anatoliy Sharij were allowed to enter the area outside the President's Office building. They were standing outside the nearby House with Chimaeras, holding flags with the inscription "Demokratychna Sokyra" ("Democratic Axe," a pro-Ukrainian party) and shouting: "Sharij won't pass!" according to an UNIAN correspondent. Read alsoIn a controversial murder case, judge puts under "house arrest" activist who claims acted in self-defense Both rallies of supporters and opponents of Sharij were initially separated by two dense rows of police officers at a distance of about 20 meters. One of Sharij's opponents wearing a T-shirt with an Azov Regiment insignia penetrated to the side of Sharij's supporters, but they pushed him out. Clashes between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian protesters downtown Kyiv Later, opponents of Sharij began to throw eggs at his supporters. The law enforcers in response decided to widen the distance between the two rallies to about 50 meters. Sharij's opponents claim the blogger and his supporters are enemies of Ukraine, spreading lies and defending Russian interests, hiding behind slogans about the alleged support of the fight against corruption. What is more, Sharij's opponents claim they do not belong to any movement or NGO, and came to the rally on their own to demonstrate their civil position. Police have detained several protesters Meanwhile, Sharij's supporters demand that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky come out to them. They claim they are angry at the fact that large sums of money were spent on salaries of law enforcers and officials during the coronavirus pandemic, and the president, as they say, "turns a blind eye to that." Kyiv police later reported that some protesters had been detained during the rallies. NGO National Corps, in turn, said on Twitter that 12 activists had been detained and transported to the city's Pechersky police station. A British man who was jailed for murdering a Queensland teenager, whose severed head was then used as a bowling ball, has been deported after serving 15 years of a life sentence. Christopher Clark Jones was convicted in 2007 of the murder of the 17-year-old boy at a Brisbane home in March 2005. Australian Border Force officers escort convicted murderer Christopher Clark Jones to a plane. Credit:Australian Border Force Jones and James Patrick Roughan attacked Morgan Jay Shepherd after a drunken argument at Roughan's house. The teenager was stabbed more than 100 times and decapitated. My late father would often listen to shortwave newscasts. I remember listening to President Kennedy's funeral on the Voice of America as a kid in Cuba. In fact, I still have my late father's huge Telefunken multi-band unit that he bought after we arrived in the U.S. It does not work as it did in 1965, but it's one of those family memories you keep around. One of his favorite stations was the Voice of America. He used to listen to the Spanish and English services to get information about Latin America. As you may know, the VOA is sounding a lot like the BBC lately. In other words, anti-U.S. rants and everything is racist over here. It is horrible, and President Trump is finally saying, "You're fired": Voice of America Director Amanda Bennett and Deputy Director Sandy Sugawara both resigned from their posts at the state-sponsored international news agency after the confirmation of a Trump political appointee to VOA's parent agency, Deadline reports. The big picture: The reshuffle follows an onslaught of public attacks from the White House, which has accused VOA of promoting Chinese propaganda in its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. An email from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released after a freedom of information request told communications staff not to respond to media requests from VOA. In April, President Trump threatened to force Congress into a formal recess so that he could make recess appointments, demanding that the Senate confirm his nominee for CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the independent agency in charge of VOA. Senate Republicans voted last week to confirm Michael Pack to the position. Pack, a conservative filmmaker, has received criticism from Senate Democrats for his business history and his ties to Steve Bannon. Between the lines: Some Democrats fear that with the installment of a top political appointee, VOA could become a propaganda arm for the Trump administration though journalists within the agency deny that charge. Well done, President Trump. Let's make VOA American again and tell the world that this is a great country. PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. Christy Cummings before delivering a letter to the Northern Ireland Office at Stormont House yesterday A former republican prisoner left paralysed in a loyalist gun attack has delivered a letter to Stormont in protest at draft UK Government guidelines which he says could deny him a Troubles pension. Christy Cummings (63) was working as a doorman at the Glengannon Hotel, near Dungannon, when he was shot preventing an LVF massacre at the premises in December 1997. Another doorman, Seamus Dillon, was killed by the loyalist gunmen and several others were injured. Mr Cummings was shot in the back and was left paralysed from the chest down. He said he didn't receive compensation because he was a former prisoner, and he fears he now won't secure a victims' pension for the same reason. He hand-delivered his letter for Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis, to the Northern Ireland Office at Stormont House. Speaking earlier, he said: "I was working as a doorman on the evening of the (LVF) attack, along with Seamus and my brother-in-law who was also shot. "As former republican prisoners, it was the only type of work we could get to put bread on the table for our families. Expand Close Seamus Dillon / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Seamus Dillon "We prevented loyalist gunmen from entering the premises and causing another massacre like that in Greysteel or Loughinisland. "I've struggled physically and mentally over the years following the attack. I live with chronic pain." Mr Cummings was convicted in 1979 of leaving a hoax bomb outside a house and of IRA membership. He was sentenced to 16 years in jail, but the sentence was reduced on appeal and he spent less than seven years behind bars. He continues to assert his innocence, and his case is under consideration by the Criminal Case Review Commission. Under the current draft guidelines for the victims' pension, ex-prisoners who have spent more than two-and-a-half years in jail must go before a High Court judge-led independent panel. It will assess whether there are mitigating factors to justify them receiving the compensation paid automatically to other injured people. Mr Cummings claims this is discriminatory. Expand Close Police outside The Glengannon Hotel, near Dungannon, where doorman and former republican prisoner Seamus Dillon was shot dead in 1997 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police outside The Glengannon Hotel, near Dungannon, where doorman and former republican prisoner Seamus Dillon was shot dead in 1997 His son Ruairi said his father was a hero who had saved lives. He said he deserved to be treated as a victim "just like thousands of other people". He added: "The playing field is not level. My daddy suffers psychologically and physically every single day and has done since this has happened. The pain never goes away for my father." Solicitor Niall Murphy said Mr Cummings and people in similar circumstances should not have to rely on the "whims" of an independent panel to qualify for the victims' pension. Sinn Fein is refusing to nominate a Stormont department to operate the pension scheme. Party president Mary Lou McDonald yesterday said there was a distinction between "combatants and civilian victims". But she said that no distinction must be made between different "combatants", and republicans should be treated the same as those who served in the security forces when it comes to eligibility. She told Radio Ulster that Sinn Fein wouldn't support a scheme "that is very deliberately and rather crudely designed to be partisan and to be partial and to make judgments as to who was right and who was wrong in terms of the combatant groups in the conflict". Meanwhile, First Minister Arlene Foster said she was "particularly upset" that the scheme had not progressed. "It is important that we proceed because it is wrong that innocent victims are not receiving what they're legally entitled to receive," she said. If there was no agreement at Stormont, then "the Westminster Government have an obligation to look to other ways to deal with this issue", she added. On the row over whether London or Stormont funds the scheme, Mrs Foster said the responsibility lay with Westminster. A day after violent clash between Indian and Chinese armies at the Galwan valley, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau. Issuing a statement about the conversation on Wednesday Trudeau's office said that both the leaders discussed the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Trudeau also condolences to Prime Minister Modi for the loss of lives and damage caused by Cyclones Amphan and Nisarga. In the statement, Trudeau said that he discussed efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and exchanged views on the latest developments in Canada and India with respect to protecting the health and safety of their citizens while ensuring economic recovery. Trudeau also highlighted the need for continued international coordination. Canadian Prime Minister has told PM Modi that both countries will work together to strengthen the 'dynamic and mutually beneficial' Canada-India relationship. READ | China unilaterally attempted to change status quo: MEA on 'violent' LAC standoff Meanwhile, the state department of the United States of America said that it is 'closely monitoring' the situation and hopes that the differences will be resolved peacefully. UN chief also said that the world body is concerned about reports of violence and urged both sides to exercise maximum restraint. READ | Indian Army Colonel & two Jawans martyred in violent faceoff with Chinese troops at Ladakh Twenty Indian Army personnel martyred The Indian Army on Tuesday issued an official statement on the violent faceoff that took place on June 15 at the Line of Actual Control. It mentioned that both sides had disengaged at the Galwan area. It added that 17 more troops who were critically injured in the line of duty had succumbed to their injuries. This has propelled the number of Indian Army personnel martyred at the LAC to 20. READ | India-China faceoff: Army confirms disengagement at Galwan; 20 soldiers martyred in action A violent faceoff took place on Monday night when the de-escalation process was underway in the Galwan Valley. China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is said to have suffered 43 casualties, reported ANI quoting sources. No firing took place during the faceoff, the armies used clubs and rocks. A series of meetings took place as the situation unfolded. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with the Chief of the Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, the three service chiefs and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Later, Singh briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the latest development. PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah also met. READ | China suffered 43 casualties at Galwan Valley violent standoff along LAC: ANI Sources After her 13-year-old daughter was asked to adopt the mindset of French colonists attempting to sway Indigenous people to let them stay, a Hamilton mother is calling for changes in how Hamiltons Catholic board addresses acts of racism at its schools. Denika Manswell was driving to a work meeting last Thursday when her daughter, a Grade 7 student, called to express reservations about an upcoming history assignment. I asked her why and she said they were asking her to be a colonizer, Manswell said, noting its not typical of her daughter to have issues with school work and that shes very academically focused. The assignment asked students to pretend they were a 16th-century colonist from France. You have just discovered North America, the assignment reads. The Aboriginal people that were there before you are having issues with you staying. Students were then asked to write a speech convincing the Aboriginal people of their plans to settle on the land. Manswell was taken aback. I couldnt believe that this is an actual assignment youre giving to middle school students or to anyone to write on, she said. I told her youre not writing from that perspective. You can write from the perspective of the Aboriginals and how they must have felt. Manswell emailed the teacher and told him that the assignment was insensitive. She asked to speak with the schools principal and superintendent. On Monday, the schools principal, Lucio Iassogna, called Manswell to express sympathies and ask what shed like to be done. A nice gesture, Manswell said, but one she felt lacked credence. She said theres been a pattern of racially charged incidents at the school and a pattern of inaction. Earlier this year, when kids were still in school, Manswell said her daughter came home in tears after a group of boys refused to stop singing a song with the N-word around her. She asked them to stop and they didnt. She went to the principal and told him what was happening, said Manswell, who added her eldest daughter also attended the school in years past and experienced similar acts of racism. Obviously, I called the school asking if they were aware and what would be done. This isnt OK. This has been going on for years. What is your policy when children experience racism? Manswell told the principal at the time. I was basically told there is no policy in place, and I was a little outraged. There should be zero-tolerance to racism. The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Boards equity and inclusive education policy mentions the word racism once. The words Black and Indigenous do not appear at all. There is also no policy listed concerning consequences to discriminatory behaviour. Manswell said in the case of the boys who repeatedly sang a racial epithet in front of her daughter, the school had them apologize. I dont think thats good enough because my daughter is going to carry this, she said. If this happens in a workplace, people lose their jobs. Pat Daly, chair of the school board, said hes unaware of the incident involving the boys, but stressed the board remains committed to disavowing discrimination in all forms. I absolutely agree that if staff, students, anyone, is using the N-word or (committing) any other act of racism, then absolutely there should be consequences, for sure, he said. As for the assignment, Daly characterized it as an isolated incident, albeit insensitive, inappropriate, and hopes the parents will understand that. He expressed regret on behalf of the board and apologized to the Indigenous community. The Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, along with Manswell, have called for a meeting with the board to address what the groups executive director Kojo Damptey calls a continued pattern of systemic racism at the boards schools. A date for the meeting has not yet been set. 3 1 of 3 Best Friends Animal Society Houston Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Best Friends Animal Society Houston Show More Show Less 3 of 3 More than 19,000 pounds of free dog food will be handed out to Houston-area pet owners who have been faced with financial hardship due to the pandemic at an upcoming pet food drive at St. Arnold Brewery in Houston. Best Friends Animal Society-Houston is hosting the food drive with the brewery. The nonprofit animal welfare organization works with shelters across the nation to advocate for no-kill communities. The union representing workers in the hospitality industry, which has seen a string of underpayment cases at high profile Melbourne restaurants, has set its sights on Sydney with a website to report bosses who cheat their staff. Hospo Voice, which counts chefs and waiters among its members, has urged the NSW government to follow Victoria, which on Tuesday passed a landmark law criminalising the most serious cases of wage theft. James-Anthony Consiglio was underpaid while working as a chef. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui Jo-anne Schofield, the president of Hospo Voice's parent, the United Workers Union, said NSW was worse than Victoria and the state government should criminalise wage theft. "[Sydney] is ground zero for wage theft," Ms Schofield said. "But the NSW government keeps burying its head in the sand on this issue." French passengers step out of the tram at a station in Kehl, on June 15, 2020, on the reopening day of the borders between France and Germany, (Patrick Hertzog/AFP via Getty Images) CCP Virus Tracing App a Test for Privacy-Minded Germany BERLINGermany launched a CCP virus tracing app on June 16 that officials say is so secure even government ministers can use it, though developers acknowledge it isnt perfect yet. Smartphone apps have been touted as a high-tech tool in the effort to track down potential COVID-19 infections. Experts say finding new cases quickly is key to clamping down on fresh clusters, especially as countries slowly emerge from lockdowns and try to avoid the second wave of infections and deaths. But governments in Europe have run into legal and cultural hurdles trying to reconcile the need for effective tracing with the continents strict data privacy standards. Germany, where a persons right to their own data even after death is rooted in the constitution, has proved a particular challenge. Early government suggestions to use cell-tower information and GPS coordinates for the app prompted a swift backlash. Tracking where a person is in real-time, that does remind us of China and its surveillance system, said Frederick Richter, who heads the independent Foundation for Data Protection. It also recalls Germanys own history of dictatorships. Both the Nazis and East Germanys communist regime amassed vast amounts of information to persecute dissidents and undesirables. Thats why we have always been very sensitive in Germany when it comes to the state collecting information on its citizens, Richter said. Like many other European tracing apps, Germanys system now relies on low-energy Bluetooth technology thats standard in modern smartphones. The app scans the users surroundings and records which other smartphones with the app are nearby and for how long. If someone using the Corona-Warn-App tests positive for COVID-19, they can inform others who were in close proximity for at least 15 minutes that they, too, might be infected. Developers say their most recent tests correctly identified 80 percent of peoples contacts. That still leaves 20 percent who were either not recognized as having been close to an infected person or deemed exposed even though they were more than 2 meters (6.6 feet) away. This app is no cure-all, it doesnt give you a free ride, said Germanys health minister, Jens Spahn, noting that face masks and manual tracing will still be required. But its an important tool to contain the pandemic. He acknowledged that there would likely be an increase in people seeking to get tested because of the app. Id rather a test too many than a test too few, said Spahn. Concerns have also been raised about the hotline some users will need to call in order to get their positive test result recorded in the app. This opens the door to trolls who could try to trick hotline staff, setting off a cascade of consequences for everyone they were close to in restaurants, supermarkets, or public transport. Opposition parties, meanwhile, have called for a law to ensure that private businesses dont try to push customers or employees into using the app, either through incentives or sanctions. The German government insisted on June 16 that voluntary means voluntary and the app would be continually improved. Asked whether the app meets security standards for top-tier officials, a spokesman for the German Interior Ministry said the countrys IT security agency has been involved from the start. I presume that from their side there can be an unreserved recommendation to members of the federal government to use this app, said the spokesman, Bjoern Gruenewaelder. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Buedenbender, a judge, announced they were using the app. Skeptics are more likely to be reassured by Germanys Chaos Computer Club, which bills itself as Europes largest hackers association. The group has a history of punching holes in government and corporate IT systems and of campaigning against surveillance technology. Linus Neuman, a club spokesman, praised the German app developers transparency for using the coding site Github to let the public look over their shoulder and recommend improvements. He also suggested that choosing to store data only on peoples phones, rather than on centralize servers the way France has done, would help minimize privacy risks. We cant guarantee that someone wont find a weak spot in (the code) tomorrow, said Neumann. But we can say that these weak spots will have a lower overall risk than if the German government had pursued a centralized approach. Still, the group wont officially endorse the app. What we want is for every user to make an informed decision, said Neumann. And this decision might be different for an investigative journalist than for a teenager who spends most of the day on WhatsApp, Facebook, Google, or YouTube. The German government says its app cost 20 million euros ($22.7 million) to develop and will require 2.5 million to 3.5 million euros per month to operate. Its available in German and English, with Turkish and other languages to follow. So far, Chancellor Angela Merkels government has been praised for its handling of the pandemic, which has resulted in a death toll about one-fifth of Britains and one-fourth of Italys. Germany has recorded almost 190,000 cases of COVID-19 and just over 8,800 deaths to date, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. A poll this month published by public broadcaster ARD found that slightly more Germans42 percentsaid they would use the tracing app than the 39 percent who wouldnt. The rest either said they didnt have a smartphone or hadnt made up their mind. The telephone poll of 1,005 had a margin of error of up to 3 percentage points. A major glitch could hurt uptake. On June 16, Norway suspended the use of its track and trace app after a public spat between health authorities and the information watchdog. At Berlins Friedrichstrasse train station, commuters appeared cautious when asked whether they would download the German app. Klaudia Kruczkiewicz said using a smartphone to scan her surroundings felt a bit creepy, but wouldnt rule out signing up. First Id need to see how it works, she said. But otherwise, at the moment, Im keeping my distance. I always wear a mask. I dont need this app. By Frank Jordans The Epoch Times contributed to this report MIAMI, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sitel Group , a leading global customer experience management provider that delivers more than 3.5 million customer experiences every day, today announced it's hiring 1,000 full-time licensed insurance agents to support client demand during the open enrollment period. These seasonal, work from home opportunities will support some of Sitel's largest clients in the insurance industry. "We're now hiring more than 1,000 licensed insurance agents to prepare for our fall open enrollment," said Sally Cornet, Director of Human Resources at Sitel. "The positions are new work from home opportunities that offer career development, paid virtual training and sales commission, with potential for year-round, full-time employment at the conclusion of the open enrollment season." Sitel is hosting a virtual challenge, How To Crush It as an Insurance Agent! on Facebook live to educate candidates on compensation structure, licensing and tips to get started as a licensed agent. The 3-day event will take place June 22-24 at 1 p.m. (EST) every day. Candidates can sign up for the challenge here . Interested candidates should apply online at jobs.sitel.com using the keyword Licensed. About Sitel Group Sitel Group's 80,000 people across the globe connect many of the world's best-known brands with their customers - 3.5 million times every day. As a global customer experience (CX) management leader, we apply our 30+ years of industry-leading experience and the entrepreneurial spirit of our group's founders to deliver omnichannel experiences through voice, chat, social media and more to customers of our 400+ clients across all verticals from Fortune 500 companies to local startups. Our group's breadth of capabilities powered by our ecosystem of experts including innso, Learning Tribes, Sitel, Sitel Insights and TSC go beyond business process outsourcing (BPO) to support every stage of the customer journey. We are redefining the contact center and improving business results by pairing innovative solutions - such as self-care and automation - with the human touch, emotion and empathy of our people. As a CX platform, we are powered by experts to deliver tailored CX solutions to fit our clients' needs through our consultative, customer-centric approach adding value at every touchpoint - regardless of location, channel or time of day. Learn more at www.sitel.com and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Sitel Group Related Links https://www.sitel.com District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks to the media as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Wednesday, June 3, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Washington, D.C., officials are targeting next Monday for the start of phase two of reopening the nation's capital after months of social restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Wednesday that she would make a final decision and announcement on Friday. But if the numbers continue "trending in the right direction," Bowser said she expects to launch phase two next week. Playgrounds, libraries, gyms and nail salons would be able to reopen on a limited basis. All nonessential businesses would be allowed to let customers inside up to 50% capacity. Restaurants will be able to seat diners indoors, also at 50% capacity. "We always have the ability to turn up or turn down our reopening," Bowser said. "This virus is not gone. It is still here. It is still spreading." Theaters, cinemas and concert venues would remain closed but they can apply for a special waiver from the District government. Public pools would be reopened on a limited basis, although Bowser said it may take a few weeks to properly prepare the facilities. Indoor gatherings of up to 50 people would be allowed. Houses of worship would be able to hold services for 100 people or 50% capacitywhichever number is smaller. However, Bowser said the city's health department is recommending that area churches do not allow their choirs to perform yet. Hair stylist Zak Moukhtabir works on the hair of Cheyenne Foster at the Georgetown Salon & Spa in Washington, Monday, June 1, 2020. Barbershops and salons have been reopened in Washington. They can serve customers by appointment only and "no waiting inside the shop" is allowed Mayor Muriel Bowser said. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks to the media as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Wednesday, June 3, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Hair stylist Zak Moukhtabir works on the hair of Cheyenne Foster at the Georgetown Salon & Spa in Washington, Monday, June 1, 2020. Barbershops and salons have been reopened in Washington. They can serve customers by appointment only and "No waiting inside the shop" is allowed Mayor Muriel Bowser said. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington, during a news conference to announce a new 7 p.m. curfew for the city for the next two nights. Across the United States people gathered to protest the death of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) "That's what the health people call a super-spreader activity," Bowser said. District of Columbia health officials originally laid out a dire prediction model that saw the virus peaking sometime in July and as many as 100,000 Washingtonians infected by the end of the year. As of Wednesday, the total number of positive infections in Washington stood at 9,847 with 523 deaths. Bowser credited several months of stay-home orders and social distancing with helping avoid that fate. "We know that we have been able to blunt the curve in DC," she said. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. RAPID CITY, S.D. - More than 125,000 tickets were requested for the 7,500 spots available for the Fourth of July fireworks at Mount Rushmore, which President Donald Trump plans to attend, according to South Dakota tourism officials. The National Park Service held a lottery for the tickets last week. The winners were chosen at random and have been notified. South Dakotans submitted the most applications for tickets at 40,575, the Argus Leader reported. Unlike Trumps upcoming rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, tickets for the Mount Rushmore fireworks dont include a liability waiver if attendees become ill with COVID-19, the state Department of Tourism said. OTTAWAThere are no excuses. The way NDP MP Matthew Green sees it, the Liberal minority government must swiftly fulfil the entire list of demands in a sweeping declaration from Black parliamentarians that charts reforms to address systemic racism in Canada. After all, the document was signed by more than 100 Liberal MPs, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and 25 other Liberal cabinet ministers. A failure to act now after anti-racism protests swept the country and around the world during a global pandemic would be a broken promise to Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus own caucus and people across the country, Green said. I demand the government move on all of these things. We spent painstaking time, crafting and drafting this statement, representing over 140 members including members of his cabinet, said Green, a New Democrat from Hamilton who was invited to join the eight-member Parliamentary Black Caucus by Liberal MP Greg Fergus after the 2019 federal election. What we demonstrate in this historic document is the political will for it to happen immediately, he said. Released Tuesday, the declaration contains a wide range of demands for reform to minimize the consequences of systemic racism in Canada on Black, Indigenous and other racialized people. They include calls to purge mandatory minimum jail sentences from the Canadian justice system; create programs to support businesses owned by Black Canadians; increase the number of Black and Indigenous judges; and shift spending from police budgets to health and social-service experts. RCMP spending has increased by more than 32 per cent since 2015, the year the Trudeau government took power, and clocked in at $3.8 billion last year, according to data published by the federal Treasury Board. Speaking to reporters outside his residence at Rideau Cottage on Tuesday, Trudeau did not endorse the declaration signed by more than half his cabinet ministers. But he said the government is working with community groups and the Parliamentary Black Caucus to decide how it will move to address racism in policing and other government institutions. Trudeau has already called for more police officers to wear body cameras to document interactions with the public. And his government has pledged to introduce a new law that would declare Indigenous policing an essential service so more communities could have their own law enforcement. We are committed to moving forward on a huge range of measures, Trudeau said Tuesday. I think its really important that we all come forward and look at all the ideas that we can take on very soon to fix the systemic discrimination that continues to exist in our country. Sen. Rosemary Moodie, who is part of the Black parliamentary group that drafted the declaration, told the Star she believes cabinet ministers signed as individuals and that she doesnt expect the government to fulfil the entire list of demands. But, she added: it is clear they want to act as soon as possible and I hope this brings pressure on (the Prime Ministers Office) to do more than has been done. The prime minister has yet to show if he is truly serious. I hope he is, she said. The declaration includes a number of measures the government could take right away, Green said. They include ordering the RCMP to collect and release data on the race of people the police interact with and use force on, and create a parliamentary committee on the elimination of discrimination in Canada. Fergus, a Liberal MP from Quebec who also sits on the Black caucus, told the Star he was delighted to hear Trudeaus pledge to action that will build on previous measures the Liberal government has taken to address racism in Canada. These include allowing the United Nations to study anti-Black racism in Canada in 2017, and measures in subsequent budgets to support Black Canadians, he said. Im just glad to see that there is now a real public cry for us to take further steps to making sure we can create the Canada we want and we all hold dear in our hearts, he said. I am hoping there will be a suite of actions that are takenWe really felt that these were a series of important actions that would need to be taken in a balanced way. Emmanuel Dubourg, another Liberal MP and member of the Black caucus, told the Star that there is no deadline for the government to fulfil the list of demands in the declaration, and that the prime minister has already shown he is willing to act to tackle discrimination. The death of George Floyd, its a wake-up call, said Dubourg, referring to the Black man who died in the United States after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while he struggled and said he couldnt breathe. We are ready to go further, and we need to go further. Work on the declaration began about two weeks ago, with the Black caucus drafting the declaration informed by demands for change from community groups, the MPs said. In the weeks since, a series of incidents in Canada fuelled demonstrations across the country. They include the deaths of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, who died when she fell from an apartment balcony during a police wellness check in Toronto. Two Indigenous people in New Brunswick Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi were fatally shot by police in recent days as well. It became clear that we needed to set a very clear direction, said Green. While the declaration was signed by most Liberal, NDP and Green MPs as well as several independent senators no Conservative or Bloc Quebecois members endorsed it. Green said the statement wasnt circulated to those parties because they have never shown an interest in the work of the Black caucus. In an email Tuesday, Kelsie Chiasson, a spokesperson for Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, accused the Liberals of playing disgusting partisan games with a serious issue. Conservatives acknowledge the existence of systemic racism in Canada; we condemn it and support calls to eliminate it, she wrote. Read more about: Illustration: Liu Rui/GT By Hu Xijin Voice of America (VOA) Director Amanda Bennett and Deputy Director Sandy Sugawara both announced their resignations on Monday. The reason is believed to be that the White House accused VOA of propaganda for China. It is so ironic that VOA can even be accused of being Beijing's mouthpiece in Washington. In China, those who work on international news know best what the stance of the VOA is. The VOA has lost much of its influence in Chinese society in recent years because of its overemphasis on ideology over facts, a common tendency of the US media outlets. In the past, Chinese people thought US media outlets such as VOA were "objective". In these years of frictions between China and the US, their performance has reshaped our understanding of them again and again, and the influence of the US media in the field of Chinese public opinion has collapsed all together. Now even the VOA is considered by Washington to be pro-China, so much so that the director and deputy director could not continue to work. We can imagine that there is a very powerful force in the US that is pushing the limits of political correctness to extremes. The intensifying conflict between China and the US will squeeze the media outlets on both sides. On the Chinese side, people like me have sometimes been criticized online for flip-flopping. However, I have always held my views for more than a decade. In my opinion, in the long-term game between China and the US, the one who is more calm, rational and open-minded is more likely to gain greater strategic resilience and thus have more endurance, and eventually win. VOA's director and deputy director resigned due to reports that were "deemed wrong" by the White House. Well, VOA's reports have long been unbearable. Let's see what absurd story they have in store for China next. (The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times.) Haiti - FLASH : The writer Farah Martine Lherisson and her husband murdered Pradel Henriquez, the Ministry of Culture has learned with great emotion the assassination of the writer and poetess Farah Martine Lherisson Lamothe (49 years old) and her husband Lavoisier Lamothe (56 years old) victims of an attack in their residence private in Peguy-Ville by unidentified individuals. Seriously injured by several bullets, rushed to hospital, the couple died before arriving at the hospital. "The assassination of Madame Lherisson, professor of Belles Lettres and one of the major voices of poetry, saddens the Haitian literary world." "The Minister Henriquez offers its sincere condolences to his family, friends and loved ones affected by this mourning. That his soul rests in peace ! " Pradel Henriquez as a defender of artists and writers, intends to directly solicit the good offices of Haitian justice on this vile crime. To this end, he sent a correspondence to Me Jacques Lafontant, Government Commissioner, near the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince in which he writes "[...] the assassination of the Poetess Farah Martine Lherisson, is a crime of too many; that is enough ! This act cannot go unpunished; the opening of a criminal investigation into this vile drama is imminent and necessary [...] that the public action is set in motion against all those, directly or indirectly, who participated in this crime; whether they are authors, co-authors or accomplices. The Ministry of Culture addresses this request to you not only as a representative of the Haitian Cultural Sector, of Haitian Culture but also in application of article 19 of the Code of Criminal Instruction which provides : "Any constituted authority, any official or public officer, who, in the exercise of his functions, acquires knowledge of a crime or an offense, will be bound to give immediate notice thereof to the Commissioner of the Government in whose jurisdiction this crime, or this offense will have been committed..." Reactions and condolences : National Book Directorate : "[...] This heinous crime unfortunately comes on top of a list of unworthy, barbaric acts which tarnish the image of our society and reduce the hope of our youth. The death of Farah-Martine Lherisson is appalling. Our contemporary Haitian literature, one of the few positive vibrations at this difficult time, alongside cultural energy, has just been attacked, stripped of one of its beautiful feathers, still full of promise, and a qualified teacher. In this dreadful circumstance, the General Directorate of the DNL sends its condolences to his family, his relatives and the Haitian literary community. [...]" Minister of National Education : Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, Minister of National Education condemns with the utmost rigor the assassination of this teacher emeritus who served the Republic and worked as an executive in the Ministry of National Education. Director of Training and Development, she had shown a great sense of responsibility and ethics [...] This revolting and criminal act must challenge all the living forces of the country on the growing level of gratuitous violence against citizens and citizens, mourning and affecting Haitian families. The time has undoubtedly come to make a united front in order to say no to the unacceptable [...] Minister Cadet salutes her memory and will remember his enthusiasm and her commitment to revaluing the teaching profession [...]" HL/ HaitiLibre Beijing Imposes New Banking Management to Control Peoples Wallets The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) announced the pilot plan of large-sum cash management in July. It is to impose stricter controls on accounts that reach a certain amountfor both individual and business clients. Analysts believe that authorities are attempting to take control of domestic bank accounts. On June 10, the PBOC notified the public about rolling out the large-sum cash management plan, which will run for a two-year period. It will start in bank branches located in Shijiazhuang in July, and Hangzhou and Shenzhen in October. The account balance subject to such management is 500,000 yuan ($70,569) for public accounts, and 100,000 yuan ($14,114), 300,000 yuan ($42,341), and 200,000 yuan ($28,227) for individual accounts in the three pilot cities, respectively. The pilot program would monitor personal and business transactions involving large sums, such as deposits, withdrawals, and cash flow coming in and out of China. Those withdrawing or depositing large sums would need to register such transactions, while transaction records and reports would be kept for companies in specific industries that deal in large sums. Current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan analyzed the implication of the policy on his Twitter account on June 11: If you want to withdraw your own money, you must go through an appointment, a registration and an approval first. This is actually a full control of income and expenditure of any account above a certain range. The Party state is running out of money, so the petty bourgeoisie and the middle-class become their first targets. When the plan was first proposed in November 2019, many people criticized it over social media. They said that its a tactic to control peoples wallets. The PBOCs recent announcement has quickly drawn overseas Chinese comments: The Communist gangster [regime] said: My money is my money, your money how can you be entitled to any money? Its all my money. Another comment read: I believe this is the setup: in order to withdraw money, it needs to be approved through questioning. There might be a limit of the amount to withdraw. Those who are rich could run into a setup: the money is directly transferred by an internal employee. This type of scenario has happened too often. Search online and find out. Last summer, Alaska's famous bright nights had dimmed for many residents. The state's governor, Mike Dunleavy, a Republican and a Trump ally in office a little more than six months, had campaigned on restoring the state's annual oil wealth dividend, a decades-old stipend given to Alaskans off the state's oil and gas surplus that had been cut back in recent years as oil prices declined. But to do so, Dunleavy maintained that he had to veto 182 line-items from the state budget, totaling more than $440 million. Residents of the state were aghast: The suggested cuts would gouge primary and university education, Medicaid, services for the homeless, addiction treatment and public transportation, including a ferry that connects Alaskans in remote areas to essential services. Advocates and state lawmakers scrambled to figure out how their communities could move forward without desperately needed funds. Under pressure, Dunleavy scaled back some of the cuts, but Alaskans on both sides of the political aisle had seen enough. They formed "Recall Dunleavy" to remove him from office. Kicking an elected official, be it an executive, a legislator or a judge, out of office is never easy, but in Alaska, a state known for pride in both its natural resources and its resourcefulness, the idea took hold quickly and spread widely. A poll last summer found Dunleavy with only a 31 percent approval rating as widespread dissatisfaction with him swept the state. But then came the pandemic, which curtailed the ability of recall petitioners to reach fellow citizens, and made even supporters reconsider if it was, indeed, time to switch leaders. Months before the coronavirus outbreak set in, Recall Dunleavy already had its work cut out: First, the group had to navigate the state's multistep recall process. That meant collecting 28,501 signatures or 10 percent of the state's voting population in the last election then submit an application detailing for the Division of Elections the legal grounds for why it believed Dunleavy had violated his oath of office. Story continues With that approval in hand, Recall Dunleavy could then begin the petition process, which required gathering 71,000 signatures, or 25 percent of the voting population. Checking all those boxes would lead to either a special election or a line-item recall question on the general election ballot in November. It was daunting, but didn't seem impossible. On launch day, Aug. 1, 2019, the group immediately picked up 10,000 signatures. Alaskans were angry, and the movement quickly gathered speed, collecting 40,000 more signatures in just a month. But that early momentum then stalled. State Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, a Republican and a Dunleavy appointee, rejected the recall movement's legal case. Recall Dunleavy sued, and on May 8, Alaska's Supreme Court ruled the recall grounds legal, allowing the process to finally continue. But by the time all the legal hurdles were cleared, the movement had lost steam. The state was now in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, and all those ways in which recall activists might have reached their far-flung neighbors were suddenly out of reach. There would be no door-to-door canvassing, signature drives or even tabling at local gathering places. The bipartisan, grassroots coalition was flattened, and its leadership had to figure out how to adapt. "We initially had over 60 launch events over the course of a week and half in February when we started the petition phase of the recall," said Claire Pywell, campaign manager of Recall Dunleavy. As COVID moved in, they shifted strategies. When Alaska locked down, they began a "sign at home" campaign, sending petition booklets to Alaskans who requested them and collecting signatures by mail. But that largely reached only those who were already supporters of the recall. IMAGE: Sign to recall Alaska governor (Jake Calderwood) Recall Dunleavy "seemed quite likely to win last summer if there would've been an election held at the time" said Chanda Meek, an associate professor at the University of Alaska who studies the state's politics. "Now, I would probably give it a 50/50 chance." Where once state residents were aware of a broad spectrum of issues, Meeks said the pandemic had obviously narrowed the discussion. She also said many Alaskans have been satisfied with Dunleavy's COVID-19 response, as he deferred to the state's chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, who shepherded the state through the spring with a low case rate (although it is now beginning to rise again). A poll conducted in April by researchers from Harvard, Northeastern and Rutgers showed 53 percent of Alaskans approved of his handling of the pandemic. (The governor's office said it does not comment on the recall effort.) Pywell says the recall movement is just as important as ever and is adapting to the times. The pandemic, she said, makes issues like cutting Medicaid all the more salient. But time isn't on the recallers side. They've collected just over 37,000 signatures for round two, and need almost twice that by the first week of August to get the question on the general election ballot. So Recall Dunleavy has taken a cue from the virus that slowed its effort, pushing drive-thru petition-signing drives in Anchorage and Fairbanks, the state's two biggest cities, as well as smaller towns like Ketchikan, Cordova, Skagway and Sitka. Just like drive-thru coronavirus testing sites, volunteers wearing masks and gloves guide Alaskans through the signature process. After signing the petition, the signee holds it against their car window for a volunteer to make sure everything is properly filled out. Once given the all-clear, the signee drives to the next station to drop the petition off in a bin. Bringing your own pen is strongly encouraged. "We're trying to make it as easy and safe as possible," Pywell said. "A pandemic isn't going to stop people from exercising this constitutional right." The group's most effective tactic, she said, remains "Alaskan to Alaskan" discussions, where people talk to one another about why they support the movement. Pywell and her volunteers are also setting up phone banks to encourage people to go to the drive-thrus. Not everyone is optimistic. Aidan Smith, an electoral analyst at the progressive think tank Data for Progress, said the pandemic has "completely devastated" progressive and grassroots organizing by denying groups the ability to have the sort of person-to-person interaction that can sway an uncertain voter. "On-the-ground organizing is crucial if you're running a campaign that doesn't have big money to spend on conventional advertising techniques," he said. As a result, Smith said, he suspects that incumbents will be able to maintain their grip on power during the coronavirus crisis. "In addition to the obvious tragedies of COVID, the political consequences of this cycle in particular are depressing" he said. But on-the-ground activists aren't ready to give up just yet. After all, Dunleavy was still unpopular as 2019 came to a close, deemed the nation's ninth-most unpopular governor by the polling company Morning Consult, with a 42 percentage approval rating. Kelly Merritt, a retired teamster from Anchorage and a volunteer with Recall Dunleavy, is determined not to let COVID-19 destroy the movement. "Our momentum had to be stopped for the pandemic, but it hasn't stopped in any of our hearts," Merritt said. "And when you're stopped in your tracks because of a pandemic, it will take a little while to go back." Still, Merritt said she has "no doubt in her mind" that the recall will be on the ballot. She's been making phone calls and helping to coordinate the drive-through testing sites, but she misses the face-to-face interactions of organizing. "I can't wait to get back on the street." In violent clashes with Chinese troops during a face-off in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15 night, India lost 20 of its brave soldiers including Rajesh Orang. According to a statement by the Indian Army, "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20." 26-year-old Orang was a soldier of the 16 Bihar Regiment. From childhood, Orang wanted to serve the country and so joined the Indian Army in the second year of college in 2015. After that, he was deployed in Ladakh. He was a resident of Belgaria village in Mohammadbazar of Birbhum in West Bengal. He had visited home six months ago, in September 2019, and another visit was scheduled. However, due to the lockdown, he couldn't visit and now he will return home as a martyr. Orang had spoken on the phone with the family only two weeks ago. He planned to travel when he came home next. The family is heartbroken at Orang's death and Rajesh's father said, "India should give a befitting reply to China." He had shouldered all the responsibilities of the family including marrying off his sister as his father was sick. The family was informed of the tragedy over the telephone. They were also told on the phone that the body of the martyr will reach Kolkata at around 4 pm on Wednesday and then the body will be sent to his village. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), however, blamed China for the incident and alleged that it tried to unilaterally change the status and "departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley". In a statement, the Army said that almost the same number of Chinese troops, like that of India, have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley. MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. Srivastava said that India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh. Monday's agreement on a draft deal to form a tripartite coalition government in Dublin after two months of hard bargaining is to be welcomed, not just in the south but also in the north in this vital post-Brexit period. The leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Greens emerged from their negotiations with broad smiles and a palpable sense of relief that a deal has in fact been done. However, as the old saying goes, there is many's a slip 'twixt cup and lip, especially as the three parties involved have to sell the deal to their respective members. This will involve the paper balloting of members throughout the country, as no conferences can take place during the Covid-19 crisis. It is very likely despite some internal resistance that both the Civil War parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, will endorse the coalition deal. The big worry for Fianna Fail is that they are trailing badly behind Sinn Fein in recent opinion polls and they must be very anxious to seal a deal that will guarantee them returning to high political office after nine years in the wilderness. Fine Gael on the other hand can actually afford to ride out the rejection of any proposed deal because of the surge in popularity of Leo Varadkar in the opinion polls, due to his successful leadership through the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. If this deal fails - and that is not impossible - the likelihood would be a general election in the autumn and the emergence of a rejuvenated and stronger Fine Gael, who could dictate the shape and form of any future government. An autumn poll would also give Sinn Fein a chance to maximise their support and do further damage to Fianna Fail. Therefore, the worst outcome for Fianna Fail would be a failed deal. Being outside of the negotiation loop may well suit Sinn Fein, as they probably regard going into government at this challenging time to be a poisoned chalice. As a populist party they do not want to make difficult and unpopular decisions the new coalition will surely have to make. It also suits them to appear to be excluded. They are past masters at playing the victim. But given the volatile atmosphere within the ranks of the Greens there is no certainty that any draft deal will win the necessary two-thirds approval from their new and more militant members. This includes members in the north. The Greens are split between the traditional longer serving members and the newer, radical intake that formed the backbone for the party's vibrant election campaign. The Greens have impressively attracted up to 3,000 new members over the past couple of years. They are in the main idealistic eco-warriors, who are intent on achieving radical social and economic change that will bring about a new Green agenda in the south. Their leader Eamon Ryan is an intensely likeable TD, who sees the need to turn the Greens from being simply a party of ecological protest into a party of government in order to bring about attainable environmental change throughout the country. However, Ryan's pragmatism is hotly contested by a radical membership, intoxicated by their success in the last election, where they did the impossible and dramatically won 12 seats. But their environmental idealism has clouded their thinking. Despite his outstanding electoral achievement, one of Ryan's TDs is even challenging him for the party leadership next month. They could learn much from studying the Greens in other European countries and their tactical participation in government. The message for the Irish Greens is that you need to be in power in order to advance the Green revolution. At last after nearly five months of a caretaker government and parallel coalition negotiations, the details of a joint three-party agreement is emerging. If Covid-19 hadn't dominated everything since the general election, then the current paralysis of the Dail would have been exposed to public ridicule. If the various media sources are right, it is the Greens that are the real winners of these negotiations by having successfully negotiated a seminal policy deal on climate change measures, and in particular the commitment to a 7% average annual reduction in carbon emissions up to 2030. That in itself is a major achievement by the Greens, in bringing the established parties to embrace such a radical programme to counteract the impact of climate change in Ireland. This huge win will be transformative. But while the Greens are winners, we should not overlook the core achievement of this agreement, which is the coalition between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and the end of Civil War politics in the south. Now that really is a prize well worth celebrating. WASHINGTON With lawmakers apparently stuck on how to curb police violence in America, George Floyds brother Philonise Floyd on Wednesday urged the United Nations to step in, telling the U.N. Human Rights Council that the way you saw my brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America. Black lives do not matter in the United States of America, Philonise Floyd said in a recorded message to the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is considering an international inquiry into the treatment of black Americans by police. The families of Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown and Philando Castile have also called for the U.N. to step in. IT IS ON YOU: George Floyds brother urges Congress to act You have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd, he said. I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us black people in America. Philonise Floyds urging comes a week after he begged Congress to act, telling a House committee that it is on you to make sure his death is not in vain. Floyd, a Houstonian, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who pinned him to the ground with a knee to the neck. There remains little clarity of what reforms, if any, may emerge from Congress, even as both Republicans and Democrats invoke the Floyd family name and promise progress. Senate Republicans, including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, on Wednesday rolled out a policing reform proposal that would require police departments to report to the FBI when they use force something only about 40 percent of them do now and offer up grants to departments to stop using choke holds and offer more training, among other things. TRUMP IN DALLAS: Trump sticks up for decent Americans being labeled as racists Its a more limited approach than that of House Democrats, who on Wednesday worked to advance a policing bill that would ban choke holds and no-knock search warrants in drug cases, bolster the Justice Departments authority to crack down on misconduct and chip away at some of officers legal protections when they are sued in civil court, among other things. Cornyn has framed the different approaches as I think the question is, do you use a carrot or do you use a stick? For me, this conversation is about trust, justice, reconciliation, Cornyn said at a press conference unveiling the Senate legislation, which he helped craft. Among its provisions is a national commission to study criminal justice in America, something Cornyn has pushed for years and says has not been done since the 1960s. The commission would report back to Congress with recommendations for further reforms after 18 months. Its evident there are communities in our country who have lost trust in law enforcement based on their experience, Cornyn said. Were all going to have a chance to attempt this reconciliation to restore trust in some of our most important institutions, like our police. A CARROT OR A STICK: Cornyn supports use-of-force registry, grants for training as Congress debates police reforms Philonise Floyds call to the U.N. makes clear there is a long way to go. The U.N.s Human Rights Council, from which the Trump administration removed the U.S. years ago, this week is holding an urgent debate on racially inspired human rights violations, systematic racism, police brutality against people of African descent and violence against peaceful protests in America. African countries are circulating a draft resolution calling for a high-level investigation into U.S. racism and police violence, the Washington Post reported. The draft resolution, the Post reported, calls for an independent international commission of inquiry, one of the highest-level probes the United Nations can launch, to look into deaths of Africans and people of African descent in the United States with the aim of bringing perpetrators to justice. The council is expected to vote on the resolution as soon as Thursday. None of the police officers were fired for murdering my brother until masses of people in the United States and around the world protested the injustice, Philonise Floyd said in the recorded message, which played before the council on Wednesday. All four officers involved in the arrest now face charges. Texas Republican U.S. Sens. Cornyn and Ted Cruz on Tuesday rejected the notion of systemic racism in America during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Cruz blasted Democrats for using the phrase systemic racism to suggest that the entire criminal justice system is imbued with racism. I dont believe thats accurate, he said. A SEISMIC OPPORTUNITY: Texas Democrats champion sweeping police reform bill in Congress Cornyn during the hearing asked Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, whether she believes all Americans are racist. When she answered, I think we all have implicit bias and racial bias, Cornyn responded: Wow. You lost me when you want to take the acts of a few misguided, perhaps malicious individuals, and ascribe that to all Americans, he said. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday he hopes Senate Democrats, who are pushing similar legislation to the House package, will support the move which seems unlikely as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dismissed the GOP proposal, saying it does not rise to the moment. If they want to make a law and not just try to make a point, I hope theyll join us in getting on the bill, he said. Were serious about making a law here. This is not about trying to create partisan differences. ben.wermund@chron.com The space is also being used as a town square. Rells Jones, 32, went there over the weekend to register people to vote. I call it mecca, Ms. Jones said. This is where everything happens. In other protest-related news: Hundreds of black and Hispanic police officers in the city have found themselves caught between competing loyalties, my colleagues Ashley Southall and Edgar Sandoval reported. Many of the officers say they want to defeat racism within the Police Department, but most demonstrators have made it clear that they dont consider them allies. Edwin Raymond, a black lieutenant, is among the plaintiffs who sued the city and the department in 2015 over racial discrimination in enforcement and promotions. People have no idea that I identify with them, I understand them, Im here for them, he said of the protesters. Ive been trying to be here as a change agent. Officer Oriade Harbor, 38, a transgender black man, said that even though he often speaks out against what he sees as social injustice, when he wears a uniform he is seen as part of a system that is oppressive to black people. Currently, fewer than half of the departments 36,000 uniformed members are white. Since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office in 2014, the number of Hispanic officers has grown to 29 percent and the number of Asian officers has doubled to 9 percent, but the number of black officers has remained steady at 15 percent, according to Police Department data. [Read more about how black officers feel about the protesters.] Thousands of protesters gathered outside the Brooklyn Museum over the weekend for a rally and silent march for transgender people of color. The event was one of the most notable demonstrations in the city since the killing of Mr. Floyd, and my colleague Anushka Patil reported on how it came together. West Dakota, a drag queen in Brooklyn, told Ms. Patil that she had wanted to speak out against police violence and racial injustice while providing a safe space for black transgender people. Ms Patil wrote: Her mentor, a drag queen named Merrie Cherry, who is black, said she had seen silent marches in other states and would have felt safer attending an event like that, West Dakota recalled. (Newser) They say Hollywood is all about connections. And then there's Rob Lowewho's got a friend in an even higher place, the Albany Herald reports. "It could be Brat Pack people, it could be West Wing people, Parks and Rec people," Lowe said recently about guests on his new podcast, Literally! With Rob Lowe. "It could be people [that] people are surprised I'm friends with." Interviewing Lowe on his own podcast, Conan O'Brien asked which friends are surprising. Lowe mentioned Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. "Are you guys really close?" O'Brien asked, per Fox News, to which Lowe mused, "See. Look at those eyes. That eye vein popped. But he's a guy people go, 'You know him?'" story continues below Lowe said he met the conservative justice after joining the Horatio Alger Society a couple years back. "It's a very exclusive, very amazing society that provides scholarships for kids who come from terrible, terrible backgrounds," said Lowe. "But they are the best and the brightest in their classes. ... He's one of them. That's how we met." Seems Thomas gave Lowe his cell number and said to call if he needed anything. So Lowe did call for "advice on what my son should do vis-a-vis law school and clerking," the actor said. But Lowe was surprised when the high-court justice picked up the phone himself. "And you're like, 'Jeez. Shouldn't there be, like, a vetting process?'" (Read more US Supreme Court stories.) "Ramy is very limited, so the show has blind spots. It's wrong a lot, and I'm OK with that," says Ramy Youssef, here with MaameYaa Boafo (and Boomer) in a scene from Season 2 of "Ramy." (Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu) Ramy is a comedy about a purposeless Muslim American millennial who blows up the lives of everyone around him in his quest to be a better person. But the Hulu series is also about the wants and desires of an immigrant family, the sex life of a disabled, wheelchair-using young man, a sisters hair-loss journey and the efforts of a Black religious leader to make the world a better place even if that world is New Jersey. Now in its second season, the quirky series about a boy and his self-worth starring comedian Ramy Youssef poses profound questions about faith and commitment alongside smart humor that plays out in compromising situations. If youve ever wondered how one comes out as gay in the macho, Arab immigrant community or convinces their superstitious Egyptian parents that Instagram likes arent tantamount to being cursed by the evil eye, Golden Globe and Peabody winner Ramy is here for you. This year, two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali joins Youssef, 29, who writes, directs and co-created the show with Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch. Youssef spoke about working with Ali, creating a Muslim comedy and why its OK if he gets it all wrong. Second seasons are scary, especially when your debut was as successful as Ramy was in 2019. Second seasons are horrifying for sure. I didnt want to be on the same exact track. [Ramy] is always asking questions. He's always going to be a seeker. That's the nature of this character. But we really wanted him to sit in his problems more. But how do we look at faith from a more tangible place because it's such an ethereal thing? Having Mahershala as [Sufi Sheikh Ali] really helped nail that structure for Season 2. Mahershala is commanding as Ramys disciplined, spiritual guide, and hes also really good at this comedy thing. A big part of why Mahershala wanted in was because hed never really done a straight-up comedy. [On set] he had so many questions, which was unreal. You have a dude of his caliber, and he'd be like "Hey, man, is that good? What do you think I should do here? I was in awe. He jumped into our system, and it was so exciting to have it feel like he's naturally part of the world and not just pulling some cameo. It was a great connection. When he left, everyone was a little depressed. Story continues Ramys fanbase is growing, but loyal fans are still really invested in the show. The relationship people have to the show is very intense, in a good way, but its also in a way where they cling to every word, every scene. Things I didn't even think of are like "Oh, my God! for them." The level of, Dude, I needed this show! is very high. Is there a pressure to speak to Muslim Americans when youre writing? I can't write for that because it's only going to give me heartache. It's really hard to write to want to please people or to fix the world. These are things that I think hurt a show. My show is built to be loved and to be criticized because of the lack of other stories from a Muslim point of view. As a creator, I can't write for that love and I can't write for that criticism; otherwise it's going to feel like a hodgepodge. Ramy is very limited, so the show has blind spots. It's wrong a lot, and I'm OK with that, mostly because it's my job to be wrong. That's what I'm supposed to do. I'm a comedian. I'm a clown and I'm cool with that. Thats the tricky part when youre the first one out of the gate. Your marginalized community expects you to represent. I'm not an ambassador. I'm nothing more than an entertainer. My hope is that the show can inspire some conversations and thoughts, whatever they might be. But mostly, all I'm trying to do is complicate the conversation, because nothing is simple. Who are some of the new folks you brought in for the second season? We brought in people who are not traditional TV writers, and combined them with people whove been in the industry forever. One is Maytha Alhassen, who is a PhD in American studies and ethnicity. Shes had a cultural critique on my comedy from my early stand-up days, like You need to know the history behind that Saddam Hussein joke. We also brought in a poet, Amir Sulaiman. He helped craft and shape Mahershalas character. If you feel that gravity and gravitas of Sheik Ali, that comes from really long conversations between me, Amir and Mahershala. The scenes at the family dinner table are priceless. Like when Ramy requests they all pray, and his Egyptian father who grew up having to do that practically laughs at him. Its such a great first/second generation scene. Parents don't like being told what to do, so it's this weird tension. They tell you to [pray], but when you bring it up, it's like, "Oh, here we go. So youre Mr. Sheikh now?" That's one of those scenes where I write it and I really have no idea how people will see it, but it's one of the funniest scenes now. You dont exude the vibe of someone who wants to be on screen. Yet as far back as your teens you were acting on a Nick at Nite series, with Scott Baio no less. What makes you want to get in front of the camera? I talk a lot to my agent about being in things that I'm not right for. It's been cool getting the [Golden] Globe, and a lot of things came my way, but I don't know that I'd be good at them. Not to undersell myself [laughs]. But I don't know that I would enjoy it. A good performance is about feeling really captivated by what the piece is saying. Being motivated by these feelings and ideas coming out in the most human way possible. Its something from doing stand-up thats extended to my show an intimacy with the audience. But going out and just straight up acting ... I have to feel what's behind this thing that's happening. And you can quote me on this. If at some point you see me in something that Im clearly doing to buy my parents a summer house, please, call me out. Expatriates from the Gulf flying to Kerala must undergo COVID-19 tests and carry certificates stating they tested negative, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday. In case countries lack facilities to conduct the tests, the Central government should arrange them through embassies because it was not possible to bring the infected patients along with other passengers, he said. "We have never been against those coming to the state. All we have asked is to test the expats. We are ready to welcome all the COVID-19 positive patients if they come on a special flight exclusively for them," he said. For, if the infected were allowed to travel with other passengers, it would result in the spread of the virus, he said. "We have to think of the other passengers. There are pregnant women, children and elders travelling on flights and there was possibility of them contracting the pathogen," Vijayan said. Slamming the Kerala government, Union Minister V Muraleedharan had said it was impractical to conduct COVID-19 tests for all the returning expats through the embassies. The state government had earlier decided to make the COVID-19 negative certificate mandatory for all those returning to the state. "This decision will affect those who want to return to the state from abroad," Muraledharan had alleged, saying the Kerala was running away from its responsibilities. Spicejet, which is bringing non-resident Keralites by 300 chartered flights, has informed the government that they would conduct the virus tests on the passengers before bringing them, Vijayan said. The central government has to make arrangements through embassies for the tests if the airlines don't,he said. Describing the decision as cruel, senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said the test results cannot be obtained in 48 hours, it takes four-seven days. Besides, it would also impose a financial burden on the jobless returnees, he said. Protesting against the alleged apathy of the state and central governments towards expats, Chennithala said he would observe a fast in front of the Secretariat on June 19. AIA is also opening up more pathways for jobseekers and fresh graduates through various recruitment campaigns and the SGUnited Traineeships Programme SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 17 June 2020 - AIA Singapore today announced that all employees will receive S$1,000 as part of the company's focus on its people, to help its staff who are working remotely from home during the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, to ensure that they can get the equipment they need to further enhance their home office setup. In addition, this move will help its staff cushion any financial impact that their family could be facing and ride through this challenging time. The lump sum is available to all permanent and contract staff and will be paid out to more than 1,000 employees. AIA Singapore recognises and appreciates the continued commitment and resilience of its employees in keeping the company going during this time and wants to ensure that they are well taken care of. In embracing new norms, AIA Singapore is working to extend flexible work from home arrangements for all staff as part of a permanent arrangement even after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, to provide them with more flexibility and encourage better work life integration. Employees will be able to choose which days of the week that they would like to work from home, customising their time and working arrangements around their individual needs. In addition, AIA Singapore will also be granting an additional day-off for employees, to encourage them to use this time to focus on their personal wellbeing as one of the company's initiatives to inspire people to lead healthier, longer and better lives. Mr Patrick Teow, Chief Executive Officer of AIA Singapore, said: "We are people-centric at AIA Singapore and place a high priority on our employees' wellbeing as they are the force behind AIA's success. We are in this together and it is even more so during these unprecedented times that we want to assure them of our emphasis to preserve jobs and commitment to invest in their continuous personal and professional development. There is currently no plan for any salary cuts. Being a leading life insurer, there is no better time for us to demonstrate leadership by providing peace of mind during times when people need us most. We will remain strong for our customers, to help them plan against life events and to cushion the blow during this challenging time. We would like to convey our deepest appreciation to our employees and thank them for their continual commitment and dedication in stepping up to support our company and our customers." Story continues As part of AIA Singapore's continuous commitment to upskill its employees, AIA Singapore partnered with Hyper Island to co-design a digital mindset cultural programme -- Digital Ei8ht -- to proactively engage with its entire employee base to embrace a culture of experimentation and innovation as part of its efforts to stay on the pulse of business and digital transformation. This is in addition to the available learning platform, LinkedIn Learning, where all employees can access to content such as Customer Experience, Customer Relationship Management, Digital and Tech and Personal Effectiveness. AIA employees have been embracing new norms, using Microsoft Teams for their virtual townhalls, daily meetings and interactions as well as Workplace for Facebook to connect and check-in on each other's wellbeing. To bring employees together virtually to keep healthy in the mind, body and soul, AIA Singapore also rolled out virtual sessions to staff on mental wellness, work from home ergonomics and fitness etc. These extended benefits are the latest in a series of measures introduced by AIA Singapore to support its employees during this challenging time. Ms Wong Sze Keed, CEO-Designate and Chief Distribution Officer of AIA Singapore, said: "We have always endeavoured to be more than just an insurer, in good times and bad; we want to be a partner through life's journey. That promise starts with our employees. They make AIA Singapore, they define our culture and are the driving force of our organisation, now more than ever. Their holistic wellbeing is of upmost importance and, regardless of the situation or what role they play, we are committed to improving their overall wellbeing and providing them with assurance when they need it most." AIA Singapore will be offering over 200 job opportunities through its various recruitment campaigns for jobseekers who are keen to embark in the wealth management and insurance associate roles. Additionally, to support fresh and recent graduates, AIA Singapore is also joining the SGUnited Traineeships Programme to offer traineeship positions for digital roles such as Data Analytics, UX Design, and more. On top of the above, AIA Singapore also provided free COVID-19 coverage for 2.6 million existing eligible individual customers, corporate members, employees and AIA Representatives[1] and, rolled out several initiatives to support AIA Representatives through this unprecedented time, such as: Creating a Resilience Booster Challenge and Solidarity Rewards Challenge to provide extra incentives to reward our agency force who are servicing the financial needs of fellow Singaporeans during this trying period. Temporary relief support for selected AIA Representatives. Providing free access to LinkedIn Learning for selected agents and leaders. Launching Non-Face-to-Face (NFTF) Sales Solutions to enable the agency force to conduct sales effectively. [1] Subject to applicable terms and conditions. About AIA AIA Group Limited and its subsidiaries (collectively "AIA" or the "Group") comprise the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group. It has a presence in 18 markets in Asia-Pacific -- wholly-owned branches and subsidiaries in Hong Kong SAR, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Mainland China, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan (China), Vietnam, New Zealand, Macau SAR, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar, a 99 per cent subsidiary in Sri Lanka, and a 49 per cent joint venture in India. The business that is now AIA was first established in Shanghai a century ago in 1919. It is a market leader in the Asia-Pacific region (ex-Japan) based on life insurance premiums and holds leading positions across the majority of its markets. It had total assets of US$284 billion as of 31 December 2019. AIA meets the long-term savings and protection needs of individuals by offering a range of products and services including life insurance, accident and health insurance and savings plans. The Group also provides employee benefits, credit life and pension services to corporate clients. Through an extensive network of agents, partners and employees across Asia-Pacific, AIA serves the holders of more than 36 million individual policies and over 16 million participating members of group insurance schemes. AIA Group Limited is listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited under the stock code "1299" with American Depositary Receipts (Level 1) traded on the over-the-counter market (ticker symbol: "AAGIY"). Portland Police Chief Jami Resch, who stepped aside as head of the Police Bureau last week, told officers they could cover their name tags on their outer uniforms with tape that instead shows their city personnel number while working on the street during protests in the wake of the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. The reason is our officers were being doxxed and their safety and that of their families is paramount, said bureau spokeswoman Terri Wallo-Strauss. They can still be identified internally by the number displayed if needed. Doxxing refers to the release and distribution of someones personal information. Portland police said it became an issue during the 2014 protests in the city decrying the Missouri grand jurys decision not to indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson for shooting and killing Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager. A police after-action report recommended after those protests that officers wear their personnel numbers, instead of names, during large protests, according to Portland Lt. Tina Jones. Resch authorized the practice and police Capt. Erica Hurley, serving as a deputy incident commander, sent a memo alerting officers on June 6, Wallo-Strauss said. Resch is now serving as an acting assistant chief since she stepped aside for Chuck Lovell to fill her job as chief. Under the subject, Name tag changes,' Hurley wrote that officers or sergeants may cover their names with a label containing their Bureau of Human Resources personnel number and asked that they also write that number on light-colored tape on the back of their helmets. The personnel number is provided to the officer by the city, different from the number given to each public safety officer certified by the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. Not all officers have covered their name tags, but some standing guard on the perimeter of the Justice Center have been seen in recent nights with strips of white tape concealing their names that instead shows their personnel number written in black marker. Civil rights advocates say the directive flies in the face of police accountability and is particularly disturbing at a time when thousands of protesters have taken to the streets nightly to demonstrate against police brutality and racism after the May 25 killing of Floyd. The 46-year-old black man died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and unresisting. Attorney Juan Chavez, civil rights project director for the Oregon Justice Resource Center, called the new bureau practice " absolutely inadequate.' Its impractical to expect a member of the public to quickly remember a string of numbers if they want to file a complaint about an officers behavior later, he said. Its hard not to see it as a means of escaping accountability, once more,' Chavez said. At then-Chief Jami Resch's direction, deputy incident Cmdr. Erica Hurley alerted officers and sergeants they could conceal their name tags and replace them with tape carrying their personnel numbers. He is representing the nonprofit Dont Shoot Portland, which sued the city in federal court and recently won a temporary injunction barring the Police Bureaus use of tear gas, or CS gas, against peaceful protesters, except in a life-threatening situation. That temporary injunction, initially granted for 14 days, has been extended through July 24, based on a mutual agreement of the city and plaintiffs. Kelly Simon, interim legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, said the agency has received complaints and questions about the taped-over police name tags. It is crucial for the public to have the ability to hold individual officers accountable. That requires identification,' Simon said. But we appreciate there may be circumstances where individual privacy also might need to be balanced. At no time should law enforcement become anonymous troops in our streets.' Portland lawyer Alan Kessler, who does public records litigation, said hes concerned that concealing an officers name tag might allow them to act more aggressively when they feel anonymous,' despite the fact their personnel number is visible. The only reasons to issue a directive like that are to increase violence and decrease accountability,' he said. Police Bureau policy says uniformed officers will visibly display their bureau name tag and badge on their outer uniform while on duty or at the request of a member of the public. Yet the policy has an exception under a separate category regarding use of identification,' that says officers are not required to identify themselves or provide their police business card when doing so would compromise the officers safety, impair an officers job performance or when a supervisor has relieved officers of the requirement. Portland police said their change in name tag practice only covers Portland police officers and sergeants. Chris Liedle, spokesman for the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office, said the office hasnt made any changes to deputy sheriffs uniforms, which carry deputies names on the shirts. They are presented how they are normally worn,' he said. Yet deputies who are members of the sheriffs office Rapid Response Team, which does crowd control, typically have not worn name tags for officer safety, he said. Oregon State Police have not had troopers assisting Portland police since June 6, according to Capt. Tim Foxx, state police spokesman. He said troopers do wear name tags on their uniforms and isnt aware of any similar directive given to troopers. -- 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. Armenian Parliament Allows Prosecution, Arrest Of Opposition Leader Tsarukian By RFE/RL's Armenian Service June 16, 2020 YEREVAN -- Armenian lawmakers have voted to strip the leader of the country's main opposition party of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution and allow his arrest. The National Assembly on June 16 backed the prosecutor-general's motions against Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), over suspected vote buying in the 2017 general elections. Tsarukian and members of his political team have called the cases politically motivated, a claim rejected by representatives of the pro-government majority in parliament. In two separate ballots on June 16, 87 members of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's My Step alliance voted in favor of allowing Tsarukian's prosecution and arrest, with no lawmaker in the chamber voting against. The BHK and the other opposition faction, Bright Armenia, did not take part in the secret ballot. Addressing parliament, Tsarukian alleged that he was being punished for calling for Pashinian's cabinet to resign, and reiterated accusations that the government has mishandled the coronavirus crisis. "There is an extremely difficult situation in all spheres today and [the government] has mishandled the pandemic," the opposition leader said. During the session, several Tsarukian supporters staged a protest outside the parliament building and were detained by police for violating a ban on political assemblies that has been imposed as part of measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus. In his motions, Prosecutor-General Artak Davtian said Tsarukian "created and led an organized group" that bought more than 17,000 votes during parliamentary elections held in April 2017. Davtian said residents of Gegharkunik Province were given 10,000 drams ($21) in the vote-buying operation, adding that the National Security Service (NSS) has collected documents and testimony corroborating the accusations. Separately, the NSS has opened two criminal cases involving Tsarukian, a wealthy business owner. The security service accused companies owned by the BHK leader of large-scale fraud after raiding his villa outside Yerevan on June 14. Tsarukian was then interrogated for more than eight hours. The BHK joined the government formed by Pashinian after coming to power in May 2018, but the ministers affiliated with the party were sacked in October that year. The BHK came distant second in the December 2018 snap parliamentary elections, winning 26 seats in the 132-member parliament. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/armenian-parliament -allows-prosecution-arrest-of-opposition- leader-tsarukian/30674171.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 Zarif: We will not let IAEA become tool for killing JCPOA IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, June 16, IRNA -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said we will not let the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to become a tool for ending Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Speaking at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Zarif said Trump's Administration's job is pulling out of the international organizations and treaties. Iran has always behaved with full transparency with the IAEA, he said arguing that 15 reports of the IAEA have indicated that Iran has always been committed. We will not let Iran be subject to investigation the documents of which are based on spying claims, he noted. Iran will give a suitable response if the IAEA wants to take advantage of illogical ways, Zarif reiterated. Top Iranian diplomat said it will be regretful for the UN Secretariat and the IAEA if they tend to move in line with killing the JCPOA. Zarif referred to his agreement with Lavrov on holding Astana trilateral meeting. Heads of Iran, Russia and Turkey will hold Astana talks in through webinar, he said. He noted that he invited Lavrov to visit Iran. Stressing close cooperation between Iran and Russia with regard to regional cooperation, Iranian top diplomat said. Through Astana talks three countries could solve crisis in Syria, he added. Iran, Russia and Turkey are committed to Astana principles, he reiterated. He noted the Western countries even did not try to help Syrians in coronavirus era. Elsewhere in his remarks, Zarif referred to Iran's and Russia's common stance with regard to Afghanistan issue, saying Iran welcomes Russia efforts for solving problems in Afghanistan. We also discussed issues related to Libya and Yemen, he added. Elsewhere in his remarks, Zarif said even COVID19 could not create obstacle for Iran and Russia to develop cooperation. Iranian foreign minister appreciated the efforts made by Russia to prevent JCPOA collapse. He thanked Lavrov for his letter to UN chief on JCPOA and the measures taken by Sergei Ryabkov and other Russian ambassadors in Vienna and New York aiming to prevent disaster regarding JCPOA. Elaborating on Iran-Russia-Azerbaijan cooperation, Zarif said the trilateral summit will be held if the situation is ready. Zarif noted that the US spares no efforts to destabilize Syria and the region. The US policies are now based on pulling out of international agreements, he said referring US' withdrawal from Treaty on Open Skies, JCPOA, UNESCO and Paris agreement. 9376**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A growing call for defunding police departments in the wake of George Floyds death under the knee of a then-Minnesota police officer is causing municipalities across the country to take a closer look at their public safety budgets. San Antonio City Hall is no exception. Public safety is a big ticket item. The city of San Antonio spends $479 million a year, more than a third of its $1.3 billion annual operating budget, on policing. But what exactly does defunding mean? Are we talking about abolishing police departments, or is it more about rethinking how money traditionally earmarked for law enforcement is spent? While there are some who would like to see police departments dismantled, much of the discussion we hear about defunding police departments appears focused on reassessing police spending and ensuring the best use of those funds. We support the latter. This is a conversation long overdue. Over the years, police agencies such as the San Antonio Police Department have assumed increasingly bigger roles in filling community safety-net gaps. In addition to their standard duties, officers respond to the homeless and the mentally ill. And while they have, in some instances, done an exceptional job at it (think of SAPDs mental health squad or its homeless outreach team), we need to examine whether this is the appropriate function of law enforcement. During a livestreamed Express-News Editorial Board meeting last week, Police Chief William McManus, Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Manager Erik Walsh were in agreement there are probably other non-law enforcement departments within the city that could better deal with many nonviolent situations. We encourage alternatives. Through this lens, defunding is not so much about cutting off funding as the term appears to imply, but rather redirecting funds to alternative responses. The conversation deserves a better phrase than defund the police unless the goal is to literally abolish funding a goal we would not support, to be clear. Instead we must frame the conversation around the idea of reallocating funds to best serve the needs of the community. Locally, now is the time to launch this discussion. City Council will be moving into serious budget-planning mode for the next fiscal year in the coming weeks, but with the added burden of trying to figure out how to finish the current budget year with significantly lower-than-expected revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of May, the city was looking at a $198.6 million budget shortfall prompted by plummeting retail and restaurant sales, and vacant hotels. The city manager has already cut $82 million in spending, furloughed 270 employees and stopped funding arts programs. We expect City Council to look closely at the public safety budget and take the appropriate steps to ensure residents are getting the most from their hard-earned tax dollars. Cuts to law enforcement budgets are generally unpopular, but the political climate makes such an examination more palatable to those with an eye on next years city election. Reimagining policing, or reallocating funds for policing, is only part of the conversation. There are also concerns about systemic racism in the criminal justice system and a broken police culture. The next police contract offers an opportunity to address some of these concerns, as does the ongoing community conversation. No serious person is seeking to undermine the work of the San Antonio Police Department by defunding its budget or abolishing the police force. But reimagining policing in the Alamo City is overdue and necessary. A UN inquiry into US racism would be "ridiculous," a US official said Tuesday, voicing disappointment in ally South Africa for promoting the idea. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva is due Wednesday to discuss racism after a joint call by African nations, following worldwide horror over a white Minneapolis police officer's killing of unarmed African American George Floyd. A draft resolution calls for an international commission of inquiry into systemic racism in the United States -- a high-level probe generally reserved for conflict zones such as Syria. "I think it's a ridiculous idea," a senior State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity. He pointed out that four officers have been charged in Floyd's killing and that the state of Minnesota televises trials, saying "it doesn't get more transparent than that." He said the United States would take a "hard look" on whether to cooperate with the commission if it were established. "I would certainly want to impose some ground rules. You can go find whatever facts you want to find, but let's make sure we agree that we have an opportunity to participate in the process," the official said. "We in the United States are not afraid to acknowledge bad things that happen. We're not afraid to acknowledge the fact that racial discrimination happens," he said. "What we're saying is that we want the same standards applied to everybody else that get applied to us." President Donald Trump's administration pulled the United States out of the council two years ago, saying it was biased against Israel and pointing to the inclusion of nations with dubious records such as Venezuela and Eritrea. The State Department official said that South Africa, which is not currently on the council, played a leading role in pushing the racism debate. "We try to maintain very good relationships with the South Africans, and I have to say we're a little disappointed in what they're doing here," the official said. "If we started talking about what their police do -- I mean, you know, for heaven's sake!" South Africa has championed racial equality and reconciliation since the fall of the racist apartheid regime. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:13:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUNMING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Thirteen suspects were captured with 69.19 kg of drugs seized in a recent drug trafficking case in southwest China's Yunnan Province, local authorities said on Wednesday. On May 9, police inspected a truck in Menghai Town of Menghai County and seized 69.19 kg of methamphetamine in four bags. They caught a suspect surnamed Li after searching the surrounding area. On May 11, police captured a suspect surnamed Yan in a shed in the border mountain area, and later arrested the other suspects involved in the case on a highway between Menghai County and Lancang County. Further investigation into the case is underway. Yunnan is a major front in China's battle against drug crimes as it borders the Golden Triangle that is known for rampant drug production and trafficking. Enditem Three Hours In Paris By Cara Black Soho, 360 pages, $35.95 Fans of Cara Blacks nineteen novels featuring the plucky Parisian private eye, Aimee Leduc, should now make way for Kate Rees, likewise plucky and likewise serving the cause of justice in Paris. But unlike the French Aimee of the 2000s, Kate is an American-born Allied spy operating in German-occupied Paris in June 1940. Kate, a sharp shooter extraordinaire, is assigned to assassinate the Fuhrer himself when he makes an appearance at the Sacre-Coeur Cathedral in Montmartre. Kates shot misses the bullet takes out a German admiral standing behind Hitler and she spends the following hair-raising day and a half slipping around Paris, avoiding Nazis on her trail, seeking the undercover route to safety in England. The story packs in all the Second War spy story staples: nasty Germans and nastier French collaborationists; traitors to the Allied cause and infiltrators of its espionage apparatus; cameo appearances by Churchill and multiple off-stage rants from the Fuhrer. All of this, in Blacks familiar style, is relentless, honest and immaculately researched. Sister Dear By Hannah Mary McKinnon Mira, 360 pages, $23.99 The narrator, 30 and an IT wizard in Portland, Maine, has been hard done by. Just before the man she has always thought to be her dad died, she learned her biological father was actually a rich man-about-Portland. When she approaches him with love in her heart, he slams her out of his life. At that low point, she sets out to win a little justice and fair play. What follows is a plot heavily weighted in red herrings, much misdirection and several fake leads. Theres a murder, but it comes so close to the books end that its almost meaningless. All the rest is expertly dodgy and entertaining. Hurry Home By Roz Nay Simon & Schuster, 260 pages, $24.99 Sibling rivalry has seldom been so fraught. Alex, the youngest sister by five years, has a solid job and a hunky live-in boyfriend in a Colorado town. Ruth, who split from Alex and the rest of the family ten years earlier, unexpectedly shows up. Shes loaded with awkward baggage: a stretch in prison, a stash of cocaine and money belonging to a sinister drug dealer whos on her trail. Ruth is also five months pregnant. Both sisters spin contrasting but believable lines of narrative explaining their contrasting life histories. As the dark and creepy story grows more complex with every chapter, the question becomes: which sister is speaking the truth? The answer finally arrives not without huge surprises for all concerned, the reader conspicuously included. The Last Trial By Scott Turow Grand Central, 455 pages, $37 It seems only yesterday it was actually July 1987 when Scott Turow introduced Sandy Stern, the absolute ace of criminal attorneys, to American crime fiction. That was in Presumed Innocent, and now, many novels later, here is Stern back again. Despite his age (hes 85) and various frailties, he performs gloriously in what may be Turows most legally complex book. Sterns client is a man of medicine who conceived a cancer cure that won him a Nobel Prize and made him a zillionaire. Now patients on his regimen are dying. The government charges him with a slew of crimes, fraud and murder not excluded. Everybody goes to court where we all stay, vastly entertained, for almost the entire book. If law schools offer doctorates in criminal law, The Last Trial would seem to make a definitive textbook. It is amazingly instructive, and amid all the heavy-duty learning, Turow treats us to one chapter that is as darkly comic as anything he has written. Check it out. Chapter 19. JB Jack Batten is a Toronto-based writer and a freelance contributor for the Star India and China, on Monday evening engaged in their first deadly conflict in at least 45 years, resulting in 20 deaths on the Indian side, including that of a commanding officer, and possibly 43 casualties including injuries on the Chinese side, pushing the bilateral relationship between the two nuclear powers to an all-time low. Timeline of the weeks-long stand-off and the ensuing clash between India and China: May 5-6: Violent clash between Indian and Chinese patrols on the northern bank of Ladakhs Pangong Tso lake. Soldiers exchange blows, throw stones at each other and Chinese troops attack Indian soldiers with nail-studded clubs. Scores of soldiers (from both sides) injured in the skirmish involving 250 men. May 9: Tensions spread to eastern sector. Heated confrontation between Indian and Chinese soldiers in north Sikkims Naku La area. Four Indian and seven Chinese soldiers injured during the face-off involving 150 soldiers. May 10: Army issues statement confirming Naku La face-off, says aggressive behaviour by soldiers led to injuries on both sides. Army officers also confirm the Pangong Tso clash. May 12: Reports of tensions building up in Galwan Valley emerge. In a statement, army reiterates face-offs and aggressive behaviour occur along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China as the boundary is not resolved. May 19: As tensions simmer in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley and Hot Springs, Chinas foreign ministry accuses Indian troops of trespassing across LAC, saying Beijing had to take necessary countermeasures after the Indian side allegedly obstructed normal patrols by Chinese troops. May 21: India strongly refutes Chinas contention that tensions in the Ladakh and Sikkim sectors were triggered by Indian troops. External affairs ministry says Indian activities entirely on the Indian side of LAC and China hindering Indias normal patrols. May 22: Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane makes a low-key visit to Leh-based 14 Corps headquarters for a security review of the sensitive sector. Troop build-up and military reinforcement from both sides. May 25: China marshals close to 5,000 soldiers on its side of the disputed border in the Ladakh sector where India has also sent military reinforcements. May 27: The armys top brass discusses security issues including the ongoing border row with China in eastern Ladakh where Indian and Chinese soldiers are locked in a standoff at multiple points. May 30: Defence minister Rajnath Singh says India and China talking to each other at military and diplomatic levels to resolve the standoff, assures the country that government will not allow Indias dignity to be hurt. June 2: In the first official acknowledgement of a troop build-up along the border with China, Singh says a significant number of Chinese troops are present along LAC and that the Indian Army is matching the neighbours military moves. June 6: In a rare meeting between top military officers, Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, commander of Leh-based 14 Corps, and Major General Liu Lin, commander of the Peoples Liberation Army in South Xinjiang region, discuss de-escalation plan. June 9: Army officers say China has begun withdrawing its soldiers from three hotspots along LAC, with India reciprocating by pulling back its forces deployed in those pockets. They say limited military disengagement has started in the Galwan valley, Patrolling Point 15 and Hot Springs. June 10: Indian and Chinese delegations, led by Major General-rank officers, meet at Patrolling Point 14 at the Galwan Valley area as part continuing efforts to resolve the confrontation that has eased slightly with limited disengagement of forces at some LAC hotspots. This is the fourth round of talks between the two-star generals to break the stalemate. June 12: Major General-rank officers meet for the fifth time to discuss de-escalation plan and ease border tensions. Chinese deployment in their depth areas across LAC includes more than 8,000 troops, tanks, artillery guns, fighter bombers, rocket forces and air defence radars. June 13: Army chief says disengagement of Indian and Chinese forces taking place in a phased manner along LAC with China where the situation is under control. June 15: Army delegations from India and China hold discussions again. Talks take place at two locations along the LAC --- brigadier-ranked officers meet in the Galwan Valley and Colonel-ranked officers in Hot Springs.The engagement between the two sides happens the same evening. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON When Simmi Sen was in fourth grade, she had a dream of being involved in technology. Now, at the age of 14, shes learned to program and code through college courses, become a competitive Rubiks Cube solver, developed an app and used her knowledge to teach other young girls its possible to have a future in STEM. Sen grew up watching the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, starstruck by CEO Tim Cook as he presented Apples new products. She had a dream of attending the conference one day. Shes always thought itd be a good chance to get behind-the-scenes looks at Apples products and meet like-minded people. Sen, who is from Vancouver and will attend Skyview High School in the fall, participated in Apples Swift Student Challenge. According to Apples website, the Swift Student Challenge is a chance for student developers to showcase their coding abilities as part of WWDC20, this years developers conference. Though the conference is online this year, Sen is one of 350 students whose coding abilities will be recognized virtually, according to Apple Newsroom. Students from more than 41 countries were asked to create an interactive scene in a Swift playground, or developing environment, that can be experienced within three minutes. Hundreds of student developers and programmers submitted projects through the challenge, and those with standout applications were notified by Apples team that they will have their project recognized. Sen created an app for the Swift Student Challenge called Eliza Virtual Hair Assistant. She said she came up with the idea during quarantine when she was bored with her friends. A few of her friends dyed their hair before the pandemic and were unable to get it redone professionally when salons closed. Instead, her friends kept bleaching and dying their hair and didnt like how it turned out. Simmi Sen, 14, models the hairstyle app she made for Apple's Swift Student Challenge. The app, called Eliza Virtual Hair Assistant, allows users to try different hairstyles before committing. Sens app allows people to try on different hair colors and styles through an interactive live camera. She said she built the app herself, with a bit of online help and motivation from her father. Basically, I used a lot of YouTube tutorials, Sen said. Her love for programming and coding was sparked in sixth grade when she joined her schools LEGO Robotics club. She joined because she wanted to build a robot and learn how to program and control it. She said she made a lot of friends in the club, which helped motivate her to stay involved. She became the team leader. Sen has some formal education in computer programming and coding that helped her with the app, too, she said. Shes taken a programming course through MIT and four courses through Stanford University. She said the class with MIT was difficult and confusing since it was the first course she took. I didnt give up because I know you can do a lot of different things with coding, Sen said. She has used her education in programming to help others learn. She said she spent the summer of 2018 at an orphanage in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to teach young girls English with her neighbor. While there, the girls expressed a desire to learn how to use the computers. Sen taught the younger girls how to put together presentations on computers while she taught the older girls some coding all based off her own curriculum at the age of 12. Sen said she wants to try and get more girls interested in STEM programs, coding, and her favorite hobby, solving Rubiks Cubes. Rubiks Cubes are something Sen picked up while bored at the beach once, she said. She liked to scramble a couple of rows and solve simple puzzles. Once she scrambled it too much, so she researched how to solve it and came to find it wasnt as hard as she thought. Her passion for solving Rubiks Cubes moved her to do it competitively. The first time Sen competed she was able to solve the cube in 55 seconds. She came in last place, with everyone else taking about 15 seconds. And, she was the only girl. Since then, shes been practicing two hours a day and can solve one in about 10 seconds. Shes hoping to get more girls involved. If there are more girls, well feel more supported, Sen said. As of now, Sen has taught 16 of her female classmates how to solve Rubiks Cubes. Shes hoping to start a club at school where she can continue teaching and competing with her classmates and friends. I want to show that girls can cube fast, too, Sen said. Sen said she hopes she can continue to educate and inspire other girls to get involved in STEM programs. By adding more women to STEM activities, therell be more voices in problem-solving, she said. Itll improve the solutions that we do have. She said she knows how difficult and daunting it can be in the beginning. If you keep on trying and hang in there, youll reach a breaking point where everything is a breeze, Sen said. Sen said shes excited to develop more apps. Shes hoping her hair app will be available in app stores after WWDC. Until then, shes still practicing the Rubiks Cube every day, painting, drawing on Photoshop and, if thats not enough, running a streetwear company called TintsStreetwear online. And shes not even in high school yet. -- Ty Vinson tvinson@oregonian.com 503-221-4315; @ty_vinson_ Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. There might be very strong support from some countries, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic conversations. There will be very strong opposition from others, not only because it breaks the unwritten rule. . . . I think the Europeans should be worried. If the Americans can take over any institution they want to, what would prevent them from taking over the IMF? With the novel coronavirus, many families need help more than ever. If a loved one is isolated in a hospital with covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, or locked down in a senior community, dont assume that theres nothing you can do to make sure they get the best possible care, says Barbara Abruzzo, a registered nurse and patient advocate who runs Livingwell Care Navigation in New York City. Instead, families should seize some control: Wachiwit/iStockBy MATTHEW MOSK and MARK OSBORNE, ABC NEWS (NEW YORK) -- Facebook executed a takedown Tuesday of social media accounts connected to two organizations the company considers to be hate groups and had banned across their platforms: Proud Boys and American Guard. Facebook officials told ABC News the company completed a network disruption that their security teams had originally initiated on May 30 against Proud Boys and the American Guard. On May 30, the social medias internal monitors started seeing traffic from both organizations indicating they intended to send armed agitators to ongoing protests sparked in the wake of the death of George Floyd. We accelerated our investigation and enforcement to remove the accounts, pages and groups we had found by that point and then continued our work mapping out the rest of the network, Facebook officials said. The company announced Tuesday its teams had identified more participants in those networks, and so took action to remove those accounts. In total they removed 358 Facebook accounts and 172 Instagram accounts tied to the organization known as Proud Boys. They removed 406 Facebook accounts and 164 Instagram accounts tied to the group known as American Guard. In both cases, we saw accounts from both organizations discussing attending protests in various US states with plans to carry weapons but we did not find indications in their on-platform content they planned to actively commit violence, the company said. The Proud Boys were formed in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, one of the founders of Vice Media, and while they deny any connection to the alt-right, they claim to be anti-political correctness and anti-white guilt, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC categorizes them as a hate group. McInnes himself said he was "quitting" the Proud Boys in an interview in November 2018. Many of the Proud Boys appeared as the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that ended in the death of a counterprotester. Facebook said the accounts taken down include Proud Boys members who were captured on video in a skirmish in Seattle on Monday. The American Guard, which the SPLC designates as being associated with the Proud Boys, is a fellow right-wing group. The Anti-Defamation League refers to them as "hardcore white supremacists." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent surpassed 232,815 as of Sunday morning, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. The Africa CDC in its latest update said that the number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases rose from 225,105 on Saturday morning to 232,815 as of Sunday morning. The death toll from the pandemic also rose from 6,040 on Saturday morning to 6,244 as of Sunday morning, 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 106,459 people who were infected with COVID-19 had recovered across the continent as of the stated period. Amid the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the African continent, the highly affected African countries include South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, as well as Algeria, it was noted. The Africa CDC also said that the Southern Africa region is now the most affected area across the continent in terms of positive COVID-19 cases, overtaking the Northern Africa region. EU-UK trade talks end in further stalemate by Rose O'Donovan June 17,2020 | Source: Southern Star The fourth round of (virtual) negotiations between the EU and UK ended in stalemate on June 5th, with EU negotiator Michel Barnier saying that London was backtracking on what was agreed in the Political Declaration. The next round of talks is set to take place towards the end of June or early July, while a high-level conference is slated before the end of June. There was no substantial progress in the latest round of bilateral talks on the future relationship between the EU and UK earlier this month (June 2nd to 5th). Learn more Speaking with reporters, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said my responsibility is to tell you the truth. The UK had not shown any real willingness to move on fisheries, while we didnt make any real progress on the level playing field, the French politician outlined. And, on the last of what he identified as the areas in which movement was really needed, police and judicial co-operation, important questions remained: We are asking for nothing more than what is in the Political Declaration, the former Agriculture Minister (2007-2009) stressed. There has been no substantial progress since the beginning of these negotiations, he said. We cannot continue like this forever, especially given the UKs continued refusal to extend the transition period. The EUs door remains open to a prolongation, he told reporters. Without an extension, the UK would leave the Single Market and Customs Union in less than seven months. Given the time needed to ratify a deal, we would need a full legal text by October 31st at the latest, i.e. in less than five months, Barnier added. He reminded the listening press that the Political Agreement had been agreed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and was available in all languages, including English. It is a good read, if I may say so, the 69-year-old quipped. The former Internal Market Commissioner (2010-2014) complained that round after round, our British counterparts seek to distance themselves from this common basis. Johnson had signed up to the level playing field. He had agreed to high standards on State aid, competition, social and employment standards, environment, climate change, & relevant tax matters. We are today very far from this objective, the veteran politician concluded. 2020 Southern Star Ltd. Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade. With escalating murder rates and shootings, its not the time to be calling for removal of CPD officers from city schools. Time would be better spent pressing schools to reopen this summer as safe havens to reconnect and reengage with every student in preparation for the coming year. If youre concerned about the children, then this is where the attention should be. PHOENIX The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone and the sheriffs office demanding the release of medically vulnerable inmates from the countys jails. The lawsuit filed on behalf of the nonprofit Puente Human Rights Movement and inmates with medical conditions like diabetes and lung disease comes as positive cases of the coronavirus among Maricopa County jail inmates surge past the total at state prisons. Persons incarcerated at the Maricopa County jails face a particularly acute threat of infection, illness, permanent injury, and death from COVID-19, the lawsuit says, calling the lockups breeding grounds for infectious diseases, due to such factors as close quarters that hinder social distancing. A sheriffs office spokeswoman said the agency could not comment on pending litigation. Officials say 386 of Maricopa Countys estimated 4,400 inmates had tested positive as of Tuesday compared to 252 confirmed cases among the nearly 41,000 inmates in Arizonas prisons. One week before, 30 inmates in the countys jails had tested positive. The sharp growth has been attributed to more testing and contact tracing inside the jails. The sheriffs office says it has taken steps to slow the spread of the virus in the five county jails, such as screening suspects during booking, suspending visitation, and providing face masks to inmates and employees. In anticipation of possible outbreaks, Maricopa Countys jail population has been reduced by more than a third from 7,100 in December to about 4,500 now. The courts temporarily suspended the sentences of some inmates so they could return to work and police agencies have cited and released nonviolent suspects. Arizona is among several states seeing a surge in new COVID-19 cases after stay-at-home orders were lifted last month. 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. (Alliance News) - De La Rue PLC on Wednesday said its full-year revenue fell but its profit was pushed higher by one-off gains. The banknote printer added that it is after more cash of its own, unveiling plans for a GBP100 million placing, with a portion of the proceeds going towards doubling its production of plastic notes, famously fashioned by the Bank of England. In the year ended March 28, De La Rue's revenue dropped 17% to GBP466.8 million from GBP564.8 million. Pretax profit, however, rallied 42% to GBP36.1 million from GBP25.5 million. Profit was helped by De La Rue swinging to a GBP20.0 million exceptional gain from last year's GBP27.9 million loss. In the recently-ended year, De La Rue booked a GBP25.3 million gain on the sale of its International Identity Solutions unit, but incurred restructuring costs of GBP9.3 million. Among the costs a year ago was GBP18.1 million in expenses related to an expected credit loss provision in respect of a customer in Venezuela. It paid no dividend, after a 25.0 pence payout in the year prior. Back in November De La Rue suspended its dividend. In financial 2020, its Currency division struggled, with revenue there falling by 30% to GBP315.1 million. "Overall, we saw a decline in banknote and security feature volumes and price, with good growth in polymer volumes," De La Rue. It's the polymer side of banknote printing that De La Rue has identified as a chance for growth. It said it will invest GBP15 million from proceeds of the planned placing to "double the Currency division's capacity for polymer production". Elsewhere, it expects to invest GBP35 million in its Authentication division and GBP16 million into its restructuring, the company unveiled a three-year turnaround plan back in February. De La Rue will place 90.9 million shares at 110p each. The stock was 2.1% higher at 156.04p each in London on Wednesday morning. Chief Executive Officer Clive Vacher said: "We are now well underway with our plans to turnaround the company, with opportunities to grow our revenue and reduce our cost base. Our cost-cutting initiatives will enable us to compete harder in the currency market, while the development of security features and polymer will drive growth for this division. "Authentication and polymer continue to show strong growth and we see an increasing pipeline of new opportunities." De La Rue also announced a "consultation process" at its banknote printing site in Gateshead, north east England. "We will start to engage in a collective consultation process with impacted employees. Under the proposal, the company will retain some core services and roles at the site," De La Rue explained. "Subject to the consultation process, we would expect the banknote printing operations to cease at Gateshead by the end of this calendar year. In addition, the UK Passport operations, also in Gateshead, will cease operations during the first half of financial 2021 as the contract transfers to a new supplier." De La Rue back in 2018 famously lost a contract to produce the UK's post-Brexit passports. The company added that Non-Executive Director Sabri Challah will step down "due to his other commitments". De La Rue added: "Sabri will remain on the board until such time as a successor independent non-executive director has been appointed, but in any event until no later than the date of the company's forthcoming annual general meeting." The company's annual report came in the wake of the UK's Serious Fraud Office deciding to end its investigation into the firm. The investigation, now discontinued, was announced in July 2019 with the SFO at the time looking into possible corruption in South Sudan. Basingstoke-headquartered De La Rue said it was "pleased that the SFO has closed its investigation and that the SFO is taking no further action in respect of this matter." By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Robert Irwin has penned a heartfelt tribute about his late father Steve on World Crocodile Day. On Wednesday, the 16-year-old Wildlife Warrior shared a jaw-dropping photo of the Crocodile Hunter braving the jaws of a 'modern-day dinosaur' while feeding the animal. 'Happy #WorldCrocodileDay! Dad brought these misunderstood animals to the world and showed everyone just how amazing they truly are,' Robert wrote. 'His passion for these modern-day dinosaurs inspires us every day': On Wednesday, Robert Irwin paid tribute to his late father Steve (pictured) on World Crocodile Day 'His passion for these modern-day dinosaurs is what inspires us every day to continue his message of the importance of this keystone species. 'We're also proud to continue the croc research he started decades ago (now the biggest crocodilian research project of its kind in the world), worldwide croc rescue, and educating people about crocs every day.' Robert went on to promote their live crocodile feeding shows at Australia Zoo, proving he is following in his legendary father's footsteps. Following in his father's footsteps: 'Happy #WorldCrocodileDay! Dad brought these misunderstood animals to the world and showed everyone just how amazing they truly are,' Robert wrote on Instagram Australia Zoo reopened earlier this month, much to the delight of the Irwin clan. In particular, Robert's older sister Bindi, who was overcome with emotion as the wildlife park opened its doors to the public again, after closing in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The 21-year-old shared a series of photos to Instagram alongside her husband Chandler, 23, Robert and their mother Terri, 55 and said she was relieved to stop worrying about how 'to pay the bills'. Proud: Robert went on to promote their live crocodile feeding shows at Australia Zoo, proving he is following in his legendary father's footsteps. Pictured with sister Bindi Irwin and mother Terri Irwin 'This morning we stood at the front of our home and opened the gates to visitors. I made a radio call to our entire Australia Zoo Crew that we had officially reopened which was one of the best moments of my life,' she captioned the lengthy post. Bindi revealed how much stress the family has been under while continuing to maintain the costly zoo located at Beerwah, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. 'For 78 days we have wondered if and when we would ever open our doors to guests again. The weight of the world seemed to press down on us as we worked hard to figure out how we'd be able to pay our bills,' she said. Emotional: Bindi Irwin broke down in tears as Australia Zoo opened its doors to the public last week after being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Bindi admitted she cried at the momentous occasion, but they were tears of 'joy'. 'I cried as I felt the overwhelming joy of reopening and the stress these many weeks have brought,' she said. Bindi finished by thanking the public for their support and reaffirming her family were doing everything they could to keep their visitors safe during the global pandemic. Robert and Bindi lost their father Steve in 2006, after the iconic Australian was pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming a wildlife documentary. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:04:13|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HOHHOT, June 17 (Xinhua) -- As a drone buzzed overhead taking aerial photos of the prairies in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Zhang Wenbiao took soil samples on the ground. Work in the area has been going on since May. It involves an intensive "physical check" on an 18,333-hectare area of Xilingol Grasslands, one of the four major pastoral regions in Inner Mongolia, before starting a comprehensive grassland restoration program. The project, the first of its kind to treat grassland degradation in the region, uses a big data platform jointly established by the government of East Ujimqin Banner and MGrass Ecology, a tech firm in Inner Mongolia, to restore the grassland's ecosystem. The samples brought by Zhang and his colleagues to the company's lab for analysis showed poor soil nutrition. Based on the data about soil, water and geological conditions obtained from satellite photographs and precision photos taken by drones, the big data platform has selected different grass species adapted to growing on different areas of the prairies from the system's database containing information of 62,000 varieties of plant germplasm resources. "Understanding nature's language is the first step in the restoration process. For us, nature talks in data," said Chen Yufeng, deputy general manager of the MGrass grassland restoration project. Seeding machines have been installed to carry out mass sowing in the grasslands with seeds selected by the company. Chen said that they are using the rainy season from May to July for the planting, which is conducive to the survival of the vegetation. Wednesday marked the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, which is aimed at raising awareness of international efforts to tackle the challenge of desertification. According to figures from the forestry and grassland administration of Inner Mongolia, by 2019, the average vegetation coverage of Xilingol Grasslands had reached 46.78 percent, an increase of 16 percentage points in 20 years thanks to a comprehensive effort of ecological rehabilitation. "The ecological restoration concept that we advocate is to understand nature rather than to conquer it," said Xu Min, chief information officer of the big data subsidiary of MGrass Ecology. The company has planned to install a large number of sensors to monitor soil and air conditions on the prairies for timely evaluation of the progress of the grassland restoration program. "If we continue to feed the 'brain' (of the platform) with data, it can help calculate information such as grassland bearing capacity to indicate how many sheep and cows can be raised at the most," said Chen. The region has been committed to striking a forage-livestock balance in the pastoral areas by providing subsidies to herdsmen to limit the number of their livestock since 2011 while carrying out programs to protect grassland biodiversity. Du Senyun, deputy director of the forestry and grassland administration in East Ujimqin Banner, said that larger hay yield of the grassland means bigger size of flocks and more money in herdsmen's pockets, and a higher vegetation coverage attracts more tourists. MGrass Ecology had earlier been involved in programs treating fragile ecology problems such as degraded land, deserted mines, and saline-alkaline land in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Tibet Autonomous Region as well as Yunnan and Shaanxi provinces in west China. Enditem The Bachelor's Noni Janur and her boyfriend, Bachelorette star Samuel Johnson, have ended their long-distance relationship after three years together. The reality star couple are believed to have split following Noni's trip to Los Angeles over Christmas. 'It's been a while, they were over before Valentine's Day,' a source close to the couple told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday. It's over! The Bachelor's Noni Janur, 29, (left) and her boyfriend, Bachelorette star Samuel Johnston, 30, (right) have called it QUITS following a three-year, long-distance romance 'Sam and Noni broke up just after she got back from America, but were officially over since February,' they continued. Sam relocated to Los Angeles in mid 2017, just a few months after they went public with their romance on Instagram. The couple celebrated three years of dating in November last year and had been traveling back and forth between LA and Sydney to keep their relationship alive. End of the road: Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, a source close to the couple said: 'It's been a while, they were over before Valentine's Day' The brunette star raised eyebrows after she swapped a promise ring with Sam's initials on it for another during a solo trip to Bali, Indonesia mid-February. The couple were last pictured together in December, where they enjoyed a white Christmas at the luxurious Big Bear Ski Resort. At the time, Noni shared a photo of her long-time beau and said he makes her 'as happy as sunflowers' and debuted a promise ring she was gifted by Samuel. Treating herself! The brunette star raised eyebrows after she swapped a promise ring gifted by Samuel for another during a solo trip to Bali, Indonesia on February 23 Noni previously told Daily Mail Australia how the couple keep the spark alive in their relationship, despite spending so much time apart. 'Long distance is something you have to plan - plan to see each other, plan to make that phone call every day. Its majority trust, obviously, and effort,' she said. Sam appeared on The Bachelorette in 2016, while Noni appeared on The Bachelor in the same year. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Noni and Samuel for comment. Something to tell us? Noni was again pictured in March without her special ring Advertisement The police officer who shot dead Rayshard Brooks begged the father-of-four to live as he desperately administered CPR to the dying man, DailyMail.com can reveal. Former officer Garrett Rolfe, 27, shot Brooks twice in the back on Friday June 12 when a peaceable call-out suddenly escalated into unspeakable violence. Rolfe's bodycam came off during the violent altercation that erupted when he tried to cuff Brooks telling him he'd had too much to drink to be driving. But the camera never stopped recording, as it was picked up and carried around by other officers called out to investigate the shooting before eventually being returned to its owner. Now, DailyMail.com can reveal what happened in the moments after the shooting when Rolfe and fellow officer Devin Brosnan, 26, desperately fought to save Brooks' life. DailyMail.com can reveal that Officer Rolfe begged Rayshard Brooks to stay alive after shots were fired, as seen on the officer's body camera Amid angry shouts and accusations from bystanders Rolfe can be clearly heard pleading, 'Mr. Brooks keep breathing. Keep breathing for me Brooks' blue shirt can be seen surrounded by officers who tried to save his life Former officer Garrett Rolfe, 27, shot Rayshard Brooks twice in the back on June 12 when he tried to arrest him in Atlanta Amid angry shouts and accusations from by-standers Rolfe can be clearly heard pleading, 'Mr. Brooks keep breathing. Keep breathing for me.' The jerky bodycam footage captures him kneeling on the ground and administering CPR to the bleeding man while Brosnan looks on. Rolfe administered CPR until the ambulance arrived and can be heard repeatedly calling Mr. Brooks' name as he tried to keep him alive. DailyMail.com has also learned that Rolfe has since told friends that he didn't want to pull the trigger but did so because he feared that he he 'went down' Brooks might kill him. Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com one close to Rolfe said, 'Garret didn't want to do it. He had been punched and was dazed. Brooks had gone to tase him and he said that he knew that if he went down Brooks might kill him.' Rolfe was injured from a punch landed by Brooks during the scuffle that broke out when Rolfe tried to cuff him. The former officer was briefly felled and did not know where his fellow officer Devin Brosnan, 26, was in that moment. The source said, 'He told me he fired a shot up above his (Brooks's) head but he didn't stop and so he fired twice more. He didn't want to do it. There's no hate in Garrett's body. He doesn't hate black. He doesn't hate white. In that moment he was in fear for his life.' Rolfe was the second officer to arrive at the call out to the Wendy's on University Avenue, Atlanta Friday night. He arrived ten minutes after Officer Devin Brosnan, 26, who was first to respond to the fateful 911 call that reported that Brooks was blocking the drive-thru lane after drunkenly falling asleep at the wheel of his car. DailyMail.com revealed just how close Brosnan came to letting the whole incident slide. His bodycam recorded how he woke Brooks and asked him to pull into a parking space only to have to do so again when Brooks immediately fell back asleep. Brosnan then watched as Brooks ploughed over the curb of the space into which he was directed to pull. Returning to his patrol car Brosnan pondered, 'Do I want to deal with this guy right now?' before deciding he should check on Brooks having clearly smelt alcohol on his breath. The interaction that followed prompted Brosnan to call in a possible DUI and request another officer. Rolfe arrived around 10.56pm. At 11.22pm, after giving a muddled though polite account of his evening and drinking and failing field sobriety tests, Brooks blew 0.108 on the breathalyzer (0.008 is considered too drunk to drive). The jerky bodycam footage captures officers kneeling on the ground and administering CPR to the bleeding man while Brosnan looks on A blurred screenshot of the video shows Brooks' body on the ground as CPR is administered At one point Rolfe asked a passing officer, 'Do I have blood on my elbow?' Searching out disinfectant wipes he said, 'I don't know if it's his or mine.' He told the officers that he had been out celebrating his daughter's eighth birthday earlier that day. Brooks had four children three daughters ages one, two and eight and a 13-year-old stepson. Rolfe informed Brooks, 'I think you've had too much to drink,' and moved to cuff him when Brooks tried to make a break for it. Devin Brosnan has been placed on administrative duty pending an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations DailyMail.com has learned that Brooks was on probation and faced going back to prison if he was charged with a DUI. It was the fear of incarceration that likely caused Brooks to panic in the face of imminent arrest and caused him to run. Brooks punched one of the officers, stole Brosnan's taser and made a run for it. He turned to shoot the stun gun at Rolfe who pursued, ditching his own taser and unholstering his gun in that instant. The entire altercation, from its start to its end when three shots can be heard ringing out, lasted less than one minute. Brooks received surgery but died in the early hours of June 13 due to organ failure and blood loss caused by the two bullets that struck him in the back. While medics worked on Brooks, Rolfe's bodycam continued to run recording the scenes in the Wendy's parking lot as Rolfe called to report an officer involved shooting and request a union representative. At one point he asked a passing officer, 'Do I have blood on my elbow?' Searching out disinfectant wipes he said, 'I don't know if it's his or mine.' The shooting has been ruled a homicide and Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has said he expects to bring charges midweek. According to Howard it would be difficult for Rolfe to argue self-defense based on the evidence he has seen. He has said that the three charges which are 'relevant,' in this case are murder, felony murder and a third, less likely, charge of aggravated assault. Howard has said, 'I believe in this instance, what we have to choose between if there's a choice to be made is between murder and felony murder.' The charges to which Brooks pleaded guilty and for which he was still on probation dated back to August 2014 when he was convicted on four counts False Imprisonment, Simple Battery/Family, Battery Simple and Felony Cruelty/Cruelty to Children. He was tried in Clayton County and sentenced to seven years on the first count, with one year in prison and six on probation and 12 months for each of the other three counts, sentences to be served concurrently. His sentence was revised, and he was sent back to prison for 12 months in July 2016 when he violated the terms of his probation. Brooks had not been in trouble since that year until last December when he went to Ohio without informing his probation officer and a warrant was issued for his arrest. That warrant was revoked and the case dismissed when he returned to Georgia on January 6. Another video shows that as he's running away from Rolfe, Brooks (right) is seen turning around and pointing a Taser gun at the cop. That is what prompted Rolfe to shoot him twice in the back Brooks is pictured with wife Tomika Miller and three of his four daughters. She said she now feels like a 'statistic' having been rendered a single black mother by the cops' killing her husband Rolfe was fired immediately after the shooting and Brosnan has been placed on administrative duty pending an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. Atlanta Police Department have released both officers' disciplinary records which showed that Rolfe had twelve reports made against him including five vehicle accidents, four citizens' complaints, one use of force and one firearms discharge in addition to the Brooks incident. He was exonerated on all three of the citizens' complaints and three of the vehicle accidents but received a written reprimand for his use of force and one vehicle incident as well as an oral reprimand for another. No action was taken in any others. Records show that he had recently trained in de-escalation tactics, had passed a course entitled, 'Use of Deadly Force,' in January and done coursework in cultural awareness in April. Rolfe had also completed multiple courses in tactical team operations and firearms training. TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of 833.388 billion yen in May, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday - down 13.7 percent on year. That beat forecasts for a shortfall of 970.8 billion yen following the 930 billion yen deficit in April. Exports were down 28.3 percent on year to 4.184 trillion yen, badly missing expectations for a decline of 17.9 percent following the 21.9 percent drop in the previous month. Exports to the rest of Asia dropped 12.0 percent on year to 2.744 trillion yen, while exports to China alone fell 1.9 percent to 1.126 trillion yen. Exports to the United States plummeted 50.6 percent to 588.415 billion yen and exports to the European Union tumbled 33.8 percent to 363.839 billion yen. Imports tumbled an annual 26.2 percent to 5.018 trillion yen versus expectations for a fall of 15 percent after sinking 7.2 percent a month earlier. Imports from the rest of Asia dropped 11.8 percent on year to 2.739 trillion yen, while imports from just China sank 2.0 percent to 1.511 billion yen. Imports from the United States dropped 27.5 percent to 578.159 billion yen and imports from the European Union sank an annual 29.6 percent to 575.168 billion yen. 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. Advertisement Out with the fine crockery in with the meal boxes. British Airways this week launched a brand new 'enhanced temporary catering proposition' inflight meals to those not in the aviation business fit for the coronavirus era. And here we take a look at what passengers in economy, premium economy, business class and first class can expect and how the new compares to the old in the premium cabins. Travel expert and writer Michael Trager, meanwhile, has published an intriguing account of a recent business-class Dreamliner flight he took with BA from Los Angeles to Heathrow on his website, TravelZork, and has kindly allowed MailOnline Travel to publish pictures from the trip. An image showing the new British Airways first-class meal boxes, part of a temporary offering for the coronavirus era The new British Airways first-class afternoon tea offering When MailOnline Travel's Ted Thornhill flew first with BA last year his main course was this - roasted Guinea fowl with broccoli and cauliflower couscous, fig and pomegranate molasses Pictured left is Ted's first-class pre-coronavirus amuse-bouche of Cumbrian air-dried ham, Cumberland salami, Berkswell cheese, olives and sun-dried tomato. On the right, his smoked sea trout mousse with Brixham crab and apple puree Ted's pre-coronavirus first-class dessert - chocolate chilli fondant with chocolate sauce and pistachio and almond mousse ball But first, let us turn to BA's new dining options, which were launched on Tuesday (16th), just after Michael returned. Most will agree that they are an improvement on the previous coronavirus-era offerings. Michael was offered a rather austere 'meal diagram' leaflet on his flight which outlined an all-class menu of Kit Kat wafers, Oreo cookies, four-cheese pizza, fruit yoghurt, muffin, granola bar and mineral water. And alcohol was not available. Now, says BA, 'customers travelling to a long-haul destination will be offered pre-prepared meal boxes including dishes such as a salad, hot entree or sandwich, served with a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages'. And snacks will also be available between meals. On short-haul flights alcohol is banned but the food looks tasty. BA, which codeshares with American Airlines, says: 'Customers travelling to a short-haul destination in our business-class cabin, Club Europe, will also be offered a pre-prepared meal, such as salad or sandwich with a selection of beverages. Those customers travelling in our economy cabin, Euro Traveller, will be offered a complimentary snack and a bottle of water.' In addition, each long-haul business-class customer will be given a kit containing anti-bacterial gel and wipes. BA adds: 'As we navigate our way through these unprecedented times, we will continue to take advice from relevant authorities and incorporate this into the development of our onboard experience.' As appetising as the new temporary food offerings look - introduced to minimise interactions between crew and customers - BA customers who turn left will no doubt be looking forward to the day when the carrier wheels out its restaurant-style dining again. The author of this story flew first on a BA A380 last year to Johannesburg from Heathrow and it was something else. There was a welcome glass of Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle Champagne and a menu comprising smoked sea trout mousse with Brixham crab and apple puree; roasted Guinea fowl with broccoli and cauliflower couscous, fig and pomegranate molasses, and chocolate chilli fondant with chocolate sauce and pistachio and almond mousse ball. This image shows the new coronavirus-era BA long-haul business-class meal box Ted's pre-Covid A350 BA business-class dinner - burrata, yellow chicken curry and chocolate mousse. Plus bread On the left is the new BA economy and premium economy meal box. On the right, the short-haul business-class (Club Europe) meal box Pictured here is the new BA business-class breakfast box. There will be much relief that it includes a chocolate muffin Travel expert Michael on his recent BA business-class flight from Los Angeles to Heathrow Before these dishes were served there was an antipasti amuse-bouche of Cumbrian air-dried ham, Cumberland salami, Berkswell cheese, olives and sun-dried tomato. Every dish was very well executed - fresh, tasty and beautifully presented. And served on proper bone china Wedgwood crockery. And on an A350 BA business class flight to Madrid, the menu comprised burrata, yellow chicken curry and chocolate mousse. Michael, an American who lives in London, said that while booze was not served at all on his flight, he was allowed to sip some bourbon he brought on board with him. But there was no ice available, or glassware. He said that the cashew nut mix was 'the best of the bunch' from the first meal pack he got (but again, note that these meals have now been upgraded) and that the breakfast box was 'sad'. But he had only praise for the crew. He said that they were 'excellent, very attentive'. And the lavatories were 'really clean'. Michael said that the crew on his flight from LAX were 'excellent, very attentive' On the left is Michael's BA business-class meal diagram. On the right, his BYO bourbon and wipes from Wynn Las Vegas Michael said: 'I believe I was the only person in the entire cabin. Perhaps, there was one more. I do not think I will ever experience that again' Pictured left is the empty cabin on Michael's flight and on the right his 'sad' breakfast Masks were mandatory and this fact was made clear before the flight via email but Michael was a little surprised BA didn't provide any. Overall, it was a trip he'll never forget. He added: 'I believe I was the only person in the entire cabin. Perhaps, there was one more. I do not think I will ever experience that again.' To read the full account of Michael's flight click here, and here for more on his recent stay in coronavirus-ready Las Vegas. Michael broadcasts a podcast called ZorkCast with co-host Steve White from Cranbrook in Kent. They chat about casinos, luxury travel, Las Vegas, and gambling, with a focus on experiences. Click here for the TravelZork YouTube page. Steep Theatre, which had its first show in 2001, moved to the location in 2008, on a tree-lined street just to the east of the Berwyn Red Line station. The theater, which recently went Equity, has described itself as a quintessential Chicago storefront; the building had previously been a grocery store. Steep had recently made a number of improvements to the space, including in 2018 expanding into a new cabaret space next door, a narrow room dubbed The Boxcar. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, on Wednesday, said that the U.S. would deliver a shipment of 60 million dollars worth of military equipment to Ukraine. The embassy said the shipment included anti-tank missiles, in support against Russian aggression. The embassy said in a statement that the shipment, which arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday and includes Javelin anti-tank missiles, ammunition and radios, is part of security assistance and cooperation efforts. The United States stands strongly with Ukraine in support of its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression, the statement said. Ukraines military has been fighting Russian-supported rebel groups in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, for more than six years. According to estimates by the United Nations, more than 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The conflict erupted after Kiev ousted its pro-Russian president in early 2014 in a political shift towards the West. Russia, which has represented the rebels at international peace talks, has repeatedly denied allegations of direct involvement in the conflict. (dpa/NAN) Unionist and nationalist identities became stronger in the run-up to Brexit, according to a major new survey. The Queen's University-Ulster University joint ARK research project found that 59% of Catholics described themselves as nationalist last year compared to 50% in 2018. It's the highest number in any Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) survey since 2003. Read More And 71% of those identifying as nationalist described themselves as strongly so compared to 61% in 2018. This number is higher than it has ever been, according to the report's authors. Two-thirds of Protestants (67%) described themselves as unionist compared to 55% in 2018. Read More And two-thirds (67%) of those identifying as unionist described themselves as strongly so - up from 64% in 2018. However, despite the growth in nationalist sentiment in the Catholic community, the survey did not show any significant increase in support for Irish unity. Just 22% of people here wanted it as a long-term policy compared to 44% support for devolution within the UK. Direct rule was the least favoured option with just 16% support. Expand Close Ben Rosher / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ben Rosher The NILT survey consisted of 1,200 face-to-face interviews across Northern Ireland from September 2019 to February 2020. Co-authors Dr Katy Hayward and Ben Rosher noted it was not an election study. Expand Close Katy Hayward / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Katy Hayward "When compared to election results, Sinn Fein supporters are under-represented and Alliance Party supporters are over-represented in our weighted sample and we should bear this in mind in our analysis," they stated. The survey found that more people saw themselves as 'neither unionist nor nationalist' than identified with either of the two traditions. However at 39%, this was down 10 points from 2018, and the authors reported that it was the lowest number in 15 years. A third of people (33%) identified as unionist, up from 26% the previous year. Just under a quarter of people (23%) identified as nationalist, a small rise from 21% in 2018. The authors said there was little change in the numbers saying they were of no religion. Just under two-thirds (62%) of those saw themselves as neither unionist nor nationalist, with 22% identifying as unionist. Thirty per cent of people thought a united Ireland was likely in the next 20 years while 46% believed it unlikely. The authors said this represented no shift from 2018. But nationalists were much more likely to believe Irish unity would be achieved in two decades - 54% compared to 20% of unionists. Almost two-thirds of unionists (62%) saw a united Ireland as unlikely by 2040 compared to 37% of nationalists. Nationalist support for Irish unity rose from 50% to 69% in 2019, according to the research. While 77% of nationalists believe that Brexit has made a united Ireland more likely, only 2% of unionists say it has made them more sympathetic to Irish unity, and just 22% say it has increased the likelihood. Despite the suspension of devolution for almost three years, the report found it was still the preferred form of government among people here. Indeed, 42% of people here believed Stormont should have more powers than it currently enjoys and should be "responsible for all decision-making". A total of 16% supported maintaining the current power-balance with Westminster with London retaining decision-making powers on taxes, benefits, immigration, defence and foreign affairs. Only one in 10 people said they would like to see Westminster make all the decisions for Northern Ireland. The report noted that while devolution was popular in all communities, "respondents from a Catholic background are considerably more enthusiastic for giving powers to the devolved institutions". More than two-thirds of people saw the Good Friday Agreement as remaining "the best basis for governing Northern Ireland". But Catholics were more likely to say that the Agreement shouldn't be changed - 39% compared to 31% of Protestants. And Protestants were more likely than Catholics to say that the Agreement was no longer good or that it never has been - 14% compared to 4% of Catholics. Almost exactly the same number of Catholics and Protestants believed that the Agreement needed to "undergo some changes to work better". By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a withering behind-the-scenes portrayal, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton accused him of sweeping misdeeds that included explicitly seeking Chinese President Xi Jinping's help to win re-election. Bolton, a longtime foreign policy hawk who Trump fired in September over policy differences, also said that the U.S. president had expressed a willingness to halt criminal investigations to give "personal favors to dictators he liked," according to a book excerpt published in the New York Times ahead of its release. Trump hit back at Bolton, calling him "a liar" in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The paper also published excerpts Wednesday of the book, titled "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," as did the Washington Post. Trump told Fox News in a separate interview that Bolton had broken the law by including highly classified material in the book. Together, the excerpts portray a U.S. president mocked by his top advisers who exposed himself to far more extensive accusations of impropriety than those that drove the Democratic-led House of Representatives to impeach Trump last year. The Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump in early February. Trump was accused of withholding U.S. military aid last year to put pressure on newly-elected Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky to provide damaging information on Democratic political opponent Joe Biden. "Had Democratic impeachment advocates not been so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg in 2019, had they taken the time to inquire more systematically about Trumps behavior across his entire foreign policy, the impeachment outcome might well have been different," Bolton wrote, according to excerpts in the Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-bolton-the-scandal-of-trumps-china-policy-11592419564. Critics of Bolton note he declined to testify before the House inquiry when his disclosures could have been critical. Story continues Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who led the prosecution of Republican Trump, slammed Bolton for saying at the time that "he'd sue if subpoenaed." "Instead, he saved it for a book," Schiff said on Twitter. "Bolton may be an author, but he's no patriot." Still, Bolton's allegations provide new ammunition to critics ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election, including his behind-the-scenes accounts of Trump's conversations with China's Xi - which, in one case, broached the topic of the U.S. vote. "Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China's economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win," Bolton wrote, in the most in-depth, damaging portrayal by a Trump administration insider to date and just days after former defense secretary Jim Mattis accused the president of trying to divide America. China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, asked about Bolton's claims at a news briefing on Thursday, said China has no intention of interfering with the elections or internal affairs of the United States. Biden said in a statement: "If these accounts are true, its not only morally repugnant, its a violation of Donald Trumps sacred duty to the American people." U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in Senate testimony that Bolton's account was "absolutely untrue." "I was at the meeting. Would I recollect something as crazy as that? Of course I would," Lighthizer said. "This never happened in it for sure. Completely crazy." The U.S. government has sued to block Bolton from publishing the book, citing risks to national security, and is seeking a court hearing on Friday. Publisher Simon & Schuster has dismissed the accusations and said "hundreds of thousands of copies" of the book have already been distributed. TRUMP 'ERODED' PRESIDENCY Although Trump's administration had been strongly critical of China's mass detention of mostly Muslim Uighur minority and other Muslim groups, Trump gave Xi a green light in June 2019 in Osaka, Japan, Bolton said. "According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do," Bolton wrote, adding another top White House official said Trump made similar comments during his November 2017 trip to China. Bolton cited an innumerable number of conversations in which Trump demonstrated "fundamentally unacceptable behavior that eroded the very legitimacy of the presidency." A former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Fox News television commentator, Bolton's hawkish approach had worn on a president weary of foreign military entanglements, officials say. Trump would sometimes chide Bolton in meetings, introducing him to visiting foreign leaders by saying, You all know the great John Bolton. Hell bomb you. Hell take out your whole country. In excerpts published in the Washington Post, Bolton writes that Trump said invading Venezuela would be "cool" and that it was "really part of the United States." The U.S. government has publicly said it does not favor using force to topple Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro. The book also exposed the sometimes dim view that Trump's advisers have of him. During a 2018 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Bolton says he got a note from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mocking Trump. "He is so full of shit," Pompeo's note said, according to a Bolton excerpt in the Washington Post. Although Trump is publicly critical of journalists, Bolton's book quotes the U.S. president making some of his most alarming remarks to date. In a summer 2019 meeting in New Jersey, Trump allegedly said journalists should be jailed so they have to divulge their sources: "These people should be executed. They are scumbags, according to another excerpt in the Post. (Reporting by Phil Stewart, Eric Beech, Makini Brice, Lisa Lambert and Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Gabriel Crossley in Beijing; Editing by Sandra Maler, Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool) The bare hand battle occurred in the Galwan Valley, on the border between Indian Ladakh and Chinese Aksai Chin. Indian media: the commander of Chinese troops in the area is among the dead. The border crisis started in early May. Over the past 45 years the two armies have often clashed, but without casualties. Delhi (AsiaNews) - The number of victims from clashes on the Himalayan border between India and China has risen to 20 Indian and 43 Chinese soldiers. On the evening of June 15, troops from the two countries clashed in the Galwan Valley, along the temporary border (Line of Actual Control, LAC) that divides Indian Ladakh from the Chinese region of Aksai Chin. Early reports spoke of three Indian military personnel who died. The other 17 died from the injuries sustained, aggravated by the low temperatures recorded in the area. Beijing confirms that it has suffered losses, without providing figures. Indian media report that the local commander of Chinese troops is among the fallen. The Indian government said the two sides faced each other with bare hands with sticks and stones, without the aid of firearms. Delhi and Beijing accuse each other of having crossed the LAC, occupying portions of disputed territory. In recent days, the leaders of the two countries had found an agreement to reduce tensions along the border. According to press reports, India and China have massed thousands of soldiers near the Galwan Valley and the Indian state of Sikkim since early May. Beijing allegedly sent its troops in response to India's construction of a road along the border between Ladakh and Aksai Chin. The two countries share a 3488 km border in the impervious Himalayan region, for which they fought a short but bloody conflict in 1962. Delhi claims large areas of Aksai Chin (which the Chinese obtained from Pakistan); Beijing makes claims about the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. In the past 45 years the two armed forces have faced each other several times, without causing victims. The latest crisis occurred in 2017, when the Chinese began building a road in the Doklam plateau, an area on the border with Sikkim controlled by China but claimed by Bhutan, a close ally of Delhi. Doctors and scientists in Vietnam who have been using various therapies and medicines to treat COVID-19, a new disease that has no standard treatment protocols, have been able to save a number of critically ill patients. A British pilot with Vietnam Airlines is recovering from COVID-19 at Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City. A 43-year-old patient, a British pilot with Vietnam Airlines, who was critically ill for months, is now being treated at Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City, where he has had a "miraculous recovery", according to a report from the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. The patient has not had to use ventilation for 60 hours, and respiration has recovered. He is conscious and can communicate with doctors and nurses. His kidneys, heart, and liver functions have also improved. However, the muscle strength of his legs remains weak. He has physical therapy twice a day, and no longer needs antibiotics. As of June 15, the patient had spent 89 days in treatment, the most of any COVID-19 patient in the country. Before being transferred to Cho Ray, he was treated at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases. His lungs recovered 30 per cent of their capacity at that time. Dr Nguyen Thanh Phong, head of the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases' department for infectious diseases D, told Viet Nam News: During treatment, doctors at the hospital and Cho Ray Hospital discussed new therapies to treat him. We decided to use the anticoagulant Xarelto, which has never been used in hospitals in Vietnam, to replace the drug heparin that had been used when he was on the ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, which pumps blood out of the body and removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back. The patient was allergic to heparin, which reduces platelet count and causes bleeding, threatening his life. So the drug heparin was stopped, Phong said. The anticoagulant was used for 10 days until medicine imported from Germany arrived. The other severely ill COVID-19 patient at HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases was transferred from the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieus General Hospital on May 10. After 23 days of treatment, she recovered and was discharged on June 1. Her lung was damaged more severely than the pilots. She suffered vaginal bleeding. After treatment, her health was OK, Phong said. The National Hospital for Tropical Diseases has also treated a number of severely ill COVID-19 patients. In one case, the heart of a 64-year-old woman with COVID-19 from Hanoi stopped beating on three occasions. An ECMO machine was used to maintain her life for 17 days. She also received dialysis treatment. At one point, her heart stopped beating for 40 minutes, but hospital doctors provided emergency aid in time to save her. After more than two months of treatment, her lung function improved and she was able to communicate with the hospitals doctors and nurses. On May 27, she was discharged from the hospital. Another severely ill COVID-19 patient, 88, was treated initially at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases and then Bach Mai Hospital for further treatment. The patient, from Hung Yen Province, had suffered an intracranial haemorrhage, which paralysed one side of her body, before testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 on April 14. Because of her health status, the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases doctors and nurses had to frequently keep watch by the patients bedside to adjust her medicine. The treatment helped the patient recover. Respiration gradually improved and ventilation was no longer needed. The patient tested free of SARS-CoV-2 and was transferred to Bach Mai Hospital for further treatment on May 5. The woman was the country's oldest COVID-19 patient treated at a hospital. As of June 15, Vietnam had had no deaths caused by COVID-19, Dr Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment under the Ministry of Health, said. According to the Ministry of Health, 323 COVID-19 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospitals. Eleven patients are still receiving treatment. Vietnam has had no new COVID-19 infections via community transmission for 60 consecutive days. As of June 15, the country had 194 imported COVID-19 infections. Dr Phong of the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, however, warned that the risk of COVID-19 infections in the country was still high, so people should continue preventive measures. VNS Doctors' round-the-clock care helps COVID-19 patient For over two months, doctors at the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases worked round-the-clock to treat a 43-year-old COVID-19 patient, a British pilot with Vietnam Airlines, before he was transferred to the city's Cho Ray Hospital on May 22. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 02:47:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RAMALLAH, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian health minister announced on Wednesday that 17 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the West Bank, raising the total number in the Palestinian territories including East Jerusalem to 718 since March 5. In an emailed press statement, Mai al-Kaila said the new cases were recorded in the southern West Bank city of Hebron and the village of Tafouh to the west of the city. More than 48 percent of the infected patients have recovered, she added. On Monday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged all people to abide by the protective measures to avoid being infected with COVID-19, official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. "I'm confident that our Palestinian people can overcome the coronavirus pandemic through abiding by the preventive measures, mainly wearing face masks and stopping mass gatherings," said Abbas during a tour in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Enditem Lockdowns and quarantines forced many businesses across the United States to close their doors this spring, leaving many employees without a job. The national unemployment rate shot up to 14.7% in April up from 4.4% in March before ticking down slightly again to 13.3% May. Workers deemed essential are maintaining income, but non-essential employees face unemployment and financial uncertainty. Based on first quarter data, the credit union industry avoided most of the employee attrition seen throughout the nation. Credit unions held 305,600 full-time employees on their payrolls as of March 31, 2020. Thats up 4.3% annually. And, annualized compensation per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee at credit unions grew to a record $84,100 while salary and benefit expense per FTE was 6.3% higher than one year ago, more than double the nationwide growth rate of 2.8%. Based on ancedotal evidence, credit unions have avoided laying off employees so far in the second quarter, too, opting instead to redeploy staff members to support increased call center activity and back-office functions. It doesnt appear the work will slow down anytime soon. With this in mind, CreditUnions.com reached out to prominent leaders across the credit union industry to ask them three questions: The U.S. Embassy's Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) has received over $60 million worth of military equipment and transferred it to Ukrainian partners. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine wrote about this on its Facebook page on June 17. U.S. security assistance and cooperation efforts with Ukraine during COVID-19 continue! Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy's Office of Defense Cooperation received more than $60 million of equipment to transfer to our Ukrainian partners, including radios, ammunition, and Javelin anti-tank missiles, the report reads. The United States stands strongly with Ukraine in support of its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression, the embassy noted. ish Eric Andre refused to let the middle-aged white people at Netflix remove a police prank he performs on his upcoming comedy special Legalize Everything. The scene sees the actor-comedian posing as a police officer and handing out fake drugs to strangers on the street in New Orleans. According to Andre, executives at Netflix wanted to remove the joke given the climate after the death of George Floyd. Im like, no, guys! Andre said. This is the best time to do these jokes. This is what we need! We need to point out the absurdity of the police department and what a f*****g hypocrisy and a disgrace it is. We need to point out police brutality. I am blessed that my stand-up special is coming out in this time. Legalize Everything also sees the comedian take aim at the long-running US series Cops for using reggae music while showing footage of police officers beating up black people. In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality, Paramount Network decided to cancel Cops just before the 33rd season aired. Speaking to The Daily Beast, Andre said hes always been disgusted by how Cops portrays cops as the good guys and poor people and Black people and marginalized people as the bad guys[the officers] turn it up a notch for the camera. People have been shot unnecessarily and theyve used excessive force to make good television, Andre continued. So I think the show Cops is pretty corrupt. They had a 32-season run. I think were fine. I think its time to f*****g hang up the jersey." Ever wonder what it's like to be a Victoria's Secret Angel? Now is your chance to find out. VS Angels Sara Sampaio, Josephine Skriver, Lais Ribeiro, and Jasmine Tookes have invited fans to win a day getting the full supermodel treatment with them. Live like an Angel! VS Angels Sara Sampaio, Josephine Skriver, Lais Ribeiro, and Jasmine Tookes have invited fans to win a day getting the full supermodel treatment with them The lucky winner will get to spend a day with the four women, where they will be treated to a workout at the celeb-favorite Dogpound gym, photoshoot, $5,000 shopping spree, dinner and karaoke. Proceeds from the contest will benefit an array of charities assisting people in need during the pandemic. 'Spend a heavenly day in the company of Victoria's Secret Angels Jasmine Tookes, Lais Ribiero, Sara Sampaio, and Josephine Skriver,' reads the contest's description on the All In Challenge Foundation website, which provides fans with once-in-a-lifetime experiences benefiting food charities. 'After a morning workout at DogPound with Jasmine and Jo, you'll have a 20-minute Zoom consultation with photographer Jerome Duran to determine the perfect style, mood, and tone for your photoshoot with the models later that day. Just like Jasmine! The lucky winner will get all glammed up like the Angels do Let's do this! Sara Sampaio was clearly looking forward to meeting the winner as she urged fans to apply to the contest on Tuesday (pictured 2019) 'Next, you and your guest will get to have your hair and makeup done by the Angels' glam team, before you join the models and Jerome for a photoshoot. With a select photo from the shoot posted to the models' Instagram accounts, skip off to a Victoria's Secret $5K shopping spree with your guest and the girls. 'To cap it all off, the models are taking you to dinner and karaoke. 100% of the money raised through this Game/Auction will go directly to Feeding America, Meals on Wheels, World Central Kitchen and No Kid Hungry.' Fans have until June 22 to apply, and Sara urged her followers to apply on Tuesday. 'We're going to take you on an amazing day': The lucky winner will spend a full day with the girls A fresh-faced Sara appeared on her Instagram account, where she enthusiastically described what the winner can expect. 'Hi everyone, I want to remind you guys that you still have til Monday get a chance a day with us, Victoria's Secret Angels, with me, Lais, Jasmine and Josephine. We're going to take you on an amazing day all in Los Angeles. 'We'll start with a Jojo workout, then we're gonna go on a shopping spree up to $5,000, how incredible that is! 'And then we're gonna have a photoshoot with Jerome Duran and then we are gonna have dinner and karaoke, and it's gonna be my favorite part, and you can serenade me or I'll serenade you, and it's going to be so much fun!... All the proceeds with go for charities that have been helping people during this COVID pandemic.' . A volcano in northeast China could be "recharging" for an eruption, with a vast amount of magma believed to be rising up underneath it, according to a team of geophysicists. The researchers say they discovered two huge magma chambers under Wei Mountain in the Wudalianchi volcanic field in Heilongjiang, near the border with Russia and North Korea. Their modelling suggests the chambers dwarf the volcano, which is 100 metres tall and 5km wide. It was a surprise discovery, since the volcano last erupted more than 500,000 years ago and was considered extinct. Geologists have been more focused on Changbai, or Paektu Mountain, to the south, whose eruption in 946AD was one of the most powerful volcanic events ever recorded, its fallout zone spanning from Japan to Greenland. But the volcanic fields of Changbai and Wei "would be linked to some degree", according to the peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Geology this month. Wei Mountain is part of the Wudalianchi volcanic field in Heilongjiang province. Photo: Handout alt=Wei Mountain is part of the Wudalianchi volcanic field in Heilongjiang province. Photo: Handout Geophysicist Zhang Haijiang and a team from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui, visited nearly 100 sites across Wei Mountain for the study. They used sensors to detect electromagnetic abnormalities deep underground. They were looking for magma " which usually has a lower conductivity than hard rock " and they found it: an unusual blip from 15km underground, followed by another one at 8km. Their computer modelling suggested there could be two giant magma chambers with a combined depth of more than 9km. Those chambers were part of a bigger system that could be "linked with the Changbai volcano by secondary mantle convection", Zhang wrote, referring to the process that causes tectonic plates to shift. According to their calculations, 15 per cent of the upper chamber was now filled with molten rock. Some studies have suggested that a volcanic eruption could take place when a chamber fills to 40 per cent magma. Story continues Wei Mountain is part of the Wudalianchi volcanic field that has 14 cinder cones dotted over a 500 sq km plateau formed by lava. Previous studies have also found that Wudalianchi and Changbai could be connected. Zhang and the team noted that seismic activity had increased at Changbai from 2002 to 2005, suggesting "magmatic activity beneath the volcano was increased". Its most recent eruption was in 1903. They concluded that "volcanic activity in northeast China is likely to be in an active stage, and active volcanic monitoring is needed to further understand the magmatic systems in this region". The last eruption in the Wudalianchi volcanic field was in the early 18th century. Photo: Handout alt=The last eruption in the Wudalianchi volcanic field was in the early 18th century. Photo: Handout Xu Jiandong, director of the volcanic research division at the China Earthquake Administration in Beijing, said the last eruption at the Wudalianchi field was in the early 18th century, forming two volcanic mountains " Laohei and Huoshao. He said seismic stations had been monitoring the two young volcanoes for several decades. "We have not detected any sign of active magma chambers under Laohei and Huoshao, which is very strange considering the recent eruption event," said Xu, who was not involved in the study. The findings of the Wei Mountain study added to that mystery. "If there really are huge magma chambers in the area, we should have detected some related seismic activities " when the lower chamber recharges the upper one, there should be some movement," he said. "But so far, after decades of monitoring on the site, we've picked up almost nothing. The whole area has been very, very quiet," he added. That meant it was too early to say for sure that the chambers even existed, according to Xu. He said while the abnormal signals detected by Zhang's team looked like magma chambers, they could also have been caused by other substances such as water or rocks with high conductivity. The study results would need to be verified by long-term seismic data that would be collected by new stations to be set up at Wei Mountain, Xu said. "What we know for certain is that the Wudalianchi region is active " it's like congee boiling in a pot," he said. Numerous studies in recent years have suggested a low risk of an immediate eruption in the area. For that reason, the government had not set up monitoring stations there, said Xu, adding that "we are not prepared for an eruption". 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. Like Mr. Tillerson and other officials who went to work for Mr. Trump believing they could manage him, Mr. Bolton agreed to become the presidents third national security adviser in 2018 thinking he understood the risks and limits. But unlike some of the so-called axis of adults, as he calls Mr. Tillerson and former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who tried to minimize what they saw as the damage of the presidents tenure, Mr. Bolton used his 17 months in the White House to accomplish policy goals that were important to him, like withdrawing the United States from a host of international agreements he considers flawed, like the Iran nuclear accord, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and others. Mr. Bolton thought Mr. Trumps diplomatic flirtation with the likes of North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia were ill advised and even foolish and spent much of his tenure trying to stop the president from making what he deemed bad deals. He eventually resigned last September Mr. Trump claimed he fired him after they clashed over Iran, North Korea, Ukraine and a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Mr. Bolton did not agree to testify during the House impeachment inquiry last fall, saying he would wait to see if a judge would rule that former aides like him should do so over White House objections. But after the House impeached Mr. Trump for abuse of power for withholding security aid while pressuring Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Bolton offered to testify in the Senate trial if subpoenaed. Senate Republicans blocked calling Mr. Bolton as a witness even after The Times reported in January that his then-unpublished book confirmed that Mr. Trump linked the suspended security aid to his insistence that Ukraine investigate his political rivals. The Senate went on to acquit Mr. Trump almost entirely along party lines. But Mr. Bolton greatly angered critics of the president for waiting to make his account public until now. The book confirms House testimony that Mr. Bolton was wary all along of the presidents actions with regard to Ukraine and provides firsthand evidence of his own that Mr. Trump explicitly linked the security aid to investigations involving Mr. Biden and Hillary Clinton. On Aug. 20, Mr. Bolton writes, Mr. Trump said he wasnt in favor of sending them anything until all the Russia-investigation materials related to Clinton and Biden had been turned over. Mr. Bolton writes that he, Mr. Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper tried eight to 10 times to get Mr. Trump to release the aid. Chinese handset maker on Wednesday cancelled the livestream launch of its flagship 5G smartphone in the country amid protests calling for boycott of Chinese products in various parts of the country. The Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a stand-off in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. A violent face-off with Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday night left 20 Indian Army personnel dead. This has stirred anti-China sentiments with protesters and some trade bodies like CAIT calling for boycott of Chinese products. Oppo, which ranks among the top five smartphone vendors in India, had said it will livestream the launch of its Find X2 smartphone on Wednesday via YouTube. However, the livestream was cancelled later on, and the company instead uploaded a pre-recorded video. While did not respond to queries seeking reason for the cancellation, reports suggest that the cancellation was done in view of the protests. In a press release, the company said the premium 5G 'Find X2' handset will be available in India for Rs 64,990. On Twitter, hashtags like #HindiCheeniByeBye (32,900 tweets) and #BharatVsChina (3,657 Tweets) were trending. Four of the top five smartphone brands in India (Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo) are from China, and accounted for almost 76 per cent share of smartphones shipped in India in the March 2020 quarter. South Korea's Samsung, which ranked third and cornered 15.6 per cent share of shipment in the said quarter, is the only non-Chinese firm in the top five tally. (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.) Dylann Roof sat through an hour of Bible study at a church before shooting nine Black worshippers in 2015. Five years ago, after nine Black church members and their pastor were shot dead in a racist attack, South Carolina banded together and took down the Confederate flag from the state Capitol lawn in Columbia after years of angry debate on the topic. Today, as yet another shocking killing of an African American roils the country, prompting protesters to pull down statues associated with past racism and demand the removal of names of historical figures who repressed or oppressed other people, South Carolina leaders appear to be sitting out the current movement so far. Dylann Roof sat through nearly an hour of Bible study at the Mother Emanuel AME church and then started shooting as the group prayed. Nine Black worshippers were killed. Roof spared one womans life so she could tell everyone he wanted to start a race war. He was sentenced to death and remains in federal prison. Roof did not hesitate to explain his racist beliefs to FBI agents and left a handwritten journal full of his views, such as Black people being inferior to whites. He also left behind pictures of himself holding the gun used in the killings, posing at historic Civil War and African American sites and holding the Confederate flag. Today we remember the nine lives lost at Charlestons Emanuel AME Church in a hatred-driven attack. As we mourn this loss, we must take action. When racism and guns mix, the results are catastrophic, and we cannot afford to lose more Black lives to this preventable epidemic. pic.twitter.com/1tN2q4Cz5n Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) June 17, 2020 Outraged political leaders in South Carolina former Republican Governor Nikki Haley among them came together and overwhelmingly voted to take down a Confederate flag that flew near a monument to Confederate soldiers on the Statehouse lawn. It was the last time the South Carolina General Assembly invoked a 2000 law called the Heritage Act that protects historical monuments and names of buildings in the state unless a two-thirds majority of state legislators in the General Assembly vote to allow the changes. Brittany Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag from a pole at the Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina on June 27, 2015 [File: Adam Anderson/Reuters] The hurdle is a high one in a state where conservative Republicans dominate the state House and Senate, one made even harder by Republican House Speaker Jay Lucass promise in the days after the Confederate flag came down in 2015 that he would never consider another change like it while he led the House. Lucas has kept his word. The pressure is mounting, however. Clemson University trustees voted last Friday to ask the General Assembly to let it change the name of Tillman Hall, a main building on campus named for Pitchfork Ben Tillman. Tillman gained notoriety for supporting a white mob that killed four Black men in 1876 after they surrendered to them. He later became South Carolinas governor and a US senator, committed to destroying any rights Black people obtained after the Civil War. We of the South have never recognised the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be equal to the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him, Tillman said in a 1900 congressional speech. Rooting out white supremacy Just weeks after Roof stormed the church, activist Brittany Bree Newsome Bass scaled the 9.2-metre tall flagpole outside South Carolinas statehouse and removed the Confederate flag. Footage of the incident was broadcast on news programmes across the country. She was arrested and the flag was put back on its pole. Since then, the debate has led to a slew of legislation from legislators on both sides, demonstrations, and the toppling of monuments and erection of new ones. I think the taking down of monuments and symbology, specifically, is also about challenging this idea that white property and state property is more valuable than our lives, Newsome Bass told Democracy Now on Wednesday. The debates continue, Newsome said, because the ideology of the Confederacy and white supremacy remains mainstream. We have to dig deeper in really understanding what it means to uproot and root out white supremacist ideology as we go through this process of renaming things and changing symbols, she said. Dylann Roof entering the courtroom at the Charleston County Judicial Center to enter his guilty plea on murder charges in Charleston, SC [File: Grace Beahm/Pool via AP] Mayor of the historic city of Charleston, John Tecklenburg announced Wednesday that the city plans to remove a statue of slavery advocate John C. Calhoun from a downtown square. In the past week, NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its events and races, and the Marine Corps banned public displays of the Confederate flag from its military installations. In Virginia, protesters took down a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. The president of the University of South Carolina has said he wants lawmakers to let the school remove the name of J Marion Sims from a womens dorm. Sims is honoured as the father of modern gynaecology, but conducted experimental treatment on slaves without anaesthesia. Sims and Tillman also have statues on the statehouse lawn. Some African American legislators want plaques added, explaining their racist views. Others, like Representative Justin Bamberg, want Tillman and the others gone. I dont like seeing Pitchfork Ben Tillman every dang day I go to the statehouse, the Democrat said. He boldly and proudly supported lynching my people. And in Charleston on Tuesday, the current pastor of Mother Emanuel stood with civil rights activists and politicians calling for the removal from a downtown park of a 30-metre-tall (100 feet) statue of former US Vice President John C Calhoun. Calhouns support of slavery never wavered. And in an 1836 speech before the US Senate, he said slaves in the South were better off than free Black people in the North. The Reverend Nelson Rivers said Calhoun represents Dylann Roof to us and said Charleston leaders should defy the unjust Heritage Act which does not include penalties for breaking it and remove the statue. The time has come to not just acknowledge your racist evil wicked past. The time has come to take down the monuments that honour the evil that was done in the name of Charleston, in the name of South Carolina, Rivers said on Tuesday at the foot of Calhouns statue. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said he will announce the citys decision on Wednesday on the statues future. The time has come for Republicans in South Carolina to either clear the way to remove monuments or show their true colours, said Rivers, who spent nearly 40 years with the NAACP and is now a vice president with the civil rights group National Action Network. Either you support a monument to hate or you do not, Rivers said. There is nothing fuzzy about this. After more than two months at home, librarian Lisa Fagundes misses managing her sci-fi book collection so much, she feels shes in withdrawal, longing to see new books, touch them, smell them. Its like a disease, she said, laughing. Instead, shes been learning to combat a different disease: COVID-19. While libraries are closed, Fagundes is one of dozens of librarians training to become a contact tracer, calling people who have been exposed to the coronavirus and asking them to self-quarantine at home so they dont spread it further. Librarians are an obvious choice for the job, said Fagundes, who usually works at the information desk of the San Francisco Main Library. Theyre curious, theyre tech-savvy, and theyre really good at getting people they barely know to open up. Because, a lot of times, patrons come up to you and theyre like, Uhh, Im looking for a book and they dont really know what theyre looking for or they dont know how to describe it, Fagundes said. Or theyre teens afraid to admit out loud that theyre looking for books about sex or queer identity. Fagundes is used to coaxing it out of them in an unflappable, nonjudgmental way. Similar skills are needed for contact tracing, which involves asking people about their health status and personal history. Talking about sensitive subjects is a natural thing for librarians, she said. Its a lot of open-ended questions, trying to get people to feel that youre listening to them and not trying to take advantage or put your own viewpoint on their story. Fagundes is part of the first team of contact tracers trained through a new virtual academy led by the University of California-San Francisco. California awarded the university an $8.7 million contract in May to expand the academy and train 20,000 new contact tracers throughout California by July one of the nation's largest such efforts. Gov. Gavin Newsom says counties need 15 contact tracers for every 100,000 residents to adequately contain the virus after stay-at-home orders are lifted. Smaller contact-tracing teams have been able to manage the workload in recent months, while most people have been staying home. Local health officials said each new person who tests positive for the coronavirus was in close contact with an average of four or five people while infectious typically family members and neighbors. But as counties begin allowing businesses to reopen, a persons average contacts will rise to 40, and will be much harder to locate, necessitating a larger workforce to identify and call them. You have a four- or five-day window to find people and get them isolated, which is what we do instead of treat them, because we dont have treatment for COVID, said Dr. George Rutherford, a UCSF professor of epidemiology who is leading the training effort. The new training program takes 20 hours over the course of five days to complete and involves lessons on epidemiology and motivational interviewing, and demonstrations of how to make contact-tracing phone calls. Right now, all contact tracers work from home while on paid furlough or working part time at their regular jobs. In addition to librarians, San Francisco has asked government employees from the tax assessor and city attorney offices to help out, including financial analysts, paralegals and investigators. Some rural counties have been recruiting sheriffs deputies for the job. In other states they love to pick up people who worked as airline reservation agents, because theyre used to talking to people all day long and trying to work things out for them, Rutherford said. Megan Elliott is a manager in the San Francisco Assessors Office, where she oversees the valuation of real estate to figure out how much tax to charge. She is used to having conversations where she has to tell people things they dont want to hear. For residential properties, a lot of times it has to do with a property owner who believes that we unfairly valued their new construction project, she said. So my job is to communicate to the taxpayers in a way that they can better understand why we do what we do and to help them see the reason and rationale behind that. It takes similar finesse to tell people that theyve been in contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus and that they cant go to work for the next two weeks. Elliott explains the importance of protecting the community from the virus, or the difference between quarantine (staying home if youve been exposed but arent symptomatic) and isolation (avoiding family members within your home if you do know you are sick). Investigators from the city attorneys office have been applying their people-finding skills. Some people who become ill may be reluctant to share information about their close contacts, or, they just dont know enough information about the people theyve been in close quarters with. Lets say youre on a job site, working construction, and you had lunch with a guy, Oh, its Bob, hes a steamfitter,' said Rutherford. Thats the kind of thing that were facing, that we get partial locating information. City investigators are familiar with databases and electronic gumshoe strategies for finding Bobs last name and phone number, so he can be notified and get tested. The goal is to train enough contact tracers to serve all 58 counties in California, but the state is leaving it up to each county to roll out the program and handle the specifics, such as what kind of support services to offer people asked to self-quarantine. In San Francisco, when people who may be infectious are asked to stay home, contact tracers refer them to get tested, offer them free cleaning supplies and help with grocery and medication deliveries. If they cant isolate themselves safely from other family members at home, residents have the option of staying in a city-funded hotel room. San Francisco also plans to launch a program to help replace two weeks of lost income, up to $1,200, for people who test positive but dont have a job with paid sick leave or cannot access unemployment insurance benefits. South of San Francisco, in Santa Clara County, where the first COVID-19 cases in the U.S. were identified, health officials have struggled to recruit enough librarians and other county employees to become contact tracers. Officials are now asking for 800 volunteers from the community to meet their goal of building a 1,000-person case investigation and contact tracing team, with an emphasis on volunteers who can speak other languages, particularly Spanish and Vietnamese. In San Francisco, some staffers from the city attorneys office have been told they will eventually go back to their regular jobs part time and continue doing contact tracing part time. Librarian Lisa Fagundes has been doing four four-hour contact tracing shifts per week. Its something that I feel like I could do for the rest of the year, if needed, then when the library starts ramping up, I could do both, she said. But, I think that the library will not be ramping up to full service anytime soon, because its not an essential service as much as we may disagree. This story is part of a partnership that includes KQED, NPR and Kaiser Health News. This article is published through a partnership with New York Medias Strategist . The partnership is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected by New York Media. If you buy something through our links, Slate and New York Media may earn an affiliate commission. Grilling is really simple. You dont need anything really fancy, explains Joe Carroll, owner of Fette Sau in Williamsburg. You could really take a wok and a grill grate and fill it up with some charcoal and cook in that. But grilling in the city, especially one as dense as New York, gets a little more complicated, since space is at a premium, and theres a strictish fire code that dictates where and how you can legally get your grill and chill on. The red tape doesnt mean that your quest to grill is impossible, though. It turns out that you dont even need all that much stuff to make the freshly grilled burgers, hot dogs, and sausages of your dreams a reality, even if you dont have a backyard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So we consulted four barbecue experts Carroll; Hugh Mangum, pitmaster at Mighty Quinns Barbeque; chef Matt Horn of Horn Barbecue in Oakland, California; and Mark Jenner, the editor-in-chief of barbecue site FoodFireFriends.com to help you figure out what essential grilling tools you actually need in order to grill on your terrace or in the park, when space and budgets are limited. Though it might seem counterintuitive, a charcoal grill is the best option for city dwellers to finagle than a gas or propane one, even if you do have plenty of backyard space. Charcoal grills are generally cheaper than gas grills, and these kettle-style Webers, in particular, are bomb-proof, as Mangum describes it, meaning that it can endure pretty much any wear and tear you might inflict on it when youre lugging it around. Plus, if youre using a charcoal grill, adds Carroll, then you dont have to worry about getting propane filled. Most people dont have cars to drive to Home Depot and get their propane tanks filled up. Advertisement Advertisement Mangum recommends the Weber Smokey Joe, which has the similarly robust construction to his favorite classic Weber, just smaller. However, if youre really in a pinch, or just think this grilling thing is a onetime excursion and dont want a portable grill taking up valuable apartment space in the off-season, Carroll notes that a disposable grill will also get the job done. Either way, just be sure that youre setting up in city parks designated barbecuing areas. If your space is especially limited, Jenner says Webers Go-Anywhere Grill is perfect. It comes in both gas and charcoal versions, and its flat, rectangular design and foldable legs, which keep the lid in place, make it even easier to store and transport than a grill with a round top. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can set up two-zone grilling, banking coals to one side more easily, Jenner says. This allows you to have high heat one side, low heat the other, and have more control and precision over your cooking, even doing low-and-slow smoking, adding wood chips for flavor to some cuts of meat. And, for comparisons sake, it can hold one more burger than the Smokey Joe. Whether youre grilling in a backyard on a full-size kettle, on a terrace in a portable grill, or even in a park on a communal grill, youre going to want a chimney starter. Its the best way to get your fire going, and as Mangum explains, You dont want to grill over coals that are still getting hot, so if the coals are black and they havent worked through to that red or white stage, then youre going to get the taste of charcoal on your food as opposed to the taste of the grill. Once again, if space is an issue, Jenner has a solution. Weber also offers a compact version of its chimney starter thats approximately six inches shorter but still gets coals ready to go in 15 minutes or less. It has the same great build quality and features, just smaller and, hence, easier to pack and carry, Jenner says. A stiff, wire grill brush is a must-have for any grill, but especially communal ones, where the previous users may not have been kind enough to clean their messes. You want to clean the grill first and make sure theres no dried-up, crusty bits and stuff on the grill, says Carroll, though theres no need to worry about someone elses leftover grill bits contaminating your meat. Mangum explains, Once you get it up to temperature, its burning everything off anyway, so theres no real cross contamination there. As long as you get it nice and hot, you should be good. You do, however, want to brush both before and after grilling, and youre going to have an easier time doing it when the grill is hot. For those just getting into grilling, it can be hard to determine exactly when you should pull that steak off the grill. Both Jenner and Horn say its better to cook to an internal temperature than to an arbitrary appearance of doneness, and using a thermometer is a great way to accurately achieve a desired temp, Horn says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With things on the grill, particularly if smothered with BBQ sauce, they can look well cooked, or even burned, but still be dangerously under-temperature inside, Jenner says, adding that beginners should look to the USDAs official internal temperatures recommendations for guidance. Having tested plenty of instant-read thermometers, Jenner says his favorite is the Thermapen Mk4, but if that proves too pricey, he also likes the Lavatools Javelin PRO for daily use. Speaking of sauces, if you plan on smothering your grilled goods with additional flavor, youll need a proper basting brush. You never know when youre going to want to apply some sauce, marinade, or herbed butter to a meat; its always great to be prepared, says Horn. Though you might be tempted to get a multipiece barbecue tool set in a stylish case, thats overkill. All you really need is a good pair of tongs and a spatula. And beware the classic barbecue-style tongs with prongs. A lot of times, the ones that come with the packages have little spikes in them and they wind up tearing sausage, explains Carroll. He also likes having a spatula for flipping burgers. Any good, long spatula will kind of do the job. You could bring along a roll of paper towels, but the sturdier and arguably more ecofriendly cleaning solution would be to have some bar rags or throwaway kitchen towels that you dont mind getting dirty. Theyre great for cleaning up messes, as well as serving as makeshift oven mitts. You can also use one to clean and oil your grill grate before you use it. If you put a few coats of oil on the grill grates before you start grilling, it kind of creates a nonstick surface on there, and it just makes grilling easier, advises Carroll. Simply soak the rag in vegetable or canola oil, something that can withstand high heat, and then pick it up with your tongs and rub it over the grate. This is an especially clutch trick on communal park grills, since the oil also sort of cleans the cooking surface of soot, but its something you can do with your own personal or portable grill. The main reason grilling in tight quarters is not advised is because of the risk of fires, and one of the easiest ways to accidentally start a fire is from flare-ups. Thats when fat from the meat drips onto the coal and creates a huge, fast flame that can go far if youre not paying attention. Its not only potentially dangerous it also tastes bad. Thatll give a sooty taste on the meat, and itll also burn the meat before it cooks it well enough inside. So keeping that fire down is really key, says Carroll, and both he and Mangum recommend keeping a spray bottle filled with water on hand. As soon as you see a flare-up, a little quick squirt tamps it down. Your responsibility to keeping your city fire-free continues even after you finish grilling. It sometimes takes as long as two days for coals to be completely cold, explains Mangum. So you dont put any coals for at least two days into a trash bag, or else that trash bag will go up in flames. Instead, both barbecue experts recommend getting a stainless-steel can with no holes and a lid. Put the spent ash and coals in there, with the lid on, once youre done with it, so you dont accidentally set anything on fire. And if youre grilling in a designated area of a New York City park, be sure to dispose of the coals in red metal barrels, not a regular trash can. Trials and preliminary hearings will resume across the province starting July 6 with a limited number of courtrooms, according to an update from the Ontario Court of Justice. All participants in a trial or preliminary inquiry, including the accused person(s), counsel and witness(es) will attend in person, unless a judge has directed otherwise, according to the update. Bail hearings, guilty pleas and scheduling appearances that have been done remotely so far will continue to be done by teleconference. The court is also resuming some in-person family law proceedings along with continuing remote hearings. The in-person hearings will include child welfare matters and other trials deemed urgent by the court. Some Provincial Offences courts, which deal with matters like speeding tickets and municipal bylaw violations, will open on July 6, 2020, but only to hear early resolution guilty pleas through audio or video conference. The Ministry of the Attorney General expects to have 93 courtrooms open for use in courthouses across Ontario, including all six Toronto courthouses and those in Brampton, Milton, Newmarket, Oshawa and Barrie, according to the update. A remote COVID-19 trial-readiness court has been created to discuss potential issues in upcoming criminal trials, such as a party that cannot attend court in-person for health reasons, a week before the trial is set to begin. All appearances in that court will be by audio or video. It is unclear how many people will be permitted to observe criminal trials. According to the update the number of people who can attend inside the courtroom or courthouse, remain restricted in accordance with health and safety guidelines. For family law proceedings, family members or supporters should not attend court with people who have scheduled appearances in court unless they are essential, the update states. Trials at the Superior Court of Justice may also resume on July 6 but the court has not yet released their plan for in-person hearings. Jury trials will not begin until September 2020 at the earlier, the court has said. No trials have been conducted at the Ontario Court of Justice or Superior Court of Justice since the courts closed to in-person hearings in March at the start of the pandemic. Six youths have been charged in connection with the killing of a 15-year-old boy in west Melbourne, Victoria Police confirmed on Wednesday. Emergency services were called to Neale Road, Deer Park, shortly after 4pm on Tuesday to reports that a boy had been stabbed. Solomone Taufeulungaki, 15, was treated by paramedics at the scene but died as a result of his injuries. Six teenagers aged 13 to 16 have been charged with violent disorder and affray, and are due to appear at a childrens court on Wednesday, police said in a statement. Australian media reported that Taufeulungaki was stabbed to death after being set upon by a group of up to 10 males near Brimbank shopping centre. Recommended Three men charged with murder of student in north London Police arrested six teenagers before a mass brawl allegedly broke out between 30 people, leaving two people including an officer needing hospital treatment, according to ABC. Taufeulungaki's parents, Atunaisa and Salome, have vowed to love and forgive those accused of killing their son. We bless them, Ms Taufeulungaki told reporters on Wednesday. We dont want justice, we just want peace for our son. Mr Taufeulungaki said his sons killing had taken place near the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Recommended Man charged with attempted murder after rabbi stabbed in London We feel sad. That is my chapel. My son comes to this church. I believe he will join us at this church every Sunday. Friends and family have paid tribute to the 15-year-old boy, describing him as a good kid. He comes from a good family, a humble family. Its just so unfortunate this has happened to him, family friend Foa Galuega told local media. Tatyana Taufa, also a family friend, told the Herald Sun the boy had been taken too soon. Its just stupid, she said on Tuesday night. Its heartbreaking. One family member wrote on Facebook: Solomone Taufeulungaki You were taken too soon. My family & I are so overwhelmed with all the love and support we are receiving during this difficult time. We are all in disbelief words cannot describe the pain we are all feeling. You were loved and always will be my little brother. WATERLOO REGION Debate over whether wearing masks should be mandatory in Waterloo Region continues among residents, academics and regional council. Public health is not requiring people to wear masks while out in the community to curb the spread of COVID-19, although neighbouring Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Unit issued an order under the Health Protection and Promotion Act making face coverings mandatory inside any commercial or retail establishment as both municipalities headed into the second stage of reopening. Top officials in Waterloo Region encourage wearing masks when in close proximity to others, but say an order like Guelphs would be too difficult to enforce, including on public transit. It would be, in my opinion, likely an order that could not be enforced, acting medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang told council during a coronavirus update on Tuesday. Chief administrative officer Mike Murray said they want to get more people to wear masks and theyll look at the possibility of a bylaw as suggested by Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. Were exploring whats the best way to accomplish that outcome, Murray said. A mask giveaway is one option, and a public education campaign is being launched thats focused on public transit but could expand to the broader community to promote mask wearing. Some municipalities have made masks mandatory on transit, but Murray pointed out they also say the rule is not being enforced. Grand River Transit is trying to minimize the interaction between drivers and riders to reduce the risk of infection. Wang said she wants to consult with businesses about how to boost the wearing of masks one of a range of behaviours public health is encouraging, including regular handwashing and physical distancing. But not all regional councillors are satisfied with their stance to just suggest people should wear masks, although others recognized the enforcement challenge and one called it a dilemma. Coun. Sue Foxton is concerned shes not seeing many face coverings while shes out in the community. People are getting this false sense of security ... And theyre thinking were immune, Foxton said. Coun. Helen Jowett agreed masks are vital. Were literally talking about saving lives here, she said. Maybe we just have to have stronger messaging because I dont think people are getting it. The Guelph health unit is leaving it up to businesses to stop anyone not wearing a face covering from entering, and some councillors worried that would put an undue burden on staff, including deciding who is exempt for medical reasons. Concerns about public shaming and vigilantism were also expressed. I think trying to enforce this will probably end up with more issues than not, Coun. Kathryn McGarry said. Coun. Tom Galloway said regulating human behaviour is difficult, and thats been shown in Guelph which had to exempt huge swaths of activities from the order. I think people are looking for a simple solution to a very complex problem, Galloway said. Coun. Sandy Shantz said a bylaw would face similar enforcement issues, and instead people should be encouraged to do the right thing. We want to encourage people to care for each other, Shantz said. An online petition started this week by a Waterloo resident calling for masks to be mandatory is close to its goal of 2,500 signatures. University of Waterloos Jason Thistlethwaite is surprised and frustrated by the regions unwillingness to mandate masks the cheapest and most effective tool to contain the virus. Hes a professor for the school of environment, enterprise and development who researches how local governments can use policies to manage risk, including now COVID-19. Not only are masks good for health, but also the economy. Were sacrificing our local economic development right now for these excuses that the region keeps putting out for why they wont require masks, Thistlethwaite said. The benefits relative to the cost of making them mandatory are just so profound. He said rules, not recommendations, are the only way to change behaviour and he doesnt buy the arguments about enforcement and the added burden on businesses. People will be more likely to go into a shop if they see most people are wearing masks, he said. Thistlethwaite is also bothered by the contradictory messages from public health. For months, people have been warned stores arent safe, but now suddenly theyre told those places are fine so long as people keep their distance. As for mandatory masks, officials say its a disproportionate response relative to the risk and could be challenged in court. But that follows people being told to stay home for months except for essential trips, which is very close to martial law. Its just a complete contradiction and certainly sends the wrong message, Thistlethwaite said. Wang said and order is a very serious tool and medical officers make a judgment call based on the balance of risks. But Ontario has 34 different medical officers of health, all with different opinions and Wang said that has led to a patchwork of approaches thats not very helpful for residents. Wang and Murray believe recommending masks rather than ordering them is the way for the region to go, absent provincial guidance. Thats a step Thistlethwaite said the province could take but likely will not, given how its largely left the pandemic response up to local governments to enforce. He said the region has an opportunity to become a leader in the economic recovery from COVID-19, and the mandatory use of masks will create a bubble for the entire region that will help people feel safe to go out into the community and prevent against huge economic impacts of a second wave. The majority of people need to wear masks to be an effective tool in the fight against the virus, and thats why it needs to be mandatory, Thistlethwaite said. You need something more rigorous than just hoping people become aware of the benefits of wearing masks. Speaking at a conference in Hanoi on June 16 reviewing media coverage on COVID-19, PM Phuc highlighted the Governments important policies such as Fighting the epidemic is like fighting the enemy, sacrificing short-term economic interests to protect peoples health, concentrated quarantine, saying that under the Party's leadership, all people have united and been determined to minimise infections in the community The PM also hailed the media for ensuring discipline in making news reports to prevent incitement in the society while urging the public to fully comply with prevention and control measures. The Vietnam Fatherland Front was also praised for its efforts to raise VND2 trillion (US$86.9 million) from individuals, businesses and organisations for the fight. The government leader mentioned two important results - the lowest ratio of infections to population and the lowest treatment costs. In particular, he said, it is a miracle for the country to have no deaths from the disease so far. He affirmed that the entire political system has fully grasped, seriously and fully complied with the Party and States documents on communications, creating social consensus and encouraging patriotism and national pride to win over the pandemic. PM Phuc also expressed thanks to people from walks of life, including medical, army, public security staff, artists and reporters from media outlets for staying unanimous together under the Party's leadership to fight the epidemic. The PM said Vietnam is one of a few countries to embark on a new normal situation at the earliest, and the Government will submit a range of socio-economic development measures to the National Assembly to fulfil set targets. In order to achieve the dual goal of containing the pandemic and ensuring socio-economic development, he asked the media to honour outstanding examples and effective economic models, helping to improve the business climate and stimulating domestic consumption. About information for foreign service, he requested popularising Vietnam as a safe and attractive destination for foreign investors and contributing to the success of Party congresses at all levels, towards the 13th National Party Congress. On the occasion, PM Phuc presented certificates of merit to 18 organisations, in honour of their achievements in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Popular Nigerian journalist, Dr. Kemi Olunloyo, has said some word of prayers for Davido and Chioma as she prayed for their relationship. The journalist who pointed out earlier that she has forgiven Davido over their long-lasting feud, has taken a step further with the artist. Taking to Instagram, she shared that she wishes them well in their relationship as she prayed for marriage. READ ALSO Finally, Kemi Olunloyo Forgives Davido Advertisement Sharing on Instagram, the journalist wrote: so help you God! Chioma my lover will change to Chioma my wifey God bless all the kids. See Her Post Here: The New Mexico Legislature is gathering June 18 for a special session to rewrite the general fund budget and conserve spending during the fiscal year starting July 1. Financial analysts warned the trust fund that underwrites New Mexico unemployment benefits could be depleted by October if spending continues at the current rate. The funds balance fell from $458 million in mid-March to $322 million in mid-May as the states unemployment rate surged past 11 percent, according to staff at the Legislative Finance Committee. The unemployment insurance trust fund is sustained by contributions from employers. The federal government offers loans to depleted unemployment funds at zero interest to sustain benefit payments. To date, the impact of the pandemic and oil-price collapse indicates a $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion decrease in state revenues for the 2020-21 budget. Top lawmakers voted June 9 to close the Roundhouse for this special session due to the coronavirus pandemic, although some media members will be allowed inside. All legislative staffers present for the special session will be required to undergo COVID-19 testing and wear masks, but lawmakers stopped short Tuesday of requiring testing for themselves. A bipartisan group of 22 rank-and-file lawmakers (19 Republicans, three Democrats) filed a petition Thursday with the state Supreme Court, asking the court to block the decision by top-ranking legislators to close the Roundhouse to lobbyists and the public. In their court filing, they argue that closing the state Capitol violates a provision in the New Mexico Constitution that stipulates that all sessions of each house shall be public. That issue was still up in the air as of press time Friday. All House and Senate floor sessions, along with committee meetings, will be webcast at nmlegis.gov. 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. Focus on $7.6B budget In May, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced plans for the special session, which will focus on solvency changes to a $7.6 billion budget plan. Lawmakers could also debate any other measures added to the agenda by the governor. Lujan Grisham has said many non-budgetary issues will have to wait until the 60-day regular session in January. The governor has also said she will roll out her own budget plan before the special session begins. State Rep. Daymon Ely, a Democrat from Corrales, chairs the Rules Committee. He said hes OK with keeping the public out, but also knows how important it is for them to keep their eyes and ears on the happenings there. My answer is, we are trying to balance public health while, frankly, protecting democracy, Ely said. State Sen. Craig Brandt, a Republican from Rio Rancho, said, Well go in Thursday. The governor talked about going through the weekend I dont think the Senates going to be up there too long, the House for three or four days. Im hoping we stick with the budget and thats all we do. What I expect, itll be pretty much going back to the budget we passed. I think, in the Senate, youll see both sides come together and get things done. In the House, theres been no consensus for the last five years; youll see fighting in the House. Ely agreed on the importance of arriving at a workable budget: Therell be some serious cutting although the state is in much better shape than surrounding states. We have 26 percent reserves of our total budget, so that money is available to plug the holes, (but) it wont be enough. The state is $400 million in the hole for the upcoming fiscal, but can cover the deficit with cutting expenses and using rainy-day funds, he said. The 2021-22 fiscal year may be a problem, though, he added. Possibly also to come up Ely said he expects Lujan Grisham, yet to announce her call for the session, to put a stimulus program on the agenda, using money from the capital outlay program to support small-business loans. Well try to get as close to forgiveness as we can, but the terms should be fair, he said. And there may be some stuff on the election not a whole reform on the election, and the pandemic, and whats come out (recently) with Black Lives Matter, and we may be looking at lapel cameras (for law enforcement). It just depends on what the governor puts on her agenda, Ely said. Most of the big changes will come when we go back in January, he said, and see if oil prices are going to settle anywhere. I think were going to have some pretty significant cuts in January see which party wins the election. Thats going to be the determining factor. The big cut will be next year, not this year. As for teacher raises, set at 4 percent during the regular season, Brandt a former Rio Rancho school board member said, There isnt any final decision on that yet; the debate has been (for a raise) between 1 and 3 percent. The reason is health care premiums are expected to go up and we want to compensate teachers. Added Ely, I dont think youll see 4 percent raises, maybe percent, to cover increased insurance costs. As far as education, looking at the same budget, I am hearing a lot of talk. It kind of makes sense there wont be money for early childhood or a 10-day extended (period after school ends). We dont want to see schooling starting early. (Dan Boyd of the Albuquerque Journal contributed to this story.) The logo of Google in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20, 2020. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters) Google Undermines Its Legal Protections With Threat to Demonetize The Federalist, FCCs Carr Says Google is making an argument against its own liability protection by threatening to ban a right-leaning media outlet, The Federalist, from its advertising platform, according to Brendan Carr, a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. Google put The Federalist on notice over what it described as violations of its policy against dangerous and derogatory speech in the comment section of The Federalists website. But by policing the user-created content of others, Google cut against its own argument that it cant be liable for user-created content on its own platforms, according to Carr. Online services are largely shielded from liability for user-generated content under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Google makes one of the strongest arguments yet for Section 230 reform, Carr said in a June 16 series of tweets. Big Tech has long argued that it needs Section 230s unique set of liability protections because websites simply couldnt operate if they were held liable for comments or user-generated posts. Not so, according to Googles own ad policy! Google is now holding The Federalist responsible for comments and user-generated posts, and Google will be demonetizing the website as a result. Google has no problem treating The Federalist as the publisher of comments and user-generated posts on that website for purposes of Googles own ad policy. Yet, Google expends significant resources to protect its own platforms from that type of treatment under Section 230. Google stopped short of demonetizing The Federalist after the website completely removed its comment section. We have been told that the Federalist removed comments. As the comment section has now been removed, we consider this matter resolved and no action will be taken, Google spokeswoman Christa Muldoon told The Epoch Times via email. The Federalist didnt respond to a request for comment. Competitor Lobby? Carr suggested Google was prompted to review The Federalists website by a media competitor. This also appears to be an example of established media gatekeepers attempting to regain control of the political narrative not through persuasion but coercion, Carr said. A legacy media outlet lobbied Big Tech to punish a new media competitor. He apparently was referring to NBC News, which ran a story on June 16 claiming Google demonetized The Federalist and ZeroHedge, a libertarian blog and news site. The article said Google took the steps after being informed by NBC News Verification Unit about a project by a British nonprofit that put The Federalist, ZeroHedge, Breitbart, and other right-leaning publications on a blacklist for supposedly being racist Fake News. The nonprofit, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), is tied to the British Labour Party and has been known to lobby tech companies to deplatform political opponents, whom it labels as hate actors. Google declined to comment to The Epoch Times when asked whether the NBC News tip prompted the review of The Federalist. The Federalist ended up on CCDHs blacklist for running an op-ed that said the media was lying when blaming white supremacists for instigating violence during recent protests sparked by the death of a black man, George Floyd, during his arrest in Minneapolis. CCDH specifically took issue with the op-eds criticism of CNN and The New York Times. The op-ed said CNN went on and onwithout a shred of evidence to back it upabout how white supremacists might be infiltrating the protests and stirring up trouble. Attorney General William Barr has blamed extremist groups of various political persuasions for instigating violence during the protests, singling out anarcho-communist group Antifa. The op-ed also criticized a New York Times article for going into a long aside about how far-right accelerationists were hoping the unrest would bring about a long-sought second civil war. While the New York Times piece says far-right adherents cheered on the protests on social media and some recorded themselves at the protests, it also quoted a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) analyst as saying, I have not seen any clear evidence that white supremacists or militiamen are masking up and going out to burn and loot. The SPLC has long been criticized by conservatives for overreaching as to whom it labels as racist or hateful. Google Under Fire Google controls about a third of the global online advertising market, according to eMarketer. For Google, the hypocrisy here is stunning, Carr said in another tweet. It has no problem providing a platform for Communist China propaganda, & it has censored posts the regime wouldnt like. Yet it draws a line on the comment section of a conservative publication in America. Google has drawn criticism for allegedly kowtowing to the communist regime in China. In May, Googles video platform, YouTube, admitted to deleting from its comment section some Chinese phrases critical of the regime. YouTube blamed an error for the deletions and said it quickly investigated the issue when made aware of it and rolled out fixes. But, as The Verge pointed out, some users complained about the comment deletion on YouTubes official help pages as early as October 2019. YouTube only fixed the issue more than half a year later, when it was picked up by the media. Since 2018, Google has cooperated with a leading artificial intelligence (AI) research body at Tsinghua University, a prestigious Chinese academic institution that also conducts AI research for the Chinese military. Google also faced criticism after it was revealed in 2018 that it was secretly developing a censored search app for the Chinese market, as part of a project dubbed Dragonfly. The company has since said the project has been shelved. Google ran a censored version of its search engine in China from 2006 to 2010, but exited after the company said a cyberattack originating from China had targeted the Google email accounts of dozens of Chinese rights activists. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the position of Brendan Carr. He is a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. COLUMBIA Winthrop Universitys Board of Trustees will consider this week asking state lawmakers for permission to scrub former senator and governor Benjamin Tillmans name from its most notable building. Winthrop board Chairman Glenn McCall told The Post and Courier that trustees will address the idea at a meeting Friday. Board member Sandra Stroman said she expects it to be the main topic of discussion at the meeting, though school officials cant alter the name without legislative approval. Clemson University's board asked the General Assembly to remove Tillman's name from its iconic campus building last week. Even during a time of racial segregation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Tillman was known as a harsh white supremacist. Also Friday, the University of South Carolina's board of trustees is expected to ask lawmakers for an exemption to take J. Marion Sims name off a dormitory in the womens quad. Sims, credited as the father of modern gynecology, was equally known for performing medical experiments on enslaved people. About a third of the 4,710 students at Winthrop are black, and those who have attended the Rock Hill campus since 1962 have known its most noteworthy structure as Tillman Hall. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, the application notes Tillmans role in establishing the university but makes no mention of his white supremacist ideology. Winthrops website describes him as a staunch supporter of agricultural populism, (who) was an avowed white supremacist, architect of state Jim Crow laws, and a violent advocate of lynch law. Approved in 2000 as a compromise when the Confederate flag was lowered from the Statehouse Dome, very few attempts have been made to cross the Heritage Act because of the super majority needed to win approval. The last time an attempt was successful was in removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds after the 2015 murders of nine parishioners at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church. S.C. Senate President Harvey Peeler said lawmakers have larger issues in immediacy to solve, including dealing with the medical and economic fallout from the coronaviruis outbreak, reopening schools and improving policing. "Changing the name of a stack of bricks and mortar is at the bottom of my to-do list," the Cherokee Republican said. This week, House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, a Columbia Democrat, urged schools to disregard the Heritage Act and move forward with renaming plans. "What I am asking them to do is have guts, have courage, and do it anyway, and encourage anybody who doesn't like it to sue them," Rutherford said in a Twitter message. "They need to show the African-American students, the students that are not African-American but want the names changed as well, that they have the courage of their convictions." The latest moves to change names on buildings comes amid national protests over the death of George Floyd while he was in custody on Minneapolis police on Memorial Day. Avery G. Wilks and Seanna Adcox contributed to this report. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 36F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph.. Tonight Cloudy with snow showers developing after midnight. Low 24F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 40%. Doctors can stop providing life-support treatment to an ill eight-week-old baby against his parents' wishes, a High Court judge has ruled. Mr Justice Hayden said specialists could lawfully move the severely-ill boy, who has a severe liver impairment, to a palliative care regime after doctors said that there was no prospect of the baby surviving. The High Court judge was told that while the boy's parents supported the efforts doctors and nurses they felt that stopping life-support treatment was against their Muslim beliefs. However doctors said the baby could not breathe without the aid of a ventilator and would die in pain if allowed to die naturally. A High Court judge has ruled that doctors can stop providing life-support treatment to a severely-ill eight-week-old baby against his parents' wishes Today Mr Justice Hayden said ending intensive care was in the boy's best interests. The child, who had been in intensive care since he was three days old, had been diagnosed with necrotising enterocolitis, a condition, commonly known as NEC, which causes tissues in the intestine to become inflamed and start to die. He made a ruling late on Tuesday after considering the case at a virtual hearing in the Family Division of the High Court. The judge, who is based at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, said it was the first time he had been asked to make such a decision about a child at a virtual hearing. Judges are currently overseeing hearings remotely because of the coronavirus crisis. Bosses at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have responsibility for the baby's care and had asked the judge to decide what moves were in his best interests. They said they had hoped that an agreement could be reached with the boy's parents without the need for a court hearing. The judge considered evidence at a private hearing and said journalists could report the case but said the baby could not be identified. Mr Justice Hayden said ending intensive care for the eight-week-old baby was in his best interests The baby's parents, who were not represented by lawyers, watched proceedings on a mobile phone from hospital while sitting near their son. His father addressed the judge and argued that life-support treatment should continue. Covid-19 restrictions meant that he had not been able to visit hospital when his son was born, he said. At one point the judge asked lawyers, and a reporter, to log out of the virtual hearing so he could look at the baby, via the father's mobile, with the parents. Mr Justice Hayden said the baby's parents held 'profound' Islamic beliefs and the boy's father argued that while there was breath there was life, and while there was life there was hope. He said: 'However, the clinical team are satisfied that there is no prospect of (the boy) surviving. 'The challenge is to ensure that his death is as comfortable and as dignified and as free from pain as can practically be achieved.' He added: 'I believe it is in the best interests of (the boy) to stop intensive care to move to palliative care. 'I am satisfied that intensive care is futile.' Mr Justice Hayden told the baby's parents: 'I am so sorry.' Insurers are set to argue against paying out fully on claims made by businesses forced to shut because of the pandemic, saying that shops in Sweden lost money even without a strict lockdown. The strategy was raised at the first case management hearing Tuesday in the Financial Conduct Authoritys London lawsuit seeking clarity on the limits of business interruption insurance amid the coronavirus crisis. Lawyers for Hiscox Ltd. and other insurers said Sweden is an example of a country where no firm lockdown restrictions were implemented, but businesses still suffered. The Swedish example is key to the insurers defense because some policies cover losses resulting from government action, but not necessarily pandemics. The court case is one of a number of battles across the world, where insurers and clients are fighting over whether coverage extends to measures taken by governments to halt the spread of coronavirus. In France, AXA SA was ordered by a Paris court last month to compensate a restaurant owner for two months of virus-related losses. Some proportion of the UK businesses losses could not properly be said to have been caused by COVID alone, said Jonathan Gaisman QC, a lawyer for Hiscox. One way that this might be examined is for the court to compare the situation in the UK with that in Sweden. Sweden, in stark contrast to most other countries in Europe, enforced softer lockdown measures, leading to one of the highest death rates in the world relative to population. Despite the more lenient measures, the countrys economy has taken a hit with Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson estimating the Scandinavian nation is set for a 7% drop in gross domestic product. The FCA trial is due to start in Londons High Court in July and will examine 17 policy wordings and try to establish whether a number of insurers should pay out on business interruption insurance. In addition, other insurers in the case include RSA Insurance Group Plc, Zurich Insurance Group AG and MS Amlin Ltd. With assistance from Ellen Milligan. Related: Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics Carriers COVID-19 Profit Loss Saudi authorities have yet to issue their official decision over the major pilgrimage. A scaled down pilgrimage limited to locals appears to be making headway. Malaysia has urged its citizens to be patient and "accept the decision". In Indonesia, fake news claim that pilgrimage funds have been misappropriated. Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) In the Muslim-majority countries of Southeast Asia, Saudi Arabias decision to scale back the Hajj due to the novel coronavirus pandemic is generating ill feelings. Saudi authorities are still looking at procedures and timing to ensure maximum safety for the limited number of pilgrims who might be allowed. Some sources are even suggesting that the annual pilgrimage might be cancelled. A South Asian official in contact with Saudi hajj authorities said that Riyadh is buying time before making its decision. It's a toss-up between holding a nominal haj and scrapping it entirely, he said. In the event of a go-ahead at the last minute, most countries would not be able to organise travel and assistance to pilgrims. This is why the most probable scenario appears to be a reduced pilgrimage limited to Saudis and a symbolic number. Normally, Hajj attracts around 2.5 million people a year. With such numbers, physical distance is nearly impossible and even basic sanitation would be guaranteed with extreme difficulty. This has led the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia to withdraw from the pilgrimage, a decision met with a mixture of ill feelings (in Indonesia) and resignation (in Malaysia). For Malaysias Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri, the decision to cancel participation was dictated by the need to protect public health. Pilgrims are at risk contracting the coronavirus and causing new outbreaks upon their return. He said he hoped that his fellow coreligionists would continue to be patient and accept the decision however painful it might be. Most Malaysian Muslims appear to be heeding the ministers appeal and fully grasp the need for protection of public health since the pandemic is still raging. The situation is different in Indonesia. The decision to cancel the hajj has triggered a series of rumours and fake news on social media which are fuelling anti-government sentiments. According to some hoaxes, the authorities are said to have pocketed the funds earmarked for Hajj, diverted part of them to prop up the local currency or used them in certain projects and infrastructures. Indonesias Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi said that the pandemic and as well as Saudi Arabia's indefinite suspension of the umrah (big hajj) did not leave enough time for the government to prepare people's visas and protection measures. There is no hajj departure this year, Fachrul said. Those who have paid and registered will be placed for next years departure. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, usually has the largest quota of Hajj pilgrims. This year it planned to send an estimated 221,000 pilgrims, and 180,000 had already paid for travel and accommodation, the Religious Affairs Ministry said. In an attempt to dispel rumours, Indonesias Haj Fund Management Agency (BPKH) issued a statement saying that the funds are safe in the pilgrims accounts and will only be used for the pilgrimage. The country faces many hoaxes on a daily basis but Indonesias Muslims could see what is good and true, noted Zuhairi Misrawi from Nahdlatul Ulama. (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong, already grappling with tightened policing to rein in widespread protests that followed last year's proposed extradition bill, is now bracing for the prospect of stricter digital controls -- ones that would curtail free speech, communications and the ability to organize and turn the city of 7 million into a surveillance state that more closely resembles China. In recent years, law enforcement has deployed tens of thousands of closed-circuit television cameras in Hong Kongs streets and shopping malls, used broad warrants to crack into the mobile phones of protesters, and deployed facial recognition software that can identify activists in massive crowds. Now, residents and activists worry that proposed national security legislation will further encroach on civil liberties, as part of a continuing effort by Beijing to exert its influence over the former British colony. Residents have already watched with concern past efforts to curb online speech. A similar bill proposed and later withdrawn in 2003 would have punished those who published seditious material with up to seven years in prison. There are few details of what is in this imminent legislation, which Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in a statement last month would only target acts of secession, subverting state power and organizing and carrying out terrorist activities. Expected to be passed in the coming weeks, it would also outlaw foreign interference in Hong Kongs affairs. Asked if the legislation would bring Chinas Great Firewall with it, a spokesperson for the government said: All the basic rights and freedoms legitimately enjoyed by Hong Kong residents will remain intact. The vast majority of Hong Kong people who abide by the law and do not participate in acts or activities that undermine national security will not be affected. But Hong Kongs head of security, John Lee, presented a more ominous view. Beijings security ministries are expected to be involved in a new agency that would be set up once the new legislation was in place, Lee told the South China Morning Post. Mainland agencies would operate in Hong Kong when needed, he said, suggesting changes to constitutional curbs on interference by Chinese entities. Story continues In a financial hub used to relative freedom, protesters and privacy advocates fear they will soon face the kind of restrictions that are the norm in China. There, the Great Firewall blocks Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and many of the other means Hong Kongers use to communicate and organize with one another online. On the mainland, state-sanctioned apps such as WeChat and Baidu are regularly monitored, and automated systems detect keywords the Chinese government has banned from use in online discussions, along with any images that might also break its rules. There is no such censorship in Hong Kong. An unchecked internet benefits businesses and finance professionals using social media as much as it does activists organizing protests. A firewall similar to that in the mainland would cut access to most foreign news outlets, most foreign websites and messaging apps. News websites would be state-approved and subject to censorship. Online forums and messaging apps would be monitored. And Beijing-style digital controls could stop Hong Kong protesters and other activists from using the very digital tools that have helped them organize. In late May, Beijings National Peoples Congress passed a resolution authorizing its top leadership committee to draft the actual legislation that Hong Kongs government would have to enact. A Chinese official declined to answer questions from Bloomberg News on whether China would extend its ban on websites and apps from the mainland to Hong Kong with the new legislation. This is a very specific question to ask. Specific legislation has not come out, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Thursday. During the regular daily briefing she told reporters, I want to make one point very clear, that is, the national security legislation for Hong Kong targets a small number of acts that seriously jeopardize national security.James Griffiths, a journalist and author of The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet, said it was possible for China to impose a partial digital blackout on the territory. Hong Kong is ultimately a very small place. You could feasibly send internet companies cease and desist letters, and ask them to block certain websites, he said. China has eight of the ten most surveilled cities in the world, according to a study by Comparitech that compared the number of closed-circuit television cameras to 1,000 people. In places like the restive province of Xinjiang where over 1 million people of ethnic Uighur origin were at one time or another said to be held in detention camps, authorities have the ability to stop people without warrants and look at their phones. Charles Mok, a member of the Legislative Council who represents the information technology constituency, said he has asked Hong Kongs security services for information on whether methods currently used in mainland China are now being deployed in the territory. His efforts to find out how many surveillance cameras were in use met with different responses: One Hong Kong security official told him the government didnt maintain those statistics, while another government official said there were tens of thousands of cameras in public squares, borders, shopping malls and housing estates. Andy Chan, under secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, told Mok in a November letter that facial recognition technology might be used by law enforcement as part of an investigation through established procedures if it is legally feasible, but will not be excessive. Chan wrote that personal privacy would be respected during an investigation but declined to answer many of Moks questions lest it should compromise the polices technologies and capabilities to do their work. Protesters have fought back against additional surveillance measures. Theyve damaged dozens of so-called smart lampposts installed across the city that authorities say are meant to collect weather and traffic data; demonstrators fear they will soon also sport cameras and facial recognition technology. And before the coronavirus was even a whisper, protesters routinely wore face masks or brandished umbrellas to thwart street cameras from recording and possibly identifying them. (Protesters have said that once identified, they have been intimidated by authorities for attending rallies and even lost jobs). Theyve used LIHKG, which is often likened to Hong Kongs version of Reddit, to anonymously post opinions on current events, and to plan protests and online campaigns an online forum that could come under scrutiny from authorities once that legislation is in force. Some residents of Hong Kong arent waiting to see what happens with the national security legislation. After news of the pending rules broke, people in Hong Kong rushed to download virtual private network apps that are banned in the mainland. VPN software can allow users access to the internet that isnt censored by the government. NordVPN said it received 120 times more downloads on the day Beijing signaled plans to usher in the new national security legislation than on the day before. It was a tactic shared by protesters that dates back to the Arab Spring in 2011, when people in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere used VPN software to access foreign websites detailing the misdeeds of longstanding rulers, or publish content that would have earned them imprisonment at home, said Roderick Jones, president of cybersecurity firm Rubica Inc. Its not just about security. Its about information, he said. Theres very strong arguments for people using VPNs wherever they are. If youre an activist you should think that way, but any normal person should also just use a VPN. Activists like Joshua Wong said he is concerned that any new national security legislation will only exacerbate police overreach. He was arrested last summer on charges including organizing unauthorized assembly, and his mobile phone was among others seized and searched by law enforcement using technology that allowed them to crack his passcode. According to a police statement detailing the investigation, and Wongs application to Hong Kongs High Court to have the warrants declared unlawful, hundreds of messages on Telegram and WhatsApp were accessed and collected by police. Once the new laws are in place, Wong fears that participating in a protest could land him in front of Communist Party-approved judges in the mainland, instead of the independent judiciary Hong Kong is known for. They might target me, I might be arrested and prosecuted but not in Hong Kong, in China, he said in an interview. Never say never under the hard-line crackdown of Beijing. In an open letter Wednesday, Amnesty International urged the leadership committee of the NPC to drop the proposed legislation. Although China has revealed few concrete details about the national security law, everything we know about it so far suggests it will threaten the basic rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong, the organization wrote in a letter penned with more than 80 other rights groups. (Updates with Amnestys statement in final two paragraphs) 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. India on Wednesday delivered a strong message to China that the 'unprecedented' incident in the Galwan Valley will have a 'serious impact' on the bilateral relationship and held the 'pre-meditated' action by Chinese army directly responsible for the violence that left 20 Indian Army personnel dead. IMAGE: Congress members light candles in solidarity with 20 Indian army personnel martyred during a clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan valley, in Kolkata, on Wednesday. Photograph: Swapan Mahapatra/PTI Photo In a telephonic conversation, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar conveyed to his Chinese counterpart Wang Wi India's protest in the 'strongest terms' and said the Chinese side should reassess its actions and take corrective steps, the Ministry of External Affairs said. The Chinese foreign ministry, in a statement, said the two sides agreed to 'cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible', and maintain peace and tranquillity in the border area in accordance with the agreement reached so far between the two countries. Jaishankar also told Wang that the Chinese action reflected an intent to change the facts on ground in violation of all agreements between the two countries to not change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control. It was the first high-level engagement between the two sides after the standoff between the two armies began in eastern Ladakh on May 5 following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area. The clash in Galwan Valley on Monday night is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed. "The external affairs minister underlined that this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship. The need of the hour was for the Chinese side to reassess its actions and take corrective steps," the MEA said. It said the external affairs minister also conveyed to Wang that the two sides should scrupulously and sincerely implement the understanding that was reached by at a meeting of the senior commanders of the two armies on June 6. In the Lt Gen-level meeting, the two sides decided to disengage at Galwan Valley and other standoff points. In the talks on Wednesday, the MEA said, it was agreed that the overall situation would be handled in a responsible manner, and both sides would implement the disengagement understanding of June 6 sincerely. "Neither side would take any action to escalate matters and instead, ensure peace and tranquillity as per bilateral agreements and protocols," it added. In the conversation, Jaishankar also conveyed to Wang that while there was some progress on the situation, the Chinese side sought to erect a structure in Galwan valley on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control which became the source of dispute. "While this became a source of dispute, the Chinese side took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties," the MEA said giving details of the conversation. "The two sides should scrupulously and sincerely implement the understanding that was reached by the Senior Commanders on June 6," it said. "Troops of both sides should also abide by the bilateral agreements and protocols. They should strictly respect and observe the line of actual control and should not take any unilateral action to alter it," the MEA said. The two armies were engaged in a standoff in Galwan and several other areas of the eastern Ladakh since May 5 when the two sides clashed on the bank of the Pangong Tso. After the standoff began, the 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 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 patrols. 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. Prior to the clashes, 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. Today, many indigenous nations (people) whose sacred lands and rivers were occupied and taken away from them centuries ago lament that they have lost the culture, language and customs that should have gone to posterity if their ancestors were left alone. by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne Writing from Montreal Emer Vattel (1714-1767), popularly known as the father of international law, in his book The Law of Nations, says: The domain of the nation (nation in international law means people and not a country) extends to everything she possesses by a just title: it comprehends her ancient and original possessions and all her acquisitions made by means which are just in themselves, or admitted as such among nations. Illegal land occupation This mid eighteenth century statement does not accord with the act of someone marching into land occupied by another and taking over, which is illegal occupation. In the fifteenth century onwards until the twentieth century this was called colonialism where a country which had more power than a people who occupied a certain land forcibly took over that land and controlled it. In North America indigenous people, who had rightful ownership and possession of their land are relentlessly arguing against the arbitrary take over by Christopher Columbus in 1492 when his Spanish-based transatlantic maritime expedition stumbled upon America while on an expedition meant for elsewhere. The justification for this nation-grab was based on an arbitrary edict issued post facto in 1493 by Pope Alexander the Sixth in what was called a Papal Bull which granted to the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain all lands to the "west and south" of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde islands. This was followed by another decree by the Pope in 1494 which allocated the West to the Spanish and the East to the Portuguese by the demarcation of a median dividing the East and the west. This explains why most in South America speak Spanish and why the occupation in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese of Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then) and areas elsewhere such as Macau and Goa still bear remnants of a Portuguese occupation. This trend is explained by Professor Robert Miller et.al in their book Discovering Indigenous Lands. The authors posit that: North America, New Zealand, and Australia were colonised by England under an international legal principle that is known today as the doctrine of discovery. When Europeans set out to explore and exploit new lands in the fifteenth through to the twentieth centuries, they justified their sovereign and property claims over these territories and the Indigenous peoples with the discovery doctrine. They continue: This legal principle was justified by religious and ethnocentric ideas of European and Christian superiority over the other cultures, religions, and races of the world. The doctrine provided that newly-arrived Europeans automatically acquired property rights in the lands of Indigenous peoples and gained political and commercial rights over the inhabitants. The English colonial governments and colonists in North America, New Zealand, and Australia all utilised this doctrine, and still use it today to assert legal rights to Indigenous lands and to assert control over Indigenous peoples. The Doctrine of Discovery The doctrine of discovery was first introduced by Chief Justice Marshall of the United States Supreme Court in the 1823 case of Johnson v. McIntosh. Chief justice Marshall upheld the right of defendant McIntoshs right of ownership of land purchased from the federal government, on the ground that the federal government owned and controlled the land taken from indigenous people who had only a right of occupancy with no title to the land. The reasoning of the Chief Justice was the Discovery Doctrine, which, according to the Chief Justice, vested colonial powers with absolute ownership and control to newly discovered land. Simply put, title to the land vested with the person who discovered the land, irrespective of who occupied the land at the point of discovery. There were certain elements that went toward establishing the discovery doctrine. The first was that ownership of land vested on the person or power that first discovered the land. The second was that there should be actual occupancy of the land so discovered. The third was that such discovery should grant pre-emptive title to Europeans who came first. Fourthly, native title was granted to the discoverer to the exclusion of the natives who were already occupying the land at the point of the said discovery. The fifth was contiguity which determined the extent of the land taken over. The sixth, which is arguably the most atrocious and egregious, was conquest, implying the use of force. This was conditional upon a just war whatever that meant. The seventh was that Christianity and the spread thereof across the oceans was a justified reason for taking over foreign lands. The eighth was civilization, whatever that meant at the time of the Johnson decision, and the interpretation given to the word by Chief Justice Marshall. In the earlier 1831 decision of Cherokee Nation v. Georgia Justice Marshall opined that although the Cherokee, and other tribes, were distinct societies and separate politically, they were still under the control of the United States. It must also be mentioned that The United States Congress in 1787 had enacted the North West Ordinance which stated that there should be no land grab unless the land was taken in a just war. To conclude with Vattel, who wrote more than a century before the judicial decisions cited above: As everything included in the country belongs to the nation- and is none but the nation, or the person on whom she has devolved her right, is authorized to dispose of those things if she has left uncultivated and desert places in the country, no person whatever has a right to take possession of them without her consent. Though she does not actually make use of them, those places still belong to her. She has an interest in preserving them for future use, and is not accountable to any person for the manner in which she makes use of her property. Today, many indigenous nations (people) whose sacred lands and rivers were occupied and taken away from them centuries ago lament that they have lost the culture, language and customs that should have gone to posterity if their ancestors were left alone. In the modern context it must be mentioned that in 2016 the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2334 regarding the Israeli settlements in "Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem". The Resolutions states that Israel's settlement activity constitutes a "flagrant violation" of international law and has "no legal validity" and demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under existing international treaties. This is one of many such resolutions and hopefully, it will not be the last. California utility company Pacific Gas & Electric pleaded guilty Tuesday to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for causing the deadly and massive Camp Fire, which tore through communities in the northern part of the state in 2018 in what is considered the worst wildfire in modern state history. "Our equipment started that fire," PG&E Corp. CEO and President Bill Johnson said at a court hearing. "I wish there was some way to take back what happened, or to take away the impact, the pain that these people have suffered," Johnson said. "But I know that can't be done." Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems read the names of each victim as he went through each count of manslaughter. The company also pleaded guilty to unlawfully causing a fire. The utility agreed to plead guilty in March. At least 84 people died directly from the blaze that devastated the town of Paradise and destroyed large parts of Concow, Magalia and other areas of Butte County after it erupted on the morning of Nov. 8, 2018. The deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history claimed more than 18,800 structures, including 13,696 single-family homes and 528 businesses. Deems is expected to formally sentence PG&E on Thursday or Friday, though no one will be imprisoned for the companys crimes. PG&E has agreed to pay a maximum fine of $3.5 million in addition to $500,000 for the cost of the investigation. The company filed for bankruptcy in January 2019. Image: A home burns as the Camp Fire rages through Paradise, Calif. (Noah Berger / AP file) Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said at a news conference that he hoped Tuesday's guilty pleas send a message to other companies in the United States. "This was a historic moment, and hopefully a historic moment for corporate America to know that prosecutors wherever will not allow them to get away with recklessly endangering the lives of the citizens that they serve," Ramsey said. A PG&E high-tension tower was the origin of the blaze, Ramsey said, and he held up a badly worn hook as an example of neglect. Story continues On the day of the fire, a hook broke and sent a power line onto the structure where there was electric arcing that sent sparks onto brush and grass below. Ramsey said when line fell and arced onto the structure, between 5,000 and more than 10,000 degrees of heat was generated. Molten metal was thrown onto ground amid a historic drought and 40 mph winds. PG&E is approaching the end of a complicated bankruptcy case that it used to work out $25.5 billion in settlements to pay for the damages from the fire and others that torched wide swaths of Northern California and killed dozens of others in 2017, The Associated Press reported. The bankruptcy deals include $13.5 billion for wildfire victims. A federal judge is expected to issue a final decision on PG&Es plan by June 30. Johnson, the CEO, said in court Tuesday said that the utility is improving its inspection procedures and is hardening its energy system. He was hired around six months after the Camp Fire and plans to step down once the bankruptcy is approved. "PG&E will never forget the Camp Fire, and all it took from the region," Johnson said in court. "We remain deeply, deeply sorry for this event and the tragic consequences." Some who lost loved ones in the fire are expected to give victim impact statements on Wednesday. Even some of those who survived had their health ruined by the fire, the district attorney said. Ramsey, seeking to explain what he portrayed as a culture of negligence that included badly overlooking maintenance and training, said that in the investigation "it became clear that profit was a driving force." Ramsey said he was satisfied with the outcome, that PG&E pleaded guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. "Are we satisfied with the punishment? No," he said. "But we're getting the punishment for a corporation that is the maximum in the law that California allows." Chick-fil-As Dan Cathy asks white Christians to repent, fight for black Americans in wake of police killings Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Dan Cathy, conservative billionaire CEO of fast food chain Chick-fil-A, urged white Christians to take advantage of the special moment in American history now, to repent of racism and fight for their black brothers and sisters in the wake of ongoing protests over the police killings of Rayshard Brooks and other black Americans like George Floyd. Brooks was shot dead by an Atlanta police officer at a Wendys parking lot on Friday night just three weeks after the death of Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day. Floyds death set off global protests against racial injustice and police brutality. Brooks death also sparked fresh protests in Atlanta throughout the weekend including one on Saturday night in which protesters burned down the Wendys restaurant where he was killed. I think we have to recognize we are in a very special moment right now that the answer is not just for this to go off the radar screen, go back to talking about COVID-19, to talk about world peace, the environment, politics is going to be coming up here this fall. I believe if we miss this moment we would have failed in our generation, Cathy said during a robust conversation about race in America just two days later on Sunday at Passion City Church in Atlanta. In that conversation were Pastor Louie Giglio and rapper Lecrae Moore, popularly known as Lecrae, whom Cathy asked to share his personal experience with racial injustice. I dont need the media to tell me that this is a problem because its a reality that I live, Lecrae began. The first time a gun was pulled on me by a police officer I was 13 years old. And I was unarmed. I was pushed on the ground. I had a knee in my back but this was just my reality. At 14 years old, because I was caught skipping school I was put on a gang list. I didnt know what was going on. My mother had to go to the police station to explain to them, just because hes skipping school does not mean hes out participating in gang activity, Lecrae said. The rapper also recounted how not too long ago while driving to perform as a Christian artist at a concert, he was stopped by police who ripped his rental car apart. I was pulled over because I was in a rental car, I could assume there were all kinds of different reasons why but my car was strip searched and they tore all the seats out of my car and I told them Im not doing anything wrong and they still didnt believe me, Lecrae said. The car was strip searched and they said no dogs alerted, theres drugs here and they found nothing and then they left me to put all the seats back in the car and move on about my business, he recalled. He also talked about being pulled over three times by police officers in a section of Texas while driving across the country but never given a compelling reason for why he was stopped by officers. It left me wondering what in the world is going on. Why is this? Whats going on here? So I said all that to say, most personal experiences, and I can name countless others of all my friends, all my black friends of course, inform our relationship with law enforcement and help shape the way we are perceiving everything thats going on right now. Cathy responded, I can only imagine the indignity, the emotional indignity, I can only imagine it. The Chick-fil-A CEO said he believes that because white people have not asked enough about the experience of black people, their response has been one of apathy and indifference. Its somebody elses deal. This is about police shooting people, its much more than that, Cathy said. Its about the grind of that kind of indignity and other expressions of it. He explained that in recent weeks he had been having deep conversations with black staff members at Chick-fil-A and has learned about the subtleties of these indignities or injustice expressed even in a corporate setting. "Even in an environment like Chick-fil-A. Thats where, thats whats put so much edge about the situation. Weve got a real bad situation. We don't need to let this moment miss us. It has to hurt us. It has to hurt us. And we as Caucasians until were willing to just pick up the baton and fight for our black, African American brothers and sisters, which they are as one human race, were shameful, Cathy, whose company is headquartered just outside of Atlanta, said. Were just adding to it. Our silence is so huge at this time. We cannot be silent. Somebody has to fight and God has so blessed our city, but its shameful how we let things get so out of whack. Cathy further noted that before white people start taking action to help in the fight for racial justice, they must also go through a period of contrition. I think before we start to jump into action we need a period of contrition and a broken heart in the city of Atlanta and a sense of real identity. Not just criticize the people that are burning down that restaurant last night, Cathy said. We got a heart for the Rayshard Brooks and the others Weve got to have a sense of empathy of what led to this. This is the tip of the iceberg of incredible amounts of frustration and pain that the whole spectrum of the African American community, that somewhere or another that can quickly illustrate Lecrae, just as you did, that most of us white people are just simply out of sight out of mind. Were oblivious to it. We cannot let this moment pass. BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Osram Licht AG expects for the fiscal year 2020 a comparable revenue decline of -15 to -19 percent, an adjusted EBITDA margin of 3 to 6 percent. OSRAM had withdrawn the guidance for fiscal year 2020 in March 2020 due to the unpredictable impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company today said it expects a comparable revenue decline of up to -35 %, a negative adjusted EBITDA margin of up to -10% and a negative free cash flow in the mid double digit million range for the third-quarter. After a decline of business development in the third-quarter, the company now expects a slight demand recovery in the upcoming months. The weakness of the global automotive business as well as a demand weakness in OSRAM's core markets in Europe and the U.S. will burden the development also in the fourth-quarter. It is countered by currently increasing revenues in China and the early measures taken by the company which helped to moderate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on liquidity and financial results. The company noted that the measures will continue to be consistently implemented. The same applies to the started structural initiatives for the sustainable improvement of profitability by which gross savings of at least 300 million euros will be realized until the end of fiscal year 2022. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de New Delhi: India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be under the global arc lights like never before when she starts her much-awaited speech at the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly at 7:15 pm on Monday. In her second consecutive speech at the 193-nation body, Swaraj is likely to raise India's concerns after the recent Uri attack and about the the evidences revealing Pakistan's direct involvement in the terror attacks in India. Last weeks militant attack in Uri killed 18 soldiers and increased tensions between India and Pakistan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech in Kerala, vowed to diplomatically isolate Pakistan in world. Also read: PM Modi sets the agenda, Sushma to deliver diplomatic blow against Pak in UNGA The country is hoping that the isolation of Pakistan will begin with Sushma Swaraj's speech at the UNGA session in New York today. Known for her great oratory skills, the Indian foreign minister is all set to give a befitting reply to Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who blamed India for the unrest in Kashmir during his speech at the same podium last week. Let's have a look what are the top five things Sushma Swaraj should raise against Pakistan during her speech at the UNGA assembly- 1. Pakistan, an Ivy League of Terrorism India's strong Right of Reply to his speech called Pakistan home to the 'Ivy League of Terrorism' and a 'terrorist state' that commits 'war crimes' by using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. India should raise its concerns with all the evidences against Pakistan in almost all terror attacks in India. 2. Terrorism is the 'primary concern' for India as well as for nations across the world India should focus on the theme of terrorism which is today undoubtedly the single biggest challenge to international peace and security. The foreign minister is expected to tell the world how India is suffering from the menace of cross-border terrorism since decades. 3. The worst violation of human rights is terrorism India should talk about Pakistan's long-standing policy of sponsoring terrorism and its consequences spread well beyond the Indian-sub continent region. The killings of innocent people and the soldiers is the worst violations of human rights, and it must be stooped by those countries who are involved in backing the terror groups. 4. India will not forget Uri attack Prime Minister Naredra Modi said in a strong message to Pakistan over the weekend, "The sacrifice of our 18 soldiers will not be forgotten. We will ensure that the international community works to isolate you." It's time for India to respond strongly to let the whole world know that the country is not going to forget the deaths of its 18 brave soldiers. 5. Pakistan, a terrorist state Let's reiterate the fact from the UNGA podium once again that Pakistan is a terrorist state, which channelises billions of dollars, much of it diverted from international aid, to training, financing and supporting terror groups as militant proxies against it neighbours. India is the biggest victim of Pakistan-supported terrorism, and the country will not hesitate from taking storing actions against the neighbouring state. Also read: Who is India's NSA Ajit Doval and what is 'Doval Doctrine'? For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New York Attorney General Letitia James has now reportedly called on both Apple and Google to implement restrictions on contact tracing apps on their respective app marketplaces. The AG wrote to each company, expressing concerns that personal and sensitive health information might be collected by unknown developers behind the apps. Ms. James refers to those developers as untrusted sources. More directly, she points to apps created by third-parties. Thats because the Google and Apple co-developed exposure notification API isnt used in those cases. Not only does the API impose strict guidelines for the use of the data. The companies set it up around requirements that apps built on it can only be submitted by health authorities. So, third-party apps cant use the contact tracing API and arent. As a result, the tighter restrictions and protections built into that arent enforced on those third-party apps either. And thats resulted in a flood of apps claiming to participate in contact tracing. Thats in addition to malware being developed to take advantage of the associated global health situation. Advertisement The AG hopes to persuade the companies to enforce measures to require apps to be transparent in their operations. What does this mean for contact tracing app developers? Now, only three states in the US are presently set to use the framework set up by Google and Apple. Thats left the field wide open for third-party developers to enter into the market with solutions of their own. Arguably, thats going to increase concerns about the reach of contact tracing and its efficacy. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that not every user will be able to access the government-sponsored solution anyway. Users who dont have a new enough device, with BLE and other requirements, wont be able to use the apps. Coupled with genuine privacy concerns associated with the tracking anyway, the appearance of third-party apps only raises concerns. Advertisement So there are already problems, even without unorganized solutions being presented by third-parties. Attorney General Letitia James is taking matters a step further still. She is also asking that the two companies to impose restrictions regarding exactly whether any given third-party app is allowed to be submitted for contact tracing. Summarily, the AG wants the companies to only allow apps developed with public health authorities wherever possible. Developers of related apps that are allowed, meanwhile, should be required to divulge what data is being collected and how its used. Advertisement The move could force more US participation If the Attorney General is able to convince Google and Apple to implement restrictions, the result would be fewer apps on the market. Or at least fewer apps developed outside of the government-sponsored solution. That would arguably be good news for US consumers who may have otherwise been reliant on unvetted third-parties. While only three states are implementing the solution, Germany recently reversed course to build out its solution on Apple and Googles framework. So the solution does appear to be viable if more states can be brought on board in lieu of third-party options. Canada faces Ireland and Norway while Kenya and Djibouti compete for a coveted seat at the Council for 2021 and 2022. The UN General Assembly (GA) on Wednesday will elect five new non-permanent members of the Security Council for a 2021-2022 term, with battles under way for the Western and African seats. Kenya and Djibouti are facing off for an African Group seat, while in the Western European and Others Group three nations Canada, Ireland and Norway are vying for two seats among them. In the Asia-Pacific Group, India which has been trying unsuccessfully to win a permanent seat in an expanded Security Council is assured of a seat as it is running unopposed, as is Mexico in the Latin America and Caribbean Group. This year, Africa failed to continue its tradition of deciding a candidate among the member states, setting the stage for a showdown on Wednesday. Kenya enjoys the support of the African Union, but Djibouti says it should have the seat because Nairobi already sat on the Security Council twice. French-speaking Djibouti and English-speaking Kenya are both highlighting their roles in seeking peace in the Horn of Africa, as well as their contributions to UN peacekeeping missions. Kenya has pointed to its welcoming of refugees from Somalia and South Sudan, as well as support it has given the two countries fragile governments. Djibouti, in turn, notes its strategic location and unusual role as a defence base for diverse countries France, the United States, China and Japan as well as its contributions in Somalia. In the Western bloc, the competition is more customary. Canada is still stung by a defeat in 2010 during its last bid for the Security Council when the GA chose Portugal instead. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invested heavily in the latest Security Council effort, with a defeat potentially causing him political embarrassment at home. Celine Dion vs Bono Hoping to woo delegates, both Canada and Ireland have brought out their star power. Celine Dion sang in New York City to promote Canada at the UN, while U2 performed a concert in the Big Apple for Ireland. Campaigning for a UNSC seat involves endless lobbying, entertaining and worrying that the ambassador who just promised you a vote is a liar, tweeted Richard Gowan, an expert on the world body at the International Crisis Group. 200518202013621 Fearing fraud or manipulation, the GA will not vote electronically, even though the UN is mostly operating virtually until the end of July due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, each of the 193 delegations will have a chance to cast a secret ballot in the famous Assembly Hall at a designated time distributed throughout the day. Each new Security Council member needs to win two-thirds of the votes cast meaning 128 votes if all 193 nations vote. Delegates may have to vote multiple times to certify a winner. The Security Council has 10 non-permanent members in addition to the veto-wielding Big Five Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. The GA will also elect, on Wednesday, its president for the 2020-2021 session. Only one candidate is running, Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir. But Armenia, Cyprus and Greece all of which have historically tense relations with Turkey have opposed him, meaning he cannot win by consensus and member states will have to cast votes. Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Oko Boye, is revealing that Government is taking steps to turn two Hospitals in the Ashanti Region into Covid-19 health facilities. He says one is being considered at Bekwai. The Deputy Minister made this known in an interview with the media on the sidelines of donation ceremony at the Ridge hospital. The Chinese Community in Ghana donated some covid-19 relief items to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital at Ridge. According to the Minister, the Health Ministry is engaging the Ministry of Finance for financial clearance to set up the facilities. His comments come after doctors in the Ashanti Region complained that health facilities were being overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients with frontline health workers contracting the virus. 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 John Bolton, the former US national security adviser, and Donald Trump - Brendan Smialowski / AFP For more expert insight and exclusive analysis on the 2020 election written by our US team, sign up to our weekly US 2020 newsletter here for free. Donald Trump asked the Chinese president to help him win re-election by buying more from American farmers, John Bolton has reportedly claimed in his new book. The revelation is just one of a series of damaging allegations set to be published in Mr Bolton's book, according to multiple US media reports. Mr Bolton, who was Mr Trumps national security adviser until September, recounts a conversation between the US president and Xi Jinping in the book, according to The Washington Post. During the meeting, said to have taken place at the June 2019 Group of 20 summit in Japan, Mr Trump appeared to start talking about the Democrats, his political opponents. He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure hed win, Mr Bolton writes, according to the paper. John Bolton left Donald Trump's White House in September 2019 - Tom Brenner/Bloomberg He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trumps exact words but the governments pre-publication review process has decided otherwise. The president dismissed the claims made in the near 600-page book on Wednesday night, calling Mr Bolton a "washed up guy". Mr Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity he took issue with the book being released. "He broke the law. Very simple. I mean, as much as it's going to be broken." he said. "It's highly classified information and he did not have approval. "So nobody has been tough on China and nobody has been tough with Russia like I have. And that's that's in the record books. And it's not even close. The last administration did nothing on either." Story continues Following the interview, Mr Trump took to Twitter to continue sharing his thoughts on the book. "Wacko John Bolton's 'exceedingly tedious' (New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories," Trump wrote. "Said all good about me, in print, until the day I fired him. A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!" The claim that Mr Trump, already impeached once for attempting to get Ukraine to help him politically by investigating his Democrat rival Joe Biden, lobbied China to also help him is explosive. Mr Biden reacted: "If these accounts are true, its not only morally repugnant, its a violation of Donald Trumps sacred duty to the American people to protect Americas interests and defend our values." Trump 'did not know UK was nuclear power' It was one of a string of damaging allegations about the president made in the book, according to leaked copies seen by The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Mr Trump did not know Britain was a nuclear country and thought Finland might be part of Russia, Mr Bolton recounts, according to The New York Times. Mr Trump is also quoted saying invading Venezuela would be cool and the nation is really part of the United States", according to The Washington Post. Mr Bolton claims that Mr Trump threatened to "walk out of Nato and not defend those not paying enough unless defence spending increased in 2018 - coming closer to quitting the organisation than previously was known. Some more of the other allegations are linked to China. Mr Trump told President Xi that people wanted to remove the two-term constitutional limit for him, Mr Bolton claims according to The Wall Street Journal. Mr Trump allegedly nodded his head as the Chinese president said there were too many elections in America. President 'backed China's use of concentration camps' Mr Bolton also claims that Mr Trump told President Xi building concentration camps for Muslims "was exactly the right thing to do", contradicting US policy opposing the treatment of the Uighurs. Other allegations are linked to impeachment. Mr Bolton reportedly argues that the congressmen who led the impeachment investigation into Mr Trump should have looked more widely at his behaviour. Mr Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in December over the Ukraine scandal but the Senate voted not to remove him from office earlier this year. Mr Bolton reportedly writes that Mr Trump offered to halt criminal investigations to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked, naming cases involving firms in China and Turkey. The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldnt accept, Mr Bolton is quoted saying, adding that he expressed his concerns to the US attorney-general. John Bolton was Donald Trump's national security adviser until September - LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images Mr Bolton also claims that publicly loyal members of Mr Trumps administration have mocked the president behind his back. He recounts a story that allegedly took place during Mr Trumps 2018 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Mike Pompeo, the Trump loyalist and US secretary of state, is said to have slipped Mr Bolton a note referring to the president that said he is so full of s---. Neither Mr Pompeo, the White House or the Trump administration immediately issued a comment on any of the allegations. Inside Trump's scattershot foreign policy The leaks suggest the book, called The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, appears to be as embarrassing for the Trump administration as anticipated. Mr Bolton was Mr Trumps national security adviser between August 2018 and September 2019 before leaving the White House after a string of foreign policy disagreements. At one point in the book, according to The New York Times, Mr Bolton suggests the president struggles to think strategically about foreign policy. His thinking was like an archipelago of dots (like individual real estate deals), leaving the rest of us to discern - or create - policy, Mr Bolton is quoted saying. That had its pros and cons. The full context of Mr Boltons comment about not knowing Britain was a nuclear power is unclear. However it will alarm UK officials who boast of the closeness of the US-UK relationship. During Mr Trumps visits to Britain numerous UK government officials have attempted to subtly educate Mr Trump on the importance of the US-UK alliance, according to well-placed sources. Book hits top of bestseller lists The US Justice Department has sued Mr Bolton personally to try to stop publication, claiming the text contains classified information. On Wednesday, the department filed an emergency order seeking to halt release of the memoir, claiming that Bolton moved forward with the book's release before a national security review process had been completed, and "plans to disseminate classified information as he sees fit in order to profit from his book." It asked the court to take action to "prevent the harm to national security that will result if his manuscript is published to the world." However the book, due out on Tuesday, has already been shipped to warehouses and has jumped to the top of Amazons bestseller list amid the row. Mr Bolton, a foreign policy hawk who once served as George W Bushs ambassador to the United Nations, was always an unusual fit in the Trump inner circle. He remained staunchly supportive of his former bosss invasion of Iraq, unlike Mr Trump. It would be differences over Middle Eastern policy that would eventually force his exit from the Trump White House. Yet even so, across the 592 pages of his latest memoir - as reflected in reports on the books contents in the three US papers - Mr Bolton paints a remarkably damning portrait of the 45th US president. He second-guessed peoples motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government, Mr Bolton writes at one point. Trump 'tried to distract media from Ivanka emails row' Mr Trump at times comes across as self-interested. Mr Bolton claims Mr Trump released a major statement on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian journalist, to distract attention from his daughter Ivanka Trumps use of personal emails for government business. The issue was the same that Mr Trump had used to repeatedly attack Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee he defeated in the 2016 US election, and Ms Trumps actions had triggered headlines and accusations of hypocrisy. This will divert from Ivanka, Mr Trump is quoted in the book saying, according to The Washington Post. If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing. At other times he appears vulnerable to manipulation from foreign leaders, including in one moment of what Mr Bolton calls a brilliant display of Soviet-style propaganda. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who is against Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidos claim to the presidency, compared Mr Guaido to Hillary Clinton in a phone call to Mr Trump, according to Mr Bolton. John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump in February 2019 - AP Photo/Andrew Harnik It appeared to be an attempt to use Mr Trumps dislike of Ms Clinton to turn the US president against Mr Guaido, whose claim America publicly supports. Mr Bolton writes that Mr Putin largely persuaded Trump, though the US has continued to support Mr Guaido and lobby for his accession to the presidency. President 'made gift of Elton John CD for Kim a top priority' There were also points when aides dismayed at Mr Trumps approach to foreign policy. According to The Washington Post, Mr Bolton was bemused by Mr Trumps repeated attempts to get the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a particular gift. The present was an autographed copy of Elton Johns Rocket Man on CD. The tracks title is the same as the nickname Mr Trump gave the dictator, picked due to his focus on nuclear weapons. Mr Bolton said getting the CD to Kim was a high priority for months. Throughout the book there are also insights into senior figures in the Trump inner circle, some of whom bemoan the president or are angered with the maneuverings of rival players. What if we have a real crisis like 9/11 with the way he makes decisions? John Kelly, then Mr Trumps chief of staff, asked at one point, according to Mr Bolton. At another point Mr Kelly is quoted saying: You cant imagine how desperate I am to get out of here. What are Bolton's motives? Mr Trumps allies have questioned Mr Boltons motives, dubbing him Book Deal Bolton and suggesting he has hammed up the allegations to maximise sales. Some Democrats are also seething that Mr Bolton refused to speak in public during the Trump impeachment inquiry despite knowing the information he has now revealed. Wacko John Boltons exceedingly tedious(New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories. Said all good about me, in print, until the day I fired him. A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020 Whether the US Justice Department will push ahead with attempting to stop the books publication on Tuesday, despite some of its contents being widely known, is to be seen. The LA Times reported on Wednesday that federal prosecutors are weighing up whether to criminally charge Mr Bolton for disclosing classified information. Mr Trump said earlier this week relating to the book that any conversation with him while president was confidential. He also floated the idea of criminal repercussions for Mr Bolton. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 15:30:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CANBERRA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has introduced mandatory minimum sentences for convicted child sex offenders. The opposition Labor Party on Tuesday evening joined forces with the governing coalition to pass the laws through the Senate. The laws cover offences that fall out of the jurisdiction of state and territory governments such as those committed overseas. It increases the maximum penalty for having sex with a child under the age of 16 outside of Australia to 25 years imprisonment from 20 years and introduces a minimum penalty of six years. Anyone convicted of "sexting" with a person under the age of 16 will face a minimum penalty of five years in jail and a maximum of 20 years. "The community has an expectation that punishment should reflect the seriousness of the offence, and there are no more serious offences than the type of things this legislation deals with," Attorney-General Christian Porter was quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as saying. The Law Council, the peak national representative body of the Australian legal profession, argued it set a dangerous precedent. "Mandatory minimum sentences are abhorrent to the whole notion of sentencing where judicial discretion is essential and can result in perverse jury decisions of not guilty for low-end offending where juries think the sentencing outcomes will be unfair because of the mandatory minimum," Law Council President Pauline Wright said. "The Law Council believes that mandatory sentencing erodes an important incentive to plead guilty, which will lead to more contested trials." Enditem Passengers are about to board flight H9092 of Bamboo Airways to return to Vietnam from Kuwait, June 16, 2020. Photo by VTV. A man repatriated from Kuwait on Tuesday has raised Vietnams active Covid-19 cases to 10, the Health Ministry confirmed Wednesday morning. "Patient 335," 24, from the northern province of Thai Nguyen, has been living and working in the Middle Eastern country for two years. He returned to Vietnam on repatriation flight QH9092 of Bamboo Airways that landed in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday before being sent to a quarantine camp. After testing Covid-19 positive, he has been transferred to the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases for treatment. Of Vietnam's total Covid-19 tally of 335, 195 are overseas returnees, all quarantined upon arrival. Vietnam has organized several special flights in the last few months to repatriate thousands of citizens wanting to return home to avoid facing the Covid-19 pandemic elsewhere. On Monday and Tuesday, 678 Vietnamese were brought home on three flights from Canada, Africa and the Middle East. Passengers paid their own fares. Saturday morning marks day 62 that Vietnam has gone without community transmission of the novel coronavirus. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected 213 countries and territories, with more than 445,000 deaths reported. A wealthy writer has been slammed on Twitter after detailing her 'luxury lockdown' life in posh South Kensington in a column for the Financial Times. Shruti Advani, a London-based freelance writer on private banking, told how she began the pandemic by tripling her Freddie's Flowers order - 'the obvious place to start' - and had no qualms about paying up to 95 an hour for a tutor for her children, despite having 'two finance degrees'. Admitting she is 'blessed with an inheritance as well as a venture-capitalist husband', mother-of-two Shruti discussed the difficulties of sourcing supplies due to the limited number of Ocado deliveries and Harrods shutting up its food hall, and told how she invested in designer silk pyjamas to brighten up her Zoom calls. Baffled readers took to Twitter in their droves, with many convinced Shruti's article must be a work of satire or parody. Shruti Advani, a freelance writer on private banking, has been slammed on Twitter after detailing her 'luxury lockdown' life in posh South Kensington in a column for the Financial Times Shruti began by explaining how she 'redefined' her household - 'giving up' one of their spare rooms to accommodate their nanny and allocating the other to a friend who needed to isolate from her surgeon husband. She explained: 'Conscious of my responsibility towards the additional souls on board, I took stock of what resources I could call on. Trebling our usual order from the Freddie's Flowers delivery service was the obvious place to start.' Shruti admitted it now puzzles her why she felt so strongly that this luxury was essential, but takes comfort in knowing that people who have spent time in her household have always been surrounded by fresh flowers. She also outlined her battle to feed her family following the whittling down of Ocado deliveries. 'The food halls at Harrods, which had served customers throughout the second world war, shuttered early in the current crisis, we had to find our sustenance elsewhere,' she wrote. Shruti began by explaining how she 'redefined' her household - 'giving up' one of their spare rooms to accommodate their nanny and allocating the other to a friend who needed to isolate from her surgeon husband 'Fortuitously, the Chelsea gym that was my regular haunt BC (before Covid) was loath to leave its members vulnerable to the dangers of what has since been identified as 'coronacarbs'. We can have little extras such as protein shakes, artisanal coffees and snacks delivered to our doorsteps.' Relieved Shruti told how life began to look 'a bit more normal' when the 'many bijou boulangeries and epiceries' that dot her neighbourhood reopened. However, she was still faced by the 'twin terrors' of homeschooling her children and working from home. She explained how, fairly early on, she felt 'justified' in bringing in reinforcements. 'Despite my two degrees in finance, I have been called out on more than one occasion by my seven-year-old son for getting Year Two maths wrong,' Shruti admitted. 'This is not good for my self-esteem, nor does it bode well for the boy's continued wellbeing. After much shouting, we found relief in online tutoring. Relieved Shruti told how life began to look 'a bit more normal' when the 'many bijou boulangeries and epiceries' that dot her neighbourhood reopened 'At 65-95 an hour depending on whether it is for chess or maths, a tutor costs half as much as the psychiatrist we may have needed otherwise.' Being armed with the advantages of wealth, Shruti explained that her wardrobe is 'split in a rather self-contradictory manner' between Chanel tweed blazers, which she wears to interviews, and athleisure, which she dons while 'toiling' in front of a computer. Concerned neither fit the working from home brief, she consulted a personal shopper and bought silk pyjamas by Olivia von Halle - roughly 420 a set - in a range of colours to make even the dullest Zoom meeting 'come alive'. Admitting she was 'insulated' from many of the pandemic's challenges, Shruti said the reality of life and death was a 'great leveller' and praised the people that keep the country afloat. She then singled out her mother's housekeeper Sanjay, 30, who chose to stay in Delhi to cook and clean for her rather than return to his village, as well as Peter the postman and the police in Hyde Park. Shruti's article left readers divided, with many highly bemused by her privileged tale and others incensed by it. Shruti's article left readers divided, with many highly bemused by her privileged tale and others incensed by it One branded it an 'absolute masterpiece' tweeting: 'This is, by some considerable distance, the best piece I've read about the virus in the last four months.' Another commented: 'I really hope my wealth will also reach such heights that, during a global pandemic, my largest concern will be obtaining advice from a personal shopper and sourcing silk PJs for Zoom calls.' And one joked: 'The "trebling our usual order from the Freddie's Flowers" line absolutely killed me.' Others expressed their outrage, with one tweeting: 'You, far from sounding "brilliant and posh", sound like a tacky show-off. And this is particularly unpleasant right now, when people are facing death in the streets because of the police, and death from the virus. Your article is unbelievably nauseating.' Another wrote: 'Made me vom. The food hall at Harrods closed early... how awful for her.' And another simply asked: 'Is this parody?' By PTI UNITED NATIONS: India was elected as non-permanent member of the powerful UN Security Council for a two-year term on Wednesday, winning 184 votes in the 193-member General Assembly. Along with India, Ireland, Mexico and Norway also won the Security Council elections held Wednesday. There were 192 Member States present for voting and the 2/3 required majority was 128. India garnered 184 votes. Canada lost the elections. "Member States elect India to the non-permanent seat of the Security Council for the term 2021-22 with overwhelming support. India gets 184 out of the 192 valid votes polled," India's Permanent Mission to the UN tweeted. Member States elect India to the non-permanent seat of the Security Council for the term 2021-22 with overwhelming support. India gets 184 out of the 192 valid votes polled. pic.twitter.com/Vd43CN41cY India at UN, NY (@IndiaUNNewYork) June 17, 2020 India will sit in the most powerful UN organ, for two years beginning on January 1, along with the five permanent members China, France, Russia, UK and the US as well as non-permanent members Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam. India was a candidate for a non-permanent seat from the Asia-Pacific category for the 2021-22 term. Its victory was a given since it was the sole candidate vying for the lone seat from the grouping. New Delhi's candidature was unanimously endorsed by the 55-member Asia-Pacific grouping, including China and Pakistan, in June last year. Previously, India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council for the years 1950-1951, 1967-1968, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1984-1985, 1991-1992 and most recently in 2011-2012. The UN General Assembly on Wednesday conducted elections for President of the 75th session of the Assembly, five non-permanent members of the Security Council and members of the Economic and Social Council under special voting arrangements put in place here due to COVID-19 related restrictions. Turkish diplomat and politician Volkan Bozkir was elected as President of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly. He was the endorsed candidate from among the Western European and other States. The elections began at 9am Wednesday and unlike previous years, when the sprawling General Assembly hall would be packed with UN envoys, diplomats and staff during the ballot, this year presence in the UNGA hall was sparse due to COVID-19 related restrictions. UN diplomats, staff and other personnel arrived at the General Assembly hall wearing masks and immediately left the venue after casting their ballots. In adherence to social distancing guidelines due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 193 UN Member States were allotted different time slots to cast their votes in the General Assembly Hall for the crucial elections. Eight time slots were allocated to Member States to cast their ballots starting at 9 AM, in adherence to social distancing guidelines. The voting continued well in the afternoon, with an additional 30 minute time slot for voters who were unable to visit the GA hall during the specific time slot communicated to them. The time slot for India to cast its ballot was 11:30 am-12 pm. President of the UN General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande oversaw the proceedings in the General Assembly Hall and the tellers also observed the whole process. For the two vacant seats from among the African and Asia-Pacific States, Djibouti, India and Kenya were the three candidates. For the one vacant seat from among the Latin American and Caribbean States, one endorsed candidate was Mexico. For the two vacant seats from among the Western European and other States, Canada, Ireland and Norway were the three candidates. The 15-member Security Council has five permanent members - the US, the UK, France, Russia and China - and 10 non-permanent. Each year the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members for a two-year term. The 10 non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis as follows: five for African and Asian States; one for Eastern European States; two for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two for Western European and other States. To be elected to the Council, candidate countries need a two-thirds majority of ballots of Member States that are present and voting in the Assembly. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti had said that India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world its ethos of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', as he underscoring that the United Nations as well as multilateralism need to change to reflect contemporary realities and remain credible as the world organization marks its 75th anniversary this year. "India's journey with the United Nations is quite a remarkable one. As a founding member of the United Nations, India's contribution to implementing the goals of the United Nations Charter and to the evolution of UN specialised agencies and programmes has been substantial. In many ways, quite extraordinary," Tirumurti had said in a video message ahead of the elections. "I'm confident that at a time when we are poised to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and later the 75th anniversary of India's independence in 2022, India's presence in the Security Council will help bring to the world our ethos that the world is one family - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam," he had said. India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member of the Council, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st Century. GENEVA, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Hinduja Bank (Switzerland) Ltd has announced the nomination of Mr. Karam Hinduja as the new Chief Executive Officer of the bank. The Board thanks outgoing CEO Mr. Gilbert Pfaeffli for four years of loyal and valued service. An experienced private banker, asset manager and entrepreneur, Hinduja previously served on the Board of Hinduja Bank and its Dubai-based subsidiary. As the founder of diversified media company Timeless Media and impact investment brand Karma, Hinduja has also managed the portfolio of the family branch of entrepreneur Srichand "SP" Hinduja. Mr. Hinduja brings an innovative vision and strategy for the bank. His deep understanding of the next generation of private banking clients combined with a background in technology and impact investing, brings a new approach to the traditional private banking sector. Under Mr. Hinduja's leadership, HBS will continue to build upon its trusted reputation of more than 41 years as Switzerland's first Indian-owned private bank. Mr Karam Hinduja, CEO of Hinduja Bank, said: "We intend to not just build a better bank, but to redefine what private banking stands for. Today's largest market opportunities are found when purposes are aligned. Faithful to the values of our founder, my grandfather S.P. Hinduja, our mission is a humanistic one, one that is focused on fueling sustainable, global economic and social development while generating long-term value for our clients through innovative strategies that leverage our multi-sector expertise, entrepreneurial roots and our purpose-driven DNA." In the brief time since Mr Hinduja took over the executive leadership, Hinduja Bank has already expanded upon its private banking services by launching new divisions that include Private Capital and Strategic Growth Advisory, as well as broader Asset Management and Investment Advisory offerings that include fintech, clean energy and healthcare strategies. Mr. Hinduja is also the Founder and CEO of Timeless Media and its subsidiary Karma, a media platform aimed at developing and distributing content for ESG and impact-driven investors and entrepreneurs. He holds a degree from Columbia University in New York, NY. About Hinduja Bank Hinduja Bank (Switzerland) Ltd offers innovative private banking and global investment services, providing our clients with a vital bridge between East and West. Headquartered in Switzerland with offices in Geneva, Zurich, and Lugano as well as a strong presence in Dubai, London and India, we combine the best of the Swiss financial tradition with local expertise and international access to the growth markets of South Asia and the Middle East. With a pedigree stretching back to 1978, the Bank was established in 1994 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Srichand "SP" Hinduja. SOURCE Hinduja Bank Duapa Africa, a high-impact and high-growth Pan African business and development firm dedicated to the socio-economic transformation of Africa through innovative solutions has impacted several lives with its six weeks virtual initiative dubbed Beyond Coronavirus. The virtual initiative comprising webinars, community engagements, discussions, and experience sharing engaged various high profile experts, policy makers, business people and practitioners across the world. It was to share solutions that would help the world think and look beyond the negative impact of the pandemic. Mr Musah Frimpong, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Duapa Africa said as millions of people across the world remained under lockdown due to the disturbing effects of the novel coronavirus, they saw an opportunity to send strong messages of positivity, solidarity and hope to people across the world especially across Africa and its Diaspora. He said, they believed there was life beyond coronavirus that, we could all live, and more than just being afraid of the virus, spreading fake news and social distancing. We could find innovative ways to help fight the pandemic and prepare ourselves to rebuild for ourselves and future generations a better Africa and world when we defeat the pandemic. He said the project featured Experts and professionals from across the world including; countries like Kenya, Egypt, Chad, Jamaica, The Commonwealth of Dominica, China, Ghana, Togo, Brunei Darussalam, Uganda, Washington DC, South Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tunisia, among others. Mr Frimpong noted that through online platforms like Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, YouTube, Wechat and LinkedIn among others, the project has been able to directly reach and impact over 200,000 people globally (Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas and Australia). He said some topical issues discussed include; The Changing World of Work, Digital Marketing to help people and businesses, Talent and Human Capital Development in Africa. A Global Young Change makers session was also held, where the young leaders discussed several solutions on how COVID-19 could be addressed through global solidarity and cooperation. According to Mr Frimpong, the project also dedicated the whole month of May (Africa Month) to discussing African development issues and solutions, adding that there were also sessions on Africas decade (2020-2030) socio-economic transformation and how to seize it as Africans and African Integration. He said the last episode of the first phase of the project focused on how the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could fuel the creation of more unicorns (a company worth billion dollars) across Africa and the role of the private sector in creating more unicorns across Africa, and boosting trade, investments and job and wealth creation across Africa inspired by the AfCFTA. Duapa Africa is one of the organizations that implemented virtual engagements during the early days of the unprecedented global lockdown due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. Founded by young Africans from Ghana, Cameroon, Mali and Kenya during their studies in China, Duapa Africa, headquartered in Accra, Ghana and with branch office in Beijing, China has over the past two years been facilitating human capital development. It also focused on employment creation, trade and investment, wealth creation and other social impact projects that benefitted and impacted thousands across the world. Through their Accra office, Duapa Africa seeks to leverage on the African Continental Free Trade Area to become a true bridge for connecting Africa to itself and the rest of the world to create lasting positive changes across Africa. The company has won several recognitions and awards for their great works and impact in the last two years. Duapa Africa is one of the organizations that implemented virtual engagements during the early days of global lockdown due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. 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 case of anonymous criminal intimidation and online stalking was registered against holders of anonymous social media accounts for spreading images of a woman from the family of six murder accused who allegedly killed a 20-year old for falling in love with a girl from their family. The photos of the girl were shared on social media on June 9 and June 13, according to a statement issued by Vinayak Dhakane, deputy commissioner of police, Zone-2, Pimpri-Chinchwad police. Vulgar texts were spread with her images on multiple social media platforms, mainly TikTok, said senior police inspector Vivek Mugalikar who will be investigating the case. A case under Section 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), 509 (word, gesture, or an act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage modesty of a woman), 354(d) (stalking) of Indian Penal Code along with Sections 67(a) of the Information Technology Act was registered at the Sangvi police station. On June 8, a case was registered against six men under Section 302 (murder), 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code along with Sections 3(1)(R)(S); 3(2)(VA); 3(2)(V), 6 of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The deceased man was identified as Viraj Jagtap, 20, a resident of Pimple Saudagar, Pimpri-Chinchwad. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON TORONTO, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM; OTCQX: TPRFF) announced today that it produced a total of 18,129 ounces of gold in May 2020, about 98% of gold production in May last year. This brings the total gold production for the first five months of 2020 to 86,978 ounces compared with 99,601 ounces in the first five months of 2019, reflecting the impact of COVID-19 on April 2020s production. The Company expects to update its 2020 annual production guidance when it reports its mid-year financial results in August. Lombardo Paredes, Chief Executive Officer of Gran Colombia, commenting on the Companys latest production results, said, We are continuing to operate at both Segovia and Marmato as the COVID-19 national quarantine in Colombia lingers on. In May, we benefitted from a full month of near normal operations at Segovia and expect the same for June. At Marmato, access to workers remained limited in May and we produced about half of what we normally would have expected for the month. The outlook appears to be improving in June as the local municipalities have recently allowed more workers to return to the mine. As such, we expect Junes production could reach about 75% of normal. The Segovia Operations returned to more normal levels in May 2020 with gold production of 16,915 ounces compared with 16,363 ounces in May last year. This brings Segovias total gold production for the first five months of 2020 to 78,661 ounces compared with 89,120 ounces in the first five months last year. Gran Colombia processed an average of 1,325 tonnes per day (tpd) in May 2020 at Segovia, up from 1,029 tpd in April 2020 which had been adversely impacted by the implementation of the national quarantine in Colombia in response to COVID-19. The primary challenge during the national quarantine has centered around restrictions on people logistics at the mine site. Since mid-April, actions taken by the Company have returned operations to about 95% of normal. In May 2020, head grades improved to 14.2 g/t compared with 12.8 g/t in April, bringing the average head grade for the first five months of 2020 to 14.4 g/t compared with 18.1 g/t in the first five months last year. The Company expects Junes production at Segovia will be in the same range as May. Story continues At Caldas Gold Corp.s Marmato mine, operations continued to be adversely impacted in May 2020 by restrictions on the movement of people between communities during the national quarantine that have limited the availability of workers at the mine since late March. Similar to last month, the Company processed an average of 554 tpd in May with an average head grade of 2.5 g/t resulting in gold production of 1,214 ounces for the month. The Marmato mine produced 2,165 ounces of gold in May last year. This brings total gold production for the first five months of 2020 to 8,317 ounces compared with 10,481 ounces in the first five months of 2019. By the second week of June, actions taken by Caldas Gold had increased its complement of workers at the mine and it currently expects that its production for the month of June will improve to approximately 2,000 ounces of gold. About Gran Colombia Gold Corp. Gran Colombia is a Canadian-based mid-tier gold producer with its primary focus in Colombia where it is currently the largest underground gold and silver producer with several mines in operation at its high-grade Segovia Operations. Gran Colombia owns approximately 74% of Caldas Gold Corp., a Canadian mining company currently advancing a prefeasibility study for a major expansion and modernization of its underground mining operations at its Marmato Project in Colombia. Gran Colombias project pipeline includes its Zancudo Project in Colombia together with an approximately 21% equity interest in Gold X Mining Corp. (GLDX.V) (Guyana Toroparu) and an approximately 20% equity interest in Western Atlas Resources Inc. (Western Atlas) (WA.V) (Nunavut Meadowbank). Additional information on Gran Colombia can be found on its website at www.grancolombiagold.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to production guidance and anticipated business plans or strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Gran Colombia to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated as of March 30, 2020 which is available for view on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and Gran Colombia disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty President Donald Trump appealed to Chinas President Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 election by increasing the Chinese governments agricultural purchases from American farmers, former National Security Adviser John Bolton writes in his bombshell forthcoming memoir. During a one-on-one meeting at the G20 Summit in 2019, Trump stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure hed win, Bolton writes, according to an excerpt in the Wall Street Journal. It was one of several disturbing instances Bolton outlines of Trump appealing to foreign dictators for his own gainsa pattern of behavior that he says went far beyond the Ukraine aid saga. Trump was willing to kill off criminal probes against Turkish and Chinese companies to in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked, Bolton writes, alleging that Trump was willing to intervene in probes against Turkeys Halkbank and Chinas ZTE to curry favor with either countrys leaders. The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldnt accept, Bolton writes. Several media outlets got their hands on an advanced copy of Boltons book, The Room Where It Happened, on Wednesday, ahead of its release next weekand despite the Department of Justices attempts to halt its publication. In it, Bolton paints a picture of his former boss as an idiot who thought Finland was part of Russia, a megalomaniac who governs based on gut instinct, and the butt of jokes from even his most trusted aides. He joked about executing American journalists, delivered an autographed copy of Elton Johns Rocket Man to Kim Jong Un and thought invading Venezuela would be cool, Bolton writes. (Guy Snodgrass, a former speechwriter for former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, later took to Twitter to say he can confirm that Trump has made such remarks about journalists. This sentiment expressed again during Trump's meeting with Mattis in the Pentagon, he said.) Story continues He is so full of shit Bolton has no qualms about throwing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo under the bus in the 592-page book. He writes that, during Trumps 2018 meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Pompeo slipped Bolton a note that referred to Trump. It said, He is so full of shit. Bolton says that he and Pompeo also shared their disdain for the president after Trump had a phone call with South Koreas president in the lead up to the 2018 summit with Kim. Pompeo told Bolton he was having a cardiac arrest after listening in on the call. Bolton sympathized with Pompeo, describing it as a near death experience. In another instance, Bolton writes that Trump once told him that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had used a sexist obscenity to describe Nikki Haley, then the ambassador to the United Nations. John Bolton listens during a meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in August, 2019. Alex Wong/Getty Bolton doubted it was true but found it yet another example of Trump trying to pit staff against each other. In fact, Haley was so highly regarded inside the White House that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump floated the idea of her replacing Vice President Mike Pence in the 2020 ticket. Bolton said it would be a mistake, and Trump seemed to agree. Other staff routinely flirted with quitting in disgust. What if we have a real crisis like 9/11 with the way he makes decisions? former Chief of Staff John Kelly said as he contemplated resigning one day. He second-guessed peoples motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government, Bolton writes, adding that Trump was singularly obsessed with winning a second term. Support for internment camps and foreign interference Some of the most damning revelations in the book, however, are Boltons accusations of Trumps willingness to interfere in criminal investigations and use foreign powers to achieve his domestic aims. In turn, foreign leaders appeared happy to appease the president as a means of manipulation. During the same G20 meeting that he asked for Xis help to win the election, Trump expressed support for the Chinese governments use of internment camps for 1 million Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, the book says. They have repeatedly been exposed as extraordinarily inhumane to Chinas ethnic minority. According to our interpreter, Bolton writes, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. Trump Stops Saying Wuhan Virus After Xi Strokes His Ego When Xi said he wanted to work with Trump for another six years, Trump replied that people thought the two-term constitutional limit on presidents should be removed. Xi replied that the U.S. had too many elections, and he didnt want Trump to lose. Trump nodded approvingly, Bolton wrote. In another example of foreign manipulation during a 2019 phone call, Russian President Vladimir Putin compared Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It was, Bolton writes, part of a brilliant display of Soviet style propaganda aimed at boosting support for Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. It largely persuaded Trump, he adds. Bolton says he was so alarmed by Trumps willingness to do favors for dictators like Turkish strongman Recip Tayyip Erdogan and Xi that he discussed them with Attorney General William Barr. For example, Trump told Erdogan that Halkbanks legal issuesrelated to violating the administrations sanctions on Iranwould disappear once the Obama people in the Southern District of New York were replaced by his people, Bolton writes. Bolton claims that Barr was also worried about Trumps behaviorbut its not clear what resulted from their conversation. Deeply disturbing Ukraine allegations Democrats and Republicans have been united in their criticism of Bolton, who refused to testify before the House during impeachment proceedings but instead took a $2 million book contract. House impeachment manager Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said on Wednesday that Bolton ran and hid when it truly mattered. It is curious to me that he now has something to say when he could have stepped forward as a patriot when the stakes were high and the president was on trial, he said. He ran and hid in the other direction. Heres How John Boltons Lawyer Just Threw Him Under the Bus In his book, Bolton confirms that Trump did explicitly link security aid for Ukraine to investigations involving Biden and Hillary Clinton. Trump said on August 20 that he wasnt in favor of sending them anything until all the Russia-investigation materials related to Clinton and Biden had been turned over, Bolton writes, adding that Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper tried eight to 10 times to get Trump to release the aid. He calls Trumps decision to hold aid deeply disturbing but stops short of supporting impeachment. Instead, he says Democrats badly bungled the impeachment proceedings. I thought the whole affair was bad policy, questionable legally and unacceptable as presidential behavior, he writes. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) tweeted on Wednesday that Boltons staff showed real courage by testifying during impeachment hearings. When Bolton was asked, he refused, and said hed sue if subpoenaed, Schiff said in a statement. Instead, he saved it for a book. Bolton may be an author, but hes no patriot. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was one of the few Democratic lawmakers to respond to the substance of Boltons allegations on Wednesday. In a letter to Alan Garten, chief legal officer at the Trump Organization, Menenedez said that Boltons description of Trumps talks with Xi raises new questions about other ways in which President Trump benefits personally, and financially, from the Chinese government, including through ongoing business relationships. Specifically, Menendez asked Garten to provide more details about the Trump Organizations leasing of office space in Trump Tower to a bank controlled by the Chinese government. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), said in a statement Wednesday that, if accurate, Boltons account represents another extraordinary abuse of American foreign policy and national security by Trump. He said he would be consulting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other chairs about next steps. During their impeachment inquiry, Democrats called Bolton to testify but never issued a subpoena. Mopping up for Jared and Ivanka Bolton writes of his disdain for Kushner and Ivanka Trumps constant efforts to insert themselves in foreign policy and domestic affairs. When Bolton learned that Kushner was going to be calling the finance minister of Turkey, he briefed Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on this new son-in-law channel and they both exploded. To Pompeo, it was yet another example of Kushners meddling in international negotiations, as he did with the never quite ready Middle East peace plan. In late 2018, Trump came under fire for writing a bizarre defense of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. But, according to Bolton, the main goal of the exclamation point-laden statement was to draw attention away from Ivanka using her personal email for government business. This will divert from Ivanka, Trump said, according to the book. If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing. Damning books on Trump are hardly rare, but Boltons book is the first to be written by such a high-ranking administration official, and a lifelong conservative, who was present for some of the most consequential foreign policy decisions. Bolton, a vocal Russia and North Korea hawk, became Trumps third national security adviser in 2018 and had aims of withdrawing the U.S. from several international agreements, like the Iran nuclear deal. He resigned late September after clashing with Trump over several foreign policy directives. Naturally, Trump claimed he fired him. 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. Baird said some of the deputies were hit with flying debris, and one of the Oswego officers in the Kendall County SWAT team got hit in the shoulder with a brick. President Donald Trump referred to his former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley as a 'c***' even as Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump wanted her on the 2020 presidential ticket instead of Mike Pence, a new book claims. John Bolton, the president's former National Security Adviser, reveals the details in his forthcoming book 'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,' a copy of which was obtained by DailyMail.com amid a clash over its publication. Bolton recalled a time in the Oval Office with the president, who complained about how much he disliked his then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. President Donald Trump referred to his former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley as a 'c***' John Bolton claims in his new memoir Bolton details Nikki Haley's departure from the Trump administration - she's seen above in October 2018 where she announced she would step down as UN Ambassador by year's end Bolton claims Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump wanted Nikki Haley on the 2020 presidential ticket instead of Mike Pence During that conversation, Bolton claims Trump told him about a dinner the president had with Haley and Tillerson, where Trump alleged it was Tillerson that called her a 'c***.' The president claimed Tillerson said to Haley: 'You're nothing but a c***, and don't ever forget it.' Bolton admitted in his memoir that he wondered if Tillerson 'actually said it,' noting that in most administrations, such a remark would have gotten a person fired. 'And if he hadn't, why did Trump tell me he had?,' Bolton wrote. Bolton became Trump's national security adviser in April 2018 and left in September 2019. Trump claims he fired him but Bolton claims he left over policy differences on several issues, including Iraq, Afghanistan and the Ukraine. The Justice Department is suing John Bolton to stop publication of his memoir His book is the subject of an on-going legal battle. The Justice Department sued him to stop its publication, claiming it has classified information. Bolton's lawyer says it does not and noted it went through the government review process required by someone who served in Bolton's position. Haley, who is Indian-American, became a rising star in the Republican Party when she was elected governor of South Carolina in 2010. Trump named her as his pick to represent the United States to the UN shortly after he won the 2016 election. She was quickly and easily confirmed by the Senate, 96-4, but left the job on December 31, 2018. She outlasted Tillerson however, whom Trump fired in March 2018. Haley announced - to much surprise and fanfare - in October 2018 she would leave her plum post at the end of the year, a pronouncement made in pomp in circumstance in an Oval Office meeting. At that time, Haley lavished praise on Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president's daughter and son-in-law, who serves as advisers in the West Wing and are a power center in the Trump administration. 'I can't say enough good things about Jared and Ivanka,' Haley said at the time of the couple, who were considered her biggest allies in the White House. 'Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands,' Haley gushed, citing his work on the renegotiating NAFTA and on various trade deals. 'Ivanka has just been a great friend,' Haley added. She said the couple do more behind the scenes in the Trump administration than people realize although she did not offer specific examples. 'They do a lot of things behind the scenes that I wish more people knew about because we are a better country because they're in the administration,' Haley said. But there could be more to the optics than Haley thanking her friends. Bolton reveals in his book that Ivanka and Kushner wanted to jettison Vice President Mike Pence from the 2020 ticket and replace him with Haley. He reveals Trump asked him about the idea around the holidays in 2018 - as Haley was wrapping up her tenure in New York at UN headquarters. 'Trump also raised the widespread political rumor he would dump Pence from the ticket in 2020 and run instead with Haley, asking what I thought,' Bolton wrote. 'White House gossip was common that Ivanka and Kushner favored this approach, which tied in with Haley's leaving her position as UN Ambassador in December 2018, thus allowing her to do some politicking around the country before being named to the ticket in 2020.' The pros were seen as Haley would bring women to Trump's side. The cons were he could lose the party's evangelical base who supposed Pence. Bolton writes he told Trump 'it was a bad idea to jettison someone loyal, and that doing so risked alienating people he needed (who could stay home, even if they didn't vote for Trump's opponent) without necessarily generating new support because of the replacement.' Bolton writes that President Trump claimed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was the one that actually called Nikki Haley a 'c***' but Bolton writes his doubts of that President Donald Trump and then-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley during a meeting on United Nations Reform at the United Nations headquarters on September 18, 2017 Outgoing UN Ambassador Nikki Haley lavished praise on Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump during her 2018 departure announcement Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who serve as advisers to President Trump, were in the Oval Office to hear Haley's glowing words He also said of Haley's departure from the administration: 'Few doubted the 2024 race for the Republican presidential nomination had now begun. Bolton's book is the first memoir from a high-ranking official in the Trump administration and is from an official with longtime conservative credentials who served as a commentator on Fox News. The New York Times called it a 'withering portrait of a president ignorant of even basic facts about the world, susceptible to transparent flattery by authoritarian leaders manipulating him and prone to false statements, foul-mouthed eruptions and snap decisions that aides try to manage or reverse' in its review. And the Washington Post calls it 'the most substantive, critical dissection of the president from an administration insider so far.' Bolton reveals his frustrations with the president's daughter and son-in-law in the book. And it wasn't just him. He claims then-chief of staff John Kelly and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also had their frustrations with the couple. He claims Pompeo said to him they had to stay on because they were the 'real warriors.' The words came when Kelly was frustrated and considering leaving the administration. Pompeo told him that then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis 'is always overseas' and the 'only thing' Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin thinks about is 'covering his a**.' 'This will just leave you and me,' Pompeo said, worried Kelly would leave. 'If he [Trump] wants to know who the real warriors are, just look around [meaning us]. And Kelly is a part of that.' Pompeo added: 'This whole thing could end up being the Donald, Ivanka and Jared show!' Kelly left the White House in January 2019 and has become a vocal critic of the president since then. Ivanka Trump praised Nikki Haley in a tweet when she announced her departure, Ivanka and Jared were said to be Haley's biggest allies in White House Vice President Mike Pence remained on Trump's presidential ticket John Bolton's book has hit the best seller list on Amazon.com and an interview with him will air on ABC on Sunday Bolton recalls how he learned Kushner was going to be calling the finance minister of Turkey because they were both son-in-laws to their country's respective leaders. He noted what happened when he told Pompeo and Mnuchin of what he learned. 'I briefed Pompeo and Mnuchin on this new 'son-in-law channel' and they both exploded,' he wrote. Mnuchin was angry because Kushner was reaching out to his Turkish counter part and Pompeo was 'because this was one more example of Kushner's doing international negotiations he shouldn't have been doing (along with the never quite ready Middle East peace plan.)' He also recalled Kelly had his battles with Kushner. When President Trump was furious how the numbers of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States hadn't gone down, Kelly learned Kushner called Mexican officials. 'Why is Jared calling Mexicans?' Kelly asked Trump. 'Because I asked him to. How else are we going to stop the caravans?' the president responded. Bolton also revealed how Trump protected his daughter when she came under fire for using her personal email for official business, which is a violation of the Presidential Records Act. He claims in his book that Trump defended Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamaal Khashoggi to distract from the Ivanka story. 'This will divert from Ivanka,' Trump said of his statement. 'If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing.' He also revealed the president wasn't happy with what his daughter did. 'Goddamn it why didn't she change her phone? What a mess we have because of that phone,' he recalls Trump saying. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. New York City, United States -- With the outbreak of COVID-19 in worldwide and stipulated lockdown, the healthcare sector is witnessing an unprecedented slowdown as per EY-FICCI study titled, COVID-19 impact assessment for healthcare sector and key financial measures recommendations for the sector. The study is predicated on an assessment of healthcare players within the country to assess the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides recommendations on the fiscal stimulus measures it needs within the coming months. Anticipated to surpass the US$ 20 Billion mark in 2019, generic oncology drugs will witness increased demand in the coming years Increased spending in cancer-related research and development by various governments and private and commercial organizations combined with investments in anti-cancer drugs are the two key factors anticipated to heighten the generic oncology drugs demand, through 2019, as indicated in a recent market analysis of generic oncology drugs, by Persistence Market Research (PMR). Expanding at a robust annual rate of over 6.1 percent, the global revenue through sales of generic oncology drugs will surpass US$ 23 Billion in 2021. Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/25480 Company Profiles Novartis AG Pfizer Inc. GlaxoSmithKline plc CELGENE CORPORATION Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Merck & Company, Inc Aurobindo Pharma. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC Mylan N.V. NATCO Pharma Limited. Others. PMR estimates that notable product pipeline for generic oncology drugs is expected to drive lucrative business opportunities. Moreover, with industrys pipeline reaching a historic level of late-stage development, in 2017, almost 90% of the therapies being targeted treatments and clinical success rates going up to almost 73 percent, the market for generic oncology drugs is anticipated to grow, further expanding the pipeline cancer treatment, explained a senior research analyst. Get To Know Methodology of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/25480 Small Molecule Generic Oncology Drugs Hold Big Opportunities in 2019 Expanding at a rather high CAGR of nearly 6.7 percent, small molecule generic oncology drugs, combing the efficacies of chemotherapy and immunotherapies could boost the ongoing cancer treatment modalities. Although, there has been a significant development in immunotherapy alone, small molecules are expected to exceed the efficacies of large molecules and dominate the cancer treatment landscape as medical exerts continually validate the positive outcomes by combing traditional cancer treatment with new immunotherapies, thereby providing increased benefits to cancer patients. Although PMR analysis indicates a relatively lesser market share compared to market molecules, as a modality, small molecules are likely to benefit from their cross-membrane ability, reaching greater intracellular targets. Moreover, with a half-life of less than 24 hours, small molecules generic oncology drugs are more likely to achieve greater efficacy after a more convenient oral administration, thereby allowing researchers and clinicians to balance the side effect of combination trials through intermittent cancer treatment dosing. Research also indicates that more than a quarter of immune-oncology clinical trial use small as combination partners for checkpoint inhibitors, positioning itself as a unique compound class for superior immune-oncology treatments, explains the analyst. Potential Revenue Pockets in Emerging Economies The generic oncology drugs landscape expanding at a robust annual growth rate of approximately 7.5 percent, APECJ along with is anticipated to present significant revenue generating avenues for drug manufacturing companies. Increased research and development on biological and targeted drug therapies, early expiration of patents, and increasing focus on personalized treatment medication are some major factors contributing towards future avenues for generic oncology cancer drugs market in APECJ. In Japan, on the other hand, stringent regulations involving drug discovery and development process could put a spanner in generic oncology drugs market growth. Increasing awareness and growing demand for early cancer diagnosis is expected to translate into homegrown generic oncology drugs, thereby presenting revenue generating opportunities for local drug manufacturers. Favorable reimbursement schemes for critical drugs and significant funding for drug manufacturing infrastructure by government and private organizations of emerging economies are some key factors supplementing to the sales of generic oncology drugs. In addition, contract manufacturing initiatives for biopharmaceuticals and small molecules could broaden the future scope of generic oncology drugs, the senior analyst further explains. Access Full Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/25480 Product Pipeline Expansion to Remain the Core Forward Strategy Novartic AG, has applied channel integration strategies such as e-commerce along with the mobile app to drive sales at retail locations. Moreover, the company recently gave global rights of AKT inhibitors afuresertib and uprosertib to the Shanghai-based company Laekna. In addition, Novartis AG received CE mark for gene-modifying therapy for blood cancer Kymriah. Pfizer Inc., on the other hand, is focused on 39 therapies in R&D pipeline for oncology and bio similar to strengthen the core areas of the product portfolio. In 2017, Pfizers Glasdegib in patients with previously untreated acute myeloid leukemia received U.S FDA priority review. In the same year, companys XTANDI (enzalutamide) too received FDA approval. Report Highlights: Shifting Industry dynamics In-depth market segmentation Historical, current and projected industry size Recent industry trends Key Competition landscape Strategies of key players and product offerings Potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth A neutral perspective towards market performance Explore Extensive Coverage of PMR`s Life Sciences & Transformational Health Landscape Feminine Hygiene Product Market Feminine Hygiene Products Market Segmented By Sanitary Pads/Napkins, Tampons, Panty Liners, Menstrual Cups, and Feminine Hygiene Wash. For More Information Elder Care Services Market Elder Care Services Market Segmented By Home-based Care, Community-based Care, Institutional Care Services and Financing Source By Public Expenditure, Private Source, Out-of-Pocket Spending. For More Information About us: Elder Care Services Market Segmented By Home-based Care, Community-based Care, Institutional Care Services and Financing Source By Public Expenditure, Private Source, Out-of-Pocket Spending. Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes. Our client success stories feature a range of clients from Fortune 500 companies to fast-growing startups. PMRs collaborative environment is committed to building industry-specific solutions by transforming data from multiple streams into a strategic asset. Contact us: Ashish Kolte Persistence Market Research Address 305 Broadway, 7th FloorNew York City, NY 10007 United States U.S. Ph. +1-646-568-7751 USA-Canada Toll-free +1 800-961-0353 Sales sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Website https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved a loan of $750 million to boost India's coronavirus response. The project, co-financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), aims at strengthening economic aid for businesses, extending social safety nets to the needy, and boosting the country's health care systems, AIIB said in a statement on Wednesday. In May, AIIB approved a $500 million loan to assist India's emergency response to the pandemic. Both loans are part of a $10 billion funding facility the AIIB has announced to help public and private sectors fight the outbreak. The total sovereign loans by AIIB to India currently stand at $3.06 billion. "Many of the world's low and middle-income countries are still in the early stages of the health crisis but are already feeling the impacts of the pandemic. This poses an enormous risk for millions across India who have only recently emerged from poverty," said AIIB Vice President, Investment Operations, DJ Pandian. "This poses an enormous risk for millions across India who have only recently emerged from poverty," Pandian added. "Our support to India also aims to ensure economic resilience to prevent long-term damage to the productive capacity, including human capital, of India's economy," he noted. While AIIB does not have a regular instrument for policy-based financing, the Bank is extending such financings on an exceptional basis under the COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF)CRF to support its members through projects co-financed with the World Bank or the ADB, it said. AIIB is a multilateral development bank that aims to support the building of infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region. The bank currently has 78 members as well as 24 prospective members from around the world. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: PM Modi held late-night meet with Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah over Ladakh clash Also read: Fuel on fire! Petrol, diesel prices increased for 11th day straight; rates up by Rs 6.4 per litre Cobra Biologics (Cobra), part of the Cognate BioServices family, an international CDMO for biologics and pharmaceuticals, today announced it has signed a supply agreement with AstraZeneca UK Ltd. (AstraZeneca) to provide GMP manufacture of the adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222, previously known as ChAdOx1 n-CoV-19. The production agreement is part of AstraZenecas recently announced in-licensed program with the University of Oxford to ensure broad and equitable supply of the vaccine throughout the world, at no profit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Manufacture of COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Image Credit: Carl Recine, Reuters Cobra hit the ground running with AstraZeneca and other manufacturing organisations to provide large scale manufacturing capacity of AZD1222 vaccine. Cobra, along with other consortium members, will be manufacturing the vaccine with first deliveries to begin in the UK in September 2020. The agreement is a further development of Cobras announcement in March 2020, that the Company is working as part of a consortium with the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, and others, to rapidly develop, scale-up and produce the recombinant adenovirus vector ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. Miami: The Trump administration plans to nominate the top White House official for Latin America to lead the Inter-American Development Bank, aiming to break a six-decade tradition of choosing the bank's leadership from candidates in that region. The US Treasury Department said Mauricio Claver-Carone could provide unique leadership to help Latin America and the Caribbean overcome the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, which threatens to plunge the region into one of its worst economic crises in decades. Mauricio Claver-Carone, right, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and senior director for western hemisphere affairs, arrives to meet with Bolivia's Foreign Minister Karen Longaric in La Paz in January. Credit:AP "The IDB is at a critical juncture as the region faces growing challenges to economic growth and sustainable development, particularly in light of the global pandemic," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. Since its founding in 1959, the Washington-based development bank has always been led by someone from Latin America. The current head, Colombia's Luis Alberto Moreno, is preparing to step down after 15 years following elections for his replacement scheduled for September. Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify, having sealed major deals with Facebook and now Walmart, is seizing the pandemic moment to put together a challenge to industry giant Amazon. Driving the news: On Monday, Walmart said it will open its online marketplace, which reaches 120 million monthly visitors, to Shopify's more than 1 million business clients. That means Walmart shoppers will be able to find goods from some Shopify merchants. Between the lines: Shopify now has deals with the largest social network on the planet and the company that calls itself the largest retailer in the world. Last month, Facebook said it would partner with Shopify, among other e-commerce platforms, to launch a new online shopping marketplace called Facebook Shops. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted Shopify's participation during the video announcement, a nod at the importance of the partnership. At the time, he interviewed Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke, who said that by pairing Shopify's e-commerce capabilities and Facebook's reach and scale, "we are reducing the barriers to entrepreneurship and advancing the future of commerce. The state of play: With its latest deals, Shopify is moving more directly onto the turf of Amazon's Marketplace, which lets third-party retailers sell through Amazon's online store. Shopify also relaunched its consumer-facing shopping app earlier this year, putting it even more squarely in competition with the Seattle e-commerce giant. Unlike Amazon, Shopify only charges payment fees to merchants on its Shop app, which the company says is less of a marketplace and more of a way to help customers shop from the merchants directly. Yes, but: Amazon has a big head start, with what it says are more than 300 million customers worldwide. Shopify merchants will have to meet a variety of criteria to qualify for inclusion in the Walmart marketplace. By the end of the year, Shopify says it expects more than 1,200 merchants to be able to sell through the Walmart marketplace. The big picture: The pandemic has forced many retailers to quickly shift their business online, and Shopify has been selling them digital tools to do that. In this short period, it has introduced new features, like the ability for customers to add tips when ordering from restaurants and curbside pickup. It has also expanded services like Shopify Capital (its financing business for merchants), which is now available in Canada and the U.K. Between March 13 and April 24, new stores created on Shopify grew 62% compared to the prior six weeks, COO Harley Finkelstein tweeted in early May. The bottom line: Investors, well aware of Shopify's opportunities, boosted its stock roughly 150% since the start of the stay-at-home lockdowns in March. Our thought bubble: There's a silver lining here for Amazon. When antitrust regulators are snooping around your business, it's always nice to have a credible competitor or two you can trot out. TEL AVIV, Israel, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pcysys has announced that St Margaret's Hospice Care in the UK, has chosen Pcysys' Automated Penetration Testing Platform, PenTera, to continuously test its IT infrastructure. "PenTera has provided us with the solution we've been looking for - the ability to continuously test our security posture anytime, from anywhere," said Nick Middleton, Director of IT at St Margaret's Hospice Care. "By increasing the efficiency and cadence of testing, PenTera has enabled us to properly reevaluate many aspects of our cybersecurity strategy such as improving our password policy and Active Directory configurations. It is exciting to work with Pcysys and our partner provider Emerge, we see them both as essential in meeting the cyber challenge." The PenTera platform ethically challenges the entire IT network with the latest hacking techniques, prioritizing remediation efforts towards vulnerabilities and controls that carry the majority of the risk. With PenTera, organizations perform remote and local penetration tests on-demand, to benchmark, maintain, and grow their cyber resiliency. The platform spans the testing of security controls, vulnerabilities, credential strength, access privileges, network policies, and devices. With PenTera, organizations can grow their cyber defense efficacy, their IT team productivity, and save on external consulting costs. "Healthcare organizations, more than ever, are targets to malicious third parties," says Steve Armstrong, UK Regional Sales Director at Pcysys. "By mimicking the same TTPs as a malicious attacker, PenTera enables St Margaret's Hospice Care to prioritize remediation focusing on the most critical fixes allowing the organization to continuously stay one step ahead." About St Margaret's Hospice Care St Margaret's Hospice Care has been at the heart of Somerset's community for over 40 years, delivering high quality, responsive and compassionate care to patients and their families facing a life-limiting illness. Through our medical expertise, nursing skills, and specialist support services, we provide physical, emotional and spiritual care to our patients, their families, and carers. With two hospice sites; one in Yeovil and one in Taunton, as well as five community-based teams caring for patients in their own homes, we continually strive to reach everyone in the community that needs our care. Our Taunton hospice hub also provides 24-hour complex symptom control for patients in Somerset. About Pcysys Pcysys delivers PenTera, the automated network penetration-testing platform, that assesses and reduces cybersecurity risk. The platform runs on the Cloud or on-site to identify, analyze and focus remediation efforts on breachable vulnerabilities. Hundreds of security professionals and service providers around the world use PenTera to perform continuous machine-based penetration tests that improve their immunity against cyber attacks across their organization networks. About Emerge Emerge helps organisations to adopt groundbreaking Automated Cybersecurity solutions that identify exploitable vulnerabilities, find and protect sensitive data, and completely prevent malware on mission critical systems. Our portfolio covers a range of cybersecurity principles, focusing on Automated Penetration Testing, Network Detection & Response, OT/Critical Endpoint Security, Digital Transformation Security and 24x7x365 Security Operations Centre services. We completely eliminate false positives, categorically secure data, credentials and privileged accounts, as well as blocking harmful software from executing, in memory at runtime. For more information, visit https://emerge.uk.com/ . Contact: Aviv Cohen, Pcysys CMO | [email protected] Emerge Contact: Grainne Arif, Emerge CMO | [email protected] SOURCE Pcysys Related Links https://www.pcysys.com Credit: CC0 Public Domain European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen urged rich countries to prepare to share any future coronavirus vaccine with their poorer neighbours, as she launched Brussels' pandemic strategy. Ahead of an address to the European Parliament, the head of the EU executive Wednesday said member states would work together without "harmful competition" to find a vaccineand suggested other world powers do the same. "We are working towards a global summit on the 27th of June," Von der Leyen said, referring to the second leg of an international fund raising effort that began with a May 4 videoconference and has so far seen pledges of more than $9 billion. "We will explore with our international partners, whether a significant number of countries would agree to pool resources for jointly reserving future vaccines from companies while at the same time making advance reservations for low and middle income countries," she said. "The high income countries would then act as an inclusive international buyers group". Later, von der Leyen was to unveil an action plan that would see Brussels sign "advance purchase contracts" with vaccine producers, financed by the bloc's emergency aid instrumentaround 2.4 billion eurosset up during the crisis. World laboratories are racing to find a vaccine in record timeperhaps in twelve to 18 months, compared to several years under normal circumstancesand advance payment will allow them to invest in production capacity before even human clinical trials. This commitment would in turn give member states the right to purchase a certain number of doses at a fixed price once the vaccine is available, in return for the investment risk taken. Explore further Gates Foundation calls for global cooperation on vaccine for 7 billion people 2020 AFP Chinese authorities in Tibet have ordered the destruction of prayer flags in many parts of the region in one of Chinas most direct assaults to date on visible symbols of Tibetan culture and religious belief, sources in the region say. The campaign, described as a program of behavioral reform, began in June in Qinghais Golog (in Chinese, Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and in Tengchen (Dingqing) county in the Chamdo municipality of the Tibet Autonomous Region, a local source told RFA this week. Government officials and police have summoned the local people to meetings, ordering them to take part in what they called an environmental cleanup drive and movement of behavioral reform, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Led by the police, local Tibetans are now taking down prayer flags in their villages and on the hilltops, where they are traditionally hung in the belief that they will ward off evil and bring good luck, the source said. Whether old or new, the prayer flags bearing mantras are all being removed from their traditional locations, the source said, adding that even the poles on which the flags were hung are being dismantled. This is an act of contempt and utter disregard for local Tibetans customs and faith, the source said, adding that he fears this new campaign will spread and encourage even more restrictions on traditional customs and religious practice. Chinese authorities in general have always vowed to eliminate any Tibetan behavior that they say will harm peoples productivity and adversely affect their livelihood, he said. Thus, the authorities have now set out to root out this Tibetan tradition of hanging prayer flags everywhere, directing local officials, the heads of monasteries, and relevant authorities at the district and township level to carry out the order. The campaign against flags came as annual review by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy found that Chinese policies systematically wear away and destroy Tibetans national and cultural identity, with a growing use of surveillance and online monitoring to suppress political dissent, and strengthened restrictions on Tibetan childrens right to classroom instruction in their own language. Throughout the year, Chinese police forces and surveillance teams moved into monasteries and villages to monitor Tibetan residents for signs of opposition to Chinas rule, the Dharamsala, India-based center said, adding, facial-recognition software and careful monitoring of digital spaces [were] deployed to suppress political protests against the increased clampdowns on civil and political rights. Reported by Lhuboom for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney. Qantas is considering moving some of its Airbus A380s into long-term storage in the Californian desert ahead of a possible early retirement for the superjumbos. The airline is not operating any international passenger flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is undergoing a detailed review of how many jets it will need during the years-long recovery from the global health crisis. Qantas is considering whether to exit some of its A380s from its fleet. Credit:Getty Images Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said in May that its was pausing refurbishments on its 12 A380s and flagged that it might offload some of the double-decker jets. The airline is now exploring sending up to six A380s into storage at the aircraft "boneyards" either at Mojave or Victorville, both in California, according to airline sources. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order introducing several reforms in U.S. police force while rejecting calls to defund or dismantle the police, the order limits granting certain funding to only those law enforcement agencies that meet high standards, including around use-of-force and de-escalation, as credentialed by reputable independent bodies. The reforms come in the wake of nationwide protests against police brutality that recently claimed the lives of black men George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks. Floyd died on Memorial Day after he was pinned down by a white police officer in Minneapolis for more than 8 minutes. Derek Chauvin, 44, was fired from service and charged with murder. Three other police officers involved in the brutal incident also were fired but they were charged with lesser crimes. Brooks died last Friday after suffering two gunshot wounds to his back as a white Atlanta police officer shot him while resisting arrest. Floyd's death has sparked outrage and protests in Minneapolis and across the United States, prompting several city authorities to declare curfew. Minneapolis City Council decided to dismantle the city's police forces entirely in the aftermath of Floyd's death. The Black Lives Matter movement and activists made calls to 'Defund the police.' The executive order aims to provide incentives for police departments to improve by tying some federal grants to 'best practices'. The Order provides incentives for law enforcement agencies to use a nationwide database to track terminations, criminal convictions, and civil judgments against law enforcement officers for excessive use-of-force, which will create accountability between agencies. Trump is directing his Administration to draft new legislation to 'to further the policies of the Order and build community engagement', the White House said in a statement Speaking after signing the order, flanked by law enforcement officers, Trump defended police while condemning looters and 'anarchy'. Last year alone, 89 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty, he noted. In his opinion, in many cases, local law enforcement is 'underfunded, understaffed, and undersupported'. 'Despite our very good record on crime, law and order must be further restored nationwide', he added. Trump warned that the penalty for those who get caught for looting or arson will be 'very grave'. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Vietnamese banana officially enters Lotte Mart in RoK Lo Pang banana grown in the highlands of Lo Pang commune, Mang Yang district, Gia Lai province is now officially being sold at Lotte Mart chain in the Republic of Korea (RoK). Lo Pang banana sold at Lotte Mart in RoK. (Photo: VNA) The Vietnamese Embassy in RoK in coordination with Lotte Mart held a promotional event to introduce the Vietnamese banana at the Lotte Mart near Seoul Station on the morning of June 16. Lotte Mart is expected to import approximately 1,600 tonnes of the Vietnamese banana each year to distribute to its 81 supermarkets across the RoK. The Vietnamese banana has been exported to RoK since 2014 but has yet to be brought to large supermarket chains like Lotte Mart. About 180 tonnes of banana worth US$132,000 was exported to RoK in 2015 and the volume was raised to 6,685 tonnes worth US$4.2 million in 2019. The Vietnamese banana is anticipated to have room to increase its market segment in RoK as RoK spends over US$300 million each year on importing bananas. The Philippines is the largest banana exporter to RoK, accounting for 78.6%. It is followed by Ecuador (7.7%), Guatemala (5.2%), Peru (5%), Mexico (1.6%) and Vietnam (1.4%). JOHNSON CITY, Tennessee, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Industries working to find a path forward in the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic arent limited to cruise ships and movie theaters. The healthcare industry has also experienced significant volume declines in recent months, and guiding patients back to hospitals and doctors offices will be a significant undertaking for many providers and health systems. Thats why Ballad Health has created a public service announcement (PSA)-style campaign materials for rural, not-for-profit and non-profit hospitals and health systems to download and customize at no charge. The campaign collateral, which was developed internally at Ballad Health, is available to download at www.balladhealth.org/infectious-disease/staying-safe-healthy-well and outlines safety measures being taken by many healthcare facilities, such as enhanced physical distancing measures, increased infection control and new processes and systems to safeguard their patients care journeys. The goal of the campaign is to reassure patients most healthcare services are safe, accessible and above all important. This isnt about business operations or bottom lines its about the health of our communities and nation, said Taylor Hamilton, chief consumer officer for Ballad Health. Since March, scores of people have been delaying their care, or avoiding it completely, largely due to fears about COVID-19. And while its important to stay safe and limit exposure to the infection, its more important for people to seek care when they need it. Ballad Health launched its local campaign, dubbed #SafeWithUs, on Sunday, June 7, across its mass, targeted and social media platforms. The health system plans to extend the campaign until August, changing its creative every two to three weeks to emphasize key areas of focus, including finding/re-establishing a relationship with a primary care provider, recognizing the signs of heart attacks and strokes and maintaining care for chronic conditions. The postponement and avoidance of routine and preventive healthcare services can lead to major surgeries, lengthy hospital stays and even death, said Dr. Clay Runnels, Ballad Healths chief physician executive. Additionally, theres an alarming national trend of parents choosing to delay and deviate from vaccination schedules, which seriously increases the risk of new epidemics of disease like measles and rubella which presents just as much, or more, of a risk to our communities than COVID-19. The creative materials developed for other health systems, designed to be unique and easily distinguishable from Ballad Healths system-branded campaign, allows for customizable logo placement and contact information. Ballad Health will also refresh its options every two to three weeks, echoing the PSA messaging running in its markets. Our communities turned to Ballad Health to be a reliable source of information and reassurance throughout the COVID-19 pandemic; and now, as life begins to find its new normal, they will look to us for guidance about how to safely resume their normal healthcare services, Hamilton said. Other rural, small and mid-size health systems are also trusted by their audiences to be the authority on which activities and healthcare services are safe right now, but with steeply declining volumes and major financial losses, developing a campaign can be unfeasible. Thats why Ballad Health is proud to offer creative, messaging and PSA tactics for these systems. Were removing barriers to public health awareness, giving a hand up to organizations that need it and improving health for communities throughout the nation. Founded in 2018 by the merger of two regional not-for-profit health systems, Ballad Health was created specifically to address the most critical healthcare needs of communities in the Appalachian Highlands region of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. In its work to create sustained, meaningful population health improvement, Ballad Health also frequently joins forces with regional and state health departments, physician practices and other community organizations that advance health and those relationships have further strengthened during the COVID-19 pandemic. To that end, on Friday, June 12, the health system, along with physicians and caregivers from throughout the Appalachian Highlands, hosted a press conference to outline COVID-19 prevention measures and the communitys ongoing need for regular healthcare services. The press conference is available to view and download here. Ballad Health strives to be a leader in increasing healthcare access for the communities were privileged to serve, and that includes finding a way back to health in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, Hamilton said. Our #SafeWithUs campaign will shine a light forward for our patients and their loved ones, and we hope other systems will join us so that after this pandemic, we come out stronger and more aware of our healthcare. More information about Ballad Healths COVID-19 prevention and containment measures is available at www.balladhealth.org. About Ballad Health: Ballad Health is an integrated health care system serving the Appalachian Highlands 21 counties of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia as well as Northwest North Carolina and Southeast Kentucky. Our system was created to improve the health of the people we serve. Ballad Health operates 21 hospitals, including three tertiary medical centers, a dedicated childrens hospital, community hospitals, three critical access hospitals, a behavioral health hospital, an addiction treatment facility, long-term care facilities, home care and hospice services, retail pharmacies, outpatient services and a multispecialty physician group. All Ballad Health facilities are taking crucial safety precautions, including enhanced physical distancing measures, increased infection control and new processes and systems to safeguard patients care journeys. At Ballad Health, you are #SafeWithUs. Learn more at www.balladhealth.org. ### Lilly Collins has been enjoying some quality time with director boyfriend Charlie McDowell in quarantine. But the Golden Globe nominee appears to be missing their travels as they isolated amid COVID-19. She posted a sweet throwback Tuesday to her Instagram story with McDowell, as they shared a kiss in front of a windmill. Kiss kiss: Lily Collins posted a sweet throwback Tuesday to her Instagram story with boyfriend Charlie McDowell, as they shared a kiss in front of a windmill The 31-year-old wrote with the photo: 'All day. Any day. Every day. I love you @charliemcdowell.' She posted another throwback last month, writing: 'Missing road trips and middle of nowhere pit-stops...' Collins also took to her Instagram on Tuesday with a selfie, as she read Untamed by Glennon Doyle Melton while her dog Redford slept in her lap. She wrote: 'What a wake up call. (For me, not so much for @redforddog.) So many underlined moments in Untamed by @glennondoyle. Road trip: She posted another throwback last month, writing: 'Missing road trips and middle of nowhere pit-stops...' Bookworm: Collins also took to her Instagram on Tuesday with a selfie, as she read Untamed by Glennon Doyle Melton while her dog Redford slept in her lap Black Lives Matter: It comes amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests over the killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd by Minneapolis ex-police officer Derek Chauvin 'Addressing racism, sisterhood and the power women have in this fight. I cant tell you how much I love this book...' It comes amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests over the killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd by Minneapolis ex-police officer Derek Chauvin. Collins and McDowell, 36, shared photos and videos earlier this month from peaceful demonstrations in Los Angeles. She wrote: 'I am white, I am privileged. I will never experience what black people in America go through every single day, but I am listening and I am learning. 'I march with you and will fight with you. This is just the beginning, but its a small step towards changing the system.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 10:16:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Xinhua writer Guo Yage BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- After weeks of attentive care by Chinese and Sierra Leonean doctors and nurses, three orphans, including a nine-month-old infant, have recently fully recovered from COVID-19 in a hospital built with the help of China in the West African country. The story is just one small part of the time-tested China-Africa relationship, which features equality, mutual trust and mutual support. That bond now stands even stronger, as the two sides have fought side by side against the ravaging coronavirus pandemic ever since the outset. On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping will preside over an extraordinary China-Africa summit, which will be attended by many African leaders and heads of international bodies such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO). The virtual summit comes as the latest testimony to the two sides' steady commitment to weathering the coronavirus challenge with cooperation and solidarity, which is exactly what they have been doing over recent months. When China was deep in the depths of its own fight against the virus, many African countries rushed to the aid of the Chinese people, delivering urgently needed medical supplies and sending warm-hearted messages. The Morocco-based Bank of Africa, for instance, donated 150,000 surgical masks and 900,000 medical gloves to China's Hubei Province in early February, while the African Union (AU) became the first major regional organization to express solidarity with China. China has also extended a helping hand to the continent. So far, China has sent much-needed supplies to over 50 African countries and the AU, dispatched medical experts, and shared its anti-epidemic experience via video conferences. Since the outbreak, Chinese medical teams have conducted some 400 coronavirus-related training sessions in Africa and have trained 20,000 local medical workers. According to a communique issued on June 13 by the AU, China has ensured the supply of 30 million testing kits, 10,000 ventilators and 80 million masks each month for Africa, a "significant contribution." Additionally, Xi has repeatedly conveyed his sympathy and support via phone conversations with South African, Egyptian, Namibian and many other African leaders. And more support is on the way. Speaking at the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly, Xi said China will establish a cooperation mechanism for its hospitals to pair up with 30 African hospitals, accelerate the building of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters to help the continent ramp up its disease preparedness and control capacity, and make COVID-19 vaccines, when available, a global public good. Moreover, China has also been backing Africa's economic reopening. Apart from actively participating in an initiative endorsed by the Group of 20 to suspend debt service payments for the world's poorest countries, it has also helped boost the trading of Africa's major economic commodities on the global market. The Asian country became Namibia's largest export destination in March. And livestreaming promotions amid the pandemic via China's Alibaba Group's Electronic World Trade Platform allowed Rwandan coffee growers to earn 4 more U.S. dollars for each kilo of coffee beans they sold. At a time when China and Africa are sharing weal and woe, some U.S. politicians, instead of helping Africa with its pandemic fight, have been peddling "China-threat" fallacies, seeking to drive a wedge between China and Africa. Yet their malicious plots will never work. Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the AU Commission, said in April that China and Africa will never let those forces who are trying to exploit the current situation to sow discord between them have their way. Meanwhile, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called China a true friend of his country, with other African leaders considering China a partner that can be relied on in the face of difficulties and challenges. Right now, the end of the coronavirus crisis is still not in sight, and the situation for Africa seems to be getting worse. The WHO warned last week that the pandemic in Africa is "accelerating," saying that while it took 98 days for the continent to reach 100,000 coronavirus cases, it took just 18 days to get to 200,000. That warning demands more concrete action in the coming months. These past several months have let the African people see more clearly the true meaning and value of their fraternity with the Chinese people. As they continue to fight this deadly virus, they can keep counting on China as their most trustworthy partner in this age of uncertainty. Enditem ALBANY The top assistant to Albany County District Attorney David Soares confirmed Tuesday that he suspended Matthew Toporowski, a challenger of Soares in next week's Democratic primary, for a week in the spring of 2014 and personally asked for his resignation a year later. The statement by Chief Assistant District Attorney David Rossi directly contradicts Toporowskis repeated statements that he was never disciplined during his 21-month tenure at the district attorneys office, and that he resigned voluntarily. While I prefer to not discuss the specifics of Mr. Toporowski's disciplinary record without his authorization, I can't allow him to continue to lie to the public about it, Rossi said in an email, in response to questions from the Times Union about the former prosecutor's job history. I was present when he was suspended for a week in April of 2014. I personally counseled Mr. Toporowski on several occasions about his behavior as a prosecutor, and I personally asked him to resign in March of 2015." Toporowski, 34, has refused to authorize his former office to release his personnel file. Multiple people familiar with the matter told the Times Union that Toporowski's 2014 suspension was related to a photo showing him with two female students at an Albany Law School function that was posted on social media. The photo, in which all three were fully clothed but appear to be parodying a sex act, was brought to the attention of Soares office. Toporowski was subsequently called into a meeting with Soares, Rossi and a third prosecutor. Toporowski apologized and was suspended for a week, which resulted in the loss of vacation time he had accrued at the office, people familiar with the matter said. On Tuesday afternoon hours before Rossi released his statement the Times Union asked Toporowski if he ever attended a dance-type function at Albany Law School in 2014 while he was working at the Soares office. Not that I can recall, he said. The candidate, now a lawyer with the Wagoner Firm, gave the same answer when asked if he ever engaged in a pose with two students at the function and if the photo had been posted on social media. Asked if anyone at the district attorneys office had spoken to him about the photograph and its subsequent posting, Toporowski again replied, No, not that I can recall. Asked if he had been told to take a week off for any reason, Toporowski repeatedly refused to directly answer beyond saying he had never been "disciplined" while working for Soares' administration. He said he did not know if he would consider such a sanction to be a form of discipline. In a more than 15-minute interview, Toporowski said he was never disciplined at that office or words to that effect at least 11 times. He repeatedly replied same answer to other questions. I stand by my reputation in the legal community and the community at large, Toporowski said, reiterating his campaign's account that he had left Soares' office because he disagreed with the offices over-prosecute, over-punish approach. After being sent an email of Rossis subsequent remarks, Toporowski's memory became more lucid: In 2014, Soares told me that it was inappropriate to allow for a photo from a party to be posted to social media and encouraged me to take a week off, which I did, he said in a statement sent by his campaign. As I've said repeatedly, I disagreed regularly with top office staff because they insisted on harsh punishments for low-level offenses," he said. "In March 2015, Mr. Rossi told me that Soares would not be happy that I did not push for jail time in a very simple case and that I should consider leaving the office. I do not consider that a formal request for resignation. I decided to resign at that time." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Toporowski, who faces Soares in the June 23 Democratic primary, worked for the district attorney from July 2013 to March 2015. Rossi, who has prosecuted some of the county's most high-profile cases, has served in the office since 1998 and been Soares' top assistant since 2009. Soares is seeking a fifth four-year term. "David Soares and his top staff know that their prosecutorial and criminal justice policies are so awful that the only way they can win is to personally attack me to the point of unethically mischaracterizing personnel matters," Toporowski said in his statement. His 2014 suspension was not related to an incident the Times Union first reported Saturday. In that matter, Albany Police Detective David Bernacki said he responded to Toporowskis home on Dec. 20, 2013, after Toporowski had allegedly been assaulted. The detective told the Times Union last week that he heard Toporowski direct racial slurs to the biracial alleged assailant, including the n-word. Toporowski, who identifies as Hispanic, denied making the slurs an assertion that was backed up by a second officer at the scene, Kyle Haller, and a friend of Toporowski's who was on the scene. (Both men attended high school in Saugerties with Toporowski.) The charges against the young man were eventually dropped; the Times Union has been unable to contact him. Interviewed for that story on Friday, Toporowski said, "I was never disciplined while working at the DAs office, and insisted he had never been asked to resign. Early voting in the primary began on Saturday. Toporowski has been endorsed by Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, musician John Legend and some of Albany's most prominent black leaders. He was endorsed on Tuesday by state Assemblyman Phil Steck of Colonie and via telepresence author and former gubernatorial and congressional candidate Zephyr Teachout. New U.S. sanctions targeting Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime and those who fund it are likely to increase pressure on the Syrian government and deepen the country's economic crisis. Why it matters: Assad has survived nine years of civil war, but Syria's dictator now faces protests in the street, a currency shock and internal divisions highlighted by a public feud with his billionaire cousin, Rami Makhlouf. The people of Syria continue to suffer. Details: The Caesar Act, named for a photographer who secretly documented the regime's humanitarian abuses, targets 39 individuals and entities, many of whom are already under sanctions. Assad's wife, Asma, and other members of his family were sanctioned for the first time on Wednesday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions were intended to target "anyone doing business with the Assad regime, no matter where in the world they are." That applies primarily to Assad's patrons, Russia and Iran. The administration says the sanctions would be lifted if Assad stopped attacking civilians and addressed humanitarian concerns or agreed to a political transition. Neither seems likely. The big picture: While the sanctions may increase the pressure on Assad, they'll also deepen the economic crisis facing the long-suffering Syrian people. The downturn has been compounded by an equally deep financial crisis in neighboring Lebanon. "Ordinary Syrians, meanwhile, the supposed beneficiaries of Caesar, will see the act push them faster towards famine," writes the FT's David Gardner. "Economic sanctions are often a blunt instrument and many analysts fear the Caesar Act might miss its target. Instead, it could deliver a devastating blow to what remains of the Syrian economy after getting on for a decade of war," writes the BBC's Jeremy Bowen. What to watch: Assad and his backers have won back most of the territory once held by rebels, but much of the country is destroyed. "[A]bout a third of the homes have been damaged or destroyed, leaving half the population displaced," writes WaPo's Sarah Dadouch. The U.S. and the EU say they won't participate in the rebuilding process as long as Assad remains in office. The latest: Syria's fast-depreciating pound has made what economic activity is still happening in Syria that much harder. Indo-China clash at LAC due to 'intelligence failure': Ex MoS M M Pallam Raju India oi-Madhuri Adnal Hyderabad, June 17: Former Union Minister M M Pallam Raju on Wednesday blamed the NDA government at the Centre for 'intelligence failure' that led to fierce clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh which left 20 Indian soldiers dead. Expressing concern over the outbreak of violence between the soldiers of two nuclear armed neighbours, he said, "We have lost lives and that means it is a very serious situation. What I feel sad about is that the build up (of Chinese soldiers) would not have certainly happened overnight. It would have taken some time.." India-China standoff: China 'throwing punches', provoking neighbors, says Top former US diplomat India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News "I feel it is an intelligence failure that we did not anticipate the build up," the Minister of state for Defence told PTI. Wondering how the government failed to anticipate the situation at LAC, he said, "only after the Defence Minister (Rajnath Singh) made a statement that they (Chinese) came in large numbers did we know of the actual situation. So I don't know why we failed in anticipating it. We have an established border defuse mechanism in place." Atleast 20 Indian Army personnel, including a colonel were killed in a violent face-off with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over 5 decades that has escalated the already volatile border stand-off in the region. According to Raju, there were disputes over the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and never was the situation escalated to this extent before. The Chinese would carry out patrolling up to the point where they believe was their border even as the Indian troops go up to the point, which they considered was our border. He opined that China was resorting to such tactics to divert the global attention from COVID-19 pandemic as it has been subjected to criticism for its alleged failure to check the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi slammed Modi for the loss of lives and demanded that he admit his "failure" to defend the country. "It is time for @PMOIndia to keep aside his macho posturing & share the facts with the country. Will he come clean & admit his failure to defend Indian territory? Will he accept his fault in continuing talks with China, even while it occupied the Indian territory?," he asked in a series of tweets on Tuesday night. He pointed out that the PM has a constitutional duty to defend the country from external aggression. Owaisi conveyed his condolences to the families of the martyrs. UPDATED at noon Wednesday with information from woman who started petition drive. ST. LOUIS COUNTY Ternesha Williams grew up in Maryland Heights, attended Pattonville schools and lives near Dorsett Road. She travels the road to get to her job as a debt collector. The 28-year-old Williams recently heard from a friend that the street was named after a slave owner. Williams and the friend, Elise Moser, are now petitioning the county to change the streets name. It makes me really uncomfortable, Williams, who is black, said by phone Wednesday. I dont want a street named after someone who enslaved my ancestors. Williams said she thinks the road should be named something like Government Drive or Black Lives Matter Drive. Dorsett Road runs about 3 miles from Lindbergh Boulevard to Marine Avenue in Maryland Heights. St. Louis County owns and maintains the road, and it would be in the countys power to change the name. That possibility will be discussed as part of a new county study announced by County Executive Sam Page. Page on Wednesday said he wants county officials to review names of roads, parks and statues, an announcement that came a day after the Christopher Columbus statue in Tower Grove Park in St. Louis was removed. I think we have to address this in a thoughtful and organized way, Page said during a news conference. I dont think we should be looking at these one at a time when someone brings it to our attention. Page previously mentioned the review at a County Council meeting on Tuesday, saying his intent was to make sure the names are in line with the countys values of equity and inclusion. Dorsett Road was named for a 19th century slave trader and anti-abolitionist. A 1985 story in the Post-Dispatch on the history of Maryland Heights said, An anti-abolition group called the Committee of 100, which included such names as William McKelvey and Walter H. Dorsett, worked for laws outlawing blacks on the streets after dark. Several U.S. cities are contending with controversial monuments this month amid national protests for racial justice. The Columbus statue in Tower Grove Park was brought down Tuesday at the direction of the parks Board of Commissioners, which said it wanted to reaffirm the parks commitment to being a place of welcome. Columbus has been criticized by some as a symbol of exploitation, and several statues to him have been toppled or removed in the last few weeks amid protests sparked by the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Williams said she took part last Saturday in a protest related to Floyds death, and she plans to do more. Page said he asked Hazel Erby, the countys director of diversity, equity and inclusion, to work with the heads of the countys parks and transportation departments to review the names of parks and roads. The County Council would need to approve any name changes. Asked if he had any specific streets in mind, Page said he had heard concerns about Dorsett Road. But it really is obvious there could be other street names in our community and rather than going through them one at a time, I think we should have a process ... and thoughtful review. Kim Bell 314-340-8115 @kbellpd on Twitter kbell@post-dispatch.com 1985 story: A history of Maryland Heights, from rural backwater to suburban giant An anti-abolition group called the Committee of 100, which included such names as William McKelvey and Walter H. Dorsett, worked for laws outlawing blacks on the streets after dark. 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. (Alliance News) - Vistry Group PLC has been awarded contracts by Homes England to develop 935 homes under two schemes, the UK government's affordable housing department said on Wednesday. The FTSE 250-listed housebuilder - through its Vistry Partnerships business - has signed a deal to provide housing at the Sandymoor site in Halton, Cheshire, and the former Lea Castle hospital site near Kidderminster, Worcestershire. Vistry will build 335 homes at the 11-hectare site in Halton, with the properties to include two to four-bedroom houses for sale as well as affordable homes in a 100-apartment extra care scheme to be delivered in partnership with Halton Housing Trust. It will also build 600 additional homes at the 49 hectare former Lea Castle hospital site, with work set to start on site immediately. The scheme will be delivered by Lea Castle JV LLP, a joint venture between Vistry and Citizen Housing and will comprise one to four-bedroom homes. "We are very pleased to once again be working in partnership with Homes England to transform these two important sites. These vital developments will provide a range of new affordable homes, enhance the existing landscape and boost economic growth. They also increase the number of homes that we are currently delivering on Homes Englandas sites to over 3,000, exemplifying our reputation as a leading partnerships organisation," said Vistry Partnerships Chief Executive Stephen Teagle. Vistry shares were trading 0.3% lower at 774.95 pence each on Wednesday afternoon in London. The stock is down 42% since the start of 2020. By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com. Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. There were no first prizes for this years contest. The judging committee selected two second prize winners with highest points Nguyen Hong Giang and Nguyen Duc Lam from Hanoi. Painter Pham Quang Dieu from Vietnam Post Corporation won the third prize of the contest. The winning works have closely followed the theme of Ecosystem Protection - Climate Protection as well as the correct technical specifications as set by the organising board. One of the winning designs will be selected for the international-level contest. The most outstanding entries will be used at the 27th congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) for 2021-2024 tenure, which is scheduled to be held in the Ivory Coast. At the 26th UPU congress in Turkey from September 20 to October 7, 2016, Vietnam claimed the first prize of the contest designing a new International Reply Coupon. An IRC is a coupon that can be exchanged for one or more postage stamps representing the minimum postage for an unregistered priority airmail letter sent to another UPU member country. The Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd has inspired Laois Offaly TD and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to highlight racism in Ireland in a Dail speech. Speaking in the Dail this Minister Flanagan set out actions being taken and his views on racism in Ireland. Two Black Lives Matter protest took place in his constituency last weekend in Tullamore and Portarlington. "Two weeks ago, I spoke of the horror I felt - that we all felt - at the tragic death of the late George Floyd. Since then, we have seen a global outpouring of solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement and an increasing and very welcome focus on the vile problems of racism and discrimination. "While it may be that this moment was prompted by recent events in one State, the reality is that racism and racial discrimination are not unique to any one country or continent. Racism is insidious and is present to some degree in every society, including here in Ireland. Recognising this terrible reality is the first step in combatting it. "We need to face up to the fact that racism does occur in Ireland. We need to understand better how prevalent it is and what its impacts are. And we need to generate effective strategies for tackling it. "It is a sad fact that a small minority of persons in Ireland subject others to abuse or attack, due to their own prejudice or intolerance. I wholly and unreservedly condemn such actions, for which there is no excuse. "I am confident that I am not alone in being profoundly moved by the poem recently composed by Imelda May, You dont get to be racist and Irish. She reminds us of the piercing truth that our history - as a people who has experienced the torment of discrimination, exclusion and intolerance means that we cannot be blind to the same terrible wrong being done to others. Our pride in our heritage and history must extend to taking pride in our fairness, our tolerance and our inclusivity," concluded the TD. Full text of Dail Statements Minister for Justice & Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Equality, Immigration, and Integration, David Stanton, TD "Supporting Inclusion and Combatting Racism in Ireland 17 June, 2020 Opening Statement - Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, Laois Offaly TD. A Cheann Comhairle, Deputies Two weeks ago, I spoke of the horror I felt - that we all felt - at the tragic death of the late George Floyd. Since then, we have seen a global outpouring of solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement and an increasing and very welcome focus on the vile problems of racism and discrimination. While it may be that this moment was prompted by recent events in one State, the reality is that racism and racial discrimination are not unique to any one country or continent. Racism is insidious and is present to some degree in every society, including here in Ireland. Recognising this terrible reality is the first step in combatting it. We need to face up to the fact that racism does occur in Ireland. We need to understand better how prevalent it is and what its impacts are. And we need to generate effective strategies for tackling it. Both I and Minister Stanton will speak to you this morning about some of the extensive efforts being made to tackle racism in Ireland. I will speak to some actions in the criminal justice sector. It is a sad fact that a small minority of persons in Ireland subject others to abuse or attack, due to their own prejudice or intolerance. I wholly and unreservedly condemn such actions, for which there is no excuse. The Mission of my Department is delivery of a safe, fair and inclusive Ireland and in our policies and initiatives, we strive to deliver on that mission statement. For some time now, we have been working as a priority to develop new legislation on hate speech and hate crime. As Deputies know, there is some existing law in this area: - the Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 which prohibits certain forms of threatening, abusive or insulting conduct; - and in sentencing for criminal offences, a hate motive may be considered by the Court to be an aggravating factor resulting in a stronger penalty. But it has been clear for some time that this has not been sufficient to deter or sufficiently respond to crime in which the victim is targeted because of a perpetrators hate. In recognising that this legislation is both complex and sensitive, my Department has carried out comparative research on the effectiveness of different approaches to hate crime legislation. It is not enough to have legislation on the statue books it is essential that the legislation is effective. It was also very important to me that new legislation would be informed by the lived experience of those who suffer from abuse or attacks motivated by hate. For this reason that my Department has carried out a broad public consultation, including a public survey, and provided an opportunity for formal submissions. We have also had a series of independently facilitated workshops across the State. This comprehensive approach was taken because I want the resulting legislation to be robust, clearly understood and effective. My officials are now analysing all these inputs, to prepare evidence-based legislative proposals as quickly as possible. If we are to ensure a fully inclusive Ireland, it is important that the criminal justice system represents and reflects all of Irish society. And An Garda Siochana is pivotal in this context and has been striving to become a leader in this field. Garda recruitment campaigns have, in recent years, made significant efforts to attract candidates from minority communities, including though the publication of videos and materials in multiple languages. The Commissioner also approved changes to the Garda uniform to allow the wearing of the hijab or turban to ensure the uniform didnt act as a barrier to entry. These developments are bearing fruit for example in 2019 and 2020, almost 67 persons born outside the state, with 19 different nationalities, have attested and became Garda members. For example, in addition to Garda members who are British or EU citizens, we now also have Garda members who are nationals of Brazil, China, India, Iraq, Nigeria, Russia and South Africa, among others. A Garda Diversity and Integration Strategy has also been adopted. This is important for both organisational and operational reasons. The Strategy reflects a commitment to further diversity in the Garda workforce. It contains a working definition of hate crime, to ensure Gardai are alert to and appropriately record hate incidents. And it commits to proactive, respectful engagement with all members of society, including minority groups. These undertakings are underpinned by the Garda Human Rights Strategy, the Code of Ethics and the wider reform process underway following the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing. In the very brief time available, I hope to have conveyed a sense of the priority attached to fighting racism in the criminal justice sector. Effective criminal legislation will be key in deterring and addressing hate-motivated crime; and a renewed Garda Siochana benefiting from ever-increasing diversity, engaged in all communities, will be a powerful force for integration and respect. But these measures alone cannot bring about the change that we all wish to see in our society. Addressing prejudice and discrimination is a mission for all of us. I am confident that I am not alone in being profoundly moved by the poem recently composed by Imelda May, You dont get to be racist and Irish. She reminds us of the piercing truth that our history - as a people who has experienced the torment of discrimination, exclusion and intolerance means that we cannot be blind to the same terrible wrong being done to others. Our pride in our heritage and history must extend to taking pride in our fairness, our tolerance and our inclusivity. I hand over now to Minister Stanton. Read also: RACIST REMARKS PART OF MIDLANDS COURT CASE OVER ASSAULT ON REFEREE Minister with special responsibility for Equality, Immigration, and Integration, David Stanton, T.D A Cheann Comhairle, Minister Flanagan has already made clear that the Government condemns all forms of racism in our society and I welcome the opportunity to address the House on this important issue. A key recent development in the fight against racism has been the formation of the Anti-Racism Committee, which has a mandate to develop a new Anti-Racism Strategy and Action Plan for recommendation to the Government. The purpose of the Committee is to develop an understanding of the nature and prevalence of racism in Ireland, including anti-Traveller racism, and to work towards achieving a social consensus on actions required, by State and non-State actors. Chaired by Professor Caroline Fennell of UCC, it will review current evidence and practice and make recommendations to Government on how best to strengthen its approach to tackling racism in all its forms. The Committee will consult with stakeholders from a broad range of sectors. It will hold its first meeting tomorrow and will provide a preliminary report to Government within three months, with a full report due at the end of one year. Central to our efforts to improve integration is the Migrant Integration Strategy, which I launched and have Chaired since 2017 and runs until the end of this year. It presents the vision of an inclusive society where all can fully participate and where diversity is valued. Racism in all its forms is a barrier to that vision being realised. Our work to date implementing this Strategy, and monitoring its progress together with our NGO partners on the Strategy Committee, has helped to build our understanding of where more effort is needed and what we need to do to ensure that everyone in our society feels like they belong and are valued. Racism is not experienced by migrants alone. Travellers, Roma and other ethnic minorities encounter racism and prejudice in their daily lives. The Government has worked actively to promote opportunities for Travellers and to recognise their rights and the landmark development has been the recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority. Those members of Dail Eireann who were present on the night of 1 March 2017 when the then Taoiseach Enda Kenny T.D., made the statement recognising Travellers as an ethnic minority will agree that it was a truly memorable event, with all political parties united in support of the Taoiseachs statement. Recognition of Traveller ethnicity has been a symbolic step forward in the States acknowledgement of the uniqueness of Traveller identity and culture and generates mutual understanding and respect between Traveller and non-Traveller communities. Recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority did not remove overnight all of the obstacles that have prevented them from experiencing full equality within Irish society. However, it has created a strong platform of respectful dialogue and pathway towards equality for Travellers. It also demonstrates the commitment of Government towards recognising the contribution that Travellers have made to Irish society and culture. The National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy has specific actions on combatting discrimination and ensuring equality for Travellers as well as actions around celebrating and promoting the richness of Traveller culture, which is an important part of our heritage as a country. Last December, I reported to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva on the actions that Ireland has taken since 2011 to promote equality and to combat racial discrimination, including measure to strengthen the human rights infrastructure so that it can challenge racism more effectively. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 introduced the equality and human rights positive duty, providing structural underpinning for action by public bodies on equality, human rights and the combatting of discrimination, including racism. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has been given a range of powers to challenge discrimination, including against ethnic minorities, and to seek legal redress for persons experiencing discrimination. One of its functions under the Act is to encourage the development of a culture of respect for human rights, equality and intercultural understanding in the State. I believe strongly in the power of communities when it comes to bringing about lasting change. In 2017 I launched the Communities Integration Fund, which supports local initiatives by migrant and non-migrant groups to promote integration and most importantly, allow people to get to know each other. 124 organisations received funding in 2019 and projects are being funded which are explicitly intended to challenge racism at grass roots level. The 2020 call for applications for this fund will be officially launched by the Department this coming Friday. I have also sought to strengthen the participation of communities in welcoming refugees to Ireland and was inspired by the community sponsorship model developed in Canada whereby local communities sponsor refugee families to settle in their towns and villages. I saw at first hand when I visited similar projects in the UK how the integration outcomes are improved for refugees when the communities and neighbours took part in the resettlement process. Following a successful pilot programme in Meath and Cork, I formally launched the Refugee Community Sponsorship Ireland in November last year. Before I conclude, I would like to remind deputies that the majority of Irish society has been remarkably open and welcoming to migrants from across the world. Our diversity is our wealth. 17% of our population were born outside Ireland and many have been given the opportunity to acquire Irish citizenship. Ireland is one of 13 EU member states that provides citizenship if the person has been resident for 5 years and one of 16 member states permitting dual citizenship. Approximately 120,000 people have received Irish citizenship since 2011, which represents more than 2.5% of the total Irish population and our country is better and richer as a consequence. An F-22 Raptor does a fly-by during the airshow at Joint Andrews Air Base in Maryland on Sept. 16, 2017. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images) US Fighter Jets Intercept 8 Russian Warplanes Just Miles From Alaska U.S. fighter jets intercepted eight Russian warplanes near Alaska in two separate incidents, according to military officials on Wednesday. NORAD F-22 Raptors, supported by KC-135 Stratotankers and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, successfully completed two intercepts of Russian bomber aircraft formations entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone last night, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) wrote on Wednesday morning. NORAD F-22 Raptors, supported by KC-135 Stratotankers and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, successfully completed two intercepts of Russian bomber aircraft formations entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone last night. pic.twitter.com/9iSZK0Vu2F North American Aerospace Defense Command (@NORADCommand) June 17, 2020 The head of NORAD, Gen. Terrence J. OShaughnessy said that with the latest incident, Russian planes have penetrated our Canadian or Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zones for the eighth time so far in 2020. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, NORAD constantly monitors the northern approaches to our nations and our operations make it clear that we will conduct homeland defense efforts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, the general said in a written statement. Military officials told the Washington Times that two Tu-95 bombers, two Su-35 fighter jets, and an A-50 airborne control aircraft were first intercepted. A second formation included two Tu-95 bombers and an A-50. They got as close as 32 nautical miles from the coast of Alaska, said officials. The planes, however, didnt breach American airspace. The Russian Ministry of Defense posted a video online of their planes taking the planned flight before they were intercepted by the U.S. fighter jets. The ministry confirmed the U.S. intercept of its aircraft. At certain stages of the route, Russian planes were escorted by the U.S. Air Force F-22 fighters, the ministry said, noting that the flight lasted for about 11 hours, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Earlier this month, on June 10, NORAD said it scrambled fighter jets to intercept Russian bombers and jets near Alaska. In May, the U.S. military said two Russian Su-35 fighter jets flew in an unprofessional and potentially unsafe manner while trying to intercept a Navy spy plane over the Mediterranean Sea. The unnecessary actions of the Russian Su-35 pilots were inconsistent with good airmanship and international flight rules, and jeopardized the safety of flight of both aircraft, the Navy said at the time, adding that the incident was determined to be unsafe and unprofessional due to the Russian pilots taking close station on each wing of the P-8A simultaneously, restricting the P-8As ability to safely maneuver. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 18) Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque denounced Ricardo Morales, president of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), for failure to curb corruption in the agency in a series of tweets on Wednesday night, followed by a public rant during a Malacanang briefing. Bakit ni-isa, wala pa siyang nalilitis, ni-isa wala pa siyang natatanggal?, Roque, author of the Universal Health Care Law when he was a party-list representative during the 17th Congress, said in his Thursday briefing. [Translation: Why hasn't he investigated or removed anyone yet?] Roque further lamented that Morales complaints of lack of funds in PhilHealth are primarily due to the presence of corrupt officials in the agency. Tapos magrereklamo siya (Morales) na walang pera," he said. "Natural dahil ang mga buwaya, buhay na buhay pa rin diyan sa PhilHealth. [Translation: He complains that there are no funds. Of course, the crocodiles are still alive there in PhilHealth.] During Tuesday's virtual briefing of the joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Universal Health Care, Morales recommended to Congress a "general delay" in the Universal Healthcare Law's implementation due to low collection of contributions. "The collection from the direct contributors has dropped significantly kasi wala hong negosyo, walang nagbabayad ng premium sa mga direct contributors," said Morales. [Translation: The collection from the direct contributors has dropped significantly because businesses are down, no one is paying premiums among the direct contributors.] The PhilHealth chief added the agency's benefit expenses as of April 30 have reached over 52.5 billion while collections amounted to only 46.5 billion. However, the presidential spokesperson said delaying the implementation of the UHC Act would be a blatant disregard of the law, adding that mandated insurance coverage should be given to more than 100 million Filipinos. He said premiums paid by contributors will not be enough and government funds should be allocated to cover free medicine and health services. "Ang aking panawagan po sa mga namumuno ng PhilHealth, kung hindi niyo po mapapatupad ang isang batas na na-certify as urgent ng Pangulo mismo... siguro po hahanap na lang po ng iba na pwedeng magpatupad niyan," Roque said. [Translation: My appeal to PhilHealth officials, if you cannot implement a law certified as urgent by the President himself... maybe we will just find other people who can do that.] In an interview with CNN Philippines' News Night, PhilHealth Spokesperson Shirley Domingo clarified that the agency has actually started implementing the law, but some provisions might have to wait. "What we meant only was that some activities such as outpatient benefit package will, or might be delayed a little bit to next year but groundwork for the program is already starting this year," she said. When asked about Roque's insinuation that Morales should step down, Domingo said, "As everybody in government says, they serve at the pleasure of the President so if this is the pleasure of the President, so be it." Roque said he will arrange a meeting with Morales and President Rodrigo Duterte to sort out issues in the agency once and for all. Last May 4, Duterte ordered PhilHealth to suspend the collection of higher premiums from overseas Filipino workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic that caused them to lose jobs and return to the country. Beleaguered PhilHealth On allegations that PhilHealth has failed to pay hospitals, Domingo said some claims may be denied due to lack of data and other requirements. "The statement that we owe some hospitals billions of pesos, it really depends on the claims that they filed with us," Domingo said, adding that the health facilities could refile the documents if they deem fit. The state-owned health insurance agency was also embroiled in the ghost dialysis scam last year, where government funds were allegedly used for nonexistent kidney treatments. READ: PhilHealth sues dialysis center, admits widespread 'ghost treatments' Duterte asked for the resignations of top PhilHealth officials following the insurance fraud scandal, which led to the hiring of Morales as its new chief. Roque served as the lawyer of the scams whistleblowers Edwin Roberto and Liezel Santos, employees of WellMed Dialysis and Laboratory Center in Novaliches, Quezon City, who exposed the hospitals continuing filing of claims for dialysis of dead patients. He complained that only those informants and the health clinic have been charged, but no officials within PhilHealth have been implicated "Sinong naniniwala na walang kakuntyaba diyan sa PhilHealth? [Can anybody believe that they weren't colluding with someone working for PhilHealth?]" he said. Roque emphasized that Morales was given enough time to investigate corruption in PhilHealth, but he was unsuccessful to punish or remove anyone up to now. Roque argued that the agency can do its own administrative investigation parallel to court proceedings if it really wanted to weed out individuals involved in questionable practices. Pablo Escobars crime partner and one of Colombias pioneering cocaine cowboys has been released after a long prison sentence in the U.S. and been deported to Germany, his lawyer said Tuesday. Carlos Lehder left on a flight for his new home in Berlin on Monday after being released from a U.S. prison in Florida, where he had been held as part of the governments witness protection program, attorney Oscar Arroyave told The Associated Press. Lehder, 70, was one of the leaders with Escobar of the Medellin cartel that dominated the global cocaine trade in the 1980s. At the same time an admirer of both John Lennon and Adolf Hitler, Lehder is portrayed in the Netflix series Narcos as a wild, womanizing criminal who set up a transit point for cocaine-laden aircraft on a private island, Normans Cay, a few hundred miles off the coast of Florida in the Bahamas. His extradition to the U.S. in 1987 kicked off a period of intense U.S. targeting of Colombian narcos, who at the nadir of the bloody cartel turf wars managed to bribe and threaten their way out of prosecution in the South American country. Escobar, his partner turned rival, never saw a U.S. jail cell, dying in a shootout with police in Medellin in 1993. But thousands of Colombian drug traffickers have since gone to U.S. prisons, many of them serving far less time than Lehder. Arroyave, who didnt represent Lehder at the time of his arrest, said federal sentencing guidelines make it very costly for defendants who fight charges and lose in a jury trial. Nobody accused of drug trafficking goes to trial in the U.S. anymore, said Arroyave, who said he plans to travel soon to Berlin to share a celebratory beer with his client after such a long ordeal. Had he pled guilty, he wouldve been home 15 years ago. In todays world, there are drug traffickers far bigger that Carlos Lehder who pay five to six years. Lehder was originally sentenced to 135 years plus life, but after agreeing to testify against former Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega, he had his sentence reduced to 55 years. Lehder acquired German citizenship through his father, an immigrant to Colombia. Arroyave said Lehder has no interest in returning to Colombia and German authorities provided assistance in allowing him to resettle in his adopted homeland. He was always crazy but he was also very smart, said Richard Gregorie, a former U.S attorney in Miami who indicted Noriega and several other Colombian drug traffickers close to Lehder. Hes old but I wonder much craziness he still has left. What compelled you to try to understand Cohns humanity as much as you do here? I was always fascinated by the fact that he was gay and that he lived, on one hand, so deeply in the closet, but also so openly in a way, too. He was able to amass this kind of power and scare people enough, I think, and have people in his debt so much that he could behave in a way where hes just very open without fear of being exposed. I found it poignant to see how different he looked in those photos [of Cohn vacationing] in Provincetown as compared to how he looked so miserable [in other contexts]. And people say, like, He looks like hes just so unhappy. Right? But then you see the photos in Provincetown and you hear the stories of how he lived there, and he looked happy and he looked more relaxed. And its painful but important for us to recognize that yes, he did it to himself in some ways, and he made choices, but I know how hard it was to be openly gay at the time. In an interview you gave years ago, you talked about Angels in America as a play about forgiveness and how that wasnt easy for you or your family. Where do you stand on that now? Lets put it this way: I dont even know if I would say any more that the message of Angels in America is that you forgive Roy Cohn. You dont have to forgive someone, but you can try to understand. You can still hold both feelings. You can empathize with how they became who they are or what they had to suffer through so that the rest of us can grow. We can understand and change things. I dont want anyone to have to live in the closet and be ashamed and terrified that theyre going to be found out for being gay. So if understanding what Roy Cohn had to go through helps that greater process of overcoming all that, thats great. But that doesnt mean I forgive him. Deputy Information Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide says no political party has the right to dictate to the Electoral Commision of Ghana in the performance of its duties. The Deputy Information Minister spoke on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' on Tuesday, June 16, 2020. According to him, the EC's independence should not be undermined, hence the Commission's decision to compile a new voters' register to conduct credible elections must hold. Hon. Enam Hadzide was commenting on the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) petition before the Supreme Court seeking a ruling on the EC's decision to exclude the voters' ID card from the exercise. The NDC sent two reliefs to the Supreme Court with one challenging the constitutionality of the EC to conduct the new voters' registration exercise and the other on their decision to use only the Ghana card and passport for the exercise. But the party dropped their legal case on the constitutionality of the electoral management body to conduct the mass registration exercise and are now seeking a relief on why the voters' ID card should be excluded from the exercise and whether it doesn't violate the constitutional provisions on the country's electoral system. Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi, Hon. Enam Hadzide called on all political parties and figures to protect the EC instead of opposing it. "We must all protect the independence of the Electoral Commission. Whether in government or opposition, you shouldn't be given the opportunity to dictate to the Electoral Commission," he stated. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Cruise ships docking in Sydney defied NSW Health advice to test sick passengers for COVID-19, and little was done to address the compliance failure at the onset of the pandemic. Guidelines issued to the cruise industry by NSW Health on February 22 advised that passengers and crew tested aboard for influenza should have additional swabs taken for COVID-19 testing. The Ruby Princess cruise ship was the source of hundreds of Australia's coronavirus cases. Credit:Janie Barrett Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared on February 27 Australia was in a coronavirus pandemic. But when the Ruby Princess arrived in Sydney on March 8, after 30 passengers on board had been tested for influenza, the number of swabs collected for COVID-19 was zero. North Korea on Tuesday blew up an inter-Korean liaison office - HOGP/KCNA via KNS North Korea on Wednesday rejected the Souths offer to send special envoys to calm escalating tensions a day after it destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office, threatening instead to send troops to demilitarised zones near the border. In a series of stinging statements issued through state media, Pyongyang warned that the blowing up of the office on Tuesday was only a first step in what appears to be a staged rolling back of peace accords struck between the two countries in 2018. The North has been piling pressure on Seoul since early this month to take action over defector groups in the South who send anti-Pyongyang messages and food supplies across the border via balloons and other means. After Pyongyang warned of another escalation over the weekend, Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, on Monday offered to send Chung Eui-yong, his national security adviser, and Suh Hoon, the Souths spy chief, to help diffuse the situation. On Wednesday, North Korea angrily rebuffed the offer. In 2018 Kim Yo-jong greeted President Moon Jae-in with a handshake but now she has turned on him - KCNA/AFP We flatly reject the tactless and sinister proposal, said a message issued under the name of Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leaders sister. She said the offer was disrespectful in the face of the Norths strict pandemic lockdown, adding: we are extremely displeased to get such an absurd judgment and reckless proposal. Kim said the North expected proper actions from the South, demanding they strictly control words and acts of those fools who keep provoking us, without specifying exactly what she meant. She also directly criticised President Moon for expressing his commitment to the 2018 accords, accusing him of "shameless sophistry". The jibe was a step too far for the president's office, which strongly condemned as "rude and senseless," reported Yonhap News Agency. The liaison office before and after the explosion - Newscom / Alamy Live News "We won't tolerate any more of North Korea's indiscreet rhetoric and act," which "fundamentally harm" mutual trust between the leaders of the two sides, said Yoon Do-han, senior secretary for public communication. Story continues On Wednesday afternoon, Kim Yeon-chul, the South Korean unification minister, offered to resign over the "worsening of inter-Korean relations," saying he would take responsibility over "not being able to meet the expectations of the people." President Moon has yet to formally accept his resignation. South Korea last week already took legal action against defectors violating the Inter-Korean Exchange and Co-operation Act by sending the leaflets, and deployed police to border areas to try to stop activists from launching their packages into the North. In a separate Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) statement on Wednesday, a spokesman for the General Staff of the (North) Korean Peoples Army (KPA) said it would dispatch troops to Mount Kumgang and Kaesong near the border, where the two Koreas had previously carried out joint economic projects. Plans included reinstalling police posts that had been withdrawn from the heavily fortified demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating North and South, and reinforcing artillery units near the western sea border with their readiness alert heightened to the level of top class combat duty, reported Reuters. The KPA warned already on Tuesday that it had been studying an action plan to re-enter zones that had been demilitarised during a diplomatic thaw in 2018 and turn the front line into a fortress. Analysts have suggested that, while defector groups are an irritant, Pyongyangs recent outbursts against Seoul are fuelled by frustration at the lack of progress in denuclearisation talks and its perception that President Moon has not done enough to break the deadlock with the United States. This photo provided by the North Korean government shows the demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong, North Korea - KCNA via KNS In a speech on Monday, Mr Moon said he regretted that progress had not been made but asked Pyongyang not to reverse existing peace deals and to return to the negotiating table. However, after the destruction of the liaison office, Seoul warned it would respond sternly if the North continued to raise tensions. The destruction of the office "broke the expectations of all people who hope for the development of inter-Korean relations and lasting peace on the peninsula," Kim You-geun, the deputy national security adviser, said. The US state department and China have both urged calm and restraint. When extreme climate conditions interact with stressors to social systems, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the consequences could be severe unless experts from diverse backgrounds work together to develop comprehensive solutions to combat their negative impacts. That's the recommendation of a new article in Nature Climate Change published Monday and co-authored by a University of Central Florida researcher. Thomas Wahl, an assistant professor in UCF's Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering and a member of UCF's National Center for Integrated Coastal Research, is one of 14 experts with diverse backgrounds who authored the article. "In the perspective article my input mainly focused on the impacts of connected extremes on the water sector," Wahl says. "With my research group at UCF, we have extensively worked on many different projects focused on compound flooding, when, for example, storm surges coincide with extreme rainfall or high river discharge." The article brought together scientists and stakeholder representatives with different backgrounds, ranging from the natural sciences to social sciences, public health and engineering. The authors focused on four main sectors -- food, water, health and infrastructure -- where connected extremes often lead to unforeseen impacts. advertisement Examples of connected extremes include the impact of Hurricane Maria in 2017 on Puerto Rico's under-maintained infrastructure, limited budget and aging population, and the spring 2011 Mississippi River floods in which water was released to protect urban areas at the detriment of agricultural lands. A present example could be the COVID-19 pandemic and the current hurricane season, Wahl says. "The COVID-19 crisis will very likely increase the impacts associated with the climatic extreme events that will inevitably occur somewhere across the globe over the next weeks or months or already have occurred," Wahl says. "For example, shelters cannot operate at full capacity, health care systems are already under pressure, and emergency funds are depleted." The researcher says many of the most impactful natural hazards experienced over the past decade could be considered connected extremes, where either different factors in the physical climate system combined in unfortunate ways or the impacts were made worse by interactions between physical and societal systems. "It's important to recognize and treat connected extremes as such, and for scientists from different fields to engage directly with stakeholders and decision makers to develop new, robust and flexible policies to better combat their negative impacts," Wahl says. Article co-authors were Colin Raymond, lead author, with California Institute of Technology and Columbia University; Radley M. Horton with Columbia University; Jakob Zscheischler with the University of Bern; Olivia Martius with the University of Bern; Amir AghaKouchak with the University of California; Jennifer Balch with the University of Colorado-Boulder; Steven G. Bowen with Aon; Suzana J. Camargo with Columbia University; Jeremy Hess with the University of Washington; Kai Kornhuber with Columbia University; Michael Oppenheimer with Princeton University; Alex C. Ruane with the Goddard Institute for Space Studies; and Kathleen White with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Wahl earned his doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Siegen, Germany, and joined UCF in 2017. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in violent hand-to-hand clashes with Chinese troops on the disputed border in the Himalayas late on Monday as the threat of a full-blown war flared. The soldiers died after intense fighting in the Galwan Valley, in Ladakh, where there has been a tense stand-off for more than a month. The Indian army confirmed the death toll last night after initially saying only three had died, including a colonel. India blamed China for starting the fights, which were the first at the disputed border in 45 years. Senior Indian army sources said that 34 of their soldiers were missing. A Twitter post from a senior reporter at the pro-Beijing 'Global Times' in China suggested five of its troops had been killed, and 11 injured. But the figures were unconfirmed. Hu Xijin, the paper's editor, posted: "Based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash. I want to tell the Indian side, don't be arrogant and misread China's restraint as being weak. China doesn't want to have a clash with India, but we don't fear it." These are the first casualties suffered by either Asian superpower in the dispute over the 3,488km border since 1975. According to Indian sources, no shots were fired, with the clashes involving stones and batons. Thousands of troops have been involved in a stand-off for more than a month. Neither side carries weapons, to avoid fatalities and to avert a diplomatic escalation of tensions along the so-called Line of Actual Control. Last week it was revealed that 12,000 Chinese troops had occupied 59 sq km of Ladakh. The aim was to slap down Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, in response to his ever-closer relationship with the United States. Chinese forces were able to cross the border and annexe unprotected territory after India failed to recommence patrols due to coronavirus. They breached the Line of Actual Control on May 5 and 6 to occupy Indian territory at four locations - Pangong Tso, Galwan River, Demchok and Hot Springs. The Indian foreign ministry last night blamed China for the fatalities. It said: "The Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control in the Galwan Valley. "A violent face-off happened as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there. "Both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese." A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said its troops acted in self-defence after two Indian soldiers crossed into Chinese territory on Monday "provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces on the two sides". A former Indian army officer said the contrasting statements meant it was difficult to apportion blame. He added: "How these soldiers have been killed we have no idea because there are contradicting statements. "However, we can say the aggressive tone suggests China won't retreat and defensive tone means India doesn't want any escalation." The Indian army said talks between the two sides were under way. India and China fought the Sino-India war and agreed a ceasefire in 1962, establishing the Line of Actual Control separating Indian-controlled Ladakh from Chinese-controlled Tibet. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] London: Australian plans to extract hundreds of millions from global tech giants are in disarray after the Trump administration jettisoned international negotiations that were crucial to making Silicon Valley firms pay more tax. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia would impose a tax on internet behemoths like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon in 2018. The government later reversed course amid concerns the go-it-alone approach could prompt US President Donald Trump to launch retaliatory measures which could spiral into a trade war. Instead, Australia said it would throw its support behind efforts by the Paris-based OECD and G20 countries to design an international tax accord which had a stronger chance of surviving and might even be supported by the affected multinationals. However US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has written to treasurers in the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy advising them he believed the talks were at an impasse and America would not entertain discussions until later this year at the earliest. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. San Francisco, 17 June 2020: The Report Smart Clock Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Distribution Channel (Specialty Stores, Online), By Region (North America, Europe, APAC, Central & South America, MEA), And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025 The global smart clock market size is expected to reach USD 2.29 billion by 2025 registering a CAGR of 25.4%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Increased spending on smart home automation products on account of changing lifestyles is projected to boost the market growth. Major companies in the market including Amazon, Lenovo Group Ltd., and SDI Technologies are investing in R&D for the development of advanced products. For instance, in June 2019, Lenovo Group Ltd. launched an innovative AI-assisted smart clock featuring Google Assistant. The device has a fabric cover with a four-inch smart display. North America was the largest regional market in 2018. Increased adoption of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) in U.S. has fueled the home automation industry over the past few years. Manufacturers are offering innovative smart home products including clocks and speakers. These devices offer remote monitoring of common household electrical products including lights, fans, ACs, TVs, etc. Prominent companies have undertaken marketing strategies, such as product development and business expansion, to cater to the increasing demand across the globe. Access Research Report of Smart Clock Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/smart-clock-market Further key findings from the study suggest: Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing regional market at a CAGR of 26.4% from 2019 to 2025 North America was the largest market in 2018 and is projected to expand further retaining its leading position throughout the forecast years Online distribution channel was the largest segment in 2018 and accounted for more than half of the overall market share Specialty stores is expected to be the fastest-growing distribution channel segment over the forecast period Key companies in the global smart clock market include Amazon.com, Inc.; Lenovo Group Ltd.; SDI Technologies, Inc.; and Kickstarter Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/electronic-and-electrical Grand View Research has segmented the global smart clock market on the basis of distribution channel and region: Smart Clock Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2025) Specialty Stores Online Others Smart Clock Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2025) North America Europe Asia Pacific Central & South America Middle East & Africa Access Press Release of Smart Clock Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-smart-clock-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 Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey told reporters that Laurie Melchionda (pictured) was shot at her home Wednesday A well-known Boston nurse was fatally shot Wednesday morning in the entrance of her home by her former neighbor whom she had a long-running feud with before he moved, authorities said. Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey told reporters that Laurie Melchionda was shot at her Braintree home just before 11.44am. Police responding to the residence found her old neighbor Robert Bonang, 61, near the front entrance. Melchionda was found nearby suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. She was rushed to South Shore Hospital where she was pronounced dead a short time later. Bonang, who hasn't lived in the neighborhood for six years, was taken into custody. According to CBS, Bonang was dressed as a delivery person at the time of the shooting and was wearing a 'brown-type color uniform'. Morrissey said Bonang used to live in the neighborhood, but he now lives in Marshfield. 'They are people who are known to each other,' Morrissey said. Police responding to the residence (pictured) found her old neighbor Robert Bonang, 61, near the front entrance. Melchionda was found nearby suffering from multiple gunshot wounds 'Shes well known in town. Shes been active in town in the board of health. Shes a well-respected nurse. Shes extremely well-thought of in town,' Morrissey added. Authorities said they believe Melchionda, who worked as the Director of Health Services for Weston Public Schools, was targeted. 'It is believed that this is a targeted event, it's not a random act and this is not something that the neighbors should have to worry about,' Morrissey said. Morrissey said Melchionda and Bonang had prior disagreements when he lived in the neighborhood, but he did not provide any additional details. Authorities have not said what exactly led to the shooting. The investigation is ongoing. A year after the mega launch of the Didi Ke Bolo (Talk to Didi) campaign by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on July 29 last year, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee has launched the Banglar Jubo Shakti (Bengals Youth Power) initiative to create one lakh Jubo Joddhas (Youth Warriors) in the state. The brainchild of political strategist Prashant Kishor, the move by the ruling party in West Bengal, after the success of Didi Ke Bolo, is likely to further energise the TMC rank and file. Kishor was roped in for his political acumen by Mamata on June 6, 2019, after the Bharatiya Janata Party made deep inroads into the state during the Lok Sabha polls. Trinamool Youth Congress (TMYC) has already completed the registration process till June 11, 2020 to create a separate wing called Jubo Joddhas'. Three committees for state, district and field have been created comprising around 2,800 TMYC members for effective implementation of this initiative. The registration of youths from across the state has already completed on June 11 and those who are 18-35 years of age can become a Jubo Joddha. This is going to be significant for us to take on the misinformation being spread by the BJP in Bengal, a TMC leader said. Post registration, all the people will be redirected to a WhatsApp group of their respective assembly constituency so that they can stay closely connected with the other Jubo Joddhas active in the area. Soon, a mega virtual interactive session will be organised to meet and interact with the one lakh Jubo Joddhas, and to inform them about the activities that they need to undertake in making the party strong at the block level by helping the people in need. Speaking to News18, BJP state vice-president Joy Prakash Majumdar said, It is unfortunate that the TMC is now fully dependent on an outsider called Prashant Kishor to prepare their political road map ahead of the next assembly polls in the state. This shows that the ruling party is losing its popularity among the masses. Over the years they lost their connect with the people while looting public money. I believe that such initiatives like Didi Ke Bolo, Banglar Gorbo Mamata and now Jubo Joddhas are not going to help them in forming the next government in Bengal. Like Didi Ke Bolo and Banglar Gorbo Mamata (Bengal's Pride Mamata), Jubo Joddhas is also going to be a flop show. It is evident that the TMC is now scared of the BJPs immense popularity in Bengal and this is the reason they are preventing us from standing beside the people in this time of Covid-19 and Cyclone Amphan crisis. We are confident to form the next government in Bengal as people are fed up with the negative TMC. Didi Ke Bolo was launched by Mamata Banerjee on July 29, 2019. It is a unique initiative to provide a platform to all to connect directly with the chief minister with their grievances and suggestions. Anyone can reach out to her by calling 9137091370 or by logging onto www.didikebolo.com. The objective of this initiative is to improve citizen participation and engagement for expedited action. It will reach out to nearly 80 per cent of the households in West Bengal to inform and engage them with the initiative over the next several months. Under this campaign, party workers will have to meet local cadres and influential persons of a village. They have to conduct three-four hours of 'Jan Sanjog Sabha (Public Interaction Meets) at every pre-identified village, and dinner with local party workers and booth-level members is a must. Also, party workers have to spend a night at the house of one of the party members and supporters, conduct door-to-door visits and hoist the party flag at a pre-identified venue of significance. In the 2016 assembly election, the BJPs vote share was 10.2 per cent and in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls it went up to 40.3 per cent. There was an increase of 30.1 per cent vote share mainly because of Hindus coalescing towards the BJP. In the last three years, the saffron party has managed to cultivate religion-driven politics in Bengal. A close analysis shows that from the 2011 assembly polls to the 2016 ones, the Left Front lost its vote share by 9.88 per cent and from the 2014 Lok Sabha election to the 2019 edition its vote share further plummeted to about 16 per cent. However, the Congress vote share from the 2011 to the 2016 assembly polls increased from 8.91 per cent to 12.3 per cent, but it fell drastically in the 2014 Lok Sabha election (9.6 per cent) while in the 2019 polls the party managed to secure only 5 per cent. Considering the increase in the BJPs vote share, TMC leaders feel that Jubo Joddhas will add more strength to the ruling party at the ground level. On the other side, analysts say the state BJP needs to come out with a strategy to deal with issues like the resentment over the change in citizenship rules and the migrant workers crisis, which may go against the party in the coming state polls. NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2020 / We are delighted to announce that Coresignal, a data service which supports business practices behind investment intelligence, lead generation, trend forecasting, and data-driven recruitment activities, is available for clients worldwide. Driven by the commitment to provide high-quality business intelligence, we developed information extraction solutions and technology enhancements that could obtain even the most resistant to extraction data points. Coresignal service offers raw, high-quality data focusing on signal-based business intelligence, job market changes, and talent data, which empower companies to make better-informed decisions. "Coresignal team was determined to make a notoriously difficult data extraction process, which requires an in-depth understanding of the industry, an extensive proxy infrastructure, and strategic use of IT resources, accessible for everyone. Also, we are fully aware that the methodology surrounding big data acquisition and use has to be handled with extreme care and transparency. For this reason, we place responsibility at the core of Coresignal practises." - says Jeremy Ward, CMO at Coresignal Identity of Coresignal is based on a pursuit to uphold the Open Internet principles, as the big data should always serve the public interest. Therefore, all data available through the Coresignal services has been and always will be accumulated from publicly available sources. Finally, being fully conscious of the fact that gaining trust in the field of big data is no simple matter, Coresignal is committed to maintaining ethical business practises, ensuring professional integrity, transparency of our methods and privacy of our clients. The team guarantees to provide all necessary support related to fair and proper use of data. *** About Coresignal Coresignal is a leading provider of high-quality datasets supporting investment intelligence, lead generation, trend forecasting, and data-driven recruitment activities. Our sets include more than 2000 data points from 16 publicly available sources, which serve to enhance the procedures behind the top investors in the market, human resource platforms, and end-to-end sales platforms. It is our mission to promote fact-based business decisions by equipping companies with the best signal data available. More information about Coresignal can be found at: https://coresignal.com/ CONTACT: Jeremy Ward, CMO at Coresignal Website: https://coresignal.com/ Email: jeremy@coresignal.com SOURCE: Coresignal View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/593549/Coresignal--A-Service-To-Unlock-Data-Potential Amid the India-China clashes, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning his silence over the fierce clash at Galwan Valley. Gandhi also asked PM Modi to answer what had happened at the Line of Control. Gandhi wrote, "Why is PM silent? Why is he hiding?... How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land?". Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? - Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 17, 2020 On Tuesday, at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese forces at Galwan valley after a massive escalation in the five-week border row which started in May this year. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: Four Indian soldiers critical after violent face-off in Ladakh, says report The Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement, it revised the figure to 20, further adding that 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries". It is the first fatal clash since 1975 and the most serious since 1967. It is the biggest confrontation between the two armies after the 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed. Also read: India-China border clash: 'Closely monitoring, support peaceful resolution,' says US BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: Government of Uzbekistan has allocated additional funds for the implementation of projects in the service sector, Trend reports citing the press service of the president. A working meeting on the development of services and domestic tourism in the country was held under the chairmanship of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev via a video conference on June 16. It was announced that the head of state signed a resolution on provision of more than $100 million of credit resources from Uzbekistan's Reconstruction and Development Fund for projects in the sphere of services. These funds will be allocated through both public and private banks with the rate not exceeding 15 percent, the report said. The Central Bank has been instructed to allocate 300 billion soum ($29.5 million) of credit resources for self-employed persons within the framework of family entrepreneurship programs, and the Ministry of Finance - to introduce a system of subsidies for unemployed citizens starting business activities to cover their costs associated with the rental of buildings and structures for three months. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 23:05:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday that George Floyd's killing has become emblematic of the excessive use of disproportionate force by law enforcement against people of African descent, against people of color, against indigenous people and racial and ethnic minorities in countries across the globe. "Since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis last month, a wave of massive protests has surged forward, not only across every state in the United States but also in dozens of countries in Europe and all around the world," Bachelet said in an urgent debate on the "current racially inspired human rights violations, systematic racism, police brutality against people of African descent and violence against peaceful protests" of the 43rd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council. She said the protests are the culmination of many generations of pain and struggles for equality, "we owe it to those who have gone before, as well as those to come, to seize this moment to demand fundamental change." "We need decisive action across the world, not only to reform or re-imagine institutions and law enforcement agencies, but to address pervasive racism that corrodes institutions, entrenches inequality and underlies so many violations of human rights," said Bachelet. On May 25, Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. A white police officer, knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down, begging for his life and repeatedly saying "I can't breathe". Videos from security cameras and made by witnesses later became public. Whether or not they are filmed and go viral on social media, any acts of misconduct by police personnel should be met with immediate investigation, sanction or prosecution, based on international standards, according to Bachelet. Systemic racial discrimination extends beyond any expression of individual hatred. It results from bias in multiple systems and institutions of public policy, which separately and together perpetuate and reinforce barriers to equality, she said. From poor health care to inadequate education, limited job advancement, refusals of housing and mortgage loans, ill-treatment by officials, practical restrictions on the right to vote and over-incarceration, racial discrimination harms millions of people, Bachelet said. "We need schools and universities that are free of bias. We need economies that give truly equal opportunities and fair treatment to all. We need political institutions that are more responsive and inclusive. We need justice systems which are truly just," Bachelet said. "We should go beyond existing recommendations. Time is of the essence. Patience has run out. Black lives matter. Indigenous lives matter. The lives of people of color matter. All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights," she concluded. Enditem A pall of gloom descended on Seel village in Patiala as the news of Naib Subedar Mandeep Singhs death, in a clash with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley, reached them on Wednesday afternoon. The 39-year-old firearms instructor with Armys 3-Medium artillery unit had told his family that his unit was moving to Bathinda next month. Naib subedar Mandeep Singhs family members in an inconsolable state after receiving the news of his death in the face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakhs Galwan Valley on Monday night. (Bharat Bhushan/HT) His two children, Mehakpreet Kaur, 17, and son Jobanpreet Singh, 11, were excited that their father was finally going to be posted closer home. His wife, Gurdeep Kaur, 37, and mother Shakuntala Devi, 70 too could not wait for him to be back. Five days ago, he had called them, saying that he wont be able to contact them for the coming few days as his unit was marching towards the Line of Actual Control (LAC). On Wednesday afternoon around 3, they found out that he was no more. He was the sole breadwinner of the family. His cousin, Captain Nirmal Singh (retd), said, Around 10am, I received a call from the army authorities that Mandeep had received multiple injuries in the attack. Later, they told me that he had attained martyrdom. His wife and children remained inconsolable. We have lost everything. We never thought such a day would come, said his mother, tightly clinging to his photograph. Youngest of four children, Mandeep had joined the Army in December 1997. Patiala deputy commissioner Kumar Amit, who reached the village along with senior superintendent of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu, said, We are coordinating with army authorities for the last rites of the martyr. The mortal remains are expected to reach by Thursday. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Click here to read the full article. The future of J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is still up for grabs but the clock is ticking. Since the value department store became an early victim of the coronavirus shutdown and filed for bankruptcy on May 15, a series of would-be buyers have come calling. More from WWD But they might have to move quickly. The retailer is barreling toward a key deadline in the Chapter 11 process and by July 15 will either have to get its lenders to approve a business plan or start to gear up for a sale. None of the suitors have acknowledged their interest, but sources said web giant Amazon, private equity firm Sycamore Partners and a bloc consisting of Authentic Brands Group and landlords Simon Property Group Inc. and Brookfield Property Partners have all taken a look at the retailers business and assets. Each would have their own take on J.C. Penneys potential. Amazon is said to have looked at some of the companys real estate with land that could be converted to a distribution center and some think the suitor could also be interested in the retailers private label business. Sycamore could slot the chain into its portfolio of retailers, which includes Staples, The Limited, Belk and Talbots, and has some open capacity now that it successfully pulled out of its deal to buy control of Victorias Secret. And ABG, an intellectual property specialist and flexible dealmaker, could help the landlords manage through a difficult bankruptcy given how much space the retailer occupies in malls. Already, Penneys is negotiating with its landlords on a different front. Last week, the retailer formally received the bankruptcy courts approval for an extension until July 13 to pay some $34 million in rent for the months of June and July. The company is seeking longer-term relief from landlords for both monetary and non-monetary lease modifications, its attorney Aparna Yenamandra of Kirkland & Ellis LLP has told the court. Story continues As we think about our near-term goals and our long-term goals, our focus right now is to get ourselves in the best position possible, as we head toward July 15, Yenamandra told the court at a recent hearing. J.C. Penney has sought to project an image of determined rebirth during the bankruptcy and through the pandemic. The retailer has pushed forward with an aggressive reopening plan, turning the lights back on at some 475 stores as of last week, with plans to reopen more fully by the end of July. Part of that process has also involved negotiating with vendors, an always delicate process during a bankruptcy where vendors have reasonable concerns about getting paid. Until the retailer received approval for its $900 million DIP facility this month, some vendors were hesitant to ship to it, Yenamandra has told the court. Since then the company and its advisers have been working on negotiating mutually beneficial post-petition trade terms, she has said. One of the vendors that had been holding off was Nike USA Inc., but on Tuesday, the Texas federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy approved a settlement between the parties for Nike to continue shipping. J.C. Penney has said its merchandising plan envisions receiving another $80 million in goods by the end of the fiscal quarter. To meet that projection, nearly a third of those goods need to start shipping immediately, and the rest need to be on their way by early July, the retailer said in a court filing on Monday. How well Penneys can stand up through the process could help determine just how the company exits the Chapter 11 process. ABG has a longstanding partnership with Simon Properties and Brookfield and has helped give a number of other retailers a second life of sorts after bankruptcy. In February, ABG teamed with the real estate firms to purchase teen retailer Forever 21 out of bankruptcy court for $81.1 million. Under the terms of the deal, ABG and Simon each own 37.5 percent of the intellectual property and operating business and Brookfield owns 25 percent. ABG also followed the same playbook when it purchased Aeropostale in 2016, teaming on that deal with Simon and General Growth Properties. ABG owns the retailers intellectual property and the mall developers operate the stores. ABG is also seen as the frontrunner to buy Brooks Brothers in partnership with Simon and Brookfield, as reported. In each of these instances Brooks Brothers, Forever 21 and Aeropostale the retailers carry their own private label collections and are viewed by ABG as their own brands that can be expanded and exploited. In the case of J.C. Penney, which is a multibrand retailer, ABG would most likely employ a different strategy. Sources said ABGs chief executive officer, Jamie Salter, is pondering some creative solutions if his consortium is successful in buying J.C. Penney, but for now, hes keeping his idea under wraps. An ABG spokesperson said the company had no comment on Penneys, but when asked about Brooks Brothers earlier this week, Salter acknowledged that he was very acquisitive and looking at a lot of things in the marketplace. ABG has also shown a taste for luxury and bought Barneys New York out of bankruptcy last year. Narendra Modi New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on 21st June on the occasion of International Yoga Day. This will be telecast live at 6.30 AM on digital platforms. PM has also called for an all-party meeting on 19 June to discuss the ongoing border conflict with China. The meeting will be attended by presidents of all political parties. Advertisement Narendra ModiTwenty Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel, were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The Grand Rapids school board discussed deep budget cuts Monday as the district grapples with the financial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Staffing and programming cuts as well as school closures could all be on the horizon for Grand Rapids. The two primary revenue streams for the School Aid Fund are sales and income taxes. However, both have taking a major hit during the pandemic, resulting in a gaping budget hole. In May, the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agencys economic outlook and budget review revealed 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 anticipated for 2020-21. The projected $1.1-billion decrease next year would equate to a cut of $650 per student, Chief Financial Officer Larry Oberst told the school board during the June 16 virtual meeting. Given those stark numbers, he said school board is facing roughly $10.6 million in cuts in the upcoming budget across all departments, if they do not receive supplemental funds. Districts across the state must make difficult decisions regarding their current budget as well as for the 2020-2021 school year. Most Kent and Ottawa county school districts receive $8,111 per student current. The goal is to keep the cuts as far away from the classrooms as possible," said John Helmholdt, communications director for Grand Rapids Public Schools. A large number of the cuts proposed are at the central office and administration level. However, given the size of the per pupil cut, our worst-case scenario budget proposal would include closure of some schools. The Grand Rapids school board and others in West Michigan and across the state have begging for federal help to avoid make painful cuts. However, state law requires that districts adopt a balanced budget by July 1. Two weeks ago, schools in the Kent ISD launched Our Kids, Our Future. It is a platform that allows district families and community members to petition Congress to take action on additional funding for schools. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer closed school buildings March 16 to slow the spread of COVID-19, and on April 30 she announced that buildings would stay closed for the remainder of this school year. The school board is scheduled to meet Monday, June 29 at 6 p.m. for the required budget hearing and at 6:30 p.m. for a final vote on both the amended 2019-2020 and the proposed 2020-2021 budgets, said Helmholdt. As the school deals with the budget, members must also plan for schools to reopen next school year. Interim Superintendent Ron Gorman said the district is planning for multiple scenarios, including face-to-face classes, distance learning and a hybrid. He said they will need the flexibility as more information on the novel coronavirus is available and that there is no one size fits all solution. The board plans to work with experts and abide by Whitmers six-phase reopening plan in order to take necessary precautions. Gorman said school board leaders are hopeful there will be a decision regarding reopening made by early July. More from MLive: Kent County school leaders provide roadmap for reopening safely Grand Rapids Public Museum to reopen in July Monday, June 15: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Ballot drive to ban abortion procedure in Michigan short signatures, Bureau of Elections concludes WASHINGTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order on policing amid calls for action against police brutality and racism. It comes three weeks after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, in police custody, which has triggered massive and weeks-long demonstrations. The executive order focuses on three areas: credentialing and certifying police officers; boosting information sharing to track officers accused of excessive use of force; and creating co-responder programs on mental health, drug addiction, and homelessness. It also said police departments must "prohibit the use of chokeholds -- a physical maneuver that restricts an individual's ability to breathe for the purposes of incapacitation -- except in those situations where the use of deadly force is allowed by law." Trump, speaking at the White House before signing the executive order, stressed that he "strongly" opposes efforts to defund or dismantle police departments, calling the ideas "radical." "Without police, there is chaos. Without law, there is anarchy and without safety, there is catastrophe," he said. The move from the White House comes alongside separate efforts on Capitol Hill focused on police reforms. The Democrat-led House introduced a bill last week that aims to ensure officers can be held accountable for misconduct and increase transparency. The GOP-led Senate is also creating its own legislative package that will focus on police reporting, accountability, training and relations. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump's executive order "weak." "The president's weak executive order falls sadly and seriously short of what is required to combat the epidemic of racial injustice and police brutality that is murdering hundreds of Black Americans," the California Democrat said in a statement on Tuesday. "The executive order lacks meaningful, mandatory accountability measures to end misconduct. During this moment of national anguish, we must insist on bold change, not meekly surrender to the bare minimum." Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said on Tuesday that Trump's executive order is not enough. "While the president has finally acknowledged the need for policing reform, one modest executive order will not make up for his years of inflammatory rhetoric and policies designed to roll back the progress made in previous years," Schumer said in a statement. "Unfortunately, this executive order will not deliver the comprehensive meaningful change and accountability in our nation's police departments that Americans are demanding," the New York Democrat added. "Congress needs to quickly pass strong and bold legislation with provisions that makes it easier to hold police officers accountable for abuses, and President Trump must commit to signing it into law." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Tuesday that he would wait until Wednesday morning to announce whether he would bring the GOP bill to the floor ahead of the two-week July 4 recess. The Republican also said the House bill of police reform efforts is "going nowhere in the Senate," while describing it as "typical Democratic overreach." Floyd died during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25 after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Protests in response to Floyd's death, and more broadly to police violence, spread across the United States and took place in some other countries. TORONTO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Polaris Infrastructure Inc. (TSX: PIF) ("Polaris" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that all resolutions were passed at the Company's annual meeting (the "Meeting") held via live video webcast today. In addition to the election of each of the nominee directors discussed in detail below, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP were re- appointed as auditors of the Company. The board of directors determined prior to the Meeting to withdraw the resolution pertaining to the re-approval of the Company's omnibus long-term incentive plan and the approval of the unallocated awards thereunder and as such, this resolution was not submitted to the Company's shareholders. Election of Directors According to proxies received and a vote by online ballot, the five nominees set forth in the management information circular of the Company dated May 15, 2020 were elected as directors of the Company to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of the Company's shareholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed. The following are the voting results on this matter: Director Number of Votes Percentage of Votes Cast (rounded) Votes For: Votes Withheld: Votes For: Votes Withheld: Jaime Guillen 7,639,012 35,884 99.53 0.47 James V. Lawless 7,638,313 36,583 99.52 0.48 Marc Murnaghan 7,658,097 16,799 99.78 0.22 Margot Naudie 7,643,190 31,706 99.59 0.41 Marcela Paredes de Vasquez 7,638,836 36,060 99.53 0.47 About Polaris Infrastructure Inc. Polaris Infrastructure is a Toronto-based company engaged in the operation, acquisition and development of renewable energy projects in Latin America. Currently, the Company operates a 72 MW geothermal project located in Nicaragua and three run-of-river hydroelectric projects in Peru, with approximately 20 MW average (net), 8 MW average (net), and 5 MW average (net) of capacity. SOURCE Polaris Infrastructure Inc. Related Links http://polarisinfrastructure.com/ 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 People express anger on road against China after violent skirmishes at Ladakh border India oi-Briti Roy Barman New Delhi, Jun 17: At least 20 Indian Army personnel were killed on Tuesday in violent face-off in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, escalating the already volatile border standoff between the countries. The fatalities, the highest in decades, may go up further, said sources. Expressing anger against the death of army personnel people in Ahmedabad's Bapu Nagar have burnt photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday evening. India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News Indian troops crossed LAC and purposefully launched attacks: China In PM Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi, people took to the road and protested vigorously against China. People under the banner of an NGO Vishal Bharat Sansthan in Varanasi have burnt Chinese flag & effigy of Jinping. After the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers on Line of Actual Contol (LAC) in Ladakh, there is anger in the country against China. A report in the US News, while quoting sources said that 35 Chinese soldiers, including one senior officer died following the violent skirmish with the Indian troops at the Galwan Valley on Monday night. However, the radio intercepts picked up by India indicate that there were 43 casualties on the Chinese side. Meanwhile, an Indian Army statement said that the Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged in the Galwan areas where they clashed on the night of June 15-16. Prepared for action in winter, acted in summer: China had this planned for some time now Some soldiers are still missing and some of them who were taken captive were released following talks by both sides. Sources say that the Chinese were present in large numbers and were armed with nail studded iron rods and stones. Hyderabad: An Indian Army officer from Suryapet district in Telangana was killed along with 19 other soldiers in a clash between Indian and Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in Ladakh on Monday night. Bikkumalla Santosh Babu, 37, was a Colonel in the 16th Bihar Battalion and had been posted at the Indo-Chinese border for the past 18 months. A student of Korakonda Sainik School from 1993 to 2000, he went on to train at the National Defence Academy and also the Indian Military Academy. Colonel Santosh was transferred to Hyderabad, but due to the countrywide lockdown he continued to stay at the border post. His wife Santoshi and young son and daughter, Anirudh and Abhigna, have been living in Delhi. He was in service for 15 years, and served on the Pakistan border in Kashmir in 2007, where he killed three terrorists who attempted to infiltrate. During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday night with casualties on both sides, said a statement from the defen-ce ministry on Tuesday. Colonel Santoshs wife Santoshi told Deccan Chronicle: I was intimated about my husbands death on Tuesday morning by a unit officer. I was told that there was some clash between the soldiers at the border on Monday night. At that time, my husband fell in a canal (nala) and received injuries. She said she was told that he was taken out of the canal and was shifted to a hospital for treatment, but he succumbed. The body will be brought to his native village on Wednesday. Speaking to the media in Suryapet, Colonel Santoshs mother B. Manjula said, I am proud of my sons sacrifice of life for the country, but as a mother I am feeling heartbroken. Manjula said that she was intimated about her sons death on Tuesday afternoon. The Colonels father Upender is a retired bank employee. On learning about the incident, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao exp-ressed shock. He said Col Santosh has sacrificed his life for the nation and his sacrifice cannot be valued in any terms. The CM conveyed his heartfelt condolences to Col Santoshs parents, his wife and other family members. The CM announced that the government would support the family. He has asked minister Jagdeesh Reddy to ensure that a state representative is present to receive the mortal remains of the Colonel and till the completion of the last rites. Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. Maharashtra records sudden spike in Covid-19 fatalities. Top official explains why Over 2,000 Covid-19 fatalities were added to the national death toll, taking the final figure to 11,903. This comes after Maharashtra and Delhi, two of the worst-hit states in the country, added unreported fatalities to their respective death tolls after review. Read more Above normal temperature in Delhi-NCR for 3 days, relief likely after June 20: IMD National capital Delhi and the nearby areas in northwest areas will continue to experience above normal temperatures for the next three days. Read more Covid-19: Supreme Court wants doctors to be paid full wages, says violators to be punished The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to issue directions to states and union territories for complying with payment of full wages to doctors and healthcare workers. Read more Hong Kong Chief Executive urges people not to demonize security law Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday that she hopes opponents of a new national security law being imposed by China do not demonize and stigmatize the legislation because doing so would mean pitting themselves against residents of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Read more Rishabh Pant immensely skilled but needs to be groomed: Syed Kirmani Wicketkeeping has come a long way since the time Syed Kirmani arguably Indias most skilled stumper used to play. Back in the day, it wouldnt matter if he didnt score runs, but what did count was that Kirmani should bag a 100/100 when his performance behind the stumps would be assessed. Read more Sushant Singh Rajputs home was a reflection of his love for science: Made it by mending and fixing, like my career Actor Sushant Singh Rajput perhaps loved space and science as much as he loved being an actor, if not more. Sushant, who died earlier this week, was a big fan of everything astronomical and it all reflected in the style he chose for his Mumbai home. Read more Sustainable fashion: Actress Emma Watson joins board of French Gucci owner Kering to promote slow fashion British actress Emma Watson, famed for playing Hermione in the Harry Potter film series, and former Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam are set to join the board of French luxury group Kering as it pushes to raise its profile in areas such as sustainability. Read more Transformation of this Canadian sink seal into a fluffy doggie is pawsome This is a pawsome tale of the transformation of a Canadian sink seal into a fluffy doggo and we bet that it will leave you amazed. Chances are many of you may also go aww and wow after seeing the change. Read more Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), on Tuesday refuted claims by OccupyGhana, a pressure group, that the COVID-19 deaths figures are being massaged. He said there was no cause for anyone to suspect that the numbers were under-reported due to the purportedly late release of updates, saying the GHS always followed laid down procedures in updating the public, which explained the delays in its announcements. According to OccupyGhana, some anomalies it had detected in the data presented by the GHS as at midnight of June 15, 2020, when the number of COVID-19 related deaths stood at 54, showed that that could not be the true reflection of the situation on the ground, giving cause to suspect that the figures were being massaged. It said; The reported 54 deaths so far cannot be right because even though 38 deaths have been reported from the Ashanti Region alone, less than 20 of those deaths are included in the national count. Dr Kuma-Aboagye, responding to the allegations at the Minister's press briefing in Accra, said the GHS had a national case management team that did an audit to crosscheck on the cause of death, how it was managed, and whether the casualty was COVID-19 related, before the new figures were added to the existing ones. So you may see a region recording a certain number but we are not only interested in a number, we want to know whether the treatment was appropriate and where they are coming from and that is how it is being done, he explained. He said nobody was deliberately holding numbers and that the situational reports were always made available for every Ghanaian to see what was happening, after due processes had been followed, adding that the process would not be rushed. Dr Kuma-Aboagye further explained that such evaluations were made to enable the Service to know what to do. He said the case managers, therefore, paid regular visits to the various regions to ascertain whether they needed additional support in the management of the positive cases. It was the feedback received by this team that determined the time of an update in the national case count. Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, the Presidential Advisor on Health, reiterated that the Government had no reason to manipulate the figures. The presidential task force and for that matter, the Presidency doesn't generate any figures. There is an implementation agency so this COVID-19 is led by the Ghana Health Service, the teaching hospitals, and the Ministry of Health, he noted. We see the figures as we are seeing here today and then we use the figures to plan and monitor whatever is going on. Dr Nsiah-Asare said it was the data received that enabled the Government to target where to focus much of the resources in order to contain the disease and treat the sick. ---GNA A Maryland panel voted Monday to remove a plaque from Marylands Capitol that honors the Civil Wars Union and Confederate soldiers and until recently showed the U.S. flag and Confederate flag crossed. The four members of the State House Trust, which oversees the Maryland State House and its grounds voted to remove the plaque after Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones renewed her push to get rid of it after the panel decided last year to cover the flags with an image of Maryland's state flag. Jones continued pushing for complete removal because of the sign's language. I want to thank the State House Trust for this important vote today to remove this confederate-sympathizing plaque, Jones wrote on Twitter. We have made great strides to reflect the importance of African-Americans in our State's history over the past year. In February, Maryland unveiled bronze statues of famed abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, both of whom were born slaves on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Those statues are now in the Capitol's Old House Chamber, the room where slavery was abolished in the state in 1864. Jones, a Democrat who is Maryland's first black and first female House speaker, renewed her push to remove the Civil War plaque last week. The past two weeks have reignited our national conversation about the systemic racial injustice that continues throughout the United States of America, she wrote. The other voting members of the State House Trust are Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, Senate President Bill Ferguson and Laura Mears, the chair of the Maryland Historical Trust. Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, voiced his support for removing the plaque last week. Rutherford, a Republican who is black, indicated Friday he would support removing the plaque, if it were replaced with one reflecting Marylands history in the Civil War. But he withdrew his proposed amendment Monday. Seeing a lack of support, I will withdraw my amendment to the Speakers proposal and vote yes on her original proposal," Rutherford wrote Monday. "It is my sincere hope that our conversation about Marylands history -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- does not end here. The symbolism of simply removing a plaque, is insufficient to what this moment requires. Mears wrote in an email Monday that she agreed with Rutherford's sentiments that removing a plaque speaking to the state's division during the Civil War will not help us to cure the injuries caused by that division. However, she noted that she plays a special role on the panel and casts votes based on how alterations will affect the historic significance and physical integrity of the historic building. In so far as the proposed removal of the Civil War Centennial Commission plaque, installed in 1964, will have little to no effect on the architectural fabric of the State House and will not diminish the outstanding historic significance of the building, (Maryland Historical Trust) has no basis for opposing its removal, she wrote. The plaque was dedicated in 1964 by the Maryland Civil War Centennial Commission to remember the nearly 63,000 Marylanders who served in the Union and more than 22,000 in the Confederacy. The sign says in part that the commission did not attempt to decide who was right and who was wrong, or to make decisions on other controversial issues. By so doing it seeks to pay tribute to those who fought and died, as well as to the citizens who, during the Civil War, tried to do their duty as they saw it, the plaque reads. Parents of girls with disabilities have been advised to seek a legal remedy for their children when they suffer any form of sexual abuse. Mr. Cornelius Derry, the Bosomtwe District Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) who gave the advise, said the rights of such children, like any other Ghanaian, were guaranteed in the 1992 Constitution and must be protected at all times. He entreated parents to speak up and seek redress for their abused children and desist from covering up cases involving their wards for fear of stigmatization. He was addressing some adolescent girls with various forms of disability during a legal literacy training at Asiwa in the Bosome Freho District as part of a reproductive health project for adolescent girls being implemented in the district. The project is being implemented by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Right (ARHR) through its local partner, Rights and Responsibilities Initiatives Ghana (RRIG). Funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Canadian Government, the project seeks to build the capacity of out-of-school-adolescent girls on their sexual and reproductive health rights by exposing them to accurate information to enable them to make informed decisions. Mr. Derry reminded the girls that their fundamental human rights as citizens of Ghana must not be trampled upon by any person because of their conditions and urged them to report to the appropriate state institutions as soon as their rights were violated. He said it was their right to resist any attempt to force them into early marriage against their will by their parents. As citizens, you have equal rights like any Ghanaian so you must always voice out against any societal norm that is discriminatory against persons with disability, he implored them. Madam Aba Oppong, Director of RRIG, encouraged the girls to give out information to their parents, whenever they were abused to pave way for the right action to be taken. She told them to immediately inform their parents when men begin to make sexual advances at them to avert the possibility of being defiled. She said the Childrens Act guarantees the rights of every child in Ghana, including those with disabilities and urged them to expose anyone who tries to take advantage of them. Mr. Nii Ankonu Annorbah-Sarpei, the Programmes Director of ARHR said the goal of the project was to improve access to information on reproductive health by adolescent girls and also link them to local health facilities for profession advice on their reproductive health. He was hopeful that the participants would be empowered to raise the red flag whenever they were in danger to trigger the arrest of their attackers. 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 June is Alzheimers & Brain Awareness Month. This is the month that the Alzheimers Association promotes its Longest Day, the day with the most light, the summer solstice. This year its on Saturday, June 20, and its an opportunity for people to sponsor fundraising events to raise money for Alzheimers disease. People across the globe will fight the darkness of Alzheimers through a fundraising activity of their choice. Caregiver Confidential As California families struggle with the requirements of living with COVID-19, some families are already facing the demands of caring for a loved one with Alzheimers disease. The pandemic has made caregiving even more difficult for persons with dementia as facilities and activities have forced everyone to stay home. A newly published memoir, Caregiver Confidential: Living with My Husbands Alzheimers Disease is a must-read for people trying their best to care for their loved ones with Alzheimers and other dementia diseases. The author, Napa Valley resident Cheri Bailly-Jacobs, was a human resources consultant working with small businesses in the North Bay when her husband, Bob Jacobs, was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment, frequently an early stage of dementia. Active in her community, she had just finished her term as president of the Napa Chamber of Commerce in 2002 when her husbands health began to fail. In order to take on all the new responsibilities she faced as her husbands caregiver, she resigned from her volunteer work on local nonprofit boards of directors and her teaching assignments at Santa Rosa Junior College. In trying to learn more about dementia diseases, she found there was very little information available in libraries or bookstores about the caregiver experience, especially all the anger, frustration and guilt that goes with living alongside long-term dementia diseases. The Internet was not yet a consumer resource for health information. Out of frustration from her experiences as her husbands caregiver, she began writing about the emotions she experienced after a particularly difficult day. Eventually, she read the stories to her husband who encouraged her to continue her writing. She didnt start out to write a book she just wanted to vent her feelings at the end of the day. In Caregiver Confidential, Bailly-Jacobs is not afraid to tackle the difficult subjects, including the first chapter which asks. Who Wants to Be a Caregiver? She painfully recalls her shock when she has to face the facts that her husband is seriously ill and will not be getting well. Although not a how to book, she gives advice to readers about finding resources early, ways to deal with decline, and the thorny issue of continuing to drive. She has engaging stories to cover almost all of the challenging aspects of caregiving, ranging from whom you should tell when your husband has a dementia diagnosis to the increasing demands to assist with personal care. While her husbands physical and cognitive decline provide fodder for emotional stories, Bailly-Jacobs mixes in humor which accurately portrays the ups and downs of the caregiver role. Caregiver Confidential is divided into seven sections that roughly follow the chronology of her husbands decline. While some readers may read the book as a memoir, others may find it useful as a reference work to be checked when certain situations arise in their own caregiving. Bailly-Jacobs will be speaking at bookstores and community organizations when social gathering is once again available. In the meantime, her book is available on Amazon Books, Nook (Barnes & Noble), and other online retailers. Her website for the book is alzheimerscaregiverconfidetial.com. ROME - UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has collaborated with Twitter and 22-year-old Ivorian artist O'Plerou for the launch of the 2020 World Refugee Day emoji. The emoji, two hands linked together in the shape of a heart, symbolizes solidarity and diversity. According to a statement, Twitter will activate the 2020 World Refugee Day emoji with the hashtags #WorldRefugeeDay, #RefugeeDay and #WithRefugees in 12 languages. The emoji is live until June 23. Twitter's George Salama, head of public policy, government and philanthropy for Middle East and North Africa, said ''Twitter was created so that anyone, anywhere, can answer the question 'What's happening?' In doing so, it has become a place for global communities including journalists, human rights activists and citizens to connect on issues that matter, share information, and speak truth to power''. ''On #WorldRefugeeDay, we are proud to continue our partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, with the creation of this emoji, which aims to generate awareness through the power of the service, to demonstrate solidarity and to honor the resilience of refugees worldwide'', he went on to say O'Plerou, the emoji designer, wants to bring attention to refugees around the world. Friends of his family had to flee Cte d'Ivoire during the 2010 political crisis. ''Refugees are people just like us,'' he said. ''Through my work, I try to showcase diversity so we can better understand each other and achieve greater solidarity.''''This emoji is a visual expression of diversity, inclusion and solidarity - and the power of hope over fear'', said Gisella Lomax, head of social media at UNHCR. ''Sharing it is just one way to show support for the world's forcibly displaced people on World Refugee Day and beyond''. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the Galwan valley of Ladakh in the bloodiest clash in almost 50 years with Chinese troops during a disengagement exercise on June 15 to end a prolonged standoff along the Line of Actual Control. The first India casualties in a border conflict with China since 1975 have plunged the already tense ties to a new low. The anti-China sentiment will only harden and call for the boycott of Chinese goods will grow in the coming days. But China is embedded deep in the Indian economy. Chinese companies are big investors in the Indian startup space, which has not only created a new class of entrepreneurs but also given India the much-needed technological push, generating jobs along the way. Here are the biggest Chinese players in Indias startup sector: Ant Financial/Alibaba One of the most prolific Chinese investors in India, Ant Financial, the fintech arm of the Jack Ma-owned tech conglomerate Alibaba Group, has pumped millions of dollars in Paytm and Snapdeal. It has invested close to $2.7 billion in India across seven companies. Within Paytm, it has separately funded Paytm Mall, its ecommerce offering. In November 2019, Ant Financial said it was trying to raise a billion dollar for fresh investments in startups in India and Southeast Asia. Tencent Tencent is another aggressive investor in the Indian startup ecosystem. It has backed unicorns like Flipkart, Swiggy and Ola. In China, Tencent runs an instant messaging platform WeChat, which is their equivalent of WhatsApp, and a host of gaming apps and ecommerce businesses. It has close to $2 billion of exposure to India across around 15 startups. It has backed growth-stage players like Khatabook, MyGate, Niyo Solutions and other established players like PolicyBazaar, and Udaan. Tencent is reportedly in talks with multiple new startups looking for rounds in the range of $10 to $15 million. Shunwei Capital Shunwei Capital has led multiple rounds in Indian startups like food delivery giant Zomato, social commerce startup Meesho, messaging app Sharechat and lending platforms Krazybee and Loantap. It has invested $129 million across 17 companies. Fosun Group Founded in 2013, Fosun RZ Capital is fast emerging as an interesting Chinese investor in India. It has invested around $85 million in 12 Indian startups, with some late stage investments like in Ixigo and Delhivery and some early-stage ones like LetsTransport, Mylo and others. The Tej Kapoor-run firm is known to cut smaller cheques and does not directly compete with the likes of Tencent and Alibaba. The only fintech investment Fosun has done in India is in digital lending startup Kishht. Xiaomi Popular smartphone maker Xiaomi has also been an active investor in the Indian startup ecosystem. It has led rounds in Sharechat, lending startup Krazybee and few others. Back in 2018, Manu Kumar Jain, its top India executive, said the company was looking to pump in Rs 6,000 crore across 100 Indian startups. As of now, it has around $61 million invested in eight companies. Hillhouse Capital Hillhouse Capital, an investor in Baidu, Tencent, Grab Airbnb and others, has put in more than $165 million in India already. It has stakes in seven companies including Swiggy, Udaan and Cred. Started in 2005, Hillhouse has been active in the mobility segment. In 2014, it invested $50 million in online automobile comparison platform CarDekho. TR Capital Popularly known as the secondary specialists, TR Capital is an active secondary investor in India and even set up an office in Mumbai in 2018. Flipkart, Lenskart, Urban Ladder and BigBasket are among the nine companies it has invested in. Its India investments are to the tune of $111 million. With inputs from M Sriram (Data: Venture Intelligence) The mortal remains of Colonel Bikkumalla Santosh Babu (37), the commanding officer of 16th battalion of Bihar Regiment, who was killed in hand-to-hand combat with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on Monday night, will be consigned to flames at his native village Kasarabad in Telanganas Suryapet district on Thursday, his family members said. The body of the slain Colonel will arrive in Hyderabad on Wednesday evening. However, earlier on Wednesday, Santoshs wife Santoshi, along with their two children daughter Abhigna (9) and son Anirudh (4) arrived at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad, located on the outskirts of Hyderabad, from New Delhi at around 9:30 am. Cyberabad police commissioner, VC Sajjanar, along with Shamshabad deputy commissioner of police, N Prakash Reddy, and other police officers received Santoshs family members at the airport. Sajjanar expressed his grief and conveyed heartfelt condolences to fallen bravehearts family. Santoshs father B Upender, a retired manager of State Bank of India (SBI), could not come to the airport, as doctors have advised him to take rest because he is suffering from low blood pressure, the commissioner said. Later, the family left for Suryapet by a special vehicle, which was arranged by Telangana energy minister G Jagadish Reddy, who also hails from Suryapet. Santoshs body will be taken to Suryapet in another special vehicle in the evening and kept at his residence for locals to pay homage. The last rites would be performed with full military honours at his native village Kasarabad on Thursday morning, the commissioner of police said. A pall of gloom descended on Suryapet town, as people in large numbers, thronged Santoshs residence to share their condolences with the family. Many carried national flags and raised slogans like: Santosh amar rahe, (Long live Santosh) and we are proud of our hero, Police have put up barricades in Suryapet to ensure that the visitors would maintain social distancing because of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak. Hand sanitisers are in place and every visitor has been urged to undergo thermal screening in a bid to keep the viral outbreak at bay. Officials are trying to ensure that only close family members of Santosh and dignitaries are allowed to visit his ancestral house, as it has been cordoned off for the general public. His relatives, childhood friends, and acquaintances thronged to his residence and shared fond memories of the martyr. Minister Reddy is personally supervising the arrangements for his last rites in coordination with the Army officials. He visited Colonel Santoshs parents and consoled them. The Telangana government assured the family all support in this hour of grief. Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao expressed shock over the Colonels death and said his sacrifice for the country is invaluable. The CM conveyed his heartfelt condolences to Santoshs parents, wife, and children, and other family members. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON TAIYUAN, June 16 (Xinhua) -- In Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon, Chinese doctor An Buyue wakes up early to prepares for the day's work. As chief of a 20-member medical team from north China's Shanxi Province, she barely had enough sleep in a day in certain periods. Working overtime has become a routine for the medical team, which is in Cameroon for a one-year foreign aid mission. An told Xinhua in a telephone interview that the team began to offer training sessions on COVID-19 prevention and control for the Yaounde Gynaecology, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics Hospital on February 4. "We explained the etiologic feature, clinical manifestation, and therapeutic method of the disease, and suggested the hospital adopt strict measures like preview and triage when receiving patients," said An. She noticed that the director of the hospital studied their epidemic prevention and control recommendations. Soon after that, their recommendations such as putting up anti-epidemic awareness posters, setting up a fever clinic, and maintaining social distance in the hospital were adopted. An said other Chinese medical teams in Africa have also participated in fighting against the pandemic alongside their African peers. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent surpassed 232,815 as of Sunday, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The death toll stood at 6,244 as of Sunday morning, according to the center. Chen Haiyun, chief of a Chinese medical team to Togo, said they have participated in disease prevention work in the country, including offering COVID-19 prevention and control training to the regional health center of Lome-Commune. An said in the face of a shortage of protective supplies, members of the Chinese medical team used to wear expired masks while treating outpatients. She added that luckily, none of the Chinese doctors in Cameroon have been infected. With an improvement in domestic epidemic prevention and control situation, China has increased medical assistance to other nations in need. On April 3, An's team received a batch of epidemic prevention materials dispatched by the Chinese National Health Commission. Soon after that, the second and the third batches of medical supplies were sent to Chinese medical teams in Africa. "We really can feel the strength of our country. Now that our safety is ensured, we can focus more on protecting locals in Africa," said An. China set up its first medical team to provide aid to foreign countries in 1963. According to the National Health Commission, China had sent more than 26,000 medics to 71 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceanian by the end of 2019, providing diagnosis and treatment to over 280 million local patients. Heavy rain accompanied by strong gusts flooded many streets in Ho Chi Minh City, causing immense difficulties for commuters on Tuesday and Wednesday. The downpour lasted for hours, inundating many streets and worsening traffic jams. It was the heaviest rain to have battered Ho Chi Minh City since the beginning of this years rainy season, with average rainfall measured at 120 millimeters. According to the observations of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Ung Van Khiem Street in Binh Thanh District was submerged under half-a-meter-deep water on Tuesday evening, causing motorbikes to break down while several commuters also fell off their vehicles. Flooding also occurred along To Hieu, Phan Anh, and Nguyen Van Yen Streets in Tan Phu District. These roads were previously inundated during a downpour on Monday afternoon. Commuters have a hard time traveling on a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City, June 16, 2020. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre Knee-high rainwater filled Le Thanh Ton and Nam Ky Khoi Nghia in District 1 as well. The UDI Maps app, developed by the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Drainage Company, warned of serious inundation along Nguyen Huu Canh and Binh Loi Streets in Binh Thanh District, advising commuters to pick another route. A motorbike breaks down in heavy rain on a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City, June 16, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre A big tree on provincial highway No. 43 in Thu Duc District was uprooted by strong winds and fell onto a house and a motorbike. There were no casualties reported following the incident. A man struggles to push his motorbike on a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City, June 16, 2020. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre Commuters have a hard time traveling on a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City, June 16, 2020. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre Le Thanh Ton Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City is submerged during a downpour on June 16. 2020. Photo: Ngoc Phuong / Tuoi Tre Commuters have a hard time traveling on a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City, June 16, 2020. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre Traffic congestion is exacerbated due to the rain in Ho Chi Minh City, June 16, 2020. Photo: Duyen Phan / Tuoi Tre Hiep Binh Street in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City is submerged during a downpour on June 16. 2020. Photo: Minh Hoa / Tuoi Tre A tree is uprooted on provincial highway No. 43 in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City, June 16, 2020. Photo: Minh Hoa / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Credit: CC0 Public Domain A major study investigating the effectiveness of liver perfusion as a technique to improve the function of donor livers that would have otherwise been rejected has shown that up to seven in every 10 could be used after just four to six hours of the assessment. The study, titled "Transplantation of discarded livers following viability testing with normothermic machine perfusion," published today in Nature Communications, could have significant implications for the liver transplant waiting list and the commissioning of local transplant services. Currently, across the U.K., a third of donated livers don't meet desired transplant criteria and aren't used. Chronic liver disease in the UK is rising annually, a result of obesity and increasing alcohol misuse causing approximately 8500 deaths per year. For those with end-stage liver disease, a transplant is the only hope for survival, but demand for livers suitable for transplantation far outstrips supply. According to the latest NHS Blood and Transplant report, up to 20% of people awaiting a transplant operation died or were removed from waiting lists due to ill health. A growing proportion of donated livers are coming from high-risk donors with a history of alcohol misuse, obesity or elderly people with comorbidities, often when a patient has suffered cardiac arrest that is unexpected and when the patient cannot or should not be resuscitated. These livers are of lower quality and pose risks to recipients. Consequently, the majority are not transplanted. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, experts from the University of Birmingham's Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre have found that just four to six hours of normothermic machine perfusion assessment enabled 70 percent of currently discarded livers to recover enough to allow successful transplantation into a recipient. Mr Hynek Mergental, honorary senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham and consultant surgeon at the UHB Liver Unit, said, "While liver transplantation is one of the most advanced surgical procedures, up to now, there has been no objective mean to assess suitability of donor livers for transplantation. The VITTAL trial validated our pre-clinical research and pilot clinical observations and these viability criteria can now guide transplant teams worldwide to provide access to the life-saving transplantation to more patients in need." VITTAL project lead, Professor Darius Mirza, consultant transplant surgeon at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, added: "This challenging study was designed to assess function of discarded livers in the real-life situation, using the normothermic machine perfusion. The major challenge in this pioneering clinical trial was to assure patients safety while pushing the envelope of sub-optimal liver utilization." Mr Thamara Perera, consultant transplant surgeon at UHB, says, "This ground-breaking trial has proven that objective parameters can be used for making a decision to use a borderline liver. The observed 100% study participants post-transplant survival was reassuring and provided our patients and the surgical team with confidence to implement and further expand this approach, which now helps the sickest patients on our waiting list to underwent transplantation sooner and safer." Dr. Simon Afford, reader in liver immunobiology at the of the University of Birmingham's Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, said, "It has long been recognized that as a consequence of our population aging the quality of donated livers keeps declining. Based on our latest discoveries we believe that in the near future the machine perfusion platform will facilitate therapeutic interventions to improve liver viability. We expect we will be able salvage even more organs than 70% observed in the VITTAL trial, including livers from donors with known alcohol misuse or obesity." Tim Knott, head of innovation programs at the Wellcome Trust, said, "Many more patients who need liver transplants will benefit from this technology. Giving surgeons the tools to assess if a liver transplant will be viable will help the thousands of people who have chronic liver disease globally." John Forsythe, medical director of organ donation and transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant, said, "New techniques of Organ perfusion and preservation are a vital developing area of organ donation and transplantation. We are delighted that a number of doctors and scientists in the UK are leading the way in this field of research. He explains, "Each year a small number of donated organs are not transplanted for a variety of reasons. Transplant success relies on a significant amount of activity taking place in a short space of time. New techniques are already allowing us to transplant donated organs that would not have been possible in the past. More research in this area is likely to increase that ability." Explore further Ground-breaking study tests whether rejected livers can be made viable for transplantation More information: Hynek Mergental et al. Transplantation of discarded livers following viability testing with normothermic machine perfusion, Nature Communications (2020). Journal information: Nature Communications Hynek Mergental et al. Transplantation of discarded livers following viability testing with normothermic machine perfusion,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16251-3 Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. A NSW tribunal has given the green light for a potential trial of a COVID-19 treatment on critically ill patients who are unable to consent, concluding the trial was in their best interests and involved a low risk. In a decision in April, released publicly this week, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal gave Liverpool Hospital consent to run a clinical trial of a new drug on adult intensive care patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Liverpool Hospital during the COVID-19 crisis. Credit:Peter Rae But the low number of coronavirus cases in NSW, none of whom are currently in intensive care, means the research team will struggle to recruit the 160 patients they need. "We were satisfied that, on balance, it is in the best interests of patients who suffer from COVID-19 and meet the clinical trial protocol criteria ... to take part in the trial," the tribunal said. T here is a time for inquiry and a time for action: the message of the protests that have swept the world since the killing of George Floyd on May 25 is that good intentions are no longer enough. New task forces, new talking shops, plangent statements by politicians that black lives do indeed matter: Not enough. This is why David Lammys response this week to Boris Johnsons plan for a new inequality commission was so important. Speaking on the BBCs Today programme, the shadow justice secretary did not hold back: I made 35 specific recommendations in the Lammy review [into the treatment of BAME individuals in the criminal justice system]. Implement them. There are 110 recommendations in the Angiolini review into deaths in police custody. Implement them. There are 30 recommendations in the Home Office review into the Windrush scandal. Implement them. There are 26 in Baroness McGregor-Smiths review into workplace discrimination. Implement them. Matthew d'Ancona It is worth quoting Lammys inventory in full because it gets to the heart of the matter, to scalding effect. Whether or not Munira Mirza, the head of the No10 policy unit, should be involved in setting up the commission already a matter of controversy is a secondary matter. The question is whether there should be a commission at all. The British instinct has long been to favour incremental reform over radical change. Yet there are times when this ethos is fraudulently applied. Commissions are established, inquiries appointed, not to inspire, frame and inform action but to keep it at bay. There are half-comic instances of this tendency, such as House of Lords reform. Much more serious is the failure of successive governments to grapple comprehensively with the problem of racial injustice. As Lammy reminds us, there has been no shortage of consultation, diagnosis and recommendations. Yet the record of implementation is patchy at best. Earlier this month, the Commons home affairs select committee agreed to resume its review of the 1999 Macpherson Inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, which famously identified institutional racism in the police. As recently as February 2019, Sir William Macpherson, the author of the original report, conceded that there is obviously a great deal more to be done. Giving evidence on his own report to the Commons Justice select committee in March last year, Lammy himself expressed regret that, in many respects, things have got worse since completion of the review. How, he went on, could trust in the justice system be maintained when you are 240 per cent more likely to be convicted for a drug offence if you are black than if you are white? And why had the Government rejected his recommendation of targets not quotas for BAME representation in the judiciary? The inbox of the British state groans with sensible recommendations of this sort: proposals that, in aggregate, would significantly enhance the prospects of racial justice. The question is why their implementation has been so half-hearted. There are, I think, two principal reasons. The first is that reform of this sort is often procedurally complex. It requires not only resources but endurance over many years. It depends upon intelligent interaction between multiple agencies. The second reason is deeper. To address the problem of racial injustice does indeed require a command of policy detail. But much more straightforwardly it calls upon those with power to confront the twin realities of white privilege and institutional racism. In truth, this ought to be no more than an empirical exercise: just look at the way the world works, has worked for centuries, and respond with decency. Yet for some white people both ideas seem to be daunting, to require a psychological realignment that makes them deeply uncomfortable. Such unease is a recipe for policy paralysis. Worse, there are those on the far-Right and within the Conservative Party who would love nothing more than to nurture that malaise to fuel a tremendously dangerous culture war. That would be a shameful response to the extraordinary upsurge of the past three weeks. The absolute responsibility of those in office is to capture this energy and to deploy it in the service of action. No more commissions. The to-do list is long and, to coin a phrase, oven-ready. Get on with it, Prime Minister. Tesla boss Elon Musk and his partner Grimes have found their way around the California law to retain their baby boy's name on papers. The couple welcomed their first baby on May 4 and surprised everyone with the choice of the name which sounded like a Maths formula--X A-12 Musk. The couple was faced with a hurdle owing to the Calofornia laws which specify that a name should be restricted to English alphabets, no numbers or special characters. And the couple has smartly found the escape route to avoid changing their child's name. X A-12 Musk is now X AE A-XII Musk. The pronunciation remains the same, just that the Roman numerals helped them retain it. Also Read: Elon Musk and Grimes Cannot Legally Name Their Son 'X A-12' and There's a Good Reason Earlier, Grimes had explained on Twitter the baby's name as the couple had left everyone scratching their heads after they announced the name. The Canadian musician -- real name Claire Elise Boucher -- explained "X" stands for "the unknown variable." "" is the Elven spelling of AI, which is shorthand for artificial intelligence and the word for "love" in several languages, including Japanese. "A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent," she added. The "A" in the name also represents "Archangel," which she described as her favorite song. X, the unknown variable , my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence) A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent + (A=Archangel, my favorite song) ( metal rat) Gies (@Grimezsz) May 6, 2020 X A-Xii is the couple's first child together. Musk has five other children -- twins Griffin and Xavier and triplets Damian, Saxon and Kai -- from a previous marriage. A painter once pointed out to me that my iPhone doesnt really show millions of colors. Its minuscule pixels produce exactly three red, green and blue. Anything else is an illusion. I decided to switch off my color display for a while, and when I turned it back on, I was astonished at how tacky and monotone the images looked. Since then Ive gone back and forth, but the experiment left me especially interested in artists who find ways to make the best of those discreetly repetitive pixels. Recently, I went looking for examples on Instagram, and I found four photographers and a sculptor who manage to slip work that feels organic and real through the flickering noise of a digital screen. Some do it with palettes that remain recognizable as overall patterns even when the colors themselves are off, others simply by means of that infinitely variable old standby, black and white. These are my current favorites; other New York Times critics will be posting their own every week. Rachel Stern (@rachelstern) As the COVID-19 pandemic forced the nations schools to shift to remote learning, Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Eric Dearing and his colleagues in the Development and Research on Early Math Education Network, or DREME, looked for a way to help. Within a few weeks, they had finished an at-home early math learning kit for families to help parents and teachers foster mathematics education in children up to age eight. Packaged in an eight-page PDF and available electronically, the kit has been distributed to schools and organizations supporting thousands of students throughout the U.S. Being able to help, even a little bit, during this very stressful time for students, parents, and teachers is very gratifying, said Dearing, a member of a team of researchers supporting the DREME Network at Stanford University. The kit was designed around the theme of math is all around us. It shares suggestions for learning activities that draw on the principles and examples of mathematics that can be found in everyday household objects and daily activities. For example, some activities in the kit are based around cooking recipes, conversations about sorting laundry by color or type of clothing, or a discussion on counting while setting the table for a meal. The kit also teaches math concepts using card games developed by Dearing and Professor Emeritus Beth Casey. With funding from the Heising-Simons Foundation, the DREME Network has been at work for approximately six years as part of whats expected to be a more than $10 million research and curriculum development initiative focused on mathematics education for children from birth to age eight. We are heading into the fourth phase of our DREME work addressing the foundations goal of creating opportunities and resources for early math learning, Dearing said. We also want to increase attention, in society at large, on the importance of early math learning in both the classroom and in the home, or other environments where families and young children find themselves. The DREME At-Home Early Math Learning Kit has been shared with school districts across the U.S., including major cities in California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, and reached thousands of families with young children. The kit is also being shared widely by public libraries, childrens museums, news media groups, child care centers, and nonprofit organizations that support families. Included in the kit are: tips for bringing math into storybook time; two easy recipes for cookies and personal pizzas designed to allow families to start math conversations while cooking; ideas to quickly uncover and talk about math in everyday moments, like cleaning up toys or getting ready for bed; and directions for four card games that are fun and allow children to practice skills like adding and comparing numbers. [The kit can be downloaded from the DREME website.] Dearing said the development of the kit was supported by his team of researchersled by BCs DREME Project Director Sara Schnitzerincluding Lynch School doctoral students Ariadne Nelson, Lindsay Clements, Julie Kim, and Catalina Rey Guerra; masters students Alden Burnham and Amanda Stroiman; and undergraduates Alexia Kovatsis and Hope Dragelin. Before the pandemic, the DREME Network had already been offering math education supports to providers who work closely with families: pediatricians, librarians, social workers, and parent educators, for example. The pandemic and resulting school closing created a huge need among early childhood teachers for these types of resources, Dearing said. Districts, preschool teachers, and families themselves have been desperate to have resources that aid learning at home while also recognizing and helping with the tremendous stress that families are under. Ed Hayward | University Communications | June 2020 On Monday, U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco asked the Supreme Court to do what the 9th Circuit court wouldn't: block Morris' ruling and let the permit program operate again while the lawsuit plays out in court. The government's application to the court says Morris shouldn't have blocked the program, which has been in effect since the 1970s, and the Corps and private companies rely on it for thousands of activities annually," the solicitor general wrote. The district court had no warrant to set aside NWP 12 with respect to Keystone XL, let alone for the construction of all new oil and gas pipelines anywhere in the country, Francisco wrote. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement that the Supreme Court should reject the Trump administration's request. Pipelines like Keystone XL are a disaster waiting to happen," senior attorney Jared Margolis said in the statement. Hon. Abena Osei-Asare, the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Atiwa-East was yesterday popularly acclaimed by Eastern Regional NPP executives as the party's candidate for the December parliamentary elections. Having retained the status as the party's sole candidate in the upcoming internal primaries, the regional officers by the party's regulations needed to confirm same at a ceremony. Led by the 1st Vice-Chairman, Alhaji Omar Bodinga and Nana Yaw Papin, Assistant Regional Secretary of the NPP as well as some constituency executive held up high the Hon Osei-Asare's hand to rapturous applause from party sympathisers that were at the Anyinam constituency office of the party. With shouts of approval and spontaneous applause by party sympathisers they urged Hon Osei-Asare to retain the seat for the NPP in the December parliamentary elections. REGIONAL EXECUTIVE: Speaking to the Ghanaian Observer newspaper after the brief but colorful ceremony, Alhaji Bodinga said the party needed to fulfil the obligations on it by performing the acclamation at the party office. He revealed that the proper delegates acclamation would be done in public on Saturday where the party's sole candidate, Hon Osei-Asare would be endorsed to complete the constitutional obligation. Alhaji Bodinga urged the party's supporters and sympathisers to rally behind the candidate to ensure she retains the parliamentary seat for the NPP. He also tasked the candidate as well as the party members to help maximise the votes for its presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the upcomimg December elections. CANDIDATE: Filled with tears of joy, Hon Osei-Asare thanked the NPP for the honour done her. She commended the party's delegates as well as members for reposing so much confidence and trust in her. The MP, who doubles as a Deputy Minister of Finance rallied the party to work together with her so that they can increase the votes it garnered at the 2016 polls. The task to retain the Atiwa-East seat, Hon Osei-Asare said was a collective responsibility and urged the party supporters to be ready to work to ensure they win every home to vote for the NPP and its candidates in the December polls. "I stand here elated because I have had wonderful executives and party members to work with and i know together we shall win another term in government with Nana Addo leading as well as increase our votes margin both in the parliamentary and presidential elections in December", the charming legislator passionately stressed. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will not extend the deadline for the conduct of primaries and submission of parties nominations for the Sept. 19 Edo governorship election. INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, stated this at the commissions second virtual consultative meeting of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), on Wednesday in Abuja. Mr Yakubu reminded political parties fielding candidates of the need to conclude their primaries for the nomination of candidates in the next 10 days. The deadline is Saturday, June 27, 2020. I must stress that the date is firm and fixed. There will be no extension. While the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates will be the sole responsibility of political parties, our officials will monitor the primaries as required by law. Already, INEC has published the date and mode of primaries for each of the 15 political parties that indicated their intention to participate in the election. Similarly, there will be no extension of time for political parties that fail to submit the names and other details of the candidates that emerge from their primaries using the dedicated portal created by the Commission. For emphasis, the deadline is 6 p.m. on Monday, 29 June 2020, said. He advised political parties to adhere to the four mandatory requirements for eligibility of candidates for governorship elections as enshrined in Section 177 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). The INEC boss said that a candidate nominated by a political party must be a Nigerian citizen by birth, 35 years, must be a member of, and sponsored by a political party, and must be educated up to at least School Certificate level or equivalent. He said the advice was crucial in view of INECs experience in managing the nomination of candidates for the last two governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi. Adherence to these clear constitutional provisions is compulsory in order to avoid litigation that follow the nomination of candidates, some of which are still pending before the Courts. In fact, one of such cases involving the attempt to substitute an ineligible candidate by one of the political parties was determined only yesterday by the Supreme Court in favour of INEC. Mr Yakubu stressed the need for the commission and security agencies to remain proactive during the party primaries, campaigns, voting and eventual declaration of results. We must safeguard the process and protect all those involved voters, INEC officials, observers, the media and even some of the unarmed security personnel deployed to the polling units. Doing so requires professionalism and neutrality. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we should also ensure compliance with the protective measures contained in the recently published Commissions policy as well as the advisory by health authorities. In the context of the current global health emergency, we have the additional responsibility to ensure the conduct of free, fair, credible and safe elections. Mr Yakubu recalled that at the last ICCES meeting, there was an agreement to draft a Code of Conduct for security personnel on election duty based on the report of the Special Committee earlier set up to ensure collaboration and synergy in the deployment of security agencies for elections. The meeting also mandated the Co-Chairmen of ICCES to take into consideration safety measures for security personnel in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The draft policy has already been circulated for consideration and approval at this meeting. Thereafter, the policy will become part of the manual for training of security personnel and to guide their conduct during elections. The policy will be published for public information. The Co-Chairman of ICCES and National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, commended INEC for the setup of the sub-committee to review the existing policy on election security to address challenges posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Advertisements Mr Monguno, a retired major-general, was represented by Yusuf Galadima. He expressed confidence that the reviewed policy, when adopted and put into use, would further secure the electoral space for peaceful elections in the country The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the virtual meeting was attended by heads or representatives of the armed forces and paramilitary organisations, INEC National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners and Commissioners of Police for Edo and Ondo Commands. (NAN) Prime Minister Bob Loughman (front centre), Leader of Opposition Ralph Regenvanu (l) and Speaker Gracia Shadrack (r) during the opening of the First Ordinary Session of Parliament yesterday morning. Photo: Terence Malapa Russia's ambassador to Tehran referring to an article about his country's influence in Iran has alleged that "Radio Farda is trying to bruise Iran-Russia relations." Speaking to reformist daily E'temad in Tehran, which was published on 16 June, Levan Dzhagaryan claimed that the BBC and particularly Radio Farda have been damaging the friendly ties between Tehran and Moscow. He was referring to a popular series of exclusive articles about Russian influence in modern Iran published by Radio Farda in May 2020. Dzhagaryan also said in the interview that "the United States has no night whatsoever to play in the court of the JCPOA," the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. A photo from the interview published on social media shows the Russian ambassador holding up his smart phone with the Radio Farda article visible on the screen. Iranian political activist and reformist journalist Reza Alijani traced Russian influence in the IRGC's intelligence organization since the 1980s when he says Russian and Romanian officers trained Iranian intelligence operatives in areas such as interrogation, torture and suppression of dissidents. As an example, Aijani quoted former IRGC General Alireza Afshari as having said that he took part in several training courses in Russia in the area of silent murders, that is killing individuals without leaving a trace. Afshar was fired from the IRGC and put in jail in 2009 for about a year for supporting the opposition Green Movement leader Mirhossein Mousavi. Alijani also alleged that people working with the IRGC intelligence or those who are close to the organization including Reza Seraj and Hossein Taeb, are under the influence of Russia, amplifying remarks and actions of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and spreading rumors about his alleged remarks by in praise of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. They have also claimed on various occasions that Putin and Khamenei maintain very close ties at personal level. The ties between the IRGC intelligence and Russian intelligence became closer after a series of murders engineered by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry officers in 1990s discredited the Ministry and damaged the image of the Islamic Republic. Subsequently, Khamenei decided to boost the small IRGC Intelligence unit into a large organization that would carry out intelligence missions beyond military needs and control dissent in the country. The organization went through yet another major expansion after the 2009 unrest that endangered the regime and eroded its self-confidence. Since then, the IRGC intelligence organization has been controlling every aspect of life in Iran and cracking down on political, religious, economic, cultural, activities and many social groups such as women, students, workers and environmental activists, putting scores of people in jail. According to Alijani, the IRGC intelligence at times copies directives from Russian intelligence and implements them in Iran. For instance, they followed the Russian intelligence line about the origin of coronavirus and attributed it to U.S. entities. The disinformation campaign affected most Iranians who subscribe to conspiracy theories, including Ayatollah Khamenei himself who repeated the disinformation about alleged U.S. involvement in spreading COVID in two of his speeches. Want to get The Morning by email? Heres the sign-up. Good morning. Chinese and Indian troops are fighting with clubs and rocks. President Trump signs an executive order on policing. And the U.S. death toll from the virus may soon pass Western Europes. The coronavirus began to ravage Europe weeks before the United States. At the peak, in early April, more than 3,000 people in Italy, Spain and the rest of Western Europe were dying each day a substantially higher toll than in the U.S. Over the past two months, however, Europe has succeeded at crushing the virus, and the U.S. has not. Just look at this chart (which compares the U.S. to a contiguous 16-country region of Western Europe with a nearly identical population): "I'm asking you to help him, I'm asking you to help me." George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd calls for UN probe into police brutality in U.S. The brother of the late George Floyd has asked the United Nations to investigate police brutality and racial discrimination in the United States. "Black lives do not matter in the United States," George Floyd's brother said at the United Nations Wednesday. "My brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America." "I'm asking you to help him. I'm asking you to help me," George Floyd's brother, Philonise, said to the UN Human Rights Council. "I am asking you to help us: Black people in America." "I am asking you to help us, black people in America." George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, called for the U.N. Human Rights Council to create an independent commission to study the killing of black people by the police in the U.S. Read more. https://t.co/wB7SXET3tz pic.twitter.com/8YZxpKqrfp The New York Times (@nytimes) June 17, 2020 From NPR News' coverage of his address to the U.N. Human Rights Council: On Wednesday, more than three weeks after Floyd's killing, his brother raised a voice on his behalf in a message to international diplomats. "My brother, George Floyd, is one of the many black men and women that have been murdered by police in recent years. The sad truth is that the case is not unique," Philonise Floyd told the U.N. Human Rights Council in a remote address Wednesday. "The way you saw my brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America. You watched my brother die. That could have been me." During a quickly convened session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Floyd asked the group to set up a commission of inquiry into racism and police brutality in the United States specifically "police killings of black people and America and the violence used against peaceful protesters." "I'm asking you to help him. I'm asking you to help me," he added. "I am asking you to help us: black people in America." Under U.N. guidelines, commissions of inquiry are in effect fact-finding missions. They are aimed at not only gathering information but also recommending "measures to redress violations, provide justice and reparation to victims, and hold perpetrators to account." More at NPR News: George Floyd's Brother To U.N. Human Rights Council: 'I Am Asking You To Help Us' WATCH: George Floyd's brother to UN Human Rights Council: "I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us, black people in America." pic.twitter.com/QyBfvC9j48 NBC News (@NBCNews) June 17, 2020 The brother of the late George Floyd urged the United Nations to investigate U.S. police brutality and racial discrimination https://t.co/ZnCyp3lc4f pic.twitter.com/KYozVAGJD0 Reuters (@Reuters) June 17, 2020 George Floyd's family appeals to the United Nations for justice. "My brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America." https://t.co/oOW3ylEwbe Patrick deHahn (@patrickdehahn) June 17, 2020 Ireland is set to find out on Wednesday if it has won a seat on the UN Security Council. Ireland will need the backing of two-thirds of the UN General Assembly when ambassadors begin voting. The country is campaigning against Norway and Canada for two available seats, with multiple votes possible if required. Today 193 countries at @UN vote to decide the makeup of Security Council 2021/22. #Ireland has a proud record of service at United Nations, shaped by #Empathy #independence and #Partnership. So proud of our team @dfatirl @irishmissionun #IrelandUNSC. pic.twitter.com/ZESQ1YIKuT Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) June 17, 2020 It is two years since Ireland launched its official bid for a seat on the council. Tanaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said on Twitter that Ireland has a proud record of service at the United Nations, shaped by empathy, independence and partnership. Today is election day On the UN Security Council, would be a tireless champion of multilateralism and peace. We bring: - Empathy and partnership - An independent voice - Commitment to peacebuilding and peacekeeping - A focus on the furthest behind first#IrelandUNSC pic.twitter.com/CctTXeHYI2 Irish Foreign Ministry (@dfatirl) June 17, 2020 The Irish Government has spent 840,000 euro on its campaign for the seat over the last two years and has spent that time lobbying other countries. Ireland is seeking to bolster its chances for a seat by highlighting peace building and overcoming conflict and adversity. Cultural events involving U2 and Riverdance have formed part of the campaign, while President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar have met with foreign dignitaries. Ireland's campaign for a seat on the United Nations Security Council comes to a head today as 193 @UN countries vote. Really proud of our team @dfatirl @irishmissionun #IrelandUNSC https://t.co/doQBvII9iS via @YouTube Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) June 17, 2020 Voting will take place in a socially distanced manner in New York, with ambassadors given time slots to cast their ballot. If all 193 member states vote then a country needs 129 votes to win. Speaking ahead of the result, a diplomat who has worked on the bid expressed confidence that Ireland could win a seat. We have heard the group Ireland is in as being described as the group of death but we really believe this is winnable, they said. Norway have much deeper pockets and have probably spent a lot more than we have on this campaign but we have been putting in the groundwork for years now. The source told the PA news agency Ireland was very optimistic about its chances given its position as a small country on the outer edges of Europe. Our rivals Canada and Norway are are all pitching their commitment to matters like climate change, multilateralism and peacekeeping but Ireland is unique because peacekeeping is still very much ongoing here as the conflict in Northern Ireland has only really ended in recent years, they continued. The source said the UK leaving the EU leaves Ireland at an advantage, adding: Being on the council would cement Irelands reputation on the global stage and help enhance our potential to shape EU foreign policy in what is going to be a crucial time for us with Brexit. NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Yoshiaki Ito, creator of MoFU, or Mighty Omega Folding Universe, a geometric puzzle toy, is preparing to bring his toys to the States after a successful Kickstarter campaign. MoFU are toys inspired by both small Brooklyn apartments, traditional Japanese toys, and origami. The toys can be unfolded, positioned, and played with, before being returned back into their cube shape and nestled into their resting boxes. MoFU MoFU With expressive animal faces and bodies, MoFU inspires children both creatively and analytically, as children must fold and unfold the animal puzzle before letting their imagination run wild with creative play. Although they are considered toys, adults who love puzzles will have just as much fun with a MoFU character. Earlier this year MoFU won a coveted Italian Design Competition, the "A'design Award". This esteemed award helped skyrocket MoFU into the forefront of the children's toy industry and helped the company to increase recognition of their product and name. Yoshiaki Ito said, "I am delighted to have won the A'design Award and can't wait to bring my award-winning toys to the USA. I would like to thank everyone who has already donated to the Kickstarter campaign and can't wait to start distributing my puzzles around the USA." MoFU will launch 5 different puzzle toys in the USA, each made from wood with their own unique character and puzzle sequence. USA customers can look forward to meeting MoNKI the Monkey, ToRA the Tiger, KaBA the Hippo, BuTA the Piggy, and KiRIN the Giraffe. Each toy varies in difficulty, for example, BuTA the Piggy is well suited for young children with no puzzle experience, whereas older individuals may enjoy the challenge of assembling KiRIN the Giraffe. Each toy is available in a different pastel color which has unisex appeal. On designing the toy, Yoshiaki Ito said, "I had to think about each piece of shape very carefully. When the pieces are folded they have to fit into a square space perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle. But, when the pieces are unfolded, each piece has to be an abstract shape that still looks like a part of an animal body." Those who believe in MoFU are able to still support the Kickstarter campaign and can benefit from rewards such as MoFU models significantly under their RRP. To learn more about MoFU and Yoshiaki Ito or to support the Kickstarter campaign, check out the Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yoshiakiito/mofu-award-winning-puzzle-toy Media contact: Yoshiaki Ito [email protected] 212-920-4600 SOURCE MoFU Sushant Singh Rajput's untimely demise has flared up nepotism debate in the Hindi film industry, again. The actor's suicide has prompted a shocked Bollywood to introspect on why outsiders find it so hard to get a foothold into an industry which many directors and actors say is ruled by its own people. This has seen an immediate impact on the social media handles of celebrities across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Enraged netizens have been un-following actors and filmmakers, who are accused of promoting nepotism in the industry. Karan Johar, who was primarily targetted and severely trolled for the same, has seen quite a downfall in the number of followers of Instagram. At present, he has 10.7 million followers which reportedly fell from 11 million. Alia Bhatts profile has also registered a reduction of more than 2 lac followers on the photo-sharing app in a single day. On June 15, the actress had close to 48.8 million followers, however, at the time of writing this report, they have reduced to 48 million. However, actor Kangana Ranaut saw an upward trend in her Instagram followers, from about 2 million her followers rose to 3.9 million and counting. While Karan, Alia and Sonam Kapoor among others were called out for being a part of the "privileged groups" and "camps" in the industry, Kangana was lauded for slamming Bollywood left, right and center. Rajput was found dead in his Bandra apartment on Sunday. He was 34. A complete outsider who studied to be an engineer, the Patna-born actor rose through the ranks from a background dancer to a television star and finally got his Bollywood debut with Kai Po Che!, which released only seven years ago. The actor had his fair share of success in films like M S Dhoni: The Untold Story and Chhichhore. Follow @News18Movies for more Two and a half years ago, Hawaii discovered a strange, cigar-shaped object hurtling through the solar system on a trajectory from far away. The shape was given the name Oumuamua, which is the Hawaiian term for scout. There has been a lot of debate and discussion as to what kind of space element Oumuamua is. Also read: Night Sky in June 2020: All astronomical events you can see this month Oumuamua and its mystery Oumuamua was named as an interstellar asteroid, coming from another solar system. After that, astronomers decided that it must be a comet as well. They even thought of it as an alien artefact. According to a media report, a pair of Yale astronomers have recently brought forward yet another theory about Oumuamua. They claim that it a cosmic iceberg, a chunk of frozen hydrogen. It is a primordial leftover and originates from a planetary or star system. If this theory is indeed true, then astronomers will be able to get a direct look into the stellar nurseries, something that has been yet left untouched by human technology. There is a possibility that protected from radiation, there are certain sections in space where the temperature falls to a few degrees above zero, which can lead to the freezing of hydrogen. These frozen hydrogen particles stick to interstellar dust and that turns them into large ice cubes. (Source: NASA/ Artist Concept) Also read: NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, Chris Cassidy to carry out spacewalks outside ISS Dr Darryl Seligman, the postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, has talked in the media report about how if he and his colleagues are right, then there could be more cosmic icebergs that can be detected and inspected. Dr Seligman shared that if the hydrogen hypothesis is correct, then they will be able to prove it with the help of detecting any future objects. Karen Meech of the Institute for Astronomy, whose team discovered Oumuamua, shared that there are a lot of creative ideas out there about the object. Oumuamua never showed features typical of a comet, the flash, and sizzle along with the tail. But it certainly has a brightness and is irregularly shaped and tumbling. Dr Seligman shared that frozen hydrogen offers a compelling mechanism for acceleration, which provides the explanation behind the speed and the boost that Oumuamua possesses. The hydrogen will be able to give the velocity of 200 feet per second to Oumuamua. As per a news source, Dr Greg Laughlin, Dr Seligmans advisor at the University of Chicago, shared in his email that Oumuamua's closeness to the sun melted the hydrogen and thus provided that needed boost to it. Dr Seligman also calculated that the object that later became Oumuamua has been present for less than 100 million years before it encountered us. Telescopes at the Vera Rubin Observatory that are designed to scan that entire sky in every three days will be ideal to use and spot such hydrogen icebergs entering the solar system. (Source: NASA/ 2017 U1 is Oumuamua) Also read: NASA lights fire on spacecraft to test safety measures in lead up to 2024 Moon mission Where is Oumuamua now? Oumuamua is long gone far away from the Earth and is somewhere between the orbits of Saturn and Neptune today. It is still speeding towards moving out of the solar system. It will be out of the system and moving towards its next destination. Also read: NASA wants you to help drive Mars Rover Curiosity, and you do not need a driver's licence! (Source: Shutterstock/ It is a 3D illustration of Oumuamua and not the real image) In the morning plenary sitting presided over by NA Vice Chairman Phung Quoc Hien, lawmakers discussed a draft resolution on corporate tax reduction for businesses, cooperatives, non-productive units and other organisations. Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung later explained several issues of deputies concern. Also in the morning, the deputies debated in groups the draft Law on Vietnam Border Guard. In the afternoon, they voted on the amended Youth Law and the Law on Mediation, Dialogue at Court with 91.3% and 90.27% approval votes, respectively. Later, the lawmakers looked into the draft revised Law on Residence. Minister of Public Security To Lam presented a report gathering opinions of deputies. On June 17, the NA is scheduled to ratify the amended Law on Enterprises, the Law on amendments and supplements to several articles of the Law on Disaster Prevention and Control and Law on Dykes, the revised Investment Law and the Law on amendments and supplements to several articles of the Law on Construction, and discuss other bills. For many, it felt like summer was cancelled as soon as Matt Hancock said as much on ITVs This Morning back in early May. I think thats likely to be the case, the health secretary answered when asked if sunny season would be off the agenda for the first time since the Second World War. But there are now glimmers of hope that something could be salvaged as Britains lockdown restrictions continue to ease. Here are your questions answered... Will I be able to go on holiday this summer? Yes, if you want. Its contingent on several factors: the Foreign Office travel warning being lifted; the host country being willing to accept tourists from the UK; no quarantine being imposed upon arrival or return to the UK; and the ability to fly or otherwise travel to your chosen destination. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) issued a blanket warning against all non-essential international travel back in March, but this was lifted for 67 destinations as of 4 July. The list is subject to change at any time more recently, a further 19 destinations were added, while others, including Spain, were removed without warning. Meanwhile, the mandatory two-week quarantine for all inbound arrivals, which started on 8 June, has also been scrapped as of 10 July for those travelling from a separate list of approved countries and territories into England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland published its own list of destinations, although the two are currently identical. Five countries were recently added across both, while Serbia and Spain were removed from the Department for Transports list (they were never on Scotlands in the first place). Luxembourg also got the boot after a surge in coronavirus cases. Although the FCO and quarantine-exempt lists of countries are not the same, at present a number of places can be found across both, meaning that holidays to these destinations might be feasible again (although theres no guarantee the countries in question will let Brits in). After nearly three months of staying completely grounded, easyJet operated its first post-lockdown flight on 15 June (a domestic service to Glasgow), and other airlines followed suit though nowhere near pre-coronavirus levels, there are now regular flights to most destinations that UK travellers are free to visit. You might think that, as the sick man of Europe, Britons wont be welcome elsewhere; but for a number of countries, UK visitors make up a significant proportion of their tourism market overall, and theyre keen to have us back. Spain, for example, opened its doors to British holidaymakers as of 21 June, without the need to self-isolate on arrival. Italy reopened its borders for travellers from the UK and the 26 EU member states as of 3 June, and Croatia has been inviting tourists in since May. Click here for a full list of destinations with no travel restrictions for British holidaymakers. Will I have to quarantine when I get there? This largely depends on the country in question. Quarantining is generally implemented in countries with a low infection rate for people arriving from a country with a high infection rate (although this didnt hold true in the UKs case). For example, New Zealand is closed to almost all travellers and demands that all arrivals self-isolate for two weeks. The country has one of the lowest infection rates in the world and a Covid-19 death toll of just 22 overall. However, there are already a number of countries that will allow British holidaymakers in without any quarantine requirements, including France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Croatia, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland. Click here to see The Independents full list of countries youre free to travel to without the need to be tested or quarantine on arrival. Will I have to quarantine when I come home? For most countries, yes a 14-day quarantine was introduced on 8 June for all arrivals into the UK, including Brits returning from abroad. The quarantine was put in place indefinitely, but the government has relaxed the rules as of 10 July for certain countries and territories regarded as low-risk by the Joint Biosecurity Centre, which was set up to coordinate the governments response to the pandemic. The list of exempt countries is subject to change, and is being reviewed on a weekly basis. There are currently more than 60 exempt countries, including France, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey. Will anything be open if I go abroad? It depends on where you go, but in most cases, yes. Plenty of countries across Europe are easing lockdown measures, with non-essential shops and attractions reopening. For instance, in Venice, the famed Doges Palace reopened on 13 June, along with most souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants. The Leaning Tower of Pisa opened at the start of June. Many attractions in France and Spain are open, including the palace at Versailles and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, though social-distancing, the limiting of visitor numbers and advance online bookings are generally required. Just check your specific region before travelling as new Covid-19 flare-ups occur, measures are being reintroduced on a localised basis, meaning services could shut again or other restrictions could be imposed. Im booked but no longer want to go can I get a refund? Where a tour operator has cancelled your package holiday, youre entitled to a full refund within 14 days (though in reality its likely to be a much longer wait). However, if your holiday is still scheduled to go ahead, pulling out now would mean you forfeit any money youve already paid out, as your cancellation falls under disinclination to travel. If you have particular health concerns it might be worth getting in touch with your travel insurance provider, although many of them have changed their terms and conditions to disallow any claims associated with Covid-19. Contacting the holiday provider and asking to rebook for a later date next year might be your best bet. Tui is offering anyone booked up to 31 August 2020 to postpone without penalty. Those who have booked separate flights and accommodation will find it much harder to get a refund if they cancel the airline has no obligation to refund you if the flight goes ahead, even if the FCO advises against travel to your destination. Can I go on staycation? From 4 July, up to two households have been allowed to stay overnight together in self-contained accommodation, as long as social distancing guidelines are followed. Many English hotels reopened on 4 July, complete with stringent new cleaning measures. Just be aware that things might be a little different breakfast buffets are likely to be scrapped, while spas could require guests to get changed in their rooms to avoid overcrowding of changing rooms. However, recently reinstated lockdown rules in parts of the north of England mean people visiting family or friends in the affected areas are not allowed to stay in their homes or the same accommodation, such as a self-catering apartment, together (unless they have previously formed a support bubble). Northern Ireland was a day ahead, with hotels, pubs, restaurants and tourist attractions all able to open with suitable social-distancing measures from 3 July. Scotland reopened its tourist industry on 15 July; Aberdeen is currently experiencing a local lockdown, with people told not to travel there and residents banned from travelling more than five miles from home for leisure purposes. Travel restrictions in Wales were lifted from 6 July and self-contained accommodation has been permitted to re-open as of 13 July. Up until 17 July, anyone without a car was pretty stuck when it came to domestic travel, as the government advised against all non-essential public transport journeys. But Boris Johnson has now said travelling by public transport is permitted throughout England, whatever the reason for your journey. How can I stay safe while travelling? At the risk of sounding like a broken record, its the standard: Wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds advice. This is particularly important while in transit at the airport and on a flight, train or ferry because youre coming into contact with a lot of new people. Take hand sanitiser with you where possible, as its easier than requesting permission to go to the loo to wash your hands (now necessary on a Ryanair flight). Wear a mask in enclosed spaces, and steer clear of anyone coughing or otherwise looking unwell. If you really want to minimise human contact during the journey, opting to drive is probably the most effective means of avoiding others. Will it be expensive to go on holiday this summer? Holiday companies attempting to entice travellers are still proffering deals Jet2 Holidays, for example, is offering a week to Corfu from 239pp, including flights and transfers, departing 11 September. But those booking separate flights and accommodation as opposed to packages may find air fares are pricier than normal due to reduced capacity. The Independents travel correspondent Simon Calder noted of easyJets first flight after being grounded for 11 weeks during the pandemic: Fares on the few flights that are operating can be punishingly high: I paid 175 for the one-hour hop [to Glasgow]. Currently the demand for self-contained accommodation in the UK is very high, with prices to match, so you may actually get a better deal by booking somewhere abroad. Can I get travel insurance to cover coronavirus? Yes more policies covering coronavirus are becoming available. Both Trailfinders and Allianz Assistance are selling policies that cover customers for both holiday disruption/cancellation caused by coronavirus, and medical expenses should you contract the virus abroad. Staysure says: If you develop Covid-19 while on holiday and need help, youll be covered as long as you have declared your pre-existing conditions. Saga is also offering medical coronavirus cover. However, most providers are excluding cover for Covid-19 on all new policies. One of the largest providers, Columbus Direct, says: We are no longer able to offer cover for claims arising from, or related to, coronavirus. Policies bought before mid-March may still cover you for coronavirus-related claims. If you have an annual policy, your insurer may or may not allow you to renew with the same degree of cover. Travelling against Foreign Office travel advice invalidates standard travel insurance policies (it is possible to pay through the nose for war zone insurance policies that will cover you). For visits within the European Union, the EHIC scheme is still in operation for British travellers to the end of the year and will provide medical treatment on the same basis as local people in public hospitals across the EU. Is it safe to go abroad? Its completely dependent on where you go. Many countries in Europe have managed to flatten the curve and reduce coronavirus infection rates far more successfully than the UK by using methods like early lockdown and comprehensive track and trace programmes. In fact, with the worlds third-highest death rate, it could be argued that the UK is a riskier place to be than many other countries. Its worth being vigilant at the airport and on the aircraft (or train, boat or any other preferred mode of transport) taking measures such as regular hand washing and wearing a face covering and likewise while abroad if you venture into busy, enclosed spaces. But in many cases being on holiday shouldnt be any more dangerous than being in the UK, especially now that non-essential shops and other amenities are opening up here again. [June 17, 2020] OhmniLabs Delivering Advanced Telepresence Robotics for Healthcare SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OhmniLabs, the global leader of human-centric telepresence robotics, today announced it is investing significant resources to provide their state of the art telepresence robots to healthcare organizations fighting to eradicate COVID-19 as demand for its products spike. The company is focused on delivering features and additional support for frontline workers who need to maintain the utmost safety protocols while still remaining closely connected to patients. With an impressive list of customers that includes Focus Mental Health Solutions, Mount Sinai Hospital of New York, Phoenix Childrens Hospital, Texas Childrens Hospital, Colorado Childrens Hospital, Cook Childrens Medical Center and the Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, among others, OhmniLabs continues to experience increased demand from hospitals who are looking to implement OhmniLabs telepresence robots to help them address two big challenges they are facing: limiting healthcare staff exposure to COVID-19 and connecting isolated patients to their families. Manufactured domestically within the United States, Ohmni Robot offers a robust, reliable mobile telepresence platform that enables healthcare professionals to operate safely and securely. Featuring a hands-free, lightweight design, Ohmni Robot allows clinicians to conserve personal protective equipment, limit exposure to the virus by reducing the frequency of in-room visits and provide a lifeline for families to connect with their hospitalized loved ones. In addition to improving facility safety, Ohmni Robot is also being used to improve patient monitoring, response times, ad medical education as well as special needs and research assistance. With COVID-19 a lot of patients are in strict isolation and nurses require a full set of PPE just to conduct in-room visits, said Dr. Jonathan Wirjo, Medical Director & Managing Partner, Focus Mental Health Solutions. The Ohmni Robot minimizes the work burden on existing staff, reduces our reliance on scarce resources, and allows us to greatly reduce the risk of patients and healthcare workers being exposed and becoming ill. Telepresence robotics are a booming market, with analysts predicting global spending on robots to eclipse $150 billion by 2025 . Companies and organizations across the world in industries such as education, retail, and real estate are already embracing telepresence robotics to scale their global workforces, support remote employees, and offer virtual services. However, the challenges imposed upon healthcare facilities during COVID-19 are driving demand for telehealth solutions among practitioners seeking to maintain safe, secure communication with patients while offering some of the benefits of physical presence. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the healthcare industry, overwhelming hospitals, straining medical resources and forcing healthcare professionals and patients alike to reduce physical interaction with other people, said OhmniLabs CEO Thuc Vu. At OhmniLabs, we believe telepresence robots are the most ideal way for people to overcome issues attributed to geographic barriers, physical disabilities, and disease, and are committed more than ever to delivering telepresence robots that meet and exceed the requirements of healthcare professionals in these challenging times. About OhmniLabs OhmniLabs is developing human-centric robots that connect and support anyone, from anywhere in the world. Founded in 2015 in Santa Clara, CA, the company delivers the worlds most indispensable human-centric robots, and makes them easily accessible for all. For more information on OhmniLabs visit https://ohmnilabs.com/ or find OhmniLabs on LinkedIn or Twitter @OhmniLabs . Media Contact Please reach out to Josh Pasqualini at [email protected] or (510) 999-4383 with any questions or inquiries. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Subscriber content preview Many have been on board, without the possibility of setting foot on land even briefly, for several months beyond their original contracts. By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece Merchant ship crew members stranded at sea for months due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions could now start refusing to further extend their contracts and stop working, potentially disrupting global trade, the International Transport Workers Federation said late Monday. The ITF, a global federation of transport workers unions, said in a statement it would now assist hundreds of thousands of seafarers to exercise their right to stop working, leave ships, and return home. . . . JACKSON, Miss. Calls are increasing for a white Mississippi elected official to either step down as supervisor board president or resign entirely amid racist remarks he made to a local newspaper after voting against relocating a Confederate monument in front of the county courthouse. The official is not only rejecting those calls, but doubling down on his stance. "I'm not going to stand and run from it; hell, it's what I think," Lowndes County Supervisor Harry Sanders said Tuesday. On Monday, after a 3-2 vote to relocate a Confederate statue to the local cemetery failed, Sanders told Starkville, Mississippi, newspaper The Commercial Dispatch that Black people were dependent on society because they were "taken care of" during slavery. The latest: Mississippi GOP condemns local official for racist comments, but he won't resign "In my opinion, they were slaves, and because of that, they didn't have to go out and earn any money, they didn't have to do anything," Sanders said. "Whoever owned them, took care of them, fed them, clothed them, worked them. They became dependent, and that dependency is still there. The Democrats right here who depend on the Black vote to get elected, they make them dependent on them." Sanders told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger of the USA TODAY Network that his comments were made off the record but he stood by them. 351 feet worth of controversy: Confederate monument stands tall in this Kentucky town The Commercial Dispatch could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. Lowndes County supervisor Harry Sanders is shown during a Lowndes County Board of Supervisors meeting, Monday, June 15, 2020, in Columbus, Miss. Of the statue, Sanders told the paper, "We haven't had slavery in the United States for 150 years. Why is it still an issue?" Sanders also seemed to compare slavery to the internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II who were later paid reparations. "We didn't do the Japanese right here in World War II, we put them all ... in a concentration camp and everything and nobody said a damn word about it today," he said. "Are the Japanese all upset about that, burning stuff down and all that? No, they've (been) assimilated into the country and they are doing fine. The only ones that are having the problems, guess who? The African Americans." Story continues On Tuesday morning, when asked whether he understood how the comments could be perceived as racist, Sanders said, "I certainly do but, look, you can't change history. Am I not supposed to talk about what happened 150 years ago? Am I not supposed to talk about what happened in World War II with the Japanese? Am I not supposed to talk about any of that? "It comes off (as racist) because of the way they put it in the newspaper. That's not the way I said, it but that's OK." Sanders: 'You can't change history' During Monday's supervisor meeting, Supervisor Leroy Brooks made the motion to relocate the statue. Sanders made a "compromise motion," he said, to put something on the monument with historical context, including "the Blacks and the slavery to say it was all wrong" but "they didn't want to even hear that." Sanders said he then withdrew the motion "because Leroy insisted I withdraw it when Leroy said ... 'Let's just go ahead and vote on not moving the statue.'" "I gave a little and they didn't want to do anything about it." Brooks said Sanders made a substitute motion to add context to the statue but did not provide additional details, a move he saw as a "distraction." "I said, 'I'd just rather you vote yes or no.' He never stated what we wanted on there, he was just trying to distract from what was the issue. If you added something, the statue was still there," Brooks said. The motion failed along racial lines. There are three white supervisors on the board and two Black. Regardless of Sanders' feelings on the issue, Brooks said, "that does not give him the right" to make the racist remarks. Brooks also noted that, with approximately 60,000 residents, Lowndes County is 46% Black. "If we were in a large city and an elected official says something like that, they would probably destroy the courthouse," Brooks said. "Whatever his motive was, for him to insult Black people the way he did and diminish us to the point of nothingness, who does that?" Lowndes County district attorney Scott Colom condemned Sanders' remarks, equating them to lies used by the KKK. "Supervisor Sanders' ignorant and vile comments have it backwards," Colom said. "Slave owners depended on beating, rape, separation of families and fear to maintain free labor. "These are the types of lies the KKK depend on to promote white supremacy. He should be ashamed of himself." The statue was erected in 1912 and is inscribed, "In honor of the soldiers of Lowndes County who nobly dared life and fortune in defense of the southern confederacy." In speaking with the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, Sanders did not apologize for his remarks. Of the statue, he repeatedly said, "you can't change history." "I like it where it is; I don't want to move it," Sanders said. "It's been there 100 years and there's no reason to remove it. You can't change history by sweeping it under the rug. You can't change what that statue says. You need to just accept what it says and move on with your life." When asked whether he understood how Black residents of Lowndes County could feel like their feelings toward the statue aren't being acknowledged, Sanders said, "The Black people aren't acknowledging how white people feel. "They say 'Black Lives Matter', white lives matter too, Chinese lives matter...they tore down Christopher Columbus' statue. George Washington owned slaves. Do you want to change the name of the Washington Monument, do you want to change the name of our capital? You want to change the name of Jefferson Davis County, do you want to change the name of Lee County, change the name of Forrest County? There's got to be a stopping place someplace." In light of Sanders' comments, Brooks said he has received more phone calls from concerned citizens than he has in recent memory: "If there was any question about whether the Black community was unified, Harry Sanders unified (it). They're all saying the same thing, 'It's time for him to go, he can't represent Lowndes County any more.'" A press conference with the NAACP was set for Wednesday to condemn Sanders' comments and call for his resignation, Brooks said. Follow reporter Sarah Fowler on Facebook and Twitter. This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi official Harry Sanders faces backlash for racist comments Whether dating in person or online, there are dos and don'ts that should be followed. (Getty Images) Remember dating pre-lockdown? When you actually went out to places perhaps for dinner and drinks? And there was actual physical contact? Hey, maybe even a kiss? Well, those days are long gone, but it doesnt mean there isnt still proper etiquette on how to date. When dating goes back to normal, Lara Asprey, CEO and founder of The Love Company, says it will be best to avoid restaurants on first dates as they are a minefield for things that can go wrong. I would go so far as to say don't have a long and arduous dinner on a first date, she advises. Keep it to drinks and coffee so you can escape if things aren't going well. If you do end up eating a meal on a first date, be mindful about what you order. There's nothing more difficult to eat gracefully than spaghetti! Read more: Science says playing hard to get actually works Girls No Filter podcast host Kelly Hills recently revealed she ditched a guy just for ordering the same thing as her in a restaurant! She gave the example during her interview on White Wine Question Time alongside fellow host and bestie, TOWIEs Jess Wright. I ordered duck at dinner, she said, and he ordered the same as me. [...] Secondly, he had water out of his wine glass. Looking back, it sounds so harsh. It wasnt even my worst date it was probably his worst date! TOWIE's Jess Wright and Kelly Hills have been best friends since they were 11. (Yahoo UK) Thats only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dating etiquette, as these simple rules from Asprey, one of the UK's leading dating and relationship experts, show. Don't be too fashionably late Yes, this even applies to virtual dates theres nothing worse than hanging around on Zoom like a Billy No-Mates waiting for your date to turn up. Asprey says: Many women especially think that if they treat him mean they will keep him keen. It doesn't really work like that these days. If you're late, it just tells your date that you value your time over theirs and won't put you in the best light. It's important to show some vulnerability and the real you on your date. (Getty Images) Dont be afraid to talk about yourself Asprey believes Brits are particularly bad at talking about ourselves on dates as we dont like to be seen as too self-involved, however, she says its important to give and take in conversation. Story continues Read more: From faux-nogomy to Jekylling, the 2020 dating trends you need to know She suggests: When someone asks 'How are you?' Instead of saying 'I'm fine thanks, you?' tell them how you feel and add a topic of conversation. Say 'I'm pretty good today, I'm loving this sunshine!'. Don't be afraid to talk about yourself a bit so as to keep the conversation going. Vulnerability is your friend When you go on a date, while its nice to be confident and bubbly, Asprey says its also important to show your weaknesses. Many people think it's really attractive to be confident, assertive and direct, states Asprey. Just be mindful that showing your date some vulnerability is also a really important component of creating chemistry. Let them see the real you and your fears and worries. Read more: "I'm a parent, first and foremost": How dating changes when you have children Get your head around the new normal of dating Asprey hopes that virtual dating sticks around once were back to normal whatever that will be as she says it removes the pressure of that first physical face-to-face meeting. You can relax in the comfort of your own home, and chat without expectation, she explains. I'm actually hopeful it will continue well after lockdown and perhaps people might see a benefit in chatting and getting to know one another before they meet up in person, bringing back some old-fashioned dating values. Be aware of your onscreen look Have you ever caught a glimpse of yourself on a Zoom call? Then youll know its not the most flattering of images. Asprey says its important to firstly ensure youve got the right lighting too dark and they wont see you! She says: You want to give your date the best chance of success and so letting them clearly see you and your facial expressions is really important. Make sure you have good enough lighting on your virtual date so your date can see your face properly. (Getty Images) Asprey also suggests making sure your video is nice and stable, and that your face is the centre of the screen as opposed to your chest! You don't want to be lying on the sofa holding your phone over your head where it's moving around all over the place making your date feel seasick, she says. Set up a stable camera position. Dont speak over the other person While this rule still applies when dating face-to-face, its even more important if youre dating via Zoom. Aspreys major piece of advice is to let the other person finish speaking before you reply. She says: This might feel a bit more unnatural but it's often difficult to hear what the other person is saying if you're both speaking over each other which in turn, can make the conversation a little more stilted. Read more: Quarantined student spends time phoning her exes to ask what went wrong It's not like it is when you're in the same physical proximity you have to account for a certain time lag. Make some effort Obviously when were back to dating in the real world, youll put some effort in wearing something nice and combing your hair. But the same applies to virtual dates theres no excuse for not putting some effort in! You don't have to get fully dolled up but consider wearing something that shows you made a little effort, says Asprey. If it makes you feel sexy put some make-up on, put on that cute top, fluff up your hair. It's not ideal to show your date your pyjamas right away! Keep it between the two of you One of the problems with virtual dates may be that they have to happen in a rather busy household however, its advisable to keep it to just you and your date if possible. Don't think it would be funny to introduce your date to other members of your lockdown gang, your mum and dad, your roommates, says Asprey. It might make your date feel a little awkward if you don't know each other that well yet. Give your virtual date a chance Virtual or socially distanced dates may feel really unnatural, which is why its more important to keep an open mind when it comes to these kinds of dates. Read more: Lockdown dating show explores virtual relationships It might not seem ideal to you right now, but you might just form a stronger connection if you take physical contact off the table, says Asprey. If its bad, leave but explain why Whether in person or virtually, its OK to leave a first date if its not going well but its important to give your reason. It's not OK to say you are popping to the loo never to return again and to leave your date hanging, wondering what is going on, says Asprey. She continues: Decency and manners get you much further in dating than behaving badly as I firmly believe you attract what you put out, so if you're thinking it's OK to treat someone else like that, it's likely you too will only meet people who treat you that way. Hear Jess Wright and Kelly Hills talk more dodgy dates, plus how why their female friends are their true soulmates, in the latest episode of White Wine Question Time. Listen now on iTunes and Spotify. Dozens of Lebanese protesters held a rally in Beirut on Wednesday, demanding freedom of speech on social media. The protesters gathered outside the palace of justice in the Lebanese capital, holding Lebanese flags and chanting "Revolution, Revolution." The protest comes after authorities started a new investigation into posts deemed insulting of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, including memes and pictures. Protesters said instead of pursuing activists on social media or going after journalists exposing corruption or expressing their opinion peacefully, authorities should hold government officials and those in power accountable. "All the protesters who have been commenting and criticising the job of government and especially the job of the Lebanese presidency have been called into detention for silly talks whether on twitter or Facebook or any social media place." said protester Samer al-Khouri. Lebanon's unrivalled economic and financial crisis has exposed deep mistrust of the government's crisis management. Lebanon's financial problems predate the coronavirus pandemic, which put the country in lockdown for months, further compounding the crisis. Years of corruption and mismanagement have left Lebanon with depleted resources, while shrinking investment in the war-riddled region. In an outpouring of anger, protesters took to the streets in previews weeks, shutting down roads in several parts of the country and burning tires. Some protesters pelted branch offices of private banks with stones while in central Beirut, one bank was set on fire. University of Melbourne to build and launch innovative satellite Science and engineering researchers at the University of Melbourne have been awarded a $3.95 million Australian Government grant to help develop cutting edge space capabilities in Australia. The funding from the International Space Investment Expand Capability Program will allow researchers to build a small satellite - called SpIRIT - to be launched in space by 2022, in collaboration with multiple Australian space industry companies and the Italian Space Agency. Associate Professor Michele Trenti from the University's School of Physics is the lead investigator of the Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpIRIT) satellite. "SpIRIT will be very small - about the size of a shoe box - but powerful," Associate Professor Trenti said. "It will carry innovative X-ray sensors, sophisticated on-board computers and radios, and even a miniaturised electric propulsion engine, so we could well say that we will be building a tiny robotic spaceship. "It will be the first Australian-made spacecraft to host a foreign space agency payload, with an X-ray detector provided by the Italian Space Agency." Associate Professor Trenti said SpIRIT will demonstrate that Australian-made spacecraft are internationally competitive, opening new market opportunities. "SpIRIT will not only benefit Australian industry, it will also contribute to some awesome scientific discoveries," Associate Professor Trenti said. "In particular, SpIRIT will combine its X-ray observations with data from a constellation of six other European satellites to spot cosmic fireworks that can be produced when stars die or collide with each other." The SpIRIT mission will demonstrate innovative technological elements in the areas of thermal management, real-time communications and on-board autonomous decision capabilities that University of Melbourne researchers will use in future space telescope projects for both Earth and astronomical observations. SpIRIT is a partnership between the University of Melbourne's Physics and Engineering Schools, Sitael Australia, Inovor Technologies, Neumann Space, and Nova Systems, with support from the Italian and United Kingdom Space Agencies (UK in an advisory role). Dr Airlie Chapman, senior lecturer in mechatronics from Melbourne School of Engineering and co-investigator on the project, said SpIRIT will increase Australia's reputation in the global space sector, and contribute to training a highly capable future workforce. "Building an innovative space-ready nanosatellite comes with unique challenges," Dr Chapman said. "This project will help us apply engineering research to break new ground in nanosatellite design, manufacturing and operations, hopefully acting as a guide for Australian aerospace research in the future." Postgraduate students will have the opportunity to join engineering teams at the University of Melbourne and at industry partners through a paid internship program designed to mentor and inspire future space leaders, concluded Dr Chapman. Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) Professor Jim McCluskey has welcomed the grant saying it acknowledges the work of the University to support Australia's space capabilities endeavours. "SpIRIT is an important partnership that reflects the creativity, relevance and excellence of our researchers. The program will generate wider benefit for Australian businesses, and the next generation of space workforce, researchers and entrepreneurs. This is an outstanding achievement," Professor McCluskey said. ### This story has been published on: 2020-06-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. I had suggested a broad definition for a social equity candidate in early stakeholder meetings. Fearing it was not moving fast enough and not inclusive enough of a process, I hired Ms. Sovine to assist me in ensuring that all stakeholders and all potential social equity candidates were included. Longtime cannabis activist and entrepreneur, Larisa Bolivar, who is Executive Director of the Cannabis Consumers Coalition and CEO of Bolivar Hemp Company, is happy to report that a bill she hired longtime lobbyist Cindy Sovine to craft to define social equity candidates. Colorado House Bill 20-1424 Social Equity in Regulated Cannabis Businesses was also amended to add the ability for the governor to pardon cannabis crimes to expunge criminal records and enable more people who were harmed by the War on Drugs to The bill also enables the industry to move forward on an accelerator licensing program passed last year by Coloradans in the sunset bill, SB 19-224, as well as enable Denver to move forward for their social equity goals. Last year, Coloradans also passed social consumption and delivery bills which will allow for social equity licensees to also apply for making this bill extremely urgent for Colorado and Denver to meet social equity goals. I had suggested a broad definition for a social equity candidate in early stakeholder meetings. Fearing it was not moving fast enough and not inclusive enough of a process, I hired Ms. Sovine to assist me in ensuring that all stakeholders and all potential social equity candidates were included. States Ms. Bolivar about the need to push the bill through during a very hectic time during a pandemic. The bill, which was a last-minute bill introduced on June 9th during a flurry of other bills being rushed through the Colorado General Assembly in the wake of COVID and other major issues needing to be heard such as vaccinations and police body cams. There was a significant risk that the bill would die waiting to be heard, and Ms. Sovine was very diligent in ensuring that the bill was relevant and in ensuring that the bill received bipartisan support. Having bipartisan support was not an easy task, and Republicans to have a significant say because social equity is also a free market issue. Any restrictions on the market go against free market principles. And, considering the current racial tension in the United States, it is remarkable that Colorado passed a social equity bill with bipartisan support, making this bill even more monumental. Plus, this also enable the creation of pathways to be developed for real ownership with support along the way. Ms. Bolivar has experience developing roadmaps to success for social equity programs and won a $650 thousand workforce development grant from the state of California. I know we can have a successful social equity program and the state can now make rules around grant and loan money from marijuana tax revenues. This is a double win for me considering I headed the campaign that was against high marijuana taxes. Ms. Bolivar continues, And, I can help along the way from outreach, to training, to internship and placed into management positions or successfully open up their own licensed cannabis shop. There are multiple possibilities that will result from this monumental and historical bill. The biggest win is the ability to create real ownership opportunities and economic stability for community members most harmed by the War on Drugs and begin repairing those harms. For more information, please call Larisa Bolivar at 703-244-4857. (Natural News) As cities across America burn to the ground at the hands of radical Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) terrorists, Teen Vogue has a special message for todays youth: All of that violence and chaos you are witnessing is a good thing because it will create a better world for your generation. In a 2017 article entitled, Heres What Antifa is REALLY Trying to Do, Teen Vogue writer Abdullah Shihipar tried to make the case that Antifa is a totally misunderstood movement motivated not by a twisted desire to watch the world burn but rather by genuine aspirations to stamp out that mythical creature known as white supremacy. In this piece, Shihipar openly defended Antifa and tried to paint those who identify with the movement as victims of some kind of media smear campaign. And Teen Vogue recently re-tweeted this article at the onset of the George Floyd riots to trick young people into believing that looting businesses and tearing down monuments is purposeful for creating equity and justice. A Dartmouth College professor by the name of Mark Bray who was interviewed by Shihipar several years back contended that Antifa is a militant self-defense group that is simply trying to protect itself against the far right. He went on to liken the terrorist group to a well-intentioned militia. Antifa grows out of a larger revolutionary politics that aspires toward creating a better world, but the primary motivation is to stop racists from organizing; doing that can take many forms, and so the tactical repertoire of anti-fascists is broad, Bray is quoted as saying. The vast majority of what they do does not entail any physical confrontation, he went on to emphasize. They focus on researching white supremacists and neo-Nazis across different social media platforms, figuring out who their leaders are, what other groups they are networking with, [and] where they are trying to hold events, so they can contact hotels or local venues to get the owners to cancel the events and, if they refuse to cancel, organize a boycott or campaigns of public pressure against them. Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about how left-wing Antifa terrorists are actually helping President Trump to win reelection this fall: Teen Vogue encourages young people to join Antifa and become little terrorists When specifically asked about Antifa violence and illegal activity, Bray told Teen Vogue that the media is to blame for focusing on the spectacle, meaning the throwing of Molotov cocktails and bricks through the windows of businesses. The truth, he claims, is that Antifa is doing good work by exposing Nazis, which are the same as far-right people, using physical force if necessary. They have a view of self-defense that entails both self-defense in an immediate sense and in a preemptive sense, Bray stated, using crafty wordplay to rebrand violence like assault and battery as preemptive self-defense. Brays overall message is that Antifa is a necessary force to stamp out far-right speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos, who was a prominent Trump-supporting voice at the time he gave this interview. If it were given again today, Bray would probably include names like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. The argument that anti-fascist and anti-racist student groups put forward is that if we really want to promote free and open discourse on campuses and in society, then allowing the promotion of white supremacist, transphobic, or anti-immigrant sentiment promotes the dehumanization of significant numbers of people and actually is antithetical to building the kind of diverse, free, and open discourse that we all want, Bray says, encouraging young people to join up with the movement. To keep up with the latest news about Antifa and Black Lives Matter terrorism, be sure to check out Chaos.news. Sources for this article include: Twitter.com NaturalNews.com China's Plan to Take Charge of 'Serious' National Security Cases in Hong Kong Sparks Concern By Verna Yu June 16, 2020 China must take charge of "serious" cases in Hong Kong that breach national security, a senior Chinese official said this week as Beijing prepares to impose new national security laws in the city. Analysts and legal experts say Hong Kong's freedoms are under unprecedented threats after China's parliament, the National People's Congress, passed a plan in late May to impose sweeping national security laws on Hong Kong to prevent and punish what Beijing considers "acts and activities" that threaten national security, including advocacy of secession, subversion and terrorism and foreign interference. The plan, which bypassed Hong Kong's legislature, would also allow Chinese national security organs to set up agencies in the city. The laws are expected to be enacted within the next few months, with some reports suggesting it could take effect as soon as late June or July. China insists such laws are necessary to halt widespread anti-government protests in Hong Kong, which started off being peaceful in June last year but turned violent as frustrations mounted. Deng Zhonghua, deputy head of China's ministerial-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, told an official conference on Monday that the majority of the work to safeguard national security, including law enforcement and judicial process, should be done by Hong Kong's authorities. But "in very special circumstances, the central (Chinese) authorities should have the power to retain jurisdiction over offenses in Hong Kong that seriously endanger national security," he added. Deng stopped short of defining what constitutes "serious" cases but insisted that such cases would be "very few" and would not affect the independence of the semi-autonomous city's judiciary. He however stressed that the Chinese government must have an "actual grip" on national security offenses in Hong Kong. "(The laws) must create an effective deterrence, instead of just being slogans and gestures," Deng said. He further stressed that the national security laws "have the authority and status that cannot be challenged" and no local laws in Hong Kong should override them. He said Chinese security agencies will also "supervise and guide" the Hong Kong government in safeguarding national security. In his original address, Deng said the national security laws would give national security agents set up by the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities' enforcement and judicial powers. But the word "judicial power" disappeared from his speech released after the conference. Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said Deng's speech was "very disturbing because it's up to Beijing to define what is serious and what cases need special treatment." "It will be determined according to Beijing's yardstick and this goes against the principle of the rule of law," said Lam. "This is very dangerous." Johnny Lau, a veteran political commentator on Chinese affairs, said although the Chinese authorities have repeatedly emphasized that the national security laws would apply to only "a small bunch" of people, "the laws would likely be used to justify suppressing not so few government critics in Hong Kong", where people have enjoyed a range of civil freedoms that would soon be deemed illegal under the national security laws. Johannes Chan, professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, told local media Deng's words on the "unchallenged authority" of the national security laws could mean they supersede Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, and its laws which have mechanisms to safeguard human rights. He worried that Hong Kong courts would effectively become "rubber stamps" that execute the national security laws, without the authority to challenge and interpret them. Philip Dykes, the chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association said Beijing's intention to take control of the most serious national security cases amounts to a "reverse engineering" of a now withdrawn extradition bill which sparked the huge, year-long anti-government protest movement. The proposed law, which could see individuals sent to China for trials, plunged the city into its deepest political crisis in decades. "It sounds like a reverse engineering of the ill-fated extradition bill. Rather than you going to the mainland, the mainland comes to you," Dykes told the public broadcaster RTHK. Experts have said the national security laws have sounded the death knell for the "one country, two systems" policy that has enabled Hong Kong to maintain its core values -- the rule of law and basic civil liberties -- that have underpinned its success as an international business hub in the past 23 years after its reversal from British to Chinese rule. Hong Kong's Secretary for Security John Lee also said this week a new police unit being created to implement the national security laws will operate secretly because national security is involved. He also said Tuesday that the new laws will stipulate what politicians are barred from doing when they meet foreign government officials. Pro-democracy politicians have often been criticized by China for "inviting foreign interference" when they discuss Hong Kong with foreign officials. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A view of an empty Changi Airport Terminal 2 a day before its 18-month closure due to the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Singapore SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore will halt construction of the fifth terminal at its Changi Airport for at least two years to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact the aviation sector and the future of travel, the city-state's transport minister said on Tuesday. The government was carrying out a study of how the aviation sector will change, and the design of new terminal would be altered to account for new safety requirements as well as changing needs of airlines, Khaw Boon Wan said. "We have decided to take a pause for two years. Let us complete this study of the future of aviation," Khaw said, according to an audio recording of his remarks on a video conference call provided by the transport ministry. The fifth terminal was scheduled to be completed in the 2030s, and was to handle up to 50 million passengers per year in its initial phase. Changi was among the world's busiest airports in 2019, with more than 68 million passengers, before travel crashed this year due to the pandemic. (Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Louise Heavens) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 23:04:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIEV, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States will transfer over 60-million-U.S. dollars worth of military equipment to Ukraine, including ammunition and Javelin missiles, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine reported on Wednesday. "US security assistance and cooperation efforts with Ukraine during COVID19 continue! Yesterday, the US Embassy's Office of Defense Cooperation received more than 60 million U.S. dollars of equipment to transfer to our Ukrainian partners, including radios, ammunition, & Javelin anti-tank missiles," the U.S. Embassy's Office of Defense Cooperation in Ukraine said on Twitter on Wednesday. Earlier, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine announced the American government's decision to increase its aid to Ukraine amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - UN experts on Wednesday warned that reliance on foreign actors has contributed to the escalation of the conflict in Libya and undermined prospects for a peaceful resolution, all at a tragic cost for the local population ST. LOUIS, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Peabody announced today Mark Spurbeck has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mark joined Peabody in early 2018 and has most recently served as the company's Senior Vice President and Interim Chief Financial Officer since January 2020. "We are pleased for Mark to officially step into this key leadership post," said Peabody President and Chief Executive Officer Glenn Kellow. "Mark's extensive mining experience and perspective will be valuable as we continue to navigate the complexities of the current global environment." Mark has more than two decades of accounting and financial experience. In his time at Peabody, he also served as Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer and has overseen the company's finance, treasury, tax, internal audit, financial reporting and corporate accounting functions. Prior to joining Peabody in early 2018, Mark was Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer at Coeur Mining, Inc. He also previously held multiple positions at Newmont Mining Corporation over an eight-year period, including Group Executive, Assistant Controller. Mark also served in several financial positions at First Data Corporation and Deloitte LLP. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Hillsdale College in Michigan and is a Certified Public Accountant. Peabody (NYSE: BTU) is a leading coal producer, serving customers in more than 25 countries on six continents. We provide essential products to fuel baseload electricity for emerging and developed countries and create the steel needed to build foundational infrastructure. Our commitment to sustainability underpins our activities today and helps to shape our strategy for the future. For further information, visit PeabodyEnergy.com. Contact: Julie Gates 314.342.4336 SOURCE Peabody A residential building riddled with potentially life-threatening defects has been dubbed Sydney's 'worst' tower block. New South Wales Building Commissioner David Chandler said the 16-storey building in Auburn, in western Sydney, was 'the worst he's inspected'. Inspectors found the 251-unit tower still had fire hazards and building defects, months after owners and tenants moved in. Mr Chandler said the 93 Auburn Road tower block was the 'straw that broke the camel's back' in convincing the NSW Government to crack down on faulty buildings. It follows a series of scandals involving unit buildings across Sydney including Opal Tower at Sydney Olympic Park and Mascot Towers in the city's east. The 251-unit tower in Auburn, western Sydney, still has fire hazards and building defects, months after owners and tenants moved in The Auburn Road building was hit with an emergency fire safety order after an inspection from Cumberland Council, which found 'various faults' New South Wales Building Commissioner David Chandler said the Auburn tower is 'an abomination' and 'the worst he's inspected' Western Sydney property developer Merhis described its building as 'architectural landmarks of the finest standard' The newly-built Opal Tower was evacuated in December 2018 after cracks discovered in the building sparked fears it could collapse. Those living in Mascot Towers had to leave due to cracking in the primary support structure and facade last June. Mr Chandler visited the Auburn building last October at the request of Fire and Rescue NSW, who were concerned about the tower's fire safety. He was shocked at the 'abomination' of a building, claiming it wasn't finished and only had one elevator in working order, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Construction waste was found in the basement, which was deemed a fire hazard as 'all of the smoke would have gone up the lift shaft' if it had caught fire. Mr Chandler said leaks were also spotted in the basement, where a pump was used to discharge a pool of water. A ventilation duct was installed too low, meaning in the event of a fire, firefighters could run into it. Western Sydney property developer Merhis described its building as 'architectural landmarks of the finest standard,' but Mr Chandler said it fell short of fire safety, structure and waterproofing standards. Ellie Zhang, who bought a two-bedroom apartment off the plan for $650,000, was shocked to see builders still working on the tower while she moved in a year ago. 'I had to pay a lot and this is my first apartment. I expect a lot more from it. It wasn't finished ... and the building wasn't painted properly. There was a hole in our roof,' she said. Under his new powers that come into force in September, Mr Chandler will be able to withhold occupation certificates, which will stop builders or developers from forcing buyers to settle on properties with defects. Last December, all Opal Tower residents returned to the Sydney apartment building which was evacuated 12 months earlier after cracking was discovered in the walls The Auburn Road building was hit with an emergency fire safety order after an inspection from Cumberland Council, which found 'various faults'. Three notices orders were issued between November and March, ordering structural engineers and fire safety experts to report on the development's compliance with the building code. Merhis managing director Dave Stickland argued the defects had either been fixed or were in the process of being resolved. 'Many of the items raised are latent defects or were caused by extreme weather events (as well as several incidents involving damage by tenants),' he said in a statement. Last December, all Opal Tower residents returned to the Sydney apartment building which was evacuated 12 months earlier after cracking was discovered in the walls. An 122-unit residential block in Mascot was evacuated in June 2019 after cracks were found in the primary support structure and facade masonry All 392 apartments at the Olympic Park complex had been returned to residents who were evacuated over fears the building could collapse. A NSW government-commissioned report found critical support beams in the tower were left susceptible to 'bursting' because they were under-designed and made from lower-strength concrete. Meanwhile, the 122-unit residential block in Mascot was evacuated in June 2019 after cracks were found in the primary support structure and facade masonry. Residents were evacuated after concerns were raised about the structural integrity of their building. Cracks in the basement of the decade-old building had widened in the lead up to the last minute evacuation, with many pointing blame at the newly built and unoccupied building next door. S adiq Khan has taken a 10 per cent pay cut as he called on Boris Johnson to bail out local authorities facing funding difficulties as a result of coronavirus. The London Mayor is taking an immediate cut to his 152,734 salary, reducing it by almost 15,300, and has frozen pay for his senior appointments at City Hall. He warned that authorities across the country are facing a shortfall of business rates and council tax income. Londoners did the right thing to tackle Covid-19 by following the rules, staying at home and helping to save lives," Mr Khan said. But now the Government is punishing them with a new era of austerity. Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on Londons public finances which were in great shape before the pandemic. TfLs fares income has dropped by more than 90 per cent and local business rates and council tax income has fallen off a cliff. Shops reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease 1 /45 Shops reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease Primark in Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn A member of staff prepares to open a branch of H&M in Canterbury, Kent, PA Primark in Birmingham PA NikeTown Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Primark in Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Shop staff in face masks give a round of applause to the first customers through the doors at the Fenwick store in Newcastle PA Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn A doorman in a face mask waits to welcome back customers to the Fenwick store in Northumberland Street, Newcastle PA People queue for outside shops in Canterbury, Ken PA People queue for outside shops in Canterbury, Kent PA Primark in Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn A customer dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) in line to shop at Primark, Birmingham PA Primark in Birmingham PA Primark in Birmingham PA NikeTown Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Selfridges Matt Writtle/Selfridges Selfridges Matt Writtle/Selfridges A Harrod's 'Green Man' welcomes customers back to Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London PA Customers wait outside Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London PA Primark in Birmingham PA Primark in Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Kathryn Stanczyszyn Kathryn Stanczyszyn/BBC People queue ahead of the opening of Primark in Leeds PA Selfridges Matt Writtle/Selfridges A customer dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) in line to shop at Primark, Birmingham PA A customer carrying bags of shopping leaves Primark in Birmingham PA Primark Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Primark Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Shoppers in line outside John Lewis in Kingston PA Shops and businesses in Chelsea, West London prepare to re-open to customers Daniel Hambury REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS This is the worst possible time for a return to austerity just when we need to invest in Londons recovery. Unless ministers act, the current number of police officers will need to be reduced and it will be impossible to tackle youth violence or make the changes to the London Fire Brigade that are desperately needed after the awful Grenfell Tower tragedy. Mr Khan said he will be left with no choice other than to make significant cuts across the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, Transport for London and the Greater London Authority, unless the Government "urgently acts to support local and regional authorities across the UK". He called on ministers to keep their promise that there would be no new era of austerity as a result of the coronavirus, warning that the Greater London Authority group faces a forecast 493 million budget shortfall. Whatever happens I will protect the frontline services that Londoners depend on as much as possible - and its only right that I should volunteer for an immediate pay cut in these extremely difficult circumstances and continue not to take any pension contributions," Mr Khan said. A Government spokeswoman said a comprehensive plan is being prepared to ensure councils' financial sustainability over the year ahead. "We have given London an unprecedented package of support to ensure they have the resources they need to provide services for their communities during the pandemic," the spokeswoman said. Sadiq Khan warned about the funding black holes faced by councils / Getty Images The GLA has received an extra 18.5 million of emergency funding and an additional 1.6 billion for Transport for London. "This is on top of an increase in core spending power of over 88 million to over 2.27 billion while the Metropolitan Police is receiving 2.9 billion in funding this financial year, the most substantial police funding increase since 2010. "We have given London councils 518 million in additional emergency funding as part of a total of over 5.3 billion of government support for communities and businesses across the city during the pandemic. We are working on a comprehensive plan to ensure councils financial sustainability over the year ahead and we will update as soon as we are able. KYODO NEWS - Jun 17, 2020 - 14:42 | All, Japan, Coronavirus An infectious diseases expert has urged people in Japan not to let their guard down against the novel coronavirus as government tests have revealed that most individuals lack antibodies and are at risk of contracting the virus in a second wave of infections. The health ministry's antibody tests for the new coronavirus conducted earlier this month suggested a 0.1 percent infection rate in Tokyo, 0.17 percent in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, and 0.03 percent in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan. "If the infection had spread without being detected, the rates would have been higher," said Kazuhiro Tateda, the expert at Toho University. While explaining the results show that the first wave of infections was contained to a certain degree, Tateda called for antibody testing to be conducted periodically to grasp the spread of the virus, saying, "While we managed to survive the first wave, many people remain vulnerable to infection." "We must not ease our measures (against the virus)," he said. The presence of antibodies indicates individuals have been infected with the virus and may not be reinfected. But as it remains unclear whether antibodies for the novel coronavirus provide immunity to reinfection, the government is planning to continue analysis of the antibodies at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. There is also the issue of the precision of antibody testing. Some clinics and companies have introduced antibody tests on their own, but their results are not always accurate even if people test positive. To enhance the credibility of its test results, the health ministry used a method that can measure the level of antibodies, which was approved in the United States as an emergency step. The ministry survey was conducted between June 1 and 7, with samples collected from about 8,000 people aged 20 and above in the three regions. The rate of individuals with antibodies was about three to nine times higher than the rate of confirmed infections to the population, which stood at 0.038 percent in Tokyo, 0.02 percent in Osaka Prefecture, and 0.004 percent in Miyagi Prefecture. The discrepancy indicates a large number of infections have gone undetected with people either recovering without being tested or showing no symptoms. Related coverage: Tokyo has 0.1% positive rate for coronavirus antibodies: gov't Tokyo reports 27 new daily coronavirus infections Gov't to promote staggered holidays to curb congestion, virus spread FLINT, MI Flint police Chief Phil Hart is firing back at criticism of the citys department by a Trump official on a national news program. During a Tuesday, June 16 appearance on CNN Tonight with host Don Lemon, White House Deputy Assistant to the President JaRon Smith explained why the president signed an executive order to recommend police ban chokeholds except when an officers life is on the line. Part of the interview included Smith with a reference to the Vehicle City and its allegedly antiquated policies. When you look at Flint or Minneapolis those police departments havent updated their use of force policies for years, for 40 years, Smith told Lemon. And what were trying to do is incentivize all of them to set a standard and that standard includes chokeholds unless met with deadly force. This is really common sense. Police officers are out there to do a job and thats protect our community. A statement issued by the city of Flint Wednesday afternoon notes Smith stumbled while talking so it is difficult to decipher from the recorded interview if he intended to say the City of Flint Police Department hadnt updated its policies for years, for years or for years, for 40 years. On behalf of all the hardworking men and women in the Flint Police Department, I am outraged at this callous and unnecessary attack on our department, Hart said. The use of chokeholds is banned throughout the entire state of Michigan and has been for decades. Dont make Flint the scapegoat for your policy shortcomings. The citys statement notes the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards stopped allowing police to use chokeholds in the early to mid-1980s. The Flint City Council passed a measure June 8 to update the code of conduct for the department that includes a duty to intervene for all sworn and un-sworn officers to protect residents from any mistreatment by another officer. The Response to Resistance policy was updated in September 2015, per the statement. The Flint Police Department also follows the strict regulations set by the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, which was revised in December 2017. Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley added the Trump administration could learn a thing or two from Flint and the state of Michigan. Here, Flint police were dispatched to protect protesters, not silence them, he said. More on MLive: Flint City Council denounces illegal police restraints, declares racism a public health crisis Flint Police Department will have Black Lives Matter advisory council Organizers call for seat at the table with police during second night of protests in Flint It provides us with both the direction of what we must do to make self-reliance work (the sturdy ideal), and a clear warning of what to stay away from (the self-serving rhetoric). Dores essential argument was that India needed to learn from the best in the world, that this learning required a systematic and considerable effort, and that in matters of self-reliance, learning ... 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 Journalists from The Age and Sydney Morning Herald have taken home three Walkley Awards in the prestigious media institute's mid-year accolades on Wednesday evening. Seven entries from journalists of this masthead were shortlisted for the peer-judged awards, which are selected on the basis of journalistic excellence. Investigative reporters Ben Schneiders and Nick McKenzie took out the June Andrews Award for Industrial Relations Reporting for their coverage of former CFMEU boss John Setka and his comments about domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty. The two other finalist entries in this category were also from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald: Adele Ferguson for her expose, Grilld accused of using traineeships to exploit workers, and Ben Schneiders and Royce Millar with their story Anatomy of wage theft. Indigenous Affairs reporter Ella Archibald-Binge won the longform feature category for the Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards for a documentary produced in her previous role with SBS televison, "Australia's stolen wages shame". The White House on Wednesday said there were "no formal plans" when asked if United States President Donald Trump would mediate between India and China on the border issue. "There are no formal plans on that," said White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany when asked about the mediation. While condoling the loss of lives of 20 Indian soldiers at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, McEnany said Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had discussed on June 2 the situation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. The violent clashes on Monday night, which left at least 20 soldiers of the Indian Army dead, is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while more than 300 Chinese army personnel were killed. Trump last month had offered to "mediate or arbitrate" the raging border dispute between the two Asian neighbours, saying he was "ready, willing and able" to ease the tensions. Both India and China had turned down Trump's offer. While India had said it was already engaged with Beijing to "resolve this issue", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian had said the two countries did not want the "intervention" from a third party to resolve the military standoff. "Between China and India we have existing border-related mechanisms and communication channels", Zhao told a media briefing here when asked about Trump's offer. "We are capable of properly resolving the issues between us through dialogue and consultation. We do not need the intervention of the third party", he said. Last year, Trump had offered to mediate between India and Pakistan over their Kashmir dispute, but it was rejected by India. Tamara Ecclestone treated her family to dinner in Croatia on Tuesday, as they continued to live it up on her father's 28million yacht. Earlier this month, the Formula One heiress, 35, arrived in her mother's native country alongside her husband Jay Rutland, 39, daughter Sophia, six, her sister Petra, 31, Petra's fiance Sam Palmer and her four children. Tamara appeared high spirits as she held Sophia's hand while they walked through the old town to popular seafood restaurant Posat. Tamara Ecclestone treated her family to dinner in Croatia on Tuesday, as they continued to live it up on her father's 28million yacht Tamara showed off her bronzed tan in denim frayed hem shorts, which she teamed with pink Valentino sliders and a ombre lilac and pink jumper. She tied her brunette tresses back in a ponytail and shielded her eyes from the late evening sun with a pair of sunglasses. The Formula One heiress finished off her look with a 2,000 Dior tote bag. Break: Earlier this month, the Formula One heiress, 35, arrived in the country with husband Jay Rutland, 39, daughter Sophia, sister Petra, 31, her fiance Sam Palmer and her four children Happy: Tamara appeared high spirits as she held Sophia's hand while they walked through the old town to popular seafood restaurant Posat Boat trip: The family headed off Bernie's 176ft yacht Petara, which boasts six cabins, and onto a speed boat to take them into the town Sophia, meanwhile, looked adorable in a Bugs Bunny T-shirt and a pink jacket. The youngster appeared to be having the time of her life as she held mum Tamara and dad Jay's hands. The trio have been joined by Petra, Sam, Petra's daughter Lavinia, seven, and twin boys Andrew and James, five, who she shares with her ex-husband James Stunt, and her and Sam's newborn daughter. Caught the sun: Tamara showed off her bronzed tan in denim frayed hem shorts, which she teamed with pink Valentino sliders and a ombre lilac and pink jumper Soaking up the sun: She tied her brunette tresses back in a ponytail and shielded her eyes from the late evening sun with a pair of sunglasses Expensive taste: The Formula One heiress finished off her look with a 2,000 Dior tote bag Ready for dinner! Sophia and Petra's children were simply bursting with excitement as they arrived at the town Defending: Tamara hit back after her followers criticised her for going on holiday last week Petra cut a casual figure for the outing in a white hoodie and grey joggers, which she teamed with a designer handbag. Sam also opted for comfort in a black hoodie and jeans. The family headed off Bernie's 176ft yacht Petara, which boasts six cabins, and onto a speed boat to take them into the town. The family walked through the old town and headed to Posat restaurant, where they ate octopus, shrimp and tuna tartare. Out at sea: Tamara and Jay sat at the back of the boat for the scenic ride Living the life: The family looked throughly relaxed during their evening out Casually-clad: Petra cut a casual figure for the outing in a white hoodie and grey joggers, which she teamed with a designer handbag Heading out: Sam also opted for comfort in a black hoodie and jeans, while Jay looked smart in a crisp white shirt Fancy: The family walked through the old town and headed to Posat restaurant, where they ate octopus, shrimp and tuna tartare Since the family were seen luxuriating on the sisters' father Bernie Ecclestone's 28m yacht, Tamara's social media has seen a surge of criticism - leading to her staunch defence in a lengthy Instagram post shared last week. Tamara penned a lengthy caption reading: 'Clearly this virus hasn't changed some people for the better which is a bit of a shame. For those of you that are confused or just bitter. I didn't leave the house at all during lockdown... 'I didn't even go to the park or exercise. I am half-Croatian so decided it would be best, safest to come here, which is not forbidden and I am now following the rules in Croatia. As for the home school questions, a return to school was option... Backlash: Since the family were seen luxuriating on the sisters' father Bernie Ecclestone's 28m yacht, Tamara's social media has seen a surge of criticism Hitting back: Tamara penned a lengthy caption in her defence reading: ''I didn't even go to the park or exercise. I am half-Croatian so decided it would be best, safest to come here' Devoted mum: 'We chose to continue to home school Fifi. She is doing better than ever', Tamara added when concerns were raised about Sophia's education 'We chose to continue to home school Fifi she is doing better than ever and has gone up two reading bands. If I am not mistaken no one is obliged to follow me so you know what to do.' Last month, Krunoslav Capak, the director of Croatia's Institute of Public Health, said there would be 'no bans, just precautions' on the country's beaches, after Croatia reported 107 deaths overall as of last week. He said: 'I will certainly go to the beach. I can't wait. Lifeguards, local authorities and hoteliers will have to make sure that sun beds and towels are not too close together because the virus will still be present.' The family have further happy news, as it was revealed that their father Bernie, 89, was expecting to be a father for a fourth time, as his wife Fabiana Flosi, 44, is expecting. Lifting: Last month, Krunoslav Capak, the director of Croatia's Institute of Public Health, said there would be 'no bans, just precautions' on the country's beaches Nguyen Tu Quang, CEO, Chairman of Bkav, shared: "AI application is the tendency of the world, and AI integrated cameras will soon replace other traditional forms of this kind of devices such as IP cameras, Analog cameras, etc. As a leading technology corporation that has long operated in cyber security and has got 10 years of experience in smartphone manufacturing, Bkav has quickly developed breakthrough technologies in surveillance camera manufacturing, successfully integrating AI in cameras". "We cooperate with Qualcomm, the leading chip manufacturer, to execute projects in USA and Europe, helping to bring Vietnam-branded products to the world", Quang added. According to MarketsandMarkets Research, the global surveillance camera market size is expected to grow from USD 45.5 billion in 2020 to USD 74.6 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 10.4%. In which, increasing adoption of AI and deep learning technologies across various applications will help to provide opportunities for the market. Mr. Tommy Le, Bkav's Vice President of Business Development, USA, said: "The United States is one of the two most exciting and fast-growing markets for surveillance cameras, while Chinese products are banned in this country and in European markets. This is a great opportunity for us, and we decide to conquer users of the United States first. To realize this strategy, Bkav cooperates with Qualcomm and OneScreen. We believe that with the products of superior quality and competitive prices, Bkav will soon capture the market and become one of the 5 leading camera manufacturers in the world". Bkav's cameras have high quality and are available at reasonable price, 20% lower than products of famous manufacturers from Europe. In comparison with normal cameras, AI cameras help customers save costs for servers and transmission. AI-powered image data processing will be carried out in real-time and right on the cameras, which means there is no need to transfer the data to the servers, thereby minimizing latency in information processing and ensuring user privacy. All Bkav surveillance cameras will be branded AI View. Quang, as a COVID-concerned IT expert who has leaded several IT projects related to the pandemic, shared: "Several countries still have to continue lockdown due to COVID-19, while the pandemic is forecast to remain complicated in at least 9 months, with the total of COVID-19 infections worldwide likely reaching 17 million. In this condition, features of our AI cameras such as Social distancing, Contact tracing, Thermal detection, etc. will contribute to the application of technology in the fight against COVID-19". About Bkav: Bkav is a leading technology corporation in Vietnam, which operates in cyber security, software, smartphone, smart home and AI camera. In Vietnam, Bkav is among the best-known brands and provides best services. The company is also famous around the world for identifying flaws in well-known products like Google Chrome, Face ID of iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S8 iris recognition, etc. Bkav's antivirus and mobile security software are spread out across the world with 86 million of downloads, more than 20 millions of users in 234 countries and territories. SOURCE Bkav Corporation The Team at Ristorante Frescobaldi On June 18th, amidst great fanfare and excitement, Ristorante Frescobaldi throws open its doors once again in Florences Piazza della Signoria, with its nonpareil venue providing an unparalleled stage view of one of the worlds most priceless sights: Michelangelos David. Truly the perfect spot for a gourmet moment right in the beating heart of a city that is one of the worlds most celebrated centres of culture, art, and fine wine and food. Just a few steps from the Galleria degli Uffizi and boasting a magnificent, open-air panoramic view of the historic Palazzo Vecchio, Ristorante Frescobaldi offers elegant comfort and classic Tuscan hospitality, in an utterly unique setting where guests may enjoy lunch and dinner accompanied by the masterpieces of Michelangelo, Donatello, and other Florentine geniuses, all of this the creative achievement of Spanish interior design genius Lazaro Design. A showcase where the absolute quality of Tuscan cuisine plays a refined duet with the wines of the Tenute Frescobaldi, Ristorante Frescobaldi has become the Florentines preferred meeting-place both for business encounters and more informal moments, as it has for tourists as well. All treasure it as a one-of-a-kind tribute to artgiven its unique location--but to culinary art as well, with a menu that privileges the rich Tuscan gastronomic tradition. All of us should greet this re-launching with the enthusiasm it deserves, commented Diana Frescobaldi, Director of Dei Frescobaldi Retail & Restaurant. The historic centre of Florence is always breath-taking, particularly in his period of the year, with the contrast between the blue of the sky and the smooth white of the marble statues, and Ristorante Frescobaldi is right there in the midst of it all. Our doors are open to welcome you for an exciting Tuscan adventure offered by our two new menus, Amidst the Vineyards and On the Tuscan Coast, each with our Frescobaldi wines. So come and enjoy with us the re-opening of our beloved Florence! Florence thus can once again enjoy, while observing safety measures and social distancing, its famed classic cuisine and savour the artistic delights of Michelangelos David in Piazza della Signoria. I RISTORANTI FRESCOBALDI The extensive Frescobaldi family experience in the restaurant sector led in 2002 to the establishment of the first Ristorante & Wine Bar Dei Frescobaldi, in Florence. The menu showcases classic Tuscan dishes made from the highest-quality local ingredients, all paired with Frescobaldi wines, both in bottle and by the glass. 2015 saw the opening of a Ristorante Frescobaldi in the United Kingdom, thanks to the first joint venture between Frescobaldi and the Good Food Society, a project promoted by Levents Buyukugur, businessman Sanjay Nandi, and Diana Frescobaldi. Located in Londons Mayfair District, the restaurant is characterised by its warm, inviting atmosphere and offers a high-quality interpretation of Tuscanys historic cuisine, paired with Frescobaldi wines. In 2017, the Ristorante in Florence became the Ristorante Frescobaldi Firenze and moved to a prestigious, new venue opposite the citys Palazzo Vecchio. About Frescobaldi Toscana | en.frescobaldi.com Frescobaldi Toscana, the leading wine producer of Tuscany and one of the most historic and respected wine companies in the world, combines centuries of tradition with progressive winemaking techniques and practices. Founded in the 14th century and a supplier of wines to the royal courts of Europe for generations, Frescobaldi Toscana is still a family-owned company today. Comprised of seven distinct estates totaling approximately 1,300 hectares, Frescobaldi Toscana produces terroir-driven wines utilizing only the grapes grown in its own vineyards. The company continually upgrades and modernizes its grape growing and winemaking operations, maintaining a relentless focus on producing unique wines that express the individuality of each unique terroir from which they are produced. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Steve Dickson, acknowledged on Wednesday (US time) that Boeing and the US air safety agency both made mistakes in developing the 737 MAX jet, but rejected senators' accusations the FAA was "stonewalling" probes after two fatal crashes. Boeing's 737 MAX has been grounded since March 2019 following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people, triggering multiple investigations into how the plane was certified as safe. Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson acknowledged "mistakes were made" by Boeing and the US safety agency. Credit:Bloomberg In a particularly tense exchange at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on aircraft certification, Senator Ted Cruz accused Dickson of speaking in the passive voice as a way of "avoiding responsibility" after Dickson told him, "Mistakes were made." "So unknown somebodies made unspecified mistakes for which there were no repercussions." Cruz said. "What mistakes were made and who made them?" RTHK: Ex-Atlanta police officer charged with murder A fired Atlanta police officer has been charged with felony murder and another officer faces lesser charges in the shooting death last week of Rayshard Brooks in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant, a Georgia county prosecutor said on Wednesday. The death of Brooks another in a long line of African-Americans killed by police further heightened racial concerns in the United States at a time of national soul-searching over racism and police brutality. Brooks, a 27-year-old father of three, "never presented himself as a threat," "never displayed any aggressive behavior" and "did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious physical injury" to the two white officers during the June 12 incident, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard told a news conference. Garrett Rolfe, the officer who shot Brooks and was fired the next day after surveillance video showed his actions, faces 11 charges including felony murder, assault with a deadly weapon and violating his oath of office, Howard said. Rolfe faces the possibility of life in prison or the death penalty if convicted, Howard added. Felony murder is a charge that can be brought when a person kills someone in the course of committing another felony. Devin Brosnan, the officer on the scene, was charged with aggravated assault and violations of his oath of office, Howard added. Brosnan, who has been placed on administrative duty, will cooperate with prosecutors, Howard said. Brooks was running from the officers and was more than 5.5 metres away when Rolfe shot him twice in the back with a 9mm Glock pistol, with one of the rounds penetrating his heart, Howard said. "I got him," Rolfe exclaimed after the shooting, Howard said, drawing on eight videos of the incident including police body and dashboard cameras, nearby surveillance cameras and witness cellphone video. After shooting him, Rolfe kicked Brooks twice when he was laying on the ground wounded and Brosnan admitted to standing on the man's shoulders as Brooks was fighting for his life, Howard said. The officers did not immediately render medical aid, Howard added. The prosecutor recommended that a judge hold Rolfe without bond. (Reuters) This story has been published on: 2020-06-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The people, politicians and leading students' union of Arunachal Pradesh have denounced China for the violent clash at Ladakh's Galwan Valley between the Indian Army and Chinese troops, and urged the Centre to take urgent precautionary steps to "thwart the evil designs of Beijing". Arunachal Pradesh shares a 3,488-km-long border with China, which claims the state in its territory as the part of Tibet it occupied in 1951, though the northeastern state is within India according to the Mcmohan Line drawn in 1938. The new official digital map of China claims parts of Arunachal Pradesh. The appeal to the Centre for precautionary steps was made after the violent faceoff at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh between the Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China on Monday night. Twenty Indian Army personnel were killed in the clash, the second-most violent between the militaries of the two countries after the one in 1975, when Assam Rifles troopers were killed. "We are indigenous Arunachalees and greet each other with Jai Hind. We are not only true Indians but also serve as sentinels of the frontiers," said a number of people from the capital town here and distant Upper Siang. They urged the Centre for precautionary steps against any attempt by China to intrude into the state. Tapir Gao, the BJP MP who represents the Arunachal East parliamentary constituency which includes areas bordering China, said, "Patriotic Arunachalees have been reacting very strongly against the inhuman acts of China." He exhorted the Centre for precautionary steps also in Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, besides in the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh. "Communist China is well-known in the committee of nations for its treacherous acts.... China cannot be trusted and can resort to its deceitful tactic anytime. Urgent steps must be taken to thwart the evil designs of Beijing," Gao said. The BJP leader had alleged in August, 2019 that Chinese troops had constructed a temporary wooden bridge over a stream in Anjaw district. The Army had then denied any Chinese incursion into Arunachal Pradesh. Alo Libang, the Health and Family Welfare Minister in the BJP government in the state led by Chief Minister Pema Khandu, said he has been advocating the reintroduction of the system of home guards, introduced after the 1962 war with China. Under the system, trained local youngsters were employed to ensure internal security. Libang said Arunachal Pradesh shares its border with Bhutan, China and Myanmar and the PLA makes repeated incursions into the state. Home guards would be very successful in collecting intelligence in the border villages, he claimed. Defence establishments along the Sino-India border in Arunachal Pradesh are located beyond the areas inhabited by people. The residents of the border villages face any intruders first. Outsiders cannot manage internal security because of the tough hilly terrain of the state, the minister said. Libang represents the Tuting-Yingkiong Assembly constituency in Upper Siang, located along the Sino-india border. In December 2017, Chinese soldiers with road-building machines reportedly crossed up to 200 metres into Upper Siang district and almost reached a border village, before Indian troops intercepted them along the eastern bank of the Siang river. Condemning the Galwan clash, the apex student body in the state All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU) called for a socio-economic boycott of China. It blamed Beijing for resorting to repeated incursions into Indian territory and urged the Centre to be extra vigilant along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The Chinese have a history of breaking trusts for their selfish gains, AAPSU president Hawa Bagang said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a strong message to China on Wednesday, stating that India will protect its territorial integrity and not shy away from responding, if provoked. MANZINI The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) has given government an ultimatum for the reopening of schools. Governments plan to reopen schools could be in jeopardy because of fears expressed by teachers that schools across the country were not ready for the big step. SNAT threatened that their members would not turn up at schools on July 6, 2020, if government does not put its house in order. Chief among the unions concerns is the slow delivery, or no delivery, of essentials such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and water tanks. The need for deep cleansing of schools and refurbishing of vandalised classes, as well as the lack of screening of teachers and learners with pre-existing conditions, are added concerns. Some teachers are expected to be at school a week or two before schools open. Timelines The association, in fact, gave government timelines of what needed to be done before the school calendar resumed. SNAT Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini said as teachers, they expected that water tanks and PPE would be delivered in schools by June 26, 2020, which is almost a week from today. Furthermore, he said on this date, flush toilets should be installed in rural schools while teachers should have been screened in order to identify those who had underlying conditions. The issue of teachers with comorbidities and all civil servants closer to retirement was submitted to government to allow those who were at a higher risk to stay home while government recruits personnel, Dlamini said. Worth noting is that public sector associations (PSAs) in the joint negotiation forum (JNF) suggested that government should consider offering a voluntary retirement package to civil servants who were 55 years old and above to protect them from contracting the virus. Also, Dlamini said meeting the June 26 timeline would allow government to address some of the challenges that could arise in the last week (June 29 July 3) prior to the scheduled schools opening. He also said the administration would have time to inform the public of the status quo. The school calendar is anticipated to restart on July 6, 2020 following an extension that was pronounced by the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, a week ago. Initially, it had been announced that schools would open on July 1, 2020 for Form Vs and final year tertiary students. Inconsistencies Given this timeline by government, the teachers union said the inconsistencies that have come to the forefront since the preparations for resuming the school calendar started, had led them to advise their members not to bother thinking about resuming work. As teachers are expected to go back to work, they are assuming the status of frontline workers and need the PPEs. So, if it is not available by July 26, there is no point in them heading to work, Dlamini said. He said under the current circumstances, there was no way they would advice their members to resume their work if government, through the Ministry of Education and Training, did not adhere to the standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Dlamini said as an organisation, they were not willing to be governments sacrificial lambs due to its inadequate preparations for the resumption of the school calendar. He said: Weve been monitoring with keen interest what has been happening in South Africa and inadequate preparations resulted in that countrys teachers contracting the coronavirus. Dlamini reiterated that they would not resume their duties until all the essential supplies required to manage the COVID-19 pandemic had been delivered. He said at the moment, government was not ready to reopen schools and handle the influx of learners and teachers. He said as an association, they were willing to support government but it had to be honest with them. Manner He said the honesty would be in providing a plan to be followed and articulate the exact manner that was being administered. Dlamini said updates on developments were necessary and should be frequent as this affected all stakeholders (parents, pupils, teachers and government). This will help identify anyone in the chain who does not do his or her job. Leading to this ultimatum, SNAT had tendered 15 demands that they wanted addressed before teachers could resume work. Among the demands was that government should extensively disinfect schools and tertiary institutions before reopening. They also want a site nurse deployed in every school and institutions, with a kit that will enable the health professional to conduct temperature screening for the teachers, learners, members of the support staff and everyone entering each school as an open system on a daily basis. SNAT added that massive testing should also be rolled out, over and above the temperature screening process, as it were. The country has 888 public schools. A freight train left Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, on Tuesday, heading for Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The train, carrying 43 containers of cargo weighing 800 tonnes, will take around 15 days to reach its destination, covering around 8,000 km in the process. It is the first direct China-Europe freight train between central China and Ukraine. The goods on the train include chemical raw materials, agricultural machinery and equipment, aluminum frames, syringes, and backpacks that are manufactured in Wuhan and nearby areas. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Wuhan and Kiev, and the new route is expected to optimize transportation and further deepen the pragmatic cooperation between the two cities, said Yuan Qiong, general manager of train operator Wuhan Asia Europe Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. The China-Europe rail-freight service was resumed in Wuhan on March 28, as the novel coronavirus epidemic ebbed away. As of Sunday, 93 trains had departed from the city bound for Europe, with capacity recovering to around the same level as in the same period last year. Editor's note: This article originally appeared under my byline in the Houston Chronicle on April 7, 1996. It is being republished here to add Texas context to Quaker Oats' decision to rebrand Aunt Jemima syrup and pancakes. HEARNE - A window display downtown pays homage to an American icon that many people would rather forget: Aunt Jemima. Donated by two local women, there are Aunt Jemima cups, coin banks and cookie jars, black mammy dolls and notepad holders, all featuring the distinctive apron-clad cook with a bandanna tied around her head. "Lots of people stop and look - of all colors," says Cindy Wallace, manager of the Hearne Area Chamber of Commerce, where the knickknacks are displayed. ""And there's always a smile on their faces." But - as a group in Hearne found when it tried to capitalize on the Aunt Jemima character as a tourist draw - resentment over the symbol lingers like a burnt and bitter crust. "Whites gave us this image," explains Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, whose book on how blacks are portrayed in advertising takes a critical view of Aunt Jemima. ""They made her very dark, they made her very obese, and they put her in the kitchen." It's not a new complaint. Surveys in the 1920s found that many African-Americans already were seething over the stereotype. With her expansive girth, manner of speech and trademark bandanna, Aunt Jemima was a painful reminder of slavery. RELATED: Racial stereotype Aunt Jemima brand to get new name, makeover Dealing with her in the 1990s remains a tricky business. Hearne, a scrappy little town of 5,000 between Bryan-College Station and Waco, is the birth and burial place of Rosie Lee Moore, one of a few dozen black women from the 1930s through the '60s who were paid to give cooking demonstrations dressed as Aunt Jemima. Speaking in dialect, the portrayers gave away samples at fairs, grocery stores and other public gatherings. Along the way, they made up legends about the mythical Aunt Jemima, like the one about how she revived a group of shipwrecked survivors with her flapjacks. Moore, born in 1899, left the area while in her 20s, settled in Oklahoma City and eventually went to work for the Quaker Oats Co. She was in the advertising department when she applied for the portrayer's job, according to Kern-Foxworth. She did that from 1950 until her death in 1967. Two of Moore's sisters still live in Hearne, and in a 1988 interview they fondly recalled their sister's Christmas visits back home. She would dazzle them with tales of her adventures and tell her siblings, "Y'all have to get out and meet people like me." They also claim their older sister was featured on some boxes of the pancake mix. The company says she probably was not, but that's not something Quaker Oats keeps careful records on. Regardless, says Kern-Foxworth, who profiles some of the Aunt Jemima portrayers in her book, Moore was treated well, particularly for a time when black women did not hold many high-profile positions. Quaker Oats covered Moore's travel expenses and gave her an escort, providing her with some of the trappings of celebrity, even if she was not paid like one. Yet the only thing the remaining siblings have to show is a souvenir button their sister had given them years ago. For 21 years, Moore never even had a headstone to mark her grave in a rural cemetery just outside town. In 1988, to promote the town, some folks in Hearne decided they should play up Moore's legacy. They erected a headstone and declared the grave a local historical site. Even Kern-Foxworth, whose book rips Aunt Jemima as a symbol, joined the effort. She, like many others, wanted to honor the woman and not the character she portrayed. "I thought what she did at that time, in that time period, was monumental," she says. Clarence Hutchins, a heavy-equipment operator from Hearne, agrees that Moore's recognition is long overdue. And Hutchins, who also is black, thinks the racial antipathy toward the Aunt Jemima character is unwarranted. But race does come up whenever Aunt Jemima is discussed, reflecting at least a profound ambivalence about her. In 1994, when the Hearne Chamber of Commerce put up the Aunt Jemima window display, town boosters discussed ways to promote the burial site, including a plan to broaden the entrance to the cemetery in the event, however unlikely, that tour buses might one day pull up to visit. Then Kern-Foxworth's book came out, surprising some of the project's supporters with its accusatory tone and message that Aunt Jemima was hurtful to many blacks. It's a sensitive subject in a town where whites are in the minority. Wallace, the chamber manager, says the mostly white business people decided to proceed cautiously. The window display remains, but the only other plans are to print up brochures about Moore's life and maps to the gravesite. "It's white people promoting this black image that is negative to a lot of people," explains Wallace. ""We didn't want to cause any unnecessary problems." The women who portrayed Aunt Jemima were part of a tradition that dated to 1893, when a former slave named Nancy Green greeted visitors to the World's Fair in Chicago. Green cooked, sang songs and told tales of the Old South, while reportedly serving more than a million pancakes and helping generate more than 50,000 orders for the mix. That was followed by tours across the United States and Canada until her death in 1923. Quaker Oats acquired the Aunt Jemima trademark in 1926 and revived the portrayers in the 1930s. Most of the subsequent Aunt Jemimas played to more limited audiences, however, working in assigned geographic regions. A few did appear in radio and print ad campaigns and some got their pictures on the box. Company spokesman Ron Bottrell says marketing surveys show the Aunt Jemima trademark -since 1968 a drawing not based on a real person - is considered by the vast majority of Americans to be a positive image. He notes that sales of the product are higher among blacks than among the population as a whole. Even Kern-Foxworth, who teaches journalism at Texas A&M University, admits the marketing campaign was brilliant. But, she argues, the Aunt Jemima image has proven limiting for many blacks. First, she notes, the two entrepreneurs who perfected the recipe in 1889 got the idea for the Aunt Jemima character from a blackface minstrel act in St. Joseph, Mo. Then, there is the campaign's clear connection to slavery. The character's legend holds that Aunt Jemima had been a slave on a fictional Col. Higbee's plantation. A typical magazine ad from the turn of the century shows a heavyset black cook talking happily while a white man takes notes. "After the Civil War, after her master's death," the ad copy says, "Aunt Jemima was finally persuaded to sell her famous pancake recipe to the representative of a northern milling company." In a broader sense, says Kern-Foxworth, it has been stifling to blacks because, until the last 25 years, it was about the only image of a black woman that was ever seen in the mainstream media. The message it reinforces, she says, is that black women belong in the kitchen. "After a while," says Kern-Foxworth, "you start thinking, `All I can do is be a good cook.' " There's nothing wrong with that, she insists, careful not to criticize. Her own mother, she notes, cleaned offices for a time to help put one of her sisters through college. But today, she adds, "We should set our expectations higher than that." Hearne isn't the only town in Texas to boast an Aunt Jemima. Nor was it the only one to encounter the uneasiness the image can arouse. Jewel R. McCalla, an 80-year-old retired schoolteacher, recalls that her aunt, Lillian Richard, played the role from 1911 to 1947. Richard left Hawkins for Dallas, McCalla says, then got a job based in Paris, Texas, pitching pancakes. "She was acting, singing, telling them how good it was," says McCalla, who saw her aunt give a cooking demonstration once in Mineola. "She carried a lot of friends. I guess that's what got her into the pancake business." McCalla helped revive interest in Richard with a newspaper interview in 1994. Soon Hawkins, too, was trying to lure tourists to an Aunt Jemima gravesite. The local chamber of commerce convinced David Cain of Dallas, the state senator who represents the area, to push a resolution through the 1995 Legislature declaring Hawkins, "The Pancake Capital of Texas." Richard was honored with a parade shortly thereafter, and her story is now included on page 13 of the local business directory. McCalla says she is unaware of the town encountering any criticism. "The role of Aunt Jemima was a very powerful one," she says, "and one we all should remember with love and respect." But read Cain's resolution carefully. A routine item passed without debate during last year's legislative session, it notes that Richard worked 37 years "to promote the pancake industry for the Quaker Oats Company." It also bragged on the woman "who created such an endearing and enduring image." It never mentions ""Aunt Jemima" directly. That was no oversight, according to Cain's chief of staff. "Yes, it was by design," says Tim Reeves, who prepared the paperwork for the resolution based on information provided by the Hawkins chamber. The matter gave him pause at the time, he says, because "Aunt Jemima has been used in some derogatory ways. I mean, I'm aware of it." So before drafting the resolution, Reeves asked some African-American friends for their opinions. In the end, he says, the staff decided to avoid mentioning Aunt Jemima by name "purely out of caution." "We felt like it might be offensive to some people." China justified the censorship about the casualties of its troops suffered in a violent clash with Indian soldiers along the Line of Actual Control in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night, arguing that it was a goodwill gesture from Beijing. An unspecified number of Chinese troops were killed on Monday night in clashes with Indian soldiers along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh where both sides have been locked in a face-off since May. While India officially announced that three of its soldiers, including an officer, were killed, China has remained tight-lipped about its casualties. However, the Global Times, published by the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), admitted that People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops had also been killed. Justifying China's silence over the number of its casualties, Hu Xijn, editor of the Global Times, tweeted, "Chinese side didn't release number of PLA casualties in clash with Indian soldiers. My understanding is the Chinese side doesn't want people of the two countries to compare the casualties number so to avoid stoking public mood. This is goodwill from Beijing." Earlier, Hu had tweeted, "Based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash." However, he went on to warn India, saying, "I want to tell the Indian side, don't be arrogant and misread China's restraint as being weak. China doesn't want to have a clash with India, but we don't fear it." Washington Blvd., 3000 block, 4:46 a.m. June 7. A man took a jar containing cash and attempted to flee when an employee ran after him. The man was armed with a knife and hammer and struck the employee. During the altercation, the jar fell and shattered. The man fled in a vehicle and the employee sustained minor injuries. WASHINGTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A statewide poll of likely North Carolina voters finds broad voter support for reductions in immigration in the face of massive layoffs resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. The polling was conducted on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) by the national opinion research firm, Zogby Analytics, on June 10 and 11. The poll indicates that North Carolina voters support reductions in the admission of new immigrants and guest workers in the face of the ongoing public health and economic crises gripping the nation. North Carolina voters are also significantly more likely to prioritize the need for immigration and border enforcement over programs to legalize millions of illegal aliens. Among the key findings of the North Carolina opinion poll: By about margins of 2 to 1 (58% to 30%), North Carolina voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. By a 55% to 32% margin, North Carolina voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." 81% of voters in North Carolina believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 14% disagree. believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 14% disagree. By a 59% to 41% majority, North Carolina voters said they would prioritize reducing overall immigration, strengthening immigration enforcement and border security, and removing illegal aliens from the country, over increasing immigration, granting amnesty to illegal aliens, or decriminalizing illegal immigration. "The polling shows clear public support in North Carolina for many of the immigration policy steps that the Trump administration has taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting economic and unemployment crisis. Voters in this key state agree that reductions in the admission of new immigrants and foreign workers are a prudent response to a crisis that has resulted in some 40 million Americans losing their jobs, and there is broad support for additional measures to be taken by the White House," commented Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "The polling numbers send a clear message to Senators Burr and Tillis, and members of North Carolina's congressional delegation, that jobs and economic security are always critical issues in presidential and congressional elections. Both Senators support the President's vision of strengthening our border security against illegal entry and sponsored together the important Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Act. Both have an opportunity here to stand with the American worker against corporate interests clamoring for more unnecessary guest workers during today's economic and public health crisis. "While voters certainly understand the extraordinary circumstances that have led to massive unemployment, they will also expect that the president and their federal representatives will take all reasonable steps to minimize the damage done to American workers, and expedite recovery for those who have lost jobs. This poll makes it clear that North Carolina voters understand and support the need to reduce the flow of people entering the country who will compete for jobs during this crisis and once the economy fully reopens," Stein concluded. The poll of 805 likely voters has a +/-3.5 percent margin of error. Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or [email protected] ABOUT FAIR Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 2 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced. SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Related Links http://www.fairus.org Two Research Analysts Added to Team GREENWICH, Connecticut, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gramercy Funds Management today announced that the firm has expanded its presence in London with the hiring of two experienced research analysts through its affiliated entity Gramercy Ltd. Tolu Alamutu joined as Senior Vice President in June 2020 and James Barry joined as Vice President in November 2019. Both report to Philip Meier, Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets Debt. "The addition of Tolu and James to our research team not only strengthens Gramercy's research capabilities, particularly in the critical regions of CEEMEA and Asia, but also reaffirms our commitment to increasing our footprint in London and Europe more broadly," said Meier. "Despite the recent market disruptions we have seen a positive impact to portfolios and we look forward to continued opportunities in a post-COVID environment." Prior to joining Gramercy, Ms. Alamutu was with Tellimer (formerly Exotix) as a Credit Research Analyst, where she led the coverage of CEEMEA Financials. Most recently, Mr. Barry was at Citigroup Global Markets where he was responsible for leading coverage of CEEMEA Corporates. "The growth of the London team positions us for continued success as we move forward in our third decade as a firm," said Robert Koenigsberger, Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer for Gramercy. "Our investors recognize the significance of London in emerging markets investing and we are pleased to add skilled analysts whose insights will positively impact their portfolios" Ms. Alamutu holds a B.Sc. in Economics from London School of Economics and is a CFA Charter holder. Mr. Barry holds a Masters in Finance from the University of Durham and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Politics. About Gramercy Funds Management Gramercy is a dedicated emerging markets investment manager based in Greenwich, CT with offices in London and Buenos Aires. The $4.6 billion firm, founded in 1998, seeks to provide investors with superior risk-adjusted returns through a comprehensive approach to emerging markets supported by a transparent and robust institutional platform. Gramercy offers both alternative and long-only strategies across emerging markets asset classes including capital solutions, private credit, distressed debt, USD and local currency debt, high yield/corporate debt, and special situations. Gramercy is a Registered Investment Adviser with the SEC and a Signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI). Gramercy Ltd, an affiliate, is registered with the FCA. For more information, please visit www.gramercy.com Social media is buzzing with a video which recently went viral. The video captures something unusual which has left people with lots of thoughts with many claiming that this is one such video which shows what humanity is all about. According to several reports, the incident was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, and shows how two robbers decided to return the items they stole from a delivery man. The clip shows a delivery man returning to his bike when the robbers approach him on a bike and loot him. However, instead of going away they start talking to the man. Within a few moments, they return his belongings and ride away. The video also shows one of the robbers consoling the delivery man when he breaks into tears and eventually, hugs him too. Several people are now sharing the video online and heres one such post: We trying to find this rider and help him. Twitter do your thing and SPREAD. pic.twitter.com/MrgZNYkwVj Major. Arham (@ArhamSayss) June 16, 2020 From calling the robbers kind-hearted to writing that they express humanity, people shared all sorts of comments on social media. Good hearted robber, wrote a Twitter user. Those robbers in Karachi stole everyones heart today, expressed another. A strong message that humanity does exits somewhere inside us but circumstances have compelled us to go in the wrong direction, expressed a third. You dont see this every day, wrote a third. However, not everyone agreed that the robbers should be praised. Expressing that notion, a Twitter user wrote, So no ones actually condemning that they were robbers in the first place? Rehem dil or not, they were robbers. Dont be proud of Karachi because the robbers had a good heart, feel worried that they were robbers looting a guy in broad day light. And that too, pretty calmly. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON An unhappy internal atmosphere will plague Ferrari's 2020 season, according to Zak Brown. McLaren supremo Brown will lose his driver Carlos Sainz to the Maranello team for 2021, with Ferrari having signed him to replace Sebastian Vettel. Vettel, however, will race in 2020. "I doubt there will be a great environment in the Ferrari garage this year," Brown is quoted by Corriere della Sera. "It doesn't seem like a happy family at the moment. "I think what we saw in Brazil last year will be a preview of what we will see this year," he added, referring to the on-track clash between Vettel and Charles Leclerc. And Bild newspaper reports that the relationship between Vettel and Ferrari has diminished even more after Mattia Binotto thanked Charles Leclerc for forgoing 25 percent of his salary in 2020. The Ferrari boss did not mention Vettel. Zak Brown thinks the German driver will quit Formula 1 at the end of 2020. "He doesn't seem to have a chance at Mercedes or Red Bull, so the best he can choose is Renault," he said. "Will Seb want to go to a team that probably won't be able to win in 2021? "Unless he wants to start another long journey, I think in the end, unfortunately, he will decide to stop." (GMM) Britain ranks near the bottom of a damning global league table that compares how countries have tackled the Covid-19 pandemic. Only Belgium fared worse, according to a review of testing, healthcare and death rates that gave 21 OECD member nations a score out of four. The UK (2.22) was on par with Italy and Spain. Sweden, which controversially bucked the trend and opted against imposing a lockdown, scored higher (2.56). Analysts behind the report claimed the low scores recorded for both Spain and Italy were 'understandable', given they were the first in Europe to be hit. They said the UK's response was too slow even though it had 'time to prepare', and also blamed a lack of testing capacity and the controversial decision to abandon contact tracing in March. New Zealand fared the best (3.67). The US whose performance was 'not as poor' as the death figures suggest came mid-table (3.11), the report revealed. HOW WAS THE SCORE CALCULATED? The Economist Intelligence Unit created an index to assess the quality of responses across more than half of the 37 OECD member nations. All of the countries including the US and Australia received a score of between one and four on three different 'quality of response' measures. These included the number of tests per million people, number of cancer-related surgeries cancelled and excess deaths per million people. Nations were also given a score for three coronavirus risk factors, including obesity prevalence and their percentage of over-65s. The final risk factor related to international arrivals, based on the number of people who travelled to the country as a share of the population. Each country got an average score, with excess deaths given the biggest weighting because it was deemed the most important mark. For example, the UK scored 17 overall on the six factors. But because excess deaths were multiplied by a factor of four it equates to 20 giving it an average of 2.22. Advertisement The Economist Intelligence Unit created an index to assess the quality of responses across more than half of the 37 OECD member nations. All of the countries including the US and Australia received a score of between one and four on three different 'quality of response' measures. These included the number of tests available, provision of non-Covid-19 healthcare and excess deaths, or how many more people died than expected. Nations were also given a score for three coronavirus risk factors, including obesity prevalence and their percentage of over-65s. The final risk factor related to international arrivals, based on the number of people who travelled to the country as a share of the population. Each country got an average score, with excess deaths given the biggest weighting because it was deemed the most important mark. For example, the UK scored 17 overall on the six factors. But because excess deaths were multiplied by a factor of four it equates to 20 giving it an average of 2.22. The report acknowledged Italy and Spain's scores both of whom also got 2.22 were partly down to them being the first in Europe to be hit, accepting they had 'little time to prepare'. But analysts claimed it was 'harder to explain' the UK's poor score, saying the 'global connectivity' of London may have played a role in the death toll. Official data released by the statistical bodies of each of the home nations showed the UK has suffered around 64,000 excess deaths since the start of the crisis. The team wrote: 'The country had a slower build-up of cases than other European countries and more time to prepare. 'In addition, Britains centralised public healthcare system provided the government with crucial data as to who was most at risk.' New Zealand was shown to have had the best response to the pandemic, scoring an average of 3.67. Germany and Austria (3.56) rounded up the top three, followed by Australia, Israel, Iceland, Norway and Denmark (all 3.44) SUMMER HOLIDAYS COULD BE BACK ON, MATT HANCOCK SAYS Britons could yet take foreign holidays this summer as ministers draw up a list of countries who could be exempt from tough quarantine laws, Matt Hancock confirmed today. While the 14-day self-isolation for arrivals from countries where coronavirus is 'out of control' like Brazil, countries with far lower numbers of cases could be exempted, the Health Secretary said this morning. He refused to divulge which countries could be included but confirmed he and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps are a working on a list of these countries and it will be published before the quarantine is reviewed on June 29. The comments will bring hope to millions of under-pressure Britons desperate for a summer break. But it remains to be seen which countries will want to welcome UK visitors, with the country having the highest death rate in Europe. Mr Hancock told the BBC's Today programme that the quarantine would have to stay for places where the disease is still rife. He cited Brazil as an example. 'Having said that there are other countries where it may be safe to not have a quarantine in place in the same way,' he added. 'Ahead of the formal legally-required review of the quarantine arrangements on June 29 I am working with Grant Shapps on whether there are countries that have a low rate of infection, where we trust their figures, where the infection isn't going up and we can have that discussion with the other country, and come to an agreement on a travel corridor.' Advertisement The team suggested an 'insufficiently fast and co-ordinated response' as well as the 'initial lack of testing capacity' for the UK's poor response. And they claimed Number 10's controversial decision to suspend track and trace in early March 'may help to explain why the UK became an outlier'. New Zealand was shown to have had the best response to the pandemic, scoring an average of 3.67. It comes after the country's 24-day streak without a Covid-19 case was ended earlier this week when two British travellers tested positive. New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last week declared victory over Covid-19, after imposing one of the toughest lockdowns. Germany and Austria (3.56) rounded up the top three, followed by Australia, Israel, Iceland, Norway and Denmark (all 3.44). The report said: 'These countries have so far recorded low numbers of extra deaths during the pandemic.' It also praised them for putting 'solid' tracking and testing programmes in place, as well as continuing to provide healthcare services to non-Covid-19 patients. Analysts described it as a 'particularly impressive feat' because most of the countries had high over-65s population. The report added: 'Overall, these countries appear to have succeeded in containing the pandemic because they reacted early and swiftly. 'Not all introduced stringent lockdowns, but all implemented aggressive testing and tracing programmes.' Even Sweden which bucked the trend and opted against imposing a lockdown to contain the Covid-19 crisis ranked better than Britain (2.56). The US, which has recorded more than 2.1million cases, scored 3.11, putting it on par with Chile South America's third worst-hit nation. The EIU report described the score for the US as 'interesting', given it has the world's biggest coronavirus death toll with 118,000 victims. Analysts suggested the number of fatalities may be partly down to both the nation's population and the 'poor initial response of the US administration'. But when Washington's response was assessed against risk factors, its performance was 'not as poor as the crude data may suggest'. The report added: 'In fact, it is better than that of most of the countries that shared a similar risk profile. 'Chiles performance is comparable to France or the US, and much better than that of the UK, for instance. 'This shows that richer countries did not necessarily tackle the pandemic better than less affluent ones.' And South Korea, praised for quickly stopping an outbreak escalating through a test and trace regime, scored only 2.78. Raising concern over slow distribution of loans by public sector banks and delay in releasing payment to PPE manufacturers by HLL Lifecare Ltd- a government of India owned corporation, a delegation from Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings (CICU) met Union minister of state for commerce and industry, Som Parkash, on Wednesday. Members of the delegations said micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) are finding it difficult to manage their finances as there is no inflow. They demanded that public sector banks speed up the process of distributing loans for providing relief to the industries during this time of crisis. President, CICU, Upkar Singh Ahuja said general secretary Pankaj Sharma said,HLL Lifecare Ltd should immediately release pending payments to PPE manufacturers as the industry is facing shortage of funds. Further, we have demanded that PPE quality standards be issued by the government. Also fresh instructions should be issued for inspection of inventories in warehouses as the sample might fail there due to humidity or other reasons. Ahuja said that HLL Lifecare Ltd is not releasing payments to PPE kit manufacturers, even when it was stated that payment would be released in five days. The minister has assured that he will take up the matter with the Union government. 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 Intel flags scores of Chinese apps: Check the full list here India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 17: The Indian Intelligence agencies have flagged the use of several Chinese apps stating that they are capable of extracting a large amount of data. These include Zoom, Tik Tok, UC Browser, Shareit, Xender and Clean Master. The intel has said that these apps had the potential to be used as spyware and this could be detrimental to national security. How many Chinese troops died in the violent skirmishes at Galwan Valley In April, the Union Home Ministry had issued an advisory on the secure use of Zoom meeting platform by private individuals. It said that it is not for use by government offices, officials or official purposes. India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News The advisory said that Zoom is not a safe platform. Those private individuals who would still like to use Zoom for private purposes may follow the guidelines, the MHA had also said. Chinese apps the Intelligence Bureau wants you to avoid: TikTok, Vault-Hide, Vigo Video, Bigo Live, Weibo, WeChat, SHAREit, UC News, UC Browser, BeautyPlus, QQ Mail, QQ NewsFeed, WeSync, SelfieCity, Clash of Kings, Mail Master, Mi Video call-Xiaomi, Parallel Space, Photo Wonder, APUS Browser, VivaVideo- QU Video Inc, Perfect Corp, CM Browser, Virus Cleaner (Hi Security Lab), Mi Community, DU recorder, YouCam Makeup, Mi Store, 360 Security, DU Battery Saver, DU Browser, DU Cleaner, DU Privacy, Clean Master - Cheetah, QQ International, QQ Launcher, QQ Security Centre, QQ Player, QQ Music, CacheClear DU apps studio, Baidu Translate, Baidu Map, Wonder Camera, ES File Explorer, Xender, ClubFactory, Helo, LIKE, Kwai, ROMWE, SHEIN, NewsDog. A Hamilton researcher looking to answer one of the most critical questions of the pandemic is struggling to get needed supplies in what has been called the Wild West of procurement. Dr. Mark Loeb has nearly $1 million in funding to determine whether health-care workers need surgical masks or N95 respirators to protect them when caring for COVID-19 patients. Nearly $625,000 was awarded Friday by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Juravinski Research Institute has given $300,000. But the study is short thousands of N95 respirators. Theyre very, very difficult to obtain, said Loeb, the Michael G. DeGroote Chair in Infectious Diseases at McMaster University. The company 3M is not providing them to us, they wont even let us buy them. A statement from 3M says the current high demand ... continues to outpace supply. 3M is prioritizing critical health care needs, including respirators for front-line health care workers, first-responders and other critical infrastructure users, said the company. We are also seeing increasing demand from our industrial partners who are returning to work. However, all N95 respirators provided to the study would be used by front-line workers in hospitals and long-term care homes. In fact, the study involving 580 workers would give many of them more access to the masks. Its not being wasted on research, said Loeb. Theyre being used for front-line health-care workers. So far, the study has a little stockpile but Loeb needs 10,000 to 20,000 more, particularly for Hamilton long-term care homes. The study is also being conducted in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and Ottawa, but only Calgary has been able to recruit so far because the hospital there is providing the masks. Weve had to go to a number of suppliers and every time we test them, it fails because the suppliers arent reliable, said Loeb. Our next step has been going to various pharmaceutical companies to see if they would be interested or any industry. 3M says its supportive of scientific research. We would consider revisiting his request at a later time, once we are closer to meeting the critical demand in Canada, states the company. Chinese medical team ends mission to help fight against COVID-19 in Palestine RAMALLAH, June 16 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese medical expert team has concluded a mission to support Palestine's fight against COVID-19. On Tuesday, the team held a meeting with Palestinian health officials in the Gaza Strip via video conference at the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, over the situation of the pandemic in the coastal enclave. Head of Palestinian Health Ministry's Preventive Medicine Department in the Gaza Strip Majdi Dheir briefed the Chinese team on the anti-coronavirus measures taken in Gaza, including imposing quarantine and protection protocols, and carrying out multiple tests. The total cases of COVID-19 in Gaza have reached 72, including 45 recoveries and one death. Also on Tuesday, head of the government-run Palestine Medical Complex (PMC) Ahmed Bitawi and head of the Chinese medical team Hu Peng signed a framework agreement on telemedicine cooperation between the PMC in Ramallah and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. Meanwhile, at a farewell ceremony held for the Chinese medical team in Ramallah, Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila expressed high appreciation for the Chinese experts' visit to Palestine. "This visit has been successful by all measures, especially on the medical side. The delegation held various meetings, visits and tours to the quarantine and isolation centers in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Turmosaya, in addition to an exchange of viewpoints on epidemiology and preventive and treatment protocols," said al-Kaila. Head of the Palestinian National Institute of Public Health, which is run by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rand Salman said the Chinese medical team's mission has enriched the Palestinian experience in fighting COVID-19. For his part, Guo Wei, director of the Office of the People's Republic of China to the State of Palestine, said that the cooperation between China and Palestine in the health sector will continue through various forms after this visit. The team, which arrived in Palestine on June 10, was put together by China's National Health Commission with the members selected by the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission. Prior to this visit, China had sent medical supplies to Palestine and organized several meetings between Palestinian and Chinese medical experts via video conferences. On Tuesday, Palestine announced that 11 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, bringing the total number of infection cases up to 700. California Department of Education News Release California Department of Education News Release State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces Free Statewide Online Suicide Prevention Training Program SACRAMENTOState Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE), in collaboration with the San Diego County Office of Education, is launching a free online suicide prevention training program available to middle and high school staff and students throughout the state. The COVID-19 pandemic not only disrupted the academic lives of our students and families, but it may have contributed to emotional and mental health challenges that some of our students struggle with, said Thurmond. It is important that students know that they have someone to turn to within their school community when they are feeling overwhelmed. Providing this specialized training to school staff and peers can not only be utilized to support students in crisis during the critical time we are in now, but any time a student is feeling despondent, stressful, and alone. The funding for the program was secured by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) and included in Assembly Bill 1808, which was passed in 2018. One of my biggest highlights of 2018 was securing $1.7 million dollars to fund online suicide prevention training for California middle and high school staff and students," said Assemblymember Berman. "I'm thankful that the training program is being launched across the state, particularly during this challenging and unprecedented time. As students cope with school closures and isolation, it's absolutely critical that administrators, teachers, and students know what to look for and how to respond to help prevent youth suicide. The online training program is called LivingWorks Start, an evidence-based program that is aligned with CDEs Model Youth Suicide Prevention Policy to address the needs of high-risk populations. According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth ages ten to twenty-four. For every youth who dies by suicide, an estimated 100 to 200 young people make suicide attempts. One thing thats increasingly recognized in suicide prevention efforts is that you have to engage large numbers of people, says Rick Trimp, president of LivingWorks. When students are thinking about suicide, theyre likely to confide in a peer or a trusted teacher. Having students and teachers trained to recognize when someone is struggling and connect them to further help empowers the whole school community to come together and support those at risk. The San Diego County Office of Education was selected through a competitive application by the CDE to lead the effort and make the training available to local educational agencies (LEAs) through their respective county office of education. LEAs can choose to incorporate the program as an additional resource to an existing youth suicide prevention policy. This is not a one-size-fits-all solution, said Dr. Paul Gothold, San Diego County Superintendent of Schools. By working with all 58 county offices of education to distribute this online training to their areas of greatest need, we are honoring the expertise, resources, and needs of each community. The program will be rolled out in two phases, with school site staff trained first and students trained during the second phase, which will take place in September. Having trained school personnel in place will allow students to receive the proper support when they go through the program and will help them be better equipped to support students who may be experiencing thoughts of suicide. Some of the training topics include how to recognize when someone is having suicidal thoughts, intervention strategies, and connections to support services. For questions or more information, visit the San Diego County Office of Educations Student Support Services web page or email Program Specialist Heather Nemour at heather.nemour@sdcoe.net. # # # # Tony Thurmond State Superintendent of Public Instruction Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100 Last Reviewed: Thursday, December 16, 2021 While Kangana Ranaut Gains Followers, Karan Johar Loses Fans On Social Media As per a Hindustan Times report, Kangana Ranaut saw an increase in Instagram followers ( from about 2 million to 3.2 million and counting) between Monday night and Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, Karan Johar's Instagram page registered a rapid drop (from 11 million to 10.9 million, which happened within 20 mins on Tuesday afternoon). Karan Johar's Loss Is Kangana Ranaut's Gain Thunlai Brahma, a Delhi University student told Hindustan Times, "Kangana has always spoken for what's right. In fact she was among the first ones to come to Koffee with Karan chat show, and speak up on nepotism as an important issue in the industry. Recently, she made a video addressing the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput and the problems that outsiders face in the film fraternity. This has been an eye opener for me. So I started following Kangana's social media handles. I would like to see talent on my timeline rather than a relative of a famous Khan or Kapoor. I relate with this because I know what it feels like to come from a small town to a metro and compete to prove your worth even when you're more qualified than some of the urbanites." The Online Popularity Of Some Celebrities Take A Hit Post Sushant's Demise "I unfollowed Karan Johar on Instagram and across all social media portals. I cannot support celebrities who value personal relationships over talent when it comes to giving work in the industry. Why should I pay for a movie that has star kids when I can instead pay for a movie that I will enjoy seeing because of its story and acting? Gone are the days when people would just pay to see a glamorous star cast. We want to see good movies and if this point has to be driven across through social media, through unfollowing certain film personalities then that's what we are going to do," said Santi Sankar, a Gurugram-based entrepreneur to the leading tabloid. Many People Have Also Started Online Petitions Requesting Others To Boycott Films Of Popular Clans In Bollywood Soumyaa Shrivastva, a banker told Hindustan Times, "I have signed an online petition requesting for a ban on movies of Karan Johar and the star kids of the Khans. Enough is enough. Bihar has lost Sushant because of the impact of nepotism which has created a divide among star kids and the outsiders. Even though Sushant was more talented, he wasn't offered one film after the other. Reports of him going through tough times financially, and of not having enough work are doing the rounds, and are not completely baseless. This is unacceptable! He had taken to twitter asking public to watch his movies because he doesn't have a godfather in the industry; we can't overlook that. This is unbelievable; I'm shaken by his extreme step!" The Award Shows Are Also Being Questioned By People Piyush Dixit, a Bengaluru-based psychologist was quoted as saying by the leading daily, "I had stopped watching award shows the day I got to know that they are completely rigged. But now, it's time to make our voices heard. If you cannot value our voices and opinions, you do not have our support at the theatres. I've unfollowed Alia Bhatt and other star kids and followed newcomers who have talent to make it big in the industry." Sean O Suilleabhain, renowned local author and historian, has been researching Longfords part in the War of Independence for the past four years, for a book which he hopes to publish next year. This year marks the 100th anniversary of some key events in the War of Independence. Indeed, 1920 and 1921 were momentous years in Longfords history and the deeds of Sean Mac Eoin and his Flying Column were legendary. We are delighted that Sean O Suilleabhain will share some of his research with Longford Leader readers over the next number of months as he looks back on that era, beginning this week with the attack on Ballinamuck RIC Barracks which took place on June 19, 1920 Friday next, 19 June 2020, will mark the 100th anniversary of one of the biggest and most daring operations carried out by Longford IRA during the War of Independence. More than 100 IRA volunteers from the surrounding parishes were mobilised and headed for Ballinamuck on that bright summers evening. Earlier engagements Five months earlier, the IRA had carried out their first major operation in the county when they staged an attack on Drumlish RIC Barracks on 5 January 1920. The objective was to force the RIC to surrender and to take their guns and ammunition for use in further engagements with British forces. From an IRA perspective, the Drumlish operation wasnt a success, due mainly to the failure of a number of bombs to explode. It transpired that the gelignite was damp, or frozen, and this caused the problem. The only positive the IRA could take from it was that the RIC abandoned the building within days and the IRA burned it to the ground. Over the next few months, a number of engagements were planned by the IRA, but were aborted for different reasons. A major assault was arranged for Edgeworthstown Barracks in early June but, when everything was in place, a report was received that large numbers of enemy troops were moving out of the Upper Military Barracks in Longford and were heading out the Dublin Road. After some discussion, it was thought best to call off the attack. A planned ambush of British troops at Ballinascraw, on the Granard to Ballinalee road, also fell through when the Crown forces took a different route, at the last minute. Nevertheless, the RIC were being put under serious pressure and they abandoned nearly all of the rural barracks in early 1920. No sooner had they left the buildings than the IRA burned them, to prevent their being reoccupied. Barracks set ablaze included; Larkfield, Smear, Ballinalee, Newtownforbes, Killashee, Lisryan, Abbeyshrule, Ballina (Cashel) and Kenagh. Five months were to pass before the IRA would again engage in serious combat with British forces and that operation was an assault on Ballinamuck RIC Barracks on June 19, 1920. At this stage, Sean Connolly and Sean Mac Eoin were the two leading lights in the IRA in the North of the county, however, Connolly was the man in charge and it was he who planned the attack on Ballinamuck, one of the most heavily fortified barracks in the county. If they were to succeed in taking this barracks, it would be a major victory for the IRA. Ballinamuck a well-fortified building Connolly first consulted with Frank Davis, a leading member of the IRA who lived in Shanmullagh, very close to the barracks. Davis and Connolly spent two nights sussing out the building, its location and lay-out. Davis thought it was a dangerous and high-risk venture, describing the building as a regular fortress: On the west side, there was a fifteen foot wall with a spiked railing on top. On the north side, there was a ball alley about twenty-five feet high On the south side, the wall was about twenty feet high with approximately a four foot growth of ivy on top. Entrance to the barracks was guarded by an iron gate about twelve feet high. On the east of the yard there were out office buildings. On two corners of the building there were turrets, with look-out slots giving a view in all directions. (These can be seen in the accompanying photograph) It was understood that, after 10.00pm each evening, one policeman was located in each of the turrets, on lookout duties. Sean Connolly was a fearless operator who saw possibilities where others saw nothing but risks. He had observed that the ball alley obscured the view from one of the turrets and he figured he could get up close to the roof, from a ladder placed in the ball alley. The barracks had two A-shaped roofs with a valley between them and the plan was to set the roof alight by throwing a cartwheel box bomb across a parapet into the valley, followed by bottles of petrol and then another bomb. Once the decision was made, the IRA started to plan for an attack on 19 June 1920. The IRA were determined to do everything to ensure that this operation would be successful and, while arms were in short supply, there was no shortage of men, able and willing to lend a hand. Somewhere in the region of 100 men were called into action but, apart from a select few, nobody knew where they were going, or what they were going to do. Shortage of arms was a problem and, amazingly, there were only six rifles available, plus a number of shotguns and revolvers. There were about fifteen RIC men in the barracks, with any amount of rifles and ammunition at their disposal. Assembly at Bandra The assembly point was at Bandra and there the various teams were selected, each with its own commanding officer. There were nine outposts in all, each having about ten men. Many of those involved were unarmed, partly because there werent enough guns to go around, but also because some had duties like felling trees or cutting trenches in roads, to block access or exit to enemy troops. Interestingly, Sean Mac Eoin, who took charge in most of the other attacks on barracks, was located at Gaigue Cross with the task of preventing reinforcements arriving from that direction. The key group were the eight men chosen to go with Sean Connolly to the ball alley area. When the men assembled at Bandra, news was received that lorries of British army personnel had arrived in Drumlish and Frank Davis was instructed to cycle to the town to see if this was true. Davis returned to confirm that four lorries were parked beside the temporary barracks there. Connolly and Mac Eoin discussed the situation and, recalling how they had aborted the Edgeworthstown operation unnecessarily, they decided to take the risk in Ballinamuck. It was then getting late, and being near midsummers night, the hours of darkness would be limited. Delicate operation begins With all outposts in place, and roads blocked, Connolly and his small band of eight brave men took on the risk of their lives. They had to move with extreme caution, carrying the bombs and cans of petrol, while out of view of the turrets. Even a dog barking could scuttle the whole operation, and put lives at risk as well. Sean Connolly told Mac Eoin afterwards that he never found anything as scary as the last two hundred yards. If an RIC man spotted them and chanced to hit one of the bombs, the result would be serious. Michael Francis Reynolds from Corlea, Killoe, described the delicate operation Connolly undertook: Connolly got on to the top of the ball alley wall, and from there he hurled the bombs on to the roof. He had men underneath him handing up the bombs and petrol containers to him in chain bucket fashion. I was in charge of the rifle men at the corner of the graveyard. Our job was to cover off Connolly and to control the entrance to the barracks. We fired very little as there were no targets to fire at. While this operation was in progress, another group of men, positioned at the church, directed fire at the barracks as soon as Connolly and his men arrived safely at the ball alley. This was intended to distract the attention of the RIC and to ensure they didnt emerge from the building. Connolly carried out his task efficiently and, within minutes, the whole building was ablaze. The occupants quickly evacuated the barracks and retreated to out offices in a backyard. This ensured their safety, but it also reduced the possibility of the IRA obtaining a surrender and capturing arms. The front windows were barricaded and it wasnt possible to gain entry, with the building in flames. However, it was said afterwards that the RIC were on the point of surrender when the IRA retreated. While they failed to capture any arms or force the RIC to surrender, the IRA leaders were reasonably satisfied that the operation had gone ahead without a hitch and the gelignite worked on this occasion. This was the first occasion the IRA in Longford had successfully detonated a bomb in an active combat situation and the barracks was completely destroyed. It was evacuated the following day. There were no casualties on either side. Who were the Leaders? The men in charge of the nine posts were as follows; Sean Connolly, Ballinalee Sean Mac Eoin, Ballinalee Sean Duffy, Cavan, Ballinalee Patrick Cooney, Dooroc, Killoe John Sullivan, Kilmahon Michael Francis Reynolds, Killoe Paddy Finnegan, Molly, Colmcille James Mulligan, Annagh, Dromard Frank Davis, Shanmullagh, Ballinamuck The operation was carried out by men from the 1st and 5th battalion. 1st Battalion (Killoe, Clonbroney and Colmcille) 5th Battalion (Ballinamuck, Drumlish and Dromard) The majority of the men were from the Drumlish/Ballinamuck area. The exact numbers involved in the Ballinamuck attack is uncertain. Frank Davis estimated that between eighty and one hundred men were involved. The Brigade Activity Report of the Ballinamuck operation in the Bureau of Military History, compiled in the late 1930s, lists about 160 men and 30 women, said to have been mobilised on the night of the event. It seems likely that, at maximum, close on 100 men were involved. Cumann na mBan involvement Cumann na mBan members were very often engaged in carrying arms and equipment to the site of a proposed IRA operation. We cannot be sure if this was the case in Ballinamuck, but the Brigade Activity Report suggests that there were four Cumann na mBan posts in operation on the night of the attack. The purpose of these would be two-fold; first aid in the case of casualties and as food stations for IRA men on their way home. The locations of these posts are given as: Post No 1 Esker Hall, staffed by six ladies Post No 2 Carolans, Drumlish, staffed by ten ladies Post No 3 Treacys, Aughagreagh, staffed by nine ladies Post No 4 Kiernans, Crott, staffed by five ladies. Main Sources: Witness Statements of Frank Davis, Sean Mac Eoin and Michael Francis Reynolds in Bureau of Military History. Brigade Activity Reports. Local Information. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, co-chairs the fifth meeting of the China-Cambodia intergovernmental coordinating committee with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Nam Hong via video, in Beijing, capital of China, June 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Bin) BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, co-chaired the fifth meeting of the China-Cambodia intergovernmental coordinating committee with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister, Hor Nam Hong, on Tuesday in Beijing via video. The two sides announced the establishment of a "fast-track lane" for personnel exchanges and a "green channel" for goods, and agreed to complete the negotiation of the China-Cambodia bilateral Free Trade Agreement as soon as possible. They also agreed to set up consular offices with each other, and officially launch Cambodian mango exports to China. Both China and Cambodia expressed opposition to politicizing and stigmatizing the COVID-19 pandemic. Hailing that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-Cambodia comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Wang said China is willing to work with Cambodia to win the battle against the epidemic, as well as promote economic and social development. For his part, Hor Nam Hong said that Cambodia supports the national security legislation in Hong Kong, and backs multilateralism and China-ASEAN cooperation. Gravediggers burying the coffin of a person who died from COVID-19 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 22. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli Brazil could surpass the US in coronavirus cases and deaths by the end of July, according to estimates from the University of Washington. The country recorded a daily record of 34,918 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Despite the growing number of cases, the country has not created a plan to tackle the outbreak. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Brazil could surpass the US in both coronavirus infections and deaths by the end of July, according to the main coronavirus tracking model from the University of Washington. The country, which has yet to impose a national coronavirus lockdown, is on its way to registering more than 4,000 daily deaths, The Washington Post reported, citing the university. As of Tuesday, Brazil had more than 923,000 coronavirus infections and more than 45,000 deaths. Experts told Reuters the true number of cases was most likely higher. As The Post noted, the country doesn't have the same infrastructure to help it handle such a large outbreak as the US. But that hasn't stopped President Jair Bolsonaro from largely dismissing the crisis the novel coronavirus is causing. In fact, he's even attacked governors who chose to impose restrictions and threatened to host large barbecues in spite of public-health advice, The Post reported. Brazil has not initiated a national testing campaign, has not implemented a national lockdown, and is dealing with insufficient healthcare expansion. Reuters reported that that country counted 34,918 new daily coronavirus cases on Tuesday. In a report in early May, Carlos Machado, a senior scientist with Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and his team warned that without a lockdown in Rio de Janeiro, the outcome would be "in a human catastrophe of unimaginable proportions." He now says had his warnings been taken seriously, the outcome would not have been so bleak. "From the point of view of public health, it's incomprehensible that more-rigorous measures weren't adopted," Machado told The Post. "We could have avoided many of the deaths and cases and everything else that is happening in Rio de Janeiro. It was an opportunity lost." Story continues Scientists in the country told The Post that the country was veering into unknown territory. "We are doing something that no one else has done," Pedro Hallal, an epidemiologist at the Federal University of Pelotas, told The Post. "We're getting near the curve's peak, and it's like we are almost challenging the virus. 'Let's see how many people you can infect. We want to see how strong you are.' Like this is a game of poker, and we're all in." Bolsonaro's approach has been to ignore the problem and sideline health experts President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia on May 13. REUTERS/Adriano Machado Reuters reported that senior officials leading Brazil's coronavirus response had claimed the outbreak was under control. "There is a crisis, we sympathize with bereaved families, but it is managed," said Braga Netto, who spoke during a webinar held by the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro. The World Health Organization's regional director Carissa Etienne said Brazil was a major concern, Reuters reported. "We are not seeing transmission slowing down" in Brazil, Etienne said. Etienne said the country accounted for about 4 million coronavirus cases in the Americas and about 25% of the deaths. The Post described Bolsonaro's approach as being to ignore and sideline health experts. The Brazilian president fired Luiz Henrique Mandetta, his first health minister, after disagreements on social distancing, and then he fired his replacement, Nelson Teich, because he disagreed with the use of chloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus. Similar to US President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro has boosted the use of hydroxychloroquine in the past. On Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration revoked the emergency-use authorization issued for the antimalarial drug. One expert said even the public in Brazil did not heed public-health advice to limit the spread of the virus and continued to congregate without any safety measures implemented. "It was a failure," Ligia Bahia, a professor of public health at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told The Post. "We didn't have enough political force to impose another way. The scientists alone, we couldn't do it. There's a sense of profound sadness that this wasn't realized." Read the original article on Business Insider The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may allow banks to restructure company loans without having to set aside funds to cover potential losses as a one-time exemption to ease the strain on businesses and lenders during the coronavirus pandemic, a senior central bank official said. Though banks are allowed to recast loans under guidelines set out in RBIs June 7, 2019 circular, they will be required to make higher provisions, crimping their profits. A one-time restructuring of loans was one of the suggestions made by the banking industry to help firms affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The option is on the table When and in what manner, we have to see, the official said, adding that there were representations against allowing debt restructuring on the grounds that the ongoing loan moratorium was sufficient, and that funds might get diverted in a debt recast. Even though some businesses require more help than others, a debt recast, if allowed, has to be for all, the official cited above said on condition of anonymity, adding any debt recast has to come with some conditions. An RBI spokesperson declined to comment on the issue. RBI has been opposed to debt restructuring given that banks in the past used it to classify restructured loans as standard accounts and set aside lower provisions against them. This incentivised restructuring rather than recognising bad loans. That came to an end in 2015 when the then governor Raghuram Rajan initiated an asset quality review (AQR) of banks. During the course of AQR, RBI looked at the status of large corporate accounts across banks, which revealed significant divergence between the reported levels of impairment and actual positions. This led to banks recognising stressed accounts as non-performing assets, resulting in a surge in bad loan ratios of banks from 3.4% of gross advances in March 2013 to 4.7% in March 2015, and further to 9.9% by March 2017. The RBI also asked banks to provide a minimum of 15% of the loan value of the restructured account to cover the risk of default, versus only 5% earlier. In 2019, RBI again allowed banks and non-banking financial companies a one-time restructuring of loans of up to 25 crore to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that were in default on 1 January 2019, without having to mark them as NPAs. Lenders are being given an extension of 15 months (up to 31 March 2020) to classify these stressed loans are standard. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Visa numbers OVerall, even in an unprecedented year like FY2020, there continues to be indications of relief for backlogged investors... ultimately, retrogression times will go down a little each year, said Walter Gindin, Director of Legal Affairs at CanAm Enterprises. CanAm Enterprises (CanAm) shared key takeaways from IIUSAs webinar: Conversation with Charlie Oppenheim on June 16th. Oppenheim is the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at U.S. Department of State. During the webinar, he answered questions about EB-5 visa usage through May 2020. There were several important takeaways from his question and answer session. EB-5 Visa Numbers in FY2020 and FY 2021 Oppenheim estimates that over 4,500 EB-5 visa numbers have been issued thus far for FY2020, which is well short of the approximately 10,000 EB-5 visas available each fiscal year. With the end of FY2020 a little more than three months away, it is very likely that we will lose EB-5 visa numbers for FY2020 largely due to COVID-related consular closures around the world. Despite this loss of EB-5 visas for FY2020, Oppenheim anticipates that there will also be significant numbers of unused family-sponsored visas in FY2020, which will spillover and be added to the 140,000 annual visas already allocable to the employment-based visa categories for FY2021 . While Oppenheim did not provide an exact estimate of the number of unused family-sponsored visas for FY2020, he did estimate that the total number of employment-based visas available for FY2021 is likely to be well in excess of 200,000, representing a minimum net gain of 60,000 visas for all employment-based preference categories. Since the EB-5 visa category is statutorily allocated 7.1% of total employment-based visas, and assuming, as Oppenheim indicated that 200,000 employment-based visas is the bare minimum number that will be available in FY2021, then we can expect well in excess of 14,200 EB-5 visas to be available for distribution in FY 2021 . In the grand scheme of things, Oppenheim indicated, the loss in EB-5 numbers used [in FY2020] will be more than offset by the additional [visas] that will be available next [fiscal year] . . .. Fiscal 2021 should be a very good year under the current INA guidelines for visa availability for employment applicants. But how many visas are we talking about? After all, the annual limit for family-based preference is several times greater than for the employment-based preference categories. And how much of an impact will it have on backlogged EB-5 investors? Lets assume conservatively that 14,200 EB-5 visas are available in FY2021. Each country gets 7.1% of total EB-5 visas, so 1008 visas. Lets also assume that Vietnam and India max out their 7.1%, so 1,008 visas for each country, or a total of 2,016 visas. Then lets assume the rest of the world (minus China) gets about 4,200 visas (per Oppenheims estimates in Oct. 2019). Finally, in FY2021, there is no offset of EB-5 visas for the Chinese Student Protection Act. That leaves about 7,980 EB-5 visas available for use by countries that reached their per-country limit in priority date order, which mostly should be China. Moreover, when questioned, Oppenheim confirmed that 14,200 EB-5 visas are the bare minimum that we can expect for FY 2021. Accordingly, its very possible that 10,000 EB-5 visas will be available to China in FY2021 as in the past, and assuming the Guangzhou can start processing again, this could reduce the China backlog by several years. CanAms Director of Legal Affairs and In-House Immigration Counsel, Walter Gindin, commented, Its helpful to view the EB-5 visa backlog as a constantly moving line, which can, and does, get shorter over time. We have already seen additional unused family-sponsored visas for FY2019 be allocated to the EB-5 category for FY2020. Currently, Oppenheim estimates that an even greater number of unused family-based visas for FY2020 will be allocated to employment-based categories for FY2021, making well over 200,000 employment-based visas available next fiscal year, including a substantial number for EB-5. This trend, coupled with increased EB-5 investment amounts and other factors, will make more visas left over to investors from countries such as China with the greatest EB-5 visa demand and thus reduce visa wait times. Future Advancements of Priority Dates & Implications for China Many have observed the recent trend in the advancement of priority dates. For EB-5, China has advanced 8 months since the beginning of FY2020 (Final Action date of October 22, 2014) until the most current Visa Bulletin for June 2020 (Final action date of July 22, 2015). This gradual advance is, in part, due to the fact that many Chinese investors have not moved forward with their visa applications pending at the NVC. With the possibility of EB-5 visas going unused in FY 2020, Oppenheim was asked whether he would further advance priority dates in order to expand visa usage, especially in currently retrogressed countries, assuming consular offices open up. Oppenheim responded that he prefers not to make rapid advances only to have serious retrogressions after the fact, and confirmed that he will not just advance priority dates for the sake of movement because he does not want to create a situation where final action dates may have been advanced at an unsustainable pace, which would later require potential retrogressions of those dates, and then people could be caught up where any time-sensitive documentation is expired. Oppenheim said that he expects that the priority dates for China and Vietnam will continue to advance through the end of FY2020 and prefers to make measured movements in their priority dates based on what is reasonable to happen in the coming months. Gindin saw reason to be optimistic in Oppenheims approach: The priority date for China EB-5 has advanced 8 months since the beginning of fiscal year 2020. We understand that many Chinese investors are anxious about the EB-5 visa wait times, but as Charlie Oppenheim indicated in his comments during IISUAs webinar, there is value in taking a measured approach and not making rapid advancements to the priority date in the short-term only to overburden the system and create further retrogression in the future. We are certainly encouraged that Oppenheim expects the priority date for China EB-5 to continue to advance through the remainder of this fiscal year. Possible Current Priority Dates for All Countries Asked about actions he might take if visa usage in FY 2021 continues to lag, Oppenheim confirmed that he will have to make the decision whether to make priority dates current for all countries to spark applications for visas probably in the first half of FY2021 because he wouldnt want to unnecessarily waste numbers and if it comes to the point where he has to make the priority dates current and risk retrogression in near future, that might be the risk he takes. What would that mean? For example, lets we go into FY2021 and were facing the same situation (i.e., dramatic visa underusage), and Oppenheim has a clear record that the expectations of the summer 2020 were not met, therefore its not reasonable to continue to make those same assumptions for FY2021, which would lead Oppenheim to potentially making everything current. Oppenheim would have to consult with consulates (Guangzhou primarily) to see what they expect their processing capacity to be as we move forward to see whether they could accommodate larger amounts of applicants. For the time being, this is a remote possibility, especially for China. There are more than 42,000 Chinese applicants at NVC already, and its unrealistic now to make priority dates current to allow that many people to suddenly be eligible. Given constraints now at NVC and USCIS, Oppenheim does not want to unnecessarily tax the system until its clear that he has no other choice. With that said, its not out the realm of possibility that everything could become current for some period of time in FY2021. Status of Hong Kong The Department of State treats Hong Kong (and Macau and Taiwan) as a separate foreign territory from mainland China for the purposes of immigration visa quotas. Thus, foreign nationals who are born in Hong Kong are not charged under the mainland China visa categories. Oppenheim confirmed that, absent any legislative change, Hong Kong will continue to be treated as a distinct country of chargeability for EB-5 visa purposes, and that there is currently no concern for Hong Kong in terms of EB-5 visa availability. India Visa Movement In October 2019, Oppenheim estimated that the wait time for an EB-5 visa filed by an Indian investor would be 6.7 years. Since then, the priority date for India EB-5 has rapidly progressed forward. The July 2020 Visa Bulletin now lists the priority date for India EB-5 as Current, which means that visas are immediately available to Indian EB-5 visa applicants. Oppenheim explained that based on the amount of Indian EB-5 applicants already at NVC who already have been or could be processed during FY 2020 (667), and the expected increase in the FY 2021 EB-5 visa limit due to spill over of unused family-based immigrant visas during FY2020, Oppenheim expects to see a significant reduction in the 6.7-year wait time for an Indian EB-5 investors who are filing today. He does not expect to see India facing a potential retrogression in the foreseeable future. However, the EB-5 visa wait times could again increase as USCIS picks up the pace of I-526 Petition adjudications and starts to refer more petitions to the NVC for processing. Oppenheim advanced the priority date for India EB-5 in because he saw potential for numbers to go unused in FY2020 well before consular offices closed. Overall, comments Gindin, even in an unprecedented year like FY2020, there continues to be indications of relief for backlogged investors. Even as EB-5 investors worry about consular closures, long adjudication times, and how to make decisions about redeployment, they should be encouraged that, ultimately, retrogression times will go down a little each year. Republican Party members of the United States Senate have proposed legislation to change police procedures and accountability. The proposal is called the Justice Act. It is the broadest policing proposal from Republicans in years. It was announced on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump signed an order of police reforms in a ceremony at the White House. Both actions follow weeks of public protest over the death of George Floyd during an arrest by police on May 25th in Minnesota. Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on the unarmed black mans neck for almost nine minutes as Floyd called out repeatedly, I cant breathe, and, later said, "I'm about to die." The Senate proposal includes expansion of the use-of-force database and restrictions on the use of chokeholds. It also would create groups to study law enforcement and race. Tim Scott of South Carolina led the Senate Republican team that developed the legislation. He said lawmakers will move quickly to enter the proposal for debate next week. Scott, who is black, spoke of his own experiences being stopped by police including once this year. We hear you, Scott said, speaking about families of those killed by police. He added that the Justice Act speaks very clearly to the young person and his concern when he is stopped by law enforcement officers. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged Senate Democrats to support the Justice Act. He said the United States is not a racist country but, in his words, the stain of slavery and the Civil War remains. The leader of the Democratic minority in the senate, Chuck Schumer immediately criticized the legislation. He said that the bill would not do enough. And he said the measure provides less police accountability than the reform proposed by Democrats in the House of Representatives. The House Judiciary Committee is currently considering that proposal. The full House is expected to vote on it next week. The Republican legislation would strengthen rules that require police to gather use-of-force reports. It also would make lynching a federal hate crime, a move sought by Democratic Party lawmakers. The proposal calls for an end to the use of chokeholds but would not require states to ban them. Im Caty Weaver. The Associated Press reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story procedure -n. a series of actions that are done in a certain way or order : an established or accepted way of doing something accountability -n. an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions chokehold -n. a method of holding someone by putting pressure on the person's neck to make breathing difficult or impossible stain -n. something that causes people to have less respect for someone lynch -v. to kill (someone) illegally as punishment for a crime We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. 4 in 10 evangelical voters believe Trump is 'religious,' over half of all Americans disagree: poll Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A plurality of evangelical Christian voters does not believe that President Donald Trump is religious and is in agreement with over half of all registered American voters despite the presidents attempts to appeal to people of faith, a new survey suggests. Following Trumps controversial photo session at St. Johns Episcopal Church near the White House in Washington, D.C., early this month, 1,992 registered voters were surveyed between June 6 and 7 about their thoughts on the presidents spirituality for a poll released by Politico and Morning Consult. Even after nearly 3 in 4 voters saw coverage of President Trumps photo-op at St. Johns Episcopal Church last week, only about 1 in 4 believe hes religious, Morning Consult Vice President Tyler Sinclair told Politico. According to the survey, only 27% of registered voters agreed with the statement that Trump is religious. About 10% strongly agree and 17% somewhat agree. Meanwhile, 16% somewhat disagree and 41% strongly disagree. Almost two in 10 respondents (18%) said that they dont know. When broken down by religious affiliation, just over one-third of Christians agree that the president as religious, while half of Christians said they do not agree that the president is religious. About 40% of self-identified evangelicals said they agreed with the statement that Trump is religious, with 16% saying they strongly agree and 24% saying they somewhat agree. A total of 43% of evangelicals said they disagreed (29% strongly disagreed) with the statement that Trump is religious. Among all Christian respondents, 34% agreed with the statement (22% somewhat agreed), while 50% of Christians surveyed disagreed in some form with the statement (35% strongly disagreed). While 23% of all religious non-Protestant or Catholics surveyed agreed with the statement, 62% disagreed with the notion that the president is religious. Conservative respondents were the most likely to agree that Trump is religious (55%). About 31% of conservatives disagreed with the statement. Meanwhile, among liberals, 9% agreed and 79% disagreed with the statement. The results come as the president has received much criticism over his June 1 photo session at the historic St. Johns Episcopal Church, where Trump posed with a Bible for photographs. The photo session occurred minutes after law enforcement was used to clear protesters demonstrating after the death of George Floyd from Lafayette Square, the park that sits between the White House and the church. Over the weekend, the Secret Service admitted that it used pepper spray in its operations to clear Lafayette Square. The clearing of protesters drew the ire of some left-leaning religious leaders. In an interview with former White House press secretary Sean Spicer two days later on June 3, Trump said he got the idea for the church visit after somebody suggested it was a good idea. Trump contended that religious leaders loved it and everything was handled really well. Yet, the president is being sued for allegedly violating the First and Fourth Amendment rights of protesters. Also, an investigation is underway into U.S. Park Police officers who were involved in an altercation with two Australian reporters near Lafayette Square. In the interview, Trump was asked if he believes he has grown in faith while he has been in office. Trump responded: I think maybe I have, from the standpoint that I see so much that I can do. Ive done so much for religion. Throughout his time in office, Trump has made a concerted effort to appeal to Christian conservatives through his administrations policies on abortion and religious freedom as well as through his conservative judicial nominations. Trump, who grew up as a Presbyterian, made headlines when he decided to place his hand on two Bibles instead of just one during his January 2017 inauguration ceremony. His administration has held various events and briefings for conservative evangelical leaders, including a state-like dinner for over 100 evangelical leaders and their spouses. Trump has also visited some churches around the country, including when he held the launch of the Evangelicals for Trump coalition at a Miami megachurch. Last June, he made headlines when he unexpectedly showed up at McLean Bible Church in the Washington suburbs of Virginia and was prayed over by Baptist Pastor David Platt. Among other things, Trump signed an executive order in 2017 ordering federal agencies to review and create guidelines to ensure that religious freedom is protected both domestically and internationally. Until there are effective treatments or vaccines, the COVID-19 pandemic will remain a significant threat to public health and economies around the world. A major hurdle to developing and testing new anti-viral therapies and vaccines for COVID-19 is the lack of good, widely available animal models of the disease. Researchers at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and Medical University, Guangzhou, in China, have developed a simple tool to overcome that bottleneck. The researchers have created a gene therapy approach that can convert any lab mouse into one that can be infected with SARS-CoV-2 and develops COVID-like lung disease. The international team, led by Paul McCray, MD, and Stanley Perlman, PhD, at the UI, and Jincun Zhao, PhD, at Medical University, Guangzhou, have made their gene therapy vector freely available to any researchers who want to use it. There is a pressing need to understand this disease and to develop preventions and treatments. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for other researchers to have access to this technology, which allows any lab to be able to immediately start working in this area by using this trick." Paul McCray, UI professor of pediatrics, and microbiology and immunology The "trick" is the use of an adenovirus gene therapy vector that is inhaled by the mice to deliver the human ACE2 protein into mouse airway cells. This is the protein that SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect cells. Once the mouse airway cells express the hACE2 protein, the mice become susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2 and they develop COVID-19-like lung symptoms. Although the disease is not fatal in the mice, the animals do get sick, losing weight and developing lung damage. Importantly, the vector is readily adaptable to any strain of mice (and other lab animals), which means research teams can rapidly convert mice with specific genetic traits into animals that are susceptible to SARS-Cov-2, allowing them to test whether those traits influence the disease. Reporting in Cell, the researchers showed that mice treated with this gene therapy could be used to evaluate a vaccine and several potential COVID-19 therapies, including a preventative strategy known as poly I:C, which boosts the innate immune response, convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients, and the anti-viral drug remdesivir. In each case, the therapies prevented weight loss, reduced lung disease, and increased the speed of virus clearance in the mice. The team also showed mice are useful for studying important immune responses involved in clearing the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Mice are the most commonly used experimental animal for studying human disease in the lab because they are accessible, inexpensive, and easy to use. They are also one of the easier animal models to use in biosafety level three environments, which are needed for work on COVID-19. However, due to differences between the human and mouse ACE2 protein, wild-type mice are not susceptible to the SARS-Cov-2 virus. The gene therapy vector is essentially an off-the-shelf tool that allows labs to create their own COVID-19 mouse model within a few days. McCray, Zhao, and Perlman developed this approach in 2014, when Zhao was a postdoctoral researcher in Perlman's UI lab, to create mouse models of MERS. "You can create these mice very quickly. You don't have to breed the strain, which is very time consuming and expensive," McCray explains. "We think this technology will be useful for investigating COVID-19 lung disease and rapidly testing interventions that people think are promising for treating or preventing COVID-19." McCray credits the UI's long-standing expertise in gene therapy vector development as a basis for this advance. The vector was made in the University of Iowa Vector Core, which is an outgrowth of the UI Center for Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis funded by the National Institutes of Health. The vector is freely available through the BEI Resources Repository at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). By Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijans Ambassador to Japan Gursel Ismayilzada and CEO of H.I.S. Co. Ltd Hideo Sawada have discussed bilateral business cooperation and relations in various spheres, the embassy reported on Jun 16. Giving comprehensive information about implemented massive transportation projects and Azerbaijans industry, agriculture, tourism and transport potential, Ismayilzada pointed out that Azerbaijan and Japan have a high level of cooperation in the field of energy. The ambassador also provided detailed information on new technology and industrial parks opened in the country, New Baku Port, Alat Economic Zone, favorable business environment and investment opportunities, noting the importance of the cooperation in the non-energy sector between the two countries. Reminding the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement between the Japanese company H.I.S Co. Ltd and Mie Prefecture in October last year, Sawada expressed confidence that the issue of processing a number of food products produced in Mie Prefecture, processed in Azerbaijan and exported to the world market, will serve to strengthen cooperation between the two countries. In his turn, Ismayilzada emphasized that production of new sweets from Japanese-made Macha in Azerbaijan, as well as the sale of special Japanese teas packaged in Azerbaijan to European markets, the export of other agricultural products produced in Japan, including Mie Prefecture, using the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route to the international market in the non-energy sector, is a clear example of the cooperation between the two countries. Furthermore, the ambassador recalled that the 10th meeting of the State Commission on Economic Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Japan in November last year was held in Tokyo in a mutually beneficial way. Ismayilzada added that during the meeting, presentations made by Baku International Sea Trade Port, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC and Japan's HIS Co. Ltd provided extensive information on cooperation opportunities between Azerbaijan and Japan in the field of transport. Ambassador Ismayilzada also met Japanese MP Hiroshi Hase who is also a member of Japan-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Friendship League. The sides discussed strengthening relations between Azerbaijan and Japan in various sectors. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz AUSTIN, TX The Travis County Commissioners Court toughened rules on the wearing of facial coverings to help blunt spread of the new coronavirus, unanimously voting to require the practice at county facilities with violators subject to trespassing charges. The new requirement calls for most everyone over the age of 10 to wear face coverings when entering county facilities. Exceptions to the rule will be made for those with medical conditions who may have their health compromised by covering their nose and mouth. Those refusing to wear a mask will be barred entry into a county building, according to the newly passed rule. Those entering without face coverings will face criminal trespass charges, according to the measures. Don't miss the latest coronavirus updates from health and government officials in the Austin area. Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters for what you need to know daily The county requirement comes in the wake of Austin having entered Stage 4 of its coronavirus risk-based guidelines sparked by a rolling seven-day average of more than 20 daily hospitalizations for the respiratory illness. City officials have used 20 as barometer dictating the scale of reopening the local economy. In an emailed statement, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said further steps are afoot to expand the mandatory practice of wearing masks across the city. The newly reinvigorated initiative came after Gov. Greg Abbott suggested in a news conference that cities can issue trespassing charges even while not being able to issue fines for violators per his previous executive order barring them from doing so. "The governor has now given us a path, and we will act consistent with his statement," Adler said in a prepared statement. "Wearing masks is important to our health and to opening up the economy. We will be entering an order directing businesses to come up with a simple safety plan over the next several days. Austin businesses are great and many of them, if not most, have already done this. During this time, we will transition to a more direct order on masks, working with our business community so our whole city moves forward together and so that everyone can get prepared." Story continues Read the mayor's mandatory health and safety policies Officials at various Texas municipalities have decried the governor's stance on mask wearing, even as the state experiences record levels of new cases of the contagious respiratory illness along with soaring rates of hospitalizations. Abbott has cited the virtues of "individual responsibility" in his position that people not wearing face coverings amid pandemic should not be fined or jailed. In neighboring San Antonio, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff pushed the boundaries of what municipalities are allowed without running afoul of the governor's orders, issuing an order on Wednesday mandating that businesses require customers and workers to wear protective face coverings while on the premises. The move comes after Abbott again denied local officials the leeway in crafting mandatory rules related to mask wearing. Wolff's order gives businesses until Monday to adopt "health and safety" policies requiring facial coverings for customers and employees or risk a $1,000 fine. The action that Im taking today may be pushing the legal bounds a little bit, Wolff acknowledged, as reported by MySA.com. But our attorneys believe we can defend this order in court. However, a spokesman for the governor suggested Wolff's actions might still accommodate Abbott's orders: Judge Wolffs order is not inconsistent with the governors executive order, Abbott spokesman John Wittman told the website. This article originally appeared on the Austin Patch Of course, one might argue that the president shouldnt have been removed from office because he wasnt guilty. But few Republicans, outside the president and his coterie, actually took this position. Most hid behind the claim that the prosecution hadnt made its case, even as the Senate moved to block the prosecution from fully making its case. A handful of senators, led by Lamar Alexander, conceded that Trump did abuse his power by pressuring Ukraine to muddy up Joe Biden, but that his missteps werent worth impeaching him over. As Marco Rubio put it, Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a president from office. Ukraine expects that the video conference with participation of EU and Eastern Partnership leaders, which will take place on June 18, will allow developing both cooperation between the partners and the EU and horizontal ties between the countries. At the same time, Ukraine expects non-virtual Eastern Partnership summit to be held in early 2021. This was stated by Mykola Tochytskyi, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Kingdom of Belgium, Representative of Ukraine to the European Union, during a meeting with the press on the eve of a video conference of EU and Eastern Partnership leaders, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "Video conference is not a summit. This is an important conversation between the leaders about what we need to do before the concrete summit, which will take place early next year. I think we will plan this summit in the first half of January or early February as we do not want to postpone it. The position of the Ukrainian side on holding the summit is the beginning of 2021," the Ukrainian diplomat stressed. He noted that most Ukraine's proposals for cooperation with the EU, including the practical implementation of the "more for more" principle in relations between the EU and Eastern partners, trade development, energy cooperation, digital transformation, and other areas were proposed for discussion during the video conference on June 18. "We have something to say to the EU countries and Eastern Partnership partners during a video conference. We intend to draw attention to the fact that the "more for more" principle has not been repealed. If countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova have made more progress, we have the right to create tripartite formats in trade, energy, and the digital sphere in order to further deepen this cooperation, the Ukrainian diplomat stressed. He noted that the European Union had been and would be not only a serious trade and economic partner but also a reliable friend for Ukraine that extended a helping hand from the first days of the coronavirus crisis. The diplomat reminded of EUR 190 million assistance aimed at supporting small and medium-sized businesses, agriculture, and the medical sector. After that, the European Union approved macro-financial support programs for Ukraine totaling more than EUR 2.1 billion, and the parties are already at the stage of signing memoranda on the allocation of these funds. "The European Union endorsed a decision to allocate these funds to us during a period that is difficult not only for Ukraine but for the European Union itself. It is very important to remember this," Tochytskyi added. As reported, a meeting of the Eastern Partnership leaders will be held on June 18 in a video conference format. It will be attended by the heads of state and government of the EU member states, as well as the leaders of the Eastern Partnership member states - Azerbaijan, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine. ol The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. Major General-level talks are being held between India and China in the Galwan valley to further defuse the situation after the violent face-off between the troops on June 15-16, according to Army sources. The violent clash started on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakh's Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India had said on Tuesday. ALSO ... By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 17, 2020 | 04:18 PM | MAYFIELD The event is scheduled to take place at 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, at the War Memorial Stadium located at 975 Lochridge Street. Seating is not allowed within the stadium, however there is plenty of room for social distancing when using the parking lots surrounding the stadium, at the fairgrounds, and at the Graves County High School. Mayfield officials encourage everyone to come out and enjoy the fireworks show from their cars. The city will be using Pyrotechnic Display from Springfield, Kentucky, for the display. The city of Mayfield has announced plans for an Independence Day celebration.Event sponsors include Atmos Energy, CFSB, First Kentucky Bank, First National Bank, Mayfield Electric and Water, and TVA. Sharon Kleyne, Founder of Bio Logic Aqua Research Air Date: 15 June 2020 Guests: Steven Aithwaite, England, chef and global health educator trainer and Kevin Kearns Boston, Massachusetts, founder/CEO of Burn with Kearns and Beach Bod Transformation; All-star Conference Presenter for IDEA, the worlds largest association for fitness and wellness professional https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/124035/earths-human-mission-a-healthier-planet Global Health Olympics and Bio Logic Aqua Research Water Life Science founder Sharon Kleyne says in her talk radio show commentary that without water we will have no more time. Without water, you have no immune system strength. Virtual trainers and global health educators Kevin Kearns of the U.S.A. and Steven Aithwaite of England agree. People tend to think they know so much, adds Kleyne. I want people to learn to cook every day for immunity strength. I want them to take seriously drinking 100 percent pure water, drinking each full glass at a time and not sipping to achieve maximum absorption. I want them to get moderate exercise, sleep with the earth, practice new technology hygiene habits and remember that the organ of the eye is a carrier and susceptible to virus and disease. There is so much disinformation out there in the nutrition and fitness worlds, says Kearns, who with Aithwaite focuses on the entire mindset of health and fitness training. Reminding Kleyne that he is a martial artist first, Kearns says he teaches clients the 2 Cs and the 3 Ds. The Two Cs, says Kearns, are Commitment and Consistency; the Three Ds are Desire, Dedication and Determination. Kearns also shares that much of his work now is virtual training around the world given the restrictions forced on society by the pandemic. Aithwaite, an international chef, fitness trainer and lecturer with a masters degree in nutrition and fitness, teaches people how to think about their food and what is most beneficial for each individual. I teach the psychology of nutrition, says Aithwaite, the whole body experience." Aithwaite describes how he teaches globally now, like Kearns, on virtual media. Aithwaites recipes are available on line Bespokenutritionandfitness.co.uk and will also be posted on this website http://www.biologicaqua.com/home.php We both support and educate, adds Kearns. I also urge people not to over-think things. Kearns touts the benefits of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which considers the patient as a whole. Too often in our society, Kearns says, we want a pill and its done. Aithwaite and Kearns also agree on the immunity protection powers of herbs and spices. We teach immunity strengthening properties of the food we eat, says Aithwaite. In England, with the food shortages during this pandemic, people have had to plan more in preparing meals. Many people even began baking. Eat like the color of the rainbow, adds Kearns. Now that were stuck at home, people realize they have to cook for themselves. LISTEN to the internationally syndicated The Power of Water & Your Health sponsored by Nature's Tears EyeMist, naturally pH balanced water technology for acid mantel protection, on VoiceAmerica World Talk Radio & Apple iTunes with producer and host Sharon Kleyne and program director Rose Hong of Global Dragon TV. This program features global health educators Chef Steven Aithwaite and international fitness trainer Kevin Kearns. Follow this link: https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/124035/earths-human-mission-a-healthier-planet Next week on Kleyne talk radio, tune in for global virtual learning with Dr. Philip Paden, M.D., ophthalmologist and former chemist and host Sharon Kleyne exploring immunity strengthening and protection of the eyes. Recent programs feature: Kevin Kearns & Brandon Foster https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/123823/strengthening-childrens-immune-system-through-fitness Kevin Kearns & Diana Healy https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/123560/how-to-stay-active-during-the-pandemiclockdown Dr. Gerald Pollack, Ph.D. https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/123059/the-fourth-phase-of-water If you would like to watch a brief, entertaining educational film that demonstrates the application of the new Dry Eye Solution technology Natures Tears EyeMist, sponsor of Sharon Kleynes talk radio program, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0gOr8TB45U Mayor Cheryl Selby of Olympia, Washington just got her consciousness raised. Her hometown newspaper, The Olympian, reported last Friday: On Friday night, two groups converged in downtown Olympia, and some became destructive, burning flags, smashing windows, and spray painting businesses and Olympia Mayor Cheryl Selby's home. Selby and her family were not home last night, but her neighbors began texting her when the protesters arrived at her house. "I'm really trying to process this," she told The Olympian over the phone Saturday. "It's like domestic terrorism. It's unfair. "It hurts when you're giving so much to your community," she said[.] Mayor Selby was previously vandalized and installed a security camera, so we have video of the miscreant via KING TV in Seattle: KING TV screen grab (cropped). Rioters never stop to check the politics of the owners of buildings that they trash. The gay rainbow banner bought her no immunity. But many liberals somehow seem to think they are exempt from the chaos they unleash by offering their support to violent radicals. The owners of businesses looted and burned have suffered a lot more than she did, annoying though it is to be spray-painted. Many have had their life savings and life's work destroyed, though guilty of nothing. Irving Kristol famously quipped that a neo-conservative is "a liberal who has been mugged by reality." Mayor Selby probably needs a lot more consciousness-raising before she becomes a conservative of any sort. But maybe her support for BLM rioters is a bit less florid today? Or maybe not. Watch KING-TV's interview: Chennai: A 56-year old senior private secretary in the Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers Office (CMO) has succumbed to COVID-19 in the early hours of Wednesday, after nearly a week of hospitalization. The secretariat staff said that, though he was not in direct contact with the Chief Minister, he was working in the Chief Ministers chamber. With over 200 COVID-19 positive cases across ranks said to be reported from the Secretariat alone, the employees have been requesting the government for increased safety measures and precautions. On a routine day, the Secretariat sees about 6,300 staff across various departments and ranks, but under the current circumstances, 50 per cent of this number are being permitted to work at the premises. For about 10 days, the Tamil Nadu Secretariat Association has been pushing for having only 33 per cent workforce and restarting employees who are coming in from Red Zones. However, this will be in place only from June 19 when the 12-day lockdown would be in effect in Chennai and the three adjoining districts of Chengalpattu, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur. The 12-day lockdown guidelines require only 33 per cent of state and central government staff to report for work, whereas those residing in red zones will not be required to turn up for work. Those working at the secretariat feel that the number of people reporting for work can further be limited to few critical and specific departments such as Public Works, Revenue Administration, Disaster Management, Rural and Municipal development etc. We request the government to provide a separate medical facility for testing and hospitalizing staff if required. Besides strict thermal scanning at entry points, they can distribute vitamin tablets and immunity-boosting herbal conceptions. More transport facilities and buses could be provided for staff. Employees aged above 55, in a vulnerable category, must not be required to report for work. We must work together and ensure that there are no more lives lost, said Peter Anthonysamy, Tamil Nadu Secretariat Association president. Concern for patient care is escalating because nearly 208,000 people are stuck on a "ticking timebomb" of hospital waiting lists triggered by the Covid-19 crisis. They are in a queue for at least a year on a public outpatient list to see a specialist, with patients in need of orthopaedic and ear, nose and throat checks among the worst hit. It comes as the Irish Cancer Society warned more than 2,700 people are waiting for an urgent bowel cancer test. Dr Padraig McGarry, president of the Irish Medical Organisation, said social distancing guidelines and infection control were reducing capacity by more than 50pc. "We need to immediately begin a significant capacity-building programme to safeguard patients and enable doctors to do their jobs safely and effectively," he said. Last month, 207,970 people were waiting over a year for an outpatient appointment - an increase of 34,768 since February. The pause forced on planned treatments and clinics for months during Covid-19 led to outpatient waiting lists overall rising to 575,863 in May, up from 558,554 in February. Surgery lists rose from 66,705 to 88,946. Physical distancing, cleaning regimes and a range of other precautions which are now mandatory in hospitals are slowing medical services. The Irish Cancer Society called for urgent action to prevent delayed diagnosis. Dr Anthony O'Connor, a consultant gastroenterologist, said: "People who require an urgent colonoscopy should be seen in 28 days under best practice. This is not happening for too many people and many more people will be left waiting for far too long unless we see steps taken now. "The longer people have to wait, the greater risk we are taking with their outcome if they are found to have cancer. "The entire health system is playing catch-up due to Covid-19 but endoscopy was already behind - this is why we need to see investment, including the recruitment of more triage nurses and the expansion of non-invasive testing." There are 1,300 people waiting longer than the target of 28 days for a test and more than 300 people waiting for more than 90 days. Dr Donal O'Hanlon of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association said the new programme for government fell short and he warned of "unprecedented challenges in the months ahead unless practical plans are developed and implemented". In response, the HSE said it was being guided by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) in terms of its overall response to the pandemic, including the volume and types of acute activity that could be safely undertaken in private and public hospitals during the pandemic. Nphet's guidance prior to May 5 was to undertake only critical, time-dependent work. A spokeswoman said that time-critical emergency endo- scopy work continued throughout the system. On June 4, endoscopy units were issued with national guidance about how to resume non-emergency services safely. "This guidance includes the requirement for a number of measures to ensure patient and staff safety which will continue to see capacity in endoscopy units significantly affected," she said. "Preliminary assessments suggest capacity will be impacted by over 50pc." She added the immediate priority was to provide endoscopies for patients who had been awaiting urgent procedures for more than 28 days. As of June 5, some 1,250 patients were waiting over 28 days and a further 1,276 patients were delayed less than 28 days for an urgent colonoscopy. "This is likely to lead to longer waiting times for new patients who are placed on the waiting list for urgent, routine and planned procedures in endoscopy units," she said. The work is being outsourced privately and other initiatives are being looked at. Meanwhile, another three deaths from the virus were reported yesterday, bringing the total death toll to 1,709. Another 14 people have been diagnosed with the virus. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal While calls across the country to remove statues and monuments honoring Confederate leaders have spread to include such European colonizers as Christopher Columbus and Juan de Onate, the city of Santa Fe has no plans to remove any of its monuments to controversial historical figures. Public art, including monuments, memorials and murals, can serve as a vehicle for dialogue about the history and stories of a community, Pauline Kanako Kamiyama, director of the citys Arts and Culture Department, said in a statement to the Journal. The call to action that has taken place through marches, candlelit vigils and peaceful protests here in Santa Fe, as well as similar actions nationwide, provide an opportunity to have difficult conversations about colonization of this land and systemic institutional racism. The erasure of history without conversation serves no one. Santa Fe held several peaceful demonstrations in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by Minneapolis police officers last month. The incident has reignited debate over race relations and whether it is appropriate to honor controversial historical figures, such as Confederate leaders. In Santa Fe, there is a monument dedicated to Kit Carson, the frontiersman who led the Long Walk, the forced removal of Navajo people in 1864, and a statue of Don Diego de Vargas, the Spanish conquistador who led the reoccupation of Santa Fe 12 years after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Some Native American people say these men participated in the genocide of their ancestors. Activists in 2018 successfully brought an end to Santa Fes Entrada, a reenactment of the de Vargas-led resettlement held during the Santa Fe Fiestas. In addition, an obelisk that serves as the centerpiece of the citys historic Plaza was originally inscribed with a dedication to soldiers who died in battles with savage Indians until someone decades ago removed the word savage with a chisel. We know history is often told by a dominant culture, usually the victors; however, we also know that history is constantly evolving. These are living stories that need to be told from many perspectives, Kanako Kamiyama said. This can be accomplished by making equity and healing the guiding principles when considering art and monuments in public space. Santa Fes Entrada has been replaced by a ceremony that places emphasis on reconciliation between Spanish and Native people. OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau made his last-ditch pitch for Canadas UN Security Council seat Tuesday, arguing the COVID-19 crisis is an opportunity to rethink the worlds multilateral institutions. The pandemic has revealed the vulnerability of a globalized world to economic shocks and public health crises, Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. But it also presents a moment to reflect on how multilateral institutions like the UN can be improved. Many of our multilateral institutions were created 70, 75 years ago following the tremendous shock and upheaval of World War Two and those institutions have served us well as a world over the past many decades, Trudeau said. But this crisis is an opportunity to rethink them and to think about what is needed to make sure we have a fairer and more just world, to make sure the most vulnerable within our countries and around the world are better supported and protected and given better opportunities. Wednesdays vote at the UN will be the end of Canadas four-year campaign for a two-year term on the Security Council, the UNs premier political platform tasked with maintaining global peace and security. Canada is competing against Norway and Ireland for one of two spots on the council reserved for the Western European and Others group. All 193 General Assembly members can cast a secret ballot to decide which five countries will join the permanent members of the Security Council China, France, the U.K., the U.S. and Russia for a two-year term. Canada announced its bid in 2016, shortly after the Liberals swept to power and Trudeau declared Canada is back on the international stage. Wednesdays vote will be a test of that boast. Global Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne drove down to New York this weekend to oversee the Canadian delegations last-minute jockeying for votes. A socially-distanced war room has been setup to co-ordinate the push, with Champagne working alongside Marc-Andre Blanchard, Canadas ambassador to the UN. Ive made north of 100 calls in the last two, three weeks, and talking to foreign ministers around the world, and here in also engaging with the permanent representatives in New York, I sense momentum. But obviously you have to be cautious, Champagne told The Canadian Press. Bessma Momani, a University of Waterloo professor focusing on international affairs, said Canadas bid has come at a time when the countrys closest partner, the United States, is increasingly skeptical of multilateral co-operation. Were needed around the table now more than ever Many of those who are the (permanent) veto holders on the Security Council seem to be the most anti-co-operative when it comes to all things international, Momani said in an interview Monday. Roland Paris, a University of Ottawa international affairs professor, said that Canada is in for a tough fight but has a real chance at securing a seat after Wednesdays vote. The question then becomes what Canada wants to do with it. Paris noted that some of the themes Ottawa has built its bid around economic security, gender equality, and strengthening multilateralism are particularly well-suited to discussions about how the world recovers from the global pandemic. If Canada, by serving on the council, can help in some ways to improve the UN response to this global emergency, then that alone will be an important contribution, Paris, who previously advised Trudeau on foreign affairs and defence issues, said in an interview. I would expect the Security Council will be preoccupied by dealing with the aftermath of this, the effects of this crisis. And that should include in responding to the health and economic emergency in many parts of the world, and they all have security implications. And the failure to achieve global solutions will leave everyone worse off. But Rita Abrahamsen, the director of the Centre for International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa, said the three countries vying for the temporary spots would likely push similar policies on the big issues facing a post-COVID world. Many Canadians think it will make a great difference if its Canada that gets the seat. I think the three contenders of Norway, Ireland and Canada will actually have fairly similar policies on the issues regarding COVID-19, multilateral co-operation, Abrahamsen said. The idea that Canada will make a massive difference compared to if its Ireland or Norway, I think, is a bit exaggerated. With a file from The Canadian Press. Read more about: Former Army UH-60 Blackhawk pilot and Senate Armed Services Committee member Tammy Duckworth told the Army's top official this week that she wanted to know who is responsible for the use of low-flying helicopters to suppress crowds of protesters in Washington, D.C. The Democratic senator from Illinois also talked to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy about "the need" to ban the Confederate Battle Flag from all Army installations after the Navy and the Marine Corps made similar moves in the wake of nationwide racial protests that followed the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while in custody of Minneapolis police. Read Next: After Fatal Jet Crash, the Pilots Got Blamed. Then the Air Force Banned the Flight Maneuver "I had a productive call with Secretary McCarthy, where I expressed my deep concern about the use of low-flying military helicopters to suppress crowds of peaceful protesters who were exercising their First Amendment rights and calling out for justice for Black Americans," Duckworth said in a statement released Tuesday evening. "I reiterated my call for an investigation into this incident so we can get to the bottom of it and answer the questions: who gave those orders and why?" Duckworth, a former Army National Guard officer who lost both of her legs after she was shot down by enemy fire in Iraq in 2004, called on the Pentagon as well as the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate the reports of the June 1 incident involving Army helicopters flying dangerously low over protesters in D.C. In particular, she wanted to know whether there were any rotor wash-related injuries to people or property, according to the released statement. McCarthy told reporters June 7 that the Army is wrapping up a 15-6 investigation of the incident and that he had originally authorized the Guard to use helicopters to "observe and report" on demonstrations after protesters turned violent on March 31, nearly overwhelming police and National Guard troops near the White House and damaging key historic sites in the city. Maj. Gen. William Walker, commander of the D.C. National Guard, said at the same news conference that there was no order given to aviators to fly low to disperse the crowds. Duckworth also discussed her view that Confederate flags should be removed from Army installations. "Honoring the 'lost cause' of those who waged war against America to defend their right to own, sell and kill Black Americans has no place in our nation, especially the U.S. Armed Forces, which fought a deadly war to eliminate the barbaric practice of slavery," Duckworth said in the statement. Army leaders are reviewing the new Marine Corps policy that bans Confederate flags and are considering similar action, a defense official told Military.com on June 9. McCarthy's spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Audricia Harris, told Military.com Wednesday that McCarthy's office has no statement to release at this time on the issues discussed with Duckworth. Duckworth has called on all active U.S. military forces and the National Guard Bureau to remove all Confederate Battle Flags. "The U.S. Marine Corps, and now the U.S. Navy, have demonstrated moral leadership in taking action," Duckworth said in the statement. "I hope the Army will not be the last service branch to act." On Monday, Army Gen. Robert B. "Abe" Abrams, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, has barred all troops serving in South Korea from displaying the Confederate flag on bases as well as service members' cars. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Related: US Forces Korea Bans Display of Confederate Flag on Bases, Vehicles Aerial view of the Suncor mine facility along the Athabasca River in the oilsands near Fort McMurray, Alberta, in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh) Oilsands Will Weather Norway Wealth Funds Divestment, Proponents Say News Analysis Despite the recent withdrawal of the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund from Albertas oilsands, proponents believe the industry still has a bright future. Last month, Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norways $1 trillion government pension fund, announced it is stopping investment in Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Suncor Energy, and Imperial Oil. Water finds its level, so if some people are sellers, others are buyers, former Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission CEO Richard Masson told The Epoch Times. Capital will find a way to go to a place thats still going to get a good return, and there are returns to be had to developing oil in Canada. The oilsands werent the only investments Norway pulled away from. It also divested from thermal coal companies and a few others for environmental or human rights issues. Norway objected to the carbon footprint of the oilsands, which they thought was higher than the industry claims. Masson, who is now a first vice-chair of the World Petroleum Council-Canada and an executive fellow at the University of Calgarys School of Public Policy, says Norway didnt have an up-to-date view about some of the companies they cut out of their portfolio. Both Suncorp and Cenovus have committedCNRL as wellsignificant goals for 2030 in their business plan and some of them have committed to net zero in 2050, he said. Critics maintain that the 2050 target is an aspirational goal and not a commitment. The Norwegian fund objected that the cap on oilsands emissions announced by former Alberta premier Rachel Notley was never formally implemented. Its easy to make that commitment, but how are you going to get it done practically and regulate it? Masson asks. Many people have bought oilsands leases under the understanding that theyd be able to develop them. Its there, then, youre imposing a regulation that may prevent some people from developing their property. That could be looked at pretty poorly, and so they were looking for a way to try and say How do we do this fairly? Masson says one reason Canadas emissions numbers may seem high is that it accounts more fully for emissions other countries ignore. These include methane emissions from flaring gassomething Canada has minimized. Mark Milke, executive director of research at the Canadian Energy Centre, co-authored a research paper that showed Canadas energy sector paid $359 billion to governments from 2000 to 2018. This amount was $36 billion more than the federal government spent on programs in 2018-19. Milke told The Epoch Times that Canada can be proud of the industrys environmental record. Alberta and Canada already have multiple positive ESG (environmental, social and governance) indicators, and the industry has consistently made improvements year over year. Neither Alberta, nor Canada, should apologize for its environmental leadership. Milke says carbon emissions are only one aspect that ethical investors should consider. There is going to be a global demand for years to come for oil and gas, and it is clear that Canadian oil and gas can meet that demand. If not us, then other regimes will, with less interest in civil rights, proper labour practices, and in meeting high environmental standards, he says. A report issued in 2019 by the Bank of Montreal found that independent evaluators gave Canadas oil industry top marks for ESG indicators. Another BMO report in March of this year suggested Canada could fill a 400-billion-barrel shortfall in global oil production by 2040. For the past decade, the Tar Sands Campaign against Canadian oil has tried to discourage foreign investment. Masson says while those investments are helpful, theyre less crucial than in times past. In the very beginning of the oilsands it certainly took a lot of foreign capital, a lot of risk capital, and much of it was American and some from Shell and others, he says. Then we had a big wave of investment that ran from a period of eight years up to 2014 when we were investing $30 billion a year. [Now] were down to $12 billion a year but its a much smaller amount than what we needed during the heyday. It seems the world still wants what Canadas got. A 2019 Ipsos Global Pulse survey of 31 countries issued by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers found that Canada was the top choice as a source of oil and gas. We have a pretty bright future. Weve got a great big resource, Masson says. Its worth a lot of money, people are pretty good at producing it, and theres a lot of good ideas on how to make it better. DGAP-News: Apogenix AG / Key word(s): Conference The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Apogenix to Present at AACR Virtual Annual Meeting II Heidelberg, Germany, June 17, 2020 - Apogenix, a biopharmaceutical company developing next generation immunotherapeutics, announced today that it will present at the AACR Virtual Annual Meeting II, which takes place online from June 22-24, 2020. Participation will be free to everyone, but registration is required to view the meeting. Presentation #1076 - June 23, 9:00-11:00 am EDT: "Hexavalent HERA-CD40L induces a productive T cell-mediated anti-tumor immune response and shows superior activity in comparison to benchmark CD40 agonistic antibodies" - Christian Gieffers, Ph.D., VP Preclinical Development Poster Presentations: - Poster #4460 - Poster Session "Combination Immunotherapies 3", June 22-24: "Novel bispecific molecules combining HERA-CD40L with anti-CEA or with anti-PD-L1 for targeting" - Meinolf Thiemann, Ph.D., VP Protein Analytics - Poster #4529 - Poster Session "Immunomodulatory Agents and Interventions 1", June 22-24: "Neutralization of pro-apoptotic CD95L by Asunercept/APG101 does not impair anti-tumor immune responses" - Christian Merz, Ph.D., Head of Cellular Analytics/Biomarker Development About Apogenix Apogenix is a private company developing innovative immunotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer. In addition, it is evaluating the potential of its lead immunotherapy candidate asunercept in viral infections, such as COVID-19. The company's pipeline of immunotherapy drug candidates targets different tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily-dependent signaling pathways, thereby restoring the anti-tumor immune response in cancer patients and reducing lymphopenia and inflammatory cell death in patients with viral infections. Checkpoint inhibitor asunercept, the company's lead immunotherapy candidate, is in late-stage clinical development with PRIME (PRIority MEdicines) designation by the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of glioblastoma. Based on its proprietary technology platform for the construction of novel TNF superfamily receptor agonists (HERA-ligands), Apogenix develops CD40, CD27, GITR, HVEM, and 4-1BB receptor agonists for cancer immunotherapy. The TRAIL receptor agonist program was outlicensed to AbbVie. AbbVie is conducting a phase I trial with TRAIL receptor agonist ABBV-621 in patients suffering from solid tumors, non-Hodgkins's lymphoma, or acute myeloid leukemia. Contacts Peter Willinger, CFO Jennifer Mogk, PR Manager Apogenix AG Phone: +49 6221 58608-0 E-Mail: contact@apogenix.com Web: www.apogenix.com Media Contacts Katja Arnold Andreas Jungfer MC Services AG Phone: +49 89 210228-0 E-Mail: apogenix@mc-services.eu 17.06.2020 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 Sea ice in the Weddell Sea has reduced by one third over the last five years. Credit: Susie Grant Scientists have discovered that summer sea ice in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica has decreased by one million square kilometresan area twice the size of Spainin the last five years, with implications for the marine ecosystem. The findings are published this month (June 2020) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Sea ice surrounding Antarctica provides an important habitat for many species including penguins and seals, which rely on it to access food and to breed. An international team of researchers studied satellite records of sea ice extent and weather analyses starting in the late 1970s to understand why summer sea ice in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica has reduced by a third over the last five years. They found that ice loss occurred due to a series of severe storms in the Antarctic summer of 2016/17, along with the re-appearance of an area of open water in the middle of the 'pack ice' (known as a polynya), which had not occurred since the mid-1970s. Lead author Professor John Turner, a climate scientist at British Antarctic Survey, says: "Antarctic sea ice continues to surprise us. In contrast to the Arctic, sea ice around the Antarctic had been increasing in extent since the 1970s, but then rapidly decreased to record low levels, with the greatest decline in the Weddell Sea. In summer, this area now has a third less sea ice, which will have implications for ocean circulation and the marine wildlife of the region that depend on it for their survival." The ocean around Antarctica freezes and doubles the size of the continent in the austral winter, with the sea ice extent reaching over 18 million square kilometres by late September. Through the spring and summer, the sea ice almost completely melts in most parts of the Antarctic, with only the Weddell Sea retaining a significant amount of sea ice. Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) need sea ice to breed. Credit: Richard Burt There are few storms around the Antarctic in the austral summer, but in December 2016, a number of intense and unseasonal storms developed in the Weddell Sea and drew warm air towards the Antarctic, melting a large amount of sea ice. The ice-free ocean absorbed energy from the Sun and then created a warm ocean temperature anomaly that still persists today. The winter of 2016 also saw the development of a polynya in the Weddell Sea, a large area of open water within the sea ice, which also contributed to the overall decline in sea ice extent. This polynya was created by the strong winds associated with the storms and unprecedented warm ocean conditions. This recent rapid sea ice loss is affecting both the Weddell Sea ecosystem and the wider Antarctic wildlife/plants and animals. Many species, ranging from tiny ice algae and shrimp-like crustaceans called krill to seabirds, seals and whales, are highly adapted to the presence of sea ice. If the drastic changes observed continue, they will have repercussions throughout the food chain, from affecting nutrients to the reduction of essential habitat for breeding and feeding for vast numbers of animals, such as ice seals and some species of penguins. Author and ecologist Professor Eugene Murphy from British Antarctic Survey says: "The dramatic decline in sea ice observed in the Weddell Sea is likely to have significant impacts on the way the entire marine ecosystem functions. Understanding these wider consequences is of paramount importance, especially if the decline in ice extent continues." Because of the large year-to-year variability in Antarctic sea ice extent the scientists cannot be sure if the ice in the Weddell Sea will in the short-term recover to the values seen before 2016 or whether they are seeing the start of the expected long-term decline of sea ice. Explore further Massive hole reopens in Antarctic sea ice More information: John Turner et al. Recent Decrease of Summer Sea Ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, Geophysical Research Letters (2020). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters John Turner et al. Recent Decrease of Summer Sea Ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica,(2020). DOI: 10.1029/2020GL087127 Microsoft tried to sell its facial recognition technology to the Drug Enforcement Administration as far back as 2017, according to newly released emails. The American Civil Liberties Union obtained the emails through a public records lawsuit it filed in October, challenging the secrecy surrounding the DEA's facial recognition program. The ACLU shared the emails with TechCrunch. The emails, dated between September 2017 and December 2018, show that Microsoft privately hosted DEA agents at its Reston, Virginia office to demonstrate its facial recognition system, and that the DEA later piloted the technology. It was during this time that Microsoft's president Brad Smith was publicly calling for government regulations covering the use of facial recognition. But the emails also show that the DEA expressed concern with purchasing the technology, fearing criticism from the FBI's use of facial recognition at the time that caught the attention of government watchdogs. Critics have long said this face-matching technology violates Americans' right to privacy, and that the technology disproportionately shows bias against people of color. But despite the rise of facial recognition by police and in public spaces, Congress has struggled to keep pace and introduce legislation that would oversee the as-of-yet unregulated space. But things changed in the wake of the nationwide and global protests after the death of George Floyd, which prompted a renewed focus about law enforcement and racial injustice. An email from a Microsoft account executive inviting DEA agents to its Reston, Virginia office to demo its facial recognition technology. (Source: ACLU/supplied) Microsoft was the third company last week to say it will no longer sell its facial recognition technology to police until more federal regulation is put into place, following in the footsteps of Amazon, which put a one-year moratorium on selling its technology to police. IBM went further, saying it will wind down its facial recognition business entirely. Story continues But Microsoft, like Amazon, did not say if it would no longer sell to federal departments and agencies like the DEA. "It is bad enough that Microsoft tried to sell a dangerous technology to a law enforcement agency tasked with spearheading the racist drug war, but it gets worse, said Nathan Freed Wessler, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU. "Even after belatedly promising not to sell face surveillance tech to police last week, Microsoft has refused to say whether it would sell the technology to federal agencies like the DEA," said Wessler. "This is troubling given the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's record, but its even more disturbing now that Attorney General Bill Barr has reportedly expanded this very agency's surveillance authorities, which could be abused to spy on people protesting police brutality," he said. Lawmakers have since called for a halt to the DEA's covert surveillance of protesters, powers that were granted by the Justice Department earlier in June as protests spread across the U.S. and around the world. When reached, DEA spokesperson Michael Miller declined to answer our questions. A spokesperson for Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment. NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday said that COVID-19 tests will be done via new Rapid Antigen method recommended by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) from June 18 in Delhi, which would be given priority for these kits. The Home Ministry also informed that the cost of the COVID-19 test in Delhi has been fixed at Rs 2,400. It added that from June 18, 169 centers for COVID-19 testing would also become operation in Delhi. The MHA said, High-level expert committee's report on COVID-19 testing rates received by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been further sent to Delhi government for necessary action. It has been decided to fix the test rate at Rs 2,400. The Home Ministry further stated that in order to improve contact mapping in Delhi, health surveys had been conducted for a population of 1,77,692 in 242 containment zones between June 15-16. The development comes days after the ICMR wrote a letter to the Centre calling for ramping up testing for COVID-19 in Delhi containment zones and hospitals by use of rapid antigen detection test. The letter has been written by ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava to the Union Health Ministry in which he had called for "ramping up testing for COVID-19 in containment zones and hospitals in Delhi by use of rapid antigen detection test". In view of the ICMR letter, the Delhi government said that it is likely to use rapid antigen kits for COVID-19 testing in containment zones and healthcare settings from June 20. The kits will allow faster diagnosis without laboratory examination. Standard Q COVID-19 Ag detection kit (rapid antigen test kits) is a rapid chromatographic immunoassay for qualitative detection of specific antigens to SARS-CoV-2. It has been developed by SD Biosensor, a South Korea-based company, the Indian Council of Medical Research said in an advisory issued earlier. Suspected individuals who test negative for COVID-19 by rapid antigen test should be tested sequentially by RT-PCR to rule out infection, whereas a positive test should be considered as a truly positive and does not need reconfirmation by RT-PCR test, the ICMR said in its letter to the Health Ministry . The Standard Q COVID-19 Ag detection can be interpreted as positive or negative after 15 minutes of putting the sample into the well by the appearance of test and control lines, which can be read with a naked eye, requiring no specialized equipment, it said. The maximum duration for interpreting a positive or negative test is 30 minutes. After that the test strip should be discarded, it said. Former president George W. Bush is scheduled to appear at a virtual fundraiser with four Senate Republicans facing tough reelection battles, including two that represent states President Donald Trump lost in 2016. The June 30 fundraiser is being hosted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to an invitation obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics. Freddy Ford, a spokesman for Bush, confirmed the invitation's veracity, as did an NRSC aide with knowledge of the event. The possibility of a wider armed conflict between India and China is unlikely, analysts said, despite an escalation in recent border clashes high in the Himalayas that led to casualties for the first time in more than four decades. India's foreign ministry said a "violent face-off" occurred on Monday evening along the border in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, where soldiers from both sides have been locked in a standoff since last month. Senior army officials from both sides met on June 6 in efforts to de-escalate the situation. "On the late-evening and night of 15th June, 2020 a violent face-off happened as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there. Both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side," Anurag Srivastava, official spokesperson for the Indian foreign ministry, said. The Indian army said in a statement that 20 of its soldiers were killed and that troops from both sides have now disengaged. The Chinese People's Liberation Army said Indian border troops "reneged on their commitments" and "seriously violated agreements and protocols" on border issues between the two sides. An Indian Border Security Force soldier erects a bunker near a check post along the Srinagar-Leh National highway on June 16, 2020. Faisal Khan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images China's foreign ministry said Wednesday that Beijing does not want to see any more clashes on the border with India and that both nations are trying to resolve the situation through dialogue, Reuters reported. The foreign ministry spokesman reiterated that China is not to be blamed for the clash, the news wire added. Both countries are in "close communication on resolving relevant issues," Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times tweeted, citing the Chinese foreign ministry. The clash was unexpected given that the two sides were having serious dialogue about disengagement, said Harsh V. Pant, head of the strategic studies program at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. If talks at the military and foreign ministry level are flailing, a conversation between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi is likely to prevent a major fallout. Kelsey Broderick China analyst at Eurasia Group "Clearly, the crisis was there on the borders, but the two sides were trying to resolve it, and it had seemed at one point, in the last few days, that disengagement process has started," he told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Wednesday. War isn't likely With both sides accusing each other of violating the June 6 agreement, it will be harder to push forward with previously agreed upon de-escalation moves, Kelsey Broderick, China analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group, said in a note. "The fact that the 15 June incident, despite the fatalities, did not boil over into a larger conflict is one positive signal that higher-ups on both sides are not interested in sparking any kind of war," Broderick said. She explained that India and China are likely to return to de-escalation, but that the process will take "significantly longer," with a higher risk of another flare-up as both governments have to tackle hardened domestic attitudes against the other side and resist calls for retaliation. "If talks at the military and foreign ministry level are flailing, a conversation between (President) Xi Jinping and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi is likely to prevent a major fallout," Broderick said. Still, analysts expect that there remains a risk of future border clashes turning into larger armed clashes, particularly if thousands of soldiers continue to face each other along the disputed border area. Domestic challenges Both countries face a number of domestic challenges that are likely to preoccupy New Delhi and Beijing including the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. China is experiencing a resurgence of infections in Beijing, where more than 100 new cases were reported in recent days. Authorities have reimposed restrictions to stop the virus from spreading. The world's second-largest economy is also managing a deteriorating relationship with the United States. The risk of miscalculation aside, we believe there is little appetite to beat the war drum. Miha Hribernik head of Asia for risk insight at Verisk Maplecroft India for its part is one of the most-affected countries in the world, with more than 340,000 reported cases, despite imposing a strict national lockdown between late-March and the end of May. "The risk of miscalculation aside, we believe there is little appetite to beat the war drum," Miha Hribernik, head of Asia for risk insight at Verisk Maplecroft, wrote in a note. "Nevertheless, neither Modi nor Xi can afford to completely back down in what is an exceedingly complex and long-standing sovereignty dispute," Hribernik said. "We accordingly expect tensions along the disputed border areas to continue to simmer during the rest of the year, with neither side willing to pull back completely, but with little enthusiasm for further escalation." India is building a strategic road through the Galwan Valley in Ladakh and connecting the region to an airstrip, the Associated Press reported a move China opposes. Future of bilateral ties The latest violent clash is expected to further deteriorate bilateral ties between India and China. Eurasia Group's Broderick said that skirmishes like the one on Monday are likely to become more frequent as "China asserts more territorial claims and India starts to push back against Chinese incursions." Already, there's growing anti-China sentiment in India, with calls to boycott Chinese products growing louder. New Delhi also introduced restrictive measures on Chinese foreign direct investments. Turkmen Citizens In Northern Cyprus Stage Protests Demanding Berdymukhammedov's Resignation By RFE/RL's Turkmen Service June 16, 2020 Turkmen citizens residing in Northern Cyprus have staged at least three protests in recent days to demand the resignation of Turkmenistan's authoritarian leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. The latest rally was held by dozens of Turkmen nationals in North Nicosia on June 14 where they accused Berdymukhammedov of being a dictator "incapable of providing the Turkmen nation with bare necessities such as food and a decent life." Some of the protesters held posters with Berdymukhammedov's picture emblazoned with swastikas over them and inscriptions saying "the Craziest Dictator Ever" and "The President Must Resign!" "There is an increasing famine in Turkmenistan and the population's immiseration continues. Turkmenistan's authorities totally ignore the real catastrophe and by all possible means suppress any form of dissent. The country is on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe," one of the protesters said, adding that she will send her demands to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The protesters also demanded a crackdown on corruption, and assistance for residents of the eastern regions of Lebap and Mary to tackle problems caused by heavy storms and rains in April. Similar protests were held in Northern Cyprus on May 11 and May 20. Turkmen people in the United States have also held several similar protests in recent weeks and the newly established opposition movement, Democratic Choice of Turkmenistan, which is based outside of the country, announced in early June that it plans to hold protests with the goal "of liberating Turkmenistan from Berdymukhammedov's dictatorial regime." Berdymukhammedov has ruled the former Soviet republic with an iron fist since the death of his autocratic predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, in December 2006. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/turkmen-citizens -in-northern-cyprus-stage-protests-demanding- berdymukhammedov-s-resignation/30674192.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 Authorities believe a couple suspected of setting fire to multiple businesses in St. Paul, Minn. during recent protests could be in San Antonio or Eagle Pass. The U.S. Marshals and FBI are working closely with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to find Jose Felan Jr. and Mena Yousif. A $10,000 award is being offered by ATF for information leading to the arrest of both suspects. RELATED: 'I'm not a racist': Two Hill Country politicians take heat for controversial comments After an original reward notice was released earlier this month, the public helped to identify Felan. The ATF released more information on the couple June 11. At that point, all that was known about the two's location was that they were "travelling south." The U.S. Marshals tweeted on Tuesday that it now believes they may be in San Antonio or Eagle Pass. Saint Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell called their alleged crime an "affront" to those who were peacefully protesting social injustices and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd's death. Now, more than ever, is the time for all of us to work together to hold these offenders accountable and to continue our work together to keep Saint Paul safe for everyone," Aztell said in a news release. Felan has a large mole on his outer left arm and a tattoo with the name "Mena" and a crown on the inside of his right forearm. Anyone with information on the couple is asked to contact ATF directly. Tipsters may remain anonymous and submit information by emailing ATFTips@atf.gov, via the reportIT app, or by calling 1-888-ATF-TIPS. Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye For drivers who are looking to save on a new vehicle, Manhattan Beach Toyota has a new incentive to offer. Driving a hybrid vehicle can be an enjoyable experience. Hybrid models use less gas, meaning fewer emissions and a more fuel-efficient drive. Hybrid models have lots of advantages to offer drivers. Manhattan Beach Toyota is now offering 0% APR financing for select Toyota hybrid vehicles. Some of the 2020 Toyota hybrid vehicles are eligible for this savings opportunity. Drivers will need their credit approved through Manhattan Beach Toyota and Toyota Financial Services before receiving this incentive. Not all customers qualify and the offer ends on July 6. Manhattan Beach Toyota has several hybrid vehicles to choose from. There are vehicles like the 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, the 2020 Toyota Prius and Prius Prime as well as the 2020 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. There are lots of vehicles inside the Manhattan Beach Toyota showroom. Interested shoppers can visit the online inventory to see what vehicles they have in store. The professionals at Manhattan Beach Toyota are experts when it comes to the key details and highlights of the latest Toyota hybrid models. They can speak with customers about the advantages of each model and what best fits their lifestyle. Drivers can also learn which models at the dealership are eligible for this incentive by speaking with their team. Interested parties can learn more about the available 2020 Toyota hybrid models at Manhattan Beach Toyota by visiting the dealership website, manhattanbeachtoyota.com. Readers can call ahead to ask questions about this incentive at 855-995-7001. The Manhattan Beach Toyota showroom is located at 1500 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 for readers who want to see the vehicles in person. In the last two weeks, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Houston calling for justice for George Floyd and an end to systemic racism. Nowhere does systemic racism rear its ugly head more visibly than in our police departments, which is why people everywhere are demanding a complete reimagining of the role of police in our society. On June 9, the same day that George Floyd was being laid to rest, more than 60 people spoke before the Houston City Council, calling for reductions in the police budget, limitations on what police are asked to do and investment in programs that make communities safe. City councils answer on Wednesday? An almost unified call to study the issue, refer it to a committee and increase the police budget for 2021. Consider this: Austin voted for major cuts in its police budget; Dallas postponed the vote on its police budget; Harris County earmarked $25 million for immediate investments in diversion programs. Mayor Sylvester Turner announced yet another study group and increased the police budget by nearly $20 million. The mayor shouldnt pretend that the calls for police reform were suddenly sprung on him this week. His own transition team in 2016 made a litany of reform recommendations. Our organizations participated in the committee, as did senior members of the mayors administration. Then in 2017, city council spent $565,000 on a 10-year financial plan that included recommendations to cut some of the 75 percent of the budget spent on public safety over that time span. Houston does not need another study. What we need is action on the existing recommendations for police reform. After participating in the transition committee, our organizations established the Right2Justice Coalition. We have met regularly to address ongoing issues of policing and criminal justice in Houston and Harris County. Today, we are publishing a progress report of existing recommendations from Turners 2016 Transition Committee on Criminal Justice and the 2017 10-year financial plan. The progress report shows that the city has implemented only a few of the recommended reforms, the most significant being the consolidation of the citys jails with Harris County in 2019. It has failed to adopt recommendations to develop, in partnership with grassroots organizations, a plan for community policing, to enact a cite-and-release policy to divert people accused of minor offenses from the criminal justice system, to combine 211 and 311 to better meet residents needs for non-police services, and to implement a body cam video release policy that maximizes public access to footage in a prompt manner. And instead of civilianizing 443 positions as the 10-year plan recommends to save $5-10 million, the administration has increased the number of officers by 81 and shrunk the number of civilian positions by 258. Delays in implementing these recommendations in the last three years have further eroded public trust. Turner and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedos actions speak louder than words by that standard, their message is unchanged. In front of a national audience at Floyds funeral, Turner promised bold reform. The executive order he touted is largely a restatement of existing Houston Police Department use-of-force policy, though changes now require the mayors approval. This is not the way to honor Floyds memory, and it isnt the way to end police violence against black and Latino people. The time for action is now. The police union contract was last negotiated in 2018 and will automatically renew in December 2020, if the city council does not adopt a new contract by Sept. 30. Negotiations have happened in secret and out of public view. This is unacceptable. As members of the mayors Transition Committee on Criminal Justice, we want a seat at the table with other groups to observe negotiations and ensure the contract is updated to include key provisions, including: As this newspaper insisted in its June 11 editorial, increased independence in police oversight, with investigatory powers resting outside the chain of command. Ending the 48-hour rule that gives officers accused of misconduct a full two days after an incident before they submit to an interview and that allows them to see any evidence against them in advance. Eliminating rules that block disciplinary action within 180 days after alleged misconduct by an officer. A fair discipline and appeals process so that police officers and the police union are not the only ones appointing arbitrators. The people of Houston cannot wait months for another task force to reach the same conclusions that other task forces have already reached. The city council and the mayor must take action now if they want to make Houston a place where Black Lives Matter. Jackson is the Right to Justice strategist at Texas Organizing Project; Burke is the executive director of the ACLU of Texas. The #Right2Justice Coalition includes the ACLU of Texas, Anti-Defamation League, Earl Carl Institute for Legal and Social Policy, Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, Immigrant Resource Legal Center, Texas Advocates for Justice/Grassroots Leadership, Texas Appleseed, Texas Civil Rights Project, Texas Organizing Project and United We Dream. The majority of Australian small and medium businesses said buying softwareparticularly around collaboration and remote workwill be critical for their survival, according to a recent study from Gartners Capterra Australia unit. With the COVID-19 pandemic, these businessesemploying more than one and less than 200 peoplewere forced to invest in software such as video conferencing to support their remote work. Now, 79 per cent of the respondents said they are already looking for further software to take on a more virtual future, said Anna Hammond, a content analyst at Capterra. Solutions were primarily purchased to help the team stay productive. Now, businesses are looking into expanding their offerings to remain competitive, as well as improving customer experience, Hammond said. The study showed that the coronavirus pandemic resulted, as expected, in large adoption of collaboration and video conferencing software, as well as remote desktop software. But there was also uptake of project management software and a small portion also invested in VPNs, HR software and accounting software. A previous study by Capterra, from April 2020 as the pandemic lockdowns came into force, discovered that 57 per cent of Australian small and medium businesses were already operating fully remotely, with more planning to do the same. According to Capterra this shift to remote work resulted in rises in technology adoption, digitalised business offerings, telework, receptiveness to remote working and digital transformation leadership. Hammond believes the digitalisation of basic business functions will be key to the survival of smaller businesses. Some positives have come out of this experience. For example, digitalisation has accelerated because of the virus and people have learned they handle (and would prefer) greater workplace flexibility without compromising on productivity levels. As a response to changing market conditions and business needs, 68 per cent of decision-makers have moved budgets to other areas of their company. Of those, 48 per cent out said they did not have software acquisitions or upgrades planned before the lockdown. A large portion of decision-makers, 78 per cent, said the software purchases they make will be critical to their survival during (and after) the pandemic. On the down side, 62 per cent were not confident their business could survive another six months under the current conditions, without factoring any governmental support. For the current study, Capterra Australia surveyed 458 employees of Australian small and medium businesses, which included both full-time and part-time employees. Out of those, 75 per cent held management positions with decision-making power. Founded in 1942, the Voice of America was never meant to be a megaphone for the American government. The concept was the opposite: A federally funded broadcaster would showcase American values around the world by offering unbiased news and a true picture of American life. That mission is enshrined in what the V.O.A. calls its firewall, which prohibits interference by any U.S. government official in the objective, independent reporting of news. So its worrisome that the Senate confirmation of the Trump administrations pick to head the V.O.A. and several allied broadcasters was followed by the resignations of the two top V.O.A. executives, both experienced, respected and independent journalists. The people who listen to the news service around the world more than 280 million in 40 languages and on every media platform are, for the most part, people who cant abide the propaganda of their rulers and turn to the worlds premier democracy to hear the truth. If they thought V.O.A. was also feeding them propaganda, theyd change the station, and probably their image of the United States. The value of such journalism should be self-evident to any believer in the value of a free press. It is not to President Trump nor to his erstwhile strategist Stephen K. Bannon. It was Mr. Bannon, then head of the far-right website Breitbart, who more than two years ago tried to put his man, Michael Pack, at the helm of V.O.A. But the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, first under Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican and Trump critic, and then under the more Trump-friendly Jim Risch of Idaho, was in no rush to confirm Mr. Pack until something prodded Mr. Trump to launch an attack on V.O.A. two months ago. The New York Police Department, roiled in recent weeks by accusations of assault on protesters and investigations into officers' conduct, is hoping to turn the page with communities of color that have repeatedly been stopped and frisked by looking to hold its officers to a higher standard while turning to the justice system for help as it tackles a rise in shootings, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Wednesday. Shea acknowledged the community backlash against the nation's largest police force, speaking with "NBC Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt on Wednesday atop the police department's heavily fortified headquarters in lower Manhattan. But during the wide-ranging interview, he also said that a recent decision to turn over part of the police department's budget for city youth programs was the easiest one he has had to make as commissioner and that he believes the police are just scratching the surface of crime-fighting if they can develop more trust with the communities they serve. Shea's announcement Monday to disband an anti-crime unit that proactively sought out illegal guns on the street was "not an easy decision" and "not without risk," he said, given the city's 26 percent increase in shootings this year. "I do know that we can do things differently. I do know that this is the right decision for the community and for the cops," Shea said. "Like any great agency, we are a proud agency. It's made up of, I think, the best this city has to offer," Shea added. "But we also have to look inward at times, and we're not perfect." IMAGE: Dermot Shea (Kena Betancur / Getty Images file) Shea is speaking out after more than two weeks of protests in New York City and around the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. Since his death on May 25, protesters across the nation have condemned police violence and systemic racism, while activists have been pushing for the defunding or even the dismantling of police forces. Story continues While some officers in New York were stabbed, struck by bricks and fire extinguishers and hit with cars during the mass demonstrations, videos showed protesters being assaulted, some being thrown to the ground or having their masks removed and being pepper-sprayed all by police. Shea has suspended those officers without pay, and one has been charged, with several other incidents under internal affairs investigations. "Did I see isolated incidents and take swift action because the actions were wrong? Absolutely," Shea said. "But when you look back at that period, I hope that history will show that they acted with incredible professionalism, incredible restraint," he added of his officers. The NYPD has a history of leading change in policing across the country, including an innovative crime tracking system known as CompStat, as well as in fighting terrorism. Shea said that when bad incidents are captured on video, such as what happened to Floyd, who screamed out "I can't breathe" while pinned under an officer's knee, they reverberate around the country and officers can be similarly shaken by what they see. "When you have incidents like that and it's shown over and over again on the television, people need to know that the cops, the police officers, are going to be held accountable for actions when they do something wrong," Shea said. "In many parts of the country, including New York City, people over time have lost faith, and it's our job to build that back up." His decision to disband the anti-crime unit, which was a 600-person plainclothes unit that had a history of high-profile police shootings and deaths, is part of building up that trust, he said. Full coverage of George Floyd's death and protests around the country But the move has been criticized by Pat Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, the city's largest police union. He said this week that "shooting and murders are both climbing steadily upward, but our city leaders have clearly decided that proactive policing isn't a priority anymore." Civil rights groups have also questioned whether disbanding the unit will lead to improved policing in communities of color. "Getting rid of a unit like that doesn't quite solve the problem," said Nick Turner, president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice. It signals a "potential culture change" away from police officers as being "warriors" and more as "partners" in a community, "but the risk is that it could be symbolic." Shea stressed that his recent decisions were not about abandoning the people who live in communities with crime, while he asked for help from the broader judicial system. He said 1,000 people with open gun cases many of them indicted remain free as a result of recent bail reform laws. "I would argue we don't need more stops," Shea said. "We need to handle that population of a thousand people that have broken the law and make tough decisions on who has to be incarcerated, who can go to diversion programs, who can receive probation." live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Pralay Mondal, who recently resigned as executive director and head of retail banking at Axis Bank, is likely to soon join private sector lender CSB Bank (Catholic Syrian Bank) at a senior position in one of the most keenly-watched moves in Indian private banking space, people familiar with the matter told Moneycontrol. The Kerala-based bank is controlled by India-born Canadian billionaire Prem Watsas Fairfax Financial Holdings, which acquired a 51% stake in CSB in 2018. Fairfax is extremely keen to have Pralay Mondal on board due to his tremendous retail experience and they believe retail is the future as far as their plans for CSB Bank are concerned, said one of the individuals cited above. Mondal is likely to join CSB Bank at a very senior position in a few months, this person said. Mondal was picked by Axis Bank as part of the new leadership team of Amitabh Chaudhury in April 2019. Mondal has around 30 years of experience across retail banking, business banking, products and technology. After joining CSB Bank, Mondal may later take up a leadership position following a transition period, added a second individual. Both the individuals spoke to Moneycontrol on condition of anonymity. Moneycontrol is awaiting email responses from Axis Bank & CSB Bank and will update this article as soon as we hear from them. Fairfax India could not be immediately contacted and a mail has been sent to the firm. When contacted, CSB Bank MD & CEO Rajendaran declined to comment. A text sent to Pralay Mondal was unanswered at the time of publishing this article and he didnt respond to calls. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the exact new role for Mondal and if he would assume the position of either a Deputy MD or a director at CSB Bank. According to an official statement from Axis Bank, he is slated to step down post September 14, 2020 to pursue other opportunities. Fairfax-backed Catholic Syrian Bank re-appointed Rajendran Chinna Veerappan as MD and CEO of the bank in December 2019 for three years, which ends on December 8, 2022. CNBC TV-18 had reported earlier that Mondal resigned from Axis Bank to head to another smaller private sector bank. Veerappan of CSB Bank had dubbed as "market speculations" talk that Pralay Mondal will be joining the bank. "I am not aware of it. These are market speculations," CVR Rajendran, MD and CEO of CSB Bank, had told the channel. Axis Bank told exchanges on June 15 that it has initiated the succession planning process for Mondal's position. WHY DID MONDAL STEP DOWN? In a statement, Mondal said the resignation was an unanticipated but unavoidable development owing to some personal compulsions. At Axis Bank, Mondal supervises Branch Banking, Liabilities Sales, Retail Lending, Affluent, NRI & Priority Programs, Cards & Acquiring, Third Party Products, Outbound Contact Centre, Retail Lending & Direct Banking Products, Marketing and Underwriting & Collections of Retail Assets. Mondal is an engineer from IIT-Kharagpur and a management graduate from IIM-Calcutta. Before joining Axis Bank, he was the Senior Group President and Head of Retail and Business Banking at Yes Bank. He was instrumental in setting up the entire retail franchise in a short period of time. Prior to that he was associated with HDFC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Wipro Infotech & Colgate Palmolive. According to the Axis Bank website, "his achievements include pioneering the concept of doorstep banking, creating deep geography distribution and rural penetration for the products and scaling up retail businesses." At Yes Bank, Mondal was part of former chief executive Rana Kapoor's core team. His exit from the bank coincided with the change in top management at the private lender. CSB BANK: MONDALS NEXT DESTINATION? CSB Bank reported narrowing of losses in the March quarter to Rs 59.69 crore compared with Rs 150.64 crore a year ago. For FY2019-20, it reported a net profit of Rs 12.72 crore as against a loss of Rs 197.42 crore in the year-ago period. The bank's gross non-performing assets ratio reduced to 3.54 per cent from the year-ago's 4.87 per cent, while the provision coverage ratio was over 80 per cent. The Thrissur-headquartered bank will add 103 branches during FY2021 and will focus more on the business opportunities outside of its home state of Kerala, Rajendran said. CSB Bank is one of the oldest private sector banks in India with a history of over 98 years, and a strong base in Kerala along with significant presence in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. It offers a wide range of products and services to its overall customer base of 1.3 million as on March 31, 2019, with particular focus on SME, retail, and NRI customers. Sumit Maheshwari, managing director and CEO of Fairfaxs India investment arm Fairbridge Capital Private Limited, is a non-executive director on the board of CSB Bank. According to the banks website, it delivers products and services through multiple channels, including 414 branches (excluding three service branches and two asset recovery branches) and 277 ATMs spread across 16 states and four union territories as on March 31, 2019, and various alternate channels such as micro ATMs, debit cards, internet banking, mobile banking, point of sale services, and UPI. (Additional reporting by Dinesh Unnikrishnan) Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - June 16, 2020) - Skye Life Ventures Ltd. (OTCQB: SKLV) ("SKYE" or the "Company") is providing this update to our valued shareholders during these difficult times. The COVID-19 virus represents a new challenge for us all. We want to formally update you on the situation as it pertains to Skye Life Ventures. We are taking this global threat seriously and are closely monitoring developments. We have implemented numerous precautions and protective measures to safeguard our employees and suppliers. We will continue operations and business with these measures and precautions in place through 2020 and as the COVID-19 curve flattens. It is a fragile time for us all during this pandemic. We all need to be vigilant following the safety measure as we move into the fall season in order to prevent and/or reduce the chance of a second wave. Industry Updates: It's been a year since Health Canada started to allow licensed stores to start selling marijuana in Canada for recreational use. The roll out of retail outlets has been slower than expected. Many Licensed Producers have recently reported underwhelming earnings, major losses, facility closures, leadership changes, employee and management terminations, massive employee layoffs, bankruptcies and exiting and ceasing operations and business development in countries such as Australia, Jamaica, Columbia etc. These developments have rocked the industry and greatly reduced the willingness of investors to invest in public cannabis companies. Public and private investment into the cannabis industry is at an all-time low since legalization began in Canada. Skye is not pursuing any business development outside of Canada at this time. In the United States, cannabis is making some progress but distractions and high hurdles persist. It is possible that marijuana will be legalized in the United States in the next year or so but that result is far from certain. Story continues On May 9, 2020, CIBC Capital Markets, the investment banking subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, slashed its projections for the recreational cannabis market in Canada. CIBC Capital Markets had previously estimated the recreational cannabis market in Canada to be worth 3.4 billion Canadian dollars in 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an insufficient number of stores open, the bank now expects that segment of the market to be worth CA$2.5 billion. Last year, recreational sales in Canada totaled CA$1.2 billion. Public Markets Updates: 2019 was a year in the weeds. For an industry that was already struggling to survive slumping stock prices for all of 2019, it's hard to predict what additional negative effects the coronavirus and economic and industry factors will add to the 2019 cannabis market meltdown. We are monitoring the markets and the crisis closely. Corporate Updates: On February 24, 2020 the Company's board of directors (the "Board") met to discuss the company's 2020 business plan, the state of the industry and corporate matters. Given the state of the cannabis markets, the economy and the upcoming great financial needs of the Company's subsidiaries, a special committee was established by the Board to examine the Company's short to medium term outlook, review possible alternatives for the Company going forward and recommend a proposal to the Board for what to do in the near future in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders. The Company's current operating subsidiary is a Canadian licensed producer of cannabis (a "Licensed Producer.") We believe that Licensed Producers will need to be nimble and focused in order to survive the coming years, especially as public companies. We believe that Licensed Producers will need three core business principles: strong compliance, consistent production and profitability. We believe that our Licensed Producer has strong compliance and is building toward consistent production. However, the Licensed Producer may not be profitable in the near to mid-term, if ever. We are concerned that continuing to fund this business without adequate profits in sight might not be sustainable for the Company. Our Licensed Producer requires several million dollars in further investment to continue its development. The current state of the markets, the cannabis industry, the pandemic and the economy in general make it unlikely that the Company will be able to raise adequate funds at commercially reasonable terms in order to continue to fund this business. The special committee has examined the Company's current situation and its options. The special committee has recommended to the Board that the Company seek new business opportunities and direct its Licensed producer to seek out financing other than reliance on the sale of Skye's equity securities. The Company is evaluating potential business opportunities but there are no assurances that any new business opportunities will be acquired. We will continue to provide updates as we come back on line and as restrictions ease. We wish you all continued strength and good health to you and your loved ones. Forward Looking Statements This document contains "forward-looking statements" that can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "should," or "anticipates," or the negative of these words or other variations of these words or comparable words, or by discussions of plans or strategy that involve risks and uncertainties. Management wishes to caution the reader that these forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the company's marketing plans, goals, competitive conditions, regulations that affect public companies that have no existing business and other matters that are not historical facts are only predictions. No assurances can be given that such predictions will prove correct or that the anticipated future results will be achieved. Actual events or results may differ materially either because one or more predictions prove to be erroneous or as a result of other risks facing the company. Forward-looking statements should be read in light of the cautionary statements and important factors described in this document for Skye Life Ventures Ltd., including, but not limited to the matters set forth in management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations filed in its latest 10-Q on with the securities and exchange commission. The risks include, but are not limited to, the risk factors and uncertainties set forth in item 1A, "risk factors" of the company's registration statement on form 10, as amended, filed with the securities and exchange commission. The risks associated with a smaller reporting company that has only a limited history of operations, the comparatively limited financial resources of the company, the intense competition the company faces from other established competitors, any one or more of these or other risks could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results indicated, expressed, or implied in such forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances, or new information after the date of this form 10-Q or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated or other subsequent events, except as required by law. As used herein, the term "the Company," "we," "us, "and" "our" refer to Skye Life Ventures Ltd., a British Columbia Canada corporation, unless otherwise noted. ### For more information on this update please contact corportatecommunications@skyelife.ca. Sincerely, Skye Life Ventures Ltd. Web Site: www.skyelife.ca E-Mail: corportatecommunications@skyelife.ca To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/58026 The Walker fire in an image from a remote camera near New Hogan Lake in Calaveras County on Tuesday. (AlertWildfire) A fast-moving brush fire that's charred 1,100 acres in a rural section of Calaveras County prompted officials to issue an evacuation warning for homes in the area ahead of strong winds expected in the region Wednesday. The blaze, known as the Walker fire, broke out shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday in a hilly area about 10 miles north of Copperopolis, the nearest community, and about 45 miles east of Stockton. The fire was initially reported as being about 10 acres, but windy, dry conditions had primed the area for fast fire growth. Roughly an hour later, the blaze had expanded to 1,000 acres, said Emily Kilgore, a public information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. A remote video camera installed by the ALERTWildfire program at Upper Bear near New Hogan Lake recorded the fires first moments Tuesday evening. The video shows thick, gray smoke billowing above the hillside as the fire expanded rapidly in the first hour. The program, an effort by three universities UC San Diego, the University of Nevada Reno and the University of Oregon aims to help firefighters and first responders investigate fire origins and behavior. The program is funded by California utilities. Firefighters worked through the night to get a handle on the blaze ahead of strong winds expected to buffet the region Wednesday. Officials also issued an evacuation warning for about 50 properties, mostly small ranches, in Angels Camp. The Red Cross opened evacuation centers at Mountain Oaks School and at the Copperopolis Armory and Community Center. The fire was 10% contained Wednesday morning. Two structures have been destroyed in the blaze. Officials are investigating what sparked the fire. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning through 8 p.m. because of low humidity and gusty winds that could prime the fire for explosive growth. Winds of 10-25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph and daytime relative humidity between 8% and 15% are expected through the day. The winds and steep terrain in the area are hindering fire crews. Roughly 415 firefighters are battling the blaze on the ground and from the airusing five helicopters and four tanker airplanes, Kilgore said. "They did make good headway on the fire last night, but we still have additional crews coming in today," she said. "The winds are definitely a primary concern." 17.06.2020 LISTEN Josh Obeng, son of the renowned Pastor and Founder of the Calvary Charismatic Centre, Rev. Ransford Obeng joined Nana Adwoa Sarkodie on her weekly Instagram live sessions for yet another interesting conversation surrounding "Dating in Christianity". This comes barely a week after the sexual immorality discussions with Gospel musician Diana Hamilton. The young pastor reiterated the importance of abstaining from sex until marriage describing his own experience while dating his wife. "I did all the dirty before I got born-again, but after that, I made up my mind that when I dated again, it would meet the standards of God and the Bible. So while dating my wife, it was very difficult because she is pretty and I was attracted to her but we waited till we got married" he said. According to Pastor Josh, dating in Christianity is getting to know someone in a way that leads to marriage, while dating in the world has an end goal of having fun and simply enjoying yourself. He urged single people not to be overwhelmed with the pressure of getting married, as there are so many advantages of being single; including the freedom to make quick decisions and accomplish all your dreams, without the added responsibilities accompanied by a wife and/or children. Responding to a question about searching for a partner, Josh Obeng made these relevant points; 1. "Do not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. So you can't date or marry an unbeliever if you're a true Christian" 2. "Don't date someone that would put you before God. Be proud to be number two. If your partner has no respect for the God who created them, how would they respect you?" 3. "Find someone you can share your life with. Look for someone who has a life you can share in. You need to become someone who has the life that is worth sharing in" 3. "Don't date anyone who has no purpose in life. Ask them about their purspose and not just where they see themselves in the next 10 years. Your purpose, ideologies and values must align. If you can't agree on things like children, careers, finance, you can't have a successful marriage" 4. "Don't date someone you don't respect because there's going to be some form of submission, and it's very easy to submit if you respect your spouse" He insisted that when you're dating and having sex, you often spend all your energy on having sex without asking the person what they believe in and what their purposes are. So you get married and discover their true character only to become dissappointed. "Don't be caught in a room alone with your partner because you're not an angel. Temptations will rise and something can happen. Sexual desires are very strong and powerful. Don't get yourself caught in compromising situations. Put benchmarks in place and possibly avoid French kissing" he added. One of the most intriguing revelations the pastor made was in relation to "finding a soul mate". He explained the mindset that there is only a particular person designed for you to marry is from a Greek mythology and not Biblical. "The prophetic word is not supposed to make a decision for you. Your pastor or parents should not choose a partner for you. It's important to receive their counsel, but you still have to make a personal decision." "If you follow Biblical principles in dating and marriage, divorce becomes impossible. However, in the unlikely situation of an abuse in marriage, there should be a seperation and hopefully if the person changes, there can be a reconciliation" he answered a viewer. In another question about the ideal time period for getting to know someone, Pastor Josh explained the only important thing was to establish trust and transparency, which could be relative, making a time limit impossible to pin. "I knew my wife for fifteen (15) years before getting married but others can get to know their partners in just six (6) months and still get married successfully. One of the gifts of the spirits everyone needs to have is the spirit of discernment. Sometimes, emotions can cloud your judgement which is why you need Godly counsel and wisdom" he said. Best Platinum Roofing Contractor of Conyers & Covington GA, Braswell Construction Group, offers $500 OFF or a FREE architectural shingle upgrade to all Georgia residences impacted by the recent hail storm COVINGTON, GA / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2020 / Major recent storms in Covington & Conyers GA are requiring the skill and expertise only Elite Premier Status Contractors, like Braswell Construction Group, Inc. (BCG) can offer. When asked what makes them unique, owner Chris Braswell states "We are recognized with the elite status of Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractors, we are one of few Preferred Contractors in Georgia that is given this recognition by meeting the highest standards of qualifications to be considered the best of the best in the roofing industry. We are also an Insurance claim specialist and work closely with homeowners and Insurance companies to guarantee our clients get what they deserve should they have storm, water, or fire damage. We are also certified by the IICRC for water damage and applied structural dry-outs." More information can be found at: https://www.braswellconstructiongroup.com Although damage may not be apparent to the homeowner immediately, it is recommended to have an experienced professional, such as BCG, to physically inspect your roof if your area has experienced hail ranging from inches in diameter or larger. A homeowner's insurance policy should cover the roof replacement as a natural disaster for both wind and hail, meaning that premiums should remain the same once the claim is made. Braswell Construction Group offers free next-day inspections to assist in beginning this process. A trained expert team member will inspect the roof and determine the extent of the storm damage. BCG is unique in that they provide a premium service as being the liaison between you and your insurance provider at no extra cost. They do everything from reviewing the estimate, which guarantees that all required repairs are included in the scope of work, to speaking with the Insurance provider over the telephone to ensure that all paperwork necessary to secure your claim is promptly turned in. Braswell Construction Group has extensive knowledge of the claim procedure with most insurance companies. Story continues Unlike other Contractors that only help with a single trade like replacing the roof, Braswell Construction Group, handles the restoration or remodel project from start to finish, which in the end saves the customer time, money, and headaches. Their mission is to earn trust by providing timely and quality services. Since exterior property damage may essentially cause further exterior damage, interior damage, or environmental health hazards, Braswell Construction Group encourages customers impacted by the recent Covington & Conyers GA storms to take advantage of the free inspection and estimate offer, plus either $500 off the project or a free upgrade to an architectural shingle roof. Because of BCG's highly coveted elite Platinum Preferred Contractor' status recognition, coupled with their outstanding BBB rating, Angie's List high ratings, Super Service Awards, and countless other high ratings, reviews, accolades, and acceptance to elite trade associations; customers can feel confident knowing that their roofing project is in the hands of the best of the best the state of Georgia has to offer when it comes to quality, experienced professionals. Braswell Construction Group operates from four Georgia locations to service homeowners with all their roofing and restoration needs in Covington/Conyers, Atlanta, Stone Mountain, Greensboro/Lake Oconee, and their respective surrounding areas. For more information contact Braswell Constructions Group at their website given above or by calling 678-283- 2551. Contact Info: Name: Braswell Construction Group, Inc. Roofing & Restoration Email: Send Email Organization: Braswell Construction Group, Inc. Roofing & Restoration Address: 6105 Emory St NW, Covington, GA 30014, United States Phone: +1-678-283-2551 Website: https://www.braswellconstructiongroup.com SOURCE: Braswell Construction Group, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/594170/Roof-Repair-in-Covington-GA-from-Storm-Damage-Offered-by-Best-Roofer-at-Discount New Delhi: Television actress Monalisa started off her career by starring in many Hindi, Bengali, Odia, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu movies. She gained fame in Bhojpuri movies and was also seen as a contestant in 'Bigg Boss 10'. With now her shift into the telly world, Mona makes sure her Instagram posts are interesting and inspiring too. In her recent post, she can be seen posing for her morning selfie in a bright-hued dress, with a caption on hope. She wrote: Hope Is The Only Thing Stronger Than Fear... P.s: (Removed Mask Just For The selfie) She has a huge fan following on social media, with 3.3 million fans supporting her on Insta alone. During her stint on 'Bigg Boss 10', she remained one of the most talked-about contestants that season and got married to her then-boyfriend Vikrant Singh Rajpoot on the show. Soon after the show, she was flooded with offers and Monalisa made her move into the television world with the supernatural show 'Nazar'. She played evil force Mohana in the 2018 show and won accolades for her role. In 2020, the show saw its season 2 and again Monalisa was seen playing Madhulika Chaudhary in Nazar 2. Ben Affleck took his girlfriend Ana de Armas out for a spin on his motorcycle before sundown. The 47-year-old actress and his 32-year-old girlfriend were spotted on his black Harley Davidson Livewire electric motorcycle in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday. The couple's faces were both obscured by their motorcycle helmets as she wrapped her arms around his waist. Ben's bike: Ben Affleck took his girlfriend Ana de Armas out for a spin on his motorcycle before sundown Affleck was wearing a black motorcycle helmet with the visor lifted up, along with a black leather jacket as he drove in style. The Justice League star also rocked a pair of dark blue jeans and black boots, with a black hoodie under his leather jacket. His girlfriend also wore a black motorcycle helmet with the visor down, along with a black jacket, light blue ripped jeans, white sneakers and a pink Louis Vuitton purse. Ana's look: Affleck was wearing a black motorcycle helmet with the visor lifted up, along with a black leather jacket as he drove in style The motorcycle ride comes just ours after reports surfaced that Affleck introduced his new girlfriend to his mother when they traveled to Georgia with his kids last weekend. They were seen returning back to Los Angeles with Affleck's mother Christine coming along, with sources calling it a 'low-key vacation.' 'Ana seems to love being around his kids. Everyone has been getting along great. Ana is making an effort to get to know his kids,' a source said. Meeting the folks: The motorcycle ride comes just ours after reports surfaced that Affleck introduced his new girlfriend to his mother when they traveled to Georgia with his kids last weekend Affleck was also spotted arriving at de Armas' house in Venice, California on Tuesday, carrying a black duffel bag. The Argo Oscar winner was wearing a black button-down short with grey pants and black boots as he walked to his girlfriend's home. The couple started dating after meeting on the set of Deep Water, which is currently in post-production and slated for release on November 13. Arrival: Affleck was also spotted arriving at de Armas' house in Venice, California on Tuesday, carrying a black duffel bag Affleck has already starred in two movies this year, The Last Thing He Wanted and The Way Back, before theaters were shut down due to COVID-19. He was also getting set to film The Last Duel, which reunites him with his hometown friend Matt Damon, before filming was shut down. He is also attached to both star in and direct the new film Ghost Army, based on the book of the same name by Rick Beyer. The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of a Texas death row inmate one hour before he was scheduled to die Tuesday. Ruben Gutierrez, 43, had been set to die at 6 p.m. CDT at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville for the 1998 murder of an elderly mobile-home park owner during a robbery. But he was granted a reprieve, continuing a more than four-month delay of executions in the nation's busiest death penalty state during the coronavirus pandemic. The Supreme Court granted an emergency petition by lawyers for Gutierrez for a stay of execution over a new Texas Department of Criminal Justice policy banning chaplains and other religious advisers in the death chamber. Gutierrez is Catholic. Prosecutors said Gutierrez was attempting to steal more than $600,000 that Escolastica Harrison had hidden in her home when he killed her. Kim Kardashian celebrated the news on social media, writing: 'Thank you Supreme Court of the United States for granting a Stay of Execution for Ruben Gutierrez! Now his case will go back to the lower courts to decide the issues with his case!' Gutierrez's wife Nicie also tweeted to say: 'I love my husband so much... only God knows what he has in store for us in our lives. We will get through this!!! Fight to save Ruben #RubenGutierrez love over death...TEST THE DNA.' The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of a Texas death row inmate Ruben Gutierrez, pictured, one hour before he was scheduled to die Tuesday Gutierrez's wife Nicie also tweeted to say: 'I love my husband so much...only God knows what he has in store for us in our lives. We will get through this!!! Fight to save Ruben #RubenGutierrez love over death...TEST THE DNA' If Gutierrezs execution had been carried out, he would have been the first inmate in Texas to receive a lethal injection since February 6. He would have been the second U.S. inmate to be put to death since states began to reopen after the pandemic shut down much of the U.S. After the country began to reopen, Missouri resumed executions on May 19. Gutierrezs execution was blocked about an hour before he could have been executed. His attorneys argued his religious rights are being violated because the prison system wont allow a chaplain to accompany him in the death chamber. The Texas prison system last year banned clergy from the death chamber following a Supreme Court ruling that halted the execution of another inmate, Patrick Murphy, who had requested a Buddhist adviser be allowed in the chamber. In response to the ruling in Murphys case, the Texas prison system changed its policy, only allowing prison security staff into the execution chamber. 'As a devout Catholic, Mr. Gutierrezs faith requires the assistance of clergy to help him pass from life into afterlife. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice changed its policy for its own convenience, but spiritual comfort at the time of death is not a convenience; its a protected legal right,' Shawn Nolan, one of Mr. Gutierrezs attorneys, said after the stay was granted. Gutierrez has long maintained he didnt kill Harrison. His attorneys say theres no physical or forensic evidence connecting him to the killing. According to court documents, Gutierrez went to Harrison's home on September 5, 1998, with two accomplices, Rene Garcia and Pedro Garza. There they stabbed Harrison to death with a screwdriver and made off with $56,000. Garcia is serving a life sentence. Garza fled after he was released on bond while awaiting trial and remains a fugitive. 'The state has fought such (DNA) testing at every turn, but surely the public interest would be best served by allowing DNA testing while the (Supreme Court) considers Mr. Gutierrezs case, in order to prevent a wrongful execution in the future,' Nolan said. Kim Kardashian thanked the U.S. Supreme Court for granting convicted murderer Ruben Gutierrez a stay of execution. She's seen during a 2019 visit to the White House above The reality star-turned-criminal justice reform advocate celebrated the news on social media The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday had overturned a stay in the case tied to Gutierrezs request for DNA testing he says could point to the real killer and his claims his religious rights are being violated Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison, a mobile home park manager and retired teacher, so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison had a mistrust of banks and hid her money underneath a false floor in her bedroom closet. Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz said he was disappointed the Supreme Court delayed the execution as the victim's family 'has once again been denied justice.' 'As a prosecutor, this changes nothing. It only delays his ultimate fate,' Saenz said in a statement. Prosecutors have said the request for DNA testing is a 'ruse' and Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession. The Supreme Court said it granted the stay pending a ruling by the high court on Gutierrezs petition on the issue of whether to allow a spiritual adviser to accompany him in the death chamber. A decision on the petition was expected at a later date. The Supreme Court said if it were to rule in favor of Gutierrez, it would ask a lower court to 'determine, based on whatever evidence the parties provide, whether serious security problems would result if a prisoner facing execution is permitted to choose the spiritual adviser the prisoner wishes to have in his immediate presence during the execution.' A trial in Houston federal court on Murphys case and whether his religious rights were violated is also still pending. Prosecutors said Gutierrez was attempting to steal more than $600,000 that Escolastica Harrison had hidden in her home when he killed her Six executions scheduled in Texas for earlier this year were postponed by an appeals court or judges because of the outbreak. A seventh was delayed over claims of intellectual disability. Gutierrezs attorneys had also sought a coronavirus-related delay but were turned down Friday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. While the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continues to increase in Texas, state prison officials said they put safety measures in place to help executions go forward, including taking the temperatures of participants and providing them with personal protection equipment. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday had overturned a stay in the case tied to Gutierrezs request for DNA testing he says could point to the real killer and his claims his religious rights are being violated. The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops filed a brief with the high court in support of Gutierrez. 'To deny a prisoner facing imminent execution access to spiritual and religious guidance and accompaniment is cruel and inhuman,' said Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville. Gutierrez would have been the third inmate put to death this year in Texas and the seventh in the U.S. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India would give a befitting reply to any provocation even as New Delhi and Beijing on Wednesday spoke of the need to avoid actions that could escalate matters along their disputed border, two days after a violent face-off left 20 Indian soldiers dead. Both sides again traded charges on what triggered Monday nights face-off in Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the focus of the current tensions, with external affairs minister S Jaishankar telling his counterpart Wang Yi in a phone conversation the Chinese sides pre-meditated and planned action was behind the violence and casualties. This was the first time Jaishankar spoke to Wang since the stand-off began in early May and marked the highest political contact to address the tensions after talks between military commanders failed to break the impasse. The Indian readout of the conversation said, Neither side would take any action to escalate matters and instead, ensure peace and tranquillity as per bilateral agreements and protocols. Both sides agreed to handle the situation in a responsible manner and sincerely implement the disengagement understanding of June 6 between army commanders. Chinas foreign ministry said the two sides had agreed to cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible, observe the consensus reached at the commander-level meeting, maintain peace and tranquillity in line with existing agreements, and to fairly address the serious situation caused by the conflict in the Galwan Valley. However, addressing a virtual meeting with chief ministers on the Covid-19 crisis, Prime Minister Modi said India wanted peace but wouldnt hesitate to respond to any provocation. The PM has called an all-party meeting on Friday to discuss the situation. Indias integrity and sovereignty is supreme for us, and no one can stop us from defending it. Nobody should have any iota of doubt about this. India wants peace. But on provocation, India will give a befitting reply, he said, speaking in Hindi. The meeting observed two minutes silence to pay tribute to the 20 soldiers killed in the face-off, and Modi said, I want to assure the nation that the sacrifice made by our soldiers will not go in vain. The country will be proud of the fact that our soldiers have been martyred while they were fighting. Whatever may be the situation and circumstances, India will firmly protect every inch of the countrys land and its self-respect. India is culturally a peace-loving countryWe have always worked closely with our neighbours in a cooperative and friendly manner. We have always wished for their development and welfare, he added. India has tried to ensure that differences with neighbours never turned into a dispute, he said, adding: We never provoke anyone, but we also do not compromise with the integrity and sovereignty of our country. Whenever it was needed, we have demonstrated our strength, proving our capabilities in protecting and defending the integrity and sovereignty of the country. Two days after the brawl in Galwan Valley in which the 20 Indian soldiers were killed and China suffered scores of casualties, Indian and Chinese delegations led by major generals met in eastern Ladakh to defuse tensions, two officials said on condition of anonymity. This was their sixth meeting after the stand-off began. Maj Gen Abhijit Bapat, commander of Karu-based headquarters 3 Infantry Division, and his Chinese counterpart held talks at the site of the clash near Patrol Point 14, where the Indian Army suffered its first casualties in a border skirmish with the Peoples Liberation Army in 45 years. Officials said the talks between delegations led by the two-star generals failed to achieve any breakthrough. While Indian and Chinese troops disengaged from the face-off site in Galwan Valley on Tuesday, both sides continue to maintain military presence in the disputed area. In October 1975, Chinese troops had ambushed an Indian patrol in Arunachal Pradeshs Tulung La sector and shot dead four soldiers. The June 15 brawl also left 76 Indian soldiers wounded, including 18 with serious injuries, though all of them are stable now, the officials said. It also virtually derailed de-escalation plans worked out by Indian and Chinese military commanders in a rare meeting on June 6. The troops have since disengaged, the Indian Army said in a statement on Tuesday, confirming the number of dead at 20. Indian Army officials claimed 43 Chinese were killed or seriously injured, citing radio intercepts and other intelligence. Fatal casualties on the Chinese side reportedly include a colonel but HT couldnt independently verify this. Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday carried out a security review of the situation in a meeting with the chief of defence staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, and the three service chiefs. He also met PM Modi in the evening and briefed him on the border situation. The Indian armed forces are on the highest state of alert to deal with any threat to national security following the significant escalation of the situation, officials said. Army chief General MM Naravane and all ranks saluted the supreme sacrifice of our valiant soldiers at Galwan even as they stand strong in our resolve towards protecting the sovereignty and integrity of the country, the Indian Army tweeted. During his phone conversation with Chinas foreign minister, external affairs minister Jaishankar conveyed Indias strong protest on the violent face-off in Galwan Valley and noted an agreement on de-escalation and disengagement was reached at the meeting of military commanders on June 6. Even as ground commanders made some progress in implementing this consensus last week, the Chinese side sought to erect a structure in Galwan Valley on our side of the LAC, Jaishankar said, according to the Indian readout. While this became a source of dispute, the Chinese side took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties. It reflected an intent to change the facts on ground in violation of all our agreements to not change the status quo, he added. Jaishankar said this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship and the Chinese side should reassess its actions and take corrective steps. The two sides should implement the understanding reached on June 6 and abide by bilateral agreements and protocols while strictly respecting the LAC and not taking any unilateral action to alter it, he said. The Chinese foreign ministrys statement showed Beijing intends to continue with its aggressive posture, quoting Wang as saying that the Indian side must not misjudge the current situation and must not underestimate Chinas firm determination to safeguard our territorial sovereignty. Wang reiterated Chinas accusations already rejected by India that Indian troops had triggered the clash on June 15 by crossing the LAC, making deliberate provocations and even violently attacked the Chinese soldiers who went for negotiations. China once again lodges its strong protest to the Indian side. We urge the Indian side to conduct a thorough investigation, hold the violators accountable, strictly discipline the frontline troops and immediately stop all provocative acts to ensure such incidents will not occur again, the statement said. Wang said both countries are emerging powers and should speed up their development. Therefore, mutual respect and support is a sure way and meets the long-term interests of both countries; suspicion and friction is a wrong path and goes against the fundamental aspiration of the two peoples, he added. He also reiterated Chinas call for acting on the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and strengthening communication and coordination to address the border situation through existing channels, including the Special Representatives mechanism and border personnel meeting mechanism. Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd), additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies, said, The PM has set out in unambiguous terms what the governments stand is. The situation demands that great thought be given to the path ahead without emotions clouding decision-making. The future would demand some serious and tough decisions to be taken, for which unstinted national support would be a must. The Capital Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), is now being rebranded as the Capital Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), and still disgusting as ever. That's a sign of a public relations problem and the pictures are clear enough from journalist Andy Ngo: Burn them all Grafitti everywhere in the Seattle BLM autonomous zone calls for the murder of police. #antifa #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/7b4E9By3wg Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) June 15, 2020 Besides unsightliness, this "block party" and "summer of love" as it was rapturously called just a few days ago, is also a haven for thugs. Though the CHOP appears relatively peaceful during the day, Ngo said the criminal elements come out at night. Unfortunately, last night that was made very clear, when one person on a microphone and a loudspeaker was able to sic a mob of probably more than 100 people to chase down this business that was several blocks away. They just all descended on it. It was pure anarchy, Ngo told Fox News, referring to CHOPs dual nature. They pushed up against the fence and all rushed in. It could have been extremely violent, he continued. Fortunately it wasnt, according to what I heard from the owner and staff. They had detained one of the comrades of this camp for alleged arson and theft. And, because of that, all [of] his comrades came to help get him out. But most contemptible of all, it's crying for momma. It's got a 'beg' culture that belies its claims to revolutionary autonomy. Tony Francois, my old classmate from the University of San Francisco, explains in a Facebook post precisely why: You know the character of a revolution by what happens on days 5-7. #CHAZ is not a revolution, it is a campus sit-in without a campus. They are not terrorists, although the conditions in place leave people very vulnerable to violence. They are not harmless, either. Evil can still flow from their decisions and actions. But the constant stream of needy demands being sent out from #CHAZ to their provisioners reads more like an ill-prepared band camp than an armed revolutionary camp. News reports breathlessly emphasizing the parts of it that look like an armed terrorist microstate have headfaked us into mistaking the real nature of it. The ongoing provision of garbage service and portapotties by the City of Seattle is the more important detail. A police officer in Rossford, Ohio has resigned after he used an official database to identify a local woman and send her messages on social media. Glenn Goss Jr. - who is the son of the city's former police chief Glenn Goss Sr. - stepped down from the Rossford Police Department on Monday after being placed on leave pending an investigation into alleged misconduct. Earlier in the day, a local woman by the name of Emily Hackler, 21, had taken to Facebook to complain about the cop for following her in his car and sending her 'creepy' messages. Glenn Goss Jr. (left) stepped down from the Rossford Police Department on Monday after being placed on leave pending an investigation into his alleged misconduct claims made by Emily Hackler (right) 'So some creep decided to follow me on my way home from Planet Fitness,' Hackler wrote. 'Turns out he works for the Rossford Police Department and used my plate number to figure out who I was, to message me personally and tell me how hot I was. Can you say HARASSMENT!' Hackler then shared several screenshots of her message exchange with Goss Jr., which began with the officer writing: 'Had fun racing with you on Crossroads and 795 earlier'. The screenshot shows Hackler respond: 'Who even are you?' Goss Jr. then sent back a photo of himself in his police uniform, before he stated: 'I was in the black F-150. I was on my way to shift and you were flying'. When Hackler fails to reply, Goss Jr. continues: 'I apologize for the randomness haha. I just wanted to give you a hard time quick about racing and say you're a hottie'. Emily Hackler took to Facebook to complain about the cop for following her in his car and sending her 'creepy' messages Hackler then shared several screenshots of her message exchange with Goss Jr. in which he insinuates he used a police database to look up her personal details Later in the thread, Goss Jr. insinuates that he looked up Hackler's license plate number on a police database to determine her identity. Clearly incensed, Hackler responds: 'I'm not a fan of stalking and harassment. You had no business looking my information up while not even on the job, meanwhile messaging me from my personal account which you got from my information that I did not willingly give you'. Hackler's post quickly went viral, and the Rossford Police Department announced it was placing Goss Jr. on leave while they investigated. Meanwhile, a second woman soon came forward after hearing about the story. Taylor Yarder, 26, told The Toledo Blade that she had been stopped by Goss Jr. for speeding last summer, and he had later sent her messages on Facebook. On Monday, she publicly shared a screenshot of the message exchange. A a second woman soon came forward after hearing about the story. Taylor Yarder, 26, told The Toledo Blade that she had been stopped by Goss Jr. for speeding last summer, and he had later sent her messages on Facebook Goss Jr. tended his resignation late Monday night. Rossford Mayor Neil Mackinnon revealed Tuesday afternoon that the city 'continued and completed its investigation and concluded there were grounds for termination.' Mackinnon told The Toldeo Blade that using police databases for 'personal benefit or for nonwork-related purposes is against the law', 'Since the officer resigned prior to the completion of the investigation, no further administrative or employment action is possible. However, the results of the investigation and termination recommendation will remain in Officer Goss' personnel file,' MacKinnon stated. 'It looks like one of our officers made a huge lapse in judgment but overall I'm very proud of the Rossford Police Department and the officers,' Mackinnon stated. Goss Jr. was hired by his father to join the Rossford PD back in 2016. Goss Sr. resigned as the city's police chief two years later. The auction of commercial coal blocks in India is scheduled to start on June 18. However, no list of the coal blocks to go under the hammer is out yet. Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has sought a moratorium of at least six months on the move, saying a lot of domestic and foreign companies would not be able to participate in the process because of the Covid-19 crisis and related travel restrictions. A voluntary organisation, Chhattisgarh Bachao Aandolan, campaigning against mining in the Hasdeo river forest area has demanded that no coal block which has been classified as no-go because of dense forest cover should be put up for auction. In the case of Chhattisgarh, the catchment of a major dam is at stake which could put water security of the state at risk in the long run, environmentalists say. The opencast mining as proposed in almost every block of the area could not only wipe out 50% of the forest but also advance the silting speed of the dam, minimising its live storage capacity year by year, they say. In the 1970s, the present state of Chhattisgarh was still part of Madhya Pradesh. A minimal 10% area was under irrigation and entirely dependent on rain-fed agriculture. The present districts of Janjgir and Raigarh used to have massive migration of labourers in the non-kharif season to other states, especially Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar in brick kilns. Around the same time, the Korba area was identified as a major centre for coal mining and power generation, and for that too the requirement of water was a major concern, besides the abundantly available coal. A multipurpose dam project was envisaged by the then Madhya Pradesh government near the Hasdeo river which is the main tributary of the Mahanadi, apart from the Shivnath river. The upstream dam on Hasdeo was planned around 30 km north of Korba with the help of World Bank financing. By the early 1990s, the main dam was built and named after a Dalit Leader as the Minimata Bango Reservoir. The area which was submerged in the dam was huge. A total of 61 tribal hamlets and around 11,000 hectare of good forest area was sacrificed to create this reservoir, which has a planned live capacity of 3,045 million cubic metre. It had been reduced to 2,894 million cubic metre by 2013 due to silting, as per a Central Water Commission assessment. A total of 2.55 lakh hectare of land was identified to receive double-crop irrigation and in subsequent years the canal system was developed which provided water to the fields on large tracts of land, bringing prosperity to the region, especially in the Dalit and other backward classes (OBC) living in the area. The displaced population of the submerged area, mostly tribals, never get proper rehabilitation and settled in the nearby forested areas mainly north of the reservoir. The dam also envisage 441 million cubic metre of water for industrial use, mainly power generation which now is around 12,000 MW. During 2004-09 when many identified coal blocks of the country were allotted to certain private and government companies, around 20 of these blocks from the Hasdeo river area, known as Hasdeo Arand Coal Fields in ministry of coal parlance, were also on the list. The Hasdeo Arand Forest is the main catchment of the Hasdeo river and the Bango dam is entirely dependent on this water supply, yet the allotment was made without considering the water security of the region besides the huge cost on environment. Similar allotments were also made in some other dense forested areas of the country, affecting the catchment of some other rivers. At this point, the ministry of environment and forest and the ministry of coal agreed on a mechanism to save pristine forest areas from mining and allow mining in the rest of the areas. The study conducted is known as the 'go/no-go study' of coal blocks, and in the first round in which 9 coal fields of the country were examined, 396 coal blocks out of 602 surveyed were categorised as go areas where mining can be done. The ministry of coal found that no-go blocks numbered at 206, a highfigure, so it sought the intervention of the Prime Ministers Office for relaxing the norm of the classification of the blocks for mining. The PMO appointed a committee under member of the Planning Commission BK Chaturvedi which decided that now classification be done by taking crown density of 0.5 as parameter instead of 0.4 earlier and also leaving out fragmented areas as category go areas. This new identification added 53 more coal blocks in category go, leaving just 153 coal blocks in no-go category. The chairman of the committee, BK Chaturvedi, also endorsed the classification and recommended this to be adopted as criteria for clearance of the mining proposal. The Hasdeo Arand Coal Field entirely falls in this no-go area, confirming its importance as catchment and its environmental value. However, coal ministry was not happy with this as there was also displeasure among allottees whose coal blocks were found to be in the no-go category. The MoEF contested the stand of ministry of coal by a strong note submitted to the cabinet committee of infrastructure in which it was said that coal blocks identified as no-go constitute a very small area of India's coal deposits and it's less than 15% of the Indian coal bearing areas. The remaining 85% can fulfill future demand easily. Thus, there was no need to mine coal in dense forests. But the list of affected companies included both private and government ones and it led to dumping of this scientific and rational classification achieved after balancing the needs of sustainable development. The government of India decided in 2012 that a new study for finding violate and inviolate areas be done and for deciding the parameters of the study a committee was formed. The committee gave its report in 2014, but till date no action has been taken on the recommendations of that report and the entire classification has been dumped. In 2014, the Supreme Court of India gave its famous judgment in the coal scam matter and cancelled all the coal block allotments made earlier, thus providing a clean slate to the government of India to write afresh its coal story. The government, rectifying its earlier mistakes on the allotment front, enacted the Coal Mines Special Provisions Act 2015 to implement the judgment. This new law provides a mechanism of direct allotment to government companies and a system of public auction for allotment of coal blocks to private companies. However, this new law does not create any bar for identifying the coal blocks for allotment on environmental values. In February 2015, when the allotment/auction process was going on, leading advocate Prashant Bhushan wrote to the-then coal secretary Anil Swaroop to spare densely forested coal blocks from the allotment process. The media has always reported how many coal blocks or deposits got stuck due to the no-go policy, but it has never been reported how much coal deposit or coal blocks are available for exploitation. INDIA HAS ENOUGH COAL DEPOSITS OUTSIDE NO-GO AREAS The total coal deposits in India are found in about 25 medium and major coal fields. Present production in India is around 700 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTA), with around 150 MMTA import,which includes import of coking coal that is not available much in the country. Projected demand of 1,500 MMTA by 2030 requires some 45,000 million tonne coal deposit for the next 30 years. For the next 50 years, this would be 1,00,000 million tonne if demand would be 2,000 MMTA. Considering this, the presently proven deposit of 1.55 lakh million tonne is more than enough. The cabinet note submitted by the MoEF in 2011 was strongly averse to the idea of allowing coal mining in densely forested areas classified as no-go and argued that these deposits are barely 15% of the total deposit and there was no need for opening up the said areas. The present position of Indian coal deposits according to available data is: Despite the position being thus, the ministry of coal is not sparing the coal blocks situated in the dense forested areas from allotment or auction process. In the last five years, it has allotted Parsa, Madanpur South, Kente Extension, Paturia and Gidhmuri, all of Hasdeo Arand Forest, to various government companies. Needless to say that all these blocks were classified as no-go in 2010 and subsequently inviolate by the Forest Survey of India while the exercise is still incomplete. The pledge given under the global climate change deal as well as the countrys push towards solar energy adoption also warrants that while mining coal at least those areas which are densely forested should be spared as forests are the major sink for carbon dioxide. It is true that coal will remain the mainstay in the near future for Indias energy needs, constituting around 60% generation. However, we can certainly and easily fulfill this demand without touching any coal blocks situated in densely forested areas. The push for mining in these areas are being made under vested interests as the mining cost would be lower or other infrastructure is available in the area. But in this analysis, the environmental cost and water security aspect has not been added, otherwise no prudent person would support mining in these areas. Hope that some good sense prevails in the policy and decision makers and they avoid this planned disaster. Maria Ressa, editor and CEO of Rappler, speaks to reporters after being convicted for cyber libel at a regional trial court on June 15, 2020 in Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images) By Clara Ferreira Marques The libel conviction for the head of a Philippine news outlet known for its scrutiny of President Rodrigo Dutertes administration is a blow to one of Asias most vibrant media sectors. Its also the sort of headline thats often overlooked by foreign executives and fund managers casting around for fast-growing economies. They would be wrong to gloss over this one. Dutertes rule has already seen institutions eroded and top-level opponents targeted. If fewer questions are asked, that will reduce transparency and drive up the risk premium for investing in the Philippines. Thats something the coronavirus-weakened economy can ill afford when inbound investment is already falling. The case against Maria Ressa whose Rappler site has been directly denounced by the president and often critical of his war on drugs was always about more than the allegedly defamatory article on a local businessman, first published in 2012. The verdict, similarly, has ripples far beyond the online publication. Mondays conviction is no isolated incident. Ressa and her co-accused, Reynaldo Santos, were sentenced to as long as six years in jail, but she faces seven other criminal charges including for alleged tax evasion. Theres more. A month ago, the countrys largest broadcaster, ABS-CBN Corp., shut TV and radio stations after its license wasnt renewed a move repeatedly threatened by Duterte, reportedly because of a disagreement over paid election campaign commercials. Opponents elsewhere, from the human rights commission to the Supreme Court, have fared little better. Meanwhile, lawmakers passed an anti-terrorism bill this month that, while targeting a real problem, could also allow worryingly lengthy detentions without charge. The presidential spokesman says Duterte upholds free speech and played no role in the Ressa verdict. That should offer little comfort to investors, or to a local population facing the deepest economic contraction in decades. Indeed, it suggests weakened institutions are carrying out the presidents whims without needing to be told. The target is one of the countrys best-known journalists, at home and abroad. Ressa was honored by Time in 2018. With other governments behaving badly, there is little reason to hold back. Story continues To be clear, Duterte isnt the first occupant of the Malacanang presidential palace to castigate the press, or indeed other institutions, since the end of martial law in the 1980s. While free and outspoken by the regions standards, the Philippines has also had high rates of violence against journalists. The difference is in what Nicole Curato of the University of Canberra describes as the normalization of attacks on the press, and the sheer volume of vitriol released through spokespeople, political allies, and on social media. Worse, it is done with the language of democracy. At least in openly authoritarian states, as Ressa said Monday, the rules are clear. The economic context is grim. While the Philippines is young, promising and has been an outperformer in terms of headline expansion, its economy remains highly concentrated, unequal and opaque. Foreign direct investment and local stocks were fading even before the pandemic, despite infrastructure spending plans and tax reform efforts. After the coronavirus, an economy that had been projected to expand 7% this year will instead contract. Unemployment and underemployment are high and remittances, which account for about 10% of gross domestic product, have dropped. Ressas verdict brings more reasons for concern. The first is the increasingly arbitrary nature of the attacks, in part because of the disparate coalition behind Duterte vying for favor. This leaves investors vulnerable, says Aries Arugay, professor of political science at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Duterte triggered a more than $2 billion stock rout in December after targeting the Ayala family and another local businessman, demanding the renegotiation of contracts with two concessionaires, Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc., to supply the capital. Companies such as Fraport AG and Suez SA left the Philippines over just such disputes. While the old guard is under fire, a new, Duterte-friendly oligarchy is being created, tilting an already uneven playing field. Aaron Connelly, research fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, points to telecoms as an example of the change: Duterte ally Dennis Uy, with China Telecom Corp., won the countrys third telecoms license in 2018. Partner risk has always been a problem in Southeast Asia, but the shift away from Manila elites is making this less predictable. Lastly, theres the issue of transparency. The simple act of questioning authority, deals and negotiations is becoming more challenging. It could get worse still if, as Arugay posits, the current purge fosters the flourishing of partisan Duterte-friendly media. The Manila Times closed in 1999 after running afoul of then-President Joseph Estrada, only to be bought by one of his close associates. Dutertes enduring popular support, and a term that doesnt end until 2022, create room for plenty more lasting damage. Investors could do worse than to ponder Ressas words after her conviction: This is a precipice. Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the UK, Italy and Russia. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. A 52-year-old Groves, Texas, man has been sentenced to 78 years in federal prison for violations related to an arson and insurance fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Texas. U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Cox said Patrick Wayne Bronnon was found guilty on Oct. 21, 2019, of 40 charges including conspiracy to commit mail fraud and use of a fire in commission of a felony. Bronnon and 11 other individuals were indicted and charged in May 2018 with federal violations related to the $1.7 million insurance fraud scheme. On June 16, Bronnon was sentenced to 940 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone. Breakdown: 16 counts of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud 100 months on each count to run concurrently. First count of Use of a Fire in commission of mail fraud (Arson) 120 months consecutive to the 100 months above. Second count of Use of a Fire in commission of mail fraud 240 months consecutive to the 220 months above Third count of Use of a Fire in commission of mail fraud 240 more months consecutive to the 460 months above According to information presented in court, beginning in 2011, Bronnon, and others, began executing a scheme to defraud various insurance companies through fraudulent claims on homes and vehicles. The scheme involved identifying a low value property and purchasing it through a co-defendant straw purchaser. Within a few weeks of a down payment being made, Bronnon or an associate would intentionally damage the home, typically by fire or water, in order to collect insurance proceeds. In total, nine fraudulent fire claims, three fraudulent water damage claims, and two fraudulent theft claims were filed with various insurance companies on nine different addresses, totaling approximately $1.7 million in fraudulent payments. The properties were located in Port Arthur, Port Neches, Beaumont, and Sugarland, Texas. This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, National Insurance Crime Bureau and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph R. Batte. Source: U.S. Attorneys Office Related: Police in Tumu have impounded two trucks of smuggled subsidised fertiliser meant for the governments flagship programme, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJs), at Ligmera junction around Kupulima in the Sissala East Municipality. The impounded fertilisers, which were in 25kg bags, with inscription Planting for Food and Jobs were loaded in two articulated trucks with registration numbers GW-8761-09 and GE-458-09, and were being smuggled to Leo, in neighbouring Burkina Faso. Confirming the incident to Ghanaian Times at Wa yesterday, Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Inspector Gideon Boateng said the trucks were intercepted by police personnel who were on patrol duty around the area on Sunday. He said upon inspecting the truck, they found several bags of fertiliser in both trucks and impounded the vehicles together with the fertiliser. The drivers of the vehicle after parking the trucks at the District Police Headquarters absconded and have since not been found, he said. He added that the police have launched investigation into the matter and would endeavour to identify the perpetrators of the crime for prosecution. The Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Francis Aboagye Nyarko cautioned Ghanaians against perpetrating what he described as unpatriotic acts. He appealed to residents to desist from such acts as it went a long way to affect farmers in the country and deprived them of the basic inputs they needed to ensure high productivity. Source: 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 Everyone, including children, are watching as the world reacts to the death of George Floyd. The May 25 incident, captured on video, prompted widespread protests across the United States and in other countries. The case was ruled a homicide by medical examiners, and Derek Chauvin, the white officer was charged with second-degree murder. Eight-year-old Nia Madison was furious about the killing of Floyd and "many others," adding, "aren't the police supposed to protect us?" Sadness was expressed by many including 11-year-old Dexter Walker Smith: "Can't believe that people would treat another person that way just because they're a different color. It's just police officers abusing power." And 6-year-old Rhys Wagar said: "They choked him and he asked for help and they didn't let go." Fishers, Indiana teen, Peyton Daniels said: "Watching all 8 minutes and 46 seconds of that video was just, for all 8 minutes and 46 seconds was just rage, for me." Children are using their voices and gifts to protest. Nine-year-old Canadian resident Ines Schlag plans to make a difference by using her voice to educate and protect and had a special message for the black community: "I know that you're sad and hurt. Know that you are not alone, I stand with you." Brooklyn teen Lucas Ritchie-Shatz and his friends are using social media to raise money for protesters. "I created an Instagram account along with some of my other friends who are artists called Artists for George Floyd. And we're selling art commissions and individual pieces in support of the protests, in support of bail funds, legal funds, mutual aid funds." Jersey City, New Jersey 10-year-old William Fuller-Rhatigan has been making his voice heard by foot and pen. "I am protesting. I wrote an editorial about what happened to George Floyd and how we can all get together." In all, most children were hopeful regarding the future for racial equality. Caroline O., 8, from Texas said she hopes that "all people of different races can come together." (Production: Alicia Powell) Darby, Pa. Joe Biden called on President Donald Trump to wake up to the damage being done by the coronavirus pandemic in remarks Wednesday that served as a scathing critique of the presidents leadership of the country during the economic reopening under the virus. Donald Trump wants to style himself as a wartime president. Unlike any other wartime leader, he takes no responsibility, he exercises no leadership, now he has just flat surrendered the fight, Biden said at a recreation center in Darby, Pennsylvania, a town in the Philadelphia suburbs. At times pounding his podium for emphasis, Biden charged that the president is trying to declare the pandemic over and done with even as it continues to kill Americans and wreak havoc on the economy. Mr. President, dont leave the American people to face this threat on their own, with no guidance, resources or leadership from the federal government. He added, Dont waste any more of our time. While Biden has spent the better part of the last month ratcheting up his critique of Trump over everything from his response to George Floyds killing by police to his handling of the economy, the 15-minute speech Wednesday marked his sharpest remarks yet on the presidents handling of the virus outbreak. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee attacked Trump for the high rate of U.S. deaths and charged that the economy is still sputtering. With no clear guidance from the federal government on how businesses should respond, Biden warned the economic outlook could get worse. We may lose some of the progress weve begun to make all because hes lost interest, Biden said. Earlier Wednesday, at a soul food restaurant and bar in the Philadelphia suburbs, Biden met with a handful of small-business owners for a socially distanced listening session to hear how the coronavirus pandemic has affected their businesses. Sitting 6 feet apart from each other around tables outdoors, the local business owners expressed concerns over a lack of guidance from the federal government on reopening. Scott Richardson, the owner of Occasionally Yours Cafe and catering company in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, said he cut his workforce from 12 employees to four amid the pandemic. He told Biden that he voted for Trump in 2016, but now he says the president is more interested in day trading than long-range planning to combat the coronavirus. Biden, in a hint of remarks to come, told the group that no one in the Trump administration is taking responsibility during the outbreak. Last week, Biden was in Philadelphia to unveil a multifaceted plan he said would gradually reopen the economy, increasing growth while not putting business owners or consumers at unnecessary risk. The former vice president promised that, if elected, he would guarantee testing for the virus and protective equipment to guard against its spread for people called back to work. He also wants to use federal funds to ensure paid leave for anyone who falls ill, or cares for those who do, and to create a national contact tracing workforce or job corps of at least 100,000 to call people who test positive, track down their contacts and get them into quarantine. Biden further proposed a safe shopper program meant to make returning consumers less wary of getting sick. His campaign hasnt said how much all that would cost, however, and Biden himself even made a joking reference to being a big-spending Democrat. But he countered, If we dont do this, were going to be in deep, deep, deeper trouble economically. The former vice president says Trump has repeatedly prioritized the economy and the standing of financial markets over the nations health, saying, Trump has basically had a one-point plan: Open businesses. Trumps reelection campaign argues that the Republican president issued science-based guidelines to jump-start the economy weeks before Biden did. Since ending two-plus months of exclusively virtual campaigning from home amid the pandemic on Memorial Day, Biden has attended gatherings with small crowds a couple of times a week. He's never strayed far from home, though, except when he headed to Houston to meet with the family of George Floyd whose death in police custody in Minnesota has sparked weeks of protests around the country on racial inequities. Still, Pennsylvania is important because exceedingly narrow victories in the state as well as in Michigan and Wisconsin clinched the White House for Trump in 2016. Biden's campaign has pledged to resume a normal campaign schedule that will take him around the country, but not before authorities and health officials deem it safe. Trump will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for his first major campaign rally in months on Saturday though he doesn't take questions from voters at such events. Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the presidents reelection campaign, slammed Biden for preferring campaigning from the comfort of his basement rather than traveling the country meeting voters and making the case for his candidacy. These events have been either tightly controlled or covered by press in a pool arrangement, Murtaugh wrote of the former vice presidents recent stops. At what point will Biden subject himself to the scrutiny American voters deserve when considering the next President of the United States? In an unprecedented development, the Andhra Pradesh state legislative council was on Wednesday adjourned sine die without passing the appropriation bill which is mandatory for the state to spend the government funds under various heads as per budgetary allocations. As a result, the state government has been left in a quandary, as it cannot draw even a single rupee from the treasury with effect from July 1, in absence of the approval from the legislature for the bill. The state assembly in the morning passed the appropriation bill, 2020-21 and referred it to the state legislative council for approval. The state legislature was convened for only two days to approve the state budget and pass the appropriation bill. However, soon after the bill was brought before the legislative council, members of the ruling YSR Congress party and the opposition Telugu Desam Party indulged in heated arguments. TDP member and former finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu insisted that the appropriation bill be introduced first and taken up for discussion, since it was mandatory for the bill to be passed to facilitate the state government draw money to spend as per budgetary allocations. The ruling party, however, did not agree for the same and insisted that the council first discuss the crucial bills which were passed by the assembly on Tuesday. Two of these bills AP Capital Region Development Authority (Repeal) Bill 2020 and Decentralisation of Administration-Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill 2020 aimed at creation of three capitals for the state were strongly opposed by the TDP. These bills were originally passed in the state assembly in January this year, but were stalled by the TDP in the council and were referred to the select committee. However, the legislature secretariat refused to constitute the select committee on the ground that due procedure was not followed by council chairman. The TDP members challenged the same in the high court. After four months, the YSRC government reintroduced the two bills in the assembly and got them passed on Tuesday. However, in the council, the TDP members on Wednesday stalled the bills again stating that they cannot be passed since the issue was still pending in the high court. Ramakrishnudu said the discussion on the two bills could be taken up later after the passage of the appropriation bill. However, minister for finance Buggana Rajendranath Reddy said as per the traditions, the appropriation bill should be the last bill to be passed in the House. With the state government refusing to take up the appropriation bill first, deputy chairman of the council Reddy Subrahmanyam asked Ramakrishnudu to take up the discussion under Rule 90 of the legislative procedures to reject the two bills pertaining to the three capitals. This led to a pandemonium in the House till late in the evening, forcing the deputy chairman adjourn the council sine die, without passing any bill including the mandatory appropriation bill. Even after the adjournment of the council, members of the ruling party and TDP indulged in arguments and counter arguments. YSRC members alleged that two TDP members manhandled a minister who objected to TDP MLC Nara Lokesh taking pictures on his mobile on what was happening in the House. YSRC floor leader Ummareddy Venkateshwarlu said the TDP had created an unruly atmosphere in the House to ensure that the appropriation bill was not passed and the government would face Constitutional stalemate. He also criticised the deputy chairman for adjourning the House abruptly. By not passing the Appreciation Bill, they created a situation where the government cannot draw even a single rupee from tomorrow. We cannot pay salaries from July. They will remain as a blot in the history of the state, he said. Another senior member Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose said finance minister B Rahendranath Reddy had requested with folded hands to allow the appreciation bill be passed so as to avoid a Constitutional stalemate, but the deputy chairman ignored his request. Ramakrishnudu, however, said the TDP had repeatedly requested the government to take approval for the appropriation bill first and then move the other bills. But they did not listen and wanted the capital bills first. Finally, their strategy boomeranged. The government should find alternatives to overcome the crisis, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A disturbing trend is emerging in California as nearly half of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases involve younger people aged 34 and under. An analysis released this week showed 44 percent of new diagnoses involve young adults while cases involving individuals older than 50 has seen a drop from 46 to 30.5 percent in the past month. Confirmed coronavirus cases involving Californians aged 35 to 49 has flattened, the Mercury News reports. George Lemp, an infectious disease expert, claimed the results may be due to the state's reopening economy. He also cited that young adults may have veered away from following social distancing guidelines and consistent use of face masks or coverings. The scientist also suggested the increased availability of coronavirus tests, which scaled up from 2,000 per day in April to 60,000 per day this week, may also play a role in the shift. While the state does not report overall coronavirus trends by age, Lemp archived the data which shows people ages 18 to 34 now have the largest share of new infections, with 12,919 cases reported between May 31 to June 13. Maskless Partygoers Over the weekend, particularly on Friday night, authorities claimed partygoers in the Gaslamp Quarter were seen standing shoulder to shoulder on sidewalks without wearing face masks. The scene prompted health officials to issue a public health warning on Monday. According to the Pacific San Diego, law enforcement officers will be deployed starting Thursday to block off streets, providing revellers more space to observe social distancing measures. No actions were taken on the large number of people who violated public health order despite a recent shutdown order imposed on the El Prez bar and restaurant in Pacific Beach on May 22. The order came after videos surfaced of people drinking and crowding into the establishment shortly after the restrictions were lifted. Reopening and Surges The number of deaths related to the global pandemic has surpassed 5,000 in California over the weekend amid reopenings of malls, museums, and movie theaters. Imperial County and Los Angeles have seen a surge of cases, leaving healthcare providers concerned about a regression. In Los Angeles, hospitalizations have seen a downward trend, but a tracker developed by Mercury News showed the county saw nearly 1,000 new cases and 17 fatalities on Sunday night, which is more than half of the daily total reported by state officials, the Guardian said. In Imperial county, over 1,600 residents signed a letter asking California Governor Gavin Newsom to interfere as local officials push to reopen the economy. According to state guidelines, counties are required to show that only 8 percent or fewer coronavirus tests yield positive results. However, in Imperial, over 24 percent of tests come back positive. California has performed a total of 2.86 million diagnostic tests-78,000 of which was just complete over the weekend. The state is also expected to train 10,000 contact tracers next month. Want to read more? Check out the latest news from the U.S. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced today it was scaling up its partnership with the Lithuanian fintech hub Rockit, underscoring the Banks support for the development of this industry in the Baltic states. The EBRD has previously worked with Rockit with the help of the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund. Speaking at the Fintech Week Lithuania conference via videolink today, Jacek Kubas, EBRD Associate Director, Local Currency and Capital Markets, said: Deepening our relationship is an important contribution to creating the conditions in which this industry can thrive. The coronavirus pandemic has brutally exposed vulnerabilities in the way we are running our economies and this is a wake-up call to strengthen resilience. Fintech is clearly part of the evolving new landscape. After the lifting of public health measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the fintech hub in the centre of Vilnius will open new premises and offer further initiatives for the vibrant start-up community in the Baltic states. In its second year of operation, Rockit plans to focus even more on financial technology, entrepreneurship and sustainability. Over the past year, Rockit has established itself as a leading financial technology centre in Lithuania and it occupies an important place in the countrys fintech ecosystem. As the fintech and start-up communities expand, so do we. With this development, we are setting high and ambitious goals and planning an even wider range of activities, so that we can offer more opportunities and value to our community. We will also strive to bring more attention to the topic of sustainability in Lithuania which must be an integral part of modern business, said Sarune Smalakyte, Head of Rockit. The coronavirus crisis made it necessary to organise the Fintech Week Lithuania as a series of video conferences this year. Nevertheless, the four-day event attracted over 500 companies from more than 70 countries. Participants discussed areas such as global payments, blockchain, lending, finance and banking technology. The EBRD has been supporting the development of innovative new banking approaches in its regions for many years. The Bank acts as an investor and works with governments and authorities to create a supportive regulatory framework, building regulatory sandboxes and designing roadmaps for the creation of a fintech ecosystem in the economies where it operates. Fostering the EBRD regions huge potential for fintech is an increasingly important part of the Banks work as an investor, as a policy adviser and as a partner in cooperation. Tynomi Banks Understands Her Responsibility as a Black and Queer Performer Tynomi Banks on Her Start, Black Lives Matter, and Slaying "Canada's Drag Race" The fight for racial equality must be heard. Amplify is our series devoted to elevating black voices and brands, spotlighting issues, and taking action. Tynomi Banks is the first drag queen I saw perform live. I was on my first-ever same-sex date at the Gladstone Hotel, a queer-friendly space that is notorious for their RuPauls Drag Race viewing parties every week. On this night, Tynomi Banks, a fixture in Torontos drag scene, was the headliner, performing during quick commercials. For the first time in my life, I didnt want the commercials to end. She was so talented, confident, and absolutely fierce. RELATED: Brooke Lynn Hytes on the Ins and Outs of Being a Drag Queen When my mom was coming to terms with my sexuality, I brought her to a local drag bar to witness the Tynomi Banks experience. Not only did Banks ask and perform every song that my mom loved, she took the limited time she had between sets to assure her that I was safe and in good company. By the end of the night, my mom grabbed my hand, gave it a tight squeeze and said, I had a really nice time. This is to say that Banks, or as Ive come to know her, Sheldon McIntosh, deserves every ounce of positivity and praise that comes her way. And on July 2, she launches into the biggest phase of her career: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where she and 10 other queens compete for the title of Canadas next drag superstar on the first season of Canadas Drag Race. Leading up to the shows premiere, AskMen chatted with Banks about her drag origins, celebrating Pride in 2020, and using her voice as a person of color. AskMen: If Tynomi Banks had a Tinder profile, what would it say in the bio? Tynomi Banks: Im a 39-year old who loves playing video games (especially action-adventure titles with lots of chaos). My favorite thing on earth is cheesecake, so my man better be a cheesecake lover. I also love to dance. For me, its a great way to relieve stress and find joy in life, especially right now. Oh, and Im a drag queen of 14 years, so theres that. Tell us the origin story of the one and only Ms. Banks. My introduction to drag was seeing a drag show where Sofonda Cox was dressed as Storm from X-Men. It was so creative. This woman had an idea and made it real for everyone in the room. My first time performing was for a show called Girls Gone Wild with Divine Darlin and Heaven Lee Hytes. They needed a third girl who knew how to dance and they approached me. I said Id do it a few times, which turned into 14 years. I just loved it. And where does your drag name come from? My name was Kiki the first time I did drag. I wore the shortest fringe dress and had double-D titties. I was a small twink at the time, and they were so heavy. During that time, Americas Next Top Model was on TV and I was obsessed with Tyra Banks, so I got the hair and this sickening turtleneck dress. While doing my makeup, my drag mom noticed how much I looked like Tyra with an attitude like Naomi Campbell. So we combined the two first names: Tynomi. She said, Keep Banks, because you love money. Youre an incredible dancer, do you have professional training? In middle school and high school I was always in drama class and different plays because Ive always had that performance bug in me, but I was never professional trained. I just believed I was professional so that everyone else did. I had strict parents, and I knew they werent going to put me in a performance school. They wanted me to go to college to earn an academic education, and they didnt consider dance an important life skill. That never stopped me from doing it as a hobby. With both COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter protests re-shifting our focus in 2020, how are you observing Pride this year? I feel as though I've awoken. I realize now that I have this big platform and because people are not out at clubs, they turn to my channels. Im now in an important position while these things are happening. Because were isolating, our social accounts are an easy way to spread the message and start conversations. Even for me, Im learning a lot. We are living a historical moment. People are learning about Pride history and how a black trans woman started it all. When people get mad that there are riots, theres an explanation. This is why. Its helping people stay connected, learn from each other, and appreciate each other more. Ive had so many people whove expressed empathy as if they realized that I was black yesterday. Im just glad they realize now, and Id like them to use their time and energy to help other people get caught up as well. We often feel uplifted during Pride, but with whats happening this year, what are you experiencing emotionally? A few weeks ago, I was scared because I realized that with the color of my skin, I might not have made it to the age I am now. I just had all these sudden realizations and it was overwhelming. It made me sad; I was constantly crying. I dont know why, but I feel different now. Summer is here, change is happening, and my mood has changed. Im getting stronger from it. Do you feel a certain responsibility to speak out now as both a black and queer entertainer? Yes, but its not bad pressure. This is one of the biggest years in my life, so trying to juggle everything is a lot. Ive been sitting on my blackness and making choices to stay away from negativity, but now that the conversation is open and people want to hear my voice, Im signing and sharing petitions and spreading necessary messages. My duty as a drag performer is to keep everyone informed and woke. Its even made me consider starting my own fundraiser in the future. In the Canadas Drag Race trailer, you have this iconic line: These queens should be afraid of me, theyre here because of me. Can you elaborate on that one? I think I was pissed off by a question that I was asked. I dont really read people like that. I speak facts and Im kind of petty. I walked in and saw that Ive worked with every one of those girls, and they all came along after me. I even have messages from these girls saying, Thank you, you inspired me to do drag. That was the line that stuck, and Ive been getting so many hilarious messages about it. How do you feel with Canadas Drag Race premiering during a pandemic where bars across the world are still closed to viewing parties? Its perfect. People need light so many programs have been cancelled and Im glad we can be something to look forward to. I think its the best time for people to get over their feelings of cabin fever or indoor blues. Right now, everyones eyes are online and on us. Its perfect timing. You Might Also Dig: Capt Amarinder Singh Chandigarh: Extending his heartfelt condolences to the families of the four Punjab martyrs of the Galwan Valley clash, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday announced ex-gratia compensation, along with a government job to a next of kin of the deceased. The Chief Minister expressed grief and shock at the violent clash in Galwan Valley of Ladakh, which had wiped out the lives of these four brave men, whose sacrifice for the nation would not be forgotten. Advertisement Capt Amarinder SinghThe loss suffered by the families was immeasurable and could not be compensated with material things, but the compensation and the jobs would help alleviate some of their sufferings, said Captain Amarinder, paying his tributes to the four men who lost their lives in the violent clash near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. The Chief Minister said cabinet ministers would represent the state government at the martyrs funerals, which will be held with full Army honours in their native villages. He directed the respective district administrations to make all arrangements. Photo While one family member each would be given a government job in all the four cases, the families of Naib Subedar Mandeep Singh and Naib Subedar Santnam Singh will be given Rs 12 lakh compensation each in line with the government policy, on account of their married status. Mandeep hailed from Village Seel of Rajpura Tehsil in district Patiala, and Satnam Singh belonged to village Bhoj Raj, Tehsil Gurdaspur, an official spokesperson said. Advertisement The families of the two unmarried martyrs, Sepoy Gurtej Singh of Village Bire Wala Dogra, Tehsil Budhladha, District Mansa, and Sepoy Gurbinder Singh s/o Labh Singh, VPO, Tholowan Dist Sangrur, will be given Rs 10 lakh each as compensation (Rs 5 lakh as ex-gratia and Rs 5 lakh in lieu of land). Sepoy Gurbinder Singh belonged to 3 Punjab regiment. India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent No formal plans, says White House on Donald Trump mediating India-China standoff India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, June 18: The White House on Wednesday said there were "no formal plans" when asked if United States President Donald Trump would mediate between India and China on the border issue. "There are no formal plans on that," said White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany when asked about the mediation. "We are aware and monitoring the situation b/w Indian and Chinese forces along Line of Actual Control & Eastern Ladakh. We've seen Indian Army statement that 20 Indian soldiers died as a result of the confrontation, we send our deepest condolences on that," she added. China claims whole of Galwan Valley, hopes India will work with it India-China major general-level talks begin after violent faceoff in Galwan Valley | Oneindia News The violent clashes at Galwan valley, which left at least 20 soldiers of the Indian Army dead, is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while more than 300 Chinese army personnel were killed. Trump last month had offered to "mediate or arbitrate" the raging border dispute between the two Asian neighbours, saying he was "ready, willing and able" to ease the tensions. Both India and China had turned down Trump's offer. June 17, 2020 / 11:11 PM IST Coronavirus News Highlights: Today is the eighty-fifth day of Indias nationwide lockdown, meant to curb the novel coronavirus pandemic. Confirmed COVID-19 cases in India stand at 3,54,065. The death toll from the outbreak in India is at 11,903. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat have reported the highest number of cases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers will be holding video conference today.Globally, there have been over 81.9 lakh confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 4.44 lakh people have died so far. The United States, Brazil, Russia, India and the United Kingdom are the most-affected countries. [June 17, 2020] Hoist Group Announces the Launch of Program Phoenix Along With its New Subscription Business Model to Help EMEA Hotels Swiftly Recover from the Impact of COVID-19 SOLNA, Sweden, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The hospitality sector has been severely impacted by COVID-19. But the good news is that hotels around the world are opening their doors once again via a new, transformed, socially-distanced guest journey with a primary focus on stringent health and safety guidelines. Today, Hoist Group is launching Program Phoenix to support hotels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to not only meet the requirements of the post-COVID-19 world, but also start to thrive again in this challenging environment. "Comprising 20 very special offers, Program Phoenix is the broadest, most ambitious support program in the industry to date, and we are very proud to bring this to market today," said Alfonso Tasso, CEO at Hoist Group. Phoenix is a testament to the breadth of product portfolio provided by Hoist Group, which is unrivalled in the hospitality industry: Paperless check-in, eVoucher systems, Mobile keys, Smartphones as remote controls, Cast to TV streaming, carrier-grade network management, staff task management software, etc. This program is open to all hotels, not just existing Hoist Group customers. It is free to join, and those who do will gain access to a host of resources including social-distancing focused videos, one-to-one consultations, guides and checklists. The Program goes further, and in concert with selected industry partners, also offers access to a wide range of hotel technologies, much of which is available either for free, or at a very special offer price to hotels that sign up. Tasso added - "I am delighted to launch not only Program Phoenix as an enabler to all those hotels out there, but also, Hoist Group's new Subscription-based business model to support hotels in their investments to meet the `new normal' technology requirements of the post-COVID-19 world." COVID-19 will not only change the Hospitality landscape and guest journey forever, but also restrict budgets. This new Subscription-based business model will ease this restriction by allowing hotels to use new technologies for a simple, monthly flat fee. Tasso concluded, "We need to do our part to support the industry recover, adapt and grow again. Modifying the way we charge by introducing a much simpler model is an important part of that effort." Learn more about Program Phoenix by clicking here. CONTACT: Mohammed Sha Head of Marketing [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/hoist-group/r/hoist-group-announces-the-launch-of-program-phoenix-along-with-its-new-subscription-business-model-t,c3132424 The following files are available for download: https://news.cision.com/hoist-group/i/hg-tagline-cmyk,c2795433 HG Tagline CMYK https://news.cision.com/hoist-group/i/hoist-group-logo-solo,c2795434 Hoist Group Logo Solo [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] What were talking about here, its not the front page of the New York Times. Its 'Tucker Carlson Tonight,' which is a commentary show, Fox News lawyer argued, defending lawsuit from Karen McDougal Facts? What facts? Tucker Carlson has absolutely no obligation to investigate the truth of any statements before he makes them on his show, and his audience does not expect him to report facts, said a lawyer for Fox News to a New York federal judge. So, basically Fox News is arguing that Tucker Carlson is completely full of shit, and they know it, and so what, what are you gonna do about it. Fox News is defending against a slander lawsuit from Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model who was reported to have received a $150,000 payment from the National Enquirer to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Donald Trump. From the Hollywood Reporter: Fox News' attorney Erin Murphy argued that Carlson repeatedly couched his statements as hypotheticals to promote conversation and that a reasonable viewer would know his show offers "provocative things that will help me think harder" not straight news. "What we're talking about here, it's not the front page of the New York Times," said Murphy. "It's Tucker Carlson Tonight, which is a commentary show." While discussing what constitutes reckless disregard for the truth in regard to the actual malice standard, judge Vyskocil asked Murphy, "Does somebody in Mr. Carlson's position have the duty of inquiry?" Murphy replied, "Not as to an actual malice standard. The Supreme Court could not be clearer." She argued malice isn't a negligence standard and "failure to investigate" the truth of a statement doesn't suffice. The Fox News lawyer also argued that even if Carlson was aligned with Trump that's not enough and you can't reach the actual malice standard "just by saying someone has motive for lying." More at THR: Fox News Argues Viewers Don't Assume Tucker Carlson Reports Facts The run-down house where the bodies of a Black Lives Matter protester and 75-year-old woman were found has been pictured for the first time as it's revealed police traced a cellphone to locate the women. Aaron Glee Jr., 49, was identified by police as a suspect after the bodies of Oluwatoyin Salau, 19, and Victoria Sims were found at his rented home in Tallahassee on Saturday night. Their bodies were discovered after police used GPS to track Sims' cellphone to the residence. Scroll down for video The run-down house where the bodies of a Black Lives Matter protester and 75-year-old woman were found has been pictured Aaron Glee Jr., 49, was identified by police as a suspect after the bodies of Oluwatoyin Salau, 19, and Victoria Sims were found at his rented home (pictured above) in Tallahassee on Saturday night Aaron Glee Jr. (pictured) faces murder and kidnapping charges in the deaths of a missing Black Lives Matter protester and another woman Glee was out on bail at the time of their killings. Police spent time investigating the house, which is located in a wooded area on Monday Road, on Sunday. Images show the property's unkempt entrance-way, and tarpaulin pulled over the roof of the house. Empty cans and rubbish litter the ground outside. Salau was last seen on June 6 in the area of Orange Avenue and Wahnish Way in Tallahassee. On that same day, she shared a series of disturbing tweets about being molested by a black man who offered her a ride. Records show Glee, who has been taken in custody over the killings, is said to have assaulted a woman when she rejected his sexual advances on May 29. Police spent time investigating the house, which is located in a wooded area on Monday Road, on Sunday Above, the dilapidated doorway into Glee's rented accommodation on Monday Road Above, empty cans strewn on the ground outside Glee's property on Monday Road, Tallahassee He was charged aggravated battery after police say he kicked the woman but released on a $2,500 bond on June 1. Glee reportedly told authorities that he often helps homeless people. He was also charged with battery after an alleged fight over 'racial differences' on May 28. Police have not said whether or not Glee is the same man Salau accused of molesting her on June 6 before she disappeared. It is unclear how Salau, the second victim and Salau are each connected. Aaron Glee Jr., 49, pictured, was identified by police as a suspect after the bodies of Oluwatoyin Salau, 19, and Victoria Sims were found in Tallahassee on Saturday night Black Lives Matter protester, Oluwatoyin Salau, left, 19, was found dead in Florida along with a 75-year-old Victoria Sims, right, after tweeting that she had been sexually assaulted by a man Timeline of the murders of Oluwatoyin Salau and Victoria Sims There are many gaps to fill in surrounding the murders of Oluwatoyin Salau and Victoria Sims beginning on June 6 with the Salau's disappearance. June 6: Richview Road and Park Avenue area Salau shares a series of tweets Saturday afternoon accusing a man of molesting her at his home earlier in the morning around 5.30am. At 4.40pm, Salau sent her last tweet. June 6: Last sighting of Salau Salau was last seen in the area of Orange Avenue and Wahnish Way. June 9/10: Tallahassee Police Department announces Salau as missing person In a statement drafted on June 9 but shared on Facebook by the department on June 10, police urged the public to report any sightings of Salau to the department's Special Victims Unit. The statement said Salau could be in the area of Jakes and Patterson Street. June 8 - June 14: Salau's name trends on social media for a week Salau's name continued to trend on social media as people called on police to investigate her disappearance. June 11: Victoria Sims reported missing Sims was first reported missing on June 11. She was last seen on Blairstone Road, near Monday Road, driving a Toyota Camry. June 13: Missing person alert for Victoria Sims is issued at 8.50pm Authorities issued a missing person alert for Sims. June 13: Police find two bodies while following up on missing persons case Authorities discovered two bodies around 9.15pm in the 2100 block of Monday Road. June 14: Police arrest suspect Authorities announced on social media that they arrested a suspect believed to connected to the murders of both women. June 15: Identities confirmed Police confirm the victims as Salau and Sims. No other details about their murders have been released. Authorities also identified the suspect as Aaron Glee Jr, 49. Advertisement Police said Salau was last seen on June 6 in the area of Orange Avenue and Wahnish Way in Tallahassee. On that same day, she shared a series of disturbing tweets about being molested by a black man who offered her a ride. 'Anyways I was molested in Tallahassee, Florida by a black man this morning at 5:30 on Richview and Park Ave. 'The man offered to give me a ride to find someplace to sleep and recollect my belongings from a church I refuged to a couple days back to escape unjust living conditions,' Salau tweeted. She said the man, who she described to be in his mid-40s, 'came disguised as a man of God and ended up picking me up from nearby Saxon Street'. 'I entered his truck only because I carry anything to defend myself not even a phone (which is currently at the church) and I have poor vision. I trusted the holy spirit to keep me safe,' she wrote. 'When we arrived at his house he offered me a shower and I thanked him and shower and he gave me a change of clothes. 'He exposed himself to me by peeing with the bathroom open obviously knowing I was out of it. I told him about a sexual assault situation that happened...' Several people took to Twitter early Monday morning and started sharing the '#RIP Toyin' hashtag. The hashtag came after Tallahassee police reported finding two bodies on Monday Road around 9.15pm Saturday night. 'TPD investigators arrived in 2100 block of Monday Road in the course of a follow up investigation in a missing person case. During the course of the investigation, two deceased people were located in the area,' police said in a press release. Police identified Sims as the second victim after issuing a missing person alert for her Saturday night. She had been missing since June 11 and was last seen driving along Blairstone Road. AARP Florida also announced her death on Facebook and Twitter on Sunday evening. 'AARP Florida deeply regrets the death of Vicki Sims, a long-time AARP volunteer. We understand that the Tallahassee Police Department is pursuing an investigation into her death,' the group wrote. According to the organization which is 'dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older' Sims is survived by two daughters, Brenda and June, and several grandchildren. She was a member of the Tallahassee Heights United Methodist Church. Sims retired several years ago from the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. 'Vicki worked tirelessly to improve the lives of others as a dedicated advocate for older Americans; a committed volunteer for AARP, Second Harvest Food Bank of the Big Bend and other community causes; a devoted mother and grandmother; and a passionate, fully engaged citizen, helping our nation to achieve its highest ideals. 'Her life is an example of the great principle laid out by AARP's founder, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus -- 'to serve, not to be served'.' Just hours before she went missing on June 6, Salau shared on Twitter that she had been molested by a man earlier that morning She said the man, who she described to be in his mid-40s, 'came disguised as a man of God and ended up picking me up from nearby Saxon Street' Salau had tweeted about telling the man she accused of molesting her about another man who 'tried to force me to give him oral sex and then continued to harass me thru text and knocking at my door for days'. 'Going back to the situation that happened to me this morning, I did not fall asleep. 'He then asked me if I wanted a massage at this moment his roommate who was in the house was asleep. I was laying on my stomach trying to calm myself down from severe ptsd. He started touching- 'My back and rubbing my body using my body until he climaxed and then went to sleep. Before I realized what happened to me I looked over and his clothes were completely off. Once I saw he was asleep I escaped from the house and started walking from Richview Road to anywhere else. 'All of my belongings my phone my clothes shoes are all assumably at the church where I've been trying to track since I sought spiritual guidance/ refuge. I will not be silent. 'Literally wearing this man's clothes right now DNA all over me because I couldn't locate his house the moment I called the police because I couldn't see.' Under her thread, several people asked Salau if she was safe and even offered help, but she never responded. Just hours after posting the tweets, Salau disappeared. Several people took to Twitter early Monday morning and started sharing the '#RIP Toyin' hashtag Police have not said whether or not Glee is the same man Salau accused of molesting her on June 6 before she disappeared activist Oluwatoyin Salau was missing since June 6, after disturbing tweets detailing a sexual assault that had taken place that day. it has been reported that her body has been found. WHAT HAPPENED TO TOYIN? SAY HER NAME #JusticeforToyin pic.twitter.com/76PM2PJEjk zo (@kurtzobain) June 15, 2020 Salau was vocal in the Black Lives Matter protests that that broke out in the wake of George Floyd's death on May 25. In a video, shared on Twitter, Salau recently spoke at a protest. 'Can't nobody silence me. It's not that all lives don't matter, but right now our lives matter. Black Lives Matter. 'Black trans lives matter,' Salau said in the video, referring to the recent death of black trans man, Tony McDade, who was shot dead by police in Tallahassee. 'We're doing this for him, we're doing this for our brothers and sisters who got shot [and] for every black person because at the end of the day, I cannot take my f**king skin color off. Everywhere I f**king go, I'm profiled whether I like it or not.' Police identified Sims (left) as the second victim. AARP Florida announced her death on Facebook and Twitter Sunday night Salau's statements were met with applause and cheers from dozens of people standing behind and around her. It's unclear when exactly that protest took place. She was also vocal about racism and police brutality on Twitter. In a May 31 tweet, Salau wrote: 'If you're Black trying to silence other black voices please stay tf home there is no negotiating with racism. No Justice no justice no peace.' Tallahassee police have not released any other details surrounding the case. It's unclear if the two women were targeted by Glee. An investigation is ongoing. FINAL DEADLINE ALERT: Rigrodsky & Long, P.A. Reminds Shareholders Of iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. Of Upcoming Deadline WILMINGTON, DE / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2020 / Rigrodsky & Long, P.A.: Rigrodsky & Long, P.A. reminds shareholders of iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. ("iAnthus" or the "Company") (OTCQX:ITHUF) of an upcoming deadline involving a securities fraud class action lawsuit commenced against the Company. R&L filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of all persons or entities that purchased the common stock of iAnthus between May 14, 2018 and April 6, 2020, inclusive (the "Class Period"), alleging violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 against the Company and certain of its officers (the "Complaint"). If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than June 19, 2020. If you purchased shares of iAnthus during the Class Period and wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact Seth D. Rigrodsky or Timothy J. MacFall at Rigrodsky & Long, P.A., 300 Delaware Avenue, Suite 1220, Wilmington, DE 19801, by telephone at (888) 969-4242, by e-mail at info@rl-legal.com, or at http://rigrodskylong.com/cases-ianthus-capital-holdings-inc. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, defendants made materially false and misleading statements, and omitted materially adverse facts, about the Company's ability to pay its interest obligations under various debenture agreements. As a result of defendants' alleged false and misleading statements, the Company's stock traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period. According to the Complaint, in May 2018, the Company entered into the $50 million 2018 Debenture Agreement with Gotham Green Partners ("GGP"). Among other things, that agreement provided for the withholding and escrow of $5,722,222.22 from the 2018 Debenture proceeds to pay one year's interest on the 2018 Debentures in the event of iAnthus' inability to make its interest payments under the agreement. Story continues Then, on September 30, 2019, iAnthus and GGP entered into the Amended Debenture Agreement, which provided an additional $20 million to the Company. The Amended Debenture Agreement included the provision from the 2018 Debenture Agreement that provided for the withholding and escrow of $5,722,222.22 to pay one year's interest under the Amended Debenture Agreement in the event that iAnthus was unable to make the required interest payments. Although iAnthus never disclosed that the $5.72 million in escrowed funds was not available to fund iAnthus' interest payments, on April 6, 2020, iAnthus announced that it had defaulted on $4.4 million in interest payments to GGP under the Amended Debenture Agreement on March 31, 2020. On this news, shares of iAnthus fell over 61%, closing at $0.179 per share on April 6, 2020, on heavy trading volume. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. Any member of the proposed class may move the court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Rigrodsky & Long, P.A., with offices in Delaware and New York, has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of investors and achieved substantial corporate governance reforms in numerous cases nationwide, including federal securities fraud actions, shareholder class actions, and shareholder derivative actions. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. CONTACT: Rigrodsky & Long, P.A. Seth D. Rigrodsky Timothy J. MacFall (888) 969-4242 (516) 683-3516 Fax: (302) 654-7530 info@rl-legal.com http://www.rigrodskylong.com SOURCE: Rigrodsky & Long P.A. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/594242/FINAL-DEADLINE-ALERT-Rigrodsky-Long-PA-Reminds-Shareholders-Of-iAnthus-Capital-Holdings-Inc-Of-Upcoming-Deadline Vietnam reports one more imported case of COVID-19 A Vietnamese citizen has health check at a quarantine centre. One imported COVID-19 case was confirmed in Viet Nam on Wednesday morning, bringing the total to 335, said the Ministry of Health. The male patient, 24, is from northern Thai Nguyen Province's Dai Tu District. He returned to Viet Nam from Kuwait on Tuesday onboard Bamboo Airways flight H9092 via Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City. He was tested positive for the virus on Tuesday and is being treated at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases. As of June 17, Viet Nam records 195 imported COVID-19 cases and no community transmission for 62 days. More than 7,200 people are under quarantine at hospitals, medical stations and at home. RoK helps ASEAN countries enhance detection capacity for COVID-19 The Mission of the Republic of Korea (RoK) to ASEAN, in coordination with the ASEAN-RoK Development Cooperation Programme, launched a project on enhancing the detection capacity for COVID-19 in ASEAN countries, on June 16. Addressing the launching ceremony, RoK Ambassador to ASEAN Lim Sung-nam reiterated that the programme was prepared to follow up on President Moon Jae-in's pledge to support ASEAN's response to COVID-19 as announced at the Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit on COVID-19 on April 14. According to him, the approval process for the ASEAN-RoK Cooperation Fund programmes takes more than six months in accordance with a standardised operation procedure, but the RoK's proposed programme on COVID-19, due to the urgency, was endorsed within a month. Ambassador Lim extended his appreciation to the ASEAN Secretariat and the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN (CPR) for their cooperation. He also emphasised that it is time to turn crises into opportunities while ASEAN and the RoK continue collecting ideas to pursue collaboration. Secretary-General, Dato Lim Jock Hoi hailed the RoK's support to enhance ASEAN's capacity to respond to the COVID-19. He said the programme will set an example to further cooperation between ASEAN and the RoK in response to the infectious diseases which will bring health ministries and diseases control centres of ASEAN and the RoK together for further cooperation. Ambassador Tran Duc Binh, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to ASEAN, said that the RoK's contribution of test kits and protection equipment to ASEAN member states would surely curb the spread of the virus in the region. He affirmed that as chair of ASEAN in 2020, Vietnam will endeavour to implement the ASEAN Plus Three leaders' agreements as stated in the Joint Statement. The ASEAN's capacity building programme for early detection of the COVID-19 is expected to promote ASEAN-RoK cooperation on health and explore new areas of cooperation in the time of global crisis. PCR equipment, test kits and personal protective equipment will be provided to each ASEAN member state in late June or early July. Ambassador Lim said one of the important pillar for the success of the programme would be close consultation and coordination between the RoK and Vietnam. He added that he hopes the two countries will continue to work together in more projects in public health care in ASEAN countries in the future. Two more COVID-19 patients recover in Viet Nam Two more COVID-19 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital on Tuesday afternoon (June 16), bringing the total number of recovered patients to 325 in Viet Nam. Currently, only nine COVID-19 infection cases are under treatment. The two cases were discharged from the second base of the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Ha Nois ong Anh District. The two returned from abroad and had been quarantined immediately after entry to Viet Nam. The patients were from northern Thai Nguyen Province and HCM City. They both tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 twice. After receiving treatment, the patients have no fever or cough and are both in a stable health condition. The two patients will continue to be quarantined and monitored for the next 14 days. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Ministry of Health reported no new COVID-19 community transmission cases in Viet Nam over the past 62 days. Over 340 Vietnamese citizens return from Canada A Vietnam Airlines flight has brought 343 Vietnamese citizens back to Viet Nam from Canada thanks to coordination between Vietnamese and Canadian agencies. Passengers on the flight included children under 18, the elderly, sick people, tourists with expired visas and students without accommodation after their dormitories shut down. Strict security and safety measures were enforced during the flight to protect passengers health and prevent the spread of the disease. Immediately after the flight landed at Noi Bai, Ha Noi on Tuesday, all passengers and crew members were given health check and quarantined in line with regulations. Following instructions of the Prime Minister, Vietnamese agencies will coordinate with representative agencies abroad to arrange more flights to take Vietnamese citizens in especially disadvantaged circumstances back to Viet Nam based on citizens wishes and the pandemic situation in and outside the country. 69 Vietnamese citizens return home safely from Africa As many as 69 Vietnamese citizens have returned home on a repatriation flight from African countries on June 15 and 16. The flight was arranged by Vietnamese embassies in South Africa and Mozambique, the authorised agencies of South Africa, Mozambique, and Eswatini and SSA South Africa Airways. It landed at Ha Noi-based Noi Bai International Airport on Tuesday afternoon. Passengers on the flights were children under 18 years of age, pregnant women, the elderly with underlying medical conditions, stranded tourists, labourers whose visas or employment contracts have expired, and students who have completed their course and have no residence. The Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa and Mozambique have worked closely with local governments to support people to move among countries and help them with residence and necessities. After landing at the airport, all passengers have been under medical examination and sent to concentrated quarantine sites as regulated. Indonesia to allow phased reopening of schools in COVID-19 green zones Indonesia will allow phased reopening of schools located in COVID-19 low-risk areas, or 'green zones', starting in July. A joint ministerial decree by the education, religious affairs, home, and health ministers was announced on June 15 to regulate the school reopening during the pandemic. Around 90 cities and regencies across Indonesia are considered 'green zones'. The number of students in those areas is roughly equivalent to 6 percent of all students in the country. This means the remaining 94 percent still have to continue online learning, said Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim at a press conference. According to the ministrys official academic calendar, the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year is slated for July 13. However, parents would have the final say on whether they would allow their children to go to school or not, Nadiem said. During the initial stage, the ministry will only allow senior and junior high schools to reopen. Elementary schools will be able to follow suit two months after, while kindergartens four months after. For the reopening, schools are required to have clean toilets, hand-washing facilities, disinfectant, thermo guns and access to health facilities. They should also provide areas where wearing a face mask is mandatory. After the reopening, all students have to adhere to physical distancing measures and wear masks. Schools are required to limit the amount of students per classroom to 18, or roughly 50 percent of the previous capacity. Students, teachers or parents who are sick or have a comorbidity are advised not to go to school. Those who had traveled outside the 'green zone' should also self-quarantine for 14 days before going to school, Nadiem said. No new community COVID-19 infections reported for 62 days Vietnam went through 61 consecutive days without COVID-19 transmissions in the community as of 6am on June 17, said the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. Among the confirmed infections, 194 infection are imported cases and were quarantined right after their arrival in the country. At present, 7,250 people who had close contact with patients or entered from pandemic-hit regions are being quarantined, including 81 in hospitals, 6,248 in other concentrated quarantine facilities and 921 at home. The same day, two more COVID-19 patients were given the all-clear. Vietnam has to date recorded 334 infections, 325 of them have fully recovered, accounting for 97 percent. Thailand continues to support COVID-19 victims Thailands cabinet on June 16 approved four aid packages for people hurt financially by the COVID-19 pandemic who have not previously been given help. Deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said the recipients included 1.16 million holders of state welfare cards who have not received any state assistance during the pandemic. They would be given 1,000 THB (32 USD) a month each during May to July, with 3.49 billion THB allocated to the package. Another group was 302,160 people who were unsuccessful in registering for help on a website. They must not have received any state assistance before and they must not be workers under Section 33 of the Social Security Act. A budget of 906 million THB was allocated for this group, Rachada said. The third group was people in a fragile state selected by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Some 6.78 million people in this group had not received any state assistance before, including nearly 1.4 million children under six in poor families, over 4 million over-60 people and more than 1.3 million people with disabilities. Total support budget for the group was 20.3 billion THB. The fourth group was farmers whose lives were affected by the pandemic. There were 137,093 in need who did not get access to agricultural infrastructure, and another 120,000 farmers whose registration for state assistance on May 15 was unsuccessful. The same day, the Thai cabinet also approved a domestic tourism stimulus worth 22.4 billion THB to revitalise a key sector of the country./. Singapore reports lowest daily new COVID-19 cases in over two months Singapore reported 151 new COVID-19 cases on June 16, the lowest daily tally since April 8, according to the countrys Ministry of Health. They included two community cases, while migrant workers living in dormitories made up the vast majority of the other cases. A total 40,969 people in Singapore have been diagnosed with COVID-19, including 30,366 recoveries and 26 deaths. Singapore scientists said they are testing a COVID-19 vaccine from a US firm and plan to start human trials in August after promising initial responses in mice. In the last 24 hours, Indonesia reported 1,106 new infections and 33 fatalities, bringing the total to 40,400 and 2,231, respectively. Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the economy is projected to slip 3.1 percent in Q2 2020, the lowest quarterly growth since the 1998 Asian financial crisis. The deceleration was due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has dashed economic activities, the minister said, adding that partial lockdowns along with social distancing have contributed to the downshift. Meanwhile, there were 364 new confirmed cases and five deaths in the Philippines, adding up to the national tally of 26,781 infections and 1,103 deaths. Malaysia, which saw a total of 8,505 COVID-19 cases, had no cases to report on the day. Thailand confirmed neither new cases nor deaths on June 16, marking the 22nd consecutive days without community transmissions. The country had a death toll of 58 out of 3,135 cases. Singapore updates entry-exit regulations The Singapore Department of Health on June 15 announced new entry-exit regulations to be applied from June 18. Accordingly, all travellers entering Singapore from 23:59 on June 17, and who had remained in Australia, Brunei, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan (China), New Zealand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Vietnam in the last consecutive 14 days prior to their entry, will no longer have to serve their 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) at dedicated SHN facilities. The testing regime will apply to all travellers entering Singapore from 23:59 on June 17. They will be subject to a compulsory COVID-19 test and also have to pay for both the test and the full cost of the SHN facility. Currently, the cost of tests and the cost of SHN facilities have been borne by the Singapore government. A COVID-19 test costs up to 200 SGD (144 USD), while a 14-day stay at a dedicated SHN facility amounts to 2,000 SGD. Bamboo Airways repatriate more than 200 Vietnamese citizens More than 200 Vietnamese citizens have arrived home after being repatriated from Kuwait, Egypt and Qatar. They touched down at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City on Tuesday and were all immediately taken into quarantine. They were transported home onboard a specially arranged Bamboo Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flight. According to Bamboo Airways, 272 people were on the flight, all strictly complying with health regulations to ensure safety for all passengers. Meanwhile, Bamboo Airways have increased the amount of domestic flights that have reopened to almost 90 per cent of their routes before the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also waiting for the greenlight to begin international flights, and re-establish routes with South Korea, Taiwan (China), the Czech Republic. Bamboo is also looking at developing new routes within East Asia, Europe and America. The airline is also aiming for 30 per cent market share by the end of the year, increasing the amount of flights on a number of domestic routes connecting Ha Noi/HCM City/a Nang with Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Quy Nhon, a Lat, Buon Ma Thuot, Pleiku, Ha Phong, Thanh Hoa, Quy Nhon and Vinh. Bamboo Airways has always strictly complied with stringent regulations to ensure maximum health safety for passengers and crew. Hours after news broke out that Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was no more, photos of his mortal remains started circulating across social media. It left everyone disturbed by the fact that the photos were being shared carelessly, and nobody did anything about it. To stop the circulation of the disturbing images, Sajid Nadiadwala who had produced Sushant Singh Rajput's last film Chhichhore, took immediate action and spoke to the Home Minister of Maharashtra requesting the authorities to necessary measures to stop the circulation of said images. The producer also sent a letter requesting the same. Soon after the letter was sent, the authorities took prompt action and the Maharashtra Police's cyber department issued a warning to people to refrain from circulating pictures of the deceased actor's mortal remains. Terming it as a 'disturbing trend', the Police on their official handle, warned that legal action will be taken against people sharing these pictures. The news of Sushant Singh Rajput's untimely demise has left everyone shocked and in deep grief. The Chhichhore actor died by suicide by hanging himself at his Bandra residence in Mumbai on June 14, 2020. Many Bollywood celebrities mourned Sushant's demise with condolence posts on social media. The actor's last rites were performed at Pawan Hans crematorium in Vile Parle, Mumbai. ALSO READ: Ayushmann Khurrana Shocked By Sushant's Death: You Never Know What's Going On Behind That Smile ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput Didn't Need Camps; He Had His Own Kingdown: Actor's Close Friend Rohini Iyer Worried about your mental well-being or of someone you know? Help is just a call away. Reach out to the nearest mental health specialist at COOJ Mental Health Foundation (COOJ)- 0832-2252525, Parivarthan- +91 7676 602 602, Connecting Trust- +91 992 200 1122/+91-992 200 4305 or Sahai- 080-25497777/ SAHAIHELPLINE@GMAIL.COM 'When the virus, in a way, tires itself out, because it is not finding any more people to attack or keep itself viable, that is when the peak actually has been reached and you are on the downward limb (of the curve).' IMAGE: Healthcare workers wait to take off their personal protective equipment after the end of a check-up camp for the coronavirus disease at a slum in Mumbai, June 14, 2020. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters There is just one burning question we all have. When will COVID-19 leave? When will this wretched, uninvited virus start exiting our lives? The next question that reasonably follows: When will India's cases of COVID-19 peak? Dr Gudlavalleti Venkata Satyanarayana Murthy has the most unusual answer to this question. He doesn't think there is any one date or period when COVID-19 will peak in India. That is simply not possible. Read on, for his logical explanation. Dr Murthy, who is Hyderabad based, is the director, public health at the Public Health Foundation of India, a non-profit working for a 'healthier India'. He is also a professor in public health disability with the International Centre for Eye Health at the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London. A public health physician by discipline, who did his qualifications in Guntur, Delhi and London, Dr Murthy has a special interest in bettering community health and has been/is the principal investigator for multiple projects in India, Nigeria, Bhutan, Nepal Bangladesh and Pakistan. While working at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, he started India's first department for community ophthalmic medicine. The public health expert gives Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com the real lowdown on peaking and more. IMAGE: A milk vendor rides his bicycle during heavy rain, after the authorities eased lockdown restrictions in Kolkata, June 12, 2020. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters In a recent interview you said India should not be seen as one entity in the battle against COVID-19. It needs to be looked at on a state-to-state basis. And that certain states are already peaking and some are near peaking. What was your reasoning? When do you foresee that the states that are near peaking, will peak? There are a number of things to consider when you look at peaking. It is not just something like the monsoon hitting the Kerala coast on the first of June. It's not as straightforward as that. What generally happens is: You (a state/area) peak when you start coming down in terms of the number of people who can be susceptible, or who can catch the infection. That is the time when that number starts decreasing -- what one calls R0 (basic reproductive rate which decides how infectious each virus is going to be and during the disease period how many other people a patient will infect). Peaking depends on a number of factors; the most important being what proportion of the population has been exposed to the infection. When the virus, in a way, tires itself out, because it is not finding any more people to attack or keep itself viable, that is when the peak actually has been reached and you are on the downward limb (of the curve). We look at peaking in terms of what is the Ro in terms of the current time. You call that Rt (virus's actual transmission rate at a certain period) which actually is the R0 at a particular point in time. States where the replication rate is coming down below zero, or to 1, or below 1, (indicates that the situation) is already at the plateauing stage and on the descending limb, States, where R is between 1 to 1.2 and 1.25, are nearly there, so, in a way, the virus's replicability pattern has been exhausted to a great extent. That is how we comment on when COVID-19 would peak. In dealing with a country with so much of diversity, you can't talk about one peak for the entire country, till all the states have achieved it. That is why there is going to be a need to look at a state's specifics and states like UP differently, and even districts first. Even in Maharashtra, district specific peaking has to be looked at. So, if you look at Maharashtra, as a whole, it may take another 10 days, 12 days for the state to peak. But it could be that when you look at a district like Gadchiroli, or some of the districts which are closer to the Chhattisgarh border, at the district level, the peak might already have been passed, though the state as such has not peaked. Some districts within the state could have already done that. We should never look (create a picture) with one brush stroke, right across, when we look at a country like India. When we look at some of the states like Bihar, where it is the migrants who actually started bringing in the virus into the state, they may be far away from the peak. Not just in terms of even thinking of the peak, but even the rise may occur only towards mid-July. So, there can't be one peak. But states, where already there has been a large amount of exposure, they would peak earlier than those states, where there has been slow exposure, like in Bihar. You can expect that by middle of July, maximum, states, like Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, they should all be past the peak. Whereas for states like Bihar, it can take much longer. IMAGE: People walk along the promenade at Marine Drive in Mumbai after some restrictions were lifted, June 8, 2020. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters May I understand this a little bit better. From what you just explained, peaking sort of involves the arrival of a little bit of herd immunity in an area. And it's not only about lack of exposure. Those of us, who have been home, locked down in our flats, are not exposed to herd immunity. So, it's a mixture of both lack of exposure as well as a little bit of immunity? Yes, it's a mixture of both -- plus the fact that the virus has a viable period during which it can survive. The virus can't survive, you know infinitely. If it does not get people whom it can infect, then the virus naturally dies down. Any organism, whether it is a cholera bacterium or whether it is the virus for a common cold/flu, if it does not get a chance to infect somebody else, it dies. Viruses do not naturally exist in the air (indefinitely), like the stars or the moon. They have to have a host. If they don't get a host, they die out naturally. That is what the lockdown is doing -- keeping people away from the virus. It is not building herd immunity, but it is keeping people away from the virus, so that the virus, in a period of two to three weeks, when it does not get an opportunity to infect others, could slowly start dying down or lose its potency to replicate inside another human being. If the virus is exposed to sunlight for a long period, then even if it infects a person it will not be in a position to replicate or reproduce in the new host. Any disease needs a host -- without the host it cannot survive. It's a parasite. It needs a host. So, whether it is through herd immunity, where there are no more people whom it can infect, or through lockdown, where you are keeping people away, like you just mentioned, from the virus -- both ways ultimately the virus has to die down. IMAGE: A scene at a slum after some restrictions were lifted in Mumbai, June 14, 2020. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters The lockdown is lifting or has already lifted in parts of India. It has partially lifted, in bits and pieces, in some places where the peak has not been reached. Does that mean that the peak for those places will then move ahead? Or will alter? Well, obviously the peak has not moved ahead in a state like say Bihar or Assam. Or even the north east. Last month the north east had nothing (no cases). Today, you find, after people have come back from other parts of the country, or the world, cases now have been reported in Mizoram, in Assam, in Meghalaya. Cases which were not there before. Just three weeks ago there were no cases. Now there, peaking will take much more time. But you cannot have something like a perennial lockdown, where everything stops. Life has to go on. You just cannot expect that people would continue to be compliant. I'll give an example of what is happening, in terms of hospital care: In the UK, this week, we had data released. There were nearly 45,000 excess deaths, which occurred in the UK during the lockdown -- of which 30,000 were attributable to COVID-19. But another 15,000 were deaths from causes like diabetes, dementia, and other respiratory problems, where people were scared to come to hospitals and were dying at home. If you have lockdown, there is going to be a cost both in terms of mortality -- not talking about unemployment -- in terms of mortality and access to healthcare. A child, for instance, who has cerebral palsy and needs physiotherapy, they are not getting it. The impact this sort of a lockdown has is on the other consequences of health, which can be even more catastrophic. You have to look at a middle path affair. IMAGE: A shopping mall in Kolkata after authorities allowed malls to reopen as India eases lockdown restrictions, June 9, 2020. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters Even if there is a sort of relaxation of a lockdown in different states in different ways, shouldn't there still be a few important measures in place? There would be certain things that are critical. The most important is personal protection, which includes: Using your mask, having your etiquette for when you are coughing or sneezing, so that it doesn't infect others around you, sanitising, hand washing repeatedly, and keeping your distancing of at least one metre, if not two metres. These are things that have to be enforced with or without a lockdown. Now when you have a situation where physical distancing within the household is difficult, because of say a slum-like condition, in a place like Dharavi (north central Mumbai), or any other migrant labour camps, when you have that sort of situation, then the only alternative is that people continue to use face protection and wash their hands frequently when they're at home. None of these are a 100 per cent guarantee against infection. A lockdown is not a 100 per cent guarantee against infection either. Most infections occur within a household. The household contacts, especially the spouses have a 35 per cent risk of getting infected. Casual contacts outside, who just bump into you, the risk is as low as 0.35 per cent. So, that's a huge differential. The disease happens in clusters; it happens in households. A lockdown will not prevent what is happening in a household. Lockdown is protecting what is happening in the community outside. But the risk there is only 0.35 to 0.45 per cent. The major risk is within the household. So even if you have a lockdown, you need these (personal protection) measures. If you don't have a lockdown, then you need more emphasis on these measures, specifically physical distancing and use of mask, so you do not communicate the infection to somebody else in the community. IMAGE: The Aarogya Setu app logo is seen on a mobile phone. Photograph: Illustration/Adnan Abidi/Reuters A recent article on Bihar stated that since the lockdown had lifted there was no longer any way to track new arrivals. In spite of a degree of relaxation of the lockdown, in different states, shouldn't there still be tracking a movement at least? If people are taking trains to go home, then they are sitting on a train for 30 hours. -- that is similar to the situation you are referring to ie of closeness in a home or household. Shouldn't the tracking of movement of people from district to district or state to state be important? Yes, I think that is, of course, very important. The government has spoken so much about its Aarogya Setu app. It is easy to have everybody use an app like that, where you can track the geolocation, wherever they move, with a mobile phone. Then you are able to track their movements. Definitely there has to be a tracking mechanism. Contact tracing is all about effective tracking. No doubts about that. That is important. IMAGE: A health worker writes the date that a man is ordered to quarantine at home until, on his hand, after a resident living in his area, tested positive for COVID-19 in Mumbai, April 10, 2020. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters But what about quarantining people, when they reach the end of their journey, wherever they're travelling or that's not necessary if you have the app? The problem is you have an incubation period, which can be two to 10 days. If you quarantine people for 10 days, there is a cost to it. Some people can show the infection on the 15th day, and they would have gone away from the quarantine, and therefore, those cases are going to be missed. Quarantining at home, rather than an institutional quarantine, is very important. If you have people travelling by air, then they, I presume, are people who are more aware of the things around them and therefore would not take a tablet of paracetamol to show that they are fit. But these are the things which people are doing, right? If people are honest enough, and you have a tracking app, which has the geolocation, where you can track them, and somebody rings them up regularly, then during the two weeks, that they are in home quarantine, somebody can connect with them to find out how they are (and prevent further spread). If you don't do that, then there is no tracking. Having an app, where there is no tracking, is an absolute waste of resources. Production: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com Former Army Chief General Shankar Roy Chowdhury (retired) on Wednesday said it should be remembered that India is not in 1962, and asserted that the country should be prepared for a conflict not amounting to a full-scale war with China. Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades between the two neighbours. Roy Chowdhury said that the strength of both sides has multiplied immensely since 1962, when the two neighbours fought a brief war. "India is not in 1962, (and) we must remember that neither China is in 1962," he told PTI. The Chinese Army is also reported to have suffered several casualties in the face-off. Asked how India should respond to the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) aggression, the general said, "India should be prepared for an outbreak of conflict below war, but above (the scale of) incidents of border skirmishes." India should also handle issues diplomatically at the same time, said the general who was the Chief of the Army Staff between November 22, 1994, and September 30, 1997. Roy Chowdhury said that India must be prepared since China is militarily much stronger than Pakistan, which India has handled successfully. He said that China's sudden aggression can be linked to India not being with it on various international issues for which the world community is blaming China. Apart from several other issues, China is facing international flak led by the United States of America over the spread of coronavirus across the world. "China thinks it is not to blame and Galwan is an adjunct to that," the former Army chief said. India is building roads in its own territory to connect with Daulat Beg Oldie, which is a major airstrip of the Indian Air Force, Roy Chowdhury said. "There is a bridge being built which I think the Chinese don't want, so they have taken this unilateral position trying to block the bridge, leading to this clash," he said. There have been no major clashes with China in the northern frontiers except for Chusul in 1962, after which it was quiet, he said adding that it has now disrupted. "India has multiplied its potential, unfortunately not so much economically. Militarily we can match China (but) that will take a lot of money," he said. "Apart from being prepared militarily, we must upgrade ourselves economically," he said, adding that India should reconsider awarding contracts to Chinese companies for various projects. Lt General JR Mukherjee (retired), who has vast experience along the Indo-China frontiers spanning over 40 years, also said what China has done is due to India closing up more towards the USA and other countries and for condemning China for the coronavirus pandemic, which he said is "correct". "All these are reasons for what they have done. They have come in (at Galwan) and refused to honour the agreement for pulling back, leading to the present situation," Mukherjee told PTI. "I would have responded militarily, but that is a political decision to be made," the former General Officer Commanding-in-Command (GOC-in-C) of the Eastern Command, said. The Night Drop has dropped. Finally. After clearing a mountain of obstacles, the bar in the Seneca Turnpike location that was once occupied by the legendary Syracuse dive bar The Remedy has opened. Four years from when I purchased this place theres finally beer in the glass, said owner Jamie Crouse, who admits there have been plenty of times in that span when he wasnt sure he would ever be standing behind the bar pouring beers for customers. The Remedy closed in 2015 after 40 years in business in a former bank building at Seneca Turnpike and Valley Drive, across from Gannons Ice Cream. Crouse, a long-time restaurant chef, bought it a year later and began the process of fixing it up to reopen. Then, in July 2016, he was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. He suffered head, neck and back injuries, lost the hearing in one ear and still has moments when hes a bit wobbly. He spent the next few years rehabbing his body while he rehabbed the bar. Then he set his opening date: March 20, 2020. You may remember that week: On March 16, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order shutting down bars and restaurants as a means of containing the coronavirus. Although hed had a few soft opening nights the previous weeks, the coronavirus shutdown effectively postponed Crouses dream yet again. Last week, however, brought welcome news: Bars and restaurants in Central New York are now free to open as long as they maintain social distancing, require staff to wear masks (and customers to wear them until theyre seated) and limit the crowd to 50% of capacity. So The Night Drop is now open. Hours are noon to midnight Sunday to Thursday, and noon to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. It serves beer, wine and cocktails, and, for now, $3 bowls of ramen as its one food offering. Crouse may add paninis and a charcuterie board later. On Tuesday afternoon, Crouse was busy pouring beers for a group of people who were regulars at The Remedy. Id really like to see this place fill up with a lot of the old faces, said Jeff Horse, of Otisco, who says he spent quite a bit of time at The Remedy. Its changed of course, but bringing back the regulars would be a great way to make it feel like the old days again. The Remedy was often called a dive, and Crouse doesnt object to the term. But he has said hell let The Night Drops customers decide whether the term still fits. He plans to have live music when thats allowed, and there is a pool table and electronic dart game. One feature that hasnt changed at The Remedy are the various knick-knacks and curios set around the bar, on the walls and other places. For example, theres an old Dooley beer stein that was once part of a set of Schultz & Dooley steins that were used in the marketing of Utica Club beer. The new name for the bar is partly inspired by the most famous knick-knack in The Remedy: Some regulars called it a torpedo, while others, like Crouse, called it a missile. The 10-foot-long (or so) object may have in fact once been a World War II smoke bomb. Crouse has cut it in half and eventually plans to use one end as his beer tap tower. Hes printed T-shirts depicting a vintage military plane and bombs with the words Night Drop on them. The other inspiration for the name comes from the buildings origin as a branch of the Bank of Onondaga, where night drops were a way of making after-hours deposits. (The location was was later Murphys Valley Pharmacy, which of course led to the old bars name, The Remedy). One of The Night Drops first customers over the weekend was Spike Nulle, who owned The Remedy with Tom Coulter before they sold it in 2015. He still lives nearby and offered Crouse advice as he prepared to reopen. I offered him a job as a bartender," Crouse said. But hed rather stay over on the other side. So thats one loyal customer well have. MORE ON RESTAURANTS AND BARS Restaurants reopen in CNY. How did the first weekend go? Bars slowly reopen. Longest 3 months of my life After 37 years, Kelleys closes. We were better than Cheers 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. [June 17, 2020] Billshark Launches New Mobile Application to Help Customers Save Money Anytime, Anywhere BOSTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Billshark, the leading bill reduction platform, today announced the launch of the new Billshark App to help Americans save on the most common bills, in minutes. As many individuals and families are coping financially while the economic situation remains in flux, now is the ideal time to reassess their budget and ongoing expenses to ensure they're getting the best rate on home services. According to Billshark, Americans could save $50 billion a year by negotiating bills for monthly recurring services such as cable, satellite, home security, TV, internet and phone. Eighty-four percent of Americans underestimate what they pay every month for monthly subscriptions and Billshark has a 90 percent success rate in helping customers negotiate lower rates. "With the current economic climate every dollar matters, and our goal is to help as many people as possible figure out where they can cut back and save money to help ease their financial burden," said Brian Keaney, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer, Billshark. "We've already helped hundreds of thousands of customers lower their monthly bills and now we're making it even easier. Our newmobile app with improved, streamlined functionality offers customers a hassle-free user experience." Available for iOS and Android, Billshark's app offers a user-friendly interface to submit bills and cancellations for unwanted charges, manage subscriptions, and track savings. The app now includes two of Billshark's core product offerings, 'Cancel Subscriptions' and 'Check Insurance Rates', which allow customers to easily cancel hundreds of monthly subscriptions and also shop dozens of home and auto insurance providers without the hassle of filling out applications or receiving telemarketing calls. Additional features include a new User Dashboard with a summary to help customers keep tabs on all of their savings, and the status of each negotiation or cancellation, and an Activity Feed with curated content on the best ways to manage finances, save money, access financial resources during COVID-19 for consumers and small businesses, and more. To ensure maximum security and safety for users, the app includes bank-level security with 256-bit encryption. The Billshark App is available for download via the App Store and Google Play. About Billshark Through negotiations and cancellations, Billshark helps consumers pay less for recurring bills such as wireless, internet, TV and home security. Since its inception, Billshark has saved tens of millions of dollars for consumers. For more information, visit www.billshark.com . Potential partners can find more information on integrations at www.billshark.com/partners/ . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/billshark-launches-new-mobile-application-to-help-customers-save-money-anytime-anywhere-301078866.html SOURCE Billshark [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] To the Editor: Re Administration Sues to Delay Boltons Memoir (front page, June 17): Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed most transparent president in history, sues John Bolton, a former national security adviser, to delay sales of Mr. Boltons memoir about his time in the White House. The president also refuses to let us see his school records and his tax returns. In addition, he instructed subpoenaed witnesses in his impeachment trial to ignore the subpoenas. Facts are funny things. The bold nontransparency he practices is unprecedented. Lack of transparency leads to ethical and moral questions and only increases suspicion of wrongdoing. Patricia Weller Emmitsburg, Md. To the Editor: I can certainly understand why the government wants to quash John Boltons tell-all book prior to publication. If it ever got out that our country was being led by an incompetent, easily manipulated narcissist, foreign adversaries would be sure to take advantage of our weakness. Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner's signature project, the Brisbane Metro, has skyrocketed in cost from $944 million to $1.2 billion. Blaming a sharp increase in labour costs, electrifying the project, and changes to construction of the planned Adelaide Street tunnel, Cr Schrinner confirmed the cost blowout in his second budget, his first as formally elected lord mayor. The Brisbane Metro has blown out from $944 million to $1.2 billion. Credit:Brisbane City Council The lord mayor said he had been flagging expected cost increases since last year, when delays to the planned underground Cultural Centre station were announced due to a disagreement with the state government over its location and size. He also cited the expensive decision to make the metro fully electric, with electric buses being manufactured in Europe, and changing the Adelaide Street metro tunnel construction method from cut-and-cover to bored. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) The Department of Justice's (DOJ) review of the anti-terrorism bill is "now on its way to the Office of the President," Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Wednesday. The DOJ was requested to review and submit comments on the new anti-terrorism bill to the Office of the President, with the deadline set on June 17. "We have scrutinized the enrolled bill line by line and analyzed the substance of each provision in relation to the whole, always keeping in mind for whom and against whom the anti-terror bill was crafted," Guevarra said on Tuesday night. "Nevertheless, we shall focus our comments on the more significant provisions of the bill," Guevarra also said. "To the extent possible, we have considered the operational needs of the government in dealing with terrorism as well as our international commitments, without losing sight of the legal and constitutional parameters within which all state actions should be circumscribed." The DOJ began its review on June 6, during which time Congress had not yet sent the bill to President Rodrigo Duterte for enactment. But Guevarra had said that the DOJ "will already start its own review" of the proposed measure, which has drawn much criticism over constitutional issues of some of its provisions. Congress submitted the enrolled bill to the Palace on June 9, despite calls of lawmakers to reconsider their decision. The controversial bill, which allows warrantless arrest and detention of suspected terrorists for up to 24 days, is now up for the Presidents signature. President Rodrigo Duterte has 30 days from June 9 to either sign or veto the bill before it lapses into law. The certified measure will repeal the Human Security Act of 2007, giving more surveillance powers to government forces. Once enacted, law enforcers can conduct surveillance on suspected terrorists for up to 90 days. Under the current law, detention without warrant of arrest should only be up to three days, while surveillance is up to 30 days only. Meanwhile, thousands of Filipinos have protested against the measure, citing amendments that may be prone to human rights violations. CNN Philippines Senior Correspondent Anjo Alimario contributed to this report. The action against ZeroHedge and warning sent to The Federalist related to content in comments sections that consistently violated Googles policy about dangerous and derogatory content, according to the internet company. (Photo | AFP) San Francisco: Google on Tuesday confirmed that it booted one far-right website from its ad platform and put another on notice for hosting dangerous and derogatory comments about civil rights protests. The internet giant said that it stopped channeling money-making ads to ZeroHedge and warned The Federalist that it too could be blocked from Google Ads for violating policy about content. To be clear, The Federalist is not currently demonetised, a Google spokesperson said in response to an AFP inquiry. We do have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on, which includes comments on the site. This is a longstanding policy. The action against ZeroHedge and warning sent to The Federalist related to content in comments sections that consistently violated Googles policy about dangerous and derogatory content, according to the internet company. The offending content was related to false information about recent Black Lives Matter protests, US media reported. ZeroHedge said in a post at the website that it is appealing Googles decision and expects to remedy the situation. The policy at issue was put in place by Google three years ago as part of an effort to avoid advertisers from having their marketing messages appear next to vile or hateful content on websites. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Barrick Gold Corporation GOLD has divested 79,268,800 shares of Shandong Gold Mining Co., Ltd. for gross proceeds of around $210 million (at HK$20.50 per share). In fourth-quarter 2018, the company purchased the shares at HK$10.50 per share. Barrick currently owns 10,250,000 shares of Shandong Gold, which represents 2.05% interest in Shandong Golds Hong-Kong listed (H-class) shares. Barrick has reaffirmed its commitment to the strong long-term strategic partnership with Shandong Gold. Barricks shares have surged 69.6% in the past year compared with the industrys 50.9% rally. For 2020, Barrick anticipates attributable gold production in the range of 4.6-5 million ounces compared with the previous expectation of 4.8-5.2 million ounces. All-in sustaining costs (AISC) are expected in the range of $920-$970 per ounce, unchanged from the prior view. Cost of sales is expected in the range of $980-$1,030 per ounce, unchanged from previous guidance. The company continues to expect copper production in the range of 440-500 million pounds at AISC of $2.20-$2.50 per pound and at cost of sales of $2.10-$2.40 per pound. Zacks Rank & Key Picks Barrick currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Alamos Gold Inc. AGI, B2Gold Corp BTG and Franco-Nevada Corporation FNV, all carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here. Alamos Gold has an expected earnings growth rate of 65% for 2020. The companys shares have surged 40.1% in the past year. B2Gold has an expected earnings growth rate of 214.3% for 2020. Its shares have returned 76.7% in the past year. Franco-Nevada has an expected earnings growth rate of 60.2% for 2020. The companys shares have surged 68.3% in the past year. The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >> 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 FrancoNevada Corporation (FNV) : Free Stock Analysis Report Barrick Gold Corporation (GOLD) : Free Stock Analysis Report B2Gold Corp (BTG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alamos Gold Inc. (AGI) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research At least 22 protesters, who had assembled close to the Chinese Embassy at Chankyapuri in south Delhi on Wednesday, to protest against the death of 20 Indian soldiers, who were killed on Monday night in a violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakhs Galwan Valley, were detained by Delhi Police. While a small group of ex-servicemen, who had come to protest outside the Chinese Embassy, were asked to return, Delhi Police officials said. No one was injured in the protests, they added. The protesters started assembling near the embassy around noon. Theyre told to disperse, as no public gathering is allowed in the area. Theyre detained, when they refused to obey the orders, said a Delhi Police official, requesting anonymity. Deepak Yadav, an additional deputy commissioner of police (DCP), New Delhi, said the detainees belong to a group called the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. At least 22 protesters have been detained. A small group of about 10 ex-servicemen had also reached the embassy to protest against the violent face-off between the Indian and Chinese troops along the LAC in eastern Ladakhs Galwan Valley on Monday night, but they returned after we told them to disperse, Yadav said. Vikas Chaudhary, co-convenor of Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said the protesters had assembled at Teen Murti Bhavan around 12 noon. The protesters started marching towards the Chinese Embassy after paying homage to the 20 martyred Indian soldiers. However, they were stopped mid-way by the police, as the area was cordoned off with barricades. Photographs and effigies of Chinese President Xi Jinping were burnt as a mark of protest. There was a minor scuffle between the protesters and the police after which 22 of our members were detailed, Chaudhary said. Security in and around the embassy has been intensified following inputs about several groups are planning to carry out similar protests. Delhi Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and reserved battalion have also been deployed in addition to the Diplomatic Security Force personnel, who are in charge of security of embassies and diplomatic missions in the national capital, Yadav added. Gov. Phil Murphy will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. Wednesday to discuss New Jerseys continued recovery from the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 12,727 in the state over the past three months. The press conference at the Trenton War Memorial will be streamed on the governors YouTube channel. As always, state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli and State Police Superintendent Colonel Pat Callahan will attend to deliver their daily reports and answer questions from the media. Another press conference regular, state epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan is also scheduled to be there. In addition, the states Secretary of Higher Education Zakiya Smith Ellis is slated to attend, possibly to discuss the late summer reopening of New Jerseys colleges and universities. On Tuesday night, Murphy had drinks with Callahan, Persichilli and his homeland security director, Jared Maples at Coopers Riverview in Trenton. New Jersey restaurants were permitted to reopen for outdoor dining on Monday as part of Phase 2 of the recovery plan. A beautiful night for socially distanced outdoor dining at @CooperRiverview in Trenton with @NJDeptofHealth Commissioner Persichilli, @NJSP Superintendent Colonel Callahan, and @NJOHSP Director Maples! If youre going out, remember: common sense for the common good. pic.twitter.com/8Ss6o1tM2E Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) June 16, 2020 At 9 p.m. Tuesday, Murphy will appear on Cuomo Prime Time on CNN. The show is hosted by Chris Cuomo, the younger brother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with whom Murphy has worked closely during the pandemic. On Tuesday, officials laid out the rules that barber shops and beauty salons will have to follow next week when the reopen. Most involve temperature checks, masks and limiting the amount of people allowed in the businesses. Appointments will be required. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Juan Orlando Hernandez announced he had tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday and said his symptoms were mild. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been hospitalised for COVID-19 and is being treated for pneumonia, a health official said on Wednesday, a day after the Central American leaders diagnosis was revealed. While his condition is serious enough to require specialised medical care in a military hospital, including receiving medicines via an intravenous drip, the president is generally in good health, Francis Contreras, a spokesman for Honduran health agency SINAGER, told reporters outside the hospital. When Hernandez announced his positive diagnosis late on Tuesday in a televised speech, he said his symptoms were mild and he was feeling better, adding that while his doctors recommended rest, he would work remotely and through his aides. His general health status is good, said Contreras. He said X-rays have revealed lung problems, however. The presidents wife also tested positive for the coronavirus, along with two presidential aides, but has not presented any symptoms of the disease, Contreras said. Honduras has confirmed nearly 10,000 coronavirus cases and more than 300 deaths due to the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus. Both figures likely undercount the actual effect of the pandemic in the country. Advertisement The New South Wales government has today given the green light to a $750million rebuild of the iconic Sydney Fish Market. Construction work on the new market, next to the current site in Blackwattle Bay, will start in just eight weeks and is due for completion in 2024. The project will provide 700 construction jobs and the market will enable around 700 ongoing jobs when it's up and running. The New South Wales government has today given the green light to a $750million rebuild of the iconic Sydney Fish Market. Pictured: What the completed structure will look like in 2024 Construction work on the new market, next to the current site in Blackwattle Bay, will start in just eight weeks and is due for completion in 2024. Pictured: The inside space The new site will include shops, restaurants and bars, wholesale and retail markets, a working warf, a redeveloped promenade that will be open 24 hours a day, and better access from Wentworth Park. The market has been designed by Danish architect 3XN, in association with Sydney firms BVN and Aspect Studios. Asked why an Aussie firm was not given the contract, Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes said the Danish company came up with the best design. Mr Stokes said the Sydney Fish Market was approved through the Government's new Planning System Acceleration Program that is fast-tracking planning assessments to keep people in jobs and the economy moving. 'This is the 33rd project determined through the new accelerated assessment program, introduced as part of the NSW Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic,' he said. 'Building the new Sydney Fish Market at the head of Blackwattle Bay is an incredible opportunity to transform an under-utilised area into a vibrant, accessible and attractive waterfront precinct. 'The approved design also provides more than 4,700 square metres of new public open space, and paves the way for a future shared pedestrian and cycle path that will provide waterfront access all the way to Woolloomooloo.' Early works for the Sydney Fish Markets are expected to commence within the next eight weeks, with a stage one contract to be awarded shortly. The project will provide 700 construction jobs and the market will enable around 700 ongoing jobs when it's up and running. Pictured: What the completed structure will look like in 2024 The new site will include shops, restaurants and bars, wholesale and retail markets, a working warf, a redeveloped promenade that will be open 24 hours a day, and better access from Wentworth Park. Pictured: What the structure will look like in 2024 The market has been designed by Danish architect 3XN, in association with Sydney firms BVN and Aspect Studios. Pictured: What the completed structure will look like in 2024 A tender process is also underway for the major construction phase, which is expected to start in early 2021. Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism, and Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres said the development will help NSW's economy rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. 'This is a great development for the tourism, construction and hospitality industries of NSW, with hundreds of new jobs to be created in this vibrant new precinct,' Mr Ayres said. With three million visitors per year, the market attracts more visitors than the Great Barrier Reef - and this figure is expected to double to six million in ten years. The Sydney Fish Market is the biggest in the fish market in the southern hemisphere, with $120million worth of fish trade each year. Around 86 per cent of the fish sold comes from regional New South Wales. With three million visitors per year, the market attracts more visitors than the Great Barrier Reef - and this figure is expected to double to six million in ten years. Pictured: What the completed structure will look like in 2024 The London office welcomes Rupert and the continued expansion of one of Greenberg Traurigs key areas of practice. We are proud to be an integral part of the firms, and the practices, continuous development to meet the needs of our clients on a global scale, said Fiona Adams Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP has made further moves to expand its Restructuring & Bankruptcy practice in London following the lateral hire of Ian Jack in March this year. Joining as a senior associate is Rupert Cheetham who has a broad practice involving restructuring and insolvency, leveraged finance and general banking. Rupert acts for banks, funds and other financial institutions, as well as sponsors, corporates and directors. Rupert and I have worked together on previous deals over long periods of time and he has always been a very constructive and creative force with a huge amount of technical expertise, Jack said. There is a lot of uncertainty in the market at the moment. Rupert brings with him an ability, though, to work on complicated and difficult deals regardless of which way the market turns. That is a huge asset. Jack was formerly co-head of Baker McKenzies global restructuring and insolvency practice and head of its London group. The London office welcomes Rupert and the continued expansion of one of Greenberg Traurigs key areas of practice. We are proud to be an integral part of the firms, and the practices, continuous development to meet the needs of our clients on a global scale, said Fiona Adams, managing shareholder of the London office and co-chair of the Global Corporate Practice. Cheetham was formerly counsel in the London office of Allen & Overy and also worked in the leveraged finance team of Dickson Minto. He has wide ranging restructuring and insolvency and leveraged finance experience, having worked on a host of major matters including acting for the co-ordinating committee of second lien creditors on a c.4.1 billion restructuring of eircom; acting for Metinvest in relation to its c.US$2.3 billion financial restructuring; and acting for the security agent on a c.1.8 billion restructuring of WIND Hellas, among others. Cheetham received a Bachelor of Laws, with honors, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University. He is admitted in England and Wales and in Victoria, Australia, and is a member of the Insolvency Lawyers Association. Cheetham was a contributor to the England and Wales chapter of the 2017 INSOL International publication, Directors in the Twilight Zone V. Ruperts addition is in line with the geographical diversity that is a hallmark of our practice. We are in key financial markets and service clients throughout the United States and globally. The firm has developed a highly sophisticated and complex restructuring practice that serves clients on a global basis, said Shari L. Heyen and David B. Kurzweil, co-chairs of the firms Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice, in a joint statement. The team has recently added nine U.S.-based shareholders and since 2019, the number of restructuring attorneys at the firm has grown by nearly 20 percent. In addition to Jack, the firm recently added Peggy Hunt and Annette Jarvis in Denver as shareholders. Greenberg Traurigs internationally recognized Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice, with approximately 75 attorneys worldwide, has broad advisory and litigation experience with the often-complex issues that arise in reorganizations, restructurings, workouts, liquidations, and distressed acquisitions and sales, in both domestic and cross-border situations and proceedings. With offices in commercial centers across the United States and throughout the world, the firm utilizes its invaluable business network to offer critical advice and counsel to multiple constituencies in insolvency situations. About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has 2200 lawyers 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. Pushkar Banakar By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The violent clash between Indian and Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on Monday occurred despite India and China having at least five border agreements and other mechanisms aimed at defusing border tensions. According to diplomatic experts, the agreements are heavily tilted in favour of China and hence have not resulted in the de-escalation of tensions along the LAC. Also, the experts say that there has been no clear demarcation of the LAC and both India and China have different perceptions of the border and thats why clashes occur between the troops on the ground. The Chinese are irked with India ramping up its infrastructure along the LAC, the latest being the road leading to the Daulat Baig Oldi air base which was opened last October. Any number of agreements will not serve the purpose of solving the issue if the demarcation of the LAC is not made clear, said Sinologist and Chairperson of the Institute of Chinese Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, B R Deepak. India and China have signed five agreements in the past with an aim to maintain peace and tranquillity along the border. They include the 1993 agreement of maintenance of peace and tranquillity along the LAC, 1996 agreement of CBM (confidence building measure) in the military field along the LAC, 2005 protocol on the modalities of CBM in the military field along the LAC, 2012 agreement on the establishment of a working mechanism for consultation and coordination on India-China border affairs and 2013 border defence cooperation agreement. Apart from the agreements, a joint working group with political representatives of both China and India was formed in the 1980s. The JWG met several times but failed to reach any consensus on the border issue.Apart from the JWG, a special representative was appointed during PM Atal Bihari Vajpayees time in a bid to lower tensions at the border. However, parleys between the special representatives also failed to yield any result. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval himself has had several rounds of talks aimed at resolving border disputes. But there has been no fructification. Till we change our mindset and policy towards the Chinese, there would be no results yielded through the mechanisms that are in place, Deepak said. A former diplomat, who did not wish to be named, said India should also try and capture some territories like the Chinese. It is a far-fetched proposition but that is the only way out. The Chinese have a maximalistic approach and to get them to bend, this is the only strategy. We need to have bargaining chips to enter into a negotiation with China. As is evident, the treaties and agreements related to peace and tranquillity at the LAC have yielded no results. The unfortunate part is that if India continues to deal with China the way it has so far, there will only be skirmishes and fatalities but no resolution of the conflict, he said. JWG of political representatives failed, too A joint working group with political representatives of both China and India was formed in the 1980s. The JWG met several times but failed to reach any consensus on the border issue. Standoff turns fatal As a few women tried to remove the "white lives matter" message with cleansers and stainless steel scrubbers a short time later, the man returned with a brush and attempted to wipe off the "BLM" message, according to video taken by a different woman and also shared with The Post. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new study utilizing data from a large American population confirms that Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) is a superior metric to guide people on how much exercise they need to achieve and maintain optimal heart health. In fact, achieving a weekly PAI score of 100 or more is associated with 4 to 5 years longer life when compared to those who are physically inactive. The PAI algorithm was conceived by the Cardiac Exercise Research Group at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and it was derived from one of the most comprehensive health studies ever performed, the Nord-Trndelag Health Study (HUNT). PAI uses heart rate data from wearable devices to assess current levels of activity, with the ideal goal of 100 PAI over a rolling 7-day period. Healthy men and women followed for decades For almost 15 years, over 56,000 participants have been followed as part of the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study in Dallas, Texas where relatively healthy men and women have gone through complete health check-ups and answered questions regarding their physical activity habits. Researchers calculated PAI scores for all participants based on these answers. By the end of the study period, more than 3,000 of the participants had died. Individuals who had maintained at least 100 PAI had approximately 20% reduced risk for all-cause mortality compared with those who were physically inactive with 0 PAI. The benefits of 100 PAI were present in both men and women, and in all age groups. The risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease, such as heart attacks and strokes, was even more profoundly reduced with those who maintained 100 PAI. In fact, there was more than 50% risk reduction for women and nearly 30% for men. All participants were free from cardiovascular diseases when they entered the study, but some had risk factors such as high blood pressure, unhealthy lipid levels, obesity or high blood sugar. Even among these groups, obtaining 100 PAI or more was linked to reduced risk of death and disease by up to 50%. Easy to track, easy to understand PAI is a personal activity score that counts all forms of activity as it is based on heart rate. It considers a persons age, sex and fitness level, and all one needs to track the score is the PAI Health app and a compatible smartwatch or fitness band that measures heart rate. The PAI score is also featured on Amazfit devices produced by leading wearables manufacturer Huami. The number of PAI points earned depends on effort based on heart rate intensity. The higher the heart rate, the faster one can reach their weekly goal of 100. While most people are aware that they should be physically active, they are often misled or unclear about what they should be doing, or they lack the motivation to prioritize it. PAI sheds light on the type and quality of activity that will most effectively impact heart health, helping people understand what to focus on when time-pressed and optimize their routines to get the most health benefits. Clinicians and the general population can incorporate PAI recommendations and thresholds in their physical activity prescriptions and weekly physical activity assessments, respectively, to maximize health outcomes. Importantly, earning 100 PAI or more per week was associated with maximal protection regardless of fulfilling todays recommendations for physical activity . PAI has the potential to become the new standard for physical activity, addressing the global health problem of inactivity that has reached concerning proportions. Given that PAI is adaptable to all fitness levels, easy to track and includes all forms of physical activity, it could motivate more people to become sufficiently physically active, resulting in profound improvements in public health. About PAI Health PAI Health allows organizations to assess, monitor and guide their people to better health to reduce risk and costs, while providing individuals with motivational guidance on recommended physical activity levels for better health. Our mission is to optimize anyone's path to better health by making the science-backed Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) metric available world-wide through partnerships with insurers, employee wellness programs, technology platforms, health care providers and other industry partners. For more information, visit www.paihealth.com . PAI Health Media Contact pr@paihealth.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/418e44ea-a64a-42e6-bca5-c6a1f081d59f People take turns stomping a statue of Christopher Columbus after it was toppled in front of the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., on June 10, 2020. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP) As America Fights 2nd French Revolution, Trump Needs to Seize the Moment Commentary We have arrived at a state of near-anarchy in the formerly United States of America, now disunited by paroxysms of rage attributable not to any specific, proximate cause, but a free-floating, frustrated anti-Western, anti-American rage that bids fair to consume our social fabric, our political system, and our still-young nation itself. Dont be fooled that the complaints about slavery, racism, police brutality, white supremacy, Confederate monuments, or LGBT rights are behind the current unrest. Theyre transient, and recurring, issues. The answer is more elementalfundamental, even: pure hatred for Western civilization and the Enlightenments most notable offspring, the USA. How do we know? For one thing, those of us of a certain age have seen this movie before. The claims of racismit used to be called simply prejudice, but that wasnt nasty enoughand police brutality were commonplace during the urban riots of the 1960s. There was indeed a white-supremacy movement back then, but it didnt get very farits leader was a nut named George Lincoln Rockwell, and he was assassinated in 1967 in suburban Virginia by a member of Rockwells own American Nazi Party. True, the destruction of Confederate statues and the pointless idea to rename military bases who currently bear the names of Southern generals no one but a Civil War buff would ever recognize (Braxton Bragg, anybody?) was not much mentioned. Of course, nobody had ever heard of, or contemplated, the LGBT movement. And the ferocity of the big-city race riots in Los Angeles, Detroit, and Washingtonnot to mention the pitched battle in the streets of Chicago during the 1968 conventionwere thus far more violent and destructive than the current round of civil unrest. But its starting to feel eerily similar. So its worth noting that President Lincoln and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (both ardent opponents of slavery) wished to reunite the country after the bloodiest war in our history as quickly and peaceably as possible. But apparently, thats not good enough for todays street warriors. 2nd French Revolution The coming months until the election are going to be among the most perilous in American history. For one thing, the country really has fundamentally changed in the half-century between the 60s riots and now, not only demographically (for which we can thank the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965), but morally and spiritually as well. Religious attendance has dropped precipitously, and has worsened since the unconstitutional CCP virus lockdowns summarily canceled the First Amendments explicit guarantees of free exercise of faith and freedom of assembly. For another, theres now the very real question whether this New America now struggling to be bornand so gleefully celebrated by the party of fundamental transformationshares any important values with the nation it is trying so desperately to supplant. We are now in the throes not of the second American Revolution, but the second French Revolution, in which the old order must be swept away by the newer on the grounds of revanchism (reparations for African slavery), irredentism (Mexican demands for restoration of territory, also known as la Reconquista), and extreme institutional secularism (a hallmark of the French Revolution, known today as laicite). The fine line that separates ethnic pride (St. Patricks Day) from ofttimes hostile national chauvinism (Cinco de Mayo, which actually celebrates a Mexican victory over the French in 1862) seems to turn on whether the United States invaded or currently occupies any territory once administered by other countries. America never invaded Ireland, but instead welcomed (with restrictions both moral and physical) the Irish in huge numbersdespite that for nearly 70 years, Irishmen figured among the foremost criminal elements in the country. On the other hand, America defeated Mexico during the war of 18461848, which resulted in the ceding of most of the U.S. Southwest to the United Statessomething the Mexicans have never gotten over, even though they were unable to protect that vast territory against Indian incursions, which is why they asked for Anglo immigration in the first place. Willpower Needed Whats needed now is the willpower at the top to seize the moment. Donald J. Trump was elected not because enough Americans fell in love with him personally, but because he was the apparent antithesis to what they despised most: the spiteful Hillary Clinton; the relentlessly anti-American Democrats, with their sordid history of slavery, segregation, sedition, and secularism; the GOP junior wing of the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party (PBFP) of Poppy Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John Comity McCain, and Willard Mitt Romney; and all the other prominent Republican politicians since Ronald Reagan who have consistently betrayed foundational American principles in their pursuit of power. The big question around Washington right now, however, is this: Has the president thrown in the towel on reelection? Few could blame him if he did. His soaring economy and patriotic Make America Great Again message were sabotaged by his spectacularly ill-advised decision to turn the economy of the United States over to two unknown doctors, Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, and to fall into the tar-baby trap of holding daily press conferences with a politicized and medically ignorant media whose animus against him remains unbounded. As a Napoleonic official remarked of the execution of Louis Antoine de Bourbon: Cest pire quun crime, cest une faute. Indeed, it was worse than a crime, it was a blunder. But Trump has had to battle against hostile outside forces from the beginning of his presidency: the Flynn sandbagging by a rogue FBI; Russian collusion, a Russian-backed disinformation campaign knowingly disseminated by the red-diaper baby media and the presidents mortal enemies in Congress; impeachment over something to do with a phone call to Ukraine; the CCP virus, conveniently hatched in a Wuhan lab/wet market and consciously spread throughout the world around Christmastime for maximum impact in November 2020; a recrudescent Black Lives Matter movement (founded in 2013), awaiting a just-right white copblack victim narrative to rekindle racial animosity, while ignoring the horrific black-on-black death toll in places like Barack Obamas Chicago. What Trump Must Do The president, however, hasnt helped himself. From the start, the politically inexperienced Trump relied on a small circle of advisors regarding personnel matters, chiefly including his daughter Ivanka and her hitherto undistinguished husband, Jared Kushner, whose father Charles, a New Jersey real estate mogul, pleaded guilty in 2005 to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign contributions (to Democrats), and did time in federal prison. Around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., the pair is known as the Democrats, and it is they who consistently push Trump to the left. The early appointments were disastrous: milquetoast Reince Priebus as chief of staff; Texas oilman Rex Tillerson as secretary of state; Scott Pruitt at the EPA; H.R. McMaster as the National Security Advisor; the comically inept Anthony Scaramucci as head of the terminally incompetent White House comms shop for less than two weeks; even Jim Mattis, the tough-talking, no-victory general and former secretary of defense, also flamed out, and after his firing, has violated the Marine Corps tradition of never speaking ill of civilian leadership. In the meantime, Trump managed to purge his most loyal MAGA troops, including Stephen K. Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Michael Anton, and Rich Higgins (the latter two at the National Security Council), to satisfy the in-house demands for moderation. Is there still time to pull things together? The mood around Washington says no, but then when has official Washington been right about anything since 1945? Meanwhile, the North Koreans have just blown up their negotiating station on the border with South Korea, and the communist Chinese are involved in a shooting war with India. Theres trouble everywhere you look. Heres what Trump must do, and right away: Stop the violence in the streetsby any means necessary, as the left likes to say. Regain control of the blue states, including their sanctuary cities. Nullification of federal laws was settled by Lincoln and Grant in 1865. Remember that, according to the Constitution, every federal court below the Supreme Court is a creature of Congress, and thus subject to congressional jurisdiction. Presidential directives shouldnt be countermanded by lone federal judges. Campaign hard for the House. Abolish ballot harvesting. Save the Senate, if possible, but be prepared to go it alone for at least the next two years. Lay down clear policy for the Defense Department and make American resolve regarding China, North Korea, and the Middle East clear to the rest of the world. And, most importantly, unite the country around its foundational principles, and focus Americans on the future, not the past. The most important chapters of our history are yet to be written. We have five months. Over to you, Mr. President. Michael Walsh is the author of The Devils Pleasure Palace and The Fiery Angel, both published by Encounter Books. His latest book, Last Stands, a cultural study of military history, will be published in December by St. Martins Press. Follow him on Twitter @dkahanerules. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author. As a non-partisan public charity, The Epoch Times does not endorse these statements and takes no position on political candidates. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Parents of Colonel Santosh Babu, Commanding Officer of the 16 Bihar Regiment, who lost his life in the violent face-off with Chinese soldiers in Galwan valley area, are shocked by the unexpected loss. IMAGE: Martyred Colonel Santosh Babu's mother Manjula is in deep shock. Photograph: ANI Upender and Manjula, the parents said they had first been in disbelief but later accepted the truth after being informed by higher authorities about the face-off. Manjula, the martyred Colonel's mother, said, "We received the news yesterday afternoon at 2 pm that my son has been martyred. I could not believe that my son has been martyred." "We are under deep shock, We could not believe it when we got to know about our son. I could not believe it as he was very brave. Since the last fifteen years, he had gained success. I immediately inquired from one of the officers. Later, several officers of the army contacted directly through my phone. They said that they are making arrangements to get the body from that place to Suryapet," Col Santosh's father, Upender said. He added that the body of his son will reach Suryapet by today evening, and also said that he has been given assurance of full support from leaders and officials, including MoS-home G Kishan Reddy. "By tomorrow the body will reach here, along with my daughter-in-law and the kids, the officer told me on phone. Kishan Reddy spoke to me on the phone as well. All the delegates from Suryapet, including, collector has given us assurance to support us at this time. An army official has informed that the body will start in the day and reach Suryapet at around 4 pm via Chandigarh to Hyderabad and then Suryapet," he said. Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in the fierce clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region. The Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement it revised the figure to 20 saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries." Government sources said the Chinese side too suffered "proportionate casualties" but chose not to speculate on the number. That didn't take very long. T-Mobile completed its contentious $26B merger with Sprint, a move that consolidated the number of major telecoms from four to three, on April 1. To win federal approval and ease concern about reducing consumer choice, T-Mobile argued that a beefed-up company would have the financial wherewithal to go head-to-head with Verizon and AT&T, invest in new technologies and create thousands of new jobs. Now former CEO John Legere promised a combined company would create 11K more jobs by 2024 than the standalone companies would have. It's not looking very good. Via a six-minute conference call on June 15, T-Mobile told hundreds of Sprint employees that they are being let go. The company claims it is scrutinizing the merged organization to focus on areas where consumers need it most. "This will result in additional career opportunities for many, as the company positions itself for long-term healthy growth," T-Mobile said. The Communications Workers of America union isn't so bullish about T-Mobile's job-creating potential. It worries about the 30K jobs at stake with the consolidation of retail outlets and corporate roles. The T-Mobile and Sprint hook-up is likely to turn out to be a wrong number for both consumers and employees. As Corporate America rushes out commitments to promote racial equality, blue-chip Morgan Stanley and its CEO James Gorman are hit with a lawsuit by the bank's former head of diversity, alleging "race and gender discrimination, retaliation and unequal pay." Marilyn Booker headed diversity from 1994 to 2010 and then ran a program to promote money management in inner city communities. The Financial Times reports Booker's lawsuit alleges she was fired in December after pushing a plan to improve the experience of minority employees of the bank. In her suit, Booker says that only 100 of Morgan Stanley's 16K financial advisers are Black. The bank rejects Booker's allegations and intends to vigorously defend itself in court. It claims Booker was let-go as part of a lay-off of 1,500 people We are steadfast in our commitment to improve the diversity of our employees and have made steady progresswhile recognizing that we have further progress to make," Morgan Stanley said in a statement. On its website, the bank features a statement from 40 Black managing directors who "are incredibly saddened and disturbed by these acts of violence and grieve with the families of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the countless men and women who have lost their lives in a similar manner over the years." They are "proud of the firms leadership for speaking out on this issue, for moving quickly to support all of us by creating safe spaces for dialogue, and for investing in organizations that directly support Black Americans who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic." Booker's lawsuit says Morgan Stanley has thousands of managing directors worldwide, only 41 of them are Black. Morgan Stanley is right. It does have further progress to make. Kim Kardashian on Tuesday thanked the Supreme Court for granting convicted murderer Ruben Gutierrez a stay of execution just one hour before he was scheduled to die. The reality star-turned-criminal justice reform advocate celebrated the news on social media, writing: 'Thank you Supreme Court of the United States for granting a Stay of Execution for Ruben Gutierrez! Now his case will go back to the lower courts to decide the issues with his case!' While Gutierrez was convicted of the murder of a 85-year-old woman in 1998, Kim and other activists claim that he was wrongfully convicted. He had been set to die at 6 p.m. CDT at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville but was granted a reprieve about an hour before he could have been executed. His attorneys argued his religious rights are being violated because the prison system wont allow a chaplain to accompany him in the death chamber. Kim also retweeted Gutierrez's wife Nicie who wrote: 'I love my husband so much...only God knows what he has in store for us in our lives. We will get through this!!! Fight to save Ruben #RubenGutierrez love over death...TEST THE DNA.' Kim Kardashian is thanking the U.S. Supreme Court for granting convicted murderer Ruben Gutierrez a stay of execution. She's seen during a 2019 visit to the White House above Gutierrez's wife Nicie also tweeted to say: 'I love my husband so much...only God knows what he has in store for us in our lives. We will get through this!!! Fight to save Ruben #RubenGutierrez love over death...TEST THE DNA' The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday had overturned a stay in the case tied to Gutierrezs request for DNA testing he says could point to the real killer and his claims his religious rights are being violated Gutierrez was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday but he was given a last-minute stay of execution after his lawyers argued his religious rights were being violated Gutierrez's supporters have been pushing authorities to test DNA from the victim's body and clear Ruben's name. Gutierrez was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday but he was given a last-minute stay of execution by the highest court in the nation barely an hour before the state initial plans were carried out. Kim had earlier tweeted: 'Today is #RubenGutierrez's scheduled execution. There is still time for @GovAbbott to stop this execution!!! We must get DNA collected from the body and do a full review before a man can be executed.' She added: 'Ruben Gutirrez has been on death row for over 20 years for a murder he said he did not commit. He has always maintained his innocence and has made requests to get DNA collected from the body of the victim tested to prove that he did not kill an 85 yr old woman during a robbery.' He was granted the reprieve after his lawyers contended that his religious rights were being violated because the Texan prison system would not allow him to be joined by a chaplain on death row. Gutierrez would have been the third inmate put to death this year in Texas and the seventh in the U.S. Prosecutors said Gutierrez was attempting to steal more than $600,000 that Escolastica Harrison had hidden in her home when he killed her. Gutierrez has long maintained he didnt kill Harrison. His attorneys say theres no physical or forensic evidence connecting him to the killing. According to court documents, Gutierrez went to Harrison's home on September 5, 1998, with two accomplices, Rene Garcia and Pedro Garza. There they stabbed Harrison to death with a screwdriver and made off with $56,000. Garcia is serving a life sentence. Garza fled after he was released on bond while awaiting trial and remains a fugitive. 'The state has fought such (DNA) testing at every turn, but surely the public interest would be best served by allowing DNA testing while the (Supreme Court) considers Mr. Gutierrezs case, in order to prevent a wrongful execution in the future,' Nolan said. Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison, a mobile home park manager and retired teacher, so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison had a mistrust of banks and hid her money underneath a false floor in her bedroom closet. Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz said he was disappointed the Supreme Court delayed the execution as the victim's family 'has once again been denied justice.' 'As a prosecutor, this changes nothing. It only delays his ultimate fate,' Saenz said in a statement. Prosecutors have said the request for DNA testing is a 'ruse' and Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession. The reality star celebrated the news on social media, writing: 'Thank you Supreme Court of the United States for granting a Stay of Execution for Ruben Gutierrez! Now his case will go back to the lower courts to decide the issues with his case!' Kim's passion for criminal justice reform lead her ask President Trump to grant Alice Marie Johnson clemency in May 2018, seen together above. Just a month later the Commander In Chief commuted Johnson's sentence Aspiring lawyer Kim has been focused on criminal justice reform for several years now. She went directly to President Donald Trump in May 2018 to lobby for the release of non-violent offender Alice Marie Johnson. Kim's plea seemed to convince POTUS, who commuted Johnson's life-sentence just weeks after meeting with the shapewear proprietor. Mrs. Kardashian-West spoke to CBS News shortly after Johnson's release, explaining why she was first compelled to fight on the 65-year-old great-grandmother's behalf. 'I just couldn't sit back and see Alice spend the rest of her life in prison,' she said. 'When I saw that she had a big family and her sisters and her grandkids, and it just reminded me of my family, and I thought, "What if one of us made a decision that just changed our family for the rest of our lives?"' 'Once I really got to know Alice, and realizing that there are thousands more Alices, I couldn't just sit back and not try to make a difference and not try to change,' she went on. Kim is currently studying to become a lawyer. Though she has no plans to attend law school, California law does not require a JD to take the bar exam. 'Once I really got to know Alice, and realizing that there are thousands more Alices, I couldn't just sit back and not try to make a difference and not try to change,' she explained. Kim and Alice are seen together in 2018 above Instead, she is apprenticing with attorneys Jessica Jackson and Erin Haney of prison reform organization #cut50 to become a 'law reader.' Kardashian is currently studying for the First-Year Law Students' Examination, unoffically known as the 'baby bar.' If she passes, she will continue her studies in preparation for the real California Bar Exam. The California's State Bar is considered one of the most difficult in the country. During the February 2020 exam only 27% of overall candidates passed, according to the most recent California State Bar Association statistics. China's real coronavirus death toll could be 14 times higher than official statistics show, a study has claimed. US researchers suggest China covered up the true size of its epidemic and used the activity of crematoriums in Wuhan to try and calculate accurate numbers. They found the city which is where the pandemic began in December may have been burning between 800 and 2,000 bodies every day by the second week of February, when the official death toll for the whole of China was only around 700. Reports of 86 Wuhan crematoriums operating 24 hours a day at full capacity raises suspicion that the number of people dying was more than just hundreds, they said. Funeral homes were also buying thousands of urns for ashes and the study suggests that, by March 23 when the UK went into lockdown around 36,000 people had died in Wuhan alone. The official number for all China at the time was 2,524. Beijing says there have now been 4,634 deaths from Covid-19 and 83,265 diagnosed cases. Figures show 98 per cent of recorded coronavirus fatalities have occurred in Hubei province, which Wuhan is the capital of. The study adds to claims that China has not been transparent about exactly how bad the Covid-19 outbreak was there, which experts say influenced other countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been criticised for not pressing Chinese officials hard enough about the accuracy of their data. Fresh concerns emerged this week now that there are reports of a second Covid-19 wave in Beijing, with one expert suggesting China will not be straight about this one, either. China's coronavirus death toll could be 10 times higher than officials in Beijing say it is, according to scientists (Pictured: Staff in protective clothing clean graves in the capital city) The study of crematorium operations in Wuhan was done by experts at the University of Washington, Ohio State University and US communications company AT&T. It was led by Dr Mai He, a pathologist at Washington, and was based mostly on media reports rather than scientific data. The study - published on medRxiv - has not been reviewed by other scientists or published in a peer-reviewed journal, meaning experts haven't pointed out flaws in the methodology for Dr He and colleagues to amend. The team wrote: 'The estimates of cumulative deaths, based on both funeral urns distribution and continuous full capacity operation of cremation services up to March 23, 2020, give results around 36,000, more than 10 times the official death toll of 2,524. 'Our study indicates a significant under-reporting in Chinese official data on the Covid-19 epidemic in Wuhan in early February, the critical time for response to the Covid-19 pandemic.' Dr He and his team took into account the speed at which the coronavirus was spreading in pre-lockdown China, its fatality rate, the crematorium capacity in Wuhan, and the number of urns being bought up by funeral homes. They said that all crematoriums in Wuhan of which they found seven with 86 furnaces between them would normally burn around 136 bodies per day and would operate for four hours. But in February operating hours were scaled up to 24 hours a day and crematorium staff were drafted in from other cities. This increased rate of burning combined with measures which cut the cremation time in half to one hour per person to between 680-2,000 extra bodies per day. By March 23, 36,720 people could have died and been cremated in Wuhan, the researchers calculated. Their figure lined up with reports of funeral homes in the city buying up urns. CHINESE OFFICIALS HID SARS OUTBREAK FOR FOUR MONTHS IN 2002 China's government has insisted it is being transparent about the Covid-19 outbreak there and a World Health Organization mission early on in the epidemic was satisfied that Beijing was telling the truth, but the company has form for covering up disease outbreaks. When the first cases of the almost-identical SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), first popped up in China in November 2002, the government hid it for three months. It was not until late January 2003 that officials classified the disease's spread as a potential outbreak and not until mid-February that they announced it publicly. By the time it was contained in May 2004, 8,098 people had been made ill by the virus and 774 people had died. China promised to be more transparent but messages coming out of Wuhan in March were oddly reminiscent of past actions. Early reports said the first case was diagnosed on December 31 but studies have since suggested that the first cases of the virus were circulating as early as October 2019. At the start, officials insisted the condition was 'mild', 'under control' and was not being transmitted between humans. Even Wang Guangfa, a top government respiratory expert, who told the media on January 10 that the Wuhan outbreak was 'preventable and controllable,' contracted the virus. And other cities in mainland China didn't reveal they had cases until Hong Kong news media reported that cases of the virus had been confirmed in its region. Advertisement A report from Newsweek in late March, the study said, revealed that a single crematorium had bought 5,000 extra urns. This would have been enough to handle the remains of all Wuhan's coronavirus victims (2,524) twice over, and more than enough to handle all the Covid-19 deaths reported by that date in the whole of China (3,277). Applied city-wide multiplying those 5,000 extra urns for each of the seven crematoriums the increasing demand for urns suggested the death toll was significantly higher than data let on. Dr He wrote: 'Potential Covid-19 related death counts from urn distribution for Wuhan could be 35,708 for seven funeral houses. 'This is consistent with our linear estimate of 36,720, based on the cremation service operation.' The estimates of 35-36,000, the researchers said, did not take into account the fact that 40 mobile crematoriums had been set up in the city during the epidemic. Those mobile services were capable of destroying up to five tonnes of 'medical waste' every day, they said. 'Thus, the calculations here could be significant underestimates.' The study admitted that their figures were only approximate and might contain errors but that the logic pointed to figures might higher than those given by China. Dr He and his team said: 'Readers are reminded of the assumptions that underlie our estimates, and they should therefore be taken as approximate. 'However, even if there were non-negligible reporting errors in these new data, the magnitude of the discrepancy between the results from their analysis and Chinas 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.' China has come under regular scrutiny during the pandemic for reporting such low numbers of cases and deaths, despite the virus emerging there months before it did in any other country - and being unknown when it did. To date there still have only been 83,265 officially confirmed cases of the disease, along with 4,634 deaths. In Britain, by comparison, there have been 298,136 cases and 41,969 deaths, despite the virus beginning to spread there at least three months after it emerged in China. President Donald Trump called out the World Health Organization in April over not forcing China to reveal more data, CNN reported. He said: 'Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China's lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death.' The WHO investigators who did go to China in the early stages of the outbreak said they were satisfied that Beijing was telling the truth about what was happening. But French president Emmanuel Macron was not convinced and said in an interview with the Financial Times in April: 'Let's not be so naive as to say it's [China] been much better at handling this. 'We don't know. There are clearly things that have happened that we don't know about.' And Marise Payne, Australia's foreign affairs minister, said: 'The key to going forward in the context of these issues is transparency, transparency from China most certainly,' VOA News reported. Beijing is now reporting a sudden surge in coronavirus cases again and has grounded flights and shutdown 27 neighbourhoods in the city. Millions of people have been placed into quarantine restrictions again as 137 cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed in the city in the past week. There had reportedly been no cases in almost two months until this happened, but scientists remain sceptical about what is really happening. Professor Keith Neal, an epidemiologist at the University of Nottingham, said today: 'What is actually happening in China is never truly transparent so only informed guesses are possible.' Kasautii Zindagii Kay actor Charvi Sarafs open letter on Instagram where she spoke about having Covid-19 symptoms but being unable to get a test done caught everyones attention. Its been over a week now and while her temperatures have gone down, extreme headache and body ache has restricted her mostly to bed. The headache, body ache and cough were there but around June 4 when I had the fever. I got worried and immediately quarantined myself because I stay with my parents, brother and sister-in-law here in Delhi. But nowhere could I get the test done. We called as many private and government hospitals possible but they said test kits arent available, she rues. When nothing worked out, her family doctors, who suggested she get the tests done, prescribed her some medicines. That helped. Ive also been taking homemade kadhas and taking rest. Till Friday (June 12) I wasnt being able to talk, but now I feel better. But my doctor said the fever might relapse. If it does Ill have to get the test done, she adds. Questioning the Delhi governments claim that there are enough test kits available, she wrote in open letter: I thought some reports were rumours but now I am forced to believe. If getting a test done to know if a person is positive or negative is such an issue, I really dont know how the government will help the people of Delhi She explains, I got to know later that to minimise the number of cases day-wise they didnt allow tests to be done for a few days. Also, these private hospitals are charging 30,000-40,000 for a day to treat Covid patients, government hospitals are full. Dont know how people who cant afford so much would manage, she adds. Saraf is overwhelmed with the response and help she received from people for her post, adds, Many doctors have sent me prescriptions via DM, hospitals messaged me saying that I can visit them. People from the industry also called. Pooja (Bannerjee; her Kasautii Zindagii Kay co-star) called to say she knows people in Delhi, she can help. Meanwhile, her show Kasautii Zindagii Kay is expected to go on floors soon. Recently, it was reported that Parth Samthan, her co-star from the show, returned to Mumbai from Bangalore to join the crew. Yes. I also want to go back... Ive informed the team about my condition and they are ready to wait for me to return. I dont think I would be able to return to Mumbai this month given my health condition. Thankfully, Ive been working on the show for the last two years and have received my payments. But then Ill have to go back to work soon, she signs off. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Mumbai, June 17 : The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) on Wednesday opened on a negative note during the morning session of the trade and then turned positive. The Sensex of the BSE opened at 33,438.31 points and touched a high of 33,700.48 points. The Sensex touched a low of 33,332.96 points. On Tuesday the Sensex closed at 33,605.22 points. The Sensex is trading at 33,668.72 up by 63.50 points or 0.19 per cent. On the other hand, the broader 50-scrip Nifty at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) opened at 9,876.70 after closing at 9,914.00 points. The Nifty is trading at 9,862.30 points in the morning. US Consulate General denies rumours about visa policy changes The US Consulate General has announced that rumours about the US ceasing visa grant for Vietnamese students were not correct. illustrative image On June 12, the US Consulate General in HCM City announced on their official Facebook page that there was no change to visa policy for Vietnamese nationals. "Don't believe online rumours! There has been no change to US visa policy for Vietnamese nationals. The US Consulate General in HCM City looks forward to resuming in-person visa services as soon as possible and will do all we can to accommodate student visa applicants heading to the US. Please note we are processing mail-in renewal visas for students (www.ustraveldocs.com/vn/vn-niv-visarenew.asp)," the US Consulate General wrote on the page. In the past days, both parents and students were worried and confused as the rumours that the US had stopped granting visa for Vietnamese students were spread. According to the rumours, on June 8, many overseas education counselling units in Vietnam were rejected by the Bureau of Stay. Starting from July 1, Vietnam would be among five countries that the US would refuse to consider the resident status for its citizens due to fake dossiers, thefts and run-away problems. The Mission Vietnam's Pre-Departure Orientation for Vietnamese students going to study in the US will be held soon. Students will find useful information about visa, scholarships and campus life at the three-day programme. The fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta is changing how the city's citizen watchdog group operates and, after years of criticism that it is a "toothless" body, could further empower it in investigating and recommending disciplinary action against officers. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced a series of administrative orders Monday related to de-escalation and police reform, one of which would send all cases of deadly force by officers to the Atlanta Citizen Review Board, a process that is normally triggered only when someone files a complaint. An amended ordinance was also presented at a City Council meeting Monday that would, among several other changes, broaden the board's authority to conduct investigations and hold public hearings; expand the board to include younger members, because their age group often comes into contact with police; and institute an independent "reviewer" who would essentially mediate and make binding rulings when the board and the police department fail to agree on investigations. Samuel Lee Reid II, the board's executive director, told NBC News on Tuesday that he supports the measures and believes they can strengthen the board's guiding purpose, which is to field misconduct and civil rights abuse complaints against police and to open independent investigations. The panel also has subpoena power to interview officers, an important tool that was introduced in 2010, three years after the board was established. According to the board's latest data, the Atlanta Police Department has agreed with the board's findings about 41 percent of the time, but Reid said he believes that should be far higher at least 75 percent to show "how serious the department is to address citizen complaints." (The number was as low as 11 percent in 2015.) The board received 153 complaints in 2019, a 13 percent increase from 2018. The complaints centered mostly on allegations that officers failed to follow protocol, used excessive force or exhibited questionable conduct. According to board data, the majority of complaints last year were made by Black men over 35, while the majority of law enforcement officers identified in the complaints were Black officers who had more than five years of policing experience. Story continues While the board has four investigators who review complaints before they're brought before all 13 members for hearings, Reid said, he'd also like the city to hire an analyst to perform audits and conduct studies on why officers might be disciplined only in some cases or not at all, as well as highlight other trends or gaps in reporting. "We want to dig into that data," Reid said, adding: "If you want to do this correctly, you need the power and the manpower to do it. We want to catch these issues before it happens again." There are about 150 civilian review boards nationwide, most of them associated with larger municipal police agencies and many formed either after high-profile incidents or as responses to patterns of complaints of police brutality or racial bias. The death of Brooks, 27, during a police encounter Friday night has focused renewed scrutiny on the Atlanta Police Department, which has about 2,000 sworn officers. Chief Erika Shields resigned Saturday night, less than 24 hours after the shooting; Assistant Chief Rodney Bryant is serving as interim chief. Image: Rayshard Brooks (Stewart Trial Attorneys / via AFP - Getty Images) The city was also roiled by protests in recent weeks following the death last month of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. On June 2, six Atlanta police officers were charged in connection with the protest-related detainment of a young Black man and woman and the use of stun guns on the man in an incident caught on police bodycam video. Brooks' shooting in a Wendy's parking lot was captured on security and bodycam video. Police responded to a report that a man had fallen asleep in his car in the drive-thru. Two officers encountered Brooks, and a struggle ensued after they administered a field sobriety test and tried to take Brooks into custody. Video shows Brooks holding a stun gun as he runs away. He appears to turn around and point the weapon before an officer, Garrett Rolfe, fires at him, hitting him in the back, according to investigators. Rolfe, a six-year veteran of the department, was fired, while the second officer, Devin Brosnan, a veteran of nearly two years, was placed on administrative leave. Fulton County prosecutors on Wednesday took the rare step of announcing charges in a police shooting. In this case, Rolfe faces 11 charges, including for felony murder, and Brosnan faces three charges, including for aggravated assault. Earlier this week, Atlanta police released Rolfe's disciplinary record, which shows that he was issued a written reprimand in 2016 related to a use-of-force incident involving a firearm. Details weren't disclosed. In addition, Rolfe was the subject of four citizen complaints during his career, which didn't result in any disciplinary action, and he was also involved in vehicle accidents, one of which led to a written reprimand and another to an oral admonishment. There was also an incident involving the discharge of a firearm in 2015, although it's unclear how it concluded. Reid said it wouldn't be surprising that officers with histories of complaints could remain employed in the Atlanta Police Department, particularly if they are cleared internally and aren't seeking to be promoted. But Xochitl Bervera, director of the Racial Justice Action Center, an Atlanta-based organization fighting the criminalizing of Black and brown communities, said that even though there's an independent police oversight agency, it's apparent that Atlanta officers with complaints can continue operating in communities and that residents may be left in the dark about how many complaints they have and for what, a disconnect she said she believes doesn't engender trust. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and alerts "We need to rethink what community engagement and community control of policing looks like and how we make accountability of the police something transparent," Bervera said, adding that there is a role for some form of a review board but that "we have to ask ourselves at this point, does this model work?" The Atlanta Citizen Review Board was established after the death of Kathryn Johnston, 92, a Black woman who was killed during a police raid on her home in 2006. Officers, dressed in plainclothes and wearing bulletproof vests, were executing a "no-knock" warrant in connection with a man who they claimed was selling drugs from Johnston's home. After officers forced their way in, Johnston, a resident of one of Atlanta's most crime-plagued neighborhoods, opened fire on them and was killed in a shootout, according to reports. The disturbing case enraged residents after one of the officers admitted to having planted bags of marijuana inside the home after Johnston was killed, as well as having based the warrant on falsified records. Three officers were charged with federal crimes and sentenced, which also galvanized the community to demand police reform and paved the way for the Citizen Review Board. Proposals to abolish the use of no-knock warrants have been revived in recent weeks as part of policing reform efforts in other cities and states following the death of Breonna Taylor, a young Black woman who was killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police in her home this year. Vincent Fort, a former Democratic state senator in Georgia who tried unsuccessfully to get a no-knock bill passed, said subsequent police-involved killings and injuries of Atlantans over the years have resulted in board investigations that appeared only to languish for months without meaningful repercussions. "The administration and City Council made the review board toothless," Fort said. "The problem with it is, even as they acquired subpoena power over time, there's a loophole the police use: If I'm on the board and I ask the police for data, documents or even for the officer to appear, all they say is 'it's an ongoing investigation.' And the case just drags on and on." "I once told them: 'You're a paper tiger. You're a joke in the community,'" Fort said of the board. In 2015, the Citizen Review Board drew heat from activists who demanded an investigation into the death of Alexia Christian, a Black woman who was killed in police custody, and criticized the board's "Don't Run" campaign, meant to encourage residents not to flee from police. Bottoms, who was a City Council member at the time, had supported the idea of the campaign but said she also felt it was telling people not to exercise their constitutional rights. Fort said that now that she's mayor, Bottoms must go further. "Right now, Black people believe that the police in their community are tantamount to an occupying force that's designed to keep Black people and working-class people under control," he said. Atlanta police didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Bottoms said Tuesday on NBC's "TODAY" show that more administrative orders involving the police are likely coming. "We have to objectively look at de-escalation. That's not very clear in our policies," Bottoms said. "Shooting at moving vehicles and so many other things that as we're peeling back the layers of our standard operating procedures. Some of it's ambiguous, and some of it is simply not laid out." Given the history of Atlanta, a majority-Black city, and its storied place in America's civil rights movement, the police department has benefited from a reformist-type legacy in the past, with Black officers joining the force and pushing back at Jim Crow restrictions themselves, said Nirej Sekhon, a Georgia State University law professor who studies policing. But that "hasn't translated to particularly radical renovation in recent times," he said. "We have to be careful about celebrating Atlanta's civil rights history, not because there's nothing to celebrate or because it's all a lie, but because it's still incomplete." Singles are paying a psychic on Etsy to draw their soulmates in the hope of finding their one true love, and while some fans are raving about the experience, others are doubtful of the results. The seller, who is known as ThePsychicArtist on the e-commerce site, promises to 'draw your soulmate within 24 hours' of purchase and email the sketch along with a description of the person's character. Originally priced at $67.22, the unique service is now on sale for $33.61 per drawing, and customers are only required to submit their name and birthday along with their payment. Looking for love? ThePsychicArtist on Etsy promises to 'draw your soulmate within 24 hours' of purchase and email the sketch along with a description of the person's character Nothing to lose: 'This service will bring a reflection of whom you are going to marry, describing and drawing the physical appearance of your Soulmate!' reads the product description Little is known about the California-based psychic, whom many customers referred to as 'he' in their reviews of his drawings. According to the seller's bio, he is a 'natural born psychic expert' who has worked with 'governments, celebrities, judges, lawyers, and everyone in between.' He got dubbed 'PsychicArtist' thanks to his ability to explain and draw 'exactly what will happen next.' 'My drawings are very realistic and accurate,' he wrote in the product description. 'This service will bring a reflection of whom you are going to marry, describing and drawing the physical appearance of your Soulmate!' There are more than 59,000 sales listed on his Etsy shop, which has gotten multiple five-star reviews over the past week. A few customers shared photos of their drawings along with pictures of their partners to tout the accuracy of ThePsychicArtist's predictions. Sale: Originally priced at $67.22, the service is now on sale for $33.61 per drawing See the resemblance? A few customers shared photos of their drawings along with pictures of their partners to tout the accuracy of ThePsychicArtist's predictions 'I bought this service from pure curiosity and now after 3 months I just met with [a] wonderful man! He's exactly how PA described him, I'm shaking all over OMG so excited! MANY THANKS TO YOU FOR SPREADING YOUR GIFT WITH OTHERS!' reads one five-star review. The woman posted a snapshot of the sketch she received along with a picture of herself with her new boyfriend who looks just like the man in the drawing. 'I never thought I would order this type of product but now I am so happy I did so. I met a warm, gentile soul exactly how I wanted and how you said he will be. Thank you,' another five-star reviewer shared. 'I have to admit, I was a little skeptical at first, but three months after I ordered, I met someone who looks IDENTICAL to the drawing I was sent!' someone else commented. 'Now we are in a happy relationship and I am literally amazed with The PA's psychic gifts! Highly recommend this to anyone!!' The Etsy shop has been given a boost in recent weeks as a number of TikTok users have shared videos documenting their experience with ThePsychicArtist, though the reviews have been mixed. Lookalikes: One woman claimed she met a man just three months after receivng her drawing What are the odds? Another fan shared a photo of her new boyfriend along with the sketch she had received Rave reviews: One woman gushed that she met her 'soulmate' after purchasing the drawing and is now planning her wedding A TikTok user named Victoria explained in her video that she is already married, and the description of her soulmate actually fits her husband 'quite well,' but the drawing wasn't as spot-on. 'I don't think they look that alike,' she said. 'But it was fun, so worth it.' A few commenters disagreed with her assessment and noted that her husband has similar features to the man in the picture. Others shared photos of their sketches on TikTik to ask viewers to help them find the mystery men in their drawings. 'Alright TikTok, I need your help,' Megan James shared. 'Look, Im wearing my rose quartz and everything. I need love! Oh, my God, I need it! ... I need your help to find him.' Emily Strawn's video detailing how she paid for the psychic's service has been viewed more than 3.1 million times. Crowdsourcing: Megan James shared the sketch of her 'soulmate' on TikTok and asked viewers to help her find the bearded mystery man Going viral: Emily Strawn's video detailing how she paid for the psychic's service has been viewed more than 3.1 million times 'I saw a video two days ago of this girl named Kennedy, and she was talking about how she found this psychic artist on Etsy,' she explained in the clip. 'Basically you pay to have him draw what your soulmate is going to look like and he gives a description and tells you when you're supposed to meet this person or whatever. 'Me being me, I'm always up for a challenge, so I found that s**t and I bought it!' In a follow-up clip, she revealed that she was advised not to tell anyone about his prediction, but that didn't stop her from sharing the psychic gave her a 'generic description' of the guy she will supposedly meet in six months. However, when she went to share a photo of the sketch with her TikTok followers, it appeared to have been erased. 'I don't know if it's like fate telling me don't do it, don't mess up your aura girl,' she said. Feeling it: A TikTok user named Victoria explained in her video that she is already married, and the description of her soulmate actually fits her husband 'quite well' Close enough? Victoria didn't think her husband looks like the guy in the sketch, but some commenters disagreed with her assessment In a piece for The Verge, Makena Kelly wrote that she had a similar experience with the psychic, explaining that she was advised to keep the information about her soulmate confidential. 'You should not release to any other soul because the consequences could lead to an energy blockage of your aura and it will interfere with the connection between you and him,' the psychic told her. However, some skeptics insisted the warning has more to do with keeping people from realizing they have received the same sketches than aura blockages. 'They started putting that disclosure because they were sending the same photo to different people,' one TikTok user wrote. 'Do you think that maybe they would just tell you to not share it so that they can give multiple people the same drawing?' someone else asked. With so many TikTok users showing interest in the service, ThePsychicArtist started his own page earlier this month to promote his work. WASHINGTON - Republican leaders who said nothing after Marjorie Taylor Greene, a believer of the QAnon conspiracy theory, won a GOP primary in Georgia last week are now distancing themselves from her candidacy after the discovery of videos of her making racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic comments. The Facebook videos were unearthed by Politico. It reported Wednesday that in those hours of videos, Greene had said that black people "are held slaves to the Democratic Party," called prominent Jewish Democratic donor George Soros a "Nazi" and suggested that Muslims shouldn't hold elected public office. Congressional GOP leaders immediately condemned her comments on learning about them, yet only Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., actively said he would not support her. "The comments made by Ms. Greene are disgusting and don't reflect the values of equality and decency that make our country great," Scalise said, offering his endorsement to the other Republican she will be up against in an August runoff election. Although the other Republican leaders in Congress didn't go as far as Scalise did, they used forceful language to distance themselves from Greene. A spokesman for House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming said, "Obviously, Rep. Cheney opposes these offensive and bigoted comments." A spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee said its chairman, Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, "strongly condemned" Greene's remarks. Drew Florio, a spokesman for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did not respond to a Washington Post request for comment but told Politico that the "comments are appalling, and Leader McCarthy has no tolerance for them." In a fiery two-page statement, Greene slammed "Mitt Romney-style Republicans," the "Fake News Media" and the "DC Swamp." "Every Republican, every Christian Conservative is going to be called a racist and a bigot by the Fake News Media, as have Steve Scalise and Liz Cheney. I'm sorry my future colleagues are unable to stand up to the pressure and fight back," she said. "I'm sick-and-tired of watching establishment Republicans play defense while the Fake News Media cheers on Antifa terrorists, BLM rioters, and the woke cancel culture, as they burn our cities, loot our businesses, vandalize our memorials, and divide our nation." Greene won her primary last week in conservative northwestern Georgia with 40 percent of the vote, falling short of the majority and triggering a runoff with the second-place finisher on Aug. 11. As long as her primary support holds, Greene would almost certainly win in November - Trump won the district with 75 percent of the vote - and take her place as a Republican member of Congress. Although these unearthed comments are new, Greene's support for QAnon, considered a potential domestic terrorist threat by the FBI, has been well documented. The Southern Poverty Law Center devotes a page of its website to her as part of its "Hatewatch." Yet, none of the top GOP leaders responded last week when asked about Greene and her affiliations with QAnon, which believes that President Trump will save the country from the corrupt "deep state." In 2017, QAnon spread a baseless story about a child sex abuse operation run by prominent Democrats out of a District of Columbia pizza shop, which led to one believer coming to the restaurant and firing an AR-15. Greene has amassed some support on Capitol Hill, boasting of endorsements from a handful of Republicans, including Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Matt Gaetz of Florida, both Trump allies. Neither responded last week to requests for comment about her primary win or Wednesday about the unearthed incendiary comments. By Ayya Lmahamad The State Agency for Compulsory Health Insurance has launched new electronic service "Online queue for passengers (COVID-19)" for passengers to undergo coronavirus test, the agencys press service reported on June 16. The service will notify ticket owners the time for their COVID-19 tests. To prevent coronavirus infection in the territory of the country, passengers using domestic flights of Azerbaijan Airlines must pass COVID-19 test before the flight. Thus, first citizens should enter the ticket number in order to check it under the section Check the ticket. After confirming the ticket, citizen should click the field Make an appointment, in order to determine the appropriate date and time for test. In this case, the information on the screen will contain the name and address of the medical facility the citizen should visit, as well as the date and time of the examination. A citizen may change the examination time in the same way as above. In this case, the previous date should be deleted. Citizens must note that they can only choose to have an appointment on the compulsory health insurance platform within the range that will be provided according to the date of the flight. Thus, it will not be possible to make an appointment 48 hours prior to the flight date. You must be tested for COVID-19 at least 48 hours before the flight and at earliest 96 hours before departure, the agency has said addressing residents. It should be noted that the citizen visiting a medical institution must present an identity card and the air ticket. The COVID-19 test for the passengers is free of charge. On June 11, Azerbaijan announced resumption of domestic flights. The first flight will be to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and will take place on June 18 at 12:00. As it was reported earlier, AZAL introduced new flight rules, which stipulate that only passengers who passed COVID-19 test 48 hours prior to departure with a negative result will be admitted to the flight in case of providing a special certificate. Azerbaijan first introduced special quarantine regime on March 24 and the fourth stage of quarantine regime easing came into force May 31. However, the borders remain closed. On June 14-16 a two- day nationwide special quarantine regime were imposed in Baku, Ganja, Lankaran, Sumgayit, Absheron, Yevlakh, Ismailli, Kurdamir and Salyan regions, with the ban for citizens to leave the place of residence. Earlier, TABIB Chairman Ramin Bayramli, in speaking at the briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers, said that June 19-20 may be set as a hard quarantine days in certain parts of the country. However, spokesperson for the management union of Medical Territorial Units (TABIB) Ravana Aliyeve said that the decision on introduction of a hard quarantine regime in some cities and regions of Azerbaijan on Friday and Saturday of this week (June 19-20), has not yet officially been confirmed. When the decision is made, the public will be informed in advance from a briefing of the Operational Headquarters. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Twitter India has collaborated with the National Commission for Women and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to assist people, especially women seeking help against domestic violence. Twitter noted that domestic violence cases have increased by large numbers in the backdrop of COVID-19. The dedicated search prompt will serve information and updates from authoritative sources around domestic violence. The search prompt will be available on iOS, Android, and mobile.twitter.com in India and will be available in English and Hindi, Twitter said in a statement. Whenever users type certain keywords related to domestic violence, it will direct them to the main pages of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the National Commission for Women. These pages then direct the users seeking help to various pages and helpline numbers. Some of these terms include crime against women, domestic violence, dowry, dowry death, gender violence, gender-based violence, lockdown violence, marital rape and POSH (prevention of sexual harassment), a report by PTI stated. This is an expansion of Twitter's #ThereIsHelp prompt, which was specifically put in place for the public to find out credible information on critical issues. The tool will be reviewed at regular intervals by the Twitter team to ensure that all related keywords generate proactive search prompts. Twitter said the National Commission for Women (NCW), which receives complaints of domestic violence from across India, has recorded more than two-fold rise in gender-based violence in the lockdown period. Mahima Kaul, Director, Public Policy, India, and South Asia said, "We recognise collaboration with the public, government and NGOs is key to combating the complex issue of domestic violence. Accessing reliable information through this search prompt could be a survivor's first step towards seeking help against abuse and violence." Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, the NCW, said: "With social distancing norms in place, several women are unable to contact their regular support systems. This initiative by Twitter will provide big support to the survivors, who would otherwise be easily isolated without access to relevant information and help". Sharma noted that there have been adverse effects on women and girls who may be victims of intimate partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. A report by UN women stated that 243 million women and girls aged 15-49 globally have been subjected to sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner in the past 12 months. The Auditor-General (A-G) has submitted a report on the Management of Petroleum Funds for 1st January 2018 to 31 December 2018 to Parliament. A statement signed by Mrs Ama Awoe-Bosumafi Assistant Director of Public Relations Unit on behalf of the Director General, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra, said the audit was carried out in accordance with Article 187(2) of the Constitution of Ghana, Section 16 of the Audit Service Act 2()00, (Act 584), and Section 45 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011, (Act 815). "The A-G used methodologies that are in line with internationally accepted standards to conduct the audit," it said . "The A-G hereby notifies the public that in line with Section 23 of Act 584, a copy of the report is available at for free download". 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 Stocks in Asia were mostly higher on Wednesday as the International Monetary Fund said the global economy is set to see a more significant contraction than it previously forecast. Mainland Chinese stocks nudged higher on the day, with the Shanghai composite up 0.14% to about 2,935.87 while the Shenzhen component advanced 0.192% to approximately 11,420.84. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.25%, as of its final hour of trading. Over in South Korea, the Kospi rose 0.14% to close at 2,141.05. India's Nifty 50 was 0.24% higher in afternoon trade. Shares in Japan lagged, as the Nikkei 225 shed 0.56% to close at 22,455.76 while the Topix index declined 0.4% to end its trading day at 1,587.09. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia added 0.83% to close at 5,991.80. Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index was 0.34% higher. IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said in a Tuesday blog post that "the forthcoming June World Economic Outlook Update is expected to show negative growth rates even worse than previously estimated." The fund also said the current crisis, which it dubbed the Great Lockdown, is "unlike anything the world has seen before." Authorities have imposed lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving most economies essentially frozen. While many countries have begun to ease these measures, it has proven challenging given the looming threat of a potential resurgence in Covid-19 cases. Meanwhile, trial results announced Tuesday showed dexamethasone a widely available drug can help critically ill coronavirus patients. The treatment reportedly reduced Covid-19 deaths in hospitalized patients by up to one third. Globally, more than 8 million people have been infected by the virus while at least 438,171 lives have been taken, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. In regional economic data, Japan's exports plunged 28.3% year-on-year in May, according to provisional trade statistics released Wednesday by the country's Ministry of Finance. "While we expect the impact of Covid-19 on trade to ease gradually, the near-term outlook remains very challenging," Stefan Angrick, senior economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note. "Exports are likely to remain under severe pressure as global activity will recover only gradually, although stronger positive momentum in China will provide some support. New Delhi: Actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death has put several Bollywood A-listers under the scanner and has also opened up the nepotism debate again. Social media is flooded with posts related to star power and how the bigshots in Bollywood bully the outsiders. The top trend on Twitter as of now is #JusticeForSushantSinghRajput. Amidst all this, actress Jiah Khans mother Rabia Amin has issued a statement regarding the investigation in her daughters suicide case and made serious allegations against superstar Salman Khan. Rabia accused Salman of using his power and resources to ensure Sooraj Pancholi, accused of abetting the suicide of his girlfriend Jiah, was not interrogated in the suicide case. Jiah Khan ended her life when she was just 25 in 2013. She was found hanging at her residence in Mumbai. Rabia Amin begins the video by saying, "My condolences to Sushant Singh's family. It is very heartbreaking, it is not a joke. Bollywood has to change, Bollywood has to wake up. It has to completely demolish bullying and I have to say bullying is also a kind of killing somebody." Jiah's mother further shared how Bollywood celebrities have used their power, money and influence to sabotage Jiah's suicide investigation. She went on to say that Sushants case has reminded her of 2013 when her daughter also took this drastic step. Click here to watch the video. "What happened with Sushant, has reminded me of 2015 when I went to meet CBI officer who had called me down from London. He said please come, we have found some incriminating evidence. I land up over there and he says, Oh, by the way, Salman khan calls me every day and says he has invested a lot of money, please dont harass the boy, please dont interrogate him, dont touch him. So what can we do, madam? He was annoyed, he looked frustrated. Rabia then approached the higher CBI authorities in Delhi. I have complained about it that if this is the scenario, if this is what is going to happen that you are going to pressurise and use your money and power to sabotage deaths and investigations, then I dont know where we citizens can go to. I want to say please stand up, fight, protest, and stop this toxic behaviour in Bollywood, Jiahs mother signed off. Chennai, June 17 : Tamil Nadu on Wednesday said 2,174 people tested positive for coronavirus in the state over the past 24 hours. In a statement, the state Health Department said a total of 2,174 persons tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total tally to 50,193. The total death toll too went up to 576. The number of Covid-19 cured persons who have been discharged from various hospitals on Wednesday was 842 and the total tally at 27,624. The total number of active cases in the state stands at 21,990. The number of infected children in the state in the age group 0-12 went up to 2,533. State capital Chennai continued to head the Covid-19 infection table with 1,276 persons testing positive for the virus. Chennai's total tally of cases stands at 35,556. Kirk Shireman is retiring as NASA's program manager for the International Space Station on June 26, leaving the agency after 35 years to take a position in the private sector. Shireman, who's based out of Houston, has spent the past five years leading NASA's space station program. His tasks ranged from allocating the budget to procuring transportation for crew and cargo to setting program priorities around science and commercialization. "Kirk has dedicated 35 years of his career advancing and improving human spaceflight, and doing it in a collaborative way, Kathy Lueders, NASA's associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, said in a news release. The relationships he has fostered within NASA, and with our international and commercial partners, have made the International Space Station a model for the incredible achievements possible through global cooperation." Related: International Space Station as an orbiting home and lab for two decades During Shireman's tenure as the space station's program manager, he helped expand the station's role as a microgravity laboratory and broadened its support for commercial opportunities, private astronaut missions, commercial modules and in-space manufacturing, according to the news release. His retirement comes just months before an important milestone. On Nov. 2, the station will celebrate two decades of continued human presence. It has been home to 240 people from 19 countries, including NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley who last month arrived at the International Space Station as the first people to fly in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The space station has also assisted more than 4,000 researchers in more than 100 countries who have conducted more than 2,900 experiments in microgravity. It has been the honor of a lifetime to have worked through the development of the International Space Station from a fledgling facility to a world-class laboratory, Shireman said in a news release. The International Space Station will continue to expand and thrive in the years ahead, laying the groundwork for future explorers moving forward to the Moon, improving life on Earth, and opening up low-Earth orbit commercial activity and growing a robust economy there." Joel Montalbano will become the acting manager of the International Space Station after Shireman retires. He's served as the deputy program manager since 2012. Kenneth Todd will become the deputy program manager. Growing up, North Charleston student Altoria Brown never dreamed of going to college. Brown, 22, went to high school at Garrett Academy of Technology. Going to college immediately after she graduated wasnt even on her radar she didnt have enough money to pay for it on her own. Instead, her plan was to go into the Air Force. That changed in 2016, her senior year of high school, when one of Browns teachers suggested she apply to a newly created scholarship program, one that was formed in the wake of the Emanuel AME Church tragedy that rocked Charleston only a year prior. She almost didnt apply. That year, Brown and 10 or so other Lowcountry students were selected as the inaugural group of the Rev. Pinckney Scholarship Program, established by the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina. The scholarship aims to help young, black students obtain access to higher education via comprehensive financial, emotional and administrative support. Four years after its founding, the first class of scholars from across Beaufort, Charleston and Jasper counties have graduated from college. When Brown learned shed been awarded the scholarship, it was a surreal moment. The financial support she received through the foundation, combined with various other local and state scholarships, meant she didnt have to pay more than a few hundred dollars out of pocket each year. She did receive federal student loans to cover her remaining tuition expenses, but the combined amount she took out over the course of her four-year program totaled to less than what one year of tuition at her college costs. It definitely changed everything, she said. I was able to just live out dreams that I hadnt even dreamed of. It just brought a lot of stuff to reality. In May, Brown graduated with honors from North Carolina A&T State University with a degree in criminal justice and crime scene investigation. She hopes to pursue a career in restorative justice practices, with an emphasis on youth outreach and development. Brown was raised by a single mother in a community where crime and drug activity wasn't uncommon. Her father spent most of her childhood behind bars and was released in June 2016, the same week as her high school graduation. I want to work with those kids who are labeled trouble and who probably just need a mentor. Because it could have been me, she said. Wraparound support Many students in the program were the first in their family to attend or graduate from college, said Coastal Community Foundation program officer Caroline Rakar. For most students, the scholarship allowed them to attend the school of their dreams, unencumbered by fears of outstanding student debt. Scholars were able to fund their studies via up to $10,000 in financial support each year of their college career, as long as they stayed in touch with the foundation, kept a good GPA and met other requirements. If you spend most of your life worrying about money and finances, you have never experienced the freedom to be open to any and all opportunities, she said. And so the financial relief that this program can provide ... can alleviate such a stressor, such a burden on these students that they're able to view their possibilities in a way that they never had before. While black students across the U.S. have made strides to catch up to their white peers in terms of college enrollment, the educational attainment gap still remains a pressing issue, the Postsecondary National Policy Institute reported last week. Last year, 29 percent of African Americans in their mid to late 20s had received a bachelors degree or higher, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Education, compared with 45 percent of the white population in the same age range. Recognizing the deep-rooted and systemic factors contributing to these kinds of troubling statistics, a group of anonymous donors wanted to do something that would create a long-lasting impact on Lowcountry communities of color by providing the necessary support black students needed to navigate the higher education system. The Coastal Community Foundation has supported scholarships and grant programs for years, but when the Rev. Pinckney program was created, it was the first of its kind, Rakar said. Students were given year-round support and an open line of communication with Rakar and other foundation employees. They were expected to meet in person twice annually for training and workshop sessions. We really got ingrained in the students' lives, Rakar said. Navigating the system of higher education can be challenging for young adults, especially for first-generation students. To make the process easier, the foundation provided workshops on subjects including resume-building or financial literacy. They had my back through whatever personal struggles, financial struggles, academic struggles, they always said, I'm here for you, and if you need resources or help, here they are, said Christian Carter, a recent graduate of the Pinckney Scholars program and N.C. State University. Carter, who studied sociology in college and graduated summa cum laude, said the shooting at Mother Emanuel was a "horrific incident" that shaped her adolescence. "To know that somebody could be so hateful towards people just because of the color of their skin, it cuts deep. Because the people that were in that church that night, they looked like me," she said. She eventually became an orientation leader at the college, to show potential students of color "can come to a big university and make it." Pinckney's legacy The scholarship is named after the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a former state senator, senior pastor at Emanuel AME and one of the nine victims of the June 2015 shooting. Eliana Pinckney, daughter of the late Rev. Pinckney, said seeing the inaugural group's accomplishments would have made her father, a longtime education advocate, proud. Hearing them talk and hearing them share their experiences about how passionate they are about leadership and community service and giving back, just reminds me of my father, she said in a statement. Something like this named after him would honestly put the biggest smile on his face. The Pinckney Scholarship program has grown each year since it was created. Today, there are almost 40 scholars enrolled. This first class of students has such a hand in shaping what currently exists, and the really strong program that we have now would not have been built in the same way or with the same strength if those students hadn't been there walking alongside us and that journey, Rakar said. The program's completion rate sits at 97 percent. Australia is unlikely to reopen its border to international travellers until next year but will look to relax entry rules for students and other long-term visitors, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said on Wednesday. Australia has been largely successful in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus, which it attributes to curbs on international travel and tough social-distancing rules. Mr Birmingham said a quarantine rule for returning citizens could be applied to international students and other visitors who plan to stay for a long period of time. Australia has been largely successful in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus , which it attributes to curbs on international travel and tough social-distancing rules. Pictured: French nationals enter Sydney's international airport to be repatriated back to France 'We can simply work through the 14-day quarantine periods that have worked so well in terms of returning Australians to this country safely,' Mr Birmingham said in a speech to the National Press Club 'We can simply work through the 14-day quarantine periods that have worked so well in terms of returning Australians to this country safely,' Mr Birmingham said in a speech to the National Press Club. The return of international students will be a boost for universities facing big financial losses with the border closed as international education is Australia's fourth-largest foreign exchange earner, worth $38 billion a year. Australia has had more than 7,300 cases of the coronavirus and 102 people have died from COVID-19, the disease it causes. It recorded its biggest daily rise in new infections in more than a month on Wednesday, with the most of them in Victoria, the second most populous state. Victoria reported 21 new cases overnight, of which 15 are returned travellers in quarantine, taking the total tally for the day to 22 cases, with some states yet to report their data Qantas 737-800 aircraft parked on the east-west runway at Sydney Airport due to lack of parking on May 20 'Go to Byron instead of Bali': Australians are urged to take 'backyard holidays' to help out hard-hit tourism and hospitality sectors By Australian Associated Press With international travel forbidden in the foreseeable future, the government is urging the nearly 10 million Australians who travelled overseas last year to look at their own backyards for their next holiday. The more than $65 billion they spent in foreign destinations would go a long way to helping domestic tourism operators reeling from the bushfires and coronavirus pandemic. And it's half as much again as tourists usually spend in Australia each year. The tourism and hospitality sectors have been the hardest hit by the virus. About three in 10 accommodation and food sector jobs have been lost since mid-March, the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows. Just 750 foreign tourists arrived in Australia in May, compared with nearly 458,000 in the same month last year. Pictured: empty baggage check-in lines inside in International terminal at Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne Just 750 foreign tourists arrived in Australia in May, compared with nearly 458,000 in the same month last year. Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham says there's an enormous potential to replace the vanished overseas travellers with Australians. 'For those Australians who can afford to do so, we want them to feel an almost patriotic duty to get out and support the jobs and small businesses of their fellow citizens by having whatever Aussie holiday they can,' he told the National Press Club on Wednesday. 'That could mean instead of the beaches of Bali, it could be the beaches of Byron Bay. 'I hope Australians use this time to travel across our magical continent and become better-informed ambassadors of all that we have to offer.' The closure of state borders has been a sticking point in preventing Australians from holidaying farther afield throughout the country. South Australia reopened its borders to people from Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania from Wednesday. Queensland is expected to reopen to interstate visitors from July 10, midway through the NSW school holidays. Senator Birmingham also indicated the government wants to better encourage and highlight Indigenous tourism once Australia does open its borders to foreign visitors. 'The stories of the oldest living culture in the world should be anchored in the experiences our nation shares with cultural tourists from around the world,' he said. Hundreds of trucks and cars from Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia waited in long queues at the border with Greece on Wednesday after Athens eased coronavirus restrictions to try to salvage the summer tourism season. A line of cars stretched back more than 10 km (six miles) at the Kulata-Promachonas border crossing between Bulgaria and Greece, and the queue for trucks was over 15 km long, witnesses said. People are angry, because the queues are scary. We are travelling with two kids. We had no idea it would be such a nightmare, Bulgarian public radio BNR quoted a woman in the queue of cars as saying. Greece reopened its land border with Bulgaria on Monday for European Union tourists after three months of coronavirus lockdown. It has also allowed entry to tourists from neigbouring Serbia but they face lengthy checks at the border. A number of other European nations also eased border controls on Monday as the number of coronavirus cases declined after lockdowns that have hit the tourism sector badly. SOURCE: REUTERS Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: Four soldiers from Punjab and one from Himachal Pradesh are among the army personnel who were martyred in the face off between Indian and Chinese armies at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at Galwan Valley in Ladakh. The 22-year old Gurbinder Singh of Tolawal village in Sangrur district of Punjab who was martyred on Monday was to get married soon. He had gotten engaged eight months ago when he came on his last leave. Gurbinder had joined the army in 2018 after clearing his Class XII exams. As the news of his martyrdom spread the villagers began to arrive at his house. Gurpreet Singh, his elder brother said, "Today morning, we got a call that Gurbinder has been martyred and his body is likely to reach either tonight or on Thursday. We have not told my mother that her younger son is dead as she was very much attached to him. I spoke to him around three weeks ago and he said that for a few days he will not be able to speak to us as there is no mobile connectivity in the area." Labh Singh, father of one of the martyrs Gurpreet Singh, was inconsolable and could not give an answer when asked by anybody about his son or when his body would arrive. "We have got information from authorities that Gurbinder's body would reach on Thursday," said an official. Another martyr Naib Subedar Mandeep Singh of Seel village in Patiala district had returned to the frontlines only two weeks ago only after being on leave for a month. The sole breadwinner in his family leaves his wife Gurdeep Kaur, and two children - 17-year-old Mehakpreet and Jobanpreet (12) - and mother Shakuntla and an aunt behind. His three elder sisters are married and living at Ambala in Haryana and Bahadurgarh near Patiala. The family was inconsolable on hearing the news of his demise and the villagers were in shock. "He was a family man, always worried for our safety and used to tell his friends to take care of us back here. He used to regularly call. He was the only breadwinner in the family and had just joined duty two weeks ago after a month's leave," said Shakuntla. 23-year old Gurtej Singh of Birewala Dogra village in Mansa district of Punjab never got to meet his new sister-in-law. His elder brother got married only about twenty days ago and during his last conversation with his family over the phone, Gurtej had promised that he will come soon to meet his sister-in-law. His two elder brothers, father Virsa Singh and mother along with other family members are now inconsolable. Gurtej's body is also expected to arrive on Thursday. Another martyr 45-year-old Naib Subedar Santnam Singh of Bhoj Raj village in Gurdaspur, who had joined the Army in 1995, is survived by his wife Jaswinder Kaur, two children, his parents and by his elder brother Sukhchain Singh, who is also serving in the Army. Sukchain was barring everyone from meeting his parents. "I have given this devastating news to my parents and they will be in shock if people come to pay their condolences. So, have decided bar entry," he said. 21-year-old Ankush Thakur of Kadohta village in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh, meanwhile was a third-generation soldier. A sepoy, he made it to the army in 2018 and after completing his training in Faizabad, ten months ago he had joined the Punjab Regiment. His father Anil Thakur and grandfather had also served in the Army. A wave of mourning swept the entire village as the news reached the family that Ankush has been killed in Monday night's violent clash. As the information about his martyrdom was given by the army headquarters to the Gram Panchayat Kadohta by phone, the villagers started raising anti-China slogans on their way to share their condolences with the family. Ankush's younger brother is studying in Class VI. Sources said that the local district administration was in touch with the Army authorities for the martyr's mortal remains, which is expected to reach the village late Wednesday evening. The cremation is likely to take place on Thursday and Ankush will be given a state funeral. Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh announced an ex-gratia compensation, along with government jobs to the next of kin of the deceased. One family member each will be given a government job. The families of Naib Subedar Mandeep Singh and Naib Subedar Santnam Singh will be given Rs 12 lakh compensation each as they were married. The families of the two unmarried martyrs, Sepoy Gurtej Singh and Sepoy Gurbinder Singh, will be give Rs 10 lakh each as compensation (Rs 5 lakh as ex-gratia and Rs 5 lakh in lieu of land). Gurbinder belonged to the 3 Punjab regiment. "The loss suffered by the families was immeasurable and could not be compensated with material things, but the compensation and the jobs would help alleviate some of their sufferings," said Amarinder. He said cabinet ministers would represent the state government at the martyrs' funerals, which will be held with full Army honours in their native villages. He directed the respective district administrations to make all arrangements befitting the occasion. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 14:51:01|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SEOUL, June 17 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul on Wednesday offered to resign amid worsened relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to local media reports. Kim told local reporters at a press room of the government complex in Seoul that he decided to step down as the chief of the unification ministry, in charge of inter-Korean affairs, to take responsibility for the worsening relations between the two Koreas. He said he felt sorry for failing to meet demand and expectations of the South Korean people who wish for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula. Kim, who took office in April last year, expressed his intention to resign earlier in the day to the presidential Blue House. Relations between South Korea and the DPRK soured this month as Pyongyang protested against anti-DPRK leaflets flown across the inter-Korean border by South Korean civic groups, mostly composed of defectors from the DPRK. The DPRK on Tuesday demolished the inter-Korean liaison office in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong, which was opened in September 2018 under an agreement signed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un after their first summit in April 2018 at the truce village of Panmunjom. Enditem Victoria Beckham has launched her latest beauty product - and took to Instagram on Wednesday to give her followers a demonstration. Filming herself applying her lavish new golden-tinted cell rejuvenating primer, Victoria, 46, branded it her favourite product - and admitted it has particularly come in handy during lockdown, while she's been spending more time in the sunshine outside. 'So this is my new shade of cell rejuvenating priming moisturiser,' she explained, dabbing some onto her cheek. 'It has a golden tint to it which is so great. It gives the most amazing shine and glow to your face... Golden goddess! Victoria Beckham has launched her latest beauty product - and took to Instagram on Wednesday to give her followers a demonstration 'At the moment I have spent a little bit more time in the sun so my skin is a little bit more tanned. I just love how this feels on the skin. 'I am obsessed with the golden glow. It's everything. My favourite product!' The Spice Girls star certainly sold the product in the tutorial, but fans will have to fork out at least 92 for their own. That will only get you a 30ml bottle, however; for a longer-lasting 50ml beauty lovers will need to shell out 140. Beauty! Filming herself applying her lavish new golden-tinted cell rejuvenating primer, Victoria, 46, branded it her favourite product Glowing! VB admitted it has particularly come in handy during lockdown, while she's been spending more time in the sunshine outside All aglow! 'It has a golden tint to it which is so great. It gives the most amazing shine and glow to your face...' she said The product launch comes after the fashion designer proudly announced her London clothing store is now reopen. After Boris Johnson relaxed coronavirus lockdown rules to allow non-essential shops to open from June 15, Victoria Beckham followed thousands of other stores across the country by welcoming shoppers back to the fold. The star's store on Dover Street has had a facelift too, decorated with a rainbow tribute to Pride Month. The Spice Girls star certainly sold the product in the tutorial, but fans will have to fork out at least 92 for their own. That will only get you a 30ml bottle, however; for a longer-lasting 50ml beauty lovers will need to shell out 140 'So excited to reopen 36 Dover Street today with our beautiful Pride windows (and social distancing measures in place) x VB,' Victoria shared on Instagram alongside photos of her store. Alongside a rainbow, a quote on the window reads: 'Let's be kind to one another, today and every day.' Victoria was previously criticised at the beginning of lockdown for furloughing staff working for her fashion line, later reversing the decision. It seems the Spice Girl turned designer has struggled to get much work done at home during lockdown, as she admitted her daughter has taken over her office. Back in business: The product launch comes after the fashion designer proudly announced her London clothing store is now reopen Open! After Boris Johnson relaxed coronavirus lockdown rules to allow non-essential shops to open, Victoria Beckham followed thousands of other stores across the country by reopening The 46-year-old fashion designer has lost her usual homeworking space at her Oxfordshire abode during the coronavirus pandemic as eight-year-old Harper prefers to do her school work there, leaving the rest of the household to find a spot elsewhere in the home. Victoria - who also has some Brooklyn, 21, Romeo, 17, and Cruz, 15, with husband David - told Guardian Weekend magazine:: 'Harper's taken over my office. She's trying to do all her schoolwork and, well, she's kind of decided that's her space now. 'So I'm downstairs... we're all dotted around the house, me and David and the boys, trying to work, trying to get schoolwork done. There's often someone holding a laptop up to a window, trying to get reception.' Step inside: The star's store on Dover Street has had a facelift too, decorated with a rainbow tribute to Pride as Victoria showed off in Instagram photos School comes first:It seems the Spice Girl turned designer has struggled to get much work donw at home during lockdown, as she admitted her daughter has taken over her office Family: The 46-year-old fashion designer has lost her usual homeworking space at her dan husband David's Oxfordshire abode during the coronavirus pandemic While Victoria has been opting for comfortable clothes during lockdown, she hasn't let her standards slip too far. She said: 'I'd love to say my lockdown look has been all about a vintage kaftan, but that's not the case. I still get up early and exercise every day, then I dress for work and for comfort. A pair of old jeans, a T-shirt or a jumper. 'I'm not quite at the elasticated waistband stage yet - I still want to feel good about myself. 'We've been going out on country walks every day, so the only shoes I wear are an old pair of trainers. It's so nice just to do things with the family and not think too much about getting dressed. So, definitely no heels.' However, the brunette beauty admitted one of the things she has missed is getting dressed up to go out. She told Guardian Weekend magazine: 'I do miss getting dressed. 'A nice pub lunch with family and friends, a few glasses of wine. I'm really grateful for the family time, but I'm ready to be a little bit sociable now.' Racism is alive and kicking in British policing, MPs have been told as part of an inquiry into the treatment of black and ethnic minority people. The Home Affairs Committee announced its probe amid Black Lives Matter protests that have sparked calls for renewed action on disproportionality in the UK. It comes 21 years since a landmark report into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence found institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police and other British forces. Nick Glynn, a retired senior police officer, told MPs that just before he left the service in 2015 he was targeted with a racial slur from a colleague. Racism is alive and kicking in policing, he added. These things are happening on a daily basis and we are kidding ourselves if we think that since the Stephen Lawrence reports recommendations we have made massive progress. Ben Bowling, a professor of criminology at Kings College London, said British policing remains institutionally racist more than two decades later. He accused police of failing to deliver on promises to eradicate racism, allowing prejudice, thoughtlessness and racial stereotyping to continue driving unequal treatment. Black and ethnic minority people are still over-policed and under-protected, he added. Following the death of George Floyd, British police leaders have sought to distinguish their model of policing by consent from the US, and said they were appalled at the killing. But Katrina Ffrench, chief executive of the StopWatch group, said the UK must recognise its own issues with the disproportionate use of force, stop and search, Tasers and custody deaths. Scores of people have died here so its incumbent on us to not be distracted by whats happening in the US but act on the recommendations that have been happening for the past 30 to 40 years, she told MPs at Wednesdays evidence session. Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Show all 79 1 /79 Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Parliament Square, London, in memory of George Floyd who was killed on May 25 while in police custody in the US city of Minneapolis PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A girl wears a face mask during a Black Lives Matter rally in Parliament Square AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People are seen by a mural of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Stevenson Square, Manchester REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Children pose for their family in front of discarded placards fixed on a wall in Piccadilly Gardens after a Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Manchester Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People shout slogans during a Black Lives Matter rally in Parliament Square AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators in Leicester REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator holds up a placard during a Black Lives Matter protest in Parliament Square REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator gestures during a Black Lives Matter protest in Manchester REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A mounted police officer raises their baton as police horses ride along Whitehall, past the entrance to Downing Street, in an attempt to disperse protestors gathered in central London AFP via Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Bute Park, Cardiff PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally march on Vauxhall Bridge Road, London PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters hold up signs as they march along a road during a peaceful Black Lives Matter march in Aylesbury Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People climbing on top of the Queen Victoria Statue as they take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Children pose for a photo during a Black Lives Matter protest at Parliament Square Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators hold placards as they attend a protest march to the US Embassy in London AFP via Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters demonstrate near the the US Embassy in Nine Elms in London Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters in Whitehall following a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Parliament Square PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators wearing protective face masks and face coverings hold placards during a Black Lives Matter protest in Leicester Reuters Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator is seen during a Black Lives Matter protest in Parliament Square REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators are seen as police officers look on during a Black Lives Matter protest near Downing street in London REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators are seen wth police liaison officers during a Black Lives Matter protest in Luton REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A protest at Parliament Square in London EPA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator in Leicester REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Parliament Square PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators wearing protective face masks and face coverings hold placards during a Black Lives Matter protest in Leicester REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators block traffic outside Victoria Station AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Custom House Square, Belfast PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Police on horseback in Whitehall following a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Parliament Square, London PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters hold placards as they attend a demonstration in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators throw flares above a police line during a Black Lives Matter march in London AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People climbing on top of the Queen Victoria Statue as they take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators raise their hands facing police officers after scuffles during a Black Lives Matter march in London AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People are seen placing placards on a fence in London REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator is seen with a protective face mask during a Black Lives Matter protest in Watford REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A sign alternatively naming Wilson Street 'Rosa Parks Street' in Glasgow. Activists have put up names of black people and civil rights activists throughout history alongside street names around the Scottish centre as part of the ongoing worldwide demonstrations following the death of George Floyd PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Boxer Anthony Joshua is seen with demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest in Watford REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators gather outside Downing Street AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators kneel facing police officers after scuffles during a Black Lives Matter march in London AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators lay on the pavement during a Black Lives Matter rally at Trafalgar Square AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A protester stands on bus stop and raises their hand during a Black Lives Matter protest at Parliament Square Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters holding placards gather in Manchester Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A man gestures during a Black Lives Matter march in in London AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Girls hold placards in London AP Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator in Parliament Square REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator wearing a protective face mask during a Black Lives Matter protest in Leicester REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A protest placard is affixed to the plinth of a statue of the Duke of Wellington on the second day of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Piccadilly Gardens Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Deansgate, Manchester PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators stage a Black Lives Matter Protest in Leicester city centre EPA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator points towards a mounted police officer laying in the road after being unseated from their horse, during a demonstration on Whitehall, near the entrance to Downing Street AFP via Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A 'Black Lives Matter' (BLM) protest at Parliament Square EPA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters in Whitehall following a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Parliament Square, London PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters in Whitehall following a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Parliament Square PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protests at Parliament Square in London EPA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator holds a placard during a Black Lives Matter protest in Watford REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators hold placards during a Black Lives Matter protest in Watford REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters hold placards as they march through central London Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators in Parliament Square REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters kneel as they hold placards during a demonstration in Manchester AFP via Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A mother and son hold up a sign during a peaceful Black Lives Matter march in Aylesbury Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A protest march in Manchester AFP via Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Parliament Square, London Gemma Fox/The Independent Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators are seen standing on top of a bus stop wearing protective face masks and face coverings as the Black Lives Matter protesters march to the Home Office in London REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest in Manchester are seen by a mural of George Floyd REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Parliament Square, London PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A demonstrator is seen wearing a protective face mask as the Black Lives Matter protesters march to the Home Office in London REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protest in Parliament Square REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Demonstrators with a flare are seen during a Black Lives Matter protest near Downing street in London REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Bute Park, Cardiff PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters hold up signs during a peaceful Black Lives Matter march in Aylesbury Getty Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A protester raises his arm during a second day of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Piccadilly Gardens Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Bute Park, Cardiff PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Placards are seen during a Black Lives Matter protest in Parliament Square REUTERS Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens PA Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters holding placards gather at the Queen Victoria monument for a second day of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Piccadilly Gardens Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK Protesters hold placards as they attend a demonstration in Manchester AFP via Getty Images Black Lives Matter protesters gather across the UK A woman kneels during a Black Lives Matter rally in London AP In London, the use of stop and search rose to the highest level for seven years in April, Ms Ffrench said. She also questioned whether it was proportionate during the coronavirus lockdown. She has received reports of black and ethnic minority key workers, including ambulance drivers and teachers, being stopped to justify why theyre out. What weve witnessed is people who are key workers, out doing their jobs, supporting their communities, their families, some of the most vulnerable in our society, being targeted by the police, Ms French said. Recommended Black and Asian people fined disproportionately under coronavirus laws We strongly believe its because of their skin colour and perceptions that those people are up to no good rather than law-abiding citizens. Ms Ffrench backed calls for an urgent review of coronavirus fines, after police data showed they are being disproportionately handed to black and Asian people. Its not just the numbers, its the faces and lived experiences behind why these fines were issued, she added. People felt that even in a global pandemic they were still viewed with suspicion and unable to go about their daily lives. The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said it will publish analysis of ethnicity data from the 43 police forces in England and Wales when it is complete. Professor Bowling said coronavirus enforcement appeared to follow a pattern that is evident in other fields of policing over many years, that black and ethnic minority communities have been disproportionately impacted. He called policing by consent an aspiration that was lived up to in rural and suburban communities, but not in urban areas with high working class and ethnic minority populations. Black Lives Matter supporters gathered for a rally in Trafalgar Square (Peter Summers/Getty Images) (Getty) Asked why non-white people may have been given more fines for violating the lockdown, he said that they may be seen as out of place by the rural police forces who have issued the most penalties, because of racial stereotyping. The evidence in other police powers is where discretion is broadest you find the highest degree of discrimination, Professor Bowling added. Police ways of identifying people who seem to be suspicious have been shaped by police racism over many years and this seems to be an indication of it. Mr Glynn said there was also inequality in stop and search, the increasing use of Tasers and the use of force. Asked about Priti Patels recent claim that British police are the envy of the world because officers work with communities, not against them, he said: We shouldnt get carried away with the sense that British police are the best in the world, I think were kidding ourselves with that. Mr Glynn, who now works as a senior programme officer for the Open Society Foundations, was formerly a chief inspector with Leicestershire Police and worked as a firearms commander as well as on stop and search reforms. Speaking at a press conference last week, the head of the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said officers had been appalled by Mr Floyds death and vowed to tackle racism. We know there is more to do, we are still not as reflective of local communities as we want to be and there is still disproportionality in some police tactics and outcomes across the whole of the criminal justice system, Martin Hewitt said. There is a complex set of factors behind all of this disproportionality and many of those lie outside of policing. Theyre not straightforward things to solve but we want to be part of the change that people want to see on race in the UK, so we are listening hard and thinking carefully about what more we can do, and what we can do faster. The government has been heavily criticised for setting up a new commission on racial inequalities, rather than acting on recommendations made by previous reviews including the 2017 Lammy Report. David Lammy, a Labour MP who conducted the review and is now shadow justice secretary, said the plans were written on the back of a fag packet to assuage anti-racism protests. The Home Affairs Committees inquiry will continue with evidence from police leaders next week. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: The next meeting dedicated to the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is planned to be held in the format of a video conference till late July, Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said. Zakharova made the remark during a briefing, Trend reports on June 17. "The co-chairs are in constant contact with the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, said the spokesperson. They held a joint video conference last month to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Of course, we will preliminary inform about the meeting, Zakharova said. We understand that when the borders will be opened and the restrictions on making the international flights, which were introduced, as is known, in connection with the coronavirus, will be removed, the real meetings will be held. 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. ---- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn This week our new normality finally began to dawn, when thousands of our favourite stores threw open their doors to welcome visitors for the first time in months. After lockdown was announced on March 23, only shops that sold food and other essential items were allowed to remain open. But on Monday, non-essential stores both big and small were finally able to unlock their doors in a bid to help restore peoples livelihoods and kickstart the economy. Shoppers are now able to buy anything they want on the high street after months of lockdown So, from now on, youll be able to buy anything you want on the high street again, from clothes, shoes and toys to books, electronics and furniture. To keep both customers and staff safe, stores have had to follow strict measures put in place by the UK Government to prevent the spread of coronavirus before they can open. It means that shopping wont be quite the same as it used to be, but that you can browse and buy with confidence. Heres how some of our biggest and smallest shops have been preparing to reopen. WEVE DONE EVERYTHING BY THE BOOK When Andy Rossiter returned to reopen his small chain of three independent book shops that closed in March, he found a time capsule waiting for him. They were filled with titles that were of interest back then, he says. So it was really exciting, if strange at first, to restock and reopen. During lockdown, many of us realised how important books are to our happiness, with the opening of a new novel one of the few joys afforded to us. Doing it by the book: Andy Rossiter has made changes to his book shops to make them safe So Andy, whose stores are in southwest England and Wales, found himself continuing to help regular customers hunt down books even when Rossiter Books was closed. Weve seen a lot of requests via email for copies of Humankind: A Hopeful History, by Dutch author Rutger Bergam, he says. I can see why it resonates its main point is that, fundamentally, human beings are nice. I think its really struck a nerve with people. Travel writing and good fiction are also riding high. We had one customer request six travel books to be sent to their relative, to inspire them for future trips. I think escapism is more important than ever. To reopen safely, fixtures and till points in the shop have been moved around to make sure people can socially distance, hand sanitiser has been placed at the entrance, and Perspex screens at the tills. Just two or three of the 13 staff whove been furloughed will be brought back initially. Were limiting our opening days from seven to five days a week, and we will also reduce our opening hours to allow for thorough cleaning at the beginning and end of the day, says Andy. And, no doubt, to stock up on the deluge of new titles, whose release was delayed by coronavirus. BACK TO FLAT-PACK HEAVEN IKEA's Peter Jelkeby is making sure his stores are ready for the influx of happy shoppers They may be a Swedish store, but no British weekend is complete without a trip to Ikea for meatballs and a browse around its marketplace. Now hungry customers can get their fix once more, with the popular furniture chain having opened all of its 22 UK outlets earlier this month. They were able to look to their other branches around the world, where theyd already come out of lockdown, to best see how to keep customers and staff safe. This includes a one in, one out policy at busy times, a one-way system, social distance wardens to ensure social-distancing measures are observed, plenty of hand sanitiser on tap, and frequent deep cleans. Theyve also installed screens at checkouts, are only accepting cashless payments, either by credit card or contactless debit card, and are only allowing one person or group inside a room set at a time. To help limit browsing, we are encouraging everyone to come to the store prepared for what they want to buy, as well as to bring their own bags, says Peter Jelkeby, Ikeas country retail manager. And we ask those who purely wish to return items not to come to our stores in the first instance. We have a 365-day returns policy and urge customers, where possible, to return items at a later date, when they will find it easier to do so. At the height of the crisis, Ikea supported the NHS by allowing the huge car parks of their Wembley and Gateshead stores to be used as drive-through Covid-19 test centres for medical staff. They also reopened four Swedish Food Markets near large hospitals so that medics and other key workers could get good food. Just as popular will be their decision to keep open their bistro, not to eat in, but to allow customers to buy those famous meatballs to take home. SAFETY? WEVE DONE IT OURSELVES For 40 years, All Seasons DIY has been the place to go in Smethwick, in the West Midlands, whether you need a new drill, a hammer or a packet of screws. So when it closed in March on the same day as the schools shut, the family-run firm was deeply missed. So missed, in fact, that within a week it was open again. It became obvious that people in the local community were relying on us for essentials and other products, says Surinder Josan, who runs the store with his wife and mother. But first they had to make sure their customers and Surinders son and daughter who fit working in the shop around their university studies were safe. A shop for All Seasons: This DIY store in Smethwick was only closed for a week as it was vital We had to reassess how we both serve and interact with our customers, and we adopted several new measures to comply with social distancing to keep ourselves and our customers safe, says Surinder. New measures include two-metre markers outside the entrance, limiting the number of people in store at one time, installing screens at the checkout areas, encouraging contactless payments, lowering the minimum card spend to 1, and offering hand wipes to customers. We have also ensured that my mother has not returned to work, since she is elderly and at greater risk, Surinder says. Thanks to the steps theyve taken within the store, she wont be the only person theyve kept safe from the Covid-19 threat. DOING IT FOR THE FAMILIES Over the past three months, many children have shot up in size, but most are still having to squeeze into too-tight tops and too-short trousers as the clothes shops were shut. Its something that Marks & Spencer has recognised when planning to reopen its stores this month its increased the amount of space dedicated to childrens wear by up to 30 per cent. It means that if a child needs casual clothes, new pyjamas or a bigger pair of shoes, its easier to find something thats just right. Safer shopping: M&S has introduced several measures to help protect staff and customers Despite introducing many measures to keep staff and customers safe, including hand sanitiser at the entrance and Perspex screens around the tills, M&S has also rearranged its stores to make it simple to find the things you need. We know that customers will be coming out on a mission, be that something for growing kids, or new summer items for a family barbecue, says Alison Grainger, head of clothing and home retail. So well be making it easier for them to find what they need, and well be making sure we have what they need in stock from bringing in new summer products and increasing our kidswear offers to making sure weve got a great range of gifts for Fathers Day. M&S say that while the shopping experience may feel different, there will still be great service While all M&Ss stores and clothing spaces within food shops have reopened this week, some of its services havent. Although cafes remain closed, there are now Coffee To Go points in 49 stores. And while bra, suit and childrens shoe fitting services have been suspended, the company has improved its online bra-fitting tool to help women. Ive never been prouder to be part of the M&S team than over these past few months, says retail operations director Andrew Walmsley. While shopping may feel different, there will still be the same great service and expert advice that customers expect. THE FIVE KEY RULES THAT MEAN YOU CAN SHOP SAFELY: Before shops can open their doors once more they must follow strict UK Government advice to keep both shoppers and staff as safe as possible. To reopen, stores must have: Carried out a Covid-19 risk assessment and shared the results with their staff. Cleaning, handwashing and hygiene procedures in place in line with official UK Government guidance. Taken all reasonable steps to help people work from home. Taken all reasonable steps to maintain a two-metre distance between people in their workplace. Done everything possible to manage the transmission risk of coronavirus if people cant be kept two metres apart. This UK Government advice applies to England only. But with Moon around, their quiet Chinese American neighborhood seems livelier. The girls share music, snacks, laughs and secrets. Christine learns the name of her friends crush and what happened to her dad. And she learns Moons biggest secret. Moon believes she belongs not on Earth but in the stars. She has visions of strange, beautiful beings. Her true home is with them, she tells Christine. Catholic priests have seen their salaries doubled thanks to the government's JobKeeper scheme - but their employer, the church, wants a cut. The taxpayer-funded payments were designed to subsidise wages for staff who were temporarily laid off during the coronavirus shutdowns. But non-profit organisations, such as churches and other religious centres, were also eligible to apply for JobKeeper and hand it on to the affected staff, if they proved their turnover declined by 15 per cent or more. Now senior staff in the church have slammed a Sydney diocese for asking priests to donate their JobKeeper payments back to their employer to help plug a shortfall in donations. The ABC reported that in the Archdiocese of Parramatta in Sydney's west, 41 priests had received the government's wage subsidy. Some of the priests had seen their pay nearly double from their usual monthly stipend of $1,590 to $3,000. The Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher (pictured on Anzac Day), helped to lobby the government to allow priests to get JobKeeper payments Visitors are sen queuing outside St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney on March 18 (pictured) with numbers carefully monitored. Just days later, in-person services were banned 'Some priests have described this as a windfall,' a source from inside the church told ABC. 'They already get the housing, food and utilities paid for by the church. This is $3,000 per month of pure pocket money.' The Diocese justified its decision to ask the priests to hand over their JobKeeper money, telling Daily Mail Australia that the COVID-19 pandemic had meant its collection plate donations 'came to an abrupt halt' by the suspension of masses during the lockdown. A stipend is a fixed regular sum paid as a salary or as expenses to a clergyman, teacher, or other public official. Some priests who had been receiving JobKeeper had reportedly been asked to give between $500 and $700 of it over to the church. Bishop Richard Umbers is seen live-streaming a service in Dulwich Hill on April 10 (pictured) with churchgoers unable to attend in person due to the coronavirus pandemic In letters obtained by the ABC, clergy in Parramatta were asked to hand back an 'amount between $500 and $700 per fortnight' to 'assist with future payments and the balance sheet'. One employee told the network the request for money was 'immoral'. 'One of the fundamental principles of the church, and the priests who commit to joining it, is to help the poor,' the employee said. 'For the church to use these funds in this way, while so many others in their community are excluded from JobKeeper or are seriously struggling financially at the moment, is simply shocking.' Catholic priests, as well as other religious workers, only became eligible for the scheme on May 5 following an amendment. Visitors are seen queuing to enter St Marys Cathedral in Sydney on March 18 (pictured) just before churches closed due to coronavirus restrictions St Patrick's Cathedral (pictured) is in the Diocese of Parramatta, where clergy have been asked to make a donation from their JobKeeper payments Anthony Fisher, the Archbishop of Sydney, helped to lobby the government for the change. 'We are grateful that through the hard work of our Chancery staff, the Federal Government was persuaded to extend the JobKeeper allowance to clergy and employees in parishes and the archdiocese,' Archbishop Fisher wrote in Catholic Weekly in May. Under strict JobKeeper rules, it is illegal for bosses to withhold any of an employee's subsidy payments, which must be paid in full and directly to them. But there are no rules about employers asking for some of the money to be given back, and staff are free to do so if they want to. St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney (pictured on April 24) is just one of the many Catholic churches left empty during the coronavirus pandemic - leaving to a huge drop in donations A spokesman for the Diocese of Parramatta told Daily Mail Australia it had sought independent advice on the issue, and was carefully abiding by the rules. 'Based on this independent advice, and to ensure we kept within the spirit and intention of JobKeeper, it was decided the best use of the funds was to direct clergy to keep the payment,' it said in a statement. 'Clergy were free to make a voluntary contribution to the clergy support fund, if they chose to do so. 'We are confident that our clergy-recipients of JobKeeper will put the taxpayer-funded money to good use.' St Mary's Cathedral (pictured on May 15) opened its doors for private prayer and small-scale masses last month But the spokesman also said there were 'serious concerns' about how the issue had been handled by ABC, accusing it of asking 'loaded questions'. 'This raised very serious concerns that regardless of what responses we provided, the final story would already be slanted in a way that did not allow for balance or fairness,' he said. In a statement provided to the broadcaster, the Diocese said: 'As has been pointed out by many commentators, the ABC has a clear record of instrumentalising stories about the Catholic Church and construing them in the most critical and negative way possible.' live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Private life insurer Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance which posted a 7 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase in its individual new business premium in FY20 to Rs 975 crore has benefited from the state-owned bank consolidation. In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Anuj Mathur, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance said the company has seen advantages of the amalgamation. Canara HSBC OBC Life sells primarily through its bancassurance channels. Mathur said after the public sector bank consolidation, the company has benefited. The insurer is a joint venture between Canara Bank, HSBC and Oriental Bank of Commerce (now merged with Punjab National Bank). We are a beneficiary of the PSU bank amalgamation. We have got access to 4,000 plus branches of Syndicate Bank (now merged with Canara Bank). We also continue to sell products through the 2,000 plus branches of Oriental Bank of Commerce, he added. In August 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the merger of 10 public sector banks (PSBs) -- Punjab National Bank (PNB), Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India; Union Bank, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank; Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank; Indian Bank and Allahabad Bank; under four separate entities. This merger process of the 10 banks came into effect from April 1, 2020. However, those banks holding stakes in multiple insurers in the same category (life, non-life or health) have a status quo right now. IRDAI rules state that a bank can only hold promoter stake in one company in each category of insurance. Business growth The company said that over the last five years, the company's individual new business premium (weighted premium income) has grown at a compounded annual rate of 24 percent as against industry growth of 12 percent. Mathur said the company has seen an improvement in the premium collection, embedded value as well as claims settlement ratio. He added that the company has now launched a service called InstaPromise where the claim will be approved within one day of submitting the necessary documents. For this, the policy should have completed three years, with all due premiums paid. Further, the claim has to be intimated before 3 pm between Monday to Friday. Mathur said the claim amount per life is limited to Rs 1 crore. The FY20 performance Canara HSBC OBC Life's gross written premium increased by 13 percent YoY to Rs 3,943 crore in FY20. Mathur said the demand is high for guaranteed traditional products in the life insurance space. The Indian embedded value rose by 13 percent YoY to Rs 2,907 crores at the end of March 2020. The embedded value represents the present value of shareholders interests in the earnings distributable from the assets allocated to the business after sufficient allowance for the aggregate risks in the business. The profit before tax of the company stood at Rs 105 crore versus Rs 165.19 crore in the year-ago period. As far as the Coronavirus outbreak is concerned, Mathur said that the company has been able to leverage on the digital assets, platforms that it has created with bank partners. This, he said, helped curtail the impact. Compared to the 30.7 percent degrowth in the new business collection of private life insurers in the April 1-May 31 periods of FY21, Canara HSBC OBC Life saw a 7.2 percent growth to Rs 263.86 crore. For a week now, many in conservative media have fixated on Seattle's "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone," a small area of the city in which protesters have declared political autonomy. Fox News's prime-time shows have repeatedly returned to the idea that Seattle is collapsing or, as Tucker Carlson fashions it, "home to a new nation." It has become an approximate manifestation of the nebulous "antifa" threat which President Donald Trump regularly hypes, regardless of the actual composition of its members. And so, it's become a locus of interest. Over the weekend, a new facet of fascination emerged. A small conservative website announced an event July 4 in which the group Bikers for Trump, joined by other tough-guy organizations, would descend upon the CHAZ (as it is known) and "free the people in the zone." It immediately conjures images of guys in leather jackets and punks in black hoodies rumbling under the Space Needle, a cyberpunk Sumter. Soon after other conservative outlets began picking up news of the event, though, several organizations identified as participating announced that they weren't actually affiliated with it. Bikers for Trump denied being formally involved, as did the Oathkeepers. The site hosting the event subtly shifted its descriptions of what to expect, pressing forward with a slew of new attention if a reduced list of formal participants. This should not have been a surprising turn of events for anyone familiar with the site supporting the purported event. Its initiator was Prntly, a site which, more than four years ago, The Washington Post exposed as trafficking in invented news stories to garner attention and, more importantly, advertising revenue. Four years later, with another presidential election looming, Prntly is back and propagating false information once again. What's more, it's doing so on Facebook, a site that since the 2016 election took specific steps aimed at curtailing the sort of misinformation on which Prntly relies. How that's possible is a function both of Facebook's careful rules and of Prntly's ability to fly under the radar. Prntly didn't start as a fake-news-sharing, violent-confrontation-stoking political outlet. It began as a broker for printing services. Founded by Alexander M. Portelli, a native of Albany, it was simply another entrepreneurial endeavor in a long line of similar efforts. After dropping out of high school and serving time for selling ecstasy, Portelli opened a small cafe in New York's capital. Frustrated with the metered parking spaces outside, he decided to run for mayor despite being prevented from doing so because of his criminal record. He expanded into owning automated teller machines under the name "AMP Calypso" and, eventually, into printing. He soon discovered, though, that running a blog with invented and exaggerated stories was a better use for prntly.com than trying to convince people to use his service to get business cards made. Twice during the 2016 Republican primary, stories from Prntly came to then-candidate Donald Trump's attention and earned retweets. This tweet, for example, links to an article which purports to use Gallup polling to make its false claim about support for Trump. Its author is identified as Dmitri Voltova, a U.S. resident born in the former Soviet Union who is "a proud contributor to Prntly with a voice from the former communist empires." Voltova was one of several purported authors on the site, though our 2016 report suggested that it was most likely that Portelli and his web designer probably wrote most of the content. After the 2016 election, there was a new focus on how fake news was allowed to propagate on social media websites. That led to new rules, including an effort by Facebook announced in late 2016 to introduce third-party fact-checking of claims on the site. In a podcast interview, Portelli blamed shifts in how his site was treated on Facebook for its closure in 2017. "What happened after he won, ironically, our Web site showed up at the top of Google News for when people Googled 'election results' under 'news,' " Portelli claimed. "We had an article about Trump winning came up first, and then we had something about, I don't know, like - we wrote - somebody wrote something about - because we had some writers and somebody wrote something about he would have won the electoral vote or something with - if illegals didn't vote or something. And that was the first thing that people would see. And so the media wrote about that, they're like, 'Why is this showing up? Google is - has fake news showing up on their news section.'" "So suddenly, I guess, Facebook kind of - must have done something because then our articles would just totally, we're not getting viewed," he continued. "They pretty much shadowbanned us. And that really kind of killed it." For obvious reasons, Portelli's claims should be taken with a grain of salt (as when he claimed on Twitter this month to be a veteran to criticize T-Mobile pulling ads from Carlson's show). But this makes sense as an order of events: Prntly faces repercussions from its untrue articles and loses its ability to generate attention and revenue through Facebook. For a few years, Prntly was dark. The Internet Archive's index of its pages shows that the site was blank, save for some configuration files. But within the past few months, it reemerged. In January, it posted an article criticizing Facebook - "We need a replacement for Facebook" - for policing misinformation. The article raised now-familiar arguments about whether Facebook has the legal right to block or downplay content. (It does.) There's no question that there still exists a link between Portelli and Prntly. On his personal Facebook page, Portelli boasted about getting 12,000 "patriots" to join his anti-CHAZ event July 4. What's more, the site still includes the sorts of obviously false information that Prntly used in 2016. One recent article, for example, claimed that Prntly's "new bureau" had a source within the FBI who alleged that the bureau "is putting together a RICO case against the Antifa involved in the occupation of the CHAZ." The article is surrounded by ads, including, at the time of writing, one paid for by Trump's reelection campaign. (This doesn't mean that the campaign is intentionally advertising on the site, just that the advertising broker Prntly uses correctly matched the Trump ad with a receptive audience.) Prntly's Facebook page shows the evolution of the anti-CHAZ event itself. On June 13, it promoted the event with the headline "Join And Share: Bikers For Trump Will Retake Seattle From Antifa." The next day, the site changed the featured image and title, noting that the event wasn't a function of "Bikers for Trump." Prntly's own stories about the event show how the event was quietly changed - presumably because Prntly didn't have authorization to claim the group's involvement in the first place. How Prntly was able to resuscitate its presence on Facebook (including its relatively large follower base) is unclear. Facebook has several hundred fact-checking organizations which flag misinformation, flags which could prevent Prntly from being able to create events. Despite its track record and, according to Portelli, despite having been the target of censure in 2017, Prntly's able both to continue to share false information and to create an event purporting to involve groups who later publicly denied involvement. Prntly's advantage might be a simple one: It may be big enough to be a worthwhile use of Portelli's time for the ad revenue - but small enough not to have come to Facebook's attention. It's possible, too, that the gears of catching misinformation simply grind slowly enough that Prntly could reestablish itself and present false or dubious information for weeks or months on end. Facebook declined to comment on Prntly's situation. Meanwhile, Prntly appears to have done something rare in the fake-news world: turned fake news into real news. It now seems quite possible that, should the CHAZ remain in existence until July 4, there will actually be interested parties who show up to "liberate" its residents. What began as Portelli's apparent brainchild may, through the power of Facebook and the ability of the social-networking giant to build engagement, become an actual conflict on the streets of Seattle. As always, Prntly isn't Portelli's only iron in the fire. His Twitter biography also promotes an apparently related site, Prntpage. It claims to be "an online marketplace and app that streamlines everything the world's consumers need access to in one place" and a "transparent, non-censoring social media platform." That's from its help page, which is in the form of a FAQ. Three other questions in that FAQ are interesting, too. One asks if Facebook isn't a social media platform, with Prntpage insisting that since Facebook "controls the content it's users publish" it "would not fall into the category of a TRULY FREE social media platform." Another question asks how Prntpage combats fake news. "Prntpage is a platform," the answer reads, again incorrectly representing rules around content on social-media platforms. "[W]e do not attempt to be the arbitrators of what is truth, and what isn't." And then there's the last question in the FAQ on the page. "Are there scammers on Prntpage?" it asks. "Like all websites," the answer reads, "scammers most likely will try to operate on Prntpage." Fair enough. Four major wildfires were burning in triple-digit temperatures across Arizona on Monday, torching about 125,000 acres and forcing evacuations for some residents near the Tonto and Kaibab national forests. The Bush Fire, the largest of the blazes, swelled an additional 27,000 acres northeast of Phoenix on Tuesday, with 0% containment, forcing another round of evacuations Hot and dry temperatures with low humidity levels are forecast through the week, creating conditions that are for ripe for quick fire growth. Fire crews were also working to contain wildfires in other corners of the state. Hot, hot, hot: 'Megadrought' emerging in the western US might be worse than any in 1,200 years The Mangum Fire has burned close to 30,000 acres with 3% containment just north of the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Near Tucson, firefighters were able to secure 30% containment of the 16,000-acre Bighorn Fire, which was ignited by a lightning strike in the Santa Catalina Mountains. The Bringham Fire, which has burned for 10 days in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, had charred 14,625 acres as of Tuesday afternoon, with 5% containment. Bush Fire The Bush Fire, which spread quickly over the weekend due to hot and dry conditions, had grown to approximately 64,513 acres as of Tuesday morning in the Tonto National Forest, prompting evacuations and multiple road closures. Heavy smoke was expected to continue drifting over the Roosevelt Lake and Tonto Basin areas. The glowing lights of the flames could be seen from communities in Fountain Hills, according to pictures and worried comments on social media. Officials said Monday that no structures had been damaged in the Bush Fire, and that firefighters are working to protect power lines and private property from the flames. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office issued evacuation orders for the Sunflower and Apache Lake areas on Tuesday after Gila County evacuated communities in Tonto Basin and Punkin Center on Monday. Story continues The human-caused fire remains under investigation. The Bush Fire burns northeast of Mesa in the Tonto National Forest June 15, 2020. Multiple communities in the path of a rapidly growing fire have been ordered to evacuate from the human-caused brush fire. Mangum Fire The Mangum Fire was 3% contained and burning 29,689 acres in the Kaibab National Forest as of Tuesday morning. Officials added that windy conditions would make firefighting efforts difficult throughout the day. The fire is concentrated about nine miles southwest of the campsites and hotel near the small unincorporated community of Jacob Lake. The Coconino County Sheriff's Office evacuated approximately 280 people from the Jacob Lake recreational area, according to the Arizona Emergency Information Network. The Arizona Department of Transportation closed SR 89A between Fredonia and the Cliff Dwellers roadside stop. SR 67 is also closed between Jacob Lake and the North Rim in the Grand Canyon National Park. Bighorn Fire Firefighters took advantage of humid conditions on Tuesday to increase containment of the Bighorn Fire in the Santa Catalina Mountains to 30% after an infrared flight Monday night measured the fire at approximately 15,805 acres, according to the Southwest Coordination Center. The Arizona Emergency Information Network reported three minor heat-related injuries due to the Bighorn Fire. No property had been damaged, but officials estimated 8,380 structures were threatened. The lightning-caused wildfire has been burning through the steep and rugged terrain of the Coronado National Forest since June 5. Officials said Tuesday they are working to stop the fire's momentum near Romero Pass, clearing timber, brush and other fire fuel to "create solid, defensible space." Bringham Fire The Bringham Fire has burned 14,625 acres in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest and was 5% contained as of Tuesday. Officials said the fire's growth had recently slowed due to lower temperatures and cloud cover. The Bringham Fire, which was ignited by lightning on June 6,is concentrated in the Clifton Ranger District in southeastern Arizona. Contributing: Helena Wegner and Perry Vandell, The Arizona Republic. Reach the reporter at Helen.Wieffering@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @helenwieffering. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Bush Fire, 3 others rage in triple-digit temperatures in Arizona When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Stacy Ellingen, 34, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, lost two of the three caregivers she depends on to dress, shower, eat and use the bathroom. The caregivers both University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh students returned to their parents homes when the university canceled in-person classes. Ellingen, who lives with complications from cerebral palsy, had little choice but to do the same moving back to her parents home in Fond du Lac. Matt Ford, whose arms and legs are paralyzed, already lived with his 76-year-old father, his primary caregiver, in a specially designed house in Verona. One of Fords other caregivers moved into his basement for a while, since it was easier for her to quarantine there rather than come and go and risk infection and transmission of the virus to Ford. Jason Endres asked his care workers to stay away from the home he shares with his wife Julie in Eau Claire. With masks hard to come by, Endres feared the caregivers could inadvertently spread the virus, possibly ravaging his lungs, which have been weakened by spina bifida. The novel coronavirus, which has infected nearly 13,000 Wisconsinites, has exposed vulnerabilities in the states health care programs, including those designed to serve older residents and those with disabilities. Before the pandemic, Gov. Tony Evers in 2019 created a state task force to address a chronic shortage of caregivers. A report released in February described a crisis in the direct care workforce, with 20,655 vacant positions in Wisconsins long-term care facilities and residential settings, and an average workforce vacancy rate of nearly 26%. For residents with disabilities who need caregivers in order to live and work independently, the pandemic is adding hurdles. These visiting aides take on demanding duties and are typically paid about $12 an hour in Wisconsin. Clients with disabilities and their caregivers must weigh how to keep each other safe during close interactions, especially as protective equipment remains scarce. Some caregivers have stuck around; others have quit. And many clients who lose their caregivers also lose independence. Every respondent to an April survey of nearly 500 Wisconsinites with disabilities and older adults said the pandemic had disrupted their caregiving service. Wisconsin Watch conducted a dozen interviews with people with disabilities, their family members and caregivers across Wisconsin, revealing how the crisis has transformed each life in unique ways. Help is hard to find Stacy Ellingen has navigated life from a power wheelchair since she was a child. Cerebral palsy has also affected her fine motor skills: She uses an enlarged keyboard and eye-gaze system to operate her design firm, Design Wheels, from her apartment in Oshkosh, where she lived independently before the pandemic. That computer setup is a key component of the independent life Ellingen has fought for. Now that shes living with her parents, she doesnt have access to that tool or lifestyle. Im not able to do much work while Im at my parents, Ellingen said. During an interview over Zoom, she used an app on her phone to speak aloud. Ellingen requested interview questions in advance so she would have adequate time to enter her responses in the app. Ellingen, who is featured in a video about assistive technology, said she could not survive long without caregivers to help her. Many times Ive skipped meals, gone without using the restroom and slept in my wheelchair because I didnt have a caregiver, Ellingen said. This is not the first time a lack of help has forced her to return to her parents home, but Ellingen worries the pandemic will wreak long-lasting damage to an already thin caregiving workforce. A May survey of 504 providers of disability services conducted by the nonprofit Survival Coalition of Wisconsin Disability Organizations showed costs rising and revenues plunging across the industry. Nearly 20% of surveyed businesses were unsure whether they would survive the pandemic. In an ideal world, Ellingen said, she would have six or seven caregivers to fill work shifts, but that hasnt happened for years. Ellingen was down to just three care workers at the pandemics outset, including the two UW-Oshkosh students who have since left town. University students typically make up at least half of Ellingens support staff; each rarely stays with her longer than a year. Ellingen said life with her parents involves major and minor annoyances. She must go to bed when they do much earlier than she would prefer lest she be left with no one to lift her into bed. She also has to live with her parents music, television and food preferences. Still, Ellingen feels lucky; if not for her parents, she would likely live in a nursing home. The long-term care sector has experienced at least 5% of Wisconsins coronavirus diagnoses and more than 40% of deaths from COVID-19. Thats the last place anyone wants to be especially during the pandemic, Ellingen said. Caregiver makes sacrifices Matt Ford, 55, also recruits his caregivers mostly from a nearby college campus the UW-Madison. He typically finds new hires near the end of the spring semester, but not this year because the pandemic sent students home early. Paralyzed in a diving accident in 1987, Ford needs help getting in and out of bed, preparing meals, using the bathroom and driving. His father provides most of that assistance, and two or three additional workers take shifts at his home. Ford posts his needs for paid caregivers on UW-Madisons student job board, often using creative ways to draw attention. I just started putting in there: Grass-fed, free-range quad needs help,' Ford said with a chuckle. (Quad is short for quadriplegic.) Grace Brunette noticed the listing in spring 2016, when she was a UW-Madison senior. She has worked for Ford on and off since then. Brunette is now finishing her studies in a physician assistant program at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. When the pandemic struck, she no longer felt comfortable splitting her time between her apartment and Fords house. She moved into Fords basement to minimize contact with outsiders, including her family. The basement was designed specifically to accommodate a live-in aide a need that seems inevitable as Fords father ages. After spending the entire first two weeks quarantining in Fords house, Brunette now stays over three nights a week. Why stay during the pandemic? He only has one other caregiver. That would be really selfish of me to just say, Sayonara, Im going to go quarantine with my family, when he needs the help, Brunette said. In May, the Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with Republican legislative leaders to strike down Democratic Gov. Tony Evers "Safer at Home" order. The decision made Ford bristle at the thought that Wisconsinites might begin to take the pandemic less seriously. In an amicus brief filed before the ruling, advocacy groups argued that if the order were lifted, there would be increased risks of coronavirus infection to older adults and to people with disabilities. It does feel a little personal that no one is recognizing the efforts that we made as vulnerable people who need caregivers in and out of our homes and the sacrifices that the caregivers made, Ford said. I dont want people to go out of business either, Ford added, referencing the push to reopen the state. I do care about them. I have some empathy toward that. But I also dont want to die. Brunette is still working for Ford, but the public health crisis makes it unclear how long she will remain. She was set to start clinical rotations as part of her physician assistant training in June, which would have taken her out of town making her unavailable to work with Ford. But when a planned trip to Belize with her classmates was canceled and her clinical rotations for school were moved online, she stayed on the job. As of now, her next rotation is scheduled to begin in August. Someone will need to fill Brunettes shifts during the fall. Ford said that is typically one of the hardest times to recruit student caregivers. Mask shortage adds hurdles Like many people with disabilities in Wisconsin, both Ellingen and Ford serve as de facto employers for their caregivers, meaning they are responsible for providing personal protective gear. They each get two boxes of gloves every month, paid for by the states Medicaid program. But Ford said he is struggling to get gloves from his supplier because of the surging demand during the pandemic. Masks are even tougher to find. A relative of Ellingen offered to sew some cloth face coverings for her workers. Ford finds masks at the doctors office, where he might sneak out one or two after routine appointments. His other source is a neighbor with a carpet-cleaning business. As businesses reopen across Wisconsin, advocates are calling for the state to prioritize caregivers as protective equipment is distributed. Gov. Evers announced a $100 million grant program for health care providers, including caregivers, in late May. The lack of masks has not dramatically altered either Fords or Ellingens caregiving plans. It is a different story for Jason Endres and his wife, Julie in Eau Claire. Its really one of the big reasons why we havent had anyone come into the home, Endres said. Without a ready supply of masks, the couple feels uncomfortable inviting even familiar workers into their home, considering that many of them visit multiple clients or other work sites. Endres, 45, has reason to be cautious. He has spina bifida-linked scoliosis. Endres had rods inserted into his back as a teenager, but his spine remained somewhat crooked and that spinal curvature has weakened his lungs. His wife, Julie, has cerebral palsy. Both use power wheelchairs in their ranch-style home, which was built to accommodate their needs. Their decision to keep caregivers away from the house has added challenges during the pandemic. Take the task of changing bedsheets, for example: While a worker might finish in a matter of minutes, it takes the couple more than an hour to complete that chore. She would do it once a week, Jason Endres said of one of the workers who helps the couple. Were lucky if we do it twice a month. As the pandemic continues, uncertainty is eating Endres up inside: Are we going to live in this limbo for the rest of our lives? Is that going to be changing for the better or for the worse? I agree that we need to get the economy going, Endres added. But safetys got to be first. This story is part of a partnership that includes Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Public Radio, NPR and Kaiser Health News. Press Release 17 June 2020 Alexandria, VA - Higher levels of optimism in the business travel sector have started to appear according to new research issued today by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA). Domestic and essential business travel will likely resume first, especially with industry standardized health and safety standards. Advertisements "For the first time since the start of the pandemic, supplier members are starting to see some uplift in bookings. This positive trend is supported by the slight increase in member companies looking to restart travel in the short term (1-3 months). To continue this trend there is strong support from GBTA member companies who want consistent health and safety measures for every travel vertical. This is critical, and GBTA has been lobbying intensely on behalf of members, we have already seen great collaborative progress in the hotel and airline sectors," said GBTA CEO Scott Solombrino. To continue to understand the effects of the coronavirus's on business travel, GBTA conducted its eighth poll among membership from June 9-14, 2020. GBTA received responses from 1,708 member companies throughout the world. View the entire poll results here. While business travel continues to stall, there are some signs companies are slowly resuming some business travel. The poll reveals half (49%) of companies plan to resume domestic travel in the near future (1-3 months) and one in five (22%) plan to resume all travel in the next one to three months as well. Finally, the poll reveals a small uptick in the number of companies allowing some essential travel (44% compared to 37% in the previous GBTA poll released on May 20, 2020). Small indications of recovery are also evident among suppliers, with more travel suppliers and travel management companies (TMCs) report seeing an increase in bookings. In fact, almost half (46%) of travel suppliers and TMCs report seeing an increase in their bookings in the past week, while one in four (40%) say their bookings have remained the same. Supplier optimism regarding the industry's path to recovery is also showing positive signs. Four in ten (40%) say they feel more optimistic than they were last week (compared to 28% who felt the same in the previous GBTA coronavirus poll). Half (50%) feel the same as they did last week, and only one in ten (10%) feel more pessimistic about the industry's path to recovery than they felt a week ago. Guidelines and standards are critically important across all verticals pertaining to the business travel industry. GBTA member companies overwhelmingly feel industry-wide COVID-19 guidelines or standards are very important or important. Almost all companies feel COVID-19 guidelines/standards are important for the airline (96%), hotel (96%), rental car (93%), ride sharing (93%), taxi (92%), chauffeured car (91%), meeting and event (91%) industries. When asked about the impact of COVID-19 on the industry, most companies feel the business travel industry has experienced the worst in terms of canceled flights (86%), hotel operations suspension (78%), layoffs/furloughs (52%) and revenue impact (47%). However, one in three believe the worst is yet to come in terms of layoffs/furloughs (31%) and revenue loss (34%). Plans to Resume Business Travel All company responses Photo: GBTA Methodology GBTA conducted a poll of its members across the globe from June 9-14, 2020. A total of 1,708 responses were received. SELBYVILLE, Del., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Market Insights, Inc. has recently added a new report on the antidiabetics market, which estimates the market valuation for antidiabetics will cross US $130 billion by 2026. The rising prevalence of obesity and growing geriatric population among several other severe health conditions will act as a key driver for the antidiabetics industry. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 1.6 million deaths in the world are attributed to diabetes alone. Moreover, about 422 million people suffer from diabetes globally. Therefore, to offer better treatment and to reduce mortality rate, the antidiabetics market will witness lucrative growth in the future. Antidiabetics Market size is predicted to surpass USD 130 billion in 2026, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Recently, the outbreak of COVID-19 has affected diabetic patients in a more challenging manner, leading to a rise in antidiabetic products worldwide. Also, a growing geriatric pool and increasing obese population will offer positive growth to the industry. Therefore, major market players operating in the antidiabetic market will foresee immense growth opportunities in the forecast period. Request a sample of this research report at https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/504 The insulin segment held the largest revenue share in 2019 and is estimated to progress at more than a 12% CAGR during 2020 to 2026. An increasing number of patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and adoption of advanced treatment methods for better outcomes will increase its preference among customers. Moreover, rising investment by industry players for research and development of new products will influence the segment growth. The geriatric population accounted for around 40.0% of the market share in 2019 and is poised to grow at a substantial rate by 2026. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 25% of the U.S. population aged above 65 years suffer from diabetes. Therefore, increasing diabetes in the geriatric population will accelerate the segmental growth. Furthermore, growing government initiatives through awareness programs will influence the segmental growth. The intravenous infusions segment is projected to proceed at about a 11.3% CAGR during 2020 to 2026. The advantages of intravenous infusions are associated with higher concentration of medication delivery into the body more effectively. Such benefits will increase its preference among customers. Thus, the increasing diabetic population and adoption of advanced methods will positively impact the segment size. Browse key industry insights spread across 202 pages with 266 market data tables and 10 figures and charts from the report, "Antidiabetics Market Share & Forecast, 2020 - 2026" in detail, along with the table of contents: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/antidiabetics-market Europe's antidiabetic market constituted about more than 32% of the market share in 2019. The growing geriatric population and rising cases of diabetic patients in the region will provide growth opportunities to the market. Moreover, entry of major market players to set their footprint in this industry will further augment the market growth. Furthermore, rising government funding in research and development will further stimulate Europe's antidiabetic drugs market growth during the forecast years. Some major findings of the antidiabetics market report include: Increasing prevalence of COVID-19 in diabetic patients will drive the market growth. Rising R&D expenditure aimed at new product development and strong product pipeline will boost the market growth. Growing government initiatives and increasing healthcare expenditure will have a positive impact on the market demand. Major players operating in the antidiabetics industry share include Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Bayer Corporation, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, among other players Industry players operating in the antidiabetics market are implementing various strategies such as new product development, collaborations, and partnerships to gain a competitive advantage for business expansion. For instance, in June 2017, Merck and Pfizer announced two Phase 3 studies of ertugliflozin, an investigational oral SGLT-2 inhibitor. The drug was developed to improve glycemic control of patients suffering with type 2 diabetes. This product strategy strengthened the firm's business position along with its brand image in the market. Browse complete report table of contents at https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/antidiabetics-market Partial chapters of report table of contents (TOC): Chapter 2. Executive Summary 2.1. Antidiabetics industry 360 synopsis, 2015 - 2026 2.1.1. Business trends 2.1.2. Product trends 2.1.3. Patient population trends 2.1.4. Route of administration trends 2.1.5. Regional trends Chapter 3. Antidiabetics Industry Insights 3.1. Industry segmentation 3.2. Industry landscape, 2015 - 2026 3.3. Industry impact forces 3.3.1. Growth drivers 3.3.1.1. Strong product pipeline of antidiabetics 3.3.1.2. Globally rising prevalence of diabetes 3.3.1.3. Increasing prevalence of lifestyle induced disorders such as obesity 3.3.1.4. Growing adoption of oral antidiabetic drugs 3.3.1.5. Rising spending on R&D for innovative drugs 3.3.2. Industry pitfalls and challenges 3.3.2.1. Prohibitive cost of insulin 3.3.2.2. Safety issues pertaining to some diabetic drugs 3.4. Regulatory landscape 3.4.1. U.S. 3.4.2. Europe 3.5. Clinical workflow analysis 3.6. Reimbursement scenario 3.6.1. U.S. 3.6.2. Europe 3.6.3. Australia 3.7. Growth potential analysis 3.7.1. By product 3.7.2. By patient population 3.7.3. By route of administration 3.8. COVID-19 impact analysis 3.9. Porter's analysis 3.10. Competitive landscape, 2019 3.11. PESTEL analysis Browse related report: Diabetes Care Devices Market Size By Products (Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices {Self-Monitoring Blood Glucose Meters, Continuous Glucose Monitors, Testing Strips, Lancets}, Insulin Delivery Devices {Insulin Pumps [Tubed Pumps, Tubeless Pumps], Pen [Reusable, Disposable], Pen Needles [Standard, Safety], Syringes}), By End-Use (Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Diagnostic Centers, Home Care) Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook, Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2019 - 2025 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/diabetes-care-devices-market About Global Market Insights Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports 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 antidiabetics-market-size-worth.png Antidiabetics Market size worth around $130B by 2026 Antidiabetics Market size is predicted to surpass USD 130 billion in 2026, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Related Links Tubeless Insulin Pump Market Pet Diabetes Care Devices Market SOURCE Global Market Insights, Inc. Al Salem Johnson Controls (York), a pioneer in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) sector, has launched the York Hospitals Initiative for maintenance work, to support the Saudi healthcare sector in facing the Covid-19 pandemic. Under this programme, which was launched in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Al Salem Johnson Controls is providing free inspection and repair services for all types of commercial and industrial chillers and other HVAC units located in hospitals across seven cities Makkah, Riyadh, Dammam, Dhahran, Al Khobar, Jeddah and Madinah. This first-of-its-kind initiative is fast expanding to cover other cities as well, said the company. Al Salem Johnson Controls (York) revealed that 21 government and private hospitals had benefitted from the York Hospitals Initiative since its launch this March. Dr Mohanad Al Sheikh, CEO (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and Yemen), said the initiative was part of the companys corporate social responsibility, and demonstrates its leading role in supporting hospitals and healthcare facilities, especially the ones run by the government, to enhance their operational performance in the fight against Covid-19. "We have employed the largest specialised maintenance team in the Middle East, that has contributed 1,500 working hours so far, to meet the demands of free maintenance and repair procedures, stated Al Sheikh. The York Initiative has so far included free maintenance services for 19 government healthcare facilities and two private sector hospitals. Services include, requests for thorough examination and general cleaning of all HVAC units - York and non-York the like in addition to providing York Units as a free rental solution, to meet the additional cooling requirements necessary to ensure suitable temperatures for medical staff, patients and visitors. Under this initiative, York has also provided 76,000 free spare parts needed for the repair and maintenance of HVAC Units. Al Salem Johnson Controls (York) said it aims to continue the maintenance and repair initiative as part of its support to the healthcare sector to battle the pandemic.-TradeArabia News Service "The Ghana School Feeding Programme under Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has created over 20,000 direct Jobs to caterers and cooks as well as indirect jobs created along the value chain of farmers, aggregators and processors" Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection Hon. Mrs. Cynthia Morrison stated these in an address she delivered at the Innovative Nutrition Initiative Training for Caterers and Head Cooks in the Agona West Municipality at Agona Swedru. According to the Minster who is also the Member of Parliament for Agona West Constituency disclosed that the Innovative Nutrition Initiative Training seeks to train Ghana School Feeding caterers in a practical innovative nutrition cooking Demonstration aimed at sharpening the skills of caterers and cooks to perform better on the job "The training programme also aimed at the following; To sensitize caterers and cooks on optimal nutrition for school-aged children, Innovative ways of adding Soya and Green leafy vegetables to school meals in order to increase Nutritional content of the meals mainly protein and to create awareness on the need for farmer-caterer linkage Currently, on a daily basis, the School Feeding Programme feeds 2.7 Million Pupils in Public Primary Schools and Government is determined to undertake further expansion. The programme can be found in all the 260 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the country" The Gender Minister noted that the Ghana School Feeding Programme which was initiated on pillar III of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) centers on improvement in Education, Health and Agriculture as its objectives " The School Feeding Programme like the other national Social Protection flagship programmes provides an opportunity to pursue Ghana's commitment to Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2 While Goal 1 seeks to end poverty in all its forms everywhere, Goal 2 aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition while sustaining agriculture" Hon. Cynthia Morrison concluded that her Ministry was collaborating with the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) to distribute local foodstuffs to caterers across the country She added that there were other complementary projects on the School Feeding Programme such as the National Cocoa Drinks Projects currently being considered for Ghana Education Service (GES) Pupils The Agona West Municipal Chief Executive, Hon. Mrs. Justina Marigold Assan in her welcome address lauded the Gender Minister for spearheading the development of the Agona West Municipality. She noted that good nutrition was the backbone of every individual adding healthy people makes a wealthy nation " As caterers, let us apply whatever we are being taught into practice. I see this training as God-sent to ensure our school Children are healthy at all times This will improve the academic standard in our Schools significantly better. I once again thank Hon. Cynthia Morrison for this great opportunity afforded to caterers in the Agona West Municipality" The National Coordinator for School Feeding Programme, Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah said the programme was a practical training of best methods and practices in preparing school meals using local ingredients in the District. " This training is also to ensure food hygiene and storage, cooking and storage under hygienic conditions and Sterilization of cooking tools We aimed at training a total of 15,876 Caterers and Head Cooks in all the 260 Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies in all the 16 Regions in the country. Am optimistic that the training will inspire the best cooking performance of the caterers so that the school Pupils will meet the daily intake of 30% of the recommended allowance in their meals as required by the Ghana School Feeding Programme" Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah encouraged the Caterers and Head Cooks to ensure a clean and hygienic environment in their areas Present were Madam Agnes Owusu, Central Regional Coordinator for School Feeding Programme and Madam Khadijah Anderson, Deputy Director, Monitoring and Evaluation in charge of Central, Western and Western North Regions NEW ORLEANS, La., June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, TurboSquid adds two new licensing tiers to its 3D marketplace, providing creative indemnification of up to $1 million for 450,000 3D models. Building on TurboSquids standard $10,000 indemnified licenses, these new tiers will provide even more protection for the enterprise and production studios that need it. We encounter companies on a regular basis whose legal teams require more protection than our standard license, said Matt Wisdom, CEO of TurboSquid. Now, instead of slowing down the process with custom licenses, we are offering multiple tiers designed for businesses big and small. This should make it easier on everyone and provide a lot more peace of mind. The new protections guard against rare occasions where a stock model's use is disputed on a commercial project. These situations give some studios pause and have led to requests to raise TurboSquids indemnification guarantees so artists can feel unfettered as they produce VFX, ads, episodics and more. Now, this can all be done completely through the site no lawyers required. Initially, TurboSquid is applying these new tiers to 450,000 models, covering all categories within its library. Both original and trademarked models can be found by clicking the Enhanced Licenses option on the TurboSquid filter bar. TurboSquids content scanning system will also continue to assess new models for indemnification, with plans to work through the rest of the library by the end of summer. Pricing and Availability The new tiers are accessible now and will be available in the licensing dropdown section of the initial 450,000 models. The small business tier, which provides $250,000 in extra protection, is priced at an additional $149 per model. The enterprise tier, which offers $1 million in extra protection, can be added for $299 per model. About TurboSquid Founded in 2000, TurboSquid is the worlds leading source for stock 3D models. Their customers include over half of the Fortune 100 and a diverse set of industries including film and television, retail, gaming, news media, advertising, architecture and defense. Powered by a passionate community of millions of artists from around the globe, TurboSquid is dedicated to improving how 3D models are built, bought and used. Their latest initiative, Kraken, is an asset management platform designed to help organizations finally bring order to their 3D libraries. TurboSquid is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. For more information, visit: turbosquid.com. Attachment Editor's Note: This report was first published on June 17, 2020. It has been updated on June 23 to rectify an error in the number of casualties and to include govt clarification and new information. Furious hand-to-hand fighting raged across the Galwan river valley for over eight hours on Monday night, as Peoples Liberation Army assault teams armed with iron rods as well as batons wrapped in barbed wire attacked troops of the 16 Bihar Regiment, a senior government official familiar with the debriefing of survivors at hospitals in Leh told News18. The savage combat, with few parallels in the history of modern armies, claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers, including 16 Bihars commanding officer, Colonel Santosh Babu, many because of protracted exposure to sub-zero temperatures, the Indian Army said late on Tuesday. The fighting at Galwan, News18 had first reported on June 16, began after troops under Colonel Babus command dismantled a Chinese tent sent up near a position code-named Patrol Point 14, close to the mouth of the Galwan river. The tent had been dismantled following a meeting between Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, who commands the Leh-based XIV Corps, and Major-General Lin Liu, the head of the Xinjiang military district. Inside two days of the disengagement agreed to at the two Generals meeting in Chushul, though, the PLA set up a fresh tent at Patrol Point 14, inside the Indian Territory. Colonel Babus unit, government sources said, was ordered to ensure the tent was removed. The PLA refused to vacate Point 14 reneging on the June 6 agreement leading to a melee in which the Chinese tent was burned down, the sources said. The burning of the tent, the sources said, was followed by stone-pelting on Sunday, and then a massive Monday night attack on the 16 Bihars troops. The killings mark the Indian Armys worst losses since the 1999 Kargil war, and mark the most intense fighting between India and China since 1967, when 88 Indian soldiers and perhaps as many as 340 PLA troops were killed in the course of intense skirmishes near the Nathu La and Cho La passes, the gateways to the strategically-vital Chumbi valley. The Indian Army has said it intercepted military communication suggesting over 40 PLA soldiers were either killed or injured in the fight. Subsequently, an American news website quoted intelligence inputs that at least 35 PLA soldiers died in the fight. On June 17, while paying tributes to martyred Indian soldiers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said The country would be proud that our soldiers died fighting ('woh maarte-maarte mare hain'). This was interpreted as a confirmation that Indian soldiers had inflicted casualties on the other side. Earlier, on May 5, Indian and Chinese troops, as well as border guards, had engaged in similar, brutal fighting near the Pangong Lake, south of the Galwan valley. No explanation has been offered for why the PLA pitched a tent at Point 14 after agreeing to a withdrawal. In addition to a drawdown at Point 14, the June 6 agreement had mandated an end to a standoff unfolding at another location code-named Point 15, and a withdrawal of troops and armoured personnel carriers stationed at the third location, Point 17. Experts believe the crisis unfolding along the LAC is driven by Chinas concerns that Indias development of logistical infrastructure could lead it to occupy contested territories it has until now only been able to patrol. In maps published in 1962, after the end of the China-India war that year, the PLA asserted it had established control of the entire Galwan valley. Lightly-armed Indian troops of the 5 Jat Regiment, whose supply lines had been choked for months, held out against an entire PLA battalion at one key post in Galwan, losing 32 of the 68 troops stationed there before running out of ammunition. Following the war, though, the PLA pulled back from its 1962 line, allowing Indian troops to resume patrolling ground dozens of kilometres to the east of the 1962 line, reaching the positions that India claims to be the LAC. In the 1980s, China launched major border-works programmes which led several areas claimed by India to lie on its side of the LAC like the Finger 8 ridge in Pangong to be physically held by the PLA. While unveiling the Republican police reform bill on Wednesday, Senator Tim Scott said that the U.S. is not a racist country and criticized Democrats for what he saw as their relentless focus on race, advocating a discrete approach to policy solutions designed to address police brutality. Scott, the Senates only black Republican, remarked in a press conference held to unveil the legislation that some people enjoy talking about systemic racism and want to define everything from a racist perspective. We dont spend time on the definition of a word, but we spend time on the definition of the problem and the definition of the solution, the South Carolina senator said, adding that Americans are often given the false, binary choice of backing either black Americans or law enforcement. I dont know how to tell people the nation is not racist. Ill try again: we are not a racist country, Scott said. We deal with racism because there is racism in the country. Both are true, not mutually exclusive. The GOP police-reform bill, dubbed the Justice Act, would provide incentives for police departments to ban choke holds, strengthen reporting requirements for departments to disclose when an officers use of force results in death or serious injury, fund more police body cameras, and mandate that the Justice Department come up with guidelines for deescalating police encounters, among other reforms. The bill also makes lynching a federal hate crime and establishes a commission to examine the social situation of black men and boys in the country. I dont worry about the definitions that people want to use, its good for headlines, but its really bad for policy. Were going to focus on getting something done, Scott concluded at the press conference. President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday encouraging police officers to limit the use of deadly force in the line of duty. The order detailed the administrations initiatives to encourage high standards for use of force, track officer misconduct, and bring in social workers and mental health professionals when responding to certain emergency calls. Story continues Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell promised Wednesday to take up the Republican bill quickly and encouraged Democrats to lend it their support. Democrats in both legislative chambers have meanwhile criticized the GOP bill, saying it does not include enough reforms for them to back it. House Democrats have introduced a separate police reform bill that McConnell said he will not bring to the floor should it reach the Senate. More from National Review Landing page optimization company Unbounce is announcing that it has raised $52 million Canadian (approximately $38.4 million in U.S. dollars). Unbounce was founded back in 2009 with what co-founder and CEO Rick Perreault described as a goal of helping small and medium businesses easily create different landing pages where they can direct potential customers after they've engaged with their ad and marketing campaigns. (Apparently some Unbounce customers are successful with just a "handful" of landing pages, while others create "hundreds and hundreds.") The Vancouver-headquartered company now has a 200-person team, with customers including Hootsuite, Zola and World Vision. It also says it recently passed the milestone of having powered 1 billion conversions. Aside from a small seed round back in 2011, Perreault said the company has not taken on any outside funding. Apparently it raised a big round now in order to invest in technology that can bring more automation to the process. Perreault said the ultimate goal is to allow a business to "set it and forget it through machine learning" so that they no longer have to create landing pages at all, because the Unbounce platform is doing all the optimization and personalization for them. As a first step in that direction, Unbounce has created a Smart Traffic product that will automatically use visitor data to send visitors to the best landing page, resulting in an average conversion lift of 20%. Rick Perreault Rick Perreault "As more and more millennials become the SMB owners, and theyre much more savvy with computers and comfortable with online and digital marketing ... landing pages are becoming more critical than ever," he added. The funding was led by Denver-based equity firm Crest Rock Partners, with Crest Rock's Steve Johnson and Jeff Carnes joining Unbounce's board of directors. "Unbounce is the clear market leader in conversion optimization today a world-class team, well-respected brand and the companys conversion intelligence strategy will together dramatically increase the distance between Unbounce and its competitors," Johnson said in a statement. Story continues Perreault said he was also pleased that Crest Rock was on-board with Unbounce's "people first" culture, which includes a commitment to diversity. In fact, the company says it recently reached gender parity, with 50% of employees (and 56% of the senior leadership team) identifying as women. In addition, 34% of employees are visible ethnic minorities. Unbounce is also announcing that Chief Revenue Officer Felicia Bochicchio has been appointed the company's president. The Future of Work refers to changes occurring within current socio-economic; workplace and workforce systems, affecting both present and future functioning of these ecosystems. It is closely linked to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and a growth in related technology and innovation factors such as automation, artificial intelligence, digitisation and professional skills many of which are still evolving. Automation and the demand for skilled labour will predictably put enormous strain on the already precarious employment landscape in Africa, particularly when it comes to the youth demographic. According to a report done by the Anzisha Prize, of the 2.1 billion people expected to join the global population between 2019 and 2050, half will be on the African continent where access to stable economic opportunities remain limited. The youth segment accounts for 60% of total unemployment numbers in Africa, according to the World Bank. With a growing youth population, this unemployment rate is set to increase exponentially over the coming years. In order for the continent to meet the Future of Work reality head on, and turn Africas large youth population into an asset for socio-economic growth, there needs to be a shift towards economic activities able to thrive in such an environment. The solution may very well lie in youth entrepreneurship more specifically investing in and supporting very young African entrepreneurs. In fact, Deloitte lists the expansion of the workforce to include both on- and off-balance sheet talent as a core characteristic when it comes to the future of work. Based on research data across the board, it is clear that many traditional job roles will simply not survive the transition when it comes to what lies ahead when it comes to the future market place. Interestingly, a rising trend in entrepreneurship can already be observed across the continent according to the African Development Bank , at 22%, Africa has the highest entrepreneurship rate in the world. However, this percentage is not nearly enough to overcome the challenges facing the continent. Instead, the role of entrepreneurship needs to be better understood as a lever for positive change within a rapidly evolving socio-economic landscape. In terms of skills development, entrepreneurial training equips young people with agile, sustainable and transferrable skills that can be adapted to changing environments and situations. This is critical in a time where the future is uncertain. The ongoing COVID-19 global crisis has demonstrated just how quickly and drastically the entire socio-economic environment can change, and how those that are unable to adapt accordingly face dire consequences. In fact, entrepreneurship has proven to be the option that many have turned to worldwide as a means of financial support during this time. From a job seeker perspective, entrepreneurship should be seen as a viable career option, and not just a last resort. While factors such as automation will likely result in job losses due to redundancy of manual job roles, the Future of Work opens up vast opportunities as companies increasingly look to more innovative and creative options offered by entrepreneurial ventures. Africas youth need to be exposed to and encouraged to consider entrepreneurship from a very young age so that they can take the steps needed to prepare for future socio-economic scenarios. A report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) quotes an estimate that 65% of children entering primary school will end up working in jobs that dont exist yet. Parents, teachers and other role players that influence a young persons choices therefore have to also familiarize themselves with what work situations will potentially look like in the future, and understand how entrepreneurship provides youth with a level of control over their own future. As entrepreneurship is key to job creation, an increase in youth entrepreneurship will have tangible positive impact on communities, countries and the continent as a whole. More so when it comes to youth employing youth. The abovementioned Anzisha report, titled: The Very Young Entrepreneur Scenario for Africa, explains the key to using entrepreneurship as a means of tackling youth unemployment in Africa is that our research and experience have indicated that young entrepreneurs hire other young people ( download the full report here ). Youth entrepreneurship also acts as a means of pioneering innovative solutions that work within future technology and innovation-driven settings. And to successfully navigate future work settings, the journey has to start as early as possible with youth, especially those who already exhibit entrepreneurial traits or an interest in entrepreneurship. Again, it is vital that educators, parents, the media and even business leaders expose youth to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship in terms of both the benefits and challenges that come with pursuing such a path. Entrepreneurship can no longer be ignored the global health crisis has catalyzed the process by the effect it has had on the workplace and workforce across Africa. It has highlighted the need for innovation and adaptability, and for people to have a means to earn a living in a way that is less reliant on often rigid and outdated traditional work systems. The disruptions to be caused by 4IR and the Future of Work are unavoidable, its all about being prepared for it and youth entrepreneurship holds the key. Russias Gazprom PJSC has made a request with the Danish government to deploy new vessels in the Baltic Sea for work on the disputed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Denmarks environmental protection agency said. The application is the latest signal that Russia aims to complete the 1,200-kilometer (745 mile) pipeline linking Russia and Germany in the face of U.S. efforts to halt the project. An environmental report doesnt foresee greater risks associated with the newly proposed ships. The request to deploy so-called DP3-class vessels is purely administrative, the Copenhagen-based regulator said. A ruling could fall by early July, according to an EPA email on Wednesday that narrowed the time frame for making a decision to weeks from months. The Akademik Cherskiy, a vessel that Russia could use to build the remaining stretch of the gas-export link, arrived at a German Baltic port last month after a trip from the Sea of Japan that took two months. The ship is a DP3-class pipe-laying vessel, according to Esperis Consulting, a Warsaw-based energy consultancy. The projects advance comes as the U.S. signals it will impose additional sanctions after delaying the project last December. Germany has warned that such a move may violate international law and harm already strained trans-Atlantic relations. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators this month floated legislation that would expand U.S. sanctions by taking aim at insurance companies that work with Russian vessels on completion of the pipeline. Senator Ted Cruz, one of the lead sponsors of the legislation, said the pipeline poses a critical threat to Americas national security and must not be completed. Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to circumvent the sanctions passed by Congress last year, Cruz said in a statement. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, said the pipeline threatens Ukraine, Europes energy independence and gives Russia an opening to exploit our allies and that Congress must once again take decisive action and stand in this pipelines path. Photograph: Gas pipes for Gazprom in the snow in the Moscox Region, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2020. Related: Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics USA Pollution Germany By Trend The Pension Fund of Turkmenistan has announced the beginning of the fiscal period for the payment of pension contributions for the first six months of 2020, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenportal Information Portal. Pension contributions must be paid to the Department of the Pension Fund of Turkmenistan with the simultaneous submission of declarations from July 1 to August 15, 2020. The payment of pension contributions is carried out in accordance with article 21 of the law of Turkmenistan On State Pension Insurance, that was prepared by order of the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow on the creation of the pension fund of Turkmenistan and introduction of national accumulative pension method in-country, as well as tasks to update and bring legislation on social security into compliance with international standards on July 9, 2010. Amendments and additions to the law of Turkmenistan On State Pension Insurance came into force on January 1, 2018. In particular, if the insured person simultaneously has additional income from business activities, professional services, or agricultural production, then one type of income will be subjected to accounting. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 02:11:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping chairs the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 and delivers a keynote speech at the summit in Beijing, capital of China, June 17, 2020. The summit, held via video link, was jointly proposed by China, South Africa, the rotating chair of the African Union (AU), and Senegal, the co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen) BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called on China and Africa to defeat the novel coronavirus with solidarity and cooperation. The two sides should work together to build a China-Africa community of health for all and take their comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership to a greater height. Xi made the remarks in Beijing when chairing the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19, held via video link. The summit was jointly initiated by China, South Africa, the rotating chair of the African Union (AU), and Senegal, the co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Noting that China and Africa have withstood the test of a severe challenge and enhanced solidarity, friendship and mutual trust in the face of COVID-19, Xi said the two sides must mobilize necessary resources, stick together in collaboration to protect people's lives and health, and minimize the fallout of COVID-19. He called on both sides to stay committed to fighting COVID-19 together, saying that China will continue to do whatever it can to support Africa's response. "China will lose no time in following through on the measures I announced at the opening of the World Health Assembly, and continue to help African countries by providing supplies, sending expert teams, and facilitating Africa's procurement of medical supplies in China," Xi said. He said China will start ahead of schedule the construction of the Africa CDC headquarters this year, work with Africa to fully deliver the health care initiative adopted at the FOCAC Beijing Summit, and speed up the construction of China-Africa Friendship Hospitals and the cooperation between paired-up Chinese and African hospitals. "We pledge that once the development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccine is completed in China, African countries will be among the first to benefit," said Xi. He encouraged China and African countries to strengthen Belt and Road cooperation and accelerate the follow-ups to the FOCAC Beijing Summit. "Greater priority needs to be given to cooperation on public health, economic reopening, and people's livelihood," said Xi. He said China will cancel the debt of relevant African countries in the form of interest-free government loans that are due to mature by the end of 2020 within the FOCAC framework. For those African countries that are hardest hit by the coronavirus and are under heavy financial stress, China will work with the global community to give them greater support, by such means as further extending the period of debt suspension, to help them tide over the current difficulty, Xi said. China will work with other members of the G20 to implement the G20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative and urge the G20 to extend debt service suspension still further for countries concerned, including those in Africa, Xi added. He said China supports Africa in its effort to develop the African Continental Free Trade Area and to enhance connectivity and strengthen industrial and supply chains. China will explore broader cooperation with Africa in such new business forms as digital economy, smart city, clean energy, and 5G to boost Africa's development and revitalization, said Xi. Stressing that solidarity and cooperation is "the most powerful weapon" in the face of COVID-19, Xi called on China and Africa to stay committed to upholding multilateralism. "We oppose politicization and stigmatization of COVID-19, and we oppose racial discrimination and ideological bias. We stand firm for equity and justice in the world," he said. Noting that the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, Xi said closer cooperation between China and Africa "is needed more than ever." He called on both sides to support each other on issues involving respective core interests and advance the fundamental interests of China and Africa as well as all developing countries. "This way, we will be able to take the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership to a greater height," he said. African leaders that attended the summit include South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat. Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres and Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also attended the meeting as special guests. Hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced New York City will create a new disciplinary database for the NYPD, the police force released a video asking for help identifying protesters who brutally attacked on-duty cops. On Wednesday de Blasio announced new plans to launch a disciplinary database that will be accessible to the public online and lay out details on internal cases including the names of officers, the charges they face, hearing dates, and the ultimate resolution. The effort is a part of sweeping new measures to make the NYPD more transparent and accountable. Hours after De Blasio's announcement, Police Chief Rodney Harrison shared a video on Twitter asking the public to help identify several protester suspects caught on video hitting cops in the back of the head, throwing punches, and tossing traffic cones towards officers. Hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced New York City will create a new disciplinary database for the NYPD, Police Chief Rodney Harrison released a video montage asking for help identifying protesters who brutally attacked on-duty cops The start of the video montage shows a man attacking a cop by hitting him in the head with something orange. On the right the cop's severe injury from the attack is pictured The video montage showed a series of attacks on police including this one from a protest where a man hit a cop in the back of the head. The man, center in black, is pictured running away as the cop, dressed in white, is pictured left buckling over from the blow of the hit In this blurry video a person hits a cop with a metal chair, leaving them suffering a severe gash on the top of their head. Following the metal chair attack, the video shows a female cop suffering a severe gash to the forehead The clip featured dramatic, dark music and started with surveillance footage of someone hitting a cop in the back of the head with a large orange item. The clip then cut to show the officer's injury, a gaping hole in the cop's head. Another clip showed a massive group of protesters in what appeared to be downtown Manhattan. A man in the clip ran up behind an officer in a helmet and wacked him in the head with something. In another clip a large group of people was filmed running outside and one person threw a metal chair at an officer, leaving her with a bloody gash and scars on the top of her head. 'The New York Police Department is asking for the publics assistance in identifying the person(s) responsible for assaulting police officers,' the tweet said. The video clip shows these two men as suspects in attacks on NYPD officers It comes as police units across the country are pressing back against calls for reform and the end of law enforcement brutality, many claiming they face violence from civilians and George Floyd protesters in the streets. More than 350 officers have been injured during ongoing protests in New York City. Three protesters, including two lawyers, in New York City now face life in prison after being indicted for throwing Molotov cocktails - acts caught on video - at police cars as protests turned into riots the weekend following Floyd's death. On Wednesday De Blasio laid out the new plans for the disciplinary database saying though it will take some time to come to fruition by July it will list out all 1,100 pending internal cases within the force, which are prosecuted by the departments oversight agency the Civilian Complaint Review Board. On Wednesday Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the creation of a disciplinary database that will be avaialble to the public online. By July it will list information on all 1,100 pending cases within the NYPD He announced several measures to improve police accountability in handling officer-involved incidents that result in substantial injury. Firstly, the Police commissioner must decide whether to suspend or modify officers within 48 hours after the incident. Secondly, Internal Affairs must wrap up their investigations into the cases within two weeks 'Today were going to start a massive effort to make public information regarding police discipline,' De Blasio said at a Wednesday morning press conference, adding the database will be launched in three phases. 'First, as immediate action, all trial decisions will be published,' he said. 'Second by July we will publish information on every pending case within the NYPD. Every case where charges have been filed, that is 1,100 cases. Those in the pipeline now we will publish the officers name, charges, hearing date and the ultimate resolution when it occurs. 'Third phase...All records for every active member available in one place, publicly. All past trial decisions and any other formal actions that came out of those disciplinary proceedings will be online and easy to access. 'This is a longer term phase but itll allow us to do something historic to create a comprehensive, publicly available set of disciplinary records. This is historic itll cover every member of the police force,' he added. It's not clear when the entire database will be completed. Last week Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the repeal of bill 50-a last week and signed a new package of bills. The unveiling of the bills was attended by (left to right) Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Hazel N. Dukes, Valerie Bell, Gwen Carr, and NY State Sen. Andrea Stewart- Cousins. Bell and Carr are the mothers of Sean Bell and Eric Garner - two unarmed black Americans who died at the hands of New York cops - on June 12 The new efforts to address police violence and accountability comes after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the repeal of bill 50-a into law last week, a piece of legislature that previously allowed law enforcement to shield police misconduct records from the public. Now all disciplinary records will be publicly disclosed. Furthermore, Cuomo signed to ban police officers from holding civilians in chokeholds and signed a law to prohibit false race-based 911 calls, that has seen escalations of violence between officers and victims. Also on Wednesday De Blasio announced he will expedite disciplinary action within the NYPD and bring an end to long, drawn-out cases. Firstly, he said the Police Commissioner must now decide on whether to suspend or modify officers within 48 hours after an incident that results in substantial injury. Secondly, Internal Affairs must wrap up their investigations into the cases within two weeks. De Blasio also announced that the NYPD would release all audio and video from body camera worn during major incidents and high-profile encounters in the past within the coming weeks. Yesterday he laid out a new policy that will require New York City police to release all body camera footage of shootings and other instances when force is used and injury or death occurs De Blasio also announced that the NYPD would release all audio and video from body camera worn during major incidents and high-profile encounters in the past within the coming weeks. Image of NYPD officers in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn facing George Floyd protesters on June 4 De Blasio proudly touted the new disciplinary database as a way to send a message to the world that New York takes police brutality and misconduct, an issue decried in protest unfolding across the nation, seriously. 'For the nations largest police force to take these actions sends a message, not only to the people of this city but people all over this country that we can do things very differently. Transparency is not something to fear but to embrace, because thats where trust and faith will deepen,' he said. 'Every officer will be held accountable. And for so many officers who every single day do the hard work and do the right thing, they will know that the work that they out there protecting people will be honoured and respected. For folks that do the wrong thing, theyll know the consequences will be clear,' he added. The sweeping reforms spearheaded by Cuomo and De Blasio comes as protests across the nation have decried a slew of brutal police killings of black men and women including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks. North Korea claimed responsibility for the destruction of the inter-Korean liaison office along its border with South Korea. The move comes amid rising tensions between the countries and as North Koreas nuclear talks with Washington are at a standstill. WSJs Timothy Martin explains. Photo: Korea News Service via AP BRUSSELS - Turkey is hindering European Union attempts to secure NATOs help for the blocs naval operation in the Mediterranean as its tries to enforce a U.N. arms embargo on conflict-torn Libya, according to diplomats and officials in Brussels. The operation dubbed Irini, the Greek word for peace was launched on April 1. The European Council said it has as its core task the implementation of the U.N. arms embargo through the use of aerial, satellite and maritime assets. But Turkey, a NATO member whose efforts to join the EU have stalled, suspects that Irini focuses too much on the internationally recognized Libyan administration in Tripoli and not enough on rival forces under the command of Khalifa Hifter, who launched an offensive in April 2019 to capture the capital. Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising toppled leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The country has since been split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each backed by armed groups and different foreign governments. Hifter is supported by France, Russia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and other key Arab countries. The government in Tripoli led by Fayez Sarraj is backed by Turkey, which sent troops and mercenaries to protect the capital in January, as well as Italy and Qatar. On Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the bloc and NATO are discussing how to establish a new arrangement of co-operation not participation co-operation between Operation Irini and NATO, once again in our shared interest. I hope that this co-operation agreement can be set up on the next days, said Borrell, who is set to take part in a video conference with NATO defence ministers on Thursday. But two NATO diplomats raised doubts about whether Turkey would let such an arrangement happen, and because the 30-nation military alliance operates on the basis of unanimity, NATOs support cannot be guaranteed. The diplomats job descriptions do not allow them to speak on the record about in-house deliberations. Asked Wednesday what the response might be, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said we are looking into possible support, possible co-operation, but no decision has been taken. There is dialogue, contacts, addressing that as we speak. He noted that NATO did provide support to the EUs previous naval operation, which had a different mandate to Irini. So far, Turkey does not seem to be entirely helpful to the EU operation, and a recent incident highlights the limitations of Irini, which only has two ships and three planes and needs more. Borrell said that Irini personnel tried to make contact last week with a suspicious Tanzanian-flagged cargo ship that was being escorted by two Turkish warships. He said the ship refused to respond, but its Turkish escorts said the cargo was medical equipment bound for Libya. He said the personnel contacted the Turkish and Tanzanian authorities to try to verify the information, and they also informed the United Nations. Borrell added that had Irini received no reply from any of the ships, it could have taken other action. He refused to elaborate. It is only in the cases in which the ship is not answering that we can take another kind of activities, we can do something more, Borrell said. We cannot do anything more than to transmit this information to the United Nations. It is the United Nations who gathers this information in order to control the implementation of the arms embargo. Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker, who was reported to have questioned the suspension of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, a key element in the inquiry leading to President Donald Trump's impeachment, resigned on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said. McCusker submitted her resignation as deputy undersecretary of defense (comptroller) effective June 26, Esper said in a statement, thanking her for her public service and contributions to the Pentagon's budgeting and audit processes. 'Since joining the Department of Defense Elaine has worked tirelessly to ensure that our budgeting and audit processes give full value to the taxpayer while meeting the enormous security needs of our nation as well as the men and women who serve it,' Esper said. Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker submitted her resignation as deputy undersecretary of defense (comptroller) effective June 26, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Trump last year nominated McCusker to be promoted to undersecretary of defense (comptroller), but withdrew the nomination in March 'I am grateful for her dedication to public service and the contributions that she has made to the Department and wish her the very best in her future endeavors.' Trump last year nominated McCusker to be promoted to undersecretary of defense (comptroller), but withdrew the nomination in March, after the White House ousted several other officials who had testified at his impeachment inquiry. McCusker first raised concern over the legality of the hold on July 25 McCusker first raised concern over the legality of the hold on July 25, according to emails reviewed by Just Security. The issue was raised on the same day as Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, CNN reports. In an August 30 email, McCuskey also expressed that the Pentagon felt their was legal concern about the explicit directions from the president. Trump was impeached by the Democratic-led House of Representatives in December. Democrats said Trump held back $391 million in security aid to Ukraine and a White House meeting for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as leverage to force Kyiv into interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential election by smearing Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Trump, who branded the impeachment effort a witch hunt, was acquitted in February after a trial in the U.S. Senate, where his fellow Republicans have a majority. Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, said in March that witness testimony and leaked emails between McCusker and the Office of Management and Budget showed that she had repeatedly raised concerns about Trump's hold on Ukraine security assistance and 'sought to ensure that the Administration was in compliance with the law.' With confirmed COVID-19 cases spiking in San Antonio and across the state, were seeing intensified friction between state and local leaders over how to manage the crisis and who should have the power to make those decisions. County Judge Nelson Wolff and Mayor Ron Nirenberg have joined other Texas municipal officials in asking Gov. Greg Abbott for the latitude to mandate the public use of protective masks in their communities, as they did in the early stages of the pandemic. Abbott recommends the use of masks but has stipulated that mask usage be voluntary. In response to a letter from Wolff, Abbott said he and the county judge have a philosophical difference, adding, He believes in government mandates and I believe in individual responsibility. On Wednesday morning, Wolff tested the boundaries of local control with a limited mandate, dictating that local business require employees and customers to wear masks when they're on the premises. On ExpressNews.com: Masks will soon be required in Bexar County The mask debate was one of the prime topics of conversation on this weeks episode of the Express-News Puro Politics podcast. The podcast explored the question of how effective a municipal mandate would be at this stage, given the fact that most cities would be reluctant to strictly enforce such an order by citing violators. Brian Chasnoff suggested that a municipal mandate would at least help to create a heightened sense of urgency around the issue. There probably is a psychological difference there, I would argue, Chasnoff said. So many people, it just seems, are just pretending that the pandemic is over. Greg Jefferson asked whether there is a public willingness to return to the shelter-in-place practices of March and April. If were truly at the beginning of a second spike, is anybody talking about going back to more rigorous stay-at-home orders? It seems like its been weeks since Ive heard essential and nonessential businesses, Jefferson said. Is that going to come back? Chasnoff said: I think what its going to take is a New York-style meltdown of the hospital system. Hear this and other issues discussed on this weeks edition of Puro Politics. Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Gilbert, become a subscriber. ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 12:23:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MANILA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Filipino-Chinese business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco died at 85-year-old on Tuesday night. Cojuangco's passing was announced by San Miguel Corporation, of which he was the chairman and chief executive officer, in the corporation's statement on Wednesday. The Philippine Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque sent his condolences to the Cojuangco family. Roque said Cojuangco, through his San Miguel Corporation, "had immense contribution to the socioeconomic development of the Philippines through the company's operations in food, beverages, energy, power, oil refining, and infrastructure." Cojuangco, who had a strong presence and influence in the Philippine business community. had served as the leader of San Miguel Corporation, the country's largest food and beverage corporation, since 1998. Aside from San Miguel Corporation, he was also the chairman of several publicly listed companies. Cojuangco also dabbled in politics. He first served as the governor of Tarlac province in the 1960s and ran for the Philippine president in 1992 but lost. Enditem Target Says It Will Raise Minimum Wage to $15 per Hour Next Month Retailer Target on Wednesday said it will permanently raise its minimum wage by $2 to $15 per hour across the United States. The changes will be implemented next month, the Minneapolis-based firm confirmed in a statement. It will also offer a one-time recognition bonus of $200 for workers for their performance during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. In the best of times, our team brings incredible energy and empathy to our work, and in harder times they bring those qualities plus extraordinary resilience and agility to keep Target on the forefront of meeting the changing needs of our guests and our business year after year, said Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target Corporation, in the statement. He added: Everything we aspire to do and be as a company builds on the central role our team members play in our strategy, their dedication to our purpose and the connection they create with our guests and communities. Target said in 2017 that it would be raising its minimum wage to $15 at the end of 2020, but now, it will go into effect on July 4. Target raised its minimum wage to $13 per hour last year. The firm said the new wage policy will affect about 275,000 employees across the nation. The federal governments minimum wage is set at $7.25 per hour, and it was last increased in 2009. Some cities and states have set wages higher than the federal governments requirement. These investments help ensure that team members can build meaningful careers, take care of themselves and their families and contribute to building our communities through their work inside and outside of Target, Target Chief Human Resources Officer Melissa Kremer said in the statement. Target remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has seen online sales skyrocket more than 275 percent in April, according to reports. Looters rob a Target store as protesters face off against police in Oakland, Calif., on May 30, 2020. (Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images) Last month, Target workers in Minnesota walked off the job due to the CCP virus pandemic. We are at high risk of exposure to this virus, Adam Ryan of Target Workers Unite told CBS Minnesota. We contend that even though Target is making these announcements that they are taking further safety precautions and compensating us, its really just smoke and mirrors. Last month, during riots in Minneapolis, a Target was looted and ransacked, prompting the firm to shut down about 175 stores nationwide in response to the unrest. Targets in other cities, including Oakland, were also looted. We are heartbroken by the death of George Floyd and the pain it is causing communities across the country, wrote Target in a press statement. It added: We have made the decision to close a number of our storesOur focus will remain on our team members safety and helping our community heal. BlakeDavidTaylor/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News (MINNEAPOLIS) -- A man has been arrested and charged for his alleged role in setting fire to the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct amid citywide protests over the death of George Floyd. Dylan Shakespeare Robinson, 22, of Brainerd, Minnesota, was located by federal investigators in the Denver area on June 12 and was captured two days later in Breckenridge, Colorado. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota announced Tuesday a federal criminal complaint against Robinson, charging him with aiding and abetting arson. On the night of May 28, three days after Floyd died in police custody, the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct was overrun and heavily damaged from vandalism and arson. The building, which police had abandoned, went up in flames after a group of protesters pushed through barriers and smashed windows. Authorities subsequently determined that multiple separate fires had been started inside the building, according to the complaint. Surveillance video from the Third Precinct shows two individuals ignite a petrol bomb and lob it at the building. One of the individuals can be seen throwing a second one at the building. Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were later able to identify Robinson in the footage, according to the complaint. The investigators reviewed a video allegedly posted on Robinson's Snapchat account that shows at least one individual appearing to make a Molotov cocktail while multiple unidentified voices provide directions on how to make the crude explosive device. Robinson allegedly posted several comments during the Snapchat video, including, "These guys have never made a Molotov," "Rookies" and "We need gasoline," according to the complaint. Investigators reviewed another Snapchat video in which Robinson can allegedly be seen setting fire in a stairwell within the Third Precinct, according to the complaint. Robinson made his initial appearance before a judge at the U.S. District Court in Denver on Tuesday. It was unclear whether he had obtained a lawyer. Protests, some ending in violence, erupted in Minneapolis following the May 25 death of Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man who died shortly after a white police officer was filmed kneeling on his neck as three other officers stood by. Demonstrations calling for an end to police brutality and racial injustice have now spread across the nation and abroad. The officer who prosecutors say pinned Floyd down for nearly nine minutes, Derek Chauvin, has since been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers each have been charged with second-degree aiding and abetting felony murder as well as second-degree aiding and abetting manslaughter. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has stuck to its guns on its order asking labs to communicate Covid-19 positive results only to the civic body and not directly with patients, despite political rivals opposing the move. Speaking to CNN-News18, Mumbais municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said the decision was taken to stop asymptomatic patients from occupying beds in Covid-19 facilities as well as in ICUs, which he said is against the guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research. We have taken control of 80 per cent hospital beds. But the walk in patients who don't need them are occupying these beds. This leaves deserving patients without beds. This move is aimed to take all control of total beds in private hospitals, so there is no delay in treatment," he said. The BMC commissioner had issued on Saturday asked all laboratories to convey Covid-19 positive results only to the BMC, which would then convey the result to the patient. "It was done with a dual purpose in mind. Firstly that our team of counsellors would talk to the patient because the news comes as a shock to many. Secondly, it will help in bed management," an official of the BMC said. Opposition parties like BJP and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena have objected to the order, calling it 'absurd'. "The patient has the right to know his result. I have written to the BMC commissioner," BJP leader Kirit Somaiyya said. MNS leader Nitin Sardesai too raised similar concerns, and said it went against the basic rights of the patients. But Chahal maintained that it will stop the violation of ICMR guidelines, and said the move has been lauded by medical experts. "Private hospitals are full of asymptomatic positive patients. And everybody wants to know where the beds have gone. Out of fear and anxiety, all positive patients rush to the hospitals and occupy these beds. The hospitals are happy to earn the money because these are as good as quarantine patients who don't need much treatment. This has to stop," he said. When asked about the possibility of delays by the BMC in such a scenario, he said, "These days, labs are mandated to give results within 24 hours. Our teams call patients, visit and inspect them, and do allocation of bed by (next) morning itself. Remarks: Registration information for May to September 2017. PowerHouse Energy Group plc ("PowerHouse" or the "Company") Issue of Equity PowerHouse Energy Group plc (AIM: PHE), the UK technology company commercialising hydrogen production from waste plastic, announces that the Company is issuing 1,750,000 ordinary shares of 0.5p each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") further to the exercise of warrants at 0.5p per Ordinary Share. Application has been made for the admission of 1,750,000 Ordinary Shares to trading on AIM ("Admission") and it is expected that this will occur on or around 23 June 2020. These shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the Company's existing issued Ordinary Shares. Subsequent to the issue of Ordinary Shares, the Company will have 2,072,360,416 Ordinary Shares in issue. PowerHouse has no shares in Treasury, therefore this figure may be used by shareholders, from Admission, as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules. For more information, contact: PowerHouse Energy Group plc Tel: +44 (0) 203 368 6399 David Ryan, Chief Executive Officer WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser) Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 1666 James Joyce / Lydia Zychowska Turner Pope Investments Ltd (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 203 657 0050 Andrew Thacker / Zoe Alexander Ikon Associates (Media enquiries) Tel: +44 (0) 1483 271291 Adrian Shaw Mob: +44 (0) 7979 900733 About PowerHouse Energy Group plc PowerHouse has developed a proprietary process technology - DMG - which can utilise waste, unrecycleable plastic, end-of-life-tyres, and other waste streams to efficiently and economically convert them into syngas from which valuable products such as hydrogen, chemical precursors, electricity and other industrial products may be derived. The PowerHouse technology is one of the world's first proven, modular, hydrogen from waste (HfW) process. The PowerHouse DMG process can generate up to 2 tonnes of road-fuel quality H2, and more than 58MWh of exportable electricity per day. The PowerHouse process produces low levels of safe residues and requires a small operating footprint, making it suitable for deployment at enterprise and community level. PowerHouse is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM Market under the ticker: PHE, and is incorporated in the United Kingdom. For more information see www.powerhouseenergy.net By PTI JAIPUR: Police have registered an FIR against a television news anchor for allegedly making an objectionable comment on Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. The FIR was lodged after a complaint against News 18 India anchor Amish Devgan by a "khadim" at the saint's dargah in Ajmer on Tuesday night. "He is running a communal agenda against the Muslim community. The dargah of Sufi saint is visited not only by Muslims but by people of all religions and his comments have hurt the sentiments of all," Syed Sarwar Chishti said. The anchor later apologised on Twitter. "In 1 of my debates, I inadvertently referred to 'Khilji' as Chishti. I sincerely apologise for this grave error and the anguish it may hv caused to followers of the Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti, whom I revere. I have in the past sought blessings at his dargah. I regret this error," Devgan tweeted. Dargah SHO Hem Raj said a case was registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act for outraging religious feelings. Another complaint was lodged by activist Muzaffar Bharti at the office of Ajmer's Superintendent of Police. He accused Devgan and his team of trying to incite riots through "misleading and objectionable debates on communal issues". He said Devgan made highly objectionable remarks on the revered saint, which shall not be tolerated. "The dargah of Moinuddin Chishti is the symbol of brotherhood and harmony and crores of people of different religions all over the world have deep love and faith in the saint," he said. Venezuela is still sending oil to China despite stifling U.S. sanctions, Bloomberg has reported, citing shipping data from Kpler. As of this Monday, the data suggested, there were 3.3 million barrels of Venezuelan crude waiting to unload at Chinese ports and another 5 million barrels en route to the port of Qingdao. Most of the oil reaches China after a simple ship-to-ship transfer, often with both transponders online, TankerTrackers.com co-founder Samir Madani told Oilprice.com. The STS, Madani said, most often took place in the Strait of Malacca or the South China Sea, in the most open fashion as the participants believed they had not been detected loading the cargo in Venezuela. Asian refiners, and Chinese refiners specifically, have a taste for Venezuelan oil, which is heavy and sour, and their refineries are equipped for processing such grades. But now there is also a jump in demand for bitumen as the country reopens after the lockdowns. Heavy crude contains more superheavy fractions that yield bitumen when processed. Bitumen margins have been quite strong since late last year and as China accelerates resumption of economy, demand is very much supported, one analyst with Energy Aspects told Bloomberg. Related: India Looks To Double Oil Refining Capacity By 2030 In fact, China never stopped buying Venezuelan oil despite tightening sanctions. Most recently, these targeted tanker owners and companies that use them to transport crude oil, with plans to blacklist any vessel that has called at a Venezuelan port over the past 12 months. Yet even before this latest threat from the U.S. administration, ship-to-ship transfers were a frequently used way to disguise the origin of oil cargos, and China has been using them a lot to disguise Iranian and Venezuelan shipments destined for Malaysia before they are routed to China. A recent analysis by Reuters revealed that the STS approach was systematic. Last year, the average number of Venezuelan oil barrels that China imported came in at 283,000 bpd, 24 percent more than the official number reported by Chinese authorities. Meanwhile, however, overall Venezuelan oil exports continue to fall. Over the first half of June they averaged 325,000 bpd, according to a Reuters report, down from 452,000 bpd in May. This is the lowest rate of Venezuelan oil exports in more than seven decades. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: NEW MILFORD A Rhode Island man faces a manslaughter charge after he allegedly fatally shot a friend in New Milford by accident last summer, according to an arrest warrant released by Connecticut State Police Tuesday night. Hector L. Diaz-Negron, 47, of Warwick, R.I., was charged with second-degree manslaughter, criminal possession of a firearm and unlawful discharge of a firearm, stemming from an incident on Aug. 10, 2019, the warrant states. Around 5:30 p.m., New Milford police got a 911 call from a hysterical male party later identified as Diaz-Negron who reported that his friend had been accidentally shot at a Kent Road home, the warrant said. Diaz-Negron allegedly told the dispatcher his friend was showing him a gun and it went off. Arriving officers found two men, once of which was Diaz-Negron, trying to offer first aid to the victim identified as 43-year-old Robert Cerrato who was on his back on the floor of a bedroom in the home. Officers found a small wound on Cerratos right side, and applied pressure to the wound as medics treated him. Cerrato was taken to Danbury Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. As officers remained at the scene, questioning those at the home, one officer spoke with Diaz-Negron, who allegedly said he thought all the magazines had been removed from the guns Cerrato was showing him. The warrant said Diaz-Negron said he was handing one of the guns back to the victim and the gun discharged striking the victim. An autopsy listed Cerratos cause of death as gunshot wound of chest, the warrant said. The manner was ruled a homicide. During the early morning hours of Aug. 11, 2019, investigators served a search and seized warrant at the Kent Road home and seized several guns and various ammunition rounds and magazines. When investigators checked Cerratos records in the Connecticut firearms database, it showed that Cerrato did not have a valid pistol permit and did not have any firearms registered. The warrant said Diaz-Negrons criminal history included arrests in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Volta Regional Director of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Mr. Solomon Denyo, has assured the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Ghana Education Service (GES), teachers, parents and all stakeholders in the education space in the Volta and Oti Regions that his outfit will complete the disinfection of private and public schools in the two regions before schools re-open on Monday, June 22, 2020. And in order to finish the exercise on time, he disclosed that Zoomlion has engaged external sub-contractors. He said logistics deployment, mixing, and application of chemicals had been executed in a professional manner by their officials, noting that they have enjoyed great collaboration from all stakeholders. Mr. Denyo revealed that his company would be disinfecting about 107 senior high schools (SHSs) in the two regions against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). This, he said, would cover all facilities and open spaces in the SHSs. Wallace Academy SHS a private SHS - in the Volta Region, was the first port of call to receive disinfecting from a crew of Zoomlion field officers. Speaking to journalists on the sideline of the exercise, the Proprietor of Wallace Academy SHS, Maxwell Wallace Afram, commended the ministry of education as well as GES and Zoomlion for including private schools in the nationwide exercise. The outbreak of the coronavirus in Ghana, he said, has taken a severe toll on private schools. According to him, his school did not collect school fees from parents before the abrupt end of academic work due to the pandemic. As a result, the proprietor of Wallace Academy SHS said payment of administrative expenses, workers salaries, and other expenditures have become a huge problem for the school. He added that his school had to go for a loan facility to be able to pay their expenses. Some schools, according to him, were not paying their teachers salaries while others were doing part-payment of salaries. Regrettably, some teachers have lost their jobs as a result of the closure of schools occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Afram lamented. The Holy Spirit College of Education was the next institution to benefit from the exercise. After the exercise, the Principal of the Holy Spirit College of Education, Mr. Gabreal Freeborn Koku Wortodzor, told journalists that the college would print coronavirus safety protocols and paste them at the entrance of the school and at vantage points to serve as constant reminders to both the students and teachers. Veronica buckets, according to him, would also be placed at various points in the school to encourage regular hand washing while every student would be given an alcohol-based hand sanitiser. Students and teachers who do not wear nose masks would not be allowed in the school, he warned. According to Mr. Wortodzo, a shift system would be run for the final-year students numbering about 120, adding that their tables and chairs would be arranged two metres apart in line with observing the social distancing protocol. Sophie visited the NSPCC to thank those who worked during the pandemic. (Royal Family) The Countess of Wessex joined counselling staff on a shift helping children as she made her return to in-person engagements on Wednesday. Sophie followed in the footsteps of her nephew, Prince William, and brother and sister-in-law Prince Charles and Camilla, as she paid a visit to the NSPCC and Childline. Sophie is a patron of the NSPCC and Childline. Posting about her visit on Twitter, the Royal Family wrote: The Countess of Wessex, Patron of @NSPCC and #Childline visited the charity today to thank staff and volunteers for their recent work supporting vulnerable children. For many young people, lockdown has exacerbated the already difficult circumstances they were facing. HRH also saw first-hand the work of Volunteer Counsellors by joining a Childline counselling shift today. Volunteers and staff, who are recognised as critical workers, have helped deliver over 2,000 counselling sessions a week to children since lockdown. The Countess of Wessex, Patron of @NSPCC and #Childline visited the charity today to thank staff and volunteers for their recent work supporting vulnerable children. For many young people, lockdown has exacerbated the already difficult circumstances they were facing. pic.twitter.com/g0V22rO2ZI The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) June 17, 2020 Read more: Who are Prince Edward and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex? Shes the first royal to make an engagement held mostly indoors, but was not pictured wearing a face mask or covering. Government guidelines in England mean its only mandatory to have a covering on public transport, but advice customers wear them in some shops, particularly if social distancing is difficult. Other royals have maintained distancing on their engagements, and its likely Sophie would also have done so. Story continues While this is Sophies first official in-person engagement, the royal has been keeping very busy throughout lockdown, giving her time to volunteer at projects close to their home at Bagshot Park. Read more: UK's updated rules on face masks and coverings: What you need to know She and her husband, Prince Edward, visited Frimley Park Hospital on 11 June and delivered meals made for NHS staff by volunteers. The couple joined volunteers at London Irish Rugby Club to make the 50 meals. The club has so far donated 50,000 meals through the pandemic. The countess, 55, had previously been to the same hospital in April when she delivered food parcels for nurses, with Nourish Our Nurses. Shes also been busy with virtual engagements, including joining forces with Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, for calls to nurses around the world. And she had an important meeting with one of Boris Johnsons representatives this week. HRH The Countess of Wessex is a fantastic champion of the UKs work to improve the livelihoods of women and girls across the world. She is a brilliant advocate for women, peace and security issues and the fight against sexual violence, highlighted by her visit to in March. pic.twitter.com/LV9LrV3ZHc Lord (Tariq)Ahmad of Wimbledon (@tariqahmadbt) June 16, 2020 Read more: Sophie, Countess of Wessex, reveals she had five years to 'adjust' to marrying into the Royal Family On Tuesday, the Court Circular revealed she held a Meeting with the Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (the Prime Ministers Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict). She also opened the Lifeboat Process, the second of a series of Womens Network Forum Webinars, via a video conference call. Lord Ahmad tweeted: HRH The Countess of Wessex is a fantastic champion of the UKs work to improve the livelihoods of women and girls across the world. She is a brilliant advocate for women, peace and security issues and the fight against sexual violence, highlighted by her visit to [South Sudan] in March. Sophie and Prince Edward became full time working royals in 2002 but in the last few months, Sophie has become a more visible member in the senior royal ranks. She uses her royal role to focus on health and issues around violence against women around the world. Earlier this year she became the first royal to visit South Sudan. Protesters against police violence marched onto southbound Interstate 405 and remained on the Fremont Bridge for about two hours Tuesday near downtown Portland. Thousands of people started marching at Jefferson High School in North Portland and exited on to the interstate around 8 p.m. Marchers continued toward the middle of the Fremont Bridge, where several people used a megaphone to address the crowd. The march was organized by Rose City Justice as the latest in a string of protests against police brutality and systemic racism. Organizers called on the Portland City Council on Wednesday to vote down a proposed plan for the police bureaus budget that falls far short of the $50 million in cuts called for by hundreds of people. Some people attached Defund police and No justice, no peace banners to the midspan of the bridge. Cars blocked traffic from Interstate 5 from exiting onto southbound I-405 as marchers made their way across the bridge. Protesters started to turn around at 9:30 p.m. and walked back toward North Portland. A separate group of demonstrators also gathered near the downtown Justice Center a flashpoint for Portland protests. Demonstrators removed a flag from outside the doors to the Portland Police Bureaus Central Precinct, which is located inside the building, shortly after 11 p.m., police said. They used the flag cord to keep a roll-up door from opening, according to police. Demonstrators also locked the precincts main doors from the outside with a U-lock and lit the flag on fire, police said. The burning flag hurt one person, according to police. Police gave warnings to the crowd, which marched to the Pearl District. In the biggest public safety incident of the night, a driver hit three demonstrators in the area of Southwest Third Avenue and Alder Street shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday. The driver, identified by police as 27-year-old Anthony Eaglehorse-Lassandro, drove away at a high rate of speed but was tracked and eventually arrested on suspicion of hit and run, reckless driving and possession of a controlled substance, police said. Two people were taken from the scene by ambulance, police said. Another was taken for treatment in a personal car. Police dont think any of them suffered injuries that threatened their lives. Eaglehorse-Lassandro hit at least one other car and a barrier during the incident, police said. He was the only person arrested in connection with the protests. Demonstrators in Portland have marched every day for nearly three weeks after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Tuesday was the second time marchers have filled a major freeway. A demonstration earlier in June shut down eastbound Interstate 84 for nearly an hour. -- K. Rambo and Jim Ryan krambo@oregonian.com; jryan@oregonian.com Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Lighthouse Property Insurance Corp. has completed its previously announced merger plans with sister carrier, Prepared Insurance Co. Lighthouse will assume the Prepared portfolio and write directly in the state of Florida, resulting in a unified carrier with over $200 million of gross written premium. Lighthouse also owns Lighthouse Excalibur Insurance Co., a Louisiana domiciled carrier with just over $60 million of gross written premium. According to David Howard, president, Prepared joins Lighthouse as one company with over $50 million in policyholder surplus and 170,000 homes insured across the Southeast. Prior to the merger, Lighthouse offered property and casualty insurance policies in Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina. With the acquisition of Prepared, Lighthouse will begin to offer its portfolio of insurance products to the residents of Florida. Lighthouse now has diversity across five states. That should give both our agents and policyholders the confidence that we are here, and we are here to stay, said Bruce Bessire, director of Sales. Prepared Insurance will take the Lighthouse Insurance name, but current servicing, underwriting, and claims process for Florida policies remain the same. Due to the ongoing challenges of Floridas homeowners insurance industry, now is the perfect time for a financially strong and trusted carrier to enter the market, said Howard. In a state with 20 million people, carriers in Florida will enjoy an opportunity to write very good business. Lighthouse holds a Financial Stability Rating of A, Exceptional, from Demotech, Inc. and has been in business for 12 years. Since 2008, when the company first began writing homeowners policies in Louisiana, they have continued to expand their geographic footprint, revenue, and capital base, increasing statutory surplus each year. Lighthouse Property Insurance Corporation is an admitted property and casualty insurance company authorized to write in Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. In 2019, Lighthouse acquired Excalibur National Insurance Company and relaunched it as Lighthouse Excalibur Insurance Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lighthouse. Lighthouse sells and distributes its policies through an exclusive network of licensed, independent professional agencies. Topics Mergers Carriers Florida Louisiana Gergely Gulyas, the Prime Ministers chief of staff, has called for the legislation on terminating the emergency powers handed to the government in March in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak passed by parliament to be proclaimed as a law as soon as possible so that the state of emergency could be lifted as early as midnight on Wednesday. The government welcomes parliaments decision to approve the termination of the state of emergency, Gulyas told a press conference in Parliament. The head of the PMs Office thanked everyone who had contributed to the coronavirus response efforts, but lamented that the left failed to participate in this and that the situation had not brought about unity in Hungarys political life. The rules of the Hungarian constitution are clear, Gulyas said. The government in this situation had special powers to pass laws, but this is now over. Weve got through the first wave [of the epidemic]. We dont know if therell be a second one, but the operative board will remain active and the provisions passed into law will remain in place, he said. Gulyas said Hungarians would get a chance to give their opinions on the governments response to the epidemic in the coming nationwide national consultation survey. The state of emergency is over, but until a vaccine is developed, certain measures will have to remain in place, Gulyas said. Meanwhile, asked about the festivities planned for the Aug 20 national holiday, Gulyas said the government had yet to make a final decision in the matter. He added, at the same time, that if the festivities went ahead, they would provide a good chance to restart domestic tourism. He also said that the government will continue to keep parliament updated about the status of the epidemic. The state of epidemiological preparedness does not compare to the state of emergency as it largely only applies to health-care-related measures, he said. In response to another question, he said contrary to reports by left-wing and international media outlets during the state of emergency that Hungarys parliament was not meeting, it had actually been the European Parliament and the Budapest assembly that had suspended their sessions. Gulyas said that several left-wing mayors took advantage of the situation in the recent period and while they demand transparency from the left, when in power theyre the ones who are the least transparent. Today it is only natural that a left-wing local council is not transparent, but civil rights groups never bring this up, he said. As regards the renovation of Budapests iconic Chain Bridge, Gulyas said that if Istvan Tarlos were still the mayor, the renovation works would already be under way. The government stands by its commitments regarding the project, the PMs Office chief said, adding that Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony was attempting to start a needless dispute over the issue. The government wants no part of this and would rather see Chain Bridge renovated, Gulyas added. MTI Photo: Szilard Koszticsak Besides, the U.S. passed radio and ammo The U.S. passed to Ukraine the American military hardware worth over $60 million, including anti-tank missiles Javelin, as the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv reported in Twitter. Yesterday, the Directorate on military cooperation of the U.S. Embassy got the hardware worth over $60 million to pass it to the Ukrainian partners, including radio, ammo and anti-tank missiles Javelin, the message said. On October 1, 2019, the U.S. State Department approved and Congress signed unofficially the contract on supply of Javelin to Ukraine. At the beginning of March 2018, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of 37 anti-tank missile complexes and 210 missiles for them worth $47 million. In April, Ukraine got Javelin. In January 2019, then President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko stated that the Ukrainian military in the Joint Forces Operation Zone did not use Javelin yet. In December 2019, the Defense Ministry of Ukraine concluded the contracts on the supply of the second batch of Javelin. A 16-year-old resident of Subhashnagar in Bareilly district killed themselves on Monday afternoon. In a suicide note, the class 10 student said that they had the habits of a girl and self-identified as kinnar. The youngster also alluded to being mocked on their appearance. Kinnar is an indigenous socio-cultural group in north India, and comprises those whose gender identity is woman or transwoman. According to mental health experts, teenage years are marked by shame surrounding issues of gender and sexuality. The absence of proper sex and gender education in schools also results in bullying and stigmatization. Teenagers go through a tough time during puberty and need someone to discuss their issues with specially, if it is linked to their bodies. Schools and parents must make such education mandatory and encourage children to speak about it, said Mumbai-based psychiatrist Dr Anjali Chhabria, author of Death is not the answer: Understanding suicide and the ways to prevent it. Body shaming has become a common phenomenon in present times which children face while growing up. Parents must be receptive to their children if they speak to them about it, Surbhi Srivastav a school counsellor based in Lucknow said. The boy lost his mother five years ago. His father told us that he used to remain quiet and distant from other family members, circle officer of Suibhashnagar Seema Yadav said. The gender identity of the deceased youth is neither boy nor man. To seek help for depression and other forms of mental distress please reach out to the helplines of International Bipolar Foundation (+91-8888817666) and Jeevan Aastha (toll free: 1800 233 3330). For issues surrounding gender and sexuality, call LGBT organisation, Pahal Foundation at 8318837081 (operational on Friday to Sunday, from 3pm to 6pm). Nakia Towns, chief of staff for Hamilton County School Supt. Bryan Johnson, is one of two finalists for superintendent of the East Baton Rouge, La. School District. The school board there will make a decision on Thursday between Ms. Towns, 46, and Leslie Brown, 62. Ms. Brown is chief portfolio officer for the Broward County Schools in Florida. The two finalists were interviewed by the board and spoke at a public town hall session, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate. Ms. Towns was with the Knox County Schools, then she was assistant commissioner for data and research with the Tennessee Department of Education. She has a doctorate from Vanderbilt University. The much-anticipated smartphone app to trace contacts of Covid sufferers may not be ready for national rollout until the winter and isnt a priority, a health minister has told MPs. Lord Bethell, the minister responsible for the NHSX app, claimed the delay was caused in part by a fear of freaking out the public by using technological means to tell them they might be ill, but also admitted that the system had faced technical challenges. The app, currently being piloted in the Isle of Wight, was slated to play a central role in the governments test and trace system to track down contacts and ask them to self-isolate, with its UK-launch initially pencilled for the end of May. But the innovation minister told the Science and Technology Committee that he was not feeling under great time pressure to get the high-tech tool up and running, though he insisted it was still the governments intention to introduce it eventually. Asked when it would finally be ready, he said: We are seeking to get something going for the winter, but it isnt a priority for us at the moment. His comments suggest that the app is being kicked firmly into the long grass, following reports of technical glitches during trials and widespread concerns about data privacy. Asked about its fate in recent weeks, government spokespeople have repeatedly said they hoped that it would be rolled out in the coming weeks. News of the further delay was greeted with horror by MPs. Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrats digital spokesperson, said: For weeks Ive urged the government to get the NHSX app right first time: a decentralised app, based on existing tech, with legal safeguards. Instead the governments go it alone strategy on the app has rapidly deteriorated." And the SNPs Stephen Flynn said: A Covid-19 app was presented by the UK government as key to exiting lockdown. They told the public they had a duty to download it and that it would be ready for mid-May, then the end of May, then June. Its still not available. Does Matt Hancock show any contrition? No. Lord Bethell told the committee: The app pilot in the Isle of Wight has gone very well indeed and it has led to some infections being avoided. But one of the things it has taught us is that it is the human contact that is most valued by people. There is a danger in being too technological and relying too much on texts and emails and alienating or freaking out people because you are telling them quite alarming news through quite casual communication. Lord Bethell told the committee: The call centres we have put together actually have worked extremely well. We have had to deal with people working from home on new computer systems, but the effectiveness has been proven and we are confident about that. Thats where our focus is at the moment. Apps around the world have been challenging. I note that the Norwegians, Singaporeans, French and others have all be working on their app releases. And he added: There are technical challenges of getting the app right and we are really keen to make sure we get all aspects of it correct. We are not feeling under great time pressure and therefore we are focusing on getting the right app. Developed by NHSX, the technology arm of the NHS, the smartphone app is intended to use Bluetooth technology to identify and inform people who have been in close proximity to someone subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. In the governments coronavirus recovery plan, published on 11 May, identified it as one of a number of systems which need to be built and successfully integrated in order for the official test, track and trace strategy to work. As far back as 28 April, health secretary Matt Hancock said the app would be available from the middle of May and said he wanted as many as possible to download the app to improve its efficacy. The more people who download the app and keep their Bluetooth on, the more effective the app is going to be, he said. In a later interview he warned that anyone discouraging use of the app on privacy grounds was making it harder for us as a community to fight this virus. Launching the pilot in early May, the health secretary told the public on the Isle of Wight that, by downloading the app, you are protecting your own health, you are protecting the health of your loved ones and the health of your community. Youve got to have the technology but youve got to have the human contact tracing as well, he said, adding: Where the Isle of Wight goes, Britain follows. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said on 3 May that there would be a huge national effort to get the public to download the app, saying it will be the best possible way to help the NHS. But when the national rollout failed to materialise at the end of May, Mr Hancock began playing down the significance of the app, telling a press conference that he wanted to get confidence that people are following the advice thats given by human beings before introducing the technological element. NHS Test and Trace chief Dido Harding described the hi-tech system as the cherry on the cake of the programme, rather than a vital element of it. Labour science and technology committee member, Graham Stringer, told Lord Bethell that he appeared to be making an argument for never deploying the app at all and asked whether it was still the governments intention to roll it out nationwide. Yes, insisted Lord Bethell, adding that his comments were intended as an expectations management answer that say I cant give you a date, but I do acknowledge the importance of the job. Lord Bethell admitted he did not know whether it was necessary for the app system to retain data from users for 20 years, as campaigners have complained it will. And he told the committee that the decision had been taken to implement a centralised programme in order to be sure of being able quickly to identify renewed outbreaks anywhere in the country. People on the Isle of Wight really supported the app, he told MPs. They werent frightened of it as we were worried they might be. They downloaded it. There were concrete examples of where people tested positive and shared their contacts and those people were then grounded and strong examples of how it had broken the chain of transmission. Lord Bethell said that a certain amount of skill was required to winkle out details from coronavirus patients of people they have contacted in recent days. Some 3,000-4,000 trained clinicians are involved in this work, passing on the contact information to an army of around 25,000 tracers who then try to reach the individuals identified and ask them to self-isolate for 14 days. WASHINGTON The head of the Justice Departments civil division told staff members on Tuesday that he planned to resign after nearly two years in the post, according to an email obtained by The New York Times, making him the third top official at the department to step down in the past week. The official, Joseph H. Hunt, who previously was chief of staff to Jeff Sessions when he was the attorney general, did not say why he was leaving, and a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on his departure. It came hours after the department filed a lawsuit signed by Mr. Hunt against President Trumps former national security adviser John R. Bolton. The suit seeks to delay the imminent publication of Mr. Boltons coming memoir that is expected to disclose damaging details about Mr. Trump. Besides Mr. Hunt, Brian A. Benczkowski, the head of the Justice Departments criminal division, said last week that he was leaving in July, and Noel J. Francisco, the solicitor general, told officials at the department that he planned to leave when the Supreme Court wrapped up its session this month. Mr. Hunt, a 20-year Justice Department veteran, led the division that defends presidential administrations in court and that has faced formidable pressure under Mr. Trump as it undertook deeply polarizing cases that career lawyers often refused to sign. Those include the administrations decision to no longer defend the Affordable Care Act in court, the presidents fight to add a citizenship question to the census, and the adoption of harsh stances on immigration. The division must also defend Mr. Trump against lawsuits accusing him of illegally profiting from his personal business since he took office. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) - The Department of Justice (DOJ) clarified that Congress can grant a fresh single operating franchise to broadcast networks even though they have been operating for more than 50 years. The Congress can issue multiple franchises that collectively can exceed 50 years, as long as the individual franchises do not exceed 50 years, said Justice Asst. Secretary Nicholas Ty during the joint House hearing of the Committee on Legislative Franchises and the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability on ABS-CBN's bid for a 25-year-franchise. Ty made the clarification in response to an issue raised by critics that the media giant has been existing in the industry for more than 70 years and that its franchise should not be renewed. Section 11 of Article XII of the 1987 Constitution states that no franchise, certificate, or any other form of authorization for the operation of a public utility shall be granted...for a longer period than fifty years. The 50-year limitation under the Constitution pertains to the franchise itself and not to the grantee, Ty explained. READ: ABS-CBN goes off air following NTC order He added that it is up to Congress to decide how long a franchise will last provided that it will only be up to 50 years maximum. And for the renewal of franchise, Congress has the discretion to fix the term of that franchise as long as that term will not exceed the 50-year limitation, added Ty. During the inquiry, ABS-CBN counsel Atty. Mario Bautista also flagged the interpretation of the constitutional provision, citing that public utilities like Meralco and PLDT have both been operating way longer than 50 years. He also noted that other networks like GMA, IBC, and ABC have been in the industry for a long time. Kapag ang finding po ng Kongreso ay 50 years lang dapat in operation ang isang public utility, lahat po ng mga korporasyon na binanggit ko ay violative of the Constitution ang kanilang mga prankisa, Bautista argued. [Translation: If the finding of the Congress is that a public utility should only operate for 50 years, this would mean that all the franchises of the corporations I mentioned are violative of the Constitution.] Nine People have been arrested following over 60 searches carried out in Counties Limerick, Clare and Tipperary today. As part of Operation Coronation, in excess of 170 members of Gardai from Limerick, Clare and Tipperary Divisions supported by the Criminal Assets Bureau, Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Emergency Response Unit, the Armed Response Unit and Regional Dog Unit commenced a search operation at over 60 premises in Counties Limerick, Clare and Tipperary this morning at 6am. The operation is also supported by three teams of Irish Army Search Engineers, the Army EOD team and the Army Helicopter. Currently there are nine people in custody in relation to this operation. Operation Coronation was established to target organised criminality in Limerick city and its environs. This operation is targeting organised extended criminality, drug trafficking and the financial returns achieved from this type of activity through money laundering. This operation is being co-ordinated by Limerick Gardai with the assistance of the national units, primarily the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau with the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Security and Intelligence Section at Garda HQ to address the accumulation of wealth by those engaged in serious and ongoing criminality. It is part of the Limerick Divisional crime strategy and a central plank of the Divisional Policing Plan targeting organised crime. Chinese President Xi Jinping chairs a China-Africa leaders' meeting in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will preside over an extraordinary China-Africa summit on solidarity against COVID-19 in Beijing on Wednesday, and deliver a keynote speech, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Tuesday. The summit is jointly proposed by China; South Africa, the rotating chair of the African Union (AU); and Senegal, co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. It will be held via video link. Leaders of African countries, including members of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government and rotating chairs of major African subregional organizations, and the chairperson of the AU Commission, will attend the summit upon invitation. The secretary-general of the United Nations and the director-general of the World Health Organization will attend the meeting as special guests. "China has consistently attached great importance to the friendly relations of cooperation with Africa and is ready to work with African countries to build a closer community of shared future," foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a press conference Tuesday. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China and African countries have offered assistance to each other and joined hands in fighting COVID-19, he added. Currently the pandemic remains severe globally and the epidemic continues in Africa, Zhao said, adding that convening the summit at this crucial time shows once again the brotherhood between China and Africa. The summit will not only consolidate consensus between the two sides on solidarity against COVID-19 and advance China-Africa cooperation, but also inject a new impetus into multilateralism and global cooperation against COVID-19. China is willing to work with all participants to make the summit a success, Zhao said. Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast / Photos Getty Doctors behind a COVID-modeling study used by the presidents coronavirus task force are now warning that virus hot spots are beginning to converge and jump from county to county as people increase their travel for work and summer vacation. According to doctors working on a study put together by PolicyLab at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, the virus is moving along major highways and interstatessuch I-10 in California, I-85 in the south and I-95 on the East Coastas states continue to reopen their economies. With an uptick of coronavirus cases taking place in states in the south and southwestern parts of the country, this new finding has raised fears that new outbreaks may soon move north to major metropolitan regions, reversing the progress already made in flattening the curve. Theres a convergence of metro areas thats now leading to these larger epicenters of transmission. Places that were already in trouble are the ones that are slipping out of control, said Dr. David Rubin, the director of PolicyLab. For example the southwest outbreak is moving right up the I-5. You can see the risk all the way up. Were a week or two away from Sacramento and San Francisco. The findings from PolicyLab are the latest warning sign to emerge as the majority of states have now moved into the second phase of their reopening plans, with restaurants, religious communities and some places of work open for business. Rubins fear, as culled from the data, is that as individuals begin to relax their own social distancing measures they have begun to travel more within their communities and to other surrounding states, thereby spreading the disease. Coronavirus Is Hitting Black and Hispanic Americans Harder. CDC Data Shows How Much. The new analysis comes as President Donald Trump and his re-election campaign continue to move forward with plans to hold large rallies across the country, including in cities with increasing cases such as Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Phoenix, Arizona. The president is insistent on campaigning despite members of his own coronavirus task force sounding the alarm over the growth in cases where increased testing is not a dominant reason for the spike. Over the past several weeks task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx has told governors that she is concerned about the new outbreaks, especially in regions that were already struggling to flatten the curve before reopening. Birx also said she was worried about protests causing a spike in cases, but no evidence has emerged to confirm that fear. Story continues And during a conference call with governors on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence highlighted increased cases in North Carolina, California and Arizona as a problematic sign. They have seen some increase in cases that are not necessarily accounted for entirely via an increase in testing, Pence said, according to a recording of the call obtained by The Daily Beast. We are re-deploying [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] personnel in those states and also we are sending additional personnel. The PolicyLab modeling raises questions about whether the U.S. will soon see another round of major outbreaks in counties and regions that have already seen coronavirus spikes recede and whether the Trump administration will issue new guidelines on reinstating some social distancing restrictions. A senior official familiar with conversations about the new outbreaks said top coronavirus task force members and within the Center for Disease Control have started discussing the parameters that would cause the federal government to step in and advise states to tighten social distancing guidelines. No final decisions have been made, that person said, and officials continue to monitor the situation. Only 11 counties out of over 3100 are seeing a true acceleration in new COVID cases, and less than 2 percent of counties show any significant increase in cases, said Devin OMalley, a spokesperson for the task force. Trump Touted the Economys COVID Resilience While His Top Aide Dumped His Stocks Doctors working on the data are already beginning to see patterns of the virus moving along major roads not only in California but on the East Coast as well. Rubin pointed to North Carolina and South Carolina as states of concern, saying the virus is moving along I-85 through Mecklenburg (a county Birx highlighted as problematic on Mondays call), Durham and Randolph counties in North Carolina, and Greenville and Spartanburg in South Carolina. We could see the D.C. metro area start to increase, moving from the south to the north. Im watching Richmond, Virginia, really closely, Rubin said. As these places open up, were now developing these zones of transmission that are more than just these metro areas because were moving around more. Your risk is going to go up because how are you going to contain the travelers? That is a question local and state officials in the hot spot regions are actively trying to answer. In California, Imperial and Riverside counties have seen hundreds of new cases each day over the last week, according to their local health departments. Imperial, whose hospitals reached capacity last week, currently has the highest infection rate per capita in the state. The county has a population of about 180,000 and has seen close to 2,000 new cases since June 3. Hospitals are now having to transfer patients hundreds of miles away for treatment. According to The New York Times dataset, Imperial County ranks second in the country for metropolises with the highest number of cases per capita. Outbreaks are taking form just north, too, in Californias Kern, King and Fresno counties, and PolicyLabs data shows those communities seeing a significant spike in cases over the next three weeks. Rubin wanted that theres a real chance Sacramento and San Francisco will also be impacted. Some places have more disease transmission than others, and when people travel, the risk that disease will move from high transmission areas to low transmission areas is increased, said a spokesperson for the California Department of Health. One of the key factors in disease risk is whether people have close contact with others outside their households. And in the southeastern region of the country, officials in South Carolina and North Carolina are working overtime to contain outbreaks along the I-85 corridor. In South Carolina, Greenville County has reported more than 1,200 cases over the last two weeks, according to publicly released state datamore than half the countys overall cases. Officials in the state have said they do not believe the uptick is because the state has expanded its testing capacity. PolicyLabs most recent projections for Greenville County show it reporting 80 cases per day by July 4. But over the last several days the county has reported more than 100 cases each day. Lexington and Richland, neighboring counties in the state, counties are also seeing massive increases in coronavirus cases. Last week one of South Carolinas top epidemiologists, Dr. Linda Bell, said she was more concerned about the coronavirus in the state than she has ever been before. For the past two weeks, weve seen some of our highest daily numbers of cases since the start of this pandemic, a spokesperson for the states emergency response team said. Public health officials are concerned about the recent upward trends in South Carolina, and we can't stress enough how critical it is for each of us to wear a mask, avoid group gatherings and keep six feet between us. In North Carolina, the percentage of positive tests has increased in recent weeks as have hospitalizations. You hear a lot about a second wave. I think in North Carolina weve been in one big wave the whole time. We never ended the first wave before opening up, said Kimberly Powers, an epidemiologist and professor at UNCs Gillings School of Global Public Health. Testing has increased recently but people are still getting sick and going to the hospital. To me, that suggests that it is not just about increased testing. Rubin said he is concerned about the virus continuing to spread from the Carolinas up into the metro D.C. area via Virginia, particularly to the Richmond region, which is currently experiencing a downward trend in cases and hospitalizations. Despite the recent good news, Dr. Danny Avula, the Richmond City Health District director, is still cautious in the way he speaks about the future for the community. The first phase of disease in Richmond was all about travelers and people moving around. I do think I-95 was a clear pathway of transmission, Avula said. Will that continue? Im not sure yet. Weve spent three months training on how to do social distance effectively. Its curious how quickly we lose that. We hoped that as opening happens people would still do it in a distant way. But theyre not. I think were at something like 118,000 deaths and it seems like some people are just numb to that. Have people forgotten the insane scale of this? 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. Michael Jackson's daughter Paris has released her debut track with her folk band The Soundflowers. The daughter of the late music legend, 22, announced the release of her band's debut EP on Tuesday, posting a clip of the love song onto her Instagram account. 'so insanely excited to share the news that my bands EP that we've been talking about for the last two years is finally ready to be released next week on june 23rd,' she wrote in the caption. Continuing with the family business! Michael Jackson's daughter Paris has released her debut track with her folk band The Soundflowers (pictured 2019) 'we're so eternally grateful for every one of you and all of the support and love you've shared with us. i really hope you guys enjoy it.. 'these are some of the organizations we'll be supporting with our release in solidarity ~ @_beamorg, @blackvotersmtr, @black_womenlead, more info to come. link for pre-save in my bands bio... @thesoundflowers.' Included in the announcement was a brief cartoon, a sketching of a person listening to a vintage record player as hearts and flowers bobbed along in the background. The song appears to be the same one the couple sang together at The Mint in Los Angeles last year, Glorious. 'We're so eternally grateful': Jackson raved about the new track as she announced the upcoming song to fans Glorious was a Christmas present Glenn wrote for Paris, according to Billboard. Paris and Glenn, whom have been dating for two years, were recently seen filming a music video together, just days before the COVID-19 lockdown. The pair were seen shooting the film at a retro motel in Los Angeles, and Paris' younger brother Blanket was on set for support. Back in December, the band posted to Instagram that they were 'done' with recording. Love song: Glorious was a Christmas present Glenn wrote for Paris, according to Billboard It takes two: The musical couple, pictured 2019, have been dating for two years Sharing a mocked up aged picture of himself with Paris, Gabriel wrote: 'After 100 yrs in the studio, we are proud to announce that we are finally, officially, done recording! Get ready, stay sexy and if all else fails kiss a stranger.' Last year it had been reported Paris was set to sign a major record deal. 'Paris is really focused on her music and it's given her a lot of comfort,' a source told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column. 'She and Gabriel have grown their following and a handful of big labels have shown interest in offering them a deal, including Universal. 'There is a lot of pressure on her because of who she is, but she just wants to have fun with it.' On March 12, Broadway shows were halted when Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned large gatherings of more than 500 people in an effort to contain the coronavirus. Now its possible that New York Citys famed theaters could remain closed until 2021. In May, NYC & Company, the citys marketing and tourism arm, said it had created The Coalition for NYC Hospitality & Tourism Recovery, which is dedicated to reviving the citys many tourist attractions. From Broadway houses to independent theaters, from marquee attractions to small businesses and restaurants, our beloved five boroughs tell a story unlike any other place in the world, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, a member of the coalition, said in a press release announcing its formation. Together, we will create a next act for our city. After this intermission, we will be ready to welcome the world back with open arms, so people can fall in love with New York over and over again. While the coalition helps the citys major attractions get back up and running, it is clear that New Yorkers are eager to leave their homes and enjoy the city. I don't think its tenable for humans to shelter in place indefinitely or for long swathes of time, Dustin Duncan, an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health, told City & State. I dont think thats possible. Duncan said lawmakers can help New Yorkers assess the risk of leaving their homes and doing different types of activities, which will enable them to make better decisions for themselves and others. Leaders can do this by clearly communicating the spectrum of risks attached to dining outdoors, going to the beach or attending an exercise class, for example. Some New York City politicians, including Comptroller Scott Stringer, Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Councilman Mark Levine, have already been advocating for better health policies that allow city residents to safely enjoy themselves outside while social distancing. I think its important that the media, public health researchers, experts and scientists communicate to the public that COVID-19 still isnt gone, and that its important that we recognize that but also be as safe as possible while were living our life, Duncan said. Research suggests that the coronavirus is hard to contract or transmit while outside, making outdoor gatherings the safest way to interact with others. Being outside can also have serious benefits for individuals who have become affected by depression or anxiety since the state shut down. There are other kinds of consequences of COVID-19 that we need to consider, Duncan said. And we know that exercise can be conducive to reducing depression, anxiety and other mental health burdens. On the contrary, indoor activities, especially large events like weddings, can easily be tied to the transmission of the coronavirus. Safety precautions adopted while the state was shut down, such as wearing a mask, keeping a 6-foot distance from others and being vigilant about hand-washing, should still be followed, according to Duncan. Its important for us to remember that the risk of COVID-19 remains active but it is significantly decreased when were outside, and especially when were 6 feet away, and especially when were wearing a mask, he said. Navigating the citys museums and other cultural attractions could remain risky for the foreseeable future. However, Manhattans Metropolitan Museum of Art is hoping to reopen in August with reduced capacity to give visitors enough room to safely walk around. The museum also said it will not be conducting group tours, talks, concerts or any other events for the remainder of the year. It has been speculated that Broadway theaters wont reopen until 2021, but they are technically allowed to resume operations as soon as the city enters the fourth phase of reopening. Movie theaters are also allowed to reopen in the fourth phase, but drive-in movie theaters have been allowed to operate statewide since May 15. Once movie theaters open again, audience members will need to sit far apart from each other, the National Association of Theatre Owners told TimeOut New York in May. Theaters will also need to develop protocols to disinfect the seats after each showing. Lawyers are trying to assess what kind of liability theaters may face if someone were to contract the virus inside. Its still unclear what kind of rules or restrictions may be made concerning eating snacks from a concession stand, since masks will probably be required. The National Association of Theatre Owners has also been lobbying to have theaters included in the third phase of reopening instead of the fourth phase. The major difference between Broadway theaters and movie theaters are the size of our auditoriums, Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State, told Deadline. Movie theaters should be in Phase 3. Theres no way you can compare movie theaters with big concert halls, sporting arenas or Broadway theatres. Movie theaters should be in the same category as restaurants, and classified as food-service establishments. New Delhi, June 17 : The US says it supports peaceful resolution of the stand-off between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh where at least 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops have been killed in violent clashes. A US state department statement issued overnight Wednesday, said, "We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control." The Trump administration noted the Indian military announcement of the killing of its 20 soldiers and offered "condolences to the families." The US government said that both India and China have "expressed a desire to de-escalate" and it supports a "peaceful resolution of the current situation" in the Galwan Valley where the violent clashes took place and India lost a Commanding officer among the 20 killed. The statement pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had discussed the situation on the Indo-China border in a phone conversation on June 2, just days ahead of the June 6 meeting between top officers of India and China on disengagement at LAC. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that Indian soldiers' sacrifice in a clash with Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in Ladakh would not go in vain. He added that "India wants peace but when provoked, India is capable of giving a fitting reply, be it any kind of situation." PM Modi added, "I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important." "The country will be proud that our soldiers died fighting the Chinese," said PM Modi. He also observed two minutes of silence in tribute to the soldiers before meeting with Chief Ministers over the coronavirus crisis. The clashes between Indian and Chinese troupes at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh left 20 Indian soldiers dead, while four more are critical. "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that was killed in action to 20," the Army said. Prime Minister Modi has called an all-party meeting to discuss the situation at the India-China border. Presidents of several political parties will participate in the meeting, which is scheduled for 5 pm on Friday via video conferencing, the Prime Minister's Office said. The clashes happened after Chinese troupes were asked to move away from a location in the Galwan Valley as per an agreement. Satellite images from the valley suggest Chinese troops outnumbered Indian troops. Also read: India-China border clashes: How many Chinese soldiers died? Here's what we know Left unsaid was that Gorsuch himself had counseled just such an approach in a book he published last summer, A Republic, If You Can Keep It. In it, he made an extensive case for textualism, meaning that the words of the statute in question take prominence, not the intentions of legislators or the consequences of the judicial decision. Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of fern-like plant from a single fossilized specimen collected in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The newly-discovered plant species lived approximately 360 million years ago (Devonian period) a time when Australia was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. It is an extraordinary discovery, since such exquisitely-preserved fossils from this period are extremely rare, said lead author Antoine Champreux, a PhD student at Flinders University. Plants and animals had just started to colonize continents, and the first trees appeared. Yet while diverse fish species were in the oceans, continents had no flowering plants, no mammals, no dinosaurs, and the first plants had just acquired proper leaves and the earliest types of seeds. Well-preserved fossils from this era are rare elevating the significance of the new plant fossil. Named Keraphyton mawsoniae, the ancient plant shares some similarities with modern ferns and horsetails. We named the genus Keraphyton (like the horn plant in Greek), and the species Keraphyton mawsoniae, in honor of our partner Professor Ruth Mawson, the researchers said. The fossil was found in the 1960s by amateur geologist John Irving on the bank of the Manilla River in Barraba, New South Wales. The specimen is a straight, 90-cm-long and 2 x 1-cm-wide portion of anatomically preserved stem. It is characterized by a star-shaped vascular system with strands located at rib tips, and by a lack of secondary tissues. There is no information on the lateral organs, their nature, size and arrangement in Keraphyton mawsoniae. Nevertheless, it provides sufficient features to demonstrate its uniqueness and its affiliation to a new genus and species. Its nothing much to look at just a fossilized stick but its far more interesting once we cut it and had a look inside, Champreux said. The anatomy is preserved, meaning that we can still observe the walls of million-year-old cells. We compared the plant with other plants from the same period based on its anatomy only, which provide a lot of information. The discovery is reported in the journal PeerJ. _____ A. Champreux et al. 2020. Keraphyton gen. nov., a new Late Devonian fern-like plant from Australia. PeerJ 8: e9321; doi: 10.7717/peerj.9321 The addition of 2.5 million U.S. jobs in May signals a turning point after the economy plunged into a recession caused by the coronavirus, but experts say it will take years for Michigans economy to recover to pre-pandemic conditions. President Donald Trump flagged the jobs report as the start of a sustained period of growth and predicted next year would be one of the best years weve ever had, economically. Michigan economists gave a more sober outlook, saying historic job losses triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to leave a lasting impact on the U.S. economy. [June 17, 2020] Cohesity Appoints Robert O'Donovan as Chief Financial Officer Cohesity today announced that Robert O'Donovan has joined the company to serve as chief financial officer (CFO). O'Donovan, who has extensive and proven experience as a CFO at late-stage, rapidly growing private companies, will manage Cohesity's (News - Alert) financial strategy as the software company expands its cloud services, redefines modern data management, and continues on a path of consistent and long-term growth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005092/en/ Robert O'Donovan, Chief Financial Officer, Cohesity (Photo: Business Wire). "At this important stage in the evolution and growth of Cohesity, Robert's years of experience managing the financial operations for innovative technology market leaders will help support our ambitious business objectives," said Mohit Aron, CEO and founder, Cohesity. "We continue to focus on delivering value to our customers in a hybrid cloud world, leading the industry with innovative solutions, and building a world-class executive team to support our mission of redefining modern data management." O'Donovan is a seasoned financial leader with significant experience guiding companies focused on data management, cloud computing, software, and subscription-based services. Before joining Cohesity, O'Donovan served as CFO for DataStax, which provides data management for cloud applications. Prior to that, he was CFO at Pivotal Software, a cloud-based software company that was later acquired by VMware, managing all facets of corporate finance and building a multi-year strategic roadmap to position the company for future success. O'Donovan has also held finance, operations, and sales roles at Dell (News - Alert)/EMC in Europe and Asia Pacific/Japan. "The scale and growth Cohesity has acheved is testament to the tremendous value that its data management innovations bring to organizations, and my role is to ensure the company has the best framework to continue transforming the industry," said O'Donovan. "I'm honored to join this team of talented executives as we continue on a course of rapid and sustainable growth." Lorenzo Montesi, SVP of finance, and Tim Robbins, general counsel, will report to O'Donovan in his new role. About Cohesity Cohesity ushers in a new era in data management that solves a critical challenge facing businesses today: mass data fragmentation. The vast majority of enterprise data - backups, archives, file shares, object stores, and data used for dev/test and analytics - sits in fragmented infrastructure silos that make it hard to protect, expensive to manage, and difficult to analyze. Cohesity consolidates silos onto one web-scale platform - spanning from data centers, to the edge, to cloud - and uniquely empowers organizations to run apps on that platform, making it easier than ever to back up and derive insights from data. Cohesity is a 2019 CNBC Disruptor and was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Visit our website and blog, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook. Cohesity, the Cohesity logo, SnapTree, SpanFS, DataPlatform, DataProtect, Helios, and other Cohesity marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cohesity, Inc. in the US and/or internationally. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005092/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Tyler Cameron's quarantine crew is soon to be one man short, as pal Matt James was recently named the new Bachelor. But the model is still enjoying some quality time with friends back in his hometown of Jupiter, Florida. He stepped out Tuesday with Jacob Laham and friends as they took a boat out for a day of fishing during a break from isolation. Quarantine crew: Tyler Cameron stepped out Tuesday with Jacob Laham and friends as they took a boat out for a day of fishing during a break from isolation The 27-year-old was spotted stepping out of a 7-Eleven with some ice and drinks before heading out on the water. He showed off his muscled figure in a snug blue t-shirt with a matching tiki-printed swimsuit and brown Birkenstock sandals. Cameron later took to his Instagram story from the boat, shooting a peace sign after losing his shirt. He recently congratulated Matt James, 28, on becoming the first Black Bachelor in the dating show's 25-season run. Stocking up: The 27-year-old was spotted stepping out of a 7-Eleven with some ice and drinks before heading out on the water Nautical chic: He showed off his muscled figure in a snug blue t-shirt with a matching tiki-printed swimsuit and brown Birkenstock sandals Boats and boys: Cameron later took to his Instagram story from the boat, shooting a peace sign after losing his shirt Sun-kissed: He showed off his tan when he returned home, stepping out shirtless The Bachelorette season 15 alum previously leveraged his platform to get James cast on Clare Crawley's upcoming season of The Bachelorette, which has yet to resume production amid COVID-19. He said of his college buddy last July on the podcast Viall Files: 'My goal is to get him on. He needs some convincing, so everybody get after him, get him convinced to go, and he'll be a great guy for the show.' Cameron joined Rachel Lindsay and fellow Bachelor Nation alums in petitioning for a Black Bachelor, after recent Black Lives Matter protests reignited backlash over the franchise's racist history. Hubba hubba: He recently congratulated his pal Matt James, 28, on becoming the first Black Bachelor in the dating show's 25-season run Supportive pal: The Bachelorette season 15 alum previously leveraged his platform to get James cast on Clare Crawley's upcoming season of The Bachelorette, which has yet to resume production amid COVID-19 Professional attire: He shared a hilarious behind-the-scenes video of James giving his first interview as Bachelor from home, wearing no pants He later shared a hilarious behind-the-scenes video of James giving his first interview as Bachelor from home, wearing no pants. Cameron also congratulated his BFF with a sweet photo of them snuggling, captioned: 'Congrats to my brother @mattjames919 on being named the Bachelor. This is all a testament of who you are as a person. 'Now the world gets to see the person you are and the heart you have. You can change the world. Proud of you and so excited for you. Not excited that somebody will be taking my spot as your snuggle buddy. PS peep the drool.' The death of 20 Indian soldiers along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh on Wednesday triggered protests in several cities with people breaking China-made electronic gadgets and calling for boycott of Chinese products. 20 Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a fierce clash with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. It is the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region. People took to the streets in New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jammu, Bhopal, Patna and other cities and set fire to the Chinese flag and photos of the neighbouring country's President Xi Jinping. Protesters urged the Modi government to ensure that martyrdom of the soldiers in the Galwan Valley did not go in vain. A group of ex-armymen gathered near the Chinese embassy in New Delhi to protest against the killing of Indian soldiers. Here are glimpses of how anger against China spilled on to India's streets: IMAGE: Sanskriti Bachao Manch activists burn posters of Chinese President Xi Jingping during a protest in Bhopal. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Demonstrators burn posters of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest against China, in Ahmedabad. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Lok Janshakti Party members burn an effigy of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest in Patna. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Demonstrators burn a tyre and block Jammu-Poonch highway during a protest against China in Jammu. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Jan Adhikar Party chief Pappu Yadav with party supporters hold placards during a protest against China, in Patna. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Members of Rashtriya Bajrang Dal burn an effigy of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest in Jammu. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Congress party workers burn a banner during a protest against China in Bikaner. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Bajrang Dal members pay floral tribute to 20 soldiers who were martyred in the violent face-off between India and China at LAC in Eastern Ladakh yesterday, at Shaheed Smarak, in Bikaner, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Demonstrators burn a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest in Ranchi. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Demonstrators burn photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest in Agra. Photograph: PTI Photo IMAGE: Supporters of Bharatiya Jayanta Party burn defaced posters of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest against China, in Ahmedabad. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters IMAGE: Police detain an member from Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, during a protest against China, in New Delhi. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters A wave of grief swept across the country as the mortal remains of the soldiers who laid down their lives fighting the Chinese Army in Galwan Valley in Ladakh were taken to their native places on Wednesday. IMAGE: Army personnel and political leaders pay tributes to Hawaldar Sunil Kumar, who lost his life in a violent clash with Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in Ladakh, during a wreath-laying ceremony at Jaiprakash Narayan Airport in Patna on Wednesday. Photograph: ANI Photo Anti-China protests were held in several parts of the country, including the national capital, though restrictions were in place on assembly of people due to the coronavirus lockdown. For many of the bereaved families the agonising wait started on Tuesday evening when they were informed by senior Army officials about the sacrifice of the 20 soldiers in the clashes with the Chinese Army along the Line of Actual Control a day earlier. In heart-wrenching scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of the 2019 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed, coffins of soldiers arrived in several states for the last rites with full military honours. IMAGE: Relatives of Havildar Sunil Kumar mourn at their residence in Patna. Photograph: PTI Photo Even as they struggled to come to terms with the shocking news and grieved over the lives cut short, family members of the soldiers said they were proud of their sacrifice. The body of Colonel B Santosh Babu, which was brought to Hyderabad by a special aircraft, was taken to his native Suryapet town by an ambulance as people holding the tricolour showered flowers on it. Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and state IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao were among those who paid their last respects. IMAGE: An army vehicle carries the mortal remains of soldiers killed during Ladakh clash, outside Civil Hospital in Leh, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo At many places across Telangana, people and members of different political parties and other organisations paid floral tributes to the army officer. Holding the tricolour and banners that read 'We salute the soldiers', they raised 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram' slogans. A large number of people assembled and shouted anti-China slogans in sepoy Ankush Thakur's Karohta village in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh. The 21-year-old was recruited to the Punjab Regiment in 2018 and was a third-generation soldier. "We feel proud that he has laid down his life for the motherland," said Karunakar Pradhan, the father of 28-year-old Chandrakanta Pradhan from Odisha's Kandhamal district. IMAGE: Citizens wait for the arrival of the mortal remains of Colonel Santosh Babu at Hakimpet Air Force station in Hyderabad, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Chandrakanta belonged to a tribal community and hailed from Biarpanga village. "My son was highly sincere towards his duty. He was courageous, simple and hard working. We got the information about his martyrdom on Tuesday night. We are waiting for his body," said Karunakar Pradhan in a choked voice. A marginal farmer, Pradhan said his unmarried son was the breadwinner. The soldier has three siblings. Chandrakanta joined the Army in 2014 and had last visited home around two months ago. He was popular in the village, the soldier's father said. Pradhan said his son had called a few days ago and narrated the tense situation that prevailed at the place where they were deployed. Deepak Kumar from Madhya Pradesh told his grandmother Phool Kumari on phone a few days ago that he will come home after the coronavirus lockdown ends. IMAGE: Family members of Sepoy Kundan at their residence in Patna on Wednesday. Photograph: ANI Photo "I spoke to him just a few days back and at that time he told me that after the lockdown ends, he will take leave and come home. "But after the lockdown ended, we got the news of his martyrdom," Singh's 85-year-old inconsolable grandmother said. Deepak Singh's mother passed away several years ago and since then she has been looking after him. "He was a very loving person and used to respect everyone in the house. Everybody used to like him a lot," she said. Kundan Kumar Ojha from Jharkhand was blessed with a daughter just 17 days ago. He had promised his mother over the phone that he would be home as soon as he got leave from duty. On Wednesday, his parents were too overcome with grief to even speak. IMAGE: Family members of Sepoy Rajesh Orang mourn at their residence in Belgoria village of Birbhum district, in Kolkata on Wednesday. Photograph: ANI Photo Naib Subedar Nanduram Soren, 43 from Rairangpur area of Mayurbhanj was also among the slain soldiers from Odisha. After completing Class 12 from Rairangpur College, Soren joined the Army in 1997 as he was very keen to serve the motherland. He was sincere in his duty and worked in a dedicated manner, his elder brother Doman Majhi said. Soren has left behind his wife and three school-going daughters, he said. "We all feel shattered after receiving the message about his martyrdom. Nanduram was an asset for the family as well as the village. He was loved by all for his friendly nature," Majhi said. The entire village is proud of his supreme sacrifice, M N Mahato, a villager, said. IMAGE: District Collector visits family members of Havildar Palani in Ramanathapuram, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo In West Bengal, the family of Rajesh Orang, who joined the Army in 2015, said they were planning his marriage. "My son served the country and gave his life for it," was all his grieving father Subhas could say on Wednesday morning at his modest home. Subhas said that he was informed by the Army authorities on Tuesday evening about the death of Rajesh, who was in his early 20s. "From his childhood, my brother wanted to serve the country and was happy to be in the Army," his youngest sister Shakuntala said. "He came home on leave a few months back and talks were on for his marriage," she said. Sepoy Gurbinder Singh, 22, who had joined the Army just two years ago, was among four soldiers from Punjab who were martyred in Ladakh. IMAGE: Family members of Mandeep Singh at their residence, in Patiala district, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo "We received a call at 6:30 am today that Gurbinder Singh has attained martyrdom," said Gurpreet Singh, elder brother Gurbinder. The body is expected to reach the village on Thursday. A pall of gloom descended on the village Tolawal in Sunam subdivision in Sangrur and mourners started assembling at Gurbinder's house. He talked to his family around 15 days back. Gurbinder, who belonged to 3 Punjab Regiment, got engaged last year when he came back home on a brief leave, said Jagseer Singh, Gurbinder's maternal uncle. "We had his plans for his marriage this year when he returns home on leave," Jagseer told PTI. Sepoy Ganesh Ram Kunjam, 27, who hailed from Gidhali village in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, had finalised his marriage during his last home visit and planned to solemnise it next year, his relatives said. After completing his education till Class 12, Ganesh Kunjam had joined the Army in 2011 as he wanted to serve the nation, his paternal uncle Tiharu Ram Kunjam said. IMAGE: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief Uttam Kumar Reddy conveys his condolences to the family of Col Santosh Babu, in Suryapet, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Ganesh had come home on leave in February-March this year during which his marriage was fixed with a girl of a village in Kanker. "Just last month, I got a call from him during which he said hewas being posted to some other place... I had never thought that the phone call made in May would be our last conversation. We all are in shock," Tiharu Kunjam said. "I am proud of my nephew's martyrdom but sacrifices of our soldiers should not go in vain," he said. 42-year-old Naib Subedar Satnam Singh's father Jagir Singh, a farmer, said he returned to duty in Ladakh just a month ago. "He is a great martyr and I am proud of him. He last talked to us on Monday but no one knew that was his last call," said Jagir. Satnam's younger brother Sukhchain Singh, who is also serving in the Army, said his brother sacrificed his life for the nation and he was proud of him. IMAGE: Family members of Naib Subedar Mandeep Singh at their residence, in Patiala, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Naib Subedar Mandeep Singh and Sepoy Gurtej Singh are the other two soldiers from Punjab. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in paying tributes to the soldiers. India wants peace but is capable of giving befitting reply if instigated, he said and asserted that the sacrifice of the army men will not go in vain. The PM, who was speaking on day two of the virtual conference with chief ministers on the coronavirus crisis, also observed a few minutes of silence along with the other leaders in memory of the bravehearts. Lt Governor of Ladakh R K Mathur took part in the wreath laying ceremony for three army personnel from the Union Territory . Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced Rs 25 lakh each as ex-gratia to the families of two slain soldiers from the state. IMAGE: Family members of Sepoy Kundan Kumar Ojha at their residence in Sahebganj district of Jharkhand, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh declared an ex-gratia compensation of up to 12 lakh, along with a government job to a next of kin of the deceased. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh and a government job for kin of each of the two soldiers from the state. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced a solatium of Rs 20 lakh to the family of the slain soldier, K Pazhani of Kadukkalur village in Ramanathapuram district. Protest were held by various organisations including Shiv Sena Dogra Front, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Bajrang Dal in several places in Jammu Angry people burnt tyres and blocked the Jammu-Poonch Highway for over half-an-hour. IMAGE: Sister of soldier Rajesh Orang mourns after receiving the news of his death at Belgharia village in Birbhum district, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Protesters also took to the streets in several cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat in Gujarat, and in Uttar Pradesh, shouting anti-China slogans and demanding a boycott of its goods. A group of ex-armymen gathered near the Chinese embassy in Delhi to protest and were later dispersed. The Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement it revised the figure to 20 saying 17 others who 'were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries'. Government sources said the Chinese side too suffered 'proportionate casualties' but chose not to speculate on the number. It is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. Second Lady, Samira Bawumia has urged government agencies to scale-up efforts that protect children from abuse and violence. Mrs. Bawumia in a statement on the International Day of the African Child and 30th Anniversary of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) said it was time child abuse was completely eliminated to ensure children have a safe environment to pursue their dreams. Children have rights unhinged on any consideration, to live and develop holistically, express their views on issues that affect them and their interests made paramount in any decision or action that affects them. These fundamental provisions of the ACRWC clearly demands of us to be deliberate about the future of our children and to strive to create a society where their welfare is prioritized, she said. She noted that the theme for this years commemoration, Access to child-friendly justice in Ghana is relevant to the pursuit of the development of the Ghanaian child in recent times. She said a robust and child-friendly justice system will not only protect Ghanaian children from the harrowing tendencies of child trafficking and sexual abuse and exploitation but also ensure willingness on the part of victims to report violations and cooperate throughout the process. We have made giant strides in child protection. Over the years, we have put in place legislative instruments and frameworks that endeavour to look out for the child it is our collective responsibility as parents and people in positions of influence to help shape their lives. Let us all work together to ensure that no child is left behind, she added. Source: daily guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Thu, June 18, 2020 08:32 583 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf97fe8 2 National COVID-19,travel-bubble,travel-ban,Southeast-Asia,tourism,Vietnam,Thailand Free As Indonesia now leads the tally of COVID-19 cases and fatalities in Southeast Asia, it appears to be showing an interest in following steps taken by its neighboring countries to ease cross-border travel restrictions. The government announced 1,031 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections nationwide to 41,431 with 2,276 deaths, both the highest in Southeast Asia. Indonesias daily infection rate has now increased by around 1,000 new cases on average in the past week, which the government attributed to improved testing and tracing capabilities. As the country continues to record among the lowest testing rates in the region at 1.2 tests per 1,000 population as of June 15 according to ourworldindata.org, it has now begun easing restrictions and is seemingly looking into creating a travel bubble. The term travel bubble or travel corridor refers to an agreement in which countries that are successfully containing the outbreak can open their borders to each other to allow free movement within the bubble. Earlier this month, Singapore said it would announce a "fast lane" arrangement with China, while Thailand was in talks to create travel bubbles for tourism that would allow the quarantine-free flow of people between Bangkok and a few cities in China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said Indonesia was paying close attention to such a trend, but officials were still discussing ways to have such a "travel corridor". The Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister has been discussing the issue with the Foreign Ministry, as well as the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, with an official saying that they had specifically looked to China, South Korea, Japan and Australia to boost Indonesias tourism recovery. The four countries were chosen because many tourists and foreign investors in Indonesia come from those countries, the offices undersecretary for tourism and creative economy, Odo Manuhutu, said on Friday. Indonesia saw its visitors from China declining by 72.33 percent, South Korea by 41.65 percent, Japan by 45,57 percent and Australia by 33,93 percent in the first quarter of 2020 from the same period last year according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data. In general, the country has recorded a 45.01 percent decline in foreign visitors over the same period. Despite the plan, Odo said businesspeople would probably be the first and only ones to travel to and from those countries in the near future, as he pinned hopes that tourists would gradually follow. Odo said the Foreign Ministry was still discussing the requirements for the establishment of travel bubbles before signing an agreement with the four countries. Epidemiologist Dicky Budiman said Indonesia was not up to par with China, Australia, South Korea and Japan in terms of its COVID-19 response, let alone creating travel corridors. "The idea of travel bubbles, or COVID-19 corridors, is actually opening borders or entrances between countries that are equal in terms of pandemic control while having strong economic and tourism relations. There's a certain level of trust there," he said on Tuesday. He added that the basis to negotiate a travel bubble was when countries had no new cases, and currently in the Asia Pacific region, only Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan meet the criteria. Meanwhile, in ASEAN, he said, only Vietnam and Thailand were so far fit for the plan to create travel bubbles. For Indonesia, the most realistic plan was to have strict COVID-19 control on selected islands such as Bali, but only after authorities expanded and improved testing, tracing and isolation within the next month, Dicky said. As the country enters the so-called new normal, the COVID-19 task force is continuously mapping regions into three categories: green zones, or cities and regencies not recording any confirmed COVID-19 cases; yellow zones, or low-risk regions with contained spread but with possible transmission; and red zones. However, Tri Yunis Miko, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, said the maps had only portrayed surveillance data of certain regions rather than a look into how far the virus had actually spread in its population. He said a further antibody study was important to discover the percentage of the population who had contracted and were still infected by the virus. Only then could the government start mapping regions it might open to tourists, but even then there would always be the possibility of transmission, Tri said. If its because of the economy, then the protocols must be stricter [] If they want to take a risk, then each country should equally take the risk, he said. Tri said the health protocols must be made equal between partnering countries, including PCR tests and a 14-day mandatory quarantine with health authorities also monitoring tourists health conditions daily while tracking their movements through their phones. For business purposes, quarantine might not be mandatory but foreigners must not stay longer than one week, which was also the incubation period of the virus, he said. COVID-19 task force chief Doni Monardo said the government was still mulling over reopening tourism spots, including by assessing places into low-risk and high-risk areas. As for Bali, Doni said the local administration had requested not to reopen the resort island as it looked into improving testing capacity in its port. Were certain that with caution, well rebuild the trust of domestic and foreign tourists in choosing their desired tourism spots, he said. Indonesia Tourism Intellectuals Association (ICPI) chairman Azril Azahari said he doubted foreign tourists' trust in visiting Indonesia could be rebuilt soon as long as the country did not come up to par with other countries in terms of health protocols and COVID-19 containment efforts. Ardila Syakriah and Ghina Ghaliya contributed to the report From Women's Health Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's stay in Canada reportedly cost taxpayers more than $40,000. There might be a reimbursement plan already in the works. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are finally getting settled in Los Angeles after moving in March at the height of the pandemic, but it seems like they still have some things to sort out from their time spent in Canada. Before Meghan and Harry moved to her home state, they lived in Canada on Vancouver Island for a short period of time toward the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. You know, after they made their dramatic but well-understood exit from the royal family after enduring years of abuse from the British tabloids? Well, even though they decided to call America home now, Meghan and Harry still have to confront the hefty cost of their security measures, which were reportedly initially paid by Canadian taxpayers. According to Page Six and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Meghan and Harry ran up more than $41,500 in security fees just from November 18 to January 19. The federation, which has been described as a watchdog group, added that this number only reflects The Royal Canadian Mounted Police's "overtime, travel, meals, incidentals, and accommodations," and could actually be much higher once everything is taken into consideration. Photo credit: Chris Jackson - Getty Images While nearly 100,000 Canadians signed a petition declaring they shouldn't be held responsible for Meghan and Harry's security, there were murmurs that the royals actually have a reimbursement plan in the works. In January, The Telegraph reported the couple will reimburse the taxpayer for security provided on private business engagements with no royal connection if they are commercially successful. (This arrangement is similar to the one former Prime Minister Tony Blair used.) While it's unclear exactly how much money Meghan and Harry have made these past few months, they do seem rather successful and cautious about placing an added burden on the Canadian taxpayers, so hopefully this plan works! You Might Also Like BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: Uzbekistan could be the starting point for SUEZ Group's business development in this specific region which is attracting development cooperation funding agreements, a representative of the SUEZ company told Trend in an interview. Administration of Tashkent city of Uzbekistan has announced the start of cooperation with French SUEZ International, on June 15, 2020, on the basis of signed contract. The total budget of this project is 185.4 million euros. According to the contract, a promising and innovative seven-year Tashkent Water Supply Transformation Plan project will be implemented. "The contract was signed at the beginning of March. Due to the international health crisis, the communication has been displayed more recently," the rep noted. The "Tashkent Water Transformation Plan" (TWTP) project led by SUEZ is part of a broader project called "Tashkent Strategy 2030", which reflects the Uzbek authorities willingness to modernize the city of Tashkent, and make it a flagship for the country and more broadly, for the Central Asian region. "Suez and its Uzbek counterparts (Municipality of Tashkent and National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of Uzbekistan) are structuring an innovative and attractive financing, based on the buyer credit scheme with the support of the French Public Investment Bank and the French Ministry of Finance, as well as several leading European banks", stated representative of the French company. As he noted, the main operational partner in charge of its implementation is the Tashkent Shahar SuvTaminoti (TSST) water company, which will subcontract certain tasks to local companies. "SUEZ will implement a large portfolio of solutions covering analysis and diagnosis of water and wastewater networks as well as the implementation of operational, digital and technical solutions to optimize network performance (leak detection and reduction, smart metering and customer relation systems). It should also be pointed out that the contract provides a training part and know-how transfer with the mobilization of 50 expatriate or local experts to reinforce the organization of TSST", stated representative of French SUEZ company. According to representative of SUEZ, the objective of this project is to meet the needs of a growing population and a certain economic and industrial development, while preserving water resources. Better management of networks makes it possible to limit the consumption of a water resource that has become precious and to limit the quantity of wastewater discharged directly into the natural environment (reduction of leaks in distribution and sewerage networks, etc.) while meeting the needs of users. This helps to preserve the water across the country, rep said. As representative said, French companys ambition is to work in major cities across Uzbekistan, across the entire value chain in water services from consulting to operation. For this purpose, SUEZ opened its offices in Tashkent and Samarkand and intends to create a regional center in the republic for its expansion in Central Asia. Besides, according to rep, SUEZ was in competition for the management of water in the city of Tashkent. Veolia Environnement also expressed interest in water projects of Tashkent. It is true that Veolia Environnement and SUEZ were in competition for the management of water in the city of Tashkent. said representative of SUEZ. SUEZ (formerly Suez Environnement) is a French-based utility company which operates largely in the water and waste management sectors. Suez is number one private water provider worldwide. With an active presence on five continents, SUEZ and its 90,000 employees strive to preserve environments natural capital: water, soil, and air. Since the end of the 19th century, SUEZ has built expertise aimed at helping people to constantly improve their quality of life by protecting their health and supporting economic growth. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini Blue Refuge The combination of proven technology, mental health programs and community outreach will give our schools the best possible chance for a safe return this fall. Blue Refuge, a company dedicated to providing safe and healthy educational environments, is announcing a Return-to-School program that will help support K-12 campuses as students, teachers and administrators head back to school. The programs three-pronged approach of sanitization, mental health and awareness will aim to create safe environments where students and faculty feel supported physically and emotionally as they return to the classroom. The program includes ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) for air cleaning and a patented surface protectant, both proven sanitation technologies with 99.9% antimicrobial efficacy rates for all tested viruses, including MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV. The non-toxic solutions work by targeting pathogens in the air circulating through schools air handlers and sanitizing broad surfaces as well as harder to clean items like books, posters, dry erase markers, decorations and keyboards. Supported by the CDCs Guidelines for Environmental Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities, UGVI is effective in reducing the transmission of airborne bacterial and viral infections as a cleaning measure, when supplemented with traditional cleaning processes. The programs patented surface cleaner is on the EPAs Registered Antimicrobial Products for Use Against Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the Cause of COVID-19. Not only can these sanitization technologies address current health concerns, but they can also help reduce or eliminate other airborne viruses like the flu or common cold, which can increase attendance rates. Schools can choose between several options, including sanitation kits with handheld or pedestal units, upper air treatments with wall-mounted fixtures or units installed in HVAC ductwork or 90-day application services for surface treatments. The Return-to-School program also includes customized training programs for staff and students to help schools address the behavioral and cultural impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The customizable programs will look different from campus to campus and will address an array of challenges including feelings of vulnerability; divergent opinions or experiences of the shutdowns; situational stressors like parental unemployment, depression or substance abuse; and new or increased cases of physical and emotional abuse. Administrators are in a new and especially challenging position this year as they consider what the back to school season will look like in response to the pandemic, said Blue Refuge CEO Marcus Craig. While physical safety is of the utmost importance to staff, students and their families, our program gives equal weight to the need for additional mental and emotional health support. Parents and communities need clear, transparent communication about the steps being taken to protect the wellbeing and overall physical and mental health of area residents, including school-aged children, continued Craig. Our solution addresses each of these concerns for sanitization, a positive mental outlook and overall program awareness in the community. To achieve that local community transparency and program support, Blue Refuges Return-to-School program includes a communication and outreach component comprised of staff communication tools like newsletters and messaging, on-site signage to reinforce health and safety measures, and PR tools like media relations, social media campaigns and website content development. The combination of proven technology, mental health programs and community outreach will give our schools the best possible chance for a safe return this fall, said Craig. Our goal is to restore peace of mind for Americas educators, students and parents, so learning and development can continue safely and effectively. To learn about Blue Refuges Return-to-School program and UVGI options, visit BlueRefuge.com. ### About Blue Refuge Blue Refuges team of industry experts provide comprehensive health and safety programs through prevention, protection, and response solutions. The targeted result is simple: increased personal safety and reduced threat of crisis events. We work with schools, businesses, and local governments across America to develop customized mental health programs, prevention plans and protection measures. Our consultative, tailored approach puts people first and creates optimized learning and working environments, enabling long-term peace-of-mind for all involved. For more information, visit BlueRefuge.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook. Here Are the Top Activities Aussies Are Yearning to Resume After the Pandemic The top three activities Australians are looking forward to the most are having larger gatherings, sitting down for a meal at a restaurant, and travelling domestically, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released on June 15. The survey showed that 62 percent of respondents were craving a return to having big gatherings of family and friends, and 61 percent wanted to dine in at restaurants or cafes again. Australian states are slowly overcoming constraints put in place to quell the spread of the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. From July 1, New South Wales will scrap a 50-person limit at indoor venues, and from next week Victoria will allow patrons to be able to drink in pubs and clubs without having to order a meal. Related Coverage Australian States Push Ahead With Restriction Easing More than half of the respondents (58 percent) also said that they would like to travel within Australia. This comes as states open domestic borders and as Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham urged Australians to take a holiday in their own backyard to get the domestic tourism industry back on its feet. For those Australians who can afford to do so, we want them to feel an almost patriotic duty to get out and support the jobs and small businesses of their fellow citizens by having whatever Aussie holiday they can, he told the National Press Club on Wednesday. That could mean instead of the beaches of Bali, it could be the beaches of Byron Bay. Other activities Australians would most like to return include: Using public recreational areas (52 percent) Going to the cinema (38 percent) Going to licenced venues including bars, pubs or nightclubs (34 percent) Going to a gym, boot camp or swimming pool (34 percent) Attending sporting events (31 percent) Travelling internationally (31 percent) However, the sight of a large gathering is still making Australians nervous76 percent reported they were uncomfortable with returning to attending large public events and 66 percent to indoor gatherings of more than 100 people. Related Coverage 12 New COVID-19 Cases Found in Victoria on June 15 The top two developments that would ease their concerns in returning to these activities are the development of a vaccine (64 percent) and lower daily infection rates (61 percent). This longitudinal survey was collected from approximately 1,000 Australians via telephone between May 26 to 29 to bring to light the adverse impacts of COVID-19 on the financial and emotional wellbeing of Australians. New Delhi, June 17 : Think you have COVID-19 but not sure? Your test came our positive for coronavirus, now what? IANSlife speaks to Dr. Vikas Maurya, Director, and Head, Dept. of Pulmonology & Sleep Disorders, Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh to find out what steps you can take in case of such an event. The main symptoms include fever, cough, and breathlessness. It also includes fatigue, chills, body ache, headache, sore throat, loss of smell and taste, nausea, and diarrhoea. Some people are more prone to the disease example elderly, diabetics, patients with hypertension, heart disease, chronic lung disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, cancer disease, immunosuppressive therapy, transplant patients, and those who smoke cigarettes. Steps to follow if you think you have COVID 19: Firstly, if you feel you have COVID 19, have an e-consult with a doctor. Try to avoid going to a hospital. Not only will this significantly reduce the risk of the infection spreading, but it will also prevent you from over exertion Once you have had the consult, the doctor will decide if you need to get a COVID 19 test done. If he feels it should be done, he will write a formal note indicating the same You can get the test done at the hospital nearest to you or the sample can be collected from your home. Once your sample has been collected you will need to wait for 24 to 48 hours before the result comes Once the result comes, the doctor will advise you on further steps. In mild cases, doctors advise patients to stay at home and quarantine themselves within a single room. If more serious cases, patients need to get admitted to the nearest hospital. They will be put into isolated COVID 19 wards which has a separate staff that only tends to them. Symptomatic treatment is usually advised along with multivitamins In home quarantine, the patient can either avail a homecare package for COVID 19 patients or continue e-consults with the doctor who prescribed the test At home, regular temperature checks along with high fluid intake are of paramount importance. The rest of the family should be completely cut off from the patient - there should be no contact, interaction, a significant distance should be maintained, and shared dishes and other items are a strict no The patent should sanitize his/her hands often and should always use triple-layer medical mask. The mask must be replaced after 8 hours of use or earlier (if they become wet or visibly soiled). Disposable masks are never to be reused. A used mask should be considered as potentially infected Masks used by patients/caregivers/ close contacts during home care should be disinfected using ordinary sodium hypochlorite solution (1%) and then disposed of either by burning or deep burial In home quarantine, it is important to keep monitoring if the symptoms are getting worse. If they are it is important to get admitted to the nearest hospital because otherwise the patient's condition can get aggravated and lead to pneumonia, respiratory failure, septic shock, and death. The following are the symptoms of a worsening condition: Trouble breathing or shortness of breath Ongoing chest pain or pressure New confusion Cannot wake up fully Bluish lips or face Once the patient is shifted to the hospital (in serious cases) or has recovered, his living quarters need to be completely cleaned out and disinfection of all belonging and the entire area needs to be done by professionals The doctor's advice is you should not panic as the infection is often mild or asymptomatic (in 80-85 percent of cases) or moderate with pneumonia requiring hospitalization in 15 percent of cases and only 5 percent cases become serious and 1 percent become critically ill requiring the ventilator. Therefore, always follow social distancing (at least 1.5 to 2-meter distance from each other), usage of masks, gloves, hand hygiene, and respiratory etiquettes. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- Syndicated from IANS North Korea had recently attacked and destroyed a joint liaison office that the two Koreas use for communication between each other. The move is the latest in a string of evidence that shows the deteriorating relationship between the two countries. A sudden attack The state media of the North announced that the four-story facility located in Kaesong was utterly destroyed with a "terrific explosion" at approximately 2:50 p.m. local time, as reported by CNN. The blast created a cloud of black smoke that could be seen from the South Korean territory of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The South Korean Unification Ministry said the communications facility had been closed off since the end of January after the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. It added that the personnel working at the building have not returned since that time. The destruction of the facility built on North Korean soil and funded by the South Korean government is highly symbolic. The move might become a focal point in the status of the relationship between the two Koreas who agreed to "a new era of peace" less than three years ago. North Korea announced that the attack is a result of retaliation against a group of defectors who spread anti-DPRK leaflets using balloons to a region north of the DMZ. The Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) stated on Tuesday that the spread of the leaflets damaged North Korea's supreme leader's dignity. It added that the counterattack would show the world what severe punishment the country will deliver to South Korea and what it would do to "wipe the human scum off the earth." Also Read: North and South Korean at Risk of Losing Reduced Military Tensions After Anti-DPRK Leaflets Spread Dangerous threats According to BBC, the sister of North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Yo-Jong, threatened to send their army to the DMZ. The military had announced that they are ready to deploy and fulfill their mission of fortifying the area. The anti-DPRK leaflets have caused tensions between the two countries to rise since their initial spread. On Tuesday, South Korean officials revealed they are working closely with the United States to monitor the moves the North Korean military makes. The liaison office was reopened as part of an agreement between the two countries that ceased all hostile activities, including broadcasting and leaflet distribution. The fate of the facility was put into question when North Korea announced previously of its intention to cut all ties to South Korea. On Tuesday, the KCNA also stated that the North would continue to re-militarize some regions of the DMZ. A South Korean official had called the North's recent attack as a betrayal of those who hoped to improve the relationship between the two Koreas. The South Korean Defense Ministry announced it would carefully observe the North's actions and will respond accordingly to any military provocations. The South Korean President, Moon Jae-In, said on Monday that it was crucial for North Korea to go back to the negotiating table instead of resorting to violence. Moon added that the two Koreas must keep their positive perspectives and move towards peace and unification, no matter how long it may take. The president also noted that the promise he made alongside Kim Jong-Un for a peaceful relationship in front of 80 million citizens could not be turned back. Related Article: North Korea Cuts All Communications With South Korea After Anti-DPRK Leaflets Spread @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Description GIS - 17 June 2020 : This Budget paves the way for the economic progress of the country for decades to come and it will help the country emerge from the Covid-19 economic conundrum . This statement was made yesterday by the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Energy and Public Utilities, Mr. Ivan Leslie Collendavelloo, in the National Assembly during his intervention on the Budget debates. The DPM underscored that the Budget makes provision through key measures to boost key sectors including tourism and financial services, so that the economy can regain its momentum in the Post-Covid crisis. He spoke about key achievements of his Ministry including the earmarking of Rs 6.2 Billion to improve the water treatment and distribution systems so as to ensure that the population has access to clean water on a 24/7 basis. He underlined that Government is on track towards the achievement of its goals, as today 80 % of the population have access to water round the clock. Our sustainability strategy, which involves fostering the production and use of local renewable sources of energy, is another long-term project of the Ministry and there is a need to ensure energy security and sustainability, he underpinned. DPM Collendavelloo pointed out that key projects are underway to accelerate the shift to clean and renewable sources of energy away from fossil fuel and there is a need to increase the share of local renewable energy in our energy mix to 40% by 2030. In this context, the following new projects will be pursued: The setting up of a 2 MW floating solar PV plant at Tamarind Falls reservoir. Increasing the capacity of the solar PV farm at Henrietta from 2 MW to 10 MW. Installing 1,000 solar panels on houses of low income families. Commissioning a battery energy storage system of 14 MW. Mr. Ivan Leslie Collendavelloo, reiterated the political will and determination of the Government to continue to work relentlessly for the progress of the country. Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org Mobile App: Search Gov ACME, a UK-based specialist in contemporary architecture, urban planning and interior design, said it has completed work on Marsa Plaza, Omans largest new urban square in a generation. Situated in the centre of Al Mouj Quarter, on the western edge of Muscat, Marsa Plaza creates a new urban space at the edge of the Marina. Opening out into the water and defined by steps and shading canopies, the square creates a number of informal spaces for water features and people-watching, seating terraces and an amphitheatre for performances. The ground plane of the square, the walls of the buildings and the shading canopies have all been designed as one to create a unified visual spatial identity and to blur the boundaries between the separate elements. The materiality and patterns have been developed from the local context, using local Omani stone and patterns developed from traditional geometries and vernacular types. According to ACME, Marsa Plaza has been conceived as the heart of the Marina district, linking the main boulevard to the seafront promenade. It is intended to be not just an amenity for the local community, but a destination for the wider public of Oman's capital Muscat, which is tightly wedged between the Gulf of Oman and the Al Hajar mountain range at its back. Constrained in its urban development, the city continues to expand west along the shore, with several new city quarters under construction. Al Mouj is the largest of these new developments, defining a new urban quarter for Muscat, said the top architect. Protected from the intense sunlight by trees and overlapping canopies, the new plaza invites people of all ages and creates a shaded environment for use during the heat of the day and in the evening. The screen patterns have been designed to maximise shading depending on screen angle and exposure, with variations in the grid to balance light and shade for each position, it added. Friedrich Ludewig, Director at ACME, said: "Marsa Plaza was envisioned as the new heart of the Al Mouj community, providing green, shade, spaces to sit, talk, eat, play and enjoy the breeze from the sea. Designed with local Omani materials and patterns and built with local contractors, the space is contemporary in form but deeply rooted in the local context." "The spaces created by the structured floor, walls and canopies are simple to construct yet jointly create a complex and memorable space and identity for the community," he stated. "The levels of the square are stepped and ramped to bring the local city closer to the waters edge and to form a natural amphitheatre around the central water feature. The geometry of the paving, canopies and mashrabiya wall plays with the tectonics and graphics of traditional Omani architecture," explained Ludewig. According to him, the project is constructed from solid local stone - Desert Rose marble quarried in Oman. "Steps in the square and joints are outlined in black granite to create the floor pattern, and locally-produced lightweight aluminium canopies and screens cover the outside seating areas," he explained. Two restaurants occupy the space behind some of the shading screens, and have been visually divided into three separate volumes: a double height glazed volume, a single storey volume with roof terrace and a stone-clad kitchens volume. The shifting masses break up the scale of the buildings and create a variety of outdoor seating areas as well as allowing the cool sea breeze to flow into the square, he observed. "The glazed facades are protected from the sun by screens and canopy overhangs that allow for a pleasant micro-climate inside and reduce the need for climate control, explained Ludewig. Roof canopies provide shading on all sides of the plaza. The canopies are lowest away from the sea, rising up towards the south-most corner where the largest one covers a performance area and frames views towards the water. "Over the first summer, we have greatly enjoyed watching flaneurs pass by, restaurant guests eating out on the terraces, crowds of children play in the fountains, and to see performances on the stage facing the sea, remarked Ludewig. "We are delighted that Marsa Plaza has so quickly become the new heart of the community," he added. Al Mouj Muscat CEO Nasser Al Sheibani said Marsa Plaza was a space that was both very traditional in its purpose and very contemporary in its vision, further reinforcing its commitment to offer locally relevant design and outstanding lifestyle experiences. "It is already an iconic landmark for Al Mouj Muscat, a space that brings people together for shared moments, while also opening a sense of connection to the heritage and landscape of Oman," noted Al Sheibani. "In bringing life to Marsa Plaza, we have paid careful attention to the smallest of details, successfully fulfilling the diverse leisure and cultural needs at the heart of our diverse community," he added.-TradeArabia News Service The European Parliament has threatened to block any Brexit trade deal that doesn't tie Britain into respecting EU standards, as Brussels warned it would not compromise its "fundamental values" for an agreement. The warning by the EU's legislature throws up a fresh barrier in stalling Brexit trade talks, reducing EU negotiators' room for compromise as the clock ticks down to the end of the year. Member states are also putting pressure on the European Commission's officials to be as tough with Britain as possible. Kati Piri, the parliament's rapporteur charged with responding to the negotiations, said consent for the final deal would be "conditional" on a strong "level playingfield" condition, as well as an agreement on fishing. As rapporteur Ms Piri is responsible for coordinating the parliament's view on negotiations across political groups and steering the consensus through parliament as a motion. On Wednesday she told a plenary meeting in Brussels: "I'm proud to say that parliament is united on a strong text with a clear political message, and that message is simple: yes we want a deal, but we will not simply consent to any deal. Recommended Brexiteer MP says his dogs should be able to keep free movement rights "Our consent is conditional on the UK government's adherence to its own commitments. The UK must respect the political declaration and ensure the full implementation of the withdrawal agreement. "Let me be very clear: the UK's expectation to keep the benefits and rights of member states without agreeing to any obligations is not realistic. "It's only logical that if you want to have access to the market of 450 million citizens then this will come with conditions. The UK government made a conscious decision to leave the single market. We respect this, but so should the United Kingdom. Without a level playing-field and fisheries there cannot be a trade agreement." The Dutch socialist MEP said accused the British government of continuing "to put ideology over the interests of its own people". Speaking at the same meeting in the parliament European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would do its best to seal an agreement on new ties with Britain by the end of the year, but would not compromise its core values. "The negotiations with the UK always promised to be difficult and they have not disappointed," Ms von der Leyen, the head of the EU's executive branch, said in her opening remarks. "We are now halfway through these negotiations with five months left to go. But we're definitely not halfway through the work to reach an agreement ... We will do all in our power to reach an agreement." The president said Boris Johnson had confirmed to her in during a high-level "stock-take" this week that the UK would not seek an extension to talks past December, raising the prospect of a no-deal. The EU is insisting that the UK commits to maintaining EU standards in areas like state aid, labour rights and environment regulations to stop it undercutting EU products in the future. "It should be a shared interest for the European Union and the UK to never slide backwards and always advance together towards highest standards," Ms von der Leyen said. Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Show all 37 1 /37 Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Pro-Brexit supporters celebrating in Parliament Square, after the UK left the European Union on 31 January. Ending 47 years of membership PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Big Ben, shows the hands at eleven o'clock at night AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Pro Brexit supporters attend the Brexit Day Celebration Party hosted by Leave Means Leave Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage smiles on stage AFP/Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square People celebrate in Parliament Square Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A Brexit supporter celebrates during a rally in Parliament square AP Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Police form a line at Parliament Square to prevent a small group of anti-Brexit protestors from going through to the main Brexit rally PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Nigel Farage speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square JD Wetherspoon Chairman Tim Martin speaks as people wave flags Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit supporters wave Union flags as they watch the big screen AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage arrives Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit supporters gather AP Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Ann Widdecombe speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit supporters wave Union flags as they watch the big screen AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square People wave British Union Jack flags as they celebrate Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Pro-Brexit demonstrators celebrate on Parliament Square on Brexit day Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A pro-Brexit supporter jumps on an EU flag PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AP Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A man waves Union flags from a small car as he drives past Brexit supporters gathering AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A pro-Brexit supporter pours beer onto an EU flag PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square An EU flag lies trampled in the mud Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Concluding the debate, Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier told MEPs: "After four years of negotiations we see quite clearly what the strategy is of the UK government. Firstly, it refused any discussion on important subjects: defence, security and development." He added: "It's going to be difficult. It's possible but the time is very short. It's the choice of the UK whether they want an agreement, or not, because the conditions for an agreement are already known." Mr Barnier confirmed that EU-UK talks would intensify through July, August and September, as requested by the UK last week. "Our priority is and remains to be to reach an agreement. But we also have the responsibility to prepare for all possible scenarios, whether there is an agreement or there isn't," he warned. The bill has widespread support in the House and is expected to move quickly to final passage. But its success was about more than just a shared affection for wide open spaces. Passage of the bill was a political triumph for two Senate Republicans in tough races Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado and Senator Steve Daines of Montana who were the designated Republican point men on the bill. Both have made it a central element of their arguments for re-election. The legislation had its Republican detractors, which would usually be sufficient grounds for Senator Mitch McConnell Kentucky and the majority leader, who prefers to keep intraparty divisions out of public view, to avoid bringing it up on the floor. But in this case, Mr. McConnell allowed the legislation to proceed and used a procedural tactic to block amendments, drawing the ire of some of his Republican colleagues who complained they were being shut out of the process. This why we have the Senate, so that we can air out grievances, so that we can air out our differences, so that we can make improvements to legislation, said Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, who said that Senate no longer merited its reputation as the worlds greatest deliberative body if it was going to bar real debate. It is not living up to its name, to its history, to its traditions, to its capacity, nor to its constitutional purpose. Mr. Lee and some other Western Republicans worried that guaranteed money for the fund, which relies on offshore oil and gas drilling royalties to acquire private land for public access and use, would lead to more government holdings in their states. Lawmakers from along the Gulf of Mexico, where much of the nations offshore drilling occurs, were unhappy about being prevented from proposing a change that would have directed more money to their states to curb coastal erosion, arguing that the Senate was putting vacation spots over homeowners. Critics also contended that the money for the park improvements would be added to the deficit, at a time when federal red ink is spiraling because of pandemic spending. PM Modi held a high-level meet with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday evening to take stock of the situation in Eastern Ladakh where India and China have been locked in a standoff for over five weeks. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a fierce clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region. The Army initially has said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement it revised the figure to 20 saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries." Government sources said the Chinese side too suffered "proportionate casualties" but chose not to speculate on the number. Also Read: India-China border clash: Wat happened on June 15-16? Also read: India-China border clashes: How many Chinese soldiers died? Here's what we know Check all the latest updates on India-China tension on BusinessToday.In live blog 5.26 pm: Pre-meditated action by China in Galwan, EAM Jaishankar tells Chinese counterpart In a telephonic conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, "What happened in Galwan was premeditated, planned action by China that was responsible for sequence of event." Jaishankar emphasised that this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship. The need of the hour was for Chinese side to reassess its actions and take corrective measures, he added. 4:23 pm: China used drones According to sources, China used drones to track down Indian soldiers at the Galwan Valley. 4:21 pm: Foreign Ministers in conversation Foreign Ministers of both the nations have spoken on the phone and had a discussion on the India-China clash. 4:19 pm: Many missing soldiers have been traced after air surveillance Both India and Chinese armies used multiple helicopter sorties to track down injured soldiers. Many who went missing have ben traced after air surveillance. Close to 20 jawans are reported to have been wounded and are in critical condition. 4:12 pm: WB announces compensation for two martyrs Mamata Banerjee said that the West Bengal government would pay Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the two martyrs who were residents of the state. One person from each of the families would also be given a government job. 4:09 pm: 'Bow to the families of such great heroes,' said Amit Shah Amit Shah said he bows to the families who blessed Indian Army with such great heroes. "India will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifice. Entire nation and Modi government stands firmly with their families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured," he said. 4:05 pm: 'Nation salutes our immortal heroes,' says Amit Shah Home Minister Amit Shah took to Twitter to pay tribute to the 20 martyred jawans. "Pain of losing our brave jawans cannot be put into words," he said. The pain of losing our brave soldiers while protecting our motherland at Ladakhs Galwan can not be put in words. Nation salutes our immortal heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep Indian territory safe and secure. Their bravery reflects Indias commitment towards her land. Amit Shah (@AmitShah) June 17, 2020 3:59 pm: Father of deceased jawan says will send grandsons to Army too #WATCH Bihar: Father of Sepoy Kundan Kumar, who lost his life in #GalwanValley of Ladakh on June 15-16, says, "My son sacrificed his life for the nation. I have two grandsons, I will send them too." pic.twitter.com/WHkkJw0HEX ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 3:45 pm: 'Are our soldiers still missing,' asks Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi asks if our soldier and officers are still missing. "How many of our soldiers/officers are critically injured? What areas have been occupied by China?," she said in her message to PM Modi. 3:40 pm: Sonia Gandhi pays tribute to martyrs Congress President Sonia Gandhi says that the demise of the 20 jawans has shaken the conscience of the nation. "I pay my tribute to all those brave soldiers from the core of my heart," she said adding that she is praying for the families to gather the strength to face this pain. 3.30 pm: PM Modi said that India is proud of its soldiers that died fighting and taking down enemies with them. India favours peace but will not refrain from responding if provoked. 3:23 pm: Visuals from 2-minute silence observed by PM Modi and CMs Prime Minister Modi said that the death of the soldiers will not go in vain. He said if anyone provokes India then they will get a befitting reply. The PM then observed 2-minute silence ahead of the meeting with CMs. Delhi: PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the chief ministers of 15 states and union territories, who are present in the meeting via video-conferencing today, observe two-minute silence as a tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives in #GalwanValley clash. pic.twitter.com/R9smyDFwbR ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 3:17 pm: India wants peace but will take appropriate action if provoked, says PM Modi. Unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important for us, he said. 3:15 pm: Have always wished well for our neighbours and have supported them. But we will not accept a threat to the country, says PM. I want to assure the nation that their deaths will not go in vain, he said. 3:11 pm: PM Modi pays tribute to the martyrs. The PM observed 2 minutes of silence for the deceased ahead of the meeting with CMs. 3:00 pm: Talks between India-China Major General-level talks are being held in Galwan valley between India and China to defuse the situation. 2:55 pm: PLA trying to gain ground since May, says former Indian Ambassador to China Former Indian Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale said that the PLA has been trying since early May to occupy ground position on the basis of its idea of LAC. He said India did not agree and stopped Chinese troops from advancing in early May. There has been a standoff for many weeks. He said that there is always the possibility of the situation spiralling out of control when two armies are in such close proximity. 2:43 pm: Russia-India-China RIC trilateral meeting postponed The Russia-India-China RIC trilateral meeting has been postponed in the wake of the India-China clash. The meeting of the foreign ministers likely to be held on June 22-23 has been rescheduled for a future date. 2:35 pm: List of names of martyrs released Here are the names of the martyrs who lost their lives in the India-China border clash: COL. B SANTOSH BABU NB SUB NUDURAM SOREN SB SUB MANDEEP SINGH ND SUB SATNAM SINGH HAV K PALANI HAV SUNIL KUMA HAV BIPUL ROY NK DEEPAK KUMAR SEP RAJESH ORANG SEP KUNDAN KUMAR OJHA SEP GANESH RAM SEP CHANDRAKANTA PRADHAN SEP ANKUSH SEP GURBINDER SEP GURTEJ SINGH SEP CHANDAN KUMAR SEP KUNDAN KUMAR SEP AMAN KUMAR SEP JAI KISHORE SINGH SEP GANESH HANSDA 2:30 pm: Chinese media downplays clash China downplayed the clash between the two countries. Chinese media houses like People's Daily of China, which is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China did not even mention in its newspaper. For full story, read India-China face-off: Chinese media downplays Galwan Valley border clashes 2:25 pm: Wreath laying ceremony in Ladakh Wreath laying ceremony took place in Ladakh for the martyrs. Latest visuals from Ladakh: Wreath laying of Indian Army soldiers who lost their lives in #GalwanValley clash performed at Army Hospital in Leh; chopper activity seen in the area pic.twitter.com/MDN45NWLCQ ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 2:22 pm: Chinese Army suffered 35 casualties, says US intel As many as 35 casualties were suffered by the Chinese Army in the clash with Indian troops, said sources quoting US Intelligence reports. The figure could combine killed and seriously wounded, it said. 2:18 pm: Eligibility for Indian contracts to be changed A change in the offing is the eligibility for Indian contracts. Top sources in the government said that Chinese companies used to edge out Indian entities in global bids due to the stringent clauses set in the tenders. Chinese giants in many instances due to their greater global exposure and experience used to bid low and beat domestic players. A senior source in an infrastructure ministry said that the ground eligibility rules are going to be changed to make domestic players eligible. "The technical norms for project tenders need a serious relook. This can act as another level of filtering," he said. 2:10 pm: CAIT releases list of 500 Chinese items to boycott Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has released a list of more than 500 'Made in China' products for boycotting. Toys, fabrics, textiles, apparel, kitchen items, hardware, footwear, handbags, cosmetics and gift items, electronics, watches, household items, auto parts products have made it to the list. CAIT has started a campaign called Indian Goods - Our Pride. 2:05 pm: Trouble for Chinese stakes in Indian projects? According to reports the government is looking into projects where Chinese companies have financial bids. It is looking into the Delhi-Meerut RRTS project where a Chinese company had won the bid. The government might scrap the bid. Government will study eligibility rules in projects that benefit experienced Chinese companies over domestic players 1:55 pm: Protesters detained Delhi Police said that 6-7 Army veterans had gathered near the Chinese Embassy but were asked to disperse. The Police said that 10 members of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch who also gathered have been detained. 1:48 pm: China 'throwing punches' when it should focus on economy, says US expert "China is throwing punches and provoking its neighbours at a time when you'd think Beijing would want to ease up on confrontation and focus on the economy at home. Instead, Xi Jinping is making a conscious appeal to Chinese nationalism and appears to be calculating that China can handle the consequences of these actions," Asia Society Policy Institute Vice President Daniel Russel said. 1:40 pm: Indian soldiers hold ground in Galwan Satellite images from Planet Labs, photographs taken less than 24 hours after the night of June 15 show that Indian side is still holding its ground in Galwan. High resolution satellite images taken on June 16 show a massive continuing build-up by the Chinese side. 1:29 pm: PM Modi calls all-party meetin on June 19 PM Modi has called for an all-party meeting o June 19 to discuss the India-China border situation. The virtual meeting scheduled for 5 pm will be attended by the Presidents of all the political parties. 1:15 pm: 'Don't wish to see more clashes,' says China "The incident happened on the Chinese side of LAC and China is not to blame for it. From the Chinese side, we do not wish to see more clashes," stated Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. 1:13 pm: India must discipline frontline troops, says China "We ask India to strictly discipline its frontline troops, stop infringing and provocative activity at once, work with China and come back to the right track of resolving the differences through dialogue and talk," says Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. 1:05 pm: Sovereignty of Galwan Valley always belonged to us, says China "The sovereignty of the Galwan valley area has always belonged to China. The Indian border troops flip-flopped and seriously violated our border protocols on border-related issues and the consensus of our commander level talks," says Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian. 12:55 pm: India-China in close communication, says Chinese FM Chinese Foreign Minister said that India and China are in close communication to resolve the issue through diplomatic and military channels. 12:50 pm: Defence Ministry says prepared for discussions The Defence Ministry said that India is prepared to resolve the issue through discussions as there can be no compromise on the country's territorial integrity. The ministry also said that the mortal remains of the three deceased would be taken to their respective places after the wreath laying ceremony. 12:35 pm: Act swiftly, says Sunil Chhetri "Act swiftly, for the sake of those army personnel who have died and for those who shouldn't," says footballer Sunil Chhetri. Resolve this across a table while you can, not at the border. Act swiftly, for the sake of those army personnel who have died and for those who shouldn't. I can only hope that the families of those who have laid down their lives find strength to deal with their losses. Sunil Chhetri (@chetrisunil11) June 17, 2020 12:25 pm: Police detain protestors outside China embassy Swadeshi Jagran Manch members and ex-Army veterans are protesting outside the Chinese embassy in Delhi. Police have detained some of the protestors. 12:20 pm: Rajnath Singh says nation will never forget their sacrifice "The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's bravehearts," says Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. 12:15 pm: Protestors gather outside the Chinese embassy Swadeshi Jagran Manch and army veterans have gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Delhi after the clash killed 20 soldiers. Delhi: Police detain Swadeshi Jagran Manch members and some Army veterans who were protesting outside China's Embassy to India. #IndiaChinaFaceOff pic.twitter.com/c2deqVDTaW ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 12:05 pm: What is government's strategy, asks Congress leader Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said that 20 soldiers were martyred but the government is silent. He added that the government should tell how China grabbed India's land and what is the government's strategy to deal with the issue. 12:00 pm: Priyanka Gandhi says India deserves the truth Priyanka Gandhi said that India deserves the truth regarding what happened at the India-China clash. She said that India deserves a leadership that is willing to do anything before allowing its land to be taken. 11:55 am: Anand Mahindra says struck by composure of Col Babu's parents Anand Mahindra took to Twitter to talk about martyred Colonel Santosh Babu's parents. Col Babu was one of the soldiers martyred at the India-China clash. Watched the parents of martyred Col. Babu being interviewed on TV channels. I was struck by their composure, courage & pride. If this steel spine runs through all parents of our armed forces personnel, then our adversaries should recognise they are up against an unyielding force. anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) June 17, 2020 11:49 am: Violence no one's interest, says British High Commission The British High Commission has commented on the violent clash between India and China. The Commission said that reports of the clash were concerning and urged India and China to engage in dialogue on issues related to the border. "Violence is no one's interest," it said. 11:45 am: What Chinese authorities said "The Indian troops had violated their promises and once again crossed the Line of Actual Control for illegal activities, and deliberately provoked and attacked the Chinese forces, thus triggering fierce physical conflicts between the two sides and causing casualties. We demand that the Indian side strictly restrain its frontline troops, immediately stop all infringement and provocative actions, and work together with China to return to the correct track of dialogue and negotiations to resolve the differences," said Zhang Shuili, spokesperson for the Western Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). 11:40 am: "We all are responsible," says Sanjay Raut Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has said that we can't hold Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru for whatever happened at the border. "We all are responsible for martyrdom of 20 jawans. All parties will support whatever decision PM takes," he said adding that PM Modi should tell the nation what exactly happened at the border. 11:35 am: Virat Kohli says no one more selfless than a soldier Cricketer Virat Kohli said that no one is more selfless than a soldier. "I hope they find peace through our prayers," he said. Salute and deepest respect to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect our country in the Galwan Valley. NO one is more selfless and brave than a soldier. Sincere condolences to the families. I hope they find peace through our prayers at this difficult time. Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) June 17, 2020 11:30 am: Srinagar-Leh highway closed for public The Srinagar-Leh highway has been closed for public after the violent clash between India and China. The Himachal Pradesh Police has also additionally issued an alert in Lahaul Spiti districts. 11:25 am: What Chinese media is saying Global Times in an editorial said the clash has come from "two misjudgements" from India's side -- one that India believes that China does not want to sour ties and the other that it believes that India has a mightier army. "These misperceptions affect the rationality of Indian opinion and add pressure to India's China policy," said the Global Times editorial that called india reckless. 11:20 am: Commanding Officer of Chinese unit among the dead News agency ANI has quoted sources and said that the Commanding Officer of the Chinese unit is also among the casualties on their side. However, all reports of casualties on Chinese side are yet to be confirmed. 11:15 am: Rajnath Singh meets defence chiefs Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met the three defence chiefs along with the Chief of Defence Staff. Singh also spoke to External Minister S Jaishankar. 11:08 am: Significant casualties to Chinese side News agency ANI has quoted sources and said that the Chinese side also suffered significant casualties, an assessment based on the number of soldiers that were evacuated from the site "on stretchers and subsequently by ambulance vehicles on the track along the Galwan river, as also the increased Chinese helicopter movement". The agency cited sources who estimated the number to be around 40. 11:00 am: Four soldiers in critical condition News agency ANI said that four soldiers are in critical condition after the clash with Chinese troops. The Indian Army had earlier stated that 20 soldiers were martyred after the India-China border clash. 10.58 am: People in Gujarat burn Chinese President XI Jinping's photos People in Ahmedabad's Bapu Nagar burnt photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Tuesday evening. Gujarat: People in Ahmedabad's Bapu Nagar burnt photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping, yesterday. #IndiaChinaBorder pic.twitter.com/6sL2UcNKrL ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 10.47 am: India-China latest: RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch appeals to Centre to ban Chinese firms Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) an RSS-affiliate outfit urged the Centre on Tuesday to bar Chinese firms from taking part in tenders floated by the government and appealed people to shun Chinese products as a an homage to the slain Indian Army soldiers martyred in a violent clash with Chinese troops in Eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley late Monday evening. 10.33 am: 2020 India-China standoff: PM Modi held High-level meeting with Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah on Tuesday evening PM Modi held a high-level meet with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday evening to take stock of the situation in Eastern Ladakh where India and China have been locked in a standoff for over five weeks. 10.24 am: India-China news: Indian Army soldier from Bengal killed in Ladakh clash was sole earning member of family The Indian Army troop Rajesh Orang was one of the 20 soldiers martyred in the violent face-off with Chinese toops on late Monday evening. He was a resident of Birbhum in West Bengal and was working in the Indian Army for six years. He was posted at the 16 Bihar Regiment that engaged with Chinese soldiers in Galwan Valley of Eastern Ladakh. The 26-year old soldier was the sole bread winner for his family as his father is sick and is not able to work. 10.16 am: India China standoff news: Odisha CM condoles Indian soldiers' death in Ladakh Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik condoled the death of Indian troops martyred in Galwan Valley of Eastern Ladakh on Monday night following a violent clash with Chinese soldiers. "Join the nation to salute the bravehearts of Indian Army who made the supreme sacrifice at Galwan Valley, protecting the integrity of our nation. Deepest condolences to the families of the brave martyrs," he tweeted. Join the nation to salute the bravehearts of #IndianArmy who made the supreme sacrifice at #GalwanValley, protecting the integrity of our nation. Deepest condolences to the families of the brave martyrs. Naveen Patnaik (@Naveen_Odisha) June 17, 2020 10.05 am: Tamil Nadu govt announces Rs 20 lakh, job to family of martyred soldier Tamil Nadu government has announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the family of the martyred soldier K. Palani. The state government has also promised a government job to one of the his family members. 9.57 am: India-China fight: Indian Army shows exact location of Galwan Valley clash The Indian Army has shared a picture showing the exact location of the violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers on late Monday evening. 20 Indian troops were martyred in the standoff in Galwan Vally of Eastern Ladkah area. Click here to Enlarge 9.48 am: Border news India China Four Indian soldiers in critical condition after violent face-off with Chinese troops on Monday night, ANI reports citing sources. 9.39 am: Himachal Pradesh Police issues alert in Lahaul-Spiti The Himachal Pradesh Police has issued an alert in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur districts of the state bordering China, in the wake of the Monday night violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley, an official informed on Tuesday. 9.29 am: India-China latest news: Rahul Gandhi questions PM Modi over violent LAC face off Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a tweet on Wednesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his silence on India-China violent face-off in Ladakh. "Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land?" he tweeted. Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 17, 2020 Read more here: India-Chine face-off: 'Why is PM silent, how dare China kill our soldiers', asks Rahul Gandhi 9.21 am: India-China fight: Proud of son, but sad as family: Parents of Col Santosh Babu Parents of Colonel Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer of the 16 Bihar Regiment, who was martyred in the Ladakh clash in Galwan Valley on Monday night said that they did not believe the news of his killing at first but later were informed by higher authorities later about what happened. They further said that they are in deep shock as their son faced many challenges. His father B Upender said, "He was just 37 years old and had a bright future. As a parent I am in grief but as a citizen and a defence family man I am proud on my son. Santosh worked in the UN. He was always on field job from counter-insurgency to other postings." 9.12 am: Remains of Col Santosh Babu to reach Hyderabad today The body of Colonel Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer (CO) martyred in the violent clash with Chinese soldiers in Ladakh's Ladakh valley, will arrive in Hyderabad around 4 pm on Wednesday. His wife and children who are in Delhi will fly along with his remains for the last rites to be performed. 9.05 am: India-China update: On-ground situation remains volatile in Ladakh Indian Army will release the names of all 20 soldiers killed in the violent clash with Chinese troops on Monday night in Galwan valley of Eastern Ladakh. According to sources, nothing has changed on ground and the situation remains volatile. The sources also added that nothing much has come out of talks between the two sides and the Army is on alert not just in Ladakh but in different parts across LAC (line of actual control). 8.59 am: Around 40 Chinese casualties in India-China standoff in Ladakh: reports The government sources said that China too suffered "proportionate casualties" but did not speculate on the number. However, some reports suggest that there are around 40 casualties on Chinese side, which includes both dead and injured PLA soldiers. 8.52 am: India-China face-off in Ladakh worst clash in 50 years The violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops on Monday night in Eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley is the worst border clash between the two nations in over five decades. The military confrontation led to the killing of 20 Indian Army soldiers, including a colonel. The Indian Army had initially said on Tuesday that three of its personnel were killed in the clash with Chinese soldiers, an officer and two soldiers. However, in a late evening update, the Army stated that the figure was 20 adding that 17 others who sustained serious injuries in the clash and were exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries. 8.44 am: India-China border dispute According to US media Chinese People Liberation Army has provoked the "Indian nationalist tiger" by engaging in a face-off with Indian Army personnel in which 20 soldiers were killed. (ANI) 8.30 AM: Ban Chinese firms from govt tenders: RSS The RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Tuesday appealed to the Centre to bar Chinese companies from participating in tenders floated by the government and exhorted the people to boycott Chinese products as a tribute to the Army soldiers killed in a fierce clash with troops of China in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. - PTI 8.15 AM: Closely monitoring the situation: US "We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation. During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi discussed the situation on the India-China border," a US State Department statement. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 14:17:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The United States intends to nominate Mauricio J. Claver-Carone, a senior White House official, to head the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the U.S. Treasury Department announced on Tuesday. "The IDB is at a critical juncture as the region faces growing challenges to economic growth and sustainable development, particularly in light of the global pandemic," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. "The nomination of Mr. Claver-Carone demonstrates President Trump's strong commitment to U.S. leadership in important regional institutions, and to advancing prosperity and security in the Western Hemisphere," said Mnuchin. "We are confident that his leadership of the IDB will strengthen its ability to deliver development impact to the region." Claver-Carone currently serves as the deputy assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the White House National Security Council. He has previously served as U.S. Representative to the International Monetary Fund, senior advisor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department, and an attorney-advisor with the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Claver-Carone's nomination came as the current IDB president, Luis Alberto Moreno from Colombia, is preparing to step down in September after serving three five-year terms. If successfully elected, Claver-Carone would be the first American to lead the IDB, a Washington-based development bank for financing in Latin America and the Caribbean, since its establishment in 1959, according to local media. Enditem Americans are unhappier now than they have been in 50 years, survey shows Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Americans are more unhappy in 2020 than they have been in approximately 50 years amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey. New data from the recently released COVID Response Tracking Study from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago suggests that only 14% of U.S. adults report being very happy. This represents a drop from 31% who said the same in 2018. A total of 38% of survey respondents said they feel "depressed or very unhappy." In the survey, 50% of Americans reported sometimes or often feeling isolated in the previous four weeks as many Americans have stayed home in recent months to follow local and state stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 crisis. By comparison, only 23% said the same in 2018. The historical context reveals unique impacts of the outbreak on public sentiment: an all-time low in people saying they are very happy (14%) combined with an all-time high in people saying they are satisfied with their familys financial situation (80%), a NORC analysis of the data reads. These contrasting findings suggest that people are comparing their happiness to their own psychological well-being before the pandemic while assessing their finances in relation to the millions of fellow Americans who have lost jobs, wages, or investments following the outbreak. The study finds that exposure to the coronavirus either personally or geographically in a highly-impacted area is linked with greater feelings of loneliness and other negative emotional states. The NORC poll surveyed 2,279 adults from May 21 to May 29 with funding from the National Science Foundation. The study uses a sample from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The study was conducted online and over the phone in English and Spanish. The data has a 2.9-percentage-point margin of error. The survey draws on over 50 years of data from NORCs General Social Survey and compares current beliefs to Americans responses to prior national tragedies. NORC has collected data on Americans views and attitudes at least every other year since 1972. According to the Associated Press, no fewer than 29% of Americans have ever labeled themselves as very happy in the GSS survey. For the most recent survey, the majority of the research was complete before nationwide rioting and demonstrations broke out in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Floyd's death reinvigorated conversation about policing and systemic injustices that disproportionately impact racial minorities, particularly African-Americans. Especially in light of the pandemic, the American public is now notably less optimistic about the standard of living for the upcoming generation than it has been in the past 25 years, the survey shows. In 2018, 57% of people reported that conditions would improve for the next generation. But now, only 42% say the same, a record low. The question was first asked in 1994 when 45% of respondents said they expected the standard of living to get better, the previous low. In comparison with other surveys that were done following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, NORC suggests that Americans were not as likely to indicate that they are feeling some types of emotional or psychological stress reactions amid the pandemic. A lower percentage of respondents reported smoking more than usual, crying or feeling dazed now than after the Kennedy murder and 9/11 attacks. Yet, more say they have lost their temper or have wanted to get drunk. Approximately two times the number of Americans say they are as lonely today as were in 2018, a steep rise largely attributable to the pandemic. Similar numbers have nearly doubled when it comes to "a lack of companionship" and feeling "left out" in the previous four weeks. The research found that Americans perceptions of their familys income relative to others have also not changed significantly. In the wake of the coronavirus, 42% describe their familys income as average, and 24% report it is above average, the NORC analysis states. These assessments are similar to 2018, when 45% said their income was average and 23% say it was above average. According to AP, respondents satisfaction with their ability to persist financially in the latest wave of data was as high as it has been in the last half-century. The COVID Tracking Study is ongoing. More data will be assembled in the coming months showing how the attitudes may change over time in response to the virus, the research organization noted. In an April editorial, William Bowes, a mental health counselor in Boston who is a graduate of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, suggested that good news for people who are feeling lonely or unhappy during this time is found in Jesus Christ. And that isnt a cliche answer. Jesus understands what it is to feel lonely, wants to meet you in your loneliness, and shape you through it. Jesus is a friend to the lonely, and always available for you to call on him," Bowes wrote. "Psalm 68:6 tells us that God 'sets the lonely in families.' His heart is not that you would have countless superficial connections, but that you would feel a sense of belonging. This is a great benefit of the church as the community of believers (whether they can gather or not). As US-China relations crater and the Trump administration rolls out a blizzard of anti-China measures, global companies are struggling to navigate and make contingency plans for economic and political risks until recently seen as long shots. "Proposals are no longer considered outlandish and their odds of implementation are rising," said Henrietta Treyz, economic policy director with Veda Partners, which advises clients on political and economic business risks. "We fully anticipate the US-China relationship will become more strained from here." That's a pretty safe bet. Washington announced sanctions on 33 Chinese entities effective June 5 and threatened a ban on all Chinese passenger flights and on some Chinese students studying in the US. The administration also claims it is ready to leave the World Health Organisation in the middle of a global pandemic over perceived Chinese bias; threatened to heap massive trade, investment and visa restrictions on Hong Kong after passage of a tough Chinese security law; and spurred fears it could scrap the phase one trade deal altogether. And that's only the past few weeks. "This is a just a breakdown of the trading system between the two countries," said Jeff Moon, head of Moon Strategies consultancy and formerly with the Office of the US Trade Representative. "It's symptomatic of a patient that's sick and getting sicker." President Donald Trump is famous for dire threats he doesn't follow through on. He is also famous for those he does. In this toxic environment, companies are trying to stave off vertigo as they assess and make contingency plans for this shifting list of threats to their bottom line. "First try and understand exactly what's happening with tariffs, visa restrictions, export controls, all the nuts and bolts," said Treyz, a former congressional staffer. "Next you try and layer it to place each event on a scale from one to 10, from least impactful to 'we're going to war now'." Story continues "That's what we're working on," she added. A further part of many corporate calculations, analysts and companies said, were possible retaliatory moves by China. High on that list include the release of Beijing's threatened "unreliable entity list" punishing foreign companies deemed harmful to China's interest; a punitive reduction in US farm purchases; and export restrictions on rare earth elements used in hi-tech products. "Companies feel buffeted by all of this negative news," said John Holden, senior China director at the McLarty Associates consultancy. "We really need to take a deep breath here and think how we're going to get through this." Among the long list of risks facing the business community are: Tougher restrictions on Huawei, hi-tech investment and the nascent 5G network and on non-technology companies amid fear that wealthy Chinese could "scoop up" assets devalued by the coronavirus pandemic. This "would likely come earlier in the economic reopening phase than later", Veda said in a note to clients. A "nuclear risk" chance that the US Treasury Department could use its clout to limit activities by Chinese in US dollar markets. "Washington might be able to exact extreme pain on China, but it would be extremely damaging to the US as well," said Scott Kennedy, China business and economics analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. "That's an area I'm really worried about." More, higher and tougher sanctions on steel and aluminium above current 25 per cent trade war levels particularly focused on third countries used to evade detection. "We're not seeing that on our side," said James Knott, chief executive with Riverdale Mills, which imports steel used in wire mesh for lobster traps and fencing. "But I'm sure it's taking place." More executive orders from Trump that, even if ultimately ineffective, create headlines, earn political points and sow confusion. Broader visa restrictions and prosecutions involving Chinese scientists, researchers and students. "I can't imagine we'll see any easing in the next year, especially with concern of a second Covid epidemic," said Matthew Kolken, a partner and immigration lawyer at the firm of Kolken & Kolken. More pressure to enact high tariffs on national security grounds under so called Section 232 tariffs, including pharmaceutical ingredients and medical supply chains heavily dependent on China. Delisting Chinese companies from US stock exchanges, punishing those that don't comply with US accounting standards, pressuring pension funds to end investments in Chinese equities and levelling sanctions aimed at limiting China's Belt and Road Initiative. Washington's finding late last month that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from China has fuelled more calls to "decouple" the two economies, Veda said. In pursuing this, actions could include: potential sanctions on individuals and companies seen undermining the city's civic freedoms and on financial institutions working with them; heightened export controls on Hong Kong-bound trade; tougher visa restrictions; and even a delinking of the Hong Kong and US currencies. Given the mounting stakes, companies said their best option was to plan for contingencies, diversify markets and suppliers and react quickly if walloped. "There's nothing like being prepared and doing your war games," said Michael Alkire, president of health care equipment provider Premier. The delisting of Chinese companies from US financial markets is considered a possible risk. Pictured is the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Xinhua alt=The delisting of Chinese companies from US financial markets is considered a possible risk. Pictured is the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Xinhua As the coronavirus hit, Alkire said, Fruit of the Loom was tapped to secure elastic for masks made by Ford, Tito's Vodka shifted production from booze to hand sanitiser, and the Dyson vacuum company focused on ventilators. "When there are curveballs you don't expect, you need people you can brainstorm with," he added. Others cited the need to focus on what could be controlled, separating genuine risks from political noise. Women's fashion retailer Top It Off Accessories said it managed to avoid serious disruptions as Trump cranked up the trade war by working closely with long-standing Chinese suppliers. "If there's a hiccup, we just address it," said co-founder Karena Rasser. "If he comes out with more duties, taxes and things of that nature, what's done is done. It's not like we have the political clout to change anything." Chinese companies trying to operate in the world's largest consumer market face particular challenges. Facing growing suspicions of Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft, mainland companies struggle to navigate a high-stakes world of US acronyms that lack transparency involving vaguely worded rules that keep changing. These include: the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara) requiring strict reporting of even vague ties to Beijing; the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius) reviewing all transactions deemed "strategic"; and the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) investigating suspected terrorists and spies. And that's before companies even focus on the market, competitors and their business strategy. "The standard advice has been to 'lawyer up, public-relations up and lobby up'," said an adviser to Chinese companies who declined to be identified given political sensitivities. "That's no longer enough. Under this administration, the rules are changing rapidly and continue to change." The adviser said that in this environment he assumed his phone may be tapped under Fisa authority for helping Chinese firms, that even his non-technology clients were facing excruciating Cfius reviews and that almost any mainland company could be labelled a state-owned company in a Fara review. "This is an existential challenge for Chinese companies trying to trade in the US," he said. "I'm afraid Chinese companies will continue to be used as fodder in a political war. They're not in control of own destiny and it's very hard for them to even protest their innocence." Experts see little prospect of more stable business conditions any time soon. An increasingly defensive US president " facing criticism over his erratic leadership during recent health and economic crises and civil unrest crises after the killings of African-Americans by police " sees tough China policies as a way to appear strong and deflect attention. Trump's declining poll numbers in an election year and criticism by Democratic opponent Joe Biden that he's been soft on Beijing add pressure for more anti-China policies. Two-thirds of Americans held an unfavourable view of China in a Pew Research Center April survey, up from 47 per cent in 2017, while most said they lacked confidence in President Xi Jinping to do the right thing globally, up sharply from last year. Beijing, meanwhile, faces its own pressure to look strong and punch back. A sharp economic downturn and rising unemployment risk political instability even as its early handling of Covid-19 draw global criticism. China's political space for compromise, even if it wanted to, has narrowed as Chinese nationalism expands and "Wolf Warrior" diplomats bait the Trump administration. Many US companies operating in China initially bet as the trade war ramped up that they could weather the storm and preserve access to lucrative markets, analysts said. That has become less sure as bilateral relations hit new lows. Often, they devised strategies reliant on Hong Kong as a base free of Beijing's political, legal and computer network interference, strategies that look more questionable as China's grip on the city tightens, according to Treyz. An American Chamber of Commerce in China survey in April found that 24 per cent of member companies planned to shift production out of China, double year-earlier levels. "The situation with Hong Kong is a very big deal," she added. 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. Joe Exotic has shown the world how easy it is to open a zoo. If you were bored enough during the pandemic to watch the documentary Tiger King, you saw the eccentric zookeeper own and showcase Big Cats, as well as the ugly side to unethical and irresponsible zoo-keeping. Luckily, there is an organization which is the non-profit Association of Zoos and Aquariums. There are currently 236 accredited zoos and aquariums on the list, and if you care to conduct your own research on whether the zoo you plan to visit is accredited, you can check out the AZAs website. Not all these zoos on this list are found in the US, but they are all accredited through some form of organization with conservation and education at their forefront. 10. Toronto Zoo, Canada Visitors are lining up to get inside Toronto Zoo. Image credit: Lester Balajadia/Shutterstock.com This popular Canadian Zoo in Toronto, Ontario, will tug at your heartstrings. The Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy is committed to fighting the extinction of several endangered species and their conservation and initiatives are endless. This Canadian zoo provides guests with an open and approachable strategic plan, as well as a master plan for the next 15 to 20 years, which can be found on their website for anyone looking to conduct their own research regarding the Toronto Zoo. 9. Tiergarten Schonbrunn, Austria A zookeeper is feeding sea lions during show in tierpark Schonbrunn in Vienna, Austria. Image credit: Trabantos/Shutterstock.com Voted the best zoo in Europe for five years in a row, this UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site is home for more than 700 species of animals. Of those 700, they are home to giant pandas, making them unique to the world. In 2016 Yang the panda became the first in the history of captivity to raise twin cubs without human intervention. This zoo offers a Panorama Train for those who are would like to tour the grounds of Schonbrunn. 8. Chicago Zoo, Ill A lion at the Brookfield Zoo. Image credit: Brian Kapp/Shutterstock.com Chicago Zoological Society is world-renown for its cutting-edge role in animal care and conservation. The Society takes pride in its ability to inspire and engage children, and adults to make a meaningful and positive impact on the natural world. The Brookfield Zoo operated by CZS participates in an initiative known as animal husbandry, which essentially attempts to match the wild ecosystem and social settings these animals would have enjoyed. For example, they place the snow leopards in solidarity where it is most comfortable, opposed to the orangutans, who are placed with others as they are social creatures. The zoo does a lot of research to ensure the most comfortable stay at the zoo, granted its not freedom but it is the closest they will come. 7. Bronx Zoo, NY Bronx Zoo in New York City. Image credit: littlenySTOCK/Shutterstock.com Boasting as the zoo to have saved, bred, and reintroduced into the wild, the Tanzania Kihansi spray toads, the Bronx Zoo is another AZA zoo that any ethical person will want to visit while in New York. In addition to the spray toads, they also played an instrumental role in the reintroduction of America bison to the western plains and eastern hellbenders to New Yorks rivers. Committed to education and conservation, the zoo also now offers online classes for both children and adults with the goal of inspiring diverse, inclusive movements of conservation advocates. 6. Philadelphia Zoo, PA A tiger relaxes in the sun at the Philadelphia Zoo. Image credit: Wicker Imaging/Shutterstock.com Landmarked as Americas first zoo, it is home to more than 2,500 animals, many who are endangered and rare. The zoo prides itself on the education of nearly 1.2 million visitors about animals and environmental conservation. They have several rare and endangered animals, such as the vulnerable newborn sloth bear, endangered Amur tigers, and critically endangered black and white ruffed lemurs. Animal adoption is encouraged at the Philadelphia Zoo, as they have thousands of mouths to feed, leading their annual grocery bill to over $500,000. Your adoption would allow for the purchase of necessary foods, like monkey chow or mealworms! Adoptable animals include but are not limited to giraffes, rhinos, and red pandas. 5. Singapore Zoo, Singapore Hamadryad monkeys family are sitting on the stone, Singapore zoo. Image credit: Michael Gancharuk/Shutterstock.com Known as a rainforest zoo, the Singapore zoo offers an open concept at 26- hectares and is home to more than 2,400 animals from over 300 different species; 34 percent are threatened. Each year the zoo brings in about 1.9 million visitors and its focus is on conservation and repopulation. The Singapore zoo is home to the first free-range orangutan habitat and a Wildlife Healthcare and Research Center which allows a gallery view of animal surgery and treatment areas. 4. Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, PA People watching a Polar Bear playing in the water at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. Image credit: Emma Backer/Shutterstock.com Sitting on 724 acres of rolling hills in Somerset County, the International Conservation Center (ICC), is North Americas premier facility for African elephant conservations, education, training, breeding, and research. Like the zoos on this list, the Pittsburgh zoo prioritizes education and conservation of endangered and threatened species. Granted the zoo resembled a menagerie in its past, the zoo has transformed since 1980. As part of the Zoos Master Plan, exhibits were recreated throughout the last 40 years to ensure the most suitable environment for the animals. 3. San Diego Zoo, CA Tourists and locals just in front the main entrance of San Diego Zoo in California, USA. Image credit: LMspencer/Shutterstock.com The San Diego Zoo is committed to inspiration. They old the belief that when a child is exposed to the wildlife they see through a digital screen, a spark is ignited for change. The zoo has released 44 species back into the wild, 180 rhinos are born at the safari park, 22 years of research of the giant panda. If those figures were not impressive enough, there are also 45 countries with the San Diego Zoo Global Conservation Project, more than 380 collaborative partnerships, and three continents where they conduct education outreach programs. This zoo is at the forefront of conservation and education regarding our planets wildlife. 2. Smithsonian National Zoo, MD Close up of a Grand Cayman (a.k.a. Blue, Cyclura lewisi) iguana resting at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Image credit: Steve Lagreca/Shutterstock.com Located in Washington D.C., this AZA-accredited zoo is free for all who wish to enter! The Smithsonians National Zoo is 163 acres and is home to 2,700 animals. The zoo has a strong commitment to conservation, research, and education. The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) plays a monumental role in saving wildlife species from extinction. They are committed to answering some of nature's most complex questions and challenged and using that information to better the lives and wellbeing of the animals. These scientists at SCBI are actively studying and breeding more than 20 species, from clouded leopards to red pandas. 1. Henry Doorly Zoo, NE Two-Toed Sloth eating at the Omaha Zoo. Image credit: Dane Jorgensen/Shutterstock.com This Omaha zoo is committed to improving the well-being of their animals lives. They have invested $73 million into an African Grassland which spans 28 acres. The area features acacia-like trees, kopjes, and breathtaking views. The zoo also offers an Asian Highland area where they invested $20 million into the project to develop this eight-acre land. Visitors will be immersed in a world with red pandas, Indian rhinos, sloth bears, Amur tigers, snow leopards and so much more. The investigation into complaints of race-related bullying within the Cumberland Valley School District found that anti-bullying laws are due for some updates. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale concluded that the school district has followed the law in reporting instances of bullying, but said that Pennsylvanias legal definition of bullying is narrow and subjective," resulting in many cases of bullying being reported as student code of conduct violations, according to a press release on Tuesday. Bullying is very harmful to students and can have lifelong implications, DePasquale said in the press release. Strengthening our state law would give us more accurate data to help develop new solutions and make sure every child has the opportunity to learn in a safe environment. The auditor generals staff and the Department of Education will work together to improve how bullying is defined and how to report it, DePasquale said in the release. He also noted that the Department of Education will be alerted about any further audits that turn up bullying cases that appear to be inordinately low In September, parents stood in front of the Cumberland Valley School Board with reports of racial harassment toward students, leading to DePasquale announcing that he would expand his audit into the school district to look into the bullying. Parents presented stories of racist and hateful rhetoric toward their children. They complained that the school had not been effectively enforcing punishments and that often students were afraid to report instances of bullying for fear of singling themselves out. The audit conducted by DePasquale found that the school district had just two reported instances of bullying in the past five school years. Its difficult if not impossible to make conclusions about the pervasiveness of bullying if school districts are underreporting it, as appears to be the case, DePasquale said. DePasquale said the school district has made several updates to its policy to address bullying, updating the bullying, harassment, and anti-discrimination policies in 2018 and then approving more updates to the bullying and cyberbullying policies in November 2019. He added that the school also launched a program to help train middle and high school students, and that a climate survey was sent out to students, parents and staff at the start of the 2019-20 school year. Since taking over as superintendent, Dr. David E. Christopher has focused on addressing bullying at the school, and DePasquale said that Christopher and his staff were helpful with cooperating with the audit and being responsive to concerns raised by district parents. Dr. Christopher has worked to address parents concerns and promote cultural change in the district, DePasquale said in the release. While not every parent may be completely satisfied, there is greater awareness of the need to provide all children with a safe learning environment and how stopping bullying starts at home. -- Follow Ed Sutelan on Twitter, @EdwardSutelan 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. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks to media in the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 28, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Lawmakers Target Google Over Demonetization Efforts Against Conservative Website Lawmakers are looking for answers after Google attempted to demonetize The Federalist, a conservative website that publishes news stories and opinion pieces. The actions against the website raise serious concerns that Google is abusing its monopoly power in an effort to censor political speech with which it disagrees, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a letter (pdf) on Tuesday, referencing how Google in the past has made a number of moves against conservatives. The push to ban The Federalist from Google ads came from a collaboration between a group called the Center for Countering Digital Hate and a unit inside NBC News that focuses on open source research. NBC sent a report created by the center to Google, aiming to hurt certain websites. The organization claims these sites were profiting from articles making unsubstantiated claims about Black Lives Matter protests and riots. In response, Google told NBC that The Federalist and ZeroHedge, another news website, were demonetized, or blocked from making money from Google Ads, a service that places advertisements on websites. NBCs article falsely described the news websites as far-right. Shortly after the article was published late Tuesday, Google said in a statement that The Federalist was never demonetized. The issue wasnt any of the articles The Federalist published, according to Google, but issues related to comments made on the articles. The logo of Google is seen in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 20, 2020. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters) As the comment section has now been removed, we consider this matter resolved and no action will be taken, Google stated. The Federalist confirmed it removed its comment section so it could keep Google Ads. Cruz said in his letter that Google seems more than happy to play a censorship role by trying to break the financial back of a media publication with which it disagrees. Googles decision to target The Federalist is transparently politically motivated, Cruz asserted, noting that a number of websites known as left-leaning allow comments. I dont know what the objectionable comments were that individual users might have posted on The Federalist, but any objective review would no doubt demonstrate at least as many profane, racist, or indefensible user comments on these other sites that would equally violate Googles alleged standards, he wrote. YouTube, which is a subsidiary of Google, also includes thousands of profane, racist, and indefensible comments, he added. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said on Twitter in a message to Google that it appears the tech giant is being inconsistent. Google wants to treat The Federalists comment section as the outlets speech but simultaneously say the content the tech company hosts is not its speech under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the lawmaker alleged. Section 230 bestows special protections on some companies, including social media companies, shielding them from liability. During an appearance on News News @ Night, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said what happened today may be a turning point. What Google did to The Federalist, I think this is a turning point today, he said. 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) NBC Reporter Shows Animus Against Trump Adele-Momoko Fraser, the London-based reporter who wrote the article, has in the past shown open animus toward U.S. President Donald Trump. this may look like yet another crazy Trump move, she wrote in one social media post in 2018. In another, she said that Trump withdrawing from a nuclear deal with Iran was inching us closer and closer to nuclear annihilation. She also called people supporting Brexit, or the movement in the UK to leave the European Union, idiots. The director of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which is also based in the UK, has in the past called Trump a bigot. NBC didnt respond to a list of 16 questions from The Epoch Times, including whether Frasers actions were being reviewed and whether it has ever in the past collaborated with groups against its competitors. Fraser in a missive Tuesday thanked the center and another group for their hard work and collaboration! while promoting the article about what Google did. She later added that NBC obtained the research it presented to Google but we did not collaborate on the research itself. Fraser and another NBC employee involved in the story said on Twitter that Google backtracked on what it originally said. Both employees deleted tweets that included the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Ruaridh Arrow, the other employee, said he included the hashtag because the story concerned that movement this was not an indication of support for it and has now deleted for clarity. NBC quietly edited its article about what happened multiple times, with no editors note or correction notice. The original tweet promoting the article is still live. It falsely says that The Federalist wont be able to generate revenue from Google Ads any longer. Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, in an appearance on Fox News Tucker Carlson Tonight later Tuesday said: NBC, the network that coddled Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauern, by the way, had partnered with a foreign left-wing group in Europe to go after us and to use Google. If this were a just world there would be accountability for that. There would be accountability for fake journalists who go around trying to destroy their competition for the crime of criticizing them, he added later. The units were previously led by multiple commanders all at one time, including different commanders across different floor levels at City Hall, mayoral spokesman Patrick Mullane said in a statement. This latest effort will ensure that the departments operations and resources that are centralized in one or two primary locations are coordinated under one command rather than multiple individuals. By Alene Tchekmedyian, Luke Money, Kevin Baxter and Richard Winton | Los Angeles Times Los Angeles When Malcolm Harsch, a 38-year-old black man, was found hanging from a tree in Victorville two weeks ago, authorities said they saw no evidence of foul play. A week later, when Robert Fuller, another black man, was discovered hanging from a tree in Palmdale, the initial cause of death was listed as suicide. But after protests and questions in the two deaths, the FBI announced this week that it was examining both cases. Local authorities say both the Fuller and Harsch cases remain under investigation. For some, the specter of two black men found hanging in separate High Desert communities in such a short time seemed suspicious. Here is what we know: ROBERT FULLER Fuller's family and friends described him as a peacemaker, a street-smart man with shoulder-length dreadlocks and a bright smile who loved music, anime and video games and mostly stayed to himself. Days before he died, he attended a Black Lives Matter protest. His body was found by a passerby at 3:39 a.m. Wednesday, a time when Fuller would never have been out, said Tommie Anderson, 21, a close friend since high school. "For my best friend to be gone, it's hurting me," said Anderson, who was wearing a T-shirt depicting one of Fuller's favorite characters from the Japanese anime TV series "Dragon Ball Z." Fuller was too large and too muscular for the thin tree to support his weight for long, she said. And he was too tall to hang from its lowest branches. "For people to say he did this, this wasn't Robert," Anderson said. "For him to tie himself to that tree, it's not possible." Thousands protested this weekend at the park, with some describing racial incidents in the Antelope Valley and raising concerns over whether Fuller was lynched. "This is really crazy to all of us," Fuller's sister Diamond Alexander said. "We want to find out the truth of what really happened. Everything that they've been telling us has not been right. "To be here, staring at this tree, it don't make no sense," Alexander added. "My brother was not suicidal. My brother was a survivor." MALCOLM HARSCH The Victorville Fire Department discovered Harsch's body May 31 after receiving a dispatch call around 7 a.m., officials said. When firefighters arrived at the library, they found Harsch hanging from a nearby tree. On Monday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department offered more details about what happened, saying deputies were called to a homeless encampment regarding Harsch. "The caller said she and (her) boyfriend, later identified as Malcolm Harsch, had been together during the morning, but she had since returned to her tent for a short period of time. She was alerted by others in the encampment that Mr. Harsch was found hanging from a tree and cut down. People in the encampment were performing CPR, attempting to revive Mr. Harsch," the statement said. "Upon arrival, deputies immediately took over and continued CPR. Emergency medical personnel arrived on scene a short time later, and despite additional lifesaving efforts, pronounced Mr. Harsch deceased," officials added. An autopsy was conducted, and officials said they see no signs of foul play. But the investigation continues with help from the FBI. In a statement sent to the Victor Valley News, Harsch's family members in Ohio said they find it hard to accept that his death was a suicide. They said Harsch had recent conversations with his children about seeing them soon and that he did not seem to be depressed to anyone who knew him. "The explanation of suicide does not seem plausible," the family wrote. "There are many ways to die, but considering the current racial tension, a black man hanging himself from a tree definitely doesn't sit well with us right now. "We want justice, not comfortable excuses," they wrote. An FBI spokeswoman said Monday that the agency would monitor both probes. "The FBI, U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of California and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division are actively reviewing the investigations into the hanging deaths of two African American men in the cities of Palmdale and Victorville to determine whether there are violations of federal law," she said. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that his office was sending independent investigators to Palmdale to review the sheriff's investigation and potentially conduct its own. He declined to say whether he believed local authorities were too quick to declare Fuller's death a suicide but said he had been approached by "a number of leaders in the Southern California area" about the death. He also declined to say whether the Victorville hanging would also be investigated. Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide investigators plan to survey the Palmdale area for surveillance video, conduct a forensic analysis of the rope used in Fuller's death and research his medical history locally, as well as in Arizona and Nevada, where he had lived in the past, Capt. Kent Wegener said. Investigators also are working to interview Fuller's case worker with the Department of Social Services, though they did not elaborate on why he had one, as well as his family and the witness who found him in the park. Theyre gonna stick to it 'til they get to the truth of what happened, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a news briefing. MORE US & WORLD NEWS Calls for de-escalation training for police grow after Atlanta shooting Trump signs executive order on police reform Researchers have first evidence that drug can improve Covid survival rate US retail sales rise a record 17.7% in a partial rebound Whether you like him or not, Arnab Goswami hosts one of the most-watched debate shows on Indian television and last night's topic was all about boycotting Chinese products and, in general, against the country's recent actions at the border. While the debate soothes the anti-China sentiment that has been ongoing ever since there have been tensions at the border; Goswami's show was probably the most ironical show we've seen on Indian television yet. Twitter/Vishj05 At some point during the debate, amongst the flashy headlines, there were two brand sponsorships that appeared. While Goswami was debating or more like shouting his opinion, we suddenly see advertisement placements by VIVO and Xiaomi. Both companies are some of the biggest Chinese multinational corporations, however, the irony here was that a debate that was supposed to be focused on boycotting Chinese products in India; was sponsored by two of the biggest Chinese corporations in the world. Twitter/Vishj05 The irony was spotted by Twitter user Nirmala Tai where she highlighted two instances during the debate where the logo of one of the brands popped up, and one where Xiaomi was found promoting the Mi 10. Boycott China powered by Mi10 and Vivo. pic.twitter.com/TAb6Fn1tWx Nirmala Tai (@vishj05) June 17, 2020 Many users on Twitter who spotted the promotion spots and determined it was quite hypocritical of the channel to show advertisements that essentially go against the main topic of the debate; the hashtag Powered by Vivo is now trending with users expressing their dissapointment. Users are calling out the channel for accepting sponsorship deals from Chinese brands at a time when anti-China sentiment is strong in the country. While debates about not using Chinese products will carry on until tensions with China subsides, India needs to invest in proper raw materials and infrastructure to become independent of Chinese manufacturing. In fact, we compiled a list which talks about everything India will need to do to become the next technological hub of the world. One of Tony Blairs first actions in government after winning the 1997 election was to weaken British diplomacy by spinning aid spending into a new department, accompanied by the usual guff about an ethical foreign policy and ending global poverty. This was a catastrophic error. It created a narcissistic department for international development that constantly demanded bigger budgets despite a dismal track record; a department filled with self-serving officials claiming to be saintly saviours of the world. At the same time, the move neutered British diplomats in poorer parts of the planet, since local politicians became far more focused on free-spending Department for International Development (Dfid) officials with bulging pockets than any ambassadorial staff talking of democracy, human rights or trade. Boris Johnson is delivering on his long-held view that we need a single voice abroad. He warned MPs about the inherent risk of our left and right hands working independently before revealing his move to re-unite the two departments. Pictured: The Foreign & Commonwealth Office in Whitehall, London Blair later partially confessed to this mistake in his biography. He admitted that, over his years in Downing Street, the initial Foreign Office objections gained my sympathy while complaining that Dfid resembled a charity operating inside government. Now, more than two decades later, this foolish move, which has significantly harmed British interests, is finally being rectified. Boris Johnson is delivering on his long-held view that we need a single voice abroad. He warned MPs about the inherent risk of our left and right hands working independently before revealing his move to re-unite the two departments. We must now strengthen our position in an incredibly competitive world. Applauded Despite predictable protests from charity chiefs and fat-cat aid consultants fearful that their chunky salaries might now be curtailed, I have no doubt this decision to merge diplomats and aid donors into a single department should be applauded. There may be eyebrows raised over the timing, given the whirlwind of pressures swirling around Johnsons administration, but this is a sensible move. Even before Brexit and the pandemic, the world had changed dramatically since Blair created Dfid in 1997, when as Johnson pointed out yesterday Chinas economy was smaller than Italys. Britain needs a clear global voice at a time when China is flexing its muscles, the West seems rudderless, nationalism is on the rise and younger generations in developing countries resent white saviours bearing neo-colonial aid. For all the inevitable outrage yesterday, this well-trailed merger follows similar moves by Denmark, Australia and Canada. New Zealand, hailed on the Left for its smart governance in the pandemic, also adopts such a unified stance. If we are lucky, the move might rein in some excesses of Dfid, which sees itself as a cut above the rest of Whitehall. Typically, it hands its own staff the highest average salaries in the civil service of 51,660 a year more than 8,000 above the second highest-paying department even as they pontificate about poverty relief in poor places. As I have seen on three continents, Dfid has a dreadful record of blowing billions on naive and vainglorious projects. As I have seen on three continents, Dfid has a dreadful record of blowing billions on naive and vainglorious projects. Pictured: A UK aid parcel from 2014 Even its former boss Rory Stewart admitted before taking the job that not a great deal has been achieved. He pointed to Malawi, one of the worlds poorest nations, as an example of failure. The British Government has spent in the region of 4.5 billion over the past 50 years and Malawi is, if anything, poorer than it was when we started. When Blair created Dfid, Britains 2.1billion spending on aid was twice the budget for diplomacy. Today, it is more than four times higher. Despite a decade of austerity at home, the sum has surged to an astonishing 14.6 billion. Yet, despite the Foreign Office takeover of Dfid, the Prime Minister still seems hooked on the idea Britain must hit the outdated United Nations target of spending 0.7 per cent of our national income on aid. Johnson seems to be abandoning even the pretence that this vast spending is for poverty relief, insisting that it must serve British interests. Yet the Foreign Office itself has its own dire record on spending. Look in the small print of its hand-outs to China, for example, and you will find items such as 17,060 being spent on three trips to Britain by the head of Beijings Supreme Peoples Court. Yet the Foreign Office itself has its own dire record on spending. Look in the small print of its hand-outs to China, for example, and you will find items such as 17,060 being spent on three trips to Britain by the head of Beijings Supreme Peoples Court. Pictured: File photo of aid cargo leaving the UK Surely the worlds second biggest economy could afford to pay for this mans flights. Or is Whitehall really this desperate to butter up the despotic communist regime in Beijing? The Foreign Office also hands donations to India, which has both a thriving space programme and its own aid agency, while even using British taxpayers cash to train officials from North Korea, the worlds most repulsive regime. Such absurdities show why the Prime Ministers move should be just the first step in wider reform. For as Johnson said last year when discussing the need to fold Dfid into the Foreign Office, we must stop spending huge sums of British taxpayers money as though we were some independent Scandinavian NGO. He warned that otherwise there is inevitable waste as money is shoved out of the door in order to meet the 0.7 per cent target. Spot on. This is why aid spending came to be seen as a giant cashpoint in the sky, as Johnson termed it yesterday. Sharpened Johnsons solution is to spend more in Europe and less in Africa. This continues a trend in spending over recent years away from the poorest countries often riven with instability or run by appalling governments towards middle-income nations. But why not simply admit the experiment has failed, despite good intentions, and follow the Dutch lead by ditching the absurd aid target? The Netherlands found this sharpened their spending and the target is ignored, after all, by most other richer nations. Abandoning the target would end the contortions the Government goes through, trying to find ostensibly safe places and smart projects on which to spend our billions; it would no longer need to pretend that these deeply unpopular policies are achieving the results claimed by the aid industrys self-serving cheerleaders. Dfid recently spent 11million in a cluster of villages in Ghana on a project to test if aid makes a difference. The report concluded that far from breaking the poverty trap, the project does not appear to have reduced poverty or hunger at all. With dreary inevitability, it also found nearly a third of the funds went on management and overheads, while admitting to a large-scale fraud involving a key local partner. Corruption We would do better to listen to Ghanas president Nana Akufo-Addo (pictured) who said, we do not want to remain the beggars of the world We would do better to listen to Ghanas president Nana Akufo-Addo who said, we do not want to remain the beggars of the world, insisting that his proud nation wants to discard a mind-set of dependency and living on handouts. Our flood of aid cash has achieved little beyond propping up nasty regimes, frustrating democracy, fuelling conflict and fostering corruption. A noble cause of compassion for the planets poor and dispossessed has been corroded and not just abroad. This corrosion has led to respected development bodies covering up vile sex abuse by employees to protect their brands. We also have the spectacle of former foreign secretary David Miliband pocketing almost a million dollars a year to run an aid charity while constantly asking for more donations. This is not a time for faint-hearts amid Brexit, the pandemic and potential economic catastrophe. If Britain really wants to demonstrate global leadership, we must strike out boldly on a new path rather than continue with the tired policies of the past. Robbers used fake documents to steal $10 million of silver bars from a Montreal-based transportation company. On January 20 robbers took possession of a container filled with 596 silver ingots using fake documents, according to a report by CTV News. The police are asking for tips that could solve the case. Call the Info-Crime line at 514-393-1133. A reward of up to $2,000 will be given to anyone who can provide information leading to an arrest. By Kitco News For Kitco News Follow @kitconewsnow www.kitco.com Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. The last few months have been turbulent for Voice of America, the US state-backed broadcaster. Breaking, as he often does, with past presidents, Donald Trump has publicly attacked VOAs coverage, calling it disgusting; his White House, meanwhile, accused VOA of carrying propaganda for China and Iran. In April, the office of Vice President Mike Pence threatened to bar Steve Herman, a VOA reporter, from Pences plane after Herman questioned the claim that Pence didnt know he was breaking the rules when he failed to wear a mask at the Mayo Clinic. Around the same time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blacklisted VOA media requests. Then, earlier this month, the Senate finally confirmed Michael Packa right-wing filmmaker and Steve Bannon ally whose recent oeuvre includes a praiseful documentary about Clarence Thomasto lead the federal agency that governs VOA and other overseas broadcasters, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Packs appointment had been three years in the making, but was stalled by conflict-of-interest issues, Congressional concerns about his credentials, and, most recently, an unresolved investigation into whether he misappropriated funds from a nonprofit he runs. On Monday, VOAs two top editors, Amanda Bennett and Sandy Sugawara, resigned, saying that Pack has the right to pick his own leadership. Both inside and outside VOA, there are growing fears about who that leadership might include, as well as the depth of Packs commitment to VOAs stated editorial independence and mission to produce quality journalism. Amid the recent turmoil, Bennett, a former top editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer who worked on Pulitzer-winning projects at the Wall Street Journal and The Oregonian, spoke out repeatedly in defense of that missionbut she is now gone, and Trump has made no secret of his belief that his administration should play a greater role in managing VOA. According to CNN, Sebastian Gorka, the fire-breathing Trump aide turned right-wing shock jock, could get a seat on the board that serves under Pack. Yesterday, Eliot Engel, the Democratic chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, claimed that Pack plans to purge career officials at the agency as soon as this morning. (Pack, who pledged to respect journalistic independence at his confirmation hearing, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Bennett.) ICYMI: Why we capitalize Black (and not white) Ever since Pack was first touted for the top job, journalists and commentators at mainstream news organizations have expressed, or at least implied, the concern that Trump is turning his authoritarian tendencies on publicly-funded news, and that we should be worried. The concern is justifiedbecause Trump has many authoritarian tendencies, and because Pack, for reasons that did not originate with Trump, will have unprecedented control over the broadcasters he oversees. (The Obama administration created the role of CEO, which Pack will fill, to bring more direction to a governance-by-board structure that was broadly seen as dysfunctional.) Still, as is often the case, outrage about Trumps brazen behavior risks obscuring a messy, broader picture. While VOA is mandated by Congress to do independent journalism and its leaders have sometimes sought to style it as a normal news organization, theres no getting around the fact that it was founded, during the Second World War, as a vehicle for American soft power, and never really abandoned that role. (In the early days of the Cold War, to cite just one example, the US leveraged VOA to promote Western values in Iran in the years before a botched CIA-backed coup.) VOA and similar media do not do, and have not done, journalism for journalisms sake, Dan Robinson, a longtime former VOA correspondent, wrote for CJR in 2017. They are and always have been funded by taxpayers to support a larger agenda. Yesterday, Robinson told me in an email that while Trump has been unusually pointedand publicin his attacks on VOA, officials have always communicated criticisms to its staff, and the president has always had the power to pick agency leaders. Lawmakers see the agency as a useful national security/foreign policy tool, Robinson told me. When you come right down to it, thats what they arenot government-funded CNNs or MSNBCs, but part of the national security structure. In 2017, as rumors started to swirl around Packs nomination, I did some reporting on US state-funded broadcasting in general, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in particular. What emerged from my interviews with staffers, former staffers, and outside observers were concerns about strategic drift, and a debate as to how assertive a role publicly-funded broadcasters should play in promoting US interests abroadparticularly at a time when other countries have weaponized their state-backed media outlets (RT, Sputnik, etc.) against the US. Some of the people I spoke to argued that allowing US broadcasters to do independent, rigorous journalism was itself the best way of promoting US interests abroadbecause the free press enshrines a core liberal value, and because the broadcasters scrutinize dictatorships, in Central Asia, for example, that have repressive information climates and arent typically on the radar of mainstream corporate media in the US. Yesterday, Jeffrey Gedmin, who was president of RFE/RL from 2007 to 2011, told me that the danger of instead treating the broadcasters as mouthpieces for the current president is that people around the world would get whiplash: Obama wants to reset. Trump is in love with Putin. The next president is not in love with Putin, and so on. You would have this herky-jerky back and forth. Consistency, Gedmin argues, enhances credibility. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Looking at Trumps war on VOA through the lens of his broader war on the press, while valid, might not be the best approach: VOA and its partners would seem primarily to be victims of Trumps fitful, moral-free approach to US foreign policy. The latter lens demands nuance, and a clear-headed assessment of the less-than-pure mission the broadcasters were founded to serve, as well as their continuing projection of American soft power. It is also true, however, that they employ many talented and honest journalists who contribute useful work, often in countries whose citizens desperately need to see it. That workand the editorial values that protect itare worth saving. While we dont yet know much about Packs plans, Trumps very public attitude toward VOA is ample cause for concern. Its a critical moment for someone who doesnt have this experiencedue respect to you, Michael Packand a critical moment where you in this job report to a White House which I find unstable and I find not reliable on issues I care about, Gedmin, who describes Pack as a professional acquaintance, says. Thats my diplomatic way of saying: lets see, but all the yellow lights are flashing for me. Below, more on US state-backed broadcasting: The good: Last year, Dana Priest, Nicole Kirkner, Rae Wee, and Kerrigan Stern wrote, for CJR, that the US-funded work of RFE/RL in unfree countries is a bit of good news in a worsening climate for international press freedom. RFE/RL journalists often face extreme harassment related to their work; some, including Sabawoon Kakar, Abadullah Hananzai, and Maharram Durrani, in Afghanistan, have even been killed because of it. (Kakar, Hananzai, and Durrani were killed on the same day as seven other journalists in 2018. Working with Aliya Iftikhar and Mehdi Rahmati, I gathered remembrances for CJR.) Last year, Dana Priest, Nicole Kirkner, Rae Wee, and Kerrigan Stern wrote, for CJR, that the US-funded work of RFE/RL in unfree countries is a bit of good news in a worsening climate for international press freedom. RFE/RL journalists often face extreme harassment related to their work; some, including Sabawoon Kakar, Abadullah Hananzai, and Maharram Durrani, in Afghanistan, have even been killed because of it. (Kakar, Hananzai, and Durrani were killed on the same day as seven other journalists in 2018. Working with Aliya Iftikhar and Mehdi Rahmati, I gathered remembrances for CJR.) The bad: Also last year, Katherine Khashimova Long reported on concerns among academics and US State Department officials that RFE/RLs station in Tajikistan, Radio Ozodi, was helping to spread pro-regime propaganda. According to other local sources, the stations reporting is skewed in favor of the government, requests from the state security service to strike articles critical of the government are routinely honored, and the station is financially entangled with the presidents family, Long wrote. (RFE/RL told Long that Radio Ozodi remains a vital source of independent information.) Also last year, Katherine Khashimova Long reported on concerns among academics and US State Department officials that RFE/RLs station in Tajikistan, Radio Ozodi, was helping to spread pro-regime propaganda. According to other local sources, the stations reporting is skewed in favor of the government, requests from the state security service to strike articles critical of the government are routinely honored, and the station is financially entangled with the presidents family, Long wrote. (RFE/RL told Long that Radio Ozodi remains a vital source of independent information.) The ugly?: For FAIR, a group that aims to highlight bias in corporate media, Julianne Tveten ran the rule over recent coverage of the situation at VOA. Major media have thus reached a consensus: Despite their official funding, VOA and its parent agency are neutral, even noble entitiesunless Trump is involved, Tveten writes, but such a characterization is categorically dishonest. Other notable stories: ICYMI: Jeff Bezos could solve pay equality tomorrow. He makes token gestures instead. 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. State-run banks have disbursed half the 32,050 crore loan they sanctioned to small businesses as of June 12 under the 3 lakh crore collateral-free emergency credit guarantee scheme launched in May to boost micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. As of 12 June 2020, #PSBs [public sector banks] have sanctioned loans worth 32,049.86 crore under the 100% Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme [ECLGS], out of which 16,031.39 crore has already been disbursed, the office of finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted on Tuesday. The emergency credit facility was announced by the finance minister on May 13 as a part of the first tranche of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (Self-reliant India Initiative) of the National Democratic Alliance government. It provides for an additional working capital loan at a concessional rate of interest to an existing borrower who is not a defaulter. The Union cabinet had approved the additional funding scheme on May 21 at a concessional rate of 9.25% for MSMEs and other small businesses. The scheme offers additional working capital equivalent to 20% of the outstanding credit as on February 29, 2020 in the form of a term loan to units with up to 25 crore in outstanding credit and annual revenue of up to 100 crore. According to the finance ministers office, 12 PSBs have sanctioned loans to 854,128 accounts as of June 12. The money has been disbursed to 423,818 of them. Indias largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), has disbursed 8,776.19 crore under the scheme out of a total sanctioned amount of 14,559.89 crore. Canara Bank was second on the list with 1,306.47 crore of disbursal (out of a sanctioned amount of 2,739.76 crore). Sitharaman has said that the 3 lakh crore emergency working capital facility was 100% guaranteed by the Centre. The 20 names include one high-ranking officer and others who were critically injured at sub-zero temperatures of Eastern Ladakh on the night of June 15. The Indian Army on Wednesday released the names of the 20 military personnel, including an officer, who laid out their lives in the violent face-off with China in Galwan Valley, Ladakh. The names of the personnel are Col Bikumalla Santosh Babu, Nb Sub Nuduram Soren, Nb Sub Mandeep Singh, Nb Sub (Dvr) Satnam Singh-Gurdaspur, Hav (Gnr) K Palani, Hav Sunil Kumar, Hav Bipul Roy, NK (NA) Deepak Kumar, Sep Rajesh Orang, Sep Kundan Kumar Ojha, Sep Ganesh Ram, Sep Chandrakanta Pradhan, Sep Ankush, Sep Gurbinder, Sep Gurtej Singh, Sep Chandan Kumar, Sep Kundan Kumar, Sep Aman Kumar, Sep Jai Kishor Singh and Sep Ganesh Hansda. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday paid tributes to these soldiers and asserted that their sacrifice will not go in vain. The Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Ministers of 15 States and Union Territories, who were present in the meeting via video-conference today, observed a two-minute silence as a tribute to the soldiers. Read also: PM Modi meeting with CMs: Sacrifice of our jawans will not go in vain Read also: Rahul Gandhi questions PM Modis silence on India-China face-off The violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on Tuesday. The Army confirmed that 20 personnel, including a Colonel rank officer, laid out their lives in the face-off. This figure includes 17 who were critically injured at the stand-off location and were exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain. Indian intercepts revealed that the Chinese side suffered 43 casualties, including dead and seriously injured, in the violent face-off. The commanding officer of the Chinese Unit is among those killed, sources confirmed to ANI. Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area in Ladakh where they had earlier clashed on the night of June 15 and 16, Indian Army said. Read also: India-China face-off: Alert in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh For all the latest National News, download NewsX App WATERLOO A small Muslim prayer centre with dreams of expansion has defeated neighbourhood critics who challenged plans amid racially-tinged controversy. A provincial planning tribunal ruled Monday in favour of the Muslim centre and city council, finding that city hall is taking the proper steps to consider a future expansion at 510 Erbsville Rd. Its actually great, said Asif Manzoor, head of the Waterloo chapter of the Muslim Association of Canada. Its good to hear that this costly process has come to an end. The prayer centre today is a house, garage, and fenced parking lot. It could expand into a bigger prayer centre, gymnasium, daycare and school. There is no current proposal to expand it, in part because supporters spent thousands of dollars to defend the planning challenge and must raise more funds for a building project delayed by outcry. We dont want to make it sound like its a victory. Really at the end of the day victory is when you have all neighbours working together toward an inclusive society, Manzoor said. We have to make sure that we dont get into chest-thumping. The due process has been followed and we love our neighbours as we did in the past. A group called the Waterloo West Community Association challenged city council over the prayer centre, demanding a rezoning review for any expansion. The group failed to persuade the tribunal after conceding that the existing prayer centre is lawful with minor upgrades. While critics of the prayer centre have denied racial or religious bias, Coun. Royce Bodaly saw it differently as the controversy unfolded in his ward. Bodaly recalls that critics lobbied him before he was elected, leaving a flyer at his home that included a thinly-veiled racist argument against the nearby Muslim centre. He read opposition online and in social media and that veil was removed in many ways. You could see a lot of very outwardly racist, xenophobic comments. His dismay helped lead him to seek election in 2018. I hope that maybe this is the end of the controversy around this particular site, Bodaly said. But he worries that critics will retrench and find other ways to act on their xenophobia, unfortunately. Its incumbent on us to be vigilant and continue to fight for racial justice. Before approving expansion, city hall will require the Muslim association to submit traffic, noise, engineering and design studies. The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal held a hearing last August and ruled the city has been careful and thoughtful in its analysis of the site, in protecting natural heritage areas, in ensuring appropriate buffers to offsite residences, in determining the appropriate use of the site and in identifying the additional detailed studies necessary. A rezoning process would be unnecessary and inappropriate in the face of the analysis that has already been done and the additional detailed work that will be done before final permission is given for the new and expanded development. Now we can all move on and move forward, Mayor Dave Jaworsky said. Like I said before, people only wanted to pray. The community association that lost the planning challenge did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment. MARION, Iowa, June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The original organic lip balm brand, Eco Lips (www.ecolips.com), recently announced a new line of colorful Brazilian Lip Tints coming to shelves on July 6, 2020. The line features ethically sourced, Fair Trade Certified Babacu & Pracaxi Oils along with Cupuacu Butter, native to the wet tropical areas around the Brazilian Amazon, to nourish, moisturize and protect lips. Adding a hint of gorgeous natural mineral colors and the fruity, floral flavor of passion fruit, Eco Lips has developed a luxurious, creamy formula with a pristine satin finish, comfortable and nourishing for everyday use. Eco Lips "We are really excited about this new line which celebrates a woman's natural, true essence being authentic while courageously pursuing passions with heart and soul. This is the reasoning behind the names of the 5 colors Blessed, Blissful, Bold, Brave, Brazen," explains VP of Marketing, Jane Merten. "We want to provide her with a way to accentuate the tool to help build a better world her voice! She wants to celebrate the wins, cultivate joy, and empower the voiceless. We understand that cosmetics aren't a top priority for the consumer right now, but she will start to look for ways to express her femininity and passions again, and swiping on a lip tint can work wonders." The new Brazilian Lip Tints come in 5 colors: Bold, a deep rosewood with hints of burgundy and mahogany; Blessed, a rouge pink color that's soft, rosy; Blissful, a soft dusty rose for a perfect barely-there flush; Brave, a strong, muted pink-red color with a hint of purple; and Brazen, a tawny burnt sienna color with reddish undertones. The biggest call to the line is the use of three nourishing and moisturizing ingredients: Babacu Oil, rich in fatty acids and acts as an effective moisturizing oil, helps protect lips from environmental pollutants; Pracaxi Oil is rich in oleic (omega 9) and linoleic (omega 6) fatty acids, providing restoring hydration while promoting balanced collagen production; Cupuacu Butter, a "super-moisturizer" that penetrates the skin quickly and locks in moisture to make lips supple, soft and more elastic. On a mission to make natural, organic, and fair trade ingredients accessible, the new Brazilian Vegan Lip Tint line is available now on the Eco Lips website for $5.49 per item. About Eco Lips Founded in 2003, Eco Lips is the original organic lip balm. They manufacture the best USDA organic and Fair Trade Certified lip care products FOR the world using 100% renewable energy. Eco Lips products are Non-GMO Project Verified, Leaping Bunny Certified, and gluten-free. Eco Lips is a certified B Corporation focused on the triple bottom line - people, planet, and profit. Private Label and Contract Manufacturing is also available. Related Images new-brazilian-vegan-lip-tints-from.jpg New Brazilian Vegan Lip Tints from Eco Lips Related Links Eco Lips Brazilian Vegan Lip Tints SOURCE Eco Lips The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, believes the Electoral Commissions (EC) responses to the Special Budget Committee on its preparedness for the registration of voters later this month was satisfactory. According to him, the responses from the EC, led by its Chairperson, Jean Mensa, on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, was convincing and persuading. This is in contrast to the less favourable assessment by the Minority in Parliament following the meeting. We were convinced and persuaded by what they said to us that much us they want to see how the system functions if there is any problem, they will immediately replace them so that they (EC) will have smooth conduct of the registration, he said. The Majority Leader noted that the EC had touched on the hitches in the pilot voter registration, in the Western Region especially. They have done some piloting and I think they were very successful in the piloting and they related to one incident in the Western Region. They said in the Western Region, on the second day, one of the machines malfunctioned and the reason was that the Electricity system and some disconnection and so the machine couldnt function which is why they have a back up of equipment when anything happens and immediately that machine was replaced. But the manufacturers have about four technicians in the system who are teaching them (EC) how to immediately repair any of the machines that should malfunction but by and large, the others operated efficiently, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu recounted. Troubling responses from Electoral Commission The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu said he was very troubled about the responses given by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission at the meeting. He said he found her responses, troubling for the future of the country's democracy. Having listened to her, I feel profoundly troubled in my heart for the future of Ghana's democracy and I feel disappointed that in her answers to questions at the committee level, she made to significant worrying statements that the people of Ghana must know, Haruna Iddrisu remarked. Mr Iddrisu also raised concern with the phasing the registration exercise at the various registration centres. They intend to phase out the registration exercise in some 6,300 registration centres out of the 33,000 registration centres across the countryThat troubles my heart because Article 42 will not be observed in essence through making available to Ghanaian people are legitimate right they are entitled to. Typical of election years, the EC has been under serious scrutiny, especially from some opposition parties over its decision to compile a new voter register. The EC has since been dragged to court by the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) particularly for excluding the use of the current voters' ID from the list of proofs of identification. Meanwhile, the Commission has already commenced processes to start compiling the new register on June 30. citinewsroom Authorities in Canberra have condemned a death sentence handed down to an Australian actor allegedly caught trafficking drugs in China. Karm Gilespie has been detained in China since 2013, when he was allegedly found, in the city of Guangzhou, with several kilograms of methamphetamine, a synthetic drug. Public details of his death sentence only emerged last weekend, when it was confirmed he had been convicted on drug charges. Australian officials say the 56-year-old prisoner has had assistance from diplomats since he was detained. Friends of the former actor say he was duped by contacts in China into carrying the narcotics believing they were gifts. He has a week to appeal his sentence. In a statement, his family said it was "very saddened by the situation." On September 14, 2017, Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu filed a damning petition seeking the removal of Chief Justice David Maraga over gross misconduct during the 2017 General Elections. The 14-page petition, filed two weeks after the Supreme Court nullified the August 8 presidential election results, is arguably the most elaborate document that will ever land before the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). READ ALSO: ODM national youth leader leaves ICU days after testing positive for COVID-19 Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu had filed a petition for the removal of David Maraga. Photo: Ngunjiri Wambugu. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Eldoret: Family Bank on the spot as client decries disappearance of KSh 109K from account In it were the most incriminating allegations to face a sitting chief justice in Kenya yet. Wambugu detailed how Maraga had used his position as the head of the Judiciary to institute a judicial coup against President Uhuru Kenyatta. He illustrated how the CJ had been held captive by local and international NGOs that opposed Uhuru's presidency since 2013, and explained how this unholy alliance ultimately influenced the nullification of poll results as the said elements tried to procure a regime change through judicial radicalism. He accused the CJ of violating the Constitution and the Judicial Code of Conduct and Ethics by being a willing participant in a criminal scheme to cause civil unrest and chaos in the country, and ultimately cause changes in the lawful government of Kenya as was the case in Ukraine earlier. Maraga was to explain the content of telephone conversations he had with lawyers and political backers of the NASA coalition while the presidential election petition was before the Supreme Court, and why he unilaterally prevented the participation of Justice Mohamed Ibrahim in the petition. READ ALSO: Jubilee axes Moses Kuria, Alice Wahome, Cate Waiguru from National Assembly committees Maraga was accused of unjustly ruling on 2017 presidential elections. Photo: David Maraga. Source: Twitter He was also to explain a said trip to Lithuania, a country with no diplomatic relations with Kenya and known links with the Judiciary, while the election petition was ongoing. Lithuania, Wambugu argued, is known as a crossroads for regime change activists and their intelligence handlers. While the MPs accusations against the CJ were many and damaging, he was ready to stand by them and expose to Kenyans what he said was happening in the dark. He confidently requested an opportunity to present both oral and documentary evidence before the JSC to substantiate each and every contention he had made. But this was not to be as it would later emerge that the JSC sat over the petition during a retreat in Mombasa in early 2018 and quietly dismissed it. The petitioner learnt of the dismissal through the media. READ ALSO: Bobrisky ditches wig and makeup, attends dad's birthday dressed as a man Supreme Court buildings in Nairobi. Photo: Daily Nation. Source: UGC Valid questions were raised as to how such a casual decision on a critical matter on national interest was arrived at, and whether Maraga, as the subject of the probe, excused himself from the JSC session that discussed the petition. The JSC has, however, seemed unbothered, giving a deaf ear to the concerns. But it is a matter Wambugu will not let go just yet. In fact, the saga could precipitate an overhaul of the Judiciary as we know it, a move that would engrave Maragas failed leadership in the annals of history. On Tuesday, June 16, the MP called for an overhaul of various judicial procedures, arguing that the justice system in the country was designed to breed corruption. He cited the handling of his case as an example of how transparently judges conduct themselves. Wambugu questioned the composition of the JSC and called for the creation of a civilian-led oversight authority similar to the Independent Police Oversight Authority. READ ALSO: Beijing yafunga shule zote, safari za ndege zasitishwa kufuatia mlipuko mpya wa COVID-19 Judicial Service Commission in a past event. Photo: Citizen TV. Source: UGC He described the Judiciary as a market place for lawyers and called for a radical overhaul to ensure it - in reality - becomes one of the three arms of a government that serves ordinary Kenyans. The lawmaker further proposed the adoption of a jury system in Kenya to tame runaway corruption among judges and magistrates. These are weighty suggestions that could soon be embraced as more and more fingers are pointed at the Judiciary, which is widely seen as a corruption swamp where justice is reserved for the highest bidder. Concerns on the composition of the JSC are particularly timely, given the commission, which is tasked with investigating claims of misconduct against judges and recommending their removal from office if necessary has been reduced to a welfare association to protect judicial officers accused of wrongdoing. JSC has in recent years received a myriad of petitions seeking the removal of the CJ, his deputy Philomena Mwilu and other top judges over gross misconduct. Unsurprisingly though, they have all been brushed aside. No one expects Maraga, as the head of the JSC, to send himself home, explaining why Wambugus petition was trashed with scornful arrogance. But as it has proved, this is a petition whose spirit is not about to die, and which could haunt the CJ and the Judiciary for years to come. The writer is Tom Juma, a regular commentator on social, economic and political affairs. 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. Kenya's greatest football coach now lives in a mabati house - Marshall Mulwa | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke "In addition to seamless integration into the laboratory's workflow, the XF-1600 works in tandem with our PS-10 Sample Preparation System to automate the entire process of antibody staining, incubation and flow cytometry analysisensuring a new level of confidence in the results produced. Highly trained operators no longer have to spend hours manually pipetting, leaving valuable time for more complex activities," said Andy Hay, Chief Operating Officer of Sysmex America. "With nearly 200 antibody reagents, we are now able to offer a complete, reliable solution from specimen reception to reporting results," Hay said. With 10 detectors for fluorescence and three light sources, laboratories will benefit from future expansion based on individual needs and increased throughput. Using VenturiOne software for analysis after data acquisition, researchers will realize the true potential of their flow cytometry data, eliminating transcription errors and incorrect specimen placement. Available now in the United States and Canada, the XF-1600 builds upon Sysmex's hematology knowledge and flow cytometry expertise. The company's flow cytometry product line includes other analyzers (CyFlow Cube and CyFlow Space), consumables (CellTrics filters) and reagents (CyFlow monoclonal antibodies and lysing solutions). To learn more about Sysmex flow cytometry products, visit www.sysmex.com/flowcytometry. About Sysmex America Sysmex America, Inc., the U.S. headquarters of Sysmex Corporation (Kobe, Japan), is a world leader in clinical laboratory systemization and solutions, including clinical diagnostics, automation and information systems. Serving customers for over 40 years, Sysmex focuses on extending the boundaries of diagnostic science while providing the management information tools that make a real difference in clinical and operational results for people worldwide. For more information about Sysmex, please visit please visit www.sysmex.com/us. SOURCE Sysmex America, Inc. Related Links http://www.sysmex.com/us It is important to recognize that our efforts, commitment and hard work to create a partnership between the city of Atlantic City and state of New Jersey is ongoing and must continue in order for Atlantic City to receive the essential resources that it needs to not only survive but to thrive, the mayor said. Murphy is the latest in a string of high-profile endorsements for Small. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, Assemblymen Vince Mazzeo and John Armato, state Sen. Ronald Rice, former Mayor Lorenzo Langford, Atlantic County Freeholder Ernest Coursey (Smalls chief of staff), Council President George Tibbitt, 1st Ward Councilman Aaron Randolph, 3rd Ward Councilman Kaleem Shabazz and 4th Ward Councilman Md Hossain Morshed are among those who have announced their support of Small. The Atlantic County Democratic Committee awarded Small the party line on the ballot. +2 U.S. Sen. Booker endorses Small for Atlantic City mayor ATLANTIC CITY Engaged in a tough primary election, Mayor Marty Small Sr. landed the backin Small, Pamela-Thomas Fields and Jimmy Whitehead are seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- As this dismally depressing year approaches its mid-point, a winner is starting to emerge from the pack of European fund managers. And while sheer scale and a diverse business model have helped DWS Group GmbH weather the first phase of this pandemic better than its peers, the firms ongoing frugality is what really sets it apart. The shares of asset management companies typically mirror the broader stock market, rising and falling as a proxy for equities generally. Before the novel coronavirus outbreak trashed markets toward the end of February, DWS was handily leading its rivals. Since equities have recovered, the Frankfurt-based company has rebounded to become the only European asset manager in positive territory for the year. Cost is one of the few variables a fund-management company is able to control, and investors are rewarding DWS, which manages 700 billion euros ($791 billion), for its focus on frugality. Chief Executive Officer Asoka Woehrmann has been on a cost-cutting drive since his appointment as head of the company in October 2018, seven months after Deutsche Bank AG sold and listed about a fifth of the business, retaining an 80% stake. Earlier this month, Woehrmann shrank his management board to six members from eight as part of efforts to save at least 150 million euros a year. For asset managers cost-to-income ratios, the direction of travel matters at least as much as the absolute level. DWS reduced its key measure to 65.8% by the end of the first quarter, down from 70.9% at the end of 2018 and more than 74% in mid-2018. It promises more to come. We can still expand our savings efforts, DWS Chief Financial Officer Claire Peel said in an interview published by Boersen-Zeitung last week. At the asset-management business of M&G Plc, which oversees 323 billion pounds ($407 billion), the cost-to-income ratio worsened to 63% at the end of last year from 59% a year earlier. Some of those additional expenses came as it adjusted to life as a stand-alone company, after being spun out from Prudential Plc in October. Story continues M&G has pledged to cut spending by an annual 145 million pounds in the next few years. In March, the London-based firm introduced a voluntary redundancy program aimed at trimming personnel expenses by 10% this year, but the virus may have blown that off track. Amundi SA, Europes biggest asset manager, with 1.53 trillion euros of assets, remains the market leader in stinginess, with its cost-to-income dropping below 50% at the end of March, down from an already impressive 53% at the end of 2018. But that leaves limited scope for further savings at the Paris-based company. Both DWS and Amundi have sizable suites of index-tracking products available, enabling them to ride the wave of investor enthusiasm for lower-cost passive products while their peers are stuck trying to extol the benefits of active strategies. As I wrote in May, stock pickers were unable to beat their benchmarks in either March or the first quarter as a whole a period of market convulsions that should have been the time for active management to shine. Its a lackluster performance that will only exacerbate the shift to index tracking. The fund management industry has faced straitened circumstances for several years. This years share-price action suggests shareholders will continue to favor those firms best able to play the parsimony game. With the income side of the equation looking as fragile as ever, more belt-tightening lies ahead. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Mark Gilbert is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering asset management. He previously was the London bureau chief for Bloomberg News. He is also the author of "Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable." 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. NEW YORKJanet Mendez started receiving bills soon after returning in April to her mothers home from Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, where she nearly died of COVID-19. First, there was one for $31,165 (U.S.). Unable to work and finding it difficult to walk, Mendez decided to put the bill out of her mind and focus on her recovery. The next one was impossible to ignore: an invoice for $401,885.57, although it noted the hospital would reduce the bill by $326,851.63 as a financial assistance benefit. But that still left a tab of more than $75,000. Oh my God, how am I going to pay all this money? Mendez, 33, recalled thinking. The answer came to her in about a second: Im not going to be able to pay all this. Mendez is optimistic her insurance company will cover a large part of the costs, but only after receiving a series of harassing phone calls from the hospital about payment. A spokesman for the hospital told The New York Times Mendez erroneously received a bill that should have gone directly to her insurance company or the government. Coronavirus patients in the U.S., through a series of federal aid packages, are supposed to be largely exempt from paying for the bulk of their care. But mistakes are likely to occur, particularly given the number of people who have recently lost their health insurance amid an economic downturn and widespread job loss. And when they do happen, patients like Mendez will be the ones to have to sort out the complicated billing process at a time when they are still recovering from COVID-19. Were looking at a tsunami, said Elisabeth Benjamin, a vice-president at the Community Service Society of New York, which is trying to help Mendez get her bill reduced. The earthquake has struck, and now were waiting for the bills to roll on in. When Mendez got over the initial shock and examined her bill more closely, she was struck by how vague and arbitrary the charges seemed. She was billed $3,550 for in-patient charges and another $42,714.52 for pharmacy, but without any breakdown of what medicines she received or how much each cost. Mendez said the bill should have at least been itemized, listing each drug she was being charged for and the price. She was, after all, unconscious for much of her hospitalization. I dont know what medicines they put in me, she said. I cant say they did this or they didnt do this. Most of the line items on her hospital bill are vague. Some of the most expensive are four entries that simply read Medical Cardiac Care. Each one ranges from $41,000 to $82,000. Part of the confusion was that Mendez had recently changed health insurers, and she had arrived at the hospital struggling to breathe and without her new insurance information. The hospital billing department concluded she was uninsured and sent her a bill directly. To be clear, neither this patient nor any Mount Sinai patient should receive a bill or be expected to directly pay for their COVID-19 care, a spokesman for Mount Sinai Health System, Jason Kaplan, wrote in an email, describing it as an isolated error. During Mendezs hospitalization, a huge bailout of hospitals was taking shape. In New York City, hospitals received more than $3 billion in federal payments last month from an early round of bailout payments. The hospital where Mendez was treated, Mount Sinai Morningside (formerly Mount Sinai St. Lukes), received at least $63.7 million. The federal dollars are intended to help compensate hospitals and health-care providers for the expense of treating COVID-19 patients like Mendez. The money is also meant to help make up for the revenue hospitals lost as elective procedures were cancelled and non-COVID patients dwindled. The money comes with some conditions intended to protect patients from medical debt. For instance, health-care providers are not permitted to seek extra payment from patients with health insurance who received care at an out-of-network hospital. Nor can they balance-bill that is, bill the patient for the difference between what the insurer will pay and the hospitals charges. But the protections do not fully insulate patients. Even if a hospital takes federal money, some of the doctors who treat patients there can send their own bills to patients directly. Mendez received a bill separate from the hospital. The doctors who cared for her individually charged between $300 and $1,800 for each day. Some days, four different doctors billed her for treatment. Depending on their insurance plan, patients may still be stuck with paying copayments, deductibles and a percentage of the bill which can amount to thousands of dollars, although some plans may limit out-of-pocket costs, said Jack Hoadley, a health-policy researcher at Georgetown University. And significantly, some of the conditions imposed with the bailout funds apply only to patients with insurance. Hospitals can seek reimbursement from the government for treating uninsured patients through a different process. But it may turn out uninsured patients still receive bills. Mendez has submitted the bill to Cigna, her new insurer, and said she was led to believe her share of it will be less than $10,000. Like thousands of other gravely ill COVID-19 patients in New York City, Mendez, an office administrator for a Dominos Pizza franchise, had been deeply sedated and placed on a ventilator to keep her breathing soon after arriving at the hospital March 25. She was in the hospital for 19 nights. When she awoke, she could not remember her own name or where she was, she said in an interview. It was a day or two before her memory returned and her confusion receded. When she was discharged, an ambulance took her to her mothers home. At first, her mother tried to keep the bills from her. But then, Mendez said, she began to get phone calls from Mount Sinai asking her how she intended to pay. She is hopeful insurance will cover the vast majority of the charges. But she is also worried more bills will arrive. I havent seen anything that says ambulance on it, she said, wondering if she was going to be charged for the ride to the hospital. Then she remembered that she left the hospital by ambulance as well. Maybe Ill be charged for both of them. White Port and Tonic in hand, we take a stroll around the beautiful city of Porto which despite the cancellation of this years Festival of Sao Joao is welcoming visitors once more with the opening of the much-anticipated all-singing, all-dancing World of Wine museum. If youre in Porto and someone hits you over the head with a plastic hammer, do not be alarmed. Its just the Festival of Sao Joao and the person hitting you means you no harm. Ostensibly a religious festival celebrating John the Baptist, it probably predates Christianity and offers an excuse for the whole city to go bananas on midsummers eve, 23 June. Theres music, fireworks, concerts, sardines and squeaky plastic hammers. Dont ask why, just join in. Apparently, Tripeiros (tripe eaters, as people from Porto are known) used to hit each other with leeks which makes complete sense but at some point this changed to plastic hammers. And to keep you refreshed while bashing your neighbour, theres a choice of two drinks: Super Bock beer and White Port and Tonic, Portos answer to the G&T. Sadly this year because of Covid, Sao Joao has been cancelled. Its hard to social distance while hitting someone on the head with a plastic hammer (unless you have a really big one.) But you can still get in the spirit by having a White Port and Tonic at home. Were using Taylors Chip Dry white Port. This label dates back to 1934, the name comes from the old English expression dry as a chip. The name is apt because theres less sweetness than most white Ports; the alcohol in the form of aguardiente is added later so more sugar is fermented into alcohol. Its not, however, as dry as fino sherry. The principal grape variety is the honeyed Malvasia Fina combined with other white Portuguese grapes, then aged in oak for between four and five years which gives it a nutty roundness without losing the fresh fruit. Its a great tapas sort of wine sipped chilled and neat with cheese, or especially melon and ham. Or, of course, mixed with tonic as they do in Porto. Sao Joao might have been cancelled this year but the city is opening up again. According to Adrian Bridge, CEO of Taylors, Portugal has had a relatively good Covid. Portugal has come out as a very safe destination, he told me. Restaurants and hotels are once again doing business, the border with Spain opens up on the 22 June and Michael O Leary from Ryanair is itching to get flights running to Porto airport. Bridge has a particular interest in some degree of normality returning to the city as his 100 million World of Wine (WOW) is due to open at the end of July consisting of six museums, devoted to fashion, cork, Portuguese history, chocolate and, of course, wine all housed in historic Port warehouses on the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the river There will also be five restaurants where I imagine thirsty visitors will get through a lot of Chip Dry and Tonics. Just as with a Spanish G&T, its fun to play around with garnishes. Mint and lime are good though I find a piece of rosemary brings out woody spicy notes in the wine and a piece of orange peel accentuates the fruit. The orange bitters is a nice addition but not essential. And dont forget the plastic hammer. In fact, an idea for the Taylors marketing department, free plastic hammer with every bottle. Ill suggest to Adrian Bridge now. Right heres how to make a White Port and Tonic: 35ml Taylors Chip Dry 65ml Tonic water 1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters Fill a Highball or goldfish bowl glass with ice, add the white Port, stir, and top up with tonic, Add one dash of orange bitters, stir again gently and garnish with a spring of rosemary and a piece of orange or lemon peel (or mint and lime if you prefer). Bengaluru, June 17 : Karnataka health department has devised a random Covid testing strategy using RT-PCR pooled sample technique to examine people who generally come in contact with a large number of people, an official said on Wednesday. "Those who are likely to come in contact with maximum number of persons in markets, malls etc should be included in the samples as per the capacity of the districts which should be inclusive of samples collected by routine testing," said Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar. He said random testing strategy has been adopted to ensure effective surveillance amid rising infections. Some of the categories of people identified by Akthar include slum dwellers, vendors and bill collectors in malls, super markets, footpaths and delivery boys of food chains and couriers among others. The senior official has also advised the BBMP commissioner and district deputy commissioners to consult with local expert committees to identify more people and locations for random sample collection testing. Full-page newspaper advertisements this month described Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey as a Champion of Patient Access. Stunning. Does this mean the senator has emerged as a proponent of universal healthcare (Medicare for all)? Or at the least to have broken with GOP leadership to preserve the Affordable Care Act? Hardly. Toomey apparently earned plaudits from a physicians organization pushing back against efforts to contain healthcare costs. The parent organization, Alliance for Patient Access, receives its support from a dozen major pharmaceutical companies such as Amgen, Genetech, Pfizer and Eli Lilly, according to the NonProfit Quarterly. Alliance for Patient Access funders watch with mounting concern the growing bipartisan support for pricing transparency, access to pharmaceuticals from outside the U.S., and, most worrisome, relaxed restrictions on Medicare to allow negotiated drug prices. These physicians argue that doctors alone should decide which medicines are administered to patients and insist name-brands may work better than generics. NPQ writer Erin Rubin argues that the AfPA hardly merits any claim to patient advocacy. Instead, she writes, the physicians group is using the constituency of the sick and vulnerable to promote the agenda of big business. And to laud champions of patient access. Dan Church Bethlehem VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2020 / VERTICAL EXPLORATION INC. (TSXV:VERT) ("Vertical" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that further to its Press Releases dated January 24, 2020, March 4, 2020, April 13, 2020 & May 26, 2020 the Company has closed its non-brokered private placement. The Company issued 18,999,929 common share units (the "Units") at a price of $0.035 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $664,997.52. Finder's fees of $8,025.50 and 229,300 finder's warrants were paid to arm's length parties. Each finder's warrant entitles the finder to purchase one common share in the Company for a purchase price of $0.05 for a period of 12 months from the date of closing. The shares and warrants comprising the units and the finder's warrants are subject to a 4 month hold period expiring October 18, 2020. Proceeds raised from the Offering will be used to advance the Company's St. Onge project in Quebec, for general working capital and unallocated funds as per Tier 2 status requirements. This offering is subject to TSX Venture Exchange final approval. ABOUT VERTICAL EXPLORATION Vertical Exploration's mission is to identify, acquire, and advance high potential mining prospects located in North America for the benefit of its stakeholders. The Company's flagship St-Onge Wollastonite property is located in the Lac-Saint-Jean area in the Province of Quebec. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Peter P. Swistak, President FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Telephone: 1-604-785-5513 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: Vertical Exploration Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/594267/Vertical-Exploration-Closes-Financing South Korea warned North Korea against further provocations, after Kim Jong Un's regime pledged to dismantle the last remnants of President Moon Jae-in's legacy of rapprochement and move troops into disarmed border areas. Moon's office urged North Korea to tread carefully after the country reduced to rubble a $15 million liaison office set up north of the border in 2018 as a symbol of reconciliation. Earlier Wednesday, North Korean state media unleashed a fresh stream of threats and insults against South Korea and Moon, including a personal rebuke from Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong. "We warn that we will no longer tolerate North Korea's reckless words and actions," Moon spokesman Yoon Do-han told a news briefing Wednesday. South Korea gave no indications that the country would retaliate or that Moon would waiver from his goal of seeking cooperation with his neighbor. South Korea funded the liaison office and opened it with great fanfare in the joint Kaesong industrial park to serve as a de facto embassy between the two Cold War enemies. North Korea stopped answering calls at the facility last week, accusing Moon of failing to uphold the agreements that established it, before announcing that Tuesday the building had been "tragically ruined with a terrific explosion." Hours later, North Korean media published a statement from the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, saying the country would send troops in the areas around the factory park and to the Mount Kumgang tourist area. The two Koreas agreed to remove troops from those areas to make way for the joint projects that had once been seen as symbols of unity. The benchmark Kospi Index fell as much as 1.5%, after South Korea's response. South Korea infrastructure stocks, which are seen as benefiting from inter-Korean businesses, also fell as tensions escalated between the two Koreas. Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, South Korea's point man for relations with North Korea, offered to resign Wednesday for "being unable to meet the expectations of the people," his ministry said in a text message. Moon has yet to respond to his resignation offer. Kim appears to have sacrificed the projects to demonstrate his frustration with the South Korean leader's continued support for a U.S.-led sanctions campaign that has battered the country's economy and deprived it of foreign currency. North Korea is raising the pressure on Moon after an unprecedented series of short-range ballistic missile launches failed to draw President Donald Trump back to the negotiating table. Last week, North Korea similarly accused the U.S. of breaking promises during the historic meeting between Kim and Trump two years ago. The regime said the Trump administration had turned dreams of peace into a "dark nightmare" and it saw no benefit in engaging with Washington. "For a while, I think we are going to see tensions," said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a former analyst for the U.S. government specializing in North Korea, told Bloomberg Television. "Pretty much everything is on the table." While North Korea signaled further provocations, including "all kinds of regular military exercises" near the border, the regime was likely to calibrate any moves carefully. Kim would probably seek to avoid any actions that would pit his Soviet-era weaponry against the combined might of South Korea and the U.S., which has about 28,000 military personnel on the peninsula. The initial U.S. response was muted, with a senior administration official saying the American government was aware of the North Korean move and that the U.S. was in close coordination with its South Korean allies. Kim Jong Un has shown increasing frustration with Moon, a long-time proponent of peace who has struggled to balance North Korea's demands with more hawkish views in the Trump administration. Trump has refused to relax sanctions after three face-to-face meetings with Kim failed to produced what they U.S. side viewed as an acceptable plan to scale back North Korea's nuclear program. North Korea has blamed the immediate crisis on defector-led activist groups in South Korea sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets by balloon across the border. While millions of such leaflets have been sent into North Korea over the years, the more recent campaigns came after a flurry of speculation about Kim's health and grip on power due to a series of extended absences from public view. In recent weeks, Moon has renewed his pledges to restore economic cooperation and sought to lower tensions by seeking to cancel the licenses of the two groups over the leaflets. So far, the South Korean president has shown almost no appetite for retaliating against the Kim regime and derailing his peace pledge. Kim Yo Jong "flatly rejected" a request from Moon's government to send National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong and spy agency chief Suh Hoon as special envoys. The younger Kim, who in recent weeks has become the main of North Korea's pressure campaign against Seoul, called the proposal "tactless and sinister" according to KCNA said Wednesday. Another North Korean official was quoted describing Moon as the "chief culprit" and a "provocateur" who allowed ties to fall apart, although didn't call him out by name. Yoon, Moon's spokesman, called Kim Yo Jong's comments "rude" and urged North Korea to be more respectful in its tone. "Seoul cares about good relations with North Korea, but it cares much more about good relations with the United States," said Andrei Lankov, a Kookmin University professor and a specialist on North Korea. Lankov told Bloomberg Television that Kim appeared to be seeking greater economic assistance from Moon. "It's only just the beginning," he said. "I am pretty sure there will be a serious escalation in the weeks to come." She's rumoured to be portraying Carole Baskin in an upcoming movie about the notorious Tiger King star. And now Tara Reid has addressed speculation she's lined up to play the Big Cat Rescue owner and arch nemesis of Joe Exotic. During an appearance on The Morning Show on Wednesday, the 44-year-old Sharknado star was asked directly about the rumours. Rumour has it! Tara Reid (left) has addressed speculation she's lined up to play notorious Big Cat Rescue owner Carole Baskin (right) in a movie adaptation of Netflix series Tiger King 'My manager first brought it up, and then it went viral all over the internet. Like, all the fans went crazy with it,' she said. While Tara admitted she would be keen to take on role, she said the casting process for the upcoming project was still a long way off. 'They're still not casting or anything yet, but I would love to play the role if they would cast me, for sure. It would be great!' she said. Role of a lifetime: Tara said on The Morning Show that she would be keen to take on role Tara revealed she had watched the Netflix series and thought it was 'really good'. The American Pie star added that playing the enigmatic 59-year-old Baskin would be something of a dream role. 'Carole is a totally different character. You don't know, did she kill her husband, the one that's missing? Is that really true?' she said. 'You know, you don't really trust her. She's a very dynamic character, which would be great to play.' Villain: Carole rose to prominence as private zookeeper Joe Exotic's rival in the hit docu-series Tiger King, which premiered on Netflix in March Carole rose to prominence as private zookeeper Joe Exotic's rival in the hit docu-series Tiger King, which premiered on Netflix in March. Tara previously addressed rumours she'd be portraying the notorious animal rights activist in an interview with Us Weekly last month. 'We're definitely in major conversations and working out the things - the offers and this and that so, let's see what happens,' she said at the time. Hype: Tara previously addressed rumours she'd be portraying the notorious animal rights activist in an interview with Us Weekly last month She added: 'I would love to play this character. It'd be amazing.' Nicolas Cage has already been cast to portray Joe Exotic in the upcoming movie, and Tara has said she would love to spend time with Carole to get to know her. 'It'd be more for me to study, just to get her vibe, and from there I could pick it up I think she is a complex character and I know I'd nail it,' she said. Seven Harris Teeter associates were recognized by Progressive Grocer with a Top Women in Grocery award for their exceptional performance and achievements among female leaders in the retail food industry. Each year, Progressive Grocer invites food and grocery retailers across the country to nominate women within their organization to receive this prestigious award for showcasing overall excellence and continued achievement in the retail food industry. Seven Harris Teeter award winners were recognized across three categories: Senior-level Executives: Karin Humanik, Director of General Merchandise and Health & Beauty Care Rory Snavely, Director of Procurement Rising Stars: Danna Robinson, Communication Manager Lauren Furr, Senior Manager of Corporate Recruiting & Customer Relations Store Managers: Donna Maxwell, Store Manager in California, Md. Jacque Gilliard, Store Director in Charleston, S.C. Kim Shelley, Store Director in Olney, Md. Harris Teeter is proud to have these seven incredibly talented female leaders on our team, said John Caveny, vice president of human resources for Harris Teeter. Each winner brings a unique perspective and level of expertise to our company which contributes to the overall success of the Harris Teeter brand. To learn more about Harris Teeters Top Women in Grocery award winners, click here. Harris Teeter, with headquarters in Matthews, N.C., is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR). The regional grocery chain employs approximately 30,000 associates and operates stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Delaware, Florida and the District of Columbia. New Zealand's Defense Force will now oversee the isolation of new arrivals and audit the coronavirus quarantine process, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced at a news conference on Wednesday. Driving the news: The country's top health official told a briefing on Thursday afternoon local time that another traveler had tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving at the border, which is closed to all travelers but NZ citizens and residents. Two women returning from the U.K. tested positive on Tuesday ending New Zealand's 24-day run of no new infections. What she's saying: Ardern said an "unacceptable failure" led to two women being allowed to leave mandatory quarantine for travelers early to visit a dying parent in Wellington without being tested. "It should never have happened and it cannot be repeated," Ardern said, adding she would temporarily remove a compassionate exemption clause in response to the positive cases. The big picture: The country lifted all domestic coronavirus restrictions after reporting on June 8 no active cases for the first time since Feb. 28. The Ministry of Health confirmed on Tuesday the two women had tested positive for the virus. Theres never been a better time to be a whiskey lover. The brown liquor is now more popular, more diverse and, most importantly, more delicious than ever. Plus, with the recent explosion of mixology in the U.S., whiskey is also necessary in any bar for cocktails such as a Don Draper-approved old-fashioned, whiskey sours and Manhattans. If youve been drinking the stuff for years, youre in a good place. If youve just decided to delve into the whiskey world for the first time, we envy you. But with so many whiskey brands now available, it can be tricky to find the best whether youre a connoisseur or a newbie. To help you find the best stuff out there, weve rounded up some of the brands that whiskey drinkers are talking about right now. More from Rolling Stone What Are the Different Kinds of Whiskey? Before trying a new bottle of whiskey, its important to remember the core varieties. Below are eight of the most important types of whiskey to be familiar with. Bourbon: Bourbon is the go-to for many whiskey drinkers because it has a sweet, smokey flavor thats easy to sip on its own or mixed in an old fashioned. Sometimes called American whiskey, bourbon is corn-based (at least 51% corn, to be exact), aged in a charred oak barrel and 80 proof or higher. Tennessee: Tennessee whiskey is technically bourbon, but Tennessee whiskey distillers might not agree with that. This is because Tennessee whiskey must be produced in the state using a charcoal steeping process called the Lincoln County Process before aging. This mellows the whiskey, creating a smoother taste. Rye: Rye whiskey is pretty self-explanatory: it must be made primarily from rye. The American whiskey uses the same aging process as bourbon in charred oak barrels. It also yields a spicy flavor that makes it the whiskey of choice for certain cocktails such as Manhattans. Story continues Irish Whiskey: The Eire (Republic of Ireland) and Northern Ireland produce Irish whiskey using yeast-fermented grain mash or a mash of malted cereals. The aging process in Ireland takes about three years (but often more) in wooden casks and produces a very smooth liquor. Scotch Whisky: The Scots make their whisky (spelled without an e) using malted barley or grain, oak casks and an aging process of at least three years. Scotchs flavor is often likened to bourbon but shows off some extra bite and salt-caramel notes. Japanese Whisky: Japan didnt start exporting their whisky (also without an e) to the U.S. until the 21st century. Were very glad they did. Japanese whiskys have blown-up thanks to a wonderfully dry, smokey flavor. Its made from double-malted or peated barley and uses a distillation process inspired by Scottish whisky makers. Other Whiskey Terms to Know Single Malt: When a bottle of whiskey is made from a single batch its called single malt. Although single malts are originally a Scottish tradition (hence, malt) many whiskey brands outside Scotland use the term to denote a single-batch whiskey. Blended: Blended whiskeys are made using multiple types of whiskey. Most big-name whiskeys fall into this category as theyre more affordable and great as go-tos for cocktails. 1. Henry Mckenna Single Barrel 10-Year Bourbon doesnt get much better than this Henry Mckenna Single Barrel. It won Best in Show Whiskey at the 2019 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, which is one of the highest honors for any brand. Plus, this bottle is only the second bourbon to get the award. Henry Mckenna is part of the Kentucky-based Heaven Hill Distillery, which is known for other award-winning whiskeys such as Elijah Craig Bourbon, Larceny Bourbon and Pikesville Rye Whiskey. This specific bottle of Mckenna comes from a single barrel of bourbon thats been aged 10 years, but despite that prestigious number, the whiskey isnt too expensive at all. 2. Redbreast 12-Year Whether youre looking to try your first serious Irish whiskey or in need of branching out, this Redbreast 12-Year fits the bill. The whiskey is made from a mash of malted and un-malted barley, thats triple-distilled and aged 12 years in Bourbon-seasoned American Oak barrels and Oloroso sherry-seasoned Spanish oak butts. These unique barrels give the whiskey a fruity aroma and complex flavor with tastes of sherry, fruit and cream. Were big fans of the Redbreast distillery because theyre staunchly traditional. Theyre the best-selling single pot Irish whiskey in the world, producing rich bottles since 1857. As with most high-quality Irish whiskeys, this stuff should be enjoyed neat or on the rocks. If you want a cocktail, we suggest using a different bottle. 3. Knob Creek Cask Strength Rye This Cask Strength Rye Whiskey from Knob Creek is another San Francisco World Spirits Competition winner, earning Best Rye Whiskey back in 2018. Its the first limited rye that Knob Creek has released (although we dont know just how limited), with each bottle indicating that it was barreled in 2009. Knob Creek was introduced in 1994 as an upscale brand under Jim Beam, making it a fairly young label by American whiskey standards. Nevertheless, it has quickly become a favorite of many whiskey lovers. The Cask Strength designation translates to a whiskey thats really, really strong; this bottle has an ABV of 59% ABV. The taste follows suit, bursting with flavors such as tropical fruits, citrus oil, and peach nectar. The finish is you guessed it strong, with a rich spiciness, and notes of charred oak and honey. Be sure to sip this slow, or maybe even dilute it with a splash of water to unpack the full flavor. 4. The Macallan Sherry Oak 12 Years Old Macallan is a fixture in the high-end whiskey world. Theyve been around since 1824, and theyre still one of the best-selling Scotch brands in the world. In fact, they were one of the first to mass-produce single malt whiskey. We like Macallans Sherry Oak 12-Year for two reasons: firstly, its matured in unique Oloroso sherry-seasoned oak casks from Spain. These casks introduce a bit of fruitiness and floral spice to the flavor. Secondly, with 12 years of age, its a mature, premium scotch yet much more attainable than Macallans older bottles (which go as high as 72-year and can run you upwards of $10,000). Macallan makes a Speyside whiskey, meaning theyre distilled in Strathspey, Scotland, which just happens to be the home of the other two best-selling Scotch whiskeys in the world: Glenfiddich and Glenlivet. Speysides are characterized by a sweeter and fuller flavor thats more approachable for beginner whiskey drinkers. 5. Suntory Toki Japanese Whisky Japanese whiskys have quickly grown in size and scale over the past couple of decades, becoming big enough to rival the old dudes in Europe and the U.S. Whiskey connoisseurs havent always been excited to branch out to a whole new continent, but theyve continued buying from Japan because the whisky has a rich sharpness and spice that cant be found elsewhere. Leading the charge from Japan is Suntory, a brand with three distilleries in the Chita Peninsula, Yamazaki and the Japanese Alps. Suntorys Toki whisky is their best-seller with a very reasonable price tag and flavor that works on its own or in cocktails. The name, Toki, translates to time, and denotes the Tokis blend of variously-aged whiskys from each of Suntorys three distilleries. Tasters have noted the Tokis accessible lightness (making it excellent as an introduction to whisky/whiskeys) and flavors of oak, honey and vanilla. 6. George Dickel Barrel Select George Dickel is the second-largest Tennessee whiskey distillery, but its far less well-known that the largest, Jack Daniels. However, George Dickel is often considered superior in quality, and this Barrel Select is the brands finest bottle. Its first steeped in charcoal, mellowing the bite, and then aged 10 to 12 years. Finally, ten barrels are hand-selected by George Dickels Master Distiller, John Lunn. The award-winning flavor is marked by caramel and corn with hints of vanilla, oak, clove and rye. These fade slowly, leaving a satisfying finish of caramel, cinnamon and vanilla. Its a premium bourbon, so its best enjoyed neat with a drop of water, but also works for making upgraded bourbon cocktails. 7. Chicken Cock Kentucky Straight Bourbon Chicken Cock was originally established in 1856 out of Paris, Kentucky. It wasnt until years later during prohibition, however, that Chicken Cock became popular as the house whiskey of the Cotton Club, one of the most legendary prohibition speakeasies. Because the brand survived through Americas prohibition, they still know how to make whiskey as they did in the good old days. This bottle of Kentucky straight bourbon is overseen by Master Distiller and 40+ year veteran Gregg Snyder. The flavor is complex, ends with a smooth finish and boasts a spicy pepper taste. At 90 proof, theres some real heat, so we suggest enjoying this Chicken Cock neat and slowly. 8. Jeffersons Ocean Aged at Sea Bourbon Most whiskey distillers get experimental with different wood, blends or aging. Jeffersons takes this experimentation even further with their Ocean Aged at Sea Bourbon. After eight years of aging on land, the bourbon is aged an additional five to ten months on an OCEARCH shark tagging vessel. This time at sea develops the flavor profile by exposing the bourbon to temperature fluctuations, salty air and the rocking motion of a ship. The result of this wild aging process is a unique, complex whiskey that everyone should try. The saltiness of the ocean air is certainly present, while extra wood tannin extraction creates aromas of vanilla, caramel and burnt matches. 9. Paul John Classic Select Cask After India was introduced to Scotch in the 19th century, they quickly started making their own. Today, India might not be known as a major whisky producer, but they make liquor thats worthy of any connoisseurs bar. One of Indias best whiskys is Paul John, a premium single malt launched in 2008 to compete in the high-end market. Paul Johns Classic Select Cask is made using exclusively Indian-grown ingredients in Indian-made equipment. The whisky is distilled and aged in the tropical region of Goa, increasing maturation speed. The end result is a strong, rich liquor that packs a punch. 10. Makers Mark Bourbon Whisky If you prefer a nice whiskey cocktail theres no need to splurge on a premium bottle for sipping and discussing. Instead, go for a beloved classic such as Makers Mark Bourbon. Makers Mark sets itself apart with a recipe that doesnt include rye (reportedly because founder Bill Samuels didnt like rye in his bread). Without rye, Makers Maker allows the corn, malted barley and red winter wheat to do the talking. The flavor is less spicy, with more sweetness and citrus. Although Makers Mark will hold its own simply on the rocks, it really does best in a great cocktail. We like the classics (old fashioneds, boulevardiers, Manhattans, etc), but also suggest trying lesser known recipes like a Lynchburg Lemonade or Whirl-Y-Gig. See where your favorite artists and songs rank on the Rolling Stone Charts. Sign up for Rolling Stones Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. TORONTO, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The technical report for the definitive feasibility study on Amarillo Gold Corporations (Amarillo or the Company) (TSXV: AGC, OTCQB: AGCBF) Posse Gold Project has been filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). The report has been prepared according to the standards set out in NI 43-101: Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. It is also available on the Companys website under the Mara Rosa section of the Projects tab. The report is called NI 43-101 Technical Report Definitive Feasibility Study Posse Gold Project, Brazil, and its effective date is June 15, 2020. As previously announced on June 2, 2020, the positive feasibility study on the Posse Gold Project in Goias State, Brazil supports an open pit mine and carbon-in-leach (CIL) operation with dry stack tailings that has low capital and operating costs and a strong financial return. Highlights Base case assumes a gold price of $1,400 per ounce and foreign exchange rate of Brazilian Reais (R$)4.2 to U.S. dollars (US$)1. Current market rates assume a gold price of $1,730 per ounce and foreign exchange rate of R$5.3 to US$1. All dollar figures are in US$ unless otherwise noted. Mine life of 10 years . Gold production of 102,000 per year in the first four years , average annual gold production of 84,000 ounces. After-tax net present value 5% (NPV 5%) of $183 million, increasing to $360 million using current market rates. After-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 25%, increasing to 50% using current market rates. Cash cost of $706 per ounce, decreasing to $631 per ounce using current market rates. All-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $738 per ounce, decreasing to $656 per ounce using current market rates. After-tax payback of 2.6 years, decreasing to 1.5 years using current market rates. Initial capital cost of $145 million, decreasing to $125 million using current market rates. Gold resources of 1.2 million contained ounces , based on 32 million tonnes grading 1.1 grams per tonne (g/t). Gold reserves of 902,000 contained ounces , based on 24 million tonnes grading 1.18 g/t. The Company has a strong social license to operate. It has received the Preliminary License and a Protocol of Intent to build the Posse Gold Project was signed with the governor of the State of Goias on May 25, 2020. Story continues SRK Consultores do Brasil Ltda (SRK) compiled the definitive feasibility study with input from other engineering companies and consultants. These include Australian Exploration Field Services, Aurifex Pty Ltd, and Ausenco do Brasil Engenharia Ltda., among others. Qualified Person Mike Mutchler, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, by virtue of his education, experience and professional association, is a Qualified Person as defined in the NI 43-101 standard, for this news release. He is a member in good standing of the appropriate professional institutions and has approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release. Non-IFRS financial measures The Company has included certain non-IFRS financial measures in this news release. These measures, which include total cash cost, total cash cost per ounce, AISC, and AISC per ounce, are not recognized under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. As a result, these measures may not be comparable to similar measures reported by other companies. Each of these measures used are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures in accordance with IFRS. Non-IFRS financial measures used in this news release and common to the gold mining industry are defined below. Total cash cost and total cash cost per ounce Total cash cost reflects the cost of production. The total cash cost reported in the FS includes costs related to mining, processing and water treatment, general and administration for the mine, off-site, refining, transportation, and royalties. Total cash cost per ounce is calculated as total cash cost divided by payable gold ounces. AISC and AISC per ounce AISC reflects all the expenditures that are required to produce an ounce of gold from operations. The AISC reported in the feasibility study includes total cash cost, sustaining capital, and closure cost. AISC per ounce is calculated as AISC divided by payable gold ounces. About Amarillo Amarillo Gold Corporation (www.amarillogold.com) is advancing two gold projects in Brazil. Both are in mining-friendly states and have excellent nearby infrastructure. The development stage Posse Gold Project on its Mara Rosa Property in Goias State has received the main permit that provides social and environmental permission for mining. Work is underway on receiving the License to Install. The advanced exploration stage Lavras do Sul Project in Rio Grande do Sul State has more than 22 prospects centered on historic gold workings. Amarillo Gold Corporation trades on the TSXV under the symbol AGC, and on the OTCQB under the symbol AGCBF. For further information, please contact Mike Mutchler Annemarie Brissenden President & CEO Investor Relations 416-294-0736 416-844-6284 mike.mutchler@amarillogold.com annemarie.brissenden@amarillogold.com Disclaimer Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. Forward-looking statements This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the Companys current expectations regarding future events, including its business, operations and condition, and managements objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. Various factors may prevent or delay our plans, including but not limited to, the trading price of the common shares of the Company, capital market conditions, impacts from the coronavirus or other epidemics, counterparty risk, TSXV approval(s), contractor availability and performance, weather, access, mineral and gold prices, and success and failure of the exploration and development carried out at various stages of the program. Permission from the government and community is also required to proceed with future mining production. Readers should review the Companys ongoing quarterly and annual filings, as well as any other additional documentation comprising the Companys public disclosure record, for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking statements. Readers should also review the risk factors applicable to junior mining exploration companies generally to better understand the variety of risks that can affect the Company. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any Forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. PDF available: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/cec4ccb6-c5f8-4dfb-9d40-9644c91fed24 An Air Force sergeant who was arrested in the fatal ambush of a Santa Cruz County deputy was charged Tuesday in connection with the killing of a federal security officer during George Floyd protests in Oakland last month, authorities said. Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, 32, was charged with murder and attempted murder in the killing of federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood, 53. Underwood was one of two officers who were shot May 29 while guarding the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building. The other officer was critically wounded in the drive-by attack. Both were members of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service. Authorities said Carrillo and a second man traveled to Oakland with the intent to kill police and believed the large demonstrations spurred by the death of Floyd in Minneapolis which they were not a part of would help them get away it. "They came to Oakland to kill cops," said John Bennett, special agent in charge of the San Francisco division of the FBI. Steven Carrillo. (Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office) Carrillo's alleged accomplice, Robert Justus, was also charged with murder and attempted murder. The killing of Underwood set off a massive manhunt. Eight days later, officers showed up at Carrillo's home after they discovered an abandoned white van that belonged to him and contained ammunition, firearms and bomb-making equipment, authorities said. Carrillo ambushed the officers, killing Santa Cruz County Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller and critically injuring another deputy, according to authorities. Carrillo suffered a gunshot wound but managed to flee the scene on feet, authorities said. He carjacked a vehicle but was ultimately taken into custody, bleeding from his hip, authorities said. He was charged with multiple offenses, including murder and attempted murder, in the attack on the Santa Cruz County officers. Federal authorities said an AR-15 was recovered at the scene where Carrillo was arrested and linked to the Oakland federal courthouse shooting. The assault rifle used by Carrillo was privately made, had no markings and had a silencer attached to the barrel of the weapon, authorities said. Story continues Investigators found inside Carrillo's vehicle a ballistic vest with a patch on it that featured an igloo and a Hawaiian-style print symbols associated with the far-right extremist "Boogaloo" movement, according to his federal complaint. Carrillo, prior to his arrest, used his own blood to scrawl the word boog and I became unreasonable on the hood of the vehicle he carjacked, the complaint says. Both phrases are also associated with "Boogaloo," a term used by extremists to reference a violent uprising or impending civil war in the U.S., the complaint says. Carrillo's lawyer Jeffrey Stotter said his client was a father of two who was "left deeply shaken" by his wife's death by suicide in 2018. "At this point, all of these allegations are just that, accusations and allegations," Stotter said. The complaint alleges Carrillo met Justus on Facebook, and that Justus gave him a ride to the rally in a white van. According to the complaint, Carrillo wrote in a Facebook group on May 28 that the unrest is on our coast now, this needs to be nationwide and that its a great opportunity to target the specialty soup bois." In Boogaloo groups on Facebook and Reddit, soup bois is shorthand for government agencies that are abbreviated in acronyms like alphabet soup" such as the FBI and ATF. Online Boogaloo communities frequently post memes about targeting federal agencies in advance of another civil war. In response to Carrillos message, the complaint alleges Justus wrote lets boogie, another reference to the Boogaloo movement. In Boogaloo Facebook groups, the complaint says, Carrillo was even more explicit about taking advantage of protests to stir up unrest and violence against police. Go to the riots and support our own cause. Show them the real targets. Use their anger to fuel our fire. Think outside the box. We have mobs of angry people to use to our advantage, Carillo wrote in one Facebook group, according to the complaint. Carrillo believed that the Boogaloo, or second civil war, was kicking off now and if its not kicking off in your hood then start it, according to the complaint. Boogaloo groups are actively allowed on Facebook. Earlier this month, Facebook told NBC News it would stop recommending the groups in its recommendations algorithm, but the groups would be allowed on the site. In order to meet the 95% target for financial inclusion by 2024 set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the country needs to accelerate the current growth rate in the industry said the General Manager, Mobile Financial Services, MTN Nigeria, Usoro Usoro. Usoro disclosed this during an interactive virtual session by The Economist Intelligence Unit based on a report titled State of Play: Fintech in Nigeria sponsored by MTN Nigeria and Mastercard. The webinar hosted by Camelia Oros, Managing Director, CT Productions featured presentations by Irene Mia, Global Editorial Director, Thought Leadership and Melanie Noronha, Senior Editor, Thought Leadership, EMEA both of The Economist Intelligence Unit. The webinar also featured presentations by Usoro Usoro, General Manager, Mobile Financial Services, MTN Nigeria and Ebehijie Momoh, Senior Vice President, General Manager, West Africa, Mastercard. The session reviewed topics tackled in the Nigerian Fintech report while assessing both industry drivers and impediments to further growth. Addressing participants at the session, Usoro Usoro remarked, Fintech and financial inclusion is an important area for the MTN Nigeria. We always see ourselves as a company that drives economic growth and development everywhere we operate. Working with The Economist team and similar stakeholders to produce reports such as this stimulate debate and conversation around the challenges in the sector and how we can work together as an industry to drive our desired objectives. He further explained that The CBNs National Financial Inclusion Strategy which was revised in 2019 has set a financial inclusion target to 95% by 2024. It is barely five years from now and we need a collaborative approach by stakeholders in the industry to ensure that all players can leverage their various assets to meet that target. Relatively, Nigeria has more sophisticated products than many other countries on the continent. The challenge is in accessibility and how these products will not only improve convenience for the already banked but further drive inclusion while addressing how we can bring these last batch of 40 million customers that are traditionally excluded into the fold. Overall, I think we are in the right direction, and studies such as this serve the purpose of stimulating conversation that will provide solutions to the challenges we face as an industry. Plans to launch the report to a wide selection of stakeholders in the Nigerian Fintech industry were underway but had to be postponed due to the restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Economist Intelligence Unit confirmed that details of the physical event will be shared at a later date. ---BHM.news Actor Kriti Sanon is fuming and disappointed a the behaviour of the media and fans after actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death. The later actors fans trolled and harassed Kriti for not sharing social media posts about his death. Sushant died on Sunday at his home in Mumbai. Kriti wrote in a long note that social media has become a toxic place where people only like to pretend to care. Its strange that the otherwise trolling, gossiping world suddenly wakes up to your niceness and positive side once you are gone.. Social media is the FAKEST, most toxic place.. and if you havent posted RIP or said something publicly, you are considered not to be grieving, when in reality, those are the people grieving for REAL. It seems Social Media is the new Real world.. and the Real world has become Fake, she wrote. She then took on the media for insensitive reporting around Sushants death and funeral. Some MEDIA people have completely lost their motive and sensitivity.. At a time like this, all they do is ask you to come live or give a comment! Like really??! Banging the car window and saying madam sheesha neeche karo no to get a clearer picture of someone going for a funeral...Funeral is a very private and personal affair.. Lets put Humanity before our profession! 1 request media to either not be present there or at least maintain some dignity and distance. Behind the starry glitter and the so-called glamour, we are normal human beings with the same feelings as you have.. Dont forget that, she said. Kriti added that the blind, uncorroborated items in the media should be banned as they lead to mental harassment. Sushant was reportedly depressed and died by suicide on Sunday. He was 34. Also read: Karan Johars SOTY 2 director Punit Malhotra comments on outpouring of love for Sushant Singh Rajput On Tuesday, Kriti had shared a post dedicated to Sushant. Sush.. I knew that your brilliant mind was your best friend and your worst enemy.. but it has broken me completely to know that you had a moment in your life where Dying felt easier or better than Living, she wrote in her post. She worked with Sushant in Raabta. Earlier, Kritis sister Nupur had come to her defence against trolls targeting the actor for not publicly reacting to Sushants death. Everybody has suddenly started talking about mental health on social media since yesterday...and then we have people harassing people who are actually in a state of shock, who are hurt, who are grieving ..by sending them disgusting tweets, msgs, comments for not posting on lnstagram !! You are so heartless ek post tak nahi daala Tum logo ne ek reaction nahi diya kitne pathar dil ho tum These are the comments and msgs we are constantly getting !! Aap ki permission ho toh sukoon se ro sakte hain?? Please, Nupur wrote. If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist. Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918 Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Think back to February this year. The political lexicon of India revolved around the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register; Shaheen Bagh and protests; Namaste Trump; Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and violence; and an economy in decline. A little over 100 days later, examine what has animated the Indian political discourse: Lockdown; migrant workers; testing; hospital beds; inter-state movement; the Mahatma Gandhi Nation Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS); Tablighi Jamaat; eastern Ladakh; Centre-state relations; digital rallies; economic recession; and the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and its case count. It is now a truism to suggest that the pandemic has changed India, and Indian politics. But the past does not go away, and there is never in history a clean, new slate. But disruptive events have an ability to force transformation and throw out variables with long-lasting consequences. FIRST, RUPTURES One, never in the history of Indian politics has public health been this significant. From testing capacity to providing personal protective equipment for health care workers, from increasing the number of beds across public and private hospitals to health services for patients with other medical conditions, public health and infrastructure has become central for the first time. What has changed is that all citizens across regions, castes, communities and classes today experience, simultaneously, the urgency of health care. Such a large collective experience cannot but have an impact on politics. Governments and parties will be judged on whether they were able to cope with the crisis; there will be louder demands for better health care; and India will need not just more doctors, but nurses, paramedical staff, and Accredited Social Health Activists (Asha workers) . Whether this translates into a longer term shift, where public services and quality of governance is the central issue in electoral debates and political discourse, is to be seen. Two, never in Indian history and politics have migrant workers been as central to public consciousness as they are today. When workers first began walking back to their villages and towns, soon after the lockdown was imposed on March 25, it was as if an invisible India appeared. In the absence of income and food, and given the deep yearning for emotional security of families and communities, tens of thousands of workers kept walking, as all public transportation had been stopped during the lockdown. The government, after 36 days of the lockdown, finally allowed their movement by buses, and then trains. This, however, was accompanied with a different set of controversies from payment for their fares to lack of coordination between the Centre and states. The Supreme Court eventually stepped in, but its intervention was seen as coming rather late. The image of the migrant family walking back home will be the defining moment of this crisis and is a stark reflection of how the Indian State sometimes treats its poorest citizens. The scattered nature of migrant workers and their own heterogeneity made them politically weaker than usual. The weakening of trade union movements and the limited bargaining power of labour, especially in the unorganised sector, left them vulnerable. For the government, the challenge now is in providing opportunities to migrants who now want to stay home. For the opposition, the crisis presents an opportunity to channel the discontent of migrant workers. For the Indian political economy in general, the reverse migration could lead to a shift in the way labour markets operate. How migrant workers will act will their economic identity become more important than other identity markers; will they stay home or return to the cities; will they be angry at the government or see it as a function of the pandemic will determine political trends. Three, never in recent history has the country seen the kind of economic contraction that now seems inevitable. With the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the pandemic, factories and businesses shut down, supply chains got disrupted, company revenues went down and unemployment soared. There is a real possibility that millions of people may be pushed back to poverty. The government first announced a relief package of 1.7 lakh crore for the marginalised, and followed it up a month and a half later, with a cumulative 20 lakh crore stimulus. But the package has come under criticism for lacking a strong enough fiscal component. Economists believe that while the structural reforms announced are important, they may not solve the crisis at hand. There is a clear link between the state of the economy and politics. If distress grows, businesses continue to close down and millions find themselves deprived of basic incomes, there is a real possibility of social unrest. But if governments use this as an opportunity to rethink the nature of growth, provide immediate relief through a possible universal basic income, ramp up the welfare architecture, provide a buffer through a larger fiscal stimulus, and succeed in attracting investment, the future could be different. Indias political economy is at a crossroads. Four, never have political parties had to innovate on such a scale to continue their internal functioning as well retain their connect with people. To adhere to the norms of social distancing, large gatherings have been prohibited; even face-to-face meetings have declined. Political parties have turned to technology. The most visible symbols of this include the digital rallies that the Bharatiya Janata Party is organising across the country and the digital conversations Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is having with Indian and global thought leaders. This trend will accelerate, especially for elections. Parties will rely even more on the mobile phone to reach out to voters. Data will become even more powerful in the micro targeting of voters. Large rallies will have to give way to either virtual gatherings or very limited, localised small meetings. Normal political activity and the value of direct human interface can never be substituted. But the form of both political outreach and political communication will change. And five, never has Indian federalism been put to test as now. To be sure, India has always had a division of powers but rarely have states and the Centre had to work on a single issue, for weeks at end, together. This was most clearly reflected in the five meetings held between the PM and chief ministers (a sixth is scheduled this week). While this coordination began on a promising note, there have also been increasing differences between the Centre and Opposition-ruled states especially on the duration of the lockdown, financial support, health protocols, and movement of migrant workers. What is clear is that the power balance that forms the basis of Indian federal arrangements will change. Some states which have performed credibly will manage to enhance their political capital; other states which have struggled will see an erosion of their power and greater central intervention. But fundamentally, this can open up a conversation on the division of powers (in terms of Union, state and concurrent lists) especially in a crisis. NOW, CONTINUITIES One, leadership will continue to be a critical component in parties and a key basis on which voters judge parties. And on this metric, Narendra Modi still ranks above others. The structure of power between the BJP and the non-BJP parties remains tilted towards the former in substantial ways. Two, inter-community relations will remain fragile as witnessed during the Tablighi Jamaat controversy, which was used by a section to introduce a communal element to the Covid-19 crisis.There is a clear possibility that the pandemic may reinforce existing cleavages in society and push people back to narrow, parochial identity grouping. Three, Indias security challenges will persist. As we can see with the Chinese aggression in eastern Ladakh, Pakistans continued efforts to create terror in Jammu and Kashmir, and now, Nepals decision to pass a map which incorporates territory claimed and controlled by India, the neighbourhood will remain difficult. And four, Indian institutions will remain under scrutiny. It took months for the judiciary to address the migrant crisis; the nature of investigation and arrests over the Delhi riots in February points to politics colouring independent probes; the fact that major legislations have been pushed through the ordinance route without parliamentary scrutiny speaks of the weakness of the legislature. The dialectic between the ruptures and continuities will determine Indias future. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The hashtag #pyramids has been widely circulating on Twitter in recent days, but not for the reasons one might expect. The fact that Cairo is preparing to reopen the country for tourism within weeks or that many travelers are eagerly waiting for the coronavirus threat to subside, to visit Egypt if only to feast their eyes on the centuries-old monuments in Giza has little to do with the viral hashtag. Oddly enough, the Pyramids have instead been cited multiple times in an online discussion between Twitter users on whether or not these massive structures built as tombs for the pharaohs of Egypt's Old Kingdom more than 4,000 years ago should be torn down for allegedly having been built by "slaves." "Take down the #Pyramids. Slaves built them!" was one tweet advocating destruction of the monuments that have stood the test of time. Nigel Hetherington, archaeologist and founder of Past Preservers, a heritage consultancy, dismissed the calls as "not serious," saying, "I dont think that those were ever real calls to pull down the Pyramids." "The image of thousands of slaves toiling under a burning sun and a vicious pharaoh is hard to shake, it seems. Despite years of study and archaeological research and discoveries, the Hollywood version of Egypt still seems to captivate people," he told Al-Monitor. While it was unclear if the comments were sarcastic, they provoked a backlash from critics who refuted the fallacy, with some urging the social media users spreading such ideas to "read history." Dismayed Egyptians chipped in defending the funerary monuments that are an important part of their cultural heritage and history against what some perceived as real threats. Skeptics, meanwhile, suggested that the misconception was deliberately circulated to vilify the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests decrying racism and police brutality. "The Egyptian Pyramids are now being used to discredit protests against racism, colonialism and slavery with the argument they have been built exploiting forced slave labor. They were not," Jens Notroff, a German archaeologist, counter-argued on his Twitter account. The online debate was triggered by the toppling of statues in the United States and in the United Kingdom perceived by anti-racism protesters as symbols of racism and colonialism. The protests that started in the United States in late May have since reverberated across Europe and other parts of the world. On June 7, a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader, was pulled down by protesters in Bristol, England, before being thrown in the harbor. The move followed similar acts of vandalism in the United States. On June 6, Black Lives Matter protesters used ropes to pull down a statue of Williams Carter Wickham, a Confederate general, in a university campus park in Richmond, Virginia. A number of other monuments have also been defaced or spray-painted in the otherwise peaceful protests, sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd during his arrest by four police officers over alleged forgery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But Katie A. Paul, an America anthropologist and co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research Project, draws a distinct line between the toppling of the statues emblematic of racism and oppression and the online calls to destroy the Pyramids, which she said "are steeped in false understanding of their history and construction." She warned that such calls "set a dangerous precedent where misinformation would drive historical destruction. " "The statues toppled in the United States and Europe are symbolic representations that deify slave owners and genocidal leaders. They are being removed or vandalized today because they idolize figures who committed the worst kind of oppression," she explained in an email to Al-Monitor. "The Pyramids were not constructed to idolize slavery or genocide nor do they serve as monuments to revere an era of oppression." She continued, "The Great Pyramid of Giza represents the same thing now that it was meant to when it was first constructed: an unmatched feat of human ingenuity." The calls for demolition of the Pyramids also caused alarm among some Egyptian archaeologists like Monica Hanna who called them "dangerous" and "irresponsible." "Such calls are reminiscent of similar calls made by some extremists in 2012 to destroy Pharaonic monuments or cover them in wax in the conviction that the Pharaonic civilization was corrupt and deserved to be destroyed," said Hanna, who is acting dean of the College of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport. She was referring to ominous threats against the Sphinx and the Pyramids made by radical Sheikh Morgan Al Gohary. In an interview broadcast on the Egyptian privately owned channel Dream TV in November 2012, the Salafist cleric boasted about taking part along with the Taliban in the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan in March 2001. He suggested covering the Pharaonic monuments in wax, arguing that Sharia advocates the destruction of every pagan and idol. His controversial remarks shocked Egyptians at the time, fueling fears that the country's cultural heritage was under threat under Muslim Brotherhood rule. Hanna also rebutted the false claim that the Pyramids were built by slaves, which she said are rooted in Biblical tradition. "The Pyramids were built by Egyptian workers recruited from all over the country during the inundation season when the peasants would temporarily cease work on the farmlands," she told Al-Monitor. "We have the papyrus logbooks of the workers and we have found the tombs of the workers from which we know that the workers were fed meat, had access to medical care and were paid in rations of bread and beer," she said. The papyrus logbooks she referred to are the Diary of Merer discovered in 2013 by a French mission working under the direction of the Sorbonne University in Paris. The journal of a previously unknown official of the same name chronicles the daily activities of stone transportation from the Tura limestone quarry to the Pyramid site in Giza. "Building the Pyramids was also a project of faith as the Egyptians believed the Pharaohs were the divine intermediaries between the Gods and the people, so they were building a house for the eternal life of these religious leaders and Heads of State," Hanna added. In response to the calls for demolition of the Pyramids, some Twitter users shared their photographs with the Pyramids as a backdrop from their holiday trips to Egypt, starting an impromptu campaign that may attract more visitors to Egypt once the country resumes international flights. Tourism is one of Egypt's most important sources of income, accounting for around 12% of the country's gross domestic product. A man has been arrested and charged for his alleged role in setting fire to the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct amid citywide protests over the death of George Floyd. Dylan Shakespeare Robinson, 22, of Brainerd, Minnesota, was located by federal investigators in the Denver area on June 12 and was captured two days later in Breckenridge, Colorado. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota announced Tuesday a federal criminal complaint against Robinson, charging him with aiding and abetting arson. MORE: Richmond mayor forces police chief to resign amid citywide protests On the night of May 28, three days after Floyd died in police custody, the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct was overrun and heavily damaged from vandalism and arson. The building, which police had abandoned, went up in flames after a group of protesters pushed through barriers and smashed windows. Authorities subsequently determined that multiple separate fires had been started inside the building, according to the complaint. PHOTO: Protesters cheer as the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct burns behind them in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 28, 2020. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Surveillance video from the Third Precinct shows two individuals ignite a petrol bomb and lob it at the building. One of the individuals can be seen throwing a second one at the building. Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were later able to identify Robinson in the footage, according to the complaint. MORE: Man shot during Albuquerque protest over Juan de Onate statue, police say The investigators reviewed a video allegedly posted on Robinson's Snapchat account that shows at least one individual appearing to make a Molotov cocktail while multiple unidentified voices provide directions on how to make the crude explosive device. Robinson allegedly posted several comments during the Snapchat video, including, "These guys have never made a Molotov," "Rookies" and "We need gasoline," according to the complaint. Investigators reviewed another Snapchat video in which Robinson can allegedly be seen setting fire in a stairwell within the Third Precinct, according to the complaint. Story continues PHOTO: Flames from a nearby fire illuminate protesters standing on a barricade in front of the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 28, 2020. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images) Robinson made his initial appearance before a judge at the U.S. District Court in Denver on Tuesday. ABC News was unable to find contact information for Robinson, and it was unclear whether he had obtained a lawyer. MORE: Americans among 15 arrested during Black Lives Matter protest in Uganda, police say Protests, some ending in violence, erupted in Minneapolis following the May 25 death of Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man who died shortly after a white police officer was filmed kneeling on his neck as three other officers stood by. Demonstrations calling for an end to police brutality and racial injustice have now spread across the nation and abroad. The officer who prosecutors say pinned Floyd down for nearly nine minutes, Derek Chauvin, has since been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers each have been charged with second-degree aiding and abetting felony murder as well as second-degree aiding and abetting manslaughter. Feds arrest man for alleged role in fire at Minneapolis Police Department precinct originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Efforts to end workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity stalled for years in both Lincoln and Nebraska. At the County-City Building, a petition drive suspended the Fairness Ordinance passed in 2012 by the Lincoln City Council. Four blocks east on Lincoln Mall, at the Nebraska State Capitol, legislation offered annually by state senators hit roadblocks each time. Mondays landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, at long last, ensures these protections are extended to LGBTQ Nebraskans and Americans at large and guarantees them the legal equality afforded by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the courts decision mustnt be the end of the road. Lincolns Fairness Ordinance needs to be updated in light of Mondays news and passed by the City Council. Only 22% of LGBTQ workers are protected by existing local ordinances, according to reporting by the Journal Stars JoAnne Young, compared to the one in three who report discrimination. Of Nebraskas largest cities, only Omaha has an active nondiscrimination ordinance on the books, while Lincoln and Grand Island merely bar discrimination in public employment only. By Online Desk "I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi a day after 20 Indian Army jawans were killed in a violent faceoff with the Chinese PLA on Monday. "For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important...India wants peace but it is capable to give a befitting reply if instigated, the Prime Minister added. Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two. READ| Ladakh standoff: China took lead in perception war, India has been too slow A large number of Indian and Chinese troops had previously engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Galwan Valley of eastern Ladakh over the last five weeks. Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation, Army sources added. Modi has convened an all-party virtual meet on June 19 to discuss the situation on the India-China border, his office said on Wednesday. How the standoff unfolded: May 5-6: Indian and Chinese armies clashed near the Pangong Lake in Eastern Ladakh. It was first such incident this year. May 9: Another clash took place between the two troops this time at Naku La in North Sikkim. Stones and batons were used. India and China moved additional troops along the LAC. May 12: Chinese choppers were reportedly seen flying close to LAC. The IAF dispatched Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter aircraft to carry out sorties along the border. May 23: Army Chief General Manoj Naravane visited the headquarters of 14 Corps in Ladakh. May 26: Amid tension, PM Narendra Modi held a meeting with NSA Ajit Doval, CDS General Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs. May 28: Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered the PLA to broaden the battle preparedness, considering the worst-case scenarios. June 2: Indian and Chinese Major General-rank officers held discussions on the controversial issues. The meeting, however, reportedly remained "inconclusive". June 8: Amid military-level deliberations between India and China, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a review discussion with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and three service chiefs. June 12: Major General-level meeting held to resolve trouble areas in the Galwan Valley. June 13: Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane said the entire situation along the LAC was under control. June 15: A Colonel and two jawans of the Indian Army were killed during a violent clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley while 17 other army men injured in the clashes succumbed later. News agency ANI reported Army sources as saying there were 43 casualties on the Chinese side as well. ALSO SEE: K Shiva Kumar By Express News Service MYSURU: The names of all three MLAs who switched parties and joined the BJP last year, figure in the list sent to the party bosses shortlisting candidates for the Legislative Council election. There is no caste barrier either, as all three belong to the Kuruba community. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had promised A H Vishwanath, M T B Nagaraj and R Shankar, who played an important role in BJP coming to power, that they would be made MLCs. Yediyurappa appears to have brushed aside all resistance and grumbling in the party and reportedly told the core committee about the promise made to the Congress-JDS coalition rebels. The three have pinned their hopes on Yediyurappa, known for his adamant stand and keeping his promises. On many occasions, they have said that they have full faith in him. The inclusion of all the three has cheered the defectors who brought down the coalition government. It is not an easy task to assure all the 15 defectors positions, party tickets and ministerial berths, Despite many odds, Yediyurappa managed to induct 10 into the ministry, defuse tension within the party, and again, include the three MLAs in the probables list. He has proved that his word still counts. Vishwanath, who faced strong opposition within the party, said, Yediyurappa is our only hope and the only one who can convince the party bosses. A senior BJP leader, also an aspirant for the Council ticket after his four decades of service, said that one could bank on Yediyurappa any time. BJP MP V Srinivasa Prasad said that Yediyurappa knows what he has assured and will deliver to Vishwanath and others. Though Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan said that only Shankar was assured of a berth, minister S T Somashekar said the DCM was not part of the committee which took the decision. Political commentator Prof Harish Ramaswamy said that Yediyurappa recommending these three names involves trust and leadership. He wanted to send a strong signal that he is still the leader and also wants a stable government. It is to be seen whether the BJP bosses will accept the recommendation as they also wanted to take control of the government and the party instead of giving it a free run. New Delhi, June 17 : A day after 20 Indian soldiers, including officers were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the Congress on Wednesday demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the nation and call an all party meeting to discuss the situation. Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera took to twitter and wrote, "Respected Prime Minister, please address the sad nation. Please call an all party meeting to evolve a unified political posture amidst this national security crisis." Respected @PMOIndia, please address the sad nation. Please call an all party meeting to evolve a unified political posture amidst this national security crisis #GalwanValley #SoldiersLivesMatter Pawan Khera (@Pawankhera) June 17, 2020 Another Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha also opined that it is a time for great mature political consensus within India in responding to China's dangerous aggression. "This is a time for great mature political consensus within India in responding to China's dangerous aggression. I don't care if Modi made several outrageous rhetorical comments against our Congress or UPA government in the past. We must rise. Let's be different. Let's be one," Jha said in a tweet. The remarks of the Congress leaders came shortly after former party chief Rahul Gandhi slammed Modi over his silence after 20 soldiers were reportedly killed by the Chinese Army in Galwan valley. Rahul Gandhi in a tweet said, "Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land?" Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet. On Tuesday night, the Congress in a statement had blamed the Prime Minister and said "Ever wondered why a vociferous man who never failed to question the govt on every issue is now completely silent? Because now he cannot blame anyone else but himself for all the failures." While Congress interim Chief Sonia Gandhi offered condolence, but party members blamed the government for the fiasco. Twenty Indian Army men, including officers, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with the Chinese PLA troops in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the Indian Army said on Tuesday. The Indian Army issued a statement on Tuesday night wherein it said, "17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20." -- Syndicated from IANS Recent research revealed that residents near oil and gas wells might have increased risks of spontaneous preterm birth or the termination of pregnancy before 37 weeks of gestation. The study is population-based research that aimed to study how environmental factors may affect pregnancy. It was published in Environmental Epidemiology on June 5. The proximity of residences to oil and gas wells and spontaneous preterm birth in California focused on in this research. The lead author of the study, David Gonzalez of Stanford University's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth), noted that oil and gas exposure receive minimal attention in California despite having 2.1 million Californians and 17 million U.S. residents within one mile of active oil or gas wells. Researchers studied 225,000 cases of births from mothers who are residing within six miles of oil and gas wells in San Joaquin Valley for 13 years. Women with multiple births and pre-eclampsia were excluded from the study subject. Research areas were limited to wells with most emissions: oil wells that are preproduction stage or are under construction. There were about 83,000 wells, but only 12,000 of which are in preproduction. The study considered mothers living within six miles of these wells were considered of higher risk of exposure. Higher Risks of Spontaneous Preterm Risks The study results were alarming: 8 to 14 percent of women living near the wells were found to experience spontaneous preterm birth at 20 to 31 weeks. From the 225,000 births studied for the past 13-years, 28,000 were spontaneous preterm births. It also revealed that women who were Hispanic, Black, or had fewer than 12 years of education were the most vulnerable to living near the oil wells. Spontaneous preterm birth is also the leading cause of death in infants in the United States. The researchers noted that the environmental contaminants and stressors that the residents are most exposed to were drinking contaminated water, stress from drilling noise, or breathing higher levels of polluted air around the wells. The researcher hopes to investigate further why spontaneous preterm birth is associated with living near the wells. "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 says. More Studies on Proximity of the Oil and Gas Well to Sensitive Sites A previous study on residents living near oil and gas development establishments reported increased risks of low birth weight and early gestational age, but not preterm birth. Researchers noted that the previous study did not look closely into preterm birth, which this study focused on. According to Marshall Burke, a co-author and an associate professor in the earth system science department, as California is developing a regulation on how close to sensitive sites like schools, should oil and gas facilities operate. These studies should be carefully be considered in making such policies. The next crucial step is to study the distance of facilities to the well for it to cause harm, Burke added. (a) Schematic and (b) TEM image of the developed quad -interface MTJ structure in this study. Credit: Tohoku University Professor Tetsuo Endoh, leading a group of researchers at Tohoku University, has announced the development of an MTJ (Magnetic Tunnel Junction) with 10 ns high-speed write operation, sufficient endurance (>1011), and with highly reliable data retention over 10 years at 1X nm size. Realizing a 1X nm STT-MRAM (Spin Transfer Torque-Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) and NV(Non-Volatile)-Logic has wide application to a variety of fields. Because STT-MRAM and NV-Logic with MTJ/CMOS hybrid technology offer low power consumption, they are essential constituents in semiconductor memory and logic such as processors. To put spintronics technology to practical use, higher speed write operation, lower power consumption, and greater endurance are required. Additional needs include data retention exceeding 10 years, a higher operation temperature, and excellent scalability. However, there has been a significant problem with data retention, which is often achieved at the expense of operational performance such as write speed, write power, endurance and so on. This problem has seriously limited the application field of STT-MRAM and NV-Logic. For the application of 1X nm node STT-MRAM and NV-Logic to a wide variety of fields, the research team developed a new MTJ stack design technology and highly reliable fabrication technology for Quad interface type iPMA-MTJ (Quad-MTJ). Using the new technologiesfirst proposed and demonstrated by the same team last yearresulted in a successful fabrication of advanced Quad-MTJ. The research team has now been able to demonstrate that the current write density of Quad-MTJ can be reduced by over 20% at a 10ns high speed write operation in comparison with the conventional Double-MTJeven though the thermal stability factor of Quad-MTJ is 2 times larger than Double-MTJ. In other words, the data retention of Quad-MTJ can be maintained for a period exceeding 10 years and at a higher operating temperature than Double-MTJ. Moreover, Quad-MTJ achieved satisfactory endurance levels (over 1011), performing better than Double-MTJ, even though the data retention of Quad-MTJ is superior to that of Double-MTJ. The research team states that the advanced Quad-MTJ overcomes the serious issue of conventional Double-MTJ in several ways: the dilemma between data retention and many kinds of operation performance such as write speed, write power, endurance and so on. As a result, these developed Quad-MTJ technologies, 1X nm STT-MRAM and NV-Logic with MTJ/CMOS hybrid technology will open a new spintronics base LSI suitable for wide applications including low-end fields (such as IoT systems and sensor network systems); high-end fields (such as AI systems and image processing systems); and the field of tolerance property for application in tougher environments (such as automobile parts, production facility systems and so on). This research was supported by CIES's Industrial Affiliation with the STT MRAM program in the CIES Consortium of Tohoku University and CAO-SIP. Results will be presented at this year's Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits as a virtual conference from June 14-19, 2020. In addition, the study was included in the "Technical Highlights from the 2020 Symposia on VLSI Technology & Circuits." Explore further Researchers overcome fundamental operation challenge for voltage-controlled magnetic RAM RACINE COUNTY Discussions are brewing that Racine County might become the 69th county in Wisconsin to institute a half-percent sales tax. Sixty-eight out of Wisconsins 72 counties already have the tax; only Racine, Manitowoc, Waukesha and Winnebago dont have one. Some municipal leaders here dont want to miss out on that revenue stream, but others arent so enthusiastic about imposing another tax even if it could add millions to some public coffers. Early estimates show that the tax would cost the average Racine County resident around $91.69 per year. It could generate a total of $18,024,787 in tax revenue. Thats a lot of money, Caledonia Village Administrator Tom Christensen said when presenting the idea to the Caledonia Village Board Monday. Having a new sales tax could also lead to continuously increasing revenue year over year. Even though property tax hikes are controlled in Wisconsin, due to state-imposed levy limits, inflation continues to affect retail. As such, as prices increase so will sales tax revenue, even if the percentage of the tax remains unchanged. However, County Executive Jonathan Delagrave has not shown enthusiasm for the idea of a new sales tax. Mark Schaaf, communications manager for Racine County, said in an email Tuesday, The county executive is mindful of the recent economic downturn and financial hardships that many residents are facing and has no plans to propose a county sales tax. Rather, we are primarily focused on helping rebuild our local economy and creating a favorable climate for growing and attracting businesses. In a legal sense, it does not matter what village boards and city councils think about the idea of creating a sales tax. Its up to the County Board to choose to impose (or not to impose) such a tax. If that happens, however, the current plan that has been shared among local municipal leaders calls for an intergovernmental agreement/memorandum of understanding to be crafted that would guarantee the tax revenue be shared. For this new tax to be created, outgoing Racine City Administrator Jim Palenick anticipates the county will need to be pressured by residents and local leaders. When the Caledonia Village Board discussed the proposal Monday, elected officials had mixed reviews. The Mount Pleasant Village Board plans to discuss it for the first time on July 13. The Waterford Village Board does not have the proposal on its docket. How the tax would work Under Wisconsin law, county boards can impose a sales tax of up to a half-percent on retail purchases without a referendum of voters. But a PowerPoint presentation being passed around the county right now, crafted by Palenick, calls for the revenue from the proposed sales tax to be shared among the 17 municipalities that make up Racine County. The tax would not apply to necessities like food from a grocery store, only to purchases already subject to sales tax in Wisconsin. A 0.5% increase in price would be almost negligible on small purchases. The purchase of a $20 shirt, for example, would see an increase of 10 cents with this new tax. But for a $30,000 car, a 0.5% tax would lead to an extra cost of $150. The proposal calls for half of the new sales tax revenue to stay with the county. The other half would be distributed to the governments of Racine Countys 17 other municipalities, divided by the population of each municipality. How proposed 0.5% sales tax would be shared EXAMPLE: Since the City of Burlington has a population of 10,998 representing 5.595% of the countys total approximate population, Burlington would receive about 2.7975% of the countys total half-percent sales tax revenue, according the current proposal. That means if the new tax were to bring in exactly $18,024,787 million, Burlington would receive $504,203. Here's how much each other municipality would get under that model: Town of Burlington: $300,972 Caledonia: $1,149,518 Dover: $196,675 Elmwood Park: $23,152 Mount Pleasant: $1,238,457 North Bay: $10,774 Norway: $373,591 City of Racine: $3,549,870 Racine County: $9,012,393 Raymond: $181,638 Rochester: $176,641 Sturtevant: $304,365 Union Grove: $227,437 Town of Waterford: $297,442 Village of Waterford: $255, 402 Wind Point: $78,120 Yorkville: $144,137 Some support, some dont Christensen showed he was supportive of the idea. In recent years, Caledonia which has a population of 25,021, third-most in the county behind Racine (population 77,807) and Mount Pleasant (population 26,912) has struggled to complete yearly operating budgets. He anticipates a shortage to the villages fire and police budgets, and an extra million in tax revenue could help hold off property tax increases. When Racine County residents shop in Milwaukee or Kenosha, they spend that extra 0.5%, Christensen pointed out. So he said it would only be equitable for Milwaukee and Kenosha residents to spend the same when they visit Racine County. Nobody says theyre not going to go to shopping in Milwaukee or Kenosha or Oak Creek to not pay an extra a half percent in sales tax, Palenick added. Most people never think of it. Palenick also pointed out that Illinois residents who use Racines roads dont directly contribute to the upkeep of those. Thats the opposite of what happens when city residents pay tolls on Illinois interstate. Still, Caledonia Trustee Kevin Wanggaard is not a fan of a new sales tax, especially on the heels of the 0.1% Miller Park tax that was finally sunset earlier this year. A tax is a tax Just because they have it somewhere else doesnt mean we have to have it, Wanggaard said. I dont support a half-percent sales tax. Budget shortages considered Christensen said that diversifying income streams is important. None of us want to pay more taxes. But this is a way to diversify our tax base, he said. However, Delagrave said that Racine County dodged a bullet last month by not having a sales tax. Commerce dropped off when the coronavirus pandemic struck. But since the county does not directly rely on sales tax, it was less affected than other counties that do rely on that revenue stream. Palenick said, under his proposal, each municipality could choose what they wanted to do with the money they receive. It could pay for roads, improve public safety, lower property taxes or whatever else local leaders think would be best. The City of Racines struggles to pass budgets in recent years have been well documented. Wide cuts to benefits afforded to city staff were criticized during the 2020 budget process, but were passed anyway. Waterford Village Administrator Zeke Jackson declined to weigh in in favor or against the proposed sales tax. But he did say that the Village of Waterford, in order to keep (its) infrastructure in the same state that it presently is, the village needs to start investing approximately $1.4 million new dollars annually in infrastructure. That total does not include inflation increases. Were all facing fiscal shortages, Christensen said. Updated: A mathematical error on the part of The Journal Times originally misstated the cost increase caused by a half-percent tax on a $20 purchase. An extra half-percent tax will result in a 10 cent increase in cost for a $20 purchase. That increase was initially misstated in this article but has now been corrected. Love 1 Funny 3 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 2 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. (CNN) The Covid-19 pandemic has kick started a difficult global conversation about whether Western liberal democracies should radically rethink their relationships with China, an authoritarian regime upon whom many of these nations' economies rely. This has been especially confronting for the European Union, which has spent the past few years actively seeking greater engagement and cooperation with Beijing, with the ultimate goal of smoother two-way investment and access to one another's considerable markets. At a glance, an EU-China reset looks simple enough. Despite the bloc's move towards China, the transatlantic relationship is the cornerstone of the United States-led Western order. A European pause on the current talks with China to take stock of what's happened and what European priorities might be post-Covid, while economically costly, could be wise. It would also be welcome and popular in Washington. However, China's actions since the pandemic began have not led to the conclusion in Brussels that now is the time for Europe to go cold on China. Despite accusations of covering up the disease early on, spreading misinformation and its controversial "masked diplomacy" -- through which the Chinese state exported medical supplies like masks and gowns when the virus hit Europe in the hope of a public relations win, though this backfired in some instances -- multiple figures from both member states and EU institutions told CNN that the outbreak has actually cemented the reality that engagement with China is more essential than ever. These sources were not authorized to speak on the record about policy yet to be adopted. The logic goes something like this: the EU's current priorities are managing its recovery from coronavirus, both economically and strategically; becoming a serious geopolitical player; strengthening Europe's economy; and being a world leader on the climate crisis. It's widely accepted in Brussels that expanding relations with China plays into each of these. Officials believe that Chinese engagement is essential if the world is to understand the virus and learn the right lessons from the outbreak. China's vast wealth and willingness to invest is obviously a very attractive prospect to struggling EU economies. If the climate crisis is ever going to be brought under control, a good place to start is the world's largest polluter. And by treading a careful path between the US and China, Europe creates a unique role for itself on the international stage, giving it diplomatic autonomy from Washington. However, the pandemic has also refocused attention on other issues involving China that European leaders had been willing to overlook, including the incarceration of up to a million predominately Muslim Uyghurs in the country's western Xinjiangb region, industrial espionage and the suppression of democracy in Hong Kong. Inconveniently, this reminder has come just months before the EU and China were scheduled to meet at a centerpiece summit in September to cement their future relationship. Perhaps mercifully, Covid-19 has postponed that meeting. "The pandemic has been a wake up call for member states that were sleepwalking towards the China summit in September, blinded by the shine of Chinese money," said Steven Blockmans, head of foreign policy at the Center for European Policy Studies. "The coverup in Wuhan and spreading misinformation has undermined China's position as to how reliable a partner it can possibly be for Europe." This puts Europe in a tight spot. On one hand, it must engage with Beijing; on the other, it must more adequately acknowledge that China is a systemic rival that cannot be fully trusted. For the time being, the EU is sticking with this position. "By necessity, we have a complicated relationship with China. It is both a partner and a rival," said a senior European diplomat who was not authorized to articulate a position that has not been adopted by the whole EU. Europe and China have grown closer over the past three decades, as both sides found the lure of the other's economic power impossible to ignore. As China's might grew after the economic crash, Chinese money looked even more attractive to European economies. And while cooperation with Beijing always came with security risks and disagreements on fundamental issues of democracy, the benefit was largely deemed to be worth it. While the EU sees its complex position on China as a diplomatic advantage, it risks complicating matters with two of its closest allies in the near future: the United Kingdom and the United States. Last year, Boris Johnson's government controversially agreed that the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei could build up to 35% of the UK's 5G infrastructure, despite huge pressure from Washington. At the time, the debate was about whether or not it left Britons vulnerable to Chinese espionage. "From a UK point of view, 5G is no longer a conversation purely about managing risk, but part of a wider geopolitical issue," said Sir Malcolm Rifkind a former British Foreign Secretary. Rifkind believes that China's chief foreign policy has been to "threaten countries who do not conform to China's view on how it should behave," and that governments now "can't just divorce their behavior on Covid, on Hong Kong and on Uighurs incarcerated." The Huawei decision is currently under review and a senior British official familiar with the review process told CNN it's "fair to say it doesn't look good for Huawei." The official was not permitted to speak on the record. The UK has also taken an extremely firm line on Hong Kong, saying that it will provide a path to citizenship to millions of Hong Kongers as China prepares to impose a draconian new national security law on the city. Of course, this shift in London is being seen a huge win by China hawks in Washington, who, under the guidance of President Donald Trump, have been turning the screws since 2016. And with the UK now in its corner, the US might well be emboldened to hit China harder. "It will be difficult for the EU to ignore US calls for sanctions and de-coupling," said Blockmans. "Governments will try to ride it out until [the US] election is over. But if the next administration adopts secondary sanctions as Trump did with Iran, the EU will have to find new ways to protect its autonomy on international affairs." This autonomy is still incredibly precious to the EU. "There is a clear willingness of the EU not to become a tool of US diplomacy and find our own way of dealing with China," said the EU diplomat. However, the diplomat also acknowledges that Brussels cannot afford to act with the same degree of "naivety" it did in the aftermath of the eurozone crisis, when battered European economies welcomed both direct Chinese investment and its acquisition of failing companies -- and Europe opened its "markets without securing guarantees on security among other things." "I think with Covid we might be getting closer to a common European understanding of what China is and how it behaves," said Lucrezia Poggetti, an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies. "The Chinese government's behavior in times of crisis raised eyebrows in Europe with its attempts to play European countries against each other and undermine democracies, for example through disinformation. And as it becomes more prominent in national political debates, Europeans might come to a deeper understanding of China,"he added. Four EU officials privately admitted that they regret not being more assertive with China. "We are the number one market in the world and we must now use that as leverage when dealing with China," said one EU diplomat involved in Brussels' foreign policy explained. Blockmans thinks they could go further still and use assets like the EU's lucrative single market and the laws that oversee access to it as leverage in negotiations: "The Union should broaden its global strategy and use international and EU law more adroitly to defend its interests and advance its security objectives towards both China and the US." This is all likely to get very complicated. Despite everything, the EU's chief international objective remains to balance its relations between the US and China by engaging with the latter -- which it admits is a systemic rival -- at the risk of enraging the former. This would be difficult for any world power to pull off. When you remember the EU is made up of 27 member states, all of whom have equal say on this matter, it has the potential to blow up. For now, all member states are roughly in the same place, agreeing that Chinese engagement is essential but should be done with greater attention paid to the reality China is a systemic rival. But a post-pandemic blame game pointing the finger at China could turn some states into bigger hawks, while propaganda spreading a pro-China narrative has already proven effective in more Euroskeptic nations. Beijing has historically been good at picking off member states that are sympathetic to the Chinese position, most notably the less wealthy Eastern European states and the populist governments in Italy and Austria. If thinking among the member states does start to drift apart in the coming months, the bigwigs in Brussels might need to put their ambitions on ice for a little while. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Even if Europe wanted to break away from China post-Covid, it couldn't." Who said 2020 couldnt get more chaotic? Pandemics, police, and protests were preeminent, but they have now given way to proletariat pandemonium, as anarchists, communists and wannabe warlords (interspersed with partying Millennials and Generation Zers) have commandeered a section of Seattle and declared it an autonomous zone. Sure, it seems to be all rainbows and lollipops for those barricaded inside a six-block area around the citys Capitol Hill neighborhood, with free food, film screenings, no police, no rules and no government. But before like-minded folks attempt to emulate this in other cities, perhaps they should look at the real picture inside the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ): No protection from criminals; no legal recourse; no true medical care; no proper sanitation removal; no showers; almost no toilets (with streets doubling as bathrooms, creating a stench made pungent by the summer heat); vastly increased response times for 911 calls (if those calls are answered at all); and public and private property destroyed at will. And thats just for starters. Once the novelty of playing house with hundreds of strangers wears off, the radicals and those following them will learn that their social justice utopia doesnt quite stack up when compared to a warm shower, hot meal, and a bed that isnt a sidewalk. As social experiments go, this is a monumental failure for extreme leftism. No surprise there but thats a political discussion. Far more important is that this flagrant disregard of the law was permitted to take place, let alone continue, for over a week. That abomination is an indictment of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, and President Donald Trump. Heres a look: 1) The CHAZ is so rudderless that, quite comically, its inhabitants cant even agree on what to call their movement. First, it was CHAZ. That didnt sit right, so then it became CHOP Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. But that didnt work either, so the O now stands for Organized though Out-to-Lunch might be more appropriate. Farcical names aside, this situation poses a significant threat. U.S. citizens have been victimized by a militant group, and American soil has been compromised. According to Seattle police, there are reports that residents have been forced to show identification as a condition to enter the zone and return to their homes, and some business owners have been forced to pay protection fees a fancy way of saying extortion. Some entering the zone have been stopped by armed guards, while others have been physically attacked for carrying the American flag. And all have been deprived of government services for which they paid. The police station inside the zone was vandalized and stripped bare of equipment, and streets are littered with huge painted messages (which will cost a fortune to remove). And in the irony of all ironies, armed Antifa units are reportedly patrolling the area, which makes them, by definition, police. And here we were told that CHAZ was a cop-free zone. Lets be clear: This is not akin to Cuba or Venezuela, because those governments would never allow such insurrection. It is closer to drug cartel warlords who control regions through violence and intimidation. And it must end. Enough is enough. 2) For the last four years, all weve heard about is impeachment, impeachment, impeachment. The Left finally succeeded, but their strategy backfired when the president emerged from it stronger than ever. But even Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh isnt in the clear, as shameless Democrats, including former presidential candidates and numerous congressmen, want him impeached. Yet the two elected officials truly deserving of impeachment Mr. Inslee and Ms. Durkan (who referred to CHAZ criminals as patriots) are getting a free ride with nary a peep about removing them. How is that possible? This isnt just some random government building that was taken over, but an entire neighborhood. Both leaders have allowed a major American city in their jurisdiction to be controlled by armed insurgents, and both have permitted Washington residents (and yes, American citizens) to be stripped of their constitutional rights. The CHAZ occupiers have broken scores of laws, and threaten the stability of the entire region, so the abject failure of both leaders to end the anarchy is on full display. If impeachment isnt used on those grounds, whats the point of having it? 3) Since CHAZ organizers engaged in criminal acts, some bordering on terror, their demands should be ignored and no negotiations should occur, as doing so gives them a legitimacy which they dont deserve. Some of the CHAZ issues may well be valid. But when you decimate the rule of law simply because you dont like it, and seize American territory by intimidation and force, you forfeit your right to be heard. Far from legitimate civil disobedience, CHAZ is a slap to all who do it the right way, from the Civil Rights movement to todays peaceful demonstrations. If the criminal element in CHAZ wants the world to hear their beefs, they can write their treatises in prison. Because thats where they belong. Failure to arrest and prosecute will set a dangerous precedent. As it stands, because no one has acted to end the madness (a victory for the anarchists), it has emboldened other to contemplate doing the same thing. But if you think a rag-tag group in Seattle is bad, just wait for coordinated, well-funded agitators to turn it up a notch in cities across America all at the same time. 4) Most Americans, of every race and color, oppose CHAZ because they realize two things: A) theres a way to do things which moves the ball forward, and B) this isnt it. People want law and order because of the stability that it provides: personal and family safety; a conducive environment for businesses; economic income; educational opportunities; and boosting quality of life. We still have our differences, on everything from policing to income inequality to school disparities, but those problems can, and often are, solved by working together peacefully and maintaining civil dialogue. Nothing ever gets accomplished by engaging in thuggery. During a TV interview, a woman lamented that CHAZ organizers hijacked the Black Lives Matter protests. She is absolutely right, as the BLM message was derailed by all-about-me anarchists more interested in headlines and a music-fest atmosphere than advancing a true agenda. Thats shameful, and those responsible need to be held accountable. 5) Most disappointing is that President Trumps response has been limited to tweeting. His all-words, no-action bravado and never-ending string of idle threats are quickly creating Trump Fatigue, even among supporters. Some on the right justify the presidents impotence in three ways: 1) since the state of Washington is liberal, and therefore Mr. Trump wont win its electoral votes, he should just ignore everything that happens there; 2) the longer the CHAZ fiasco plays out, the better that Republicans look, and 3) using force to liberate the CHAZ is a trap, as the President will be accused of being heavy-handed playing into his critics narrative that he is a dictator president. Wrong on all counts, and if people left their partisan echo chambers for a change, they would see that. First, true public servants dont pick and choose whom they help based on political preferences. And anyone thinking this situation affects only those in Seattle has lost all rational perspective. A hostile takeover is an affront to every single American, of every race, creed and color, because it strikes at the very core of what makes America a stable bastion of freedom. Second, politics should have nothing to do with resolving this crisis. Ending it is the right policy; if there is political benefit, so be it. But thats a bonus. Third, Americans would back Mr. Trump by a wide margin if he used the FBI (not the military) to dismantle CHAZ and arrest its leaders especially if he addressed the nation in real-time as the operation unfolded, articulating what he was doing, and why. Unfortunately, Donald Trump seems to be worrying more about losing his job than doing it. Its time the President acts like our commander-in-chief and puts an end to this ugly saga. Be it CHAZ, CHOP or the name-du jour is, the time to end it is now. Chris Freind is an independent columnist and commentator whose column appears every Wednesday. He can be reached at CF@FFZMedia.com Follow him on Twitter @chrisfreind Rattle and Humbug: Bono has joined the Irish bid for a place on the UN Security Council U2 raised the curtain on the Irish bid to secure one of two seats on the UN Security Council. Photo: Steve Humphreys Irelands ambassador to the UN, Geraldine Byrne-Nason, will represent the country on the Security Council. IRELAND has been successful in its bid to take a seat at the United Nations Security Council, the top table of international diplomacy. A 'mammoth campaign' to win the prestigious role culminated this evening with a vote involving more than 190 countries at UN headquarters in New York. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the result sees Ireland once again "taking our place among the nations of the world and sitting at the top table." He said he believes the result was a vote for the values Ireland represents on the world stage - multi-lateralism, freedom , human rights and the basic concept that countries of the world should work together to build a more peaceful prosperous and stable world order." As a result of the coronavirus crisis social distancing was practiced during the voting process which lasted more than four hours. Delegates - including Ireland's UN ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason wore face masks - when they cast their secret ballot. Ireland secured 128 votes and will join other countries like the United States, Russia and China on the Security Council for the years 2021 and 2022. Canada and Norway were Ireland's rivals for a seat. Mr Varadkar described it as the "group of death" given the calibre of the opposition. Norway also took a seat. Mr Varadkar said Ireland will use the position "to advance the causes that we have championed - peace and security, conflict resolution and reconciliation, climate action, sustainable development and gender equality." He thanked President Michael D Higgins for his work on the campaign as well as Ms Byrne Nason and Ireland's wider diplomatic service for their work on the bid. He also thanked U2 singer Bono - who has also been involved - as well as former President Mary Robinson and the Riverdance show. The last public event promoting the bid was a a performance of Riverdance for diplomats in New York last March just before the corornavirus lockdowns that have hit countries around the world. Mr Varadkar also said: "it was nice to win at least one election this year." Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin - who will become Taoiseach in a matter of weeks if the coalition deal with Fine Gael and the Green Party is approved - congratulated everyone involved in the successful campaign. He said: I am delighted that we have secured a seat on UN Security Council. Our defence forces have served UNs peace keeping efforts with distinction since 1958 and our country has played a leading role at the UN for almost 60 years. President Higgins said the result is a cause for celebration. He said: The support Ireland has received vindicates the decision to run a campaign that did not avoid the issues that are urgent; a campaign that engaged with global issues, such as peace-building and peacekeeping, the elimination of global poverty, the strengthening of multilateralism, and reform of the United Nations. Ireland is to take up the seat on the Security Council for the years 2021 and 2022. The quest for the Security Council seat was officially launched in 2018 with costs to the State in the region of 1m. The government has officially put the cost at 840,000. Tanaiste Simon Coveney said this is half the costs the other two countries are believed to have spent on their bids. Mr Varadkar said a lot more is spent on Ireland's peacekeeping troops but that's part of what helps Ireland "genuinely punch above its weight" on the international stage. He added that Ireland "does a lot of good in the world". The 840,000 sum doesn't include President Higgins's travel costs for going to New York last September where he campaigned as part for Ireland's bid as well as attending other UN meetings and engagements with the Irish community. It also doesn't include the cost of naval vessel, the LE Samuel Beckett's voyage to New York the same week. It also travelled to Boston and had events for the Irish diaspora in both cities. Mr Coveney said the costs were still less than the other competitors have spent. He said that he had "no doubt" that the President's interventions and connections impacted very positively on the campaign and "that should make people proud". Mr Coveney it's his view that naval vessels should travel internationally citing the mission to the Mediterranean where thousands of migrants were rescued by Irish sailors. He said: "part of any naval service is to represent their country abroad and try to add momentum to campaigns like this." Q: What is the UN Security Council? The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, according to the goals set out on its website. It has 15 members, five of which the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom and France are permanent. The other ten members must win an election to the body, which aims to take the lead in determining threats to peace or acts of aggression and calls upon those involved to settle disputes peacefully. The Security Council can impose sanction and even the use of force. It played a key role in easing tensions at the height of the Cold War during the Cuban missile crisis. But more recently the Security Council and the UN generally has been increasingly side-lined. Efforts to avert war in Iraq in the early 2000s were futile and it has had no impact in stopping the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Yemen. It is often hobbled by the power of veto wielded by the five permanent members. Q: Why does Ireland want a seat? Ireland has prided itself on its record of multiliteralism on the international stage and more than 60 years of unbroken involvement by the Defence Forces in UN peacekeeping. Irish soldiers have taken part in missions in places like Congo in the early 1960s up to the ongoing and long-running presence in Lebanon. Despite past failures, the Security Council is still seen as one of the most important arenas in international diplomacy. Its work is often dominated by events in the Middle East and Africa both parts of the world where Irish aid and peacekeeping efforts are focused. A seat on the Security Council would give Ireland a greater role in the decision-making process surrounding those issues. Its also seen as an excellent training ground for Irelands next generation of diplomats. Some of those involved in previous stints went on to become ambassadors. Q: Who are our competitors? Ireland faced stiff competition from Canada and Norway. Bono famously said that the worst thing that can be said about Canadians is that they're "nice" and of the Norwegians that they're "tall". Canada is well-regarded on the international stage, having been a major player on the diplomatic circuit in the past incidentally, the countrys celebrity backer was Celine Dion. Norway is seen as a world leader in supporting aid programmes. All three countries have talked up their commitment to multiliteralism, peacekeeping and climate action. Q: Has Ireland ever sat on the Security Council before? Yes on three occasions, all of which coincided with major international crises. Ireland was a member in 1962 when the world faced the spectre of nuclear war between the Cold War superpowers. Key moments in the Cuban missile crisis played out in the Security Council chamber. During the 1981/1982 stint, Ireland angered British Prime Minister Margaret Thatchers government due to some Security Council interventions as the Falklands War raged. And Ireland was a member in 2001 and 2002 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States and the build-up to the Iraq War. UN efforts to avert the conflict ultimately failed, as the US and its allies invaded in 2003. Q: What do Irelands diplomats hope to achieve this time? Irelands ambassador to the UN, Geraldine Byrne-Nason, will represent the country on the Security Council. Ireland will be seeking to influence the international debate on climate change and the need for greater global cooperation in taking action and preventing its worst impacts. The worlds response to the coronavirus pandemic will also be high on the agenda for the UN Security Council next year. Theres a view in Irish diplomatic circles that there is too much focus on the failures of the Security Council and times that a permanent member veto prevented action. Thats despite the Security Council having a much wider agenda, with up to 700 meetings a year that carry out quiet work on a range of issues. Irish diplomats will seek to make the body as effective as possible, carrying on the work of other small member states who have served as non-permanent members. Tanaiste Simon Coveney has previously rejected any suggestion the effort to win a seat was a vanity project. He insisted this was a "cynical" view and Ireland should aspire to be at the UN's top table. Q: How much has all this cost? All in, it looks like the bill for Irelands massive diplomatic offensive will top 1m. The Government spent 650,000 prior to a major mission to New York last September for the General Assembly and other UN meetings that saw the Taoiseach, seven ministers and a small army of advisors travel at a cost of around 120,000. That sum does not include the costs for President Michael D Higgins also travelled to New York for UN meetings in September. Mr Higgins and the various government ministers that travelled were tasked with promoting the but also attended various UN meetings and engagements that week. A further 256,000 was spent on a voyage by the LE Samuel Beckett to New York the same week. There was a reception on board as part of the UN Security Council bid but it also had other engagements with the Irish diaspora in New York and Boston, similar to other transatlantic trips taken by the Naval Service on previous occasions. The costs have officially been put at around 840,000 but this doesn't include the LE Samuel Beckett's trip or the President's travel costs. Ireland is still thought to have spent the least of the three countries. Norways costs are reported to be 2.5m and Canadas have been put at 1.5m. Q: What were Irelands chances of success? The Government was optimistic that Ireland would win a seat and believed there had been momentum towards our candidacy in recent months. Much effort had been put into courting tiny Pacific and Caribbean island nations whose one vote is equal to countries with huge populations like China and India. Irelands role in peacekeeping, its experience of colonialism and record in international diplomacy have all been cited in the campaign to win a seat. The Tanaiste used an Irish political comparison as he spoke of the chances of success during that trip to New York last September. He said some people have described the process as a bit like a Seanad election campaign you get a lot of yeses from people that maybe dont turn out to be as solid as you think they are. Xu Yan, wife of human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, enters an office at the Xuzhou City Detention Center in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, on Oct. 30, 2019. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images) Beijing Sentences Chinese Human Rights Lawyer to Four Years in Prison Yu Wensheng, a Chinese human rights lawyer who has been detained for over 900 days since he was arrested in January 2018, has been sentenced to four years imprisonment. Yus sentence was confirmed when his wife, Xu Yan, released a voice recording to the media. According to Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, which obtained the recording, Xu said that her husband was sentenced in the morning of June 16. Sounding distraught, Xu said in the recording that Chinese authorities did not contact Yus family or his defense lawyers as they secretly handed out the prison term. She questioned if there was any rule of law in China, as Yu was sentenced without a fair trial or access to his representation. "Political persecution dressed up as legal process" Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng unjustly jailed after secret trial https://t.co/wBkA8y929s amnestypress (@amnestypress) June 17, 2020 Xu added that her husband made it clear that he would appeal the sentence; she later told Apple Daily that his lawyers will appeal the case in the next ten days. She called on the international community for help to stop China from illegally and arbitrarily bullying its people. Yu drew the Chinese regimes ire after he posted an open letter on Twitter in January 2018, addressed to senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who gathered in Beijing for a major political meeting. In the letter, he offered several suggestions to reform Chinas political system, such as for the Chinese leader to be chosen democratically. One day after his post, local police took Yu into custody near his home in Beijing. He was then taken to Xuzhou city in coastal Chinas Jiangsu Province and placed under residential surveillance. Yu was put on a secret trial in Xuzhou on May 9, 2019. Neither Xu nor his defense lawyers were contacted in advance. In April this year, the prosecutors office in Xuzhou charged Yu with interfering with public functions and inciting subversion of state powera catch-all charge Beijing often uses against dissidents. Yus wife said she is worried her husband would face a situation worse than what fellow human rights lawyer Wang Quangzhang experienced. Wang was released in early April after serving a 4.5-year sentence on charges of subverting state power. Yu was once a defense lawyer for Wang; the two are well-known for defending activists and adherents of the spiritual group Falun Gong, a meditation practice that has been severely persecuted by the Chinese regime since 1999. Michael Caster, a human rights advocate and co-founder of Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders, said the sentencing was outrageous. Yet again a human rights lawyer in China who in a better world would be highly decorated for his conviction has been sentenced unjustly after a lengthy disappearance, Caster wrote in a tweet. Hong Kong-based human rights activist Patrick Poon tweeted that Yus sentence was a shame for Chinas criminal justice system. Hong Kong pro-democracy party Demosisto compared Yus case to the impending national security law to be implemented in the Chinese-ruled city. A secret trial was held w/ his wife notified only AFTER ruling. Thiss how China uses National Security Law. Now Beijing applies it to HK and HKGov claims it has zero impact on civil liberties, Demosisto stated in a tweet. On May 28, China adopted a national security law for Hong Kong after a ceremonial vote by its rubber-stamp legislature. The law would criminalize those who engage in activities connected to subversion, secession, terrorism, and foreign interference. The law will be implemented after details are drafted by Beijing. By PTI NEW DELHI: A meeting held between divisional commanders of Indian and Chinese armies near the site of the violent clash in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh ended in a stalemate on Wednesday, military sources said. The Major General-level meeting discussed ways to implement the disengagement of troops from Galwan Valley as agreed during high-level military talks between the two sides on June 6. The Indian delegation at the talks was led by Leh-based 3 Infantry Division commander Major General Abhijit Bapat. The two sides held Major General-level talks on Tuesday as well. "Both sides raised the issue of the violent clash. Indian side pressed for speedy disengagement of troops in the area. However, there was no breakthrough," said a source. A Colonel and 19 other Indian Army personnel were killed in the violent clash on Monday evening during which the Chinese soldiers attacked Indian troops with stones, nail-studded sticks and iron rods. Sending a strong message to China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said India wants peace but is capable of giving a befitting reply if instigated. The clash in Galwan Valley on Monday night is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their clash in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. The two armies were engaged in a standoff in Galwan and several other areas of eastern Ladakh since May 5 when the two sides clashed on the bank of the Pangong Tso. After the standoff began, the 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 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. Chris Sacca was one of the past decade's most successful venture capitalists, with a run that included early bets in such companies as Instagram, Twitter and Uber. Then, in 2017, he quit. Driving the news: Sacca is good at investing, but bad at retiring. He's now running a new firm called Lowercarbon Capital, focused on startups that are developing "technologies to reduce CO2 emissions, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and actively cool the planet." "Clean tech" remains a dirty word for many venture capitalists, due to the mountains of cash lost on such deals in the late aughts. Sacca argues that the sector today is akin to internet tech in 2005 when Y Combinator launched, in terms of lower startup costs and clearer paths to scale. This is not, he stressed to me yesterday during a CB Insights conference interview, a charity case. Sacca also says he welcomes the investment participation of oil majors like Chevron and ExxonMobil, even though that's blasphemy in some clean-tech investment circles. Portfolio companies include a startup focused on lithium extraction tech, a carbon credits marketplace, and an oyster hatchery in Maine. Details: Lowercarbon currently is structured as a family office Chris' wife Crystal is co-founder in the tens of millions of dollars. It hasn't yet accepted outside money save for a few special-purpose vehicles with institutional investors from Sacca's prior funds, but there's a growing possibility that it will do a formal fundraiser. Elsewhere: Climate tech investing is having a big week. Sweden's Pale Blue Dot raised $60 million for a new fund, Prime Impact Fund emerged from stealth with $50 million, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners raised a 1.5 billion fund focused on renewable energy infrastructure. The bottom line: Sacca's participation could prompt others to tip their toes back in, or for the first time, but a stampede is unlikely until the new generation of clean tech companies produces a massive hit. TORONTO, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Caldas Gold Corp. (CGC.V) announced today that it produced a total of 1,214 ounces of gold in May bringing the total for the first five months of 2020 to 8,317 ounces compared with 10,481 ounces in the first five months of 2019. The Company expects to update its 2020 annual production guidance when it reports its mid-year financial results in August. Lombardo Paredes, President of Caldas Gold, commenting on the Companys latest production results, said, We are continuing to operate at Marmato as the COVID-19 national quarantine in Colombia lingers on. In May, our access to workers remained limited and we produced about half of what we normally would have expected for the month. The outlook appears to be improving in June as the local municipalities have recently allowed more workers to return to the mine. As such, we expect Junes production could reach about 75% of normal. We are continuing to manage our discretionary expenditures and at the end of May, our cash balance remained at approximately US$14 million. Operations at the Marmato mine continued to be adversely impacted in May 2020 by restrictions on the movement of people between communities during the national quarantine that have limited the availability of workers at the mine since late March. Similar to last month, the Company processed an average of 554 tpd in May with an average head grade of 2.5 g/t resulting in gold production of 1,214 ounces for the month. The Marmato mine produced 2,165 ounces of gold in May last year. By the second week of June, actions taken by Caldas Gold had increased its complement of workers at the mine and it currently expects that its production for the month of June will improve to approximately 2,000 ounces of gold. About Caldas Gold Caldas Gold is a Canadian junior mining company currently advancing a prefeasibility study for a major expansion and modernization of its underground mining operations at its Marmato Project in the Department of Caldas, Colombia with mineral resources of 2.0 million ounces of gold in the Measured and Indicated categories and 3.3 million ounces in the Inferred category. A Preliminary Economic Assessment study (Preliminary Economic Assessment Report, Marmato Project, Colombia, dated February 6, 2020 completed by SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc.) is available on the Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Story continues Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to production guidance and anticipated business plans or strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Caldas Gold to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Filing Statement dated as of February 19, 2020 which is available for view on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and Caldas Gold disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For Further Information, Contact: Mike Davies Chief Financial Officer (416) 360-4653 investorrelations@caldasgold.ca Montana is facing increased distress as the expense of responding to COVID-19 mounts and revenues decrease because of growing unemployment, the decline in economic activity and loss of sales and tourism revenue. If our federal lawmakers fail to take action to provide immediate and significant aid to state and local governments, experts predict even more job losses this time from critical public service jobs like police, fire, first-responders, teachers, and healthcare workers, among others. This will deal yet another blow to the fragile economy and contribute to its delayed recovery. The HEROES Act would provide an additional $3 trillion for a broad range of measures that would increase access to healthcare through Medicaid, ACA and COBRA; provide support to health care providers; and increase capacity for testing and treatment of COVID-19. This package includes many provisions to shield Montanans from additional economic harm caused by the ongoing pandemic, including more cash payments, extended unemployment benefits, paid leave improvements, and increased support to small business. The bill also includes features like hazard pay, which would protect and support workers, particularly those providing essential services while facing the greatest risk of infection. The HEROES Act is facing an uncertain future in the United States Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has employed the same politics-as-usual response, and will not commit to the Marshall Plan level recovery that we need. If Congress can afford to give away billions in tax breaks to households already making more than a million dollars a year, then it is clear that the nation can afford to provide the trillions needed for working people to make it through this crisis. Working Montanans have shown strength and resiliency in the face of the most destructive crisis of our lifetimes supporting our neighbors, keeping each other safe, and doing what we can to keep our families afloat. But as we begin to recover, we can't do this alone. It's time the U.S. Congress does its job. Tully Olson is the executive director of Big Sky 55+, an organization that works to engage Montanans 55 and older. [June 17, 2020] National Post Launches Redesigned Website National Post is pleased to announce the launch of a completely rebuilt website with a better reader experience to increase discoverability and a streamlined layout. The new site also delivers more value for advertisers with higher impact, increased viewability, and better targeting for their campaigns. Postmedia product and development teams are constantly iterating on the feedback we receive from readers, innovation from our teams and industry advances, to maximize the reader experience and advertiser results. "The redesigned National Post website delivers our award-winning reporting and thought-provoking commentary with an easy-to-navigate new design and top-speed page performance," said Rob Roberts, Editor in Chief, National Post. New features of nationalpost.com Faster Load Time According to Google (News - Alert) PageSpeed Insights, the new site is up to 68 per cent faster to load on mobile devices, exceeding the best-in-class standard for performance. Easier Navigation The redesign delivers an uninterrupted scrolling experience. More white space and less clutter make it easier to browse. Curated index and category pages spotlight the newest, most relevant stories. It's easier to find the best videos and related playlists. The new site offers improved accessibilit including a primary navigation menu that can be used with or without a mouse. Cross-device Compatible Fully responsive on desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Interactive Discoverability widgets help users find new content on the site or across the network Comments are now cross-device compatible and let users leave a comment, get email notifications and follow or unfollow other commenters. Advertiser Benefits Additional ad slots on home page and long-form content Improved performance due to viewability Rich Interscroller The initiative is being supported by an integrated advertising campaign produced in-house by Postmedia's marketing team. Visit www.nationalpost.com to experience the new site. About National Post National Post is a division of Postmedia Network Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (TSX:PNC (News - Alert).A, PNC.B), a Canadian newsmedia company representing more than 125 brands across multiple print, online, and mobile platforms. Award-winning journalists and innovative product development teams bring engaging content to millions of people every week whenever and wherever they want it. This exceptional content, reach and scope offers advertisers and marketers compelling solutions to effectively reach target audiences. For more information, visit www.postmedia.com or www.postmediasolutions.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005488/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] (ANSAmed) - ROMA, 17 GIU - Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said Wednesday that the government's long term aim is to double Italy's growth potential after the nation registered an average GDP rise of 0.8% in recent years, a level that is below the EU average. The minister also commented on the thorny issue of whether the government should apply for low-interest funding from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The centre-right opposition are against this, saying it would come with too many strings attached, and parts of the ruling majority supporting Premier Giuseppe Conte's government do not like it either. Gualtieri said that the ESM option was "attractive" but added that a decision would be made when the negotiations on EU aid for the post-COVID recovery are finished. (ANSAmed). North Korea is suspected of having built more nuclear warheads at a secret uranium enrichment facility in Kangson south of Pyongyang last year. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates in its yearbook published Monday that North Korea had 30 to 40 nuclear warheads as of January this year, 10 more than last year's estimate. Shannon Kile of the institute told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday that it reached the conclusion from analysis of commercial satellite images, especially vehicular movements. Facilities like the suspected one in Kangson, which the North has refused to declare, were the reason for the failure of the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi in February last year. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un only offered to dismantle the openly known nuclear facility in Yongbyon, which is thought to be more or less out of date. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy has deployed three aircraft carriers in the Pacific. The USS Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt are patrolling the western Pacific, which encompasses the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea, and the USS Nimitz is sailing towards Asia after leaving San Diego, its home port. Their simultaneous presence "represents the biggest deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers in the Pacific since 2017 -- when tensions with North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program were at their peak," CNN said. ZHEJIANG, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2020 / In 6 days, 81 foreign projects were signed with a total investment of $13.7 billion dollars on the 22nd (online) China Zhejiang Investment and Trade Symposium. The number is basically the same as last year, which means the data of Zhejiang's foreign capital in the first quarter realizes growth in spite of the pandemic. The global investment intention has weakened, but Zhejiang's foreign capital increased. Why? What is the effect of these foreign capital on Zhejiang's response to accelerated restruction of global industrial chain? As the epidemic continues to spread abroad, How can Zhejiang stabilize foreign investment? With these questions, reporters interviewed many representatives of foreign companies settled in Zhejiang to find answers from them. Quantity and quality of projects increase Foreign companies follow the pace of industrial transformation "Based in Haiyan, create the 'Hydrogen Valley of China'!" It is hard to imagine this slogan was suggested by Feng Yan, vice President of Air Products China, on the opening day of the Symposium. At the same day, the company's hydrogen energy project based in Jiaxing Haiyan with a total investment of $1 billion dollars was officially started. Besides US Air Products, a number of foreign companies are following the trend of Industrial transformation in Zhejiang, targeting emerging fields such as the big health industry, high-end equipment manufacturing and 5G technology application. As a demonstration and pilot city of hydrogen energy technology innovation and industrialization in Zhejiang province, Jiaxing has possessed a number of domestic well-known hydrogen energy-related enterprises such as D.R. Powertrain System Co., Ltd. and hydrogen energy automobile industrial park with an investment of 10 billion yuan. It already has the production capacity of fuel cell system and core components. Feng Yan has known the strength of Jiaxing hydrogen energy industry. "The project will help Jiaxing strengthen its chain and accelerate the formation of a complete industrial chain from hydrogen production, storage and transportation, hydrogen refueling stations, hydrogen fuel cell systems to hydrogen vehicles." she said. Shaoxing Binhai New Area successfully acquired a $430 million foreign investment. The project is a semiconductor design industry platform. "In terms of the amount of investment, $430 million dollars is not the largest, but this project is very significant for the development of the semiconductor industry in Shaoxing and even in Zhejiang." The representative of foreign investment department of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce said. For Shaoxing, which is speeding up the introduction of leading integrated circuits enterprises, such high-quality platforms are its urgent need. Foreign companies bring capital to Zhejiang and locate high-end sectors of industrial chain in Zhejiang, why? The reason is: they value the large Chinese market and Zhejiang's supporting capacity for industrial chain. "Gas products are not easy to transport, so we need to invest in projects close to gas sources." Feng yan said. American Air Products gets both an important gas source and a huge market in the Yangtze River Delta region. Therefore, this project in Haiyan is not only an investment in Zhejiang, but also an investment in the future of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. Zhejiang's outstanding supporting infrastructure is a key factor that attracts foreign investment. Zhai Chao, executive director and vice President of Crect Group, who has just signed a contract for a comprehensive health industry platform project at the Symposium said:"we have about 1,000 OEM factories in China, half of which are concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta. Jiashan is one of our best choices." In this symposium, signed projects have higher technology values and more headquarter and platform projects. "Compared with the investment in single plant in the past, more foreign companies now see Zhejiang as a key to radiate to the Yangtze River Delta." Zhai Chao said that platform projects often play a significant driving role, and it is highly likely for companies to make further investment to complete industrial layout. Bring in and go out Zhejiang enterprises seize the opportunity of industrial chain adjustment "The layout of the global industrial chain is not static, but dynamically adjusted." LAN Jian, director of the Provincial Business Research Institute, said, "the industrial chain layout will change with the international division of labor and global industrial distribution, and the epidemic has accelerated its evolution. In this process, overseas enterprises enter China and Zhejiang enterprises go abroad, this is the result of two markets selecting each other. It's an American luxury car brand selling each car for about 5 million yuan. It had great sales performance, but just suffered from unstable supply chain during the pandemic. To solve this problem, US Specialty Vehicles, LLC accelerated to shift factories from the US to Zhejiang, China. In the symposium, the company signed the contract to officially locate its factory in Ningbo, which has advantages in both industrial chain supporting facilities and port logistics. Xu Bin, chairman of US Specialty Vehicles, told reporter that after the project was launched, the industrial park would be set up to attract dozens of foreign automobile manufacturers along industrial chain to settle in, so as to further improve the local industrial chain and reduce production costs. "In building a modern industrial cluster, private enterprises and foreign investment in Zhejiang should form a healthy cooperative relationship." Nan Cunhui, chairman of Chint Group, said, "the company is speeding up the construction of Chint (Yueqing) IOT sensor town, to cooperate with Germany's famous IOT sensor industry association and incubate local sensor technology companies." At the symposium, Wang Licheng, chairman of the Board of Directors of Holley Group, introduced the "three big and three small" overseas industrial parks that Holley Group is currently building globally. In his view, enterprise introduction and going out are indispensable, both are important subjects in Zhejiang manufacturing transformation. "In the past 20 years, processing and manufacturing sector of almost every industry clustered in China, turning China into the 'workshop of the world'. However, China needs to consolidate and upgrade this position. It needs to bring in and go out." In his opinion, in the future, Chinese enterprises should not only keep and improve those irreplaceable advantages in industries and supply chain, but also embed their supply chains into the adjusted global supply chain through international production capacity cooperation. Improve business environment Best ways to attract foreign companies In the press conference of the 22nd Zhejiang Investment and Trade Symposium, Zhejiang province issued a new round of policies to stabilize foreign investment. The new policies emphasize on how to implement the national treatment for foreign enterprises instead of specific subsidy or reward for the foreign-funded projects settled in Zhejiang. "What foreign companies really want is better business environment." The representative of foreign investment office of the Provincial Department of Commerce said. The best way for Zhejiang to attract foreign investment is no longer incentives and subsidies, but constantly optimized business environment. In fact, almost every foreign company newly settled in Zhejiang or the ones increasing investment in Zhejiang repeatedly thumb up for Zhejiang's business environment. How attractive is good business environment for foreign companies? Huang Bin, vice President of Astrazeneca China, gave his answer by telling the story of locating the eastern regional headquarter in Zhejiang. "It was not an easy decision to make," Huang said. "We are now building four regional headquarters across the country. The regional headquarters in the west, south and north are quick decisions, but the regional headquarters in the east can hardly be decided." Huang bin said, at that time, Hangzhou gave a warm and authentic invitation. However, Astrazeneca's China headquarter is in Shanghai, and Hangzhou is so close that radii of two headquarters would overlap. However, leaders of Xiacheng district of Hangzhou have visited us again and again to introduce the industrial development plan of Xiacheng district in detail and talk about how the local government can provide quality services after the project lands. At last, Huang Bin and his team was moved. In addition, Zhejiang province is Astrazeneca's second largest market in China, Astrazeneca finally decided to locate its eastern headquarter in Hangzhou. After reaching the initial intention, Astrazeneca's confidence was further reinforced by the timely follow-up services of Xiacheng district. Although Hangzhou was the last to decide among four regional headquarters, it was the fastest in preparation and the first to be signed and settled. Based on this, Huang bin said with confidence: "We should build a closed-loop ecological industry integrating diagnosis and treatment in Hangzhou instead of just a factory or a sales company." Thanks to better business environment, places like Lishui and Quzhou, which used to have fewer foreign-funded projects, are getting more and more foreign investors. On the signing ceremony of major projects on the opening ceremony of 22nd Zhejiang investment and trade symposium, Germany Schott Pharmaceutical Packaging Co., Ltd. invested another 43.9 million dollars to build an automatic production line of glass pipe products in Jinyun. This is the fourth time in recent four years that the company has expanded its investment. "In fact, over the years many local governments have invited us to invest, but after repeated comparisons, Schott chose Jinyun." According to Hu Mingyue, deputy general manager of the company, the most important reason is the business environment. Since its investment in Jinyun in 2012, the local government has simplified the process of project approval and other steps. With the exclusive services, the projects have been put into operation ahead of schedule. This year,on the basis of the pharmaceutical packaging unit, Schott made a new investment of 100 million euros to introduce its own upstream production system. From comprehensive health industry to cultural tourism project, from high-end equipment manufacturing to new energy vehicle project... The continuous optimization of the business environment has also enabled Zhejiang to expand foreign investment. In this Symposium, The project of "Ten miles traditional marriage culture Town" jointly built by Shinnichiya Corporation and Ninghai Cultural Tourism Group was officially signed, with a total investment of about 1.78 billion yuan. Wang Weiqiang, chairman of Ninghai Cultural Tourism Group, said that Japan's Shinnichiya Corporation has rich experience in the construction and operation of cultural tourism towns, thus its investment will greatly promote the project development. However, this cooperation was nearly aborted due to the epidemic. "During the epidemic, Japanese companies hesitated to push the project because of the downturn in the global tourism market." Wang Weiqiang said. He and his colleagues kept in touch with Shinnichiya Corporation through WeChat and email. Since March 1, they have invited Chinese representatives of Shinnichiya to fly from Beijing to Ningbo twice a month for multiple rounds of negotiation on specific matters of this investment cooperation. Their enthusiasm and persistence touched the Japanese enterprise, and finally made this "cloud signing" happen on the symposium. On 22nd Zhejiang Investment and Trade Symposium, many foreign-funded projects were signed and put into construction. This shows Zhejiang's initiative to cope with global industrial chain restruction. These higher-quality projects will bring both success for involved foreign companies and new opportunities to the high-quality economic development of Zhejiang, while accelerating Zhejiang 's construction of an advanced global manufacturing base. Writer | Wengjie DuanQionglei correspondent | ZhongHuanhuan Translator | Xia Sainan Media Contact Company Name: Zheshang magazine Contact Person: Xia Sainan Phone: 0571-85310626 Email:sabrinaland@sina.cn Website:www.zjsr.com SOURCE: Zheshang magazine View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/594174/The-22nd-Zhejiang-Investment-and-Trade-Symposium-Signed-81-Foreign-Funded-Projects-with-a-Total-Investment-of-137-Billion-US-Dollars-Zhejiang-Opportunities-in-the-Restruction-of-Global-Industrial-Chain Three University of Dayton researchers have received approximately $2 million as part of a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) involving researchers from Harvard University and The Ohio State University, among others, to model and predict how pilots perform in various flight conditions. Using pilots flying simulated airplanes in the UD School of Engineering's Merlin Flight Simulator, mechanical and aeronautical engineering assistant professors Megan and Tim Reissman plus health and sport science associate professor Anne Crecelius will test how maneuvers under various conditions, such as potentially reduced oxygen, affect pilot-aircraft performance. The UD researchers' work is part of broader efforts looking to develop interactive models of "human-in-the-machine." "The models we develop will help scientifically understand how movements of machines influence how operators control inputs like steering and throttle, and what affect those movements and actions have on their physiological sensory capabilities," the UD group said. The schools in this MURI project are funded by the Department of the Navys Office of Naval Research (award number N00014-20-1-2163), with Dan Merfeld, professor and vice chair of research in the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, as the principal investigator. Megan Reissman's research focuses on the biomechanics of improving human movement performance. Tim Reissman studies the engineering of coupled systems and controls. Crecelius examines the regulation of muscle blood flow and vascular tone at rest and during stress, and improving vascular functioning. For interviews, contact Shawn Robinson, University of Dayton associate director of news and communications, at srobinson1@udayton.edu. Bryce Dallas Howard is about to go back to set to film "Jurassic World: Dominion" and has her directorial debut coming out on Father's Day. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times) Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the public has been given a rare glimpse inside the homes of news anchors, politicians and Saturday Night Live comedians. So knowing that her Zoom appearance had the potential to be judged by the likes of Room Rater a Twitter account that judges the home backdrops of television interviews Bryce Dallas Howard was prepared. Before a round of virtual interviews to promote her feature directorial debut, a documentary about modern fatherhood called Dads, she had distributor Apple TV+ send her a fabric photography backdrop. Her Oscar-winning makeup artist, Vivian Baker, mailed her a professional lighting kit and then taught her how to apply faux eyelashes via FaceTime. But after Dads drops on the streaming platform this weekend, the actress will no longer be confined to her home in upstate New York. Within days, she is planning to fly to the United Kingdom to quarantine for two weeks and then resume filming on Universal Pictures sequel Jurassic World: Dominion. After abruptly shutting down production in March, the film will become one of the first major Hollywood studio projects to attempt filming during the COVID-19 pandemic. Howard, 39, will reluctantly leave behind her husband, son (13) and daughter (8) to commence work on the franchise. The Times spoke with Howard about her comfort level in returning to production, why making "Dads" was a perfect Father's Day gift, and how she feels about both the hit race drama "The Help" and that controversial celebrity antiracism PSA produced by the NAACP. Universal is reportedly preparing the U.K. set of "Jurassic World" with measures like extensive testing, on-site doctors and 150 hand sanitizer stations. Is it enough to make you feel safe returning to work? Thats not even the half of it. Its really extensive, and I feel so relieved. Its really, really, really thought-out, which is a big deal. To me, its just about hearing the science and hearing from doctors, as opposed to it being about my own comfort level. And even though were going and were doing this, we are taking it a day at a time. So if at some point something changes or theres new information, theyre going to protect us before theyre protecting their investment. And thats the right attitude. Story continues So if you had felt uncomfortable returning to the set right now, you could have refused? I would be able to. I wouldnt be bullied into it or anything like that. But Im committed to getting there. From the beginning I was like, OK, listen, everything is figure-outable. Did you want to bring your family? There wasnt a definitive you cant bring your kids. I was going to bring my family, but I do not think Im going to bring my family, at least for the first part. Thats the biggest deal for me. But Im not the only one going through it. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard star in the 2015 franchise reboot "Jurassic World." (Chuck Zlotnick / Universal Pictures) Dads was financed by Dove Men+Care, which is owned by Unilever. Were you concerned that because of this, the movie might look like an advertisement for the company? It was really clear that it wasnt a commercial for them. It wasnt advertising products it wasnt even advertising their name. They wanted to invest in supporting modern fathers around the world. And the way they did it was by creating these paternity leaves, transforming their company internally and financing a feature film about modern dads. For sure, there was a point where Ive always said to myself: Female leads. Nonnegotiable. So my first movie [as a director] is Dads? It has all men in it? How did you reconcile that? Ive thought about it, and the only reason why this movie feels even remotely fresh is because its about parenting from the perspective of the father. Weve seen a lot of parenting from the perspective of the mother. I have so many examples to look to as a mother on movies, television, the Olympics you see the heroic mom. Im like, I better be an amazing mom. There are so many examples out there. And oftentimes for men, the only example they have is their father or grandfather. Its empowering men to get in there and empowering women to allow for that to happen. How are you celebrating Fathers Day this year? My daughter asked me on Mothers Day: Mommy, what are you going to get for daddy for Fathers Day? I was like, Oh, I directed a documentary this year. But I think in truth, were going to hang out here and the whole sort of breakfast-in bed deal. And then well probably head over to my parents, who are less than a half-hour away. Theres the age-old question: Do you want to spend Mother or Fathers Day with or without your children? Its going to be with, for sure. Eight and 13 is fun. Its like we have roommates who can clean their own toilets. Bryce Dallas Howard and her father, director Ron Howard, at the British Academy Film Awards in 2017. (Joel Ryan / Invision/AP) Your dad, the director Ron Howard, is in Dads. Because of his reputation as a filmmaker, were you at all leery about him appearing in your first feature-length movie? I was insecure about that when I was younger. When I went to NYU, I wouldnt tell anyone my last name and I was like, No, Dad, you cant come see my play because people might recognize you. But I realized pretty quickly that my parents were exceptional people and stand-up parents. For me to be weird about something that honestly, really doesnt have anything to do with me I just realized, thats just shortsighted. So many of my peers at NYU had parents who were really not supportive of them being artists in any way, shape or form, which totally made sense because they were scared for them. I had parents who were emotionally supportive of me. ... There wasnt a lot of baggage that I inherited from them in that way. Have you met my dad? Hes sweet, isnt he? He is. Did you learn a lot from him, growing up on his sets? I went to set with my dad every single day when I was a child. When I would get grounded, when I was in trouble, I wouldnt be allowed to go to set. So I was extremely well-behaved. They gave me jobs, starting when I was 7. I was in charge of squeezing the orange juice at craft service. At 11, I started getting work in the production office making Xerox copies and running things places. And at 12 or 13, I got to be a baby PA and had my own walkie-talkie and getting peoples lunch orders and setting up for dailies. ... Getting to be privy to that process and seeing how much failure and rejection is baked into that when I started working as an actor, I realized that many of my peers didnt have that experience and were really tough on themselves when they didnt get a part or messed up on the day. You recently posted on Instagram about the fact that The Help was No. 1 on Netflix, saying youd made great friends on set but encouraging your fans to watch Black stories made by Black creators instead. What prompted you to post that? Being around movie sets, I know what goes into a production. So when Im watching a movie, I know when I see the directors name that they were really, really involved and its largely their opinions and the writers opinion. The actors, I dont want to say were props we can be more than props. [Laughs] But the final decision is not ours. I know who has the power. And so right now, in this time, stories are going to play a crucial role in our ability to empathize and to be inspired into action. And the storytellers who we must listen to right now and look to and learn from theres an extraordinary body of work that centers on Black characters from Black creators. From left, Emma Stone, Allison Janney, Viola Davis, Cicely Tyson, Ahna O'Reilly, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Mary Steenburgen backstage with the Hollywood ensemble cast award for "The Help" at the Hollywood Film Awards Gala in 2011. (Associated Press) Would you still make The Help today? No. But what I will say is: What Ive seen is that folks have the courage to say that. With all due respect, I love this project, I do not think you could be the filmmaker. Thats a really powerful thing to say. Thats an important stance to take in order to make room for the true authentic storytellers. ... In this transformation thats happening, theres a new freedom of expression. Im seeing from others and feeling from myself that it is less about worrying about offending people and looking within and saying, Why? What really am I scared of, and what is that reinforcing? And so I posted it and didnt look back. And yet another thing you were a part of a PSA created by the NAACP featuring white celebrities taking responsibility for their racism was lambasted on social media. Do you feel like stars cant get it right when it comes to speaking out about social change? Its so not about getting it right. Its about your own work and your own involvement. You know whether or not youre showing up. For myself, I want to be an active ally. And if the NAACP comes to me and says Will you do this? I say, Yes. No questions. And thats OK. I feel good about that. I dont think it was clear that it was from the NAACP. It was a lot of white people. And so I understand the perception of it. But it also is not a mistake. The fear of saying something wrong, while thats completely understandable how do you not be afraid of that? Learning. Talking about racism has been so taboo, particularly within the white community. And its our issue. So we must talk about it and make ourselves uncomfortable. Seoul: North Korea will send soldiers to now-shuttered inter-Korean cooperation sites in its territory and reinstall guard posts and resume military exercises at front-line areas, nullifying tension-reducing deals reached with South Korea just two years ago. The Kim regime's announcement is the latest in a series provocations North Korea has taken in what experts believe are calculated moves to apply pressure on Seoul and Washington amid stalled nuclear negotiations. On Tuesday, the North destroyed an empty inter-Korean liaison office in its territory. Though North Korea's recent actions haven't led to clashes or bloodshed, it's still raising animosity on the peninsula to a level unseen since Pyongyang entered nuclear talks in 2018. The North's General Staff said military units would be deployed to the Diamond Mountain resort and the Kaesong industrial complex, both just north of the heavily fortified border. The two sites, built with South Korean financing, have been closed for years due to inter-Korean disputes and US-led sanctions. The death of 20 Indian soldiers along the LAC in Ladakh on Wednesday saw the opposition asking the Prime Minister to explain how the Chinese occupied Indian territory, even as the government contended that the sacrifice of soldiers would not go in vain. Congress president Sonia Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come forward and tell why 20 soldiers were killed, while Rahul Gandhi asked him to come out of "hiding" and share the truth of the India-China face off, saying the entire country was standing behind him. Prime Minister Modi, while addressing chief ministers at a virtual meeting, said the sacrifice of Indian soldiers will not go in vain. He said India wants peace but is capable of giving a befitting reply if instigated. For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here The prime minister has convened a virtual meeting of presidents of various political parties on June 19 to discuss the border situation at Ladakh. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the loss of soldiers was deeply disturbing and painful and the nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. Home Minister Amit Shah said the country will always remain indebted to its soldiers who lost their lives at Ladakh's Galwan and their bravery reflects commitment towards the motherland. In a video message, Sonia Gandhi assured the country of her party's full support to the Indian Army and the government. She asked whether some Indian Army personnel were still missing and how many were seriously injured. She said the government should explain its thinking and strategy to deal with the situation on the border in Ladakh. "Today, when there is so much anger in the country over Chinese intrusion into Indian border, the prime minister should come out and tell the truth on how the Chinese occupied the Indian territory, why brave soldiers were martyred and what is the current situation along the LAC," Gandhi said. "Which portions of the Indian territory have the Chinese occupied? What is their location? What is the government's thinking and strategy to deal with this situation?" she asked the prime minister. Rajnath Singh said in a series of tweets that Indian soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. "The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's bravehearts," he said. Amit Shah in a series of tweets said the pain of losing brave soldiers at Ladakh's Galwan cannot be expressed in words. "India will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifice. Entire nation and the Modi government stand firmly with their families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured," he said. Rahul Gandhi questioned the prime minister's silence on the fierce clash between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh and said the country needs to know what has happened and why Modi was silent. "Why is the Prime Minister silent. Where are you hiding? You should come out, the whole country is standing behind you together. Come out and tell the truth to the country, don't be afraid," Gandhi told the prime minister in a video message. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also asked Prime Minister Modi to show up, saying it was time to stand up to China as it was threatening India's sovereignty. CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury earlier tweeted, "Government should make an authoritative statement as to what actually happened. It's imperative that both governments advance the process of disengagement on the basis of the agreed understanding on maintaining peace and tranquility." Twenty Indian soldiers, including a colonel, were killed on Monday evening in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said, "Nothing can compensate for the supreme sacrifice made by them for the nation or the bereaved families' loss. We stand by the next of the sons of our soil in this difficult time." Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik tweeted, "Join the nation to salute the bravehearts of Indian Army who made the supreme sacrifice at Galwan Valley, protecting the integrity of our nation. Deepest condolences to the families of the brave martyrs." Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, "We are deeply shocked by the reports of a standoff in Galwan valley. Deepest condolences to the families of the martyred soldiers. We stand in solidarity with the personnel of our armed forces....our thoughts are with the brave soldiers and their families." Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said the government should not only give a strategic but also an economic reply to China. "All contracts awarded to Chinese companies should be suspended with immediate effect and there should be restraint on imports from China," Yadav said. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday demanded a befitting reply to China's aggression, and said the people of India stood with the prime minister. "Prime Minister, you are brave and a warrior...Under your leadership, the country will take revenge against China. When will a befitting reply be given to China's aggression?" he tweeted. Yesterday thousands of doctors, nurses, paramedics, health care assistants, medical laboratory technicians and other health care professionals joined a nationwide demonstration across France to demand increased health care funding amidst the global coronavirus pandemic. Several thousand workers protested outside the national health ministry offices in Paris. There were other major demonstrations of hundreds or thousands of people in many cities, and more than 220 separate protests outside local hospitals by staff. In Paris, the Macron government ordered a massive deployment of riot police. At approximately 5:00 p.m., riot police violently attacked groups of protesters, firing tear gas on the protest near the Invalides. Twitter videos show police arresting the same health care workers who only weeks earlier were being self-servingly hailed by the government for their sacrifice in protecting the population against the pandemic. In another video, police can be seen pushing a worker in a white hospital coat face down into the ground as she kneels and demands her ventolin asthma medication, before taking her away with her face bleeding. The sign says: Check your rolex. Its time for the revolt. The police crackdown shows that the Macron administration and the financial elite will violently repress opposition to its plans to use the pandemic to implement a massive transfer of wealth from the working class to itself. In his televised address on Sunday announcing the end to all confinement measures, Macron declared that the government will not impose any taxes on corporations to pay off 500 billion in state debt incurred during the pandemic. Of this, almost four-fifths were allocated to guarantee corporate debts. This money is to be paid through savage austerity against the working class. Macron is due to announce a new attack on health care before the end of the month. This has been fraudulently presented as a progressive reform. Macron was forced to pledge a wage increase for nurses under conditions of massive support in the population for their demands and opposition to the slashing of health care funding over decades by successive governments. However, it is already clear that whatever limited wage increases are provided will be more than made up for with sharp attacks across the health care sector. Health Minister Olivier Veran announced on May 20 that the government would increase wages for nurses, but that this would be tied to placing in question certain straitjackets that prevent those who want to work longer from doing so, meaning an end to the 35-hour work week. The French health care system did not perform sufficiently well, he added. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe declared that there could be no taboos. The Macron administration and its former health minister Agnes Buzyn had already introduced legislation mandating major health care funding cuts into the parliament in the months before the coronavirus pandemic. These triggered rolling protests and wildcat actions throughout the summer of 2019 up until the pandemic. Today, Le Monde reported that the national health insurance system faced a deficit of 31 billion, which will be used as a justification for deeper cuts. The Macron administration is meeting throughout the month with the trade unions, who are seeking to demobilize and isolate opposition among the health care workers. The sign says: The system is killing our health workers. Those who attended yesterdays protest described the impact of decades of funding cuts on the health care system that have been laid bare by the pandemic. In the last six years alone, spanning both the Macron administration and the former Socialist Party government of Francois Hollande, more than 17,500 overstay hospital beds were closed. What we are demanding here today is the same thing we have been demanding since before the coronavirus pandemic, said Jessica, who has worked as a nurses assistant for 13 years in a public hospital in Paris. We do not have the materials we need. There are not enough staff. When staff leave, they are not replaced. Our maternity leave is not actually provided. Wages are not enough. All of this existed before but had been allowed to happen behind the scenes and was only exposed by the crisis. There are no safe conditions. There are staff who are assaulted in the wards by patients because there are not safe working conditions. There are health staff who have died from the coronavirus. We are not protected. Jessica and Amissa Amissa, who came to the protest with Jessica and conducts home visits as a nurses assistant, added, We were already fed up. Now we want there to be a change. We dont want just a thank you and the applause. For health workers who conduct home visits, she said, nothing was provided in the height of the pandemic. Normally we are the ones who have to supply our own materials. We had our own reserves of masks and some of our patients even had to give us masks. Then we depended on networks of colleagues. Jessica concluded: There is always money when the government needs it. They have given billions to bail out Air France, Renault. The rich know that they have the means to buy their own health care, Samira said, and that they will be treated in any case. Aurelia Aurelia, a laboratory technician laboratory at the Poincare hospital in Paris, has worked in the hospital system for 22 years. Our laboratory was focused on the coronavirus, she said, and we had 90 patients at the hospital in intensive care. In the laboratory, there were practically no masks. We were allowed to take a single mask at a time and the number we took was noted down. There were not enough blouses, not enough staff. We also lacked gloves. Even the swabs used for testing had previously come from Italy and we did not have enough. Since the health care reforms introduced by Sarkozy, she added, we are provided a fixed amount of money for every type of operation we perform. That means if a patient requires more treatment, we bear the cost of the difference. The private hospitals take who they want to treat. She said she thought that the Macron government has no intention of increasing spending. They have given us little crumbsa one-off bonus of 1,000. They see patients as clients and not as patients. She said that the money should be taken from the rich, possibly via some other form of wealth tax, to pay for increases in the hospital system. Commenting on Macrons declaration that there would be no tax increases, she added, Every time it is us who are forced to pay, the middle classes and the poor. In his speech on Sunday, during which he projected mass bankruptcies and layoffs of workers, Macron declared that he would continue to collaborate with the trade union social partners, which are working to suppress, isolate and demobilize the growing anger in the working class. Health care workers must strike out on a new road and take the conduct of this fight into their own hands, by forming independent workplace committees controlled directly by rank-and-file staff, and to make a direct appeal to other sections of the working class in France and internationally for a united struggle. The response of the Macron administration to the just demands of the workers shows that the only answer of the ruling class to popular opposition is state repression. The struggle against the pandemic today and the guaranteeing of high-quality health care to all requires a revolutionary program, based on the fight for a workers government, the confiscation of the ill-gotten wealth of the financial elite, and the socialist reorganization of society. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Taipei, Taiwan Wed, June 17, 2020 15:45 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf87198 2 World Taiwan,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-travel-ban,COVID-19-travel-restriction,reopening,reopening-plan,pandemic,border-areas Free Taiwan will from the start of next week ease border controls put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and will allow in business travellers from some lower-risk countries, though they will have to be tested and quarantined. Taiwan has never gone into total lockdown and life has continued largely as normal due to its early and effective prevention work and a first-rate public health system. While it has largely lifted domestic restrictions, Taiwan has been more cautious about opening up its borders, which have been shut to most foreign visitors since mid-March. Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Centre said starting from Monday it would allow in business people coming from lower-risk areas including New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam and Thailand, plus those from South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau, which it judged medium to low risk. Travellers will have to provide details of where they are going in Taiwan, be able to provide proof of testing negative for the virus three days before flying, and prove they have been invited by a company, the center said on Wednesday. They will still be subject to 14 days of quarantine, as are all those coming into Taiwan, but will be able to shorten that if they pay for a coronavirus test and test negative. "To foster the opening of foreign business activities in a timely manner, we are announcing the relaxation of some border control measures," Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters. "We will simplify quarantine measures, starting from low risks areas." International flights have continued to operate to and from Taiwan throughout the border restrictions, though on a much reduced scale. Previously the only foreigners allowed in where those with residence permits, diplomats and a few other exceptions. Taiwan has reported 445 cases, the majority of which were in people who get infected overseas, and just seven deaths. It has only four active cases remaining. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Upper East Region has called for immediate suspension of police training activities of the Police Training School at Pwalugu for reportedly containing the majority of the Region's COVID-19 cases. The party in a statement issued by its Regional Communications Officer, Alhaji Saeed Ahmed Tijani, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga said: The attention of the National Democratic Congress in the Upper East Region has been drawn to media reports of an outbreak of COVID-19 in the Pwalugu Police Training School. The statement noted that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the Region collected over 600 samples of Police recruits at the training school as part of their heightened surveillance for COVID-19 testing, and said: over 199 police recruits tested positive of the novel COVID-19 in the region. This has increased the regions COVID-19 cases from the initial 42 to 241 making the Upper East the 6th highest region in the COVID-19 case counts in the country. This latest development is causing fear and panic among the populace throughout the region. The NDC described the infection rate in the School as unfortunate development, saying the high infection rate was expected Because the government defied experts advice and secretly admitted students into the Police Training Schools nationwide in the wake of this COVID-19 pandemic. It must be emphasized that the region over the last three weeks had zero active cases since the initial 26 active COVID-19 cases were treated and discharged from the treatment centre at the Upper East Regional Hospital, Bolgatanga, according to the GHS, the statement recalled. The Party stressed that the infection rate at the school was likely to overstretch the capacity of the Regions treatment centre, logistics and human resources, especially health professionals in the Region who were mostly at risk of acquiring the virus. According to our reliable sources, the Region has almost run out of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), which exposes Health Workers to the disease. Already, the COVID-19 situation in the country has been worsened with over 12,193 cases and 58 deaths and counting, following the easing of restrictions by the government. The statement said the rise in COVID-19 cases in the Region, especially in the Training School, with just a fraction of the results in, was a worrying issue to the NDC Party as a key stakeholder. The Party cautioned that the infection among the recruits should serve as a lesson to Teacher Unions, and said with the reopening of schools, the government should prepare for similar infection rates as some students or pupils scattered across the country including Regions with high recorded cases of COVID-19 were likely to transmit the virus, and may inadvertently infect their colleagues. The Party asked the government to temporarily close down the Police Training School to prevent further spread of COVID-19 as the GHS had pending results of samples yet to be received which might give higher numbers of infection. 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 Hima Cement's Kasese mining right appeal is dismissed 17 June 2020 Uganda-based Hima Cement (LafargeHolcim group) has seen its Kasese mining rights stripped from it after the High Court upheld a decision from 2013 to confer them to East African Gold Sniffing Company Ltd. The dispute has involved legal proceedings before the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Hima Cement had appealed to the High Court after its limestone rights in Kasese, western Uganda, were annulled by Justice Elad Mwangusya in 2013. Court of Appeal Justices Christopher Madama, Geoffrey Kiryabwire and Kenneth Kakuru have now upheld the original decision from 2013, dismissing an appeal that was filed by the Attorney General instead of Hima Cements legal team. Published under Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Oslo, Norway Wed, June 17, 2020 19:29 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf98f72 2 World China,COVID-19,outbreak,salmon,Norway Free Norway said Wednesday that its salmon was not the source of the recently discovered outbreak of the new coronavirus in Beijing, after many Chinese restaurants and retailers stopped selling imports of the fish. Norwegian salmon came under scrutiny in China after a recently discovered cluster of new coronavirus cases was reportedly traced to the Xinfadi meat market in Beijing and a chopping board used for cutting up imported salmon. "The issue is being resolved. We're working out the details today," said fisheries minister Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, quoted by TDN Finans. Ingebrigtsen said Chinese and Norwegian officials had met on Tuesday and concluded that Norwegian salmon was unlikely to be the source of the virus detected last week at the Beijing market. At least 137 people have been infected since last week in China's capital, a resurgence of infections that has led to the lockdown of several neighbourhoods and the cancellation of more than a thousand flights. Major supermarket chains including Wumart and Carrefour removed all stocks of salmon in the capital, but said supplies of other products would not be affected, Beijing Daily reported Saturday. Some Beijing restaurants were not serving any salmon last weekend, according to AFP reporters. Contacted by AFP, the Chinese embassy in Oslo did not provide any immediate comment. According to experts, salmon were most likely not the vector of the disease. "I think it's unlikely," Bjorn Olav Kvamme, head of the disease and infection section at Norway's Institute of Marine Research, told AFP. "I would think that the infection is not coming from salmon but rather from contamination of the product or tools by people," he added, but pointed to the absence of studies on the possible propagation of the virus by fish. In China, the chief epidemiologist of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Wu Zunyou, said the discovery of the virus on a cutting board "is not enough to certify that it comes from imported seafood". "It could have come from an infected person," he said on Chinese television. China, considered a very promising market by the industry, last year imported around 23,500 tonnes of Norwegian salmon. Shares in salmon producers, who have previously suffered from the diplomatic spat between Beijing and Oslo over the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010, were boosted by the latest news. Shares in Mowi, the world's leading salmon producer, were up by 3.7 percent around midday on the Oslo stock exchange. Producer Salmar was up 2.9 percent and Bakkafrost 2.3 percent. (Newser) Iowa is currently the only remaining state in which former felons are permanently banned from voting. But Gov. Kim Reynolds will put an end to that when she issues an executive order granting paroled felons the right to vote, the New York Times reports. The timing is not yet clear but Reynolds, a Republican, says her legal team is "working on it," the Des Moines Register reports. She promised it would take effect prior to the November election. Currently, felons must apply to the governor's office to have their voting rights restored, a practice that has come under fire from protesters in recent weeks. More than 60,000 residents of the state, including almost 10% of African-American adults, are currently barred from voting. Overall, 2.2% of voting-age Iowans are barred from voting due to felony convictions. (Read more Iowa stories.) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) The government is eyeing the gradual reopening of more tourist destinations, in a bid to revive the Philippines tourism industry amid the COVID-19 crisis. However, some local governments remain hesitant as they seek to establish tighter health protocols before opening their doors to the public. Speaking to CNN Philippines, Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said officials are in talks with the local governments of Bohol, Baguio, and El Nido in Palawan but noted the areas are still boosting their health measures and capacities before deciding to accept tourists. We are already talking to (Bohol) Governor (Arthur) Yap. Although he is still under GCQ (general community quarantine), like Boracay, he is making sure that his COVID lab is already done, Puyat said in an interview with The Source. Were looking at it maybe July. Puyat added that Baguio is also eyeing to open by September, citing city Mayor Benjamin Magalongs call for stricter health and safety protocols. The Tourism chief added some hotels in popular resort destination El Nido were also given licenses to operate but its local government also remained on the fence with regards to opening. LGUs are still hesitant, but of course because they want protocols to be in place. Thats what were doing. Were helping the different LGUs who are now under a modified GCQ to maybe help them with their protocols so that people who come there will be safe, Puyat noted. World-class beach destination Boracay was the first to open its doors amid the coronavirus pandemic with the island permitted to accept tourists from Western Visayas starting Tuesday. Philippine tourist spots were forced to halt operations earlier this year as local and international travel bans took effect to help contain the spread of the mysterious disease. Puyat said the DOT has reported a 60 percent decrease in terms of revenue since the height of the pandemic. Despite the continuous rise in COVID-19 cases, lockdown measures in majority of the country were eased in June in a bid to restart the economy and help crisis-affected workers. To date, the Philippines has logged over 26,000 cases of the viral disease. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Adrian Wail Akhlas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 07:37 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf5321c 1 Business COVID-19,stimulus-package,2020-state-budget,state-budget-deficit,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati,economic-growth,state-revenue,tax-collection,tax-revenue Free The government has again increased its planned spending on Indonesias battle against the COVID-19 pandemic amid plunging tax revenue and a widening state budget deficit. It is now setting aside Rp 695.2 trillion (US$49.63 billion) in funds for healthcare and economic stimulus spending to cushion the impact of the outbreak. This is the latest increase from the previous allocation of Rp 677.2 trillion, as the government ups its budget allocation for labor-intensive industries and regional administrations. The speed at which assumptions have been revised underscores the ferocity with which the virus is ravaging the economy. The situation is developing rapidly, so the stimulus program may change again, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said during a livestreamed press briefing on Tuesday. She added that the government would remain flexible in making budget changes. The pandemic has forced many businesses to shut down amid efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 40,000 people in Indonesia as of Tuesday afternoon. The slowdown in economic activity has taken a toll on the countrys gross domestic product (GDP) growth, which plunged to a 19-year low of 2.97 percent in the first quarter. Rp 87.55 trillion of the COVID-19 budget will be allocated to healthcare, Rp 203.9 trillion to strengthening social safety nets and Rp 123.46 trillion to incentives for micro, small and medium businesses. As much as Rp 120.61 trillion will be allocated for business incentives, which include tax incentives, and Rp 106.11 trillion to support ministries and regional administrations, an increase from Rp 97.11 trillion previously allocated. Meanwhile, Rp 53.37 trillion is allocated to stimulus measures for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and labor-intensive businesses, up from the Rp 44.57 trillion set aside previously for that purpose. The bigger budget of Rp 9 trillion for corporations will be allocated as working capital loans for labor-intensive businesses, with details on the schemes being finalized, said Finance Ministry Fiscal Policy Agency head Febrio Kacaribu during the same briefing. Meanwhile, the increased spending for ministries and regional administrations will be allocated to regional loans as well as additional buffer for special allocation funds (DAK), which will be disbursed in the form of labor-intensive programs that can be finished in four to five months, according to Finance Ministry Fiscal Balance Director General Astera Primanto Bhakti. We hope this additional DAK buffer can help regional economies improve peoples welfare, he said. The government now expects the state budget deficit to reach 6.34 percent of GDP this year as spending is soaring while revenue collection is falling. Indonesia recorded a widening budget deficit in May as the coronavirus pandemic hit all the economic sectors in the second quarter of the year, the Finance Ministry announced Tuesday. The deficit reached Rp 179.6 trillion or 1.1 percent of GDP, as of May, a sharp increase of 42.8 percent compared to the same month last year. State income nosedived 9 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 664.2 trillion during the same period, while expenditure shrank by 1.4 percent yoy to Rp 843.9 trillion despite the governments move to step up its social assistance disbursement. Social spending was recorded at Rp 78.9 trillion in May, up 30.7 percent from the same month last year. Indonesia has sold Rp 369 trillion worth of government bonds as of May, a huge increase of 98.3 percent compared to the same period of last year, to patch up the deficit. The decline in state income is in line with our expectation, as the coronavirus pandemic put heavy pressure on businesses, individuals and regional administrations, Sri Mulyani Indrawati said during the briefing. Tax collection dropped 10.8 percent yoy to Rp 444.6 trillion as of May as revenue from almost all the economic sectors, such as manufacturing, trade, financial services, mining and transportation, fell. Sri Mulyani projected the economy would shrink by 3.1 percent in the second quarter and grow at zero percent to 1 percent this year, adding that the government vowed to continue to disburse funds to cushion the virus-battered economy. Bank Central Asia (BCA) chief economist David Sumual called on the government to expedite its stimulus spending in the second quarter this year, adding that the spendings economic effect would be much lower if the government were to spend the budget later this year. We think the economy has hit the bottom in the second quarter, but the government has yet to disburse all of the stimulus spending, David said on Monday. It must speed up the spending for it to be more effective. Funding will accelerate talent mobility product roadmap in response to market demand PLEASANTON, Calif., June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Upskilling platform, Degreed, has announced $32 million in new funding in direct response to overwhelming demand for better skill insights, talent mobility, and a user-focused learning experience. Owl Ventures led this latest round, bringing Degreeds total funding to $182 million. According to Human Resource Executive, 75% to 80% of workers dont complete their HR systems talent profile, leaving organizations without a critical data set needed to inform agile business decisions. Degreed helps companies overcome this gap by enabling employees to develop their skills and create skill profiles. Using that data, the platform can then promote career mobility by connecting users to project, gig, and job opportunities. This round of funding will accelerate Degreeds career mobility roadmap. Weve seen a tremendous surge in client demand for our career mobility product. Its more important than ever for companies to understand the skills of their workforce, enrich their upskilling programs, and enable internal mobility, said Chris McCarthy, CEO of Degreed. Employees dont care about a system of record that they see 1-2 times per year. They need a simple, personalized experience that helps them build their skills and advance their careers. Transformation is the new normal. In order for us to keep up with the changes, learning agility is key to the organization especially because upskilling is anticipated to save organizations $1.2 billion over the next 3 years, said Raquel Andrade, Global Head of Talent Acquisition & Learning at Itau Unibanco, a Degreed client and the largest financial institution in Latin America, and the 16th largest bank in the world. Only skill data can reveal to us the business areas where we need to evolve, and drive transformation from inside out at Itau. Funding comes after record demand for Degreed in the last 6 months. More than one-in-seven Degreed users activated their accounts between April and May this year alone. New clients including Ford, Fidelity Investments, and South Africas Standard Bank quickly shifted their workforce strategies to empower remote work and talent mobility. Story continues The workforce has fundamentally shifted over the past months, and organizations are investing further in their people and skills, said Ian Chiu, Managing Director of Owl Ventures. The need for lifelong learning is greater than ever and with this latest funding round, Degreed is well-positioned to shape a future where a persons skills are the measure of their success and not their job titles. Where nobody becomes irrelevant because of a lack of the right skills at the right time. To see how Degreed is matching talent to workforce opportunities, visit their website: https://degreed.com About Degreed Degreed is the workforce upskilling platform for one in three Fortune 50 companies. We integrate and curate all the resources people use to learn including learning management systems and millions of courses, videos, articles, books, and podcasts. Then we use behavioral and data science to analyze everyone's skills, and to automatically personalize career development based on their jobs, strengths, and goals. Founded in 2012, Degreed is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, with additional offices in Salt Lake City, New York, London, Amsterdam, and Brisbane. Learn more about Degreed: Website | YouTube | LinkedIn | Twitter Note to editors: Trademarks and registered trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Media Contacts: Sarah Danzl Director of Communications, Degreed sarah@degreed.com +1.303.817.7137 Mobile banking/payments ranked the top adopted technology by Islamic banks according a survey conducted by the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI). Mobile banking/payments received 64% approval rate, followed by Open banking (60%) and Machine Learning (ML) and Big Data (44%), in the Global Islamic Bankers Survey (GIBS) Report with the theme Beyond Digitalisation: Fintech and Customer Experience. CIBAFI, the global umbrella of Islamic financial institutions, launched the 5th series of the report online via webinar. Following four successful editions of the annual report, the fifth edition tackles a trending topic for the financial industry. The report reflects the views of more than 100 heads of Islamic banks from 35 countries regarding Fintech adoption and customer experiences elevation. The online launch of the report was inaugurated by welcoming remarks from Dr Abdelilah Belatik, Secretary General of CIBAFI, followed by a video presentation of the main findings of the GIBS 2020 Report. Dr Belatik said: "Research is a crucial element for Islamic finance industry (IFI) development especially in these times of Covid-19 crisis. What makes CIBAFI GIBS Report unique is that it monitors Islamic bankers perspectives towards IFI and provides recommendations that are of high relevance to the industrys needs. The report measures the optimism level of Islamic bankers; identifies the greatest risks they are facing; their approach on specific aspects of Islamic financing activities; and much more. We hope this survey report will provide a positive impact on the industry. The survey revealed the main strategic approaches to integrate Fintech solutions by Islamic banks. 61% of Islamic banking officials favour buying services from Fintech companies, followed by in-house development of Fintech applications (53%) then joint partnerships with Fintech ventures (51%). Adopting Fintech solutions brings increased operational efficiency and scale, enhanced customer experience and reduced operating expenses/cost, confirm the Islamic banking heads. In order to improve customer experience, the report revealed the top practices that Islamic banks are currently focusing on; the product diversification was on the top with 87% approval rate, followed by employee training and monitoring (73%) and the use of social media and offering omni-channel banking (71%), the report said. The online launch also witnessed a panel discussion that explored and shared different insights and experiences of the experts in the industry regarding the current practices and challenges faced for the adoption of financial technologies (Fintech) and elevating customer experience. The panellists included Peter Casey, Consultant, CIBAFI; Mohammed Kateeb, Group Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Path Solutions; Hamid Rashid, Founder, Finterra Group; and Professor Chris WH Chan, Associate Dean (Asia), Ivey Business School. TradeArabia News Service If flying during the COVID-19 era, would you agree to wear a mask throughout your flight and expect that fellow passengers would do the same? Several weeks ago, major airlines all issued new policies requiring passengers to mask up during their flights, but those policies lacked an essential element: teeth. Stories quickly spread on social media and in regular news outlets about passenger non-compliance and airline non-enforcement, and it quickly became obvious to the airlines that they had a big public relations problem on their hands. So this week, the industry announced plans to get tough, and some carriers have already followed through with new sanctions for the unmasked. But whether those sanctions are enough to keep all passengers compliant is still up in the air. Airlines for America (A4A), the airlines trade organization, announced this week that from now on, its member carriers will be vigorously enforcing face covering policies for both passengers and employees who work directly with customers. Member airlines include United, Delta, American, Alaska, Southwest, Hawaiian and JetBlue. A4A said those airlines will now clearly articulate their mask policies to customers, perhaps even requiring them to acknowledge the policy during check-in; and will make in-flight announcements about details of the policy and the penalty for non-compliance. But the industry group did not set a uniform policy for enforcing face-mask rules. Each carrier will determine the appropriate consequences for passengers who are found to be in noncompliance of the airlines face covering policy up to and including suspension of flying privileges on that airline, A4A said. Regrettably, the federal government appears to be hesitant to make facial coverings mandatory, something that flight attendant and pilot unions are calling for. United and American were the first to announce new enforcement measures. Starting June 18, United said, any passenger who doesnt wear a mask in flight will have their name put on an internal travel restriction list. Once that happens, Customers on this list will lose their travel privileges on United for a duration of time to be determined pending a comprehensive incident review, the airline said, adding that it expects its mask policy to remain in place for at least the next 60 days. Uniteds flight attendants will be required to report non-compliant passengers if they cant, after three interventions, convince them to put on a mask which United will provide if they didnt bring one. What about those plastic face shields? If a passenger does have a medical condition or disability that prohibits the use of a cloth face covering, they would be exempt so if a passenger is looking to wear a face shield in lieu of a cloth face covering for a medical reason, that would be acceptable, a United spokesperson tells us. Don't miss a shred of important travel news! Sign up for our FREE bi-weekly email alerts. United didnt say anything about denying boarding or removing an unmasked passenger, and a spokesperson says that customers who cite medical reasons for not wearing a face covering will not be required to show a doctors note to back up their claim. The threat that an unmasked traveler could be barred from future travel seems like small comfort to a passenger who ends up seated next to one of these people. American Airlines said that effective immediately, passengers who show up at the gate without a mask wont be allowed to board. AA said it also might deny future travel for customers who refuse to wear a face covering. Alaska Airlines said in an online update last week before A4As get-tough statement came out that passengers who refuse to wear a face covering at the gate will be denied boarding. But it added that those passengers will be allowed to rebook their trip at the airport or online. All airlines allow exceptions to their mask rules for certain categories of passengers like young children and individuals with a disability or a medical reason for not being able to wear one (but no proof of such a condition is required). And of course, passengers are allowed to take the mask off when they are eating or drinking. The airlines obviously had to do something after stories became widespread about non-compliance with their mask rules like this incident reported in the New York Post, about a first-class, at-risk traveler on American Airlines who was seated next to a young woman who wouldnt put on a mask despite repeated requests by flight attendants. Two weeks ago, The New York Times ran a story with the headline: Airlines say everybody on board must wear a mask. So why arent they? The newspaper said it received large numbers of reports from travelers who encountered seatmates without masks and airline reluctance to do anything about it. This left them feeling they had to choose between confronting fellow passengers and possibly encountering hostility and sitting on a flight for hours potentially being exposed to the coronavirus. The patchwork enforcement of policies has left passengers uncomfortable, confused about whether they should be wearing masks or not, and concerned about their safety. Does the airlines' new "get tough" attitude make you feel safer flying during a pandemic? Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE biweekly email updates! SFGATE participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. A South Dakota biopharmaceutical company is developing an antibody treatment for the novel coronavirus using cow's blood. SAb Biotherapeutics, based in Sioux Falls, has genetically engineered the traditional farm animal to give them immune cells from humans. In turn, the cows produce antibodies against COVID-19, which is turned into a drug currently named SAB-185. The drug can be used as a treatment for patients already infected with the virus or for immediate protection if a vaccine is not an option or available. What's more, the company is set to start human trials next month. SAb Biotherapeutics, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, have genetically engineered cows to give them part-human immune systems to make antibodies against coronavirus (file image) Scientists say cows produce twice as many per milliliter compared to humans and several different types, increasing the odds that one will be effective. Pictured: Dr Zafia Anklesaria, co-director of the ICU at CommonSpirit's Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center, attends to a COVID-19 patient, in Los Angeles, California, May 18 'When we looked out into the world several years ago, we saw there was a gap in what we had as far as immunotherapies are concerned,' Eddie Sullivan, CEO of SAb Biotherapeutics, told DailyMail.com. 'The antibodies the animals are producing are targeting the virus in multiple ways.' Cows were the animal of choice because they produce large amounts of antibodies in their blood, twice as many per milliliter compared to humans. They also produce a wide variety of antibodies, increasing the odds that at least one of them will work. Additionally, according to Sullivan, their size is a simple but important factor. 'The advantage of using large animals, if we can produce fully human antibodies in a large animals, is that they can produce more than a small animal like a mouse,' he said. First, SAb took skin cells from cows and removed the genes that play a role in making the animal's antibodies. Next, the scientists inserted an artificial human gene that produced antibodies for humans. DNA from those cells are then inserted into a cow egg, which is fertilized into an embryo so that hundreds of cows with part-human immune systems can be produced. Prior to the pandemic, SAb had already completed a clinical trial with antibodies from cows to treat Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a cousin of the new virus. Results showed that the antibodies warded off the disease. Levels were of these antibodies were up to four times higher than the highest convalescent plasma from recovered patients that the SAb has been able to find. To test if it will do the same for COVID-19, the company has teamed up with Dr William Klimstra, an associate professor of immunology at the University of Pittsburgh. Tests have so far been positive in animals infected with the virus, although it has not yet been peer-reviewed or published. 'It's important to understand that these fully-human antibodies, not animals,' Sullivan said. 'This reduces the risk of putting foreign proteins in the body. And they work in an identical way to the way our bodies are fighting disease.' For the human trial set to begin next month it's currently unclear how many participants are being enrolled or how long the trials are expected to take. In the US, there are more than 2.1 million confirmed cases of the virus and more than 116,000 deaths. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton's new memoir accuses President Donald Trump of 'obstruction of justice as a way of life' and carrying out a chaotic foreign policy not designed beyond any grand strategy other than to serve the president's personal benefit. Bolton's bombshell book contains startling new claims of alleged misconduct by President Trump including agreeing to back off criminal probes as 'personal favors' to certain dictators that make up a foreign policy characterized by 'chaos' and aimed at the president's personal benefit. The book also contains a claim that Trump pleaded with Chinese President Xi Jinping to boost U.S. food purchases, describing it in terms of his own election. Trump regularly touts a deal to pause the China trade war as one of his chief accomplishments. The incidents are part of a pattern that Bolton describes as a 'pattern of fundamentally unacceptable behavior that eroded the very legitimacy of the presidency,' Bolton writes. According to just some of Bolton's revelations: Trump agreed to 'back off' criminal probes as 'personal favors' to dictators; Told Chinese President Xi Jinping should go ahead with building camps the regime was constructing for Chinese Uighurs; Spent part of Osaka summit 'pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win' reelection buy buying U.S. crops' Believed Finland was part of Russia; Said invading Venezuala was 'cool' and said the nation was 'really part of the United States' Made it a 'high priority' to get Mike Pompeo to hand a copy of Elton John's 'Rocket Man' to North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un; Did not know Great Britain was a nuclear power; and Defended Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi to distract attention from Ivanka Trump using personal email. The book also contains revelations about Attorney General Bill Barr, saying he tried to block prosecution of a Turkish bank, in a move sought by President Recep Erdogan. Barr's Justice Department filed suit in federal court in Washington, DC filed suit seeking to suppress the book, arguing that Bolton was in breach of nondisclosure agreements he signed. As Bolton' fired up a publicity tour for the explosive book, he spoke about Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ABC News. 'I think Putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle,' Bolton said of the world leader many policy experts consider the leading U.S. adversary. 'It's a very difficult position for America to be in,' he said,' Bolton said. Former national security adviser John Bolton takes part in a discussion on global leadership at Vanderbilt University Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn An excerpt obtained by the New York Times contains the claim about the criminal probes. Bolton writes that in cases involving China and Turkey, Trump was willing to 'in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked.' 'The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn't accept,' Bolton writes. According to a February report, Attorney General Bill Barr tried to block U.S. prosecution of a Turkish bank after Turkey's president Recep Erdogan asked Trump about it. Barr personally got involved to try to stop the prosecution of Halkbank, according to a CNN report. In the case of China, Bolton describes Trump as begging the leader, with whom he regularly touts his good relationship. Trump was 'pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win. He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome,' according to the book. President Trump says he fires Bolton, who claims he quit first. The Justice Department is seeking to stop publication of Bolton's memoir Trump pleaded in Osaka with China's President Xi Jinping to buy U.S. agriculture products, describing the pitch in electoral terms, Bolton writes Trump sought to give 'personal favors to dictators he liked,' according to Bolton, who recounts a story about Turkish president Recep Erdogan China agreed to buy $12.5 billion in U.S. agriculture products to halt a trade war, in a move seen as a boon to Trump in farm state battlegrounds like Iowa China agreed to billions in purchases of U.S. agriculture product to end the trade war that began when Trump slapped on tariffs to protest China trade practices. Trump implored Xi during a one-on-one meeting during their summit in Osaka, according to Bolton. Bolton's new book is titled 'The Room Where It Happened,' and has already climbed to the top of Amazon's bestseller list. The Justice Department on Tuesday sued to try to stop publication, claiming Bolton was in breach of contract of his nondisclosure agreements. Bolton describes Trump's meting with Xi, but says he must do so without benefit of his notes, due to a clash with the government during a security review. Xi complained about China critics in the U.S., and Trump immediately assumed he meant Demorats, according to another excerpt that appeared in the Washington Post. 'He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China's economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win,' according to Bolton. 'He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump's exact words but the government's prepublication review process has decided otherwise. Trump cast the deal as a breakthrough when he described it from Osaka. 'For the time being we won't be lifting tariffs on China,' Trump told reporters. 'We will work with China. They are going to negotiate and start spending money.' 'Cooperation and dialogue are better than friction and confrontation,' said Xi, prompting Trump to say: 'It would be historic if we can do a fair trade deal.' China had imposed retaliatory tariffs in a way that maximized pressure by focusing on key farm states including Iowa. When the 'Phase One' deal was finally inked in January of this year, China agreed to buy $12.5 billion in additional U.S. agriculture products. Bolton describes a meeting in New Jersey in 2019 where Trump tears into journalists amid his ongoing consternation about leaks and says they should be forced to give up their sources. 'These people should be executed. They are scumbags,' Trump said, according to Bolton. Guy Snodgrass, a speechwriter for former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis wrote 'can confirm' on Twitter. 'This sentiment expressed again during Trump's meeting with Mattis in the Pentagon,' Snodgrass wrote. In another episode, Bolton writes, Russian President in May last year compared Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to Hillary Clinton in a gambit to win Trump over. The U.S. recognized Guaido as the legitimate leader amid protests to the rule of Nicolas Maduro. Bolton called it a 'brilliant display of Soviet style proganda' to boost Maduro that 'largely persuaded Trump.' 'I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn't driven by reelection calculations,' Bolton writes. Trump didn't know that Finland is not part of Russia, according to the book. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called the book 'full of classified information, which is inexcusable,' although the comment could also suggest some of what Bolton claimed did in fact happen. According to an excerpt in the Wall Street Journal, Trump told Xi: 'You're the greatest Chinese leader in 300 years.' Then later, in a nation that still reveres Mao Tse Tung, Trump called him 'the greatest leader in Chinese history.' One passage depicts Trump showing contempt for a persecuted religious minority that U.S. policy seeks to protect by calling out repression of mostly Muslim Uighurs.' 'Trump asked me at the 2018 White House Christmas dinner why we were considering sanctioning China over its treatment of the Uighurs, a largely Muslim people who live primarily in China's northwest Xinjiang Province,' Bolton writes. 'At the opening dinner of the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang,' he continued. 'According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Council's top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China.' Another dark passage recounts one of Trump's many defenses of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi as an effort to distract attention from Ivanka Trump using personal email. The president's daughter, a White House advisor, was under fire for using the personal account for some government business a sensitive matter given Trump's attacks on Hillary Clinton. 'This will divert from Ivanka,' Trump said, according to the book. 'If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing.' Trade negotiator Robert Lighhizer denied the charge that Trump pushed Beijing to help his own reelection through the agriculture purchases. 'I was there. I have no recollection of that ever happening. I don't believe it's true,' he told the Senate Finance Committee. Woven together, Bolton concludes Trump's conduct was always about helping himself, often at the expense of the country or strategic objectives. 'The Trump presidency is not grounded in philosophy, grand strategy or policy. It is grounded in Trump,' he wrote. Bolton minimizes his own controversial moves, however, including ending a directorate at the NSC dealing with pandemic response before the coronavirus that would throw the global economy into chaos and cause a global health crisis. He writes that he merely shifted most staffers over to another directorate. 'At most, the internal NSC structure was the quiver of a butterfly's wings in the tsunami of Trump's chaos,' he writes. Democrats noted Bolton's revelations but also blasted him for failing to participate in impeachment. Bolton resisted a Democratic request that he appear to testify in the House, then offered to do so in the Senate, where Republicans voted in lock-step not to call witnesses. 'If John Bolton's accounts are true, its not only morally repugnant, its a violation of Donald Trumps sacred duty to the American people to protect Americas interests and defend our values,' wrote former Vice President Joe Biden on Twitter. Bolton 'may be an author, but hes no patriot,' fumed Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chairman. Boltons staff were asked to testify before the House to Trumps abuses, and did, Schiff tweeted, pointing to top NSC staffers who served as star witnesses. 'They had a lot to lose and showed real courage. When Bolton was asked, he refused, and said hed sue if subpoenaed. Instead, he saved it for a book.' Said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer: 'It was clear then and could not be any clearer now: the vote to convict and remove Donald Trump from office was absolutely the right vote. The revelations in Mr. Boltons book make Senate Republicans craven actions on impeachment look even worse and history will judge them for it,' he added in a statement. Democrats including Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon fired up new requests for information from Bolton based off the book. Mike Pompeo mocked Donald Trump behind his back by slipping John Bolton a note saying 'he is so full of s***' - and Bill Barr said he was 'worried' about his conduct bombshell book claims Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mocked President Trump behind his back, while Attorney General Bill Barr expressed concerns, according to John Bolton The Washington Post and New York Times obtained copies of Bolton's forthcoming book, 'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir' The book will be released next Tuesday and largely characterizes Trump's staff as knowing better than the president and talking behind his back Bolton described Pompeo as writing a note to him amid the 2018 Singapore summit, saying of Trump, 'He is so full of s***' Bolton, Trump's third national security adviser, said Trump was 'stunningly uninformed' and was always looking for a way to show 'reality TV showmanship' By Nikki Schwab, Senior U.s. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mocked President Trump behind his back and Attorney General Bill Barr shared his concerns, according to the blockbuster book by former National Security Advisor John Bolton. On Wednesday, both The New York Times and The Washington Post obtained copies of the tome, 'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,' which the Trump administration had tried to block from bookstores with a week to go before its release, filing a Tuesday lawsuit. The book largely characterizes Trump's staff as knowing better than the president and talking behind his back, like the time Bolton was passed a note by Pompeo amid the June 2018 Singapore summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. 'He is so full of s***,' the note read, Bolton wrote. In public, Pompeo has portrayed himself as the loyal servant - as has Barr. In private, when Bolton approached Barr to discuss the president's behavior - especially toward autocratic rulers like China's President Xi Jinping and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan - the attorney general admitted he, too, was worried. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton's new book 'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,' reveals that President Trump's advisers are talking behind his back, expressing shock and concern PASSING NOTES: John Bolton (left) recalled that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (second from left) slipped him a note during the June 2018 Singapore summit with the North Korea delegation that said President Trump (center left) was 'so full of s***' After President Trump seemed to capitulate to the leaders of China and Turkey, John Bolton wrote that he met with Attorney General Bill Barr (pictured), who told Bolton that he was worried with how the president presented himself On Wednesday, The New York Times and The Washington Post obtained copies of John Bolton's book, to be released Tuesday The takeaway from Bolton's book was that Trump, despite trying to convey strength, was a shallow, paranoid and indecisive leader. 'He second-guessed people's motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government,' Bolton wrote. Trump led using 'personal instinct,' Bolton went on, and looked for opportunities for 'reality TV showmanship.' Bolton, the president's third national security adviser, pointed to the president's diplomacy with North Korea as a prime example. Bolton, who had worked for President Reagan and in both Bush administrations, called Trump's first meeting with Kim in Singapore 'an exercise in publicity.' 'Trump told ... me he was prepared to sign a substance-free communique, have his press conference to declare victory and then get out of town,' Bolton wrote. Behind-the-scenes, Bolton captures Pompeo being appalled. He described a call between Trump and the president of South Korea as they prepared for the June 2018 summit. Both Bolton and Pompeo, according to Bolton, were upset with how Trump handled the conversation. Pompeo, Bolton described, said he was 'having a cardia in Saudi Arabia,' as he was listening to the call while traveling in the Middle East. Bolton, likewise, said the call was a 'near death experience.' After the summit, Bolton claimed Trump became transfixed with getting Kim a copy of Elton John's 'Rocket Man' CD, signed by the artist. Prior to their first meeting, Trump had called Kim 'Little Rocket Man,' when the North Korean leader would conduct unsanctioned nuclear experiments. Bolton criticized Trump for not being able to grasp that Pompeo wouldn't be meeting with Kim during every trip he made to North Korea. After one Kim-less trip, Bolton recalled Trump asking Pompeo if he'd handed the North Korean leader the CD. 'Pompeo had not,' Bolton wrote. 'Getting this CD to Kim remained a high priority for several months.' Donald Trump defended Saudi's Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi to keep the spotlight off revelation Ivanka was using private email account, John Bolton claims President Trump backed Saudi's Crown Prince in the aftermath of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder to distract reporters from covering Ivanka Trump Former National Security Advisor John Bolton's new book said Trump put out an exclamation mark-filled statement to 'divert from Ivanka' The president purposely pushed back on the CIA's assessment that Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's assassination The day before, Ivanka Trump was in the news for using a private email account for government business, which was Trump's attack line against Hillary Clinton 'If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing,' Bolton quoted Trump saying in his memoir, 'The Room Where It Happened' President Trump backed Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the aftermath of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder to distract reporters from covering Ivanka Trump's use of a private email server, a new book claims. Early copies of John Bolton's 'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,' were obtained Wednesday by The New York Times and The Washington Post. In the book, Bolton, Trump's third national security adviser, suggested that some of the president's more erratic behavior was designed to serve as a diversion. President Trump sent out a statement backing Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the aftermath of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder to distract reporters from covering Ivanka Trump's use of private email, John Bolton's new book claims On November 20, 2018, Trump wrote that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) 'could very well ... had knowledge of this tragic event - maybe he did and maybe he didn't!' referring to Jamal Khashoggi's (right) murder, which the CIA said the Crown Prince ordered John Bolton, the former national security adviser, wrote in his new book that the statement was by design, as President Trump (left) wanted to distract journalists from writing about Ivanka Trump (right) using private email with government officials Early copies of John Bolton's memoir, 'The Room Where It Happened,' leaked to the press Wednesday. The book is out Tuesday Bolton recalled the November 2018 controversy over Khashoggi's death. Khashoggi was a Washington Post op-ed writer and a resident of the U.S. He also was a critic of the Saudi regime. He went missing after walking into the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2. A month later, the CIA determined that the Crown Prince, who has a close relationship with White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, had given the order for Khashoggi's assassination. On November 20, the president read an exclamation-mark-filled statement essentially letting the Crown Prince off the hook. 'Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event maybe he did and maybe he didn't!' Trump had said. 'That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,' Trump continued. 'In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.' Behind-the-scenes, Bolton wrote, Trump decided to issue the statement because on November 19 the story broke that first daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails to government officials using a personal email account. Government officials are supposed to use government email accounts for government business, so the messages can be archived and proper security measures are in place. 'This will divert from Ivanka,' Trump said of the statement, according to Bolton's book. 'If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing.' Ivanka's use of a private email account looked hypocritical after Trump paid great attention to rival Hillary Clinton's use of her private email server during her tenure as President Obama's secretary of state. Donald Trump said invading Venezuela would be 'cool' and it was 'really part of the U.S.,' thought Finland was in Russia and didn't know Britain had nuclear weapons, John Bolton's book reveals John Bolton's new book contains a number of anecdotes in which President Trump is caught not knowing basic information about American foreign policy Bolton describes Trump not knowing that Britain, one of the U.S.'s closet allies, was a nuclear power The former national security adviser also said that the president once asked former Chief of Staff John Kelly if Finland was a part of Russia Bolton said Russian President Vladimir Putin was able to change Trump's mind on Venezuela by equating opposition leader Juan Guaido to Hillary Clinton President Trump didn't know Britain - one of America's closest allies - was a nuclear power; thought it would be 'cool' to invade Venezuela, and thought Finland was in Russia, a new book says. The book, 'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,' was written by Trump's former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who left the administration in September. Details on Trump's ability to handle foreign affairs were revealed in the 592-page tome, which was first obtained by The New York Times and The Washington Post on Wednesday. President Trump didn't know a number of basic things about American foreign policy and geography, according to former National Security Advisor John Bolton's new book, including that Britain, one of the country's top allies, was a nuclear power John Bolton (right) also wrote that President Trump (left) had asked former Chief of Staff John Kelly whether Finland was a part of Russia. He also shared an anecdote about Russian President Vladimir Putin changing Trump's mind on enezuela by equating opposition leader Juan Guaido to Hillary Clinton Early copies of John Bolton's blockbuster memoir, 'Where It Happened,' were leaked to the media Wednesday The book is expected to hit bookshelves Tuesday. Bolton's book contains numerous private conversations Trump had about other world leaders that showed his knowledge of them and foreign policy was limited. Trump asked his then-Chief of Staff John Kelly if Finland was a part of Russia, The Washington Post notes. And in a meeting with then-British Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018, a British official referred to the UK as a 'nuclear power,' and Trump interjected: 'Oh, are you a nuclear power?' Britain has long been a nuclear power and Bolton writes he could tell the president's question 'was not intended as a joke.' Trump also said invading Venezuela would be 'cool' and argued that the South American nation was 'really part of the United States.' Bolton also reveals how Russian President Vladimir Putin manipulated Trump to his point of view. He recalled a May 2019 phone call where Putin compared Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 rival. Bolton called it a 'brilliant display of Soviet style proganda' to shore up support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Putin's claims, Bolton writes, 'largely persuaded Trump.' While much of Bolton's book focuses on foreign policy, which is the aide's forte, he more broadly characterized the president has someone who didn't know a lot and wasn't learning. 'He second-guessed people's motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government,' Bolton wrote about what he witnessed during his tenure, which was over in September 2019. Trump, he said, led by 'personal instinct,' and went looking for opportunities to show off his 'reality TV showmanship.' New research has revealed that 28% of Irish motor consumers are planning on buying a car within the next 18 months, while 23% say they will likely choose hybrid for their next car of choice. As Ireland continues to flatten the Covid-19 curve and starts slowly picking up the pieces from the devastating personal, societal and economic impact the pandemic has had, new research reveals that Irish consumers still intend to make some key purchases they had planned before the virus hit. The survey conducted by iReach revealed that 28% of Irish people are planning to buy a car in the next 12 to 18 months, with 14% intending to purchase a new car, 13% intending to buy second-hand and 1% planning on buying an imported vehicle. 23% say they will likely choose hybrid for their next car choice. The nationally representative survey of 1,000 Irish citizens was carried out in May and specifically examined consumers intentions to purchase a car, as well as car brand and powertrain preferences. When presented with a list of the top 20 mass market car brands and asked which brand they would most likely choose for their next car purchase almost a quarter of respondents (23%) chose Toyota, with the second choice coming in at almost half of that with 12% of the vote. When it came to intended powertrain choice, hybrid accounted for 23% in the May survey. In terms of other powertrains, 12% of survey respondents said theyd choose full-electric, 25% said theyd opt for petrol, 33% said diesel, while 6% indicated they would most likely purchase a plug-in hybrid. In a more detailed pre-Covid-19 omnibus survey of 1900 people in February, also conducted by iReach, Toyota came in as the number one brand for resale value, build quality, price, lowest fuel consumption, most trusted car brand and leaders in hybrid. Undoubtedly the last few months have been extraordinarily difficult for Irish people however it has been inspiring to see how resilient we are as a nation as we work through the phases and challenges presented to us, commented Toyota Ireland CEO, Steve Tormey, on the survey results. We at Toyota are very much heartened to see the continued support for our brand in Ireland as evidenced by the strong iReach research results. As a brand, we strive to be an integral part of Irish society and the lives of the customers we have served for nearly fifty years. We intend to continue to support the country under our Built for a Better World brand promise into the future, and pave the way towards a more sustainable world and a zero emissions motoring environment. "And as restrictions are lifted and we all have greater freedom to travel, we look forward to helping our customers, current and new, to rediscover the joys of hybrid motoring." President Donald Trump's pick to be the CEO of a federal media agency is moving ahead with installing loyal administration officials to key leadership roles. The newly appointed chief of staff to the U.S. Agency for Global Media [USAGM], once known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors, sent out a memo to staff about the changes that are being made. The new chief is Emily Newman, who was an advisor to the Department of Homeland Security prior to becoming a leader within USAGM, her financial disclosure report shows. Beyond adding new leaders to the agency, Michael Pack, the chief executive, terminated the membership of longtime board members on Wednesday that have been part of USAGM entities for years, including those on the boards of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Open Technology Fund. "I have terminated your membership on the board, effective immediately," Pack said in emails reviewed by CNBC. Newman said in the memo, which was first reviewed by CNBC, that the changes were being directed by Pack himself and that certain personnel must report to their new department leaders. She also appeared to put in a warning to members of the staff about communicating with anyone outside the agency. "Until further notice, no actions are to be taken, and no external communications are to be made, without explicit approval from the Chief Operating Officer; Vice President for Legal, Compliance, and Risk Management; Deputy Chief of Staff; or Chief of Staff," the memo reads. The decision to add leaders that, based on their track record, have had a staunch loyalty to Trump, comes after Democrats have voiced concern that Pack could be on on the brink of moving ahead with purging the staff. Pack, a conservative documentary filmmaker with ties to former White House chief strategists Steve Bannon, wrote a memo to the staff on Wednesday, introducing himself and laying out three objectives, including raise morale at the agency. "USAGM consistently ranks at the bottom in surveys of mid-sized Agencies in terms of morale and job satisfaction. I will make it a priority to improve morale here," Pack said at the time. USAGM oversees the Voice of America, a news network that has been publicly under siege by Trump and his allies. Two network officials have already resigned since Pack was confirmed by the U.S. Senate earlier this month. Meanwhile, a nonprofit run by Pack is under investigation by the Washington, D.C., attorney general for potential self-dealing. Those listed as new department heads within the organization include Michael Williams, who first worked at the Office of Management and Budget and later became a Deputy Assistant to the President. He also had a stint as general counsel for the American Suppressor Association, a lobbying group that pushes states to ease restrictions on gun suppressors, according to their website. Williams will be the vice president for legal, compliance and risk management, the memo says. Williams also once worked on Trump's inaugural committee as an associate general counsel and the president's 2016 campaign as director of election day operations, his financial disclosure report says. The new director of public affairs is Jonathan Bronitsky, who once worked at the Office of Personnel Management, was a chief speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Justice and held a similar role at the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank that was once led by Pack himself. Andre Mendes will be USAGM's new chief operating officer. He was previously employed by the U.S. Department of Commerce but, prior to that, had executive leadership roles at the federal media organization. When reached for comment, Bronitsky said he would work to confirm the roles and past work history of those mentioned in this story. He did not call back before publication. A White House spokesperson also did not return requests for comment. One of the Democrats that have sounded the alarm about a potential firing spree at USAGM is Rep. Eliot Engel, (D-NY), the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. "I have learned that Michael Pack, the new CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, intends to force out a number of the agency's career senior leadership tomorrow morning," Engel said in a recent statement. "My fear is that USAGM's role as an unbiased news organization is in jeopardy under his leadership. USAGM's mission is 'to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy'not to be a mouthpiece for the President in the run up to an election." Copy of the memo: Effective immediately, prior delegations of CEO authority have been revoked and re-delegated to the following individuals, until further notice: Effective immediately, the following will report to the USAGM Chief Operating Officer, Andre Mendes: o Deputy Director for Operations o Chief Financial Officer o Chief Strategy Officer o Director of Technology, Services and Innovation Effective immediately, the following will report to the USAGM Vice President for Legal, Compliance, and Risk Management, Michael Williams: o General Counsel o Executive Director o Chief Risk Officer Effective immediately, the following will report to the USAGM Principal Director of Public Affairs, Jonathan Bronitsky: o Chief Global Communications Officer o Director, Office of Policy Effective immediately, the following will report to the Deputy Chief of Staff, Diane Cullo: o Director of Management Services o Acting Director of Congressional Affairs Until further notice, no actions are to be taken, and no external communications are to be made, without explicit approval from the Chief Operating Officer; Vice President for Legal, Compliance, and Risk Management; Deputy Chief of Staff; or Chief of Staff. Meetings will be scheduled this week to include discussion of delegations and functions. Encompass Health Corp. EHC has announced that its plans to build a free-standing, 60-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital on American Way in Libertyville, IL The new unit will be named Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Libertyville. The facility is expected to be opened in the spring of 2022 and complement other local units of the area. The hospital will provide care for patients recovering from debilitating illnesses and injuries including strokes and other neurological disorders, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and complex orthopedic conditions. The hospital will offer physical, occupational and speech therapies as well as 24-hour nursing care for better patient health outcomes. This will bring the much-needed intensive rehabilitation services to Lake County and the surrounding area. Encompass Health has nationwide presence with a strong portfolio of 135 hospitals, 245 home health hubs, and 83 hospice centers in 38 states apart from Puerto Rico. With this new unit, the company will continue to deliver high-quality, cost-effective, integrated services across the healthcare continuum. It seeks to address the hugely unmet demand for facility-based and home-based post acute-care services by constructing or acquiring new hospitals and purchasing or opening home health and hospice agencies in the extremely fragmented industries. Revenues at Encompass Health have been consistently increasing since 2010, driven by the rising contribution from its inpatient rehabilitation plus home health and hospice segment. Its revenues witnessed a CAGR of 14.2% from 2014 to 2019. Demographic trends, such as aging population should spur long-term demand for the companys solutions on offer. While it treats patients of all ages, most belong to the senior-citizen age bracket of 65 years and above, and the number of Medicare enrollees are expected to grow approximately 3% per annum for the foreseeable future. This demographic trend will fuel demand for the companys services and aid revenue growth. Year to date, Encompass Health has lost 4% compared with its industrys decline of 4.4%. Story continues Encompass Health presently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the some space are Addus Homecare Corp. ADUS, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated DGX and Avita Medical RCEL, each currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Estimates for Addus Homecare current-quarters earnings have been revised 12.5% upward. Quest Diagnostics bottom line surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 5.58%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Avita Medicals 2020 earnings has moved 7.69% north. Just Released: Zacks 7 Best Stocks for Today Experts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of +24.1% per year. These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout. See these time-sensitive tickers now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (DGX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Addus HomeCare Corporation (ADUS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Encompass Health Corporation (EHC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Avita Medical Ltd. (RCEL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Two weeks before he was killed in the face-off with Chinese Army at Galwan valley in Ladakh, 32-year-old Chandra Kanta Pradhan, a sepoy in 16 Bihar Regiments, probably had a premonition of the things to come, says his sister. Pradhan was posted at Ladakh in February this year and seemed to be excited amid the snow-clad mountains. When he called up his sister Sandhyarani in Biarpanga village of Kandhamal district on June 1, he told her to take care of everyone. The eldest of the tribal family in Raikia block of Kandhamal, Chandra Kanta was known for his jovial nature and courage. He was crying over the phone and asked for forgiveness over any hurt that he may have caused to me and my younger brother. He told me to look after my younger brother and our parents. He never cries, but that day he cried and said war may start, said Sandhayarani. Also Read: Akhilesh calls for economic reply to China, has his hands on popular pulse As TV channels started flashing the news of the killing of Indian Army personnel at Ladakh, Pradhans family could hardly remain calm. His father Karunakar Pradhan then rang his mobile phone, but no one picked up. Hours later, when a retired army man in the neighbouring village ran to Biarpanga to inform the family about the bad news coming from Ladakh, Karunakars heart sank. When he was selected for the army, I pleaded with him to not join. But he was insistent that he would join and serve the country. Just the other day, he had told me that he had flown in a chopper three times. He said 14 of his mates have been selected and all of them are flying. I told him to be careful, said Karunakar, a marginal farmer. The death was confirmed after Chandra Kantas sister spoke to the head of his brothers unit. In one moment, the Pradhan family had lost their only breadwinner. Chandra Kant is the second soldier from Odisha to be killed in the action on Monday night. Also Read: Wife of Odia JCO killed at Galwan valley yet to know of husbands death He was like my father and my brother. I have lost everything. He was highly sincere towards his duty. He was courageous, simple and hard working, said Sandhyarani, whose marriage was on the cards. Chandra Kanta left behind a younger brother, an elder sister, besides his parents. I am proud that he has laid down his life for the motherland, said his father. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh each from chief ministers relief fund to the next of the kin of the two Odia jawans who were killed at Galwan valley. As lockdown measures are slowly being lifted in some parts of the world , the question arises as to how to construct such a new normal. Nine female trade union leaders shared their ideas and beliefs about a post-Covid, more egalitarian world. All speakers agreed that gender equality has to take a concrete form: inclusion is not enough, women need to hold effective decision-making power, including in risk assessment and COVID response teams. As UK Unite trade union secretary Gail Cartmail phrased it, women must seize control over the bargaining agenda and organizational culture, pointing in particular at trade union structures which are not immune to practices that discount female voices. In traditionally male-dominated sectors politics, construction women have to train and empower themselves to come forward. As the president of the Portuguese Syndicate of Journalists Sofia Branco said, Covid-19 may have had harsher effects on women, but it was always men who publicly talked about it. "It is up to women to step forward and speak for themselves", she said. She pointed at the lack of female presence as a news subject and emphasised the absence of women as experts during COVID-19 news reports. As the Global Media Monitoring Project shows, women make only 24% of those who are heard, read and watched in the news and only 4% of stories challenge gender stereotypes. "Media reflect society and if society is conservative, media is conservative" she said, encouraging women workers to speak to the media to change the narrative. As for those sectors in which women are majorities such as education or health care - dominated by highly-skilled women and yet undervalued in comparison to traditionally male professions, as well as the overwhelmingly female informal sector, women need to demand more respect and opportunities for development. An effective approach to a post-Covid gender equal normality also needs to take into account that oppression is stratified, as underlined by Adriana Paz-Ramirez from the Latin American Domestic Workers Federation, pointing at black, indigenous, migrant, and poor women as the most vulnerable. Panelists insisted that women need to be concretely involved in decision-making, and this demands a strategy. But, as Secretary Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council April Sims warned: The fight for equality is not a women-only issue we also need men; our issues must be mens priority and unions priority, said Secretary of Kenyan Metal Workers Union Rose Omamo. We are here to make sure that our demands are taken seriously at this critical moment to change the world. We want a real response to inequality, one that is met with the same urgency as the response to COVID-19, concluded moderator Madeleine Kennedy Macfoy from Education International. The recent adoption of the Convention 190 by Uruguay opens up a path of hope. Himachal Pradesh: Starts fish exports to neighbouring states June 17,2020 | Source: Outlook India Himachal Pradesh Fisheries Minister Virender Kanwar said on Tuesday that the state has started exporting fish from its reservoirs to the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi. He said a total of 600 metric tonnes of fish valuing Rs 683 lakh were produced from various fisheries till May after the lockdown was opened in the state. A total 17,549 kg of fish were sold in retail outlets in the state after April. The state has exported around 743.25 metric tonnes valuing Rs 1,857.73 lakh during the year 2019-2020, he added. He said that fish exports were affected due to the lockdown, but now the situation has begun to improve. Looking at the huge potential to increase the state''s fish exports to the neighbouring states, the government is planning to promote export of exotic carps, singhara and trout in a big way due to their high demand and remunerative prices. Kanwar said the state has registered fish production of around 14,020.14 metric tonnes in 2019-20, while by September the state anticipates fish production of around 3,000 metric tonnes. He said that fish export hubs would be created in the state reservoirs and trout areas where export varieties like singhara, carp and rainbow trout would be promoted. Amid the lockdown, the government took several steps to encourage fisheries activities and 76,650 fish seeds were made available to private fish farmers and 77,245 fish seeds were stocked in fish cages at the Bhakra Dam and Bilaspur. In order to maintain the production rate of fish in the state, 5,900 kg trout feed was provided to various trout farms in different parts of the state and 3,239 kg trout feed was also provided to private trout farmers. After April 20, a total of 17,549 kg fish were sold in various retail outlets in the state. He said the Department of Fisheries has released a Rs 1.07 crore relief package to 5,350 state reservoir fishermen for compensating the losses accrued due to the Covid-19 outbreak in the state. Each fisherman was given a financial assistance of Rs 2,000 for the nearly month-long halt in fishing activities. The Gomoa Akyempim branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has distributed hundreds of nose masks to drivers and petty traders in and around the lorry station. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview, Mr. David Kofi Sam, the Union Chairman said, since the Union operates with individual persons from afar and within it deemed it prudent to provide the masks as its contributions towards the fight of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the Union had also placed several Veronica buckets, liquid soaps at vantage points in and around the station managed by some of their staff who directed people to wash their hands before entering the station. Mr. Sam, stated further that, they were also ensuring that all commuters wore nose masks before boarding the vehicles. It had also embarked on education through its local information centre at the station to sensitize people to strictly respect the laid down protocols to avoid contracting the virus. COVID-19 is real, let us protect ourselves and others from contracting the virus since at the moment there is no affirmed medicine to cure it. Whenever we going out, ensure social distancing and also frequently wash our hands under running water with soap, a key guarantee to stop the spread of Coronavirus, he stated. He appealed to Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the area to also provide PPE to people in the community, since the fight of the COVID-19 pandemic was a collective affair. 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 [June 17, 2020] AM Best: Profitability, Investment Challenges Prompt Negative Outlook on South Korea's Non-Life Insurance Market (AM BestTV) In this episode of AMBestTV, Chanyoung Lee, senior financial analyst, AM Best, said deteriorating loss ratios and escalating pressure on investments are challenging the South Korea non-life insurance market. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=ambsouthkoreaoutlook620 to view the entire program. Lee discussed the trends that have negatively impacted the South Korea non-life market. "In the overall industry, net income dropped by 40% last year mainly because of increasing claims in the long-term and automobile insurance lines, which are the two major business lines in South Korea's non-life sector," said Lee. "For automobile insurance, which accounts for about 20% of total direct premiums, there were multiple factors that drove loss costs up in recent years, including a hike in repair costs, a rise in the minimum wage and growing claims from medical treatment. For the long-term insurance line, which is the largest business line in South Korea's non-life sector, the main driver for the increased loss ratio was the surge of claims in the medical indemnity coverage, which accounts for about one-third of the total risks premium." Lee also addressed how non-life insurers are holding up against the pandemic. "In South Korea, AM Best expects the impact of COVID-19 on the non-life insurers' underwriting side to be minimal. Sales have been and will be inevitably disrupted for a while, especially in the face-to-face sales channels. AM Best did not see much decline in new business in the first quarter, but does expect to see an impact in the second quarter. Additionally, the impact on the overall top-line for premium income will not be material because of the large, recurring premium base of the long-term insurance line." To access the related market segment report, titled, "Market Segment Outlook: South Korea, Non-Life," please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=297360. Insurers Brace for 'Above Normal' Hurricane Season, Less Data for Forecasts : Tom Varney, ARC regional manager, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, and Marla Schwartz Pourrabbani, national catastrophe specialist, Swiss Re, discuss the 2020 hurricane season, saying that with commercial flights grounded due to the pandemic, forecasters will have less data for predictions: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=hurricaneseason620. : Tom Varney, ARC regional manager, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, and Marla Schwartz Pourrabbani, national catastrophe specialist, Swiss Re, discuss the 2020 hurricane season, saying that with commercial flights grounded due to the pandemic, forecasters will have less data for predictions: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=hurricaneseason620. Fewer Claims Than Expected Mute COVID-19 Impact on Health Insurers' First-Quarter Earnings : Sally Rosen, senior director, and Joe Zazzera, director, both of AM Best, said more patients recovering at home resulted in lower-than-expected health insurance claims: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=ambhealth620. : Sally Rosen, senior director, and Joe Zazzera, director, both of AM Best, said more patients recovering at home resulted in lower-than-expected health insurance claims: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=ambhealth620. California Earthquake Authority Managing $21 Billion Wildfire Backstop for Utilities : Glenn Pomeroy, chief executive officer, California Earthquake Authority (CEA), a nonprofit, said CEA is now managing a $21 billion Wildfire Fund backstop for utilities: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=pomeroy620. : Glenn Pomeroy, chief executive officer, California Earthquake Authority (CEA), a nonprofit, said CEA is now managing a $21 billion Wildfire Fund backstop for utilities: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=pomeroy620. COVID-19 Pandemic Struck MPL Market at 'Weakest Point' in Two Decades: At the State of the Medical Professional Liability Market webinar, participants discussed the implications of the pandemic hitting the market following a combined ratio of 113.3 in 2019: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=mplirecut620. AM BestTV covers exclusive AM Best and insurance industry information and reports, targeted topics and key developments in the insurance, reinsurance and related sectors daily. Sign up for alerts of episodes at www.ambest.com/multimedia/ambtvsignup.html. View AM BestTV episodes at www.ambest.tv. AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright 2020 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005741/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] KABUL -- Afghan officials say Taliban fighters have attacked a checkpoint in the northern province of Jawzjan, killing 12 security force members. Abdul Marouf Azar, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said on June 17 that five others were wounded in the attack that occurred at dawn in the Aqcha district. The militants have taken four soldiers hostage following the attack, Azar said, adding that the militants also suffered casualties. "Five Taliban were also killed and 10 others were wounded in the clashes," he said. The Defense Ministry confirmed the attack and said six of its soldiers were among the dead. A Taliban spokesman said the group was responsible for the attack, but he said the death toll was higher, though he did not elaborate. In another northern province, Kunduz, militants attacked an Afghan National Army checkpoint on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Kunduz city, killing five soldiers, according to the provincial police chief, Faqir Muhammad Jawzjani. At least seven others were wounded in the incident, he added. Meanwhile, the explosion of a mortar shell in the southeastern province of Ghazni left four children dead, while wounding three others, the provincial governor's spokesman, Arif Noori, said. The children found the shell in the Deh Yak district and started playing with it when it went off, Noori said. The government has said that in recent weeks some 422 Afghan personnel have been killed or wounded across the country in at least 220 Taliban attacks. The Taliban says it remains committed to an agreement they signed with the United States in February. The landmark deal provides for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and is intended to pave the way for peace talks between the Taliban and the U.S.-backed government in Kabul. With reporting by dpa and AFP New Delhi, June 17 : Chinese Peoples Liberation Army has suffered casualties in single digits so far during their brutal attack on Indian Army personnel at Galwan valley at the Line of Actual Control that has so far killed 20 Indian soldiers, sources said. "Their casualties are as low and in single digits so far," sources told IANS. The Chinese outnumbered Indian soldiers 1:5 at the ridge by the Galwan river where the clashes took place for six to seven hours on Monday night. The Chinese soldiers at patrolling point 14 where they were to make a deescalate operation, took on an India unarmed visiting patrol by surprise. Indian Army has refused to comment on the number of Chinese Army casualties. "It takes time to analyse the casualties in the opposite camp during such violent attacks. Lot of factors are involved to reach specifics," the army officer told IANS. Source in a top intelligence agency stated that casualties on the other side (Chinese) are in single digit according to "analysis done so far". During the brutal clash, at patrolling point number 14 in Ladakh on the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, Indian Army troopers were outnumbered by 1:5 ratio when they came under attack from the Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers. China's PLA troopers "savagely attacked" Indian Army personnel, according to sources in the government with knowledge of the details of the Monday night clashes between the two army soldiers. "The numbers were stacked up against the Indian Army troopers. Yet, the Indian side decided to fight the PLA troopers. The Indian soldiers were outnumbers 1:5 by the Chinese troopers," the sources said on Wednesday. China is also said to have used thermal imaging drones to trace the Indian Army soldiers scattered on the treacherous terrain before brutally attacking them. "It was the deadliest attack carried on Indian Army personnel by the Chinese military personnel to our memory," the government sources said. "We were outnumbered," admitted an Indian Army officer, talking about the clash that went on for six to seven hours. On Wednesday, the government sources said several Indian Army soldiers are "critically injured" and are undergoing treatment. The "causality numbers could increase" as the current critically injured personnel numbers are more than 10, the sources said. The Indian Army official, however, refused to comment on the numbers, but just said "several are injured". On Tuesday, Indian Army said 20 of its men, including officers, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with PLA troopers at the Galwan Valley on Monday night. The force also said the death toll would increase, as many soldiers were grievously injured. In a statement on Tuesday night Indian Army stated, "17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20." The force further said Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the intervening night of June 15/16. It said the Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. These are the first casualties suffered by either armies since 1975 when an Indian patrol was ambushed by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh. The latest attack took place after the Brigade and Company commanders-level talks happened in eastern Ladakh between the two militaries on June 6. The ongoing disagreement over the disputed area between te two sides have been on since early May. (Sumit Kumar Singh can be reached at sumit.k@ians.in) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has reiterated Governments commitment to assist and bring home Ghanaians stranded outside the country because of COVID-19. She said the Government decided to assist in the evacuation of Ghanaians stranded abroad owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Foreign Minister said the decision was taken to begin the process of bringing Ghanaians home following the alert from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that COVID-19 was most likely to remain a global public health issue until a vaccine was developed. Madam Ayorkor Botchwey stated at the meet the press series, which was organised by the Ministry of Information to give an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. The Minister explained that under phase one of the evacuation exercise, Ghana received 230 or so returnees from Kuwait on May 23rd. She said phase two evacuation, which comprised privately arranged chartered flights had started. Two evacuations were from Nigeria on June 4th and 11th, which brought in seven and 70 returnees respectively; who were currently undergoing their 14 day mandatory quarantine. She said there was another evacuation on June 6th from Washington DC of 41 students who were on an exchange programme in the United States. She said that this evacuation was financed by the State Department of the United States; and that the returnees were also under quarantine. We have also received on the June 6th and 9th a total of 19 Ghanaian mine workers and they were also in a hotel under quarantine. Another 14 Ghanaian mine workers were evacuated from Burkina Faso on June 6th, and are also in quarantine, she said. The Foreign Minister recounted that on June 8th and 24 Ghanaian deportees and one student were received from China and were currently undergoing the 14-day mandatory quarantine as well. She said in addition, 45 Ghanaian workers from Israel, who were also received on the June 12th, were also under quarantine. Madam Ayorkor Boctwey said the Ministry took advantage of chartered flights arrangements of Egypt and South Africa to evacuate their stranded nationals in Ghana. She noted that as South African and the Egyptian Governments were bringing flights to evacuate their nationals from Ghana; for South Africa, they able to bring in three Ghanaians and for Egypt five Ghanaians. She intimated that all the evacuations were successfully executed. The Minster said the third phase of the evacuation exercise begun on the June 12th, with the arrival of the first batch of 254 stranded Ghanaians from Dubai. She said in addition, 141 students who completed their French language proficiency course in Benin were evacuated on Saturday, June 13th; declaring that they came in by STC Buses and were undergoing the 14-day mandatory quarantine. Madam Ayorkor Botchwey said the second batch of 250 stranded Ghanaian from the United Arabs Emirates are expected today June 16th. She noted that other assisted evacuation exercises were also in the pipeline on Wednesday, June 17 and Sunday, June 21st, for which over 400 Ghanaians would be coming back home. She said on June 19th, the ministry was expecting 13 Ghanaians from Burkina Faso, who would arrive by road. She said the Government was looking forward to bringing back Ghanaians totaling about 195 from Lebanon on June 19th. The Foreign Minister said they would be evacuating Ghanaians towards the end of the month from New York and Washington DC in the United States and from Guangzhou in China. We are also planning evacuations for Ghanaian within the continental Europe area. Discussions have also started to bring back home Ghanaians in other parts of Africa, Madam Ayorkor Botchwey stated. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Protesters calling to defund the police march down East Market Street near Eighth Street in Center City Philadelphia on June 13, 2020. Protests against racism and police violence continued in Philadelphia for a second week following the Minneapolis police custody death of George Floyd. Read more We see stirring images of black and white people unified in demanding an end to a state-sanctioned reign of terror that has left too many of us breathless. Jolted by the agonizing death of a black man by a cop so confident in his right to administer deadly correction that he did it as cameras rolled and bystanders begged, this diverse movement seems to signal that America has had enough. For now. Weve been jolted before by images: of fierce dogs biting children, peaceful protesters toppled by blasts from fire hoses, students spit on and beaten at lunch counters, the grotesquely disfigured corpse of Emmett Till, the charred remains of four innocent children being carried from the smoldering wreckage of the bombed-out church where they died in Sunday school at the hands of known terrorists who, of course, would go unpunished. America had had enough then, too. So black and white people, young and old, joined hands and marched together, we agitated for change together. And there was some change: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and a spate of actions that affirmed the American ethos of liberty and justice for all. But even though affirmative action has produced more affirmation than meaningful action, that diverse movement soon faded to black-only as the networks resumed their regular programming and the nation resumed the status quo. America had had enough then forgot about it. So what, if anything, makes this years wake-up call any different from an alternating current of rude awakenings and returns to slumber that have characterized so much of Americas history? Well, it wont be the coast-to-coast catharsis we see played out on our TV screens. Because, while repeated images of black men paying with their lives for infractions that wouldnt get a white man a citation may be enough to overcome inertia, it has never been enough to sustain a movement. The only thing that makes lasting change in this country is an appeal to self-interest. The question we have to answer for all of those well-motivated white people who sincerely want to help us is how their advocacy will benefit them in the long run. White America has been sold on the notion of a zero-sum game: the idea that any advance that benefits blacks or immigrants or others comes out of their pockets. Thats why American history is replete with examples of white backlash in the wake of every perceived advance for black people. We are a nation led by a man who has learned to capitalize on the inbred American mania that they want what you have earned, a fear that ignores the fact that the you were once the they. I watched President George W. Bush being grilled by black reporters at a convention of the National Association of Black Journalists after his Justice Department filed a brief on behalf of parents who argued that their children were denied admission to the University of Michigan Law School because some black students were admitted with lower scores. The president, to his credit, admitted that he had been admitted to both his prestigious prep school and Yale University despite lower than average scores because he was a legacy whose father and grandfather had graduated from and endowed Yale. Would the Justice Department back a suit on behalf of students who were denied admittance because of legacies, athletes, or other preferred applicants? You know the answer to that one. But our national policy under Bush and ever since is that black preferences are unconstitutional, indeed un-American to hear our legacy president tell it. Someone has to make the case that resolving the racism and inequity will accrue to the benefit of all Americans. There is an economic case that needs to be made about how rising tides elevate all. We need to be reminded of Chicago in 1968, when the victims of police violence were young whites before white America can understand that the knee on my neck today could be on yours tomorrow. If nothing more, we need to remind ourselves that the world is looking at the same images we are and seeing the difference between who we say we are and who we are indeed. Only when we close that gap will the marching and protesting signify that, finally, America has had enough. Elmer Smith is a former columnist with the Daily News and occasional contributor. Gabrielle Union appeared on "The Daily Show" with Trevor Noah to discuss her experiences on "America's Got Talent." (Willy Sanjuan / Invision / Associated Press) Gabrielle Union is continuing to use her platform to speak out on racism in Hollywood and beyond. Speaking to Trevor Noah on Tuesday night's "The Daily Show," the producer and actress sounded off on recent watershed events including Amy Cooper's "Karen" meltdown in New York City and the police killing of George Floyd, as well as her firsthand experiences with alleged discrimination on "America's Got Talent." "The Amy Cooper/Central Park situation happened on the same day as George Floyd lost his life, and you realize how far anti-Blackness and the weaponization of whiteness how far it can go," Union said. "We saw what happened in that park that day. Amy Cooper did not believe that the rules and laws applied to her, and she believed that, in her wrongness, she would be able to weaponize the police against the Black man she just happened to choose the wrong Black man. And in that same vein, you see how anti-Blackness and profiling led to George Floyd's death." The "L.A.'s Finest" star reflected on the alleged mistreatment she endured as a judge on NBC's "America's Got Talent." Earlier this month, Union filed a discrimination complaint in her ongoing battle with NBC, "AGT" producers and Simon Cowell, claiming that the network retaliated against her when she reported racism and other toxic behavior on set. "I thought it was the easiest show. How hard is it to ... watch jugglers? That's what I thought I signed up for," Union said. "Day one, Simon Cowell is smoking cigarettes inside. I've worked a long time. I've worked with all kinds of people. I've never experienced that. When your boss the person who has the ability to determine who gets opportunities and who doesn't doesn't believe that the law applies to him or the rules ... that's day one. ... "What message do you think that sends to anyone that has an issue with the very real racism and the lack of accountability? And it goes on and on and on." Story continues She then directed her criticism at the "independent" investigation NBC launched into her allegations after she was dismissed from the show a probe which, the network claims, "demonstrated an overall culture of diversity" on the competition program. "Silly me, I thought 'independent' was independent. But when NBC and [producers] Fremantle and Syco pay for that investigation, they control it," she said. "They turn over what they believe to be inflammatory things, or things that are not advantageous to me ... to the head of NBC, Paul Telegdy, who then ... threatens my agents: 'Gabrielle better watch who she calls a racist.' In the middle of an investigation about racism and discrimination? This is what's happening from the top of the company." NBC did not immediately respond Wednesday to The Times' request for comment. When asked what Hollywood can do to spur real change, Union told Noah, "There has to be an increase in representation across the board from the top to the bottom," especially in decision-making roles. "We have to be able to be OK with change that doesn't always benefit us," she said. "Some people believe that ... the only way to lead is to center yourself in every argument. But what I'm learning throughout this whole process is, sometimes the best way to lead is to get out of the way and make room for someone else. We have to dismantle the whole thing. We can't put a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound." WASHINGTON - Just weeks before North Americas new trade agreement is due to take effect, regulators in the United States have launched a formal investigation into Canadas plan to change the rules that govern shipping on the Great Lakes. U.S.-based shippers say proposed new standards for the use and release of ballast water extra weight to improve the stability of vessels that have unloaded their cargo are unfair, excessively expensive and designed to undermine competition in the business of ferrying goods across the worlds largest collection of freshwater lakes. Transport Canada introduced the new rules last summer to meet the demands of an International Maritime Organization treaty that took effect in 2017 aimed at limiting the spread of harmful or invasive species a treaty to which the United States is not a party. In a petition filed in March with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, the Lake Carriers Association, which represents 13 firms with 46 U.S.-flagged lakers capable of transporting 81 million tonnes each year, accused Canada of seeking a competitive advantage. The association argues that the proposed regulations are not mandated by the IMO treaty, that compliance with the Canadian performance standard would be cost-prohibitive for its members, and that the proposed regulations are intended to drive U.S. operators from the cross-lakes trade, the commission said in announcing the investigation. The regulations, if passed, would require modern ballast-water treatment systems on all vessels operating in Canadian waters, and that shipping companies develop management plans in accordance with stringent new performance standards. The association estimates the cost of meeting the new requirements at more than C$1.1 billion to preserve access to an estimated 64 million metric tonnes of shipments over the 25-year life of the regulations. That, they say, would amount to a doubling of their freight rates, rendering them unable to compete with their Canadian counterparts. Member U.S. laker operators would be unable to bear the increased cost of such regulations and stay competitive and thus would have to exit that trade, the association writes in its petition. Canadian vessel operators would directly benefit from the exit of U.S. lakers from that trade by taking over the portion of the trade formerly conducted by U.S. lakers and enjoying a de facto monopoly on cross-lakes U.S. export-to-Canada waterborne trade. Canada, however, insists the proposed regulations would treat all shippers equally. The approach would apply the same standards to Canadian and U.S. ships that operate together on the Great Lakes. Providing exemptions for U.S. ships would be economically unfair, said Livia Belcea, press secretary to Transport Minister Marc Garneau. Canadas regulatory initiative is still at the proposal stage. We understand the FMCs actions as being anticipatory in nature and that it is not intending to take actions until Canada confirms its approach. The regulations do provide an exception to U.S. Great Lakes vessels, provided they dont load or release ballast in Canadian waters. But operators of U.S.-flagged vessels transporting shipments to Canada say they would have no choice but to load Canadian ballast water that wouldnt be released until the vessel was back in the U.S. Loading ballast water in Canadian waters, as opposed to discharging it, does not result in the potential introduction of non-native organisms into Canadian waters, the association argues. There is thus no reason from a Canadian environmental perspective to impose the regulatory requirements on a vessel simply because it loads in a Canadian port ballast water that will be discharged at a U.S. port. Most of the affected Canadian vessels also carry shipments beyond the Great Lakes to other countries, making management systems necessary whether they ship to the U.S. or not. U.S. vessels that are confined to the lakes shouldnt be held to the same standard, they argue. The only reason to do so, they say, is to gain a competitive advantage. By imposing this environmentally unnecessary requirement on U.S. carriers, Transport Canada is not regulating even-handedly between U.S. and Canadian carriers. Rather, it is disadvantaging U.S. carriers for no legitimate purpose, thus creating a condition unfavourable to shipping in the foreign trade of the United States. Thats language from the Merchant Marine Act, the 1920 law that gives the commission the authority to examine whether the Canadian rules are unfair. A positive finding could result in fines being levied against Canadian vessels calling at U.S. ports, prohibiting vessels from making such calls entirely, and restricting the cargo that can be carried between the two countries. Canada remains committed to addressing the spread of aquatic invasive species on the Great Lakes, and continues to call on the U.S. to take similar action, Belcea said. We will continue to closely monitor developments as we prepare the final regulation. Working together to sustain the Great Lakes marine industry supports more than 78,000 jobs and over US$28 billion in business revenue between the two countries, Ottawa says, while invasive species like the zebra mussel and the bottom-dwelling ruffe fish cause more than $1 billion in damage each year. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020. Follow James McCarten on Twitter @CdnPressStyle Technology company executives in the United States under fire from all corners of the political spectrum for how they deal with problematic speech online will appear before US legislators on Thursday to answer questions about their efforts to curtail foreign influence and election security heading into the 2020 general election in November. Officials from Facebook Inc, Alphabet Incs Google and Twitter Inc will participate in a remote hearing convened by the Intelligence Committee of the US House of Representatives that is also expected to delve into misinformation campaigns surrounding the coronavirus outbreak and recent protests over racism and policing. Witnesses scheduled to appear include Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebooks head of security policy; Nick Pickles, director of Global Public Policy Strategy and Development at Twitter, and Richard Salgado, director for Law Enforcement and Information Security at Google. Facebooks plan The hearing comes as government officials, critics from both the right and left wings of the political spectrum and Americans are expressing increasing scepticism about social media companies ability to make the right decisions about what should be allowed on their platforms. Anti-Defamation League, NAACP and others urge a Facebook advertising boycott https://t.co/5oRsuQzf3O The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 17, 2020 In an effort to get ahead of the clamour, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in an opinion article in the USA Today newspaper that the platform would launch an ambitious effort to spur new voter registration and give users the option of opting out of political advertising altogether. Zuckerberg stopped short, however, of agreeing to remove false or misleading statements from politicians despite calls from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and others to do so. Everyone wants to see politicians held accountable for what they say and I know many people want us to moderate and remove more of their content, Zuckerberg wrote. We have rules against speech that will cause imminent physical harm or suppress voting, and no one is exempt from them. But accountability only works if we can see what those seeking our votes are saying, even if we viscerally dislike what they say. Facebook said it would display a Voting Information Center at the top of US users news feeds and aims to help four million people register to vote, double its goal for 2016. Facebook also said it would affix labels to political advertisements shared by users on their own feeds, closing what critics have said for years was a glaring loophole in the companys election transparency measures. Facebook has executed a takedown of social media accounts connected to two organizations the company considers to be hate groups and had banned across their platforms: Proud Boys and American Guard. https://t.co/aZBX2gSiv7 Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 17, 2020 The worlds biggest social network has attached a paid for by disclaimer to political advertisements since 2018 but the label disappeared once people shared the advertisements to their own feeds, which critics said undermined its utility and allowed misinformation to continue spreading unchecked. Complacent Several US civil rights and other advocacy groups including the Anti-Defamation League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on Wednesday called on large advertisers to stop Facebook advertising campaigns next month. The #StopHateforProfit campaign said the social network is not doing enough to curtail racist and violent content on its platform. NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson said Facebook and Zuckerberg are no longer simply negligent, but in fact complacent in the spread of misinformation. Facebook is far from the only tech company under fire at the moment. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that officials with the US Department of Justice are expected to recommend changes to section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that would hold tech companies more liable legally for harmful online content. The 1996 act effectively shields tech companies from lawsuits over content posted to their platforms by third parties. Sen. Josh Hawley unveiled his latest attack on techs liability shield in a new bill. The Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act would allow Americans to sue tech companies that censor political speech or hide content from competitors. https://t.co/SCSqjgtkOK Senator Hawley Press Office (@SenHawleyPress) June 17, 2020 In May, US President Donald Trump miffed that Twitter had tagged tweets of his about mail-in voting as false or misleading signed an executive order calling for legislation that would scrap or weaken Section 230, a move that Twitter at the time said would threaten the future of online speech. On Wednesday, Republican US Senator Ted Cruz called out Google after NBC News reported that the search giant notified the publishers of two right-wing websites that they were in danger of being demonetised or having the advertising revenue they receive via Googles AdSense cut off because of racially inflammatory comments on their sites. Googles decision which the company said was merely a warning and had not taken effect in the case of one of the sites sparked a firestorm among conservatives on Tuesday, who charged that Google was making such threats against publishers of The Federalist and ZeroHedge for political reasons while ignoring such comments on its own platforms such as YouTube. Senator Ted Cruz will be sending this letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai in the morning in response to the companys transparently politically motivated move to demonetize The Federalist. #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/dDUsmApS70 Mike Emanuel (@MikeEmanuelFox) June 17, 2020 The culture of free speech in this country is under attack and Google is helping to lead the charge, Cruz alleged in his letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Whereas Americans once understood that the best response to speech was more speech, some Americans, with the help of some of the most powerful companies on the planet, are now pressing to silence and punish those expressing views that do not align with the prevailing and ever-shifting progressive orthodoxy. Across France, hundreds of medical staff have turned out in the streets of major cities to express their anger over a lack of government support. From Paris, to Montpellier, union leaders called for more resources and funding. But their efforts were overshadowed by the infiltration of some anarchist groups known as black blocs which lead to clashes with police. After three months of dealing with a major health crisis due to Covid-19, nurses, doctors and other health professionals in France are fed up and they want everyone to know, ministers and public alike. At least 220 rallies took place throughout the day Tuesday, many of them outside hospitals and clinics. Some medical services went on strike. In Paris, near Invalides, where a huge crowd gathered, police called for calm as some clashes were reported, and a car was overturned and used as a barricade on a nearby road. Police used tear gas to break up the crowd and arrested 16 people, accusing so-called 'black blocs" or rogue groups of infiltrating the peaceful demonstration. Elsewhere, in Nantes, police said on social media that "a violent group" had infiltrated the protest there and threw objects at police. Hoping to remind the government of its recent promises of more financial support, ten or so unions spearheaded by the Inter-hospital collective (Collectif Inter-Hopitaux), joined forces for the nationwide protest. The government began a 'Segur de la Sante' or consultations with medical sector representatives last month, but it's not certain this will be enough to calm down staff, many of whom have been carrying our rolling strike action for over a year. "Manu, watch out the Covid-19 is not Alzheimer's, we won't forget," read one slogan at a rally in the central city of Angers, addressed to President Emmanuel Macron. On the frontline throughout the Covid-19 crisis, nurses and doctors are calling for a major recruitment drive for medical staff and auxiliary carers in nursing homes and for handicapped patients. They are also demanding a salary hike, of 300-400 euros, according to unions. They want to see the government stop closing clinics and reducing the number of hospital beds. "The soothing speeches by the government, the chocolate medals, and promises of hypothetical bonuses will not suffice. From now on, we need real human resources and a real budget for public health," a statement written by the CGT union said prior to the march. CGT Union leader Philippe Martinez told france info on Tuesday morning that "the diagnostic has been handed down". "Now we want answers to our problems; on lack of staff, on diplomas not being recognised, on the reduction of the number of beds," he said. Consultation period nearly over Health minister Olivier Veran insists that between now and the beginning of July, they (medical staff) will have all the answers to their questions and demands, which are legitimate." But the Segur de la Sante has been criticised by some participating unions, such as the Collectif Inter-Hopitaux, which said it "regrets the absence of transparency in the discussions." "Concrete responses must now be given," it said. Meanwhile, Sud Sante union said it had decided to end its part of the negotiations, branding it a "vast public relations campaign". NEW YORK (AP) Charlottesville. Helsinki. The children in cages at the Mexican border. And now Lafayette Square. Only a few legacy-defining moments have clung to President Donald Trump, who often appears to emerge relatively unscathed from a seemingly endless stream of crises and controversies. But the forceful clearing of demonstrators from the park across from the White House has resonated like few others, prompting top military leaders and usually lockstep Republicans to distance themselves from him. It's one of those rare images that seems unlikely to be overwritten by tomorrows headlines, instead claiming a prominent place in Trumps entry in the history books. It also could help shape an election less than five months away. Even the president and members of his inner circle have privately expressed worry that its impact could be lasting. Its an indelible moment when the president of the United States ordered the use of force against peaceful protesters using their First Amendment rights in order to walk across Lafayette Square" and hoist a Bible, said Steve Schmidt, senior adviser to John McCains 2008 presidential campaign. In 10 minutes, he totally disgraced his office and committed sacrilege. Protests, some violent, had flooded Americas streets after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was pinned under the knee of a white Minnesota police officer. Trump had briefly been forced to take shelter in the emergency White House bunker, and flames had risen from St. Johns Church across from the executive mansion. Lafayette Square was ordered to be cleared. What happened was broadcast live to the nation: federal law enforcement officers using batons, shields and chemical agents to forcibly push back peaceful protesters. Trump walked to the church and awkwardly held up a Bible, accompanied by top officials. The White House quickly produced a slick ad celebrating the triumph. The ad doesn't run anymore. Aides have pointed fingers at each other as to who suggested what while some of Washingtons most prominent figures, perhaps with an eye toward the judgment of history, have tried to keep their distance. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he wasn't aware of what Trump had planned before he joined him. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued a remarkable public apology for participating. Several Republicans, including Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, denounced the use of force and the display of religion. The president has seethed about what transpired, believing he wasn't properly prepared by aides for the blowback and venting that media coverage was unfair, according to three White House and campaign officials not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. He was angered by Milley and Espers rebukes but, for now, doesn't want them dismissed, the officials said. The Trump campaign, looking at internal polling, is worried about a drop in support for the president coming amid questions about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed nearly 120,000 Americans and put more than 40 million out of work. And some in Trumps inner circle have privately likened it to other dark days in his presidency. In August 2017, a clash erupted between white supremacists and anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, leaving one demonstrator dead. In the days that followed, Trump suggested there were very fine people on both sides of the violence, drawing rebukes from members of his own administration and party. The next July, the president stood next to Russias Vladimir Putin at a summit in Helsinki and declined to say he believed his own nations intelligence services conclusion that Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election. Before Air Force One had even touched back down in Washington, Trump was faced with the biggest intra-party revolt of his term. That summer, images of his administrations enforcement of a policy to separate immigrant children from their parents stunned a nation and were later cited by many Democratic strategists for being a defining issue in that years midterm elections. There are moments over the last three-and-a-half years that run so contrary to our self-conception that it causes us to pause and to ask the fundamental question: Are we losing ourselves in this moment? said Eddie Glaude, chair of the department of African American studies at Princeton University. The presidents bungled church photo op has, according to polling, generated widespread sympathy for the demonstrations and sparked fears in Trumps campaign it could be a breaking point for voters who cast their ballots for the Republican in 2016 but are uncertain this time. Dozens of retired military leaders, including the presidents first defense secretary, Jim Mattis, denounced what happened. The campaign of Trumps likely November rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, said it showed Trump felt his political fortune was more important than traditional American values. When Donald Trump ordered the violent removal of peaceful protesters so he could stage a bizarre and offensive photo op, it didnt project strength as he had intended, but instead reflected profound weakness, campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said. Despite closed-door concerns, Trump has continued to lean in on his tough, law and order approach. On Tuesday, during a White House signing ceremony for an executive order on police reform, Trump was surrounded by law enforcement leaders, not the families of victims of police misconduct. And his campaign publicly continued to defend the decision to clear the park across from the West Wing. President Trumps visit to historic St. Johns Church was a powerful statement to the American people that acts of violence against our cities and neighborhoods will not prevail, said Tim Murtagh, the campaigns communications director. He said Trump was turning Americans anger into action with the executive order. Trump has shaken off previous controversies that would have crippled other presidencies. The two-year Russia investigation didn't cause his base supporters to waver, and his impeachment last winter was immediately dwarfed by the approaching pandemic. Some observers believe Trump may be able to cast aside Lafayette Square, too. There are moments that we will remember, that will be in the first part of his legacy, but dont change his support, said Julian Zelizer, presidential historian at Princeton University. Considering the pandemic, the protests, and that the country has been shut down for months, its remarkable his approval isnt lower. Anything can happen between now and November. Is Derick Dillard planning to put even more distance between himself and his in-laws? The former Counting On star says he and wife Jill Duggar would be open to moving abroad in the future. The couple currently resides in Arkansas but spent time living in Central America after they married. Theyre apparently interested in continuing their missionary work, but their past efforts in that area have been controversial. Derick Dillard and Jill Duggar spent time as missionaries in Central America RELATED: Jim Bob Duggar Fears the Influence Jill Duggars Husband Derick Dillard Might Have on the Family, Ex Counting On Star Says Derick, 31, and Jill, 29, wed in 2014. A year later, they decided to move abroad on an extended mission trip. God placed a desire in our hearts to serve Him internationally for longer than the typical short-term mission trip, but we didnt know how God would fulfill that desire in us, the couple wrote on their familys website. At the beginning of 2015, just before our first child was born, God brought about an opportunity much earlier than either of us was expecting. Derick subsequently quit his job at Walmart and he, Jill, and their son Israel moved to Central America in June 2015. Derick and Jills mission work was controversial As missionaries, Jill and Derick hoped the light of the Gospel would pierce the darkest areas of Central America, places gripped by poverty and hunger places where the present spiritual forces of evil have been at work for far too long, as Derick wrote on the familys blog. But some Duggar family followers werent sure how much work Jill and Derick were really doing in Central America. The couple solicited donations to Dillard Family Ministries to fund their mission. But critics quickly noticed they were spending a lot of time traveling, making several trips back to the U.S. Honestly, how do you call what you do missionary work? one person commented on the couples Facebook. Begging for thousands of dollars in donations so you can go to a 3rd world country (and travel back and forth every couple months) to try and convert people that already believe in God? In August 2017, the couple announced they were ending Dillard Family Ministries and pursuing a new direction in ministry. Derick says he and Jill are open to moving where God leads them After returning from Central America, Jill and Derick settled back into life in Arkansas. They welcomed their second child, Samuel, in July 2017. Derick worked for a church in Arkansas and in August 2018 graduated from the Cross Church School of Ministry. Shortly after, he began law school at the University of Arkansas. Derick is still working toward his J.D., but he is also looking to the future, he said in a recent interview with The Sun. The dad of two revealed that he and his wife are open to moving abroad if that is where life takes them. Our original plan from the time we married was to serve permanently on the international mission field, he said. So, yes, we are definitely open to moving wherever God would lead us. However, it doesnt seem likely that a move would happen in the near future. Derick still has one more year of law school to complete. In the meantime, the rift between Derick and Jim Bob Duggar seems to be widening, with Derick telling The Sun his relationship with his in-laws is seriously damaged. We hope and pray God would restore relationships where there is brokenness, he told The Sun. But, at the same time, we recognize that only God can change peoples hearts and bring healing. DENVER - A Denver neighbourhood voted Wednesday to recommend changing its name after a yearslong debate over its association with a former mayor with ties to the Ku Klux Klan. The 11 elected neighbourhood delegates of the Stapleton Master Community Association voted unanimously in favour of the change and to work with the registered neighbourhood association to come up with a new name. The neighbourhood was named for Benjamin F. Stapleton and built beginning in 2001 on the site of the former Stapleton International Airport. Stapleton was Denvers mayor for 20 years between 1923 and 1947 and was a member of the KKK. More than 65% of voting property owners opted to retain the Stapleton name in a referendum last summer. But the death of George Floyd and the ensuing unrest renewed the debate. A lot of people have woken up to the social injustice and the endemic racism that permeates through the society, said Keven Burnett, executive director of the community association. Things have changed in a major way. Floyd, a black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck while he was handcuffed and lying on the ground. His death prompted protests across the U.S. and around the world against police brutality and racial injustice. Christie Spilsted, a delegate on the Stapleton neighbourhoods community association, said she initially was against changing the name because it would cost too much and the community had decided against it. I had a change of heart. ... By not acting more decisively on this, I was holding up the process of racial equality, she said at Wednesdays virtual meeting. The community associations recommendation will be followed by a vote by a community board of directors. The communitys master developer and the City and County of Denver also need to approve a name change before it can take effect. Former gubernatorial candidate and state treasurer Walker Stapleton, the great-grandson of the former mayor, tweeted Sunday that he was disappointed the democratic process represented by previous resident votes was being overlooked. But Stapleton said he supported the name change if it brings more equity, fairness and opportunity for Denver residents and Colorado residents of colour. Australia's population growth is flatlining as permanent and temporary migrants flee the country and the closed international border keeps tourists out. Amid warnings the economy could emerge from the coronavirus pandemic recession only to contract again as the federal government cuts stimulus measures in September, new visa data points to the biggest slowdown in population growth in 80 years. The nation's airports remain virtually empty with migrants unable to get into the country and long-term visitors having returned to their home nations. Credit:Louie Douvis The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that through March, April and May temporary and permanent non-tourist departures outnumbered arrivals by 30,280. It was a 50,000 drop on the same three-month period in 2019 when non-tourists added more than 23,000 to the national population. The US Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia is not the last word on the conflict between LGBT rights and religious freedom rights. In fact, Bostock could be the first step in breaking the impasse. The case will certainly have major implications for religious exercise. But contrary to initial reactions, this decision should not be read as a decision that dooms religious liberty in America, but rather as an inevitable step toward something Congress and most state legislatures have thus far been unable to do: crafting a compromise that balances LGBT rights and religious freedom. Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia involved a man named Gerald Bostockby all accounts an exemplary worker with a decade on the jobwho was fired for conduct unbecoming a government employee shortly after he had started participating in a gay softball league. The Supreme Court was asked to decide whether the 1964 federal law barring employment discrimination on the basis of sex protects people who are discriminated against because of sexual orientation and gender identity. And by a 6-3 margin, the court ruled that it does. Social conservatives were distraught. Robert George described the majority opinion as sophistical and the position it endorsed untenable. Hard to overstate the magnitude of this loss for religious conservatives, added Rod Dreher. Denny Burk said the decision eviscerated religious liberty, while Andrew Walker called the opinion devastating, adding, If you're a Christian higher ed institution taking federal monies, buckle up. These reactions, while understandable, are premature. Bostock, while a significant decision following 2015s Obergefell v. Hodges, is limited in what it can tell us about the future of religious freedom. Its implications for future cases involving religious organizations and institutions are real, yes, but for people concerned about the future of religious liberty, there is reason for cautious optimism. It should be noted, for one thing, that the majority opinion in the case was authored by Neil Gorsuch. His appointment to the Supreme Court was lauded by many of the same people criticizing his ruling nowand its possible they were right the first time. Gorsuch ruled the way he did because of his commitment to the conservative legal philosophy called textualism. This is the philosophy famously embraced by the conservative justice Antonin Scalia. The philosophy says that judges ought not extrapolate principles from laws and rule based on these extrapolations. Nor should they try to imagine the intents of the many lawmakers who bargained and bartered their way to the passage of a bill. Those approaches leave too much leeway for creative interpretation and judicial activism. Judges should rather, according to Scalia and Gorsuch, restrict themselves to the plain, ordinary meaning of the text of the law. They should ask, What do the words say? and make limited rulings based on that. David French notes that Gorsuchs legal philosophy shaped the whole case. Bostocks attorneys appeared to make their arguments expressly with Gorsuch in mind. You can see how textualism works in Gorsuchs opinion. He dedicates pages of analysis to interpreting the meaning of sex and discrimination when Title VII of the 1964 law was written. The analysis is cautious and relies on the dictionaries of the era to interpret the ordinary meaning of those terms at the time the statue was being drafted. Gorsuch concludes that homosexuality and transgender status are inextricably bound up with sex, as sex was understood in 1964, so Title VII necessarily protects sexual orientation and gender identity from employment discrimination. Article continues below While other conservative justices disagree with Gorsuchs textualism in this caseSamuel Alito, notably, calls the decision preposterousthere is little reason for people who care about religious liberty to doubt Gorsuch is a legal ally. He has a record, after all, of applying textualism in religious freedom cases. Gorsuchs concurring opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop, defending a Christian bakers right not to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, shows this. In the ruling, as Robert George has explained, he critiques a colleagues understanding of what a wedding cake is and, importantly in that case, what it means. In doing so, Gorsuch demonstrates that he understands the crucial issues of conscience. In the Bostock ruling, he writes: We are also deeply concerned with preserving the promise of the free exercise of religion enshrined in our Constitution. He explicitly says that religious liberty issues will likely come up for other employees in other cases and there will need to be other rulings. Gorsuch also indicates his understanding of the issue in some subtle ways. He favorably cites the Hosanna-Tabor case, in which the court unanimously exempted ministers from employment discrimination laws. Gorsuch also calls the Religious Freedom Restoration Act a super statute, displacing the normal operation of other federal laws, suggesting that it protect religious liberty in the hypothetical cases worrying religious conservatives post-Bostock. While defenders of religious freedom have reason to be more concerned after Bostock than before, there is more reason for optimism. Case after case in recent yearsHosanna-Tabor, Hobby Lobby, Holt, Trinity Lutheran, Masterpiece Cakeshophave protected religious exercise. There is no reason to believe the court is poised to roll back protections for religious liberty. If anything, the appetite exists to expand them. The controversy at the heart of Bostock has been foreshadowed for decades, intensifying in the years since the courts landmark gay rights decisions. As a result, there have been efforts at all levels of government to balance LGBT rights with protections for religious freedom. Utah is often held as a standard for such a compromise, as a bipartisan bill of this sort was signed into law in 2015, just months before Obergefell. At the federal level, however, these measures, commonly called Fairness for All, have stalled. Democrats appear to have consolidated around the Equality Act, which grants legal protections to LGBT Americans without any religious exemptions. At the same time, many religious conservatives do not support Fairness for All, saying any law protecting someone like Bostock from getting fired because of his sexual orientation is unreconcilable with religious liberty. And now, opponents of the Fairness for All proposals are citing Bostock to justify their opposition, saying that once sexual orientation and gender identity are protected, there is no guarantee that religious freedom protections will be maintained. Given larger cultural trends favoring LGBT rights, recognizing sexual orientation and gender identity under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act may have been inevitable. But the courts opinion here does not mean it is game over for religious freedom arguments in these disputes. It means that the debate rages on, most likely through the courts. Despite some of the initial reactions, Bostock could conceivably be the first step in breaking the impasse. Those praising the court for its decision in Bostock will probably criticize related decisions in the future, and those upset today could very well be praising the Court in future cases involving religious freedom. While Fairness for All has not fared well in the legislative process, it is not difficult to see how the basic ideas of the proposal could be enacted via a series of judicial rulings, especially under the current composition of the court. Legal protections for LGBT Americans balanced with religious liberty exemptions may win the day after all. Article continues below Our pluralist society guarantees conflict and is dependent on compromise. While this process isnt always comfortable, Christians should nevertheless come away from Bostock hopeful for the future. This does not deny the necessity of strategic engagement moving forward; such engagement is needed now more than ever. But our engagement must be paired with hopenot a naive hope in a flawed and fallen political and legal system, but hope in him who has overcome the world. Daniel Bennett is associate professor of political science at John Brown University. He is also assistant director of the Center for Faith and Flourishing, and is president of Christians in Political Science. Speaking Out is Christianity Today s guest opinion column and (unlike an editorial) does not necessarily represent the opinion of the publication. TEMECULA, CA, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - On July 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Assembly Bill 375 (AB 375) will come into effect enabling any company serving California residents to comply with data subject requests. ZipComply has revolutionized data governance for organizations to ensure compliance with consumer privacy laws. Their signature service will offer setup in one business day with their aid of the ZipComply Concierge team offering customers a personalized and worry-free solution to CCPA regulation requirements. "ZipComply believes that this trust and security are uncompromisable regardless of being explicitly stated in a law or not," says Akshay Sura, Technology Officer at ZipComply, "Our mission is to build upon that trust and help you stay in compliance with the consumer privacy laws, while helping your consumer feel secure." ZipComply has developed a way to keep the trust built between consumers and an organization keeping data confidential and secure as CCPA regulations require that companies provide consumers with ready access to make data subject requests. To help, ZipComply will set up a dedicated toll-free phone line and a data subject request form for each of your website domains. These will be monitored and answered by our customer service concierge team and not by an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) automated system. The ZipComply Concierge team will also work with your organization to develop a plan on how subject requests can be met and efficiently maintain compliance records and reports for your business. Services provided to organizations by ZipComply will include: A dedicated toll-free number monitored by our staff 24/7 The creation of a personalized Data Subject Request Form for each business Alerts and reminders for data subject and do not sell requests A verifiable consent and response audit trail Data Governance based on the most recent CCPA regulations requirements ID Verification for data subject requests About California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Assembly Bill 375 (AB 375), empowers California residents by enabling them to request seeing personal information saved by any company serving California residents. If the CCPA is violated, consumers are within their rights to legally hold the company accountable, which may result in a lawsuit and/or fine(s). SOURCE ZipComply Jaguar numbers may have doubled in 15 years in the south-western part of South America's Atlantic Forest, monitoring by conservationists has found. Research using camera traps at more than 200 sites, which took more than 440,000 photographs last year alone, shows a slow recovery in numbers since initial studies in 2005. The big cat is threatened by loss of habitat to farming and development, as well as illegal hunting of its prey and conflict with farmers, in the Atlantic Forest, which spans Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Efforts across the three countries by WWF, Fundacion Vida Silvestre Argentina and local partners are focusing on habitat loss, poaching of jaguars and their prey, and reducing conflict between the big cats and local people. The regular monitoring by researchers based at institutes in Brazil and Argentina found that in 2005 there was an estimated population in the south-western region of the Atlantic Forest of 30 to 54 individuals. By 2014 that had risen to between 51 and 84, by 2016 it was 71 to 107, and the latest figures estimate there are now between 84 and 125 jaguars in the region. The figures mean the population across the whole of the Atlantic Forest is estimated at between 150 and 200, WWF said. Karina Berg, regional manager for Latin America at WWF-UK, said: These new figures demonstrate the importance of investment into long-term conservation efforts and are an incredible testament to the commitment and dedication of our teams and partners on the ground. Conserving and protecting this area and its wildlife remain as important as ever, and while jaguar populations increase, the challenges faced by this species continue. We hope to see continued population increases here and in other critical regions across Latin America in the future. Manuel Jaramillo, general director of Fundacion Vida Silvestre Argentina, said: Considering the monitoring work carried out from 2005 to date, we see a favourable trend for the species. Conservationists will push harder to achieve a population of 250 jaguars in Misiones province in Argentina and take the species out of the risk of extinction, he said. Press Association Mumbai, June 17 : Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has penned a thank you note for actress Saiyami Kher, for being a part of his film "Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai", which was shot three years ago around the time of demonetisation in India. "This was the day she (Saiyami) did the kitchen scene with Sharvari Tai.. believe it or not .. the entire scene she did in one take. First take and she was so good. "We didn't take another shot of her .. she made me cry on the monitor .. she trusted and waited more than three years for the film to be released," Kashyap wrote. Along with it, he posted a black-and white picture in which he is seen hugging Saiyami. "My favourite picture of us from the sets of #chokedpaisaboltahai," he added. "Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai" also stars Malayalam film star Roshan Mathew. . Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-16 23:15:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The handout photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry on June 16, 2020 shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attending a news conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (not in the picture) in Moscow, Russia, on June 16, 2020. The U.S. attempts to force Iran nuclear deal participants to renounce their obligations and to punish Tehran by illegitimate initiatives, including the arms embargo, have no prospects from the point of view of international law, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. (Sputnik via Xinhua) MOSCOW, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. attempts to force Iran nuclear deal participants to renounce their obligations and to punish Tehran by illegitimate initiatives, including the arms embargo, have no prospects from the point of view of international law, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. "We will use all the opportunities this international law provides to make sure that justice is served," Lavrov said during a news conference following talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. The Iran nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached in 2015 between Iran and the P5+1, which is the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the United States, Britain, Russia, France, China, plus Germany -- plus the European Union. Tehran agreed to roll back parts of its nuclear weapons program in exchange for decreased economic sanctions. In May 2018, the United States announced a unilateral withdrawal from the deal and the restoration of stringent sanctions against the Islamic republic. In reaction to the U.S. withdrawal from the landmark deal, and in response to Europe's sluggishness in facilitating Iran's banking transactions and oil exports, Iran has been gradually moving away from its nuclear commitments since May 2019. Lavrov said that Russia will do everything so that no one can destroy the agreements that are enshrined in the JCPOA. If this plan does not fit into the logic of the current U.S. administration, or if it considers this plan a bad deal, then it is its own business, he said. "But Washington does not have any right to punish Iran by speculating on the authority of the UN Security Council and essentially manipulating the Security Council, and to a certain extent the UN secretariat," Lavrov said. He said he could not vouch for the position of other members of the JCPOA, above all its European members, which are under tremendous pressure from the United States. But those who would like to support the United States or try to partially help Washington have no legal arguments, which is obvious to all, Lavrov said. The Trump administration has openly set the goal to bury the JCPOA, Zarif said during the news conference. The United States has not only violated international law, but is also exercising pressure on international organizations, he said. Iran keeps its obligations assumed under the JCPOA, and it will not allow the use of international organizations to bury this deal, Zarif said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Santiago, Chile Wed, June 17, 2020 09:40 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf614a6 2 World Chile,coronavirus,data,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus,pandemic Free A rash of accounting glitches in Chile led to the omission of more than 31,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, or nearly one-sixth of the country's total so far, health officials said on Tuesday. The cases, discovered during a review of the health ministry's databases, stemmed back to mid-March, when the outbreak began in Chile, authorities said. "We have detected that there is a significant number of people who have not been notified or whose status has not been processed and continues to be 'pending,'" Dr. Rafael Araos, a member of an expert committee advising the government, told reporters in a briefing. "This group of unreported cases ... have positive PCR [exams] and thus constitute confirmed cases," he said. The accounting confusion comes as cases are soaring in the South American nation, averaging over 5,000 daily. On Tuesday, Chile reported a total of 184,449 infections and 3,383 deaths from the disease. The additional 31,412 cases discovered by authorities will be added to Chile's total tally on Wednesday, Araos said. As the pandemic has worsened in Chile, health ministry statistics have come under increasing scrutiny. Last week, a controversy over the reporting of coronavirus-related deaths led President Sebastian Pinera to replace Health Minister Jaime Manalich, a close friend and confidant. Manalich, who had overseen Chile's response to the outbreak until now, won praise for an aggressive campaign to keep hospitals supplied with ventilators and protective equipment but was criticized for successive criteria changes for recording deaths and cases. South America has become the new epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak, with Chile, Peru and Brazil particularly hard hit. Chile on Monday extended a state of catastrophe in place since mid-March for an additional 90 days. The decision gives the government extraordinary powers to restrict freedom of movement and assure food supply and basic services. stc Bahrain has formed a new partnership with China Telecom Global aimed at digitalising economies in the Middle East and North Africa. The agreement will provide stc Bahrains customers with more reliable and accessible connections between the MENA and Asia-Pacific regions. This will help them to grow their business by expanding into new areas. Stc Bahrain offers an extension backhaul network within Bahrain as well as terrestrial fibre cable links between several markets in the region. China Telecom Global meanwhile will be able to offer its MENA customers better support, and provide its Chinese customers with new channels as they seek to expand into the digital economy internationally. Through this partnership, China Telecom is able to extend its services to its clients in the Middle East while utilising stc Bahrains reliable and robust infrastructure, said stc Bahrain CEO Nezar Banabeela. We are also delighted to consolidate our presence in Asia Pacific and are looking forward to a long-term partnership with China Telecom. Changhai Liu, managing director of China Telecom Africa & Middle East, added: this new collaboration with stc Bahrain further allows China Telecom to strengthen its service capabilities in the Middle East and North Africa region. We look forward to this long-term partnership with stc Bahrain and hope to unlock potential and create new value for our users. The Chinese aggression in eastern Ladakh, and the killing of 20 Indian Army personnel in Galwan valley, will complicate the planned disengagement process at the border, but more fundamentally, lead to a reset in New Delhi-Beijing ties and bring the competitive element of the relationship under sharper focus, experts say. It could force India to closely re-examine the cooperative elements of its relationship with the Asian neighbour, and have an impact on geopolitics. Commenting on Chinese motivations, Ashley Tellis, a strategic analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, who has closely studied South Asian security dynamics, said, I believe that entire crisis was driven by multiple intersecting Chinese calculations: to push back against India for what China feared was the beginning of Indian revanchism after the Article 370 decisionon this count, the Chinese misinterpreted Indias decisions entirely; to physically secure additional territory in Aksai Chin through salami slicingan area that China already claims entirely and where it has been incrementally increasing its control now for some thirty odd years; and to embarrass India by inflicting political reverses for a variety of accumulating Chinese grievances. In a separate video analysis posted on the Carnegie site, Tellis said that the planned disengagement between the two sides was now somewhat in jeopardy. Remember, there are three locations where these confrontations are occurring. The Indians had hoped they would be able to secure a mutual disengagement from the first location, which is where the brawl occurred, and then move on to negotiating further disengagements in other locations. All this is now up in the air. While emphasising that the most important thing now for India was to secure de-escalation along the entire front and a restoration of the status quo ante, Tellis underlined that China-India relations could not go back to the old normal. Beijing has crossed a threshold that was important to India. Over the longer term, India needs to make some hard decisions about accelerating economic growth, getting military modernisation back on track, and more transparently balancing China in partnership with other Asian friends and the United States, he added. Former Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, who also served as ambassador to China and has closely studied the border dynamics, after a careful reading of the Peoples Liberation Army statement on the incident, said on Twitter, Chinese statement minces no words. The gloves are off. She noted that the statement was in line with communications received from the Chinese after the border dispute erupted in 1959 and skirmishes in the western and eastern sectors. A dark hour like this with all the blood that has been shed is such a dreadful tragedy. Efforts made for normalization since 1976 have come to nought. There is a bad moon rising on India-China relations. Illustrating the possible Chinese motivations, S D Muni, professor emeritus at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and a former ambassador of India to Laos, said the Galwan violence was a tough Chinese message of not vacating strategic heights occupied through encroachments. Strengthening Indian defence infrastructure in the region, along with the Indian political resolve on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin, is seen as a threat to Chinese illegal occupation of Aksai Chin and its strategic access through the Karakoram highway to Pakistan. It has sunk billions of dollars in Pakistan to nurse this strategic access, Muni said. Muni said that India will now have to explore a wide variety of options. India must negotiate for peace on the Line of Actual Control, but capture strategic heights wherever possible for military and diplomatic bargaining to push back the Chinese. The peace and tranquility confidence-building measures (at the border) will have to be renegotiated at the highest political level. But alongside, he also called for a tougher stand from India. Delhi should revisit its Tibet and Taiwan policies, must reinforce its Indo-Pacific strategic partnerships, and widen Quad by including Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore in it. The building of Andaman and Nicobar as a formidable tri-service base must be expedited too. Quad is an informal security dialogue between four countries -- India, the US, Japan and Australia. It was conceptualised, in part, to counter Chinas growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. While suggesting that Chinas motivations and the reason for the timing of its action in Ladakh are hard to gauge, Alyssa Ayres of the Council on Foreign Relations said it was important to note Chinas territorial assertiveness in several other places as the world dealt with the pandemic. On the future of the bilateral ties, she added: India-China ties will undoubtedly suffer; they have for decades been marked by security tensions but with some degree of multilateral cooperation. It is harder to see New Delhi want to compartmentalise in the same way going forward. Ayres added that Indias options seem limited but it will have to make choices. China is pushing India to make choices about who its friends are, a decision that India has historically refrained from making. Britons could yet take foreign holidays this summer as ministers draw up a list of countries who could be exempt from tough quarantine laws, Matt hancock confirmed today. While the 14-day self-isolation for arrivals from countries where coronavirus is 'out of control' like Brazil, countries with far lower numbers of cases could be exempted, the Health Secretary said this morning. He refused to divulge which countries could be included but confirmed he and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps are a working on a list of these countries and it will be published before the quarantine is reviewed on June 29. The comments will bring hope to millions of under-pressure Britons desperate for a summer break. But it remains to be seen which countries will want to welcome UK visitors, with the country having the highest death toll in Europe. Mr Hancock told the BBC's Today programme that the quarantine would have to stay for places where the disease is still rife. He cited Brazil as an example. 'Having said that there are other countries where it may be safe to not have a quarantine in place in the same way,' he added. 'Ahead of the formal legally-required review of the quarantine arrangements on June 29 I am working with Grant Shapps on whether there are countries that have a low rate of infection, where we trust their figures, where the infection isn't going up and we can have that discussion with the other country, and come to an agreement on a travel corridor.' While the 14-day self-isolation for arrivals from countries where coronavirus is 'out of control' like Brazil, countries with far lower numbers of cases could be exempted, the Health Secretary said this morning How UK coronavirus cases compare to 15 popular holiday destinations for Britons Tourism bosses and MPs have discussed air bridges to popular tourist destinations and countries who send large numbers of tourist to the UK. Here is how the UK's coronavoirus cases compare to popular nations. The figures are the daily confirmed cases of coronavirus per million people for each country, as of June 17. UK - 18.84 SPAIN - 3.87 FRANCE - 5.27 ITALY - 3.47 USA - 71.62 BRAZIL - 164.27 SOUTH AFRICA - 47.23 GREECE - 1.34 PORTUGAL - 29.42 NETHERLANDS - 17.74 TURKEY - 17.39 IRELAND - 2.63 GERMANY - 4.12 BELGIUM - 4.75 MEXICO - 35.67 MOROCCO - 2.25 AUSTRALIA - 0.47 NEW ZEALAND - 0 Advertisement The UK Foreign Office placed a ban on all non-essential travel to other countries in the middle of March but the regulation is expected to be scrapped in the coming weeks. The Times claim that Greece, Portugal and Spain are just some of the countries that the UK could make agreements with, with the Government not choosing to negotiate with the European Union on this matter. However, Mr Hancock refused to name examples, not wanting to pre-empt discussions with their governments. Meanwhile, visits to UK territories abroad such as Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar are set to be allowed. However, European countries such as France and the Netherlands are maintaining that all UK residents undergo a compulsory 14-day quarantine period upon entering the country. Spain is also believed to be considering putting in a similar policy, with its foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya admitting that the country, which is the most popular foreign destination for Britons, is investigating this eventuality. In an earlier appearance on Sky News Mr Hancock said Brazil was one country which the UK was worried about new cases of coronavirus arriving from. Asked at least five times what countries meant the quarantine on arrivals was necessary, he said air bridges were still being considered but would not state any other nations other than Brazil. 'It's really sad to see some of the countries like, for instance, Brazil, where the numbers are really shooting up, so we do have to have this measure in place,' he said. 'I mentioned Brazil, there are others we are worried about. 'I'm not going to go into which countries.' British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he will discuss the 'air bridge' policy with French President Emmanuel Macron tomorrow. He revealed in the Downing Street press conference on Tuesday: 'Obviously I will be talking to Emmanuel Macron about all sorts of ways in which we can bring our countries together, making sure that eventually we will be able to travel freely to and from each other's countries. 'The same goes obviously for Spain, as soon as we can. 'The reason for having the quarantine system is very simple we don't want to re-import the disease just at the moment when we've really got it under control in this country. Only Italy is taking British tourists with Portugal expected to follow suit imminently - but foreign holidays elsewhere are currently unlikely, especially short term 'But we're certainly looking at air bridges and ways to ensure that people can safely go on holiday eventually.' Transport Secretary Grant Shapps added on Tuesday that the UK were close on securing 'air bridges' deals with other countries. The 14-day compulsory quarantine period is a policy also adopted in the UK concerning all foreign visitors - including Britons coming from abroad. The decision to place mandatory quarantine period on these visitors has angered airline companies, with easyJet, British Airways and Ryanair launching legal battles against the Government. Furthermore, the Commons Transport Select Committee, consisting of a selection of cross-party MPs, called for the Government to scrap this policy last week. It is believed the 14-day compulsory period in Britain costs around 650million. Error on quarantine form allows travellers to UK to declare they come from countries that don't exist By James Robinson for MailOnline A mix-up on the government's new online quarantine form has given the option for travellers entering the UK to declare themselves as being from countries which no longer exist. Those filling out the Home Office's website where able to claim they were from places such as Czechoslovakia and the USSR - both of which have not existed for almost three decades. Other options included on the drop-down list were the German Democratic Republic, known as East Germany, which was reunified with West Germany in 1990, Upper Volta, which is now the West African country of Burkina Faso and Southern Rhodesia, which is now part of Zimbabwe. The form is part of the government's plan to force all travellers coming into the UK to self-quarantine for two weeks on arrival. A mix-up on the government's new online quarantine form has given the option for travellers entering the UK to declare themselves as being from countries which no longer exist Those filling out the Home Office's website where able to claim they were from places such as Czechoslovakia and the USSR - both of which have not existed for almost three decades. Other options included on the drop-down list were the German Democratic Republic, known as East Germany, which was reunified with West Germany in 1990. The controversial policy, which has sparked outrage from the travel industry, was brought in last week as the government aims to reduce the risk of a second coronavirus wave. The Home Office has today said the error on the form was caused when those setting up the page mistakenly used a list of possible countries where people were born. A Home Office spokesperson said:'We have updated the Contact Locator Form for arrivals into the UK, which initially used a list of possible countries where people could have been born, as the list for countries people could have travelled from. 'All arrivals could continue using the form given that all countries were still included.' The government first announced the quarantine policy last month as part of new measures to try and slow the spread of coronavirus in the UK and prevent a second wave of infections. The policy, which officially came into force last week, makes it law that all people coming into the UK must self-quarantine for at least 14 days, regardless of if they have symptoms. 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. But the policy has sparked fury among bosses in the travel industry, with aviation chiefs comparing the requirement to hanging up a 'Britiain is closed' sign. They have also suggested the wider easing of lockdown will do little to help restart travel if it comes into force. Meanwhile, more than 200 businesses last month joined a campaign urging the government to drop the idea, while a number of ex-Tory politicians and current MPS have voiced concerns. Last week British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair launched legal action against the quarantine policy, which it described as 'flawed'. The airlines announced they have asked for a judicial review to be heard 'as soon as possible', claiming the measures introduced this week will have a 'devastating effect on British tourism and the wider economy'. They said they have seen no evidence of when proposed air bridges - which allow quarantine free travel between the UK and a select number other countries - will be implemented. Meanwhile, the website mix-up comes after passengers arriving at UK airports on the day it was implemented described scenes of 'pandemonium' after the introduction of 14-day quarantine rules requiring them to fill out an online form. Travellers told of three-hour wait times at Manchester Airport, some said the QR codes they were asked to scan did not work and others claimed 'snotty' border guards were saying they should have filled in the arrival form before landing. Travellers must give their phone number and an address for self-isolation, but about half of passengers arriving at UK airports said they were unaware of the policy on the day it was introduced. Meanwhile, Britons eager for a post-lockdown getaway are likely shelving their plans to fly abroad after pictures of crammed easyJet cabins left them horrified. Passengers on the airline's first flight in three months yesterday declared it impossible to maintain social distancing while the middle seat remained in use. Photographs of travellers bunched less that two metres apart, on the flight from London Gatwick to Glasgow, came as CEO Johan Lundgren that he would feel '100 per cent safe' because of measures taken by easyJet to mitigate contamination. EasyJet grounded its entire fleet in March after the government introduced its coronavirus lockdown laws, while British Airways stopped all of its flights from Gatwick Airport. Ms Adelaide Ntim Agyeiwaa, an aspiring NPP parliamentary candidate for the Nsuta-Kwamang-Beposo constituency has denied ever invoking curses on delegates ahead of the party's primaries on June 20, this year. Ms Agyeiwaa is said to have invoked the popular Asante deity, Antoa Nyamaa, after distributing cash and mobile phones to the delegates to compel them to vote for her. Mr Yaw Opoku, a delegate, who made the allegation, said the incidence occurred at the residence of Ms. Agyeiwaa after inviting the delegates to share her vision and seek their support. He said after a long deliberations, Ms. Agyeiwaa gave each delegate a mobile phone, a piece of cloth and a cash of GH1,000.00. Mr Opoku said one Nana Nkansa Boadu, who distributed the items invoked the deity saying that any delegate who receives the money and refuses to vote for Adelaide Agyeiwaa should be struck down by the deity. He said Nana Boadu on behalf of the aspirant further promised the delegates that extra money would be given to them, should the other aspirants give more than the GH1,000.00. According to Mr Opoku, Nana Boadu added that, should Adelaide fail to pay them the extra money, Antoa Nyamaa should also kill her. He said the delegates felt intimidated and threatened by the sudden turn of events by the aspirant. This is strange, it is something that we have never heard of or experienced in this constituency since it was created. We hereby call on the President and the NPP leadership to call Adelaide Ntim Agyeiwaa to order, Mr Opoku appealed. However, when the Ghana News Agency contacted the aspirant on the matter, she flatly denied it describing it as baseless and should be taken with a pinch of salt. She said her three other opponents knew she was winning the primaries, that was why they were trying to do everything to discredit her, but that would not work. ---GNA BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Samir Ali Trend: Information about the unpaved road near the front line in Azerbaijan's Tartar district undergoing mortar fire by the Armenian armed forces is false, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend on June 17. The abovementioned rumor was spread on social networks and some websites. The ministry revealed that an anti-tank mine laid at the depth of more than one meter during the first Karabakh war exploded, damaging the road. "The operational situation is fully controlled by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, said the 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. Anyone will be able to find out the rules on the Internet, - Minister Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba AP This week, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry will launch an interactive map revealing the latest updates and rules of the entrance to different countries for the time of coronavirus pandemic. Dmytro Kuleba, the Foreign Minister said so as quoted by Yevropeiska Pravda. "Anyone will be able to look up the rules of the entrance to countries, how to enter and how to exit", Kuleba said. Earlier, the Ministry released a list of 50 countries, where there's a high level of Covid-19 incidence is observed, and thus, people who arrive from these countries are supposed to stay on 14-days-long isolation. As of June 17, Ukrainian medics reported already 33,234 cases of Covid-19 in the country. Over the last 24 hours, the disease was confirmed in another 758 people. Maksym Stepanov, Ukraine's Healthcare Minister said so during the briefing. 943 people succumbed to the disease, 31 of them over the last 24 hours. 14,943 people recovered from coronavirus, as the repeated test did not reveal any signs of the virus in their bodies. Most of the cases are observed in Chernivtsi region (4,082), Kyiv (4,026), Lviv region (3,227) and Rivne region (2,449). The city of Beaumont on July 6 will resume water cutoffs for customers who are two or more months behind on paying their bills. The announcement, made on the citys Facebook page Wednesday morning, comes some three months after the city came under fire for shutting off water at the Forest Hollow Mobile Home Park in north Beaumont because of outstanding bills from the parks out-of-state landlord. The water was off for about two days, just as officials were warning everyone of the importance of washing ones hands to prevent the spread of coronavirus. At the time, City Manager Kyle Hayes said the landlord owed more than $53,000 in water utility charges, but the City Council pledged not to turn off the water again until the pandemic was over. One of the few recommendations made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a way to prevent the virus spread that hasnt changed since the pandemic began is the importance of hand washing and using sanitizer. And the virus doesnt seem to be finished with Beaumont and Jefferson County. On Tuesday, the county set a new record for number of coronavirus cases confirmed in one day, outpacing the next-highest day by 10. Beaumont, which reported 20 on Tuesday, accounted for nearly two-thirds of the increase. Related: DATA: Jefferson Co. sets daily record for new coronavirus cases The county confirmed an additional 28 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total coronavirus cases confirmed outside of state and federal prisons to 817. Additionally, the region on Tuesday reached levels of coronavirus patients hospitalized in intensive care not seen since April, among other seemingly alarming statistics. More Information To contact the water department Bills can be paid online at beaumonttexas.gov or at City Hall between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Bill questions can be directed to the Water Customer Service Office at 409-866-0023. Comments from the City Council* Councilman Mike Getz "The reality is that the state of Texas is opening up and trying to move towards normal. Part of normal is paying your water bill. Some of these people have gotten stimulus checks and have chosen to use their money for purposes other than paying their bills, which is what the checks are there for. While I understand, there are people who may truly be in a bad situation, the city of Beaumont has agreed to work with them and work on payment plans." Councilman Audwin Samuel "I understand that the city has obligations also, financially, we have to deal with budget crisis and things of that sort. We're going to have to do something because we still have to provide services. I'm still thinking. We have to do something." Councilwoman Robin Mouton The mobile home park is "not in my ward. I understand I'm a council member, but I don't have a comment." Councilman W.L. Pate "Please know, and it's important for the citizens to know this, we don't even consider turning the water off until the customer is two months behind. We'll also say, 'If you've got a problem, tell us what it is. We'll work something out with you to make it work.'" Councilman Taylor Neild "What I support is allowing people to come in and get on a payment plan and get caught back up moving forward so you're also allowing some relief for the citizens. I don't think it's fair to allow the citizens to get farther and farther behind. I would encourage citizens that are having financial difficulties to apply for the block grants that are going to be available." Mayor Becky Ames "We can't give a service away to one and not all. In a way this kind of does a favor because it doesn't let it get too far out of hand. There will be money coming forward to help people pay their rent so hopefully that will help." *Councilman Randy Feldschau could not be reached for comment. See More Collapse Hayes on Wednesday said the city might be dealing with coronavirus for a long time. Water payments provide funds to operate the water and sewer plant, repair water and sewer lines and provide debt payments for capital projects, among other uses. Hayes is responsible for day-to-day city operations. The City Council didnt officially vote on setting a date to restart water cutoffs, but it was discussed Tuesday afternoon in executive session. All the council members who could be reached by phone Wednesday and gave a comment on the announcement were in agreement with Hayes. Councilman Randy Feldschau could not be reached and Councilwoman Robin Mouton declined to comment. The citys water utilities fund is self-supporting, meaning utility payments fund operations. Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox As of May 31, according to Chief Financial Officer Todd Simoneaux, 3,425 of the citys 42,500 water accounts were two or more months delinquent. The outstanding balances equal about $733,000. There are some people who take advantage of the situation and are not being fair to the other citizens of Beaumont because theyre not paying their water bill or, if they have tenants, theyre collecting money for it but not paying the bill, Councilman W.L. Pate said. He later added that allowing the water bills to continue to go outstanding is like loaning certain residents taxpayers money. Councilman Taylor Neild referenced the Texas Constitution, which doesnt allow the city to give free water. He said he worries that allowing residents to get more than two months behind will allow the bills to pile up to a level the resident would be hard pressed to pay back. Even without coronavirus-related budget shortfalls being experienced by Beaumont and other cities across the nation, the water utilities fund this year already was expected to dip into its reserves. The adopted 2020 budget for the water utilities fund lists revenues of nearly $51 million. But expenditures were expected to be about $53 million. Related: Tax hike could be in Beaumonts future Mayor Becky Ames said the city has to be able to balance its budget. Stopping water shutoffs was the right thing to do when things were much tougher, she said. Things are tough now, but (the July 6 deadline) is almost three weeks away and that will give people time to make plans. Ames and other council members encouraged residents who get a shutoff notice or know theyre behind in making payments to call the city now to set up a payment plan. Were very open to working out payment plans, the mayor said. This is not to put anyone in a worse hardship than theyre already in. At some point we have to go back to business as usual, because we have a lot of citizens that are paying their water bills and their sewage and their trash. The city also hopes a rent and utility assistance program will be up and running by the time shutoffs begin. The council earlier this month approved the allocation of $500,000 from the CARES Act to fund such a program expected to be run by a local nonprofit. Planning and Community Development Director Chris Boone said the city is still waiting for federal approval to use the funds in this way. But, ideally, an individual would go to the nonprofit with the overdue bill and proof that it is the result of a coronavirus-related economic issue. From there, the nonprofit would write a payment check on behalf of the resident and the city would reimburse the nonprofit. Related: Water cut at mobile home park Pate also said the city is looking at only doing shutoffs Monday through Thursday so that individuals can come the next day to rectify the problem instead of waiting through the weekend. Hayes said 99.9% of customers make their payments to restore water service after its turned off. As for the mobile home park, City Attorney Tyrone Cooper wouldnt comment on the status of a potential lawsuit against the property owner. However, this issue also was discussed in executive session. Pate said the city hopes the landlord will make payments or start a payment plan before July 6. Its unclear what will happen to residents if not. To potentially avoid a similar situation where tenants are disadvantaged as a result of a landlords failure to make payments, city staff is researching a potential requirement that future multifamily dwellings have individual water hookups. Public Works and Technology Director Bart Bartkowiak said that presents unique challenges because of the space that would be taken up by individual lines and the density of people in multifamily dwellings. Research into the issue has largely been put on hold as a result of coronavirus. Bartkowiak said hes not aware of any facilities currently in development that would be affected by such a change. 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 Arctic Ocean will take up more CO2 over the 21st century than predicted by most climate models. This additional CO2 causes a distinctly stronger ocean acidification. These results were published in a study by climate scientists from the University of Bern and Ecole normale superieure in Paris. Ocean acidification threatens the life of calcifying organisms - such as mussels and "sea butterflies" - and can have serious consequences for the entire food chain. The ocean takes up large amounts of man-made CO2 from the atmosphere. This additional CO2 causes ocean acidification, a process that can already be observed today. Ocean acidification particularly impacts organisms that form calcium carbonate skeletons and shells, such as molluscs, sea urchins, starfish and corals. The Arctic Ocean is where acidification is expected to be greatest. A study that was recently published in the scientific journal Nature by Jens Terhaar from Bern and Lester Kwiatkowski and Laurent Bopp from the Ecole normale superieure in Paris shows, that ocean acidification in the Arctic Ocean is likely to be even worse than previously thought. The results show that the smallest of the seven seas will take up 20% more CO2 over the 21st century than previously expected, under the assumption that the atmospheric CO2 concentrations continue to increase. "This leads to substantially enhanced ocean acidification, particularly between 200 and 1000 meters", explains Jens Terhaar, member of the group for ocean modeling at the Oeschger-Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Bern. This depth range is an important refuge area for many marine organisms. Consequences for the food chain Ocean acidification negatively impacts organisms that build calcium carbonate skeletons and shells. In sufficiently acidic waters, these shells become unstable and begin to dissolve. "Our results suggest that it will be more difficult for Arctic organisms to adapt to ocean acidification than previously expected", says co-author Lester Kwiatkowski. A loss of these organisms is likely to impact the entire Arctic food chain up to fish and marine mammals. New method improves projections The international research team exploited the large divergence in simulated Arctic Ocean carbon uptake by current climate models. The researchers found a physical relationship across the models between the simulation of present-day Arctic sea surface densities and associated deep-water formation, with greater deep-water formation causing enhanced transport of carbon into the ocean interior and therefore enhanced acidification. Using measurements of Arctic sea surface density the research team was able to correct for biases in the models and reduce the uncertainty associated with projections of future Arctic Ocean acidification. ### Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research The Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR) is one of the University of Bern's strategic centres. It is a leading institution for climate research and brings together researchers from fourteen institutes and four faculties. The OCCR carries out interdisciplinary research that is at the forefront of climate science. The Oeschger Centre was founded in 2007 and is named after Hans Oeschger (1927-1998), a pioneer of modern climate research who worked at the University of Bern. http://www.oeschger.unibe.ch Publication: Terhaar et al.: Emergent constraint on Arctic Ocean acidification in the twenty-first century. Nature, 17. June 2020, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2360-3 A man drove his car into a crowd of protesters overnight in downtown Portland, injuring three, before fleeing the scene, police say. The driver, identified by police as 27-year-old Anthony Eaglehorse-Lassandro, drove away at a high rate of speed but was tracked and eventually arrested, Portland police said. He remains in the Multnomah County Detention Center. The incident occurred early Wednesday morning as protesters marched in downtown Portland as part of the citys 20th consecutive day of protests. Thousands of demonstrators have gathered and marched through city streets each day, calling for sweeping reforms to protect people of color from police brutality. Video footage from the scene near Southwest Third Avenue and Alder Street shows the driver turning toward a group of demonstrators in the street. The driver pauses, then accelerates into the group, sending at least one person to the ground. GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING The driver flees, and a group of demonstrators gives chase on foot. Police said other drivers associated with the protesters appeared to follow him. The driver later appears on the video a second time. He hits a vehicle then gets out of his car. A demonstrator runs toward him, and he drives away, tires squealing. It wasnt immediately clear whether the driver had any additional contact with demonstrators prior to what can be seen in the video footage. Two people were taken from the scene by ambulance, police said. Another was taken for treatment in a personal car. Police dont think any of them suffered injuries that threatened their lives. Portland police Air Support Unit officers tracked Eaglehorse-Lassandros car and directed colleagues to the spot where he had stopped and fled on foot in Southeast Portland. Eaglehorse-Lassandro was the only person arrested in connection with Portlands latest protests, which began Tuesday and extended into Wednesday morning. Hes accused of hit and run, reckless driving and possession of a controlled substance, according to police. Demonstrators also marched onto southbound Interstate 405 and remained on the Fremont Bridge for about two hours Tuesday near downtown Portland. The protests are part of a massive uprising of demonstrations that has swept the country after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Police urge anyone who has information about the downtown hit and run to email Sgt. Erin Smith at erin.smith@portlandoregon.gov. -- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. The ITER project, a collaboration of 35 nations, comprising India, to prove that fusion power can be produced on a commercial scale and is sustainable - is nearing the start of assembly in France despite the challenging circumstances from the horrid coronavirus, officials announced on Wednesday. ITER, the world's largest experimental fusion facility, is being built in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, some 35 km north of Aix-en-Provence in southern France. "The start of assembly is planned for July and a date will be set soon," ITER spokesperson Laban Coblentz told IANS. The tokamak building is ready to receive components. "The first of the large structural support elements - the 1,250 ton cryostat base - has been positioned in place," he said in a statement. ITER's massive first-of-a-kind magnets and other components are in final stages and/or already being shipped to France from China, Korea, Japan, Italy, India, Russia, and the US. The first 440-ton sector of the vacuum vessel, which will contain the fusion plasma at 150 million degrees Celsius (ten times hotter than the centre of the sun), was completed in Korea on April 20 and will arrive at ITER in July. The first of ITER's giant superconducting magnets, capable of shaping and controlling the superheated ITER plasma within the vacuum vessel walls, have been completed and shipped to the worksite. The first two D-shaped toroidal field magnets - each 17 meters high, weighing 360 tons - arrived from Japan and Italy in April. A third is en route from Japan, Coblentz said in an email. The first of the circular poloidal field magnets - 10 meters in diameter, weighing 400 tons - is in shipment from China. And the first of six modules of the central solenoid, which, at 1,000 tons and 18 meters high, will be the "beating heart" of ITER and the largest pulsed superconducting magnet ever built will be shipped from the US in August. Factories around the world are finalizing the fabrication of many more components of unprecedented size and precision. In total, the ITER machine will be made up of more than one million components. To address the coronavirus, he said, "We are massively teleworking, both staff and contractors, but still able to maintain critical activities onsite, and have been making progress." "We hope that we will soon be able to re-open our doors to public visitors." Energy from hydrogen fusion will be a monumental shift in the world's economy and the planet's environment as it changes to carbon-free fusion energy for baseload power. India is one of the seven partners, both in-kind and in-cash, in a first-of-a-kind global collaboration. The 1,250-tons cryostat base, the first two sections of which have been constructed by Larsen & Toubro (L&T), is India's largest single procurement contribution to the ITER facility that spans over 42 hectares. Designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power, ITER, originally the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, will be the world's largest experimental fusion facility. Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars, when light atomic nuclei fuse together to form heavier ones, a large amount of energy is released. Fusion research is aimed at developing a safe, abundant and environmentally-responsible energy source. The project aims to complete through first plasma in 2025, a key milestone toward full fusion power by 2035. ITER is a global collaboration. Europe will contribute almost half of the cost of its construction, while the other six members of this joint international venture (China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the US) will contribute equally to the rest. A federal judge on Wednesday ordered U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to restore financial aid included in the latest coronavirus relief legislation to hundreds of thousands of community college students in California whom she disqualified because they are not U.S. citizens. The $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, known as the Cares Act, signed by President Trump on March 27, included $14 billion in federal funding for college students suffering economic hardships because of the pandemic. DeVos Education Department announced rules in late April denying aid to students, mostly noncitizens, who were ineligible for other types of federal funding. But U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of Oakland said the Cares Act was intended to aid needy students, and there was no evidence that Congress had authorized DeVos department to deny funding because of citizenship. She issued an injunction ordering distribution of the funds to community college students statewide without the restrictions DeVos sought to impose. Congress intended the student aid to be used for basic necessities, such as food, housing, health care, and childcare, as well as essential tools for learning, such as course materials and technology, Gonzalez Rogers said. She said the Education Departments interpretation of the Cares Act would exclude hundreds of thousands of students including those in low-income communities and communities of color, which have been affected disproportionately by COVID-19. College officials said DeVos rules would have denied aid to 523,000 noncitizens attending community colleges in California, including 70,000 undocumented immigrants, and 275,000 other students who would have been ineligible for Cares Act because they had not previously applied for federal financial assistance. The two groups include more than half the colleges overall enrollment of 1.5 million students. The rules also apply to four-year colleges and universities, which did not take part in the lawsuit. Both the University of California and California State University said they have been able to allocate funds from the state and other sources to make up for the loss of federal aid for their undocumented students. The ruling is good news for all students who have been denied the assistance that Congress intended for them during this public health crisis, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, the California Community Colleges chancellor, said in a statement. His office filed the suit last month along with five community college districts. In a separate case earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice of Spokane rejected most of DeVos restrictions on financial aid to students at colleges and universities in Washington state but allowed her to deny aid to undocumented students for now, saying he would address that issue later in the case. Asked for comment Wednesday, Angela Morabito, spokeswoman for DeVos department, said, Two federal judges in the same circuit are split on this issue, and we fully expect to prevail on appeal. An appeal would be filed in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. 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 funding dispute is one of many that have reached the courts over Trump administration policies to close U.S. borders and deny benefits to noncitizens. The Supreme Court is due to rule shortly on President Trumps authority to abolish DACA, former President Barack Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has allowed more than 700,000 young undocumented immigrants to live and work legally in the United States. In defending the education funding restrictions, government lawyers argued that the Cares Act did not define students who were eligible for aid, leaving that task to DeVos. Gonzalez Rogers disagreed. The law expressly requires that the secretary shall allocate (financial aid) funds according to a specific formula that counts all of an institutions students, excluding only those enrolled exclusively in distance education courses prior to the COVID-19 emergency, the judge said. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Nanette Asimov contributed to this report. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko New York: In a sharp rebuke to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs tirade on Kashmir, India on Monday said those accusing others of rights violations must introspect as it censured Pakistan for the first time at the UNGA for perpetrating the worst form of state oppression in Balochistan. Taking a veiled dig at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in her address at the 71st UN General Assembly (UNGA) session said there are nations in our midst where UN designated terrorists roam freely and deliver their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity, an apparent reference to Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed. ALSO READ: Abandon this dream, Sushma Swaraj's advice to Pakistan on Kashmir at UNGA - Top 10 quotes Here are the LIVE updates: Long queue of people wanting to compliment EAM on her #UNGA address pic.twitter.com/vz5ymBLc4e Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) September 26, 2016 #WATCH: "Kashmir is an integral part of India, and will always be. Pakistan should stop dreaming", says EAM Sushma Swaraj at #UNGA pic.twitter.com/1OYsdks4vf ANI (@ANI_news) September 26, 2016 #The brutality against the Baloch people represents the worst form of State oppression #We should adopt Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism to develop norms to prosecute terrorists #Those who seed extr't ideologies, reap a bitter harvest. This germ of evil has grown into a hydra-headed monster #Kashmir is an integral part of India, and will be always. Aap (Pak) sapna dekhna chor dijiye EAM begins on the most critically imp subject of terrorism, speaks of the blood & tear of victims from Paris to Pathankot & Brussels to Uri pic.twitter.com/hxcMlGw3rf Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) September 26, 2016 EAM Sushma Swaraj addresses the 71st session of UN General Assembly in New York #UNGA pic.twitter.com/7CBCSa1cI3 ANI (@ANI_news) September 26, 2016 #Humne sharton ke hisaab pe nahi, mitrta ka haath badhaya. Par hume kya mila? Pathankot? Uri? Bahadur Ali? #Bahadur Ali is a living example of Pakistan's cross border terrorism #Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others #Jinke apne ghar sheeshe ke ho, unhe doosre par patthar nahi fenkne chahiye #Aatankwaadiyon ko paalna kuch deshon ka shaunk ban gaya hai #We all have to come together to fight the scourge of terrorism, if some country is not willing then it must be isolated #We need to identify who gives shelter to the terrorists? How are they able to carry out such activities?. We need to uproot terrorism #Who finances terror and terrorists? Same question was raised by Afghanistan on this very platform few days back #I am very thankful to the UN for its tremendous support for International Yoga day #Sanitation is also a big issue, and we have started 'Swacch Bharat Abhiyan' under which 4 lakh toilets are built in 2 lakh schools #A year has passed since I stood at this hallowed podium to address members of the international community, so much has changed since then #Today the biggest challenge all of us face is the poverty prevalent in all corners of the world: EAM Sushma Swaraj #EAM Sushma Swaraj addresses the 71st session of UN General Assembly in New York #EAM Sushma Swaraj speaks at UN General Assembly in New York Stage set for India. EAM @SushmaSwaraj arrives at UN for her address to 71st #UNGA session pic.twitter.com/GO9Gwg0DRV Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) September 26, 2016 She also made a strong pitch for isolating such nations who speak the language of terrorism and for whom sheltering terrorists has become their calling card. In our midst, there are nations that still speak the language of terrorism, that nurture it, peddle it, and export it. To shelter terrorists has become their calling card. We must identify these nations and hold them to account, Swaraj asserted in her nearly 20-minute speech in Hindi. These nations, in which UN designated terrorists roam freely, lead processions and deliver their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity, are as culpable as the very terrorists they harbour. Such countries should have no place in the comity of nations, Swaraj said, in essence making a call to the international community to isolate such nations. ALSO READ: Sushma Swaraj's speech at UNGA - 5 things Indian foreign minister must raise against Pakistan at United Nations In a strong rebuttal of the baseless allegations made by Sharif from the podium of the General Assembly about human rights violations by India in Kashmir, Swaraj said, I can only say that those accusing others of human rights violations would do well to introspect and see what egregious abuses they are perpetrating in their own country, including in Balochistan. The brutality against the Baloch people represents the worst form of state oppression. (With inputs from ANI) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 12:32 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf6e78e 1 National trial,hearing,Wiranto-attacked,Wiranto-stabbed,Wiranto,prosecutors,sentence-demand,terror-attack Free Prosecutors at the West Jakarta District Court are seeking between seven and 16 years imprisonment for three individuals over their alleged involvement in the stabbing of then-coordinating political, legal and security affairs Minister Wiranto in Banten province last October. Prosecutors demanded a 16-year prison sentence for Syahrial Alamsyah, aka Abu Rara, 12 years for his wife Fitri Diana and seven years for Samsudin during a hearing on June 11. The defendants lawyers are set to read their defense plea on Thursday, which will then be followed by the verdict hearing, West Jakarta District Court spokesperson Eko Aryanto said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com. Prosecutors indicted Syahrial for allegedly launching a premeditated attack against Wiranto in Pandeglang, Banten, on Oct. 10, 2019. Read also: Victim Protection Agency requests Rp 65m to compensate ex-minister for stabbing incident Prosecutor Herry said the defendant had been concerned that he would be placed on the polices most-wanted list for being affiliated with Islamic State group-linked homegrown militant group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), driving him to retaliate against authorities. [The defendant] felt that his life would have been useless if he hadnt carried out a jihad in form of an assault against authorities, Herry said during the hearing. One day before the attack, Fitria heard helicopters flying over their rented house in Pandeglang and thought that the authorities had been actively hunting them down. After finding out that Wiranto was set to visit the region the following day, Syahrial persuaded his wife and child to plan an attack on the state official. On Oct. 10, Syahrial went to Menes Square and proceeded to stab Wiranto in the abdomen with a sharp weapon. Meanwhile, Fitria attacked from behind and injured one of the ministers adjutants. Wiranto was rushed to Berkah Pandeglang General Hospital after the assault. He sustained two stab wounds on the lower parts of his abdomen. (rfa) - A new report released during an event to mark the Day of the African Child had shown that 4000 teenage girls got pregnant in Machakos county within five months - Gover Alfred Mutua, however, made a clarification sying the figure represented the number of times pregnant teens visited health facilities in the county - Mutua also said despite the clarification, the number of teenage pregnancies n the country was worrying and that action should be taken against defilers Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua has dismissed claims that his county recorded over 3900 teenage pregnancies within Five months according to new data released on Tuesday, June 16. According to the latest statistics, the number of pregnancies among school-going girls skyrocketed from mid-March 2020. READ ALSO: Kisumu man who overcame abject poverty to become dentist builds elderly mom new house Governor Alfred Mutua dismisses claim that Machakos recorded over 3900 teenage pregnancies within 5 months Source: Facebook READ ALSO: KDF officer arrested for allegedly strangling 26-year-old wife to death The governor has, however in a Facebook post, disputed the figure noting it represented the total number of visits made to the hospital by pregnant teenagers. "I am shocked by the figures of teenage pregnancies reported," wrote Mutua. "Even though the figures are less because the number of 4,000 represents multiple visits of pregnant girls to hospitals," he added. READ ALSO: Kalonzo Musyoka, Isaac Ruto's parties sign post-election deal with Jubilee Governor Alfred Mutua dismisses claim that Machakos recorded over 3900 teenage pregnancies within 5 months Source: UGC The county boss, nonetheless, emphasised that teenage pregnancy was unacceptable in the country adding that what the reported depicted was a national problem. He further called on communities to engage the teenagers in matters of sexual education classes both in Church and teach them to avoid promiscuity and protect them from other vices. "You cannot have girls excluded from education while the boys who made them pregnant are in class improving their chances of success in life," said Mutua. READ ALSO: Well wisher rescues Homa Bay tenant evicted by landlord for demanding payment of Ksh 60 debt "Girls, pregnant or otherwise, should never be stopped from attending school anywhere in Kenya. It is their human right," he added. Mutua also called on relevant authorities to take action against men who defile young girls and impregnate them but at the same time asked parents to counsel their sons who befriend girls. The data from the Kenya Health Information Systems in the national governments Ministry of Health showed other counties had an even higher number than that of Machakos county. 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 By Express News Service BENGALURU: Strongly defending the governments decision to amend the Karnataka Land Reforms Act to allow non-agriculturalists to buy agricultural land, Revenue Minister R Ashok on Tuesday said the proposed changes will help farm as well as industrial growth in Karnataka. The minister said since the Assembly is not in session, they are contemplating about implementing the reforms through an ordinance, which will be issued within the next 10 days. We will discuss it with the Chief Minister and the ordinance will be issued soon, Ashok said while addressing members and affiliated associations of KASSIA in Bengaluru. The amendments to Sections 79 A, B and 80 of the Act will remove the unnecessary hurdles in purchase of land by non-agriculturists for legitimate purposes, he said, adding that there is a need to develop agriculture and also help industries grow. Stating that Gujarat is doing much better compared to Karnataka in terms of export of agricultural produce, the minister said the proposed changes will help in setting up processing units in rural areas, thereby helping improve agriculture exports, generate employment opportunities and also boost economic activities. Dismissing apprehensions that big firms will purchase lands from small farmers, the minister felt it will help many agriculture university graduates to take up farming. We can provide employment to only 5 per cent of graduates coming from agriculture universities every year. What will the remaining 95 per cent graduates do with all the knowledge about agriculture if they cannot even purchase agricultural land? he asked. KASSIA president R Raju said the reforms will help improve the states agricultural exports and generate employment opportunities in rural areas. Matt Hancock today said ministers are trying to thrash out a replacement for the two-metre rule - after the government's chief suggested lower distances can be 'managed'. The Health Secretary refused to say when the review of the draconian restrictions will be complete, despite a mounting revolt from Tory MPs and business over the damage it is wreaking. He said in a round of interviews: 'The question is what to replace it with, as well as when to make the change.' Sir Patrick Vallance suggested that he will not oppose a relaxation at the Downing Street briefing last night. He stressed that two metres was 'safer than one metre', but said there was no 'absolute' rule - and pointed to the dwindling probability that people will be in contact with someone who is contagious. 'It's not an absolute, it's a relative, and obviously the closer you get the riskier it is, so it's a risk assessment... I don't think two metres is some sort of absolute cut-off that never changes,' he said. Health Secretary Matt Hancock refused to say when the review of the two-metre rule will be complete, despite a mounting revolt from Tory MPs and business over the damage it is wreaking He added that as the incidence rate gets smaller 'you can start to think about ways in which you can manage the distance in certain circumstances in different ways'. Boris Johnson told the briefing: 'We are keeping it under constant review... Watch this space because we absolutely hear you.' Hospitality and other sectors have been calling for the two-metre guidance to be eased, saying it will hamper efforts to get up and running again in July. Underling the threat to the economy, figures yesterday showed UK workers on the payroll plummeted by 600,000 between the start of lockdown and May. In a sign of the carnage to come, official figures showed the number of paid employees dived 2.1 per cent or 612,000 between March and last month. The breakneck decline is particularly worrying with the government's furlough scheme now propping up 9.1million jobs - many of which might never return as UK plc reels from the pandemic. Chief science adviser Sir Patrick Vallance suggested that he will not oppose a relaxation at the Downing Street briefing last night An update on the government's furlough scheme yesterday showed that the number of jobs covered has hit 9.1million On the two metre rule, Boris Johnson told the No10 briefing: 'We are keeping it under constant review... Watch this space because we absolutely hear you.' Jobless claims under Universal Credit have soared by 1.6million - 125.9 per cent - over the same period. Vacancies showed an eye-watering reduction of 342,000 in March-May compared to the previous quarter - a sharper fall than than the credit crunch. However, the worst of the hit for workers appears to have been masked by the government's massive furlough bailout scheme, with experts warning of 1980s levels of unemployment by the end of the year. The PM's official spokesman said: 'We are seeing the impact of coronavirus on our economy, as is the case in many countries. 'It's started to show in today's figures but our extensive support ... has protected thousands of businesses and millions of jobs with 6.3million jobs furloughed up to May 3 worth 8billion. We are reopening the economy to get people back to work.' The grim jobs data emerged as former Tory leader William Hague joined calls from a swathe of MPs for the two-metre rule to be abandoned immediately to save the UK from a complete meltdown. In an analogy to the famous rescue of thousands of British soldiers from the beaches Dunkirk in France during the Second World Ward, Lord Hague described lockdown as an 'heroic operation in itself but the result of a massive failure'. He urged the government to heed calls for testing on a 'massive scale' so that social distancing curbs are no longer required. In the Commons yesterday, Mr Johnson was again challenged by one of his own MPs, Desmond Swayne, on when the distancing would be reduced. 'I am determined to make life as easy as possible for our retailers, for our hospitality industry, but we must defeat this virus... ' he said. 'The numbers of deaths have massively come down, the number of new hospital admissions have massively come down. We continue to make progress, but we must make sure that we get the virus fully under control before we make the change that he wants.' Experts believe the full impact of the crisis will not be shown until August at the earliest because of the cushion of the furlough scheme. The number of employees on payroll has fallen dramatically since the lockdown came in KANSAS CITY BIZ EMERGES DEDICATED TO THE FIGHT AGAINST RACISM!!! Kansas City Tripping Over Legacy Of Privilege Kansas City couple creates privilege walk to help keep social issue discussions moving KANSAS CITY, Mo. - As Black Lives Matter protests continue across the country, people in Kansas City want to keep the conversation about social issues going. Two people, along with their friends are doing that by setting up what they call a privilege walk in Hyde Park. Exploring Kansas City Monumental Racism Tours of KC landmarks highlight history of racism, discrimination KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - There are those special moments, like a child's first catch or a ride on the swing set. These are the memories families have cherished at Swope Park for decades. For Erik Stafford, a visit to the swimming pool was the highlight of summer. RISE UP WITH KANSAS CITY TASTY WOKE CARBS!!! Bakers Against Racism KC sells over 1,200 pastries KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Bakers Against Racism KC sold over 1,200 pastries. Proceeds from the sale go to the Urban League of Greater Kansas City. The group hopes to help minorities in the community secure economic self-reliance and civil rights. They partnered with local bakeries and restaurants . Global economic predictions are dire as the pandemic continues along with protest against police brutality and social injustice.A scary headline that recently captured our attention:Luckily, this blog is all about viewing the news through an alternative lens and maybe even finding a bright side to share with so many angry, keyboard warriors.To wit . . .Sure, The Plaza is never going to recover the the damage of the riots and horrific property devaluations but new biz in the social media era seeks to profit by way of selling idea without the cheap merch manufactured in China.And so . . .Locals hustling to connect their biz to the struggle for social justice are in the midst of a Renaissance.Whilst protest and riots started a couple of weeks ago . . . Many progressive journalists encouraged patronage of African-American owned biz and started this trend. HOWEVER, the only problem was that so many of those places are traditionally conservative and merely seek to turn a profit in their respective endeavors - Not change the world.Accordingly . . .A new brand of local biz has emerged which seeks patronage to directly combat local racism. Right now the market is seemingly limitless,However, for those with open hearts, minds and wallets . . . Handing over a few bucks forcause will purchase peace of mind along with a great story to inflict on friends & family.And so these news items offer a peek at the rapidly changing marketplace of ideas . . .Check the links . . .Developing . . . Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, 32 An Air Force sergeant who has been charged with murdering two law enforcement officers in California scrawled phrases linked to the far-right Boogaloo group in his own blood, federal authorities say. Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, 32, was charged on Tuesday with murdering Protective Security Officer David Patrick Underwood, 53, in a drive by shooting outside a US courthouse in Oakland on May 29 during George Floyd protests. Carrillo is also facing separate state charges after he opened fire on Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputies, killing Sgt Damon Gutzwiller, on June 6 as the officers investigating the first murder closed in on him. A second man, Robert Justus Jr., is also charged with aiding and abetting Carrillo in the murder of Underwood in the initial attack. In announcing the murder charges on Tuesday, federal prosecutors linked Carrillo to the far-right, anti-government 'Boogaloo' movement. The heavily armed participants linked to the movement say they're preparing for a second Civil War. Authorities say they determined Carrillo's ties to the boogaloo movement based on the far-right phrases he wrote in his own blood on the hood of a car he is accused of stealing after killing the deputy and also his social media posts. 'BOOG,' 'I became unreasonable' and 'stop the duopoly' were among the phrases written in blood on the hood, according to photo evidence included in court documents. Carrillo is accused of plotting to target the federal security officer a day before the May 29 attack during an online chat with Justus and a third person. In announcing the murder charges on Tuesday, federal prosecutors linked Carrillo to the far-right, anti-government 'boogaloo' movement. Authorities say they determined Carrillo's ties to the boogaloo movement based on the far-right phrases he wrote in his own blood (above) on the hood of a car he is accused of stealing after killing the deputy Authorities say Deputy Damon Gutzwiller, 38, died in the ambush allegedly started by Carrillo. A second deputy was injured, and a third officer from the California Highway Patrol was shot in his hand Federal authorities said they found an American flag-like patch on Carrillo's bulletproof vest that depicted an igloo and a Hawaiian-style print, which is linked to the boogaloo movement WHAT IS THE BOOGALOO MOVEMENT? Boogaloo is a far-right, anti-government extremist movement. The heavily armed participants linked to the group say they're preparing for a second Civil War. It got its name from the panned 1984 movie 'Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo' and uses the title as a code word for a second Civil War. Other derivations of 'boogaloo' are 'big igloo' or 'big luau.' Followers are easy to spot with their trademark Hawaiian shirts and high-powered rifles and tactical gear. The movement is made up of pro-gun and anti-government groups. Participants mostly organize on Facebook but have attended recent events like the COVID-19 lockdown protests and demonstrations of George Floyd's death. Facebook earlier this month moved to limit the movements exposure on its platform by no longer recommending user groups associated with the term 'boogaloo' to members of similar associations. Advertisement In their criminal complaint, federal officials described a hastily hatched plan to target federal law enforcement officials during the protest in Oakland. Underwood was killed and his partner was wounded as they guarded the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland as a large demonstration over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was underway nearby. Officials said Carrillo used the protest as cover for the crime and for his escape. In a Facebook group that included his alleged accomplice Justus and an unidentified third person, Carrillo linked to a video showing a crowd attacking two California Highway Patrol vehicles and wrote: 'It's on our coast now, this needs to be nationwide. It's a great opportunity to target the specialty soup bois. Keep that energy going', according to the complaint. Boogaloo adherents refer to federal law enforcement as 'soup bois' because federal agencies sometimes are referred to as 'alphabet soup' due to their varied acronyms. Prosecutors says Justus responded with 'lets boogie.' The third member of the chat later wrote that Oakland might be 'popping off' with police protests. The next day, Carrillo drove from Travis Air Force Base and picked up Justus. He offered him body armor and a firearm. Justus, who turned himself in after the deputy was killed, told investigators he wouldn't take the weapon and gear. Justus said he drove Carrillo's white van, parked it near the courthouse and then did a 10-minute walk around the area. Justus told investigators that he did not want to participate in the killing but felt he was forced to because he was trapped in the van with Carrillo. Surveillance video captured the drive-by shooting of the federal guard in Oakland and authorities asked for the public's help finding the van Surveillance cameras captured Carrillo walking with an assault rifle in his hand near where he was eventually arrested on June 6. Federal authorities say the same homemade AR-15-style rifle was used in both shootings According to the complaint, authorities reminded him that he had gotten out of the van and could have left at any time. Justus claimed he was trying to think of ways to talk Carrillo out of his plan. After he returned to the van Justus drove past the guard station where Underwood and his partner were located and Carrillo fired from an open sliding door. Justus told investigators Carrillo seemed 'thrilled' after the shooting, the complaint said. Surveillance video showed the shooting and authorities asked for the public's help finding the van. On June 6, a citizen spotted an abandoned white van in Santa Cruz County and reported noticing ammunition, firearms and bomb-making ingredients inside. The vehicle identification number was traced to Carrillo's home in Ben Lomond and that's where authorities say he ambushed the officers, showering them with gunfire and explosives from a hillside on June 6, as they went to investigate. Carrillo separately faces state charges in that second shooting that killed Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller and left four other officers wounded. Federal authorities say the same homemade AR-15-style rifle was used in both two shootings. Carrillo was stationed at Travis Air Force Base northeast of Oakland where he was a leader in an elite military security force and had no record of disciplinary issues. Law enforcement recovered an AR-15-style rifle from the area where he was arrested. They say the same homemade AR-15-style rifle was used in both shootings Carrillo is also facing separate state charges after he opened fire on Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputies, killing Sgt Damon Gutzwiller, on June 6 as the officers investigating the first murder closed in on him. He is pictured above being arrested following the second incident The boogaloo movement got its name from the panned 1984 movie 'Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo' and uses the title as a code word for a second civil war, authorities say. Adherents have attended protests against government shutdowns over the coronavirus. They are easy to spot with their trademark Hawaiian shirts and high-powered rifles and tactical gear. Authorities revealed that Carrillo's 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 Federal authorities said they found an American flag-like patch on Carrillo's bulletproof vest that depicted an igloo and a Hawaiian-style print. Facebook earlier this month moved to limit the movements exposure on its platform by no longer recommending user groups associated with the term 'boogaloo' to members of similar associations. Other derivations of 'boogaloo' are 'big igloo' or 'big luau.' Carrillo's attorney, Jeffrey Strotter, said he doesn't have any evidence his client was in contact with anyone in the boogaloo movement, which the lawyer called a terrorist organization that uses social media to reach out 'to vulnerable and possibly susceptible individuals who may be receptive to their messages of hate and destruction'. Carrillo 'has personally expressed to me his sadness and sympathy for everyone that has been harmed by the tragic events in his case,' Stotter said. Authorities do not believe the Oakland attackers coordinated with three Nevada men suspected of plotting to spark violence during recent protests in Las Vegas and identifying with the 'boogaloo' movement. Carrillo is being held without bail in jail in Monterey County. He is expected to enter a plea to the state charges next month. Justus is charged with aiding and abetting the murder and attempted murder of the federal officers. Home Search ICH Do Deep State Elements Operate Within the Protest Movement? By Mike Whitney Revolutions are often seen as spontaneous. It looks like people just went into the street. But its the result of months or years of preparation. It is very boring until you reach a certain point, where you can organize mass demonstrations or strikes. If it is carefully planned, by the time they start, everything is over in a matter of weeks. Foreign Policy Journal June 16, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - Does anyone believe the nationwide riots and looting are a spontaneous reaction to the killing of George Floyd? Its all too coordinated, too widespread, and too much in-sync with the media narrative that applauds the mainly peaceful protests while ignoring the vast destruction to cities across the country. Whats that all about? Do the instigators of these demonstrations want to see our cities reduced to urban wastelands where street gangs and Antifa thugs impose their own harsh justice? Thats where this is headed, isnt it? Of course there are millions of protesters who honestly believe theyre fighting racial injustice and police brutality. And more power to them. But that certainly doesnt mean there arent hidden agendas driving these outbursts. Quite the contrary. It seems to me that the protest movement is actually the perfect vehicle for affecting dramatic social changes that only serve the interests of elites. For example, who benefits from defunding the police? Not African Americans, thats for sure. Black neighborhoods need more security not less. And yet, the New York Times lead editorial on Saturday proudly announces, Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the PoliceBecause reform wont happen. Check it out: We cant reform the police. The only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and the police.There is not a single era in United States history in which the police were not a force of violence against black people. Policing in the South emerged from the slave patrols in the 1700 and 1800s that caught and returned runaway slaves. In the North, the first municipal police departments in the mid-1800s helped quash labor strikes and riots against the rich. Everywhere, they have suppressed marginalized populations to protect the status quo. So when you see a police officer pressing his knee into a black mans neck until he dies, thats the logical result of policing in America. When a police officer brutalizes a black person, he is doing what he sees as his job (Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the PoliceBecause reform wont happen, New York Times) So, according to the Times, the problem isnt single parent families, or underfunded education or limited job opportunities or fractured neighborhoods, its the cops who have nothing to do with any of these problems. Are we supposed to take this seriously, because the editors of the Times certainly do. Theyd like us to believe that there is groundswell support for this loony idea, but there isnt. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter In a recent poll, more than 60% of those surveyed, oppose the idea of defunding the police. So why would such an unpopular, wacko idea wind up as the headline op-ed in the Saturday edition? Well, because the Times is doing what it always does, advancing the political agenda of the elites who hold the purse-strings and dictate which ideas are promoted and which end up on the cutting room floor. Thats how the system works. Check out this excerpt from an article by Paul Craig Roberts: The extraordinary destruction of white and Asian businesses in many instances wiping out a familys lifetime work, the looting of national businesses whose dumbshit CEOs support the looters, the merciless gang beatings of whites and Asians who attempted to defend their persons and their property, the egging on of the violence by politicians in both parties and by the entirely of the media including many alternative media websites, shows a country undergoing collapse. This is why it is not shown in national media. Some local media show an indication of the violent destruction in their community, but it is not accumulated and presented to a national audience. Consequently, Americans think the looting and destruction is only a local occurance I just checked CNN and the BBC and there is nothing about the extraordinary economic destruction and massive thefts. (The Real Racists, Paul Craig Roberts, Unz Review) Roberts makes a good point, and one thats worth mulling over. Why has the media failed to show the vast destruction of businesses and private property? Why have they minimized the effects of vandalism, looting and arson? Why have they fanned the flames of social unrest from the very beginning, shrugging off the ruin and devastation while cheerleading the demonstrations as a heroic struggle for racial justice? Is this is the same media that supported every bloody war, every foreign intervention, and every color-revolution for the last 5 decades? Are we really expected to believe that theyve changed their stripes and become an energized proponent of social justice? Nonsense. The medias role in concealing the damage should only convince skeptics that the protests are just one part of a much larger operation. What were seeing play out in over 400 cities across the US, has more to do with toppling Trump and sowing racial division than it does with the killing of George Floyd. The scale and coordination alone suggests that elements in the deep state are probably involved. We know from evidence uncovered during the Russiagate probe, that the media works hand-in-glove with the Intel agencies and FBI whileat the same time serving as a mouthpiece for elites. That hasnt changed, in fact, its gotten even worse. The uniformity of the coverage suggests that that same perception management strategy is being employed here as well. Even at this late date, the determination to remove Trump from office is as strong as ever even though, in the present case, it has been combined with the broader political strategy of inciting fratricidal violence, obliterating urban areas, and spreading anarchy across the country. This isnt about racial justice or police brutality, its about regime change, internal destabilization, and martial law. Take a look at this article at The Herland Report: What the Black Lives Matter movement does not understand is that they are being used by the billionaire white capitalists who are fighting to push the working class even lower and end the national sovereignty principles that president Trump stands for in America. The rightful grievance over racism against blacks is now used to get Trump since Russia Gate, Impeachment, the corona scandal and nothing else has worked. The aim is to end democracy in the United States, control Congress and politics and assemble the power into the hands of the very few It is all about who will own the United States and have free access to its revenues: Either the American people under democracy or globalist billionaire individuals. (Politicized USA Gene Sharp riots is another attempted coup detat New Left Tyranny The Herland Report That sounds about right to me. The protests are merely a fig leaf for a color revolution that bears a striking resemblance to the more than 50 CIA-backed coups launched on foreign governments in the last 70 years. Have the chickens have come home to roost? It certainly looks like it. Heres more from the same article: Use a grievance that the local population has against the system, identify and support those who oppose the current government, infiltrate and strengthen opposition movements, fund them with millions of dollars, organize protests that seem legitimate and have paid political instigators dress up in regular clothes to blend in. So, yes, the grievances are real, but that doesnt mean that someone else is not steering the action. And just as the media is shaping the narrative for its own purposes, so too, there are agents within the movement that are inciting the violence. All of this suggests the existence of some form of command-control that provides logistical support and assists in communications. Check out this excerpt from a post at Colonel Pat Langs website Sic Semper Tyrannis: The logistical capabilities of antifa+ are also impressive. They can move people around the country with ease, position pallet loads of new brick, 55 gallon new trash cans of frozen water bottles and other debris suitable for throwing on gridded patterns around cities in a well thought out distribution pattern. Who pays for this? Who plans this? Who coordinates these plans and gives execute orders? Antifa+ can create massive propaganda campaigns that fit their agenda. These campaigns are fully supported by the MSM and by many in the Congressional Democratic Party. The present meme of Defund the Police is an example. This appeared miraculously, and simultaneously across the country. I am impressed. Yesterday the frat boy type who is mayor of Minneapolis was booed out of a mass meeting of radicals in that fair city because he refused to endorse abolishing the police force. Gutting the civil police forces has long been a major goal of the far left, but now, they have the ability to create mass hysteria over it when they have an excuse. (My take on the present situation, Sic Semper Tyrannis) Colonel Lang is not the only one to marvel at Antifas logistical capabilities. The United States has never experienced two weeks of sustained protests in hundreds of its cities at the same time. Its beyond suspicious, it points to extensive coordination with groups across the country, a comprehensive media strategy (that probably preceded the killing of George Floyd), a sizable presence on social media (to put people on the street), and agents provocateur whose task is to incite violence, loot and create mayhem. None of this has anything to do with racial justice or police brutality. America is being destabilized and sacked for other purposes altogether. This a destabilization campaign similar to the CIAs color revolutions designed to topple the regime (Trump), install a puppet government (Biden), impose shock therapy on the economy pushing tens of millions of Americans into homelessness and destitution, and leave behind a broken, smoldering shell of a country easily controlled by Federal shock troops and wealthy globalist mandarins. Heres a short excerpt from an article by Kurt Nimmo at his excellent blog Another Day in the Empire: The BLM represents the forefront of an effort to divide Americans along racial and political lines, thus keeping race and identity-based barbarians safely away from more critical issues of importance to the elite, most crucially a free hand to plunder and ransack natural resources, minerals, crude oil, and impoverish billions of people whom the ruling elite consider unproductive useless eaters and a hindrance to the drive to dominate, steal, and murder. It is sad to say BLM serves the elite by ignoring or remaining ignorant of the main problemboundless predation by a neoliberal criminal project that considers allblack, white, yellow, brownas expliotable and dispensable serfs. (2 Million Arab Lives Dont Matter, Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire) The protest movement is the mask that conceals the maneuvering of elites. The real target of this operation is the Constitutional Republic itself. Having succeeded in using the Lockdown to push the economy into severe recession, the globalists are now inciting a fratricidal war that will weaken the opposition and prepare the country for a new authoritarian order. Mike lives in Washington state. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com. - " Source " - Post your comment below See also Search Information Clearing House === The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load. The largest taxpayer outlay in U.S. history is shaping up to be one of the most secretive. It's a bad combination. The Trump administration, which has resisted congressional oversight of its distribution of coronavirus relief funds, now says it has no intention of telling the public which businesses are tapping more than a half-trillion dollars in forgivable pandemic loans. Danske Bank updates the Brexit outlook in its latest piece and is doubtful that near-term progress will be made which will maintain Sterling vulnerability in the June to September period. Following the video conference between UK PM Boris Johnson, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel, the two sides have agreed to intensify negotiations. A series of negotiation rounds will be held in July and August to reach an agreement before the end of the year. The next negotiation round is now set to begin on 29 June. The ambition is to reach an agreement in August ahead of the EU summit in October. The bank notes that the new idea is now to agree on the principles of an agreement before negotiating the finer details. The UK has ruled out an extension of the transition period and the UK will be subjected to WTO rules if there is no agreement by the end of the year. Despite the renewed optimism, Danske remains sceptical that much has changed. It points out the fundamental difference of opinion which makes it difficult to reach agreement; The EU fears British companies will get an unfair competitive advantage if they get free access to the EU single market without obeying the same rules as European companies have to. The UK thinks following EU rules and being under the jurisdiction of the EU court make Brexit meaningless. According to Danske, although there is a soft deadline of August, there is only one real hard deadline of December 31st 2020 when the transition period ends. There is, therefore, an important risk that negotiations will drag out to the autumn without breaking down. We think it is only natural for political negotiations to drag out, as you dont want to compromise too early, because it looks bad or weak domestically. It is easier to sell a political compromise closer to the deadline. If so, the negotiations would follow the same pattern as the negotiations on the withdrawal. In this context, there were reports on Wednesday that the German government expects the negotiations to take longer and will only enter a crucial phase after the summer. Britain is already escalating threats in Brussels, wants to settle as much as possible in the shortest possible time, and hopes to achieve last-minute success in the negotiations. From September, the negotiations enter a hot phase. Markets will closely monitor Brexit rhetoric from the EU at the June 18-19th Summit. Danskes base case (65%) remains that the two sides will reach a free trade agreement covering goods (not services) in the autumn. There is, however, a 35% chance of a no-deal Brexit and it considers that businesses should prepare for the worst. In this context, GBP remains caught in the middle of risk sentiment and Brexit. GBP strengthens as risk sentiment improves, but lack of Brexit progress pulls in the other direction. We still expect EUR/GBP to trade around 0.90 in 1-3M and think the cross may go as high as 0.92 if investors really begin to reprice the current Brexit risk premium. It expects the cross to move down to 0.86 in 6-12M. EUR/GBP overall has been held in relatively tight ranges with EUR/GBP trading in a 0.8870-0.9050 range during the past month. The foreign ministers of China and India have held telephone talks over the deadly border clash, agreeing to cool down the tensions. In a TV address to the nation, Indias PM Narendra Modi says the sacrifice of soldiers killed in Ladakh by Chinas army will not go in vain. India says the violent face-off is an attempt by China to unilaterally change the status quo on the Galwan Valley frontier in Indian-administered Ladakh. Beijing, in turn, accuses the Indian army of provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation. Here are the latest updates: 20:30 GMT India-China border tension: A new flashpoint in South Asia Experts have warned of a new geopolitical flashpoint in South Asia after at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed during a violent confrontation with Chinese troops in the Himalayan region of Ladakh in the deadliest clash in nearly 50 years, Read Al Jazeeras analysis here. Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers guard a highway leading towards Leh, bordering China [Tauseef Mustafa/AFP] 19:35 GMT Trump has no formal plans to mediate border dispute: Spokeswoman A spokesperson for US President Donald Trump has said he has no formal plans to mediate between India and China. There are no formal plans, White House spokesman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters but said Trump is aware and monitoring the situation. Last month, Trump tweeted the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute. An Indian army soldier guards atop one of the vehicles as an army convoy moves on the Srinagar- Ladakh highway northeast of Srinagar [Mukhtar Khan/The Associated Press] 18:45: Global Times editorial accuses India of being encouraged by US An editorial published Wednesday in the Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party newspaper, said India was being encouraged by the US in its border standoff with China, which has been steadily building relations with Indias military. The editorial said that Washington needs a country like India to spearhead attacks on China. The arrogance and recklessness of the Indian side is the main reason for the consistent tensions along China-India borders, the editorial said, adding that China does not and will not create conflicts, but it fears no conflicts either. 18:00 GMT Indian officials praise soldiers killed in border clash on Twitter Indian officials have taken to Twitter to praise the 20 soldiers killed during a border clash with the Chinese troops. All those who laid down their lives in Galwan valley of Ladakh have upheld the best traditions of the Indian armed forces, wrote Indian President Ram Nath Kovin. Their valour will be eternally etched in the memory of the nation. My deepest condolences to their families. Former president Pranab Mukherjee wrote that no service in the cause of Mother India can be greater than the service rendered by the brave hearts who guard our sovereignty and integrity. Nothing can compensate for the supreme sacrifice made by them for the nation or the bereaved families' loss. We stand by the next of the sons of our soil in this difficult time. To this regard, we'll provide 5 lakh & a GoWB job to one member in the deceased's family. (2/2) Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) June 17, 2020 He added: While this situation has to be successfully diffused and contained, it also has to be ensured that all avenues are explored so as to avoid any repetition in the future. All those who laid down their lives in Galwan valley of Ladakh have upheld the best traditions of the Indian armed forces. Their valour will be eternally etched in the memory of the nation. My deepest condolences to their families. President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) June 17, 2020 Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, offered financial compensation and a government job to one member of each of the families of the two soldiers from the state who were killed. 17:30 GMT India foreign minister says clash will have serious repercussions Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has called Chinas development in the Galwan Valley a premeditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties. Jaishankar made the comment, accusing China of erecting a structure in the Galwan Valley, in a statement he released after a phone call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Wednesday. He added that the incident would have serious repercussions on Indias relationship with China, but that both sides were committed to further disengaging on the remote plateau of the Himalayan terrain. Indians light candles in Hyderabad to pay tributes to Indian soldiers killed during confrontation with Chinese soldiers [Mahesh Kumar A/The Associated Press] 16:45 GMT India was ill-prepared to deal with assertive China: Analyst The heightened tensions along the Indian and Chinese border in Ladakh has exposed that India was ill-prepared to deal with an assertive China, Dibyesh Anand, a Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, told Al Jazeera. India has a government that claims to be strong against its enemy, but the Indian government has been shown and exposed as weak. What they promised was a strong india, but what they got was an Indian military that ill prepared to deal with an assertive China, he said. Anand predicted that both sides would move towards de-escalation because neither is India capable of taking on China right now, nor will China benefit from pushing India towards the US and other world powers. 15:45 GMT Meeting of Major Generals at LOC inconclusive: Indian media A meeting between Indian and Chinese military officials at the Line of Actual Control (LOC) did not yield any break throughs in the border standoff between the two countries, local Indian media has reported. The Indian and Chinese generals had met on Wednesday after meeting on Tuesday, according to the Indian Express. The meeting on Tuesday had been credited with bringing down tensions after 20 Indian soldiers died in a border clash the night before. 15:00 GMT Contact between India and China sign of optimism: Analyst Wednesdays phone call between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is a positive development in maintaining peace between the two countries, analyst Amman Thakker has told Al Jazeera. Its a very serious point that were at right now, where things could really spiral if theyre not managed, and the fact that both foreign ministries are talking to each other, and there is a commitment at least publicly right now, to talk and to find a peaceful solution, that may be a sign of optimism that we can hold on to, said Thakker, an India scholar at the University of Oxford. Thakker added India has made it clear theyd like to see a return to the status quo as of April. Now that theres been violence and deaths on the border, this will be very difficult to achievebut I do think theyll try to return as soon as they can to the June agreement that was reached, if thats at all possible, he said referring an agreement between the two countries reached last week to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC). 14:15 GMT Indian military put on high alert on border, Indian Ocean: Report Army and Air Force bases along Indias Ladakh border with China have been put on high alert following a clash between the two countrys militaries that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, the Times of India has reported. The Indian Navy was also put on high alert in the Indian Ocean, according to the report. Both China and India had increased their presence in the border region before the deadly confrontation. 13:30 GMT Protesters attempt to gather at Chinese embassy in New Delhi Anti-China protests have broken out across various cities in India following a clash high in the Himalayas between the worlds two most populated countries that killed 20 Indian soldiers. In New Delhi, protesters who tried to demonstrate near the Chinese embassy were swiftly detained by police and escorted away in buses, according to the Associated Press news agency. Protesters called for a boycott of Chinese-made products and in Lucknow and Mumbai many gathered to smash phones and burn other electronics that were made in China. Indians burn an effigy of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest against the Chinese government in Lucknow, India [Rajesh Kumar Singh/The Associated Press] Hello, this is Joseph Stepansky in Doha taking over from my colleague Nadim Asrar. 12:45 GMT In Pictures: History of India-China border conflict Both Indian and Chinese officials accuse each other of crossing the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between the nuclear-armed Asian giants. The LAC is largely based on the ceasefire line after the war in 1962, but both sides disagree on where it lies. The latest clashes took place at a disputed border site in the Galwan area of Ladakh, in the western Himalayas, an area at an altitude of around 14,000 feet where temperatures often fall below freezing. Here are the photos. Indian soldiers carry bodies that were handed over to them by the Chinese troops on the border with Sikkim, India, in this September 14, 1967 photo [Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images] [Getty Images] 12:06 GMT: China demands India punish those behind clashes China foreign minister has demanded that India punish those behind clashes and warned New Delhi not to underestimate Beijings determination. A Chinese foreign ministry statement asked India to conduct a thorough investigation and punish those responsible. The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation, and must not underestimate Chinas firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty, it said. 11:22 GMT Russia, China, India postpone video conference A June 23 video conference between the foreign ministers of Russia, China and India has been postponed to a later date, Russias RIA news agency cited an Indian foreign ministry source as saying amid tensions between China and India. The source did not provide a new date for the conference that is expected to discuss the response to the global coronavirus pandemic, the Reuters news agency said. 11:06 GMT EU asks India, China to show restraint and talk Virginie Battu-Henriksson, the European Union spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, has called the India-China border tension a worrying development and urged the two Asian nuclear powers to show restraint and engage in military de-escalation. This is crucial for building trust and reaching a peaceful solution which is essential to preserving peace and stability in the region, she said. West Bengal: Family members of Sepoy Rajesh Orang who lost his life in #GalwanValley of Ladakh on June 15-16, mourn at their residence in Belgoria village of Birbhum district. pic.twitter.com/jxLGANn2Fi ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 10:59 GMT India, China foreign ministers discuss border clash The foreign ministers of China and India have held telephone talks over the deadly border clash, agreeing to cool down tensions as soon as possible, Beijing said. Both sides agreed to deal fairly with the events in the Galwan Valley and maintain peace in border areas, Chinas foreign ministry said. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke out in favour of a diplomatic solution to his countrys conflict with India at the Himalayan border in his phone call with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Wang said mutual suspicion and friction are the way of evil and run counter to the fundamental wishes of both countries people, according to a statement released by Chinas foreign ministry. Jaishankar also expressed his countrys desire to peacefully resolve the border conflict and relieve regional tensions through dialogue, the statement said. 10:41 GMT Russia welcomes China-India contacts aimed at de-escalation Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Moscow welcomes the contacts between its close allies India and China after a deadly border confrontation. Lavrov said at a press conference that its already been announced that military representatives of India and China have been in contact, they are discussing the situation, discussing measures for its de-escalation. We welcome that. Russian President Vladimir Putin has close ties with both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian premier Narendra Modi, who has talked of a special chemistry with the Russian strongman. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists: Both China and India are very close partners for us, allies. We are paying close attention to what is happening on the China-India border. 10:23 GMT: #WeStandWithIndianArmy trends on India Twitter Indians have taken to social media to express their anger and grief over China killing 20 soldiers, while four others are reported to be critical. Hashtag We Stand With Indian Army trends on Twitter, with many calling for revenge and others asking for a boycott of Chinese products. We'll never forget their sacrifice to us & this country. My prayers go out to their families #WeStandWithINDIANArmy Ajey Nagar (@CarryMinati) June 17, 2020 10:07 GMT China concerned at India building road along LAC Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at The Wilson Center, has told Al Jazeera a combination of factors are at play behind the India-China tension. I believe China has been concerned at Indian road building along the Line of Actual Control [LAC], particularly one road that was completed last year that essentially allows connectivity from Leh, the capital of Ladakh, all the way to Karakoram Pass, he said. Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers guard a highway leading towards Leh, bordering China [Tauseef Mustafa/AFP] Kugelman said any conversation on the Chinese motivation must address Indias repeal of Article 370, which granted autonomy to Indian-administered Kashmir. The federal territory of Ladakh, where the latest clashes took place, was carved out of the former Jammu and Kashmir state following the repeal. I think its clear. Beijing responded strongly and quickly after India made that move last year. I think China looks at Article 370 repeal similarly as Pakistan does. India made a unilateral move that affected a territory that China claims as its own, Kugelman told Al Jazeera. I think the [coronavirus] pandemic played a part too. China knows that it has been put on the defensive by a lot of strong criticism from key capitals around the world about its initial response to the coronavirus. It has found itself in a lot of hot water with lot of key actors, not just the US but others too. I think China wanted to divert attention by pushing back hard against India. 09:45 GMT Modi says sacrifice of soldiers wont go in vain Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the sacrifice of the 20 soldiers killed by the Chinese army will not go in vain and urged that differences [with China] should not turn into disputes. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important India wants peace but it is capable to give a befitting reply if instigated, he said. Modi ended his address on live television by observing a two-minute silence and folding his hands in order to pay his tributes to the dead soldiers. The Indian leader has also called for a virtual meeting on June 19 with the opposition parties to discuss the tension with China, his office said. Names of the 20 Indian Army personnel who lost their lives in the "violent face-off" with China in Galwan Valley, Ladakh. pic.twitter.com/GD5HFVr6U8 ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 09:17 GMT India, China armies talking to defuse tension Talks are being held between senior Indian and Chinese army officers in the Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Himalayan region to defuse the situation, Indias news agency, ANI, reported citing sources in the Indian army. In a report earlier on Wednesday, ANI had also claimed that a Chinese military commander was among more than 40 Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers killed in Monday nights violent face-off. The news agency provided no further details. 08:45 GMT India awaits Modis response to Ladakh killings India waits for Prime Minister Narendra Modis response to the death of Indian soldiers as the countrys media vented its fury and political rivals goaded Modi over his silence. Modi, who rode to power on a nationalist platform, met his defence and foreign ministers and military chiefs late on Tuesday, but he has yet to speak publicly on the worst clash between the two countries since the Nathu La conflict in 1967, five years after the Sino-Indian war. Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi offers her condolences to the families of the martyred soldiers in Ladakh. pic.twitter.com/iZL5jNMPSX Congress (@INCIndia) June 16, 2020 Why is the PM silent, why is he hiding, Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party tweeted. Enough is enough, We need to know what happened. How dare China kill our soldiers, how dare they take our land. 08:33 GMT China says it does not want any more clashes China has said it does not want to see any more clashes on the border with India, adding that both countries are trying to resolve the situation via dialogue. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian reiterated that China is not to blame for the clash and said the overall situation at the border is stable and controllable. 35 dead and injured on Chinese side during clash in Galwan Valley: official sources quoting US intelligence reports Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 17, 2020 08:17 GMT Chinas drill in same area of clashes with India Chinas state broadcaster reported on a large military exercise in the same region as a recent deadly border clash with India, The Associate Press reported. The CCTV report did not mention when exactly the military exercise was conducted, only mentioning recently and that 155 vehicles were used in Nyainqentanglha Shan more than 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) from the site of recent deadly clashes between the two nations armies. The exercise adopted a joint strategy of combating three-dimensional intrusion and seizing control, said Zhang Jialin, Tibetan Military Region Brigade Commander. 08: 04 GMT India defence minister tweets condolence Indias Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said the killings of soldiers in Galwan Valley is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army, he tweeted. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias breavehearts. A satellite image shows Galwan Valley in the disputed Ladakh region [Planet Labs Inc/Reuters] 07:30 GMT How Indian, Chinese media reported Ladakh clash While Chinese state media has downplayed a deadly military confrontation with India in the Indian-administered Ladakh region, Indian newspapers called for steely resolve over the killing of at least 20 soldiers. Indian news agency ANI on Tuesday night claimed that 43 Chinese soldiers had died in Mondays clash, without giving further details. Chinese media did not reveal casualties on its side. Read more here. The incident was very clear, as it happened on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the responsibility did not rest with #China, said Chinese FM on China-#India border conflict https://t.co/M53euCmHEw Global Times (@globaltimesnews) June 17, 2020 07:15 GMT Key dates in decades-old India-China conflict Asian regional superpowers India and China share a long history of mistrust and conflict along their lengthy border, and tensions flared this week in their first deadly clash in more than four decades. The worlds two most populous nations and nuclear-armed neighbours have never agreed on the length of their LAC frontier, which straddles the strategically important Himalayan region. Read more here. He also is now embracing a City Council bill that would ban law enforcements use of chokeholds, after years of resisting the proposal. The bill has enough Council support to override a mayoral veto. Im listening. Im acting, Mr. de Blasio said on Wednesday. I feel what people are saying. Things have to change, they are changing and they will change more. The situation is so fluid that the mayor appeared to modify a new policy that he had just announced the day before. On Tuesday, Mr. de Blasio said that he would require the police to release all body camera footage and audio within 30 days in cases where an officer caused death or substantial bodily harm, or fired a weapon that could have done so. Originally he said the policy would not apply retroactively. On Wednesday, he said it would. He also said Wednesday that the Police Department will speed up disciplinary procedure in cases where officers cause substantial injury to a civilian. The new guidelines require the police commissioner to decide whether to strip the officer of badge and gun or suspend the officer within two days. Internal investigations in those cases must generally be concluded within two weeks, Mr. de Blasio said. In the past, disciplinary inquiries could take months or years, as occurred in the case of Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who put Eric Garner into a chokehold. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is facing new threats to his leadership Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is facing a perfect storm of economic collapse, a bold new wave of US sanctions and growing protests against his rule, threatening to weaken his grip on power. This week a new round of sanctions targeting key supporters of the Syrian government is due to come into force under the Caesar Act, which is named after a defector who documented horrific human rights abuses carried out by the regime. Unlike previous US sanctions, the Caesar Act targets all of Assad's financial supporters worldwide, including Russia, and could seal off remaining cash flows to the regime. The sanctions also target a wider array of assets linked to Syrian funds, including the engineering, construction and military aircraft sectors. Omar al-Shogre from the US-based NGO Syrian Emergency Task Force, which pushed for the bill, called June 17 a big day. June 17 is just the start. It opens the door for more and more sanctions. For the next 10 years, those involved with the regime will be punished, said Mr Shogre, who was tortured in one of the government's most infamous prisons before he was freed in 2015. The Caesar Act targets all of Assad's financial supporters worldwide, including Russia, and could seal off remaining cash flows to the regime. - Reuters The law is there to protect the rights of Syrians, so there is no reconstruction, no normalisation with the regime. It will block the regime from buying what it needs to construct bombs which kill civilians. Caesar, whose identity is protected for his safety, is a former military police photographer who smuggled out of Syria tens of thousands of photographs which documented systematic torture and extrajudicial killings carried out by the government inside its prison. His testimony before the US Congress in 2014 spurred lawmakers - unable to hold Assad and his government to account in a court of law - to set about trying to bring about punitive measures on the leader and his inner circle. Syrian defector codenamed Caesar smuggled out of Syria evidence which showed the government was torturing and murdering detainees in its prisons - Getty The sanctions came into effect as the value of the Syrian pound plummeted to a record low, sparking fears of deepening poverty and starvation. Story continues The Syrian economy is in a meltdown [and] the regime is clearly struggling to fill its coffers and is unable to halt the countrys rapid economic decline, wrote Elizabeth Tsurkov, a leading Syria expert, in a new report for the Centre for Global Foreign Policy this week. She urged the US administration to ensure that any attempts to topple the regime through sanctions did not pile further misery on the Syrian population. US policy should balance between maintaining pressure on Damascus in the hope of causing regime collapse, denying a political win to a government that gassed and starved its own people, and mitigating the further stress placed on Syrias civilians, Ms Tsurkov wrote. Rami Makhlouf, Syria's top tycoon, has begun publicly airing his grievances, revealing a power struggle within the ruling family as it tries to cement its power after nine years of war - AFP In recent weeks, Assad and his cousin Rami Makhlouf, one of Syria's wealthiest businessmen, have publicly fallen out. The spat, combined with the fresh sanction, could make other loyalists nervous enough to start pulling their money out of the country. And if their woes continues, perhaps even their once-unwavering support. As several longtime loyalists have suggested to me in private in recent days, this extraordinary internal crisis could spark a change at the top, wrote Charles Lister, a fellow at the Middle East Institute in a recent article for Politico. In their eyes, this moment may already represent a greater threat to Assads survival in power than the one posed by the opposition at its peak in years past. Assad's authority has also been undermined by a rare display of dissent in the southwestern town of Suweida, where hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets over the past 10 days, demanding that he is toppled. The protests are unusual as Suweida is mostly inhabited by the Arab Druze minority, which has largely stayed out of the conflict with Assad due to fears of religious persecution. Syrian forces began a crackdown on the protests this week, with at least seven protesters arrested in Suweida. Assad himself seems to have been rattled by scenes from the protest, which are reminiscent of the first uprising against his leadership which triggered the Syrian civil war in 2011. We promised to keep things peaceful but if you want bullets, you shall have them, the dictator reportedly said in a recent message passed to the Druze community, suggesting that a more brutal crackdown could soon follow. A former senior bureaucrat at the centre of Western Australia's biggest public sector theft has pleaded guilty to 530 corruption charges for his role in a $22 million rort. Former Department of Communities executive Paul Whyte faced Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday via video link from Hakea Prison, but had to plead guilty in writing because there were too many charges. Paul Whyte was charged over what has been touted as one of the worst cases of public corruption in the country. Credit:Nine News Perth He is accused of working with physiotherapist Jacob Anthonisz, 43, to raise false invoices for three shell companies dating back to 2008, while bookkeeper Paola Colangelo, 45, has pleaded not guilty to nine counts of corruption over her alleged role in the scandal. Whyte and Mr Anthonisz allegedly spent the money on racehorses, paying a horse stud service in New Zealand, and personal expenses. A Case Against Bollywood Biggies In Connection With Sushant's Suicide Advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha told ANI, "I have filed a case against eight people including Karan Johar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Salman Khan and Ekta Kapoor under Sections 306, 109, 504 & 506 of IPC in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide case in a court in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. In the complaint, I have alleged that Sushant Singh Rajput was removed from around seven films and some of his films were not released. Such a situation was created which forced him to take the extreme step." Meanwhile, Ekta Kapoor Reacts To The Criminal Case Against Her The TV Czarina posted on her Instagram page, "Thanku for the case for not casting sushi....when Actually I LAUNCHED HIM. I'm beyond upset at how convoluted theories can b! Pls@let family n frns mourn in peace! Truth shall@prevail. CANNOT BELIEVE THIS!!!!!." Earlier, Sanjay Nirupam Had Made Similar Allegations On Twitter The Congress leader posted on his Twitter page, "He lost 7 films in just six months. Why? The film industry's ruthlessness works on a very different level. And that ruthlessness took the life of one talented person." Recently, Dabangg director Abhinav Kashyap appealed to the government to launch a detailed probe into Sushant Singh Rajput's death. He also posted a lengthy Facebook post, in which he accused Salman Khan and his family of sabotaging his film projects. The Investigation Is On In Sushant's Death Case Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his Bandra apartment on June 14, 2020. The postmortem report revealed the cause of death to be asphyxia due to hanging. Reports suggested that the actor was suffering from depression. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh assured in his tweet that Mumbai Police will investigate 'professional rivalry' angle in the suicide case. On Tuesday, Sushant's father in his statement to the police said that his son often felt low, but he wasn't aware that he was depressed. All but one of the two dozen people jailed in Colorado Springs while protesting the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis were from the Pikes Peak region, according to the El Paso County Sheriffs Office. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:04:13|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BANGKOK, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Wednesday that travel bubbles for inbound tourists will not be coming anytime soon. Anutin said that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has earlier expressed concerns of possible imported COVID-19 cases, especially from inbound travelers who can be infected but asymptomatic. "Many countries have approached us for travel pairing, but Prime Minister Prayut said that Thailand must prioritize public health," said Anutin. "COVID-19 in those countries who want to pair with Thailand, will be studied," said Anutin, adding "there must be thorough discussions, which may carry on to next month." The deputy prime minister said that since tourism is key to the Thai economy, he will still propose the travel bubble plan to the prime minister next week. "Pairing would apply to countries where COVID-19 is not spreading," said Anutin. "Travel bubbles would be initially for people attending international meetings and training sessions, engineers and technicians, and foreign teachers returning to work at international schools in Thailand. They would not be for foreign tourists," he said. Enditem Janhvi Kapoor seems to have come to terms with the fact that she will be the first star to get two back-to-back OTT releases. Her films Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, which is going to be shown on Netflix soon, and her other film Roohi Afzana co-starring Rajkummar Rao, are now going to get a premeire on Disney Hotstar, the details of which will be announced next month. The actress is not really perturbed about her films releasing in the theatres or on a digital platform, but she is worried about the continuity factor for the audience. Stree was the first in the series of these horror comedies. The audience has seen the film in the theatres. Obviously now a few people have caught up with the film on OTT as well. But if Roohi Afzana comes only on digital and not in the theatres, there may be a problem for the theatre-going audiences to understand the third part Munja, which has Rao in the lead again. What one has to comprehend is that these are not standalone films. Stree, Roohi Afzana, and Munja are all part of a horror universe produced by Dinesh Vijan and will have actors from each part crossing over into other sequels of these films like Stree 2, Roohi Afzana 2 etc., later, says a source. However, an industry source asserts that it is not necessary that a film does not release in the theatres just because it has had a digital premeire already, adding that it can also have a limited theatrical at the opportune time. There may be a chance that they may still release Roohi Afzana in theatres at some later date before the release of Munja to ensure that the audiences are in line, says a trade source.That should perhaps put Janhvis worries to rest. The 4,000th comet discovered by ESA (European Space Agency) and NASAs SOHO observatory is seen here in an image from the spacecraft alongside SOHOs 3,999th comet discovery. The two comets are relatively close at approximately 1 million miles apart, suggesting that they could have been connected together as recently as a few years ago. Credits: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams On June 15, 2020, a citizen scientist spotted a never-before-seen comet in data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHOthe 4,000th comet discovery in the spacecraft's 25-year history. The comet is nicknamed SOHO-4000, pending its official designation from the Minor Planet Center. Like most other SOHO-discovered comets, SOHO-4000 is part of the Kreutz family of sungrazers. The Kreutz family of comets all follow the same general trajectory, one that carries them skimming through the outer atmosphere of the Sun. SOHO-4000 is on the small side, with a diameter in the range of 15-30 feet, and it was extremely faint and close to the Sun when discoveredmeaning SOHO is the only observatory that has spotted the comet, as it's impossible to see from Earth with or without a telescope. "I feel very fortunate to have found SOHO's 4,000th comet. Although I knew that SOHO was nearing its 4,000th comet discovery, I did not initially think that this sungrazer would be it," said Trygve Prestgard, who first spotted the comet in SOHO's data. "It was only after discussing with other SOHO comet hunters, and counting through the most recent sungrazer discoveries, that the idea sunk in. I am honored to be part of such an amazing collaborative effort." SOHO is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. Launched in 1995, SOHO studies the Sun from its interior to its outer atmosphere, with an uninterrupted view from its vantage point between the Sun and Earth, about a million miles from our planet. But over the past two and half decades, SOHO has also become the greatest comet finder in human history. SOHO's comet-hunting prowess comes from a combination of its long lifespan, its sensitive instruments focused on the solar corona, and the tireless work of citizen scientists who scour SOHO's data for previously-undiscovered comets, which are clumps of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the Sun. "Not only has SOHO rewritten the history books in terms of solar physics, but, unexpectedly, it's rewritten the books in terms of comets as well," said Karl Battams, a space scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., who works on SOHO and manages its comet-finding program. The vast majority of comets found in SOHO's data are from its coronagraph instrument, called LASCO, short for Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph. Like other coronagraphs, LASCO uses a solid objectin this case, a metal diskto block out the Sun's bright face, allowing its cameras to focus on the relatively faint outer atmosphere, the corona. The corona is critical to understanding how the Sun's changes propagate out into the solar system, making LASCO a key part of SOHO's scientific quest to understand the Sun and its influence. But focusing on this faint region also means LASCO can do something other telescopes can'tit can see comets flying extremely close to the Sun, called sungrazers, which are otherwise blotted out by the Sun's intense light and impossible to see. This is why nearly all of SOHO's 4,000 comet discoveries have come from LASCO's data. ESA and NASA's SOHO has discovered 4,000 comets in nearly 25 years. Karl Battams, who leads the mission's comet-finding program, talks about four of his favorite comets first spotted by the Sun-watching observatory.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2wT4ZQG19S0Download in HD: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13623 Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Like most who have discovered comets in SOHO's data, Prestgard is a citizen scientist, searching for comets in his free time with the Sungrazer Project. The Sungrazer Project is a NASA-funded citizen science project, managed by Battams, which grew out of comet discoveries by citizen scientists early into SOHO's mission. "I have been actively involved in the Sungrazer Project for about eight years. My work with sungrazers is what solidified my long-term interest in planetary science," said Prestgard, who recently completed a master's degree in geophysics from Universite Grenoble Alpes in France. "I enjoy the feeling of discovering something previously unknown, whether this is a nice "real time" comet or a "long-gone" overlooked one in the archives." In total, Prestgard has discovered around 120 previously-unknown comets using data from SOHO and NASA's STEREO mission. Copious comets This 4,000th comet discovery came earlier than scientists initially expecteda byproduct of SOHO's teamwork with the Parker Solar Probe mission. In coordination with Parker Solar Probe's fifth flyby of the Sun, the SOHO team ran a special observation campaign in early June, increasing the frequency with which the LASCO instrument takes images of the Sun's corona, as well as doubling the exposure time for each image. These changes in LASCO's imaging were designed to help the instrument pick up faint structures that would later pass over Parker Solar Probe. "Since Parker Solar Probe was crossing the plane of the sky as seen from Earth, the structures that we see from SOHO's coronagraphs will be in the path of Parker Solar Probe," said Angelos Vourlidas, an astrophysicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, in Laurel, Maryland, who works on the Parker Solar Probe and SOHO missions. "It's the optimal configuration to do this type of imaging." These more-sensitive images also revealed a number of comets that, based on their brightness, would have been too faint to see in SOHO's regular, shorter-exposure images. SOHO typically sees an uptick in comet discoveries each June, because Earth's position in space places SOHO at a good angle to see sunlight reflecting off of comets following the Kreutz path, a family of comets that accounts for about 85% of the comets discovered by SOHO. But this June saw 17 comets discovered in the first nine days of the month, around double the normal rate of discoveries. "Our exposure time is twice as long, so we're gathering way more light, and seeing comets that are otherwise too faint for us to seeit's just like any long-exposure photography," said Battams. "It's possible that if we doubled exposure time again, we'd see even more comets." SOHO is a cooperative effort between ESA and NASA. Mission control is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. SOHO's Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment, or LASCO, which is the instrument that provides most of the comet imagery, was built by an international consortium, led by the U.S. Naval Research Lab. Explore further SOHO sees something new near the sun New Delhi: The United Nations expressed its concern over deaths of Indian and Chinese soldiers at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and urged both sides to exercise "maximum restraint". On Tuesday, the Associate Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Eri Kaneko said, "We are concerned about reports of violence and deaths at the Line of Actual Control between India and China, and we urge both sides to exercise maximum restraint. We take positive note of reports that the two countries have engaged to deescalate the situation." Earlier, deaths of three Indian soldiers was reported which was later changed to 20. The Indian Army in a statement on Tuesday said: "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20." The statement said that almost the same number of Chinese troops have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley. "The Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," the official release said. Though, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), blamed China for the incident and alleged that it tried to unilaterally change the status and "departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley". While, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held two review meetings over developments in eastern Ladakh. A meeting was held at his residence was attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and Army Chief General MM Naravane. Meanwhile, China`s Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui and Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Misri met in Beijing, ANI reported. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Members of New Mexicos congressional delegation and conservation groups are applauding the U.S. Senates approval Wednesday of a bipartisan bill that would devote nearly $2 billion a year to improve and maintain national parks and double spending on a popular conservation program that has funneled tens of millions of dollars to New Mexico and other states over the decades. U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, whose father helped enact the program in the 1960s while head of the Interior Department, described the measure as landmark legislation that will for the first time permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million per year. The fund is fueled by revenues from offshore oil and gas leasing. Americas public lands are at the very core of who we are, the New Mexico Democrat said. Full and permanent funding for LWCF one of the most successful conservation tools we have to protect and expand our public lands is a historic game-changer for New Mexico and the nation. More than $312 million has been funneled to New Mexico public lands and open spaces since the fund was established. Supporters see it as a boon to the states outdoor recreation economy. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich said the legislation has the potential to create thousands of jobs and will continue to ensure that people can easily access outdoor spaces near their homes. He said the fund already has helped preserve many places in New Mexico, from Valles Calderas in northern New Mexico to Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge on the southern edge of Albuquerque. The U.S. House is expected to approve the legislation. New Mexico Wild executive director Mark Allison said the Senates passage of the legislation marked a bright spot during an otherwise difficult time. He and others have noted that the state depends heavily on tourism and outdoor recreation, and sustained investment in public lands will help with the economic recovery amid the coronavirus pandemic. The states outdoor recreation economy directly supports $1.2 billion in income and 33,500 jobs annually, according to data compiled by the New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division. On April 9, The Athens-Clarke County Leisure Services Department will host its Movies by Moonlight drive-in with free admission. A welfare check after a 5-year-old girl was found wandering outside her apartment led police to the girls dead mother, according to police and media reports. A 911 call was placed around 12:20 a.m. Tuesday when a neighbor observed the 5-year-old wandering through the courtyard of a Dumont, New Jersey, home, the Bergen County Prosecutors Office said. The woman who lived in the complex, 36-year-old Michelle Burns, was not answering phone calls from her sister, according to WABC. The sister said she heard arguing earlier in the evening between Burns and her boyfriend, Jeffrey Daniels, WABC reported. Daniels knocked on the sisters door holding his and Burns 6-month-old daughter and 18-month-old daughter and asked her for a ride, WABC and the Daily Voice reported. When officials entered Burns apartment for a welfare check, they found the mother dead, according to the prosecutors office. She had been stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife, the prosecutor said. Police told WABC there were no signs the victim put up a fight. Officers were notified that Daniels was found in neighboring Closter knocking on the door of another residence, according to the prosecutor. He was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder, one count of endangering the welfare of a child and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, the prosecutor said. Daniels was not wearing pants or shoes when he knocked on the door of the second residence, according to the Daily Voice. The infant children were taken to an area hospital awaiting response from the state Department of Children and Families, while the 5-year-old girl was with family, the Daily Voice reported. Daniels was placed in the Bergen County Jail, the prosecutor said. Jeffrey Daniels A childhood friend told NorthJersey.com she set up a GoFundMe page Tuesday to help pay for funeral expenses and support Burns three children. Its a tragedy for her kids, who have no parents now. Just terrible, Nicole Kochansky told the publication. For somebody to do something like this I cant imagine what was going through this guys head. More than $12,000 has been raised in the GoFundMe in less than 24 hours as of Wednesday morning. Mr. Guerreros appointment enriches the Companys current strategy to grow internationally, with his wealth of experience in the Brazilian and South American markets. As a new board member, Mr. Guerrero will generate a broad range of opportunities in Brazil and other countries participating in Mercosur. HempSmart intends to enter into and grow aggressively in these countries. The Company will begin production and open new distribution channels. Mr. Guerrero will be an essential asset in the development and implementation of these initiatives. Marco Guerrero has expertise in working with companies such as Chubb, QBE and Marsh & McLennan before becoming co-founder of Truster Brasil. ESCONDIDO, Calif., June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NetworkWire -- Marijuana Company of America, Inc. (MCOA) ("MCOA" or the "Company"), an innovative hemp and cannabis corporation, today announces the appointment of Marco Guerrero as a new member of the Companys board of directors. Mr. Guerrero is a Brazilian national and currently resides in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is proficient in English, fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and will be the key executive in charge of opening new operations and distribution channels in Brazil for the HempSmart product line. Mr. Guerrero will be a strong contributor in the development and implementation of the new HempSmart international strategy, which includes the formation of a new local company, HempSmart Brazil, that will become the Companys business center for Latin America. Entering this territory represents the first step toward the Companys global expansion into new markets. Mr. Guerrero will serve as board member and liaison for Brazil. He will join the Companys CEO, Jesus Quintero, as well as the other board members, Themistocles (Tim) Psomiadis and Edward Manolos, in creating and implementing the vision and strategic plan for the Company. "I am very excited to become part of the MCOA family and to be able to exchange knowledge with such qualified and competent colleagues, Guerrero stated. I am a true believer in the CBD industry, which sooner rather than later will be present in all four corners of the globe. I take this new chapter of my professional career with great honor and will do my best to contribute to the growth of the HempSmart business and to represent the Company's legitimate interests. Story continues Mr. Guerrero offers expansive knowledge and expertise, particularly in the Latin American markets. Mr. Jesus Quintero, CEO of Marijuana Company of America, commented, We are really excited about the addition of Marco to our board. He will be a substantial asset and gives our company a unique perspective in approaching the Latin American markets. He is not only very qualified but also strategically positioned to help us launch our presence in Brazil and implement our strategic plan successfully. Marco Guerrero holds a bachelors degree in business administration and a post-graduate degree in controllership from Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie in Brazil. He studied in the U.K. and worked for several years in the U.S. in partnership with reinsurance agents. He is a professional executive with more than 20 years of experience in insurance and reinsurance. He is the co-founder of Truster Brasil, a reputable reinsurance company specializing in Latin America and the Caribbean. About Marijuana Company of America Inc. MCOA is a corporation that participates in: (1) product research and development of legal hemp-based consumer products under the brand name hempSMART, which targets general health and well-being; (2) an affiliate marketing and retail sales program to promote and sell its legal hemp-based consumer products containing CBD; (3) joint ventures and acquisitions of business entities engaged in the growth and sale of hemp and cannabis products in jurisdictions where cultivation is legal; and (4) the expansion of its business into ancillary areas as market opportunities in this segment mature and develop. Legal Status of Cannabis While legalized in California for recreational and medicinal use, cannabis remains a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 811) and illegal under federal law. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements," which are not purely historical and may include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the development, costs, and results of new business opportunities and words such as "anticipate," "seek," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "project," "plan," or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with new projects, the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based products. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations, and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other periodic reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information, please visit www.sec.gov. For more information, please visit the Company's websites at: MarijuanaCompanyofAmerica.com hempSMART.com SOURCE Marijuana Company of America Wire Service Contact: NetworkWire (NW) New York, New York www.NetworkWire.com 212.418.1217 Office Editor@NetworkWire.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/71b95a80-0dff-4db5-9a4e-a2a49f982b57 VANCOUVER, BC, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Strategic Resources Inc. (TSXV: SR) (the "Company" or "Strategic") announces that it has revised the terms of the Silasselka project earn-in with Aurion Resources ("Aurion"). Aurion has agreed to waive the required expenditures on the project totalling C$3.0 million over the three-year period following the closing of the transaction, which was announced on June 10, 2019. The share-based payment schedule and amounts to exercise the option will remain unchanged. Post the issuance of the June 2020 share-based payment, 1,916,667 shares, Aurion will hold 14.9% of Strategic. In addition, Strategic and Aurion have simplified the agreement by changing it from two separate earn-in options to just one option to earn 100%. Strategic will now own 100% of the project after the last scheduled share payment in June 2022. About Strategic Resources Strategic Resources Inc. (TSXV:SR) is a Vancouver, Canada based mineral exploration and development company that is focused on vanadium projects in Finland and Peru. The Company continues to evaluate new opportunities that are related to the electrification of the economy. Further details are available on the Company's website at https://strategic-res.com/. To follow future news releases, please sign up at https://strategic-res.com/contact/. STRATEGIC RESOURCES INC. Signed: "Scott Hicks" Scott Hicks, CEO Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. SOURCE Strategic Resources Inc. Related Links https://strategic-res.com San Francisco, June 17 : Google has rolled out a software update to make both Nest Wifi and Google Wifi work even more smoothly as you participate in video calls or play games. The update would improve overall network performance on slow internet connections, making Wi-Fi support multiple video calls and gaming sessions efficiently. "It includes general security and stability improvements and will also improve device connection speeds on wireless networks and optimizations so your devices move to faster Wi-Fi radio channels," Sanjay Noronha, Product Manager, Google Nest, said in a statement on Tuesday. According to Google, with this update, Wi-Fi traffic will be prioritised to the device you choose. "This means you can make sure your work laptop is getting the strongest Wi-Fi available, as opposed to the kids' YouTube sessions. And the best part is these updates will be pushed automatically, no action required on your end," informed Noronha. If the whole family is online at once, the users should hnow how much speed they need. Most video calls require 5Mbps of consistent speed, but the reality is a bit more nuanced. Because you're receiving video from the internet (download) and sending video as well (upload), you'll want to make sure that your upload speed is a good, consistent 5Mbps as well. "Conduct a speed test during a busy time of day when you've had a bad video call," said Noronha. If you're noticing network congestion, rebooting the router cleans up stale software buffers and forces the reconnection of your devices. Consider a mesh network which is a group of routers (actually Wi-Fi access points) that wirelessly communicate with each other to create a single, connected Wi-Fi network over a large area. "We created Nest Wifi as a mesh system because having multiple points work together to create a seamless, single network. The idea is that this system provides consistently strong coverage for all connected devices throughout your home," said Noronha. YMCA Hub set to offer 20+ new jobs in Norwich YMCA Norfolk is looking to recruit at least 20 new staff members to support its multi-service community hub, based on Aylsham Road in Norwich, over the next few months. Initial recruitment will focus on childcare staff, who will help with the running of Muddy Puddles Nursery an Ofsted-registered childcare provision based at the site. Roles will include the likes of a nursery manager, deputy manager, early years educators and safeguarding leads. All staff will have the chance to take part in various professional development and training initiatives, in line with the charitys mission to encourage staff members to feel valued and strive to reach their full potential. Further roles will become available through the running of the centres community cafe, alongside general building maintenance; providing valuable work at a time where many jobs have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. YMCA Norfolk CEO, Tim Sweeting, said: The development of our family-centered community hub will welcome at least 20 new jobs, ranging across nursery and catering industries, with an initial focus on childcare. Expanding the YMCA family is something we are extremely excited about, and cant wait to have some fantastic childcare professionals as part of our amazing team. We are thrilled to be able to offer some hope to the Norfolk community during a time of uncertainty and worry, and strive to continue making a huge difference to the local community. The innovative centre has already provided various work opportunities through contractors and construction workers who are involved in the renovation of the building; which, after a brief delay due to lockdown, is once again under construction. The building company working on the site, Cocksedge, are closely following Government guidelines and have developed a revised health and safety plan to ensure safe working at this time. YMCA Norfolk is welcoming expressions of interest from the end of the summer, with recruitment for the role of nursery manager beginning in November. Recruitment for other roles will commence in the new year. They are encouraging parents and carers to register their interest in nursery places as soon as possible by getting in touch with our childcare team on childcare@ymcanorfolk.org. Aunt Jemima syrup and pancake mix are getting a makeover. Quaker Oats announced Wednesday in a statement that Aunt Jemimas origins are based on a racial stereotype. Quaker Oats, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, owns the Aunt Jemima brand, which has been around for 131 years. We recognize Aunt Jemimas origins are based on a racial stereotype," Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods North America, said in a press release. As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers expectations." Quaker said the new packaging will begin to appear in the fall of 2020, and a new name for the foods will be announced at a later date. We acknowledge the brand has not progressed enough to appropriately reflect the confidence, warmth and dignity that we would like it to stand for today, Kroepfl said. We are starting by removing the image and changing the name. We will continue the conversation by gathering diverse perspectives from both our organization and the Black community to further evolve the brand and make it one everyone can be proud to have in their pantry. The company also announced it will donate at least $5 million over the next five years to create meaningful, ongoing support and engagement in the Black community. Chinese smartphone maker, Realmes India CEO is proud of the companys Indian roots. Madhav Seth, CEO of Chinese BBK Electronics-owned company, said as much in a YouTube series the company runs yesterday. I can proudly say that Realme is an Indian startup, which is now a global multinational company," said Seth in the video. BBK Electronics also owns smartphone brands Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus. Companies like Realme have been taking to social media in order to establish their Indianness amid growing anti-China sentiments amongst Indian consumers. On June 3, Poco, which is an offshoot of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, put out a tweet on similar lines. With a dream of serving Indian consumers, @IndiaPoco was born 2 years ago in Delhi, India," the company said in the tweet. Poco was originally a sub-brand of Xiaomi India, but operates independently now. The tweet goes on to say how the company took ahead" the Make In India through products and services crafted for India". Realmes Seth also mentioned local manufacturing, saying the company sources 60% of its components from local suppliers and that the country accounts for over 50% of its sales globally. We have created over 7500 direct jobs in our plants and by the end of 2020, we will increase our workforce to 10,000," said Seth. Realme and Poco arent the only companies who have reiterated their commitment to India. During the launch of its new laptop recently Xiaomis India Head, Manu Jain, said 99% of Xiaomis phones are made in India, as are most of its Smart TVs. The company leads the Indian market in the smartphone space. The anti-China sentiments in the country have strengthened since the worldwide pandemic, and are expected to intensify now that the two countries are tussling at their borders too. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) had announced a national campaign to boycott Chinese goods in the country on June 10. CAIT is the apex trade body in India and represents 7 crore traders and 40,000 trade associations in India. That said, industry experts agree that companies here cannot simply ignore the fact that theyre dependent on China. Four out of the top five smartphone makers in India are Chinese, and two of these companies have also turned their attention on the television space now. While the Indian government has been pushing for local manufacturing of products, a lot of groundwork remains to be done. It is no secret that a substantive part of Indias supply chain has its roots in China. Efforts are underway to enhance self dependency. Meanwhile, we remain confident that the Indian and Chinese leadership will find a lasting resolution out of the current border impasse," said Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman of the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) on the border conflict between the two countries. Mohindroo also paid homage to the soldiers who were martyred in yesterdays conflict and said ICEA is hopeful of peace without compromising Indias strategic priorities". Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. In research led by a University at Buffalo pediatric endocrinologist, a drug called golimumab showed that it preserved beta-cell function in children and young adults with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes, according to findings from a Phase 2 study. The study also demonstrated that golimumab, an anti-tumor-necrosis-factor (TNF) therapy, reduced the amount of injected insulin required by children and young adults with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes by preserving their ability to produce insulin on their own, called endogenous insulin. The World Without Disease Accelerator, through Janssen Research & Development, LLC, funded the study. Golimumab, marketed as Simponi, is currently used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and other autoimmune conditions, however it is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. The findings were presented on June 13 at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association by the lead investigator, Teresa Quattrin, MD, UB Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, senior associate dean for research integration in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB and attending pediatric endocrinologist at the Diabetes Center at UBMD Pediatrics and John R. Oishei Children's Hospital. This study shows that golimumab is a potential disease-modifying agent for newly diagnosed patients with Type 1 diabetes. The main goal of the study was to see if golimumab could preserve beta-cell function in these newly diagnosed patients." Teresa Quattrin, MD, UB Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, senior associate dean for research integration in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB Measuring how well the pancreas is working This was assessed by measuring the amount of C-peptide in patients' blood during a four-hour mixed meal tolerance test. Because C-peptide reflects only insulin made by the body and not injected insulin, C-peptide levels reveal how well the pancreas is producing insulin. Patients treated with golimumab had a higher C-peptide level at week 52 compared to placebo. "This was statistically significant, thus the study met its primary goal," Quattrin said, "in fact, 41.1% of participants receiving golimubab had an increase or less than 5% decrease in C-peptide compared to only 10.7% in the placebo group." Good control with less insulin Nearly 43% of those who received golimumab were in partial diabetes remission (also known as the honeymoon phase) versus 7.1% of those receiving placebo. The definition of partial remission was based on insulin dose and blood sugar control levels as indicated by hemoglobin A1C, a measurement of average blood sugar levels over three months. Quattrin explained that a child with Type 1 diabetes requires about 1 unit of insulin per kilogram of body weight per day. That means that a child weighing about 65 pounds typically requires about 30 units of injected insulin per day once they are out of the partial remission period, about 3-6 months after diagnosis. "In this study, both golimumab and placebo groups achieved good blood sugar control, but patients treated with golimumab achieved it with less insulin," said Quattrin. "During the 52 weeks, insulin dose increased only slightly for those on golimumab, 0.07 units per kilogram per day, versus 0.24 units per kilogram per day for those on placebo study. Moreover, in a post-hoc analysis, an analysis conducted after the conclusion of the clinical trial, those who were younger than 18 years had 36% fewer episodes where blood sugar was less than 54 mg per deciliter, designated by the American Diabetes Association as level 2 hypoglycemia," Quattrin said. This is important clinically because low blood sugar reactions are dangerous and can even be fatal if untreated. Low blood sugars require immediate attention, often causing the child to be removed from class or recreation activities compromising quality of life. The drug is self-administered as a subcutaneous injection every 2 weeks. No serious side effects related to the study drug, such as serious infections, were reported. The randomized, controlled clinical trial was conducted at 27 centers throughout the U.S., including at the Diabetes Center at UBMD Pediatrics and Oishei Children's Hospital in Buffalo. It involved 84 patients, aged 6 to 21 years, with two-thirds receiving golimumab and one-third receiving placebo starting within 100 days from diagnosis. Throughout three decades as a leading researcher in pediatric endocrinology, Quattrin has been interested in finding ways to preserve beta-cell function in newly diagnosed patients with Type 1 diabetes. The current study took place on the basis of positive findings in animal models, as well as Quattrin's work with patients treated at the Diabetes Center at UBMD Pediatrics and Oishei Children's Hospital. It confirms results published by her team in 2009 where in a randomized pilot study 10 patients received another TNF inhibitor and 8 received placebo starting within 28 days from diagnosis. The results of this small proof of concept study strongly suggested that this class of drugs might be able to preserve beta-cell function in newly diagnosed patients with Type 1 diabetes. The Turkish military has deployed commandos in northern Iraq to target Kurdish rebel bases. The Defense Ministry said June 17 special forces were transported by air, backed by attack helicopters and armed drones as part of Operation Tiger-Claw. The operation was conducted in Iraqs Haftanin region, several kilometers from the Turkish border. The cross-border operation comes after Turkey on June 15 launched airstrikes on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) headquarters in Kandil as well as bases in Sinjar and Hakurk. In response, Iraq summoned Turkeys ambassador to protest. Rudaw, a Kurdish media outlet in Iraq, reported on June 16 that Iranian artillery hit Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq near the Haji Omran border crossing in what may have been a rare coordinated move with Turkey. It was unclear what Kurdish rebel group was hit, but the area is near PKK headquarters in Kandil and mountainous PKK guerrilla outposts. In recent years, the PKK has drawn hundreds of Iranian Kurds to join its guerrilla forces. The PKK -- which is recognized by Turkey, the United States, and European Union as a terrorist organization has conducted a nearly four-decade war against the Turkish state demanding greater Kurdish rights that has claimed some 40,000 lives. It has armed and political wings in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria as well as hundreds of thousands of supporters in the Kurdish diaspora in Europe. Turkey regularly carries out military operations against the PKK in southeast Anatolia and has launched dozens of cross-border operations against the PKK in Iraq over the years, often during the summer fighting season. The Turkish military has also carried out three operations against Syrian Kurdish forces controlling swaths of northern Syria that Ankara says are controlled by the PKK. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea on Tuesday blew up a building set up in 2018 in a border town as a joint liaison office to foster better ties with South Korea, the latest in a series of actions by Pyongyang that have increased concerns in Washington. North Korea's hostilities have included missile tests and harsh rhetoric since an unprecedented summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2018. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea on Tuesday blew up a building set up in 2018 in a border town as a joint liaison office to foster better ties with South Korea, the latest in a series of actions by Pyongyang that have increased concerns in Washington. North Korea's hostilities have included missile tests and harsh rhetoric since an unprecedented summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2018. This has led to bouts of increased tension, though Trump - who once derided Kim as "Little Rocket Man" - has largely downplayed Pyongyang's actions. Here is a timeline of those developments: June 12, 2018: The Singapore summit represented the first time a sitting American president met with a North Korean leader, but the statement that came out of the meeting was light on specifics, opting instead for general commitments. Since the summit, North Korea has shown no tangible signs of a willingness to abandon its nuclear weapons, and experts have said it is believed to have continued development of its arsenal. Washington, at the same time, has sought to keep sanctions intact. Feb. 28, 2019: A second summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam collapsed over sanctions relief, raising questions about the future of denuclearization diplomacy. Trump and Kim then met again in June on the border between North and South Korea and agreed to restart negotiations, but working-level nuclear talks in Sweden in October broke off. Dec. 3, 2019: Raising tensions at year-end, Pyongyang warned Washington of a "Christmas gift" after Kim gave the United States until 2020 to propose new concessions in nuclear talks. Beyond a warning from Kim that the world would soon see a "new strategic weapon," however, the deadline passed uneventfully. March 2020: North Korea launched a series of short-range missiles, its first such tests of the year. This drew U.S. and Chinese appeals for Pyongyang to return to talks, but there were no signs that any discussions materialized. Kim has refrained so far from resuming long-range missile launches and nuclear tests. April/May 2020: Kim's disappearance from public sight led to several weeks of fevered speculation about his health, fueling concerns in Washington and elsewhere about stability on the Korean Peninsula. The situation calmed in early May when state media said Kim had attended the completion of a fertilizer plant. May 28, 2020: The U.S. Justice Department accused North Korea's state-owned bank of evading U.S. sanctions laws and charged 28 North Korean and five Chinese citizens in its largest crackdown on North Korea sanctions violations. June 16, 2020: North Korea blew up a liaison office in Kaesong used for joint talks after threatening action if defectors continued with a campaign sending propaganda leaflets into the North. It was a major setback to efforts by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to coax North Korea into cooperation and also appeared to be a further blow to Trump's hopes of persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Mary Milliken and Jonathan Oatis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Actor Ali Fazal's mother passed away in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on the morning of June 17. The 33-year-old mourned the passing away of his mum by sharing the news with his fans and followers in the evening. Ali Fazal's mother passes away in Lucknow due to health complication | FilmiBeat The spokesperson statement released on behalf of Ali Fazal read: It is with great sorrow we inform you that Ali Fazals mother passed away on the morning of June 17, 2020, in Lucknow after quick succession of health complications. Her passing was sudden and we pray for her peace. Ali is grateful for the love and support of his fans in these testing times. A personal loss of this magnitude also needs silence. He requests his fans and the press for some privacy at this point. Ali took to his social media account to share an emotional note with a picture of his mother. He tweeted, Ill live the rest of yours for you. Miss you Amma. Yahi tak thhaa humaara, pata nahi kyun. You were the source of my creativity. My everything. Aagey alfaaz nahi rahe. Love, Ali. Ill live the rest of yours for you. Miss you Amma. Yahi tak thhaa humaara, pata nahi kyun. You were the source of my creativity. My everything. Aagey alfaaz nahi rahe. Love, Ali. pic.twitter.com/hKyFMp6U1G Ali Fazal M / / (@alifazal9) June 17, 2020 Alis fiancee and actress Richa Chadha too extended support to the actor by writing: "Hang in there" She also tweeted her condolences by writing "Rest in peace, auntie." For the unversed, Ali and Richa were all set to tie the knot in April this year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, the couple decided on postponing their nuptials. ALSO READ: Report: Sushant Singh Rajput's Sister-In-Law Passes Away In Bihar Power stocks were trading in the negative zone, with the S&P BSE Power index falling 6.51 points or 0.43% at 1492.74 at 13:53 IST. Among the components of the S&P BSE Power index, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (up 1.94%), Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (up 1.51%), NTPC Ltd (up 0.7%), Thermax Ltd (up 0.69%), and NHPC Ltd (up 0.5%), were the top losers. On the other hand, Adani Transmission Ltd (up 2.32%), Tata Power Company Ltd (up 2.19%), and Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd (up 1.62%) moved up. At 13:53 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 221.57 or 0.66% at 33826.79. The Nifty 50 index was up 54.65 points or 0.55% at 9968.65. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 111.53 points or 0.94% at 11961.15. The S&P BSE 150 Midcap Index index was up 30.13 points or 0.73% at 4167.01. On BSE,1464 shares were trading in green, 951 were trading in red and 137 were unchanged. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The controlling shareholder and former chairman of Seazen Group, one of China's largest property developers, was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison after being convicted him of child molestation. When Wang Zhenhua was arrested last July, shares in the company and its listed units nosedived. At the time, Seazen Group was China's eighth-largest property developer by sales; it has since slipped to 13th place. The Putuo District People's Court in Shanghai issued the verdict after a two-day closed-door hearing, according to a statement published on its official WeChat account. Five years is the maximum jail term for child molestation. Reuters was not able to reach Wang or Seazen Group for comment. Wang's son, non-executive director Wang Xiaosong, was appointed chairman of Seazen Group's board after his father's arrest last year. Seazen Group's subsidiaries include Seazen Holdings Co Ltd and property management unit S-Enjoy Service Group Co Ltd. However, Wang Zhenhua continues to hold about 70% of Seazen Group. The 2020 Hurun Global Rich List in March estimated Wang and his son's net worth at around $6.1 billion. Seazen sold some of its land parcels shortly after Wang's arrest to improve its cash flow amid lenders' worries. Credit: Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer States are easing COVID-19 lockdowns, and many Americans are joyously leaping in with both feet, lowering their masks and their concerns about distancing as summer nears. But cases are continuing to rise in several states, and scientists expect a second wave in the fall. Based on public statements and news reports, however, there appears to be little will among some average Americans and a number of politicians and corporate executives to reinstitute the broad, economically costly closures of March, April, and May. That is starting to make scientists and public health experts concerned. "How are we going to manage the next round of mitigation efforts?" said Yonatan Grad, the Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "It's not entirely clear to me whether there's the political and social will that can sustain another round of community lockdowns. If not, what are we going to do?" Much remains in flux, but experts say that having had some experience with the disease and its treatment should prove a benefit. Two recent studies in the journal Nature showed that the sweeping steps taken early in the pandemic were effective in curbing the coronavirus spread. One examined measures taken in 11 European countries and showed that they reduced transmission by 81 percent and saved 3 million lives. A second study showed that steps taken in six nationsincluding the U.S. and Chinaprevented more than 500 million new cases. But these studies didn't tease out the most effective components of programs that included things like wearing masks, distancing, limits on gathering sizes, travel restrictions, increased testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and self-isolation. Absent that information, officials face a tricky balance in selecting targeted steps to minimize what economists fear will be lasting economic damage and still keeping case numbers down. "The question of how to balance this is the most crucial question our society has had to ask in decades, if not centuries," said Michael Mina, Harvard Chan School assistant professor of epidemiology. "How do we balance these potentially catastrophic economic consequences with potentially catastrophic infectious disease consequences? There's no correct answer there." Around the world, several nations, including Germany, South Korea, Japan, Lebanon, and China, have delayed further easing or found it necessary to reimpose some controls after seeing cases spike. In the U.S., where President Trump has voiced opposition to a second lockdown, some governors have said proceeding through the phased easing of restrictions is dependent upon cases continuing to meet certain guidelines. Mina said we should pay attention to what's going on nationally today, because the country is in the midst of a real-time experiment, with different states opening at different speeds while at different points of their local epidemics. States in the Northeast, hit hard early, are reopening slowly after seeing cases decline, leaving some restrictions in place while easing others. Other states are reopening as cases plateau, while still others are doing so even as statewide cases continue to rise. "In some places, bars are full. In others, people are being more wary. [The virus] will track whatever local conditions are," said William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School. "If we keep making contacts and we let the virus transmit, the outlook is grim. The only thing we can be sure of is, given more opportunities to transmit, the virus will transmit more." Whatever a new round of restrictions may look like, it is unlikely to mirror the last. Not only is there little appetite for broad shutdowns, experience gained and advances made in the past few monthsin particular, changes within the health care system and advances in testing will make a difference in what future responses look like. "We have about the same arrows in our quiver, but some are getting sharper," said Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard Chan School. Though testing still is not available for everyone everywhere, the diagnostic tests for active infection have grown more accurate and widespread. A key improvement, according to Mina, will be tests that can utilize samples taken from swabs of the front of the nose rather than more deeply in the nasopharynx, because they can be done more easily by individuals and sent to a lab. Still being developed is an inexpensive, disposable testakin to a home pregnancy testthat people could use regularly, if not daily, to monitor their own health, and then stay home from school or work if they test positive. The advent of inexpensive, convenient testing, Mina said, is a potential game-changer in the fight to reopen society safely. "I think there's lots of different ways we're going to see testing being used to get students back into universities and get businesses back to work," Mina said. The landscape for the second major type of testserologic or antibody testing that can detect past infectionshas changed even more dramatically, Mina said. These tests have become more accurate recently and are of enormous value to public health leaders because they provide an indication of how wide the virus has spread and what progress has been made toward "herd immunity," where enough of the population has been exposed to interfere with transmission. Recent serology test results, however, indicate that our immunity on a population level is around 5 percent, well below the 50 to 70 percent thought to be necessary to interrupt transmission. "It means there's a very, very long way to go before we have population-level immunity," Mina said. Sarah Fortune, chair of the Harvard Chan School's Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, said the enhanced testing capacity may enable more-effective use of contact tracing by identifying more of those infected so people they may have exposed can be tracked and isolated before they pass the virus along. "We clearly have vastly more testing capacity than we did when we had to shut down the first time," Fortune said. "What that's going to allow us to do is not just test symptomatic individuals, but contacts of symptomatic individuals. That will allow us to be smarter and to understand, through our contact tracing, what infection is likely to occur." Enhanced testing can also underpin additional safeguards for those most vulnerable to COVID-19, Hanage said. While it may be uncertain which measures best protect the general population, it has become clear that a more targeted response should include additional stepslikely built upon more testingto protect the elderly, especially those in nursing homes and other elder care facilities. Another reason a second response will be different is changed circumstances in the health care system. Paul Biddinger, chief of Massachusetts General Hospital's Division of Emergency Preparedness, director of the MGH Center for Disaster Medicine, and associate professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School, said having fought COVID once puts them way ahead should there be a second round. After March's scramble to devise effective care, secure protective equipment, increase critical care capacity, and secure enough ventilators to keep the sickest patients alive, the illness is no longer a mystery. Protective equipmentonce dangerously scarceis now in adequate supply. Health care workers know that infection control measures work, that masking works, that physical separation works, and that, should cases surge again, they can create additional intensive care beds and meet demand. "We've now cared for thousands of COVID patients and looked at the data. We're at a point in this outbreak where we can safely care for COVID patients," Biddinger said. "The fact that we've done it once does mean we can do it againfasterif we have to." Cases have fallen enough that wards that had been converted to intensive care are being restored to their original purposes, Biddinger said. Staff are also returning to their original assignments, with some saying they're ready to again care for COVID patients should the need arise. Ideally, Biddinger said, the health care system will not only handle future outbreaks more easily, but also handle them well enough that care for other conditions is never again put on hold. "It's my hope that we never again have the wholesale degree of health care system slowdown that wevery necessarilyhad with the first wave," Biddinger said. "I think we have learned a lot. I believe that we can continue to operate the health care system and deliver care while we continue to treat patients with COVID." Though an effective vaccine is still monthsand perhaps yearsaway, another potential game-changer is the emergence of an effective treatment. The antiviral drug remdesivir has been shown to shorten the course of illness for the most severely ill and some expressed hope that, if given earlier, it could prevent serious illness altogether. A recent study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health provides hope that that might be the case, showing that rhesus macaques given remdesivir 12 hours after SARS-CoV-2 infection didn't develop respiratory disease and had reduced lung damage. Biddinger said other drugs in the pipeline are even more promising, and strategies like using drugs in combinationwhich revolutionized the fight against HIVmay prove important. Even though the path ahead may not be clear, Grad said it's important to have discussions about thresholds that might signal the need for new restrictions and to begin to think about what those steps might be. "What is the trigger for reintroducing mitigation efforts?" Grad said. "As you lift social distancing, you can expect a resurgence of cases as susceptible people are available and since we've not hit herd immunity." When it comes to indicators, those that provide the longest lead time are better, Hanage said. Worst would be rising numbers of fatalities, because deaths lag rising cases by weeks. Next-worst, he said, would be to wait until numbers of those hospitalized or seriously ill rise. Better would be to monitor indicators that might provide an early view of rising case numbers, such as routine testing of those seeking primary care and not necessarily ill yet. Innovative approaches are also emerging that could allow officials to catch a new outbreak early. Smartphone apps that encourage users to input symptoms and new test results daily can provide an overview of a community, as can approaches such as wastewater monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 genetic material, which, by tracing pipes that serve different neighborhoods, can provide a view of the virus' occurrence in the population. Whatever the mix that emerges, other nations have already shown that controlling the coronavirus is possible. On Monday, China, where the pandemic began, reported just five new cases and no new deaths, while New Zealand, after 1,500 cases and 22 deaths, declared itself coronavirus-free and allowed its 5 million people to move around freely. And nations that fared worse in the pandemic's first wave will have time to learn from that difficult experience, Hanage said. "The question is, as we move forward, [what will be] the impact of that [experience] in future response?" Hanage said. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak More information: Flaxman et al. Estimating the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in Europe, Nature (2020). Flaxman et al. Estimating the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in Europe,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2405-7 Solomon Hsiang et al. The effect of large-scale anti-contagion policies on the COVID-19 pandemic, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2404-8 Journal information: Nature Provided by Harvard Gazette Healdsburg Mayor Leah Gold gets into a pointed exchange with protesters on June 11. Gold has said she will resign as mayor of the small wine country town. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) The mayor of a California wine country town says she'll resign after furor in recent weeks over her initial failure to address the topics of police brutality and racism amid the surging Black Lives Matter movement. Healdsburg Mayor Leah Gold says she will step down on June 30 and hopes that a person of color will fill her position on the all-white City Council, a demand raised in a petition calling for her resignation. Although I feel positively about my contributions and have many loyal supporters, Im certain there are also many BIPOC [Black, indigenous, people of color] members of our community who could serve our city well, Gold said in a statement Tuesday. "As Ive considered how I can help Healdsburg advance in racial justice during this critical juncture, I believe that one of the ways I can contribute is by creating a space for a person of color to join the City Council." The mayor told The Times that her decision was largely due to the overwhelming criticism, which she mostly received on social media in addition to some calls and letters. "We expect as public figures on the City Council to take a certain amount of abuse, but this was just more than I had signed up for. I didnt want to put myself in that position any longer," she said. "It's going to be hard to get a citizen representative if theyre exposed to this treatment." The public scrutiny over Golds comments and actions began in early June. After the outrage that erupted throughout the country over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, the Healdsburg City Council decided not to include police reform on its June 1 agenda after a resident raised the issue. Gold said that misuse of force by police was not a problem in Healdsburg, a statement many residents deemed ignorant. They said Gold believed that racism did not exist in the Sonoma County city of roughly 12,000. According to the U.S. census, the town is made up of 77.5% white residents and 30% Latino residents (people can check more than one box). Less than 1% of residents are identified as American Indian or Alaskan Native, and 1.5% are identified as Asian. Story continues The comments were followed by advice for people to refrain from demonstrations amid reports of violence in the early days of protests. Speaking only for myself as a Healdsburg resident, I urge my community to refrain from any public demonstration at this time. As has been evidenced in many other local communities, there are opportunistic, destructive factions involved who may not allow you to have the peaceful protest you envision, she wrote in a statement on Facebook. Gold later denounced the sentiment that her views were racist, saying that racism is an issue everywhere and that the town should, after all, be involved in the conversation over police brutality. She thanked peaceful protesters and said she signed the Obama Foundations Mayors Pledge to review police use-of-force polices. At this time when the entire country is re-examining use of force by police and its inequitable application to people of color, of course Healdsburg should be involved in the dialog, she said in the statement. But for many, the mayors newfound understanding of a longtime issue came too late. Clearly, the mayor is out of touch with reality and is not in a position to lead our city in an inclusive and forward-moving manner. We call for her resignation immediately, and for her to be replaced by a BIPOC, so that all citizens of Healdsburg can be represented, read a Change.org petition that launched two weeks ago. The petition garnered about 1,885 signatures from people who shared experiences of racism in Healdsburg and others who deemed Golds comments a sign of white privilege. Im signing because black lives matter. WHITE SILENCE IS VIOLENCE, read one. To say there is no racism in Healdsburg is to be completely out of touch with our community. It has existed all of the nearly 50 years I have lived here. I see it every day. I have even been yelled at, to go back to my own country, read another. Gold has lived in Healdsburg for about 28 years and has served on the City Council off and on for the past 20 years.Her term as mayor would have ended in December, though her term on the City Council would have run for two more years. Filipino migrant workers stranded in Saudi Arabia after their jobs ended because of the coronavirus pandemic appealed for help this week. Footage shows the ailing workers in masks holding placards that bear the name of their recruitment agencies. The private agencies allegedly failed to provide assistance in bringing them home to the Philippines after they were laid off on March 31. Grey Virgo Guevarra recorded the video of his fellow workers in a migrant shelter in King Salman Road, Riyadh. She said: "We want to return to our country safely and get our unpaid salary for three months. We are hoping that the government will help us." The government has earlier established a sub-task unit to help repatriate the affected Filipino workers stuck abroad during the Covid-19 crisis. When the Texas Legislature convenes in January, there will be no shortage of coronavirus-related issues demanding action, from the many hours of lost instructional time for our students to a surge in Texans who have lost their businesses or their paychecks. Also at the top of the list for urgent legislative action should be meeting our increasingly dire behavioral health needs. Even before the pandemic, Texas, like other states, was facing serious challenges in providing the mental health care we need. Suicide rates were at record levels, ranking as the nations second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults. In 2018, over 3,800 Texans died from suicide and over 7,000 died from substance-related deaths. And now, COVID-19 has further negatively impacted our mental health. According to an Axios-Ipsos poll conducted at the end of April, 28 percent of Americans reported worsening mental health and 34 percent reported worsening emotional well-being. The range of outcomes caused by this crisis is dire: higher stress and anxiety, increased substance abuse and suicide, among others. These struggles will not wane quickly. As the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute warned in a recent analysis, Rates of mental illness more broadly are likely to increase over time, given that most mental health impacts of trauma manifest 60 to 90 days following exposure to traumatic events. And, importantly, experts warn of the social-emotional impact on children who have been separated from classmates and teachers, including the teachers who are often the first to notice when a child has been abused at home. This moment, in other words, is not just a physical health pandemic, but also a behavioral health emergency. Our willingness to confront and address our worsening behavioral health challenges will go a long way toward determining how quickly and successfully Texas recovers from the damage unleashed by COVID-19 and how well we can meet our states ongoing mental health challenges further exposed by the pandemic. And on an even larger scale, we know that healthy Texans mean a healthy workforce. Illnesses like anxiety and depression can sap the enthusiasm and innovative spirit of our states entrepreneurs, business leaders and workers, long before they reach their potential, or in some cases even get started. That spirit is at the very heart of our states ability to recover economically. Over the last two legislative sessions, Texas has made significant progress in treating mental health issues. Our state has wisely invested in local treatment programs, greater access to services, needed facility repairs and significant updates to the ways we identify and respond to mental health and other safety issues in our public schools. Just recently, the state launched the Child Psychiatry Access Network to help pediatricians throughout the state better treat mental health issues. Legislators from both parties in the Texas House and Senate have done commendable work on these issues identifying problems, listening to experts and making strategic short- and long-term investments. Thats why its so important that Texas not retreat. The Legislature has already demonstrated a bipartisan willingness to tackle and invest in behavioral health reform. But those investments came in relatively healthy economic times. Now, Texas is in a recession. But a budget is a statement of priorities, and behavioral health needs to be at the top of the list. One of the reasons we created the Texas House Committee on Mental Health in 2015 was because we encountered so many Texans from diverse backgrounds and circumstances who talked about how mental illness had affected them. Behavioral health conditions can hurt our ability to learn, work and simply interact with the people who care for us most. Millions of Texas adults and children already faced these conditions before the pandemic. The need to support them is even greater now. State leadership thus far has wisely exempted behavioral health funding from requested agency budget cuts. Going forward, with limited resources, state legislators will examine every expenditure closely, and they need to hear from Texans that this issue is an integral part of our recovery and resilience. Now is the time to build on our states success in treating mental illness, substance abuse and other behavioral health issues that millions of Texans face. Straus is a former State Representative from San Antonio who served as Speaker of the Texas House from 2009 to 2019. He is now chairman of the Texas Forever Forward political action committee. Two persons have succumbed to the Coronavirus in Northern region. This brings to three the number of death recorded in the Northern region from the infection. The victims include a 24 year old lady, referred from Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region to the Tamale Teaching Hospital , a 3-month old baby who was referred from the Savelugu hospital and the 80-year-old woman who died at the Tamale Central hospital. The Northern Regional Health Director, Dr. John B. Eleeza, who confirmed this to DGN Online, appealed to residents to follow the health protocols announced by the Ghana Health Service (GHS). The Northern Region has confirmed 15 more Covid-19 cases bringing its total cases to 52. Daily Guide MELBOURNE (Reuters) - BHP Group said on Wednesday that David Lamont, a former mining executive who has more recently been at global biotech firm CSL, would take the reins as companys chief financial officer from the start of December. Lamont, who worked closely with BHP Chief Executive Mike Henry in BHPs coal division in the early 2000s, has been CFO at Australias second-biggest listed company since January 2016. He will also join BHPs executive leadership team, Henry said in a statement. Prior to joining CSL, Lamont was the CFO and an executive director at MMG Ltd, the Australia-listed arm of Chinas MinMetals, from 2010, over the period it bought for $5.85 billion the giant Las Bambas copper mine in Peru from Glencore-Xstrata. During his time at MMG, Lamont managed the relationship with Chinas Minmetals very well and better than his successors, said a mining industry source. Hes a good operator; very disciplined, very focused, the source said. Lamont previously served as CFO for several other multinational public companies across a range of industries, including Australian mid-tier copper miner OZ Minerals, and chemicals maker Incitec Pivot Ltd [IPLXXI.UL]. He also held senior roles at BHP between 2001 and 2006, including being CFO of the companys carbon steel materials, thermal coal businesses, overlapping with Henrys time in coal where they knew each other well. Lamont began his career as an accountant at Deloitte. Current BHP CFO Peter Beaven will step down on Nov. 30, but will remain in a support role until early 2021 after which he will leave the firm to pursue personal ambitions, BHP said. Beaven, a South African who joined BHP in 2003, lost the contest for BHPs top job to Mike Henry last year and was expected to leave the firm. He had spent a decade in operational roles in South Africa and Chile, before becoming CFO in October 2014. The World Health Organization is urging the public to be cautious about dexamethasone as information on the use of the steroid treatment for Covid-19 is still in the preliminary stages. The results from the RECOVERY trial at the University of Oxford were "very significant," but it was only one study, Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's emergencies program, said during a press conference Wednesday at the agency's Geneva headquarters. "We have to see the real data, the full data." On Tuesday, scientists at Oxford said results from a trial showed the drug, which is widely used to reduce inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital. There was no benefit among patients who did not require respiratory support. Ryan said WHO officials were "very pleased" with the findings, adding the drug is one of "the many breakthroughs we need" to eliminate Covid-19. "We should celebrate that today," he said. Besides dexamethasone's approval in the U.K., there are currently no other approved treatments for the virus, which has infected more than 8.1 million people worldwide and killed at least 444,111, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Remdesivir, manufactured by Gilead Sciences, was granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat hospitalized patients sickened with Covid-19 in May. Anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine had also been granted an EUA, but the designation was revoked earlier Monday after the FDA found it was unlikely to be effective. In response to a question from CNBC on whether the FDA is looking to grant dexamethasone an EUA, an FDA spokesperson said, "Clinical trials testing new treatments for COVID-19 are the best way to gain valuable knowledge about their safety and effectiveness. The FDA will use every tool at the agency's disposal needed to bring new therapies to sick patients as quickly as possible." WHO officials are looking at other research on dexamethasone and will come to a conclusion on its clinical advice to countries, Ryan said Wednesday. "It's important each country takes that measured approach as well," he said. "This is not the time to rush, to change clinical practices. ...People still need training, we need to understand what doses to be used, how patients are going to be clinically assessed. We need to make sure there are going to be supplies of the drug, we need to look at a lot of things." (Reuters) - A group of giant tortoises who have lived in captivity for decades and helped rescue their species from the brink of extinction were released into the wild in the Galapagos Islands on Monday. The tortoises were bred in captivity to repopulate the islands after their numbers in the wild went down to just 15 individuals, said park director Danny Rueda. There are now more than 2,000 of them on Espanola Island, he said. The giant tortoises are known for their long, leathery necks and lifespans of over 100 years. Virtually synonymous with the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, they were one of the species that helped Charles Darwin form his theory of evolution in the 19th century. One of the newly freed tortoises is Diego, estimated to be around 100 years old. Renowned for his fertility, he alone has fathered some 800 offspring. Diego's return to his native Espanola comes after around eight decades of living in a California zoo and then in the tortoise recovery program on Santa Cruz island in the Galapagos. For his final journey home, Diego was taken by boat to Espanola, along with 14 of his companions. From there, rangers used backpacks to take the tortoises - who can weigh up to 400 pounds (180 kg)- to an area where cactus grows in abundance that will help them readapt. There, they will be monitored with GPS trackers. It has been a conservation success story. "We can shut down the captive breeding program of this species because their natural behavior is effective," said Rueda. (Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; writing by Rosalba O'Brien; editing by Jonathan Oatis) Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK CLAYTON St. Louis County jail officials seeking approval of a $2 million contract for inmates meals and some job training admitted Tuesday that they did not fully investigate allegations that the company they were recommending had served expired food at other prisons, among other complaints. The county failed to contact officials in at least three states where inmates had complained about Florida-based Trinity Services Group, Justice Services Director Raul Banasco said Tuesday afternoon in response to questioning by St. Louis County Council members. The proposed one-year contract with Trinity, which requires council approval, came under fire Tuesday after Tom Sullivan, a University City resident and local government watchdog, raised concerns, citing media reports last year that Trinity served maggot-infested food, violated labor laws requiring breaks for employees, and failed to adequately staff jail kitchens. Trinity was fined more than $2 million by the Michigan Department of Corrections in 2017 for inadequate staffing, sanitation violations, delays serving meals and unauthorized meal substitutions, according to the Associated Press. The company has faced similar allegations in other states, including Utah and Arizona. Nathan Hemme, one of four St. Louis County employees tasked with evaluating responses to the countys request for proposals, said the company denied the allegations it had served substandard food. Banasco added Trinitys performance in Michigan, in particular, couldnt be compared to the county contract because the county justice center serves a much smaller inmate population. The Michigan state prison system houses about 41,000 inmates, whereas the justice center currently serves about 800, he said. We feel that some of those issues raised dont really compare to us based on the size of our facility, he said. He said the county proposed a one-year contract so it wouldnt be locked into Trinity and would review the companys services throughout the year. But when Rita Heard Days, D-1st District, asked what jail officials in Utah, Arizona and Michigan had to say, Hemme said they had not been contacted. Did you talk to anybody besides Trinity about these issues? Days asked. We did not, Hemme said. We can, and we will, if thats what you want, Banasco added. Im a little concerned that Im asking the bidder or the person who is winning the contract to give us information like that, Days said. That doesnt seem logical to me. Councilman Tim Fitch, R-3rd District, a former county police chief, said he agreed with Days. Have we actually reached out to (jail and prison officials) directly as opposed to Trinity? he said. The committee contacted jails and prisons currently contracting with Trinity from a list the company provided, Hemme said. The ones we got back were all positive, he said. The Justice Services Advisory Board had no role in the review process, Banasco said when asked by Council Chairwoman Lisa Clancy, D-5th. County Executive Sam Page appointed the civilian board last year to advise officials at the jail after a series of inmate deaths at the troubled jail. Theyre not part of the RFP but they know we were looking that our contracts are up, Banasco said. Sullivan, who raised the concerns to the council, criticized the boards exclusion. It doesnt do much good to have an advisory board if youre not going to have them give any advice, Sullivan said after the meeting. Under terms of the proposed contract, Trinity would pay inmates who prepare the meals. About 60 to 80 inmates currently preparing meals receive a credit for commissary items, Banasco said. Trinity also proposed a $150,000 renovation to the staff dining area on the eighth floor, Banasco said. The change would allow for hot food to be prepared on the spot; the area currently has refrigerators to store cold meals that are reheated, he said. Banasco, who said was completely removed himself from the bidding process until the committee selected Trinity, told the council he would follow-up with officials in states that have cited Trinity for complaints and provide their responses. I will contact the sheriff myself and get you feedback, Banasco said. He said officials would also provide the council with all feedback they had received from jails that currently contract Trinity. If approved, the county would have the option of extending the contract for a second and third year, for at least $2.1 million each year. In other action Tuesday, the County Council adopted a resolution recognizing June as Pride Month and endorsing the rights, freedoms, and necessary equal treatment of LGBTQ people. Council members Ernie Trakas, R-6th, and Mark Harder, R-7th, abstained from the vote. I can agree with some of this, Harder said, but I cant agree with all of it. Juneteenth holiday Page on Tuesday also announced that the county would close offices on Friday in recognition of Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery in the U.S. The holiday is a time to take a closer look at where we are in our county, Page said, and to reflect on how we can each play a role in the changes to come. Page also said he has asked Hazel Erby, director of the countys Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, to review the names of public places and streets in the county and ensure they are in line with county values of equity and inclusion. 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. An Indian army convoy moves on the Srinagar- Ladakh highway at Gagangeer, north-east of Srinagar, India, on Wednesday. Read more BEIJING China and India accused each other Wednesday of instigating deadly border clashes between their forces along the disputed Himalayan frontier, pledging to safeguard their territory but also to try to end a standoff that has dramatically raised the stakes between the nuclear-armed Asian giants. Twenty Indian troops were reportedly killed in the clashes Monday night in the Ladakh regions Galwan Valley, while it was not clear whether China suffered any casualties. Indian security forces said neither side fired any shots, with some officials saying the soldiers were carrying anti-riot gear rather than weapons. The Indian soldiers, including a colonel, died of severe injuries suffered in sub-zero temperatures after the two sides threw rocks and traded blows, Indian officials said. It was the deadliest conflict between the sides in 45 years, and escalated a standoff in the disputed region that began in early May, when Indian officials said Chinese soldiers crossed the boundary at three different points, erecting tents and guard posts and ignoring verbal warnings to leave. That triggered shouting matches, stone-throwing and fistfights, much of it replayed on television news channels and social media. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned New Delhi not to underestimate Beijing's determination to safeguard what it considers its sovereign territory. His comments came in a phone call Wednesday with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Wang said China demanded that India conduct a thorough investigation and harshly punish those responsible. The Indian side would best not make an incorrect judgement of the situation, would best not underestimate Chinas strong determination to safety its sovereign territory, Wang said in a statement issued by the foreign ministry. He repeated Chinas claims that India was solely responsible for the conflict, saying Indian forces had crossed the Line of Actual Control that divides the thousands of troops from both sides deployed in the area. Jaishankar, in turn, accused China of erecting a structure in the Galwan Valley, which he called a premeditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties, according to a statement. He added that the incident would have serious repercussions on Indias relationship with China, but that both sides were committed to further disengaging on the remote plateau of the Himalayan terrain. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the soldiers killed in the clashes. Their sacrifices wont go to waste, he said. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important thing. India wants peace, but when provoked, it is capable of giving a fitting reply, be it any kind of situation. A group of protesters gathered Wednesday near the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, India's capital, condemning the killing of the soldiers and demanding a ban on Chinese goods. They carried placards with crossed-out photographs of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese army. A small group of retired Indian army personnel also marched close to the embassy with placards reading Chinese army down down. They were detained by police. While experts said the two nations were unlikely to head to war, they also believe easing tensions quickly will be difficult. This will likely be a watershed moment in India-China relations and the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, said Abraham Denmark, Asia program director at The Wilson Center. Both countries are led by men who have embraced nationalism, and both countries are facing tremendous domestic and international upheaval as a result of COVID-19 and other long-standing problems. The main questions now are if either side can find a path to deescalation and whether Indias allies such as the United States will help. It is a highly volatile and dangerous situation between two nationalistic, nuclear powers at a time when American influence has badly diminished, Denmark said. An editorial published Wednesday in the Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party newspaper, said India was being encouraged by the U.S., which has been steadily building relations with Indias military. The arrogance and recklessness of the Indian side is the main reason for the consistent tensions along China-India borders, the editorial said, adding that China does not and will not create conflicts, but it fears no conflicts either. China claims about 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) of territory in Indias northeast, while India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau in the Himalayas, a contiguous part of the Ladakh region. India unilaterally declared Ladakh a federal territory while separating it from disputed Kashmir in August 2019. China was among the handful of countries to strongly condemn the move, raising it at international forums including the U.N. Security Council. Thousands of soldiers on both sides have faced off over a month along a remote stretch of the 3,380-kilometer (2,100-mile) Line of Actual Control, the border established following a war between India and China in 1962 that resulted in an uneasy truce. The United Nations urged both sides to exercise maximum restraint. We are concerned about reports of violence and deaths at the Line of Actual Control between India and China, U.N. associate spokesperson Eri Kaneko said. We take positive note of reports that the two countries have engaged to de-escalate the situation. _____ Sharma reported from New Delhi. NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Barely a month after the killing of George Floyd by Minnesota Police, a new victim, Rayshard Brooks, was killed in a Wendy's parking lot by an Atlanta police officer. The officer has since been fired but the family is finding it hard to receive this as a token of justice for Rayshard's death. "It has to stop," says Black Lives Action Project, a group formed to bring action to combat racism. Black Lives Action Project Black Lives Action Project is a group formed out of the George Floyd protests with a mission to create action-oriented solutions to bring measurable justice to racism. The Group has launched a Change.org petition called "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" to bring checks and balances to what they call an "unjust law enforcement system at the local level." It intends to make it a federal crime for police to senselessly kill civilians. The Group believes that the petition is a "legislative power move," as police currently have nothing to fear when they kill civilians within their own jurisdiction. Many of them believe that their peers who work within the police department, local court and legal system will not prosecute them to the fullest extent. The casual behavior of the police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck, hands in pockets, is a testament to this. Black Lives Action Project believes that every civilian life in the United States is at risk. Oversight of policing by the police force which believes they are the ultimate authority in their own local jurisdiction is simply corrupt. Holding police federally accountable will remove the possibility of preferential treatment that may be given to law enforcement agents who are, in many cases, too familiar with their own jurisdictions. Checks and balances are compromised at this point and need to be addressed. The passing of such a law will be a historical milestone for the United States and a great achievement for members of government who can quickly champion it. The law will set the tone for ending the worldwide civilian unrest. The law will also give other nations who have been affected a model that can be used to bring back normalcy to society. Black Americans are crying out "No Justice, No Peace" and that "Black Lives Matter". They have been joined by the vast amounts of White Americans and other citizens who also see the inequality and injustice as a threat to humankind. We ask that every American sign this petition to bring law to an unfair system that has been overlooked for centuries. http://Change.org/HandsUpDontShoot Media Contact: Jason Campbell Phone: 516-274-7544 Email: [email protected] Related Images image1.jpg Related Links https://news.yahoo.com/rayshard-brooks-police-killing-atlanta-family-press-conference-173434564.html SOURCE Black Lives Action Project Two NAU research centers receive Flinn Foundation funding to support COVID-19 response Scientists at two Northern Arizona University research centers--the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI) and the Center for Health Equity Research (CHER)--recently received grants totaling $175,000 from the Flinn Foundation in support of projects directed at responding to the COVID-19 threat. Researchers in PMI are internationally recognized for their expertise in the genomic mechanisms of disease--and for the capacity to safely study pathogens ranging from anthrax and plague to West Nile virus and valley fever. In April, under the leadership of executive director and Regents' Professor Paul Keim, PMI launched the new COVID-19 Testing Service Center (CTSC), which will use PMI's Biosafety Level 3 facilities to test and evaluate the effectiveness of proposed vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus. Several private companies and academic teams trying to develop therapeutics--but lacking the stringently regulated laboratory infrastructure for testing with COVID-19 samples--have already consulted with PMI to move their candidate compounds into initial screening for efficacy at NAU, including Vault Pharma and Oncology Venture. Flinn Foundation funding will accelerate the CTSC's ramp-up to begin this work, led by NAU assistant professor C. Todd French, a specialist in pathogen-virulence mechanisms. The grant will also support the work of associate professor Bridget Barker of PMI. CHER, NAU's cross-disciplinary research center devoted to achieving health equity through research in fields including public health, epidemiology and biostatistics, is responding to COVID-19 through disease-intervention modeling. CHER director and Regents' Professor Julie Baldwin and Joe Mihaljevic, assistant professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS), are leading a project to model the spread of COVID-19 in rural settings like northern Arizona and the Colorado Plateau, which have much different characteristics than the urban centers of outbreak informing most existing models. The team also consists of CHER associate professor Samantha Sabo, assistant professor Ricky Camplain and senior program coordinator Carly Camplain, as well as professor Eck Doerry of SICCS. Flinn Foundation funding will support model prototyping in the Flagstaff area that incorporates data on current behaviors and interventions and assesses the impact of a variety of potential future interventions and changes in the public's behavior. Later in the year, the model will be expanded to look at a broader swath of northern Arizona, providing essential guidance for elected and public health officials to plan interventions specific to their region's needs. The Flinn Foundation supports the biosciences in Arizona through research grants and stewardship of Arizona's Bioscience Roadmap, released in 2002 and guiding the growth and development of the state's bioscience sector through 2025. ### About Northern Arizona University Northern Arizona University is a higher-research institution providing exceptional educational opportunities in Arizona and beyond. NAU delivers a student-centered experience to its 31,000 students in Flagstaff, statewide and online through rigorous academic programs in a supportive, inclusive and diverse environment. Dedicated, world-renowned faculty help ensure students achieve academic excellence, experience personal growth, have meaningful research opportunities and are positioned for personal and professional success. This story has been published on: 2020-06-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. MENLO PARK, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global consulting firm Protiviti, a Microsoft Gold Partner, launches new cybersecurity offerings to support organizations that have invested in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure security solutions. The enterprise-grade, highly scalable solutions address the increasing need for enterprises to manage their cyber risks more effectively in the face of rapidly evolving digital technologies and business disruption, such as from the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the global health crisis, companies faced increased cyber threats as the result of rapidly changing business needs, increased adoption of digital technologies, the need to respond more quickly to critical cyber events, and a shortage of cybersecurity talent. Today, the situation is even more dire, as shelter-in-place and lockdown orders have forced organizations to rapidly adapt their infrastructures to support increased remote access, introducing new vectors for cyberattacks. "As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we have demonstrated our commitment to Microsoft and the ability to deliver dynamic solutions across Microsoft 365, Azure, and Dynamics 365 platforms to large and middle market companies around the world," said Eric Winton, a Protiviti managing director and the firm's global Microsoft alliance leader. "Protiviti's unique holistic approach to cybersecurity combined with our deep expertise in Microsoft platforms enable us to provide complete solutions that help ensure our clients' systems and data are protected." Protiviti's cybersecurity offerings are designed to quickly increase the efficacy and reduce the complexity of managing enterprise cybersecurity threats through: Easy access to deeply skilled resources Optimized, repeatable, compliant and highly scalable processes Market-leading analytics, metrics and techniques to manage risk and compliance controls in alignment with business objectives "Enterprises are facing unprecedented cyber risks stemming from rapid technology evolution and dramatic business disruption, and simply strengthening IT or cyber business controls is insufficient to effectively manage today's threats," said Terry Jost, a Protiviti managing director and leader of the firm's Managed Security Services. "Our new highly scalable cybersecurity managed services provide the consistent processes, sustainable operations and ongoing compliance that companies need to confidently manage cybersecurity threats and data protection." The business climate during the pandemic introduces critical next steps for managing technology investments, which require ongoing sustainment and refinement as companies shape the new normal for business operations. These new solutions are designed to provide organization leadership teams with foundational stability to quickly address current business requirements, operational efficiencies and the changing needs of customers while also responsibly managing sturdy financials. "Companies worldwide look to Microsoft for technology to help solve their critical business needs, which are now heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated cybersecurity threats," said Mandana Javaheri, global director, business development, Cybersecurity Solutions Group, Microsoft Corp. "Building on our collaboration with Protiviti, the combination of their consulting expertise and our advanced technology provides custom managed security solutions to effectively address our customers' cybersecurity and business risks." The new security offerings include: Microsoft Security Workshop Protiviti's Microsoft Security Workshop will help security stakeholders develop a strategic plan based on the recommendations of Microsoft cybersecurity experts and customized specifically for each organization. The workshop will help organizations gain visibility into immediate threats across email, identities and data, and provide valuable clarity into and support for upgrading the security posture for the long term. Microsoft Azure Vulnerability Management Protiviti provides a wide variety of managed vulnerability assessment services to help clients identify, assess and manage business and security risks, including reacting quickly to newly discovered vulnerabilities within the environment while preserving the organization's ability to accomplish its business goals. Options include: Periodic targeted vulnerability assessments of public web applications, network and IoT/industrial control systems Automated compliance policies that evaluate and enforce compliance with HIPAA, SOX, PCI-DSS, NIST, FedRAMP, ISO27001 and UKNHS Configuration and compliance evaluations for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Cloud Application Security (MCAS), Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) to drive configuration priorities Microsoft Azure Sentinel Implementation Services Protiviti takes a holistic approach to assisting clients using Microsoft Azure Sentinel to understand their information security and privacy risks and supporting their ability to address them. Protiviti supports Azure Sentinel's capabilities with: Cloud integration services, including a cloud maturity and readiness assessment; holistic cloud governance services; security gap assessment; and integration of legacy systems Cybersecurity Intelligence Response Center (CIRC) services, including an enhanced "white glove" Cybersecurity Access Ability Supports (AAS) solution; incident triage and containment; collection and analysis of digital evidence; and ongoing probabilistic cyber risk quantification Active Security Assessment services, including for infrastructure, applications, networks, and databases, as well as monitoring for new and novel cyber threat methods Incident Response and Forensics Services, including response plan development; threat rule template customization; AAS-enhanced forensic and incident response; and forensic e-discovery support Protiviti delivers security monitoring on a global scale and works with each client to understand the key business assets that require real-time monitoring and alerting. Protiviti's Microsoft Security team provides scalable, secure Microsoft cloud management, advanced threat detection and security monitoring services. The team will also build and operate secure and performant Microsoft Azure infrastructure, across dedicated, mobile and personal devices. About Protiviti Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Protiviti and its independent and locally owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit through its network of more than 85 offices in over 25 countries. Named to the 2020 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Protiviti has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index. Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. Editor's note: Protiviti photos available upon request. SOURCE Protiviti Related Links http://www.protiviti.com Quick Angels limited, the first and formal Angel Investor company in Ghana has signed the MONA BRAND popularly known in the showbiz fraternity as Hajia 4Reall in a partnership deal to commercialize her brand and jointly own the company MONA 4REALL LIMITED. The joint venture partnership deal with the fashionista announced on Monday 15th May 2020 worth millions of Ghana cedis, will see Mona building a new empire around her brand and personality. Speaking on the Joint Venture, the Ceo of Quick Angels Limited, Mr. Richard Nii Armah Quaye said, this partnership is strategic. We have come to a point where we have a lot of brands competing locally and globally. Brands that are doing so well and will change the narrative soon. This is one of it in Brand personality. The partnership is expected to build on the Mona and 4Reall brand, and while at it create and introduce products and labels in the near future. So much thought and research have gone into this partnership and it is expected to transform the fashion and lifestyle industry. We are excited about this partnership. This is going to bring growth to the MONA BRAND, something I have been looking out for a long time to change the face of my brand. This joint venture means a lot to me. I want to say a big thank you to the CEO and management of Quick Angels Limited for the confidence they have in my brand. This gives me hope because I envisaged it, dreamt it, and now Quick Angels is bringing it to life.I knew one day someone will see an investment opportunity in my brand I have built over the years. The day is finally here. Mona Faiz Montrage, said @Hajia 4Reall as she is popularly called will be the first brand personality to have landed an investment partnership deal, for Quick Angels to officially manage her brand MONA & THE HAJIA 4REALL BRAND. Mona Faiz Montrage is an entrepreneur, brand influencer and an actress She will be the CEO of this newly joint venture business Mona 4Reall limited and is expected to commercialize all promotional deals for the mutual growth of the joint venture. Quick Angels Limited is an Angel investor company that seeks to support startups, entrepreneurs, and businesses that need equity funding for growth. They launched their operations in 2019 May 8 and have so far signed over 20 businesses ranging from purely startup firms to existing businesses and innovative ideas. All you need to do to get funding at Quick Angels is to be sure the business or idea you have is one that has prospects, it's economically viable, can be scaled up, and is innovative. They are simply Angel investors. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., unveiled his latest attack on tech's liability shield in a new bill Wednesday. The "Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act" would allow Americans to sue tech companies that censor political speech or hide content from competitors. Republicans have long complained that tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter censor conservative speech. Though tech companies have repeatedly denied such claims, critics have been fueled by several incidents where platforms say speech was removed in error. The bill appears to be part of a three-pronged attack on Section 230 protections for tech companies alongside the Department of Justice and the White House. Section 230 is the statute that frees online platforms from liability for their users' posts while allowing them to engage in good faith content moderation. Hawely's proposal, co-sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Mike Braun, R-Ind., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., would remove Section 230 immunity for tech companies unless they promise in their terms of service to operate in good faith, according to a press release. This would open companies to being sued for breaching their contractual duties, according to the release, with a penalty of $5,000 per claim or actual damages, whichever is higher, along with attorney's fees. The legislation could put in action key changes being sought by the Trump administration. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month that would push the Federal Communications Commission to create rules about how online platforms could remove content from their sites while maintaining immunity. It would encourage the Federal Trade Commission to take action on "deceptive" acts of communication. But on its own, the executive order is limited in its power, especially given that courts have consistently upheld Section 230 immunity. That's why the DOJ is also preparing to propose a set of legislative reforms as soon as Wednesday, a Trump administration official told The Wall Street Journal. The reforms, which would have to be taken up by Congress, would reportedly strip companies of legal protections when they facilitate or solicit content or activity from third parties that violate federal law. This could include selling illegal drugs or conducting scams. It also would reportedly strip immunity from platforms in cases of online child exploitation, terrorism and cyberstalking. While Democrats will likely be resistant to signing onto a bill that endorses Republicans' claims of conservative censorship from the tech platforms, they have also expressed a desire to reform Section 230 and create more accountability for tech companies to protect users. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced a bill with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., earlier this year that would require companies earn Section 230 immunity by certifying their compliance with a set of best practices for detecting and reporting child exploitation materials to law enforcement. Hawley is also a co-sponsor of that bill. Hawley introduced a different approach to Section 230 reform last year with a proposal that would allow tech companies to win back immunity by submitting their algorithms and content moderation policies to audits determining if they are "politically neutral." Tech industry groups have warned that revisions to Section 230, especially those proposed in Trump's executive order, could have the unintended consequence of stifling speech. Without the protection of Section 230, tech platforms could ultimately take a stricter approach to content moderation to reduce the risk of legal liability. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. WATCH: Justice Department to propose limiting online platform protections, WSJ reports By Akbar Mammadov Along with purchase of defence industry products, Baku and Ankara are also negotiating over joint production of defence products, Azerbaijans Ambassador to Turkey Khazar Ibrahim said in an interview with Turkish media on June 16. Not only are purchases from Turkey are discussed, but also issues of joint production. Turkey and Azerbaijan will cooperate on this issue. Negotiations on how to cooperate in the field of the defence industry are in the progress, the ambassador said. The ambassador reminded that Turkey and Azerbaijan signed the Military Financial Cooperation agreement on February 25, according to which Turkey pledged to provide Azerbaijan with a grant of 200 million TL ($29, 2 million) for the purchase of defence industry products. He also sited Azerbaijani media reports of last week, accordig to which Azerbaijan plans to purchase military equipment, including helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles from Turkey. Furthermore, the ambassador said that the volume of transportation through the Baku-Tbilisi-Gars railway has increased approximately 4 times since the beginning of the pandemic. The ambassador also pointed out that Azerbaijans State Oil Company SOCARs Petkim and Star refineries manufactured the necessary products for Turkeys health industry since the outbreak of pandemic. Turkey was not forced to import these materials. With the raw materials produced by Star Refinery and Petkim and sold at a very affordable price, significant health products are produced in Turkey and these products can be both sent to many countries as aid and sold," he added. The ambassador reminded that Azerbaijan has the largest share in the natural gas imports of Turkey. According to him, Azerbaijans relations with Turkey in the energy sector is not just trade, but it is also support for Turkeys energy security. Ibrahim added that the price of the gas has never been an issue between two countries. I can confidently say that the natural gas, oil and price in other issues have never been an issue in Turkey-Azerbaijan relations. Even if there was any problem, the share of Azerbaijans gas would not be ranked the first in Turkeys domestic consumption", he said. Furthermore, in his speech, the ambassador also touched upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and said that the current Armenian leadership continue to repeat the mistakes of the previous Armenian authorities in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. From to the time Azerbaijan gained its independence in 1991 by now, Turkey has supported Azerbaijan on the basis of international law on the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenia. We want a full settlement of this issue on the basis of international law. The decisions of the UN Security Council are clear, the territory of Azerbaijan is under occupation and this occupation must be stopped, Ibrahim said. Speaking about the negotiations held by the OSCE Minsk group, Ibrahim said: Personally, I do not expect any new developments in the meetings held within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Story After successfully completing a two-year trial period, King County and Molina have signed a groundbreaking three-year commitment to provide behavioral health care services for thousands of local residents. Molina is the largest of five Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) administering Medicaid-funded behavioral and integrated health services in King County and statewide, and the first MCO to enter into a multi-year strategic relationship with King County and the King County Integrated Care Network (KCICN). This multi-year agreement brings stability to the behavioral healthcare system in King County during this terrible pandemic, and reinforces the innovative public-private partnership model weve created for coordinating care for our region, said King County Executive Dow Constantine. We look forward to expanding our partnership with Molina Healthcare and improving access to quality care for our residents, now and for the future. This long-term relationship will allow Molina Medicaid members to benefit from both Molinas and King Countys care management, provider networks, and supportive services, while enabling us to jointly focus on improving comprehensive health outcomes for Molina members, said Molina Healthcare of Washington President Peter Adler. King Countys broad array of social and behavioral health services pair perfectly with Molinas fully integrated managed care programs and services. COVID-19 Quality Project Molina and King County are excited to partner on a new quality initiative for Molina members receiving care and temporary housing in King County isolation and quarantine (I&Q) sites due to COVID-19. Individuals served in the I&Q sites are likely to experience feelings of anxiety and isolation. Molina and King County will collaborate with onsite I&Q staff to build rapport and engage with each individual during their temporary stay. Every Molina member will receive an integrated health screening to assess their physical, behavioral health, and social determinant needs. Prior to discharge, each individual will receive support to address their identified needs and ensure their safe and stable transition from the I&Q site to the community. Unique System Model King County is the only county that was approved by the state of Washington to remain in a central coordinating role for the behavioral healthcare system. While behavioral health services in other counties transitioned to Medicaid MCOs, King County worked with the state Health Care Authority, the MCOs and King County treatment providers to create its own unique model for the coordination of behavioral health care. The model optimizes provider choice for King County residents through the 39-member KCICN and 15 behavioral health specialty providers available statewide, and integrates the best of what both the public and private sectors can bring to the table to improve health outcomes in King County. This agreement helps to create long-term stability for behavioral healthcare for residents in King County and also moves this region another step forward in achieving the Legislatures vision of truly integrated health care, said Washington State Senator David Frockt (46th District). I applaud the leadership in King County and Molina Healthcare in moving this contract forward not only to provide stability to our behavioral health care system in a time of great need, but also in creating a stronger foundation for integrated healthcare in King County for the future, said Rep. Nicole Macri, Washington State House of Representatives (43rd District). The model also strives to best leverage County funding from property tax millage and the dedicated sales tax initiative known as the MIDD (Mental Illness and Drug Dependency). Coordinating these local resources helps to ensure access to services for more low-income residents. With the disruption of services and lives during the coronavirus emergency, it is especially important to ensure stability across the provider network and King Countys systems of care. The signing of this agreement with the largest Medicaid health plan creates a solid foundation for the care network for years to come. About the King County Behavioral Health and Recovery Division The Behavioral Health and Recovery Division (BHRD), part of the King County Department of Community and Human Services, is responsible for contract management and oversight of the 39-member King County Integrated Care Network providing a full range of inpatient, outpatient and residential mental health and substance use disorder services for low-income children and adults in King County. The division is also responsible for managing the behavioral health crisis response system, including the 24/7 direct services provided by the Designated Crisis Responders and the Emergency Service Patrol. In 2019, King County BHRD served 63,425 people with behavioral health needs. About Molina Healthcare of Washington Molina Healthcare of Washington has been providing government-funded care for low-income individuals for over 20 years. As of March 31, 2020, Molina serves over 878,000 members through Medicaid, Medicare and the Health Benefit Exchange programs across the state of Washington. Additionally, Molina Healthcare operates a primary care clinic in Everett (MyHealth Everett) and a mobile health unit (MyHealth Mobile) in the Spokane area. For more information, visit MolinaHealthcare.com and connect via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Relevant links Quotes This multi-year agreement brings stability to the behavioral healthcare system in King County during this terrible pandemic, and reinforces the innovative public private partnership model weve created for coordinating care for our region. We look forward to expanding our partnership with Molina Healthcare and improving access to quality care for our residents, now and for the future. Dow Constantine, King County Executive This long-term relationship will allow Molina Medicaid members to benefit from both Molinas and King Countys care management, provider networks, and supportive services, while enabling us to jointly focus on improving comprehensive health outcomes for Molina members. King Countys broad array of social and behavioral health services pair perfectly with Molinas fully integrated managed care programs and services. Peter Adler, President, Molina Healthcare of Washington This agreement helps to create long-term stability for behavioral healthcare for residents in King County and also moves this region another step forward in achieving the Legislatures vision of truly integrated health care. Senator David Frockt, Washington State Senate (46th District) I applaud the leadership in King County and Molina Healthcare in moving this contract forward not only to provide stability to our behavioral health care system in a time of great need, but also in creating a stronger foundation for integrated healthcare in King County for the future. Rep. Nicole Macri, Washington State House of Representatives (43rd District) For more information, contact: Sherry Hamilton, Department of Community and Human Services, 206-263-9010 On a TV talk show June 6, Mamuka Khazaradze, the leader of the new opposition political party Lelo for Georgia, said: The rights of sexual minorities are very well protected in our country ... If some deviations happen, it means that the law is not observed and the rights of some people are violated. However, it does not mean that the minority must infringe on the rights of the majority. Khazaradze was responding to a TV talk-show presenter who asked about his position on same-sex marriage and child adoption by gay couples. On this specific issue Khazaradze said that marriage was very well defined in the Constitution of Georgia and required no revision: We must stick to it. Khazaradze added that he opposes same-sex marriage and that children should be raised by a mother and father. Then, on June 8, another member of the Lelo party, ex-Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili, posted a Facebook message saying Lelo would not support same-sex marriage. The statement that sexual minorities are well protected is misleading. It is true that Georgian law recognizes equal rights for all and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. The law also considers hate motivation an aggravating circumstance for a crime. But a constitutional amendment in 2017 changed the definition of marriage. Under Georgias Civil Code, marriage was defined as a heterosexual union, but the language of the constitution was neutral: Marriage was a union based upon equality of rights and free will of spouses. In a step backward, the amendment redefined it as a union between a woman and a man. LGBT+ people are among those most vulnerable to persecution in Georgian society. Violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity are pervasive in Georgia: Beatings are commonplace, harassment and bullying constant, and exclusion from education, work and health settings appear be the norm, a 2019 United Nations report says. The report, by the U.N.s Independent Expert, called the discrimination systemic. In Georgian society and culture, aspects of homosexuality are seen as sinful, shameful or pathologic, the report says. These convictions are fueled and reinforced by agents of the church, tolerated and at times sponsored by politicians, governmental and law enforcement agents, and replicated by mass and social media, the expert found. The discrimination is not limited to marriage. LGBT+ individuals in Georgia find it difficult to realize a range of basic rights, including the rights to life, free expression and assembly. This manifested most glaringly on May 17, 2013, when thousands of anti-gay protesters, led by Orthodox priests, chased and attacked gay activists gathered in the center of Tbilisi to peacefully mark International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHO). Shouts from the frenzied mob included "Kill them! Tear them to pieces!" Some 30 people were injured. Though police failed to contain the mob, they were able to put the gay rights activists on buses that took them to safety, preventing more injury. Since then, any attempt of LGBT+ activists to mark IDAHO has been thwarted. Authorities have cited questionable excuses for blocking LGBT+ groups from holding public events. In 2016, they said Tbilisis main avenue was already booked by Orthodox groups to mark Family Day. Theyve also said it would be too hard to protect demonstrators from anti-gay protesters. In 2019, LGBT+ activists planned Georgias first-ever Pride Week for June 18-22, which included various events and a march. Despite lengthy advance negotiations, the Interior Ministry at the end of May rejected outdoor events because participants safety could not be guaranteed. On June 14, the Georgian Orthodox Church called Tbilisi Pride absolutely unacceptable. That day, a small group of gay rights activists organized a gathering outside the Government Chancellery building to call for police protection. Conservative groups mobilized there and chanted homophobic slurs. A six-hour standoff ensued until police evacuated the activists. On June 16, groups led by right-wing businessman Levan Vasadze held a rally at which he announced the formation of vigilante patrols against Tbilisi Pride and gay people. The Pride Week was rescheduled due to threats, as well as to political unrest in Tbilisi in June that led to violent clashes between police and anti-Russia protesters. It was not until July 8 that the LGBT+ activists held the march, with its time and date kept in strict secret for threats to their safety. The event was scaled down to about 40 participants and lasted only for 30 minutes amid reports that extremist groups were on their way. No attempt was undertaken by the LGBT+ organizations to mark IDAHO this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak. They limited themselves to releasing statements. Gay rights activists and supporters displayed rainbow flags on this occasion. However, police forced the cafe Gallery, an openly gay-friendly venue in Tbilisi, to remove the flag to avoid excesses from opponents, police reports say. At times, the discrimination has been violent, even deadly: Except in Paola, where the confluence of state regulations, local virus rates and promised safety precautions resulted in a green light for a livestream festival performance of All My Sons. The plan? For the cast of 10 to perform in front of an invited audience of family and friends that would fill the schools 297-seat theater to about one-third capacity. That is as close to normal as this years festival could even dream of getting. Which is to say, not really very close at all. You will stay in character To veterans of the festival held for the past 25 years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, whose facilities it gradually outgrew normal can bear some resemblance to Waiting for Guffman. Abby Stuckrath, 18, who graduated this spring from Denver School of the Arts, remembers performing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for a 2018 main stage audience during a tornado warning and being told by her teacher that, should a tornado come their way and the auditorium be evacuated, You will stay in character. (Stuckraths character: Olive Ostrovsky, the Celia Keenan-Bolger role.) Alan Strait, who taught drama for years in Las Vegas, was once voted down by his own students when he suggested a spring-break theater trip to New York instead of a festival trip to Lincoln. These people are hard-core. But when, at the end of March, Indiana University canceled its summer activities, normal was no longer an option. The Educational Theater Association, the nonprofit that has produced the festival since 1941 and had expected 5,000 attendees in Bloomington, declared that the event would simply go online, with details TBA. Much of it, including workshops and the college fair, has been adapted to translate digitally. Online, the cost of admission is a more accessible $199, down from the in-person $865. And if Tina Fey was an unlikely get for an appearance in Indiana, she will be doing a live virtual Q. and A. with the students. A man was allegedly "tooled up" with a loaded gun, baton and bladed knuckle duster as part of a suspected feud within the Polish community in Belfast, the High Court has been told. Prosecutors claimed Grzegorz Szawica had the weapons when his car was stopped on the city's Stranmillis Embankment in the early hours of May 21. Police also seized 60 rounds of ammunition during subsequent searches at his home. The 38-year-old, of Florida Street in the city, faces charges of possessing a firearm and ammunition in suspicious circumstances, along with two counts of having an offensive weapon in public. He is further accused of driving when unfit through drink or drugs, failing to provide a specimen, possessing a quantity of pregabalin pills, having a Belgian identity card relating to someone else, and handling stolen goods. The court heard Szawica initially said he bought the gun earlier that night to protect himself. A flick-style baton concealed in his jeans was also for self-protection, according to comments made in police interviews. In court on Wednesday he offered a different explanation, claiming the weapons were in a bag found in a south Belfast park. During the hearing it was contended that the case may be linked to two previous incidents. In April Szawica was allegedly attacked by two men at a friend's home before pursuing them with a weight-lifting bar. Then, on May 17, another two men were detained on suspicion of targeting his car and discarding a knife when disturbed. Four days later Szawica was pulled over in the vehicle while in possession of the gun, extendable baton and bladed knuckle duster, a prosecution barrister said. Mr Justice McAlinden asked: "Is it because he feared for his own safety, and that's why he was running around 'tooled up' at three in the morning?" Responding on the suspected motive, counsel said: "Police believe there may have been a falling out within the Polish community in east Belfast." Luke Curran, defending, argued that Szawica was the victim in the two earlier incidents. He told the court his client runs an electrical business after settling in Northern Ireland with his partner and their child. However, the judge's concerns about the series of episodes were not allayed. "It's very worrying where one side are bringing knives to the fight and the other side is bringing a gun to the fight," he pointed out. Refusing bail due to the risk of harm to the public, Mr Justice McAlinden added: "This is the third occasion in which the applicant has come to the attention of the police, in the context of what appears to be an ongoing feud with other members of the Polish community." Prosecutor says German authorities do not have Madeleine McCanns body, but they have concrete evidence, facts. Authorities in Germany have concrete evidence that missing British girl Madeleine McCann is dead, according to a prosecutor. Brunswick prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told the AFP news agency on Wednesday it was unable to disclose exact information, but the authorities had concrete evidence, facts that we have, not mere indications. We have no forensic evidence of Madeleines death, such as a corpse, he said. Police raised hopes in early June that the mystery over the disappearance of the then-three-year-old could finally be solved when they revealed they are investigating a 43-year-old over her disappearance from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in 2007. The suspect, who was not named by police but identified as Christian B by German media, has a history of previous sex offences including child sex offences and rape. Letter to family Prosecutors said they were working on the assumption that McCann is dead, though authorities in the United Kingdom continued to treat her disappearance as a missing persons case. Wolters said German authorities have written to the McCann family but declined to give details of the content of the letter. He also confirmed that Christian B has applied to be released early on probation from prison in Kiel, where he is currently serving a sentence for drug trafficking. However, the suspect will not be freed from custody due to an arrest warrant for the rape of an elderly woman in Portugal, Wolters said. McCann went missing from her familys holiday apartment on May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar. Her disappearance sparked one of the biggest searches of its kind in recent years. Despite a wide range of suspects and theories about what happened, no one has ever been convicted over her kidnapping and no trace of her has ever been found. Dr. Filip Dubovsky appointed SVP, Chief Medical Officer Silvia Taylor appointed SVP, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs GAITHERSBURG, Md., June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novavax, Inc. (NVAX), a late-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today announced the appointment of two senior executives to the leadership team. Filip Dubovsky, M.D., MPH, FAAP, has been appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, where he will oversee Novavax medical and clinical affairs and related activities. Novavax also appointed Silvia Taylor, MBA, as Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, overseeing Novavax investor relations, public relations and corporate communications activities. Novavax considerable progress and significant near-term milestones make the additions of Filip and Silvia to our leadership team both timely and important, said Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax. With the addition of these two senior leaders, we are adding expertise to critical areas of the organization. We welcome them both. A recognized leader in vaccine development, Dr. Dubovsky brings more than 20 years of infectious disease experience to Novavax. He joins Novavax from AstraZeneca, where he was Head of Clinical Engagement and Policy and Deputy Chief Medical Officer for clinical affairs. He joined MedImmune, the global biologics arm of AstraZeneca, where he oversaw the clinical development of early and late-stage infectious disease and vaccine assets. Previously, he created and managed a portfolio of 25 malaria vaccine candidates spanning early candidate optimization to Phase 3 clinical studies at PATHs Malaria Vaccine Initiative. He has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications and currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Sabin Institute. Dr. Dubovsky earned his Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University and his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Alabama. He completed his pediatric training at Stanford University, his pediatric infectious disease fellowship at the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland, and his preventive medicine training at Johns Hopkins University. Story continues The recent scientific achievements by the Novavax team, including positive Phase 3 NanoFlu results and Phase 1/2 clinical trial initiation of NVX-CoV2373 to address the global coronavirus pandemic are impressive, said Dr. Dubovsky. I am eager to put my experience to work to help Novavax deliver these novel vaccines to healthcare practitioners and reduce the spread of these harmful diseases worldwide. Ms. Taylor brings more than 25 years of communications and commercial leadership to Novavax. Most recently, she was Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs and Communications at Autolus Therapeutics plc, where she led all financial, scientific and corporate communications. Prior to Autolus, Ms. Taylor was Senior Vice President of Global Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs at Sucampo. Earlier in her career, she held positions of increasing responsibility at MedImmune, the global biologics arm of AstraZeneca, including head of marketing responsible for the commercialization of the companys respiratory syncytial virus and influenza franchises, as well as roles at Pfizer, where she served in key brand and consumer marketing roles. She has also worked in public relations and communications roles in agency and non-profit settings. Ms. Taylor earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Affairs from University of Virginia. I am delighted to join Novavax during this incredibly productive period, said Ms. Taylor. It is an exciting opportunity to help tell the companys compelling story as it brings innovative vaccines to patients, and to help deepen Novavax relationships with a broad array of important stakeholders. About Novavax Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) is a late-stage biotechnology company that promotes improved health globally through the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases. Novavax recently initiated development of NVX-CoV2373, its vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, with Phase 1 clinical trial results expected in July of 2020. NanoFlu, its quadrivalent influenza nanoparticle vaccine, met all primary objectives in its pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial in older adults. Both vaccine candidates incorporate Novavax proprietary saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant in order to enhance the immune response and stimulate high levels of neutralizing antibodies. Novavax is a leading innovator of recombinant vaccines; its proprietary recombinant technology platform combines the power and speed of genetic engineering to efficiently produce highly immunogenic nanoparticles in order to address urgent global health needs. For more information, visit www.novavax.com and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn . Forward-Looking Statements Statements herein relating to the future of Novavax and the ongoing development of its vaccine and adjuvant products, including statements regarding the manufacturing of vaccine antigen dose amounts and timing, are forward-looking statements. Novavax cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include those identified under the heading Risk Factors in the Novavax Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and updated by any Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, particularly the risks inherent to developing novel vaccines. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. You are encouraged to read our filings with the SEC, available at sec.gov , for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this document, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of the statements. Our business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors, and others should give careful consideration to these risks and uncertainties. Contacts: Investors Novavax, Inc. Silvia Taylor and Erika Trahan ir@novavax.com 240-268-2022 Media Brandzone/KOGS Communication Edna Kaplan kaplan@kogspr.com 617-974-8659 Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has written to the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari, urging him to expedite the tardy construction work of national highways (NH) that pass through the state and convert some state highways into NH. Baghel urged in his letter to Gadkari sent on Tuesday that Ambikapur-Bhaisamuda-Wadrafnagar-Dhangaon-Bamhani-Renukoot road, whose 110-kilometre (km) stretch falls in Chhattisgarh, and Raigarh-Dharamjaigarh road, 72 km of which passes through the state, be declared as NH. The CM has also requested the Central minister to ensure the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) gives permission for upgrading and widening of NH-149B, which includes the Champa-Korba-Katghora stretch. Baghel also drew Gadkaris attention to the tardy construction work for the past two years of NH-30, which runs between the state capital Raipur and Dhamtari district. He also pointed out that the condition of NH-43 that runs between Pathalgaon and Kunkuri is pitiable, and immediate efforts must be made to improve it. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A move by McDonald's in Ukraine to say "nyet" to the Russian language on its electronic kiosks has left a bad taste in the mouths of some of its customers. McDonald's new language policy quietly took effect over the weekend until it was noticed by noted Ukrainian blogger Anatoliy Shariy, who is well-known for his strong pro-Russia stance. The language issue has divided many in the country, which is currently mired in a war with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,200 people. Some defended the decision by McDonald's, while Shariy and others criticized the fast-food chain, claiming that the policy discriminates against Ukraine's Russian-speaking population. For its part, McDonald's said in a statement that the move was made in accordance with the law, which establishes Ukrainian as the main language of communication in the former Soviet republic. "All official documentation, advertising communication, communication on social networks, information on the website, and in the consumer's corners are conducted in the state (Ukrainian) language," McDonald's said, adding that Ukrainian is also a priority in communicating with customers but that "employees are always ready to switch to Russian if asked." Ukraine's embassy in the United States found the move to its liking, thanking McDonald's for giving priority to Ukrainian. With reporting by Hromadske and the BBC General Nka Valere Spm Brigadier General Nka Valere, Commander of the 5th Joint Military Region has promised tough times for corrupt police officers, gendarmes, and soldiers manning control posts along the Bamenda-Mamfe Highway. Speaking at the esplanade of the Bali Gendarmerie Brigade Tuesday, June 16, 2020, the Brigadier General said he had received complaints from the business class who say men in uniform spare no opportunity to squeeze huge sums of money from them as they transport goods along the Bamenda-Mamfe road corridor which extends to Enugu in Nigeria. Cameroonian and Nigerian traders and businessmen came to my office and then we held a meeting. And they informed me about the harassment they were receiving from our men in the field asking them huge sums of money for them to ply the road, said Brigadier General Nka. In a joint communique early this year, Brigadier General Nka Valere and Brigadier General Ekongwese Divine Nnoko, Commander of the 5th Gendarmerie Region called on the population to shun fear and be aware that the Defense and Security Forces are there for their protection. It was with this in mind that the traders tabled their complaints to the military chief. In response, Brigadier General Nka said plainclothes officials will help in tracking down any uniform officer using security control posts as a license to extort money from law-abiding citizens. He said deterrent measures will be taken to bring sanity within the corps. Hear Brigadier General Nka: I have given special instructions so that well organize teams of people who will be checking this in civilian attire and those who will be caught carrying out such activities will be severely punished. Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that Brigadier Generals Nga and Ekongwese had on February 6 reassured the people that there is no need for fear as they go about their daily activities. The generals make it clear that the Defense and Security Forces are friends of the people. The population is informed that the following toll-free numbers are available for them to call in case of any complaints they may have about their security: 113, 117, and 118. The Defense and Security Forces will attend to any complaints forwarded to them immediately. Cameroons Security and Defence Forces have since 2017 been battling armed separatists in the North West and South West Regions who seek an independent state they call Ambazonia. The Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd has inspired Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to highlight racism in Ireland in a Dail speech. Also read: All lives cant matter until Black Lives Matter: Longford takes a stand against racism Speaking in the Dail this Minister Flanagan set out actions being taken and his views on racism in Ireland. A Black Lives Matter protest took place in Longford last weekend. "Two weeks ago, I spoke of the horror I felt - that we all felt - at the tragic death of the late George Floyd. Since then, we have seen a global outpouring of solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement and an increasing and very welcome focus on the vile problems of racism and discrimination. "While it may be that this moment was prompted by recent events in one State, the reality is that racism and racial discrimination are not unique to any one country or continent. Racism is insidious and is present to some degree in every society, including here in Ireland. Recognising this terrible reality is the first step in combatting it. "We need to face up to the fact that racism does occur in Ireland. We need to understand better how prevalent it is and what its impacts are. And we need to generate effective strategies for tackling it. "It is a sad fact that a small minority of persons in Ireland subject others to abuse or attack, due to their own prejudice or intolerance. I wholly and unreservedly condemn such actions, for which there is no excuse. "I am confident that I am not alone in being profoundly moved by the poem recently composed by Imelda May, You dont get to be racist and Irish. She reminds us of the piercing truth that our history - as a people who has experienced the torment of discrimination, exclusion and intolerance means that we cannot be blind to the same terrible wrong being done to others. Our pride in our heritage and history must extend to taking pride in our fairness, our tolerance and our inclusivity," concluded the TD. Full text of Dail Statements Minister for Justice & Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Equality, Immigration, and Integration, David Stanton, TD "Supporting Inclusion and Combatting Racism in Ireland 17 June, 2020 Opening Statement - Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, Laois Offaly TD. A Cheann Comhairle, Deputies Two weeks ago, I spoke of the horror I felt - that we all felt - at the tragic death of the late George Floyd. Since then, we have seen a global outpouring of solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement and an increasing and very welcome focus on the vile problems of racism and discrimination. While it may be that this moment was prompted by recent events in one State, the reality is that racism and racial discrimination are not unique to any one country or continent. Racism is insidious and is present to some degree in every society, including here in Ireland. Recognising this terrible reality is the first step in combatting it. We need to face up to the fact that racism does occur in Ireland. We need to understand better how prevalent it is and what its impacts are. And we need to generate effective strategies for tackling it. Both I and Minister Stanton will speak to you this morning about some of the extensive efforts being made to tackle racism in Ireland. I will speak to some actions in the criminal justice sector. It is a sad fact that a small minority of persons in Ireland subject others to abuse or attack, due to their own prejudice or intolerance. I wholly and unreservedly condemn such actions, for which there is no excuse. The Mission of my Department is delivery of a safe, fair and inclusive Ireland and in our policies and initiatives, we strive to deliver on that mission statement. For some time now, we have been working as a priority to develop new legislation on hate speech and hate crime. As Deputies know, there is some existing law in this area: - the Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 which prohibits certain forms of threatening, abusive or insulting conduct; - and in sentencing for criminal offences, a hate motive may be considered by the Court to be an aggravating factor resulting in a stronger penalty. But it has been clear for some time that this has not been sufficient to deter or sufficiently respond to crime in which the victim is targeted because of a perpetrators hate. In recognising that this legislation is both complex and sensitive, my Department has carried out comparative research on the effectiveness of different approaches to hate crime legislation. It is not enough to have legislation on the statue books it is essential that the legislation is effective. It was also very important to me that new legislation would be informed by the lived experience of those who suffer from abuse or attacks motivated by hate. For this reason that my Department has carried out a broad public consultation, including a public survey, and provided an opportunity for formal submissions. We have also had a series of independently facilitated workshops across the State. This comprehensive approach was taken because I want the resulting legislation to be robust, clearly understood and effective. My officials are now analysing all these inputs, to prepare evidence-based legislative proposals as quickly as possible. If we are to ensure a fully inclusive Ireland, it is important that the criminal justice system represents and reflects all of Irish society. And An Garda Siochana is pivotal in this context and has been striving to become a leader in this field. Garda recruitment campaigns have, in recent years, made significant efforts to attract candidates from minority communities, including though the publication of videos and materials in multiple languages. The Commissioner also approved changes to the Garda uniform to allow the wearing of the hijab or turban to ensure the uniform didnt act as a barrier to entry. These developments are bearing fruit for example in 2019 and 2020, almost 67 persons born outside the state, with 19 different nationalities, have attested and became Garda members. For example, in addition to Garda members who are British or EU citizens, we now also have Garda members who are nationals of Brazil, China, India, Iraq, Nigeria, Russia and South Africa, among others. A Garda Diversity and Integration Strategy has also been adopted. This is important for both organisational and operational reasons. The Strategy reflects a commitment to further diversity in the Garda workforce. It contains a working definition of hate crime, to ensure Gardai are alert to and appropriately record hate incidents. And it commits to proactive, respectful engagement with all members of society, including minority groups. These undertakings are underpinned by the Garda Human Rights Strategy, the Code of Ethics and the wider reform process underway following the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing. In the very brief time available, I hope to have conveyed a sense of the priority attached to fighting racism in the criminal justice sector. Effective criminal legislation will be key in deterring and addressing hate-motivated crime; and a renewed Garda Siochana benefiting from ever-increasing diversity, engaged in all communities, will be a powerful force for integration and respect. But these measures alone cannot bring about the change that we all wish to see in our society. Addressing prejudice and discrimination is a mission for all of us. I am confident that I am not alone in being profoundly moved by the poem recently composed by Imelda May, You dont get to be racist and Irish. She reminds us of the piercing truth that our history - as a people who has experienced the torment of discrimination, exclusion and intolerance means that we cannot be blind to the same terrible wrong being done to others. Our pride in our heritage and history must extend to taking pride in our fairness, our tolerance and our inclusivity. I hand over now to Minister Stanton. Minister with special responsibility for Equality, Immigration, and Integration, David Stanton, T.D A Cheann Comhairle, Minister Flanagan has already made clear that the Government condemns all forms of racism in our society and I welcome the opportunity to address the House on this important issue. A key recent development in the fight against racism has been the formation of the Anti-Racism Committee, which has a mandate to develop a new Anti-Racism Strategy and Action Plan for recommendation to the Government. The purpose of the Committee is to develop an understanding of the nature and prevalence of racism in Ireland, including anti-Traveller racism, and to work towards achieving a social consensus on actions required, by State and non-State actors. Chaired by Professor Caroline Fennell of UCC, it will review current evidence and practice and make recommendations to Government on how best to strengthen its approach to tackling racism in all its forms. The Committee will consult with stakeholders from a broad range of sectors. It will hold its first meeting tomorrow and will provide a preliminary report to Government within three months, with a full report due at the end of one year. Central to our efforts to improve integration is the Migrant Integration Strategy, which I launched and have Chaired since 2017 and runs until the end of this year. It presents the vision of an inclusive society where all can fully participate and where diversity is valued. Racism in all its forms is a barrier to that vision being realised. Our work to date implementing this Strategy, and monitoring its progress together with our NGO partners on the Strategy Committee, has helped to build our understanding of where more effort is needed and what we need to do to ensure that everyone in our society feels like they belong and are valued. Racism is not experienced by migrants alone. Travellers, Roma and other ethnic minorities encounter racism and prejudice in their daily lives. The Government has worked actively to promote opportunities for Travellers and to recognise their rights and the landmark development has been the recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority. Those members of Dail Eireann who were present on the night of 1 March 2017 when the then Taoiseach Enda Kenny T.D., made the statement recognising Travellers as an ethnic minority will agree that it was a truly memorable event, with all political parties united in support of the Taoiseachs statement. Recognition of Traveller ethnicity has been a symbolic step forward in the States acknowledgement of the uniqueness of Traveller identity and culture and generates mutual understanding and respect between Traveller and non-Traveller communities. Recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority did not remove overnight all of the obstacles that have prevented them from experiencing full equality within Irish society. However, it has created a strong platform of respectful dialogue and pathway towards equality for Travellers. It also demonstrates the commitment of Government towards recognising the contribution that Travellers have made to Irish society and culture. The National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy has specific actions on combatting discrimination and ensuring equality for Travellers as well as actions around celebrating and promoting the richness of Traveller culture, which is an important part of our heritage as a country. Last December, I reported to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva on the actions that Ireland has taken since 2011 to promote equality and to combat racial discrimination, including measure to strengthen the human rights infrastructure so that it can challenge racism more effectively. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 introduced the equality and human rights positive duty, providing structural underpinning for action by public bodies on equality, human rights and the combatting of discrimination, including racism. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has been given a range of powers to challenge discrimination, including against ethnic minorities, and to seek legal redress for persons experiencing discrimination. One of its functions under the Act is to encourage the development of a culture of respect for human rights, equality and intercultural understanding in the State. I believe strongly in the power of communities when it comes to bringing about lasting change. In 2017 I launched the Communities Integration Fund, which supports local initiatives by migrant and non-migrant groups to promote integration and most importantly, allow people to get to know each other. 124 organisations received funding in 2019 and projects are being funded which are explicitly intended to challenge racism at grass roots level. The 2020 call for applications for this fund will be officially launched by the Department this coming Friday. I have also sought to strengthen the participation of communities in welcoming refugees to Ireland and was inspired by the community sponsorship model developed in Canada whereby local communities sponsor refugee families to settle in their towns and villages. I saw at first hand when I visited similar projects in the UK how the integration outcomes are improved for refugees when the communities and neighbours took part in the resettlement process. Following a successful pilot programme in Meath and Cork, I formally launched the Refugee Community Sponsorship Ireland in November last year. Before I conclude, I would like to remind deputies that the majority of Irish society has been remarkably open and welcoming to migrants from across the world. Our diversity is our wealth. 17% of our population were born outside Ireland and many have been given the opportunity to acquire Irish citizenship. Ireland is one of 13 EU member states that provides citizenship if the person has been resident for 5 years and one of 16 member states permitting dual citizenship. Approximately 120,000 people have received Irish citizenship since 2011, which represents more than 2.5% of the total Irish population and our country is better and richer as a consequence. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 Trend: Azerbaijan's Agency for Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) organized another online meeting of entrepreneurs operating in greenhouses in various districts of the country, Trend reports on June 17 referring to the agency. The online meeting was held as part of the state-entrepreneur dialogue platform. Representatives of Azerigas PU, Azersu OJSC, Agrarian Credit and Development Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, Tariff Council, SOCAR Petroleum CJSC, as well as the owners of almost 50 greenhouses attended the meeting. The entrepreneurs appeals about the difficulties in selling and exporting products due to the coronavirus pandemic, the price of gas which is supplied to greenhouses, the provision with benefits in connection with debts for gas consumption, the supplies of fuel oil, the problems in managing modern greenhouses, the creation of vegetables processing enterprises, connection to the electric grid and other concerns raised by the participants were considered during the meeting, and answers to questions were given. The representatives of the relevant structures promptly solved a number of issues raised by the entrepreneurs on the spot. The entrepreneurs will be informed of the issues requiring further consideration through the offices of Friend of SMEs. All issues raised at the meeting will be on the agenda of the agency, and joint measures will be taken with the relevant structures to render the necessary support to the entrepreneurs, said the agency. ORLANDO, Fla., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, FaithSocial is announcing the launch of its robust social media platform that features multimedia content to connect the world's Christian community. Christians across the world can come together digitally to share their faith, hope and messages of encouragement. With the uncertainty of traditional places of worship, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, FaithSocial provides an online social community that welcomes the world's nearly 2.5 billion Christians. "I am excited to be part of this online movement," said Madison Prewett, reality star and devout Christian. "There is no better time than now for Christians to come together and lean on one another for faith, hope, love, connectedness, activism and inspiration. FaithSocial is providing a welcoming home for all Christians to find each other across the globe, especially at a time when social distancing has kept everyone apart." FaithSocial features a dynamic Christian atmosphere that doesn't require uniformity - all denominations and diverse beliefs within the community are welcome. Non-Christians are also invited if they choose to share, explore and experience. Among its many features, FaithSocial features spiritual content from some of today's most influential Influencers, pastors and churches, including Pastor Matthew Watley, Kingdom Fellowship AME church and Senior Pastor Dr. E. Dewey Smith, The House of Hope in Atlanta and Macon, Ga. FaithSocial is poised to be the world's leading online Christian social platform, as it offers a vast range of functions to its followers. With access to digital church services and today's inspiring Christian leaders, FaithSocial's large array of offerings include introducing new sermons and uplifting messages each week as well as video messages from inspirational Christians, including Lauren Scruggs Kennedy, Founder of The LSK Foundation, bringing hope and faith to girls and women requiring prosthetics. "FaithSocial was born out of a desire to connect the world's Christian community in an engaging and entertaining online platform which speaks to love, acceptance and tolerance," said Mark NeJame, Founder and CEO, FaithSocial. "With five years of development and three years of buildout, we have created and are providing a safe, uplifting, positive, and loving forum for Christians across the world to come together to share, engage, teach, learn and connect." Stay tuned for more news from FaithSocial and join the conversation @faithsocial and www.faithsocial.com. CONTACT Jonica Watrous iHeartMedia [email protected] Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x-jtOJXz0o SOURCE FaithSocial, Inc. Related Links http://www.faithsocial.com U.S. Postal Service While nationwide dog-on-postal worker attacks were down in 2019, Houston took the top spot in a list of cities with the most attacks. Houston postal workers reported 85 dog attacks in 2019, according to the United States Postal Service. Those attacks were part of 5,803 attacks nationwide, which were down annually from nearly 6,000 in 2018. The minute Sen. Durbin heard that he had offended Sen. Scott, he sought him out on the floor and apologized. What Sen. Durbin took issue with in his floor speech was not Sen. Scotts bill, but that the Senate Majority Leader would short circuit this critical debate and fail to make the changes needed to prevent the killing of Black Americans by police officers, Hampsten said. Addressing systemic racism and changing policing in America requires and deserves more than one Judiciary hearing, one floor vote, one conversation. As Sen. Durbin stated on the floor, lets not do a half-hearted approach. This deserves the full and bipartisan attention of the Senate. Any time the world is thrown off balance by a major, sustained event or incident, its an opportunity for some of our most creative minds for a burst of new and refined criminal activity. The global pandemic presents an atmosphere ripe for criminal creativity, and the United States is now drowning in new colorful types of fraud. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as of May 28th, its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received as many complaints in the first five months of this year as it did for all 12 months of 2019. Three-quarters of those complaints are frauds and swindles, and the sheer volume is a challenge for the FBI. From the sale of counterfeit personal protective equipment (PPE) claiming to ward off coronavirus and fake cures to fraudulent unemployment insurance claims, stimulus check scams and even plots to take advantage of children engaging in online schooling, the vultures have come out of the pandemic woodwork in full force. Real estate scams are just one target--but of the high-dollar variety. With the real estate industry in lockdown for months, many elements of the closing process that were normally required to be done in person for security reasons were accomplished digitally, opening up magnificent opportunities for IT-savvy criminals to hijack emails between agents, title agencies and buyers, convincing buyers to send their down payments to wrong parties. Digital real estate scams were already a growing problem before the pandemic, but the stay-at-home restrictions that kept some signing and payment processes from being completed in person have given criminals access they could only have dreamed of last year. If 2018 saw over 11,000 people fall to digital real estate schemes--already up 17% from 2017--with losses in the neighborhood of $150 million, 2020 is shaping up to be a far bigger bonus for criminals. The biggest scam of all, however, has involved unemployment checks and stimulus payments. With more than 44 million Americans filing jobless claims over the past three months, criminals have an endless pool of potential victims. The State of Washington alone now estimates that unemployed check fraud has resulted in early $1 billion in losses for the state, with nearly half of that this year. The ESD [Employment Security Department] fraud case is beyond anything originally suspected. Nearly $1 billion has been lost to Nigeria and other fraudsters, Senator Ann Rivers said. Now, the unemployed may have to wait even longer to get their checks as the state and federal authorities try to figure out how to staunch the criminal bleeding. According to the Department of Labor, some $26 billion in unemployment benefits would be lost nationwide. The Department has estimated that about 10% of unemployment insurance payments are improper in the best of times. With the large amount of funding under the CARES Act, the improper payment rate potentially will be much higher. The fraud rate within that could range from at least 3% to a much higher percentage of improper payments. That means a conservative estimate of $26 billion could be wasted, and a large portion of that could be pocketed by fraudsters instead of going to legitimate workers, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform said. And, of course, a new Nigeria criminal ring called Scattered Canaary is believed to be behind a good chunk of the fraud. According to the Agari Cyber Intelligence Division, Scattered Canary has been operating for over a decade, masterminding unemployment, social security, disaster relief and student aid fraud. The report found that the group has also been connected to the CARES Act Economic Impact Payments for the COVID-19 pandemic. The MO relies on Gmail dot accounts and the mass creation of accounts on target websites, such as unemployment and IRS websites that process CARES Act payments for non-tax filers. According to Agari, Google ignores periods when interpreting Gmail addresses, creating a loophole for fraudsters and allowing them to scale up their operations by directing all communications to a single Gmail account. In digital forensic analysis of fraudulent CARES Act payments, Agari found that Scattered Canary filed these claims using the IRS website created to process claims. In order to steal this money, the group needed the individuals name, address, date of birth and social security number. We have seen a more than 3,000% increase in COVID-19-themed phishing attacks since the beginning of February. Phishing attacks targeting a quickly growing remote workforce have increased significantly and BEC actors are evolving their tactics to adapt to stay-at-home orders affecting their targets. So it shouldnt be a surprise that scammers are also trying to get a piece of the billions of dollars that has flooded the system to try and provide relief to millions of people who have been impacted by the pandemic, Agari said in its report. In the meantime, the Federal Trade Commission says consumers at large should be wary right now of a multitude of other scams, with some $50 million in losses so far reported to the agency by 61,000 people. Fidelity National Information Services, which monitors fraud for banks, has seen a major increase in credit card scams due to the uptick in online shopping and a sudden barrage in vacation deals. And then we have the fake cures lining up faster than anyone can keep track of them, along with a significant increase in charity imposters. Among other pending cases and potential frauds-in-motion, last Friday, a federal grand jury indicted a California man fraud charges for soliciting investments in a miracle pill that he claimed would both cure and prevent COVID-19. Also last week, Federal agents in Baltimore seized over 14,000 treatment capsules and fake coronavirus testing kits said to have been imported from China. The agents warned that they have seized fake treatment capsules in the past with dangerous ingredients, including sheet rock, pesticides and lead. By Charles Benavidez for Safehaven.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: WASHINGTON Federal workers face serious risks during the coronavirus pandemic performing jobs such as guarding prisoners, delivering mail or providing nursing care. But teleworking has also led to problems, such as delays processing millions of paper tax forms or potentially exposing national secrets to hackers. Just spending $2.2 trillion as quickly as Congress directed in response to the pandemic opened doors for waste, fraud and abuse. These are among the potential problems that a group of inspectors general warned federal agencies to avoid in a 92-page report Wednesday called Top Challenges Facing Federal Agencies: Covid-19 Emergency Relief and Response Efforts." Part of our mandate is to not only detect waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement, but hopefully prevent it from happening on the front end, Robert Westbrooks, executive director of the inspectors general group called the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told USA TODAY. This is a road map for agency managers and for policy makers to help them address some common issues. More than 100,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, a grim milestone in the coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the globe. Congress created the committee of 20 inspectors general to track the pandemic response because of the unprecedented size and speed of the response to the pandemic. Inspectors general continue to conduct aggressive, independent oversight of the more than $2.4 trillion in emergency coronavirus response spending, said Michael Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department and acting chairman of the committee. Dispute over oversight Just weeks after funding was approved, a dispute arose about the extent of oversight. The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee created the website pandemic.oversight.gov to provide information for how pandemic funds were being spent. But the panel notified lawmakers by letter June 11 that the Treasury Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget contend the law's transparency requirements don't apply to $1.1 trillion in spending, including $670 billion for small business loans and $454 billion for loan guarantees and investments in businesses and local governments. Story continues If the programs weren't subject to public reporting, that could raise questions about inspectors general overseeing the spending, Horowitz and Westbrooks told top lawmakers on the government oversight and spending committees. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at a Senate hearing on June 10, 2020, in Washington, D.C. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to disclose the list of companies that received small business loans. But Mnuchin said Monday in a tweet that he would discuss with lawmakers how to strike "the appropriate balance for proper oversight." Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, said the administration seemed to be arguing over loopholes after signaling strong support for inspectors general. They seem to be saying one thing while doing exactly the opposite," Maloney said in a statement Monday. "If the Trump Administration is committed to full cooperation and transparency with taxpayer dollars, it is unclear why it is manufacturing legal loopholes to avoid responding to legitimate oversight requests. The Trump administration has ousted four inspectors general since the start of April, typically after saying the president had lost confidence in each of them. Steve Linick, who was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for possible misuse of staff and also a weapons deal with Saudi Arabia, was removed May 15. Christi Grimms removal May 1 followed her report at the Department of Health and Human Services about shortages of critical medical supplies and staff during the pandemic. Glenn Fine was removed April 7 as acting inspector for the Defense Department, which prevented his appointment to lead the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. Michael Atkinson, who notified Congress about the whistleblower complaint about Ukraine that led to the impeachment of Trump, was removed April 3 as inspector for the intelligence community. Westbrooks told USA TODAY that inspectors general haven't encountered any problems getting agency data to conduct audits and investigations. The committee is "moving fast to design and build" the equipment to post data about recipients of recovery funding, he said. "Thats our mandate and were moving forward with all due speed in that regard," Westbrooks said. "If and when we encounter roadblocks, we will let the administration and Congress know." Huge stakes Congress approved the funding in four pieces of legislation that responded to the health crisis and, as the economy shut down, to deal with the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. The economy lost 20 million jobs in April and the unemployment rate spiked to 14.7%. The largest spending bill provided $2.2 trillion on March 27, including $1,200 payments to individual taxpayers, $349 billion in forgivable loans for small businesses, $150 billion in grants to state and local governments, and $500 billion for loan guarantees and investments in businesses and state and local governments. FILE - In this Friday, April 17, 2020 file photo, Hillsborough County Library Service employee Stephen Duran, right, wears gloves to protect himself from the coronavirus outbreak as he hands unemployment paperwork to residents at the Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library in Tampa, Fla. Federal data shows that Florida has processed its hundreds of thousands of new unemployment claims more slowly than any other state. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File) ORG XMIT: FLWL203 Another $321 billion was approved April 24 for small business loans and funding health care providers. The first legislation included $8.3 billion for public health measures on March 4. And a measure for enhanced unemployment benefits and paid sick leave was approved March 18. Potential problems The report suggested several realms where problems could emerge, including when federal workers must continue reporting to their workplaces, challenges working from home and difficulties tracking spending. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs health care facilities, and the Department of Health and Human Services, which regulates hospitals and nursing homes, each had to cope with shortages of personal protective equipment. The Bureau of Prisons has 160,000 prisoners, 61,000 detainees awaiting trial or sentencing and 40,000 staffers who struggle with "serious challenges" maintaining proper health care and hygiene, the report said. The General Services Administration, which manages government real estate, had 963 cases of confirmed or suspected coronavirus in federal buildings by May 7, the report said. More than 1,000 U.S. Postal Service workers tested positive for the virus and there have been numerous deaths, the report said. Staffing shortages could potentially lead to delays in deliveries, the report said. If federal workers fall ill, services could suffer across the government in areas that have already seen staffing issues. The Transportation Security Administration, which screens airline passengers and their luggage, spent $75 million to train 9,000 officers in 2017, but about 20% left within six months, the report said. Customs and Border Protection consistently fell below hiring targets in hard-to-fill locations, according to a March 2019 Government Accountability Office report before the pandemic. Public health is paramount," Westbrooks said. "Its a major concern." Teleworking also presents challenges, as more staffers work from home. The Internal Revenue Service estimated that 13.6 million paper tax forms from businesses and individuals remained unprocessed on April 25 and 10 million pieces of mail were unopened, the report said. Breaches in government computer systems could expose personal information and compromise national security, the report said. "These challenges are exacerbated by the pandemic," the report said. Tracking how the money is spent is an administrative challenge. The Small Business Administration must ensure that loans go to qualified recipients for the right reasons, the report said. The Department of Agriculture had records "that were not accurate, timely or of good quality," according to a November inspector general report, before it received an additional $35.8 billion for pandemic relief. But the report also noted bright spots. The Transportation Department swiftly distributed $36 billion, including $25 billion to the Federal Transit Administration and about $1 billion for Amtrak, to prevent, prepare and respond to the pandemic, the report said. Westbrooks said the initial report offered an overview of potential problem areas and how inspectors general were coordinating to report on them. Were standing up a leading edge, world class oversight office to provide accountability at historic levels of funding and were doing that in the middle of global pandemic," he said. "Weve got eyes and ears in every corner of the department." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Watchdogs track $2.4 trillion in spending to prevent waste, abuse Salva Kiirs camp to nominate governors for six states, Riek Machars for three, and third party to peace deal for one. South Sudans president and his former rival have reached a deal on the selection of governors for the countrys 10 states, an issue seen as the biggest threat to peace since a transitional unity government was formed in February. President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, a former rebel leader and now vice president, had been at odds over the allocation of states, especially those producing oil, the countrys main earner. International pressure had been growing, with the United States, the United Kingdom and Norway in a joint statement this month saying any further delay creates uncertainty that undermines the [political] transition process. On Wednesday, a statement by the Minister of Presidential Affairs Nhial Deng Nhial said Kiirs camp will nominate governors for six states, including the oil-rich Unity State and Central Equatoria, which includes the capital Juba. Machars camp will propose governors for three states, including the largest oil-producing area, the Upper Nile state, while a third signatory to the peace deal, the South Sudan Opposition Alliance, will nominate a governor for Jonglei state. With this development, a fresh impetus has been given for the process for the implementation of the agreement, said Nhial. We are very hopeful that with this development, the road is now paved to further positive developments that we hope will be carried out expeditiously. The number of states is contentious because the borders will determine the divisions of power in the country. When it gained independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan had 10 states, as set out in its constitution. Kiir increased that in 2015 to 28, then 32 and has now reduced them to 10, plus three administrative areas. The composition of the executive and the legislature in the states shall be discussed and agreed at a later date, the statement said. South Sudan plunged into a ruinous civil war in 2013 after Kiir fired Machar, his vice president also at the time. The president accused Machar of plotting to overthrow him, a charge denied by the latter. 200520165329158 Soldiers loyal to the two leaders then clashed with the conflict taking an ethnic dimension, forcing a third of the countrys 12 million people to flee their homes. The conflict has killed an estimated 400,000 people and left more than 60 percent of the population food insecure, according to the United Nations. Since 2013, Kiir and Machar have signed several ceasefire agreements, including some lasting for just a few days before fighting resuming shortly after. In September 2018, the warring parties signed an agreement to form a unity government, which would see Machar return to government as vice president, after previous attempts at ruling together only led to disaster. In their statement last week, the three Western countries said increased violence was putting South Sudans hard-won peace at risk. In Jonglei, the vacuum created by the lack of governance has exacerbated cycles of intercommunal violence, said the statement, while in Central Equatoria a ceasefire between the government and rebels who did not sign the peace deal broke down and fresh fighting erupted. During the first three months of 2020, 658 people were killed in intercommunal violence in the country, while 452 were injured, the UN rights office said last month. Hundreds of lawyers demonstrated in Malawi on Wednesday against interference with the judiciary, after the president sent the country's chief justice on early retirement two weeks before a historic election re-run. Donning black gowns and dark cream wigs, they were joined by law students and lecturers on the streets of the capital Lilongwe and the cities of Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu. Peter Mutharika's office issued a notice on Friday sending the country's chief justice Andrew Nyirenda into early retirement, 18 months before he was due to leave. Nyirenda had led the Supreme Court decision which rejected Mutharika's bid to overturn a landmark ruling quashing his controversial re-election. In the judgement last month, Nyirenda said "some of the grounds for appeal were not just fictious but purely unprofessional, disrespectful and distasteful". The country returns to the polls on Tuesday for the new vote. The lawyers carried banners and placards calling for the separation of powers, telling the executive "keep your hands off our judiciary". "Our courts should be able to deliver judgements freely and independently without interference," said lawyer Bernadette Malunga, who led the Lilongwe march. The decision by Mutharika's administration sparked widespread criticism from lawyers' and judges' organisations in Malawi and abroad. Main opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera said the president's action was "a tragic case of interference" and alleged that it could be a "way of capturing the judiciary in anticipation" of a poll loss next week. "It's a very poor attempt that has greatly embarrassed him. They are trying to get justice perverted in this nation," Chakwera said. A total of one hundred and fifty-five companies with origins in India are responsible for generating over $22 billion in investments and nearly 125,000 jobs across the United States, according to a new survey report released today by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The report, "Indian Roots, American Soil 2020," is a state-by-state breakdown of tangible investments made and jobs created by 155 surveyed Indian companies doing business in all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Texas, California, New Jersey, New York, and Florida are home to the greatest number of workers in the U.S. directly employed by the reporting Indian companies. The surveyed companies disclosed the highest amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Texas, New Jersey, New York, Florida, and Massachusetts. The states with the top concentrations of Indian companies reporting were New Jersey, Texas, California, New York, Illinois and Georgia. The surveyed companies also provided data regarding their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and research and development expenditures, which totaled $175 million and $900 million, respectively. Together, 155 Indian companies employ nearly 125,000 people across 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The total value of tangible investments made by these 155 companies exceeds $22 billion. The top five states in which Indian companies have generated maximum employment are: Texas (17,578 jobs), California (8,271 jobs), New Jersey (8,057 jobs), New York (6,175 jobs) and Florida (5,454 jobs). The top five states in which Indian companies have contributed the highest foreign direct investment are: Texas ($9.5 billion), New Jersey ($2.4 billion), New York ($1.8 billion), Florida ($915 million), and Massachusetts ($873 million). Indian investments in 20 U.S. states stand at over $100 million each. 77% of the companies plan to make more investments in the United States. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The dates that A-level and GCSE exam grades will be awarded to students will not change despite concerns the long wait is creating anxiety, education officials said. A counsellor believes the mental health problems being experienced by young people could be eased considerably if they learn their grades now rather than wait until mid-August. Counselling supervisor Eugene Murphy said that an early decision on grades could also help universities and families plan for the start of the new term in September. "Thousands of young people in Northern Ireland are anxiously waiting for GCSE and A-level results and for their mental health wellbeing something should be done to release these grades to them earlier," he said. "I am in no doubt that the current uncertainty over GCSE and A-level grades is adding considerably to the problems young people are struggling with." With exams cancelled, Education Minister Peter Weir has said the calculated grades will be issued for those completing their A-level, A/S level and GCSE qualifications "based on a combination of information provided by schools and colleges and statistical information". A-level and AS-level results will be announced on August 13, with GCSEs a week later. Mr Murphy, however, warned that is too far away. "GCSE students could make early decisions on A-level choices or about going to FE colleges," he said. "A-level students could be given their predicted grades, which would allow universities to start offering a places. Given that there is likely to be a considerable drop in the number of overseas students, surely this will result in more available university places for local students? "This may mean that in order to have sufficient numbers of students available to enable the universities to run courses, those universities may have to lower entrance grade level requirements and consider offering students places on courses for which the students might not have initially applied for. We need to create the time for this to happen in. "Students could also secure rental accommodation now rather than having to do so at the end of August or early September. "A move to provide grades would massively help thousands of already anxious teenagers and their families by bringing some clarity and certainty to their very uncertain worlds and enable them, their parents, the schools and the universities to have a much more enjoyable summer break." The Department of Education said: "The Minister of Education announced in March that, in line with other jurisdictions of the UK, GCSE, AS and A-level exams would be cancelled to help fight the spread of coronavirus. "The main priority for the minister and the department is to ensure that pupils receive fair results that reflect their hard work and will enable progression to the next stage of their lives. "They fully appreciate the legitimate concerns that our teachers and pupils have around the awarding arrangements and timing of results this year. "However, we need to help secure the best possible educational future for all our children in what are extremely difficult circumstances." The department said consultation on the preferred options for awarding grades has been carried out with key stakeholders, including head teachers' representatives and teaching unions. CCEA has also consulted on an appeals process. It added: "All parties recognise that in the current very difficult circumstances there is no perfect solution, but agree that the most appropriate available solutions have been identified. "AS and A-levels will be awarded on August 13 and GCSEs will be awarded on August 20 in line with England and Wales. "These dates reflect the detailed guidance and associated timetable for awarding grades that have been widely published and align with what normally happens in any other year." Eighteen Army personnel sustained injuries during the violent clash with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley on Monday night and they are undergoing treatment at a military hospital, people familiar with the matter said. IMAGE: Locals pay tribute to 20 soldiers who were martyred in the violent face-off between India and China at LAC in Eastern Ladakh, at Ganga river in Varanasi, on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Out of 18, four personnel were critically injured but they are responding to treatment and are stable now, they said. 20 Indian Army personnel including a Colonel were killed in the fierce clash in Galwan. The Chinese side also suffered casualties. China has not yet talked about the number of casualties suffered by the People's Liberation Army. However, government sources, citing a US intelligence report, said Chinese Army suffered 35 casualties during the clash, adding it could be a combination of total number of soldiers killed and injured. The clash in Galwan Valley on Monday night is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. People said another 58 personnel who sustained minor injuries have also been kept under supervision, adding they will be ready for joining their units in two weeks. The two armies were engaged in a standoff in Galwan and several other areas of the eastern Ladakh since May 5 when the two sides clashed on the bank of the Pangong Tso. After the standoff began, the 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 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 patrols. 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. Prior to the clashes, 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. 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 An SME lender has highlighted brokers' role in helping provide timely access to funding for businesses in need of finance to restock as lockdowns are lifted across the country. According to research from OnDeck, 36% of SMEs which have successfully secured business finance in the past have used the loan to invest in new stock. The COVID-19 lockdowns have had a significant impact on the inventories of many small businesses. Retailers in particular have missed out on almost the entire autumn trading season, and now is the time many need to invest in spring inventory, explained Robbie Fidler, national broker channel manager for OnDeck Australia. The same research revealed that one in three SMEs with annual turnover between $500,000 and $5m plan to apply for a business loan in the next 12 months, while the figure rises to 50% for those with annual turnover between $2m and $5m. In the current environment, the small business sector may still be experiencing disruptions in supply chains. Adding to the challenge, businesses that have been in hibernation for several months may not have the cashflow to support upfront purchases, said Fidler. This highlights the important role that business finance can play and the opportunity for brokers to support their SME clients. The sooner a business can rebuild stock levels, the faster it can see a return to more normal revenue flows. Further, brokers are well placed to remind their SME clients that small businesses have the opportunity to invest in new capital equipment following the governments decision to extend the $150,000 instant asset write-off to 31 December 2020. As trading activity resumes, SME owners need to focus on taking advantage of every opportunity to rebuild their business not spending hours applying for finance, said Fidler. The support of a broker can be invaluable to SMEs at this time, especially when coupled with OnDecks fast online application process, which is designed to support a timely outcome for SMEs. It can help businesses restock sooner and take advantage of any trade discounts to maximise profit margins, while delivering increased revenue to the SMEs broker. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 19:28:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JERUSALEM, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 3,200-year-old decorated divine scepter, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) said on Wednesday. The scepter, made of bronze and coated in silver, was unearthed in its original form by HU researchers at the Canaanite Temple in the southern Tel Lachish archaeological site, as part of a study published in the journal Antiquity. The objects' basis is narrow, and its body is wide, measuring 11.2 centimeters long and 42 millimeters wide. The decorations on the scepter include 64 dots spread in four different areas, a large circle and straight lines that besides some of the dots. Nearby, the team also found two figurines of a Canaanite warrior, probably the god Baal. One of the proofs that the scepter had religious importance is its similarity to an object held by a god statute previously found in excavations in the Canaanite city of Megiddo in northern Israel. Surprisingly, the Megiddo object is also decorated with dots, a large circle and straight lines. The researchers said that the scepter and figurines found in Lachish join similar findings found on other archaeological sites in Israel, all together making a clear picture of the Canaanite gods. Many beads, weapons and gold objects were also recently found in the Canaanite temple. The researchers estimate that these findings were also parts of a large, disintegrated or looted god sculpture. Enditem Social service residences have been the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in Spain, and in Madrid, the situation has been particularly devastating. A total of 15.31% of all residents of care homes in the Madrid region died between March 8 and May 15, representing 7,690 people, according to figures provided by regional authorities to which EL PAIS has had access. This figure represents the total number of fatalities at homes for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill, and it includes victims who were not tested for Covid-19 as well as those who may have died from other causes. The percentage has been calculated by EL PAIS based on data from the regional government on the number of care home residents and the total number of deaths at these centers. The situation in Madrids care homes has been the focus of a bitter political feud Without taking into account variables such as those who may have died in hospital or at home, a total of 15.31% of Madrid care home residents lost their lives during the coronavirus crisis. Of the total number of fatalities, only 1,203 were tested for the coronavirus. Many seniors died with symptoms associated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but did not receive a formal diagnosis. By comparison, Galicia had 759 deaths among 23,862 residents (3.08%), and Asturias reported 864 deaths out of 13,632 residents (5.96%). Despite the desperate plight in the care homes, the Madrid regional government only intervened in 14 centers. This is in stark contrast to Asturias, where regional authorities stepped in to take charge of 112 care homes. Situation in Spain The total number of deaths in social service residences across Spain is still not known. The central government published an order in April forcing regional authorities to provide these figures, but only nine of Spains 17 regions have done so: Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia, Asturias, Andalusia, Murcia, Navarre, Galicia and the Balearic Islands. In these regions, a total of 19,243 residents died during the coronavirus pandemic from all causes. But of this number, only 5,346 were tested for Covid-19. According to the most recent tally from EL PAIS, based on information from the 17 regions, more than 19,000 people have died from coronavirus or with associated symptoms at residences run by Spains social services. Less than half of these victims were tested for the virus. It is difficult to compare the figures from the regions, as each region has a different way of reporting the fatalities Many industry associations and unions argue that in some regions there were not enough tests for workers and care home residents. Indeed the figures show great differences between the number of deaths in social service residences and the number of tests carried out. In Catalonia, for example, there were 4,702 deaths between March 8 and May 15, of which 2,387 were confirmed coronavirus cases. While in Andalusia, of the total 2,150 fatalities recorded, only 524 were confirmed to be Covid-19 victims. But it is difficult to compare the figures from the regions, as each region has a different way of reporting the fatalities. In Madrid, only deaths that occurred in the social service residence are counted, while in Galicia, residents who died in hospital are also included in the official count. Political dispute The situation in Madrids care homes has been the focus of a bitter political feud within the regional government, which is run by a coalition between the Popular Party (PP) and Ciudadanos (Citizens), and between Madrid and central authorities. In emails seen by EL PAIS, Alberto Reyero, the regional chief for social policy, warned that internal protocols, which recommended against transferring certain coronavirus patients, could lead to many residents dying in undignified conditions. This message was sent by the Ciudadanos politician to the the regional health chief, Enrique Ruiz Escudero of the PP, but did not receive a reply. Madrid regional premier Isabel Diaz Ayuso, of the PP, has said that one of those controversial protocols was a draft sent by mistake, and she blamed Spains deputy prime minister Pablo Iglesias, of the leftist Podemos party, for the situation at the care homes. Iglesias, for his part, has accused the regional government of a possible crime. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Sunday noted that care home management falls to regional authorities, and recalled that the central government sent in the army to disinfect these premises on 5,200 occasions between March 18 and May 17. The government has not looked the other way during this crisis, and not just because of the orders we have approved, but because we have sent in the army, he said. It seems impossible to me to show greater commitment to the safety of our elders than that shown by this government. English version by Melissa Kitson. They've hit their 5,000 goal and then some, and now Aiden O'Connor and all those who worked on the hugely successful 'Music 4 Medicine' project in aid of Aras Mhuire Nursing Home in Listowel can boast of having recorded a number-one song after their cover of Bill Withers' 'Lean On Me' hit the top spot on the iTunes charts this past week. All the money raised will go towards helping Aras Mhuire and other charity-run nursing homes purchase Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for their staff. This newspaper covered the release of the song last week, but for those who may have missed it, the story behind it is simple: Some of the hottest acts in Irish music pooled their very considerable music skills together to form a 'supergroup' to help raise funds for PPE for charity-run nursing homes. Amongst just some of the high profile names and groups that have joined forces are The Frank & Walters; Jerry Fish; Delorentos; Columbia Mills; John Spillane; Hamsandwich; Mundy; The Riptide Movement and many more. The idea was initiated by Listowel man Aiden O'Connor, along with the help of Paul Linehan from The Frank and Walters. Together, they recorded, filmed and released the brilliant cover, which went live for charity last week. Since then, the song has gone further than anyone involved could have imagined - at the time of writing, it has been at the number-one spot for four days in a row - even keeping music megastar Lady Gaga and the likes of The Weeknd, BTS, Dua Lipa and Ariana Grande from top spot. Speaking to The Kerryman about the unprecedented level of success, Aiden was keen to emphasise the team effort behind the song. "The plan was that if we could get to number one for even one day, it'd be amazing but that was last lunchtime last Tuesday, and here we are now and we're still there! It's just amazing," said Aiden. "Every time I go to check it, I'm convinced that it'll be gone but, no, it's still plugging away up there. "I think Lady Gaga is number one on iTunes in America and the UK, and she's number three here or something. It's quite the achievement," he said. Emphasising that he was only the one who initially thought of the idea, Aiden said that the real work was done by so many people behind the scenes in the mixing and mastering of the song. He said that huge credit must go to Paul Linehan from the Frank and Walters, along with Michael Pixie O'Gorman, who Aiden said spent hours upon hours putting all the video footage together. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian dismissed on Wednesday opposition claims that Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), is prosecuted for political reasons. In the past the authorities used such criminal cases to keep those [opposition] forces under control, force them into coalitions and so on because they lacked legitimacy, said Pashinian. Our government does not have such an objective. We dont need to turn criminal cases into subjects of political horse-trading so that they make fewer [anti-government] statements or watch their language. We know the [right] method of making them watch their language, he said We will teach them. They wont even talk here anymore because the people will kick them out of here altogether, he added during the Armenian governments question-and-answer session in the parliament. Pashinian spoke there the day after the parliaments pro-government majority voted to allow law-enforcement authorities to prosecute and arrest Tsarukian on charges of buying votes during parliamentary elections held in 2017. Tsarukian and his party, which makes up the largest opposition group in the National Assembly, reject the accusations as baseless and politically motivated. They say that Pashinian ordered the criminal proceedings in response to the BHK leaders recent calls for the governments resignation. Addressing his senior loyalists on June 5, Tsarukian accused the government of mishandling Armenias coronavirus crisis and failing to mitigate its socioeconomic consequences. Pashinian and his political allies reacted angrily to that speech. Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian denied that the case is politically motivated when he spoke in the parliament on Tuesday. He said that the National Security Service (NSS) launched the vote buying investigation in February. The NSS interrogated Tsarukian again immediately after the parliament lifted his immunity from prosecution. It went on to ask a court in Yerevan to allow investigators to place one of the countrys richest men under pre-trial arrest. The court began hearings on the NSS demand on Wednesday evening. "Train to Busan" is one the most purely entertaining zombie films and did not upset viewers because of its great cinematography and plot. Now, prepare yourselves as the sequel "Peninsula" is preparing for its premiere! The setting of the "Peninsula" will be four years after the unprecedented disaster took place, leaving Korea in ruins after the zombies overrun the whole place. During their online press conference on June 16, the actors were present, including director Yeon Sang Ho. They revealed that they were invited to the Cannes Film Festival, but the event did not push through because of the pandemic. Kang Dong Won felt honored, and some of his friends abroad said their congratulations as well. Lee Jung Hyun said she was pleased and was looking forward to going to the festival, but was disappointed since they couldn't attend. She continued thanking the director for giving her the chance to be part of the film and be invited to the prestigious event. Kwon Hae Hyo also commented that the news was welcoming and that being invited to the Cannes Festival made them feel reassured when gathering and meeting with an audience. This will be director Yeon Sang Ho's third time to have been invited to the festival, before "The King of Pigs" and "Train to Busan." Since this is a sequel, this is the first time a Korean film series was invited. He shared that it is a relief that they look at "Peninsula" with high regards, and was also wondering why among his six projects, only three were chosen. The director added that they already have plans for the "Peninsula" even if they were filming "Train to Busan" early on, in the hope that "Train to Busan" will be a success. He went on and said that they used more computer graphics and effects twice than the prequel. Kang Dong Won received praise from the director for his great action scenes. He will play Jung Suk, a survivor who has not stepped foot in Korea in four years. His reason for joining the film is that he is not bothered to do a project as a predecessor, while some actors have no desire for it. He added that since there has not been a Korean film that showed an apocalypse. Further, actor Lee Jung Hyun said he always liked zombie films and saw "Train to Busan" four to five times in theaters. He was fascinated and got so much interest that Korea mad such a perfect zombie film. While having thought about it, he received a call and was really surprised. He finds the scenario and the character very interesting. He said the film became more intense as if the zombies were faster in "Peninsula," and the storytelling is faster. Zombies were very important, so the choreography must be planned, so they can deliver it properly. Kim Min Jae said that zombies were very memorable for their energy. The director even joked about switching roles with the zombies, but the actor hesitantly said he won't do it. Director Yeon Sang Ho ended the conference, quoting, "In post-apocalyptic period, hope is necessary. Please, think of the movie as a story of the people who established that hope was imperative." "Peninsula" premieres this July. Watch the new exhilarating teaser below! Park Hae Joon is prominent for his role as Lee Tae Oh in the hit drama "The World of the Married," South Korea's highest-rated cable drama. Now, the actor will be joining the all-star cast of the disaster movie "Emergency Declaration." South Korean actor Park Hae Joon was born as Park Sang Woo on June 14, 1976. He first gained the viewers' attention when he was a supporting actor in the television series Misaeng: Incomplete Life (2014). He then starred in his first leading role in Jung Ji-woo's film Fourth Place (2015). He is currently one of the most loved Korean actors, thanks to his excellent acting performance in the drama series through The World of the Married (2020). Park Hae Joon just turned 44 (45 in Korean reckoning) on June 14. He is still talented as he can be, bringing characters vividly to life and delivering versatility and intensity in any role he portrays. Park Hae Joon is confirmed to star in the upcoming disaster movie "Emergency Declaration," set aboard an airplane that is forced to make an emergency landing. "Emergency Declaration" is currently in the pre-production stage. As he turns a year older, we have jotted down some things you should know about the Busan-born lead actor of Korea's highest-rated cable TV drama ever. Park Hae Joon came from a theatrical background Park Hae Joon finished his studies at the Department of Theatre Studies at Korea National University of Arts' School of Drama in Seoul. After graduating, he pursued his career working in theatre production and playwriting. His acting career breakthrough was in 2014 Way back 2012, Park Hae Joon started his career in the big screen through his minor role as a loan shark in the film Helpless, and after this, he starred in the KBS television drama Jeon Woo-chi as Dae-Geun. In 2014, he got the breakthrough of his career when he played a supporting actor in tvN's Misaeng: Incomplete Life, where he took on the role of Chun Kwan-woong. Through this, his name became well known in the industry, which led him to land the subsequent roles in Doctor Stranger and Fourth Place. Park Hae Joon almost turned down the role of Lee Tae Oh It's a good thing he did not! We could not imagine another actor portraying the role of Tae Oh. Park Hae Joon once revealed in an interview that when this project was offered to him, he was a bit hesitant and unsure if he should accept the role of Lee Tae Oh, in The World of the Married. Park Hae Joon felt like he was not capable of developing and delivering the character's intensity in the time he had to prepare. He did the right choice to take the challenge, and drama premiered with hit record-breaking heights from start to finish. He is happily married Opposite to his character in the drama The World of the Married, wherein he got separated twice, Park Hae Joon in real life is happily married to his wife, Oh Yoo-jin, since 2010. Oh Yoo-jin is also an actress and studied in the same university as he did. Well, that's true destiny! The final blow came as day was turning to eve. Last Friday, after Jessica Mulroney saw her entire world crumble within a matter of hours dumped, sacked, pick your synonym, from all her television gigs and all her brand sponsorships a message appeared in my inbox that even the charity she had co-founded (along with many of the other Mulroney women) was disassociating. For those of us reading the interpersonal tea leaves, what this meant was this: the Shoebox Project an organization that distributes gift-filled shoeboxes to displaced women in various communities had distanced itself from the mother of three, via a board comprised, among others, of her own husband Ben, son of a former PM; the husband of her sister-in-law Caroline, Andrew Lapham; and even one of her closest friends, socialite Krystal Koo. Being publicly censured by your nearest/dearest? Sure, thats one thing, especially in whats become the biggest media-society Toronto OMG since the Jian Ghomeshi years. But so is the whole scandal being recapped thereafter by eTalk on CTV, the very show that counts her husband as its long-time co-host! Awkward or what? Well, times it by 10 when Bens own co-host, Elaine Lainey Lui, posted a 1,000-word screed some days later, musing wisely on the Amy Cooper-esque tempest that has engulfed Jessica see the column written by my colleague, Vinay Menon but also effectively burning it all down by writing, in terms of the CTV intercompany dynamics, I am afraid of the Mulroneys. Also from Lainey: People are afraid of retribution. I am afraid of retribution retribution may not come this week or next week, but in three or six months when Jessicas white privilege is reactivated. Also, this tour de force line: Meghan Markle is Jessica Mulroneys superpower. She keeps that superpower to herself. (Just go read Luis blog, as I cannot do it justice regurgitating). Watching the whole Jess mess go down in real time, on social media it made me think of Lizzie Grubman for some reason. You remember, doncha? The PR diva who flew into such a rage at a nightclub in the Hamptons in 2002 when she was denied a spot in the VIP parking lot that she yelled obscenities at a doorman and then reversed her Mercedes into a crowd, prompting criminal charges and a rep that came to define then the excesses of a certain Veuve set? Jessica, you see, just went and Lizzie Grubmaned her own career except, instead of driving a Mercedes into a crowd she just happily flung herself in front of one. The story behind the story here? One that doubles as this always-reliable cautionary tale: you live by the sword of social media, you die by the sword of social media. At a time when many get a dopamine hit from watching the likes and shares and reposts pour in, basking in a cascade of affirmations and handclap emojis, her way-outta-line response to a Black woman, particularly during a time of racial reckoning (publicly! in writing!), shows how far-gone the stylist-slash-TV-host-slash-professional-best-friend-of-Meghan Markle already was when even a sliver of the opposite was incoming. In terms of her Instagram, she had been alive by it. For those of us in Toronto whove noticed how increasingly fixated Mulroney was on her presence there the constant deleting and pruning of her feed, for one this was the psychology that precipitated the faceoff with Sasha Exeter, a local influencer, growing increasingly toxic and then peaking with a legal threat sent after 2 a.m. (misspelled as a liable suit.) As someone who knows some of these players, and has closely followed the friendship between Meghan and Jessica, it was, I think, always headed this way, in that Jessica was always the Achilles heel. Insecurity plus power is often a dangerous cocktail. Combine: a lack of finesse plus paranoia (because of all the press attention, some of it admittedly unfair) and this is the context. Now add: some unchecked privilege. But though many of the headlines around the world have fixated on how this affects the duchess (it really shouldnt, except isnt it interesting that this is who she chose as her BFF?), my focus has turned to what this does for Brand Mulroney. If daughter-in-law Jessica was the diffusion brand of the bigger family brand, in marketing speak, what indeed? It was going so well, alas. On the up, all these decades after the political dynasty moved out of 24 Sussex and, for many, was a surname best associated with the GST you pay on your duvet (Brian Mulroneys government instituted the national tax). Example: when Jessica and Ben were front and centre at the worldwide sensation that was the royal wedding in 2018 their twin boys participating as pages, their young daughter a flower girl, and Jess so fawned over she even made the front page of the Times of London that week it was a suitable full circle to the royal connections that go back some. Harrys mother, Princess Diana, had come to stay with the Mulroneys back in the day after all. And Brian and Mila now? Elated at the social triumph of their eldest son. Around that time came another moment for Brian to bask in some international mojo: when George Bush Sr. died and the ex-PM was asked to eulogize at the funeral (having long been chummy with the Bushes). Mulroney, as elder statesman, was fantastic in his oratory and earned plenty of live CNN action. All this now? Tarnished. Consider that when you type Mulroney and racism in Google you are likely to get a scroll that brings up the events of the last week. Never mind that the greatest consensus-forming legacy of the Mulroney years in Canada at least internationally was how Brian led the fight against apartheid in South Africa during the 1980s. Canada, being the first to issue sanctions when the U.S. and Britain were slow to do so has long burnished the bona fides of Mulroney Sr. In terms of the woman at the centre of all this, writer Pauleanna Reid summed it up when she tweeted: Jessica Mulroney. A career that took her a decade to build, she lost in less than 24 hours. Every brand deal. TV deal. And worst, her reputation. Its a great case study and lesson on crisis management, checking your own privilege, and why you need POC on your advisory team. Also a case study on what happens in a society context when everything blows up and you do not have much social capital, so to speak. If you could see the barrage of DMs I have been getting from people around town whove been rubbed the wrong way by Jessica, or had some fashion-world horror story involving her, youd get the drift. Had she built up collateral on her way up a smart friend, with a boldface name of her own, started to tell me. If. Instead, the schadenfreude has only been too real (even from folks who previously spent years genuflecting and/or had enabled because they didnt want to create fissures in their social circles). Likewise, some of the response overseas. The journalist in England, for instance, who told me the story over the phone this week about how Jessica had apparently tried to take credit for the Givenchy gown that her friend, the Duchess of Sussex, donned for her wedding, only to precipitate an official denial by the then designer of the house, Claire Waight Keller. And so it had come (as the news moved everywhere from TMZ to BBC): here was a woman whod gone from carrying Meghans bridal train to carrying the brunt of the Mulroney name. Read more about: Two unions representing Virgin Australia workers have publicly backed the Richard Branson-linked investment firm Cyrus Capital as their preferred bidder for the collapsed airline, saying the group's aviation experience makes it best placed to relaunch the carrier. Cyrus and rival bidder Bain Capital met unions representing Virgin's 9000 workers on Tuesday and Wednesday in an effort to win their support ahead of submitting binding offers on Monday to lift Virgin out of administration. Union support is rallying around Cyrus Capital. Credit:Jono Searle Flight Attendants Association of Australia secretary Teri OToole said she believed Cyrus - which has a history of investing in airlines alongside Richard Branson's Virgin Group - was committed to the airline's success and would try to preserve as many jobs as possible. Cyrus are not dipping their toes in aviation, they actually know what theyre doing and theyre taking this on with eyes open," said Ms O'Toole. Indias death toll from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has exceeded the 10,000-mark after nearly 100 days since the first fatality was recorded in the country in March. The country added 2,004 deaths, including the 1,672 backlogged fatalities, and 10,951 infections in its Covid-19 tally on Tuesday, taking the toll to 11,919 from 353,853 infections, according to the HT dashboard. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage The countrys case fatality rate (CFR), which is defined as the proportion of death to the total number of cases, rose from 2.9% to 3.4%. The Union health ministry, which updates its data every morning, is yet to reflect the backlogged deaths. The death toll in India surged beyond the 10,000-mark after Delhi and Maharashtra took into account hundreds of fatalities that were pending review. Their toll went by 437 and 1,409 respectively. Maharashtra recorded 81 cases through the day to take its total death count to 5,537. The state has had 113,445 Covid-19 cases and the new death numbers take its CFR to 4.9% from 3.7 a day earlier. The national capital also recorded the highest number of deaths 93 in a 24-hour period. Delhi now has recorded 44,688 infections in all and 1,837 of the patients have succumbed to the disease. Tuesdays reconciling of numbers takes CFR in the city from 3.3% to 4.1% in a single day. A senior official from Delhis health department said the jump in numbers was due to the death committees efforts over the last four days to go through all previous emails and add the deaths. Some of the deaths were missed as a result of clerical and technological errors, the official said asking not to be named. The official cited above said that most of the backlog deaths were from June. As of Tuesday, 83% of Covid-19 deaths in the country have been reported from the five worst-hit states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The 10 worst-affected states account for more than 96% of all deaths reported in India. The first 5,000 fatalities took 80 days, the latest 5,000 deaths came in just 17 days, with more than 2,500 being reported in the last week. The first death due to Covid-19 in India was reported on March 12 after a 76-year-old man who returned to Karnatakas Kalburgi from Saudi Arabia tested positive and succumbed to the disease. India is the fourth worst-hit country in the world in terms of total Covid-19 cases but it has fared much better in terms of deaths where it comes on the eighth spot. Its total death trajectory is also a lot more gradual when compared to many other nations ravaged by the disease. Indias CFR is at 14% and is much lower than the global average of 56%. Body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of a Wendy's restaurant, in Atlanta. - AP The Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in the car park of a fast-food restaurant has been charged with murder and a warrant issued for his arrest. Officer Garrett Rolfe, who fired the fatal shots, faces 11 charges, including felony murder and one for aggravated assault, after video footage appeared to show him kicking Mr Brooks and standing on his shoulders as he lay dying. Fellow officer Devin Brosnan, who was also on scene and has been put on administrative leave, has been charged with three counts, including a failure to administer timely medical assistance. Paul Howard, Fulton County District Attorney, revealed in a press conference announcing the charges on Wednesday that Mr Brosnan, 26, has agreed to testify against Mr Rolfe, 27. Officer Garrett Rolfe. Rolfe, who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks in the back Mr Brooks, who is black, was shot on Friday night after staff at a Wendys restaurant called police when they found him sleeping in his car, blocking a drive-through lane. The 27-year-old father-of-three attempted to flee officers Rolfe and Brosnan as they tried to arrest Mr Brooks after he failed a sobriety test. Mr Brooks stole a Taser from one of the officers and attempted to fire it in their direction as he ran. He was shot twice in the back. An autopsy ruled his death as homicide. Atlanta Police Department officer Garrett Rolfe appeared to Rayshard Brooks after shooting him - ERIK S LESSER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock "Mr Brooks was running away at the time the shot was fired," Mr Howard told reporters. "We concluded that, at the time that Mr Brooks was shot, he did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious physical injury to the officers." Mr Brooks killing reignited protests in Atlanta, Georgia, after days of worldwide demonstrations against racism and police brutality prompted by the death of George Floyd, an African American, in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. Family members, who are preparing for his funeral, say the two officers should have continued to pursue him as he ran away instead of shooting him. Blessen Miller, 8, left, and her sister, Memory, 2, right, daughters of Tomika Miller, second left, widow of Rayshard Brooks, are seen at a news conference held by members of the Brooks' family - AP His widow, Tomika Miller, had called for the officers to be jailed. If it was my husband who shot them, he would be in jail, she said. He would be doing a life sentence. They need to be put away. Matt Whitaker, former Acting Attorney General, said that he finds it difficult to see how the fatal shooting of Mr Brooks was "justified." The community of Atlanta is, obviously, going to put a lot of pressure for justice in Mr. Brooks' case, Mr Whitaker said. Weve all seen the video. Weve all seen what happened and, I think, it is hard to believe that this killing was justified given all of the video evidence that we have all seen until this point." Richmond's mayor said Tuesday that he has asked for and accepted the resignation of the city's police chief, saying Virginia's capital needs 'a new approach' to public safety after repeated violent clashes between police and protesters. Mayor Levar Stoney announced Chief William Smith's departure at a news conference and said a police major will serve as the interim chief. 'Richmond is ready for a new approach to public safety,' Stoney said. 'There is work to be done, and we're ready to do it.' Stoney praised Smith as a 'good man' who has served the city 'with grace' but said it was necessary to move in a new direction. Scroll down for video Mayor Levar Stoney announced Chief William Smith's departure at a news conference and said a police major will serve as the interim chief Smith, a 25-year veteran of the Richmond Police Department, took over as chief a year ago. Stoney said Maj. William Jody Blackwell (right) will serve as interim chief 'This has been a difficult couple of weeks. The change is because I believe we have to find ways to re-imagine the way we keep the public safe,' Stoney said. The announcement came after confrontations between Richmond police and protesters during more than two weeks of protests over the police killing of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes as he pleaded for air. Tensions exploded Saturday after a police SUV struck several protesters blocking its path near the Robert E. Lee statue, a Confederate monument that has become a symbol for the oppression of black people and a main gathering place for protesters. No one appeared to be injured in the incident. Stoney has called for the officer driving the SUV to be placed on administrative leave and asked a state prosecutor to investigate. That incident was followed by two nights of confrontations between protesters and police, who used tear gas and pepper spray on demonstrators. One protester was arrested after an overnight demonstration Monday outside police headquarters turned violent and three officers were injured. Stoney has said he plans to ask the City Council to approve the removal of four other Confederate statues on Richmond's famed Monument Avenue The announcement came after confrontations between Richmond police and protesters during more than two weeks of protests over the police killing of George Floyd Smith, a 25-year veteran of the Richmond Police Department, took over as chief a year ago. Stoney said Maj. William Jody Blackwell will serve as interim chief. The mayor also outlined a series of police reforms he hopes to put in place, including the establishment of an independent civilian review board to investigate complaints about police misconduct and an alert system so that behavioral health specialists will be the first to respond - rather than police - when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis. Stoney said he believes police should only use tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets as 'the last resort.' 'We aspire to be a city where you can come here and peacefully protest ... and people, all people involved - law enforcement and those peaceful protesters - go home uninjured,' he said. Gov. Ralph Northam has announced that the state plans to take down the Lee statue, a move that was widely praised by protesters. Several lawsuits have been filed to try to stop the removal. Stoney has said he plans to ask the City Council to approve the removal of four other Confederate statues on Richmond's famed Monument Avenue. Some school districts were counting ballots late into the night because of an extremely high voter turnout, with Fort Edward not finishing until 3:15 a.m. Wednesday. The election was conducted entirely through absentee ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic. Residents rejected Fort Edwards budget, which sought a nearly 20% increase in the tax levy. A majority of residents voted in favor, nearly 53%, but a supermajority of 60% was required because the district sought to go over the tax cap. The vote was 431 in favor to 386 in opposition. Three people began counting ballots at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Superintendent of Schools Dan Ward said there were no issues with the count. It was just time-consuming. All votes were double verified and then the tallies were double cross-checked by them as well, he said in an email. The entire process was recorded and will be posted on the website by the end of the week, Ward said. Over five times as many people cast ballots on the budget. Last year, there were only 143 votes cast and only 178 the year before that, according to Ward. The Board of Education met on Wednesday night to determine the next step on the budget. In addition, Christina Durkee received 502 votes to win a five-year seat on the Fort Edward Board of Education and Daniel Shiels received 367 votes to win a one-year seat. Both of those candidates said during a forum that they opposed the merger study with the South Glens Falls school district and wanted Fort Edward to remain its own district. Incumbent Vice President Michael Glass was not re-elected, finishing fourth with 250 votes. Elaine Trackey-Saltsman received 317 votes. Glass voted in favor of that study and Trackey-Saltsman said in a candidate forum she supported it. The issue is emotionally charged in town, with lawn signs stating: Save Fort Edward School. Because he is filling a partial term, Shiels takes office immediately. Glens Falls, Lake George and Saratoga Springs also did not report results until after The Post-Stars print deadline. Their budgets passed. South Glens Falls technical issue South Glens Falls school officials suspended counting late Tuesday night and resumed at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday. The district reported results just after 2 p.m. Wednesday. Its budget passed. District spokeswoman Monica Lester said early in the count, a machine broke and halted counting for an extended time period. The district had to switch to manual counting for most of the process. School officials knew they had to get the machine reviewed in the morning, so they decided to end at 11 p.m. and resume in the morning. Lake George elects two new board members Lake George also had a competitive school board race. Incumbent Tom Seguljic lost his bid for re-election. Newcomers Rosemarie Earl and Jeannine Bieber received 1,174 and 977 votes, respectively, to win two three-year seats. Seguljic garnered 704 votes and Jay Salmon received 480. Bieber and Earl are backed by the Lake George United for Education group. Members of that group have an active lawsuit against the district over elimination of the junior-senior high school vice principal position two years ago. Now, most of the board is made up of candidates who were endorsed or affiliated with that group, including President Tricia Connor Biles and Katie Bruening, Maryanne MacKenzie and Melissa Seale. Long night and day One of the reasons for the delay in counting votes was turnout was high and some districts were counting paper ballots. Fort Edward topped local districts with a 467% increase in number of votes cast this year on the budget compared with 2019. School districts in The Post-Stars coverage area had an average of 170% greater turnout, according to an analysis. Glens Falls had five times as many people cast ballots on the budget 2,706 this year compared with 523 in 2019. Queensbury had nearly four times as many people, with 3,944 this year to 1,005 last year. Lester said there were 3,731 ballots returned out of 14,723 mailed out a 26% response rate. Typical turnout has been around 1,300 votes during the last few years. Other local districts in the 25% to 30% range for percentage of ballots returned included Cambridge, Corinth, Granville, Glens Falls, Hadley-Luzerne, Hartford, Queensbury and Warrensburg. Topping the list was Indian Lake, where 80% of the ballots mailed out were returned, followed by Greenwich with 71%. Other districts were in Fort Edward and Lake George had about 50%. New York State School Boards Association spokesman David Albert said he is hearing anecdotal reports of anywhere between three times to eight times the turnout as in previous years. A typical year may see turnout of 10% to 14% of eligible voters. He believes there are two factors at work. One is it was much more convenient to vote. For some people, it was as easy as voting in their home and then walking it down to the mailbox and putting the ballot back in the mail, or going to the post office, he said. The second factor, according to Albert, is the community wanted to support their schools. Schools have been an integral part of the community over the last three months not only providing educational services over distance learning, but providing meals to students, providing child care, he said. Time-consuming process Albert was not surprised that it took districts much longer to count ballots because it was a more laborious process. Each ballot was in an envelope inside the larger envelope. Election officials had to open them up, separate the ballots and then count them. They had to check to make sure the person is a registered voter. There are more steps involved than an in-person election. You would walk in, you would sign the register and you would go vote, he said, referring to in-person voting. The entire process was more time-consuming for school districts. They had to scramble to print out ballots and then mail them out to voters. Some districts had delays with their vendors producing the ballots. It was also expensive about four times as much as an in-person election, according to Albert. Voter budget approval tops 99% Voters approved about 99% of school district budgets statewide on Tuesday, based on a preliminary analysis of budget vote results by the New York State School Boards Association. The passage rate was even higher about 99.6% for districts that stayed within the tax cap. Four of the 11 districts that sought to override the cap failed. The association was waiting for results from about 175 districts. The average spending increase was 1.67% and average tax levy increase was 2.34%. Chance for revote School districts that saw their budget defeated will have the opportunity for a second vote, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not set the date. It will not be any earlier than July 9. Albert said he hoped it would be an in-person election to save school districts money. If it is the same process, I would not be surprised if there were no district that opted for a revote, he said. If the budget fails again, the district must adopt a contingency budget, which has no increase in the tax levy. School boards are not required to hold a second vote and can go straight to a contingency budget. Reach Michael Goot at 518-742-3320 or mgoot@poststar.com and follow his blog poststar.com/blogs/michael_goot/. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 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. Michael Goot night and weekend editor Follow Michael Goot 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 Liu Bing (Ice Liu), was a teenager when she moved from China to Zimbabwe, a country she has proudly called home for years. As someone who is fascinated by different cultures and environments, she immediately fell in love with her new home. "The atmosphere here is relaxed," she told Xinhua in an interview. "I had many chances to go to other countries, but I like Zimbabwe, and I am here." She was invited to work on an international collaborative music video project called Lovely Zimbabwe with a group of artist from different parts of the world. The ten-member group, which is made up of foreign artists singing about the beauty of Zimbabwe in their native languages, aims at marketing Zimbabwe one of the best places to visit. The artists' colorful performance is complemented by magnificent scenery in the music video's background that makes Zimbabwe a stunning tourist destination. The tourism sector is one of Zimbabwe's major economic mainstays, contributing significantly to the country's GDP. About 2.6 million international tourists visited the Southern African country in 2018. The expenditure by tourists in Zimbabwe has also risen remarkably over the past decade, rising from only 523 million U.S. dollars in 2009 to over 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. The country's most remarkable products are its abundant animal species and natural environment, a number of medieval era city ruins and multiple world heritage sites, several national parks and its friendly people. Liu was disappointed as the tourism industry in Zimbabwe has been severely influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism industry is one of the sectors in Zimbabwe bearing the brunt of COVID-19. But the tourists are coming back and the industry is recovering. On May and June, Zambia and Zimbabwe re-opened the Victoria Falls to the public, two months after closing the World Heritage Site due to the pandemic. "Come to Zimbabwe, that is what we are writing in the song, come to Zimbabwe, yes, come to Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe is a very cool place," said Liu. She said the song is expected to add value to the ongoing government efforts in presenting Zimbabwe as a unique tourist destination and to motivate more Chinese tourists to visit the country. "We need more people to come to visit, to invest in Zimbabwe. We need to show the world how nice Zimbabwe is," she said . Liu said she wants to continue promoting arts and culture between China and Zimbabwe through various initiatives such as the Dreamstar Zimbabwe Talent Search, a program that sponsors artists to tour China through cultural exchange programs. Abraham Matuka, founder of the Lovely Zimbabwe project, said music can be instrumental in popularizing tourist destinations and can significantly boost tourist numbers. Matuka said besides marketing Zimbabwe as a prime tourist destination, the song also promotes cultural understanding among nations. "By singing in Mandarin, she would be appealing to the whole Chinese people and most of the people who understand Mandarin would know that Zimbabwe is a beautiful country. Music is one of the best tools in terms of communication. It's universal. So we use the aspect of people to people diplomacy through music," said Matuka. Over the years, Zimbabwe has embarked on various strategies to ensure sustainable long-term growth of the tourism sector, including duty exemptions for the importation of tourism capital goods and safari vehicles, promoting investment in tourism-related infrastructure and adopting favorable visa policies. In 2018, a major marketing campaign was signed between the Ministry of Tourism and a Chinese firm Touchroad International which brought Zhejiang TV and Radio into the country to film Zimbabwe's key tourist attractions. While Chinese outbound tourism has increased rapidly over the years, reaching 149 million overseas trips in 2018, only a few Chinese tourists choose Zimbabwe as their travel destination. Zimbabwe received about 19,000 Chinese tourists in 2018, and the country has set a target to receive at least 150,000 Chinese tourists by 2025. 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. George Floyd's brother on Wednesday begged the United Nations to help African Americans because "black lives do not matter in the United States", as the UN's rights chief urged reparations for centuries of discrimination. Philonise Floyd made an impassioned speech via video-link to an urgent United Nations Human Rights Council debate on "systemic racism" in the US and beyond. Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the "gratuitous brutality" of Floyd's death in police custody encapsulated racism that harmed millions of people of African descent. She also urged countries to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism and to make reparations. The council, based in Geneva, is debating a draft resolution pushing for Bachelet to investigate racism and police civil liberties violations against people of African descent in the United States. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the council two years ago. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer -- since charged with murder -- pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Amateur video of the incident sparked demonstrations and calls to address systemic racism in the United States and around the world. Philonise Floyd said his brother had been "tortured to death" as witnesses begged the officer to stop, "showing us black people the same lesson, yet again: black lives do not matter in the United States of America". "You in the United Nations are your brothers' and sisters' keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd." "I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us black people in America." He urged them to establish an independent international commission of inquiry -- one of the UN's highest-level probes, generally reserved for major crises like the Syrian conflict. - Probe proposal dropped - An initial text presented on Tuesday on behalf of 54 African countries had proposed such an inquiry. But the proposal was dropped, the resolution heavily watered down following stark opposition from Washington and some of its allies. But the proposal was dropped, the resolution heavily watered down following stark opposition from Washington and some of its allies. It now calls on Bachelet and UN rights experts to "establish the facts and circumstances relating to the systemic racism, alleged violations of international human rights law and abuses against Africans and people of African descent" by law enforcement in the US and beyond -- especially those incidents that resulted in deaths. The aim, it said, was "to ensure the accountability of perpetrators and redress for victims". In her statement to the council, Bachelet said Floyd's death had brought to head the sense of outrage felt by overlooked people and the protests were "the culmination of many generations of pain". "Behind today's racial violence, systemic racism, and discriminatory policing lies the failure to acknowledge and confront the legacy of the slave trade and colonialism," the former Chilean president said. She stressed the need to "make amends for centuries of violence and discrimination, including through formal apologies, truth-telling processes, and reparations in various forms." - US call for transparency - On Tuesday, Trump issued an order to improve policing, calling for a ban on dangerous choke holds -- except if an officer's life is at risk. The executive order encourages de-escalation training, better recruitment, sharing of data on police who have bad records, and money to support police in complicated duties related to people with mental or drug issues. However, it stopped well short of demands made at nationwide protests. Andrew Bremberg, the US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said his country was open in its commitment to addressing racial discrimination and injustice, citing Trump's executive order. "We call upon all governments to demonstrate the same level of transparency and accountability," he said. "Sadly, there are too many places in the world where governments commit grave violations of human rights and practice systematic racial discrimination while many of those assembled in Geneva are silent." It remains to be seen whether the current draft resolution will pass. Australia, South Korea and the Netherlands all issued statements in the chamber that were broadly supportive of Washington's outlook. "We have confidence in their transparent justice systems to address these issues appropriately," Australia's representative said. The UN Human Rights Council's 47 members are due to vote on the resolution following the urgent debate, which was set to conclude on Thursday. Wednesday marks only the fifth time in the council's 14-year history that it has agreed to hold an "urgent debate", which is like a special session, but within a regular session of the council. BERKELEY (BCN) University of California at Berkeley officials on Wednesday outlined the school's plans for re-opening for the fall semester, including small in-person class sizes and an intent to house up to 6,500 students on campus. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Alivisatos, Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education Catherine Koshland and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Stephen Sutton sent a message to the school's undergraduate students explaining several options during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. While in-person classes will be limited to small numbers, students will be allowed to take nearly every class remotely during the semester if they choose. All large lecture classes will only be offered remotely, according to the university. The school will also transition to full remote instruction after the Thanksgiving holiday due to concerns about students traveling and visiting family. As a result, the semester's final exams will be given remotely. "All of the unknowns make for a very challenging planning environment, and ultimately we must be prepared at very short notice to reduce or limit on-campus activities and move to fully remote teaching should pandemic conditions worsen at any point before the end of fall semester," the university officials said in their message to students. On-campus student housing will be prioritized for several categories of students such as those who have already signed housing contracts, students who have no estimated financial contribution for the fall semester, students with documented disabilities necessitating an on-campus residence, and student athletes. Christ, Alivisatos, Sutton and Vice Provost for Graduate Studies Lisa Garcia Bedolla also outlined plans for graduate students during the fall semester, many of them similar to those for undergraduate students. Graduate students, like undergraduates, will not be required to take in-person classes and many classes will be offered remotely in some form. Instruction will also be fully remote after Thanksgiving for graduate students. Graduate student instructors who planned to teach classes during the semester are advised to contact the class' faculty member while students in master's and professional degree programs are advised to consult their individual programs about fall semester plans. University officials plan to hold a discussion for students and their families on June 25 from 5-6 p.m. about the school's reopening plans. Details on the virtual discussion can be found at campusconversations.berkeley.edu. "(W)e are looking forward to welcoming you to our UC Berkeley community in whatever way that makes sense for you," university officials said. "Our typical back-to-school mode will be altered, to be sure, but our commitment to your academic success and your personal growth is unwavering." 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. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on June 17, 2020 2020/06/17 Reuters: Regarding the China-India face-off, China and India agreed to resolve the issue through talks during the weekend before the last. Why are we still seeing an escalation of the situation? Who is now in charge of the talks to control the situation, the foreign ministries or the military departments? Zhao Lijian: On your first question, in order to ease the situation in the border areas, China and India have been in close communication through diplomatic and military channels. On June 6, border troops of the two sides had a commander-level meeting where important consensus was reached to lower tensions on the ground. However, shockingly, on June 15, the Indian troops seriously departed from such consensus, crossed the LAC for illegal activities, and provoked and attacked Chinese personnel, which caused violent physical clashes between the two sides that led to casualties. The Chinese side has made strong protests and stern representations with the Indian side, demanding it to earnestly abide by the relevant consensus, strictly restrain its front-line troops, immediately stop all infringing and provocative actions, and refrain from any unilateral actions that will further complicate the situation. China and India have agreed to keep on the track of dialogue and consultation to resolve the relevant issue and work to alleviate the situation on the ground and uphold peace and tranquility in the border areas. On your second question, China and India are in close communication through diplomatic and military channels. Shenzhen TV: Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on June 16 that "some countries are using the pandemic to undermine liberal democracy to promote their own more authoritarian models". She underlined that the European Commission issued a report which revealed that Russia and China had carried out "targeted disinformation campaigns" and that "Twitter disclosed over 32,000 accounts as state-linked information operations, which the company attributed to Russia to China and to Turkey". Payne said Australia will continue to counter the "infodemic" "through facts and transparency, underpinned by liberal democratic values that we will continue to promote". I wonder if China has a comment? Zhao Lijian: I already stated China's principled position on Twitter's closure of Chinese accounts. Guided by the people-centered philosophy of putting life first, China fought to win an all-out war against COVID-19. We also strengthened international cooperation following the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind. Our efforts and contribution have been commended by the Chinese people and the vast majority of the international community. Never have we sought to improve our image by waging disinformation campaigns, and there is no need to do so. I want to point out that as revealed in a recent report by The Australia Institute, the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus is a biological weapon artificially made by the Chinese government was spread through the "coordinated" efforts of clusters of US-controlled bots. This is the very definition of disinformation. Why is the Australian foreign minister turning a blind eye to it? As facts have shown, disinformation is Australia's expertise, not China's. I would like to reiterate that disinformation, like the coronavirus, is a common enemy to all mankind. The UN and WHO have called on countries to strengthen solidarity and cooperation to counter all sorts of disinformation. We hope the Australian official will act in a responsible, just and objective manner, stop political manipulation of the pandemic and contribute to the global combat against the pandemic. The Paper: Marise Payne also accused China of contributing to a climate of "fear and division" over the coronavirus. He also labeled Beijing's warnings to citizens against travelling to Australia as "disinformation". Payne acknowledged Australia may have made itself a target by speaking out for a review on coronavirus, but said it had been in Australia's best long-term interests. What's your comment? Zhao Lijian: The issuance of travel advisory and an alert fo Chinese students going to study in Australia, based on a host of facts, is part of the Chinese government's responsibility and obligation to safeguard the lawful rights and interests of its citizens including students. We are talking about the plain fact of existing discrimination and violence in Australia, but this Australian official labeled it as "disinformation". Then may I ask, what about the rights, interests and feelings of those victims? Once again I would like to urge certain individual on the Australian side to heed the voice of the victims, face up to the problems and really think about what went wrong on their side. Frankly, we don't think it is "in Australia's best long-term interests" when certain people, acting out of their own political interests, choose to turn away from facts and engage in politicizing the pandemic and sabotaging relevant international cooperation. National Public Radio: Can the Chinese foreign ministry reveal any more details about what happened on the night of June 15? Zhao Lijian: The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theater Command spokesperson already released a statement yesterday on what happened at the Galwan Valley area. It goes as follows: Indian troops have broken their promises and again crossed the line of actual control in the Galwan Valley area on June 15 evening and purposely launched provocative attacks, leading to severe clashes that resulted in casualties. China always owns sovereignty over the Galwan Valley area, and the Indian border troops have acted in ways inconsistent with their words and seriously violated the agreements both countries reached and the consensus made during the army commander-level talks, and undermined the relations of the two militaries and the feelings of the two peoples. India should strictly restrain its front-line troops, immediately stop all infringing and provocative actions, meet the Chinese side halfway and come back to the right path of resolving differences through talks. PTI: One, how is the situation on the ground now as China sees it, especially at the Galwan Valley where the problem has taken place? And my second question is, Galwan Valley is widely regarded as some area that has been settled between the two countries. Why suddenly this particular problem cropped up there? And now as you quoted, the PLA statement says China always owns sovereignty over the Galwan Valley, but it is widely regarded as a settled area between the two countries recently. Can you comment? Zhao Lijian: Regarding Chinese and Indian troops on the ground, China and India are in close communication on the relevant matter through diplomatic and military channels. The overall situation in the border areas is stable and controllable. On your second question, China and India are in close communication on the relevant issue through diplomatic and military channels. The right and wrong of this matter is very clear. It happened on the Chinese side of the LAC. The onus is not on China. PTI: The Indian media reported on casualties on the Chinese side. Can you confirm? Zhao Lijian: The border troops of the two sides are jointly dealing with the specifics on the ground. I have no information to release here. I believe you have also noticed that since the incident happened, both sides have expressed willingness to resolve differences through dialogue and uphold peace and tranquility in the border areas. As the two largest developing countries and emerging markets, China and India have far more common interests than differences. Both sides need to faithfully follow the important consensus reached between the two leaders to ensure that China-India relations will proceed along the right track in line with the interests and expectations of the two peoples. We hope that the Indian side will work with us and meet the Chinese side halfway. PTI: Based on what you said now about the statements from both sides, can we presume or assume that there won't be further clashes between the two sides at the border? Zhao Lijian: For us, obviously we don't want to see more clashes. Bloomberg: Can you confirm reports in the media that US Secretary of State Pompeo and Director Yang Jiechi are meeting in Hawaii? Did China request the meeting? Also, what is the meeting about? Secondly, does China have a comment on the developments on the Korean Peninsula? Does it plan to be involved in the conflict that's currently taking place? Zhao Lijian: You must have skipped yesterday's press conference. Please refer to my answers to similar questions yesterday. RIA Novosti: Russian Defense Ministry announced that Chinese troops have already arrived in Moscow to participate in the military parade on June 25 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Great Patriotic War. I wonder if you could give more details on how many military personnel China has sent and who is the official that will represent the Chinese government at the parade? Zhao Lijian: This year marks the 75th anniversary of the victory of World War II. As major victorious nations of WWII, China and Russia made important contributions to the victory. China supports Russia in holding celebration activities for the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Great Patriotic War. We will continue working with Russia and the rest of the international community to safeguard the fruits of WWII and the hard-won peace. As for the specific question you asked about, I'd like to refer you to the Ministry of Defense. AFP: What outcomes does China expect to see from the upcoming nuclear disarmament talks between Russia and the US? Zhao Lijian: As we have repeatedly stated, it is our clear and consistent position that China has no intention to take part in a trilateral arms control negotiation with the US and Russia. We have noted that the US keeps dragging China into the New START extension issue between the US and Russia. It is just the same old trick it plays whenever it seeks to shift responsibility to others. Opponents on the first floor groaned. Board member and Mayville Mayor Rob Boelk said, Ive had a lot of discussions on this issue and many others as well. The bottom line is that people dont trust the government. They dont trust the state. Now theyre looking at the departments of public health. Board member Naomi Kriewald said, People are just beginning to have a semblance of life as we knew it. Now were going to have a new regulation and it scares them. People are very concerned that if their child comes down with something they will be taken out of their homes and placed in isolation. If they go into self-quarantine are there going to be guards placed outside to watch them? People are genuinely concerned and upset about this. People tell me that they just want to be left alone. At the end of the day what people fear is that this ordinance, if we adopt it, will be improperly applied, said board member Jeff Schmitt. Frankly, I think their fears are more grounded than the people who are afraid of dying of the virus. I definitely think this ordinance is overreach on our part. The crowd cheered and applauded his statements. The number of Covid-19 cases in Madhya Pradesh reached 11,083 on Wednesday with 134 more people testing positive for the coronavirus disease in the last 24 hours. Indore, a Covid-19 hotspot in the state, has been a leading contributor to the tally. It recorded 44 new cases in the said period which took the overall number in the district to 4,134. But health officials say the city has broken the transmission chain of coronavirus. People of Indore have followed guidelines of Covid-19 lockdown, so the chain of transmission has broken. It is a good thing and people should continue to practice social distancing and also take other precautionary measures, Mahendra Sharma, Chief Medical and Health Officer, told news agency ANI. He said Indore has so far recorded a good discharge rate and contact tracing is the priority to contain the further spread of Covid-19 in the district. The death toll in the district stands at 182. Indore has recorded the maximum Covid-19 cases as compare to other cities in the state because we identify contact tracing as much as we can. We hospitalised them and put them into isolation, that is why the percentage of Covid-19 cases has increased, Sharma said. State capital Bhopal, meanwhile, saw 48 new cases of the coronavirus disease in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to 2,283. Seventy three people have died due to the disease in Bhopal. The Covid-19 death toll in the state stands at 476, the state health department said. While cases have been reported from all 52 districts of the state, 31 districts havent reported new infection since Monday evening, news agency PTI quoted health officials as saying. Facebook's Nick Clegg has slammed Donald Trump's controversial 'looting and shooting' tweet as 'abhorrent', and revealed the tech giant has removed a 'number of ads' from the president's election campaign. But the former deputy Prime Minister of the UK, now Facebook's head of global affairs, said it was not the website's job to censor governments and defended the firm's decision not to remove the post. In an interview with the BBC, Sir Nick was asked what he thought of Trump's statement on Facebook and Twitter that 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts'. The inflammatory remark came amid riots over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed in Minneapolis when an officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes. Clegg said he found the comments 'abhorrent' but insisted 'defending free expression is important' as he explained why Facebook had not taken action against the post. In contrast, Twitter hid Trump's tweet two hours after it was put up online and added a notice which said the post was 'glorifying violence'. Facebook has today insisted it will not block or censor Donald Trump (pictured) in the upcoming US Presidential Election but has instead promised to increase its transparency while launching a new 'Voting Information Center' Trump's 1am tweet described looters as 'thugs' and warned that the federal government would 'assume control' with 'shooting' if necessary after protesters set fire to a police precinct. Twitter added its second warning to a Donald Trump tweet in four days by covering the president's message about the Minneapolis riots with a comment that it 'glorifies violence'. Nick Clegg has defended Facebook's decision not to adopt a similar measure, keeping Trump's post visible Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme as Facebook launched a Voting Information Centre ahead of the US presidential election later this year, Sir Nick said the website's system allows people to scrutinise what politicians like Trump are saying, and hold them to account by voting in elections. 'I think the fundamental judgment Facebook took in that instance was that, in the end, the best way to hold politicians to account for what they say - the good, the bad and the ugly - is to make sure that people can hear what they say,' he said. He claims Trump was 'saying that he felt the governor of Minnesota had not taken aggressive enough action at the time rioting was breaking out. 'In other words [Mr Trump] was threatening state action. And like all social media companies we allow governments to say that they are going to deploy force if they wish to.' Clegg added that: 'I think defending free expression, when it is controversial to do so, is important' because it is 'the way to hold politicians to account'. He suggested that those who 'don't like' Donald Trump should 'attack what he says'. He added that: 'In the end if you don't like what someone says, yes you can try and censor or silence them', but reiterated that the post had already been widely circulated online. He claimed 'the way to hold people to account is to criticise, mock, attack and pillory what they say', and said this is what Trump has experienced since making the post. Former Liberal Democrat leader Clegg added: 'Politicians always make caricatured claims about their own virtues and caricatured claims about the vices of their opponents. 'The idea that a private company, that in a sense has got no legitimacy to act as an arbiter of political truth as political opponents slug it out, should intervene and say, "You can't say this and you can't say that", I think people would feel quite rightly that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook don't have the legitimacy to do that'. The former Liberal Democrat, Nick Clegg (pictured), now a boss within the social media giant's European operation, said the 'best response' to those who do not like what Mr Trump says is 'to vote' Sir Nick also confirmed he was part of the decision-making process Facebook took to allow Trump's post to remain visible. When asked if politicians could 'literally say anything' on the website, Clegg responded that Facebook would remove material that posed an immediate physical threat. He cited the taking down of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's posts about 'bogus cures for the coronavirus' as an example of this measure. Clegg refuted claims the tech giant had not done enough and said: 'We have removed a number of ads from Donald Trump over the last several months'. Facebook has faced mounting criticism for failing to remove or label posts made by Trump that spread misinformation about mail voting. The former deputy prime minister went on to defend the website's stance not to fact-check political adverts. He argued the platform should not be the 'arbiter of political truth' and that 'Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook do not have the legitimacy' to tell politicians what they can and cannot say. Clegg's comments come as the website today announced it will allow users to turn off political adverts in the run-up to the US presidential election, while promising to block adverts from foreign state-controlled media. The social media giant will also launch a new 'Voting Information Center', giving Facebook and Instagram users details on registering to vote, polling places and voting by mail. It is part of the American firm's plan to tackle fake news and foreign interference in the upcoming US election, following accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election. But writing in the Daily Telegraph today, Clegg who has worked for Facebook for a year and half, insisted the platform believed in 'free expression'. He said the best way for those who do not like what Mr Trump is saying to respond is 'to vote'. He also said the company had 'looked hard at what went wrong' in relation to Russian interference in the 2016 US election, which saw fabricated articles and misinformation spread from Russian government-controlled media across social media platforms. This image provided by Facebook shows screens of Voting Information Center. Facebook is launching a widespread effort to boost U.S. voter turnout and show authoritative information about voting, even as it doubles down on its stance to let politicians like President Donald Trump post misinformation about voting It comes as Facebook also announced a raft of new measures which it hopes will engage voters in the upcoming US presidential election. The American-based social media giant is launching a 'Voting Information Center' on Facebook and Instagram that will include details on registering to vote, polling places and voting by mail. The information centre will be much like Facebook's coronavirus information centre that was launched earlier this year and will draw information from state election officials and local election authorities. It will be prominently displayed on Facebook news feeds and on Instagram later in the summer. But the website will not remove or label posts by US politicians, including President Donald Trump, which spread misinformation about postal voting. It comes amid an intense row between the President and Facebook's rival Twitter over its decision to 'fact-check' a tweet by Mr Trump surrounding 'misleading' claims that mail-in ballots would lead to fraud. Mr Clegg said: 'Facebook believes in free expression and the right of voters to hear what politicians are saying so they can be held to account. 'That does not mean politicians can say whatever they like - the line is drawn at speech that will cause imminent harm or suppress voting, and no-on is exempt from that. 'But if people do not like what Mr Trump or any other politician is saying, the best response is not to censor them, but to vote.' His comments echo those by Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg made last month. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (left) has reaffirmed his position that the platform should allow 'as much expression as possible'. It follows a row between President Donald Trump (pictured right) and social media giants over his 'misleading' claims that postal ballots in the US Presidential election will lead to voting fraud He said: 'I know many people are upset that we have left the Presidents posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies.' In a USA Today opinion piece Tuesday, Zuckerberg reaffirmed that position. 'Ultimately, I believe the best way to hold politicians accountable is through voting, and I believe we should trust voters to make judgments for themselves,' he wrote. 'That's why I think we should maintain as open a platform as possible, accompanied by ambitious efforts to boost voter participation.' Facebook's free speech stance may have more to do with not wanting to alienate Trump and his supporters while keeping its business options open, critics suggest. Dipayan Ghosh, co-director of the Platform Accountability Project at Harvard Kennedy School, said Facebook 'does not want to tick off a whole swath of people who really believe the president and appreciate' his words. In addition to the voting hub, Facebook will also now let people turn off political and social issue ads that display the 'paid for by' designation, meaning a politician or political entity funded it. The company is implementing the measure after announced the option back in January. Facebook will also block all ads in the US during the election period from state-controlled media organisations in other countries. Sir Nick wrote in the Telegraph that 'This provides a level of transparency far greater than anything which existed in the last US election or the Brexit referendum - and exceeds the transparency of political ads in print or broadcast media.' Sarah Schiff, product manager who works on ads, cautioned that Facebook's systems 'aren't perfect' and said she encourages users to report 'paid for by' ads they see if they have chosen not to see them. This image provided by Facebook shows screens of Voting Information Center. Facebook is launching a widespread effort to boost U.S. voter turnout and show authoritative information about voting, even as it doubles down on its stance to let politicians like President Donald Trump post misinformation about voting Earlier this month, President Trump was officially 'fact-checked' by Twitter for suggesting that California's mail-in balloting initiative would lead to substantial voter fraud in the November general election. Trump also tweeted on Tuesday morning: 'There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed.' He then insinuated that non-citizens could get ballots. 'The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one,' the president said. 'That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote.' The president ended the two-tweet tirade by saying, 'This will be a Rigged Election.' 'No way!' said Trump, who votes in Florida absentee. By Tuesday afternoon, Twitter had labelled the tweets with a blue exclamation mark prompting users to 'get the facts about mail-in ballots.' Another page on the social media site called Trump's tweets 'unsubstantiated,' according to fact-checkers from CNN, Washington Post and other mainstream news outlets. Kimberly Oldham, 62, from Indiana is facing charges of animal cruelty after she tried to neuter her dog using an elastic band A woman has been arrested after she allegedly tried to neuter her pet dog by herself. Kimberly Oldham, 62, from Indiana is alleged to have attempted the procedure using an elastic band at her home after being unable to afford to have it done properly by a vet. She got the idea to perform the castration on her black and white three-year-old Terrier-Chihuahua mix from a next door neighbor. The neighbor advised that they thought the dog's testicles would fall off if done properly. Oldham claims she had been receiving complaints about the animal not being neutered so asked for advice. She got the idea to perform the castration on her black and white three-year-old Terrier-Chihuahua mix from a next door neighbor After having a go at the procedure, it wasn't until next morning she found her poor pooch to be seriously unwell. The dog had been chewing the area where his testicles once hung and was bleeding out. Oldham then took the animal to a proper veterinary clinic where a veterinarian found the poor pup in pain and very dehydrated for WGN9. 'Upon closer examination, the doctor said 'a dental floss like string was located wrapped around the base of the scrotum,'' according to NWI.com. 'In speaking with Ms. Oldham, she again explained that she never intended on harming the animal, but after receiving numerous complaints about her dog not being neutered and not having the funds to do so, she took the advice of her neighbors,' a police report states. 'Throughout speaking with Ms. Oldham, she was extremely upset and regretted her actions but saw no other way due to her not having money to pay for the operation,' police said. Oldham explained that a neighbor told her how to do the dog's castration by herself using an elastic band around the animal's testicles The dog suffered a severe trauma in the area as a result of the botched operation and a proper neutering had to be performed in order to keep him alive. The clinic informed the Porter County Sheriff's Office whereupon Oldham was arrested and charged with felony count of animal cruelty. The dog is still being kept at the clinic and will soon be available to be adopted. The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Wednesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available. 9:22 p.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in Canada as compiled by the Canadian Press finds that there have been 99,853 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada as of Wednesday evening. By province and region: Quebec: 54,263 confirmed (including 5,298 deaths, 22,549 resolved); Ontario: 32,744 confirmed (including 2,550 deaths, 27,784 resolved); Alberta: 7,530 confirmed (including 151 deaths, 6,893 resolved); British Columbia: 2,775 confirmed (including 168 deaths, 2,422 resolved); Nova Scotia: 1,061 confirmed (including 62 deaths, 997 resolved); Saskatchewan: 693 confirmed (including 13 deaths, 633 resolved); Manitoba: 295 confirmed (including seven deaths, 293 resolved), 11 presumptive; Newfoundland and Labrador: 261 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 257 resolved); New Brunswick: 164 confirmed (including two deaths, 133 resolved); Prince Edward Island: 27 confirmed (including 27 resolved); Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed (including 13 resolved); Yukon: 11 confirmed (including 11 resolved); Northwest Territories: five confirmed (including five resolved); Nunavut: No confirmed cases. Total: 99,853 (11 presumptive, 99,842 confirmed including 8,254 deaths, 62,017 resolved) 9:20 p.m.: Mexicos coronavirus cases continued to increase at near-record levels Wednesday, as officials acknowledged the country is on a plateau with few signs of decrease, even as the economy starts reopening. The Health Department reported that confirmed cases rose by 4,930, the second-highest daily increase to date, to reach an accumulated total of 159,793. Deaths rose by 770, the third-highest daily number, after one-day increases of 1,092 and 816 earlier this month. Those death tolls rivalled those of the United States and Mexicos overall death toll now stands at 19,080. Both case and death totals are clearly undercounts because Mexico does very little testing. Moreover, reporting has been slow and faulty the Mexican Social Security Institute, the nations largest health care provider, said Wednesday that 957 confirmed COVID-19 deaths had not been added to official counts because the information had not been typed into computer systems. 8:50 p.m.: Premier Doug Ford pleaded with Ontarios scared migrant workers Wednesday to get tested for COVID-19, acknowledging that the current testing strategy has captured only a small slice of the migrant population in a region with several outbreaks. Ford made the comments one day after a local hospital in Windsor-Essex one of only three regions not allowed to enter Stage 2 of reopening this week announced it was closing a centre designed to test the workers. Only 724 workers out of the regions 8,000 temporary foreign workers have been tested since the centre was opened on June 9. Ford said he would do anything to help test more workers and stop the spread of the virus on farms. Not working with the government, he said, isnt fair to the rest of the region. Ill send buses, Ill send mobile units, he said. Please to the farmers and the workers I understand the reluctance. In some cases, theyre worried (or) theyre scared, the workers. Theres no reason to be scared. Just please get tested. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the government needs to provide the workers with more assurances that they will be protected should they test positive. They need to know that their jobs will be protected. They need to know that they wont be deported for testing positive. 8:11 p.m.: A genetic analysis of COVID-19 patients suggests that blood type might influence whether someone develops severe disease. Scientists who compared the genes of thousands of patients in Europe found that those who had Type A blood were more likely to have severe disease while those with Type O were less likely. Wednesdays report in the New England Journal of Medicine does not prove a blood type connection, but it does support a previous report from China of such a link. Most of us discounted it because it was a very crude study, Dr. Parameswar Hari, a blood specialist at the Medical College of Wisconsin, said of the report from China. With the new work, now I believe it, he said. It could be very important. Other scientists urged caution; evidence of a role for blood type is tentative ... it isnt enough of a signal to be sure, said Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego. The study, involving scientists in Italy, Spain, Denmark, Germany and other countries, compared about 2,000 patients with severe COVID-19 to several thousand other people who were healthy or who had only mild or no symptoms. Most genetic studies like this are much larger, Topol said. There are four main blood types A, B, AB and O and its determined by proteins on the surface of your red blood cells, said Dr. Mary Horowitz, scientific chief at the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Bodies of people with Type O are better able to recognize certain proteins as foreign, and that may extend to proteins on virus surfaces, Hari explained, adding that during the SARS outbreak, it was noted that people with O blood type were less likely to get severe disease. 5:58 p.m.: Ontarios regional health units are reporting another day with fewer than 200 new COVID-19 cases, and the fewest reported deaths since late March. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the units had reported a total of 34,613 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,602 deaths, up a total of 195 new cases in 24 hours up slightly from Tuesday, but still below the 200-case threshold that the province had exceeded every other day from late March to this Sunday. The daily rate of new infections in the province has been falling steadily this month. Ontario has seen an average of 210 cases reported in the last seven days, down more than 60 per cent from an average of nearly 600 cases a day reported in mid-April. As has been the case in recent weeks, the overwhelming majority of new COVID-19 infections in Ontario continue to occur in the GTA; just 49 of Wednesdays cases were reported outside in the regions five health units. But the rate of new cases is also falling sharply in the Toronto area. On Wednesday, Toronto Public Health reported fewer than 100 new cases for the sixth consecutive day. Meanwhile, the seven new fatal cases reported since Tuesday evening was also the lowest total in months, continuing a downward trend that has seen the rate of deaths fall from a peak of 90 in a single day, seen in early May. Earlier Wednesday, the province reported that 383 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 92 in intensive care, of whom 65 are on a ventilator. All three totals are now the lowest the province has reported in data that goes back to April 2. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths 2,550 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. 5:22 p.m.: Floridas Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed 2,610 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the states total to 82,719. There were also 25 new deaths announced, raising the statewide death toll to 3,018. A Miami Herald analysis of public and nonpublic COVID-19 data found that as of June 3, new cases in Florida had consistently been trending up since mid-May and the trends could not be attributed solely to increases in testing, which had been inconsistent and sometimes declining during that period. And as bars, gyms, vacation rentals and movie theatres reopened at partial capacity in all but three South Florida counties, the number and rate of new COVID-19 cases were rising statewide a troubling indicator that the disease could be spreading more quickly. The state announced its highest daily total of newly confirmed cases Tuesday with 2,783. It was the fourth time in six days that the state reported a record number of cases. 4:22 p.m.: The Toronto agency that operates three prestigious arts venues says additional layoffs mean 115 full-time positions have now been affected by the pandemic. TO Live says this is in addition to the 480 unionized, part-time and casual staff who were already laid off or placed on temporary leave. The non-profit charitable arts group says the most recent round of 32 layoffs follow an 85 per cent drop in revenue. TO Live operates Meridian Hall, formerly the Sony Centre; St Lawrence Centre for the Arts; and the Meridian Arts Centre, formerly Toronto Centre for the Arts. The entire sector has been ravaged by COVID-19 and TO Live is no exception, TO Live president Clyde Wagner said Wednesday in a release. As an agency of the City of Toronto, TO Live does not qualify for federal government support programs during COVID-19. TO Live said the remaining 30 staff will work towards long-term planning. They will be on a reduced work week of four days, with a 20 per cent reduction in pay. 3:06 p.m.: Newfoundland and Labrador officials say the province is aiming to lift more pandemic-related restrictions on gatherings, businesses and activities starting next week. Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, chief medical officer of health, said Wednesday that the province will enter the next alert level of its reopening plan on June 25 if current trends continue. Alert level two would allow gyms and other fitness facilities such as pools to reopen with restrictions, along with arenas, bars and entertainment facilities such as movie theatres, with reduced capacity. Places of worship would also be permitted to open, and Fitzgerald said gatherings of up to 50 people may be permitted if people are able to maintain physical distance. There are two active cases of COVID-19 in the province out of a total 261 cases. The last positive case was reported on May 28. Alert level two is the last phase before the provinces reopening plan enters what is described as the new normal, with some restrictions remaining until transmission patterns are better understood and a treatment is available. 1:49 p.m.: Quebecs chief coroner has ordered a vast public inquiry into COVID-19 deaths at some of the provinces long-term care homes, private seniors residences and other accommodations for vulnerable people. Pascale Descary, the provinces chief coroner, says in a statement the public inquiry will allow Quebecers to learn the facts about what happened during the pandemic. Coroner Gehane Kamel has been appointed to oversee the inquiry. A lawyer by training, she will be assisted by a coroner with medical background, Dr. Jacques Ramsay, given the complexity of the subject and the large number of deaths. The coroners mandate will investigate certain deaths in those residences that occurred between March 12 and May 1 where the coroner was notified because the death was violent, its cause was unclear or it was possibly linked to negligence. 1:44 p.m.: U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi is requiring that House members wear masks when attending committee hearings, an edict that comes amid spiking COVID-19 cases in many states. The requirement does not apply to the House floor, where a Republican lawmaker who tested positive for coronavirus was recently seen without a face covering. Pelosi, D-Calif., wears a mask when making her way about the Capitol but removes it when speaking. 1:40 p.m.: A new COVID-19 situation has popped up at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon. Less than a month after their outbreak was declared over, on May 14, a suspect outbreak was declared at the facility by the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit (HKPR) on Thursday, June 11. According to the local health unit, the suspect outbreak was declared after a staff person with atypical COVID-19 symptoms tested positive for the virus. A suspect outbreak is declared by the Health Unit so that additional precautions can be put in place to protect residents and staff while the Health Unit investigates fully to determine if the situation meets the criteria for declaring an outbreak, read a press release from HKPR. Given the atypical nature of the staff persons symptoms and the history of the facility, the Health Unit is working with Pinecrest to review precautions and conduct additional testing on staff and residents as determined in consultation with Public Health Ontario. The previous outbreak at the facility saw 28 people die from COVID-19. 1:14 p.m.: Medical experts from Torontos SickKids Hospital say children in Ontario should be able to return to school in September even though the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 likely wont be eradicated by then. SickKids says it has worked closely with Ontarios Ministry of Education to provide guidance on how to safely reopen schools. A team of doctors released their recommendations Wednesday, putting more emphasis on hand hygiene than wearing masks or physical distancing. Dr. Michelle Science says steps should be taken to ensure some distancing in school settings such as separating desks and putting students into cohorts but trying to enforce safe distances among kids is impractical. She said face masks are only potentially beneficial when worn properly and incorrect use can lead to an increased risk in infection. The experts also say that according to recent data, children are not the superspreaders of COVID-19 they initially believed they would be. 12:51 p.m.: The U.N. General Assembly president banged his gavel to open elections Wednesday under dramatically different voting procedures because of the COVID-19 pandemic, including for two hotly contested seats on the U.N. Security Council. The U.N. headquarters complex remains open for essential workers, but Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has ordered staff to work from home until July 31 because of the pandemic. So instead of having ambassadors from the 193 U.N. member nations in the General Assembly chamber together for elections, a new procedure was adopted. On Wednesday morning it went into operation a few ambassadors arriving at the assembly during spaced-out time slots starting at 9 a.m. to avoid a large gathering and ensure social distancing. And instead of voting separately for the next General Assembly president, five new members of the Security Council, and 18 new members of the Economic and Social Council, the three elections are being held at the same time by secret ballot. 12:31 p.m.: Sunrise Thornhill is the latest long-term care facility in York Region to report an outbreak of COVID-19 at its facility. The home, located on Steeles Avenue, near Bathurst Street, received its first positive test result May 27, and since then has had 16 others with positive findings. The positive tests include nine residents and eight staff members. York Region currently has seven outbreaks and 58 have been resolved. Outbreaks can be declared over when there are no new cases in residents or staff after 14 days. 12:27 p.m.: As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, Ontarios regional health units are reporting a total of 34,454 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,595 deaths up a total of 184 new cases since the same time Tuesday morning. The daily rate of new infections in the province has been falling steadily this month. Ontario has seen an average of 218 cases reported in the last seven days, the lowest for any seven-day period since March and down more than 60 per cent from an average of nearly 600 cases a day reported in mid-April. Meanwhile, the 16 new fatal cases reported in the last 24 hours were slightly above the recent downward trend that has seen the rate of deaths fall from a peak of 90 deaths in a single day, seen in early May. Earlier Wednesday, the province reported that 383 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 92 in intensive care, of whom 65 are on a ventilator. All three totals are now the lowest the province has reported in data that goes back to April 2. The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths 2,550 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. 12:22 p.m.: Mo Yazdani left his downtown Toronto apartment for his parents house in Ottawa midway through April. After spending the first few weeks of lockdown in a cramped space, unable to see any friends, the solitude began to wear on him. As an extrovert, I just wanted to be around someone, and have more space, maybe go cycling and running, Yazdani says. So, he bought a train ticket, packed a bag, and went home. The product owner at a Toronto-based tech company says he feels like theres not much hes missed in Toronto in the few months since he left. In fact, many of his friends scattered around the same time he did. Theres been a bit of an exodus from Toronto, he says. People definitely want more freedom than they would before. Yazdani and his peers are among countless young Canadians to flee major metropolitan areas during lockdown in search of space, proximity to family or distance from COVID-19 hotspots. But as social distancing orders carry on in cities across the country, and a growing number of workplaces shift toward remote models, many millennials are left weighing their options about moving back. Read the full story here. 11:55 a.m.: Exactly 100 days after the last game, the Premier League is back. In stadiums restricted to around 300 people as the pandemic dangers persist, Manchester City will host Arsenal after Aston Villa plays Sheffield United on Wednesday night. It will usher in an unprecedented summer blitz of games in an attempt to complete the season by July 26, following Germany, Spain and Italy in resuming soccer. 11:42 a.m.: The Redpath Waterfront Festival has decided to cancel the Worlds Largest Rubber Duck this fall. The famous Duck was scheduled to return to Toronto this September as part of the festival, which had been previously postponed from June. With the overwhelming success of Mama Ducks visit in 2017, and the large crowds that flocked to the waterfront, festival organizers believe the time is still not right to bring the Duck back, especially given the ongoing regulations on crowds as part of an effort to ensure the health and safety of Canadians, said a news release on Wednesday. 11:28 a.m.: Virtually all indoor and outdoor physical training activities with the exception of combat sports will be allowed to resume in Quebec as of next week, deputy education minister Isabelle Charest announced Wednesday. Gyms, arenas and all other indoor training facilities can open Monday, June 22, Charest said, adding that team sports will also be allowed on that day. Public and private beaches can also reopen next week, and lifeguard training classes can resume. A maximum of 50 people will be allowed indoors together, said Charest, and players will still need to keep a two-metre distance from each other most of the time. 11 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promising to deliver a snapshot of the federal governments finances in the House of Commons July 8. The Liberals were supposed to present a full budget for 2020 in March but postponed it indefinitely when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Trudeau has said uncertainty from the pandemic makes meaningful forecasts impossible. Thats why he is warning the financial details to be delivered in July will not be a full economic update, but rather a slimmed-down version, detailing government spending measures that have been rolled out so far during the pandemic with some short-term spending estimates. Ive consistently said an economic and fiscal update would be unrealistic right now because it automatically includes projections for a year, three years, five years ahead of time which, quite frankly, we couldnt make any responsible predictions about it, Trudeau said Wednesday. 10:53 a.m.: The Rogers Cup mens tennis tournament will not be played in 2020 because of the COVID-19 crisis. Tennis Canada said in a release issued Wednesday that the events start date will be pushed back until Aug. 7, 2021. The annual ATP Tour event, which rotates between Toronto and Montreal, was scheduled to be played Aug. 8-16 at the Aviva Centre at York University. With the Rogers Cup 2020 womens tournament in Montreal shelved earlier this month and rescheduled for next year in the same city, the mens event also will remain in Toronto in 2021. 10:44 a.m.: The golf course President Donald Trump owns near his Mar-a-Lago getaway and plays frequently when he visits is seeking a break on its rent because of lost business caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Trump International Golf Club asked Palm Beach County to defer an unspecified amount of its $88,338 monthly rent, something the county has done for other tenants at properties it owns. Trump leased the land the 27-hole private club sits upon from the county two decades ago under a 99-year agreement. Palm Beach County ordered the closure of golf courses in March as part of its pandemic response. They werent allowed to reopen for more than a month and only then with restrictions. 10:34 p.m.: Ontario is finally banning commercial evictions to stop landlords from throwing small business owners onto the street during the COVID-19 pandemic. Premier Doug Ford, who has blasted greedy landlords for not signing up for the federal and provincial subsidies designed to help commercial tenants, has ensured his Progressive Conservative government will the legislation Wednesday afternoon. Im here for the little guy. Thats why Ive ordered legislation to ban commercial evictions for those who qualify for the commercial rent relief program, the premier told reporters last week. The ban would take effect for evictions on or after June 3 and last until August 31, he said. Read the full story from the Stars Robert Benzie here. 10:02 a.m.: The federal environment minister says Canadians who have campground reservations in some national parks will be allowed to pitch their tents and pull in their trailers starting next week. Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says camping will be allowed as early as Monday at many parks. He says the campgrounds will initially only be available to visitors with existing reservations. All national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas were closed at the end of March to slow the spread of COVID-19. Many of the parks have been opened to day-use visitors since early June, but officials had said there would be no camping before June 21. 9:50 a.m.: OPEC predicted that fuel demand will remain under pressure during the second half of this year because of the ongoing economic fallout from the coronavirus, a day before ministers were due to assess world markets. While there will be a gradual recovery in the global economy, it wont compensate for the slump during the first six months of this year, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its latest monthly oil market report. The slow resumption of flights will constrain jet-fuel consumption, and high unemployment will restrict gasoline use, it said. Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of the OPEC+ coalition are due to hold an online meeting on Thursday to review the impact of the biggest ever production cuts announced last month. They estimate that 87 per cent of the record 9.7 million barrel-a-day reduction was delivered in May, according to a delegate who asked not to be identified because the information wasnt public. 9:12 a.m.: Statistics Canada says inflation pulled back even further in May as businesses shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic began to reopen slowly. The agency says the consumer price index fell 0.4 per cent compared with a year ago, making it the second month in a row for negative inflation after a 0.2 per cent drop for April. Prices rose in four of the eight major components on a year-over-year basis. Read the full report here. 8:48 a.m.: Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19, the Central American leader said late Tuesday in a television message. Hernandez said that over the weekend he began feeling some discomfort and on Tuesday received the test results. He said it was part of the risk that comes with the job. With his responsibilities, he said, he could not stay at home constantly. 8:15 a.m.: Beijing reported a slight increase in new coronavirus cases Wednesday as it fights a new outbreak with strict measures aimed at reducing human contact and the chances of a new wave of infections across the country. More than 60% of commercial flights in and out of Beijing have been cancelled as the city limits travel in and out of the city, especially from districts where new cases have been detected. The website of the Communist Partys Global Times said that as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, a total of 1,255 flights to and from the capitals two major airports have been scrapped. Beijing said it had essentially eradicated local transmission but in recent days has added 137 cases in the city of 20 million people. 7:50 a.m.: A Code Orange used to be rare and unexpected. But COVID-19 changed that. At St. Michaels we have had nine of what we now call COVID Code Oranges since early April, writes Dr. Carolyn Snider, the chief of emergency medicine at Unity Health Toronto St. Michaels Hospital. Read the column from the Star contributor here: How COVID-19 cases among the homeless overwhelm St. Mikes hospital. 7:11 a.m. Premier Doug Ford is extending Ontarios emergency orders until the end of the month even though the provinces economy is gradually opening up as new COVID-19 cases start to dwindle. Ford on Wednesday announced that all emergency orders in force under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act will remain in effect until June 30. Thats the same day the provinces state of emergency, which has been in place since March 17, is due to expire. By law, the orders must be spelled out and renewed every fortnight even during an emergency. The premier said another extension was necessary to ensure the government can safely and gradually reopen the province. Read the full story from the Stars Robert Benzie here. 6:45 a.m. Indonesia surpassed Singapore as the country with the most number of coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia as the worlds fourth-most populous nation ramped up testing across the archipelago to contain the pandemic. Confirmed new cases jumped 1,031 in the past 24 hours, taking Indonesias total to 41,431, Achmad Yurianto, a health ministry official, said at a briefing in Jakarta. That exceeded Singapores tally of 41,216, official data showed. The nations death toll stood at 2,276, also the highest in Southeast Asia. Indonesia has seen a surge in infections in recent weeks with the ramping up of virus testing as authorities began easing social distancing rules in capital Jakarta and other cities to revive an economy brought to a halt by the pandemic. President Joko Widodo and other officials have called for steps to prevent a second wave of infections and threatened to reimpose social distancing rules to contain the virus. 6 a.m.: Executive health-care clinic Medcan plans to provide a COVID-19 antibody test to clients next month, at a price, the Toronto-based company says. Unlike swab tests that determine if someone has an active infection, these blood tests show whether people have developed antibodies that suggest theyve already had COVID-19 and could be protected from getting it again. But experts have urged caution. There are concerns with accuracy and false positives. And scientists think but havent yet proven with strong evidence, that if you have the antibodies you are immune from getting the disease again. Read the Star Exclusive story here. 6 a.m.: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says a state ceremony will be held on July 16 to honour more than 27,000 people who have died in the pandemic. Speaking to lawmakers, Sanchez said Wednesday that the ceremony will be presided over by King Felipe VI, Spains head of state, and attended by top officials from the European Union and the World Health Organization. It will take place four months after Spain imposed one of the strictest lockdowns. Confining the population at home and halting most of the economic activity, it took nearly two months to curb the outbreak. Spain has had more than 244,000 confirmed cases. Although daily deaths are believed to have dropped to a single digit, the government has kept the fatality toll at 27,136 for two weeks as it revises inconsistencies on reporting from different regional authorities. 5:58 a.m.: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has assigned a top military leader to oversee the nations border quarantine measures after what she described as an unacceptable failure by health officials in allowing two women who had recently returned from London to leave quarantine before they had been tested for the virus. The women, who are New Zealand citizens, had flown home to visit a dying parent and were granted an exemption to leave their mandatory 14-day quarantine early on compassionate grounds. They then travelled by car from Auckland to Wellington, where they tested positive for the virus. Health officials said the women had no contact with other people on their road trip. However, officials said they are contacting 320 people who may have come into contact with the women on their flight or in the hotel they stayed at during their time in quarantine. Before the two new cases were announced Tuesday, New Zealand had gone more than three weeks without reporting any new cases and was considered virus-free. Ardern has advocated tough border measures to prevent another outbreak and has cancelled quarantine exemptions on compassionate grounds while the case is investigated further. She said she had appointed Air Commodore Digby Webb, the assistant chief of defence, to oversee all quarantine and managed isolation facilities. 5:57 a.m.: Chinas capital reported a slight increase in the numbers confirmed new coronavirus cases Wednesday as it seeks to battle the recent outbreak with strict measures aimed at reducing human contact and the chances of a new wave of infections across the country. The capital, which had seemed to have the outbreak under control, reported 31 cases, up from 27 the day before, primarily linked to the city of 20 millions largest wholesale market in its southwest. Nationwide, China reported 44 new cases, around the average for recent days. Eleven of those were brought from abroad by Chinese travellers, while one other local case was from Hebei province adjacent to Beijing and one in the eastern province of Zhejiang further south. No new deaths were reported and just 252 people are currently in treatment for COVID-19, with another 113 being isolated and observed for being suspected cases or for testing positive for the virus without showing any symptoms. 5:55 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces a confidence vote today but theres little chance his minority Liberal government will fall in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trudeau assured the support of New Democrat MPs by announcing Tuesday that his government is extending the $2,000-a-month Canada Emergency Response Benefit for another eight weeks. In return for extending the CERB, a spokeswoman for the NDP, Melanie Richer, said New Democrat MPs will vote in favour this evening of the supplementary spending estimates some $87 billion in planned, primarily pandemic-related, government spending. Only about $6 billion actually involves new spending; the other $81 billion has already been approved by Parliament. Because the Liberals hold only a minority of seats in the House of Commons, they need the support of at least one of the main opposition parties to pass legislation and avoid defeat on confidence votes. 4 a.m.: There are 99,467 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada as of 4 a.m. on June 17, 2020, according to The Canadian Press, (including 8,213 deaths, 61,443 resolved). Note: The Star keeps its own tally for Ontario, which will be posted around 11:30 a.m. Quebec: 54,263 confirmed (including 5,298 deaths, 22,549 resolved) Alberta: 7,482 confirmed (including 151 deaths, 6,882 resolved) British Columbia: 2,756 confirmed (including 168 deaths, 2,416 resolved) Nova Scotia: 1,061 confirmed (including 62 deaths, 997 resolved) Saskatchewan: 684 confirmed (including 13 deaths, 631 resolved) Manitoba: 293 confirmed (including 7 deaths, 292 resolved), 11 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 261 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 257 resolved) New Brunswick: 163 confirmed (including 2 deaths, 131 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 Tuesday 5:45 p.m.: Ontario has once again seen fewer than 200 new COVID-19 cases amid a steep fall in infections, according to the Stars latest count. As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, the provinces regional health units had reported a total of 34,418 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,595 deaths, up a total of 187 new cases in 24 hours the second day in the last three with fewer than 200 new cases, down again after a brief jump Monday. Before the recent downturn, the last day in which the units reported fewer than 200 cases was March 26, back in the early days of rapid case growth before the COVID-19 epidemic first peaked in the province. As has been the case in recent weeks, the overwhelming majority of new COVID-19 infections in Ontario continue to occur in the GTA; just 56 of Tuesdays cases outside in the regions five health units. But the rate of new cases is also falling sharply in the Toronto area. On Tuesday, Toronto Public Health reported fewer than 100 new cases for the fifth consecutive day. Meanwhile, the 16 new fatal cases reported since Monday evening was up slightly from a downward trend that has seen the rate of deaths fall from a peak of 90 deaths in a single day, seen in early May. Earlier Tuesday, the province reported that 413 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 98 in intensive care, of whom 70 are on a ventilator. Those numbers have also 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 2,538 may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date. The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test. Read more about: The Labor opposition has labelled Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner's second budget one "of half-measures", saying it offers little COVID-19 economic relief and slashes funding to community groups. "We've got half a rates freeze, we've got half a rates rebate, and he's slashing support for community groups by more than half," Labor opposition leader Jared Cassidy said. Opposition leader Jared Cassidy says the 2020-21 council budget is one of "half measures". Credit:Tammy Law Cr Schrinner handed down the $3.1 billion 2020-2021 budget on Wednesday morning, saying it was the most challenging budget in the city's history, but still delivered a slim surplus. The lord mayor said the council knew people were "doing it tough" and community groups and sporting clubs were also suffering. Johns Manville (JM), a global building and specialty products manufacturer and a Berkshire Hathaway company, announced today that Greg Clarke will become President of the company's Insulation Systems business, effective Sept. 1, 2020. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005677/en/ Greg Clarke (Photo: Business Wire) Clarke will succeed Bob Wamboldt, who will be JM's next President and CEO. Mary Rhinehart, the company's current Chairman, President and CEO, will retain the role of Chairman. "Greg is a trusted business partner and a critical member of JM's leadership team," Rhinehart said. "He brings a broad base of JM knowledge and experience to this new role and we are confident our Insulation Systems business will continue to succeed under his leadership." Clarke was named JM's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer when he rejoined the company in 2013. In this role, he led JM's finance organization, global procurement and logistics operations, and corporate development activities. He previously worked for Johns Manville from 1997 to 2002 and was Vice President and General Manager of the company's Building Insulation and Commercial Industrial Insulation divisions. "Greg and I have worked well together over the last seven years, and I look forward to continuing this relationship as he transitions into his new role," Wamboldt said. Before returning to Johns Manville, Clarke was Chief Financial Officer and a Director at AeroGrow International Inc., an early-stage consumer products company, and President and CEO at Ankmar, LLC, a building products company. Earlier in his career, he held finance leadership and strategic planning roles at PepsiCo Inc. and The Coleman Company Inc. "I'm excited about the opportunity to get back to our Insulation Systems business," Clarke said. "We have an outstanding team and a strong market presence with the most complete line of insulation solutions for commercial, residential, OEM and industrial applications. I know there is a compelling future ahead for the business and I look forward to helping to achieve that vision." Clarke earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Amherst College and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He serves on the AeroGrow Board of Directors and is a member of the Board of Alumni and Friends of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado. He and his family live in Denver. About Johns Manville Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B), is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality building and specialty products. In business since 1858, the Denver-based company has annual sales over $3 billion and holds leadership positions in all of the key markets that it serves. Johns Manville employs 8,000 people and operates 46 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China. Additional information can be found at www.jm.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005677/en/ Contacts: Eric Brown +1-303-809-2853 eric.brown@jm.com Indian film director Abhinav Singh Kashyap, brother of noted filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, took the nation by storm after he released a statement on Facebook alleging that he was "bullied" at the hands of Arbaaz Khan, Salman Khan, Sohail Khan and Salim Khan. He also accused them of sabotaging his career in the industry. Twitter Reacting to the same, Arbaaz Khan revealed that he last spoke to Kashyap in 2012 before Dabangg 2 and that he is planning to take a legal action against him. BCCL "In fact, we have already taken legal action even before this post; it was after his earlier post (when Kashyap spoke about having differences with Arbaaz and Salmaan and led him to step down from the Dabangg franchise). We have had no communication with Abhinav since we started working on Dabangg 2. We parted ways professionally. Dont know where all this coming from. We are taking legal action," he told Hindustan Times. FILMBEAT.COM Salman Khan's father Salim Khan also spoke about the controversy to Bombay Times. He said, "Ji haan, humne hi sab kharab kiya hai na. Aap pehle jaake unki filmey dekhiye phir hum baat karte hai. (Yes, we have spoiled everything. Go and watch his films first then talk.) Let him do whatever he wants, I am not going to waste time in reacting to what he says." BCCL After Abhinav Kashyap released his statement on Facebook, he was trending on social media for almost the entire day. Reacting to the controversy involving Salman Khan and his family, Anurag Kashyap had also released a statement. "For the media calling me and people who want to ask , treat this as my statement. 'More than two years ago , Abhinav had told me clearly to stay out of his business and its not my place to comment on anything he says or does.' Thank You," he wrote on Twitter. Twitter For the uninitiated, Abhinav Kashyap in his statement had blamed the Khan family of ruining his career by doing everything they could to prevent him from working in the industry. "I have experienced exploitation and bullying first hand. The reason why I moved out of making Dabangg 2 ten years ago was because Arbaaz Khan in collusion with Sohail Khan and family was trying to take control of my career by bullying me. Arbaaz Khan sabotaged my second project with Shree Ashtavinayak Films that I was signed up with by personally calling their head Raj Mehta and threatening him with dire consequences if they made a film with me. I had to return the signing money to Shree Ashtavinayak Films and moved to Viacom Pictures. They did the same thing. Only this time the sabotager was Sohail Khan and he intimidated the then Viacom CEO Vikram Malhotra," he wrote. Salman Khan is yet to react on the controversy. (If you know anyone battling with depression or other mental health issues, please reach out to someone who can help. AASRA Foundation: 022 2754 6669 Samaritans Mumbai: +91 84229 84528 / +91 84229 84529 / +91 84229 84530 Sanjivini Society for Mental Health: +911124311918). 17.06.2020 LISTEN A baby who is thought to be Britains youngest covid-19 survivor has finally returned home. Emmanuel Boateng was born three months premature, before the coronavirus lockdown. After spending the first few weeks of his life in intensive care, he was discharged. But 10 days later, he fell ill and was rushed to Kings College Hospital where he was diagnosed with both sepsis and coronavirus. Emmanuel spent 37 days in hospital with the virus, 21 in intensive care, where the newborn's parents were unable to visit him due to social distancing restrictions. After a traumatic start to life, most of which he spent in hospital, Emmanuel has fully recovered and has finally been able to go home. ---citinewsroom More than twenty marines from the 32e Raidingsquadron in Aruba were deployed last night because of fire of the Dr. Horacio E. Oduber Hospital. The marines, placed at the Marines barracks Savaneta, have been called upon to provide assistance such as placing tents and camp beds. They also transported patients who had to be moved to a more safe location. The head of the Bureau for Disaster Relief Aruba (RBA) called the barracks commander Lt. Col. Art van Beekhuizen directly with the request to provide military assistance. Immediate action was taken and soldiers were sent to the hospital for support. Lieutenant Colonel van Beekhuizen: Our mission is safety in and from Aruba. CZMCARIB's third main task is to support civil activities, which is a good example of this. As a soldier, we are available 24/7 to be deployed in emergency situations, anywhere in the world. ". The fire took place after an explosion in the old part of the hospital, which was to be renovated. The United States Justice Department plans to submit proposed legislation to Congress that would roll back legal protections for online platforms such as Alphabet Inc.s Google and Facebook Inc. if they censor content or fail to police misconduct on their websites, according to a Trump administration official. The move follows a feud between U.S. President Donald Trump and Twitter Inc., which last month slapped fact-checks on some of his tweets, prompting him to issue an executive order aiming to narrow the liability shield enjoyed by social-media companies. Trump and his supporters contend theyre treated unfairly when their assertions are challenged or blocked by the companies. The proposed legislation could be sent to lawmakers as early as this week, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because the plan hasnt been made public yet. The Wall Street Journal reported on the proposed legislation earlier Wednesday. The companies enjoy immunity from lawsuits over content that users post under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The provision, which doesnt apply to violations of federal criminal law, has become a target of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who object to its breadth and describe it as a giveaway to technology companies. Details of the proposed legislation were still being worked out and could change. But in general the plan aims to prevent companies from removing content they find objectionable without providing explanations and adhering to their content-moderation policies, said the official. It also would limit protections when companies allow third-party content thats deemed harmful or illegal, the official said. Also on Wednesday, four Republican senators led by Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced a measure to remove the liability protection if companies dont fulfil a promise to moderate content in good faith, according to an announcement from Hawleys office. Discriminating on content moderation would constitute a violation of the promise echoing GOP efforts to use the legal shield to address what they say is systematic silencing of conservatives by internet platforms. Trumps executive order aimed to limit the companies immunity in cases of bias, which many legal scholars described as unconstitutional, and also directed the Justice Department to prepare legislation. Shortly before Trump issued the order, Twitter had labelled two of his posts about mail-in voting being subject to fraud potentially misleading and provided links to news coverage of his comments. The president responded with outrage, accusing the social-media company of censorship and election interference and threatening to shut down the service. After the order, Twitter also flagged one of his posts about protests over the death of George Floyd for violating its rules against glorifying violence. Trumps order was the latest in a series of threats against the tech companies for alleged bias, which the firms have repeatedly denied. The president has complained about Twitters efforts to combat manipulative and abusive content by deleting fake profiles leading to a decline of hundreds of thousands of users in his count of followers. Nonetheless, Twitter in particular has been an essential tool for Trump as a politician and as president, dating back to his false allegations that former president Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Trump has observed that the social media platform allows him to avoid the press and speak directly to his 80 million followers. It has also afforded him the unfettered opportunity to assail political opponents and to promote conspiracy theories and other misinformation propounded by supporters. Even before Trumps executive order, Attorney General William Barr had spent months criticizing Section 230. In February, he convened a workshop with critics and defenders of the law to explore potential changes. The law was passed in 1996 and has been credited with allowing the then-fledgling internet to flourish. Barr told attendees that the shield is relevant to the Justice Departments ability to combat lawless spaces online. Democrats, who have criticized Trumps moves as impermissible attacks on the companies for their political viewpoints, have also been skeptical of Section 230, suggesting it could be tweaked to address the spread of election misinformation and the promotion of defective products. Lawmakers from both sides have also taken aim at the shield as a way to combat child abuse online, and have objected to language resembling the immunity in U.S. trade agreements. Read more about: Nine people have been arrested by gardai targeting organised criminality in Limerick. More than 170 gardai were involved in carrying out over 60 searches of properties on Wednesday across counties Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. As part of Operation Coronation, gardai from the Criminal Assets Bureau, Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Emergency Response Unit, the Armed Response Unit and Regional Dog Unit searched the premises at 6am on Wednesday. The operation is also supported by three teams of Irish Army search engineers, the Army EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team and the army helicopter. Gardai said there are currently nine people in custody in relation to the operation. Operation Coronation was established to target organised criminality in Limerick city and its environs. The operation targets organised extended criminality, drug trafficking and the financial returns achieved from this type of activity through money laundering. This operation is being co-ordinated by Limerick gardai with the assistance of the national units and the security and intelligence section at gardai headquarters to address the accumulation of wealth by those engaged in serious and ongoing criminality. It is part of the Limerick Divisional crime strategy and a central plank of the Divisional Policing Plan targeting organised crime. PHILADELPHIA, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Heidi Villari, founder of The Villari Firm, PLLC, has been named as one of the Top 50: 2020 Women Pennsylvania Super Lawyers by the consumer-focused research team at Thomson Reuters. Each year, the company releases its Super Lawyers publications: Vetted listings of attorneys across all practice areas who can provide quality service to consumers in need of legal assistance. Ms. Villari has now been selected to this list for the past 4 years. However, 2020 marks her first selection among Pennsylvania's Top 50 Women. Super Lawyers releases a new list of attorneys each year, providing an up-to-date directory of active and trustworthy legal professionals in each state. Using a patented 4-part process, the Thomson Reuters-backed organization evaluates attorneys, pulling from a list of peer nominations and practitioners discovered through independent research. After a methodical, multi-point analysis, each state's Super Lawyers list is compiled using the top performers in each practice area. No more than 5% of a state's attorneys are included. While the Super Lawyers lists are sorted by practice area, special series such as their Top 50 Women include quality attorneys from all fields. To be recognized among such an elite group is an honor; inclusion here is only awarded to the top tier of attorneys as recognized by Super Lawyers standards. Ms. Villari is honored by her inclusion among this list of successful women. Her Philadelphia practice is ready to serve clients with complex personal injury and medical malpractice cases. Attorney Heidi G. Villari founded The Villari Firm, PLLC to give a voice to the injured and wrong. Over 2+ decades in practice, Ms. Villari has led her team in recovering more than $125 million for clients in serious personal injury and medical malpractice cases. She combines an aggressive approach and skillful strategy to help her clients pursue justice after facing the unthinkable. Ms. Villari's courtroom success has earned her multiple awards and recognitions from respected legal organizations. Her practice can be found online at www.thevillarifirm.com or by phone at (215) 372-8889. SOURCE The Villari Firm, PLLC Related Links https://www.thevillarifirm.com Spokesman for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Brig. Yahya Rasoul, said June 6, "The Islamic State is trying to hide in the desert, mountainous and valley regions, but the security and military redeployment will leave them no space to exploit for transportation and supplies." The Iraqi intelligence services have been intensifying operations against the Islamic State over the past months, pursuing its new caliph Abdullah Qardash in cooperation with the US-led international coalition that killed former caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October 2019. Every other day the Iraqi authorities announce the arrest of IS operatives in the northern and western areas of the country and often the killing or the arrest of an IS leader. Most recently on May 27, the Iraqi authorities announced the killing of Mutaz al-Jabouri, known as Haji Tayseer, and nicknamed the architect of death. A week before the operation targeting Jabouri, the National Intelligence Service, which is still run by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, announced the arrest of Abd al-Nasser Qardash, IS second-in-command and brother of the new caliph. The director of intelligence and counterterrorism at the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, Abu Ali al-Basri, told Al-Monitor, Our battle against terrorism is based on intelligence par excellence, and the more our services succeed in infiltrating IS, the more we can eliminate its operatives among our citizens. He praised the organization's success in taking down the terrorist groups of [IS] Baghdad Governor Manaf al-Rawi and the killing of Baghdadi, leading to the dismantling of Al-Furqan Foundation," and "especially our airstrikes that were based on very accurate information of leadership targets and IS camps, in addition to dismantling its cells inside the cities. Basri noted, The Falcons Intelligence Cell managed in the first [three months] of 2020 to significantly weaken IS capabilities, as it arrested over 1,287 operatives, killed at least 72 others, took control of 73 caches of munitions and ammunition and destroyed more than 75 locations that the group was using to launch its operations in Iraq. The Iraqi authorities are working to pursue IS outside the country as well. The National Intelligence Service and the Falcons Intelligence Cell are conducting joint operations with the international coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces in some Syrian areas. Salem al-Ajili, an IS leader who was fighting in Syria alongside Baghdadi, told Al-Monitor from inside a detention center in Baghdad that the group is indeed falling apart as a result of the many blows to its leadership. He said, The groups movement was affected when Baghdadi was bombed in al-Qaima in April 2017. Although the group can still carry out attacks inside Iraq, its operatives and leaders fear new strikes, so IS activities have reduced. Ajili went on, Disorder has prevailed within IS ever since Qardash became the new caliph, not to mention the airstrikes and arrests that have weakened the group and affected its movements. Meanwhile, some fighters have yet to accept Qardash. Over the past 18 months, Iraqi forces have been arresting moderately ranked IS officials up to the top leadership, notably Baghdadi, Jabouri and Qardashs brother. They now have access to the groups entire structure, and intelligence gathered from these operations indicates that IS leaders are stationed in Syria, not Iraq. Security researcher Fadel Abu Ragheef told Al-Monitor, The group started falling apart over the past couple of years, and communication between its leaders became harder due to the intelligence and military operations carried out by the Iraqi forces. Abu Ragheef added, IS lost about 80% of its ability to move around and attack as it used to in 2014, and it lacks the power to occupy any area, so it will continue to depend on individual operations with explosive devices and attacking checkpoints, but it will not be able to confront any major force. The Iraqi authorities believe that they have reached a state of stability with the success of their recent operations, and they see the group as semi-dismantled after losing two leaders in less than 10 days. Spokesman Rasoul told Al-Monitor, The Iraqi forces are cracking down on IS and its cells on an almost daily basis, and they are constantly monitoring its leaders and their movements. This shows that the group has become exposed and clearly visible to us. Rasoul added, IS is no longer the same group that used to terrorize and threaten to reach other countries. It is no longer able to even create media propaganda to boost its fighters morale. Its operations have become limited, and it was dealt a severe blow with the arrest of some of its leaders. Despite their important intelligence capabilities, the Iraqi forces relied on cooperation with the international coalition that provided air cover. The recent military and intelligence strikes have curbed IS movement and operations even further, though the group could manage to carry out more attacks against checkpoints or civilians in Iraqi cities and villages. IS has turned into a number of dispersed groups that cannot meet nor follow a central command, Ajili explained, which will eventually result in IS ceasing major operations. Gaten Matarazzo attends the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 19, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/WireImage) Gaten Matarazzo has paid tribute to his cousin Joey who he says died after a "terrible car accident" on Tuesday at the age of 19. The actor, who plays Dustin Henderson in Stranger Things, posted to Instagram to share the sad news as he told fans he loved his late cousin "like a brother". Sharing two throwback photos of himself and his late relative, the 17-year-old wrote: "Its hard to find the right words in moments like this. My cousin Joey passed away this morning after a terrible car accident. He had just recently turned 19. He was such an important figure in my life and the lives of my entire family. I grew up with him and loved him like he was my brother. "I love you bud. I will cherish the memories made with you for the rest of my life. There were plenty of tears today, but I know that once they dry we will look back with only smiles on our faces. And even now I cant help but giggle at the little memories that seemed so minuscule just two days ago, but mean so much more now." The Netflix star added that memories were "flooding his head" as he went on: "Like when I kicked your a** at ping pong two weeks ago or when we played violent video games without telling my mom when we were younger and when you, [Matarazzo's brother] Carmen, and I would fight over the top bunk until we gave up and all slept on it. I love you. I miss you. Rest well." Read more: Hank Williams Jr.s daughter dies aged 27 Matarazzo was flooded with messages of support from friends and fans under the post. Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson in Stranger Things. (Netflix) The actor has appeared in Stranger Things since 2016, and had aspects of himself written into the character as both Dustin and Matarazzo have cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD), a condition which affects the growth of the bones and teeth. Earlier this year, he underwent surgery for the rare disorder and later confirmed it had been a success. Federal authorities said Wednesday they have charged a Philadelphia woman with setting two police vehicles on fire after a peaceful protest on May 30 in the City of Brotherly Love over the police-related death of George Floyd. William M. McSwain, U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Eastern District Court, said Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal, 33, was filmed setting the vehicles on fire outside City Hall. Blumenthals alleged act of arson occurred when the peaceful demonstration gave way to looting and vandalism, McSwain said. He said she was filmed torching the vehicles using a burning piece of a wooden police barricade. We at the U.S. Attorneys Office fully support the First Amendment right of the people to assemble peaceably and to petition their government. But torching a police car has nothing to do with peaceful protest or any legitimate message. It is a violent and despicable act that will be prosecuted in this District to the fullest extent of the law, said McSwain said. Anybody who engaged in such acts can stand by to put your hands behind your back and head to federal prison. We are coming for you. Police cars that were set ablaze during rioting in Philadelphia on May 30. In an arrest affidavit, FBI Special Agent Joseph Carpenter said Blumenthal was identified as the arsonist from video secured by the FBI and clips found on the Vimeo website and on Instagram. He said her actions also were filmed live by a news stations helicopter. A photo that Carpenter says shows Blumenthal at the arson scene is included with the charges, as are photos of the torched police cars. The photo shows her wearing a T-shirt with the wording, Keep the immigrants. Deport the racists. The shirt is sold by a store on Etsy and Carpenter said he used that as a starting point to track down Blumenthal. He said he traced her to her job at a massage therapy company which listed her and included a photo of a masseuse who, like Blumenthal, has a distinctive peace sign tattoo on her right forearm. That tattoo was visible in the videos of the arson, the agent said. Carpenter said Blumenthal was wearing goggles, a bandanna over her face and what appear to be fire-retardant gloves. Blumental, who is charged with two counts of knowingly causing malicious destruction, is in federal custody. The federal charges were lodged because the Philly police receive funding from the U.S. government. McSwain said the charges carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MannKind Corporation (MNKD) announced today that it will be featured in a virtual presentation and fireside chat at the June 2020 Lytham Partners Virtual Investor Growth Conference on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 12 pm ET (9 am PT). Presenting from the Company will be its Chief Executive Officer, Michael Castagna, Pharm D. A webcast of the presentation will be posted under the investors section of MannKinds website under events & presentations or can be accessed at www.lythampartners.com/virtual . A replay of the presentation will be available following the event. Management will also be participating in virtual one-on-one meetings with institutional investors on June 24, 2020. To arrange a meeting, please contact Robert Blum of Lytham Partners at blum@lythampartners.com or visit www.lythampartners.com/virtual . About MannKind Corporation MannKind Corporation (MNKD) focuses on the development and commercialization of inhaled therapeutic products for patients with diseases such as diabetes and pulmonary arterial hypertension. MannKind is currently commercializing Afrezza (insulin human) Inhalation Powder, the Companys first FDA-approved product and the only inhaled ultra rapid-acting mealtime insulin in the United States, where it is available by prescription from pharmacies nationwide. MannKind is headquartered in Westlake Village, California, and has a state-of-the art manufacturing facility in Danbury, Connecticut. The Company also employs field sales and medical representatives across the U.S. For further information, visit www.mannkindcorp.com. Company Contact: Phone: (818) 661-5000 Soon after their merger, a large number of job losses are being felt by Sprint employees. In a conference call that has been obtained by Tech Crunch, T-Mobile vice president James Kirby told thousands of Sprint employees that their services were no longer required. In a blog post reported by The Verge, T-Moblie spun the job losses in the context of restructuring. It stated that the company needed to ensure that we focus our resources in the places where our customers need us the most. Even going as far as to say many would see additional career opportunities. Merger quickly causes job losses Many feared restructuring when the merger between T-Mobil and Sprint which eventually went through in May. Advertisement However, this is a particularly quick move from to offload so many so quickly. The companies are stilling insisting that the merger will create more jobs than it will get rid of. However, for those struck off now, that will be of little comfort. From the thousands that saw their jobs disappear Kirby has been quoted as saying 200 jobs will be created. This is at least something but will still leave a huge number without employment going forwards. Employees have two months notice before they are laid off under the WARN Act. One source has informed Tech Crunch that the severance package amounts to two weeks of pay per year of employment. Advertisement Some may get more but this still seems like a rather meagre offering for employees. Every division was hit by the job cuts but it seems that the BISO sector was hit the hardest. Employees Are Left Frustrated Naturally, a number of employees are not happy about the decision. One pointed out that they felt the company needs to acknowledge the pain they are putting people through during a pandemic. Indications suggest that the consolidation of jobs will impact around 30,000 contracts across America. Advertisement The merger between Sprint and T-Mobile took a long time to get rubber-stamped. After intense regulatory scrutiny, it finally got approval last month. During the negotiations then chief executive John Legere claimed that by 2024 the merger would create 11,000 jobs. This looks to be a tall order given the economic impacts of Covid-19 that will be felt over the coming months. Additionally, for those hit in the short-term the idea of jobs in four years time will be of little comfort to them. Hopefully, T-Mobile can find a solution this which pleases more people than it currently is. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 04:18:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Video: U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order on policing on June 16, 2020, at the White House, Washington, D.C., the United States, amid calls for action against police brutality and racism. (Xinhua) The executive order focuses on three areas: credentialing and certifying police officers; boosting information sharing to track officers accused of excessive use of force; and creating co-responder programs on mental health, drug addiction, and homelessness. The move from the White House comes alongside separate efforts on Capitol Hill focused on police reforms. WASHINGTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order on policing amid calls for action against police brutality and racism. It comes three weeks after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which has triggered nationwide demonstrations. The executive order focuses on three areas: credentialing and certifying police officers; boosting information sharing to track officers accused of excessive use of force; and creating co-responder programs on mental health, drug addiction, and homelessness. It also said police departments must "prohibit the use of chokeholds -- a physical maneuver that restricts an individual's ability to breathe for the purposes of incapacitation -- except in those situations where the use of deadly force is allowed by law." A protester confronts police near the White House during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Trump, speaking at the White House before signing the executive order, stressed that he "strongly" opposes efforts to defund or dismantle police departments, calling the ideas "radical." "Without police, there is chaos. Without law, there is anarchy and without safety, there is catastrophe," he said. The move from the White House comes alongside separate efforts on Capitol Hill focused on police reforms. The Democrat-led House introduced a bill last week that aims to ensure officers can be held accountable for misconduct and increase transparency. The GOP-led Senate is also creating its own legislative package that will focus on police reporting, accountability, training and relations. The police monitor a protest over the death of George Floyd on Times Square in New York, the United States, June 1, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump's executive order "weak." "The president's weak executive order falls sadly and seriously short of what is required to combat the epidemic of racial injustice and police brutality that is murdering hundreds of Black Americans," the California Democrat said in a statement on Tuesday. "The executive order lacks meaningful, mandatory accountability measures to end misconduct. During this moment of national anguish, we must insist on bold change, not meekly surrender to the bare minimum." Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said on Tuesday that Trump's executive order is not enough. "While the president has finally acknowledged the need for policing reform, one modest executive order will not make up for his years of inflammatory rhetoric and policies designed to roll back the progress made in previous years," Schumer said in a statement. "Unfortunately, this executive order will not deliver the comprehensive meaningful change and accountability in our nation's police departments that Americans are demanding," the New York Democrat added. "Congress needs to quickly pass strong and bold legislation with provisions that makes it easier to hold police officers accountable for abuses, and President Trump must commit to signing it into law." Police wearing riot gear arrest a woman who drove too close to police lines during a protest in Minneapolis, the United States, May 29, 2020. (Photo by Angus Alexander/Xinhua) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Tuesday that he would wait until Wednesday morning to announce whether he would bring the GOP bill to the floor ahead of the two-week July 4 recess. The Republican also said the House bill of police reform efforts is "going nowhere in the Senate," while describing it as "typical Democratic overreach." Floyd died during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota late last month after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Protests in response to Floyd's death, and more broadly to police violence, spread across the United States and took place in some other countries. By Express News Service Keerthy Suresh, whose last release was Vijay's Sarkar in 2018, is back with her next, Penguin (Tamil), which will be getting a direct release on Amazon Prime. The actor, who has six films (Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham, Penguin, Miss India, Good Luck Sakhi, Rang De, and Annaatthe, across three languages) lined up for release, expressed that OTT might be a blessing in disguise, in a chat arranged as part of Indulge Time Pass, a series of webinars organised by The New Indian Express group, and hosted by senior journalist Kaveree Bamzai. Keerthy called her upcoming release, Penguin, an emotional thriller that would resonate with the audience. "The film is about a mother's struggle to rescue her abducted kid, which happens over a period of four days. It is neither gory nor a message movie. It has 60 per cent emotion and 40 per cent thrills, and is meant for all types of audience," she said. On the impact of Mahanati / Nadigaiyar Thilagam (which fetched her a National Award), Keerthy said that the film has changed a lot in her life. "It opened up possibilities for me to explore new women-centric films. When Mahanati was offered to me, I was doing commercial cinema. This was an opportunity for me to prove myself to my detractors. On the personal front, I feel I have become more mature about my choices and stands. I learned a lot from playing Savitri on screen." Keerthy also said that her mother, Menaka--an actor herself--had a big influence in shaping the character of Savitri. "I, in fact, almost said no to the film, because I didn't believe I could do justice to the star's persona. When I told my mother about it, she got excited, and she, along with director Nag Ashwin, convinced me to take the role up." Keerthi also revealed that her mother gave her a lot of tips during shooting. "She shared aspects she knew about Savitri like her style of acting and her mannerisms. They helped me immensely." Keerthi said that replicating Savitri's songs on screen was the toughest challenge of all. "I guess I pieced together the character from various sources. I spoke to her daughter. I gathered a lot of information about her body language and style. I read a lot of books. I put all this together and formed a personality within myself." Regarding life post Mahanati, Keerthy said that the film's success and critical acclaim made her pause and reflect a lot. "To be honest, after Mahanati I wanted to do a proper commercial film, just for variety. But what came my way were these heroine-oriented scripts. I waited a while to see if I would get commercial film offers, but then I thought I should take up more serious projects as they had some great storylines. Going forward, I would like to balance commercial films with content-oriented movies," Keerthy said. The parents of a teenager killed in a fatal stabbing in Melbournes west have forgiven those responsible for his death. Solomone Taufeulungaki, 15, was stabbed to death in Deer Park outside Brimbank Shopping Centre on Tuesday night. Six teenage boys aged 13 to 16 were charged on Wednesday with violent disorder and affray and were due to face a childrens court on Wednesday. His grief-stricken family laid yellow and blue flowers at the site where he died on Wednesday, which was not far from his and his familys place of worship, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. His mother Salome Taufeulungaki told reporters the family had made the choice to forgive those who took her son's life. Salome and Antunaisa Taufeulungaki at the scene of their son Solomone's death. Source: Nine News We bless them, she said after leaving flowers at the scene, reported The Herald Sun. We don't want justice, we just want peace for our son. His dad, Atunaisa Taufeulungaki, was confident his son would continue to join them in their faith. He pass away but my heart... for my heavenly father. That's his plan, Mr Taufeulungaki told reporters. Every Sunday my son come to this church. I believe may be every Sunday his spirit join with us in this true church, every Sunday. The teenager was killed when a group allegedly approached him on Tuesday afternoon. Six of them were arrested on nearby Billingham Road a short time later. Solomone Taufeulungaki, 15, was stabbed to death outside a shopping centre in Deer Park on Tuesday. Source: Nine News He's a good kid, he goes to church. He comes from a good family, a humble family. It's just so unfortunate this has happened to him, family friend Foa Galuega said. Another person, Tatyana Taufa, paid tribute to the teenager, re-posting the news story to their social media with the comment: My deepest condolences go out to the Taufeulungaki Family. The brawl and subsequent stabbing are alleged to have been sparked by an argument on social media, Nine reported. Victoria Police outside the Brimbank Shopping Centre after the stabbing on Tuesday. Source: AAP Hours later, a fight broke out at the crime scene between about 30 people. Footage of the second brawl posted on social media shows people running into the taped-off crime scene. Story continues A police officer was taken to hospital and another man was treated for a cut to the head. Three men arrested over the second brawl have since been released. A 15-year-old Sunshine youth and a 17-year-old Point Cook male were released pending summons for assault-related offences, police said. A 15-year-old Hoppers Crossing boy was also interviewed and released. with AAP 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. Vanessa Guillen, 20, was reported missing from Fort Hood on April 22 shortly after she told her family she was being sexually harassed and felt unsafe The mother of missing Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen has pleaded with the military to give her family more information almost two months after her disappearance. Private First-Class Guillen, 20, was last spotted in the parking lot at Fort Hood, where she is stationed, on April 22. Before her disappearance, Guillen said she was being sexually harassed by a sergeant and did not feel safe but had not identified the person responsible, the family say. The reward for finding Guillen increased to $55,000 Tuesday as her mother Gloria begged to find out what happened. The family has also questioned whether the search is ongoing as the military state. 'Two months have passed, and we know nothing, nothing, nothing. What's happened? What happened on that base? Why did my daughter disappear?' she said Tuesday during a virtual press conference hosted by Texas Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia. 'I can't bear anymore, not one day more because I'm not sleeping and I'm in bad health. 'Where is my daughter?' Vanessa Guillen's mother claimed she had complained to her about a sergeant sexually harassing her before her disappearance. Pictured, missing soldier Vanessa Guillen The family have begged he military to share more information about her disappearance. Pictured is Vanessa's mother Gloria Guillen holding her military portrait Almost two months after her disappearance, the family of 20-year-old Vanessa Guillen continue to hold rallies outside of Fort Hood military base looking for more information Congresswoman Garcia added that the family is planning to meet Col. Ralph Overland, the 3rd Cavalry Regiment commander, this week and that he has committed to hearing the sexual harassment claims made by Guillen to her family. Rep. Garcia said the colonel is assembling a team to begin a 'more thorough investigation' and wishes to hear the allegations 'so they can investigate every single one'. 'That's what's concerning for us, we seem to have more questions than answers,' she added. During the press conference, it was also announced that the reward for finding Guillen, who is Latina, has now been increased to $55,000. National Latino group, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), said Tuesday that they were donating $25,000 to the fund for information leading to Guillen's whereabouts or information that leads to the indictment of anyone involved in her disappearance, according to KCENTV. 'This young lady put on the uniform to serve our country; the least we can do is find out where she is now and what we can do to help her,' said Domingo Garcia, president of LULAC. It came a day after Houston-based rapper Baby Bash also pledged $5,000 to the reward money. 'FIND VANESSA!!!! Anything anybody knows will help I will add 5000 to the reward,' he posted to Facebook. The military had already offered a $25,000 reward. Texas Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia is aiding the family. She held a press conference with them Tuesday and traveled to Fort Hood military base to meet with officials on June 8 Vanessa Guillen's family spoke out during the virtual press conference on Tuesday Fort Hood increased the reward for information on Vanessa Guillen to $25,000 on Monday Houston-based rapper Baby Bash also added $5,000 to the reward fund The family has even called on President Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz to intervene and aid the search for Guillen as they question the military's search and call for the FBI to get involved. Fort Hood released an updated statement on Guillen's disappearance on June 10 just before they increased the reward. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command told the family that they launched an 'extensive' search in April. Initially, 500 soldiers helped to search the base on foot looking through training areas, barracks and outdoor areas right across the facility. The searches are still taking place but with far smaller groups now, according to the Army. Guillen's (circled in red) car keys, barracks room key, identification card and wallet were later found in the armory room where she was working earlier in the day Her last sighting was at 1pm on April 22 in the parking lot of Regimental Engineer Squadron HQ, 3rd Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood, pictured, where she is stationed Staff at the base claim searches are still being carried out for Guillen but with fewer staff Guillen's family have held at least three rallies and started an inline campaign to find her 'The search continues both on and off Fort Hood by multiple military and civilian law enforcement agencies,' a statement by military officials noted. It added that the military held an in-person meeting with Guillen's sister Mayra on May 23 and a virtual meeting with her mother Gloria and Congresswoman Garcia on June 8. Guillen is a constituent of Garcia's 29th Congressional District in Texas. 'Pfc. Vanessa Guillen is a highly valued member of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment,' said Col. Overland in the statement. 'We will maintain our resolve to locate Pfc. Vanessa Guillen and will continue our efforts until she is found. We will never quit searching.' But the family are still unhappy at how things have been progressing and the information they are receiving. 'This happened inside a federal building and we're still not getting answers,' said Mayra Guillen, Vanessa's older sister, at a press conference on June 10. Communities across Texas, including Houston, have been rallying to show support for the Guillen family. Pictured, family and friends raise awareness at a rally in May Pictured, Lupe Guillen, Vanessa's younger sister, addresses the crowd at a rally to raise awareness about her disappearance outside the gates of Fort Hood military base on Friday Fort Hood officials and Special Agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command are asking for the public's assistance in locating Pfc. Vanessa Guillen, 20 Anyone with information should contact Army CID Special Agents at 254-495-7767 or the Military Police Desk at (254) 287-4001. She is described as a Latina woman, 5 feet 2 inches, weighing 126 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing purple leggings Guillen was last seen on April 22 at 1pm in the parking lot of her Regimental Engineer Squadron Headquarters, 3rd Cavalry Regiment on the Army based in Killeen, Texas. Her car keys, barracks room key, identification card and wallet were later found in the armory room where she was working earlier in the day. She was last seen wearing a black t-shirt, light purple leggings and black Nike sneakers. Mayra Guillen wrote on Facebook that the missing woman's phone was last tracked on Belton, Texas, about 20 minutes away from Fort Hood. So far, her family have held three rallies outside the Fort Hood Army base in order to generate some attention on the case and Hayek's input will also serve to boost the profile. Community groups including immigrant rights organization FIEL in Houston and LULAC have also joined with the family in peaceful demonstrations. The hunt for the missing soldier reached national attention with the help of actress Salma Hayek who posted messages about Guillen on her Instagram page which has 15 million followers. Hayek, 53, says she intends to post something daily until the soldier is found. 'Bring back Vanessa We won't stop until you come back,' she wrote. Hayek is pledging to 'put Vanessa's photo on my stories every day until she is found.' Loved ones have created a Facebook group called 'Find Vanessa Guillen' to raise awareness of the missing person case by sharing photos and biographical information of the soldier. Mexican-American film actress Salma Hayek has pledged to post pictures of missing soldier Private First Class Vanessa Guillen, 20, on her Instagram page until she is found Hayek also provided some details as to what might have led to the soldier's disappearance According to one post, Guillen joined the US Army right after graduating high school. 'She loves her job. She loves serving her country,' another status update read. The family has also established a GoFundMe page to aid the search that has so far raised more than $60,000. Guillen is described as a woman of Hispanic descent, standing at 5 feet 2 inches, weighing 126 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call Army CID Special Agents at 254-495-7767 or the Military Police Desk at (254) 287-4001. A growing list of technology companies are banning the use of facial recognition tools by law enforcement agencies. Microsoft and Amazon joined IBM, which previously said it was exiting the business of making the technology altogether. Facial recognition software has become an increasing part of our daily life as our smartphones, tablets, and many laptops use the technology to secure or unlock. It's also become an area of focus for companies wanting to leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate processes that used to take large amounts of time and had to be done manually. As facial recognition's use increases, privacy advocates have expressed concerns that it violates privacy, as well as contributing to discrimination. Until now, neither of those concerns were enough to persuade tech companies to reconsider how they made the tools available to government and law enforcement agencies. Amazon's software, called Rekognition, allows police departments to upload photos from security footage, for example, and compare them against a database of known images like mug shots. That's not all that different from what a person might do comparing the photos, but using AI and machine learning, the facial recognition tool is able to do the same task much faster. It's also relatively inexpensive, making it an attractive option for government agencies. At the same time, studies have shown that the technology has a much higher error rate when comparing black and Asian male faces, which could potentially lead to the arrest of the wrong person. This major flaw has come to the fore as tech companies find themselves responding to the public outcry around cases of police brutality against minorities. As a result, they're making a decision that providing the technology to police departments is bad for business. At least for now. "We will not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights, that will govern this technology," said Microsoft's president, Brad Smith. In a statement, Amazon said it hopes that a "one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested." Amazon has said it will continue to provide the tool to organizations that use it to fight human trafficking and helping missing and exploited children. It isn't entirely clear whether Amazon is halting its sale of the technology to the federal government. On one hand, it's fair to ask tech companies why it took this long to find their way to the right side of this issue. It shouldn't have taken public outcry for them to realize their tools could be used in harmful ways. It's also particularly interesting that the move comes as Congress is taking up the issue. With lawmakers set to regulate the use of facial recognition, the companies that make it are understandably anxious to see where both public sentiment and government policy go on this. At the same time, I'm willing to give tech companies at least some credit for realizing that while they may be producing products with positive intentions, there are collateral effects that contribute to structural, societal problems. Taking action to do the right thing, even when it costs you money, is still the right thing. TORONTO, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 12 Exploration Inc. (CSE:TWLV), doing business as 79North, (the Corporation or 79North) is pleased to announce that common shares of the Corporation (the Common Shares) will commence trading today on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE) under the symbol TWLV. The Corporation is led by a team with extensive mineral exploration expertise and a track record of discoveries and exits in South America and globally. The Corporation currently holds an indirect interest in mineral concessions in northern Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana), and aims to become the premier junior exploration company in this underexplored district of the prolific Guiana Shield. The Corporations strategically located land package is located in close proximity to both the Merian Gold Mine of Newmont Corporation and the Rosebel Gold Mine of Iamgold Corporation which have a substantial gold production history. The Corporations growing portfolio of high-quality targets which have not undergone modern exploration or drilling have a long history of artisanal mining and are strategically located within close proximity to modern gold mines operated by major mining companies. Our public listing is a significant milestone for us as we continue to grow our portfolio of high-quality gold exploration projects in Suriname. The Nassau Gold Project has had more than a century of artisanal gold mining and is in the same sequence of gold-bearing rocks that contain the Merian Gold Mine of Newmont Corporation and the Rosebel Gold Mine of Iamgold Corporation. In spite of this, there has not been sustained modern gold exploration or diamond drilling at the Nassau Gold Project, stated Jon North, President, CEO and Chairman of 79North. Subscription Receipt Financing As previously announced, the Corporation completed non-brokered private placements, resulting in the sale of an aggregate of 30,481,655 subscription receipts for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately C$4,572,250 million (the Offering). The proceeds from the Offering were placed into escrow on completion of the Offering and have now been released from escrow to the Corporation less certain transaction fees and expenses. The net proceeds from the Offering will be used to fund exploration and development of 79Norths Nassau gold project, the acquisition of additional gold projects, and for general corporate purposes. Story continues Other Corporate Matters The Corporation announces the grant of an aggregate of 3,500,000 incentive stock options exercisable at CAD$0.15 until June 16, 2025 pursuant to the Corporations stock option plan. The Corporation also announces that it has entered into an agreement with General Research GmbH to provide investor relations services for a monthly fee of 6,250 for a term of one year, subject to extension at the Corporations option. Early Warning In connection with the previously announced acquisition by the Corporation of 79North Ltd. on June 12, 2020 (the Transaction), Jon North, who is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, acquired ownership and control of 8,166,666 Common Shares. Mr. North also has ownership of 166,666 share purchase warrants and 1,000,000 options (issued on June 16, 2020), each providing Mr. North with a right to acquire additional Common Shares subject to such options vesting over a two year period (one third of the options vest on the grant date, one third of the options vest on the first anniversary of the grant date, and the remaining one third of the options granted vest on the second anniversary of the grant date). Assuming no exercise of convertible securities, Mr. North holds approximately 9.51% of the outstanding Common Shares on an undiluted basis and approximately 10.72% of the outstanding Common Shares on a partially-diluted basis. Prior to the Transaction, Mr. North did not own, control or direct any securities of the Corporation. The Common Shares were acquired in connection with the Transaction in exchange for Mr. Norths existing common shares of 79North Ltd. The Common Shares and the Warrants held by Mr. North are subject to an escrow agreement pursuant to which Mr. North will only be able to transact in such Common Shares and Warrants in accordance with a release schedule over a three-year period following the date of the Transaction. Mr. North may acquire additional securities either on the open market or through private acquisitions and Mr. North may sell the securities either on the open market or through private dispositions in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other relevant factors, in each case in accordance with applicable securities laws. The head office of the Corporation is located at 82 Richmond Street East Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1. This portion of this new release is issued pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues, which also requires an early warning report to be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) containing additional information with respect to the foregoing matters. A copy of the related early warning report may be obtained on the Corporations SEDAR profile. Mr. North can be contacted at 82 Richmond Street East Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1, tel: 416 786-6348. Further Information For further information, please contact: Jon North, President and Chief Executive Officer 12 Exploration Inc. Telephone: (416) 786-6348 Email: jon@79north.ca Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: regulatory approvals and general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements 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 the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, 12Ex assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. Ive got lockdown fuzzy head, says Miranda Hart. The comedian and actress, in lockdown in London with her family, is, like many, finding her ability to concentrate has weakened. But I cant complain, she stresses. My family are well, I've stayed well, and I've quite enjoyed the peace amongst the chaos. That peace is a far cry from Harts character in Emma, the newest adaptation of Jane Austens iconic novel. Hart plays Miss Bates in the film, which is a visually delicious realisation of Jane Austens England by debut director Autumn de Wilde, as rich in costume and set design as it is in sharp, acerbic dialogue. It's the perfect lockdown watch, having debuted to stellar reviews during its brief cinema run before the spread of coronavirus. Miss Bates, as she is in the novel, is a mile-a-minute blabbermouth; a personification of the village square. Much to Emmas irritation, she sweetly and naively divulges the most mundane gossip she can remember to anyone who will listen. For Hart, that meant memorising pages and pages of dialogue, written by Man Booker-prize winning author Eleanor Catton. I had to learn lines in a way that I've never learnt lines, she says. When you suddenly see on the page (that theres) five actors in the scene, and one of them has one line in between, and the rest is just you, the pressure is there - you really don't want to keep forgetting your lines because you're affecting everybody. Miranda Hart in Emma / Focus Features That's where stand-up comedy comes in useful, she says, because I did a stand-up comedy tour and it ended up being an arena tour, so I was at the O2 in front of 20,000 people thinking, again, its an environment you really don't wanna forget your lines. So I'm used to kind of drilling monologues and finding ways to negotiate through them. But I wouldn't have wanted fuzzy lockdown head in that situation. Throughout the film, Miss Bates is a foil to Emmas pleasant facade, as she struggles to hide her absolute displeasure of a person she finds completely uninteresting. Anya Taylor-Joys presentation of that inner war was so perfect, says Hart, that she found herself wanting to protect poor Miss Bates more and more. I think when you play a part you sort of really champion them and you fall in love with them in a way, she says. Occasionally on set I'd say, 'Why are people irritated with Miss Bates, she's marvellous!'. I totally wanted to protect her. Anya Taylor-Joy and Callum Turner in Emma / Focus Features Emmas disregard for Miss Bates escapes at an iconic scene during a picnic at Box Hill, where the protagonist impulsively drops all pleasantry, and snaps at poor Miss Bates. It was very easy to get emotional and act in that, says Hart, because I was so for Miss Bates, and I couldn't bear the fact that she was being torn down and her worst nightmare was happening. And while that scene becomes a teachable moment of morality for Emma, Miss Bates serves another purpose throughout the film and the novel; She was Jane Austen's portal to her observational comedy, says Hart. You could put her in a contemporary sitcom and have her as a sort of nosy neighbor and the village busybody and the person that everybody wants to avoid at a party. The 20 best films to watch on MUBI right now 1 /26 The 20 best films to watch on MUBI right now High Life Clair Denis strange sci-fi High Life centres on the lives of convicted criminals cast adrift in space, on a doomed mission to harvest the power of black holes. Robert Pattinson gives one of his strongest performances as the lost soul responsible for looking after a young child on-board the ship. Juliette Binoche is also excellent as the obsessive Dr Dibs, who attempts to create new life through artificial insemination. The films non-linear narrative only adds to the films bewildering feel, and there are images and passages that will stay with you for a long time. Water Lilies The debut from director Celine Sciamma is a coming of age story taking place in an otherwise uninspiring French suburb, telling the story of three friends and their first sexual experiences. Adele Haenel gives a wonderful performance as Floriane, one of the three girls on the synchronised swimming team whose lives come to converge around the pool in unexpected ways. Its visually bold, tender and moving the first signs of a talent that would go on to make Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Night Moves A group of eco warriors led by Jesse Eisenberg are the focus of this underrated thriller from director Kelly Reichardt. The movie deals with the fallout from a crime committed in the name of preventing climate change, with the net closing in tighter around them. The film went under the radar on its release in 2013 and took less than $1m (788,000) worldwide, but its far better than the commercial performance suggests. Lilting This London-set drama is an intriguing and moving proposition. Two people, the former partner and the mother of a man who died at a tragically young age, transcend language barriers to connect following his death. Its an elegantly told story of loss and understanding, with empathetic performances from both Ben Whishaw and Cheng Pei-pei. Ema This stark and visually stunning film from Chilean director Pablo Larrain is the story of a dancer whose life changes irrevocably after her and her partner adopt a troubled child. The movie, which holds an impressive 91 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, is an expressive piece of filmmaking with striking visuals and challenging subject matter at its heart. The Staggering Girl This arresting piece from Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino is one of the interesting short films to be found on the service, following a New York-based writer who encounters genuines and oddballs on her journey to retrieve her mother from Italy. There are performances from a superb cast, including Julianne Moore, Mia Goth, KiKi Layne and Kyle MacLachlan. Touch Me Not This strange blend of documentary and feature film from Romanian director Adina Pintilie won the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2018. It takes a revealing look at sexuality and human intimacy, blurring the line between reality and fiction to create something intoxicating and revealing. Beanpole Two young Russian women attempt to rebuild their lives following the siege of Leningrad in WWII in this historical drama. In among the crumbling buildings and detritus, the pair look to find peace, serenity and hope in testing circumstances. Russin filmmaker Kantemir Balagov won the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in 2019 for the film. Toni Erdmann This German comedy, directed, written and co-produced by Maren Ade, became a surprise international hit in 2016 after winning over audiences around the world. It tells the story of Peter Simonischeks Toni, a divorced father with a penchant for practical jokes, who makes a concerted effort to reconnect with his daughter. The Stranger Satyajit Rays semi-autobiographical tale tells the story of a well to do couple, whose lives are changed forever when a man who claims to be the wifes estranged uncle informs them hell be staying with them. The film, released as Agantuk in India, is the filmmakers final work and a funny, profound and thoughtful end to a remarkable career. Take Me Somewhere Nice This coming of age road movie is one of the latest arrivals on the service, having been released in the UK in May. A teenager travels across Europe, from the Netherlands to Bosnia, to see her father for the first and final time. Ena Sendijarevic captures both the energy and the dissatisfaction of youth, with quirkiness and deadpan sensibilities to spare. Let The Sunshine In Claire Denis teamed up with Juliette Binoche for this smart, sophisticated and bittersweet romantic drama, following a dissatisfied French artist as she looks for love in middle age. The movie follows her as she meets an array of characters, encountering an array of different lives and lovers in Paris and eventually coming to appreciate her own self worth. Romantic Comedy An example of one of the excellent documentaries on MUBI, Elizabeth Sankeys film shines a spotlight on a genre often underappreciated and disregarded by critics. Films like When Harry Met Sally, The Holiday and alternatives like the Big Sick are pored over, while Sankley never shies away from pointing out the negatives in some of the most popular films ever made. Le Havre A friendship that transcends age and nationality is at the centre of this quietly profound movie from Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki. A French shoe shiner goes out of his way to protect a young illegal immigrant from Africa in the movie, which won the International Federation of Film Critics prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Exit Through the Giftshop This film, directed by enigmatic artist Banksy, follows the life of French street artist Thierry Guetta. The Oscar-nominated faux-documentary offers fascinating insight into the underground world of street art, exploring its huge rise in popularity in Los Angeles and around the world. It plays a little fast and loose with facts and form at times, but it's an enthralling watch all the same. Tomboy Another entry for French director Celine Sciamma, Tomboy is a bold piece of filmmaking which tells the story of a non gender-conforming child who struggles to find their place after moving to Paris with their family. Its a moving coming of age story that feels more important than ever in 2020. Paterson Jim Jarmuschs last film, The Dead Dont Die, was a stinker, but the movie that came before is far more worthy of attention. Adam Driver stars as the titular character in this meta movie (playing a bus driver and poet called Paterson, who lives in the town of Paterson) who makes his way quietly along his bus route, visiting New Jersey bars and spending time with his supportive wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani). The mumbling tone of the film isnt for everyone, but theres joy to be found within it. Bacurau This 2020 gem became one of the most acclaimed foreign-launguage films of the year so far when it arrived in March. The contemporary western tells the story of Brazilian villagers who are attacked by gun-wielding tourists, with the Standards Charlotte OSullivan describing it as agonisingly suspenseful and laugh out loud funny in her five-star review. She went on to say: Bacurau is in the same class as Parasite. In the words of Bong Joon Ho, Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films. The Souvenir Joanna Hoggs stunning, subtle and affecting drama focuses on a film student (Honor Swinton Byrne) who falls into a problematic relationship with an addict (Tom Burke), which puts increasing strain on her life and other relationships. In his five-star review, the Standards critic David Sexton called it by far [Hoggs] best work yet, as well as her most directly personal: brilliantly cast and almost perfectly composed. Portrait of a Lady on Fire This stunning movie has emerged as one of the most compelling romances of the year, with director Celine Sciamma creating something truly special. Noemie Merlant and Adele Haenal both deliver inspired performances as a young painter and her unruly subject, who enter into a passionate relationship. The Standards critic David Sexton called it simply ravishing from start to finish, an absolute treat. Despite the connotations of the word gossip, Miss Bates intentions are far more wholesome, says Hart. She might exaggerate a little bit, but the line is that she's talkative on trivial matters, so if anything, she's boring, but she's not mean at all, she says. For me it was part of her way to keep herself cheery, and she's just excitable, despite all that's wrong with her life. Shes almost building and encouraging other people. She was much jollier than I'd expected. And she was just wide eyed with sort of wonder and delight, but unfortunately, the subject matter is just not quite interesting enough for other people, or she just said a few too many sentences about somebody's gloves that really didn't warrant it. Bless her. Focus Features Miss Bates constant updates are almost a blueprint for the endless chatter that is social media - just one way in which Emma remains an ultimately timeless novel. For Hart, its the coming of age story at the centre that has carried it so strongly through time. It's about a woman kind of accepting where she goes wrong and finding love and humbling herself, she says. And all the other characters are just so well honed and well defined and real in their timeless human problems and issues. Miss Bates being the perfect example; shes someone who just desperately wants to belong and fears she might not be approved. And that's most of our fears, I think, as a human. It's totally timeless. Emma. is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday, June 22 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Morgan Solar Inc. announced the sale of 13.6 MWDC (10.5 MWAC) of bifacial solar panels enhanced with the companys performance boosting SimbaX technology to Enbridge Inc., a leading energy infrastructure company. The solar panels will be manufactured by Silfab Solar Inc. under an exclusive license agreement between the two companies. SimbaX is Morgan Solars proprietary optical film technology that boosts the performance of PV modules to generate higher yields and can be integrated into any standard silicon PV panel assembly. Working with Silfab, Morgan Solar has certified monofacial and bifacial versions of the technology. We are excited by this major demonstration of our SimbaX technology. Due to our T-innovation design approach, we were able to leverage Silfabs capacity and high-quality manufacturing to bring this innovative product to market at a greater pace and scale than is typical for our industry, said Mike Andrade, CEO of Morgan Solar. SimbaX is another example of Silfabs dedication to PV technology improvements and manufacturing innovative solutions that advance solar and continue to provide premium quality products, said Silfabs Paolo Maccario, President and CEO. We are excited to be part of this new technology and partnership. The panels are destined for Alberta Solar One, a project in Burdett, Alberta co-developed by Morgan Solar and Enbridge with $10 million in funding support from Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA). The project will be owned and operated by Enbridge and is being constructed by Alltrade/SkyFire, a joint venture partnership and will reach COD in Spring 2021. This is a success story of five Canadian companies coming together from across the country in partnership with ERA to create cost effective clean energy and much needed new jobs in Alberta in these challenging times. ## About Morgan Solar Morgan Solar is a light management technology company based in Toronto. Morgan Solar has 13 years experience of developing hardware and software solutions to the solar and building energy sectors including Simba solar modules, SPOTlight building integrated technologies, Savanna trackers, and Sun Studio software. Media Contact for Morgan Solar: Nic Morgan Email: n@morgansolar.com Tel: +1-416-203-1655 http://www.morgansolar.com About Silfab Solar Silfab Solar is the North American manufacturing leader in the design and development of ultra-high-efficiency, premium quality PV modules. Silfab leverages more than 35 years of solar experience and operates from Bellingham, Washington (USA) and Toronto, Canada. The combined 158,000 sq. ft. facilities feature multiple automated ISO 9001-2015 quality certified production lines utilizing just-in-time manufacturing to deliver Buy American approved PV modules specifically designed for and dedicated to the North American market. Media Contact for Silfab Solar: Geoff Atkins Email: g.atkins@silfabsolar.com Tel: +1-905-255-2501 Ext. 737 http://www.silfabsolar.com About Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) For more than 10 years, ERA has been investing the revenues from the carbon price paid by large final emitters to accelerate the development and adoption of innovative clean technology solutions. Since we were established in 2009, we have committed $534 million toward 161 projects worth $4 billion that are helping to reduce GHGs, create competitive industries and are leading to new business opportunities in Alberta. These projects are estimated to deliver cumulative reductions of 32.9 million tonnes of CO2e by 2030. New Delhi: Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's untimely demise has shaken the film fraternity. He was found hanging at his Bandra pad in Mumbai on June 14, 2020. The 34-year-old talented actor was reportedly battling depression for the past few months. ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajputs sister shares what her son, 5, said when she told him mamu is no more Sushant was a bright and inquisitive mind. His knowledge and a keen interest in science, cosmos, universe, mathematics and spirituality made him stand apart from the crowd of other stars. He was different, indeed, and his social media posts suggest so rightly. But did you know Sushant loved luxury cars, bikes and owned two? In fact, SSR had the same number on both his cars. Check out the picture below: (Pic Courtesy: Ankur Tyagi) Sushant Singh Rajput had written a list of his '50 dreams' and one of it was to own a Lamborghini too someday. He owned a Range Rover, a Maserati Quattroporte and a BMW bike. ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput's list of 50 dreams: Own a Lamborghini, fly a plane, send kids for workshops at NASA The talented star's sudden demise has left his fans heart-broken and shattered. Sushant Singh Rajput's last rites took place at Pawan Hans Crematorium on Monday, June 15, 2020. Many B-Town celebrities such as Shraddha Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, Mukesh Chhabra, Vivek Oberoi, Varun Sharma, Krystl D'Souza, Abhishek and Pragya Kapoor amongst others were seen paying their last respects to the departed soul amid heavy downpour. As coronavirus lingers while Massachusetts slowly reopens, a Clark University professor has received funding to study the respiratory virus, officials said Wednesday. Arshad Kudrolli, a professor of physics, plans to use the $200,000 grant for Rapid Response Research from the National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research to support his study, Predicting Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Impact with Multiscale Contact and Transmission Mitigation, Clark University wrote in a statement. Kudrollis work will examine transmission rates, mitigation factors like personal protective equipment and how another pandemic can be avoided, according to the university. The research grant will support the development of a scalable individual-based model of coronavirus spread integrating the physics of droplet trajectories in air and on surfaces, said Kudrolli. The funds will enable us to fully harness the big data and rapid-prototyping capabilities we have developed at Clark in solving fluid-structure problems and apply them to fighting COVID-19 locally and globally. Multidisciplinary strategies of transmission modeling are needed because coronavirus can spread so rapidly. Kudrollis research addresses these strategies based on individual infection rates because of interaction with respiration clouds and surface contacts, Clark said. In addition to existing data, the research will include experiments with a synthetic breathing apparatus and computer simulations, according to the university. Clark said the study will use a data-driven transmission model of COVID-19; physical data regarding the rate and dispersion distance of droplets released while breathing, sneezing, coughing, and talking, as well as how long those droplets remain on surfaces based on temperature, humidity, and airflow; and the impact of confinement and protective equipment on prognosis, recurrence, and cumulative death rates. Interactive web resources will be posted for immediate broad dissemination of data and learning outcomes on COVID-19, the university said. Kudrolli, who is the director of the Complex Matter and Nonlinear Physics Laboratory, joined the Clark faculty in 2008 and served as the Jan and Larry Landry University Professor from 2011 to 2016. His research focuses on a broad range of non-equilibrium phenomena, granular materials, and biological physics, according to Clark. As of Tuesday afternoon, 7,665 Massachusetts residents have died from illness related to coronavirus and there have been at least 105,885 confirmed and probable cases of the virus in the state. The number of new cases has consistently dropped since last month. Related Content: Grace Cathedral atop Nob Hill may look like a church that has been around for centuries, but it was completed only in 1964. A search through The Chronicles archives for older photos of the one of the citys landmark churches turned up images of its construction and photos from its most well-attended moments. The current building is a replacement for another Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. Banker William H. Crocker donated the land where the familys mansion itself severely damaged by the earthquake had stood. The cornerstone was laid on Jan. 24, 1910, with a grand ceremony involving four bishops, the governor and the combined choirs of a dozen Bay Area Episcopal churches. A great city is spread before it, a great city lies below it, and it will play an important part in the moral growth of the city and state, Gov. James Gillett said. Two years later, the first services were held in the completed portion of the churchs crypt, as its underground room was called, but it would be five decades before the church was formally completed. In November 1927, prominent businessmen and clergy met at the Fairmont Hotel to kick off a $3.6 million fundraising campaign to finish the construction of a house of prayer for all people. By 1934, the cathedral was opened for use, but it was only two-thirds done. The Great Depression slowed further work, and the first of two towers was completed in 1943. It would take another fundraising campaign in 1960 to finally complete the cathedral. The final consecration on Nov. 20, 1964, was a city event beyond the churchs immediate faithful. A procession of clergy and civic leaders including Mayor John F. Shelley, a Roman Catholic entered the newly completely cathedral shortly after 8:30am. At the time, it was the third-largest cathedral in the United States. Bob Campbell / The Chronicle 1965 Grace Cathedral has been one of the citys primary locations for mourning and remembrance, hosting memorial services for Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert Kennedy, as well as an ecumenical service for Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk after they were gunned down at City Hall in 1978. In more recent years, columnist Herb Caen, society clothier Wilkes Bashford, 49ers star Dwight Clark and Jose Julio Sarria, known as the first openly gay candidate for political office in the U.S., were eulogized there. On Sept. 14, 2001, a record-breaking group crowded inside Grace Cathedral and spilled out into the stone courtyards for a memorial service for those killed in the 9/11 terror attacks. Years before, a similar-size crowd had arrived to hear Martin Luther King Jr. give a sermon in the newly consecrated church. King had committed to the event a year before and arrived in San Francisco shortly before his sermon on March 28, 1965 just after the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march. More than 2,500 jammed into the cathedral many had to sit in the aisles to hear Dr. Kings sermon, The Chronicle reported. Another throng unable to get into the Cathedral heard the sermon outside on loudspeakers. We will never rise to our full national maturity until we can remove the terrible cancer of racial injustices from the body politic. King told the crowd. We must learn to live as brothers, or perish as fools. Among the most notable architectural elements of the cathedral are the bronze and gilt reproductions of the famed Ghiberti doors, The Gates of Paradise. The original doors were created in Florence in the 14th century, and casts were made during World War II, as the doors were moved to protect them from the ravages of war. More from the Archive The Vault Home of the San Francisco Chronicle's archive and more than 150 years of journalism covering the Bay Area and beyond. Chronicle critic Alfred Frankenstein wasnt a fan of the copies: If the church had thought this through, it might have occurred to someone that Ghibertis doors are masterpieces which the whole world comes to see precisely because no one told him to go copy someone else, he wrote in a generally negative 1964 review of the churchs architecture and artistic elements. Theres been unique additions since the Grace Cathedral was finished. Two labyrinths one inside and one outside the church were installed in the past 25 years. There is also a special interfaith chapel dedicated to those affected by AIDS. Inside is an altar piece by artist Keith Haring one of his last works and a section of the AIDS quilt. Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2015 More from Chronicle Vault Not quite paved with gold: The year San Franciscos mud was so bad, it swallowed up horses. Sorry, not happening right now: That (stunning) time The Chronicle gave away houses to boost circulation. 2.5 million gallons of Cabernet, Chardonnay: When the worlds largest wine ship nearly sank outside the Golden Gate. What happened to Seabiscuit? The famous horse gallops into Northern California retirement. From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspapers archive. Its part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Taylor Kate Brown, The Chronicles newsletter editor. Sign up for the newsletter here and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Taylor at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com. After its temporary closure to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, The Henry Ford is ready to welcome back visitors and staff safely. The institutions multiphase approach begins July 2-5 with a special Member Preview Weekend for current and new members, before opening to daily visitors on July 9, 2020. This plan emphasizes the safety of visitors and staff in compliance with state, federal and CDC guidelines. In this first phase of reopening, Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village will be open Thursday through Sunday, 9:30 a.m. 5 p.m., with a reservation system in place to limit daily visitation. Members can digitally reserve a timed-entry ticket online for a no-wait experience starting June 22. The Ford Rouge Factory Tour and Giant Screen Experience will remain closed during this initial phase. Plans are underway to resume these experiences as soon as possible. The highly anticipated Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes exhibition, originally slated to open inside Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in March, has been rescheduled to open on July 16 and extended through January 31, 2021. This limited-engagement exhibition features more than 300 artifacts, including some of Marvels most iconic and sought-after pages, costumes and props. Reservations for the exhibition will be available starting July 8, 2020. To further ensure a safe environment, hands-on activities are limited, and most interactions between visitors and staff will have a presence of six feet or more. Both staff and visitors aged three and up will be required to wear a face mask to enter any venue or experience at The Henry Ford, but can remove it when social distancing is kept. All staff members of The Henry Ford will be required to complete mandatory health screenings before arriving on-site for each shift. An increased number of cleaning staff will also be on-site to ensure that all surfaces, restrooms and restaurants are consistently disinfected, and additional hand sanitizer stations will be placed throughout each venue. A full list of The Henry Fords guidelines is available at thehenryford.org/welcomeback. The page will be updated regularly as new information becomes available. About The Henry Ford Located in Dearborn, Michigan, The Henry Ford, a globally-recognized destination, fosters inspiration and learning from hands-on encounters with artifacts that represent the most comprehensive collection anywhere focusing on innovation, ingenuity and resourcefulness in America. Its unique venues include Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, Greenfield Village, Ford Rouge Factory Tour, Benson Ford Research Center and Henry Ford Academy, a public charter high school. Together with its online presence at thehenryford.org, its national television series, The Henry Fords Innovation Nation and Invention Convention Worldwide, the growing affiliation of organizations fostering innovation, invention and entrepreneurship in K-12 students, The Henry Ford inspires individuals to unlock their potential and help shape a better future. PARIS (Reuters) - France accused Turkey's navy on Wednesday of acting in a hostile and unacceptable manner towards its NATO allies to prevent them from enforcing a United Nations arms embargo on Libya. NATO defence ministers are holding a virtual meeting this week amid growing tensions between Paris and Ankara. The two allies have traded barbs over the crisis in Libya, accusing each other of supporting opposing sides in the country's war. French foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said violations of the embargo, notably by Turkey, were the main obstacles to achieving peace and stability in Libya. "Turkeys support for the ongoing offensive of the Government of National Accord goes directly against efforts to secure an immediate truce," von de Muhll said. "This support is coupled with hostile and unacceptable behaviour by the Turkish maritime forces towards NATO allies, aimed at hampering efforts to implement the United Nations arms embargo." Turkey, which backs the internationally recognised GNA authorities in Tripoli, has secured a foothold in Libya by helping to repel an assault on the capital by the Libyan National Army (LNA) of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, who is backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia. France, which has supported Haftar in the past, says it is not taking sides. Paris' strong reaction appears to stem from an incident at the end of May when Turkish warships flashed their radar lights three times at the French Courbet warship in the eastern Mediterranean, a French defence official said. He said the Courbet, under NATO command, was carrying out a mission to check whether the Turkish vessel Cirkin was smuggling arms to Libya after it turned off its transponder, failed to identify itself and did not divulge its final destination. A senior Turkish official rejected the accusation earlier in the day. He said French forces had sought to search a Turkish vessel in international waters "and this was not permitted", and that Turkey had taken no provocative or aggressive action to prevent this. (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Donald Trump cared little about North Korea's nuclear arsenal when he met with Kim Jong Un and was more interested in making friends with the dictator as he treated the historic meeting as "an exercise in publicity," a former senior aide says. "Trump told ... me he was prepared to sign a substance-free communique, have his press conference to declare victory and then get out of town," former Trump national security adviser John Bolton writes in a coming book, according to the Washington Post. Mr Bolton writes that ahead of the big North Korea summit, Mr Trump insisted on giving Kim gifts that violated US sanctions on the country. US officials were forced to waive those sanctions, he contends. The former adviser's description of working for Mr Trump largely confirms what others have laid out and what it often seems like for reporters on the beat: A disorganised, chaotic, constantly shifting workspace with an erratic commander in chief at the helm. For instance, Mr Bolton describes the president's fascination with getting an autographed CD to Kim. The artist was Elton John. The song? "Rocket Man." Mr Trump mocked and threatened Mr Kim for several years using that as a nickname meant to belittle the North Korean leader. The US president was fixated, Mr Bolton claims, on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo giving the autographed CD to the dictator during a follow-up meeting. The only problem: Mr Trump did not seem to know Mr Pompeo never met with Mr Kim during his trip. "Trump didn't seem to realise Pompeo hadn't actually seen Kim Jong Un [during the trip], asking if Pompeo had handed [the CD]" to him, Bolton writes. "Pompeo had not. Getting this CD to Kim remained a high priority for several months." The book, titled "The Room Where It Happened," is scheduled to be released for sale next week, but the Trump administration on Tuesday asked a federal judge to block it. Mr Trump's team argues it is chock full of classified information and did not undergo the typical government security vetting process. The president earlier this week also accused Mr Bolton of lying about his accounts inside the West Wing and his encounters with Mr Trump. The suit was filed in a Washington, DC, federal court and also alleges, as Attorney General William Barr suggested on Monday, that Mr Bolton and publisher Simon & Schuster did not complete a routine vetting process used by all administrations to ensure a book by a former aide does not reveal classified information or give away national secrets. "(Bolton) struck a bargain with the United States as a condition of his employment in one of the most sensitive and important national security positions in the United States Government and now wants to renege on that bargain by unilaterally deciding that the prepublication review process is complete and deciding for himself whether classified information should be made public," the Trump administration wrote to the court. "If he wrote a book, I can't imagine that he can because that's highly classified information. Even conversations with me, they're highly classified," the president said on Monday. "I told that to the attorney general before. I will consider every conversation with me, as president, highly classified. So that would mean that if he wrote a book and if the, the book gets out, he's broken the law. And I would think that he would have criminal problems. I hope so," the president added. "Maybe he's not telling the truth. He's been known not to tell the truth a lot." The president offered no evidence to support that claim. Whether or not any president can, while arguing his every conversation is classified, block sales of a former aide's memoir will now be up to the court system. Most legal scholars contacted on Tuesday doubt the White House will prevail with federal judges, but one noted courts have long sided with the executive branch on national security matters. Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary under another GOP president, George W Bush, told Fox News on Wednesday he doubts Mr Trump's legal claims about his authorities and allegations about the book will hold up in the court system. Key to Cubas medical internationalism is to train medical personnel across the world, in addition to sending Cuban doctors and nurses overseas. by Vijay Prashad A few weeks ago, I was talking to Noam Chomsky about the state of the world. At one point, Noam smiled and said that he is not aware of any German doctors in Italy, even though both countries are in the European Union; instead, Cuban and Chinese doctors went to Italy to help the Italians fight the global pandemic. Cuban Medical Workers Little wonder that there is a petition in circulation to award the Cuban medical workers with the Nobel Peace Prize. The Cuban Ministry of Public Health rapidly mobilized its medical teamsnotably the Henry Reeve Brigadeto take their considerable skills to a range of countries, from Andorra to Venezuela. Felix Baez was greeted in Havana by officials and his family The Brigade received the Dr. Lee Jong-Wook Memorial Prize for Public Health from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017 for its work against the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. That award was received by Dr. Felix Baez, who had worked in Pakistan after the earthquake in 2005 and then went to Sierra Leone in October 2014 to fight Ebola; Dr. Baez contracted Ebola, went to recover in Switzerland and Cuba, and then returned to Sierra Leone to complete his mission. The roots of Cuban medical internationalism go right to the start of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Even though doctors left the country after the revolution, the Cuban people responded valiantly in response to an earthquake in Valdivia, Chile, in May 1960; a Cuban emergency medical brigade arrived in Chile and set up six rural field hospitals. This was the start of a process that would include Cuban medical assistance to the Algerian, Angolan, Nicaraguan, and Vietnamese liberation wars, as well as Cuban medical training for students from across the world. Key to Cubas medical internationalism is to train medical personnel across the world, in addition to sending Cuban doctors and nurses overseas. Since 2005, the Latin American School of Medicine based in Havana has trained more than 29,000 doctors from more than 100 countries. Many of these doctors are now on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 across the world. For example, Dr. Patrick Dellydirector of Haitis National Laboratory of Epidemiologyis leading the struggle to break the chain of infection in Haiti. Chinese Medical Workers The Peoples Republic of China first sent a medical team outside its borders in 1963, when 24 Chinese medical workers arrived in Algeria to assist the new country. Since then, China has built hospitals and medical centers in Algeria and has treated almost 2 million patients in that country. Since mid-May, a team of Chinese medical specialists with expertise in treating COVID-19 has been working in Algeria. A few years ago, on the train from Fez to Rabat, I met a team of Chinese doctors who had been stationed in Morocco. These doctors were part of the 165th Chinese medical mission and had been at work in the public hospitals in the Moroccan mountainous towns of Chefchaouen and Taza. They told me that the Chinese and Moroccan authorities were in the process of setting up a Chinese-Moroccan Center for Traditional Medicine in Casablanca. During the current pandemic, China sent several flights with medical equipment to Morocco for the fight against the pandemic; Chinese medical personnel, already in Morocco on their mission, continue to work to contain COVID-19. China, having gained important experience in its own fight against the virus and the disease, has now sent experts and medical teams to countries across the world from Iran to Burkina Faso to Venezuela. In Sudan, for instance, the 35th Chinese medical mission held an information forum at the Omdurman Friendship Hospital, where Zhou Linhead of the Chinese teamurged the medical staff to protect themselves from the disease and to teach people about how to prevent spreading the virus. Practical advice came alongside the donation of 400,000 surgical masks and other equipment. Chinas practice of medical internationalism is coordinated by the China International Development Cooperation Agency, but it is largely left to the provincial governments. The slogan is One Province, One Country, with provinces partnering with countries so that Zhejiang Province is partnered with Italy and Jiangsu Province is partnered with Venezuela. One key area of solidarity is Chinas increased involvement on behalf of the Palestinian people. A medical expert team assembled by Chinas National Health Commission arrived in Palestine on June 11. Hua Chunying, of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that the team will remain in Palestine for one week and will provide expertise on epidemic control, clinical diagnosis, and treatment and lab tests. They come just as China contributed $1 million to UNRWA, the UN agency that works to provide basic services to Palestinians. Chinese and Cuban Collaboration On January 1, 2020, just as the current outbreak developed, China and Cuba inaugurated the China-Cuba Biotechnology Joint Innovation Center in Hunan Province. This collaboration goes back almost two decades, when the countries set up the Changchun Heber Biological Technology Ltd. in Changchun (Jilin Province, China) in 2003. The Interferon alpha 2B (IFNrec), one of the key drugs used in the fight against COVID-19, is also manufactured by this company. The drug had been first developed in 1981 to tackled dengue fever in Cuba but has since then been used in the struggle against HIV-AIDS, hepatitis B and C, as well as respiratory papillomatosis. This drug was widely usedalongside traditional Chinese medicineto treat patients in China with COVID-19. Cubas fight against COVID-19 on the island has been exemplary, despite the U.S.-enforced blockade. China sent important donations to the island, including protective clothing, surgical masks, and infrared thermometers; some of these important supplies came from the government, but others came from public sector entities such as the Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Companyone of the worlds largest bus makers. Socialist Solidarity It is small-minded of people like U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to ignore their own incompetence in dealing with the disease and instead point fingers at others. Trump has made it a habit of blaming China; Bolsonaros sonRodrigofollowed Trump in tweeting that the Chinese Communist Party is to blame for the virus. These governments have taken refuge in another atrocious virusthat of xenophobia (in particular, sinophobia). China and Cuba, on the other hand, havelike other socialist countriestaken to heart the WHO slogan, solidarity, not stigma. Deng Boqing, the vice chairman of China International Development Cooperation Agency, said, the grace of dripping water should be reciprocated by a gushing spring. What he meant was that Chinas response to other countries will not be measured by what they have done for China (dripping water) but by what these countries need (gushing spring); this is the old Marxist idea of giving what you can and taking what you need. China, Deng Boqing said, follows the principle of doing what we can and trying our best. This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than twenty books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest book is Washington Bullets, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma. FILE PHOTO: The sun is seen behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose 3% in volatile trade on Tuesday as Wall Street surged and the International Energy Agency (IEA) increased its oil demand forecast for 2020, but gains were capped by worries about a second wave of coronavirus cases. Brent crude futures ended the session up $1.24, or 3.1%, at $40.96 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) rose $1.26, or 3.4% to settle at $38.38 a barrel. Oil gave up some gains in post-settlement trade after U.S. crude inventories rose by 3.9 million barrels last week, according to industry group the American Petroleum Institute, compared with analysts' expectations for 152,000-barrel draw. Government data will be released on Wednesday. The market was bolstered earlier when Wall Street opened higher after a record increase in May retail sales revived hopes of a swift post-pandemic economic rebound, with sentiment also lifted by data showing reduced COVID-19 death rates in a trial of a generic steroid drug. In its monthly report, the IEA forecast oil demand at 91.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, 500,000 bpd higher than its estimate in May's report, citing higher than expected consumption during coronavirus lockdowns. Still, the agency said a fall in flying because of the virus outbreak meant the world would not return to pre-pandemic demand levels before 2022. Gains were limited as coronavirus cases rose to more than 8 million worldwide this week, with infections surging in Latin America, while the United States and China are dealing with fresh outbreaks. China sharply ramped up restrictions on people leaving Beijing in an effort to stop the most serious coronavirus flare-up since February from spreading to other cities and provinces. A full U.S. economic recovery will not occur until the American people are sure that the epidemic has been brought under control, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said. "In the last two weeks oil traders priced in two big ifs. How supply will evolve and the fear of the pandemic's second wave," said Bjornar Tonhaugen, Rystad Energys head of oil markets. Story continues "If the world treats a second COVID-19 wave like in the first half of the year, then we are in for a demand reduction that was not in the initial planning." Oil supplies in May plunged by nearly 12 million bpd, the IEA said, with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia - a group known as OPEC+ - reducing their output by 9.4 million bpd. That means OPEC+ hit 89% compliance with agreed cuts in May, the IEA said. OPEC+ agreed this month to extend production cuts of 9.7 million bpd through July. It also called on members that have not been complying to make up commitments with extra cuts later. Iraq, which had one of the worst compliance rates among the major producers, has already made deep cuts to its crude supplies to Asia in July. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London, Aaron Sheldrick and Seng Li Peng; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Barbara Lewis) British Airways is switching many short-haul flights from its second-biggest base, Gatwick Airport, to Heathrow in July. Passengers booked on the affected flights, as well as BA flight crew employed at the Sussex hub, are being informed of the move. The airline has already warned that it may abandon Gatwick permanently, or drastically cut its operations there. For three decades, Gatwick has been the base for BAs leisure-focused routes, including Mediterranean, Caribbean, Latin American and Indian Ocean destinations. British Airways has a majority of the slots at Heathrow airport. For the rest of the summer season which ends in October it will use only a fraction of them for a much-reduced international network. The Independent has made test bookings on a range of traditional Gatwick routes, including Alicante, Faro, Jersey and Venice, and found July departures are from Heathrow. But flights to Barbados, Bermuda and Dubrovnik routes are still shown as departing from Gatwick. The move may help British Airways cut costs, by increasing the efficiency of the operation at its main base, Heathrow. A daytime holiday flight to the Mediterranean can be slotted in between early and late business-focused trips, making better use of aircraft and crew. It will also remove some key BA routes from direct competition with easyJet, which is the dominant airline at the Sussex airport, potentially enabling both airlines to increase fares. A spokesperson for British Airways said: We recommend all customers check for the latest on their flight on ba.com. It is not clear if the airline will reimburse passengers who have additional expenses as a result of the airport switch. European air passengers rights rules are ambivalent on the subject and BA has not responded to questions about it. From August, British Airways is increasing its operations, with routes such as Catania in Sicily added from Gatwick. On Saturday, BA was described as a national disgrace by MPs on the Transport Select Committee for what they called its wanton destruction of a loyal workforce. In common with other airlines, British Airways is cutting about 30 per cent of staff representing 12,000 out of 42,000 employees. The airline wants to change the terms and conditions of its remaining 30,000 workers. The committee said: We urge British Airways to extend its consultation period to allow meaningful consultation to take place as per its legal requirements, and without pre-conditions. Willie Walsh, chief executive of BAs parent company, IAG, responded: British Airways is fighting for its survival, in the face of overwhelming and unprecedented challenges, while respecting the fundamental British value of the rule of law. This is not a disgrace. Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Show all 11 1 /11 Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Ben Gurion International airport, Israel Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Changsha Huanghua International Airport, China Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Daxing International Airport, Beijing AFP via Getty Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Haneda Airport, Tokyo Reuters Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Shanghai Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China EPA Airports empty as Coronavirus affects aviation industry Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam AFP via Getty Lying down and surrendering without a fight would be a disgrace and we will not do that. Air France has just announced plans to cut 8,300 jobs but through voluntary redundancy. Three hundred pilots, 2,000 cabin crew and 6,000 ground staff, representing about one sixth of the workforce, are expected to go. Until March, Gatwick was the worlds busiest single-runway airport. On Monday this week, easyJet operated its first flight for 11 weeks, and is now running a skeleton service to and from the Sussex airport. Norwegian has announced it will resume flying from Gatwick to both Copenhagen and Oslo in July. People buying takeaway food next to empty tables at a hawker centre in Singapore. (PHOTO: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images) SINGAPORE Seating arrangements at hawker centres will be changed, as Singapore prepares to enter Phase 2 of its reopening after the COVID-19 circuit breaker period. The National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a media release on Tuesday (16 June) that dine-ins will resume at the cooked food sections of all its 114 hawker centres from Friday. There will be two key changes to seating arrangements. First, operators will be marking out seats and tables for dining groups of different sizes between one and five persons. Patrons should continue to sit only at unmarked seats or tables when dining in at the hawker centres. Second, certain tables may be closed or have additional seats marked, in order to facilitate safe distancing between dining groups. NEA has assured the public that, even with some seats and tables marked out, overall seating capacity will generally be higher in Phase 2 than during the pre-circuit breaker period. Similar to the current practice, the public should still maintain safe distancing of at least one metre at all times when queueing to make cooked food purchases or while waiting for their orders. Continue to wear masks, except when eating or drinking All hawker centre patrons are reminded to continue wearing their masks, except when they are eating or drinking. Patrons should also check in and out on every visit to the markets and hawker centres using SafeEntry QR codes which have been put up at the centres. NEA is reminding patrons to keep the hawker centre tables clean for the next diner by returning their trays and used crockery or cutlery. In particular, diners should dispose of their used tissues/wipes in a proper manner, either by binning them or bringing them together with their trays and used crockery/cutlery to designated tray return points. Automatic hand sanitiser dispensers to be installed NEA will be installing automated hand sanitiser dispensers at all 114 hawker centres and markets, with the number of dispensers at each centre depending on the centres size and layout. Story continues The dispensers will be installed near the entrances, exits and lift lobbies of each centre. Where possible, some dispensers may be placed near to tray return racks, so that patrons can sanitise their hands after returning their trays, should there be a queue at the hand wash basin. Enhanced cleaning and hygiene measures implemented before the circuit breaker period will continue at all hawker centres and markets. These include increasing the cleaning frequency of toilets and frequently-touched areas such as table tops, seats, lifts and hand rails. Cleaners will wear gloves when clearing tables and used crockeries/utensils. There should also be adequate supply of toilet paper and soap in the toilets. Access to popular markets still restricted Meanwhile, access to the four popular markets Geylang Serai, Chong Pang, 20/21 Marsiling Lane and 505 Jurong West Street 52 will continue to be restricted based on the last digit of the patrons NRIC or Foreign Identification Number. Similarly, patrons to all 83 markets managed by NEA and NEA-appointed operators should also continue to stand within the boxes marked on the floor, to minimise crowding and maintain safe distancing when making their purchases at the market stalls. Safe-distancing enforcement officers and ambassadors will continue to be deployed at hawker centres and markets to ensure compliance with safe management measures. Those who are unwell or are sick should refrain from going to the markets and hawker centres. INFOGRAPHIC: National Environment Agency Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore More Singapore stories: No Singapore residents among 151 new COVID-19 infections; 2 community cases Grocery shop, Prime supermarket in Jalan Besar added to places visited by COVID-19 cases 42 more foreign worker dorms cleared of COVID-19: MOM Choa Chu Kang cemetery, state-run columbaria to open to public from Friday New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is set to address the UN General Assembly on Monday. All eyes are set on her speech in which she is expected to deliver a stinging response to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's "tirade" on Kashmir. Swarajs speech, scheduled for around 7 pm (IST), is expected to reflect the mood of the nation set by Prime Minister Narendra Modis speech in Kerala on Saturday and continuous efforts of an army of Indian diplomats at UNGA in New York. Whilst PM Modi spoke to conscious of Pakistani people and asked them to introspect over the development conditions in their nation before supporting violence against India, the diplomats have been keeping even the likes of Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif on the edge through their strong presence in New York. Also read: Sushma Swaraj reaches New York, to address UNGA on September 26 Lets have a look at excerpts of the key speeches on Uri attack that reflect the mood of the nation: Prime Minister Narendra Modis reply to Pakistan on Uri attack: Giving his first speech after Uri attacks, PM Modi on Saturday said, "Let me tell Pakistan that the sacrifice of 18 Indian soldiers will not go to waste." "There is one nation in Asia whose aim is to spread terrorism and is working toward ensuring that the 21st century does not belong to Asia," he said, referring to Pakistan. "Every nation is holding only one country responsible for terrorism. Only one country in Asia is a safe haven for terrorists. Minister of State, External Affairs Ministry, MJ Akbar on Uri attack: Pakistans discourse has no takers in United Nations, MoS MEA MJ Akbar told media on Saturday, Indias version stated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was accepted by the world because it is the honest truth. Responding to question on Pakistans denial of proof of its involvement in Uri attacks, MJ Akbar said, Sure there are at least 1-2 scientists in Pak, if they examine DNA samples (of terrorists). They (Pakistan) will get proof of Pathankot and Uri attack. Pakistan can fool its own people but not the World, he said.Earlier on Thursday, MJ Akbar said, We cannot have prosperity without peace, and the principal threat to peace now is terrorism. The poor are the most vulnerable victims of terrorism, not least because conflict leads to devastation. Indias representative at United Nations Syed Akbaruddin: Pakistani Prime Minister left from United Nations General Assembly with an empty bag, they got no support, whilst there is a crescendo of support against terrorism at in the international community, said senior diplomat Akbaruddin on Friday. Akbaruddin said what is finding resonance among the international community is the terror threat that India is facing and not what Sharif said in his speech. Of the 131 nations which have spoken in the General Debate so far, 130 have not referred to the primary issue that Pakistan has raised. So what does that mean? he asked, adding that India is gratified by the support it is getting with countries increasingly standing up and voicing their support to deal with the menace of terrorism. First secretary at the Permanent Mission of India in New York Eenam Gambhir on Pak as Ivy League for Terrorism: One of the hardest hitting replies to Pakistans plea at United Nations came right on Day 1, and that too by a young diplomat. Eenam Gambhir, first secretary at the Permanent Mission of India in New York, took the floor to exercise Indias Right to Reply following a combative speech by Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif accusing India of human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir and gave a fitting reply: The land of Taxila, one of the greatest learning centres of ancient times, is now host to the Ivy League of terrorism. It attracts aspirants and apprentices from all over the world. The effect of its toxic curriculum is felt across the globe. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. China and Russia were using the heightened anxiety around the coronavirus pandemic to undermine Western democracies by spreading disinformation online, Australia's foreign minister said. The disinformation contributed to a "climate of fear and division" when the world needed cooperation and understanding, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a speech at the Australian National University, a text of which was released by her office late Tuesday. "Concerningly, we have seen disinformation pushed and promoted around the coronavirus pandemic and around some of the social pressures that have been exacerbated by the pandemic," Payne said. "It is troubling that some countries are using the pandemic to undermine liberal democracy to promote their own more authoritarian models," she added. Payne referred to a European Union commission report last week that said "foreign actors and certain third countries, in particular Russia and China" are flooding Europe with "targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns." It cited dangerous misinformation like claims that drinking bleach can cure the disease and that washing hands does not help prevent its spread. Payne last week rejected as disinformation China's warning to its citizens against visiting Australia because of pandemic-related racism. China has also banned beef exports from Australia's largest abattoirs and ended the trade in Australian barley with prohibitive tariffs in what is widely regarded as punishment for Australia's advocacy for an independent inquiry into the origins and responses to the pandemic. Some suspect that China's decision two weeks ago to sentence Australian Karm Gilespie to death seven years after his arrest for drug trafficking is also linked to the bilateral rift. Australia claimed vindication when the World Health Organisation last month bowed to calls from most of its member states to launch an independent probe into how it managed the international response to the virus. The evaluation would stop short of looking into contentious issues such as the origins of the virus that was identified after an outbreak in China late last year. Payne acknowledged critics who argued that Australia should have gathered powerful allies before it antagonized China with demands for transparency. "There were those who said that by speaking out, by seeking a review, we made ourselves a target and brought upon ourselves an unnecessary cost for a cause that would have been championed anyway by others whose size and stature made them more suitable standard-bearers," she said. "There are times to pursue quiet diplomacy behind the scenes. But there are also times to voice our concerns and persuade others of the need for a course of action," she added. In what may be the stupidest yet of the thousands upon thousands of lawsuits President Donald Trump has triggered, Attorney General Bill Barrs Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit in a federal court in the District of Columbia on Tuesday ostensibly seeking to stop publication of John Boltons upcoming book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir. The suit is filed on behalf of the United States of America, and it claims that the former national security adviser is in breach of contract and has also violated a government nondisclosure agreement. The suit demands that he complete the governments official prepublication review process, and also not disclose classified information without written authorization, and also ensure that his book, which has already shipped, not be published or disseminated, lest its publication cause damage, or exceptionally grave damage, to the national security of the United States. This of course comes on the heels of recent ominous warnings from Trump that Boltonwhose book is scheduled to be released next week and who has given an interview to ABC News that is set to be aired on Sundayis staring down the barrel of criminal problems if he doesnt stop this publishing juggernaut right quick. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now if all that sounds like frivolous litigation to your ears, its because when Trumpin his capacity as the boss of bosses of DOJuses the state to try to stop a book from being published, well, that would be prior restraint. As the Supreme Court noted in 1971 when it allowed for the publication of the Pentagon Papers, Any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity. There is the additional problem that the Trump administration has been trying to force all sorts of former White House employees, most notably Omarosa Manigault Newman, to comply with laugh-out-loud, unenforceable, and overbroad NDAs. These efforts may have worked to protect Trump on the set of The Apprentice, but they dont work when you are the head of the executive branch and the NDA covers urgent matters of state. The claim here, that Bolton should have waited out the monthslong clearance process, is belied by the fact that he did. Advertisement Advertisement The suit itself concedes as much: On or around April 27, 2020, [senior director for records access and information security management at the National Security Council Ellen] Knight had completed her review and was of the judgment that the manuscript draft did not contain classified information. Ms. Knight informed NSC Legal of the status of the review. So the person in charge of reviewing the book gave it the all-clear. It was only when the administration went in for another round of review that the top political appointee at the NSC and Boltons replacement, Robert C. OBrien, ordered the holdup to begin again. Advertisement Further eroding its feeble foundationand making it reasonable to ask whether this is even a sincere attempt at prior restraint or just the DOJ once again doing everything in its power short of arresting his enemies to appease the presidentis the absence of the publisher as a defendant and the DOJ having declined to even request a restraining order. This isnt really an attempt to halt a book; its an attempt to bully Bolton into somehow taking it all back under the threat of having to pay massive legal fees and losing income from the books publication. As the Knight Foundation was quick to point out, this is just further abuse of an interminable prepublication review regime under this administration that has come to serve as de facto prior restraint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So what should we make of this pileup of contradictions in the DOJs eleventh-hour cameo debasement in civil court on the presidents behalf? Attorney Bradley Moss asserts that the suit is a straight civil breach of contract case against Bolton for having allegedly failed to comply with the prepublication requirementsthough, again, the suit at least appears to concede Boltons initial compliance.* If the DOJ prevails, Boltons profits would wind up in the U.S. Treasury. The DOJ shows some clever cheek by laying claim to all royalties, remunerations and emoluments(!) resulting from any Bolton disclosures that are [in]consistent with the terms of the [NDAs]. Advertisement Advertisement The posturing over money, of course, is just that. This suit, like virtually all of Trumps countless previous failed lawsuits, is really about vindictiveness. The caption even included Boltons home address, when its apparently more customary in this judicial district to include the lawyers address instead of the defendants. That childish rage is why Trump is now threatening to sue his niece Mary to keep her tell-alldue out in Julyin the vault as well. For Trump, winning has only ever been about his opponents losing. Trumps Page Six, professional wrestling worldview really shines through here, though, with Barr eagerly gooning it up as if he were Trumps Captain Lou Albano. Advertisement Advertisement The prior restraint threat is nothing more than kayfabe, but the humiliation of the Department of Justice is once again exhaustingly real. The marks it will leave will remind us of how many folding chairs DOJ took to the head these four long years. The fact that Trump has a whole privately orchestrated law firm under Bill Barr willing to work the levers at taxpayer expense just makes it impossible for him to stop now. Advertisement Lets be honest: It is a bitter pill to swallow to now be rooting for John Bolton, the man who opted for cashing in over testifying during the impeachment, when his revelations about Trumps misdealings with foreign governments may have made a real difference. But here we are, not just rooting for the grifter-with-the-mustache against the grifter-with-the-hair, but also profoundly anxious at the fact that the Justice Department as well as an array of federal prosecutors have cheerfully lined up behind Barr to go after another one of Trumps foes. As John Deanwho knows a thing or two about abuse of power in the executive branchsaid, this is about Barr using the Justice Department as Trumps law firm. That weve all gone numb to Barrs willingness to perform precisely this role for some time now makes it all the more troubling. Barrs gone from Trumps personal prosecutor general to his bagman in the blink of an eye. Advertisement Advertisement Further contributing to that pills bitterness is that this is playing out months after Boltons testimony could have been provided to the full Senate at Trumps impeachment trial, which feels like a century ago but in reality begat this historically wretched year. Boltons book jacket tauntingly claims that its game on, but the real game was played, and lost, in January. Bolton didnt even bother to show up or take sides. Its painful to concede that Boltons story is still worth hearing. Perhaps, though, if the government ultimately gets to keep Boltons profits, it will all eventually add up to a ridiculous booby prize for the whole country. Correction, June 17, 9:55 a.m.: This post originally misidentified Bradley Moss as a staffer at Above the Law. For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below. The United States is closely monitoring the situation following a fierce clash between Indian and Chinese forces in eastern Ladakh and hopes that the differences will be resolved peacefully, officials said here. Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region. "We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control," a State Department spokesperson said. "We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families," the official said. Follow this link to track LIVE developments on India-China Border news Both India and China have expressed their desires to de-escalate and the US supports a peaceful resolution of the current situation, the spokesperson said. "During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had discussed the situation along the India-China border," the official added. Chinese media, on Wednesday, downplayed the deadly skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops which took place at the Galwan Valley on June 15 and 16. The Chinese media did not cite the number of casualties on its side even though there were plenty of calls for retaliation against Indian forces on Chinese social media. Chinese media houses like People's Daily of China, which is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China did not even mention the Indo-Sino border confrontation anywhere on its newspapers. It only republished the Chinese military's official statement on social media without any additional reports. Similarly, state-controlled broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) did the same. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: 'Galwan Valley belongs to China, don't want further clashes,' says Chinese govt In fact, CCTV's widely watched daily Xinwen Lianbo evening news broadcast made no mention of the border confrontation on Tuesday. The Chinese nationalist daily Global Times reported the number of deaths on the Indian side on Page 16, adding that China had not released information about casualties. "China does not want to turn border issues with India into a confrontation," the editorial said of the Global Times said, blaming India for "arrogance and recklessness". Chinese news agency Xinhua majorly gave coverage to President Xi Jinping's phone call with Ecuador's president. The only mention of Galwan clash was "below the fold" and just a link to the Western Command's statement from yesterday. However, Chinese social media users on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social platform, were baying for blood. Users shared plenty of information about the clashes reposted from foreign news outlets. Also read: India-China face-off: 'Why is PM silent, how dare China kill our soldiers', asks Rahul Gandhi Also read: India-China tension: Chidambaram questions PM Modi's silence on 'intrusion of foreign troops' By Tran Nguyen San Jose Spotlight When Tina Le first arrived in America in 2003, she took up doing nails as a part-time job. Two years later, she opened a shop in San Jose that she adoringly calls her "second child." "I love my job, and I'm very proud of my work," Le said in an interview. "We are here to take care of our customers and make them feel great." But more importantly, she said, nail salons have long been the cornerstone of the Vietnamese community in the South Bay. Like many Viet immigrants, Le has depended on her job in the nail industry to provide for herself and her family. All of the employees at her shop, Nail Elegance, are Vietnamese women who moved to the U.S. recently, Le said. Across California, 80 to 85 percent of salons are owned or operated by those of Vietnamese descent, according to Nails, the leading industry publication. "The industry is mainly women-owned ... Vietnamese immigrants, many of them couldn't speak English well, they still have a successful business. What other small businesses can you say the same here?" said Louie Pham, the owner of Orchid Nail Lounge in Santa Clara. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently praised the industry as "an exit point out of poverty," but the state's stay-at-home order has shuttered nail salons since March. Newsom, who said the first case of community spread of COVID-19 was traced back to a nail salon, said salons can reopen Friday under certain restrictions. Under the new guidance issued for nail salons, customers and nail techs must wear face coverings, maintain 6 feet between workstations, throw away one-time use items such as nail files and remove nail polish displays, among other rules. Although the governor announced reopening nail salons, Santa Clara County's more than 800 nail shops will remain closed because of the county's more restrictive health order. It's unclear when Santa Clara County will lift its local restrictions on the nail and beauty industry, as new cases of COVID-19 are emerging, including at recently opened construction sites. Public Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody warned reopening too quickly could lead to another surge of infections. But California has imposed stricter restrictions on the nail industry than other personal service businesses, such as barbershops and hair salons. While hair salons have reopened, nail salons were given no details about when they could return to business. Even before the pandemic, the nail industry had already been heavily regulated, Pham said. "(California) is a strict state on everything in nail shops," she said. Nail salon owners are preparing to take new safety measures when they reopen. Many technicians, including Pham and Le, have gotten a COVID-19 certification from Barbicide, a disinfection company in the beauty industry. "There is a lot of fear and confusion among nail (salon) owners right now," said Linda Do, who owns Blossom Nail Spa in San Jose and Campbell. "There is a lack of information and a lot of misinformation. People are wondering 'What happens now?' 'Who should we trust?' 'Are we going to make it?'" Do's shops in 2015 were among the first to register as "Healthy Nail Salons," a county program that recognizes shops that offer safer products, ventilation and services. Since the shutdown, Do has been invited by the governor's office and county officials to provide recommendations on safety protocols for the industry, she said. "They don't understand (the challenges) in nail shops; we do," Do said. "The governor and the county have been working and taking our recommendations. I feel very blessed (for that)." Do spoke at the county's special hearing on economic recovery on June 8, presenting safety measures planned for her two shops. Do plans to eliminate walk-in options, take the temperature of each customer, practice social distancing, and require frequent hand washing and masks inside the salon. Each station will have an acrylic shield to separate customers from nail technicians. Anh Bui, owner of Classy Nails in Campbell, said safety is the first priority. "We are ready to follow whatever protocols that the county and the state issues," Bui said through a Vietnamese translator. She advocated for additional resources and multilingual guidelines. Santa Clara County has yet to allow the full reopening of restaurants, hair salons and malls. Pressed by Supervisor Mike Wasserman during the June 8 meeting on plans to move into the next phase of reopening, county officials could not provide a specific date and said they're relying on a model of five indicators. County officials said last week things are unlikely to change in the next three weeks. "The county is fully committed to helping the nail industry," Betty Duong, manager of the county's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, told more than 30 nail salon owners on a Zoom call organized by Do and Pham. "We want to create a reasonable guideline where we can ensure the safety of workers and customers. We also want it to be reasonable so that any nail salon could afford to do it." Duong said the county will provide enough time between the release of guidelines and a reopening date. "We want everybody to have the opportunity to open on the same day," she said. Shop owners in recent weeks have expressed frustrations with the state's slow-moving plans, and industry advocates plan to sue the state over the prolonged uncertainty and closures. "Hair salons have a lot more contacts than nail salons, and there is no separation between the customers and the technicians," said Mai, co-owner of Perfect 10 Nail Spa in San Jose. "Why are we not on the same level with hair salons? ... We feel like we are being discriminated here." Santa Clara County officials said California made a distinction between hair salons and nail salons at the state level. "We don't fully understand that distinction," Duong said. The county has scheduled a series of "engagement opportunities" to provide education and preparation for new operating standards, Duong said in a statement to San Jos Spotlight. The shutdown isn't the only threat to the South Bay's nail shops, many said. Supplies such as gloves, masks and alcohol have become increasingly scarce and expensive to purchase. "Prices have increased so much for many things we need," Le said. Le's shop has installed plexiglass between pedicure stations and acrylic shields for manicure desks, in addition to stocking up on face shields, masks and hand sanitizer. Le estimated she's spent $4,000 to $5,000 to prepare for reopening. For Pham and her shop in Santa Clara, installing new safety measures is not a big concern. "The cost of running the business is," she said. A gallon of alcohol could run up to $125 to $150 during the pandemic, Pham said, and she's already spent around $3,000. Without an income for three months, Pham has started tapping into her savings. Her unemployment checks paid for rent in May and June, but she knows it won't last. Scheduling and managing personnel is going to be another challenge for nail shops, Le said. With social distancing in place, Le will have to limit the number of customers and cut hours to keep all of her employees. "When we're open, clients will come back, and I don't think I can take everyone," she said. Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said the county could help nail salons access equipment such as masks and gloves. Since the shutdown, Le has become a stay-at-home wife and helps her two kids with school work. But her heart still beats for her business. Le said she misses clients and worries about those with various health conditions who rely on her services. Pham shared that sentiment. "It's more than just opening up our businesses ... We are dying to service our communities," Pham said. "We're missing everybody." 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. More than 20,000 people have been removed from Northern Ireland's hospital waiting lists, it can be revealed. Efforts to cut waiting lists resulted in more than 5% of people who had been referred for a first outpatient appointment being removed by the end of February. Hospital doctors and GPs have been tasked with reviewing patients who have been referred for outpatient appointments and inpatient treatment. Patients removed from waiting lists include those who have died or paid for private treatment, as well as those whose conditions have improved or those who have deteriorated significantly and have received emergency treatment. The so-called waiting list validation exercise has resulted in 17,400 patients being removed from lists for a first outpatient appointment, while a further 2,650 people have been taken off the waiting list for an elective procedure. Despite this work, more than 307,000 people remained on the list for a first hospital appointment and a further 93,641 patients were waiting to be admitted to a hospital at the end of March. As part of the waiting list validation programme, hospital doctors have been ringing patients to find out whether they still require an appointment. According to the Health and Social Care Board, GP surgeries were also funded to undertake a clinical review of all patients on the waiting list for a range of specialties to determine if they are suitable to remain on the waiting list. They were asked to look at patients who had been waiting between 36 and 52 weeks for a first outpatient appointment for elective care assessment. However, the programme stalled as the health service prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic. Patients in Northern Ireland can wait up to 10 years for an operation to treat a painful and debilitating condition from the point they first see their GP, when the wait for an outpatient's appointment, diagnostic test and inpatient treatment are included. Waiting lists in some specialties are so extreme that some patients will never be seen. Tackling the deteriorating situation was a key priority for Health Minister Robin Swann when he took up his post at the start of the year. However, efforts were halted as it appeared the NHS might be overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients. Now a leading doctor has warned that the situation is unlikely to improve for another 18 months as the health service is currently "treading water". Dr Tom Black, chair of the British Medical Association's Northern Ireland Council, said: "There will be a proportion of patients on waiting lists who have died, some will have gone private, and there will also be those who have just got past whatever was worrying them. "GPs now have patients that they aren't even referring at the moment, so they are doing an awful lot of holding work, meaning they are managing their patients in primary care, which involves prescribing medication like painkillers. "Quite simply, we can't address waiting lists at the moment - we have to look at the likes of cancer care, mental health, care of the elderly, paediatrics and try to make sure red flag patients are being seen quickly." African cross-border fintech startup Chipper Cash has closed a $13.8 million Series A funding round led by Deciens Capital and plans to hire 30 new staff globally. The raise caps an event-filled run for the San Francisco-based payments company, founded two years ago by Ugandan Ham Serunjogi and Ghanaian Maijid Moujaled. The two came to America for academics, met in Iowa while studying at Grinnell College and ventured out to Silicon Valley for stints in big tech: Facebook for Serunjogi and Flickr and Yahoo! for Moujaled. The startup call beckoned and after launching Chipper Cash in 2018, the duo convinced 500 Startups and Liquid 2 Ventures co-founded by American football legend Joe Montana to back their company with seed funds. Two years and $22 million in total capital raised later, Chipper Cash offers its mobile-based, no fee, P2P payment services in seven countries: Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya. "We're now at over one and a half million users and doing over a $100 million dollars a month in volume," Serunjogi told TechCrunch on a call. Chipper Cash does not release audited financial data, but does share internal performance accounting with investors. Deciens Capital and Raptor Group co-led the startup's Series A financing, with repeat support from 500 Startups and Liquid 2 Ventures . Deciens Capital founder Dan Kimerling confirmed the fund's lead on the investment and review of Chipper Cash's payment value and volume metrics. Parallel to its P2P app, the startup also runs Chipper Checkout, a merchant-focused, fee-based mobile payment product that generates the revenue to support Chipper Cashs free mobile-money business. The company will use its latest round to hire up to 30 people across operations in San Francisco, Lagos, London, Nairobi and New York, according to Serunjogi. Image Credits: Chipper Cash Chipper Cash has already brought on a new compliance officer, Lisa Dawson, whose background includes stints with the U.S. Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Citigroup's anti-money laundering department. Story continues "You know in the world we live in, the AML side is very important, so it's an area that we want to invest in from the get go," said Serunjogi. He confirmed Dawson's role aligned with getting Chipper Cash ready to meet regulatory requirements for new markets, but declined to name specific countries. With the round announcement, Chipper Cash also revealed a corporate social responsibility initiative. Related to current U.S. events, the startup has formed the Chipper Fund for Black Lives. "We've been huge beneficiaries of the generosity and openness of this country and its entrepreneurial spirit," explained Serunjogi. "But growing up in Africa, we've were able to navigate [the U.S.] without the traumas and baggage our African American friends have gone through living in America." The Chipper Fund for Black Lives will give five to 10 grants of $5,000 to $10,000. "The plan is to give that to...people or causes who are furthering social justice reforms," said Serunjogi. In Africa, Chipper Cash has placed itself in the continent's major digital payments markets. As a sector, fintech has become Africa's highest funded tech space, receiving the bulk of an estimated $2 billion in VC that went to startups in 2019. Africa Top VC Markets 2019 Image Credits: TechCrunch Those ventures, and a number of the continents established banks, are in a race to build market share through financial inclusion. By several estimates including The Global Findex Database the continent is home to the largest percentage of the worlds unbanked population, with a sizable number of underbanked consumers and SMEs. Increasingly, Nigeria has become the most significant fintech market in Africa, with the continent's largest economy and population of 200 million. Chipper Cash expanded there in 2019 and faces competition from a number of players, including local payments venture Paga. More recently, outside entrants have jumped into Nigeria's fintech scene. In 2019, Chinese investors put $220 million into OPay (owned by Opera) and PalmPay two fledgling startups with plans to scale first in West Africa and then the broader continent. Over the next several years, expect to see market events such as fails, acquisitions or IPOs determine how well-funded payment startups, including Chipper Cash, fare in Africa's fintech arena. A student who was left paralysed after the car she was travelling in veered off a cliff was told to consider ending her life by a doctor before fulfilling her dreams of becoming a catwalk model. In November 1995, aspiring model and PhD student Claire Freeman, now 41, and her sister were being driven by their mother Barbara to Auckland from Whangeri on New Zealand's North Island. During the two-hour drive Barbara fell asleep at the wheel and the car veered off the road before rolling down a cliff. Claire was 17 at the time and sustained a severe spinal cord injury, having to be airlifted to Auckland Base Hospital where she was put into an induced coma for two weeks. In November 1995, aspiring model and PhD student Claire Freeman (pictured), now 41, and her sister were being driven by their mother Barbara to Auckland from Whangeri on New Zealand's North Island The two hour drive caused Barbara (pictured with Claire) to fall asleep at the wheel and the car veered off the road before rolling down a cliff Claire was 17 at the time and sustained a severe spinal cord injury, having to be airlifted to Auckland Base Hospital where she was put into an induced coma for two weeks For a year she was in and out of hospital where doctors told the family she had just a ten per cent chance of surviving. 'I spent a year in and out of hospital before starting my design degree in Wellington,' she said. 'I completed my degree four years later, started working full time as a designer while completing my masters in health science.' Despite doubts from doctors, Claire made it through three surgeries, including an operation to stabilise her neck - a 14-hour surgery where a screw was placed into her spinal cord but caused further damage to her wrist and triceps. 'I then had surgery to connect my bladder to an external bag so I could manage toileting,' she said. 'Unfortunately, they used the wrong tubing at the hospital in Auckland and a week or so later, I fell into a coma.' Claire was paralysed from the neck down and has been in a wheelchair ever since, and she often felt like a 'freak'. 'Growing up after the accident was extremely difficult,' Claire said. 'The university campus was totally inaccessible, and I spent the first three years not talking to a single student due to being extremely shy, depressed and embarrassed about having to use a wheelchair. 'I also didn't have any finger function so the design work was very challenging as much of it was not on a computer.' In February 2018 she was approached by Italian modelling agency Iulia Barton which kick-started her career as a catwalk model While she was studying design in Christchurch an earthquake hit in both 2010 and 2011 which triggered post-traumatic stress disorder from her accident The trauma was so bad she attempted suicide six times within five years, each time falling into a coma Claire said she didn't return home after the accident because she felt too humiliated and didn't want anyone seeing her in a wheelchair. 'I felt like a total freak; I didn't know anyone who was disabled, and I hated the fact I couldn't walk,' she said. 'I despised my new broken body and would wear black baggy clothes and hide when I could.' While she was studying design in Christchurch an earthquake hit in both 2010 and 2011 which triggered post-traumatic stress disorder from her accident. The trauma was so bad she attempted suicide six times within five years, each time falling into a coma. She was then told to look into assisted suicide overseas. Claire (right) was paralysed from the neck down and has been in a wheelchair ever since, and she often felt like a 'freak' She spent years feeling insecure about her disability but put herself out there with the social media account and tried to connect with new people 'I was encouraged by the suicide outreach clinic to "look into assisted suicide overseas" as the psychiatrist said he "wouldn't want to live with my disability",' Claire said. Claire suffered from depression for 15 years and said she often felt disconnected from the outside world and started an Instagram account so she could talk to people. She spent years feeling insecure about her disability but put herself out there with the social media account and tried to connect with new people. Little did she know that this would boost her spirits and even her career. Claire now identifies as a 'cyborg', as her wheelchair is a part of her. 'The recovery process has been ongoing, over the twenty years since the first accident. I was very depressed for around fifteen years,' she said. Claire quickly built a following on Instagram and finally felt like she had a sense of purpose Claire suffered from depression for 15 years and said she often felt disconnected from the outside world and started an Instagram account so she could talk to people Claire says her mother has been her biggest supporter and despite being behind the wheel of the crash, has been 'her rock' through everything 'Five years ago, after another neck surgery (this one went terribly wrong) I lost my job as a designer and started my PhD.' Claire quickly built a following on Instagram and finally felt like she had a sense of purpose. In February 2018 she was approached by Italian modelling agency Iulia Barton which kick-started her career as a catwalk model. She has since been on the catwalk in Milan for fashion week. 'The irony of being there didn't escape me as for so many years, I had hid from people, ashamed of using a wheelchair, yet now, I call myself a survivor and I only feel pride in who I am and where I've been,' she said. 'My wheelchair is a part of me, I am a cyborg and embrace life. 'My body doesn't end at my flesh, I consider my wheelchair a part of who I am, much like an amputee feels like their prosthesis is a part of their body. Claire quickly built a following on Instagram and finally felt like she had a sense of purpose Claire has since fulfilled her dreams of becoming a catwalk model and now embraces her wheelchair 'The fact I model is somewhat ironic but it's fun and I feel it's important for people to see disabled models like myself out there loving life.' Claire says her mother has been her biggest supporter and despite being behind the wheel of the crash, has been 'her rock' through everything. 'She broke up with my dad (who had a twenty-six-year relationship) to be with me in Wellington and has always supported me,' Claire said. Despite spending 15 years hating her life, at 41 Claire now believes she has lived a 'spectacular life'. 'I have lived the most spectacular life in many respects. It has had its dark moments, but they have taught me so much,' she said. 'I feel I am a better person having had this injury. I'm not saying it's easy, it's not, but it is rewarding and through studying, I have realised how much work needs to be done regarding society's perceptions of those with disabilities.' "To successfully navigate through the crisis, it's important to adapt and refocus your sales and marketing efforts based on what is happening to the target audience within your specific industry," said Brian Giese, CEO of True Influence. "We are helping B2B companies to identify the intent signals that make it possible for them to focus their time and budget on relevant, timely communications with their customers and prospects, as well as identify industries that should not be targeted at this time." True Influence's B2C to B2B Identity Graph Triangulation matches the research now being done primarily in people's homes to their corporate identities. Valid signals are identified in the customer or prospect data stream (from IP identification, device identification, email identification) that represent individuals consuming B2B topics and content in non-business environments and match it back to their professional identity. The company is seeing positive spikes in several industries, including finance, healthcare, professional services, manufacturing, telecom, technology, transportation, and wholesale. Here is a comparative analysis of the Enterprise and SMB markets that are showing intent of people actively getting ready to make purchases within these markets before and after the COVID-19 pandemic was identified. Based on the U.S. business environment, it is not surprising that the SMB market continues to grow faster than the Enterprise market. Additionally, even though both markets have taken a dip in intent signals, they are both well above where they were prior to COVID. (Note that these are real-time visualizations on the True Influence website under the Select a Comparison tab). For marketing and sales, it's important to know which specific companies are spiking within an industry, and exactly what person in those companies is looking for that topic, including the specific contact names and full contact record. It's also important to see firmographic and geographic data such as the revenue range of each company, industry, and employee size that assists with identifying the personas. "Most B2B purchases are made by teams of three or more individuals, and most teams members do at least some of their own research to serve their information needs," explains Kerry Cunningham, senior research director at SiriusDecisions. "We are seeing 81 percent of buying decisions being made by groups, not individuals. Unfortunately for sales and marketing professionals, most marketing automation only tracks individual contacts, not buying groups." Access to accurate buying group information is critical to a successful marketing campaign and revenue generation. The key personas in a buying group have different buyer roles and may participate in different stages of the buying decision process. The buying group is comprised of individuals across the enterprise and may include IT, data science, finance, purchasing, and other job functions. Capturing the buying group and each of these individuals' behaviors positive, neutral, or negative allows marketing and sales to develop a strategy that is targeted toward these individuals. The True Influence Marketing Cloud provides users with a clear view of the exact decision-makers tasked with researching a specific solution or service, and how they work together in buying groups to make the final purchase decision. The solution allows marketing and sales to seamlessly leverage the full spectrum of buying group intent intelligence across an entire ecosystem of demand generation and sales enablement technologies. About True Influence Founded in 2008, True Influence is a demand generation company that accelerates B2B sales revenue. We expertly leverage data, technology, and content to drive high-impact marketing campaigns and share detailed results and insights to help you win new business. True Influence generates revenue across multiple industries, promoting brands and products from successful global companies that include well-established blue-chip brands like IBM, Microsoft, and Cisco. Our innovation earned us the 2019 MarTech Breakthrough Award for Best Influencer Marketing Management Platform, the 2019 B2B Innovator Awards for C-Suite Strategy and People's Choice, and the 2019 RELE Award for Sales Enablement. For more information visit True Influence online at https://trueinfluence.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Media contact: Marissa Jabczenski Public Relations [email protected] 949-812-1450 SOURCE True Influence Related Links http://www.trueinfluence.com A Paris court will give its verdict Wednesday in a trial on money laundering charges for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's uncle, who amassed a fortune in France over several decades. Rifaat al-Assad, 82, may not be in the dock for judgement, having been hospitalised last December during his trial with internal bleeding. The younger brother of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad -- father of the incumbent president -- is standing trial in Paris for crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian funds. France's national finance prosecutor has sought a four-year prison sentence and a 10-million-euro fine, and has called for the confiscation of all Assad's real estate, valued at 90 million euros ($99.5 million). Assad, who divides his time between France and Britain, denies the charges. The 82-year-old, dubbed the "Butcher of Hama" for allegedly commanding troops who put down an uprising in central Syria in 1982, has been under investigation in France since 2014. This came the year after anti-corruption group Sherpa filed a suit accusing Assad of using ill-gotten gains from corruption in Syria to build a real estate fortune in the country. Formerly Syria's vice president, Assad left his home country in 1984 after mounting a failed coup against his brother Hafez, who led Syria from 1971 to 2000. Today, he describes himself as an opponent of the regime of his nephew. After he arrived in Europe, Rifaat al-Assad's lavish lifestyle, four wives and 16 children soon raised eyebrows. His reported French fortune includes two Paris townhouses, one measuring 3,000 square metres (32,000 square feet), as well as a stud farm, a chateau and 7,300 square metres of office space in Lyon. He and his family also built up a huge portfolio of 507 properties in Spain, valued at around 695 million euros, Spanish legal documents show. All his properties in that country were seized by the authorities in 2017. Assad, awarded France's Legion of Honour in 1986 for "services rendered", insists his lifestyle was made possible by gifts from the Saudi royal family amounting to more than a million dollars per month. But while his lawyers claimed to document gifts of almost $25 million between 1984 and 2010, French investigators registered transfers from Saudi Arabia totalling only $10 million. Assad's trial opened on December 9 last year. This is only the second trial of a foreign dignitary in France on charges of "ill-gotten gains". In the first, Equatorial Guinea vice president Teodorin Obiang received a three-year suspended jail term in October 2017 after being convicted of using public money to fund a jet-set lifestyle in Paris. Debenhams workers from across Ireland are protesting today outside the Belfast store on Royal Avenue as part of their campaign to win redundancy pay for more than 1,000 workers. A Mandate statement said: "Debenhams management notified workers in the Republic of Ireland by email in April stating they would have no jobs to return to after the COVID19 pandemic had passed. The company transferred valuable assets out of the country before they sought liquidation, severely limiting the chance of workers obtaining redundancy payments from the company.The workers, who are all Mandate Trade Union members from the Republic of Ireland, have been protesting for a number of weeks outside 11 closed stores. Debenhams workers from across the Republic of Ireland are protesting today (Wednesday, 17th June) outside the Belfast store on Royal Avenue between 12 noon and 2pm as part of their campaign to win redundancy pay for more than 1,000 workers. Debenhams management notified workers in the Republic of Ireland by email in April stating they would have no jobs to return to after the COVID19 pandemic had passed. The workers, who are all Mandate Trade Union members from the Republic of Ireland, have been protesting for a number of weeks outside 11 closed stores. They say they have been left with no alternative but to bring their campaign to the recently reopened store in Belfast." BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, will convene its 19th session from June 18 to 20 in Beijing. The legislators will deliberate draft laws, including the laws on administrative discipline for government employees, promoting rural vitalization, and support for veterans, Yue Zhongming, spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said Tuesday. The latest revision to the draft law on administrative discipline for government employees will be submitted to the session for a third reading, Yue said. He noted that it specifies administrative discipline for government employees who falsify or forge their personal files and documents, or implicate another person with the intention of damaging the person's reputation, or having the person investigated for responsibilities, among other misconducts. The draft laws on promoting rural vitalization and support for veterans will be submitted to the session for the first reading, Yue said. The draft law on promoting rural vitalization stipulates measures for the enhancement of agriculture, the improvement of rural areas and the personal development of rural people. The draft law on support for veterans specifies veterans' resettlement, and stipulates that pre-retirement educational training and employment support for veterans should be enhanced. According to Yue, improving legislation on public health has been part of the NPC Standing Committee's 2020 work plan, including revising the Wildlife Protection Law, the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases and the Emergency Response Law. A bus driver has been hailed a hero after he saved an elderly woman from being mugged in Hungary. Footage recorded by his bus's surveillance camera shows the moment Karoly Zsolt Kis wrestled a man away from victim in Miskolc. The driver was near Ujgyor market on June 5 when he saw the suspect attacking an elderly woman in an attempt to steal her bag. According to the Sun, Mr Kis is a former soldier who served in Iraq. When he saw the woman struggling he immediately stopped the bus and rushed to help her. War veteran Karoly Zsolt Kis wrestled the attacker away from the elderly woman / Minap.hu The video shows Mr Kis pushing the attacker away from the woman and stepping in as a barrier between the pensioner and the man. He then waits to make sure the attacker is gone before ushering the elderly woman onto his bus and driving away. The bus driver waited to make sure the attacker was gone / Minap.hu The woman said she was slightly shaken by the incident but was uninjured. Police have reportedly identified and arrested a 27-year-old man involved in the attempted robbery. One person commented on the video on Facebook to say the bus driver "deserved a medal" for his bravery. Another said: "Not every hero wears a cape". In some animals, researchers have demonstrated beliefs, for example in some bird species. Julia Weiler Humans are not the only ones who have beliefs; animals do too, although it is more difficult to prove them than with humans. Dr. Tobias Starzak and Professor Albert Newen from the Institute of Philosophy II at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum have proposed four criteria to understand and empirically investigate animal beliefs in the journal Mind and Language. The article was published online on 16 June 2020. Flexible use of information about the world The first criterion for the existence of beliefs worked out by the philosophers is that an animal must have information about the world. However, this must not simply lead to an automatic reaction, like a frog instinctively snapping at a passing insect. Instead, the animal must be able to use the information to behave in a flexible manner. "This is the case when one and the same piece of information can be combined with different motivations to produce different behaviors," explains Albert Newen. "For example, if the animal can use the information that there is food available at that moment for the purpose of eating or hiding the food." Information can be relinked The third criterion says that the information is internally structured in a belief; accordingly, individual aspects of that information can be processed separately. This has emerged, for example, in experiments with rats that can learn that a certain kind of food can be found at a certain time in a certain place. Their knowledge has a what-when-where structure. Fourthly, animals with beliefs must be able to recombine the information components in novel ways. This reassembled belief should then lead to flexible behavior. Rats can do this too, as the US researcher Jonathan Crystal demonstrated in experiments in an eight-armed labyrinth. The animals learned that if they received normal food in arm three of the maze in the morning, chocolate could be found in arm seven at noon. Crows and scrub jays meet all criteria The authors from Bochum also cite crows and scrub jays as examples of animals with beliefs. British researcher Nicola Clayton carried out conclusive experiments with scrub jays. When the birds are hungry, they initially tend to eat the food. When they are not hungry, they systematically hide the leftovers. In the process, they encode which foodworm or peanutthey have hidden where and when. If they are hungry in the following hours, they first look for the worms they prefer. After the period of time has elapsed that takes worms to become inedible, they head for the peanut hiding places instead. "What best explains this change in behavior is the birds' belief about the worms being spoiled and their beliefs about the location of other food items," says Tobias Starzak. The animals also react flexibly in other situations, for example if they notice that they are being watched by rivals while hiding; if this is the case, they hide the food again later. Flexible behavior, which can be interpreted as caused by beliefs, has also been shown in rats, chimpanzees and border collies. "But probably many more species have beliefs," supposes Albert Newen. Explore further People feeling threatened by vegetarianism care less about animals More information: Albert Newen et al, How to ascribe beliefs to animals, Mind & Language (2020). Albert Newen et al, How to ascribe beliefs to animals,(2020). DOI: 10.1111/mila.12302 (Reuters) - The former Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks last week was previously reprimanded for use of force involving a firearm, according to records released to Reuters by the city's police department on Tuesday. The records show Garrett Rolfe received a written reprimand in October 2017 for a firearm incident in September 2016, his sole use-of-force complaint in seven years on the force prior to Friday's shooting. No further details were disclosed. Rolfe was fired from the department after the shooting in the parking lot of a Wendy's fast-food restaurant, which was captured by body and surveillance cameras. A second officer at the scene, Devin Brosnan, who is also white, was placed on administrative duty. The death of 27-year-old Brooks, which came after he tussled with Rolfe and Brosnan and took off running with one of their Taser guns, was the latest killing of a black man to spark nationwide outrage at police brutality and racial injustice. An autopsy conducted on Sunday showed that Brooks died from blood loss and organ injuries and ruled the death a homicide. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has said he would decide by midweek whether to bring charges against the officers, a call that he indicated would hinge on whether they felt Brooks posed a threat. Video: DA Mulls Charges Against Atlanta Cops in Rayshard Brooks Shooting Justin Miller, an attorney for Brooks' family, told CNN on Tuesday he did not think the officers' defense could rest on a Georgia law that allows them to shoot if they were in imminent threat of bodily harm, even though Brooks had a Taser. "If you look at the tape closely, you can see that police officer was already going for his gun before Mr. Brooks turned around," Miller said. "I don't think in this situation that's going to come up." Rolfe's disciplinary file lists 12 incidents, composed of five vehicle accidents, four citizen complaints, and three involving firearms, including one in 2015, the 2016 matter for which he received a written reprimand and the Brooks' shooting. Story continues Internal investigations exonerated him in eight of the incidents. He received a written reprimand and an oral admonishment for two vehicle accidents. The file does not indicate any conclusion for the 2015 firearm incident. Vince Champion, southeast regional director for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, said two firearm incidents over seven years prior to the Brooks' shooting did not represent a pattern given the inherent dangers of the job. "It doesn't raise any flags for me," Champion said, noting that Rolfe was not charged in any of the firearm incidents, which he said would have been vetted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and internal affairs before being resolved. Brosnan, who joined the police force in 2018, has no disciplinary history. (Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, and Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Jonathan Oatis) Pakistan rejected the "baseless allegations" by India over the arrest of two Indian High Commission officials here for their alleged involvement in a hit-and-run incident. The two officials were later released by the police on Monday after the Foreign Office informed the authorities that they had diplomatic immunity. Following the incident, India on Tuesday summoned Charge d' Affaires of Pakistan High Commission Haider Shah and lodged a strong protest with him over the "abduction and torture" of two officials of the Indian mission in Islamabad by Pakistani agencies. In a media statement, the MEA said the Indian officials were subjected to "interrogation, torture and physical assault resulting in grievous injuries to them" and were released only after strong intervention by the high commission of India in Islamabad and the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi. The MEA also said that the two officials were video-graphed and coerced to accept a litany of fictitious allegations and concocted charges. The vehicle of the High Commission, in which they were travelling, was extensively damaged. Reacting to the MEA statement, Pakistan's Foreign Office said the Indian statement "is a reprehensible attempt to distort facts and deny the culpability of these officials in criminal offences." The two officials, identified as Dwimu Brahma and Paul Selvadhas, were arrested in the morning on Monday from the Embassy Road in G-6 area of the capital after their vehicle allegedly hit a pedestrian. The FO claimed that during the course of investigation, fake currency was also recovered from the officials. "After it was confirmed that the said officials were from the Indian High Commission, they were released and handed over to a senior diplomat from the Indian High Commission," it said. Also read: India-China border clash: 'Closely monitoring, support peaceful resolution,' says US New Delhi: Popular television actor and winner of 'Bigg Boss 13', Sidharth Shukla has a huge fanbase supporting him on social media platforms. The madness of his fans was seen during the reality show Bigg Boss 13 when they showered enough support on him and kept him trending. Sidharth recently took to Instagram and posted a shirtless picture of him in the gym and fans can't stop drooling over his washboard abs. Sid wrote: Things I need to do to be on social media.... but yes missing the gym. Looks like the actor has shared his old picture and wants to hit the gym as soon as possible. On the work front, Sidharth was seen with former 'Bigg Boss 13' co-contestant Shehnaaz Kaur Gill in a music video titled 'Bhul Dunga' sometime back and it received all the love from the fans. Their chemistry was loved when on the show and also it showed in the music video. The Delhi Police on Wednesday detained Army veterans and Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) members, who were protesting outside the Chinese Embassy here against the killing of 20 Indian Army soldiers in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops. The protest outside the Chinese Embassy was supposed to be a representation by the Martyrs Welfare Foundation. However, members of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch also joined in later. SJM members initially protested at the Teen Murti Police station and then moved towards the embassy to protest. The members could be seen holding posters with a black cross on 'Made in China' written on them. Earlier on Wednesday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh extended his condolences to the families of the martyred soldiers who laid down their lives for the country in the violent faceoff that broke out on Monday night. "The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army," Singh tweeted. DoorDash is facing a lawsuit from San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin for "illegally misclassifying employees as independent contractors," Boudin tweeted today. In the complaint, Boudin argues DoorDash misclassified its workers and in doing so, engages in unfair labor practices. "Misclassifying workers deprives them of the labor law safeguards to which they are entitled, denying workers minimum wage and overtime pay, unemployment insurance and protection from discrimination, among other things," Boudin said in a press release. "[...] Now, more than ever, with the COVID pandemic, we must protect our workers, especially those essential workers who are delivering food to us each and every day." In a statement to TechCrunch, DoorDash pointed to how it has supported its workers throughout the pandemic by providing them with safety equipment, telemedicine and more. "Todays action seeks to disrupt the essential services Dashers provide, stripping hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents, retirees and other Californians of valuable work opportunities, depriving local restaurants of desperately needed revenue, and making it more difficult for consumers to receive prepared food, groceries, and other essentials safely and reliably," DoorDash global head of Public Policy Max Rettig said in a statement. "We will fight to continue providing Dashers the flexible earning opportunities they say they want in these challenging times." This suit comes as gig worker rights groups have urged companies like DoorDash, Uber, Lyft and Instacart to abide by AB 5. AB 5, which went into law earlier this year, outlines what type of worker can and cannot be classified as an independent contractor. The law codifies the ruling established in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v Superior Court of Los Angeles. In that case, the court applied the ABC test and decided Dynamex wrongfully classified its workers as independent contractors. Story continues According to the ABC test, in order for a hiring entity to legally classify a worker as an independent contractor, it must prove the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity, performs work outside the scope of the entitys business and is regularly engaged in work of some independently established trade or other similar business. In the suit, Boudin describes how DoorDash does not meet the standards put forth by the ABC test. "DoorDash's misclassification of its Dashers was no mistake, but instead a calculated decision made to reduce the costs of doing business at the expense of the very workers providing the company's core service of delivery: the delivery of merchandise from merchants to customer," the suit states. The suit seeks for DoorDash to stop classifying its workers as independent contractors and be fined up to $2,500 for each violation, as well as up to $2,500 for each violation against a senior citizen or disabled person. DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, Postmates and Instacart are funding a ballot measure that would seek to make it legal for them to classify workers as independent contractors. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft are facing a misclassification lawsuit from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with city attorneys from Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. That suit argues Uber and Lyft are depriving workers of the right to minimum wage, overtime, access to paid sick leave, disability insurance and unemployment insurance. The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of San Francisco, seeks $2,500 in penalties for each violation, possibly per driver, under the California Unfair Competition Law, and another $2,500 for violations against senior citizens or people with disabilities. A draft master plan for the former Kapyong barracks proposes the long-vacant expanse of south Winnipeg land be revived as an integrated, mixed-use urban village. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A draft master plan for the former Kapyong barracks proposes the long-vacant expanse of south Winnipeg land be revived as an integrated, mixed-use urban village. Treaty One Development Corporation has released its proposed master plan for the 160 acres along Kenaston Boulevard after months of consultation and concept development in collaboration with federal Crown corporation Canada Lands Company, which will develop 51 acres of land. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Chief Dennis Meeches discusses plans for the development of the Kapyong site at the Building Partnerships Conference in November, 2019. On Wednesday, Treaty One the development branch representing the seven Treaty 1 First Nations behind the effort will host an information webinar to collect feedback from the public and answer questions about the new planned community. "Obviously, the pandemic put a damper on our public consultations, so we still need to move forward because, in our opinion, time is of the essence to move this project along," said Treaty One chairman and Long Plain First Nation Chief Dennis Meeches. "We wanted to have as much as possible an open and transparent process in engaging the citizens here in Winnipeg." The high-level planning document includes three conceptual land use plans, examples of proposed residential and commercial building design, and potential road way configurations, and designated areas for greenspace, institutions and recreation. Also in the plans are an Indigenous war museum, arena, hotels, education and health centres, ceremonial grounds and a cultural campus. We wanted to have as much as possible an open and transparent process in engaging the citizens here in Winnipeg. Treaty One chairman and Long Plain First Nation Chief Dennis Meeches The planned widening of Kenaston Boulevard is also accounted for in the document. While each land-use plan is different, generally low- and medium-density residential development is planned for the western edge of the acreage, abutting existing single-family homes, and commercial mixed-use and mixed-use village is designated along Kenaston. The draft master plan also proposes row housing and small-single family dwellings in the low-density area, as well as four-storey, condominium style complexes within the medium-density area. Kapyong community options Kapyong - Concept plan 1. Kapyong - Concept plan 2. Kapyong - Concept plan 3. Communities previously developed by Canada Lands Co. Currie in Calgary, and Garrison Crossing in Chilliwack, B.C. are listed as examples of what development could look like on the Kapyong grounds. Both developments occurred on former Canadian Forces bases. Garrison Crossing, which covers 153 acres, will have more than 1,700 residential units when complete and a retail village, according to the Canada Lands Co. Treaty One chief executive officer Whelan Sutherland said the corporation plans to have finalized its master plan by October, and the intent is for the community to fit seamlessly into the existing neighbourhood. However, it is too soon to provide an estimate on the number of residential units planned for the Winnipeg area or how much commercial space could be expected, he said. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Demolition takes place at the Kapyong barracks in Winnipeg on Tuesday. "It really does come down to the feedback we receive," Sutherland said. "There's three options and there's variation, and little adjustments to each one and that would determine greenspace, residential, commercial and all that good stuff. "Well get a better understanding once we have this webinar, we have the feedback and the questions from the community." (To register, visit www.treaty1.ca/kapyong.) Sutherland said more than 950 individuals have registered to participate in the webinar Wednesday night, and developers are eager to hear from neighbours and stakeholders. "We want to design it so it's the place to be," Sutherland said. "We want a safe place, an affordable place, we want a place (residents) can be proud of and a place that they could walk and be within steps of commercial development and shopping and have beautiful greenspace." MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The remains of Kapyong barracks after demolition crews prepped the site for development. Sutherland said Treaty One is working with Indigenous designers and community builders throughout the process to incorporate and showcase culture within the development. "We want to bring that forward and show people, at the end of the day, First Nations can develop, it's proven, and urban economic development zones are not a bad thing," Sutherland said. Meeches said pending the transfer of land from the federal government to the Treaty 1 group, development activities could begin in a phased approach as early as fall 2021. "Kapyong is suited to be the great economic reconciliation model going forward, because theres a lot of urban reserves but nothing in this size and scope," Meeches said. danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca 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. One thing I learned quickly on my journey was that affirmative action was merely a tool that opened the door to opportunity. It would do nothing to help me compete once I entered the room. When it came to doing the required work, I was entirely on my own to keep up with those who were already there. (Natural News) Improvements in automotive safety standards and equipment over the past decade or so have made modern cars much safer than older models. A recent study, however, demonstrates that women are at a higher risk of injury during crashes than men, even when wearing seat belts. Conducted by researchers at the University of Virginias Center for Applied Biomechanics, the study found that female occupants had a 73 percent higher risk of being seriously injured in a frontal-impact collision one of the most common types of crashes compared to males. Newer cars are safer, but women are still at higher risk The study, published in the journal Traffic Injury and Prevention, analyzed data from the Crashworthiness Data System (CDS) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations National Automotive Sampling System. Specifically, the study looked at crash data reported by police from 1998 to 2015. Using the CDS data, the researchers focused on injuries to belted occupants, aged 13 and older, during frontal-impact collisions. This involved looking at over 31,000 occupants involved in nearly 23,000 front-end crashes. These occupants were comprised of a nearly equal number of males and females. Not included, however, were pregnant women who were past the first trimester. According to the study, occupants of newer cars those manufactured for the model year 2009 and onward were only half as likely to sustain serious injuries compared to if they were riding an older car. Newer cars demonstrated a lower risk of skull fractures, abdominal injury, cervical spine injury, as well as knee-hip-thigh injuries and ankle injury. The risk of serious rib fractures and sternum fractures was not significantly reduced in newer cars, however. The study also shows that female occupants continue to be in more vulnerable positions when involved in frontal-impact collisions, even when they were wearing a seat belt. This remained true even when other factors, such as the riders age, height, weight, body mass index and seating position were taken into account. The worse part is that despite there being nearly a decade of research that highlights this disparity, the reason for the higher risk for women has yet to be found. Until we understand the fundamental biomechanical factors that contribute to increased risk for females, well be limited in our ability to close the risk gap, said Jason Forman, a principal scientist with the Center for Applied Biomechanics and one of the authors of the study. This will take substantial effort, and in my view the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not have the resources needed to address this issue. Tips to avoid getting into a crash Regardless of the advancements made to car safety, frontal-impact collisions remain the number one injury and fatality-causing crash. It is responsible for 64 percent of all fatalities and 65 percent of injuries for front-seat occupants in America. (Related: The deadly poison lurking in your cars air bags.) To minimize your chances of getting into a crash, try the following tips when driving. Avoid the fast lane Most highway accidents occur on the left lane or the fast lane. Aside from speeds in this lane generally being higher, you also have less escape routes here. By being in the center or right lanes, you can quickly change lanes or even pull into the shoulder should the need arise. Most highway accidents occur on the left lane or the fast lane. Aside from speeds in this lane generally being higher, you also have less escape routes here. By being in the center or right lanes, you can quickly change lanes or even pull into the shoulder should the need arise. Keep scanning the road ahead Dont just focus on the vehicle in front of you. Rather, watch the traffic in front of that vehicle as well. This increases your chances of spotting a problem early, giving you enough time to react. It also means fewer chances of rear-ending the vehicle youre following. Dont just focus on the vehicle in front of you. Rather, watch the traffic in front of that vehicle as well. This increases your chances of spotting a problem early, giving you enough time to react. It also means fewer chances of rear-ending the vehicle youre following. Minimize blind spots Adjust your mirrors so that they can provide you with a near-seamless view of whats happening behind you. However, even if you do this, your vehicle may still have blind spots. With this in mind, actively look around you so you can see whats happening in the places that your mirrors miss. Adjust your mirrors so that they can provide you with a near-seamless view of whats happening behind you. However, even if you do this, your vehicle may still have blind spots. With this in mind, actively look around you so you can see whats happening in the places that your mirrors miss. Drive with your hands at the 9 and 3 oclock position Some people tend to be lazy and simply drive with one hand at the 12 oclock position on their steering wheel. However, its much better to have both hands at the 9 and 3 oclock positions. This gives you more control of your vehicle, especially in times where you need to make quick maneuvers. Some people tend to be lazy and simply drive with one hand at the 12 oclock position on their steering wheel. However, its much better to have both hands at the 9 and 3 oclock positions. This gives you more control of your vehicle, especially in times where you need to make quick maneuvers. Get into the race car driver seating position One trick to get better control of your wheel is to adopt the seating position used by race car drivers. This involves putting your seat close enough to the wheel so that your wrists rest on the top of the steering wheel when your arms are outstretched. Not only does this let your hands easily reach the 9 and 3 oclock positions, but the relaxed position also helps you avoid fatigue. One trick to get better control of your wheel is to adopt the seating position used by race car drivers. This involves putting your seat close enough to the wheel so that your wrists rest on the top of the steering wheel when your arms are outstretched. Not only does this let your hands easily reach the 9 and 3 oclock positions, but the relaxed position also helps you avoid fatigue. Judge a driver by the cars condition A car that has body damage may indicate an inattentive driver whos more prone to collisions. Also watch out for drivers who drift in and out of lanes as they may either preoccupied with their cell phone or drunk. A car that has body damage may indicate an inattentive driver whos more prone to collisions. Also watch out for drivers who drift in and out of lanes as they may either preoccupied with their cell phone or drunk. Know your cars limits Learn how your car reacts in certain conditions. If it tends to lean while rounding corners, this is a warning that you should not move the wheel suddenly at high speeds as it may cause it to roll over. Also be familiar with your cars brakes and how long it takes for them to stop the car when you step on them fully. Learn how your car reacts in certain conditions. If it tends to lean while rounding corners, this is a warning that you should not move the wheel suddenly at high speeds as it may cause it to roll over. Also be familiar with your cars brakes and how long it takes for them to stop the car when you step on them fully. Keep your car in good shape Try to stick to your manufacturers recommended maintenance schedule. This ensures that your car performs at its best, especially in emergency situations. Try to stick to your manufacturers recommended maintenance schedule. This ensures that your car performs at its best, especially in emergency situations. Avoid driving at night Unless you really have to, dont drive at night. Not only are you likely be tired, but other drivers around you may be tired as well. Even worse, theres a higher chance of encountering drunk drivers at night. Use the above tips to become a better driver and minimize your chances of crashing. This will help keep not just you, but your passengers and other drivers around you safe as well. Sources include: ScienceDaily.com NHTSA.gov[PDF] Edmunds.com WASHINGTON Each year, the Glenholme School bestows the Supervisory Excellence Award to a supervisor who demonstrates a strong commitment to the schools mission and servant leadership principles. This year's recipient is Angel Katiewicz. Angel embodies the principles of Servant Leadership in her daily work and in her interactions with her staff and the students on campus, the school said in a statement. Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world. Angel leads with moral authority, consistently treating others with respect all while fostering a culture of caring and collaboration. She recognizes the great accomplishments of her staff and provides them with feedback surrounding their work. Angel is a skilled communicator and shares important information to effectively manage campus. She encourages professional growth of her staff through building relationships and providing opportunities for career development. Angel demonstrates a strong commitment to Glenholme, its families, and its mission. The Glenholme School is a co-ed therapeutic day and boarding school for students from 8-21 years old who face learning, social and emotional impairments. These include high functioning Autism, depression, anxiety, Tourettes, OCD and other challenges. For further information, contact Lisa Berman at 917-270-9508, or lberman2@devereux.org Pandemic Planet set on Facebook Live Spend some time throughout the day visiting live with people from around the world as they share their stories about life in their country during this unprecedented time. The talks begin at 10 a.m., This free virtual program will be hosted in Zoom and simulcast on The White Memorial Conservation Centers Facebook page via Facebook Live. 10 a.m.: Malaysia: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rr6jDQU8TUmvUxQNHsaBRA 11 a.m. India: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cStmYFmJRvOIwzjRd4ry6Q 12 p.m. France: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3IzS6ekSSxu3iNF379-12A 1 p.m. Iceland: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-oaqo9nlQ9a9G96E-fomeg 2 p.m. Chile: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ARh9u26SQfSopDjgPbpRiQ Consider becoming a member or making a donation online: https://whitememorialcc.org/donations/ Torrington Library offers June updates TORRINGTON The Torrington Library is scheduled to reopen to the public for browsing and checkout only on June 22. Summer hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday. The library closes from 1-2 p.m. for cleaning. It is closed on Saturday. Patrons are asked to prepare to wait in line if the library is busy and to limit visits to 30 minutes. All visitors are required to wear a face covering. If unable to wear a face cover, curbside pickup is still available to all patrons. Visitors may use the copier or send a fax using our self-service machine. If they need staff assistance, they will assist from a distance of at least 6 feet. Bring exact change with you. During this gradual reopening, the following services will not be available: Computer terminals, lounge seating and study tables, public bathrooms and water fountains, private study carrels, newspapers or magazines, all meeting and visitations. Late fees or fines are not being charged at this time. Fine forgiveness is scheduled to end on June 22. Our online resources are still available. Staff is available to answer phone inquiries Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Contactless Summer Reading Program for children ages PreK-17 and virtual programming via Zoom for adults is available. All dates are subject to change and are based on the State of Connecticuts reopening plan. Visit www.torringtonlibrary.org/ Records to be destroyed BURLINGTON - Members of the Lewis S. Mills High School class of 2011 should be aware that their cumulative folders will be destroyed on or about Aug. 1, 2020. If any members of this class would like to claim their folders, call the Counseling Department at 860-673-0423 x15311. Salvation Army continues to help The Salvation Armys Emergency Disaster Services Department is continuing to provide emergency food to those in need as a result of COVID-19. As of May 27, 665,997 meals were provided in Connecticut alone. Hub locations have been operating in Ashford, Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and Bridgeport, sorting and distributing emergency food boxes to Salvation Army locations throughout the state. To ensure adequate family meals, we are purchasing wholesale foods from 3 vendors to supplement items from Foodshare, CT Food Bank and many public and private donations. Food donations have come in from a variety of businesses, Foodshare, CT Foodbank and many others. We have built up capacity to serve every zip code in the state. Monetary donations have also contributed to relief from food insecurity. In the United States, one in six people live in poverty, and more than 550,000 are counted as homeless. These populations severely lack access to proper care, hygiene, updated information, and medical resources, which makes them more susceptible to the virus. This is wheretThe Salvation Army comes in. The Salvation Army is uniquely positioned to meet needs in times of disaster and during the COVID-19 crisis through its Emergency Disaster Services. The Salvation Army is serving in every zip code in Connecticut, including 29 Service Unit towns, reaching vulnerable populations where established social services is minimal. For those who need assistance: Emergency food distributions are held at Salvation Army locations on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m.-noon. Call 844 458-4673 for information or visit ctri.SalvationArmy.org/ JENNINGS, LA / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2020 / JD Bancshares, Inc. (OTCQX:JDVB) Dan L. Donald, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Directors of JD Bancshares, Inc., announced that at its regularly scheduled meeting on June 16, 2020, the Board voted to pay a cash dividend in the amount of $0.59 per share on July 6, 2020 to the shareholders of record on June 26, 2020. The amount and payment of future dividends for the JD Bancshares, Inc. common stock is determined on a quarterly basis, based on earnings, financial condition, capital requirements and other factors. About JD Bancshares, Inc. JD Bancshares, Inc. is the bank holding company of JD Bank, a state chartered bank headquartered in Jennings, Louisiana. JD Bank has been serving the citizens of southwest Louisiana since 1947 and offers a variety of personal and commercial lending and deposit products through both physical and digital delivery channels. The Bank also offers both trust and investment services. JD Bank operates through 21 full service branch offices located along the Interstate 10 corridor from Lake Charles to Lafayette, Louisiana. JD Bancshares, Inc. may be accessed on its website at www.jdbank.com/investor relations. JD Bancshares, Inc. (OTCQX:JDVB) trades on the OTCQX Best Market. Companies meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance, demonstrate compliance with U.S. securities laws, and have a professional third-party sponsor introduction. Investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the Company on www.otcmarkets.com. For more information contact: JD Bancshares, Inc. Bruce Elder (CEO) (337-246-5399) Paul Brummett (EVP) (337-824-1422) Website: www.jdbank.com SOURCE: JD Bancshares, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/594188/JD-Bancshares-Inc-Declares-Cash-Dividend Quality and value are two of the most powerful drivers of stock market profits. After the economic turmoil and market volatility we've seen in 2020, it's possible that these two factors could have a major influence on the Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand (NZE:MCK) share price. For contrarian investors looking for shares that are overlooked by the market, quality and value are vital clues. Research shows that good quality, cheaply priced shares can deliver stunning returns over time. So it's no surprise that these rules are used by some of the world's most respected investors - from Joel Greenblatt to Warren Buffett. The Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand share price has moved by -18.8% over the past three months and its currently trading at 1.94. But what's interesting about this share is its strong exposure to those all-important profit drivers of high quality and a relatively cheap valuation. Here's an idea of where you can see that: GET MORE DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS INTO NZE:MCK Good quality Good quality stocks are loved by the market because they're more likely to be solid, dependable businesses. Profitability is important, but so is the firm's financial strength. A track record of improving finances is essential. One of the stand out quality metrics for Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand is that it passes 5 of the 9 financial tests in the Piotroski F-Score. The F-Score is a world-class accounting-based checklist for finding stocks with an improving financial health trend. A good F-Score suggests that the company has strong signs of quality. Fair price While quality is important, no-one wants to overpay for a stock, so an appealing valuation is vital too. With a weaker economy, earnings forecasts are unclear right across the market. But there are some valuation measures that can help, and one of them is the Earnings Yield. Earnings Yield compares a company's profit with its market valuation (worked out by dividing its operating profit by its enterprise value). It gives you a total value of the stock (including its cash and debt), which makes it easier to compare different stocks. As a percentage, the higher the Earnings Yield, the better value the share. Story continues A rule of thumb for a reasonable Earnings Yield might be 5%, and the Earnings Yield for Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand is currently 39.4%. In summary, good quality and relatively cheap valuations are pointers to those stocks that are some of the most appealing to contrarian value investors. It's among these shares that genuine mis-pricing can be found. Once the market recognises that these quality firms are on sale, those prices often rebound. Find the strongest shares in the stock market Finding good quality stocks at attractive prices 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. Prince Andrew has exchanged dozens of emails with the US Department of Justice, proving he is co-operating with the investigation into his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein, a source close to the royal has claimed. Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney leading the investigation, previously claimed that Andrew had sought to 'falsely portray himself as eager and willing to co-operate'. But he has now been accused of actively misleading the media and the public on the extent of Andrew's co-operation - with the Duke an 'easy target'. The Duke of York's legal team reportedly have a slew of email exchanges with the Southern District, which 'prove' Andrew's willingness to aid the investigation. Andrew has come under increasing fire after US authorities wrote to the Home Office earlier this month to ask formally to interview him about his relationship with Epstein. But in a sensational rebuttal, the Duke accused US prosecutors of breaking confidentially rules and issuing 'complete lies' and refused to co-operate with them further until they extended an 'olive branch'. Now, a source close the Duke has laid bare Andrew's attempts to co-operate and help the investigation into Epstein. The Duke of York's legal team reportedly have a slew of email exchanges with the Southern District, which 'prove' Andrew's willingness to aid the investigation. Pictured is Prince Andrew with Virginia Roberts, Epstein's sex-slave who claims the Prince slept with her three times, and Ghislaine Maxwell, who allegedly procured young women for Epstein in 2001 U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman speaks during a press conference outside of Jeffrey Epstein's apartment on January 27, blasting Prince Andrew for a 'wall of silence' The source told the Spectator: 'Berman has actively misled the global media and the global audience. 'The Duke's legal team has dozens of email exchanges with the Southern District, proving that there has been full co-operation. It's also been claimed that the DoJ didn't make any effort to contact the Duke during Epstein's lifetime, with initial contact only made after his death and after Virginia Roberts went on the BBC in November 2019 to air her accusations against Andrew. Even then, the Duke was only approached as a witness and not as a suspect. His lawyers are thought to have responded immediately and, in early January, sent the DoJ a proposal for how Andrew would deliver his witness statement. This was apparently accepted by authorities - only for Berman to publicly blast the Duke a week later, accusing him of zero co-operation and of a 'wall of silence'. According to the source, the DoJ have 'targeted' the Prince since Epstein's death, with Berman using Andrew to 'play to the US media' and to appease the legal firms looking to get money for Epstein's victims from his estate. Epstein (pictured) was found dead last year in a New York prison cell, where he was being held on charges of sex-trafficking girls as young as 14 Berman has even implied that the Duke aided Epstein's crimes, claiming that the financier 'couldn't have done what he did without assistance'. Prince Andrew has denied all allegations against him. After Berman's attack on Andrew, there was a 'very frank exchange of views' between the Duke's lawyers and the Southern District. However Berman went on to attack Andrew again in March, accusing him of having 'completely shut the door on voluntary co-operation'. Now, both sides seem to be at an impasse, with a collapse of trust caused more by Berman's public statements than Andrew's willingness. The source blasted Berman after the Home Office request came to light, accusing him of doing everything he can to 'destroy' public trust in Andrew. They said: 'The Prince was quite simply an easy target. 'Andrew was the least protected of all the individuals who knew Jeffrey Epstein a lot less protected than Donald Trump or Bill Clinton or Ghislaine Maxwell, who has simply disappeared. Andrew was a sitting duck, and he wasn't well protected by the team over at Buckingham Palace.' The Duke's legal team did not comment on the latest claims. Earlier this week, Virginia Roberts branded Prince Andrew a 'toad' after the disgraced royal finally admitted that his failure to express sympathy on his car crash Newsnight interview was a 'source of regret'. Venting her frustration, the victim of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein said: 'Oh the gull of this toad - he regrets the BBC interview but not his "friendship" with Epstein because it gave him "great contacts" and much more. Virginia Roberts, pictured following a hearing in New York last year, has accused Prince Andrew of having sex with her. She is also pictured with him in 2001 'Look into the house he sold to a wealthy arms dealer, not at the asking price but added on a few extra 100's of 1000's. 'Seems his fat-fingers were in a lot of pies. This man is not a prince but a facet of insidiousness who has proven to get away with it all.' In the devastating interview aired in November last year the Queen's favourite son failed to express any sympathy for Epstein's victims, who were trafficked from as young as 14 years old. Roberts is one of several women who have accused billionaire Epstein of sexual abuse when they were underage, and has spoken publicly about being his 'sex slave.' She has also claimed she had sex with Prince Andrew at the behest of his friend Epstein three times: once at Epstein's New York apartment, once in the Caribbean, and once at the London home of Ghislane Maxwell, the American financier's alleged madam, in March 2001. Speaking about her first alleged encounter with Prince Andrew in London, Roberts said she was taken to Tramp Nightclub where she recalls dancing with the 'sweating' prince when she was 17. After leaving the nightclub, Roberts said: 'In the car Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey.' A photo that shows Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Maxwell in Ghislaine's apartment taken in 2001 has been widely circulated. Prince Andrew has strenuously denied all of Roberts' allegations. The prince says he doesn't even remember meeting her. Elder law attorney Anthony J. Enea, member at Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP Its now imperative that anyone who anticipates needing home care services in the next two or three years make an uncompensated transfer of assets to a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust and/or an outright transfer of assets to others before October 1 in order to protect their assets. Significant changes to the New York Medicaid program will soon affect the ability of seniors to obtain the Medicaid home care services they need. Westchester County elder law attorney Anthony J. Enea, member at Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP in White Plains and Somers, N.Y., recently shed light on these changes set to take effect on October 1, 2020 including the imposition of a new 30-month look back period for Medicaid Home Care and modifications to the consumer-directed Medicaid program. Historically, Medicaid home care applicants were able to make transfers of their assets to a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust and/or their children and loved ones without creating a look back period for Medicaid home care services. However, commencing on October 1, 2020, the same transfers will create a 30-month look back period for home care applications. For the longest time, New Yorkers were eligible for Medicaid home care services without having to worry about the five-year look back period required for the Medicaid nursing home program, said Anthony Enea, who has spent 35 years protecting the rights of seniors, the disabled and their families. These new eligibility rules make asset protection planning an immediate need in order to access Medicaid home care in the near future. The new look back period will be calculated the same way the penalty period is currently calculated for skilled nursing home level Medicaid. In the Northern Metropolitan area, the regional rate is $12,805 per month. To determine the length of an individuals penalty period, Medicaid divides the amount he or she transferred by the regional rate. Its now imperative that anyone who anticipates needing home care services in the next two or three years make an uncompensated transfer of assets to a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust and/or an outright transfer of assets to others before October 1 in order to protect their assets, explained Enea. Fortunately, the new rules left spousal refusal untouched. Thus, a married person can still transfer assets to their spouse and, if the spouse has assets and/or income above the permitted amounts, the spouse can execute a spousal refusal, allowing the ill spouse to be eligible for Medicaid. Its important to note, however, that executing a spousal refusal gives the Department of Health the right to sue the refusing spouse for the value of the services provided by Medicaid. In recent years Medicaid has been much more aggressive in pursuing spousal refusal cases, said Enea. Regardless of ones marital status, the changes in the rules illustrate the need for seniors to be proactive in making asset transfers, and starting both the 30-month look back for Medicaid home care and the 60-month look back period for Medicaid nursing home sooner rather than later. Additionally, as part of the new law, Medicaid has tightened eligibility requirements for their Consumer Directed Home Care Program (CDPAP). This program, which allows an individual to hire a family member or friend to provide home care services, will soon require new applicants to need physical maneuvering assistance with more than two activities of daily living (ADL). A person with a dementia or Alzheimers diagnosis must at least need supervision with more than one ADL. We can't know what the future holds, but we can plan for it, said Enea. With many recent changes in the law concerning Medicaid as well as the realities of the pandemic, now is an ideal time to get your legal matters organized so that you and your loved ones are protected. A strong leader in Westchesters legal community, Anthony J. Enea is chair of the New York State Bar Associations Senior Lawyers Section and president of the Westchester County Bar Foundation. He was named Westchester Countys Leading Elder Care Attorney at the Above the Bar Awards and Best Lawyers 2019 Trusts & Estates Lawyer of the Year in White Plains. A past chair of the New York State Bar Associations Elder Law Section, Eneas practice areas include elder law; Medicaid asset protection trusts; Medicaid applications (home care and nursing home); special needs planning; guardianships (Article 81 and 17-A); and wills, trusts and estates. Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP is located at 245 Main Street in White Plains, N.Y. with additional offices in Somers, N.Y. Elder law attorney Anthony J. Enea can be reached at 914-948-1500 or a.enea@esslawfirm.com. For the latest news, visit Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano online at http://www.esslawfirm.com. About Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP is an AV preeminent rated elder law firm with offices in White Plains and Somers, N.Y. The practice concentrates on Elder Law; Medicaid Planning; Nursing Home and Home Care Applications; Wills, Trusts and Estates; Guardianships; Estate Litigation; Supplemental Needs Trusts; and Special Needs Planning. Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano, LLP serves Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, the Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island and Queens and is committed to providing the highest quality legal services to seniors, the disabled and their families. Visit the firm online at http://www.esslawfirm.com. In the wake of the rising COVID-19 hospitalizations in Texas, Gallery Furniture owner Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale is urging all Texans to keep up the precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, as the state continues to reopen. "It's life, and the disease is is real," McIngvale said. " You have to keep your guard up. " He said one of his own employees tested positive for COVID-19 approximately two months ago, in April. The store took immediate steps to inform and protect all co-workers and all those who came in contact with the employee, he said. Temperature checks for all employees have also been in place at the store. "The employee who was sick got out immediately," McIngvale said. The employee returned to work after receiving a doctor's clean bill of health. McIngvale has a strong message for Texans. "I think it's still a big threat," McIngvale said. "Texans have already been doing this--wearing masks, keeping 6-feet away, hand sanitizing. If we continue to do those type of things, we'll be successful." His message for heightened awareness and safety comes right after Texas has set a new record with 2,518 COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to Texas Health and Human Services. McIngvale said he believes it's crucial to stay vigilant. He is calling for a public service campaign reiterating the need for masks and social distancing in Texas. "We were very zealous about taking all the precautions for about 3-4 weeks," McIngvale said. "But we need to stay zealous about it." Mattress Mack has served on the strike force to help Gov. Greg Abbott with the reopening of Texas. The idea of shutting down the economy again isn't a recommendation, according to McIngvale. "So many people are out of work right now. We need to get them back to work." He added that with the current surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases, he's seeing firsthand how the disease has directly affected his friends and co-workers. "Texans need to stay safe," McIngvale said. "Especially at my age, I'm 69 years old. I remind myself to do the hand-washing, mask-wearing. The disease is still out there. I'm for taking all the precautions, but I'm also for people getting back to work." alison.medley@chron.com Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis announced Tuesday that he would step down, a decision that makes him the third high-ranking official in the city to resign since Thursday. Bemis explained in a lengthy Facebook post that he decided to vacate the office he held for 14 years because of business and family demands tied to the coronavirus pandemic. Bemis operates Boccellis Ristorante in downtown Gresham, which has been closed to sit-down diners since Gov. Kate Brown halted in-person dining statewide in March. His resignation comes days after complaints surfaced about racism within Gresham city offices, including its police bureau, following a letter from deputy city manager Corey Falls, in which he called out racism and lack of support toward him and other employees of color. The Outlook, Greshams local paper, first reported about the letter. Within the last week, both city manager Erik Kvarsten and Police Chief Robin Sells have stepped down. Both said they were retiring. Bemis said he was inspired by former Portland Police Chief Jami Reschs recent decision to step down amid ongoing protests against police brutality and systemic racism. She was replaced by Chuck Lovell, a longtime lieutenant who is Black. Bemis urged Travis Stovall, a Black business owner who has served on the TriMet board and on several Gresham city committees, to run for his vacated spot when the mayors seat goes up for election in November. Stovall did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Bemis nor any of the city councilors responded to request for comment as of Tuesday evening. Falls declined to comment about the ongoing turmoil at the city. Bemis had for several years been lauded as a progressive champion for the city and its people, credited with jumpstarting more than 100 businesses and revitalizing the citys downtown. A 2013 issue of Esquire featured Bemis alongside other mayors, including then-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who would go on to run for president. In a regularly-scheduled meeting of the Gresham City Council earlier on Tuesday, Bemis gave no indication he would be resigning by the end of the day, even participating in a discussion on how best to pick an interim city manager to replace Kvarsten, who has been in his position for nearly two decades. At the meeting, held by teleconference, councilors revealed that both men in the running for the interim job Falls, the deputy city manager, and Director of Environmental Services Steve Fancher had pulled their names from consideration, leaving the city to start from scratch to fill the job by the time Kvarsten is slated to depart July 9. Sells announced her retirement Thursday and it took effect the same day. She sent an email Sunday night to city officials saying she had been pushed out of her job because of an incident that Falls, the deputy city manager, had considered racist. Falls, who came to Gresham in 2017 to help reform the police department and eliminate bias, according to The Outlook, worked closely at times with both Kvarsten and Sells. Sells wrote that when she had started as chief, her family gave her a gnome statue and, as a prank, some officers had taken the statue and posed it in pictures all over the country. At an awards banquet, while the statue was still missing, she wrote that she told a crowd its time to return my gnome, as gnome lives matter also," an apparent reference to the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement. Falls called the remark racist, according to Sells letter, which was obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLove through a public records request, and the chief said she eventually felt pressured to resign. I truly wanted to stay and ride this out, but in this day and age, somehow truth doesnt matter and I felt pressured to leave, Sells wrote. My departure has caused a huge divide between city hall and the police department one that will take years to repair. Sells wrote that despite whatever city officials had heard, "I am not a racist. I do abhor lazy people, who get paid for not doing a job they are hired to do. Thats not racism!!! Thats called accountability.'' Sells criticized Falls, saying he achieved little in his role. In a different letter to city officials, first reported by The Outlook Friday, Falls blasted city leadership for their record on race. "My reception into the city of Gresham has been at best dismal," he wrote. "It was very clear to me that those in (leadership) were not going to accept or support a black man in a leadership position." Falls said he submitted plans for police reforms in the city in 2017, but none were ever implemented. People of color at the city of Gresham have been impacted and harmed by subtle racism, he wrote. Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR -- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt is unconvinced about the reasons given by EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, to support the compilation of a new voters' register. The Electoral Commission has argued there are some defects in the current register which render it invalid for the 2020 general elections. The Commission has therefore scheduled Tuesday, June 30, 2020 to begin a mass registration exercise aimed at compiling a new voters' register. The exercise which demands participants to use only the Ghana card and passport to register their names, according to the EC, will help expunge all unqualified names from the register. To expound on the significance of the new register, Madam Jean Mensa reportedly revealed that there are 1 million ghost names and names of unqualified people in the current register which needs to be cleared. Addressing the issue on 'Kokrokoo' on Peace FM, Mr. Pratt questioned the logic of the EC Chairperson to compile a new register when she has just disclosed the number of people that should be deleted from the register. According to him, if Madam Jean Mensa knows there are 1 million ineligible names in the current register, then why the need to conduct a new voters' registration exercise. "So, she knows the 1 million people on the register; just take them off. If you know 1 million names in the register, how does that become reason for compiling a new voters' register because all you have to do is to take the names off and we have a clean register," he stressed. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video (TNS) Federal law-enforcement agencies are conducting airborne surveillance of the protests against police brutality that are taking place across the country and Democratic lawmakers want them to cut it out.On Tuesday, 35 members of the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives, including Oregons Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio, sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and other federal officials about the flights.They said aircraft from the FBI and National Guard, sporting infrared and electrooptical cameras, flew over protests in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas, and that the FBI also may have sent aloft in the nations capital Cessna 560 aircraft equipped with dirtboxes, equipment that can collect cell phone location data.The lawmakers also said Customs and Border Protection flew drones over protests in Detroit, Minneapolis and San Antonio that collected live video feeds. They said theyre also aware that federal agencies are using Stingray drones, which mimic cell towers to collect location, call, text and browsing data of nearby cellular devices; facial recognition technology; and automated license plate readers. In an earlier letter to the acting director of Homeland Security, some of the same Democratic lawmakers pointed out that the Customs and Border Protections drone that flew over Minneapolis on May 29, 2020, was far outside the bounds of CBPs jurisdiction. Federal law authorizes CBP to conduct its missions within a reasonable distance, not to exceed more than 100 air miles inland, from an external boundary of the United States.Privacy advocates have warned protesters to be aware of the surveillance activities that might be deployed against them. Harlo Holmes of the Freedom of the Press Foundation told Wired last week that protesters who want anonymity [should] leave their primary phone at home and take a burner phone instead. The magazine added that Holmes and others recommended that protesters should keep their phones off whenever possible to reduce the chances that it connects to a rogue cell tower or Wi-Fi hot spot being used by law enforcement for surveillance. They also favored using end-to-end encryption.In the letter to Wray and other federal officials, the Democratic lawmakers insisted the surveillance of demonstrations are significantly chilling the First Amendment rights of Americans. We demand that you cease any and all surveilling of Americans engaged in peaceful protests.The lawmakers suggested the federal governments actions might also contravene the U.S. Constitutions Fourth Amendment, which safeguards the right of the people to be secure in their persons against unreasonable searches and seizures. An elderly couple has had a narrow escape when their car left the road and tumbled over rocks towards the Atlantic at Galways Blackrock swimming tower this evening. Emergency services - including the Galway Fire and Ambulance Service, Gardai, Irish Coastguard helicopter and RNLI lifeboat volunteers - were alerted after the Nissan Almera reversed over the pavement at Salthill promenade and fell about six metres (20 ft) down towards the beach. The incident occurred at around 5pm, just an hour after high tide, but the car did not hit the water. Several units of Galway Fire Brigade managed to free the elderly couple from the car on the rock armour. The Irish Coast Guard helicopter which was en route from Shannon was stood down when it appeared that the vehicle was not in danger of hitting the water. 1005844 The couple was taken by ambulance to University Hospital Galway. It is understood that their injuries are not life-threatening. Sgt Vincent Jennings of Salthill Garda Station said that it was a miracle that there were no fatalities or injuries. The Prom has been very busy, and this was just an hour after high tide, Sgt Jennings said. He said onlookers gave several rounds of applause when the couple were stretchered up to the ambulance by paramedic staff. Labour councillor Niall MacNelis, who was leaving a Galway City Council meeting in Leisureland, Salthill just after the incident happened, paid tribute to the gardai and emergency personnel. If it had been a warm summers evening, this could have been a very serious incident, and we are all glad that the couple survived, he said. Efforts were being made by the fire brigade to remove the vehicle from the rocks. Traffic diversions were put in place for several hours in Galway this evening. 1005838 The Joint Entrance Examination Council, Uttar Pradesh (JEECUP) will open the application window for candidates willing to apply for Uttar Pradesh Joint Entrance Examination for Polytechnic courses (UPJEE) from 17 June till 21 June The Joint Entrance Examination Council, Uttar Pradesh (JEECUP) will open the application window for candidates willing to apply for Uttar Pradesh Joint Entrance Examination for Polytechnic courses (UPJEE) from 17 June till 21 June. Eligible and willing candidates can apply for JEECUP 2020 by visiting the official website - jeecup.nic.in. The dates have been extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the council said. However, UPJEE on its website said that candidates will not be able to edit the application forms once submitted. According to a report by NDTV, UPJEE 2020 was earlier scheduled to be held on 26 April. It was later postponed to 31 May. The council again had postponed the exam to 14 June due to rise in COVID-19 cases. Later, the exam date was moved to July 25. As per the latest schedule, UPJEE 2020 will be held in two shifts for different groups. A report by Hindustan Times said that the admit card for UPJEE 2020 examination will be available on the official website on 8 July. How to register for UPJEE 2020 exam: Step 1: Visit the official website - jeecup.nic.in Step 2: On the homepage, click on the tab of the examination for which you want to appear - Group A, Group B to K, Group E1, E2 Step 3: Click on 'New Registration' and click 'Submit' Step 4: Fill all the details, upload image and pay the application fee. The application fee is Rs 300 for general category candidates and Rs 200 for SC and ST categories. Donald Trump speaks at the signing of an executive order on police reform: EPA Donald Trump has been accused of asking China President Xi Jinping to help with his re-election efforts by purchasing more US farm products, the president's former national security adviser John Bolton claimed in his new book. The explosive account comes after Joe Biden said Mr Trump "waved the white flag" instead of actively addressing the coronavirus pandemic that has taken over the United States. Mr Biden was not the only one critical of the president's response to Covid-19, as Mr Trump now trails the former vice president by 13 points in a new Reuter/Ispos poll released on Tuesday. The president's poll numbers have plummeted amid the coronavirus pandemic and unrest across the country following the death of George Floyd. But his former press secretary Sean Spicer claimed the decline in poll numbers is because Mr Trump's supporters don't want to admit they will be voting for him come November. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load US Welcomes UN-Backed Intra-Libyan Talks, Urges Speedy Ceasefire Process Key to Libyas recovery is the protection of its oil fields News Analysis The United States welcomed the resumption of talks led by the United Nations between two Libyan warring sides, the U.N.-backed government and the leader of the armed forces which controls a big part of eastern Libya, with a goal of achieving a ceasefire and relaunching intra-Libyan negotiations. After the U.N.-recognized Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), headed by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj made significant gains against the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by General Khalifa Haftar, Egypt proposed a political solution for Libya to implement a ceasefire and achieve peace. U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on June 10 and praised his efforts to promote political reconciliation in Libya, the White House said. Russia and the United Arab Emirates welcomed the plan, while Germany said U.N.-backed talks were key to the peace process. The LNA, which is supported by Egypt, the UAE, and Russia, recently reentered U.N. security talks with the GNA to implement a ceasefire. The agreement between the GNA and the LNA to reenter U.N. security talks was a good first step, very positive. Quick and good faith negotiations are now required to implement a ceasefire and relaunch the U.N.-led intra-Libyan political talks, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press briefing on June 10. Its time for all Libyans on all sides to act so that neither Russia nor any other country can interfere in Libyas sovereignty for its own gain, Pompeo added. Pompeo stressed the importance of Libya regaining control over its oil fields. Putting Libya on the path to economic recovery means preserving Libyan oil facilities and strong access to the National Oil Corporation, he said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the press at the State Department in Washington on May 20, 2020. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images) Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared force majeure on exports from its El Sharara oilfield on June 9, after an armed group repeatedly halted production just days after output had resumed following a blockade that had lasted five months, according to Reuters. NOC warned in a statement on June 12 that the continuing presence of these armed groups presents a significant danger and threatens to cause sustained damage to the infrastructure of the field, jeopardizing investments exceeding $4 billion of public money in the fields assets and facilities. Due to military gains achieved by the Libyan Government of National Accord based in Tripoli, production has resumed in recent days at the El Sharara and El Feel fields. However, the production was disrupted again on June 8 when a local armed group, affiliated with the eastern-based LNA, stormed the field and ordered output to stop, NOC said in a statement, according to Reuters. During the months of blockade, NOC said armed militia had prevented maintenance on a 16,000-barrel tank, which collapsed as a result. Before a five-month blockade by forces aligned with the LNA began in January, the field had produced 300,000 barrels per day, equivalent to about a third of Libyas output at the time. Libyan people face challenges due to intra-Libyan conflict, economic hardship, and the outbreak of the CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, which have been exacerbated by the five-month shutdown of oil fields. Using critical infrastructure that belongs to the Libyan people as a tool of war, whether for oil that feeds the economy or water upon which Libyans depend on for survival, is reprehensible and it must end, said Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker at a press briefing on June 11. Libyan National Army (LNA) members, commanded by Khalifa Haftar, head out of Benghazi to reinforce the troops advancing to Tripoli, in Benghazi, Libya, on April 7, 2019. (Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters) US, UN Call for Ceasefire and Political Talks Despite the end of the LNAs siege on Tripoli and the peace process for Libya initiated by the Egyptian president that opened the way for a political dialog between the LNA and GNA, fighting has intensified with the involvement of foreign actors, Schenker said. The United States is especially concerned with the involvement of Russian Wagner mercenaries and the inflow of Russian military equipment and weapons, which in turn led to Turkish intervention, Schenker said. The involvement of foreign actors in Libya challenges U.S. interests and regional stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and is also against the will of Libyan people who want peace and an end to foreign intervention, Schenker said. The U.S. Africa Command assessed that Moscow recently deployed military fighter aircraft to Libya in order to support Russian state-sponsored private military contractors operating on the ground there, according to a statement. The Russian fighter aircraft arrived in Libya, from an airbase in Russia, after transiting Syria where it is assessed they were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin, said the statement. Russian military aircraft are likely to provide air support for private military contractors of the Wagner Group that supports the LNA, the statement said. Russia denied this assessment. The Chairman of the Federation Councils Defense and Security Committee, General Viktor Bondaryev stated that if any Russian origin military aircraft is indeed in Libya it could have originated from a number of other countries as Russian military airplanes are exported worldwide, according to the Jamestown Foundation. Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar at the Parliament in Athens on Jan. 17, 2020. (Reuters) Both GNA and LNA engaged in talks hosted by the U.N. Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) in the 5+5 format, involving five senior officers appointed by each side, according to a UNSMIL statement. The United States urged both sides of the Libyan conflict to implement a ceasefire and achieve a long-term solution to the conflict through good faith intra-Libyan negotiations, according to Schenker. The United States is also concerned with the discovery of mass graves and bodies of civilians in areas retaken from the LNA. We are similarly concerned that a GNA offensive on Sirte would have serious humanitarian consequences. When armed groups and their external backers escalate, the Libyan people suffer, Schenker said. The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply shocked by the discovery of multiple mass graves in recent days, the majority of them in Tarhouna, said the spokesman of the Secretary-General in a statement. Guterres called for a thorough and transparent investigation, and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Guterres also reiterated his call for an immediate end to the fighting in Libya in order to save lives and end civilian suffering, the statement said. SG @antonioguterres deeply shocked by the discovery of multiple mass graves in recent days, the majority of them in Tarhouna. The SG calls for a thorough and transparent investigation, and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice https://t.co/PXdZizsbrZ #Libya pic.twitter.com/HLJJc4tBxl UNSMIL (@UNSMILibya) June 13, 2020 Haftars LNA has been waging an offensive since April 2019 to seize the capital Tripoli, the seat of the internationally recognized Government of National Accord. Reuters contributed to this report. Its been a long few months for royal fans without any in-person public outings by any members of the royal family. However, it seems like thats all about to change, as yesterday both the UK and Danish royals were seen out on official engagements. The Duke of Cambridge talking to paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service Trust. Photo: Getty Images Princess Mary and Prince Frederik at the exhibition opening of "The Faces of the Queen" celebrating Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Photo: Getty Images Prince William visited the Kings Lynn Ambulance Station at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Norfolk to thank workers who have been on the frontline during the coronavirus pandemic, while Princess Mary and Prince Frederik were at the exhibition opening of "The Faces of the Queen" celebrating Queen Margrethe IIs 80th birthday. The Tasmania-born princess looked stunning in a short-sleeved white dress, cinched in at the waist with a matching belt as she browsed photos and paintings from 1940 - 2020 of the Queen. Its the second time the 48-year-old has been seen out on an official visit since the easing of lockdown restrictions. Last week, she visited Holmegaard Vrk, a new design museum, in Denmark and while she made sure to practice social distancing, she did forgo a face mask for the visit. Back in March, the Danish royal family decided to cancel all official appearances, with Princess Mary and her family returning home from Switzerland to stand with the Danes. In a statement released by the palace, it was revealed that Princess Mary, her four children and her husband, Prince Frederik, would all return from Switzerland, where theyve been enjoying a 12-week school stay. Princess Mary looked stunning in a white short-sleeved dress. Photo: Getty Images Prince William meanwhile joked about returning to the pub and a widening waistline as he carried out his first in-person engagement in weeks yesterday. William, 37, visited the Kings Lynn Ambulance Station at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Norfolk to thank East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) workers who have been on the frontline during the coronavirus pandemic. During the visit, he joked with staff about being worried about the waistline of the country owing to the chocolate and cakes which have been eaten during lockdown, saying were all going to have dentist appointments for fillings and all sorts. Story continues He revealed he had been baking at home, saying chocolate goes down well at any time and told staff he is looking forward to the government message to support his local pub. William and Kate, 38, have been in lockdown in Norfolk at their home in Anmer Hall since the beginning of restrictions on travel in the UK. The duke joking with staff during a visit in Norfolk. Photo: Getty Images He also spoke to staff about the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health, and asked about how they had felt about the weekly Clap for Carers. One staff member told him it was overwhelming to have the applause each week. He said: Everyone appreciates the NHS and we have a great system over here, many countries envy it. Its not until we have a big crisis that everyone goes OK, we need to make sure we really value and we show our appreciation. He also joked that he was looking forward to the government messages encouraging Britons to go to the pub. Im looking forward to getting that government message that we all have to drink more. Go support your local pub, he joked. The duke used a thermometer in his ear when he arrived at the ambulance station. He was not wearing a mask during the engagement but did follow social distancing rules. The Prince of Wales remains socially distanced as he a performs a namaste to Professor Mark Pietroni during a hospital visit. Photo: Getty Images Earlier on Tuesday, Williams father Prince Charles made a socially distanced visit to a hospital in Gloucestershire, where he and his wife Camilla have returned after nearly three months in Scotland. On Saturday, the Queen marked her official birthday at Windsor Castle with a small, socially distanced military ceremony, a reduced version of the usual Trooping the Colour spectacular. On Thursday, Charles and Camilla will host Emmanuel Macron, the French president, in a meeting in Clarence House. However its understood they will be staying in their Gloucestershire and Wiltshire homes and not moving back to London full-time. With extra reporting by Rebecca C Taylor Sign up to our daily newsletter here to get all the latest news and hacks. Or get in touch at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com. Beta Media operates the low-cost movie theater chain Beta Cinemas, with 12 cineplexes and nearly 60 cinema halls nationwide. As COVID pandemic leaves many challenges for businesses in Vietnam, this investment agreement is a positive sign for the market from Beta Media. "The investment call was made in the first half of 2019 and reached an agreement by the end of 2019, but the COVID-19 epidemic delayed the process. Due to COVID-19, Beta Cinemas had to shut down operations for weeks, causing further difficulties," said the Founder of the company, Mr. Bui Quang Minh (Minh Beta). At the signing ceremony, Mr. Kenichi Shimomoto, Senior Managing Director, Daiwa PI Partners commented: "Undeterred, Minh Beta and the team have patiently demonstrated to us their impressive business results in the past, a potential future of the film industry in Vietnam, as well as Beta Media's determination and perseverance in promoting this important industry in the long term. Currently, all cinemas of Beta Media have resumed operation, and the investment deal has been completed, so we do believe that our journey to the bright future has already restarted. We are very excited and look forward to enjoying this great journey with the Beta team and our fellow investors, VIG and Blue HK." "This investment will equip Beta Media with more resources to grow further in the near future. Beta Media is expected to reach 50 locations in the next few years," CEO Bui Quang Minh said. Beta Media launched the Beta Cinemas cinema model at the end of 2014. Beta Cinemas has a youthful and dynamic style, with good quality but affordable ticket prices, targeting a blue-ocean market: students and young, cost-conscious consumers. Beta Cinemas has an affordable pricing scheme, averaging just about VND 50,000 per movie ticket. However, Beta Media still invests in modern equipment which meet Hollywood standards and modern facilities. Beta Media prioritizes the use of high quality domestic construction materials to reduce investment costs, while ensuring good quality and durability. Beta Media maintains a good profit margin by optimizing expenses, such as rental costs. Beta Media chose not to open in commercial centers or mega malls that were often too expensive, while optimizing the design of its theaters to minimize operating, utility and personnel costs. Beta Media also recently introduces the cinema franchising business model - a pioneering arrangement that is first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region. This trail-blazing idea aims to bring together Beta Media's expertise and local business partners' insights to quickly expand Beta's network. Currently, there are 3 cineplexes under Beta Cinemas brand that have succeeded with this new cooperation model. "With the mission of bringing an affordable cinema experience to all Vietnamese people in all regions of the country, Beta Media will continue to promote the franchise business model in the coming years," Mr Minh insisted. SOURCE Beta Media Compassion is defined as a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering, according to Dictionary.com. But in the Lehigh Valley, its also the product of a partnership between Weyerbacher Brewing Co. and local media company Lehigh Valley with Love. A little over a week ago, Lehigh Valley with Love Media posted on their Instagram page about the partnership with Weyerbacher the two would collaborate on a beer, and once the beer is released, a portion of the sales would be donated to Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley, an organization that provides refuge for survivors of domestic and intimate partner assault. LVWL and Weyerbacher couldve thought up the details on their own, but a beer for a community effort deserved a design from the community. They received plenty of designs and name suggestions, but they settled on a logo from Kasie Kosberg Warmkessel of Allentown. Aptly titled Compassion, the winning design for the double IPAs logo netted Warmkessel a $100 cash prize from LVWL and a gift certificate from Weyerbacher. The beer itself is a West Coast Double IPA brewed with white wheat, oats, Zappa hops and passion fruit puree, according to LVWLs website. The Easton brewery will be hosting a release party for its new brew, with info on its Facebook page. The June 24 event will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. as attendees will be able to be the first to taste the good beer for a good cause. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com. Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com. A man wearing a face mask sits in a tram at Manchester Victoria Railway Station in Manchester, Britain, on June 15, 2020. (Photo by Jon Super/Xinhua) Researchers have found that low-dose dexamethasone reduces death in hospitalized patients with severe respiratory complications of COVID-19. The Imperial College London also announced that a new coronavirus vaccine developed by its researchers are set to start clinical trial this week. LONDON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- With the COVID-19 pandemic imposing huge impact on people's daily life in Britain and other parts of the world, scientists are racing against time to get deeper understanding of the novel coronavirus while accelerating the development of new treatments and vaccines. Through the British government backed RECOVERY (Randomized Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy) trial, researchers have found that low-dose dexamethasone (a steroid treatment) reduces death in hospitalized patients with severe respiratory complications of COVID-19. In this trial, a total of 2,104 patients were randomized to receive 6 mg of dexamethasone once per day (either by mouth or by intravenous injection) for 10 days and were compared with 4,321 patients randomized to usual care alone, according to the University of Oxford, whose researchers are leading the trial. Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one third in ventilated patients and by one fifth in other patients receiving oxygen only, but there was no benefit among those patients who did not require respiratory support, the results showed. Based on these results, researchers believe that one death would be prevented by treatment of around eight ventilated patients or around 25 patients requiring oxygen alone. "Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19," said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, and one of the chief investigators for the trial. "The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients. Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide," he added. Aside from treatments, researchers in Britain are also making progress in vaccine development. A team at the University of Oxford has initiated clinical trial of its vaccine candidate in April. On Monday, the Imperial College London also announced that a new coronavirus vaccine developed by its researchers are set to start clinical trial this week. The vaccine programs respectively at Oxford and the Imperial College London are at the forefront of Britain's vaccine development efforts. The British government has announced that it will provide funding for these two programs. The vaccine developed at the Imperial is based on a new self-amplifying RNA technology. Researchers will test whether it is well-tolerated and produces an effective immune response against COVID-19 in humans. Over the coming weeks, 300 healthy participants will receive two doses of the vaccine. If the vaccine is safe and shows a promising immune response in humans, then larger Phase III trials would be planned to begin later in the year with around 6,000 healthy volunteers to test its effectiveness, according to the Imperial. "From a scientific perspective, new technologies mean we have been able to get moving on a potential vaccine with unprecedented speed," said professor Robin Shattock from the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial and who is leading the work. "We've been able to produce a vaccine from scratch and take it to human trials in just a few months -- from code to candidate -- which has never been done before with this type of vaccine. If our approach works and the vaccine provides effective protection against disease, it could revolutionize how we respond to disease outbreaks in future," he said. Geoscientists at The University of Texas at Dallas recently used massive amounts of earthquake data and supercomputers to generate high-resolution, 3D images of the dynamic geological processes taking place far below the Earth's surface. In a study published April 29 in Nature Communications, the UT Dallas research team described how it created images of mantle flows in a subduction region under Central America and the Caribbean Sea using a computationally intensive technique called a full waveform inversion (FWI). "This is the first comprehensive seismic study to directly image 3D mantle flow fields in actual subduction environments using advanced FWI technology," said Dr. Hejun Zhu, corresponding author of the study and assistant professor of geosciences in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Dr. Jidong Yang, who earned his PhD in geosciences from UT Dallas in May, and Dr. Robert Stern, professor of geosciences, are the study's co-authors. A Dynamic Earth Between the relatively thin layer of the Earth's crust and its inner core lies the thickest part of the planet, the mantle. Over short time periods, the mantle can be considered solid rock, but on the geological time scale of millions of years, the mantle flows like a viscous fluid. Earth's crust is broken into pieces called tectonic plates. These plates move across and into the mantle very slowly -- about as fast as fingernails grow. At regions called subduction zones, one plate descends under another into the mantle. "The sinking of oceanic plates into the Earth's mantle at subduction zones is what causes the Earth's tectonic plates to move and is one of the most important processes taking place in our planet," Zhu said. "Subduction zones are also the source of many natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. But the pattern of mantle flow and deformation around descending plates is still poorly understood. The information our techniques yield is crucial for understanding our dynamic planet." Data-Intensive Research Zhu and his colleagues tackled the problem using a geophysical measurement called seismic anisotropy, which measures the difference in how fast mechanical waves generated by earthquakes travel in different directions inside the Earth. Seismic anisotropy can reveal how the mantle moves around the subducting plate. Similar technology is also used by the energy industry to locate oil and gas resources. "When a diver dives into water, the water separates, and that separation in turn affects the way the water moves around the swimmer," Zhu said. "It's similar with oceanic plates: When they dive into hot mantle, that action induces mantle separation and flow around the plates." The research team created the images using high-fidelity data recorded over a 10-year period from 180 earthquakes by some 4,500 seismic stations located in a grid across the U.S. The numerical calculations for the FWI algorithm were performed on the high-performance computing clusters at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported Texas Advanced Computing Center at UT Austin, as well as on supercomputers at UT Dallas. "Previously we couldn't 'see' under the Earth's surface, but by using this technology and this very wonderful data set, we are able to delineate the 3D distribution of various seismic phenomena and tell at what depths they are occurring," Zhu said. Gone to Pieces The images confirmed that the plates in the study region are not large, solid pieces but rather are fragmented into smaller slabs. "This looks different from the textbook depictions of tectonic plates coming together, with one solid piece of oceanic plate descending under another solid piece," Zhu said. "Some researchers have hypothesized that this fragmentation occurs, and our imaging and modeling provides evidence that supports that view." Zhu's 3D model shows complex mantle flow patterns around a number of descending fragments and in the gaps between slabs. Such chunky, fragmented pieces are seen in regions throughout the world, Zhu said. In the northwestern U.S., for example, the Juan de Fuca Plate is also fragmented into two pieces where it descends under the North American Plate in the Cascadia subduction zone, an area where strong earthquakes have occurred over the centuries. "We know that most earthquakes happen at the interface between a slab and the mantle. If there is a gap between these fragments, what's called a window region, you wouldn't expect earthquakes there," Zhu said. "If you look at the earthquake distribution along the Cascadia subduction zone, there is a span where you do not have earthquakes. That is probably a region where there is a gap in the subducting oceanic plate. "The Middle America Trench that we studied has its own unique, dynamic properties. In the future, we plan to shift our attention to other subduction zones, including the Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone in the region of the Australian and Pacific plates." ### The research was funded by a grant to Zhu from the NSF's Division of Earth Sciences. Protesters will gather Saturday for a march supporting Black Lives Matter in Overland Park. The march will start at 11 a.m. at Overland Park City Hall, 8500 Santa Fe Drive, and end at the Overland Park Clock Tower where a rally will be held. Wednesday, June 17th, 2020 (1:27 pm) - Score 1,969 Belfast-based UK ISP Fibrus, which recently began the 85m+ roll-out of a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network in Northern Ireland and aims to cover 145,000 premises by around 2024 (here), has now committed to help ensure that 100% of homes can access such services by the end of 2025. The press release almost makes it sound like Fibrus will do every home itself, although we know that Openreach (BT) have so far done the lions share of full fibre and Virgin Media has also had a sizeable input. Instead the commitment by Fibrus is actually focused upon ensuring that the remaining 12% gap in coverage will get filled by 2025. The above is based on an expectation that deployments by various operators, as well as the planned interventions by the NI Executive in areas that are not commercially viable (here), should push full fibre coverage to around 88% of premises across N.Ireland (at present FTTP coverage in the region is already over 45%). Suffice to say that, if achieved, this would make Northern Ireland the first region in the United Kingdom or Ireland to achieve the milestone of 100% coverage. Having already invested and completed full fibre networks in various towns in South Down, Fibrus says theyre now ahead of schedule on their earlier promise to build FTTP broadband in over 100 towns across NI. NOTE: Fibrus claims that the major existing operators have, to date, only committed to connect 61% of NI homes between them (mostly by focusing on Belfast and 10+ other large towns). Conal Henry, Fibrus Founder and Chair, said: Northern Ireland customers have already spent over 2 billion on Broadband, but up until recently it seemed that only 60% of NI homes would get full fibre. Now, with Fibrus investment in regional towns and timely interventions by the NI Executive in areas that are not commercially viable coverage is expected to grow to 88%. Today we are committing to ensure the remaining 12% gap will get filled by 2025. The truth is that relying on a copper company to build our full fibre future is akin to waiting on the canal companies to build the railways. Only proper platform competition can stimulate investment and Fibrus are here in NI to deliver exactly that. The company says theyve now commenced a detailed planning and design exercise for each of these homes and is confident that, with continued regulatory and investment supports, these homes can and will be connected. The net result being that all homes in NI can look forward, with confidence, to a full fibre future by 2025. Admittedly if this were any other UK region then wed be quite sceptical, but the potential to achieve such coverage by 2025 does seem more viable for N.Ireland, particularly given the impressive pace of progress that is already being made by all of the network operators. As mentioned earlier, NI is way ahead of the wider UK in FTTP coverage. On the other hand tackling the final 12% of premises can be disproportionately expensive, which seems likely to require significantly more investment than has so far been tabled. A figure of 90-95% may thus be more feasible, but only time will tell whether or not universal coverage can actually be achieved in time. By Express News Service HYDERABAD/SURYAPET: Family members and Army personnel broke into tears when the mortal remains of Colonel Bikkamalla Santosh Babu arrived by a special flight at Hakimpet Air Force Academy on Wednesday evening. As the flight landed and the coffin was brought out of the plane, a poignant atmosphere built up all over. Santosh, who led the life of a hero, died like one while fighting the enemy at Galwan Valley on Actual Line of Control (LAC) on Monday night. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Ministers KT Rama Rao, Ch Malla Reddy, State DGP M Mahender Reddy and several other officials were present at the solemn occasion when the Army men gave their salute to the departed braveheart and his body was later taken in a vehicle to Suryapet, his native town, for the funeral on Thursday. Meanwhile, Suryapet district officials have made all the arrangements for the funeral at an agriculture field located in Kesram village of Suraypet mandal. Ahead of the funeral, Army officials, District Collector Vinay Krishna Reddy and SP R Bhaskaran visited the village and inspected the arrangements being made. The district collector, speaking to media persons, said that the body would be kept at his house till 10am on Thursday for the people to come and pay their respect. The funeral would be held after taking the body along with a procession for eight km while following COVID-19 guidelines. The district SP appealed to the people to maintain social distance while attending the funeral. Policemen have been posted at Santosh Babus residence and the farmland as a security measure. Two DSPs and 250 policemen will be deployed for this purpose. "We are coordinating with the Army officials for taking the body in a procession to the farmland and conducting the funeral. On behalf of the government, Energy Minister G Jagadessh Reddy, will ensure provision of all facilities for the funeral. As there might be a huge rush to pay respects to Santosh Babu, the district administration is having the front yard of his house marked for the purpose of ensuring compliance of social distance norm. Medical teams will test the people who enter the house and provide sanitisers to them. On Wednesday, the police officials allowed only his relatives and close friends into the house. Telangana Congress chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy meets Santosh's parents SURYAPET: TPCC president and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy, on Wednesday, urged the CM to name the district medical college or any other prestigious project after Colonel Santosh Babu. He demanded this after visiting Santoshs parents Mehta said no court order prevents the Treasury Department from releasing the $679 million. He allowed the department to withhold $7.65 million that the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation of Kansas tribe alleges it was shortchanged in the initial distribution of funding. The Prairie Band said the Treasury Department should have relied on the tribes own enrollment figures to calculate its share of the money. Mehta denied the tribes request to halt further distribution of the money last week, saying the Treasury Department has authority to determine how to allocate the money. Attorneys for the tribe said Monday they are appealing. The Treasury Department said the $679 million withholding would cover the Kansas tribe if the tribe wins its case and any other tribal governments that might raise challenges. That amounts to the difference between relying on data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the enrollment figures submitted by tribes. Its a means of ensuring that Treasury has actually determined an appropriate amount and paid an appropriate amount, U.S. Department of Justice attorney Jason Lynch, representing the Treasury Department, said Monday during a court hearing in a related case. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump told Chinas Xi Jinping that he was right to build detention camps to house hundreds of thousands of ethnic minorities, former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton alleged in a new book that could make the presidents tough-on-China mantra a hard sell. At a summit in Japan in 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi gave Trump an explanation for the Chinese camps for Uighurs, who are ethnically and culturally distinct from the countrys majority Han population and are suspected of harbouring separatist tendencies, Bolton wrote. According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which he thought was exactly the right thing to do, the book said. That would be a stunning statement coming from the president of the United States, where the First Amendment protects the right to religious beliefs and practices and prevents the government from creating or favouring a religion. It could drive a wedge between Trump and his Republican China hawks on Capitol Hill. It also could take some punch out of the Trump campaigns efforts to portray former Vice-President Joe Biden as soft on China. The Trump campaign released an online video last month that included clips of Biden previously describing that country as not bad folks and saying economic growth there was in the U.S. interest. The Associated Press obtained an advance copy of Boltons book on Wednesday. It was the same day that Trump signed legislation that increases pressure on China over its crackdown in Xinjiang, where authorities have detained more than a million people from ethnic groups that include Uighurs, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz in a vast network of detention centres. Many have been subjected to torture and forced labour and deprived of adequate food and medical treatment. The law imposes sanctions on specific Chinese officials, such as the Communist Party official who oversees government policy in Xinjiang. In his signing statement, Trump took issue with one sanctions provision, saying it intruded on executive authority and he would regard it as non-binding. Trumps alleged comment to Xi was at odds with Secretary of State Mike Pompeos statement last week condemning Chinas treatment of the Uighurs. In China, state-sponsored repression against all religions continues to intensify, Pompeo said in releasing the departments latest annual International Religious Freedom report. The Chinese Communist Party is now ordering religious organizations to obey CCP leadership and infuse communist dogma into their teachings and practice of their faith. The mass detentions of Uighurs in Xinjiang continues. It also contradicts the position of lawmakers who have taken hard-line positions against Beijing. Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the internment of at least a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities is reprehensible and inexcusable, and the Chinese Communist Party and government must be held to account. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the legislation was evidence that the U.S. supports the Uighurs and will not sit idly by as the Chinese government and communist party commit egregious human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. Nihad Awad, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, said he thought it was ironic that Trump signed the legislation on the same day that details of Boltons book became public. We condemn Presidents Trumps reported approval of Chinas concentration camps -- places of untold suffering, torture, abuse, rape, and death for Uyghur Muslims, Awad said. Congress must immediately investigate whether Trump gave his blessing to round up, imprison and oppress an ethnic religious community in concentration camps. The bill was expected to further inflame already tense relations between the U.S. and China amid the Trump administrations criticism of Beijings response to the outbreak of the coronavirus. Trump issued a statement upon signing the legislation that the new law would hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable. The law requires the U.S. government to report to Congress on violations of human rights in Xinjiang as well as Chinas acquisition of technology used for mass detention and surveillance. It also requires American authorities to look into the pervasive reports of harassment and threats of Uighurs and other Chinese nationals in the United States. Sen. Jeff Merkley, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said the act requires the secretary of state to determine whether individuals responsible for appalling human rights violations meet the criteria for sanctions. The United States cannot remain silent in the face of these atrocious and horrifying abuses, the Oregon Democrat said. As millions of Americans fight for racial justice here at home, we must also stand strong as a champion of human rights abroad. In the months since George Floyds death, the country has been reckoning with our legacy of racial inequities. Many people have been taking a good hard look at themselves, and many are trying to figure out how they can help. Black History Month begins today, and this year perhaps more than any in recent history people are looking for genuinely impactful ways to celebrate. Entrepreneurs tend to be hands-on doers and problem-solvers, so when a deep systemic issue has been identified, business leaders look for solutions. And according to Connie Evans, the CEO and president of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, thats what makes entrepreneurs so valuable to the cause of racial equity. Business owners can help their local government leaders think more creatively and more entrepreneurially to solve some of the problems that they're seeing in their communities, Evans told Entrepreneur. Evans has been advising governments, business owners and nonprofits from presidential administrations to the World Bank to the Senate Small Business Committee for 25 years. She was the first black woman to be elected to the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and has also served on the U.S. Treasury Departments CDFI Advisory Board. When we asked her how the entrepreneurial community can translate their convictions into actions, she had six suggestions. 1. Use your buying power to support minority-owned businesses. Evans says, Your readers should think about looking to find and support black-owned and Latinx-owned businesses with their consumer dollars. Thats a very important thing that any reader can do. If youre in a community where there arent many minority-owned businesses, or youre not sure where they are, there are black directories out there and organizations that can link them to black businesses. We have listed a number of them here. 2. Write letters to your national and local representatives. Your readers can also use their voices and their pens to write to their representatives, Evans says. And I don't just mean to Federal congressional representatives. There are lots of regulations and laws at the state and local level that represent real barriers for minority businesses. For example, at the local level: Business owners and businesses of color have more difficulty accessing new markets, Evans says. And all governments, whether you're local or state, have contracting opportunities. Oftentimes those contract opportunities go to very, very, very large businesses. So, you could petition your local or state government to break up these big bundle contracting programs so that smaller and black-owned businesses can have access. That's a very important one, and its something that can be done easily if there is will and demand. And there are examples out there of cities that have done this. Evans continues, Another thing at the state and local level is removing the barriers for how businesses get licensed. In many places, you have to jump through 50 different hoops and go to three different places and all of those things. Those are just barriers to people without as many resources. At the national level: It's generally important to let your representatives in Congress know you care about how the Small Business Administration decides which businesses get capital, but that's especially true when it comes to future rounds of stimulus funding. We must prioritize businesses with no more than 10 employees, period, Evans says. Businesses owned by people of color overwhelmingly we're talking more than 90 percent have 10 or fewer employees. So, the SBA needs to eliminate regulations that allow first-come, first-serve funding [that goes primarily to bigger small companies]. Entrepreneurs can also let their federal representatives know they dont approve of the SBA discriminating against small business owners with criminal records, which disproportionately affects entrepreneurs of color. Related: A Leaked Powerpoint Suggests the SBA Is Denying Disaster Loans ... 3. Take stock of diversity in your own business operations. By nature, entrepreneurs are leaders, Evans says. They can be community leaders, and use their voices. But entrepreneurs are also business owners. And if were really going to change society, you shouldnt do the first two actions I mentioned without also working for inclusivity inside your own business operation. Look at your supplier list. Is it diverse? Look at your employees. Are they diverse? Try to have alignment in your actions. Don't be outraged at the injustice you're discovering without taking on these issues seriously and valuing diversity and inclusiveness in your own operations. 4. Donate your companys services If anyone had any doubt, its now clear that the whole global economy is moving to a much more digital marketplace, says Evans. And some of these smaller businesses owned by people of color have been much slower to get up to speed on having a digital presence and developing expertise there. "AEO has created what we believe to be a comprehensive, relatively sophisticated solution to reach small business owners, including black business owners," Evans continues. "Through our program called Main Street Rise, weve pulled together partners like GoDaddy and Bench and Fanbank, who all have world-class technology solutions to help small businesses get up to speed quickly. With Main Street Rise, our partners are offering these products and services free to small business owners in need. For example, Bench provides accounting services for entrepreneurs. Small business owners have lost so much revenue during shelter-in-place, and many dont know if they can afford to take out PPP loans or any other kinds of loans. They need help with accounting and getting their books in order, and some of these businesses just can't afford that. "We can help with that. We're also able to give them a way to generate revenue through Fanbank in a program where they can sell credits to their customers, so when they're able to open, their customers can go in and start shopping with them. We also have mentors who can help you figure out how to pivot in this environment and in the recession were entering. So, if your entrepreneurial readership has solutions that they think can help small businesses, we will be happy to talk with them about joining our partnership. 5. Put on your entrepreneur hat to find community solutions Entrepreneurs are always thinking, How do I solve problems? And they can use that mindset to help their local government leaders think more creatively and more entrepreneurially to solve some of the problems that they're seeing in their communities, Evans says. For example, during the lockdown, you might think, Okay you have restaurants that are closed, and can only do takeout and curbside delivery, and you have entire communities where people are unemployed and don't have food. They're standing in food lines that are wrapping around blocks. Why not take state government dollars and give those restaurants grants to open up and feed the community? That way, the restaurants are able to hire people back while also filling a real need to get nutritious food back into communities. We need to get more entrepreneurial about how we are using government resources and how they can be used to solve multiple problems and challenges all at one time. Related: Black-Owned Restaurants and Businesses You Can Support Right Now 6. Get strategic with your charitable donations Oftentimes people think of charity as helping the homeless, education, social services and thats all great, of course, Evans says. But your readers might not realize that an important part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem for communities of color and business owners of color are these nonprofit organizations that are set up to provide capital and trusted guidance to businesses in underserved communities. Those nonprofits need support, and there are different creative ways of doing that. Grants. Reopening for many small businesses will require grants capital without the burden of loans and payback. How are they going to pay for all the new retrofitting that will be required to reopen? Where's that money coming from? You can't take out a loan for that because your revenue is reduced, and even when you open with the retrofit, you can only have 50 percent or 25 percent of the occupancy that you used to. So people need grants for that. You can come to Main Street Rise if you want to make a grant to a particular business in your neighborhood or just to any businesses working with AEO," Evans says. "Were a national organization, and we have over 1,700 members so if any of your readers say, 'I want to support businesses within my state or within my big city or within my little town,' we can do that. "We can direct the resources to any geographic or socio-demographic parameters that someone may really want to see their resources support. Grants are a really important way the entrepreneurial ecosystem can get engaged in supporting black-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, entrepreneurs with records, entrepreneurs in rural communities, Native American communities and immigrant communities. Donor-Advised Funds. Some of your readers may have their own trusts, family foundations or what's called a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF). When the new tax policy went into effect under this administration, there were more opportunities for people of wealth to use that money in charitable ways that allow them tax advantages. One of those products, if you will, is a DAF that they have set up oftentimes with Fidelity. And you can think about using your DAF in ways that can support minority business ownership. For example, through Fidelity, AEO just received a $10,000 contribution from a business owner in California who wanted to support Main Street Rise. They took this money from their DAF and said specifically, 'This is to help small businesses.' "There is a program in Chicago called the Chicago Community Trust, which directs your money to help support businesses or black-owned businesses in the community. That would be a charitable contribution your readers could get a tax write-off for. So, it's just another way of thinking about what you have, generally, that can help. Related: 8 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read About Dismantling ... Related: How to Watch or Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Speeches Online The 6-Figure Esthetician: Tiara Calhoun-Smith of Sugar Suite Lounge TechMae Proves How All-Female Digital Spaces Empower Women Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Multnomah County estimates that it will need $91 million to fund its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Where will that massive sum of money come from? Thats a subject for another day, County Chair Deborah Kafoury told fellow commissioners somewhat enigmatically at the end of a budget meeting Tuesday. The commission will meet again on Thursday, by which time the county hopes it will have more information, Kafoury said. The county has been seeking more information from the City of Portland and the state as well as more cash from each of them -- given the much larger outlays of federal coronavirus funding theyve received than the states most populous county to date. Department heads from across the county, which is the primary provider of safety net and public health services in the area, shared a laundry list Tuesday of their potential coronavirus-induced expenses in the coming year. Among the highlights: Public health response: $33 million County health officials said they need $16.5 million to fund the 122 strong team of investigators the county is deploying to conduct contact tracing to locate and intervene early with new coronavirus cases. In particular, it is trying to employ culturally and linguistically appropriate tracers to best connect with black and indigenous residents and other people of color that have been affected disproportionately by the virus. Testing could cost another $5 million, with the county setting up three low-barrier no-cost sites of its own and contracting with other organizations to extend its reach. It estimates isolation and quarantine services will cost another $10.7 million for people who cant do so without assistance. It is also looking to expand behavioral health services to help residents suffering depression and anxiety at a cost of $1.3 million. Safety off and on the streets: $40 million For the citys homeless population and those who are unable to afford to isolate themselves, the county is looking to provide motel rooms, socially distanced shelter beds and other support services. Those steps would allow the county to reduce transmission among its highest risk individuals, particularly those who are aging or have underlying conditions, officials said. Its goal is to provide up to 375 motel rooms for those with highest need, at a projected cost of $22.4 million. The city of Portland, which helps fund and operate a city-county run Joint Office on Homeless Services, has expressed support for buying a couple at bargain prices rather than leasing rooms for 12 to 14 months. The county says its $40 million outlay would also be used to provide incentive pay, overtime and rental assistance to front line workers at nonprofits that help it serve the homeless and help buy personal protection equipment, food, tarps, tents, and expanded mobile medical services for county residents living on the streets. Wrap around and support services: $15 million County official say they plan to provide $10 million in rent assistance, with a goal of serving 1,100 households at an average of $1,500 a month. It also includes $1.2 million in enhanced meal services, energy assistance and case management for low-income families with children through the countys Schools Uniting Neighborhoods program and vulnerable women through its domestic and sexual violence programs. The list of needs outlined by various county departments also included $38,000 for new county issued cell phones so staff can better communicate internally and with clients. Another $30,000 would go to juvenile detention centers to provide counselors and residents with iPads and other devices to resume groups sessions and other interventions that have been disrupted during the pandemic. Commissioners asked a variety of the county department heads to provide more detail, though they didnt push back much on the broad requests. Commissioner Sharon Meieran questioned whether the county could get a bigger bang for its buck by purchasing rather than renting some of the facilities it plans to establish for isolation and homeless services, a step she noted would also allow the county to have those on hand to provide services in the future. This is one of the most expensive approaches to deal this issue, she said, adding that such an approach would be more effective, less expensive and save more lives. That continues to strike me as I see these numbers. In early May the county said it was facing a $58 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year, given falling tax revenues due to the pandemic. And officials said they expected more budget pressure due the countys unique role in responding to it. Commissioners decided against furloughs and layoffs at the time, anticipating a surge in demand for the safety net and public health services it provides. But the chair ordered an immediate 2% cut to every department. The proposed 2020-21 budget called for tapping reserves and new revenue from the Business Income Tax to close the gap. Kafoury also ordered a wage freeze for management and other non-union employees. Commissioner Lori Stegmann asked Tuesday what modeling the costs were based on and whether the numbers would change significantly based on the progress of the disease. Rachael Banks, the countys director of public health, said some of the numbers were hard estimates of what it would take to meet the governors reopening requirements. Others were based on estimates of the cost of running test sites a certain number of days per week with estimated traffic levels. And others, such as quarantine costs, were based on the countys experience with other infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, she said. So far Multnomah County has received $28 million in federal CARES Act funding out of the $1.6 billion sent to the state. The City of Portland, meanwhile, has received $114 million. The county has been making the case for some time that as the regions largest provider of services related to the pandemic, and the county with the most coronavirus cases and deaths, it should be receiving far more of that money. Its a complaint counties around the state, as well as local and federal lawmakers, have lobbed at the governor. But she has so far retained close control over the purse strings, saying the state has become a clearinghouse for many county services during the pandemic and that she wants to wait and see what costs may be reimbursable from other sources such as FEMA. Multnomah County is still the only of Oregons 36 counties awaiting the governors approval to begin Phase 1 of reopening its economy. The governor put county reopening plans on a statewide 7-day hold last week because of an increase in new infections, hospitalizations and positive test rates around the state. Those trends are mimicked in Multnomah County, though officials still maintain their reopening plan and public health response is sufficient to move forward. New hospitalization data and other health indicators will be released tomorrow, though its already clear that cases are surging in the county, where the 7-day average case count has grown fivefold since May 26. - Ted Sickinger; tsickinger@oregonian.com; 503-221-8505; @tedsickinger Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ChanceLight Behavioral Health, Therapy and Education, the nation's leading provider of behavioral health, therapy and education solutions for children and young adults, announces a new executive and three promotions within its ChanceLight Education division. Joe Pino joins as President and Chief Operating Officer and Mark DiConsiglio, Binky Jones and Sue Leuser have been promoted to Senior Vice President. ChanceLight Education operates programs nationwide and partners with school districts to offer innovative programs that provide special education; emotional, behavior and mental health supports services; alternative education and dropout prevention and recovery to students in grades Pre K-12. "As we continue to grow ChanceLight Education to serve more children, school districts and communities, having smart, dedicated leadership is critical to our future success," said ChanceLight CEO Mark Claypool. "I'm pleased to welcome Joe to our team and I congratulate our three senior vice presidents who have worked for many years to ensure our organization continues to thrive and our students reach their fullest potential." Pino, who will also serve on the Executive Management Team, is an experienced operations executive. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a finance major and economics minor from the University of Florida, and a Master of Health Administration from the university's College of Public Health and Health Professions. DiConsiglio, Jones and Leuser have been instrumental to the growth and success of the ChanceLight Education division, helping oversee operations for ChanceLight's Spectrum Center Schools and Programs and Ombudsman Educational Services. Spectrum serves children and young adults aged five to 22 who have autism spectrum disorders, developmental delays, emotional disturbances, behavioral challenges or other special needs. ChanceLight's Ombudsman Educational Services provides alternative education programs for middle and high school students who have dropped out or who are at risk of dropping out of school. DiConsiglio joined ChanceLight in 2016 as Regional Vice President of Operations for Spectrum. Since then, he has worked to ensure the successful delivery of quality education services to all the ChanceLight schools in the East Region. Previously, he served Florida's Seminole County Public Schools for 15 years. DiConsiglio holds master's (M.S.) and specialist (Ed.S.) degrees in School Psychology from Florida State University, Advanced Graduate Certificate in Educational Leadership from the University of Central Florida and is pursuing his doctorate in Educational Leadership. He is a Nationally Certified and Licensed School Psychologist and has experience consulting with school districts nationwide on the provision of special education and related services. Jones started her career with ChanceLight in 2000 as an Ombudsman Center Director for Metro Charter, one of eight Arizona schools operated by the company. She has served in several positions for Ombudsman, including Regional Vice President, Regional Manager of Arizona and Assistant Vice President of Operations. Jones is responsible for providing overall leadership, quality assurance and strategic direction for the Ombudsman Charter Schools. She has bachelor's and master's degrees of education and administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia and holds a K-12 Arizona teaching certificate in vocational education and an Arizona Principal's Certificate. She is past President and current Board Member of the Arizona Alternative Education Consortium and serves as Co-Chair for the Educational Momentum Task Force for Opportunities for Youth. Leuser joined the Ombudsman team in 1999 as a teacher and has held several management positions, including Vice President of Center Operations, Director, Regional Manager and Assistant Director of Center Operations. Leuser is responsible for providing leadership, quality assurance, managerial and administrative support for programs in 11 states, including large urban Illinois programs in Chicago and Rockford. She previously led the accreditation process for Ombudsman learning centers and served on Chicago Public Schools' Workforce Development Committee, the Educator Advisory Council for The Chicago Public Education Fund and the Chicago Student Support Initiative Committees. Leuser earned a bachelor's degree in education from the Pennsylvania State University and holds a certificate as a school improvement specialist from the University of Nebraska. More about ChanceLight ChanceLight is the nation's leading provider of behavioral health, therapy and education solutions for children and young adults. We change the direction of children's lives by offering them the opportunity to create successful, independent futures. ChanceLight serves nearly 19,000 clients and students each year at more than 150 locations in more than 20 states. We work with children and young adults who have special needs, or who have autism spectrum and other behavioral disorders; infants, children and young adults who have complex medical and developmental needs; and middle- and high school students who have dropped out of school or are at risk of dropping out. Media Contact: Robin Embry, Lovell Communications Inc. [email protected] SOURCE ChanceLight Behavioral Health, Therapy and Education Related Links http://chancelight.com YEREVAN, 17 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 17 June, USD exchange rate down by 0.94 drams to 480.33 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 5.77 drams to 539.51 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.02 drams to 6.88 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 6.96 drams to 602.09 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price up by 93.48 drams to 26559.59 drams. Silver price up by 4.50 drams to 268.86 drams. Platinum price up by 392.90 drams to 12709.56 drams. P olice are hunting for a man who launched a violent and unprovoked attack in the City which left the victim in hospital needing brain surgery. The assault happened in February as the victim - a man in his 60s - took an early morning walk along Bread Street, near to St Pauls Cathedral, City of London Police said. He was knocked out with a flurry of punches and kicks in the random attack, with the attacker kicking the victim twice in the head as he lay prone on the ground. In a bid to catch the attacker, police have today released pictures of the suspect, wearing a distinctive shirt and believed to have a Scottish accent, who was captured on CCTV after the brutal assault. The suspect in this random attack is clearly an extremely violent individual and it is important we identify him as soon as possible, said PC Yusuf Meerza from City of London Police. An image has been released of the suspect in the attack / City of London Police He is believed to have a Scottish accent and was wearing a distinct chequered jacket on the day of the attack. The attack happened at around 5.45am on February 6, and PC Meerza said CCTV was used to track the suspect as he left Bread Street and went to catch a train. We have followed him on CCTV to City Thameslink station where he has boarded a train on platform one at 0605hrs with the end destination of Bedford, he said. The suspect has alighted at St Pancras and headed towards Euston Road where he is then lost from view. He was wearing a distinct chequered jacket If you recognise the man in the images released today, please get in touch. Anyone with information can contact police on 0207 601 2999 quoting reference 20*70149 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. EMERYVILLE, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cuberg, Inc. today announced that its innovative electric aviation battery technology demonstrated an exceptional combination of specific energy, specific power, and cycle life in an independent testing and verification process conducted by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy. The results, including up to 80% increase in specific energy relative to Li-ion cells of comparable high-power output, represent a major step forward in the performance and maturity of battery technology for the future of electric mobility. While the global market for batteries to power electric mobility is expected to reach $300B per year by 20301, increasing power demands are driving Li-ion battery technology to its physical limits on performance and safety. Cuberg's batteries, based on its breakthrough lithium metal technology, are optimally designed for successful commercialization. The batteries deliver greatly increased range and capacity with competitive cost of ownership under realistic operating conditions. In addition, Cuberg's batteries use a non-flammable proprietary electrolyte that provides substantial safety advantages over Li-ion batteries. Critically, Cuberg has achieved these industry-leading results in a pouch cell using technology that capitalizes on the scale and quality of the existing Li-ion manufacturing ecosystem. These strengths will ultimately allow Cuberg to bring next-gen batteries to the automotive market, delivering significant improvements in range and cost while preserving the substantial deployed capital base of Li-ion manufacturing. "Cuberg's mission is to deliver next-gen batteries to power the rise of electric mobility, and an essential part of our strategy is to achieve independent verification and transparency of our results," said Richard Wang, co-founder and CEO of Cuberg. "We are gratified to receive this verification by INL of the industry-leading performance and reliability of our technology, and excited to be working with our customers to begin full-scale flight testing in their aircrafts in the next year." Three key battery performance measures need to be optimized in balance for successful aviation commercialization: specific energy, which allows for longer flight times and ranges at a given weight; specific power output, which enables greater aircraft weights and payload capacity; and cycle life, which impacts cost of ownership. INL's testing on Cuberg's 5-Ah (amp-hour) battery cells indicated specific energy of 369 Wh/kg, specific power of 2,000 W/kg, and 370 cycles with C/2 charging before the cells reached end of life at an 80% capacity cut-off. Batteries providing in excess of 350 Wh/kg of specific energy represent a critical threshold for the electric aviation market. Cuberg is the first company to successfully combine this level of energy with high power and competitive cycle life under realistic operating conditions. Full testing results can be seen here . "The delivery of highly efficient, cost-effective and safe battery technology at scale is essential to enable the future of electric mobility," said Liangbing Hu, the Herbert Rabin Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Materials Innovation, Materials Science, and Engineering at the University of Maryland. "Passing the 350 Wh/kg threshold under realistic operating conditions is an important advancement and an impressive achievement." About Cuberg Founded in 2015 to power the rise of electric mobility, Cuberg delivers breakthrough battery technology that provides major performance gains, low capital costs and low-risk, standard manufacturing processes to customers building the next generation of electric mobility solutions, from the aerospace industry to the automotive industry. The company has secured $10M in funding to date from Boeing HorizonX Ventures, the California Energy Commission, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, CalSEED, and the U.S. Army. For more information please visit www.cuberg.net . Press Contact James Cortese Gryphon Agency for Cuberg [email protected] 1 A Vision for a Sustainable Battery Value Chain in 2030, World Economic Forum SOURCE Cuberg Related Links https://www.cuberg.net/ Through these detailed interviews we hope to give some of the laws greatest champions an opportunity to share details with us about their work fighting for civil rights across a spectrum of experiences. M. Wright Full Court Press, an imprint of Fastcase, today announced a free webinar series in partnership with legal history publisher Twelve Tables Press. The Leaders in Law monthly webinar series will feature interviews with notable attorneys who are advancing civil rights in the United States and across the world. We are excited to join together with Twelve Tables Press and this group of astoundingly accomplished attorneys and authors to share intimate conversations about their works legacy and ongoing impact, said Full Court Press Publisher Morgan Morrissette Wright. Through these detailed interviews we hope to give some of the laws greatest champions an opportunity to share details with us about their work fighting for civil rights across a spectrum of experiences. The first live webinar in the series, The Legacy of Lawrence v. Texas, will kick off on June 26th from 12-1pm ET. The featured Leaders in Law will be Mitchell Avila Katine and Paul Smith discussing their involvement in the landmark privacy law case that Smith argued before the Supreme Court. Future webinar topics and featured individuals will include: The Global #MeToo Movement, an interview with David Oppenheimer and Contributors Breaking New Ground, an interview with Judge Thelton Henderson and Richard B. Kuhns With Passion, An Activist Lawyers Life with Michael Meltsner AILA Presents 35 years later, Jean v. Nelson an interview with Ira Kurzban and Irwin Stotzky No Clue: Awakening to White American Affirmative Action and The Moral Revolution to Overcome It, an interview with Jonathan K. Stubbs This webinar series puts a spotlight on the important work that is being done around us daily, but sometimes is not recognized, said Vice President of Alliances & Business Development Joe Patz Vineyard. The Leaders in Law programs are our opportunity to continue important discussions on a range of topics including racial injustice, LGBTQ rights, gender discrimination, immigration, and more. As a legal research provider, Fastcase is uniquely positioned to ask the question, what is next, and how do we keep fighting for equality in America and globally? The project will involve the wider Fastcase team and incorporate friends of Fastcase including membership partners, law schools, firms, and non-profit organizations. Theres no better time to hear from those who fight the civil rights fight and have taken these legal steps before us, noted Twelve Tables Press Publisher and Fastcase COO, Steve Errick. To register for the Leaders in Law webinar series, sign up at https://www.fastcase.com/blog/leaders-in-law-webinar-series-from-fastcase/ About Twelve Tables Press: Twelve Tables Press is a legal trade press featuring leading attorneys and their individual impact on the legal community. Twelve Tables Press is co-owned by Steve Errick, a legal industry publisher and Chief Operation Officer of Fastcase, Larry Selby, a former American Law Media (ALM) Vice President of Research Solutions, and Jay Tidmarsh, a Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. About Fastcase Fastcase is a leading legal publisher that democratizes the law, making it more accessible to more people. Fastcase is a comprehensive research suite of primary law, treatises, legal blogs, analytics, workflow tools, and legal news. Founded in 1999, the service has more than 900,000 subscribers from around the world. Fastcase is an American company based in Washington, D.C. For more information, follow Fastcase on Twitter at @Fastcase or visit fastcase.com. [June 17, 2020] Author & Top SaaS Entrepreneur, Russell Brunson, Tops Best-Selling Lists After "Traffic Secrets" Launch BOISE, Idaho, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Russell Brunson , renowned online marketer, public speaker, and co-CEO of ClickFunnels , tops best-selling lists after selling 60,000 copies of Traffic Secrets, an underground playbook that applies to all entrepreneurs, in its first few weeks. Since its launch, Traffic Secrets achieved the below rankings in best-selling Books categories: #1 in Marketing for Small Businesses (Amazon) #1 in E-commerce Professional (Amazon) #1 in Customer Relations (Amazon) #5 in Overall Best-Sellers (Barnes & Noble) Traffic Secrets includes tactics for implementing and applying winning strategies to boost business exposure and audience. It's the third in his marketing trilogy, which includes USA Today and Amazon best-selling books Dot Com Secrets (2015) and Expert Secrets (2017). "If you have an existing business, then Traffic Secrets is like throwing gasoline on the fire," says Daniel Rosen, founder and CEO of Credit Repair Cloud. Similarly, Natalie Hodson, owner and president of NAH, Inc., applauds the book's application to business: "What's cool about Traffic Secrets is that the principes are universal," said Hodson. "They will help you to build your social media platforms and learn the psychology of sales!" The 256-page book provides readers with entrepreneurial insight from one of the world's top online marketers, and 24 actionable modules detailing how to get online traffic from multiple channels. Over the past 15 years, Brunson has built a following of more than a million entrepreneurs, popularized the concept of sales funnels, and co-founded ClickFunnels , one of the world's fastest-growing SaaS companies designed to help entrepreneurs get their message out to the marketplace. "This is the step-by-step playbook for how Russell [Brunson] grew ClickFunnels. If you are doing any type of marketing, you need to get this book," said Joe Marfoglio, creator of DIY Entrepreneur. Traffic Secrets is available in hardcover (Barnes & Noble: $26.99; Amazon: $19.49) and digital ($0.99) editions at large booksellers including Amazon and Barnes & Noble . For more information on ClickFunnels, visit clickfunnels.com . About Russell Brunson: Russell Brunson started his first online company while he was wrestling in college. Within a year of graduation, he had sold over a million dollars of his own products and services from his basement. Over the past 15 years, he has built a following of over a million entrepreneurs, sold hundreds of thousands of copies of his books, popularized the concept of sales funnels, and co-founded the software company ClickFunnels, which has helped 100,000+ entrepreneurs quickly get their message out to the marketplace. He lives in Idaho with his family, and you can visit him online at russellbrunson.com About ClickFunnels: Co-founded by Russell Brunson & Todd Dickerson, ClickFunnels' online sales and marketing software is a simple-to-use, all-in-one marketing solution for entrepreneurs and business owners who want to market their services and products online. ClickFunnels is one of the world's fastest-growing, non-VC-backed companies. Since its inception in September 2014, the company has generated more than $250 million in sales and helped over 100,000 everyday people become successful entrepreneurs and marketing masters through its software, resources, and trainings. ClickFunnels was named: the "Best Entrepreneurial Company in America" by Entrepreneur's Entrepreneur360 list (#1, 2019); one of "America's Fastest-Growing Privately-Held Companies" by Inc.'s Inc. 500 list (#76, 2018 and #440, 2019); one of "America's Best Startup Employers" by Forbes (#205, 2020). For more information, visit clickfunnels.com . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/author--top-saas-entrepreneur-russell-brunson-tops-best-selling-lists-after-traffic-secrets-launch-301078967.html SOURCE ClickFunnels [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Face masks are thought to slow the spread of viruses, including the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but little is known about how well they work. In an issue of Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis, from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, use precise computer models to map out the expected flow patterns of small droplets released when a mask-wearing person coughs repeatedly. Previous work from this research group showed droplets of saliva can travel 18 feet in five seconds when an unmasked person coughs. This new work used an extended model to consider the effect of face masks and multiple cycles of coughing. The results show masks can reduce airborne droplet transmission. However, the filtering efficiency of masks is adversely affected by repeated coughing, as might happen when an individual is ill. Repeated coughs reduce the efficiency, letting many more droplets through. The model was created using complex mathematical equations for turbulence and other flow effects. A sequence of coughs was modeled by applying several cycles of forward-directed velocity pulses to the initial droplets. The researchers performed numerical simulations that account for droplet interactions with the porous filter in a surgical mask. The results are alarming. Even when a mask is worn, some droplets can travel a considerable distance, up to 1 meter, during periods of mild coughing. Without a mask, droplets travel twice as far, however, so wearing a mask will help. A mask also decreases the number of droplets that leak out the side of the mask but fails to eliminate it entirely. These calculations also revealed an effect on the droplet size due to turbulent flow encountering the mask, escaping and entering the environment. The droplet sizes change and fluctuate continuously during cough cycles as a result of several interactions with the mask and face." Dimitris Drikakis, University of Nicosia in Cyprus Dbouk explained how droplet sizes might change. "Masks decrease the droplet accumulation during repeated cough cycles," Dbouk said. "However, it remains unclear whether large droplets or small ones are more infectious." "The use of a mask will not provide complete protection," Drikakis said. "Therefore, social distancing remains essential." For health care workers, the investigators recommend much more complete personal protective equipment, including helmets with built-in air filters, face shields, disposable gowns and double sets of gloves. The investigators also urge manufacturers and regulatory authorities to consider new criteria for assessing mask performance that account for flow physics and cough dynamics. They also proposed a new criterion for mask performance assessment. Protesters Mark Hong Kong's 'Two Million March' as Lam Defends Subversion Law 2020-06-16 -- Protesters gathered in parks, malls, and other public places in Hong Kong on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of a two-million-strong mass protest, as the city's leader hit out at widespread opposition to a draconian national security law. Around 100 people gathered at the International Financial Center, shouting "Free Hong Kong! Revolution now!" and displaying placards. Some waved a blue-and-white flag representing an "independent Hong Kong," an idea that is anathema to Beijing. A protester surnamed Ng said she was there to mark the two-million march on June 16, 2019. "I think that day was a big awakening for Hong Kong, when people realized they would have to really fight for their freedoms," Ng said. "[The death of] Marco Leung woke up a lot of Hongkongers too." "Everyone feels they should take the risks that they are able to take, and turn out when they can," she said. A protester surnamed Leung said protesters want to keep up their defense of the city's freedoms. "We need to keep this up," Leung said. "The [ruling] Chinese Communist Party has been cracking down on Hong Kong." "I think that Hong Kong independence is the only solution." Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam warned on Tuesday that people who seek to "demonize" Beijing's planned sedition and subversion law for the city are "making themselves the enemy" of the majority of the people. "I call on those who have done everything they can in recent days to smear and demonize this [legislation] to stop, because they are making themselves the enemy of the majority of Hong Kong people," Lam said. 'Subversive, seditious' Beijing has said it will impose national security legislation targeting "actions and activities" deemed subversive, seditious, instigated by foreign forces, or supportive of independence, on the city. In a move widely condemned by foreign governments and rights groups as signaling the end of Hong Kong's autonomy and status as a separate legal jurisdiction, the law will be imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, bypassing Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LegCo). The move has been widely criticized by foreign governments as being in breach of China's obligations under the 1984 treaty governing the 1997 handover of Hong Kong, and as paving the way for further political prosecutions of peaceful critics of the government, democracy campaigners, and rights activists. In her comments on Tuesday, Lam repeated Beijing's claim that the move was made necessary by months of street protests and clashes sparked by her own plans to allow extradition to mainland China. Lam withdrew that legal amendment after months of protest, but pro-democracy politicians and activists say new law will further erode the city's promised freedoms of expression and association, as it will allow China's feared state security police to operate in Hong Kong, a move which was explicitly banned by the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law. "Hong Kong society has experienced some great upheavals in recent years, and there have been a number of clear threats to national security and Hong Kong's security that have emerged since June last year," Lam said. "We want to find a way back to stability, and plug some legal loopholes in the national security situation," she said. "That is why we are bringing in this legislation, and a system for its enforcement." Law's details unclear But Lam said she couldn't comment in detail on the content of the law, nor which "actions and activities" would be regarded as seditious or subversion, or as harming China's national security. "Only a handful of people who commit acts that violate or endanger national security [will be affected]," Lam said. She listed "splitting the country, subversion of state power, organizing terrorist activities and foreign forces interfering in Hong Kong's affairs" as the main behaviors targeted by the law. Chinese officials have already singled out advocating independence for the city -- expressed as "splitting the country" -- as a threat to national security, while groups or activists with overseas funding or connections could also be targeted, as they have been in mainland China under similar laws. Chinese and Hong Kong officials have commented in recent months that front-line protesters, who have fought back against thousands of canisters of tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition, chemically treated water cannon, pepper spray, and batons with petrol bombs, bricks, and other projectiles, are engaging in "terrorist" activities. It is unclear exactly which activities might constitute "subversion of state power," but such charges are routinely used to target peaceful critics of the ruling party in mainland China, including journalists, rights activists, lawyer, and public intellectuals. Lam said the legislation wouldn't affect the rule of law in Hong Kong, judicial independence, nor the "high degree of autonomy" promised as part of the handover arrangements. Reported by Lau Siu-fung for RFA's 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 ALBANY Supporters of Mohammed Hossain, the Albany pizza maker who went to federal prison for nearly 15 years after being caught up in a 2004 anti-terrorism sting orchestrated by the FBI, came together Tuesday night to welcome him home. Appearing in a Made in America T-shirt emblazoned with an American flag, Hossain, who was freed this month from the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., thanked his supporters who brought him a giant card and pizza to his Sherman Street home. "Your value cannot compare," said Hossain to the crowd of about 25 people. "I always pray for you. My heart goes to you." Hossain was released after his federal prison term was reduced to time served. He was scheduled to officially end his sentence on July 18, although he was released by Senior U.S. Judge Thomas McAvoy in a June 8 decision for medical reasons amid the coronavirus pandemic. Hossain, now home in Albany with his wife and the younger of his six children, will be under three years of supervised release, reporting to a federal probation officer as needed. Among his supporters, who always felt that Hossain was unjustly imprisoned, was Carl Strock, retired Daily Gazette columnist who followed the arrest and trial. "In 30 years at the Gazette and all the terrible things I covered, crime and corruption and injustices, this one was far and away the worst," Strock said. "It was an absolute travesty. It was an unfortunate spillover from 9/11, when the government under President George Bush was eager to catch terrorist." Lynne Jackson, who is a member of the Muslim Solidarity Committee and the Capital District Coalition Against Islamophobia, said she wanted to welcome Hossain home and assure him the community supports him and his family. "It was outrageous how the government goes after people without a crime happening," Jackson said. "I'm really happy he's home, but the problem is, he should have never spent a day in prison." Hossain was convicted with mosque leader Yassin Aref of being part of a fake money-laundering scheme orchestrated by FBI informant Shahed Hussain, who posed as a wealthy businessman. The informant enlisted the help of Hossain and Aref in a fake plot to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat in New York City. The trial took place in Albany in 2006 with FBI informant Hussain as the star witness. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Hossain's supporters have insisted that he and Aref were entrapped by a fake terrorism plot that they did not fully understand. They claim the two were unfairly manipulated by Hussain, who they say was an unscrupulous FBI informant who committed perjury during his court testimony on behalf of the government. Hussain, a motel and limo operator who is now living in Pakistan, was the owner of the stretch Ford Excursion involved in the 2018 limo crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people. He also worked as an undercover informant for the FBI, participating in anti-terrorism stings in Albany and Newburgh in which Hussain convinced defendants to participate in fake terrorism plots with promises of money and gifts. Aref was released from prison in October 2018 and was voluntarily deported to his native Iraq. When asked what Hossain is looking forward to, he said justice. "I was an innocent man, never been arrested, never done any wrongdoing," Hossain said. "My beloved country targeted me and threw me in jail for nothing. ... I came to this land for better life. I didn't come to this land to hurt nobody. I respect and love everybody." (TNS) COVID-19 hospitalizations in Tennessee have increased by 30 percent since early June, driven largely by rising case numbers and hospitalizations in the Chattanooga and Memphis regions, according to a new study released Tuesday.The report from faculty researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine found that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reached its highest level to date on Monday, June 15, when more than 400 patients were hospitalized across Tennessee.The largest increases were in the Memphis Delta region and Southeast Tennessee around Chattanooga, according to the report.The Tennessee Department of Health reported an additional 40 hospitalized patients on Tuesday, June 16, for a total of 448 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in the state. Although the state's health systems have handled the volumes of COVID-19 patients thus far, authors of the report said the noteworthy increase underscores how quickly hospitalizations can swell.Vanderbilt's projections indicate that if current case trends continue, the state may see days with 1,000 or more COVID-19 hospitalizations at the same time in July or August. That scenario assumes that 95 percent of cases are mild enough to avoid hospitalization, and that 0.7 percent of infected cases result in death."The rise in hospitalizations is as much about the virus expanding its footprint into additional areas of the state as it is about hospitalizations increasing in facilities that were already treating COVID-19 patients," John Graves, associate professor of health policy and director of the Center for Health Economic Modeling at Vanderbilt, said in a news release.The report highlights Chattanooga as a region of newly rising case numbers and hospitalizations.On Tuesday, Rae Bond, chairwoman of the local COVID-19 Task Force, said there were 57 coronavirus patients at the area's hospital systems, which include Memorial, Erlanger and Parkridge in Chattanooga, as well as Tennova in Cleveland, Tennessee, and Hamilton in Dalton, Georgia. She said that total is down from the region's high of 64 patients.The Hamilton County Health Department on Tuesday reported 44 COVID-19 hospitalizations (including 14 in the intensive care unit or ICU). That's down from a record-high 53 (including 22 in ICU) last week.The county also added 52 new cases Tuesday for a total of 1,941 cases 983 active cases, 936 recovered and 22 deaths since the pandemic began.On Monday, Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said it's important to remember that the county's hospital data includes patients from outside the region. He also said that the county's hospitals are not currently overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.On the other hand, Memphis has seen a steady rise in the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, as well as patients requiring intensive care and ventilators. Nashville's hospitalizations have remained below their height in early May, according to the Vanderbilt report.Researchers attributed these differences to the Memphis population being at higher risk for serious COVID-19 infection, compared to Nashville, which has a younger, more healthy population in general.Another potential reason for the rise in hospitalizations is that patients from neighboring states come to Tennessee for medical care, which is especially relevant to Memphis and Chattanooga, researchers said."While our data do not contain information on home residence of hospitalized COVID- 19 patients, we can use historical hospitalization data to get a sense of how many out-of-state patients may be in Tennessee hospitals. If historical hospital use patterns apply to COVID-19 patients, we estimate that approximately 10-15 percent of COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Tennessee may be from neighboring states," the report states.Bond said area hospitals are going to start differentiating how many people of the COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Hamilton County are residents from outside counties, but that data is not now available publicly. Chinese newspaper Global Times reports that the military exercise featured various types of combat in the Nianqing Tanggula, or Nyenchen Tonglha mountains at an elevation of 4,700 meters. China has recently conducted joint exercises keeping in mind the high-elevation mountainous region, The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Tibet Military Command said on Tuesday. This revelation come after a violent clash broke in the Galwan Valley region out at the China-India border on Monday. According to the Global Times, the exercise that featured multiple types of combat recently took place in the Nianqing Tanggula, or Nyenchen Tonglha mountains at an elevation of 4,700 meters. Issuing a statement on the clash, India has said that a violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. Read also: India China Standoff News Today: Chinese commanding officer among those killed in Galwan valley face-off: Sources Read also: Paks top army brass visit ISI headquarters, discuss regional security issues including LOC We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi discussed the situation on the India-China border, the spokesperson further said. During the faceoff, the External Affairs Ministry said, both sides suffered casualties and the Chinese side had departed from the consensus to respect the LAC in the Galway Valley. Read also: US Journalist Tom Rogan calls Chinese aggression a provocation against Indian nationalist tiger For all the latest World News, download NewsX App A joint research team from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Institute of Physics at Chinese Academy of Science, Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Beihang University in Beijing and Fudan University in Shanghai, has provided a successful example of modern era quantum material research. By means of the state-of-art quantum many-body simulations, performed on the world's fastest supercomputers (Tianhe-I and Tianhe-III protype at National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin and Tianhe-II at National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou), they achieved accurate model calculations for a rare-earth magnet TmMgGaO4 (TMGO). They found that the material, under the correct temperature regime, could realise the the long-sought-after two-dimensional topological Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) phase, which completed the pursuit of identifying the KT physics in quantum magnetic materials for half a century. The research work has been published in Nature Communications. Quantum materials are becoming the cornerstone of the continuous prosperity of human society. From the next-generation AI computing chips that go beyond Moore's law (the law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles about every two years, our PCs and smartphones are all based on the success of it. Nevertheless, as the size of the transistors are becoming smaller to the scale of nanometer, the behaviour of electrons are subject to quantum mechanics, Moore's law is expected to breakdown very soon), to the high speed Maglev train and the topological unit for quantum computers, investigations along these directions all belong to the arena of quantum material research. However, such research is by no means easy. The difficulty lies in the fact that scientists have to solve the millions of thousands of the electrons in the material in a quantum mechanical way (hence quantum materials are also called quantum many-body systems), this is far beyond the time of paper and pencil, and requires instead modern quantum many-body computational techniques and advanced analysis. Thanks to the fast development of the supercomputing platforms all over the world, scientists and engineers are now making great use of these computation facilities and advanced mathematical tools to discover better materials to benefit our society. The research is inspired by the KT phase theory avocated by J Michael Kosterlitz, David J Thouless and F Duncan M Haldane, laureates of the Nobel Prize in Phyiscs 2016. They were awarded for their theoretical discoveries of topological phase and phase transitions of matter. Topology is a new way of classifying and predicting the properties of materials in condensed matter physics, and is now becoming the main stream of quantum material research and industry, with broad potential applications in quantum computing, lossless transmission of signals for information technology, etc. Back in the 1970s, Kosterlitz and Thouless had predicted the existence of topological phase, hence named after them as the KT phase, in quantum magnetic materials. However, although such phenomena have been found in superfluids and superconductors, KT phase has yet been realised in bulk magnetic material. The joint team is led by Dr Zi Yang Meng from HKU, Dr Wei Li from Beihang Univeristy and Professor Yang Qi from Fudan University. Their joint effort has revealed the comprehensive properties of the material TMGO. For example, in Figure 2, by self-adjustable tensor network calculation, they computed the properties of the model system at different temperatures, magnetic field, and by comparing with the corresponding experimental results of the material, they identified the correct microscopic model parameters. With the correct microscopic model on hand, they then performed quantum Monte Carlo simulation and obtained the neutron scattering magnetic spectra at different temperatures (neutron scattering is the established detection method for material structure and their magnetic properties, the closest such facility to Hong Kong is the China Spallation Neutron Source in Dongguan, Guangdong). As shown in Figure 3, the magnetic spectra with its unique signature at the M point is the dynamical fingerprint of the topological KT phase that has been proposed more than half-a-century ago. This research work provides the missing piece of topological KT phenomena in the bulk magnetic materials, and has completed the half-a-century pursuit which eventually leads to the Nobel Physics Prize of 2016. Since the topological phase of matter is the main theme of condensed matter and quantum material research nowadays, it is expected that this work will inspire many follow-up theoretical and experimental researches, and in fact, promising results for further identification of the topological properties in quantum magnet have been obtained among the joint team and our collaborators, said Dr Meng. Dr Meng added: The joint team research across Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai also sets up the protocol of modern quantum material research, such protocol will certainly lead to more profound and impactful discoveries in quantum materials. The computation power of our smartphone nowadays is more powerful than the supercomputers 20 years ago, one can optimistically foresee that with the correct quantum material as the building block, personal devices in 20 years' time can certainly be more powerful than the fastest supercomputers right now, with minimal energy cost of everyday battery. ### About the team Dr Zi Yang Meng is the world leading expert in developing and employing large scale quantum Monte Carlo simulation upon quantum many-body systems, and have recently made breakthrough in quantum metal research (Breakthrough in Understanding Quantum Metals: https:/ / www. hku. hk/ research/ stories/ 20645/ ); Dr Wei Li is the developer of state-of-art tensor network approach that could compute the temperature and magnetic field response of quantum many-body systems; Professor Yang Qi performed the quantum field theory analysis of the numerical results and make sense of it all. About the Tianhe Supercomputers Tianhe-1 and Tianhe-2 are the large supercomputers in China, they are among the world fastest supercomputer and were the No.1 in 2010 and 2014 in the TOP500 list https:/ / www. top500. org/ . Tianhe-3 supercomputer is expected to be in usage in 2021 and will be world first exaFLOPS scale supercomputer. The quantum Monte Carlo and tensor network simulations performed by the joint team make use of the Tianhe supercomputers and requires the parallel simulations for thousands of hours on thousands of CPUs, it will take more than 20 years to finish if performed in common PC. The work was supported by the Research Grants Council of HKSAR, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the National Science Foundation of China. The joint team would in particular like to thank the Computational Initiative at the Faculty of Science and the Information Technology Services at the University of Hong Kong, for their understanding, support and promotion of the large-scale computational oriented researches. Link of journal paper: https:/ / www. nature. com/ articles/ s41467-020-14907-8 Images download and captions: https:/ / www. scifac. hku. hk/ press We live in a post-truth world. And the crazy part is, what I just said doesnt need to be true, you just need to believe it. Consider any squabble about racism, sexuality, social security payments, character assessments of a rich actor, taxing the billionaire, and educational strategies for local schools If the rhetoric is persuasive enough, we dont care if its true, well run with it. Im not going to try to convince you what Im saying right now is objectively true. Consider the facts for yourself. Can you handle the truth? In the 1992 film A Few Good Men, Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), a US military lawyer, seeks to defend two US marines from being charged with murdering another marine. Theres that powerful scene where the colonel (Jack Nicholson) is being drilled in the courtroom by the young lawyer on whether he ordered the code red. The lawyer says forthrightly, Its the truth! The colonel bellows out with anger, You cant handle the truth! I think Jack Nicholson is right. We cant handle the truth. Picture yourself on social media making an angry assertion about something, and then someone provides some evidence for you that shows that you were wrong. Tell me right now - do you back down straight away and admit you were wrong? Most social media engagement Ive seen says that your pride is more important than the truth. Wed prefer to hold on to what we now know is false, than admit we were wrong. We cant handle the truth. The truth can cause a shake-up of what we think is right. Our pride can take a beating, and were not often willing to humbly admit we got the facts wrong. Take for example someone who says, Jesus Christ is just a fairy-tale, an absolute fairy-tale. What a load of rubbish! Then someone replies with, But, Jesus Christ did in fact walk the earth. Hes not a fairy-tale. You might not agree that he is who he says he is, but he did in fact live and breathe on earth. Do you think that person is going to alter their thoughts? Maybe. We can remain hopeful. I suggest this person prefers to live in a post-truth bubble than confront the inadequacies of their own thought processes. How do I look? Let me give you a scenario. You and your partner are about to head off to an incredible evening of fine-dining for the annual regional business function. After some time of waiting, your partner walks into the lounge room and asks, Do I look good in this dress? Now, if thats the husband whos meant to be wearing a tuxedo, you probably have a problem. If its the wife and she looks stunning, you simply reply with, You look amazing, darling. Though, what if the wife just doesnt look great in that dress? Be prepared Im a firm believer in truth. If I didnt steal the cookie from the cookie jar, I dont like to be accused that I did. The struggle I have, is living in a world where there seems to be an inclination to simply find thoughts/ideas/statements that perpetuate someones own preconceived ideas without a willingness to be challenged by alternate views. This post-truth world is difficult to navigate through when ideas are held up as true if someone says it passionately enough. Give someone a megaphone for long enough and youre bound to find someone begin to follow. For the Christian, we hold to the truth we understand about Christ and who he is and what hes done for humanity. These words from 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 2-5 highlight the point, Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encouragewith great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. This post-truth world means we will need to have great patience. We will need to humble ourselves, deal with our pride and learn to use careful instruction. We must keep our head in all situations. Because the reality is We cant handle the truth! The government will, however, be allowed to export surplus quantities that exceed domestic needs, based on assessment by the countrys medical supply authority Egypt will extend a ban on exporting face masks and infection prevention supplies for a further three months, the trade and industry ministry said on Wednesday, in a bid aimed to prevent shortages amid the coronavirus outbreak. The country first imposed a three-month ban in March, which was due to expire this week. The new decision is aimed to provide the needs of Egyptian citizens and medical institutions for these products in light of precautionary measures put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the ministry said. The government will, however, be allowed to export surplus quantities that exceed domestic needs, based on assessment by the countrys medical supply authority in coordination with the ministry, it said in a statement. Wednesdays decision will come in effect as of the date of its publishing in the countrys official gazette, the ministry added. Egypt has made wearing facemasks in public mandatory since 30 May, with violators facing fines of up to EGP 4,000 ($247). Since the outbreak of the global pandemic, Egypt has sent millions of face masks in planes filled with medical aid to other countries to help them through the crisis, including Italy, China, the United States, and several African countries. The government said on Tuesday it would start offering 40 million reusable cloth face masks for sale via subsidy cards at a price of EGP 6 each starting July 1. Search Keywords: Short link: iStock/M_MUC1968(DETROIT) -- BY: IVAN PEREIRA Michigan's attorney general said her office intends to review the 2014 case of a black man who died while being apprehended by mall security officers, after protesters shined new light on the incident in recent weeks. Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on Tuesday evening that the Southfield Police Department and Oakland County Prosecutor made a request for her office to review the incident that led to McKenzie Cochran's death while he was being detained in the now-closed Northland Mall. His detainment by three white mall security officers, which reminded many of George Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis, was captured on video but didn't result in any criminal charges. A mall employee called security after Cochran allegedly caused a disturbance in a store, according to reports. Mall cops pepper-sprayed the 25-year-old and pinned him on the ground, with one officer putting his leg on Cochran's back, according to the video. Cochran is heard in the video screaming, "I can't breathe!" And one of the officers is heard responding, "If you can talk, you can breathe." Cochran went limp and died shortly thereafter. An autopsy report determined his cause of death was "positional asphyxia," according to investigators. Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper chose not charge the mall officers at the time. Cooper said in a statement to ABC Detroit affiliate WXYZ on June 11 that her office reviewed all evidence in the incident and consulted with the Justice Department before making that decision. "In the interest of justice, we consulted with an expert, referred by the Justice Department, who also reviewed the case, and came to the conclusion that while the guards were negligent, they were not criminally negligent," the statement read. During recent protests, activists outside the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office have demanded she reopen the case. Some called for Cooper to be voted out of office, according to WXYZ. The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office didn't immediately return messages to ABC News seeking comment after Nessel's announcement. "If the evidence warrants additional action, we will make efforts to ensure justice is served," Nessel said in a statement. Gerald Thurswell, an attorney representing Cochran's family, told ABC News the victim's family is happy the case is under a new review. He said that at the very least, the officers involved should have been charged with manslaughter. "Those officers," he told ABC News, "need to be held accountable." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Saudi Arabia has approved dexamethasone to treat critically ill coronavirus patients following a promising study on the drug in the United Kingdom, the kingdoms state-run news reported Wednesday. A trial run by the University of Oxford found that the drug, a low-dose steroid used to treat inflammation, reduced the death rate among COVID-19 patients on ventilators by about 35%. The researchers estimate 5,000 lives could have been spared had the UK used the drug at the start of its outbreak. The results, published Tuesday, prompted the UK government to approve the use of dexamethasone, which costs roughly $6 for a 10-day treatment. The World Health Organization urged caution over dexamethasone and noted the findings, although very significant, were the result of just one study. According to the Saudi Press Agency, the Health Ministry has begun to administer the drug to patients in need of oxygen in intensive care units. Saudi Arabia has registered more than 141,000 confirmed cases, of which 1,091 have died. Only Iran and Turkey have recorded more infections in the Middle East. After relaxing restrictions last month, the Saudi government recently reimposed a curfew and other measures in Jeddah following a spike in cases in the Red Sea city. Saudi authorities are also reportedly considering canceling the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Later, both India and China issued statements saying they have agreed to de-escalate of the situation on the ground. New Delhi: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Wednesday told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that the unprecedented clash in Galwan Valley was pre-meditated, planned action against Indian soldiers that will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship. He asked China to take corrective steps during a phone conversation in which both the countries accused the troops of the other side of provoking and initiating the clash. Later, both India and China issued statements saying they have agreed to de-escalate of the situation on the ground. During his phone conversation with Wang, Jaishankar reportedly said that the Chinese troops sought to erect a structure in Galwan valley on the Indian side of the LAC, thereby trying to change the status quo, adding that after this became a dispute, the Chinese troops took pre-meditated and planned action against Indian soldiers that resulted in violence and casualties. But the Chinese foreign minister reportedly hit back, accusing Indian troops of first attacking the Chinese PLA and demanded that the Indian side conduct a thorough investigation into the matter, severely punish those responsible, and strictly control the (Indian) frontline troops. Wang also warned New Delhi not to underestimate Chinas firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty. Eventually, both the foreign ministers agreed that the situation would be handled in a responsible manner and to implement the disengagement understanding of June 6 sincerely, adding that neither side would take any action to escalate matters. In a statement, New Delhi said, The external affairs minister (EAM Jaishankar)... conveyed the protest of the Government of India in the strongest terms on the violent face-off in Galwan Valley on 15 June 2020... the Chinese side sought to erect a structure in Galwan valley on our side of the LAC. While this became a source of dispute, the Chinese side took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties. It reflected an intent to change the facts on ground in violation of all our agreements to not change the status quo. The MEA added, The EAM underlined that this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship. The need of the hour was for the Chinese side to reassess its actions and take corrective steps... At the conclusion of the discussion, it was agreed that the overall situation would be handled in a responsible manner, and both sides would implement the disengagement understanding of 6 June sincerely. Neither side would take any action to escalate matters and instead, ensure peace and tranquillity as per bilateral agreements and protocols. In its version of the conversation, the Chinese foreign ministry stated, Wang Yi said that on the evening of June 15, the Indian front-line frontier troops brazenly broke the consensus reached at the two sides military chiefs (senior commanders) meeting. When the situation on the ground in the Galwan Valley had already eased, they once again deliberately provoked and even violently attacked officers and soldiers of the Chinese side... This led to violent physical confrontations resulting in injuries and deaths. This adventurous act of the Indian Army is a serious violation of the agreements reached between the two countries on the border issue and a grave breach of the basic norms of international relations. Beijing further said, Again, China expresses its strong protest to the Indian side. We demand that the Indian side conduct a thorough investigation and immediately cease all provocative actions to ensure that such incidents do not recur. The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation and must not underestimate Chinas firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty. The Chinese foreign ministry also said, Wang Yi stressed that... mutual respect and support between the two sides is the right way to go; mutual suspicion and friction go against the fundamental aspirations of the two peoples. The two sides should in accordance with the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, step up communication and coordination on the proper handling of the border situation The two sides agreed to... de-escalation of the situation on the ground. archives 2 Jan - 9 Jan (4) 26 Dec - 2 Jan (1) 5 Dec - 12 Dec (3) 28 Nov - 5 Dec (2) 14 Nov - 21 Nov (1) 7 Nov - 14 Nov (1) 10 Oct - 17 Oct (1) 22 Aug - 29 Aug (3) 15 Aug - 22 Aug (1) 8 Aug - 15 Aug (3) 1 Aug - 8 Aug (1) 25 Jul - 1 Aug (3) 18 Jul - 25 Jul (1) 11 Jul - 18 Jul (1) 27 Jun - 4 Jul (4) 20 Jun - 27 Jun (3) 13 Jun - 20 Jun (1) 30 May - 6 Jun (2) 23 May - 30 May (4) 2 May - 9 May (3) 25 Apr - 2 May (4) 4 Apr - 11 Apr (2) 28 Mar - 4 Apr (4) 28 Feb - 7 Mar (1) 7 Feb - 14 Feb (2) 10 Jan - 17 Jan (2) 27 Dec - 3 Jan (2) 13 Dec - 20 Dec (3) 6 Dec - 13 Dec (1) 29 Nov - 6 Dec (1) 15 Nov - 22 Nov (6) 8 Nov - 15 Nov (1) 25 Oct - 1 Nov (1) 18 Oct - 25 Oct (3) 4 Oct - 11 Oct (1) 27 Sep - 4 Oct (1) 20 Sep - 27 Sep (2) 13 Sep - 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2 Nov (10) 19 Oct - 26 Oct (12) 12 Oct - 19 Oct (13) 5 Oct - 12 Oct (19) 28 Sep - 5 Oct (14) 21 Sep - 28 Sep (17) 14 Sep - 21 Sep (19) 7 Sep - 14 Sep (22) 31 Aug - 7 Sep (15) 24 Aug - 31 Aug (14) 17 Aug - 24 Aug (9) 10 Aug - 17 Aug (5) (CNN) At least 20 Indian soldiers have died after a "violent face-off" with Chinese troops along the countries' de facto border in the Himalayas late Monday, the Indian army has said. The incident occurred during a "deescalation process" underway in the Galwan Valley in the disputed Aksai Chin-Ladakh area, where a large troop build-up has reportedly been taking place for weeks now on both sides of the border, before senior military commanders began talks earlier this month. The Indian army had earlier said three soldiers had died, but added on Tuesday that a further 17 troops "who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries." The deaths are the first military casualties along the two countries' disputed border for more than 40 years. According to the earlier Indian army statement, there was loss of life "on both sides," but it did not specify any number of Chinese casualties. Senior military officials from both sides are currently meeting to defuse the situation, the statement added. "India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh," said India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava on Tuesday. He said senior commanders had "agreed on a process for such de-escalation" during a "productive meeting" on Saturday, June 6, and ground commanders had met regarding the implementation. "While it was our expectation that this would unfold smoothly, the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley," he said in the statement. "Both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side," he added. "Given its responsible approach to border management, India is very clear that all its activities are always within the Indian side of the LAC. We expect the same of the Chinese side. We remain firmly convinced of the need for the maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas and the resolution of differences through dialogue. At the same time, we are also strongly committed to ensuring India's sovereignty and territorial integrity." Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh met with the External Affairs Minister, the Chief of Defense Staff, and the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force and to review the "operational situation in Eastern Ladakh" earlier on Tuesday, the army said. At a regular news conference Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that on Monday, "Indian troops seriously violated our consensus and twice crossed the border line for illegal activities and provoked and attacked Chinese personnel which lead to serious physical conflict between the two sides." "China has lodged strong protest and representation with the India side, and we once again we solemnly ask the India side to follow our consensus and strictly regulate its front line troops and do not cross the line and do not stir up troubles or take unilateral moves that may complicate matters," Zhao added. "We both agreed to resolve this issue through dialogue and consolation and make efforts for easing the situation and upholding peace and tranquility in the border area." Zhao did not comment on whether there had been any Chinese casualties. China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) released a statement Tuesday night calling on the Indian army to immediately stop what it described as "provocative actions" and to "resolve the issue through the correct track of dialogue and talks." "The sovereignty of the Galwan Valley region has always belonged to China," Zhang Shuili, the spokesman of the Western Theater said in a statement on China's Ministry of Defense website. "Indian troops violated its commitment, crossed the borderline for illegal activities and deliberately launched provocative attacks." Zhang added that the "serious physical conflict between the two sides" had "resulted in casualties." "We solemnly ask the India side to strictly regulate its front line troops, immediately stop all infringement and provocative actions, go toward the same direction with China, and return to the correct track of dialogue and talks to resolve differences," the statement read. Monday's deaths are the first military casualties along the disputed border for more than four decades, Indian defense experts told CNN. "We have not had casualties on the Line of Actual Control for at least 45 years," said Happymon Jacob, an associate professor and political analyst at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. "This is perhaps a game-changer. This is perhaps the beginning of the end of the rapport that India has enjoyed with China for 45 years." Former Indian Chief of Army Staff, General Bikram Singh, also confirmed to CNN this is the first such deadly incident in the last 45 years. Tensions have been growing in the Himalayas along one of the world's longest land borders since last month, with New Delhi and Beijing both accusing the other of overstepping the LAC that separates the two nuclear armed neighbors. The territory has long been disputed, erupting into numerous minor conflicts and diplomatic spats since a bloody war between the two countries in 1962. The LAC runs between Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin and the rest of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region. The rough border line was the result of the India China border dispute in 1962, but neither side agrees exactly where it is or how long it is. Aksai Chin is administered by China as part of Xinjiang, but is also claimed by the Indian government as part of Ladakh. The reported troop build up had left many worried about the potential for a confrontation, particularly as both Chinese and Indian media have published jingoistic calls for action. Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have built public support in large part on nationalism and a promise of future greatness. This often translates into aggressive rhetoric, particularly when playing to a domestic audience. Such an approach was evidenced in Chinese coverage of the PLA maneuvers in the Himalayas. Equally, despite Delhi's public calls for easing tensions, leading Indian government figures have struck an aggressive tone, with Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah telling a rally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier this month that "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," Shah said. "(Modi) has added India to that list.'' Writing for CNN this month, retired Indian general Singh said that part of the problem is that the de facto border, the LAC, is so ill defined. "At strategic and operational levels, both militaries have exercised restraint," he said. "However, at the tactical level, face-offs occur due to differing perceptions of where the actual border is as the LAC is not delineated on the ground. While face-offs get resolved locally, those related to the building of infrastructure, such as roads and defence fortifications, invariably take longer and require a combination of military and diplomatic initiatives." Speaking before the most recent clash, former Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said she hoped the current crisis won't lead to an abandonment of long-standing diplomatic negotiations over the disputed territory. "Even if tensions rise and tempers fray, they would do well to remember that they have to continue to manage their differences in a grown-up way because armed clashes and military combat can have extremely serious repercussions for the stability of the region going beyond the ambit of the purely bilateral relationship between the two countries," she said. This story was first published on CNN.com 'Twenty Indian soldiers dead after clash with China along disputed border' OCN's "Train" is a sci-fi mystery drama that involves a parallel universe, wherein one choice made during a murder split the world into two. An eminent detective named Seo Do Won (Yoon Shi Yoon) gets involved in one serial case to protect the girl that he loves. OCN shared two relationship charts for each universe: one is "A" and the other one is "B." In universe "A," Seo Do Won is a high-ranking detective and the leader of the violent crimes division. While chasing an offender, Seo Do Won meets Han Seo Kyung from the other universe and starts living the life of his doppelganger. This leads Seo Do Won to begin a journey in finding out the truth. On the other hand, Seo Do Won in universe "B" is not so different from Seo Do Won in universe "A" in terms of occupation, name, and physical attributes. However, Seo Do Won leads a life of corruption in universe "B." Despite his position as a high-ranking detective, he is now a suspect in a murder case of a drug broker. Kyung Soo Jin will portray the role of Han Seo Kyung, who is, in universe "A," a blunt and honest prosecutor and a detective with a cold personality in universe "B." Han Seo Kyung is described as a woman who is successful because of love. She lost her father twelve years ago in a murder incident and was left with no one to take care of her. But Seo Do Won took her in like she was family and helped her live with a brighter future. Later on, Han Seo Kyung finds out about what really happened in her father's death, leading her to embark on a journey to a new mystery. Han Seo Kyung in universe "B" is someone who goes through the problems of life because of hatred. She is described by her colleagues as a malicious and psychotic detective. The only goal that she instills in her mind is revenge to the person who killed her father. In terms of the character's relationships with each other, in universe "A," Han Seo Kyung and Seo Do Won have a romantic relationship. They have Lee Sung Wook and Jo Young Ran, Han Seo Kyung's half-brother and stepmom, as enemies. Seo Jae Chul is Seo Do Won's father, who is known to be the reason for Han Kyu Tae's death, Han Seo Kyung's father. Oh Mi Sook works as the section chief, who sees Seo Won Do and Han Seo Kyung as family. Seo Do Won and Han Seo Kyung are also friends with a forensic investigator named Lee Jung Min. In universe "B," Seo Do Won has a mutually hateful relationship with Han Seo Kyung. Han Seo Kyung still hates him and his father, and she abhors stepbrother and stepmother in this world. Oh Mi Sook has no special relationship with Seo Do Won, and he is only his boss, and Lee Jung Min was his past lover. Catch the premiere of "Train" on July 11, and make sure to watch the teasers below! The unarmed combat between the Indian and Chinese troops at Galwan valley in Ladakh continued for several hours and it was only around midnight that both armies disengaged. The Commanding officer of 16 Bihar regiment, Colonel B Santosh Babu and his two escorts including a JCO were knocked down by iron poles and stones by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) which led to strong retaliation from the Indian troops. Hailing from Suryapet in Telangana, Col Santosh Babu, a student of Korukonda Sainik School in Hyderabad, was posted in Ladakh for more than a year. According to sources in the Indian Army, having first hand information about the violent face-off between the two armies at Galwan valley, tension between the Indian and Chinese troops was simmering right since yesterday morning. Indian troops were waiting since morning to ensure that PLA troops fall back to a post, five kms to the east of Galwan valley, which was as per the disengagement plan decided on June 6 following a meeting between the two top commanders of both armies near Chushul. ''At one stage, the PLA got ready to go back but they suddenly turned back and assaulted our troops. The CO of 16 Bihar regiment, Santosh Babu and his two escorts were knocked down by iron poles and stones. The Indian troops retaliated and in a close unarmed combat, bashed up PLA soldiers. The unarmed combat continued for several hours and it was only around midnight that the troops disengaged,'' they said. Initially, both sides pushed and entered into fisticuffs and hurled abuses at each other. But soon, the situation spiralled out of control after the PLA soldiers pulled out iron pickets (used for fencing), which indicated that the PLA had occupied some areas on the Indian side and had come fully prepared. They then attacked the Colonel and his two men which led to retaliation from the Indian side. "In the retaliation, the PLA soldiers were bashed up and the violent face-off continued for several hours. As tempers were running high, quick intervention by senior officials from both sides ensured that both troops disengaged around midnight," sources said. By the crack of dawn, it was confirmed that the CO and two soldiers had succumbed to their injuries. "The situation is volatile and it remains to be seen whether or not it will escalate," sources said. While stones have often been the most preferred ''weapon'' by Chinese troops during the border skirmishes with the Indian troops apart from using their fists, violent assault using iron pickets was something unexpected. ''It was an unprovoked act by PLA which resulted in casualties on both sides,'' they said. Mumbai, June 17 : It was on March 17 that Maharashtra notched the first COVID-19 death of a 64-year old man who died at the Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai. Exactly 90 days later, the state death toll has zoomed from 1 to 5,537 -- or a rough average of 62 deaths per day. In Mumbai, since the first death, the figure of fatalities has touched 3,167 -- or an average of around 35 deaths per day. Till June 15, the COVID-19 situation was considered tolerable, but on June 16 after the state government announced the reconciliation of unconfirmed deaths in the past few weeks - a staggering 1,328 - the state total catapulted from 4,128 to 5,537 at one shot. Portending ominous data days ahead, the state health department revealed on June 16 that another 284 deaths still remain to be confirmed. In terms of the spread, the state has shot up from only two COVID-19 positive cases on March 9 to 1,13,445 today -- a staggering average of 1,260 cases per day in the past nearly 100 days. A month on from the first patient's death (March 17), the state on April 17 recorded 201 deaths and 3,320 patients; which by May 17 shot up 10 times to 33,053 cases and 1,198 fatalities; and by June 17 it has more than tripled to 113,445 patients and quadrupling to over 5,537 deaths today. Currently, Maharashtra has overtaken Canada which has 99,467 patients (No. 17 on Worldometer COVID-19 dashboard) and the state is consistently adding more cases daily compared to the United Kingdom. Simultaneously, the state has also recorded an unbelievably high recovery rate of 50.99 per cent, and a low mortality (death) rate of 3.70 per cent till June 15, which suddenly shot up to 4.08 per cent on June 16. This must be viewed against the backdrop of April, when at one point the state's mortality rate was the highest in the world, shocking health authorities. However, with the efforts of the state government, the death rate gradually came down to 3.70 per cent, compared to the global average (5.52), and closer to the national average (2.89). However, Tuesday's reconciliation figures again pulled up the death rate sharply to 4.08 per cent (June 16). Barely 72 hours before the first death (on March 17), the state had invoked the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 (March 13) and the next day framed 'The Maharashtra COVID-19 Regulations, 2020' (March 14). From March 15, the state had lapsed into a partial precautionary lockdown -- confident of grabbing the invisible Coronavirus by the horns -- followed by ongoing extensions to reach Lockdown 5.0. By March 31, during the first phase of lockdown, the state recorded 10 deaths and 302 patients, including Mumbai's 7 fatalities and 151 patients. Till the second lockdown, by April 15, the state notched 187 deaths with 2,916 cases, comprising Mumbai's 114 deaths and 1,896 patients. As the third lockdown was on by April 30, the state recorded 459 deaths with 10,498 patients including Mumbai's 290 deaths and 7,061 cases. By June 16 when the easing of lockdown was underway, COVID-19 had spread its deadly tentacles to all 36 districts in the state. Mumbai has emerged as India's "Corona Capital" with 3,167 deaths and 60,228 cases, besides Maharashtra's 53,217 cases and 2,370 fatalities (Total: 1,13,445 patients & 5,537 deaths). Zooming ahead to grab the second worst-hit hotspot in June, Mumbai's adjoining Thane district has 641 fatalities and 19,328 patients, and Pune now ranks third with 588 deaths and 12,888 patients. Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Thane Division - Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts) has 84,121 patients and 3,976 deaths, followed by Pune Division (Pune, Solapur, Satara districts) standing at 15,603 cases and 806 fatalities. In the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) jurisdiction, the worst-hotspot is Asia's biggest slum, Dharavi with 77 deaths so far, often called Maharashtra's 'Wuhan'. The spiraling cases and increasing deaths sparked panic, especially among the migrants, estimated at around 4 million in the MMR, including around 2 million in Mumbai and many fled the city to safer environs in their home states. (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 CAMBRIDGE The field at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge will light up and the score clock will read 2020 to celebrate what would have been graduation night next Wednesday. Its a gesture of support and hope for our grads, said Sally Reis-Power, a teacher and member of the schools graduation committee. Staff at the school also worked with the City of Cambridge to have Craigs Crossing pedestrian bridge, the Cambridge city sign, and the Hespeler waterfall light up June 22-26 to commemorate graduates from across the city. Residents are also being asked to leave their porch lights on to mark the occasion. We were hoping that if they cant cross a stage, maybe across the city we can use light as a symbol of celebration, said Reis-Power. The pandemic has put prom and graduation celebrations on hold, so staff members have gone out of their way to make sure their grads are recognized for their achievements. I think the message we really wanted to pass along to our grads is we are celebrating them and we do care about them, we miss them and the gestures that were taking are really all about how to celebrate during these really difficult times, said teacher Sarah Spitzig, who is also a member of the graduation committee at the school. Hundreds of grads came to the school last week to pick up celebratory lawn signs and caps and gowns to be able to take family photos with. Students have also been taking pictures at the school field where St. Benedict teachers painted a large B and the words Class of 2020 in blue and gold school colours. The project took five teachers three days and nearly 90 cans of marking paint to complete. We knew that we couldnt do the traditional rite of passage but we wanted to do something where they did feel that they were being celebrated for their accomplishments, said Spitzig. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin (L), Ireland's Prime minister and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar (C), and Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald take part in the final TV leaders' debate at the RTE studios in Dublin on February 4, 2020, ahead of the February 8 General Election. NIALL CARSON One-hundred and thirty days after its general election, Ireland is one step closer to the formation of a new, historic government. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party struck a deal on a coalition and if accepted by party members, it would be the first time in history the two center-right parties enter government together. February's election left a fractured landscape after nationalist party Sinn Fein secured the most seats in Ireland's Parliament in its history and upended the duopoly that had been enjoyed by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael since the Republic was formed. Sinn Fein's rise came as voters expressed their dissatisfaction with a lack of housing and a poor health-care system under Fine Gael. The new coalition faces several challenges given the economic devastation being wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the ongoing uncertainty over Brexit. The three parties will also need to address whether they can bring in the change demanded by the large portion of voters who turned to the left-leaning Sinn Fein. Coronavirus devastation While Ireland has seen a destruction of its economy like many other countries around the world, the real question will be how it emerges from the downturn. Prior to the virus, Ireland's economy was one of the best performing in Europe, having bounced back after requiring a bailout in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Now, unemployment has soared to record highs and raised fears of a return to the large-scale emigration periodically seen throughout its history. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards CSO The new government plans to launch a fiscal stimulus package in July which will have a focus on decarbonizing the economy and says it wants to have a "jobs-led recovery." This is expected to be funded by issuing debt, with the outgoing government having already gone to the market three times this year and seeing record demand. Brexit uncertainty Before the virus hit, Ireland's economy was already facing great uncertainty due to Brexit. Talks between the EU and the U.K. have yet to yield a trade deal and the confirmation that no extension will be sought to the transition period has raised the prospect of a hard Brexit. The avoidance of a hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland will continue to be a key focus given the integration of the respective economies. A failure to strike a trade deal between the EU and the U.K. would present another challenge to the country's economic recovery. Meanwhile, the new government is aiming to create a unit within the prime minister's office "to work towards a consensus on a shared island." Keeping everybody happy Tom McGrath (left), editor of Philadelphia magazine, spoke at a panel discussion at The Philadelphia Inquirer with Robert Huber, who wrote the controversial article "Being White in Philly" in 2013. Read more Philadelphia Magazine editor Tom McGrath will step down at the end of the summer, telling his staff the publication needs to evolve and the company should hire a replacement who isnt a middle-aged white guy. His departure which he described in a memo to employees as partly a personal decision and partly an attempt to bring about change comes amid the national reckoning over systemic racism that has gripped the nation since the May 25 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. It followed a newsroom-wide teleconference last week about diversity at the magazine after tweets from former senior editor Fabiola Cineas called out the companys inaction on improving diversity. Ive given almost every ounce of energy I have to this job for the last decade, and at the moment Im not sure I have enough in my tank to do the job as well as it needs to be done, McGrath, 56, wrote in a message to staffers on Monday. But I also have in my head the column that our colleague Ernest Owens wrote last week, noting that real change in our world will only come about when some power is redistributed. On Tuesday, the magazines editorial staff called on its parent company, Metrocorp, to enact a plan to hire and retain employees of color, diversify leadership, audit past coverage, and represent black Philadelphians in coverage, among other steps. The magazine has not taken sufficient action as a publication to combat systemic racism at large, or racism on our own staff, which has resulted in Black staffers facing microaggressions on a frequent basis, said their memo, which was signed by a group of 26 staffers representing the entire editorial department and some contributors. The Inquirer obtained a copy of the memo. We also believe Philly Mag has not represented the diversity of the city for which it is named. In response, Metrocorp executives said they would accelerate efforts to prioritize diversity and create an inclusive workplace. CEO Nick Fischer scheduled an employee meeting next week to discuss the companys plans. Upon his departure, McGrath will join a growing list of media executives including Inquirer executive editor Stan Wischnowski and the New York Times editorial page editor who have left their posts since the national protests over Floyds death began and prompted reckonings in newsrooms. McGrath arrived at Philadelphia Magazine in 2003 and was named editor-in-chief in 2010, a position he has held since, save for a nine-month period in 2016. Since 2016, he has also been chief content and strategy officer for Metrocorp, which publishes both Philadelphia Magazine and Boston Magazine. He was in charge when the magazine stirred outrage with a 2013 cover story titled Being White in Philly that was widely denounced as racist, and then again in 2015 when it ran a cover image without any black students on a guide to city schools. Both times, after community criticism, McGrath pledged to diversify the magazines staff. Cineas, the former senior editor, who is black, said Tuesday that after her June 11 tweet thread about the magazines lack of diversity, she heard from more than a dozen current or former staffers, interns, or fellows who said they had had similar frustrations but had often been afraid to speak up. In the virtual meeting Thursday after Cineas tweets, McGrath acknowledged that the magazine has a racist history and has not taken the necessary steps to remedy that fact, the editorial staffers wrote in their memo. Cineas, 29, who joined the magazine in 2016, said it could be an uncomfortable environment for black employees, who felt responsible for reading content before publication to make sure what was written wasnt racist, because the editors who were higher up often did not have the kind of context they needed to be able to write or talk about issues related to the black community." Of the magazines full-time editorial employees, two are black, according to current and former workers. Two other black employees recently left the publication. Cineas said she did not depart because of newsroom diversity issues. The other, Cierra Williams, 24, cited race issues at the magazine as the reason she left last week for a new job. In an interview Tuesday, she said she had complained to human resources about incidents, but she didnt know whether McGrath had been informed. McGrath said he had no knowledge of complaints by Williams. He also cited her resignation letter to him which he shared with The Inquirer in which Williams wrote that she had enjoyed the experience of working in the newsroom. In his resignation memo, McGrath told staffers he should have done more to improve diversity at the magazine, which has traditionally seemed targeted toward a Main Line audience and whose roughly 99,000 print subscribers have an average household income of $194,000. But he said the editorial team had done more than other departments to increase diversity and said Metrocorp must address it as a company-wide issue, urging the board to commit to deep and meaningful change in the companys racial diversity. Still, the magazine had made some strides, including a fellowship program with the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, said Owens, a contributor to the magazine. He pointed to the magazines Black Lives Matter statement on Instagram, posted June 2, in which the company said it stood against racism, acknowledged past failures, and would actively work to amplify black voices. I have the utmost respect for Tom in acknowledging that he has to make this change, said Owens, who said hed had several conversations with McGrath about his role in recent weeks. He was a thoughtful man. This was already on his mind. McGrath said criticism of the magazines record on diversity was fair and that he supported the staffers recommendations. Im proud of the steps that we did take and I think the magazine has become more diverse in its staff and its coverage in the last several years, he said in an interview. But its clear theres more we could have done and theres much more that the magazine needs to do. Australian model Megan Blake Irwin, 28, has hinted she may have secretly tied the knot with her Riverdale beau, Skeet Ulrich, 50. The couple sparked rumours they were engaged back in May, after the blonde beauty was pictured wearing a diamond sparkler on her ring finger. But now she is calling Skeet her husband in her latest Instagram story. Scroll down for video Have Megan Blake Irwin and Skeet Ulrich secretly tied the knot? Australian model called her Riverdale beau 'her husband' during romantic trip to Mexico this week The blonde beauty posted a series of videos on Tuesday evening of her and Skeet enjoying a romantic holiday at Las Ventanas al Paraiso, a Rosewood resort in Mexico. In one clip, Meghan said she was teaching her beau how to play chess, referring to him as her 'husband'. 'Tryna to teach my husband how to play chess,' she said in the video, before panning to Skeet laying topless with a chess board in front of him. However, it appears that the lessons didn't go to well for the couple, with Megan revealing they had to swap to a different game. 'So we had to change to backgammon because he is so bad at chess,' she said in another clip. Say what? The 25-year-old model posted a series of videos on Tuesday evening of her and Skeet, 50, enjoying a romantic holiday at Las Ventanas al Paraiso, a Rosewood resort in Mexico. In one video, Meghan said she was teaching her beau how to play chess, referring to him as her 'husband' 'Tryna to teach my husband how to play chess': She said in the video, before panning to Skeet laying topless with a chess board in front of him While neither of them have confirmed a marriage or engagement at this stage, they both regularly gush over their relationship on social media and certainly appear to be head over heels for one another. Of course, Megan is no stranger to high-profile relationships having previously been linked to Scott Disick, 36, back in 2016. They were spotted out together in Los Angeles shortly after he split from Kourtney Kardashian. Ring-a-ding-ding! The couple recently sparked engagement rumours after sharing this picture of Megan sporting a diamond sparkler However, Megan never confirmed the relationship, telling the Daily Telegraph: 'He is a lovely guy but that's about all I'm going to say about that.' Meanwhile, Skeet was previously married to English actress Georgina Cates, before they split in 2005. They share two children together, daughter Naiia Rose Ulrich, 19, and son Jakob Ulrich, 19. He then went on to marry actress Amelia Jackson-Grey in 2012, before they called it quits in 2015. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to both Megan and Skeet for comment. TORONTO, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the 160th day since Ukraine International Airline Flight 752 was shot down by missiles fired by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), relatives of some of the 176 passengers and crew who lost their lives held a press conference today, to launch of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims and its website www.PS752justice.com The Association pursues three principal goals: Keeping the memories of the victims alive, Supporting the families of victims, and Seeking justice. Families of more than 100 victims have joined the Association, including relatives of 55 Canadian citizens and 40 permanent residents who were killed. Membership continues to grow. The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims demands that an international investigation by Canada, England, Sweden, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Iran, in participation with Ukraine International Airlines be initiated immediately; and that an observer representative from the Association be included. If Iran fails to cooperate, as it is obliged to do under the 1971 Montreal Convention, it should be referred to the International Court of Justice to enforce its obligations. At todays press conference, Hamed Esmaeilion, a Canadian citizen of Iranian descent, who lost his wife and young daughter in the crash, said, From international news reports we know that three minutes after takeoff two missiles were fired from mobile air defence units controlled by the IRGC struck the aircraft. It took another three minutes for the airplane to crash in a field near the airport. Within hours bulldozers plowed through the rubble and destroyed the crash site before any investigation could take place. Video evidence shows Iran burned and destroyed the crash site, destroying valuable evidence. Iran took belongings from victims bodies, including wedding rings and Canadian passports. Canada continues to seek cooperation and transparency from Iran. A full investigation is necessary to hold those responsible to account, avoid future incidents, and bring closure to families of victims. Canada calls on Iran to cooperate fully. The first step is allowing the black boxes to be downloaded and analyzed in a facility with the capability to do so as soon as possible as Iran is required to do under international law. Story continues Canadas foreign affairs minister stated, "We will judge Iran by its actions, not by its words, and we will continue to work tirelessly on behalf of the victims of this tragedy until justice is rendered for all." Today, there has been little progress and cooperation by Irans authorities. We judge Iran by their actions. Today in announcing the launch of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, we remind Iran, Canada, and the international community that 160 days have passed without any answers. That is too long for the wheels of justice to stand still. For further information: Alise Mills Media Relations amills@sussex-strategy.com 778-928-0267 WILTON Weve had very good response so far, Kevin Vallerie said to Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Academys efforts to close a $140,000 funding gap by June 25. Vallerie, who is an alum of the school and president of its board of directors said donations have been coming in through a GoFundMe site, via PayPal or Venmo, and by people bringing checks to the school itself. They have raised a significant amount of money, he said. While Vallerie did not have a tally available for the day, more than $6,000 has been raised on the GoFundMe site less than a day after it went live. The shortfall was caused by the cancellation of traditional fundraising efforts due to the coronavirus pandemic, Vallerie said, which has also played havoc with the schools student recruitment. Specifically, the schools annual gala could not be held and its Something Special Thrift Shop had to close. Both are major sources of income for Our Lady of Fatima. In recruiting students, because the school was closed no tours or other events could be held. Principal Stanley Steele described the funding gap as not insurmountable in the context of the schools total operating budget. Once that shortfall is met, and the budget is in line with our enrollment, we will have a balanced budget going forward. Vallerie confirmed that if the funding can be raised, the school can open in the fall with the number of students now enrolled and continue its recruitment process over the summer. Well know within the next nine days, he said when asked if the school might actually have to close. Our Lady of Fatima transitioned to an academy model beginning with the 2019-20 school year, meaning its governance and financial management are provided by an academy board with oversight from the Diocese of Bridgeport. The school encompasses pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and offers offers a Personalized Approach to Learning platform with small classrooms and instruction based on individual student needs. Contributions may be made on the schools website at https://www.olfacademy.org/apps/pages/DONATE. According to Ministerial Resolution No. 229-2020-MINEDU , published in El Peruano official gazette, the authorization will be granted to schools with limited access to means of communication and connectivity, in places where there is no incidence of coronavirus infections, based on updated reports from health authorities. BYD Co., the Chinese auto giant backed by Warren Buffett, is rushing to make China self-sufficient in the production of electric vehicles. On Monday, the firm said in a filing it has secured 800 million yuan ($113 million) in a Series A+ round for its chipmaking arm, BYD Semiconductor. At stake is the race to make so-called insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT), an integral silicon component in EVs' power management system that's at the core of BYD Semiconductor. The electronic switch is dubbed by industry experts the "CPU of an EV" because it reduces power loss and improves reliability. It's the second-most expensive part of an EV after batteries, accounting for around 7-10% of the total cost, according to market research. BYD is fighting a fierce competition against Germany's semiconductor giant Infineon Technologies AG, which produced 58% of the IGBTs used in China's electric cars in 2019. BYD finished with an 18% share that year, noted a report from Citic Securities. The prospects of IGBT production are bright, as the technology not only powers a booming EV industry worldwide but is also used in other high-energy applications, such as air conditioners, refrigerators and high-speed trains. The global market for IGBTs is estimated to be near 10 billion yuan ($1.41 billion) in 2020 and quadruple to almost 40 billion yuan by 2025, according to the Citic report. The outsize funding arrived just two months after Shenzhen-traded BYD hived its chip unit off into an independent company ahead of a separate public listing. Due to oversubscription from investors, the subsidiary raised the new round on the heels of its 1.9 billion yuan ($270 million) Series A closed in late May. Parent company BYD holds a 72.3% stake in the chip arm following the two funding rounds, which have lifted the valuation of the subsidiary to 10.2 billion yuan ($1.44 billion). As the only Chinese company that can produce IGBTs independently, the semiconductor maker has drawn heavyweight backers across the board. Its investors range from Sequoia China and state-backed CICC Capital from the Series A round, to Korean conglomerate SK Group, smartphone maker Xiaomi, Lenovo Group, ARM, China's largest semiconductor foundry SMIC and investment affiliates of Chinese carmakers SAIC and BAIC in the latest A+ round. BYD started as a manufacturer of electronics components in 1995 and has since expanded into automobiles and renewable energy. Headquartered in Shenzhen, it powers all of the city's electric buses and taxis. It has also ramped up expansion into overseas markets as China scales back state subsidies on electric cars. RICHMOND, Va. - Mayor Levar Stoney said he had requested and accepted the resignation of Police Chief William Smith after two nights of tense demonstrations that involved chemical gas and rubber bullets outside the city's police headquarters. Those standoffs marked a violent deterioration in relations between police and the community, which had already been strained by more than two weeks of protests sparked by national outrage over police brutality against African Americans. "One thing is clear after the past two weeks - Richmond is ready for a new approach to public safety," Stoney, a Democrat, said Tuesday afternoon in a hastily called news conference at City Hall. Even as Stoney spoke, police were installing a massive barricade around their headquarters building consisting of enormous concrete pipes standing on end like a medieval wall. Asked about the contrast of calling for more community engagement while turning the building into a fortress, Stoney said the city had to guard against violence from people trying to hijack peaceful Black Lives Matter protests to cause mayhem. "There is a small contingent who are bent on another agenda . . . that doesn't involve looking out for the black men and women who the cause was originally about," said Stoney, who is African American. Stoney named Maj. Jody Blackwell, a 23-year department veteran, as interim chief and said he would conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement. The mayor praised Smith, who rose up through the ranks to become chief last year, calling him "a good man." But after 18 days of protests and multiple reports of violence between demonstrators and officers, "I thought it was time for a new direction." The confrontations Sunday and Monday night were sparked by an incident Saturday in which a police SUV drove through a crowd of protesters and bumped several people, though there were no serious injuries. Stoney had previously asked the local commonwealth's attorney for a "full investigation" into the Saturday incident. In a statement after Sunday's standoff, Smith said the demonstration had "escalated into rioting and violence" and that officers had shown "great restraint in response to these attacks." Richmond police said that three officers were injured and several vehicles and buildings were damaged or vandalized, and that pepper spray was deployed after demonstrators ignored warnings to disperse. Earlier this month, Stoney also called for a disciplinary review of officers who tear-gassed peaceful demonstrators at the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue. Smith, who is white, had struggled to project a consistent tone to the city's African American community during the recent protests. On June 1, he urged residents to come out to demonstrate and pledged police sympathy, but that evening officers tear fired tear gas without provocation. The police department initially blamed protesters for endangering the officers, but then Smith apologized and said the officers involved would be disciplined. He appeared with Stoney the next day before an outraged crowd of more than 1,000 outside City Hall and took a knee to show his support. But he seemed at a loss for how to calm those gathered. After the SUV incident last weekend, and Williams's defense of the aggressive use of pepper spray and irritant gas during the recent standoffs at police headquarters, the police chief apparently lost Stoney's support. At a news conference Tuesday to announce Smith's departure, Stoney said the priority for the chief should be to engage with the community and resolve issues of police use of force and oversight by citizens. "We don't begin that progress without the buy-in of people - all people from all walks of life," Stoney said. We have all attended commencement ceremonies which felt as if they were three days long. This week, Lebanon High School is hosting its commencement event for the Class of 2020 and the celebration really is three days long. This isnt because every speaker is going wildly past the allotted time, but because all of the graduates are being honored individually at their own appointed times. The goal is to give graduates and their families the opportunity to mark this momentous occasion while also adhering to the social distancing requirements that are still in place. Would it be better if we could celebrate at the same place and at the same time? Of course, but since that is not currently possible, this is a worthy attempt at recognizing these students. Western University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest held its commencement ceremony online. Members of the administration gave short addresses and each graduate was recognized individually. But the highlight of the event came before the official start of the ceremony. Students had the opportunity to submit informal videos thanking their family and friends for their support. These videos packed an emotional wallop as the graduates made clear the debt they owed to their inner circle. In some cases, it was clear how deeply they felt the loss of contact caused by the quarantine. It was a fascinating window into the personal cost of this forced separation. East Linn Christian Academy chose to hold its commencement exercise in the parking lot of the Lebanon campus. Families watched from their cars as the graduates were recognized for their achievements. Lebanon High is attempting to recreate the traditional moment when the graduate walks on stage, is greeted by school officials and receives the diploma. In this case, those on stage will be wearing masks and the only people in the audience will be that graduates family. Still, photographs will be taken, gifts will be given and memories will be made. In addition to the changes in these commencement ceremonies, Lebanon also had to forego the 111 edition of the Strawberry Festival. Organizers had no real choice but to call off the event given the amount of uncertainty that existed at the time a decision had to be made. Even in this case, however, the Strawberry Festival Association came up with a way to connect with the community. Twenty-five hundred pieces of shortcake were made and distributed on Saturday, June 6, at Cheadle Lake Park. Members of the Strawberry Festival court and numerous volunteers passed out shortcake despite the wind and rain. It couldnt make up for the loss of the festival, but it was a reminder of what we were missing and also a pledge that the annual event would return. These have been a difficult few months for the country and this community. We have faced a pandemic which has caused an unprecedented change in our daily lives. Seemingly every part of our lives has been upended and we have been forced to live without many experiences we take for granted, from eating in restaurants to watching live sports. It would be easy to feel gloomy about our prospects. But this isnt the moment for pessimism. Each of these community celebrations honors American ingenuity and resourcefulness. Unable to hold their traditional events, people worked together to create alternatives. They found a way because that is what we do. LG Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. One Ukrainian soldier wounded amid nine enemy attacks in Donbas in past 24 hours JFO HQ Russia's hybrid military forces mounted nine attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, with one member of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) reported as wounded in action, the press centre of the JFO reported. "The Russian Federation's armed formations violated the ceasefire nine times in the past day. They opened fire from proscribed 122mm artillery systems, 120mm and 82mm mortars, as well as cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, and small arms. As a result, one Ukrainian serviceman sustained combat-related injuries in enemy shelling," the JFO staff said in its update on Facebook on Wednesday morning. Ukrainian positions near the towns of Avdiyivka and Maryinka, and the villages of Novozvanivka, Krymske, Novo-Oleksandrivka, Orikhove, and Pyshchevyk came under attacks. According to intelligence reports, one member of Russia-led forces was killed. A protest was held Tuesday in Victorville over the hanging death of Malcolm Harsch. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of death. (Harmonie Harsch) The hanging death of a Black man in Victorville has sparked community outrage about larger racial issues in the high desert city and calls for a full investigation into whether Malcolm Harsch was the victim of foul play. Harsch was found hanging from a tree on the morning of May 31 near the citys library. Authorities have said there is no evidence of foul play, but the man's family and others are skeptical and are demanding an independent investigation. About 200 people turned out for a peaceful demonstration Tuesday afternoon in Victorville, calling for police accountability and the further investigation into Harsch's death. Demonstrators marched on the sidewalk along Civic Drive, holding signs that read, Defund the Police and Is My Son Next? They chanted, No justice, no peace, as cars drove by and honked. Stevevonna Evans, 36, an organizer of the protest, said the group was calling for a transparent and independent investigation into the death the first of two hanging deaths of Black men in Southern California in two weeks and also would like the California attorney general to supervise the investigation. Unfortunately, we cant leave this in the hands of the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department, Evans said. Were getting conflicting stories with what theyre saying took place and what witnesses say took place. Some demonstrators used chalk to write on the sidewalk the names of people killed by police, such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. They also wrote Defund, Demilitarize, Deescalate. Standing nearby were deputies with the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department, which the city contracts for policing services. Peaceful protest outside of the Victorville City Hall. Many holding signs. They were mats Hong earlier and chanting no justice to peace pic.twitter.com/AksTZtnJvd Ruben Vives (@LATvives) June 17, 2020 The protest, organized by the grassroots group For the People, comes after the hanging deaths of Harsch, 38, and, in Palmdale, 24-year-old Robert Fuller. Story continues After questions and protests, the FBI announced Monday it would examine both cases. The Victorville Fire Department found Harschs body May 31 after receiving a dispatch call around 7 a.m., officials said. On Monday, the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department offered more details about what happened, saying deputies were called to a homeless encampment regarding Harsch. The caller said she and [her] boyfriend, later identified as Malcolm Harsch, had been together during the morning, but she had since returned to her tent for a short period of time. She was alerted by others in the encampment that Mr. Harsch was found hanging from a tree and cut down. People in the encampment were performing CPR, attempting to revive Mr. Harsch, the statement said. Upon arrival, deputies immediately took over and continued CPR. Emergency medical personnel arrived on scene a short time later, and despite additional lifesaving efforts, pronounced Mr. Harsch deceased, officials added. An autopsy was conducted, and officials said they saw no signs of foul play. But the investigation continues with help from the FBI. In a statement sent to the Victor Valley News, Harschs family members in Ohio said they found it hard to accept that his death was a suicide. They said Harsch had recent conversations with his children about seeing them soon and that, to those who knew him, he didn't seem to be depressed. The explanation of suicide does not seem plausible, the family wrote. There are many ways to die, but considering the current racial tension, a Black man hanging himself from a tree definitely doesnt sit well with us right now. We want justice, not comfortable excuses, they wrote. During the demonstration outside Victorville City Hall, some protesters waited to address the City Council, which was holding its scheduled meeting. Standing in line was Jessica Powell, 35, of Victorville. She held a sign that read, Were Not Anti-Police, Were Anti-Police Brutality. Powell said she wanted officers to be held accountable when they killed people or when they used excessive force. We need change, she said. There needs to be some type of equality, some accountability. Powell said that last July her unarmed brother was shot and killed by police in Adelanto. She said her brother was struck in the back and chest. She said for almost a year she had been trying to get her brother's autopsy report but had yet to receive anything. She said police had made it difficult for her to obtain basic information about the shooting. Eli West, 57, a community activist, said there was a lot that needed to be brought to light in Victorville. He said police in the town had racially profiled residents, including himself and his family, and there had been police killings that were questionable. Its a perfect storm, he said. When the system is not right for everyone, then it needs to be changed. The Constitution says justice for all," he added, "and if its not justice, then we need to redefine that word until we have the right meaning. Standing nearby, Barry Harris, 52, of Victorville, said he came to support the Black Lives Matter movement and call for police accountability. Police have been unfair to us for a long time now, he said. Harris wanted to attend the City Council meeting, but the chambers had reached capacity. He said if he'd had a chance to address the members, he would have called on them to hold police officers accountable. Some demonstrators said they wanted Victorville to redirect policing funds for public health and social programs in the city. The gathering was peaceful, but many took offense with the number of deputies standing nearby and a sheriffs helicopter circling overheard, commanding that protesters stay on the sidewalk. West said he didnt like that. I dont think its necessary. Everything is peaceful, he said. All it is is an act of containment to keep you in line. Later in the evening, a small group held up their signs as eight deputies kept watch from afar. Are you all waiting to put your knees in our neck? one woman shouted at them. Are you going to hold your officers accountable? The officers looked on. This is intimidation, the woman yelled as she walked away. Inside the City Council chambers, more than 50 members of the public spoke for nearly 2 hours, and at times, the meeting became tense. Victorville Mayor Gloria Garcia warned Councilwoman Blanca Gomez three times to put a sign down reading, Justice for George Floyd. At one point, Garcia walked over to Gomez as public comment was taking place and the two councilwomen spoke off-microphone in a brief but lively conversation. While Garcia returned to her seat, Gomez again hoisted the sign, holding it aloft for most of the rest of the public comment period. The statue of Christopher Columbus at Marconi Plaza is enclosed in a box on June 16, 2020. Read more Those calling for the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue at Marconi Plaza in South Philadelphia have few kind words to say about the explorer. City Councilmember Kendra Brooks classed it among Philadelphias monuments to police brutality, racism, colonization, and oppression. And Mayor Jim Kenney called Columbus infamous, saying he enslaved indigenous people and punished those who failed to meet his expected service by severing limbs, or in some cases, murder. But Columbus does have at least one avid supporter in city government: Assistant District Attorney Robert Petrone. The history buff was introduced as an attorney for the commonwealth on an online interview program in February to outline his research into what he calls Columbus little-known role as the first civil-rights activist of the Americas and as the victim of a 500-year-old smear campaign being advanced by globalist forces. One of the things that this sort of coalition of anti-Western-culture advocates are doing to bring down what they perceive to be their ideological adversary, the West, is a multi-pronged attack one of the prongs of which is the attacking of American icons, Petrone said on the video. Theyre doing this in an attempt to turn hearts and minds against Western culture, cast it in a sinister light. READ MORE: Crews cover base of Columbus monument at Penns Landing as nonprofit considers removal Among historians, the question of Columbus motives toward indigenous people is considered settled, said Kris E. Lane, a professor of colonial Latin American history at Tulane University. That Columbus sought to lay claim to land and access commodities, including human captives, is documented in his own log books, Lane said. That has not stopped hundreds of people from cribbing from a letter, recently circulated under Petrones name, urging City Councilmember Mark Squilla to object to the statues removal. Feel free to use any or all of the following twelve reasons why Columbus was the first civil-rights activist of the Americas to buttress your demand, the letter reads. One example: Columbus intervened always as a pacifying force against the greedy and entitled Spanish nobles who defied his governance and indulged in mutual hostilities with the indigenes. Petrone did not respond to phone and email messages on Wednesday. Jane Roh, a spokesperson for District Attorney Larry Krasner, said in an email: Mr. Petrones ahistorical opinions about Christopher Columbus are not representative of the District Attorneys Office, nor are they shared by District Attorney Krasner personally. Larry is proud of the fact that our ADAs and staff are more representative of the communities we serve than under prior administrations, and he continues to proactively make sure that the DAO is a welcoming, inclusive, and respectful place to work. Jody Della Barba, an advocate with the 1492 Society who previously defended the statue of former Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, called Petrone an expert who has extensively researched Columbus, and he spoke at our proclamations and different events. She said his research had totally debunked the stories of Columbus misdeeds. Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, in whose district the statue sits, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Squilla, whose district abuts but does not include Marconi Plaza, said he doesnt support removing the statue He does support a transparent and orderly process for such debates, he said: If we constantly start removing stuff because people have disagreements with it, well be removing everything in the city of Philadelphia. Squilla said he found Petrones arguments which aim to discredit in particular the historian Howard Zinns accounts of Columbus as a violent oppressor to be convincing. Zinn got his information from a person who was a political adversary to Columbus, and if you look at that information, where it came from, it would be like Donald Trump writing the history of the Clintons, Squilla said. Camilla Townsend, a history professor at Rutgers University, said that interpretation misunderstands the history of Columbus. She said, The idea that he was a civil-rights activist is really very funny. He did initiate the slave trade of native Americans. READ MORE: The Christopher Columbus statue: Why its an issue right now Lane, the Tulane professor, encouraged anyone questioning that narrative to read Columbus own journals. The idea that he was defamed by someone else and therefore theres some positive side of Columbus, that he was a defender of Native American rights, just doesnt hold up, Lane said. He said from the beginning, their bodies are very finely formed and they would make excellent slaves and he sent some right back to Queen Isabella I in Spain. And she said, What? I didnt ask for this. Petrones passion for Columbus is well known in the District Attorneys Office. Last year, when a supervisor sent an all-staff email reminding workers the office would close for the federal holiday, Petrone responded that it was Christopher Columbus Day and staff should enjoy your celebration of the Western Worlds first Civil Rights Activist! Emails obtained by the Inquirer then show a heated exchange with other staff members, who preferred Indigenous Peoples Day and said they were offended by Petrones celebration of such a problematic figure. The exchanges ended with a warning from First Assistant District Attorney Robert Listenbee that such conversations should be reserved for personal email or social media. Petrones interview appeared on an internet show called The Advocates hosted by Dan Cirucci, a local conservative blogger. On it, Petrone says Columbus petitioned for civil-rights protections for indigenous peoples, and protected them against more cruel settlers and rulers. And, he argued, Christopher Columbus had a full-blooded [adopted] Taino son that he loved and raised: He was not a racist. San Antonio River Authority employee Ralph Bolado says he has endured various incidents of racial discrimination while on the job, from being hit by a pipe thrown by a supervisor to a colleague hanging a noose on his office door. Bolado, who is Hispanic and remains employed at SARA, has sued the agency for racial discrimination. He also alleges he has been retaliated against for lodging complaints about the incidents. He seeks from $200,000 to $1 million in damages. Mr. Bolado has continued to be subjected to a racially hostile environment by his Anglo supervisors and co-workers with no meaningful action being taken by (SARA) to stop or prevent harm to Mr. Bolado at the workplace, the lawsuit says. It was filed June 2 in state District Court in San Antonio. On ExpressNews.com: One staffer injured, three ousted from San Antonio River Authority SARA declined to comment on the lawsuit because it has not yet been served, spokeswoman Tracey Tafoya said in an email. The lawsuit, however, will be a topic of discussion in executive session at its board meeting today. In an email, Tafoya said SARAs culture embodies diversity, inclusiveness, trust and responsiveness and the agency is committed to protecting employees from unlawful discrimination. Employees are encouraged to report unethical behavior, including through an anonymous hotline. All grievances are thoroughly investigated and appropriate action is taken, she said. Other incidents have occurred since Bolado was injured by the pipe, demonstrating that the bigotry continues, according his lawyer, Mark Anthony Acuna. I think the culture there is pretty ingrained, Acuna said. Bolado, 48, is a 19-year SARA employee. He joined the agency as a utility crew member in 2001 and has been a maintenance technician at a Converse facility since 2010. At a 2017 meeting in the maintenance shop, the suit says, Bolados then-supervisor Alfred Rakowitz and other members of the management team made derogatory (remarks), told racial jokes and made racist comments to a female African American employee. Racial slurs also were made towards Bolado, the suit says. Bolado says he complained to SARAs human resources department about what was said during the meeting. Afterwards, the suit says, tensions developed between Bolado and Rakowitz. Rakowitz assigned Bolado to menial tasks, including picking up trash and pulling weeds. On Nov. 12, 2018, the suit says, Rakowitz used an obscenity at Bolado, who responded by saying, My name is Ralph. Rakowitz then threw a 4-foot-3-inch PVC pipe at Bolado, breaking his nose, the suit says. That followed another incident where Rakowitz allegedly hit Bolado. Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox Bolado later complained to Bruce Knott, SARAs human resources director, that Rakowitzs act was racially motivated. At a Nov. 12 meeting, the suit says, Knott admonished Bolado and told him he was throwing everybody under the bus. SARA took no action against Rakowitz, the suit says. But he resigned in lieu of termination the following month after SARA found he had violated its workplace violence policy. General Manager Suzanne Scott at first considered suspending Rakowitz without pay and requiring him to complete an anger management program. She later decided termination was more appropriate, records showed. Two other employees were subsequently fired. A Bexar County grand jury indicted Rakowitz on a felony aggravated assault charge. The case was dismissed in December after he completed a pretrial diversion program, KSAT reported. Rakowitz couldnt be located for comment. Bolado says in his suit that conditions at work only worsened. He got the feeling he was being black-balled by supervisors and directors. Bolado alleges he was bypassed for promotions and raises, which were given to less senior and less-qualified white employees. His supervisors embarked on a pattern of issuing unsubstantiated write-ups to Mr. Bolados file criticizing his work performance, the suit says. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio River Authority executive ousted for not reporting racial incident Following the rope incident, a SARA official resigned last year after failing to report it. There have been other racially charged episodes, Bolado says in his suit, including an employee who spoke of hanging a Confederate flag in a common area. In October, Bolado filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It issued a right to sue letter to Bolado in April. Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. To read more from Patrick, become a subscriber. pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD Migrants-Economic slowdown-Investments The coronavirus pandemic has caused an unprecedented disruption in the global economy. This disruption has forced businesses and investors to reconsider where and how to invest. Such a shake-up opens an opportunity for India, especially for its Hindi heartland. Since liberalisation, while the south and west Indian states tapped the benefits of globalisation, the Hindi heartland could not. This led to a flight of talent and labour from the region to the southern and western states where better opportunities were to be found. While the region improved in human development indicators, it still has high levels of poverty and an often-unnoticed metropolis vacuum a large region cutting across north and east India with a population of more than 500 million lacks a major metropolitan agglomeration. The Hindi heartland should use this disruptive opportunity to address its metropolis vacuum, and focus on reversing the flight by building attractive economic clusters and inclusive markets in the region. The region is endowed with a young population and many top institutions. Taking inspiration from anchoring universities like Stanford and the University of California San Diego, the government can utilise institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and IIT Varanasi, to anchor enterprises and innovation in the Kanpur-Lucknow and Prayagraj-Varanasi regions. The region, by identifying and developing multiple economic clusters centered around its many cities, will not only encourage urban development but also promote the development of surrounding rural areas, by promoting the production of value-added and specialised products and services in the hinterland, marketable for a global economy. There exists a skill gap even among the educated youth because the school/college curriculums are not updated to teach a portfolio of basic skills needed for the digital economy. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be utilised to offer (mandated) short online courses that teach students basic skills in areas like time and project management, basic financial accounting, and tools such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, and video/audio editing. Story continues Ingredients of attractive markets In order to build successful economic clusters, the region is endowed with some key strengths. The digital infrastructure, successfully developed in India since the 2000s, has reduced transaction costs. But, in order to fully tap the fruits of the information revolution, the government needs to also improve information delivery especially where market access is poor, and necessary information on how to produce, package and sell goods and services may not be available. A key driver of location choice today is logistical and supply chain proximity, ie how easily can goods, services, and people be moved from one part of the world to another. Hence, the government now needs to prioritise improved transport connections by building industrial corridors in the region. A perception of weak rule of law has marred the regions reputation. For a densely populated region like the Gangetic plain, the benefits of building such modern transport connections are even more crucial as by reducing commute times between twin cities like Prayagraj-Varanasi the region can achieve its rapid agglomeration as a twin-city. A perception of weak rule of law has marred the regions reputation. There is a need to build strong and steady institutions that protect life and property, provide policy stability, and develop contractual infrastructure that gives the foundation for doing business. The region has one of the lowest per capita levels of police force, which hampers law & order. Investment should be made to expand and modernise the police force. During times of transformation (a time of uncertainty), governments need strong institutions that can be built by developing clearly set, well thought out, and unchanging guidelines and regulations from an early period, that are well publicised. The region is socially hyper-fragmented. Such hyper-fragmentation creates cleavages in society, which are antagonistic to the regions goal of rapid growth and transformation. The region needs to build a common inclusive identity around regional and local pride, in order to build civic citizenship. One way to boost local pride and engagement is by improving civic amenities, for example, the Indore Swachhta Abhiyan (Hindi). Such a creation of boundary spanning identity is possible, given that Indian voters across demographic groups prioritise similar sets of issues that relate to the economy (jobs), civic amenities, and the local environment. Choosing the right economic model There are several growth models of cluster-led growth that the Hindi heartland can learn from. The Chinese Pearl River Delta has successfully transformed itself into a $2 trillion economy and the worlds greatest manufacturing hub. Such transformation (benefiting Uttar Pradesh as well) is also happening in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). Successful regional clusters enjoy high levels of political autonomy, and the power to set their own policies, future direction, and taxation. The region can follow this model of autonomous cluster formation in regions like Prayagraj-Varanasi and Kanpur-Lucknow. Additionally, it is necessary for the region to look at growth and inclusion as complements. Investor friendly reforms (like labour reforms) need to be balanced with public investments that encourage social mobility and human development. Economic clusters of the Hindi heartland need to quickly step up in the entrepreneurship and innovation space. States in south India and Bangladesh have used their economic growth to generate revenue that funds social and market inclusion through investment in public health, education, and credit, with a special focus on women and social safety net. Such inclusion (with improvements in human development) then further accelerates economic development creating a virtuous cycle of growth. Economic clusters of the Hindi heartland (outside of NCR), need to quickly step up in the entrepreneurship and innovation space as well, anchored around educational institutions. The pandemic, the subsequent lockdown, and the return of migrants home open up an opportunity for the region. The time is now ripe for the Hindi heartland to achieve sustained double-digit growth. The governments in the Hindi heartland organise astonishing governance feats such as the Kumbh Mela. Hence, they hold the governance capability to create dynamic and autonomous economic clusters, with proper emphasis on institutions, transportation linkages, and inclusion. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: Mars, the owner of the Uncle Bens rice brand, released a statement on its website saying it plans to change its brand identity citing its responsibility to take a stand in helping to put an end to racial bias and injustices. This move comes just hours after Quaker Oats announced a shift away from its Aunt Jemima line of products in the face of nationwide protests for racial equality. Companies have responded through statements and actions, and in this case by revisiting brands that might perpetuate racial stereotypes. The Uncle Bens website shares the back story on the naming of the brand, which goes back to the late 1940s. The brand was named after a prominent farmer who went by Uncle Ben, and that a man named Frank Brown, a maitre dhotel at a Chicago restaurant, agreed to pose for the Uncle Bens portrait. The About Us section does not currently appear on the Uncle Bens website in the United States. The story reads, per the Uncle Bens Australia website: The story goes that in the late 1940s, Gordon Harwell, one of the founders of Converted Brand Rice, and his partner were dining in their favorite Chicago restaurant. They were discussing how they were going to market their product to new customers, they began to discuss the legendary Texan farmer, Uncle Ben who was known for his exceptionally high quality rice. So right there and then, they christened their product Uncle Bens Converted Brand Rice. The face appearing on all Uncle Bens packaging is that of Frank Brown, a maitre dhotel (head waiter) at an exclusive Chicago restaurant who agreed to pose for the Uncle Bens portrait. Mars said in its statement that now is the right time to evolve the brand, but did not yet have clear plans on how or when it would do so: As a global brand, we know we have a responsibility to take a stand in helping to put an end to racial bias and injustices. As we listen to the voices of consumers, especially in the Black community, and to the voices of our Associates worldwide, we recognize that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Bens brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do. We dont yet know what the exact changes or timing will be, but we are evaluating all possibilities. Racism has no place in society. We stand in solidarity with the Black community, our Associates and our partners in the fight for social justice. We know to make the systemic change needed, its going to take a collective effort from all of us individuals, communities and organizations of all sizes around the world. OPPO just launched the Find X2 and X2 Pro, the companys latest flagship smartphones in India, as it had promised. These pack a 6.7-inch Quad HD+ OLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate, feature 2.98mm chin, and just 2.2mm bezel on the top. The phone features a 32-megapixel camera on the front inside a 3.84mm punch hole and the screen is curved 67.8. It is powered by Snapdragon 865 with 5G support and has triple thermal dissipation that uses thermal conductive gel, vapor chamber liquid cooling and multilayer graphite. These have 48-megapixel main camera with Sony sensors. The Find X2 has a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with 3cm macro mode and a 13-megapixel pixel telephoto camera for 5x hybrid zoom and up to 20x digital, while the Find X2 Pro has a 48-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera with 3cm macro and a 13-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with up to 10x hybrid zoom and up to 60x digital zoom. The Find X2 has a 4200mAh battery and the X2 Pro has a 4260mAh battery, both with 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 super flash charge fast charging that can charge the phone fully in 35 minutes. OPPO Find X2 and Find X2 Pro specifications 6.7-inch (3168 x 1440 pixels) Quad HD+ OLED 2.5D curved glass display with HDR10+, 120Hz refresh rate, 800 nits brightness, 1200 nits peak brightness, 100% DCI-P3 Color Gamut, Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection 2.84GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 865 7nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 650 GPU 12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 256GB (UFS 3.0) storage for Find X2 / 12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 512GB (UFS 3.0) storage for Find X2 Pro Android 10 with ColorOS 7.1 Dual SIM (nano + nano) Find X2 48MP primary camera with Sony IMX586 sensor, f/1.7 aperture, LED flash, OIS + EIS, 12MP 120 ultra-wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture, Sony IMX708 sensor, 3cm macro, 13MP telephoto camera with f/2.4 aperture, 5x hybrid zoom, up to 20x digital zoom Find X2 Pro 48MP primary camera with Sony IMX689 sensor, f/1.7 aperture, 7P lens LED flash, OIS + EIS, 48MP 120 ultra-wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture, Sony IMX586 sensor, 3cm macro, 13MP perisope telephoto camera with f/3.0 aperture, 20x hybrid zoom, up to 60x digital zoom, OIS 32MP front-facing camera with f/2.4 aperture In-display fingerprint sensor Water and Dust Resistance (IP68 for Find X2 Pro) / Splash Resistant (IP54 for Find X2) USB Type-C Audio, Stereo Speakers, Dolby Atmos, 3 microphones Find X2 Dimensions: 164.974.5 8mm; Weight:196g (ceramic) / 187g (glass) Find X2 Pro Dimensions: 165.274.4 8.8mm (ceramic); Weight:207g (ceramic) 5G SA/NSA, Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS/GLONASS, USB Type-C Find X2 4200mAh (Typical) battery with 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 flash charge Find X2 Pro 4260mAh (Typical) battery with 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 flash charge The OPPO Find X2 comes in Ceramic Black and Ocean Glass color, is priced at Rs. 64,990 and will go on sale on Amazon.in and other channels soon. The OPPO Find X2 Pro comes in Ceramic Black color, but the pricing is not announced since the company will donate the phone as a part of Forbes India Ultimate 120 Corona warriors. Since it was rolled out on 2 June, the StopCovid phone app, used to trace coronavirus infections has been downloaded 1.7 million times in France, representing approximately 2 percent of the population. The EU is concerned the way data is stored will be incompatible with other systems across the bloc, while closer to home, the issue of cost has been raised. It has been a slow start for the StopCovid tracing app launched by the French government two weeks ago, in an effort to curb any further spread of the coronavirus. This as the country leans in to phase three of easing lockdown measures. Although it has registered 1.7 million downloads so far, 600,000 in the first 24 hours, the number has dwindled since. Branded as an infringement on privacy by some politicians and rights groups, StopCovid has been the subject of many debates among lawmakers since its initial proposal in April. According to the investigative news website Mediapart, more data was being collected from mobile phones than originally specified in the brief. The app is designed to collect only information from nearby users who were within a one metre distance for at least 15 minutes. Gaetan Leurent, one of the researchers associated with the project, run by the government digital development agency Inria, admitted that the amount of data collected was in fact much more than originally proposed. The National data protection agency (CNIL) on 4 June, said they were looking in to the issue, and said that systems had been set up to monitor the app. Low download rate Furthermore, some critics have pointed to the fact that unless a high percent of the population signs up to the voluntary app, its reach will not be efficient in tracing the virus. With only 2 percent of the population downloading and activating the app, it appears the French public have not openly adopted the measure. This contrasts with users in Australia for example where the CovidSafe app was downloaded by 8 percent of the population. Story continues The Norwegian app, Smittestopp (Infection Stop) launched three weeks before the French one, was initially used by 11 percent of the population, or one quarter. However, the app has recently been withdrawn following a formal recommendation from Norway's data agency over privacy concerns. France's Digital affairs minister Cedric O, in charge of the project admitted that, "seeing how the epidemic has weakened, the utility of the app is relative." He said it was also too early to judge the success of the app, which was co-developed by the government agency Inria, and supported by several French companies such as Orange, CapGemini and Dassault Systems. Incompatible with EU systems Futhermore, the vice president of the European Commission said on Tuesday that the French app is not compatible with other apps used in the EU, due to the way data is stored. Margrethe Vestager explained the problem of incompatibility of the systems to members of the National Assembly during an open session on Tuesday. The EU hopes to be able to compile tracing data across borders in order to map any development of the virus and to implement health measures accordingly. It is also to reassure visitors, in order to boost the coming tourism season, seen as vital to economic recovery. At this stage, France uses Bluetooth technology linked to a centralised data system, where as Germany, Italy and other member states have opted for Bluetooth data which is only exchanged between mobile phones and is not centralised. "It is a delicate operation to set set up technical norms between centralised and decentralised systems," Vestager told law-makers. High maintenance cost In terms of the cost, since the launch, the app is estimated to cost the government some 100,000 euros per month. "Health has no price," Cedric O said in an interview with the Nouvel Obs on 27 May. "The sum is negligible compared to what medical bills from intensive care would cost." The fees go towards the maintenance and hosting in a server run by 3DS Outscale, a subsidiary of the Dassault group, according to the finance ministry. The anti-corruption NGO Anticor has warned that there may be an unfair playing field, with a "risk of saturation" due to the absence of a public market for this kind of app. The organisation has filed a complaint with a Paris financial court over the cost of the app. "Developed for free, StopCovid will now cost the government more than 200,000 euros in hosting fees. A sum which is much higher than the current market rate. We have therefore filed a complaint," the message read on Twitter. President Assad has sent a message to all members of the Baath Party, but failed to mention political and military developments in Syria or the economic crisis writes Al-Modon. Though Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was expected to give a public address on Sunday, he contented himself with sending an internal message to members of the Baath Party, focusing on preparations for the Peoples Assembly elections to take place in July. Assad noticeably ignored political and military developments in Syria. His message also neglected to mention the countrys worsening economic crisis, with the incoming US Caesar sanctions. The president, who is also the general secretary of the Baath Party, instead encouraged members of the party, which has been in power since 1963, to participate in choosing their candidates for the elections. It is certain that the messages sole focus on party matters, without any attention towards general issues in Syria, will surprise Syrians who awaited Assads speechespecially since many of them were expecting him to announce new steps to face economic collapse. Some Syrians had been even more optimistic, expecting the president to make political concessions that would have contributed to pushing for a political solution to end the war. And although Assad devoted his speech to party matters, he did not present any new thinking that could be considered a sign of developments and new ideology of the Baath Party. Instead, he reiterated the notability and authenticity of the party, its development, interactions, sacrifices and struggles. Assad did acknowledge small mistakes made by the party, its members and leadership. But these did not appear important enough for him to warrant adequate recognition of their impact. He said, [The partys history] has not been free from the mistakes that many parties make, which led to its role declining at some stages, and the abuse of its image in other stages. It also led to the reluctance of some to engage in carrying responsibilities. There was also some imbalance in relations between the leadership and the base within the party, forming an obstacle that caused a regression of the rules from those carrying out their responsibilities, and thus their absenceor detractionfrom exercising their right and duty to run, elect or take part in bringing about competent leaders to represent them in the party or in elected national institutions. All of this led to party stagnation on the ideological and procedural levels. Assad also included in his message the solution to everything mentioned above, Taking the most important steps to preserve, develop and strengthen the party, including expanding the participation of party members in choosing their representatives for the Peoples Assembly [because] taking this step, in these circumstances, is evidence of the high vitality and spirit of renewal that distinguishes the party. Assads words in describing the Baathists does not agree with the view of other Syrians, who believe that if Hafez al-Assad undermined the party in favor of dictatorship in Syria, then his sons rule has completely undermined the Baath party and has reduced it to ruins. There are some who affirm that Bashar was never for one day convinced of the Baath partys ideals, and that he has been making fun of it and its ideas even after he took power in the partys own name. 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. Police said the youth said he felt regret soon after the vandalism was committed. The 18-year old also described feeling regret, and police said the teenagers said they wanted to turn themselves in. In going to the police station, both were accompanied by parents, police said. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday defended his governments move of making Covid-free certificates mandatory for all passengers returning from West Asia from June 20, saying it was in the states larger interest. As many as 200-odd chartered and 70 flights as part of the Vande Bharat Mission for the repatriation of stranded Indians abroad are scheduled to arrive in Kerala. The state earlier insisted on Covid-free certificates for those returning on chartered flights. It added the conditionality to Vande Bharat flights on Tuesday. Vijayan asked the opposition to stop playing politics at the time of pandemic while insisting the state has been consistent with its demand. Some people are creating confusion and misleading stranded people... We want to bring them back. But the test is a must as we cannot take any chances. He added the number of Covid-19 cases went up after people started coming from abroad and other states. He said 179 Vande Bharat and 124 chartered flights have brought back 84,000 people so far. Vijayan insisted Indian embassies can arrange for testing if facilities for them are unavailable in some countries. He said tests were conducted when people were evacuated from Italy and other European countries last month. Bringing back people without testing is really dangerous. If one passenger is infected, he will transmit it to others. Bharatiya Janata Partys Kerala president K Surendran accused Vijayan of planning to sabotage even Vande Bharat evacuations by putting unreasonable demands. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In the eight-hour long violent hand-to-hand fight that raged across the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, China's Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) assault teams armed with iron rods and batons wrapped in barbed wire hunted down and slaughtered personnel of the 16 Bihar Regiment, reported News18 citing a senior government official familiar with the debriefing of survivors at hospitals in Leh. In the fierce clash, unarmed men who fled into the hillsides were hunted down and killed, an officer told the publication. Even the men who jumped into the Galwan river in a desperate effort to escape were killed, the officer said. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including Colonel Santosh Babu, were reportedly killed in a fierce clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15 night. At least another two dozen soldiers are battling life-threatening injuries and over 110 have needed treatment, said the report. The toll will likely go up, a military officer with knowledge of the issue was quoted as saying. According to the report, the fighting started after troops under Colonel Babus command dismantled a Chinese tent set up near a position code-named Patrol Point 14, close to the mouth of the Galwan river. It was done following a meeting between Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, who commands the Leh-based XIV Corps, and Major-General Lin Liu, the head of the Xinjiang military district. However, the PLA refused to vacate Point 14 leading to a melee in which the Chinese tent was burned down, said the report quoting its sources. The burning of the tent was followed by stone-pelting on June 14, and then a massive June 15 night attack on the 16 Bihars unprepared troops, sources told the publication. In the fight, Chinese troops threw large rocks towards the Indian positions, they added. India-China Border News LIVE It is said to be the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. The casualties take both sides into uncharted territory at a time when the government's attention is focused on fighting the COVID-19 crisis that appears to be ballooning by the day. A large number of Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Galwan Valley and certain other areas of eastern Ladakh for the last five weeks, including in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry officials were silent on the casualties suffered by the PLA troops, but Hu Xijin, the editor of the ruling Communist Party-run Global Times tabloid, tweeted to say that there are casualties on Chinese side too. Meanwhile, there are reports that the Chinese Army suffered 35 casualties in the clash with the Indian Army. (With inputs from PTI) AccuWeather forecasters warn that warm weather conditions through the week could lead to an expanding wildfire threat as fires in Arizona ravage more than 280,000 acres across the state. Temperatures forecast to topple 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the lower deserts of southeastern California and Arizona this week are likely to aid wildfire growth and hinder containment efforts. Over Father's Day weekend firefighters continued battling the Bush Fire, Mangum Fire and Bighorn Fire. The Bush Fire is the largest current wildfire in the United States and the fifth-largest fire in the history of Arizona. The fire doubled in size from Tuesday to Wednesday and forced thousands to evacuate. The Bush Fire in southern Arizona morphed from one of many blazes in the region to one of the largest in state history, seemingly overnight. According to the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Phoenix, the Bush Fire's sudden growth moved up its burnt acreage total to the fifth largest wildfire in state history. According to Inciweb, the blaze had swelled to more than 184,000 acres and was 42% contained as of early Monday morning. The communities of Brownsville, Jake's Corner, Slate Creek, Pioneer Pass, Apache Lake, Sunflower, Punkin Center and Tonto Basin were all told to evacuate. Several state roads were closed as flames approached. In the coronavirus era, those evacuation orders come with extra health-related focuses. The blaze was initially started by a car fire on Bush Highway, which ignited dry brush and grass. Currently burning to the northeast of Phoenix, the fire has yet to destroy any homes or structures, but photos depicting the blaze's burn scars and fire fronts are frighteningly close to residences. NOAA's GOES-17 satellite captured dramatic images of the fire burning out of control northeast of Phoenix. The weather satellite is positioned 23,000 miles away from Earth and it recorded footage in which the flames from the blaze were visible and plumes of smoke were seen shooting into the atmosphere. Story continues Satellite images capture the wide burn range of the Bush Fire as it continues spreading without containment on Wednesday, June 17. (NASA Earth Observatory) "Danger in these areas is imminent and life threatening," the fire information page reads. "Residents should evacuate immediately to a shelter or with family/friends outside of the affected area. Residents should avoid close contact with those who are sick and should practice public health recommendations when relocating." In the southeastern corner of Arizona, firefighters battling the state's previous largest blazes -- the Bighorn Fire, the Blue River Fire and the Sawtooth Fire -- made significant containment progress with all three. Burning by the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, the Bighorn Fire alone has burned over 50,000 acres as more than 900 personnel have worked to contain the blaze. As of early Monday morning, 16% of the fire has been contained. SPEECHLESS: Check out this video that captured smoke from the Bighorn FIre piling into the sky near Summerhaven. https://t.co/5mUgKKjUbY pic.twitter.com/9NZtZLzW0j KVOA News 4 Tucson (@KVOA) June 18, 2020 The fire prompted evacuations at Mount Lemmon and Mount Bigelow, areas that have received particularly close attention due to the spread potential in populated areas, Public Information Officer Molly Hunter told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. "There are so many different communities around different parts of the fire to the south and west. You've got Tucson and Oro Valley, those are big municipalities," Hunter said. "Then as the fire goes up the mountain, we've got smaller communities, the town of Summerhaven is on top of Mount Lemmon. That's an area where we're focusing on more recently because the fire has the potential to perhaps spread in that direction." CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP As weather conditions and other factors, such as difficult terrain, caused a long and grueling fight against the wildfire, which was ignited by a lightning strike on June 5, communities have been turning out to offer support for firefighters. "The community here has been wonderful in their support of firefighters. Issuing thank you notes and signs and all that stuff and the firefighters are really appreciative and they feel that community support," Hunter told Wadell. Around 160 miles to the north, by the Grand Canyon, the state's second-largest fire also grew rapidly in the first half of this week. Known as the Mangum Fire, the blaze ignited more than 66,000 acres with 23% containment as of early Monday morning. The Mangum Fire as it pushed toward Jacob Lake. Image via Twitter/KaibabNF According to Inciweb, the fire forced numerous road closures and led the U.S. Forest Service to close the North Kaibab Ranger District. Those road closures rendered the North Rim of the Grand Canyon inaccessible. #MangumFire "We attacked directly and fell back and attacked again, too many times to count. The fire burned within feet of the Historic Ranger station but through pre-preparation and crews arriving back on scene in the nick of time... saved it."@KaibabNF pic.twitter.com/g6YxIJIEBI Mangum Fire Info (@MangumFire) June 19, 2020 Reporting by Bill Wadell. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. An international webinar on prospects for a new bipolar world order and its impacts on Asia-Pacific took place on June 16, gathering leading scholars from Russia, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Vietnam. Vietnam attends the international webinar on impacts of new world order on Asia-Pacific which takes place on June 16. The event was hosted by the Moscow-based Valdai Discussion Club. Participating speakers shared a view that the tension is likely to linger in the Asia-Pacific region in the wake of rising US-China strategic competition. Viktor Sumsky, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO)s ASEAN Centre Director, said the new bipolar world order is not compatiable to the regional development given that realising the dream of making the 21st century an Asian century is a big question. What it is happening now could wreak havoc on the cooperation system that has existed in the region over the last more than three decades, he said. The speakers widely agreed that regional powerhouses are less likely to engage in severe or direct military conflicts. Despite that, clashes involving third parties is an actual risk which will concern regional countries, said Nguyen Hung Son, Director General of the Institute for East Sea Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. He urged the powerhouses to take responsible actions and observe international laws while countries in the Asia-Pacific region should further expand areas of cooperation. During the webinar, Russian and Asian speakers also discussed other pressing issues in the region./.VNA Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 19:17:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin said Wednesday that the United States' new sanctions against Syria will not fall in the interest of Lebanon, local media reported. "Lebanon does not have an interest in new sanctions," Zasypkin was quoted as saying by Elnashra, local independent newspaper. Zasypkin said that the United States is aiming to achieve its goals by waging economic wars and exerting pressure on other powers. The United States has placed, starting Wednesday, new sanctions against Syria, known as the Caesar Act, which targets the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in oil, construction, engineering, and military sectors, while it also threatens to punish Syria's allies such as Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah warned a day earlier against negative repercussions of this act on Lebanon, which relies mainly on its land borders with Syria for its exports to Arab countries. Enditem Ireland has won a seat on the UN Security Council after winning 128 votes at the UN General Assembly. Ireland received the backing of two thirds of UN member nations in the first round of voting. The country has been campaigning against Norway and Canada for a seat for the last two years. Norway topped the poll with 130 votes while Canada received 108 votes. Irelands two-year term will begin in January next year. Speaking after the vote, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: I believe it was a vote for the values that Ireland represents on the world stage multilateralism, freedom, human rights, and the basic concept that countries in the world should work together to build a more peaceful, prosperous and stable world order. Our return to the UN Security Council is a recognition of our work on the world stage over many decades, and we will use our presence to advance the causes weve championed peace and security, conflict resolution and reconciliation, climate action, sustainable development and gender equality. Recent events show us, more so than ever, that global challenges can only be overcome when the international community stands in solidarity and works together through the UN system. The Irish Government has spent more than 840,000 euro on its campaign for the seat over the last two years and has spent that time lobbying other countries. Our belief in multilateralism is a cornerstone of Irish foreign policy. Simon Coveney Cultural events involving U2 and Riverdance have formed part of the campaign, while President of Ireland Michael D Higgins and Mr Varadkar met with foreign dignitaries. Voting took place in a socially distanced manner in New York, with ambassadors given time slots to cast their ballot. Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said: Why does it matter that our small country sits on the UN Security Council? Ive heard the criticism. The problems are too big and big states wont listen. To those people, I point out that in the last six months the world has been threatened by a virus that knows no nationality, no borders and respects no superpower. Countries are fighting back but we dont yet have a medicine. The only thing we have is shared knowledge. We have knowledge on how to slow the spread and how to prevent infection. No one country on earth will stop coronavirus, just like no one country on earth will counter climate change or hunger or Aids or poverty or gender inequality, or deliver peace in conflict zones. Our belief in multilateralism is a cornerstone of Irish foreign policy. The voice of small countries also provides global solutions. Mr Higgins said the election of Ireland to the Security Council is a cause for celebration. The work of a dedicated team has been recognised, and I congratulate them on having brought what was a principled campaign, in a competitive environment, to both fruition and success, Mr Higgins said. The support Ireland has received vindicates the decision to run a campaign that did not avoid the issues that are urgent; a campaign that engaged with global issues, such as peace-building and peacekeeping, the elimination of global poverty, the strengthening of multilateralism, and reform of the United Nations. Irish officials told the PA news agency they are breathing a sigh of relief following the vote. They said: Ahead of the vote we thought our chances were 60/40. Officials couldnt get a lay of the land as to where the vote would go. Usually we would all see what is going on but campaigning has been going on the phone or over Zoom calls, it was hard to draw people out. Norway had spent around 2 million euros on their bid, they are already a Nato member and had obvious credentials when it came to security matters. Canada has retreated from the global stage somewhat in recent years but since Trudeau became leader, he has really pushed for them to get back elected to the Security Council. Unlike Ireland it has the added advantage of being an English and French speaking country and can link to some countries in Africa. Officials say Irelands history helped it in the campaign. We have a history of empathy we have our history which featured famine, sectarian conflict, civil war this is what emerging countries will be coming to terms with after Covid-19. One diplomat said the endorsement of the campaign form Bono helped but it was one strand of Irelands overall campaign. Bono is a household name and a great communicator and needs no introduction on the global stage. It wont be a case of saying one individual was responsible if we win the work on this across all streams has been ongoing for years. NORRISTOWN An Upper Dublin woman will be under court supervision for several years after she admitted to her role in a multi-state methamphetamine and marijuana trafficking ring that utilized the U.S. Postal Service to carry out the drug crimes. Lorraine Yvonne Zeno, 38, of the 600 block of Ardross Avenue, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Monday to 30 months time served on charges of corrupt organizations, possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine and marijuana, dealing in proceeds of unlawful acts and criminal use of a communication facility in connection with incidents that occurred between April 2016 and November 2017. While Zeno, who pleaded guilty to the charges, was given credit for time she has been in jail since 2017 while awaiting court action, with parole and an additional 5-year probationary sentence she will remain under court supervision for several more years. With the charges, prosecutors alleged Zeno was one of the leaders of the drug trafficking network. A second leader of the corrupt organization, Brian Justin Holt, 45, who listed addresses along North Redwood Court and along Drayton Circle in Montgomery Township, previously pleaded guilty to similar drug-related charges and was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in state prison. Leonardo Christian Fernandez, 35, of Monrovia, Calif., one of three California sources of the drug, previously was sentenced to 9 to 18 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to drug-related charges. Fernandez, Zeno and Holt, authorities said, were part of The Big Five involved in the trafficking ring. Two other men from California also were charged in connection with the drug ring. About a dozen people, some of them customers and sub-dealers, also were charged during the investigation of the corrupt organization. At the time of the arrests, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele alleged members of the drug trafficking organization mailed packages of crystal methamphetamine and marijuana, using the U.S. Postal Service, from California to Zeno and Holt in Montgomery County since at least April 2016. During the joint investigation that involved law enforcement from Pennsylvania, California and New Jersey, authorities identified more than 350 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and marijuana that was sent in multiple shipments, according to court documents. Investigators shut down the organization operating in Pennsylvania and worked their way back to the suppliers in California, according to Steele. This investigation again illustrates that law enforcement is united in our fight against deadly drugs of all kinds heroin, opioids, fentanyl, methamphetamine and pills, Steele said at the time of the arrests. All of this poison is killing residents of Montgomery County and other communities in the region and those that traffic this poison need to realize its not worth it because we are going to keep investigating, arresting and holding accountable those responsible. The cases were prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Samantha Thompson. The investigation began in 2016 when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service identified and intercepted a suspicious parcel being shipped from California to Montgomery County, according to court documents. Investigators alleged the parcel contained about one pound of crystal meth. Investigators subsequently uncovered cross-country shipments of bulk quantities of methamphetamine and marijuana to members of the Zeno and Holt drug trafficking organization. Authorities said the shipments received were then sold to other drug dealers and individuals in Montgomery and Bucks counties and Philadelphia. The corrupt organization headed by Zeno and Holt then sent the illegal proceeds for the drugs to those involved in California, according to the criminal complaint. The investigation involved the use of court-authorized wiretaps on the phones of Zeno and Holt, which helped identify the alleged California suppliers. Investigators also learned the identities of Zeno and Holts methamphetamine customers, some of whom also distributed the drug and assisted Zeno and Holt with receiving the drugs at locations referred to as work sites, according to the arrest affidavit. Microsoft Corporation will collaborate with Omans National Youth Council (NYC) to upgrade Omani youths skill in emerging technologies, Trade Arabia reports. The Washington-based tech giant will organize Youth Tech Bootcamp during which students and working professionals will have the opportunity to get hands on trainings and harness technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT), a statement from the council said. The camp is in line with the Gulf countrys plan to position its youths as drivers of its agenda for Fourth Industrial Revolution and transform industries to drive sustained economic growth. Our youth will be the core drivers of this journey. Hence, it is of utmost importance that we skill and upskill national talent for them to make the most of latest technology and become experts, so they can accelerate innovation, create jobs as well as be prepared for the jobs of future. Our partnership with Microsoft will be at the center of this effort to empower Omani youth and contribute to the ongoing digital transformation journey of the Sultanate thus reshaping our today and tomorrow, said President of NYC Sami Bin Salim Al-Kharusi. The Gulf country has rolled up an Omanization program for its work market as it seeks to create more employment for its citizens. To achieve the goals, authorities have decided to reduce expat workers in the public sector. Authorities in January last year ceased issuing employment visas for expats in 87 professions, which include media, engineering, accounting and finance, IT, insurance, technicians, administration and HR industries. The ban was set to last for six months but was extended in July the same year. Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday wrote to union Human Resources Development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank requesting him to cancel the plan of conducting the remaining CBSE board exams for Class 10 and 12 slated to take place in July owing to surge of Covid-19 in the city and instead promote all students based on their internal assessment records. Earlier on April 28, Sisodia had made a similar request with the HRD minister during a virtual meeting. However, the ministry on May 8 had announced that it will conduct the pending 29 papers of Class 10 and 12 between July 1 and July 15. In his letter addressed to Pokhriyal, Sisodia on Monday said, I am writing to draw your attention towards my concern regarding the plan of CBSE to conduct the remaining exams of class 10 and 12 in July. I hope you would agree with me that the board exams, particularly those of class 12 are high stake exams for children. Hence, subjecting them to take this exam in such an uncertain and anxiety-prone situation would not be fair to them. Sisodia said that it will be extremely difficult to conduct exams in Delhi due to the rising Covid-19 positive cases on a daily basis. During the last one week, the daily number of Covid-19 positive cases has been rising and the total number of confirmed cases stands at 44, 688 (as of June 16). This is likely to rise to 5.5 lakh by July 31. In such a situation, if a candidate or someone in the family tests positive, he or she will have to skip the exam causing further distress, he said in the letter. The education minister said that there are 242 containment zones in the capital presently and the number will rise in future. As per the current CBSE plan, a school in these zones will not be used as an exam centre but there is no clarity on how children from these zones will come out to take their exams, he said. Mentioning that as many as 251 government schools in Delhi are currently being used as dry ration distribution centres, 33 schools have been converted into hunger relief centres, 39 as shelter homes, 10 as migrant camps and another 10 as quarantine centres, Sisodia said, These schools will not be in a position of conducting exams from July 1, 2020. He said that the Delhi government is planning to use auditoriums in nearly 242 schools to set up beds for Covid-19 patients to meet the requirement of additional beds, which is estimated to shoot up to around 80,000 by the end of July. Conducting exams in the same building where there are hundreds of Covid-19 patients will be a serious risk. In such a situation, using school buildings between July 1 and July 15 and ensuring that all eligible students take their exams may be extremely difficult. Therefore, I once again request you to remove any further uncertainty and declare that exams for 29 subjects proposed to be conducted in July will not be conducted at all. For the results in these subjects, the CBSE may rely upon the previous school-based internal assessments which include project work, periodic tests, term exams, etc, he said. The maximum number of pending papers are in north-east Delhi, where exams were curtailed due to the communal riots in the last week of February. Exams for the entire country were postponed on March 19, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the exams for subjects of Class 12 will be held across the country, the exams for class 10 will be held only in north-east Delhi. Principals of both government and private schools backed Sisodias demand. AK Jha, Principal of Sarvodaya Co-ed School in Rohini, said, Its going to be really difficult to conduct exams amid the pandemic while maintaining social distance. It will not only be dangerous for students but also for the teachers.They will have to collect question papers from bank, distribute among students and then collect it and pack them. There will be a lot of human contact. The students should be promoted based on practicals, since its taken in presence of externals appointed by the CBSE. Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu School, agreed. Although schools are preparing for the exams but it will be very difficult to conduct exams amid the pandemic. The government should take the decision considering the safety and security of the students, she said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Speaker of Parliament Gracia Shadrack, President Tallis Obed Moses, Acting ComPol Robson Iavro, Prime Minister Bob Loughman and Leader of Opposition Ralph Regenvanu during the opening of the First Ordinary Session of Parliament yesterday morning. Photo: Terence Malapa 3-kg bomb at Delhi flower market: Police yet to zero in on any suspect Traders' body releases list of 500 items to be boycotted from China India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, June 17: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has released a list of more than 500 'Made in China' products to be boycotted after the India and China engaged in skirmishes at the Galwan Valley earlier this week. These include items such as apparel, consumer electronics, kitchenware, watches, decorative lighting, toys, etc. S Jaishankar tells Chinese counterpart: Chinese side took pre-meditated action | Oneindia News "Indian traders have taken a very firm pledge and resolve to teach China a strong lesson by reducing Chinese imports and will leave no stone unturned to achieve the target of One Lakh crore set by CAIT. Even though the business of traders will suffer, as quite a few are importing from China, but still for them nothing comes before national interest and they have decided to stand in solidarity with the movement," CAIT said in its statement. Talks between Major Generals of India, China in Galwan inconclusive: Report CAIT also urged Indian celebrities stop endorsing Chinese brands. To be sure, several Indian celebrities promote popular mobile phone brands such as Vivi, Oppo, among others. Meanwhile, terms like "List of Chinese apps, List of Chinese apps in India, List of Chinese products used in India, Alternative to Chinese Products" were on top google search. The ties between India and China have been tumultuous since the PLA claimed sovereignty over Indian territory in Ladakh. On Tuesday there were reports of deadly fighting between the armies of the two countries in Ladakh. At least 20 Indian soldiers have been killed in the confrontation. China is yet to reveal its casualties. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 22:33 [IST] A Chinese human rights lawyer detained in Beijing two years ago after calling for multi-candidate elections was sentenced to four years in prison on Wednesday, his wife told AFP. Yu Wensheng was charged with "inciting subversion of state power" after penning an open letter calling for constitutional reforms. "This outcome is one that I cannot accept. It's too harsh. He is an innocent man," his wife Xu Yan said. "We don't know if we can see him in the future. There's a chance we won't be able to," she added. China has seen a dramatic crackdown on civil liberties and religious freedoms since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, with over 200 human rights lawyers and activists detained or questioned in 2015. Yu's wife was previously told he was held in Xuzhou, in Jiangsu province. AFP was unable immediately to confirm the sentence with prosecutors there. Chen Yue, director-general of the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, said: "There was no verdict or notice (for the trial)... we don't know the reasons behind this." "In this time, we have not received any news about Yu Wensheng's physical condition or what kind of treatment he has received," Chen told AFP. Amnesty International?s Asia-Pacific regional director Nicholas Bequelin called Yu's sentencing "political persecution dressed up as legal process". "Not only was Yu prosecuted under baseless charges for the lawful and legitimate work he was conducting as a lawyer, his own lawyer was not even permitted to attend the sentencing hearing," he said. The group added that Yu was also previously detained in 2014 after voicing support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and "told Amnesty International he was tortured in detention". Yu Wensheng poses for a portrait in Beijing in 2017. His wife said the human rights lawyer had been sentenced to four years in jail for "inciting the subversion of state power" Saudi Aramco today announced that it has completed its acquisition of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, making the company a major global petrochemical player. The Sabic shares were purchased for a price of SR259.125 billion ($69.1 billion), equating to SR123.39 price per share, Aramco said. The completion of the transaction enhances Aramcos presence in the global petrochemicals industry, a sector expected to record the fastest growth in oil demand in the years ahead. Combined, in 2019 Aramco and Sabic recorded petrochemicals production volume of nearly 90 million tonnes, including agri-nutrient and specialty products, said an Aramco statement. What's the aim of the acquistion? The acquisition of the Sabic stake is consistent with Aramcos long-term Downstream strategy to grow its integrated refining and petrochemicals capacity and create value from integration across the hydrocarbon chain. It specifically enhances Aramcos chemicals strategy by transforming Aramco into one of the major global petrochemicals players; integrating upstream production with Sabic feedstock; expanding capabilities in procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, marketing and sales; complementing geographic presence, projects and partners; and increasing the resilience of cash flow generation with synergistic opportunities. Sabic expects also to benefit from Aramcos Downstream chemicals feedstock production, and ability to invest in and execute major growth projects at a very large scale. Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, Governor, Public Investment Fund (PIF), said: This is a significant milestone for three of Saudi Arabias most important entities. It provides capital for PIFs long-term investment strategy as it drives the economic transformation and growth of Saudi Arabia, further benefitting the people of our country; it supports Aramcos continued growth in Downstream and enhances its international footprint; and, it provides SABIC a new strategic energy industry focused shareholder with the ability to support growth projects. Beginning of a new chapter Amin Nasser, President & CEO, Aramco, said: We are excited to complete this transaction. It is a significant leap forward which accelerates Aramcos Downstream strategy and transforms our company into one of the major global petrochemicals players. The strategic integration of our Upstream production and Downstream chemicals feedstock production with SABICs chemicals platform is expected to create opportunities for selective integration synergies that support growth and add value for shareholders. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic forcing many companies to rethink or revise their long term strategies, our long-term focus, financial strength and resilience have enabled us to complete this historic deal. It marks the beginning of a new chapter in the history of both companies and is an important marker in delivering our long term Downstream strategy. Abdulaziz Al-Gudaimi, Senior Vice President of Downstream, Aramco, said: The completion of this transaction marks an important step in Aramcos continuous drive to develop a global integrated Downstream business designed to add value across the hydrocarbon chain. As Sabic joins the Aramco family of companies, we expect to create synergies and add value through integration in procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, marketing and sales. Yousef A Al-Benyan, Vice Chairman and CEO, Sabic, said: Sabics relationship with PIF and Aramco goes back to our inception in 1976. Sabic is grateful to His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan for the strong and constant support we have received from both him and PIF. The global scale and presence of Sabic, one of the worlds most significant diversified chemicals companies, brings significant enhancements to Aramco. As the chemicals growth platform, Sabic expects to benefit from the additional scale, technology, investment potential, and growth opportunities Aramco will bring in integrated energy and chemicals production. We look forward to contributing to global chemicals growth, while continuing to support Saudi Vision 2030. As the new majority shareholder of Sabic, Aramco has the ability to elect the majority of Sabics directors. The Sabic board will ensure strategic alignment, and oversee further creation of value for Sabic and all of its shareholders as Sabic becomes an important member of the Aramco group. A Corporate Collaboration and Integration Committee has also been established to make recommendations on collaboration and integration matters expected to create value for Sabic in particular and for the Aramco group as a whole. This committee will be chaired by the Sabic CEO and will include two other members from Sabic and three members from Aramco. - TradeArabia News Service [June 17, 2020] Leading Kidney Care Company, Dialyze Direct, Announces Expansion of Telehealth Services for Skilled Nursing Inpatient Facilities NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dialyze Direct, a leader in staff-assisted home dialysis services, announced today the expansion of its telehealth program for patients in skilled nursing facilities. The company has created a dedicated telehealth task force to increase the standard of care provided to skilled nursing facility residents receiving dialysis treatments. In combination with the company's proprietary data intelligence solutions, Dialyze Direct can now offer patients advanced coordinated care options within the nursing home. "Dialyze Direct's advanced telecommunication program allows our interdisciplinary team to optimize communication with patients and their physicians, ensuring continuity of care in a highly informed environment. By eliminating non-essential face-to-face encounters through both our telehealth platform and on-site dialysis, we are empowering nursing homes to create a safer environment," said Alice Hellebrand, Chief Nursing Officer of Dialyze Direct. The company is responding to heightened needs amongst End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including an emphasis on roviding dialysis options at home, further reducing infection exposure. With more patients looking to receive dialysis in their home, Dialyze Direct's expanded telehealth platform is facilitating enhanced collaboration amongst the staff and physicians responsible for patients' care. As the company develops innovative solutions to meet this growing demand, this platform will provide an extra layer of patient oversight necessary in order to enhance patient visibility and comfort with home modalities. Dialyze Direct currently provides care to patients residing in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Tennessee. For more information on Dialyze Direct, please visit www.DialyzeDirect.com. About Dialyze Direct: Dialyze Direct is a leading kidney care innovation company, pioneering breakthrough solutions for patients suffering from kidney disease. Dialyze Direct has created a dialysis model resulting in significantly improved patient outcomes and quality of life while substantially decreasing costs for payers. With a mission to build the next generation of kidney care, Dialyze Direct works with the world's leading nephrology talent to develop new methods and technology to evolve the treatment options nephrologists have at their disposal. Dialyze Direct has launched operations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Tennessee, and is in working to launch operations in additional states. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leading-kidney-care-company-dialyze-direct-announces-expansion-of-telehealth-services-for-skilled-nursing-inpatient-facilities-301078777.html SOURCE Dialyze Direct [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Flash flooding blocks the Queensway road in Derriaghy on June 16th 2020 following torrential rain (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Flash flooding blocks the Queensway road in Derriaghy on June 16th 2020 following torrential rain (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Flash flooding blocks the Queensway road in Derriaghy on June 16th 2020 following torrential rain (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Flash flooding blocks the Queensway road in Derriaghy on June 16th 2020 following torrential rain (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Flash flooding blocks the Queensway road in Derriaghy on June 16th 2020 following torrential rain (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Flash flooding blocks the Queensway road in Derriaghy on June 16th 2020 following torrential rain (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Flash flooding blocks the Queensway road in Derriaghy on June 16th 2020 following torrential rain (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) A Northern Ireland weather alert for thunderstorms has been extended with warnings for possible flash flooding. Parts of Northern Ireland were deluged with rain on Tuesday evening. A yellow weather warning was in place from noon on Wednesday until 9pm. That has now been extended until midnight. It applies to counties Antrim, Armagh and Down. Although some places will remain dry, slow moving heavy showers and thunderstorms may lead to disruption due to flooding, forecasters said. "Slow-moving heavy showers and thunderstorms will break out across many parts of the UK again on Wednesday afternoon," the Met Office added. "Some places will miss them, but where they do occur they will bring torrential downpours with 25 to 35 mm rain falling in an hour and perhaps 50 to 60 mm in 2 to 3 hours in one or two places. Lightning and hail will be additional hazards. These showers and thunderstorms will only slowly die out through the evening." The Met Office warned of the potential for the flooding of homes and businesses happening quickly, with damage to some buildings from floodwater, lightning strikes, hail or strong winds Fast flowing or deep floodwater is possible, causing a danger to life. There were also warnings of disruption to travel with some parts cut off. Power cuts might occur and other services to some homes and businesses could be lost, the Met Office said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Madrid, Spain Wed, June 17, 2020 18:15 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf937ec 2 Business Spain,economy,recovery,job-vacancy,jobs,job-opportunities,coronavirus,coronavirus-effect,COVID-19,COVID-19-joblessness Free Spain's economy has started to recover after the severe impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said on Wednesday, citing favorable employment indicators following the gradual easing of a lockdown since May. She said 1 million furloughed workers were working again and 300,000 new workers had registered with social security. "The recovery phase has already started," she told parliament, adding that the trend change was backed by various indicators, mainly the latest job creation data. While the Spanish economy is heading for the worst contraction on record in 2020, of up to 11.6%, the Bank of Spain forecast the recovery would start in the second half of this year, with GDP likely to bounce back and grow by 7.7% to 9.1% next year. It expected the economy to bottom out in the second quarter with a slump of around 22%, but recovery in the tourist-dependent country should be a little stronger than the euro zone average. Early indicators, such as Spanish services and factory PMIs, showed businesses partly resumed activity in May after plunging in April. Spain is emerging from a three-month lockdown after the virus caused one of the world's heaviest death tolls. Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings and his wife, philanthropist Patty Quillin, will donate $120 million to several historically black colleges and universities and the United Negro College Fund. Hastings and Quillin said $40 million will be equally donated to the Washington, D.C.-based United Negro College Fund and Atlanta, Ga. headquartered colleges Spelman College, and Morehouse College. The donation will help over 200 first-year students enroll at Morehouse College and Spelman over the next decade, Hastings and Quillin said in a statement co-signed by Spelman College president Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell. Students that enroll under the scholarship will receive free tuition, room and board for the duration of their undergraduate studies. Also Read: Crystal Kayiza, Alison Klayman to Showcase New Doc Shorts at New Yorker's Documentary: Remote Festival Series (Exclusive) Weve supported these three extraordinary institutions for the last few years because we believe that investing in the education of Black youth is one of the best ways to invest in Americas future, Quillin and Hastings said in a joint statement issued Wednesday. Both of us had the privilege of a great education and we want to help more students in particular students of color get the same start in life. Both Quillin and Hastings said their most recent donation is the latest of several efforts to fund schools that predominantly serve black and brown Americans, dating back to 1997 investments in the KIPP charter school network. The two said that while HBCUs are known for producing incredible students and faculty, they are generally under-funded by outside donors compared to white colleges. HBCUs have a tremendous record, yet are disadvantaged when it comes to giving. Generally, White capital flows to predominantly White institutions, perpetuating capital isolation, Hastings and Quillin said. We hope this additional $120 million donation will help more Black students follow their dreams and also encourage more people to support these institutions helping to reverse generations of inequity in our country. Story continues Also Read: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Accuses Facebook of 'Promoting the Extremism,' Says Mark Zuckerberg 'Doesn't Care' (Video) Spelman president Campbell said the college will use its funding to start a scholarship named for alumna Dovey Johnson Roundtree a civil rights attorney who worked on the groundbreaking 1955 bus desegregation case. The donation to Spelman will allow it to admit 20 new first-year students and provide them full scholarships, room and board. At the end of 10 years we will have educated 200 students who will graduate debt free, Campbell said in a statement Wednesday. Its a liberating gift, that will allow our students to work toward change in their respective communities and careers without financial strain. Read original story Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Donates $120 Million to Historically Black Colleges and Universities At TheWrap The Bombay high court on Wednesday asked the Indian Certificate Secondary Education (ICSE) board to present its plan for alternative grading for students of Classes 10 and 12 who choose not to physically appear for pending exam papers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice S S Shinde directed the ICSE board to present its plan for alternative grading latest by June 22. The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by advocate Arvind Tiwari, a parent of a Class 10 student. Advocate Tiwari urged the court to direct all concerned authorities to not conduct the board exams, considering the risk of COVID-19 spread while commuting to exam centres, using exam sheets etc. On June 14, the board had informed the court that it will offer an option to all its students, in India and abroad, to either take the exam in July or to have their final results declared based on their performance in internal assessments and pre-board exams conducted by schools. However, I told the court that often, students are graded in a very stringent manner in their pre-board papers. Therefore, calculating final results based on pre-board marks will force more students to sit for these exams despite the potential health risk, advocate Tiwari said. Advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, who appeared for the state government, told the court that the state was also opposed to conducting the pending exams, but it had decided to wait to check how many students choose to appear for them and then take a final call. The ICSE board examinations were scheduled between February 27 and March 30 this year, but the schedule was interrupted when the nationwide coronavirus-induced lockdown came into force. Senior advocate Darius Khambata, who appeared for the board, on Wednesday said that if the state government decided to not allow the exams, the board will accept the decision. However, on its part, the board has called for details from schools of the marks obtained by students in pre-board exams and their board exams to help come up with a fair methodology for conducting the exams or for an alternative grading system. Private schools are planning to and open at the new academic year 'come what may' regardless of what the Government advice is. Some of Britain's best-known fee-paying schools are organising their own track and trace systems - with plans to have them operational for September. One governor at a leading private school said headteachers are 'furious' with the Government over its dithering on the issue of schools reopening. He told the Telegraph schools 'could have legally and safely opened this term', adding: 'We have had enough. 'We will definitely open in September using our own hygiene measures, our own risk-based assessment of social distancing and our own test and trace system. 'There is no confidence left in the Government, given their failed promises. All schools should do the same.' One governor at a leading private school said headteachers are 'furious' with the Government over its dithering on the issue of schools reopening (pictured: Education Secretary Gavin Williamson) Chairman of the Independent Schools Council, Barnaby Lenon, has called for ministers to give headteachers the freedom to reopen from September if they think it is appropriate. Mr Lenon, a former headmaster of Harrow School, said that the Government should rely on 'the good judgement of heads, all of whom will have carried out risk assessments'. He added there was now 'significant demand' for more flexibility on how private schools should reopen. Downing Street's schools policy has come under criticism after officials rowed back on plans to have every primary school pupil return to school before summer - and then said it would be encouraging this. New guidance this week said that all secondary school pupils in England could return before summer - but just for one day. Responding to a legal challenge about its lockdown policies, the Government recently admitted in a High Court document that it was a 'request, not a direction' for schools to shut down. Chairman of the Independent Schools Council, Barnaby Lenon, has called for ministers to give headteachers the freedom to reopen from September if they think it is appropriate Private schools plan to reference the document to convince insurers that a September reopening is safe. On Wednesday, MPs on the Education Select Committee will hear evidence from union chiefs on the reopening of schools. Fears have been growing over an increasing gap in education between rich and poor amid coronavirus lockdown. On Tuesday Labour's Rebecca Long-Bailey welcomed the Government's mooted summer catch-up programme, but pressed Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to develop a national plan for education. This would involve schools receiving additional resources to help disadvantaged children, and public buildings being used for socially distanced teaching. Responding to a legal challenge about its lockdown policies, the Government recently admitted in a High Court document that it was a 'request, not a direction' for schools to shut down (stock image) The Government advises that schools should communicate their plans to parents once they have had a chance to work through them in detail. Official advice includes carrying out a risk assessment before opening to more children and young people, making sure that children and young people do not attend if they or a member of their household has symptoms of coronavirus, and promoting regular hand washing for 20 seconds with running water and soap It is also advised that schools clean more often to get rid of the virus on frequently touched surfaces, such as door handles, handrails, tabletops, play equipment and toys. Teachers should reduce contact through smaller classes or group sizes and altering the environment as much as possible, such as changing the layout of classrooms reducing mixing between groups through timetable changes, such as staggered break times or by introducing staggered drop-off and collection times. Google is tapping into its widely-used Gmail app to get more people to use Google Meet. Google has 1.5 billion global active users on Gmail - you do the math. The battle of the video-calling apps has been raging from the moment lockdowns forced us to stay in and away from people. While Zoom surged ahead, old players like Google, Microsoft and Facebook paid attention and made some improvements of their own. And taking these enhancements and improvements another step up, and pretty much asking all other apps to bring it on, Google has added a shortcut for Google Meet on the Gmail app on both Android and iOS. The Google Meet widget already existed on the desktop version of Gmail, Google has now made it easier for smartphone users to start a Google Meet video call right from the mail app. This is a very smart move on Googles part since it is easier to integrate an app into another one which people are using widely instead of convincing them to download a new app. Google is tapping into its widely-used Gmail app to get more people to use Google Meet so as it can take on the likes of Zoom. Google has 1.5 billion global active users on Gmail - you do the math - so it's basically an open declaration of war. The video-calling app skirmish is over. Announced in a blog post by Google, this feature will be rolling out over the next few weeks to all smartphones. Once its in, users will be able to see a new Meet tab inside the Gmail app. This tab is going to show all the upcoming Google Meet calls that have been scheduled on your calendar and you can join them just by a single tap from this new tab. You can join meetings straight from your mails. (Google ) Besides this, users will also spot a shortcut on the Gmail app that can be used to start a call by tapping on New meeting. Clicking on New meeting creates a link that can be shared with all those you want to invite. There is also going to be an option to add people to an ongoing call via a Join with a code feature. Or join a meeting from the schedule. Understandably, there might be users who do not want this feature in the Gmail app, for those people there is an option to remove it. You need to go to Settings from the hamburger menu on the top left corner of your inbox, tap on Account, scroll down and uncheck Meet. Kolkata: Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday charged that the situation along the India-China border was due to the "diplomatic short-sightedness" of the Narendra Modi government, and said it was time that the prime minister proves that he has "a 56-inch chest". The leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha said the rhetoric of muscular nationalism witnessed during the time of standoff with Pakistan is now missing. "What happened to the 'swing diplomacy' of 2014? The fact is this situation arose just because of the diplomatic short-sightedness of the Modi government. When you run a government as per your whims and fancies, this is what happens," Chowdhury told PTI. The government lacks the political will to act, he added. "PM Modi boasts about his 56-inch chest. It is time to prove it through actions and not only through words. If he can't prove it, then the countrymen will understand his claims are hollow," Chowdhury said. BJP leaders have often said that Modi has a "56-inch chest" or "chappan inch chati", a Hindi expression referring to political machismo. "I wonder what happened to that rhetoric of muscular nationalism we are used to when it comes to Pakistan. In the case of China, all of a sudden everybody has gone silent," he said. Chowdhury also accused the BJP and the prime minister of completely failing on the front of national security. "Twenty Indian soldiers have died, what is the government doing? Is the government sleeping? The prime minister who on every given occasion, either tweets or addresses the nation is silent. He is duty-bound to give an explanation to the nation on what has happened and what is India doing as a countermeasure," he said. The prime minister has convened an all-party meeting on Friday to discuss the situation, amid demands by the opposition that government should give details of the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh which left 20 Indian Army personnel dead. A group of at least a dozen friends who went to a newly-reopened Florida bar to celebrate one of their birthdays say they all have tested positive for the coronavirus. Kat Layton, one of the members of the group, told NBC affiliate WTLV that 12 of her 15 friends tested positive for COVID-19 after meeting up on June 6 at Lynch's Irish Pub in Jacksonville Beach. "It's not ready. We're not ready," Layton said. "I do regret going out that night." Another partygoer, health care worker Erika Crisp, told local station WJXT that 15 of her friends tested positive for COVID-19 and she hopes to raise awareness about the ongoing threat of the coronavirus. Some of them developed symptoms a few days after visiting the bar and got tested, prompting others who were in the group to get tested after hearing some of them had gotten COVID-19. "This is a lesson for all of us," Crisp said. "We've all been stuck indoors for months being careful, social distancing, doing everything the right way, and then the first night we go out, Murphy's Law, I guess." A group of 16 friends who gathered at Lynch's Irish Pub in Jacksonville, Florida, tested positive for coronavirus. (NBC News) Crisp wrote on Facebook that strangers have also contacted her to say they tested positive from that night at Lynch's Irish Pub. "So far I have personally been messaged by over 20 people I dont even know who have now been tested positive that were there," she wrote. "Its the common denominator from a bunch of strangers. And no, we did NOT bar hop. It was the ONLY bar my group of people went to & it was the only time I saw them." The gathering of friends came on the first weekend that bars were allowed to reopen in most counties in Florida, which has seen a surge in coronavirus cases. Video: Spike in COVID-19 Cases Cause Growing Concern "I kind of noticed this is a lot of people, a lot of people in close proximity like a dance floor kind of thing, which I was excited about," Layton said about the night at the bar. "I'm the walking (example of a) person that was just fighting this thing like 'Ah c'mon, it's not that serious,' and I got it." Story continues The state reported 2,783 new cases on Tuesday, up from 1,270 on the day the friends met at the bar. Tuesday's total marked the third time in a week that Florida set a new daily record, and hospitalizations have also increased. Seven employees from Lynch's Pub also tested positive, the bar's general manager told WJXT. The group of friends who gathered on June 6 are friends with some of the employees and told them they had tested positive for COVID-19, prompting all 49 of the bar's employees to get tested. The pub was closed for a deep cleaning this past weekend before reopening on Tuesday. Four other bars in the area were also closed after the reports of positive cases. Lynch's employees will now be wearing masks, there will be hand sanitizer stations in the bar, and customers will have their temperature checked at the door. The group of friends are hoping that speaking out about getting COVID-19 will warn others who may not be taking proper precautions. "Again, I should have known better," Crisp wrote on Facebook. "I should have been more cautious. But alas, it is what it is." "I have to do my part in letting people know that its not about us," Layton said. "Its not about how you feel always because you could be contracting the disease and giving it out without showing any symptoms. "Trust me when I say that I miss it too, but if were not paying attention to what is actually going on and were just kind of opening things up, then were going to contract it and were going to kill people in our own community." A 42-year-old Delhi Traffic policeman, who had earlier tested positive for COVID-19, saved the life of a critically-ill colleague by donating his blood plasma, police said on Wednesday. The donor, Head Constable Vipin was posted in Seemapuri Circle since June 15. He was previously attached with Parliament Traffic Circle in New Delhi district and had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 30 while on field duty, they said. According to police, he was admitted to ESI hospital in Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh and was discharged on May 13 after recovering from the infection. He then remained under quarantine for 14 days at his home in Vaishali till May 27 and resumed his duty thereafter. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic Eastern Range) Anjitha Chepyala said on Monday, Head Constable Vipin was approached for the requirement of plasma of blood group O (-ve), a rare blood group, to save the life of critically-ill Inspector who tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to AIIMS. "He readily agreed to donate it even though he was feeling weak but became a saviour for another patient," the officer said. AIIMS, New Delhi Director Prof. Randeep Guleria also praised the Head Constable for his voluntary donation of blood plasma for a COVID-19 patient and issued a certificate of appreciation, police said. A black male teenager hanged himself early Wednesday in what appears to be a suicide, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Authorities said the teenager was found in a back corner on Ehrhardt Elementary School property. After reviewing surveillance footage, talking to neighbors and other evidence, authorities determined the death appears to be a suicide. Jen RosensteinJason Mraz is one of the contestants on the new TBS game show Celebrity Show-Off, where stars vie to win money for their favorite charities by creating video content using whatever they have on hand in their homes. Whoever gets the most views, wins -- and you can watch Jason's wacky and weird first entry now. The video, called Jason Mraz's Magical Mranch: A Day Trip to the Mranch, is a hilarious and surreal look at a day in the life of Jason, who actually lives on a farm in California where he grows sustainable crops like avocados and coffee. In the video, which takes us from his bedroom to his kitchen to the farm and back, Jason sings an original song about trying to find something to eat for breakfast. As he forages among his crops, he ingests a mushroom and goes on a psychedelic trip where -- wait for it -- the disembodied head of his pal Rob Thomas appears. The two then have a conversation about whether or not the avocados are ripe enough to make avocado toast. Oh, did we mention that Jason is dressed in an avocado costume? After strapping on a pair of roller skates, Jason heads back to his house and realizes he can make a tasty breakfast out of fruits and veggies he finds in his freezer. When he opens the freezer, we see three miniature Jasons, dressed like a carrot, a banana and a strawberry. At the end of the video, we learn it was all a dream: Jason fell asleep while writing a song via Zoom with Rob, who's telling him to wake up. Any money Jason wins will go to Feeding America. Celebrity Show-Off premieres on June 23, but you can help Jason start racking up the views now. By Andrea Dresdale Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. In Belarus, Pre-Vote Clampdown Spreads From Streets And Blogs To A Bank By Tony Wesolowsky June 16, 2020 In past elections in Belarus, political battles have played out on the streets, with the government cracking down on protesters who were calling for free and fair votes or crying foul when the official results handed President Alyaksandr Lukashenka yet another term. The fight over an August 9 election is shaping up in a similar way: More than 100 activists, bloggers, and other foes of Lukashenka have been detained amid protests around the country, including potential candidates like popular vlogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski and opposition politician Mikalay Statkevich, who challenged the authoritarian leader in 2010 and was imprisoned for protests that followed that disputed vote. But this time, the threat to Lukashenka appears greater, as he struggles to tamp down anger over what critics call a disastrous response to the coronavirus pandemic and growing concerns about the economy in a country whose government has long relied on subsidies from Russia in the form of discounts on oil supplies. And this time he is casting the net wider, analysts say, targeting a banker whose campaign to unseat the president in power since 1994 has been gaining momentum. On June 15, the Belarusian authorities took control of Belgazprombank, an almost entirely Russian-owned commercial bank that was led for 20 years by Viktar Babaryka before he stepped down to seek the presidency. That move came a day after law enforcement officers carried out searches and arrested 15 of the bank's executives, citing suspicions of tax evasion and money laundering. Babaryka, 56, who has not been arrested, has denied any wrongdoing at the bank and called the actions part of an intimidation campaign conducted on "political orders." Before a crowd of some 300 people at a signature-gathering event in the city of Babruysk on June 15, he hammered home one of his campaign messages: a claim that Lukashenka's government has covered up the full scope of the COVID-19 crisis in Belarus. The COVID-19 Factor "The truth is that each of us, when we leave our home, confronts what is really going on in the country -- the real mess we are in," Babaryka said. He accused the government of "deceiving its own people" by "telling us everything is fine." In March, Lukashenka dismissed the coronavirus pandemic as a product of "mass psychosis," and declined to impose measures meant to rein it in, such as lockdowns and social-distancing rules. Now the nation of 9.5 million has one of Europe's highest per capita infection rates, with more than 55,000 confirmed cases according to an official count. The economy has been hit by COVID-19 as well as simmering tension with Russia, which has moved to tighten the financial screws on Belarus as Lukashenka has appeared to resist Moscow's calls for closer integration, which many in Belarus fear could mean a loss of sovereignty. The World Bank is predicting that the Belarusian economy will contract by at least 4 percent in 2020, which it said would be the largest decline in 25 years. Against this backdrop, several would-be presidents are seeking to challenge Lukashenka, who has retained power through series of elections and other votes that international observers say have fallen short of democratic standards in every case. Well-attended signature drives in cities across Belarus have pointed up what may be unprecedented public dissatisfaction with his rule. Babaryka says he has gathered more than 300,000 signatures, three times the amount required to get on the ballot. That is probably an unpleasant surprise for Lukashenka, according to Kamil Klysinski, a senior fellow at the Warsaw-based OSW Center for Eastern Studies. Meet The 'Beetles'? "More than 300,000 is unprecedented in Belarusian terms for any alternative candidate," Klysinski said. "Lukashenka may fear Babaryka as a too-popular candidate, with quite a decent budget, a big and well organized [campaign] committee, and -- last but not least -- many connections with the Belarusian nomenklatura." Babaryka is not the only Belarusian businessman seeking to challenge Lukashenka. Valer Tsapkala, a former ambassador to the United States and the ex-head of a high-tech incubator in Minsk, is also a presidential hopeful. Lukashenka, 65, has largely dismissed potential rival candidates, comparing them to "beetles" feeding on fodder laid down by others. Public support for Lukashenka is hard to gauge because no widespread polling has been done in five years, Ihar Ilyash, a Belarusian political analyst, told Current Time, a Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. He asserted that informal online polls have put Lukashenka's ratings in the single digits and far below Babaryka's. Although Babaryka has not been charged with any crimes, the Department of Financial Investigation of the Belarusian State Control Committee claimed on June 12 it had proof of his involvement in illegal activity. Then came the June 15 announcement that the state had taken control of Belgazprombank, which is majority owned by Russian state-controlled natural-gas giant Gazprom and Gazprombank, an affiliate. The Russian owners had criticized the Belarusian authorities' searches and arrests at Belgazprombank the previous day, calling the actions a "gross violation" of Belarusian law and the rules of the Eurasian Economic Union, a trade grouping that includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan. Facing challenges on several fronts, Lukashenka can little afford now to further escalate tensions with Russia, said Klysinski. He predicted the situation would be discussed when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visits Minsk on June 19. "I believe that Lukashenka is not interested in a new stage of conflict with Moscow, so they will look for some solution on that," Klysinski said. Lukashenka's actions have also raised concerns in the West, which has improved ties with Minsk in recent years to temper Russia's influence. On June 5, a group of UN experts expressed "serious concern about an intensified crackdown on civil society in Belarus." In May, at least 195 people -- notably human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers, medical workers and other members of civil society -- were arrested for having expressed their views, the experts said. U.S. Sanctions "We are gravely concerned that these arrests that are connected with the exercise of the fundamental freedoms of peaceful assembly and freedom of opinion and expression have a chilling effect on civil society, independent journalism, and the unhampered expression of dissenting views," said Anais Marin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus. On June 11, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration announced it was extending sanctions on several Belarusian officials, including Lukashenka, for another year. "The actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Belarus and other persons to undermine Belarus's democratic processes or institutions, to commit human rights abuses related to political repression, and to engage in public corruption continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," a White House statement read. The move comes despite a recent warming of ties. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Minsk in February, the most senior U.S. official to travel to Belarus in more than two decades. In April, the two countries formally reestablished diplomatic relations when Julie Fisher was nominated U.S. ambassador to Belarus -- a position that has been vacant for more than a decade. Belarus has also bought U.S. oil in a historical first. So far, there has been no letup in the pressure on businesses and people associated with Babaryka. Independent Belarusian media reported June 16 that Svyatlana Kupreyeva, a member of Babaryka's campaign team, was detained on June 11 and is now being held at a KGB detention center. It was unclear what charges or allegations she could be facing. https://babariko.by/news/informacziya-o-zaderzhaniyah-chlenov-inicziativnyh-grupp Ilyash said that Lukashenka was trying to keep Babaryka on a "short leashso that he does not convert his high electoral rating into protest activity on the streets -- that is, he does not try to organize mass protests." "This is exactly what the government is afraid of," he said. "This is Lukashenka's main fear." With reporting by RFE/RL's Belarus Service and Current Time Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus- clampdown-babaryka-vote-streets- blogs-bank/30674277.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 No Connection Between Black Lives Matter Activists Alleged Murder, Assault: Police Detectives investigating the murders of protester Oluwatoyin Salau and volunteer Victoria Sims said that they dont suspect the man who is charged in their deaths is the same person who Salau claimed sexually assaulted her on Twitter. Salaus last posts on Twitter were about a sexual assault that she allegedly endured. The Tallahassee Police Department in Florida issued an update on the homicide investigation on Tuesday, saying that Salau, 19, and Sims, 75, became friends at a Black Lives Matter protest in the city. They were found dead over the weekend at the home of suspect Aaron Glee Jr., who was subsequently taken into custody this week. Each woman was passionate about improving the lives of others, said police in an update, according to People magazine. With Salau protesting for justice and policy change with Movement 850 and Sims serving the elderly with AARP, the Tallahassee Police Department is committed to upholding the legacies of their service on behalf of others by bringing the person responsible for their murders to justice. Tallahassee Police officials said in the update that Salau contacted them on June 6 to report a possible sexual battery that occurred the previous evening. Soon after, as officers followed up on her case, Salaus family reported her missing, according to the update. Regarding Sims, police said that she was reported missing by her family on Saturday, and officers discovered that her residence was ransacked and her vehicle was missing. An investigation ensued, and officials were led to a home on Monday Road in Tallahassee, where both women were found dead. Anyways I was molested in Tallahassee, Florida by a black man this morning at 5:30 on Richview and Park Ave. The man offered to give me a ride to find someplace to sleep and recollect my belongings from a church I refuged to a couple days back to escape unjust living conditions. Oluwatoyin (@virgingrltoyin) June 6, 2020 Glee already fled to Orlando, Florida, before officers arrived at his residence. At the request of TPD, the Orlando Police Department was able to intercept Glee and take him into custody, according to police. TPD immediately sent investigators to Orlando to further the investigation. Based upon evidence recovered at the scene and information gleaned in Orlando, Glee was charged with murder and kidnapping. In the update, police said there is no indication that the original battery Salau reported is related to her death, adding that the information and description Salau provided to police and posted on social media prior to her disappearance does not match the person ultimately found to be responsible for her murder. Salau had written on Twitter about being sexually assaulted, saying she then called the police after the incident. Salau then didnt respond on Twitter after people asked if she was safe and hasnt written on Twitter since. Sims, who worked as an AARP volunteer, was well-known for her involvement in local Democrat Party politics. AARP Florida deeply regrets the death of Vicki Sims, a long-time AARP volunteer. We understand that the Tallahassee Police Department is pursuing an investigation into her death. Few details are available at this time. Vicki is survived by two daughters, Brenda and June, and several grandchildren. She was a member of the Tallahassee Heights United Methodist Church. She retired several years ago from the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, AARP said on Sunday, according to WCTV. Bengaluru, June 17 : Eight patients succumbed to Covid-19 in Karnataka even as 348 discharges outnumber 204 infections, raising the state's tally to 7,734, said an official on Wednesday. "New cases reported from Tuesday 5 p.m. to Wednesday 5 p.m., 204," said a health official. In the past 24 hours, eight people succumbed to the virus, five in Bengaluru Urban and one each in Shivamogga, Bidar and Ballari. The Covid death count has breached the 100 mark in the southern state to settle at 102. On a positive note, 348 people were discharged, reducing the number of active cases to 2,824. Like every day, domestic returnees formed the bulk of cases, accounting for 105 or 51 per cent of the infections. Within the domestic returnees, 103 or 98 per cent of the cases had travel history to Maharashtra, a Covid hotspot. However, the number of cases with international travel history to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has plummeted to just two. Similarly, the number of contacts of earlier cases contracting the virus fell to 57. On Wednesday, Covid cases spiked in Bengaluru Urban, Yadgir, Ballari, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Dakshina Kannada, Dharwad, Mandya, and Hassan. Among the new cases, Bengaluru Urban contributed 55, followed by Yadgir (37), Ballari (29), Kalaburagi (19), Bidar (12), Dakshina Kannada and Dharwad (8 each), Mandya (7), Hassan (5), Udupi, Bagalkote and Shivamogga (4 each), Davangere, Uttara Kannda and Chikkaballapura (3 each) and Raichur, Mysuru and Bengaluru Rural (1 each). As many as 22 patients are suffering from influenza like illness (ILI) and 19 from severe acute respiratory infection (SARI). Currently, Kalaburagi is leading the state's Covid-19 burden with 442 active cases, followed by Bengaluru Urban (413), Yadgir (397) Raichur (271), Dakshina Kannada (225) and Ballari (222) among others. In all, 4.64 lakh samples have been tested so far, of which 4.46 lakh have tested negative. Bengaluru Urban has accounted for 43 deaths, followed by Kalaburagi (10), Bidar (8) and Dakshina Kannada, Vijayapura, and Davangere (6 each), among others. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) By Ayya Lmahamad Azerbaijans Ministry of Energy and McKinsey & Company signed an agreement to conduct a detailed diagnostics of the countrys gas supply system, ministrys press service reported on June 17. Under the agreement, the company will provide consulting services to the ministry, when preparing proposals for reforms in this area in order to improve the efficiency of the countrys gas supply system, taking into account best international practices, to ensure reliable satisfaction of consumers needs. The results of diagnostic will be used to formulate detailed proposals for preventing losses in the gas supply system, improving the accuracy of natural gas consumption measurements in the country, as well as improving and modernizing the management. Moreover, proposals will be prepared for a gradual transition to market relations in the gas supply sector, more efficient investments and modernization of the regulatory framework. It should be noted that in order to improve the efficiency of the gas supply system in the country and ensure reliable satisfaction of consumers' needs, the preparation of proposals on improvement and reform of the gas supply system of Azerbaijan is carried out by the Ministry of Energy in accordance with Presidential Decree No. 1209 of 29 May 2019. According to the decree, the Ministry is also tasked to prepare a draft law "On gas supply" based on proposals. McKinsey & Company is management consulting firm, founded in 1926 that provides advice on strategic management to corporations, governments and other organizations. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Notes from Indian Country Reflections on Fathers Day My father, Tim, Sr., was born on January 22, 1895, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation just a few years after South Dakota was admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889. My father became a citizen of the United States by an Act of Congress in 1924. He was 29 years old when he could finally vote in an American election, state or national. With a holiday called Fathers Day here I must reflect on the different path most Native Americans had to follow as fathers. First of all, after the Sioux, Arapahoe and Cheyenne warriors defeated George Custer and his 7th Cavalry at the Little Bighorn, Native Americans were forced on Indian reservations. The days when they could roam freely on their own land and hunt and fish were gone. To add insult to injury the government stripped the men of their weapons. This, for all intent and purpose, emasculated all Native males. The men were the protectors and providers of their families. For generations they passed on their skills at making bows, arrows, and the methods it required to hunt the different animal species in their geographic locations to the next generation. They were the mentors to their sons. The Indian Memorial at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Photo: Jasperdo In the traditional family the women taught the daughters the skills they needed to fit into their tiospaye (extended family) or Tribe. The men taught their sons. This traditional concept survived for thousands of years and was wiped out in a few short years. All of a sudden the fathers lost their ability to be the protectors and providers for their families. They were forced into a life of dependency, the exact opposite of the lives they had lived for a thousand years. Their food came in the form of commodities supplied by the federal government. They were called rations and delivered to the people of the reservations on a monthly basis. They still had the skills to make bows and arrows and they went back to hunting the way it was before the white man, but there was one horrific exception. The one animal that was a part of the culture, the spirituality and the provider of tools, clothing and shelter, the buffalo, was nearly extinct. In an effort to make the Indian totally dependent and unable to fend for themselves, the government set out to destroy the once mighty buffalo herds, the source of life to the Plains Indians. The edict was for the Indians to report to the reservations or starve. Many of the Native men turned to alcohol in order to drown out the impact of their losses and gain any kind of respectability, if even for a short while. They felt like the warriors of old when under the influence. Of course it was a false sense of security and the family suffered. Fathers had become the near helpless dependents. It is said in our culture today that it was the Indian women who stood tall, tried to fill in for their men, and took charge of the familys future. Many Native men will tell you even today that if it had not been for the strong wills of the uncis (grandmothers) and winyan (women) the Tribe would not have survived. But that wasnt enough. Next came the boarding school era. Native children were placed into boarding schools across America, separated from their families. There was a total loss of identify and even of the language. The boys had no Fathers to emulate. And the girls were just as bad off. This total assault on everything that had been a part of their lives for hundreds of years had a lasting impact upon the Native men. Overnight everything they held dear was taken from them. Their role as father and provider was erased. Army general Richard Henry Pratt is seen here with an Indian boarding school student , circa 1880. Pratt was the founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and advocated the Kill the Indian -- Save the Man approach to the education of Indian children. Photo: U.S. Military Institute, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania My father survived it, but never is his life did he ever give me a hug or say I love you and this has been the legacy for many Indian children. He was a good man and I loved him, but I feel his struggle to survive took away so much more than he could give. If he was alive today I would wish him a Happy Fathers Day and give him a hug. Tim Giago is the author of four books. Contact him at najournalist1@gmail.com. Note: All content Tim Giago Join the Conversation The physical supply of oil in northwest Europe is looking increasingly constrained as barrels from the North Sea get shipped out to Asia and Russia cuts the flow of cargoes dramatically. Contracts that indicate the strength of Dated Brent, a physical benchmark for North Sea oil used to settle millions of barrels a day of crude transactions, are currently trading in a pattern known as backwardation. The structure, in which oil refineries are prepared to pay premiums to procure immediate barrels, is the most bullish its been since March 6. Derivatives linked to Russias main export grade are also stronger on the back of a dwindling export program. The improvements reflect the fact that refineries in the worlds biggest consumers, including China and India, are lifting their consumption at a time when European countries are slowly limping out of lockdowns too. Its also a supply story because producer nations led by Saudi Arabia and Russia are keeping more crude supply off the market than ever before in a strategy thats looking increasingly successful as a means of propping up prices. Spot physical markets remain firm, Eagle Commodities Brokers Ltd., an oil brokerage, said in a note to clients. The move is implying tight supply of medium sour crude locally and in Asia. MARKET FORCE: Second wave virus concerns loom large over crude oil market A glut of North Sea oil that had been stored at sea is also starting to wane. In part, thats because consumption by Chinese refiners has picked up, with four supertankers expected to sail to Asia in the coming weeks, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Derivatives tied to Russias Urals crude have been boosted by sharp reductions in Russias seaborne oil exports in recent months. June shipments from the nations Baltic and Black Sea ports were set at the lowest level since 2014. And the early signs are that supplies in July could be even lower, with just three cargoes planned for export from Primorsk, the nations main export facility, in the first five days of the month. The recovery is not without glitches. Though consumption is picking up, refining margins remain subdued. In Europe, profit from making diesel reached a multi-year low late last month and remains depressed. FUEL FIX: Daily energy insights in your inbox Even so, physical crude markets are for now shrugging off that weakness, buoyed by Asian demand in particular. There was some good support in the North Sea coming from China taking a lot of barrels, said Olivier Jakob, managing director of consultant Petromatrix GmbH. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he's "OK" with renaming military bases such as Ft. Bragg that are named after Confederate Army officers, declining to side with President Donald Trump and other Republicans opposed to the move. The Kentucky senator said he'll live with whatever lawmakers decide as they debate a defense policy bill for the military in the coming weeks. Temporary concrete barriers were installed around the Robert E Lee monument in Richmond, Virginia, on June 17, as officials planned for its removal, the Virginia Department of General Services announced on Twitter. A number of Confederate statues have recently been torn down throughout Richmond by anti-racism protesters, according to local reports. Virginia Gov Ralph Northam said on June 4 that he asked the Department of General Services to take down the statue and move it into storage. Northam said officials would work with the community to decide what to do with the monument. Reports said a lawsuit has challenged Northams order, questioning the governors authority and citing concerns over the National Historic Landmark designation along Monument Avenue in Richmond. The Virginia Department of General Services said the barriers are intended to protect the safety of everyone speaking out to make their voices heard, as well as the structure itself. The department said removal plans will go forward as officials await the outcome of litigation. Credit: Wendy Goodman Humble via Storyful Anushka Sharma, whose father Colonel (Retd.) Ajay Kumar Sharma fought in the Kargil War of 1999, paid tribute to the 20 soldiers of the Indian Army martyred in a violent face-off with Chinese troops in the Galwan area of eastern Ladakh. In an Instagram post, she said that the loss hurt hard and felt personal. Sharing a picture of the Army memorial statue in Shimla, the actor wrote, As a soldiers daughter, the death of a soldier will always hurt hard and feel personal. The sacrifice of their lives and the sacrifice of their families will always leave a void. I pray for peace and I pray for strength for the brave bereaved families. #IndianArmy #JaiJawan. The deadly clash between the Indian and Chinese soldiers was the worst in four and a half decades. In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, the Army said that the troops have disengaged. Earlier this year, on Army Day, Anushka shared pictures of her father during his Army days and wrote, Their selfless sacrifices, courage and brotherhood is beyond words. My dad always made me proud. Love you papa. Also read: Ram Gopal Varma calls Karan Johar a bigger victim, says without nepotism society will collapse On several occasions, Anushka has credited her Army background with shaping her personality. In an interview with Hindustan Times in 2017, she had said, To the Indian Army, I owe my being, my persona and my outlook. Being an army kid has instilled great confidence in me because of the open, non gender-bias environment I was raised in. We become adaptive, open-minded and survivors. Anushka, who was last seen in Aanand L Rais Zero, is yet to sign her next project as an actor. However, she has her hands full with her production ventures. Her most recent production was the Amazon Prime series Paatal Lok, which was well-received by critics as well as the audience. Currently, Anushka is gearing up for the release of her next production, a horror film titled Bulbbul. The Netflix original stars Tripti Dimri,Avinash Tiwary and Rahul Bose. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Many enterprises today have prioritized cloud computing and virtualization due to their nature in running new applications in virtual environments. According to the RightScale 2018 State of the Cloud Report, 81% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy that covers private, public, and hybrid clouds. In recent years, the cloud computing markets have experienced explosive growth, meaning that enterprises that run mass cloud services are searching for a server deployment method that is cost-effective, scalable, and flexible. Unlike common desktop computers, servers for cloud computing and virtualization must be able to provide two key features. The first is high availability, which is essential in mission-critical systems required to support 24/7 service continuity, such as bank transactions or flight booking, where even a minor failure can have major consequences. The other key feature is high scalability. In response to ever-growing service requirements, a server system needs to expand critical capabilities, such as the computing capacity, memory, storage, and I/O bandwidth. Great strides have been made in almost every key component of a server. In line with an increasing quantity of transistors housed in a processor, the processor performance and execution speed improve every year. In particular, the past few years have seen the rapid development of the computing architecture of servers, as well as rising numbers of processor cores used in computing. For example, a single 2nd-gen Xeon Platinum processor supports up to 28 cores for parallel computing. In addition, breakthroughs in storage technology, especially NAND flash technology, have contributed to larger capacity and faster data read/write of a single drive. Now servers run on drives of larger memory capacity and provide larger-than-ever storage capacity. In terms of I/O, innovations in the Ethernet, IB, and OPA technologies have helped achieved a 100 Gbit/s transmission rate, which is turbocharged by the parallel transmission of multiple I/O interfaces. However, conventional DDR memory, which has been plagued by limited capacity and high prices, seems unable to catch up with the industry trend. High-performance and large-capacity memory are indispensable for the unprecedentedly high computing requirements, but any increase in memory density in a single server will see costs skyrocket. Consequently, the low-capacity and costly memory technology prevents more VMs or containers from being deployed in a certain space, which has put a ceiling on cloud computing workloads. The traditional method for expanding computing capabilities is scale-out, where more servers are deployed for larger memory capacity, but this is an imperfect method because of the subsequent high costs. As a result, the industry is looking for an affordable model to expand memory capacity. These problems are answered by the Intel Optane persistent memory (PMem), a next-generation non-volatile dual in-line memory module (DIMM). This technology boosts the storage media to 1,000 times that of the NAND Flash, and a storage density 10 times higher than DRAM, helping turbocharge the storage capacity of the Intel Xeon Cascade Lake Scalable processors. Huawei Figure 1 Intel Optane persistent memory (PMem) By providing larger VM memory and more VMs in a single server, the Optane PMem boosts the server scalability while reducing the number of servers required. In addition, the PMem improves the computing density of rack servers, allowing more servers to be deployed in a single cabinet. This reduces power consumption, network infrastructure, cooling, and maintenance costs, and helps customers cut the TCO. Huawei was one of the first to jump on this cutting-edge technology, and subsequently launched the next-generation FusionServer Pro intelligent servers running on the 2nd-gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and PMem. Huawei FusionServer Pro intelligent servers equipped with the latest Optane PMem support three memory capacity specifications: 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB per DIMM. Each processor (configured with 256 GB DRAM and 512 GB PMem) can provide memory capacity up to 4.5 TB, which marks a remarkable boost in processor memory capacity. FusionServer Pro 1288H V5, 2288H V5, and 2488H V5 are three premium products for cloud computing and virtualization. With exceptional performance, these three models are supercharging a wide array of industries, winning high recognition from customers around the world. Huawei FusionServer Pro 1288H V5 (1U 2S) FusionServer Pro 2288H V5 (2U 2S) FusionServer Pro 1288H V5 and 2288H V5 support two full-power 2nd-gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, 24 DIMM slots, and various local storage resources, such as SAS, SATA, and NVMe SSDs. The combination of 12 Optane PMems and 12 DDR4 memory modules provides up to 9 TB memory capacity. In terms of virtualization, the number of VMs and containers housed by the two models is two to three times higher than servers equipped with only DDR4 memory modules. The 1288H V5 and 2288H V5 run on the perfect combination of PMem and DDR4, offering high computing density and intelligent energy saving in an easy-to-use manner. The products improve the space utilization of data centers with high-density deployment, making them must-haves for any enterprise working in cloud computing and virtualization scenarios. Huawei FusionServer Pro 2488H V5 (2U 4S) In a compact 2U space, the FusionServer Pro 2488H V5 innovatively supports four full-power 2nd-gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with up to 112 cores, 48 DIMM slots, and diverse local storage options, including SAS, SATA, and NVMe SSDs. It combines 24 Optane PMems and 24 DDR4 memory modules for up to 18 TB memory capacity, greatly improving the number of VMs and containers accommodated in a single server. For in-memory database virtualization, the FusionServer Pro 2488H V5 model can also provide larger memory capacity for the databases supported by VMs. In addition, the four processors of the 2488H V5 server running on the full mesh architecture deliver 14.9% higher performance than the ring architecture in HammerDB laboratory tests. The FusionServer Pro 2488H V5 server also ranks first in the SPECvirt_sc2013 test, which evaluates the virtualization computing performance of 4-socket servers. The results create a standard to compare the performance of computing-intensive applications, such as clusters and HPC. The extraordinary performance of the 2488H V5 server in the preceding tests helps it earn the recognition of customer, making it applicable to computing-intensive scenarios such as virtualization, cloud computing, and in-memory databases. Huawei FusionServer Pro servers effectively reduce OPEX and ROI by innovatively adopting Fault Diagnosis & Management (FDM), Dynamic Energy Management Technology (DEMT), and Boot Speedup Storage Technology (BSST). FDM locates faults with an accuracy rate of 93% and predicts a fault 7 to 30 days before it occurs to reduce OPEX. DEMT reduces energy consumption by as much as 15% without compromising services. Products powered by the BSST are an ideal option for virtualization scenarios. Without occupying the resources of data drive slots, the BSST allows two M.2 SSDs to run on the PCIe card to install independent OSs. The two M.2 SSDs support hardware RAID and hot plug, an industry-unique feature that enhances OS image protection and facilitates O&M. The continual improvement of Huawei servers in quality, reliability, performance, and energy efficiency have fueled their success over the past two decades. Innovative design and strict quality control continue to ensure the excellent quality of Huawei servers. Over the past 18 years of strategic partnership, Huawei has joined hands with Intel to improve server technology, creating a growing demand for Huawei FusionServer Pro servers. The shipment volume of Huawei servers exceeded 4.31 million units from 2012 to 2019. Huawei servers will continue to reach new levels with state-of-the-art technologies and ultimate services. Over 10,000 global customers, including 211 companies on the Fortune 500, are using Huawei server products and solutions to supercharge services. Huawei is supercharging industries in public utilities, Internet, telecom, energy, finance, transportation, healthcare, education, media, and manufacturing. Huawei server products and solutions optimize TCO and help meet the market demand for higher computing power to fuel cloud computing, big data, HPC, and AI applications. Learn more about FusionServer Pro. China has dispatched a mobile P3 virus lab to help ramp up the coronavirus mass-testing in Beijing after a fresh COVID-19 outbreak ravaged the capital city. The country's health authority sent the remote laboratory, along with a team of 14 medical workers, to a virus-hit district in Beijing this morning, state media reported. The mobile testing unit could collect testing samples from 1,000 residents a day. The government sent three of those container labs to Wuhan in February at the height of the city's COVID-19 outbreak. Beijing citizens who came into contact with the Xinfadi Wholesale Market, either directly or indirectly, are pictured being taken swabs samples in the Chinese capital on Tuesday China has dispatched a mobile P3 virus lab to help ramp up the coronavirus testing in Beijing after a fresh COVID-19 outbreak erupted the capital city. The file picture taken on April 22 shows the mobile lab arriving at a hospital in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang province in China The Chinese capital reported 137 domestic infections in the past six days, with the brunt of the cases linked to Xinfadi, a massive wholesale market in the city. Pictured: Medical staff in full protective gear carry signs to assist people to conduct coronavirus testing on Wednesday It comes after the Chinese capital reported 137 domestic infections in the past six days, with the brunt of the cases linked to Xinfadi, a massive wholesale market in the city. The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention today sent the mobile P3 lab to Beijing's south-western district Fengtai, where the food trading hub is located. P3 labs have the second-highest biological safety standards and are designed to study pathogens that may cause severe or potentially lethal airborne diseases. The remote testing unit could help screen up to 1,000 people for the coronavirus a day, according to Xinhua. Over 350,000 residents have received nucleic acid testing since Saturday, a city official said today. P3 labs have the second-highest biological safety standards and are designed to study pathogens that may cause severe or potentially lethal airborne diseases. The picture shows medical workers working inside a mobile P3 lab in Wuhan at the height of its outbreak The government sent three of those container labs to Wuhan in February at the height of the city's COVID-19 outbreak. The picture shows a researcher working inside the lab in Wuhan The mobile P3 lab has been previously adopted in several coronavirus-hit regions across the country, including Wuhan of Hubei province, to help speed up the local anti-virus efforts. The picture shows a medical worker examining coronavirus testing samples in Wuhan's mobile lab The mobile P3 lab has been previously adopted in several coronavirus-hit regions across the country, including Wuhan of Hubei province, Mudanjiang of Heilongjiang Province and Jilin in Northeast China's Jilin Province, to help speed up the local anti-virus efforts. Pictures released by the health authority show a large lorry containing the remote testing unit being dispatched to the former coronavirus epicentre, Wuhan, in February. Hazmat-clad researchers are seen in footage released by CCTV working on coronavirus testing samples in the mobile P3 lab used in Wuhan. The news comes as Beijing has today reported 31 new native COVID-19 infections and cases have spiked in recent days after mass testing and draconian lockdowns appeared to have brought China's outbreak to a virtual standstill. Today's new cases took the number of confirmed infections in Beijing over the past six days to 137. Hospital workers are pictured at a public testing centre as the Chinese capital city tries to establish how many people have been infected from a recent coronavirus infection cluster The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention today sent the mobile P3 lab to Beijing's south-western district Fengtai, where the food trading hub is located. A police car is pictured being parked outside the entrances to the now-closed Xinfadi wholesale market Beijing's virus strain is 'more infectious' than Wuhan's, expert warns A Chinese expert has warned that the strain of coronavirus found in Beijing is more infectious than the one that rocked Wuhan. Professor Yang Zhanqiu from the University of Wuhan said yesterday that it took Wuhan around three weeks to record 62 patients when the virus first broke out. However, 79 people in Beijing already tested positive in the space of four days even though high temperatures should have helped slow the spread. 'The infectivity of a virus would grow stronger or weaker during its evolution, but I believe the [strain of] coronavirus found in Beijing's Xinfadi market is more powerful than the one from Wuhan's Huanan market,' the expert told state media The Global Times. Advertisement Today's new cases took the number of confirmed infections in Beijing over the past six days to 137, as authorities locked down almost 30 communities in the city and tested tens of thousands of people. Beijing has ordered all primary and secondary schools to shut their campuses and start teaching online from today. The city yesterday raised the emergency response alert to 'level two', meaning a 'severe' public health event. Those at most risks of having come in contact with the virus were also banned from leaving the city, in measures echoing the drastic lockdown in Wuhan where the disease was first detected late last year. All markets, restaurants, canteens and offices have been instructed to carry out deep clean and disinfection. Other public facilities, such as museums, galleries and parks, can only run at 30 per cent of its maximum capacity. The country's Vice Premier Sun Chunlan urged the city's officials to impose 'the strictest' virus control measures to contain the spread of the virus, which has been linked to a massive food wholesale market called Xinfadi. The World Health Organization had already expressed concern about the cluster, pointing to Beijing's size and connectivity. As of Wednesday, China has reported a total of 84,865 confirmed COVID-19 infections, of which 294 are active. The death toll remains at 4,634. Today's new cases took the number of confirmed infections in Beijing over the past six days to 137, as authorities locked down almost 30 communities in the city and tested tens of thousands of people. Residents are seen shopping in a supermarket in Beijing on Monday Six blocks of the Seattle downtown that were ceded to protesters after several tense nights of standoffs with police were declared the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" (CHAZ). It resembles a commune and is centered on the East Precinct building, which the police abandoned on June 8. Protesters used blockades and fences to construct staggered barricades at intersections. The entrance of the Zone's territory is marked by a barrier reading, "You Are Entering Free Capitol Hill." Other signs declare, "You are now leaving the USA." Spray paint renamed the occupied police station the "Seattle People's Department East Precinct" amid other anarchist symbols and graffiti. On June 12, the mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkan, compared CHAZ to a block party rather than an armed takeover and described it as "no threat right now to the public." In his tweet, President Trump demanded that Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Seattle's mayor take their city back: "If you don't do it, I will." Both have hit back by advising Trump to "go back to his bunker" and "stay out of Washington state's business." The horror of the situation is, they have every right to say that. The media and the politicians like Durkan and Inslee described Trump as a dictator and pure evil comparable to Hitler, but he still won't use the military to suppress what local authorities call a "peaceful protest." It seems that they try hard to provoke him oh, can you imagine all those video clips of the army dispersing those "exceedingly chill" justice-seeking, kale-eating youngsters occupied with farming and arts and crafts? Wouldn't it be a reason or, rather, an excuse to start another wave of protests? How will it look for Trump on election eve? Anyone who followed the events of the "color revolutions" that took place in the late '90s and early 2000s, primarily in the former Soviet Union countries, the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region, and were attempted in China and Russia, will see their striking similarities to the tactics used by the protesters here in America a place where those tactics were invented. Shockingly, American protests are being supported by the same powers that influenced and financially supported the "color revolutions" around the world globalist establishmentarians who include former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and George Soros and his Open Society Foundation (formerly Institute), who now generously funds Black Lives Matter just as he did with all those NGOs that fought the "dictatorships" elsewhere. As for the technological aspect of the protests and eventual overthrow of the legal but "illegitimate" authorities, there are two major handbooks that theorized the concept of the "nonviolent revolution" aimed at overthrowing non-democratic regimes and that proved their efficacy. The first and the most iconic one is a book called From Dictatorship to Democracy (1993), written by Gene Sharp. It has been published in many countries worldwide and translated into more than 30 languages. The Financial Times, in discussing the prospects for dictators worldwide, described Sharp as "[t]he Lenin of the new Gandhi-ism," stating that "[w]hat is new ... is the wildfire spread of systematically non-violent insurgency. This owes a great deal to the strategic thinking of Gene Sharp, an American academic whose how-to-topple-your-tyrant manual, From Dictatorship to Democracy, is the bible of activists from Belgrade to Rangoon." Sharp claimed that overthrowing a dictatorship is a matter of identifying how the dictatorship's internal structure works and adopting a strategic design to identify weaknesses and change the balance. He provides a list of "Achilles heels," which can be targeted through psychological, economic, social, and political action. There are nearly 200 such non-violent tactics that Sharp classified under three broad categories: protest and persuasion, non-cooperation, and intervention. "The use of a considerable number of these methods ... is likely to cause any illegitimate regime severe problems." Severe problems, indeed. The other book is Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025 (2003) by Mark Palmer. He described the conditions that grant a successful and "economical" coup. The majority of them may be summarized as the following: creation of liberal youth-driven NGOs that would train activists (thanks, George!) establishment of the pro-Western liberal media rigorous propaganda against the current regime and its rulers as illegitimate in the eyes of the citizenry and abroad, including against law enforcement simultaneous heroization of the liberal activists who fight for "freedom," "justice," "liberal values," and their presentation as true representatives of the people conducting nonviolent street protests demonstrations, meetings, blocking official buildings creation of the atmosphere that paralyzes the supporters of the regime against resisting (perhaps that is what demands to kneel and apologize for "white privilege" are used for also as a symbolic gesture of submission and surrender) We see how local authorities and liberal media portray CHAZ activists exercising their First Amendment rights, demanding "justice," and protesting police brutality which is "beyond repair" peacefully. You can't touch them! You're a dictator if you do! But what happens next? As we know from the "color revolutions," if not suppressed, the success of well organized and financed protests spreads like a wildfire across the hubs that are "paralyzed" or sympathetic enough to call them "block parties," leading to defunding and abolishing the police and promoting the notion of "systemic racism" and victimhood among the electorate. If the CHAZ party is allowed to go on, we may expect to witness similar communes evolving across the country. The biggest of it would be attempted in Washington, D.C. "peacefully," like CHAZ if Trump wins re-election. And the real chances of this happening are high so high that Trump's adversaries are now employing the methods and technology formerly tried exclusively overseas. Their efforts, if not handled properly, may cause a societal descent into bloody chaos. The late George Floyd, whose death is implied by Joe Biden to have a greater global impact than the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, as outrageous as it sounds, may indeed become a symbolic figure of a new reality a reality of legitimized anarchy. Just as the self-immolation of Tunisian Mohamad Bouazizi after he was harassed by municipal officials catalyzed the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and helped inspire a wider protest movement that became known as the Arab Spring, or the Ukrainian "Heavenly Hundred," presumably assassinated by the orders of the Yanukovych regime that propelled the "Revolution of Dignity" that resulted in a hybrid civil war, the Floyd killing may have similar impact on America. Before our eyes, a new reality that allows for protests against a singular injustice that turn against the whole system and declare it all unjust is being formed and rapidly developed. Today, the primary target of the protesters is the police. Tomorrow, it may be the courts. The legislatures. The federal authorities. Whatever and whomever their organizers would find it fit for their purpose to point their finger at. "Extremely tough" does not even start to describe the situation. Please follow Veronika Kyrylenko, Ph.D. on Twitter or LinkedIn. So many people Seth Marder spoke to didn't see the hand sanitizer crisis brewing. The country was going to run dangerously short if someone did not act urgently. The professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology rallied colleagues and partners around the cause in March, and by early June, they had replaced a key component of hand sanitizer, created a new supply chain, and initiated their own donation of 7,000 gallons of a newly designed sanitizer to medical facilities. Its name: Han-I-Size White & Gold, named for the colors of Georgia Tech. The new supply chain also may ensure that hand sanitizer producers across the country do not run out of the main active ingredient, alcohol, but the team's path to success was a stony labyrinth. This project was on life support so many times because people did not understand how severe this shortage was going to be. I called hospitals and institutions to assess the need and heard the same thing over and over: 'No, we just got a delivery. We have no need. You're wasting your time.'" Seth Marder, a Regents Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Marder was not. Contacts at major chemical suppliers of hand sanitizer ingredients said that a critical shortage of alcohol, particularly the one usually in hand sanitizer, isopropanol, was coming. "Isopropanol plants in the U.S. were running at full capacity and still didn't have enough. People were using pharmaceutical-grade ethanol now, too, but it was also in short supply. We weren't going to have enough of either; I mean the whole United States was running low," Marder said. Clean hands cabal Marder hastily drafted Chris Luettgen, a professor of practice in Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, George White, interim vice president of Georgia Tech's Office of Industry Collaboration, and Atif Dabdoub, a Georgia Tech alumnus and owner of a local chemical company, Unichem Technologies, Inc. To the three chemists and the business professional, it seemed simple: Mix alcohol with water, peroxide, and the moisturizer glycerin then bottle and ship it. That bubble burst quickly. Luettgen, who had worked in the consumer products industry for 25 years at Kimberly-Clark Corporation and knew how to take products to market, had to plow through constant unexpected supply chain barriers and bureaucracy while White forged connections between companies. Neither the supply chain nor the business relationships had existed before, and the teams' phones stayed glued to their ears night and day as they created them from scratch. "When I worked for Kimberly-Clark, getting a new product out would take the company nine to 18 months, and the three of us had to get this done in weeks. The demand was there, and people were getting sick in some cases from lack of sanitizing. We felt speed was necessary to meet the growing demand. Seth told me to push this across the goal line, and I put everything into it," Luettgen said. "Georgia Tech is about the power to convene. Companies and stakeholders are eager to come to the table here to make things happen," White said about forging new business ties. "Not everyone has that incredible recognition as a problem solver with the brainpower amassed here." Stinking of gin Purchasing truckloads of alcohol was priority one. Boutique liquor distilleries in Georgia were already converting to sanitizer ethyl alcohol production, but output was nowhere near enough to meet demand. ExxonMobil connected the team with Eco-Energy, a company that handles fuel-grade ethanol as a gasoline additive. "The amount of ethanol that's made for fuel in the U.S. is 1,500 times the amount of the isopropanol made. They could drain off about 1 percent of what is used for fuel and double or triple the amount of alcohol available for hand sanitizer in this country. And the fuel companies wouldn't even notice it was gone, especially since hardly anyone was driving anymore," Marder said. But then prospective hand sanitizer distributors crimped their noses at that ethanol, saying it smelled odd. "I thought, 'This has the makings of a screenplay.' I asked the distributor if we could come over to smell a sample for ourselves," White said. "It needed a little love." Eco-Fuels produced the highly refined ethanol and then processed it through carbon filtration to increase purity and reduce odor. Atlanta-based chemical manufacturer, Momar, Inc., oversaw production, packaging, and distribution of Han-I-Size White & Gold. The Georgia Tech team garnered funding through a donation from insurer Aflac Incorporated allocated through the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI), a Georgia Tech affiliated non-profit organization that guides new experimental medical solutions to market. Aflac's gift of $2 million through GCMI has also expedited the development, production, and purchase of other PPE to donate to health care workers. In addition, GCMI helped guide the hand sanitizer through regulatory processes and to market. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was also aware of the dire shortage of alcohol for sanitizer and issued waivers for the pandemic to allow for use of ethanol without having to meet usual specifications. Water, water everywhere Arkema, Inc. donated hydrogen peroxide, which was delivered to PSG Functional Materials, which mixed and packaged the product then shipped with no delivery fee to Atlanta. Though water is ubiquitous, hand sanitizer requires purified water, and the Coca-Cola Company donated a tanker truck of it just when White was pondering desperate measures. "If I have to get a truck to go pick up water and drive it, I'll do it myself," he said. Finally, the first few hundred gallons of donated Han-I-Size White & Gold rolled into Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta and Brightmoor Nursing Center in Griffin, Georgia, in the second week of June 2020. GCMI is facilitating donations of the 7,000 gallons nationwide. Separate from the Aflac-financed donations, Momar will continue to manufacture the new hand sanitizing formula commercially to include in its regular product lineup, and Georgia Tech will be able to purchase it at a reduced rate to help protect researchers now returning to their labs. The new supply chain, the first of its kind, of "waiver-grade" ethanol has given hand sanitizer producers across the country a new opportunity to re-supply America. "Hopefully, we helped solved a national need," Luettgen said. Eight officials including a deputy director of directorate revenue intelligence (DRI) have been placed under home quarantine and will undergo Covid-19 test after an accused arrested in the 5.2 crore red sanders smuggling racket tested positive on Tuesday. Rajesh Pandey, additional director-general of DRI (Mumbai zonal unit) said, One of the accused tested positive. Since the accused were in our custody, eight DRI officials at Nhava Sheva office have been quarantined. On June 13, a 39-year-old old accused along with his associate was arrested by the Mumbai zone officials of DRI on specific information for smuggling red sanders. The exporter had declared the cargo as 29 metric tonnes of fresh Indian onion. But, on examination of the container 13-metric tonnes of red sanders worth around 5.2 crore was found, said Pandey. DRI official also found 17-metric tonnes of onion in the cargo along with the red sanders logs. The onions were kept in order to avoid detection of red sanders by the customs and to prevent any disturbance in the stacking, said the DRI officer. The U.S. Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against John Bolton on Tuesday to block the publication and sale of his new White House tell-all book. The American government is arguing that the former national security advisers publication contains classified information that cannot be released to the public, the New York Post is reporting. This is a civil action by the United States to prevent Defendant John R. Bolton, a former National Security Advisor, from compromising national security by publishing a book containing classified information in clear breach of agreements he signed as a condition of his employment and as a condition of gaining access to highly classified information and in clear breach of the trust placed within him by the United States Government, read part of the 27-page court filing with the US District Court in DC. Mr Bolton left the White House last September after he had a conflict with Mr Trump over some of his policies regarding Ukraine, North Korea and Iran, among others. Mr Trump had announced then that he fired his former subordinate because he disagreed strongly with him. I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning, Mr Trump tweeted, then adding he would appoint a replacement the next week. But Mr Bolton had insisted he had quit and vowed to have his say in due course. He had disagreed with Mr Trump over some foreign policy challenges, concerning Afghanistan and Iran. Tell all book The hard-line ex-official had hoped to publish the book, The Room Where It Happened, in early 2020 but has faced an uphill task, the latest, an onslaught by the Trump government. The manuscript has, however, undergone numerous and ongoing reviews for classified information by the National Security Council, and the date was pushed back to June 23. This is the book Donald Trump doesnt want you to read. There hasnt been a detailed, inside account on how this president makes decisions on a day-to-day basis, until now, Simon & Schuster, the publisher, asserted last week. He argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping their prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trumps Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy. Deputy White House counsel John Eisenberg reportedly told Boltons lawyers in a letter obtained by the Associated Press not to publish. He warned: As we advised your client when he signed the nondisclosure agreements, and as he should be well as aware as Assistant to the President for the National Security Affairs in this administration, the unauthorised disclosure of classified information could be exploited by a foreign power, thereby causing significant harm to the national security of the United States. The New York Post reports that Mr Trump had said Monday that every conversation he has as president is classified a declaration critics questioned and threatened criminal charges against Bolton. A spokesman for Simon & Schuster said the lawsuit was nothing more than the latest in a long running series of efforts by the administration to quash publication of a book it deems unflattering to the President. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: Products worth $181 million were exported to Afghanistan via the customs and border markets of Irans Sistan and Baluchestan Province in southeastern Iran in the first two months of the current Iranian year (March 20-May 20, 2020), said Deputy chairman of Industry, Mine and Trade Organization of the province Mohammad Rafi Sultanzadeh, Trend reports citing the organizations website. The official added that products worth $114 million were exported through the customs of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, and products $67.1 million - through the border markets of the province. Sultanzadeh noted that the exports increased by 56 percent compared to the same period last Iranian year. The exported products to Afghanistan were mainly construction materials, ceramics and apples, he said. Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province shares a 300-kilometer border with Afghanistan. By PTI WASHINGTON: The US is "closely monitoring" the situation following a fierce clash between Indian and Chinese forces in eastern Ladakh, and hopes that the differences will be resolved peacefully, a senior State Department official has said. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel, were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. "We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control," the State Department spokesperson said on Monday. "We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families," the official said. Both India and China have expressed their desires to de-escalate and the US supports a peaceful resolution of the current situation, the spokesperson said. "During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had discussed the situation along the India-China border," the official added. The Indian Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement, it revised the figure to 20 saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries." In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry officials were silent on the casualties suffered by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops, but Hu Xijin, the editor of the ruling Communist Party-run Global Times tabloid, tweeted to say that there are casualties on Chinese side too. According to a report in the US News, at least 35 Chinese troops including one senior official died in the violent clash with Indian soldiers. "According to the US (intelligence) assessment, the Chinese government considers the casualties among their troops as a humiliation for its armed forces and has not confirmed the numbers for fear of emboldening other adversaries," the report said on Monday, quoting unnamed sources. Meanwhile, leading US experts on the region have commented on the India-China violent face-off and said that the Chinese military's aggressive maneuvers posed a threat to the entire region. If there is one lesson for the US to draw from this, it is that the India-China border needs to be on the US foreign policy radar screen as a frontline for Chinese assertiveness, said Alyssa Ayres from the Council on Foreign Relations. South Asia is a vital and central part of the Indo-Pacific, not a sideline, Ayres said. "We are still learning the details of a violent clash last night between the militaries of India and China along their border," US Senator Marsha Blackburn said. "The People's Liberation Army's aggressive maneuvers in India and Nepal affect the stability of the entire region and point to the increased militarization of the Tibetan plateau, which China has ruled with an iron fist for decades," Blackburn said. Ashley J Tellis from the Carnegie Endowment for International Relations said the planned disengagement was now "somewhat in jeopardy". The real question going forward is the future of India-China relationship, he said. "Leaders on both sides have attempted to manage this relationship despite the underlying competitiveness and rivalry. What has helped them so far was that both countries have managed to keep the standoff along the common border within bounds without the use of firearms and without the loss of life," he said. "What has happened in the last 24 hours changes this dynamic quite significantly because lives have now been lost on both sides. This suggests to me that Sino-Indian relationship can never go back to the old normal," Tellis said. A large number of Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Galwan Valley and certain other areas of eastern Ladakh for the last five weeks, including in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. A sizeable number of Chinese Army personnel even transgressed into the Indian side of the de-facto border in several areas including Pangong Tso. The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the row. 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. Supreme Court Clears $8 Billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline Project Roadblock removed for 605-mile-long pipeline to pass under Appalachian Trail In a 72 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court decided on Monday that the U.S. Forest Service has the authority to allow the $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross under the historic Appalachian Trail in Nelson County, Virginia. Proposed by Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Energy Inc., the 42-inch-diameter pipeline will channel some 1.5 billion cubic feet of fracked gas per day, transporting it over 604 miles from the Marcellus Shale basin in West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina. The decision signifies a victory for power and energy supplier Dominion Energy, Duke Energy Corp., and the Trump Administration, which supports the energy providers pro-development approach. The entities had appealed the ruling of a lower court that stopped construction of the project after the Forest Service granted permission for the pipeline to go through George Washington National Forest and under the historic and scenic Appalachian Trail, which runs almost 2,200 miles from Maine to Georgia. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said in a twitter post that the judgment will contribute to expanding the United States energy infrastructure. President @realDonaldTrump has long called for expanding energy infrastructure across the nation. Todays ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court brings us one step closer to making that a reality. pic.twitter.com/sb5zqMqjh8 Dan Brouillette (@SecBrouillette) June 15, 2020 The Supreme Court opinion (pdf) was drafted by Justice Clarence Thomas, with only two liberal justicesSonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagandissenting. Todays decision is an affirmation for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and communities across our region that are depending on it for jobs, economic growth, and clean energy, Dominion said in a statement. We look forward to resolving the remaining project permits. In its decision today, the Supreme Court upheld the longstanding precedent allowing infrastructure crossings of the Appalachian Trail. For decades, more than 50 other pipelines have safely crossed the Trail without disturbing its public use. Environmentalist Objections After a lengthy application process, a 2018 decision by the U.S. Forest Service granted Dominion a right of way to tunnel under the trail. Dominion stated that To avoid impacts to the Trail, the pipeline will be installed hundreds of feet below the surface and emerge more than a half-mile from each side of the Trail. There will be no construction activity on or near the Trail itself, and the public will be able to continue enjoying the Trail as they always have. However, a consortium of environmental groupsincluding the Cowpasture River Preservation Association, the Sierra Club, and the Virginia Wilderness Committeesued to stop the pipeline. The Sierra Club had referred to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project as Risky and costly and unnecessary, as the environmental group questioned future requirements for natural gas. A 2018 ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. found that the Forest Service did not have the necessary authority to grant an easement for the pipeline at the point where it crosses the Appalachian Trailbecause the trail itself is overseen by the National Park Service. In its ruling on Monday, the Supreme Court agreed with the Trump administration in finding that the Forest Service did in fact have the necessary authority to approve easements across the trail. Dominion Energy and the Trump administration maintained that even though the National Park Service administers the Appalachian Trail, the land at the pipeline crossing point on which the trail sits is part of a national forestmeaning that it is within the jurisdiction of the Forest Service. In the ruling (pdf), Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that If a rancher granted a neighbor an easement across his land for a horse trail, no one would think that the rancher had conveyed ownership over that land. Nor would anyone think that the rancher had ceded his own right to use his land in other ways, including by running a water line underneath the trail that connects to his house. The same principle applied here, he said. The National Park Services authority over the Appalachian trail did not transform the land over which the trail passes into land within the National Park System, according to the Supreme Court opinion. Further Barriers Ahead Director of the Sierra Clubs Beyond Dirty Fuels Initiative, Kelly Martin, said that while she was disappointed by the Supreme Court decision, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline still lacks a number of permits. The pipeline was likely to never be built, she said. Climate activist groups protest in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as oral arguments are heard in the U.S. Forest Service and Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC v. Cowpasture River Assn. case, in Washington, on Feb. 24, 2020. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Nothing in todays ruling changes the fact that the fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a dirty, dangerous threat to our health, climate, and communities, and nothing about the ruling changes our intention to fight it, Martin told Reuters. In a statement from the Sierra Club, Dick Brooks of the Cowpasture River Preservation Association said that Its been six years since this pipeline was proposed, we didnt need it then and we certainly dont need it now. Todays decision doesnt change the fact that Dominion chose a risky route through protected federal lands, steep mountains, and vulnerable communities. In a 2019 article, the Sierra Club said that The serial setbacks have cost Dominion, which is building the pipeline with Duke Energy and Southern Company, money and its reputation. Each week that goes by without felling a tree or digging a trench costs up to $20 million. The project is now estimated to cost almost $8 billionmore than 50 percent higher than originally thoughtwith full operation pushed back to 2021. However, Dominion Energy said the project has the support of a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including the U.S. Solicitor General, 18 state attorneys general, more than 60 members of Congress and dozens of labor and industry groups. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is needed now more than ever for our regions economy and our path to clean energy, said the company. Communities across Hampton Roads, Virginia, and eastern North Carolina are experiencing chronic shortages of natural gas. They urgently need new infrastructure to support military bases, manufacturing, and home heating. The ACP will also support our regions transition from coal and the rapid expansion of renewables, both of which are essential to Dominion Energys and Duke Energys plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Matthew Vadum and Reuters contributed to this report. Technology often makes life easier to manage, and new research confirms that's definitely the case for people with type 1 diabetes. Continuous glucose monitorsdevices that approximate blood sugar levels every few minutescan help teens and young adults better manage their diabetes. They can also help older adults prevent dangerously low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia), according to two new studies. "The advent of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology has revolutionized outpatient diabetes care in the past decade," wrote the authors of an accompanying editorial, Dr. Shivani Agarwal and Dr. Anne Cappola from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Continuous glucose monitors measure the amount of sugar (glucose) in interstitial fluid. That's fluid that surrounds the body's cells. The devices can track trends in glucose levels and provide alarms when sugar levels are rising or falling too quickly, or if they are out of an acceptable range. This information allows people with diabetes to adjust their insulin dosing or to have a snack to prevent hypoglycemia when glucose levels are dropping quickly. The device consists of a very thin sensor inserted under the skin to measure changes in glucose and a transmitter that attaches to the sensor. The transmitter is held in place on the skin with an adhesive patch. The transmitter sends information from the sensor wirelessly to a receiver, smartphone, tablet or certain insulin pumps. One of the new studies looked specifically at how well CGMs could prevent hypoglycemia in older people with type 1 diabetes. People with type 1 diabetes produce little to no insulin, and must take insulin injections or receive insulin via an insulin pump to make up for that missing insulin. But replacing just the right amount of insulin can be tricky. Too little insulin, and blood sugar levels may remain too high. Over time, that can lead to diabetes complications, such as vision problems, kidney disease, nerve conditions and heart disease. But too much insulin can cause hypoglycemia, which initially causes uncomfortable symptoms, but can lead to unconsciousness, seizures and even death if left untreated. As people age, they may not feel the symptoms of early hypoglycemia, such as shakiness and a rapid heartbeat. Some develop a condition called hypoglycemia unawareness. The study included more than 200 people over 60 years of age with type 1 diabetes. Half received a CGM to monitor their glucose levels, while the other half checked their blood sugar with a standard blood sugar meter (using a drop of blood pricked from the finger). The people on CGM had lower rates of hypoglycemia. The CGM group had glucose levels lower than 70 milligrams per deciliter, the threshold for low blood sugar, 5% of the time before the study began (about 73 minutes per day), and for less than 3% of the time during the six-month study period (about 39 minutes a day). Those checking their blood sugar with a standard meter had low glucose 4.7% of the time at the start of the study (68 minutes a day) and an average of 4.9% of the time during the study (70 minutes a day). "There was a significant reduction in hypoglycemia for people randomized to CGM. There was also a reduction in unconsciousness, seizures and the need for medical attention. There was also an improvement in overall [blood sugar] control," said the study's lead author, Dr. Richard Pratley, medical director of the AdventHealth Diabetes Institute in Orlando, Fla. "We learned that older individuals can use the technology to prevent hypoglycemia and improve their safety without compromising their [blood sugar] control. I think CGMs should be standard of care," he said. Medicare began offering coverage of the devices in 2017. The other study included more than 150 young people with type 1 diabetes, who were 14 to 24 years old. They were randomly assigned to CGM or a standard blood sugar meter. The researchers, led by Dr. Lori Laffel from Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, wanted to learn if CGM could help young people better manage their diabetes. The 26-week study showed a small, but statistically significant improvement in blood sugar control. Dr. Gerald Bernstein is program coordinator at the Friedman Diabetes Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He said, "The use of CGM has been increasing but is nowhere close to its potential." Bernstein added that both studies showed "a small statistical benefit of CGM," but he said that he expected the findings would have been more dramatic. "My own feeling is that people on multidose insulin should use it along with a strong education program," he said. However, Bernstein noted that there may sometimes be barriers to CGM use, such as insurance issues and out-of-pocket costs. The studies and editorial were published June 16 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Explore further Continuous glucose monitoring reduces hypoglycemia in older adults with type 1 diabetes Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Retail tycoon Radhakishan Damani mulls buying controlling stake in India Cements Ltd Billionaire stock market investor Radhakishan Damani is mulling acquiring a controlling stake in India Cements Ltd. Damani who owns Avenue Supermarts Ltd., has made an informal contact with N. Srinivasan, the controlling shareholder of India Cements Ltd., to explore a takeover opportunity, sources in the know told Bloomberg. Srinivasan owns around 29% stake in the Chennai-based cement maker. He is also considering other investors to stave off any hostile bids. However, Damani has promised an amiable management change, adding that he is not looking at a hostile takeover of the company, the report added. Also read: Avenue Supermarts' Radhakishan Damani becomes India's 6th richest person Meanwhile, no decision has yet been taken on how Damani and Shrinivasan will move forward. The retail tycoon and his family have been accumulating shares of the cement manufacturer for some months, with their holding surging four-fold this year to nearly 20% as of March 31, according to exchange filings. Damani currently owns a 10.29% stake (3,18,86,777 shares) in the company, while his brother Gopikishan Shivkishan Damani possesses an 8.26% stake (2,56,01,589) in the cement manufacturer as of March 31, 2020. India Cements' shares jumped approximately 11% on Wednesday, logging the biggest intraday gain in a month. All on all, the shares of the company that makes construction material surged 92% this year, taking its market value to around $555 million. Also read: India Cements share price hits 52-week high after Radhakishan Damani family raises stake The deal, if it concretises, will help Damani branch out his holdings while India Cements would get an investor with deep pockets to brace it against competitors such as UltraTech Cement Ltd. and LafargeHolcim Ltd., the report further stated. Damani's wealth swelled $2.8 billion this year to $12.5 billion, defying the stock market meltdown due to coronavirus impact, making him the fourth-richest Indian, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index According to India Cements Ltd's website, the company had 10 factories in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as of 2019. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) warned that the airline industry faces a hard winter and called on governments around the world to continue providing relief measures as the Covid-19 crisis continues. Airlines are expected to post a loss of $84.3 billion in 2020 and government financial relief is a lifeline to many airlines. The bulk of airlines make their money in the northern summer season, while the winter season, even in the best of times, is a struggle to remain profitable. For example, the 2019 net profit margin for European airlines followed the normal seasonal pattern and was 9 per cent and 17 per cent respectively in Q2 and Q3 (northern summer). But it started at -1 per cent in Q1 and finished the year at 2 per cent in Q4 (northern winter). The winter season will be even more challenging amid the recovery from Covid-19. Public opinion research in the first week of June showed greater caution among travellers in returning to travel. Only 45 per cent of travellers surveyed intend to return to the skies within a few months of the pandemic subsiding. A further 36 per cent said that they would wait six months. That is a significant shift from April 2020 when 61 per cent said that they would return to travel within a few months of the pandemic subsiding and 21 per cent responded that they would wait about six months. The survey findings are corroborated in key passenger trends demonstrating continuing market uncertainty: Overall bookings are down 82 per cent year-on-year compared to June 2019. Long-haul forward bookings for the first week in November are 59 per cent below normal levels. Historical trends show about 14 per cent of airline tickets are sold 22 weeks in advance of travel. Current bookings for November 1-7 show that tickets have been sold to only 5 per cent of the 2019 number of passengers. Passengers are booking closer to the time of travel. Bookings for travel 20 or more days in the future accounted for 29 per cent of bookings made in May, down from 49 per cent in 2019. Similarly, 41 per cent of bookings made in May 2020 were for travel within three days, more than double the 18 per cent in May 2019. People are returning to the skies but the horizon of uncertainty of the Covid-19 crisis is extending. Forward bookings are down, and people are hedging their travel bets by booking closer to the time of travel. Airlines in the Northern hemisphere rely on a strong summer season and a predictable booking curve to get them through the lean months. But neither of these conditions are in place and airlines will need continued help from governments to survive a hard winter. Airlines will need much more flexibility to plan schedules around these changing consumer trends. Financial and operational flexibility equals survival, said Alexandre de Juniac, Iatas Director General and CEO. Iata highlighted four keys areas where governments could assist airlines: Extending the waiver from the 80-20 use-it-or-lose-it rule in the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines. In these extraordinary times, airlines need much more flexibility to plan schedules and business critical decisions should not be compromised by slot allocation guidelines designed for normal times. There were good reasons why the 80-20 rule was waived for the summer season. Regulators should apply the same common-sense approach again and waive the rule for the winter season as well. Airlines need to focus on meeting what consumers want today, without trying to defend the slots needed for what their schedule might look like a year from now, said de Juniac. Continued financial assistance in ways that do not increase industry debt levels which have risen sharply. Some governments are exploring measures including subsidizing domestic operations, and waiving airport and air traffic control charges. Extensions to wage subsidies and corporate taxation relief measures. The wage subsidy schemes have provided some $35 billion in relief to airlines. Tapering these more slowly would give airlines more time to recover and minimise job losses. Relief for corporate and indirect taxes such as VAT, passenger taxes or fuel taxes would support market stimulus. Avoiding increases in charges and fees. While airports and air navigation service providers have suffered revenue falls, steep increases in charges must be avoided during the restart period as this will severely impact airline financials and market recovery. Similarly, governments should cover the costs of new health measures imposed as a result of Covid-19. Each day sees more people traveling. Thats good for the economy. The numbers are moving in the right direction, but we are by no means anywhere near normal or sustainable levels of activity. Financial relief measures are still desperately needed. And policy-relief measures like a slot usage waiver remain critical. Governments need to grant that by no later than the end of July to provide at least that certainty for this beleaguered and battered industry, said de Juniac. - TradeArabia News Service Joe Biden brought his ideas for reopening the economy to the Philadelphia suburbs on Wednesday, casting President Donald Trump as a reckless leader without a plan for containing the coronavirus or safely managing an economic recovery. Donald Trump wants to style himself a wartime president against an invisible enemy, the coronavirus, Biden said during a speech in Darby Borough, Delaware County. But unlike any other wartime leader, he takes no responsibility, he exercises no leadership, and now hes surrendering the fight. As coronavirus restrictions begin to loosen and campaigning resumes for the November election, Trump has looked to shift attention away from the crisis and toward a return to normalcy. Biden has tried to keep the devastation of the pandemic and Trumps response to it front and center. Biden has laid out detailed plans for reopening, which he laid out in a speech in Darby after meeting with business owners at Carlettes Hideaway, a soul food restaurant and bar in Yeadon. Standing in front of an American flag in a Darby municipal building, Biden accused Trump of ignoring science and declaring victory over the virus when cases are spiking in some states. Vice President Mike Pence on Monday wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal saying the administrations handling of the virus is cause for celebration. Thats despite hundreds of people still dying because of it every day, Biden noted. Thats greater than World War II-level casualties each month, Biden said. Thats more than five 9/11s each month. And this administration is self-congratulating? That may be good enough for Donald Trump, but it will never, ever be acceptable if I am president. His speech was carried live on cable news channels, including Fox News, which broke away from remarks Trump was giving at the same time. Biden has struggled to gain media attention during the pandemic, with traditional campaigning largely shut down. That appears to be changing ever so slightly as Biden ramps up his public appearances, with the campaign increasingly playing out in the medium of daily TV news coverage. Wednesday was Bidens third visit to the Philadelphia region in three weeks and his first to Delaware County since declaring his candidacy. The county, in a critical swing state, has shifted more Democratic in recent years. The party took all five County Council seats last year in a Democratic wave that spread across Philadelphias collar counties. Just how blue the suburbs vote is could have a big impact on who wins the state in November. READ MORE: Bernie Sanders is done but his fans in Pennsylvania keep winning primaries Biden noted Wednesday that Trump has scaled back coronavirus task force meetings, pushed dangerous disproven drugs, and refused to wear a face mask, which Biden said amounted to failing the most basic test of leadership. Businesses, Biden said, have little federal guidance on how to reopen safely, and theres been little transparency over how recovery funds are spent. Why wont you disclose the names of the businesses who received ... taxpayer funding? Biden asked, his voice rising. Why are they being hidden? How many cronies got bailouts? How many donors? Biden and Trump have had near-opposing reactions to the crisis. Biden wears a mask at public events and has an eight-part plan for reopening that involves guaranteed paid sick leave, federally funded testing, and personal protective equipment for employees who must go back to work, along with a public health corps of civil servants dedicated to contact tracing. Staff measured the distance between seats at events and later spaced reporters and a few attendees far apart around the gymnasium where he spoke. Trump, whose standing in the polls has eroded during the crisis, has pledged that the country will not close again even if there is a resurgence of the virus. Hes pushing to speed up the timeline for a vaccine in hopes that an economic recovery takes place sooner. Pence has twice told Americans there will be no second wave of infections, though Anthony Fauci, the administrations top infectious disease official, told the Journal this week that the United States is still in a first wave. A CNBC poll released Wednesday of voters in six battleground states, including Pennsylvania, found 54% of voters said Trump was pushing states to reopen their economies too quickly in order to boost his own reelection chances. All six states showed an increase from two weeks ago in voters concern that their states had opened up too quickly. As both candidates jockey for political airspace, Trumps campaign has been blasting Biden for what it calls a light schedule. The former vice president resumed in-person campaigning several weeks ago, with small events in which attendees wear masks and practice social distancing, with only a small group of journalists allowed inside. This is obviously a tactic to help him avoid errors and embarrassing, lost trains of thought while also conveniently preventing the press corps from asking him any questions in person, Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. Trump, meanwhile, is returning to campaigning on a much larger scale. A rally is set for an indoor arena Saturday in Tulsa, Okla., and attendees have to agree not to sue if they contract the virus. The Trump campaign used the name of the bar Biden visited in Yeadon the Hideaway to crack jokes about Hidin Biden. Sitting at a table on the Hideaways outdoor patio, Biden listened to business owners talk about how theyve struggled during the pandemic. Scott Richardson, who owns a catering business in Swarthmore, Occasionally Yours, told Biden he voted for Trump in 2016 but has lost faith in the president. Richardson said hes found Trumps response to the coronavirus particularly troubling as a small business owner who wants more guidance from the federal government. At some point, instead of being a day trader, if our president had stood up and told the American public exactly what they knew when they knew it, the virus might not have hit the country so hard, Richardson said, referring to Trumps focus on the stock market. His business lost $13,000 in just one weekend when things shut down suddenly in March. I felt he didnt do any long-range planning, Richardson said. Anything weve done has been reactive. READ MORE: Joe Biden used a visit to West Philly to introduce his plan to restart the national economy Carlette Brooks, who owns the Hideaway with her husband, Kenny, told Biden that her mother, whom she hadnt seen since March, died of coronavirus complications in the spring. Only 10 people could attend the service. On top of that, she said, her business was hit hard. My mother would have never, ever thought that I would be where I am right now, and she would have been so proud of me, Brooks said through tears. Its just still early, and I dont know how to mourn. I dont know what to do. Its really hard. Biden told Brooks he knew the pain of losing a mother. My mom was my heart, and you know I can tell you one thing, he said. In time, when you think about it, youll smile before you cry, thats when you know youre going to make it. A man has been charged eight years after he allegedly sexually assaulted two women who were walking along the beach in Melbourne's south-east. Police allege the 31-year-old Albanvale man sexually assaulted a 47-year-old woman on February 24, 2012, when she was walking along a footpath between Beach Road and Addison Street in Elwood. He then allegedly sexually assaulted a second woman, aged 32, who was walking along the Bay Trail in Elwood on October 20, 2012. He was charged on Wednesday with a number of offences including assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and rape and was expected to face Melbourne Magistrates' Court shortly. Police said they were still investigating whether there were links to any other similar incidents in the bayside area or the western suburbs. June 16, 2020 Philips connects oncologists and pathologists around the world to MD Andersons Precision Oncology Decision Support (PODS) system of actionable clinical information Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Houston, US Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today announced a collaboration to provide oncologists with evidence-based therapy and clinical trial guidance through Philips oncology informatics solutions and MD Andersons Precision Oncology Decision Support (PODS) system. This collaboration will allow physicians around the world to personalize therapy based on the patients genomic profile, with the aim of improving patient care. MD Anderson developed the PODS system as an evidence-based tool to facilitate therapeutic decision-making at the point of care. The system provides actionable clinical information, including approved therapies and available clinical trials, based upon genetic alterations within the tumor. Through the Philips solutions, clinicians receive a unified view of therapies and clinical trials in the context of their patients unique tumor, helping them make an evidence-based decision for their patients treatment. We developed PODS to enable physicians to better understand and act on genetic variations within each patients tumor, making it easier to provide the best treatments possible, said Funda Meric-Bernstam, M.D. , chair of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at MD Anderson. Through our collaboration with Philips, we hope to share our clinical experience with physicians around the world and contribute to improving care for patients globally. Today, pathologists and oncologists are faced with the challenges of keeping abreast of the increasing number of therapy options and the rapid advances in genomic testing, the molecular findings of which require increasingly specialized expertise to interpret. The growing amount of evidence for newly approved targeted and immune-oncology therapies necessitates solutions to simplify the complexity. Philips and MD Anderson aim to help pathologists and oncologists serve their patients and provide them with therapeutic options and relevant clinical trials based on tumor markers. Story continues Driven by the latest therapy breakthroughs, a deeper understanding of cancer biology and an increasing number of clinical trials, oncology practices can provide more options than ever for many patients, said Louis Culot, General Manager of Oncology Informatics at Philips. Broadening our long-standing collaboration with MD Anderson, Precision Oncology Decision Support becomes available to physicians through the Philips oncology informatics solution, providing the latest actionable information that supports their confident clinical decision-making. End-to-end oncology care Philips oncology informatics and genomics solutions empower end-to-end oncology care and evidence-based decisions. The solutions unify and streamline oncology care across the patient journey, enabling clinical team collaboration to drive best practices, clinical quality, and decision support from early-detection, treatment guidance, and follow-up care. For further information, please contact: Hans Driessen Philips Global Press Office Tel. : +31 6 10610417 E-mail: hans.driessen@philips.com Twitter: @hansdriessen_ph Clayton Boldt MD Anderson Public Relations Office Tel. : +1-713-792-9518 E-mail: crboldt@mdanderson.org Twitter: @MDAndersonNews About Royal Philips Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving peoples health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2019 sales of EUR 19.5 billion and employs approximately 81,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter . About MD Anderson The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the worlds most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. The institutions sole mission is to end cancer for patients and their families around the world. MD Anderson is one of only 51 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). MD Anderson is ranked No.1 for cancer care in U.S. News & World Reports Best Hospitals survey. It has ranked as one of the nations top two hospitals for cancer care since the survey began in 1990, and has ranked first 15 times in the last 18 years. MD Anderson receives a cancer center support grant from the NCI of the National Institutes of Health (P30 CA016672). Attachments Attacks on checkpoint and army outpost come as the two sides inch towards peace negotiations. Taliban fighters have killed at least 18 Afghan security personnel in two attacks on checkpoints in the north, officials said on Wednesday, the latest violence in advance of expected peace talks. In one predawn raid, fighters killed 12 Afghan security force members when they stormed a checkpoint in Jowzjan province, Maroof Azar, a spokesman to the governor, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. He said four security personnel were captured, while five Taliban fighters were killed in the fighting. The defence ministry confirmed the attack and said six of its soldiers were among the dead. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, gave a higher toll. Separately, Taliban fighters were blamed for a raid on an army outpost in Kunduz. Six soldiers were killed in fighting that lasted about five hours, said Aminullah Iddin, a member of the provincial council. Army spokesman Hadi Jamal confirmed the attack, saying four Taliban fighters were also killed. The Taliban has not commented on that raid. The Afghan government has said that in recent weeks, some 422 Afghan troops have been killed or wounded across the country in more than 220 Taliban attacks. The Taliban says it is committed to an agreement it signed with the United States in February. The deal provides for the withdrawal of all international troops remaining in the country and is intended to pave the way for peace talks between the Taliban and the US-backed government in Kabul. The latest bloodshed comes as the armed group and the government inch closer towards potential peace negotiations. The much-delayed talks aimed at ending the conflict are expected to begin in the Qatari capital, Doha, once the two sides complete an ongoing prisoner swap, which has accelerated after a brief ceasefire last month. Officials claim the Taliban has stepped up attacks in recent days, although there has been an overall drop in violence across the country since the ceasefire ended. Elon Musk - PHILIP PACHECO /AFP Elon Musks SpaceX is building floating spaceports at sea to launch rockets into space and hypersonic flights around Earth. In a tweet, Musk confirmed that the development of floating, superheavy-class spaceports was underway on offshore sites, in preparation for hypersonic travel as well as trips to the moon and Mars. It follows the posting of job advert for an offshore operations engineer position in Brownsville, Texas. The job ad, which reinforces the companys ultimate mission to enable human life on Mars, notes that applicants must be willing to work significant overtime. The company currently launches its rockets from Cape Canaveral in Florida, where Nasas Kennedy Space Centre is based, though Musk has expressed his desire to create offshore launchpads near Florida and the Dominican Republic. Profile | Elon Musk Musk has previously proposed a hypersonic flight system that could ferry passengers across major cities in the world. In a conference in Australia in 2017, he claimed a potential spacecraft could take passengers from New York to Shanghai within 39 minutes. The aircraft could travel between 4,000 to 6,000mph. The company has also advanced plans for landing sites for its reusable rockets which promise to bring down the cost of space travel by billions of dollars. It first landed a first-stage booster of a rocket on a landing pad near the coast of Florida in 2016. It comes just weeks after SpaceX marked the historic launch of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, becoming the first private company to send humans to the International Space Station, and the first to launch from US soil since 2011. The SpaceX boss has made it his goal to commercialise spaceflight, but faces stiff competition from a number of other tech billionaires, including Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson. F lash flooding in the north west of England has left roads and shops submerged after heavy downpours struck the region. Thunderstorms hit parts of Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire on Tuesday, causing police to urge drivers to drop their speed following reports of traffic collisions. Some roads were also closed as drivers reported experiencing spray and sudden flooding, which led to difficult driving conditions. It comes after the Met Office issued two yellow weather warnings for north-west England, south-west Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland. Forecasters said up to 50mm of rain would fall in just two to three hours over the evening, while storms could continue into Wednesday morning. North West Motorway police tweeted: "Numerous reports being received across the region of flash flooding, resulting in collisions. "Please if out and about, drive to the road conditions, drop your speeds." Cheshire Police tweeted: "Be careful if you're out and about this evening, thunderstorms are likely to affect road conditions across Cheshire. "You can keep yourself and others safe by slowing down, keeping a greater distance between yourself & the vehicle in front, using headlights as visibility drops." An entire street in Milnrow, Rochdale, was flooded after the River Beal burst its banks, and local councillor Andy Kelly said it was the "worst flood he had seen in 20 years". Parts of Scotland were also affected by the wet weather, which first struck overnight on Monday. Five endangered and threatened sea turtle species the Kemps ridley, loggerhead, hawksbill, leatherback and green return to Gulf Coast beaches from March to October each year to lay their nests, according to experts with the Turtle Island Restoration Network. After a volunteer with Turtle Island Restoration Network shared a video of beachgoers in Surfside, Texas, touching an endangered sea turtle last weekend, experts are reiterating one very specific rule: do not disturb the sea turtles if you see them. If we want sea turtles to return to our beaches, everyone must do their part to ensure these endangered species are protected, said Gulf Program Director Joanie Steinhaus. Every nest counts. Visitors are asked to avoid flash photography and making loud noises, as well inform others not to approach the sea turtles. "Give her 30 feet of space as she crawls to the dunes to nest, and as she returns to the water," said experts with the Network. "Do not disturb the tracks or the nest cavity." If a sea turtle is spotted, you are asked to call the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network in Texas at 1-866-TURTLE-5 to report the sighting. You will be asked for the location of the nest and any landmarks to identify the area. TIRN said so far this year, 250 Kemps ridley sea turtle nests have been confirmed on the Texas coast, surpassing last years total of 190. Experts are also reminding the public that it is a federal crime to harass or harm a sea turtle. So, not only is it strongly advised not to disturb the sea turtles, it's illegal. Robert Martinez couldnt take a deep breath on March 26. The next morning, he was taken to the hospital and tested positive for COVID-19. He spent the next several weeks in critical care in the intensive care unit at HCA Houston Hospital in Tomball. Martinez, 62, is a success story a recovery from the novel coronavirus. But the weeks in a hospital bed and on a ventilator left his body with considerable damage, both internally and externally. He had no control over his left hand, which is his dominant one; he lost considerable muscle mass; and he had trouble remembering things. He knew if he tried to go home right away after being discharged, he would be in trouble. So he went to a rehabilitation program developed by TIRR Memorial Hermann and the Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Network for individuals treated for COVID-19. The therapies depend on the patients needs once theyve recovered from the virus physical therapy for movement and muscles, respiratory therapy for breathing, and sometimes music therapy for cognition. I really couldnt do a whole bunch when I got there. Being laid up for a month, I didnt realize how much you lose as far as strength goes, Martinez said. In the beginning, I couldnt pick myself up off the floor to stand up. Renew Houston: Get the latest wellness news delivered to your inbox COVID-19 damages more than the lungs; it affects all organ systems, said Dr. Jacob Joseph, attending physician at TIRR Memorial Hermann and UTHealth. And because this coronavirus strain is so new, doctors are still learning the long-term effects, and who will suffer from what and why. What were seeing at TIRR is an effect on the entire body, Joseph said. It affects people after recovery from their initial lung injuries. It causes damage to their muscles, nerves and even their brain in terms of cognitive dysfunction. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients have spiked again in June, a month after the state began reopening businesses in phases. As of June 15, the statewide total of coronavirus cases was increasing by more than 1,000 cases per day. In Harris County, there has been an increase of more than 150-300 new cases per day for most of June. A growing number of recovered COVID patients need continued rehabilitation before returning to their normal lives. A multi-disciplinary team of therapists and doctors start their initial assessment when a patient is still in the ICU, which helps offset the physical decline and promote mobilization before their hospital release. The team is already trained to help people who have suffered from severe strokes and other cognitive disorders. But theres no one-size way to approach the patients recovery, so the program has to be customized, Joseph said. Safety continues to be the top priority for patients, doctors and therapists at TIRR. Every person has their temperature screened once they walk through the door before they fill out a short survey; social distance is practiced in the hallways; and everyone is fully masked at all times unless the patient is alone in their room. Rehabilitation isnt a socially distant practice, but it is essential, Strahn said. Therapists have readjusted how they do their jobs, much like every other essential worker during the pandemic. We work in close physical proximity with our patients, but we are doing what we can to keep as safe as possible, she said. Ultimately, we have to be able to touch our patients to help them get best. Its a balance of safety and doing our absolute best to get people independent and functional as they can be before they leave. Respiratory therapists are heavily involved from the beginning, said Dr. Jessica Straughn, a neurological physical therapist. Patients frequently arrive requiring supplemental oxygen, and the respiratory therapists help them with breathing treatments and coughing strategies. Patients are visited by therapists depending on their individual needs, which can include physical, speech and language, occupation, recreation or even music, which helps promote cognitive function, Joseph said. The goal is for the patient to be mostly independent, and for their families to understand the scope of their needs upon discharge. On HoustonChronicle.com: New coronavirus-triggered syndrome could be life-threatening for kids Patients come to the program with more than coronavirus-induced issues; they also experience pressure sores and a syndrome called ICU delirium, , a severe state of confusion among patients who stay in critical care units for weeks, in which the patient cant think clearly, has trouble paying attention and may see or hear things that arent there. Patients may also experience trauma just by going through the virus itself, Straughn said. Therapists noticed one patient had trouble moving forward because she was so anxious about contracting the virus a second time. Straughn worked directly with Martinez during his week-and-a-half stay in the in-patient program. He was confused when he arrived after weeks of being in critical care, she said. Part of Martinezs rehabilitation was speech therapy to help his recall ability. It was painful at times, he said. (The therapist) helped me by giving me tasks or tests, like small, short stories, Martinez said. I would read them, and then she would ask me questions about it to see if I could remember who did what. Its their job, but they made it fun. Martinez came in with one major request: getting up from the floor on his own. Standing from the floor is a great strengthening activity, especially for people who are weak and havent done it in a long time, Straughn said. Its better when patients set their own standards for recovery, like walking without any aids, she added. Though shes trained to work with stroke patients, Straughn said its difficult to understand the full scope of coronavirus from start-to-finish because it is a multi-system virus. Rehabilitating patients doubles as continuing education, she said. We know more about this emerging virus than we do about other emerging viruses, and were learning how devastating and unique it is, she said. For instance, there are certain processes in the virus that make people more prone to clots. A handful of individuals Ive seen have had strokes in addition to the virus. Its a really devastating combination. On HoustonChronicle.com: A delicate dance: Immunocompromised Houstonians turn to virtual boot-scooting to stay connected Before Junes spike in infections, Joseph said fewer than 20 people had been admitted to the inpatient program still a relatively small number as opposed to our colleagues in critical care and in the emergency room, he said. Thankfully, its only a subset the severely affected that have needs for our services, Joseph said. julie.garcia@chron.com Twitter.com/reporterjulie That initial party was attacked and some captured, the army officers said, and both sides called for reinforcements. The ensuing melee went on for hours in the darkness and involved batons, rods, clubs and stones. Some of the Indians who died were thrown off or fell off a ridge into the frigid Galwan River below, the officers said. Dozens more were injured. (Indian and Chinese forces refrain from firing weapons in the border area in accordance with long-standing protocols.) Now that Plexiglas shields are standard in front of cash registers across the country, when do you think someone will complain about paywalls? This is a joke that only journalists and media junkies will likely appreciate. Paywalls are the online fences that news organizations erect around material thats available exclusively to paid subscribers. The word appears often on social media, usually prefaced with a complaint from a non-subscriber, as in: Ugh. Paywall. Complaints notwithstanding, the truth is that journalisms future hinges on the question of who pays for the news that people are consuming. This week, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault served notice that his government will be going ahead this fall with legislation to make Facebook and Google pay for the news they distribute on their platforms. Guilbeault was talking at the Banff World Media Festival on Tuesday and said that making the tech giants pay for news would be part of legislation coming later this year that would be similar to what Australia has been doing on the same front. Those who benefit from the media content of our news and information agencies in Canada should be paying their fair share, Guilbeault said. The heritage minister also said this was a far better plan than having the government prop up the journalism business an idea that regularly generates far more outrage on social media than paywalls do. Journalisms old business model having advertisers pay for news has been crumbling for years, but the pandemics economic havoc has heightened the urgency of a need for solutions. The Star, full disclosure, has been a strong voice in the chorus of newspaper owners looking for measures similar to what Guilbeault was talking about in Banff this week. John Boynton, president and CEO of Torstar, said he was pleased with the direction the heritage minister laid out in Banff. We welcome this decision as a mechanism for important Canadian companies to arrive at fair terms and compensation with global platforms that are massively bigger, Boynton said in an email to me, when I let him know I was writing on this subject. We believe this will help to create a healthier long-term ecosystem where buyers and sellers can both be successful ... Australia and Europe have been leading the way in efforts to make the tech giants pay for news, but its tricky political terrain, especially with Donald Trump likely to take umbrage with any efforts to drain dollars from big U.S. companies. Trump, as we know, is simultaneously the greatest advertisement for the reach of social media and the greatest example of why its power needs to be reined in. At this moment, hes annoyed with social media. The presidents newest grievance was ignited a few weeks ago when Twitter made a bold move to fact-check his tweets. Trump responded with the usual fire and fury, threatening regulations or even a shutdown. Trump tantrums havent always worked out well for Canada, but this particular one may serve this government well, if it means the president isnt in a particularly protective mood toward Facebook, Google or any of the other social-media giants based in the U.S. Still, if Canada is following Australias example in trying to get the tech companies to pay for news, it should be prepared for some blowback from the firms themselves. This week, Facebook formally registered its opposition to the Australian proposal, saying its business model doesnt depend on distribution of news. As well, in an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald, Facebooks director of public policy for Australia wrote that the relationship between old media and new media is a mutually beneficial one and should stay that way. Working with the big social-media companies, Mia Garlick wrote, is more likely to succeed than introducing excessive penalties on tech companies; that will not help news organizations promote viable journalism, build new audiences or develop sustainable monetization strategies. Facebook Canada hasnt yet issued any formal reply to what Guilbeault was signalling this week, preferring to wait until it sees details of what the government has in mind. But it too has been rolling out measures to cast itself as a collaborator, rather than a competitor with traditional media. One came on Tuesday: a $1-million Facebook fellowship for The Canadian Press, allowing the news organization to hire eight journalists to report on pressing issues in local communities across Canada. Ugh is probably not the best response for customers encountering those Plexiglas shields at the cashier these days; theyre unfortunately necessary. Its a similarly unhelpful reaction when encountering those media paywalls too, since ugh doesnt answer the question that many governments not just Canada are trying to answer: who is going to pay for news? Susan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based columnist covering national politics for the Star. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt Read more about: The border clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh broke the brittle quiet -- and also the sense of security for anxious Chinese nationals in India who fear a backlash with anti-Chinese sentiment spiralling in the country. IMAGE: Citizens burn posters of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bengaluru, on Wednesday. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo On Wednesday, a day after news of the high altitude violent face-off in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley and amid rising talk of boycotting Chinese goods on WhatsApp and other social media, the undercurrent of tension was evident. Wary of being identified, some said they had been reassured by their friends but were still apprehensive for themselves and their families. Adding to their anxiety was news of protests. A group of ex-armymen gathered near the Chinese embassy to protest the killing of 20 Indian Army personnel in Ladakh's Galwan Valley. And another group of around 10 protesters belonging to the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch protested near the Teen Murti roundabout in Central Delhi. "They (Chinese families) don't want to speak to the media. They are not going out and are worried about their security and well being. Their families are also worried back home," Mohammed Saqib, secretary general of the India China Economic & Cultural Council, told PTI. He added that Chinese nationals who are friends with him have been calling him since news of the conflict -- the worst military confrontation in five decades -- and expressed concern over growing anti-China sentiments. A Chinese national from Beijing working in Gurgaon for a Chinese mobile firm first refused to talk, saying he does not want to speak to the media and later shared his thoughts only on condition of anonymity. "There is talk of border standoff and tensions, but we know Indians are very warm people and that is why I have told my family that all is fine here and they should not worry," he said. Another Chinese national working in Gurgaon said he and his family are feeling the stress amid the spiralling conflict between India and China, but there many friends have been reassuring him. "They (Chinese in India) are under a lot of stress naturally. Such a conflict puts a lot of stress as they could bear the brunt and the same applies to Indians in China," B R Deepak, professor at the Centre for Chinese and South East Asian Studies of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, told PTI. He said it was unfortunate that at the time the two countries were gearing to celebrate 70 years of establishment of diplomatic ties, the border standoff derailed the commemorative programmes aimed at strengthening ties. Experts also feel the border clash is likely to have a significant negative impact on the economic and people to people ties. There are scores of Chinese in India working in various Chinese firms and also those who are studying in universities like JNU. About 3,000 Chinese people, doing business or studying in big cities in India, were stranded in India at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, and about half of them returned to China before the lockdown began on March 25. Efforts were on from the Chinese to evacuate the rest. The Chinese Embassy in New Delhi announced on May 25 that they will arrange for five flights run by the China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Air China to bring students, tourists and businesspersons to five Chinese cities, including Shanghai and Guangzhou. "It will impact the psychology of the Chinese here. There are 2,000 Chinese firms in various sectors in India which are going to be impacted," Deepak said. Future investments from the Chinese side could also be impacted, he said. Also, as far as people-to-people contacts are concerned, the number of Chinese students choosing India as a preferred destination is likely to go down, Deepak said. Alka Acharya, another China expert, said there are two kinds of impacts of such an incident -- short term and medium term. Usually after the initial nationalistic reaction in the short term things tend to normalise in the medium term, but with such a border clash happening for the first time in decades clearly the resonance would be much more in both India and China, said Acharya, professor at the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, in JNU. "Due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the economy, whether India can take a hardline in terms of economics towards China, is a tricky question," she said. In the immediate context, there may be a dip in economic ties with calls for boycott of Chinese goods and services, Acharya told PTI. The manner in which this crisis is resolved will affect how ties will be affected in the medium term, she said. 20 Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. The casualties on the Chinese side are not yet known. However, government sources, citing an American intelligence report, claimed the total number of soldiers killed and seriously wounded could be 35. NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) today announced that CIT Northbridge Credit, through its investment advisor CIT Asset Management LLC, served as sole lead arranger on a $20 million senior secured credit facility for Marquis Construction Services LLC. Headquartered in Clute, Texas, Marquis Construction Services is a multi-disciplined, soft-craft provider of industrial and construction services, including scaffolding, insulation, sandblasting and painting, environmental abatement, fireproofing and industrial siding. "We are proud of the strong position we've built in the soft-craft industry and look forward to continuing to advance our business with this new credit facility," said Roy Ledbetter, President of Marquis Construction. "We appreciated the agility and expertise of CIT Northbridge in arranging this financing to support our strategy." "We are pleased to work with Marquis Construction Services to arrange this credit facility as they continue to serve their customers with a diverse array of soft-craft construction services," said Neal Legan, who leads CIT Northbridge. CIT Northbridge Credit is a trusted financial partner supporting middle-market companies with a broad range of flexible asset-based debt solutions. A joint venture advised by CIT Asset Management, it provides revolving and term loan commitments from $15 million to $150 million to companies across various industries and business cycles, and serves primarily as sole lender, agent, club participant or co-lender. About CIT CIT is a leading national bank focused on empowering businesses and personal savers with the financial agility to navigate their goals. CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) is a financial holding company with over a century of experience and operates a principal bank subsidiary, CIT Bank, N.A. (Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender). The company's commercial banking segment includes commercial financing, community association banking, middle market banking, equipment and vendor financing, factoring, railcar financing, treasury and payments services, and capital markets and asset management. CIT's consumer banking segment includes a national direct bank and regional branch network. Discover more at cit.com/about. MEDIA RELATIONS: John M. Moran 212-461-5507 [email protected] SOURCE CIT Group Inc. Related Links http://www.cit.com WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it is concerned about court verdicts against two journalists in the Philippines and called for the case against them to be resolved in ways that reinforced a shared commitment to freedom of expression. Veteran Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, a dual U.S.-Filipino citizen whose website has put President Rodrigo Duterte under tough scrutiny, was convicted of libel on Monday and faces up to six years in jail, in a ruling widely seen as a blow to media freedom. Reynaldo Santos, a former Rappler researcher and writer, was also found guilty in the case. Both were granted bail pending an appeal. "The United States is concerned by the trial courts verdict against journalists Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos and calls for resolution of the case in a way that reinforces the U.S. and Philippines long shared commitment to freedom of expression, including for members of the press," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement on Tuesday. The court decision has fueled concern over human rights in a country where Duterte's war on drugs has left thousands dead. He recently renewed a threat to kill drug dealers, despite condemnation in a U.N. report. U.S. lawmakers have criticized what they see as harassment of Ressa. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Paul Simao) JACKSON, MI Britches-N-Bows Childrens Apparel Shoppe opened in 1983 in a house on Lansing Avenue in Jackson. It has been a staple of the community for 37 years, selling childrens dress clothing and school uniforms for children in the Jackson region. Now it is on Wildwood Avenue, moved from its original location on Lansing Avenue that also was the home of its original owner: Winifred Thomas, who died in 2012. Karen Lewan runs it today, as she has the last seven years. Lewan announced in late May that the business would be closing after nearly 40 years in a Facebook post. The post says June, but due to the large inventory in stock, Lewan says she likely will have to stay open into mid or late July. Online shopping did the most damage, but a pandemic of all things was what finally finished off the business, she said. On The Job with Karen Lewan, owner of Britches-n-Bows Childrens Apparel Shoppe in Jackson As companies like Amazon introduced the era of online shopping, Lewan, who purchased the business from Thomas children in 2013, immediately saw a drop in revenue, she said. The COVID-19 pandemic really was just the final straw, Lewan said. What has hurt my business the last year and a half is all the Amazon online shopping with free shipping, I just cannot compete. Ive even had customers come in and say, Oh, I like the line you carry, I bought that on Amazon. I just cant compete anymore. The racks and racks of childrens dresses and suits lay neatly hung throughout the small boutique, a lone Hawaiian shirt among them. A lot of the inventory, Lewan says, can be outdated and the excess inventory is a product of that. Lewan looks around her store and says shes OK with the decision. She is at peace with the decision because, Id like to be grandma again and I dont get to see anybody because I cant get anybody to work for me. It was already in distress when the pandemic hit. She loves the small business and always has. She spent decades as a shopper herself and her relationship with the previous owners is a huge reason why she took ownership unto herself, Lewan said. The pandemic forced her to look at how she spends her time, she is the business only employee owner and operator. After 31 years teaching elementary students in the Columbia School District in Brooklyn, she is ready, after a second career, to finally be done working. I just need I need to be home now, Lewan said. Its just time to stop. She will miss the camaraderie of the regular customers, ones that Lewan said she has laughed, prayed and cried with over the years. Ive met a lot of people that Ive become friends with, just from this experience, Lewan said. Theyve become friends and weve just had lots of good times with little kids and some really wild times with little kids. She does not believe people will shop more local after the pandemic is over, she understands the ease of online shopping and how busy people are in todays society. The previous owners family understands how hard the decision was for her and understand the times that helped accelerate the process, she said. She loved the store and wants to pass it on but said she knows it would not be a good decision to invest in. So just like when she decided to purchase it, she knows that closing the boutique is What Im supposed to do. Lewan will close the store and move the inventory, all that will remain after 37 years in Jackson for the boutique is an empty building at 1212 Wildwood Ave. I love the people and the children but not the bills, Lewan said. READ MORE JACKSON NEWS: We gotta value our lives, organizer of Black Lives Matter mural in Jackson says Heres where construction stands on 3 Jackson streets Overnight lane closures beginning on I-94 in Jackson Current times kind of a rollercoaster for historic Michigan Theatre, director says Sadiq Khan has slashed his own pay by 10% as he called on Boris Johnson to bail out local authorities facing funding black holes as a result of coronavirus. The London mayor warned that authorities across the country faced a shortfall of business rate and council tax income. In the capital that could mean cuts across the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, Transport for London and the Greater London Authority due to a shortfall of almost 500m (558m) in funding. Mr Khan is taking an immediate reduction to his 152,734 (170,500) salary, cutting it by almost 15,300, and has frozen pay for his senior appointments at City Hall. This is the worst possible time for a return to austerity just when we need to invest in Londons recovery He said: Londoners did the right thing to tackle Covid-19 by following the rules, staying at home and helping to save lives. But now the Government is punishing them with a new era of austerity. Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on Londons public finances which were in great shape before the pandemic. TfLs fares income has dropped by more than 90% and local business rates and council tax income has fallen off a cliff. This is the worst possible time for a return to austerity just when we need to invest in Londons recovery. Unless ministers act, the current number of police officers will need to be reduced and it will be impossible to tackle youth violence or make the changes to the London Fire Brigade that are desperately needed after the awful Grenfell Tower tragedy. The shortfall in tax receipts is due to a forecast reductions in the number of firms paying business rates and householders not able to keep up with council tax bills. Mr Khan called on the Government to act on Mr Johnsons promise that he would not return to austerity measures to balance the books as a result of the coronavirus crisis. He warned that failure to act would jeopardise the British Prime Ministers commitment to recruit 20,000 extra police officers. ROUND ROCK, Texas, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) announces a virtual fireside chat hosted by Katy Huberty from Morgan Stanley on Tuesday, June 23, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. CT / 10:00 a.m. ET. Dell Technologies' vice chairman and chief operating officer Jeff Clarke will join Mrs. Huberty to discuss the company's recent performance, innovation and strategy. 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 Ring that bell again for the unsavory deal the two parties cooked up after the disputed presidential election of 1876. The Republican candidate got the White House and the Democrats got white supremacy restored in the South, their base of support. Army units enforcing Reconstruction were withdrawn, and blacks were resubjected by Jim Crow state governments. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is concerned about the clashes between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh and asked the two nations to exercise restraint, a spokesperson said Tuesday. Guterres's Associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko said: "We are concerned about reports of violence and deaths along the Line of Actual Control between India and China." She added: "We urge both sides to exercise maximum restraint. We take positive note of reports that the two countries are engaged in deescalating the situation." The clashes on Monday, during which no firearms were reportedly not used, was probably the worst confrontation since the 1962 war between the neighbours. Colonel B. Santosh Babu of the 16 Bihar Regiment and two other Indian Army personnel were killed in the clash along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night. However, the Indian Army later disclosed that 20 personnel had been killed. Unlike India, China has not officially said if there it had suffered casualties. But Hu Xijn, editor of the Global Times, tweeted that there were Chinese casualties but the government did not want to publish the numbers because they do not "want people of the two countries to compare the casualties number so to avoid stoking public mood. This is goodwill from Beijing." Bauer Media Australia and New Zealand chief executive Brendon Hill is confident all suspended magazines titles will return in print and that there will be no further job cuts after announcing the sale of the business to investment firm Mercury Capital . Mr Hill, who suspended nearly 10 magazines including Elle, NW and OK!, made almost 150 staff redundant and shut the New Zealand operation last month, said the publisher of Australian Women's Weekly and Woman's Day will have an opportunity to grow under new ownership. "The ad market has looked more positive in the last three to four weeks than it was when we had to make those tough decisions," Mr Hill said. "We are absolutely committed to bringing them back with that timing - September, October - dependent again on advertising revenue." Bauer Media Australia boss Brendon Hill announced the company had been sold to private equity. Credit:Jacky Ghossein Nothing in my plans [involving job losses]," he said. "Mercury has indicated they want two to three months to work with the new team and the executive team...and then lay out a really good strategy roadmap for growth into the future." YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian continues meetings with the healthcare sector representatives aimed at discussing the opportunities on preventing and overcoming the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the Republic, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. This time the President received general director of the Erebuni medical center, former minister of healthcare Harutyun Kushkyan. The sides discussed the current situation in Armenia caused by the pandemic, the opportunities to prevent and overcome the disease. Harutyun Kushkyan reported the actions taken by the hospital in fighting the COVID-19, as well as presented his approaches and proposals on overcoming the pandemic. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Canon India launched its multi-functional printer imagePRESS C165. The new MFP combines the best of Canons patented technologies and easy-to-use user interface combined with a suite of security tools. The imagePRESS C165 delivers professional quality documents time after time. The MFP offers a high-productivity output of 65 pages per minute (ppm), low power consumption, seamless connectivity, equipped to meet the diverse needs of print shops, creative agencies and corporate offices. Canon imagePRESS C165 addresses the evolving business demands, aiding customers with optimal productivity and remarkable impression in terms of output. In line with their motto of Do More, the machine will enable users to expand their business and move beyond the current realm of work. Bolstering consumers creative abilities, iPR C165 provides a wide range of creative applications with rich, clear and vivid images. With more simplicity in terms of its user interface, customers can connect seamlessly for maximum ease of use and ensure data and network security. Finally, as a growth partner to business, the imagePRESS C165 is also an easy fit in the existing setup due to its compact size and low power consumption, enabling businesses to save more. Expressing his views on the launch, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India said, Being the industry leaders in imaging, it is our constant endeavor to inspire our customers to Do More with our range of products and solutions. We understand that with the evolving landscape in the printing industry at present, it is imperative for businesses to leverage cutting edge technologies to ensure cost optimization. Backed with an in-depth market study of technology and product trends, we are delighted to launch the latest addition in our flagship imagePRESS series in India- imagePRESS C165. The new multi function printer will certainly empower our customers to enhance their creativity, delivering excellent print quality, and at the same time ensure cost efficient business operations. Going ahead, we will be stepping up our product proposition to ensure that innovation leads the strategy for all our offerings to help our customers push boundaries like never before. Canon imagePRESS C165 multi-functional printer (MFP) Key Features The Canon imagePRESS C165 is a perfect combination of user-friendly interface and patented technologies, to ensure delivery of professional quality color prints. A blend of various features has been incorporated in Canon iPR C165, thereby helping you drive MORE Creativity, MORE Simplicity, MORE Savings, and ultimately DO MORE Business within your existing Print setup. MORE Creativity Features -Wide range of creative applications are possible with the ability to handle multiple paper sizes and formats including SRA3, A3, A4, envelopes, heavy media up to 350g/m and unique long-sheet functionality up to 1300mm. RICH, CLEAR, VIVID IMAGES Canons translucent CV Toner allows the surface properties of the media to show through thus producing amazingly vibrant and vivid images Canons translucent CV Toner allows the surface properties of the media to show through thus producing amazingly vibrant and vivid images WIDE MEDIA SUPPORT The combination of its coated transfer belt and Simple Transfer Adjustment technology allows the toner to fill the peaks and valleys of your embossed stocks, producing high-density images for custom and premium applications MORE Simplicity Features The touch screen interface is designed for maximum ease of use. Functions are quickly initiated with clearly identifiable on-screen buttons that can be organized to fit the way you work. WORK EASIER Repetitive or complicated tasks can be assigned to a single button on the interface, speeding workflow through less manual intervention. On-screen intuitive removal guidance is designed to remove paper jams easily if any Repetitive or complicated tasks can be assigned to a single button on the interface, speeding workflow through less manual intervention. On-screen intuitive removal guidance is designed to remove paper jams easily if any CONNECT SEAMLESSLY It has ability to interface with USB drives, Wi-Fi or mobile App. This make connectivity to iPR C165 a breathe It has ability to interface with USB drives, Wi-Fi or mobile App. This make connectivity to iPR C165 a breathe DATA AND NETWORK SECURITY Optional multilayered security solutions help safeguard sensitive data stored on the device and during transmission if required MORE Savings Features Canons strong commitment to the environment is evident in its product design & combination of fusing technologies and low-melting-point toner helps minimize power requirements. SAVE POWER iPR C165 is designed to demand low power consumption of 2kW (for Standard Configuration) which make it easy fit in existing setup iPR C165 is designed to demand low power consumption of 2kW (for Standard Configuration) which make it easy fit in existing setup SAVE SPACE With Standard Feeding options on minimum configuration, iPR C165 takes less space to suit in any Print Environment MORE Business Features imagePRESS C165 is an outstanding investment designed to deliver the remarkable print quality that meets your current business demands. OPTIMAL PRODUCTIVITY & BRILLIANT IMPRESSION Print speeds up to 65ppm (BW/color) & scan speed of 240/200ipm at 300dpi (BW/color). This next-generation imaging solution incorporates Single-pass Duplex Color Scanner & state-of-the-art R-VCSEL laser technology at 2400 x 2400dpi, 190lpi screening to give you Productivity and Stunning image quality Print speeds up to 65ppm (BW/color) & scan speed of 240/200ipm at 300dpi (BW/color). This next-generation imaging solution incorporates Single-pass Duplex Color Scanner & state-of-the-art R-VCSEL laser technology at 2400 x 2400dpi, 190lpi screening to give you Productivity and Stunning image quality KEEPS RUNNING Slowdowns and interruptions can cost time and money. Outstanding consumables & part yield combined with Toner and paper replenishment on-the-fly ensures maximum productivity Sharing his thoughts on the product, Mr. Puneet Datta, Senior Director, Canon India said, At Canon, we remain committed to the growth of printing industry in India, by introducing innovative and advanced products at the right time to the market. Business today are undergoing turbulent times where it is imperative to DO MORE than desired from each investment. Also, various surveys on printing industry have indicated that as we start to come out from the lockdown, digital printing technology will see a rapid and enhanced adoption along with an increased focus on generating higher ROIs. In alignment with the market needs, we have launched the latest addition to the imagePRESS series, the imagePRESS C165. The new imagePRESS C165 has been designed to meet the varied range of requirements, whether it is for print shops, creative agencies or corporate offices. We will continue to partner with our customers to help them build their businesses with the use of state-of-the-art technologies and offering them business efficiency and increased profitability. The product is available nationwide through our well established network of authorized sales and service dealers. Key Specifications Products unsuitable for children or young people should not be advertised in media targeted to them, and advertisements directed to children or young people should not be inserted in media where the editorial matter is unsuitable for them. Marketing communications directed to children should be clearly distinguishable to them as such. Marketing communications should not suggest that possession or use of the promoted product will give a child or young person physical, psychological or social advantages over other children or young people, or that not possessing the product will have the opposite effect. Marketing communications should not include any direct appeal to children and young people to persuade their parents or other adults to buy products for them. To join the IAB SA communication list to hear more about other industry committees, events and reports, please subscribe here: www.iabsa.net/newsletter_subscribe. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 requires that a childs best interests must be of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child. This applies equally to matters that arise in the context of the digital era. According to statistics , one in three internet users globally is a child, which proportion is likely to be even higher in the global south. For organisations working with children, or whose services are targeted at children, it is imperative to ensure that appropriate measures are put in place to reduce the risk of harm that children face online, while maximising the opportunities that are available to them.For the marketing industry, children are an important demographic who occupy a unique position in the marketing ecosystem. With increasing access to, and influence over, online services, children play a critical role in shaping narratives, strategies and service offerings. This has been driven by a range of different factors, including growing access to digital devices, an increasing trajectory towards digital media, and the ability to rely on data-driven profiles to target particular consumers and facilitate automated decision-making. This presents significant opportunities, but also brings with it risks and responsibilities.It is undeniable that the internet and digital technologies have transformed how children enjoy human rights. According to a discussion paper published by Unicef titled Children and Digital Marketing , the starting point is that children must not be treated as simply another consumer group to be exploited or avoided by the industry. This means that advertisers, agencies, data brokers, publishers and technology providers that link them have a responsibility to ensure that advertising practices afford children the enjoyment of the full range of their fundamental rights.Unicef identifies three key rights in this regard. The first is privacy and the protection of personal information. As noted in the discussion paper, the digital marketing ecosystem is sustained, in part, by the collection, analysis, storage and safety of childrens personal information. In some circumstances, this occurs without the appropriate informed consent or under circumstances that do not empower children to understand and control the use of their personal information. The privacy rights of children are closely aligned to their dignity, autonomy and ability to develop free from adverse influences. In the South African context, the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 contains specific requirements for the processing of personal information relating to children.The second right is the right to freedom of expression and access to diverse information. The Unicef discussion paper explains that digital marketing often comes hand in hand with free content for children online, and, therefore, contributes to their enjoyment of freedom of expression and access to information. While, on the one hand, digital advertising has become an enabler for children to have access to relevant content, this needs to be tempered against a concern of such advertising having an undue influence over the children accessing the content. Regard needs to be had to the evolving maturities of children and the fact that they may still be developing the necessary media and information literacy skills. Importantly, children should be allowed the freedom to form their own views and opinions.The third right identified by Unicef relates to protection from economic exploitation and adverse effects on childrens development. In this regard, Unicef notes the potential risks that arise when advertising practices are underpinned by covert data collection for the purpose of profiling child consumers. Unicef argues that in extreme cases, the profiling of children for the purpose of monetising their data might arguably amount, in certain circumstances, to economic exploitation. This might arise, for instance, where the behaviours, emotions or vulnerabilities of children are deliberately manipulated to increase the impact of the advertising.There are arguably a number of changes that need to occur in the digital marketing ecosystem to better protect childrens rights in the digital era. Data protection is one of the primary issues that need to be addressed to safeguard childrens rights online. The constitutional imperative to treat the best interests of the child as being of paramount importance should be borne in mind in all dealings with children.There is various regulatory guidance that can assist on this issue. For example, the International Chamber of Commerce has published specific guidance relating to children in article 18 of the Advertising and Marketing Communications Code , and advises as follows:Further, in South Africa, the Code of Advertising Practice, as administered by the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB), includes an appendix that specifically deals with advertising of junk food to children. The Code of Advertising Practice also has general provisions dealing with children, which would apply equally to digital advertising, as appropriate. The Interactive Advertising Bureau of South Africa (IAB SA) and the ARB have been working together to assess further needs relating to advertising in the digital space, including in relation to children.Notably, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a stark reminder of the digital divide that the youth of today still face. It is both important to ensure that the youth have access to online services, as well as that they are safe when accessing this. As Covid-19 increasingly causes more people including children to move online to communicate, engage, transact and learn, the perspectives and experiences of children need to be considered in the adoption of any measure that affects the child. Marketers should not overlook the important responsibility to safeguard the rights of children in the digital era. WASHINGTON A new tax break that President Trump frequently touts as a boon to black Americans and hard-hit communities is spurring relatively little job creation while disproportionately helping high-profit real estate projects and not small businesses, an extensive new study by the Urban Institute has found. The report, released on Wednesday, draws on interviews from more than 70 key players in the deployment of money mostly from wealthy investors into so-called opportunity zones. It is the most comprehensive look to date at the effects of the zones, which were created as part of the 2017 tax law and for which the government has scant data. Opportunity zones are spread across the country, in rural, urban and suburban areas that state and local officials selected, under criteria set out in the law, as in need of additional investment and economic growth. The zones offer tax advantages to investors who take the proceeds of a capital gain, like the sale of stocks or a family business, and invest them through a fund into a qualifying project in a designated zone. A strong rebound in U.S. retail sales, positive trial results from a potential coronavirus treatment and hopes of more stimulus led to a gain of 2% in LME copper prices to $5,759.50 per ton on Jun 16, 2020 levels last seen in February. In the past month, the red metal has appreciated 10%. Reopening of stores following the coronavirus-induced restrictions, U.S retail sales jumped 17.7% in May, recovering from a record 14.7% drop in April. It also trumped the expectations of an 8% rise. Further, the United States added 2.5 million jobs in May and the unemployment rate fell to 13.3%. It was a major turnaround from April, when it had lost a record 20.7 million jobs and unemployment rate was at 14.7%. Revival in these numbers instill optimism in the fact that the economy is gradually recovering from the massive damage inflicted by the efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Further, initial trial results from the U.K. showed Dexamethasone a steroid used to reduce inflammation in other diseases has been successful in reducing the mortality rate among the severely ill COVID-19 patients. This major breakthrough also helped lift market sentiment. According to Federal Reserve, industrial production increased 1.4% in May, as most factories started resuming operations partially following pandemic-related suspension. Industrial production had suffered its worst drop of 11.2% in April. Manufacturing output rose 3.8% in May after a record drop of 13.7% in April. Considering the fact that the manufacturing sector accounts for 11% of the U.S. economy, a pick up in the sector raises optimism regarding the overall economic recovery. 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 are resuming operations. This indicates a major recovery from the all-time low PMI reading of 35.7 in February amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown. This indicates that China is gradually moving out of the crisis and is working toward full normalization of economic activities. Chinas stimulus program focused on new infrastructure and urbanization will require massive amounts of copper. Story continues Moreover, the supply of the metal is likely to be lower this year. Due to the pandemic, miners in Chile, China and Peru had to suspend production. Recently, unionized workers in Chile the top producer of the metal demanded a re-evaluation of the operational continuity plans of the countrys miners amid an alarming increase in coronavirus cases among workers. Chiles current coronavirus case tally stands at 184,449 with the death toll at 3,383. This puts countrys copper supply under threat. The demand supply imbalance will fuel copper prices further. The long-term outlook for copper is positive as demand is anticipated to improve on investments in electric vehicles and renewable energy, and infrastructure. However, grade decline, rising input costs, water constraints and scarcity of high-quality future development opportunities continue to constrain the industrys supply. The demand-supply imbalance will probably push copper prices north. Industry Performance & Rank Copper miners fall under the Zacks Mining - Non Ferrous industry, which has gained 7.2% over the past month compared with the S&P 500s growth of 5.7%. The industry falls under the broader Basic Material sector, which increased 5.4%. The industry currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #74, which places it at the top 29% 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 bright prospects in 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 interested in the industry can consider Coeur Mining, Inc. CDE , which currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The Zacks Estimate for current years earnings has gone up 9% over the past 60 days, indicating year-over-year growth of 148%. Investors interested in the industry may consider keeping an eye on stocks like Paramount Gold Nevada Corp. PZG, Peninsula Energy Limited PENMF and Energy Fuels Inc. UUUU. All three companies carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present and have positive earnings estimates for 2020. The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >> 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 Paramount Gold Nevada Corp. (PZG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Coeur Mining, Inc. (CDE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Energy Fuels Inc (UUUU) : Free Stock Analysis Report PENINSULA ENERG (PENMF) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened an all-party virtual meet on Friday to discuss the situation along the India-China border, his office said on Wednesday. The meeting comes against the backdrop of demands by the opposition seeking details of the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh which left 20 Indian Army personnel dead. "In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister @narendramodi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 PM on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting," the PMO tweeted. Twenty Indian soldiers including a colonel, were killed on Monday evening in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh Galwan valley. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked the prime minister to share the truth of the India-China face-off, saying the entire country is standing behind him. Earlier in the day, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that Indian soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. "The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers ...We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's bravehearts," he wrote on Twitter. Each country accused the other of sparking the clash in a remote river valley where the precise border between the two nations is disputed. China has reported casualties in the clash but has not disclosed the number of its troops wounded or killed. The foreign ministers of the two countries spoke Wednesday to try to reduce friction, but the situation remains tense and uncertain. A 44-year-old man apparently objecting to being asked to stop smoking in the store stabbed a Dominos Pizza worker numerous times Sunday in Milwaukie, only dropping his knife after another employee produced a gun, police said. Milwaukie police arrived about 11 p.m. to the Dominos Pizza in the 10500 block of Southeast 32nd Avenue and arrested Eli Parks, who was lodged at the Clackamas County Jail and faces attempted murder, assault and unlawful use of a weapon charges. The victim, who fought with Parks before he dropped the knife, is in the intensive care unit at a hospital. His condition was not disclosed. Parks was treated for minor injuries from the fight. The investigation is ongoing. --Alex Hardgrave | ahardgrave@oregonian.com | @a_hardgrave Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. US govt has tried stop publication of book by former adviser that claims Trump wanted Chinas help to win re-election. President Donald Trumps former National Security Adviser John Bolton writes in his upcoming memoir that Trump sought Chinese President Xi Jinpings help in winning re-election during a closed-door meeting in June 2019, according to a report in the New York Times on Wednesday. Trump reportedly asked the Chinese leader during trade negotiations at a summit in Osaka, Japan to buy more agricultural products in order to help him win farm states in the November general election. Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure hed win, Bolton wrote, according to the Times, which obtained an advance copy of the book. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome, Bolton wrote. The book, The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir, is due to be published on June 23, but the Trump administration has sued to block its distribution, claiming that it contains classified information and would compromise national security. US President Donald Trump met Chinas President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan. Trumps former national security adviser alleges Trump dismissed concerns about the labour camps in a meeting with Xi at the summit [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters] Publication of the book would cause irreparable harm, because the disclosure of instances of classified information in the manuscript reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage, or exceptionally grave damage, to the national security of the United States, according to the lawsuit. Both the Times and the Washington Post obtained advance copies. The Post said in the same meeting with Xi, the Chinese leader defended the building of camps holding up to a million Uighur Muslims. According to our interpreter, Bolton wrote, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do, the Post reported. Bolton resigned in September 2019 after roughly 17 months as national security adviser. Trump, however, claims he fired him after the two clashed over policy towards North Korea, Iran, Ukraine and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Publisher Simon and Schuster said the lawsuit is an attempt by the Trump administration to stop publication of a book it deems unflattering to the President. It said Bolton has fully cooperated with the National Security Council pre-publication review. In the book, according to the Times, Bolton described several episodes when the president expressed willingness to halt criminal investigations to, in effect, give personal favours to dictators he liked. The investigations in question are said to involve Turkeys Halkbank to curry favour with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey or Chinas ZTE to favour Xi. The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, Bolton wrote. Among the other accusations levelled by Bolton according to the Times: Intelligence briefings with the president were a waste of time since much of the time was spent listening to Trump, rather than Trump listening to the briefers, Bolton alleges. Trump explicitly linked aid to Ukraine to investigations there involving his presumed rival in November, Democrat Joe Biden. Trump said he wasnt in favour of sending them anything until all the Russia-investigation materials related to Clinton and Biden had been turned over, Bolton says. During one meeting, Trump seemed surprised to learn that the United Kingdom was a nuclear power and asked whether Finland was part of Russia. The Times describes the book overall as a withering portrait of a president ignorant of even basic facts about the world, susceptible to transparent flattery by authoritarian leaders manipulating him and prone to false statements, foul-mouthed eruptions and snap decisions that aides try to manage or reverse. MANISTEE Several people could be seen painting the siding on a house near Reitz Park on Forest Avenue Wednesday morning. While it was a sunny morning in the low 70s, it wasnt the weather that had them hard at work painting. Rather, the group was coming together to paint over harsh words and images that had been spray painted onto the home early Sunday morning. According to the latest Manistee City Police department blotter, the department reported there had been a malicious destruction of property hate crime incident on Forest Avenue on Sunday. Sheila Bajtka, daughter of the homeowner, said her father woke up around 5 a.m. Sunday and discovered the graffiti of obscene images and words, references to the Black Lives Matter movement and claims that he was a racist painted all over the outside of his home. She said her father reported the incident to police. Homeowner Patrick Bajtka said he is not angry, but he is baffled, disheartened and disappointed. Bajtka was born in Manistee and grew up in the area before he moved to the Cleveland area for work and decided to retire in Manistee about four years ago. He said he has never experienced anything like it. "For somebody that doesn't know me to just brand me or judge me as they have, it blows my mind. I am just totally amazed that this happened at this point in my life. I moved to Manistee for peace and quiet. I was living in Cleveland for 35 years," he said. Sheila said her father spoke with the city police department about the incident, and that later police reported that residents had stopped by the department with information of things they had seen or heard as well as possible pieces of evidence. But as of Wednesday morning, she said her father was still waiting to hear back from police. Det. Sgt Josh Glass, of the Manistee City Police Department, said the incident is being investigated by an officer and a sergeant of the department. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic prevention measures, the city is on a workshare program, so as to limit contact between staff members in case a person unknowingly gets sick. In this case, it changes the days or hours police and other city staff can work. Were on a modified schedule due to COVID. Right now, we work longer stretches of days and have longer periods off, Glass said. He said anyone with information on this incident can reach him by phone at 231-398-3281, or by email at jglass@manisteemi.gov. Glass said if anyone thinks they are witnessing a crime in action, they can call 911, or if it is a nonemergency, can call central dispatch at 231-723-6241. He said the determination of whether the incident is considered a hate crime by definition would take more investigating as well as having the countys prosecutor office weigh in on the matter as far as the offices interpretation of the crime. Thats something we would have to take a look at and take a look at the statute to see if this actually fits that (definition), he said. And that depends on the act itself. Glass said the investigation is ongoing and a primary suspect has not been identified. Another layer involved in the situation is with homeowner's insurance, and how to move forward with repairing the damage and waiting on the insurance company. Bajtka said it seemed like the company did not have the same sense of urgency with the incident as he has. Sheila said while they were able to paint over the siding to cover the spray painted words and images, they need to wait for a homeowner insurance appraiser to visit the home to evaluate the graffiti on other areas. She said this was estimated to take up to one or two weeks. Sheila said the reception from the community has been mixed, with some local businesses offering to clean her fathers vehicle windshield that had been painted without charge, and supplying paint to cover the graffiti on the home for free. But she added that since Sunday, some had shouted or cursed at her father from their moving vehicles or stopped to take photos of the graffiti. Yesterday, I went there and cleaned for him and within the 2 hours I was there just cleaning, there was like 20 some cars that went by taking pictures to put on their Facebook, she said. I understand they havent seen anything like this. But think of the victim. Its horrifying for him. Sheila believes her 72-year-old father was mistaken for a different person by whoever did the graffiti. He just feels like it was a big case of mistaken identity of which weve heard from different people on social media that it was supposed to be the house (a few) doors down, and they got the wrong house and that kind of stuff, she said. My dad is a very private person." She said her father is definitely not a racist. Bajtka echoed that sentiment and said he believes whoever is at fault had another person or another house in mind. "I just want to live out the rest of my life in peace and this is very disruptive to anybody. I would not wish this on anybody," Bajtka said adding that he hopes to soon have his house fixed and that he can have his privacy back. Bajtka said the offers of help from people in the community are humbling as he saw a steady stream of people stopping by to offer assistance. "Word got around pretty quick somehow, Facebook I guess. But I could not begin to list the names of all the people that stopped and offered help. A lot of people that I knew, but a lot of people I did not know," he said. "I would like to thank every single solitary one of them and if I knew all their names I would love to list (them)," he said. Bajtka said in the end, the incident showed him what is most important. "Something like this happens, other things become minor in nature," he said. "All of a sudden, you know what's really important in life and it's the people that are important in life. It's not buildings; it's not houses. That stuff can be fixed but when you're around people that want to help you, that care about you wow. What a great feeling that is." COLUMBUS, OhioGov. Mike DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost are scheduled to put forward a list of proposed law-enforcement reforms at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. The announcement is likely to include, among other things, a proposal to create a state board to license law-enforcement officers in Ohio the same way teachers, nurses and other professionals are licensed. DeWine and Yost, both Republicans, have vowed to push for law-enforcement reforms in the wake of protests in Ohio and around the country in response to the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis resident who was killed by a police officer last month. The governor previously outlined other proposed reforms, including: Ensuring that police officers who are fired from one department arent able to join another police department. Bolstering police training, particularly regarding overcoming implicit bias, de-escalation techniques, and working with those who have mental-health issues Recruiting more people of color to serve as law-enforcement officers Improving police transparency Creating a list of best practices for all police departments in the state to follow Yost, meanwhile, said he and his office have already been working for months on proposed reforms, including changing how investigations of police-caused deaths are conducted and requiring every police department in the state to have a use-of-force policy. Ohio House Republicans have already introduced a police-reform bill, House Bill 703. While the bill currently consists of placeholder language, the sponsors of the measure say they will seek to impose mandatory standards and psychological testing, create a disciplinary database for violent officers, and obtain pay raises and more training for law-enforcement. Watch the news conference live here: Read more Ohio politics and government coverage: Senate passes bill by Sen. Rob Portman to fund National Park repairs John Kasich allies on the forefront of GOP-led effort to defeat Donald Trump Ohio county fairs can reopen this year if anti-coronavirus measures are taken, state says State guidelines for reopening Ohio schools will be unveiled within days, Gov. Mike DeWine says State of Ohio asks feds for more than $3 billion loan to fund unemployment claims On Friday night, June 12, an employee at a Wendys restaurant in South Atlanta calls 911. A 27-year-old man named Rayshard Brooks had fallen asleep in his car in the drive-through lane. Soon, two police officers respond. They and Mr. Brooks speak calmly and cordially for 41 minutes. That was it. But then in just 45 seconds, one of the officers fatally shoots Mr. Brooks as he is running away. [gunshots] How could a routine police response go so suddenly and horribly wrong? The Times examined witness videos, security footage, police body-cam and dash-cam videos. We synchronized and slowed down those videos so we can see and hear what unfolded. We reviewed police records, and procedures, and statements made by the officers involved. And we identified the critical moments and missteps that led to a young man losing his life. Its 10:41 p.m., eight minutes after the 911 call when Officer Devin Brosnan arrives at Wendys. He raps on Brookss car window and wakes him up. Brooks appears groggy and disoriented. [beeping] Brosnan, who joined the Atlanta Police Department last year, talks to Brooks and then requests an officer who can perform sobriety tests. At 10:55 p.m., Officer Garrett Rolfe arrives. [beeping] Rolfe joined the Atlanta Police Force in 2013, and is an experienced D.U.I. investigator. Rolfe has once been reprimanded for firing his service weapon, police records show. He takes charge of the investigation. Rolfe begins to question Brooks, who is confused about where he is. He seems to think hes six miles down the road near a Home Lodge Hotel. Theres another Wendys right beside it. At 11:02 p.m., Rolfe asks Brooks to get out of the car. Moments later, Brooks will also consent to a series of sobriety tests. Brooks is clearly inebriated. But hes compliant and friendly throughout this time. The officers are courteous. And Rolfe gives him clear and precise instructions. When Rolfe now asks Brooks if hell take a breathalyzer test, Brooks hesitates at first. Brooks offers to go to his sisters house. Why did Brooks want to resolve his situation without being arrested? According to court records, he was on probation for domestic violence and theft offenses. He was probably aware that a new arrest or conviction would almost certainly send him back to prison. The breathalyzer returns a blood alcohol reading of .108 percent, above the legal limit of .08 percent. Rolfe has little option now but to charge Brooks with D.U.I. Some policing experts told us he could have written a citation and drove Brooks home. Others said police are expected to show zero tolerance with drunken driving. For 41 minutes, Brooks and the officers have spoken calmly and respectfully. They even shared a few laughs. Now, Rolfe moves to arrest Brooks. And in 45 seconds, he will fatally shoot him. [gunshots] [yelling] Lets watch this back, and break down what happens. Rolfe has signaled or sought Brookss consent for every action to this point. But he moves to handcuff Brooks swiftly and without clearly telling him hes under arrest. This breaches D.U.I. arrest procedures. Brooks resists, and the three tumble to the ground. Brosnan draws his Taser and pushes it into Brookss leg. Brooks grabs the Taser. Both officers body cameras fall to the ground. Brooks stands up and strikes Rolfe with an open hand. As Rolfe draws his Taser, Brooks fires a dart, hitting Brosnans arm. Rolfe fires the Taser twice [yelling] and hits Brookss body. We hear Rolfe using his Taser as he chases Brooks. This is a breach of police procedures. Rolfe passes the Taser to his left hand and reaches for his gun. Brooks looks behind and fires the Taser hes holding. We confirmed these Taser models with the Atlanta Police. Once theyre fired twice, they must be reloaded. So at this point, Brooks is unarmed. Rolfe drops his Taser, draws his handgun and fires three times at Brooks, who is 18 feet away and is trying to escape in a busy Wendys parking lot. [gunshots] Two bullets hit Brooks in the back, one piercing his heart. A third bullet hits this Chevrolet Trailblazer, which had three passengers in it. This photo from the Fulton County District Attorney shows the bullet hole. No one in the car was injured. Rolfe shouts at Brooks ... and appears to kick him on the ground. This image, also provided by the Fulton County D.A., shows that moment more clearly. Officer Brosnan approaches and briefly stands on Brookss shoulder. [yelling] Meanwhile, witnesses denounce the shooting. The officers stand over Brooks for about a minute before Rolfe runs back to his vehicle to get his medical kit. Brosnan continues to stand by. Its over two minutes before Brooks receives medical assistance. Every fucking time! Rolfe administers CPR until emergency services take over. At 11:39 p.m., 15 minutes after hes shot, an ambulance takes Rayshard Brooks to a hospital where he is later announced dead. Was Rolfe justified in shooting a man holding a Taser, and who was trying to escape? Police procedures on the use of deadly force state that an officer must reasonably believe the suspect possesses a deadly weapon, and that the suspect poses an immediate threat of serious bodily injury to the officer or others. In a statement made through his lawyer, Officer Rolfe said he did use reasonable force because he heard a sound like a gunshot and fearing for his safety and the safety of others, he fired his weapon. The description of a gunshot doesnt square with what Rolfe told investigating police at the scene. And minutes before this, Rolfe appears to have been aware that Brooks fired the Taser twice. This and other evidence will be scrutinized in what has now become a homicide investigation. Rolfe has been charged on 11 counts, including felony murder, and both officers with aggravated assault. T he UK was today ranked second bottom in a league table of how well the worlds richest nations responded to the coronavirus pandemic. It was given a poor rating and judged to be as bad as Spain and Italy with only Belgium scoring worse of 21 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. The UK was criticised for an insufficiently fast and co-ordinated response to the outbreak, a lack of initial testing and its decision to abandon contact tracing in early March. Australia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway had the highest ratings. The US was ranked above the UK and given a "good" rating. New Zealand, which was "very good", went almost three weeks without reporting a case and was considered virus-free until yesterday, when two women who had flown in from London tested positive. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said their early release from 14-day mandatory quarantine, on compassionate grounds, before being tested for Covid-19 was "unacceptable". Today's study, by The Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked the quality and effectiveness of each countrys response to the pandemic. Loading.... This was based on the number of coronavirus tests, ability of each countrys healthcare system to continue to provide non-Covid care and the number of excess deaths. It took into account mitigating factors such as the number of elderly people in each country, rates of obesity and number of international travellers. The report said this was partly understandable for Italy and Spain as they were the first in Europe to be hit by the pandemic and had little time to prepare. All you need to know from the June 16 coronavirus briefing But it said it was harder to explain the UKs poor score. More than 53,000 people are now thought to have died with Covid-19 in the UK, according to data from the Office for National Statistics released yesterday and the latest death toll published by the NHS. The report said: The global connectivity of the UK and especially London may help to explain its high excess death toll (as at early June, UK statistics show that the number of extra deaths per million people is the second highest in the world, after Spain), but the country had a slower build-up of cases than other European countries and more time to prepare. In addition, Britains centralised public healthcare system provided the government with crucial data as to who was most at risk. An insufficiently fast and co-ordinated response, an initial lack of testing capacity, and a decision to suspend track and trace in early March may help to explain why the UK became an outlier.] Loading.... The World Health Organisation reported last night that there had been 434,796 deaths globally. The WHO reported 115,484 deaths in the US, 34,371 in Italy, 27,136 in Spain and 9,661 in Belgium. Agathe Demarais, the units global forecasting director, said: Our tracker shows that a high death toll was to be expected in some countries, such as the US, given the large size of their population and the high prevalence of risk factors for severe forms of coronavirus. Assessing the quality of response of various governments against their pre-existing endowments of risk factors shows that crude data do not tell the whole story. Overall, the countries that managed the pandemic the better all reacted early and swiftly, as New Zealand did, for instance. Not all of them introduced stringent lockdowns, but all implemented aggressive testing and tracing programmes, which were among the most crucial factors to contain the pandemic. Loading.... The countries that rank at the bottom of our index either did not have time to prepare for the pandemic (Spain, Italy) or made dubious policy choices to combat the pandemic. For instance, an insufficiently fast and co-ordinated response, an initial lack of testing capacity, and a decision to suspend track and trace in early March explain why the UK became an outlier." Chowdhury also accused the BJP and the prime minister of completely failing on the front of national security. Kolkata: Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday charged that the situation along the India-China border was due to the "diplomatic short-sightedness" of the Narendra Modi government, and said it was time that the prime minister proves that he has "a 56-inch chest". The leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha said the rhetoric of muscular nationalism witnessed during the time of standoff with Pakistan is now missing. "What happened to the 'swing diplomacy' of 2014? The fact is this situation arose just because of the diplomatic short-sightedness of the Modi government. When you run a government as per your whims and fancies, this is what happens," Chowdhury told PTI. The government lacks the political will to act, he added. "PM Modi boasts about his 56-inch chest. It is time to prove it through actions and not only through words. If he can't prove it, then the countrymen will understand his claims are hollow," Chowdhury said. BJP leaders have often said that Modi has a "56-inch chest" or "chappan inch chati", a Hindi expression referring to political machismo. "I wonder what happened to that rhetoric of muscular nationalism we are used to when it comes to Pakistan. In the case of China, all of a sudden everybody has gone silent," he said. Chowdhury also accused the BJP and the prime minister of completely failing on the front of national security. "Twenty Indian soldiers have died, what is the government doing? Is the government sleeping? The prime minister who on every given occasion, either tweets or addresses the nation is silent. He is duty-bound to give an explanation to the nation on what has happened and what is India doing as a countermeasure," he said. The prime minister has convened an all-party meeting on Friday to discuss the situation, amid demands by the opposition that government should give details of the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh which left 20 Indian Army personnel dead. KAMPALA Ugandan Cabinet ministers on Monday, June 15 met to discuss the fate of education in Uganda regarding schools across the country. The cabinet resolved to re-open educational institutions basically tertiary institutions and Universities to commence the education cycle. Dr. John Muyingo, the state minister for higher Education said the cabinet resolved to roll out a phased re-opening of the education system with priority going on 100 tertiary institutions and 50 Universities in the country. These are easier to manage without breaching Covid 19 measures relating to physical distancing requirements because they have fewer student numbers compared to Primary and Secondary schools, Dr Muyingo explained.. Dr Muyingo added that post-secondary school academic institutions also have more spacious accommodation facilities (Halls of residence and hostels) than secondary schools making it easier to observe physical distancing requirements. Will a dead year be declared for schools? This means that upon reopening we can look at the situation where all of them are confined in one place with strict adherence to Covid 19 guidelines.. He explained that the original proposal to reopen candidate classes only was shelved because it is not workable and would affect the entire schools promotions system. For instance, what happens to children in S1 who remain unpromoted having had a dead year yet those of P7 went on to sit their examinations and were ready to enroll for Senior one?The same applies to S4s and even S6, said Dr Muyingo. Dr. Muyingo says since that puzzle cant be resolved; the plan to reopen candidates classes only is permanently off the table. Dr Muyingo said it is clear that exploring distance learning is the only option available so that through purchase of Shs 10m radio sets and 137,466 solar-enabled TV sets (for the 68,000 villages) can be relied upon to enable the audio and visual learning of the children and students involved in pre-University academic institutions across Uganda. He revealed that whereas each household will be given a radio set free of charge purchased by GoU that requires about Ugx 380bn for the 10M radios, the TV sets will be fewer with each of the 68,000 villages. This comes barely four days after another cabinet emergency Cabinet meeting that sat on the eve of budget reading last week weighed options before re-opening schools as they discussed a report of the Education committee on virtual learning. The meeting resolved to keep all schools shut but virtual learning must continue as government monitors the Covid-19 curve. The Cabinet asked Mr Matia Kasaija of Finance to look for funds in the 2020/21 budget for buying radios and TV sets for the 15 million learners. While the planned distribution of free radios and TV sets was never intended to assist virtual political campaigns but ease access to distance learning and teaching across Uganda, sources in Cabinet talked of killing two birds with one stone. According to another Cabinet source, the President also told Cabinet that since Education requires only two senses listening and seeing, the planned distribution of free government TV sets and radios will boost distance learning infrastructure, a teaching strategy needed to combat the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. Under the proposed radio and TV based learning strategy, more than 15 million learners particularly in primary and secondary schools, will study remotely without regular face-to-face contact with teachers in the classrooms or lecture rooms. Learning methods Under this, students will get tutorial support via a virtual learning environment, such as phone, email, or electronic means such as teleconferencing and zoom technology And at the undergraduate level, Cabinet said distance learning will involve students engaging with learning materials at home or work. Related Continue Reading Jefferson County confirmed 33 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the largest single-day increase since the pandemic began. The average number of coronavirus patients hospitalized in intensive care across the county has reached levels not seen since April. The seven-day average was 16.1 patients for the period that ended Monday. And in adjacent Hardin County, the number of new residents testing positive for the virus over the last week is three times what the county usually sees. Theres no scientific way to specifically say why theyre coming back, Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames said of the spike in new positive cases. The majority of Jefferson Countys cases came from Beaumont, which added 20 new cases. Ames said health department officials thought the positives came largely from testing done on June 11 and 12. Port Arthur added nine cases; Groves and Nederland combined added four. The next-highest single-day tally of confirmed cases was April 25, when the city of Beaumont made up the entirety of the 23-case increase for the day. The city of Beaumont had reported 27 new cases on Monday, but that was a cumulative for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. That total is comparable to the past two weekends. Related: Coronavirus count reaches new heights in Jefferson County Tuesdays confirmed cases brings Jefferson County to 788 cases confirmed outside of state or federal prisons in the area. Hardin County Judge Wayne McDaniel did not specify how many new cases have been recorded there over the past week, but said the increase will be at least three times what officials have been seeing. The number of new cases reported last week increased by six. McDaniel said the increase this week will be at least 18. He said he would have more details on Wednesday. As of June 10, the last time Hardin County reported, it had seen 144 individuals test positive. The current spike in coronavirus patients hospitalized in intensive care units across Jefferson County is part of a steady rise that started at the beginning of this month, hospital statistics from the Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission show. The number of coronavirus patients in general or isolation beds also has been trending up for about the same period, but the rise has not been as steady. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stressed in a news conference Tuesday afternoon that the state has absolutely enough hospital capacity for coronavirus patients. More Information Confirmed coronavirus cases in Jefferson County Beaumont618 LeBlanc Prison Unit245 Larry Gist State Jail239 Port Arthur104 Mark W. Stiles Prison Unit42 Groves23 Nederland20 Port Neches12 China6 Cheek2 Nome2 Hamshire1 Confirmed coronavirus cases in Hardin County as of June 10 Batson1 Kountze16 Lumberton60 Silsbee57 Sour Lake9 Confirmed coronavirus cases in Orange County as of June 12 Bridge City10 Forest Heights2 Lakeview1 Little Cypress4 Mauriceville10 McLewis5 Orange25 Orangefield6 Pine Forest13 Pinehurst2 Vidor25 West Orange6 Source: Beaumont and Port Arthur public health departments, Orange County Office of Emergency Management and Hardin County Judge Wayne McDaniel and Texas Department of Criminal Justice See More Collapse Related: Beaumont has $1.2M to ease virus economic hardships But for the first time since the outbreak began, all 86 operational ICU beds in Jefferson County were in use on Friday, although the hospitals still had surge capacity to add intensive care. That included 13 confirmed coronavirus patients and one suspected patient, the SETRPC numbers show. We are in the middle of a short period of time where all of us have to coexist with COVID-19, Abbott said in his address. It exists in the United States and across the entire world. This is going to continue to be the case for at least a few more months. He later emphasized the importance of continuing to wear masks, wash or sanitize your hands often and maintain a safe distance from other people. He also said that people 65 and older in particular should stay continue to stay home. However, you dont have to be in that age group to stay home, he said. Reached afterward, Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bill Bartie said he was alarmed at Abbotts interpretation of the data being presented. It is skewed to lessen the known negative effect on our Texas population, Bartie said. The continued movement of the proposed opening schedule (Abbott) supports may serve as a detriment to Texas causing a second shutdown, which will impact the mental stability of citizens and the economic strength we all desire. Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox Port Arthur at the beginning of the pandemic appeared to have a small number of cases. But over the past few weeks, as testing ramped up, it became clear that the virus was more widespread than the early numbers showed. Port Arthur Public Health Director Judith Smith said she believes the increased number of positive cases confirmed is a combination of increased testing as well as individuals becoming more lax in using masks and exercising social distancing. Anecdotally, she recalled being in a grocery store on Saturday and seeing many people not wearing a mask. The non-pharmaceutical guidelines that CDC has given to us is all that we have until there is a vaccine, she said. The city soon will be able to get even clearer information about the reason for the increased number of positive cases, as it just completed training a few temporary staff members. Some of these members will be tasked with calling health-care providers in Mid- and South-County that are conducting coronavirus testing to record the number of people tested each day. Related: Orangefield and Legacy suspend workouts A lack of detailed information about the total number of people being tested for the virus is a problem for more than Port Arthurs health department. At Tuesdays Beaumont City Council meeting, Ames said there are many more places testing for coronavirus when compared to the beginning of the pandemic. But exactly how many is not reflected in statistics released by the city each Monday through Friday because private health-care providers are not required to report the number of people being tested. Clinics are required to alert local health departments of positive tests only. Because testing is more widely available at private sites, local government authorities are taking fewer test kits and, as a result, the picture of how many people are being tested has grown murkier. Related: Beaumont United, West Brook begin voluntary summer workouts Even the highest seven-day average number of people who have been tested in June at sites that report all people tested to the city of Beaumont falls short of peaks experienced in April and May. Ames said most clinics are doing testing at no cost, regardless of whether an individual has insurance. She suggested people interested in being tested should call ahead and ask the clinic about their payment procedures. 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. Melissa Leong stunned viewers when she took a phone call in the middle of a cliffhanger moment on MasterChef Australia, last month. During the episode, all three judges were about to cast their opinions on the contestants' food at the Thai Ute restaurant in Melbourne's Ringwood East, when the phone rang and Melissa took down a reservation for the eatery. The popular judge says she was shocked the scene didn't end up on the cutting room floor. 'I never thought that would go to air!' MasterChef's Melissa Leong has revealed the 'loose' moment during filming for the show that she NEVER thought would go to air 'I never thought that would go to air!' she told TV Tonight on Wednesday. 'I needed to answer the phone, because what are you going to do? We're working in a restaurant that have been kind enough to loan us the space for the day, so you've got to do right by them too.' The 40-year-old told the publication she loved how the new reboot was a little 'looser' and more freeform. 'I'm a very spontaneous person. I am who I am, and sometimes that comes across as a little bit chaotic and fun,' she said. Hello? Melissa Leong stunned viewers when she took a phone call in the middle of a cliffhanger moment on MasterChef Australia , last month How can I help? 'Hello, Thai Ute! For tomorrow, a reservation, right? 5pm?' During the episode, all three judges were about to cast their opinions on the contestants' food at the Thai Ute restaurant in Melbourne 's Ringwood East, when the phone rang and Melissa took down a reservation for the eatery During the episode, Melissa was seen darting off the answer while there was chaos in the kitchen. 'And the phone's ringing, so I'll just go take that now,' she said. The brunette beauty then gestured for the crew to find her a pen as she wrote down a reservation from a punter on the other end. Good on her! Fans online were impressed, with several praising the chef for stopping production to help out a local business Fans online were impressed, with several praising the chef for stopping production to help out a local business. One person Tweeted: 'MVP for tonight's challenge: Melissa takes the cake for that graciousness she showed taking that phone call.' Someone else chimed in: 'I love Melissa's energy. She's awesome. And answering the phone and taking a reservation. Face with tears of joy I enjoy her presence so much.' Top officials, including CJSC, Bajwa, Naval Chief Admiral, and Air Chief Marshal, visited ISI headquarters on Tuesday in a meeting that is being touted unusual and unprecedented. Pakistan military top brass including Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday visited the headquarters of Pakistan spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to discuss regional security issues with special focus on the situation of Line Of Control, Pakistani media reported. According to a report by Radio Pakistan, the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General (CJSC) Nadeem Raza, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Naval Chief Admiral Zafar Mehmood Abbasi and Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan visited ISI headquarters in Islamabad on Tuesday. They were received by DG ISI Lieutenant General Faiz Hamid. Salman Masood, the Pakistan Correspondent for The New York Times termed the arrival of the CJSC and other service chiefs at the ISI headquarters as an unusual and unprecedented development. Radio Pakistan reported, A comprehensive briefing was given to military leadership on regional security issues with special focus on the situation of LOC and Kashmir. Read also: EU calls for talks with US to counter China *ISPR* Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Nadeem Raza, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral Zafar Mehmood Abbasi and Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan visited HQs ISI. pic.twitter.com/FZ9O34d9b9 Salman Masood (@salmanmasood) June 16, 2020 Read also: Anti Minority Pak-army Unmasked: Army backed death squads kill Baloch woman in front of her children CJCSC and Services Chiefs appreciated tireless efforts of ISI for national security and expressed satisfaction over professional preparedness, it further said. Taking to Twitter, Masood said even during the height of WOT, tensions with India (2008, post-Balakot) the top brass did not convene at the ISI HQ like Tuesday. For War ops, preparedness, GHQ is the nerve center. A bevy of generals all senior to the DGI, coming to his office suggests an extraordinary intel briefing, Masood tweeted. Read also: UNHRCs UPR measure instrumental in protecting human rights, should not be tinkered with, says India For all the latest World News, download NewsX App PHILIPSBURG:0--- On Saturday, 20 June 2020, the University of St. Martin (USM) in collaboration with the Sint Maarten Anti-Poverty Platform will hold the first-ever webinar with local and international guest experts. The full-day event, open to the public via Zoom and broadcasted via Facebook, will be dedicated to various topics that fall under the theme Human Rights in the Face of COVID-19. According to USM President Dr. Antonio Carmona Baez, the purpose of this webinar is to create a space for critical reflection and in-depth analysis into the state of human rights since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on 11 March 2020. Following lockdown, schools were closed and thousands of formal and informal workers were left without an income. Just like after a hurricane, the COVID-19 pandemic exposes increased patterns and structures of inequality, whereby the most vulnerable sectors of society including migrants, youth, and the elderly, are brought to the brinks of survival. As we face radical changes in our way of life under the pandemic, it is important that our political and economic leaders safeguard human rights, which are guaranteed under treaties and conventions constituting international public law, Carmona stated. The webinar will consist of 2 three-hour sessions, morning and afternoon. Each session will consist of three introductions given by our invited guests, who will talk for 20 minutes each and participate in 1.5 hours of structured dialogue. Topics include a general overview of human rights in times of crisis; civil and political rights; socio-economic and cultural rights; labor; education and migrant rights. Among the speakers is Dr. Daphina Misiedjan of the Erasmus University Institute for Social Studies (ISS) at The Hague, legal expert Gilbert de Windt, sociologist Raymond Jessurun, former Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor (VSA) Pamela Gordon-Carty; Mr. Cor Merx of the Pubic Prosecutors Office and Dr. Carmona Baez. USM and the Anti-poverty Platform hope that after a successful webinar on Saturday, St. Martin can assist in holding a truly inclusive Kingdom-wide dialogue on human rights. This webinar could not be timelier. With the pandemic came tensions within the Kingdom and later mass protests against racism, said Anti-poverty Platform co-coordinator Raymond Jessurun. And then we asked ourselves: who is responsible for guaranteeing human rights in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom? This is a discussion to be had on all six islands and also with our brothers and sisters in the Netherlands. The webinar will begin promptly at 9:00 AM with words of welcome offered by the honorable Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and Ms. Loekie Morales of the Department of Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK). While Marcellia Henry of UNESCO Sint Maarten will moderate the morning session, Prince Herbert Martina will lead discussions in the afternoon. Those interested in attending the seminar may register at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or simply follow the event on Facebook Live via the University of St. Martin. When two betta fish are fighting for dominance, not only do their attacks mirror each other, but the gene expression in their brain cells also starts to align. The new findings, published June 17th in PLOS Genetics by Norihiro Okada of Kitasato University, Japan, may explain how the fish synchronize their fighting behavior. The fighting fish Betta splendens is famous for its aggression, but opponents typically stop fighting after assessing the other's abilities to avoid any serious injuries. The small freshwater fish is commonly used to study aggression in the lab, and it employs a handful of standard tactics like mouth-locking, bites, strikes and swimming to the surface to gulp air. In the new study, researchers observed that during a fight, two male opponents modify their actions to match the aggressive behavior of the other, leading to tightly synchronized battles. Furthermore, when the researchers analyzed the brains of both opponents, they observed that the fish also synchronized which genes were turned on or off in brain cells. The fighting pair had similar changes in gene activity related to learning, memory, synapse function and ion transport across cell membranes. The synchronization was specific to a fighting pair and became stronger after fighting for an hour compared to a 20-minute fight, suggesting that the degree of synchronization was driven by fighting interactions. The new study takes a neurogenomic approach to the old question of how animals synchronize their behavior. Similar mirrored behaviors also occur during mating, foraging and cooperative hunting, and these behaviors may also trigger synchronized brain changes in the pairs of animals. "One of my future plans is to elucidate what happens in the male-female interaction of fish on the molecular level," said author Norihiro Okada. The findings suggest that even though the betta fish are fighting each other, sometimes to the death, their brains may be cooperating at the molecular level. ### Peer-reviewed / Experimental study / Animals In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Genetics: http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008831 Citation: Vu T-D, Iwasaki Y, Shigenobu S, Maruko A, Oshima K, Iioka E, et al. (2020) Behavioral and brain- transcriptomic synchronization between the two opponents of a fighting pair of the fish Betta splendens. PLoS Genet 16(6): e1008831. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008831 Funding: This study was supported by National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan with support from the Aim for the Top University Project of NCKU (D104-38A05 & D105-38A03) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (NSC 102-2621-B-006-002- and MOST 103-2621-B-006-005-) to N.O. and from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 107-2311-B-001-016-MY3) to W-H.L. It was also supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, KibanB to N.O. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. A US Air Force F-22 intercepting a Russian Tu-95 bomber NORAD photo US fighter aircraft have been called out to intercept eight Russian bomber aircraft in the past week, according to information from North American Aerospace Defense Command. A total of four intercepts have taken place, with two occurring last Wednesday and another two happening Tuesday evening. In one instance, Russian aircraft came within just 20 nautical miles of US shores. NORAD said that Russian aircraft have penetrated its air defense identification zones eight times this year, indicating an uptick in Russian air activity near North America. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. US Air Force F-22 Raptors have intercepted eight Russian bombers approaching Alaska in the past week as Russia steps up its air patrols near the US. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) reported Wednesday morning that F-22s, supported by KC-135 aerial refueling tankers and E-3 early warning aircraft, intercepted two Russian bomber formations in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) Tuesday evening. North American Aerospace Defense Command (@NORADCommand) June 17, 2020 The first Russian aircraft formation consisted of two Tu-95 bombers, two Su-35 fighters, and an A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft, and the second was made up of two Tu-95 bombers and an A-50. The aircraft came within 32 nautical miles of the Alaskan coastline but never entered US airspace. The Russian defense ministry has released a video of the intercept. And on Wednesday, June 10, two Russian bomber formations consisting of the same types of planes in the same groupings flew long-range air patrols near the US, forcing NORAD to respond. One of the Russian formations came within 20 nautical miles of US shores, but neither aircraft group ever entered US sovereign airspace, which extends 12 nautical miles from US shores. The ADIZ extends 200 nautical miles from the coastline. Story continues North American Aerospace Defense Command (@NORADCommand) June 10, 2020 "For the eighth time this year, Russian military aircraft have penetrated our Canadian or Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zones," NORAD commander Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy said in a statement Wednesday, adding, "Each and every time NORAD forces were ready to meet this challenge." His remarks appear to indicate an uptick in Russian long-range patrol flights near the US. In a statement last year, NORAD said that it has intercepted an average of six to seven Russian sorties entering a NORAD ADIZ since Russia restarted these patrols in 2007. The Russian aircraft that enter the ADIZs are not always bomber aircraft. For instance, earlier this year, NORAD fighters intercepted a couple of Russian Tupolev Tu-142MZ maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft that are suspected of surveilling Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2020. In April, O'Shaughnessy told reporters at the Pentagon that Russian air activity near North America as a "continuous effort" to "probe and check and see our responses." He said that NORAD is "postured to maintain that ability to respond at a moment's notice." "We expect to see continued activity there," the general said. "That's why we're postured the way we are, and that's why we're always ready to respond." Read the original article on Business Insider The immune system not only can be protective, it can also go haywire and make an illness catastrophically worse. If the immune system is an army that attacks infections, molecules called cytokines are the messengers that tell the troops what to do to beat back the invader. Too few cytokines, and the defense will be too weak, allowing the infection to progress. Too many, and the commands become a cacophony that causes an erratic and overreactive immune response a cytokine storm. India wants peace but, when provoked, has the capability to respond appropriately, Prime Minister Modi declared in no uncertain terms on Wednesday. He added that integrity and sovereignty were at the top of India's interests. "The sacrifices of our soldiers will not go in vain," he said before observing a two-minute silence, along with chief ministers of several states at a virtual meeting to discuss India's preparations and policy of fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Modi was speaking for the first time since the Indian Army released a statement late on Tuesday night confirming the deaths of 20 soldiers in "violent" clashes with Chinese forces in Ladakh's Galwan valley. In his three-minute speech, Modi spoke about India's "integrity and sovereignty" three times. "We have always tried to see to it that differences don't turn to disputes. We don't ever provoke anyone but we don't make any compromises on our country's integrity and sovereignty," he said. "Whenever time has come to defend the integrity and sovereignty of the nation, our forces have demonstrated and proved their capabilities." Modi added that sacrifice and determination were part of India's character. "But at the same time, valour and bravery are also as integral parts of our national identity. I want to assure the nation -- the sacrifices of our soldiers will not go in vain. For us integrity and sovereignty is topmost and nobody can stop us from protecting India's integrity and sovereignty." As far as securing India's integrity was concerned, Modi said, "Nobody should not have any doubts or suspicions. India wants peace but on being provoked certainly has the capability to respond appropriately. Of our martyred soldiers, the country should be proud. They went down while fighting." Modi has called for an all-party meeting on Friday to discuss the deteriorating situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and to plan a response to the death of at least 20 soldiers in the clashes after opposition leaders goaded him for his silence. Presidents of various political parties will participate in the meeting at 5pm on June 19 via videoconferencing. Modi's statement came shortly after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh paid homage to the slain soldiers. The nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias bravehearts, he said. Sources have told News18 that the political establishment has asked all the three forces "to be prepared for the worst". The Army, Navy and Air Force are on the highest level of alert and there is a forward movement of assets. The sources said a complete free hand to the local commander has been given. They have been told if there are hostilities, "give a befitting reply irrespective of what SOPs say". A Paris court on Wednesday found Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's uncle guilty of misappropriating public funds in Syria, laundering the spoils and building a vast property portfolio in France with ill-gotten gains. The court imposed a four-year prison sentence on 82-year-old Rifaat al-Assad, which he is unlikely to serve given his advanced age. For now, Assad remains a free man pending an appeal but judges have also ordered the confiscation of his French real estate assets, worth an estimated 90 million euros ($100 million). Assad, who was treated in a French hospital in December for internal bleeding, was not present for Wednesday's ruling. Dubbed the "Butcher of Hama" for allegedly commanding troops who put down an uprising in central Syria in 1982, Assad has been under investigation in France since 2014. The younger brother of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad -- father of the incumbent president -- was tried for crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian funds. The court dismissed charges against Assad for the period 1984 to 1996, but found him guilty of organised laundering of funds embezzled from the Syrian public purse between 1996 and 2016. He was also convicted of tax fraud. Assad, who divides his time between France and Britain, denies the charges, and his lawyers said he would appeal. But even if he loses, Assad is unlikely to see the inside of a prison, as elderly people convicted of a crime in France often successfully ask for jail terms to be commuted. - Townhouses, chateau - Formerly Syria's vice president, Assad left his home country in 1984 after mounting a failed coup against his brother Hafez, who led Syria from 1971 to 2000. Today, he describes himself as an opponent of the regime of his nephew. After he arrived in Europe, Rifaat al-Assad's lavish lifestyle, four wives and 16 children soon raised eyebrows. His French fortune includes two townhouses in chic Parisian neighbourhoods, a stud farm, about 40 apartments, and a chateau. One of his Parisian mansions sprawls over 3,000 square metres (32,000 square feet). Assad and his family also built up a huge portfolio of 507 properties in Spain, valued at around 695 million euros, Spanish legal documents show. All his properties in that country were seized by the authorities in 2017. An Assad property has also been seized in London. - Exceptional severity' - Assad, awarded France's Legion of Honour in 1986 for "services rendered", insists his lifestyle was made possible by gifts from the Saudi royal family amounting to more than a million dollars per month. But while his lawyers claimed to document gifts of almost $25 million between 1984 and 2010, French investigators registered transfers from Saudi Arabia totalling a mere $10 million. The court ruling said the crimes were of "exceptional severity", and pointed to "consistent evidence of the misappropriation of public funds at the expense of the Syrian state and for the exclusive benefit of Rifaat al-Assad". But Assad's lawyers in a statement insisted their client had taken "not a penny" from Syria, saying all his money had a lawful origin. The French case against Assad began with a suit filed in 2013 by anti-corruption campaign group Sherpa, which welcomed the outcome. "This decision is of particular importance in the current Syrian context and underscores the urgency of establishing a French legal framework for the restitution of looted assets," it said in a statement. Sherpa also urged the French government to withdraw Assad's Legion of Honour, the highest French decoration. Assad's was only the second trial of a foreign dignitary in France on charges of "ill-gotten gains". In the first, Equatorial Guinea vice president Teodorin Obiang received a three-year suspended jail term in October 2017 after being convicted of using public money to fund a jet-set lifestyle in Paris. Dubbed the "Butcher of Hama" for allegedly commanding troops who put down an uprising in central Syria in 1982, Rifaat al-Assad has been under investigation in France since 2014 Opinion Article 17 June 2020 Introduction Advertisements In one of our previous articles, we analysed the impact of COVID-19 on hotel occupancy in Athens and Thessaloniki whereas our latest one was an attempt to interpret the different perspectives of Greek hospitality industry experts through targeted interviews that offered further insight on the aspects affecting hotel operations in the short-term. In the process of writing both of these articles two main 'ankyloses' of the local hospitality market came up in a way that was not clearly apparent but, following some additional thoughts, they could explain to a large extent the vulnerability of Greek hotels whose business models were stripped naked due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following text intends to provide some food for thought over two specific issues that all stakeholders involved with the Greek tourism sector must consider. Value Coming from the DMOs So, what have Greeks been taught about the various destinations within the country? Taking this opportunity to pause, provides the chance to restart by observing the key offerings of the country, distancing hoteliers from the constant strive of filling up their facilities and focusing instead on the value proposition of Greece as a tourism destination. Reviewing the country's business model that has been followed over the past years, it has become apparent that despite efforts, Greece has been experiencing local tourist congestion at specific destinations and very strong seasonal patterns, while bureaucracy and centralization further hinder the development of tourism at healthily competitive levels. As a result, it should be clearly understood that a need to deviate from that model and the emergence of a fresh one, one that differentiates Greece's touristic product, is currently more critical than never before. Taking into consideration that 70% of Greece's international visitors arrive by plane, Greece must provide them with worthy reasons to travel. With the current situation on top of everything, COVID-19 becomes the final straw in showcasing the urgency of upgrading the touristic product. So far, Greece has been marketing the sea, sun and its cultural heritage as key attributes for creating an appeal. How sustainable can this strategy prove to be over the course of decades? For a country to compete on a global scale it is of utmost importance to renew and update its approach according to the latest international trends and incorporate best practices. More profound than ever, COVID-19 has highlighted Greece's outdated practices putting some destinations in a vicious cycle of selling specific products and services for a limited period due to extreme seasonality patterns without exploiting the country's offerings to its greatest potential. As a result, there is still untapped potential all over the country with impressive gastronomy and culture, "hidden" natural paths and activities to name just a few alternatives that would ideally allow to be marketed as a very attractive touristic product. At the same time, the Greek Tourism entities experience tremendous failure to deploy the long-awaited niches of thematic tourism, promote local destinations through state-of-the-art means and organize the infrastructure that will support a more united tourist experience around the year. How easy is it for hospitality businesses to provide visitors with a diversified output when the destination itself is confined to a single input? This far, with only a handful of exceptions, no Greek independent organization has been formed on a local and more sophisticated level to work towards deploying a holistic strategy and very few efforts have been devoted to bundling the unique characteristics of each individual destination into a well-orchestrated tourism product. The problematic administrative mechanisms of Greece restrain the country from encouraging self-sufficiency in local destinations which leaves them dependent on national plans, if any. Who is there to take on the responsibility of bringing Greece's tourism to a new era through synergistic collaboration of all stakeholders involved? As specifically mentioned in our last article, DMOs can play a crucial role in offering answers to all of the above problems by becoming the nucleus of a network with full autonomy to act in the best interest of each individual destination. For this initiative to be successful, it is important to create a national strategy that is future-oriented with local sub-strategies supporting the bigger goals set. In practice, these local agencies shall establish specific KPIs and frameworks that will feature each destination's distinctiveness and enhance the visitor's experience through practical efforts. Setting the scene for such independent and organized entities between different beneficiaries around Greece will enable the country to respond to the diverse regional needs and improve the competitiveness and performance of a place by developing local "brands" based on the unique characteristics of each destination. With the prioritization of sustainable destination management on the scope, Greece will be able to increase the quality and diversity of tourism, boost the average spending of visitors, ensure higher profitability margins for stakeholders and, at the end of the day, provide investors with the relative comfort that there is a mechanism in place for alternative approaches to be taken in straitened times such as the current one. Most importantly, the value of the specific destination will rise and consequently, asset values will see an expansion too. Greece's key tourism stakeholders need to take matters on their hands and act with doggedness on creating a collective strategy with the help of DMOs that will aim at the country's future direction. The time that equity yields will be dependent, among other factors, on the efficiency of local DMOs is right around the corner. Value Coming from Corporate Structure The entrepreneurial spirit of Greeks over the past decades has formed a vast number of family-run hotel businesses around the country. Managing hotels as owner-operators, family businesses nowadays are facing a number of challenges mainly due to the lack of a clearly defined corporate structure. With only a limited number of them understanding the usefulness of running a hotel, irrespectively of its size, with a structured corporate governance (e.g. independent board of directors, empowered management executives, etc.), the majority consists of aspired families who have inherited the business as well as the charisma of "philoxenia" - the Greek word for hospitality. Usually, these are characterized by great commitment and enthusiasm to offer their services and to incorporate the Greek culture. However, when it comes down to management, it is observed that in many cases, despite the flexibility that family businesses offer, hotel owners are falling behind international trends or synergies that would allow them to constantly evolve and prosper in today's rapidly changing environment. As a result, we see only a few REICs or investment funds finding their way in the sector during the last couple of years, as the so far high barriers of entry have made it difficult for real estate investors to be placed in the country. With Greek hotel owners now being summoned to compete on a local and international level, it is essential that they prioritize and adopt a corporate structure that would facilitate operations. Directly affecting hotels' working capital, COVID-19 has raised issues of liquidation for Greek hotel owners. Within the remit of a private study HVS Athens conducted, we were surprised to find out that most of the largest resorts in the country have a current ratio (i.e. current assets/current liabilities) lower than 1.0, indicating an incapability to meet their short-term liabilities despite coming from eight years of consecutive growth. With a vital need to inject capital, local businesses have turned for help to financial institutions in order to stay afloat. However, the lack of a corporate structure does not favor funding agreements between the two stakeholders, as there is no equity commitment on behalf of the businesses and the risk is certainly higher. It is observed that family businesses tend to absorb the retained earnings of a company through dividend distribution among family members-stakeholders and do not keep sufficient reserves to meet creditors' requirements during hard times. Were businesses to keep the advantages of the family element, yet develop a corporate mindset, hotels would benefit from the perks of a professional organization able to perform rigorous risk management and navigate with higher resilience through such unprecedented situations. A shift in the attitude is necessary as both investors and creditors are increasingly looking for businesses with entrenched corporate governance to minimize risk. As a result, Greek hotel businesses will be able to ensure better financial terms and become more desired targets for all kinds of investors. Conclusion The pandemic has certainly led to a reconsideration of the value of Greek tourism and maybe revise some of people's preconceptions. The need to establish a well-balanced and multi-level management plan is apparent and the contribution of independent DMOs for the flourishing of the country on an international level is evident. A corporate structure definitely offers a sense to credibility and can support the business through situations causing turbulences in the environment. It is time for Greece to use its resources and create a local setting with potential to turn it into a sustainable practice. The current pandemic has hit hospitality industry the hardest, but it has also given numerous people the opportunity to step back and think; now it is high time Greek hotel industry experts put together structures, techniques and tactics that until now were either applied piecemeal or not at all. For a better future, you need to design it. Vijayawada, June 17 : Twelve devotees from Telangana were killed and 11 injured in a collision between a tractor and a truck in Andhra Pradesh's Krishna district on Wednesday, police said. The accident occurred near Vedadri in Jaggayyapeta mandal, about 75 km from here. According to police a truck laden with cement collided head-on with the tractor, which was carrying 26 people, who were returning after 'darshan' at a temple. The victims were Telangana's Khammam district and were returning home after visiting Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Vedadri. The deceased include four children. The injured were shifted to government-run hospital at Jaggayyapeta. Four of them are stated to be in critical condition. The injured included the truck driver. One of the survivors said the speeding truck coming from the opposite direction rammed into the tractor. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has expressed shock over the ghastly road accident. He conveyed condolences to the members of the bereaved families. In a statement, he wished speedy recovery for those injured. CM instructed the officials to extend all the necessary support and help to the family members of those who died and to the injured persons. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu also expressed grief over the accident. He demanded that the government provide financial assistance to the families of the deceased and to the injured. The Avon Theatre announced today it is reopening for in-person moviegoing on Friday, June 26. During the month of July the movie house will operate on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule. Each weekend it will be presenting a mix of classic films, family-friendly matinees and new releases. The Avon, a purveyor of independent, documentary and foreign-language films, said in light of COVID-19 its eager to welcome our patrons back, but since nothing is more important than their health, our building has been sanitized and we have established protocols to ensure that everyone can comfortably and safely come back to the movies. The theater released the following guidelines. Masks are required to enter the theater. To ensure social distancing, seating will be limited to every other row and every third seat between groups. The staff will be using an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of all patrons, respectfully asking those with a fever to come back when they are well. To minimize lines and contact, patrons are asked to purchase tickets online in advance. The theater said it appreciates the use of credit cards for purchases of refreshments at its concession. The time between screenings will be extended to enable thorough cleanings throughout the day. Heres the film schedule for the reopening weekend: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Saturday, June 27, 3:30 p.m.; Sunday, June 28, 3:30 p.m. The late Gene Wilder, who was a longtime Avon supporter, stars in the 1971 family-friendly musical based on Roald Dahls original book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Big Lebowski, Friday, June 26, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 27, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, June 28, 7:30 p.m. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi star in this 1998 cult classic comedy crime caper from the Coen Brothers with a plot that pivots around a case of mistaken identity. The Trip to Greece, Friday, June 26, 8 p.m.; Saturday, June 27, 4 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, June 28, 4 and 8:00 p.m. This new release is the fourth installment is a series from director Michael Winterbottom. Comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon retrace the path through Greece taken by the ancient hero Odysseus. Here is the film schedule for July: Weekend of July 2-5: The Goones (1985), family-friendly matinee; Jaws (1975), a summer classic from director Steven Spielberg; Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), another Spielberg blockbuster; and John Lewis: Good Trouble, a new release. Weekend of July 9-12: The Muppet Movie (1979), family-friendly matinee; Singin In The Rain (1952), Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds star in the classic musical; Grease (1978), the highest grossing movie musical of all time stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John; and First Cow, a new release. Weekend of July 16-19: Pee Wees Big Adventure (1985), family-friendly matinee; Chinatown (1974), neo-noir film starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay; Casablanca (1942), classic Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman film won the Academy Award for Best Picture; and The Truth, a new release. Weekend of July 23-26: Back to the Future (1985), family-friendly matinee; Rear Window (1954), Jimmy Steward and Grace Kelly star is classic Alfred Hitchcock film. Psycho(1960), another Hitchcock classic; and The Painted Bird, a new release. Visit avontheatre.org to purchase tickets in advance. Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh said that over 15,000 migrant workers are returning to the state after they left the state during the lockdown. Auto refresh feeds So far, 87 people have recovered from the infection, leaving 87 active cases in Mathura district, he said, adding seven coronavirus patients have died. Of the 5,824 samples taken so far, the results of 5,215 came out negative, while reports of 372 are awaited, the DM said. "The chief medical superintendent of the district hospital has been sent for treatment in KD Medical College" DM Sarvagya Ram Mishra said. He said, the contacts of the medical superintendent, including staff of the district hospital, are being traced. They would be sent for quarantine and their sampled will be collected for testing, the district magistrate said. The chief medical superintendent of the district hospital tested positive for COVID-19 in Mathura on Wednesday, taking the number of infections to 181, an official said. After deliberation, they have concluded that the hydroxychloroquine arm will be stopped from the Solidarity Trial, Henao-Restrepo told a media briefing. WHO expert Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo said investigators leading the so-called Solidarity Trial testing the drug - which had been promoted by US President Donald Trump - had reviewed recent evidence and decided to stop recruiting new patients. The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in its large multi-country trial of treatments for COVID-19 patients had been halted after new data and studies showed no benefit, reports Reuters. Mizoram reports 9 new COVID-19 positive cases, taking the total number of cases in the state stands at 130 including 129 active cases and 1 cured/discharged. according to the latest update by the department of Information & Public Relations, Government of Mizoram. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Bihar rose to 6,940 on Wednesday with 130 fresh instances of the viral infection reported during the day, the state health department said. With no fresh casualty, the death toll, however, stayed at 39, it said. Globally, there have been over 83.2 lakh confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 4.48 lakh people have died so far. The United States, Brazil, Russia, India and the United Kingdom are the most-affected countries, according to Johns Hopkins tracker Two COVID-19 positive patients, both senior citizens, from Shopian and Baramulla districts of Jammu and Kashmir died on Wednesday taking the number of fatalities due to the coronavirus in the union territory to 65, officials told PTI. The state's COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to over 57 percent with 231 patients discharged from hospitals on Wednesday, taking total recoveries to 2,642, which is higher than the number of active cases, Sarma said. Assam reported 184 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the state's total tally to 4,694, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. He said 89 cases were reported late on Wednesday night while 95 were detected in the evening. The tourism industry is badly affected due to the coronavirus outbreak in Uttarakhand. Manu Kochar, a hotelier in Dehradun, told news agency ANI, Hotel industry is the worst hit. Over 2.5 lakh people have lost their employment in the state. We haven't got any permission yet for hotels to resume operations." Its exceptionally important in these cases that the drug is reserved for severely ill and critical patients who can benefit from this clearly, Mike Ryan told a briefing. It is important to reserve use of the steroid dexamethasone for the treatment only of serious cases of COVID-19, for which it has been shown to have a benefit, the head of the World Health Organizationss emergencies programme said on Wednesday. "We have organized a walk from Vidhana Soudha (to Cubbon Park) to create awareness about the importance of wearing a mask as a preventive measure against COVID19. We are celebrating 'Mask Day' at all district headquarters today," said Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa, reports ANI. Karnataka will observe on Thursday will as 'Mask Day' to create awareness in the masses about the importance of wearing one amid the pandemic. According to China's National Health Commission (NHC) said that it received reports of 28 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country yesterday. Of the domestically transmitted cases, 21 cases were reported in Beijing, two in Hebei Province, and one in Tianjin Municipality, the NHC said in its daily repor China has reported 28 new confirmed coronavirus cases, including 24 in Beijing, taking the total number of infections in the last few days to 161 as the capital city ramped up testing 3.56 lakh residents and cancelling hundreds of flights to stem the spread of the COVID-19, the health authorities said today. Delhi Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has been given additional charge of the health ministry and other departments allocated to Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain after Jain tested for positive COVID19 yesterday, reports ANI. Out of 317 samples tested, no COVID-19 positive case has been reported in Nagaland. The total number of positive cases in the state stands at 193, of which 90 are active, and 103 have recovered, according to Pangnyu Phom, Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Government of Nagaland. It would help people during emergency situations, she said after launching the 'Air-Venti' app on Wednesday. "The app would help citizens in finding about the availability of ICU beds and ventilators in Mumbai hospitals," Pednekar told reporters. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, citizens of Mumbai can now get information about the availability of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds and ventilators in hospitals of the city through a new mobile app, Mayor Kishori Pednekar has said. India on Thursday reported 12,881 new cases and 334 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the latest update from the Union health ministry. With this, the countrys overall count rises to 3,66,946, including 12,237 fatalities. As many as 1,94,324 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged so far, the Union Health Ministry has said in its latest update. The reported active COVID-19 cases in India stand at 1,60,384. BJP leader Dr Kirit Somaiya has written to Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal seeking withdrawal of June 13 BMC circular stating that private laboratories should not give COVID-19 positive reports directly to the patients. "Wrote to BMC to withdraw 13 June circular, prohibiting Private Laboratory to give Corona Positive Report directly to the Persons/Family but to submit to BMC only LOGIC? Negative reports be given to the Persons! The person who required urgent information/Treatment is asked to wait," Somaiya tweeted. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said as many as 62,49,668 samples have been tested till June 17. Of these, 1,65,412 samples tested in the last 24 hours. As of 16 June, Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have sanctioned loans worth Rs 36,486.82 crore under the 100 percent Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, out of which Rs 18,306.49 crore has already been disbursed, said Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, reports ANI. The United Kingdom authorises the state-funded National Health Service to use steroid dexamethasone, which was hailed by scientists and the World Health Organisation as a major breakthrough in Covid-19 treatment, PTI reports. The recovery rate has further improved to 52.95% with the recoveries/deaths ratio stands now at 94.07% and 5.93% respectively, according to the Government of India. The move comes after another rating agency Moody's earlier this month downgraded India''s sovereign rating by a notch to lowest investment grade of ''Baa2'' for the first time in 22 years. Fitch Ratings on Thursday revised India's outlook to ''negative'' from ''stable'', stating that the coronavirus pandemic has significantly weakened the country's growth prospects for the year and exposed the challenges associated with a high public-debt burden. Students on Thursday arrived at Mount Carmel College for Karnataka 2nd PUC Exam 2020 English paper. The Principal says, "we have sanitised the college premises. Hand sanitisers are available in corridors and classrooms. Social distancing to be maintained in classrooms". The 'Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan' will be launched by the prime minister on June 20 through video in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, an official statement said on Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday launch a "massive" rural public works scheme to empower and provide livelihood opportunities to migrant workers who returned to their home states during the coronavirus lockdown. During the review meeting, it was decided to allow restaurants, beauty parlours, salons and barbershops to re- open from 22 June, Tynsong told reporters. The Meghalaya government has decided to allow restaurants, beauty parlours, salons and barbershops to re-open from next week, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said. The health department and the district authorities will issue guidelines regarding this, he said on Wednesday. The rupee opened at 76.17 against the US dollar, gained further ground, and touched 76.09 against the US dollar, up 7 paise over its previous close. It had settled at 76.16 against the greenback on Wednesday. Forex traders said rupee was trading in a narrow range as positive domestic equities and weak US currency supported the local unit, while rising coronavirus cases, border tension with China and foreign fund outflows capped the gains. The rupee appreciated 7 paise to 76.09 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday tracking weak US dollar and gains in the domestic equity market. The total number of cases in Odisha now stands at 4,512, of which 3047 have recovered and 1451 cases are active, according to the latest update by the Odisha government, reports ANI Union Home Minister Amit Shah to hold a meeting today at 12 pm with senior administrative officers of Delhi-NCR, in view of COVID-19 management and situation in the national capital, reports ANI. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami condoles the death of S Balamurali, a sub-inspector, who died of the coronavirus on Wednesday. The chief minister also announces that one member of his family will be offered a government job based on their eligibility. Four Border Roads Task Force personnel in Arunachal Pradesh test positive for the coronavirus, PTI reports. With this, the number of infections in the state rises to 103. Of these, 93 are active cases and ten have recovered. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed the public at the launch ceremony of the auction of 41 coal mines for commercial purpose, ANI reports. The coronavirus crisis has taught India to be self-reliant, Modi says. India will turn this into an opportunity, he added. Self-reliance is not possible without a strong mining and mineral sector because they are important pillars of the countrys economy, Narendra Modi said on Thursday, while addressing the public at the launch ceremony of the auction of 41 coal mines via video-conference. After these reforms, now coal production, the entire coal sector will also be self-sufficient in a way, he says. We have set a target to gasify around 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030, Modi says. I have been told that four projects have been identified for this and about 20 thousand crores will be invested in them, Narendra Modi said.. The auction of the coal mines is taking place at a time when business activity in India is normalising rapidly, said the prime minister on Thursday. Consumption and demand is rapidly approaching the pre-COVID-19 level, he said, adding, In such a situation, there cannot be a better time for this new beginning. Of the total 12,237 deaths in India, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 5,651 fatalities followed by Delhi with 1,904 deaths, Gujarat with 1,560, Tamil Nadu with 576, West Bengal with 506, Madhya Pradesh with 482, Uttar Pradesh with 435, Rajasthan with 313 and Telangana with 192 deaths. The new case is a man in his 60s who flew in from Lahore in Pakistan, via Doha and Melbourne on 11 June and is in quarantine. It comes after two women who had arrived from Britain and were given permission to leave quarantine early on compassionate grounds tested positive. New Zealand recorded on Thursday its third new case of the coronavirus this week as quarantine breaches and other failures undermined public confidence days after it declared itself among the first countries in the world to be free of the virus, reports Reuters. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said that as per the new testing protocol approved by ICMR, testing for COVID-19 will be done from today onwards as per the new Rapid Antigen methodology. "This technique will be faster and cheaper, 169 testing centers set up in the National Capital. Priority for the supply of kits will be given to Delhi," he added. Delhi government has decided to cap the rates for COVID-19 RT-PCR test at Rs 2,400 inclusive of all charges, said Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. A total of 982,012 COVID-19 tests, including 31,500 in the last 24 hours, were conducted in the country, the ministry said. With the detection of 5,358 new coronavirus cases, the total tally now stands at 160,118, it said. Pakistan's coronavirus death toll crossed 3,000 with 118 more patients succumbing to the disease in the last 24 hours, while the total number of infections surpassed the 1,60,000-mark, the health ministry said on Thursday. As many as 59,215 patients have recovered from the disease. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava, senior officials of NCR districts and Ministries of Home and Health and ICMR attended the meeting. The NCR comprises districts belonging to Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The movement of people between Delhi and NCR districts also figured in the meeting. The home minister reviewed the steps taken to check the spread of the virus, a central government official said. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday reviewed the coronavirus situation in Delhi and the National Capital Region, including Noida, Gurugram and Ghaziabad, amidst increasing number of COVID-19 cases, officials told PTI Two employees at Toyota Kirloskar Motor''s Bidadi plant in Karnataka have tested positive for COVID-19, the auto major said in a notification, reports PTI. The automaker, which had resumed production at the plant on May 26 after weeks coronavirus-led lockdown, has again temporarily suspended operations at the facility due to the confirmed cases. The officer who tested positive was deployed for visiting people quarantined on returning from abroad to ensure that they complied with the protocol. The Kalamasserry police station within the Kochi city limits remained shut and the entire police personnel have been sent into quarantine after an officer attached to the station was tested positive for COVID-19 on late Wednesday night, The Hindu reported. Speaking at the launch of auction of 41 coal mines for commercial mining, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said: "India will turn the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity. It has taught India to be self-reliant. India will also reduce its dependence on imports." The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the annual Rath Yatra and related activities at Puri's Jagannath Temple in Odisha, scheduled for 23 June this year, in view of the coronavirus outbreak, PTI reported. The Delhi government has decided to fix the price limit of RT-PCR tests for coronavirus at Rs, 2400, PTI quoted Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia as saying on Thursday. Of the total 5,854, there are a total of 2,779 active cases, said the state health department on Thursday. In the past 24 hours, at least 299 more individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in Andhra Pradesh, taking the total number of infections to 5,854 on Thursday. After two more deaths in the state, the COVID-19 toll climbed to 92. Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday expressed concern about the students of Senior Secondary Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC). He said that a decision on resuming regular classes will be taken soon. China, however, is expected to record positive growth of 1.8 percent in 2020, sharply down from 6.1 percent in 2019, said the ADO. Hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian economy is expected to contract by 4 per cent during the current financial year, the ADB said in a supplement to its Asian Development Outlook (ADO) on Thursday. Countries in Developing Asia will "barely grow" in 2020, as per the ADB forecast. The man, from Umsamlem village in Ri-Bhoi district, was declared a COVID-19 patient on June 9 after his samples tested positive for the infection in an RT-PCR test, an official said. The patient had complained of respiratory problems and was admitted to a private hospital, he said. A 72-year-old man was erroneously declared as having tested positive for COVID-19 in Meghalaya, which officials have attributed to a mechanical error. The Karnataka government observes Mask Day to raise awareness about the importance of wearing a mask in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. A march was organized from Vidhana Soudha or the state secretariat to Cubbon Park in Bengaluru, where Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa marched to spread awareness about wearing masks as a precautionary measure against COVID-19 Of the total 13626 COVID-19 patients, 10582 have recovered and 10328 of them have been discharged. There are 2721 active cases in the state as of now. Rajasthan registered 10 COVID-19 deaths and 84 positive cases of coronavirus on Thursday, according to an official report. With this, the number of fatalities due to coronavirus in the state has gone up to 323, while 13,626 patients have tested positive. Two more people have died due to COVID-19 in Jammu city raising the number of fatalities in Jammu and Kashmir to 71, officials said on Thursday. A 65-year-old coronavirus positive man, who had returned from New Delhi along with three family members, died at the Government Medical College (GMC) in Jammu on Wednesday night, officials told PTI. At least 2,266 samples were tested on Tuesday, of which reports of 57 persons came out positive for the infection, the official said. The COVID-19 death toll now stands at 185 in the district, he added. With 57 persons testing positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the case count in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district has gone up to 4,191, a health official said on Thursday, PTI reports. The Supreme Court on Thursday while referring to the Rath Yatra at Puris Jagannath Temple in Odisha, said they will not allow it, according to Live Law. Lord Jagannath will not forgive us if we allow this to continue, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde says. Activities related to the Rath Yatra is injuncted. Forty-three fresh COVID-19 cases were reported in Tripura, taking the northeastern state's tally to 1,138 on Thursday, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said. All but four new patients are from different battalions of the Border Security Force (BSF), he said. He also said that 6,10,281 people have been quarantined and 734 were found violating the quarantine. "The state govt is running 122 relief camps where 4,138 migrant labourers have been given refuge with food & necessities." he added. Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Twitter said that a total of 3,820 police personnel tested positive for the coronavirus in the state. Of these, 2,754 have recovered and 45 have died of the infection. Nine more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Mizoram, taking the northeastern state's tally to 130, Health Minister Dr R Lalthangliana said on Thursday. South Mizoram's Lawngtlai and Siaha districts have reported four new cases each while one case was reported from Lunglei district, he said. The ex-president of Kazakhstan is infected with the new coronavirus. His spokespeople say Nursultan Nazarbayev, 79, tested positive for the virus and remains in isolation, reports AP. There are no reasons for concern, the statement said. The home minister says this decision of the Modi-led BJP government will create more than 2.8 lakh jobs, attract capital investment worth Rs 33,000 crore, and generate annual revenue of Rs 20,000 crore for the state governments. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that in line with the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has flagged off the process to auction 41 coal mines for commercial mining. This historic decision will make India self-reliant in the energy sector by introducing competition and boosting coal production, said Shah, reports ANI. Following the detection of these cases, 130 employees, including nine Chinese nationals, have been quarantined, Dr Baliram Gadawe, a health officer from Khed tehsil said. The employees belong to a Chinese firm that manufactures machinery and mining equipment and has a unit in Chakan, he said. Seven persons, including a Chinese national, employed at a Chinese firm in Chakan town of Maharashtra's Pune district, have tested positive for coronavirus, a health officer told PTI on Thursday. Odisha reported 174 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, taking the total to 4,512 in the state, officials said. Of the fresh cases, 146 were reported from different quarantine centres where people returning from other parts of the country are lodged, they said. The process of contact tracing and follow up action is being taken, a health department official said. Uttarakhand on Thursday reported 57 new COVID-19 cases till 2:30 pm today, taking the total number of positive cases to 2,079, according to the lastest update from the state Control Room COVID-19. "A total of 7040 people were tested for #COVID19, of which 456 tested positive. People who live in containment zones are being tested in the initial stage," he said. Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that the rapid antigen testing was conducted at 193 centres on Thursday. Delhi: Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav today visited Anand Vihar terminal where around 300 COVID care isolation coaches have been set up, in view of the rise in #COVID19 cases. pic.twitter.com/twVwekdEJL Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav on Thursday visited Anand Vihar terminal where around 300 COVID care isolation coaches have been set up, in view of the rise in #COVID19 cases. The global toll due to coronavirus on Thursday crossed 4,50,000, according to a tally compiled by AFP. We have this beautiful picture of everyone getting the vaccine, but there is no road map on how to do it, said Yuan Qiong Hu, a senior legal and policy adviser at Doctors Without Borders in Geneva. Few measures have been taken to resolve numerous problems for achieve fair distribution, she said. Earlier this month, the United Nations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, and others said it was a moral imperative that everyone have access to a peoples vaccine. But such grand declarations are unenforceable, and without a detailed strategy, the allocation of vaccines could be inequitable and extremely messy, said health experts. As the race intensifies for a vaccine against the new coronavirus, rich countries are rushing to place advance orders for the inevitably limited supply to guarantee their citizens get immunized first leaving significant questions about whether developing countries will get any vaccines in time to save lives before the pandemic ends. The number of COVID-19 cases in Chhattisgarh rose to 1,946 after 82 new cases were reported on Thursday. "As many as 46 patients were discharged during the day from hospitals across the state following recovery," News18 reported. Still, analysts had expected a sharper decline in weekly applications, and some expressed disappointment that so many people are still seeking unemployment benefits even as restaurants, gyms and many categories of retail shops are reopening across the country. The total number of people receiving unemployment aid also fell slightly, reflecting the return of many to their old jobs. The latest figure released Thursday marked the 11th straight weekly decline in applications since they peaked at nearly 7 million in March as the coronavirus shut down much of the economy and caused tens of millions of layoffs. The decline was much smaller, though, than in recent weeks, falling just 58,000. About 1.5 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, a historically high number, even as the economy increasingly reopens and employers bring some people back to work. 23 more COVID-19 cases, 47 recoveries and 1 death were reported in Jharkhand on Thursday. Total number of cases in the state is now at 1,919, including 710 active cases, 1,198 recovered/discharged and 11 deaths, the state health department said. "With the 12-day lockdown set to begin in Chennai from Friday, the Greater Chennai Police issued a series of instructions for the city residents to follow during the period. Barring hospitals, labs, ambulances, pharmacies, and funeral hearses, there are restrictions on other activities. Auto rickshaws, taxi cabs will not be allowed to run in the city except in case of emergency," The Indian Express reported. "His fever is down a bit today. He was kept on oxygen supply for longer time today. But, his overall condition is improving," a senior official of the hospital said. Jain had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) here after running high-grade fever and suffering sudden drop in oxygen levels. The 55-year-old minister is getting oxygen support on and off as per requirement, they said. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who is in hospital for COVID-19 treatment, showed some improvement on Thursday but his fever has not yet subsided, senior officials said. "Reminding reporters about other states, including Florida, which issued a mandatory quarantine on New Yorkers coming to their states approximately 100 days ago, Cuomo acknowledged that experts have advised him to issue a quarantine for people coming to the state and he is considering it now," the report added. New York governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly said the district administration was "considering a possible quarantine on people entering New York state as the virus continues to spread," CNN reported. Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh said that over 15,000 migrant workers are returning to the state after they left the state during the lockdown. "On average 11,500 workers were returning to Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai daily, while 4,000 to 5,000 labourers were returning to Gondia, Nandurbar, Kolhapur, Nagpur and Pune," he was quoted as saying by News18. Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Twitter said that a total of 3,820 police personnel tested positive for the coronavirus in the state. Of these, 2,754 have recovered and 45 have died of the infection. The Supreme Court on Thursday while referring to the Rath Yatra at Puris Jagannath Temple in Odisha, said they will not allow it, according to Live Law. Lord Jagannath will not forgive us if we allow this to continue,' Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said. The Delhi government has decided to fix the price limit of RT-PCR tests for coronavirus at Rs, 2400, PTI quoted Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia as saying on Thursday. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan launches Indias first mobile lab for COVID-19 testing in Delhi, ANI reports. The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the annual Rath Yatra and related activities at Puri's Jagannath Temple in Odisha, scheduled for 23 June this year, in view of the coronavirus outbreak, PTI reported. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said that as per the new testing protocol approved by ICMR, testing for COVID-19 will be done from today onwards as per the new Rapid Antigen methodology. 'This technique will be faster and cheaper, 169 testing centers set up in the National Capital. Priority for the supply of kits will be given to Delhi,' he added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi while speaking at the launch of the auction of 41 coal mines for commercial mining today said: India will turn this Covid-19 crisis into an opportunity. It has taught India to be self-reliant. India will also reduce its dependence on imports. Union Home Minister Amit Shah to hold a meeting today at 12 pm with senior administrative officers of Delhi-NCR, in view of COVID-19 management and situation in the national capital, reports ANI. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said as many as 62,49,668 samples have been tested till 17 June. Of these, 1,65,412 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate has further improved to 52.95% with the recoveries/deaths ratio stands now at 94.07%. India on Thursday reported 12,881 new cases and 334 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the latest update from the Union health ministry. With this, the countrys overall count rises to 3,66,946, including 12,237 fatalities. Delhi Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has been given additional charge of the health ministry and other departments allocated to Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain after Jain tested for positive COVID19 yesterday, reports ANI. The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in its large multi-country trial of treatments for COVID-19 patients had been halted after new data and studies showed no benefit, reports Reuters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked states to make full use of the expanded COVID-19 testing capacity stating that saving lives is a top priority as India recorded a spike of 2,003 coronavirus deaths after Maharashtra and Delhi added earlier fatalities not attributed to the disease. Modi also called for fighting the stigma associated with the novel coronavirus and that people should be assured there is no need to panic if somebody has contracted the infection as the number of recovered patients has also been rising. The COVID-19 recovery rate for the country currently stood at around 53 percent. The prime minister's exhortations came on a day the country registered 2,003 COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours, according to the health ministry, pushing the death toll to 11,903. This was after Maharashtra and Delhi added earlier deaths that were not attributed to the disease. According to the health ministry, India's caseload rose to 3,54,065 with 10,974 new infections being reported in the last 24 hours. The active cases stood at 1,55,227, while 1,86,934 people have recovered, the ministry added. Administrative measures As COVID-19 cases spike, some states came out with new strategies to check the spread of the disease. In a first, Tamil Nadu tested as many as 25,463 samples in a single day while 2,174 people tested positive for the coronavirus, the state's highest increase in a 24-hour period, propelling its tally to over 50,000. The Maharashtra government has been testing samples aggressively and tracing new cases under "chase the virus" strategy, and has also ramped up health infrastructure, according to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. With this strategy, the virus spread has been significantly contained in Dharavi, the biggest and thickly-populated slum sprawl in Mumbai, an official release quoted Thackeray as having told the prime minister during a video conference. Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally stood at 1,16,752, according to a state health bulletin. The Karnataka government has decided to conduct random testing on slum dwellers, vendors and bill collectors at markets, delivery and courier boys among others, aimed at effective surveillance, an official circular said. On Wednesday, the state's toll reached 102, while the number of cases rose to 7,734 with 204 patients testing positive. In Delhi, health surveys were conducted for 1.78 lakh people in 242 containment zones between 15 and 16 June in a bid to improve contact mapping in the National Capital, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah stepped in and announced a slew of measures to fight the pandemic. Saving lives should be top priority: Modi Saving lives should be the top priority, Modi told the chief ministers, as he called for expanding the health infrastructure of the states, according to an official statement. Wednesday's interaction virtual meeting was the second and final segment of Modis sixth round of consultations with chief ministers of states and L-Gs of Union Territories in the last three months on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Referring to the rise in number of infections, Modi underscored the need for testing, tracking, tracing and isolating COVID-19 patients to deal with the pandemic. Noting that the spread of COVID-19 is more in a few big states and cities, he asked the states to make full use of their existing testing capacity and also work to augment the health infrastructure. India has stepped up testing capacity significantly to three lakh samples per day with a network of 924 laboratories including 674 in the government sector. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 60,84,256 samples have been analysed for coronavirus in the country till 16 June with 1,63,187 tested on Tuesday. The prime minister said big crowds, lack of physical-distancing, daily movement of large number of people and small houses in some cities have made the battle against the coronavirus "more challenging". State-wise figures Of the 2,003 new deaths, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 1,409 fatalities taking its COVID-19 death tally to 5,537, while coronavirus deaths in Delhi surged by 437 taking its toll to 1,837, according to the Health Ministry data updated at 8 am. Besides, Tamil Nadu has reported 49 deaths followed by Gujarat at 28, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana at 18 each, Madhya Pradesh 11, West Bengal 10, Rajasthan 7, Karnataka 5 and Telangana 4. Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Punjab, Puducherry and Uttarakhand have reported one fatality each in the last 24 hours. Of the total 11,903 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 5,537 fatalities followed by Delhi with 1,837 deaths, Gujarat with 1,533, Tamil Nadu with 528, West Bengal with 495, Madhya Pradesh with 476, Uttar Pradesh with 417, Rajasthan with 308 and Telangana with 191 deaths. The COVID-19 toll reached 118 in Haryana, 94 in Karnataka, 88 in Andhra Pradesh, 72 in Punjab, 63 in Jammu and Kashmir, 41 in Bihar, 25 in Uttarakhand, 20 in Kerala and 11 in Odisha. Maharashtra has reported maximum number of cases at 1,13,445 followed by Tamil Nadu at 48,019, Delhi at 44,688, Gujarat at 24,577, Uttar Pradesh at 14,091, Rajasthan at 13,216 and West Bengal at 11,909, according to the Health Ministry's data. The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 11,083 in Madhya Pradesh, 8,272 in Haryana, 7,530 in Karnataka and 6,778 in Bihar. It has risen to 6,841 in Andhra Pradesh, 5,406 in Telangana, 5,298 in Jammu and Kashmir, 4,319 in Assam and 4,163 in Odisha. Punjab has reported 3,371 novel coronavirus cases so far, while Kerala has 2,622 cases. A total of 1,942 people have been infected by the virus in Uttarakhand, 1,839 in Jharkhand, 1,781 in Chhattisgarh, 1,092 in Tripura, 649 in Ladakh, 629 in Goa, 560 in Himachal Pradesh and 500 in Manipur. Chandigarh has registered 358 COVID-19 cases, Puducherry has 216 cases, Nagaland has 179, Mizoram has 121, Arunachal Pradesh has 95, Sikkim has 70, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 45 COVID-19 cases. Meghalaya and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have registered 44 infections so far. Ensure payment of salaries to doctors, says SC Meanwhile, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to issue directions to states for payment of salaries and providing necessary quarantine facilities to doctors and healthcare workers engaged in treating COVID-19 patients. The government told the court it would issue the necessary directions. A bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah said that doctors and healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients should not be denied quarantine facilities. The top court asked the Centre to file a compliance report within four weeks on payment of salaries and quarantine facilities to doctors and healthcare workers and warned that non-compliance would be viewed seriously. The bench was hearing a plea filed by a private doctor raising questions on the Centre's 15 May decision that 14-day quarantine was not mandatory for doctors. Doctor Arushi Jain, in her petition filed through advocates Mithu Jain and Arjun Syal, had alleged that front line healthcare workers engaged in the fight against COVID-19 are not being paid salaries or their wages are being cut or delayed. During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre said that government would issue the directions to states and Union territories within 24 hours to ensure timely payment of salaries to doctors and health care workers. With inputs from PTI The United States also said it was closely monitoring the situation. New Delhi: The United States on Wednesday said it was closely monitoring the situation on the Sino-Indian border and supported the peaceful resolution of the border issue between the two neighbours, while Russia too welcomed the joint efforts by India and China towards de-escalation. Britain urged both Asian giants to engage in dialogue, observing that violence was in no ones interest. The European Union (EU) called on both sides to exercise restraint and engage in de-escalation. While the United States said it was closely monitoring the situation, a US State department official was cited by reports as also offering condolences on behalf of the United States to the families of the Indian soldiers who died in the clash with Chinese troops at the Galwan valley in the Ladakh sector on Monday night. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said his country welcomes the joint efforts by New Delhi and Beijing for de-escalation of tensions on the line of actual control (LAC). It has already been announced that the military representatives of India and China have made contact. They are discussing measures to de-escalate. We welcome this, he told the Russian media. Meanwhile in New Delhi, a British High Commission spokesperson said: "Clearly these are concerning reports. We encourage China and India to engage in dialogue on issues relating to the border- violence is in no-one's interest." EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Virginie Battu-Henriksson, said, In light of recent worrying developments along the Line of Actual Control between India and China, we encourage both sides to show restraint and to engage in military de-escalation, as well as to continue the dialogue. This is crucial for building trust and reaching a peaceful solution which is essential to preserving peace and stability in the region. Nandom - June 2020 The Kuupole Foundation for Educational Support and Advocacy (Kuupole Foundation), an initiative of the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor D. D Kuupole has donated to the St Theresas Hospital in Nandom. The items donated include: five pieces of overall wear, 20 pieces of N-95 nose mask, two infrared thermometers, 200 pieces of face masks, 10 packets of gloves, four gallons of 4litter liquid soap, two gallons of 2litter of savlon liquid soap, 10 pieces of surgical gowns, 10 gallons of rubbing alcohol, and four gallons of parazone. The Kuupole Foundation also donated, four boxes of infusions, 10 Veronica buckets with stands and a large box of blood tonic and glucose. Prof. Kuupole said, in 2016 when I was celebrating my 60th birthday, a group of friends came together and organized the celebration and the proceeds generated from the support of friends was going to be used to setup the foundation. We have been writing proposals and other things to bring in money. You will see that; the medical items were donated by a friend who is a medical person. So, the little we are presenting today may support in some areas. Prof. Kuupole expressed his gratitude to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Nandom, for accepting to be part of the presentation to be made to the hospital. Without a healthy mind and a healthy body, there isnt much you can do Prof Kuupole added. The MCE for Nandom, Dr. Thaddeus Aasoglenang Arkum who received the donation on behalf of the St Theresas Hospital expressed his gratitude to the Kuupole family and the Kuupole Foundation for the numerous supports the have being giving the Municipality. I was not surprised, and Prof called to tell me about the intended donation to the hospital. The St Theresas Hospital serves a lot of people including people from Burkina Faso. These items donated today, would go a long way to support the hospital in the fight against COVID-19 he said. He added that, the Municipal Assembly and central government and other benevolent organizations and individuals have been supporting the hospital with Personal Protective Equipment in the fight against the pandemic. Dr. Aduwia David, Medical Superintendent of the St Theresas Hospital could not hide his joy. He thanked Prof. Kuupole and his wife for the donation. We cannot thank enough for the donation you and your family have done. Just a few months ago, you donated curtains to the hospital and today, you are making another donation. May God richly bless you and your family for your kindness he added. Prof D. D Kuupole was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast from 2012 to 2016. New Delhi, June 17 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre on a PIL seeking to transfer funds from PM CARES Fund to National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.R. Shah asked the Centre to file a response within four weeks. The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) in the plea claimed that in the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic, NDRF is not being utilized by the authorities, and establishing the PM CARES Fund is outside the scope of the Disaster Management Act. The petitioner argued that the entire fund collected in the PM CARES Fund to date may be directed to be transferred to the NDRF. "The Centre may be directed to utilize NDRF for the purpose of providing assistance in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic in compliance with Section 46 of the DM Act, all the contributions/grants from individuals and institutions shall be credited to the NDRF in terms of Section 46(1)(b) rather than to PM CARES Fund and all the funds collected in the PM Cares Fund to date may be directed to be transferred to the NDRF", said the PIL. The petition argued that there is need to put in place a broader and well- thought out national plan outlining inter alia a detailed coordination mechanism between Centre and states. "Section 11 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as the "DM Act") makes it mandatory for a national plan to be drawn up for disaster management for whole of the country, but currently, there is no such national plan in place to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic", argued the plea. The petitioner also cited lack of transparency associated with PM CARES Fund, as it cannot be audited by CAG. And, it is also outside the purview of RTI, added the plea. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the petitioner, argued before the bench that the plea was not against the government, instead the petitioner is seeking assistance from the government. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed Dave's argument seeking issuance of notice on the plea. Iran is facing a formal rebuke by the United Kingdom, France and Germany at the UN International Atomic Energy Agency for refusing to cooperate with the agencys inspection of two sites believed to have housed nuclear research in the past. The rebuke would be the first at the IAEA since 2012, which was also directed at Iran. A draft of the motion was first reported by Bloomberg. The head of the IAEA reiterated accusations Monday that Iran has blocked the agencys access to two now-defunct sites where nuclear research is believed to have been conducted in the early 2000s, according to documents obtained by the Israeli government. Irans government has said the information was fabricated. One of the facilities was partially demolished and the other appears to have undergone efforts to sanitize it of evidence of nuclear research, the IAEA said. A third site was fully destroyed in the early 2000s, rendering it unfit for inspection. Why it matters: The rebuke comes as the United States is urging UN Security Council members to renew an arms embargo on Iran for violating its obligations under the 2015 deal. The Trump administration says it will trigger a return of UN sanctions on Iran if the embargo is not renewed, setting the stage for a fight in the Security Council, as Russia and China are expected to block the return of sanctions. Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized the US position, saying Washington cannot move to enforce an international agreement that it has pulled out of. European countries have called on Iran before to stop violating its obligations under the 2015 nuclear agreement. The IAEA has reported that Tehran began enriching uranium beyond levels and quantities allowed under the deal in response to the United States unilateral withdrawal from the agreement in 2018. Iran said it can stop the violations if the Trump administrations sanctions are lifted. Whats next: The rebuke will likely be put to a vote later this week, with Russia and China expected to oppose it. Despite a recent prisoner exchange, the Trump administration shows no signs of readiness to lift its pressure on Tehran. Know more: Iran is calling on the Security Council not to renew the arms embargo and not to rely on the documents obtained by Israel, Al-Monitor reports. The federal Labor backbencher whose electorate office was the scene for the covert filming used to uncover the extent of wide-spread branch stacking within the Victorian division says he is co-operating with authorities. Veteran MP Anthony Byrne, a long-serving member of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, was a long-time ally of former Right faction powerbroker Adem Somyurek, who was sacked by Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday. Labor MP Anthony Byrne in Parliament in 2018. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The Age and 60 Minutes investigation, which has led to the sacking or resignation of three Andrews government ministers, involved secret recordings of Mr Somyurek in Mr Byrne's Cranbourne West electorate office. Liberal and Labor figures have expressed national security concerns that Mr Byrne's office may have been bugged. Advertisement By April 24, however, the FDA issued a drug safety communication warning regarding hydroxychloroquine and heart rhythm disturbances that can lead to sudden cardiac death.The drugs are traditionally used to treat malaria and certain autoimmune conditions, including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. These can be taken to treat those conditions, but should not be taken to treat Covid-19 anymore.After reviewing new information from large clinical trials, the FDA now believes that the suggested dosing regimens "are unlikely to produce an antiviral effect," FDA chief scientist Denise Hinton said in a letter announcing the decision, reports Politico.Suspicions in the medical research scandal involving a little known health analytics company grew deeper after the termination of the faculty position of one of the Indian-origin co-authors of studies that were retracted by two influential peer-reviewed journals, including the one byon the negative impact of HCQ.The retracted Lancet study got worldwide attention after the World Health Organisation (WHO) paused trial of antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine based on results of the study.The study, which claimed to have analysed data from nearly 15,000 patients with COVID-19 and 81,000 controls, found that hydroxychloroquine has little benefit in treatment of the disease and instead, increases mortality in patients.Researchers in the US earlier this month urged a temporary prohibition on prescribing chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), with or without azithromycin, to treat or prevent Covid-19.Source: IANS Anyone watching Thursday's trading session, which saw the S&P 500 lose almost 6% in a single day, knows that the current market volatility can be a difficult to stomach on a day to day basis. One area that investors can take comfort is in a safe and reliable dividend. A company that offers a high and safe dividend yield could thus be a good bet, and I believe Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPW) is one such company. Company background and quarterly highlights Medical Properties is the only pure play hospital real estate investment trust, or REIT, in the world. The trust was founded in 2003 and had its initial public offering in 2005. Medical Properties owns more than 300 properties leased to more than 30 different operators in the U.S., Europe and Australia regions. Source: Medical Properties' Investor Relations Nearly two-thirds of the trust's properties are located in the U.S., with the United Kingdom making up the second largest component of the portfolio. Medical Properties had total pro forma gross assets of $16.5 billion at the end of 2019. The trust has a market capitalization of nearly $10 billion. Medical Properties reported its first quarter earnings results on April 29. Funds-from-operation, or FFO, increased 19.4% to 37 cents, though this was 2 cents lower than analysts had expected. Revenue increased 63% to $294 million, which was $15 million lower than expected. Revenue was much higher year-over-year due to several large acquisitions that were completed since the first quarter of 2019. Medical Properties has been busy on the acquisition front and added several properties during the first quarter. In total, Medical Properties added $861 million worth of hospitals spread out over the U.S., Spain and Portugal during the first quarter. The trust also closed on its previously announced acquisition of 30 acute care hospitals in the UK. The final purchase price was $2 billion. Showing how such an acquisition can benefit Medical Properties, FFO would have been higher by 2.4 cents per share had this acquisition been paying rent for the entire first quarter. Story continues Medical Properties appears well suited to deal with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The trust has $500 million in cash as well as a $1.3 billion revolving credit facility at its disposal. Medical Properties stated that its tenants paid 96% of rent and loan payments in May, which was the same percentage as April. Dividend and valuation analysis Following several years of a stagnant dividend, Medical Properties has increased its dividend every year since 2013. The trust's typical pattern over this time is to raise its dividend by 1 cent per share every quarter. This continued when Medical Properties raised its dividend by for the payment made April 9, giving the trust seven years of dividend growth. Medical Properties has raised its dividend by an average of: 3.9% per year over the past three years. 3.8% per year over the past five years. 2.4% per year over the past 10 years. The most recent increase is very much in-line with the short and medium-term increases. Investors should expect to continue to see a 4 cent raise per year each year due to the trust's historical consistency. While the annual raise may not be exciting, Medical Properties offers a 5.6% dividend yield today. The trust has averaged a 6.8% yield since 2010. If the trust were to average the current yield for all of 2020, it would be the second lowest average annual yield since 2010. Only last year's average yield of 5% would be lower. Still, today's yield compares very favorably to the 2% average yield that the S&P 500 currently provides. In addition, Medical Properties' dividend is on solid ground. For the year, the trust should distribute $1.08 of dividends per share while generating an estimated $1.60 in FFO. This gives Medical Properties a FFO payout ratio of 68%. Not only is this below the trust's average payout ratio of 82%, is extremely low for the REIT sector as a whole. Even better, Medical Properties' FFO payout ratio has generally declined in a straight line from 111% in 2011 to just 73% last year. The payout ratio looks even more impressive when you factor in that Medical Properties has issued 270 million new shares of stock to help fund acquisitions. In the first quarter, Medical Properties paid out $138 million of dividends while producing $107 million of free cash flow for a payout ratio of 129%. This figure would imply that the dividend could be in jeopardy of being cut, but investors should look at the larger picture when judging dividend safety. Last year, Medical Properties distributed $412 million of dividends while generating $494 million of free cash flow for a payout ratio of 83%. From 2016 through 2018, dividends paid totaled $909 million and free cash flow equaled almost $1.1 billion for a payout ratio of 83%. As you can see, the long-term free cash flow payout ratio, though high, paints a much better picture of dividend safety. As stated above, REITs often have high payout ratios due to the nature of their structure. So as long as future payout ratios look closer to the 2016 to 2019 average, the dividend should be safe. Even after rising more than 4% on Friday, shares of Medical Properties are still down 8.2% for the year. The stock currently trades hands at $19.38. Shares have a forward price-to-FFO ratio of 12.1 when using expected FFO for the year. The stock has an average price-to-FFO ratio of 12.2 since 2010. Therefore, I think a price range of 11 to 13 times FFO could be a good target range for the stock. This gives shares a target price range of $17.60 to $20.80. Shareholders could be looking at a downside of as much as 9.2% to a gain of 7.3% using the valuation target range and expected FFO for the year. Final thoughts Medical Properties is a fairly young REIT, but it is the only pure-play hospital trust in the world. The trust has been very active over the years acquiring strategic properties all with the goal of growing its business. This has allowed Medical Properties to raise its dividend for the past seven years even as the share count went up by an annual average of 14% over the last decade. While the most recent quarter saw a spike in the free cash flow payout ratio, the longer-term picture looks much more stable. The trust also has an extremely low payout ratio for a REIT. Shares are trading with a valuation nearly identical to its 10-year average, so share price gains from here might be limited, but the stock's 5.6% yield looks both attractive and safe. For income investors, Medical Properties could be a solid investment option. Author disclosure: the author does not have a position in any stock discussed in this article. Read more here: Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus? Sign up for a free 7-day trial here This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Within hours of the announcement that Aunt Jemima was being retired from store shelves, at least three more food companies rushed to respond to complaints about other brands that have been criticized for using racial stereotypes. Mars Food, the owner of the brand Uncle Bens rice, which features an older black man smiling on the box, said on Wednesday afternoon that it would evolve the brand as protests over racism and police brutality across the country continue. We recognize that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Bens brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do, said Caroline Sherman, a spokeswoman for Mars. The company does not know the nature of the changes, or the timing, she said, but we are evaluating all possibilities. Shortly after that announcement, ConAgra Brands, the maker of Mrs. Butterworths pancake syrup, released a statement saying the company had begun a complete brand and package review. ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's Defence Ministry said its warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq's Haftanin region on Wednesday, the second such operation launched against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in recent days. "Our heroic commandos are in Haftanin," the ministry said on Twitter, dubbing the new operation "Claw-Tiger". "In order to neutralise the PKK and other terrorist elements threatening our people and our borders, our Air Force, along with fire-support equipment, helicopters and our commandos, supported by armed and unarmed drones, have mobilised to the region with air operations," the ministry said. Wednesday's strike came just days after Turkey revealed an operation it called "Claw-Eagle" had struck PKK targets in various regions of northern Iraq. Turkey regularly targets PKK militants, both in its mainly Kurdish southeast and in northern Iraq, where the group is based. The two latest airstrikes come amid what Ankara says is an increase in militant attacks on Turkish army bases. Turkey has also warned in recent years of a potential ground offensive targeting PKK bases in the Qandil mountains. The PKK, designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, focused in southeast Turkey. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; editing by Jane Wardell) By Lisa Barrington and Alexander Cornwell DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates can work with Israel on some areas, including fighting the new coronavirus and on technology, while still having political differences with the state, a senior official said on Tuesday. Addressing a conference of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) advocacy group, minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said communication with Israel was important and would yield better results than other routes taken in the past. His question and answer session, described as "historic" by the AJC, occurred days after another senior official made a rare appeal to the Israeli public by having an article published in Hebrew in Israel's leading newspaper. The official said Israel cannot expect to normalise relations with the Arab world if it annexes land in the occupied West Bank. "Can I have a political disagreement with Israel but at the same time try and bridge other areas of the relationship? I think I can and I think this is fundamentally where we are," said Gargash, who has previously said the Arab decision not to have contact with Israel was wrong. He added that cooperation on the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic does not affect the UAE's opposition to the proposed annexation or other political issues. Israel has no diplomatic relations with Gulf Arab countries, but common concerns over Iran's regional influence have led to a limited thaw in ties. In May, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad made the first known flight by a UAE carrier to Israel, carrying coronavirus-related aid for the Palestinians. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab states that have peace deals with Israel. The Israeli government intends to begin debating on July 1 the annexation plan, which would apply Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. In the newspaper article, the UAE's ambassador to Washington said annexation would upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and the UAE. Story continues The Jewish community in the UAE has recently taken on a more public profile. A new kosher food delivery service was covered in national newspapers, and a group called the Jewish Community of the UAE opened a Twitter account in late May. The group released a video, shared on Twitter by the UAE ambassador to London, featuring a Hebrew prayer for the UAE leadership. "We want to see a region that is more stable. A region that can resolve its issues over a negotiating table," Gargash said. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Grant McCool) The car carrying British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was crashed into from behind in central London on Wednesday after taking evasive action when a pro-Kurdish demonstrator ran on to the road. The protester was stopped and detained, according to an AFP journalist on the scene, after he ran towards Johnsons Jaguar as it was leaving under police escort from the Houses of Parliament. A video posted online showed the car braking before being struck by the following vehicle in the convoy, causing a large dent, while police wrestled the protester to the ground. Johnsons Downing Street office confirmed it was the prime ministers car and there were no reported injuries. The protester was believed to have been demonstrating about Turkish action against Kurdish rebels. The Metropolitan Police confirmed the collision, which happened at about 2:30 pm (1330 GMT) in Parliament Square. The police vehicles were part of a security movement, it said in a statement. A pedestrian is reported to have stepped onto the road, causing the vehicles to suddenly stop, which has led to two of the vehicles in the convoy being involved in a damage-only collision. No injuries were reported and a man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of a public order offence and obstructing the highway, the force added. All vehicles were able to drive from the scene, it said. A young girl who watched her teenage cousin being stabbed to death outside a Melbourne shopping centre has spoken of the moment he told her to run for her life. Aki Faiva was walking with Solomone Taufeulungaki, 15, outside Brimbank Shopping Centre at Deer Park in Melbourne's west on Tuesday afternoon when they were allegedly approached by a group of boys. "He told [me] ...'Run Aki. Run Aki'. I ran across the street to the church and then they got him and that's when he got beat up," the 14-year-old girl told Nine's Today program on Thursday morning. "I saw everything. I think it was something about - they were talking about something on social media." Reuters Apple is being investigated by EU antitrust regulators over its App Store and mobile payment system Apple Pay as the bloc turns up the heat on gatekeepers of online platforms on which thousands of companies depend for business. The European Commission said its investigation would look into Apple's requirement forcing app developers to sell to customers using its own in-app purchase system and rules preventing them from informing users of cheaper products elsewhere. The investigation will also cover all apps which compete with Apple in Europe, which could be icloud and gaming apps, following informal information received by regulators. The probe followed Swedish music streaming service Spotify's complaint last year, which said Apple was unfairly restricting rivals to its own music steaming service Apple Music. Another gripe was the 30 percent fee levied on app developers. Spotify welcomed the EU move. A smaller rival filed a similar grievance related to e-books and audiobooks in March this year. "It appears that Apple obtained a 'gatekeeper' role when it comes to the distribution of apps and content to users of Apple's popular devices," European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. The second case focuses on Apple's terms and conditions on how its mobile payment service Apple Pay should be used in merchants' apps and websites, and also the company's refusal to allow rivals access to the payment system. Regulators are also concerned that Apple Pay, launched in 2014 as the company diversified from sales of devices like iPhones and iPads, is the only mobile payment service allowed to use the "tap and go" functionality on iPhones. (Also read: Apple says App Store generated over 'half a trillion dollars' in sales in 2019) Apple was critical of the EU investigation. "It's disappointing the European Commission is advancing baseless complaints from a handful of companies who simply want a free ride, and don't want to play by the same rules as everyone else," the iPhone maker said in a statement. "We don't think that's right we want to maintain a level playing field where anyone with determination and a great idea can succeed." Roxy Jacenko's $6.6million Sydney mansion is enough to make any woman green with envy, particularly her walk-in wardrobe with its Hermes Birkin collection. And on Wednesday, the 40-year-old proved it pays to work in PR, offering fans a glimpse at just a few of her leather goods, estimated to be worth $1million in total. Two photos shared to Instagram saw a number of the French luxury label's classic Birkin bag in size 35cm, with prices starting at around $20,000 for calfskin. Pays to be in PR! Roxy Jacenko, 40, gave fans a glimpse at her envy inducing Hermes Birkin collection worth an estimated $1MILLION, on Wednesday. Pictured at Derby Day in 2017 As seen in one picture, Roxy has at least three of the 35cm size - considered the most popular bag in the world among fashion collectors. The mother-of-two also showed off a 25cm Togo design in black, with a retail value of $24,000. Two of the Mini Kelly in pink and black are located on the bottom shelves of her walk-in wardrobe, with a price point of approximately $11,845. Pride of place: In one photo shared to Instagram, Roxy showed off a few of her Hermes Birkin 35cm bags (left), retailing for approximately $20,000 AUD Mini Kelly: Two of the Mini Kelly in pink and black are located on the bottom shelves of her walk-in wardrobe, with a price point of approximately $11,845 Roxy's closet is also home to the ultra-rare crocodile skin Birkin, which can retail at anywhere between $70,000 and $435,000. Her Birkin handbag collection is estimated to be worth a whopping $1million. Drawing attention to a new collector's edition Prada book placed underneath one of her Mini Kelly bags, Roxy wrote in the post's caption: 'Home to the most gorgeous gift from my #pixiesbows team member Steph! Classic black: The mother-of-two also has a 25cm Togo design in black, with a retail value of $24,000 The luxe life: In addition to Hermes, Roxy also boasts a range of designer bags from the likes of Chanel, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Dior and Fendi 'The new @prada book - deserves pride of place under my @hermes #minikelly.' In addition to Hermes, Roxy also boasts a range of designer bags from the likes of Chanel, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Dior and Fendi. 'It's like artwork for me - it's a sense of achievement,' she told viewers of her bags in her TV special I Am...Roxy in September last year. Art: 'It's like artwork for me - it's a sense of achievement,' Roxy told viewers of her bags in her TV special I Am...Roxy in September last year Now that's a collection! 'People buy artwork for walls, I buy handbags!' Roxy added 'People buy artwork for walls, I buy handbags!' The bestselling author added that she doesn't have a standout favourite. 'I don't buy based on what I like. It's more about what's most saleable long-term as I look at my collection as an investment,' she said. The bloodiest clashes between Indian and Chinese troupes at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh left 20 Indian soldiers dead, while four more are critical. Though China has thus far stayed on mum on the number of casualties on its side, several reports suggest the number could be anywhere between 35 and 43. "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that was killed in action to 20," the Army said in its official statement on Tuesday. Later on Tuesday night, the Ministry of External Affairs also issued a statement, saying the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. "On the late-evening and night of 15th June, a violent face-off happened as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there, Both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side," the MEA said. Among those killed on the Indian side was Colonel B Santosh Babu of the Bihar Regiment. The clashes happened after Chinese troupes were told to move away from a location in the Galwan Valley as per an agreement, though as they were returning, the PLA troupes attacked the Colonel with stones, leading to big unarmed clashes between the two sides. As per reports, after engaging in stones and iron rod fight for several hours, which led to heavy casualties on both sides, the two sides disengaged around midnight of June 15 and 16. Images from the valley clearly show Chinese troops outnumbered Indian troops. Intense Chinese build-up is also seen from the China side. At least 200 military vehicles are seen on the ground on the Chinese side. Meanwhile, China accused India of entering its side. Though there are no confirmed reports on the casualties on its Chinese side, its mouthpiece Global Times reported Chinese side also suffered "casualties" in the Galwan valley. However, the Chinese media, especially other state-owned platforms, downplayed the deadly skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops. India's news agency ANI reported sources saying that Indian intercepts revealed that around 43 Chinese troupes were either killed or suffered injuries in the clashes. The Chinese choppers were also seen along the LAC to airlift the dead soldiers. US Intelligence has said that 35 Chinese troops died in the clashes, including a senior officer. ANI citing sources said the Commanding Officer of the Chinese Unit was also among those killed in the clashes. Meanwhile, India is analysing the overall situation and it's yet to come up with a government response against Chinese aggression. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has held a meeting with three Service Chiefs (Army, Navy & Air Force) and the Chief of Defence Staff today, and also spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the current situation. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said the loss of soldiers in Galwan is "deeply disturbing and painful". "Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army," he added. ARLINGTON, Va., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- This month, Bloomberg Law and technology and life sciences law firm Fenwick & West released the 2020 edition of the Silicon Valley 150 List, which ranks the largest public technology and life sciences companies in Silicon Valley by revenue. The Fenwick-Bloomberg Law SV 150 list and analysis are available at http://onb-law.com/xAbx50A9xmZ. "The Fenwick-Bloomberg Law SV 150 is a valuable resource for those interested in the technology and life sciences markets," said Alex Butler, vice president of analysis and content, Bloomberg Law. "This is an example of the robust market analysis that Bloomberg Law is uniquely positioned to provide to legal practitioners." Using data from Bloomberg LP, Fenwick calculated company revenue and market cap for the most recent available four quarters ending on or near December 31, 2019. "Fenwick is pleased to partner with Bloomberg Law for the second year to provide a look at the top public tech and life science companies," said David Bell, partner and co-chair of the corporate governance practice at Fenwick. There are 17 new companies on the list this year, strong evidence that Silicon Valley remains a cradle of innovation. An analysis from Bloomberg Law that accompanies the SV 150 examines four of these companies: Zoom Video Communications, Slack, Coherus Biosciences Inc., and Cloudflare Inc. This analysis also examines the list in the context of the current global pandemic and finds that the Silicon Valley companies that appear best positioned to fuel future growth are big tech firms, such as Google and Apple, that provide communication lifelines and are developing nongovernmental Covid-19 tracing apps, as well as firms with cloud-based business models, especially those that provide effective security solutions. Strong growth by companies in those strategic areas may shake up the SV 150 in the coming years as initial impact from the pandemic becomes the "new normal." About Bloomberg Law Bloomberg Law helps legal professionals provide world-class counsel with access to actionable legal intelligence in a business context. Bloomberg Law delivers a unique combination of comprehensive primary and secondary source material, real-time news, expert analysis, time-saving practice tools including Practical Guidance, market data, and business intelligence. For more information, visit pro.bloomberglaw.com. About Fenwick & West Fenwick provides comprehensive legal services to leading technology and life sciences companies at every stage of their lifecycle and the investors that partner with them. We craft innovative, cost-effective and practical solutions in areas ranging from venture capital, public offerings, joint ventures, M&A and strategic relationships, to intellectual property, litigation and dispute resolution, taxation, antitrust and employment and labor law. For more than four decades, Fenwick has helped some of the world's most recognized companies become and remain market leaders. For more information, please visit fenwick.com. SOURCE Bloomberg Law This article, Private Facebook groups are using 'Justice for George Floyd' as a cloak for racist behavior, originally appeared on CNET.com. At first glance, a private "Justice for George Floyd" Facebook group looks like many of the dozens of other groups created to collectively mourn the killing of an unarmed black man by a white police officer. "We demand justice for the murder of George Floyd," the group says in its description with the hashtag #BLM, for Black Lives Matter. The group has more than 10,000 members and its profile picture is an illustration of George Floyd. Nine people, several of whom appear to be black, control the group. But dig a little deeper and it quickly becomes apparent the group isn't interested in racial justice. Instead, it cynically uses Floyd's name to fan racial hatred. The admins, none of whom appear to be who they say they are, post "announcements" with hateful memes and misinformation, while commenters share support for neo-Nazis. Many mock Floyd's appearance and background. The posts are sprinkled with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, sometimes involving billionaire investor George Soros. The image of Pepe the Frog, a comic book character co-opted by white supremacists, makes a few appearances. One announcement, posted by an admin, touts "fact checked" statistics that show more black people drown in swimming pools than get killed by police officers. "I think we need to talk to the leaders of BLM about teaching swimming lessons," said the poster, who calls himself George Lincoln, likely a reference to American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell. The group includes other people who joined to show support for the community grieving Floyd. Those members question why posts, like a meme showing a black man pointing a gun at the belly of a screaming, pregnant white woman, don't get removed. "We out here NOT babysitting grown folks," wrote one of the admins, a man who calls himself James Gressett and says he lives in Somalia though he "likes" several small businesses based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In his public Facebook profile, he notes the correct way to pronounce his name is "HIT-lerr-did NUTH-ing-rawng." "Y'all post the shit you wanna see," he said. "We are too busy keeping over 1,000 spam posts and comments out of this group EVERY DAY to sweat basic bitches reactions to lively debate and mildly inflammatory remarks." On the surface, this group could be dismissed as a den of racists to troll others. And while it's nearly impossible to know its true motives, experts believe using a major news event to entice members could represent something more insidious -- it could be an effort to indoctrinate and radicalize people who have sympathetic views, but who wouldn't necessarily seek out racist groups. And at least one expert who's tracked these types of groups believe there are many more out there. "It's a way to penetrate and get your ideas and goals across in a fashion that you would not be able to if you said, 'Hi, I'm a white supremacist, I'm here to screw up your society,'" said Paul Barrett, deputy director of the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. "Instead you say, 'Hi, I'm someone just like you and think this about that.' That's a way you win people's confidence." "Justice for George Floyd" represents yet another example of a Facebook group or account masquerading as something that it's not. Russians used a similar scheme to influence the 2016 US election via the social media site. And in 2018, bogus groups posing as pop star fan accounts used Facebook to stoke ethnic violence in Myanmar. Earlier this month, the company said it removed a "handful" of fake accounts where white supremacists had posed as part of the antifa far-left, anti-fascist group with plans to infiltrate the George Floyd protests. "It's a way [to avoid saying], 'Hi, I'm a white supremacist, I'm here to screw up your society.'" Paul Barrett, deputy director of NYU's Stern Center for Business and Human Rights Now, groups using Floyd's name and positioning themselves as places to discuss justice, racism and reform appear to be proliferating. A quick search brought up about 100 different public and private groups with "Justice" and "George Floyd" in the title. While most of these are legitimate, some are more questionable. "It's crazy how rampant it is," said Zachary Elwood, who's based in Portland, Oregon, and who has been tracking deceptive online activity on Facebook and Twitter for the past three years. He's found a handful of suspicious Facebook groups that have appeared since the killing of Floyd. "I wouldn't be surprised if this was just a drop in the bucket." Elwood has also found deceptive groups in Macedonia allegedly aiming to influence US politics through Facebook and pro-gun, anti-government groups that organized protests against coronavirus quarantines throughout the county in April. He also pinpointed the "Justice for George Floyd" group, which appears to be one of the most vitriolic groups misusing the Black Lives Matter movement to gain members. Facebook, which has more than 2.6 billion monthly active users, has been pushing people to shift from public spaces into private groups over the last couple of years. It's a strategy to stay competitive against social media rivals like Twitter, YouTube and TikTok and to offer users something they can't get from the more public-facing sites. But this can make moderating hate speech and harassment challenging. The social media company says it's addressing the problem. Facebook yanked 190 accounts linked to white supremacist groups earlier this month. The company declined to comment on the "Justice for George Floyd" group and its content before this story was published. After the story published, a Facebook spokeswoman told CNET the company was investigating the group and would remove content that violated its rules. But many of these groups have a trove of tactics to cover their tracks. Getting past Facebook's censors One of the moderators of the "Justice for George Floyd" group is someone who goes by the name "Shawn D Ildo." His Facebook profile photo is a picture of a black man driving a go-kart with a small child. The cover photo is a chalk pastel drawing by the black artist LaMark Crosby titled "Adjacent to the King," which shows King Tut morph into a modern black man -- Crosby himself. But something is off. The cover photo has been altered so that the most current evolution of the drawing is a photo of Tom Brady, a white football player. And a reverse image search of the man in the go-kart brings up a rapper named Viper. (The person calling himself Ildo told CNET he used the image to commemorate Viper's death in police custody. Viper, whose real name is Lee Arthur Carter, is alive). And even though the owner of this Facebook account said, "funnily enough, my name is Shawn David Ildo," internet searches for that name don't yield any results. Ildo said over a chat on Facebook Messenger that he lives in Dallas, does freelance IT work and is 24 years old. It's unclear if any of that is true. He said he got involved with the "Justice for George Floyd" group through a mutual friend, and his role as a moderator includes approving members and posts. "We keep a zero-tolerance on racism," he said. Screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET When asked about the goal of the group, he said, "The goal? Well, I guess it would be making sure the real facts and opinions are out there. Sharing ideas, bridging gaps, defeating racism one post at a time." Crosby, the artist behind Ildo's doctored cover artwork, said he was shocked and upset by Ildo's alterations on "Adjacent to the King." The 48-year-old, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, and works as a graphic designer, created the artwork while in college to portray the passage of time and history of black people. Other people have used Crosby's self-portrait on their profiles and websites, he said in an interview with CNET, but it's always been focused on black history and positive usage. He's never before seen a doctored version of his artwork, which he considered to be offensive. "I fight this every day as a black man," said Crosby, who noted he's been the victim of police brutality in the past. "To have someone use my image, not only the image I created but an image of me, is bothersome, to say the least." The "Justice For George Floyd" group is just two months old. Its original name was "Justice for Ahmaud Arbery," for a black man who was shot to death in February while jogging in Georgia. Ildo said the organizers changed the name because they were having a hard time getting members, and "Facebook can give us a little better traction when people searched for George." None of the group's other admins and moderators returned multiple requests for comment. "I fight this every day as a black man." LaMark Crosby, artist of "Adjacent to the King" Elwood said when he's searching for fake Facebook groups, he looks to see when the group was created (the newer, the more suspicious) and who the admins are, along with their history, friends and first posts. "It's worth noting, though, you can't judge too much from what's visible or empty," Elwood said. "Because theoretically, they could have just not put it in or have it hidden through Facebook data security settings." Facebook accounts and groups can be set to public or private. From there, the site allows for additional layers of privacy, including a setting that makes groups invisible from searches. Admins "own" the groups and can appoint moderators, who can also have the power to approve and remove posts and members. As the social network has nudged users into private spaces, it's created an opening for people who typically frequented more outwardly hateful sites and message boards, like 4chan and 8chan. And unlike those other sites, posts on Facebook can carry more weight because its users are supposed to be legitimate and non-anonymous. It's against Facebook policy to use a fake name. "Facebook gives an appearance of 'these are actually other people,'" Elwood said. The company says it doesn't allow hate speech, racism, harassment, white nationalist or white separatist content on its site, and it will remove any posts or comments that violate those policies. It also bans "coordinated inauthentic behavior," which are group efforts to mislead people. Private Facebook groups are supposed to obey the same community standards as other areas of the social media site. But a lot still gets through Facebook's censors -- as evidenced in the "Justice for George Floyd" group. Screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET To police the platform, Facebook said it uses a mix of artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision. With these tools, the company says it can analyze specific examples of banned content to identify patterns of behavior. Those patterns then teach its software to find other similar problems and allow it to detect violating content, the company says. Facebook also uses human moderators. According to NYU's Barrett, who authored a report earlier this month called, "Who Moderates the Social Media Giants? A Call to End Outsourcing," 3 million Facebook posts are flagged for review by 15,000 moderators every day. But they have an error rate of at least 10%, which equals about 300,000 mistakes a day. For comparison, YouTube has about 10,000 moderators and Twitter has roughly 1,500, according to Barrett. "The machines can't pick up everything," he said. "The bad actors are clever, and you need an awful lot of people to keep up with this." When it comes to removing content from its platform, Facebook has to balance between trying to stop the spread of hate and misinformation, and protecting users' freedom of speech and privacy. "There is interest within the company to provide some policing mechanism there," said Cody Buntain, a professor of informatics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology who studies how online behavior translates to the real world. "But I think that'd be a very, very uphill battle to actually be able to do that and still respect the privacy concerns that Facebook has." Indoctrination After Floyd's death made headlines around the world, Jamie Elliott-Deming did the only thing she could think to do: She painted a watercolor portrait of Floyd. "I wanted to honor him," the 36-year-old, Tennessee-based artist told CNET over Facebook Messenger. "Portraiture, before photography, historically was the way to pay tribute to the existence of someone, immortalize them. His life mattered." Screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET Elliott-Deming searched for a way to contact Floyd's family to send them the artwork. She turned to Facebook and joined a couple of George Floyd groups with the hope someone knew his relatives. Instead, Elliott-Deming found hateful memes and racist members. The more than 100 comments on her painting ranged from compliments on her artistic skill to rants about Floyd's alleged criminal record. "I was surprised by the posts the admin/moderators of the group were approving," said Elliott-Deming, who was kicked out of the group by Ildo the same day she shared Floyd's portrait. "Some of them seemed openly divisive." That appears to be the aim. The idea is to lure in as many people as possible, troll the ones who may be offended, like Elliott-Deming, and get like-minded people to join the cause. It's a textbook recruitment tactic for white supremacists, experts say. It's how the neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer gained a following when it launched in July 2013, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Early on, the website gave trolling instructions and techniques on how to harass people of other races and religions online. "I'm never surprised at how online racists and extremists will adapt to the latest issue on the ground and find a way to exploit technology to aggravate the situation," said Oren Segal, vice president of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League. "These racially charged incidents are the lifeblood of the movement, these are the touch points they're able to exploit and leverage and create propaganda to move their supporters or create new ones." Within the "Justice for George Floyd" group, the admins and moderators are careful to allow hateful comments and memes but ban anything inflammatory enough to get Facebook's attention. "That platform is probably bringing together some real hardcore white supremacists with your everyday racists." Oren Segal, vice president of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League In one instance, an admin -- who calls himself Kondo Miyamoto and uses a doctored photo of Nintendo game developer Takashi Tezuka as his profile photo -- posted an announcement alleging Floyd worked in pornography. He included a photo that was edited to cover any explicit content and said sharing any links or screenshots about the topic would get group members banned. "Posting anything of this caliber will get your profile automatically reported by Facebook's algorithm, and may also compromise the group," the person using the Miyamoto name wrote. "NO GROUP = NO JUSTICE FOR GEORGE. [But] VERBAL DISCUSSION of this is OK." The group's admins and moderators also give members trolling tutorials. For example, Gressett, one of the group's admins, posted a 3D photo of Floyd's face that slowly moves and manipulates Floyd's features. In the caption, Gressett insinuated that Floyd's death, as well as the coronavirus, was faked. Gressett blamed Democrats for being racist. "#BlackLivesMatter already to errybody except the #DeepState leftists who only care about #BlackVotes and tryna #FuckTrump," he wrote. Deep within the more than 100 comments on the post, a group member who goes by Christopher B. Brenneman responded with the mantra "all lives matter." Gressett wrote back, "Don't tell anybody yet, but that's precisely that direction we're taking this group. Wake the others. Show them the truth." So Brenneman wrote several more comments along the same lines. But then Gressett chastised him. "You can rant on more than one post, just don't be spammy," Gressett said. "And try not to get muted, bro." Screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET Brenneman apologized. "I'm a little slow when it comes to FB, what exactly should I be doing?" he wrote. "I thought just post the hell out of All lives matter, like rally the troops to try to get people straight." Segal, from the Anti-Defamation League, said it's unclear whether these people are hardcore extremists or part of a larger white supremacist organization. It's likely a mix of online trolls, racists and hardliners, he said. And, if the "Justice for George Floyd" group is like other white supremacist groups, the hardliners are probably trying to lure impressionable people to their side. "That platform is probably bringing together some real hardcore white supremacists with your everyday racists. It's not a good place," Segal said. "If there are people who have nefarious purposes, making it seem like they're sympathetic only to do the slow reveal seems more dangerous." Still up The "Justice for George Floyd" group on Monday was filled with the same hateful rhetoric as before. The day's posts include someone saying that "Black lives matter is a front for child sex trafficking" and another saying that "white lives matter too." One person posted, "Who in the hell let all the trash ass racist fucks in this group, because disrespectful is an understatement." That collected more than 70 comments, the majority of which aren't worth repeating. When CNET brought the group to Facebook's attention, the company opted to let it stay on the platform. "When we look back at this period of time, I think people will realize how bad Facebook was for our social discourse." Zachary Elwood, who tracks fake Facebook accounts That didn't surprise Elwood, the Facebook watcher. He used to report all of the fake accounts he found to the social media company, but he's since stopped. Even in some of the most blatant of cases, like when someone had copied another person's name and photo directly -- violating company policies -- Elwood said Facebook would often leave the accounts up. "I've become kind of numb to Facebook doing anything," he said. "When we look back at this period of time, I think people will realize how bad Facebook was for our social discourse." After chatting with Ildo last week, CNET's Shara Tibken got kicked out of the "Justice for George Floyd" group. Ildo later told Tibken he wasn't sure what happened and that he'd "try to get you back in asap." He'd previously thanked her for the conversation and said, "I will always be here if you'd like to reach back out." Instead, his account vanished. CNET's Queenie Wong contributed to this report. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th June, 2020) The Bolivian parliament has voted to reject a $327 million loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that was earmarked to help the country tackle the coronavirus pandemic, media reported. According to state news agency ABI, the interim government denounced the parliament's rejection of the loan, which was to be repaid over five years at a one percent interest, calling it a political rather than an economic decision. The Planning Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, controlled by MAS (Movement for Socialism) lawmakers loyal to ousted president Evo Morales, unanimously rejected the deal on grounds of lack of proper documentation from the IMF, the agency reported. IMF had approved the loan in April through the Rapid Financing Instrument set up to prop developing economies against hardships wrought on by the pandemic. Deputy Minister of Treasury and Public Credit in the interim government, Carlos Schlink, rejected the claims, arguing that Bolivia was a shareholder member state in the IMF and did not require special decrees or documentation for sealing the loan deal. Schlink, at a meeting with the Planning Commission, reminded the lawmakers that during Morales' 13 years in power, over 230 international loans were secured for a total sum of over $17 billion, ABI reported. Morales was a popular leftist strongman who implemented wide ranging reform to slash poverty and consolidate the economy. Although the country initially depended heavily on IMF support, Morales' relationship with the IMF eventually soured. By the time of his ouster in October 2019, Bolivia had repaid all its outstanding loans to the organization and had no new requests lodged. TDT| Manama The Ministry of Health announced yesterday the death of an 80-yearold Bahraini woman from the coronavirus (COVID-19). Her passing marked the 10th virus-related casualty in three days and 47th overall in the Kingdom. The Health Ministry expressed its condolences to the victims family. Meanwhile, it was also announced early this morning that out of 5,671 COVID-19 tests conducted yesterday, 540 new cases were detected, including 349 expatriate workers, 187 contacts of active cases, and four travel-related. There were also 599 more recoveries from the virus yesterday, the Health Ministry said. That brought the total number of discharged in Bahrain to 13,866. The total number of current active cases went to 5,640, of which 133 are receiving treatment, with 27 in critical condition. The total tested increased to 438,080. This article is adapted from Robe and Ritual, the second episode of Slow Burns new season. In 1975, David Dukes Ku Klux Klan was gathering strength. In April of that year, he drew 1,000 people to a gathering in rural Louisiana. It was one of the biggest Klan meetups in decades. Duke told the crowd that black people were the puppets of Jews, and he spat out the N-word, much to the audiences delight. While he started out wearing a suit and tie, Duke eventually changed into a Klan robe and set fire to a 40-foot cross. In a press release, Dukes Klan explained that they disliked the term cross-burning. They preferred to call that ritual, which had symbolized death and terror to generations of black Americans, a cross-lighting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This was David Dukes dance. He sold himself as a new kind of Klansman while relying on old-fashioned Klan slurs and symbols. Duke didnt just look to previous white-power movements for inspiration. He also took notice of the fight for black equalitya crusade he considered offensive but highly effective. Whats happened in this country is that the minorities, by the fact that they stick together, have been able to wield tremendous power in terms of our government, he said in an interview in 1975. Duke was being presented as a spokesman for white America, one whose ideas were worth batting around. One of Dukes supporters said that Duke was trying to do for white people what Martin Luther King did for black people. Duke liked to think of himself as a more militant voice. He said, If Id been born black, I would have been Malcolm X. Advertisement Advertisement Duke wanted to sell the idea that his own movement was an equal and opposite force to the push for black civil rights. In September 1977, a Chicago television host named Steve Edwards gave him the opportunity to make that case in an hourlong televised debate. Dukes opponent was a man widely seen as Americas most influential black leader: Jesse Jackson. Advertisement Duke began the debate by trying to make white nationalism sound peaceful and reasonable. I dont want to suppress anybody and the Klan is not trying to put anybody down. What were trying to do is allow each race to be masters of its own destiny. We think the blacks should have control over their communities and their nations in the world. And we think that the white people, we should have control over ours. Advertisement Jackson said that Duke misunderstood the United States. The genius of America is an experiment that suggests that people of many nations, many races of the world will somehow accept the challenge to learn to live together in some relative proximity and harmony. Advertisement Advertisement As the conversation went on, Jackson and Duke went back and forth in increasingly hostile fashion. Jackson: Well, you dont have any monopoly on work. I mean, the fact is blacks have worked hard but didnt get paid for our work. Even white historians understand that blacks made cotton king and we hoed Tobacco Row and we raised your children when you were too trifling to raise your own. Duke: Youre talking about physical things, if thats what makes America then were going to have to give the horse the right to vote and give the horse equal power because they even contributed more than the black man did physically. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No matter who said what, the fact of the broadcast was a triumph for Duke. He was being presented as a spokesman for white America, one whose ideas were worth batting around. Jesse Jackson didnt need this platform. So why did he agree to go on TV with a blow-dried bigot? I chose to participate on this program, Jackson said, only because I think that as more white people develop economic anxieties and economic insecurities their fears can be played upon by demagogues. In the 1970s, David Duke became synonymous with a certain kind of white supremacy. He built his Knights of the Ku Klux Klan up from nothing, and made it into one of the nations leading racist organizations. Advertisement But Dukes following, and the Klans reputation, didnt grow after this debate with Jesse Jackson. At the end of the 1970s, a national poll found that the KKK had an approval rating of just 10 percentup 4 points since 1965 but still abysmally low. To revive his dreams of building a mass movement, Duke needed to start something new, and again he looked to the black civil rights movement for guidance. In 1980, Duke announced that he was launching the National Association for the Advancement of White Peoplethe NAAWP. The groups answering machine presented it as a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to equal rights for all people and to the preservation of the heritage and culture of the white race. Advertisement Advertisement For Duke, the NAAWP was a clean slate, a group untainted by violence. It was also, perhaps, an admission that hed taken the wrong approach to white-power movement-building. This bizarro version of the NAACP didnt win any political victories. In the first half of the 1980s, Duke worked mostly as a newsletter publisher, writing up and reprinting racist articles. By 1984, Jesse Jackson was a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. That year, David Dukes name appeared in the New York Times just once. Historian Lance Hill has followed Duke since the 1970s. He thinks theres a simple explanation for why Duke lost steam. Ronald Reagan, Hill says. Once Reagan came into powerheres somebody who expressed many of the policies that the openly white supremacist groups had been advocating as organizing issues. And it just sucked all of the fuel out of the radical right-wing movement. If Duke couldnt beat Ronald Reagan, he had to be like Ronald Reagan. The clean-cut Klansman bit had run its course. Dukes best path forward was mainstream politics. Slate Plus members can listen to the first three episodes of Slow Burns new season now. Join Slate Plus for your ad-free feed, or subscribe to Slow Burn on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. WATERLOO REGION Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin says policing must change and modernize while delivering services differently, but he doesnt support defunding the police. In a statement to Waterloo Regional Police Services Board members on Wednesday, Larkin said he wants to listen and work with the community to build trust and would like to see alternative service delivery. Policing was never designed to be the primary caregiver and responder to mental health calls for service, he said. But each year police respond to 3,500 calls in which individuals may be in crisis. Larkin said he doesnt see taking money from the police budget as a long-term solution. Instead, he suggested refunding other services to assist police with mental health calls. We have become everything to everyone, he said after the meeting. It was never our intention to get a call for service at 3 a.m. for someone who is without a home and sleeping in a vestibule. Local Black activists have called for $29.3 million to be diverted from the $180-million police budget and invested in community-based health initiatives for impoverished and racialized groups. Defunding the police is a reform measure being tried in American cities, and being considered in Toronto after the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police last month. During his comments to the board, Larkin was overcome with emotion, saying that as a man of white privilege he was overwhelmed by the Black communities pain. Larkin said he recognizes policing is perceived and experienced by racialized communities as an institution that embodies systemic discrimination and bias. I want to acknowledge that racism exists in our region, exists in our country and that Black, Indigenous and other racialized communities have suffered, continue to suffer from systemic discrimination and bias within our society, he said. These communities believe, based on their lived experiences and histories, that police services in the region, Canada and around the world exercise our powers of enforcement in a manner that results in the disproportionate treatment of those who are poor, Black, Indigenous or people of colour, he said. Teneile Warren of the African, Caribbean and Black Network of Waterloo Region, said the chief was dismissing and diverting from the issues on the table, including the defunding of the police when he suggested refunding of the police. That suggestion is a complete distraction, she said. Warren said the Black community is frustrated with this sudden acknowledgement of racism as if we have just been pointing it out. It was performative whiteness, she said. In his statement, Larkin said the service would start an internal advisory group made up of employees with lived experience. Other measures include changes to the constable recruitment process to remove implicit bias, and additional training on implicit bias and anti-racism training for all officers. Police will also receive Indigenous awareness training and anti-Black racism and oppression education training. Larkin said the service will track race-based data collection, examining traffic stops and arrests and look into the possibility of body cameras for officers. Warren said measures being considered such as anti-racism training and body cameras are stall tactics that have proven not to work. Body cameras have only added a new layer of traumatization for our community because all they do is record the police brutality but dont hold them accountable, she said. Warren said when the chief spoke about the past few weeks and how tough it had been spoke to another example of the white experience. It is white tears and the weaponizing of white fragility and seeking sympathy for himself and the police service, she said. Giving birth during a global pandemic is stressful enough without having to worry about losing out on federal parental benefits. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Giving birth during a global pandemic is stressful enough without having to worry about losing out on federal parental benefits. And yet, many new and soon-to-be Canadian moms are grappling with that reality as theyve gone from eligible to ineligible because of lost hours. As reported last week by The Canadian Press, some new moms have found themselves shy of the number of hours required to qualify for employment insurance, owing to layoffs and terminations amid the pandemic. EI requires 600 hours of work in the 52 weeks before taking leave. Thats about four months at 37.5 hours a week. Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press files) This isnt the first COVID 19-related issue pregnant Canadians have had to navigate with respect to benefits. In April, when the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was introduced, many expectant working moms who had lost their jobs werent migrated over to the $2,000-a-month benefit as expected, because they had previously indentified themselves as being pregnant on their EI applications, forcing them to start their EI claims early. At the heart of both problems: the 46-year-old computer system used to support the EI system. Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough has said the outmoded program is an explanation, not an excuse, as to why EI cant pivot quickly, and that the government is "working on it." "It is a tough system to navigate, but I can assure everybody that we will figure this out and be there for all Canadians," she told a special COVID-19 committee of MPs at the beginning of June. Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The thing is, maternity and parental leave has long been a positively Byzantine system to navigate in this country. And although no one is saying the government could have predicted a pandemic, the relatively ancient computer system was in need of an upgrade long before COVID-19 was even a dark cloud on the horizon. The issues with parental leave in this country are bigger than software. As Kathryn Marshall, a Toronto employment lawyer, recently wrote in a National Post op-ed calling for parental leave reform: "This dilemma illustrates the real issue at play: maternity leave shouldnt be part of the EI system. It should be a stand-alone program thats tailored to the unique needs of women (and men) on maternity and parental leave." Indeed, the world has changed a lot since paid maternity leave came on the scene in Canada in 1971, the biggest being the number of women of child-bearing age in the workforce and who are eager to return to work. The nature of employment has also changed; moms who work as freelancers, entrepreneurs or in the gig economy might find they are either completely ineligible for parental-leave benefits or have to jump through hoops to qualify. Some new moms have found themselves shy of the number of hours required to qualify for employment insurance, owing to layoffs and terminations amid the pandemic. (Felipe Dana / The Associated Press files) In 2017, Canada began offering extended 18-week parental leaves and, last year, the feds rolled out a "use-it-or-lose-it" parental sharing benefit that offered yet more weeks to parents who agreed to share it and qualified for EI. It represented progress, encourgaging more dads to take leave. But more time is hardly a benefit if you cant afford to take it. What the frustrations of the past few weeks have made clear: a stand-alone, flexible, easy-to-navigate parental leave program that supports modern parents and, ideally, is itself supported by a modern computer program is way past its due date. CHICAGO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Aramid Honeycomb Core Materials Market in the Transportation Industry by Type (Nomex, Others), Aramid Type (Meta, Para), Application (Interior, Exterior), Transportation Type (Airways, Railways, Waterways, Roadways) and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Aramid Honeycomb Core Materials Market size in the transportation industry is projected to grow from USD 210 million in 2020 to USD 338 million by 2025, at a CAGR of 10.0% during the forecast period. The market is growing due to the increase in the demand for high-performance materials, with properties such as low weight, high strength-to-weight ratio, good tensile strength, and electrical conductivity. Download PDF Download: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=129593005 Browse in-depth TOC on "Aramid Honeycomb Core Materials Market" 99 Market Data Tables 48 Figures 165 Pages View Detailed Table of Content Here: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/aramid-honeycomb-core-materials-market-129593005.html Nomex comprises a major share of the aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry The transportation industry has embraced Nomex honeycomb core for more than 30 years owing to its excellent strength-to-weight ratio, cost-effective benefits such as energy savings and payload increase. The stiff and thin Nomex sheet structures are used to make strong yet lightweight honeycomb sandwich composite panels. These panels are used in aircraft parts such as flooring panels, interior walls, storage bins, exterior control surfaces, engine nacelles, helicopter blades, and tail booms. Nomex honeycomb composites are also used in the construction of boats to help provide buoyancy that enhances speed. The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in the disruption in the supply chain, resulting in reduced demand for Nomex from the transportation industry. Meta-aramid honeycomb core materials accounted for the largest share in the global aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry in terms of value and volume. Meta-aramid honeycomb core materials are highly resistant to temperature, chemical degradation, and abrasion. It is usually manufactured by wet spinning, resulting in a semi-crystalline fiber. These materials can withstand tensile stress during exposure to flames and temperatures up to 7520F. Thus, the meta-aramid honeycomb core materials are used in aircraft galleys, flooring, partitions, aircraft leading and trailing edges, missile wings, radomes, antennas, military shelters, fuel tanks, helicopter rotor blades, rail panels, racing car bodies, and navy bulkhead joiner panels. With the outbreak of COVID-19, there is a reduced demand for aramid honeycomb core materials in the transportation industry. This has forced the meta-aramid honeycomb core materials manufacturers to operate at partial or zero capacities. Exterior application accounted for the largest share in the global aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry in terms of value and volume. Exterior structures of aircraft built with aramid honeycomb core materials include landing gears, leading and trailing edges, engine nacelles, undercarriage, fuselage, and wings. The aramid honeycomb core materials are also used in exterior applications of the marine industry, such as boat hulls, stateroom for boats, deck, cargo lining, shells, hatches, and navy bulkhead joiner panels. They are also used in car bodies, chassis, truck, and train panels. The reduced demand for composites from the transportation industry due to COVID-19 has resulted in a decline in the need for aramid honeycomb core materials for exterior application, particularly in the aerospace industry. Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=129593005 Airways to account for the largest share, in terms of value, in the global aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry during the forecast period. Aramid honeycomb cores are extensively used as sandwich structures in interior and exterior applications of aircraft. The low weight, combined with high tensile strength of aramid honeycomb core, increases the fuel efficiency, reduces maintenance costs, and allows OEMs to comply with the stringent environment regulations stipulated in Europe and North America. The aramid honeycomb core is primarily used in commercial and military aircraft. The major exterior applications include engine nacelles, landing gears, rotor blades, leading and trailing edges, and wings. The interior applications include flooring, lavatories, and cabin panels. The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in the suspension of manufacturing plants of major aircraft manufacturers, resulting in decreased deliveries of aircraft. Also, technical issues related to Boeing737 MAX and end of the A380 program by 2021, is expected to reduce the demand for aramid honeycomb core materials in the transportation industry in Europe and North America. North America is expected to account for the largest share in the aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry during the forecast period. North America accounted for the largest share owing to the high demand for aramid honeycomb core materials in commercial aircraft, such as 787, 777X, and 737 MAX. These aircraft use a significant amount of composites and aramid honeycomb core materials for their airframe structures, engine nacelles, and landing gears. Besides this, there is a high demand for aramid honeycomb core materials in waterways from cruise ships and power boats. Airways and waterways in North America are both affected by the COVID-19, resulting in a decrease in the number of aircraft deliveries and ship orders in the region. The key players in the market include Hexcel Corporation (US), Euro-Composites S.A. (Luxembourg), The Gill Corporation (US), Plascore, Inc. (US), Argosy International, Inc. (US), Showa Aircraft Company Ltd. (Japan), Tasuns Composites Co. Ltd. (China), and Schutz Composite GmbH (Germany). These companies are involved in adopting various inorganic and organic strategies to increase their foothold in the aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry. Related Reports: COVID-19 Impact on Composites Market by Fiber Type (Glass Fiber, Carbon Fiber and Natural Fiber), Resin (Thermoset Resin and Thermoplastic Resin), End-use Industry and Region - Global Forecast to 2021 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/covid-19-impact-on-composite-market-175185951.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. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets' 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: [email protected] Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/aramid-honeycomb-core-materials-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ Source content: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/aramid-honeycomb-core-materials.asp SOURCE MarketsandMarkets North Korea rejected South Korea's offer to send special envoys to ease escalating tensions on Wednesday and instead vowed to redeploy troops to the border. This comes a day after North Korea blew up a joint liason office in its border town Kaesong. South Korea Army chief Jeon Dong Jin on Wednesday urged the North to halt any action that would further worsen the situation: "(Such a move) immediately thwarts the efforts and achievements made by the two Koreas to maintain peace on the Korean peninsula, and the North will surely pay if these measures are put into action." The attack marks a major setback to South Korea's efforts to foster reconciliation with the North. The demolished office was set up as part of a 2018 peace agreement by the two countries' leaders. A South Korean spokesman said Wednesday the trust built by the two leaders had been damaged by comments made by Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong on state media KCNA. She said South Korean leader Moon Jae In had failed to implement any part of the 2018 pact between the two countries and quote "put his neck into the noose of pro-U.S. flunkeyism." But on the streets in South Korea's capital, business continued as normal, and locals seemed unfazed by the attack: "It's just their way of maintaining power. I don't think they will actually go the distance. I might as well just do my job, because I don't think a war will break out." Others were more cautious: "If we shut the door just because North Korea is being extreme, they can react in even more extreme ways, and I think the damage will come to us." The attack followed through on threats made earlier from the North that they would retaliate if defector groups in the South continued to send food, propaganda leaflets, and messages critical of leader Kim Jong Un. Seoul has tried to stop the actions of defector groups in the past week, and vowed to take legal action against them, arguing their actions actually fuel tensions between the two sides. A new study by researchers from the United Kingdom and Taiwan and published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in June 2020 describes the structural basis for the neutralizing effect of the SARS-CoV-2 antibody on the virus. This also indicates a possible therapeutic molecule by identifying its binding epitope as possibly a major neutralizing site. Convalescent Human Serum With the high mortality of the virus in certain subgroups of the population, the need for a therapeutic intervention other than supportive intensive care has become obvious. One such option which looks attractive against the current background is convalescent human plasma, which contains specific antibodies against the virus. The promising feature of immune serum is its potential for the treatment of COVID-19 even at relatively late stages. For this to become more widely used, it is necessary to identify the combination of antibodies that uses different mechanisms to minimize the possibility of the virus evading the host immune defenses, while also preventing antibody-dependent enhancement. The Spike Protein The spike protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a type I transmembrane glycoprotein that is composed of S1 and S2 subunits. It has a cleavage site between the two subunits, and following binding to the ACE2 receptor or treatment with trypsin, it is cleaved into the two subunits at the N-terminal, and C-terminal ends respectively. SARS-CoV-2 viruses binding to ACE-2 receptors on a human cell, the initial stage of COVID-19 infection, conceptual 3D illustration. Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock Prior to fusion, the receptor-binding domain (RBD) at the apex is folded down like a hinge or flap, covered by the N-terminal domain of the spike. This renders its receptor binding site hidden unless the RBD swings up. At this point, it is able to bind the ACE2 binding site. This interaction between the RBD and ACE2 locks it in the up conformation, triggering the conversion to a post-fusion conformation. In this state, the S2 subunit attaches to the host membrane and sheds the S1 subunit. Cross-reacting Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies that neutralize the ACE2 binding for SARS-CoV are typically not effective against SARS-CoV-2 and are rendered ineffective by escape mutations, such as the natural mutation Y495N at this site. On the other hand, the CR3022 antibody, from the blood of a SARS-CoV patient, does cross-react strongly with SARS-CoV-2 and also recognizes another hidden but highly conserved epitope on the RBD which is different from the binding site for ACE2. This is the EY96A epitope. The researchers found that EY6A, one of the antibodies cloned from the plasma cells in the blood of a convalescent COVID-19 patient, binds the S1 subunit of SARS-CoV-2 as well as SARS-CoV. It was shown to have a high affinity for the RBD of the former virus. Both EY6A and CR3022 had interdependent binding, though asymmetrically. EY6A vs. CR3022 In other words, if the RBD is expressed on the target cell, it was bound by ACE2 in the presence of EY6A; but if ACE2 is expressed on the cell, EY6A inhibited the RBD-ACE2 interaction. Measured this way, EY6A is about seven times stronger at blocking ACE2 binding than CR3022. It blocks ACE2 as well as it does ACE2-Fc and the molecule VHH72-Fc. The researchers suggest that this means EY6A produces an indirect effect after binding to the RBD, which could be an allosteric or even a weak direct inhibitory interaction. When tested against CR3022, the latter is found to bind at a site far away from that which binds to ACE2, but in a completely competitive manner. This could mean they bind to the same or to very close or overlapping epitopes, but with tighter binding for the EY6A. Neutralization tests using wild-type SARS-CoV-2 showed 1) that EY6A reduced the viral signal on qPCR testing by about a thousand-fold, confirmed by 2) a plaque reduction test. Crystal Structure of EY6A-RBD Complex The researchers determined the crystallographic structure of the SARS-CoV-2-RBD complexed with EY6A-Fab, either the latter alone or in complex with a nanobody that competes with ACE2. They found that the nanobody did not interact with EY6A, but that the nanobody bound to an epitope near and slightly overlapping the ACE2 binding site, on the RBD, at right angles to the EY6A. As predicted, the EY6A binds to the same epitope that binds CR3022 but at a different orientation, at about 73 degrees to the perpendicular axis of the alpha3 helix of the RBD, which is the central helix for both epitopes. The binding is mediated via multiple hydrogen bonds and a salt bridge. The RBD-EY6A binding triggers a conformational change at the alpha2 and alpha3 helices like those that occur with CR3022 binding. Thus, these three epitopes (EY6A, CR3022, and VHH72) have a high degree of overlap but with widely different orientations, so that VHH72 inhibits ACE2 binding. EM structure of SARS-CoV-2 spike and EY6A Fab complex. a & b, Side (a) and top (b) views of the cryo-EM density map drawn as semi-transparent surface showing three EY6A fabs bound to the Spike. c & d, Side and top views of the overall structure of the Spike-EY6A complex. Chains A, B and C of the Spike trimer and heavy and light chains of EY6A are shown in green, cyan, magenta, red and blue, respectively. The arrows in (d) indicate which RBD each Fab is binding. e & f, Comparison of the EY6A bound Spike structure with a reported open form Spike structure (grey; PDB ID 6VYB) with A chain in down conformation (e) and B chain in up conformation (f). NTD, N-terminal domain Mutation Preventing Post-Fusion Change Prior to fusion, the two residues in the linker between two helices in S2 were mutated to Proline-Proline, in order to avert the conformational change to the post-fusion state. In this structure, the RBDs were either all in the down state or one up and two down, with the EY6A being unexposed in either case. This mutation on the S2 protrusion causes the epitope to be pressed against it, in a buried protein-protein interface and completely hidden. If in the up configuration, at least one more RBD must also be up to open the epitope to the antibody. Cryo-electron microscopy showed that the central axis at the top of the spike protein had three EY6A Fabs bound around it, with all the RBDs being in the up state and rotated outside by 25 degrees. The spike is left extremely vulnerable to being broken up and requires the Fabs to stabilize it Neutralization Mechanisms An important mechanism of neutralization is blocking the virus attachment to the receptor. The current study suggests that another mechanism is the attachment of the virus to the EY6A epitope, which has been described by several researchers as binding to multiple antibodies and nanobodies targeting SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2. A third possibility is the CR3022 antibody, which synergizes with ACE2 blocking antibodies to neutralize the virus. Though the ACE2 receptor is distant in space from the EY6A, binding of the virus at these sites does produce some crosstalk between them. The EY6A epitope is very unusual in that it is completely hidden in the Spike protein prior to fusion. The mechanism is explained as follows. Before fusion, the EY6A/CR3122 epitope rests on the upper end of the helix-turn-helix between the heptad repeat 1 and the central helix of S2 subunit like a lid. This prevents the spring-loaded helix extension that occurs after fusion, as a result of the mutation that is meant to suppress the post-fusion conformational change. Implications The EY6A residues are highly conserved because they are essential for these interactions, which is why mutations that avoid antibody binding have never been found. The epitope binds tightly to the RBD in isolation, about an order of magnitude more tightly than CR3022. The position, on top of the Spike protein, where the EY6A binds, allows three Fabs to bind to the central axis at the same time, but not the CR3022 Fab. Accordingly, two-thirds of the spike molecules incubated with this epitope for 5 hours remain in the pre-fusion non-infective state. This is quite probable with intact antibodies as well. The researchers comment, In general, we would expect binders at this epitope to neutralize by displacing the lid on the HR1/CH turn. This would destabilize the pre-fusion state and promote its conversion to the stable post-fusion spike trimer. However, the proline mutations introduced at the turn between successive helices avoid this conversion. Too-early conversion renders it unable to bind to the cell, and therefore it loses infectivity. The speed at which this process occurs decides how effective the antibody will be at neutralizing the virus, and thus in protecting against infection. Another possibility is that the RBD being a small domain could allow different epitopes to interact. In fact, EY6A could have allosteric effects with ACE2 binding. In the same way, VHH-72 is capable of binding an epitope that overlaps with EY6A and is a potent inhibitor of ACE2 binding because it uses a different pose. The study sums up: Attachment to this single epitope can cause neutralization via more than one mechanism, and can exhibit strong synergy with ACE2 blocking antibodies. Moreover, with key amino acids being highly conserved, antibodies that tightly bind to this epitope might also be capable of neutralizing many other similar viruses such as SARS-CoV and perhaps MERS-CoV. This epitope should be the foundation of many novel therapeutics. *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. By PTI BEIJING: China may have officially maintained a steady silence on the casualties suffered by its troops in the clashes with the Indian soldiers in the Galwan Valley but editorials in the state-run dailies acknowledged the PLA fatalities while calling for disengagement to avert a border war. China's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday parried all questions related to the casualties suffered by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops in the Galwan Valley on Monday night. But the official media conceded casualties on the Chinese side with a common narrative to avoid any notion of winners or losers and prevent any escalation of tensions. "China has not released details of the deaths and injuries on its side, in an attempt to avoid any notion of winners or losers and prevent any escalation of tensions, but with casualties on both sides and tensions having been simmering for a while before boiling over, the incident cannot but raise worries that the situation risks running out of control," the editorial in the China Daily said on Wednesday. Unsurprisingly, the Global Times, the ruling Communist Party's publication, repeated the same in its editorial. "It is noteworthy that the Chinese side did not disclose the number of casualties of the Chinese military, a move that aims to avoid comparing and preventing confrontational sentiments from escalating," it said. Interestingly, the paper, known for its aggressive jingoistic write-ups, called on the Chinese public to place trust in the country's leadership in dealing with the border problem with India. "On the China-India border issue, the Chinese public should trust the government and the People's Liberation Army. "They will firmly safeguard China's territorial integrity and maintain national interests when dealing with border conflicts, it said. Both dailies claimed that the US was trying to move closer to India and New Delhi taking part in Indo-Pacific orchestrated strategy by the US against China. While the write-ups in Chinese language media and blogs struck a jingoistic note pointing to China's military superiority, the official media struck a common narrative of laying blame on India for the clashes but at the same time calling for restraint. State-run Chinese language CCTV, whose 7 PM news called 'Xinwen Lianbo', which is watched by millions across the country, skipped the news of India-China border clash, though it reported Foreign Minister Wang Yi's telephonic talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. "The fact that neither side fired any shots during the latest clash indicates that it is still possible for the two sides to exercise damage control in the spirit of maintaining 'peace and tranquillity'," the China Daily editorial said. "But to ensure there is an atmosphere conducive for dialogue, the troops in the area must disengage with each other to avoid any more casualties. After all, neither side wants to spark a border war, it said. The Global Times editorial said, the clash in the Galwan Valley this time has led to casualties on both sides, indicating China-India border tensions, amid constant frictions, may spiral out of control. We notice that the leadership of the two militaries has exercised restraint after the incident, indicating that both sides would like to handle the conflict peacefully and not let the conflict escalate. At least 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in the clashes with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. It was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the face-off. PTI KJV AKJ ZH 06172028 NNNN Carlos Ghosn always said he was set up. Now there is some evidence to support his claim. According to people familiar with what happened and previously unreported internal correspondence, the campaign by top Nissan executives to dethrone one of the most celebrated leaders in the automotive industry started almost a year before Ghosn's arrest in late 2018 for alleged financial misconduct. It was motivated in part by opposition to his push for greater integration between the Japanese carmaker and long-time partner Renault, the new information reveals. While Nissan has long maintained the decision to oust Ghosn turned on allegations of under-reporting his income and other financial transgressions levelled by prosecutors, the documents and recollections of people familiar with what transpired show a powerful group of insiders saw his detention and prosecution as an opportunity to revamp the relationship with top shareholder Renault on terms more favourable to Nissan. A chain of emails dating back to February 2018 paints a picture of a methodical campaign to remove a powerful executive. The information comes to light as another former Nissan executive and the firm itself face a looming trial in Tokyo, and as Japan seeks the extradition of Ghosn (66), who fled to Lebanon in a daring escape. Alarmed by Ghosn's pledge in early 2018 to make the alliance between the companies irreversible, senior managers at the Japanese carmaker discussed their concern at how the chairman of both Nissan and Renault was taking steps toward further convergence. At the centre of those discussions was Hari Nada, who ran Nissan's chief executive's office and later struck a co- operation agreement with prosecutors to testify against Ghosn. Nissan should act to "neutralise his initiatives before it's too late," Nada wrote in mid-2018 to Hitoshi Kawaguchi, a senior manager at Nissan responsible for government relations. Ghosn has said he is innocent of the four charges of financial misconduct and breach of trust. Nissan said that while discussions over the structure of the alliance occurred many months before Ghosn's arrest, "any argument that the discovery of Carlos Ghosn's misconduct formed part of a conspiracy to undercut or terminate Nissan's alliance with Renault is entirely false". "We have been made aware of numerous documents repeatedly circulated to the media that we suspect were forged or falsified to suggest that they were sent by Nissan individuals," Nissan said. On November 18, 2018, the day before Ghosn was seized on a private jet at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, Nada circulated a memo to then CEO Hiroto Saikawa, according to people familiar with the document. Nada called for termination of the agreement governing the alliance and the restoration of the Japanese company's right to buy shares in Renault, or even take it over. Nissan would also seek to abolish the French carmaker's right to nominate Nissan's chief operating officer or other more senior positions. Renault had saved the Japanese manufacturer from bankruptcy with an emergency cash injection in 1999. That is when the French firm dispatched Ghosn to Nissan, who pulled off one of the most dramatic salvage jobs in car industry history. Yet, after two decades, with Ghosn dividing his time between the companies as CEO of Renault and chairman of the alliance, Nissan began to stumble. Nada told Saikawa in April 2018 that Ghosn was becoming increasingly agitated about Nissan's performance and comments by his hand-picked successor, who said he saw "no merit" in a merger between Renault and Nissan. "He can create a major disruption and you may become a victim of it," Nada wrote Ghosn was charged in Japan with under-reporting about $80m (70.8m) in income and funnelling money from Nissan without the firm's knowledge into entities he controlled. Calling the Japanese legal system a sham, Ghosn escaped the country late last year by sneaking aboard a private jet in a box, making his way to Lebanon via Turkey. Former Nissan executive and board member Greg Kelly was arrested the same day as Ghosn and remains on bail in Japan. He is awaiting trial on charges he helped Ghosn under-report his income. Prosecutors also charged Nissan in the first round of indictments. Nada, a Malaysia-born lawyer who oversaw many of Ghosn's affairs at Nissan, led an internal probe and was implicated in some of the alleged conduct being investigated by the Tokyo prosecutor. At the same time, emails show how Nada worked to gather information, travelling to Brazil and Lebanon to investigate Ghosn's use of company-provided homes. When asked to comment, Saikawa referred to previous statements rejecting the existence of a plot to oust Ghosn. "There was no effort to remove Renault's influence" by removing Ghosn, Saikawa said after the former chairman accused Nissan executives of conspiring against him. Saikawa stepped down in September after a Nissan investigation found he had been paid excess compensation. Nada, and other executives, were also overpaid, an internal probe found last year. As the date neared for the planned arrests of Ghosn and Kelly, preparations were made to assess how Renault's board would react and how to respond if the French company asserted its position. Nissan should make it clear to Renault that the French firm had no right to involve itself in the operations of its alliance partner, Nada said. The contract binding the partnership, called RAMA, as well as a Netherlands-based entity called Renault-Nissan, created to oversee its governance, should both be abolished as a result of Ghosn's arrest, Nada asserted. That would give Nissan the right to acquire Renault shares in order to disenfranchise Renault or take it over, he is said to have written. The RAMA has long been a source of friction between Nissan and Renault. The French firm can exercise full voting rights with its Nissan shareholding, while the Japanese car firm holds only a 15pc stake in Renault and lacks the ability to vote its shares. Moreover, the French state owns 15pc of Renault with double voting rights, giving it indirect sway over the Japanese company. Months after the arrests, Nissan was able to secure changes to the partnership with Renault but the new agreement didn't alter the alliance as much as Nada had proposed. While Nissan won more say over executive appointments and eliminated Ghosn's former post of alliance chairman, the shareholding structure remained intact. But the damage was done - the relationship was left in tatters. Later last year, Nissan withheld its endorsement for Renault's pursuit of a 50-50 merger with Fiat Chrysler, scuttling a bid to create a carmaker potentially worth 35bn. While there's been a cease-fire of sorts since then, the lopsided shareholding structure remains unresolved. The companies announced measures aimed at closer operational integration last month, as they seek to weather the pandemic. After Saikawa left last September, a new triumvirate was put in place to run Nissan, only to see one member, co-COO Jun Seki, resign soon after he lost out on the top job. CEO Makoto Uchida and COO Ashwani Gupta are now left to face the monumental task of turning around the maker of the Leaf electric car and the Qashqai SUV. Then there is Ghosn himself. The former CEO and chairman, who is living in Beirut at a house bought by Nissan, has vowed to restore his reputation and prove his innocence. Japan says it will keep seeking to bring Ghosn to justice, but the country doesn't have an extradition treaty with Lebanon and he is unlikely to ever face a Japanese courtroom. Bloomberg US President Donald Trump will host Poland's President Andrzej Duda at the White House for wide-ranging talks next week, the White House said on Wednesday. The June 24 summit comes four days ahead of a presidential election in the EU nation delayed by the coronavirus, with opinion polls suggesting a liberal opposition candidate could oust government-backed Duda. "As close partners and NATO allies, the United States and Poland continue to expand our cooperation across a wide range of issues," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement. "President Trump and President Duda will discuss further advancing our cooperation on defense, as well as trade, energy, and telecommunications security," she added. Long considered the hands-down election favorite, Duda appeared this week to be losing support as the economic hardship triggered by Poland's coronavirus lockdown began to bite. Polish President Andrzej Duda, pictured on the campaign trail on June 16, 2020, has been losing support recently Bengaluru, June 17 : The Congress high command on Wednesday sprung a surprise by naming General Secretary and outgoing Rajya Sabha member B.K. Hariprasad as one of its two candidates for the June 29 election to seven seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council. Outgoing Council member Naseer Ahmed is the other candidate. "Congress President Sonia Gandhi approved names of Hariprasad and Naseer Ahmed to contest in the biennial elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council," party General Secretary Mukul Wasnik said in a statement from New Delhi. Party's state President D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday recommended 6 names, including Ahmed's to the high command in New Delhi for selecting two, Hariprasad's name was not in the list. "The high command nominated Hariprasad as he a senior Backward Classes leader, belonging to the Idiga community," state Congress leader Prakash Rathod told IANS here. Hariprasad, 65, who retires from the Rajya Sabha on June 25 along with party colleague Rajeev Gowda, contested in the May 2019 general elections from the high-profile Bangalore South Lok Sabha but lost to BJP's debutant Tejasvi Surya. "As the party is also committed to give representation to the minority community, Ahmed has been re-nominated for the Council seat," said Rathod. Hariprasad and Ahmed will file nominations on Thursday, the last date for filing papers. "The Congress Legislative Party (CLP) will meet on Thursday under its leader Siddaramaiah to endorse the candidature of Hariprasad and Ahmed for the Council seats," Rathod added. Though 5 of the 7 outgoing members are from the Congress, it will be able to win only 2, as its strength in the 225-member Assembly is 68 legislators and each contestant needs 28 votes to get elected. Ahmed, 53, hails from Kolar and rose through the party ranks. The 5 other names the high command ignored are of Muddahanumegowda, S. Manohar, Saleem Ahmed, H.M. Revanna and M.R. Seetharam. Besides Ahmed, the four outgoing Congress members are Jayamma, M.C. Venugopal, N.S. Bose Raju and Revanna. Revanna and Naseer have sought re-nomination, while Seetharam is a former Council member and a minister in the Congress government from 2013-18. Muddahanumegowda is the party's former Lok Sabha member from Tumkur (2014-19), who could not re-contest in the May 2019 general elections, as the ticket was given to JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda under a pre-poll alliance. Gowda, however, lost to BJP's G.S. Basavaraj. Saleem is the party's state unit Working President. With 116 legislators, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win 4 seats comfortably while, the JD-S will be able to ensure victory of only one candidate to replace its outgoing member T.A. Sharavana, who is keen to re-contest. In the 75-member Council, apart from the Chairman, the opposition Congress has 37, BJP 19, JD-S 16, and there are two Independents. Texas will look into policies to drastically reduce natural gas flaring from the states shale patch as investors become increasingly sensitive to climate change concerns. The call to action from the head of the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees oil and gas production in the state, marks a stark tone shift for an agency thats been criticized for its laissez-faire attitude toward one of the industrys most harmful environmental practices. After hearing on Tuesday from environmental groups, industry organizations and shale producers on ways the states flaring problem should be addressed, Wayne Christian, the commissions chairman, said he directed staff to consider whether measures could be implemented this fall. I am very concerned by the rate of flaring in Texas, Christian said during the webcast meeting. We cannot continue to waste this much natural gas and allow the practice of flaring to tarnish the reputation of our states thriving energy sector to the general public and investors on Wall Street. Investors growing reluctance to put money into polluting industries adds insult to injury for a shale patch that has fallen from grace on Wall Street after years burning through borrowed cash without giving shareholders the returns they sought. Many explorers were already struggling to stay afloat even before the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the oil market into its worst-ever crash. Flaring is commonplace in Texas oilfields, where natural gas is extracted alongside more valuable crude. A lack of pipeline capacity leaves drillers with too much gas on their hands. To avoid shutting in oil output, producers frequently resort to flaring, which burns off methane but still releases carbon dioxide and other particulate matter into the air. Christian said hes been told that Wall Street is less willing to invest in oil and gas companies because of the volumes of natural gas that theyre flaring. He said he wants Wall Street and the market to understand that the industry is working toward addressing the problem. A variety of proposals were raised during Tuesdays meeting. Latigo Petroleum, a privately held producer in West Texas, said the agency should set allowables to prevent companies without a market for their gas to continue pumping. Listed producers including Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Parsley Energy Inc. highlighted existing practices they have in place that they said show the industry is taking active steps toward reducing flaring. The Environmental Defense Fund called on the Railroad Commission to set a firm goal for an end to routine flaring by 2025. Flaring waste runs counter to Texas values, EDF said in a news release after the meeting. Commissioner Ryan Sitton said on Twitter that environmental groups are urging the agency to weigh economics, while the companies themselves say the Railroad Commission should ignore economics. His comment is an apparent dig at the long list of oil and gas producers that argued in April the commission shouldnt impose oil quotas in a bid to bolster prices, a proposal Sitton had spearheaded. He later called the initiative dead after it was clear that his fellow commissioners had deep reservations about instituting production caps. Fesenko says Buslavets attracted a lot of attention and became "toxic, carrying a strong and potential risk" over her activity. Ukrainian political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko claims Acting Minister of Energy and Environmental Policy Olha Buslavets is allegedly lobbying the interests of DTEK energy holding owned by Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov. "For the sake of Rinat Leonidovych's thermal power plants, she has halted a record number of nuclear power units for unscheduled repairs. To please Akhmetov's solar and wind power plants, she, as rumor has it, has first pretended [an interest] and then disrupted negotiations on a reduction in feed-in tariffs. In this sense, we can also talk about "Buslavets' technique,'" he wrote on Facebook, as reported by the Ukrainian news outlet Dengi.ua. Read alsoUkraine's MP claims oligarch Akhmetov stands behind acting energy minister According to the expert, splitting the Energy Ministry into two ministries almost coincided with the moment when Buslavets' term as acting head of that department expired. Now she will be able to head the re-established Energy Ministry for another 60 days, which is an extremely negative factor for the sector facing crisis and requiring stable management. Fesenko says Buslavets attracted a lot of attention and became "toxic, carrying a strong and potential risk" over her activity. "Firstly, this is a risk for Prime Minister [Denys] Shmyhal. He needs to approve the government's action plan. And the parliament will probably recall the challenges the energy sector is facing and Buslavets' undecided status," Fesenko said. "Secondly, this is a risk for Rinat Leonidovych himself. Too much and controversially enough attention is attracted to Olha Anatoliyivna. If one wants to lobby, this should be done more elegantly and less noticeably. In this regard, let me remind that President [Volodymyr] Zelensky does not like toxic and conflicting people in power," he said. Summing up, the political scientist says the country needs a stable and non-controversial energy minister. Earlier, President Zelensky said Prime Minister Shmyhal would have to dismiss Buslavets if her connection with oligarch Akhmetov was proven. In remarks at a campaign event in Darby, Pennsylvania, Joe Biden delivered a scathing attack on President Donald Trumps response to the coronavirus pandemic. The former vice president said that while Mr Trump styles himself as a wartime president against an invisible enemy, unlike other wartime leaders "he takes no responsibility, he exercises no leadership, and now he's just flat surrendering the fight". Instead of leading the charge to defeat the virus, he just basically waved a white flag and has retreated, Mr Biden said. The Democratic candidate also said that the president is not up to the task of handling the Covid-19 response, or apparently doesnt care, and has now decided that he doesnt want to try. Just like he couldnt wish it away in March, just like he couldnt tweet it away in April, he cant ignore it away in June, said Mr Biden. The event was focussed on how to make sure the country's reopening is safe, effective, and gets Americans back to work. Mr Biden stressed this was not a debate about whether to reopen, but about how to make it work for everyone. He noted how daily testing and other protections were in place for employees at the White House and said he had some basic questions for the president. Mr Biden asked what Mr Trump was going to do to make sure every worker has access to regular testing; why schools and childcare facilities are under-resourced; and why standards for worker protection during the pandemic were not being enforced. The event was focussed on how to make sure the country's reopening is safe, effective, and gets Americans back to work. Mr Biden stressed this was not a debate about whether to reopen, but about how to make it work for everyone. He noted how daily testing and other protections were in place for employees at the White House and said he had some basic questions for the president. The former vice president asked what Mr Trump was going to do to make sure every worker has access to regular testing; why schools and childcare facilities are under-resourced; and why standards for worker protection during the pandemic were not being enforced. Turning to economic aspects of the pandemic response, Mr Biden asked why the small business lending program approved by Congress two months ago had only opened for registration two days ago. He also asked why the names of the companies that received $500bn in taxpayer money were not being disclosed. Leaning forward and looking straight into the camera, addressing the president directly, he asked why Mr Trump had got rid of the inspector general tasked with overseeing the distribution of relief funds. Why did you get rid of that person? he asked. What are you trying to hide? Hours after violent clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, a US State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday (June 16) night that Washington was closely mointoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation. During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi discussed the situation on the India-China border," said the spokesperson. The Indian Army said on Tuesday that 20 of its soldiers were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops during a face-off in the Galwan Valley. In a statement, the army said that almost the same number of Chinese troops have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley. The statement said, "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20." "The Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," the official release said. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), however, blamed China for the incident and alleged that it tried to unilaterally change the status and "departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley". Meanwhile, UN chief Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over reports of violence and deaths at the Line of Actual Control between India and China and urged both sides to exercise "maximum restraint," his spokesperson said on Tuesday. Eri Kaneko, Associate Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, made the comments at the daily press briefing. A man sleeping rough on the footpath outside a Simon hostel was repeatedly stabbed in the face and neck with a car key in the early hours of the morning, it was alleged today. Detective Garda Brian Maher arrested Shane Purcell of 7 Seminary Court, Blackpool, Cork, and charged him with assault causing harm on June 17 at Andersons Quay, Cork. The detective alleged that the accused had a blood-stained key in his possession when arrested and gardai believe that this was the weapon used in the attack. Det. Garda Maher objected to bail being granted to Purcell at Cork District Court and expressed the garda concern that the accused would commit further serious offences if released. Det. Garda Maher said the accused was drunk when arrested and that questioning could not proceed until later today because of his level of intoxication. When arrested he made no reply to the charge. It was alleged by Det. Garda Maher that: At 2.20 a.m. on June 17 the injured party was asleep on the ground outside Simon on Andersons Quay when he was attacked and stabbed around the face and neck area. The injured party and Shane Purcell are known to each other and he has named Shane Purcell as the person who attacked him, Det. Garda Maher said. Shane Collins-Daly said the 22-year-old had been off drink but had a slip on Tuesday night. He lives with his mother in Gurranabraher. He was in a coma at Christmas and was in hospital for a number of weeks. He got employment and was working in construction until the coronavirus restrictions. He is applying for bail and is willing to abide by any conditions the court might impose on him . The allegation is that the injured party was stabbed with a key, there was no knife or more serious weapon, Mr Collins-Daly said. Judge Olann Kelleher refused bail and remanded the accused in custody for one week to appear again at Cork District Court. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the nations collective fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic is far from over and urged all the chief ministers to get ready for Unlock 2.0. The PM also reportedly rubbished all speculations about the Centre re-imposing lockdown to curb the coronavirus. The PM urged all Chief Ministers to "fight rumours" while being mindful of the challenges. The PM noted that the spread of COVID-19 is more in a few big states and cities and urged the chief ministers to make full use of their state's existing testing capacity and also work to augment health infrastructure. Speaking to the chief ministers, PM Modi said big crowds, lack of physical-distancing, daily movement of a large number of people and small houses in some cities have made the battle against coronavirus "more challenging". A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held the second part of two-day interaction with CMs via video conferencing to discuss the situation post Unlock 1.0 and plan for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic." "The CMs thanked the PM for his leadership and briefed him about the ground situation in states & their preparedness to tackle the impact of Coronavirus. They talked about health infrastructure available to meet the challenge & steps taken to strengthen it further," the PMO said. It added that Home Minister Amit Shah (who also took part in the video conference) said that we've so far been quite successful in our fight against the virus under the leadership of the PM, but the battle is far from over. "We now need to focus on phase 2 of the Unlock process, while at the same time, how to minimise any possibilities of harm to citizens," the PM told the CMs. It may be noted that the PM had on the first day of his interaction with the CMs on Tuesday given a strong hint of further opening of the economy while ensuring that basic rules like wearing a mask, maintaining hygiene, and observing social distancing are followed strictly. "We have to always keep in mind that the more we can stop the corona, the more it will stop growing, the more our economy will open, our offices will open, the markets will open, the means of transport will open, and so will new employment opportunities," he had said. PM Modi reiterated that India has been able to stop the exponential growth of the pandemic due to timely intervention. He stressed that in India, very few patients are in need of ICU or ventilators. However, the PM laid special emphasis on increased testing, and the need to expand the same health infrastructure. Key states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar and Telangana were part of Wednesday`s meeting. YEREVAN. Hraparak daily writes: Since yesterday morning, police raided the regional offices of the [opposition] Prosperous Armenia Party and conducted a search. According to reliable information, they have been instructed to collect any details that could benefit the criminal case launched against [PAP leader, MP, and business tycoon Gagik] Tsarukyan. And on Sunday, when the NSS [National Security Service] was searching Tsarukyan's mansion, simultaneous searches were carried out also at the facilities of his former and current close circles. Not only Ishkhan Zakaryan [former chairman of the Audit Chamber], but also Abraham Manukyan who, according to the motion of the Prosecutor General submitted to the NA [National Assembly], was the curator of distributing election bribes, the one who gives moneywas summoned for questioning. According to our law enforcement sources, both of them denied, saying that they were not aware of such a process, did not distribute money, did not have information about election bribes. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, June 18 2020 Former Democratic Party treasurer and graft convict M. Nazaruddin was released on parole from Sukamiskin Penitentiary in Bandung, West Java, on Sunday. The parole is effective from June 14 to Aug. 13, said Rika Aprianti, a spokesperson for the Law and Human Rights Ministrys Corrections Directorate General, as quoted by kompas.com. She added that Nazaruddin would be supervised by Bandung Correctional Board officials during his parole. 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 Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17 2020 House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, is set to question Attorney General ST Burhanuddin regarding the one-year prison sentence demanded by prosecutors for two police officers accused of attacking Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan. Commission III chairman Herman Hery said on Monday that lawmakers would invite ST Burhanuddin for a hearing and demand an explanation. 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 Labor backbencher Anthony Byrne (pictured) said he wanted to 'piss on the corpse' of Alan Griffin, calls a female MP a 'drunk' and an unnamed female Labor activist a 'ratf**ker' in the text messages Abusive text messages written by federal MP Anthony Byrne have plunged the Labor Party into further crisis after three Victorian parliamentary members were forced to quit in the same scandal. In the private text messages Mr Byrne said he wanted to 'p**s on the corpse' of former federal Labor MP Alan Griffin, called a female politician a 'drunk' and an unnamed female Labor activist a 'ratf**ker'. Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and retired federal MP Michael Danby were also criticised in the text messages. The text messages were released as political payback by Victorian powerbroker Adem Somyurek, according to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Mr Somyurek was sacked by Mr Andrews after recordings indicated branch stacking, his boasting of controlling who became Premier, and foul-mouthed abuse of colleagues and staff. The secret recordings obtained by Channel Nine were made in Mr Byrne's Melbourne electorate office in Cranbourne West. In response, the leaking of Mr Byrne's messages to Mr Somyurek included promises to ruin the career of a Labor operative. 'Because if she mucks you up I will make sure she guest stars in the next Four Corners hatchet job on China. Which I will be on. Watch her, she's a ratf**ker,' he wrote. The Victorian backbencher used strong language to express his disdain for Mr Griffin: 'I want Griffin destroyed. I want his head cut off and then I am going to p**s on his corpse'. In the private text messages Mr Byrne says he wants to 'piss on the corpse' of Alan Griffin, calls a female MP a 'drunk' and an unnamed female Labor activist a 'ratf**ker' Adem Somyurek (pictured) reportedly released the text messages as political payback against Mr Byrne He wrote to Mr Somyurek on another occasion: 'On the plane with Bill (Shorten) and the drunk (female Labor figure). She's dribbling s**t.' Mr Byrne also expressed his anger towards the Victorian Premier: 'Hope Daniel (Andrews) enjoys the victory. I hope this signs his death warrant politically'. Mr Byrne said Mr Somyurek had 'selectively released a hand-picked selection of text messages I sent over two years'. He said the leaks came 'just hours after I made a public statement that I had contacted authorities and would assist with their corruption investigations into him. That speaks for itself.' The potential problem for Labor was more acute than Victorian state politics, given Mr Byrne's position on federal parliament's powerful intelligence committee. 'On the plane with Bill (Shorten) (pictured) and the drunk (female Labor figure). She's dribbling s**t,' he wrote on another occasion 'In respect of the misinformation circulating, I want to make clear that I take the matters raised recently seriously and have been in touch with authorities to offer my full assistance,' Mr Byrne told AAP. 'I welcome investigations into corruption, which has no place in the party I love. 'Because I do not want to cross over or impede any investigations that may be occurring, I'm unable to comment further at this point in time.' Attorney-General Christian Porter described the installation of a recording device with an MP's office as a serious concern. Mr Porter questioned why Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese had not questioned his backbencher about it. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg poked fun at the scandal during Question Time, when the intelligence committee's Liberal chairman gave him a free hit. Mr Byrne also expressed his anger towards the Victorian Premier: 'Hope Daniel (Andrews) enjoys the victory. I hope this signs his death warrant politically' 'He, unlike other members of that committee, has informed me that he doesn't have any secret hidden cameras in his office,' Mr Frydenberg told parliament. The prime minister also put the boot in when fielding a crossbench question about plans for a national integrity commission. 'I would be very surprised if those opposite in the Labor Party would be asking questions about integrity today,' Scott Morrison said. Both attempts at humour elicited audible groans from those on the Labor benches. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said he had not spoken to Mr Byrne about the branch-stacking scandal, which is being investigated by Victoria Police and the state's Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission. Under Victorian law, recording a conversation does not require the consent of the person being recorded, unlike some other states. What did Adem Somyurek say in secret recordings? On the Premier: 'F**** the Premier. Alright? That's what this is about. F*** the premier. I'll be just running the joint, like, it's who I say is going to be the f***ing premier' On a female colleague: 'I will f***ing force her out of the ministry, that f***ing stupid b****, when Andrews goes She's a stupid, stupid moll. 'I'm going to f***ing knock her f***ing head off. She's a f***ing psycho b****.' On young Labor members: 'Real little f***ing slimy little f***ers, right little passive aggressive f***ing gay kids' Advertisement Three ministers out of a job, a police investigation and a furious premier on a warpath: Inside Labor's 'appalling' branch-stacking scandal - as mystery surrounds who leaked secret tapes Daniel Andrews appeared to be on the warpath as he vowed to 'clean-up' his party after a major scandal claimed three of his ministers and sparked a police investigation. The Victorian Premier apologised to hard-working Labor supporters on Wednesday after allegations of 'industrial scale' branch-stacking were levelled in a 60 Minutes programme on Sunday night. Branch-stacking is when new party members are recruited to influence the outcome of internal elections. The practice is against both Liberal and Labor guidelines and can be illegal if it involves faking addresses or forging signatures. Adem Somyurek (pictured in May, 2019) has been sacked over allegations of branch stacking Former Victorian minister Marlene Kairouz (left) resigned from her post after she was caught up in the scandal. She denies any wrongdoing The 60 Minutes show aired a series of recorded CCTV footage and phone calls which allegedly showed former minister for local government Adem Somyurek plotting and carrying out a huge branch-stacking operation involving creating fake members, which he denies. Mystery remains over who made the secret tapes, but the day after the show a furious Premier Andrews sacked Mr Somyurek and said: 'I have ended his career.' Mr Somyurek was a powerbroker within the Victorian right and some analysts say his downfall benefits former Labor leader Bill Shorten, who now stands to increase his influence over the Labor right. Since then two other ministers whose staff were allegedly involved in the scandal have resigned from their positions, Minister for Consumer Affairs Marlene Kairouz and Minister for Veterans Robin Scott. Both vowed to clear their names but said they didn't want to cause a distraction for the government or add to their families' distress. Premier Andrews, determined to find and stamp out any wrongdoing, has referred the allegations to the police and Victoria's anti-corruption commission. Last night he also made the extraordinary move of asking the national executive to block Victorian ALP members from voting in internal elections while every one is verified as a real and willing member who paid their own membership fees. Adem Somyurek (centre) pictured at a meeting in May, 2019. Mr Somyurek is still an MP although he has resigned from the Labor Party Former Victorian minister Robin Scott (pictured) resigned from his post after he was caught up in the scandal. He denies any wrongdoing There are fears that up to 25 per cent of the members have been hoodwinked into signing up or faked altogether. In a letter to the executive, Mr Andrews said he had 'no confidence in the integrity of any voting rolls' and asked national leadership to appoint former premier Steve Bracks and former federal minister Jenny Macklin to oversee the clean-up. Speaking to reporters outside parliament this morning, he said: 'We have got to go through a process where each and every rank-and-file member re-establishes that they are genuine, consenting and self-funded members of our great party. 'We need to clean this up and we will'. Premier Andrews, who has been praised for effectively handling the scandal by swiftly sacking Mr Somyurek, apologised to innocent party members who have had their voting rights stripped until 2023. I thank you for your work and your passion. I apologise for your pain Daniel Andrews apologises to Labor supporters 'I've got a message for all of those true believers, those genuine hard-working local branch members, who hand out how-to-vote cards, who make phone calls, who knock on doors, who debate policy - I thank you for your work and your passion. I apologise for your pain,' he said. Meanwhile, questions are being raised over who took the secret recordings of Mr Somyurek and how they came into the hands of 60 Minutes. Phone call recordings and footage taken in Victorian federal MP Anthony Byrne's electoral office showed the former minister calling a female colleague a 'psycho bitch', branding gay staff members 'slimy little f***ers' and boasting he was more powerful than the premier. Mr Somyurek said: 'It is clear that I was taped and surveilled in a federal electorate office without my knowledge and that this material was published without my knowledge of its existence or my consent. 'I will be taking steps to seek a police investigation into these matters.' Victorian Labor MP Tim Richardson has also called for an investigation on national security grounds. 'We don't know who put those recordings in, we don't know what has been compromised,' he said. Jaclyn Symes, Gabrielle Williams, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Melissa Horne and Adem Somyurek in 2018 'That is a great concern for our Commonwealth and our national security. 'The notion that there is an unknown covert recording is a great concern on our democracy and on our sovereignty and that needs to be investigated by the Australian Federal Police, and if it's a national security risk, ASIO.' Asked about the recordings on Monday, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said: 'There were a range of other calls taped, somehow. 'I don't know all of the circumstances of it. That will all come out, no doubt, over a period of time. That really isn't the story here.' Who are the Victorian ministers that have lost their jobs? ADEM SOMYUREK * Accused of handing over cash and using parliamentary employees to create fake members to branch stack and amass political power * Allegations were first aired by 60 Minutes and The Age on Sunday * There are recordings of him using profanities against colleagues and staff * Mr Somyurek denies the allegations and wants police to investigate the recordings used in the expose * Mr Somyurek was sacked from the Victorian ministry on Monday and resigned from Labor before the party could boot him out * He most recently held the local government portfolio * In 2014, Mr Somyurek was made a minister only to have him stand down over bullying allegations a year later * He was reinstated to the ministry in 2018, with Premier Daniel Andrews saying Mr Somyurek had made the case he had changed * Will now sit in the Legislative Council as an independent for South Eastern Metropolitan Region * Supports the ALP Right faction MARLENE KAIROUZ * Factional ally of Mr Somyurek * Accused of encouraging staff to take part in the branch stacking with Mr Somyurek, according to secret recordings obtained by The Age * Assured Mr Andrews on Monday that she had acted appropriately at all times * After becoming embroiled in the allegations, she resigned from the ministry on Tuesday * Held various ministerial portfolios of suburban development, local government and consumer affairs, gaming and liquor regulation * 'I no longer want these matters to be a distraction to the government. They have placed enormous pressure on my family and caused them great distress,' she said in a statement on Tuesday * Ms Kairouz will continue to serve the electorate of Kororoit ROBIN SCOTT * Factional ally of Mr Somyurek * Mr Scott is accused of having staff involved in the branch stacking * Stepped down from his ministerial post on Monday * 'To the extent that these matters relate to my conduct, I look forward to the opportunity to clear my name. I am very confident that the investigative process will do so,' he said in a statement * Mr Scott will continue to serve the electorate of Preston Advertisement Mr Somyurek claims he resigned but Premier Andrews said he sacked the minister at 9am on Monday. 'Mr Somyurek was not offered an opportunity to resign. He is not worthy of an opportunity to resign. He was sacked. And that is the fact of the matter,' Premier Andrews said. 'He offered no defence of his actions. It was not a meeting where I was having a debate or discussion with him. I was simply doing him the courtesy of informing him in person of the decisions that I had taken.' 'The conduct is appalling and unacceptable and will not be tolerated and I have taken action to deal with that.' Party powerbroker Adem Somyurek (pictured) has been banished from Labor after allegedly being caught branch stacking, which he denies The Premier said the first he heard of the allegations was when he watched 60 Minutes on Sunday night. The programme claimed to reveal the upper house MP handed over thousands of dollars in cash and used parliamentary employees to create fake branch members and amass political influence within the Australian Labor Party. Footage shows Mr Somyurek on April 13 withdrawing $2,000 in cash from an ATM, before handing it and dozens of party membership forms to an adviser working for fellow Labor minister Marlene Kairouz, who then delivers the forms and cash to ALP head office. The advisor reportedly carried out a similar cash drop-off earlier in the year. 'Well, if he (the advisor) gets caught on the street, he'd better not say he's doing f***ing this stuff,' Mr Somyurek is recorded saying after the April 13 drop. Mr Somyurek was also allegedly recorded ordering people to forge signatures and create false statements, in which Labor branch members claim to have paid for their own memberships. He also talks about directing taxpayer-funded parliamentary employees, meant to be working for other MPs, to conduct party political operations. In one recording, Mr Somyurek boasts of controlling two-thirds of the Labor party in Victoria. 'I'll be just running the joint,' Mr Somyurek says. 'It's who I say is going to be the f***ing premier.' It is against Labor rules to pay for other people's memberships and members are required to sign a form declaring they have paid their own fees. In the recordings, Mr Somyurek also takes aim at his colleagues, including Ms Kairouz, who he describes as holding a 'meaningless' portfolio 'made up just to make it look like we're interested in the suburbs'. He labels the Minister for Women and the Prevention of Family Violence Gabrielle Williams a 'stupid b****' whom he will 'f***ing force ... out of the ministry'. Somyurek also describes these young staffers helping him as 'patronising and annoying', and 'real little f***ing slimy little f***ers, little passive-aggressive f***ing gay kids.' June 16, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - A team of 85 Cuban doctors and nurses arrived in Peru on June 3 to help the Andean nation tackle the coronavirus pandemic. That same day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced another tightening of the sanctions screws. This time he targeted seven Cuban entities, including Fincimex, one of the principal financial institutions handling remittances to the country. Also targeted was Marriott International, which was ordered to cease operations in Cuba, and other companies in the tourism sector, an industry that constitutes 10 percent of Cubas GDP and has been devastated globally by the pandemic. It seems that the more Cuba helps the world, the more it gets hammered by the Trump administration. While Cuba has endured a U.S. embargo for nearly 60 years, Trump has revved up the stakes with a maximum pressure strategy that includes more than 90 economic measures placed against the nation since January 2019. Josefina Vidal, Cubas ambassador to Canada, called the measures unprecedented in their level of aggression and scope and designed to deprive the country of income for the development of the economy. Since its inception, the embargo has cost Cuba well over $130 billion dollars, according to a 2018 estimate. In 2018-2019 alone, the economic impact was $4 billion, a figure that does not include the impact of a June 2019 Trump administration travel ban aimed at harming the tourist industry. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter While the embargo is supposed to have humanitarian exemptions, the health sector has not been spared. Cuba is known worldwide for its universal public healthcare system, but the embargo has led to shortages of medicines and medical supplies, particularly for patients with AIDS and cancer. Doctors at Cubas National Institute of Oncology have had to amputate the lower limbs of children with cancer because the American companies that have a monopoly on the technology cant sell it to Cuba. In the midst of the pandemic, the U.S. blocked a donation of facemasks and COVID-19 diagnostic kits from Chinese billionaire Jack Ma. Not content to sabotage Cubas domestic health sector, the Trump administration has been attacking Cubas international medical assistance, from the teams fighting coronavirus today to those who have travelled all over the world since the 1960s providing services to underserved communities in 164 countries. The U.S. goal is to cut the islands income now that the provision of these services has surpassed tourism as Cubas number one source of revenue. Labeling these volunteer medical teams victims of human trafficking because part of their salaries goes to pay for Cubas healthcare system, the Trump administration convinced Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil to end their cooperation agreements with Cuban doctors. Pompeo then applauded the leaders of these countries for refusing to turn a blind eye to Cubas alleged abuses. The triumphalism was short lived: a month after that quote, the Bolsonaro government in Brazil begged Cuba to resend its doctors amid the pandemic. U.S. allies all over the world, including in Qatar, Kuwait, South Africa, Italy, Honduras and Peru have gratefully accepted this Cuban aid. So great is the admiration for Cuban doctors that a global campaign has sprung up to award them the Nobel Peace Prize. The Trump administration is not just libelling doctors, but the whole country. In May, the State Department named Cuba as one of five countries not cooperating fully in U.S. counterterrorism efforts. The main pretext was the nations hosting of members of Colombias National Liberation Army (ELN). Yet even the State Departments own press release notes that ELN members are in Cuba as a result of peace negotiation protocols. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called the charges dishonest and facilitated by the ungrateful attitude of the Colombian government that broke off talks with the ELN in 2019. It should also be noted that Ecuador was the original host of the ELN-Colombia talks, but Cuba was asked to step in after the Moreno government abdicated its responsibilities in 2018. The classification of Cuba as not cooperating with counterterrorism could lead to Cuba being placed on the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list, which carries tougher penalties. This idea was floated by a senior Trump administration official to Reuters last month. Cuba had been on this list from 1982 to 2015, despite that fact that, according to former State Department official Jason Blazakis, it was legally determined that Cuba was not actively engaged in violence that could be defined as terrorism under any credible definition of the word. Of course, the United States is in no position to claim that other countries do not cooperate in counterterrorism. For years, the U.S. harbored Luis Posada Carriles, mastermind of the bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane in 1976 that killed 73 people. More recently, the U.S. has yet to even comment on the April 30 attack on the Cuban Embassy in Washington D.C., when a man fired on the building with an automatic rifle. While there are certainly right-wing ideologues like Secretary Pompeo and Senator Rubio orchestrating Trumps maximum pressure campaign, for Trump himself, Cuba is all about the U.S. elections. His hard line against the tiny island nation may have helped swing the Florida gubernatorial campaign during the midterm elections, yet its not clear that this will serve him well in a presidential year. According to conventional wisdom and polls, younger Cuban-Americans who like most young people, dont tend to vote in midterms are increasingly skeptical of the U.S. embargo, and overall, Cuba isnt the overriding issue for Cuban-Americans. Trump won the Cuban-American vote in 2016, but Hillary Clinton took between 41 and 47% percent of that electorate, significantly higher than any Democrat in decades. As an electoral strategy, these are signs that Trumps aggression towards Cuba may not pay off. Of course, the strategy might not be just about votes but also about financing and ensuring that the Cuban-American political machinery is firmly behind Trump. The strategy has certainly not paid off when it comes to achieving the goal of regime change. The Trump administration is arguably farther from achieving regime change in Cuba now than the U.S. has ever been in over 60 years of intervention. During Trumps tenure, Cuba calmly transitioned from the presidency of Raul Castro to that of Miguel Diaz-Canel. In 2019, Cuban voters overwhelmingly ratified a new constitution. These arent signs of a country on the brink of collapse. All Trump has achieved is making life more difficult for the islands 11 million inhabitants, who, like people all over the world, have been battered by the economic impact from coronavirus. Tourism has collapsed. Income from remittances has tanked (both because of new U.S. restrictions and less income in the hands of the Cuban diaspora). Venezuela, once a major benefactor, is mired in its own crisis. But Cubas economy, which was forecast to contract by 3.7% before the pandemic hit, has been through worse, particularly during the 1991 to 2000 economic crisis known as the special period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. A change in the White House would bring some relief, although Joe Biden has staked a rather ambivalent position, saying he would restore relations as President Obama did, but adding that he was open to using sanctions as punishment for Cubas support to the Venezuelan government. Its clear that from now until November, and perhaps for four more years, the Trump administration will pummel its island neighbor. Cuba will continue to seek global condemnation on the blockade (the 2019 UN vote was 187 against vs 3 in favorthe U.S., Brazil and Israel) and continue to show what a good neighbor looks like. It responded to these latest provocations in the way that only Cuba does: with more global solidarity, sending Covid-19 healing brigades to Guinea and Kuwait a day after the June 3 round of sanctions. A total of 26 countries now have Cuban medical personnel caring for their sick. That is the kind of goodwill that money just cant buy and it greatly presents a stark contrast to the Trump administrations shameful behavior during the pandemic. Back in March, as Cuban doctors arrived in Italy, former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa tweeted: One day we will tell our children that, after decades of movies and propaganda, at the moment of truth, when humanity needed help at a time when the great powers were in hiding, Cuban doctors began to arrive, without asking anything in return. Medea Benjamin is cofounder of the peace group CodePink. Her latest book is Kingdom of the Unjust : Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection (OR Books, September 2016). Post your comment below Acting Director of Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought speaks during a news briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on March 11, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Trumps OMB Nominee Approved, Moves to Senate Floor Vote President Donald Trumps nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vought, was approved by the Senate Budget Committee on Thursday, amid opposition from Democrats. Vought was approved in a 1110 vote with all Republicans approving and all Democrats opposing. Eight Democrats voted by proxy and 2 were present for the vote. Ranking member, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opposed the nomination, criticizing Voughts loyalty to Trumps budget agenda. The Budget Committee is hearing from Presidents nominee for budget director. @RussVought45 is the architect of Trumps budgets that slash Medicare and Medicaid while cutting taxes for the rich. His nomination must be defeated, said Sanders. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), opposed Voughts nomination citing the deputy directors role in helping President Trump hold up funds to Ukraine. Van Hollen questioned Vought about the Ukraine aid during the confirmation hearing, saying that Vought was not a worthy nominee for Director because withholding the aid to Ukraine was illegal, as reported by the Government Accountability Office. It seems to be a metaphor for this administration that they would submit to this Senate as their nominee to head OMB the person who our congressional watchdog concluded violated the law, Van Hollen said. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said it is crucial that Congress get a program inventory from OMB to enable lawmakers and the public to understand how resources were used so Congress can make informed decisions about spending. Enzi who voted in favor of Voughts confirmation, said the role of the OMB director is crucial given that the Congressional Budget Office found the total budget deficit, so far for 2020, is 1.48 trillion, which is 949 billion more than the deficit recorded at the same time last year. During the June 3 committee hearing Vought told the panel he has and will put Americas working families first. I know what they went through to balance their budget and save for the future. My parents worked hard, hours to put me through school. They worked very hard to pay for the government in their lives and Ive often wondered what else they would have been able to be able to accomplish if they were freer to build and have saved more of their own hard-working earnings, said Vought. My parents represent the forgotten men and women of this country. They have always been the yardstick, by which I have tested government spending, and I am grateful to the work of this administration that had made the eyes and the heart of the forgotten man the lens from which we see policy, he added. In April 2017, Trump nominated Vought to be Deputy Director of OMB. He was confirmed by the Senate in February 2018, in a 5049 vote. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote. In addition to building the presidents annual budget OMB Director also manages government-wide functions, such as agency rulemaking contracts, Grants Management, Financial Management Information Technology Program assessment, and property management. The conviction of a prominent journalist for criminal libel in the Philippines and the move by President Rodrigo Duterte to install a new anti-terrorism law is a death blow for democracy in the Southeast Asian nation, say human rights groups and overseas-based Filipinos. The verdict against Maria Ressa highlights the ability of the Philippines abusive leader to manipulate the laws to go after critical, well-respected media voices whatever the ultimate cost to the country, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Teodoro Ted Alcuitas, editor of the philippinecanadiannews.com said the verdict was the outcome of a farcical trial under the de facto martial law conditions of the Philippines. No judge, not even the Supreme Court, will dare to go against the wishes of the tyrant, President Rodrigo Duterte, wrote Alcuitas in a stinging editorial. Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, head of a news website critical of Duterte, on Monday was found guilty of cyber libel in a verdict seen as a major blow to press freedom in the country. Judge Rainelda Estacio Montesa sentenced Ressa, 56, and her co-accused, former researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr, to imprisonment for up to six years, with a minimum term of six months and one day. Montesa allowed Ressa and Santos to post bail, and their camp said they will appeal the verdict. Ressa said the verdict was a blow to press freedom and democracy but wasn't unexpected and called on journalists and the public to continue the fight. "We are meant to be a cautionary tale. We are meant to make you afraid ... Don't be afraid," she said. "Because if you don't use your rights, you will lose them," she added. "If we don't challenge a brazen move to try to roll back the rights guaranteed in the constitution, we will lose them. We shouldn't be giving up our rights. We will fight." The case stemmed from an article published by the news website Rappler in May 2012, which allegedly linked a businessman to human trafficking and drug smuggling. Ressa was not the author of the report, which was posted four months before the law on cyber libel was enacted in September 2012, sparking criticisms that the case was politically motivated and filed in retaliation for Rappler's reporting on Duteres war on drugs, which has claimed thousands of lives in extrajudicial killings committed by police and police-linked death squads. "This is a dark day not only for independent Philippine media but for all Filipinos," the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said. "The verdict basically kills freedom of speech and of the press. But we will not be cowed." Presidential spokesman Harry Roque denied Duterte had any hand in the cyber libel case, noting that he had never filed a libel case against any journalist during his political career. Meanwhile, migrant worker groups and union leaders say they fear their freedom of expression and other rights may be further curtailed if the Philippine government enacts its new anti-terrorism bill. We condemn this law in the strongest terms. Countless activists have been harassed, sent to prison and killed without due process. This law legalizes all of that, says Julia Mariano, a spokeswoman for Migrante International in Taiwan. The House of Representatives passed the Anti-Terrorism Act on June 3, after it was approved by the Senate three months earlier. On Tuesday, the presidents office received the document. Duterte, who this month marked the bill as urgent, has 30 days to approve or veto it amid growing opposition. Overseas migrant leaders, much like those who oppose the law in the Philippines, are concerned that the new bill defines terrorism too broadly. Under the bill, a special council composed mainly of members appointed by the president would be in charge of ordering the detentions of anyone they deemed to be terrorists. If it goes ahead, suspects could be detained without a warrant and remain in custody without being charged for more than three weeks. Under current legal provisions, terrorism suspects must be brought before a judge in three days. Most rights groups argue that those taken into custody should appear before a judicial authority within 48 hours. Mariano, a spokeswoman for the migrants group in Taiwan, says the bills definition of terrorism is too vague. We know our government hasnt taken criticisms well and it may dismiss them as terrorism or rebellion, she says. Citizens like me should not have to worry that our legitimate concerns will eventually cost our lives and safety. The Philippines has also been fighting Asias longest-running insurgency, which is led by the Communist Party of the Philippines and the paramilitary arm New Peoples Army. Both are seen by Manila as terrorist organizations. Rights groups and activists have previously been red-tagged, a local term referring to when someone is identified as a communist militant, which critics say has been used to silence dissent. In November last year, the Philippines armed forces labelled 18 groups as fronts for communist terrorism. These included the local arm of the international charity Oxfam, a federation of churches and a womens rights organization, sparking concerns for the safety of activists, who denied such links. A United Nations report this month warned that the proposed anti-terror legislation could make things worse amid a backdrop of the vilification of dissent. According to the UN, between 2015 and 2019, at least 248 human rights defenders, trade union members, legal professionals and journalists were killed in the Philippines due to their work. The Philippine government said the reports faulty conclusions were premised on alleged violations and that authorities had been focused on ensuring public safety and security. That being said, the government will continue to respect its international legal obligations, including human rights, the statement read. There will be "no happy clappy" leap from Fine Gael into a coalition with Fianna Fail, Agriculture Minister Michael Creed says. It is a difficult leap for us, he told RTE radios Today with Sarah McInerney show. This is really, really challenging for Fine Gaels rank and file members. Mr Creed said that living in Cork North West made his particular support of the deal more complicated. "Since my election, this has always been a Fine Gael or Fianna Fail constituency. I live 10 miles from Beal na Blath, so that in itself puts a historical context on this. "This is really, really challenging for Fine Gael rank and file members, but at the end of the day, we do best when we do what's needed in the national interest. "Some people look at our putative government partners and say look at their last period in government, but we have to look forward." Mr Creed admitted it would be difficult for him to vote for a Fianna Fail taoiseach but said he would do so in the national interest. He was speaking as Fine Gael's youth wing, Young Fine Gael reiterated its opposition to coalition. "As a Party, we believe Fine Gael is at its best when it governs responsibly, and genuinely seeks a Republic built on equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcomes. It is our members view that these values, and Fine Gaels distinct identity, will be irreparably jeopardised by entering into a government with Fianna Fail and the Green Party. "Additionally, we believe such a government will strengthen the position of Sinn Fein in a future election potentially undoing all of Fine Gaels prudent governance and progress, domestically and abroad." At the same time, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin told Radio Kerry that there have to be compromises with the other parties in government, including a U-turn on ensuring the liquified gas terminal at Shannon goes ahead. Mr Martin had supported the project but the programme for government says the new coalition, if formed, will withdraw the Shannon LNG terminal from the EU Projects of Common Interest list in 2021. Instead, Mr Martin flagged the potential to grow wind energy. We can't force our way on every issue, he said. He also said he was taking nothing for granted about getting his party to vote for the coalition deal. He said he was confident about it being approved but didn't underestimate the challenges in getting the party's 18,000 members to back it. Mr Martin admitted there would be pressure on health services and spending in those areas with the Covid-19 pandemic and that the overriding priority for the new coalition would be jobs and getting people back to work. The party leader also said he was considering which figures would be elevated to government, but that this would be decided if and after the deal is approved. He also defended negotiations with the Greens, saying that under the terms of the pact some 1.5bn in carbon taxes collected would be diverted into rural agriculture schemes Meanwhile, Independent TDs have yet to meet parties about how they could play a role in government. They said they would be in touch on Monday but haven't been, said TD Michael Fitzmaurice. Other Independents said they were at a loss to understand what the strategy was with the proposed coalition and any cooperation with them. Wexford TD Verona Murphy said that the deal "has no substance until we see the economic policy". "As they say, show me the money." Handwriting text writing Are You Ready For Tomorrow question. Concept meaning Preparation to the future Motivation Stand blackboard with white words behind blurry blue paper lobs woody floor. COVID-19 is a socio-economic disaster thats decimated many sectors of the global economy. As Canada looks to reopen for business from the nearly three months of unprecedented lockdowns, theres no telling what the response will be. Many provinces are reopening in phases for the summer. As exciting as this return to normalcy is, investors must realize that theres a risk that such re-openings could be rolled back should a second outbreak, such as the one going on in Texas, be in the cards. The insidious COVID-19 is an unpredictable beast, and given that the likelihood of more bad news is high, retail investors should seek to limit their exposure to high-risk, high-upside names like Air Canada (TSX:AC), especially with a sizeable chunk of their Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) funds. The smart money doesnt look nearly as fearless as the average retail investor Many big-league institutional investors are taking it easy with the all-or-nothing spec bets, including the likes of bankrupt bargains like Hertz that retail investors have been piling into of late. Most of the smart money has opted to go with more resilient, albeit pricier stocks amid great uncertainties. Unless youve got conviction in a high-upside spec bet like Air Canada, it may be a wise idea for you to invest more cautiously given that we could be exiting one of what could be many government-mandated lockdowns. Dont go all-in on the V-shaped recovery from the COVID-19 crisis just yet If youre still optimistic about a timely arrival of a vaccine by year-end, it makes sense to pick your spots in the most at-risk names out there, as long as youve got defensive positions that can have your back should no vaccine land and were due for further economy-crippling lockdowns to bend another curve of infections. Thats why the barbell portfolio makes a tonne of sense for retail investors at a time like this. If you pick your spots carefully, you can position yourself to crush the markets, regardless of whether or not were due for further lockdowns. Story continues While the shot at potential multi-bagger gains from the likes of an airline stock is enticing for new investors, few seem to be thinking about a worst-case scenario, when a handful of the major commercial airlines go belly up amid the crisis. Heck, even Boeing CEO David Calhoun has muted expectations for the recovery of the air travel industry, noting that it could take years to return to pre-pandemic levels and also acknowledging that a U.S. airline could be at risk of going bankrupt by year-end. So, are more COVID-19 lockdowns coming over the next year? Nobody knows. But investors should prepare for such a disastrous scenario with a portion of their portfolio so its not taken to the cleaners should the most at-risk COVID-19 stocks crumble like a paper bag in the face of further coronavirus-induced lockdowns. On its own, Air Canada stock may be a dangerous bet, but when put alongside a defensive dividend stock thats resilient in the face of the pandemic, the airline stock may be a compelling way to tilt the risk/reward trade-off that much more in your favour. The barbell approach will help upside-seeking investors roll with the punches as they come along over the coming months. Stay hungry. Stay Foolish. The post COVID-19: How Likely Are Further Lockdowns in 2020? appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Joey Frenette owns shares of Boeing. 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 By PTI CHENNAI: Customs officials at the airport here have foiled a bid to smuggle ecstasy pills from the Netherlands through parcel service and arrested the consignee from Andhra Pradesh, a top official said on Wednesday. The pills, numbering 400 and worth Rs 12 lakh, sent from Haarlem city were recovered at the Foreign Post Office here. Initial investigations revealed the pills were methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), which on consuming alters mood similar to stimulants producing feelings of increased energy and pleasure, Customs Commissioner Rajan Chaudhary said in a statement. The pills contained more than 470 gms of MDMA and the parcel was addressed to a 27-year old man hailing from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. He was brought to the city and on questioning confessed that he had booked the parcel online making payments through 'Bitcoin' a Crypto currency, the release said. A dosage of the ecstasy pill above 120 gm can be fatal, the release said, adding the man was produced before a magistrate who remanded him to judicial custody. WASHINGTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A statewide poll of likely Michigan voters finds broad voter support for reductions in immigration in the face of massive layoffs resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. The polling was conducted on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) by the national opinion research firm, Zogby Analytics, on June 10 and 11. The poll indicates that Michigan voters support reductions in the admission of new immigrants and guest workers in the face of the ongoing public health and economic crises gripping the nation. Michigan voters are also significantly more likely to prioritize the need for immigration and border enforcement over programs to legalize millions of illegal aliens. Among the key findings of the Michigan opinion poll: By about margins of 2 to 1 (58% to 32%), Michigan voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. By a 47% to 37% margin, Michigan voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." 77% of voters in Michigan believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 15% disagree. believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 15% disagree. By a 59% to 41% majority, Michigan voters said they would prioritize reducing overall immigration, strengthening immigration enforcement and border security, and removing illegal aliens from the country, over increasing immigration, granting amnesty to illegal aliens, or decriminalizing illegal immigration. "The polling shows clear public support in Michigan for many of the immigration policy steps that the Trump administration has taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting economic and unemployment crisis. Voters in this key state agree that reductions in the admission of new immigrants and foreign workers are a prudent response to a crisis that has resulted in some 40 million Americans losing their jobs, and there is broad support for additional measures to be taken by the White House," commented Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "The polling numbers send a clear message to Senators Peters and Stabenow, and members of Michigan's congressional delegation, that jobs and economic security are always critical issues in presidential and congressional elections. Both Senators continue to support guest worker programs and immigration expansion despite the clear negative effects it has on the economy, particularly during the current economic and public health crisis wrought by coronavirus. "While voters certainly understand the extraordinary circumstances that have led to massive unemployment, they will also expect that the president and their federal representatives will take all reasonable steps to minimize the damage done to American workers, and expedite recovery for those who have lost jobs. This poll makes it clear that Michigan voters understand and support the need to reduce the flow of people entering the country who will compete for jobs during this crisis and once the economy fully reopens," Stein concluded. The poll of 603 likely voters has a +/-4.0 percent margin of error. Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or [email protected] ABOUT FAIR Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 2 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced. SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Related Links http://fairus.org Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 21:51:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TOKYO, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Japan's exports in May logged the steepest year-on-year decline in more than 10 years, as demand from overseas remained weak amid the coronavirus pandemic, the government said in a report on Wednesday. According to the Finance Ministry, exports plunged 28.3 percent from a year earlier to 4.18 trillion yen (39 billion U.S. dollars), marking the sharpest fall since September 2009 and logging the 18th successive month of decline. By country, exports to China, Japan's largest trading partner, dropped 1.9 percent, while those to the United States slumped 50.6 percent. Those to the European Union, meanwhile, dropped 33.8 percent in the recording period, the ministry's preliminary figures showed. Imports to Japan also logged the biggest decline in more than a decade, falling 26.2 percent to 5.02 trillion yen (46.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the recording period, the ministry added, marking the 13th straight month of decline. Japan's goods trade deficit in May stood at 833.39 billion yen (7.7 billion U.S. dollars), with the figure in negative territory for a second straight month, the ministry said. Enditem A tourist visits Yongjoosa, a temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. It is located on the slopes of Hwasan in Taean-eup, Hwaseong, in the province of Gyeonggi.- VNS Photo Minh Thu Its an attempt to boost tourism after the serious consequences caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, Park Jong Sun, KTO Vietnam director, said on Tuesday in Hanoi. During the first half of the year, the tourism industries of both Vietnam and South Korea were seriously influenced, leading to big economic losses, he said. The number of Vietnamese tourists to South Korea counted to the end of May was 73,490, decreasing 195 per cent in comparison with the same period last year. Its the deepest drop of Korean tourism that I have seen, he said and affirmed that KTO will host various events to promote Korean tourism. The first one is a photo contest Relive your Korea trip launched worldwide in April. The first round ended with 53,000 entries sent from tourists around the world. The voting round will take place on June 19-30 to find winners. A dance contest will be launched specifically for Vietnamese participants. Korea Tourism Yoona Dance Cover Challenge is scheduled to take place in August. Contestants will cover dances of Yoona, member of Girls Generation (SNSD) group, performed in videos promoting Korean tourism of KTO. A Korea Travel Experience Booth will be held in Hanoi from August to October to introduce Korean tours with attractive mini games. Visitors will experience Korean tourism through various themes K-pop, K-Beauty, K-Drama, nature, gastronomy and destinations. The biggest event of the year is Korean Days in Hanoi, which will be held in November following the success of the events in Hanoi and HCM City in 2017 and 2019, respectively. KTO will co-ordinate closely with Vietnamese travel agents to boost the sales of tours and air tickets to South Korea. Hayes to lead, assess facilities management at W&M Samuel Hayes III: Throughout his career, Hayes has combined his expertise in facilities and procurement with a focus on performance-based management. Courtesy photo Photo - of - Hide Caption Samuel Hayes III, a professional engineer and management consultant, has been selected to lead William & Marys facilities management department as interim chief facilities officer beginning July 1. Van Dobson, who has served as W&Ms associate vice president of facilities management since 2014, will be retiring at the end of June. A U.S. Navy veteran, Dobson came to W&M after leading facilities management efforts at Lehigh University and UNC Chapel Hill. Under his leadership, W&M has undertaken several significant construction and renovation projects, including the completion of the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center and expansion of the Alumni House. Throughout his career, Hayes has combined his expertise in facilities and procurement with a focus on performance-based management. He is principal and founder of Stratageum, a management consultancy in Richmond, Virginia, that focuses on connecting small, women and minority (SWaM) owned businesses with multiple industries. Prior to launching his consulting firm, Hayes has worked as an executive leader in higher education, state government and private organizations on areas ranging from facilities management and operational efficiency to new initiatives and business process transformation. In his new role at W&M, Hayes will be leading an assessment of the universitys facilities management department and its constituents needs. The assessment will reflect input from the departments staff and others across campus as well as peer and industry benchmarks Im thrilled that Sam has agreed to step into this role, said Amy Sebring, vice president for finance and technology. Our facilities, grounds and the team that supports them are vital to making William & Mary a place where students want to live and learn and faculty and staff want to work and engage. Sam has the experience and background both to support the daily operations and to help us envision how we support this critical function going forward. From 2016 to 2018, Hayes served as a project management consultant for VCU, leading a facilities management peer review process that was conducted by APPA, an association that focuses on leadership in educational facilities. As assistant vice president for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, he led corporate tenant relations, real estate lease development and review with its legal and finance departments. In that position, he assessed facility management services, supplier diversity efforts, physical plant operations and maintenance among aspects of the banks operations. From 2008 to 2010, he served as special assistant to the governor for SWaM business development and the Commonwealth of Virginias chief supplier diversity officer. Before that, he was director of operations for the Roanoke Higher Education Authority, a manager for the City of Roanokes Utility Line Services Department/Division, an operations engineer manager for the Richmond Metropolitan Transportation Authority and interim assistant resident engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Hayes earned his bachelors degree in civil engineering from Old Dominion University, his masters degree in public administration and public policy from Virginia Tech, and is a licensed professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is the parent of a Class of 2011 graduate of W&M. As interim chief facilities officer, I look forward to building on the foundation of those who went before me while facilitating an environment conducive to the needs of the students, professors and staff of William & Mary, said Hayes. Donald Trump said school choice was the civil rights issue "of all time" as he announced reforms on Tuesday to address police brutality following global outrage over the killing of George Floyd. During his White House remarks, Mr Trump said his administration was fighting for school choice, "which really is the civil rights of all time in this country". "Frankly school choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade, and probably beyond," the president said. "Because all children have to have access to quality education, a child's zip code in America should never determine their future and that's what was happening." It is the second time in the past week that Mr Trump has positioned school choice in the company of civil rights milestones like the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, same-sex marriage and the civil rights movement itself. At his "Transition to Greatness" round table on police reform in Dallas on Thursday, 11 June, Mr Trump renewed his call for Congress to enact school choice because access to education "is the civil rights issue of our time". "It really is it's the civil rights issue of our time when you can have children go to a school where their parents want them to go, and it creates competition, and other schools fight harder because all of a sudden they say, 'Wow, we're losing it, we have to fight hard,'" Mr Trump said. "But there are groups of people against that. You have unions against it. You have others against it. And they're not against it for the right reasons, they're against it for a lot of the wrong reasons." Opponents to the school choice policies argue they would divert money from public schools and towards private schools. The Trump administration is pushing its "Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act" that it says will give one million children freedom to attend a school of their choice through scholarships for tuition, out-of-district transportation, tutoring and apprenticeships. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has welcomed Mr Trump's comments on what she calls "education freedom", and says it is the pathway to a stronger country. Mr Trump continued his push for school choice in the frame of a civil rights issue on Tuesday as he signed the executive order on policing after almost three weeks of both peaceful protests and violent riots across the country. "We have tremendous opposition from people who know they shouldn't be opposing it. School choice," Mr Trump said. "All children deserve equal opportunity because we are all made equal by God. So true." WASHINGTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC) and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) held a virtual press conference announcing their joint complaint against the FDA, represented by Pollock Cohen, LLP. The complaint requests the court compel the FDA to fulfill its mandate to take action on FDA's own conclusions that it would benefit the public health to add menthol to the list of prohibited characterizing flavors and therefore ban it from sale. Read the full complaint here. "We stand before you today to announce that we are suing the United States Food and Drug Administration for their failure to implement public health policy that protects the health and welfare of African Americans with respect to menthol cigarettes," said Carol McGruder, founding member and co-chair of the AATCLC. This lawsuit brings to the forefront the lack of action from the FDA to fulfill its mandate concerning whether menthol products should be taken off the shelves. In 2009, Congress passedand President Obama signed into lawthe Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The act created a flavor ban in cigarettes but excluded menthol, subject to further research. In 2011, the FDA's Advisory Committee concluded that the "Removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States." Despite this conclusion, the FDA has not begun the rulemaking process of removing menthol from combustible cigarettes. The plaintiffs are asking the court to direct the FDA to take action. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, smoking-related illnesses are the number one cause of death in the African American community, and 85 percent of African American smokers smoke menthol cigarettes. "By continuing to delay, the FDA and the U.S. government are failing to protect the health of U.S. citizens, particularly African Americans, and the U.S. is also falling behind the global trend as countries around the world are increasingly banning menthol," said Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, managing attorney at ASH. Our nation finds itself at a moment in time when action to eradicate systemic inequities and racism is crucial to fighting injustice, and this case is a perfect example of action which will elicit positive change. It is no coincidence that the timing of the announcement falls two days before the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth, the day slaves in Texas finally heard they had been freed. Juneteenth has become a day in the Black community to celebrate the sacrifices that it took to free African Americans from slavery. "Now is the time for the FDA to step up to the plate and do what it was supposed to do years ago prohibit the sale of all flavored tobacco products," said Dr. Phillip Gardiner, founding member and co-chair of AATCLC. Contacts: [email protected] (310) 251-5094 [email protected] (202) 390-9513 SOURCES Action on Smoking and Health; and African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council By Andre Vltchek June 16, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - A few days ago, I received a letter from a person in Hong Kong. Not from a fan of my writing; on the contrary, or should I put it more precisely: from a person who is standing clearly at the other side of the barricade. She tried to explain why some people in Hong Kong are losing trust in the government, and why Hong Kong does not want to be like mainland China, where the internet is censored and some topics are not allowed to be discussed. Generally, she addressed things that are commonly tackled by those who are running around the streets, clad in ninja-style outfits, brutalizing Hong Kong for several months already. But at least she wanted to talk, to explain, in a polite way. Although the end of her email was banal and, should I say, bizarre: Hong Kong people are losing hope and trust toward the government, people are afraid of the Chinese government of all the things that they have done and been doing. And some try to get foreign countries attention, not as a friend, not because Hong Kong people admire them, but because the Chinese government see them as the enemy, and the involvement of foreign countries, as well as the call of Hong Kong independence, can piss them off. This email arrived at the same time when the entire world rose in outrage against the cold-blooded murder of an African American person, Mr George Floyd. Tens of thousands were marching in Tokyo and Buenos Aires, in London and Paris. In the West, protesters clashed with riot police, and many people were badly injured, while thousands were arrested. Water cannons were used; streets got barricaded. I have been writing on the topic constantly, from the start, also giving interviews to various media outlets all over the world. And I kept repeating that what occurred to Mr Floyd has been happening to people in countless countries, even to the countries themselves, in all corners of our world: Western neo-colonialist powers have been kneeling on their necks, killing them, cutting their flow of oxygen. In many poor nations, people are kept in unimaginable misery or being killed so the West can get raw materials and labor almost for free. I worked in some of the toughest, most desperate parts of the world, making films, writing books and reporting. Therefore I know. A young woman who wrote to me an email from Hong Kong never mentioned any of these horrors. Most likely, she knew nothing about them. Most definitely, she never went out of her way to find out what the West is doing to her fellow human beings. For her, that censored internet or inability to discuss certain topics openly has been the highest crime she could imagine. Or that is how she was told to think. That is how most of people around her are conditioned to think. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Years ago, I spoke to Occupy Central participants, and to the recent partakers in the riots of 2019 and 2020: They knew absolutely nothing about the barbarities committed by the NATO countries, all over the world. Now imagine China; a country with a distinct, successful socialist model. A country that is not attacking, not occupying anybody. An extremely peaceful country that is trying to improve the life of all of its citizens, even the inhabitants of poor countries on all continents. China is being attacked, provoked, insulted, on all fronts. Precisely by the West, which does not want to lose its grip on global power. China is being pushed toward a military conflict. Social media, mass media, all sorts of propaganda are unleashed against Beijing. Lies about Chinas revolutionary past are fabricated and disseminated; lies about the Tiananmen Square events; in fact, any types of lies that could hurt, destabilize or at least confuse this great and brave nation. What is China supposed to do? Just receive punches? Just tolerate fabrications? No! China is obliged to defend itself and its people. It cannot just let all that destructive propaganda, openly geared at ruining the State, enter the airways and social media. In the past, China let down its guard, and it led to the Period of Humiliation, when the West occupied, divided and ransacked the nation. And Beijing does precisely that it is identifying and stopping fake news and the extremist, hostile, vile ideological infiltration and attacks. And it does it in a mild way because Chinas censorship is nowhere as advanced and brutal as that in the West. This, the rioters, also refuse to acknowledge! Individuals in Hong Kong who are disrupting the citys life while insulting their motherland are stuck in their little world of selfish preoccupations and self-interests. Again, they were conditioned to feel and think this way. They are totally lacking knowledge; the global context. The entire world is waking up, condemning the barbaric killing of Mr George Floyd by a group of deranged racist cops in Minneapolis. People on all continents are symbolically connecting that murder to the countless horrible events committed by Western imperialism during more than 500 years. But many young kids in Hong Kong, including the one who wrote to me an email, are mainly preoccupied with their social media; their little fragmented universes of mobile phone, tablets and me-me-me spaces. As the world is boiling, the rioters look increasingly ridiculous and irrelevant. The global priority now is to save billions of human beings who cannot breathe under the boots of the Western imperialism. But it appears that the Hong Kong rioters, who are conditioned to fight against their own country over a few petty privileges, will never understand what is really happening in Minneapolis, and in fact, all over the world! 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 . Post your comment below A Virginia sheriff has apologized to a black pastor who was arrested earlier this month after he called 911 to report that a group of white people were trespassing on his property and taunting him with racial slurs. The pastor, Leon K. McCray, 61, called the authorities during the confrontation, which began when he saw two people hauling a refrigerator to the dumpsters at the apartment building he owns in Edinburg, Va., on June 1. Mr. McCray, who declined to comment when reached by phone, told WUSA-TV that the two people became angry when he asked them to leave the property. They quickly returned, he said, with three friends, who were also white. Mr. McCray said that the five people surrounded him and began using racial slurs, and that one head-butted him while another shoved him from behind. In a sermon on June 7, a video recording of which he posted to YouTube, Mr. McCray told his congregation at the Lighthouse Church and Marketplace Ministries in Woodstock, Va., that one of the people ran to me full speed snatching his shirt off, jumping in my face, and then he circled around behind me. Swimmers, surfers, fishermen and beach users are advised to be careful following an increased number of reports of weever fish on beaches. This little sand-coloured fish lives on beaches and can cause reactions ranging from painful swelling to anaphylactic shock for anybody unfortunate enough to stand on one. The weever fish grows to around 15 centimetres and spends most of the time buried under the sand with just its venomous black dorsal fin showing. The mouth is in an unusual position on its head, oblique and almost vertical and contains sharp teeth. Roger Sweeney of Water Safety Ireland said: They are found all around the Irish coast but only in sandy areas where the water is warm and shallow close to the mean low water tide line. A typical scenario that brings them to attention is when there is a new moon which gives us higher and lower spring tides which means that swimmers and surfers have to venture further out on the beach into the area where the weever fish live. We advise the public to avoid swimming approximately one hour either side of low water to reduce the risk of stepping on them. People can also wear flip flops or sandals when walking on the beach close to low water. Should a bather step on a weever fish then the result can be painful as the spines embed into the skin and discharge their poison. The pain is at its most intense for the first two hours at which point the foot normally goes red and swells up. It may feel numb until the following day with irritation and pain that can last for up to two weeks. Sometimes the spine breaks off in the foot and it will cause discomfort until it is removed. Mr Sweeney said: You won't see a Weever fish easily but you will know it's there if you are unfortunate enough to stand on one since its back has this defensive sting mechanism. Although the sting can be very painful, it will not cause permanent damage. However, some people can suffer more severe reactions. One danger is that it can cause anaphylactic shock or allergic reaction to those who are very vulnerable in this respect, said Mr Sweeney. People who have been stung could take painkillers and if they develop an allergic reaction to the sting, a course of antihistamines is recommended. People can also seek assistance from a lifeguard who are all qualified first aiders. If you are away from a beach with lifeguard support, as soon as possible get the area which has been stung, invariably the foot, into hot water. This increases the blood flow which assists natural cleaning and healing and the heat also helps to break down the poison. The water needs to be over 40C to be of any benefit in breaking down the poison. Most reports of weever fish stings occur during the month of August although this does not mean that this fish is particularly prevalent during this month. It merely reflects the greater numbers of bathers as the sea temperature reaches the highest of the year. The only death on record after someone was stung by a Weever occurred back in 1927 when an angler suffered multiple stings whilst fishing off Dungeness in the UK. US forces have not adequately investigated the two aerial attacks in February and March, Human Rights Watch says. The United States military has not adequately investigated two air raids in Somalia earlier this year that have killed at least seven civilians, including a child, according to the Human Rights Watch (HRW). In a report released on Tuesday, the rights group said the killing of the civilians was in apparent violation of the laws of war. The HRW was referring to incidents on February 2 and March 10 in Jilib and Janaale, where no evidence of a military target involving the al-Shabab armed group was found, according to the report. Al-Shabab is an al-Qaeda-linked group fighting to overthrow Somalias internationally recognised government. It once controlled much of the country, but it was forced out of the capital, Mogadishu, in 2011 and has since lost most of its other strongholds. Its fighters, however, regularly stage attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere. The air raid in Jilib, a small farming town in southern Somalia that is controlled by al-Shabab, killed a young woman and wounded several others. On March 10, another raid near Janaale, some 95km (59 miles) south of Mogadishu, hit a minibus. Six civilians, including a child, were killed. According to HRW, relatives of those killed in both incidents publicly denied the US Africa Commands (AFRICOM) designation of their relatives as al-Shabab members and called on the US forces and the Somali government to meet them. The HRW said neither AFRICOM nor the Somali government is known to have contacted family members to investigate the attacks. Reaching out to civilians seeking redress is not only the right thing to do, it will also help make its civilian casualty assessments more accurate, Laetitia Bader, HRWs Horn of Africa director, said. AFRICOM seems determined not to uncover whether its air strikes killed civilians or violated the laws of war. The military chain of command should recognise that not only does it have a legal obligation to investigate, but that basic decency toward the families of those harmed means providing financial assistance and an apology, not silence, Bader said. Stop killing innocent people Between February and May, HRW said it interviewed 14 people by phone, including relatives of those killed in the February and March attacks four of whom visited the scene in its immediate aftermath and assessed publicly available information about the air strikes. We request that they stop killing innocent people, a relative of a boy killed in the minibus attack was quoted as saying by HRW. They have to make sure is it a soldier or a civilian, they need to identify exactly [who they target] before they launch the attack. We also request that there be compensation, from Somali government and US government with help of Somali government. Although AFRICOM recently established an online public reporting portal on which alleged civilian casualties can be reported, HRW noted that this reporting mechanism is not accessible for many Somalis living in remote areas or where the internet is banned. In Jilib, the victims father, Kusow Omar Abukar, told Al Jazeera by phone that his family was huddled over dinner outside their tin-roof house when the strike hit, completely destroying his home. HRW also noted that the legal frameworks under which the US uses lethal force in Somalia, including its standards for assessing civilian harm, are unclear. The US carried out its first drone attack in Somalia in 2011. But the frequency of these attacks has significantly surged since President Donald Trump came to power in 2017. Once he assumed office, Trump relaxed some of the rules limiting civilian casualties and designated large swathes of land in the country, including Jilib, as areas of active hostilities. HRW urged AFRICOM to take all necessary measures to minimise civilian loss of life, investigate allegations of laws-of-war violations and include, as well as review methodology used in its assessments for distinguishing between combatants and civilians. The US did not immediately respond to the report. The Economy minister has defended the make-up of a new economic advisory group, insisting its members are international leaders in their fields. Diane Dodds was responding to criticism from MLAs that the body, which comprises a number of chief executives and business experts, does not include trade union figures, academics or representatives from the social enterprise sector or green economy. Appearing before her Assembly scrutiny committee at Stormont, Mrs Dodds said: The Economic Advisory Group is made up of people who are leaders in their field and they are there to identify global market opportunities as well as opportunities across Northern Ireland. She said her department would always focus on industries that are already well established in the region, such as tourism and agri-food. Expand Close Press Eye Belfast Northern Ireland 16th June 2020 Economy Minister Diane Dodds with Ellvena Graham at Parliament Buildings, Stormont. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Press Eye Belfast Northern Ireland 16th June 2020 Economy Minister Diane Dodds with Ellvena Graham at Parliament Buildings, Stormont. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. The minister said the group would seek to identify emerging global opportunities and trends that Northern Ireland could tap into as the world economy rebuilds after lockdown. The EAG will be chaired by Ellvena Graham, former head of Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland. This is an exciting opportunity to work together with the business community as our partners, as we develop an economy strategy for the long-term future of Northern Ireland, Mrs Dodds told the committee. The minister unveiled the membership of the group earlier on Wednesday as she published a 12 to 18-month recovery plan post-Covid-19. The strategy focuses on delivering higher paying jobs, developing a highly skilled workforce and a more regionally balanced economy. Committee chairwoman Caoimhe Archibald was among those calling for the groups membership to be expanded. The group must be representative of the cross section of our economy, said the Sinn Fein MLA. Amongst the current membership are no representatives of workers, climate science or the green economy. Expand Close Caoimhe Archibald (Liam McBurney/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Caoimhe Archibald (Liam McBurney/PA) To be effective, and to seriously deal with longstanding problems of the past, the crisis of the present, and the threat of climate breakdown, the minister must now widen out the membership of the Economic Advisory Group. The SDLPs Sinead McLaughlin described it as a missed opportunity. Not detracting from the high level of expertise on the group, and we look forward to working with them, it is deeply disappointing that there is no representation from trade union, community and voluntary sector and our thriving social economy sector, she said. These sectors are critical to our efforts to build a fairer, greener economy that works for everyone and their voices would be a valuable part of this conversation. Addressing the committee, the DUPs Gary Middleton said Northern Ireland was lucky to have such an array of experts on the group. This group is about bringing together world leaders, he said. It should be actually commended that we have some of these people to go on to this group given their schedules and their expertise these are global players. I think its very welcome and I do look forward to hearing from them. Pleased to launch our Economic Advisory Group & plans to rebuild the Northern Ireland economy. I have no doubt that their combined business expertise will lead to advice and recommendations which will be extremely valuable as we plan for the future.https://t.co/V3vIEd68ik pic.twitter.com/EoMfDfWMTb Diane Dodds MLA (@DianeDoddsMLA) June 17, 2020 Meanwhile environmental charity the RSPB welcomed the Ministers commitment to build an inclusive and green economy but questioned the lack of representation of those with expertise in green economics. RSPB NI Director, Joanne Sherwood, who said: It would be remiss to move forward without this expertise on the Economic Advisory Group and we would urge the Minister to give serious consideration to co-opting an expert in natural capital and green economics onto the group to fill this gap. The ministers Rebuilding A Stronger Economy plan, published on Wednesday, said Northern Ireland will face a deep and prolonged economic downturn as a result of the pandemic. The economic challenges, including an expected increase in unemployment and a drop in consumer spending, are likely to be further compounded by the lack of clarity around Brexit, the report added. Mrs Dodds said the numbers added to the unemployment register in April were more than the jobs created in the previous six years. I think it shows the depth of the difficulty very, very starkly, she told MLAs. Six years of labour market progress just disappeared with those people who were added to the register in April and, as you can see, this trend has continued. The minister said young people and women would be hardest hit by the contraction of the employment market. On Brexit, Mrs Dodds said unfettered access for Northern Ireland businesses to the Great Britain market remained her departments key priority. She said she had been in contact with the Government to ensure the region was not hindered from benefiting from new trade deals by the Northern Ireland protocol arrangements. Northern Ireland should access them on the same basis as every other part of the United Kingdoms internal market, she said. The protocol will see Northern Ireland apply single market rules on some goods and act as a customs entry point for the EU. Asked about the prospect of some UK traders pulling out of Northern Ireland due to additional checks across the Irish Sea, she said: It is my job to ensure that neither our consumers are restricted in their choice or by the price of the goods and commodities that they require, and that our manufacturing sector has access to its most important market. She asked whether the EU was backtracking on its pledge that checks could be kept to a minimum. CREO, Inc. announced today the appointment of Sam Osman to the companys Board of Advisors, effective May 1, 2020. Osmans appointment was announced by Susan Acker-Walsh, co-founder and Managing Partner of CREO, an innovative management consulting and advisory firm based in Durham, NC. Over the last two decades, Osman has led or invested in a number of businesses within life sciences. Most recently he served as CEO of Cenduit, an eClinical technology firm from 2016 to 2020 with a successful sale to IQVIA in December 2019. Previously with Quintiles, the worlds largest Contract Research Organization, he oversaw a number of businesses focused on patient centricity, data collection and safety monitoring including building from scratch the industry's first and largest connected devices, sensors, and wearables hub. He also held business and corporate development roles successfully closing in excess of $1bn in deals with pharma and biotech customers as well as several M&A and licensing transactions. We are excited to welcome Sam to our Board of Advisors. Sam brings 15 years of leadership in key areas such as healthcare economics, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, and information technology and services, that are critical to our future operations and strategy, said Susan Acker-Walsh, CREOs CEO. Sam will bring energy to our board and strengthen CREOs commitment to enhancing mission-critical solutions to better serve our clients, employees, and stakeholders. Osman says he is excited to join the board of a growing management consulting firm and use his experience to accelerate positive change. "Having experienced firsthand the value that CREO brings to its clients combined with the deep domain experience that Mike and Susan bring, I'm delighted to join the board and help continue the exponential momentum that the team has built over the past few years." Osman holds a BSc in Economics and Biochemistry from the University of Tampa, an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, and an MBA with distinction from Carnegie Mellon University. He was named to the PharmaVoice Top 100 Leaders in Healthcare and the Triangle Business Journal 40 under 40 in 2019, and the Top 25 Entrepreneurs in the State of Pennsylvania. About CREO, Inc.: CREO is an innovative management consulting firm that shapes growth companies into healthy successful organizations. We provide holistic support for organizations through our expertise in growth management and digital transformation. Our approach creates alignment around vision and strategy with the goal of driving execution and results. To learn more, please visit us at http://www.creoinc.net. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:13:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday chaired the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 in Beijing. The summit, held via video link, was jointly proposed by China, South Africa, the rotating chair of the African Union (AU), and Senegal, the co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Leaders of African countries, including members of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government and rotating chairs of major African sub-regional organizations, and the chairperson of the AU Commission, attended the summit. The secretary-general of the United Nations and the director-general of the World Health Organization also attended the meeting as special guests. Enditem Hundreds of Hong Kongers gathered at Rundle mall in the CBD of Adelaide, South Australia on June 13 to mark the first anniversary of pro-democracy movement in their hometown (Supplied). Protect Australia, Free Hong Kong: Peaceful Protest Marks Anniversary of Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Movement in Adelaide Despite the cold and wet weather, protestors gathered on June 13 at Rundle Mall in the Adelaide CBD, the capital city of South Australia, to mark the first anniversary of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. The demonstrators were mostly university students from Hong Kong. They stood quietly, several feet apart, forming a chain 100 meters down a pedestrian mall. It was a stark contrast to recent protests that saw several capital city centers crowded with up to 20,000 protestors and social distancing rules ignored. Standing in Rundle Mall, the Hong Kong students banners read Liberate Hong Kong: the Revolution of Our Times and CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is a Terrorist Organisation. They expressed their support for Hong Kongers ongoing fight for freedom against the tyrannical Chinese communist regime. They also called for Australians to stand up to the CCPs bullying of other countries in recent monthswhat has become known as the CCPs aggressive wolf warrior diplomacy. Fiona Hui, one of the participants, told the Chinese Epoch Times that the demonstration was to raise awareness and deliver a key message: Protect Australia; Free Hong Kong. We are here to back Hong Kongers ongoing fight for dual universal suffrage for the Legislative Council and the Chief Executive to elect a truly democratic government, Hui said. Hong Kong students and supporters mark the anniversary of the pro-democracy movement in Adelaide on June 13, 2020. (Supplied). Hui explained that it is their right, stipulated in the Joint Declaration signed by Britain and China in 1984, but it has been banned by Beijing and Hong Kongs government. Among the protestors biggest concerns is the Hong Kong National Security Law Beijing legislated in May. On May 28, Beijing passed sweeping national security laws on the city of Hong Kong. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the law would curtail the Hong Kong peoples liberties and dramatically erode Hong Kongs autonomy and the system. We are here to say no to the national security law as it will drastically threaten our basic right such as free speech, free press, free assembly rights, etc, said Hui. We are also requesting the release of lawmaker Ted Hui who was arrested by police brutally yesterday (on June 12), she added. Living and studying in Australia, the group were also concerned about the CCPs infiltration of Australia and expressed their support for Australia protecting its sovereignty. We fully support Australia governments request for an independent inquiry into the origin of COVID-19 pandemic, as it has not only claimed millions of lives, but also impacted many businesses, which could have been avoided if not were for the CCPs lying and cover-up, said Hui. The Hong Kongers also resonated with the recent advocacy to reduce economic reliance on China by Australian businesses and consumers. Hui said she believes everyone can play a part. Hong Kong students and supporters mark the anniversary of the pro-democracy movement in Adelaide on June 13, 2020. (Supplied) We are urging for Australians to boycott One Belt One Road initiative pushed by the CCP, as we cannot afford to trade off our resources for short term money, she said. Also do not buy products made in China if possible. The demonstration amidst the rain caught the attention of many passers-by, with some stopping to express their condemnation of the CCP and support for the Hong Kongers. Hui said she was encouraged that some passersby were from mainland China and showed an interest in the protest. She said more people around the world, including mainland Chinese people, were now awakening to the true colour of the CCP, but also said: We still need to get across the message to a wider audience. Hui emphasised that the protest was targeting the CCP, not the Chinese people. It is important for people to realise that the CCP is a terrorist organisation, she noted. It is a toxic regime violating the human rights of all ethnicities and groups, suppressing people of Hong Kong, killing Tibetans and Uighurs, and committing organ harvesting. What we need to fight against is the CCPs totalitarian regime, not China or Chinese people, she said. The Anniversary of the Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protests Last year on June 9, an estimated more than one million Hong Kongers took to the streets against a proposed legislation to allow extraditions to mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the CCP. Read More Toronto Resident and Former Chinese Supreme Court Judge Wants Chinas Justice System Exposed The Hong Kong government later withdrew the bill in the midst of the escalating protest marches. The protests continued until the outbreak of the CCP virus pandemic, commonly known as novel coronavirus. The National Security Law announced in May has provoked strong reactions across the world. Washington has said it would remove Hong Kongs special treatment in U.S. laws as it deemed the city to no longer be sufficiently autonomous. Other members of the Five Eyes intelligence group (Australia, the UK, and Canada) as well as the European Union have also expressed concerns about the proposed legislation. Epoch Times reporter Chelsea Wong contributed to this article. Ahead of the mass voters registration exercise scheduled to begin on June 30, 2020, nine political parties and an independent presidential candidate in the 2012 and the 2016 elections have shared opinions on the national exercise. While five parties and the independent candidate say they are ready and already training agents as well as representatives ahead of the exercise, three parties say they are still not certain on participating in the exercise. One of the political parties, however, said they were awaiting details of the exercise from the Electoral Commission (EC) before taking a position. Ready The political parties that said they were ready are the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), the Ghana Union Movement (GUM) and the National Democratic Party (NDP), with Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah being the independent presidential candidate, now gunning to become a presidential candidate in the December 7, 2020 polls. Opposition The parties opposed to the exercise are the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the All Peoples Congress (APC) and the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP). The Peoples National Convention (PNC), however, said it was awaiting a gazzete on the registration exercise from the EC to take a final decision on it. NPP Speaking on behalf of the NPP, the partys Communications Director, Mr Yaw Buaben Asamoa, said the party was ready and prepared to partake in the process that would be used to compile a new biometric voters register. He said the party had begun training its officials in preparation for the exercise. We are preparing for the registration exercise across the nation and so, yes, we are ready to partake in it, he said. CPP The acting General Secretary of the CPP, Mr James Kwabena Bomfeh Jnr, for his part, said the party had already alerted its members in the regions to the exercise and urged them to prepare for it. Mr Bomfeh, however, said the exercise, which was barely six months to the December 7 elections, would be a herculean task. We are six months away from the general election and the preparation towards elections are huge and cumbersome, including the compilation of the new register at this time; its not going to be an easy task. So the EC has a huge responsibility to make sure that it does this with speed and haste, but also with caution, because election matters are very delicate and complex and you cannot afford to make any mistake, he said. NDP The General Secretary of the NDP, Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong, said the party was ready to participate in the exercise. Alhaji Frimpong said the party had informed all of its members across the country about the upcoming exercise. We have told all our regional officers to mobilise and sensitise our membership throughout the regions. We are ready; we are not opposed to it at all, as it will enhance our democracy, he said. LPG For his part, the National Chairman of the LPG, John Ameka, said the party had started educating its members on how to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols during the registration period as part of its preparation. He urged Ghanaians to go and register, so that they would have the opportunity to choose the next President. GUM The General Secretary of the GUM, Rev. Anthony Gold Ahinful, indicated that the party had trained a number of agents who would monitor the registration exercise across the country. We are sending two agents to each polling station. They will be present throughout the registration period, he added. Independent candidate The independent candidate, Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah, who is also aspiring to contest the 2020 elections, encouraged all Ghanaians to participate in the exercise. He said the duty of political parties was to encourage their members to engage in the exercise. We are encouraging our supporters and every Ghanaian to go and register, so that everyone will have the opportunity to exercise his or her franchise, he said. NDCs position The National Chairman of the NDC, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, said the partys position on the matter had not changed. He said the NDC was of the view that compiling a new register, with barely six months to the election, was not acceptable. We are not in a secure environment to undertake a mass registration exercise and again we have said the timing is also not good, he said. PPP For his part, the Director of Operations of the PPP, Nana Ofori Owusu insisted that the EC should not compile a new register, adding that we pray that they do not do a new register. He indicated that the party was yet to send a communique to its members on its decision. APC The founder of APC, Mr Hassan Ayariga, said the party was opposed to the compilation of the new register because it was a waste of resources. He said the current register had the best form of identification, which was the fingerprint, hence there was no need to compile a new register. Mr Ayariga said there was already voter apathy due to the mismanagement of the economy by both the NPP and the NDC governments. That, he explained, would also make Ghanaians not even show up to register, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc. PNCs position For the PNC, the Leader of the party, Dr Edward Mahama, and its National Chairman, Mr Bernard Mornah, said although the party received a letter on June 9, this year, informing it that the process would begin on June 30, it was demanding a more detailed document on the registration exercise in the form of a gazette to help it take a decision to participate in it or not. They sent us a letter on the 9th that the process will begin on 30th June and I responded to the letter that because the C.I. 126 was still under deliberation in Parliament, they should send us a gazette rather than a mere letter because the gazette will include the names of officers who will conduct the exercise and the exact location where the registration will take place, he said. Mr Mornah said the PNC would only take a decision to participate in the exercise if the EC responded to the letter it sent. While corroborating what the partys chairman said, Dr Mahama explained that the party was initially in favour of the registration, but upon a review at its meeting recently, it felt that the EC must provide more details on the exercise. That, he said, would enable the party to take a position. #GhanaVotes2020 Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The UT health department has decided to change the nomenclature for staff nurses and nursing sisters to nursing officers and senior nursing officers. The new protocol will be applicable to the employees working under the UT health department at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, and allied hospitals. Meanwhile, the administration is also considering implementing the same for nurses working under the department of medical education and research at Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32. UT health secretary Arun Gupta said that the decision had no financial implications. The decision is in favour of employees (nurses) under the health department and we will examine the medical education department of GMCH-32 separately as per Punjab government provisions and our recruitment rules. Shobhna Pathania, nursing sister at GMSH-16, said they were happy with the decision and that the administration had given them the reward for dedication shown during the pandemic. I am happy and want to extend gratitude to the seniors in the health department for their sincere efforts, she said. Parminderjit Kaur Thind, president of the nurses association, said, I am extremely grateful to the officials including Dr Dewan for recognising our efforts and giving us the respect we deserve. I feel our hard work has finally paid off. NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- American Jewish Committee (AJC) is receiving a Genesis Prize Foundation (GPF) "Speak Out for Israel" grant. The award is part of a global campaign to promote an accurate narrative of Israel and counteract efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state. Funding for the grant was established through the $1 million Genesis Prize (dubbed the "Jewish Nobel" by TIME Magazine), presented last year to American philanthropist and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Rather than accept the monetary award, Kraft directed it towards programs dedicated to combating antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel. "AJC Project Interchange has achieved an international reputation as a premier forum for introducing leading global thought-leaders to Israel. The visits inspire these leaders to build bridges with Israel and the worldwide Jewish community, thereby combatting antisemitism and efforts to delegitimize the world's one and only Jewish-majority state," said AJC CEO David Harris. "The Genesis Prize Foundation grant will allow Project Interchange to continue to introduce leaders to Israel's diversity, democracy, and innovative spirit, while also sharing the reality of its geostrategic challenges," Harris said. Since its founding almost 40 years ago, Project Interchange has brought 6,000 opinion leaders and policy makers from over 120 countries to the Jewish state. These delegations demonstrate that when it comes to understanding Israel, there is simply no substitute for firsthand experience. The visitors are exposed to diverse political perspectives, befitting a vibrant democracy, from Israeli leaders; innovators driving the "Start Up Nation"; and experts sharing insights on challenges facing Israel and the region. Project Interchange has fostered numerous initiatives, such as bilateral business, academic, and research partnerships, countless media articles, and greater understanding of Israel's many strengths and regional challenges. AJC, the first American Jewish organization to open an office in Jerusalem, in 1961, has been actively engaged with Israel since the country's rebirth in 1948. SOURCE American Jewish Committee Related Links http://www.ajc.org British actress Emma Watson, famed for playing Hermione in the Harry Potter film series, and former Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam are set to join the board of French luxury group Kering as it pushes to raise its profile in areas such as sustainability. Kering, behind top fashion brands like Italys Gucci, said that Watson would chair the boards sustainability committee, which is focused on environmental matters - a growing concern for many young luxury shoppers companies want to court. Watson, 30, is also known as a champion of womens rights and is a United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador. Back in 2009, the actor collaborated with Fair Trade pioneer People Tree to make a sustainable collection for women. She also took an ethical stance onto the big screen, while working on her 2017 film, Beauty and the Beast. She worked with the costume designer Jacqueline Durran and the sustainable brand Eco Age to create recycled and sustainably sourced costumes. At the 2016 Met Gala, she wore a custom Calvin Klein dress made from sustainable cotton, satin, and taffeta woven from recycled plastic yarn. Gabriela Hearst, Stella McCartney and several other slow fashion brands feature as some of her favourite go-to fashion brands. On their official Instagram account, Kering posted, Kering is proud to announce that Emma Watson is joining its Board of Directors, alongside Jean Liu and Tidjane Thiam. Their appointments have been approved by Kerings shareholders during the Groups Annual General Meeting, as proposed by the Board of Directors in March 2020. Emma Watson has also been appointed Chair of the Sustainability Committee of the Board of Directors. The combined wealth of experience and skillsets of these three well-known figures will be complementary assets to the Group, enhancing the quality of the work done by the Board of Directors. The latter will benefit from their contribution in defining the Groups strategic orientations. I am delighted to welcome Jean Liu, Tidjane Thiam and Emma Watson to our Board of Directors. Their respective knowledge and competence, the multiplicity of their backgrounds and perspectives will be invaluable additions to the reflections of Kerings Board of Directors. The collective intelligence that comes from the diversity of point of views and the richness brought by different experiences are crucial to the future of our organization, and I am proud to add such impressive talents to the team. Kering said that shareholders had also approved the appointment of Thiam, who quit as Credit Suisse chief executive in February following a spying scandal and revelations that the Swiss bank had snooped on former executives. Thiam, who previously ran insurer Prudential, had said he knew nothing of these activities. He led cost cuts and a restructuring at Credit Suisse which were credited with helping it return to profit. He will chair Kerings Audit Committee, the company said. Jean Liu, president of Chinas biggest ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing, will also join Kerings board, the group added. Kering, which also owns Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, has like peers been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced many store closures worldwide. Enduring restrictions on international travel are likely to weigh on the sector for months to come, especially in shopping capitals like Paris. Chinese customers account for over a third of global luxury goods sales, and many usually shop overseas. Luxury companies have been doubling down all the same on efforts to win over clients, including by bolstering their green credentials. Louis Vuitton owner LVMH said last July that British designer Stella McCartney would advise the groups executive committee on environmental matters. -- with Reuters inputs Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Domestic benchmarks Sensex and Nifty closed on a negative note during Wednesday's volatile session amid weakness in their Asian counterparts. Sensex closed 97 points at 33,507 and Nifty declined 32 points lower to 9,881. Investors were pessimistic after India said that 20 of its army personnel had been martyred in clashes with Chinese troops at Galwan valley in Ladakh. Besides border tensions between Indian and Chinese army, weakness in Asian counterparts, spike in coronavirus cases and sustained foreign fund outflows also kept domestic investors cautious. PowerGrid, NTPC, SBI, UltraTech Cement, M&M, HDFC Bank and Kotak Bank were among the top losers on Sensex. Maruti, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank and Infosys were among top gainers. Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking said,"Amid all, the broader markets outperformed wherein both midcap and smallcap ended with healthy gains of 0.3% and 0.7%. Among the sectors, a mixed trend was exhibited as banking, capital goods, metals ended with losses whereas other sectors like telecom, auto and IT ended with decent gains." Earlier, the market reversed trend amid a recovery in Asian counterparts and traded in the green, led by strong buying in banking and financial stocks. However, indices gave up afternoon gains and closed a tad lower. Expressing views on market trend today, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, "After another day of indecisive trades, brought by the threat of escalation in a border dispute with China, Indian benchmark indices ended slightly negative. FIIs have also been net sellers in equity this week which have impacted the markets." Asian markets traded mixed with investors weighing economic recovery against the resurgence of coronavirus cases in Asia and the US. Wall Street closed with strong gains balanced by positive economic data reported in the US. Investors also turned optimistic after Federal Reserve Chairman said that more stimulus would be needed to pull back the American economy. Meanwhile, companies set to announce their earnings are Pidilite Industries, Muthoot Finance, Indraprastha Gas, HEG, Cummins, Gulf Oil Lubricants India, Fortis Healthcare, JK Cement among others. On the currency front, Rupee, the local currency, ended at 76.15 per US dollar against the last closing of 76.21 per dollar. Commenting on the local unit, Anuj Gupta DVP Commodities and Currencies Research, Angel Broking said," Geopolitical tension between Indian & China is a major cause of depreciation of USDINR. Although uncertainty in the global financial market and increase cases of Covid-19 are also negative for the currency. We expect USDINR may depreciate further and it is expected that USDINR may test 76.60 - 76.80 levels soon." Experts said, global markets were affected by the rising concerns on new coronavirus cases and the resurgence of the virus in various nations. Worldwide, the total number of Covid-19 cases has crossed 81.62 lakh, with the death toll topping 4.41 lakh. India witnessed the highest single-day spike of 2,003 coronavirus fatalities, pushing the death toll to 11,903, while total cases rose to 3.54 lakh with 10,974 new infections. Share Market Update: Sensex ends 97 points lower, Nifty at 9,881; ITC, Kotak Bank, M&M top laggards SBI share price falls 2% amid plan to raise Rs 20,000 cr this fiscal Stocks in news: Schneider, HPCL, Navin Fluorine, Globus Spirits, HCL Technologies, Bank of Maharashtra and more Asian equities trade tad lower amid coronavirus surge, India-China tensions Farmer Dave Burrier plants corn in the Marvin Chapel field in Mount Airy, Maryland, on May 19, 2020. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) Pandemic Exposes Deep Digital Divide in America WASHINGTONAffordable and accessible broadband in the United States has become more essential than ever as the pandemic has moved many social and commercial activities online. However, there are many parts of the country where broadband is still unavailable. During the health crisis, there were huge spikes in the use of broadband as many Americans worked from home and schools closed around the country. Nearly 18 million Americans, mostly in rural areas, lack a reliable high-speed connection, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), although the agency speculates the number could be much higher. The agencys latest broadband deployment report showed that the digital divide in the country has continued to narrow in recent years as more Americans gain access to high-speed broadband. This advancement was fueled by a nearly $80 billion investment in network infrastructure in 2018, according to the government agency. Despite the improvement, however, theres still significant work required to connect rural Americans to affordable internet. The FCC approved another $20.4 billion investment early this year to close the digital gap. In urban areas, 97 percent of Americans have access to high-speed internet. In rural areas, however, that ratio drops to 65 percent, according to the FCC. And on tribal lands, the access is worse, with only 60 percent reaping the benefits of the digital age. There have been several legislative proposals in both the Senate and the House to prioritize broadband build-out during the pandemic. House Democrats launched a plan in April, proposing to invest $86 billion on broadband infrastructure over the next five years. Theyve also launched a new all-Democrat task force on rural broadband chaired by Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip. Accessible and affordable broadband in every house has become more essential with the health crisis, according to Clyburn. The children go to the local parking lot of a local fast food place, so they can get on the internet to do their homework, he said at a press conference on April 30. And Im very pleased that when we had our first infrastructure meeting at the White House, the president said he got it. He understood. President Donald Trump earlier proposed to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure and, according to a Bloomberg article, the administration may soon release a plan. Trump is scheduled to discuss boosting broadband access in rural areas at the White House on June 18. The pandemic has exposed the inequities of the homework gap, which refers to children lacking the connectivity they need to finish their homework assignments online. The Pew Research showed that 35 percent of lower-income households with school-aged children dont have access to high-speed internet at home. COVID-19 has also changed the health care delivery system in the country with telehealth becoming increasingly popular. Broadband-enabled telehealth services have allowed patients to communicate with their doctors and access the care they need without going to the hospital. However, in rural areas the lack of broadband has been a key barrier in the use of telehealth services. From the Alaskan Bush to the Mississippi Delta, no American should get second-class broadband service, or worse yet, no service at all, Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCAThe Rural Broadband Association, said on May 13 in her testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. She praised the innovative ideas floated to address the digital gap problem, but advised Congress not to reinvent the wheel with new programs, but to instead simply enhance, improve, and direct any new funding to existing broadband programs that have been improved over years and even decades. Permitting Efficiency During the hearing, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the committee, said that proposals to solve the digital gap problem should also include ensuring permitting efficiency. Broadband providers need to have access to permits in a timely manner to maintain and upgrade their networks to support increased demand for internet services, he said. In January, Trump introduced a plan to expedite the permitting process for major infrastructure projects, proposing reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a law that is essential in determining the environmental impacts of projects. On June 4, Trump signed an executive order to expedite the permitting process, providing flexibility to agencies for complying with the NEPA in emergency situations. Speaking at a press conference hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in February, Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said the streamlining of permits would help narrow the gap between rural and urban areas in broadband access. Its ridiculous that a farmers child has to go to McDonalds to be able to get online and keep up with his education, he said. Access to broadband is essential for farmers in order for them to stay connected with commodity markets and customers, but nearly 29 percent of U.S. farms have no access to the internet, according to the Farm Bureau. The number of Americans who lack access to broadband could be significantly higher than estimated. Some studies have shown that the true number of people without broadband access is 42 million or even as high as 162 million, the FCC stated in its broadband deployment report. Thats because if a broadband provider tells the FCC that it can offer service to a single customer in a census block, the agency assumes that service is available throughout, the agency stated, noting that this assumption wildly understates the extent of the digital divide in the country. The fossil fuel industry has faced serious headwinds for several years, but the rise of renewables combined with the fall in consumption as a consequence of the global corona crisis is pushing it over the edge and into terminal decline. Although global coal consumption continues to grow slowly, its use has peaked in developed regions. According to the 2019 BP Statistical Review of World Energy, U.S. coal consumption fell by more than 40% in the past decade, while in the EU it has seen a nearly 27% drop. The primary culprits behind coals decline are competition from cheap natural gas brought on by the shale gas boom in the U.S., as well as a surge of renewable capacity aided by legislation aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions. Victims of Their Own Success But the natural gas and subsequent oil boom were victims of their own success. Even though demand growth for both of these commodities has been robust over the past decade, prices have plunged. So while its unsurprising that the coal industry has suffered immense financial stress over the past decade, the same is true of the oil and gas industry. Despite strong demand growth for its products, the prices of oil and natural gas have fallen by more than 50% in recent years. The fossil fuel industry has faced an oversupply problem, as well as a public relations problem. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry was already seen by many as one on its way out, and therefore it struggled to attract investors. Nevertheless, it seemed likely that the industry would enjoy at least another decade of dominance before renewables and electric vehicles combined to put the industry into permanent decline. COVID-19 Rapidly Changed the Outlook But COVID-19 has caused a significant change in the industry outlook. In the early stages of the pandemic, Chinas economy slowed as the country grappled to contain the virus. This slowdown had a negative impact on fossil fuel demand. As oil demand began to soften, OPEC tried to work with Russia to reduce production. Talks failed, a subsequent price war broke out between Saudi Arabia and Russia, and oil prices collapsed. Related: India Looks To Double Oil Refining Capacity By 2030 As COVID-19 spread to other countries and quarantines were implemented, oil prices ultimately fell into negative territory, which had never happened before with a major benchmark. Power demand fell as businesses closed and people stopped travelling or commuting. This created a perfect storm that obliterated fossil fuel demand in April. Global oil demand fell by as much as 30 million BPD, followed by gas and coal demand. Even demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG), which has seen strong growth in recent years, plummeted, and cargos destined for Asia had to be rerouted to Europe, adding to a supply glut there. Meanwhile, renewables may see a small negative impact from the pandemic in the short term but the move toward green energy may gain momentum as the COVID-19 threat fades. Underlying demand for clean energy is rising. Further, the investment climate for fossil fuels will continue to worsen over time, so the industry may find itself struggling to attract new capital even after the crisis. A Place for Nuclear Power However, existing infrastructure of fossil fuels will create some headwinds for renewables, as well as nuclear power, the worlds largest source of low-carbon energy. The industry will hardly give up its primacy without a fight. What this looks like can be observed in Lithuania, which had placed its chips on a new LNG terminal in 2014 to reduce the countrys dependence on Russian gas. However, the Klaip?da terminal was never profitable, and to this day operates at only a fraction of its capacity while incurring costly maintenance fees shouldered by gas consumers. To curb its losses, Klaip?da now receives LNG cargoes from Russia too. Part of the problem is that the LNG market price was already depressed before the COVID crisis. In 2015, when the terminal went online, the price was lower than the price Lithuania paid to Statoil, which forced the state to levy high terminal fees to cover for the losses from selling gas. Now, with the pandemic having further collapsed fossil fuel prices, the fees are going up accordingly, with no contribution to energy security. Related: Oil Markets May Not Fully Recover Until 2022 The decision to bank on LNG under these circumstances is seen as one of the factors leading Lithuania to campaign against a nuclear power plant in Astravets in neighbouring Belarus. Besides constantly questioning the plants safety contrary to international assessments Lithuania has passed laws prohibiting the purchase of energy from Belarus after the power plant begins operations later this and next year. Furthermore, Lithuania is aggressively lobbying Brussels and other capitals in the region for a full boycott of electricity imports from Belarus. If implemented, this could lead to millions of additional CO2 emissions in the region. The New Energy Order? The fact remains that the world could find itself with an energy shortfall if the crisis is long-lasting and fossil fuels disappear faster than originally expected. That could hit the power sector because of falling coal and natural gas production, at a time that global demand for electric vehicles is growing. Nuclear power can be part of a low-carbon sustainable future along with renewable energy. Indeed, the International Energy Agency estimates that in order to meet the worlds sustainability targets the current rate of nuclear capacity additions, which is about 10-12 gigawatts of electricity (GWe) per annum, must be at least be doubled. With the current crisis impacting the fossil fuel sector, capital budgets are being slashed. That implies a decline in output, which could be larger than the capacity of variable renewables to absorb. The current glut of energy supply may turn into a series of severe intermittent shortages when sun doesnt shine, and wind doesnt blow. Although it would be premature to suggest that the current pandemic marks the end of fossil fuels, it might not be a stretch to call this the beginning of the end. Its important to focus on the overall system performance and ensure that the transition to a low carbon future is sustainable itself. By Robert Rapier for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The military stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops on the Line of Actual Control has escalated and led to deadly clashes. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in clashes with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades. This is the biggest confrontation between the two troops after the 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. Soon after the news of the confrontation broke, Indian Twitter did they what they do best - unleashed a war on Chinese President Xi Jinping on social media. And they did so by trending a hashtag, #WinnieThePooh. READ: Sonam Wangchuk, Inspiration Behind '3 Idiots', Wants Indians to Boycott Chinese Goods What does the cute, chubby bear have to do with China? Turns out, the Chinese government hates the beloved cartoon, Winnie the Pooh. To give you some context, it began in 2013 when Xi Jinping traveled to the US on an official visit and he was snapped with then President, Barrack Obama. The photo of the two of them walking soon went viral and several bloggers pointed out it had similarities with a popular cartoon. The scene reminded them of a scene from the Winnie the Pooh series featuring Winnie himself and Tigger. Needless to say, Tigger was Obama and Winnie was Jinping. Here's a photo we found on Twitter archives: This was not all. In the following year, a photo of Jinping and Japans prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was given the same treatment. Only this time, Abe became the melancholic donkey in Winnie the Pooh. An article by the South China Morning Post suggested that this could actually be a blessing in disguise. While most bloggers were poking fun at the Chinese president, the government could actually spin this around to favour them. They could use this to save China's deteriorating reputation in front of the rest of the world. The writer said that this could be a positive PR campaign for Jinping and he could use it to improve foreign relations. But alas, that was not to happen. Jinping saw it as an attack on his dignity and decided to censor Chinese media, including social media platforms. The viral photo of 2015, which consisted of a collage of Jinping during a parade and Pooh peeping out of a kids' toy car, was the final nail in the coffin. The meme which had been circulated widely on social media soon became the most censored photo of the year. While most saw it as some harmless fun, the government saw it as undermining the authority of the presidential office and that of the president himself. Jinping, who has ironically always tried to present himself as a benevolent leader, hated being compared to every child's favourite cartoon character China simply could not bear the thought of having the cute yellow bear becoming symbolic of their leader. Thus, began China's censorship woes. Anything related to Winnie the Pooh - toys, movies, TV series - everything was banned in China. The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 reported that Christopher Robin's movie about Pooh was banned in China. Ever since then, any attack on China on social media has been incomplete without reference to Winnie the Pooh. In fact, every time Xi Jinping makes a move, the hashtags begin trending globally on Twitter. Monday's clash between Indian and Chinese troops have been no different. Take a look: #winniethepooh ... Have u watched this cartoon Winnie the Pooh (@Winniet38686231) June 17, 2020 You don't want war. Go to china and say #WinnieThePooh we don't war. LALIT SHARMA (@LALITSHARMAHP) June 17, 2020 When will the truth come out about the huge amount of corruption and cover ups curtesy of #XiJinping aka #winniethepooh . Its truly sad when certain western media is reporting the propaganda like its facts when we know that many more people have died in China then mentioned. Mo Bahar (@CrypticTradeBTC) June 16, 2020 You so called lizards are always manipulated by that idiot #winniethepooh. Go, Have some bat soup. Aman Surkar (@amansurkar) June 17, 2020 You are afraid of consequences. The whole world is against you including countries like Hong Kong, Tibet. Is #winniethepooh still looking for honey. Aman Surkar (@amansurkar) June 17, 2020 is everything alright with #winniethePooh Ashish Pundir (@itsPundirAshish) June 17, 2020 With tensions between India and China on the rise, Indian Twitter has decided to use these comparisons and memes to attack the Chinese leadership. In India, the Army, Air Force and Navy have been told to be prepared for the worst and placed on the highest level of alert at present. This conflict comes at an inopportune moment when both governments are grappling to deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the Army, Air Force and Navy have been told to be prepared for the worst and placed on the highest level of alert, sources told News18. All three service chiefs and CDS General Bipin Rawat were earlier huddled in a meeting with defence minister Rajnath Singh. Sources added that the local commander has been given a free hand and told to give a befitting reply irrespective of what the Standard Operating Procedure says. READ: PLA Death Squads Hunted Down Indian Troops in Galwan in Savage Execution Spree, Say Survivors Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 PM on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting. Celltrion Group today announced plans to expand its diagnostic portfolio for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, in its efforts to improve access to COVID-19 testing and help prevent the further spread of coronavirus infection worldwide. Celltrion has completed development of a point-of-care antigen testing (POCT) kit for COVID-19 together with South Korean healthcare company BBB, which specializes in blood testing and lab-on-a-chip technology. The POCT kit is a portable and highly sensitive device for use in rapid point of care testing to support early detection of COVID-19 positive patients in clinical settings. Promising early results for a prototype of Celltrions POCT kit for COVID-19 showed more than 95% sensitivity. The kit uses lab-on-a-chip technology consisting of a microfluidic electrochemical biosensor which aims to give fast and accurate results. The kit is designed to show results within 15-20 minutes, and Celltrion anticipates receiving a CE mark in Europe later this month, ahead of the expected launch in July. Celltrion has also entered into a distribution agreement with Humasis, a South Korean in-vitro diagnostic company, to distribute and sell a rapid diagnostic test globally this month. This test is a COVID-19 rapid antibody diagnostic test (RDT) kit, which could offer a cost-effective option and can be used by hospitals to confirm patients to be discharged. Celltrion and Humasis will also cooperate in the development of an upgraded rapid antibody diagnostic test and a rapid antigen diagnostic test, for which Celltrion will apply its proprietary COVID-19 antibody-antiviral technology to enhance detection sensitivity. Celltrion plans to leverage its advanced therapeutic technologies to expand the range of co-developed diagnostic devices beyond SARS-CoV-2 to a number of other infectious diseases as it progresses cooperation with Humasis. We are keen to drive early diagnosis of COVID-19 through the availability of our testing portfolio. We have successfully built solid partnerships with local device companies that are prominent in the field of diagnostic testing. We are committed to providing flexibility for testing needs as the pandemic evolves, and are using our expertise and past experience developing antibody treatments and targeting coronaviruses to fight this pandemic. Ki-Sung Kwon, Head of R&D Unit at Celltrion In addition to progress in diagnostic methods for COVID-19, Celltrion announced positive pre-clinical results for its antiviral antibody treatment last month. A tourist spot in Hanois outskirts Duong Lam village is the birthplace of Vietnam s first two kings Phung Hung (791-802) and Ngo Quyen (939-944) who are major figures in the countrys history because of their struggles for Vietnamese independence. Duong Lam village offers a typical example of the architectural structure and art of an ancient Vietnamese village in the Red river delta region, with symbolic images of a village gate, communal house, banyan tree, and well. Visitors to the village can enjoy the tranquil and bucolic charm of the land and the hospitality of the people there. It houses seven recognised cultural heritage sites, including temples worshipping Phung Hung and Ngo Quyen, scholar Giang Van Minh (1573-1637); Mia pagoda, Phu temple, and Mong Phu communal house. It is home to more than 960 traditional houses, many of them dating back hundreds of years. The antique houses were constructed from laterite bricks. Each house features a row of rooms and a tiled roof in the shape of a dragon or kylin. The entrances are made of ironwood and employ typical northern Vietnamese aesthetics. Thanks to its unique cultural, historical and architectural value, Duong Lam has been spotlighted on the tourist maps of visitors at home and abroad. The village has received much attention investment for its preservation. According to Nguyen Trong An, deputy head of the villages management board, Haoi municipal authorities have poured more than VND70 billion in to repair century-old houses there over the past decade. The Hanoi municipal Peoples Committee issued a decision in November 2019 naming Duong Lam ancient village as a tourist site. The village greets more than 10,000 foreigners and more than 120,000 domestic travellers last year. Promoting the value of Duong Lam ancient village Tourist activities have brought about changes in the life of this village. A range of services has been opened for visitors. Local specialties have been consumed in larger quantities, the number of jobs and incomes generated from tourism in the village has been increased. However, only a few families in the village are engaging in tourist activities and thereby being benefited from tourism. It is this reason that reveals a basic disadvantage of "community tourism". Visitors to Duong Lam not only want to visit a specific house but also wish to explore the whole village, its image not built by an individual or a minority of families, but by the joint effort of the entire community. Therefore, no one is willing to preserve the time-honoured value of the ancient village if they are not benefited by it in some way. The benefit-sharing issue in the community has been exposed as an obstacle in the heritage preservation and tourism development of Duong Lam. Chairman of Duong Lam Commune Peoples Committee, Giang Manh Hoang said that the preservation efforts of the village has remained complicated as many families in the core zone of its heritage want to construct new houses or redecorate their own, which creates a contrast between the new and the old and affects the overall appearance of the village. Thus, joint efforts and consensus are needed to safeguard the value of Duong Lam ancient village. Although Duong Lam is a farming community, proper attention has not yet been paid to integrating agriculture and tourism development in the village. Several models to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers have been established to serve visitors, but they need to be duplicated. Local households can also adopt eco-tourism and farm tourism, which can help to attract even more visitors to the village. California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara today issued an order adopting emergency workers compensation regulations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new regulations go into effect on July 1. The regulations require insurance companies to recompute premium charges for policyholders to reflect reduced risk of loss consistent with Laras April 13 and May 15 bulletins, and will result in savings for many policyholders as businesses continue to struggle financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the California Department of Insurance. Laras latest bulletin in May extended his previous order requiring insurance companies to return partial insurance premiums to consumers and businesses amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Californias business owners have been hit hard by COVID-19, Lara said in a statement. Workers compensation premiums should reflect that many employees are performing less risky duties, and my order will provide some financial relief for employers when they need it most. The Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California last month published estimated costs of allowing state workers to receive benefits for COVID-19 claims without proving virus exposure at work, dropping a prior mid-range estimate by $10 billion. Under the emergency regulations, employers are permitted to reclassify an employee if the employees duties have changed to a clerical classification that has reduced risk than the employees previous classification. This reclassification will reduce the employers premiums for employees who are a lower risk because they are now working from home even though they may not have previously done so. The change would be retroactive to March 19, the first day of the governors statewide stay-at-home order, and conclude 60 days after the order is lifted. The emergency regulations also exclude from premium calculations the payments made to an employee, including sick or family leave, while the employee is not performing duties of any kind for the employer. Typically, these payments would be used as a basis for the employers workers comp premium. This change will lower the employers rate by reducing the amount of payroll assessed, and the employer will not pay premium for paid workers who are otherwise being furloughed. This new regulation will also exclude claims related to a COVID-19 diagnosis from being included in future rate calculations so that employers are not penalized with higher rates due to COVID-19 claims. Insurers will also be required to report injuries involving a diagnosis of COVID-19 which will allow the Commissioners statistical agentthe WCIRBto keep track of COVID-19 injuries, and will aid in the WCIRBs future analyses of the workplace and market impacts. The amount of refund has not been calculated, Michael Soller, a deputy insurance commissioner for northern California, told Reuters. Insurers collected $11.4 billion in premiums in California last year. Topics Carriers California Legislation Workers' Compensation RICHMOND, Va. - A man angry over vandalism of this city's Confederate statues took credit Wednesday for spray-painting "white lives matter" and "WLM" on the statue of African American tennis legend Arthur Ashe that stands on Monument Avenue. "You put it on our statues, I'll put it on yours," the man, his face covered in an American flag bandanna, says on a video recorded by a woman who shared the footage with The Washington Post. The video does not show the man in the act of painting. After he left, someone sprayed "BLM," for "black lives matter," over the original white graffiti, witnesses said. A short time later, as a few women tried to remove the "white lives matter" message with cleansers and stainless steel scrubbers, the man returned with a brush and attempted to wipe off the "BLM" message, according to video taken by a different woman and also shared with The Post. By then, a small crowd had gathered. Someone asked why the man had painted "white lives matter" on the tribute to Ashe, the first black Wimbledon men's champion, who grew up in Richmond and learned to play on the city's segregated courts. "Don't all lives matter?" replied the man, according to the video. "Why is it OK to spray paint on this statue 'black lives matter,' but not 'white lives matter'? What's the difference? . . . They all matter. Everybody matters, right?" Richmond police are investigating, department spokesman Gene Lepley said. The Ashe monument was erected in 1996 amid great controversy as a counterweight to the five Confederate figures honored on the avenue. The Lost Cause figures have been repeatedly vandalized since protests erupted in the city May 30 over police brutality against African Americans. All of the monuments have been covered in graffiti, and protesters tore down the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis last week. They also have toppled three other statues elsewhere in town, including the Richmond Howitzers Monument on Tuesday night. Ashe's statue had been spared until Thursday. The man who took credit for spraying the statue drove a car with South Carolina plates but said on the second video that he lives part-time in Richmond, where he grew up. Asked his name, the man replied, "My name is everybody - everybody that's here that has property value, everybody here that's paid to [expletive] live here, that's tired of seeing this [expletive]." Fatima Pashaei said she and a friend were taking a walk along the avenue to see all the graffiti when they came upon the man painting the Ashe monument. Both recorded the man. "This is actually the one monument that should be up here," she said. The Howitzers monument was pulled from its pedestal by protesters shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday. Unveiled in 1892, the monument honors an artillery unit that served in the Civil War. It stood near Virginia Commonwealth University's Monroe Park campus. On June 6, a statue of Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham, which stood in Monroe Park, was toppled. A statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down and thrown into a lake at Byrd Park on June 9. The statues have come down as protests have continued in Richmond and beyond over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. A towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue has also been a focal point of protesters. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, is fighting to remove the statue, but a judge temporarily halted the move last week after the first of three legal challenges was filed. A hearing in that lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday. The toppling of the Howitzers Monument came hours into an evening demonstration that drew hundreds of protesters downtown. Earlier Tuesday, Mayor Levar Stoney, a Democrat, ousted Police Chief William Smith after two nights of tense demonstrations outside police headquarters that involved the use of chemical gas and rubber bullets. Canada - Hornet Extension Program Related FMS Acquisitions Media/Public Contact: pm-cpa@state.gov Transmittal No: 20-42 WASHINGTON, June 16, 2020 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Canada of fifty (50) Sidewinder AIM-9X Block II Tactical missiles and related equipment for an estimated cost of $862.3 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on June 15, 2020. The Government of Canada has requested to buy fifty (50) Sidewinder AIM-9X Block II Tactical missiles; fifty (50) Sidewinder AIM-9X Block II Captive Air Training Missiles (CATMs); ten (10) Sidewinder AIM-9X Block II Special Air Training Missiles (NATMs); ten (10) Sidewinder AIM-9X Block II Tactical Guidance Units; ten (10) Sidewinder AIM-9X Block II CATM Guidance Units; thirty-eight (38) APG-79(V)4 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar units; thirty-eight (38) APG-79(V)4 AESA Radar A1 kits; twenty (20) Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) C, AGM-154C; forty-six (46) F/A-18A Wide Band RADOMEs. Also included are additional technical and logistics support for the AESA radar; upgrades to the Advanced Distributed Combat Training System (ADCTS) to ensure flight trainers remain current with the new technologies; software development to integrate the systems listed into the F/A-18A airframe and install Automated Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS); thirty (30) Bomb Release Unit (BRU) - 42 Triple Ejector Racks (TER); thirty (30) Improved Tactical Air Launched Decoy (ITALD); one hundred four (104) Data Transfer Device/Data Transfer Units (DTD/DTU); twelve (12) Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS); one hundred twelve (112) AN/ARC-210 RT-2036 (Gen 6) radios and F/A-18 integration equipment; support equipment; tools and test equipment; technical data and publications; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support services; and other related elements of logistical and program support. The total estimated program cost is $862.3 million. This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the military capability of Canada, a NATO ally that is an important force for ensuring political stability and economic progress and a contributor to military, peacekeeping and humanitarian operations around the world. This sale will provide Canada a 2-squadron bridge of enhanced F/A-18A aircraft to continue meeting NORAD and NATO commitments while it gradually introduces new advanced aircraft via the Future Fighter Capability Program between 2025 and 2035. The proposed sale of the capabilities, as listed, will improve Canada's capability to meet current and future warfare threats and provide greater security for its critical infrastructure. This sale will provide Canada the ability to maximize the systems' employment and sustainment, significantly enhancing the warfighting capability of the Royal Canadian Air Force's F/A-18 aircraft. Canada will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces. The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region. The prime contractors will be Raytheon Corporation, El Segundo, CA; General Dynamics Mission Systems, Marion, VA; The Boeing Company, St. Louis, MO; and Collins Aerospace, Cedar Rapids, IA. The purchaser typically requests offsets. Any offset agreement will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the contractor(s). Implementation of this proposed sale will require the assignment of contractor representatives to Canada on an intermittent basis over the life of the case to support delivery and integration of items onto the existing F/A-18A aircraft and to provide supply support management, inventory control and equipment familiarization. There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale. This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded. All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, pm-cpa@state.gov. -30- NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Press Release 17 June 2020 An analysis of how COVID-19 has affected the hotel market and the importance of adapting to new parameters in staffing, marketing and technology to avoid extinction. Advertisements Impactful consequences of the current crisis The coronavirus has taken an unprecedented toll on the travel industry. At the time of writing, every single actor has been taking concrete actions and cutting costs to keep their head above water. As a hotelier, you have most likely had to make fast and difficult choices to shelter your business from the crisis, involving an immediacy factor often leaving you with nose to the grindstone, unable to craft a long-term strategy. However, even though the top priority should obviously be keeping your business afloat, it is impossible to achieve a lasting recovery without thinking ahead to the future of our industry. And once we reach the end of this tunnel, which probably will not be soon, the hotels unable to adapt to this reborn industry could risk heading straight into yet another disaster. The Darwinian metaphor might be the most telling: businesses which no longer fit into a post-COVID-19 travel environment are doomed to slowly but surely become extinct. Our focus in this article is to paint the most accurate representation of a post-pandemic travel industry. In order to give such an analysis, we need to dig into the most impactful consequences of the current crisis. Such brutal fallouts as massive layoffs and string of bankruptcies are proving to be the catalysts of this brand-new travel economy. On the altar of these cataclysms, only the most well-suited and efficient strategies will remain, which is why we aim to translate our analysis into concrete actions your hotel can take to stay on top. Let us start with the facts. What exactly are the impacts of COVID-19 on the travel industry? The following list, far from exhaustive, is based on the major phenomena currently playing out: Huge layoffs across all hotels This may be the most striking impact from the COVID-19 outbreak so far. At the end of April, half a million leisure and hospitality workers were let go of their function in the United States alone. Moving forward, it is expected that this number could reach 4 million layoffs worldwide. Global fear amongst travelers As the lockdown rules continue to evolve very differently from one country to the next, travelers are likely to be more and more cautious with regards to their destination. In addition to this, no one likes the prospect of falling ill in a foreign country. The predicted aversion to travel feels like a definite factor for years to come. The halting of travel marketing campaigns As a logical follow up to this global freeze, OTAs and hotels alike have put on hold their marketing effort (even the hotel.com mascot is practicing social distancing in the coming months). Such a brutal halt will hold far reaching implications that we will cover later this article. Unprecedented revenue loss and occupancy rate drop Perhaps the most obvious of these impacts is the conjoint drop of revenue and occupancy rate. Marriott communicated somewhere between 75% and 90% loss in revenue, which will unfortunately be what most hotels are facing, if not more. Chain reaction of bankruptcies As a direct consequence to what was stated above, hotels are already starting to close down all around the world. In the US, according to Roger Dow, we might be looking 10%-15% of hotels going bankrupt (around 7000 hotels in total). In the rest of the world, predictions are also quite dire, for example 23% for Switzerland and almost 65% for Greece. Even though it is hard to estimate the COVID-19 impacts on a global scale, Marriot CEO Arne Soreson stated that the outbreak was worse than 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis combined. As a reminder, according to IATA, it took three whole years for the travel industry to recover after 9/11. The following graph by the UNWTO gives an accurate picture of the situation: Photo: EHL 2020 FORECAST - INTERNATIONAL TOURISM RECEIPTS, WORLD (REAL CHANGE, %) This means that in our case, we are looking at a horizon of 4-5 years, which is the prediction of several travel analysts. Now that we have set the stage for the analysis, let us dive into our predicted long-term effect of such impacts. Hotel staff will become scarcer and scarcer The thousand, maybe even millions of layoffs are going leave an indelible mark on the industry. To truly understand the impact, it's important to take a practical perspective: all the newly unemployed hotel workers now must look for a job which is possibly not going to be in the hospitality industry, at least for the time being. Once the dust settles, they might not want to go to their old shifts seeing that the hotel industry is so vulnerable and exposed. This job migration means that we are likely see a shortage in hotel staff coming out of this crisis. You can go a couple of ways to answering this incoming challenge. One would be to stay close to your employees (in case they are just on temporary leave) and make sure that they stick with you once the crisis is over. If you have had to cut jobs completely, start by already being on the lookout for new staff so you can reopen your hotel without too much delay on that front. The 2nd option would be to thoroughly review your staffing strategy. In a post-COVID-19 world, you may want to consider reducing your total payroll through digital labour. New technologies such as automated check-ins, voice assistants and other IOT services are already available and can replace jobs all round your property, from front desk to housekeeping. Even though this may seem like a costly option, it can save you a lot of time and increase savings tremendously in the long term. Similarly, you could also externalize some jobs (housekeeping for example) to specialized companies as a way to both cut costs and gain in flexibility. New global measures will need to be factored in As we are approaching a progressive lockdown exit, the travel environment will have to undergo major regulation changes to ensure a lasting recovery. Concretely, new hygiene measures such as the use of face masks and the need for sanitizer dispensers imply that you should already be looking at securing the adequate material for your hotel. In order to respect social distancing, you might also want to take actions such as setting up marking tape on the floor and plexiglass shields for the reception desks. Keeping a close eye on the evolution of your country's legislations will be key to making sure that your hotel is able to open safely and on time. Moreover, the post-COVID-19 environment will bring about new values and social codes. In addition to being more careful regarding the hotel hygiene and safety, guests will want to avoid human contact as much as possible. Effective communication will be essential to assure guests that your hotel is doing everything to keep them safe and secure. Training your staff to stay on top of these new norms can also go the extra mile to show that your hotel aims to provide the best possible service. Direct marketing will be more important than ever Drawing on the growing fear amongst travelers in these troubled times, we can deduce that attracting new guests in the future will be no easy task. This huge shift in mindset will require heavy lifting on the hotel side to rekindle the need and desire to travel. Instead of only advertising on the web and expecting sales to magically raise, business owners will need to activate their current customer data base through direct marketing. This means taking the matter into your own hands through, for example, emailing campaigns to restore trust amongst your guests. At least at the beginning, this also means reviewing your pricing strategy to reflect the poor environment and stand out from your competitors. Furthermore, there is a big probability that OTAs will not be as strong as they were before the crisis. With many of the big players handling the situation rather poorly, notably in regard to reimbursement, a new confidence low-point has been reached between OTAs and their customers. Thinking ahead, this could imply that hotels will not be able to rely as much on OTAs to fill their rooms as before. This challenge might also serve as an opportunity to diversify your booking strategy. Once again, hotels need to take back control on that end and have a clear strategy when it comes to direct bookings in a post-COVID-19 world. Digital will take over The most crucial challenge coming out of the crisis will be digitalization. In a context of heightened competition driven by pricing and marketing, the hotels making the most out of their digital space will come out ahead. Indeed, by leveraging analytics and enhancing the customer journey, hotels can acquire and retain guests far more efficiently than their competitors. Concretely, that means working your way to a fully digitalized customer journey. Starting with the direct marketing we discussed earlier, hotels need to improve customer engagement, through innovative and efficient online communication, be it via websites, emails and the like. Once you start building up your guest data base, you can take advantage of the information to work on wider pricing/marketing strategies. Now that almost all hotels worldwide are either empty or on lockdown, this is the best time to start the digital transformation you may have been putting off due to lack of time. Such an effort will be rewarded tenfold in revenue and time as soon as we get out of the crisis and the industry starts running again. Key takeaways Let us summarize our analysis into the most important concrete actions you can take to get ready for the post-COVID-19 travel environment: Have a clear staffing strategy for the future (digital labour, externalization of jobs) Respect the new social norms and regulations Enhance customer engagement Personalize user experience by leveraging analytics Work on a direct marketing strategy Diversify your booking channels (+direct bookings) Modernize/digitalize current assets, infrastructures and processes Adapt your pricing strategy In conclusion, we know that the travel industry is incredibly resilient thanks to the hard work and endeavour of all parties involved. However, a once in a lifetime pandemic of this importance is bound to leave lasting scars. To shelter your business as well as possible, you need to act quickly and adapt to this ever-changing environment. Even though it is hard to foresee the months ahead, try to always keep a bird's eye view on the crisis and get your hotel ready for the incoming rebound. In the past, the use of hotel technology has too often been regarded as non-essential, either too time-consuming or too complicated to be worth the effort. In a post pandemic world, the efficient use of said technology will be the only thing standing between a hotel's steady ascension towards profit and a slow inescapable fall towards bankruptcy. Attention, fast food taco lovers: Taco Bueno has officially arrived in Houston. This is Taco Bueno's first location in the Greater Houston area. It opened for the first time this morning. The fast food chain based in Dallas-Fort Worth specializes in tacos, burritos, quesadillas and favorites like MexiDips and Chips and its Party Tacos for under $1. Find the new Taco Bueno location at 20995 Katy Freeway, Katy. [June 17, 2020] Privacera Announces Latest Version of the Privacera Platform for Secure Data Sharing in Databricks FREMONT, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Privacera , the cloud data governance and security leader founded by the creators of Apache Ranger, today announced the latest version of the Privacera Platform, an enterprise data governance and security solution for machine learning and analytic workloads in the public cloud. Leveraging the Apache Ranger architecture, the Privacera Platform integrates with Databricks to help ensure consistent governance, security, and compliance across all data science, machine learning, and analytics workloads. To try the offering at no cost or to learn more visit. Privacera provides secure data sharing across the enterprise and balances the competing mandates of data democratization while adhering to applicable privacy and industry regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. The solution enables faster and more efficient on-premise data lake migrations to the cloud, supports regulatory compliance through automated discovery of sensitive data, and promotes data democratization by easily and securely sharing information with appropriate analysts and data scientists. As a part of this launch, Privacera also announced a partnership with Databricks , the Data and AI company. Privacera provides a natively integrated solution that extends security for data access and management of Databricks clusters. The solution empowers data teams to immediately replicate compliance when migrating Hadoop workloads to the cloud, easily ensure consistent security via row, column-level access control and accelerate discovery/identification of sensitive data in Delta Lake without impacting performance or functionality. New in this latest version, Privacera's native integration extends and enhances multi-user shared environments to support robust security, privacy, and governance controls for Databricks clusters. two unique sessions at the upcoming Spark + AI Summit taking place June 22-26 , "Protect Your Crown Jewels in Databricks with Privacera and Apache Ranger" and "Simplifying Disaster Recovery with Delta Lake ". "Databricks and Privacera share a common vision to enable data teams to use and share sensitive data without compromising compliance with privacy regulations and other mandates," said Michael Hoff, SVP Business Development and Partners at Databricks. "The Privacera integration to Databricks helps make this possible by automatically profiling sensitive data and applying fine-grained security and governance controls." More specifically, the Privacera Platform provides: Automated Data Discovery and Classification - Artificial intelligence-based data discovery scans, classifies, and tags data and creates a data catalog so data teams can understand where sensitive data exists. Artificial intelligence-based data discovery scans, classifies, and tags data and creates a data catalog so data teams can understand where sensitive data exists. Centralized, Fine-Grained Access Control - A single system for scalable data policy management across multiple Databricks environments which empowers data platform teams to define role and attribute-based control down to the row, column, and file-level. - A single system for scalable data policy management across multiple Databricks environments which empowers data platform teams to define role and attribute-based control down to the row, column, and file-level. Compliance Workflows - Automated workflows transform sensitive data to meet compliance requirements, remove the dependence on piecemeal processes and facilitate scalable, efficient business analytics and ML in the cloud. "The proliferation of cloud data services today makes it difficult to manage access and prove compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, as it requires an understanding of where sensitive data such as personally identifiable information resides and who has access to it," said Balaji Ganesan, Privacera Co-Founder and CEO. "It is rare that a data privacy and compliance solution can enable greater security, and governance while simultaneously increasing data sharing. Using the Privacera Platform, Databricks and Delta Lake users can extend the efficiency and proven scalability of Apache Ranger from Hadoop to the cloud." Please Tweet: #datagovernance and #security leader @privacera announces latest version of Privacera Platform for secure #datasharing in @databricks - Think of it as #ApacheRanger in the #cloud About Privacera Founded in 2016 by the creators of Apache Ranger and Apache Atlas, Privacera's mission is to empower enterprises building data platforms in the cloud to balance data governance and security with data access, discovery, and analytics. Often described as "Apache Ranger in the Cloud", Privacera provides a centralized data access governance platform that extends Ranger's capabilities beyond traditional Big Data environments to cloud-native services and leading analytics platforms such as AWS, Azure, GCP and Databricks. Privacera enables IT and data platform teams to make as much data as possible available to the business for analytics while ensuring it is used ethically and in compliance with privacy regulations. Privacera offices are located in Fremont, California and Mumbai. To learn more, visit www.privacera.com or follow at @privacera. Apache, Apache Spark, Apache Ranger, Spark, and Ranger are trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/privacera-announces-latest-version-of-the-privacera-platform-for-secure-data-sharing-in-databricks-301078419.html SOURCE Privacera [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Theyre worried about the resources they need if theyre recovering from a protest or the resources they need to deal with the health pandemic whether its more PPE they have to pay for and, obviously, less customers, Lavin told the Sun-Times. Cash flow they can save now helps them hire people. He added, Small businesses need to get their doors open, find out what their new business model is, what the costs are, what the customers and clients are gonna be. STOCKHOLM - Flags flew at half-staff in front of Swedens parliament as lawmakers inside held a memorial service Wednesday for the more than 5,000 people with COVID-19 who have died in a country that declined the strict lockdown measures widely adopted in Europe. Members of the 349-seat Riksdag stood up to observe a minute of silence during the 15-minute memorial. The Swedish government steadfastly defends its soft approach to controlling the spread of the coronavirus despite growing criticism from opposition parties This particular moment is for all of them: those who lost their jobs, their health, their lives, Riksdag Speaker Andreas Norlen said. We say to all those who now mourn and suffer: You are not alone. Sweden has the most virus-related deaths in the Nordic region, with 5,041 reported as of Wednesday. However, the number of COVID-19 deaths recorded daily has declined, and weekly statistics show that mortality is now close to normal for this time of year after peaking in April. A number of European countries have maintained travel restrictions on visitors from Sweden due to the countrys rate of new confirmed cases. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Tuesday he thought it was a little strange that fellow Nordic nations - Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland - have not reopened their borders to Swedes. I have to respect what other countries decide, Lofven said in an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen in which he noted that the number of virus-related deaths in Sweden is going down considerably now. Denmark, Norway and Finland have in recent weeks allowed each others residents to enter their countries. Lofvens government never imposed a lockdown or ordered business to close. Large gatherings were banned, but restaurants and schools for young children have stayed open. The government urged social distancing, and Swedes have largely complied. During the last week, the country has seen a steep climb in new cases, which the government and the health authority have attributed to a big increase in testing. Were testing a great many more than before. These are mild cases. The serious cases that are admitted or managed in health care remain at an even level, which may go down slightly, chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell of the Swedens Public Health Agency said at a news conference on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it has been interpreted in international media as a new peak, (which) is completely wrong, he said. China admits casualties, but its media plays down the worst clash in decades, while Indian newspapers urge a push back. While Chinese state media has downplayed a deadly military confrontation with India in the Indian-administered Ladakh region, Indian newspapers called for a steely resolve over the killing of at least 20 soldiers. Indian news agency ANI on Tuesday night claimed that 43 Chinese soldiers had died in Mondays clash, without giving further details. Chinese media did not reveal casualties on its side. On Tuesday, the Indian army said 20 of its soldiers had been killed in a violent face-off along the Himalayan frontier, which resulted in casualties on both sides. Four other Indian soldiers are reported to be in critical condition. Chinas defence ministry confirmed late on Tuesday that there had been casualties, without giving a number, while its state media stayed relatively quiet on the skirmish, the most violent in decades. Brawls erupt regularly between soldiers from the worlds two most populous nations across their disputed 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) border but none had proved fatal since 1975. The latest fighting occurred in the precipitous, rocky terrain of the strategically important Galwan Valley, which lies between Chinas Tibet and Indias Ladakh. The soldiers threw punches and stones at each other, with Chinese troops allegedly attacking their Indian counterparts with rods and nail-studded clubs during the fight that lasted more than six hours, Indias Hindustan Times newspaper reported on Wednesday. China's official media broadly buries news of the worst clash on the India China border in 50+ years. Not mentioned in People's Daily and PLA Daily, the official papers of the Party and PLA (unless I missed it buried in a corner somewhere). Global Times Chinese carries on p 16. pic.twitter.com/MFU10XDGGD Ananth Krishnan (@ananthkrishnan) June 17, 2020 Steely resolve Another leading Indian newspaper said the government should show steely resolve in its response to the worst clashes with the Chinese troops in decades. The provocation is grave this is not the toll taken by an act of terror by a non-state actor, but a clash between two armies. Yet India must keep a clear and determined head. It needs to respond with calm deliberation and steely resolve, the Indian Express said in an editorial. Former Indian army officer and defence analyst Ajai Shukla wrote in the Business Standard newspaper that although India-China border skirmishes are common, Mondays face-off was a departure from the normal. First, the PLA had encroached into areas like Galwan that were traditionally peaceful. Second, they entered in unusually large numbers that were in the thousands, he wrote. This time PLA soldiers are digging defences, preparing bunkers and deployed artillery guns to the rear [albeit in their own territory] to support the intruders, said sources. Shukla said the timing of the Chinese aggression seemed to be part of a strategy to remind India of its vulnerabilities. The Times of India daily was more belligerent, asking for a push back by India. Beijing cant kill our soldiers at the LAC and expect to benefit from our huge market, said its editorial, as it asked New Delhi to denounce the revocation of Hong Kongs autonomy and criticise human rights violations in Tibet. Indian news channels, most of whom are believed to support the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also jumped in. An anchor on Aaj Tak, a Hindi-language news channel, said the Indian army should be blamed for the incident, and not the federal government. The duty to patrol the borders is of the army and not the government, she said, inviting a barrage of criticism on Indian social media. The incident was very clear, as it happened on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the responsibility did not rest with #China, said Chinese FM on China-#India border conflict https://t.co/M53euCmHEw Global Times (@globaltimesnews) June 17, 2020 China plays down On the other side, the Chinese nationalist Global Times reported the number of deaths on the Indian side, but said China had not released information about casualties. Meanwhile, state broadcaster CCTV and the Communist Party-owned Peoples Daily republished the Chinese militarys official statement on social media, with no additional reports. CCTVs widely watched daily Xinwen Lianbo evening news broadcast made no mention of the border confrontation on Tuesday. The foreign ministrys official transcripts of its Tuesday press briefing redacted remarks from its spokesman about the clashes. The Global Times said in an editorial that China did not disclose the death toll of the confrontation to avoid comparing and preventing confrontational sentiments from escalating. China does not want to turn border issues with India into a confrontation, the editorial said, blaming India for arrogance and recklessness. These were among reports received by the Calvert County Sheriffs Office and the Maryland State Police for this edition of Local Living. Anyone with information about these crimes is asked to call 410-535-2800 or 301-855-1194 or use the Submit a Tip feature on the mobile app. Crime Solvers line at 410-535-2880 or the state police Prince Frederick Barrack at 410-535-1400. Coleman Lions Club is pleased to announce that five scholarships have awarded to 2020 Coleman graduates. Scholarship recipient Truett Allen plans to attend Indiana Wesleyan and pursue an elementary teaching and special education degree. Breanna Bressette will begin her college years at Delta and plans to become a registered nurse. Samantha Kroll will be attending Ferris State University in the fall and is undecided on a major. Kayla Maki will attend CMU and major in biology, and her future plans are to become a veterinarian. The Gordon Family Scholarship was given to Tyler Germain, who will be attending MidMichigan College, where he plans to get a teaching degree. Esther Gordon and family created this scholarship in memory of Charlie Gordon a Coleman businessman and long-time member of Coleman Lions Club. All five of these students displayed not only strong academics but also epitomize the Lions motto "We serve." They accumulated many hours of volunteering during high school and plan to continue giving back to their community in the future. Coleman Lions Club is proud to give these students some financial support. While the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the world economy, exposing its many persistent injustices, it may also present a unique opportunity to build back better, speakers told a high-level panel held by the United Nations on Tuesday. After COVID-19, nothing will be the same but things can be much better, Inger Andersen, executive director at the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), said during the discussion on People and the Planet: How can we shape the future of development in a post-COVID-19 World? The most vulnerable and marginalised in both developed and developing countries continue to be hit the hardest by the pandemics wrath. COVID-19 has also spotlighted the holes and deficiencies in global food networks, supply chains, debt and tax structures and public health. As governments worldwide pass economic initiatives to assist people and businesses stay afloat, some countries like the United Kingdom, France and Pakistan have included green initiatives in their COVID-19 stimulus packages to move the climate agenda forward. But others including Syria, the Central African Republic, Libya, Yemen, and Lebanon gripped with war, protracted security challenges, and economic woes, simply lack the fiscal space to embark on any forward-looking initiatives. In Lebanon, green is not at the top of our agenda, Raya Haffar El Hassan, former minister of finance and interior affairs of Lebanon, told the panel. Lebanon has so much it is struggling with as it goes through one of the most profoundly challenging moments in its history. Indeed, much of modern development has essentially been a trade-off the present against the future, the rich against the poor, people against nature which legitimises those who are doing quite well at the expense of those who are losing out and have no seat at the table, Achim Steiner, head of UN Development Programme (UNDP) said. The age of the trade-off is over, Steiner stressed. The pandemic presents a moment of truth and clarity and the examination of critical issues that have been ignored for too long. For example, why is it that in Africa there are still 600 million people who do not have access to electricity, Steiner asked, also adding: Policy matters. In developed countries, the inequities that have festered for decades and even generations have been brought to the forefront by the pandemic. UNEPs Andersen said the Black Lives Matter movement has recognised how unequal societies are. You and I and everyone else has a duty to inform ourselves because that is how we impact change. Governance is not just something that happens to us, she said. Joseph Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University and recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, also touched on the growing idealism in the United States that is having a real-time impact. Young people have made it clear that the system of racial injustice has to stop, Stiglitz told Al Jazeera. They will be inheriting the Earth and can create a post-pandemic world which does not just pick up where we left off but moves us significantly in the direction of a greener world, one with sustainable development and social justice. That goes hand-in-hand with economic justice. Stiglitz urged the international community to get behind the proposal of the International Monetary Fund to ease the debt burden of poor countries and release $500bn worth of Special Drawing Rights to allow more lending to economies in trouble. He posed several questions: Why is it that while the rest of the world has been put on hold, the financial sector continues to charge interest and penalties? Why are multinational corporations still able to take advantage of globalisation to avoid paying taxes? Reforming these multinational and corporate tax policies must be at the top of the agenda if anything is to change. There has to be some way of imposing a moratorium and beginning a process of restructuring [debt], Stiglitz said. I am afraid if theres not a great impetus to do it in an orderly way, it will be done in a disorderly way. Bina Agarwal, professor of development economics and environment at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester, said the pandemic has relieved massive inefficiencies. Its not like were going to reinvent the world, she said, adding that it could be a time to make it more just and equitable. 17.06.2020 LISTEN The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, Nigeria (WANEP-Nigeria), and its member organisations have expressed concern over the increasing sexual assault and rape of women and girls in the country. This was contained in a statement on Wednesday by the National Coordinator, WANEP-Nigeria, Ms. Bridget Osakwe, entitled: 'Urgent Call to End Gender Bases Violence and Protect the Rights of Women and Girls in Nigeria". According to Osakwe, the recent cases of rape and sexual harassment of women and girls are an expression of the deeper systemic disregard for women as widely reported by the media resulting in the death of the victims have sparked outrage across the country. Notably, she said, the rape and murder of Mrs. Queen Igbinevbo, a pregnant woman in her home in Edo State on May 20, 2020; the rape and gruesome killing of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year old Microbiology student of University of Benin in a Church in Edo State on May 27, 2020; the rape and murder of Barakat Bello, an 18-year old female student of the Department of Science Laboratory Technology (SLT) Federal College of Animal Health and Production in Ibadan, Oyo State on June 1, 2020; and the gang rape of a 12-year old girl in her home at Ajah, Lagos State on June 4, 2020, amongst others. To this end, WANEP has amongst other recommendations called on the "state and Non- State actors to implement transformative strategies that are people oriented and focused at addressing the root causes of gender-based violence, improve security with attention on women and girls and enacting laws for strong national response that support victims and survivors of violence". Osakwe said the steep increase in gender-based violence became noticeable with the outbreak of COVID-19 and the Stay-at-Home directive imposed by the Federal Government as part of the measures to curb the spread of the disease. She noted that most women and girls at this time were confined at home with their abusers with little or no information on what to do and how to access social services. Part of the statement read: "To ameliorate the situation, WANEP- Nigeria created an online survey to document incidences of Sexual and Gender Based Violence for referral and intervention. Also, the radio program tagged Women Voices for Peace that aims to discuss issues of women, peace and security in the society, focused on COVID-19 pandemic from a gender perspective and its impact on gender-based violence in Nigeria. Emerging data gathered revealed a high number of child abuse, rape, sexual harassment and human rights violations. "Gender Based Violence is a global pandemic that affects 1 in 3 women in their lifetime. The issue is not only devastating for survivors and their families but also entails significant and social economic costs. The increasing prevalence of violence against women and girls in the Nigerian society is a deliberate attack, ingrained discrimination and injustice which highlights a form of structural violence. This form of violence rooted in centuries of male domination, misogyny and inequality has led to early deaths, social stigmatization and limited life choices for many women and girls. The perpetrators of these violent human rights violations against women and girls must not go unpunished as they can be found in every sector of the society including amongst security agencies." "WANEPNigeria reiterates that women and girls vulnerability during conflict and at peacetimes and the consequences of violence they suffer is unjustifiable. Acts of violence against women and girls contravenes the provisions of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820, the Sustainable Development Goal 5 which calls for gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: an instrument for advancing reproductive and sexual rights; the Violence Against Persons (VAPP) Act (2015) and the Child Rights Act (2003). While we call for a Federal Government Legislation mandating a zero-tolerance approach in penalizing and prosecuting perpetuators of gender based violence we enjoin all Nigerians to take responsibility and work actively to build a society based on justice, non-violent transformation of conflict, respect for women human rights and human dignity for all." Against this backdrop, WANEP further urged: the security agencies including the Police, the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps and other security agencies to coordinate activities towards providing an integrated security framework that ensure swift response to incidences of violence against women and girls and prosecution of perpetuators. While we commending the 25 State governments that have passed the Child Rights Law, the non-profit organisation also called on the 11 State Governments that are yet to domesticate the Federal Childs Rights Acts including, Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe, Jigawa and Zamfara States to do so immediately to protect the rights of children particularly girls. The organisation recommended that state actors should partner with women focused civil society organisations in strategizing on the domestication of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Acts (VAPP), 2015 within states to protect the rights of women and girls against the different forms of violence. At present, Osakwe said, only Ekiti, Kaduna, Oyo, Benue, Ebonyi, Anambra and Lagos States have domesticated the VAPP Act. The WANEP-Nigeria Coordinator, also asked non-state actors to intensify awareness reation on harmful effect of violence on women and girls, engage boys and men to become advocates and agents of change in the society. "Local ownership of the Sexual Offenders Register (SOR) to allow for persons identified within communities as perpetuators to be named, shamed, prosecuted and convicted for sexual violence. This will check mate the menace and uphold the rights of women and girls in the society. Partnerships and collaborations between government and civil society organisations will sustain response strategies," she added. The organisation also applauded "the goodwill and intervention of Federal Government in the fight against gender-based violence with the directive to inaugurate the inter- ministerial Gender Based Violence Management Committee. Also, we salute the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) support of the Nigeria Governors Forum in the Declaration of a State of Emergency on SGBV in states across the country. The 36 state governors strongly condemn all forms of violence against women and children and have resolved to ensure that offenders face the maximum weight of the law. The security agencies and the civil society organizations are relentless in their efforts to tackle issues of gender-based violence, therefore, deserve the needed support from the people." Beth Scheiderman from Mansfield shopping at Dunham's Department Store in Wellsboro, Tioga County, on its first day back open on May 8. Read more National retail and restaurant spending jumped dramatically in May as stores and dining began to reopen across parts of the country during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a preliminary sales report from the U.S. Commerce Department released Tuesday. May sales were projected at $485.5 billion, a 17.7% jump from April. But those numbers were still 6.1% below what they were last May, noted the report, which relied on surveys given to about 5,500 retail and food service companies in the United States. Still, Jaime Ward, the Boston-based head of retail finance for Citizens Bank, remained heartened by last months improvement. That pent-up demand is driving this," he said, adding that some customers could have used stimulus checks to go shopping. Part of it is [that] growth is coming off a really low-level month before. States in the South and Midwest began to reopen before those in the Northeast that had contended with an ongoing barrage of coronavirus cases. Its revenge shopping, Ward said. Payback for being cooped up for 2 months. They want to go out and do some things theyve been denied. In Philadelphia and New Jersey, the states slightly loosened safety restrictions by allowing outdoor dining, although indoor dining remained prohibited. New Jersey also permitted day-care centers and nonessential retail to resume operations Monday, with hundreds of customers crowding into stores to buy everything from clothes to household goods. READ MORE: Beauty industry falters in the pandemic, but the future, analysts say, could be promising Of 1,910 city residents who responded to a June survey from the Center City District, 20% said they would dine out immediately as soon as they were allowed. Another 20% would do the same in the first two weeks, 15% in three to four weeks, 24% after a month, and 21% after at least two months. For shopping, 20% said in the survey that they would visit stores immediately; 23% would go within two weeks; 16 percent would wait the longest at least two months. In New Jersey, some residents grabbed the chance to shop in person. Things are going very well, said Andrea Marcelle, owner of the Paris-inspired Haddonfield dress boutique Maison Marcelle, on Monday, the first day she was finally able to reopen her shop. Tomorrow will be three months since we closed our French doors. In those three months, she maintained business online, delivered merchandise to customers homes, and offered curbside pickup. "Certainly not enough to support a business, she said, but weve been working full time to do the best that we could. The shop brimmed with goods that Marcelle had selected in Paris. She had inventory for the spring and summer, but worried about what she would have for the fall and holidays, given the possibility that she would be unable to make one of her regular trips to France due to the pandemic. Were going to struggle now with how to maintain the authenticity, the Frenchness, of this boutique, she said. READ MORE: Whole Foods and other retailers have ended hazard pay for workers even as coronavirus remains a threat She found a potential solution with French vendors who could ship items to her, but its going to be a different experience when I have to take their word for it that its Maison Marcelle-worthy. Among small businesses, a raft of chains, most recently Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores, reopened in the two states on Monday and Tuesday, adding to the growing list of chain retailers Gap Inc., Ulta, Macys, Best Buy that have opened for the first time since March. Certain retailers performed better than others, Ward said. Many groceries, hardware, arts and crafts, and liquor stores were able to weather the economic beat-down compared with other sectors, such as clothing. Apparel still has a long way to go before it gets back to last years levels, he said. There are some pretty clear winners and losers." Among other winners, Ward said, big-box stores deemed essential Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Lowes, among others thrived during the pandemic. Some of the largest companies out there did very well and got bigger," he said. Meanwhile, a lot of the mom-and-pop [stores] had to stay closed, and that was tough. When the World Health Organization proclaimed the coronavirus a pandemic, it was clear that this crisis will not only hit the global health sector, but will also impact all segments of society worldwide. As in wars or huge natural disasters, the pandemic put history on fast-forward. Global solidarity between peoples and nations was put to a huge test, which they failed. Chinese medical expert team members send a shirt with signatures of Chinese experts as a gift to Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic (2nd, R) in Belgrade, Serbia, June 10, 2020.(Photo by Nemanja Cabric/Xinhua) In mid-March, since the coronavirus epidemic moved from Asia to the old continent, and many western European countries were highly exposed to the disease, the European Union decided to restrict the export of certain medical supplies to countries outside the EU. This measure hit small non-EU member western Balkan countries, especially because most of them were dependent on the medical supplies. Serbia, as a formal candidate country for EU accession, found this decision very unfavorable to its health system in a huge crisis. It forced Serbian authorities to condemn it publicly and appeal to China to provide assistance against coronavirus. With the help of the quick and responsible response of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, President Xi Jinping, Serbia has successfully handled this huge health crisis. China donated a significant amount of protective equipment and medical instruments to Serbia, and sent a group of medical experts to help it better manage the COVID-19 crisis. China also helped other European countries badly affected, such as Italy, France, Germany and Spain. It made a great diplomatic effort when it was estimated that the country was ready to offer assistance to the international community to fight the deadly virus with the most powerful weapon - solidarity. Unfortunately, even after such an act of global humanitarianism, cooperation and solidarity, some Western officials accused China of using the COVID-19 health crisis to extend its soft power in the Balkans. Serbia, as a country dedicated to the European integration process, but which also strives to sustain extraordinary close ties with China, has found itself at the intersection of Western and Eastern influence--or at the center of competing coronavirus diplomacies. Strong relations between Serbia and China, usually characterized as a comprehensive strategic partnership and "iron-clad friendship", has often been criticized by the EU and the United States. They have been reminding Serbia about its obligation to harmonize its foreign policy with the 27 member states. But they have also been questioning the motive behind Chinas help to Serbia at the moment of crisis. However, by demonstrating its readiness to help the international community in resolving the coronavirus crisis, China has shown its global power. We live in a multipolar world with several centers of power in the East and West. Although it is evident that Chinese support and Serbian reaction initiated the coronavirus diplomacies of other global actors, it is also easy to conclude that many of these countries used this crisis to achieve their foreign policy objectives. For example, after Belgrades sharp rhetoric towards Brussels and Chinese medical equipment donations to Serbia, the EU revised its previous decision towards Serbia and prepared a donation of 94 million euro by approving the reallocation of unspent money from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) and ongoing projects for urgent needs and economic recovery. They obviously tried to use their soft power to prove that European values and solidarity are not just empty words. But they also kept influence in the western Balkans. They did that because new global actors such as China can take over the primacy in this part of the world. The same things also worried the United States, and these the main reasons why China has become the target of negative rhetoric and a disinformation campaign. But the American coronavirus diplomacy game was not as remarkable as Europes, probably because the US is facing huge coronavirus cases in an election year. Competition for global influence can explain the negative narrative about China. Some EU countries as well as the US have tried to denigrate China in the world, especially in Serbia. At first glance, regarding its size and population, Serbia is a small and minor player in terms of international relations. However, it has a very good geostrategic position and great economic potential. In addition, its excellent diplomatic relations and cordial friendship with China make it very interesting to Western powers. Relations between China and Serbia are considered a comprehensive strategic partnership, and even an iron-clad friendship. They are the most profound state-to-state ties. They cover a wide array of areas, including mutual respect of territorial integrity, plans for trade development, and cultural, technological and scientific exchanges. Also, since it started one of the largest economic projects ever, known as the New Silk Road, Beijing invested a lot of money in Serbia. It is primarily about loans or direct financing, mostly in infrastructure and energetics which further boosted ties between the two countries. Bilateral meetings and mutual understanding brought those connections closer and stronger. Serbia has developed excellent relations with China, which have resulted in capital infrastructure projects such as the construction of the Pupin Bridge (Zemun-Borca), the TPP "Kostolac", construction of two sections of the Obrenovac-Ljig highway on Corridor 11, and the modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest railway, which is being implemented within the 17+1 framework of the cooperation mechanism between China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. On top of these projects, many Chinese companies operate in Serbia. These include Zijin Mining (RTB Bor) or the HBIS Group (Smederevo Ironworks), considered the largest Chinese investments in Serbia. They are symbols of the "iron-clad friendship" of these two countries and proof that China is becoming one of the most important pillars of foreign policy of the Republic of Serbia. The opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to People's Daily Online. The author is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade and President of the Foreign Affairs and Regional Stability Institute. Boris Johnson today confirmed that protesters desecrating war memorials will face tough new laws in the wake of demonstrations across Britain. The Prime Minister used Prime Ministers Questions to warn that attacks on public property will be 'met with the full force of the law'. Ministers are believed to be considering sentences of up to 10 years for the worst offenders, after the Cenotaph and a statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill were targeted by Black Lives Matter protesters. Additionally, a far-right protester was later jailed for 14 days for urination next to a memorial to a police officer killed in a terror attack on Parliament, while at a demo ostensibly trying to protect statues. Mr Johnson told the Commons this afternoon: 'I can also confirm we are looking at new ways in which we may legislate against vandalism of war memorials.' The Prime Minister used Prime Ministers Questions to warn that attacks on public property will be 'met with the full force of the law' Ministers are believed to be considering sentences of up to 10 years for the worst offenders, after the Cenotaph and a statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill were targeted by Black Lives Matter protesters Additionally, a far-right protester was later jailed for 14 days for urination next to a memorial to a police officer killed in a terror attack on Parliament, while at a demo ostensibly trying to protect statues Mr Johnson told the Commons this afternoon: 'I can also confirm we are looking at new ways in which we may legislate against vandalism of war memorials' Mr Johnson also insisted he is a 'huge admirer' of one of his aides who has previously questioned the existence of institutional racism and hit out at a 'culture of grievance' among anti-racism campaigners. Downing Street advisers are said to be keen for the PM to take high-profile stands on cultural issues, focusing on improving life chances rather than bowing to pressure from the Left. The choice of Munira Mirza, the head Mr Johnson's policy unit, to set up the new race commission appears to be a sign of the government's approach. Supporters say she is an advocate of data-driven policies, but campaigners and Labour MPs say she is a denier of institutional racism and should not be playing a key role in the response to the BLM protests. They also raised concerns over her alleged decision to give a role to Trevor Phillips, the former head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, who has angered some with past comments on British Asian communities. The Cenotaph war memorial was among the sites targeted by Black Lives Matter protesters last week Supporters of Munira Mirza say she is an advocate of data-driven policies, but campaigners and Labour MPs say she is a denier of institutional racism The Prime Minister was asked if he agreed with Dr Mirza on her 'culture of grievance' remark, to which he replied in the Commons: 'I am a huge admirer of Dr Munira Mirza, who is a brilliant thinker about these issues and we are certainly going to proceed with a new cross-governmental commission to look at racism and discrimination. 'It will be a very thorough piece of work looking at discrimination in health, in education, in the criminal justice system. 'It is clear from the Black Lives Matter march and all representations that we've had that more work needs to be done.' T1 Payments is proud to give back during the COVID-19 crisis by donating to the Three Square Food Bank. By joining together we hope to feed everyone in the Southern Nevada community, said Donald Kasdon of T1 Payments. Its important we continue to support our community during these tough times where we are seeing an increase in food and economic insecurities. T1 Payments, a leader in high-risk merchant processing, is giving back to Three Square in effort to provide children, seniors, and families in Southern Nevada with healthy meals. Serving the residents of Southern Nevada since 2007, Three Square provides wholesome food to the most vulnerable neighborhoods. According to Three Square, prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, nearly 300,000 Southern Nevadans were already facing food shortages. We expect that number to grow as a result of supply chain disruptions and mass job losses in the wake of the pandemic. They are encouraging those who are able to help the community, especially during these times of uncertainty. As the economic impact of COVID-19 continues to affect many, T1 Payments contribution will help fight hunger in Southern Nevada. By joining together we hope to feed everyone in the Southern Nevada community, said Donald Kasdon of T1 Payments. Its important we continue to support our community during these tough times where we are seeing an increase in food and economic insecurities. For every one dollar donated, Three Square can provide up to three meals for hungry Southern Nevadans. With T1 Payments donation, more than 250 meals will be provided to the hungry. As many families continue to be laid off, T1 Payments believes it is essential that we continue supporting organizations like Three Square. T1 Payments is proud to give back during the COVID-19 crisis by donating to the Three Square Food Bank. For more information about how to donate to create a community without hunger in Southern Nevada, visit the Three Square website. More about T1 Payments: T1 Payments is a high-risk merchant processing company that is flexible, transparent, and scalable. T1 Payments secure gateway and integrated shopping cart solutions are compliant with all Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). In addition to high-risk merchant processing services, T1 Payments stays involved in the community through its ongoing donations and sponsorships. To learn more about the nonprofits T1 Payments supports, visit T1 Payments Community Involvement page on their website. For more information, please visit the T1 Payments website (https://t1payments.com/) or call 1-866-518-2216. Michigan schools will be able to reopen for in-person learning with strict safety measures in place, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Wednesday. In-person learning for K-12 schools is allowed in Phase 4 of the states COVID-19 recovery plan, Whitmer said in a press release ahead of a scheduled public news briefing. Currently, the entire state is considered to be in at least Phase 4 - two regions in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula are in Phase 5. Whitmer allowed for the possibility of different scenarios regionally and the possibility that things may change in the event of another COVID-19 spike. Whitmer also announced her administration would be releasing a Return to School Roadmap outlining requirements and guidance for schools to reopen their classrooms on June 30. In a statement, Whitmer said shes optimistic that in-person learning can resume in the fall. Our students and educators have made incredible sacrifices these past few months to protect themselves and their families from the spread of COVID-19, Whitmer said. Schools must make sure to enact strict safety measures to continue protecting educators, students, and their families. MDHHS Chief Deputy for Health and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun said the reopening plan will be based on the latest public health data, and said its important we continue to put the health and safety of our students and educators first. The plan for reopening schools will set minimum health and safety requirements for all schools, although Whitmer said districts can choose to enact more aggressive standards in consultation with local public health officials. 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. More on MLive: Whitmer orders all Michigan schools to remain closed through academic year as coronavirus cases surge This does not mean our kids will stop learning, Whitmer says after extending school closures due to coronavirus Coronavirus shutdown of Michigan schools creates unprecedented challenge for educators, families WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday adopted a bill that would fund nearly $20 billion in deferred maintenance projects in national parks and other federally owned properties including Northeast Ohios Cuyahoga Valley National Park and James A. Garfield National Historic Site and use federal oil and gas royalties to permanently supply money to the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The larger Great American Outdoors Act that the Senate passed in a 73 to 25 vote included Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portmans Restore Our Parks Act, which directs $12 billion toward national park repairs. Portman said it includes at least $114 million in fixes at Ohio facilities, including $51.8 million worth of overdue work in Cuyahoga Valley in Brecksville, $48.4 million at the Perrys Victory & International Peace Memorial in Put-in-Bay, $1.2 million at Garfields former home in Mentor, and $882,206 for the First Ladies National Historic Site in Canton. Portman said hes been working on supplying a permanent funding source for park repairs since he headed the federal Office of Management and Budget when George W. Bush was president. Portman said that a study of the Restore Our Parks legislation found it will support more than 100,000 jobs addressing the delayed maintenance backlog and rebuilding national parks infrastructure. The legislations passage is also expected to support the continued employment of several incumbent Republican Senators who face tough re-election battles in November: Steve Daines of Montana, who is being challenged by the states Democratic governor, Steve Bullock, and Cory Gardner of Colorado, who will likely be challenged by former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper. Portman isnt up for reelection until 2022. In a Senate floor speech to promote the legislation, Portman said the water systems, roads, bridges, bathrooms, visitor center and trails at many national parks have been closed because they need repairs, and that putting off the work any longer will cause additional damage and ultimately make the repairs more expensive. He cited repairs that need to be done at Cuyahoga Valley, the 13th most visited national park in the country, whose costs far exceed the parks $11 million yearly budget. It is a beautiful park, basically from Cleveland to Akron, beautiful along the Cuyahoga River, beautiful because it has a tourism train that goes through it, a narrow-gauge train, its just a great place, said Portman. But guess what? The train tracks are falling apart. Thats a huge expense. That cant come out of this annual budget because you have to replace the ties and so on. There is a bridge that I saw that is crumbling. It is not going to be able to be used, soon, for bicyclists or hikers to go to the river because it is falling apart. That bridge is a capital expense. It takes a lot of funding to do that and to do it right. Portman said that President Donald Trump has expressed support for the bill, and he believes its likely to pass the House of Representatives because it has more than 330 bipartisan cosponsors. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, also backed the bill, saying the money spent to improve parks will make peoples quality of life better. Its hard to think of a federal expenditure over the decades more important than how we build up our national parks, said Brown. Although Portman described the legislation as a win-win, critics of the bill noted it would add $17.3 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade. The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Wyoming Republican Mike Enzi, called it "the latest in an unprecedented spending spree Congress has been on for the past year. Dozens of conservative organizations oppose the legislation, arguing that it would fund a federal land grab. It will take private land out of productive use and off the property tax rolls in rural areas that can least afford it, said a letter signed by groups including Americans for Prosperity, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the American Energy Alliance. And taxpayers will be forced to pay for maintaining these lands in perpetuity. More than 850 conservation organizations signed a letter that supports the legislation. Funds provided in this bill will secure these vital resources while preserving water quantity and quality, sustaining working landscapes and rural economies, increasing access for recreation for all Americans no matter where they live, and fueling the juggernaut of our outdoor economy, said the letter signed by groups including Clean Water Action, National Wildlife Federation and The Nature Conservancy. More coverage: What is Juneteenth and should it be a federal holiday? Panel chaired by Rep. Marcia Fudge examines voting during the COVID-19 pandemic Ohio U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown decries calls for business liability relief in COVID-19 legislation The $600 question: Should the federal unemployment subsidy continue? Local pastor tells congressional police reform hearing that police cuts made Cleveland 'unbelievably unsafe Sherrod Brown chides Housing Secretary Ben Carson at Senate hearing 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 A man who was carried to safety by a Black Lives Matter protester would like to thank his rescuer, it has been reported. Bryn Male, 55, made global headlines after he was saved by Patrick Hutchinson, a personal trainer and grandfather, from harm during violent protests in central London over the weekend. Mr Male, a delivery driver who is also a grandfather, was one of hundreds of counter-protesters who gathered in central London with the stated aim of protecting statues from vandalism. A Black Lives Matter protest had been scheduled on the same day but was cancelled, leaving the counter protesters - many of whom were far right activists - to clash with police and a small number of BLM protesters. Mr Male rubs his head as a Black Lives Matter protester offers him help / Getty Images Mr Male was caught up in a clash with the BLM protesters, leaving him with a black eye, and Mr Hutchinson was able to rescue him from the fray. Now he wants to thank Mr Hutchinson for saving him, his son Harry Male told The Sun. The 21-year-old said: "He probably would, who wouldn't?" He was saved by a group of 'overseers' / Getty Images Mr Male has also been revealed as a Millwall fan, with pictures showing him with a tattoo of a large Millwall lion emblem on his leg. 137 arrests were made following the protest, including a 28-year-old man who urinated next to a memorial to PC Keith Palmer and was later jailed. Mr Hutchinson formed a group with four of his friends, who are part of London-based close protection group Ark Security, to protect young Black Lives Matter protesters from getting caught up in the violence at the protests. Daughters of Black Lives Matter hero Patrick Hutchinson share pride at lifesaver dad They took it upon themselves to be the overseers at the protest, to make sure those who needed help were taken safely to emergency service workers. The group spotted a lone white man being dragged by young black protesters through a crowd and thrown on the steps near the Royal Festival Hall. Loading.... His life was under threat so I just went and scooped him up, put him over my shoulder, and started marching towards the police with him, Mr Hutchinson told Channel 4 News. The newly developed Max was set to be a vital part of airline fleets worldwide, but after the second crash, the FAA and aviation safety authorities around the world grounded the planes, dealing Boeings reputation a devastating blow. The Max still has not been cleared to fly again as the company and the FAA continue to work on safety improvements. The agency has not set a timeline for when that work will be completed, but it is expected to be done in coming months. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close SPRINGFIELD The Illinois Republican Party wants to be excluded from the states social gathering restrictions, as it alleged in a federal lawsuit that churches and political demonstrations already enjoy such exclusions. Throughout the year, the party holds a state convention, strategy meetings and candidate rallies all with more than 10 people present. Under Gov. J.B. Pritzkers May 29 executive order addressing the continued spread of COVID-19, those in-person gatherings are banned. According to a court filing, the governor carved out an exception for religious institutions, which can hold socially-distanced services of more than 10 people. It also alleges he declined to enforce his order against protesters demanding an end to systemic racism in the wake of George Floyds death. Floyd was a black man who died when a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for about nine minutes on May 25. Near-daily protests against police brutality have since taken place across the U.S. Political parties are for political expression what churches are for religious expression: the corporate manifestation of speech and interaction within a community of shared belief, the Republican Party argued in its lawsuit, filed June 15. Yet, unlike churches, political parties are barred from gathering in groups greater than 10 under the governors executive order, it continued. And unlike protestors against police brutality, they have not been given an exemption based on his sympathy, recognition, and participation. Daniel Suhr, an attorney with the Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center and the partys representative, said in a press conference Tuesday he is asking a federal judge to agree treating political party gatherings differently from religious gatherings violates the U.S. constitution. And, because the harm suffered by the Illinois Republican Party is immediate and irreparable due to how quickly the November election is approaching, Suhr is requesting a judge address this lawsuit quickly. The business of politics, he said, is a time-bound activity. The case applies not just to the Illinois Republican Party, but to all state political parties. Gov. Pritzker is ruling Illinois like an unaccountable king where only he gets to decide which violations of his executive order have his blessing, Tim Schneider, the party chairman, said Tuesday. The Illinois Republican Party will not sit idly by while the governor of Illinois applies one rule for himself and his political allies and another rule for everyone else. We agree that peaceful protesters have just cause to exercise their first amendment rights, but they arent the only ones. Suhr added the lawsuit is seeking to uphold equal treatment for all political speakers under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That will make their case more successful than many others challenging aspects of Pritzkers COVID-19-related restrictions, he said. Rather than alleging political parties have a constitutionally protected right that must be upheld during the pandemic, the lawsuit is alleging political parties should be treated as churches and protests are under the governors order. It is not the governments job under the first amendment to favor one viewpoint over another, Suhr said Tuesday. Were asking for the same fair treatment not to be based on the content of our speech, but rather to say every group thats engaging in the public square deserves the same treatment from the government. The Will County Republican Central Committee, Schaumburg Township Republican Organization and Northwest Side GOP Club are also parties in the lawsuit. The attorney generals office, which defends the governor against lawsuits, has not responded to the allegations. Will there be a second COVID-19 surge in Illinois? Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Saudi Arabia is significantly cutting its crude oil exports to the United States this month, with shipments likely to hit a 35-year low and reducing the overhang in U.S. oil inventories, Bloomberg reported, citing tanker-tracking data that it has compiled. The drastic cut in Saudi crude oil exports to the U.S. is a radical shift from the Kingdoms tactics from two months ago, when it sent a fleet of supertankers to flood the U.S. market with oil during the price war with Russia at the end of March and early April. Back in April, the tanker fleet from Saudi Arabia coincided with the massive oil demand loss and threatened to overflow U.S. storage capacity. But after Saudi Arabia and Russia forged a new pact to cut a record amount of OPEC+ production to support oil prices, the Saudis now look intent to help reduce U.S. inventories by withholding supply to the U.S., the market which reports crude oil inventories every week. According to tanker shipping data compiled by Bloomberg, in the first half of June, Saudi Arabia sent just one cargo of crude to the United States, equal to around 133,000 barrels per day (bpd). This compares to an estimated 1.3 million bpd of Saudi oil shipped to the United States in April. Related: Exxon Forced To Curtail Production In Guyana Some Saudi tankers havent signaled their final destination yet, but if the pace of Saudi crude exports to the U.S. continues for the rest of June, they would hit the lowest in 35 years and help draw down some of the U.S. inventories which are sitting at above the five-year range because of the lost demand during the lockdowns. Last week, the EIA reported a rise in U.S. crude oil inventories of 5.7 million barrels for the week to June 5 and an increase in fuel inventories. At 538.1 million barrels, crude oil stocks were at a record high, and way above the five-year range for this time of the year. To compare, at this time last year, U.S. commercial crude inventories were 485.5 million barrels. U.S. gasoline demand averaged 7.9 million barrels per day in the week to June 5, up from 7.55 million bpd in the prior week, but still well below the 9.877-million-bpd demand for the same week a year ago, according to EIA data. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Tuesday stressed the importance of stability as Hong Kong was ranked three places down globally in terms of competitiveness. Hong Kong was ranked fifth globally in the latest World Competitiveness Yearbook 2020 published by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD), down from second last year. IMD attributed Hong Kong's lower ranking to factors including lackluster economic performance and the social unrest since last year. In response to the ranking, a spokesperson of the HKSAR government noted that the social unrest dealt a severe blow to inbound tourism, local consumption activities and investment sentiment in the second half of 2019, pushing Hong Kong's economy into recession. The social unrest involving violence, vandalism and intimidation of people holding a different political standpoint has also affected how Hong Kong was perceived, as certain survey indicators of the IMD report showed that survey respondents were deeply concerned about Hong Kong's social and political stability, the spokesperson added. "For Hong Kong to be able to leverage on our competitive advantages, law and order, and social stability are of paramount importance," the spokesperson said. "In view of the emerging threats and organizations advocating 'Hong Kong independence', it is clear that without adequate safeguards for national security, Hong Kong's stability will be at risk." It is thus critical, essential and urgent for the National People's Congress, China's top legislation, to adopt the decision to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security from the state level in accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law, the spokesperson said. The national security legislation aims to prevent, curb and sanction an extremely small minority of criminals who threaten national security, the spokesperson noted, adding that this ensures the continuous successful implementation of the "one country, two systems" principle and helps maintain an environment that is conducive to business and investment, thereby safeguarding the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong. Stressing that the national security legislation will not affect Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy under "one country, two systems," the spokesperson pointed out that under the principle, on the contrary, Hong Kong's economic integration with the mainland will bring economic opportunities to Hong Kong. "The HKSAR government is committed to enhancing the competitiveness and vibrancy of the Hong Kong economy," the spokesperson said, adding that faced with further economic setbacks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the HKSAR government has implemented various packages of initiatives to protect jobs, support enterprises and revive the economy. "We will strive to maintain our competitive advantages, and at the same time step up investment in infrastructure, and innovation and technology in order to add growth impetus to our development," the spokesperson said, adding, "Hong Kong is poised to be both an active promoter and a beneficiary of important national development strategies such as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative alongside the further opening up and deepening of economic reform in the mainland." "We have every confidence in Hong Kong's long-term economic development," said the spokesperson. For educators and content publishers, Kahoot! Academy will serve as a platform to access and publish, high-quality content, as well as create communities around various subjects. For learners, it will become a source for verified content for self-study and new knowledge. Kahoot! was inspired to create Kahoot! Academy to empower the global educator community and strengthen collaboration in times of distance learning. It is built on the strength of the Kahoot! brand and its global user base of more than 6 million educators and 1.3 billion participating players annually. Kahoot! Academy disrupts the way educational content is shared around the world: it is the first-of-its-kind marketplace where educators and publishers will keep 100% of their proceeds while reaching an audience of millions. Educators and publishing brands will start promoting their content on Kahoot! Academy from today. "Some of the biggest challenges we educators face is the lack of time, resources and the ability to connect with peers to share knowledge and materials," said Linda Sees, history department chair at Roselle Catholic High School in New Jersey, USA and one of the first Kahoot! Academy Verified educators . "I am so excited to be one of the early educators to become a part of what is the first global community and knowledge resource for teachers that puts us front and center." Kahoot! Academy has also signed on publishers and brands such as AdCouncil, American Museum of Natural History, Britannica, Cambridge University Press, Common Sense Education, iCivics, Merriam Webster, National Geographic, Peekapak and Time for Kids to be among the first partners with Premium publisher status. "Our vision with Kahoot! Academy is to create a one-stop-shop for all educational resources," said Eilert Hanoa, CEO, Kahoot! "This is the community and content platform of the future for education, for everyone. We hope to inspire education professionals through high-quality, verified content and ensure that every student has access to awesome learning no matter where they are." Kahoot! Academy will be available in numerous languages, and educators, publishers, and brands can apply today to become Verified educators or Premium partners by registering at kahootacademy.com. Verified profiles will be available as a part of the Kahoot! Premium+ offering for schools and higher education. Publishers and brands will be able to publish on Kahoot! Academy with a publisher subscription. Learners looking for knowledge will be able to access the platform's content for free. To learn more about Kahoot! Academy, visit the website , read the blog or follow updates from Kahoot! on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram . About Kahoot! Kahoot! is on a mission to make learning awesome! We want to empower every child, student, and employee to unlock their full learning potential. Our game-based learning platform makes it easy for any individual or corporation to create, share, and play learning games that drive serious engagement. In addition, our family of apps takes math learning to a new level and empowers children to learn to read through play. Launched in 2013, Kahoot!'s vision is to build the leading learning platform in the world. In 2020, more than 218 million games have been played so far on the Kahoot! platform with 1.3 billion participating players in 200 countries. The company is headquartered in Norway with offices in the US, the UK, France, and Finland. Let's play! Media Contact: Falguni Bhuta [email protected] SOURCE Kahoot! Related Links https://www.kahoot.com Johnny Vegas has revealed volunteering during the UK coronavirus lockdown has helping him grieve for his late parents. The comedian, 49, admitted he was left feeling 'resentful' when he lost his father Laurence in March 2017 from bladder cancer, followed by his mother Patricia, who died in 'peacefully her sleep' last November. During an interview with Sue Perkins on her podcast An Hour Or So With..., the actor said he's 'in the best place I've been in in years' as he delivers care packages for NHS staff and vulnerable people in his hometown of St Helens, Merseyside. 'I'm in the best place I've been in in years': Johnny Vegas has revealed volunteering during the UK coronavirus lockdown has helping him grieve for his late parents The Ideal star has documented his charitable drop offs on social media, which he credited for 'lifting some cloud from me' and 'giving me an opportunity to heal'. Johnny, real name Michael Joseph Pennington, previously confessed he was 'angry' at his dad for passing 'so suddenly', but has now been able to mourn him properly. The media personality told his pal: 'I've walked past his photos and I've refused to look at him. Now, I'm having conversations with him like he's sat next to me. I feel so much better for it. 'I've allowed him back in, I've forgiven him for something he had no control over. I never thought I could hit the ''being angry at them'' thing. Tragic: The comedian, 49, admitted he was left feeling 'resentful' when he lost his father Laurence in March 2017 from bladder cancer, followed by his mother Patricia last November Effects: The TV star lost a staggering three stone in 2018 by 'ignoring bread and cheese' following his father's death (pictured) 'I didn't think it was within me, because there was so much love for them. But I've been resentful of them going.' On what lending a helping hand to the community means to him, the TV star, who shares son Tom, four, with ex-wife Maia Dunphy, explained: 'This, for me, has just got rid of all the bull**** that's been going on in my life of late. It's clarified so many things. In some ways I feel like I'm in the best place I've been in in years just being amongst this community, feeling like you're doing something practical. 'I feel like a St Helens-er again, and I've loved it.' Moving on: Johnny previously confessed he was 'angry' at his dad for passing 'so suddenly', but has now been able to mourn him properly (pictured on Loose Women) The scheme in the area is also being supported by Johnny's unlikely friend, Hollywood actor Russell Crowe. The Gladiator star, 56, shared a video on Twitter relaying a message from Johnny asking for people who need assistance to call a helpline. Russell said: 'G'day folks, how are you doing? This is a message on behalf of my old mate Johnny Vegas. Happier place: The Ideal star has documented his charitable drop offs on social media, which he credited for 'lifting some cloud from me' and 'giving me an opportunity to heal' 'If you're in the St Helens area and you're having trouble getting food deliveries from your local supermarket, if you're NHS staff, a key worker, elderly, isolating, vulnerable, call this number - O1744 881881. 'The Steve Prescott Foundation and the Blackbrook rugby league team have set up a delivery service and they can help you out, they can pick up your shopping, they can maybe even pick up your medicine. 'One of the delivery workers is going be Johnny Vegas though, so expect to lose every second or third biscuit.' COLUMBUS, Ohio A community college in Columbus said Tuesday it plans to remove a 40-foot statue of Christopher Columbus from its campus. The 20-ton statue has been on display at the downtown campus of Columbus State Community College since 1988. The decision by the school comes as institutions across the country reconsider the display of statues of controversial historical figures. Several statues have been pulled down or vandalized during recent protests. A statement released by the college says the statue likely will be removed within the next two weeks. This decision did not emerge solely in the wake of the senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery but was a years-long dialogue out of concern and support for students of color who have been harmed and traumatized by systemic racism, the statement says. The collegiate setting is often where students begin to refine their understanding of history and the world around them. Our students contributed their voices to this discourse around systemic racism, reinforcing the conclusion that the Christopher Columbus statue is not consistent with the values and mission of Columbus State. Bill DeMora, a member of the Columbus Italian Club, tells WBNS Channel 10 he does not oppose the statue being removed but he hopes the school will consider donating it instead of destroying it. It would go on private property and we would maintain it, and it would be something for the Italian community to still look upon with pride, over a native son who the city is named after," DeMora tells WBNS. Reports say there is a growing sentiment to have a statue of Columbus removed from in front of City Hall as well. City Council President Shannon Hardin tells WBNS he is open to moving the statue. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Many of us who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 had serious misgivings about him as a person and a candidate. Yet it was either Trump or Hillary Clinton, so our vote for Trump was effectively a vote against Hillary. Now, in 2020, the stakes are considerably higher. As expressed by George P. Bush, Trump is the only thing standing between America and socialism. Thats why many voters will support Trump again, even if they are put off by some of his tweets and public statements. In their minds, its either Trump or Antifa, either Trump or chaos on our streets. In that light, the choice becomes simple. Weve seen how bad things can get with Trump in office. What would happen if he was not in office? What would happen if socialist-leaning Democrats ran the country? What then? In my new book, Evangelicals at the Crossroads: Will We Pass the Trump Test?, I lay out the evangelical case against Trump, explaining why many Christians could not vote for him in good conscience. For these evangelicals, our association with Trump has hurt our witness and damaged the cause of the gospel. As expressed to me with great passion by an evangelical colleague (he voted Republican for years until Trump), He has set back, no he has utterly destroyed the credibility of the evangelical world. Who respects evangelicals because of Donald Trump? NO ONE. Who feels more attracted to the gospel because of evangelical fealty to Donald Trump. NO ONE. Is this undeniable and massive good? This is all laid out in my book, detailing the case against Trump as clearly as I can. It is a powerful case, indeed. But then I lay out the pro-Trump evangelical position, one which basically says, We needed someone to stand up to a one-world government movement. To face down Iran and China. To fight against Islamic terrorism. To push back against extremist elements in our own country. To stand for our religious liberties. To fight for the lives of the unborn. So what if he makes stupid statements and sends out nasty tweets. Were dealing with massive issues of national and global importance here, and Trump has been the man for the job. This is similar to the reasoning of Middle East expert Daniel Pipes who penned a June 4 editorial titled, A Reluctant but Unhesitating Vote for Donald Trump. He first listed his Never Trump bona fides, which were impressive indeed: I watched in dismay as I helped the Ted Cruz presidential campaign, seeing Republican primary voters select Donald Trump out of a field of 16 viable candidates and make him president-elect. I signed an open letter committing to working energetically to prevent the election of someone so utterly unfitted to the presidency and wrote many articles lambasting Trump. I left the Republican party on his nomination and voted for Libertarian Gary Johnson in the general election. After the election, I hoped for Trump's impeachment and President Mike Pence. Yet now he will be voting for Trump, encouraging others to do the same. As he explains, Nearly four years later, Trump's character still troubles and repels me. If anything, his egotism, disloyalty, and bombast exceed those vices when he was a mere candidate. But, he continues, to my unending surprise, he has governed as a resolute conservative. And so, Slowly but inexorably over the past three years, my approval of the policies has outbalanced my distaste for the person. Finally, knowing that Joe Biden will represent the radicalized Democrats in November, I conclude that I will do my small part to help Trump get re-elected by writing, giving, and voting. Today, as we see just how radicalized the Democrats have become, with defund the police becoming the latest mantra, we understand how high the stakes have become. I personally know Christians who voted for Trump in 2016 but told me they were not going to vote for him again. (They did not plan to vote for Biden either, so they would sit out the presidential elections or cast a third party protest vote.) They were too repulsed by his character and felt that he often made a mess of things with his words. And, as much as they appreciated the good that he did, they felt that the damage to the nation outweighed his positive contributions. He was too divisive. Too destructive. He degraded us more than he helped us. Because of that, they would not vote for him in 2020. Now, as our cities are on fire and angry mobs stand ready to cancel our freedoms and demand conformity, these same voters are confronted with a stark reality. In short, it could well be that Donald Trump is the last line of defense again a radical, leftist takeover of our government, the likes of which we have never seen. This will push many a reluctant voter, like Daniel Pipes, firmly into the Trump column. It could be as simple as that. (For the question of how evangelical Christians can vote for Trump without destroying their personal witness, see my 10-point strategy in Evangelicals at the Crossroads.) Turkey and Italy conducted a joint drill in the Mediterranean Sea on Saturday. The training exercise showcased the friendship between the two countries while other states around the strategic sea oppose Turkeys recent actions in the area. The Turkish Ministry of National Defense announced the training yesterday in a tweet. The maritime drill involved submarines and sought to improve interoperability between Turkey and Italy, according to the ministry. The training session follows several criticisms of Turkeys policies in the Mediterranean by Greece, Cyprus, France and Egypt. Turkey is currently exploring offshore drilling for oil and natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean. Cyprus considers the area its waters, which Turkey disputes. Turkey has a deal with the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya to operate there. Egypt and France support the eastern-based rebel Libyan National Army (LNA) forces loyal to Gen. Khalifa Hifter, while Turkey backs the GNA. Last month, the countries formed an alliance along with the United Arab Emirates, which also supports Hifter, to denounce Turkish excavations in what they said are Cypriot waters, alleged Turkish violations of Greeces airspace and Turkish support for the GNA in Libya. Earlier this month, the European Union (EU) criticized Turkeys drilling near Cyprus, saying it violated the territorial waters of both Cyprus and Greece. Italy is in the EU and an important economy in the Mediterranean. The drill shows that Turkey still has some support in the supranational body among Mediterranean states. Papuan defendant Buchtar Tabuni is seen on a monitor during his sentencing on a treason charge in Balikpapan, Indonesia, June 17, 2020. An Indonesian court convicted and sentenced seven Papuan pro-independence activists and students Wednesday to between 10 and 11 months in prison on charges of treason for organizing and participating in anti-Jakarta protests that rocked the far-eastern Papua region last year. The sentences handed down in an Indonesian Borneo courtroom were much lighter than prison terms of five to 17 years that prosecutors had sought during the four-month trial in East Kalimantan province, where the defendants had been transferred from Papua over security concerns. The defendants were proven to have committed treason with others, the judges ruled in their verdicts. Activists Buchtar Tabuni, Stevanus Itlay and Agus Kossay were found guilty of treason and sentenced to 11 months in prison. Tabuni is a leader of the pro-independence United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) while Itlay and Kossay are members of the National Committee for West Papua, an organization that seeks a referendum on self-determination for the mainly Melanesian region. The other four student leaders Ferry Gombo, Irwanus Uropmabin, Alexander Gobai and Hengki Hilapok were sentenced to 10 months on similar charges. All seven have spent about nine months in custody since their arrests last year, meaning their sentences would be finished in another month or two. The session was held in a court closed to spectators and broadcast live on the internet in keeping with Indonesias social distancing rules to slow the spread of COVID-19. Outside the courthouse in Balikpapan, the capital of East Kalimantan, dozens of local students staged a peaceful protest to demand the defendants be acquitted. The seven and their attorneys did not rule out challenging their convictions. Thank you for this sentence, your honor, Tabuni said. I feel Im not guilty, so let me think through this verdict, he said. Tabuni and the others have seven days to appeal. Defense attorney Fathul Huda Wiyashadi said he was satisfied with the rulings. Because if the judges had ruled in favor of the prosecutors, we fear it would have negative repercussions for all of Indonesia, he said about the short sentences. Fathul previously argued that some of the defendants claimed they were under duress from police when they made statements last year. Those statements were used against them in their trials. The move to Balikpapan, which is about 2,400 km (about 1,500 miles) from Papua, was decried by the group International Lawyers for West Papua last year over concerns it would hinder access to family and support for the defendants, according to local media. Veronica Koman, a human rights lawyer whose work focuses on abuses in Papua, called the sentencings surprising. Please do not let the relatively lenient sentences fool you, because this still reflects racism. I still think they should have been found not guilty, she told BenarNews on Wednesday. She said domestic and foreign support had contributed to the judges decision. I think Jakarta realized that the long sentences demanded by the prosecutors would have caused lots of anger among Papuans and reopened wounds that have not healed yet, Koman told BenarNews. Besides, unprecedented solidarity from Indonesians plays a huge role in this. Weve got messages of support from dozens of Indonesian student unions, she said. The rulings handed down in Balikpapan on Wednesday came nearly two months after a court in Central Jakarta convicted and sentenced six activists to eight to nine months in prison for treason for participating in a 2019 protest calling for a referendum of self-determination in Papua. Indonesian activists protest outside the courthouse in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, where seven pro-independence activists from Papua were convicted and sentenced on treason charges, June 17, 2020. [Gunawan/BenarNews] Dozens killed in rallies More than 40 people were killed in August and September 2019 after anti-government protests turned violent in Papua and West Papua provinces, which make up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island. The unrest was sparked by perceived heavy-handed and racist treatment of Papuan students by security personnel on Java Island. It prompted the government to send police and military troops to the Papua region and block the internet for three weeks. Papuan activists and their supporters, inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, recently went on social media using the hashtag PapuanLivesMatter to denounce what they see as racist treatment across Indonesia of Papuans. Protests broke out across the United States sparked by a video that showed a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man, George Floyd, who said he could not breathe and later died, as other officers stood nearby. On Wednesday, Amnesty International urged the Indonesian government to release the seven who were convicted in Balikpapan. We deeply regret the courts decision. Although the sentences are much lighter than those demanded by the public prosecutors, we believe the prisoners of conscience should not have been arrested, jailed and prosecuted, AI Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said in a statement. The Papua region was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-administered ballot known as the Act of Free Choice. Many Papuans and rights groups said the vote was a sham because it involved only about 1,000 people. The provinces of Papua and West Papua make up one-fifth of Indonesias land mass but only 5.9 million of Indonesias 270 million people live there. Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 The Global Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market is expected to grow from USD 7,580. New York, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913829/?utm_source=GNW 45 Million in 2019 to USD 11,221.94 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.75%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: On the basis of Geography, the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics 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 Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market including Biogen Idec Inc, Celgene Corporation, Cephalon Inc, Genmab A/S, Genzyme Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, and Roche Holding Ag. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics 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 Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Therapeutics Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913829/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:52:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NAIROBI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- African-based entrepreneurs and innovators will benefit from a 20 million shillings (about 200,000 U.S. dollars) fund that was launched on Wednesday to promote remote learning in the continent during the COVID-19 pandemic era. The International Publishers Association (IPA), which will administer the fund, said in a statement issued in Nairobi that it will help tackle negative impacts on remote learning in Africa linked to the pandemic. "COVID-19 has taught us that technology can protect people and enable life and learning to continue. But this technology is not accessible to everyone," said Bodour Al Qasimi, the vice-president of IPA. "We are looking for bright minds and clever solutions to overcome these challenges in Africa by bringing learners, teachers and educational materials closer at a safe distance," she added. Al Qasimi said that IPA will fund cutting edge ideas from African innovators with potential to eliminate bottlenecks to distance learning created by COVID-19. She said that anti-COVID-19 containment measures like lockdowns have slowed down distance learning in Africa, adding that home-grown innovations are required to address the challenge. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says that 89 percent of learners in Sub-Saharan Africa have no access to a computer, 82 percent have no internet access and around 56 million learners live outside mobile networks, thus complicating their ability to study remotely. Tariq Al Gurg, chief executive officer at Dubai Cares, an Emirates-based charity, said that COVID-19 presents an opportunity for African publishing industry to innovate and become a key player in distance learning. "The COVID-19 pandemic could be seen as a tipping point to a digital transition in the publishing industry in Africa," said Al Gurg. "We look forward to witnessing a high turnout among entrepreneurs and innovators in Africa along with their unique solutions and ideas in support of the publishing industry," he added. Al Gurg said that investments in high-speed internet connection and capacity building for tutors and learners is key to improve distance learning in Africa amid closure of schools linked to COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem Facebook has removed several adverts by Donald Trumps 2020 presidential re-election campaign from the platform, according to one of the companys senior executives. Former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg Facebooks vice president of global affairs and communications rejected claims the tech giant had not done enough to tackle misinformation and said the company had pulled a number of Trump campaign ads. He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: We, by the way, have removed a number of ads from Donald Trump over the last several months. Mr Clegg did not provide details on how many Trump adverts were removed from the platform, but suggested they were related to claims made about voting rights and the US census. If [politicians] say things which directly seek to repress the right for people to exercise their vote then we get rid of that ... and indeed we have done that, as far as the census is concerned, in the case of some ads run by Donald Trump. Recommended Facebook unveils new 2020 presidential election features Facebook has faced criticism for not removing or labelling posts by Mr Trump that spread misinformation about voting by mail and many have argued encouraged violence against protesters. Asked what he thought of the presidents recent remark when the looting starts, the shooting starts which Mr Trump cross-posted on Twitter and Facebook Mr Clegg said: I thought it was abhorrent. However, the communications chief defended the decision not to censor the remarks, saying social media companies had to allow leaders to threaten to deploy force. The former leader of the Liberal Democrats told Today: If you read the whole post, youll see it was talking about Donald Trump saying that he felt the governor of Minnesota had not taken aggressive enough action at the time rioting was breaking out. In other words [Mr Trump] was threatening state action. And like all social media companies we allow governments to say that they are going to deploy force if the wish to. Mr Clegg added: The way to hold people to account is to criticise, mock, attack and pillory what they say which is of course whats happened over the last couple of weeks since he made that post. Trump signs controversial executive order that could allow federal officials to target Twitter, Facebook and Google The idea that a private company, that in a sense has got no legitimacy to act as an arbiter of political truth ... should intervene and say, You cant say this and you cant say that. I think people would feel quite rightly that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook dont have the legitimacy to do that. Asked whether politicians can literally say anything, Mr Clegg said the company would remove anything which threatened imminent physical harm pointing to the removal of posts by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro about bogus cures for the coronavirus. Facebook has launched an effort to boost US voter turnout and provide more authoritative information about voting ahead of this years presidential election. We will be launching Americas largest voter information and registration effort ever. We hope to help register four million US voters, said Mr Clegg. Recommended Trump administration sues to block release of Bolton book The companys new voting information centre on Facebook and Instagram will include details on registering to vote, polling places and voting by post. It will draw the information from state election officials and local authorities. The information hub is similar to the coronavirus information centre the company launched earlier this year in an attempt to elevate authoritative sources of information on Covid-19. Mr Zuckerberg has continued to face criticism for not removing or labelling any of Mr Trumps posts. Earlier this month, he wrote: I know many people are upset that weve left the presidents posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies. In a USA Today opinion piece on Tuesday, Mr Zuckerberg reaffirmed that position. Ultimately, I believe the best way to hold politicians accountable is through voting, and I believe we should trust voters to make judgments for themselves, he wrote. CLEVELAND, Ohio While demonstrations across the country are renewing calls for racial fairness, a new report from WalletHub ranks Ohio as one of the worst states in the nation in terms of racial equality. The state ranked 45th among all states and the District of Columbia, according to WalletHub. Ohio also ranked among the five states with the highest unemployment rate gap, along with Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the District of Columbia. New Mexico ranked highest in the nation in terms of racial equality, according to WalletHub, followed by Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii and Texas. The recent protests for police reform and racial equality that have roiled the nation could help people of color economically in the long term, WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez said in a statement. The U.S. is growing more conscious of social and economic inequality, and governing authorities are being pressured to pass laws that address those disparities, she said. But in the short term, the rioting that accompanied some of the protests created further business destruction that is bad for everyone involved, Gonzalez said. WalletHub compared states across eight key areas including annual income, unemployment rate, homelessness, share of executives and home ownership rate. Data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, WalletHub said. The companys findings are backed up by other research. A paper from the Center for Talent Innovation, titled Being Black in Corporate America, found that only 3.2 percent of executive or senior-level positions belong to black Americans, even though that demographic makes up 13 percent of the U.S. population. The overall black unemployment rate is consistently higher than the white unemployment rate, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Other studies illuminate a wide disparity in wealth between white and black Americans, WalletHub said. The average white family has a net worth of $171,000, compared to just $17,150 for the average black family, according to a 2020 paper from the Brookings Institution. One way to help black Americans achieve greater economic equality is to increase funding for schools in underserved districts with high minority populations, since a better education can lead to better job opportunities in the future, Gonzalez said. Increased funding for schools with high minority populations could help prepare children for better job opportunities, she said. We should combat the low representation of black Americans in business executive positions by promoting youth programs that offer resume-building leadership experience, and by pushing for merit-based advancement within large companies, she said. Photo: (Photo : YouTube/ABC 10 News) A San Diego police officer helped to rescue a pair of two-year-old twin girls after their father drove them off a cliff and into the water. NBC affiliate KNSD reported that Jonathan Wiese, San Diego Police Department K9 Officer, got a call on early Saturday morning. The caller said that a man threatened to kill himself by driving off the Coronado Bridge with his two young daughters in the car. According to ABC affiliate KGTV, Wiese drove off to the bridge. He soon found out that the man careened off of Sunset Cliffs. The father's car landed upside down on top of a rock. The officer thought about his young family Thinking about his young family, Wiese quickly jumped into action without hesitation. He attached a 100-foot long SWAT mission leash around his waist and then rappeled down the cliff into the water. He saw that the man had one of his daughters in his arms; this scene reminded the office of his two-year-old daughter at home. He imagined that if that same thing happened to his wife and daughter, he would not just stand there and watch what is taking place. According to KGTV, several other cops had arrived at the scene when the car was about 30 feet down. The police used the leash to lower down Wiese to get the two girls and their father. He saw that the father was holding the twins as he tried to tread water, but they were all going down. Wiese did "rescue breathing" The officer said that one of the girls was awake and crying, while the other one was pretty lifeless. He did some "rescue breathing" to help. In an instant, officers used the leash to hoist up both children and rushed them immediately to the hospital, riding the ambulance. Wiese sat with the father while they waited for a helicopter to lift him. The father told the officer that he was going to die, and the twins were coming with him. The officer's heroic deeds SDPD Police Chief David Nisleit told KGTV that Wiese is the department's "Officer of the Year." Thanks to his quick thinking, Wiese was able to save the girls' lives. Nisleit said that it was probably the most heroic thing he had seen in his 32 years. Wiese said that after seeing the incident, he already knew what he had to do. When everyone was safe, all he wanted was to go home and hug his kids. Colin Moore, a friend of the twin's mother, arranged a GoFundMe page to help them with hospital visits and to help the girls recover from trauma. She explained that on Friday, the twins were at a relative's home. The relatives planned to take the twins to visit their father. The next morning, the dad took them without permission. The girls' mother said that she received many calls and texts saying that she might not see her twins again. The page wrote that both girls have a stable condition and are currently staying at a local hospital. ABC affiliate KGTV identified the father as Robert Brians, 47. The police arrested him for two counts of attempted murder, one count of burglary, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of child cruelty. No one knows if he has retained an attorney. Brians is on hold without bail. See also other stories: Teen Successfully Battled New COVID-19 Syndrome The 2010 Mystery Case of a Missing Seven-Year-Old Child Family of 12 Struggles to Find a New Home After a Fire Burned Their Loft Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 23:15:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government has arranged two special flights to bring back around 280 Hong Kong residents stranded in India, a HKSAR government spokesman said Wednesday. The two flights are tentatively scheduled to depart from India's Bengalore and Chennai for Hong Kong on Thursday and Saturday respectively at the earliest, said the spokesman. The two flights will carry Hong Kong residents in various states in the southeast part of India with special needs primarily, such as people with illness, pregnant women and children as well as family members travelling with them, the spokesman said in a statement. Upon their arrival in Hong Kong International Airport, the returnees will proceed to AsiaWorld-Expo for compulsory COVID-19 testing, and then sent to quarantine centers for a 14-day compulsory quarantine. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the Indian government has suspended all international flight movements since late March. As of Tuesday, the HKSAR government has successfully contacted about 5,490 Hong Kong residents stranded in India. The spokesman said the HKSAR government had earlier arranged two flights to bring about 570 Hong Kong residents stranded in India back home on May 18 and June 4 respectively. Currently, there are still many Hong Kong residents stranded in different areas of India, and the HKSAR government will continue to assist the stranded residents to return to Hong Kong in an orderly manner in batches subject to the actual circumstances, said the spokesman. Enditem The death May 25 of George Floyd has triggered massive international anti-racism demonstrations following calls to remove statues and monuments of historical personalities and achievements symbolizing racism and slavery. Bassam el-Shammaa, a researcher in Egyptology and a senior tour guide, told Al-Monitor that the current protests that are rocking the United States and the United Kingdom and include the removal of racist statues are a golden opportunity for Egypt to demand the removal of the shameful Champollion statue in France. Shammaa talked about the marble statue of the French archaeologist Jean Francois Champollion, who deciphered hieroglyphics in the 19th century. It depicts him standing with his left boot on a copy of a Pharaonic kings head. The statue was carved in 1875 by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, and is located in the courtyard of the College de France. The statue looks like the murder scene of George Floyd under the knee of the police officer," said Shammaa, who is also a member of the Egyptian Writers Union. I hope that the French people who adore the Egyptian civilization support us and call their government to remove this shameful statue. Shammaa sent a letter to UNESCO calling for the removal of the statue. "I did that not as a representative of the culture or tourism and antiquities ministries, but as an Egyptian citizen. I hope they will positively respond to our demand." Addressing the French nation June 14 amid the worldwide anti-racism demonstrations, French President Emmanuel Macron said that his country will not remove its statues or rewrite its history. The republic won't erase any name from its history. It will forget none of its artworks, it wont take down statues, he said in a televised address to the nation. Commenting on Macrons statement, Shammaa said, This statement reflects vanity and stubbornness. We will continue our demand and will not give up. Al-Monitor tried to call sources from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to comment on the statement, but they were not immediately available for comment. Bartholdi, the sculptor who designed the statue, is also the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty in New York and this adds more contradiction to the issue. It is really strange. How did he design a statue calling for freedom and at the same time made this statue that is reflecting racism? Shammaa asked. To spread the word about the importance of the issue bearing in mind that many Egyptians aren't familiar with the statue, Shammaa appeared on TV talk shows and gave interviews to different local newspapers to inform people about the statue. I believe in media power to solve this dilemma, he said. Before the current media campaign led by Shammaa, Egypt tried on several occasions to shed more light on this controversial statue in recent years, but to no avail. In 2017, the Independent Union of Archaeological Workers denounced the French statue. They said in a statement that this work offends the Egyptian civilization and history. The statement further called on the French government to "take the necessary measures to completely remove this disgraceful work, otherwise we will call for talented artists in Egypt to sculpt thousands of statues that contempt French historic icons and put it in all squares of Egypt and in front of the French Embassy." A group of Egyptians living in France wrote a petition in 2018 to Macron condemning the statue, saying, "We are surprised and saddened by this tremendous insult to Egypt and its civilization. If it is meant to praise Champollion after deciphering the mystery of the Rosetta Stone, there is no doubt that Champollion did that, and opened the way for knowledge of the history and mysteries of the Pharaohs and ancient Egypt. France could find another way to honor Champollion other than displaying his boot on the head of the Pharaoh of Egypt. In 2007, Egyptian influential writer Anis Mansour (1924-2011) wrote in one of his articles for Asharq Al-Awsat that he thought deeply about the meaning of shoes for the French since he had seen the statue. I looked longer and meditated. I tried to understand what the sculptor wanted. How did France not apologize for such a statue? And what [is] the sculptors point of view? I know that I am not the first one to see, be astonished and ask about this statue. But I resume the condemnation, and this time I ask not about the meaning of the statue, but rather the meaning of the boot. It must be that the French boot is different from the Egyptian or the Arab boot is it cleaner? I only found one explanation, that Champollion had completely managed to decipher the Pharaonic symbols, and it's under his feet. But I was not convinced and did not feel comfort, he wrote. The Egyptian government had attempted to solve this issue some years ago. One of the attempts happened in 2014. Former Culture Minister Gaber Asfour told Al-Monitor that when he was in office at the time, he sent an official letter to his French counterpart demanding the removal of the statue. At that time, I was confident that the authorities there would respond. But this did not happen. I didn't receive any reply from them, Asfour said. Asfour believes that it is appropriate for the French side to think of a way to erase the confusion and misunderstanding caused by this statue, which has no value. They can change its location and put it in one of the archaeological storage places away from public eyes, especially since it does not have a significant artistic value. The statue does not reflect the French peoples passion for the Egyptian civilization and the Egyptian citizens in general, he added. France is one of the countrys main partners in the archaeological domain, operating through three permanent archaeological centers including the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo. There are over seven French missions operating in Egypt. In 2019, Egypt and France launched the France-Egypt Cultural Year, in which both countries celebrated the mutual historical and cultural ties through many artistic events. Shammaa concluded that if France refuses to remove the Champollion statue, The [Egyptian] government should prevent French missions from excavating antiquities here until they remove it. [June 17, 2020] More Global Companies Turning to CloudPay for Global Payroll Management and Compliance Unified Global Solution is Helping Companies Ensure Compliance, Data Security and Accuracy During Time of Uncertainty NEW YORK and LONDON, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amidst a rapidly changing legislative and regulatory landscape, CloudPay is helping to support the worlds top brands across industries through its unified global payroll processing solution. Most recently, the company welcomed notable new customers to its 2,500 and growing customer base, including Agoda, Elanco, IFS and Thomson Reuters. CloudPay CEO Paul Bartlett commented, Under these truly unprecedented circumstances, its increasingly critical that companies work with payroll vendors whose models are built to scale and survive challenging business continuity issues. Our unique technolgy and automation is giving our customers the ability to unite all of their global payroll efforts and ensure their employees continue to get paid accurately and on time. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every company around the world in just a matter of weeks. As a result of this growing turmoil and uncertainty, governments took actions sch as implementing new guidelines and regulations for employers to follow as they attempt to operate under unusual conditions. This previously uncharted territory has prompted a growing need for CloudPays specialized approach to global payroll, which now features a dedicated portal featuring essential updates and a free Ask the Payroll Experts service to help guide employers through this challenging situation. Pete Tiliakos, Principal Analyst at NelsonHall, shared, CloudPay is an established leader in the global payroll space, able to consolidate payroll operations and treasury services into a single platform across 130 countries. Right now, were seeing them react to the evolving needs of their customers, including these new clients, in near real-time. That is no small feat given the dynamic legislative climate that has resulted from the global pandemic. Bartlett concluded, Focusing on fundamentals is more important than ever, especially in todays complex global economy. CloudPay has a long history in being the core infrastructure for multinational organizations, providing them with payroll and payment accuracy, data analysis, employee connection and statutory compliance. About CloudPay CloudPay provides managed global payroll services to multinational organizations through a single, unified cloud solution. By delivering end-to-end managed payroll services through an innovative platform, CloudPay ensures consistent and compliant payroll around the globe while reducing operating costs and minimizing manual processes. The CloudPay solution is backed by deep industry expertise earned over twenty-plus years, delivering services to thousands of multinational entities. CloudPays solution guarantees accurate payroll processing across 130+ countries in more than twenty-five languages. Note to editors: Trademarks and registered trademarks referenced herein remain the property of their respective owners. Media Contact: Jeanne Achille The Devon Group +1-732-706-0123, ext. 700 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 08:26 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf575a3 1 Editorial Indonesian-Military,TNI-AU,TNI,aviation-safety,aviation-security,plane-crash,#Editorial,alutsista Free The Indonesian Military (TNI) suffered from two separate aircraft crashes in less than two weeks, which will seriously affect its readiness to carry out missions, especially during the recent regional dynamics. On Monday, an aging British-made Hawk 209 crashed just as it was about to land at Roesmin Nurjadin Air Force Base in Pekanbaru, Riau, from a routine training mission. The pilot safely ejected before the single-seater, single-engine fighter crashed into a residential area about 5 kilometers from the air force base. Following the crash, Air Force chief of staff Air Chief Marshal Fadjar Prasetyo on Tuesday suspended the operation of all Hawk jet fighters pending investigation results. The pilot, First Lt. Aprianto Ismail, reported a strange loud noise before the aircraft suffered from a power failure. There have been three other crashes involving Hawk 209 aircraft: in 2006, 2007 and 2009. Three Hawk 109 crashed in two separate accidents in 2000. Meanwhile, an Indonesian Army Mi-17 transport helicopter crashed on June 6 during a training mission in Kendal, Central Java, killing five personnel and injuring four others on board the Russian-made aircraft. There have been two other accidents involving Mi-17. In June 2019, an Mi-17 was reported missing but the wreckage was not found until February 2020, while another crashed in Malinau, North Kalimantan, in November 2013. While Hawk aircraft are relatively old, making it difficult to get parts and components, the Mi-17 are much younger, having being delivered in 2010 and 2011. In aviation, an accident is never attributed to a single factor, in a model known as 5M, referring to man, machine, medium, management and mission. While an engine problem was reported in the Hawk crash, no such report has yet been made in the Mi-17 crash. The weather was clear and fine in both crashes. There is plenty of room for improvement in management, especially in the maintenance of our military aircraft as well as crew training. As the procurement uses public funds, any investigation results must be made public as a form of public accountability. Not to lay the blame, but to find ways to prevent accidents from recurring in the future. Regardless of what caused both accidents, proper maintenance will allow most aircraft and other major weapon systems (Alutsista) to be at the highest level of readiness for any mission. Such high readiness is important during the current regional dynamics, especially in the South China Sea, where skirmishes often happen among claimants in the resource-rich area. Although Indonesia in not a claimant in the South China Sea dispute, there are still unsettled borders regarding our exclusive economic zone (EEZ), especially with Vietnam and China. No matter how sophisticated our Alutsista are, poor maintenance will lead to low readiness, which means low deterrent capabilities. This also applies to crew training. If the personnel do not know how to operate them, the expensive Alutsista will only be a white elephant with no deterrent value whatsoever. All in all, the TNI must ensure its Alutsista are properly maintained to ensure a high level of readiness at all times, and the crew must receive the highest level of training. Citymapper claims that it has quietly raised money from new investors, amid reports that it is looking for a buyer. Omid Ashtari, Citymapper's president and head of business, told CNBC that the company has "raised a round of capital" from external investors but he refused to be drawn on the amount, who the new investors are, or when the round was raised. "We can't share specifics about our new investors at this time," he said. Ashtari's comments came after two former Citymapper employees told CNBC that the start-up was forced to turn to existing investors for capital last year after failing to bring on new investors for a series C round in 2018. Citymapper denied this was the case. "They had some more money in from existing investors but not a formal round," said one former employee, who preferred to remain anonymous due to the confidential nature of the issue. Another former employee, who wanted to remain anonymous for the same reasons, said: "It was mentioned in a team meeting last year that money had been raised from existing investors, in response to a question about why we weren't doing another big funding round." The urban navigation app, founded by former Google employee Azmat Yusuf in London in 2011, was planning to raise money on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube in April but it decided to postpone due to the coronavirus, according to the same former employee."Azmat was aware of the fact that asking consumers for money in the midst of a pandemic and a recession was not a good look," they said. Citymapper's app provides transportation options for 42 cities worldwide including London, New York City, Moscow Boston, Seattle, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong and Melbourne. The app consistently appears in the top 10 free navigation apps in the App Store and the Google Play store. In 2018, Citymapper was hoping to raise between $10 million and $25 million in the series C round, according to a London-based venture capitalist with knowledge of the round who wished to remain anonymous because the talks were confidential. "I don't think anyone wanted to invest in them because they have no business model," they said. Another VC said: "I don't think there was any interest in the C." It's unclear exactly how much Citymapper raised from its existing investors last year but the figure could be in the order of several million pounds. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:03:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Machines of Shandong High-Speed work at the construction site of a new expressway near the town of Lajkovac, Serbia, on June 17, 2020. Chinese construction company Shandong Hi-Speed started the construction of an expressway in western Serbia on Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. (Photo by Nemanja Cabric/Xinhua) LAJKOVAC, Serbia, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese construction company Shandong Hi-Speed started the construction of an expressway in western Serbia on Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. The ceremony was held near the town of Lajkovac, the starting point of the 18.3-km Lajkovac-Iverak road, which will lead towards the city of Valjevo, some 90 km southwest of the capital city of Belgrade. The expressway will in future connect the upcoming Belgrade-South Adriatic highway with parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the West and the Corridor 10 to the east, putting Valjevo in the focus of Serbia's development plans. Vucic said that the road worth 158 million euros (177 million U.S. dollars) will be completed in 2022. "This is very important for us, a big change. It means that the travel between Belgrade and Valjevo will take only one hour or less, which will attract investors to Valjevo, and help employ more people," said the president. Zhang Jianchao, general manager of Shandong Hi-Speed Group Serbian Branch, said the project will bring great benefits to the local people. "Once the project is finished, the people of Valjevo will be able to reach the highway in just around 10 minutes, while the travelling benefits will contribute to the growth of the employment rate, which will boost the economy of Valjevo, Lajkovac and other neighboring places. It will be another proof of the Chinese-Serbian friendship." Chen Bo, Chinese ambassador to Serbia, said Chinese companies are ready to participate more in the development of the Serbian infrastructure, under the umbrella of the Belt and Road Initiative. "I am sure that the Chinese companies are prepared to contribute to the further infrastructural development of Serbia with their knowledge, technology, experience and capability. With joint efforts we can achieve even bigger results in infrastructural cooperation," said the ambassador. Enditem YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. Police Chief of Armenia Vahe Ghazaryan has ordered an internal investigation over the incident that took place on June 16 outside the National Security Service involving journalists, the Police told Armenpress. On June 16 an incident occurred outside the National Security Service after Prosperous Armenia party leader Gagik Tsarukyan went out of the NSS. His supporters gathered outside the NSS. At that time the police forces formed a wall and started pushing back the citizens and the reporters. As a result some of the journalists received injuries. The Police said in a statement that the incident will be examined at the order of the Police Chief. FP Trending A new study says that there could be as many as six billion Earth-like planets orbiting stars in our Galaxy. The study conducted by the University of British Columbia was published in The Astronomical Journal. According to the study conducted by University of British Colombia astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler mission, there may be as many as one Earth-like planets for every five Sun-like stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Our Milky Way has as many as 400 billion stars, with seven per cent of them being G-type, Jaymie Matthews, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia, and co-author of a new study said in a statement. That means less than six billion stars may have Earth-like planets in our Galaxy," he added. According to a release by the University of British Columbia, to be considered Earth-like, a planet must be rocky, roughly Earth-sized and orbiting Sun-like stars. The planet also has to orbit in the habitable zones of its star. Michelle Kunimoto, co-author of the new study added, "Estimating how common different kinds of planets are around different stars can provide important constraints on planet formation and evolution theories, and help optimize future missions dedicated to finding exoplanets." According to a report in Phys.org, Kunimoto started simulating the full population of exoplanets around the stars detected by Kepler and started marking each planet as 'detected' or 'missed' depending on how likely the planet search algorithm would have found them. The researcher then compared the detected planets to the actual catalogue. "If the simulation produced a close match, then the initial population was likely a good representation of the actual population of planets orbiting those stars," she said. As per a report in Futurism, researchers even looked at the 'radius gap' of exoplanets and found that the range of orbital periods represented by the radius gap was actually much narrower than previously thought. Researchers say this could help them in filling up the gaps in their understanding of how planets evolve over time. Writer Tony Birch reckons he's pretty good at being runner-up. But it could be a case of third time lucky for the novelist, whose book The White Girl has been shortlisted for the nation's most prestigious literary prize. Five other novels are in contention for the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award: Islands, Peggy Frew; No One, John Hughes; The Returns, Philip Salom; Exploded View, Carrie Tiffany and The Yield, Tara June Winch. The novels shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award. It is a strong line-up, with four of the authors shortlisted in the past including Frew in 2016 and Salom in 2017. Tiffany has been shortlisted twice, in 2006 and 2013, while Birch was shortlisted in 2012 and longlisted in 2016. Not to be seen is Gerald Murnane, who was up for the prize for the second time in three years. Murnane was longlisted for A Season on Earth, the first half of which was published under a different title in 1976. The study showed that two-thirds (64.8%) of pupils were working between one and four hours a day, with just under a fifth (18.9%) studying for four hours or more Tens of thousands of pupils in Northern Ireland have done virtually no schoolwork since lockdown began in March, a major study has found. Researchers at the University College London's Institute of Education said pupils across the UK had been studying an average of just 2.5 hours a day - much lower than previously thought. Around 2.3m pupils were estimated to be doing one or less hours of school work a day. Although Northern Ireland was not the worst-affected region, the study showed that 16% here were still in this category - or around 55,000 primary and secondary school pupils. The study also showed that two-thirds (64.8%) of pupils were working between one and four hours a day, with just under a fifth (18.9%) studying for four hours or more. A fifth (20%) of Northern Ireland's pupils were getting one or fewer offline lessons - such as worksheets, assignments and watching videos - a day. Over half (54.4%) were getting one to three lessons, while a quarter (25.2%) got four or more, which is slightly higher than the UK average of 20% getting four or more. For online lessons - such as live online lessons or meetings - the UK average is for 7% of pupils to get four or more lessons a day. Northern Ireland had 4% of pupils receiving this, with 30% getting one to three lessons and two-thirds (66%) getting none or less than one. Professor Francis Green, lead author of the study, said an early safe return to schools should now become a top priority for the government to stop "a potential threat to the educational development of a generation of children". DUP MP Sammy Wilson said he wasn't surprised so many pupils were falling behind, with those in deprived areas the most affected. He also called for a "total" return to normal school life in September, accusing teaching unions of making "excuses", and claimed the risk of pupils getting infected with Covid-19 was very small. It comes as hundreds of teachers are due to challenge Education Minister Peter Weir this evening over safety arrangements and funding for when key school years start to return on August 17. "It's likely that the pupils that are doing the least are the ones with the least support at home and will have other disadvantages," Mr Wilson told the Belfast Telegraph. "It's quite clear that not everybody is equipped to teach their youngsters at home. Not every youngster has the opportunity to study at home. They might be living in crowded accommodation and not have their own private study space. "Leaving aside the impact on the economy of parents not being able to work while children are off school, the educational disadvantage is going to build up and affect children in the long term." He said getting schools "totally back by September" needs to be a top priority, as well as "some catch up" lessons for critical years "some time in August". Asked about safety and funding concerns expressed by teachers, he said: "There's no reason why schools shouldn't operate as normal. "The danger of children being infected at school is very unlikely. "I think that teachers' unions will continue with these excuses and try to avoid going back for whatever reason." This evening, Education Minister Peter Weir will address around 300 teachers for an online meeting hosted by the Ulster Teachers' Union. Members are to demand assurances on funding new teaching arrangements, mental health support for pupils, on workload and assessment. UTU General Secretary Jacquie White said members needed clarity on what the 'new normal' for schools will look like. "How will special educational needs and assessment issues be handled and what are the workload ramifications for teachers of all this?" she queried. "These are the issues on which we want - and deserve - urgent clarity. "For too long the education system has been running on empty, shored up by little more than the goodwill of our profession," she added. In June 2019, Iran had shot down an unmanned American drone, and Bolton, who has always championed what he proudly calls disproportionate response, pushed Trump to approve a series of military strikes in retaliation. You can sense Boltons excitement when he describes going home at about 5:30 for a change of clothes because he expected to be at the White House all night. Its therefore an awful shock when Trump decided to call off the strikes at the very last minute, after learning they would kill as many as 150 people. Too many body bags, Trump told him. Not proportionate. Bolton still seems incensed at this unexpected display of caution and humanity on the part of Trump, deeming it the most irrational thing I ever witnessed any President do. In the book, Bolton is vague about the targets themselves, though it was later reported that he wanted one of them to be the Iranian commander Qassim Suleimani, killed on Jan. 3 by American airstrikes, four months after Bolton left the administration. On Jan. 6, Bolton finally agreed to testify at the impeachment trial if the Republican-controlled Senate subpoenaed him which, as predicted, it never did. As for what Bolton might have said at the trial, his chapter on Ukraine is weird, circuitous and generally confounding. Its full of his usual small-bore detail, but on the bigger, more pointed questions, the sentences get windy and conspicuously opaque. He confirms what Fiona Hill, a White House aide, recalled him saying to her when she testified at the House impeachment hearings (including his memorable comparison of Rudolph Giuliani, Trumps personal lawyer, to a hand grenade). But Bolton declines to offer anything comparatively vivid in his own book, taking cover in what he depicts as his own bewilderment. He recalls a meeting in the Oval Office during which Trump said he wanted Giuliani to meet with Ukraines then President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss his countrys investigation of either Hillary Clintons efforts to influence the 2016 campaign or something having to do with Hunter Biden and the 2020 election, or maybe both. Yet Bolton known for what a 2019 profile in The New Yorker called his tremendous powers of recall said it was too much for him to fully understand. In the various commentaries I heard on these subjects, they always seemed intermingled and confused, one reason I did not pay them much heed. He resorts to making noises of concern about what he refers to as the Giuliani theories. In an epilogue, Bolton tries to have it multiple ways, saying that while he may have found Trumps conduct deeply disturbing, it was the Democratic-controlled House that was guilty of impeachment malpractice. Instead of a comprehensive investigation, he sniffs, they seemed governed more by their own political imperatives to move swiftly to vote on articles of impeachment. He says they should have broadened their inquiry to include Halkbank and ZTE, but then neglects to mention that nothing was stopping him from saying as much, or from testifying if he was so terribly concerned. Had I testified, Bolton intones, I am convinced, given the environment then existing because of the Houses impeachment malpractice, that it would have made no significant difference in the Senate outcome. Its a self-righteous and self-serving sort of fatalism that sounds remarkably similar to the explanation he gave years ago for preemptively signing up for the National Guard in 1970 and thereby avoiding service in Vietnam. Dying for your country was one thing, he wrote in his 2007 book Surrender Is Not an Option, but dying to gain territory that antiwar forces in Congress would simply return to the enemy seemed ludicrous to me. When it comes to Boltons comments on impeachment, the clotted prose, the garbled argument and the sanctimonious defensiveness would seem to indicate some sort of ambivalence on his part a feeling that he doesnt seem to have very often. Or maybe it merely reflects an uncomfortable realization that hes stuck between two incompatible impulses: the desire to appear as courageous as those civil servants who bravely risked their careers to testify before the House; and the desire to appease his fellow Republicans, on whom his own fastidiously managed career most certainly depends. Its a strange experience reading a book that begins with repeated salvos about the intellectually lazy by an author who refuses to think through anything very hard himself. The police officer who nearly died after investigating the Salisbury poisonings said that he is still trying to pick up the pieces of his life. DS Nick Bailey, 40, said that he was a 'broken man' and is 'still trying to pick up the pieces of my life' two years after being poisoned with novichok. He is making a third - and final - attempt to return to work for Wiltshire Police next Monday, the policeman told The Daily Telegraph. DS Bailey was the first person to enter the home of Sergei Skripal after the Russian former double agent and his daughter Yulia were rushed to hospital after being poisoned by the deadly nerve agent on a park bench in Salisbury. The case that led Britain to accuse Russia of attempted murder and charge two Russian intelligence agents with the poisoning in absentia, has now been turned into a hit three-part BBC drama, 'The Salisbury Poisonings'. In a heartfelt interview, DS Bailey discussed the trauma he and his family endured after he was accidentally poisoned at the Skripals' home. DS Bailey had worn a protective suit and latex gloves, but was later told that his glove was 'saturated' by the nerve agent after touching the door knob. DS Nick Bailey pictured with his wife Sarah Bailey, who are portrayed by actors Rafe Spall and Annabel Scholey respectively for the hit BBC drama DS Bailey was accidentally poisoned with novichok after investigating the Skripals' home in Salisbury (pictured, police presence at the address, March 6, 2018) He then spent 18 days fighting for his life in intensive care, during which his wife Sarah and their two daughters feared he would die. Also during this time, the Bailey family home - which DS Bailey and Sarah said had taken them years to save for - was bought from them by police, and their possessions were destroyed due to contamination fears. He also revealed that he suffers with depression and memory loss, and has only recently opened up to his wife Sarah, 39, about his struggles. DS Bailey was poisoned by novichok during his investigation of the March 2018 attack Speaking ahead of the BBC drama, DS Bailey said the affair 'has had a massive impact psychologically', saying: 'It really pulled the rug from under my feet'. He added: 'The world has moved on, but I'm still trying to pick up the pieces. Sarah has had to see me as a broken man; to watch someone she loves fall to pieces in front of her. I've only admitted in the last month or two that I've been struggling.' Though DS Bailey was discharged from hospital within three weeks, he could not go home amid fears he had unknowingly carried novichok into the residence. While he was in hospital, police had seized his home and all its contents, fearing the risk of contamination too high. They moved Sarah and their two daughters Eloise and Annabel, then 14 and 10, into a bed and breakfast. Police had done the same with the Skirpal's house and had removed the park bench where they had sat when poisoned in March 2018. They also buried no fewer than 20 emergency services vehicles used in the case. DS Bailey said: 'It was heartbreaking. We scrimped and saved for that house. It was our forever home, but we only lived there for two years. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey (left), who was poisoned by the nerve agent novichok in 2018, is being portrayed by the actor Rafe Spall (right) in the BBC drama DS Nick Bailey pictured with his wife Sarah Bailey, who are portrayed by actors Rafe Spall and Annabel Scholey respectively for the hit BBC drama 'As a policeman, you accept that you're putting yourself in danger. You know it could go horribly wrong, but you do it so other people don't have to. Sarah and the girls didn't sign up for this, for losing everything.' Sarah, who has recently suffered an online backlash to her portrayal in the BBC series by actress Annabel Scholey, said: 'It felt a little bit over the top, if I'm honest. 'Nobody explained what was going on. We never dreamt we wouldn't get any of our things back. I feel a real sense of guilt about the stuff we can't replace, which I should have saved, like first drawings and baby shoes. It really haunts me. ' Though he has not been assessed for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Sarah and his GP Dr James Haslam wonder if the case could be behind his low moods. Sarah Bailey tweeted this morning: 'Huge thank you for the outpouring of love and support. The drama was so powerful and emotional. Just as hard to watch as it was to live through. Feel incredibly lucky to still have Nick by my side. Love you hubby, more than you'll ever know!' DS Bailey posted on Twitter: 'I've seen quite a bit of negativity towards my wife regarding episode 2 and the way she handled it. 'Those scenes with Sarah could never truly reflect the extreme emotion and trauma she went through that day. Cut her some slack and be kind' DS Bailey said: 'It wasn't just that I was poisoned with this military grade nerve agent that made it traumatic. It was everything going on around me. 'I was in hospital, vulnerable, unable to protect my family. In the end, I shut down and went into survival mode.' Next Monday, DS Bailey is returning to work at Wiltshire Police for the third - and final - time since the poisoning, having 'put on a brave face' in September 2018 and January 2019 but found the experience overwhelming. If this time also proves unsuccessful, he will look for a different job. DS Nick Bailey pictured with his wife Sarah Bailey, who are portrayed by actors Rafe Spall and Annabel Scholey respectively for the hit BBC drama The Wiltshire police officer said: 'I've seen quite a bit of negativity towards my wife regarding episode 2 and the way she handled it. 'Those scenes with Sarah could never truly reflect the extreme emotion and trauma she went through that day. Cut her some slack and be kind' DS Bailey had unknowingly contaminated their home after returning from carrying out his investigation of a chemical weapons attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March 2018 He added: 'My heart says I'm a policeman, I've done it for 18 years and it's all I've wanted since I was a kid, but my head is in a different place. Pre-novichok, everything was falling into place. I had direction; now I don't. It's quite scary.' Sergei and Yulia Skripal like DS Bailey also recovered, and - after spending more than a year in an MI6 safe house - moved to New Zealand. But local woman Dawn Sturgess, 44, died months after the incident, having picked up the discarded perfume bottle used by Russian agents to hold the novichok. The British government accused Russia of attempted murder and announced a series of measures against Moscow including the expulsion of diplomats. Over 150 diplomats were expelled by nearly 30 other countries. 'The Salisbury Poisonings' follows the aftermath of the poisonings of Sergei and Yulia Skripal According to British intelligence, agents of Russia's military intelligence (GRU) Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin were behind the Skripal poisonings According to British intelligence, agents of Russia's military intelligence (GRU) Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin were behind the Skripal poisonings. The incident further strained relations between London and Moscow, with tensions already high as the pair back competing factions in wars in Syria and Ukraine. Last November, the Soviet-era nerve agent novichok was added to the OPCW global chemical weapons watchdog's list of banned toxins. BBC1's 'The Salisbury Poisonings' is a three-part TV drama which retells the events that occurred in Salisbury during 2018. A man was transported to hospital with serious injuries after a shooting in Burlington on Wednesday morning, police say. Halton police received a call around 9:10 a.m. about a shooting on Woodview Road, near New Street and Walkers Line, in Burlington. When they arrived, they located the victim suffering from serious injuries. Two possible suspects fled on foot before the police arrived. There was a heavy police presence and all the residents in the area were asked to take shelter in their homes until further notice from the police. The shooting took place minutes from a Catholic secondary school, which was secured. The shelter in place for residents and the lockdown was lifted an hour later. The two suspects remain at large and no suspect descriptions have been given yet by police. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call 905-825-4777, or Crime Stoppers anonymous at 1-800-222-8477. With files from the Canadian Press Abhya Adlakha is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @AbhyaAdlakha Read more about: Trump did not know Britain was a nuclear power, asked if Finland was part of Russia, Bolton writes. Intelligence briefings were a waste of time, "since much of the time was spent listening to Trump, rather than Trump listening to the briefers." During Trump's 2018 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to John Bolton's book, Sec State Mike Pompeo slipped Bolton a little note dissing the president: "He is so full of shit." Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton's new book says the House impeachment inquiry should have investigated Donald Trump not only for abusing his political power in Ukraine, but for other instances when Trump intervened in law enforcement matters for personal gain. The Justice Department is suing Bolton to block release of the book. Bolton says in his new book that the House in its impeachment inquiry should have investigated Trump not just on Ukraine but for a variety of instances when he sought to intervene in law enforcement matters for political reasons. https://t.co/bJmVSIWhI1 Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) June 17, 2020 During Trump's 2018 meeting with Kim Jong-un, Pompeo slipped Bolton a note disparaging the president, saying, "He is so full of shit." Pompeo later said the North Korea diplomacy had "zero probability of success." Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) June 17, 2020 Trump didn't seem to know that Britain was a nuclear power and asked if Finland were part of Russia, Bolton writes. Intelligence briefings were a waste of time "since much of the time was spent listening to Trump, rather than Trump listening to the briefers." Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) June 17, 2020 The book, "The Room Where It Happened," was obtained by The New York Times "in advance of its scheduled publication next Tuesday and has already become a political lightning rod in the thick of an election campaign and a No. 1 best seller on Amazon.com even before it hits the bookstores," writes Peter Baker at the New York Times: Mr. Bolton describes several episodes where the president expressed willingness to halt criminal investigations "to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked," citing cases involving major firms in China and Turkey. "The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn't accept," Mr. Bolton writes, adding that he reported his concerns to Attorney General William P. Barr. Mr. Bolton also adds a striking new allegation by saying that Mr. Trump overtly linked trade negotiations to his own political fortunes by asking President Xi Jinping of China to buy a lot of American agricultural products to help him win farm states in this year's election. Mr. Trump, he writes, was "pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win. He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome." () The Justice Department filed a last-minute lawsuit against Mr. Bolton this week seeking to stop publication even as Mr. Trump's critics complained that Mr. Bolton should have come forward during impeachment proceedings rather than save his account for a $2 million book contract. Never forget, Bolton was involved in Cambridge Analytica. Trump directly asked China's Xi to buy agricultural products to help him win farm states in 2020, Bolton writes. Trump was "pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win. He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome." Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) June 17, 2020 Trump talked about intervening in criminal cases like ZTE and Halkbank "to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked," Bolton writes. "The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn't accept." Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) June 17, 2020 Bolton confirms previous @maggieNYT @nytmike report on Trump linking security aid for Ukraine to his desire for investigations into Democrats. But he says Democrats should have looked at the Halkbank and ZTE matters, among others, to build a broader case. Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) June 17, 2020 Had they done so, he writes, "there might have been a greater chance to persuade others that 'high crimes and misdemeanors' had been perpetrated." Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) June 17, 2020 I'm trying to calculate the level of cynicism it takes to admonish the House while also refusing to testify before it. Tom Maxwell (@universalshow) June 17, 2020 Folks should read this story from @peterbakernyt on the new @AmbJohnBolton book, but as a completely irrelevant aside @nytimes picked the perfect Jim from the office photo pic.twitter.com/posv0mAsUQ Zachary Fryer-Biggs (@ZachFB) June 17, 2020 John Bolton can, and I cannot emphasize this enough, fuck directly off into the goddamn sun https://t.co/M7xeUxz6Ja andi zeisler (@andizeisler) June 17, 2020 And of course, don't forget that Bolton could have said all of this under oath or simply in interviews back in January when the impeachment inquiry was ongoing > https://t.co/BBDpdcmYqd Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 17, 2020 President Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 U.S. election, telling Xi during a summit dinner last year that increased agricultural purchases by Beijing from American farmers would aid his electoral prospects. https://t.co/KxuSL5UrCt Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 17, 2020 The New York Times has obtained a copy of @AmbJohnBolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened." https://t.co/EJj0hctAfh David Gura (@davidgura) June 17, 2020 NEW Bolton book excerpt in WSJ: In June 2019, Xi "explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang. Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do." https://t.co/7cuIvX1D97 Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) June 17, 2020 Is there a word for "Powerful, well-placed person who sees firsthand that the President routinely commits impeachable offenses, yet refuses to testify, but then does a book when it's too late"? https://t.co/ZWVU8hRP2B Elie Honig (@eliehonig) June 17, 2020 By Akbar Mammadov The Armenian police have detained 154 people during the protest against the abolition of the immunity of MP Gagik Tsarukyan, the leader of the opposition party-Prosperous Armenia Party, the Armenian local media reported on June 16. Thus, earlier, today's morning Armenian police detained 103 people who were holding the protest outside of the Armenian parliament. The parlimaent is currently debating on Prosecutor General Artur Davtyans petitions to strip parliamentary opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) leader, MP, and business tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan of his parliamentary immunity, launch criminal proceedings against him and take Tsarukyan into custody. Furthermore, on June 16, the Armenian government launched a criminal case against another MP of the opposition party Naira Zohrabyan. In his speech in the parliament on June 16, Tsarukyan blamed the Armenian authorities, recalling that the promises were made two years ago and people were listening to what they needed to hear. Earlier, on June 15, 252 people, who protested in support of their party leader, were also detained by the Armenian police. Hence, a total of 355 people were apprehended by the police in Armenia. "What happened is really very ugly, which, in short, is called the invention of criminal cases by political order. Why are the halls of power taking such a step? The answer is very simple. An extremely dire situation has been created in Armenia due to the [COVID-19] pandemic", Tsarukyan said. According to the report, the opposition party lawmakers said that this step taken against the opposition leader is political persecution associated with Tsarukyan's harsh statements against the Armenian leadership. They also noted that these criminal proceedings are political pressure made by Armenian authorities against Tsarukyan. Moreover, a member of another opposition VETO movement Ani Hovhannisyan told local media that they called on the EU countries respond to these processes in Armenia. It should be noted that supporters of the Armenian opposition party (Prosperous Armenian Party), as well as ordinary citizens, protest against the criminal proceedings launched against their leader for three days. The protests have started in front of the building of Armenian National Security Service after the search conducted by the National Security Service in the party leader Gagik Tsarukyan's mansion and party offices on June 14. Thus, protests were held in different places in Armenia: in front of National Security Service, National Assembly, US embassy, the office of the EU delegation, and in a central park. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz WHITE HALL The North Greene school board is scheduled to meet in regular session at 7 p.m. today in the North Greene Education Center, 546 N Main St. Among the items on the agenda are: CLEVELAND, Ohio City Council on Wednesday approved a tax financing package to help Sherwin-Williams Co. develop a $300-million world headquarters off Clevelands Public Square. The package, known as tax increment financing, will allow Sherwin-Williams to divert money it would have paid in new property taxes toward financing of the building. It will be finalized once signed by Mayor Frank Jackson. The complex, planned to be about 1 million square feet, is expected to retain 3,100 jobs in the downtown and generate about $8.6 million in income taxes for the city annually. The new headquarters will also have room for additional jobs, starting with at least 140, David Ebersol, Jacksons economic development director, told City Council during a hearing Wednesday. Want more? Get insider texts about Cleveland City Hall on your phone from Robert Higgs, cleveland.coms City Hall reporter. Sign up here. It costs less than 15 cents a day. Ebersole said Sherwin-Williams has not wavered in its plan for the downtown complex, which will stretch from the western end of Public Square to West 6th Street. Although the coronavirus pandemic closed many business offices in the downtown for the last couple of months, Sherwin-Williams staff has continued to work remotely with the city on the project and the incentive package, Ebersole said. In May the company issued a statement announcing its intentions had not changed. The company hopes to move into the new headquarters by 2023. Sherwin-Williams announced in February it had selected the downtown site for its new headquarters. The publicly traded company also announced its plans for a research and development facility in Brecksville at the site of a former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital off Interstate 77. The 154-year-old company is currently based in the Art Deco-style Landmark Office Towers on Prospect Avenue. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Morikis has said the company needs new facilities to attract and retain workers. The company paid more than $49 million for the seven-acre site along Public Square in March. Cleveland leaders were clearly nervous at the prospect of Sherwin-Williams being lured elsewhere when the paint maker announced it would do a national search for a headquarters site last fall. The tax-incentive financing, or TIF, is the biggest part of the incentives in Clevelands package. Ebersole has said it will provide about $2 million to $2.5 million a year -- $60 million to $75 million over the 30-year life of the TIF -- for use to finance the project. The arrangement will not take away money from Cleveland schools. In addition, Cleveland agreed to provide a construction grant of up to $13.5 million drawn from the citys economic development grant funds and up to $11.5 million over 15 years in a job-creation grant based on 50% of the income taxes that would be collected on new jobs in the city. The total value of the Cleveland tax incentives is about $100 million. Cuyahoga County approved $14 million to help with construction in Cleveland and in Brecksville. JobsOhio, the state of Ohios development partner, approved a grant of $37.5 million in April. More from Cleveland City Hall Could Clevelands compliance with records law get any worse? Yes, attorney says In Press Club of Cleveland forum, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson wont rule out seeking a fifth term Cleveland Public Safety Director Michael McGrath to leave post Friday Defunding police a completely unrealistic approach to solving institutionalized racism, inequity, Mayor Frank Jackson says Cleveland to offer grants to businesses damaged by rioting to help them reopen, allocates coronavirus aid Prosecutor in Frances Vienne says three teens charged after schoolgirl received death threats for insulting Islam. Three teenagers have been charged in France after a high-school girl received death threats for expletive-laden social media remarks about Islam, according to a prosecutor. The case of 16-year-old Mila who made her remarks about Islam on an Instagram post that went viral revived debate in France about freedom of speech, and highlighted deep societal divisions on the topic. Milas family was placed under police protection amid the fallout, and she had to change schools. On Wednesday, Vienne Prosecutor Audrey Quey said three teens one aged 16 and two aged 17 have been charged in the case. Vienne is a city in the Isere department in southeast France where Mila is from. Charges The 17-year-olds admitted to investigators earlier this month that they had collected Milas private online data and passed it on to the younger boy. The two face charges of theft and possession of stolen data and were placed under judicial supervision pending the outcome of the investigation, Quey said in a statement. One of them was also from Isere, the other from the neighbouring Rhone department. The 16-year-old, Quey said, was questioned in February and admitted to having distributed Milas personal online data. Charges against the boy, who comes from Besancon north of Isere, include possession of stolen goods, electronic harassment, and distributing a third partys personal data. He, too, was placed under supervision. Arrest A fourth person, alleged to have been behind death threats to Mila, was arrested in May, the prosecutor said. Investigations are continuing with a view to identifying others behind the threats, said Quey. In February, French President Emmanuel Macron came out in defence of Mila, saying the right to blaspheme was enshrined in the constitution and that she needed to be protected. An investigation into possible charges of provoking racial hatred against Mila was abandoned in January. The controversy came just over five years after gunmen shot dead a group of French cartoonists from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had poked fun at the Prophet Mohammed. Mercury Capital has bought Bauer Medias unwanted trans-Tasman magazine portfolio, according to Australian media reports. The German publisher confirmed the sale, without disclosing the price, after the Australian Financial Reviews Street Talk column reported that the private equity firm wrapped up the deal for less than A$50 million. The deal includes Pacific Magazines, which Bauer bought last month from Seven West Media. Bauer Media remains committed to magazine publishing. This decision supports our strategy to invest in our market leading brands where we believe we are best placed to do so, chief operating officer Veit Dengler says in a statement. Bauer was trying to sell the businesses separately, having called time on its NZ division during the COVID-19 lockdown when its inability to print magazines accelerated plans to exit. Sydney-based Mercury is led by Kiwi-born investment banker Clark Perkins and has close NZ ties, with local business luminaries Craig Heatley, Geoff Ricketts and Tom Sturgess on its board. The Bauer magazine assets arent Mercurys first foray into the printing sector, with the firm holding a 45 per cent stake in Blue Star Group printing alongside its former owner, Sturgess. Perkins set up Mercury 10 years ago and has raised more than A$1 billion across three funds through that time. Germanys Bauer Media first entered New Zealand when it bought ACP Magazines for a reported A$500 million in 2012, which brought with it North & South, Metro, Next, Women's Day, Australian Women's Weekly, Taste, Fashion Quarterly, Cleo and Air New Zealand's Kia Ora inflight magazine. It then went on to buy the magazine portfolio from NZME then called APN News & Media which included the Listener, NZ Womans Weekly, Simply You, Simply You Living, and Creme. It paid $7 million. The sale is subject to regulatory approvals, and is expected to be completed by the end of next month. -Originally published by BusinessDesk. By Emily Kopp | CQ-Roll Call (TNS) WASHINGTON The Trump administration is pushing for a coronavirus vaccine to protect some Americans by January 2021, but researchers and Democratic lawmakers are concerned about outside pressure on the complex process. The initiative, known as Operation Warp Speed, is an effort by the departments of Defense and Health and Human Services to develop vaccines and drugs, fueled by at least $10 billion Congress provided for that purpose under the roughly $2 trillion March coronavirus relief package. A list of vaccine candidates will be winnowed from 14 to seven that will advance to early clinical trials in the coming weeks, senior administration officials said during a background briefing with reporters Tuesday. Three to five candidates will then benefit from hundreds of millions in taxpayer spending on new U.S. pharmaceutical plants to manufacture and distribute them. A supply of any vaccine or medicine that receives millions in taxpayer aid will be available to the U.S. government, officials said. Some of this public supply will be made available for free to anyone who wants a vaccine and cannot afford it, they said. Officials said the vaccine could be made available through a tiered system, with vulnerable older Americans, people with preexisting conditions, people performing essential services and the military receiving priority. But they cautioned that will ultimately depend on the safety data coming out of the clinical trials. At least 116,210 Americans have died of COVID-19, and 437,152 people around the world have died, according to The New York Times. But details were scarce about how the administration will reach the critical decision about which vaccines should be made by U.S. facilities. One administration official hinted it would depend in part on the ability of the company to quickly produce millions of doses by next year. In order to make a vaccine available as soon as possible, scientists with the Pentagon will make data available to the Food and Drug Administration about clinical trials on a rolling basis instead of after the trial is completed. Vaccine manufacturing will advance even before vaccines win FDA approval, officials said. Administration officials have made it clear that the president wants a vaccine available as soon as possible. President Trump looked at the timelines that all of these players in the pharmaceutical industry and elsewhere said would be needed to bring these products to market and he said, Thats not acceptable, said HHS Secretary Alex Azar in a video promoting the effort. But some researchers worry the science could be manipulated or misrepresented for political aims. Two weeks before the election, well hear theres an effective vaccine, predicted Carlos del Rio, a professor at the Emory Vaccine Center, in an interview Monday with the Journal of the American Medical Association. Theres somebody who needs to be reelected who will rely on saying, We got you an effective vaccine, he continued. I dont know what theyre going to do with the data, but Im really concerned were going to have a not-very-effective vaccine thats going to be touted like this success of the world. Concerns of congressional Democrats have flared about undue industry influence on multimillion-dollar contracts because of ties between a senior HHS official and Emergent BioSolutions, the company tapped to build U.S. factories. HHS officials have said the multimillion-dollar contracts awarded to several drugmakers for vaccine development AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson also include funding to boost their private manufacturing capacity. Significant questions about the availability of an eventual vaccine remain unresolved. While COVID-19 spreads easily and quickly across borders, senior administration officials said there are no plans to distribute an eventual COVID-19 vaccine to other countries unless there is a surplus. However, nothing in U.S. contracts would inhibit drugmakers from working with other countries, officials said. The U.S. is buying licensing rights to distribute the vaccines. The cost to the U.S. of any vaccine developed with millions in public research and development will be amortized, an official said. But the terms of these contracts have not yet been made public. By Kelsey Johnson OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian companies are scouring the globe, often at great expense, to secure personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff and customers as businesses reopen and coronavirus restrictions are eased. While larger companies, such as Canadian National Railway Co, are tapping their own global networks to located PPE, smaller companies are battling higher costs to stock up. "We're worried ... every week or two there's a new need," Greg Moreau, chief executive of Chatters Ltd, an Alberta-based hair salon and hair product distributer. Moreau, whose company has 115 salons across Canada and employs roughly 1,700 people, estimates the additional gear, some of which has been sourced using the supply chain of companies like L'Oreal, is currently costing Chatters about C$4-C$4.50 per individual appointment. "The cost is probably 10 times what we were paying for any of this," he said. The Canadian government announced last week it was launching an online supply hub to help connect businesses looking for masks, shields and gloves with suppliers. United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), an agricultural cooperative that runs farm and ranch stores, has failed to secure a supply of N95 masks from 3M for months, Scott Bolton, the president and CEO, said. Farmers "need masks in particular when they're working with livestock and or in dusty areas, say grain handling," he said, adding the cooperative has turned to Asian suppliers for Chinese-made KN95 masks. "Frankly, it was scouring the globe, really, trying to find the technical requirements and the quality requirements," Bolton said. UFA has secured roughly 20,000 KN95 masks and will source more as required. "I think we're exiting the crisis at the moment," he added. CN Railway, Canada's largest railway, has relied on its staff in China and Singapore to manage PPE supplies since making it mandatory for its 25,000 staff to wear a mask while on company premises last month. Story continues "They've been very helpful to us to secure these masks," Sean Finn, a CN executive vice president, told Reuters last month. CN had initially sourced enough disposable masks to last until August, but has now transitioned to using reusable masks. Chatters is also working on a three-month cycle and has four staff working full-time to procure hairdressing capes, plastic shields and masks. "We thought masks were going to be the issue, then it was gloves, right now it's barbicide (a cleaning solution)," Moreau said. "It's sort of a moving target and we're just trying to stay ahead of it." (Reporting by Kelsey Johnson; Additional reporting by Rod Nickel; Editing by Leslie Adler; Editing by Denny Thomas and) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, sitting at desk second from right, speaks with Supreme Court President Maikel Moreno at the Supreme Court before giving his annual presidential address in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 31, 2020. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo) Venezuela Court Orders Takeover of 2 Major Political Parties CARACAS, VenezuelaVenezuelas Supreme Court, loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, on June 16 ordered the takeover of two influential political parties opposed to the socialist government ahead of parliamentary elections expected this year. The court suspended and replaced the board of directors for the Justice First party a day after the same move against the Democratic Action, one of the nations oldest and largest parties. It was part of a necessary restructuring process, the court said in rulings posted on Facebook. No legal action was taken, however, against Popular Will, the party of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who seeks to oust Maduro with backing from the United States and nearly 60 other nations. The political coalition opposed to the Maduros ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela is made up of more than a dozen parties. This attempt to divide them wont succeed, Guaido said. On the contrary, these actions strengthen us, Guaido said. The dictatorship is going to fall, and the republic is going to be reborn. Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who many nations have recognized as the countrys rightful interim ruler, take part in a rally against the government of Venezuelas Nicolas Maduro and to commemorate May Day in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 1, 2019. (Manaure Quintero/Reuters) A once-wealthy oil nation, Venezuela is in a deepening political and economic crisis after two decades of socialist rule that has driven mass migration and scarcities of basic goods. The United States and scores of other nations consider Maduros government illegitimate and recognize Guaido as interim president, a position he claims as head of the National Assembly. Maduro on state TV accused opposition parties, which have controlled the National Assembly for the last five years, of robbing Venezuela of its wealth and plotting a foreign invasion aimed at ending his socialist government. The National Assembly is the only branch of government Maduro doesnt control. That will change with the next election, he said. People of Venezuela, the hour is drawing near, the day is drawing near, the moment is drawing near, Maduro said. With the popular vote we are going to remove them from the National Assembly. We are going to take them out. Venezuelan regime leader Nicolas Maduro speaks at the presidential palace in Caracas on June 27, 2019. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images) Among Justice Firsts most notable members is Henrique Capriles, who lost the presidential race to Hugo Chavez in 2012 and again the next year after Chavezs death in a contest against Maduro. Officials then banned Capriles from politics for 15 years, although he remains an important player behind the scenes. Justice First is also the party of influential politician Julio Borges, who lives in exile in Colombia. Leopoldo Lopez, who remains in Caracas but holed up at a foreign ambassadors residence, helped found the party before then launching Popular Will. Henry Ramos Allup, the leader of Democratic Action, said he would not abide by the courts ruling that tries to remove him from his leadership role. A political ally of Guaido, Allup accused Maduro of hijacking the party. Democratic Action is going to resist these acts of shamelessness, Allup said. The court days earlier seated a new elections council ahead of a vote expected this year in a battle for control of the National Assembly. Venezuelas interim leader Juan Guaido speaks to the crowd during a mass opposition rally against dictator Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 23, 2019. (Federico Parra/AFP) The unilateral appointments to the council were especially disheartening to some moderate opponents of Maduro who had been trying to reach an accord with the government for minimal guarantees for a free and fair vote. The new National Electoral Council includes names of members of Democratic Action, who Allup said he does not recognize. Critics say that including the opposition party members is an attempt by Maduros government of giving it legitimacy. Democratic Action, which was formed in the 1930s, is among Venezuelas four most powerful opposition parties. They also include Guaidos Popular Will along with Justice First and A New Time. Officials have not set a date for the election, which is required this year by the nations constitution. Bernabe Gutierrez, the courts choice as the Democratic Actions new leader, announced Tuesday that the party will participate in the upcoming election. The historic decision to restructure the board ends years of dictatorship within the party, Gutierrez said, without naming Allup. As the new Justice First leader, the court-appointed lawmaker Jose Brito, who was expelled from the party last year after being accused of receiving a payoff from Maduros government to buy his loyalty, a claim he has rejected. By Scott Smith The Congress on Tuesday said the deaths of an army officer and two soldiers in a violent face-off with Chinese troops were deeply shocking, horrifying and unacceptable and alleged that the Modi government has been a mute spectator to Chinas transgressions in Ladakh area since April-May this year. The partys statements came after the initial army statement. The army, late on Tuesday night, said, During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place on Monday night with casualties. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers. The standoff between the troops of India and China in Ladakh will be discussed at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the partys highest decision-making body, on June 23. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said India has the political will and its army is fully equipped to take on any adversary and added that the borders of India will remain intact under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the de-escalation process that was underway in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, a violent face-off took place with Chinese army. Indian army gave a befitting reply, but unfortunately, we have lost our three army men. I pay homage to them for their sacrifice and I can assure you that under the leadership of PM Modi, Indias territorial integrity will not be compromised, BJP chief JP Nadda said, addressing a virtual rally for the partys Kerala workers. In a statement, Congress partys chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala questioned the silence of the Prime Minister and defence minister Rajnath Singh on the death of the Indian soldiers. India and China are currently engaged in a military dialogue for an early resolution of the stand-off between their border troops that flared up in early May. Last week, the Indian army announced that the two sides started a limited military disengagement at three hotspots along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) Galwan Valley, Patrolling Point 15 and Hot Springs in eastern Ladakh, which has been the focus of the tensions. However, Indian officials confirmed the build-up of Chinese forces has extended as far as Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The talks continued, and were even held on Monday; that evening, the two sides scrapped violently. To the distress and dismay of the entire nation, the Prime Minister and the defence minister remain absolutely mum. They must come forward and answer if the Chinese have killed an Indian army officer and soldiers in the Galwan valley? If true, it is indeed, deeply shocking, horrifying and unacceptable, Surjewala said. He alleged that the Modi government remained a mute spectator as reports of brazen Chinese transgressions at three points into the Indian territory in Ladakh since April and May this year have caused grave concerns. In last five decades, not a single casualty or martyrdom of our soldiers has occurred or happened on the Indo-China border i.e. LAC, he said. There can be no compromise with Indias security and territorial Integrity. Reports of Chinese army moving thousands of troops in Galwan valley and Pangong Tso Lake area (Ladakh) shocked the entire nation as an audacious attempt on our territorial integrity, the Congress leader added. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted: Words cannot describe the pain I feel for the officers and men who sacrificed their lives for our country. My condolences to all their loved ones. We stand with you in this difficult time. BJPs national general secretary (organisaton) BL Santhosh tweeted, As a country its time to stand with our forces & Govt. Rest everything can wait. Indian efforts at building infrastructure in a never before scale increased Chinese worries. Our forces were resolute in forcing Chinese troops to retreat. In the process yesterday we have lost 3 brave Deshbhakt soldiers . Veer Sadgati to the departed souls . The picture on the Chinese side is yet to emerge . It is still more huge, he tweeted. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 23:13:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, June 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. F-22 fighters escorted four Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers when they were on a routine training flight, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday. The Russian aircraft flew over the neutral waters of the Chukchi, Bering and Okhotsk seas, as well as the northern Pacific Ocean, for about 11 hours, the ministry's Zvezda broadcasting service said. Russian military planes regularly perform training flights over the neutral waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, the Pacific Oceans and the Black and Baltic seas, with pilots complying with all international rules for the use of airspace, the ministry said. Enditem The Armenian authorities will double the number of special teams enforcing safety rules meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Tuesday. Pashinian said police officers will be joined by representatives of other state bodies in ensuring that Armenians wear face masks, practice social distancing and take other precautions against COVID-19. This will allow us to double the number of enforcement groups, he told a daily COVID-19 news briefing. Early this month Armenian government made it mandatory for everyone to wear a mask not only in all enclosed spaces but also in the streets and all other public areas. Police say that thousands of citizens have since been fined 10,000 drams ($21) for failing to comply with this requirement which the government says is essential for tackling the epidemic. Pashinian announced that starting from Wednesday Armenians will also have to carry passports or other IDs when leaving their homes. Failure to do so will be punishable by separate 10,000-dram fines, he said, adding that the measure will facilitate the enforcement of the mask requirement. The Armenian Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday morning 425 new infections, bringing to 17,489 the total number of coronavirus cases in the country of about 3 million. The ministry also said that 8 more people died from the disease in the past 24 hours, raising the official death toll to 295. The figure does not include the deaths of 96 other infected people. These fatalities were primarily caused by other, pre-existing diseases, according to the health authorities. The ministry spokeswoman, Alina Nikoghosian, put the number of active cases at over 10,500. Nikoghosian said only around 2,500 of these patients are now receiving treatment in hospitals. The others remain confined at home and monitored by primary healthcare workers, she said. Health Minister Arsen Torosian told RFE/RLs Armenian service on Monday that 231 infected persons in need of urgent treatment are now waiting to be hospitalized. The government pledged last week to set up 350 new hospital beds to cope with the growing number of patients. Torosian cautioned that increasing hospital capacity alone will not address the problem. He stressed the importance of lowering infection rates. The minister was also concerned about the fact that 470 patients were in a serious and 116 others in a critical condition as of Monday afternoon. The number is quite large, he said. Unfortunately the majority of the citizens in a critical condition are at serious risk of dying. But doctors are doing everything to prevent that happening. The biggest party in Thailand's pro-military ruling coalition is due to pick a new leader soon, a step that's expected to strengthen the stability of the government by resolving internal rifts. Prawit Wongsuwan, a former army chief, is the favorite to head the Palang Pracharath party 15 months after a disputed election ended direct military rule. Prawit is the chief strategist for the party, which was carved out of the junta and formed the coalition after the poll. Analysts expect an ensuing cabinet reshuffle to alleviate the factional disputes. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha's previously slim parliamentary majority has also expanded after a pro-democracy party was broken up. That backdrop boosts the coalition's odds of lasting its four-year term, despite anti-government protests that flared until Covid-19 sparked a lockdown. "This is about the military and its allies wanting to be fully in charge," said Kevin Hewison, an emeritus professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The new party leadership and freshened Cabinet may spend more in rural areas to bolster support ahead of the next poll in 2023, he said. More than half of Palang Pracharath's executive committee resigned on June 1, forcing Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana out as party leader and triggering speculation about his future. The new committee must be installed by mid-July. Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, a spokesman for Palang Pracharath and Uttama's aide, declined to comment on Prawit or Uttama ahead of the vote on the new executive committee. Other party members have said the restructuring won't interfere with the government's work. Investors don't expect big policy changes from the coming political shakeup but are waiting to see who gets the key economic portfolios, according to Poramet Tongbua, a Bualuang Securities strategist in Bangkok. Former army head Prayuth, 66, seized power in 2014 and ran the junta with Prawit by his side. Palang Pracharath helped bring Prayuth back as premier after the election. Prawit, 74, was cleared of wrongdoing by the graft agency after being accused of failing to declare 22 luxury watches while serving as a politician. Prawit, a deputy premier in the government, said he borrowed the timepieces from a friend who subsequently died. Before the virus crisis, Prayuth and his backers in the royalist establishment faced protests from critics who dispute the fairness of the 2019 election. On Monday, both he and Prawit warned people against trying to undermine the palace, with Prawit saying they will be prosecuted. The comments follow rare but growing public references online to matters or laws related to the country's powerful monarchy. Reliant on tourism and exports, Thailand faces one of emerging Asia's worst economic contractions this year after Covid-19 hurt travel and trade. The Thai stock market's 13% drop in 2020 exceeds the 7% fall in an Asia-Pacific index. India may re-think its information and communications technology (ICT) strategy for 5G rollout with Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei, as border tensions with the neighbour have escalated. A government official told The Economic Times that India is likely to re-think its manufacturing dependence on China due to the hostilities. Adding: there is a more compelling need to revisit the security architecture. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report. "There are economic considerations to permit telecom vendors from all countries to allow competitive advantage to telcos in deploying low-cost solutions. But these have to be balanced with the country's security concerns and while we might not take an immediate decision on this matter, a balance will have to be struck, another official told the paper. India-China Border News LIVE This is significant, as while the Chinese companies have already received government approvals for 5G trials in India, their role in larger commercial projects is yet undecided and was brought into focus due to the recent border skirmishes. Prolonged trade tensions with China had seen the United States pressure allies to block Huawei from 5G tech projects due to security concerns. The pressure has not been one-sided as China had also warned India of economic consequences if Huawei was barred. Among the countries that banned the Chinese company include Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand; while South Korea, Russia, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have allowed Huawei deployment. After the coronavirus pandemic, global sentiment has shifted from sole dependence on China and India has actively courted investors to consider the sub-continental country as an alternative. The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in the Volta Region has given the assurance that no prisoner will be excluded from the National Health Insurance Scheme. This is because their health is just as important as the health of the rest of the citizenry, said Mr Joseph Homenya, Regional Director of NHIA. Apart from that, he said that the congestion at the prisons was great cause for concern for the health of the convicts. Already, 102 prisoners out of the total of 430 received new health insurance cards while 61 had their missing cards replaced in an exercise carried out by the NHIA at the Ho Central Prison more than a fortnight ago. Sixty-nine of the inmates at the correctional centre earlier had their expired cards renewed during the exercise. According to Mr Homenya, the exercise to register convicts onto the scheme would now be extended to the Kpando and Kete-Krachi prisons, which had 210 and 356 inmates respectively. He said that officials of NHIA in those areas had been assigned to carry out the exercise to cover all the 1,004 prisoners in the region in a matter of weeks. Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP) in-charge of the Volta Region, Mr Andrews Dzokoto, has lauded the exercise by the NHIA as most appropriate and timely. He said that hitherto, the prison authorities bore the medical costs on behalf of the prisoners who did not have health insurance cards. Once they all get registered onto the scheme, will save money for administrative work and other operational duties, he added. Still on the health of convicts, DDP Dzokoto said that the Ho Central Prison was set to expand its three-bed infirmary to take in 20 beds, while similar plans would be carried out at the Kpando and Kete-Krachi prisons in due course. He insisted that it was safer to treat ailing prisoners at the correctional centre than taking them to the hospital. And in an era of COVID-19, we find it safer keeping the prisoners inside the prison, he maintained. 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 The proportion of Americans who supported removing election and other political information from social media that was intentionally false or misleading, according to a recent poll. ( Reuters June 16, 2020) Tension had been rising this month with North Korea threatening to cut ties with South Korea and retaliate over North Korean defectors in the South sending propaganda leaflets - by balloon or by sea - into North Korea. Earlier in the day, North Korea said that it had rejected a South Korean offer to send special envoys to ease escalating tension over defiance by North Korean defectors and stalled reconciliation efforts, and it vowed to redeploy troops to border areas. On Monday (June 15), Moon offered to send his national security adviser Chung Eui-yong and spy chief Suh Hoon as special envoys, North Korea's official news agency KCNA said. But Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a senior ruling party official, "flatly rejected the tactless and sinister proposal." A 24-year-old woman from Huruma, Nairobi has been charged for allegedly stabbing and seriously injuring her husband during a domestic fight over Sh200. Damaris Nthoki Singe and her husband Shadrack Mutunga Makau are said to have fought at their house in Mathare sub-county on June 4, 2020. The court heard that the couple were with their two-year-old child when Makau found out his money was missing from his pockets. He reportedly confronted his wife who denied taking the money and a physical fight ensued. During the fight, Makau allegedly bit his wife on her left eye before she grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed him twice on the back. The victim was rushed to a city hospital where he was admitted for several days. Appearing before Senior Principal Magistrate Angelo Kithinji of the Makadara Law Courts, the accused denied causing grievous bodily harm. She was granted a cash bail of Sh50,000 with the hearing of the case set to begin on August 20, 2020. WASHINGTON - Democrats flooded Twitter and email inboxes this week with praise for the watershed Supreme Court decision shielding gay, lesbian and transgender people from job discrimination. Republicans not so much. The courts 6-3 ruling came just two days after an event that played out in the opposite direction. Freshman GOP Rep. Denver Riggleman, whod officiated at a same-sex wedding, lost his partys nomination in a conservative Virginia district. The two developments underscored an election-year challenge facing the GOP: how to reconcile broad national support for LGBT protections, even among many Republicans, with fervent opposition from some of the partys die-hard conservative voters. On Election Day, that question will be easily overshadowed by the moribund economy, the coronavirus pandemic, the interaction between race and violent police tactics and by Trump himself. Still, the weeks events point to a culture-war schism in the GOP that Democrats are happy to exploit, even as Republicans struggle to prevent moderate suburban voters from deserting them. This is something suburban voters support, said GOP pollster Glen Bolger. And that is a group that Republicans are having challenges with. Polling illustrates the GOPs dilemma. In a December survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 62% of Americans overall said they backed banning discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people in workplaces, housing and schools. That included around 3 in 4 Democrats and nearly half of Republicans. Thats a turnaround from more negative feelings people had two decades ago. Wake up, my Republican friends, the times, they are a-changing, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. Yet just 33% of white evangelical Protestants said they supported prohibiting broad LGBT discrimination. In a September 2019 survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, 61% of Americans said making same-sex marriage legal was good for society while 72% of white evangelical Protestants said it was bad. Those voters are a crucial GOP bloc, especially in rural districts, and party leaders cross them at their own peril. The Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the Constitution ensures a right for same-sex couples to marry. Its decided law but some Republicans are using same-sex marriage as a divisive political tool, said Jerri Ann Henry, who resigned last year as executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, which represents LGBT members of the party. Henry, a GOP strategist, said the battle over the issue is the exact thing that will further alienate suburban and independent voters. Within hours of Mondays Supreme Court ruling, Democratic lawmakers unleashed a flood of statements hailing it. GOP reaction was harder to find, with top Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., mum. Notably, praise came from two moderate GOP senators, Alaskas Lisa Murkowski and Maines Susan Collins. All Americans deserve a fair opportunity to pursue the American dream, tweeted Collins, a four-term senator in her toughest reelection race. She called the decision a major advancement for LGBTQ rights. Collins likely Democratic opponent, Sara Gideon, tweeted that the decision showed Collins will continue to be a reliable vote for Trumps anti-LGBTQ+ nominees. Gideons focus was Collins pivotal 2018 vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, which Democrats consider a major vulnerability for Collins. Kavanaugh voted against this weeks court ruling. Other Republicans were less receptive to the courts decision. Carrie Severino, president of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, suggested the ruling would motivate conservative voters eager to ensure that Congress, not courts, control the law. The Supreme Court is always a hugely important issue to conservatives, Severino said Tuesday. If the courts ruling wasnt painful enough for Republicans, the opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trumps first Supreme Court appointee. Trump administration lawyers had argued on the side of employers who opposed lifting the discrimination ban. Trump has voiced support for LGBTQ rights and appointed openly gay Richard Grenell to be acting director of national intelligence, though hes since been replaced. But Trump has also appointed numerous federal judges who opposed LGBTQ rights and rolled back federal protections for transgender people. And the GOP has embraced its 2016 party platform anew for this years campaign, a document that condemns the Supreme Courts lawless ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. Donald Trump has racked up some firsts, and that sets the tone in the Republican Party, said Charles Moran, managing director of Log Cabin Republicans. But he added, There are definitely battles we still need to fight in some heartland areas of the country. Riggleman learned that firsthand last weekend. His short-circuited attempt to be renominated to Congress demonstrated that while religious conservatives have gotten more attention lately for opposing abortion, battling same-sex marriage resonates for many. A member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, Riggleman was endorsed by Trump and evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. But he was defeated Saturday at a GOP nominating convention in rural Virginia that, amid the pandemic, was conducted by delegates who voted by driving up to a church near his opponents home. It was the only polling location in a district that sprawls from northern Virginia to the North Carolina border. Riggleman officiated at a wedding last summer of two of his male friends and campaign aides. He said that during Saturdays voting, a constituent asked him to repent for conducting that wedding. He said he responded he had nothing to repent for. Riggleman said younger Republicans and those whove have served in military like himself dont see gay marriage as an issue. He said if the GOP wants religious liberties protected, it must embrace civil liberties, too. If we cant get over how other people live, I think the Republican Party is dead in Virginia, Riggleman said. And he voiced no regrets for officiating at the wedding. I wouldnt change a damn thing, he said. ___ AP writers Emily Swanson in Washington, Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, and Elana Schor in New York contributed to this report. Australian universities are running the ruler over their startup programs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Queensland University of Technology's accelerator program one of the first to be shut down. QUT is closing Creative Enterprise Australia, which has operated for a decade alongside its investment activities through the Creative Tech Ventures Fund. The university's Bluebox research commercialisation unit has also been closed. The closures come as Australian universities are under pressure to cut costs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has decimated the income they receive from international students. Alan Jones is worried about the impact of funding cuts to accelerator programs and incubators. Credit:Janie Barrett Industry sources said several universities have cut funding to their accelerator and incubator programs, which are a major source of funding and support for fledgling startups. Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur attends a video conference meet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Chief Ministers of 21 states and Union Territories to review the COVID-19 pandemic situation, in Shimla on June 16 Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, June 17 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday rubbished all speculations of reimposition of lockdown, calling all Chief Ministers to "fight rumours", as he asked states and Union Territories to get ready for Unlock 2.0 while bei Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, June 17 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday rubbished all speculations of reimposition of lockdown, calling all Chief Ministers to "fight rumours", as he asked states and Union Territories to get ready for Unlock 2.0 while being mindful of the challenges. Addressing Chief Ministers for the second day of the 6th PM-CM video conference to decide on the strategy to fight the pandemic, the Prime Minister told Chief Ministers that there is a "need" to fight "rumours of lockdown". Social media has been abuzz with the same after rising Covid-19 tally in metros, particularly in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The Prime Minister told the CMs: "We, now need to focus on phase 2 of the Unlock process, while at the same time, how to minimise any possibilities of harm to citizens." This was the stance taken by him even in Tuesday's meeting - the first stage of the meeting - where he gave a strong hint of further opening up of the economy while ensuring that basic rules like wearing a mask, maintaining hygiene or observing social distancing are followed strictly. "We have to always keep in mind that the more we can stop the corona, the more it will stop growing, the more our economy will open, our offices will open, the markets will open, the means of transport will open, and so will new employment opportunities," he had said. On Wednesday, PM Modi reiterated that India has been able to stop the exponential growth of the pandemic due to timely intervention. He stressed that in India, very few patients are in need of ICU or ventilators. However, as reported earlier by IANS, he laid special emphasis on increased testing, and the need to expand the same health infrastructure. Key states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar and Telangana were part of Wednesday's meeting. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:30:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RAMALLAH, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese medical expert team has concluded a week-long mission in Palestine after exchanges of anti-coronavirus experience, leaving with appreciation for their work to support the local fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as well as an accord on continued health cooperation. It had still been a busy day Tuesday, a day ahead of their scheduled departure on Wednesday afternoon. On the day, the Chinese experts held a video meeting with Palestinian health officials in the Gaza Strip on coronavirus control measures and the COVID-19 situation in the coastal enclave. The video conference was held at the Health Ministry building in the West Bank city of Ramallah. As of Tuesday, Gaza's caseload was 72, including 45 recoveries and one death. In Palestine, there had been 700 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported, with 570 recoveries and five deaths. Also on Tuesday, head of the government-run Palestine Medical Complex (PMC), Ahmed Bitawi, and the head of the Chinese team, Hu Peng, signed a framework agreement on telemedicine cooperation between the PMC in Ramallah and the Second Affiliated Hospital of China's Chongqing Medical University. "This visit has been successful by all measures, especially on the medical side. The delegation held various meetings, visits and tours to the quarantine and isolation centers in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Turmosaya, in addition to an exchange of viewpoints on epidemiology and preventive and treatment protocols," Health Minister Mai al-Kaila told a farewell ceremony held in Ramallah on Tuesday. Head of the Palestinian National Institute of Public Health, run by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rand Salman, said the Chinese medical team's mission has enriched the Palestinian experience in combating COVID-19. During their stay, the Chinese experts exchanged views with the Palestinian side and shared China's experience from its anti-virus battles, covering areas ranging from virus testing and quarantine measures to clinical treatment. On Sunday, the team paid a visit to the Central Public Health Lab in Ramallah and to the Hugo Chavez Hospital in the Turmosayya town -- facilities for COVID-19 testing, case isolation and treatment. They also took part in technical discussions with Palestinian clinicians on the premises of the Palestinian Health Ministry, which, Ali Abedrabbo, head of the health ministry's preventive medicine department, said were very helpful. In addition, the Chinese experts met with medical staff of the government-run PMC, which has been tasked with treating infected pregnant women. PMC chief Bitawi said, "We thank the Chinese leadership and people for this visit, which enriched the scientific dialogue and discussions ... The visit has helped us gain significant experience." The Chinese experts spoke highly of what their Palestinian counterparts have done to contain the coronavirus' spread. On June 13, for instance, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, a tourist attraction and the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Palestinian territories, Hu, after being briefed on the overall management of the public health crisis there, said, "We have the same mechanism, where we had multi-disciplinary teams for the health sector, the security and the logistics. It is a very strong guarantee for fighting the pandemic." The Chinese team leader also deemed the trip to Palestine an opportunity to learn more about dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 11, one day after the arrival of his team, there had been 665 confirmed infections reported in Palestine, with five deaths and a recovery rate of nearly 88 percent since the virus' outbreak in early March. "I shall avail this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views with the medical institutions together with the medical staff to learn how this success was reached," Hu noted, saying his team was interested in the "comprehensive recovery and the treatment and diagnosis of COVID-19 all over Palestine." The Chinese team, which was put together by China's National Health Commission, comprises 10 experts from various fields, such as respiratory and infectious diseases, traditional Chinese medicine, epidemiology, and nursing. Its visit was welcomed by Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ishtaye as an embodiment of "both medical and political solidarity" between his country and China, saying, "We are grateful that the team has come at the very right time." Prior to this visit, China had sent medical supplies to Palestine and organized several expert video meetings. Guo Wei, director of the Office of the People's Republic of China to the State of Palestine, said Tuesday that the cooperation between China and Palestine in the health sector will continue through various forms after this visit. 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. W&M Board approves personnel contingency options The W&M Board of Visitors Tuesday approved the use of temporary personnel actions, including furloughs and pay reductions, if needed for the upcoming fiscal year. During the Board meeting, university leadership emphasized that personnel actions are not imminent and that thanks to a university-wide effort to reduce spending, William & Mary is in sound financial shape. However, uncertainty remains given the COVID-19 pandemic, state budget decisions and the economy. The economic outlook remains sobering and very uncertain, President Katherine A. Rowe said. Though we are in a sound financial position now, we have a responsibility to prepare prudently. So we bring parts of a contingency plan and recommend Board action to make additional tools available to us only to be used if necessary given the possibilities of the coming year. A furlough is a temporary leave from work without pay. It can be granted intermittently (e.g., one day per week or month) or for a period of time over consecutive weeks or months. During a furlough, employees retain some benefits, most notably health and life insurance. A temporary salary reduction is a reduction in pay for a specified time period. Tuesdays action delegates authority to the administration should across-the-board personnel actions such furloughs or pay reductions become necessary. If so, decisions will be guided by four principles: William & Marys core learning mission will be preserved. Senior university leaders will be the first impacted and in the largest amount. In university-wide actions, we will seek to protect our lowest-paid employees (e.g., those making less than $50,000 annually) to the extent possible. The university will look first to temporary actions, not permanent ones. In response to the pandemic, the administration has already implemented several immediate measures to limit near-term spending. In the spring, the university instituted a hiring freeze, only filling positions that are deemed mission critical. Likewise, employees were asked to curtail purchases for the remainder of FY 20 not considered mission critical, with the exception of externally funded research expenses. Departments and units are currently undergoing a zero-based budgeting exercise for FY 21, which involves limiting expenses not considered critical. The Board and I greatly appreciate the leadership of the university for both the ongoing forward-thinking approach to prepare for the financial impact of the pandemic and putting broader contingencies in place in a thoughtful way, said Rector John Littel P22. There are many uncertainties and we must address them in a deliberate, transparent and collaborative way. I have full confidence that is the case. If broader personnel actions become necessary, Rowe emphasized the delegation of authority resolution pertains to temporary actions. The board committed under the William & Mary Promise to achieve more competitive salaries for faculty and staff, she said. We have made progress but we are not there yet. This is why it is important that we focus first on temporary actions, in order to allow us the chance if financial conditions allow to recover quickly. RTHK: Bolton: Trump asked Xi to ensure he was re-elected In a series of bombshell allegations, US President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, said on Wednesday that Trump sought President Xi Jinping's help to win re-election during a closed-door meeting in June 2019. Bolton, who Trump fired in September after 17 months in the White House job, also alleged that the US president had expressed a willingness to halt criminal investigations to give "personal favors to dictators he liked," according to an excerpt published in the New York Times. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The accusations are part of a book that the US government on Tuesday sued to block him from publishing, arguing it contained classified information and would compromise national security. Excerpts from "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir" were published in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post. They come just four months after the Republican-controlled Senate voted to acquit Trump on charges brought by the Democratic-led House of Representatives stemming from his dealings with Ukraine, only the third time in US history that a president has been impeached. Bolton's allegations provide new ammunition to critics just before the November 3 presidential election, including his behind-the-scenes accounts of Trump's conversations with Xi which, in one case, broached the topic of the US ballot. "Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to China's economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win," Bolton wrote, according to excerpts of his book published in the Wall Street Journal. "He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome." In excerpts published in the Washington Post, Bolton says Trump said invading Venezuela would be "cool" and that it was "really part of the United States". The US government has publicly said it does not favour using force to topple Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro. This story has been published on: 2020-06-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. DUBLIN, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "The Mining Sector in Botswana 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report focuses on the Mining Sector in Botswana and includes information on the state and size of the sector, trade statistics, corporate actions and expansion and investment developments. There are profiles of 26 companies including the country's largest diamond producer and largest private sector employer Debswana, and Botswana Ash, the only producer of soda ash and salt. Other profiles include Khoemacau Copper Mines, which is building a copper and silver mine, Lucara, which is expanding its Karowe mine, and prospectors such as Kukama and Efora Energy. The Mining Sector in Botswana: Mining is significant contributor to Botswana's GDP, and minerals comprise almost 80% of export earnings. In 2018, Botswana was the world's second largest diamond producer by value and volume, after Russia, according to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. The country has large soda ash, coal and diamond reserves. Botswana's mining sector is dominated by diamond mining, with Debswana Diamond Company being the largest producer by far. Other minerals produced are aggregate, brickmaking clay, coal, dimension stone, gemstones, gold, salt and soda ash. New Opportunities: Several exploration companies are working in the Kalahari copperbelt, while others have coal, coal bed methane, diamond and uranium projects. Botswana continues to be ranked highly in Africa on policy, investment attractiveness and its tax regime. In 2019, the second largest diamond ever found was discovered in Botswana. A number of companies are investing in expansion and development of diamond, coal, copper and silver mines. Variety: While diamonds remain the largest and most important mineral for Botswana, small amounts of coal are produced, largely for domestic consumption, with the majority used for power generation. The majority of Botswana Ash's soda ash production is sold to glass manufacturers who use the mineral to reduce the melting temperature of silica, which decreases their energy requirements. Key Topics Covered 1. INTRODUCTION 2. COUNTRY INFORMATION 2.1. Geographic Position 3. DESCRIPTION OF THE INDUSTRY 3.1. Industry Value Chain 4. SIZE OF THE INDUSTRY 5. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY 5.1. Local 5.1.1. Trade 5.1.2. Corporate Actions 5.1.3. Regulations 5.2. Continental 5.3. International 6. INFLUENCING FACTORS 6.1. Economic Environment 6.2. Environmental Concerns 6.3. Labour 6.4. Technology, Research & Development (R&D) and Innovation 7. COMPETITION 7.1. Barriers to Entry 8. SWOT ANALYSIS 9. OUTLOOK 10. INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS 11. REFERENCES 11.1. Publications 11.2. Websites Compan Profiles African Energy Resources Botswana (Pty) Ltd Mmamantswe Coal (Pty) Ltd Shumba Energy Ltd Minergy Ltd Walkabout Resources Ltd Maatla Resources (Pty) Ltd Morupule Coal Mine (Pty) Ltd Myna Projects (Pty) Ltd Tlou Energy Botswana (Pty) Ltd A-Cap Resources Botswana (Pty) Ltd Mupane Gold Mining (Pty) Ltd Efora Energy Ltd Khoemacau Copper Mining (Pty) Ltd Tshukudu Metals Botswana (Pty) Ltd Menzi Battery Metals (Pty) Ltd B & E ( Botswana ) (Pty) Ltd ) (Pty) Ltd PPC Aggregate Quarries Botswana (Pty) Ltd Makoro Brick & Tile (Pty) Ltd Firestone Diamonds PLC Lucara Botswana (Pty) Ltd Botswana Diamonds PLC Kukama Mining and Exploration (Pty) Ltd Bosoto (Pty) Ltd Majwe Mining Joint Venture (Pty) Ltd Debswana Diamond Company (Pty) Ltd Botswana Ash (Pty) Ltd For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/erum0k 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 She talked in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire about her disdain for the typical fundraising practices used by most candidates; she was often rewarded with thunderous applause (but not enough votes). She talked about it on the debate stage, where she zinged other candidates for raising cash in fancy settings like a California wine cave. She talked about it in friendly interviews with anchors like MSNBCs Rachel Maddow. Achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 through the transformation of the generation capacity portfolio is one of the strategic goals of the DTEK Group, the press service of DTEK Energy has reported. "There are more than 250,000 people in Ukraine who depend on the work of the coal industry. These are not only employees of enterprises, but also residents of single-industry towns where mines operate. DTEK Energy employs more than 30,000 miners. Our task, as a responsible employer, is to contribute to the creation of new jobs and to ensure the transformation of regions at the local, national and international levels. Therefore, since 2018, we have been an active participant in the European platform for fair coal transformation," CEO of DTEK Energy Dmytro Sakharuk said, speaking at the 20th UN Global Compact Leaders Summit held on Tuesday. He said that DTEK, together with European experts, is working on a pilot transformation project in Dobropillia, where the company's coal mining enterprises operate. "We already have achievements on water supply and heating in Dobropillia, but our main task is to develop an integrated transformation approach in cooperation with regional and national authorities," he said. Sakharuk said that DTEK provides expertise and resources, which lay the foundation for a fair transformation. The role of the state is to develop regulatory initiatives and mechanisms to ensure this fair transition Ukraine has become an active participant in the process of transforming coal regions and has identified this as one of the priority tasks on the path to carbon neutrality. The Ukrainian government has established the Coal Transformation Center for the Coal Industry, and the European Commission, together with international financial institutions, is finalizing the coal transformation program for the Western Balkans and Ukraine, which will provide expertise and support to countries in transition. DTEK recalled that DTEK has been a member of the UN Global Compact since 2007 and is guided in its activities by the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN DG. Twelve of the UN goals are integrated into the long-term strategy and determine the investment priorities of the DTEK Group. N orth Korea has rejected an offer by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to send special envoys to Pyongyang to defuse tension. A day after North Korea blew up an empty inter-Korean liaison office, the country vowed to send soldiers to the border, reinstall guard posts and resume military exercises, reversing agreements reached with South Korea just two years ago. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, called the South's offer of special envoys a "petty farce" and a "trick" to tide over a crisis. She also slammed Moon's recent urging of North Korea to return to talks and find a breakthrough with South Korea. In response, one of Moon's senior presidential advisers, Yoon Do-han, called Kim Yo Jong's statement "very rude," "irrational" and "senseless". North Korea confirms destruction of inter-Korean liaison office Yoon warned South Korea won't tolerate similar statements by North Korea any longer, while expressing regret over North Korea's publicising of South Korea's offer to send envoys. South Korea's unification minister, Kim Yeon-chul, has offered his resignation over the sharp rise in tensions with the North, saying he takes responsibility for the worsening relations. It comes as North Korea said it will send soldiers to reinstall guard posts on the border and resume military exercises at frontline areas. The North's General Staff said military units will be deployed to the Diamond Mountain resort and the Kaesong industrial complex, both just north of the heavily fortified border. The two sites, built with South Korean financing, have been closed for years due to inter-Korean disputes and US-led sanctions. These steps would reverse agreements reached between the Koreas in September 2018 aimed at lowering military tensions along the border. Under the 2018 agreements, both Koreas halted live-firing exercises, removed some land mines and destroyed guard posts along the world's most heavily armed border. The announcement is the latest in a series provocations North Korea has taken in what experts believe are calculated moves to apply pressure on Seoul and Washington amid stalled nuclear negotiations. Though North Korea's recent actions haven't lead to clashes or bloodshed, it's still raising tensions to a level unseen since Pyongyang entered nuclear talks in 2018. South Korea's military expressed regret over the North Korean announcement and warned that the North will face unspecified consequences if it violates the 2018 agreements. The North's official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday said that recent actions were taken to retaliate for South Korea's failure to prevent activists from floating propaganda leaflets across the border. North Korea's first missile test of 2020 1 /10 North Korea's first missile test of 2020 Reuters AP Reuters Reuters Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP AP Reuters Reuters It said the destruction of the building Tuesday was a "reflection of the zeal of our enraged people to punish human scum who challenged the noblest dignity and prestige of our country and those who sheltered the scum, perpetrators of shuddering crime". It said North Korea will set the intensity and timing for its additional steps while closely monitoring South Korean moves. North Korea will likely next dismantle South Korean-built structures, equipment and other assets at the two cooperation sites before performing military drills and firing missiles and shells towards the sea, said Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute, a think tank in South Korea. Major General Jeon Dong Jin at the Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea maintains military readiness and will strive to prevent military tensions from rising. Facebook has removed nearly 900 accounts linked to two far-right groups whose members may have been plotting to send armed agitators to George Floyd protests. The social media giant removed accounts connected to Proud Boys and American Guard, both of which it considers to be hate groups. Officials said they had started to initiate a ban against the two groups on May 30 after seeing web traffic which indicated they were planning to disrupt protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. 'We accelerated our investigation and enforcement to remove the accounts, pages and groups we had found by that point and then continued our work mapping out the rest of the network,' an official told ABC News. Facebook has removed nearly 900 accounts linked to two far-right groups whose members may have been plotting to send armed agitators to George Floyd protests. Pictured: A member of one of the groups, Proud Boys, wears a sticker reading 'Antifa Hunting Permit' at a rally in Oregon The social media company, which also owns Instagram, said they removed 358 Facebook accounts and 172 Instagram accounts connected to Proud Boys. They also removed 406 Facebook accounts and 164 Instagram accounts connected to American Guard. 'In both cases, we saw accounts from both organizations discussing attending protests in various US states with plans to carry weapons but we did not find indications in their on-platform content they planned to actively commit violence,' the company said. Proud Boys were formed in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, who helped to found Vice Media. The group denies any link to the far right but claims to be against political correctness and are 'anti-white guilt', according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC does brand them as a hate group. The social media giant removed accounts connected to Proud Boys and American Guard, both of which it considers to be hate groups Supporters at a rally in August last year were pictured displaying stickers which read, 'Antifa Hunting Group', in reference to the self-described anti-facism group. Proud Boys members also reportedly appeared at the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The SPLC says American Guard is associated with the Proud Boys. American Guard are also branded as 'hardcore white supremacists' by the Anti-Defamation League. Facebook first banned both groups for promoting hate but members had continued to post images with weapons and urged others to attend protests sparked following the death of Floyd in Minneapolis. Officials said they had started to initiate a ban against the two groups on May 30 after seeing web traffic which indicated they were planning to disrupt protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. Pictured: Protesters in Seattle on Sunday The company is also trying to make it harder to find groups in what is known as the Boogaloo movement. Adherents are often heavily armed and believe a new civil war is likely. On Tuesday, an Air Force sergeant who had links to the far-right movement was charged with murder and attempted murder after the shooting of a federal security officer and the wounding of his partner outside a U.S. courthouse, as well as the killing of a California sheriff's deputy and the injuring of four other officers. In announcing murder and attempted murder charges in the shooting of the security personnel, authorities alleged Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, 32, hatched the plot to target them during an online chat with an accomplice and a third person. LUDLOW A man who suffered burns after the boat he was working on in a garage caught fire Monday afternoon was airlifted to a Boston hospital for treatment, a fire official said. The blaze broke out in a detached garage at 87 Hubbard St. shortly before 4 p.m. The garage was fully-involved when firefighters arrived. Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for the state Fire Marshals office, said the victim was first taken to an area hospital by the Wilbraham Fire Department and then flown by Lifeflight emergency medical helicopter to Boston. Information on the mans condition was not immediately available. Mieth said investigators determined the victim was working on the boats outboard motor when the fire broke out. The fire, which destroyed the garage, is considered accidental, she said. Ludlow Fire Chief Ryan Pease said when firefighters arrived, fire was spreading to two homes which are about five and 10 feet from the building. Police and firefighters evacuated one of the homes, a five-family home at 91-93 Hubbard St. , while other firefighters poured water on both homes to prevent further damage to their exteriors. Outreach, a Seattle, Washington-based sales engagement platform provider, closed a $50m funding round. The round, which brought Outreachs valuation up to $1.33 billion and total funding to $289m, was led by Sands Capital with participation from Salesforce Ventures with participation from new investor Operator Collective and existing investors Lone Pine Capital, Spark Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Trinity Ventures, Mayfield, and Sapphire Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate development efforts and expansion plans. Led by Manny Medina, CEO and co-founder, Outreach provides a sales engagement platform to increase productivity and drive engagement with their customers. More than 4,000 companies such as Adobe, Tableau, DoorDash, Splunk, DocuSign, and SAP use the companys solution. The company has approx. 600 employees, expanding to new locations in the U.S. and U.K., as well as hosting the largest virtual sales conference in North America with more than 14,000 registrants. FinSMEs 17/06/2020 STOCKHOLM (AP) Flags flew at half-staff in front of Swedens parliament as lawmakers inside held a memorial service Wednesday for the more than 5,000 people with COVID-19 who have died in a country that declined to implement the strict lockdown measures widely adopted in Europe. Members of the 349-seat Riksdag stood up to observe a minute of silence during the 15-minute memorial. The Swedish government steadfastly defends its soft approach to controlling the spread of the coronavirus despite growing criticism from opposition parties. This particular moment is for all of them: those who lost their jobs, their health, their lives, Riksdag Speaker Andreas Norlen said. We say to all those who now mourn and suffer: You are not alone. Sweden has the most virus-related deaths in the Nordic region, with 5,041 reported as of Wednesday. However, the number of COVID-19 deaths recorded daily has declined, and weekly statistics show that mortality is now close to normal for this time of year after peaking in April. A number of European countries have maintained travel restrictions on visitors from Sweden because of the countrys rate of new confirmed cases. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Tuesday he thought it was a little strange that fellow Nordic nations Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland haven't reopened their borders to Swedes. I have to respect what other countries decide, Lofven said in an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen in which he noted that the number of virus-related deaths in Sweden is going down considerably now. Denmark, Norway and Finland have in recent weeks allowed each other's residents to enter their countries. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said later Wednesday that Sweden would change its travel advice against non-essential trips to 10 European countries Greece, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, France, Iceland, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxemburg as of June 30. Story continues But travel restrictions to neighboring Denmark and Norway remain in place, Linde said. She said restrictions on countries outside Europe will be extended until Aug. 31. Lofven's government never imposed a lockdown or ordered business to close. Large gatherings were banned, but restaurants and schools for young children have stayed open. The government urged social distancing, and Swedes have largely complied. During the last week, the country has seen a steep climb in new cases, which the government and the health authority have attributed to a big increase in testing. ___ Jan M. Olsen reported from Copenhagen, Denmark. ___ Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak NHS staff should be tested twice a week for coronavirus to 'regain public confidence', the president of the Royal College of Surgeons said today, as hospital bosses said they were still waiting for clarity from ministers on how regular testing will work. Professor Derek Alderson said patients needed to be reassured that staff were not unwittingly carrying the virus, and that because tests can produce false negatives it was essential to carry them out frequently. Hospital trust chiefs are yet to decide on testing regimes because they say they need clarify from the government, while the Department for Health and Social Care said it is currently focused on care homes. Professor Derek Alderson (pictured yesterday) said patients needed to be reassured that staff were not unwittingly carrying the virus, and that because tests can produce false negatives it was essential to carry them out frequently Addressing the Health Select Committee, Prof Alderson said: 'It's absolutely essential to regain public confidence that we are able to test our staff regularly. [It would be] 'pragmatic' [for testing to happen] 'about twice weekly.' Around 30% of infections could be missed by a single swab test, according to research from the University of Bristol. Professor Nicola Stonehouse, a virologist at the University of Leeds, told the BBC it was 'essential' to have multiple tests both due to their unreliability and because a patient could be 'fine one day and infected the next'. The UK had the capacity to carry out 200,000 tests a day as of June 15, including 40,000 for NHS and care staff. However, only 75,935 of those tests were carried out. A pilot scheme for testing staff was introduced across 11 hospital trusts more than a month ago, but Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, who represents hospital bosses, said she had 'no idea' when it would be rolled out. It came as scientists hailed a 'game-changing' blood test that may be able to spot 98 percent of cases - even those without symptoms. Studies show that up to eight in ten cases are so mild that sufferers barely notice they are ill and therefore will not know they have potential immunity. A medical worker takes a swab at a drive-in coronavirus testing facility at Chessington World of Adventures on My 1 Birmingham Universitys test will put these hidden victims on the radar with huge implications for firms, families and schools. It works by checking for antibodies produced by the immune system when Covid-19 invades cells using its surface spikes. By doing so the test picks up many more cases. The researchers say mild victims react to the spikes, while severe cases seem to react to the viruss main body. Alex Richter, of the Institute of Immunology at Birmingham, said the results were based on studies involving 1,000 NHS workers. She added: We have found that detecting antibodies in people that have been very sick in hospital is quite straightforward, however, it seems that if you have a milder or asymptomatic illness your response may be weaker in existing protein tests. In our test, we are using the correctly folded form of the spike protein, which is the protein the virus uses to binds to cells in the first place. We are getting 98 per cent sensitivity and that is a game changer for testing in the community and for other countries. The test, which will be launched next month, relies on the heel prick method used for newborns. Patients could be asked to prick their finger at home and send a dried blood spot card to a laboratory for testing. Dr Richter said this method was as accurate at detecting virus immunity as using blood drawn directly from veins. In another positive development, Health Secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the use of a steroid called dexamethasone for treating coronavirus patients as the best news so far of the outbreak. Trial results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases such as arthritis, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital. 'It does increase your chances of survival quite significantly,' Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News. 'It is one of the best pieces of news we've had through this whole crisis.' He said that the R-rate was below 1 in all regions but did not clarify if he was speaking about England or the entire United Kingdom. Yesterday, Britain announced 233 more Covid-19 deaths as the outbreak that threw the UK into chaos when it spiralled out of control in March continues to fade. Department of Health figures say the official final number of victims is now 41,969 but separate data shows the actual number of fatalities is in the region of 53,000. He's interviewed some of the worlds biggest celebrities during his 20-year career with Channel Nine. But on Wednesday, Today host Karl Stefanovic, 45, was reduced to a giggling mess as he flirted with a hero tradie who took down a knife-wielding robber in Melbourne. The bizarre exchange forced Karl's co-host Allison Langdon, 41, to get the interview back on track, and at one point she playfully hit Karl on the arm to settle him down. 'This has taken a turn!' Today host Allison Landon punched Karl Stefanovic after he burst into uncontrollable laughter during an interview with a hero tradie on Wednesday After praising Sam Dale, 22, for his heroic actions which saw him thwart a would-be ATM heist, Karl made the interview a little bit personal. 'I was going to say do you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend or whatever. Do you have a partner?' he asked. Sam burst into laughter before admitting he was single. Taking a turn: After praising Sam Dale (pictured) for his heroic actions which saw him thwart a would-be ATM heist, Karl asked him if he had a 'girlfriend or boyfriend' 'No, I don't actually. What are you trying to say, Karl? Are you keen?' he joked back. 'I just had a newborn, I'm trying to keep my options open...' Karl responded as he bursts into fits of laughter. Ever the professional, Allison intervened to get the segment back on track. Larrikin humour: Despite having just welcomed a newborn with his wife, Karl joked he was trying to keep his options open as he flirted with the 22-year-old tradesman 'Okay, this has taken a turn - and not for the best,' she said, as she giggled alongside her colleague. 'You're a legend and I love you. Can't wait to come to have a beer with you in Melbourne,' Karl told Sam, wrapping up the interview. 'Hit me up anytime mate, I'll be waiting,' the guest replied. Friendly chat: 'You're a legend and I love you. Can't wait to come to have a beer with you in Melbourne,' Karl told Sam, wrapping up the interview Karl then cheekily said: 'I'll send you my digits'. Sam had been enjoying breakfast with his mates on Smith Street in the inner northern Melbourne suburb of Collingwood on Monday morning when he noticed a woman being harassed by an armed man at an ATM. Leaping into action after hearing the woman's screams, Sam tackled the man to the ground and held him until police arrived. The incident was filmed by passersby and the footage later went viral as an example of everyday heroism. Merriam-Webster defines bigotry as: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (such as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.Prejudice: preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. The first recorded arrival of slaves in North America occurred in 1502 when Juan de Cordoba sent several of his black slaves from Spain to Hispaniola. The first slaves in the American colonies were brought by Dutch traders to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Slavery in America lasted until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. America has endured the resulting bigotry and racism for 401 years. Lynchings, rape, torture and brutality of many African descendants are eternal blemishes on our history. On May 25, George Floyd, a 46-year-old man died at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis. The murderer of Floyd, Derek Chauvin has a history of on-duty shootings. His knee on the victims neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds became an historic moment whereby millions of people worldwide became involved. Multiracial, multiethnic, multigenerational vigils and protests continue. The day after Floyds funeral, his brother Philonise appeared before a House hearing telling of the homicide, saying, His life matters ? All lives matter! This has led cities across the World to change police practices and try to end racial prejudice. While hatred and intolerance lead to prejudice and then to bigotry, where does it start? Some believe it is learned behavior. No one is born with prejudice. Some imply it is based on ignorance or stupidity. Negative Experience or Experiences- Family Upbringing- It is more than that. Bigotry is a mental illness. It infests the mind and destroys the soul. I agree with Ronald W. Pies, MD: Those who advocate making pathological bigotry a formal psychiatric diagnosis argue: Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals regularly confront extreme forms of racism, homophobia, and other forms of irrational hatred. Many patients holding these views are troubled and sometimes even disabled by them. Some individuals with pathological bigotry are frankly delusional, perceive themselves as under attack, and become overtly dangerous to themselves or others. We should provide diagnosis and treatment for these individuals because we may be able to help them, just as we can help other troubled patients. For example, some extremely hateful patients may be helped with psychotherapy or antipsychotic medication. Psychiatric diagnosis cannot avoid the social context of mental illness, and the mere fact that our diagnoses may be misused in the criminal justice system should not deter us from applying them. A profound fact about bigots is that many of them profess themselves to be Christians. Love your brother? Help the stranger? Not for them. Their behavior insults that faith. The upcoming affront is DonnyTs rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, the day after the Juneteenth Celebration. Tulsa was the site of a major anti-black riot and massacre in 1921 where a white mob killed hundreds of black people and destroyed their successful businesses. On that date in 1865, General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and told the people there that the Civil War was over, and the slaves were free. It is a major Black holiday. Trump is not welcome to most Tulsans. COVID-19 cases have spiked and hospital cases near capacity. Homelessness, abandoned homes, joblessness, and lack of hotel accommodations are major concerns. Thousands of shouting revelers, packed shoulder to shoulder and maskless means an increased risk of illness and death. Trumps blunders continue. Perhaps his worst mistake is not realizing that decent Americans are aware of bigotry and will make the effort to confront it with or without him. Ed Fisher writes a weekly column for the Morning Sun. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee may not attend the virtual meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the coronavirus pandemic with the chief ministers on Wednesday after the state was not allowed a spot as a speaker, reports said. The Prime Minister has been holding consultations with the chief ministers from Tuesday as the country gradually emerges out of lockdown in the backdrop of the rising number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the country. Prime Minister Modi will discuss the pandemic situation in Delhi on Wednesday along with Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. On Tuesday, he held a video conference with the CMs from Punjab, Assam, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh among other states. News agency PTI said Mamata Banerjee is undecided about participating in a virtual meeting. It cited unnamed sources from her party, the Trinamool Congress, saying that Banerjee is still undecided about attending the meeting and the state would be represented in it by a senior government official. What is the need for attending the meeting if you are not allowed to speak ... The chief minister is still undecided about attending the meeting with the prime minister, a senior TMC leader told PTI. The sources, PTI said, that West Bengal has been invited to the meeting but has not been slotted as one of the speakers. This has kicked off a political storm in the state with the TMC criticising the Union government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for defending the Centres decision as the right one. It seems the Centres so worried about exposing itself to @MamataOfficials constructive criticism on #COVID response that our honble CMs been reduced to just a mute spectator for the latest round of VCs with the PM. People of Bengal wont forgive this, Dinesh Trivedi, senior TMC leader and MP, tweeted. Trivedis remark was echoed by the TMCs secretary general Partha Chatterjee. He said it is an attempt by the Centre to suppress West Bengals voice. Just because Mamata Banerjee has been pointing out the lapses and wrong decisions in implementing the lockdown, she has been blacked out in the meeting. This is an attempt to scuttle democracy and the BJP governments inability to face constructive criticism. We condemn it, he said. The BJPs West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh supported the Centres decision of not giving Banerjee the chance to speak and said the state government, apart from seeking funds, has done nothing during the previous such meetings. The West Bengal government has been a complete failure in implementing the lockdown in the state. It has been busy in blaming the central government. In previous meetings our chief minister has done nothing apart from seeking funds, Ghosh alleged. Banerjee had slammed the central government for playing politics on the issue of Covid-19 by trying to shift the blame on the states during the last virtual meeting between Modi and the chief ministers. She had said the onus lies with the Centre to come out with a clear strategy for the way forward. West Bengal has reported 11,494 cases of the coronavirus disease and 485 people have died so far, according to the Union health ministry. (With agency inputs) A book examines the history of the study of the Japanese language by Westerners, from when the first Portuguese and Spanish ships arrived on Japanese shores in the sixteenth century. First Encounters Kaiko to senso to Nihongo: Obei no Nihon rikai wa ko shite hajimatta (Silkworms, War, and the Japanese Language: How the West Came to Understand Japan), written by the Japanese-language education specialist Ogawa Yoshimi, presents the history of how Western countries national interests have been bound up with the study and research of the Japanese language as they have cultivated specialists for their use in trade, diplomacy, and warfare. The first encounters between Japan and Europe came in the mid-sixteenth century in the Age of Discovery. Portuguese and Spanish ships successively arrived on Japanese shores, leading to trade and missionary activities. Francis Xavier, a Spanish-born Jesuit, arrived in what is now Kagoshima Prefecture in 1549. He is said to have decided to come to Japan after a meeting in Malacca (now in Malaysia) with a man called Anjiro from the Kagoshima area. Anjiro killed a man in his youth and escaped to Malacca on a Portuguese ship, so he was considerably fluent in Portuguese. His baptism in Goa is said to have made him the first Christian from Japan. To promulgate Christianity in Japan, Xavier wanted to win permission to perform missionary work from its leaders and to make Japanese translations of Christian texts, explains Ogawa. Japanese ability was essential to both, so training people who understood the language was an urgent task. Missionary Linguists Anjiro interpreted for Xavier when he went to Japan. The Spanish-born missionary Juan Fernandez, who also accompanied Xavier, is said to have studied Japanese so hard he almost forgot to eat and sleep. He took over from Anjiro and remained in the country after Xavier left, compiling a Japanese grammar and a Portuguese-Japanese dictionary. The Portuguese missionary Luis Frois was a student of Fernandez, and also knew Xavier and Anjiro. He arrived in Japan in 1563, later becoming friends with the powerful warlord Oda Nobunaga and meeting with Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Frois had a talent for writing and is known for his history of Japan. Joao Rodrigues was just 16 in 1577 when he came to Japan, where he worked as a missionary and interpreter. His writings include an extensive grammar of the language. Notes Ogawa: The favor he won with Toyotomi Hideyoshi helped him become the procurator of the Jesuits Japan mission, while he was also involved with the raw silk trade as the representative of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Castaways in Russia Russia has a long history of Japanese study. The book describes how when overseas travel was greatly limited during the Edo period (16031868), castaways from Japan taught the language to Russians, with whom they worked together on teaching materials and dictionaries. From 1705, schools were established in Saint Petersburg and Irkutsk, and Japanese study continued intermittently for over a century. Russias first teacher of Japanese was a sailor called Denbei, who came ashore at Kamchatka after being shipwrecked during a 1696 journey from Osaka to Edo [now Tokyo]. He went to the capital Moscow in 1702 for an audience with Peter the Great, who ordered the establishment of Japanese schools. Denbei remained in Russia, converting to the Orthodox faith. Another Japanese castaway, Daikokuya Kodayu, managed to return home after spending several years in Russia. The merchant and ships captain was shipwrecked along with his crew during a 1782 voyage to Edo, landing at Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands. Eventually he won permission to go back to Japan from Catherine the Great in 1791. The expedition to take Kodayu back allowed Russia a rare opportunity to see inside Japan. A Silkworm Crisis In the early seventeenth century, the Netherlands and Britain joined Portugal and Spain in vying for Japanese trade. Wary of excess European influence, however, the Edo shogunate came to limit its trade with the continent to a Dutch mission at Dejima, Nagasaki, which became the countrys sole direct connection with the West for around two centuries. The Dutch language was prized in Japan for its use in trade and access to Western knowledge. At the same time, Europeans like the German doctor Philipp Franz von Siebold could learn about Japan while stationed in Nagasaki. As the book explains, there was also occasional practical interest in Japanese farther afield. In the mid-nineteenth century, a hereditary silkworm disease called pebrine was rampant in Europe. It was incurable at the time and silkworms in Europe faced extinction. Japanese sericulture came under the spotlight as offering a possible solution, and a book on Japanese techniques for raising silkworms was translated into French and Italian in what must be the first example of a book-length technical translation from the language. Using this knowledge, the European silk industry was able to stave off crisis by raising Japanese silkworms with Japanese methods. The text in question, Yosan hiroku (The Secrets of Sericulture), was written by Uegaki Morikuni and published in 1803. It was mixed in with the huge collection of Japan materials Siebold brought back from Nagasaki to the Netherlands. In 1848, it was translated into French by Johann Joseph Hoffmann, who was known as the only scholar of Japan in Europe. Rediscovering Japan Just before the enforced opening up of Japan set into motion by the 1853 arrival of a US Navy expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry, the Western powers threw their energies into training students in the Japanese language, aiming to have them apply their new proficiency in negotiations. Around this time, Japans focus switched from Dutch to English, with scholars like Fukuzawa Yukichi recognizing the greater importance of the latter language for future learning. Perry wrote in the Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan: Much progress will . . . never be obtained toward a thorough knowledge of Japan, until some of our men of intelligence are established in the country in the character of consular agents, merchants, or missionaries, who may thus be enabled to acquire the language, and mingle in intimate social relations with the people. In 1859, not long after the opening of Japanese ports, the United States sent six missionaries to the country. They included James Curtis Hepburn, who gave his name to the now standard Hepburn system of romanizing Japanese. Hepburn came to Japan to spread the gospel, became involved in medical activities, opened a private school, contributed to a Japanese translation of the Bible, and published a Japanese-English dictionary during 40 years living in the country, explains Ogawa. The author also describes how Britain showed a threatening and high-handed attitude in insisting that its own treaty negotiations be conducted in English rather than Dutch. At the same time, it sent many interpreters and Japan specialists to the country. Most famously, these included Ernest Satow, who arrived in Japan in 1862 at the age of 19 as a student interpreter. He became a skilled diplomat, proficient in Japanese, who came to know many of the leading figures in government, was able to acquire useful information, and was himself influential. A Dangerous Profession In 1902, Japan entered an alliance with Britain, which led to the launch of Japanese classes at the University of London and Oxford University, as well as new Japanese-language schools and textbooks. Later, a new alliance with Germany and Italy in the 1930s would boost study in those countries. After the Russo-Japanese War of 19045, interest in Japanese grew in Eastern Europe. There were also a number of Russians who went on to become distinguished in Japan studies. One notable example was Nikolai Nevsky, who traveled to Japan to study in 1915. His linguistic ability led him to study not only Japanese but also Ainu, the Miyakoan language of Okinawa, and the Tsou language of Taiwan. Nevsky returned to what was now the Soviet Union in 1929, but became a victim of Stalins Great Purge in 1937. He was accused of being a spy and executed together with his Japanese wife. They were posthumously rehabilitated in 1957, and in 1962 he was awarded the Lenin Prize. Wartime Lessons The needs of World War II fostered an unprecedented level of Japanese study among the Allied powers. Ogawa suggests that Japan may have been complacent in a belief that its language was so difficult that there was no way foreigners could understand it. Starting in 1941, the US Navy and Army established special programs to train talented linguists for tasks like interpreting bugged conversations, deciphering codes, conducting propaganda activities, interrogating prisoners, and reading military documents. In Britain, the School of Oriental and African Studies in London had its own scholarship courses from 1942, and there was also a secret school in Bedford instigated by the code-breaking center Bletchley Park. Among the graduates from the US Navy course were Edward Seidensticker and Donald Keene, who through their postwar translation activities were central to the enhanced global standing of Japanese literature. Seidenstickers translations of works by Kawabata Yasunari opened the path to the latter winning the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature. British counterparts who applied their wartime training in Japanese to later careers include the diplomat Hugh Cortazzi and the sociologist Ronald Dore. Growing Interest in Japanese Japanese is still considered a difficult language by many. The Foreign Service Institute at the US Department of State includes Japanese in one of its handful of Category IV super-hard languages, which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers. Even so, and despite advances in automatic translation, more people are studying Japanese around the world. A Japan Foundation survey every conducted three years found in fiscal 2018 that Japanese education was being conducted in 142 countries and regions with 3.8 million learners, up 5.2% from fiscal 2015. Incidentally, this total has increased by more than 30 times from the 1979 figure. China has the most learners, followed by Indonesia and South Korea, but there are also many in the English-speaking world, with Australia coming in fourth and the United States eighth. There are said to be more than 7,000 languages in the world. In her book, the author stresses the special position of Japanese, with sufficient popularity for there to be schools across the globe and for people to make careers as teachers. While English has become increasingly dominant, such demand shows that the Japanese language is far from finished. (Originally published in Japanese.) Kaiko to senso to Nihongo: Obei no Nihon rikai wa ko shite hajimatta (Silkworms, War, and the Japanese Language: How the West Came to Understand Japan) By Ogawa Yoshimi Publisher: Hitsuji Shobo 424 pages Price: 3,400 plus tax The Army said late Monday that Staff Sgt. Jared Esquibel Harless, suspected of killing his wife and four children in a murder-suicide in their home on the citys far North Side, was buried without receiving military honors. A statement issued by the service said that military honors for Harless, 38, were withheld due to the circumstances surrounding his death and that providing them would bring discredit upon the Army. The Army didnt elaborate. Denial of burial honors is rare in the armed forces. Four years ago, the Air Force refused to provide a burial with military honors for Tech Sgt. Steven Bellino, who killed his squadron commander and then himself on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Mike Fisher /Mike Fisher /Staff Nearly two weeks after the bodies were found in the home, San Antonio police investigators were still awaiting toxicology tests to confirm how the Harless family members died. Police have said they suspect Harless killed his wife, Sheryll, 36, and the children before taking his own life. They have not speculated on a motive and are trying to determine when the family died. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio home where GI and family found dead was once owned by oil theft ringleader Jared and Sheryll Harless were found in the back of an SUV in their garage on June 4 along with their children, Esteban Lorenzo Harless, 4; Penelope Arcadia Harless, 3; Avielle Magdalena Harless, 1, and Apollo Harless, 11 months. Harless, a 35Q cryptologic cyberspace intelligence collector/analyst at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, failed to check in with his bosses, prompting them to ask police to visit the rented house in the upscale Heights of Stone Oak, a gated subdivision on the North Side. Michael Fisher Harless was a 10-year Army veteran working for the 470th Military Intelligence Brigade at Fort Sam, and had served one tour in Iraq, in 2011. The Harlesses had moved from Washington state to San Antonio last January, and were known by neighbors to be quiet and even reclusive. No one was aware anything was amiss until officers saw a bizarre note after arriving at the two-story house. On ExpressNews.com: Father in suspected murder-suicide of San Antonio family was Fort Sam GI Bodies or people inside, do not enter, read the note, which contained military jargon. The animals are in the freezer. Seven police officers were overcome by what they believe was carbon monoxide after briefly entering the home. Hours later, after shooting out the windows with rubber bullets to air out the house and sending a robot into the residence to check for bombs, officers found the bodies. Sig Christenson covers the military and its impact in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Sig, become a subscriber. sigc@express-news.net | Twitter: @saddamscribe In its first meeting back in the board room since school closed due to COVID-19, the Conroe ISD board of trustees began its meeting Tuesday with a statement addressing the growing national movement following the death of George Floyd. As part of the precautions taken to slow the spread of COVID-19, all members in the board room were given masks and hand sanitizer was available. Seating was limited in the board room to allow for social distancing. After reciting the pledge of allegiance and the Texas pledge, and an invocation, Trustee Scott Kidd read a prepared statement from the board addressing the new movement against police violence, exemplified by protests across the country. As a school board, we understand that our students, families, and staff are hurting during these challenging times in our world, Kidd started. Our hearts ache from the tragic death of George Floyd. Events occurring since have highlighted the racial division in our nation. Racism towards Black Americans and people of color should not be tolerated and it only undermines the desired values of our nation, state, and community. However, racism exists, and acknowledging that can possibly be a first step towards eradicating and healing. Public education, the statement read, plays a vital role in preserving and strengthening the core foundation of our democracy that we are all created equal. According to the statement, this is what CISD strives for in its district promise of All means all. What the district can do, according to the statement, is to listen intently with the intent of seeking truth and solutions, and act with intention to demonstrate its commitment to equality. This school board is committed to listening more intently and acting more purposefully as we work to make Conroe ISD not only a welcoming, accepting, and supportive place for our students, staff, and families but an environment where our students thrive and reach even greater heights than ever before, Kidd read. More Information Also noteworthy: Kim Earthman was named Director of Student Support Services. Last month the district put out a call for recommendations for names for the Flex 20 Elementary campus in the Caney Creek High School feeder zone. The district received 885 submissions. At the June 16 meeting, the submitted names were presented to the board and will be available on the district website. Next month, the board will discuss the options. All capital projects currently underway are on schedule. The most complete project, Stockton Junior High, is 96 percent complete and set to open on time this August. All projects and their completion level can be found in the meeting board book available on the district website. As presented during the financial report, CFO Darren Rice told the board how the money from the CARES Act will have little impact on the budget. The district was awarded around $6.5 million through the CARES Act, but Rice explained that the state government would be artificially reducing the district's daily attendance to withhold around 95 percent of those funds, the other five percent would be distributed through the district to other schools in the area including charter schools and private schools. The result from a budgetary standpoint is a net zero impact. See More Collapse The statement also thanks the members of the CISD Police Department for their work, They exemplify what community policing is and should be. After reciting the statement, Superintendent Curtis Null and all of the board members signed the statement in support of its message. According to the 2018 snapshot of Conroe ISD, the most recent data available from the TEA, the district is 48 percent white, 36 percent Hispanic, and 7.6 percent African American. During public comment, only one community member had signed up to speak. Chavey Prince came to address the board and share with them examples of what she believes is racism and implicit bias against her student, who is black, at Birnham Woods Elementary. These issues, she told the board, had been brought to the schools administration and were not taken seriously, or were exacerbated. jamie.swinnerton@chron.com Dublin woman Jessica O'Callaghan yesterday received the keys to a new 400,000 home in Maynooth which she won in a GAA fundraising draw. Jessica (28) from Crumlin will move into the three-bedroom, semi-detached home in Carton Wood with partner Stephen Flanagan. The overjoyed couple were handed over the property yesterday and popped a celebratory bottle of champagne. Jessica told Today FM: "I have been every day looking in the windows and we just got the keys. "I'm outside the house and I still don't think it has sunk in. "The house is just beautiful. I can't believe it. It's our forever home, 100%. "We were living with our parents so we were only really together when we went on holidays. "It means the world to me." Jessica's name was picked from thousands of people who each bought a 100 ticket for the fundraising draw which is contributing to the development of the Faythe Harriers GAA Club in Co Wexford. ABOVE: The home being constructed The property has a floor area of 117.4 square metres and solar roof panels. A fitted kitchen includes a stainless steel extractor hood, ceramic hob, oven. microwave, integrated fridge/freezer and integrated dishwasher. There is high quality flooring in the hallway, kitchen and utility room. There are also fitted wardrobes in the master bedroom. A former Atlanta police officer was charged Wednesday with felony murder, aggravated assault and other offenses in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks, less than a week after the 27-year-old black man's killing set off a new wave of protests against racism and police brutality. The former officer, Garrett Rolfe, faces a total of 11 charges, according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. At a news conference Wednesday, Howard said Brooks's killing was unjustified and found that he posed no threat to Rolfe's life. Howard said Rolfe's colleague, Officer Devin Brosnan, had been charged with aggravated assault and other related counts. Howard revealed granular details of what investigators found in the case, including a still photo that he said showed Rolfe kicking Brooks, who was prone on the ground after being shot. Howard also asserted - though the officer's lawyer would soon dispute it - that Brosnan had agreed to become a "state's witness" and testify against his colleague. Lawyers for Rolfe and Brosnan issued forceful statements defending the actions of their clients during the incident, signaling what is likely to be a hotly contested legal battle ahead. The men must still be indicted, Howard said, and that might not happen until early next year. Then they will be tried. Brooks's family and civil liberties advocates said they welcomed charges in the case - though they noted that they represented a mere starting point for what they want to see. In other cases in which police have been charged in connection with the death of suspects, such as that of Freddie Gray in Baltimore in 2015, bids to win convictions have failed, as prosecutors have run into laws that afford law enforcement officers a great deal of protection. "Was this justice today? Not yet," said attorney Chris Stewart, who represents Brooks's family. "Maybe one day this country will get it right with policing and we'll all come together." Vanita Gupta, the former head of the Justice Department's civil rights division who is now president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said that as recently as several weeks ago, law enforcement might have "filed the incident away as awful but lawful." But after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests, Gupta said, state and local officials, including those in Atlanta, have shown more willingness to swiftly condemn police acts of violence and bring charges. On Wednesday, Floyd's brother addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council about his brother's killing - a remarkable step. "The charges coming down this quickly, I think, signals a pretty significant sea change in what is acceptable by law enforcement at this time, and that has been really movement-driven," Gupta said. "It'll be really interesting to see whether juries start to behave differently in these cases, because they are part of the public, and they're observing everything that is going on." Because of video and other materials released about Brooks's shooting, much was already known about his case. Rolfe and Brosnan were responding to a complaint Friday about a man parked and asleep in the drive-through of a Wendy's on the south side of Atlanta. Brooks failed a sobriety test, and officers tried to take him into custody, according to a preliminary report by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The three men scuffled in the parking lot before Brooks grabbed an officer's Taser and started running. In a video of the incident, Brooks appears to point the Taser at Rolfe as he runs away. The officer is seen drawing a weapon and shooting at Brooks, who collapses on the asphalt. The state of Georgia was already on edge after video emerged of the killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger who was chased down by two white men and fatally shot. Though the incident occurred in February, authorities took more than two months to bring charges against the men and did so only after video of Arbery's death was publicized. After weeks of rallies in Atlanta, Brooks's death set off a new round of demonstrations. The Wendy's where he was shot was set on fire and thousands marched through the streets on Monday, culminating with a rally at the state's Capitol. Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned Saturday, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Monday announced a series of administrative orders targeting police policies, such as requiring officers to use de-escalation techniques before using deadly force and mandating police to intervene when their colleagues use unreasonable force. Rolfe was fired from the department; Brosnan was pulled off street patrols. A copy of Rolfe's disciplinary record released Monday indicates that he had previously received several citizen complaints and faced discipline in the past, including in a use-of-force incident. A spokesman for the FBI's office in Atlanta said this week that the bureau, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia and the Justice Department's civil rights division would "review all available evidence to determine what federal response is warranted." Howard said that his investigators focused in on a more than 41-minute discussion Brooks had with officers after they first encountered him. Brooks, he said, was "calm," "cordial" and "almost jovial" as he complied with various requests from the officers, including telling officers that he didn't have a weapon and consenting to a pat-down. He said Rolfe then grabbed Brooks from behind - without saying he was under arrest for driving under the influence, as he was required by policy to do - and the scuffle ensued. "Mr. Brooks never presented himself as a threat," Howard said. Howard spent little time on the fracas, instead moving to the shooting and its immediate aftermath. He said his office concluded that "at the time Mr. Brooks was shot that he did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or officers." He noted that though Brooks fired a Taser in Rolfe's direction, it was above the officer's head. Howard said that Rolfe's gunfire struck a vehicle in the parking lot that was full of people visiting from Memphis and that some of the charges stem from that. After the shooting, Howard said, Rolfe uttered, "I got him," and kicked Brooks as he lay on the ground. Brosnan, he said, stood on Brooks's arm. Asked about the kick at a news conference, Tomika Miller, Brooks's wife, began to break down. "I don't know what I would have done if I saw that for myself," she said. "But I felt everything for myself just by hearing what he went through. And it hurt. It hurt really bad." Howard said the officers had been asked to turn themselves in by 6p.m. Thursday. He said he would seek a $50,000 bond for Brosnan and no bond for Rolfe. Howard asserted that Brosnan would become a "cooperating witness" for the state, and that Brosnan had told investigators he was "somewhat surprised" that the encounter escalated to an attempt to arrest Brooks. Howard stated that Brosnan said of standing on Brooks "something to the effect that he really didn't know what was going on, and he was trying to ensure that Mr. Brooks did not have a weapon." Stewart and Miller said they were grateful Brosnan had met with investigators. Don Samuel, a lawyer for Brosnan, disputed the district attorney's assertion that Brosnan had agreed to cooperate in the prosecution, though he confirmed that Brosnan had met with investigators and answered all of their questions. "He is not a cooperating witness. He has not agreed to be a witness. He has not agreed to plead guilty," Samuel said in an email. Samuel called Brosnan's actions on Friday night "exemplary" and said the decision to bring charges was "irrational and obviously based on factors which should have nothing to do with the proper administration of justice." He said Brosnan never pulled out his gun and took out only a Taser - never activating it - when Brooks "resisted arrest and fought with both of the officers." He said Brosnan was knocked to the ground, hit his head on the pavement and suffered a concussion and bruises to his arms and legs. "Shame on the district attorney for this rush to misjudgment," Samuel said. Similarly, the LoRusso Law Firm, which represents Rolfe, issued a lengthy statement saying Rolfe's actions were "justified" under the law. The firm asserted that Brooks "chose to violently attack two uniformed police officers" and questioned the notion that Brooks had simply sought to flee. "Instead of merely trying to escape, Mr. Brooks reached back with his arm extended and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe. Officer Rolfe heard a sound like a gunshot and saw a flash in front of him," the firm said, adding, "When Mr. Brooks turned and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe, any officer would have reasonably believed that he intended to disarm, disable, or seriously injure him." The felony murder charge carries a possible death sentence or life in prison. Aggravated assault can come with a penalty of up to 20years. A crowd of about 40 people gathered outside the Wendy's as the charges were announced. Eva Snow of the group Black Rebel Order said she would have preferred an even more serious charge, shouting into a megaphone, "Why we rejoicing?" Another person stressed that 11 counts had been filed, declaring, "Justice can be served today." In downtown Atlanta, a small group gathered in front of Centennial Olympic Park for the 18th day in a row, blasting music, holding signs and greeting friendly honks from passing cars. Brittany Jones-Chukura, an organizer of the group, said she believes the charges filed against the officers are a measure of justice. "That's a message for Atlanta police officers - times are changing," she said, but added that it was not a victory. "There's still that feeling of: 'It didn't have to happen.' " Two stash houses on the outskirts of Houston were the excruciating endpoint of migrant journeys to the U.S. An international human smuggling operation threatened to kill, chop into pieces and disappear people held captive there if their families didnt cough up additional fees. The man who rented the stash houses and commanded the local operation, Jose Nunez-Arellano, was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison Wednesday in Houston. A federal prosecutor asked U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein to drop four remaining charges against him, as part of plea agreement. The defendant apologized, through a translator, for his actions, saying he was trying to cover the cost of his brothers treatment and hospitalization for an illness. Defense attorney Alexander Jordan Houthuijzen asked the judge to sentence him to the low-end of the guideline range given his admission of guilt and genuine remorse. Werlein opted for the higher end of the sentencing range, noting the quantity of weapons and ammunitions officials had found at the stash houses. The judge said that in addition to these charges, the 32-year-old had been deported five times in a single year to his native Mexico, demonstrating he had little respect for the law. Nunez-Arellano pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to transport and harbor between 25 and 99 migrants migrants during a three-month stretch in the summer and fall of 2018. Known as Manuel or Viejon, the defendant admitted hed been involved in the ring for seven months and, during the relevant time period, hed picked up groups of migrants in San Antonio. Four co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to aiding in the scheme. Ismael Rodriguez-Serrano and Daniel Lopez-Garcia were both sentenced to just under three years in prison, Joel Osornio-Cruz was given a 20-month term and Paulino Rios-Garcia was sentenced to time served. Evidence in the case indicates that scouts, drivers, brush guides and money handlers were also involved. Human rights groups say that threats, exploitation, violence often occur in an echo chamber during these journeys because migrants who enter the country through illegal channels and relatives who finance their journeys are less likely to contact law enforcement. Richard Bennett, the Houston federal prosecutor on the Nunez-Arellano case, said with the exception of the weapons cache, the operation was not rare. This happens a lot, but the way this was found was not so common, Bennett said. Situations where aliens are being held for completion of payments and theyre being threatened, that takes place more than we think, but finding those stash houses takes some work. The case came to light when the sister of one of the smuggled immigrants contacted law enforcement to report shed been told by a caller in Houston to send $7,000 if she wanted to see her brother alive. If she told police about the callers threat, the man said, shed be killed. Ilsia Mazariegos-Salazar eventually told Homeland Security investigators she had already paid human traffickers in Guatemala $8,500 to shuttle her brother Migdael across two international borders. She told them a man calling himself El Sobrino, the Nephew, had threatened to have Migdael killed, chopped up into pieces and disappeared if she didnt come up with the money. Federal officials then staged an undercover hand-off of money for the brothers freedom, which led to a stake out at a second stash house, and ultimately the arrest of the defendants. A relative of the crews leader, Huber Nunez-Arellano, remains a fugitive charged with two counts of conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants in the scheme. gabrielle.banks@chron.com The John Alden Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution has recently learned it has won a national award. The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) typically present awards at its yearly Continental Congress which will be held as a virtual event June 24-28. Awards presented are for chapter events held in 2019. The John Alden Chapter won second place for commemorative events celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower. The winning event was held in partnership with the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library on April 5, 2019. It was open to the community with historical and lineage groups especially invited. The program was "Who is John Alden?" presented by John Alden descendent Kathleen Ripley Leo. She is a member of the DAR, the Mayflower Society and other lineage groups. Seven direct descendants of John Alden, who came on the Mayflower, were present. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called for race to no longer be taken into account in welfare eligibility, as she claims people are faking Aboriginal ancestry to get access to programs reserved for indigenous people. Sen. Hanson said programs, which include welfare payments, grants and employment preferences, were open to abuse. 'The definition across the government departments is you can self-identify as being Aboriginal,' Sen. Hanson said on Sky on Tuesday. 'You can be accepted by elders of a community, and they will actually write a letter to say they accept you as being Aboriginal. So that is not good enough.' Ms Hansons' comments come at a time when thousands of Australians are calling for Aboriginal people to be better treated (pictured, a Sydney protest on June 12) Challenging her views, Sky host Chris Kenny said she was returning to the 'horrible, divisive' views she expressed when launching her political career. 'This takes me back to 1996 when you were kicked out of the Liberal Party,' he said. 'There are issues here sure to be discussed, but you're saying that people are feigning Aboriginality to get access to government payments.' Ms Hanson said that the number of those who claimed to be Aboriginal had swelled in recent years. 'There's no real definition of Aboriginality,' she claimed. One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson (pictured on June 17) has a history of controversial comments on the subject of welfare handouts Black Lives Matter rallies have been calling for Aboriginal Australians to be fairly treated, particularly at the hands of the police (pictured, a Perth protest on June 12) 'In 1971, when we had the first census, there was approximately 116,000 [Aboriginal people] and that has now increased 459 per cent to 798,400 people identifying as Aboriginal. 'One fella wrote to me saying "I'm an Islander, I came to Australia, applied for a job couldn't get it. '"But then I applied for an Aboriginal-only job, and when they asked me for identification I told them I was from the Stolen Generation, I didn't have paperwork and gave me a job anyway".' But Mr Kenny explained that the population was always going to increase over time, like it did for people of all racial backgrounds. Chris Kenny (pictured) questioned Ms Hanson's assertions, explaining that the population of indigenous Australians would naturally have increased since 1971 A protester is seen holding a sign reading 'Aboriginal Lives Matter' at a protest in Melbourne on June 6 (pictured) In 1971, Australia had a population of 13 million, which has swelled to 25 million in 2020 - demonstrating that population does naturally increase over time because of high birth rates as well as immigration. Criticising her assessment that population growth meant people must be lying, Mr Kenny replied: 'People are happy and proud to proclaim their indigenous heritage....but that's a huge leap to say that people are pretending.' She went on to explain that she believed it was unfair that non-indigenous Australians cannot access the same welfare schemes despite some being in as much need. 'Right from the very beginning, I've called for equality,' she said. 'And giving that helping hand to someone who desperately needs a helping hand should not be based on race. The senator also argued that white Australian students don't get the same financial help as indigenous students (pictured, students at the University of Sydney) Pauline Hanson (pictured on June 17) is seen during Senate Business at Parliament House in Canberra 'Just because of the colour of your skin, the race you are, does not mean you don't need that helping hand. 'So when I have families who are not Aboriginal living in cars, who can't get housing, or their kids can't get the education they require, I just feel that we are heading down the wrong path. 'And division is happening in our country.' A former fish and chip shop owner, Ms Hanson was pre-selected for the Queensland seat of Oxley at the 1996 federal election for the Liberals. But she was dropped by the party after a series of controversial comments about indigenous entitlements. That led her to found the One Nation party, which she has since led. The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday amended Covid-19 rules by making not wearing masks, damaging property, defying government orders on containing epidemic, and violent acts against healthcare workers a punishable offence. The information was shared by the government in an official statement released on Tuesday evening. Under the amended rules, it will be mandatory for everyone to wear masks, gamcha, handkerchief or scarf in public places or outside home. It also prohibited spitting in public place while also making it mandatory for everyone to follow the guidelines issued on the pandemic by Centre and state government. Violation of the aforementioned rules have been made punishable under the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance 2020. According to the statement, anyone found not wearing masks or not covering their face in public place or outside home will be fined Rs 100 for first and second-time violation. In case the person is found violating the rules for the third time, he/she would be fined Rs 200. Similarly, in case anyone is found not following the guidelines issued by Centre and state government, that person would be fined Rs 100 for first-time violation followed by Rs 200 for second-time violation which may be extended up to Rs 500. After second-time violation, if again found flouting the guidelines, the culprit would be fined Rs 500 for every repetition of the violation. If the violators dont pay the penalties imposed, they could be jailed up to six months or slapped a fine of up to Rs 5,000, or both of these. In the amended rules, the government also made any violent act against any healthcare worker and damage to property in epidemic punishable. Earlier on Tuesday, the state government had in a gazette notification, promulgated the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, after which anyone flouting the norms of Covid-19 epidemic could be penalised and punished. The development came after Governor Baby Rani Maurya gave her assent to the ordinance on Saturday which was passed by the state Cabinet a few weeks ago. Under the new ordinance, amendments have been done in sections 2 and 3 of The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. The Section 2 of the act deals with powers to take special measures or prescribe regulations as to dangerous epidemic disease. The Section 3 deals with the punishment for any person disobeying any regulation or order made under the act which shall be deemed an offence punishable under Section 188 of IPC which is related to disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant. The gazette notification issued by the state government stated, Whereas the Legislative Assembly is not in session and the Governor is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for her to immediate action. In excercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 213 of the Constitution of India, the Governor is pleased to promulgate the Ordinance- The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020. As per the ordinance, a clause has been now added in Section 2 of The Epidemic Diseases Act which is related to procurement of goods, services and equipment necessary for prevention and control of the epidemic disease and the manner of such procurement. After the amendment in Section 3 of the aforementioned Act, anyone disobeying its provision or regulations or order would be punishable with either description for a term which may extend up to six months or a fine which extend to Rs 5,000 of with both. Under section 188 of IPC under which the accused would be punished, talks of punishment of a jail term or one month or fine of Rs 200 of both which may be extended to a jail term of six months of a fine of Rs 1,000 or both. The ordinance, however, states that every offence punishable under the section shall be cognizable and bailable. The Uttarakhand government had declared Covid-19 outbreak in the state as epidemic on March 14 following which it had brought the aforementioned ordinance for amendemnt in the act concerned. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Germany will ban most large events until the end of October to prevent a new wave of coronavirus transmission, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday. Social distancing rules and masks will continue to be required in shops and public transport, Merkel said after a meeting with premiers of Germany's 16 states. But schools are expected to return to normal operations after the summer holidays. "As long as there is no vaccine and no medicine available we must maintain basic measures to protect ourselves," said Merkel. The ban on large events could affect shows such as the Frankfurt book fair, although Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder opened the door to exceptions, saying some states may "show flexibility while others take a stricter interpretation" on the issue. Organisers of the Frankfurt book fair, which draws around 300,000 visitors, had until now said they planned to go ahead. With new infection rates sharply down from highs in March and a death toll significantly lower than those of its neighbours, Germany became the first major EU country to begin easing virus restrictions about six weeks ago. The government noted that rules to maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) as well as requirements to cover up noses and mouths in closed public spaces have helped in the fight against new transmissions. It is now counting on contact tracingboth through human trackers as well as through a new appto ensure that any new infections are isolated. The government added that large-scale testing for the virus would be carried out in places with "groups of vulnerable people". Merkel has repeatedly warned against complacency before a viable vaccine is found. Underlining the volatility of the situation, an outbreak in a slaughterhouse in western Germany's Rheda-Wiedenbrueck region led 400 workers to test positive for the virus. And in one Berlin neighbourhood, 370 families living in high-rise flats have been put under quarantine after 70 infections were detected. Putting "hundreds of families in quarantine is hard work, but it must be done," said Merkel. "These outbreaks show us that the virus has not gone away," she warned. Explore further Germany extends distancing rules to end of June 2020 AFP by Adam Koffler | Eagles Correspondent | Tue, Jun 9th 9:07am EDT Eagles beat writer Mike Kaye believes Philadelphia doesnt need to add a veteran running back and that Miles Sanders has the ability to be a three-down back in the NFL. (NJ.com) Fantasy Impact: The Eagles have been rumored to have interest in veteran free agents Devonta Freeman and LeSean McCoy, although nothing has come to fruition to-date. Kaye believes Sanders has the versatility to push the Eagles away from using a RBBC approach that has been widely speculated. Boston Scott should operate as a change-of-pace back, but Sanders is likely to shoulder the brunt of the workload in the Philadelphia backfield. Sanders could be on his way to a top-5 finish should he be the three-down back people expect him to be. If the Eagles bring in a veteran however, expectations can be tempered a bit, but hes still a sure fire RB1 this season. The Sensex and the Nifty reversed gains and turned negative in morning trade. Trading was volatile as geopolitical tensions concerned investors. At 10:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 118.52 points or 0.35% at 33,486.70. The Nifty 50 index lost 35.70 points or 0.36% at 9,878.30. Twenty Indian soldiers, including a Colonel, were killed and several others grievously injured in a violent physical skirmish with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley region of eastern Ladakh on Monday. China blamed India for the violent LAC scuffle saying Indian troops crossed the border twice illegally and launched "provocative attacks". In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was trading almost flat while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.38%. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1062 shares rose and 902 shares fell. A total of 124 shares were unchanged. Covid-19 Update: India reported 1,55,227 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 11,903 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Total coronavirus cases worldwide stood at 81,73,940 far with 4,43,685 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Meanwhile, results of trials announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital. The results suggest the drug should immediately become standard care in patients with severe cases of the pandemic disease, the researchers who led the trials have reportedly said. Buzzing Index: The Nifty Realty index rose 1.17% to 199.15 on bargain hunting. The index fell 4% in the past two sessions. Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) (up 4.64%), Unitech (up 4.21%), Parsvnath Developers (up 3.4%), Oberoi Realty (up 2.46%), DLF (up 1.64%), Godrej Properties (up 1.52%), Peninsula Land (up 1.05%), Sobha (up 0.9%), Omaxe (up 0.88%), Prestige Estates Projects (up 0.88%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 0.87%) and Sunteck Realty (up 0.16%) advanced. D B Realty (down 4%), Anant Raj (down 1.67%), Phoenix Mills (down 0.29%), Brigade Enterprises (down 0.25%) and Mahindra Lifespace Developers (down 0.07%) declined. Q4 Results Today: Cummins India (up 0.85%), Indraprastha Gas (up 0.30%), JK Lakshmi Cement (up 0.85%), Pidilite Industries (up 0.77%), REC (up 1.16%), Muthoot Finance (up 0.82%), Natco Pharma (up 1.11%), HEG (up 2.72%), Fortis Healthcare (up 0.20%), Prataap Snacks (down 0.95%), Welspun Corp (up 1.05%), Triveni Engineering & Industries (up 1.94%), Indostar Capital Finance (up 0.28%), Gulf Oil Lubricants India (down 2.33%), Navneet Education (up 1.02%), Wheels India (down 0.94%) and FDC (down 0.14%) are some of the companies that will announce their quarterly earnings today. Earnings impact: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) fell 1.1% to Rs 207.6 after standalone net profit dropped 99.1% to Rs 26.80 crore on 2.6% decline in net sales to Rs 65,868.51 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Q4 profit was impacted mainly because of inventory losses of Rs 1,002.93 crore due to drastic fall in oil prices accompanied with reduced movement in inventory (net impact Rs 750.51 crore). The company also suffered losses amounting to Rs 873.50 crore on account of foreign currency transactions and translations. Average Gross Refining Margin (GRM) during the year ended 31 March 2020 stood at $1.02 per barrel, declining 80% from $5.01 per barrel reported in the same period last year. The PSU OMC major recorded domestic sales volume of 9.25 Million Metric Tonne (MMT) in Q4 March 2020 as against 10.03 MMT in Q4 March 2019. NMDC lost 2.24% to Rs 83 after consolidated net profit slumped 76.1% to Rs 347 crore on 12.5% fall in net sales to Rs 3,187.34 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. EBITDA margin stood at 48% in Q4 FY20 as compared to 63% in Q4 FY19. The iron ore production dropped 11% to 94.74 lakh tonnes (LT) in Q4 FY20 as against 105.87 LT in Q4 FY19. The iron ore sales skid 15% to 86.19 LT in Q4 March 2020 as compared to 101.69 LT in Q4 March 2019. The COVID-19 had a marginal effect on the operations of the company due to the lock down in the country in March 20. There has been a loss of around 10.01 LMT of production and 5.50 LMT of sale of iron ore during FY 2019-20 (in March 20). This has resulted in a loss in sale revenue around Rs 219 crore and PBT of Rs 120 crore. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) For the second straight day, Laredo has overwhelmingly set a new single-day high in positive coronavirus cases while a citizen has died. The City of Laredo and Webb County officials revealed a staggering 47 new cases in the city Wednesday. The announcement comes on the heels of the city breaking the former record of 26 with 38 cases on Tuesday. The bevy of new positives pushed Laredo past the 800 mark as it has now had 803 cases of the coronavirus. The city entered Monday with 675 cases but took between 3-5 days to pass the century mark twice -- the specific number is unclear as the city updated Saturday through Monday's totals all together. It previously took between 7-9 days to get from 600 to 700 cases and between 17-19 days to get from 500 to 600 cases. Laredo has now had an average of over 16.9 new cases per day (254 total) over the past 15 days. That average in itself is nearly as high as the citys former high for one single day only 12 days ago which sat at 20 cases. Prior to that aforementioned stretch, Laredo was averaging 5.5 new cases over a 39-day span. Meanwhile, the city reported the 22nd death due to coronavirus in Laredo during its Wednesday media briefing. A male in his 60s who tested positive for COVID-19 died while under treatment at Laredo Medical Center on Tuesday. The death follows Tuesday's announcement of the 21st death due to coronavirus at Doctors Hospital. The city now has two deaths in two days after having two in the previous 30 days. Laredo also saw a rise in the number of hospitalizations Wednesday, with 15 people currently hospitalized locally. That number was as low as 10 to begin the week. As of noon Wednesday, 6,167 people have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Laredo with 4,687 returning negative. There are currently 277 active cases of the COVID-19 in Laredo -- nearly double the total to begin last week at 149. A total of 677 test results are still pending, though 402 are presumed negative due to being over 30 days old. The amount of recovered persons from coronavirus infections sits at 504. Laredos test positivity rate has climbed a few points in recent days jumping to over 14.6%. Texas rate sits at 6.1%. According to city officials, National Guard free coronavirus testing will be held throughout next week from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Sames Auto Arena. According to city officials, those who would like to be tested will not have to set up an appointment in advance. The head of a film festival that has run in Perth for 23 years says he was laughed out of a government arts funding office for refusing resource sector sponsorships. But now, Revelation Film Festival director Richard Sowada points to Rio Tintos recent destruction of Aboriginal cultural heritage sites as justification for his stance. During 2020's Perth Festival, protesters projected anti-Chevron messages onto Perth Concert Hall, a major festival hub. Mr Sowadas comments continue a conversation begun earlier this year when participating artists joined climate change protesters to spotlight links between resources giants and the states signature arts events. At both Perth Festival and Fringe World, they used creative and theatrical methods to protest outside major venues against top festival sponsors Chevron and Woodside and pressure organisers to rethink these partnerships. By Kang Hyun-kyung "A pretentious sister-in-law is worse than an abusive mother-in-law." This old Korean saying refers to married women's dilemma when they are stuck in a dispute with their in-laws. Many Koreans believe that in-laws, particularly female in-laws, are virtually impossible to forge an alliance with regardless of the issues that pit them against each other. Those women have no faith in their sisters-in-law, even if they try to intervene in settling the dispute. Daughters-in-law are suspicious that their sisters-in-law join in the dramas to perpetuate them, rather than serving as peacemakers. The central idea of the psychology of a daughter-in-law is that what irritates us is our counterpart's real intention behind his or her deed. I think this in-law mentality can help convince those who remain clueless about Pyongyang's recent erratic reactions to leaflets "flown" by those they call "traitors" North Korean defectors. North Koreans appear to view South Korea's government as a pretentious sister-in-law, while the defectors are an aggressive mother-in-law. The North blew up a newly-opened liaison office with South Korea in North Korea's border town of Gaeseong on Tuesday, days after Kim Jong-un's sister threatened an armed attack at the inter-Korean border. Its strongly worded criticism of President Moon Jae-in shows no signs of abating. Oh Su-bong, head chef of Pyongyang's time-honored signature Okryu-gwan restaurant, blasted President Moon for allegedly failing to live up to his commitments made during the 2018 inter-Korean summits in Pyongyang. The North Korean chef portrayed Moon as a brazen politician who had got a free lunch without returning the favor or keeping his promise. "When he was eating noodles at our famed Okru-gwan, he bragged about what he could do and promised to do something. But nothing has happened since," Oh said in a statement released June 13. "He drove a nail in our hearts. How can we possibly forgive him?" North Korea is notorious for its undiplomatic rhetoric. But it was unusual for the North Korean chef, who is not in the chain of command in the North Korean government, to have joined the criticism intended to humiliate the South Korean leader. The source of their irritation was the "provocative" leaflets sent by North Korean defectors. Wondering how provocative they really are, I looked into what's written on the leaflet on a YouTube video. My first reaction to it was, "Wow, it was going to hurt them a lot." With captured images of the North Korean ruling family members, the leaflet provides detailed information about Kim Jong-un's late mother and her unorthodox family pedigree (she has Korean-Japanese ancestry), Kim's extramarital affairs and his step brother Jong-nam who was "murdered by proxy" by two Southeast Asian women in an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For South Koreans, these are known facts. But few North Koreans would have known about them, if not for the leaflets. The information could be fatal to the Kim family. In South Korea, disclosing such private information could constitute defamation, depending on who the victim is. If the victim is a public figure, I think the revelation could trigger a pros and cons debate about whether the benefits from freedom of expression can outweigh that of defamation. However, one thing for certain is that in South Korea disclosing such information, although scathing to the victim, won't cost the accuser his or her life. The same information, however, can translate into a very different consequence in a reclusive country like North Korea where the general public is brainwashed to worship their leader. They were educated their leader is a God-like figure. It's a country in which the cult of personality can justify fear politics and a three-generation leadership succession with no end in sight. Considering this unique phenomenon, North Korea's hysterical reactions to the leaflets is no surprise. Imagine how you would feel if secrets that you wanted to hide forever were suddenly disclosed and brought to light without your permission. The North Korean regime is embarrassed and could feel immense pressure from the possibility of bottom-up protests from the awakened public. Their frenzied reactions reflect that information warfare, what some call psychological warfare, still works. Amazon launched Echo Auto in the US back in 2018, designed to bring Alexa voice commands to vehicles where they wouldnt normally be an option. Now, finally, its arrived in the UK and Canada, as well as Germany, Italy and Spain (it was previously also available in Australia and India). The device uses your phones cellular connection via a Bluetooth link, letting you talk to Alexa in the usual way asking about the weather or to play audiobooks, for example as well as carrying out journey-orientated tasks, such as turning on your houselights as you pull into your driveway. Many newer cars already include some kind of voice assistant as standard drivers of vehicles without have also had other Alexa-based options to choose from, such as Garmins Speak series and Ankers Roav Viva. However, a more official Amazon Alexa device could be the thing to convince those that havent yet adopted the technology, even if its a couple of years in the making. Its available now on Amazon in the UK for 50, in Canada for CDN$70, and in Spain, Italy and Germany for 60. As senior high schools (SHSs) prepare to re-open on Monday, June 22, heads of SHSs in the Eastern Region have assured that all arrangements were in place to receive both the final year and Form Two students. These arrangements, they said, included acquisition of Veronica buckets, soaps, alcohol-based hand sanitisers among others, to be used by the students and staff members when they return. Addressing journalists during a disinfection exercise in his school by Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL) on Tuesday, the Assistant Headmaster, Administration of Pope Johns SHS, Koforidua, disclosed that in addition to the above, room allocation for the students had already been done by the senior house master. The exercise was part of an arrangement between the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and ZGL to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease in the SHSs. He said with respect to the seating arrangement in the dining hall, the school had resolved to allow six students to sit around every table instead of 12 which used to be the case, adding that students per class have also been cut down to 25 instead of 50. This move he explained was part of steps to make sure that the students observe the social distancing protocol. Mr Adjapong, who was flanked by the Senior Housemaster, Eric Bampoe, and the Assistant Headmaster, Domestic, E.F. Bedjabeng, said they had appealed to the old students association to support them with more Veronica buckets, hand sanitisers and nose masks. He revealed that they were expecting about 1,055 students when the school re-opens on Monday. The Headmaster, Academic, Oti Boateng SHS, Francis Terkpertey, who also confirmed his schools readiness to welcome the final-years and Form Two students, indicated that to ensure the adherence of the social distancing protocol, a 12-unit classroom block had been completed. Furthermore, we will enforce the physical/social distancing protocol in the dormitories as well, he assured. We have also bought thermometer guns that would be used to take the temperatures of the students who will be coming. We have also purchased alcohol-based hand sanitisers, Veronica buckets and nose masks which would be given to the students to use, he revealed. The Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs, Zoomlion, Emma Akyea-Boakye, disclosed that her outfit would disinfect 137 SHSs and 1,997 basic schools in the Eastern Region. According to her, the disinfection exercise was the second part of the agreement with the Ministry of Education and the GES. We will complete the SHSs coming Friday and the basic schools next week Friday, she revealed. At the St Roses Pre-School, New Tafo, the headmistress, Mrs Love Agyapong, said, for a strict adherence to the COVID-19 protocols, her school must run a shift system. 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 Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during the Google I/O keynote session at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California on May 7, 2019. Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images Google is offering an additional $200 million in advertising grants for nonprofit organizations and releasing a slew of product updates as its gears up for a reopening of economies hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The internet giant said Wednesday that it will expand its annual ad grants commitment to $1 billion to support nonprofits fighting things like Covid-19 and racial injustice in their outreach efforts. The firm typically provides $800 million in ad grants for nonprofits every year. It's also adding new features to its platforms, such as a tool that lets users search and book local services on Google through its Local Services Ads offering. The feature is currently only available in the U.S. and Canada, but Google plans on expanding it internationally. The move is part of a series of announcements Google is making in place of its Google Marketing Live conference, which has been made impossible due to Covid-19. The firm will organize subsequent announcements and roundtables for marketers in the coming weeks. "It's especially important now because of Covid-19 that we're in this intense listening mode where we're trying to get feedback from the market," Jerry Dischler, vice president of ads at Google, told CNBC in an interview. "We're trying to launch products as quickly as possible to address market needs." The $200 million donation from Google follows a $800 million package it announced back in March to ease the financial pressures facing small and medium-sized firms, governments and health workers. Dischler said the company held a "series of war rooms" in response to the pandemic to figure out how different advertisers were being impacted as well as the response from consumers. One of the big sectors affected, he said, was the travel industry, so Google introduced a new "pay per stay" pricing model where it wouldn't charge travel firms for ads if a customer canceled their booking. Google has faced calls from some travel firms to help with the challenges of coronavirus, which has shut down economies and dried up revenues. Several travel start-ups in Germany for instance had urged the tech giant to pause ad payments for companies receiving taxpayer-funded assistance. Google says the expansion of its new ad pricing model for hotel groups should ease the burden these groups face. And now that countries are gradually lifting their restrictions, Google is hoping to capitalize on that reopening with new ad products focused on accelerating an economic recovery. E-commerce a 'huge opportunity' A key part of Google's new updates centers on e-commerce. The company plans to include information on how much stock advertisers have and whether they provide the option of curbside pickup on its Shopping tab. It also wants to make it free for small businesses using its Smart campaign ads to promote their locations on Google Maps through to the end of September. Google announced a slew of new advertising features Wednesday. Google The district attorney said Brosnan is cooperating with prosecutors and will testify, saying it was the first time in 40 such cases in which an officer had come forward to do so. But an attorney for Brosnan emphatically denied he had agreed to be a prosecution witness and said he was not pleading guilty to anything. Group of Seven foreign ministers on Wednesday urged China to reconsider its proposed security law for Hong Kong, in a statement in the midst of top-level US-China talks. "We strongly urge the Government of China to reconsider this decision," the G7 ministers said in a statement shortly before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to open talks with senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi in Hawaii. Search Keywords: Short link: NetEase Games logo is seen above the company's booth one day before the 2019 China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference (ChinaJoy) at Shanghai New International Expo Center on August 1, 2019 in Shanghai, China. There's a "healthy" pipeline of Chinese companies listing in Hong Kong, and one key trend ahead will be more tech firms that will do so increasingly, business and government leaders in the city said Wednesday. U.S.-listed Chinese gaming giant Netease launched its secondary listing in Hong Kong last week, raising $21.09 billion Hong Kong dollars ($2.7 billion). Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com also launched a secondary listing and is set to start trading in Hong Kong Thursday. That followed the mega secondary listing of Alibaba last November in the city. "Netease just finished last week, and we have JD.com, we have a very healthy pipeline. In fact, it took me a little bit (by) surprise that all these IPOs despite all the challenges are coming here ... They are returning home ... many of the customers here want to be their shareholders," Charles Li, chief executive officer of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, told CNBC on Wednesday. "If you look at Netease, even though it's just listed for a few days, the center of gravity of trading seems to be migrating very healthily into Hong Kong," he added. FOREST CITY, Iowa -- In Vice President Mike Pence's visit to Winnebago Industries in Forest City on Tuesday afternoon, he wasn't shy about calling the RV manufacturer a crucial part of the "Great American Comeback" around which President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign has framed its reelection bid. At least half-a-dozen times, Pence, who was joined by Gov. Kim Reynolds, and state Sen. Randy Feenstra, used the phrase while also thanking the 200 to 250 socially distanced Winnebago employees from across all departments who turned out to hear him speak. "The comeback today would not have been possible without your work," Pence told the crowd which included former Iowa Speaker of the House Linda Upmeyer (R-Clear Lake). Through May 2020, the national unemployment rate is at 13.3%, which dropped from 14.7% in April. (In mid-April, Winnebago laid off 79 employees due to the COVID-19 crisis impacting the demand for the company's products.) Before the speech, Pence toured the facility with Gov. Kim Reynolds and Deputy Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Jim Mullen. According to press pool reporter Gordon Lubold of the Wall Street Journal, Pence got a tour of the factory floor and "saw pieces of big recreational vehicles, windshields, wood pieces and other raw material, all primed for assembly." When Winnebago decided to shut down its factory floors in late March, Winnebago Industries President and CEO Michael Happe said that one of the first phone calls he made was to Reynolds. "I wanted her to know firsthand how serious of a decision this was for us as a major employer in the state to care for the safety of our employees. That we would work to take care of those employees from a health care support standpoint and that we would look to reopen safely and return our team to work when the time was right," Happe said. One employee at the event, Lydia Thompson, said that it was cool that Pence wanted to visit Forest City and see how people do things at Winnebago Industries. "I think Pence and President Trump are doing the best job they can and theyre doing a great job," Thompson said. Jonathan River, another employee at Winnebago, said he got to speak with Pence beforehand and called it "amazing." Along with employees, there were also 50 nearby protesters marching down 335th Street and South Fourth Street in Forest City who could be heard during several of the quieter moments from Pence's speech. What's going on In recent weeks, the Trump administration has been criticized for its handling of nationwide protests which were sparked by the deaths of black Americans such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police. Trump himself has amplified conspiracy theories about protesters at individual events while also calling for stronger presences from police and the military. Tuesday morning, Trump signed an executive order, his 162nd, that would "leverage federal grant money to encourage police departments to meet a set of standards, including a ban on chokeholds except when an officer's life is at risk" according to reporting from NBC. Pence mentioned the signing during his speech and said that the administration will continue to move an agenda that "promotes public safety." The administration has also continued to take criticism for the way it's responded to the COVID-19 pandemic which has now claimed the lives of more than 118,000 Americans. In a press release, the Biden campaign called Trump's handling of the pandemic "one of the most consequential failures of government in American history" while Preya Samsundar, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, framed the trip as "yet another sign of the great American comeback." Pences own personal account on Twitter called growing concerns about a "second wave" of COVID-19 cases in the fall "overblown" despite the fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repeatedly warned of a second wave. During the speech on Tuesday, Pence noted that America leads the world in testing without mentioning that the country also accounts for more than a quarter of reported deaths worldwide. Touch down The 48th vice president started his day in North Iowa at the Mason City Municipal Airport where Air Force Two touched down at 10:49 a.m. There he was greeted by Reynolds and Feenstra along with at least a dozen supporters, including Cerro Gordo County Republican Committee member Nancy Rockman who said she was there to support the vice president and president "in our times that are going on." Rockman mentioned the ongoing nationwide protests against police brutality as a marker of those times and said that they're being led by people that are not patriotic. "They don't care about the country, all they care about is looting. It doesn't have anything to do with George Floyd's death," Rockman said. During his speech later in the day, Pence said that what happened to Floyd was "a tragedy and a disgrace" but also castigated looters and rioters and said there was "no excuse" for such behavior. Pence then stopped at Sallys in Forest City which had just re-opened for dine-in service that morning and prides itself on home-cooked food and homemade pies. State Sen. Feenstra (R-Hull), who recently defeated Rep. Steve King in the 4th Congressional District Republican primary, was there with Pence and Reynolds and said a prayer before the meal. According to Forest City Mayor Byron Ruiter, the last time a vice president or president visited was 1987 when then Vice President George H.W. Bush came to give a speech at Waldorf. The visit comes as the latest Des Moines Register poll for the general election shows President Donald Trump with just a 1 point lead over former Vice President Joe Biden. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. By Qian Feng The US Senate Armed Services Committee recently passed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 that included a Pacific Deterrence Initiative(PDI). In the same period, three US aircraft carrier strike groups appeared in the Indo-Pacific waters. According to foreign media reports, the US had taken frequent moves recently to reinforce its Indo-Pacific strategy for containment of China. Since the beginning of new century, the Indo-Pacific region is quickly emerging as one of the global economy centers, which has become more integrated with economic globalization and evolved to be a major production base and trade and energy corridor in the world. Countries in the region share a strong desire for economic integration and growinginter-connectivity. Some of them were at first quite keen about the US initiative to join the region. They had high hopes for its alleged promotion of free, fair and mutually beneficial trade based on open investment and inter-connectivity and of sustainable economic growth. Meanwhile, some countries in the Indo-Pacific region have mounting suspicions about Chinas rise, and more or less want to leverage the US to balance Chinas growing influence in the region. However, the Indo-Pacific Strategy Report, respectively promulgated by the US Department of Defense (DoD) and State Department last year, further specified the overall conception and implementation of Americas Indo-Pacific strategy. Although Washington claimed to build a new framework in such fields as security, politics, economy, and trade, and values and co-build a regional order in the Indo-Pacific with its allies and partners, it has, in reality, adopted military means as the primary, even dominant, policy tool to push the strategy. In contrast, economic cooperation and infrastructure construction that regional countries have pinned high hopes toplay a tiny part despite all the big talks. Its clear that the Indo-Pacific strategy, as suspected, is just another move by the US to curb China with its military strength under the pretext of cooperation. It has made regional countries more worried that they may be forced to take sides amid the escalating China-US strategic rivalry. Objectively speaking, either the key countries like Japan and India, or the ASEAN, the geographical center of Indo-Pacific, find the US move hard to accept and inconsistent with their interests. Japan, which upholds development through trade, expects the strategy to focus on economic cooperation across the oceans in hopes of fostering a broader regional, interconnected economic, and trade market. In this mentality, it has been more cautious given the improved relation with China in recent years. Tokyo even avoided the previous expression of free and open Indo-Pacific strategy by replacing strategy with conception in its Diplomatic Bluebook 2019. Washington views New Delhi as the key to the success of the Indo-Pacific strategy and the containment of China. New Delhis China policy has indeed been consistently passive, yet its strategic independence principle goes counter to America first, and the country has openly stated several times that Indo-Pacific is an open, non-corporate geographical concept. This means maintaining the current balance among major countries continues to be the best option for India to protect its own interests. Not long ago, when I discussed the "Indo-Pacific strategy" with an ASEAN diplomat in China, he said ASEAN doesnt support any anti-China policy and will adhere to its stance of anti-exclusiveness and not taking sides. He explained why the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific published last year explicitly used the word Indo-Pacific - it is a direct response to Americas Indo-Pacific strategy and states ASEANs position on this subject. Without the word, the US may not realize that the ASEAN document was targeted at its Indo-Pacific strategy, the diplomat said. In this election year, the Trump administration is eager to push the Indo-Pacific strategy as it is without any doubt a rare multilateral diplomatic framework presented by the administration in the past three and more years, and also a presentable diplomatic feat it could brag about to refute domestic criticism. The problem is that the more military input it invests, the more it will put China on guard and repel more countries. Additionally, the increased input will reveal the true color of the strategy as a disguise of the superpowers hegemony based on dollar and military dominance. (The author Dr Qian Feng is the director and researcher of the Research Department at the National Strategy Institute, Tsinghua University) Beijing's 'wholesale aircraft carrier' Xinfadi market, under the microscope for COVID-19 risks Global Times By Wan Lin Source:Globaltimes.cn Published: 2020/6/16 0:59:41 After four consecutive days of newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 being reported among staff and visitors to the Xinfadi food market in Beijing, the so called "wholesale aircraft carrier" has caused widespread public concern over the high risk the distribution center poses to the city and even the country due to its high volume of traffic, mobility of people and connections to other places in China. From Friday to Monday, Beijing reported 79 COVID-19 cases, most have been confirmed to be linked to the Xinfadi Market, while certain recent cases reported in Northeast China's Liaoning Province and neighboring Hebei Province were also found to be close contacts of patients in Beijing. Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan warned at a meeting on Sunday that the risk of further spread in Beijing is very high as the market is densely populated and highly mobile. Sun urged officials to take resolute and decisive measures to effectively prevent the spread of the epidemic in the capital, noting that the market and surrounding areas should be made a priority in conducting epidemiological investigations and carrying out in-depth and comprehensive source tracing. Located in Southwest Beijing's Fengtai district, the market covers an area of 112 hectares with 1,500 administrative staff, 2,000 vendors and more than 4,000 fixed-addressed clients, according to Xinfadi's official website. It shows that the market sells seafood, vegetables, fruits, meat and other products. It trades more than 1,500 tons of seafood, 18,000 tons of vegetables, 20,000 tons of fruits on an average day. The large trade volume and turnover has made Xinfadi the biggest agricultural products wholesale market in China, and its wide variety of products have also made it one of the most popular sites in the city. "Shopping at Xinfadi in the morning has become a part of my daily schedule for decades. But I generally only go to a few specific venders because the market is so large and always full of people that it might take a whole day to browse all the products," Fu Guojun, a 52-year-old Beijing resident who lives three blocks away from Xinfadi, told the Global Times on Monday. Although Fu's COVID-19 nucleic acid test was negative, he is still worried about the high risk of the virus from the market spreading around the city. "We call Xinfadi the 'Beijinger's food bucket' and a 'wholesale aircraft carrier' because the food that feeds the people in the city mostly comes from this wholesale market," Fu said. According to the market's website, the market supplies more than 80 percent of the city's food materials. "Retail stores, grocery stores and other small-scale markets tend to purchase products from here due to its cheap prices and high volume," an employee at Xinfadi, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times on Monday. The products of the market in Beijing come from all over China. Media reports say that 93 percent of the vegetables at Xinfadi come from places such as North China's Hebei, Inner Mongolia and East China's Shandong and Central China's Henan provinces. In addition to Beijing, the market has 14 branches and more than 200,000 hectares of farmland, mostly concentrated in the northern and eastern parts of China. It also has overseas planting bases in eight countries, including Australia, Chile and six Southeast Asian countries, according to the market's website. The market, along with five other major markets in Beijing suspended operations on Friday. But an employee told the Global Times that the market has set up three temporary trading zones for vegetables and fruits in Fengtai district for residents and dealers. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Art Van furniture franchisee Taylor Lee has honored three Central Michigan University fashion merchandising and design students as winners of a textile print competition. During the spring semester, CMU students in faculty member Su Kyoung Ans Digital Technologies and Craftsmanship for Apparel Design course designed textile prints and digitally printed the designs on fabric to create slip covers for 10 Art Van chairs that Lee provided. The chairs were displayed in the Bovee University Center for a time before the March closure of campus to allow the CMU community to vote on favorites, and Lee also featured them and gathered votes on Art Vans Facebook page. Lee is donating the designers chairs to be auctioned in community groups fundraising efforts. Winners of the competition, all from Michigan, are: A never-seen-before global unity against police brutality has been sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of an officer, his brother has said. Unarmed black American Mr Floyd, 46, was filmed gasping that he could not breathe while pinned by the neck under the knee of a white police officer as he died in Minneapolis on May 25. His brother Philonise Floyd, and family lawyer Benjamin Crump, said his death - which has sparked outrage across the world - highlights a need for police reform. Pictured: A video grab taken from ITV News showing George Floyd's brother Philonise, left, and the family's lawyer Benjamin Crump (right) Mr Floyd told ITV News: 'As time goes by, you realise that he is changing people's lives, not just our lives but other people's lives around the world, his death has sparked unity right now and that's something this world has never had.' Mr Crump said: 'There are two justice systems in America, one for black America and one for white America, but we need equal justice for the United States of America'. Despite the coronavirus pandemic ruling out large public gatherings, huge protests have been held in the US and globally since Mr Floyd's death. They have included people of different races calling for justice and marching against brutality under the banner of Black Lives Matter. Philonise Floyd, a brother of George Floyd, reacts as he describes the pain of losing his brother as he testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on proposed changes to police practices on Capitol Hill last week Mr Crump told the programme: 'We believe this is the best time we have ever seen in the wake and aftermath of the killing of his brother, that will get this change which will prevent people and particularly black people from being killed by police unjustifiably.' He was speaking after another black man, Rayshard Brooks, was gunned down while fleeing two police officers following a struggle with them in a restaurant car park in Atlanta late last week. The local medical examiner declared his death a homicide on Sunday. It came during a second weekend of violent clashes in London as far-right protesters took over areas near the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square on Saturday in response to anti-racism demonstrations sparked by Mr Floyd's death. It was allegedly a con worthy of Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. Police allege the 27-year-old Thai national Siriluck Fatima Chimmalee hoodwinked more than $600,000 out of three unsuspecting victims in the Thai-Australian community, pretending at various times to be studying law, medicine and to be a pilot while also running a designer handbag business. Police arrested Siriluck Fatima Chimmalee, who was allegedly involved in a $9 million money laundering scheme. Credit:NSW Police Financial crime detectives say that Ms Siriluck used the personal information of men she met online to apply for loans and credit cards, as well as using the personal details of one of her alleged victims to register a business "for the purpose of applying for further personal loans and conducting other fraudulent activity". Police only became aware of Ms Siriluck's alleged romance scam after investigations into alleged money laundering and fraud to the tune of $9.7 million began in August 2018. India is stepping on the gas today to lay a strong foundation for energy security in the country, while providing large-scale employment and opportunities for investment in the coal sector. In line with Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modis vision to build Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), India is marking a fundamental shift to unleash the coal sector as commercial mine auctioning kickstarts. We are re-orienting our approach from focusing on revenue maximisation to making maximum coal available in the market. The story of coal in India has been long and eventful. At one end, this Black diamond has powered the aspirations of a growing nation, yet on the other, demand has far outpaced supply. In a way, Indias coal journey reflects both the rise of the economy and also the mismanagement of previous regimes. When the PM took office in 2014, the challenge in the coal sector was huge. Coal blocks for captive use allotted by the earlier regime had been struck down by the Supreme Court (SC) as illegal. The Modi governments response was a series of calibrated steps. To begin with, a transparent mechanism was set in place through a legislation, the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, to return the blocks to industry, via auctions. Similarly, in 2014, two-thirds of the major power plants had critical coal stocks of less than seven days. Today, India is the second largest producer of coal with its record production at 729 million tonnes (MT) in 2019-20. Now, coal stocks at thermal power plants have risen to its highest-ever level, and is enough for 30 days. The nationalisation of the coal sector in 1973 meant that domestic coal could be mined only by public sector companies. We have the worlds largest coal miner in Coal India Limited (CIL), which has registered an unprecedented increase in production of 140 MT in the last six years. It will continue to play a major role in ensuring energy security. While State-owned coal companies improved production, safety and prioritised employee welfare, the countrys coal demand continues to grow at a very faster rate. It is a stark reality that the CAGR of coal import from 2009-10 to 2013-14 was 23%. With these interventions, the rate was reduced to 2% in Modi-I (2014-15 to 2018-19). Even so, we imported 251 MT coal in 2019-20 worth ~1,58,865 crore, despite having the fifth largest reserves in the world. Therefore, it is clear that the private sector has to be brought in to fulfil the needs of the nation. The policy of allowing private coal mining to captive users has been in existence for long. However, it has failed to enthuse the private sector. The Modi government has now approved norms for open auction of mines to the private sector without any restrictions. This is an epoch-making development for several reasons. One, global coal mining firms, which were so far forbidden from mining coal in India, can now invest and introduce their best practices. Second, Indian industry can invest in a commodity business where domestic supply falls short of the demand, opening up an opportunity to substitute 135 MT coal imports. The knock-on effect on sectors that use coal, such as steel, power and aluminium, will be significant. With the unlocking of the sector now, companies using coal will be free to focus on their core business while procuring coal from professional miners. Mines will no longer be allotted on the basis of a match with the needs of the single captive user. Rather, it will be auctioned based on economic efficiency. On the process side, the coal ministry has simplified the process of the mining plan approval process from 90 days to 30 days. Several bottlenecks have been removed or amended over the last five months. For instance, the law earlier excluded companies without mining operations in India from participating in the auctions. This bar has been done away with, paving the way for local and foreign mining majors and non-mining ones, too, to participate in the domestic coal sector. Second, the government has introduced a more equitable system of sharing revenues, moving away from fixed rates to an ad-valorem system. So when the prices go up, the miner shares more with the government and if they decrease, he shares less. This is equitable for both the parties. The coal sector reforms are not just about investments and improving coal production. It has the innate potential to usher in immense job opportunities and provide a boost to the governments Make in India programme, since coal mining operations require large machines and manpower. Besides, it will lead to the induction of new technology and competition in the sector. Consequently, the economies of coal-bearing states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha will also grow since all the revenue from these auctions will accrue exclusively to them. Reforms in the coal sector are an ongoing policy evolution. The recent move to untether the sector marks a paradigm shift in the way business in the coal sector will be conducted. While doing this, we have ensured the growth and prosperity of CIL. It has been given a target of producing one billion tonnes of coal by FY 2023-24. For this necessary capital, coal blocks and an expeditious approval giving mechanism have already been put in place. The government will also ensure that the welfare of coal miners in private mining is at par with the status of workers in CIL. Such bold moves have the potential to disrupt entrenched interests and will upset many. But the government has no doubt as we press ahead, these reforms will increase self-reliance, remove operational efficiencies and usher in an era of greater prosperity. Pralhad Joshi is the Union minister of coal, mines & parliamentary affairs The views expressed are personal VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2020 / Weekend Unlimited Industries Inc. ("WKND!" or the "Company") (CSE:POT)(FSE:0OS2)(OTCQB:WKULF) is pleased to announce that it has received two record volume sized purchase orders in aggregate totalling 20,000 Orchard Heights vape cartridges in Oklahoma from both a new and existing customer. Combined these orders will generate Cdn$112,452 in revenue for the WKND! with a 22% gross profit . These revenues are in addition to the record revenues of Cdn$376,104 the company just announced on June 15th, 2020. The products are being shipped in increments with the first shipment having been completed in May, 2020 and the final shipment expected to occur in early July, 2020. "We are very excited to receive purchase orders of this size which show the market that our brands in Oklahoma extend far beyond entry level; but rather are becoming one of the market leaders. It also adds significantly to our overall Q3 revenue numbers announced on June 15th, 2020, and does not include June revenue numbers from our additional WKND! Oklahoma products," says WKND! CEO Chris Backus. "It demonstrates that our brands continue wholesale growth in both new order and reorder categories which illustrates growth authenticity in the longer term. We expect to develop long term relationships with these customers by providing them with high quality products." We encourage readers to visit www.wkndwellness.com to view our full line up WKND! Wellness brands and sign up to our Company newsletter. The Company cautions that figures for revenue, expenses and margin generated from the sale of WKND! Cannabis and WKND! Wellness products have not been audited, and are based on calculations prepared by management. Actual results may differ from those reported in this release once these figures have been audited. These figures were translated from US dollars into Canadian dollars using the Bank of Canada average exchange rate of 1.3926 for Q3 to date and 1.3449 for Q2. About Weekend Unlimited Industries Inc. Weekend Unlimited is a lifestyle-based recreational cannabis and CBD wellness company. We are developing and launching premium cannabis and CBD brands to deliver life's highs - any- time, anywhere. Our CBD products are available online and at a retailer near you. Weekend Unlimited is well-positioned to launch and scale the brands that will define cannabis and CBD. Learn more at www.weekendunlimited.com For further information, please contact: Mr. Chris Backus, President & CEO, Director Telephone: 1(236) 317-2812 E-mail: IR@weekendunlimited.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward Looking Statements Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws. SOURCE: Weekend Unlimited Industries Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/594115/Weekend-Unlimited-Announces-Record-Volume-Purchase-Order-of-Orchard-Heights-Vape-Carts-in-Oklahoma Algeria, 16 June 2020 (Was) - The Sahrawi Human Rights Committee (CONASADH) renewed its call to provide protection for Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan jails who suffer negligence of their humanitarian conditions amid the outbreak of the Corona, which The President of the Sahrawi Red Crescent, Bouhbini Yahya, made clear Monday to APS. the Sahrawi Committee for Human Rights renewed its invitation through a message addressed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and all organizations Humanity, to provide protection for Sahrawi political detainees in Moroccan prisons who suffer from ignoring their humanitarian conditions in light of the Corona pandemic, "noting that" the Sahrawi authorities have certain information that the epidemic is spread within the prisons where they are located. " The President of the Sahrawi Red Crescent expressed "the Sahrawi authorities' concern for the lives of political detainees in this unprecedented circumstance," noting that "the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations had also appealed for the release of the detainees in these difficult circumstances." Mr. Bouhbini also stated that "during last May, 212 NGOs sent the same appeal to the High Commissioner and the International Committee of the Red Cross, regarding the suffering of Sahrawi detainees in Moroccan prisons." For her part, the President of the Algerian Red Crescent, Saida Ben Habilis, received a copy of the message the Sahrawi Committee for Human Rights sent to the International Committee of the Red Cross and all humanitarian organizations, calling on him to intervene urgently to save the Sahrawi detainees. In response to this appeal, the Algerian Red Crescent has given 4,000 masks to its Sahrawi counterpart to take care of Sahrawi detainees inside Moroccan prisons. SPS 125/090/TRA (Bloomberg) -- Telia Co. is paying a hefty price for giving up on Turkey. The former Swedish phone monopoly on Tuesday said it is in advanced talks to sell its stake in Turkeys largest mobile-phone operator to the nations sovereign wealth fund for $530 million -- a 54% discount to the market value of Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, according to Renaissance Capital. An exit could end a 15-year-old feud for control of Turkcell that has resulted in ongoing spats over board representation, the size of dividends and other issues that have hampered the Istanbul-based carriers operations. It has also tied up cash Telia couldve used to expand closer to home in Nordic and Baltic countries, while the decline in the lira would also have diminished returns. The shareholder deadlock, lack of liquidity, and a history of foreign-exchange devaluations warrant a discount, but we had valued this stake at only a 20% discount, so this price is a clear disappointment, said Stefan Gauffin, an analyst at DNB Nor ASA in Stockholm. Telia has been willing to exit Turkcell for a long time, but there were no buyers due to the shareholder deadlock. Turkcell fell 1.2% by 12:25 p.m. in Istanbul on Wednesday after rallying as much as 6.7% on Tuesday, when Bloomberg reported on the talks, valuing the company at 32 billion liras ($4.6 billion). Telia declined 0.7%. A sale to Turkeys sovereign wealth fund would pave the way for the fund to act as peacemaker to resolve the ownership impasse, said RenCap analyst Alexander Vengranovich. Turkcells labyrinth-like shareholding is at center of a three-way tussle between Telia, Russian businessman Mikhail Fridmans LetterOne Holdings and Cukurova Holding AS, owned by Turkcell founder Mehmet Emin Karamehmet. Telia holds 24% of Turkcell via Turkcell Holding AS. Cukurova owns 13.8%, which is pledged to Turkeys largest bank TC Ziraat Bankasi AS after it defaulted on a $1.6 billion loan, while LetterOne has a 13.2% holding. Story continues Corporate Governance The dispute started when Fridmans company seized Karamehmets stake, saying Cukurova defaulted on a 2005 loan agreement for which the shares were pledged as collateral. An international arbitrator ordered Fridman to return the stake to Cukurova in exchange for $1.6 billion, which was financed by a loan from Ziraat Bank. Ziraat is also owned by the wealth fund. Buying Telias stake will be a first for Turkeys wealth fund after it was allowed to take over private companies as part of a series of measures to help the economy survive the coronavirus pandemic. Parliament voted in April to enable the fund to inject cash or acquire controlling stakes in strategic firms. The potential transaction is positive for Turkcells investment case as it should end the multiple disputes between Telia and Cukurova Holding over control of Turkcell, which historically has generated difficulties incorporate governance for the company, said Vengranovich of RenCap. 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. Nine in ten schoolchildren have suffered at least one bout of sunburn Nine in ten schoolchildren have suffered at least one bout of sunburn, new Irish research reveals today. Repeated episodes of severe sunburn during childhood doubles the risk of developing melanoma - the most serious form of skin cancer in later life. The report by the Institute of Public Health and NUI Galway, examines for the first time childrens exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun and sunbeds, UV skin protection behaviours, and sunburn Prevention Plan. Nearly 90pc of 10 to 17-year-olds said they have experienced sunburn in their lifetime. Around 74pc said they experienced sunburn at least once during the past year. Childhood sunburn, unprotected sun exposure and use of sunbeds increase the risk of developing skin cancers later in life. The report found that eight out of 10 schoolchildren reported wearing sunscreen, while seven out of 10 reported using sunglasses on sunny days. However, the adoption of other sun protection measures, like covering up, wearing hats and avoiding peak UV hours, were less consistent. Read More Just 32pc of schoolchildren reported that they avoided peak UV hours of the day. Around 50pc said they wore protective clothing to cover arms and legs when in the sun, while 17pc reported never using sunscreen. Girls were more likely to wear sunscreen, sunglasses, clothes that cover arms and legs as well as avoid peak UV hours on sunny days. Boys were more likely to wear hats on sunny days. The report also found that 3pc of children said they used a sunbed in the last 12 months. While the report found sunbed use by children under 18, it is not clear how much of this use is occurring in commercial premises. Providing a sunbed service to anyone under the age of 18 is contrary to Irish law as outlined in the Public Health (Sunbeds) Act 2014. Dr Helen McAvoy, from the Institute of Public Health and co-author of the report, believes the message to protect skin when outdoors has never been more important as people spend more time outside during the Covid-19 restrictions. Dr McAvoy said: The frequency of sunburn found in this report is concerning and shows there is a need for focused action and research on skin cancer prevention. Being outside and keeping active is good for childrens physical and mental health, but they also need to be sun smart. As measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 are still in place, and as school holidays start, it is likely that more children will be outdoors playing. We need to ensure that people are not over exposed to the sun, avoid peak UV hours, use sunscreen, and wear sunglasses, hats, and clothing to cover arms and legs. Prof Saoirse Nic Gabhainn, from NUI Galways Health Promotion Research Centre, said the findings provide a vital insight into childrens sun behaviours in Ireland. Prof Nic Gabhainn added: This is the first time that childrens sun behaviours have been comprehensively recorded in Ireland, and its clear that this area requires focused development to protect children. This survey data will be important for planning future awareness programmes and targeting resources to those children and families who most need it. ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Treasury has taken a further step towards approving a state guarantee for a 6.3 billion euro (5.7 billion) loan for Fiat Chrysler's Italian unit, a government source told Reuters on Wednesday. The request for state support on such a large loan sparked controversy in Italy as Fiat Chrysler (FCA) is legally headquartered in the Netherlands. It is also due to pay its shareholders a 5.5 billion euro special dividend as part of a planned merger with French automaker PSA . FCA has said it asked for state support to help its domestic unit weather the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Italy's state auditor has approved the guarantee, but it still needs to be signed off by Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri and given the green light by the country's accounting court, the source told Reuters, asking not to be named. Both the Treasury and FCA declined to comment. The loan has been already approved by Italy's largest commercial bank Intesa San Paolo , which will fund it, and by export credit agency SACE, through which the guarantee will be provided. The loan is part of more than 400 billion euros Rome hopes to make available this year to support Italian companies, hit by one of the world's deadliest coronavirus outbreaks. Italian firms tapping state guarantees must refrain from paying dividends this year, while the Treasury reserves the right to ask for additional requirements. Gualtieri said earlier this month that FCA would have to meet commitments on investments and jobs and would face sanctions if it failed to achieve them. The source declined to say whether the Treasury will impose conditions affecting FCA's extraordinary dividend. As things stand, the state-backed loan should not legally bar FCA from distributing the extraordinary dividend, as the payment is not due until 2021 and would be made by its parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV in the Netherlands. (Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Additional reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Catherine Evans) Amazon Prime streams testimony of Pulse survivors who now preach freedom in Christ for LGBT Pride Month Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment At the launch of what some observe as LGBT pride month in America, the testimony of two Pulse survivors was released on Amazon Prime, titled More Than A Victim: The Angel Colon and Luis Ruiz Story. More Than A Victim is the exploration of Colon and Ruiz's survival of the horrific Pulse Nightclub Massacre, the emotional turmoil they endured and the miraculous way God stepped into their lives, brought them freedom from sin and redefined their identity. Colon and Ruiz are now Christian ministers who run the outreach Fearless Identity in which they help expose others in the LGBT community to the love of Jesus. The Jason Holmes-directed documentary does not bash people over the head with the Gospel message. It testifies of the transformation that took place in both Colon and Ruiz. Both young men were present at Pulse Night Club on June 12, 2016, when a gunman opened fire during Latin gay pride night and killed 49 people. Colon was shot several times and Ruiz was trampled resulting in both men being hospitalized. The film recounts their experience and features firsthand testimonies from them as well as former police officer Omar Delgado, who developed PTSD after the trauma, Florida Senator Dennis K. Baxley and others. Ruiz, a pastor's kid, said following his experience at Pulse night club, he no longer chases freedom. I chase Jesus and He is my freedom and He becomes my God," Ruiz told The Christain Post on Tuesday. "For a long time we tried this pray the gay away and we've tried all these things to pursue freedom. We'll put our faith in church and books and resources, and they're all great. But at the end of the day, they're not Jesus, they're not that intimate place where you can be free. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, he declared of his newfound identity. Since leaving his former lifestyle, Ruiz has dedicated his life to ministry. He is looking forward to one day experiencing the true definition of sexual relations when he finds a godly wife. "I'm now getting to understand the meaning of sex. God created sex. Sex was good. He gave it to us, something from Him. Of course, we've perverted it, he noted. I never knew sex, I've known sin. As per feedback to the faith-based documentary, Ruiz said the response on social media has been overwhelmingly surprising. "The reactions that we've been getting from this have been amazing, intense. I'm very surprised! I'm very surprised that we have not gotten any kind of backlash, he told CP. Both Colon and Ruiz are also gearing up to shoot another documentary about their full Christian transformation with former lesbian and filmmaker M.J. Nixon. The next documentary will be proceeded by a feature film. Ruiz, an Army veteran, is thanking God for the response hes getting for More Than A Victim. "I've been getting a lot of parents that have been reaching out to me and it has just given them hope. Even my own parents. My mom was in tears seeing it live on prime TV, he explained. Sitting there and seeing it on TV and hearing what I went through and even the prophetic message she gave me as soon as it started, it started with my mom's prophetic message, she started bawling, in tears. Ruiz said he and his family watched it on the anniversary of the shooting. "I've been getting a lot of people reach out to us saying thank you. All I've been getting from people, it's just put them in tears. People from my church, came up to me on Sunday and they were like, I heard your story behind the microphone, but to see it on TV and to see the news clip articles and it just coming to life with you and Angel, it just it put me in tears.' I was getting a lot of hugs, he added. Ruiz encouraged everyone who will stream More Than A Victim to review the film and help keep the movie on the mainstream streaming service. "The reviews are super vital right now because that's going to be the make it or break it, if they take it off of Amazon because of our message, he said. New Delhi: The Indian and US army are conducting a joint military training exercise Yudh Abhyas 2016 at Chaubattia in Uttarakhand. The exercise that commenced about a fortnight back witnessed the soldiers upgrade themselves with strategies of fighting and doctrines of combating the enemy. The bilateral training exercise will conclude on September 27. All the drills are being conducted as per the strict guidlines of the UN. The exercise is being held in the forest area of Chaubattia, where the altitude ranges from 6000 feet to 7800 feet. The Indian and the US Army soldiers are taking part in this two-week long joint drill that will see them fine tune their tactical and technical skills in countering terrorism. Some of the key highlights of the joint exercise are as follows: 1. Yudh Abhyas is not merely a joint military exercise but the operational drills on ground have been made very close to hypothetical war like situation so that it serves as in active combat engagement. 2. Though it has been hailed as military exercise but the ultimate objective of the exercise from an Indian standpoint is to achieve war preparedness ahead of its proposed offensive strategy the security forces might adopt. 3. The mountainous region of Ranikhet has been specifically chosen for the exercise as the physical topography and geographical conditions are very much akin to Kashmir where the terrorist camps operate. 4. The exercise specifically focusses on search and drill operations. The Indian army shall have gained expertise and insights on combative tactics of the enemy like how does the terrorist set traps, how does he sit in an ambush and how he does resort to guerrilla warfare techniques. 5. Some of the drills of the exercise include how to combat the terrorist when they intrude from difficult areas and take camouflage through natural defences. 6. The drill not only focuses on the physical dimension of warfare but also covers the important elements of planning, preparation and execution of strategies. The drill also stresses on making use of state of the art equipment for tracking, identification and surveillance. The US contingent is being represented by a Company of 5th Infantry Battalion, 20 Infantry Regiment, 2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 7 Infantry Division, US Army while the Indian side is being represented by an Infantry Battalion. It can be very well summed up that the timeliness of the war exercise is brilliant as the Indian army shall be better prepared to combat and engage the enemy in any military action planned out by the higher command in the near future. The army is living up to the famous military cliche - "Those who train in peace, bleed less in war". For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Indias largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Wednesday said that it has tied up with Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) to offer loans for Maruti vehicles. Both existing and new customers would be eligible to avail the loan. Here are the benefits the customers can avail Special scheme for Maruti Suzuki customers 100% on road funding with 6 months holiday period (Except EECO) Loans for both salaried and self-employed customers Repayment period upto 84 months Attractive rates of interest Product available for non-income proof customers also Under the partnership with Karur Vysya Bank, Maruti Suzuki customers can avail multiple attractive finance schemes and longer repayment loan terms to own a new car. Maruti Suzukis vast network of 3,086 new car retail outlets across 1,964 cities and towns added with 780 branches of Karur Vysya Bank across 22 States will make these schemes accessible for consumers across India, MSI said in a statement. J. Natarajan, President & COO, Karur Vysya Bank, said that the bank offers customers in-principle loan sanction in 15 minutes and existing customer of the bank can get their loans disbursed on the same day. The entire process from application to disbursement of the loan is digitalized with no manual intervention. Our association with Karur Vysya Bank is another positive step towards providing our customers financial flexibility and ease of owning a new car. In light of current situation of fighting COVID 19 pandemic challenges, the attractive products like EMI holiday period will provide the required financial solution to the customers, Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (M&S), Maruti Suzuki India said. STAINES-UPON-THAMES, United Kingdom, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mallinckrodt plc (NYSE: MNK), a global biopharmaceutical company, will present on Tuesday, June 23, 2020 at the BMO Prescriptions for Success Healthcare Conference. Mark Trudeau, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Bryan Reasons, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will represent the company in a fireside chat at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time. To access the webcast, please refer to the webcast link posted on our site at: http://www.mallinckrodt.com/investors. A replay of the fireside chat will also be available following the meeting. 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. CONTACTS Investor Relations Daniel J. Speciale, CPA Vice President, Investor Relations and IRO (314) 654-3638 [email protected] Media Inquiries Ron Bartlett H+K Strategies Senior Vice President 813-545-2399 [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. 06/2020 SOURCE Mallinckrodt plc Related Links http://www.mallinckrodt.com Bengaluru, June 17 : Karnataka Minister for Tourism, Kannada and Culture, C. T. Ravi, on Wednesday said that he has taken up the task of teaching Kannada language to all non-Kannadigas living in the southern state. "Namaskara all, I have taken up the task to teaching Kannada to all non-Kannadigas residing in Karnataka. They are in Karnataka and they are our people, so it's our responsibility to teach them our language," said Ravi. He said his team will be posting spoken Kannada language lessons everyday to help non-Kannadigas to learn and use his mother tongue. "I request you all to promote the initiative among your friends and help me reach more and more non-Kannadiga brothers and sisters living in Karnataka," Ravi said. Posting his first language lesson on Tuesday, the minister shared some basic phrases in English and their translation in Kannada. Under Conversation 1 as part of Kannada Lesson 1, Ravi shared basic greetings and identifications such as: Good morning - Namaskara, I am Deepak - Naanu Deepak, He is Anil - Ivaru Anil and Who is he? - Avanu yaaru? among others. As part of Conversation 2, he tried teaching people how to identify professions. I am a Kannada teacher "naanu Kannada mestru, I am a doctor - naanu doctor, She is a nurse - avaru nurse and others. Ravi posted two more lessons on Wednesday with more phrases and Kannada vocabulary. "Please read my tweets everyday and anyone can learn Kannada in the coming days. A little effort to learn Kannada will go a long way in winning the hearts of some of the most wonderful people on earth," he added. An Indian Border Security Force soldier walks near a check post along the Srinagar-Leh National highway on June 16, 2020 For the past 45 years India and China succeeded in managing their differences on the heavily contested Line of Actual Control separating the Asian rivals without the loss of life. That achievement unravelled on Monday when soldiers from two of the worlds most powerful armies engaged in direct physical combat in the Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region of India, high up in the Himalayas. Stones were hurled. Fists were thrown. Sticks were deployed. The Chinese, armed with batons studded with nails, clubbed the Indians. When hostilities ended, Beijing acknowledged casualties on its side, but refused to disclose the number of dead or injured. Secrecy, however, is not an option available to New Delhi. After weeks of attempting to save face by denying the extent of Chinese incursions into its territory that began in April and repeatedly playing down the fierce brawls that erupted between the two sides in May the Indian government admitted on Tuesday that twenty soldiers of the Indian Army, including a commanding officer, had been killed in the battle with the Peoples Liberation Army the previous night. Dozens of Indian troops are said to be in Chinese captivity. India, imploding under the burden of social chaos and economic devastation precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic, was clearly not anticipating an outbreak of renewed Chinese aggression on its northern frontier. When Chinese troops began breaching the LAC in late April, India treated it as an inadvertent mistake of a kind that is all too common on the 2,100-mile-long un-demarcated border. It was only after Indian attempts to de-escalate the situation were rebuffed did it realise that the mechanisms established by both sides to defuse tensions had suddenly become obsolete. India was not dealing with patrolling parties that had strayed too far. It was confronting an invading army. While India scrambled to send reinforcements, China managed to annex up to 60 square kilometres of Indian territory in Ladakh without firing a shot. Story continues The Indian government, keen to avert a nationalist backlash and preserve the strongman reputation of prime minister Narendra Modi, pretended throughout the crisis that all was well on the eastern front. Now, as gruesome details emerge of the bloodbath on the border, there is intensifying clamour for retaliation, revenge, and return of Indian territory. India finds itself in an intractable position. Attempting to restore status quo ante bellum by resorting to a shooting war with China which is measurably more powerful overall, though India holds some distinct advantages in the high-altitude terrain could prove too costly for India. At the same time, failing to react forcefully to the brazen seizure of Indian land could embolden the Chinese to nibble at yet more Indian territory. On Tuesday, China declared sovereignty over all of the Galwan Valleyan area named for a 19th-century Indian explorer in British employ. Ironically, it is Indias increasing capabilities to withstand and repulse China that may have provoked Beijing to test Indias resolve. New Delhi has belatedly been upgrading the decaying infrastructure in Ladakh, including laying down roads and raising a concrete bridge to enable the swift movement of troops. It has also deepened its security and diplomatic partnership with Australia, Japan, and the United States - fellow democracies wary of authoritarian China. The experience of Ladakh may speed up rather than slow down Indias pro-American tilt, and boost rather than halt its military build up on its troubled northeastern border. The Indian governments decision in mid-April to subject Chinese investments to additional layers of vetting may now pave the way for the formal erection of barriers to commerce between the two countries. The already formidable civilian movement to boycott Chinese products will likely be augmented by a citizenly outcry against the trade surplus China enjoys with India: at nearly $60 billion, roughly equal to Indias defence budget. The 21st century was supposed to be the Asian century. What has happened in Ladakh is a turning point in Asias trajectory: a full-blown war may yet be deferred, but peace and cordiality between Asias chief powers is now inconceivable in the near or distant future. The uneasy truce that has governed the relationship between China and India since they first went to war against each other in 1962 is effectively dead. Kapil Komireddi is the author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen: Interception and Destruction of a Ballistic Missile Launched by the Terrorist Iran-Backed Houthi Militia Toward the Kingdom Saudi Press Agency Tuesday 1441/10/24 - 2020/06/16 Riyadh, June 16, 2020, SPA -- Statement by the Official Spokesman of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen COL Turki Al-Malki "Joint Coalition forces have intercepted and destroyed this morning (Tuesday) a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi militia from (Sa'dah), Yemen, toward (Najran) in a deliberate attempt to target civilians and civilian objects. The continuation of these villainous attempts by the terrorist Houthi militia aimed at targeting civilians and civilian objects, protected under the International Humanitarian Law, with ballistic missiles and bomb-laden UAVs. The total of ballistic missiles and bomb-laden UAVs launched toward the Kingdom is (313) missiles and (357) UAVs, all intercepted and destroyed. The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition continues to undertake all decisive, rigorous measures against the terrorist Houthi militia to neutralize and destroy these capabilities in protection of innocent civilians against these haphazard, villainous acts in accordance with the customary International Humanitarian Law." --SPA 10:07 LOCAL TIME 07:07 GMT 0003 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address - Austrian police have fined a man who farted the sum of 500 (GHC3,248.47) - The police said the man acted provocatively in front of police officials - The security agency said the man can appeal against the move to fine him Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana According to UK Guardian, a man in Austria, Vienna, has been fined the sum of 500 (GHC3,248.47) for farting the air in front of police officials. The incident happened on Friday, June 5, and the fine was based on the fact that the man violated public decency. Vienna city police said that the man acted provocatively and uncooperatively during the encounter he had with the officials before the incident. A photo of police officials in Austria. Photo source: Guardian UK Source: UGC They said that the man stood up from a park bench before he let go a massive intestinal wind apparently with full intent. The police, however, added that the decision could be appealed. Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh earlier reported that Garry Webb was compensated with 100,000 (GHC725,571.00) by the police for how he was mistakenly arrested and sent to prison. He spent nights in the police cell in 2015 when the Scottish police mistook him for the suspect that he was not. Garry said that the issue was not a case of mistaken identity as the police had all the shreds of evidence that proved he was not the person they were looking for. He added that they were only trying to cover their mess up. The 60-year-old man said that he was arrested in the presence of his wife against outrageous charges. Garry said that it was really insane when nobody believed he was who he said he was, adding that he said that he went through experiences he should not have faced. This horrible situation happened despite the fact that the police saw his passport and drivers license and saw he was markedly different from the person they were looking for. In other news, YEN.com.gh reported that amidst the systemic obstacles facing Ghanaian businesses, the country has successful rich women who have created wealth through their own businesses. These woman are epitomes of Ghanaian women pursuing excellence globally while dominating within the borders of the country. Ghanaian female accounting graduate and mushroom farmer recounts her experience | #Yencomgh Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh LONDON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, today announced the expansion of its partnerships with leading technology companies to address the convergence of IT and OT. Bringing together system integrators with IT solution providers to build integrated industrial edge computing solutions, the expanded partnerships have resulted in the immediate release of three programs including: new reference designs, co-developed with AVEVA, and integrating solutions from Lenovo and Stratus; a learning path for system integrators; and a collaborative online community for learning and sharing opportunities within Schneider Electric Exchange. The industrial edge programs from Schneider Electric empower system integrators to expand their value to the end user, enabling their customers' industrial digital transformations. "The smart factory is becoming smarter. Our expanded partnerships and new industrial edge programs empower system integrators to leverage their domain expertise and become IT/OT convergence specialists and meet these needs for their customers," said Philippe Rambach, Senior Vice President, Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric. "We know that smart manufacturing is driving an unprecedented wave of IT technologies into industrial spaces. As companies leverage AI, robotic processing automation, and more, they will require edge computing solutions to reduce latency and enable resiliency, while ensuring privacy and security, and addressing important data and bandwidth requirements." What is the Industrial Edge? For industrial operators to capture the benefits of increased automation, they cannot rely on cloud-technology alone to bring the resiliency and speed demanded by AI, HD cameras and other Industry 4.0 technologies. Local edge data centers are IT infrastructure enclosures/spaces/facilities distributed geographically to enable endpoints on the network. When in industrial environments such as a manufacturing plant or distribution center, this application is referred to as "industrial edge." Analysts have identified the edge as becoming increasingly important. "The industrial edge is one of the fastest-growing segments of industrial automation and a key driver that is influencing digital transformation," according to Craig Resnick, Vice President, ARC Advisory Group. "To achieve the shortest possible ROI, manufacturers must properly measure asset performance, rapidly identify any problem areas, and make any crucial changes in real-time that will drastically improve their operations. The industrial edge is where this important on-site data capture occurs, real-time analysis of this data is performed and converted into intelligent information, and then shared with the cloud and throughout the entire enterprise while addressing manufacturers' concerns, such as latency and security for production environments." Opening up new business models for system integrators, the newly announced industrial edge programs include: Reference designs that integrate leading edge technologies to simplify design process Schneider Electric has unveiled new industrial edge reference designs, co-developed with AVEVA, including solutions from Lenovo and Stratus. Reference designs are available* in Schneider Electric's Local Edge Configurator and can be customized to specifications. These new designs are a key factor in industrial edge success. World Wide Technology finds the "ability to pre-configure technology platforms and devices before shipment increases deployment speed and can reduce field engineering costs by 25-40%, increase order processing speed by 20%, and reduce maintenance costs by 7%." Based on the most common use cases in industrial automation, the reference designs reduce risk and time to market with fully customizable, pre-integrated EcoStruxure Micro Data Center solutions for any edge environment. System integrators will be freeing up time from the IT architecture to focus on the software and solutions, thanks to fully validated, secure solutions designed to the standards requested by IT departments. A professional development path for system integrators to address new requirements of industrial edge computing Edge computing is an emerging trend for the industrial space presenting a new opportunity for system integrators to extend their business model and establish their role as consultants in both the OT and IT requirements. This new learning program includes a comprehensive digital training series for system integrators on EcoStruxure Micro Data Center and EcoStruxure IT solutions and how they can address common challenges at the edge. The 14-session development program focuses on how to leverage the reference designs and IT solution providers to deliver complete IT/OT convergence solutions for end users. To access the digital training series, system integrators will connect through their Schneider Electric Alliance Partner Portal. An Industrial Edge Exchange Community to increase business opportunities and foster collaboration Built within Schneider Electric Exchange, the new Industrial Edge Community allows system integrators to easily identify and engage with edge-certified IT solution providers. The Industrial Edge Community is designed to facilitate new business and address IT/OT projects. The Exchange platform also features a tool that pairs Alliance System Integrators with Schneider Electric's Edge-certified IT Channel Partners. Schneider Electric has more than 1,000 industry-leading Alliance System Integrator Partners in 67 countries, and more than 400 IT solution providers in its award-winning partner program worldwide who are already certified to build, deploy, and service edge computing solutions. "Schneider Electric's extensive partner ecosystem is unparalleled in both IT and OT systems, making it an unrivalled advantage over the competition," said Pankaj Sharma, Executive Vice President, Secure Power, Schneider Electric. "When you combine the power of the partner ecosystem with our expertise at the edge and the breadth of our offer, it's a winning trifecta for system integrators and IT solution providers." System integrators interested in gaining access to the new reference designs, learning path, and the collaborative online community are encouraged to visit the Schneider Electric Partner Portal for more information. About EcoStruxure EcoStruxure is our open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform. EcoStruxure delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity for our customers. EcoStruxure leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics, and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at Every Level. This includes Connected Products, Edge Control, and Apps, Analytics & Services which are supported by Customer Lifecycle Software. EcoStruxure has been deployed in almost 500,000 sites with the support of 20,000+ developers, 650,000 service providers and partners, 3,000 utilities and connects over 2 million assets under management. From energy and sustainability consulting to optimizing the life cycle of your operational systems, we have world-wide services to meet your business needs. As a customer-centric organization, Schneider Electric is your trusted advisor to help increase asset reliability, improve total cost of ownership and drive your enterprise's digital transformation towards sustainability, efficiency and safety. About Schneider Electric At Schneider Electric, we believe access to energy and digital is a basic human right. We empower all to make the most of their energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment. We provide energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. We combine world-leading energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services into integrated solutions for Homes, Buildings, Data Centers, Infrastructure and Industries. We are committed to unleash the infinite possibilities of an open, global, innovative community that is passionate about our Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values. www.se.com Discover Life Is On Discover EcoStruxure Related resources: Follow us on: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google+ YouTube Instagram Blog Hashtags: #LifeIsOn #IndustrialEdge #EcoStruxure #EdgeComputing *Industrial Edge Reference Designs are available in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States. Additional countries to be added. SOURCE Schneider Electric UK Related Links http://www.se.com/ Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, on June 16, engaged in two online talks with Jody Thomas, Deputy Minister of Canadas Department of National Defence, and Peter Tesch, Deputy Secretary for Strategic Policy & Intelligence at Australias Department of Defence. The scene at the talks between Vietnamese Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh and Peter Tesch, Deputy Secretary for Strategic Policy & Intelligence at Australias Department of Defence (Photo: VNA) Canadian and Australian ambassadors and military attaches to Vietnam also took part in the talks. During the talks, Vinh informed the Australian and Canadian officials on the COVID-19 situation in Vietnam, attributing the good outcomes in controlling the disease to concerted efforts of the entire political system, with the Vietnam Peoples Army serving as the core and vanguard force. Highlighting the importance of international collaboration in the fight against the pandemic, he thanked Australian and Canadian defence bodies cooperation in sharing information on COVID-19 prevention, control, research and treatment. He hoped the joint work will last for long given the COVID-19 complexities. On the occasion, Vinh and his counterparts reviewed outcomes of Vietnam Australia and Vietnam Canada defence ties in the past time and sought agreement on future orientations with a stress on military medical coordination in disease prevention and control. All sides vowed that they will not allow the pandemic to hinder their thriving cooperation. At the talks with Jody Thomas, Deputy Minister of Canadas Department of National Defence (Photo: VNA) The Vietnamese and Canadian officials expressed their delight at breakthroughs in the relations of the sides after their defence ministers exchanged visits, particularly in human resources training and UN peace keeping mission. The Canadian side said it plans to set up a military attache office in Vietnam this year, and the two sides agreed to push for the establishment of a bilateral defence policy dialogue mechanism toward building a 3-year cooperation scheme for the two defence ministries. Meanwhile, Vietnam and Australia took note of outstanding joint work, such as Australian military aircraft, for the second time, transporting personnel of Vietnams level-2 field hospital to South Sudan for peacekeeping mission. The sides also began teaming up to organise activities in searching for Vietnamese soldiers going missing during wartime, shooting skills exchanges; and discussions on women, peace and security. Vinh stated Vietnams Defence Ministry is committed to the effective implementation of defence cooperation with Australia and Canada based on signed documents and agreements for the benefit of the sides involved and of the region. The official also informed his counterparts on the schedule of activities during the year Vietnam serves as Chair of ASEAN (2020) and its tenure as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (2020-2021). He highlighted Vietnams determination in strengthening collaboration within the framework of the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) and ADMM Plus. He stressed Vietnam backs Canadas responsible participation in the region in line with ASEANs consensus principle and praised Australias success in hosting the first informal ASEAN Australia defence ministers meeting.VNA India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent 4 Indian soldiers critical following clash with Chinese at Galwan Valley India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 17: Four Indian soldiers are in a critical condition following the violent clash with the Chinese on Monday night. According to news agency ANI, four soldiers remain critical. It may be recalled that 20 Indian soldiers had been martyred in the violent clash at the Galwan Valley. The news agency while citing sources also said that 43 Chinese soldiers were killed in the violent skirmish. India-China clashes: 20 soldiers martyred as they fought back PLA incursion | Oneindia News Talks between Major Generals of India, China in Galwan inconclusive: Report While several outlets in China had confirmed that there were casualties on the Chinese side, none had put a number to it. However, the radio intercepts picked up by India indicate that there were 43 casualties on the Chinese side. Meanwhile, an Indian Army statement said that the Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged in the Galwan areas where they clashed on the night of June 15-16. While India lost 20 soldiers, including a colonel, there are chances that the casualty rate may rise. This is because many are injured. Some soldiers are still missing and some of them who were taken captive were released following talks by both sides. Sources say that the Chinese were present in large numbers and were armed with nail studded iron rods and stones. Meanwhile, China said that Indian troops on Monday seriously violated the consensus of the two sides by illegally crossing the border twice and carrying and carrying out provocative attacks on the Chinese soldiers. This resulted in serious physical clashes, the Chinese foreign minister told Global Times. Army, Navy and Air force put on high alert after Galwan valley clash with China China has lodged solemn representations with the Indian side and urged it to strictly restrain its frontline troops from crossing the border or taking any unilateral action that may complicate the minister also said. China and Indian side agreed to resolve the bilateral issues through dialogue to ease the border situation and maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas, the Chinese FM also said. Only 20 percent of schools offered rigorous, technology-based remote instruction while school buildings were shut down this spring, according to a new report from the American Enterprise Institute , and students in K-12 districts with a majority of high-poverty or low-achieving students were less likely to receive rigorous instruction at a distance. Nat Malkus, the institutes deputy director of education policy, examined the websites of a nationally representative sample of 250 districts. He organized his findings on remote learning plans into three categories: Rigorous": Delivered content through online platforms; offered some synchronous learning (via Zoom or another videoconference platform); tracked student attendance or otherwise expected student participation; and graded students work to some extent. Perfunctory": Relied primarily on paper instructional packets; explicitly stated students were not required to participate; or didnt offer information about remote learning on its website. Moderate": Somewhere in between rigorous and perfunctory. Overall, Malkus found one-fifth of schools fit the rigorous category, with 40 percent each for the other two categories. High-poverty districts are defined in the report as districts with more than 60 percent of students eligible for free and reduced lunch programs. Malkus separated high- and low-achievement schools using data from the Stanford Education Data Archives Education Opportunity Project . Only 12 percent of high-poverty districts remote learning plans earned Malkus rigorous distinctions, and 52 percent were perfunctory by those standards. Meanwhile, 23 percent of low-poverty districts offered rigorous instruction, and 35 percent offered perfunctory instruction. The outcomes were similar when sliced to distinguish schools with a significant percentage of high-achieving students from schools with a low percentage of high-achieving students. Half the schools with low-achieving students offered perfunctory remote learning, and almost double the schools with high-achieving students offered rigorous remote learning. We have some pretty large gaps here between the percentages of schools that are getting potentially substantially higher quality education supports, Malkus said Monday during a Zoom briefing with reporters. The study also broke down the findings to distinguish between districts with high and low percentages of minority studentbut the numbers were fairly similar for both categories. Prior research has shown evidence of a poverty gap in the form of significantly lower standardized-test scores for students who attend high-poverty schools, regardless of race. Surveys this spring conducted by the Education Week Research Center also found significantly higher rates of truancy among students and lower rates of access to technology and live instruction for teachers in districts with a high percentage of low-income students. Todays new report marks Malkus first effort to compare findings across districts from his research on how schools evolved this spring. Its worth sounding a note of caution that the new study is preliminary; deeper data dives are expected later this year and for years to come, Malkus said. Technology Challenges Some education observers might take issue with Malkus decision to characterize remote learning on online platforms as inherently more rigorous than instructional packets. Millions of students nationwide lack at-home internet access , which means paper packets would be inherently more rigorous for them. Students with disabilities might struggle in some cases to access online instruction even if its available. In fact, several districts reported widespread technical glitches during early attempts to connect virtually with students. Malkus argues paper packets can be a weak facsimile of in-class learning, particularly if theyre tied to weak policies for academic accountability. Rigorous instruction also encapsulates an expectation that students will demonstrate learning to their teachers. Indeed, fewer schools with a majority of high-poverty students required one-on-one contact and participation, and fewer still tracked attendance, according to Malkus data. New survey data out today from AASA, The School Superintendents Association reinforces those concerns. Slightly more than half of 501 superintendents said theyve been concerned about their ability to equitably offer remote learning. Sixty percent of respondents said inadequate at-home internet access for students prohibits their district from offering fully online learning, while 40 percent said their districts lack adequate infrastructure, including teacher capability and necessary software programs. School budgets are tightening nationwide , but the urgency to ensure equal learning opportunities for all students has only increased. Many districts are spending the summer on efforts to close achievement gaps, particularly around access to digital devices and broadband service . Slightly more than a quarter of respondents to the AASA survey said they only offer 1-to-1 computing programs to certain clusters of students in their districts, and 14 percent said we do not offer any one-to-one device programs in our district. During a virtual panel discussion on the digital divide hosted by Common Sense Media on Tuesday, the Indianapolis district superintendent Aleesia Johnson said her schools, on average, had one device per three students prior to the pandemic, but she hopes the district will offer fully 1-to-1 computing environments this fall. The district has a high number of students of color and from low-income families, and more than 30 percent were struggling with internet access this spring, she said, so providing all students with devices is an important step. One to one would normally take much longer than what its going to take us to pull off right now, Johnson said. We are not going to go into the 2020-21 school year having to play this pick-and-choose game with our students. Image: iStock/Getty SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto on Tuesday announced he's appointed San Francisco Police Department Capt. Joseph Engler as Assistant Sheriff. Engler, a 28-year career police officer, formerly led the Police Department's Northern Station. "Captain Engler is highly regarded in the community as a bridge builder, peacekeeper and a person of high character," Miyamoto said in a statement. "As we move to close County Jail #4 in November and change the criminal justice system in San Francisco, Captain Engler will help us build upon the reforms we've started and expand our community partnerships." "My 28 years in law enforcement have taught me the importance of treating everyone with humility, respect and dignity and is at the heart of this national movement for change and reform," Engler said. "Sheriff Miyamoto is giving me the opportunity to actively listen and work to change the status quo and I couldn't be more excited." Engler is a fourth generation San Franciscan and a graduate of both the University of California at Davis and San Francisco Law School. He also is a member of the Administration of Justice faculty at City College of San Francisco. In addition to hiring Engler as Assistant Sheriff, Miyamoto also announced several new initiatives to support law enforcement and justice reform in the wake of nationwide protests demanding accountability. "As both a person of color and a member of law enforcement, I have felt a mixture of emotions during these past few weeks," Miyamoto said. "I felt sickened by George Floyd's tragic death. "I experienced hope watching the peaceful protests in San Francisco and across the nation, tearing down barriers to long overdue changes in law enforcement and exposing cultural racism. The San Francisco Sheriff's Office is embracing this moment and moving forward with changes that reflect our commitment to stand up to social injustice and racial inequality." For starters, Miyamoto said he will update the Sheriff's Office's newly enacted use of force policy to reaffirm the office's 30-year prohibition on deputies use of carotid restraints, or chokeholds. Additionally, Miyamoto has committed to implement early warning technology that can identify deputies who may be at risk of behaving in adverse ways, as well as continuing de-escalation training and improving cultural competency training. Miyamoto also plans to work with the city's Department of Human Resources and Human Rights Commission to revise and continue implicit bias training for all Sheriff's Office staff. Miyamoto is also expanding the partnership between his office and the Department of Police Accountability. He's also vowing to continue participating in the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, a national network of government, and the city's Human Rights Commission, in order to support and advance equity in hiring and promotions, and plans to create a Sheriff's Community Advisory Committee. Other recent reforms include the closing of County Jail #4, located at the seismically unfit Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant St. in San Francisco, by Nov. 1, 2020. 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. CNN Philippines (Metro Manila, June 17) The Department of Education is looking into an alleged health protocol breach in Daet, Camarines Norte involving students made to share a single face mask in a makeshift graduation ceremony. In a statement posted on Wednesday, the DepEd said it has already started its fact-finding investigation through a division investigation committee from the DepEd Region V and has coordinated with the local government units in resolving the incident "at the soonest possible time." Over the weekend, a Facebook video went viral for showing what looked like a graduation ceremony in a shed in Barangay Dogongan with children being made to share the same face mask as they take turns posing for a graduation photo. The video, initially shared then deleted by a certain Teddy Aguirre, spread to various Facebook groups, eliciting criticisms from various netizens. A woman can be seen in the video assisting students as they held their certificates one by one, and as the graduation march song played. One student can even be seen removing her toga and handing it over to the next ones in line for the photo. A tarpaulin was posted as backdrop of the ceremony, which read: "Daet North District, Dogongan Elementary School, 58th Graduation Exercise." "We have also asked the person involved in the breach to submit a written explanation while the local DepEd COVID-19 Task Force will actively monitor the health of the learners concerned through the regional office," the department said. "We would like to reiterate that graduation and moving up rites that require face-to-face interaction are postponed until further notice," the DepEd added. "Schools and community learning centers are highly encouraged to conduct virtual rites and other alternative non face-to-face activities to celebrate the end of the school year." In a statement on Wednesday, DepEd Region V bared that the school already had a virtual graduation prior to the incident, and the activity was supposedly only for the distribution of school records and certificates of the students. It added that the activity only proceeded upon the request of the parents of the four students seen in the video. "On the possible administrative offense, DepEd-Camarines Norte will not hesitate to impose appropriate sanction to anyone in our ranks, if found guilty after observance of proper administrative due process," it added. The DepEd reiterated that activities requiring face-to-face interaction that are allowed by their agency and the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force may be conducted only if the necessary health and safety precautions are strictly complied with, subject to protocols set for the community quarantine classification of each locality. The department added that it will continue to hold seminars for teachers and stakeholders on preventive and precautionary measures to be observed and in schools and offices. NEW VILLAGE - The quick intervention of police officers saved a volunteer from Swaziland Caritas and a Manzini South Constituency councillor (bucopho) from a mob of close to 1 000 residents. The volunteer and bucopho were verbally attacked and almost manhandled by the residents of the area yesterday. The incident happened at around 10am. This was during a verification exercise conducted by Swaziland Caritas, which had been assigned to register people for food aid and cash-based transfer amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The verification exercise came after the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) paid cash to some of the residents on Monday. Each household received E700 to buy groceries The exercise was aimed at ensuring that all qualifying beneficiaries received the money. Beneficiaries During the verification exercise, the beneficiaries were called according to a list to sign against their names and to confirm if they had received the money. The residents became angry after the volunteer called the names of the qualifying beneficiaries. Upon noticing that their names were not being called, some of the residents, who formed a majority, became agitated and they verbally attacked the volunteer who was calling out the names, while demanding answers on why they had been omitted. The volunteer, whose identity could not be immediately ascertained due to the fact that she was whisked away by the police from the crowd soon after the commencement of the commotion, angered the residents when she tried to explain why some of them had been left out. She explained to the residents that the registration was divided into four phases. She informed the livid residents that the registration process was not over yet. However, the volunteers explanation seemingly fell on deaf ears. Instead of bringing clarity to the residents, it prompted them to demand further answers on the matter. The residents stated that according to their understanding, when the registration process started, they were informed that the most vulnerable persons would be given preference, yet the aforementioned were sidelined and instead landlords and civil servants benefitted. Most of the residents, who are tenants in the area and are employed in textile firms in Matsapha, also inquired from the volunteer why they were omitted because they were also hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic given the fact that they had been laid off from work, while some of them have been made to work in shifts. The volunteer did not have answers to some of the questions posed by the residents, save to assure them that the registration was still ongoing. Police had to be roped in as she tried to explain the whole exercise to the residents. The law enforcers escorted her to a police van, where they secured her safety by forbidding any resident from coming near the police van. As if that was not enough, the angry residents then shifted their focus from the volunteer to the areas bucopho, identified as Ntombikayise Dlamini, whom they accused of favouritism. According to the residents, Dlamini portrayed an element of partiality when registering the residents eligible to receive the food aid and cash-based assistance from government. They made a lot of allegations about her which cannot be printed because they could not be proven. As the verbal attack on the bucopho intensified, the police had no choice but to intervene and they whisked her away from the residents as well. Hanson Ngwenya, one of the residents said they were eager to know the criteria which the National Disater Management Agency (NDMA) followed when selecting the residents to benefit from the food aid programme. Disabled This he said was because the elderly and people with disabilities were omitted from the list of beneficiaries and allegedly, energetic civil servants, and landlords benefitted. He said they were advocating that government should be hands-on in the registration exercise since there was alleged favouritism among the people entrusted to conduct the registration exercise. Sibusiso Vilakati, who has a disability, said he was very disappointed when he discovered that his name was not on the list of the candidates who qualified for the food aid programme. Vilakati mentioned that what disturbed him the most was that certain people from rich families who were not disabled were allegedly given preference over him. He alleged that some of the people who received the food aid had received it twice in a row. It is worth noting that less than 25 people were called during the verification exercise as having qualified for the food aid programme yet the residents claimed that over 700 people had registered. SEYMOUR The only thing certain about Seymour High Schools class of 2020s pending graduation ceremony is that it is scheduled to take place July 10. But whether students and their families will participate in a drive-by ceremony in front of the school, or be broken up into smaller groups and graduate on the traditional grounds of DeBarber Field remains to be seen. School Principal James Freund said that, because the seniors missed out on so many of their year-end activities due to the coronavirus pandemic, holding graduation in person, rather than an online event, is a must. Because Gov. Ned Lamonts executive orders still limit outdoor gatherings, with a one time exception for graduations at 150 people, Freund and Superintendent of Schools Michael Wilson said a plan to hold graduation on DeBarber Field has been devised, which would keep the crowd to about 140. Wilson said Naugatuck Valley Health District and police could not support a traditional graduation allowing more than 150 people because the executive orders remain in place. Wilson said the DeBarber Field plan calls for splitting the graduates into four groups, with 40 seniors, each allowed two guests, and administrators, security and police allowed onto DeBarber Field for the ceremony, which would total about 140 people per group. Freund said hes been working with seniors, including Valedictorian Ashley Sirowich and class President Michael Starkey in coming up with a plan. He said student speeches would be videotaped in advance and shown on a large screen . The first group of graduates would file onto the field, accompanied by their two guests, and accept their diplomas. Freund said students suggested a video montage of the students saying goodbye to each other be created and played while the remaining groups of graduates wait to take their turn on the field. A second option calls for a drive-by ceremony in front of the school. Wilson said students would drive up in a car with their family members, exit the car and walk up the stairs to receive their diploma. Faculty and staff would be on hand, socially distanced, to wish the graduates well. The event would be video recorded and later published and distributed to the graduates. Sirowich said both options are good plans in different ways, with the most important element addressed: bringing everyone together safely. Wilson and Freund are meeting online this week with seniors to learn which option they prefer. Ultimately, we want to give students a voicetheyve lost enough this year, and Id like to do what I can to help them get what they want, Freund said. This is a terrible year to be a senior, and I have a lot of sympathy for the students. I will work with them until we come up with a plan thats agreeable. In a letterto students this month, Wilson said that, while the pandemic hurt their senior year, The true power of a person is never actualized until being faced with adversity, we understand the strength of the human (Wildcat) spirit and the resilience you and your classmates have. The entire Seymour Public Schools community is saddened by the situation and the impact it has had on you, but we know that you will overcome this to accomplish great thingsyou have the heart of a Wildcat. jean.sos@snet.net RTHK: Black lives don't matter in US, Floyd's brother says George Floyd's brother on Wednesday begged the United Nations to help African Americans because "black lives do not matter in the United States", as the UN's rights chief urged reparations for centuries of discrimination. Philonise Floyd made an impassioned speech via video-link to an urgent United Nations Human Rights Council debate on "systemic racism" in the US and beyond. Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the "gratuitous brutality" of Floyd's death in police custody encapsulated racism that harmed millions of people of African descent. She also urged countries to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism and to make reparations. The council, based in Geneva, is debating a draft resolution pushing for Bachelet to investigate racism and police civil liberties violations against people of African descent in the United States. US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the council two years ago. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer since charged with murder pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Amateur video of the incident sparked demonstrations and calls to address systemic racism in the United States and around the world. Philonise Floyd said his brother had been "tortured to death" as witnesses begged the officer to stop, "showing us black people the same lesson, yet again: black lives do not matter in the United States of America". He urged them to establish an independent international commission of inquiry one of the UN's highest-level probes, generally reserved for major crises like the Syrian conflict. This story has been published on: 2020-06-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. 'To further her story, Kangana has used a dead person and a suicide case.' 'She should be ashamed of herself. Ashamed.' Photograph: Kind courtesy Sushant Singh Rajput/Facebook Komal Nahta -- the wellknown observer on all matters Bollywood -- had a spat with Times Now anchor Rahul Shiv Shankar during a discussion on nepotism in Bollywood on Monday night. The video went viral as the topic is a hot button issue after Sushant Singh Rajput's shocking suicide. ""There are four idle minds in Bollywood which have become the devil's workshop, and they are saying that outsiders are not welcome in Bollywood. But that does not mean outsiders will not come and make it big here," Komal tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com. Your spat with Rahul Shiv Shankar has gone viral. Were you reluctant to appear on the Times Now channel? There were too many debates on different news channels. My time was clashing with another channel to whom I had committed. They first asked me to come at 8 pm and I said yes. But then they changed the time to 8.30 pm. So I said no. They requested, saying, please, please, and they told me I will be free by 8.50 pm, so that I could do an interview on another channel. At that time, they only asked me what my view on nepotism in Bollywood was. I said nepotism exists in every industry. They said oh, lovely, lovely, very nice. When I went on the show, Rahul Shiv Shankar had no manners. He asked me, do I understand the (film) industry? I have given my life to the film industry; I was born in the industry (his father Ramraj Nahta was a well-known producer). I have given 30 years of my life to the film industry although I am a chartered accountant by qualification. So I tweeted and said, I give him an open challenge to come and discuss the film industry. Let the world decide who has common sense and who doesn't. He was talking of exclusivism in Bollywood, which is a norm, and this has come up after Sushant Singh Rajput, considered an outsider to the industry, committed suicide. I told him that exclusivism or nepotism, groupism or camps exists in every industry. To that level, it exists in Bollywood too. He said he did not understand the difference. Really! It is not that I do not understand the difference, but I was not toeing Rahul's line. That is the problem. He calls it a debate, but his agenda is clear. He wanted me to participate in the debate, but did not give me chance to talk on his show. Does he understand journalism? People are blaming Bollywood's influential families for Sushant's death. There are four-five people in the industry who have taken it upon themselves to paint the industry black. They are thankless people. They are what they are because of the film industry and in the public eye, they are painting the industry as a place where there is only evil. Which industry survives if only there is evil? There is good and bad in every industry, including the media industry. These channels will do anything for TRPs and they fool people like us by calling us before and saying, yes, very good stance. But on the show, there is a different picture. It means they just want someone to complete the debate, but your agenda and conclusion is already set. Therefore, I was looking like a fool sitting there with five people shouting, and I was trying to negate five people together. But you didn't look like a fool on social media. People have supported you. Exactly. I told them that people, who know me, know my honesty and integrity. I have my own channel and don't need a certificate by Rahul Shiv Shankar on who I am. IMAGE: Komal Nahta, left, with Ghajini Director A R Murugadoss, centre, and Aamir Khan. Photograph: Kind courtesy Komal Nahta/Facebook Kangana Ranaut says Karan Johar and his camp control the media and manipulate them to his benefit. Rubbish! Rubbish! If it is controlled, why did everyone give his film Kalank such bad reviews? If Karan Johar controls the media, he will get good reviews for all his films. I am great friends with Aamir Khan, but Thugs of Hindostan was a bad film and I wrote that in my review. We do our jobs to best of our abilities. We may go wrong in a review or two, but for someone to say I am dishonest, no chance. Is it not true that if you are not from a film family, your talent gets sidelined to promote a hero from the film family? Rubbish! Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. That was 20 years ago. I am talking about now, in the last 5 to 10 years. Sushant Singh Rajput had everything going for him. Who can prove Sushant Singh Rajput died because of nepotism? It is her angle and to further her (Kangana's) story, she has used a dead person and a suicide case. She should be ashamed of herself. Ashamed. IMAGE: Dabangg Director Abhinav Kashyap. Photograph: Kind courtesy Abhinav Kashyap/Facebook Abhinav Kashyap, an outsider in Bollywood, has blamed Salman Khan's family for his downfall. He came on my show when his film Besharam released. At that time, he said Salman Khan called him from Singapore and said he should direct Dabangg 2, but he refused. Now, he is saying Salman did not give him the film. He was praising Salman then and now he is saying Salman did not give him the film. Seven-eight people (in the film industry) are parasites. Don't be taken in by them. The media is playing into their hands. If nepotism existed, Adi Chopra (Yash Raj Films head Aditya Chopra) would have given his brother Uday Chopra a chance in every other film and made him the biggest hero. What about film awards that go to film families only? I never trusted awards. Aamir Khan never accepts awards nor goes to any award functions. He is still the ace actor of Bollywood. Did his popularity diminish? People say I was never invited for parties. So what? I have never been called for Karan Johar's or Shah Rukh Khan's private parties. But why would I hold myself in low esteem? I have conviction in my work. The parties will not define my personality. If they invite me, great, I will go. If they do not, why should I feel bad? How silly is that! And please, Sushant was seen at every party. There could be 1,000 reasons why Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide. It is these three-four sick minds who say Sushant died of nepotism. But what is the proof? #BoycottKaranJohar and #BoycottKhans is trending on social media after Sushant's death. That is journalism today. The tragedy of Bollywood is that there is no unity. Any other industry would have stood up and said, 'How dare they paint us like that!' Do you believe an outsider can make it big in Bollywood even now? Of course! Nothing has changed. There are four idle minds in Bollywood which have become the devil's workshop, and they are saying that outsiders are not welcome in Bollywood. But that does not mean outsiders will not come and make it big here. These three-four people, who are criticising Bollywood, need psychiatric help. I am sorry to say that. IMAGE: Actor Siddhant Chaturvedi, who had a star turn in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy and will be seen next in YRF's Bunty Aur Babli 2. Photograph: Kind courtesy Siddhant Chaturvedi/Facebook Actor Siddhant Chaturvedi of Gully Boy said: 'Jahaan humaare sapne poore hote hai, waha inke struggle shuru hote hai (where an outsider's success starts, a star kid's struggle begins).' Theek hai, usme kya hua? (so what?) Why grudge? If your father was a businessman, why should you not get his business down the line? Why do we look down at goodwill being passed from father to the son? It happens the world over. You cannot grudge it. Who has said that your father's hard work cannot be bequeathed? I refuse to believe it. It was God's will that the child was born in that family. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad Presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev has said that Azerbaijan has repatriated 2,976 citizens from Russia through Samur checkpoint since late March when the two countries shut down the border over COVID-19, local media reported on June 16. Hajiyev made the remarks while commenting on the protest staged yesterday by Azerbaijani citizens who have been stranded on the Russian border, waiting for their repatriation. "We express regret over the incident that took place in Magharamkent region at the Kullar post in the Dagestan direction of the state border between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation, Hajiyev said. The citizens who have gathered at the Samur checkpoint must comply with the established rules, not violate the order and not prevent the relevant state structures from carrying out their duties. In the current situation, we urge our citizens to show understanding," Hajiyev emphasized. Furthermore, he called on citizens to show understanding and comply with the established rules. Hajiyev reminded that a portal I am going home has been set up to oversee repatriation of Azerbaijanis from Russia. Repatriation of our citizens takes place every week in line with the coordinated activities of relevant agencies of Azerbaijan and Russia and in line with specific schedule, Hajiyev said. According to the weekly schedule, 120 people crossed Samursky checkpoint on May 19, 131 people on May 26, 122 people on June 2 and 130 people on June 9, Hajiyev said. Likewise, over 150 of citizens will cross the border on June 16. Moreover, this week citizens registered on the portal "I am going home" will fly to Baku by charter flight Baku-Moscow-Baku, the official said. He reminded that over 20,000 citizens have been repatriated from around the world since mid-March via land borders and through special charter flights. Azerbaijan citizens stranded on the border are staying in temporary tents set up in Dagestan. Earlier, the problem related to the citizens of Azerbaijan stranded on the borders were discussed between the presidents of the two countres on May 18, who agreed on a step-by-step repatriation of citizens across the border. Under the agreement, every 15 days, the embassies prepare lists of citizens wishing to return. In the meantime, Russian Ria Novosi reported today that a delegation of Azerbaijani officials would be visiting Russias Dagestan to discuss the situation around the Azerbaijani citizens. At least 1,100 Ghanaians living in foreign lands have been evacuated into the country in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Of the number, 230 were flown in from Kuwait, 77 from Nigeria, 41 being students who were on an exchange programme in Washington DC, United States of America (USA), 154 from Dubai and 141 students in Benin who arrived in the country via Intercity STC buses. The rest are Egypt, 3; South Africa, 5; Israel, 45; 14 mine workers from Burkina Faso and China, 25. Taking her turn at the COVID-19 press briefing in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, said the Ghanaians were brought into the country between May and early part of this month. She said a further 250 stranded Ghanaians were expected in the country yesterday from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). An additional 400, she noted, would arrive in the country today and June 21 from China while 196 Ghanaians were in line to be evacuated to the country on June 19 from Lebanon. Some others from China and New York and Washington, both in the USA, would arrive at the countrys shores by the end of this month, she added. The Minister however noted that the processes of evacuating Ghanaians from the diaspora into the country have been impeded by high cost of hotels to accommodate the arriving party who are to undergo mandatory quarantine. Additionally, difficulty in the categorisation of persons considered as destitute has derailed the process, Madam Botchwey added. She assured Ghanaians in the diaspora of the governments commitment to liaise with its counterparts in other countries to ensure all stranded were brought home to safety. Owing to the global spread of COVID-19, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in a bid to protect the country from the disease and reduce infection rate directed the closure of all Ghanas borders on March 22 this year. The directive, which is still in force, however, does not apply to goods, supplies and cargo. 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 Kelly Clarkson has any number of accomplishments she can point to: three Grammy Awards, a successful talk show and, of course, her "American Idol" win in 2002. She's also the name behind a famous bit of swearing done by Steve Carell in 2005's "The 40-Year-Old-Virgin." In a memorable scene, Carell's character is getting his chest waxed, and as the peel comes away he shouts in agony, "Aah ... Kelly Clarkson!" And finally, we know the story behind that scene, thanks to a chat Clarkson had with "Virgin" director Judd Apatow during a remote episode of "The Kelly Clarkson Show." Clarkson's the one who brought up the subject, asking Apatow, who was on hand to promote his new film, "The King of Staten Island," where the idea came from. THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Steve Carell, Miki Mia, 2005, (c) Universal/courtesy ((C)Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection) "I'm gonna blame that Seth Rogen," explained Apatow. "There's a picture I think you have with a piece of paper with all the curses that we gave Steve to scream when he gets waxed and in the middle the column says 'clean words' right in the middle, it says 'Kelly Clarkson.'" The show then actually revealed that all-important list, with the real swears blurred out. The all-important possible list of swears from "It doesn't matter what I do in my life," Clarkson said, "No one remembers me for anything other than that." Well, that might not be true, though much hay has been made out of the curse when Carell visited Clarkson on her show last September, he introduced her onto the stage by crying out, "Live on tape from Universal Studios in Hollywood, ladies and gentlemen, ahhhhh Kelly Clarkson!" The pair met for the first time 13 years after the film was released, at 2018's Golden Globe Awards, and they got a terrific photo op out of it. "Finally," wrote Carell. Story continues But back to the chat with Apatow; after seeing where she ranked on the list, Clarkson chuckled, "That's actually amazing; I love that I made it between 'burger-panties' and 'throbbing-monkey-tail.'" "And you won!" said Apatow. "It could have been that in the movie." Hey, we always said Clarkson was a winner, and that's true whether it comes to awards ... or swear words! Chennai, June 17 : A probe committee formed by the Stanley Medical Hospital has ruled out the body of Covid-19 patient having been left lying on a ward bed for several hours, said a top hospital official. The committee said the photograph that got circulated in the social media must have been taken when the body was about to be shifted to the mortuary and the surrounding screen were removed. "An inquiry committee was appointed and it concluded that the body was not left on the Covid-19 ward bed for eight hours. The body was kept out of sight for others by putting a screen around the bed," Dean P. Balaji told IANS. A picture of a packed dead body on a bed next to another bed occupied by a patient went viral on the social media on Tuesday, prompting a probe. The five member probe team was headed by T.Sivakumar, Head of the Department, Department of General Surgery. The report said a 65-year-old male was admitted on June 13 and died on June 15 at 8 a.m. The death was certified and a screen was put around the bed on which the body was lying. The body was packed as per Covid-19 norms and the papers were sent to an official for obtaining release order to send the body to the mortuary. "The above formalities and shifting to mortuary took another hour and the patient was shifted to mortuary by 10 a.m. on June 15... the whole event took 2 hours," the report said. "The photograph should have been taken when the body was about to be shifted to the mortuary when the surrounding screen was removed for shifting," the report said. According to the committee report, as per the guidelines for safe disposal of Covid-19 body, the corporation official was informed. "The body is usually taken from the hospital once the time slot for burial is fixed. The patient's relatives were also informed about the death. The corporation inspector, after fixing time and place of burial and making necessary arrangements as per Government norms took the body by ambulance from the mortuary by 5.30 p.m. on June 15," the probe report said. Gov. Tom Wolf answers questions from the press. Wolf announced that people with intellectual disabilities and autism and the providers of support services for these vulnerable Pennsylvanians will receive $260 million in CARES Act funding to help continue to provide services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wolf was joined by Department of Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller, who outlined to details of funding allocations. Read more New cases of the coronavirus in Pennsylvania are continuing to decline, Secretary of Health Rachel Levine announced at a daily news briefing on Wednesday, and federal officials have singled out the state as one of just three along with Montana and Hawaii where cases have declined for more than 42 days. And in New Jersey, the seven-day average of new cases has dropped low enough that the state, which was once a national hot spot of the virus, now has a new-case average slightly lower than Pennsylvanias. In Philadelphia, the rate of new cases has stayed steady at about seven per 100,000 residents each day for the past week. City officials say its a good sign that the rate is holding even though more people in the city are getting tested for the virus. And on Wednesday, less than 3% of the 2,000 test results received by the city were positive, said city health department spokesperson James Garrow. Youre always shooting to get below 10%, Garrow said. This is the lowest weve seen since the very beginning of the pandemic. So the number of tests has gone up while the percent positive has gone down, which is great news. READ MORE: Joe Biden says Trump is surrendering to coronavirus in latest visit to Pa. Cases have dropped in the counties surrounding Philadelphia as well, with Bucks County reporting an average of just 21 new cases a day over the last seven days as of Tuesday. Montgomery County, where the regions first cases were reported three months ago, and which was reporting the highest new-case averages of the suburban counties at the height of the pandemic, was down to a seven-day average of 40 new cases. Delaware and Chester Counties had a seven-day average of new reported cases of 29 and 30, respectively. The continued declines were announced as states and cities slowly reopened businesses, restaurants, and other amenities. On Wednesday, New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education Zakiya Smith Ellis laid out a set of guidelines for colleges, universities, and trade schools that will be allowed to reopen though under considerable restrictions as early as next month under Stage 2 of the states reopening plan. Colleges must submit a restart plan to the state 14 days before they open their doors, state officials said, and at least for now, the only in-person classes allowed will be clinical and lab rotations. Career and training schools can open as long as they conform to health and safety protocols from their respective oversight agencies, state officials said. Colleges this fall and summer will not look the same as they did last year, Smith Ellis said. Social distancing, hand washing, and cleaning protocols will be in place, and students will be required to wear masks indoors. Its hard to have a maximum number of occupants in a university classroom, Smith Ellis said. If youre in a small classroom, youre literally going to need to go in with a tape measure and figure out how many people can be in that space. Practically, most institutions are going to be continuing with some hybrid version of in-person and online. The state is strongly recommending that students also wear face masks outside, and that students or faculty at higher risk of serious complications must be allowed to teach or attend class remotely. A limited number of students can return to residential facilities, Smith Ellis said, but common areas will need to stay closed, and housing should be prioritized for students who need it the most. Officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey on Wednesday briefly responded to questions about lawsuits surrounding the states coronavirus responses. In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court announced that it would rule in a lawsuit launched by Republicans in the legislature and aimed at ending Gov. Tom Wolfs emergency disaster declaration. The Associated Press reported that Wolf had requested that the majority-Democratic court handle the case, and at Wednesdays news conference, he said he applauded the decision. In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy for a second day declined to answer in depth questions about a lawsuit over the firing of Christopher Neuwirth, a former higher-up in the state health department, who alleged he was fired in late May because he did not arrange a COVID-19 test for family members of another of Murphys aides, NJ.com reported. State officials have said he was fired for holding a second consulting job. A representative for Murphy told NJ.com the claim was meritless, and Murphy on Wednesday praised the leaders of his COVID-19 response team. Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA contributed to this article. One of Watergates less obvious but lasting effects was that a politicians charactera capacious term that would eventually encompass all kinds of supposed virtues and flawsbecame an object of increasingly obsessive scrutiny for the press and the public. This was a noticeable shift. John F. Kennedy, for instance, was famously unfaithful to his wife, and yet, as Lesley Stahl told Radiolab in 2016, we wouldnt have dreamed of printing that even if the whispers were loud enough to spread around the country. It just wasnt done. Those decorous conventions collapsed in the wake of a more invasive press activated by Richard Nixons crimes. So, in the ensuing years, did whatever illusions the public may have had about its political leadership. Though there were many reasons for Nixons downfall, the Oval Office tapes that finally incriminated him beyond doubt did something else as well: They revealed the extent of the gap between the private machinations of the men who held office and their public bearing. And once the press had helped reveal that gap, it became impossible to close it up again. Advertisement As the tacit agreement to keep the private sins of politicians off-limits began to erode, a new political reality emerged. Its stricturesas with all such upheavalswere sometimes a little arbitrary. Many of the scandals were naturally about sex, and few were as much of a legal breach as the Watergate break-in and cover-up. In 1976, Rep. Wayne Hays resigned when it was discovered hed been keeping a young woman on his staff who turned out, despite his forceful denials, to be his mistress. The financial side of this mattered, of course, but soto a portion of the public that was coming to see the personal as politicaldid the cheating and lying, something that used to be dismissed as mere scandal. The so-called character question only increased in importance over the next few years: Jimmy Carter won in part by contrasting his moral probity with the Nixon-Ford administrations (in 1979, James Fallows would backhandedly call Carter as admirable a human being as has ever held the job). And in 1987charmingly called the Year of the Bimbo by the Wall Street JournalGary Hart, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, would be brought down after an affair was deemed (despite his protestations that infidelity hasnt been the business of the American public for 200 years) not just newsworthy but disqualifying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his book All the Truth Is Out about Hart, Matt Bai suggestedin a passage lamenting the rise of this violent compression of politics and celebrity and moral policingthat character, as a bucket term for human flaws that reflect on a politicians fitness, had become distressingly and even unsustainably broad. It wasnt just about sex, as it was in Harts case, but also about whether you uttered a line you wished you could take back or made an investment you probably shouldnt have, about whether youd ever gotten stoned or written something idiotic in a school paper. Nothing mattered more in a politician than his essential character, and no shred of private behavior, no moment of weakness or questionable judgment, was too insignificant to illuminate it. Advertisement Once a persons private conduct was perceived to impinge on their ability to do their public work, the onus fell on the public to decide what to do about revelations of this sortin particular, whether they rendered the candidate unfit for public service. Many of us have spent decades being overexposed to the ubiquitous personal shortcomings of politicians. The idea was that we, the judicious public, deserved to know all the facts, ingest the filth, and metabolize it into a sound and democratic electoral result. But it has been a messy change. Its not just that media organizations are neither consistent nor clear about which scandals are newsworthy; the problem is that we, the members of that vaunted public square, have not been able to reconcile these ugly exposures with the American ideals democracy theoretically serves. And so Americans have been heading, for some time, toward something like moral burnout. Advertisement Advertisement Back in 1987, Gary Hart felt unreasonably targeted. He wasnt alone; many Americans found the reporters who hid in the bushes to get the story of Hart and Donna Rice guilty of sensational overreach. On the other hand, Cokie Roberts told Radiolab that some female reporters at the time felt that Harts conduct was more than fair game. There were times when youd be in a room where hed hit on every woman in the room, she said. The way women were treated was something we thought, and I continue to think, is a good gauge of character. We were expanding the universe of what was a major character flaw. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was one other unexpected casualty of that 1987 presidential campaign dominated by the politics of character: Joseph Biden. Advertisement Biden was forced to end his first presidential campaign after he was found to have copied parts of a speech by British politician Neil Kinnock, even appearing to claim details from Kinnocks life story as his own. He was also found to have borrowed bits of speeches from Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, and to have improperly footnoted an assignment in law school. Its unlikely that these discoveries would have ended his campaign two decades earlier. The New York Times called Biden the second victim of the character issue in a contest for the White House. Whatever else it may or may not prove, the withdrawal of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. from the contest for the Democratic Presidential nomination demonstrates how much the 1988 campaign differs from its predecessors, the Times piece noted. Never before have candidates alleged character flaws emerged so early or proved so lethal. Advertisement Its possible the character issue truly peaked in 1987; that was also the year that Ronald Reagans failed nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court (sunk with the help of Biden) became shorthand for what were perceived as personal attacks for partisan reasons. Biden was already middle-aged44!when he first experienced this newfangled backlash to his past failings. Many, political insiders especially, saw those failings as minor: Democrats who stayed mum about Gary Hart spoke up in Bidens defense. Even Republicans defended him. I have never seen the Republicans as totally supportive of a person on the opposite end of the spectrum as they have been with Joe, Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum, a Democrat from Ohio, told the New York Times. Sen. Strom Thurmond said, Ive always found him to be a high-type man. The New York Times observed that these defenses reflected Mr. Bidens acceptance within the Senate club, where Mr. Hart was always considered a loner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement R.W. Apple Jr.s assessment of Bidens 1987 candidacy chose an apt metaphor to describe what went wrong: In the early stages of a courtship, transgressions can be fatal, but in a well-rooted marriage, they may be quickly forgiven; so it is in politics. Almost the first things many voters learned about Mr. Biden, aside from his good looks and articulateness, was that he had done things that most people consider a bit questionable at best. In other words, Biden may have been familiar to Washington. But the senator from Delaware wasnt broadly popular, or an especially known quantity, in the rest of America. Character wasnt reducible to ones reputation. It was a more personal amalgam, and one that, in Bidens view, deserved some measure of privacy. Biden is now in just such a marriage with many American votersthanks in no small part to his long tenure in the Senate and his close association with President Barack Obama. Hes a household name. But as he comes under at least as much scrutiny for his moral character as for his politics, 33 years later, we can see two things: 1) that Trump has badly distortedperhaps beyond recognitionour ability to properly judge the issue of moral personal behavior in American politics; and 2) that we can learn a lot about how Biden himself thinks about the character question by seeing how it played out when he presided over the 1991 Clarence Thomas hearings. Advertisement One can deduce how much Biden hated the rise of character as a matter of public concern given how reluctant he seemed, a few years after losing the presidential primary on the issue, to see Thomas evaluated on the same terms. Jill Abramson and Jane Mayer write in Strange Justice that Biden was aware early on of Hills allegations but went out of his way to suggest that any charges of improper conducthe made no mention of Hill or her allegations, of coursewere not worthy of debate. Indeed, in a speech he gave explaining his choice to vote no on Thomas in committee, he made a point to say there is no question with respect to the nominees character, competence, credentials, or credibility. He told the committee before Hills allegations went public: I believe there are certain things that are not at issue at all, and that is his character. This is about what he believes, not about who he is. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bidens statement betrays some concern over how slippery and powerful the category of character had gotten. Character wasnt reducible to ones reputation, nor was it defined by ones actions, however objectionable; it was a more personal amalgam, and one that, in his view, deserved some measure of privacy. Biden draws an extremely curious distinction on these grounds: He posits that Thomas can and should be judged on what he believesimplying that what a person believes is at least theoretically separable from who they are. Bidens strenuous exclusion of character as a criterion for public office was shared by an unlikely party: Anita Hill. According to Abramson and Mayer, Hill was also unhappy that character was becoming a defining issue in American politics. Before her claims went public, she told a friend that she had been appalled by the treatment their old Yale professor Robert Bork had received during his abortive confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court in 1987. She didnt want to see another nominee ripped apart on the basis of his personal character: Bork and Thomas should stand or fall on their ideas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its somewhat ironic that Bidenwho made a point of rejecting character-based politics in 1991has been frequently accused of transforming American political culture on those very grounds when he ran Borks confirmation hearing in 1987, just as his own presidential campaign was collapsing on character-related charges. (He withdrew from the race in the middle of the hearings.) Borking has become a term of art for unfairly attacking a candidate through harsh public criticism or vilification. Many conservatives blame Biden, specifically, for ushering in an era dominated by the politics of personal destruction, even though the effort to turn public opinion against Bork (which cited his conservative legal opinions but also his role presumably aiding Nixon in Watergates Saturday Night Massacre) was initiated by Sen. Ted Kennedy and a combination of grassroots organizations. In actuality, Biden tried to safeguard Borks privacy, refusing, for example, to subpoena Borks video rental history. In 2008, a former Biden intern described Bidens commitment to the theoretical separation of private and public selves at this crucial moment in 1987: I saw Mr. Biden struggle to focus the hearings on Judge Borks judicial philosophy rather than his private life, in the face of overwhelming political pressure from interest groups on the left. He did everything in his power to resist the collapse of boundaries. Still, the hearing was one of the first to be televised and Bork himself was underprepared, which did nothing to turn the tide back in his favor. The Senate voted against the nominee by the widest margin in history. This much is accurate: Biden maintained a distinction between public and private life even when it was not politically advantageous to do so. The future vice presidents reluctance to act on Hills account until he was forced to is well documented. So is the fact that he considered burying other ethically troubling allegations about nominees the decent thing to doto avoid besmirching their characters. Per the New York Times, On other occasions as Judiciary Committee chairman, [Biden] said he had been made aware of unsubstantiated reports of wrongdoings by nominees that he did not divulge in order to protect their reputations. On the whole, Biden seemed to believe that a mans good name needed protection more than his alleged bad actions needed exposure. In a 1992 interview with E.J. Dionne in which he looked back on the confirmation hearings, he said he regretted not defending Hill and attacking the attackers, but he also made clear that he was worried less about damage to Hills character than to Thomas. Conceding that he could have paused the hearings in order to investigate whether there was a pattern of behavior, Biden said that it wouldnt have been fairto Thomas. He was worried that doing so would allow rumors about Thomas to spread. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden did, however, pay lip service to the new world everyone was inhabiting. He speechifiedto Thomas and to his colleaguesabout how private misconduct intersects with public service, and how the judgment of a man accused of such a thing would go: Were big boys. I knew when I ran for president everything was free game. Anybody who runs for the Supreme Court or is appointed to the Supreme Court, to be more precise, should understand. Its not Boy Scouts, its not Cub Scouts. Biden also clarified then that the hearing was not a referendum on whether sexual harassment was a grave offenseit wasbut about whether it had occurred. Now, he addressed Thomas, were going to hear more witnesses who are going to come in and corroborate your position and hers. Well find out whether theyre telling the truth or not as best as we are capable of doing, just like you as a judge are when you look them in the eye and make a judgment. What emerges is a portrait of a man perceptive enough to articulate changing mores even if he privately resists them. As we now know, Biden did not call three witnesses who could have spoken to whether Thomas had a pattern of sexual harassment. Angela Wright-Shannon and Sukari Hardnett were prepared to testify to Thomas conduct and to the culture at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. So was a third woman, Rose Jourdain, who said she could back up Wrights testimony and was prepared to do so while extremely ill. In 2017, Biden told Teen Vogue that he wanted the witnesses to testify and that they had refused. I wasnt able to convince three women wed subpoenaed to cooperate with testimony. At the last minute, they changed their mind and said they wouldnt do it. I had them sign an affidavit saying, I want you to come, and youre saying, No, I will not come. A letter to that effect does exist for Wrightits in the hearing transcript and bears Wrights signature as well as Bidens. But Mayer and Abramsons reporting on how that letter came to be entered into the record does not remotely match Bidens account: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An aide from Bidens office called Middlebrooks [Wrights attorney] and offered to release Wright from her subpoenaif she was willing to say that she had requested the cancellation. Wrights response was typically blunt: Bullshit. After Ive been sitting here for three days being called names? Middlebrooks also refused. You are not going to make her look like shes cutting and running. Shes the key second witness and we want our story aired. Bidens office kept negotiating ways for Wright not to testify, and Wright finally signed. As for Hardnett, she said in a 2018 interview with NPR that she had no idea why she wasnt called. What emerges from all this, it seems to me, is a portrait of a man perceptive enough to articulate changing mores even if he privately resists them. Biden wants to be good, works very hard to look good, and squints very hard to try to make nice and good mean the same thing. But given the choice between exposing a fellow insiders questionable conduct or withholding that information from the public he ostensibly represents, Biden protected the insider. Faced with the assassination of Anita Hills character (which was happening in real time, under his watch) and the potential assassination of Thomas, he protected Thomas and not Hill. Biden prioritized the preservation of the insiders reputation over the publics right to know. Such a man might plagiarize slightly from various speeches (or in law school). Such a man might also massage an unfavorable story into a more flattering one. Its he who desperately wanted Angela Wright-Shannon and Sukari Hardnett to testify, Biden maintains; it was they who pulled out. Or perhaps, as he has also suggested, it was Hills preference that Wright keep quiet: Biden and several of his top staff members said that it had been Hill and her lawyers who had chiefly opposed calling Wright, Mayer and Abramson write. But Hill denied this. We were waiting for Angela Wrights testimony, just like everyone else, Hill said. Apparently something went wrong. I was as surprised as anyone that she didnt testify. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bidens stories about all this dont quite add up. Hes not out-and-out wrongthe Wright affidavit exists, and she signed it!but the whole is sloppy and incomplete, and the omissions and errors accrue in his favor. Biden clearly sensed, even at the time, that not calling Wright might look bad. When Democratic senators decided against calling her, Biden came out and told his staff the result of a full committee vote was 131 against her testifying with himself as her sole supporter. But two other Democratic senators on the committee said they recalled no such vote. Howard Metzenbaum, a Democrat, said, I dont think Biden was anxious to bring Angela Wright on. Even as Biden tacitly protected Thomas privacy, he publicly told him you will not be unaffected by this no matter what happens. Nobody goes through the white-hot glare of this process at any level for any reason and comes out unaffected. He also chose a fascinating metaphor for how character ought to be understood: But, Judge, nobodys reputation, nobodys reputation, is a snapshot; its a motion picture. And the picture is being made, and youve made a vast part of it the last 43 years. I have been reading up on Biden as a motion picture for obvious reasonsto better understand who Biden was before he was reinvented, during Obamas presidency, as a warm and frank Uncle Joe whose gaffes are part of his charm. This last snapshot is the muscular public image on which his well-rooted marriage to the American public is based. Looking back a few decades doesnt just reveal a great deal more about who Biden wasit illustrates how the American conversation around what we expect from public officials developed too. I understand why Biden wants to remain laser-focused only on his history since helping to pass the Violence Against Women Act. But the preceding years were crucial. They defined how the nation would and would not grapple with scandals around sexa sphere whose dirtiness had functionally created a safe space of sorts for men of all previous generations, but which was becoming contested, political, and public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A minor publishing scandal in 1979 illustrated how sensitive this new focus on private conduct was, and how much the idea of holding male politicians accountable was considered risky, or extreme, or unfair. Ted Kennedy was challenging Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination for president. Suzannah Lessard wrote a 3,000-word essay about Kennedys philandering called Kennedys Woman Problem, Womens Kennedy Problem for the New Republic. It was controversial enough that TNR owner Marty Peretz refused to publish it, prompting editor Michael Kinsley to resign in protest (he would later be rehired). The Washington Monthly picked the column up and made it the cover of its December issue. Lessards point is by now familiar: She argues that characterin every spherecounts. While privacy matters, Ted Kennedys womanizing must be considered fair game if he intends to run for president, she writes. She criticizes the fastidious gentlemens code that holds that the private lives of politicians should be off limits, that what counts are the serious matters, such as a mans position on issues, and that only a very sleazy and trivial reporter would lower himself to write about that sort of dirt. She observes, too, that theres more than a whiff of condescension underpinning this attitude about what the voting public needs to know: that if the people knew what politicians were really like, it would render them incapable of treating such information properly. They would be excessively shocked, they would overreact, and the political process would be distorted by irrelevancies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today were all the way on the other side: overexposed to that sort of dirt about politicians and exhausted from the task of sorting through it. Has the political process been distorted by irrelevancies? Or has this painful ongoing process of navigating the character question been, on the whole, worth it? The publics answers to these questions have oscillated. Bill Clintons impeachment trial, for instance, was a Republican effort to make character sink a president, but it didnt work out that way. Even as, according to polling, Americans became more skeptical of whether the president had high moral and ethical standards, they still supported his presidency and the roaring economy that buttressed it. Many said they didnt care what Clinton did in his personal life provided he did his job. More recently, Donald Trump has thrown a much larger wrench into these fine distinctions. And indeed, the upcoming election, between two men who have weatheredeven brokenthe character question, may mark another drastic shift in how we consider it. Its pretty clear by now that Tara Reades allegation that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 will mean little or nothing for Bidens presidential bid. Further reporting has cast some doubt on Reades credibility, but from an electoral standpoint, its amazing how little her allegation seemed to matter in the first place. Despite the ethical demands #MeToo made, peoples individual rulings on whether they believed Reade didnt seem to much affect whether they would vote for Biden. Lucy Flores, who wrote an essay for the Cut last year describing the discomfort she experienced when he touched her and smelled her hair at a campaign event; Linda Hirshman; and many other feminists who spoke up for Reade said that if the presidency comes down to Trump and Biden, they would reluctantly, citing a principle of harm reduction, vote for the latter. I wont say it will be easy, Hirshman wrote. I know how supposedly liberal men abused the sexual revolution in every imaginable way. But she would swallow her reservations and vote for Biden anyway. The neighbor who corroborated Reades account falls into this category too; shes a Biden supporter and likely to remain so. Ive never been a Biden supporter, but if hes the candidate, I, too, will vote for him, because the ongoing calamity in the United States must be slowed. Even Reade herself, in her recent interview with Megyn Kelly, said she understands that people who believe her will still vote for Biden. (She also noted that he should not be running on character for the president of the United States.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These statements suggest that character might have run its course as a decisive issue in American politics. There are too many tangible emergencies. There is a pandemic. Forty million Americans have filed jobless claims. More than 100,000 people who were alive three months ago are dead. Black people are being killed on video with little to no accountability while the president defends Confederate monuments and generals. Despite the dangers, the streets are wild with peoples desperation and unhappiness. In the middle of all of this, Biden is deploying one of his unique strengthshis empathy, born from the many familial tragedies hes suffered through while in politics. America is grieving right now, and Joe Biden is good at grief. There are too many tangible emergencies. There is a pandemic. Forty million Americans have filed jobless claims. He is also, arguably, using the character issue to reroute Americans character concerns into institutional questions. When Biden says character is on the ballot, the line isnt about his character as much as it is about the moral character of America. His campaign is not personality-driven. At this particular point in history, that lack of emphasis on the self may be a welcome change. Trump and Biden, who have both been public figures for decades, have each weathered the character question by rejecting its premises. But theyve done so in different ways. Trump has flouted ethical prescriptions both publicly and privately. He screwed people who worked for him by not paying them, knowing theyd never be able to make him do so in court. He sued enemies until they gave up, bribed porn stars, and used Trump University to further immiserate vulnerable people who didnt see through the fraud. Hes the ultimate expression of the American id freed of any remaining Puritan constraints, and of American capitalism freed from any regulation at all, whether legal, ethical, or social. Biden, by contrast, has long battled from inside the crosshairs of the character crisis, as both administrator and subject. His record is mixed; the flaws that cost him the Democratic nomination in 1987 are still there. New issues like his handsiness have emerged. As for Reade: Much has been written about her credibility, but its worth reiterating that Bidens credibility is in question too. The strange lies he repeatedly tellsabout being arrested en route to visiting Nelson Mandela even though he wasnt, about marching in the civil rights movement even though he did notare as injurious as his reluctance to give them up is baffling. But on this front, as with so many, Trump has bottomed out the curve. Bidens ethical infractions exist, but he still responds to at least a few external standards besides his naked self-interest. He wants to be considered a good and decent man by people of all political persuasions, Republicans included. This last is key. Whatever else one might say about himand Ive said plentyhe worked very hard during the Thomas hearings to be considered fairby Republicans even more than by Democrats. If character were still a top-tier issue for Americans, other candidates in the Democratic primary would have fared better than they have. Biden isnt the character candidate. He might be the decency candidate (decency being a flattering category that forgives and overlooks much that character exacts and excludes). Given the current political terrain, many Americans seem to regard having ethical aspirations at alleven if you dont live up to them, even if you fudge facts in your striving toward them, even if you have at times sacrificed righteousness for reputationas enough. There is an upside to this low bar. If Biden wins, his will not be a cultish victory, and some diminished passion toward the presidency might be a healthy corrective to a country whose character might be damaged beyond repair. No doubt a President Biden would see his character come under assault by the opposing party, but its not likely to be able to do much damage. Much of the public is exhausted, furious, and sickened by the yawning gap between American ideals and American realities. Standards have been shredded to such an extent that its hard to imagine a candidate dropping out over a character issue now. Maybe this is OK. The mythmaking urge to turn our leaders into idols of historywhether Clinton or Reagan or Kennedywas always in tension with the ugly facts that kept emerging about them. Of course the cognitive dissonance was insupportable. Of course American idealism did not survive the ongoing public exposure of the political system that built it. But if we can start treating presidents as functionaries rather than celebritiesif the reality TV president ends the celebrity presidencythat will have been a good thing. And if Bidens first presidential run was one of the first casualties of character politics, his late career ascent might mark its end. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting on June 19 to discuss India-China border tensions. It will be a virtual meeting presided by PM Modi in which presidents of several political parties will be participating. The PMO tweeted saying, "In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 PM on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting". Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in the clash with Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. Monday's clash was the biggest confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese Army personnel were killed in the confrontation. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: 'Galwan Valley belongs to China, don't want further clashes,' says Chinese govt Several political parties have questioned the Prime Minister over his silence on the matter. Congress spokesperson Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened". Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra tweeted, "Incredible how BJP won 2019 by tomtoming 'surgical strikes' of which we never saw any actual proof & now that 20 real faces of our dead soldiers stare at us, the PM is silent". Meanwhile, a statement from External Affair ministry said that violent face-off between armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. Tensions have been high between the two sides in border areas of Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the row. Also read: India-China tension: Chidambaram questions PM Modi's silence on 'intrusion of foreign troops' Also read: India-China face-off: 'Why is PM silent, how dare China kill our soldiers', asks Rahul Gandhi A new book out this week about Melania Trump reveals that early in her husbands presidency, the first lady remained in New York as she renegotiated their prenuptial agreement. John Boltons forthcoming memoir contains devastating details about how the president regards the rule of law, which Mr. Bolton summarizes as obstruction of justice as a way of life. Another upcoming book, this one by President Trumps niece, Mary L. Trump, is being pitched as a revelatory work that shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the worlds health, economic security, and social fabric. All three authors paint negative portraits of the president, and all three books are published by Simon & Schuster. The confluence of these explosive books, in the months leading up to the 2020 election, has made Simon & Schuster the current front-runner in an ongoing race among publishers to produce news-making titles about the Trump administration. Its a lucrative business to be in right now. On Wednesday, Mr. Boltons book held the No. 1 spot on Amazons best-seller list, while Mary Trumps was No. 3, even though neither has come out. Simon & Schuster has increased the print runs for both titles after booksellers raised their orders. On the evening of June 17, 2015, a 21-year-old Dylann Roof entered the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, attended a Bible study and then drew his pistol to open fire, killing nine black churchgoers. The attack left the community devastated, but state Rep. JA Moore, who lost his sister in the shooting, believes it didn't inspire enough action. "We have done nothing," he said. PHOTO: In this April 10, 2017, file photo, Dylann Roof enters the court room at the Charleston County Judicial Center to enter his guilty plea on murder charges in Charleston, S.C. (Grace Beahm/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool, File) "After my sister and eight others were killed, we took down a flag," Moore said in a statement. "But that was it. We have done nothing else to address institutional racism in our society. What happened to George Floyd last month and Rayshard Brooks last week is evidence of that." MORE: Slideshow: A look back at the tragic Emanuel AME Church church shooting Today, protesters across the country march against the same conditions that contributed to that tragedy five years ago: systemic racism. PHOTO: In this June 19, 2015, file photo, the men of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. lead a crowd of people in prayer outside the Emanuel AME Church, after a memorial service for the nine people killed by Dylann Roof in Charleston, S.C. (Stephen B. Morton/AP, File) Currently, federal authorities are reviewing the investigations into the deaths of two men in California, 24-year-old Robert Fuller and 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch -- both who were found dead hanging from trees -- to determine if federal laws were violated, the FBI said. (MORE:Robert Fuller's family wants 'complete transparency' in hanging death probe) "The FBI, U.S. Attorney's office for the Central District of California and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division are actively reviewing the investigations into the hanging deaths of two African American men in the cities of Palmdale and Victorville to determine whether there are violations of federal law," the FBI said in a statement Monday. The family attorney of Fuller Jamon R. Hicks said in a statement Tuesday that they are seeking an independent investigation and autopsy. The family and the community are "enraged" that "the Sheriff's Department immediately declared his death a suicide," said Hicks. "For African Americans in America, hanging from a tree is a lynching. Why was this cavalierly dismissed as a suicide and not investigated as a murder?" Story continues PHOTO: In this June 24, 2015, file photo Sen. Clementa Pinckney's wife Jennifer Pinckney, center, and her daughters, Eliana, left, and Malana, right, follow his casket into the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. (Rainier Ehrhardt/AP, File) In 2014, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was shot by a white police officer. His death was mourned by many, but not enough change was made. Since then, the way Americans view racial injustices across the country, especially when it comes to police brutality, has changed. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll showed that 74% of Americans believe the killing of George Floyd is part of a broader problem in the treatment of African Americans by police. (MORE:74% of Americans view George Floyd's death as an underlying racial injustice problem: POLL) In December 2014, a similar poll showed that 43% of Americans said those instances showed indications of a broader problem, while more than half, 51%, called it an isolated incident. Roof was sentenced to death on Jan. 10, 2017, nearly two years after the massacre. It was the first time a death penalty verdict was rendered in a federal hate crimes case, the Justice Department said. Roof is now awaiting execution in Indiana. 'We have done nothing' 5 years after Charleston massacre, mourner says originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 00:33:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HELSINKI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The reopening of schools in Finland in mid-May did not cause an increase in COVID-19 infection rates among school-aged children nationwide, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) reported on Wednesday. Education Minister Li Andersson on Wednesday thanked the schools for their efforts in curbing the infection while "securing" the students' right to education. Grades 1 to 9 reopened their doors on May 14 after a nearly three-month closure due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Most of the 530,000-odd students returned to the classrooms, while distance learning continued for students who are high risk for virus infection. According to the THL, the country's schools have reported no chains of infection. However, in seven southern municipalities, 16 students and seven adult school employees have been confirmed as infected or severely exposed since the reopening of their schools. During the two-week reopening period before the summer holiday, contacts between different classroom groups were kept to the minimum and students remained in the same classroom throughout the day. Classes were also kept separate during the school luncheons. A survey conducted by national broadcaster Yle has indicated, however, that the nearly three months of distance learning experience has increased the impact of the students' socio-economic status on their performance. Not all parents were able to assist their children at home. Some schools could not provide laptops to their students, while others had to rely on mobile phones. Much also depended on how computer savvy the teachers were. Interviewed on Yle, Sami Nykanen, headmaster of a school in Tampere in southern Finland, said that if distance learning comes back in the autumn, the core principles of the Finnish comprehensive school system may be endangered. "The differences between pupils will grow," he said. One of the aims of the Finnish school reform in the 1970s was to eliminate the impact of conditions at home on the students' school performance. According to the THL, as of Wednesday afternoon, Finland had confirmed 7,117 COVID-19 infections, of which five were new. The death toll reached 326, but no new death was reported in the past 24 hours. Some 6,200 patients have recovered, accounting for about 85 percent of the confirmed cases. A total of 224,400 people have been tested in Finland to date. Enditem An investor lawsuit against a Utah company alleges its principals falsely claimed its coronavirus diagnostic test was 100% accurate and before doubts about the claim became widely reported, directors and officers of the company were selling off their own stock at its inflated price. The securities fraud lawsuit has been brought against Co-Diagnostics in federal court in Utah on behalf of investors the complaint says have lost millions of dollars. The complaint notes that while many global and American companies have been engaged in a race to find therapeutics and hopefully a vaccine to combat the coronavirus, some other companies and corporate executives have sought to unfairly exploit the pandemic for their financial gain. Defendant Co-Diagnostics is one of those companies, the complaint charges. The Utah company was formed in 2013 to take advantage of DNA-testing technology developed by Brent Satterfield, Ph.D., a biomedical engineer. According to Co-Diagnostics, it began developing Covid-19 tests using a technology called CoPrimer, which was developed and patented by Satterfield before the outbreak. The investors allege a scheme under which the companys inflated claims of success in coronavirus tests boosted its historically low stock price to new highs. However, as the media and regulators began to question the accuracy of such tests, the companys stock price began falling. The investors allege that Co-Diagnostics, its directors and officers including PhD-level scientists who should know better made continual, knowing and willful misstatements about their main product to pump up the price of CoDiagnostics stock while the officers and directors exercised low priced options and dumped their stock into the market. The company became the first to win approval to sell its tests in the European Union in February and in April in the U.S. News of these approvals and the subsequent rise in sales boosted the firms stock price. Co-Diagnostics got a $5 million contract with the state of Utah to supply tests and a $26 million contract with Iowa totaling $26 million with Iowa. The stock, which closed on December 31, 2019 at $0.8952 per share, jumped to $15 in February and topped $17 per share in early March; then settled at about $8.00 per share. However. trouble began in April 30 when the Salt Lake Tribune reported results from Co-Diagnostics TestUtah.com were raising questions about accuracy. Co-Diagnostics issued a press release that stated that Co-Diagnostics covid-19 tests were 100% accurate. The complaint includes data showing the tests are less than 100% accurate and Federal Drug Administration statements that no test is 100%. The company stuck to its claims of 100% accuracy and, as it neared the release of its first quarter results, on May 14, the stock reached an all-time high of $29.72. That same day, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Co-Diagnostics tests were likely to have a much higher false negative reporting rate than others and that the firm declined to join other major Utah labs in a joint experiment to confirm one anothers quality. The Tribune article also reported on concerns relating to TestNebraska.com and TestIowa.com. According to the complaint, in its earnings call, Co-Diagnostics reported that it achieved record sales in the first quarter and finally reached profitability. However, it did not address the testing accuracy. When the negative news broke, the stock price began to fall, closing the day at $22.13 after hitting an intra-day low of $18.35, a greater than 38% decrease in price within hours. The stock price further fell to just over $15 per share when markets opened on May 15. Their fraudulent misstatements, and disregard for the basic scientific principles that make their falsity of their statements clear in retrospect, cost investors to lose millions of dollars, the complaint says. At the same time, with a cloud of doubt hanging over the companys claims of accuracy, the complaint says Co-Diagnostics directors and officers have been selling their shares into the market reaping millions of dollars from the fraud-inflated price of the stock, according to the plaintiff investors. The investors seek certification as a class action lawsuit and compensatory damages in favor of against all defendants, jointly and severally, plus legal costs. The suit was filed by lawyers from Smith Washburn in Salt Lake City and two Miami law firms, Fasano and Marcus Neiman Rashbaum & Pineiro. This is not the first investor lawsuit over claims surrounding coronavirus breakthroughs. In March Pennsylvania-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals became the target of a lawsuit alleging it falsely claimed it has developed a vaccine for COVID-19 that would go into testing as soon as next month. But the pharmaceutical firm has said the allegations are based on a misunderstanding of the medical science. Insurance underwriters have been bracing for a rash of D&O lawsuits as part of the fallout from the pandemic. Ratings agency A.M. Best said it expects protracted litigation. Its likely that the COVID-19 pandemic will ultimately lead to greater complexity regarding emerging D&O claims and litigation issues, said David Blades, associate director, industry research and analytics for A.M. Best. He said the inherent complexities of unique COVID-19 claim scenarios could lead to protracted litigation for many claims. Blades said D&O insurers could be facing possible claims over company responses to the pandemic and any failures to protect against substantial financial losses. Other potential claims might concern misleading disclosures relative to the pandemic, government investigations into applications for pandemic relief, and claims stemming from the financial troubles of travel, leisure, hospitality, retail and other sectors hit hard by the pandemic and lockdowns. Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Slated to come into effect on August 1, 2020, the agreement will also help Vietnam improve its position in global supply chains and create more added value, he said. Under the deal, he expects Vietnams GDP to increase 2-3 percent in the first five years of implementation, 4.5-5.3 percent in the subsequent five years, and 7.0-7.7 percent in the five years to follow. The Ministry of Planning and Investment estimated prior to the COVID-19 outbreak that, thanks to the EVFTA, Vietnams export revenue to the EU would expand about 20 percent this year, 42.7 percent in 2025, and 44.37 percent in 2030, primarily vehicles and transportation equipment, machinery, spare parts, phones and electronic components, pharmaceuticals, garments and textiles, and leather and footwear. However, he added, figures from the General Department of Vietnam Customs show that exports to the EU from January to May were down 9.68 percent year-on-year. Export value may therefore rise just 5 percent this year but higher levels will be posted from 2021 onwards. The EU has committed to providing Vietnam with the highest-ever tax incentives, Thanh said, with up to 85 percent of tariff lines on Vietnamese goods cut to zero percent as soon as the agreement takes effect, with tariffs on most of the remaining goods eliminated after seven years. New added value will be created for any party aware of new global trends post-COVID-19, puts forth business strategies, and develops its economy sustainably, the Trade Counsellor emphasised. He also pointed to the challenges ahead, such as strict regulations, standards, and technical barriers set by the EU, and suggested Vietnamese companies satisfy the demand of European consumers in taste, packaging, and food safety while scaling up production, stepping up cooperation, and ensuring transparency. He said Vietnam needs to act fast to optimise the opportunities generated by the agreement, as the EU is yet to conclude negotiations over FTAs with Thailand and Indonesia. Thanh also warned of changes in the post-COVID-19 period when major Western European countries restore domestic supply chains to ease reliance on goods from Asia. Given this, Vietnam needs to find its own path, he said, suggesting it cut the processing of low value added goods. According to the Trade Counsellor, Vietnam can optimise the agreement to promote the export of certain products to Italy, such as electronic motors, phones and spare parts, honey, footwear, garments and textiles, face masks, pharmaceuticals, machinery, equipment, wooden items, and agro-fishery products, especially rice. He affirmed that the commercial affairs office of the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy stands ready to act as a bridge for trade between the two countries. MEXICO CITY - Even as Mexico announced plans for reopening churches and religious events, the country posted near-record numbers of newly confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday. The Health Department reported that confirmed cases rose by 4,599, the second-highest daily increase to date, to reach an accumulated total of 154,863. Deaths rose by 730, the third-highest daily confirmation number, after one-day increases of 1,092 and 816 earlier this month. Those death tolls rivaled those of the United States. Both case and death total which now stands at 18,310 are clearly undercounts, because Mexico does very little testing. Health care professionals now account for about 24% of Mexicos cases; 32,388 doctors, nurses and technicians have been infected, and 463 have died. Health officials acknowledged Mexico is on a plateau, with sustained rates of transmission and deaths, with few if any signs of a decrease. Despite that, business are beginning to reopen after mandatory lockdowns due to the coronavirus. On Tuesday, the Interior Department published guidelines for reopening religious activities and churches, which had been ordered closed. in about half the country, churches will be allowed to open at 25% of capacity; once case numbers and hospital saturation and other indicators fall, that capacity will be allowed to rise to 50%. holidays in Turkey are possible, for travellers from Germany, the country remains, however, a Corona-risk area. While the Federal government has repealed most of the European States, the General Corona-travel alert, available on the from the Robert-Koch-Institute (RKI) published a list of the risk areas, other popular holiday countries such as Egypt, Morocco, and Thailand. Rainer Hermann editor in the policy. F. A. Z. A country is regarded as a risk area, if the number of daily new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, lies within a week at more than 50. The decision on which countries as a risk area, is not politically motivated but rather a consequence of the infection numbers. In Turkey, the daily new infections have been increasing for the 12. June and are currently about 1500 of the day. Even if the number of infections is relatively low, can be explained by the a country to the risk area, for example, in the case of lack of Test capabilities or insufficient measures to mitigate the pandemic. "Also is taken into account, if no reliable information for specific countries," reads the website of the Robert-Koch-Institute. list is valid until 31. August The list of risk areas applicable to the 31. August and will be updated regularly, shall notify the Federal Foreign office. Anyone entering from a risk area, to Germany, had to expect to get 14 days of quarantine prescribed. In June the higher administrative court for North Rhine-Westphalia in Munster and the administrative court in Berlin had ruled that, in Federal States, travelers who come back after 72 hours from a high-risk area, are not generally obliged to go into home quarantine. A premature cancellation of the classification in a risk area with a positive pandemic of development, a stable health system, consistent safety and security measures for tourism as well as reliable and also travel options possible and will be announced separately in an individual case, shall notify the Federal Foreign office. criticism from the tourism industry especially the Turkey, the third most popular holiday destination of Germans to Spain and Italy, had insisted, in the travel warning to be lifted. Turkish foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had shown a few days ago disappointed over the course of the Federal government. Everything is prepared for a safe journey in Turkey, he said the "Spiegel": "The scientific reasons behind the decision are hard for us to." The Turkey has lifted in the last week of their entry restrictions to a large extent and the air traffic resumed to Germany. In the view of the government in Ankara is taken care of to the vacation places in the Mediterranean such as Antalya and Bodrum for all of the Corona-safety precautions. Updated Date: 17 June 2020, 14:20 More than 3 million barrels of oil are waiting off Chinas coast with another 5 million en route, according to new data. Venezuelas oil exports have collapsed since the U.S. placed sanctions on its state producer, but some crude from the OPEC member is still making its way to buyers in Asia. Officially, China hasnt imported any Venezuelan crude since September after Washington sanctioned state entities including Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. Information from data intelligence firm Kpler, however, signals the Asian nation is still buying, with as much as 3.3 million barrels waiting off the Chinese coast as of June 15 and another 5 million en route to the port of Qingdao. The data suggests that some traders are still willing to run the risk of contravening U.S. sanctions as Venezuelan oil has become so cheap. The grades are also particularly favored by Asian refiners with plants well-suited to handle its heavy-sour quality at a time when supplies of similar-type crude have tightened due to the OPEC+ output curbs. In order to get Venezuelan oil to buyers, traders use inventive methods to disguise the cargos origin. Most of the Venezuelan crude headed for China is on tankers that picked up their shipments via ship-to-ship transfers in the Malacca Straits, rather than from Venezuelan ports directly, said Kplers analyst Sean Tan. No one responded to faxed questions sent to Chinas Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs on the nations imports of Venezuelan oil. Oil in Transit One such shipment started its journey to China on Voyager I. In early-April, the very-large crude carrier called at two ports in Venezuela before sailing to the Malacca Straits, one of the worlds most important waterways that connect China to its biggest suppliers. It was there that the oil was transferred to the tanker Pola, which set sail for China early this month. The laden vessel was last seen waiting off the major Chinese storage hub of Zhoushan on June 16, according to ship-tracking data. While ship-to-ship transfers of oil from larger supertankers to smaller vessels are commonplace for the supply of cargoes to shallower ports, its also often used to obscure the origin of cargoes. The method involves two tankers positioning alongside each other at sea with connection hoses, moving oil from one vessel to the other. As of Tuesday, a Suezmax tanker had offloaded some Venezuelan oil at Aoshan port, near Zhoushan, while a Very Large Crude Carrier with some Venezuelan crude onboard also discharged some of its cargo at Ningbo, according to ship-tracking data. Another two supertankers with Venezuelan Merey crude were sailing toward Singapore after waiting off China for some time as of June 15, said Kplers Tan. According to ship-tracking data, the vessels didnt register any decline in draft while waiting near China, suggesting they may still be laden with oil. Separately, 7.5 million barrels of Venezuelan oil is estimated to be floating off Singapore and Malacca Straits, Tan added. Desired Quality Venezuelas heavy-sour crudes with their high residue content is a very well-liked feedstock among Chinese refiners, according to Serena Huang, a senior analyst at market analytics firm Vortexa Ltd. Grades such as Merey and Hamaca are typically high in sulfur and yield a large portion of bitumen and heavy fuels when refined, making them a cheap feedstock for refineries with sophisticated units. The crude can produce a lot of products that simply go into road projects and construction, said Eugene Lindell, senior oil analyst at JBC Energy in Vienna. As Chinas economy reopens and government stimulus jump-starts industrial activity and infrastructural spending, domestic demand for fuels as well as bitumen are set to get a lift. In March, the countrys Ministry of Transport called for accelerated road construction projects. Shortly after, Chinas bitumen output saw a 16% surge in April to a record 4.86 million tons. Bitumen margins have been quite strong since late last year and as China accelerates resumption of economy, demand is very much supported, Yuntao Liu, London-based analyst with Energy Aspects said in email. Moreover, the countrys demand for heavy crudes is also expected to get some support from the blending of bitumen into very-low sulfur fuel oil, a fuel predominantly used by ships. Salihu Lukman, director-general of Progressive Governors Forum, says Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Cong... Salihu Lukman, director-general of Progressive Governors Forum, says Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has hawked the partys soul to buccaneers whose interests are winning elections unfairly. Recently, there has been unrest in the party concerning Edo governorship election scheduled for September. Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state, resigned his membership of the APC on Tuesday after he was disqualified from running for the partys ticket. The governor has since said he would pursue his second term bid on another platform. In a statement on Tuesday, Lukman said it is a disconcerting reality to be part of an undemocratic political platform which is intolerant of basic tenets of free and fair contests. The director-general said without even recalling the partys outing at the 2019 general election, every APC member should be worried. It is very difficult and challenging to come to terms with unfolding development in APC. The disconcerting reality of becoming clobbered into another undemocratic political platform, which is intolerant to basic tenets of free and fair contests is hard to admit, he said. Being troubled should have spurred us into some sober reflections with the objective of remedying the situation. Unfortunately, it would appear that we are more determined to reproduce all the obdurate painful experiences, every time we are faced with electoral contests. It was Rivers, Zamfara and Bayelsa. Now Edo and Ondo are basically on a roller-coaster with perhaps emerging with the same predictable outcome that consumed our electoral victories in Zamfara and Bayelsa States. Why should this be allowed to happen? It is clear that, APC leadership as currently constituted under the leadership of Comrade Oshiomhole is imprudent and cannot be entrusted with the task of leading the party. Comrade Oshiomholes NWC has hawked the soul of the party to political buccaneers whose narrow interest is just about unfairly winning elections. Lukman said Oshiomhole has failed on his promises to provide a party register in all the state and set up a mechanism for conflict resolution in the party. APC does not belong to anybody. It is a product of sacrifice by leaders and members of our old legacy parties, the director-general said. Nobody should contemplate leaving the party on account of the rascality going on in the party under Comrade Oshiomholes leadership. All members of the party and lovers of democracy in Nigeria must rise against what is going on in APC. It is a struggle for the soul of APC. A man from Njoro Constituency in Nakuru County died on Monday after he choked on a piece of meat. The 35-year-old, identified only as Rasta, had reportedly returned to his home in Sigaon Village in Neisuit Ward at around 5 pm while drunk. A neighbour told K24 Digital that Rasta was drunk and complained of hunger. Neisuit Youth chairperson, Kitur Sigei, added that the deceased was carrying meat wrapped in a newspaper when he arrived home. On boiling the meat, he started eating it before it was properly cooked, said Sigei. Unfortunately, he choked on it. Neighbours heard Rasta calling for help. When they rushed to his house, they found him wriggling on the floor. One of the neighbours attempted to help Rasta spew up the meat, but his attempts were unsuccessful, the Youth chair added. Neighbours rushed the man to a nearby hospital, but he succumbed on the way. Rasta, who engaged in menial work for a living, did not have a wife or children. The area residents asked the county government to allow them to bury him in his compound. Brendan Gleeson as Donald Trump in The Comey Rule (Credit: CBS/Showtime) US network Showtime has unveiled its first look at Irish actor Brendan Gleeson as Donald Trump in forthcoming mini-series The Comey Rule. The star of In Bruges and Paddington 2 is an absolute dead ringer for the US president, seen in profile with his disputed-sized inauguration crowd providing the backdrop. Read more: Cleese mocks Fox News over Python gaffe Based on former FBI director James Comey's memoir A Higher Loyalty, it will find Jeff Daniels playing Comey over two, two-hour episodes. The first part will explore the early part of the FBI's investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 US election, which saw defy the polls and Trump beat Hillary Clinton to the presidency. Brendan Gleeson (Credit: Ron Eshel/Invision/AP) It will also look at the Clinton emails case, the re-opening of which so close to the election saw Comey come under heavy political fire. The second part will look into the first weeks and months of the Trump presidency, and the volatile relationship between Trump and Comey. Read more: Spike Lee says sorry for defending Woody Allen A host of stars will join Gleeson and Daniels in playing key political figures central to the Russia investigation. Holly Hunter plays fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, Michael Kelly is former FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Jennifer Ehle plays Comey's wife Patrice Comey, Scoot McNairy as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Jonathan Banks as former National Intelligence Director James Clapper. Jeff Daniels as James Comey in The Comey Rule (Credit: CBS/Showtime) British star Oona Chaplin, meanwhile, plays former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with Steven Pasquale as former FBI agent Peter Strzok, the counter-espionage chief who worked on Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation into Russian election interference. Page and Strzok, who were having an affair, were thrust into the headlines and caught up in the maelstrom of Trump's fury when it emerged they'd exchanged private text messages calling the president 'an idiot', leading to complaints that political bias was involved in the Mueller investigation. Story continues Meanwhile Amy Seimetz plays former FBI lawyer Trisha Anderson, Peter Coyote is Mueller and Kingsley Ben-Adir plays outgoing President Barack Obama. It's set to air in late November in the US. A n iPhone shortcut that allows users to automatically record interactions with police is gaining popularity amid worldwide protests against officer brutality. The Siri 'police' shortcut was first created in 2018 by Redditor Robert Petersen, but has recently reagined prominence following the death of George Floyd in policy custody. The 46-year-old African American died after a white officer knelt on his neck during an arrest. A video of the incident sparked Black Lives Matter protests around the world. The shortcut is linked to an app created by the American Civil Libeties Union, which has recently been updated to fix any bugs. iPhone users have to install the "I'm being pulled over" shortcut themselves to be able to use it. When they say, "Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over," to activate the shortcut, the app will pause any music that is playing, turn down the brightness on the phone, turn on Do Not Disturb mode and it will open up the users front-facing camera to start a recording. The shortcut also sends a message to a predesignated contact to alert them that the user has been pulled over by police, and shares their location with the contact. Once the recording has been sent, the app will share a copy of the video with the predesignated contact. Despite the fact that the shortcut was released two years ago, it has recently started trending on social media due to anti-racism protests taking place around the world. It comes after US President Donald Trump said he would pursue an executive order to encourage police departments to meet current professional standards for the use of force. Black Lives Matter protests across the world - In pictures 1 /28 Black Lives Matter protests across the world - In pictures A banner and a US. flag are placed on the Monument a la Republique in Paris REUTERS Protesters in Perth Australia Getty Images Speakers at the Black Lives Matter Rally at Langley Park in Perth Getty Images Police officers are seen during a protest against police brutality and the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Paris REUTERS Perth protests Getty Images Speakers take to the stage during the Black Lives Matter Rally in Perty Getty Images Protesters show their support during the Black Lives Matter Rally at Langley Park in Perty Getty Images Demonstrators march through the streets in Perth AFP via Getty Images Demonstrators march through the streets in Perth AFP via Getty Images Demonstrators march through the streets in Perth AFP via Getty Images Demonstrators march through the streets in Perth Getty Images Demonstrators march through the streets in Perth Getty Images Thousands of people take part in a demonstration against police brutality and racism in Paris AP French riot police forces detain a protester during a rally as part of the 'Black Lives Matter' AFP via Getty Images French riot police forces detain protesters AFP via Getty Images The crowds in Paris AFP via Getty Images A man wearing a protective face mask and googles walks past a broken store window in Paris REUTERS Assa Traore (C), the sister of Adama Traore, who died in police custody in 2016 in Paris AFP via Getty Images Protesters hold flares as they stand next to a banner reading 'Confronted to police brutality - Self defence' in Paris AFP via Getty Images A house facade with a graffiti against police in Paris. AFP via Getty Images An injured demonstrator is helped away in Paris AFP via Getty Images The call for establishing a national use-of-force standard amounted to his first concrete proposal for American police reform in response to the national and international outcry following Mr Floyds death during a violent encounter with Minneapolis police. Mr Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd has made a heartfelt plea to the UNs top human rights body to launch intense international scrutiny of systemic racism and the killing of unarmed black people by police. His video message to the Human Rights Council came as the body contemplates an unprecedented bid by the Africa Group to create a Commission of Inquiry, the councils most powerful tool of scrutiny. A commission would to examine and report on racism and violence against protesters by police in the United States. I am my brothers keeper," said Philonise Floyd. You in the United Nations are your brothers and sisters keepers in America and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd." Chennai, June 17 : Makers of the upcoming digital release "Penguin" aim to keep the mystery element about the film intact till its release on June 19. Ever since the trailer was launched, many wondered who plays the villain in the film. Apparently, only the few involved in the process of filmmaking know who the actor is. "I wanted to keep the element of mystery and thrill going throughout. For that purpose, none of the crew members also knew who the antagonist was, behind that mask. We were shooting with a small team and it was even more difficult to maintain that suspense with less number of people," said the film's director Eshavar Karthic. "Everyone would be making a guess but no one knew. I wanted everyone to unfold the surprise at the end which made it all real with the thriller. Everyone was jumping when we were shooting the climax scene because they were so keen," he added. Starring Keerthy Suresh, the Amazon Prime video release has been shot simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu and will also be released in a Malayalam-dubbed version, too. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Weve all seen the video. Theres simply no justification for Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin doing what he did to George Floyd. Ive worked with law enforcement officers federal, state and local throughout my career. The overwhelming majority are simply trying to do their duty under difficult circumstances. Its a dangerous job. So far this year, 22 law enforcement officers in the U.S. have been killed feloniously, according to FBI crime statistics. Last year, 48 were killed. Most of the officers killed were shot by gun-wielding suspects. In 2018, according to the FBI, there were 58,866 assaults against law enforcement officers. Its a tough job where you have to make life-and-death decisions in fractions of seconds, only to be second-guessed by armchair analysts. There are some 800,000 sworn law enforcement officers in this country. There are bound to be a handful of bad actors among them. In no way does this excuse what happened to Floyd. Why did Chauvin do it? We dont know. Was he motivated by racism? We dont know that, either. All we really know is that Chauvin is white and Floyd was black. Chauvin will have his day in court. Chauvins actions are an affront to all honest, hard-working cops. He and other officers who use unnecessary force are catalysts of suspicion and mistrust. They divide rather than unify. In the same way, those who sowed mayhem and chaos in cities across America only diverted attention away from legitimate protest, not to mention from Floyd himself, and have made it just about impossible to engage in productive discussions to ensure that what happened to Floyd never happens again. And now, for an encore, progressives are pushing to defund (dismantle in the case of Minneapolis) local police departments. This is what happens in a world of extremes. The advancing of agendas always supersedes the desire for reconciliation. Let me just pause here to ask an obvious question. How does fewer cops on the streets or redistributing law enforcement funding help anyone, including people of color? CNNs Alisyn Camerota asked Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender, who wants to dismantle the citys police department, what a citizen is supposed to do if someone is breaking into her house and theres no police force. For those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done. The worst thing about this sort of nonsense is it distracts all of us and diverts our attention from legitimate issues and productive discourse. A serious pursuit of justice requires calling out evil. It does not require extremist rhetoric and behavior. Those engaged in peaceful protests over Floyds death dont want to be seen as rioters and looters, setting fires and stealing TVs. That would be unfair. Its equally unfair to suggest that Chauvin is representative of all police officers. Unfair and untrue. What all of us can do is seek empathy, for people of color, for their struggle and yes, for dedicated law enforcement officers, whose main goal every night is to live through their shift. The us versus them approach in the name of justice, advanced by the Al Sharptons of the world, will get us nowhere. Unless empathy and reason prevail, the middle ground of compromise and understanding we seek assuming were really interested in finding it will remain unreachable. That would be the greatest injustice of all. Rich Manieri is a Philadelphia-born journalist and author. He is a professor of journalism at Asbury University in Kentucky. He can be reached at manieri2@gmail.com. Distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. A Queensland music teacher accused of abusing one of his young pupils may have had other victims, police fear. The 39-year-old has been charged with indecent treatment of a child during private lessons at his home music studio in the regional city of Mackay. The teacher is due to face the Mackay Magistrates Court on August 17. Credit:Alamy Police allege his offences spanned more than a year, and stopped only earlier this month. They have appealed for further information about the offences or "possible related matters", suggesting there may be other victims COPENHAGEN (dpa-AFX) - A.P. Mller - Mrsk A/S (AMKAF.PK,AMKBF.PK) said it expects an EBITDA before restructuring and integration costs for the second-quarter of 2020 slightly above the level for the prior quarter's $1.5 billion. The market demand in the second quarter of 2020 is developing more favourable than originally expected with volumes downfall for the company now anticipated to be in the range of -15% to -18% for the second-quarter 2020, compared to the initial guidance of -20% to -25%. 'Given the uncertainty on demand recovery in the second half of 2020 as economies are still impacted by COVID-19, the full-year guidance on earnings remains suspended,' the company said. The company said it will publish its second-quarter interim result on 19 August 2020. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Awal Gulf Manufacturing, a leading manufacturer of commercial and residential air-conditioning and refrigeration units based out of Bahrain, has launched its innovative air purification unit Pearl that uses state-of-the-art design technology to deliver fresh air through efficient filtration system. The Pearl air purifier is powered by a portable multi-layered high-efficiency particulate air (Hepa) filters designed to remove viruses and bacteria from the air, providing enhanced level of respiratory protection. The air purifier also uses the latest UV-C technology that thoroughly decontaminates the indoor air by killing up to 99.999 per cent of airborne viruses and infections, the company said in a statement. Ghassan Freiwat, Deputy CEO of Awal Gulf Manufacturing, said: The world is currently passing through an unprecedented time and indoor air quality (IAQ) has never been so critical to the health and safety of the people. Clean air is specifically vital in hospitals, clinics and healthcare facilities to protect patients, staff and visitors from airborne diseases and infections. We at Awal Gulf Manufacturing believe that as leaders and experts in the HVACR (heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration) industry for almost 50 years we have got a role to play in creating a safer, cleaner and efficient environment. We are pleased to launch our all new Pearl air purifier with a filtration efficiency of 99.999 per cent down to 0.3 micron particles, H14 as per EN1822. The unit is now available to order through a select dealers network across Europe, Middle East & Africa, he added. The unit is a simple plug-and-play system with no integration into the existing mechanical systems. The system draws in contaminated air and removes all bacteria and viruses through a series of integral filters and then delivers clean air back into space. The unit can be placed in the common areas, hospitals and ancillary healthcare facilities including research labs and pharmaceutical plants. The unit application is not limited to the healthcare vertical only, but can also be used in educational institutes and other residential and commercial applications, the company said. Awal Gulf Manufacturing currently serves customers in over 40 countries through an extensive dealer network across EMEA. Innovation and sustainability is at the core of its manufacturing process ensuring minimal impact to the environment, it said. Awal Gulf was established in 1993 as an associate of the Awalco Group as part of its expansion plan for its Air Conditioning division, that was established in 1970 as a licensee of the US brand Friedrich. Production started in 1995 from its first manufacturing plant with a total capacity of 500,000 units per year. In order to meet the growing demands of customers and to diversify its product offerings the company commissioned a chest freezer plant in 2005 and a state-of-the-art, largest of all, manufacturing plant in 2010 exclusively for central air-conditioning products. Currently, the company employs over 1,000 dedicated HVACR professional working towards bringing innovative products and services to the region. The companys products include window air conditioners, decorative-type split systems, central air conditioners, air handling units ( AHUs), fan coil units ( FCUs), variable refrigerant flow systems (VRF), roof tank water coolers, chest freezers, showcase refrigerators and air purifiers. TradeArabia News Service The Socialist Equality Party is collecting 5,000 electronic signatures to place Joseph Kishore and Norissa Santa Cruz on the presidential ballot for the November general election ballot in the state of Illinois. Sign our petition today! (Illinois voters only) A US district court has ruled that third parties and independent candidates can gather signatures electronically this year, due to the state shutdown and social distancing measures implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The number of signatures required has also been reduced from 25,000. The ballot access rules are still deeply undemocratic. The SEP must collect far greater than 2,500 signatures in anticipation of challenges from the capitalist parties. In the past, the Illinois Democratic Party has made a concerted effort to keep the SEP off the ballot, conducting a line-by-line examination of the hundreds of petition signatures. Signing the petition does not mean that you are voting for the candidate. It only assures the democratic right of the SEP to be on the ballot and the democratic rights of residents of Illinois to vote for the SEP candidates. WSWS readers can help gather the 5,000 or more signatures needed. Registered voters in Illinois should sign the petition and encourage friends, family, coworkers and community members to sign it as well, if they are eligible. and encourage friends, family, coworkers and community members to sign it as well, if they are eligible. Circulate the SEP petition among Illinois residents. Any legal US citizen over the age of 18 may help to circulate the petition. (You need not be a registered voter to circulate the petition.) among Illinois residents. Any legal US citizen over the age of 18 may help to circulate the petition. (You need not be a registered voter to circulate the petition.) Help us gain electors. The ballot access effort also requires 20 electors who are Illinois residents over the age of 18, registered to vote in the state and who have not already signed a ballot access petition for a third party candidate in the general election. Electors do not have any official responsibilities unless the party wins a plurality of the vote. If you are eligible and willing to serve as an elector, please contact us . . Make a donation to the SEP election campaign to help us promote this campaign. In order to sign the Illinois ballot access petition and/or serve as an elector, you must be a registered voter in Illinois over the age of 18 and you must not have signed a petition to put a third party candidate on the ballot in the general election. If you are an Illinois resident and not yet registered to vote, you can register online. After you register, please sign and circulate the SEP petition! On the ballot access effort, presidential candidate Joseph Kishore explained, This is an extraordinary election. It is taking place under conditions of pandemic, the homicidal back-to-work campaign of the ruling elite, mass unemployment, and the eruption of protests internationally. Amid growing social anger, the population as a whole is moving to the left. The so-called choice between the two representatives of financial oligarchy must be rejected. I urge all residents of Illinois to sign this petition to place Norissa and me on the ballot. Workers need their own party that represents their interests and fights for the social rights of the working class. SEP 2020 Vice Presidential candidate Norissa Santa Cruz said, All of the major issues that society faces today, from the threat of world war, to climate change, state violence, and the pandemic, these are all global issues. There is absolutely nothing that can be solved on a national basis. Our campaign is directed not just at the working class and youth in the US, but towards global youth and workers who must organize together to wage a united struggle against the horrors of capitalism. The SEP is taking measures to get on the ballot in other states and will announce initiatives as they begin. To sign up for the SEP mailing list and to get involved, visit socialism2020.org. Put the Socialist Equality Party on the ballot in Illinois! Sign and circulate our petition today! Zapata County recorded 11 new cases of COVID-19 over the last week, according to county and state officials. As of Monday, County Judge Joe Rathmell said positive cases increased to 23 with 171 tests pending and 10 released from isolation. The cases are the following: Case No. 13: Male in his 60s. Case No. 14: Female in her 40s. Case No. 15: Male in his 40s. Case No. 16: Male in his 30s. Case No. 17: Female in her 60s. Case No. 18: Female in her 50s. Case No. 19: Male in his 60s. Case No. 20: Female in her 30s. Case No. 21: Female in her 10s. Case No. 22: Female in her 20s. Case No. 23: Male in his 10s. Regarding Case No. 11, Rathmell clarified that the patient is a male in his teens and not in his 40s. All are currently isolated, authorities said. The Texas Department of State Health Services is supporting Zapata County in identifying any close contacts of the patient so they can be isolated and monitored for symptoms, according to Rathmell. County and state officials reminded the community that they are conducting contact investigation on persons who have tested positive to determine possible exposure to others. Officials said they continue to work together against COVID-19. We are vigilant and reporting results for COVID-19 in the region. We are also working together to educate and promote social distancing and staying at home. To curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus, county and state officials recommend the following: A Sikorsky-Boeing team announced today that the experimental helicopter prototype competing to replace the Army's UH-60 Black Hawk has completed a flight at nearly 205 knots, or 236 miles per hour, and is just months away from exceeding 250 knots, nearly 290 mph. The SB-1 Defiant prototype is currently competing against the V-280 Valor prototype, developed by Textron Inc. and Bell, in the Army's Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) effort. That competition is part of the larger Future Vertical Lift endeavor to equip the Army with faster, longer-range helicopters beginning in 2030. Read Next: Guard Kills Trespassing Suspect at Navy SEAL Training Facility in Alaska "We are really proud of this milestone and what our team has achieved," said Jay Macklin, director of Future Vertical Lift Business Development for Sikorsky. "Exceeding 200 knots is significant also because it's beyond any conventional helicopter's speed." Sikorsky, which is owned by Lockheed Martin Corp., and Boeing Co., built the Defiant after the Army awarded the team a contract in 2014 as part of the Joint Multi Role Technology Demonstrator (JMRT-D) program. The Army also awarded a contract to a Textron-Bell team, which built the V-280 Valor, a tiltrotor-design helicopter that completed its first test flight in December 2017. Since then, the Valor has exceeded speeds of 300 knots, or 345 mph. The Defiant's test flight at 205 knots "is just a number, but it's a number that you are not typically accustomed to hearing with respect to a helicopter," Bill Fell, a former Army aviator and test pilot in the Defiant program, said. "When I started as an Army aviator in the old [OH-58] Kiowas and [AH-1] Cobras, you were [flying] at 100 knots; then we graduated to Black Hawks and Apaches and it's 130 to 140 knots,' he said. "We went 205 knots with less than 50% of the installed prop power, so expect a lot more in the future, because we had a lot more prop power to apply to this machine." The Defiant was designed to fly at a minimum speed of 230 knots, "so we will go well in excess of that, in excess of 250 knots," Fell said. "It's not weeks, it's not years, it's probably in the order of a few months before we get out to maximum speed," Fell said. "It's hard to say because it's all based off of success here on the test bed." The Defiant program has spent many hours testing the engine and other systems on the ground in a special test stand designed to collect data and predict how the prototype will perform during flight. "I think the key takeaway is, we are seeing exactly the performance our analytical tools have predicted; this gives even greater confidence as we continue to expand the speed envelope and maneuvers of Defiant," Macklin said. In March, the Army awarded competitive agreements to Bell Textron Inc. and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. to continue into the Competitive Demonstration and Risk Reduction (CD&RR) phase of the FLRAA program. The CD&RR effort is scheduled to last until 2022, the year the Army plans to select one vendor to eventually produce FLRAA. Randy Rotte, director of business development for Boeing Cargo Helicopters and Future Vertical Lift, said he is confident that Defiant will give aviators what they need to survive in the "most lethal and complicated battlefields today and in the future." "The survivability through the low-level high-speed maneuvers, the ability to fly in close formation and into those dark, dusty, tight [landing zones] ... it's going to enable our Army's ground forces' commanders to conduct operations that are nearly impossible today." -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Related: These 2 Futuristic Aircraft Will Compete to Replace the Army's Black Hawk A mother-of-three was left fighting for her life after Covid-19 'crushed her heart' with fluid and prevented it from pumping blood around her body. Gillian Escott, from Basingstoke, suffered a pericardial effusion, which causes excess fluid to clog up the sac surrounding the heart, known as the pericardium. A test in A&E confirmed she was sick with the coronavirus despite not having the typical symptoms, which are usually coughing and breathlessness. The virus is known to be able to attack the heart and to cause the deadly fluid build-up experienced by Mrs Escott in 'very rare cases', one cardiologist said. The fluid that built up in Mrs Escott's chest put so much pressure on her heart that it stopped the top two chambers, the atria, from working and nearly killed her, her husband said. Her blood pressure dropped so low that blood could not circulate her body properly and her organs started to shut down because of a lack of oxygen and nutrients. Surgeons saved her in the nick of time and she is now recovering at home, warning others that the virus can cause unusual but life-threatening symptoms not talked about as often as the cough and fever. Gillian Escott, 59, was left fighting for her life after coronavirus stopped her heart from pumping blood around her body and sent her blood pressure crashing Mrs Escott (with husband Stephen) claims blockages in the upper chambers of her heart had prevented blood from being delivered to vital organs The mother-of-three called NHS 111 on May 5 after being bed-bound with severe vomiting and diarrhoea for a week and an ambulance was sent to her door. Medics believed she was suffering from a stomach bug but decided to take her to hospital when tests revealed her blood pressure was extremely low. She was kept in A&E for around 24 hours so doctors could do tests and scans, which eventually revealed she had a huge build-up of fluid around her heart. This prevented the 59-year-old's heart from expanding and contracting, which it needs to do to pump blood around the body, and sent her blood pressure crashing. Doctors had to insert a tube into her chest and drain the fluid from around her heart in a two-hour operation to save her life. The process that triggered the fluid build-up on Mrs Escott's heart is called 'cytokine storm' and is an over-reaction of the immune system which nearly smothered her heart in a desperate bid to get rid of the virus. This devastating inflammatory response has commonly been seen in the lungs of Covid-19 patients who fall critically unwell with the virus and need to be hooked up to ventilators. In it, cells from the immune system go rushing to the site of infection and cause dangerous levels of swelling which can seriously damage vital organs. Her husband Stephen Escott, 56, told the Mirror Online: 'She went in on the Monday and I got a call from a consultant on Tuesday night at about 11pm, saying they were very concerned about the fluid around the heart and they were going to attempt to put a line into her chest and drain it. 'The consultant said at 1am, "She is critically ill but I do believe you will get to see her again; had you asked me the same question two hours ago I would have told you probably not". 'It took two hours to save her life. She was in the right place and had the right people around her.' WHAT IS THE 'CYTOKINE STORM' KILLING COVID-19 PATIENTS? Devastating lung inflammation triggered by the so-called 'cytokine storm' is thought to be what ultimately kills the sickest coronavirus patients. Cytokines are a group of cells involved in the immune system's response to injury or infection. They race to the site of a problem and signal to the body to send more immune cells to mount a defense against a foreign invader. It's a crucial part of how the body heals itself - but when it goes haywire it can lead to devastating damage. The influx of immune cells causes inflammation which, when persistent, an go awry and start killing cells in the very tissues the immune system is trying to protect When overabundant signalling cytokine cells stay switched 'on' for too long inflammation can continue out of control. This inflammation overwhelms the lungs of coronavirus patients, sending them into respiratory failure an ultimately killing many of them if this inflammation can't be stemmed. Advertisement Doctors inserted a tube into Mrs Escott's chest to drain the fluid from around her heart, which almost instantly allowed her blood pressure to return to normal levels. Dr Aseem Malhotra, an NHS consultant cardiologist based in London, told MailOnline: 'It sounds like Mrs Escott's primary symptoms [of coronavirus] was the stomach bug and sometimes the virus can, very rarely, attack the heart as well. 'Then it causes what we call a pericardial effusion, which is basically the body reacting to the virus and that causes fluid build-up around the heart. 'If you imagine the heart as a pump, it has to expand and contract to pump blood around the body. 'It has an outer casing, and if that outer casing gets full of fluid because of inflammation then it can't expand and the blood pressure drops and you can die. 'The only way to save somebody in that situation is to drain that fluid.' Mrs Escott is now raising awareness about her case to warn others that Covid-19 can surface 'many more ways' than just a fever and dry cough. Inflammation triggered by the so-called 'cytokine storm' is thought to be what ultimately kills many of the sickest coronavirus patients. Cytokines are a group of cells involved in the immune system's response to injury or infection, and include white blood cells. They race to the site of a problem and signal to the body to send more immune cells to mount a defense against a foreign invader. This process is a crucial part of how the body heals itself but when it goes haywire it can lead to devastating damage and a build-up of fluid in the vital organs. The influx of immune cells causes inflammation which, when persistent, an go awry and start killing cells in the very tissues the immune system is trying to protect When overabundant signalling cytokine cells stay switched 'on' for too long inflammation can continue out of control. This inflammation overwhelms the lungs of coronavirus patients, sending them into respiratory failure and ultimately killing many of them if this inflammation can't be stemmed. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Samir Ali Trend: The Azerbaijan citizens who temporarily stay in Russia and want to return are being brought back, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva told Trend on June 17. Some 152 citizens more are being brought to Azerbaijan by plane on June 17, 146 of them are adults, six children, the spokesperson said. I ts not just a case of packing satchels again and heading off cheerfully to lessons. The return to school after lockdown presents a psychological challenge for pupils and teachers, and its vitally important that they are supported through this transition. Lars Windhorst, the German entrepreneur, has recognised this need and, through his Foundation, has provided a ground-breaking package of well-being measures to support teachers and pupils. Together with Light Education Training, it works extensively with state schools in London on a vast range of educational projects, and mental health is an area it has identified that is lacking in funding. This is especially true at the moment, as I am discovering on a first hand basis every day. Many parents are experiencing difficult times as a result of this crisis, and it is not enough just to support childrens mental health. We have to look after the mental well-being of the whole school community - parents, pupils, teachers and staff. In this respect, we are responding by offering a broader range of initiatives that focus on mental health and wellbeing across the community. This includes training for all staff, along with a Life Skills for Mental Health programme and Wellbeing Whole School Communication System that centres around simple, regular, consistent self-regulation techniques throughout the day. We are also really proud to be offering a therapeutically designed programme, Same Sea, Different Boats, to support the re-integration of teachers and pupils, by creating a collective narrative of their diverse experiences during the Covid-19 lockdown period through the arts and storytelling. We have all been in the 'same sea' in this global pandemic, but our individual experiences have been very varied. We need to provide a safe, structured, creative way for school communities to make sense of this experience. The feedback weve received from the schools were working with has been incredibly positive, with teachers praising the support for their wellbeing as they transition from working from home to returning to school, as well as the programmes that allow them to support returning pupils and identify those children who may need additional support. We have also been really pleased to hear about the positive impact the exercises have had on the atmosphere in the classroom and how much pupils are enjoying taking part. As we navigate our way out of lockdown, providing support to those who have been affected by it continues to be incredibly important. Loading.... The Lars Windhorst Foundation believes it is critical to help young people through this difficult time and ensure the impact on their lives and education is minimised as much as possible. We hope that by offering this very practical support we can help make this challenging period easier for pupils, families and teachers. Vanessa McHardy, Director of Light Education Training. For more information please visit www.larswindhorstfoundation.com Editor's reply Dear Vanessa, As we are all seeing, easing lockdown is a gradual and complicated process, where nothing is certain. Its hard to make sense of these past four months and structure, routine and support can help. Marcus Rashford has this week highlighted how disadvantaged many children in this country are, and work like yours that helps those in need will prove invaluable in getting through the difficult stage that lies ahead. Susannah Butter, Comment Editor Time to take risks Businesses should avoid the trap of not taking calculated risks, or believing in a return to the way things were. Where possible, invest and innovate. To survive beyond the near-term, businesses must reimagine the opportunities for innovation this crisis brings. Andrew Harding, Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants EPA New Jersey police were led by a wandering five-year-old to the murder scene of the child's mother. Police in Dumont, New Jersey, received a 911 call just after midnight that a small child was wandering around, alone, near an apartment complex's courtyard area. Responding officers found the child relatively quickly after arriving and tried to return them home. Police learned that the child's aunt and mother were both living in the complex. The aunt told officers that her sister, Michelle Burns, hadn't been answering her phone for some time, and that earlier in the day she'd heard her sister arguing with her boyfriend. When officers went to visit the mother and return the child, they discovered that she had been murdered. Bergen County Prosecutor Mike Musella described the scene to reporters during a press conference. "Officers entered Ms Burns' apartment to conduct a welfare check and found her deceased. She had been stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife. The Dumont Police Department then notified the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Major Crimes Unit and Bergen County Sheriff's Department Bureau of Criminal Investigations." WABC, a New York affiliate of ABC News, spoke to a neighbour that claimed the couple was constantly fighting. The woman's boyfriend, Jeffery Daniels, was found by police in another town trying to knock on the front doors of houses. According to the police, Mr Daniels had Ms Burns' two other children - an 18-month-old and a 6-month-old- with him at the time. Mr Daniels was arrested and charged with murder, endangering the welfare of a child and possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes. Read more Sister of woman murdered by ex issues plea over domestic abuse bill New Delhi, Jun 17 (UNI) The Indian Army on Wednesday released the names of the 20 troops, who were killed in the violent face-off with Chinese soldiers in Galwan Valley of Eastern Ladakh on Monday night. A statement released by the Indian Army on Tuesday said, 'The Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area, where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 'Seventeen Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20.' The Army further said that it is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. No firing had taken place during the face-off. 'The Indian troops were attacked by rods and stones,' sources said. The number of casualties suffered by the Indian Army revealed the extent and scale of the conflict, which has escalated over the past two days. The Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement, it revised the figure to 20, saying that 17 others, who 'were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location, succumbed to their injuries'. The soldiers were identified as Col B Santosh Babu, Nb Sub Nuduram Soren, Nb Sub Mandeep Singh, Nb Sub Satnam Singh, Hav K Palani, Hav Sunil Kuma, Hav Bipul Roy, Nk Deepak Kumar, Sep Rajesh Orang, Sep Kundan Kumar Ojha, Sep Ganesh Ram, Sep Chandrakanta Pradhan, Sep Ankush, Sep Gurbinder, Sep Gurtej Singh, Sep Chandan Kumar, Sep Kundan Kumar, Sep Aman Kumar, Sep Jai Kishore Singh and Sep Ganesh Hansda. However, China has not revealed any number of casualties suffered by the People's Liberation Army during the clash. But as per US intelligence reports, there were 35 casualties on the Chinese side. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a high-level meeting with CDS Gen Bipin Rawat and chiefs of three services to review the situation along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh. He also talked with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on this issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting on June 19. 'In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister @narendramodi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 pm on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting,' the PMO tweeted. UNI ASH RJ 1536 The Basel Committee met on 10 and 16 June 2020 to discuss a range of policy issues and to review the impact to date of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic on the global banking system. The current crisis underscores the importance of a resilient banking system and a prudent regulatory framework. The measures taken by the Committee at the onset of the pandemic have helped mitigate some of the short-term financial stability risks. All members reaffirmed their expectation of full, timely and consistent implementation of all Basel III standards based on the revised timeline endorsed by the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision. The pandemic has entered a new phase. The impact and response vary across jurisdictions and the global economic outlook remains uncertain. Banks and supervisors must remain vigilant to the risks and vulnerabilities stemming from the pandemic to ensure that the global banking system remains financially and operationally resilient. The Basel III framework includes capital buffers that sit above minimum requirements. These buffers have two objectives. First, to ensure that banks absorb losses in times of stress without breaching their minimum requirements. Second, to help maintain the flow of credit to the real economy in a downturn by lending to creditworthy businesses and households. Using capital resources to support the real economy and absorb losses should take priority at present. The Basel III framework also requires banks to hold a buffer of high-quality liquid assets. This buffer helps banks absorb liquidity-related shocks and maintain the flow of lending to the real economy. The Committee views a measured drawdown of banks' Basel III buffers to meet these objectives as both anticipated and appropriate in the current period of stress. Supervisors will provide banks sufficient time to restore buffers taking account of economic and market conditions and individual bank circumstances. The Committee reviewed the domestic regulatory and supervisory measures taken by members in response to the crisis and agreed to submit a stocktake of these measures to the Financial Stability Board (FSB) for their report to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors virtual meeting in July 2020. The Committee will continue to monitor the vulnerabilities and risks to the global banking system from Covid-19 and will pursue additional measures if needed. It will also continue to coordinate the work on cross-sectoral financial issues with the FSB and other standard-setting bodies. In addition to its discussion related to Covid-19, the Committee approved: final revisions to the credit valuation adjustment risk framework, which will be published in the coming weeks; and a technical amendment on the prudential treatment of non-performing loan securitisations, which will be published for consultation next week. Members took stock of banks' progress on benchmark rate reforms and discussed potential regulatory implications stemming from banks' transition to alternative reference rates. The Committee places high priority on this issue and expects all banks to be adequately prepared to meet the transition timeline. The Committee also reviewed the responses received to its discussion paper on the prudential treatment for crypto-assets and approved a workplan for the next phase of the work, with a view to future consultation. Note to editors: The Basel Committee is the primary global standard setter for the prudential regulation of banks and provides a forum for cooperation on banking supervisory matters. Its mandate is to strengthen the regulation, supervision and practices of banks worldwide with the purpose of enhancing financial stability. The Committee reports to the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision and seeks its endorsement for major decisions. The Committee does not possess any formal supranational authority, and its decisions do not have legal force. Rather, the Committee relies on its members' commitments to achieve its mandate. The Basel Committee is chaired by Pablo Hernandez de Cos, Governor of the Bank of Spain. More information about the Basel Committee is available here. (Alliance News) - Boris Johnson warned of "tough times ahead" as the nation emerges from the coronavirus lockdown, and sought to blame Labour for the failure to get more pupils back in school. Against a backdrop of mounting evidence about the economic cost of the shutdown, the prime minister said the government had done "everything we possibly can" to help families in need, and is ready to go further "where we can". After abandoning an effort to get all England's primary schools back in class before the summer, the Conservatives mounted an attack on Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer over the issue, with Johnson repeatedly challenging him to agree that it was safe for children to return. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden used the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conference to step up the attempt to blame Labour and the education unions for the failure to get more children in class. At Prime Minister's Questions, Johnson accused the Opposition of "wibble-wobble" over the issue, insisting "the kids that can go to school should go to school". Dowden said it was important to "reassure parents that it is safe for their kids to go back". "I do think it's a bit of a shame that their unions, and indeed it appears the leader of the Labour Party, is not also providing them with that kind of backing and support." Sir Keir's spokesman said: "Ultimately it was (Education Secretary) Gavin Williamson who said on June 9 we're not able to welcome all primary children back for a full month before the summer. "That was a Government U-turn, that was a Government failure and this is a Government with the majority of 80, it should be taking the responsibility for its own failures." The row over schools came as a survey indicated the pressures faced by families as a result of the lockdown. Research suggested around two thirds of households receiving Universal Credit have been forced into debt during the coronavirus lockdown. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Save the Children surveyed 3,105 parents of children under 18 claiming either Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit during late May and early June. It found that 60% of families receiving the benefits had turned to payday loans or using credit cards to borrow money. Save the Children and the JRF are arguing for a GBP20-per-week increase to the child element of Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit to minimise the impact of the coronavirus crisis on youngsters. Johnson said: "This is a Government that has done everything we possibly can so far to help families in need, to make sure that nobody is penalised for doing the right thing during the crisis, because I know how difficult it has been." The government has already injected GBP6.5 billion into the welfare system, including increasing Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit by up to GBP1,040 a year. In response to questions from the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford, Johnson said: "We are fully aware that there will be tough times ahead and we do stand by to do more where we can." Official figures in recent days have highlighted the economic cost of the coronavirus lockdown. Statistics released on Tuesday showed a sharp drop in the number of paid employees a down by 2.1% or 612,000 in May compared with March a and a huge increase in benefit claims. Data published last week revealed that the UK's economy shrank by 20.4% in April a the largest monthly contraction on record a as the country spent its first full month in lockdown. By David Hughes, PA Political Editor source: PA Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. RAMALLAH, West Bank When a group of Israeli soldiers tried to arrest Hala Marshood, a young Palestinian woman participating in a peaceful protest against the killing of Iyad al-Hallaq in Jerusalem, she shouted I cant breathe in reference to the last words of George Floyd, whose arrest and murder reverberated in the United States and around the entire world. Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in Minneapolis as a police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, unleashing demonstrations against racism and police brutality. Marshood was taking part in a peaceful feminist march on June 9 sponsored by the Talat movement (Arabic for "stepping out"), a Palestinian feminist movement. The protests were held in the cities of Ramallah, Rafah and Jerusalem, and in cities inside Israel, including Haifa, Jaffa and Nazareth, against the Israeli racist policies and killings of Palestinians, the latest of which was the shooting of Hallaq, an autistic Palestinian, at the entrance of Al-Aqsa Mosque May 30. Palestinian women raised the photos of Hallaq and Floyd side by side, shouting slogans against racism and calling for the right to a better life. Palestinian activists have drawn an analogy between Floyd and Hallaq, as Israeli police were not held accountable for the killing of Hallaq Floyd's killer and those who were accomplices were eventually arrested, however. Police alleged Hallaq was attempting to stab Israeli soldiers. Activists presented the case of Hallaq as a clear example of the racist practices against them and the oppression they face only because they are Palestinians, comparing their situation to that of African Americans in the United States, according to Hadil Battrawi, 24, an outspoken Palestinian activist on public and political rights. She holds a masters degree in public international law from the University of Lander. Whats happening in the United States is very similar to the situation in Palestine, she told Al-Monitor. The successive US governments have been working on portraying black people as a burden to society who flout the laws in a bid to condone the racist measures against them. This is the case with Israel that has been painting Palestinians as terrorists worthy only of extermination, Battrawi said. Although we strongly condemn what happened to Floyd, it was an opportunity for us to show the world the reality of things in Palestine, she added. Battrawi believes Palestinian activists ought to build on this sweeping movement against racism around the world in light of the decline of the Palestinian political rhetoric on the global arena, in order to re-shift the attention on the Palestinian peoples narrative. Palestinian institutions, especially those active at the international level, also condemned racist policies against blacks. In a statement on June 1, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement called on the International Solidarity Movement in the United States to stand by the Black Lives Matter movement and other black-led organizations in their struggle for justice. We, as the indigenous people of Palestine, have first-hand experience with colonialism and apartheid committed by the Israeli regime, which receives unconditional military and financial support from the United States and the successive American administrations, the statement read. Amnesty International added fuel to the fire and gave more momentum to the Palestinian activism when it published a report referring to the training of several US police departments with Israel, which was described as a chronic human rights violator. Salah Khawaja, a member of the coordination committee of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, concurred with Battrawis statements on the need to build on the international condemnation of racist policies and practices, which stemmed from the killing of Floyd. There is a similar pattern in the repressive practices whether in the United States or any other country, which could be highlighted in order to stop condoning any practices against humanity and human rights, Khawaja told Al-Monitor. He said this is not the first time Palestinian activists get inspired by international events, as they had also identified and sympathized with Mexicans when President Donald Trump spoke of erecting a wall on the borders. This time, however, is more sensitive, with the decline in the attention on the Palestinian cause. Khawaja said Palestinian official leadership should seize this opportunity via its international arms to rekindle and ramp up support for solidarity movements for Palestinian self-determination and autonomy and the right to justice and to convey the Palestinian message throughout the world. But are these campaigns and movements enough to advance the Palestinian cause? The answer is no for Mona Shtaya, a human rights activist who believes that Palestinian activists ought to go to the streets in marches and events rather than focusing on social media activism, which would draw more attention and focus to their cause. The Atlanta cop who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks had allegedly tried to cover up a previous shooting involving another black man in 2015, it has been revealed. Garrett Rolfe, 27, was fired by the Atlanta Police Department after he shot and killed Brooks, 27, during a police confrontation outside a Wendy's drive-thru on Friday. He has been charged on 11 counts including felony murder and aggravated assault, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced in a press conference on Wednesday. And court documents obtained by The Guardian on Wednesday revealed the former cop was one of three officers involved in the shooting of Jackie Jermaine Harris in August 2015. Harris, who had been driving a stolen truck, survived the incident but was treated in the hospital for a collapsed lung. He later pleaded guilty to a string of charges. However, documents showed the police officers involved did not include the fact that they opened fire on Harris in their report and only noted that he was injured. Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed on Friday, June 12 when cops received a 911 call to the Wendy's at University Avenue in Atlanta. Officer Garrett Rolfe (left) has been charged with murder over the incident. It has been revealed he was involved in a previous shooting in 2015 Video shows as Brooks is running away from Rolfe, Brooks (right) is seen turning around and pointing a Taser gun at the cop. That is what prompted Rolfe to shoot him twice in the back Officer Garrett Rolfe, 27, (left) was charged with 11 counts including felony murder and aggravated assault, on Wednesday. Fellow cop Devin Brosnan (right) 26, who first responded to the call-out, agreed to testify against Rolfe and has been charged with aggravated assault and two violations of oath During a 2016 court hearing over the incident, Judge Doris L Downs called it 'the wildest case I've seen in my 34 years here' and was alarmed to learn the cops failed to report the shooting. 'None of the police put in the report that they shot the man - none of them. And they sent him to Grady [Memorial Hospital] with collapsed lungs and everything, and the report doesn't mention it,' Judge Downs said, according to the news outlet. 'I am ethically going to be required to turn all of them in,' she added. Harris was hit once after Rolfe and the two cops shot at him multiple times through the truck after he rammed it into a police car. His attorney Serena Nunn said the cops only admitted Harris was injured but did not mention shooting him in the police report. Judge Downs at the time said the police officers 'will have to answer for what they did' but it is unclear whether any were ever disciplined over their actions. After Brooks failed a field sobriety test and blew 0.108 when breathalyzed (0.08 is the legal limit in Georgia), Rolfe who was later fired, moved to cuff Brooks who suddenly resisted. Both officers were clearly taken by surprise. He tried to make a break for it and was shot twice in the back (left and right) Atlanta officials released Rolfe's records on Tuesday in which the 2015 case was listed as a 'firearm discharge' incident but it did not include details on whether or not action was taken against the officers. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation told The Guardian it did not investigate the shooting. 'Being shot in the back and ultimately having your lung collapse is something more than an injury that was caused during the incident', Nunn told Downs at the time. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced the charges in the highly controversial shooting at a press conference this afternoon 'We do expect officers to uphold the law. I cannot think of a plausible reason as to why they would have omitted that information.' Harris pleaded guilty to theft, property damage, damaging a police vehicle and fleeing police, and was sentenced to time served and one year of probation. He later wrote a letter to the judge expressing his concerns. 'I just don't want them to get away with what they did to me,' he wrote. 'Not only have I been wronged, but society as well by allowing this officer to continue to patrol our streets of Metro Atlanta.' Brooks's shooting sparked outrage and violence in the wake of George Floyd's death under the knee of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who has since been charged with murder. On Wednesday, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard revealed cop Devin Brosnan, 26, who first responded to the call-out last week, has turned state witness and has agreed to testify against Rolfe. Brosnan has been charged on three counts, one of aggravated assault, a charge that carries up to 20 years in prison and two violations of oath, including a failure to administer timely medical assistance. Rolfe has also been charged on this count. Howard revealed that Brosnan had admitted to standing on Brooks's shoulders while he lay dying an unauthorized control technique. Howard has asked for a $50,000 bond for Brosnan and no bond for Rolfe. Both men must turn themselves in by 6pm Thursday. Brooks is pictured with wife Tomika Miller and three of his four daughters. She said she now feels like a 'statistic' having been rendered a single black mother by the cops' killing her husband Police had been called to the scene after Brooks, who was drunk, fell asleep at the wheel of his car and blocked the fast food restaurant's drive-thru lane. The 27-year-old father of four was polite and compliant with officers across the 20 minutes during which Brosnan and Rolfe questioned him as to how much he had drunk and how he had ended up in the drive-thru. After Brooks failed a field sobriety test and blew 0.108 when breathalyzed (0.08 is the legal limit in Georgia), Rolfe moved to cuff Brooks who suddenly resisted. Both officers were clearly taken by surprise. As their bodycameras fell to the ground in the scuffle that ensued one shouted to Brooks to 'stop fighting' and warned him, 'You're going to get tased,' but the peaceable incident quickly escalated into violence. During the scuffle an officer can be heard shouting, Hands off the f***ing taser. Hes got the taser! Surveillance footage taken from the Wendys drive-thru showed Brooks attempting to run away with Rolfe in pursuit. Brooks then appears to turn with the taser in his hand, at which point Rolfe shoots him in the back. Interestingly, since the lockdown, many a man has shared posts on social media about helping their spouse at home, who have been duly applauded by their friends and followers for the feat, too Every night since the lockdown began, Subarna Ghosh would go up to her apartments terrace at about 10.30 pm, which was when she usually wound up all the domestic and professional chores for the day, so she could relax. Soon enough, she noticed a similar pattern among other women in the neighbourhood, who also came up to the terrace around the same time to relax after a full days work. Upon speaking with the other women, Subarna found out that every one of those women shared the same story about how stressful work had become especially since the lockdown. That is when Subarna filed a petition on Change.org earlier this month titled PM Modi: Tell Indian men to do equal share of household chores in your next speech. Unsurprisingly, the petition has been grabbing many eyeballs. Subarna is not alone, even Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has also appealed to men to help women in household chores during the lockdown. While the PM was addressing people about staying strong with notes of spreading positivity in his speech, I hoped he could also address men about taking responsibility in partaking in the daily chores at home, says Subarna, who is the co-founder of ReRight Foundation, a Mumbai-based NGO start-up. Interestingly, since the lockdown, many a man has shared posts on social media about helping their spouse at home, who have been duly applauded by their friends and followers for the feat, too. However, not many women, as Subarna found out, are happy about the help that comes their way from their male counterparts. It surely seems like an irrefutable truth. The burden that the lockdown has placed on an already depressed economy in the country and the world over might see more women fighting to stay in the workplace even as they manage children, who are unlikely to go back to school soon, and run the home with lesser help than before. Reskilling men for home work Subarnas petition to the PM was born also from the concern of how she could help change the mind-set of people and pass on the teaching to younger generations, to be responsible regardless of gender. I feel teaching kids at the right age to even clean their surroundings and do their own basic work would help them become responsible citizen as they grow up. I also believe households and parents should regularly introduce kids to age-specific chores and encourage them to do and partake in those, she points out. G. Priscilla is a nurse trying to manage the work at her hospital treating COVID-19 patients while looking after her 10-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter at home. She believes that help from men could go a long way in relieving the stress levels for women (and men) in the given situation. A little support from the family members or from the husband would have been a little relief, points out Priscila. Stressing too much professionally or personally can affect any womans health. I think they deserve help. It is only fair. The theme of women considering themselves being fortunate about having a male member helping with the household is strong across the narrative. Dr Stella Suanne shares how her husband and family assisting in doing the household chores really helped her. I had to work from home, but I was lucky enough that my husband contributed in many ways to the household chores. He helped in cooking and taking care of our two-year-old daughter. His contributions really added to making this period stress-free for both of us, she says. Even so, Manisha Sharma, an MNC employee who recently got back to work after her maternity leave, is understandably worried. I re-joined work and now I am scared I have to manage my professional work and look after my eight-month-old baby. My husband takes responsibility for sharing the workload, but I am worried about my daughter, who cannot stay away from me even for a minute, shares Manisha, hoping that her domestic chores and responsibilities do not affect her professional work. Whether it goes ahead or not, petitions such as Subarnas are bringing some sense of hope to women who strongly hope that men in their household take equal responsibility for the chores. Perhaps if men agree to reskill too and take equal ownership of household responsibilities it might greatly ease the burden for women, especially in these times, and help make the future of work for women a little less bleak. (CNN) Quarantined and alone in a Canadian hotel room, Alvaro was pensive and anxious. He said he wasn't so worried about testing positive for COVID-19, but about the paycheck he couldn't afford to lose. "My family depends on me financially and as of right now I do not really know if they will pay us," said Alvaro, a father and temporary foreign worker from Mexico. CNN agreed not to publish his full name as he fears being punished by his employer. Alvaro is one of at least 600 migrant farm workers who have tested positive for Covid-19 in Canada since arriving in the country in early spring. According to local health officials, most were infected in Canada and two have died revelations that suggest failings in the government's declared protocols to protect this vulnerable group of essential workers. When the coronavirus pandemic closed Canada's borders, the Trudeau government announced an important exception: a subsidy program that would allow foreign manual laborers to come into Canada before the growing season. In order to forestall any potential spread of infection, the government would pay for a two-week mandatory quarantine. But workers say their quarantines were poorly handled by some employers, with little or no government oversight, and risked exposing them to the deadly virus. In documents provided to CNN, at least three migrant workers described being kept in quarantine facilities that did not allow for social distancing, with crowded kitchens and bathrooms. One described arriving at a bunk house where there was no food supplied for the 14-day stay. He wrote to the federal government explaining he and others were forced to break quarantine and buy groceries in the community. Employers that CNN has spoken with said they arranged for hotel rooms and food to be provided immediately in quarantine. But even for workers who were able to quarantine safely, crowded living and working conditions nevertheless increased their exposure to the deadly virus, according to the local public health unit. "They came here, they self-isolated for two weeks and they picked it up since they've been here," said Doug Ford, premier of the hardest-hit Ontario Province on Monday. He added, "I don't want any finger pointing at these hard-working migrant workers. They're good people, they mean well, and they're hard workers too." Cheap communal housing: a perfect home for the coronavirus Alvaro worked for Scotlynn Group, a Norfolk county, Ontario produce company that grows a variety of vegetables. He said he tested positive for the virus in early June and has no idea how he was infected, but he described his living conditions in the employer-provided bunk house of a Scotlynn Group-owned farm "outrageous." Toilets and kitchens were communal, he said, and migrant workers slept 6 or 8 to a room, making it impossible to keep your distance. Canadian employers hire tens of thousands of temporary foreign workers every year through the federal Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), which ties temporary workers to a specific employer through their work visa. They rely on the employer for housing for which they pay a small amount. Alvaro, for example, pays 14 dollars every other week. In theory, employer-provided communal bunk houses allow temporary workers to save more money to send home to their families. But workers in the program have long voiced concerns and complaints about their housing, pay and working conditions. Now, as shown by the nine different agricultural outbreaks of the Covid-19 so far in the Windsor-Essex region, such housing also leaves them vulnerable to communicable diseases, including Covid-19. "Unfortunately, because of the way they are housed or what their accommodation looks like, they spread it to pretty much everyone who lives in the same house," Dr. Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health for Windsor-Essex County, Ontario, told CNN. So far, 167 of the Scotlynn Group's 216 migrant workers have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last few weeks, with several admitted to hospital, according to Scott Biddle, the company's president and CEO. "This has been a tough time, that's for sure," said Biddle in an interview with CNN. He added that the majority of his employees who work in the field, planting, tending and picking, are temporary workers from Mexico. Biddle said his workers spent quarantine in a hotel, and described the conditions in his bunk houses as up to government guidelines. "Our accommodations meet or exceed all Canadian standards. They're all fairly new, built in the last 10 years," said Biddle. But advocacy groups say local and national guidelines on living conditions for temporary workers are weak and inconsistent, with little resources for proper enforcement. In a recent report titled "Unheeded Warnings: Covid-19 and Migrant Workers in Canada," the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, an advocacy group working to protect migrant workers' rights, accused some agricultural employers of exploiting migrant workers and failing to take adequate measures to ensure their health. The report alleged that some workers were housed in dilapidated bunk houses, that their workplaces in some cases were still too crowded to avoid the rapid spread of the virus, and that workers were not properly advised of their rights when they do get sick. The organization called on the government to temporarily close workplaces with outbreaks for deep cleaning and an evaluation of health procedures. The group also accused the Canadian government of having abdicated its responsibility toward workers brought in from abroad. "They are treated as disposable and expendable even in a situation like this when lives are at stake," said Karen Cocq, an activist with the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change in an interview with CNN. Workers and advocates also told CNN that there was no PPE available in greenhouses and packing facilities where workers are "stacked" in close proximity. Bill George, chair of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association, told CNN there were challenges with obtaining PPE in the first few weeks of the pandemic, but said his members are working hard to address shortcomings and protect the safety of all workers. The association, an Ontario lobby group, said it is up to the government to ensure farms are meeting safety requirements and pointed out that most inspections do not result in violations. George said the industry is meeting all the requirements of current regulations when it comes to both workplaces and employee housing. "We are an essential frontline service and it's unfortunate that happened, but we are doing anything that we can do as an industry to prevent that, we are doing our best," said George. The government's responsibility Mexico announced Monday that it will conduct a safety review of Canadian health policies and procedures before allowing any more temporary workers to travel to Canada to work in the agricultural sector. "This is a temporary pause in order to determine the circumstances surrounding the safety conditions on farms," said a Mexican government official with first-hand knowledge of the discussions but who is not authorized to speak on the issue. The official said Ambassador Juan Jose Gomez Camacho, on behalf of the Mexican government, has been in daily communication with the Canadian government to try and understand why and how hundreds of Mexican workers have been infected with Covid-19, weeks after completing the mandatory 14 day quarantine in Canada. Both the Canadian and Ontario governments said they are reviewing health and employment protocols, but controlling the outbreaks has been left largely to already overworked local health units like Dr. Wajid's that covers up to 10,000 workers in Windsor-Essex alone. Dr. Wajid said his health unit is now doing extensive testing for up to 10,000 migrant workers, and conducting daily calls and some in-person visits to check on workers' health. His unit is also trying to enforce more stringent guidelines for employers regarding isolating those with symptoms and providing for better PPE and distancing in the workplace. In guidelines issued by the province of Ontario, agriculture employers have been asked to stagger start times and breaks, restrict the number of people on site, minimize the number of employees using a piece of equipment and install barriers between workers where practical. But local health units report that those measures continue to be a challenge for some agriculture producers. Migrant workers "come here, all the way here, taking all those risks and challenges to feed their families and it's unfortunate that at the end of the day they still lose their battle and lose their lives," Dr. Wajid said. Early warnings For Alvaro, the entire process has been overwhelming. Scotlynn Group told CNN a government insurance program enables workers such as Alvaro to be paid for 30 hours per week while in quarantine with Covid-19. But Alvaro fears the virus will cost him he says he normally works longer than 30 hours per week and is unsure if he must now formally apply for sick pay. He feels that he and other workers have been "sacrificed" by Canada, he adds. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a press conference last week that the country had to do "a better job" of protecting temporary agricultural workers. This week, he added that Canada would follow up to ensure workers' safety in the future. But experts point out that the government had ample warning about the dangers of its quarantine strategy months ago. In April, Amir Attaran, a professor in both Law and Medicine at the University of Ottawa, testified to a Canadian parliamentary committee that the program to quarantine and then try to ensure the health of migrant workers during the pandemic was ill-advised. Attaran told CNN agricultural producers lacked the time or support from the government to implement measures to control and contain the virus among migrant workers. "I said it's crazy, it's not going to work, what makes you think that a person who is expert at growing asparagus or expert in raising cattle is going to know how to manage a quarantine? It's fanciful," Attaran recalled. "This is frankly an incompetent country in terms of public health," Attaran added. "They're willing to write checks ad nauseum to blunt or assume the liability of the epidemic. So, they will pour out as much money as needed to assume the liability of failure but they're not willing to insert themselves in such a way as to prevent failure." He said that it was simply more expedient to 'throw money' at industries like agriculture instead meticulously following up on public health protocols. And that is part of the reason why advocates for migrants are still worried for the health of workers as this pandemic drags on. "I think we're going to see piecemeal responses unless we continue to put a lot of attention on this issue and to demand much more," said Cocq of the Migrant Workers Alliance. This story was first published on CNN.com "They came to Canada as essential workers. Hundreds were infected with the coronavirus on the job" New Delhi, June 17 : The Delhi High Court will on Thursday hear the bail application of former Jamia Coordination Committee member Safoora Zargar in a case against her in north-east Delhi riots that broke out in February this year. The plea filed by Safoora challenging the trial court order denying bail to the student-activist, is listed for hearing before a single judge bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdar tomorrow. Safoora, who is more than 20-week pregnant, was arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell and is accused of hatching a conspiracy to incite communal riots in the national capital's northeast area. The trial court had dismissed the bail plea filed by her, saying it found "no merit" in her petition. "When you choose to play with embers, you cannot blame the wind to have carried the spark a bit too far and spread the fire," Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana had said while dismissing her bail. The court had also stated, "If there is a prima facie evidence of conspiracy, the evidence of acts and statements made by one of the conspirators in furtherance of the common object is admissible against all...even if no direct evidence of violence is attributable to the applicant/accused, she cannot shy away from her liability under the provisions of the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act)." However, keeping in mind the medical condition of Zargar, the court had asked the Jail Superintendent to provide adequate medical assistance to her. Opposing her bail application, the Special Cell submitted before the court that she has allegedly made inflammatory speech and was a part of the conspiracy to instigate communal violence, which had been planned weeks ago. The police had then told the court that the accused persons were a part of the protest against Citizens Amendment Act in various parts of the national capital. "In mid-February, the accused had allegedly planned to hold protests in various parts of north-east Delhi. They had taken part in a protest and blocked a road near the Jafrabad metro station," the police said. Violence broke out between the protesters and CAA supporters this year in which at least 53 people, including Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma and Head Constable Rattan Lal, were killed. Police authorities seem to be gaining notoriety lately as shootings become common in protest demonstrations all over the world. Early this month, anti-racism demonstrations have taken place with thousands of protesters in places including London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome. While some demonstrations were mostly ignited by the killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis, European nations also have their share of encounters with "racist violence." Albuquerque Incident One of the more recent incidents of shooting in demonstrations happened in Albuquerque where CNN reported that law enforcers detained people following the shooting of a demonstrator at Albuquerque's old town. A news release Albuquerque Police Department issued said, enforcers "used chemical irritants and flash bangs" to shield officers and detain people involved in the shooting. The said detainees were disarmed and were under custody for investigation. Mayor Tim Keller said the shooting incident was "tragic, disgraceful and an intolerable" act of violence. He added, such a move does not have any place in the city. Meanwhile, in a news release, Michael Geier, Albuquerque police chief said, they have been receiving reports of vigilant groups probably initiating the said violence act. Journalist's Arrest Even journalists observing protests and reporting to the public the current goings-on, as Al Jazeera reported, have been victims of police brutality too. The most recent incident was the one that took place in late March when a police officer reportedly "jerked back around a protest venue and pushed Chris Mathias," a HuffPost Journalist who covered a whole-day protest held in New York City. According to a news report, the incident happened very fast for the 34-year-old journalist to stop it. The position, according to reports, was, the journalist's face was down on the pavement while a group of cops were "on top of him." Mathias asserted he did not resist as he recalled and said, "At one point," he felt his arm "was going to break." And, with both arms wrapped behind him, he said, he could not afford to reach out for his mobile phone. The journalist added, he also lost that particular phone during the commotion, as it laid on the pavement nearby, still video-recording. Mathias remembered asking the police if they can look at his press pass. This, he said, was captured by a video. Those who'd view the video would even hear him say, "I'm a journalist" and that, they were arresting a journalist at that moment. The officer was even heard saying, then, Mathias should have gotten out of his way, and pushed him. The media practitioner said he asked police to retrieve his mobile phone before arresting him. One of the officers, on the other hand, shouted at him saying, "Shut the f*** up!" Shanghai (Gasgoo)- The 10,000th Leading Ideal One SUV, the first mass-produced model developed by Leading Ideal, was handed over on June 16 to a consumer at the startup's Changshu plant, only six and a half months after the delivery kicked off. (Photo source: Leading Ideal) The record makes Leading Ideal the to-day fastest auto startup in the world that delivers the 10,000th vehicle, said the automaker. Within Chinas new energy full-sized SUV segment (including BEV, PHEV, HEV, and REEV), the Leading Ideal One was honored the absolute best-seller by Jan.-May deliveries. There were 7,775 consumers taking delivery of the Leading Ideal One during the first five months, 5,156 more than that of the runner-up, the Lexus RX 450h, according to Automotive Data of China Co.,Ltd. (ADC) The automaker partly owes the outstanding deliveries to its frequent product upgrading and improvements based on a proactive collection of users feedback. Since starting the delivery in last December, Leading Ideal has so far completed six over-the-air (OTA) software upgrades and is about to launch a new round in the third quarter, which is set to introduce new applications like QQ Music, WeRead and Tencent News. To maintain the upward momentum and better serve users, Leading Ideal will take stronger steps to sell cars and speed up its service network expansion. According to an official press release, it plans to spread its retailing centers over 30 cities in this years third quarter, including Hefei, Kunming, Changzhou, Dongguan, Foshan, Nanchang, Shenyang, Dalian, Nanning, Haikou, Fuzhou, Guiyang and Lanzhou. Whats more, its after-sale service outlets are expected to land up to 100 cities by the end of 2020. In one of his first official engagements as new council cathaoirleach, Cllr Andrew McGuinness accepted a large donation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from Taiwan on Friday. Among the materials donated were 2,000 medical masks, infrared forehead thermometers, gowns, goggles, and medical gloves. Cllr McGuinness says the equipment will be distributed to community hospital facilities in Kilkenny. The donation was made through the Ireland Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, which is chaired by local TD John McGuinness, and the Taipei Representative Office in Ireland, in partnership with the Taiwan Ireland Association. Guests present at the presentation event included Representative Pierre Yang of the Taipei Representative Office in Ireland, the chairman of the Ireland Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, John McGuinness TD, Cllr Pat Fitzpatrick, Chairman of Taiwan Ireland Association, Dr Angel Cheng, Older Peoples Services Manager with the HSE, Tara Hunt and Julien Thibault, co-founder of Scieneering Consulting Ltd. Representative Yang noted that Ireland has entered the second stage of its roadmap anti-epidemic plans as of June 8. As members of Irish society, the donation of high-quality PPE to help Ireland to fight the epidemic is the intention of the Taiwanese community. At the same time, Taiwan also hopes to establish long-term, mutually beneficial cooperation with Ireland as the impact of the epidemic alters many of the operating models we are accustomed to. For example, the global PPE manufacturing ecosystem has transformed from what is known as a "monopoly world factory" to "local manufacturing" and "regional short chain". Taiwan is very willing to cooperate with enterprises in Kilkenny City in order to produce masks with Taiwanese machinery and European materials, as well other epidemic PPE. Deputy John McGuinness and Cathaoirleach Andrew McGuinness were greatly appreciative of the Taiwanese communitys donation of medical materials, echoing Yangs remarks regarding the desire for further cooperation between Ireland and Taiwan to produce PPE locally. They also pointed out that Taiwan has performed excellently in the prevention and treatment of the coronavirus epidemic, a system that is worth learning from, and hopes that Ireland and Taiwan will continue to strengthen medical and health ties in the future. Chairman Cheng added her own remarks, saying that in the face of the epidemic, the Irish and Taiwanese share a common goal. In this spirit, Ms Cheng launched a fund-raising event which received an enthusiastic response from the Taiwan community. In the future, she said that she will continue to do her best to contribute to the health and safety of Ireland as she continues to live and work here, ensuring that reliable medical supplies for all who need them. Popular Mechanics magazine has offered a how-to guide to toppling statues as anti-racism protesters continue to tear down figures across the United States. The article, which was published on Monday, gives a guide to taking down statutes 'using science' and bringing that 'sucker down without anyone getting hurt'. 'Should you happen to find yourself near a statue that you decide you no longer like, we asked scientists for the best, safest ways to bring it to the ground without anyone getting hurtexcept, of course, for the inanimate racist who's been dead for a century anyway,' the article says. Protesters have been tearing down statues across the country as part of anti-racism demonstrations fueled by George Floyd's death. Lawmakers in some cities have moved to take down the statues, while others have erected concrete barriers to protect them. The Popular Mechanics article, which was published on Monday, gives a guide to taking down statutes 'using science' and bringing that 'sucker down without anyone getting hurt' Popular Mechanics is a science and technology magazine that has been in circulation since 1902. The article breaks it down into two processes - a physical and chemical approach - and provides advice from a mechanical engineer and chemistry professor on both scenarios. For the physical approach, mechanical engineer Scott Holland is quoted in the article giving specific instructions on how to bring a statue down. The engineer says it would likely take about 70 people to pull down an average-sized 3,500 pound statue of a person. Holland suggests using a 4x4 recovery strap and putting it around the head and neck of the statue for leverage. He also goes into detail about breaking the statue from its base and how to heat it up so it's not hard to topple. Protesters have been tearing down statues across the country as part of anti-racism demonstrations fueled by George Floyd's death The article breaks it down into two processes - a physical and chemical approach - and provides advice from a mechanical engineer and chemistry professor on both scenarios San Diego State University chemical professor Chris Harrison weighed in on how to tear down statues using a chemical approach. Harrison said the melting the statue's ankles should result in it falling over. He said the melting point of a bronze statue would be 1,742 degrees Fahrenheit and can be done using thermite. The article immediately drew criticism on Twitter with some slamming the outlet for informing people how to vandalize or go 'full Taliban'. It comes as the the anger over racial injustice broadened to target colonialists, monarchs and explorers, who in some cases destroyed or enslaved local populations across the world in the European scramble for empire and treasure. It has also reignited debate in the United States over symbols associated with the Souths pro-slavery Confederacy. As recently as this week, California lawmakers decided to remove a Christopher Columbus statue from the state Capitol and concrete barriers were installed around a Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue in Virginia. It is a turning point insofar as there are a lot of people now who are invested in telling the story that historians have been laying down for decades, said Julian Maxwell Hayter, a historian and associate professor at the University of Richmond. He said that statues removed from parks and street corners could be teaching points if they are placed in museums, side-by-side with documents and first-person accounts from the era. Lets say you put a Columbus statue in a museum and you show students the way Columbus was lionized in a history textbook and you have them read Devastation of the Indies by de Las Casas, he said. Then you have to ask, why were people invested in telling this particular version of Christopher Columbuss history? The calls to bring down monuments have spanned far and wide, in large cities like Philadelphia and rural places like Columbus, Miss., touching both relatively obscure historical figures and deeply revered cultural symbols. In Raleigh, N.C., the statue of a former newspaper publisher who was also a white supremacist was removed on Tuesday. In Sacramento, a tribute to John Sutter, a settler famous for his role in the California gold rush who enslaved and exploited Native Americans, was taken down this week. And in Dallas, construction crews recently removed a statue of a Texas Ranger, long seen as a mythical figure in Texas folklore, amid concerns over historical episodes of police brutality and racism within the law enforcement agency. The push has largely been welcomed by activists from the Black Lives Matter movement who see Confederate and other monuments as reminders of the oppressive history that created the reality they are battling today. But some of them worried that the focus on historic symbols would do little to keep attention on the more pressing issue of ending the brutal treatment of many African-Americans by the police. I dont know if I would say a distraction, because I think people definitely have the ability to be nuanced, said Alisha Sonnier, a 24-year-old mental health advocate from St. Louis who is concerned that taking down statues could be an easy appeasement. A Philadelphia court supervisor who was captured on cellphone video taking down anti-racism signs in a public area and saying Black lives don't matter to him has been fired. In a since-deleted video posted to Facebook, Michael Henkel, who was a supervisor writ server for the city's First Judicial District Family Court, is seen taking down handmade signs supporting the Black Lives Matter movement Sunday from a fence at Columbus Square park in South Philadelphia. Henkel did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday. In the video, someone can be heard telling him, "That's not your property," as he pulls the signs from the fence. Michael Henkel tears down signs supporting Black Lives Matter from a fence in Philadelphia on June 14, 2020. (via Facebook) "I know. It's the city, I pay for this," Henkel, 61, responds. A woman then asks him, "Oh you pay for that?" to which he responds, "Yeah. My taxes pay for this place." The woman says, "Oh, OK." "Just so you know," Henkel tells her. "So I could do whatever I want." The woman asks, "You could do whatever you want?" And Henkel says, "You're f------ right I can." The woman tells Henkel, "See ya around" and he says, "Good. I'm always around. You're welcome." And she shouts, "Black Lives Matter." "Not to me, they don't," Henkel responds. A spokesman for the court, Gabriel Roberts, said Henkel, who was hired by the court on July 1, 1992, is no longer an employee and that his termination was based on multiple violations of the Unified Judicial System Code of Conduct and the nondiscrimination and equal employment policy. "The Court takes this incident very seriously and believes Mr. Henkel's behavior as shown in the video is egregious and totally unacceptable for an employee of the Courts," Roberts said. The book comprises 12 stories in 100 pages and explores the different views and perspectives on issues we face in our daily life Bawabat Al-Zaman ("Gates of Time"), by: Mohamed Mansi Qandil, (Cairo: El-Midan Publishing), 2020, 100pp Renowned Egyptian writer Mohamed Mansi Qandil released his latest book, a short-story collection entitled Bawabat Al-Zaman by Dar El-Midan publishing house in Cairo. The stories tackle multiple issues, such as corruption, marriage problems, addiction and the destructive use of art and theatre. The book comprises 12 stories in 100 pages and explores the different views and perspectives on issues we face in our daily life. The publication of the book comes at a rough time for the publishing industry that took a huge hit due to the measures governments have adopted to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Qandil, born in 1946, is one of Egypts most celebrated writers. He is best known for his novel Yawm Ghaim Fil Bar Al-Gharbi ("A Cloudy Day on the West Bank") which was shortlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2010 and translated into English by Barbara Romaine and published by Syracuse University Press, and Moon Over Samarqand, which was inspired by a conversation with a taxi driver he met in Uzbekistan. The novel was also translated into English by Jennifer Peterson and published by the American University in Cairo Press. Qandil won many awards, including the Sawiris Cultural Award in 2006. His novel Katiba Sawdaa (Black Battalion), was longlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2016. Search Keywords: Short link: The Chinese are worried about an accelerating downward spiral in the U.S.-China relationship, particularly in the run-up to the next election, said Bonnie Glaser, a China analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, treat China as a punching bag. They want to put a floor under this deteriorating situation so they dont end up in such a negative place in November, which might make it difficult to have any kind of amicable relationship. Hennadiy Chyzhykov has been reelected as President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) for another five years. He gave his first interview after the appointment to his next tenure to the Interfax-Ukraine New Agency. - What are your plans for the next tenure? Will you continue reforming the UCCI? What goals will you pursue? - I believe that the better we understand our businesses, the better we can protect them. The Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is an organization based on trust, we aspire to become a voice of the small and medium-sized businesses. We create a comfortable communication platform on the basis of the UCCI, we help to find partners and get assistance during the entry to new markets, as well as promote the implementation of legal initiatives. Our goals for the next five years are really ambitious, but the main thing is that our member community has expressed confidence and support for them. The main goals include support for small and medium-sized businesses, strengthening of cooperation with the authorities at all levels and influence on the state export policy, development of regional export centers, simplification of the use of arbitration instruments during protection of the interests of Ukrainian exporters, support for business digitalization. However, our main aspiration is to make the UCCI even more comfortable for businesses, an organization within reach. So that at the thought of having a lack of some knowledge an entrepreneur could come to us at once knowing for sure that the UCCI is his or her organization which can help. We have a very strong team. We have 73 offices in Ukraine and 55 representative offices abroad, we are a member of the largest international business organizations (including Eurochambres, WCF, ICC and many others). Such a strong representation makes our organization influential. Thanks to an opportunity to unite our efforts we can find solutions to complicated problems, as well as build a system of communication with all parties involved. Almost 90% of our members are small and medium-sized enterprises. Large enterprises are already able to find solutions for increasing export on their own, while smaller companies need the UCCI's assistance. The entrepreneurs can see that the foreign market is very competitive, but they already start to understand that there is nothing scary there. A free trade area with the EU, as well as external trade in general drives and attracts Ukrainian businesses. Our strongest side is exactly external economic activity as we have a lot of experience in it. It would be fair to say that the UCCI today is the only organization which supports exporters at all stages of the production and movement of goods from the moment of streamlining them with the technical regulations of certain markets to the receiving of payment for them. No other institution in Ukraine possesses the same instruments of assistance to exporters "under one roof." The UCCI specialists know where certain products are in demand, what standards they should meet for admission to certain markets, how to check a customer's paying capacity, and how to protect your rights if a foreign partner violates his or her obligations. For example, the export support centers at all Chambers of Commerce and Industry can answer the question "Where should we supply our products?" They also have information about technical regulations for the goods supplied to certain markets. The UCCI is also an important arbitration instrument of support for businesses at both national and regional levels. If any disputes occur with foreign partners, the case may be considered at the commercial arbitration court in Kyiv the decisions of the International Commercial Arbitration Court (ICAC) under the UCCI are valid in 110 countries of the world. We also see the future in mediation. Some 70% of Ukraine's export earnings is ensured by the member enterprises of the Chamber system. In a word, the UCCI builds its work in a consistent and serious manner with a long-term perspective. - At all times the UCCI has been considered as a semipublic organization. Does it still remain the same? - Not exactly. According to the legislation of Ukraine, chambers of commerce and industry are non-governmental non-for-profit self-regulated organizations. The Chamber carries out two functions: we protect the interests of businesses and, following the international practices, we provide a range of services important to businesses [in particular, issuing of ATA carnets, goods origin certificates, etc.]. At the same time, the chamber of commerce and industry cooperates with all agencies that have influence on business activities. We present ourselves as both local and global organization, we interact with the authorities at the national, regional and internationals levels. Over 400 years of its existence the Chamber institution has proved its effectiveness. Many people don't know that the first Chamber appeared in Ukraine 165 years ago. That is why we call ourselves an organization with a history and a clear vision of the future. In our activities we focus on business requests. We have an agenda that is formed by our members. We summarize their position, analyze the situation, voice their questions of interest and send this message to the government. As a representative of businesses we are an integral part of the processes that are going on in the country. Despite the supposed independence of businesses from political processes, in fact the political process influences the volumes of trade and Ukrainian export. Therefore, we also present the interests of businesses at high-level international meetings, cooperate with the embassies, our experts are included to intergovernmental commissions. - Today Ukraine and the whole world live in a new reality, including economics. What effect will the pandemic and the following inevitable economic recession have on Ukraine's export potential in the global trade system? - All signs point to the fact that export will face big challenges. As we can see, the pandemic is leading towards the protectionism, the closing economies. Economic crises always result into a drop in production. Today businesses are facing a choice of a model on which the future of the country's economy depends. There is an objective reality: a decline in sales on the majority of markets that are traditional for our goods export. However, new promising areas open. The demand for food will be growing in the world, and we should refocus our export from raw materials to end products. In the current situation it is hard to preserve export of products with a long value-added chain: farming equipment, power and transport engineering products. The demand for Ukrainian goods is growing in the EU. We can see a huge potential in Central Asia, as well as Africa and on other continents. We are well aware that producers need government support, including a stronger credit policy and active cooperation on the foreign markets. Generally speaking, much depends on the pace with which businesses and the country in general will realign their production with regard to the new reality. The faster they make decisions, the shorter will be the adaptation and revival period for the economy. - Some experts say that there is a trend towards the withdrawal of the production facilities from the regions with unreliable epidemiological situation (China, Southeast Asia) to other countries. What measures should be taken in Ukraine to receive a part of these production facilities? - I wouldn't say so. The pandemic has demonstrated us that the virus knows no borders, nobody is insured against it. Here is another question. Everything depends on how fast Ukraine can develop an open and comfortable investment environment. First of all, it depends on our homework and the ability to create "an investment trend" for Ukraine. I should say that foreign businessmen have been taking interest in placing orders in Ukraine more actively during online talks in recent months. In addition to the available advantages of Ukraine, we hope to obtain another one soon the right to export industrial goods to the EU without additional certification. The preparations for the signature of the so-called "industrial visa-free regime" are underway. At the beginning of 2020, the UCCI has started preparing enterprises for the introduction of European certification. Before the quarantine, a series of seminars on the introduction of European technical regulations began. As to the agreement, our experts continue the work on it jointly with their Ukrainian and European colleagues. A parallel process of revising quotas and duties on agricultural products in line with the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement is also in progress. - Small and medium-sized businesses suffer from the pandemic and the quarantine first of all. What steps should the government take to support them? Is it taking such steps, and what is your organization's part in this process? - They talk a lot about losses of small and medium-sized businesses due to the pandemic. Why? It's because around 60% of the population are involved in them. This problem exists not only in Ukraine, small and medium-sized businesses all over the world are suffering losses today. We can see that all countries, depending on their possibilities, have focused on the support for their entrepreneurs. The government of our country has also approved the support program, however, the economies are different, and therefore the scale of assistance also differs. The UCCI works according to the rapid response principle. We put forward our proposals regarding the support for businesses at various stages of the development of the anti-crisis plan, and most of them were approved. We continue this work. Our goal is to create equal conditions for businesses inside the country and maximum preferences for them abroad. We also see our specific task in opening new markets for small and medium-sized businesses. Despite the difficult situation, the borders are not closed! We continue actively providing businesses with the consulting services. Last month alone the UCCI held almost 20 various remote webinars which brought together more than 1,000 participants. Those were forums, conferences, including international ones, with the participation of Ukrainian and foreign officials and businesspeople. - What should we expect in Ukraine? What kind of trends will appear in the post-crisis world? - We should move from the general to the specific. We say that Ukraine is a part of the global economy. One of the results of this pandemic, as we already see, will be the fact that many economies will close. Each economy will count on its own resources more and more, which means that there will be losses in trade, and we should be prepared for this. In addition, the development of local goods and services will be prioritized, emphasis will be paid on customization. As I have said, a trend towards food products will prevail. Everyone has got tired of a negative pattern during the quarantine, so I hope we will also create a trend for positive thinking, solidarity and cooperation. - What are we going to inherit from coronavirus and the crisis forever? - The habits, which have been developed, like online trade, will remain. According to our polls, this is true, as it is really one of the ways to overcome the crisis. Export will remain important for our economy as it is one of the most important directions of growth and support for the economy. Small businesses will focus on online platforms as the majority of citizens have got used to them during this time. - What should businesses do in this situation? - We speak mainly about the economy without paying attention to fact that such crises, as we are witnessing now, significantly change the way of thinking and approaches. A person takes the center stage. The entrepreneurs have realized that it is hard to work without mutual trust. A customer-oriented approach is one of our future trends. I think during the economic crisis we will become even more aware of the role of small businesses as a basis for creating jobs and self-fulfillment of each person. Ukraine is approaching the moment when businesses will have more mutual trust, develop joint projects, and this will help both small and medium-sized businesses to survive. So, the reverse side of our problems will be changes in us, the Ukrainians. And the role of small businesses will become even more important. According to Statistics NZ, it is projected that about one in 4.5 New Zealanders will be 65 years old or older by 2036. The big question is how New Zealand can find a way to improve the quality of life and ensure quality medical care for the elderly, without compromising on the needs of the younger generation. The growing number of retirement homes and villages in New Zealand seem to be very well positioned to try non-invasive technologies, using data analytics to improve efficiency of the care offered to the elderly, and to focus on preventive, rather than reactive mode of the care using big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Our ongoing research project on big data analytics and the use of AI algorithms brought our attention to an interesting approach that is being tested in by the SMU-TCS iCity Lab in Singapore and could be a model for New Zealand. It has begun a project experimenting with technologies to address the needs of its senior citizens living alone. This could be a first step towards using big data and analytics to prepare for the ageing populating without compromising the resources that are required for the education, healthcare and wellbeing of the younger generation. Multiple motion sensors installed in the flats occupied by elderly people living in government-sponsored housing measure their moving and sleeping patterns. This is done without imposing on the elderly the need to interact with technology themselves. Data collected by these motion sensors is analysed using AI algorithms to identify situations that may pose a danger to the individuals life or may indicate early symptoms of an illness. For example, lack of motion for an extended period of time when an elderly person is inside the house may indicate that she or he has fallen and cannot get up or possibly is unconscious. In such situations, a caregiver will be alerted to take a closer look into the movement patterns of the person and decide whether to check on her or him or call the emergency services. Analysis of patterns recorded by multiple sensors, and changes in patterns of behaviour over time, can indicate the possibility of depression or deteriorating health (for example, if the person is not leaving the house as often as before). Such changes would indicate for caregivers the need to investigate the possible reasons and take preventive action. Furthermore, AI would also learn patterns of a specific individuals behaviour, thus flag to a caregiver any deviation from their regular patterns of activity. You may consider such an approach as a surveillanceBig Brother is watching you. But is it really? We are living in the era of digitisation, where social networks and online communications leave so many digital traces that thinking about data collected via motion sensors as surveillance would be wrong. In particular during COVID-19 self-isolation, relying on the motion sensor data could have helped to reduce the need for personal contacts which has been the source of the COVID-19 clusters in nursing homes in New Zealand and around the world, leading to tragic consequences. Instead of regarding motion sensors as surveillance, think about opportunities that big data is opening for improving care and living conditions for the elderly, without increasing costs for healthcare and other essential services nation-wide. The technical challenge to such analysed monitoring is significant. In the case of the motion sensors used at the flats of the elderly, the amount of data collected by the sensors is a substantial: 100 parameters are measured every four seconds, which results in huge data sets analysed to detect individuals pattern changes over time. But when we think about the potential of this data to be used to serve different stakeholders, it is enormous. Caregivers could be more efficient in taking care of more elderly people, the health system could be better organised to deal with early symptoms, which in turn could reduce costs of medical care and duration of hospital stay for elderly. Social workers could be more focused (and therefore more efficient) if they are aware of specific patterns and changes in behavior of an elderly person in their care. For the government in the long term, it could mean significant efficiencies in the way it supports and funds various services to the ageing population. Julia Kotlarsky and Ilan Oshri are University of Auckland professors. Kotlarsky is in the Information Systems and Operations Management Department and Oshri is in the Graduate School of Management. Dana assembly technician Brandon Green wears a face mask as he works to assemble axles for automakers, as the auto industry begins reopening amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the Dana plant in Toledo, Ohio, May 18, 2020. The United Auto Workers union is asking its roughly 399,000 members, including those at the Detroit automakers, to pause Friday, on Juneteenth, in a moment of reflection and support for protests to end racism and hate. UAW President Rory Gamble sent a note to members Tuesday morning, saying, if authorized and able to do so, to stop working at 8:46 a.m. for 8 minutes and 46 seconds on June 19, an annual day that marks the emancipation of Blacks from slavery in the U.S. The time frame, as referenced in Gamble's note obtained by CNBC, represents how long a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd before he died in police custody. The incident, which was videotaped, has led to weeks of protests and rallies around the world, particularly in the U.S. "It was yet another tragedy in a long and sorrowful history of the divisiveness of racism in this nation. Since that day in communities from coast to coast, we have seen Americans from all walks of life, black, brown and white, stand together to demand change," Gamble said. "To demand finally that we address the systemic racial divide that has plagued our nation since its inception." TORONTO - Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange: Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO - Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange: Toronto Stock Exchange (15,428.69, down 87.14 points.) Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Industrials. Up 1.5 cents, or 3.03 per cent, to 51 cents on 18.3 million shares. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ). Energy. Down 88 cents, or 3.63 per cent, to $23.39 on 14.3 million shares. Freegold Ventures Ltd. (TSX:FVL). Materials. Unchanged at 75 cents on 10.2 million shares. ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. (TSX:PMN). Health care. Up 7.5 cents, or 40.54 per cent, to 26 cents on 9.8 million shares HEXO Corp. (TSX:HEXO). Health care. Down 15 cents, or 11.9 per cent, to $1.11 on 7.6 million shares. Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Energy. Down $1.14, or 4.53 per cent, to $24.03 on 6.2 million shares. 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. Companies in the news: Iamgold Corp. (TSX:IMG). Down seven cents, or 1.5 per cent, to $4.52. Iamgold Corp. says it has suspended operations at its Rosebel Gold Mine in the South American country of Suriname after seven people were diagnosed with COVID-19, sparking a showdown with its union. The Canadian mining company says it proceeded with getting medical care and putting the individuals in quarantine while disinfecting their living quarters and work areas. Operations were shut down, it said, when a conflict with the local union broke out over its attempt to support physical distancing by reducing the number of workers sharing accommodations. CAE Inc. (TSX:CAE). Up one cent to $23.65. CAE Inc. says its new medical ventilator has been certified by Health Canada and it will begin shipping. The Montreal-based company signed a contract with the federal government earlier this year to manufacture and supply 10,000 ventilators. The made-in-Canada equipment will be sent to hospitals across the country. CAE's usual business is flight simulators used for pilot training, but the company shifted gears due to the pandemic to design and build a medical ventilator. The CAE Air1 ventilator can deliver pressure control, volume control and pressure support ventilation using room air or pressured oxygen. Restaurant Brands International Inc. (TSX:QSR). Up 67 cents to $76.30. Albertans will be the first in Canada to sample a fried chicken sandwich that became a social-media sensation with its U.S. debut last summer when Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen adds the menu item to stores in select cities in the province Wednesday. The menu item generated long lines, supply shortages and in one case deadly violence south of the border, but the fried-chicken chain plans for a smoother Canadian launch. A Canadian trial planned for April was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, since widespread physical distancing precautions seemed out of step with long lines of hungry customers. Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB). Down 62 cents, or 1.4 per cent, to $42.78. Enbridge Inc. says 800 employees have voluntarily left the company, allowing it to avoid layoffs as it cuts costs to counter impacts from COVID-19 and lower global oil prices. The Calgary-based pipeline company announced in May it would defer $1 billion in capital spending this year and reduce costs by $300 million through measures including salary cuts and voluntary staff reductions. The reductions would amount to about seven per cent of the 11,300 employees Enbridge listed at the end of last year, with about 7,800 in Canada and 3,500 in the U.S. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020. As current users of both Profitero and Kenshoo, we recognized that bringing these two partners data views together will provide holistic intelligence about our products and that can be a competitive advantage for Mayborn. Kenshoo (https://kenshoo.com/), a global leader in marketing technology, and Profitero, a leading global enterprise ecommerce SaaS analytics platform, today announced a strategic partnership designed to pair industry-leading ecommerce performance analytics with best in class enterprise marketing activation technology to deliver powerful retail-intelligent advertising results for brands online. The partnership empowers brands to use multi-retailer e-commerce analytics to dynamically optimize their sponsored advertising and media campaigns for maximized ROI on retailers like Amazon and Walmart. As the world adjusts to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, ecommerce has become a staple for consumers. Cleveland Research Company reports manufacturers expect eCommerce to reach 21% of their U.S. retail sales in 2021, up from 15% seen in 2019, creating both significant opportunity and challenges for established brands. Among those new challenges: how to efficiently spend advertising budgets on retailer websites to capture and convert first-time digital shoppers as effectively as native direct-to-consumer businesses. Ecommerce Advertisingled by Amazon and Walmartwas already set to build on its meteoric growth this year and saw an extra boost at the end of the quarter as consumers sheltering-at-home purchased essentials online. According to The Kenshoo Q1 2020 Quarterly Trends Report, year-over-year, spending on ecommerce ads increased 47%. Through the partnership, Profitero and Kenshoo will help reduce wasted marketing spend by factoring consumer purchasing signalslike a products page traffic, conversion rates, availability rates and organic search trafficin the algorithms used to drive ad targeting and bidding decisions. Profitero collects these signals continuously using its advanced retail data collection technology, which spans 50 countries and 8,000 retailer websites and mobile apps. Kenshoos automation technology can translate Profiteros insights into real-time action using its enterprise-grade advertising automation platform. The combined approach will also help brands to proactively identify opportunities to scale by redirecting advertising spend towards products, categories and audiences most likely to generate return. Clients using both Kenshoo and Profitero instinctively understand the value of the partnership: In a space as saturated as ours, successful marketing boils down to making sure the data we base decisions on is full-picture and contextually relevant, said Louise Harris, head of digital marketing, EMEA for Mayborn. As current users of both Profitero and Kenshoo, we recognized that bringing these two partners data views together will provide holistic intelligence about our products and that can be a competitive advantage for Mayborn. Advertising optimization and sales optimization have historically been disparate practices, said Will Martin-Gill, chief strategy officer for Kenshoo. Bringing them together creates efficiency and a strategic business advantage with new potential. By partnering with a leader like Profitero we can give more visibility to brands looking to maximize their ecommerce. Its impossible to separate your advertising performance on a retailer site, like Amazon and Walmart.com, from product performance. If a product is out of stock, has poor content or poor quality reviews, then all of those things are going to weigh on the consumers decision to buy and you are not going to get the full return on investment, said Bryan Wiener, CEO of Profitero. Integrating our analytics with Kenshoos technology will enable brands to make smarter, more targeted ad buy decisions based on a holistic knowledge of their best-performing products across retailers, resulting in more efficient growth online. Visit https://kenshoo.com/capabilities/profitero/ for more information on how the new partnership between Kenshoo and Profitero can take your ecommerce campaigns to a whole new level. About Kenshoo Kenshoo is the leading marketing technology platform for brands looking to plan, activate and measure growth strategies across the most-engaging digital channels. Kenshoo offers the only marketing solution that combines data-driven insights and best-of-breed optimization to help make informed decisions, scale and measure performance across Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Walmart, Apple Search Ads, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, Verizon Media, Yandex, Yahoo Japan, and Baidu. Kenshoos machine-learning algorithms and artificial intelligence leverage market signals and enable companies to predict and keep pace with the omnichannel customer journey. Kenshoo has 27 international locations and backing by Sequoia Capital, Arts Alliance, Tenaya Capital, and Bain Capital Ventures. Please visit Kenshoo.com for more information. Kenshoo brand and product names are trademarks of Kenshoo Ltd. Other company and brand names may be trademarks of their respective owners. About Profitero Profitero is the platform Adidas, LOreal, General Mills and 4,000 other brands use to accelerate their eCommerce sales. In fact, brands that use Profitero are able to grow their Amazon sales 70 percent faster than category competitors, on average. Using Profiteros proprietary technology and algorithms, brands can optimize their 4Ps (Product, Placement, Price and Promotions) across 8,000 retailer sites and 50 countries while also uncovering what competitors are doing to win online. Profiteros technology also estimates daily sales for products sold on Amazon, allowing brands to measure market share growth and size category opportunities for future investment. The platform was first in the industry to integrate Amazon sales and share metrics and digital shelf analytics together so brands can more quickly pinpoint the factors driving sales and share changes. For more, visit http://www.profitero.com AstraZeneca has launched its GCC Health Innovation Hub, a culmination of digital innovation efforts by the company to make diagnosis and treatment easier for diabetic patients, in conjunction with UK medtech start-up Gendius, which specialises in remote disease management. As a result of this partnership, HealthGATE an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform and app to support diabetic patient care in the GCC will be launched later this year. The HealthGATE app will work as a gateway between healthcare professionals and patients, enabling collaboration for personalised care and the use of AI for better disease management. With Intellin, Gendius application service, HealthGATE will use AI to actively monitor patients diabetes management and uses their clinical history to highlight their risk for developing diabetes-related complications, such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, amputation and blindness. Its algorithms analyse users health and wellbeing data to provide individually tailored, clinically validated educational content and guidance, to help people with diabetes manage their condition more effectively. Gendius CEO, Rory Cameron, said: Diabetes is an increasing health and economic burden across the Gulf region, but effective diabetes management has huge scope for reducing that burden. Our Intellin technology platform is going to sit at the centre of this programme, and we are hugely excited to be bringing our innovative technology directly to GCC healthcare professionals and patients. HealthGATE builds on the success of AstraZeneca EduGATE; launched in Saudi Arabia in March 2019, this platform proved to be an instant success with HCPs, with more than 9,500 medical professionals registering within the first few months. EduGATE provides an accessible service to share patient materials, medical guidelines, live streaming events, online accreditations and more, creating an education and enrichment experience for physicians across the country. EduGATE is now expanding to the wider GCC region. Pelin Incesu, Area Vice President, Middle East and Africa at AstraZeneca, said: To accompany the implementation of HealthGATE, well be expanding the EduGATE programme across all GCC countries by the second half of the year, establishing an innovative and sustainable model for enriching the regions medical community a crucial component of our strategy for establishing long-term partnerships. This is an exciting and essential next step that will allow the platform to develop further into a comprehensive healthcare ecosystem. The partnership between AstraZeneca and Gendius in the GCC is part of AstraZenecas broader initiative to create integrated science ecosystems through local bio-hubs across the world. The Emerging Market Health Innovation Hubs improve local capacity for R&D to address local needs and reinforce AstraZenecas commitment to create and strengthen partnerships across emerging biomedical clusters to accelerate innovation, increase healthcare access and improve outcomes for patients and society. -- Tradearabia News Service The India-spec next-gen Honda City has been unveiled ahead of its launch that will take place in July. The model is said to be Indias first connected car with Alexa remote capability. The new City was originally slated to be unveiled in India back in March but was postponed owing to the lockdown caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Powertrain options on the fifth-gen Honda City will include a 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol engine and a 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel engine. The petrol motor will produce 119bhp and 145Nm of torque while the diesel mill will produce 98bhp and 200Nm of torque. Both the engines, which are BS6 emission compliant, will be paired to a six-speed manual transmission as standard while the petrol variant will also be available with a CVT unit. The petrol and diesel manual variants will return a fuel efficiency of 17.8kmph and 24.1kmpl respectively while the CVT unit will give a fuel economy of 18.4kmpl. Dimension wise, the new-gen Honda City measures 4,549mm in length, 1,748mm in width and 1,489mm in height while the wheelbase stands at 2,600mm. Design highlights of the model include a single slat thick chrome grille flanked by full-LED headlamps on either side, LED fog lamps, LED tail lights and 16-inch dual-tone diamond-cut alloy wheels. Inside, the next-generation Honda City will come equipped with an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Weblink, dual-tone Beige and Black interiors, seven-inch coloured TFT screen with MID, electric sunroof, automatic headlamps, auto-dimming IRVM, ambient lighting, engine start-stop button, smart trunk lock, remote engine start, rear sunshade, paddle shifters and walkaway auto-lock. Safety features on the next-gen Honda City include six airbags, ABS with EBD and brake assist, Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with Agile Handling Assist (AHA), Hill Start Assist (HSA), Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) and Honda LaneWatch Camera. Also on offer will be a Telematics Control Unit (TCU) with more than 32 connected features such as auto crash notification and emergency assistance, stolen vehicle tracking, security alert and geofence alert. Honda City 9.33 Lakh Onwards City | Honda city | Honda ANN ARBOR, MI Over $400,000 in annual funding from a countywide mental health and public safety tax will remain earmarked for pedestrian/bicycle safety in Ann Arbor. Mayor Christopher Taylors recent veto to uphold that funding guarantee withstood a formal challenge Monday night, June 15, as council voted 7-4 to try to override it. It required eight votes, so the override attempt proposed by Council Member Jeff Hayner failed. Hayner, D-1st Ward, brought up the November 2014 Ann Arbor police shooting of Aura Rosser, a black woman who suffered from mental illness, and suggested mental health treatment services would be a better use of the money. Taylor recalled councils pledge to voters in 2017, ahead of a countywide vote on the new mental health and public safety tax, of how the citys rebate portion of the millage over $2 million annually would be spent if approved. Council told voters 40% would go to affordable housing, 40% to climate action and 20% to pedestrian/bicycle safety. Taylor considers it an obligation of honor to uphold that pledge, while newer council members argue they should have flexibility over how the funds are spent. Crisis team funded by mental health millage looks to fill gaps The notion that we are encumbering funds that are really part of the general fund is just antithetical to everything that Ive learned so far from being on council, Hayner said. I think its extra inappropriate to do that now when there are so many needs in our community for mental health considerations, social service considerations and so on. Taylor has used his veto power multiple times to uphold the so-called 40-40-20 pledge. His latest veto, delivered May 22, followed councils approval of a COVID-19 financial recovery plan. Taylor vetoed only the part of the resolution where council stated the citys rebate from the county millage would be treated like all other unrestricted, general purpose tax revenues with council determining annually how they are utilized as part of the budget process. Elsewhere in the resolution, council members agreed to a compromise, guaranteeing at least $880,000 for affordable housing and at least $880,000 for climate action, in keeping with the 40-40-20 pledge, so only the roughly $440,000 for pedestrian/bicycle safety could be reallocated. Ann Arbor councilwoman objects to veto, says mayor is stoking unfounded fear Council Members Zachary Ackerman, Julie Grand and Chip Smith joined Taylor Monday night in opposing the veto override and upholding the 40-40-20 pledge. During the debate, Hayner recalled Taylors past comments about the police killing of Rosser, a shooting the prosecutors office determined was justified since Rosser reportedly came at officers with a knife. Taylor said at the time he agreed Officer David Rieds lethal use of force was justified. The events of that night, of course, were a tragedy, but not a tragedy of racism, which is loathsome and unacceptable and contrary to everything Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor Police Department stands for, Taylor said in January 2015. The events of Nov. 9 were a tragedy of mental illness untreated and drug use unabated. They were a tragedy of a society that does not devote the resources necessary to give help to those who require it." Taylor also said in his 2015 remarks that appalling racial injustice and disparity continue to degrade society and must be fought at every turn. Hayner read the mayors quotes from five years ago and said he agreed with almost everything Taylor had to say then. Were not going to treat mental illness until we can fund treatment for mental illness, Hayner said. And were not going to fund treatment for mental illness until we turn these funds from the mental health millage into general funds that we can spend properly. Taylor said he was glad Hayner brought up his past remarks, saying he would have framed them differently today. The absence of mental health funding, proper housing, health care services and proper services for those suffering from addiction is a result of racism, Taylor said. I think if we lived in a more just society that was not born of white supremacy, then our social safety net the services we provide to those in need would be expanded, he said. I believed it then, I believe it now, but I didnt articulate it well during that statement. Council Member Ali Ramlawi, D-5th Ward, joined Hayner in co-sponsoring the resolution to try to override the mayors veto, agreeing theres a mental health crisis to address. We have heard from hundreds of different constituents throughout our city in fact, probably thousands of the need to increase funding for mental health services, Ramlawi said. We are kept from doing that because of a prior promise made by folks that no longer sit as elected officials. Ackerman, D-3rd Ward, explained how the money city taxpayers pay for the county mental health and public safety millage is divvied up and why the city gets a rebate. Every year, because we voted in support of it, we send about three and a half million dollars to Community Mental Health, which is fantastic, and we send another three and a half million dollars to the Sheriffs Office, he said. Because we have our own police department and the county board saw fit that it wasnt fair to Ann Arbor taxpayers to be double-taxed for police, we receive a rebate back for about $2.2 million each year. Council decided in 2017 to earmark that rebate for affordable housing, climate action and pedestrian/bicycle safety. Those were seriously underfunded community priorities that could become underfunded again if not protected, Ackerman said, and upholding the 40-40-20 pledge is the most surefire way to protect those dollars. A vote against overriding the mayors veto is saying pedestrian safety is more important than mental health, Hayner argued. Community Mental Health is incredibly important, Taylor said, adding the city provides millions of dollars for it every year through the countywide millage. And Ill go further to say we as a city add onto that even further to the tune of $350,000, he said. And I would say finally, that no matter how we get there, I know that we as a community are going to rethink how we provide public safety, he said, adding hes confident additional social workers, mental health professionals and crisis intervention professionals are going to be part of the equation. MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS: Ann Arbor officials want to radically rethink policing, consider alternatives to armed officers Ann Arbor ends state of emergency, but officials caution pandemic isnt over Weve got a long way to go: Police oversight chair seeks review of all complaints against officers Afternoon Delight owner reflects on 42 years before retiring WASHINGTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A statewide poll of likely Georgia voters finds broad voter support for reductions in immigration in the face of massive layoffs resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. The polling was conducted on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) by the national opinion research firm, Zogby Analytics, on June 10 and 11. The poll indicates that Georgia voters support reductions in the admission of new immigrants and guest workers in the face of the ongoing public health and economic crises gripping the nation. Georgia voters are also significantly more likely to prioritize the need for immigration and border enforcement over programs to legalize millions of illegal aliens. Among the key findings of the Georgia opinion poll: By about margins of roughly 2 to 1 (59% to 31%), Georgia voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. By a 56% to 32% margin, Georgia voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." 79% of voters in Georgia believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 14% disagree. believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 14% disagree. By a 66% to 35% majority, Georgia voters said they would prioritize reducing overall immigration, strengthening immigration enforcement and border security, and removing illegal aliens from the country, over increasing immigration, granting amnesty to illegal aliens, or decriminalizing illegal immigration. "The polling shows clear public support in Georgia for many of the immigration policy steps that the Trump administration has taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting economic and unemployment crisis. Voters in this key state agree that reductions in the admission of new immigrants and foreign workers are a prudent response to a crisis that has resulted in some 40 million Americans losing their jobs, and there is broad support for additional measures to be taken by the White House," commented Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "The polling numbers send a clear message to Senators Loeffler and Perdue, and members of Georgia's congressional delegation, that jobs and economic security are always critical issues in presidential and congressional elections. This is an incredible opportunity for both Senators to make clear their commitment to the American worker over corporate interests, particularly in a crucial election year coupled with high unemployment rates. "While voters certainly understand the extraordinary circumstances that have led to massive unemployment, they will also expect that the president and their federal representatives will take all reasonable steps to minimize the damage done to American workers, and expedite recovery for those who have lost jobs. This poll makes it clear that Georgia voters understand and support the need to reduce the flow of people entering the country who will compete for jobs during this crisis and once the economy fully reopens," Stein concluded. The poll of 805 likely voters has a +/-3.5 percent margin of error. Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or [email protected] ABOUT FAIR Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 2 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced. SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Related Links http://www.fairus.org The all-new curriculum invites children to play the role of chemists by practicing real scientific techniques and exploring basic principles of chemistryincluding being water chemists who clean a polluted river and being materials chemists who design a new slime toy. The program provides opportunities for students to embody science careers, think scientifically, use real science tools and techniques and have fun. Families in the five-county Greater Philadelphia area selected as part of a lottery will receive a science kit complete with the necessary materials needed to perform one of the hands-on chemistry experiments at home. Through accompanying online videos, educators from The Franklin Institute will guide students through how to set-up their at-home lab space safely and share more about the hands-on chemistry research project they'll be exploring at home as they take on the role of one of four different scientists: water chemist, medicinal chemist, materials chemist or color chemist. After conducting their experiments at home, students will join a live virtual research meeting with a Franklin Institute educator to share results from their chemistry research and reflect on how they each were like scientists. As the culmination of the program, all students will be invited to experience a virtual chemistry show performed live by The Franklin Institute in August. The Franklin Institute will be giving away 2,500 kits of science materials through an online lottery, for families to complete one of the Be a Chemist! activities at home. Interested families can enter the lottery to win a kit of science materials beginning at 12:00 PM on Monday, June 29, 2020, at scienceinthesummer.fi.edu/phila. Families who are not selected in the lottery can still experience the full virtual program by gathering simple science materials from home, most of which can be found in the kitchen. All activity guides, materials lists, lab notebooks and videos will be freely available on the website and live events will be open to any interested families who have completed the at-home experiments. Provided by GSK in partnership with The Franklin Institute and administered at science centers across the nation, this fun, 100% free STEM enrichment program helps prevent the summer slide and keeps students engaged with learning through hands-on activities that will help ignite a lifelong passion for science. The program reaches more than 23,000 students at 26 organizations across the country* each year. "We hope that GSK Science in the Summer programs continue to inspire more children to put on their goggles and explore the wonders of science. Our goal is to encourage students, particularly those from populations underrepresented in the scientific community, to pursue STEM career paths later in life," said Becki Lynch, Director, US Community Partnerships at GSK. GSK Science in the Summer was created more than 30 years ago in Philadelphia as part of GSK's commitment to supporting diverse and equitable participation in STEM education and careers. Each year, it has continued to grow and improve to remain fresh, engaging and relevant for children across the country. This summer, Philadelphia-area children will join thousands more GSK Science in the Summer students nationwide as they learn the importance of chemistry in fields as varied as medicine, manufacturing, art, and environmental conservation through fun, hands-on, age-appropriate experiments taking place online and at home, rather than in local libraries and community-based organizations. "Now, more than ever, science matters. Engaging students early on in STEM is critical to fostering the next generation of scientists and innovators, and one of the best ways we can prepare students for lifelong success," said Dr. Darryl Williams, Senior Vice President of Science and Education at The Franklin Institute. "By going virtual this summer, the program is poised to reach even more families in many different areas across the country, making an even greater impact. We continue to be proud to partner with GSK to make STEM learning accessible and engaging for students in Philadelphia and beyond." The Franklin Institute Located in the heart of Philadelphia, The Franklin Institute is a renowned and innovative leader in the field of science and technology learning, as well as a dynamic center of activity. Pennsylvania's most visited museum it is dedicated to creating a passion for learning about science by offering access to hands-on science education. For more information, visit www.fi.edu. GSK GSK is a science-led global healthcare company with a special purpose: to help people do more, feel better, live longer. For further information, go to us.gsk.com and follow us on twitter.com/GSKUS. *The GSK Science in the Summer national network is sponsored by GSK and offered in partnership with The Franklin Institute (reaching 13,000 children in 24 locations across the county and 5,000 children in the Greater Philadelphia Area). UNC Morehead Planetarium and Science Center offers GSK Science in the Summer in North Carolina in partnership with GSK (reaching 5,000 children in 10 counties across the state). SOURCE The Franklin Institute Related Links http://www.fi.edu Almost at every corner in Egypt, cafes used to serve millions of people on a daily basis. Hookah lovers would sit for hours smoking tobacco while busying themselves with their mobile phones or watching TV. Those who have a passion for soccer would simply sit in rows watching their favorite sport live on big screens. The coronavirus pandemic has put an end to all of these scenes in a country that used to stay up until all hours of the morning. Many cafes that used to stay open all day have changed their businesses from serving hookah to selling fruit and vegetables or detergents. In the old Fatimid Cairo area where tourists used to swarm cafes to savor the taste of Egyptian tobacco, there is no more puffing which was a local habit that began in the 19th century, as British traveler Edward William Lane (1801-1876) narrated in his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. I dont know what happened really. This is like a nightmare for me. I used to earn around 3,000 pounds ($190) per day just a few months ago. The coronavirus pandemic has changed my whole life altogether. I had to switch to selling detergents as I have no other income resources, Mohamed Khalaf, an owner of a cafe in Cairo, told Al-Monitor. Khalaf, who has been in the cafe business for 20 years, said the coronavirus created an unprecedented situation for his cafe. For the very first time in my life, I couldnt afford the cafes monthly rent. Thats why I started to sell detergents in May. I cannot pay the rent for a closed shop, he said. Prior to the coronavirus crisis, cafes were the easiest and most prosperous businesses across the country. Unofficial statistics estimated the number of cafes at more than 2 million across the country. The Egyptian cafes, known for their hookah and crowds of customers all year round, provide millions of informal jobs feeding hundreds of thousands of families in Egypt. As for the workers, Khalaf sadly said layoffs were inevitable. I had six workers. I kept one for my new detergent business. The five others have families. I hope they get settled soon, he said. Hookah, or as Egyptians call it shisha, is considered a primary cause of colds and the flu, not to mention congestions at cafes. In a country where cafes used to serve hookah with various flavors, Egyptian shisha smokers have no place but their homes to smoke. A distinguishing aspect of many street corners across the country, the sound of water pipes has vanished since March 24 when Egyptian authorities shut down all cafes. Things will never be the same for hookah lovers. Cafes, when [they] reopen, wont serve hookah for health reasons. Even when this [coronavirus] tragedy is over, the pre-pandemic lifestyle of Egyptians will never be back, Samy Abdel Baki, a 42-year-old lawyer, told Al-Monitor. I used to go downtown to sit at cafes in the Hussein district, especially at night. The area was full of places where people would smoke shisha. Now with the coronavirus, all are closed until further notice, Abdel Baki said. Egyptians spend around 40 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) a year on cigarettes and hookah molasses, according to the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. My wife would never allow me to smoke shisha at home. The cafes were the perfect place for a puff. So I have given up smoking hookah since the government closed cafes, Abdel Baki said. Some coffee shops in the Hussein district used to entertain people from all walks of life. Tourists from various nationalities and women used to smoke tobacco flavors such as apple, peach and mint. All of that has vanished as if it never existed. Even if the government decides to reopen cafes, I think shisha will be banned for good, he said. Cafes have been a major part of Egyptian culture and history, where politicians, poets and novelists were everyday customers. Late Egyptian Nobel-laureate Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) employed cafes as eventful places in his novels like Karnak Cafe. During breaks, I used to go for a hookah puff at a cafe near my school. My workmates did the same thing. It was our daily socializing. Now, with social distancing and fears of infection, no more hookah and many cafes changed their business, Ezzat Adel, a 50-year-old history schoolteacher, told Al-Monitor. Naguib Mahfouz was infatuated with cafes, which played a significant role during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 against the British colonizers at that time. I wonder how Egyptians will do without cafes or the bubbling noise of hookah, Adel added. SARATOGA SPRINGS Despite having an extra week to mail in ballots, the Saratoga Parents for Safer School said their three board candidates were at a disadvantage because the Saratoga Springs school district did not provide ballot drop boxes in Wilton and Greenfield. Spokesman for SPSS, David Buchyn, said voters in those communities who support their cause --mainly rearming school monitors, hiring school resources officers at all eight school campuses and implementing other security hardening measures -- were disenfranchised because there was only one drop box and that was in Saratoga Springs. The vote favored Saratoga Springs residents, Buchyn said on Tuesday night. They stifled the vote in Wilton and Greenfield. If Wilton was an African-American community and Greenfield was a Hispanic community, this would be front page news. The school could have been fair to the outer residents with drop boxes at the elementary schools, but they refused to do that. Superintendent Michael Patton said the district decided to have one central drop-off location to make it easier for voters to know where to go. We were trying to be as accommodating with the process as possible, Patton said. We did extend the in-person drop off and encouraged people who thought their ballot wouldnt get mailed back in time, to drop them off. We gave ample opportunity, did everything in our power, to get return ballots. Patton said their efforts paid off with voters responding in record numbers. The district received 9,852 ballots. Last year, district spokeswoman Maura Manny said that 5,900 residents voted. In 2018, she said, 2,840 voted. One of the candidates backed by SPSS did win. Erika Borman came in third. Also winning seats on the board was Anjeanette Emeka who sought re-election. Tony Krackeler, who got the most votes, also won a spot on the board. The budget and all of the propositions also passed. The outcome of the vote, on Wednesday afternoon, will not be official until after the board certifies the results Wednesday evening. The mail-in only voting, necessary this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, caused a lot of consternation for many districts this year. They had to scramble to create a complete mailing list of eligible voters (one doesnt have to be a registered voter to cast a ballot in school board elections). They then had to get ballots printed and mailed, which was delayed by a shortage of envelopes. As many ballots were sent out late, districts then had to create secure dropbox locations. They also had to have a way for voters who did not receive ballots, to request one. Considering the problems facing the school budget and board votes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo granted the schools an extra week for mailed in ballots. Buchyn said that Borman's win encourages his team, which is fighting against a 2018 board decision against allowing the district's 14 grounds monitors to carry weapons, which they had without the administration and board's knowledge for decades. The vote aligned the district with state and federal law. In 2019, SPSS raised $33,000 for its three candidates who wanted armed monitors. One of their candidates, Dean Kolligian, won last year too. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. This year, Buchyn said their campaign was more low-key because the group felt it got too much negative press last year. He's also frustrated that his group was stopped from examining each mail-in ballot as they normally would in a general election. On Tuesday night, Chris Obstarczyk, a poll watcher representing Borman, also sought to challenge some ballots. The districts attorney Paul Aloy said no. Our view is that substantive parts of the election law should have been followed and they were not, said Obstarczyk who is also an attorney and the citys GOP committee chairman. But ultimately, they set the rules. I could have a conversation with the schools attorney for an hour, but at the end of the day, the school district is going to set the rules in a school board setting." Buchyn said he's angry that the district can "make up its own rules." "They are the authority," Buchyn said. "I think they worked hard and wanted to do a good job. Everything was about time and money. But they have to understand our position too. We have three candidates busting their asses, we deserve consideration too. If it was a normal election, there are ways to appeal. But (the school) is the law." Narinder Singh has a popular eatery in Chandigarhs sector 19, and sold up to a hundred piping hot vegetarian meals to college students daily, in non-pandemic times. However, the tandoorwala as he is known among his clients was forced into unemployment when the nationwide lockdown was announced in March. He did not make any money for well over two months, but he never stopped cooking. Between March 31 and May 21, the 54-year-old cooked two meals at a langar seva (food service) run by a local organisation. When the chairman of the organisation approached him to cook meals for the needy, Singh agreed instantly. My immediate answer was yes but my family was concerned. After all, it is such a deadly disease which spreads by through contact with others, he said. I sat down with my wife, daughter and son and explained to them that if the doctors, police, and sanitation workers and other such Covid warriors also sat at home fearing the coronavirus, who will take care of our city? he said. Singh has a 27-year-old daughter and 21-year-old son; his wife Baljeet is a home maker. Often, they had to make do with the food he would bring back from the langar at the end of the day. I would cook lunch for 800 people [in the kitchen] of Kashyap Samaj in sector 37. In the evening, I would go to Maloya and cook dinner for 700 people, he said. The community organisation provided the raw material rice, dal, vegetables and Singh along with two other cooks, would make two meals a day that would then be distributed in the colonies and slums of Maloya and Dhanas. In these 50 days, this service became centre of my existence, so much so that one day it was raining heavily yet I decided to go, all drenched in the rain because my absence would have meant that over a 1000 people will sleep hungry. Singh, who has worked his as a cook all his life he opened his tandoor near the sector 19 gurudwara in the 1970swas among the small business owners who were worst hit by the lockdown. Singh has also had to make many personal sacrifices due to the lockdown, which depleted his earnings. My daughter was supposed to get married this year. I was saving for her wedding. For the last two months there was no income for my family, he said. But with gods grace, we managed, somehow, he said. Since June 8, his eatery has reopened but his client base has dwindled, as colleges still remain shut. He is hopeful that in a month or two, when colleges reopen, his eatery will start making profit. But he is nervous about the competition posed by online delivery outlets. He is not technology savvy and might lose out on orders if people start ordering online, he said. Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study by the University of Leeds and University of Oxford has examined spatial biodiversity patterns across the Permo-Triassic mass extinction event. (c. 252 million years ago). The Permo-Triassic mass extinction represents the most catastrophic event in the last 500 million years of evolutionary history and caused the loss of up 95% of species because of a cocktail of volcanic effects including extreme greenhouse warming. Examination of the global distribution of tetrapodsamphibians, reptiles and their relativesreveals that biodiversity was consistently higher at temperate latitudes, both before and after the mass extinction. This is in strong contrast to the modern day, where the greatest levels of biodiversity are found in the low latitudes of the tropics, near the equator. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows how patterns of biodiversity can respond when temperatures in tropical regions become too extreme to support high levels of biodiversity. Examining the responses of organisms to rapid climatic changes in the distant past can offer a window into the potential impact of future global warming. Study lead author Bethany Allen, Ph.D. researcher at the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds, said: "Higher equatorial diversity has been recognized for over 200 years, but the consistency of this pattern throughout Earth history has been uncertain. "The Late Permian to Middle Triassic is an ideal time interval to examine biodiversity trends. It is characterized by large-scale volcanic episodes, extreme greenhouse temperatures, and the most severe mass extinction event in Earth's history. "Our study shows that the regions we now associate with some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on Earth were once too hot to support communities of large animals, likely reaching over 40C. In the face of a rapidly warming planet, this window into our past could offer a glimpse into the future of those regions and the very real risk to the species that live there if we do not act to curb our carbon emissions and limit global warming." Explore further New insight into the Great Dying More information: Bethany J. Allen et al, The latitudinal diversity gradient of tetrapods across the Permo-Triassic mass extinction and recovery interval, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2020). Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B Bethany J. Allen et al, The latitudinal diversity gradient of tetrapods across the Permo-Triassic mass extinction and recovery interval,(2020). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1125 LIMASSOL, Cyprus, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- International financial services provider Orbex has been awarded "Best Forex Broker 2020." The broker was presented with the award by the prestigious Global Banking & Finance Review Magazine, taking home the trophy for both the European and MENA regions. The award comes as part of the magazine's ongoing mission to recognize the industry's finest and provide participants of the financial sector with up-to-date industry news, information and insights. "To receive this award from such a renowned institution within the financial community, widely respected for its objective and insightful reporting, is an honor we greatly appreciate. It not only validates our efforts as a broker, but synchronizes perfectly with our main mission, which is to educate and serve our traders responsibly," said Managing Director, Mohammed Yaghi. This is the second consecutive "Best Forex Broker" award Orbex has received in the last 2 years, taking home the same title at the Global Business Outlook financial award ceremony in 2019. The achievements have been rolling in as the company has undergone a significant revamp of its services, offering highly competitive trading conditions including spreads as low as zero. The broker also recently obtained a new license from FSC Mauritius, significantly increasing the available leverage for clients whose locations allow for them to trade with the Mauritius-regulated entity. "2020 has been a tough year for humanity, and it's no secret that the financial markets have endured great hardships as a result. Our top priority this year has been to support our clients during this time of uncertainty and volatility. To receive this honor is proof that through thick and thin, we will rise above and grow together as a community," Yaghi added. This award has been added to the impressive list of titles Orbex has obtained over the years, including "Best Trading Education Provider", "Best Analysis Provider" and "Best FX Forecast & Strategy Provider", in keeping with the company's philosophy of promoting an informed and responsible approach to the forex markets. About Orbex Orbex Limited is an award-winning global forex broker, fully licensed and regulated by CySEC. Headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, Orbex specializes in the provision of access to the world's largest and most liquid financial markets. Orbex Global Limited is fully licensed and regulated by FSC Mauritius and headquartered in Ebene, Mauritius. The companies offer multiple asset trading including forex, indices, commodities and metals. With a focus on research, analysis and enhanced security of client funds, Orbex upholds a reputation of seasoned expertise within the industry. SOURCE Orbex Six US-connected oil executives detained in Venezuela are in mortal danger from illness, the United States said Wednesday as it demanded their release. The six former Citgo executives -- five of them dual US-Venezuela nationals and one a US resident -- were first arrested in November 2017 and accused of crimes including money laundering. Roger Carstens, the US envoy for hostage affairs, said the United States was "extremely concerned" by new information on their health. All six "are now in mortal danger, with several of them displaying COVID19-like symptoms and various other serious ailments," Carstens wrote on Twitter. "We call for their immediate release and urgent access to the medical treatment they need," he said. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza replied by posting a video on Twitter in which one of the six, Jose Angel Pereira, insisted that authorities were respecting their rights. The United States "is trying to justify its aggression with lies on the six 'ex-Citgo' Venezuelans who are now being prosecuted by the Venezuelan judiciary," Arreaza said. The "Citgo Six" deny the charges, and their supporters say that Venezuela's judiciary does the bidding of President Nicolas Maduro, who has been widely accused of corruption in the economically battered nation. Citgo is the US subsidiary of state-run Venezuelan oil firm PDVSA, which has been under intense pressure as Washington tries to topple the leftist president. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in March urged Maduro to release the six on humanitarian grounds, saying there was not "an ounce of evidence" brought against them. Damian McVicker, working for Heineken Ireland, collecting out of date stock from a premises in Dublins city centre (PA) Halving social distancing measures for pubs and restaurants from two metres to one would still be restrictive, the head of the vintners organisation has said. Restaurants and cafes can reopen as well as pubs and bars which operate as restaurants from June 29. Tourism group Failte Ireland said it has been told by health officials there could be certain circumstances where restaurants are allowed to adhere to a one-metre social distancing rule. .@Failte_Ireland received guidance from @hpscireland entitled COVID19: Guidance for Food Service Businesses, aimed at facilitating the safe re-opening of food service businesses, including pubs that serve food. Read more: https://t.co/OepFyfqhM0 pic.twitter.com/GIpDxaDkvI Failte Ireland (@Failte_Ireland) June 17, 2020 Failte Ireland said the meals sold in such premises must be of a kind for which it would be reasonable to charge not less than 9 euro. Irelands Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has previously said pubs operating as restaurants would not mean people meeting up for a few pints and having a packet of peanuts. The guidelines due to be issued this week state food on offer would be expected to be served as a main midday or evening meal or as a main course in either such meal. But Vintners Federation of Ireland chief executive Padraig Cribben said the one-metre rule for pubs could still be restrictive. He told RTE Morning Ireland: We welcome the move from two metres to one but it does say that would only be in certain circumstances. We have been working with the various government departments in relation to social distancing and we need to flesh out what these circumstances are. Major statement tonight from @Failte_Ireland about pub reopening guidelines....more clarity required but looks like one-metre distancing will be introduced https://t.co/qV5lWEKU6j VFI (@VFIpubs) June 16, 2020 Going from two metres to one is very important from a capacity point of view but it is still very restrictive. We have some independent research done that says even at the one metre, seating capacity would be reduced by 35%. From a viability point of view it is going to be very challenging. Mr Cribben said the nine euro rule for meals derives from the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1962. It is the only piece of legislation that actually has an definition on food so Government and the powers-that-be have latched on to that particular definition, he said. Individual operators who wouldnt have served food before this will have to go away now and see if they want to go along with it. The 20th of July when all pubs can reopen is only three weeks away after that. He said pubs do not have clarity whether the two-metre rule will remain in place when all pubs are allowed to reopen on July 20. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) That has been causing us problems the past few weeks so we want to get clear guidelines on the two-metre issue for pubs as that is only a month away, he said. Meanwhile, three further coronavirus deaths were reported on Tuesday, along with 14 more cases of the virus. This brings the total number of deaths from Covid-19 to 1,709, and the number of cases to 25,334. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 07:17 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf5059f 1 National #COVID19,COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,PCR-test,death-toll,#death-toll,social-restriction,PSBB Free As Indonesia transitions into the new normal, the country continues to report high numbers of new COVID-19 cases, with three new daily records reported since the beginning of June as well as the highest daily death toll of 64 fatalities on Monday. The government reported a record daily high of 993 new cases on June 6, exceeding the previous high of 973 cases on May 21, followed by 1,043 cases on June 9 and 1,240 cases the following day, with epicenters East Java and Jakarta contributing significantly to the tallies. Government spokesperson for COVID-19 affairs Achmad Yurianto attributed the spikes to "aggressive contact tracing". COVID-19 task force expert staff chief Wiku Adisasmito said the spikes should not be seen negatively", as it was a sign of the country's increased polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rapid molecular testing and improved tracing capacities, arguing that it did not necessarily indicate that the rate of infection had increased. "This [spike in the number of daily reported cases] is also a result of an accumulation of previously unreported cases. [The data on new cases] must be by averaged out weekly; this is more informative than viewing it on a daily basis," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday. In the past week, Indonesia has recorded an average of 1,103 new cases from an average of 7,684 people tested daily, representing a 14 percent positivity rate on average. Indonesia has tested 1.2 per 1,000 people, one of the lowest rates in the world, according to ourworldindata.org. On Tuesday, the government reported 1,106 new cases, with the overall total reaching 40,400 with 2,231 deaths. Read also: COVID-19: Jokowi warns of second wave, but first one may not be over While acknowledging that testing capacity had been improved thanks to an increased number of labs processing COVID-19 tests, epidemiologist Pandu Riono argued that the testing rate was still far from ideal, as more tests should have led to a lower positivity rate. "If infections have declined and we have tested more people, then the positivity rate should have declined," he said. Pandu pointed to the possibility of new clusters emerging because of increased travel during the Idul Fitri holiday in late May, as it fit with the timeline. The government issued a mudik (exodus) ban as part of its COVID-19 containment efforts but experts have criticized the lack of enforcement, especially after authorities announced several exemptions to the travel restrictions in early May. The virus has now reached 431 of the country's 514 cities and regencies, up from 416 cities and regencies on May 31. The World Health Organization's (WHO) latest COVID-19 situation report on Indonesia published on June 10 said one of the epidemiological criteria for relaxing large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) was for fewer than 5 percent of samples to test positive over a two-week period. More than one sample can be taken from one person. None of Java's six provinces the WHO assessed between May 25 and June 7 had met the criteria, the report said. It noted, however, that a reliable positivity rate requires at least 1 test per 1,000 population per week, which only Jakarta has fulfilled. Jakarta has tested 102,859 people so far, and reported 105 new cases with a positivity rate of 6.2 percent among the total number of people tested, or 6.7 percent of the total samples tested, on Monday when it began reopening malls, shops and offices. Not all regions provide data on the number of people tested. West Java, home to some 48 million people, had only tested 60,389 people as of June 13. East Java, which has recorded more fatalities than Jakarta, does not provide testing data, but its capital of Surabaya, home to some 2.7 million people, revealed it had conducted 8,214 tests as of June 13. Read also: Indonesian wet markets carry high risk of virus transmission Epidemiologist Pandu urged local administrations to be transparent with their testing data, as he feared regional leaders were not willing to conduct increased tests for fear of losing their low-risk or "green zone" status or for political interest given the upcoming regional elections. Further upgrades to the country's diagnostic capabilities to provide real-time reports of new cases was also necessary, he said. A time lag between tests and results continues to persist in Indonesia, and can vary greatly with some people having to wait a week or more for test results, Wiku of the COVID-19 task force said. The countrys inability to report real-time case numbers is likely to persist, given its size and the fact some regions need to ship samples to labs in other cities, he said. In addition, not all labs in the country can operate 24 hours a day, as a shortage of trained lab workers and limited automatic extractors prevented the country from scaling up its diagnostic capacity. Yurianto, for instance, attributed the low number samples recorded on Monday to the fact staff at some hospital and university labs did not work on the weekend. The WHO report advises that test results be made available within 24 to 48 hours, and lists this as one of the "non-negotiable measures for the 'new normal' scenario". The report, however, acknowledges that provinces with hard-to-reach areas faced difficulties transporting samples and with effective contact tracing. A senior epidemiologist close to the issue said ideally each community health center (Puskesmas) in the country should have at least three epidemiologists to conduct contact tracing and data analysis, especially when dealing with a highly infectious disease like COVID-19. He said, however, that epidemiologists were not evenly distributed across the country as not all regions "felt the need" to request for additional manpower. Episcopal Church holds hearing for bishop who refused to allow gay marriages in diocese Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Episcopal Church held a hearing in the case of a bishop who refused to allow for the blessing of same-sex marriages in his diocese. Bishop William Love of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany was punished last year with a restriction on his ministerial duties after refusing to allow gay marriages in his diocese. His case was brought before a Title IV Hearing Panel, which focuses on issues of ecclesiastical discipline whenever a clergyman is accused of misconduct. Originally scheduled for April 21 before the shutdowns over coronavirus concerns, the hearing was held via Zoom teleconference on June 12 and posted on social media. The teleconference hearing did not address the theological validity of Loves views, but rather focused on whether the bishops actions violated Episcopal Church law. Paul Cooney, who represented The Episcopal Church, told the hearing panel that Love was obligated to a new resolution that mandated all dioceses to bless same-sex weddings. Canon 118 provides that wherever permitted by secular law and the dioceses of The Episcopal Church, opposite sex and same-sex marriage both may be solemnized by Episcopal clergy, explained Cooney. We contend that the Albany marriage canons limitation of access to holy matrimony to couples who are a man and a woman is in conflict with the standard of access in Canon 118. The Rev. Chip Strickland, representing Love, said that The Episcopal Church carries the burden of proof and that he believes they have failed to prove any offense by Bishop Love. Strickland argued that Love was adhering to the doctrines of the denomination, which includes the Book of Common Prayer, where marriage is defined as being between one man and one woman. The doctrine of the Church as found in the marriage rites, the prefaces in the marriage rites, and the catechism, defines marriage as between a man and a woman, argued Strickland. Its ironic that Bishop Love is on trial today for failing to conform, when in fact the facts in law will show that hes fully conformed. It could take weeks for the Title IV panel to reach a decision. If found in the wrong, Love could be suspended or deposed from his position as bishop. An appeal is possible for either party. In July 2018, The Episcopal Churchs General Convention approved Resolution B012, which allowed same-sex couples to marry in all dioceses, even ones where the bishops objected. B012 allowed clergy to refuse to officiate gay weddings, but dissenting bishops had to provide a clergy member to perform the same-sex wedding ceremony. Other impacted dioceses included Dallas; North Dakota; Springfield, Illinois; Tennessee; the U.S. Virgin Islands; the Diocese of Florida; and the Diocese of Central Florida. In response, Bishop Love sent out a letter in November 2018 stating that same-sex weddings were not going to occur in his diocese despite the General Convention resolution. "Jesus is calling the Church to follow His example. He is calling the Church to have the courage to speak His Truth in love about homosexual behavior even though it isn't politically correct," wrote Love. "Sexual relations between two men or two women was never part of God's plan and is a distortion of His design in creation and as such is to be avoided." In January of last year, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry officially restricted Loves ministry, preventing him from enforcing his opposition to B012. Love is forbidden from participating in any manner in the Churchs disciplinary process in the Diocese of Albany in any matter regarding any member of the clergy that involves the issue of same-sex marriage, stated Curry at the time. Nor shall he participate in any other matter that has or may have the effect of penalizing in any way any member of the clergy or laity or worshiping congregation of his diocese for their participation in the arrangements for or participation in a same-sex marriage in his diocese or elsewhere. On Thursday, the New York City Council is all but guaranteed to pass the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act a bill thats languished in the council since 2017, which will force the New York City Police Department to disclose the technology it uses, how it uses those tools and what privacy measures are in place governing their use. On Wednesday, in a sign of just how much the appetite for policing reform has grown in the last month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would sign the POST Act, once passed by the council. Ever since the bill was proposed in 2017 by then-City Councilman Dan Garodnick and re-introduced by Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson the NYPD has pushed back against it, saying that disclosing information about the surveillance and other technology tools it uses would put their own officers at risk. If this bill becomes law, it would create a roadmap for terrorists and criminals to more effectively carry out their crimes, an NYPD spokeswoman told City & State of the POST Act last August. Particular NYPD technologies that have received criticism from privacy advocates and some lawmakers include its facial recognition database, drone program and DNA database. After attempts to attract the support of the NYPD, with council members saying theyd welcome the departments input on the POST Act to find a workable compromise, a new era of policing reform is sweeping through the city. Now, with the support of 38 council members a veto-proof majority and de Blasio, the POST Act is poised to become law whether the NYPD likes it or not. The NYPD, in a statement given to NY1, made plain that it still opposes the legislation. To be clear, the bill, as currently proposed would literally require the NYPD to advertise on its website the covert means and equipment used by undercover officers who risk their lives every day, the statement read. No reasonable citizen of New York City would ever support that. Passage of the POST Act would be just one of the New York City-level policing reforms announced or proposed in the past month, and would follow a wave of statewide reforms passed last week. The POST Act would require the NYPD to submit information about the surveillance technology it uses, open it up to public comment, and have the police commissioner submit a surveillance impact and use policy report to the City Council. Essentially, it would shed light on the tech the NYPD uses. Finally, after the POST Act (passes), we will have a requirement that the NYPD tell us what systems theyre purchasing so they cant use them for years without any public pushback the way they have in the past, Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, told City & State. Cahn mentioned examples of NYPD surveillance tools including facial recognition a technology that has been shown to have racial bias in identifying faces. But Cahn who has been one of the leading advocates for the POST Act since 2017 notes that the bill wouldnt necessarily change anything about the way the police use that technology. This is the weakest surveillance oversight legislation in the country, he said. And so we see this as just a first step, but an indispensable first step because we can't regulate these technologies until we know what's being used. The next step, he said, would involve the council banning specific technology like facial recognition. Some council members once effectively sought the NYPDs consent to pass the POST Act, and now the body is ready to pass it without the NYPDs blessing. Cahn said its the protests over the past month that have pushed the previously stalled reforms forward in a matter of days. I think that just shows the enormous power of the public protests we've seen across the city in demonstrating the need for real reforms from City Hall and the NYPD, he said. Until the end of the session of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on June 26, the Iranian side must either hand over the "black boxes" of the downed UIA plane for decoding or explain why this has not been done yet. Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevhenii Yenin said this in an interview with RBC-Ukraine. He reminded that, as stipulated by the Chicago Convention, the state in whose territory the crash took place must ensure the immediate decoding of "black boxes." If it does not have the appropriate equipment, it must transfer them to a third party. "Realizing that Iran does not have such equipment, as well as Ukraine, we, as the Foreign Ministry, negotiated with the French side and obtained its prior consent. The representatives of the United States, being the aircrafts designer, also confirmed their readiness to come to France. Three months ago, the Iranian side stated: give us two weeks, that will be enough to hand over the boxes. The session of the ICAO council will last until June 26, and the representative of Iran will have to explain why this has not happened yet," Yenin said. He added that coronavirus pandemic could not be an excuse for everything. In this context, the diplomat cited as an example the plane crash that had occurred in Pakistan three and a half weeks ago and the French technical bureau had already decoded the black boxes of the crashed plane. "But we do not dump into the decoding of black boxes, there are other forms of obtaining evidence," the diplomat noted. "There are satellite data that confirm the fact that Boeing was shot down by two missiles - because two missiles were found, they have a unique structure, two separate alloys is clearly seen. There must be audio and video data from the missile systems from which the missiles were launched. "If there are no boxes, there will be no tragedy, this does not mean that there are no other ways to establish the truth," the deputy minister assured. At the same time, Yenin pointed to the "very encouraging" rhetoric of the Iranian side. "I would like it to turn into real steps," he concluded. 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. On January 11, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner. It emerged later that the UIA plane had been shot down by two missiles of the Tor-M1 air defense system, which Iran received from Russia. The International Coordination and Response Group for the Victims of Flight PS752 Crash has insisted on the transfer of flight recorders to France which has the necessary technical capabilities for decoding them. 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. Six people charged with the downing of flight PS752 were detained in Iran. ol Executive health-care clinic Medcan plans to provide a COVID-19 antibody test to clients next month, at a price, the company says. The Toronto-based private clinic, which charges an annual membership fee for services outside of OHIP and streamlined care, will offer Abbott Laboratories IgG antibody test, spokesperson Bronwen Evans said in an email. Its one of five serological tests approved by Health Canada. Unlike swab tests that determine if someone has an active infection, these blood tests show whether people have developed antibodies that suggest theyve already had COVID-19 and could be protected from getting it again. The tests are key to the controversial promise of immunity passports, which could help society open up more without a vaccine or cure for the disease that has killed hundreds of thousands. They are already being widely used in many countries, including the U.S., where theyre available online, by people curious about if theyve had it without any symptoms, or if that flu in February could have actually been the new coronavirus. But experts have urged caution. There are concerns with accuracy and false positives. And scientists think, but havent yet proven with strong evidence, that if you have the antibodies you are immune from getting the disease again. They also dont know how long any immunity would last. According to slides from a company town hall, shared with the Star by an employee, Medcan will offer the test at between $200 and $400 to clients, depending on their health-care package. They will also offer it for free to any of their own employees who are interested. Evans said it will be completely optional and private, and the test has an excellent accuracy rate. The results will not be utilized by Medcan in any way, said Evans. Many of our employees have requested access to the COVID-19 IgG testing. The blood sample is taken from a vein and the test is run immediately afterwards, she added. The U.S. companys test was approved by Health Canada in mid-May, and another one was approved earlier this month. Abbott is working with all the provincial testing laboratories and relevant federal agencies across the country to implement testing as soon as possible, said spokesperson Kelly Wighton in an email. A handful of the companys antibodies tests are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the company plans to distribute 30 million globally by the end of July. Evans added that clients who take the test will have the results reviewed by a health professional and have the opportunity to ask questions. They will also be given patient education material that will discuss the accuracy of the test and the fact that evidence is still being collected to determine if IgG antibodies provide protective immunity against COVID-19. The plan for those who dont have access to a premium health-care service in Ontario is still unclear. Will they be available through family doctors? Or covered by OHIP? The provinces testing strategy expert panel is currently discussing serological testing and developing a framework/criteria to incorporate and align serology testing into the larger provincial testing strategy, said a Public Health Ontario spokesperson in an email. That framework is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks, the spokesperson added. In the meantime, the Health Canada-approved tests are currently licensed only for research, said Ontario health ministry spokesperson Hayley Chazan in an email. Medcan will wait for the provinces framework, said spokesperson Evans. There are many examples of health services that are not covered by OHIP that can be paid for privately, such as mental health counselling by a psychologist, drugs and many dental services, she added. We appreciate that governments need to determine the most effective way of rationing health-care spending. We hope that the general public will eventually have access to this test as a covered benefit. Dr. Prabhat Jha, director of global health research at St. Michaels Hospital in Toronto, is leading a cross-country study to try to answer some of the key questions about antibodies. Do they mean someone is protected against reinfection from COVID-19? Does immunity fade over time, as it does for the common cold? His team has paired up with polling firm Angus Reid to get a random snapshot of the country with an oversampling of seniors, as theyre the hardest hit by the virus. They plan to send out 10,000 blood kits. Participants will prick their fingers and send the results back, and theyll be checked again in a few months. The researchers will inform them about their results on a scale from highly likely to have had COVID-19, to somewhat likely, to unlikely. But they arent accepting volunteers as it could skew the results towards those who suspect theyve already had it, even though theyve been flooded with calls and emails from those eager for the test. Jha urges caution, and recommends people wait for further public health guidance, and more evidence from studies like his, before trying to get an antibody test. Its not a licence to go out and kiss people on the street, he said of positive test results. Im not against individual consumer choices but they have to be informed by science. A national COVID-19 Immunity Task Force will also roll out a host of studies over the next two years, using Health Canada-approved serology tests. The tests are very useful to understand patterns of infection in groups, or large settings such as hospitals or meat-packing plants where there have been outbreaks, said Dr. Tim Evans, director of the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University, whos leading the secretariat of the task force. But he also doesnt recommend them for individuals or companies testing workers. At the moment we dont think the science is mature enough to enable either clinicians or employers to manage employees on an individual basis, Evans said. Even if it does provide protection, we dont know how long that protection will last. The epidemic is much too young for us in Canada to have that information, and the world. Andrew Corkum, president of commercial operations at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics Canada, one of the companies behind one of the Health Canada-approved serological tests, believes they could be useful in helping to identify immunity in order for people to get back to work. They havent had companies reach out yet, but Roche Diagnostics, which also has an approved test, has, said spokesperson Marie-Elaine Guay. That being said, as a diagnostic provider our objective is to provide a reliable test to help identify which individual has been exposed to the virus and has developed antibodies, she added in an email. Any clinical interpretation needs to be aligned with the provincial health authority guidance. The tests are already being used by some employers in the U.S. like Jordan Rose, founder and president of the Rose Law Group in Scottsdale, Ariz., who decided the firm should offer the test free of charge in the spring. The state has now become a new COVID-19 hot spot. Our feeling was, lets let everyone on our team assess their own level of risk, she said. They wanted to provide some level of confidence so they can make their own decisions as to how they decide to interact. Rose estimates more than 30 of the firms 50 staff members have taken the test. But they had to offer two, because the first one was discontinued over accuracy concerns. The results are private, although she said some lawyers are already using them to make decisions about meeting with clients. Closer to home, Jha said he knows many people are curious but they should keep in mind the tests limitations. If you knew the result, it wouldnt change your behaviour today anyway, he said. I think with the science and more testing, and more antibody testing coming on we will get to the stage where you can use something like an immunity passport, but were not there yet. Were quite some months away from getting the science right. L egal & General has bought land in Uxbridge for its first London retirement homes development, it emerged on Wednesday. The insurance giant is looking to create a 130 million scheme comprising around 200 later living apartments, subject to planning permission. The purchase comes just over a year after L&G established Guild Living, a developer and operator of urban later living communities. At the time it said that through Guild Living it planned to deliver over 3,000 new homes by 2024. The homes are typically aimed at over 70s, and on sites that offer other features, such as a fitness centre, GP consultation room and crafts space. L&G is one of a number of investors looking at building retirement homes. Britains ageing population has grown as cleaner lifestyles and better healthcare has seen pensioners living far longer, and some want to downsize. Guild Living will develop the Harefield Road site in Uxbridge, submitting proposals this year after a public consultation. It hopes to start construction in the third quarter of 2021. Eugene Marchese, director at Guild Living, said: There is a clear and growing need for age-appropriate housing both in London and across the UK. Phil Bayliss, chief executive of later living at Legal & General, said: London is often seen as a young city, but actually has the fastest growing over-50s population. We have to be prepared to meet these changing dynamics. A robotic spy pig was ripped to pieces in a vicious attack by three randy 200lb Komodo dragons while filming for a BBC wildlife documentary. The camera, disguised as a wild pig, manages to film male Komodo dragons on the hunt for female mates on Komodo Island in Indonesia. But the robot ends up getting closer to the reptiles than anticipated when the three-metre long lizards decide to pick a fight with the small pig. Footage taken by the spy pig shows the Komodo dragons attack the robot, with the sturdy camera continuing to record despite being knocked down and ripped apart. A robotic spy pig was ripped to shreds by three Komodo dragons when filming the lizards for a BBC wildlife documentary on Komodo Island in Indonesia The spy pig films inside the Komodo dragon's mouth during the fight, which is laden with venom and toxic saliva dosed with 50 types of deadly bacteria But the robot ends up getting closer to the dragons than anticipated when the lizards decide to pick a fight with the pig, ripping it apart with their teeth The hidden camera even manages to film inside a Komodo dragon's mouth for the first time ever during the scuffle. The Komodo dragon latches onto the spy pig's snout, allowing the camera to see the lizard's mouth, which is laden with venom and toxic saliva dosed with 50 types of deadly bacteria. The spy pig also films two male lizards fighting each other over a female as mating season is underway on the island. The males show their strength by wrestling each other before the victorious lizard pins his rival to the ground, ending the battle and winning his female mate. But as the Komodo dragons remain in a fighting mood, spy pig no longer goes unnoticed as the lizards turn their attention to him. One reptile sizes up spy pig before knocking him to the ground with his tail. The reptiles weigh around 200lb each, around ten times heavier than the defenceless spy pig. The unlucky robot is ripped apart when two other dragons join in, but the robot remarkably keeps filming throughout the fight. But the reptiles quickly realise that the spy pig is not edible and abandon the fight to return to their mating rituals. 'Spy pig's days are well and truly over': The reptiles realise that the spy pig is not edible and abandon the fight, returning to their mating rituals without a scratch The reptiles weigh around 200lb, around ten times heavier than the defenceless spy pig, and measure at a massive three-metres in length 'Spy pig's days are well and truly over, while our friendly dragon survives unscathed,' the narrator David Tennant says. The sequence occurs in the BBC series Spy in the Wild. The programme deploys more than 50 ultra-realistic animatronics to go undercover across the world to film more than 40 extraordinary animals up close. The robotic lookalikes observe behaviours never seen before as the animals gather, feed, fight and breed in their natural habitats, unaware they are being watched. The spy robots not only look like the animals they are imitating but also behave like them, meaning they can interact with the creatures they are filming. But unluckily for the spy pig, he was not able to keep the Komodo dragons at a distance and ended up filming them even closer than anticipated. The episode, Islands, is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Rasheed Jeffries, who participated in several recent police brutality demonstrations in Michigan, saw firsthand the confrontations between protesters and officers equipped with riot gear. Coming with tanks and things does not deescalate, but escalates emotions, Jeffries said. "They are triggering things. H illary Clinton has accused Donald Trump of trying to "hijack" Christianity and the bible when he posed outside a church amid Black Lives Matter protests. Religious leaders said the president used the church opposite the White House as a "prop" after he posed for photos with a bible on June 1, moments after he made speech in which he threatened to deploy military to end protests over the death of George Floyd. Protesters were cleared from the Lafayette Square area using tear gas and Mr Trump led an entourage that included Army General Mark Milley and Defence Secretary Mark Esper to St Johns Episcopal Church, where he held up a bible for photographers. In an interview on Sky News Mrs Clinton said the outcry by religious leaders showed that "nobody was being fooled". The former presidential candidate said Mr Trump had likely never read the Bible. Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in the 2016 election / Getty "He can't tell you a single thing that's in it," she said. "That has been a pattern - he's tried to hijack Christianity and the Bible in ways that are deeply hypocritical and that was just another occasion." Mrs Clinton also spoke out about the anti-racism demonstrations that are taking place across the US and criticised the President for calling protesters "thugs". Donald Trump walks to church after protesters dispersed with tear gas "They were totally peaceful protesters and what he was trying to do, as he often does, is to mischaracterise them and their behaviour and their goals," she said. "And lump them in with the tiny, tiny minority who took advantage of a tragic moment to loot and steal and vandalise - a tiny, tiny percentage - and he wanted to cast that over the millions of very thoughtful, non-violent peaceful protesters. "There should be no tolerance for violent protest and certainly that was not at the core of the literally millions of people who have come out to protest peacefully over the last several weeks." The former Democratic presidential candidate, who lost to Mr Trump in the 2016 election said he had put peaceful protesters in the same category as a "tiny minority" who had committed criminal acts. Her comments come after Army General Mark Milley apologised for taking part in the photo-op. He said his presence "created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. Mr Trump's televised walk to St Johns came as protests over Mr Floyd's death continued to rock the US after Mr Floyd died on May 25 having been pinned at the neck by a white police officer in Minneapolis while being arrested. Press Release June 17, 2020 Villanueva: Govt must extend helping hand to online sellers, who mostly come from ranks of the unemployed Senator Joel Villanueva has appealed to the government to give more leeway for online sellers, instead of cracking the whip on them, especially since these individuals come mostly from ranks of the unemployed and are on survival mode. In a statement, Villanueva explained that most online sellers are focused on earning enough to provide for their basic necessities now given that stable jobs are hard to come by as employers and the labor market continue to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Payak lang po ang konsiderasyon na nasa isip ng ating mga manggagawa na nakikipagsapalaran ngayon bilang mga online seller. Kailangan po nilang kumita para may pagkain sa kanilang hapag at matustusan ang iba pang pangangailangan ng kanilang pamilya tulad ng bayarin sa upa, kuryente, tubig, at iba pa," pointed out Villanueva, who chairs the Senate labor committee. "Kaya po nais natin hilingin sa gobyerno na dahan-dahanin lang po ang paghahabol sa mga online sellers. Huwag na po natin gamitin ang takot at pangamba upang hikayatin ang mga online seller na mag-rehistro. Tulungan na lang po natin silang makabangon at maging matagumpay sa negosyo dahil mas makatitiyak tayo na maka-kolekta ng buwis kapag sigurado na ang kanilang kita," added the lawmaker. Villanueva reiterated the importance of providing trainings to first-time sellers on entrepreneurship so that they are able to include in their pricing the costs related to the business which are often overlooked. For instance, those without a background on bookkeeping may need to hire one to maintain their business' book of accounts and keep track of the periodic filings with the BIR, he said. "We don't discount the fact that there is a cost of doing business. What we hope the government does today is to help our online sellers minimize these costs of doing business just until our situation improves," the senator said. He maintained that the priority of tax authorities should be going after firms with outstanding tax obligations such as Philippine offshore gaming operations, which owe the government at least P50 billion last year. Kansas City, MOJune 16, 2020 A Kansas City- based executive is investing in additional brand collaborations to propel her business into a new phase of growth in 2020. Natalie Busch, CEO and founder of TiScrubs, announced a partnership with St. Louis- based SeriesSix todayher fourth collaboration of the year. Both businesses are led by women in Missouri, something both brands felt was an additional positive in continuing to broaden core audiences. Weve found that collaborating with incredibly talented owners and brands not only helps build pride within our companies but helps build community within our hometowns. We are a brand that was born small in Kansas City, and our audience is growing fastjust like the pride within some of these cities. We want doctors, nurses, and technicians to be able to reflect this spirit at work, said Natalie Busch. By state Sen. Tim Kearney Times Guest Columnist As a member of the Pennsylvania Senate, I am generally reluctant to call out my individual colleagues. I know my fellow senators love our Commonwealth and our country we just have different ideas about how to best serve our people. However, times arise when a fellow public servants statement demands a response. Senator Mike Regan, my colleague from Cumberland and York counties, recently published an op-ed on the recent protests against police brutality and racial injustices that requires such a response. In his op-ed, Senator Regan acknowledged George Floyds death was a murder and recognized that Mr. Floyd was one of many black men to die at the hands of police. However, my colleague also said the fact that police brutality is dangerously widespread and requires nationwide police reform is a myth, and claimed nationwide statistics do not support the presence of widespread racial bias within our criminal justice system. This is factually incorrect. Protests demanding justice for black lives have reverberated across the nation precisely because systemic racism exists in every corner of the nation. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and too many others were not anecdotal. They are vivid examples of a system-wide problem that requires system-wide reforms. A database collected by The Guardian found that 1,093 Americans were killed by the police in 2016. Black people were 24% of those killed despite being only 13% of the population an 11% discrepancy. The rate of fatal police shootings per million was 6.6 for black people but only 2.9 for white people. A 2019 study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that African Americans are significantly more likely than white women and men to be killed by police. According to the study, For young men of color, police use of force is among the leading causes of death. Senator Regan says the resulting narrative is that all police officers have been vilified, claiming the over 40,000 active and retired law enforcement officers in our Commonwealth are being judged by the horrific actions of a few bad cops in Minneapolis. Distorting the Black Lives Matter movement by saying its supporters hate all police is incorrect. The failure of some officers to live up to their oath to protect and serve is not a reflection on their entire profession. Compare this to the example of the Catholic Church. Like everyone, I have been horrified by the sexual abuse scandal within the Church. I know there are many good priests who serve with great virtue, but that does not erase the sickening actions of sexual predators nor the need for reform. That is why I, the son of a Catholic school teacher and the product of sixteen years of Catholic education, introduced legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations for sexual abuse in Pennsylvania. That is why I also support reforms to address police brutality. We need real structural change to ensure we never see another story like George Floyd and those who came before him. While Senator Regan dismisses reforms like the creation of a Deputy Inspector General to investigate police misconduct as little more than political grandstanding, I see them as essential to guarantee the American promise of liberty and justice for all. I know the many good members of Pennsylvanias law enforcement community, who carry out their duties with compassion and competence, feel the same. We cannot forget that current protests against racial injustice are unfolding amid another crisis. The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. In Pennsylvania, black people make up only 11% of our population but represent 19% of positive cases and 30% of deaths where race was recorded. This reflects decades of disinvestment in people of color, especially cuts to public education and public health. Systemic racism harms or benefits everyone, whether or not we are aware of it. My privilege as a white man and a lawmaker comes with an obligation to act. To do nothing in the face of injustice is unacceptable. We have a lot of work to do. It will require not just a change of policies, but also a change of hearts. Times of crisis have led to some of historys greatest achievements. The Great Depression led to the New Deal, the turmoil of the 1960s led to the Civil Rights Act, and the Stonewall uprising led to the modern LGBTQ rights movement. This moment in history offers us the chance to address 400 years of racial injustice on American soil. This is the time for us to rise up and meet the unfinished project of freedom in America. State Sen. Tim Kearney, D-26, is a resident of Swarthmore. Within six weeks of her appointment as Chattanooga States new director of marketing and communications, Jennifer Cooper was thrust into a crisis management challenge as COVID-19 became a pandemic and extended its far-reaching grip into Chattanooga. After an 18-year career in the consumer-packaged goods industry, I was excited to begin a new journey at Chattanooga State. My first four months have been interesting. The pandemic definitely threw a curve ball our way, said Ms. Cooper. College personnel were preparing to return from spring break when concerns over the pandemic became more pronounced. Spring break was extended one extra week for students while faculty made preparations for an unprecedented move to an all-online learning environment and transitioning with other employees to begin working remotely from home by the end of March. I am so fortunate to be joining a strong team of marketing and communications professionals and a phenomenal community here at Chattanooga State. I am proud to be a member of the ChattState family, shared Ms. Cooper. A graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Ms. Cooper holds a bachelors degree in marketing and a masters degree in business administration with a concentration in organizational management. With more than 20 years experience in the corporate marketing sector, she brings with her a solid background in communications, integrated strategic and tactical planning, and a demonstrated talent in brand building, innovation and customer engagement. Jennifer has quickly become a valued member of our college family, stated Nancy Patterson, vice president of College Advancement and Public Relations. "She brings a contagious energy, hands-on experience and proven leadership skills to our talented Marketing and Communications team. Ms. Cooper can be reached at 423-697-2437 or jennifer.cooper@chattanoogastate.edu. Syracuse, N.Y. A Syracuse man shot by police Thursday approached an officer with a handgun in his hand when he was shot, police said in court documents. The Syracuse City Court documents, which detail the charges levied against 23-year-old Jakelle Davis, say he was holding a Beretta Px4 9mm pistol that was reported stolen in Canton, Georgia, in 2018 when he was shot in the citys South Side on June 11. Police were called to the 100 block of Mark Avenue around 5:10 a.m. after the citys ShotSpotter system detected 16 gunshots fired. Forensic testing later confirmed that the 16 shots were fired from Davis handgun, according to court documents. The gunshots struck three vehicles. Syracuse police officer Taylor Anderson, one of three officers initially at the scene, provided a narrative of the incident in a statement filed with the court. He said he was sitting in his patrol vehicle in the 600 block of Marcellus Street, about two miles northwest of Mark Avenue, when he heard gunshots south of him. Moments later, ShotSpotter confirmed his suspicions and he headed to the scene. As he turned onto West Beard Avenue, he saw officers Ryan McGovern and Andrew LoPresti already at the scene. McGovern radioed his fellow officers to say that a witness at the scene told him that they saw the occupant of a white sedan firing shots from the vehicle and that the vehicle was last seen turning east onto West Beard Avenue towards South Salina Street. Anderson left the scene in search of the suspect vehicle. He made it a few blocks south on South Salina Street when McGovern radioed again to say he had shot a man. Police stated in court documents that Davis had a gun in his hand and made verbal statements to McGovern, which placed McGovern in reasonable fear for his life. Upon arriving back at the scene, Anderson saw LoPresti giving Davis first aid. A black handgun was on the ground between Davis and the officers. Davis, who was shot in the head, was hospitalized, but has since been released from the hospital and booked into the Onondaga County Justice Center on four felony charges: Menacing a police officer, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a firearm and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. He is currently being held on $500,000 bail, according to jail records. Police Chief Kenton Buckner defended the officers actions, saying that officers acted appropriately and noted that officers have the right to defend themselves. 27 June 11 Syracuse officer-involved shooting Contact Jacob Pucci at jpucci@syracuse.com or find him on Twitter at @JacobPucci. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 00:22:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NICOSIA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus announced a new assistance package for businesses and employees on Wednesday, which is oriented towards helping the tourism sector survive the impact of the coronavirus pandemic crisis. Details of the scheme were jointly presented by Minister of Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance Zeta Emilianidou, and Minister of Finance Constantinos Petrides, who called the current phase of the economy one of recovery. Petrides said that under the scheme, the government will add 150 million euros (168 million U.S. dollars) to its two previous schemes, raising the total amount of grants to businesses and employees to 1.2 billion euros, or close to 5.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). He added that the government also provided liquidity assistance amounting to 1.7 billion euros. He said the money will be paid directly to hoteliers and owners of other tourist accommodation who will agree not to lay off any of their staff and continue paying their salaries. Emilainidou said that in order to become eligible to benefit under the scheme, hotels need to offer attractive packages for local vacations to the population. The scheme will apply until Oct. 12, when the tourist industry is expected to have generated enough income to stand on its own feet. Similar grants will also be given to other tourism-related businesses, such as car rentals and restaurants. Other beneficiaries of the current scheme are businesses that either remained totally closed during the pandemic--such as night clubs, theaters and cinemas -- or will not resume operation at all. In a speech to a Cyprus-Greece conference on tourism, Deputy Minister for Tourism Savvas Perdios said that he expected only 30 percent of last year's total number of 4 million tourists to visit Cyprus by the end of 2020. "It will be the most difficult year for Cyprus tourism and everything depends on the epidemiological situation, not only on the island, but also in the countries which are the main source of tourism," Perdios said. He added that it would be a success if 50 percent of tourists come from the traditional markets of Britain and Russia, 35 percent from second-line countries, such as Germany, Greece, Israel and the Scandinavian countries, with the remaining 15 percent coming from the local population. Enditem Celebrating the ability of human spirit to persevere and to always emerge stronger, Coca-Cola India has released a series of stories narrated through the digital medium as short films, static posts on its social assets and long format stories on Coca-Cola India Journey titled Ummeedo Wali Dhoop, recognizing beacons of hope, countless acts of selflessness, kindness and courage. The campaign features stories of everyday heroes who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help the community amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Shrenik Dasani, Vice President - Sparkling Category, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, said, At a time when the human spirit is being tested like never before, this was our attempt to share an inspiring, optimistic message with people and collectively reaffirm our unshakeable faith in the resilience and power of the human spirit. In equal measure, the campaign is a small expression of our gratitude to all those individuals, who acted as living proof of that resilience, when they went above and beyond what was expected and rose up in aid of their fellow human beings in a time of great need. The campaign titled #ToTheHumanRace, offers an ode to humanity and the human spirit in these challenging times. In the first phase of the campaign, the company had released an inspiring film saluting the generosity and courage of the everyday heroes Ummeedo Wali Dhoop. The anthem has been written by Prasoon Joshi, CEO of McCann World group India and Chairman (Asia Pacific). The now released stories are an extension of the campaign which features heroes from across the country and various walks of life. Meet our heroes: Bilal Khan, a 29-year old lawyer from Delhi is ensuring slum dwellers do not go hungry through his Four for All initiative in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Link to his short film Chhayarani Sahu, a 57-year-old farmer in Bhadrak district of Odisha has been distributing vegetables from her farm to nearby villages, sharing her abundance with many during the countrywide lockdown. Click here to read her story P Naveenkumar, a 26-year-old social worker from Munsiyari in Tamil Nadu is doing his bit by distributing food, water and providing other forms of assistance to street dwellers during the pandemic, through his NGO Atchayam. His work is a great example of starting at grassroot level and influencing a larger cause. Click here to read his story Supratik Chhaperia, a 25-year-old owns a designer cake shop in South Delhi. When the lockdown was announced in March, like for countless others, his world went topsy-turvy as operations shut down abruptly. His immediate thought however was not about his business, but to reach out to alleviate the distress of daily wage workers, the community hit the hardest during this period. Click here to read his story Veena, a transgender from Bengaluru is reaching out to transgenders, single women, and widows during the lockdown. Till now, she has distributed about 10,000 kilograms of rations. Click here to read her story Dr. Bright Atsu Sogbey 17.06.2020 LISTEN Ghanaian Engineer and Scientist, Ing. Dr. Bright Atsu Sogbey is warning that the new voters' register to be compiled by Electoral Commission would be heavily flawed if the approved ID cards for the registration are not properly verified. "EC's new register will be absolutely flawed if primary IDs are not either cross-checked and/or validated at the registration centres, as fake Ghana cards and passport IDs can be presented," he said in a statement. He noted that there are many skillfully printed fake Ghana Cards and Passport IDs in the system (like the one in the picture) and they can be used at the registration centres to outwit EC officers if there is no proper verification system at the centres. Dr. Sogbey, who is the President of Science and Technology Advocacy Renaissance for Africa (STARA), showed two Ghana Cards with different ID Numbers and registration dates but belonging to one person with the same picture, saying that was an example of a fake ID that can overbloat the new voters' register. "This shall heavily defeat the EC's purpose of compilation of a new credible register," he said. Dr. Sogbey suggested that, technically, as it is done in the banks, the IDs presented at the registration centres must be verified through the EC's system of verification synchronised to the issuing authorities such as the NIA and Passport Office, adding that this is the standard practice worldwide. According to him, anything other than that, the product thereof is heavily flawed and will, therefore, make the so-called new register worse than the current register, in terms of credibility. Dr. Sogbey is, therefore, calling on the Supreme Court to, as a matter of urgency, stop the EC from going ahead with this technically and situationally challenged registration exercise, to avert any instability as Ghana chalks success in her 28 years' progressive democratic governance," he said. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) The Bureau of Internal Revenue maintains that Philippine offshore gaming operators must pay franchise tax, rejecting opposition from the gaming firms' lawyers. "So ang BIR po, sinisingil po natin sila sa franchise tax. Ngayon, ito pong mga abogado ng mga POGO, sinasabi nila na hindi kami taxable kasi ang POGO ay offshore, ito ay nasa ibang bansa," explained BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa in a Laging Handa virtual briefing on Wednesday. [Translation: We, the BIR, charge them franchise tax. Now, the lawyers of these POGOs argue they aren't taxable because they are offshore operations and are based in different countries.] Guballa added that while the tax collecting agency insisted these firms must still pay the said tax, there lies another concern that needs to be addressed. "[P]atuloy po na talagang pinu-push namin, na sabi namin, since you are doing business here in the Philippines, you should pay the franchise tax," said the official. " Although pag binasa po natin yung batas, hindi po siya ganon kaliwanag whether or not itong offshore companies na 'to ay liable sa franchise tax. Yun po, kaya medyo dun po tayo nagkakaroon ng legal issue pagdating po dito sa mga POGOs." [Translation: We are still pushing for them (POGOs) to pay the franchise tax since they are conducting business here in the Philippines. Although if we read the law, it's not that clear whether or not these offshore companies are liable for franchise tax to begin with, which is why we are having a legal issue regarding POGOs.] RELATED: BIR urged to prioritize taxing POGOs over online sellers Guballa, however, assured during the briefing that the BIR is able to collect withholding tax from these firms by taxing their foreign workers, adding that the agency had padlocked several POGOs last year for failing to comply with tax requirements. On May 1, the government allowed POGOs to resume operations under limited capacity provided requirements such as testing workers for COVID-19 and observance of physical distancing in offices. A few days after, the BIR said POGOs will be allowed to reopen only after settling all taxes for April 2020 and earlier. READ: POGOs must pay all taxes from April and earlier before reopening BIR On allowing POGOs to re-operate, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque explained POGOs are part of the business process outsourcing sector. This has since been contested by the country's umbrella industry group of BPO firms. [June 17, 2020] Medscape Launches Salary Explorer, a New Digital Platform for Physicians Navigating Career Decisions NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Medscape today announced the launch of the Medscape Salary Explorer, a new digital tool delivering up-to-date physician compensation data for virtually every zip code across the U. S. The new platform leverages the power of Medscape's annual Physician Compensation Report, which includes data from more than 100,000 physicians on compensation, with specific breakdowns by gender, specialty, and practice setting. To view the Medscape Salary Explorer, click here: https://www.medscape.com/physician-salary-explorer?faf=1 The dynamic and interactive format has been designed to make it easy to get salary information by specialty, location, and years of experience within a matter of seconds. By inputting zip code and specialty, a physician receives a comprehensive, but easily digestible, personalized report of salary averages, salary growth in the area and comparisons against national averages. Physicians can see a salary breakdown by practice setting (employed, self-employed), gender, and the highest paying cities for the specialty. Additionally, de-identified information shows the salary for the highest paid physician in the zip code, including by years of experience. The Salary Explorer provides data for full-time, non-resident salaries in the U.S., and includes base salary, bonus, and profit-sharing contributions for employed physicians. For owners and partners, income is considered earnings after axes, including deductible business expenses before income taxes. "Medscape's annual Physician Compensation Report has become the gold standard for physician salary information across the U.S.", said Leslie Kane, MA, Senior Director, Medscape Business of Medicine. "Hundreds of thousands of physicians rely on it to assess their career trajectory, make decisions, or simply know how their compensation compares. Medscape Salary Explorer is the 'next generation' for that information, and we think it will offer doctors an invaluable resource, especially in unpredictable times." About Medscape Medscape is the leading source of clinical news, health information, and point-of-care tools for health care professionals. Medscape offers specialists, primary care physicians, and other health professionals the most robust and integrated medical information and educational tools. Medscape Education (medscape.org) is the leading destination for continuous professional development, consisting of more than 30 specialty-focused destinations offering thousands of free C.M.E. and C.E. courses and other educational programs for physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals. Medscape is a subsidiary of WebMD Health Corp. About WebMD Health Corp. WebMD Health Corp., an Internet Brands Company, is the leading provider of health information services, serving patients, physicians, health care professionals, employers, and health plans through public and private online portals, mobile platforms, and health-focused publications. The WebMD Health Network includes WebMD Health, Medscape, Jobson Healthcare Information, prIME Oncology, MediQuality, Frontline, Vitals Consumer Services, Aptus Health, MedicineNet, eMedicineHealth, RxList, OnHealth, Medscape Education, and other owned WebMD sites. WebMD, Medscape, CME Circle, Medpulse, eMedicine, MedicineNet, theheart.org, and RxList are among the trademarks of WebMD Health Corp. or its subsidiaries. About Internet Brands Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Internet Brands is a fully integrated online media and software services organization focused on four high-value vertical categories: Health, Automotive, Legal, and Home/Travel. The company's award-winning consumer websites lead their categories and serve more than 250 million monthly visitors, while a full range of web presence offerings has established deep, long-term relationships with SMB and enterprise clients. Internet Brands' powerful, proprietary operating platform provides the flexibility and scalability to fuel the company's continued growth. Internet Brands is a portfolio company of KKR and Temasek. For more information, please visit www.internetbrands.com . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medscape-launches-salary-explorer-a-new-digital-platform-for-physicians-navigating-career-decisions-301078289.html SOURCE Medscape [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Researchers in China have demonstrated the ability of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to interact with the host cell receptors of multiple species of animals. The authors say it is this feature of the virus that significantly complicates efforts to pinpoint both the original and intermediate hosts so that their potentially diverse cross-species transmissibility can be evaluated. The teams study of eleven different animal species found that the SARS-CoV-2 host cell receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) mediated viral entry in the Chinese horseshoe bat, domestic cat, dog, pig, goat, and Malayan pangolin. A Pangolin. Image Credit: 2630ben / Shutterstock The researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and various Chinese universities say this is the first time ACE2-mediated SARS-CoV-2 entry has been demonstrated in the pangolin, a finding that supports previous studies implicating this animal as the original host. Species with ACE2 that did not enable viral entry included the greater horseshoe bat, chicken, mainland tiger snake, and house mouse. The team also found that a naturally mutated version of the ACE2 receptor in the Rhesus monkey conferred resistance to infection, indicating the importance of studying this ACE2 variation in the future. A pre-print version of the paper is available in bioRxiv*, while the article undergoes peer review. Identifying potential hosts "will be scientifically very important" Since COVID-19 first emerged in Wuhan, China Late last year, the pandemic has infected more than 8.28 million people and caused more than 446,000 deaths. While these numbers are only expected to increase as the pandemic continues to sweep the globe, researchers have still not identified the precise origin of the virus or the intermediate hosts that might potentiate the cross-species transmission, which would help to inform control and prevention methods in the future. Discovering the potential intermediate animal hosts of SARS-CoV-2 and evaluating their possible cross-species transmissibility will be scientifically very important, say Xuhui Cai (Harbin Veterinary Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences) and colleagues. Unfortunately, we know little about this. Currently, there are no suitable animal models for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Cell susceptibility to infection an important consideration Bats have been recognized as a potential natural reservoir for the virus, but more recent studies have pointed towards the pangolin as the origin. When retracing the potential sources of coronaviruses, it is important to consider the cell susceptibility to infection conferred by receptors in suspected animal species. For example, before clarifying that the Chinese horseshoe bat was the origin of SARS-CoV-1, researchers first assessed the susceptibility to infection conferred by ACE2 in various bat species. This revealed that ACE2 in the Chinese horseshoe bat was responsible for the susceptibility, thereby confirming this species was the original viral reservoir. For the current study, Cai and colleagues assessed the ability of patient-derived SARs-CoV-2 to infect non-susceptible human cell lines engineered to express ACE2 from twelve different species of animals, including humans. Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 of HEK293T cells conferred by different 2 species of ACE2. HEK293T cells were transfected with plasmids expressing 3 indicated ACE2. Cells were infected with 0.5 MOI of SARS-CoV-2 24 h after the 4 transfection, and were detected for the replication of SARS-CoV-2 by IFA. What were the main findings? The study found that ACE2 from the greater horseshoe bat failed to mediate SARS-CoV-2 entry, whereas ACE2 from the Chinese horseshoe bat did mediate entry. This demonstrated that not all species of bat were sensitive to SARS-CoV-2 infection, said Cai and colleagues. The ACE2 receptor derived from the Malayan pangolin also mediated SARS-CoV-2 entry. Given that the SARS-CoV-1 engages the ACE2 receptor in both humans and the Chinese horseshoe bat, the ability of pangolin ACE2 to confer the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 entry increases the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 originated from pangolins, writes the team. What about the Rhesus monkey? A recent study found that a natural mutation (Y217N) in the ACE2 receptor of the Rhesus monkey down-regulated the expression of the receptor and significantly reduced cellular susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, in this study, expression levels of this mutated ACE2 from Rhesus monkeys was similar to the expression level in cells transfected with human ACE2. Therefore, the failure of monkey ACE2 isoform to convert the cell susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 entry is not due to the poor expression of the receptor as previously speculated, write the researchers, who say the mechanism requires further investigation. What are the study implications? The researchers say their study shows that SARS-CoV-2 was able to engage ACE2 receptors across a broad range of animal species, highlighting the challenges faced in identifying original and intermediate hosts to help inform future control and prevention. Of note, here is the first report that ACE2 of Pangolin could mediate SARS-CoV-2 entry, which increases the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 may have a pangolin origin, says the team. It is also important to detect the expression ratio of the Y217N ACE2 to the prototype in Rhesus monkeys to be recruited for studies on SARS-CoV-2 infection. *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. Hundreds of workers of Tata Steel's unit at IJmuiden in the Netherlands have gone on strike, demanding job security, according to labour union Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV). The Dutch operations of the company have been facing protests and demonstrations for over a week. According to the Netherlands-based workers' union, employees of Tata Steel are worried and demanding job security from the management. "This morning the office staff of Tata Steel are on strike in IJmuiden." FNV estimates that about 400 people attended the strike event," FNV said in a statement. There is enormous anger and concern for their jobs among the workers, FNV Metaal Director Roel Berghuis said, adding, "We keep going. We will not let our company be destroyed. Hands off IJmuiden!" On Tuesday, he said as long as workers don't get anything to hear from the company's management, the strikes will continue. Since June 10, there have been strikes at several locations in the IJmuiden unit. Due to strikes, work was interrupted in the ore preparation, warehouses, rolling mill, at research and development and other departments. According to the Dutch labour union, of which thousands of Tata Steel IJmuiden plant workers are members, the "inevitable move" was taken when the management of Tata Steel did not respond to the demands of the employees. Tata Steel had earlier said it recognises the uncertainty in the minds of the employees and respects the rights of the workers in IJmuiden steelworks. It had also said that in the current environment of global uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has been working with all stakeholders, including the unions in both Netherlands and the UK, to meet the challenges. It also requested the union in the Netherlands to postpone industrial action so it could continue discussions and find the best way forward to meet everyone's interests. The industrial action would only put further pressure on the company's results as it continues to deal with the impact of lower steel demand caused by the pandemic, Tata Steel had said. Kolkata, June 17 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced Rs 5 lakh compensations to both the bereaved families of Indian Army jawans martyred at Galwan valley in Ladakh during a face-off with Chinese troops. The CM also promised to provide state government jobs to one member in both the families. "My heartfelt condolences to the families of the brave men martyred at Galwan valley. I'm at pain to say that two of them belonged to West Bengal -- Sepoy Rajesh Orang (village Belgoria, Birbhum) and Bipul Roy on General Duty (village Bindipara, Alipurduar)," Banerjee tweeted. She said nothing can compensate for the supreme sacrifice made by them for the nation or the bereaved families' loss. "We stand by the sons of our soil in this difficult time... we'll provide Rs 5 lakh and a state government job to one member in the deceased's family," the CM said, conveying condolences to the families of all the soldiers who died in the conflict. She said the compensation package is not sufficient for both the families at this time of crisis. "We will stand by them," she added. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Alfred Woyome, the embattled businessman at the centre of the infamous GHS51 million judgement case says he has been receiving social and financial support from churches and mosques to survive. Woyome, whose accounts and businesses have been frozen by the state, said in an interview on Citi TV that the churches and sometimes the mosque feed me adding that they [also] contribute money. According to him, he also receives financial support from his external family and some philanthropists. As his struggles against the state progressed, he said his shares in 14 companies have been frozen and his hands tied by the state and its actors. I have not worked. Government has closed all my businesses against a court order. Bank of Ghana had blacklisted me causing a huge contract I had to supply items to the government for the building of the portand that thing was taken away. My consultancy work, because of the criminal case and all the pursuant things, I couldnt [consult] for any other country, Mr. Woyome explained. These circumstances have led Mr. Woyome to come to the conclusion that the state is not interested in the money. They dont want me to pay. What they want to do is to render Mr. Woyome useless for challenging the status quo. Background The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Mr Woyome to refund GHS51.2 million to the state, on the grounds that he benefited from unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for 2008 AFCON. The case leading to the Supreme Court decision was initiated by Martin Amidu, the current Special Prosecutor. Eventually, in March 2016, Mr. Woyome asked the court to give him three years to pay back the money, but the court declined to grant his wish. He is, however, said to have refunded GHS4 million in November 2016 and an additional GHS600,000 and promised to pay the outstanding balance by quarterly instalments of GHS5 million, commencing April 1, 2017. But he also initiated legal challenges at the Supreme Court challenging orders for him to pay the money which were all dismissed. Mr Woyome further sued at International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) based in Paris, France, and the African Court of Justice, based in Arusha, Tanzania. But in August 2017, the ICC threw out his case on the basis that he had failed to properly invoke its jurisdiction whilst his case at the African Court of Justice was also dismissed in June 2019. Currently, the Supreme Court has given the Attorney General permission to sell properties belonging to Mr. Woyome to offset part of the GHS47 million he owes the state. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The need for true conversations to take place across the country is vital for our democracy. What happened at the New York Times should raise alarm that our ability to have these conversations and productive discourse is in decline. It was interesting to see the opinion of Sen. Tom Cotton included in the incredibly complex conversation of how to best allow these protests, mostly peaceful, to continue while taking out the criminal element (rioters and looters). Whether or not I agreed with his stance, it was worthwhile getting to hear from someone who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as someone who represents a state where federal troops were called in and used to make sure black students could rightfully attend a public school. Regardless of his political affiliation, he was qualified to offer this opinion to a large audience that probably wouldn't have heard it in detail otherwise. From the time his opinion was taken off and Times Opinion Editor James Bennet resigned, we have witnessed Sen. Mitt Romney facing blowback, even from the president, for his attempt at unity and discourse with protesters and actor Terry Crews receiving harsh criticism for daring to suggest that all sides need to have a say and place in the solution. Doctors have revealed accounts of their experiences at Royal Perth Hospital in response to WAtoday's report on surgeons and specialists planning to leave the hospital over bullying allegations they have labelled ridiculous. The senior physicians said an "unfair and broken" complaints system meant the welfare of patients could be put at risk in what AMA (WA) president Andrew Miller described as a "clash of generations". AMA president Andrew Miller said a bad culture had arisen within the health department because of the inadequate complaints processes. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola One is old-school, tough and resilient, the other brought up on empathy and collaboration. But surgeon Rhea Liang, who chairs the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' Operate With Respect education committee, said on social media that framing the issue as a generational divide "buys into false stereotypes and is disrespectful to medical staff of all ages and stages who believe in respectful behaviour". ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey said Wednesday it has airlifted troops into northern Iraq for a cross-border ground operation against Turkeys Kurdish rebels. The airborne-and-land offensive into the border region of Haftanin, some 15 kilometres (9 miles) from the Turkey-Iraq border, was launched following intense artillery fire into the area, said the Defence Ministry in Ankara. The operation by commando forces is being supported by warplanes, attack helicopters, artillery and armed and unarmed drones, according to the ministrys statement posted on Twitter. It did not say how many troops are involved. Turkey regularly carries out air and ground attacks against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which it says maintains bases in northern Iraq. Turkey has defended its past operations into northern Iraq, saying neither the Iraqi government nor the regional Iraqi Kurdish administration have acted to remove PKK insurgents who allegedly use Iraqs territory to stage attacks on Turkey. The ministry said Wednesdays operation, dubbed Operation Claw-Tiger, follows increasing harassment and attempts to attack military outposts or bases in Turkey. It said the Turkish forces would target other terror groups in the region, but did not name them, and shared videos of Defence Minister Hulusi Akar overseeing the mission at a command centre in Ankara. The development came days after Turkey launched an air operation in the region, which the Defence Ministry said hit suspected PKK targets in several locations in Iraqs north, including Sinjar, and targeted 81 rebel hideouts. A Turkish military official said the operation began with artillery units targeting some 150 suspected PKK positions and was followed by an aerial attack involving F-16s, drones and attack helicopters. Some of the commandos crossed the border by land while other units were transported by helicopters. The troops had begun to enter PKK hideouts in Haftanin, the official said, providing the information on condition of anonymity in line with government rules. It was not clear if the latest offensive would target the Sinjar region, which the Turkish government says has become a new base for PKK commanders. A video provided by the Turkish Defence Ministry showed Akar addressing the commandos, saying they will make history once again. Turkey continues its fight against terrorists using the rights based on international law, said Omer Celik, deputy chairman of President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling party. Delsher Abdulsata, the mayor of Batifa village in the Haftanin area of Dohuk province, said Turkish forces entered the villages of Keshani, Shilan, Menira, Belbla, Mezuri, Awlayi and Reesha. Bombings began Tuesday night and continued throughout the day Wednesday, he said. Residents of the villages refused to leave their farmlands because it is their only source of livelihood, he said. Zagros Hiwa, spokesperson for the military wing of the PKK, said fighting was continuing in the Haftanin area along a 200-kilometre (125-mile) front line. These operations are part of Turkeys plan to expand in the area as they did in Libya and Syria, he said. Baghdad summoned Ankaras ambassador to Iraq , Fatih Yildiz, on Tuesday to protest Turkeys offensive against PKK targets in northern Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The PKK has led a decades-long insurgency in Turkeys mainly Kurdish southeast region. It is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The conflict has led to the loss of tens of thousands lives since it started in 1984. Turkey began expanding its military footprint in Iraq last summer in an intense operation against PKK targets following the July 17 assassination of Osman Kose in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Irbil. Kose worked for the Turkish Consulate there and Ankara has blamed the PKK for his killing. Turkish officials have said the operations have focused on cutting supply lines and transport routes connecting the PKK in Turkey and Iraq. The presence of PKK rebels has brought discomfort to senior Iraqi Kurdish officials, with one official saying the areas where PKK function are a no mans land. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the operations. Kawa Sheikhmous, a PKK official who was in Iraqs northern Kurdish region Tuesday, criticized the Iraqi government for not taking a stronger stance against Turkish incursions. We condemn this act and consider it against the interests of the people, he said. Our message to the Iraqi government is that it should not tolerate this interference in the sovereignty of Iraq. ___ Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad. Associated Press writer Samya Kullab in Baghdad contributed to this report. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The status of a Christopher Columbus statue outside the Ohio State Capitol is likely to come up at a future meeting of the agency that manages the Statehouse grounds, after support has grown in Columbus to remove the citys other prominent statues of the Italian explorer. Laura Battocletti, executive director of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, said shes not aware of discussion about removing the statue among CSRAB board members, a mixture of state lawmakers, legislative staff and governor appointees. But, she said, the agency recently has received requests from the public to remove the statue, which has been on the grounds of the Statehouse since 1932. The statue was re-dedicated in 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus first voyage to whats believed to be San Salvador Island in the Bahamas, according to CSRAB. We have a meeting scheduled for July 16, Battocletti said. So I anticipate that that will be a topic of discussion at that time. Spokespeople for Gov. Mike DeWine and most state legislative leaders didnt immediately return requests seeking comment. A spokesperson for House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican who chairs the CSRAB board, referred comment to CSRAB staff. State Sen. Hearcel Craig, a Columbus Democrat and CSRAB board member, said in a statement he thinks the issue is worthy of conversation. His connections with slavery had devastating effects on our nation, Craig said. We need to have these discussions if we are serious about eradicating the long-term problem of systemic racism. I applaud the officials at the Columbus State Community College and city leaders who are engaged in these discussions. There should not be symbols of oppression on our public lands. Discussion over the Columbus statue follows an announcement Tuesday by Columbus State Community College, where school leaders said they would remove a 40-foot, 20-ton Columbus statue as a symbolic gesture of the schools commitment toward fighting racism. The school said it had long discussed removing the statue, but accelerated its decision in the aftermath of recent nationwide civil unrest over systemic racism. In taking this action, we are mindful of societal change and forward movement, Columbus State Board of Trustees Chair Anthony Joseph said in a Tuesday statement. We do not seek to erase history, but to make an intentional shift in what we visibly honor and celebrate as an institution. Columbus, for whom Ohios capital city is named, long has been revered in Western history for his role in Europes colonization of America and his exploration of the Atlantic Ocean. Some Italian-Americans celebrate him as a national icon. But he more recently has drawn increased criticism for his mistreatment of Native Americans as part of a larger historical reassessment of the effects of colonialism. Protesters have targeted statues of Columbus in recent weeks, including toppling a statue outside the Minnesota State Capitol earlier this month. Battocletti said she was unaware of any damage to the statue. But on Wednesday, chalked messages could be seen surrounding its base including tear down and no honor for killers. The news from Columbus State drew support from Columbus Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown, a Democrat who also called for removing the statue of Columbus outside of City Hall. She said in a Wednesday interview she also supports removing the statue from the Statehouse grounds, although that decision lies with state officials. I think homages to Christopher Columbus should come down, and that includes the one at the Statehouse, said Brown, whose father is U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Cleveland Democrat. I just firmly believe that we make choices about how we tell history. And because its dynamic, we can make new choices. Cleveland.com reporter Jeremy Pelzer contributed. An earlier version of this story misspelled Sen. Hearcel Craigs first name. It has been corrected. Read recent coverage by cleveland.com: Ohio college to remove statue of Christopher Columbus Cleveland City Council recognizes Aug. 9 as Indigenous Peoples Day to honor native Americans Punjab PWD and school education minister, Vijay Inder Singla, on Wednesday inaugurated the Ludhiana-Pakhowal Road, that has been renamed Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha Marg. The 38-km road starts from Bhai Wala Chowk in Ludhiana city and ends at Raikot town. Singla was accompanied by senior Congress leaders including Captain Sandeep Singh Sandhu and Gill MLA Kuldip Singh Vaid. Speaking to mediapersons on the occasion, Singla said the road passes through Sarabha village, which is the ancestral village of martyr Kartar Singh Sarabha. He said it was a long pending demand of residents of the area to rename the road after him. He said that a notification in this regard was issued by the Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab government. While replying to a query related to renaming the upcoming international airport at Halwara Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha International Airport, Singla said the Punjab government is considering the demand and will request the CM to take up the issue with the Union government. He also paid floral tribute at the statue of Kartar Singh Sarabha in the main chowk of the village and visited the memorial constructed in the village and the ancestral house of the martyr. The minister said roads in and around the Dakha constituency have been repaired at a cost of Rs 58 crore. He added that development works related to repair of roads worth Rs 34 crore have been completed, works worth Rs 12 crore are underway while works worth around Rs 12 crore will be started shortly. Singla said the Punjab government has advertised for 4,500 posts of teachers for government schools, while 4,500 more posts would be advertised for shortly. He added that the matter related to charging fees by private schools during and after the Covid lockdown is in the Punjab and Haryana high court and a decision on the matter is likely to be taken by Thursday. He assured that the Punjab government is committed to safeguard the rights of parents and private schools, but would not let the schools charge parents unnecessarily. Later, the cabinet minister inaugurated the Raikot-Jagraon Road, that has been repaired at a cost of around Rs 14 crore. He added that the 2.7 km road from Akhara village bridge to Jagraon city has been widened from 7 metres to 10 metres. On this occasion, he also announced that the Akhara bridge would be repaired and widened at a cost of Rs 5.5 crore. As wealthy San Francisco buyers are reportedly in "mad rush" to leave the city amid the pandemic, many are looking to acquire a sprawling estate and ditch their Victorian homes. This mid-century property in Portola Valley on more than two and acres has five bedrooms, equestrian facilities, a guest house and a pool, all for the listing price of $8.3 million. Kolkata: The last time Rajesh Oraon, 26, went home to his village in West Bengals Birbhum district in October 2019, he casually told his mother Mamata that one day he would make his entire village proud. Her mother was busy making sora pitha (rice cakes) in a chulha (earthen stove) in their small house located in Belgharia village in Mohammad Bazar, and Rajesh, her only son, had told her he gets immense satisfaction in serving his nation. Rajesh, who joined the Army in 2015 died of injuries suffered in a hand to hand combat with the Chinese army at Galwan Valley in Ladakh region. On October 25 last year, after agreeing to marry a local girl, Rajesh left his village as his leave was over but little did he know that it would be his last meeting with his family members. On Tuesday evening, his family received a phone call from Ladhak where the caller told them their son been martyred while serving the nation at the Indo-China border in Ladakh. Rajesh was among those 20 Indian soldiers, including the Commanding Officer of a battalion at Galwan Valley, who were killed by the Chinese soldiers in a violent clash during disengagement on June 15. Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the intervening night of June 15 and 16. At least 17 Indian soldiers who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total toll to 20, Indian Army said in a statement. As the news of Rajeshs martyrdom spread, a large number of people gathered at Rajeshs village about 194 kilometers from Kolkata to express their condolences. While his mother Mamata was inconsolable, his sisters Rajasree and Sakuntala had traumatic fits and were advised to take rest. His father Subhash is a farmer and suffers from serious health complications. He sacrificed his life for India. What else could be more respectable than this? He makes us and the entire village proud, he said. A pall of gloom descended over the entire locality as his inconsolable mother asked, Baba (Rajesh) why you left us at this young age? Someone please call him...he must be having pain...ask him I want to speak to him...Why you people are not calling him...he needs me, Who will I now call and say take care of yourself? Bhalo Thakis Baba (take care Baba wherever you are)...Ma Ke Mone Koris (dont forget your mother). His family members said Rajesh was supposed to visit his village in April but could not make it due to the lockdown. During his next official leave, he was supposed to finalise his marriage with a local girl. He liked that girl and asked her to wait for marriage but God had some other plans. We are sad but equally proud of him. We want that India should give a befitting reply to China, said Abhijit Oraon, Rajeshs cousin. Travel firms have urged the government to conduct negotiations with some countries to obtain bilateral agreements on market reopening soon or at the same time as regional rivals. Vietnam holds an advantage over Thailand in terms of epidemic control. Last month, when the government of Vietnam loosened the social distancing policy, Thailand was still busy struggling with the epidemic. However, some days ago, when the government of Thailand eased travel restrictions and loosened conditions for business activities, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) immediately announced a 3-period tourism recovery strategy. Vietnamese travel firms have urged state management agencies to help reopen the international markets. The tardiness in applying policies may put Vietnam at a disadvantage. The Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) has sent a letter to the Prime Minister, suggesting solutions to revive international tourism in the post-Covid-19 period. TAB said the opening of the domestic market is not enough to ease the difficulties the tourism industry is facing. Therefore, it believes that it is necessary to reopen the international markets, targeting the countries which can satisfy requirements on epidemic control. The set of procedures for market reopening could be the bilateral agreements with every country and the works that need to be done to implement the reopening. The bilateral agreements need to be one step ahead other countries, or at least at the same time with the other countries which are Vietnams rivals. The market reopening must be implemented with a set of procedures for market reopening. The set of procedures for market reopening could be the bilateral agreements with every country and the works that need to be done to implement the reopening. The bilateral agreements need to be one step ahead other countries, or at least at the same time with the other countries which are Vietnams rivals. The works that need to be done include: reopening air routes and allowing direct flights only; waiving visas; requiring foreigners entering the country to make medical declarations and have temperature checked; and obtaining agreements on nCoV testing. It is also necessary to discuss with other countries about an agreement about the installation of an app tracking foreigners movements during their stay in Vietnam, and discuss other solutions to ensure safety. Travel firms agree that it is necessary to set strict regulations to ensure safety. The epidemic is still raging, and the lax regulations wont be able to protect the community, while the continued market closure will put the economy, and the tourism industry in particular, in difficulty. Tran Xuan Hung, president of Viking Travel, said it would be better to provide free testing service to travelers at airports and shorten the time of waiting for the results, warning that people wont travel if they have to wait hours at the airports for test results. Travel firms complained that a lot of tax and credit policies to support businesses and the policies for travelers have not been applied in reality. Many businesses fear that they wont survive until they can get support. Mai Lan HCM City kicks off travel stimulus programme The HCM City Department of Tourism yesterday (June 9) kicked off its annual tourism stimulus programme that will run throughout the year as part of its attempt to revive the hard-hit tourism industry. How do animals adapt their behavior during life in order to assure survival and reproduction? This is a question of great interest for behavioral biologists worldwide. An essential step is to examine hormonal mechanisms which have a fundamental impact on the animal's behavior and thus make adaptations to various social situations possible. It has been known for some time now - especially as a result of research in guinea pigs - that the social environment during adolescence, i.e. the period from late childhood through puberty into adulthood, has a considerable impact on how individuals behave in later life. Male guinea pigs, for example, which grew up only with a female during this period, are particularly aggressive towards unfamiliar males. Behavioral biologists at Munster University have now been able to demonstrate for the first time that males are still able to adapt their hormone systems to changes in their social environment in adulthood. The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Methodological approach: The male guinea pigs used in the study grew up in different social housing conditions - either in large mixed-sex colonies with many other guinea pigs, or in pairs with a female. When the guinea pigs reached adulthood, the researchers transferred the males individually to pair housing with an unfamiliar female. This way in males stemming from colony housing a change of the social niche was induced. In contrast, in males which were previously housed in pairs the female partner was changed, but the social niche - i.e. pair living - remained the same. In order to assess immediate reactions of males to their new social environment, the researchers observed the behavior of males and determined concentrations of the hormones testosterone and cortisol. We were able to demonstrate that one month after transfer to pair housing with an unfamiliar female, males which had previously been housed in colonies displayed a decrease in their testosterone levels and an increase in their cortisol responsiveness. Consequently, their hormone systems became similar to those of males in pair housing. This way, the animals were most likely also able to adapt their behavior to the new situation. As in the case of males which had previously been housed in pairs, the female partner but not the social niche was altered, the hormone systems did not change: the low testosterone levels and the high cortisol responsiveness persisted." Alexandra Mutwill, first author of the study and Ph.D. student being supervised by Prof. Dr Norbert Sachser at the Institute for Neuro- and Behavioural Biology at the University of Munster When guinea pigs live in colonies with a large number of conspecifics, it is advantageous to have a hormonal status which favors a less aggressive behavioral tactic. However, after transfer to pair housing another hormonal status is beneficial which enables the male to adopt a more aggressive tactic in order to defend the female partner against unfamiliar males. In males from colony housing, the change in hormone systems built the basis for such a change in the behavioral tactic and probably reflects an evolutionary adaptation. Addressing slave traders directly he wrote: Are you a man? Then you should have a human heart. But have you indeed? What is your heart made of? Is there no such principle as compassion there? Do you never feel anothers pain? ... When you squeezed the agonizing creatures down in the ship, or when you threw their poor mangled remains into the sea, had you no relenting? Did not one tear drop from your eye, one sigh escape from your breast? Do you feel relenting now? If you do not, you must go on, till the measure of your iniquities is full. Then will the Great GOD deal with you, as you have dealt with them, and require all their blood at your hands. The most unexpected element of the work was Wesleys willingness to follow his arguments to their radical conclusion. He went so far as to justify slave uprisings, which he described as oppressed people asserting their native Liberty, which they have as much right to as to the air they breathe. Addressing slave owners, Wesley asked, What wonder, if they should cut your throat? And if they did, whom could you thank for it, but yourself? You first acted the villain by making them slaves, (whether you stole them or bought them.) 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. The Shiv Sena has targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government, daring them to unravel the truth about the violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakhs Galwan Valley that claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers, including the commanding officer of 16th battalion of Bihar Regiment Colonel Bikkumalla Santosh Babu (37), on Monday night. Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha (RS) member, posed a series of questions, seeking the truth about the incident and demanded answers from PM Modi. Raut tweeted on Wednesday morning and asked when would India give a befitting response to the Chinese aggression along the LAC. When will China get a strong response for its unruly act? Without any guns fired, we lost our 20 soldiers, what did we do about it? How many Chinese soldiers die? Has China infiltrated our land? Prime Minister, we are with you in this moment of struggle, but what is the truth? Speak up. Say something. The nation wants to know the truth. Jai Hind! Raut said India would exact revenge under PM Modis leadership. Prime Minister you are brave and a warrior ... India will seek its revenge under your leadership, he further tweeted. Another Sena RS member, Priyanka Chaturvedi, demanded clarity from the central government over the incident. She said the elected opposition should be taken into confidence over the issue. Chaturvedi, who is the deputy leader of the Sena, advised the Centre not to feed propaganda to the media and only stick to facts. Dear GOI, you have the best interest in mind, but we need clarity. The nation stands with you in solidarity but they deserve to know. It isnt a good idea even strategically not to take the elected opposition in confidence. Lastly, do not feed propaganda to the media. Just facts, she tweeted. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party has been vocal about national security issues and the matters related to the countrys sovereignty in the past as well. Even when the Sena was a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) it had criticised the BJP-led government on such matters. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Anyone visiting Cambodia will be required to pay a $3,000 'coronavirus deposit' upon arrival at the airport to cover the costs of testing and quarantine. Officials in the Southeast Asian country have said that the deposit will be refunded after fees for Covid-19 tests, quarantine costs and necessary medical services have been deducted. If a person was to die during their trip to Cambodia, $1,500 of the deposit will be deducted from the total to cover the cost of cremation. Pictured: Angkor Wat Temple in Cambodia, a Hindu temple the largest religious monument in the world (stock image) The deposit was mandatory from June 11, and can reportedly be paid in cash or with credit card. According to the travel blog Frommers, each new arrival will have to pay $5 for transportation from the airport to a testing facility. Entrants will then have to pay $100 for a coronavirus test, $30 for a single night's stay at a hotel while waiting for the results, and $30 for three meals covering the wait - totaling $165, if all goes well. Cambodia is a popular tourist destination, and is known for its beautiful beaches. Pictured: Long Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in Koh Rong island, Sihanoukville, Cambodia (stock image) However, if a passenger on same flight tests positive for the coronavirus, everyone from that flights will have to quarantine for 14 days, which will cost each person $84 per day and another $100 for another test, which comes to $1,276 total out of the deposit. Each passenger who test positive for Covid-19 will have to pay $225 per day for hospital accommodation and medical services during their quarantine, along with a further $100 per test, up to four tests, which could take the total to $3,550. Cambodia is requiring visitors to prove that they have $50,000 in travel insurance medical coverage. If a single passenger on an airplane coming into Cambodia is found to have coronavirus, everyone on the plane will have to quarantine for 14 days, costing them each over $1,200. Pictured: Angkor Air planes at Siem Reap airport, Cambodia The country appears to have been fairly successful at keeping the virus at bay, reporting just 128 cases and zero deaths. Cambodia was quick to respond to the virus, implementing an aggressive testing and tracing strategy, while also temporarily suspending foreign visas and travel. It also implemented a limit of domestic travel and extensive screening at border entry points. The deposit is a potential deterrent to tourists as a way to limit the number of tourists coming into the country, which has managed to limit the number of cases of Covid-19 and has seen no deaths. Pictured: Tropical beach island Koh Rong Furthermore, people in Cambodia are already accustomed to wearing masks, and the government's centralised control over the media allowed it to crack-down on disinformation being spread about the virus. The government drew criticism, however, when it implemented a state of emergency law in April that - if invoked - would grant the government sweeping powers to restrict civil rights in times of national crisis. Critics also said that it could be used in future scenarios to fend off opposition to Prime Minister Hun Sens authoritarian regime, or to the handover of power to his oldest son. Mumbai: Markets ended higher on Tuesday led by gains in index heavyweights amidst strong cues from global cues. The BSE Sensex rose 376.42 points or 1.13 percent to close at 33,605.22. Similarly, the NSE Nifty ended 100.30 points or 1.02 percent higher at 9,914. Here are Stocks in focus on June 17, 2020. Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd HPCL on Tuesday reported a steep 99 per cent drop in its net profit to Rs 27 crore for the March quarter as refining margins plunged and inventory losses mounted because of a sharp fall in international oil prices. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2,970 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. NMDC The State-owned miner on Tuesday reported over 76 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 347 crore for the quarter ended March 31, mainly on account of reduced income and higher expenses. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,451.81 crore in the year-ago quarter, NMDC said in a filing to the BSE. Pharma stocks Stocks of companies like Cadila/ Ipca & Cadila/ Lupin/Wockhardt) IPCA will be in focus today as India will continue to use hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for treating coronavirus, COVID-19, patients despite the US government has revoked emergency use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). A Converse City Council member remains upset that she was barred from taking part in an executive session during the citys June 2 council meeting. Councilwoman Deborah James was denied entry to the room where City Council was to deliberate concerning a lawsuit filed by former Councilwoman Kate Silvas. James said Mayor Al Suarez and city attorney Felix Arambula blocked her from entering the room where her fellow council members were gathered. I talked to Felix and told him I wanted to go into executive session, James said Wednesday, following the Tuesday meeting. I told him, You are invading my rights as a councilwoman. You are invading my rights by pushing me out of this meeting. She said her attorney had informed her Monday that the city planned to prevent her from taking part in the executive session, as Silvas case mirrors her own. The reason they didnt want me in there is because the strategy they are using against Kate (Silvas) right now, they are likely to use against me, and they did not want me to hear that, she said. They should not have taken away the right I was given by the voters of Converse. Arambula confirmed James lawsuit is similar to the suit brought by Silvas. Both (women) are looking for a declaratory judgment on the same section of our charter. Both are seeking the same type of relief: a declaratory judgment, attorneys fees, and court costs, Arambula said. The basis of each claim, he said, is in City Charter Section 2.07, interference with administration; misuse by the city. Arambula said he contacted James attorney, Eugene Trey Moore, on June 1 by email and expressed the citys decision to not allow James to participate. Councilwoman James, at present, has an interest adverse to the City of Converse because her lawsuit is strikingly similar to that of Ms. Silvas, Arambula stated to Moore, and it is my opinion as counsel for the city that she cannot participate in the executive session concerning how the city is going to handle a lawsuit that is just like the one she filed. Moore responded and took an opposite position, Arambula said. We went back and forth on that Monday and Tuesday with several emails. He saw something different and I saw something different. While the City Charter does not address executive session participation, Arambula alluded to a portion of the Texas Open Meetings Act regarding executive session consultation with attorney for the citys decision. A governmental body can prevent one of its members from attending a close meeting when that member is suing the governing body or entity, the city attorney said. Moreover, admission into a session must be decided on a case-by-case basis, citing two attorney general opinions, No. JM-238 (1984) and No. JM-1004 (1989). The decision involved more legal representation than just Arambulas board position. It would not be in the citys best interest to have her sitting in. We were talking strategy with outside legal representation from Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal and Zech, he said. What the city was going to do that night was figure, OK, what is our strategy going forth with this lawsuit? It was our position, as well as that of our defense counsel, not to share a strategy for the Silvas case that may be similar to the James case, he added. James said she wanted to enter the executive session meeting room so her attendance and subsequent removal would be part of the official record. I told them I wanted to walk in where there was a tape recorder, because I wanted them to record their not letting me into the meeting, she said. But Felix and the mayor both objected. James did relent and returned to council chambers. Arambula said James was allowed to sit for a second executive session, which was to discuss parameters for selection of a replacement for the Place 4 seat vacated by Silvas removal. But James said she knew the process would be opened to the public as with past vacancies, and left before the Silvas session had ended. jflinn@express-news.net The results from the secret ballot are expected around 2 p.m. (11.30 p.m. IST). The elections run on a COVID-19 prevention model are scheduled to start at 9 am New York time (6:30 pm IST) and have delegates come to the General Assembly chamber in batches of 20 in order to maintain social distancing and vote with paper ballots. India is running on a platform of fighting terrorism and having a commitment to multilateralism and an equitable international system. In a campaign document, India laid out a "5S" approach of Samman (Respect), Samvad (Dialogue), Sahyog (Cooperation) Shanti (Peace) and Samriddi (Prosperity). When elected, India will begin a two-year term on the highest decision-making body of the UN on January 1 joining Vietnam as one of the two non-permanent Asian members and replacing Indonesia that will complete its tenure at the end of this year. Its election to the Security Council will come as India is entangled in a heated territorial confrontation with permanent member China, which is also the patron on Pakistan on the Council. India will step into a Council Chamber next year paralysed by the polarisation of its veto-wielding permanent members that almost harks back to the Cold War era. It will have to deftly deal with intractable issues like the Syrian civil war with international dimensions, Ukraine's disputes with Russia, the US -- or President Donald Trump's -- obsession with Iran or its fallout, and Yemen. But at least when China tries to bring up the Kashmir issue in the Council as it has done twice recently, India will be right there. Elections will also be held simultaneously for the president of the next session of the General Assembly that starts in September and for the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Volkan Bozkir, a Turkish diplomat and politician, is running unopposed for the presidency as are the 18 countries for that many vacancies on the ECOSOC. The ten non-permanent Security Council seats are distributed among five regional groups and elections are held every year for the five that fall vacant on alternate years. Mexico, which has the unanimous backing of the group for the Latin American and Caribbean, is assured of the seat. But there are contested elections for the three others. For the African seat, Djibouti is running against Kenya, which has the unanimous backing of the group. Kenya is almost certain to get the African seat with the endorsement of the continent's countries, while Djibouti is counting on a rift between the Arab and Non-Arab nations in the group. Canada, Norway and Ireland are contesting the two seats allotted to the group made up of West European countries and others like Canada and Australia that do not fit in elsewhere. A two-thirds majority is required for election and additional rounds will be held if candidates don't get it the first time around. Extra rounds, which will be held on subsequent days, are likely for the West Europe and Others seats, which are very competitive. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau phoned India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to canvass New Delhi's vote for his country. Norway's Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide had a video conversation with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar last Friday. Ireland, which is led by Indian-origin Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, is not known to have contacted India in recent days to seek its vote. When elected, it will be India's eighth stint on the Council. Its last term was in 2011-12 and Hardeep Singh Puri, who was then India's Permanent Representative and is now a minister, immediately planned to bid for it next term not wanting a long gap like the 19 years since the previous 1991-92 tenure. Intense diplomacy by him and his successor, Asoke Mukerji, sealed India's bid for the 2021-22 term. Afghanistan had initially expressed interest in running for the 2021-22 term but did not pursue it, leaving the field for India. The groundswell of support for India in Asia Pacific group made Pakistan and China fall in line making it a unanimous endorsement. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in) --IANS al/sdr/ Regulatory News: In accordance with the provisions of Article 241-2 of the General Regulations of the Autorite des marches financiers (AMF), article L 451-3 of the French Financial and Monetary Code, and European regulations and AMF decision n2018-01 of July 2nd 2018, the purpose of this description is to set out the aims and the terms and conditions of AXWAY SOFTWARE's (Paris:AXW) (hereinafter the Company's) share buyback program, the implementation of which was delegated to the Board of Directors, with the power to sub-delegate to its Chief Executive Officer, by the Combined General Meeting of June 3, 2020. I. Breakdown by objectives of the equity securities on May 31, 2020 On May 31, 2020, the Company held 55 132 treasury shares representing 0.26 of its share capital. On this date, all these shares were used for market-making purposes to ensure the liquidity of the Axway Software share under a liquidity agreement and approved by the AMF. No derivatives were used by Axway Software in the context of its previous share buyback program. II. Description of the new share buyback program 1. Issuer and securities Axway Software SA is the issuer and the securities are the Company's ordinary shares, admitted for trading in Compartment B of the NYSE Euronext Paris regulated market under ISIN code FR0011040500. 2. Date of the General Shareholders' Meeting that authorised the program The Combined General Meeting of June 3, 2020 (in its eleventh resolution). 3. Maximum share of capital and maximum number of shares that may be acquired Shares may be purchased pursuant to the share buyback program up to the limit of 10% of the company's share capital, i.e. 2,130,876 shares to date. This ceiling is calculated on the basis of the number of shares capital on the repurchase date, it being specified that the total number of shares purchased by the Company to be retained or exchanged in an acquisition, merger, spin-off or contribution may not exceed 5% of the Company's shares. Considering the 55,132 shares already held (0.26% of the share capital), the maximum number of shares that the Company may acquire through this new share buyback program is 2,075,744 shares, or 10 of the share capital, unless the Company transfers or cancels some or all of its existing holding. 4. Maximum purchase price of the securities The Combined General Meeting on June 3, 2020 authorised a maximum purchase price per share of 47 (excluding acquisition costs), i.e. a maximum for the program totalling 97,559,968, excluding acquisition costs. At its meeting on July 27th, 2020 the Company's Board of Directors shall subdelegate the implementation of the share buyback program to its Chief Executive Officer, who set a maximum purchase price per share (excluding acquisition costs) of 47, in accordance with the authorisation granted by the General Meeting. This limit may be revised if necessary. 5. Program objectives The objectives of the share buyback program authorised by the General Meeting of June 3rd, 2020 are: enabling secondary market making or ensuring the liquidity of Axway Software shares through an investment services provider via a market-making agreement that complies with regulations, it being noted that the number of shares used to calculate the aforementioned limit is equal to the number of shares bought back, less the number of shares sold; retaining shares that are bought back for subsequent exchange or use as consideration in acquisitions, mergers, spin-offs and asset contribution transactions; providing coverage of share purchase option plans and/or free share plans (or similar plans) for employees and/or the company officers of the Group, as well as granting shares through a Group or Company savings plan (or similar plan), Company profitsharing and/or all forms of assigning shares to employees and/or company officers of the Group; providing coverage of securities conferring entitlement to the grant of shares in the Company in view of regulations in force; potentially cancelling the shares acquired, pursuant to the authorisation granted by the General Shareholders' Meeting of 5 June 2019 in its 24th extraordinary resolution; pursuing any other objective which is authorised or will be authorised by the regulations in force. 6. Share buyback program terms and conditions The transactions effected under the share buyback program established by the Company may be carried out, on one or more occasions, by any means authorised under applicable regulations, on or off market, on a multi-lateral trading platform, with a systematic internaliser or over the counter, in particular by means of the purchase or sale of share blocks, or alternatively through the use of derivatives traded on a regulated market or over the counter (such as call and put options or any combination thereof) or warrants or more generally securities convertible into shares in the Company and which, on the terms and conditions permitted by the competent market authorities and as and when decided by the Board of Directors or any person acting on the instructions of the Board of Directors. It should be noted that the portion of the share buyback program carried out by means of the acquisition of blocks of shares is unlimited and may represent the full amount of said program. 7. Program term The program will run for a period of eighteen (18) months from the date of the authorisation by the Combined General Meeting of June 3rd, 2020, i.e. until December 2nd, 2021 included. This document is available on the Company's website, Publications section: https://investors.axway.com/en/calendar-publications/publications A French Societe anonyme with a share capital of 42,450 762 Registered office: PAE Les Glaisins 3 rue du Pre Faucon Annecy-le-Vieux 74940 Annecy 433 977 980 RCS Annecy View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005545/en/ Contacts: Axway I love our neighbors and the sense of community, Fudge said. Our children grew up in this house, and they got to walk to the swimming pool every day, the grocery store, the 7-Eleven. Theres a real sense of stability and not a huge turnover in the neighborhood. There are a number that grew up in the houses they live in now or in a different house but still in Chevy Chase View. New Delhi, June 17 : After Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote to the Prime Minister demanding a rollback in fuel prices, the Delhi Congress has made a similar demand from Arvind Kejriwal government. Delhi Congress chief has demanded a rollback of the hike in VAT, which has been pushed to 30 per cent, on diesel and petrol by the Delhi Government, as the party said people are in severe financial distress following the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and are not in a position to afford the steep hike in petroleum products. In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday, Delhi Congress Chief Chaudhary Anil Kumar stressed that the Delhi government followed suit of the Union government by hiking VAT on petrol and diesel, which has imposed an unbearable burden on the people of Delhi. DPCC chief appealed to the Chief Minister to use his powers to rollback the hike in VAT on petrol and diesel as Kejriwal has always advocated free facilities to the people of Delhi, including power and water, and free pilgrimage to senior citizens. Chaudhary Anil Kumar said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rollback the increase in the prices of petrol and diesel. The Delhi Congress Chief said, the hike in the diesel prices will have a direct impact on the prices of essential commodities and other items, putting terrible mental and financial difficulties on the people. Sen. Elizabeth Warren backed progressive challenger Jamaal Bowman over longtime incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel on Tuesday, further fueling the endorsement slugfest in one of the nation's most watched primaries. Warren (D-Mass.) is the latest national progressive icon to support Bowman a middle school principal challenging a 16-term congressman and House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman in a New York district that spans from the Bronx to Westchester County. "He is exactly the kind of person we need in Congress fighting for big, structural change, Warren said in a statement. Whether it's fighting for high-quality public schools, affordable housing, or rooting out systemic racism, Jamaal Bowman will be a champion for working people in Washington." This undated photo, provided by his campaign, shows Jamaal Bowman, a first-time candidate who helped found the Cornerstone Academy of Social Action in 2009, who has picked up endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in his race against U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, a 16-term incumbent representing parts of the Bronx and suburban Westchester County. (Photo by Corey Torpie via AP) Warren joins Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in backing Bowman, while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) all endorsed Engel in recent days. "[Warren] knows it's not enough to keep electing Democrats that will only nibble around the edges, and it's why I am running to make big, structural change in New York's 16th District," Bowman wrote in a tweet. Engel has served in the House since 1989 and is facing perhaps his toughest primary challenge in over 30 years. New York holds its primary on June 23. Fiat Chrysler and PSA Peugeot have signed a deal for a 50-50 merger, creating the world's fourth-largest automaker with annual sales of 8.7 million cars. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) The EU has announced a full investigation into Fiat Chryslers (FCA.MI) planned merger with Peugeot owner PSA (UG.PA) over competition concerns. The European Commission said it would mount a four-month probe into the tie-ups potential impact on the current healthy competitive landscape in the commercial van market. Its enquiries will focus on 14 member states and the UK where the two players have a significant presence. It said in a statement on Wednesday the two companies were already market leaders in the sector in many countries, and the merger would remove one of the main competitors. The commissions executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, responsible for competition policy, said commercial vans were a key sector in a digital economy where private consumers rely more than ever on delivery. READ MORE: New car sales in the European Union plunge over 50% in May We will carefully assess whether the proposed transaction would negatively affect competition, she said. The tie-up would create the fourth biggest carmaker in the world. Both sides are keen to share the cost of transformation into less polluting vehicles as demand weakens and emissions standards tighten, according to Reuters. Leading car manufacturers were battling low demand already before the coronavirus sent sales into nosedive. Italian-American Fiat-Chrysler owns Fiat, Jeep, Maseratti and other brands, while PSA owns Peugeot, Opel and DS. A PSA spokesperson said: Both companies will continue to cooperate with the Europen Commission to answer its questions in the same constructive spirit that has defined our proposed merger from the start. It said it will argue the merger means substantial benefits for both companies and consumers. READ MORE: Record slump in German car production could put 100,000 jobs at risk Preparations for the merger are advancing as planned. Antitrust approvals have already been granted in a number of jurisdictions, including the U.S., China, Japan and Russia. Groupe PSA and FCA reaffirm the shared objective to close the transaction by the end of the first quarter of 2021, he added. Chinese consular officials monitored and filmed an anti-Chinese Communist Party rally held outside of Western Australia's Parliament House, according to organisers. The rally to mark the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre held on June 4 was the first public commemoration in Perth in memory of the demonstration in 1989 in which hundreds of protesters died. Protesters hold anti-CCP signs during the protests on June 4. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola The event attracted about a dozen protesters, who gathered around the steps at Parliament House with anti-CCP signs displaying the slogans "time is up for CCP" and "time to say no to tyranny". But event co-organiser Tshung Chang said attendees had since raised concerns about their safety after Chinese consular officials Bin Xu and He Yifan were spotted monitoring and filming the event from the sideline. Before the coronavirus pandemic struck in the United States, employees at the commercial real estate firm Binswanger sat with clients who wanted to remodel their office work spaces and mulled everything from floor plans to fabric swatches for new furniture. The evergreen favorites: open floor plans; large conference rooms; sprawling auditoriums. Ideally, employers said, they would bring dozens to hundreds of employees together in a physically uninhibited office to foster creativity, productivity, and collegiality. Then came the antithesis of those very designs: social distancing. Everyone has taken a pause to say, What is this going to look like on the other side, and does that mean I still want the same thing? said David Binswanger, chief executive of the Philadelphia-based firm. ... The issues of parking, conference rooms, public meeting spaces, the big auditoriums, the cafeterias, are all being rethought." Common new protocol mandates that employees maintain six feet of distance from one another, wash their hands often, avoid close contact in narrow corridors, and stay home if they experience possible coronavirus symptoms. Clients nearly finished with their redesigns now have to adapt to social-distancing guidelines the best they can. Those who had only begun to redesign before the pandemic have time to rethink plans entirely, Binswanger said, referencing a client who thought they could never not work together. Now theyre rethinking that whole model," he said. Theyre worried if they put everyone together, it could cost them their business because they dont want everyone to get sick at once. Companies midway through an overhaul, he said, are in the most difficult situation. If youre in the middle, youre in no mans land," Binswanger said. They might be able to rethink it, but theyll spend a lot of money. READ MORE: Pennsylvania orders hospitals to protect workers from virus It doesnt yet mean the abandonment of the open office and the return of the opaque and blocky cubicle. Its an egg crate scenario with these tall, tall panels, said Maria Pena, director of sales and design at cubicles.com, adding that she had noticed that glass and polycarbonate shields that could be set up around individual work spaces were increasingly popular. ... Were coming up with solutions that are temporary. Research has found that neither binary option free-ranging open space or cloistered cubicles necessarily encourages the optimal workplace culture or workflow. Studies and experiments are still trying to find the ideal setup, according to the Harvard Business Review. Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline considered how to best remodel its London headquarters by hiring architecture and behavioral science professionals to help decide how to organize the space. The company tracked the performance and collaboration of two experimental teams, as well as their heart rate, blood pressure, posture, and other physiological measurements, with plans to use the data to choose the ideal design, ergonomics, air quality, and even the scent of the new office. Yet, the Business Review found, a single best physical or digital workspace architecture will never be found. Thats because more interaction is not necessarily better, nor is less. The goal should be to get the right people interacting with the right richness at the right times. In the pandemic, employers have to contend how to manage the juncture of safety and communication. The range of workplaces can further complicate safety changes necessitated by the virus. Some employees can crack a ground-level window for fresh air. Those in a skyscraper office, in contrast, may not. Square footage could determine how many employees would return, and where they would work proximate to their colleagues. We are engaged with many clients who are looking for ways to adapt their workplace to a post-pandemic environment, said Linda Pileggi, design director in Philadelphia for the global design and architecture firm Gensler. Open floor plans can be adapted for social distancing by using only every other desk or putting partitions between desks that face each other. Theres not a one-size-fits-all approach to this." ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters. Small but immediate solutions, she said, would be fewer chairs in conference rooms to limit the number of people. At offices where employees are encouraged to be mobile carrying a laptop from one place to another to interact with coworkers, for instance employers could ask them to pick a dedicated spot to work and clean it frequently. For more drastic changes, Gensler relied on a software program it created called ReRun that would digitally rearrange an office layout to show how it could best accommodate social distancing. Even so, the mere act of social distancing in the office particularly when the office culture is casual or close-knit can feel bizarre. At times, it can even be unnerving, said Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet, the parent of Google. Our campuses are designed to enable collaboration and community in fact, some of our greatest innovations were the result of chance encounters in the office and its clear this is something many of us dont want to lose, he said in a message to Google employees in late May. Amenitized offices, such as those with green spaces or fitness centers, would likely remain popular, Pileggi said, to support employees physical and mental health. Nationally, employers and commercial building managers have been strongly encouraged to establish strict cleaning protocol, limit entry and exit ways, and take the temperatures of workers before they enter an office, NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, said in guidance released June 9. The association recommended that employers consider bringing back workers in phases until the outbreak is no longer a major public health threat. Another suggestion was to put less vulnerable employees on a rotation that alternates days in the office and at home. We are glad to see the gradual and steady reopening of our office workplaces, Thomas J. Bisacquino, the organizations president, said in a statement. We have to do this correctly to keep people safe and to avoid a resurgence of this disease." Other tools, such as motion-activated faucets and doors, and air purification systems, also remain important, said Pileggi, of Genslers Philadelphia office. SEPTA among the biggest employers in Philadelphia, with about 9,000 workers said it would scan the temperatures of employees who work at the transportation agencys headquarters in Philadelphia, to mirror practices already in place at other locations that serve as hubs for front-line personnel. READ MORE: SEPTA partners with Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium to test employees at stations Independence Blue Cross said it would monitor which workers entered its buildings by looking at who swiped their worker identification cards upon entry, and like SEPTA, also take temperatures. Other corporations, such as Comcast, said they were developing plans for employees to eventually return but dont have anything further to share at this time, said Jennifer Bilotta, a company spokesperson. At SEPTA, we are focusing on cleaning and social distancing, said Andrew Busch, a transit-agency spokesperson, adding that employees had been directed to wear masks when away from their desks and offices, and the agency has installed barriers between work spaces, as necessary. Some employees continue to work virtually. Like we have done throughout the transit system, we are doing additional cleanings and sanitizing of work spaces. The agency was expected to have further direction when the region moves out of the current yellow phase of coronavirus mitigation and into the green phase. Even so, the possibility of a second wave of the coronavirus in the fall has demanded heightened, and for some, lasting, vigilance about safety. Coming out of this in the long run ... you have to make some changes to the way you deal with space now, Binswanger said. In terms of circulation, in terms of number of people, in terms of spacing, all of those things are being looked at extra hard. Matt Green, mining/crushing supervisor at MP Materials, displays crushed ore before it is sent to the mill at the MP Materials rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, Calif., on Jan. 30, 2020. (Steve Marcus/Reuters) Mine-to-Magnet Rare Earth Processor Opens in Colorado IEA says green tech to 'supercharge' REE demand, warns on security Owners of the Wheat Ridge facility for processing rare earth elements and critical minerals have received an operating permit that will enable minerals critical to advanced technology manufacturing to be mined and processed in the United States. USA Rare Earth, LLC, and Texas Mineral Resources Corp. announced on June 18 that their Wheat Ridge, Colorado, facility has received its operating permit, with its pilot plant now in the commissioning process. Texas Mineral said in a press release that the plant will have the ability to produce the full range of high purity, separated rare earths as well as other critical minerals which are essential for modern manufacturing ranging from defense applications to wind turbines, electric vehicles, smart phones, advanced medical devices, and the physical backbone of emerging 5G networks. The company says its objective is to build the first rare earth and critical minerals processing facility outside China. The CEO of USA Rare Earth, Pini Althaus, said in a press release that the establishment of an independent, robust, and domestic rare earth metal and critical mineral supply chain is vital for the United States, overcoming reliance on China. Althaus said the companys mine and pilot plant were essential links in restoring a mine-to-magnet domestic U.S. rare earth supply chain without the material ever leaving the United States, thereby alleviating the current dependence on China for both raw materials and mineral processing. Pieces of ore containing rare earths are displayed during a tour of a rare earth mineral mine in California on June 29, 2015. (David Becker/Reuters) Reps. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation (pdf) on May 28 to protect American mineral supply chains. Gosar described critical minerals as the building blocks of our modern lives, as they are vitally important for special components in defense systems, health care applications, and energy generation technology. For years, our country has become increasingly dependent on China and other nations to fulfill our demand for minerals, said Gosar. The global pandemic has demonstrated the severe consequences of allowing this longstanding over-reliance on China to go unchecked. Waltz said that critical minerals are integral to our way of life. As coronavirus has unfortunately demonstrated, if China can threaten to cut off our pharmaceutical supply, they can do the same with their supply of rare earth minerals, said Waltz. We need to bring this supply chain back to Americaand this bill will be an important step to do that. According to an International Energy Agency (IEA) report, REEs and critical minerals are also essential for a host of energy technologiesfrom renewable energy sources such as wind and solar to cutting-edge battery storage systems and electric vehicles. Renewable energy systems also require significantly higher quantities of REEs and critical minerals than conventional energy generation equipment. An electric car uses five times as much minerals as a conventional car and an onshore wind plant requires eight times as much minerals as a gas-fired plant of the same capacity, according to the IEA. Clean energy progress after the #Covid19 crisis will rely on the availability of critical minerals. This new analysis explores the strategic roles of cobalt, nickel, copper & rare earths and how governments & companies can promote secure supplies https://t.co/IuF8FB97ZJ pic.twitter.com/JqI1FQ3H4s IEA (@IEA) June 12, 2020 Arresting Chinese Dominance China holds some of the richest deposits of REEs in the world, and in particular around the Bayan Obo region of Inner Mongolia. Some reports claim that in 1992, Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping said, The Middle East has oil. China has rare earths. China has used its position since that time to threaten both the United States and Japan with withholding its supply of REEs. Stringent environmental protections make rare earth element production in the United States relatively expensive, as the ores must be treated intensively with chemicals to produce concentrates before extracting the elements in their pure forms. Chinese producers dont have such restrictions. China has focused on cheaper production combined with illegal mining to force down prices for REEs in recent decades, making mining and processing in the United States cost-prohibitive. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that in the United States in 2016, there was no production of rare-earth ores and concentrates. The once-prolific REE mine at Mountain Pass, California, had been mothballed and remained on care-and-maintenance status, until reopening in 2018 to produce more than 10 percent of global REE ore production. According to the IEA, Chinese mines produce almost 63 percent of global REE production, with Burma (also known as Myanmar) accounting for a further 10.5 percent, and the United States producing 12.4 percent. The situation was even more grave than the statistics show, because all the Mountain Pass ore was being shipped to China for processing. A file photo showing samples of rare earth minerals on June 29, 2015. (David Becker/Reuters) President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13817 in December 2017, titled A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals. The order directed federal agencies to list critical minerals, develop strategies to reduce reliance on the minerals themselves and on foreign suppliers, and increase domestic production. The United States is heavily reliant on imports of certain mineral commodities that are vital to the Nations security and economic prosperity, according to the order. This dependency of the United States on foreign sources creates a strategic vulnerability for both its economy and military to adverse foreign government action, natural disaster, and other events that can disrupt supply of these key minerals. Bringing Production & Processing Home MP Materials is the owner and operator of Mountain Pass mine, which the company says is the only integrated rare earth mining and processing site in North America. On April 22, the company announced in a statement that it had been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense for a contract that targeted the restoration of American domestic heavy rare earths production, and to reduce or eliminate U.S. supply chain vulnerabilities. We are committed to restoring the full rare earth supply chain to the United States, paving the way for the onshoring of robust and diverse industries that will thrive through global competition, world-class products, and sustainable environmental standards, said MP Materials Co-Chairman James Litinsky. Jim Litinsky, co-chairman and controlling shareholder of MP Materials, is shown during a tour of the MP Materials rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, Calif., on Jan. 30, 2020. (Steve Marcus/Reuters) Essential Building Blocks of Technology According to a 2019 report from the USGS, REEs possess unique properties that make them essential ingredients in the manufacture of alloys, batteries, catalysts, magnets, phosphors, and other materials. REEs arent easy to find in mineable concentrations, however. For example, the lightest REE, scandium, is more common in the rocks of the Earths crust than gold or silver. However, scandium is rarely found in concentrated quantities, as it tends not to combine in ore-forming minerals and is thus distributed more widely and at low concentrations. Significant deposits of the other rare earths are similarly difficult to find and recover. According to USA Rare Earth, the new initiative will reinvigorate American high-tech manufacturing. In turn, this should provide the U.S. with job creation in manufacturing, and potentially generate hundreds of billions or more into the U.S. economy through the ability to be able to produce products in the U.S. currently being produced in China, the company stated. The Justice Department plans to propose that Congress roll back legal protections for online platforms such as Google and Facebook if they censor content or fail to police misconduct on their websites, according to a Trump administration official. The move follows a feud between President Donald Trump and Twitter, which last month slapped fact-checks on some of his tweets, prompting him to issue an executive order aiming to narrow the liability shield enjoyed by social-media companies. Trump and his supporters contend they're treated unfairly when their assertions are challenged or blocked by the companies. The proposed legislation could be sent to lawmakers as early as this week, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because the plan hasn't been made public yet. The Wall Street Journal reported on the proposed legislation earlier Wednesday. The companies enjoy immunity from lawsuits over content that users post under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The provision, which doesn't apply to violations of federal criminal law, has become a target of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who object to its breadth and describe it as a giveaway to technology companies. Details of the proposed legislation were still being worked out and could change. But in general the plan aims to prevent companies from removing content they find objectionable without providing explanations and adhering to their content-moderation policies, said the official. It also would limit protections when companies allow third-party content that's deemed harmful or illegal, the official said. Also on Wednesday, four Republican senators led by Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced a measure to remove the liability protection if companies don't fulfill a promise to moderate content in good faith, according to an announcement from Hawley's office. Discriminating on content moderation would constitute a violation of the promise -- echoing GOP efforts to use the legal shield to address what they say is systematic silencing of conservatives by internet platforms. Trump's executive order aimed to limit the companies' immunity in cases of bias, which many legal scholars described as unconstitutional, and also directed the Justice Department to prepare legislation. Shortly before Trump issued the order, Twitter had labeled two of his posts about mail-in voting being subject to fraud "potentially misleading" and provided links to news coverage of his comments. The president responded with outrage, accusing the social-media company of censorship and election interference and threatening to shut down the service. After the order, Twitter also flagged one of his posts about protests over the death of George Floyd for violating its rules against glorifying violence. Trump's order was the latest in a series of threats against the tech companies for alleged bias, which the firms have repeatedly denied. The president has complained about Twitter's efforts to combat manipulative and abusive content by deleting fake profiles -- leading to a decline of hundreds of thousands of users in his count of followers. Nonetheless, Twitter in particular has been an essential tool for Trump as a politician and as president, dating back to his false allegations that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Trump has observed that the social media platform allows him to avoid the press and speak directly to his 80 million followers. It has also afforded him the unfettered opportunity to assail political opponents and to promote conspiracy theories and other misinformation propounded by supporters. Even before Trump's executive order, Attorney General William Barr had spent months criticizing Section 230. In February, he convened a workshop with critics and defenders of the law to explore potential changes. The law was passed in 1996 and has been credited with allowing the then-fledgling internet to flourish. Barr told attendees that the shield is relevant to the Justice Department's ability to "combat lawless spaces online." Democrats, who have criticized Trump's moves as impermissible attacks on the companies for their political viewpoints, have also been skeptical of Section 230, suggesting it could be tweaked to address the spread of election misinformation and the promotion of defective products. Lawmakers from both sides have also taken aim at the shield as a way to combat child abuse online, and have objected to language resembling the immunity in U.S. trade agreements. An opinion piece published in the Washington Post last week by ESPN sportswriter and journalism professor at the University of Maryland Kevin Blackistone calls on the news media to censor images of police brutality and killings of African Americans. The column, titled Why I cant watch the police videos anymore, is accompanied by a short video (This is why the media should not replay viral videos of black men being killed), in which Blackistone, who is African American, demands that media outlets give greater consideration to how they display these deaths. What is implied is that such videos should be removed or their viewings limited by those in control. According to Blackistone, [w]e dont see people having visceral reactions to filmed episodes of sadistic police violence. Instead, they watch this as if its theater. By people, Blackistone clearly means white people. This inference is made clear when he likens police brutality caught on film to postcard images of lynchings in the Deep South in the early 20th century. Asserting that such videos have never been in opposition to the inhumanity of these acts, Blackistone asks, How many times have you seen a slain white body in the media? One might ask what gives Blackistone such penetrating insight into the thought processes of the millions of people who view the videos of police beatings and murder that so frequently go viral in the United States. It is likely that his assertions about the reactions of white viewers are more a reflection of his conceptions than theirs. In fact, in the years since the 2014 police slaying of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, dozens of bystander videos of police violence against unarmed people, white as well as black, have sparked angry protests against police brutality. In Ferguson in 2014 and Baltimore in 2015, following the police killing of Freddie Gray, declarations of emergency were issued and National Guard troops deployed to put down widespread protests, which spread beyond those cities to cities and towns across the country. These events, culminating in the current wave of multi-racial and multi-ethnic protests across the US and around the world, refute Blackistones contention that white people who view such atrocities sympathize with the police, not the victims. Moreover, it is false and absurd to draw an equal sign between the racial attitudes of people in America a century ago and the attitudes of the population today. Vast changes in the social outlook of the population have occurred, corresponding to the increased integration of workplaces over the past 75 years. The Great Migration of millions of African Americans from the rural south to northern industrial cities from approximately 1915 to 1970 encouraged the development of social consciousness among workers of all races. According to a 2017 Pew study, a large majority of the population (81 percent) had views of interracial marriage that were favorable or neutral. In contrast, less than 10 percent looked upon such relationships in a negative way. In 2015, 17 percent, or almost a fifth, of all opposite-sex marriages were interracial, up from only 3 percent in 1967, when the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision overturned anti-miscegenation laws. Of course, racism still exists, but it is false to claim that the United States today is dominated by racism or exemplifies white supremacy. The most virulent forms of racism are concentrated within the frontline elements of the capitalist state, such as the police and immigration agents who are charged with policing the population on behalf of the ruling class. According to Blackistone, people viewing images of police violence tend not to see that this person [being killed] was a human being. Instead, the murder of innocent people by police is normalized a distant reality. The journalist-professor cites a National Institute of Health study from 2017 that finds deaths [by police] that go unpunished send a message to Black communities that their bodies are police property, disposable, and undeserving of dignity and justice. The study adds that such incidents can bring about collective anger, grief, and hopelessness. In other words, the NIH warns, in addition to hopelessness and more passive expressions of hostility, such atrocities can stoke collective anger and mass opposition. In calling for the suppression of such videos, Blackistone joins in opposing such mass expressions of social anger. Who would benefit from such censorship? Not the minority and working class victims of police violence, but the perpetrators. In the initial days of the protests following George Floyds murder, some Democratic Party politicians and black nationalist allies reacted to the multi-racial character of the demonstrations by accusing suburbanites, i.e., whites, of intruding into the protests and fomenting violence. They openly expressed the fear and hostility within the ruling class toward a movement that refuted the racialist narrative that has been an ideological and political pillar of capitalist rule in America for the past 50 years. If, moreover, censorship is a positive good when it comes to police violence, then surely there are other events and opinions that would similarly be better suppressed. The logic of Blackistones position leads inexorably to censorship of all forms of journalism and art. Anything that could lead to collective anger and produce opposition to the present social order must be suppressed. While Blackistone acknowledges the evidentiary value of such film, his argument for censorship puts him squarely on the side of the police. Government officials and police departments regularly seek to withhold incriminating evidence and videos from the public by claiming that such films would upset the families of the victims or jeopardize an ongoing investigation. In the current protests, the police have repeatedly targeted reporters in an effort to prevent their actions from being reported. And police officers routinely fail to turn on, or deliberately turn off, body cameras to ensure that an incident is not recorded. That the Washington Post is giving credence to such views is not an anomaly. Along with the New York Times, the Post has been a chief media mouthpiece for the claims that Russian online disinformation has sown discontent in American society around sensitive social issues. This authoritarian argument has been used to censor left-wing opposition to US imperialism on the internet and to persecute courageous journalists such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. It is the healthy, humane and democratic reaction of millions of people to the exposure of wanton police violence, thanks to cell phone videos and social media, that concerns the ruling class, as well as its media and academic apologists such as Blackistone. "Since the beginning of the pandemic, CAE was the first to receive certification from Health Canada for an entirely new ventilator. It was created and manufactured in Canada, and we are proud that it will help save lives in the fight against COVID-19," said Marc Parent, CAE's President and CEO. "The agility shown by CAE in designing and succeeding to have the CAE Air1 ventilator certified in a fraction of the usual time is a testament to the strength of CAE's innovation, engineering talent, and advanced manufacturing capabilities. I am proud of our team for rising to this humanitarian challenge and strengthening Canada's self-sufficiency in the medical field during these unprecedented times." CAE will now start shipping hundreds of CAE Air1 ventilators to the Government of Canada every week. The CAE Air1 ventilator can deliver pressure control, volume control and pressure support ventilation using room air or pressured oxygen. It uses an intuitive, simple touchscreen interface and is bundled with on-demand ventilator training, adaptive e-learning modules related to COVID-19 patient management, and 24/7 customer support. It will support Intensive Care Units patients treated for COVID-19. "CAE, one of Canada's leading aerospace firms, stepped up early on with their commitment to produce a made-in-Canada ventilator design that will help save the lives of COVID-19 patients battling the disease. Today's announcement is a testament to CAE's agility and innovative capability. I am glad that we were able to support CAE in accelerating the design and manufacturing of CAE Air1 ventilator that is now ready to be used by our frontline healthcare workers," said the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. Quick facts: CAE Air1 ventilator is designed and manufactured in Montreal, Canada Over 500 CAE employees from 45 departments have worked on the project so far The CAE Air1 ventilator has over 500 parts Canada : click here More than 130 Canadian suppliers were chosen. To access the list of CAE Air1 suppliers / distributors/ collaborators in Video on the CAE Air1 ventilator: click here B-Roll on the CAE Air1 ventilator: click here High resolution photos can be downloaded at: https://www.cae.com/multimedia-centre/ For more information about the CAE Air1 ventilator, visit caehealthcare.com/caeair1. Find a complete listing of CAE Healthcare's COVID-19 curriculum and resources at caehealthcare.com/covid19. About CAE CAE is a global leader in training for the civil aviation, defence and security, and healthcare markets. Backed by a record of more than 70 years of industry firsts, we continue to help define global training standards with our innovative virtual-to-live training solutions to make flying safer, maintain defense force readiness and enhance patient safety. We have the broadest global presence in the industry, with over 10,500 employees, 160 sites and training locations in over 35 countries. Each year, we train more than 220,000 civil and defence crewmembers, including more than 135,000 pilots, and thousands of healthcare professionals worldwide. www.cae.com Follow us on Twitter: CAE_Inc SOURCE CAE INC. Related Links http://www.cae.com/ After more than three months of lockdown guests will finally be able to return to hotels across Northern Ireland from July 3, however the experience will be a far cry from what it was before the Covid-19 pandemic. From hand sanitisers and screens to a novel disinfectant fogging system, one of Belfasts most popular hotels is pulling out all the stops to ensure they are ready for the new normal. The Clayton Hotel has been accommodating key workers throughout the pandemic, such as healthcare staff, which General Manager Jonathan Topping has said has allowed them to better prepare for reopening to the general public. We think its very important that its a hospitality experience, not a hospital experience. We want our guests to feel comfortable and safe when they come back, so weve done a lot in preparation for that, he said. Weve been working right the way through [with guests], so weve been able to understand what their concerns are and make sure we can provide a safe experience for them. For example, our staff are now fully trained with personal protective equipment (PPE), so masks, visors and gloves and understanding when they have to use those. It is very important that we provide our staff with a safe environment, because they are the ones who then provide the experience to our guests. If they feel safe, our guests will feel safe. Guests will be able to check in and check out online in order to reduce contact and rooms will be disinfected via a fog system, which takes only three minutes to thoroughly clean each room. Housekeeping staff will then service each room before it is fogged again and sealed with a sticker over the door, ensuring peace of mind for guests that their room has been sanitised before entry. The whole hotel is then fogged overnight, so every morning you can come into a sanitised environment. Again, this is all about giving confidence to our guests that this is a safe place to come into, Mr Topping said. Screens have also been erected at the Claytons reception desk, coffee dock and bar, while hand sanitising stations have been placed throughout the building. Mr Topping said the hotel, which has 170 rooms, will be able to run at around 70% capacity upon reopening, however he expects around 40 to 50 rooms to be occupied throughout July. We have done a lot of work in forecasting what our business is going to look like over the next three to six months, just in terms of bringing staff back and itll be a slow process to get back to the levels we were at previously, he said. But I think we will get there, maybe not this year, but towards the middle of next year. RURAL RETREAT, Va. - A Rural Retreat woman won $177,777 off a Virginia Lottery scratch off ticket, a news release from the Virginia Lottery stated. Sasha Bomar only had a one in 1,040,400 chance of winning the top prize of $177,777 from the Lucky 7s Tripler scratch off ticket but luck was on her side. I couldnt believe it! Bomar said. I had to look at it a few times! However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it took a while for her to claim her prize. John Hagerty, a communications specialist with the Virginia Lottery, said Bomar bought the ticket from the Hilltop Market in Rural Retreat on March 20. This was just one week before lottery customer service centers were closed due to COVID-19, so Bomar held on to her ticket for several months. Bomar plans to use her winnings to buy a new house, the news release stated. While Hollywood is just beginning to reopen, deals are being made on many projects that are in development with producers eager to start making movies once again. One of those titles is Armageddon Time, a film with two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett already attached, which now has courted some other huge names. According to Deadline, the film now boasts a cast including fellow Oscar winners Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro, along with legendary actor Donald Sutherland and Star Wars performer Oscar Isaac. Attached to star: Armageddon Time, a film with Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett already attached, now has courted fellow Oscar winner Anne Hathaway; seen here in 2019 Armageddon Time is written and directed by Ad Astra helmer James Gray, and it's being billed as a period piece based on the filmmaker's childhood in Queens, New York in the 1980s. 'I'm anxious to make something that is very much about people, about human emotions and interactions between people, and I want it to be filled with warmth and tenderness,' Gray told Deadline about the film. 'In some sense, yes its about my childhood, but an illustration of familial love really on every level.' Not to mention: The film now boasts Robert De Niro in its cast as well, along with legendary actor Donald Sutherland and gifted Star Wars performer Oscar Isaac; De Niro seen in 2019 Radiant: Blanchett was first to join Armageddon Time, written and directed by Ad Astra helmer James Gray; Cate seen here in February Among other things, the film will touch upon Gray's move from public school to a very affluent private school one which was in fact attended by Donald Trump. 'The private school, yes Donald Trump went there and Fred Trump was on the board of trustees,' he said. 'Its symbolic about what the school represented at the time, entrenched in this white protestant ethic. I found it very foreign to me, a product of the public school system in New York City of the 70s. 'Its about that transition and how it reflects on what the American society was and sadly still is. How we are separated along the lines of class and ethnicity. The film is really about that, my transition in school from one to the other.' Auteur: The new film being billed as a period piece based on the filmmaker's childhood in Queens, New York in the 1980s; Gray seen here in 2017 Armageddon Time will be a reunion of sorts for some of the actors, especially Hathaway. She will once again share the screen with De Niro, after their 2015 comedy team-up, The Intern. It's also not the first time Anne has been in a movie with Cate the pair were seen together in 2018's caper film Ocean's 8 with Sandra Bullock. Reunion: Armageddon Time will be a reunion of sorts for Hathaway, who will once again share the screen with De Niro after their 2015 comedy team-up, The Intern SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global medical 3D printing plastics market size is expected to reachUSD 1.38 billion by 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 26.6% from 2020 to2027. Demand for medical 3D printing plastics is ascending at a prominent rate owing to the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The pandemic situation caused a sudden increase in demand for face mask and covers, gloves, head and shoes cover, and other medical devices. In terms of volume, the photopolymer type segment accounted for the largest share in the year 2019 and is anticipated to maintain its lead over the forecast years. Photopolymers are used to produce various medical components, including hearing aid, dental implants, and face mask. Components produced using photopolymer have high accuracy as well as smooth surface finish and complex shapes can be produced easily. These properties make it suitable for medical 3D printing process. Key suggestions from the report: Key raw materials utilized in the production of medical 3D printing plastics include styrene, amides, lactic acid , ether, glycols , and ethylene, which are by products of crude oil and natural gas lactic acid glycols In terms of volume, the photopolymer type segment accounted for a prominent share in the market in 2019 and is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period The filament form segment dominated the global market and accounted for 74.91% share of the overall revenue in 2019 As of 2019, North America accounted for 44.89% share of the overall revenue. Increasing focus of packaging product manufacturers is assisting the market growth in region. Read 110 page research report with ToC on "Medical 3D Printing Plastics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (ABS, PEEK, PETG, Photopolymer, Polyamide, Polylactic Acid), By Form (Filament, Powder, Ink), And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/medical-3d-printing-plastics-market Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness substantial growth over the coming years owing to various factors such as presence of government initiatives, such as Make in India, rising number of medical products manufacturers, and increasing R&D investments in the medical 3D printing plastics sector by private as well as public organizations. In addition, various medical product manufacturing companies have started looking towards India for establishing manufacturing facilities post COVID-19 pandemic situation. Grand View Research has segmented the global medical 3D printing plastics market on the basis of type, form, and region: Medical 3D Printing Plastics Type Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) ABS PEEK PETG Photopolymer Polyamide Polylactic Acid Medical 3D Printing Plastics Form Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) Filament Powder Ink Medical 3D Printing Plastics Regional Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany U.K. France Italy Asia Pacific China India Japan Central & South America Brazil Argentina Middle East & Africa & Saudi Arabia South Africa List of Key Players of Medical 3D Printing Plastics Market: 3D Systems, Inc. Apium Additive Technologies GmbH Arkema DSM ENVISIONTEC, INC. Evonik Industries AG SABIC Solvay Stratasys Ltd. Victrex plc Find more research reports on Plastics, Polymers & Resins Industry, by Grand View Research: Hermetic Packaging Market - The growth of the aerospace & defense industry has been favoring the hermetic packaging industry. Relatively cheaper airways coupled with low fuel cost have been encouraging new fliers across the globe, thereby leading to rising flying frequency. The growth of the aerospace & defense industry has been favoring the hermetic packaging industry. Relatively cheaper airways coupled with low fuel cost have been encouraging new fliers across the globe, thereby leading to rising flying frequency. Thermoform Packaging Market - Thermoforming is a plastic molding process wherein plastic material is heated up to its pliable temperature, and further, it is converted into the desired shape by using molding. The thermoforming process is divided into two types, namely, thin gauge and thick gauge thermoforming. Thermoforming is a plastic molding process wherein plastic material is heated up to its pliable temperature, and further, it is converted into the desired shape by using molding. The thermoforming process is divided into two types, namely, thin gauge and thick gauge thermoforming. Specialty Polyamides Market - Surging demand for lightweight materials in the automotive and transportation industry is one of the key trends propelling the growth. 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 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) Over 27,000 people in the country have caught the coronavirus disease so far, the Department of Health reported on Wednesday. The tally of infected persons rose to 27,238, after the agency announced 457 new infections. Of the added figures, it said 342 are fresh cases or were validated in the last three days, while 115 were considered late or part of the validation backlog. Another 268 have beaten the disease, while five more died, the DOH added. These pushed the number of total recoveries to 6,820 and the death toll to 1,108. The most number of new cases were logged in Metro Manila at 173, followed by Central Visayas at 160. Cases among Filipinos abroad also climbed to 6,074, after the Department of Foreign Affairs listed 56 more infected patients. With 10 more survivors, recovered overseas Filipinos are now at 2,842. However, 24 more lost against the disease, for a total of 466 deaths. In a media briefing, Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire reiterated the agencys warning against the use of the steroid drug dexamethasone, which experts from the United Kingdom say helps save severe and critically-ill COVID-19 patients. READ: DOH reminds public: Steroid not a magic pill for COVID-19 Vergeire said further studies on the drug are still needed and that dexamethasone should not be taken without the supervision of a doctor. We want to inform and warn the public not to buy, or worse, hoard it in the hopes of self-medicating, she said. Local health experts will await the peer reviewed version of the clinical trial before considering to give the drug to patients with severe COVID-19, according to the spokesperson. By PTI NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecom (DoT) is set to ask state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) not to use Chinese telecom gear in its 4G upgradation, which is being supported as part of the company revival package, according to sources. The development comes at a time when Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in a standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. The standoff has stirred anti-China sentiments in India, with protesters and some trade bodies like CAIT calling for a boycott of Chinese products in protest to border standoff. Sources privy to talks in the Telecom Department said it has been decided that BSNL will be asked not to use Chinese equipment in upgradation to 4G network, which is being supported by its revival package. The department may also convey that the tender in this regard may need to be reworked. A similar message will be conveyed to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), sources said. The department is even considering measures to urge private telecom operators to bring down their dependence on Chinese-made telecom equipment. In the past, there have been concerns around network security of Chinese equipment, sources pointed out. On Twitter, hashtags like 'HindiCheeniByeBye' and 'BharatVsChina' have been trending. Earlier on Wednesday, Chinese handset maker Oppo cancelled the livestream launch of its flagship 5G smartphone in the country amid protests calling for the boycott of Chinese products in various parts of the country. Oppo, which ranks among the top five smartphone vendors in India, had said it will livestream the launch of its Find X2 smartphone on Wednesday via YouTube. However, the livestream was cancelled later on, and the company instead uploaded a pre-recorded video. Notably, four of the five top smartphone brands in India (Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo) are from China and accounted for almost 76 per cent share of smartphones shipped in India in the quarter ended March 2020. South Korea's Samsung, which ranked third and cornered 15.6 per cent share of shipment in the said quarter, is the only non-Chinese firm in the top five tally. Democrats who control the Minnesota House announced a $300 million economic aid proposal June 15 for businesses that were damaged or destroyed during the civil unrest over the death of George Floyd. The legislation is aimed at commercial corridors in lower income neighborhoods that were hardest hit as protests over Floyds May 25 death while in Minneapolis police custody turned violent. Many of the affected small businesses along Lake Street and Broadway Avenue in Minneapolis, and University Avenue in St. Paul, are owned by people of color and immigrants. State Rep. Hodan Hassan, a Minneapolis Democrat who represents part of the damaged area, said the community is still in a lot of pain, and that buyers are already offering cash to people whose buildings were burned if theyll just go away. Thats not the rebuilding we want, she said during a news conference. We want to make sure Lake Street stays the way it was and (returns) even better. We are not seeking gentrification. We are not seeking to get displaced. Ibrahim Demaag, whose family owned Chicago Furniture Warehouse for nearly 27 years until they watched it burn down, said the family wants to rebuild but needs help. We dont want to be segregated from anybody else, he said. We want to stay in our neighborhood. We want to build this neighborhood. We lost, we can come back as together. So all we need from you guys is your support, as much as we can, for anything that we need. Reassuring Customers Part of Job for Minnesota Agent in Aftermath of Riots Insurance agent Dan Gutlovics did a lot of virtual hand holding during the first days of the violent protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul following the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25. Did Debate Over Business Income Insurance Just Get More Complicated? Business income claims due to riots and civil unrest could reflect revenue loss from virus-related shutdowns or receipt of funds from the Paycheck Protection Program. Riots in Wake of Floyds Death Could Become Most Costly Civil Disorder for Insurers While the industry expects a significant event, it is premature to determine the volume of property loss since it is an ongoing event. The legislation includes a $125 million relief fund thats meant to get aid to small businesses in the next two to three weeks, with the rest of the money designated for longer-term recovery. It also includes sales and property tax breaks for rebuilding eligible properties, and measures that would prevent gentrification by ensuring that affected properties arent sold off to the highest bidders for redevelopment. Democratic House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, who is leading the push, told reporters that Democrats hope to pass the legislation this week. The proposals face an uncertain fate in the Republican-controlled state Senate, where GOP leaders last week said that they intend to adjourn the special session on June 19 no matter what happens in the House. Leading Democrats have urged Republicans to support the aid package. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz called the special session mostly to comply with legal requirements for extending the emergency powers he has been using to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he strongly endorsed an ambitious House Democratic slate of police accountability measures. The Senate GOPs top special session priority, however, was an attempt to rescind his emergency powers, which the House blocked on June 12. House committees have approved the Democratic-proposed policing measures, which are expected to go before the full chamber for votes late this week. The special session policing agenda of Senate Republicans is much more limited. Senate Republican leaders said they would support some of the less controversial measures in the House package, such as a statewide ban on chokeholds and neck restraints, a duty for officers to intercede and report when they see another officer use excessive force, and to provide help for officers in recovering from stressful or traumatic events that could affect their future performance. But those GOP leaders expressed opposition to many of the bigger changes sought by the House, such as putting the state attorney generals office in charge of prosecuting all officer-involved killings. Also uncertain is whether the House and Senate can agree in time on a public construction borrowing package known as a bonding bill thats the main piece of unfinished legislation left over from the 2020 regular session, which ended last month. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said that hed be willing to consider increasing the size of the package from the $1.1 billion figure discussed earlier to $1.35 billion to provide money for rebuilding. But such a borrowing bill would require bipartisan support in both chambers to get the necessary three-fifths majorities needed to pass. Minnesota is one of several states where Democratic lawmakers and governors are hoping to harness the anger over Floyds death to remake law enforcement. Legislatures have been slow to tackle those issues since a wave of police killings of young black men in 2014, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Mohamed Ibrahim is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Law Enforcement Minnesota Northern Ireland will inevitably face a deep and prolonged economic downturn, a report has found. While the regions department for the economy report concluded the full impact of the Covid-19 economic crisis has yet to be seen, it warned early indications are stark. The Rebuilding A Stronger Economy report, published on Wednesday, says a significant contraction is expected in the Northern Ireland economy, pointing to downturn estimates of 7.5% and 12.7% by Danske Bank and the Ulster Universitys Economic Policy Centre respectively. It also warns of a decline in output in Northern Ireland that is more severe in the rest of the UK and foreign direct investment (FDI) likely to be greatly reduced. These challenges, along with an expected increase in unemployment and a drop in consumer spending, are likely to be further compounded by the lack of clarity around Brexit, the report added. Economy Minister Diane Dodds described economies across the world as being in a difficult space, and cautioned that Northern Ireland is not immune. In response, the minister has announced a 12-18 month recovery plan which focuses on delivering higher paying jobs, a highly-skilled workforce and a more regionally balanced economy. The future economic strategy needs to be around sustaining, helping, supporting those core industries we have, but also in developing those industries where we are already world class, cyber security, Big Data and reinventing ourselves, re imagining the Northern Ireland economy tapping into global opportunities of the future, she said. The minister announced the membership of the Economic Advisory Group which is set to be chaired by Ellvena Graham, former head of Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland to assist her departments work. There has been significant financial support from the Executive to date to help businesses survive the immediate impact of Covid-19, Mrs Dodds said. We must now look to the medium term and work to build a more competitive, inclusive and greener economy. Our people are our key asset so developing the skills base of our young people and workforce will remain central to our economic success going forward. We also intend to focus on sectors where there is a potential for growth in higher paying jobs such as life and health sciences, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and big data. Ms Graham added: I look forward to us working with the minister and her department to rebuild a stronger economy to the benefit of everyone in Northern Ireland. Mumbai: Filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor and his wife Pragya Kapoor will honour the memory of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput by feeding 3400 impoverished families. "It's our way of honouring him and his craft, everything he has done and achieved, to celebrate him and everything he stands for. As friends it gives us something to hold on to," Pragya said. Sushant made his Bollywood debut as an actor in the Abhishek Kapoor-directed "Kai Po Che" (2013), and the actor-filmmaker duo also collaborated on "Kedarnath" in 2018. Abhishek and Pragya were present at Sushant's funeral ceremony, which took place on June 15, 2020. Mourning the demise of Sushant, Abhishek took to social media, calling him "interstellar". He wrote: "I am shocked and deeply saddened by the loss of my friend. We made two very special films together. He was a generous and fabulous actor, who worked very hard to breathe life into his characters. I pray for his family, whose loss is unmeasurable. He was a huge Science buff and what consumed by what lay beyond in the universe. I'm going to miss you brother. Stay interstellar." The charity gesture initiated in Sushant's honour will be conducted via Pragya's NGO Ek Saath: The Earth Foundation. Sushant breathed his last on June 14. He was found hanging at his home in Mumbai. Veteran federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne called former colleague Sam Dastyari a "crooked, corrupt f---" and labelled a female MP a "drunk" in dozens of text messages released by former party powerbroker Adem Somyurek as apparent political payback. Mr Byrne, the deputy chair of Federal Parliaments powerful intelligence committee, also called an unnamed female Labor activist a "ratf---er" and said he wanted to "piss on ... the corpse" of former Left faction heavyweight Alan Griffin. The personal messages to Mr Somyurek also savaged former leader Bill Shorten, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and retired Victorian federal MP Michael Danby. In the limelight: Labor MP Anthony Byrne. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The Age has seen a political document containing details of the private text between the pair, which were released after Mr Byrne told this masthead he had offered authorities his "full assistance" into their inquiries over industrial scale branch stacking in the Victorian ALP. UChicago researchers are testing air in the hospital rooms of patients with COVID-19 to understand where the hotspots are around infected people. Credit: Shutterstock.com The CDC recently updated its guidance for avoiding COVID-19, saying that infection from touching surfaces is not the major way the virus spreads. The bigger risk is spending time with infected people. But although it's clear that some virus particles move through air, how far and how widely they travel is still not understood. University of Chicago researchers are trying to change that. A new study is underway to monitor the air in the hospital rooms of patients at University of Chicago Medicine, which could help scientists uncover how airborne virus particles travel around infected people. "This is such a big question for the hospital, but also in people's homes and workplaces and stores," said Prof. Jayant Pinto, an ear, nose and throat specialist who is one of the investigators on the study. "For the most part, this virus causes its chaos starting from the airway. We really want to understand how it gets there, who is most likely to be at risk, how to best protect health care workers, and how the disease moves through the airway." In a partnership with Assoc. Prof. Savas Tay of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, the team set up small monitors to collect air samples in the rooms of patients at the hospital. The participants range from those in the ICU, to those with less severe conditions, to those who don't have COVID-19. The monitors range in placement from close to the patient's head, to the doorway, to about 10 feet away. Once the material in the air is collected, Tay's lab measures the amount of virus in the samples and how far it traveled from the patient. "Within any given room, we want to know where the hotspots are where patients are breathing out virus," Tay said. "We hope to learn which patients are very infectious and spewing out lots of virus; how that viral load changes in air over time with treatment; and which treatments increase or decrease the viral load in the air." For example, UChicago Medicine has been exploring alternatives to ventilators in their COVID-19 treatment planinstead, they blow a large amount of humidified air into the lungs through the nose via a method called high-flow nasal cannula oxygenation. The treatment has yielded "remarkable success" so far, but it presents additional risk because it may increase the amount of COVID-19 particles in the air (to protect themselves from the virus, staff are required to have proper PPE, negative pressure patient rooms, and anterooms where they can change in and out of their safety gear.) Tay and Pinto want to quantify that amount compared with other treatments. The scientists hope in the next step of the study to test how infectious that air actually is. The current study simply detects the presence of the virus's genetic material, but coronaviruses are relatively fragile; by the time it circulates at distance, it may or may not still be able to cause infection. "From a health care perspective, we would really like to know how infectious a person is, and how it changes as they undergo treatmenthow is it different on day one versus day five or 10?" Pinto said. "That can help set standards for PPE for health care workers." They would also like to use the opportunity to track the genes of the virus specifically in Chicago; small genetic differences can help track where the virus came from and how it's moving across the city. Preliminary work by Prof. Tao Pan with the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology shows this may be possible using this approach. The team is still collecting samples and running analysis, but the preliminary results are looking good. So far, they have proven that the technique can detect and quantify viral RNA. "I'm very glad we could partner with Savas's lab on this," Pinto said, noting that the effort involves working with colleagues and front-line providers in the ICU from the departments of medicine and anesthesia/critical care. "This is exactly what we want to be doing: collaborating across disciplines to solve big problems." Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak Sitting in front of a Zoom background of Waterfront Park's famous Pineapple Fountain, Explore Charleston Chair Michael Tall kicked off what he described as the "most inexpensive luncheon" the group has ever hosted. Typically, hoteliers, heads of attractions and other local tourism leaders would pack into a ballroom for a catered meal to celebrate another year of record-breaking visitation to the region. This time, the in-person gathering was swapped out for a virtual conference, and Tall's introductory message was more about reflecting than celebrating. "This year is like no other year, ever," he said. The majority of the about hourlong web conference was a presentation from three heads from Conde Nast, the publishers of the travel magazine whose annual Readers' Choice Awards have ranked Charleston the No. 1 small city in the U.S. for nine years and counting. Beth Lusko, the company's head of sales for travel, shared some insights from survey data on why the Holy City has emerged as an "anomaly" among other other ranked destinations. Of the respondents who submitted answers about Charleston last year, one in four were first-time visitors. From that group, 97 percent said they wanted to come back. "That's the highest percentage of wanting to return for any destination that we see," Lusko said by phone after the virtual meeting. There is clear crossover between readers of Conde Nast Traveler which frequently features ads purchased by Explore Charleston as well as editorial content about the region and travelers who favor Charleston. The Holy City ranks fourth overall for the total number of survey responses submitted about it, Lusko said, behind three much larger cities: New York, Chicago and San Francisco. And, in addition to claiming a No. 1 spot year after year, Charleston's scores on the survey are also rising "across the board," Lusko said. "That steady upward slope over half a decade is very unusual. Usually there is more variation," Jesse Ashlock, Conde Nast Traveler's U.S. editor, told the Post and Courier. "Charlestons trajectory has only been up." Charleston visitors are also uniquely profuse when it comes to optional write-in responses on the survey, Ashlock said. Some testimonials are more like essays, and a few respondents even included detailed Google maps tracking their favorite spots in the city. Responses to this year's reader survey are being collected now and will close at the end of the month. Rankings are typically announced in early October. In their presentation, Ashlock and travel news editor Erin Florio described some of the travel trends they're seeing for the summer, the first being that travel is still definitely happening, despite the ongoing pandemic. They emphasized the importance of road trips and catering to visitors within driving distance. That's been a key focus for regional and statewide tourism groups which are spending their ad dollars on places within 350 miles of South Carolina, plus Ohio, this summer. While travel agents haven't been very popular for domestic trips in recent years, it looks like people are turning to them more often for vacations within the U.S. this year, Ashlock said. The fact that all but 3 percent of first-time visitors to Charleston who answered their survey wanted to return is especially relevant now, Lusko said. Travelers venturing out after stay-at-home orders are seeking familiarity. "That familiarity is critical right now," Lusko said. "It makes people feel more comfortable and safe." A destination's reputation or ubiquity in the travel world will also likely serve it well at this time, Ashlock added. Tourists are starting to return to the Palmetto State, which is clear from slowly rising occupancy rates and weekly visitor revenues. Explore Charleston CEO Helen Hill also mentioned on the travel council call that air service is "coming back really quickly." At the same time, new coronavirus cases are climbing in the Charleston area and across the state. On Tuesday, Mayor John Tecklenburg urged city residents and business leaders to wear face masks in public places to help reduce the spread. At this point, very few hotels in the region remain closed, and restaurants have had their dining rooms open for about a month. Tourist attractions were allowed to resume operations Memorial Day weekend. Hill also announced another upcoming step for the region's reopening: Explore Charleston's Meeting Street visitor center, which has been closed for renovations since last June, will be unveiled and reopened to guests next month. (Newser) Actor Danny Masterson has been hit with three charges of rape for incidents ranging from 2001 to 2003, Los Angeles prosecutors said Wednesday. The former That 70s Show actor is accused of raping three women at his Hollywood Hills home: a 23-year-old sometime in 2001, a 28-year-old in April 2003 and another 23-year-old in late 2003, the LA Times reports. Masterson, 44, was arrested by the LAPD on Wednesday and is behind bars on $3.3 million bail. He faces arraignment in September and up to 45 years in prison. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said it decided against two other rape charges, citing the statute of limitations in one and lack of evidence in another, Variety reports. story continues below Masterson's attorney, Tom Mesereau, said in a statement that his client "is innocent, and were confident that he will be exonerated when all the evidence finally comes to light and witnesses have the opportunity to testify." Meserau described Masterson and his wife, Bijou Phillips, as being "in complete shock considering that these nearly 20-year old allegations are suddenly resulting in charges being filed." The LAPD has been investigating Masterson since 2016, and four women sued him and the Church of Scientology in 2019, claiming they were stalked and harassed after going to the police. Netflix dropped Masterson from its series The Ranch in 2017 amid increasing scrutiny of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement. (Read more sexual misconduct stories.) A member of the far-right militia, Boogaloo Bois, walks next to protesters demonstrating outside Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department Metro Division 2 just outside of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 29, 2020. LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images A man who was charged with killing two officers in recent weeks including one standing guard during an anti-police brutality protest following George Floyd's death has ties to the far-right "Boogaloo" movement, authorities said in federal court documents. Air Force Staff Sgt. Steve Carrillo was charged with killing the first officer, David Patrick Underwood, in a drive-by attack on May 29. Carrillo was also arrested and charged with killing a second officer in a separate ambush after authorities arrived at his home following Underwood's murder. When investigators searched Carrillo's car, they discovered a ballistic vest with insignia linked to the "Boogaloo" movement, which prosecutors defined as "a term used by extremists to reference a violent uprising or impending civil war in the United States." The charges against Carrillo come amid multiple instances of individuals associated with the far-right being accused of stoking violence connected to the protests against police brutality. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have accused the far-left group antifa of organizing the violence, despite a lack of evidence to back up the claim. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A man charged with killing two officers in recent, separate attacks in California has ties to the far-right "Boogaloo" movement, authorities said in a federal indictment. Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo was charged Tuesday with killing a federal service officer, 53-year-old David Patrick Underwood at an Oakland courthouse in a drive-by attack on May 29, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Carrillo also faces state charges in the killing of Santa Cruz County Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller on June 6. A second man, Robert Justus Jr., was charged with aiding and abetting Carrillo in killing Underwood in the initial attack. Another officer was also critically wounded in the ambush. Both officers were guarding the courthouse while demonstrations against racism took place nearby, and both were part of the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service. Story continues Law enforcement officials said Carrillo and Justus went to Oakland to kill police officers and believed that nationwide protests against police brutality following the death of 46-year-old George Floyd would facilitate their motives. Floyd was a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd said he couldn't breathe and begged for air. Authorities went on a manhunt following Underwood's slaying on May 29. Eight days later, they showed up at Carrillo's home after discovering a van belonging to him that contained firebombs, ammunition, and materials used to make bombs, authorities said. When officials arrived at his home on June 6, Carrillo ambushed them, killing Gutzwiller and injuring another officer, prosecutors said. When they searched Carrillo's van after the ambush, officials discovered a ballistic vest that had a patch on it with insignia linked to the far-right "Boogaloo" movement, the charging document said. The "Boogaloo" movement, as defined by prosecutors in Carrillo's indictment, "is a term used by extremists to reference a violent uprising or impending civil war in the United States." Carrillo allegedly used his own blood to write "various phrases" on the hood of a Toyota Camry that he carjacked as well, prosecutors said. One officer reviewed a photograph and recognized the word and phrases "BOOG," "I became unreasonable," and "stop the duopoly." There have been multiple recent instances of far-right individuals accused of violence, but the Trump administration has largely blamed antifa for clashes The charges in Carrillo's and Justus' cases come amid multiple instances of individuals associated with the far-right being accused of trying to stoke violence connected to the demonstrations against police brutality. Earlier this month, three men who were self-proclaimed members of the "Boogaloo" movement were arrested on domestic terrorism charges and accused of carrying unregistered firearms and trying to spark riots during the demonstrations. According to the charging document, which was reviewed by Business Insider, the three defendants previously served in the US Navy, US Army, and US Air Force. Last Monday, CNN reported that a man accused of driving his car through a crowd of protesters in Virginia during the previous weekend was an "admitted leader" of the Ku Klux Klan and a "propagandist for Confederate ideology," according to the county attorney. The man, Harry Rogers, was charged with attempted malicious wounding, felony vandalism and assault, and battery. The arrests come as President Donald Trump and his allies urge law enforcement officials to crack down on the protests and accuse "antifa" a loosely organized far-left group of anti-fascism activists of sparking violence during the demonstrations. But a closer examination of court records, media reports, and social media posts shows little evidence of a widespread or organized antifa-led effort to infiltrate the protests. In early June, The Nation reported that the FBI had "no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence" in violence that took place on May 31 as protests following Floyd's death reached a climax. The report cited an internal situation report from the FBI's Washington, DC, field office. But the situation report did warn that people associated with a right-wing social media group had "called for far-right provocateurs to attack federal agents" and "use automatic weapons against protesters." Politico also reported this month that a Department of Homeland Security intelligence note warned law-enforcement officials that a white supremacist channel on the encrypted messaging app Telegram encouraged its followers to incite violence to start a race war during the protests. Citing the FBI, it said that two days after Floyd's death, the channel "incited followers to engage in violence and start the 'boogaloo.'" One of the messages in the channel called for potential shooters to "frame the crowd around you" for the violence, the note said, according to Politico. On May 29, the note said, "suspected anarchist extremists and militia extremists allegedly planned to storm and burn the Minnesota State Capitol." And NBC News reported this month that Twitter had identified a group posing as an "antifa" organization calling for violence in the protests as actually being linked to the white supremacist group Identity Evropa. Twitter suspended the account, @ANTIFA_US, after it posted a tweet that incited violence. A company spokesperson also told NBC News that the account violated Twitter's rules against platform manipulation and spam. Read the original article on Business Insider The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal Office, has arrested five alleged internet fraudsters. They includ... The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal Office, has arrested five alleged internet fraudsters. They included Adedamola Adewale, a social media sensation popularly known as @adeherself on Instagram. A statement Tuesday night by EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, disclosed that the suspects were apprehended in different areas of Lagos during a raid by operatives. While Adewale, 20, and her accomplice, Lamina Hamzat Ajibola, were arrested at the Agungi area of Lekki, the trio of Israel Onyebuchi, Emmanuel Olayode and Valentine Nwokorie were picked up at Ibeju-Lekki. EFCC said the arrest of Adewale and Ajibola was sequel to intelligence linking them to online fraudulent activities with two brothers, Lasisi Wasiu Adeleke and Lasisi Riliwan Adeniyi, who are at large. The agency revealed that they were arrested at a four-bedroom duplex belonging to the two run-away fraudsters. Intelligence also linked them with alleged flamboyant lifestyles. The statement said during interrogation, Adewale, a self-acclaimed model, who goes by the username @adeherself on Instagram, confessed to being a picker in cybercrimes. Items recovered from the suspects included two Toyota Camry 2009 model cars, and a sum of N9 million found in Adewales account. The other suspects Onyebuchi, Olayode and Nwokorie were arrested for their alleged involvement in a romance scam. They were arrested during another raid, following a separate intelligence. EFCC said Nwokorie was posing as a female American citizen and sending photos as a porn star to defraud his victim while Onyebuchi was engaging in a love scam as well as forging foreign cheques. Items recovered from the suspects include laptops and mobile phones. All the suspects will be arraigned in court as soon as investigations are concluded. After another volatile week, leading benchmark indices fell sharply as markets feared a second wave of coronavirus with the re-opening of the economy adding to the risks. With relaxation in various restrictions, the virus is likely to resurface, leading to probable severe lockdown controls thereafter. The drop in indices largely spooked investors as most have been pinning hopes on consumer resilience in the domestic market. Furthermore, this sent a shockwave across markets that until now appeared to have factored in the element of uncertainty regarding the quantum of economic damage from the virus outbreak. As investors employ a wait-and-see approach in a classic example of backing and filling in the market, they can benefit from cash cow stocks that garner higher returns. However, identifying cash-rich stocks alone does not make for a solid investment proposition unless it is backed by attractive efficiency ratios like return on equity (ROE). A high ROE ensures that the company is reinvesting cash at a high rate of return. ROE: A Key Metric ROE = Net Income/Shareholders Equity ROE helps investors distinguish profit-generating companies from profit burners and is useful in determining the financial health of a company. In other words, this financial metric enables investors to identify stocks that diligently deploy cash for higher returns. Moreover, ROE is often used to compare the profitability of a company with other firms in the industry the higher, the better. It measures how well a company is multiplying its profits without investing new equity capital and portrays managements efficiency in rewarding shareholders with attractive risk-adjusted returns. Parameters Used for Screening In order to shortlist stocks that are cash-rich with high ROE, we have added Cash Flow greater than $1 billion and ROE greater than X-Industry as our primary screening parameters. In addition, we have taken a few other criteria into consideration to arrive at a winning strategy. Price/Cash Flow lesser than X-Industry: This metric measures how much investors pay for $1 of free cash flow. A lower ratio indicates that investors need to pay less for a better cash flow-generating stock. Return on Assets (ROA) greater than X-Industry: This metric determines how much profit a company earns for every dollar of asset, which includes cash, accounts receivable, property, equipment, inventory and furniture. The higher the ROA, the better it is for the company. 5-Year EPS Historical Growth greater than X-Industry: This criterion indicates that continued earnings momentum has translated into solid cash strength. Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2: Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) stocks are known to outperform irrespective of the market environment. Here are four of the eight stocks that qualified the screen: Seagate Technology PLC STX: Headquartered at Dublin, Ireland, Seagate is the second-largest manufacturer of hard disk drives in the United States. This Zacks #2 Ranked company has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 4.2%, on average. CommScope Holding Company, Inc. COMM: Headquartered in Hickory, NC, CommScope is a premier provider of infrastructure solutions, including wireless and fiber optic solutions, for the core, access and edge layers of communication networks. The company has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 30.3%, on average. With long-term earnings growth expectations of 2.7%, it carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. TROW: Founded in 1937 and headquartered in Baltimore, T. Rowe is a global investment management organization that provides a broad array of mutual funds, sub-advisory services and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, retirement plans and financial intermediaries. This Zacks #2 Ranked firm has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 4.8%, on average. It has a long-term earnings growth projection of 9.3%. The Allstate Corporation ALL: Founded in 1931 and headquartered in Northbrook, IL, Allstate is the third-largest property-casualty insurer and the largest publicly-held personal lines carrier in the United States. This Zacks #2 Ranked firm has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 18.5%, on average. It has a long-term earnings growth projection of 7.5%. Story continues You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and test them first before taking the investment plunge. The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out. Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today. Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance. 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 Seagate Technology PLC (STX) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Allstate Corporation (ALL) : Free Stock Analysis Report T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (TROW) : Free Stock Analysis Report CommScope Holding Company, Inc. (COMM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research "Everyone belongs to God. The worst sinners, the wickedest people, the most corrupt leaders, they are children of God, and Jesus feels this and intercedes for everyone ". Moses does not barter his people. He is the bridge. Both of them, the people and God, and he is in the middle. What a beautiful example for all the shepherds who must be a 'bridge' between God and the people. " He does not sell out his people to advance his career." Vatican City (AsiaNews) - May freedom of conscience be respected always and everywhere, and may every Christian give the example of the consistency of an upright conscience enlightened by the Word of God". This is the appeal launched by Pope Francis in today's " Day of Conscience", "inspired by the testimony of the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who, eighty years ago, decided to follow the voice of conscience and saved the life of thousands of Jews and others persecuted ". Francis' appeal came at the end of a general audience, also held today in the Library of the Apostolic Palace, in which, continuing the cycle of catechesis on prayer, he spoke of the "Prayer of Moses (Ex 32: 11-14)" , stressing that "Everyone belongs to God", even sinners, the corrupt. "And the world lives and thrives thanks to the blessing of the righteous, to the prayer for mercy, this prayer for mercy that the saint, the righteous, the intercessor, the priest, the bishop, the Pope, the layperson, any baptised person incessantly raises up for humanity, in every place and time in history ", like Moses, "the intercessor". In his catechesis Francis stressed that Moses appears human like us. And this happens to us too: when we have doubts, how can we pray? It is not easy for us to pray. And it is because of his weakness, as well as his strength, that we are impressed. Entrusted by God to transmit the Law to his people, founder of divine worship, mediator of the highest mysteries, he will not for this reason cease to maintain close bonds of solidarity with his people, especially in the hour of temptation and sin. He was always attached to his people. Moses never forgets his people. And this is the greatness of pastors: not forgetting the people, not forgetting ones roots." Moses is so friendly with God that he can speak with Him face to face (see Ex 33:11); and he will remain so friendly with other people that he feels mercy for their sins, for their temptations, for the sudden nostalgia that the exiles feel for the past, recalling when they were in Egypt. Moses does not reject God, but nor does he reject his people. He is faithful to his flesh and blood, he is faithful to Gods voice. Moses is not therefore an authoritarian and despotic leader; the Book of Numbers defines him rather as a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth (Nm 12:3). Despite his privileged status, Moses never ceased to belong to the numbers of the poor in spirit who live by trusting in God as the viaticum of their journey. He is a man of his people. Thus, the way of praying most proper to Moses is through intercession (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2574). His faith in God is completely at one with his sense of fatherhood towards his people. Scripture habitually depicts him with his hands outstretched towards God, as if to form a bridge between heaven and earth with his own person. Even in the most difficult moments, even on the day when the people repudiate God and him as a guide and make themselves a golden calf, Moses does not feel like putting his people aside. They are my people. They are your people. They are my people. He does not reject either God or his people. Moses does not barter his people. He is the bridge, the one intercessor. Both of them, the people and God, and he is in the middle. He does not sell out his people to advance his career. He does not climb the ladder, he is an intercessor: for his people, for his flesh and blood, for his history, for his people and for the God who called him. He is the bridge. What a beautiful example for all pastors who must be bridges. This is why they are called pontifex, bridges. Pastors are the bridges between the people, to whom they belong, and God, to whom they belong by vocation. This is what Moses is. If you would only forgive their sin! But if you will not, then blot me out of the book that you have written. I do not want to get ahead at the expense of my people. And this is the prayer that true believers cultivate in their spiritual life. Even if they experience the shortcomings of people and their distance from God, in prayer they do not condemn them, they do not reject them. The intercessory attitude is proper to the saints who, in imitation of Jesus, are bridges between God and His people. Moses, in this sense, was the first great prophet of Jesus, our advocate and intercessor (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2577). And today, too, Jesus is the pontifex, He is the bridge between us and the Father. And Jesus intercedes for us, He shows the Father the wounds that are the price of our salvation, and He intercedes. And Moses is the figure of Jesus who today prays for us, intercedes for us." "Moses - he said again in his greeting to the Germans - does not pray for himself, prays for others, becomes the great intercessor of the people of God. We too must realize that we are never before God only as individuals, but also as Church members and children of the one human family. This should also become visible in the way we pray, for each other." GARY A popular Gary beach was cleared out by authorities after a large brawl broke out Tuesday evening, police said. Officers were called at 6:09 p.m. at Marquette Beach, said Gary Police Department Lt. Dawn Westerfield. There was a large fight among several people at the beach and one woman was taken into custody for having a handgun without a permit, Westerfield said. When the fight broke out, there were about 500 people at the beach, said Gary Lt. Thomas Pawlak. About 50 officers, including police from Gary, Lake County Sheriff's Office, Lake Station, East Chicago, Hammond, Indiana State Police, Griffith and Highland responded and cleared the beach of visitors, Pawlak said. After the beach was cleared, police responded to multiple disturbances among the surrounding neighborhoods and officers were able to successfully break up the fights. No one was injured in the incident, he said. The Minnesota Department of Health uses a conference call set-up for its daily COVID-19 press briefings and sends out the conference call information to reporters on the MDH media distribution list. I was included on the conference call distribution list for the briefings from April 11 to April 27. On April 27 I was cut off without explanation. Something happened on April 27. I think what happened is that I was excluded from the MDH daily briefings for political reasons. When the light dawned, it occurred to me that, if this was the case, it would be illegal under the First Amendment limited public forum doctrine recognized by the Supreme Court. John Hinderaker and I litigated a limited public forum case back in the 90s. The case was Burnham v. Ianni, decided by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc. In that case we represented two University of Minnesota-Duluth history professors whose photographs had been removed from a locked departmental display case at the order of the chancellor (Ianni). John and I pursued a damages claim against Ianni under section 1983 for violation of the professors First Amendment rights. Defending the case not wisely but too well, counsel for the University of Minnesota managed to amplify its importance. Creighton Law Review has a good article on it here. I think that MDH excluded me from the daily briefing conference calls for political reasons and that, if so, its illegal under limited public forum doctrine. I set forth the factual background in the sworn statement supporting my motion for preliminary injunction (embedded below). This is an interesting case that raises the proposition you cant fight city hall up one level. I have brought a section 1983 lawsuit against Commissioner Malcolm and press flack Michael Schommer for excluding me from the conference calls for political reasons. That is the gist of my case. Tomorrow morning the court will hear defendants motion to dismiss the case along with my motion for a preliminary injunction. A few notes on the motions: Defendants motion to dismiss the case is a Rule 12(b)(6) motion for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. On such a motion, the court is required to take my allegations as true. The facts alleged in my amended complaint are basically as set forth in the sworn statement I filed in support of my motion. Malcolm and Schommer deny that they excluded me for political reasons, but this raises a question of fact that is inappropriate for resolution on a 12(b)(6) motion. I dont think Malcolm and Schommer assert that they had the right to exclude me from the conference calls for political reasons. Unless my legal theory of the case is rejected, which is certainly possible, their motion should be denied. My motion for a preliminary injunction is based on the facts set forth in my sworn statement. In the statement I identify the direct and circumstantial evidence (including 14 exhibits) from which I infer the political motive for my exclusion. Schommer has filed a sworn statement to support defendants opposition to my motion. He hasnt produced a single exhibit. Both my statement and Schommers trace the decision for my exclusion right up to Governor Walzs political staff. Its amazing. A word about Judge Donavan Frank, to whom my case has been assigned. Judge Frank promptly scheduled tomorrows hearing at our request for an expedited resolution of the request for preliminary injunctive relief. I think every Minnesota federal district court judge deems himself or herself a supporter of the First Amendment. For example, I have been encouraged in my own work on Power Line by Judge Michael Davis, a 1993 Clinton appointee. Among many other things, Judge Davis is an ardent champion of the First Amendment. Coincidentally, Judge Davis decided the Burnham case in our favor before it went up on interlocutory appeal to the Eighth Circuit. He is a man I greatly admire. Judge Frank is one of the four or five judges on our federal bench who took the time to attend the annual lunch hosted by Chief Judge Jack Tunheim (another Clinton appointee) for local reporters who cover the courts this past October. If we lose this case, the failure will be one of advocacy on our part. Judge Frank will fairly decide this case based on the facts and arguments before him. 2020-06-04 DKT 12_0 Declaration by Scott Johnson on Scribd TDT |Manama His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa held a phone call yesterday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and reviewed solid fraternal and historical relations binding the two brotherly countries, as well as various aspects of joint cooperation and coordination. The two leaders also discussed Arab and regional developments. HM the King reiterated Bahrains support to the Egyptian initiative to achieve security, stability and prosperity in Libya. He affirmed the unified Arab stance which rejects foreign interference in Libya, calling upon the international community to support the Egyptian initiative in order to maintain regional security, stability and peace. HM the King wished Egypt and its brotherly people further progress and prosperity, led by President el-Sisi. President el-Sisi expressed thanks and appreciation to HM the King, hailing Bahrains unwavering stances in support of Egypt and its people, as well as its honourable role in backing pan-Arab action. The defendants did not act rationally when they risked their hard-earned livelihoods to commit the potentially deadly act and therefore could not be trusted to refrain from such behavior if released, prosecutors have argued during the bail proceedings. Mattis, who attended Princeton University, was reportedly fired from his law firm. Rahman at the time of her arrest was representing indigent defendants in Bronx housing court. As lawyers, both were well aware of the severity of their criminal conduct, the papers say. Correction: The following story has been changed to correct the pricing of coronavirus tests at Texas MedClinic locations. Coronavirus testing should be quick and convenient like a 9-minute vehicle inspection. In the early weeks of the pandemic, San Antonio lagged when it came to testing, like much of the nation. Now, three months into the coronavirus crisis, there are limited free testing sites across the city. If you want to get a test, you should be able to get one, said business owner Charissa Barnes, who has asthma and had closely monitoring the spread of the virus before it reached the United States. Frustrated with the initial number of testing locations COVID-19 tests now are available at more than 30 urgent-care clinics in San Antonio Barnes decided to convert one of her drive-thru state vehicle inspection stations on the Northeast Side into a coronavirus testing site called COVID Testing Station. Barnes currently is offering a combo deal: both antibody and diagnostic tests for $223. Antibody tests may be able to tell if you have been previously exposed to the novel coronavirus. The diagnostic test can determine whether you are infected with the virus. On ExpressNews.com: University Hospital tapped for statewide COVID-19 testing The services at the drive-thru station, located on Austin Highway, are private pay Barnes doesnt accept insurance. A patients insurance company, however, could reimburse the cost of the tests with a receipt. Going to a Texas MedClinic without insurance means paying an office visit fee that ranges between $73 and $234 and a rapid COVID-19 test for $70. The chain of medical clinics also offers the molecular lab test for $115. However, those who are uninsured are directed to its south side location for free testing through a partnership with Metro Health and STRAC. Tom Reel, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer People with insurance that includes Texas MedClinic in its network do not have to pay anything at the time of service, but could receive a bill later. Barnes hired medical assistants to collect the nasal swabs and finger prick samples, without the need for a doctor's referral or any symptoms. They send the samples to a local lab called Geneus, which runs the tests and delivers results via email within one to two days. Were such a niche business that this has been exciting, said Barnes, whos a member of Metro Healths COVID-19 Task Force. I think some people still dont understand it. Barnes inspection stations are painted like the Texas state flag. Over the years, customers have thought the companys name is Due Now, which is what it says on the outside of the buildings. But the chain is called Official Inspection Station, and was started in 1985 by her late father, J.W. Barnes. She started working in the shops before she reached middle school and eventually took over the operation. She bought out her father in 2007 and now operates seven inspection sites and two Texas Tag and Title locations. And one drive-thru COVID-19 testing site. Tom Reel / Staff photographer Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox The company also conducts group testing for business customers. Most of her clients are dental offices that need to test staff regularly for potential exposure. Recently, the company began offering at-home testing, a concierge service that costs $50 extra. We recently tested a resident at an assisted-living facility, Barnes said, adding that the quick results helped the family members decide whether their loved one should change living arrangements. Laura Garcia covers the health care industry in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Laura, become a subscriber. laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 07:02:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Yosley Carrero HAVANA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Some Cuban experts have taken apart a Chinese electric scooter to build a prototype robot that helps out at a COVID-19 quarantine center on the outskirts of the country's capital. Palmiche Galeno Plus, the autonomous robot, is named after a popular Cuban cartoon character and was developed by a team of professors and students at Havana's Technological University (CUJAE). Juan Antonio Pinera, 24, a researcher at CUJAE, said the quality and availability of Chinese technology in Cuba made it possible to innovate such creations. Palmiche is programed to carry out daily tasks, including delivering meals, medicine and medical supplies to resident patients and healthcare workers, while promoting safe social distancing. "Chinese imported scooter engines, batteries, and wheels improve the mechanical performance of the prototype robot, making it more powerful," said Pinera. "Cubans have learned to be very resourceful due to economic restrictions and the U.S. embargo against the Caribbean nation," he added. Palmiche, which can move at a speed of up to 60 kilometers per hour and carry up to 500 kilograms, is also able to cope with local environmental conditions and changes in weather. The robot has transformed the daily routine at CUJAE student housing-turned-isolation ward, where nearly 3,000 suspected cases of COVID-19 have received medical attention during the pandemic. Ariel Reyes, 49, head of isolation centers in Havana's Marianao district, said the robot could be an affordable solution for hospitals across the country, guaranteeing delivery without human contact and reducing people's chances of contracting infectious diseases. "Doctors and nurses are working in areas with a high risk of exposure. This prototype robot helps healthcare workers maintain physical distancing during the health emergency," Reyes said. Ivon Benitez, 37, head of the Robotics and Mechatronics Group at CUJAE, said the robot not only opens up new possibilities for using the Chinese scooters in innovative ways, but also allows Cubans to learn from China's technological development. "We want to increase partnerships with Cuban companies and enterprises that import from China. We want to help automate services and production processes in different areas of the Cuban economy and society," Benitez said. Cuban professors and students at CUJAE have developed 25 prototype robots since 2017 as part of a government program to boost robotic automation in industrial processes and introduce young children to robotics. In 2019, a Cuban team for the first time won an international award at a regional robotics competition in Chile, qualifying for the "All Japan Robotrace" contest to be held in December 2020. Among them was Alexander Gonzalez, 27, one of Palmiche's developers, who said innovation in robotics should translate into progress for the country. "We want to provide Cuba with robots to be used at hotels, factories, warehouses and hospitals. For the moment, we will continue improving the performance of our brand new prototype," Gonzalez said. Enditem If your mornings at the Jersey Shore are made even better with a plate of blueberry pancakes from Uncle Bills Pancake House, you may be in luck. Five of their seven locations Cape May, Ocean City 21st, Ocean City 40th and Wildwood are open for take-out and outdoor dining. And North Cape May is open for take-out only, according to the restaurants website. But Avalon and Stone Harbor, the family-run chains first-ever location, remain closed because they dont have the space to do outdoor dining. With our business, take-out isnt good for the quality of the overall product, said T.J. OHara, who runs the Cape May location of Uncle Bills, which was started in 1963 by his grandfather. Like many family-owned businesses, particularly along the shore, Uncle Bills has struggled with slow sales while the state makes its way back from a near lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. Were lucky at the Cape May location to have the space, a grass lawn and parking lot for outdoor dining, OHara said. But even though he has the space, outdoor dining, which opened Monday, has been challenging. The problems you run into are, for example, on windy days, what do you do with the umbrellas. Were trying to figure all the kinks out. Wednesday was overcast and OHara had a full waitstaff but few customers, so he had to send some workers home. This is definitely not optimal for us, he said. And even when conditions are ideal for outdoor dining, its giving Uncle Bills just a fraction of the business it would normally have. Uncle Bills Wildwood location seats 300. But the outdoor dining can only accommodate 44 people. Its not enough, he said. OHara and his cousins, aunts, uncles and siblings who run Uncle Bills are eager for indoor dining to reopen. I thought by now we would be allowed to do 50% capacity inside, he said. What people need to start realizing is that we can do this safely. Gov. Phil Murphy said June 15 that Stage Three of the states reopening, which includes indoor dining, would likely happen in weeks not months. Asbury Park last week tried to defy Murphys executive order and open indoor dining prematurely. But the court granted an injunction to keep eateries closed in that shore town. Time is of the essence for shore businesses because they are seasonal. OHara said he didnt notice much of a decline in revenue in March and April, which are typically slow. But Memorial day weekend business was down more than 50 percent, he said. Its our Wildwood location Im most concerned for, he said. Businesses there only make money in July and August. And they make some money in September because of the conventions. Without those, its brutal. Cape May is quieter than its ever been, OHara said. But hes hoping as schools let out, and the weather improves, more people will head down the shore. New Jersey is built upon small businesses and family-owned businesses and were going to lose a lot of them if we dont do something soon, he said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Vietnam should announce the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and develop a roadmap to gradually resume trade relations with 17 partners, HCM City Party Committee secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan has said. Speakers at a National Assembly meeting on the socio-economic situation in the first half of the year held on Monday in Hanoi. Photo courtesy of the National Assembly Speaking on Monday at a National Assembly meeting in Hanoi on the socio-economic situation in the first half, he said Vietnam has been able to contain the outbreak without any community infection for two months. The rate of people infected per million in Vietnam is very low, only 3.4. No more than one person per million (the current rate is 0.2 people) is being treated. Vietnam has not reported any deaths due to the outbreak. As soon as the first cases were detected, the country took more precautionary measures than recommended by the World Health Organisation, he pointed out. Based on these and recent developments in other countries, he suggested that the Government should consider resuming trade with 17 economic partners. These are Vietnams most important partners, accounting for 90 per cent of foreign investment, 80 per cent of international trade and 80 per cent of tourists. The country should first develop a specific roadmap to revive trade with 10 partners, which are Japan, South Korea, mainland China, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Germany, Australia, and the Virgin Islands (UK), he said. Other partners include India, the US, Russia, Singapore, the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Malaysia, he said. We need to monitor further to see when it is safe to reopen trade relations with these partners because these partners are not completely safe yet. According to official statistics, foreign investment in Vietnam this year could fall by 30 per cent, tourism by 50 per cent and international trade by 18 per cent, Nhan added. Concurring with Nhan, NA deputy Luu Binh Nhuong called on the NA to issue a resolution on economic recovery. The most important is to revive the economy, which has been seriously impacted in recent months. But Nguyen Lan Hieu, another deputy and director of Hanois Medical University Hospital, warned: We need to be very careful about [linking up with] foreign economies because the risk of a second wave of infection is still high in many countries. For example, China is now showing signs of a second wave in some localities. He added: "It is vital to do more scientific studies to ensure there is no second wave of the infection in Vietnam. Vietnam also needs a strategy for investment in the healthcare sector to deal with a pandemic. According to the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the Government can announce the end of an epidemic when there are no new cases for 28 days. But it does not distinguish between imported cases and community transmission cases. The Ministry of Health reported no new COVID-19 cases on Monday morning, which keeps the countrys total number at 334. The Government has already lifted almost all restrictions and social distancing measures in the country. But the country maintains tight control over entry by people, allowing only Vietnamese citizens returning from other countries, foreign experts, high-skilled workers and people holding diplomatic passports and quarantining all of them for 14 days. The Government has instructed border provinces to prevent illegal immigration. Like other countries hit by the pandemic, Vietnams economy has suffered significantly due to the outbreak. Its GDP growth fell to 3.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 from 6.8 per cent in the same period a year ago, according to the General Statistics Office. In the first three months almost 35,000 businesses went bankrupt, the first time in decades that the number of companies shutting down was higher than newly registering businesses. The International Monetary Fund has projected the economy to grow at 2.7 per cent this year. VNS NA deputies agree with solutions for socio-economic recovery The 14th National Assembly continued its ninth session on June 13 with the discussion on the supplementary assessment of the implementation of the NA resolution on the socio-economic development plan and State budget in 2019 and early 2020. A part of the Midland community for 65 years, Blessed Sacrament School will permanently close on Wednesday, July 1. Cormac Lynn, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Saginaw, said the decision to close the school was largely a financial one and was also made in the interest of the adjacent Blessed Sacrament Church at the corner of Swede and Ashman. "First, obviously, this was not a decision we came to easily. We put a lot of time, energy, thought and prayer into it," Lynn said. Blessed Sacrament School's enrollment for the 2019-20 school year was about 60 students in preschool through fifth grade, with six teachers. Its final day of school was Friday, June 12. "It became clear, based on the enrollment, the cost to operate the school, and financial conditions, that it was not going to be sustainable," Lynn said. "We have certain expectations for the school, as our parents and parishioners do also. In the current (financial) climate, I was not comfortable we could ensure an appropriate educational environment. "We are continuing to work with those families to help them transition (their children) to hopefully another Catholic school." Lynn said Blessed Sacrament operated without charging tuition for its entire 65-year existence and was the only school in the entire diocese to not currently charge tuition. The diocese includes about 2,000 students in 11 counties from Isabella to Huron. Blessed Sacrament was, however, planning to charge tuition starting this coming school year before the decision was made to close it. "They were prepared to implement a tuition-based model next year," Lynn said. "They announced that to the (school) families and the parish. They had determined financial aid (for the students). "(But there) is a significant financial cost to operate that school. As the enrollment numbers dictated, the tuition was not going to be sufficient." Another factor is that the amount of money donated by parishioners has been affected by the recession and high unemployment due to economic shutdowns because of the coronavirus pandemic, the superintendent said. "It's a sad day that the school cannot continue, but it's a decision that's made to allow the parish to continue in a sound way financially. COVID(-19) has been tough on all our parishes in terms of contributions," Lynn said. The closest Catholic school to Blessed Sacrament is St. Brigid School, a K-8 school, on Larkin Street downtown, about 2.5 miles away and adjacent to St. Brigid Church. St. Brigid School opened in 1922. "I felt more comfortable with this decision, knowing that another Catholic school was just a few miles away," Lynn said, adding that St. Brigid is prepared to welcome as many of the former Blessed Sacrament students as end up enrolling for the 2020-21 school year. "Based on our conversations with St. Brigid, with (the exception of one grade level), they have room (to add Blessed Sacrament students). If we need to increase staff, we can do that." Blessed Sacrament School, whose nickname was the Bears, opened in September 1955 with grades 1-8 and had been a preschool through fifth grade school since 2001, according to Kristyn Russell, coordinator of communication and technology for the Blessed Sacrament Parish community. Russell said Blessed Sacrament Church held its first mass in April 1955, five months before the school opened. Russell, who has worked at Blessed Sacrament Parish since 2013, said this is a sad time for the parish community. "(The school) is a parish ministry that's been around a long time. There's definitely a grieving process taking place," Russell said. "I know that the Holy Spirit is in play here, and although it is sad, we cherish and are grateful for the memories from the school," Russell added. "And we are thankful for the hard work and dedication that families have given to the school throughout the years." Blessed Sacrament School had many cherished traditions, Russell said, including an annual school carnival in the fall, a school picnic, and the celebration of Catholic Schools Week in late January. And every May featured the tradition of May Crowning, when the students would honor Mary, the mother of Jesus, and would have a special prayer service at the statue of Mary on the parish campus. Lynn said several families in Midland have had two or three generations attend Blessed Sacrament School. "To be able to provide a tuitition-free model for 65 years is a testament to (the school's) commitment to Catholic education," Lynn said. "We are looking for ways to recognize and honor those 65 years." Lynn hopes to help the six teachers who were at Blessed Sacrament find other teaching positions. "We would like to place those teachers in our (diocese) schools if possible," he said. "Some of them have already interviewed with other schools in the diocese. We would support any of our school staff if they would like to continue to work in Catholic education." Russia on Wednesday announced a virtual meeting of foreign ministers of the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping will be held on June 23, removing doubts that had arisen about Indias participation in the wake of the violent clash along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). After a weeks-long military build-up along the LAC, Indian and Chinese troops were involved in what Indian officials described as a violent face-off on Monday night. One officer was among the 20 soldiers killed in the confrontation and several more were injured. The incident had cast a shadow on the planned meeting, originally scheduled to be held in March but postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Russia had recently taken the initiative to organise the virtual meeting this month, as first reported by HT on June 13. A video conference of the foreign ministers of the three countries is planned on June 23, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a media briefing. During this, the ministers will exchange their views on global political, economic and financial trends following the [Covid-19] pandemic as well as the opportunities for cooperation to overcome this existing crisis, she said. The border stand-off was not on the agenda of the RIC meeting since the grouping, by convention, doesnt take up bilateral issues. The situation in Afghanistan and regional connectivity projects such as the International North South Transport Corridor involving India, Russia and Iran are expected to figure in the agenda. The existence of the #RIC is an undisputable reality, firmly fixed on the world map. As for the current stage of the trilateral cooperation, there are no indications that it might be frozen, Russian ambassador Nikolay Kudashev said in a tweet after Zakharovas announcement. We welcome all steps aimed at de-escalation at the #LAC, including the conversation between the two FMs, and remain optimistic, Kudashev said in another tweet, referring to Wednesdays phone conversation between external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. Moscows relations with both New Delhi and Beijing are currently very good, and Kudashev and deputy chief of mission Roman Babushkin have, in remarks to the Indian media, spoken of the need for easing tensions for regional stability. Kudashev said Russia is confident that India and China will be guided by commitments made by the Indian and Chinese leadership during their two informal summits and work for peace and tranquillity on the border. He also said Russia is looking toward further engagements in the RIC, SCO and Brics (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) groupings to enhance mutual trust and stability. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Union Health Ministry on Monday asked officials of 45 civic bodies across 38 districts in 10 states, that are witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases, to focus on house-to-house surveys, carry out prompt testing and undertake active surveillance measures to contain the infection and reduce mortality. Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan along with senior officers of the Health ministry held a high level review meeting, via video conference, with the district collectors, municipal commissioners, superintendent of district hospitals and principals of medical colleges from 45 municipal corporations. The 38 districts are from Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. In view of the easing of lockdown and lifting of curbs, states were advised to make a district-wise prospective plan for the coming months," the Union Health ministry said. During the meeting, issues discussed include widespread infection in densely populated urban areas, with areas that shared public amenities, importance of house-to-house surveys, prompt testing, clinical management of cases and containment strategy which needs to be implemented, it said. "The state officials were advised on the measures to be taken in the containment zones for case management and buffer zones surveillance activities and promotion of COVID appropriate behaviour," the ministry said. To reduce the case fatality rate, the officials were briefed on measures that include prioritising high-risk and vulnerable segments like elderly people and people with comorbidities while contact-tracing to prevent deaths. They were also asked to focus on active surveillance measures, adequate testing and promoting health seeking behaviour for timely detection of cases. They were also asked to ensure timely shifting of patients without escalating the symptoms, the ministry said. In terms of infrastructure and human resource management for containment of COVID-19, the Health Ministry said proper planning for health infrastructure should be taken up, adequate number of surveillance teams should be provided and a system should be put in place for bed availability management. Centres of Excellence can provide hand-holding for medical professionals, it said and added that senior officers should be deployed for hospitals to offer help to citizens to find health services as per their need. On field governance, municipal authorities were advised to take leadership and put the entire municipal infrastructure for containment measures using the 'whole of government approach'. The ministry also highlighted that along with COVID-19 management efforts, care needs to be given to regular and essential health services that are also available for the citizens. Officials were asked to focus on areas like active house-to-house survey for timely detection, augmentation of the survey teams, efficient ambulance management, efficient triaging of patients at the hospitals and bed management, clinical management of the hospitalised cases through rotational 24x7 teams to ensure reduction in the fatality rates, the ministry said in the statement. They were also advised to ensure that labs return the testing results on time to ensure early identification and timely treatment. It was also suggested that elected representatives in the rural areas should be involved to help cooperate with district health authorities to build confidence and timely accessing of available health services. The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 7,200 and the number of cases climbed to 2,56,611 in the country, registering an increase of 271 deaths and a record single-day jump of 9,983 cases till Monday 8 PM, according to the updated Union Health Ministry data. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 1,24,981 while a total of 1,24,430 people have recovered so far with 5,137 patients having been cured in the last 24 hours, the ministry said. "Around 48.49 per cent patients have recovered so far," the statement said. THE editor of Spike Lees new feature Da 5 Bloods and last years Oscar winning film Roma, will be giving a workshop for local filmmakers. The free online event will take place this Wednesday at 2pm and is the latest in a series of webinars run by Innovate Limerick through Film in Limerick for aspiring and practicing filmmakers in the Mid-West. Adam Gough, originally from Cornwall, has been busy editing two features for famous director Spike Lee, the upcoming Da 5 Bloods which is released on Netflix this week, and a recently completed film version of David Byrnes American Utopia Broadway Show, which will be released later in the year. The Film in Limerick workshop with Gough will explore his career to date and his work with both Cuaron and Lee. The Wednesday Workshop will be moderated by editor and educator Nick Wright. The free series of online training events is run by Film in Limerick and designed for aspiring and practicing filmmakers in the Mid-West. The initiative is supported by Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board. There are limited spaces available so register for your place on https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register Guayaquil, one of South Americas first and hardest-hit cities, continues to feel the pandemics lasting effects. Guayaquil, Ecuador Patricia Marin Gines said the stench was unbearable. I cannot stand looking at him, she said in April, referring to her 86-year-old father, whose body was laying on the floor of his bedroom in their house for more than two days. Authorities had yet to come and retrieve it. I have put a newspaper in the doorstep, she added. Bodies like Marin Giness father piled up as the COVID-19 pandemic raged in Guayaquil, Ecuadors largest city, earlier this year. Hundreds of families were forced to keep their dead relatives bodies in their homes or on the streets for days until someone from the city could pick them up. In March and April, trucks, cars, hearses and other vehicles lined the citys streets, with coffins often one stacked on top of the other in tow. Families who lost loved ones queued with their dead relatives coffins outside cemeteries, which had been overwhelmed by the sheer number of deaths. The stench that haunted Marin Giness home was smelled around the city as well. The vile smell penetrated protective masks and sat in the 30-degree Celsius (86-degree Fahrenheit) heat. The body of Patricia Marin Giness father was kept on the floor of their home for days before authorities picked it up [Ivan Castaneira/Al Jazeera] Guayaquil was one of the first, and hardest hit coronavirus hot spots in Latin America. More than 10,000 deaths were recorded in Guayas, the province where Guayaquil is located, during March and April, according to government data. Officials said this was nearly 6,000 more deaths than typically recorded under normal circumstances, authorities said. It is still unclear, however, how many died of COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Many others are believed to have died because they were unable to get proper treatment due to the citys collapsed healthcare system. The situation in Guayaquil has since mostly stabilised, and its strict quarantine eased, but the city continues to feel the viruss lasting effects. A city in mourning At the height of the pandemic here, the city known for its festive and lively atmosphere was one in mourning. At the entrance to one of Guayaquils cemeteries, people desperately looked for their lost loved ones. Several had been there for days. A similar scene was seen outside the citys hospitals. My father died 20 minutes ago. He had COVID[-19] symptoms, but was never tested, Jaime, a Guayaquil resident, told Al Jazeera in April as he sat with two others outside Los Ceibos hospital, one of the citys so-called COVID-19-hospitals. His father was 65 years old. Another man arrived with his dead father in the backseat. Presenting coronavirus symptoms, he died on the way, the son said. The police special corpse collecting force enters a home to retrieve a body in Guayaquil, Ecuador [Ivan Castaneira/Al Jazeera] Ecuadors Health Minister Juan Carlos Zevallos blamed, at least in part, the citys residents for not following recommendations from the government an accusation decried by many. The virus was imported from Europe. Since it was vacation time, there were social events with people without symptoms. This meant that the virus spread very quickly. Unfortunately, these people did not listen to what the government said and did not isolate themselves for 14 days, so they quickly infected many people, he told Al Jazeera at the time of the peak of the crisis in Guayaquil in April. The Ecuadorian government announced the first positive case of COVID-19 on February 29, a 71-year-old woman who had arrived in Guayaquil two weeks earlier from Madrid. Although she had felt a fever and body pain during the flight, she was not examined by medical staff at the airport. She travelled to Babahoyo a city an hour and a half away and two days later she went to a family reunion. The woman died without knowing she was infected. Soon after, her sister and later their brother also died. The so-called patient zero was far from the only person who came to Ecuador from countries affected by the novel coronavirus. Between February 1 and 14, according to Ecuadorian media, some 20,000 people arrived in Ecuador from Spain, Italy, and the United States. Ecuador did not tighten its restrictions on those arriving in the country until the middle of March. Zevallos insisted action was taken on time. Ecuador, together with El Salvador, was one of the first countries in Latin America to close airports. We acted on time, but people did not comply with our announcements, he said. Regardless of who or what is to blame, the pandemic has laid bare the countrys ill-prepared healthcare system, and the deep-seated inequalities that exist in cities like Guayaquil. Many of those affected by the coronavirus here were from working- to lower-class families, unable to afford or get treatment at the citys private hospitals. Others are now jobless due to the harsh economic effects the pandemic has had on the oil-dependent economy. For families like Marin Gines, however, the grief and long-lasting image of her father laying on the bedroom floor for days is almost too much to bear. He was a good father and husband, she said of her dad. That he is treated like an animal in that way, she added. I feel guilty that my father cant have a worthy funeral. The Indian Army, Wednesday, finally released the list of names of all those who have died so far in Ladakh. The list included the name of Colonel B Santosh Babu, the commanding officer of the Armys 16 Bihar unit who was killed during the attack. A soldier from Tamil Nadu only a year away from retirement, a young jawan in his early twenties from Bengal's Sarang and a colonel from Telangana who has left behind two kids were all part of the 16 Bihar Rifle unit, and are among the 20 soldiers India lost to a violent face-off with China's People's Liberation Army in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley. The Indian Army on Wednesday finally released the list of names of all those who have died so far. The list included the name of Colonel B Santosh Babu, the commanding officer of the Armys 16 Bihar unit who was killed during the attack. Babu, according to The Economic Times, belonged to the 105 November squadron and was commissioned as an officer in December 2004. He is survived by his elderly parents, wife and two kids aged eight and three years. The officer hailed from Telangana's Suryapeta district. Babu's father, overwhelmed with the news, told the newspaper he himself wished to serve in the army. But instead, his son enrolled in the armed services to fulfill his wishes. "I wanted to serve in the Army but I could not achieve the goal. I realised my dream through my son. He was very talented and am very proud that he got many promotions in his 15 years of service," his father, Upender, a retired bank employee, said. Babu's parents told News18 that he last spoke to them on 14 June, two days before he lost his life in the line of duty. "You sent me to the army, now let me do my duty," Babu told his parents over the call. When his parents asked him about the situation on the border, he added, you are not supposed to ask me that and I cannot tell you anything. Everything is fine." Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has announced all support to the family. Minister Jagadeesh Reddy will be present from the time the body is received to the completion of funeral rites, NDTV reported. Another jawan who lost his life was Rajesh Orang who joined the army in 2015 and died of injuries suffered in hand to hand combat with the Chinese Army at Galwan Valley in Ladakh region. His father Subhas was distraught when he received the news. "My son served the country and gave his life for it," was all Subhas could say on Wednesday morning as he grieved his son's death. Rajesh's mother Mamata was so overwhelmed by emotions that she could hardly speak. She was hoping to get him married when he came back on a holiday next. Subhas, a marginal farmer in Belgoria village in Birbhum district, raised his children amid poverty. He said that he was informed by the army authorities on Tuesday evening about the death of Rajesh, who was in his early 20s. Havildar K Palani, who hailed from Tamil Nadu had barely a year left in service. He had served in the army for 22 years, DMK president MK Stalin revealed in his tweet condoling the death of army personnel. Palani hailed from Kadukkalur village in Ramanathapuram district of southern Tamil Nadu. Political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the ruling AIADMK condoled his death and expressed solidarity with his family. Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami has announced a solatium of Rs 20 lakh to his family and a government job for one person. Palani is survived by his wife and two children, a 10-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter, NDTV report said. Family sources told PTI that Palani served the army as a Havildar and had joined the armed forces at the young age of 18. Palani's wife Vanathi Devi said her husband had not even participated in the recent 'grahapravesam' (house warming ceremony) of their house. The names of other slain soldiers are: Sepoy Ankush Thakur, Sepoy Kundan Kumar Ojha Naib Subedar Nuduram Soren, Naib Subedar Mandeep Singjh, Naib Subedar Satnam Singh, Havildar Sunil Kuma, Havildar Bipul Roy, Naik Deepak Kumar, Sepoy Ganesh Ram, Sepoy Chandrakanta Pradhan, Sepoy Gurbinder, Sepoy Gurtej Singh, Sepoy Chandan Kumar, Sepoy Kundan Kumar, Sepoy Aman Kumar, Sepoy Jai Kishore Singh, and Sepoy Ganesh Hansda. Names of the 20 Indian Army personnel who lost their lives in the "violent face-off" with China in Galwan Valley, Ladakh. pic.twitter.com/z8nGBs1gdW Prasar Bharati News Services (@PBNS_India) June 17, 2020 Senior leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh have condoled their deaths adding that their sacrifice will not be forgotten. In his opening remarks on day two of the virtual conference with chief ministers on coronavirus, he also said that India wants peace but is capable of giving a befitting reply, if instigated. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is most important, he said. Modi said India has always tried to ensure that differences do not become disputes. Later, the prime minister and those attending the meeting observed silence of a few minutes as a mark of respect for the slain soldiers. Rajnath also expressed solidarity with the bereaved families and said the loss of soldiers in Galwan Valley is deeply disturbing and painful. In a series of tweets, Rajnath said Indian soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. "The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's bravehearts," he said. The External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said the violent face-off between armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. The ministry said both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement arrived earlier at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. The Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in the standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. A sizeable number of Chinese Army personnel even transgressed into the Indian side of the de-facto border in several areas including Pangong Tso. The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the row. With inputs from PTI Judiciary-watching jaws dropped on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court firmly decided to protect gay, lesbian, and transgender people from employment discrimination. The biggest jaw-dropper for many observers was that the 6-3 decision included Donald Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, usually a reliably strict constructionist of Constitutional law, along with the generally conservative Chief Justice John Roberts. Pennsylvania is one of the states that did not have laws protecting LGBTQ workers in employment disputes, meaning that, as Anna Orso reports, the ruling carries even more weight here than in neighboring states like New Jersey. Glad that Gorsuch left his usual strict constructionist legal closet to help move us towards equal justice for all. Editorial cartoons from this week include: According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Africa has made great strides in recent years towards building democracy, enhancing the rule of law, consolidating good governance, improving human security, and promoting and protecting human rights. Majority of African countries, since the early 1990s, have undergone momentous transitions from one-party, military or autocratic rule to multiparty democratic systems based on majority rule and popular participation. At the very heart of these democratic transitions has been the holding of periodic, multiparty elections. This article is an attempt to examine the utility of elections in our contemporary times, and more especially within the context of African democracies with a special focus on Ghana. First, my aim is to explore the role and importance of elections in the democratic process by pointing out the nexus between democracy and elections, as well as their usefulness in deepening and consolidating good democratic practice in the sub-Saharan African region. Secondly, we shall deep-dive into the electoral journey so far in post-independent Africa taking into account the fact that elections have jointly resulted in the pathway to economic growth and development as well as explore how elections are also seen as a tool for political accountability. Finally, we shall explore the electoral process itself as a means to curbing electoral violence, thus, a means through which broad-based consultations have been held and have helped in arriving at political and electoral reforms based on consensus. The nexus between Democracy and Elections in Africa Africa has witnessed two droves of democratization; the first occurring at the onset of the decolonization process, when many African states had attained independence from their erstwhile colonial masters in the 1960s and 1970s.This first drove of democratization which was nationalistic in character ended up establishing one-party states in most of these newly acclaimed independent African nations easily identified with political instability, economic stagnation and authoritarian regimes. The second drove of democratization in Africa took the form of a political liberalization of a sort of Africa, otherwise known as the second liberation and occurred in the 1990s and thereafter. The democratic process, according to various writers, had two broad axes: liberalization and democratization. The transition to democracy, therefore, was from authoritarianism to liberalization and then to democratization. While liberalization involves economic, political, and minimal restrictions which advocates an expansion in individuals and groups rights; democratization is more than just the expansion of political rights. More often, liberalization heralds democratization but at certain instances, there could be some overlaps. The democratization process often consists of three phases, namely: liberalization where the authoritarian government collapses; transition where the first multi-party election takes place; and consolidation where democratic process is strengthened. Maame Adwoa Gyekye-Jandoh of the University of Ghana Political Science Department writes that Elections, particularly, free and fair elections, are a key criterion of the democratic system, alongside the freedom and independence of the media and the protection of civil rights and liberties. Elections emphasize two key elements of democracy participation and competition. While elections are not the only precondition of a democracy, they provide a major roadmap for democracy to thrive. This is particularly true in cases where elections are regularly held in those countries yet citizens rights are constantly being abused and the rule of law is only conspicuous by its absence. Elections also help ensure the promotion and sustenance of democratic peace and reduce the likelihood of a democratic reversal. Third, elections allow for competition among elites, and provide for participation of the public in the selection of leaders. Perhaps, the most crucial importance of elections for democracy is also highlighted in the standard minimal definition of democracy itself. Here, democracy involves a political system with meaningful and extensive competition among individuals and organized groups (especially political parties), either directly or indirectly, for the major positions of government power; a highly inclusive level of political participation in the selection of leaders and policies, and at least through regular and fair elections, such that no major (adult) social group is excluded; and a level of civil and political liberties freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom to form and join organizations sufficient to ensure the integrity of political competition and participation. Elections thus provide a link between the government and the governed. Elections in the African context comes with diverse meanings and functions. There is a commonly held view that elections are about power, where winners gain access to power and voters exercise power in making choices; that elections facilitate, in practical terms, the idea of the consent of the governed, which legitimizes the elected; that elections are sometimes used by candidates and parties to express positions and demonstrate support, without necessarily expecting to win; and finally, that elections facilitate resource redistribution as they are marked by substantial candidate expenditures and allocation of government funds to particular areas. In a democracy, however, elections have three major functions. First they serve as a means for people to choose their representatives. This could be exercised in choosing their representatives to a legislative or an executive office. Secondly, they are a means of choosing governments; and finally, they give legitimacy to the political systems. Given that it is an unquestionable fact that elections play a crucial role for democracy, they nonetheless, cannot be seen as being synonymous with democracy. This is backed by the UNDPs declaration that; ... it would be a mistake to equate democracy with regular elections: democracy also requires functioning institutions. While it is possible to have elections without democracy, as we have witnessed in some countries in Africa, it is equally impossible to have democracy without elections. This is because elections are necessary, but not sufficient enough to constitute democracies. Therefore, what is sufficient is not the quantity, but the quality coupled with favorable socioeconomic conditions. The Electoral Journey so far in Post-Independent Africa Elections are central to democratic governance and the political management of diversity in plural societies. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) explains that while elections are held with greater regularity in Africa, their content and quality remains suspect in many countries, especially with Africas rich diversity deployed as a combustive tool in electoral conflicts. The UNECA further states that elections have often triggered conflict, with violence, tensions and acrimonies, and sharp elite divisions surrounding electoral processes and outcomesa worrying trend for Africas democratic future. According to the International Peace Institute, the post-Cold War period also witnessed several positive changes with respect to democratization in Africa. Participatory politics grew in the 1990s and 2000s, as the percentage of African countries holding democratic elections increased from 7 to 40 percent; and in 2010, Freedom House classified eighteen countries on the continent as electoral democracies. Elections have facilitated the emergence of democratic governments in Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, and South Africa. Following autocratic regimes and protracted civil wars, more stable societies have emerged in Guinea, Liberia, Niger, and Sierra Leone. In some cases, however, elections have been manipulated to legitimate autocratic regimes or to ensure dynastic successions on the continent. During the past two decades, the general trend has been toward greater accountability of political leaders, whose domestic legitimacy is largely linked to the means through which they attain and maintain power. Yet progress has been uneven. In 2015, elections brought about the first peaceful transfer of power to Africas most populous country, Nigeria, but also resulted in mass civil unrest and instability in Burundi. Other countries which held elections in 2015 include Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea, Lesotho, Mauritius, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia. The year 2016 witnessed crucial elections in Benin, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic (CAR), Comoros, Chad and Niger, Gabon, Ghana as well as the constitutional referendum in Senegal. Meanwhile, violence still plagues approximately 20 to 25 percent of elections in Africa. In recent times, high-profile electoral crises in Kenya (2007-2008), Zimbabwe (2000 and 2008), and Cote dIvoire (2010-2011) have collectively led to at least four thousand deaths and hundreds of thousands displaced. Electoral violence can erode a peoples faith in democratic processes. Additionally, countries with a history of electoral violence often experience a recurrence of such violence, as has been witnessed in Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. The Role of the Electoral Process and the Elections Management Body in Consolidating Democracy and Curbing Electoral Violence Debates about elections in Africa are as common as elections themselves. For years, many meetings, seminars and conferences have been held with the aim of identifying the crucial ingredients for credible polls, including some organized by United Nations programmes and agencies. These have identified a number of best practices, drawing on both exemplary elections and more challenging cases. The holding of multiparty elections in Africa, like elsewhere in the world, has become a powerful tool for democratic stability, accountability and ultimately, human development. A significant number of elections have succeeded in placing numerous countries on a firm path of recovery and peaceful transition following years of civil conflict. These include elections in Namibia which led to independence in 1989 and elections in South Africa which ended apartheid and ushered in majority rule in 1994. Others include elections in Mozambique in 1994, Sierra Leone in 2002, and Liberia in 2005 and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2006, all of which marked an end to decades of civil conflict. Over the past two decades and more, countries such as Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mauritius, Senegal, and Zambia have had successive elections leading to peaceful transfers of power. On the other hand, Africa has also seen elections in a host of other countries that have stalled democracy and precipitated political instability as have already been indicated elsewhere above. Kenyas elections of December 27, 2007 and the ensuing violence, for instance, provides some food for thought. Mwai Kibakis re-election prospects were not on solid ground as he faced strong competition from his former allies; the most important opposition candidate being Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). Kibakis 46.4% of the vote and Odingas 44.1% were the focus of the disputed elections. It was charged by Odinga that about 300,000 votes were falsely attributed to Kibaki in most remote constituencies and that the Western, Coast, Upper Eastern and North Eastern provinces saw vote-rigging that was responsible for Kibakis victory. In what later became an intertribal clash that erupted in 2007 during the standoff between the incumbent, Moi Kibaki, and the challenger, Raila Odinga, approximately 1,300 people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Widespread sexual violence against women also marred the post-election landscape. Again, after Kenyas election in 2013, a challenge by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga made its way through the courts. Mr. Odinga challenged the outcome, claiming the election had been marred by massive failures in the electronic voter identification system, the tallying system and the results transmissions system. In an affidavit, the electoral commissioners termed him a perennial loser. He lost the petition and the matter was quickly settled. In 2015s hotly contested Nigerian presidential election between the Peoples Democratic Party of incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and the All Progressives Congress of Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler, many feared the worst. In Africas most populous nation, elections have always been marred by violence, often fuelled by allegations of vote rigging. Nigerias Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) managed to oversee what was generally acknowledged as free and fair elections. The INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, after being forced to postpone the elections for six weeks, was under heavy pressure from politicians to resign but resisted. A disputed election would have sparked violence in the country, with consequences for the whole West African region, where Nigeria remains an economic heavyweight. Alone, the country accounts for more than three-quarters of the regions economy. Analysts breathed a sigh of relief when Mr. Jonathan quickly accepted defeat, conceded and congratulated his opponent, President Buhari. Many hailed the development as historic for the country and for Africa. The 2012 general elections in Ghana, held in December 2012, raised issues about the otherwise relatively clear record of independence and competence of Ghana's Electoral Commission. Ghana's general elections were held on Friday, 7 December, 2012 to elect a president and members of parliament in 275 electoral constituencies. As a result of the malfunctioning of some biometric verification devices, some voters could not vote, and voting had to be extended the next day, 8 December 2012. The main candidates for the presidency were then incumbent president John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), his main challenger Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and six other candidates. An important point of note is that John Dramani Mahama was elected after less than five months in office as president after succeeding President Prof. John Evans Atta Mills who died suddenly in office on 24th July, 2012. The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) alleged that the Electoral Commission had manipulated with results and that they had also noticed a number of irregularities and malpractices, hence filed a petition at the Supreme Court to review the election results. The election petition, led by the NPP presidential candidate and his party taking the Electoral Commission and the NDC presidential candidate to the highest court of the land, was decided on 29th August, 2013. The verdict went in favour of the incumbent president, John Dramani Mahama of the NDC. The outcome of the December 2012 elections petition was significant in that it was the first time in the Ghana's history that the Supreme Court had delivered a verdict on the fairness and legitimacy of contested general elections. The rule of law was taken very seriously by Ghanaians who patiently followed the law and allowed the procedure to play out in court per the 1992 constitution, rather than resort to violence and mayhem in the streets and towns and villages in Ghana. Again in Ghanas 2016 presidential elections, Ghanaians set out to choose between incumbent President John Dramani Mahama and six other candidates, including Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, who was considered the strongest challenger to the president. In a surprising result, Nana Akufo-Addo Mahama by more than one million votes. Nana Akufo-Addo received 53.85 percent and John Mahama 44.40 percent. The next closed challenger was Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive Peoples party, who only received 1 percent of the votes. President John Dramani Mahama called Akufo-Addo to concede defeat, albeit stating claims of electoral irregularities in several polling stations. This was the first time that a sitting president of Ghana had failed to win a second term. In order to prevent violent eruptions, African countries must pay more attention to ensuring conditions that are conducive to credible and peaceful elections. They must be keen on building credible election management bodies to act as cornerstones of the democratization process. In Ghana, for example, elections must begin to serve more purposes than simply determining which leaders are elected. For most African leaders, the challenge has always been to guarantee an electoral process that truly reflects the peoples choice, even if it is at the leaders own expense. As public political spaces gradually open across Africa, more and more citizens are using the new avenues to speak out for political, economic and social rights, and to demand greater accountability from their governments, including regular free and fair elections. Such elections require an impartial electoral management body that respects ethnic diversity to build public confidence in electoral processes and ensures transparency, integrity and fairness to all parties involved. According to the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), electoral management bodies (EMBs) have become a keystone of the process of democratization in the countries of West Africa. Their composition, mandate and activities have attracted increasing public attention. In some countries, the EMBs and the rules of the electoral game are the focus of passionate interest and debate each time elections come around, like we are currently experiencing in Ghana. As institutions that apply the rules governing elections, EMBs are at the heart of discussion and practice on the critical question of effective citizen participation in the public affairs of their countries. Article 1(b) of the Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance adopted by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2001 states that among the principles to be declared as constitutional principles shared by all Member States is that Every accession to power must be made through free, fair and transparent elections. It also provides, in Article 3, that The bodies responsible for organizing the elections shall be independent or neutral and shall have the confidence of all the political actors. Conclusion Holding transparent and credible elections on a regular basis as established by the relevant constitutional and legal framework is a critical component of the democratization process. In fact, periodic and genuine elections are generally seen as a key component for enhancing the legitimacy of a government and strengthening the social contract between the government and the governed. However, while critical to building democracies, elections are only one component of the democratic and legitimization process. Again, in the absence of other structural, institutional, and normative democratic conditions to absorb and resolve tensions that might arise during and after the electoral process, elections can present windows of vulnerability that introduce real risk of violence. A robust civil society, independent media, a sound public administration, and an independent judiciary can help to manage the underlying tensions and grievances that elections bring to the surface. While multiparty and competitive elections may have become a regular feature of political systems in majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is also true that these elections have differed greatly in form, content and quality, and the greater regularity has not necessarily enhanced their value or improved the quality of democracy on the continent. Africas experience with electoral democracy has been mixed: progress has been made, but challenges remain. Some of the challenges often highlighted include political intolerance, lack of inclusiveness, inadequacies of electoral management bodies and post-electoral violence. And as Ghana prepares to go to the polls on December 7, 2020, to what extent can we say we are ready to make the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections useful in the context of what has been discussed above. Writer: Andrew Muniru Nantogmah Independent Development Communications Consultant and Conflict Peace and Security Analyst Former Communications Advisor for USAID/West Africa PELA Activity Former Senior Communication and Outreach Officer (West and Central Africa) on UK Aid-funded Partnerships for Forests (P4F) Programme Former Communications Specialist for Borderless Alliance (West Africa) [email protected] Those of us who study the past, who have chosen to make careers out of explaining the context and long-standing background of issues like police violence against African Americans, often remind our students that history is not about names and dates, not even about Presidents or military leaders, but about the grassroots actions of ordinary people fighting for change. We may struggle to make students understand this point, especially when they might venture into their local bookstores and see the past divided up according to wars and presidential administrations. But that thinking has been passe among historians since at least the 1980s. Now we spend our time researching and writing about ordinary folks whose extraordinary courage and tireless activism led to real and substantial change. In fact, historians are constantly being reminded that wherever we look in the past, ordinary people have always been pressing for change. Black New Yorker David Ruggles, who spent his young and all-too-brief life battling against police violence in the 1830s, was just one of these ordinary people whose determination led to real change. As his biographer Graham Russell Gao Hodges points out, Ruggles was born in Connecticut in 1810 when the glow of the American Revolution and its fight for freedom and independence was still very powerful. Ruggles own parents, who were probably recently freed slaves, were born in the midst of the Revolution and he grew up hearing stories of the bravery of the fighters for liberty, including the mixed-race hero Crispus Attucks. From this early, formative exposure to the rhetoric and ideas of the Revolution, Ruggles understood well the importance of freedom and equality. As Ruggles writings show, his early experiences in the open and free communities in eastern Connecticut, combined with his immersion in the lore of the Revolution, rendered him unable to accept the racism, segregation and abuse that he saw white police officers inflict on Black people in his adopted home of New York City. Though he left behind few private letters, Ruggles was a prolific contributor to newspapers, including his own paper Mirror of Liberty. Story continues Ruggles set himself up as a one-man army who would combat injustice and inequality in all its forms. When a group of policemen, judges, lawyers and merchants loosely formed a group he labeled The New York Kidnapping Club, Ruggles knew that he would need all of his considerable mental and physical abilities to fight the coming contest. That fight would take its toll on Ruggles physically, with his eyesight fading at a prematurely young age, until he was nearly blind by his 30s. At the apex of the kidnapping club were two members of the New York police force, Tobias Boudinot and Daniel D. Nash. Both had grown up in or near Manhattan and they shared a deep disdain for Black people. Like all members of the the police force, Boudinot and Nash were poorly paid, inadequately trained and largely uneducated. Boudinot in particular was constantly in debt, sued by creditors and desperate for the extra money he could make by capturing runaway enslaved people who had managed, against tremendous odds, to escape southern bondage and forge new lives in New York. The nations founding document, the Constitution, required free states to return runaways to southern masters, and Boudinot and Nash were all too willing to comply. Headed by the ubiquitous police chief Jacob Hays, who seemed to possess a supernatural ability to sniff out criminals, the citys police force was an ad hoc and more informal organization compared to the modern police. But like todays police, officers in pre-Civil War Manhattan could demonstrate shocking disregard for Black lives. It was all too easy. Boudinot and Nash patrolled the crooked alleyways and dark corners of neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan, and, with the explicit approval of Wall Street financiers and merchants dependent on slave-grown cotton, terrorized the 15,000 or so Black residents who called New York City home in the decades before the Civil War. Seizing Black men, women and children off the streets and arresting them as fugitive slaves who needed to be returned to southern masters, Boudinot and Nash simply needed to haul accused runaways before judges like the city recorder Richard Riker, who would rubber-stamp the claims. Within mere hours, before Black families even knew their loved ones had been arrested, the accused were whisked away to southern slavery. Boudinot, Nash and Riker cared little as to whether they were prosecuting actual runaways or free-born people. There was money to be made and precious little to stand in their way, except for Ruggles. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter Ruggles, together with a small cadre of Black and white activists in the New York Committee of Vigilance, protested angrily against the kidnapping of Black people from supposedly free soil. Children were taken even as they sat at their school desks, men who had lived free in New York for decades were arrested as runaways as soon as they stepped from the thresholds of their own homes, and women heading to work as maids were seized and declared fugitives before they knew what hit them. New York was a dangerous and deadly place for Black people even though forerunners of todays protesters fought kidnappings and police violence tooth and nail. Ruggles fought against Boudinot, Nash and Riker with everything he had. He tracked down leads like a dogged investigator, started his own newspaper so he could call out the members of the kidnapping club by name and withstood Boudinots constant attempts to toss him in jail for interfering with policework. Like police chief Hays, Ruggles seemed to be everywhere at once, furiously objecting to the police-driven terror. And he and his allies won important concessions, including the use of a jury trial in cases of accused runaways so that victims could not be taken quickly and without notice. These reforms helped to thwart the kidnapping club, and it made it harder for the systematic racism of the city police to send Black residents into southern bondage. But the scars were deep and long-lasting. Ruggles and his fight against the kidnapping club show us that the battles between the police and the Black community stretch back many decades, and that police violence has been part of the DNA of New York and the nation from its earliest days. While the duration of the problem might make it seem insurmountable, it is also possible to take solace in Ruggles story. He won important changes like the right to a jury trial, which really did help quell kidnappings. In recent weeks, the protesters demanding justice for African Americans, who have marched through the very Manhattan neighborhoods where Ruggles made his stand, among the towering skyscrapers of Manhattan that are physical symbols of the fact that Wall Street owes much of its wealth and power to the cotton harvested by enslaved people, have proved once again that such a change is possible. Bold Type Books Jonathan Daniel Wells is Professor of History in the Department of AfroAmerican and African Studies, the Department of History, and the Residential College at the University of Michigan. He is the author of the forthcoming The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and African American Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War. Keir Starmer is now seen as more competent than Boris Johnson (Picture: Getty) Britons think Keir Starmer is more competent than Boris Johnson, according to a new YouGov poll. The Labour labour fared better than the prime minister when it came to competency in data taken from 13-15 June. At 41%, Johnson is down 14% since April while Sir Keir is currently on 45%, up 14% in the same period. Only 11% of people saw the opposition leader as incompetent (as many are still yet to form a view) but a considerable 47% believed the PM was. Despite Johnsons perceived incompetence, 41% of Britons think a Conservative government led by him would be better at managing the economy, compared to just 21% who would prefer Sir Keir. That is good news for the Tory leader because the country now sees the economy as the most important issue (61%) following the coronavirus lockdown. The respondents selected the economy ahead of healthcare (60%) and Brexit (45%). Johnson again clashed with Sir Keir at prime ministers questions (PMQs) on Wednesday. The two argued over child poverty after the government performed a U-turn and offered free school meals following a campaign from Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford. The two major party leaders often lock horns during PMQs (Picture: Getty) Sir Keir welcomed the change of heart but said more needed to be done to combat rising levels of child deprivation. Johnson later criticised Sir Keir over the return of children to schools, suggesting the opposition and trade unions were hampering efforts to reopen. The PM said one of the best ways to help the poorest children in the country would be to encourage all kids who can go back to school to go back to school now, because their schools are safe. He repeatedly challenged Sir Keir to say it was safe for children to return and accused the opposition of wibble-wobble over the issue. SPRINGFIELD No craps. No roulette. No poker. But there will be nearly six-foot-tall plexiglass dividers at blackjack tables separating dealers from players and players from each other under new rules meant to keep casino patrons from gambling with their health along with their money. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Wednesday discussed the set of reopening guidelines for the states casinos, which have been shuttered since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. No reopening date has been set, and casino operators say they will need 10 to 14 days notice in order to ramp back up. Encore Boston Harbor has discussed a tentative reopening date of Monday, June 29. But the formal reopening date depends on Gov. Charlie Bakers reopening plan, and is expected to occur at Phase 3. The state is in what officials have called the first part of Phase 2. The gaming commission plans to meet again next week and vote on the new rules with any final decisions about reopening up to the governors office. The guidelines call on casinos to disable some slot machines and remove chairs in order to keep gamblers separated four feet apart if theres plexiglass between them, or six feet apart if not. The table games that are allowed will be restricted to three players at a time. But restrictions that cut the number of people allowed on the gaming floor make it hard to make enough money even operate a casino, said Seth Stratton, MGM Springfields vice president and general counsel. I think our team has to look and see if there is an economically feasible way to reopen, he said. The three casinos have been closed since March 15 with most employees furloughed. The commission decided to revisit the question of total occupancy later. New rules discussed Wednesday would also require guests to wear masks over their noses and mouths, taking them off only if they are outdoors, if they are seated or if they are drinking. The commission will requires the casinos to provide masks for patrons who show up without them. The new guidelines require casinos to limit food service and consumption to designated areas, which theyll have to operate according to the states guidelines for restaurants. Casino bars will remain closed under the governors guidelines and until further commission guidance. Last week, Baker moved bars to the fourth phase of reopening. The commission started the conversation saying that the restrictions are tightest in the country and could limit occupancy to as little as a quarter of each casinos regular capacity. For MGM Springfield, that would take the total occupancy from 7,400 to as low as 1,870. It would drop Encore from 16,000 to 4,000, and Plainridge from 5,000 to 1,400. Stratton said MGMs experts have not recommended plexiglass dividers for the slot machine area and the company has not installed them in other locations, opting instead to turn off every other machine. But, he said MGM will evaluate the situation. The Commission said plexiglass barriers will allow the casinos to operate more slot machines and have a higher occupancy. Casinos are also told to at least consider performing non-touch temperature checks and prohibiting entry to any guest registering 100.4 or above on two consecutive tests. Other requirements include: Provide hand sanitizer at points of entry, along with signage and casino staff to encourage guests to use it before entering. Develop protocols for chip sanitization so that all chips coming from the cage have been sanitized. Change out decks of playing cards more often to avoid cross contamination. Sanitize touch screens, counters, slot machines and gaming machines. At the cage, provide guests with the option to receive cash in enclosed envelopes. Limit beverage service to the gaming floor, and to patrons who are actively gambling. Patrons will not be allowed to walk around with a drink or take it from slot machine to slot machine or table to table. In neighboring Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Tribe reopened Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun at the beginning of this month. Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode island is open by invitation only. Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady, New York, is still closed. On Wednesday, Mohegan Sun announced that it is reopening its dining and shopping outlets, and expanding hours and services. In New Jersey, Atlantic City Casinos are still closed, but Gov. Phil Murphy has hinted they may reopen on or about July 4. New Delhi, June 17 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday again questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'silence' on the India-China stand-off in Galwan Valley in Ladakh and said the nation needs to know what exactly was happening there. "Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land?" Rahul tweeted. The Congress too has flayed the Prime Minister: "Ever wondered why a vociferous man who never failed to question the (previous) government on every issue is now completely silent? Because, now he cannot blame anyone else but himself for all the failures." Congress leader P Chidambaram too had questioned Modi's silence on the border issue. "The PM has maintained a worrying silence since May 5. Can you imagine any other head of the government not saying a word for 7 weeks since the intrusion of foreign troops into a country?" he asked on Tuesday evening. On Jun 10 too, Rahul Gandhi had tweeted: "The Chinese have walked in and taken our territory in Ladakh. Meanwhile, the PM is absolutely silent and has vanished from the scene." Twenty Indian Army men, including officers, were killed in a violent clash with Chinese People's Liberation Army at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the Indian Army said on Tuesday. The COVID-19 pandemic has upended almost every aspects of life as we know it. Even those countries that are supposed to have the means to manage the spread and mitigate the effects are struggling. Besides the US$5 trillion stimulus package that the G20 economies agreed to deal with the pandemic, individual countries are also devising various measures to shore up their health care systems, stabilize their economies, and assist affected workers and businesses. Even before the full brunt of the coronavirus outbreak reached some of the poorest countries, the economic impacts are already being felt. With declining global demand for raw materials, breakdown of global supply chain, and mounting debt burden, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to exceed US$220 billion. The urgent shouldnt crowd out the important With greater uncertainty and fear of global recession looming, governments are looking for resources needed to lessen the socio-economic pains of the crisis. In this process, official development assistance (ODA) wont be spared and could come under increased scrutiny. Decisions made now will have potentially devastating or transformative impact for years to come. Despite the economic and political pressure, we must protect ODA, which is needed more than ever. The spread of COVID-19, especially in places with weak governance and health infrastructures is expected to be overwhelming if the international community does not act now. In sub-Saharan Africa, many countries have the lowest number of physicians per capita in the world while some experience ongoing conflicts, making it difficult to fight the virus. Collateral impact The collateral impact of COVID-19 on health, education and nutrition systems will be extremely damaging, and in many cases irreversible, for children and society at large. And when the world opens up again, the resilience of the weakest health systems will dictate how well we do against future threats. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, argued that, this human crisis demands coordinated, decisive, inclusive and innovative policy actionand maximum financial and technical support for the poorest and most vulnerable people and countries. It is critical for the international community to fulfil the humanitarian appeal for COVID-19 response while protecting existing commitments to long-term development and other silent emergencies. Doing so will help protect the most vulnerable people from being exposed to the effects of COVID-19 and preserve hard-earned development gains in fighting global poverty and expanding basic services. Left to their own devises, fragile nations may risk the breakdown of socio-political order, civil unrest and state collapse, further exacerbating the dire situation. A humanitarian and development crisis COVID-19 is not only a humanitarian crisis, but also a development crisis. Development agencies are supporting countries to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the crisis. The effectiveness of their response to certain degree depends on the flexibility afforded to them in funding and operational procedures. To tackle this uniquely complex health and development crisis, the adequacy and flexibility of funding to development agencies are pivotal. Flexible core funding is already making a difference in the COVID-19 response to reach people in need faster, empower local actors, deploy essential supplies to the frontline, and protect the most vulnerable children, refugees, women. Immediately responding to threats This enabled the communities to practice due diligence and self-driven discretion to immediately respond to threats of the pandemic, while waiting for the pledged assistance to arrive. For instance, in Nigeria, funding flexibility allowed UNICEF to come up with an innovative solution to fight misinformation around COVID-19 while UNDP was able to support the government double the ventilator capacity in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic is a devastating crisis in history. But it also posits an opportunity to remind the global community why multilateralism is vital to securing the worlds peace, security, and prosperity. We witness how the health crisis of todays globalized world interlinks global economy, geopolitics, and social values. Our effective response to the public health crisis should be key to resolving the ensuing economic, humanitarian and development challenges. A complex reality Understanding this interlinked and complex reality of COVID-19, governments need to work together closely to take coordinated actions and share scientific information, resources and expertise. It is this strong motion for collaboration that underpins the UN agencies commitment to reinforce the humanitarian-development nexus to jointly respond to the COVID-19 crisis, working closely through the UN Crisis team, humanitarian response plan, UN Response and Recovery Fund for COVID-19. In Guinea-Bissau, WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, and IOM joined hands to help build isolation facilities and triage space, and procure necessary equipment for COVID-19, both for the national hospital as well as for the re-modelling of the UN clinic. With strong solidarity and effective cooperation, the international community will not only arrest COVID-19, but also use the emergency to build back better health systems and a more inclusive and sustainable economy. This article was originally published here. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:25:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RABAT, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Morocco on Wednesday announced 66 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the North African country to 8,997 since March 2. The number of recovered patients increased to 7,993 with 56 new ones, said Hind Ezzine, the head of the department of epidemic diseases of the Ministry of Health, at a regular press briefing. The COVID-19 death toll grew to 213 after one new fatality was recorded in the last 24 hours, she said, adding that nine serious cases are in special care units. China has helped Morocco in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. A batch of medical supplies donated by the government of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was transported on June 8 to Casablanca-Settat in Morocco. On May 14, China Development Bank sent a batch of donation, including respirators and medical protective masks, to Morocco to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. China's Guizhou Province has also donated 15,000 surgical gloves, 20,000 medical masks and 2,000 protective suits to help protect Moroccan medical workers fighting the pandemic. Enditem By Express News Service Malayalam cinemas most expensive film to date is most likely going to release next year. In the wake of the after-effects of the pandemic and lockdown, the makers of Priyadarshans Marakkar have reportedly decided to move the release to next year. The film was initially planned to release on March 26, but as Kerala had announced the lockdown on March 23, the release plans were put on hold. As Marakkar is a story and spectacle-driven film involving the efforts of a large cast and crew, including international artistes, an OTT release wouldnt be practical at the moment. The overseas rights have been already sold and the film needs to open worldwide to recover its massive budget. Marakkar has been penned by Priyadarshan and Ani Sasi (son of IV Sasi). The latter has also worked as Priyadarshans assistant director. Mohanlal, Manju Warrier, Keerthy Suresh, Kalyani Priyadarshan, Pranav Mohanlal, Suniel Shetty, Prabhu and Fazil essay the principal characters. While Tirru handled the cinematography, Sabu Cyril was in charge of the art department. Some major portions of the film were shot at Ramoji Film City. Marakkar is bankrolled by Antony Perumbavoor, Roy CJ, and Santosh T Kuruvilla. This week, Wicker and Cantwell introduced legislation to revamp the FAAs process for certifying new passenger planes. The bill would not eliminate FAAs decadeslong policy of relying on employees of aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing to test and analyze safety of key systems, but it would change it. For example, the bill would require FAA not the companies to pick those insiders and monitor them more closely. Your browser does not support the audio element. Havent heard that in a while, have we? Living in Vietnam affords us the luxury of being on top of the global list of LowCo (low instances of COVID-19 cases), so we will have plenty of opportunities to travel abroad. Vietnam has had a few hundred infections, nearly all resolved. Hopefully, the virus will not return so the forecast is bright. Most of us thought air travel was a hassle before the pandemic, but its going to be more challenging when commercial international travel restarts. Theres no point in sugar-coating it, from buying a ticket all the way through to checking into accommodation upon arrival, much of the experience will be more complicated, stressful, and consuming more time and effort. Weve heard that the creation of travel bubbles (also referred to as fast tracks and travel corridors) with neighboring Asian countries is being considered here in Vietnam. If and when those bubbles become a reality, and we can fly again, its in our best interest to get all the facts before we move forward with air travel plans: how to choose safe international travel destinations? Who is ultimately responsible for assuring a safe trip? Will air travel be affordable? And, finally, when will international air travel restart? Safe destinations Shopping for a vacation destination abroad used to be simple: review our budget and available time, then compare the destinations that attract us, make a decision, and organize a trip. Suddenly its quite the jigsaw puzzle. LowCo destinations will be highly valued, thats easy to quantify; we can all see the statistics, but well need to consider many additional risk factors before deciding on overseas air travel. Who else can travel to the land we wish to visit? Is the nation accepting (or likely to soon begin accepting) travelers from higher-risk countries? If so, will those passengers need to undergo quarantine? What are the availability, location, degree of comfort, and cost of quarantine, just in case something goes wrong? Are all passengers on an inbound flight to be put in quarantine on arrival if one tests positive for the virus? Will international visitors arrive at one central airport for health and immigration processing, then be sent to their final destination on an onward flight? Are some parts of the country best avoided because theyre at a higher risk than others? What social distancing measures are still mandatory in the country were interested in visiting? Have all businesses and tourist sites re-opened? Which COVID-19 test kits are being used at the airport were targeting? Many kits are appearing on the market, but quality has been an issue in several cases to date. Imagine getting a false positive test result and spending two weeks in quarantine instead of a fun vacation abroad! Does our destination country have a local health app that must be downloaded to our smartphones? If so, can we avail of the app from abroad? Some have privacy issues about locations and contact tracking, which will be mandatory in many countries, so decisions need to be made. Does the country charge any special processing fees or deposits from foreign visitors? Cambodia now requires all visitors to provide a US$3,000 deposit upon arrival to cover costs should they fall ill. What travelers health insurance will be available? Does available travel insurance including COVID-19 coverage mandatory for passengers? Is insurance integrated into the online ticket purchase process? How many times would we need to be tested during our stay? Where and at what cost? None of us involved in the process from airport staff to flight crews to passengers have ever handled anything like this pandemic before, so there are bound to be start-up glitches. It's best to leave no stone unturned and research each item carefully. We all know people trapped overseas or in limbo, unfortunate situations do occur, even though it may not seem so until they happen to us. That begs one more question: will we even want to fly again in the short term given all the new procedures? We all want air travel and the hospitality industry to recover soon travel and tourism contribute over six percent to Vietnams gross domestic product, so many livelihoods are on hold. But will the additional hassle be justified? Well need to adapt, just as we did when security was ratcheted up after September 11, 2001. At that time we wanted to be sure there was no threat of terrorism on board. Now its a different type of killer that must be avoided, invisible and hard to detect. So the risks are now even higher. A health worker samples a man for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 18, 2020. Photo: Nam Tran / Tuoi Tre Safe trip The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is a United Nations (UN) agency whose mission is to ensure safe and orderly management of global air travel. ICAO works with the International Air Travel Association (IATA), the trade representative for almost 300 airlines the world over. ICAO and IATA jointly own the big picture of air travel, working together with governments and their civil aviation agencies, acting as a liaison between them, airlines, and passengers. The World Health Organization (WHO), another UN agency, also plays a pivotal role in designing the future of air travel together with the above stakeholders given the current pandemic. The initiative to restart air travel is entitled the COVID-19 Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART). With that mouthful of acronyms in mind, the CART project is split into three phases: domestic (already up and running or imminent in many countries), regional international (slated for the third quarter of 2020), and intercontinental long-haul (fourth quarter). Parallel to the above, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the trade association for the global hospitality industry, has released a hygiene and safety standards certification program for hotels, restaurants, tour operators, and shopping facilities so that high standards are uniformly implemented and maintained. So it's no doubt the best resources are on the job and working with great haste. If their recommendations are properly implemented and maintained by airports and airlines, were in good hands. IATA forecasts the global airline industry will lose US$84 billion in 2020, thus its easy to see that these stakeholders are treating this situation with urgency. Affordable air travel? Aviation experts indicate that international air fares will be low when travel resumes, slowly increasing to higher than pre-COVID19 levels sometime in 2021 or 2022. Fewer airplanes in the sky mean less competition on routes, which typically leads to price hikes. Extra resources will be needed in airports for COVID-19 testing, disinfection, and temperature checks at strategic points. The quick RT-LAMP test kits developed here in Vietnam that recently hit the market cost between $17 and $26 each, with testing likely to be performed at origin and destination on both outbound and return flights. That means a total of four tests would be conducted for each round trip, with the costs most likely passed on to passengers as is the case with security, overheads, and tariffs. An aerial photo of Duong Dong Town, Phu Quoc Island off Kien Giang Province, Vietnam. The island is being considered as a possible destination for welcoming international tourists to Vietnam following the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre Restarting international air travel If the travel bubbles are implemented, the restart of air travel will be piecemeal, with LowCo destinations within LowCo countries reopening first. Here in Vietnam, one criterion for selecting partner countries that pops up in discussions is no new cases of community transmission for at least 30 days. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is considering allowing visitors from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, mainland China, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries and territories to enter Vietnam, depending on their continued progress with battling the pandemic. Also here in Vietnam, restart plans are being developed on the basis of guidelines from the CART team published early June. Next, changes in procedures need to be vetted and trialed, then planned and implemented at airports and airlines throughout the country. There is also discussion swirling around about quarantine, with some countries considering a system where visitors from HiCo (high numbers of COVID-19 cases) will need to spend two weeks in quarantine, while LowCo visitors may require testing upon arrival and during their visit. Therefore, the RT-LAMP COVID-19 test that can be processed in less than an hour without the need for a lab is a critical factor in re-opening air travel for tourism. Compact destinations, defined as detached or remote areas with natural geographical boundaries, thus making access easy to manage, are also being considered, with Phu Quoc and other islands mentioned as possibilities. Its in our best interest as travelers to weigh all the above in anticipation of planning our tips, buying airplane tickets, researching on-board meals and drinks, and thinking about accommodation. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) - Thu, June 18 2020 Starbucks Indonesia has donated handmade masks to coffee farmers to support the governments fight against COVID-19 and extended relations between partners, as Starbucks employees are called, and the farmers. PT Sari Coffee Indonesia director Anthony Cottan said Starbucks partners (employees) initiated the idea to upcycle Starbucks uniforms that were in good condition into handmade face masks. Sari Coffee Indonesia is the licensee of Starbucks in Indonesia. 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 Co-developed with AVEVA, industrial edge reference designs enable system integrators to simplify IT deployments and facilitate their customers' digital transformations Schneider Electric Exchange digital community connects IT solution providers and system integrators to expand their business New tools, training, and community programs open easy-to-implement business models for system integrators LONDON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, today announced the expansion of its partnerships with leading technology companies to address the convergence of IT and OT. Bringing together system integrators with IT solution providers to build integrated industrial edge computing solutions, the expanded partnerships have resulted in the immediate release of three programs including: new reference designs, co-developed with AVEVA, and integrating solutions from Lenovo and Stratus; a learning path for system integrators; and a collaborative online community for learning and sharing opportunities within Schneider Electric Exchange. The industrial edge programs from Schneider Electric empower system integrators to expand their value to the end user, enabling their customers' industrial digital transformations. "The smart factory is becoming smarter. Our expanded partnerships and new industrial edge programs empower system integrators to leverage their domain expertise and become IT/OT convergence specialists and meet these needs for their customers," said Philippe Rambach, Senior Vice President, Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric. "We know that smart manufacturing is driving an unprecedented wave of IT technologies into industrial spaces. As companies leverage AI, robotic processing automation, and more, they will require edge computing solutions to reduce latency and enable resiliency, while ensuring privacy and security, and addressing important data and bandwidth requirements." What is the Industrial Edge? For industrial operators to capture the benefits of increased automation, they cannot rely on cloud-technology alone to bring the resiliency and speed demanded by AI, HD cameras and other Industry 4.0 technologies. Local edge data centers are IT infrastructure enclosures/spaces/facilities distributed geographically to enable endpoints on the network. When in industrial environments such as a manufacturing plant or distribution center, this application is referred to as "industrial edge." Analysts have identified the edge as becoming increasingly important. "The industrial edge is one of the fastest-growing segments of industrial automation and a key driver that is influencing digital transformation," according to Craig Resnick, Vice President, ARC Advisory Group. "To achieve the shortest possible ROI, manufacturers must properly measure asset performance, rapidly identify any problem areas, and make any crucial changes in real-time that will drastically improve their operations. The industrial edge is where this important on-site data capture occurs, real-time analysis of this data is performed and converted into intelligent information, and then shared with the cloud and throughout the entire enterprise while addressing manufacturers' concerns, such as latency and security for production environments." Opening up new business models for system integrators, the newly announced industrial edge programs include: Reference designs that integrate leading edge technologies to simplify design process Schneider Electric has unveiled new industrial edge reference designs, co-developed with AVEVA, including solutions from Lenovo and Stratus. Reference designs are available* in Schneider Electric's Local Edge Configurator and can be customized to specifications. These new designs are a key factor in industrial edge success. World Wide Technology finds the "ability to pre-configure technology platforms and devices before shipment increases deployment speed and can reduce field engineering costs by 25-40%, increase order processing speed by 20%, and reduce maintenance costs by 7%." Based on the most common use cases in industrial automation, the reference designs reduce risk and time to market with fully customizable, pre-integrated EcoStruxure Micro Data Center solutions for any edge environment. System integrators will be freeing up time from the IT architecture to focus on the software and solutions, thanks to fully validated, secure solutions designed to the standards requested by IT departments. A professional development path for system integrators to address new requirements of industrial edge computing Edge computing is an emerging trend for the industrial space presenting a new opportunity for system integrators to extend their business model and establish their role as consultants in both the OT and IT requirements. This new learning program includes a comprehensive digital training series for system integrators on EcoStruxure Micro Data Center and EcoStruxure IT solutions and how they can address common challenges at the edge. The 14-session development program focuses on how to leverage the reference designs and IT solution providers to deliver complete IT/OT convergence solutions for end users. To access the digital training series, system integrators will connect through their Schneider Electric Alliance Partner Portal. An Industrial Edge Exchange Community to increase business opportunities and foster collaboration Built within Schneider Electric Exchange, the new Industrial Edge Community allows system integrators to easily identify and engage with edge-certified IT solution providers. The Industrial Edge Community is designed to facilitate new business and address IT/OT projects. The Exchange platform also features a tool that pairs Alliance System Integrators with Schneider Electric's Edge-certified IT Channel Partners. Schneider Electric has more than 1,000 industry-leading Alliance System Integrator Partners in 67 countries, and more than 400 IT solution providers in its award-winning partner program worldwide who are already certified to build, deploy, and service edge computing solutions. "Schneider Electric's extensive partner ecosystem is unparalleled in both IT and OT systems, making it an unrivalled advantage over the competition," said Pankaj Sharma, Executive Vice President, Secure Power, Schneider Electric. "When you combine the power of the partner ecosystem with our expertise at the edge and the breadth of our offer, it's a winning trifecta for system integrators and IT solution providers." System integrators interested in gaining access to the new reference designs, learning path, and the collaborative online community are encouraged to visit the Schneider Electric Partner Portal for more information. About EcoStruxure EcoStruxure is our open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform. EcoStruxure delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity for our customers. EcoStruxure leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics, and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at Every Level. This includes Connected Products, Edge Control, and Apps, Analytics & Services which are supported by Customer Lifecycle Software. EcoStruxure has been deployed in almost 500,000 sites with the support of 20,000+ developers, 650,000 service providers and partners, 3,000 utilities and connects over 2 million assets under management. From energy and sustainability consulting to optimizing the life cycle of your operational systems, we have world-wide services to meet your business needs. As a customer-centric organization, Schneider Electric is your trusted advisor to help increase asset reliability, improve total cost of ownership and drive your enterprise's digital transformation towards sustainability, efficiency and safety. About Schneider Electric At Schneider Electric, we believe access to energy and digital is a basic human right. We empower all to make the most of their energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment. We provide energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. We combine world-leading energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services into integrated solutions for Homes, Buildings, Data Centers, Infrastructure and Industries. We are committed to unleash the infinite possibilities of an open, global, innovative community that is passionate about our Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values. www.se.com Discover Life Is On Discover EcoStruxure Related resources: Schneider Electric's Local Edge Configurator Schneider Electric's Industrial Edge Exchange Community White Paper 226: The Drivers and Benefits of Edge Computing White Paper 223: Cost Benefit Analysis of Edge Micro Data Center Deployments A New Requirement for Machine Builders: Industrial Edge Data Centers 5 Ways Food & Beverage Companies Can Benefit from the Industrial Edge The Industry 4.0 Era is Driving the Need for Industrial Edge Data Centers Follow us on: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google+ YouTube Instagram Blog Hashtags: LifeIsOn IndustrialEdge EcoStruxure EdgeComputing *Industrial Edge Reference Designs are available in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States. Additional countries to be added. Demonstrators in Richmond have torn down another Confederate statue in the city. The Howitzers Monument located near Virginia Commonwealth University's Monroe Park campus was toppled on Tuesday night after protesters who spent the night marching in the rain used a rope to pull it down from its pedestal. The paint-splattered statue, which was erected in 1982 to commemorate a Richmond Civil War artillery, was seen face down on the ground as the rain continued overnight in Virginia's capital city. The Howitzers Monument located near Virginia Commonwealth University's Monroe Park campus was toppled on Tuesday night Before its toppling, the Howitzers Monument showed a Confederate artilleryman standing in front of a gun. Above, Monument pictured prior to incident It's the third Confederate statue, and the fourth monument, to be torn down by demonstrators in Virginia since international protests erupted following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after he was pinned to the pavement by a white Minneapolis officer who pressed his knee into Floyd's neck. Statues of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham as well as of Christopher Columbus were toppled by demonstrators in recent weeks. Protesters in Richmond started their march Tuesday night advocating for the removal of all Confederate statues, establishing a civilian review board over police actions and defunding the police, among other things, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. The paint-splattered Howitzers Monument statue was seen face down on the ground as the rain continued overnight in Virginia's capital city Workmen later loaded the toppled statue onto a truck before driving it away The statue lay face down on the grass beside its plinth after being toppled Once loaded onto the back of the truck, the statue was covered with a blue tarpaulin Over 150 protesters joined the march, starting in Monroe Park just before 9.30pm, heading north on North Belvidere Street and marching past the Richmond Police Department headquarters at 200 W. Grace Street. 'Out of your house, into the streets!' the protesters were heard cheering. The incident comes after a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was torn down during a demonstration in Portsmouth, Virginia last Wednesday. Last Wednesday, a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was torn down along Richmond's famed Monument Avenue Richmond protesters also pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus with rope, in Byrd Park. On Friday, activists in Richmond projected the LGBTQ rainbow flag as well as images of African Americans killed by police including George Floyd on to the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Drive. The statue, in which Lee is depicted on a horse, has been the site of massive protests since the May 25 police-involved killing of Floyd. NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (June 17, 2020) said that sacrifice of the Indian soldiers will not go in vain as the countrys armed forces are fully capable of giving a befitting reply to the enemy if instigated. The sacrifice of our soldiers along the border with China will not go in vain, the Prime Minister said. The PM made these remarks at the start of the second day of his virtual meeting with state chief ministers on the coronavirus situation, Hardening his stance on the India-China face-off in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, the PM said that India will defend every inch of its territory. PM Narendra Modi said this while referring to the martyrdom of at least 20 Indian soldiers during a violent face-off with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in the eastern Ladakh on Monday night. During the occasion, the PM and all CMs also observed a two-minute silence as a tribute to the martyred Indian soldiers. "Whenever there was a situation, we have shown our strength to keep India united. We have tried that differences do not come between disputes," the PM said on Ladakh face-off. The whole country is with the families of those who sacrificed their lives for the country. India will defend every stone, every inch of its territory. India is a peace-loving country which has always tried to maintain cooperative and friendly relations with neighbours, PM Modi said. Trying to assure the nation, the PM said, India wants peace but is capable of giving befitting reply if instigated. The Indian Army had on Tuesday (June 16, 2020) said that at least 20 soldiers have been martyred during the violent face-off with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. Though the Army did not elaborate on the exact number, it said that almost the same number of Chinese troops have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley. "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20. The Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," the Indian Army said in an official release. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) blamed China for the incident and alleged that it tried to unilaterally change the status and "departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley". Speaking on the issue, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. Responding to media queries on the situation in the western sector of the India-China border, Srivastava said that India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh. He said commanders of two sides had a productive meeting on June 6 and agreed on a process for such de-escalation and subsequently ground commanders had a series of meetings to implement the consensus reached at a higher level. "While it was our expectation that this would unfold smoothly, the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. On the late evening and night of June 15, 2020, a violent face-off happened as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there. Both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side," he said. Srivastava said that given its responsible approach to border management, India is very clear that all its activities are always within the Indian side of the LAC. "We expect the same of the Chinese side," he said. The MEA spokesperson said that India remains firmly convinced of the need for maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and the resolution of differences through dialogue. "At the same time, we are also strongly committed to ensuring India`s sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said. The Army had earlier said that Colonel Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer of 16, Bihar Regiment, Havildar K Pazhani and Sepoy Kundan Kumar Ojha had laid down their lives during the skirmish with the Chinese Army on Monday night. Tata-SIA-owned Vistara is in talks with the US aircraft maker Boeing to defer the deliveries of 787-900 (Dreamliner) planes as air travel demand is unlikely to rebound to the pre-Covid level before 2023, a source has said. The airline inducted one such plane in the fleet in February and one is expected to be delivered next week out of its order for six 787-900 planes. The delivery of six 787s was scheduled between 2020 and 2021. Vistara has also preponed the returning of leased planes of erstwhile Jet Airways from the earlier schedule of phasing them out by 2022-23, the source ... She has a point. We can get very nerdy about the different types of cork and synthetic closures, their environmental virtues and how they protect against cork taint or allow precisely the right amount of oxygen into the wine to allow it to age properly. Mrs Bates likes her corks spongy, with a bit of a spring when you squeeze on either end, and a ring of color around the base. That ring, either red or a wet stain from a white wine, indicates the bottle was stored on its side or upside down, the wine in contact with the cork. Thats conventional wisdom for proper storage, and explains why wine racks hold bottles horizontally. Dont forget to sniff the wine-end of the cork, advised another reader, DaveInNY. If the wine is contaminated with cork taint, a chemical called TCA, the cork will smell like wet dog. Yuck. Well, maybe. Sniffing the cork is suggestive, but not conclusive, about the quality of the wine. A cork may smell fine even after it has tainted the wine, and a wine may be fine even if the cork smells moldy. Aquis Exchange PLC - London -based stock exchange operator - Names David Vaillant as a independent non-executive director effective immediately. Vaillant joined the company in September 2019 as non-executive chair of the company's French subsidiary Aquis Exchange Europe SAS and will continue as chair role alongside his new role as director. He is currently head of finance, strategy & participations at BNP Paribas Asset Management. Current stock price: 355.00 pence Year-to-date change: down 12% By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. - The World Health Organisation has issued new guidelines over the use of face masks - With the world still battling COVID-19, face masks have been lauded as a protective measure against the virus - Now, new research has shown that masks are not effective when not used in conjunction with other preventative measures Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in The World Health Organisation has released the newest information regarding the use of face masks during the Covid-19 pandemic. The organisation revealed that wearing a mask alone is not enough to effectively safeguard against the virus. With global infections now sitting at over 6.8 million and fatalities rising to 398 000 while over 3.3 million people have managed to recover. Speaking during a media briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained that masks should be used along with other preventative measures. READ ALSO: NHIA boss Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby tests positive for COVID-19 READ ALSO: Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyapong, turns 60 today These measures include religious hand hygiene and practising social distancing, with Ghebreyesus explaining that: In areas with community transmission, we advise that people aged 40 years or over or those with underlying conditions should wear a medical mask in situations where physical distancing is not possible. Tedros revealed that failing to use masks properly could result in users unintentionally infecting themselves: People can potentially infect themselves if they use contaminated hands to adjust a mask or to repeatedly take it off and put it on without cleaning hands in between. Masks can also create a false sense of security. Masks are only of benefit as part of a comprehensive approach in the fight against COVID-19. Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported that South Africa has recorded 43 434 Covid-19 infections. Dr. Zweli Mkhize confirmed the sharp increase and that the virus has claimed 908 lives. "1 hour is not enough to worship God in Church" - Ghanaians speak out | #Yencomgh Source: YEN.com.gh Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. New York City, United States -- With the outbreak of COVID-19 in worldwide and stipulated lockdown, the healthcare sector is witnessing an unprecedented slowdown as per EY-FICCI study titled, COVID-19 impact assessment for healthcare sector and key financial measures recommendations for the sector. The study is predicated on an assessment of healthcare players within the country to assess the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides recommendations on the fiscal stimulus measures it needs within the coming months. Catering to a niche population, the global demand for facial bone contouring is expected to remain rather sluggish, through 2019risks and complications associated with surgeries, premium pricing, and lack of trained professionals being the top three market restrainers. Likely revenue generated through facial bone contouring procedures, carried out globally, is projected to reach a revenue of US$ 409.4 Mn, in 2019, representing an annual growth of 1.9 percent, as indicated by a recently released market study by Persistence Market Research (PMR), covering the facial bone contouring landscape. PMR offers a comprehensive analysis of the global facial bone contouring market, for a timeline of eight years, 2018-2026. Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/25765 Classified into: Zygomatic Bone Surgery Mentoplasty and Genioplasty Rhinoplasty Maxilla and Mandible Surgery Most of the appearance enhancement surgeries are known to be carried out in USA, Brazil, Japan, Mexico and Italy, followed by Thailand, Germany, and Colombia. On the other hand, surgeons associated with America Society of Plastic Surgeonssuggest substantial increase in the number of facial done contouring procedures, specially undertaken by those under the age of 30 years. Skewed international beauty standards are increasingly placing younger groups of patients under pressure to look a certain way. However, the growing celebrity culture is the most important underlying reason, driving the demand for facial bone contouring procedures, explained a senior analyst of the company. Regionally, Latin America is expected to remain the most lucrative market for facial bone contouring, followed by APAC. On the other hand, women in MEA opting for rhinoplasty surgeries is expected to be majorly responsible for the facial bone contouring market expansion, in the region. The MEA facial bone contouring market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.3 percent, highest among all regions, over the forecast period, standing at a valuation of nearly US$ 50 Mn, by 2026. PMR Identifies Critical Market Restrainers Risks and post-operative complications in the form of asymmetry, swelling, bruising, and hematoma associated with facial bone contouring procedures. Absence of favorable reimbursement policies for aesthetic surgeries in underdeveloped and developing countries could hamper the adoption of facial bone contouring, as premium pricing of such surgeries remain a key concern. Lack of certified medical professionals, also resulting in malpractices will significantly impact the facial bone contouring landscape, as per the report. Get To Know Methodology of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/25765 Key Surgeries Addressed Using Facial Bone Contouring Classified into: Zygomatic Bone Surgery Mentoplasty and Genioplasty Rhinoplasty Maxilla and Mandible Surgery The report by PMR indicates that zygomatic bone surgeries are expected to dominate the facial bone contouring landscape, in 2019, in terms of revenuewith most of such procedures conducted in Asian countries. The revenue generated through zygomatic bone surgeries is expected to reach a valuation of US$ 125.7 Mn, during the same period. However, maxilla and mandible surgery is poised to represent a relatively higher adoption, compared to zygomatic bone surgeries, thereby growing at a CAGR of 2.8 percent, through 2026. The trend is likely to be followed by rhinoplastyrepresenting an attractiveness index of 1.23, through the forecast period. The maxilla & mandibular surgery segment is the fastest growing segment among the surgery type in APAC considering growing demand of this particular form of facial bone contouring procedure among Asian population. The Asia Pacific region is witnessing increasing popularity of V-shaped chin and westernized facial features, thereby, increasing the demand for facial bone contouring procedures in the region. However, apart from facial bone contouring surgeries performed for beautification reasons, they are also carried out to correct facial bones and repair their functionalities. Application of facial bone contouring to correct any genetic facial fractures or disorders, is also a key driving factor. Access Full Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/25765 Correction of nasal structure for normal breathing and treating cleft palate defects are some common abnormalities considered under the application scope of facial bone contouring, the analyst explained further. Opportunity Analysis: Persistence Market Research foresees immense growth potential for facial bone contouring in the coming years, considering increase in production of clinically proven products and growing number of patients rejecting one size for all approach and opting for facial-bone specific enhancements with procedures with successful clinical record. Report Highlights: Shifting Industry dynamics In-depth market segmentation Historical, current and projected industry size Recent industry trends Key Competition landscape Strategies of key players and product offerings Potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth A neutral perspective towards market performance Explore Extensive Coverage of PMR`s Life Sciences & Transformational Health Landscape Feminine Hygiene Product Market Feminine Hygiene Products Market Segmented By Sanitary Pads/Napkins, Tampons, Panty Liners, Menstrual Cups, and Feminine Hygiene Wash. For More Information Elder Care Services Market Elder Care Services Market Segmented By Home-based Care, Community-based Care, Institutional Care Services and Financing Source By Public Expenditure, Private Source, Out-of-Pocket Spending. For More Information About us: Elder Care Services Market Segmented By Home-based Care, Community-based Care, Institutional Care Services and Financing Source By Public Expenditure, Private Source, Out-of-Pocket Spending. Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes. Our client success stories feature a range of clients from Fortune 500 companies to fast-growing startups. PMRs collaborative environment is committed to building industry-specific solutions by transforming data from multiple streams into a strategic asset. Contact us: Ashish Kolte Persistence Market Research Address 305 Broadway, 7th FloorNew York City, NY 10007 United States U.S. Ph. +1-646-568-7751 USA-Canada Toll-free +1 800-961-0353 Sales sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Website https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Page Content There are two weeks left to apply for the annual Hurricane Pass for the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season, the Office of Disaster Management said in a reminder on Tuesday. The application process for a pass opened on Tuesday, June 2nd. There are two types of passes, the Disaster Pass and the Hurricane Pass. The pass allows the bearer to access the public road to visit the place of business to assess possible damage to their property and to continue their operations which are vital for society as soon as possible, only during certain hours that will be stipulated and announced by the Prime Minister under a curfew situation. Potential applicants have until June 30 to present all relevant information related to the process of requesting a pass. The Office of Disaster Management that falls under the Ministry of General Affairs, is handling the application process for the passes on behalf of the Prime Minister. The Hurricane Pass is valid for the 2020 and 2021 hurricane seasons and will remain the property of the Government of Sint Maarten. The pass system is a mechanism to maintain public order during emergency situations. The Prime Minister assesses the damage in conjunction with Emergency Disaster Management entities of the Government after a disaster has occurred and can impose a curfew if the extent of the damage poses a threat to the safety and security of the community. An application form can be requested by sending an email to: hurricanepassrequest@sintmaartengov.org Emails should include the following: Name of organization; Request for disaster or hurricane pass. When submitting the application, the following documents need to be attached: - copy business license fee paid (or receipt) for 2020 (for businesses); - proof of 2020 registration at the Chamber of Commerce (for organizations); - copy valid Sint Maarten ID-card of applicant; - Nafl. 50,- in leges stamps per application (to be obtained at the Receivers Office or the Simpson Bay Public Service Center), this is a non-refundable handling fee; - One (1) passport picture for new applicants, to be sent in JPEG-format to hurricanepassrequest@sintmaartengov.org with the name of the person clearly indicated. The application form has to be completed and submitted with the required attachments in printed form at one of the following offices: Fire Department, to the attention of the secretary located at Jackal Road 5, Cay Hill, (office hours Monday Friday 9.00AM 4.00PM); and the Public Service Center, located at Airport road 6, Simpson Bay (need to check with them for opening times). Applicants will be informed by email or telephone when to pick up the pass at the aforementioned address. A police car that was torched during riots in Philadelphia, Penn., on May 30, 2020. (FBI) Woman Suspected of Burning Police Cars During Riot Tracked Down Using Etsy, Instagram A woman who allegedly burned police cars during a riot in Pennsylvania was tracked down by law enforcement using Etsy, Instagram, and phone records. Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal, 33, was charged with the arson of two Philadelphia Police Department vehicles amid civil unrest following peaceful protests on May 30. Torching a police car has nothing to do with peaceful protest or any legitimate message. It is a violent and despicable act that will be prosecuted in this District to the fullest extent of the law, U.S. Attorney William McSwain said in a statement. Anybody who engaged in such acts can stand by to put your hands behind your back and head to federal prison. We are coming for you. FBI Agent Michael Driscoll said Blumenthal went to the protest prepared to destroy property. She faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. A masked man walks past a looted furniture store during a protest over the death of George Floyd, in Philadelphia, Penn., on May 31, 2020. (Mark Makela/Getty Images) According to a criminal complaint, investigators obtained video footage and photographs, including pictures from Instagram, showing a white female shoving a flaming piece of wood through the rear window of a police car before using the same piece to set a second police vehicle on fire. In addition to jeans, a backpack, grey gloves, a mask, and black boots, the woman was wearing a blue t-shirt with the words Keep the Immigrants, Deport the Racists emblazoned across the front. She also had distinctive tattoos on her arms. The FBI found the same shirt being sold by an store on Etsy, a website specializing in handmade and unique items. One user who left a review for the store selling the shirt displayed Philadelphia as their location. Internet searches for the username led to a Poshmark user with the name lore-elisabeth. Poshmark is a mobile fashion marketplace where users can buy and sell used clothes, shoes, and accessories. A search of Lore Elisabeth turned up a website and LinkedIn profile for an individual employed as a massage therapist. In one of the videos on the site, a woman with that name is shown with a distinctive tattoo on her arm matching that seen in the arson suspect. Protesters march in the aftermath of widespread unrest following the death of George Floyd, in Philadelphia, Penn., on June 1, 2020. (Mark Makela/Getty Images) The massage therapy website listed a phone number for Lore Elisabeth. Department of Homeland Security records for the phone number listed her address in Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania records showed a drivers license photograph for the woman. Agents later received records from the Etsy sale, including the fact that two of the blue shirts were sent to the same address listed for Blumenthal. Blumenthal was arrested and charged with knowing, intentional, or malicious damage and destruction and attempt, by means of a fire, to create substantial risk of injury. Masses of people took to the streets of Philadelphia on May 30, exercising their right to peacefully protest, Driscoll of the FBI said. They were there to send a message in which they truly believed. Sprinkled among the crowd, though, were agitators, whose sole purpose was to commit crimes and cause chaos. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 19:46:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close XIAMEN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Huang Ying, a 25-year-old resident in the eastern Chinese city of Xiamen, used to fret over whether to get an HPV shot in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as it is frequently out of stock on the Chinese mainland. She decided to wait for a while when she learned that China had produced its first self-developed HPV vaccine: Cecolin. Jointly developed by Xiamen University and Xiamen Innovax, a subsidiary of Wantai Group, Cecolin makes China the third country in the world to achieve an independent cervical cancer vaccine supply after the United States and the United Kingdom. It has been available in Chinese provinces including Hubei and Jiangsu since May and is expected to be offered nationwide by the end of this year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. In China, there were approximately 106,000 cases of cervical cancer and 48,000 deaths from the disease in 2018. HPV vaccines were first available on the Chinese mainland in 2017 when Cervarix, a bivalent HPV vaccine by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, hit the market. However, the short supply of the vaccines on the Chinese mainland drove many people to places like Hong Kong to get vaccinated. Cecolin is expected to be a game-changer. "The larger production capacity and lower price promise greater accessibility of the vaccine," said Zhang Jun, one of the leading members of the vaccine research team. A single injection of Cervarix costs 580 yuan (about 82 U.S. dollars) and the total cost for a complete course of three adds up to 1,740 yuan, while a shot of Cecolin is priced at 329 yuan and only two shots are needed for those aged 9 to 14. ROAD TO BREAKTHROUGH Zhang, also deputy dean of Xiamen University's School of Public Health, was one of the scientists that made the homegrown vaccine possible. After graduating in 1997, he became a vaccine researcher at Xiamen University, which went into collaboration with the biotech company Innovax in 1998 to develop genetically engineered vaccines using Escherichia coli (E. coli). After making a breakthrough in the development of a hepatitis E vaccine in 2001, Zhang and his colleagues started their endeavor to develop HPV vaccines using E. coli. Despite widespread doubts about the feasibility of producing complicated virus-like particles using E. coli, the research team managed to devise a candidate vaccine within five years, which went into clinical trials in 2007. In the next 10 years, a total of 9,989 eligible women were enrolled in three phases of randomized and double-blind trials to evaluate the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of the novel bivalent HPV-16/18 vaccine. After passing clinical trials, Cecolin, developed by more than 1,600 researchers and medical workers, was given a green light in late December 2019 by Chinese regulators for the domestic market. ACCESSIBLE TO MORE WOMEN Earlier this year, Xiamen Innovax applied for the WHO's "prequalification of vaccines" in hopes of taking its homegrown HPV vaccine global, said Li Shicheng, vice general manager of the biotech company. "If approved, it could benefit more women not only in China but also in other low-income countries because of its lower cost and higher accessibility, and thereby advance the prevention and elimination of cervical cancer worldwide," Li said. So far, Innovax has inked contracts with at least four countries along the Belt and Road including Indonesia and Bangladesh to provide the HPV vaccines. The team is also developing a nine-valent HPV candidate vaccine, which is expected to enter phase three clinical trials this year. In September 2019, Xiamen Innovax signed an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to develop the next-generation HPV vaccine together. In Innovax's factory in Xiamen, production lines for nine-valent HPV vaccines are under construction. Jointly designed and built by the two companies, the lines are in compliance with Chinese, U.S., the European Union and WHO standards. "The cooperation shows that our work is highly regarded by international academia and the industrial community," said Li. Enditem The Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd has inspired Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to highlight racism in Ireland in a Dail speech. Speaking in the Dail this Minister Flanagan set out actions being taken and his views on racism in Ireland. Two Black Lives Matter protest took place in his Laois Offaly constituency last weekend in Tullamore and Portarlington. "Two weeks ago, I spoke of the horror I felt - that we all felt - at the tragic death of the late George Floyd. Since then, we have seen a global outpouring of solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement and an increasing and very welcome focus on the vile problems of racism and discrimination. "While it may be that this moment was prompted by recent events in one State, the reality is that racism and racial discrimination are not unique to any one country or continent. Racism is insidious and is present to some degree in every society, including here in Ireland. Recognising this terrible reality is the first step in combatting it. "We need to face up to the fact that racism does occur in Ireland. We need to understand better how prevalent it is and what its impacts are. And we need to generate effective strategies for tackling it. "It is a sad fact that a small minority of persons in Ireland subject others to abuse or attack, due to their own prejudice or intolerance. I wholly and unreservedly condemn such actions, for which there is no excuse. "I am confident that I am not alone in being profoundly moved by the poem recently composed by Imelda May, You dont get to be racist and Irish. She reminds us of the piercing truth that our history - as a people who has experienced the torment of discrimination, exclusion and intolerance means that we cannot be blind to the same terrible wrong being done to others. Our pride in our heritage and history must extend to taking pride in our fairness, our tolerance and our inclusivity," concluded the TD. Full text of Dail Statements Minister for Justice & Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Equality, Immigration, and Integration, David Stanton, TD "Supporting Inclusion and Combatting Racism in Ireland 17 June, 2020 Opening Statement - Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, Laois Offaly TD. A Cheann Comhairle, Deputies Two weeks ago, I spoke of the horror I felt - that we all felt - at the tragic death of the late George Floyd. Since then, we have seen a global outpouring of solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement and an increasing and very welcome focus on the vile problems of racism and discrimination. While it may be that this moment was prompted by recent events in one State, the reality is that racism and racial discrimination are not unique to any one country or continent. Racism is insidious and is present to some degree in every society, including here in Ireland. Recognising this terrible reality is the first step in combatting it. We need to face up to the fact that racism does occur in Ireland. We need to understand better how prevalent it is and what its impacts are. And we need to generate effective strategies for tackling it. Both I and Minister Stanton will speak to you this morning about some of the extensive efforts being made to tackle racism in Ireland. I will speak to some actions in the criminal justice sector. It is a sad fact that a small minority of persons in Ireland subject others to abuse or attack, due to their own prejudice or intolerance. I wholly and unreservedly condemn such actions, for which there is no excuse. The Mission of my Department is delivery of a safe, fair and inclusive Ireland and in our policies and initiatives, we strive to deliver on that mission statement. For some time now, we have been working as a priority to develop new legislation on hate speech and hate crime. As Deputies know, there is some existing law in this area: - the Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 which prohibits certain forms of threatening, abusive or insulting conduct; - and in sentencing for criminal offences, a hate motive may be considered by the Court to be an aggravating factor resulting in a stronger penalty. But it has been clear for some time that this has not been sufficient to deter or sufficiently respond to crime in which the victim is targeted because of a perpetrators hate. In recognising that this legislation is both complex and sensitive, my Department has carried out comparative research on the effectiveness of different approaches to hate crime legislation. It is not enough to have legislation on the statue books it is essential that the legislation is effective. It was also very important to me that new legislation would be informed by the lived experience of those who suffer from abuse or attacks motivated by hate. For this reason that my Department has carried out a broad public consultation, including a public survey, and provided an opportunity for formal submissions. We have also had a series of independently facilitated workshops across the State. This comprehensive approach was taken because I want the resulting legislation to be robust, clearly understood and effective. My officials are now analysing all these inputs, to prepare evidence-based legislative proposals as quickly as possible. If we are to ensure a fully inclusive Ireland, it is important that the criminal justice system represents and reflects all of Irish society. And An Garda Siochana is pivotal in this context and has been striving to become a leader in this field. Garda recruitment campaigns have, in recent years, made significant efforts to attract candidates from minority communities, including though the publication of videos and materials in multiple languages. The Commissioner also approved changes to the Garda uniform to allow the wearing of the hijab or turban to ensure the uniform didnt act as a barrier to entry. These developments are bearing fruit for example in 2019 and 2020, almost 67 persons born outside the state, with 19 different nationalities, have attested and became Garda members. For example, in addition to Garda members who are British or EU citizens, we now also have Garda members who are nationals of Brazil, China, India, Iraq, Nigeria, Russia and South Africa, among others. A Garda Diversity and Integration Strategy has also been adopted. This is important for both organisational and operational reasons. The Strategy reflects a commitment to further diversity in the Garda workforce. It contains a working definition of hate crime, to ensure Gardai are alert to and appropriately record hate incidents. And it commits to proactive, respectful engagement with all members of society, including minority groups. These undertakings are underpinned by the Garda Human Rights Strategy, the Code of Ethics and the wider reform process underway following the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing. In the very brief time available, I hope to have conveyed a sense of the priority attached to fighting racism in the criminal justice sector. Effective criminal legislation will be key in deterring and addressing hate-motivated crime; and a renewed Garda Siochana benefiting from ever-increasing diversity, engaged in all communities, will be a powerful force for integration and respect. But these measures alone cannot bring about the change that we all wish to see in our society. Addressing prejudice and discrimination is a mission for all of us. I am confident that I am not alone in being profoundly moved by the poem recently composed by Imelda May, You dont get to be racist and Irish. She reminds us of the piercing truth that our history - as a people who has experienced the torment of discrimination, exclusion and intolerance means that we cannot be blind to the same terrible wrong being done to others. Our pride in our heritage and history must extend to taking pride in our fairness, our tolerance and our inclusivity. I hand over now to Minister Stanton. Minister with special responsibility for Equality, Immigration, and Integration, David Stanton, T.D A Cheann Comhairle, Minister Flanagan has already made clear that the Government condemns all forms of racism in our society and I welcome the opportunity to address the House on this important issue. A key recent development in the fight against racism has been the formation of the Anti-Racism Committee, which has a mandate to develop a new Anti-Racism Strategy and Action Plan for recommendation to the Government. The purpose of the Committee is to develop an understanding of the nature and prevalence of racism in Ireland, including anti-Traveller racism, and to work towards achieving a social consensus on actions required, by State and non-State actors. Chaired by Professor Caroline Fennell of UCC, it will review current evidence and practice and make recommendations to Government on how best to strengthen its approach to tackling racism in all its forms. The Committee will consult with stakeholders from a broad range of sectors. It will hold its first meeting tomorrow and will provide a preliminary report to Government within three months, with a full report due at the end of one year. Central to our efforts to improve integration is the Migrant Integration Strategy, which I launched and have Chaired since 2017 and runs until the end of this year. It presents the vision of an inclusive society where all can fully participate and where diversity is valued. Racism in all its forms is a barrier to that vision being realised. Our work to date implementing this Strategy, and monitoring its progress together with our NGO partners on the Strategy Committee, has helped to build our understanding of where more effort is needed and what we need to do to ensure that everyone in our society feels like they belong and are valued. Racism is not experienced by migrants alone. Travellers, Roma and other ethnic minorities encounter racism and prejudice in their daily lives. The Government has worked actively to promote opportunities for Travellers and to recognise their rights and the landmark development has been the recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority. Those members of Dail Eireann who were present on the night of 1 March 2017 when the then Taoiseach Enda Kenny T.D., made the statement recognising Travellers as an ethnic minority will agree that it was a truly memorable event, with all political parties united in support of the Taoiseachs statement. Recognition of Traveller ethnicity has been a symbolic step forward in the States acknowledgement of the uniqueness of Traveller identity and culture and generates mutual understanding and respect between Traveller and non-Traveller communities. Recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority did not remove overnight all of the obstacles that have prevented them from experiencing full equality within Irish society. However, it has created a strong platform of respectful dialogue and pathway towards equality for Travellers. It also demonstrates the commitment of Government towards recognising the contribution that Travellers have made to Irish society and culture. The National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy has specific actions on combatting discrimination and ensuring equality for Travellers as well as actions around celebrating and promoting the richness of Traveller culture, which is an important part of our heritage as a country. Last December, I reported to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva on the actions that Ireland has taken since 2011 to promote equality and to combat racial discrimination, including measure to strengthen the human rights infrastructure so that it can challenge racism more effectively. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 introduced the equality and human rights positive duty, providing structural underpinning for action by public bodies on equality, human rights and the combatting of discrimination, including racism. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has been given a range of powers to challenge discrimination, including against ethnic minorities, and to seek legal redress for persons experiencing discrimination. One of its functions under the Act is to encourage the development of a culture of respect for human rights, equality and intercultural understanding in the State. I believe strongly in the power of communities when it comes to bringing about lasting change. In 2017 I launched the Communities Integration Fund, which supports local initiatives by migrant and non-migrant groups to promote integration and most importantly, allow people to get to know each other. 124 organisations received funding in 2019 and projects are being funded which are explicitly intended to challenge racism at grass roots level. The 2020 call for applications for this fund will be officially launched by the Department this coming Friday. I have also sought to strengthen the participation of communities in welcoming refugees to Ireland and was inspired by the community sponsorship model developed in Canada whereby local communities sponsor refugee families to settle in their towns and villages. I saw at first hand when I visited similar projects in the UK how the integration outcomes are improved for refugees when the communities and neighbours took part in the resettlement process. Following a successful pilot programme in Meath and Cork, I formally launched the Refugee Community Sponsorship Ireland in November last year. Before I conclude, I would like to remind deputies that the majority of Irish society has been remarkably open and welcoming to migrants from across the world. Our diversity is our wealth. 17% of our population were born outside Ireland and many have been given the opportunity to acquire Irish citizenship. Ireland is one of 13 EU member states that provides citizenship if the person has been resident for 5 years and one of 16 member states permitting dual citizenship. Approximately 120,000 people have received Irish citizenship since 2011, which represents more than 2.5% of the total Irish population and our country is better and richer as a consequence. OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada and the United States will continue to limit non-essential travel between the two countries until at least July 21. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Canadian and American flags fly near the Ambassador Bridge at the Canada-USA border crossing in Windsor, Ont. on Saturday, March 21, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rob Gurdebeke OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada and the United States will continue to limit non-essential travel between the two countries until at least July 21. 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. Despite mounting pressure from business interests and border communities, however, Trudeau is offering no clues about how the border restrictions will be eased when the time finally comes. The 30-day restrictions were first imposed in March in the face of the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, and have now been extended three times. While the measures prohibit discretionary travel like vacations and shopping trips, essential workers, trade shipments and temporary foreign workers are still allowed to cross the border. Communities near the Canada-U.S. border that depend on a steady flow of traffic and the ability to move between the two countries have been growing impatient as provinces and states alike continue to gradually restart their economies. In the U.S., however, fears of a second wave of COVID-19 have been escalating in recent days as newly reopened states begin to see increases in their active caseloads and hospitalization rates. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2020. North Korea has accused South Korea of behaving like a 'mongrel dog' with a US 'flunkey' president, just a day after the North blew up a liaison office at the border that signified inter-Korean relations. Today the South Korean unification minister, Kim Yeon-chul, has resigned, blaming himself for the deteriorating relationship. The derogatory comments were made in a state media article from North Korea's capital Pyongyang, which explained its reasoning for destroying the office in the North Korean border city of Kaesong. It cited the South's 'systematic breaching' of 2018 agreements and 'mongrel dog' behaviour as grounds for the explosion of the North-South Liaison office, reports The BBC. A photo provided by the North Korean government shows the demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong, North Korea, Tuesday, June 16, 2020 South Korea says that North Korea exploded the inter-Korean liaison office building just north of the tense Korean border (pictured before the explosion) It stated that the South's military had been 'bragging and bluffing, rattling the dialogue partner and stoking confrontational atmosphere'. Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo Jun, then accused the South's president of being a US 'flunkey' - a person who performs menial tasks for someone else. On Tuesday an explosion was heard and smoke was seen rising from the liaison offices - it was the first such inter-Korean office which the two Koreas opened in 2018 when their ties flourished. Although the building was empty and the North had previously signalled its plans to destroy it, the move is still the most provocative act by North Korea since it entered nuclear talks in 2018 after a US-North Korean standoff had many fearing war. North Korea has reportedly blown up its joint liaison office with the South after Kim Jong Un's sister threatened military action against Seoul. An explosion was heard and smoke (pictured) seen rising from the North Korean border city of Kaesong on Tuesday The explosion came three days after Kim Yo Jung, the sister of the North Korean leader, repeated an earlier threat by saying Seoul will soon witness the collapse of the 'useless' inter-Korean liaison office. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said the country destroyed the office in a 'terrific explosion'. South Korea issued a statement expressing 'strong regret' over the destruction of the building and calling the North's actions 'senseless'. The South's defence ministry said: 'It is our basic stance that the 19 September military agreement should be complied with without fail to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and to prevent accidental clashes.' The explosion came three days after Kim Yo Jung, the sister of the North Korean leader, repeated an earlier threat by saying Seoul will soon witness the collapse of the 'useless' inter-Korean liaison office Ms Kim, who is first vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, said she would leave it to North Korea's military leaders to carry out the next step of retaliation against the South It warned of a stern response if North Korea takes additional steps that aggravate tensions. Today North Korea stated that it will redeploy troops to the inter-Korea tourist and economic sites near its border with South Korea. The North's General Staff said its military units will be deployed at the sites of the Diamond tourism project and the Kaesong industrial complex, both located just north of the heavily fortified border. Once symbols of inter-Korean cooperation, the sites have been shuttered amid animosities over North Korea's nuclear programme for years. Pyongyang said it would also resume military exercises and re-establish guard posts in front-line areas and fly propaganda balloons toward South Korea. Citing unspecified sources, Yonhap said the smoke was near the joint industrial complex where the North-South liaison office, pictured when it was opened in 2018, is located She said: 'By exercising my power authorised by the supreme leader, our party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action' These steps means that North Korea will nullify a 2018 deal with South Korea aimed at lowering military tensions at border areas. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a separate statement saying North Korea had rebuffed a recent offer by South Korean president Moon Jae-in to send special envoys to Pyongyang to defuse animosities. She said Mr Moon had offered to dispatch his National Security Director Chung Eui-yong and director of National Intelligence Service Suh Hun at the earliest possible date that North Korea would want. Kim Yo Jong, who has spearheaded the North's recent fiery rhetoric against South Korea, called Mr Moon's offer 'unrealistic' and 'nonsensical' and said South Korea must pay the price for its failure to stop activists from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets toward North Korea. This heartbreaking picture shows a baby born by emergency c-section shortly before her mother died from coronavirus - as the grieving husband says his heavily-pregnant wife should not have been working in hospital at the time. Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong passed away just days after being admitted to Luton and Dunstable Hospital on Tuesday April 7, where she worked as a nurse. The 28-year-old, who was 35 weeks pregnant when she tested positive for Covid-19, underwent an emergency caesarean to save her daughter. The little girl was born, but tragically the mother died just days later on Easter Sunday. Two weeks before her death, her father Stephen, also died of suspected Covid-19. Her widowed husband Ernest Boateng, 30, has told the BBC that Mary was officially on sick leave before the first Covid-19 patient was admitted on to her ward, and paid tribute to his 'very kind' wife. The 28-year-old, who was 35 weeks pregnant when she tested positive for Covid-19, underwent an emergency caesarean to save her daughter (pictured). Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong, 28, pictured left, died after undergoing an emergency caesarean to deliver and save her baby daughter Two weeks before her death, her father Stephen, (pictured right) also died of suspected Covid-19 Her widowed husband Ernest Boateng, 30, has told the BBC that Mary was officially on sick leave before the first Covid-19 patient was admitted on to her ward, and paid tribute to his 'very kind' wife Speaking from his home in Luton, Ernest said: 'When Mary passed, I had a call from one of the union reps. 'He told me confidentially that he had met Mary on the ward, and told her, Mary it's not safe for you, you need to get out of here. 'But she said she couldn't help it. She was helpless.' Ernest told the BBC that his wife of three and a half years was 'really worried' - and used to come home from work, undress on the doorstep, and go straight to have a shower before even stopping to talk to him. He said: 'There is no amount of words that can really explain how I'm feeling within. 'She was very kind. Her heart was pure, and she was very genuine. We know everybody is not perfect, but Mary was. 'We all wish she was here to breastfeed her daughter, and to see her grow and give her the best of care.' Colleagues at Luton and Dunstable Hospital said Mary (pictured) was 'a fabulous nurse, and a great example of what we stand for' An inquest opening, held last month (May 21) at Bedfordshire Coroner's Court, gave Mary's cause of death as pneumonia and Covid-19. A further inquest hearing is listed for September 30. When contacted this morning, Mr Boateng declined to comment further and referred callers to his lawyer. Her brother Charles Agyapong previously told MailOnline: 'We are now mourning for two members of our family first my father and now Mary. It is a very hard time for us. We need time to grieve.' Mary was eight months pregnant when she died and stopped working at 28 weeks, as permitted in official guidance, which hospital bosses said they followed. However, it led to calls at the time for a rethink, with campaigners insisting: 'All pregnant women shouldn't be on the frontline.' Organisations supporting pregnant healthcare workers across the UK previously said hundreds were told they must work - sometimes without PPE - even though they feared for the lives of their unborn children. Joeli Brearley, founder of campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, said: 'The death of Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong could have been prevented. 'A child will now grow up without her mother - this tragedy could have been prevented.' Pictured: Luton and Dunstable Hospital The Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust told the BBC: 'We were extremely saddened to lose Mary Mary tested positive for Covid-19 and was admitted to hospital on April 7 and had the emergency caesarean within days. Doctors initially thought the nurse was showing signs of improving afterwards but her symptoms got worse again and she died on Sunday. Health secretary Matt Hancock described Mary's story as a 'terrible one' in an interview with BBC Breakfast. He added: 'It's something that I feel very strongly and I think the whole country, uniting as we are in our support for the NHS and carers across the board. 'We are all deeply touched and moved by deaths of nurses like this.' The Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust told the BBC: 'We were extremely saddened to lose Mary. She worked here for five years and was a highly valued and loved member of our team, a fantastic nurse and a great example of what we stand for in this Trust. 'We have carried out a full internal review into the circumstances surrounding her death and we are confident that she received the best possible care and support from the Trust. 'We have sent our deepest condolences to Mr Boateng, and are currently working through a number of issues he has raised.' While the Narendra Modi government has stuck to its stand that pending payment is Rs 12,343 crore, MSMEs calim outstanding amount is Rs 2-3 trillion. Moreover, MSME ministrys SAMADHAN portal has been of little help. Pending payments of the central and state governments are much higher than official estimates, industry bodies representing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) say. While exact figures are difficult to come by, there is a widespread consensus that dues from the government stand at about Rs 2-3 trillion. However, the Narendra Modi government has stuck to its stand that the amount is Rs 12,343 crore, pointing to data from the SAMADHAN portal, the MSME Ministrys online Delayed Payment Monitoring System. The dues pending with the Centre are divided between central ministries and public sector undertakings. The lack of detailed figures makes it tough to estimate but almost Rs 2-3 trillion remain unpaid to MSMEs, said Anil Bhardwaj, secretary general of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises. The All India Manufacturers Organisation (AIMO) pegs it at an even higher Rs 5 trillion. Delayed payments have become a regular part of business now. We still dont see payments being fast tracked. "Meanwhile, we have written to the prime minister that micro entities be allowed to take in money up to Rs 10 lakh from friends and family members without tax liabilities, to sustain their business during this crisis, said AIMO National President Sudarshan Sareen. No solution AIMO has informed the ministry that most MSMEs have not taken the SAMADHAN route for fear of reprisal from government departments against whom they might complain. Firms have suddenly stopped receiving contracts or have had existing deals prematurely cancelled, sources said. The MSME Development Act, 2006 contains provisions to address delayed payments. The most important among these is that state governments have to establish Micro and Small Enterprise Facilitation Councils (MSEFCs) for settlement of disputes after MSEs have filed claims. Launched in October 2017, the SAMADHAN portal brings MSEFCs online and has led to 44,000 applications being filed of which 3,735 or 8.48 per cent applications have been settled mutually, according to data available on the platform. Buyers are currently mandated to make payments to suppliers within 45 days of accepting goods or services. In case of failure of payments, every case filed in the facilitation council shall be decided within a period of 90 days from the date of making such a reference. As a result, 3,293 or 7.4 per cent of applications have been disposed by the MSEFCs. But many MSMEs have also been deterred by the high rejection rate for applications. This stands at 7,572 cases or 17 per cent of all applications filed. Back and forth Last month, MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari hinted said in a television interview that all state and government departments and the private sector owe MSMEs an estimated Rs 5 trillion. The figure was circulated widely on social media and touted by critics as the governments admission of massive dues. Later, expenditure secretary TV Somanathan clarified that Gadkari was pointing out the large share of dues owed by the private sector. Case in point, he had pointed out that 26 top Central Public Sector Undertakings owed MSMEs Rs 773 crore as on March 31, a figure that was much lower than dues owed by private sector entities. However, the figure quoted by him has since then more than doubled to Rs 1,960.84 crore. The idea that governments - both Centre and state - remain the biggest debtors for small businesses have been pointed out elsewhere as well. A quick poll of MSME members by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had indicated that about 450 firms reported delayed payments worth Rs 1,819 crore. Of this, public sector or government departments, including state departments, owed MSMEs Rs 1,709 crore, while the private sector also owed about Rs 110 crore to MSMEs. Photograph: PTI Photo Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put an end to rumours about further extension of lockdown in the country to contain the spread of Covid-19. Earlier in the day, KCR took part in the video-conference with the Prime Minister and sought clarity from the Centre on the subject. There have been rumours for quite some time that the Centre might re-impose lockdown in the country. People are speculating that an announcement could be made to this effect after the PMs video conference with chief ministers of all the states. I have been telling people that the PM will not take a decision to reimpose lockdown without talking to all the CMs. It will be better if there is clarity from the Prime Minister in this regard, KCR said. An official statement from the chief ministers office said Modi had made it clear that lockdown in the country was over and that a period of Unlock 1 was underway There will not be any lockdown in the country. The four phases of lockdown are over. The phase of Unlock 1 is going on now. We all should discuss what to do during the unlock 2.0, the Prime Minister said. The Telangana chief minister explained to the Prime Minister several measures taken by the state government to contain the spread of coronavirus, adding that the Covid-19 situation was under control in the state. Death rate is also registering a low percentage. We are confident that with the efforts put in by both the Centre and states, we will have a decisive victory over Corona, he said. KCR explained that the Covid-19 positive cases were reported mostly in Hyderabad and neighbouring districts. We are also putting strong efforts in these areas to contain the spread. I am confident that within days the spread would be under control. Life is coming back to normal in Telangana, he said. Migrant workers and labourers from various states, said the CM, were getting ready to work in Telangana and the government was providing them work. Hamalis from Bihar are ready to come back to Telangana, the chief minister said. The City of Midland Health Department is currently conducting their investigation on 16 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Midland County, bringing the overall case count to 238. The 223rd confirmed case is a female in her 30s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at The Sales Team, who last worked June 9, 2020. The source of exposure is travel to New Braunfels, TX. The 224th confirmed case is a female in her 20s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Little Woodrows, who last worked June 13, 2020. The source of exposure is community acquired. The 225th confirmed case is a female in her 20s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Morrow Energy, who last worked June 15, 2020. The female was not in a customer facing role. The source of exposure is community acquired. The 226th confirmed case is a female in her 30s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at HEB on Loop 250, who last worked June 5, 2020. The source of exposure is travel to McAllen, TX. The 227th confirmed case is a female in her 40s who was tested by Midland Health. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Region 18 ESC, who last worked June 8, 2020. The female was not in a customer facing role. The source of exposure is community acquired. The 228th confirmed case is a female in her 40s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Dillards, who last worked June 2, 2020. The female was not in a customer facing role. The source of exposure is community acquired. The 229th confirmed case is a male in his 20s who was tested by a private provider. The male is currently self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is contact to a case in Houston. The 230th confirmed case is a male in his 30s who was tested by a private provider. The male is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Rhotenberry Wellen Architect, who last worked June 12, 2020. The male was not in a customer facing role. The source of exposure is community acquired. The 231st confirmed case is a male in his 20s who was tested by a private provider. The male is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Morrow Energy, who last worked June 12, 2020. The male was not in a customer facing role. The source of exposure is travel to Austin, TX. The 232nd confirmed case is a male in his 20s who was tested by Midland Health. The male is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at the Midland County Courthouse, who last worked June 12, 2020. The male was not in a customer facing role. The source of exposure is contact to a known case. The 233rd confirmed case is a female in her 60s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Reliant Holdings, who last worked June 9, 2020. The female was not in a customer facing role. The source of exposure is contact to a known case. The 234th confirmed case is a female in her 30s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Tkilaz, who last worked June 14, 2020. The female was not in a customer facing role. The source of exposure is community acquired. The 235th confirmed case is a female in her 20s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is contact to a case in Odessa, TX. The 236th confirmed case is a female in her 20s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at North American Tubular, who last worked June 3, 2020. The female was not in a customer facing role. The source of exposure is community acquired. The 237th confirmed case is a male in his 20s who was tested by a private provider. The male is currently self-isolating at home. The confirmed case is an employee at Sundance Creek, who last worked June 10, 2020. The source of exposure is community acquired. The 238th confirmed case is a female in her 20s who was tested by a private provider. The female is currently self-isolating at home. The source of exposure is contact to a case in Odessa, TX. The City of Midland Health Department will continue to monitor the individuals in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Telephone conversation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus V.Makei with European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement On June 17, 2020 on the initiative of the European side, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, had a telephone conversation with the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi. The parties discussed the outcomes of the virtual Eastern Partnership Ministerial Meeting held on June 11 and the preparation to the upcoming videoconference of the leaders of the EU and EaP countries scheduled for June 18. During the conversation the parties also exchanged views on a wide range of topical issues on Belarus EU agenda. print version PALERMO - The first floating wind farm of the Mediterranean will be created in the Strait of Sicily, off Marsala, Trapani. The plant, called 7Seas Med, will include 25 floating blades worth 10 megawatts each and will not be visible from the Sicilian coast, at a distance of over 35 km from Marsala and as many from the Egadi islands, in the direction of Tunisia. The seabed in the area is about 300 meters deep - perfect for the floating turbines. It would not be possible to install normal stable offshore turbines which cannot exceed 50-60 meters in depth, according to financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. The project, which is worth an investment of 741 million euros, was developed by Danish company Copenhagen Offshore Partners with the support of the fund Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, specialized in large projects of renewable energy around the world, and was presented before the outbreak of the COVID pandemic at the ministries of the environment and infrastructure. The project is now being processed by Italian bureaucracy but if everything will go according to plan, construction work should begin in 2023, said project manager Luigi Severini. Severini created the project for the offshore wind farm of Taranto During Marilyn Booker's 26-year career at Morgan Stanley, including 16 years as the bank's global head of diversity, she often felt that too few of its employees were black. She was still trying to rectify the situation, right up until the morning in December when she was fired. Booker, who is black, is now suing Morgan Stanley and her former boss, Barry Krouk, chief administrative officer for the wealth management division, for racial discrimination and retaliation. She believes she was fired because she pushed too hard to get senior executives in that division to embrace her plan to restructure a program for training black financial advisers. She thought the restructuring would help more recruits succeed. Marilyn Booker is suing Morgan Stanley for racial discrimination and retaliation. Credit:Bryan Anselm for The New York Times Racial discrimination suits against Wall Street banks are not new. Within the last 15 years, nearly every major bank has settled a class-action case for tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. But Booker is one of the highest-profile black employees to pursue legal action against a bank in recent years. Booker joined Morgan Stanley in 1994 to become the bank's first global head of diversity, a high-ranking job within the human resources department. She was the public face of the bank's efforts to diversify, representing it at a hearing in Congress on diversity at big banks and making TV appearances. In 2011, she moved to the firm's wealth management arm, where she launched a group called Urban Markets that sought to win more black money management clients and help black communities build wealth a role she held until she was fired. Bhubaneswar, June 17 : Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh each from Chief Minister's Relief Fund (CMRF) to the next of the kin of the two Odia jawans, who were killed during a clash with Chinese soldiers in Ladakh. As many as 20 Indian Army jawans and an officer were martyred at Galwan Valley along the India-China border following a clash with Chinese PLA soldiers on Monday night. The two jawans are Chandrakant Pradhan from Kandhamal district and Naib Subedar Nanduram Soren from Mayurbhanj district. The Chief Minister expressed deep grief over the death of two Odia jawans and conveyed his deep sympathies to the bereaved families. He praised their bravery and courage and their supreme sacrifice for the motherland. Earlier, the Chief Minister paid tribute to the 20 Indian Army personnel. "Join the nation to salute the bravehearts of #IndianArmy who made the supreme sacrifice at #GalwanValley, protecting the integrity of our nation. Deepest condolences to the families of the brave martyrs," Patnaik tweeted. Malaysia's New Government Cracks Down on Critics By Zsombor Peter June 16, 2020 A wave of criminal charges and police probes targeting critics of Malaysia's embattled new government has rights groups worried the country is backsliding on free speech protections following the brief spell of a reform-minded administration. They say at least eight people have been charged or summoned for questioning for critical social media posts about the government, police or royals since May 6, including opposition lawmakers, journalists and the head of a clean government watchdog group. "We are beginning to see a reverting to the old government ways where not only were people called in for questioning people are now getting charged and brought to court," said Thomas Fann, chairman of the local pro-democracy group Bersih. "They want to send a very strong message that they won't be tolerant of any sort of dissent against them," he said. Malaysia's long-ruling and corruption-mired Barisan National government was toppled in a 2018 general election that ushered in a reformist coalition led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. But the coalition collapsed this past February when breakaway lawmakers joined forces with the lead party of the previous government, setting off a leadership tussle that saw Malaysia's king name one of the defectors, Muhyiddin Yassin, the new prime minister. The king claimed Muhyiddin had mustered the support of a majority of lawmakers, but that has yet to be tested with a vote in Parliament. Critics of his "back door government" meanwhile bemoan the political horse-trading that has allegedly kept it together and want to see fresh general elections. Fann said the investigation and prosecution of government critics had tapered off after Barisan's defeat two years ago and that he feared the recent spike will pressure some lawmakers and journalists to self-censor. "And that's a real shame because we were beginning to see an opening-up of the media, you know, where media [were] becoming more vocal, more independent." he said. Among those who have run afoul of the new government is Cynthia Gabriel, founding director of the independent Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism. She was summoned by police for questioning on June 10 over an open letter she penned urging the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the horse-trading allegations and possible payoffs to buy lawmakers' loyalties. Gabriel called her ordeal "an act of intimidation and harassment" meant to silence her and others while Muhyiddin's nascent government was still on shaky ground. "There are so many factions within political parties and the power grab has never been more intense," she said. "So in all that uncertainty of holding on to power, criticism and dissent have become a major victim as authorities use their power to shut us up and instill fear of a more authoritative state." Also summoned recently was an opposition lawmaker, Xavier Jayakumar, who criticized the government's decision to shorten a sitting of Parliament on May 18, effectively bumping a planned no-confidence vote off the agenda. Among those charged have been a blogger over posts about the prime minister and king and a former radio personality for a post that allegedly offended a crown prince. Malaysia's Center for Independent Journalism said such charges overstepped any legitimate need to preserve public order. "We need an enabling environment that promotes critical thinking and healthy debates that would uphold democracy and good governance," executive director Wathshlah Naidu said. "It is time that we reject actions of the state to silence dissenting voices so that freedom of expression and speech can flourish in Malaysia." International rights groups Article 19 and Human Rights Watch have also chimed in. "Malaysians should be able to criticize their government and its policies without fear of facing police questioning and possible criminal charges," HRW deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said in a statement. Rights groups place part of the blame on the laws the authorities are using for being overly broad, including sections of the Penal Code, Communications and Multimedia Act and Sedition Act. They have been urging the authorities for years to amend them so as to limit the potential for their abuse. Fann, of Bersih, said Mahathir's administration missed its chance to do so. Had they managed, he added, "I think we would not be in this position where [critics are] as vulnerable as we are now." The prime minister's press secretary and political secretary refused VOA's requests for an interview. The press secretary for the Home Affairs Ministry, which oversees the national police, also refused. The national police and attorney general's office did not reply to requests for comment. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address " " Vice President Aaron Burr (1756-1836) is well-known as the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, but he lived for another 32 years after that and had quite an eventful life. Bettmann/Getty Images/HowStuffWorks If you've seen the musical "Hamilton," you know Aaron Burr, who served a term as Thomas Jefferson's vice president, as one of American history's most notorious bad guys a haughty, soulless figure who advises a young Alexander Hamilton to "talk less ... smile more ... don't let them know what you're against or what you're for." At the end of Act II, after he takes Hamilton's life in a duel, Burr laments, "Now I'm the villain in your history." But who was Aaron Burr, really? In his time, his fickle loyalties and duplicity earned the enmity of founding fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. And while he's remembered these days mostly as a murderous rogue the only U.S. vice president ever to kill a man while in office (though Dick Cheney gave it his best shot) he also has the ignominious distinction of being the only former vice president to be put on trial for treason, due to his role in trying to carve off part of the U.S. and create his own country (more on that later). Last year, yet another unseemly detail was added to his biography, when it was revealed that he'd secretly fathered two children by one of his servants, an Indian immigrant named Mary Emmons, as this Washington Post story details. "Burr was a complicated figure too complicated for his own political reputation then and his historical reputation since," H.W. Brands, a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and author of "The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr," notes in an email. "Burr certainly had a lot of promise," says Willard Sterne Randall. He's a professor emeritus of history at Champlain College and author of "Alexander Hamilton: A Life," in addition to numerous other works on early American history. In some ways, Burr was a model of the sort of brazen, self-centered opportunism seen so often in today's politics and an early practitioner of the sort of conspiratorial suspiciousness that Richard Nixon made famous. Burr "didn't trust anybody, and it turned out that no one trusted him," Randall says. "He introduced a paranoid style to American politics." Burr was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1756, the scion of a distinguished colonial family. His maternal grandfather was the famous evangelist Jonathan Edwards, and both he and Burr's father, Aaron Burr, Sr. ascended to the presidency of the College of New Jersey, the institution that eventually became Princeton University. But even in such an elite family, Aaron Burr's intellect stood out. He was accepted to the college at age 13, and graduated in three years with summa cum laude distinction, as his Princeton Cemetery biographical sketch notes. "Even his detractors conceded his genius," writer Mark F. Bernstein noted in a 2012 biographical essay on Burr for Princeton Alumni Weekly. Burr's elite background and brainpower also were part of his ultimate undoing, because they imbued him with a haughty sense of superiority. "He looked down on people who weren't so well born, especially Alexander Hamilton," Randall says. "He couldn't get along with people who weren't as refined as he was." " " The duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton took place in Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804. Wikimedia Commons Additionally, for all his intelligence, Burr wasn't necessarily the most astute judge of people and situations. Throughout his life, he repeatedly made the mistake of choosing the wrong side to be on and had a lot of difficulty getting along with others, according to Randall. Burr enrolled in law school as a teenager but interrupted his studies to serve in the American forces during the Revolutionary War. As his Senate biography notes, Burr's bravery under fire earned him a coveted job as a top aide to the American commander in chief, General George Washington, who quickly came to loathe his ambitious underling. The feeling was mutual, and Washington eventually got rid of Burr by reassigning him to be an assistant to General Israel Putnam. While in that position, Burr probably saved the life of Hamilton, the man he would kill in a duel decades later, by leading him to safety during the British assault on New York in 1776, as Randall details in this 2003 Smithsonian article. Burr became a sympathizer to the Conway Cabal, the ill-fated plot by American officers to depose Washington in 1777. Advertisement New York State Attorney General and U.S. Senator After the war, Burr got his law degree and rose quickly to prominence. He was elected to the New York state assembly, where he served a single term in 1784-85, and helped transform a drinking club into Tammany Hall, the powerful New York City political machine, which perpetuated itself by doling out favors in exchange for support. After serving for two years as New York state's attorney general, in 1791 he won election to the U.S. Senate, unseating Philip Schuyler. The incumbent also happened to be the father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, by then the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. That helped fuel the hard feelings between Hamilton and Burr, who already were political rivals. Burr served one six-year term in the Senate, where he was a thorn in the side of the Washington administration, opposing both Washington's diplomatic moves and Hamilton's financial policy. According to Burr's Senate biography, he also mounted a "spirited, though unsuccessful" defense of Albert Gallatin, the Swiss-born senator from Pennsylvania, a member of Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party who was expelled from the Senate in 1794 by the Federalist majority under the pretext that he didn't meet the residency requirement of nine years in the country. Burr was viewed as enough of a power player that when the Republican Party nominated Jefferson to run against Federalist incumbent John Adams, they picked Burr as Jefferson's running mate, as this 2004 Smithsonian article by John Ferling details. In those days, presidential elections were run differently than they are now all of the candidates went in a bunch to the Electoral College, where the 138 electors each were allotted two votes. The idea was that the top vote-getter would serve as president, and the second-place finisher would be vice president. But when the Electoral College voted, Jefferson and Burr each received 73 votes, while Adams got 65 and his running mate, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, got 64. The election went to the House of Representatives, where the Federalists, after failing to work out a deal with Jefferson, decided to support Burr who double-crossed Jefferson by making it known that he'd accept the top job if he had the chance. It took 36 ballots and days of bitter political infighting to break the stalemate and elect Jefferson. Burr had gambled brashly and lost, and as you might expect, Jefferson didn't exactly have warm feelings for his new VP after that. But the political mess did lead Congress to fix the unwieldy system. In 1803, the new electoral proposal passed and it was ratified by the states, so Burr, inadvertently, helped to improve the American political system. "One of Burr's lasting contributions was that decision to run," Randall notes. It led Congress in 1803 to enact the 12th Amendment, which mandated separate electoral vote counts for presidential and vice presidential candidates, as this article from the National Constitution Center details. Eventually it was ratified by the states as well. Advertisement The Duel The electoral fiasco also helped further fuel the enmity between Burr and Hamilton, who as Randall notes, had helped persuade friends in the House to switch and vote against Burr. Things got even worse when Burr, who clearly wasn't welcome on the Republican ticket in 1804, decided instead to run for governor of New York. Hamilton talked trash about Burr to a group of prominent men at a dinner, and after his comments made it into a local paper, Burr was infuriated, saying that Hamilton had uttered a "despicable opinion," and challenged him to a duel. Duels often were treated as a sort of ritual dance one common practice was for both men to miss deliberately, so that they could assert their manly honor without actual violence. But as Randall explains, Burr took this challenge a big more seriously than Hamilton. "Burr was practicing with targets for two weeks prior," he says. "I think Burr intended to kill Hamilton." Advertisement Hamilton Dies Along With Burr's Future Hamilton was mortally wounded and suffered an agonizing death, but the man who'd killed the Secretary of the Treasury couldn't be prosecuted, since they'd staged the confrontation in New Jersey, which didn't have a law against dueling, according to Randall. Instead, he simply went back to Washington, where he became even more of a pariah. " " The death mask of Aaron Burr, taken on September 14, 1836, the day he died. Wikimedia Commons (CC By 2.0) Burr not only murdered Hamilton, but his own political fortunes as well. At that point, he simply could have slipped into obscurity. But Burr, who'd made some bad investments and lived beyond his means, was heavily in debt. Desperate, he looked to the West for an opportunity. As described in his Senate biography, he hatched a bizarre scheme to raise a military force and seize Florida and Mexico from Spain, and then persuade a few nearby states to secede from the Union and join into a sort of empire that he would lead. Instead, Burr was arrested on treason charges, and put on trial in Virginia in 1807. But after Chief Justice John Marshall instructed the jury that two witnesses needed to testify to a specific overt act of treason to make the charges stick, they acquitted Burr. Though a free man, Burr left the country and spent several years in self-imposed exile in England and Europe, before returning to the U.S. in 1812, according to his Senate biography. He eventually resumed his legal career in New York, but then suffered another, even more painful personal disaster, when a ship taking his beloved daughter Theodosia Burr Alston from South Carolina to New York disappeared off the North Carolina coast. Though the ship probably sank in a storm, Burr was tormented by wild stories that his daughter had been forced to walk the plank by pirates or was being held prisoner somewhere in the West Indies. Burr spent the next couple of decades practicing law. In 1833, Burr whose first wife had died in 1794 married for a second time to a wealthy widow. But after discovering that Burr had mismanaged her assets, she divorced him just a year later. After that, Burr survived mostly on friends' handouts and his military pension until his death in Staten Island in 1836. As his Senate biography notes, during Burr's final hours, a minister asked him if he thought he would go to heaven. "On that subject, I am coy," reportedly was Burr's reply. Now That's Redemptive As Carey Wallace argues in this 2016 Time essay, Burr had some positive points, too. He operated the first bank in New York that gave loans to non-wealthy people, supported freedom of the press and praised Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 book "Vindication of the Rights of Women" as "a work of genius." LOS ANGELES, June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- UCLA Anderson School of Management announced today that it has received STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) certification for its full-time, fully-employed and executive MBA programs, making it among a small number of business schools to receive the designation across its primary MBA programs, regardless of specialization. Two other degree programs at UCLA Anderson, the Master of Financial Engineering and Master of Science in Data Analytics, are also STEM certified. UCLA Anderson Dean Antonio Bernardo said the new STEM certification, which is retroactive to the class of 2019, reflects the increasingly quantitative focus of the school's MBA curriculum, in response to technological advances, employer needs and student interests. "Our MBA programs have always had significant quantitative elements, but as technology has advanced and more MBA students turn to tech careers, the number of data and quantitative courses in the MBA curriculum at Anderson has grown significantly," Bernardo said. "This change is a reflection of that." The STEM MBA is also increasingly desirable among employers, the dean said. The skills that graduates acquire while earning such degrees a mix of technology and management are becoming essential in today's workplace. "We know that recruiters are increasingly focused on graduates with an analytical and technological orientation, and Anderson's STEM designation will underscore our students' abilities and interests in these areas," he said. The designation also makes it possible for international graduates of the three programs, who now typically are eligible to hold U.S. jobs for 12 months, to apply to remain in the country for an additional 24 months after graduation and receive continued work experience. The U.S. government established the STEM designation to address a shortage of qualified workers in scientific and technical fields. The Department of Homeland Security's STEM Designated Degree Program includes various STEM fields and, since 2016, has allowed eligible students on an F-1 visa to apply for what the agency calls the STEM OPT (Optional Practical Training) extension. All current UCLA Anderson international students who are on an F-1 visa and enrolled in the three programs will be eligible to apply for the extension under the designation. The three Anderson MBA programs received the STEM designation after a review by UCLA's graduate division of how the programs are categorized by the National Center for Education Statistics under a Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code. The new code defines the UCLA Anderson MBA as a "general program that focuses on the application of statistical modeling, data warehousing, data mining, programming, forecasting and operations research techniques to the analysis of problems of business organization and performance." After the review, the three UCLA Anderson MBA degree programs were changed from "Business Administration and Management, General," to "Management Science," which is considered a STEM program. About UCLA Anderson School of Management UCLA Anderson School of Management is among the leading business schools in the world, with faculty members globally renowned for their teaching excellence and research in advancing management thinking. Located in Los Angeles, gateway to the growing economies of Latin American and Asia and a city that personifies innovation in a diverse range of endeavors, UCLA Anderson's MBA, Fully Employed MBA, Executive MBA, UCLA-NUS Executive MBA, Master of Financial Engineering, Master of Science in Business Analytics, doctoral and executive education programs embody the school's Think in the Next ethos. Annually, some 1,800 students are trained to be global leaders seeking the business models and community solutions of tomorrow. anderson.ucla.edu Follow Us @UCLAAnderson Media Contacts: Rebecca Trounson (310) 825-1348 [email protected] Paul Feinberg (310) 794-1215 [email protected] SOURCE UCLA Anderson School of Management Related Links http://www.anderson.ucla.edu The Indian Army on Wednesday saluted the supreme sacrifice of the valiant soldiers at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh during the standoff between India and China and asserted that their sacrifices will not go in vain. The Army also offered its deepest condolences to the families and vowed to stand strong towards protecting the sovereignty and integrity of India. The Indian Army had said that 20 of its soldiers were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops during a face-off in Galwan on June 15 night. This is the biggest ever military confrontation between the two armies in over five decades. In a statement, the Army had said that almost the same number of Chinese troops have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley. General MM Naravane #COAS & all ranks salute the supreme sacrifice of our valiant soldiers at #Galwan. We offer deepest condolences to the families & stand strong in our resolve towards protecting the sovereignty & integrity of our country. Their sacrifices will not go in vain. pic.twitter.com/SC3zYL75c1 ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) June 17, 2020 Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, the Indian Army said, "General MM Naravane COAS & all ranks salute the supreme sacrifice of our valiant soldiers at Galwan. We offer deepest condolences to the families & stand strong in our resolve towards protecting the sovereignty & integrity of our country. Their sacrifices will not go in vain." "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20. The Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," read the official release of the Indian Army on June 16. Earlier on Wednesday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh grieved the death of the Army personnel asserting that the loss of soldiers during a face-off in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh "is deeply disturbing and painful". Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Singh said that the soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. He added that the nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. Extending his sympathies to the families of the martyred soldiers, Singh said that the nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. "The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army," Singh tweeted. "The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias breavehearts," he also tweeted. The sudden and unprecedented shuttering of our nations school buildings due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to face the most jarring and rapid change of perhaps any profession in history. Within a moments notice, teachers were asked to leave their classrooms indefinitely and, in many cases, to recreate a learning environment that is 100 percent virtual. As challenging as that dictate was, it represents possibly the best-case scenario in whats proven to be an incredibly inequitable landscape during the pandemic. Whereas some school districts are conducting online learning in whats been described as a fairly seamless transition, many others are struggling simply to connect with students and families to ensure that their basic needsincluding sufficient foodare being met. Just as school districts responses during the pandemic have varied widely, so too have teachers. We at Education Week reached out to K-12 teachers across the country and asked them to answer this question: How has the shift to remote learning changed you as a teacher, for better or worse? Their responses range from heartening to hopeless, and everywhere in between. Though varied, almost all of the feedback we received illuminates teachers commitment to their professions and to the students they serve. Here, we share a large selection of the responses we received via email interviews and an open-ended question on a recent EdWeek Research Center survey, edited for clarity and length. Marilyn Pryle 10th grade English Abington Heights High School, Clarks Summit, Pa. 2019-20 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year I find myself constantly asking the question, Whats the most important thing students have to do or know? when I look at each new topic. I have become an essentialist. And Ive learned that the most important things are still possible with distance learning: reading, writing, discussion, choice, authenticity, and creativity. Sophena Flowers Special Education Teacher Virginia Beach Middle School, Virginia Beach, Va. Having the students move away from a physical class where I am there to teach and answer questions immediately and where I could read the body language and facial expressions of my students takes away from my effectiveness as a teacher, relationship building, and the personal touch that special education students need. Liz Russillo 9th grade science teacher Smithfield High School, Smithfield, R.I. The shift to remote learning has changed me as a teacher. I can wholeheartedly say that the change has been, and will be, for the better. This shift has required me to use innovation and creativity for the most critical assessments while highlighting the importance of the teacher-student relationship. I will never again take for granted the student showing up for class early to tell me about their weekend or the student sitting in the back of the room trying to stay under the radar because they are having a bad day. These relationships are the foundation of the classroom and just so challenging in the remote world. Equally important as the relationships with students are the relationships with colleagues. As colleagues, we are collaborating more than ever in this remote world. We are relying on one another and working together so that all of our students are able to succeed. Heidi Mozoki Kindergarten Teacher Roland Park Elementary/Middle School, Baltimore City schools, Md. Teaching kindergarten remotely has been an adventure. I have had to put on my vulnerable hat by allowing 26 families access to my home. I began by making short learning videos to engage my students in our curriculum. But as time has gone on, I have had to become extra creative in what lessons will keep my students coming back to my online Blackboard Collaborate meetings twice a week. I am glad that I developed strong relationships with my kindergarten families prior to the start of remote learning because it has made the transition smooth, and I have been able to connect with all of my students each week. Remote learning has validated that teaching is my calling. I love greeting my students each morning and learning all about them. I love hearing their stories and getting my daily hugs. I love watching the children play at recess, creating new games, and including new friends. The human connection side of teaching is what I value most, and with remote teaching, it just doesnt feel the same. Jim Ryan 3rd-5th Grade STEM Teacher Holy Spirit STEM Academy, Los Angeles, Calif. As difficult as the transition to remote learning has been, I think its greatly improved the relationship I have with my students. Im always trying to be better at differentiating instruction. I know that Zoom has had its issues, but personally, I love using it for my synchronous learning times. Breakout rooms have enabled me to continue boosting collaboration among my students. Additionally, I have more opportunities to meet one-on-one with students who are struggling without the distractions that naturally occur in the classroom. This time has also made me much more empathetic and flexible. I want my students to complete their assignments, but there is more going on at home than I know about. The learning must continue, but it shouldnt come at the cost of the emotional well-being of the students. Teresa M. Diehl High School English Teacher Antilles School, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands I certainly have had to change my plans and assessments, and Id say thats generally a good thing since stagnant teaching and meaningless assignments can occur when we recycle the plans weve had success with in the past. Being forced to be creative in our delivery requires a rethinking of the content were teaching as well. My classes have each been shortened by 10 minutes, and we are discouraged from assigning homework, especially if it involves more screen time. Every minute of instruction, now, needs to be that much more meaningful and relevant. I assume students have complete access to books, notes, friends via text, and our good friend Google while taking a test or quiz, so Im relying on higher-order questions to judge what they have learned. Despite the shortened time, Ive felt it is crucial to make a point to connect in the beginning of class by saying hello to individual students and asking them questions that will foster personal connections among them and with me. They need to know that they are not operating in a vacuum. It is frustrating to not be able to judge their facial expressions and demeanors as well as I could face-to-face, allowing me to get a good sense of students comprehension, confusion, and general well-being. And while I once bemoaned the class clowns and distractors, I now wonder if those same kids are quieter now because theyre depressed or their focus is elsewhere. So I have sent more emails, I stay behind in the Zoom room to see if anyone lingers with a question after class, I push harder for students to visit during extra help time, and I reach out to students parents, advisors, and appropriate administrators more to make sure their academic, social, (and WiFi connections) are moving forward. It has been more important than ever to understand students academic and home lives without judgement, and I hope we all carry that same degree of understanding once we can meet again face-to face. Steven Tyler Health and physical education teacher Plaza Middle School, Virginia Beach, Va. Although I frequently use various technologies in my classes, this period has forced me to work outside of the box and use technology that I had not previously used as a part of my classes. Remote learning has served as a vehicle for me to become a more well-rounded teacher, and it has opened my eyes to the extremely difficult situations that some of our students face. It also has given me a new appreciation for the simple ability to go in to work and be with my students and colleagues. Jim Parry REACH Program Coordinator Stewartville High School/Middle School, Stewartville, Minn. I have always created my own classroom lessons by using real-life examples found on YouTube and other media. But also, I have always felt like I could be creative and do more. I have wanted for years to record videos with character lessons that we focus on in class. When I realized we would be moving to distance learning in our state...and likely not returning to school this year...that was my motivation to jump into a dream of mine. I wanted to make videos not only for my students, but also their families, and other students and families anywhere. The idea of REACH Reflection videos came to life with my first recording. I have now recorded about 40 of these videos, all of them focusing on character. They are posted on Schoology for my students and on social media for anyone else interested. In each video, I share a personal story, link it to the viewers life, and challenge them to put that lesson into practice. Being able to share these lessons has allowed me to dig deeper into how I feel about character, life, and how I teach. My REACH Reflections videos have brought a whole new layer of meaning and purpose to my teaching. Leila Kubesch Spanish and English Language Learner teacher, 7th and 8th grades Norwood City School District, Norwood, Ohio 2020 Ohio Teacher of the Year The shift to remote learning didnt change my practiceonly the delivery. I think it is important to be flexible and prepared for anything. The positive change is how fast I found myself learning and embracing the format of technology that I didnt choose in the past. Once school returns, I will always make videos of lessons to reach out to those who are home-bound and we will be better connected than before. Erin McCarthy 8th grade social studies teacher Greendale Middle School, Greendale, Wisc. The shift to remote learning has reassured me that the work I was doing to focus on the whole child in middle school before the pandemic hit was the right shift to make. Now that we are in week six of digital learning, Ive been able to reflect, and I continually ask myself, Am I providing continuity, consistency, flexibility and relevance in the activities and investigations I create? Ive always known that helping students find their voice is one of the most important parts of teaching middle school. During digital learning, Ive heard students say that they miss collaboration and working with partners to construct learning, so Ive developed activities to meet those needs. I offered students the opportunity to collaborate in groups as they developed proposals for a business idea. Ive also offered simulation games via Zoom conferencing so students can spend time with their friends despite social distancing. These elements make me a better teacher in many ways. Anthony Grisillo Teacher Librarian Glenwood Elementary, Rose Tree Media School District, Media, Pa. I have been teaching for 22 years, so I am always looking for new, innovative, and virtual ways to connect with my students in authentic ways. Being forced to rethink all of my strategies, while incorporating methods I know to be effective, has energized my teaching. The excitement I feel when finding a new online resource or tool that will help me have a personal interaction with my students is incredible. Knowing that I need to focus on making sure my students human needs continue to be met in the virtual classroom, coupled with rigorous opportunities allowing kids to still take risks, has made me a better teacher. Amy Campbell Special education teacher Helen Baller Elementary School, Camas, Wash. Washington State Teacher of the Year 2020 I think its made me a better teacher already. Ive always thought of myself as an innovator. This has really pushed the innovation envelope. During the shutdown, my teaching partner and I have been able to make many materialsYouTube videos and resourcesavailable on a newly-created private class website. This is the first time Ive created a way to ensure access, in one place, to a whole package of resources for students with disabilities to access outside of school. Use of these resourcesaccommodations, modifications, sensory strategies, augmentative communication devicesneed to be visible and normalized so that the broader community understands how to support inclusion and improve access for all learners. I am excited to have this in place. Jessica Davis 11th and 12th grade math teacher South St. Paul Secondary 2019 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Im still trying to figure out if its for better or worse. As a teacher, Ive struggled most with reimagining how to fulfill my purpose as the connective piece for my students access to learning opportunities. Its been a huge challenge to find the best ways to support all of their unique needs during these unprecedented times. That said, this whole experience has reaffirmed and increased my confidence in my own teaching philosophy. Up until this point, all of my 14-year teaching career has involved regimented standards and standardized assessments. The COVID crisis has resulted in relaxing requirements around those standardized measurements. Ive discovered that a huge challenge has been to get kids to try something new and independently when a previous accountability measure is no longer relevant. I teach math. I love math. But solving a quadratic is not the most important outcome in math class, especially not now. I now assign students to schedule a check-in with me. The lesson teaches them to navigate a new system, practice how to communicate a need for help, and research and seek answers to questions. In many ways I dont really feel like Im teaching math. Instead, Im teaching confidence. In the long run, on the other side of this, Ill be a better teacher, and human, overall. I have more empathy for life outside of school, and I have more trust in my students and what theyre capable of. Rachel Rodriguez Grade 6 English teacher Plaza Middle School, Virginia Beach, Va. The shift to remote learning has changed the way that I understand the level of clarity a middle school student needs and how I will run my classroom next year. When I create assignments and upload them, I try to create activities and directions that are as clear as possible. It helps me understand what is truly essential to their understanding so that they can be successful working on their own. I have also learned how to create video instructions using Loom. Now that I have the skills, I can use them in the classroom next year for students who need directions repeated as well as for students who simply need clarification. This way, I may be able to reduce the number of hands in the air during class so that I can successfully run a small group, and students can work toward being more self-sufficient during independent work. Dena Lindsey 7th/8th Grade Social Studies Teacher Wilder Middle High School, Wilder, Idaho I believe I have managed to keep students at the center of learning. The same students who struggled in school, in general, are the same students that are struggling to work from home. Establishing and maintaining student relationships has become more difficult in isolation, which is unfortunate because that can drive student motivation. Now, Im a distant cheerleader. Im making efforts to notice and acknowledge students efforts, their passions, and what really matters to them. Does this work for every student? No, but part of my practice is to be able to adapt to the individualized needs of my students, so Ive had to remain flexible, sensitive, and responsive. So from that perspective, nothing has really changed. Ive had to also really watch for those students who may be struggling emotionally, and direct them to the right people for support. I think the virtual meetings I have with my kids have helped to provide some sense of normalcy, just seeing each other face-to-face, but nothing replaces that daily interaction. I miss the kids. The following responses came from an open-ended question on a recent EdWeek Research Center survey of K-12 educators. The responses do not include the names of the respondents or their schools. Elementary school teacher North Carolina I have become so much better with technology! It was sink or swim and I have persevered and am so much more knowledgeable with using technology. I now have the time to research the numerous resources for teachers. This has also become an addiction of sorts! I cant stop creating fun and engaging lessons! I suppose I feel I am trying to keep my students close to me. The computer has become my life-line to my students and I have a difficult time pulling away from it. Still trying to find the balance. High school arts teacher Michigan It has made me realize that remote learning is a horrible second choice to in-person learning. It can never replace a live teacher, because live teachers can watch the students as they are teaching the class, therefore getting feedback on how the students are comprehending the lesson. Middle school teacher Indiana BetterIve learned a lot more technological tools; email is helping me talk one-on-one with students. Worse: I havent figured out how to assess students at all. Middle school teacher Ohio My stress level is through the roof trying to balance home responsibilities, school responsibilities, and worry about my students. My frustration level is through the roof because I cant be as effective as I was in the classroom and because I cant get in touch with the students about whom I am most worried. I dont seem to have clear work times. Some days I start before 7 in the morning and finish at 9 at night. Im trying to be available to kids who need me at odd times. Im trying to accommodate parents who need to let their kids sleep later because the parents are working from home. I have become much more aware of differences in students home lives. Things that they kept hidden have come to the forefront. Elementary school teacher Maine As the oldest teacher in the school, I was not prepared for teaching online the way the younger teachers were and I wasnt ready for the loss of contact. The learning curve was steep and Im still learning. Still grieving the loss of the way teaching used to be. Im trying to find ways to continue that remotely. Elementary school teacher Utah It has made me more compassionate for varieties of dynamics within family units. I am stressed in new ways. In the beginning, because this is my last year teaching, I spent endless hours crying and waking at night with nightmares about how I would push out lessons that were quality, with online resources that I wasnt capable (at that moment) of using. It has made me see that I can do hard things. I have learned so much in the past several weeks and what a way to leave the profession. High school world languages teacher New Jersey I have taught myself how to use new technology and have been forced to think about how I deliver the content. This has been a painstaking and time-consuming process. Because I am constantly grading or creating lessons in a digital format, I feel overwhelmed and have very little time outside of schoolwork to devote to my own well-being. Elementary school teacher Texas I honestly think this challenge has changed me for the better. Ive had to explore and become adept at a wide variety of online platforms. Ive developed new ways of communicating with students and parents, and have generally become more available. Because we will not have testing this year, Ive been able to offer my students a wider variety of enrichment opportunities. And to be honest, its made me appreciate my students a whole lot more. High school arts teacher Ohio Im depressed and I miss my students. I cant connect well this way. Elementary school teacher Florida It confirms for me the need for face-to-face interaction and instruction. Many of my students are not doing the level of work that they would in class because they dont have me physically there to hold them accountable. Many of my parents work and dont understand the material. If they do not have a computer, the children are working on their own and the parents are not really helping. I teach at a Title I school with extended hours to help the struggling students. That support has been taken away. Technology is great, but overall for the students who need the most help, it does not serve them well. Elementary school teacher California It has made me realize how much I enjoy being in the classroom even after 35 years of teaching. It has also made me doubt my ability to continue to teach in an online situation. Elementary school teacher Connecticut Ive had to come out of my comfort zone with relation to technology. The amount of time I spend designing fun, creative, engaging assignments to be delivered via Google Classroom is overwhelming. The emotional stress put on me has had a negative impact on my health resulting in illness. Elementary school teacher Indiana I have gotten better using technology that I would have never used before, and now I would consider using it next yearGoogle Meet for parent teacher conferences or helping students with homework questions. And for students who have been absent, its also allowed me to check in with them in a more visible and interactive way. High school special education teacher New York My role as an educator has changed for the worse. I am attempting to support my students with 504s and IEPs in an environment in which they simply cannot thrive. While I am technically providing their accommodations, they need the human social emotional connection. They need me to be there for them. Elementary education teacher California I have more empathy for students home situations. High school physical education teacher Connecticut Its been extremely frustrating not being able to see the students live. Much of what I can assess in the physical education class is based on skill performance, and the ability to relate and work with others. Distance learning challenges both of these. Physical education has turned into a much more academic course, which could lead to more stress for students. Elementary education teacher Texas Way worse! It is not any fun and is very stressful and feels unproductive! The only plus is I have learned more technology and formed closer bonds with the parents who faithfully participate. Elementary school teacher New York This has pushed me to try resources that I never had time for. Elementary education teacher Colorado Im more adaptable, less motivated. Middle school history teacher Connecticut Its made me learn quicker how to use some aspects of technology. I think its changed me for the better. Turkey is the most popular country for tourism and real estate investments among Ukrainians Kyiv, June 17, 2020 In 2019, 1.2 million Ukrainian tourists visited the country. Despite the pandemic, demand is expected to remain strong in 2020. Thanks to quick and effective steps taken to overcome the pandemic's consequences and introduce strict safety and hygiene measures, Turkey has become the most popular summer holiday destination among Ukrainians. Over the past four years, the number of tourists from Ukraine at Turkish resorts has increased by 52%. During 2019, 1.2 million Ukrainians visited the country. Ukraine's tourism demand is also expected to be high in 2020. Ukrainians have already started planning summer holidays in Turkey, especially in Antalya. According to the agreements of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the two countries , Dmytro Kuleba and Mevlut Cavusoglu, starting from July 1 Turkey will open its borders for Ukrainian tourists. To implement these plans, Turkey has introduced the Certification of Health Tourism at the state level. The program involves preventive and protective measures in the fields of transport and tourism, health monitoring of employees and visitors to provide safe vacation conditions for foreign visitors. Because of the pandemic, Ukrainians prefer private residences to hotels International tourists have slightly changed their habits during their holidays. According to one of the largest real estate companies in Turkey, Antalya Homes , more and more Ukrainians are getting interested in private villas or residences instead of hotels. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, during 2017-2019, the number of apartments purchased by Ukrainian citizens in Turkey has increased by 43%. And over the past four years, it has increased by 50%. The demand of the Ukrainians for the Turkish real estate is expected to continue growing this year. Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Turkish real estate company Antalya Homes Bayram Tekce said, "Antalya has always been the best holiday destination for Ukrainians. After Turkey's success in overcoming the consequences of the pandemic, the demand for tourism in our country is growing again. Announcement regarding the start of charter flights sparked interest: many Ukrainians started planning their holidays in Antalya. Ukrainians' interest in buying a property in Turkey has also increased. There is a need for social distancing because of pandemic. Thus, people choose private residences instead of hotels." The number of Ukrainians who bought real estate in Turkey has increased by 50% over four years Opportunities to invest in Turkish real estate are also in high demand among Ukrainians. Ukraine is among the top 20 countries by the number of real estates purchased in Turkey. Over the last four years, the number of Ukrainian buyers has grown by 50%. Demand for houses and land plots in Turkey has increased even more due to the pandemic. $250,000 investment in Turkish real estate offers the opportunity of joining the immigration program. The country grants citizenship to the investor, his wife, or her husband, and minor children. Antalya Homes, Turkey's leading real estate company, focuses on special investment opportunities for Ukraine: improving the quality of life through the acquisition of residential real estate. Notes to Editors Antalya Homes is an international real estate company in Turkey. The company was founded in 2004. Antalya Homes has offices in Lara (Antalya), Konyaalti (Antalya), Alanya, Bursa, Istanbul, and Trabzon. The company offers a wide range of real estate and assists clients in all stages of buying property or Citizenship through the Investment program. The company has extensive international experience. Antalya Homes' clients are citizens of 84 countries worldwide. For further information, please contact: Tulay Genc | support@b2press.com | +90 (850) 885 12 55 The worlds biggest oil exporter is hitting the brakes in developing some of its crude and natural gas deposits, idling two offshore drilling rigs as the coronavirus batters energy use. State-run producer Saudi Aramco has suspended work at the two platforms for about a year, according to filings from the contractors. The producer is also delaying a related $18 billion oil and gas expansion project by at least six months, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Aramco declined to comment on the status of the rigs or the project. EXPORTS: Saudi oil exports to U.S. plunge to lowest in 35 years The pullback marks a rare pause in Aramcos efforts to drill wells, discover fields and expand known deposits to replace the barrels its pumping from the planets largest conventional oil reserves. The halts also raise questions about the kingdoms supply of natural gas, much of which is found in crude reservoirs. Saudi Arabia needs gas to generate electricity and make chemicals. Oil producers worldwide are slashing spending and putting projects on hold as the plunge in prices since last year imperils profits. Major suppliers, including the Saudis, are curbing output in response to the pandemic. Although prices for benchmark Brent crude have more than doubled since late April, demand is returning only slowly and risks of a second wave of infections persist. Dubai-based Shelf Drilling Ltd. said Monday that operations at an offshore rig contracted to Aramco would be suspended at the clients request for as long as a year. Another contractor, London-based Noble Corp., said last month that one of its rigs at the Marjan field in the Persian Gulf would stop work for a year, beginning in mid-May. FUEL FIX: Get our energy news in your inbox each weekday Aramco is delaying a project to expand oil and gas output at the Marjan and Berri fields for a period of six months to a year, said the people with knowledge, who asked not to be identified while discussing private matters. The planned expansion would increase oil-production capacity at the fields by 550,000 barrels a day, to a combined 1.35 million, according to the International Energy Agency. The project would also boost gas flows by 2.5 billion standard cubic feet a day, sending gas by pipeline from Marjan to an onshore processing plant at Berri for domestic use. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Mon, 01/24 (9:30am ET): Perfect Action Plan to Get 750+ on the GMAT in 6 Months Claire Sugden MLA said the Causeway community has been left in shock following the death of a teenager in the sea near Dunluce Castle on Tuesday evening. It's believed the group of boys, from the Belfast area, had been jumping off rocks into the sea below Dunluce Castle in a practice known as 'tombstoning'. The young man was pronounced dead at the scene, with a second person treated for minor injuries. Two further boys were unharmed. Ms Sugden commended the efforts of the young man's friends who tried to save his life. "It is heartbreaking to lose such a young life" she said. "I offer sincere condolences to his family and friends. I commend those young people who made every effort to rescue their friend and also the emergency services who attended the incident and brought others to safety. "As we emerge from lockdown and the weather improves of course we want to enjoy time outside and in the sea. "But our waters can be dangerous particularly if you were unfamiliar or inexperienced." Coastguard teams from Portrush, Ballycastle and Rescue 199 from Prestwick rushed to the scene on Tuesday night along with the ambulance service and the PSNI. Sinn Fein MLA Caoimhe Archibald sent her condolences to the family of the teenager who lost his life. "This death is a tragedy and my thoughts are with his family and friends," she said. Maurice Bradley MLA added his condolences. "It's a tragedy," he said. "The north coast is a wonderful place but a very dangerous place." Judith McNeice from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency issued a warning about the dangers of the sea off the north Atlantic coastline. "Although it was an absolutely beautiful day the north coast is notorious for having a large swell even in the most benign weather. "There is a risk even on the most lovely day for people swimming or jumping from rocks.". The PSNI said they are not treating the death as suspicious. A petition has been filed in the Madras High Court alleging Nalini Sriharan and her husband Murugan, both serving life term in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, were not being allowed to meet for the past three months "in violation" of prison rules. In her petition, Nalini's mother S Padma claimed though the prison manual allowed such meeting once in a fortnight, the authorities did not permit her daughter to meet her husband in the last three months. She submitted her son-in-law Murugan has resorted to "hunger strike" since June 1 over the issue and hence his life was in 'danger'. The petitioner wanted the court to direct the prison authorities to permit Nailni to meet her husband Murugan regularly as per the rules. The plea moved as a habeas corpus petition, which is usually filed seeking production of a person in court, is likely to be taken up for hearing on Thursday. Another plea moved by Padma seeking direction to the authorities to permit Nalini and Murugan to make video calls to her mother-in-law in Sri Lanka and sister-in-law in London is pending before the court. Besides the two, five others were sentenced to death in connection with the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi at nearby Sriperumbudur by an LTTE suicide bomber during an election rally in May, 1991. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment later. Murugan is lodged in the Central Prison in Vellore while Nalini at the nearby special jail for women. Michael Flynn, former U.S. national security adviser, exits federal court in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 24, 2019. Michael Flynn's lawyers accused a federal judge Wednesday of shedding "any appearance of neutrality" in the criminal case against President Donald Trump's former national security advisor. That claim was made in response to the judge's appointment of an attorney to oppose the Department of Justice's request to dismiss the case. Flynn's lawyers also said that the judge's appointee, John Gleeson, "engaged in a flagrant personal and partisan assault" when he argued that the Justice Department committed a "gross abuse of prosecutorial power" in seeking to drop the case. The "sheer duplicity" of Gleeson's "scurrilous arguments" against the DOJ "is stunning," Flynn's lawyers wrote in a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Judge Emmet Sullivan had appointed Gleeson, who himself is a former federal judge, to make legal arguments opposing requests by the Justice Department and Flynn to dismiss the case. Sullivan also asked Gleeson to advise him on whether Flynn should be held in criminal contempt of court for perjury for twice pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a former Russian ambassador in the weeks before Trump's inauguration. He has since sought to withdraw his guilty pleas. After Gleeson was appointed, Flynn's lawyers asked a federal appeals court to force Sullivan to drop the case and replace him with another judge for any additional proceedings. A panel of judges on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., last week heard arguments from lawyers for Flynn, Sullivan and the Justice Department. The appeals court has yet to rule . Flynn's lawyers argued in their filing Wednesday that Sullivan had no legal authority to appoint Gleeson, and that he must grant the requests to dismiss the criminal charge against the retired Army lieutenant general. "This court exceeded its authority under the Constitution" by appointing Gleeson, they wrote. "This politically motivated quest to destroy General Flynn has been damaging the Rule of Law, the integrity of venerable institutions of government, and now the very structure of our Constitution," the lawyers wrote. "This illegal outrage must stop now." The leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has revealed that First Lady, Dr. Aisha Buhari, is only fight... The leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has revealed that First Lady, Dr. Aisha Buhari, is only fighting to save residents of the Presidential Villa from what he described as COVID-19 death hovering in Aso Rock. In a statement, he released on Tuesday wherein he shared some of his prophesies, the cleric made reference to the recent fracas that occured place in the presidential villa involving the First Lady, her Aide-de-camp and the personal secretary to President Muhammadu Buhari, Primate Elijah Ayodele said that Mrs. Buhari is fighting for a good course, adding that he sees COVID-19 death hovering around the Presidential and is due to strike soon The virus is still in the villa, its in several statehouses, governors need to pray, its in the business world, it has a number of people to kill, the only thing to do is prayer, people grumbled the other time we said it. The virus is still in the villa, its in several statehouses, governors need to pray, its in the business world, it has a number of people to kill, the only thing to do is prayer, people grumbled the other time we said it. Its in the villa, another thing will happen there soon, this isnt a doom prophecy but that is what I see. The virus is in the villa, I support Aisha Buhari, she is fighting for a good course, people are not just seeing her angle, she should be supported. We dont need more death in the villa but COVID-19 death is threatening the villa, part of his statement read. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has joined a group of dozens of performers, writers, directors, trade bodies and unions in signing the letter (Matt Crossick/PA) Phoebe Waller-Bridge, James McAvoy and Toby Jones have thrown their support behind a letter warning that the UK theatre industry stands on the brink of ruin. The trio of actors have joined a group of dozens of performers, writers, directors, trade bodies and unions in signing a letter to the Government which says many venues face the risk of permanent closure. The letter states: Without Government investment, theatres will be forced to close and may never return. Expand Close James McAvoy was among the signatories (Isabel Infantes/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp James McAvoy was among the signatories (Isabel Infantes/PA) The threat of British theatre being destroyed by accident is as real as it is bleak. It would not only be a spiritual tragedy but an economic one. Research by the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre suggests 70% of theatres will run out of money by the end of 2020. Culture will play a crucial role as we emerge from the crisis, the letter states. Theatre is one of the UKs most dazzling success stories. In all its forms, whether drama, musical theatre, opera or dance, British theatre is a world-class cultural and economic force, with productions filling venues from Broadway to Beijing. Video of the Day Expand Close Musicals Les Miserables, Mary Poppins, Hamilton and The Phantom Of The Opera will not return to the West End this year (Victoria Jones/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Musicals Les Miserables, Mary Poppins, Hamilton and The Phantom Of The Opera will not return to the West End this year (Victoria Jones/PA) The warning has been backed by the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre trade body and the Bectu and Equity trade unions. Actors Reece Shearsmith, Sharon D Clarke and Wendell Pierce and playwright Tom Stoppard also signed the letter, which was addressed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden. The letter calls for the Government to support the theatre workforce by continuing the job retention scheme and setting up a new support package for freelancers working in the sector. It also calls for tax reliefs for theatres and the businesses who supply them, as well as support to help make venues Covid-19 secure, and additional relief and investment funds. Speaking at the daily Downing Street press conference, Mr Dowden said it would be exceptionally difficult for theatres to reopen because of social distancing rules. Mr Dowden added that they operated on wafer-thin profit margins that made it difficult for them to reopen without lots of people in the audience. I know how essential our theatres, our musicians and the performing arts are to our cultural ecosystem Culture is s calling card I am in no doubt the best thing we can do is push for its renewal & recovery#DailyBriefing pic.twitter.com/JAyEzFiNd0 Oliver Dowden (@OliverDowden) June 17, 2020 He said he was looking to see what further support could be offered to the industry, adding that there would need to be greater flexibility to overcome practical obstacles to the return of live performance. So thats why over the next week we will be convening experts in a targeted way, bringing together our leading performers in theatres, choirs and orchestras with medical experts and advisers, he said. And the idea is that they will work together in detail to develop that road map which is so badly needed to performing safely with a particular focus on piloting innovative ideas that may permit live performances. On Wednesday it was revealed that musicals Les Miserables, Mary Poppins, Hamilton and The Phantom Of The Opera will not return to the West End this year. Theatre owner Sir Cameron Mackintosh urged politicians to take action to help the sector, adding: Despite the Government engaging with the desperate pleas from everyone in the theatre industry, so far there has been no tangible practical support beyond offers to go into debt, which I dont want to do. Their inability to say when the impossible constraints of social distancing will be lifted makes it equally impossible for us to properly plan for whatever the new future is. A spokeswoman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: The performing arts industry is one of the UKs greatest success stories and we are doing all we can to support the sector through the pandemic. We are providing unprecedented assistance including a years business rates holiday, Government loans, the Job Retention Scheme that hundreds of theatres have already received support from and the Arts Council have provided a 160 million emergency response package. We are committed to opening up venues as soon as it is safe to do so and are working directly with the sector on detailed advice and guidance. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Ghana has threatened to withdraw their services by halting the supply of drugs to the various healthcare facilities funded by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) from July 1. Executive Secretary of the Association, Lucia Addae on Eyewitness News said health facilities, which are largely government hospitals had not paid the Association for five years now, despite receiving funds from the NHIA. With the members of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, what we are saying is we understand that the government pays some of these health facilities. The challenge is that health facilities do not want to give us our money. You know we are in difficult times. These are not in normal times so it is very difficult for everyone but we have been supplying medicine for five years, huge sums of money and we are not getting our money and we are still expected to supply. We are looking at withdrawing services effective 1st July. The consequences will be that some of the health facilities that render NHIS services will not have the medication, Lucia Addae added. According to her, attempts to get the Association to pay them their money has been met with excuses from the Health facilities. Usually when we ask, what they tell us is that they have not received their reimbursement from the government and because there is no transparency, you go and do not get the money and there is still an emotional appeal to supply medication. We have been doing credit business and it is not helping us. Ms Addae said funds owed the Association exceeds GHS300 million. The funds in question cover drugs that have been supplied to health facilities for five years now. She pointed out that health facilities have either sold these drugs in cash or on the National Health Insurance Scheme. The Association concerns come weeks after the NHIA donated GH250,000 towards the government's COVID-19 Trust Fund. The decision was intensely criticised by some persons who suggested that the NHIAs high indebtedness to health service providers across the country should not have merited such a donation. The Chamber of Pharmacy Ghana has raised similar concerns over non-payment of funds, forcing the Chamber to halt the supply of medicines on credit to National Health Insurance accredited health facilities. ---citinewsroom Australians were scammed out of more than $11 million last month thanks to a plague of fake money-making schemes and romantic ruses. An incredible $3.9 million was lost in investment scams in May alone, with families struggling financially during the pandemic hoping to make some extra cash. Dating and romance scams, where crooks target the lovelorn and lonely, cost a whopping $2.5 million in the same month. Fake billing scams, as well as identity theft and online shopping fraud, also cost Australians dearly, according to a report from the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission. The elderly aged over 65 were most at risk of being scammed, with those aged between 35 and 44 the next most likely to be hit. The highest number of reported scams came from online phishing emails and texts (pictured) which often target the elderly (stock image) Online phishing scams received the most reports in May, with households losing $185,000 combined, up 190 per cent from April. The data also highlighted an increase of superannuation scams, which has become a lucrative business for crooks during the COVID-19 crisis. 'Scammers are cold-calling people claiming to be from organisations that can help you get early access to your super,' ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said. As part of emergency economic measures brought in to help people during the pandemic, many Australians were given early access to a chunk of their superannuation. There have been cases of scammers attempting to defraud the government's superannuation programme (pictured, an ATO information page about the scheme) Under new rules to help people through the crisis, workers can take $20,000 out of their retirement funds tax-free. Eligible applicants can take $10,000 of their super between 20 April and 30 June 2020 and a further $10,000 until September 24. The commission also revealed a spine in the number of phishing emails and text messages, which is when a scammer pretends to be a government official and requests personal information. Scammers have become particularly adept at tapping into fears about the coronavirus crisis, with misinformation rife about government schemes and medical advice. Cruel fraudsters even used lucrative puppy scams to target lonely people isolating during the crisis, raking in $300,000 so far this year. There has been a huge spike in the number of people falling for puppy scams, with lonely and isolated households looking for companionship (stock image) Scamwatch has seen a recent spike in puppy scams and in April reports were almost five times higher than the average, with losses on track to exceed the 2019 total of $360,000. 'A lot of people are stuck at home and going online to buy a pet to help them get through the loneliness of social isolation,' ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said. 'Unfortunately the rush to get a new pet and the unusual circumstances of COVID-19 makes it harder to work out whats real or a scam.' Scammers set up fake websites or ads on online classifieds and social media pretending to sell sought-after dog breeds. They are then taking advantage of the fact that a potential owner cant travel to meet the puppy in person, convincing them to make upfront payments. 'Once you have paid the initial deposit, the scammer will find new ways to ask for more money,' Ms Rickard said. 'And scammers are now using the COVID-19 pandemic to claim higher transportation costs to get across closed interstate borders or additional fees for "coronavirus treatments". 'Unfortunately once you make the payments, the seller will cease all contact.' But the conversation may be as far as it goes. The parent-teacher organization, whose top leadership is mostly white, is still backing the shuttle, saying parents should push for the shuttle while also advocating for safe transportation options for all students. The groups petition also calls for the city to fund transportation for homeless students living in hotels on New York Avenue, which became a flash point last year before the city offered a long-term shuttle for the families. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Peru's health ministry said Tuesday that the hard-hit nation's coronavirus death toll had reached 7,056, the third-highest in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico. Officials said the number of confirmed cases is now beyond 237,000 in Peru, which has been under a nationwide lockdown for three months. With a population of 33 million, Peru has the second-highest number of confirmed cases in Latin America after Brazil. Nevertheless, Health Minister Victor Zamora told reporters that the number of new cases has begun to decrease. Peru's healthcare system is on the verge of collapse, with more than 10,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals. Seventy percent of Peru's cases have been reported in the Lima metropolitan area, home to a third of the country's population. The death toll includes more than 200 inmates who caught the disease in Peru's overcrowded prisons, at least 170 police officers working to enforce curfews and border closures, and more than 50 medical personnel, according to official figures. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 05:42:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close - China and Africa have withstood the test of a severe challenge and enhanced solidarity, friendship and mutual trust in the face of COVID-19 - China will continue to do whatever it can to support Africa's response to COVID-19 - Once the development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccine is completed in China, African countries will be among the first to benefit - China will cancel the debt of relevant African countries in the form of interest-free government loans that are due to mature by the end of 2020 within the FOCAC framework - Closer cooperation between China and Africa "is needed more than ever." BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called on China and Africa to defeat the novel coronavirus with solidarity and cooperation. The two sides should work together to build a China-Africa community of health for all and take their comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership to a greater height. Xi made the remarks in Beijing when chairing the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19, held via video link. Chinese President Xi Jinping chairs the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 and delivers a keynote speech at the summit in Beijing, capital of China, June 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen) The summit was jointly initiated by China, South Africa, the rotating chair of the African Union (AU), and Senegal, the co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). STICK TOGETHER IN COLLABORATION Noting that China and Africa have withstood the test of a severe challenge and enhanced solidarity, friendship and mutual trust in the face of COVID-19, Xi said the two sides must mobilize necessary resources, stick together in collaboration to protect people's lives and health, and minimize the fallout of COVID-19. He called on both sides to stay committed to fighting COVID-19 together, saying that China will continue to do whatever it can to support Africa's response. "China will lose no time in following through on the measures I announced at the opening of the World Health Assembly, and continue to help African countries by providing supplies, sending expert teams, and facilitating Africa's procurement of medical supplies in China," Xi said. The second batch of medical aids offered by Chinese government is pictured at Blaise Diagne International Airport in Dakar, Senegal, April 20, 2020. (Photo by Eddy Peters/Xinhua) He said China will start ahead of schedule the construction of the Africa CDC headquarters this year, work with Africa to fully deliver the health care initiative adopted at the FOCAC Beijing Summit, and speed up the construction of China-Africa Friendship Hospitals and the cooperation between paired-up Chinese and African hospitals. "We pledge that once the development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccine is completed in China, African countries will be among the first to benefit," said Xi. So far, China has sent to over 50 African countries and the AU their much-needed supplies, dispatched medical experts, and shared its anti-epidemic experience via video conferences. A communique issued on June 13 by the AU said China has ensured the supply of 30 million testing kits, 10,000 ventilators and 80 million masks each month for Africa, a "significant contribution." China's medical supplies for 18 African countries arrive at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, capital of Ghana, April 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at the meeting that the summit "demonstrates the depth and resilience of solidarity between China and Africa." "Sino-African solidarity and better multilateral cooperation is key to winning the battle against this pandemic," he said, calling on both sides to continue to strengthen the bonds of solidarity and take collective action to secure the future of humanity. Ramaphosa expressed the gratitude of the African people to Xi, the Chinese government and people for their generous donation of personal protective equipment and other medical assistance. Describing the summit as "an excellent initiative," Senegalese President Macky Sall said in his speech that leaders attending the meeting have reaffirmed their aspiration to consolidate the friendship between Africa and China. Sall also voiced support for the role of the World Health Organization in coordinating the global response to the epidemic. EFFORTS TO CUSHION IMPACT In his speech, Xi encouraged China and African countries to strengthen Belt and Road cooperation and accelerate the follow-ups to the FOCAC Beijing Summit. "Greater priority needs to be given to cooperation on public health, economic reopening, and people's livelihood," said Xi. Chinese President Xi Jinping chairs the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 and delivers a keynote speech at the summit in Beijing, capital of China, June 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) He said China will cancel the debt of relevant African countries in the form of interest-free government loans that are due to mature by the end of 2020 within the FOCAC framework. For those African countries that are hardest hit by the coronavirus and are under heavy financial stress, China will work with the global community to give them greater support, Xi said. China will work with other members of the G20 to implement the G20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative and urge the G20 to extend debt service suspension still further for countries concerned, including those in Africa, Xi added. He said China supports Africa in its effort to develop the African Continental Free Trade Area and to enhance connectivity and strengthen industrial and supply chains. China will explore broader cooperation with Africa in such new business forms as digital economy, smart city, clean energy, and 5G to boost Africa's development and revitalization, said Xi. UPHOLD MULTILATERALISM Stressing that solidarity and cooperation is "the most powerful weapon" in the face of COVID-19, Xi called on China and Africa to stay committed to upholding multilateralism. "We oppose politicization and stigmatization of COVID-19, and we oppose racial discrimination and ideological bias. We stand firm for equity and justice in the world," he said. Noting that the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, Xi said closer cooperation between China and Africa is needed more than ever. He called on both sides to support each other on issues involving respective core interests and advance the fundamental interests of China and Africa as well as all developing countries. "This way, we will be able to take the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership to a greater height," he said. Members of a Chinese medical team visit Mvurwi Hospital in Mvurwi, Zimbabwe, May 19, 2020.(Xinhua/Zhang Yuliang) Other African leaders that attended the summit include Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat. Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres and Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attended the meeting as special guests. Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, was also present at the summit. A joint statement was issued after the summit. Chen Xiaodong, assistant Chinese foreign minister, said after the summit that what Xi advocated in his speech showed the firm determination of China and Africa to defeat the epidemic and overcome difficulties, indicated direction for future cooperation and injected impetus into international anti-epidemic efforts. During the summit, China and Africa expressed support for each other not only on epidemic fight and economic and social development, but also on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, said Chen, adding that it is "a vivid illustration of a China-Africa community with a shared future." WASHINGTON Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said Tuesday hes OK with renaming military bases such as Fort Bragg that are named after Confederate Army officers, declining to side with President Donald Trump and other Republicans opposed to the move. The Kentucky senator said he'll live with whatever lawmakers decide as they debate an annual defense policy bill for the military in the coming weeks. Trump has blasted the calls to rename the military bases. "Hopefully our great Republican Senators wont fall for this! he said in a tweet last week. A GOP-controlled Senate panel voted last week to require bases such as Fort Bragg and Fort Hood to be renamed within three years. McConnell, himself the descendant of a Confederate veteran, didn't endorse the idea but said he wouldn't oppose it. Similarly, top House Republican Kevin McCarthy of California said last week after repeated prodding that he doesn't oppose the idea. I can only speak for myself on this issue. If it's appropriate to take another look at these names I'm OK with that, McConnell said. Whatever is ultimately decided I don't have a problem with. The debate over the Confederate flag and other symbols of slavery and black oppression has burst open in the wake of widespread protests over police abuse of African Americans and specifically the choking death of George Floyd. Public opinion has shifted dramatically since Floyd's killing. The Democratic-controlled House is sure to include legislation to rename bases and it's plain that Republicans in the Senate who are opposed to the idea, such as Josh Hawley of Missouri, don't have the votes to remove it during floor debate. The Senate's requirement for the bases to be renamed within three years was approved by a voice vote as a piece of the annual Pentagon policy bill. A commission would be set up to oversee the process. But McConnell came out forcefully against a proposal by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remove statues of Confederates such as Jefferson Davis from display in the Capitol, calling it nonsense and saying it would airbrush the Capitol. McConnell is sticking with the Washington tradition and current law of having states choose their own statues for display in the Capitol complex, saying its preferable for states like Mississippi, home to Confederate President Davis, to remove them on their own. TRENTON Guess whos back, back again? Former city clerk Dwayne Harris confirmed hes being hired as a consultant to train acting clerk Eric Berry. Harris, who left last month to become administrator and clerk in Berlin Borough, confirmed he will be compensated $50 an hour for up to 10 hours a week as part of a three-month deal with the capital city. The seventh former business administrator under corrupt former Mayor Tony Mack, Berry worked in various management positions in municipal government, including supervising clerks in smaller municipalities, but never as a municipal clerk. Berry, who took over in Trenton on May 23 and bills the city $1,400 a week, according to a city spokesman, was fired in 2017 from his post as township administrator in Willingboro after less than six months. He filed suit, and a judge ordered the township to pay out a $275,000 settlement. Despite saying he was very, very familiar with the Faulkner Act, Berry has struggled to adjust to his new role, some city officials suggested. He was not in the office Wednesday and didnt respond to an emailed request for comment. Trenton council president Kathy McBride said the Department of Community Affairs required the consulting arrangement since Berry has no experience overseeing elections. The Democratic presidential primary in New Jersey is July 7. It was not a choice of ours, she said. That was a DCA stipulation. Tammori Petty, a DCA spokeswoman, said the agency advised the city it could benefit from retaining a consultant. DCA did not require Dwayne Harris specifically but suggested that his willingness to assist part-time would be a good way to meet this short-term.transitional need, she said. The Harris consulting deal appears to validate some of the criticism of the hiring of Berry, who was appointed last month 5 to 2. Councilmen Jerell Blakeley and Joe Harrison voted against Berrys appointment citing his lack of qualifications. They cited his lack of a Registered Municipal Clerk certification, but New Jersey law says governing bodies may appoint a person who does not hold a registered municipal clerk certificate to serve as acting municipal clerk for a period not to exceed one year. At the time Berry was hired, Blakeley accused McBride and other council members of a coup detat to replace Harris, who was approaching his three-year tenure date. He said opening up Harris position to applicants was tantamount to firing him. Harris previously told The Trentonian he was surprised and confused by McBrides decision to open up the position to applications. The uncertainty made him apply in other municipalities, with Harris saying he was smart enough to see the writing on the wall. Blakeley told The Trentonian on Wednesday that he was baffled by news of the consulting deal. This is just one more example of the fundamental lack of vision of my colleagues, he said. We literally have someone who has great difficulties in conducting role call. We should have retained the services of Mr. Harris. Mayor Reed Gusciora was among those who commended Harris service to the city. He said he wasnt in a position to judge the job that Berry has done replacing Harris. Thats councils business, he said. I honestly cant because hes so new and because of COVID. I know hes doing some on-the-job learning. Disagreeing with suggestions of incompetence, McBride said the legislative body didnt expect perfection when it hired Berry. Things didnt run smooth for [Mr. Harris], either. Everybody has their little bumps in the road. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Andrea Fuller and Duncan Mitchell (The Jakarta Post) The Conversation Wed, June 17, 2020 10:39 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf6583c 3 Health fever,antibody,coronavirus,COVID-19,symptoms Free As lockdowns are lifted, procedures are being put in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Along with physical distancing, hand sanitization and wearing of masks, fever screening is increasingly being set up as a requirement before entry is allowed into hospitals, shops, workplaces and schools. But there are physiological and clinical reasons why fever screening simply wont work. Andrea Fuller and Duncan Mitchell explain why fever screening is unlikely to reduce the spread of the virus. Their arguments are based on an understanding of the physiology of fever, body temperature measurement, and fever prevalence in people who transmit COVID-19. What happens to your body when you have a fever? Fever is a temporary elevation of body core temperature. It is part of a defensive response to infection by a virus. When you develop a fever, you feel cold, heat generation in your body increases (achieved by shivering) and heat loss decreases (achieved by seeking warmth, covering up and reducing the flow of warm blood to the skin). When a fever breaks, either naturally or because you have taken an antipyretic like paracetamol, you feel warm. Your reactions include increasing the flow of warm blood to the skin and sweating, which helps to bring the bodys core temperature back to normal. What are the limitations to infrared thermometers or thermal cameras detecting fevers? Detecting fever requires measuring body core temperature. To do that accurately, you need to put a thermometer into the body core. Temperature in the rectum and the mouth get close to body core temperature. Needing to measure body core temperature raises the first problem with fever screening. Thermal cameras and infrared thermometers measure heat radiating from a surface in other words surface temperature. They dont measure body core temperature. Measuring surface temperature has contributed usefully to healthcare and to biology. For example, infrared cameras have shown whether skin grafts are receiving blood. On the biology front they have shown that toucans dump body heat through their bills. But the forehead skin or inner eye temperatures that infrared thermometers or thermal cameras usually measure in fever screening are not body core temperatures. Human surface temperature is heavily influenced by environmental conditions. In cool environments, surface temperatures can be much lower than body core temperature. And doing exercise, or being exposed to the sun, can raise the temperature on our foreheads above body core temperature. Thermal cameras screen for high skin temperature. They can and do find high face temperatures that have nothing to do with infections. Those false positives waste time and money in unnecessary follow-up. Another problem is that skin temperature does not rise during the developing phase of a fever. It falls, because warm blood is kept away from the skin. So your skin temperature changes in the opposite direction to your body core temperature. Thermal cameras would declare you safe, because your skin temperature is low, but you could be in the most infectious phase of the fever. No surface temperature is a reliable indicator of fever. Could better fever screening detect COVID-19? Even if infrared thermometers could detect fever reliably, they could not detect COVID-19 reliably. Nor could any other thermometer. Patients with COVID-19 are not guaranteed to have a fever. Recent research indicates that many people who test positive for COVID-19, and especially children, never have any detectable sign of illness, including fever. Even people who later do show symptoms will not have a fever during COVID-19s incubation phase, which can last nearly two weeks. During this period, when they are asymptomatic, they can spread the virus. The finding that infected people without symptoms shed virus is the Achilles heel of controlling the current pandemic. To add to the problem, not all patients with symptoms will have a fever, at least on the basis of once-off measurement. Only 31% of patients presenting at New York State hospitals with COVID-19 had fevers. So, in addition to not measuring body core temperature well, infrared thermometers are being used to find a high temperature that many people exposed to COVID-19 wont have. Has fever screening ever helped to prevent the spread of viruses? Thermal cameras were introduced at airports at the outbreak of the 2002/3 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) pandemic. They were widespread in airports during the 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic. But for medical and technological reasons they have failed to prevent the import of any virus causing respiratory disease. They have failed even in combination with other interventions like follow-up contact and health declaration questionnaires. For example, 930 people who presented as potentially infected candidates were picked out by thermal screening from over 9 million passengers entering Japan in 2009/2010. But not one case of H1N1 influenza was diagnosed. The data from Ebola shows the same pattern. Not one case of Ebola virus infection was picked up in 166,242 airport passengers screened when entering and leaving Sierra Leone in the 2014/2016 outbreak. In the case of COVID-19, CNN has reported that no cases were detected among the more than 30,000 passengers screened with thermal cameras at US airports by mid-February 2020 . Some scientists have been forthright about the dubious value of fever screening, arguing that border screening for infectious diseases should not be continued. Is there any place for fever screening? Perhaps, there may be benefits. Some people with viral infections who know they are sick attempt to conceal their illness. Travelers wanting to fly home are prone to do so. Others take antipyretic drugs, hoping to avoid triggering thermal cameras. Though there still is no scientific evidence, researchers have suggested that the prospect of being caught by fever screening is a deterrent to such dishonesty. But we do not believe that the potential benefit outweighs the negatives. Apart from fever screening being unreliable, infrared thermometry poses a risk to thermometer operators who are required to come up close to potentially infected persons. Successfully passing a fever screen can create a false sense of security. And the thermal cameras used for mass screening are costly. So are the personnel required for any fever screening. --- Andrea Fuller, Professor, School of Physiology; Director, Brain Function Research Group, University of the Witwatersrand and Duncan Mitchell, Adjunct Professor in the School of Human Sciences, University of Western Australia, and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Chinas incredible economic expansion has earned it the status of the worlds largest CO2 emitter. While the Asian countrys economy is second only to the U.S. its emission of greenhouse gasses far outstrips its competitors. Partly it can be attributed to globalization because emissions as a result of the production process are attributed to the origin country, not to foreign consumers. Another reason for Chinas status as the worlds largest polluter is the cheap and relatively inefficient production processes. Rampant environmental pollution motivated Beijing to decouple economic growth and fossil fuel consumption in 2015 when Beijing pledged to cut energy intensity by 15 percent from 2016 to 2020. The country was on track in the first three years, but by 2019 the goal was lowered to 13 percent. The slowing economy at the end of 2019 created room for the easing of restrictions. The Coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated that trend. Related: Oil Markets May Not Fully Recover Until 2022 During this years gathering of the National Peoples Congress (NPC), the top legislative body dropped the annual growth figure. Also, the pandemic forced Beijing to drop another key measure concerning energy conservation. Although Chinas premier Li Keqiang told the congress that the 13 percent target will be dropped, he did confirm the countrys commitment to decrease energy consumption per unit of GDP. The health crisis is posing a similar question to countries across the world: where to draw the line between the economy and health. In China's case, it means that its CO2 emissions will increase stronger than anticipated as the economy is struggling to regain its momentum. Besides financial-economic considerations, geopolitics and security strongly influence Beijings decisions in the short term. The easing of environmental restrictions opens the door for additional investments in the Asian giant's coal sector, which makes up for about 65 percent of the energy mix. Chinese investors are moving ahead with 120-130 GW of new capacity approvals over the next 5 years, bringing the total to around 1,200 GW. However, according to Frank Yu, principal consultant at Wood Mackenzie, we expect the government to reaffirm commitments to environmental targets. Beijings contradictory policies concerning the easing of restrictions on CO2 emissions on the one hand and increasing support for renewables on the other, partly stem from security concerns. Chinese-U.S. relations have cooled to their lowest point since Tiananmen square making policymakers wary of their overseas dependence on energy. China is already expected to tighten import rules of coal to promote its domestic sector. These restrictions will first impact Australia after Canberra called for an international investigation into the origins of the Coronavirus pandemic which angered Beijing. Also, Western countries are increasingly feeling pressure to reduce the import dependence of essential goods, especially from China. This has not gone unnoticed in Beijing who owes its wealth and power to globalization. Officials seem to be preparing for a world where the countrys outsized role in global supply chains is going to diminish. President Xi announced Chinas most recent development plan during the NPC which will focus on the domestic market rather than export-led growth. Renewable energy technologies fit perfectly in this plan. While CO2 emissions will undoubtedly grow in the next couple of years, expect investments in China's domestic wind and solar power industry to maintain momentum. The production of wind turbines and photovoltaic cells strengthens the country's energy security as production is done domestically. An additional benefit is the reduced dependence on foreign fossil fuels. According to Jonathan Luan, an analyst at BloombergNEF in Beijing, Chinas policies show its willingness to be prudent and conservative amid the pandemic". In the short term this means increased CO2 emissions, but dont expect it to undermine the countrys long-term goals regarding reduced fossil fuel consumption and efficiency. Especially the growth of renewables is important which is part of Beijings Made in China 2025 strategy. By Vanand Meliksetian for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A man wearing hi vis has been captured on camera scaling the side of an apartment block before jumping onto the roof of a car as he tried to evade two police officers. Footage, recorded on Hindley Street, in Adelaide's CBD, on Tuesday, shows the man dangling from an apartment balcony as a cop tried to grab his arm. He then attempts to get away from the officers by jumping onto the roof of a parked car before he slips and falls towards another policeman. A man dressed in hi vis has been seen allegedly attempting to escape police by scaling down the side of a building Officers claim the man had led them on a high speed chase reaching speeds of up to 152km/h the previous day. In the short clip, one officer is heard shouting: 'Are you going to jump'. The man replied: 'Yeah' before he made his attempted escape. Prior to the arrest the man had allegedly been involved with a series of offences on Monday. The 29-year-old allegedly failed to stop for police patrol before he led the officers on a chase that saw him reach speeds of up to 152km/h in a 80km/h zone. He was charged with a string of offences including driving to evade police, driving while disqualified, property damage and breaching his bail. The man, from Smithfield Plains, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday and will be held in custody until he appears in court again on 14 July. Reliance Jio Seeking DOT's Permission For 5G Testing In Lab News oi-Priyanka Dua Reliance Jio is reportedly planning to do 5G testing alone in India. The operator is looking for the Department of Telecommunication approval for the 5G testing in the lab. The operator wants to do testing alone. This means that Reliance Jio is not taking help from any network gear maker to do the 5G trials. "We are looking at the Reliance Jio proposal and a call will be taken soon," sources in DoT were quoted by Financial Express. However, there is an announcement from the operator's side. It is worth mentioning that in the lab testing the non-radiating trials are limited to that particular area, where the testing is going on. The report said that there is no need for 5G airwaves for the testing. But, Reliance Jio requires permission from the ministry. Furthermore, Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea have asked the ministry for the 5G trials, but still, DOT has not given any approval for the trials. Apart from telecom operators, network gear makers, such as Nokia, ZTE, Samsung, Ericsson, and Huawei have applied for the 5G trials in India. For the unaware, in 2019, the ministry has announced guidelines for 5G trials. Reliance Jio Might 2.32% Stake To Saudi Arabia's PIF Meanwhile, India's largest telecom operator is likely to sell its 2.32 percent stake to Saudi Arabia's PIF for $1.5 billion, reports Gulf News. If the deal goes through, then Reliance Industries will have only a 75 percent stake in Jio platforms. This development comes after Jio sold its stake to TPG and L Catterton for Rs. 6,441 crore. "This investment values Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs. 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs. 5.16 lakh crore. With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs.104,326.95 crore from leading global investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, and L Catterton since April 22, 2020," Reliance Jio said. Best Mobiles in India With Texas two weeks into a gradual reopening, and bars welcoming drinkers on May 22, the state's entrepreneurs got a head start over their peers in many other states, which are just starting to reopen. The Texas experience can help entrepreneurs everywhere know what to expect from the next phase of the Covid-19 crisis--a stage that brings both great relief and new worries. Here are some Lone Star stories. 1. Consult the Competition. To Jayson Rapaport, co-founder of Birds Barbershop, a chain of nine hair salons around Austin, one of the key parts of the process has been his efforts to consult with experts and other local business leaders, including competitors. After getting advice on new safety procedures from an infectious disease expert who happened to be a client, he reached out to his counterparts at several other salons, as well as store and restaurant owners. "Everyone is making decisions without knowing the outcome," he says. "So we can all work off each other." One insight from those conversations: Keep chit chat with customers to a minimum--which is out of the ordinary for a barber shop-- because even with masks, talking increases the chance that the virus will spread. 2. Don't Rush It. When Texas governor Greg Abbott announced on May 5 that hair salons would be able to open on May 8, Rapaport says, "we knew we wouldn't be ready. We felt the protection wouldn't be in place to be able to confidently greet even the most nervous customers, so we didn't open until 10 days later." Two months with no revenue had burned through the company's savings--"We were at risk of not making it," Rapaport says--but the founders knew that making a good first impression was more important than rushing to open. "Just because the government says you can open, don't do it until you are ready. Your PPE order gets canceled or delayed? Don't open. Don't cut any corners. Wait for the guidelines, and then try to surpass them." 3. Embrace Change. "The magic word is pivot," says Ally Davidson, co-founder of the Austin-based fitness bootcamp company Camp Gladiator. "If your business hasn't changed or pivoted in some way in the past eight weeks, you are not keeping up with what's going on." For Camp Gladiator, the product offering--in-person group fitness classes--became impossible as soon as the coronavirus lockdown began in March. The company started offering virtual workout classes via Zoom and recruited 20,000 new members--while retaining 97 percent of its existing customers. Now that business is re-opening, the company has decided its new product is here to stay. Says Davidson: "The world has changed. You have to find a way to embrace that change and make yourself more accessible, more in tune with what customers need. You can't sit back on your heels and wait to go back to normal, because there might not be a back to normal." 4. Keep the Team Sane. Paul Allen, founder of Dallas-based accounting consultancy Embark, has always prided himself on creating a people-first corporate culture. When it came time to send his whole team into remote work, he was quick to emphasize that getting work done isn't enough; staffers, he said, have been expected to "positively impact" one another and head off feelings of isolation simply by regularly interacting--on email and Slack, sure, but also in challenges and activities such as taking calls while hiking, or competitions between teams to log the most physical activity in a day. Likewise, now that the office is beginning to reopen, Allen is looking for ways to help staffers manage their anxieties about coming back. "If you are not really paying attention to the emotional and mental health of your team, you are setting yourself up for more risk down the line," he says. "Some of these huggy-feely type things we talk about really matter. They have an actual bottom-line impact." 5. Seek New Partners. For six years, Alex Danza's business-class bus service, Vonlane, has steadily grown into the no-hassle ride of choice for the many professionals who regularly shuttle between Texas's largest cities for meetings. That business dried up almost completely in March. Today, although Texans have begun to hit the road again (and Vonlane has reopened with spaced-out seating), business travel has so far lagged. The company has found new revenue streams by "trying to shake every tree," Danza says. That means parcel deliveries, private charters, and perhaps most promisingly, partnering with recreational destinations. "Cruise lines are going to start departing out of Galveston again, and we are a great alternative for people to get there, or to casinos across the border in Oklahoma or Louisiana. If we can partner to offer a two-night stay, 50 bucks in chips, and a first-class ride back and forth, we think people will buy that." 6. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. "Overcommunicate with your customers and your team," advises Danza. "Let everyone know exactly where they stand at all times. I've done an email to the customer base, a video to the customer base, and constant videos to the team, every step of the way, letting them know where we stand and the steps we are taking for their safety." He finds himself fuming at businesses that haven't done the same, like a summer camp for his kids that didn't reach out until two weeks before its start date, or a ticket-sales company that postponed a concert he'd planned to attend without any detail about possible refunds or new dates. "Even if you don't have an exact answer, let people know you will tell them as soon as you do know. It's such an uncertain time, people will understand--as long as you're transparent." 7. It's a Startup, Not a Reopening. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 05:57:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A couple wearing masks walk on Lake Tuz in the central Anatolian region of Turkey on June 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Mustafa Kaya) --Iran's COVID-19 cases over 190,000; --Turkey's COVID-19 cases over 180,000; --Saudi Arabia sees new cases over 4,000 for 3 days in a row; --Chinese team ends mission to help Palestine against COVID-19. CAIRO, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 continues to rage in the Middle East as numbers in the two worst-hit countries, Iran and Turkey, showed no slowdown, while Saudi Arabia saw over 4,000 new cases for three days in a row. On Tuesday, Iran reported 2,563 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number in the country to 192,439. Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said that 115 people died overnight from the virus, raising the total fatalities to 9,065. So far, a total of 152,675 patients have recovered and 2,815 others remain in critical condition, said Lari. Iran topped the list in terms of confirmed cases in the Middle East again on June 7 after Turkey posed slowing down increases while the numbers remarkably rebounded in Iran amid easing of restrictions. People wearing face mask walks on a street in Tonekabon city northern Iran, on June 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz) Nevertheless, Turkey seems also facing huge pressure on preventing another wave of the pandemic after stepping up the "back to normal" process since June 1. Turkey reported 1,467 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, raising the tally to 181,298, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. This marked the sixth consecutive day with over 1,000 new cases in Turkey, which had witnessed three-digit daily rises for nearly two weeks. And 17 more deaths were recorded, pushing the death toll to 4,842, Koca said, adding the total recoveries rose by 1,015 to 153,379 in the country. As the third worst-hit country in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has been suffering the fastest rises in new cases in the region for dozens of days. After registering over 3,000 new positive cases of COVID-19 for eight days in a row, Saudi Arabia has seen daily new infections over 4,000 for the third consecutive day on Tuesday. It registered 4,267 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally of infections in the kingdom to 136,315. The death toll increased to 1,052 after 41 new fatalities were added, and the total recoveries stood at 89,540. Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila (C) and Palestinian officials seen during honoring ceremony for Members of a Chinese medical team, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Ayman Nobani) Also on Tuesday, a Chinese medical expert team concluded a mission to support Palestine's fight against COVID-19. The team, which arrived in Palestine on June 10, was put together by China's National Health Commission with the members selected by the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission. Prior to this visit, China had sent medical supplies to Palestine and organized several meetings between Palestinian and Chinese medical experts via video conferences. On Tuesday, Palestine announced that 11 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, bringing the total number of infection cases up to 700. Qatar's Health Ministry announced 1,201 new COVID-19 cases, increasing the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 82,077. Meanwhile, 1,780 more people recovered from the coronavirus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 60,461, while four more people died, increasing the fatalities to 80, the official Qatar News Agency reported, quoting a statement by the ministry. A man receives a coronavirus test at a drive-through testing site a drive-through testing site in Cairo, Egypt on June 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) Kuwait on Tuesday reported 527 new cases of COVID-19 and five more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 36,958 and the death toll to 303, said its Health Ministry. Currently, 8,449 patients are receiving treatment, including 194 in ICU. The ministry also announced the recovery of 675 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 28,206. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced 346 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 42,982 and death toll to 293. The ministry added that 732 more patients made full recovery from the virus, taking the tally of the UAE's recoveries to 28,861. Egypt confirmed the same day 1,567 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total cases registered in the country since mid-February to 47,856, said the Egyptian health minister. Meanwhile, 94 patients died from the novel coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 1,766, and 401 COVID-19 patients recovered, increasing the total recoveries in the country to 12,730. The Chinese Community in Ghana has donated 15 Ventilators and 20,000 medical masks to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital. The Community has also donated 1,600 N95 masks, 120 protective suits, 60 face shields, and 100 medical goggles to the Hospital. Speaking at the donation ceremony on Wednesday, June 17, the outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting Wang, expressed the hope these supplies can help Ghana win the battle as early as possible. He stated that the items were donated through a partnership between the Chinese Embassy in Ghana and the Chinese Community. He noted that the Covid-19 global pandemic is most extensive to afflict humanity in a century. A serious crisis for the entire world, and a daunting challenge, it poses a grave threat to human life and health. This is a war that humanity has to fight and win. Facing this unknown, unexpected, devastating disease, China launched a resolute battle to prevent and control its spread, he added. He said making peoples lives and health its first priority, China adopted extensive, stringent, and thorough containment measures, and has for now succeeded in turning the situation around. There are only a few home-grown confirmed cases in China right now. A decisive victory was secured but we are still vigilant and extremely cautious. The COVID-19 pandemic is raging the world. Lives are lost every single day. 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. Above others, China put it a top priority to help developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America especially Africa improve their capacity and performance in epidemic prevention and control. In addition to the medical supplies sent to over 50 African countries and the AU, and 7 medical expert teams dispatched to the continent, China will offer more assistance to African countries, and continue to do all in its power to offer support. China and Ghana stood hand in hand since the beginning of the outbreak. At the beginning of this year when Chinas epidemic situation was in its most difficult period, Ghana has given us a lot of support. And in return, when the outbreak began in Ghana since March, China spares no pains to help Ghana and other African countries in fighting against the virus, he said. China is the first country to send medical supplies by chartered flight to Ghana. In the past few month, batches after batches of medical donations have been sent to Ghana in different ways, including Chinese government assistance, Jack Ma foundation, the local Chinese community and enterprises donations, and etc, he recounted. He assured that We will continue to do so in the future. To enhance strategic communication between China and Africa, and build consensus on uniting to fight against the pandemic, an Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 will be conveyed today. Receiving the items on behalf of the Hospital were Deputy Minister of Health Dr Bernard Oko Boye and Medical Director, Dr. Emmanuel Srofenyoh. Dr. Boye thanked the Chinese Embassy and Community for the support. He says the donation had come at a right time. He said with the Hospital looking to improve its ICU to cater for covid-19 patients, it cannot succeed in that regard without ventilators, thus the donation of 15 Ventilators was a welcoming news. Present at the short ceremony held at the forecourt of the Hospital were Tang Hong, President of Ghana Association of Chinese Societies, and leaders of Chinese Community in Ghana. 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 [June 16, 2020] New Hero Tagahl Sherekhan Arrives in "Shadow Arena" SEOUL, South Korea, June 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pearl Abyss today announced that a new Hero Tagahl Sherekhan has arrived in Shadow Arena, Pearl Abyss' brand new action-packed battle royale game currently available in Early Access on Steam. The free-to-play game now offers eleven Heroes, each catering to different strategies and combat styles. With an origin story written in the annals of Black Desert Online lore, Tagahl Sherekhan is a descendant of the Dragon Hunter tribe Sherekhan. When a ferocious dragon appeared in Calpheon and terrorized its people, they called Tagahl for help. However, when Calpheon failed to reward him for defeating the dragon he turned his back on those lands in discontent and left. He has finally found his way to the world of Shadow Arena, where he is preparing himself for a new battle. Tagahl is a warrior who uses his main weapon, his signature glaive, to deliver widespread damage with every blow. His ability to bypass or weaken his opponents' defenses also allows him to attempt reversals. Players can now use his Inherent Skills to attack enemies more strategically. With the arrival of the new Hero, various in-game events are taking place in Shadow Arena. Players can now claim a Hero through the free DLC package on Steam until July 9. Those who submit their play strategies through the official website or participate in the social media event will also have the chance to win a special item. Until June 18, a Hot Time event will run where players can receive 5 times more silver for completing Daily Quests. In the meantime, "Shadow Arena Regional Cup - Asia" was hosted for the first time to determine the best of the best on the Asia server. The top 3 placements were announced based on points earned during the tournament who received rewards including a special winner's-exclusive skin, title, and a large amount of silver. For more information, visit the official website, Discord, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter . Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200612/2828406-1 SOURCE Pearl Abyss [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Prepare for both provocation and dialogue On Wednesday, North Korea all but nullified the 2018 military agreement with the South as part of its series of phased threats. After suddenly demolishing the inter-Korean liaison office in Gaeseong, Tuesday, the (North) Korean People's Army said that it would dispatch troops to the Mount Geumgang and Gaeseong areas, and reinstall sentry posts and restart military exercises at border areas. With that, and in just over two days, any progress made by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in their 2018 summits has been rendered null and void. Tension is expected to rise, but the North should consider the wisdom of placing the two Koreas into an exhausting pattern of attrition that prevents co-prosperity and further moves toward peace. For its part, the South should respond with readiness to prevent the North from making any miscalculations. It will be difficult as the North seems intent on embarrassing the South and its leadership. But since the demolition, the South has rightly shifted to a strong stance against the North. The defense ministry warned that the North will "pay a price" if it takes military action. Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday it will not tolerate the North's "unreasonable words and actions" any more, in response to the invective-filled comments toward President Moon by Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's sister. In words ill-fit for such a top state official, Kim said that Moon's comments on the 20th anniversary of the June 15 joint declaration were "shameless sophistry." It would be hard to dispute that the North's intention is to pressure the South into persuading the United States to ease international sanctions. Reports indicate that the North's economic woes are deepening without a let-up in the international sanctions or progress on inter-Korean exchanges. Pundits are also watching to see whether the North is attempting to buttress the status of Kim Yo-jong, the first vice department director of the Workers' Party Central Committee. She has been repeatedly speaking on behalf of Kim Jong-un, who has not been seen lately. While North Korea has not yet registered a major blip on the U.S. radar, the State Department commented that Pyongyang should refrain from "further counterproductive actions." Beijing also issued an indirect warning to the North not to escalate tension on the Korean Peninsula. Thus, South Korea should work with both China and the United States, the former to influence the North and the latter to resume dialogue for both peace, prosperity and denuclearization. The "absence" of the North Korean leader himself in the barrage of threatening actions and verbal salvos leaves hope for possible dialogue amid the escalation. The abrupt resignation of the South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul at this point over the deterioration of inter-Korean ties will not help the situation. As difficult as it is, the government should keep its stern posture of readiness to respond to possible provocations, but also possible pivots toward peace as it helps the North Korean leadership realize that its playbook of brinkmanship will only deepen its isolation and decline. (ANSA) - Rome, June 17 - Around half a million Italian students returned to school in unique circumstances on Wednesday to take the first part of their high-school final exams. The exams are taking place amid stringent safety measures on social distancing and the use of masks due to the coronavirus emergency. The students had to prepare for the crunch tests via distance learning after Italy's schools were closed in March as part of the drive to combat the spread of COVID-19. They are only facing oral tests and the written part of the exams has been dropped this year due to the exceptional situation. "It was by no means certain that the students would be able to be physically present to take these exams," said Education Minister Lucia Azzolina during a visit to the Istituto Quarenghi school in the northern city of Bergamo, one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus. The minister said pupils will be able to return to their classrooms at the start of the next academic year in September. "We have proposed the date of September 14 to the regional governments," she said. A Porsche driver accused of filming and taunting a dying police officer after a horrific crash that killed four officers is facing new charges. On Wednesday, investigators charged 41-year-old Richard Pusey with behaving in an indecent or offensive manner and committing an act outraging public decency. He is already behind bars after he was refused bail when charged with 12 offences relating to a crash on April 22 on Melbourne's Eastern Freeway. A truck hit four officers who had stopped to drug test Pusey and impound his car after he was pulled over for allegedly speeding Richard Pusey was arrested on April 23, one day after the fatal crash which killed four police officers Pictured: Emergency services trying to remove a Porsche from the scene the day after a fatal crash on Eastern Highway in Kew A truck crashed into four officers after they pulled Pusey over for allegedly driving at 149km/h in his Porsche 911 with cannabis and ice in his system. The mortgage broker avoided being struck because he'd been urinating off to the side of the road. He is accused of filming the scene on his mobile phone instead of helping Senior Constable Lynette Taylor as she lay dying. The three male officers were already dead. Public funerals were held for all four officers after the tragedy, which marked the single greatest loss of police life in Victoria's history. The mortgage broker (pictured in a court sketch) avoided being struck because he'd been urinating off to the side of the road Pusey previous 12 charges include 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 Pusey previous 12 charges include 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. He's due to return to court next week. New Delhi, June 17 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took a jibe at Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for taking two days to condole the death of 20 Indian soldiers, including an officer, in Ladakh's Galwan valley. "If it was so painful, why insult Indian Army by not naming China in your tweet? Why take two days to condole? Why address rallies as soldiers were being martyred? Why hide and get the Army blamed by the crony media? Why make paid-media blame Army instead of government of India?" Rahul said in a tweet. The fresh salvo from the Congress leader came after Rajnath Singh on Wednesday afternoon condoled the death of 20 Indian soldiers, including an officer. The Defence Minister in a tweet said, "The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army." Rajnath had addressed a virtual BJP rallies as part of 'Jan Samvad' on Sunday and Monday in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand respectively. At least 20 Indian soldiers, including an officer, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with Chinese PLA troops at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text World needs ambitious plan for next pandemic, Olive, June 13 David Olives opinion piece represents the type of forward thinking that Canada and other countries around the world need to be exercising right away. However, Olive misses the fact that a global example already exists: About 15 years ago, Cuba made the decision to start training medical personnel specifically to be able to deal with pandemics and natural disasters, both at home and abroad. This is why Cuba, despite a continuing U.S. blockade, was able to immediately mobilize its standing corps of thousands of well-trained medical workers to buttress often-fragile health-care systems in 27 countries on four continents. It should be noted that only one country heeded the U.S. State Departments warnings against inviting in Cuban medical personnel: Canada, which, on March 30 publicly rejected a Manitoba First Nations request for a Cuban medical team. Cuba has a long history of drug and diagnostics development, in part necessitated by the U.S. blockade. Several countries have decided to partner with Cuban medical labs in developing and marketing some of the drug breakthroughs Cuban technicians have made. Oddly, Canada is seldom mentioned in this regard, perhaps due to U.S. domination of the Canadian pharmaceutical industry. Voices in several countries, including Canada, are calling for Cuba to be recognized for its current and singular international contributions to combatting the international spread of COVID-19 while limiting the spread at home, by being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The black man whose death has inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice will be buried in Houston later. 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 police officer pressed a knee on Mr Floyds neck for several minutes, the dying man cried out for his mother. His funeral will be private. A public memorial service was held on Monday in Houston, where he grew up. Some 6,000 people attended. Mourners paid their respects (David J Phillip/AP) Under a blazing Texas sun, mourners wearing T-shirts with Mr Floyds picture or the words I Cant Breathe one of the other things he cried out repeatedly while being pinned down by the police officer waited for hours to pay their respects. Shorty after the memorial ended, Mr 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 Mr 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 that many black Americans have asked not just in recent weeks, but for decades. People queued up to pay their respects (David J Phillip/AP) Mr Floyds death has sparked international protests and drew new attention to the treatment of African Americans in the US 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 and legislatures have debated use-of-force policies. Calls for defunding the police have cropped up in many communities, and people around the world took to the streets in solidarity, saying that reforms and dialogue must not stop with Mr Floyds funeral. Story continues His death has also reshaped the presidential race. President Donald Trump is hoping to rebound from one of the lowest points of his presidency as recent polls show that eight in 10 Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and even spiralling out of control. The president got a boost late last week with a better-than-expected jobs report, but he is struggling to show consistent leadership on several issues, including the nationwide protests against police brutality. A vigil was held in Houston to honour George Floyd (Eric Gay/AP) Meanwhile, former vice president Joe Biden met Mr Floyds family on Monday, according to a photo posted on Twitter by the Rev Al Sharpton. Mr Biden will provide a video message for Mr Floyds funeral service. Previous memorials have taken place in Minneapolis and Raeford, North Carolina, near where Mr Floyd was born. 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 several protests were marred by 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. Four Minneapolis officers have been charged in connection with Mr Floyds death, which was captured on video by bystanders, who begged police to stop hurting him. A Minnesota judge on Monday kept bail at 1.25 million US dollars for Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged with second-degree murder. Chauvins former co-workers, J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, are charged as accomplices. North Korea on Wednesday rejected South Korea's offer to send special envoys to ease escalating tensions over defector activity and stalled reconciliation efforts and vowed to redeploy troops to border areas. The announcements made by state media agency KCNA came a day after North Korea blew up a joint liaison office set up in a border town as part of a 2018 peace agreement between the two countries' leaders. Any moves to invalidate cross-border peace deals pose a major setback to South Korea's President Moon Jae-in's efforts to foster more lasting reconciliation with the North. They could also complicate efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump, already grappling with the coronavirus pandemic and anti-racism protests, to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile programmes. On Monday, Moon offered to send his national security adviser Chung Eui-yong and spy chief Suh Hoon as special envoys, KCNA said. But Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a senior ruling party official, "flatly rejected the tactless and sinister proposal". "The solution to the present crisis between the North and the South caused by the incompetence and irresponsibility of the South Korean authorities is impossible and it can be terminated only when proper price is paid," KCNA said. North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers' Party's official newspaper, published photos showing the liaison office before and after its demolition, alongside a series of KCNA articles and commentaries criticising South Korea. "Ominous prelude to total catastrophe of North-South relations," one of the articles was headlined, referring to the office's destruction. MOON CRITICISED Kim Yo Jong also harshly criticised Moon in another KCNA statement, saying he had failed to implement any of the 2018 pacts and "put his neck into the noose of pro-U.S. flunkeyism". South Korea's presidential Blue House said the criticism of Moon was rude and senseless, and damaged the trust built by the leaders of the two Koreas. "We will no longer accept such unreasonable behaviour," Blue House spokesman Yoon Do-han said at a briefing, without elaborating. Moon offered to play a mediator role between Trump and Kim Jong Un as they pulled back from trading threats and insults in 2017, leading to a series of meetings in 2018 and 2019 that were high on symbolism but which failed to achieve a breakthrough on denuclearisation. In Monday's speech, which marked the 20th anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit, Moon expressed regret that North Korea-U.S. and inter-Korean relations have not made progress as hoped but asked Pyongyang to maintain peace deals and return to dialogue. "In the eyes of the Kims, Moon's administration gave too much of false hope that it would defy U.S. pressure to move their relations forward," said Chun Yung-woo, a former South Korean nuclear envoy. "But after two years, what they have left is a failed summit with Trump and no progress whatsoever on inter-Korean economic cooperation." RE-ARMING BORDER In a separate KCNA dispatch on Wednesday, a spokesman for the General Staff of the (North) Korean People's Army (KPA) said it would dispatch troops to Mount Kumgang and Kaesong near the border, where the two Koreas had carried out joint economic projects in the past. The KPA spokesman also said police posts that had been withdrawn from the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) will be reinstalled, while artillery units near the western sea border, where defectors frequently send propaganda leaflets, will be reinforced. The North will also restart sending anti-Seoul leaflets across the border, he added. Seoul's defence ministry has urged North Korea to abide by a 2018 inter-Korean military pact, under which both sides vowed to cease "all hostile acts" and dismantled a number of structures along the DMZ. Jang Kum Chol, director of North Korea's United Front Department in charge of cross-border affairs, said the North will never have talks or exchanges in the future with South Korean authorities "who evoke only disgust and nasty feelings". "It is our stand that we had better regard everything that happened between the North and the South as an empty dream," he said, according to KCNA. TransferGo, the London-based international money transfer service, has raised another $10 million in funding, as it discloses that its customer numbers have surpassed two million. The round was co-led by Seventure and Vostok Emerging Finance, with follow-on funding from Hard Yaka, Revo Capital and Bootstrap Europe. The startup is also announcing it has launched in 11 new markets, including Japan, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Ghana. That's a doubling down on South East Asia and African market expansion, beyond its original focus on Europe. Founded in 2012, TransferGo's customer base is predominantly made up of migrants who send money home to their families. It positions itself as offering one of the fastest international money transfer services on the market. This sees it able to provide international cross-network transfers, claiming to be the only Pan-European money transfer company that can guarantee your money will reach its destination in 30 minutes. Countries where money can be sent now top more than 65, while you can send money from 33 countries, at the last count. Different pricing tiers are available depending on how speedily you require the payment to arrive. If you arent time-sensitive or perhaps are transferring larger amounts, you can elect to use the free/low-cost tier. If you need a guaranteed arrival time, it costs a little more. Since launching, TransferGo says it has facilitated more than seven million transactions, with the number of remittances made daily increasing significantly since the coronavirus crisis and many countries went into lockdown earlier this year. Explains TransferGo CEO and co-founder Daumantas Dvilinskas: With footfall decreasing dramatically in high-street financial services companies, anyone looking to send money abroad to friends and family has become reliant on digital-first money transfer services. With a continued march towards a cashless society, our service is becoming more vital than ever, and were working diligently to support the evolving needs of both new and existing customers in these challenging circumstances." Furthermore, Dvilinskas says TransferGo has grown 30% over the lockdown period, with "significant uptake" in organic growth, signifying what he frames as accelerated digitisation in emerging markets. "India, Turkey, Ukraine and Nigeria now among the fastest growing," he says. "This indicates that these markets are likely to leap the cash side, [just] like African markets made a leap to mobile, bypassing the PC." Dvilinskas also tells me that TransferGo has launched "Remittances as a Service" since we last covered the company. This is seeing it essentially white-labeling it business, which enables other MSBs, banks and marketplaces to move money into Europe instantly. "We have built an API allowing third parties to leverage our rails for their customers," he says. As parts of the world grapple with the necessity of monuments and statues commemorating colonialists, slavers and racists in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, Brandon is starting to have its own conversation on the subject. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us As parts of the world grapple with the necessity of monuments and statues commemorating colonialists, slavers and racists in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, Brandon is starting to have its own conversation on the subject. Rosser Avenue in downtown Brandon is named after Thomas Lafayette Rosser, who was the chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway as it expanded westwards, creating the city of Brandon along the way. Thomas Lafayette Rosser, pictured in 1881. (S.J. McKee Archives) While he spent time as a railroad engineer in both Canada and the United States, that came after Rosser served as a major general in the American Civil War for the Confederate States of America, whose primary motivation came from the desire to prevent the abolition of slavery. Because of his engineering work in the United States, there is also a Rosser Avenue in Bismarck, N.D., named after the former general. NBC/Fox affiliate television station KFYR posted a story on Monday stating that Bismarck Mayor Steve Bakken will not consider renaming that street. Statues and other remembrances of other Confederate generals and officials, as well as colonialists and slavers, have been defaced, removed, destroyed or thrown in rivers in multiple countries since the protests started. In Brandon, no concrete action has been taken, but some Brandonites have taken to social media to discuss what should be done about the street bearing Rossers name. Rosser Avenue is named after Brandon founder Thomas Lafayette Rosser, who also happened to be a major general for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. (Colin Slark/The Brandon Sun) The street was named after Rossers role in the creation of the city and not his Confederate past, but The Brandon Suns archives show that he wasnt the most upstanding citizen during his year-long stay in the country. The Suns archives also show that the Sun has done its share of praising Rosser over the years. Sun staff writer Kaye Rowe had few nice words to say in a 1965 article that touched on Rosser selling many small lots in downtown Brandon, creating small roads and congestion that still lingers today. "The legacy of the Wests history, of the greedy land-jobbers Thomas Lafayette Rosser among the greediest pieces the vast expanses into mean streets, minuscular 23-foot lots," Rowe wrote. "Rosser and his kind had their eyes on the week after next, or beating it out with the fast-buck turnover in land sales before the first snowfall. The hit-and-run fortune hunters left Brandon with a tight, choked downtown. Gen. Rosser of noisome Pacific Scandal fame earned himself a dubious immortality with the stamp of his name on Brandons main artery." The Pacific Scandal was Canadas first major post-Confederation political scandal, wherein it was discovered that John A. MacDonald and many members of his government had been paid off in the form of political donations by CPR owner Hugh Allan in exchange for the right to build the transcontinental railway. The scandal led to the demise of MacDonalds first tenure as prime minister. According to a 2000 article by Lyndenn Behm looking back at Rossers involvement in the city, the former general was apparently fired by CPR general manager William Van Horne, who also has a street in Brandon named after him, for selling privileged information to land speculators trying to find out what the route of the rail line would be. He didnt go quietly. "True to his colourful past, Rosser later went looking for Van Horne in the Manitoba Club in Winnipeg, waving a pistol and spewing insults," Behm wrote. "Only the intervention of others kept the two men from fighting a duel." A column in 2007 written by then-editor emeritus Fred McGuinness describes how handsome Rosser was and goes into brief detail about the exploits that earned him a commission as a major general. Also in 2007, the Sun ran a story about Rossers great-grandson being invited to the city to honour his ancestors legacy for the 125th anniversary of the citys founding. Thomas Rosser Cochrane Jr. and his daughter had dinner with then-mayor Dave Burgess, was given a limousine tour of the city, got a private tour of the Daly House Museum and received free lodging from a local hotel. In 2009, Burgess proposed that the park set to be developed at First Street and Rosser Avenue should be named after Rosser in honour of his role in founding Brandon. However, the park ended up being named after former city councillor Errol Black. Also keeping Rossers memory alive is a recent biography of the man written by American author Sheridan R. Barringer titled "Custers Gray Rival: The Life of Confederate Major General Thomas Lafayette Rosser." "Custer" refers to George Armstrong Custer, an American general on the Union side most famous for the military defeat that claimed his life. According to a review of the book in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va., Rosser advanced quickly in the ranks but frequently complained in letters to his wife that he was not being promoted as quickly as he deserved. Also according to that review, all the money Rosser made working on railroads was lost while engaging in land speculation after returning home to Virginia. Rosser had a long history, but the debate goes on as to whether its actually worth preserving and commemorating. cslark@brandonsun.com Twitter: @ColinSlark White House staff will be recommended, but no longer required to wear a face mask while traveling through the West Wing, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a briefing on Wednesday. Why it matters: The White House required masks for staff members in May after multiple people tested positive for the coronavirus, including Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, and Trump's personal valet. The big picture: Some states' requirements that face masks be worn in public may have led to hundreds of thousands of fewer coronavirus cases than there would have been without the mandates, according to a study in Health Affairs. And yet wearing masks has become a political touchpoint in the culture war over containing the coronavirus. 76% of Democrats say they wear a mask when leaving home, compared to 59% of Republicans, according to a poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Go deeper: Trump campaign says all Tulsa rally attendants will be provided with masks CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Maple Heights man is accused of setting fire to a parking lot attendants booth when a protest of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd turned into rioting in downtown Cleveland. Timothy Goodner, 19, is charged with aggravated arson, a first-degree felony, in the May 30 incident, according to court records. He is not in custody, but a warrant was issued Monday for his arrest. Goodner is accused of setting the fire in a parking lot on West 3rd Street near West Lakeside Avenue, across the street from the Justice Center, records say. Court records do not specify how investigators identified Goodner as a suspect. Authorities have used surveillance video to identify others charged in connection with the rioting, and the Cleveland police department set up a website to solicit photos and videos in hopes of identifying anyone involved. The May 30 protest began peacefully at the Free Stamp prior to the rioting in the downtown area. Demonstrators and Cleveland police officers clashed outside the Justice Center before law enforcement used pepper-spray and flash-bangs to try to disperse the crowd. Some in the crowd then set fire to police cruisers, vandalized dozens of storefronts and looted businesses. Authorities announced 99 arrests in the days after the unrest, including two Pennsylvania men who face federal charges. Investigators also asked the public to help them identify several other people who are wanted, including men suspected of arson. The riot left businesses on edge, and the city of Cleveland issued a civil emergency proclamation establishing a curfew in the downtown area and Ohio City. The city lifted all curfew restrictions by the morning of June 5. Protests held in Northeast Ohio since the May 30 rioting have been peaceful, including demonstrations in Cleveland, Akron and area suburbs. Read more from cleveland.com: Crimestoppers offer $50,000 reward for information about murder of Nakia Crawford in Akron Judge gives former Westlake lawyer who fled to Thailand prison time for stealing clients money Cleveland man charged in road-rage shooting that injured 6-month-old boy, pregnant woman Former janitor at St. Michael Catholic Church in Independence sentenced for child pornography charges Several actors in the past have spoken against the 90-day payment system in the TV industry and how it has affected them. And of late, amid Covid-19 crisis, a lot of actors had to knock the doors of the Cine & TV Artists Association (CINTAA) and even appeal on social media to get their dues. Reading about their situation reminded actor Mohit Sehgal of his days, when he faced a similar struggle. I know how those actors must be feeling. I went through similar problems for three of my shows. When I was working for Khamoshiyan, I had to wait for nine months to get my dues. We shot the pilot for six months with no pay and after the show went on air, the makers told me, Well pay you after three months. Nobody was saying anything, but I told them that I needed my money to pay my rent, to eat and for daily expenses, Sehgal recounts. The actor, however, put a condition that, If you give me in writing that Ill get paid, Ill resume shooting, but they werent ready to do that as well. I found it fishy and thought I might not get paid like that and decided to put my foot down, he says. Sehgal also talks about escalating the matter to CINTAA, and how he further had to face frightening experiences. There were 50-60 people screaming at each other. My hands and legs were shivering. The producers declared themself bankrupt. One of the producers came to me and said, You leave this shows money, forget about it and we will give you a new one. I said, Did you just say that? They were trying to buy me, and what was the guarantee that they wouldnt do the same thing again?, he says. After much bargaining, Sehgal says he could only got 50% of what was due and promised to him, but because of all this, the industry started to form perceptions about him. The channel and people from the industry started to misunderstand me. I knew in my heart that Im doing what was right for me. In future, I just hope to work with a good team, good producers and be a part of a good show where everybody works joyfully and with no stress of payments, ends Sehgal on a hopeful note. Follow @htshowbiz for more The Indian-born tycoon behind Cobra beer has been elected as the first BAME boss of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea replaces John Allan at the top of the business lobby group at a time when the Black Lives Matter protests have thrust race relations back into the spotlight. With the CBI pushing for greater diversity in boardrooms, the 58-year-old has vowed make his two years in charge count. Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea replaces John Allan at the top of the CBI at a time when the Black Lives Matter protests have thrust race relations back into the spotlight Bilimoria said: 'Diversity drives better decisions. It will be my aim to get better BAME (black, Asian or minority ethnic) representation in boardrooms across the country.' He separately promised to make the CBI, which is long accused of being biased towards big businesses, 'a home for entrepreneurs and SMEs' and help boost the UK's standing as a 'trading powerhouse'. But the crossbench peer's tenure will also be dominated by the UK's exit from the EU this year, as well as the economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis. Bilimoria added: 'As the four nations of our country embark upon an ambitious economic recovery plan, I will do all I can to help ensure we build back better through inclusive and sustainable growth.' Born in the Hyderabad region where his father was a senior Indian Army chief, Bilimoria moved to London in 1981 and qualified as an accountant with Ernst & Young. He then read law at Cambridge University and led its debating team against that of Oxford University, which included Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove. Bilimoria had his idea for Cobra after finding lagers 'fizzy, gassy, harsh, bland and bloating'. With business partner Arjun Reddy, it became a mainstay at thousands of Indian restaurants before falling on hard times in 2009. The British arm was later bought out of pre-pack administration by Molson Coors for 14million, with Bilimoria retaining a 49 per cent stake, prompting accusations he had left creditors owed 72million out to dry. The businessman has vowed to pay them all back, adding last year that he had paid 'chunks' and was 'doing his utmost'. In his first major intervention last night, Bilimoria called on ministers to relax social distancing rules to save the hospitality industry. He said there was a 'strong argument' to cut the minimum distance to one metre - down from two - adding that otherwise 'you will see many businesses go bust'. COVID-19's Impact on the Education Profession NEA Predicts 20 Percent Decline in Education Workforce The largest labor union in the country, the National Education Association, has estimated that the United States could lose 1.9 million education jobs unless Congress delivers additional funding for states and localities to bolster support for schools. To arrive at its count, NEA analyzed the outcome on state revenues over three fiscal years 2020, 2021 and 2022 and the corresponding effect the expected decline of $765 billion would have on the ability of states to fund public education. Without additional federal emergency aid, NEA stated, state general fund revenues in support of education could fall by about $200 billion. As a result, about a fifth of the education workforce would lose jobs, after accounting for the use of state rainy day funds and funding available under the CARES Act. The analysis was done in part to put pressure on the Republican-controlled Senate to sign on for the HEROES Act, a House-approved initiative to provide additional public relief funds in response to the impact of COVID-19. NEA leans left, spending most of its political campaign dollars to support Democratic candidates. The HEROES (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions) Act, which passed the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in mid-May, would help stem some of the state revenue shortfall, the union reported. The Act also includes $915 billion in direct relief for state and local governments that could be used to pay workers deemed vital, such as educators. It also provides for $90 billion in additional funding for support of elementary, secondary and postsecondary education. However, NEA estimated, even that much would only protect 800,000 education jobs, about 673,000 in K-12 and 153,000 in higher ed. Recently, NEA issued a letter in connection with a June 10 Senate hearing, "Going Back to School Safely." "To reopen schools safely, we will need to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for students and educators; modify classrooms, cafeterias and school buses to permit social distancing; intensify instruction and support for students traumatized by the impact of the coronavirus on their families and communities; and more," the union stated. "Doing so will require significant investments at a time when schools are facing budget cuts that are expected to far exceed those during the Great Recession." In its comments, NEA urged Congress to provide at least $175 billion more for the Education Stabilization Fund, $56 million in directed funding for protective equipment and $4 billion to create a special fund, administered by the E-rate program, to equip students with hot spots and computing devices. "The American economy cannot recover if schools can't reopen, and we cannot properly reopen schools if funding is slashed and students don't have what they need to be safe, learn and succeed," said NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia, in a statement. "Congress must put aside partisanship and take immediate action to save millions of jobs and ensure students don't pay the price if states are forced to make deeps cuts to education funding." A state-by-state analysis of the impact of the HEROES Act on school funding is openly available through the NEA website. Rashford forces UK government u-turn on child poverty FOOTBALL: Britains government yesterday (June 16) bowed to demands by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford to change its policy on free school meals for the poorest children, amid growing concerns about the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on low-income families. Football By AFP Wednesday 17 June 2020, 12:46PM UK government changes policy after Marcus Rashfords call for free school meals for the poorest children. Photo: AFP The England international drew on his own experience of growing up in poverty to lead an impassioned campaign for the programme to be extended through the summer holidays. Prime Minister Boris Johnsons government had initially resisted making the change, which would see 1.3 million children in England receive vouchers for an extra six weeks. But as the story dominated the headlines and opposition MPs and members of his own Conservative party backed Rashford, Johnson gave in. Owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the prime minister fully understands that children and parents face an entirely unprecedented situation over the summer, his spokesman said. To reflect this we will be providing a COVID summer food fund. This will provide food vouchers covering the six-week holiday period. Rashford, 22, won widespread praise from politicians, charities and education leaders for his campaign. He said he was proud to have helped give a voice to vulnerable parents. There is still a long way to go but I am thankful to you all that we have given these families just one less thing to worry about tonight, he added. The striker had written to Johnson and MPs and yesterday wrote in The Times newspaper that he understood personally how much free school meals mattered to children receiving them. Ten years ago, I was one of them. I know what it feels like to be hungry, he wrote. Ahead of a parliamentary debate called by the main opposition Labour party, he urged MPs to put aside their political differences and back his campaign. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also announced yesterday that she would extend the meals scheme to the summer holidays in Scotland, following a move already made by the devolved government in Wales. Educational poverty Johnson had highlighted how much his government has already done to help people hit by nationwide stay-at-home orders imposed in March to stem the spread of COVID-19. When schools were shut, pupils eligible for free meals were offered vouchers instead, and the government has boosted welfare payments and provided targeted funds for the most vulnerable. It has also paid the salaries of 9.1 million people in its furlough scheme as of June 14, although new figures show a surge in claims for out-of-work benefits to 2.8 million people in the three months to May. With a deep recession looming however, fears are growing for how many people will cope when the furlough scheme ends in October. Several Conservative MPs had called on Johnson to do the right thing and extend the school meal programme. Commentators also questioned why the prime minister was picking such a fight when he was already on the back foot over his response to the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed more than 41,000 lives. @MarcusRashford is right. Public know it. Politicians know it, tweeted Conservative MP Robert Halfon, the chairman of the Commons education committee. Hes lived food hunger and helps food charities, he said, referring to Rashfords help in raising 20 million (B783mn) for FareShare, a charity that fights hunger and food waste. Halfon had previously warned about an epidemic of educational poverty after the government conceded most children would not return to school until September. Earlier, Labours education spokeswoman, Rebecca Long-Bailey, said Rashford was one of the best of us, accusing the government of being callous. Downing Street has said the cost of the scheme will come to 120 million in additional spending. A new study from UCLs Institute for Education found just 19% of children were spending more than four hours a day on school work, falling to 11% for those on free school meals. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend: As many as 2,612 people have been infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours in Iran, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Trend reports citing the ministry. According to Sadat Lari, 120 more people have died from the coronavirus over the past day. Sadat Lari added that the condition of 2,789 people is critical. Sadat Lari said that the situation is more dangerous in Iran's Khuzestan, East Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, Hormozgan, Kurdistan and Razavi Khorasan provinces. So far, more than 1.31 million tests have been conducted in Iran for the diagnosis of coronavirus. Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 195,000 people have been infected 9,185 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 154,800 have reportedly recovered from the disease. The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease. The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019. (Photo : REUTERS/Yves Herman) A pharmacist displays a box of Dexamethasone at the Erasme Hospital amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Brussels, Belgium, June 16, 2020. (Photo : REUTERS/Yves Herman) A pharmacist displays an ampoule of Dexamethasone at the Erasme Hospital amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Brussels, Belgium, June 16, 2020. (Photo : REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez) A doctor and nurses treat a patient suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the El Tunal hospital in Bogota, Colombia June 12, 2020. Picture taken June 12, 2020. After six months since the coronavirus first broke out in China, scientists at the University of Oxford said on Tuesday, June 16, that the common drug Dexamethasone would be the first cure to reduce deaths among severe COVID-19 patients under ventilation. The study called Recovery was the first test to look at how drugs can significantly reduce COVID-19 deaths. It was financed by the UK government through the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation. Researchers found that the inexpensive drug, a steroid called dexamethasone, can reduce deaths among severely ill patients. It is the first treatment to do so. Dexamethasone is an anti-inflammatory drug usually prescribed as an oral or intravenous steroid for various conditions. More than 5,000 coronavirus death could have been prevented Scientists said that over 5,000 deaths could have been prevented if doctors had used the drug at the onset of the pandemic, according to the New York Times. However, it will still save thousands of lives since the approval. According to a press release, the UK government has already secured dexamethasone supplies enough to treat over 200,000 people. It will purchase additional stocks in the event of a positive trial outcome. The government-funded research has shown that the drug has lowered the death risk by 35% among patients on ventilators, and 20% for those in oxygen-support while the 28-day mortality was also reduced by 17%. Although the findings have not yet been peer-reviewed, NHS deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said that Recovery "is an outstanding example of the UK leading the world with an impressive study capable of delivering robust answers to critical questions." Following the recent disappointing outcome for hydroxychloroquine clinical trials, Dr. Van-Tam said "it is always better to wait for the evidence." These studies "illustrate the power of properly conducted clinical trials and the inherent danger of assuming things work without robust data." "This is a significant improvement in the available therapeutic options that we have," United States' top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told USA Today. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry is advancing various studies on COVID-19, testing more than 200 products in about 1,100 trials as well as at least 130 vaccines. What are the long-term effects of COVID-19 for patients requiring intensive care? More than 400,000 people have now died of coronavirus, but more have already recovered from the illness. While most people who have contracted coronavirus have recovered within weeks, some have more severe cases requiring then to be put on ventilators or life support. Unfortunately, the latter may experience more critical and lasting effects. Fortune.com has listed some lasting effects of coronavirus. The most common include the feeling of exhaustion, headaches, anxiety, and muscle aches that can continue for several more weeks. People who developed pneumonia can have lung scarring, irregular heartbeats, heart inflammation as well as the declining function level of kidney and liver. It is still soon to consider whether these could be permanent issues. Patients who have undergone long intensive-care may need oxygen therapy or dialysis at home. Others develop post-intensive care syndrome after any critical illness and may be due for sedation and prolonged bed confinement. Symptoms can include muscle weakness and memory problems. Blood clots can also develop and may cause strokes. Blood thinners are prescribed even on less serious cases while lifestyle changes may be advised to reduce risks of bleeding. Dr. Thomas McGinn of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in New York said most of these symptoms would eventually go away. "It's just a matter of when. For some patients it may take longer than others," said McGinn who was involved in one of the largest U.S. studies of COVID-19 patients. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Deputy PM Dam attended a regular press conference held jointly by the Party Central Committees Commission for Information and Education, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Vietnam Journalists Association, and Radio the Voice of Vietnam. He took the occasion to thank journalists and reporters for their contributions to communication activities, especially amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Regarding the implementation of national press development and management planning to 2025, he emphasised that the task must be carried out on schedule but requires suitable adjustments be made. Press planning aims to make the media develop in a more regular and methodical manner, he said. The Deputy PM appreciated the presss social criticism, adding that it should maintain this work to contribute more to national development. He also asked press management agencies to prepare plans and policies to facilitate press development and step up communications to publicise the socio-economic achievements of ministries, sectors, and localities as all-level Party congresses are held towards the 13th National Party Congress. ABC News(ATLANTA) -- BY: JOANNE ROSA Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told "The View" Wednesday that while she's "encouraged" by President Donald Trump's executive order on police reform calling for the creation of a national database on officers, she said, "it's hard to take him seriously in this moment." The executive order is aimed at encouraging police departments across the country to adopt stricter standards regarding the use of force. The order, which calls for police departments to ban chokeholds except when an officer's life is at risk, was signed amid pressure to take action in the wake of George Floyd's death and, most recently, the shooting death of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta. Bottoms expressed disappointment for the lack of focus on racial bias among police in Trump's remarks Tuesday. But she agreed that there's a need for a national database that shares information on police officers with a history of misconduct, which would prevent them from moving between different departments. "I do think that's important as we're looking to hire officers to see what their histories are with other agencies," Bottoms said Wednesday. "But then Donald Trump got in the way of Donald Trump, as he always does." "We don't have another minute to spare. We [had] convened an advisory task force in Atlanta to look at our use of force policies, and not three days later, then Rayshard Brooks was killed in Atlanta," she added. "We don't have time for the theatrics. We've gotta have action right now and we needed it yesterday." Bottoms' administration has been dealing with the fatal shooting of Brooks by Atlanta police officer Garret Rolfe. The incident prompted the immediate resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields, the termination of Rolfe and new protests throughout the city. Bottoms said it was "heartbreaking" to watch the nearly 30-minute encounter, recorded on police body cameras, between Brooks and Atlanta police. She said it was "friendly," "cordial" and "respectful" prior to his death. "But for the fact that you knew how this story ended, you could even find yourself chuckling watching this encounter. That's how light this encounter was," Bottoms said. The videos, released by police, show Brooks having a conversation with police in which he said he had been in the area to visit his mother's grave and to celebrate on of his daughters' birthdays. "It disturbed me so deeply that he just didn't seem to be humanized in that moment," Bottoms said. Bottoms said she believes there was "an opportunity" for Brooks' encounter with Atlanta police "to end very differently" if they had responded with a stun gun instead of deadly force. "We've got to train our officers differently. We have to encourage our officers to de-escalate a situation with reasonable objectivity," she said. "I understand there's a lot of frustration in this country on both sides, but at the end of the day, this incident in particular, and with George Floyd and so many others, it didn't have to happen this way and end this way." Bottoms has found herself on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's shortlist for running mate in the presidential election. However, between seeing her city through the coronavirus pandemic and handling the protest movement, she says being the potential vice president isn't on top of her mind. "I can tell you I'm thinking about it a lot less," she said, noting, however, that she wants him to win, "point-blank." "What's most important during this election is that we have a restoration of moral leadership in our nation's capital because it impacts everything," Bottoms said. "It impacts how we view our country, how we view the future for our children." "I trust that [former] Vice President Biden is going to make the choice of the person who's gonna be able to best help him lead our country," she added. "I think it's going to be important whomever that person is, who may be able to govern alongside Vice President Biden that they be able to bring some integrity and compassion and empathy for our communities who are hurting in so many ways." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. It is planned to renew the pedestrian and transport traffic between the countries at Dolsk and Vilcha checkpoints Open source The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine renewed the pedestrian traffic at the checkpoints with Russia and Belarus as the Interior Ministry of Ukraine reported. The draft act is elaborated to renew the pedestrian traffic at the checkpoint at the state border with the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus due to the gradual mitigation of the quarantine events in Ukraine, Interior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov reported. Moreover, it is planned to renew the pedestrian and transport traffic between the countries at Dolsk and Vilcha checkpoints. As we reported, Ukraine opened all international checkpoints, except ones with the Russian Federation and Belarus, which was caused by the difficult epidemiological situation in these countries. Besides, In Ukraine, all checkpoints at the administrative border with Crimea temporarily occupied by Russia were opened. Actor Saif Ali Khan recalled shooting with Sushant Singh Rajput, and said that he quite liked him, but noticed that he was a little on the edge. Sushant died by suicide on Sunday, at the age of 34. Saif, who appeared in a cameo in what will be Sushants final film, Dil Bechara, told The Times of India, I knew him. I shot with him... When Sara described him, she always described him as being a really remarkable person. And I thought if this guy really understands Sartre, the way he says, and he is as intelligent as shes making him out to be, then hes obviously more intelligent than I am. Saifs daughter, Sara Ali Khan, made her film debut opposite Sushant in Kedarnath, directed by Abhishek Kapoor. Saif said that Sara was very upset upon learning of Sushants death. Also Watch | Nepotism versus talent: Sushant Singhs death fuels Bollywood bullying row Also read: Saif Ali Khan calls Bollywoods sudden love for Sushant Singh Rajput ultimate hypocrisy, says thats an insult to the dead About his own memories of the actor, he said, I think he had very refined looks. He was a good-looking guy. He was very talented, he was a little edgy When I met him, I thought he was a little on the edge. And he was a little, I dont know - I think he was looking for something. He was interested in the same things as me in some ways, like he liked astronomy, and he liked, you know, discussing some of this philosophy and talking about some stuff, which, you know, one dabbles in as an amateur. Saif continued, When I did my guest appearance in his Dil Bechara, I think he was quite happy with that. He was very nice to me and he said he wanted to come and have a drink and talk about various things, which never happened, which I feel bad about. Maybe I could have, you know, helped in some way or not I dont know. But after working with him, I quite liked him because he was nice. And then he told me he danced behind me as Shiamaks dancer during the Melbourne Commonwealth Games (in 2006). And so I was congratulating him on how far hed come, you know? Dil Bechara, a remake of The Fault in our Stars, is directed by Mukesh Chhabra and also stars Sanjana Sanghi. If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist. Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918 Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Zimbabwe has increased salaries of civil servants following public protests by soldiers, nurses and doctors after their June pay was slashed without notifying workers. In a statement, the Ministry of Finance said civil servants salaries and pensioners allowances will be adjusted upwards by 50% with immediate effect. In addition, all civil servants will be paid a flat, non-taxable COVID-19 allowance of USD75.00 per month. Government pensioners will be paid a flat non taxable COVID-19 allowance of US$30.00 per month. Government has taken due regard of the fact that addressing the wage challenges faced across the civil service, any salary reviews will need to be done with a holistic framework in order to ensure that such a review does not impose a negative shock in the market. The interim arrangement is for a period of three months from June 2020. The government advised all civil servants to immediately open United States Dollar-denominated nostro bank accounts with their banks to facilitate the processing of their allowances. According to the Ministry of Finance, the government will carry out an assessment of the impact of the salary review on the nations budget. Government reiterates its commitment to payment of a living wage to its employees, whilst ensuring sustainability of the budget. Government is also widening the remuneration framework for civil servants to introduce significant non-monetary benefits and these will be announced in due course. While the government was announcing the salary reviews and introduction of COVID-19 allowances, hundreds of health workers, including nurses and doctors, and soldiers were staging public protests in Kwekwe and Harare amid serious concerns of an nationwide uprising if their grievances were not addressed. Soldiers went on the rampage in Bulawayo on Tuesday where they forced residents to return home and businesses to close temporarily cease operations. The armed soldiers, irked by salary cuts, also urged residents to loot goods in some supermarkets. In Harare, health workers staged peaceful demonstrations at Parirenyatwa Hospital, expressing their dismay over unannounced salary cuts. Enock Dongo of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association told VOA Studio 7 that their salaries were cut by more than half as nurses who earned about ZWL$6,000 in May got only ZWL$3,500 this month. Its worse for some who got ZWL$2,500 after some deductions which include loans and other things. Last year, a Bytedance spokesman told Bloomberg that TikTok didn't remove videos from the Hong Kong protests for political reasons, saying they may have instead been taken down for violating guidelines around violent, graphic, shocking or sensational content. That no longer seems to be as much of a consideration. The platform has erupted with images of nationwide protests, featuring videos that show tear gas, police with guns, racist material, and expletive-laced songs denouncing President Trump. Loading Videos with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag have surpassed 10 billion views. "For some people, their entire feeds are transformed with Black Lives Matter content on TikTok," said Daniel Sinclair, an independent researcher who studies TikTok and social media. "It's no different than Twitter." Sinclair notes that Chinese officials, state media and social media sites like Douyin, Bytedance's Chinese version of TikTok, have all been amplifying the violent protests and heated discussions about race unfolding across America. But whether China's moves to project an image of US instability play into the decision-making at TikTok is hard to decipher, according to Sinclair. Loading Last October, US Senators Tom Cotton and Chuck Schumer requested a government review of TikTok over national security concerns. One of the issues they cited was the app's potential to host foreign influence campaigns, and its alleged censorship of topics deemed politically sensitive to the Chinese Communist Party. That same month TikTok banned all political, advocacy, and issue ads from its platform, claiming such ads would undermine TikTok's "positive environment" according to a company blog post. TikTok has said the Chinese government has not asked the app to remove any posts. As with other social media sites, TikTok faces questions about whether it is enforcing its own policies consistently. "As I see it, a lot of the popular Black Lives Matter posts actually do go against TikTok's own stated community guidelines," said Joseph Seering, a doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University who studies content moderation. He points to prohibitions on things like hate speech and firearms. "My guess would be that TikTok has come to realise that removing some of those videos and records of the protests would just do more harm to the platform than it's worth," Seering said. Loading TikTok said that it released updated community guidelines in January that provide exceptions for videos that are educational, historical, newsworthy, or otherwise aim to raise awareness about issues. The new guidelines also allow for exemptions on displays of firearms for those carried by a police officer. "While much of the content our users create is light-hearted, more serious content also has a place on our platform," said a company spokeswoman. She added that TikTok has increased the size of its local safety teams and consulted with outside experts about how to handle sensitive content issues. The site recently left up some posts related to Black Lives Matter that might have violated its previous guidelines, she said, "because its relevance and timeliness to our Black community was evident and made it newsworthy for our users." When the nationwide protests originally broke out across the US last month after George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck, some TikTok users accused the app of suppressing videos related to the Black Lives Matter movement. Many TikTok creators changed their profile photos to the black power symbol in a virtual protest against what some alleged was a concerted effort to silence black voices. TikTok later issued an apology and said that posts with the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd appeared to have zero views due to a technical glitch that affected around 50,000 hashtags. "Words can only go so far. I invite our community to hold us accountable," said Kevin Mayer, TikTok's new chief executive officer, in one of his first posts on the platform. Sam Coleman Dancer, a 21-year-old student at Mississippi State University who joined TikTok in 2018, said he welcomed the growing discussion of race on the platform. "Over the last few weeks, the world has gotten the chance to see what's actually happening to people that look like me and I'm glad people are recording the injustice and abuse and sharing it on TikTok," he said. The platform's embrace of Black Lives Matter content could also signal the maturation of a platform that has to adapt its approach, rules and content moderation to a broader base of users, according to social media experts. They point to other companies like Snap Inc., which created an editorial team in 2015 to ensure it was curating breaking news stories responsibly. "When a platform becomes as large in scale as TikTok has become, it's pretty impossible to enforce a rule like, 'We only allow fun on our site,'" said Kate Klonick, an assistant professor at St Johns University School of Law who researches online speech and oversight. "Saying 'Our platform isn't for politics or serious issues' is an incredibly naive idea." By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 16, 2020 | 11:32 AM | PADUCAH Mercy Health - Hospice, Paducah delivered care packages to the children who registered for the canceled Camp Robin.Mercy Health - Hospice, Paducah hosts the annual Camp Robin, a day camp that provides support and counseling to children who have suffered the loss of a family member or friend.As with most of events in 2020, this years Camp Robin was canceled due to the coranvirus pandemic, but the camps organizers made sure the children who registered knew they were both thought of and supported.Throughout June, Mercys hospice team members have been making home deliveries of care packages to each registered participant. The packages were personalized for each childs particular loss and included items such as letters, books, coloring pages, activities and crafts.I look forward to each day I get to make these deliveries, camp volunteer, Melinda Dew said. It is so important to continue to offer that acknowledgement, understanding and support to the grieving people in our lives. It has been such a blessing putting these packages together. We have seen many of these campers grow up.This years camp would have been the 15th edition. Organizers are already focused on the return of the camp in 2021.Camp Robin consists of therapeutic activities in a fun, safe environment to help children ages 4-17 deal with grief. The camp is offered free to children and their parents or guardians living in Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois.Mercy Health - Hospice, Paducah is committed to providing support for both patients and their families during times of transition, illness, death and grief.For more information click the link below. On the Net: WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court on Monday passed up several challenges to federal and state gun control laws, over the dissent of two conservative justices. Gun rights advocates had hoped the court would expand the constitutional right to keep and bear arms beyond the home. Instead, the justices left in place restrictions on the right to carry weapons in public in Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. They also declined to review Massachusetts ban on some semi-automatic firearms and large-capacity ammunition magazines, a California handgun control law and a half-century-old federal law banning interstate handgun sales. Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, wrote a dissent in the court's denial of a New Jersey resident's appeal seeking the right to carry a gun in public for self-defense. Rather than take on the constitutional issue, Thomas wrote, the Court simply looks the other way. On Wednesday, Webb County reported the largest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic 47. The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 803. With the increase in cases, many Texasns voiced their concerns on social media, writing that they are "getting really worried" and hope that people take wearing face coverings seriously. Gov. Greg Abbott no longer requires Texans to wear face masks. (CNN) Authorities in Beijing have imposed a soft lockdown on the entire city, after the Chinese capital reported more than 100 new locally transmitted coronavirus cases in the past five days. The city raised its alert level from Level 3 to Level 2 the highest alert being Level 1 the Beijing government's Deputy Secretary Chen Bei announced in a press conference Tuesday night. The move comes as the city's latest coronavirus outbreak continued to spread Tuesday, with at least 106 new infections since Thursday following an outbreak at Xinfadi, the city's largest wholesale food market. Officials had earlier locked down more residential compounds, ordered more than 30,000 restaurants to be disinfected and tightened outbound travel. All residents living communities deemed medium or high risk, as well as people connected to the Xinfadi market, are banned from leaving the city. The sprawling, bustling market in Beijing's southwestern Fengtai district occupies 277 acres and has more than 2,000 stalls, selling mainly fruit and vegetables as well as meat and seafood. It supplies about 70% of the city's vegetables and 10% of its pork, according to officials. The market has been shut down since Saturday, but its sheer size and the amount of people who work or visit there from in and outside of Beijing have heightened the risk of the outbreak spreading. For the rest of the city's more than 20 million residents, non-essential travel out of town is strongly discouraged, according to the government announcement. Those who must travel need to present a negative result from tests conducted within seven days of departure. The city is reintroducing strict access rules in and out of all local residential communities, and shutting down all schools and recreational venues. Sporting events will also be canceled. Via door-to-door visits and calls, authorities have tracked down nearly 200,000 people who had been to the market during the two weeks prior to its closure. They have been told to stay at home for medical observation and are being tested for the coronavirus, a city official told a news conference on Monday. Residential lockdown Two other Beijing food markets have been shut down due to confirmed cases linked to Xinfadi, leading to strict residential lockdowns in their vicinity. On Tuesday, Xicheng district -- which neighbors Fengtai -- announced that seven residential communities around the Tiantao Honglian market will be locked down following the discovery of a coronavirus case on Sunday. This follows similar lockdowns on residential compounds near Xinfadi and the Yuquandong market in Haidian district. In total, 29 residential communities have been locked down across the city. The residential lockdown measures are similar to the ones imposed earlier in the city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Wang Du, who lives in one of the communities under lockdown near Yuquandong market, said residents couldn't leave the compound to buy groceries, and had to order food online or buy from a truck that came to the compound once a day with potatoes, fresh vegetables and eggs. She said all residents in her community had nucleic acid tests for the coronavirus yesterday. "To be honest, I'm not too worried," she said. "I think we have a lot of experience in containment measures, and we're able to react very swiftly (to the new outbreak)." As of Tuesday morning, 276 agricultural produce markets and 33,173 restaurants across the city had also been disinfected, officials said. Outbound travel restricted The outbreak has also spread beyond Beijing, with the nearby provinces of Liaoning and Hubei reporting a total of eight coronavirus cases linked to the capital clusters. On Tuesday, Sichuan province in the country's southwest also reported a confirmed case -- a woman who returned from Beijing on June 9. She was infected while visiting her husband, who worked at Xinfadi market. Unlike Wuhan, the epicenter of China's original outbreak, Beijing has not completely cut off travel. However outbound taxi and car-hailing services, and some long-distance bus routes between Beijing and neighboring provinces have been suspended, according to the state-run Beijing Daily. Municipal authorities also banned high-risk groups, such as close contacts of confirmed cases, from leaving the city, officials said Monday. On Tuesday, Shanghai announced that travelers from areas with medium-to-high coronavirus risk would be required to be quarantined for 14 days. Beijing had one neighborhood designated as high-risk and 22 as medium-risk as of Monday. Myanmar: Thailands seafood slavery: Why the abuse of fishermen just won't go away June 17,2020 | Source: Channel News Asia Despite the efforts of the government, exploitation in Thai fisheries still occurs owing to lax inspections, the withholding of wages and evasive reflagging of vessels, the programme Undercover Asia finds out. Aung Ye Tun was just 17 years old when he was tricked and forced to work under slave-like conditions in a Thai fishing boat. For five years, this Myanmar national was exploited along with other trafficked youths. When the situation was at its worst, we used to say it was hell, he said. It was really like hell. He described how they worked round the clock with only half an hours rest a day, and anyone caught sleeping without permission would be beaten. Food was scarce, and some of them resorted to eating raw squid. If they saw us eating it, theyd beat us. So Id hide the squid in my boot. Then Id pretend to go to the toilet, and cook the squid in the exhaust pipe, he recalled. We were so angry and embittered. For decades, thousands of vulnerable migrants like him have suffered aboard Thai fishing boats, with no help and little means of escape. The Thai government has, under international and media scrutiny, began cracking down on this slavery at sea in recent years. But the perpetrators have found ways to navigate round the restrictions, as the programme Undercover Asia finds out. (Watch the episode here.) Thailand is one of the worlds largest seafood exporters. Its products like sardines, prawn and squid had an export value of US$6 billion (S$8.4 billion) in 2018, according to research firm Statista. The industry suffers from extreme labour shortages, however, which many boat owners try to resolve by trafficking in migrant workers from some of the poorer countries in the region. Patima Tungpuchayakul, co-founder of Thailand-based non-governmental organisation Labour Protection Network (LPN), estimates that there are around 600,000 workers in this sector and around half of them are migrant workers. Following a series of media exposes of the exploitation from starvation to physical abuse of these migrant workers in 2014 and 2015, the countrys fisheries began attracting the worlds attention. In 2015, the European Commission threatened to ban Thailands seafood exports over the illegal and unregulated aspects of its fishing industry. That kind of negative attention created pressure on the (Thai) government and the industry to fix not just the illegal fishing problem but the labour problem too, said Jason Judd, a former manager at the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The government started improving protections for migrant workers by, for example, establishing port-in port-out (PIPO) inspections which require boats to report for inspections as they depart and return to port and increasing fines for violations. Thailand also began working with the ILO, a United Nations agency, to improve labour laws, including to combat exploitation and trafficking. Among other things, the Thai government has applied labour law that applied ... on land to the sea. Thats a big deal, said Judd. While the new rules have changed the nature of the exploitation, they have not eradicated it. Labour Minister Chatu Mongol Sonakul maintains that there is no human trafficking in the fishery sector, but a recent ILO report states otherwise. Amid the improved working conditions due to changes in Thailands legal framework, abuses in the sector persist, according to the ILO. We ran through elements of forced labour and in the end, we determined that 14 per cent of fishers we surveyed were in forced labour situations, said Judd. In the past, threats of violence to keep migrant workers on the boats were common, but these days, boat owners coerce them by illegally withholding their wages instead. Fishers dont have complete control over their pay. And thats important because control over pay is control over work, said Judd. One of the changes in the past few years was the requirement that these workers have a bank account and are paid electronically. But some vessel owners have taken control of fishers ATM cards, he added. Debt bondage exists in that some of these workers are afraid to leave or change to another boat when they know theyre in debt, said Ussama Kaewpradap, lead organiser at the Fishers Rights Network. They continue working in the boats where they might get abused. She noted that some owners also hold on to the workers identification documents to prevent them from moving around or changing employers. One migrant worker, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he was not allowed to keep his passport and documents on board the boat, where he stayed for over a year. He was paid about 3,000 baht (S$135) when his boat returned to port. And when he asked for his salary, his employer told him to return to the boat. Then he called the police. One of the policemen put me in handcuffs, said the worker. He then beat me up and left me in a monastery. And they didnt give me my salary. Mongkol Sukcharoenkana, the president of the National Fishing Association of Thailand (NFAT), an alliance of fishery organisations and commercial operators, said the law is quite harsh to consider the confiscation of workers documents a human-trafficking matter and forced labour. On the issue of bank cards, he said it could be that the workers do not know how to make withdrawals or that the ATMs are too far away. So they ask the captains to withdraw money for them, or they go with the captains to take money out. This is why they leave the cards with the captains, he said. As part of its initiatives to stop trafficking, Thailand has sent naval patrols to inspect fishing boats far from shore. The government began using GPS trackers in 2015 to monitor vessels at sea, and inspecting fishing boats that dock at Thai ports to ensure compliance with the new rules. During these inspections, the officials would check the workers contracts and ascertain if they were being looked after, said Chatu Mongol. Groups like the LPN, however, assert that these inspections are superficial and that labour abuses are rarely identified. Human Rights Watch even called the labour inspections largely a theatrical exercise for international consumption. Under the PIPO system officials speak to ship captains and boat owners and check documents but rarely conduct interviews with migrant fishers, the NGO said in 2018. The NFAT claims, however, that trafficking of migrant workers has stopped as the new rules are too strict. If theres an illegal worker on the boat, the punishment is a fine of 400,000 to 800,000 baht, and the fishing licence would be confiscated. The punishments are quite severe, said Mongkol. To crack down harder on illegal migration, Thailand and Myanmar signed a memorandum of understanding to legally provide workers from Myanmar to Thai fisheries. Under the MOU, the paperwork is processed by official agencies, which gives the semblance of a safety net for workers. But problems have been known to emerge after the contracts are signed. U Moe Wai, who heads the Migrant Worker Education Centre in Kawthaung, a Myanmar border town, said the MOU is indirectly giving licence to human trafficking. Only 30 per cent of the workers are protected, and the other 70 per cent arent protected because agencies arent complying with the rules, he said. The Thai government has also placed restrictions on overseas fishing Thai-flagged fishing boats must return to a Thai port within 30 days at sea. This effectively put an end to long-haul fishing, said Judd. But these regulations are applicable only to fishing boats registered with the country. And when these Thai-flagged vessels venture into international waters, its hard to police them. The captain of one transport vessel said there are Thai boats with Myanmar names fishing in the sea around Myanmar. And the operators usually bribe the Navy or the authorities to (let them) continue working. The big boats work for three months, without enough food supplies, and let the workers starve, said the captain, who wished to remain anonymous. Some people take their own lives by jumping into the water Sometimes the authorities dont even know that someone died. Some Thai boats have been renamed and reflagged in Myanmar, where there is less scrutiny. Other boats are thought to be fishing near Africa, under flags of countries with almost no maritime regulations, like Mongolia. We dont really have a good list of how many Thai ships have been sold abroad, said Chatu Mongol. But it is not illegal, he added, for Thai-registered vessels to be sold overseas and for workers to continue working on these boats. There's no law saying that once youre a Thai vessel, youre always a Thai vessel. Years of inconsistent regulation have made it difficult to track vessels that have been traded. And when they are unregulated, it also means the migrant workers on board are more at risk. Last October, citing Thailands long-standing worker rights issues in the seafood and shipping industries, the United States government moved to suspend US$1.3 billion in trade preferences for the country. The reasons included the failure to adequately provide internationally-recognised worker rights, such as protections for freedom of association and collective bargaining. Patima recalled that in the past, however, few people cared about the lives of these migrant workers. We only questioned whether the seafood we ate was fresh and cheap. But we never once asked if the lives of the fisherman were as good as ours, she said. The NGO she founded has rescued and rehabilitated about 5,000 former fishermen enslaved by boat owners in Southeast Asian waters. Since the crackdown began, hundreds of migrants have returned to Myanmar. But life is tough for them. The majority about 70 per cent of the deported will work again on illegal fishing boats, said Moe Wai. Thats because fishing is the only skill they possess. As for Ye Tun, he got a job working in a makeshift gold mine, where he faces a risk of either a landslide or a wooden frame collapsing on top of him inside the mine shaft. But let me tell you honestly, Ill work in the gold mine for the rest of my life if it means that I dont have to go back to the ocean even for a year, he said. NATOs chief says that the United States intends to consult with allies on plans to draw down U.S. forces in Germany, plans that have rattled some members of the 30-member alliance. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also said that the alliance had no intentions to deploy land-based nuclear missiles in Europe, even as Russia deploys missiles that Washington says violated a key Cold War-era arms treaty. Speaking to reporters following a June 17 meeting of alliance defense ministers, the NATO chief said the subject of the U.S. plans for decreasing its troop numbers in Germany came up for discussion. He said U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper spoke with NATO allies via video conference, and indicated that Washington would consult them on the next steps of the intended drawdown. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump surprised many allies when he announced a plan to cut troops based in Germany by a third, to 25,000. Trump said he was cutting troops to punish Germany, accusing Berlin of not contributing enough to the alliance. Germany has denied Trump's assertions, and has pledged to increase defense spending but wont meet agreed-upon targets for several years. "I welcome the fact that Secretary Esper in the meeting with NATO defense minsters was clear both on the U.S. commitment [to Europe] but also that the U.S. will consult allies on the way forward," Stoltenberg said. "No final decision has been made on how and when to implement the U.S. plan," he said. Stoltenberg also said some allies were spending more on nuclear deterrence capabilities, in response to what many members see as increasingly aggressive moves by Russia. The U.S. accused Russia of building, then deploying, missiles in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty. Last year, the Trump administration announced it was withdrawing from the pact, leading to the agreeement's collapse. "We will maintain our deterrence and defenses, but we will not mirror Russia," he said. "We have no intention to deploy new land-based nuclear missiles in Europe." With reporting by dpa Business tycoon Danding Cojuangco MANILA, Philippines Business tycoon Eduardo Danding Cojuangco, Jr. has passed away. He was 85. Cojuangcos death was announced on Wednesday by San Miguel Corporation, where he served as chairman and CEO for more than two decades. San Miguel Corporation announces the passing of its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr., on the evening of June 16, 2020, the company said in a statement. Cojuangco had been chairman and CEO of San Miguel Corporation since July 1998. He helped shaped the company into one of the countrys largest conglomerates whose stakes include food, beverages, energy, power, oil refining, and infrastructure. Aside from being a businessman, Cojuangco also ventured into politics as he chaired National Peoples Coalition (NPC) party which fielded candidates in local and national races since 1990s. He also ran for president in 1992 elections but lost to Fidel V. Ramos. Cojuangco is a cousin of the late President Corazon Cory Cojuangco-Aquino and uncle of former President Benigno Noynoy Aquino III. Meanwhile, Malacanang condoled with the Cojuangco family as it lauded his immense contribution to the socioeconomic development of the Philippines through the San Miguel Corporation. We are deeply saddened by the passing of Mr. Eduardo Danding Cojuangco, Jr., at the age of 85, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement. The Palace offers its fervent prayers for the eternal repose of the soul of Mr. Cojuangco as we convey our heartfelt condolences to his family, colleagues, friends, and loved ones, he added. NPC members, including former Senator and now Sorsogon Governor Chiz Escudero, former Senator JV Ejercito, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, also mourned Cojuangcos passing. RRD (with details from Correspondent Rosalie Coz) The post Business tycoon Danding Cojuangco passes away appeared first on UNTV News. Direct-to-Consumer and FDA Approved "Within a week we had the TestDirectly platform up and running, ready to test a half-million residents and employees across 4,000 facilities and 67 counties." LigoLab CEO Suren Avunjian TestDirectly, the direct-to-consumer web portal that connects patients, companies, collection centers, laboratories, and physicians for fast, safe, and easy testing, has partnered with Northwest Laboratory and the Florida Department of Health (DOH) to collect and test the states 500,000 long term care (LTC) residents and staff for COVID-19. The partnership - thats already reached 150,000 collected and processed tests - is addressing the need to protect Floridas senior population while also answering last months call to action from the Trump administration. In May, the White House called on every state to quickly test all of its LTC residents and employees for the virus. The very next day (after the Trump announcement) we were approached by Floridas Department of Health, said LigoLab Information System CEO Suren Avunjian. Their objective was to be the first state to complete the challenge set by the administration, even though they have one of the highest senior populations in the country. Within a week we had the TestDirectly platform up and running, ready to test a half-million residents and employees across 4,000 facilities and 67 counties. Avunjian and his team swiftly built and brought to the market TestDirectly as a LigoLab sister company in February of this year. The LigoLab-TestDirectly integration goes way beyond simply capturing requisitions (order forms), it provides an end-to-end platform that covers the entire testing workflow from self-registration, to report delivery, to follow-up, with fast and accurate results delivered directly to the patients. In the first phase, Floridas objective is to conduct a baseline test to identify asymptomatic patients. Once the baseline test is complete, the collection and testing responsibility shifts to the senior care facilities. The TestDirectly platform is assisting Floridas collection efforts by enabling all LTC employees to self-register online from any computer or mobile device, and all facility administrators to order multiple tests for their residents through the same portal. This streamlines the collection process, eliminating additional paperwork, data entry errors, and contact risk. Floridas DOH has a strike team thats coordinating the registration and collection of specimens from every facility. The department is using both paper and electronic workflows for registration and collection, and every order receives a unique barcode I.D. The department collects 10,000 nasopharyngeal swab samples daily and then boxes them up along with the requisitions, before shipping them across the country to Northwest Laboratory in Bellingham, Washington. Soon after the specimens and requisitions arrive at the laboratory, the barcodes are scanned and the orders are electronically fed into the LigoLab LIS. The system next generates labels for both the requisitions and the specimens, and this allows the specimens to go right to processing in a streamlined workflow that enables the laboratory to routinely test 10,000 samples a day. The turnaround time for processing is 4-to-6 hours after the specimens arrive at the laboratory, and the transfer of the results from the instrument interface to the LigoLab LIS, and then to the TestDirectly platform, is all completed within 10 minutes. Floridas LTC residents and employees receive their test results via the portal within 2-to-3 days of collection. We are very grateful for the attention that TestDirectly and LigoLab have given us in support of our Florida initiative, said Dayle Mooney, Manager, Community Preparedness, Florida Health. Its been amazing for us and we look forward to continuing that relationship. I hope others will take advantage of the opportunities that LigoLab has given Florida. The TestDirectly portal cuts out the friction and inefficiency for labs, and its positioned Northwest Laboratory to go from accepting a statewide contract during a pandemic to releasing 150,000 COVID-19 test results and counting in just over two weeks. Besides the workflow in the lab and the efficiencies that the partnership has brought, we continue to work daily with the LigoLab team to identify any part of the process that can become more efficient and more quality-driven, said Jennifer Bull, Chief Operating Officer at Northwest Laboratory. Bull noted that Floridas DOH has access to a desktop application of the LigoLab LIS to monitor the test results and prevalence in real-time, and that transparency has allowed the department to quickly get in touch with county health departments to isolate those who test positive and to initiate contact tracing. The fact that patients and administrators can log in and get their own results also relieves a huge burden for the lab and the health department. We would not have been able to accomplish what we have with any other LIS vendor, said Bull. I call Suren and his team 24/7 and they are always helpful. Knowing that you have a partner that you can rely on is huge when you have a commitment as large as the one we have with Florida. In addition to Florida, TestDirectly is also currently deployed in Illinois, Colorado, and Washington. More states will be coming up soon. PR-Contact: To learn more about the TestDirectly-Northwest Laboratory-Florida partnership, contact Michael Kalinowski at 310-227-7503 or michaelk@LigoLab.com. The TestDirectly Direct-to-Consumer Portal: How Does it Work? TestDirectly was created by LigoLab Information System to give consumers a direct link to laboratories for COVID-19 testing. The TestDirectly web portal supports workflows for drive-through, on-site/dispatched, and eventually at-home collections (with telemedicine support). Its a safe, fast, and easy way for patients, companies, collection centers, laboratories, and physicians to connect for direct-to-patient or business-to-business testing. TestDirectly can integrate bi-directionally with any LIS to maximize efficiency and testing capacity while eliminating the risk of human errors and delays. The easy-to-use portal manages the entire workflow from self-registration, to report delivery and follow-up, and it also provides B2B access to support organizational testing of employees and deployment of testing protocols. A young woman with Down's syndrome has presented a petition to Number 10 against an abortion law which makes her feel like she would be "better off dead". Heidi Crowter (24) and 18,000 signatories have demanded that MPs do not pass a Bill which would legalise aborting babies with her condition up until the point of birth in Northern Ireland. Under the law, abortions are permitted at any time up to birth when there has been a diagnosis of a fatal foetal abnormality or where the child is likely to suffer severe mental or physical impairment, including Down's syndrome. A majority of Stormont Assembly members voted to support a motion rejecting this "imposition" of abortion regulations by Westminster on June 2. The outcome of the vote has no impact on the law, but the DUP insisted it sent a message to the government highlighting the need for changes to the regulations. Speaking at Downing Street yesterday, Ms Crowter said: "I'm asking them (MPs) to respect the vote of Northern Ireland and make sure that it stands, and to allow equality in the womb for every baby. "I want this to happen because I'm someone who has Down's syndrome and I feel that the law makes me upset, it makes me feel like I'm better off dead. "I think it sends a really negative message. And in the words of a classic song, you are amazing just the way you are." Ms Crowter, from Coventry, added: "I think the law which allows abortion up to birth for non-fatal disabilities such as mine is downright discrimination in the womb." DUP MP Carla Lockhart, who headed up the petition with Baroness O'Loan, said the Bill is "wrong" both constitutionally and morally. She said: "The words that ring out in my mind is that it makes Heidi feel like she shouldn't exist, and that's just wrong. "The most basic human right is the right to life and everyone has that right to life. "If you have a cleft palate, a club foot or Down's syndrome, you can be aborted. That's just wrong, so we want to stop that." She added: "The people of Northern Ireland do not want these extreme abortion laws imposed upon them." Approximately 40,000 people in the UK have Down's syndrome, according to the Down's Syndrome Association, who have also voiced support for Heidi's petition. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has voiced support for the Bill, saying the "extremely difficult decisions are best left to a woman". The head of external affairs at BPAS, Clare Murphy, said: "Women making these decisions are not casting judgment on Heidi and the value of her life - they are trying to do what is best in the most challenging circumstances many of us could imagine." DETROIT, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Aerospace Printed Circuit Board Market by Platform Type (Commercial Aircraft, Regional Aircraft, General Aviation, Military Aircraft, Helicopter, Spacecraft, and UAV), by Product Type (Rigid 1,2-Sided, Standard Multilayer, Flexible, Rigid-Flex, High-Density Interconnect/IC Substrate, and Others), by Laminate Material Type (FR4, Polyimide, and Others), by Application Type (Power Supplies, Power Converters, Radio Communication, Engine Control Systems, Radars, Health Monitoring Sensors, and Others), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2020-2025. This strategic assessment report, from Stratview Research, provides a comprehensive analysis that reflects today's aerospace printed circuit board market realities as well as future possibilities for the forecast period of 2020 to 2025, covering the impact of COVID-19. The report segments and analyzes the market in the most detailed manner to provide a panoramic view of the market. The vital data/information provided in the report can play a crucial role for market participants as well as investors in the identification of low-hanging fruits available and formulate growth strategies. Aerospace Printed Circuit Board Market: Highlights Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are boards that have lines, paths, and traces to electrically connect different components and are used as a base in electrical components. The board may act as a support and can be used as a wiring area for the components that are surface-mounted and socketed. These laminates are most often manufactured using FR4, which is a glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy material or polyimide. FR4 is used for rigid, whereas polyimide is used for flexible PCB laminate fabrication. A combination of both yields rigid-flex PCBs. In the aerospace industry, a wide range of PCBs is used, such as rigid 1,2-sided, standard multilayer, flexible, rigid-flex, and HDI/ IC Substrate. The usage of different types of PCBs depends upon the application it is serving. The aerospace industry is shifting its focus towards the usage of advanced materials to make the aircraft lightweight, yet durable, with an aim to enhance fuel efficiency. Similarly, PCBs used nowadays are experiencing miniaturization of components to establish weight and space savings. Prolonged Distress for Aerospace Industry with COVID-19 & its Impact The year 2019 was challenging for the aerospace industry, especially for commercial aerospace, with several setbacks such as the grounding of B737 Max, P&W 1100G engine series failure (A320neo), delayed deliveries of upcoming aircraft programs such as B777X, and revised production rates of key aircraft programs, A350XWB and B787. It negatively impacted the entire supply chain including the demand for circuit boards. These times of distress have been worsened in 2020 with the global outbreak of COVID-19, posing daunting new challenges and affecting the industry worldwide. Rapid cancellation of orders, sharp drop in revenue passenger kilometers, and sudden supply-chain disruptions have imposed a significant impact on the market, forcing mass temporary production shut-downs, layoffs, salary slashes, revised production rates, and cash burn-outs for stakeholders across the value chain. Similar to how the industry has dealt with crises such as SARS, MERS, 9/11, and The Great Recession in the past, it is likely that there is a requirement of at least a couple of years before the industry heads towards healing. Stratview Research estimates that the aerospace PCB market will witness an enormous plunge from 2019 to 2020, before it starts recovering to regain its 2019 level by 2023. As happened several times in the past (SARS, MERS, The Great Recession, etc.), the resilient aerospace industry is expected to get back on its feet in the long-term. The market fundamentals are strong, which will help the industry and its supply chain to get back on its feet. For instance, Boeing, in its 2019-2038 outlook, anticipated the total new commercial and regional aircraft deliveries to be 44,040 aircraft units during 2019-2038. Similarly, Airbus anticipated the 39,210 commercial and regional aircraft deliveries during the same period. The impact of such trends can also be witnessed in the printed circuit boards market with huge short-term disruptions and long-term sustainability. The market for aerospace printed circuit boards is expected to reach US$ 1.3 Billion in 2025. Factors that may fuel the growth of the aerospace PCB market are an expected rebound in commercial and regional aircraft deliveries, increasing commercial aircraft fleet size, aging aircraft fleet, and introduction of new aircraft or fuel-efficient variants. Click Here to Run Through the Detailed TOC of the Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/toc/835/aerospace-printed-circuit-board-pcb-market.html Aerospace PCB Market: Insights by Platform Type "Commercial aircraft is hit the worst but will still remain dominant." Based on the platform type, the aerospace circuit board market is segmented as commercial aircraft, regional aircraft, general aviation, military aircraft, helicopter, spacecraft, and UAV. The demand for circuit boards is affected in all the platform types; however, commercial aircraft is anticipated to be the worst-hit one. Despite an expected severe blow in 2020, commercial aircraft is expected to maintain dominance in the coming five years. Factors which will help regain the demand for PCBs in commercial aircraft in the long run are listed below. Increasing miniaturization of components, Greater demand for lightweight yet durable components/parts Expected market entry of new players such as COMAC and Irkut Introduction of variants of existing best-selling aircraft programs such as A320neo and B777x Expected rebound in commercial and regional aircraft deliveries Aerospace PCB Market: Insights by Laminate Material Type "FR4 to maintain dominance due to its wide range of advantages." Based on the laminate material type, FR4 is expected to remain the most dominant laminate type in the market during the forecast period. FR4 offers various advantages, such as high strength, excellent moisture resistance, weight saving, lower cost, and fire resistance, which makes it the most preferred material for a wide array of applications in the aerospace industry including but not limited to aerospace probe, navigation systems, radar systems, satellite tracking system, and autopilot. Aerospace PCB Market: Regional Insights North America, the largest market; Asia-Pacific, the fastest growing one The impact of the pandemic has been worst with each region registering declines in double digits in the first quarter of 2020. It is visible that the market conditions would be even worse in the second half of the year. Among the regions, North America looks to be one of the worst-hit markets. Despite being hard-hit by the pandemic, North America is anticipated to remain the largest market in the world during 2020-2025. Post pandemic, the USA is expected to rebound quickly and will act as the growth engine of the region's market. The presence of many aircraft OEMs, tier players, PCB suppliers, and raw material suppliers would help in healing the dented growth of the country's market. Asia-Pacific is likely to heal up with the fastest pace in the post-pandemic market scenario. The region's demand will be driven by a host of factors including an expected increase in the demand for commercial aircraft to support rising passenger traffic, the opening of assembly plants of Boeing and Airbus in China for B737, A320, A330, and A350 aircraft programs; upcoming indigenous commercial and regional aircraft (COMAC C919 and Mitsubishi SpaceJet); rising aircraft fleet size; and increasing military expenditure by key countries such as China and India. Register Here for a Free Sample of the Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/835/aerospace-printed-circuit-board-pcb-market.html Aerospace PCB Market: Competitive Landscapes A Case of Moderate Concentration and M&As The market for aerospace PCBs is moderately fragmented with several small players distributed around the world. The top three players capture the major chunk of the market. The supply chain of this market comprises several nodes including raw material suppliers, laminate manufacturers, PCB manufacturers, aerospace component manufacturers, tier players, OEMs, airlines, aircraft leasing companies, and MRO companies. Key players in the aerospace PCBs market are Advanced Circuits, Inc. Amitron Corporation Amphenol Printed Circuits, Inc. Eltek, Epec, LLC Firan Technology Group Corp. IEC Electronics, Corp. Sanmina Corporation SMTC Corporation TTM Technologies, Inc. All the major PCB manufacturers have different growth strategies based on their synergies, product portfolio, market reach, geographical presence, and market positioning. However, some of the most common strategies adopted by most of them are higher focus towards development of new products addressing unmet needs, adopting more customer-centric approach rather than product-centric approach (custom-designed and application-specific products), execution of M&As to quickly gain market share, and develop vast product portfolio covering a good blend of all the major PCB types used not only in the aerospace industry but across several end-use industries. Report Features This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report: Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis. Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis. Market trend and forecast analysis. Market segment trend and forecast. Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc. Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities. Emerging trends. Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players. Key success factors. This report studies the aerospace printed circuit board market and has segmented the market in five ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. Following are the five ways in which the market is segmented: Aerospace PCB Market, by Platform Type Commercial Aircraft (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Regional Aircraft (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) General Aviation (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Military Aircraft (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Helicopter (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Spacecraft (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) UAV (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Aerospace PCB Market, by Product Type Rigid 1,2-Sided (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Standard Multilayer (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Flexible (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Rigid-Flex (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) HDI/IC (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Aerospace PCB Market, by Laminate Material Type FR4 (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Polyimide (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Aerospace PCB Market, by Application Type Power Supplies (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Power Converters (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Radio Communication (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Engine Control Systems (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Radars (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Health Monitoring Sensors (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Aerospace PCB Market, by Region North America (Country Analysis: The USA , Canada , and Mexico ) Europe (Country Analysis: Germany , France , the UK, Spain , Russia , and Rest of Europe ) Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: Japan , China , India , and Rest of Asia-Pacific ) Rest of the World (Sub-Region Analysis: Latin America , the Middle East , and Others) Stratview Research has several high value market reports in the aerospace & defense industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/market-reports/Aerospace-Defense.html About Stratview Research Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas. We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies. Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making. For enquiries, Contact: Stratview Research E-mail: sales@stratviewresearch.com Direct: +1-313-307-4176 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660595/Stratview_Research_Logo.jpg - Both Kalonzo Musyoka and Isaac Ruto were accompanied to the private meeting by their party officials - Also present were Jubilee Party vice-chairman David Murathe and Secretary-General Raphael Tuju - Kalonzo was quick to point out that the NASA coalition only existed on paper The Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka and his Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) counterpart Isaac Ruto have signed a cooperation agreement with President Uhuru Kenyattas Jubilee Party. The Wiper party leader was flanked by party officials including Chirau Ali Mwakwere (Chairman), Mutula Kilonzo (Vice-Chair) and Judith Achieng Sijeny (SG). READ ALSO: Well wisher rescues Homa Bay tenant evicted by landlord for demanding payment of Ksh 60 debt The Wiper party leader was flanked by party officials including Chirau Ali Mwakwere, Mutula Kilonzo, Chirau Ali Mwakwere and Judith Achieng Sijeny. Photo: UGC Source: Facebook READ ALSO: 7 Kenyans who got stuck in Somalia due to COVID-19 trek home to reunite with families During the closed-door affair, Isaac Ruto was also accompanied by officials of his party led by Secretary-General Buzeki Bundotich. "We were the first party to have a handshake with Jubilee. We thank Jubilee for going out of their way to work with all leaders," Ruto stated following the signing of the new deal. "We want a handshake between election competitors to be a norm in Kenya. As CCM, we are for peace," he added. READ ALSO: Kisumu man who overcame abject poverty to become dentist builds elderly mom new house Also present were Jubilee vice-chairman David Murathe and Secretary-General Raphael Tuju who said he was hosting the function on behalf of Uhuru. The new deal was described as a post-election agreement that would see the three parties work together in the run-up to the 2022 General Election. The latest development came amidst claims of a looming Cabinet reshuffle by Uhuru. READ ALSO: President John Magufuli orders Tanzanian schools to reopen on June 29 The meeting also happened a month after the Wiper Party leader gave the clearest hint it was working on a post-election coalition agreement with the ruling party. Wiper will be ready to enter into a cooperation agreement with both Kanu and Jubilee when that time comes. We are open to that," the party said on May 11, 2020. Wiper had our national executive council meeting virtually and we agreed that we need to open negotiations and be able to move in that direction," it added. READ ALSO: Mombasa: 46 orphans in rescue centre appeal for food, clothing as COVID-19 effects bite The party further said it was consulting with the coalition partners in the National Super Alliance (NASA) including ODM, ANC and Ford-Kenya to see what would be the way forward. However, speaking moments after signing the new cooperation deal with the Jubilee Party, Kalonzo was quick to point out that the NASA coalition currently only existed on paper. "The NASA summit has never sat since the election and we need to be realistic in our assessment. If a summit cannot meet, how can we continue?" he remarked. 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 Coronavirus in Colorado: Live updates for Tuesday - There are nearly 117,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S.; El Paso Sheriff's Office receives COVID-19 money to help keep inmates from popping locks A Mexico federal court judge, who oversaw cases involving criminal organizations, and his wife were executed in front of their two children and nanny by at least five gunmen on Tuesday. District Court Judge Uriel Villegas Ortiz and his wife, Veronica Barajas, were standing outside their home in the Pacific coast state of Colima approximately 11am when at least five assassins opened fired and fled. Mexican news outlet Milenio reported that the men visited the home and inquired about a Volkswagen SUV that Villegas had posted on the market for sale. District Court Judge Uriel Villegas and his wife, Veronica Barajas, were killed in front of their two daughters and nanny Tuesday morning outside their home in Colima, Mexico. Mexican news outlet Milenio reported five gunmen went to the residence to inquire about a vehicle Villegas was selling before they opened fired and fled Mexican federal court judge Uriel Villegas pictured with his seven-year-old daughter. Villegas is the first federal judge murdered in Mexico since 2016 when Vicente Bermudez was executed by two men while he was jogging outside his home in Metepec, State of Mexico Law enforcement agents guard the crime scene outside the home of Mexican federal court judge Uriel Villegas and his wife, Veronica Barajas, who were executed by armed men Tuesday When they arrived, the assailants opened fire and also shot up the residence's surveillance system. The daughters, ages 3 and 7, and their nanny were not harmed. During an appearance in the central state of Puebla on Wednesday morning, Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that those responsible for the murders will be punished. A senior official said he was apparently killed because of his work. Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero said she knew Villegas personally and that his murder was particularly difficult for her. 'He died for doing his job and he was doing it well,' she said. She noted that some of his cases involved organized crime figures. In March 28, 2018, Villegas ordered the prison transfer of Ruben 'El Menchito' Oseguera - the son of Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel - from a jail in the southern state of Oaxaca to a facility in Puente Grande, Jalisco. El Menchito was extradited to the U.S. in February to face drug trafficking charges. Colima, Mexico, District Court judge Uriel Villegas with the youngest of his two daughters Villegas also oversaw a case involving Miguel Angel 'El Z-40' Trevino, the leader Los Zetas criminal organization, and presided over a cases involving two suspects who in 1993 killed Mexican bishop Juan Jesus Posadas. Killings of federal judges are rare in Mexico. Villegas is the first federal judge murdered since 2016 when Vicente Bermudez was executed by two men while he was jogging outside his home in Metepec, State of Mexico. His wife, Marisol Macias Gutierrez, was arrested in October 2019 and charged with plotting the hit job. The Pacific coast state of Colima has Mexico's highest homicide rate and is plagued by drug cartel violence. The state's Public Security chief resigned in early June following the kidnapping and murder of seven police officers. Federal judges in Mexico hear many of the most serious cases, like drug trafficking and weapons possession. El Universal reported that by December 2019, 42 judges in Mexico were issued orders of security protection as a result of threats or because their job function required it. Overall, at least 91 judges had bullet proof vehicles and 89 others had their own assigned security detail in 16 states and the capital, Mexico City. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 17:56:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DHAKA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh reported over 4,000 new COVID-19 patients Wednesday, the biggest daily jump since the virus was first reported on March 8 in the country. Professor Nasima Sultana, a senior Health Ministry official, said in an online briefing on Wednesday afternoon that "4,008 new COVID-19 positive cases and 43 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh." "The total number of positive cases is 98,489 and the death toll stands currently at 1,305," she added. According to the official, 17,527 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh. She said 1,925 more COVID-19 patients have recovered during the last 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries so far to 38,189. Bangladesh on Tuesday recorded the largest number of 3,862 cases and 53 deaths. Enditem North Korea blew up an office set up to foster better ties with South Korea in a "terrific explosion" yesterday after it threatened to take action if North Korean defectors went ahead with a campaign to send propaganda leaflets into the North. North Korea's KCNA state news agency said the liaison office in the border town of Kaesong, which had been closed since January due to the coronavirus crisis, was "completely ruined". Black-and-white surveillance video released by South Korea's ministry of defence showed a large explosion that appeared to bring down the four-storey structure. The blast also appeared to cause a partial collapse of a neighbouring 15-storey high-rise that had served as a residential facility for South Korean officials who staffed the liaison office. The office, when it was operating, effectively served as an embassy for the old rivals and its destruction represents a major setback to efforts by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to coax the North into co-operation. South Korea's national security council convened an emergency meeting yesterday, and said South Korea would sternly respond if North Korea continued to raise tensions. The destruction of the office "broke the expectations of all people who hope for the development of inter-Korean relations and lasting peace on the peninsula", deputy national security advisor Kim You-geun told a briefing. "We're making clear that the North is entirely responsible for all the consequences this might cause," he said. Reclusive North Korea, whose nuclear and missile programmes are the subject of stalled talks with the United States, and the democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty. Tension has been rising over recent days, with the North threatening to cut ties with the South and retaliate over the propaganda leaflets, which carry messages critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, including on human rights. The demolition was "unprecedented in inter-Korean relations" and a "nonsensical act that should have not happened", South Korean vice unification minister Suh Ho, who co-headed the liaison office, told reporters. KCNA said the office was blown up to force "human scum and those, who have sheltered the scum, to pay dearly for their crimes". North Korea refers to defectors as "human scum". The first diplomatic mission of its kind, the liaison office was established in 2018 as part of a series of projects aimed at reducing tensions between the two Koreas. After a drastic decline this spring, global greenhouse gas emissions are now rebounding sharply, scientists reported, as countries relax their coronavirus lockdowns and traffic surges back onto roads. Its a stark reminder that even as the pandemic rages, the world is still far from getting global warming under control. January February March April May June Million metric tons CO 2 India China Early Jan. Emissions were roughly at 2019 levels. 4 E.U. and Britain United States 8 Estimated change in CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels, compared with 2019 12 Rest of the world 16 Early April Global emissions fell by an estimated 17 million metric tons per day, or 17 percent. January February March April May June Million metric tons CO 2 India China Early Jan. Emissions were roughly at 2019 levels. 4 E.U. and Britain United States 8 Estimated change in CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels, compared with 2019 12 Rest of the world 16 Early April Global emissions fell by an estimated 17 million metric tons per day, or 17 percent. January February March April May June Million metric tons CO 2 India China Early Jan. Emissions were roughly at 2019 levels. 4 E.U. and Britain United States 8 Estimated change in CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels, compared with 2019 12 Rest of the world 16 Early April Global emissions fell by an estimated 17 million metric tons per day, or 17 percent. January February March April May June Million metric tons CO 2 India China Early Jan. Emissions were roughly at 2019 levels. 4 E.U. and Britain United States 8 Estimated change in CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels, compared with 2019 12 Rest of the world 16 Early April Global emissions fell by an estimated 17 million metric tons per day, or 17 percent. Estimated change in CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels, compared with 2019 Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. India China 4 E.U. and Britain Early Jan. Emissions were roughly at 2019 levels. United States 8 12 Rest of the world 16 Early April Global emissions fell by an estimated 17 million metric tons per day, or 17 percent. Million metric tons Estimated change in CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels, compared with 2019 Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. India China 4 E.U. and Britain United States 8 Early Jan. Emissions were roughly at 2019 levels. 12 Rest of the world 16 Early April Global emissions fell by an estimated 17 million metric tons per day, or 17 percent. Million metric tons Estimated change in CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels, compared with 2019 Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. India China 4 E.U. and Britain United States 8 Early Jan. Emissions were roughly at 2019 levels. 12 Rest of the world 16 Early April Global emissions fell by an estimated 17 million metric tons per day, or 17 percent. Million metric tons Sources: Nature Climate Change and Global Carbon Project In early April, daily fossil fuel emissions worldwide were roughly 17 percent lower than they were in 2019, as governments ordered people to stay home, employees stopped driving to work, factories idled and airlines grounded their flights, according to a study published in May in Nature Climate Change. But by mid-June, as countries eased their lockdowns, emissions had ticked up to just 5 percent below the 2019 average, the authors estimated in a recent update. Emissions in China, which accounts for one-quarter of the worlds carbon pollution, appear to have returned to pre-pandemic levels. The studys authors said they were surprised by how quickly emissions had rebounded. But, they added, any drop in fossil fuel use related to the coronavirus was always likely to be temporary unless countries took concerted action to clean up their energy systems and vehicle fleets as they moved to rebuild their ailing economies. We still have the same cars, the same power plants, the same industries that we had before the pandemic, said Corinne Le Quere, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia in England and lead author of the analysis. Without big structural changes, emissions are likely to come back. At the peak of the lockdowns, vehicle traffic fell by roughly half in places like Europe and the United States, a big reason that emissions dropped so rapidly. But in many cities, cars and trucks are now returning to the roads, even if overall traffic remains below pre-pandemic levels. Although many people continue to work from home, there are also early signs that people are avoiding public transportation for fear of contracting the virus and driving instead. In the United States, electricity demand had inched back closer to 2019 levels by June after a steep decline in the spring. But that didnt mean that the economy has fully recovered, said Steve Cicala, an economics professor at the University of Chicago who has been tracking electricity data. One factor may be that people are running their personal air-conditioners more often during hot weather as they stay at home. Change in global CO 2 emissions by sector Road transportation and shipping Industry Power Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun. 0 2 4 6 Uncertainty range Median estimate 8 10 million metric tons CO 2 Public buildings and commerce Aviation Residential Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 1 2 million metric tons CO 2 Road transportation and shipping Industry Power Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 2 4 6 Uncertainty range Median estimate 8 10 million metric tons CO 2 Public buildings and commerce Aviation Residential Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 1 2 million metric Road transportation and shipping Industry Power Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 2 4 6 Uncertainty range Median estimate 8 10 million metric tons CO 2 Public buildings and commerce Aviation Residential Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 1 2 million metric tons CO 2 Road transportation and shipping Industry Power Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 2 4 6 Uncertainty range Median estimate 8 10 million metric tons CO 2 Public buildings and commerce Aviation Residential Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 1 2 million metric tons CO 2 Road transportation and shipping Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 2 4 6 Median estimate 8 10 million metric tons CO 2 Uncertainty range Industry Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 2 4 6 8 10 million metric tons CO 2 Power Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 2 4 6 8 -10 million metric tons CO 2 Aviation Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 1 2 million metric tons CO 2 Public buildings and commerce Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 1 2 million metric tons CO 2 Residential Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. 0 1 million metric tons CO 2 Sources: Nature Climate Change and Global Carbon Project Even with the recent rebound in emissions, it is clear the global economy is still reeling from the virus. Surface transportation, air travel and industrial activity remain down, and the world is consuming less oil, gas and coal than a year ago. And the pandemic is far from over: Cases continue to rise worldwide, and some countries could end up reimposing stricter lockdown measures. On Monday, Chinese officials urged residents in Beijing to stay at home after a fresh cluster of cases emerged in a local market. The researchers estimated that global fossil-fuel emissions for all of 2020 are likely to be 4 to 7 percent lower than in 2019. If that prediction holds, it would be several times larger than the decline seen in 2009 after the global financial crisis. A 5 percent change in global emissions is enormous, we havent seen a drop like that since at least World War II, said Rob Jackson, an earth scientist at Stanford and a co-author of the study. But, he added, its still just a fraction of the decline needed to halt global warming, which would require bringing global emissions all the way down to nearly zero. Ultimately, climate experts said, the trajectory of global emissions in the years ahead is likely to be heavily influenced by the stimulus measures that countries enact as they seek to revive their economies. Environmentalists have called on governments to invest in cleaner energy sources in order to prevent a large rebound in fossil fuel use. So far, plans from the three biggest producers of greenhouse gases have been mixed. In May, European Union policymakers proposed an $826 billion recovery package aimed at transitioning the continent away from fossil fuels, by expanding wind and solar power, retrofitting old buildings, and investing in cleaner fuels like hydrogen. But China has sent conflicting signals, green-lighting the construction of new coal plants while also expanding incentives for electric vehicles. And in the United States, the Trump administration has continued to roll back environmental rules during the outbreak. Some cities are trying to avoid a crush of vehicle traffic as the lockdowns end. Paris and Milan are adding miles of new bike lanes. London has increased congestion charges on cars traveling into the city at peak hours. Officials in Berlin have discussed requiring residents to buy bus passes in order to make car travel less attractive. But those efforts are still far from universal. Europe looks like the major exception so far, said David Victor, a professor of international relations at the University of California. Many governments are scrambling to recover economically and not paying as much attention to the environment. Dr. Victor co-authored a recent analysis in Nature estimating that a major push toward a green recovery by world governments could reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by up to 19 parts per million by mid-century compared with a recovery that emphasized fossil fuels. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has already increased by more than 127 parts per million since preindustrial times, raising the average global temperature roughly 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists still dont have a reliable system for measuring day-to-day changes in human emissions of carbon dioxide, the main driver of global warming. For the Nature Climate Change study, the researchers looked at a variety of metrics, such as electricity demand in the United States and Europe, industrial activity in China, and traffic measurements in cities around the world, and measured how they changed in response to lockdowns. They then extrapolated these shifts to smaller countries where data is sparser, making assumptions about how emissions were likely to change. The authors cautioned that these estimates still have large uncertainties, although their findings broadly aligned with a separate analysis from the International Energy Agency, which also tried to calculate the drop in emissions during the pandemic based on declines in coal, oil and natural gas use. Just two weeks ago, more than 10,000 people filled downtown Kitchener to demand fundamental change in the way police do their work. But those protesters would have been better off marching at Queens Park in Toronto. Waterloo Region residents pay almost the entire $180-million budget for the Waterloo Regional Police Service. Yet they have next to no say in how much is spent, what it is spent on, and how police do their job. We live with a profoundly undemocratic disconnect between the people who make the decisions about policing, and the people who pay for it. Lets look at the police budget, for starters. Defund the police was a key demand of protesters. They want $29.3 million diverted from police and invested instead in community programs for disadvantaged communities. The police services board provides civilian oversight of the police and approves its budget. But a majority of board members are not directly elected by Waterloo Regions voters. Only three regional councillors sit on the board. Four other board members are appointed. If the board approves the police budget, regional council has no choice but to pass the cost along to taxpayers. If a municipality thinks the increase is too high, it can appeal to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission in Toronto. But a municipality has never won an appeal. If, as some have demanded, a municipality were to ask for a police service to be abolished or its size dramatically reduced, that same commission would make the decision. Another thing: The police board cant interfere with day-to-day decisions about policing. If someone calls a board member with a complaint about the behaviour of an officer, all the board member can do is send the complainant to ... the police complaints department. This inability to make change is part of the reason Kitchener Centre MPP Laura Mae Lindo doesnt agree with a Black person being appointed to the vacant position on the local police board. You end up being outvoted and then you are compliant in whatever the board does, she said. Another issue that is completely decided in Toronto is what the police can and cant do. That is covered by the Police Services Act. It needs to be overhauled so that we can do things that everyone agrees is a good idea, like using trained civilians instead of armed police officers to help someone in a mental health crisis, or a homeless person who is trespassing. Clearly the best way to move forward is through the provincial government. I dont have a lot of hope for that, said Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife. Fife said Premier Doug Ford had removed planned funding by the previous government for mental health supports. Yet police come to Queens Park each year to lobby for improved mental health supports. The regions three local Progressive Conservative MPPs sent an emailed response from a representative for Solicitor General Sylvia Jones. It said local municipalities must lead plans for community safety and well-being to address local crime and complex issues on a sustainable basis. The ministrys Stephen Warner said there is also funding support from the province for mental health. And we will continue to engage with partners and community organizations to set clear and consistent standards for policing delivery that comprehensively address new and emerging community safety challenges. Opposition leaders called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on the incident involving Indian and Chinese soldiers and tell the nation how the Chinese managed to commit this act of aggression, with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi leading the charge against the government. Leaders from several other political parties, such as the Bahujan Samaj party (BSP) and the Shiv Sena, too asked the government to give out more information regarding what has been described as the worst confrontation with the neighbour in 45 years. All of the opposition leaders said they backed the army and were united with the country in facing the Chinese threat. Today, when there is so much anger in the country over Chinese intrusion into Indian border, the prime minister should come out and tell the truth on how the Chinese occupied the Indian territory, why brave soldiers were martyred and what is the current situation along the LAC, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said in a video statement, in which she added that the party stood with the army and the government. Earlier, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi questioned the Prime Minister over his silence on the issue. Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? he said in a tweet. In another tweet, the former Congress chief hit out at defence minister Rajnath Singh for not naming China in his statement on the killing. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too attacked the government, saying India deserved a leadership that is willing to do anything before allowing its land to be taken. Our land, our sovereignty is being threatened, our soldiers and officers have been martyred, are we just going to remain silent? India deserves the truth. It deserves a leadership that is willing to do anything before allowing its land to be taken, she said on Twitter. BSP chief Mayawati termed the killings extremely sad and shocking. Government should take steps in the countrys interest with utmost alertness and wisdom. The country is confident that the government will take the right decision at the right time and will not allow anyone to take even an inch of our land, she said in a series of tweets. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut assured that all parties will support any decision taken by the Prime Minister on the matter but the government must disclose all facts. Our relations with China have not been great, but no bullets had been fired for close to 50 years. The killing of our 20 jawans is shocking. We cannot hold Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi responsible for that, he told reporters in Mumbai. We all are responsible for the martyrdom of 20 jawans. All parties will support whatever decision the Prime Minister takes but he should first tell people what went wrong, Raut added. Jordan's King Abdullah warned on June 16 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus annexation plan would threaten regional stability. The king addressed the issue at a video conference he held with American senators. According to a statement issued by the royal palace, Abdullah said, Any unilateral Israeli measure to annex lands in the West Bank is unacceptable and undermines the prospects of achieving peace and stability in the region." The Jordanian king had warned Israel already on May 16 of a "massive conflict" if it proceeds with plans to annex West Bank lands. His renewed appeal yesterday seems to be part of a global diplomatic blitz to persuade Netanyahu to retract. According to his unity deal with the Blue and White party, Netanyahu can bring up his annexation plan for a vote as early as July 1, and he has stated that he intends to present his initiative to the Knesset on that date. The European Union has also upped its efforts. And like Abdullah, they are also focusing on the American administration. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas visited Israel on June 10. While in Israel, Maas refrained from threatening sanctions. But visiting Amman right after Jerusalem, Maas was more direct. In a joint statement with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi, Maas said, An annexation would be contrary to international law" and "it is now a matter of priority to prevent it. Less than a week later, on June 16, EU foreign ministers held a videoconference with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, urging Washington to join efforts to renew talks between Israel and the Palestinians and not to support annexation. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell acknowledged at the meeting that President Donald Trumps peace plan has created a certain momentum, but added, "We were also clear about the consequences of a possible annexation for the prospects of a two-state solution, but also for regional stability." British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also joined the international blitz, stating yesterday that Israeli annexation "would amount to breach of international law." Those in Jerusalem who hoped that a post-Brexit UK would adopt a policy on Israel different from that of the EU were proven wrong. Johnson stressed that his government strongly objects to annexation and will work to make the case for the two-state solution. But alongside international efforts to stop Netanyahus annexation train, there are some exceptions. Addressing the American Jewish Committees online conference, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash noted that the decades-long Arab boycott of Israel has not yielded the desired results. While reiterating his countrys objection to Israels planned annexation, Gargash underlined the UAEs policy of decoupling the political from the non-political" and hinted that his country will not cease all contacts with Israel if annexation goes forward. Joseph James DeAngelo Jr, also known as the infamous Golder State Killer, will likely avoid a death penalty trial following reports the prosecutors are planning to strike a plea deal this month. According to Fox News, the 74-year-old suspect is expected to plead guilty on June 29 to over 62 charges, including rape and murder he committed in the 1970s and 1980s, in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In a report by NY Post, the decision was made half a month ago after prosecutors consulted with the survivors and the families of the victims. A consensus was reached among the survivors to go along with the plea deal. The hearing to read the charges filed against DeAngelo is expected to take a day and will be held in an undetermined venue. Who is Joseph DeAngelo? DeAngelo was one of the most notorious criminals from 1976 to 1986 who went by many names: the Golden State Killer, the Diamond Knot Killer, and the East Area Rapist. He was responsible for killing a dozen people, raping at least 45, and burglarizing over 120 homes across California, the NY Times reported. Joseph was serving in the Navy as a damage control man on a warship during the Vietnam War. Between 1973 to 1976, he was employed as an officer with the Exeter Police Department. In 1976, he transferred to the Auburn Police Department-the same year the first attack was reported. He was fired from his position in 1979 after the police department received a call DeAngelo was caught stealing dog repellant and a hammer from a local drugstore. What did he do? DeAngelo's crime spree began after he was removed from the Exeter Police Department. He began stalking his victims, studying their schedules, and planning every small detail before he attacks. The killer would break into the target's homes and bind his victims using intricate knots. Some of his crimes were documented by a website named Cold Case - EARONS which is run by sleuths who followed the East Area Rapist's cases for decades. Here are some of the vilest and most shocking acts he committed. In June 1976, the Golden State Killer broke into a Racho Cordova home at around 4 AM. DeAngelo reportedly removed his pants and his underwear before he straddled the victim who was sleeping on her bed. He bound the female victim using rope then proceeded to rape her. In December 1978, a San Jose nurse and her husband were assaulted in the middle of the night. DeAngelo forced the woman to tie her husband's hands as he placed kitchen dishes on the male victim's back. "I'll kill you if I hear them fall," DeAngelo said. The female victim was raped in front of her husband. How was he caught? Detectives tasked to investigate DeAngelo's crimes initially struggled to identify the attacker. However, in 2018, investigators successfully linked their DNA sample to a family member after they uploaded DNA evidence on a site called GEDmatch. As reported by Wired, they created a genetic profile that gave them a pool of relatives who all shared part of the killer's genetic material. They used other clues such as age, sex, and residence to rule out suspects-which left them with only one probably suspect: DeAngelo. To confirm their suspicions, they staked out his home and obtained his DNA. After running it against multiple samples obtained from crime scenes, they found a match. Ann Marie Schubert, the Sacramento District attorney, announced his arrest April 25, 2018. "We found the needle in the haystack, and it was right here in Sacramento." Want to read more? See Full Image Gallery >> The Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup is coming, and these new spy photos expose just how much its underlying crossover DNA will be visible right on the surface. Like the Honda Ridgeline, the Santa Cruz is essentially a family hauler with a bed in place of an enclosed rear cargo area. This is the first time we've seen a Santa Cruz prototype with this skin-tight camo on the front end, so we're getting a better view of the nose this time around than we have previously. Depending on what you want from Hyundai's new pickup, this is either great or terrible news. If you were hoping that the end result would be more squared-off and truck-like than the concept or leaked body shell images suggested, well, our apologies, as that's obviously not the case. Taking a cue from Honda, the Santa Cruz looks like it's going to lean hard into the fact that it's essentially a Santa Fe underneath. By the numbers, this is great news for those who want something a little smaller than the Ridgeline. The Santa Fe, like the Pilot, now rides on a midsize platform, but the visibly shorter bed and overall different proportions of the Santa Cruz mules lead us to believe that the final product will end up being a bit shorter overall. As for what will power the Santa Cruz, well, Hyundai has remained tight-lipped. The Santa Fe is offered with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder with 185 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque, and a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with 235 hp and 260 lb-ft., either one shifting through an eight-speed automatic and sending power to the front axle or both axles when equipped with HTRAC all-wheel drive. The automaker could increase potency by skipping the old 2.4-liter and offering the 2.5-liter from the Sonata that produces 191 hp and 181 lb-ft. The Ridgeline only comes with a 3.5-liter V6 making 280 hp and 262 lb-ft., so we wouldn't be too shocked if Hyundai decides to sell the Santa Cruz with just one engine likely the turbocharged one. With its production status already confirmed, we imagine it won't be too long before we get some fresh details. Until then, we're just happy to see Hyundai's validation engineers enjoying their daily grind. New Delhi, June 17 : Delayed by Covid-19 outbreak, the listing process o f power PSUs' joint venture EESL is expected to commence by the end of the current or the start of next fiscal year. The 'Super-Energy Service Company' which was setup as a JV between power PSUs including NTPC, PFC, REC and PowerGrid amongst others, enables consumers, industries and governments to effectively manage their energy needs through energy efficient technologies. Accordingly, the company's IPO plan worth Rs 5,000 crore is still on the table, EESL's Managing Director Saurabh Kumar told IANS. "Company still has plans of getting listed but because of the current scenario (Covid-19) and the impact it has had on the market, we will revisit this once the situation normalises," Kumar told IANS. "It can happen at the end of this financial year or in the beginning of the next (fiscal). But the plan is certainly on the table. The valuation of the IPO is still pegged at Rs 5,000 crore." In terms of funding the company's capital expenditure during the current fiscal, Kumar said: "We estimate our CAPEX at Rs 5,000 crore out of which Rs 1,000 crore of equity will be required." "We have already requested our promoters to provide some and also, we have created a SPV for smart meters. Out of all the investment in smart meters, 50 per cent will come from EESL and the rest from NIIF (National Investment and Infrastructure Fund)." The smart-meter category is one of the fastest growing segments of the company, with various states now showing keen interest to roll-out massive installation drive in their jurisdictions. A smart-meter digitally records and wirelessly shares stats like household electricity consumption and voltage levels to the distribution companies. "Many states like Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal have started discussions with us on smart meters," Kumar said. "We are hoping to install 3 million smart meters in FY 21." The meters bring along a unique feature which recused some of the power distribution companies, whose customers used them during the lockdown period. "During the last 2.5 months the Discoms have not been able to do anything around billing and collection and the only answer to this is smart meters," Kumar said. "In Bihar there are more than 35,000 consumers on pre-paid smart meters. Everyday the discoms are earning Rs 5 lakh from them. A contactless delivery system is the best in the current scenario, and we can only have it with a smart meter." EESL's Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP) is working to eventually replace 25 crore conventional meters with smart meters across India. This is expected to improve the billing efficiencies of Discoms and reduce their cost incurred on manual meter reading through web-based monitoring system. At present, EESL has installed over 10 lakh smart meters. (Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in) Click here to read the full article. Before launching his eyewear brand, Bold Dots, founder Akshar Patel was one might call a full-fledged eyewear obsessive, with a personal collection of more than 100 frames. As he grew to learn more about the category, he felt it was missing something. With just an idea and minimal experience he took a leap of faith, quit his consulting job and jumped in to market with his brand. Patel soft launched Bold Dots in March but now, with summer beginning, he is officially debuting his take on the category. I wanted to create a collection of eyewear drawing inspiration from my Indian heritage and interest in modern design, Patel explained. The resulting three styles an oval, a rectangular and a pentagram shape are each priced under $200 and made with high-quality acetate from Milan and polished Titanium. Patel plans to add new styles throughout the summer. For every pair sold, Patel will donate a pair of eyeglasses and an eye exam to someone from in his familys community in India. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Pagaya, a NYC and Tel Aviv, Israel-based global financial technology company using artificial intelligence (AI) to reshape asset management and institutional investment, raised $102m in Series D funding. The round was led by a prominent strategic financial institution. Aflac Global Ventures (the venture capital holding company of top insurance firm, Aflac Incorporated), Poalim Capital Markets (the investment banking arm of Bank Hapoalim), Viola, Oak HC/FT, Harvey Golub (Pagaya board member and former Chairman and CEO of American Express), Clal Insurance Ltd., GF Investments, and Siam Commercial Bank (through its Digital Ventures arm) participated in the round. The company intends to use the funds to hire data scientists, develop its technology further, and continue its pursuit of new asset classes, such as real estate and other fixed-income assets like auto loans, mortgages, and corporate credit. Co-founded in 2016 by Gal Krubiner, CEO, Avital Pardo, CTO, and Yahav Yulzari, CRO, Pagaya is a financial technology company which focuses on asset management using machine learning and big data analytics to manage institutional money. With a focus on fixed income and alternative credit, the company offers a variety of discretionary funds to institutional investors, including pension funds, insurance companies, and banks. Its technology platform, Pagaya Pulse, runs on a suite of artificial intelligence technologies and algorithms to deliver a high and scalable performance edge. The firms total consumer credit ABS issuance is over $1 billion. FinSMEs 17/06/2020 Hyderabad: Doctors state that those who have tested negative once are not immune from the virus will not infecting them. Testing negative also means that the viral load if present is not enough to certify in the tests. A senior doctor explained, If a person tested negative today, it does not mean that after exposure to a positive patient the chances of infection are completely ruled out. The virus is expected to pass through maximum people and if immunity is developed, it can be only through anti-body testing which is not being done. Telangana has carried out 44,431 tests since March and about 1,251 samples were collected, of which 213 are positive on Tuesday. The number of samples collected and tested is finally out showing that the government is under tremendous pressure to bring out the number in the public domain. This also shows that Telangana is the only state in the country whose testing is extremely low. The much vaulted 50,000 tests will only give a sketchy view of how the virus has affected the state, stated senior doctors. The total number of cases are now 5,406. Negative cases in the state are 39,025. There are only 2,188 active cases in the state and about 3,027 people have been discharged, of which 261 are on Tuesday alone. Does this mean that all the 213 cases which tested positive on Tuesday were only mild cases, questioned senior doctors. Four people have died and the total number of deaths in Telangana from Coronavirus is now 191. The Food and Drugs Authority of Ghana is the National Regulatory Authority mandated to provide and enforce safety standards for selling food, drugs, herbal medicinal products, household chemical substances, cosmetics, and medical devices. Throughout its establishment, the FDA has been playing a leading role in putting measures that protect the health of consumers in Ghana. It also offers regulatory services and is the only organisation that can approve the unveiling and conduct of all clinical trials in the country. Image: fdaghana.gov.gh Source: UGC It is the FDAs mandate to regulate the manufacture, distribution, importation, exportation, use, advertisement of all health-related consumables in the country. Through collaboration, the Food and Drugs Authority of Ghana can deliver on its mandate of ensuring the health and safety of people. The FDA offers many critical services that force it to hire competent individuals. Services offered by the FDA Ghana The FDA offers many services to the people of Ghana. These include: Issuance of registration certificates Product approvals Processing and approving new, renewal, and variation applications Issuance of licenses for all approved manufacturing and storage facilities Investigating consumer complaints into issues related to the safety and quality of food products Conduct gap assessments for local industries Provide technical support to local companies Develop capacity-building programmes for local enterprises to enable them to comply with both national and international health and safety standards Issuance of Food Hygiene Permits for approved facilities Investigate instances of public outbreaks Other services provided by the authority include issuance of facility services to the agro-industry, license transport vehicles for all animal products, and register and give out certificates for tobacco and tobacco products. Image: twitter.com, @fdaghana Source: UGC FDA Ghana recruitment process The FDA Ghana requirements for a job opportunity are straightforward. A candidate must meet the set qualification requirements before the authority can consider them for a specific position. To be eligible for recruitment, you must: Be a Ghanaian citizen by birth Have a degree from a recognised institution of higher education Have a minimum of 5 credits in two sittings in WASSCE/GCE and have credit passes in Mathematics and English Have worked at a professional capacity with some experience Be an excellent communicator You can also apply if you do not have a conviction from any court of law. READ ALSO: The side effects of ingesting folic tablets How to find FDA Ghana career opportunities The FDA Ghana regularly offers employment opportunities to individuals that pass the qualification criteria. You can find the authoritys career opportunities in different areas, including: 1. Online The internet has several job sites and recruitment agencies that advertise available positions at the FDA. Some of these include HotJobsGhana, JobwebGhana, LinkedIn, and MyJobMagGhana, among others. 2. FDA Ghana website The first place you should look for jobs is on the FDAs website. Whenever opportunities are available, the authority will advertise or announce them on its site. Visit their careers page from time to time for more information. 3. Local newspapers Depending on the position, the authority tends to buy space on full pages or sections of local newspapers. You can also check them out on the classifieds sections of the dailies for any information about a career opportunity. READ ALSO: Ways to increase your height naturally How to apply to FDA Ghana jobs Image: twitter.com, @fdaghana Source: UGC Applying for a position at the Food and Drugs Authority Ghana will depend on the advertised role. The application process for some senior positions is different from that of junior posts. But here is a general view of how a typical application works. Read and understand the purpose of the job Read and understand the duties and responsibilities required of the candidate Go through the list of qualifications required Understand the experience level required Note down the competencies needed by the Authority Go through the method of application In previous jobs, candidates used to follow the Food and Drugs Authority recruitment process of applying for jobs by addressing their applications to the following address: The Chief Executive Officer Food and Drugs Authority P.O. BOX CT 2783, Cantonments - Accra Candidates can also apply by sending their documents to fda@fdaghana.gov.gh. READ ALSO: Top 15 cheap bodybuilding foods for guys in Ghana After sending your documents, which include your CV, academic transcripts, and proof of work experience, the FDA will review the applications and produce a list of shortlisted applicants. Next, the authority will contact successful candidates and go to the remaining stages of the selection process. All jobs advertised by the agency have a strict deadline that one must meet. Alternatively, you can apply for a job from the agencys website directly. That includes downloading any FDA Ghana forms available on the site. But a rule of thumb is to follow the application procedure laid out by the FDA when advertising for open positions. FDA Ghana governing board Image: twitter.com, @fdaghana Source: UGC The head of the FDA is the Chief Executive Officer. Part of his role is to report to the Governing Board directly. As a CEO, the individual is also responsible for ensuring that the daily operational management of the authority is up and running and that the FDA continues to deliver services to the people of Ghana and address strategic issues that arise. The Ghana Food and Drugs board comprises of: Chairperson Chief Executive Officer Seven Members Currently, the Chairperson of the board is Dr. Sammy Ohene, the CEO is Mrs. Delese A. A Darko, and the seven members are Dr. Joyce Dontwi, Prof. Mary Obodai, Prof. Alex Dodoo, Pharm. Dr. Audu Rauf, Dr. Kofi Bobi Barimah, Nana Kwadwo Obiri I, And Dr. Alhassan Emil Abdulai. You can find more about their profiles on the FDA Ghana website. READ ALSO: List of foods to consume in order to increase weight fast FDA contact information To get in touch with the FDA, use the following contact information: Telephone Number: (+233) 302-233200/ 235100 (+233) 302-233200/ 235100 Hotline: (+233) 0299802932/3 (+233) 0299802932/3 Toll-free: 0800151000 0800151000 Email: info@fda.gov.gh info@fda.gov.gh Website: fdaghana.gov.gh The physical Food and Drugs Authority address is at No. 17 Indian Ocean Street, South Legon Commercial Area, Shiashie, Nelson Mandela Avenue, Accra, Greater Accra GA-237-7316, Ghana. It also has regional offices located around the country. The Food and Drugs Authority of Ghana is a governmental body mandated to reregulate, provide, and enforce safety standards for selling food, drugs, supplements, herbal medicinal products, household chemical substances, cosmetics, and medical devices. While the authority has many services, its ultimate goal is to protect the health of consumers in Ghana. As a citizen, you can apply for open positions and get an opportunity to work for one of Ghanas largest regulatory authorities. READ ALSO: List of the best foods that are high in vitamin D Source: YEN.com.gh India and China agreed Wednesday to ease tensions at their disputed Himalayan border, even as they traded blame for a brawl that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead. The two nations foreign ministers spoke by telephone to calm nerves after a high-altitude melee involving fists, rocks and clubs. The call between Chinas Wang Yi and Indias Subrahmanyam Jaishankar came as sources told AFP that Indian paramilitaries were being deployed to the area of the skirmish high in the Himalayas opposite Tibet. Chinas state broadcaster CCTV, meanwhile, showed footage of Peoples Liberation Army tanks and soldiers holding live fire drills in Tibet. China has refused to confirm if it suffered any casualties in the first deadly clashes at the border in decades, although Indian media said at least 40 Chinese troops were killed or seriously hurt. The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that Wang demanded India conduct a thorough investigation and punish those responsible. The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation, and must not underestimate Chinas firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty, it added. Indias foreign ministry said Jaishankar conveyed the protest of his government. He warned that this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship and urged Beijing to take corrective steps. But the two ministers also sought to de-escalate tensions. China said both sides agreed to cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible. Indias foreign ministry said the two sides would implement a previously agreed disengagement, and neither side would take any action to escalate matters. The incident, which took place Monday at around 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) up in the Galwan valley area dominated Indian news channels and inflamed social media in both countries. In India small groups of protesters called for the boycott of Chinese goods, with some burning posters of Chinese president Xi Jinping. In his first remarks on the deadly clashes which follow weeks of rising tensions over the disputed border Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the nation the deaths of the soldiers will not be in vain. Sources told AFP that military transport aircraft had made a number of rare night-time landings in Leh, capital of Indias Ladakh region opposite Chinas Tibet throughout Tuesday night. Hurtling down The clashes reportedly involved intense hand-to-hand fighting but no gunfire, in line with longstanding practices aimed at avoiding a full military confrontation over the disputed 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) border. An Indian army source told AFP there were violent hand-to-hand scuffles, while media said that Chinese troops attacked with rods and nail-studded clubs. Many of these killed appear to have been punched or shoved off a ridge onto rocks and into an icy river below. They came hurtling down like free-falling objects, one source told AFP. Postmortem examinations on some of those killed showed that the primary reason for death is drowning and it looks like they fell from a height into the water because of head injuries, an official told AFP. Sources said Wednesday that six Indian soldiers were still missing. Both sides have given competing versions of the violence. Beijing said Indian troops crossed the border line twice provoking and attacking Chinese personnel. New Delhi said the Chinese side sought to erect a structure on the Indian side of the valley and took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the violence. Calls for restraint The United States which has mounting frictions with China, but sees India as an emerging ally said it was hoping for a peaceful resolution. The UN called for both sides to exercise maximum restraint, while Russia welcomed news of subsequent peaceful contacts between the two neighbours. India and China have never even agreed on the length of their Line of Actual Control frontier. They fought a brief war in 1962 and deadly clashes followed in 1967, but the last shot fired in anger was in 1975 when four Indians died. In 2017 there was a 72-day showdown after Chinese forces moved into the disputed Doklam plateau on the China-India-Bhutan border. The recent uptick in tensions began in early May, when several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a clash involving fists and stone-throwing. Their prickly relationship was strained when India in August revoked the semi-autonomous status of Indian-administered Kashmir and split off Ladakh into a new administrative territory. Ladakh is partly claimed by Beijing. India meanwhile has been irked by Chinas backing of Pakistan and an economic corridor going through parts of Kashmir controlled by Islamabad but claimed by India. SOURCE: AFP (Photo : 3 Ways to Learn Industrial Robotics at Home) A career in robotics is one of the most coveted things for those interested in engineering and automation. Presently, there is an explosion in the number of companies seeking innovative robotics solutions creating unprecedented demand for robotics innovators. Luckily, there is an equal amount of interest in offering easy robotics training courses and guidelines, even to the youngest innovators. How do you go about learning industrial robotics at home, and where do you even start? To save you from the hustle of learning through trial and error, here are three easy approaches to learn robotics and industrial robotics at home: 1. Baby Steps- Start with A Simple Robotics Kit Walk into any retail store today, and you will find a dozen or more DIY robotics kits made for all age groups. The easiest entry point into learning robotics starts with these baby steps using a DIY robotics kit from Amazon or your local Walmart store. A good DIY robotics kit comes with all the components you need to understand the basics of: Basic Robot assembly. Robot programming fundamentals, such as configuring arm movements. Arm movement and articulation. Payloads. Hand guiding- For collaborative robot kits. Axis and degrees of movement. Mobility. Reach. Working with end effectors, among others. Robotics kits take a fun, do-it-yourself approach to learning robotics, making it easy for non-engineers and kids to learn the fundamentals and develop an interest in industrial or any other type of robotics. 2. Graduate to Real World Robot Programming In your learning journey, your next foray should be trying your hand in real-world robot programming. Contrary to popular belief, programming robots isn't so complicated and hard to learn. You'll be surprised how many lines of code you need to make a real-world industrial robot do what it needs to do to accomplish simple tasks such as picking and placing items. There are numerous robot programming simulation programs you can use to learn before you transition to programming a real robot. Some industrial robot manufacturers also provide simulation programs as learning resources for those interested in robotics. Get Your Own Robot Arm and Programming Kit Just a few years ago, it would have been impossible to or too expensive for an individual to purchase their industrial robot arm for personal use or learning. However, industrial robot arms and end effectors are now more available than ever, thanks to innovations and increasing demand from small businesses. With this in mind, your next giant step into learning industrial robotics at home is to purchase a cheap industrial robot arm and programming kit. Luckily some robot manufacturers package easy to learn programming guidelines and intuitive programming interfaces with the robotic arm. You can then use it for real-life projects such as picking and placing items, engraving, painting, and other DIY projects at home. 3. Enroll in A Free or Paid Digital Course There are numerous free and paid online learning resources on robotics for self -learners like you. Sites like Brilliant, Coursera, Linkedin Learning, YouTube, Pluralsight have great courses on robotics topics. If you want a more structured approach that resembles a college degree, then going through MIT's open courseware and Stanford Engineering free video courses on robotics could be ideal for you. Great resources to learn robotics at home include but are not limited to: MIT Open courseware Stanford Engineering free learning resources Universal Robots Academy EDx has wonderful courses on robotics such as the one on robot mechanics and control Coursera Linkedin learning Pluralsight Brilliant.org QUT Robot Academy Some of the best resources you can find are free and presented by the best trainers in the industry. Being a specialized engineering topic, it's quite hard to find a low-quality course on robotics. All in all, learning industrial robotics is probably the best thing you can do for yourself today. It is said that robotics and AI are the drivers of industry 4.0, so positioning yourself as a professional could turn you into a valuable resource now and in the future. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. PLA Tibet military command conducts drills targeting hostile hubs in mountainous region amid border tensions Global Times By Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/16 23:59:41 The Chinese military recently conducted joint exercises aimed at the destruction of key hostile hubs in a high-elevation mountainous region, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Tibet Military Command revealed on Tuesday after a fatal clash broke out on the China-India border on Monday. Featuring multiple types of combat forces including long-range artillery systems, ground-to-air missile systems, special operative forces, army aviation troops, electronic countermeasure forces and engineering and anti-chemical warfare troops in a joint operation group, the live-fire drills recently took place in the Nianqing Tanggula, or Nyenchen Tonglha, Mountains at an elevation of 4,700 meters, news website chinanews.com reported on Tuesday, citing the information from the PLA Tibet Military Command on Tuesday. The drills simulated a strike operation on hostile hubs from multiple dimensions, and trained the high-elevation troops' joint operation capabilities. In the early stages of the drills, scout troops first used technical measures to gather intelligence, grasped hostile activities and opened paths for the main forces by scouting and clearing obstacles. After target coordinates were set, artillery and snipers launched precision strikes on hostile frontline commanding outposts and foot soldiers, during which attack forces marched into enemy depths as drones were set to fly for reconnaissance and obstacle sabotage. Dozens of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles took advantage of the open paths and seized hostile frontiers, while anti-aircraft fire stopped hostile attack helicopters and friendly helicopters sent troops to target locations. In the final assault, all weapons deployed in a radius of several dozen kilometers formed a joint fire strike system and eliminated all opposing forces. China's advanced weapons including Type 15 lightweight tanks can be seen in photos attached to the report. Zhang Jialin, a brigade commander who participated in the drills, said the troops overcame a challenging harsh environment in a coordinated approach from land and air, integrated different modules and systems, practiced the tactics of all terrain joint strikes and multidimensional assaults. The drills laid a solid foundation for the troops to conduct all kinds of missions, Zhang said in the report. These kinds of drills demonstrated the PLA's capability to win a regional, high elevation conflict in its early stages by decisively eradicating the hostile headquarters and commanders, a PLA veteran who was once deployed in Tibet and asked not to be named told the Global Times on Tuesday. The report came at a time when a clash broke out in the Galwan Valley region on the China-India border on Monday. Indian media reported that an Indian Army colonel and two soldiers were killed in the clash and Chinese side also sustained casualties. While escalation to a large-scale military conflict is very unlikely, the Chinese military will be prepared, analysts said on Tuesday. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 17:40 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf8f2c2 1 Business PLN,smart-meter,electricity-billing,Trade-Ministry,metrology Free State-owned electricity company PLN has conveyed a plan to install 79 million smart meters across the country over the next seven years in an effort to automate the billing process as millions of customers have complained about spiking bills in recent weeks. PLN president director Zulkifli Zaini said on Wednesday that the plan was a more efficient alternative to recalibrating old meters, which often misread power consumption. The cost of recalibrating a meter is about the same as changing the meter, he said, adding that the recalibration had to be done in special test labs. The biggest challenge with the recalibrations is the limited capacity of Trade Ministry testing labs. Unlike standard meters, smart meters can wirelessly transmit information between the electricity company and users. PLN will be able to remotely monitor users power consumption round-the-clock instead of sending meter inspectors once a month. Around 4.6 million residential customers of PLN reported a spike in their power bills in June amid the implementation of the governments working-from-home policy to contain the coronavirus spread. Trade Ministry metrological director Rusmin Amin noted during a webinar on Monday that uncalibrated standard meters had no direct relation to the incident. PLN previously admitted the spikes were due to flaws in its new bill calculation method implemented during the physical distancing period as its inspectors were unable to conduct site inspections. State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir suggested on June 12 that PLN develop smart meters, among other innovations, to avoid such flawed calculation methods in the future. Going forward, PLN needs to push innovation when providing services, he said. There are currently 14.3 million uncalibrated standard meters in Indonesia, said Rusmin. The meters comprise electronic versions that need recalibration once every 15 years and mechanical versions that need recalibration once in a decade. A faulty device can mean a loss for both consumers and PLN, he said. The uncalibrated meters either overstate power consumption by 15 percent or understate it by 17 percent, according to the ministrys 2011 survey in West Java and Banten. The former situation would amount to a loss for consumers while the latter would cause losses for PLN. National Consumer Protection Agency (BPKN) chairman Ardiansyah Parman, speaking at the webinar, urged PLN to implement the plan starting next year. He also urged the company to prioritize replacing the 14 million uncalibrated meters with smart meters. This is so that PLN and to consumers losses may be solved immediately, he said. The agency received five complaints related to electricity and gas bills this year, which represents 0.86 percent of all complaints received this year. Two-thirds of the complaints were related to housing. However, Herman Ibrahim, country chairman of the Paris-based International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE), separately said residential smart meters were ill-suited for Indonesias electricity system, despite being a global technological trend. He noted that such meters were best suited for more advanced electric grids, which had different hourly electricity tariffs and allowed customers to sell electricity generated from renewable sources into the system. Neither mechanisms are being implemented in Indonesia in scale. If they were just used for normal purposes, it would be too luxurious, he told The Jakarta Post on Monday, adding that smart meters cost more than standard meters. Herman added that smart meters were only beneficial in environments with stable internet connectivity, which remains a big issue in non-urban Indonesia. I feel some validation right now, Bostock said Monday. The ruling was somewhat surprising, considering President Donald Trumps overhaul of the Supreme Court. His two conservative appointees to the high court were supposed to prevent legislating from the bench, as Justice Samuel Alitos dissenting view described this decision. But thats not what this is, Gorsuch asserted, writing, In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employees sex when deciding to fire that employee. We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law. Put aside the legalese and it should be obvious that discriminating against qualified workers for their sexual or gender identity is wrong. Codifying it would have increased the suffering of a group of people who are already marginalized and, in many cases, brutalized for no good reason. Why anyone would want that is a question for the ages. The Saudi-led coalition on Wednesday denied targeting Yemeni civilians in air strikes that Iran-linked Huthi rebels and medical sources said left 13 people dead, including children. The Huthis Al-Masirah TV said four children were among those killed late Monday in coalition air strikes on a vehicle in the rebel stronghold of Saada. Medical sources separately confirmed to AFP that four children had died. Releasing a video of the raid, the coalition rejected the allegation as false and unfounded, insisting that it targeted armed Huthi combatants. The video highlights the reality and circumstances of the targeting, a coalition statement said. A group of Huthi armed militants are shown carrying weapons in a military logistics operation, within the area of operations in close proximity to the Saudi-Yemeni border. The incident occurred as the war-ravaged country, already reeling from what the UN calls the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, grapples with the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic. It comes on the heels of UN chief Antonio Guterress decision to remove the Saudi-led coalition from a list of groups violating childrens rights. The UNs newly published annual report on children in conflict zones said the toll had fallen since an agreement signed in March 2019. Both the coalition and the rebels have been accused by the UN and rights groups of committing violations in Yemen that could amount to war crimes. International aid organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), have condemned the latest air strikes. We share our deepest condolences with the bereaved families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives in this terrible, unjustified attack, said Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen. Yemen is desperate for peace. Humanitarian agencies are running out of money and COVID is spreading. Mohamed Abdi, NRCs country director, said an investigation must take place, and warring parties responsible for their deaths must be held accountable. The strikes come after the coalition claimed it has recently intercepted a number of Huthi ballistic missiles and drones targeting Saudi cities near the Yemeni border. The coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015, shortly after the Huthis seized the capital Sanaa. Tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, have since been killed. With the situation in Syria deteriorating day by day, UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen has urged all warring parties that he is ready to convene a third session of the Syria-led and Syrian-owned constitutional committee in Geneva, towards the end of August, given the COVID-19 travel restrictions. However, Pedersen also warned that the problems in Syria just cannot be solely solved through constitutional talks as there is currently 80 per cent of the Syrian population living below the poverty line. Read: UN Envoy Hopes For New Syria Talks And Warns Of Dire Economy "Syria is going through a time of great flux. Nobody involved in the conflict should presume that time is on their side. Nobody should be sure that there will be better openings down the road. What is required is the readiness of all to deal seriously with the realities of the conflict," Pedersen while addressing the UN Security Council said. Read: Syrian Security Forces Detain Protesters In Southern City Pedersen also warned that there are currently five international armies operating inside Syria and with the United States and European Union imposing strict sanctions, the conflict will escalate and Syrian parties will be forced to resolve the issue without real diplomacy among international players. Pedersen said that Syria is currently under economic shatters and with coronavirus, the situation is getting worse. Read: Syria: Assad Fires His PM Amid Worsening Economic Crisis Urges Syrian parties to free detainees Pedersen also noted that in recent weeks, Syrians have staged street protests in Sweida, Daraa, and Idlib against a range of grievances. Russian mediation helped to avert a violent confrontation in Tafas, in the geopolitically sensitive south-west. Pedersen further appealed for a nationwide ceasefire to be put in place in accordance with Council resolution 2254 (2005). Pedersen also urged Damascus and all other Syrian parties to free detainees and abductees, especially the women, the elderly, the sick, and the children for more meaningful action on missing persons. Read: Syrias Assad Seeks To Control Economy, Goes After Cousin India recorded more than 2,000 deaths from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after Delhi and Maharashtra updated their figures taking the countrys toll to nearly 12,000 as the infection tally rose to 354,065, the Union health ministrys report showed on Wednesday. According to the ministrys Covid-19 dashboard, 10,974 fresh cases were reported from across the country in the last 24 hours and 2,003 patients succumbed to the respiratory disease. Indias death toll stands at 11,903 so far. The death toll surged after Delhi and Maharashtra took into account hundreds of fatalities that were pending review, officials have said. There are 155,227 active cases and 186,934 people have been discharged after being cured of the coronavirus disease, data showed. Also read| Nearly 12,000 deaths in 97 days: How Indias toll soared across states The recovery rate was at 52.79% slightly up from 52.46% on Tuesday. The surge in numbers comes on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet chief ministers of Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to discuss the pandemic situation. PM Modi has already held consultations with chief ministers from Punjab, Assam, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh among other states on Tuesday. The PM in his sixth such meeting on the pandemic between the Centre, and states and Union territories said once again that the national priority must be to protect both lives and livelihoods. We must focus on both life and livelihood, boost health infrastructure, testing and tracing as well as increase economic activity, he said during the virtual meeting. How the death toll rose As of Tuesday, 83% of Covid-19 deaths in the country have been reported from the five worst-hit states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The 10 worst-affected states account for more than 96% of all deaths reported in India. The country had recorded its first fatality in March when the Covid-19 infection tally was a little over 70. The first 5,000 fatalities took 80 days, the latest 5,000 deaths came in just 17 days, with more than 2,500 being reported in the last week. A 76-year-old man, who returned to Karnatakas Kalburgi from Saudi Arabia, tested positive for Covid-19 and succumbed to the disease. It was reported on March 12. Indias case fatality rate (CFR) or the proportion of death to the total number of cases has gone up to 3.4% from 2.9% with the jump in the death toll. Also read| People with co-morbidities 12 times more likely to die of Covid: US study India is the fourth worst-hit country in the world in terms of total Covid-19 cases but it has fared much better in terms of deaths where it comes on the eighth spot. Its total death trajectory is also a lot more gradual when compared to many other nations ravaged by the disease. Indias CFR is at 14% and is much lower than the global average of 56%. Worldwide, there are 8.6 million infections and 441,668 people have died till date, according to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker. EDMONTON, Alberta, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This week, Alberta Computers for Schools received a donation of 100 100e Chromebooks from Lenovo that will be given to students who do not have access to a computer at home for remote learning. The devices will be donated directly to schools in Alberta, who will then distribute the Chromebooks to students in need. COVID-19 has evolved the education system in Canada and the role that technology plays in the curriculum, said Colin McIsaac, executive director and general manager, Lenovo Canada. Schools, organizations and families have had to quickly adapt to the new distance learning model. There was already a deep digital divide among students, and that only increased due to COVID-19. Students without a device at home are at a greater risk of falling behind in their studies, so we want to ensure that all students have access to technology needed to continue their education, whether that be in a classroom or remote learning at home. Alberta Computers for Schools distributes around 10,000 computers each year through the Government of Canada Computers for Schools Plus program, and the spike generated by Covid-19 is accelerating the need for incoming donations. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen a significant increase in demand and applications for equipment, says Kari Cope, Executive Director of Alberta Computers for Schools. The support from companies like Lenovo allows us to reach even more families and makes a tremendous difference in the lives of Alberta students. Alberta Computers for Schools has a long-standing history helping students in need within the province. Since 1994, ACFS has distributed more than 200,000 computers primarily to K-12 schools across Alberta. To learn more visit https://www.cfsalberta.ca/ About Lenovo Lenovo (HKSE:992) (LNVGY) is a US$50 billion Fortune Global 500 company, with 63,000 employees and operating in 180 markets around the world. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, we are developing world-changing technologies that create a more inclusive, trustworthy and sustainable digital society. By designing, engineering and building the worlds most complete portfolio of smart devices and infrastructure, we are also leading an Intelligent Transformation to create better experiences and opportunities for millions of customers around the world. To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com , follow us on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter , YouTube , Instagram , Weibo and read about the latest news via our StoryHub . Story continues LENOVO is a trademark of Lenovo. CHROMEBOOK is a trademark of Google LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2020, Lenovo Group Limited. About Alberta Computers for Schools The Government of Canada administers the Computers for Schools Plus (CFS+) program in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, as well as the private and volunteer sectors. CFS+ is helping to extend the useful life of devices, reduce the environmental impact of electronic waste, and provide valuable internship opportunities to help young Canadians develop advanced digital skills for the job market. The new Plus in Computers for Schools Plus builds on over 25 years of success in serving communities across Canada to provide a wide range of computer equipment to an expanded audience of recipients. Originally, computers were only provided to schools. Today, the CFS+ program also provides computers and other digital devices to assist libraries, not-for-profit organizations, Indigenous communities and eligible low-income Canadians. Contact Kari Cope, Executive Director Alberta Computers for Schools kari.cope@cfsalberta.ca Josie Norris /Staff Photographer Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff issued an order Wednesday mandating that businesses require customers and employees to wear masks when theyre on the premises after Gov. Greg Abbott once again refused to allow local authorities to make the requirement mandatory for all residents. Wolffs order comes in response to a record number of new cases of the novel coronavirus and of people admitted to San Antonio hospitals with the deadly virus. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ValOre Metals Corp. (ValOre; TSXV: VO; OTCQX: KVLQF; FRANKFURT: KEQ0) today announced results from 54 grab samples, provided an update on the Mendes North geochemical sampling program, and commenced the initiation of a metallurgical testwork program for ValOres 100%-owned Pedra Branca Platinum Group Elements Project (PGE), located near the community of Capitao Mor in northeastern Brazil. Key Updates on ValOres 2020 Pedra Branca PGE Exploration Program: 2PGE+Au (being palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt) and gold (Au)) assay results have been received for 54 property-wide rock samples, with the highest grade sample exceeding 26 g 2PGE+Au/t , 4 samples >10 g 2PGE+Au/t , 6 samples ranging from 5-10 g 2PGE+Au/t , and an additional 27 samples returning anomalous 2PGE+Au grades; 598 soil samples from the Mendes North geochemical program have been received by the lab with analytical results expected within 2 weeks; SGS Lakefield, Ontario will be conducting metallurgical testing on select mineralized samples from 43-101 deposit areas at Pedra Branca, testing the amenability of Falcon UF gravity separation and PLATSOL leaching. Our team continues to demonstrate the widespread and high-grade mineralization at ValOres 100% owned Pedra Branca PGE project, stated Jim Paterson, Chairman & CEO. In combination with the planned drill program, the initiation of metallurgical test work will greatly increase our understanding and help us accelerate the advancement of this exciting project. Property-Wide Grab Sample Results Assay results for 54 rock samples collected from property-wide exploration targets and resource areas have been received. A total of 37 samples returned anomalous 2PGE+Au grades, with a peak grade of 26.66 g 2PGE+Au/t from a grab sample in the Trapia West deposit area. Multiple high-grade rock samples were collected from widely spaced exploration targets spanning the project, including Trapia 1 North, Massape, and Esbarro West. In addition, several target areas slated for 2020 core drilling returned strong 2PGE+Au results, including Esbarro East, Cana Brava and Santo Amaro. See Table 1 below for a summary of 2PGE+Au results, CLICK HERE for the full list of assays, and CLICK HERE to view all figures related to this news release. Story continues Table 1: Summary of Grab Sample 2PGE+Au Assays 2PGE+Au Range Number of Samples >10 g/t 4 5.0 - 10 g/t 6 *1.22 - 5.0 g/t 12 0.03-1.22* g/t 15 barren 16 *1.22 is the average 43-101 resource grade See ValOre news release July 23, 2019 Selective rock grab samples were collected from field sites with coordinate data captured by handheld GPS and subsequently stored in a secure ValOre facility in Capitao Mor, Ceara, Brazil. The samples were sent with an ensured chain of custody to SGS Geosol Laboratorios Ltda. (SGS Geosol, an accredited mineral analysis laboratory) in Vespasiano, Minas Gerais, Brazil for analysis. All samples were analyzed for 2PGE+Gold (Pd, Pt, Au) content using standard Fire Assay and ICP techniques. Chromium values that exceeded 5% were redirected to ore-grade pyrosulfate fusion and XRF techniques to determine %Cr 2 O 3 . Certified PGM ore reference standards, blanks and field duplicates were inserted as a part of ValOres Quality Control/Quality Assurance program (QA/QC). No QA/QC issues were noted with the results reported herein. Mendes North Geochemical Program Update All 598 soil samples from the three >1km Mendes North WorldView-magnetic anomaly targets have been received by SGS Geosol and assaying has commenced. Analytical results are expected within 2 weeks. Soil samples were collected from field sites spaced 20 metres apart on lines spaced 100 metres apart, with coordinate data captured by handheld GPS. These samples were subsequently stored in a secure ValOre facility in Capitao Mor, Ceara, Brazil and thereafter sent with an ensured chain of custody to SGS Geosol. All samples are being analyzed for 2PGE+Au (Pd, Pt, Au) content using standard 50g Fire Assay and ICP-AES techniques. Certified PGE ore reference standards, blanks and field duplicates are inserted as a part of ValOres Quality Control/Quality Assurance program (QA/QC). Upcoming Metallurgical Test Work Program Initiated ValOre has engaged SGS Canada Inc. of Lakefield, Ontario to conduct preliminary metallurgical tests on mineralized samples from designated 43-101 deposit areas. Falcon UF gravity separation test work will be performed to characterize the metallurgical balance relating PGE mass recoveries. In addition, PLATSOL leaching will be tested to follow up and corroborate previous findings of this metallurgical processing technique. Further information about PLATSOL and Falcon UF can be found in the links below: PLATSOL: https://www.sgs.ca/en/mining/metallurgy-and-process-design/unit-operations-and-metallurgical-services/pressure-and-ambient-leaching/platsol Falcon UF: https://minerals.seprosystems.com/equipment/falcon-uf-gravity-concentrators/ Sampling of historical mineralized drill core from the Esbarro and Curiu deposits, and outcrop sampling of the Curiu and Trapia West deposits is now complete, and samples have been shipped for preliminary analytical work to the SGS facility Vespasiano, Minas Gerais prior to shipment to SGS Canada. Qualified Person The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in NI 43-101 and reviewed and approved by Colin Smith, P.Geo., who oversees New Project Review for ValOre. About ValOre Metals Corp. ValOre Metals Corp. (TSXV: VO) is a Canadian company with a portfolio of highquality exploration projects. ValOres team aims to deploy capital and knowledge on projects which benefit from substantial prior investment by previous owners, existence of high-value mineralization on a large scale, and the possibility of adding tangible value through exploration, process improvement, and innovation. In May 2019, ValOre announced the acquisition of the Pedra Branca Platinum Group Elements (PGE) property, in Brazil, to bolster its existing Angilak uranium, Genesis/Hatchet uranium and Baffin gold projects in Canada. The Pedra Branca PGE Project comprises 38 exploration licenses covering a total area of 38,940 hectares (96,223 acres) in northeastern Brazil. At Pedra Branca, 5 distinct PGE+Au deposit areas host, in aggregate, a NI 43-101 Inferred Resource of 1,067,000 ounces 2PGE+Gold (Palladium, Platinum and Gold; Pd, Pt+Au) contained in 27.2 million tonnes (Mt) grading 1.22 grams 2PGE+Gold per tonne (g 2PGE+Au/t) (see ValOres July 23, 2019 news release). PGE mineralization outcrops at surface and all of the inferred resources are potentially open pittable. Comprehensive exploration programs have demonstrated the District Scale potential of ValOres 89,852-hectare Angilak Property in Nunavut Territory, Canada that hosts the Lac 50 Trend having a NI 43101 Inferred Resource of 2,831,000 tonnes grading 0.69% U3O8, totaling 43.3 million pounds U 3 O 8 . For disclosure related to the inferred resource of ValOre's Lac 50 Trend uranium deposits, please refer to ValOre's news release of March 1, 2013. ValOres team has forged strong relationships with sophisticated resource sector investors and partner Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) on both the Angilak and Baffin Gold Properties. ValOre was the first company to sign a comprehensive agreement to explore for uranium on Inuit Owned Lands in Nunavut Territory and is committed to building shareholder value while adhering to high levels of environmental and safety standards and proactive local community engagement. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Jim Paterson James R. Paterson, Chairman and CEO ValOre Metals Corp. For further information about, ValOre Metals Corp. or this news release, please visit our website at www.valoremetals.com or contact Investor Relations toll free at 1.888.331.2269, at 604.646.4527, or by email at contact@valoremetals.com. ValOre Metals Corp. is a proud member of Discovery Group. For more information please visit: www.discoverygroup.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. This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Although ValOre believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements have been based on factors and assumptions concerning future events that may prove to be inaccurate. These factors and assumptions are based upon currently available information to ValOre. Such statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results or events and cause actual results or events to differ materially from those stated, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. A number of important factors including those set forth in other public filings could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include the future operations of the Company and economic factors. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release and, except as required by applicable law, ValOre does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. ValOre undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third parties in respect of ValOre, or its financial or operating results or (as applicable), their securities. A Fort Walton Beach man was arrested Tuesday after allegedly shooting a cyclist in the head with a crossbow. Matthew Ross Peters, 42, was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and firing a deadly weapon into a moving vehicle, according to a release from the Fort Walton Beach Police Department. The victim, Benny Davis, was riding his bike at the time of the alleged incident, and later taken to hospital with serious head injuries. Police arrested Peters leaving the Sea Breeze Inn at Fort Walton Beach while he was holding the crossbow. Officers also found methamphetamine on Peters. Peters was booked into the Okaloosa County Jail at 5.30 p.m., according to jail records. Compassion International Ghana (CIG), a Non-Governmental Organisation, has appealed to government to ensure that childrens needs are prioritized in the ongoing judicial reforms. The organisation expressed commitment to continue to promote the use of the legal systems for redress of cases of child abuse, exploitation and neglect. This was in a statement signed by Mrs Gifty Dansoa Appiah, the National Director of CIG, and copied to Peacefmonline.com on Tuesday to mark this year's African Union Day of the African Child, which falls on June 16. The AU Day of the African Child was instituted in 1976 on June 16, in memory of the children who died in Soweto, South Africa. "As we commemorate the Day, we will like to encourage all stakeholders to continue to invest in and protect the interest and rights of the Ghanaian child, it said. We thank our Frontline Church Partners (FCP) and all the personnel of the judiciary who in diverse ways have upheld the rights of Ghanaian children at the courts over the years, portions of the statement read. Find full statement below: COMMEMORATION OF THE AU DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD, 2020 Tomorrow 16th June is the Day of the African child. The celebration of the AU Day of the African Child (DAC) was instituted in the year 1976 on the 16th of June and is to be celebrated each year in memory of the children who died as a result of the unfortunate incident that took place in Soweto, South Africa. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) has chosen the theme of this years commemoration as Access to a Child-Friendly Justice System in Africa". This theme is aimed at fostering Africas fit for children as they benefit from a child-sensitive criminal system. Compassion International Ghana believes that children should be known, loved and protected. We believe the protection of children is central to Gods heart. As an expression of that belief, Compassion Ghana places the love, care and protection of children above all other considerations. Because children living in extreme poverty are among the most vulnerable in the world, Compassion International Ghana (CIGH) together with her Frontline Church Partners (FCPs) have established clear policies that are designed to promote the safety and protection of the over 90,000 children our program in Ghana and also advocate for all Children in deprived communities in which we serve. In joining millions of children and other partners across the world to celebrate this important day and especially in a difficult moment like the one we are in now, Compassion Ghana would like to remind partners especially the Government of the immense and collective role we to play in the protection of children from maltreatment, hunger, sexual abuse and all forms of injustices. Compassion Ghana is humbly calling on Government and all stakeholders to prioritize the protection of children particularly during this pandemic. Compassion Ghana also appeals to the Chief Justice to ensure that childrens needs are prioritized in the ongoing judicial justice reforms. Compassion will continue to promote the usage of our legal systems and laws as the most appropriate legal outlets for a redress of cases of child abuse, exploitation and neglect, while also recognizing that parents and partners play a critical supportive role in these efforts. As a child cantered and advocacy organization, Compassion International Ghana (CIGH) will continue to support and encourage our Frontline Church Partners to protect and love all abused children in our program by assigning them caring adults who will provide them with legal expertise and also work to ensure they receive the benefits of the justice system in Ghana should the need arise. Also, CIGH together with her partners commits to continue to pay all legal fees associated with accessing the justice system for all children in our program. As we commemorate the day, CIGH will like to encourage all stakeholders to continue to invest in and protect the interest and rights of the Ghanaian child. We will also like to seize the opportunity to thank our Frontline Church Partners and all the personnel of the judiciary who in diverse ways have upheld the rights of Ghanaian children at the courts over the years. Aside children being out of school during this pandemic, there has been a widespread job and income loss and economic uncertainty among families, and this is likely to increase the rates of sexual, physical, emotional abuse and neglect of children. There is a need for all stakeholders to act urgently to protect children during this pandemic. Compassion International Ghana as a child advocacy organization is committed to working with government and also collaborate with other sectors to respond to the protection of children in this COVID-19 period. We are currently working with our Frontline Church Partners to; 1. Educate the children and youth on the COVID-19 pandemic and its related child protection risks as well as educating them to be active agents in their protection. 2. Create awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic and educate the community on parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic. 3. Strengthen families by educating caregivers to emotionally support and protect their children, provide financial and material assistance such as (food, hygiene and household items to families, whose income-generating opportunities have been affected. 4. Provide psychosocial support to children and families who need emotional support. Compassion Ghana wishes all children in Ghana happy celebrations and prays that the good Lord will continue to protect all Children against all injustices and this present COVID-19 pandemic. SIGNED GIFTY DANSOA APPIAH NATIONAL DIRECTOR Compassion has been working in Ghana since 2005 as a Holistic Child Sponsorship Organisation. There are now over 2 MILLION children globally being loved and protected in over 7,000 local churches in 25 countries around the world! And its all because of YOU! Source: 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 Covid-19 has not only changed the normal life we used to lead, at least for the coming medium-run. It has also ushered in a new sad truth: the unprecedented spread of fake news and false information around the clock, on social media in particular. People tend to believe and unfortunately trust information shared without due verification. Though the reliability of most stories circulated on social media since the outbreak of coronavirus could be questioned on the spot, resharing such stories thousands and even millions of times has shown a tendency worthy of deep study. Rumours are usually connected with big events and incidents. Their cycle of life is based on peoples instinct to know private details about a specific incident, a celebrity, or people in office, among others. Rumour is a skilled blend of true and false, aimed at influencing peoples orientation towards a given subject. A study titled Analysing How People Orient to and Spread Rumours in Social Media, released by the University of Warwick, England, argues that, the spread of misinformation is especially important in the context of breaking news These rumours then spread to large numbers of users, influencing perceptions and understandings of events, despite being unverified. That is why we all heard, at the early days of Covid-19, of ridiculous causes of the coronavirus, such as 5G broadband and so-called ultra-lethal electrical waves generated from 5G phone masts. Without scrutinising or even running a simple fact check, a handsome number of people around the world trusted the rumour, ignoring a very simple truth that coronavirus has hit nations that do not even have 3G broadband! Regardless, and as a result, 5G towers were destroyed in several European countries, including the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, as people in every part of the globe were earnestly awaiting news on the production of a Covid-19 vaccine, another rumour was widely circulated, this time a miserable one, and spread on a larger scale. It claimed that Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, was working on implanting a microchip into the bodies of those who would supposedly take the new vaccine in the future. This is in order to track people and get their personal information, as part of a dark conspiracy theory about the extinction of the human race. Some have mixed Hollywood science fiction movies, where an imaginary all-knowing intelligence service can track people down at whim, with present reality. In the early days of the spread of the contagion, premature conclusions of scientific studies gained trust among many from the natural instinct to believe in whatever one hears just to overcome ones fear. Now, it appears that almost everything people thought at first was incorrect. At the peak of the panic, people were told the infection might be transmitted through touching surfaces laden with droplets left by an infected person. This may be true within a healthcare setting, such as in hospitals, where confirmed cases receive treatment. Instead of limiting the sterilisation process to such places, however, governments were misled into sterilising streets and public buildings in a massive resources waste. At last, the measure was considered ineffective and useless, or quoting US President Trump, a hoax. Misinformation has not been the only phenomenon connected with the Covid-19 pandemic. Negativity has been given its share as well. From a looming Doomsday to imaginary creatures jumping over buildings, people were caught in the middle to the extent some have already performed their last prayers. Strict precautionary measures are not synonymous with readiness for ones last day on earth. At the end, they are meant to make sure that everyone is safe and doing what they should under the circumstances to avoid being infected. Who stands behind this panic campaign associated with coronavirus? Unfortunately, many news outlets and prestigious scientific research institutes have fallen into the trap, maybe not on purpose. Giving the public inaccurate information and rushing to unsubstantiated conclusions have greatly led people in the wrong direction. The recipients of such information, however, are to blame for their blind belief without verifying that volume of erroneous statements, or at least for not getting information from a fact-based source. Many people, including those working in the media, never bat an eye while sharing fantastical stories on their Facebook walls. Indeed, they desperately defend them, even in the case of open correction. In turn, they mislead their followers who tend to believe that those stories are authentic and simply re-share them to friends and families, acting just like the coronavirus does: multiplying in massive numbers to better attack the enemy (in this case, verifiable truth; in the case of the virus, healthy cells). Instead of acting as a safeguard to the body against infection, the system is set on a self-destruction mode. Misinformation and hoax-driven stories harm communities beyond the coronavirus or any other pandemic. They have no cure once installed in peoples systems. They are the very cause of a phenomenon that we still suffer from: extremism. Misinformed people have blown up themselves, thinking they have done that for a noble cause. Hence, there is an urgent need, more than ever, to filter the content people receive on social media, not by means of censorship, but rather by introducing tools that can help people know fake from authentic. Recently, some social media platforms have started to enforce the technique, helping people greatly in that regard. Still, a well-informed community remains the best safeguard against the rapid spread of fake stories. Raising awareness is more a matter of delivering factual information on time, rather than sheer propaganda. It entails providing correct information once a given incident takes place, leaving no room for speculation, and being the only way to disinfect a fake, contaminated story. The writer is a former press and information officer in Ethiopia and an expert on African affairs. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: He's been seen presenting his show Keep Cooking And Carry On from his 6million mansion in the Essex countryside, amid the COVID-19 lockdown. And Jamie Oliver was spotted back on the streets of north London on Tuesday, as he chatted with pals outside his luxury home in the capital. The celebrity chef, 45, cut a casual figure, donning a striped T-shirt and a pair of blue shorts with a hole in them as he enjoyed a relaxed conversation. Back in town: Jamie Oliver was spotted back on the streets of north London on Tuesday, as he chatted with pals outside his luxury home in the English capital Donning a pair of brown sandals, the father-of-five tucked his spectacles into his top as he settled back into life in the English capital following his time in the countryside. Last month, the star took to his Instagram Stories to urge his followers to 'be kind', after he was mocked for his voluminous hairstyle while sharing recipes online. Addressing his longer-than-usual locks, he said in the tongue-in-cheek clip: 'When I did the video, quite a lot of you were taking the micky out of my hair. 'Right, saying I need to have a shave and a wash. So, I've given it a wash but please don't be mean. Casual: The 45-year-old celebrity chef cut a casual figure, donning a striped T-shirt and a pair of blue shorts with a hole in them as he enjoyed a relaxed conversation Changes: Due to lockdown, the TV star has been sporting longer locks than fans are used to 'When I'm trying to do a nice thing for people. Don't just judge me because it's lockdown do you know what I'm saying? It's got limitations.' Three weeks ago, the Essex native celebrated his 45th birthday in style, sharing a snap of himself posing with a huge orangutan cream frosted cake. The cake, which was presented on a wooden slab, was covered with sweet treats and had different coloured icing dripping from the top and a banner which read: 'Happy birthday Jamie, you're the best'. Jamie wrote: 'Morning guys I just wanna say a massive thank you for all the lovely messages on my birthday yesterday, I had a really lovely day, very peaceful mostly and relaxed mostly and surrounded by my dear family which makes me very happy. Chat: Donning a pair of brown sandals, the father-of-five tucked his spectacles into his top as he settled back into life in the English capital following his time in the countryside 'Definitely feel grateful for my family and friends and the kindness you guys on Instagram give ...I did have a little delivery of a mega cake made by the lovely baking twins @lizziebatchelar and @rozziebatchelar very kind speechless. 'So yes 45 !! Damn that went fast....what happens in the next 45 !!?? anyway big love guys x x x' Jamie's wife Jools, meanwhile, shared a snap of the couple on Instagram as she paid tribute to the chef in which she thanked him for 'always making our family so very happy'. Captioning the image, the model, 45, wrote: 'Happy birthday big legend number 1 my best friend xxx... Countryside: He's been seen presenting his show Keep Cooking And Carry On from his 6million mansion in the Essex countryside, amid the COVID-19 lockdown Hair we go: Last month, the star took to his Instagram Stories to urge his followers to 'be kind', after he was mocked for his voluminous hairstyle while sharing recipes online 'Thank you for always making our family so very happy no matter where we are or what the situation is, you make sure each one of us is looked after and feeling loved. So happy we all get to spend your birthday together.' Jamie revealed in March that he had been forced to film his show Keep Cooking And Carry On from his home using his mobile phone amid the coronavirus pandemic. Taking to Instagram, he said: 'We turned around last week's series of Keep Cooking and Carry On very very quickly. A three-month job in three days. 'Of course now the government have said we have to stay at home, so we're doing that. And we're now going to be doing the second season, like we ever expected this, we never planned it, in our home.' Locks down: Addressing his longer-than-usual locks, he said in the tongue-in-cheek clip, 'When I did the video, quite a lot of you were taking the micky out of my hair' Don't judge: The star added of his lengthy tresses, 'Don't just judge me because it's lockdown do you know what I'm saying? It's got limitations' He then went on to say that he has 'no crew' to film the show and that wife Jools would be stepping in to fill the crew's shoes. He continued: 'There's no crew, no equipment, I'm doing it on my phone. My new crew member is my wife.' Panning the camera around to a room where Jools was sitting by a window, Jamie added: 'We're doing it in the coldest part of the house, because it's got decent light here. The sound is terrible so we put the sofas around like that.' Jamie and Jools tied the knot in June 2000 in a lavish ceremony at All Saints Church in Rickling, Essex. They've since welcomed five children Poppy Honey, 18, Daisy Boo, 17, Petal Blossom, 11, Buddy Bear, nine and River, three. Cake: Last month, Jamie celebrated his 45th birthday in style as he was treated to giant cake But despite already having a sizeable brood, Jools recently admitted she wants sixth child, after previously saying they would stop at five. The couple welcomed fifth child River in 2016 and at the time were adamant he would be their last child. But Jools confessed to considering expanding her family once more in an interview on fitness podcast, The Red Room. The former model declared 'I want to keep going until I can't' as she spoke to Barry's Bootcamp UK's founder Sandy Macaskill and head trainer Anya Lahiri. She said: 'I will probably think about stopping wanting another baby when I am about 47.' Christian evangelist Franklin Graham attends a meeting on religious freedom at U.N. headquarters on 23 September, 2019 in New York City: (Getty Images) Evangelical pastor Franklin Graham has insisted that he is not homophobic, despite asking volunteers in his hospital to oppose same-sex marriage, and criticising Mondays Supreme Court ruling that protects LGBT+ Americans from discrimination at work. Mr Grahams Christian charitable group, Samaritans Purse, set up a makeshift field hospital in New York, in April, to help treat coronavirus patients. However, the group and Mr Graham asked those who wanted to volunteer at the hospital, to agree to a statement, that included the phrase: Marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female. Speaking to Laura Ingraham of Fox News on Sunday, Mr Graham defended the statement and claimed that he is not homophobic, but wants people to know the truth, according to Newsweek. Mr Graham said: Im not homophobic and Im certainly not going around bashing people because they may be homosexual. He added: I believe that God loves all of us, he created us all but we also are sinners and our sins separated from God and I want people to know how they can have a relationship with God and thats their faith in his son. I dont bash them. I want them to know the truth. That God does love them. On Monday, Mr Graham also criticised the Supreme Court ruling that found that Title VIIof the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBT+ workers from discrimination in the workplace. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Mr Graham criticised the decision and said that his religious freedoms should be protected. As a Bible-believing follower of Jesus Christ, my rights should be protected, Mr Graham wrote. Even if my sincerely held religious beliefs might be the minority, I still have a right to hold them. The same holds true for a Christian organisation. These are the freedoms our nation was founded on. The historic ruling was passed 6-3 in the Supreme Court, and will protect LGBT+ Americans from being fired because of their sexuality. Story continues Neil Gorsuch, a conservative judge appointed by president Donald Trump to the Supreme Court, voted in favour of the ruling, and authored the majority opinion. He wrote: An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids. Read more Central Park hospital demands workers oppose same-sex marriage CLEVELAND, Ohio Two of Ohios top elected leaders took to the airwaves on Wednesday and detailed a series of policies they said would limit dangerous policing and help ensure wrongdoers with a badge were rooted out. Gov. Mike DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost laid out a series of measures and legislative proposals that the governor called basic things. Hes right. Many of them were considered best practices years ago, long before the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of Minneapolis police reshaped public sentiment on police use of force. Deputy Minister of Information, Pius Enam Hadzide has cautioned members of the NDC to stop the agitations against the reopening of schools for final year students. He said government cannot continue to close schools especially to final year students since it will destroy the educational system of the country. Pius Hadzide as a panelist on UTV's 'Adekye Nsroma' newspaper discussion programme noted that "testing of COVID-19 is not a vaccination for the sickness but part of the measures to detect or track how fast the disease is spreading". He continued that the mass testing of final year students and their teachers will not serve the nation any good since the disease can be contracted any minute after testing. Schools reopen The Ghana Education Service is all set to ensure the safety of every school child in the country. In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, it has become crucial that nothing is left to chance particularly as schools have reopened for final year students in compliance with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's directives on easing restrictions on public gatherings. The President announced the ease of the public gathering ban allowing schools to be reopened but asked the stakeholders in the education sector, the schools and students to continually adhere to the health protocols to curb the pandemic disease. As part of measures to safeguard the students, teachers and administrators of the various schools, Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa has disclosed that all schools will be routinely fumigated. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 11th address on measures his administration is putting in place to combat Coronavirus pandemic stated that: From tomorrow, Monday, 15th June, the last batch of institutions in this phased approach, our educational institutions, will begin to re-open, with final year students in our tertiary colleges and universities returning to school to prepare for and take their exit examinations. As has been stated, final year senior high school (SHS 3) students, together with SHS 2 Gold Track students, will resume on 22nd June; and final year junior high school (JHS 3) students, the week after, on 29th June. Source: Elizabeth Semiheva Bedi, peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Vitriol aside, lawmakers in both parties were facing difficult choices about how to move forward. Democratic senators must decide whether to allow the Republican bill to advance and risk giving Republicans political cover on an issue that has placed them on the defensive. Or Democrats can reject the measure and hold out for more robust reforms, opening themselves to criticism for blocking action. Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, said he had not decided how to proceed. But he said Mr. Scotts bill would not stop us from living this nightmarish cycle, urging Republicans to take more assertive steps. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, indicated that Democrats would try to negotiate for more in the Senate, but did not rule out using Senate rules to block Republicans plan. Mr. McConnell dared Democrats to allow a debate. If they want to make a law and not just try to make a point, he said, hopefully theyll join us in getting on the bill and trying to move forward. But his comments also underscored the dilemma facing Republicans. While they have tried to show a willingness to meet a moment of national reflection on race rushing to put together a bill to change policing for the first time in years and speaking in unusually candid terms about racism in the country they are opposed to the federal mandates and legal changes that civil rights activists say are necessary to confront systemic bias in policing. They are also staring down a grim political terrain five months before an election, with Democrats feeling more confident of their chances and positioned to use the issue to score political points. Mr. Scotts legislation was ultimately the product of negotiations between Republicans in the Senate, the House, the Justice Department and the White House. House Republicans, who were initially drafting their own proposal, now plan to introduce only Mr. Scotts bill as their own counterpoint. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Wednesday that the legislation had the administration's full support. Here are todays top stories from select sources around the world. Trumps wish for an end to the pandemic contradicts reality President Donald Trump has no intention of accepting any new normal dictated by the coronavirus pandemic. Former Trump adviser John Boltons impending book elicits angry reaction from President Trump President Trump has threatened authors and publishers before but this time the stakes are higher, with John Bolton about to release a damning account of his time inside the Trump White House, and Trump determined to stop him. A gang tried to kidnap one of Chinas richest people. It didnt end well for them Midea Group founder He Xiangjian was held hostage with his family for hours in a kidnapping attempt that was reportedly foiled when his son swam across a river to alert police, local media and authorities said. There could be 36 communicating intelligent civilizations in our galaxy, study says Scientists have calculated that there could be a minimum of 36 active, communicating intelligent civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy, according to a new study published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal. Chinas new coronavirus outbreak sees Beijing adopt wartime measures Beijing is reintroducing strict lockdown measures and rolling out mass testing after a fresh cluster of novel coronavirus cases emerged from the citys largest wholesale food market, sparking fears of a resurgence of the deadly outbreak. Pakistan releases Indian embassy staff detained over alleged hit-and-run incident Two employees at Indias embassy to Pakistan have been released after they were detained in relation to an alleged hit-and-run incident in the capital Islamabad. Tesla says Model S is the first EV to get 400 miles on a single charge Tesla says its Model S Long Range Plus is the first electric vehicle to achieve over 400 miles of EPA-rated range. Swiss authorities search for the person who left $191,000 of gold bars on a train Swiss police are looking for a forgetful individual who left something rather important on a train a package full of (CNN) gold bars, worth more than $190,000. Oscars delayed until April 2021 Films biggest night is being rescheduled for the first time in 40 years due to the coronavirus pandemic. Father arrested after two children die in hot truck in Oklahoma Oklahoma father Dustin Dennis, 31, has been arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder after police say he left his two young children in a hot truck for five hours. N Korea blows up joint liaison office with South North Korea blows up joint liaison office with the South in border town of Kaesong, S Korean officials say Diamond Platnumz and Africas most popular YouTube stars A bare-chested Diamond Platnumz was surprised by his record producers last week when they rocked up at his house with a cake iced with YouTubes logo to mark a milestone for the Tanzanian pop star. Fighting Covid-19 fake news in Africa BBC News Produced by Olawale Malomo and Yemisi Adegoke. Edited by Hugo Williams. Design by Olaniyi Adebimpe and Sean Willmott. Development by Olawale Malomo and Purity Birir. Contributors: Sally Morales, Adam Allen, Peter Mwai, Aaron Akinyemi, Nkechi Ogbonna, Muthoni Muchiri, Jack Goodman, Joice Etutu and Jameisha Prescod. NZs first Covid cases in 24 days came from UK New Zealand has confirmed two new cases of coronavirus, ending a 24-day streak of no new infections in the country. Both women, who are from the same family, had travelled from the UK and were given special permission to attend the funeral of a parent. Former eBay executives charged with cyber-stalking Six former eBay executives and staff have been charged with cyber-stalking in a campaign against a couple who ran a newsletter critical of the company. Prosecutors allege the harassment included sending the couple live cockroaches, a bloody Halloween mask and a funeral wreath, as well as threatening messages. The Black Lives Matter Foundation isnt the real BLM, but its raised millions in donations The Black Lives Matter Foundation raised millions of dollars in donations. But it is not associated with the Black Lives Matter movement that sparked worldwide protests against police brutality. BuzzFeed reports the charitable organization raised at least $4.35 million in early June, according to estimates. The 2021 Oscars are getting delayed by the coronavirus More changes are coming to next years Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday that the annual ceremony, which had originally been scheduled for Feb. 27, 2021, will be pushed back to Sunday, April 25 in 2021. The event is still expected to take place at the Dolby Theater and be broadcast live. Google Maps adds images of Black Lives Matter mural in Washington, D.C. Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., is now visible on Google Maps. Over the weekend, Google updated its satellite and street view imagery to show a newly painted stretch of 16th Street NW that leads to the White House. On June 5, the city painted the street art in huge yellow block letters. Ted Cruz and Ron Perlman are in a strange Twitter fight about wrestling? Times are strange. Just look around. So it shouldnt be that much of a shock that Ted Cruz a sitting U.S. senator is doing his best to win a pissing match about wrestling with the actor who played Hellboy. But still its pretty strange. Samsungs massive Odyssey monitors finally get a price tag It took a while, but Samsungs big, curved Odyssey monitors are available for pre-order. Announced at CES 2020, the Odyssey lineup is aimed at gamers and consists of three models: the humongous, 49-inch Odyssey G9, and the slightly less extreme Odyssey G7, which comes in 27- and 32-inch sizes. Medical charity closes Kabul program after May attack: Doctors Without Borders said it has closed its operation in Kabul, ending years-long work to support a maternity hospital in the Afghan capital. The closure came a month after an attack at the facility killed 24 people, including two infants. The international charity said it would keep its other programs in Afghanistan running. The May 12 attack set off an hours-long shootout with police and wounded more than a dozen people. No one asserted responsibility for the assault. The Gospel of Christ Jesus compels us: Idaho church to remove Robert E. Lee from stained glass window Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An Idaho church has decided to remove Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a stained glass window in its sanctuary that also features George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The leadership of the Cathedral of the Rockies, a United Methodist Church congregation located in Boise, announced the decision to change the window, which dates back to 1960, in a recently released statement. The Gospel of Christ Jesus compels us and our Baptismal vows embolden us to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, stated church leadership. Our pastors and staff have spoken and speak against systemic racism, study to understand, and work with leaders of color to listen and learn. The church board went on to note that they came to the decision following considerable prayer and deliberation, labeling the Lee image divisive and hurtful. We believe this section of our window to be inconsistent with our current mission, to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, they continued. Further, such display is a barrier to our important work resisting evil, injustice, and oppression. Symbols of white supremacy do not belong in our sacred space. The board conceded that there are people of goodwill who may disagree with our decision, but added that they hoped what unites us in Christ is greater than our differences. The Rev. Duane Anders of the Cathedral told The Christian Post in an interview on Monday that the window was first created to help welcome southerners who moved to the area. The only documentation we have from the committee that chose this in around 1958, explained Anders, said that it was a nod to inclusion for the southerners who had moved to Boise. Anders noted that an oral tradition at the church said that another reason for the window was to showcase reconciliation. It was a way to say in Christ we reconcile, he continued. So thats the oral tradition but we dont have that in print. The plan at present is to just remove Lee from the image and to do so by the summer, with the stained glass company overseeing the project expected to begin within a couple of weeks. The church will replace the Confederate military leader with an African-American figure still to be determined, with the change expected to be completed after about six weeks. Regarding who will replace Lee, Anders told CP that popular names include Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Leontine T.C. Kelly, who was the first African-American female bishop in the United Methodist Church. In recent years, the debate over Confederate monuments, flags, and names on both public and religious property has stirred passionate debate that has periodically resulted in violence. In 2017, white supremacists came to Charlottesville, Virginia, in part to protest the possible removal of a Lee statue at Emancipation Park. Amid the protest, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. drove a car into a crowd of counter-demonstrators, killing one and injuring more than a dozen others. Weeks later, leadership of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Church of Lexington voted to change the congregation name to Grace Episcopal Church in light of the controversy. In addition to planning on removing the Lee stained glass image, a satellite campus of the Boise church will hold a church service centered on repenting of racism this coming Sunday. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Ilhama Isabalayeva Trend: In order to develop and stimulate women entrepreneurship in Azerbaijans regions, it is necessary to strengthen measures to support women entrepreneurs in the establishment and management of business, Deputy Head of the Women and Gender Issues Department of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs Sabina Talyshinskaya told Trend. She said that one of the most important issues of empowering women is to reduce their economic dependence. Talyshinskaya noted that the main challenges for women, in particular, residents of rural areas, are limited knowledge in the field of business, lack of access to information in this area, financial and infrastructural problems. Since 2011, as part of the UN Development Program (UNDP) in Azerbaijan, a technical assistance project has been implemented to facilitate the involvement in the economic and social life of women living in rural areas, she noted. The goal of the project is ensuring the active participation of women and youth living in villages and regions in economic life, expanding opportunities and skills for their entrepreneurship and employment, the committees representative added. In 2011-2019, as part of the foregoing project, nine women resource centers were opened in the countrys Bilasuvar, Salyan, Sabirabad, Neftchala, Masalli, Zagatala, Gusar, and Khacmaz districts, as well as in Bakus Khazar district. The centers aim to support the creation of a centralized group of active women living in villages and districts, as well as expanding the business and social opportunities of rural residents, the deputy head emphasized. Talyshinskaya said that thanks to the work done, 265 women have already created their own business. In general, a strong network of over 6,500 women was created through the centers, she added. Guna (MP): Seven boys drowned in a pond at Laluatora area in the district today, police said. The group of teenagers had gone to the pond in Laluatora, nearly 15 kms from here, for bathing. Initial investigations suggest that they slipped into the deep water and drowned, Guna Police Station inspector Vivek Asthana said. He said one body was seen floating in the pond in the evening while clothes of some of the other boys were also found near the water body. Soon after receiving an alert, police pressed into service divers and fished out the remaining bodies. The deceased were identified asTillu Kushwaha (14), Hemant Kori (12), Dilip Kushwaha (12), Vikas Kori (13), Karan (10), Gollu Kori (12) and Anand Kushwahaall residents of Piprauda village, the officer said, adding that the bodies have beeb sent for postmortem. Meanwhile, Guna MP and Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia, has asked the district authority to immediately provide financial aid to the families of the deceased. He also said officials should take steps to ensure that such tragedy does not occur again. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday issued notice to the Customs commissioner, Mumbai, after a cancer survivor filed a petition complaining that the Customs authorities have withheld four boxes of his feeding tubes recently imported from the United States of America (USA). The Mumbaikar has stated in his petition that in December 2016 he was diagnosed with oral cancer and due to remedial surgical operations his intake of food is only possible through a feeding tube. He is compelled to import the feeding tubes from the USA since they are not available in the country. He informed the court that he had placed a fresh order for four boxes of feeding tubes from the USA, but the assistant commissioner of customs, whose office is located at Air Cargo Complex at Sahar in Andheri, has withheld the consignment on grounds that are unclear to the petitioner. The petitioner has cited that he has a limited stock of feeding tubes, which would be exhausted in the next few days. The two-member division bench, comprising Justices SJ Kathawalla and NR Borkar, has issued notice to the Customs authorities, including the commissioner, Mumbai, asking them to remain present in the court on Thursday either in person or through their lawyer and explain the difficulty in releasing the consignment containing feeding tubes. A screenshot of VOA report By Mu Lu The Voice of America (VOA)'s two top editors, Amanda Bennett and Sandra Sugawara, resigned on Monday due to concerns over their editorial independence, putting a stop to the months-long clash between the outlet and the White House. Freedom of the press has long been a political tool of Washington to attack the countries that the US doesn't like. However, press freedom in the US is deplorable. The hypocrisy of the US' so-called press freedom has become more obvious since Donald Trump took office. Given that the US media outlets strive for the interests of different political groups, the so-called freedom of the press is only an illusion. There are many examples of the US government trampling on the press. The White House launched extraordinary attacks on the VOA on April 10, saying the federally funded mouthpiece had promoted "Chinese propaganda" in calling Chinese city Wuhan's lockdown a successful model emulated by much of the world in battling COVID-19. Even worse, in late April, the White House ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's media relations office to deny any media request from "anyone affiliated with the Voice of America," the VOA reported on Monday. In this context, there is hardly any press freedom in the US, but rather voices that represent different political forces driven by the interests of political groups. And how are media professionals treated in the US? People have found out the answer from the ongoing protests: Over 140 journalists have been arrested or attacked by law enforcement as of June 8. It is really difficult to stop people from wondering about the authenticity of the US' so-called freedom of the press. What is certain is this is a tool of the US to attack hostile countries. In 2017, Russian television group RT was banned from covering the US Congress due to the alleged Russiagate. In February 2020, amid escalating US-China tensions, the US designated five Chinese media companies as "foreign missions," while in June, the US reportedly was considering adding another five Chinese media outlets to the list. The US government merely accepts media that meets its interests and requirements. Media outlets that represent different viewpoints and ideologies enjoy no freedom, but are extremely suppressed and limited in the world's most powerful country. Is this deplorable reality of the press freedom protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution? Washington is the master of veneering its selfish pursuit of national interests with hypocrisy and morality, and press freedom is the cover the US uses to beautify its ugly, unfair moves. President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday in Abuja urged the international community to support collaborations and initiatives aimed at sharing knowledge from research and science to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The president spoke at a virtual Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against the COVID-19 co-hosted by the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). President Buhari told the summit, co-hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President and AU Chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa, and Senegal President and co-chair of FOCAC Macky Sall, that Nigeria would support and join any joint and collective action plan at regional and global levels to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout. As we face a common pervasive and invisible enemy, it is important that we all remain united to save our shared humanity, because this virus knows no borders. The fight against a global pandemic that continues to take so many lives, threaten livelihoods and challenging the very fabric of societies, requires enhanced cooperation and worldwide solidarity. I seize this opportunity to reiterate the need for this Summit to put humanity at the centre of our vision for common prosperity. We must learn lessons and share knowledge from research, as we develop more creative, responsive and humane health systems, improve crisis management protocols and support each other in the battle against COVID-19, he said. The Nigerian leader also used the occasion to commend the Chinese government, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the World Health Organization for the respective actions and measures to help developing and middle-income countries in Africa to tackle the pandemic. On the UN, the president praised the Secretary-General, for launching COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund for low and middle-income countries to tackle the health emergency, address social and economic consequences of the crisis and, strengthen the recovery efforts of most vulnerable countries. The leadership of the global health body, WHO, was commended for its advice that enabled Nigeria take measures and enlighten its people on steps to avoid contracting and spreading the virus. Similarly, President Buhari acknowledged that Chinese support had tremendously strengthened Nigerias effort in combating COVID-19, adding that President Xis strong support has further demonstrated the spirit of solidarity and enhanced the bond of partnership that already exist among FOCAC Member-States. President Buhari also provided an update on what his administration has done since the tragedy of the global pandemic hit the country. From the outset of the pandemic, we in Nigeria instituted strong surveillance and infection prevention as well as control measures and made provisions to strengthen our testing capacities. Several well-equipped treatment and isolation centers were set up across the country to increase bed capacity. President Muhammadu Buhari during the Virtual China-Africa Extra Ordinary Summit[PHOTO CREDIT: Ahmaad Bashir] In the spirit of international collaboration, medical experts in Nigeria participated by video link in learning and experience-sharing exercises organized by experts from various countries, including China. Furthermore, the President said the Nigerian Government had trained several thousand healthcare workers, provided Personal Protective Equipment to ensure the safety of frontline workers, and offered incentives for their motivation. READ ALSO: With regard to restrictions in movements occasioned by the need to contain the spread of the disease, he said the Federal Government created the enabling environment for farmers to safely plant and harvest during this rainy season in order to ensure that food security was not compromised. In addition, we took steps for prompt transportation of agricultural products and food items from rural production areas to the consumers and to industrial processing zones. We have also developed practical policies to protect lives and livelihoods at the same time and to ensure our economy continues to function as we maintain an aggressive response to the pandemic, he said. In his remarks, the Chinese President said the summit was convened to discuss joint response to COVID-19 and renew fraternity with Africa. He said the world must mobilise resources and do whatever it takes to protect lives, adding that China will do whatever it can to support procurement of supplies, sending medical experts, and in other diverse ways. Noting that China and Africa account for nearly one-third of the global population, President Xi pledged to step up support for Africa, adding that China will provide 2billion USD over two years to support the work of WHO in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Hurricane Recovery Application Goes Live COVID-19 Updates: Staying Informed & Prepared North Carolina Celebrates Pride Month Governor Cooper Proclaims First Healthcare Heroes Day Get All of the Latest Information in Spanish Tweet of the Week Congratulations to our Class of 2020! We know this isnt the graduation you expected, but we are so proud of the resilience North Carolinas students and teachers have shown during this pandemic.https://t.co/AYlEEOhjhm Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) June 12, 2020 The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) has opened the application process for homeowners seeking federal housing funding for Florence repairs, offering additional support for families and businesses still struggling to rebuild.said Gov. Cooper.The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) took 500 days after Hurricane Florence made landfall to issue the Federal Register Notice specifying requirements for using $542 million in CBDG-DR funds appropriated to North Carolina by Congress. Because of NCORR's advance strategic work, North Carolina had an action plan ready within 24 hours of the Federal Register Notice publication, outlining how the state proposes to use the recovery funding. In April, North Carolina became the first among states with 2018 disaster grants to receive approval from HUD on its plan.Homeowners may be eligible for assistance if they owned and occupied a home during the time of these disasters. If homeowners have received assistance from other sources, they may still be eligible for help through the Homeowner Recovery Program.For more information visit Rebuild.NC.Gov It's important to rely on trusted sources of information about COVID-19. Keep up with the latest information on Coronavirus in North Carolina HERE Texttoto receive general information and updates about COVID-19 and North Carolina's response. Dial 2-1-1 provides free, confidential information and is available 24 hours a day to help you find resources within your community. They can connect you with people and groups that can help with questions about access to food, shelter, health care, employment and child care.Families who need food assistance for their children can texttoto find free meal sites in their communities.Make sure to prioritize your overall wellness and don't hesitate to seek additional help. Optum has a toll-free 24-hour Emotional Support Help Line atfor people who may be experiencing anxiety or stress due to Coronavirus.You can track the disease in real time through the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' COVID-19 NC Dashboard . It includes detailed information about the state's COVID-19 confirmed cases, hospital capacity and more.On Wednesday, Governor Cooper and Dr. Mandy Cohen teamed up to answer questions from North Carolinas young people about the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch the Kids Q&A Governor Roy Cooper has declared this month as LGBTQ+ Pride Month in North Carolina to honor the state's LGBTQ+ communities and their fight for equality. Pride commemorates community protests that took place after a police raid at Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, marking the start of the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.Gov. Cooper said.Gov. Cooper said.June is also the month the United States Supreme Court decisions ruled on several historic landmark cases upholding equality, a streak continued with this week's decision further prohibiting LGBTQ+ discrimination in the workplace.Read the full Pride Month proclamation and Press Release Governor Cooper Proclaims First Healthcare Heroes DayGovernor Cooper recognized Healthcare Heroes day on June 15 to celebrate the medical professionals who continue to adapt to meet the growing healthcare needs required to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. These heroes include doctors, nurses, and other primary care providers; EMS workers and first responders; pharmacists; laboratory technicians; mental health professionals; and critical medical personnel and staff.To honor North Carolina's frontline heroes a special flag will be raised in front of the North Carolina State Capitol and will fly until July 15.Read the Proclamation During this time it is imperative that everyone is informed about what is going on in our state. Governor Cooper's administration has been working to get information and resources translated for the Spanish speaking population in our state. Many of the Governor's press conferences press releases , and executive orders are available in Spanish. Resources are also available in Spanish on the DHHS website. OTTAWA, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadas unions welcome the expansion of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which will come as a relief to the millions of Canadians who cant yet return to work. This is very good news for the millions of Canadians who still dont have a job they can go back to and were growing concerned about paying their bills, said Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff. The extension will allow families to continue paying their rent or mortgage and buying groceries. The CERB was originally scheduled to end within the next few weeks, leaving many Canadians who lost work due to COVID-19 without work or income support. The new extension to the end of August will allow these workers some peace of mind while waiting for the economy to further re-open. We look forward to hearing more details about this extension, as we continue with a safe and steady recovery, said Yussuff. We will continue checking in with workers across the country who want to be working but cant yet. We will continue to advocate on their behalf at the federal level to ensure support stays in place as long as necessary. Many businesses are closing or evolving because of the COVID-19 crisis, meaning a lot still hangs in the balance in terms of rebuilding the economy and increasing employment levels. Canadas unions will continue to be a voice for all workers as we survey the new landscape and pave the way forward. The Madison Medical Center Board of Trustees met June 10, 2020, for its regular monthly meeting. The following board members were present: Ruth Ann Skaggs, Connie Matthews, Kent Marler, Denny Ward, and Libby Wood. MMC staff present: Lisa Twidwell, Administrator/CEO; Allan Sucharski, CFO; Jennifer Penuel, COO; Kristen Starkey, Nursing Home DON; Carol Hyatt, Director of Physician Practices; Brandon Tull, Community Champion; Maureen Medley, Administrative Assistant. MMC staff absent: Cindy Dulaney, Acute Care DON. Elizabeth (Libby) Wood was sworn in by Don Firebaugh, County Clerk, as the new MMC board member. She defeated Darren Ellis for the open board seat during the June 2, 2020 general municipal election. She will serve a five-year term. The opening on the board was created when Larry Hunt, who had served on the board for eleven years, announced his retirement earlier this year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the April 7, 2020 general municipal election had to be cancelled, so Mr. Hunt continued serving his term until the June 2, 2020 election. Denny Ward was elected to serve as the new chairman of the board. Ruth Ann Skaggs will serve as vice-chairman, and Connie Matthews as Secretary-Treasurer. The following departmental reports were presented to the Board: Acute Care Nursing, SNF/ICF Nursing, Rural Health Clinic, COO/Human Resources, and CFO. The Home Health report was also reviewed. MMC information and give-away items are included in the Cordial Caravan (now extending into St. Francois County) Welcome packets that are given to newlyweds, new parents, and those who are new to the community. Blood pressure screenings are done monthly at both the Ironton and Fredericktown Senior Centers by MMC Home Health staff. Cindy Dulaney, Acute Care DON, is a volunteer at the Domestic Violence Shelter. Lisa Twidwell, Administrator, is a member of the Rotary Club. Kristen Starkey, Nursing Home DON, is one of the organizers of the Compassion Cafe and serves as a R-1 School Board member. Carol Hyatt, Director of Physician Practices, is a member of the MCCDD board. Linda Rhodes, Pharmacist, is a member of the Optimist Club. Stockhoff Memorial Nursing Home continues to be free of any COVID-19 cases. An on-site state inspection on May 28, focusing on the facilitys infection control policies and procedures, found the nursing home to be in compliance with no deficiencies. Visitor restrictions are still in place and will remain until further notice from federal/state authorities. MMC physician offices and the outpatient clinic are slowly returning to a more normal schedule; however, well patients and sick patients are still being seen in separate areas. The funds that MMC received from the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act have helped to offset the facilitys estimated $2.4 million decrease in revenue during March, April, and May, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MMC has been approved for a three-year telemedicine hospitalist grant through the Missouri Rural Health Association, the Missouri Foundation for Health, and Avera. This will allow the facility to have access to specialists on a 24/7 basis on the hospital floor. In addition to physicians, nursing support will also be available. The Board reviewed the MHA Workforce Survey for the Southeast Workforce Development Region, which is home to thirteen hospitals. The largest city in the area is Cape Girardeau. The survey, which was compiled from calendar year 2019 data submitted by the thirteen hospitals in the region, focuses on turnover and vacancy rates in hospitals in the region and statewide. The Board discussed expansion plans for the old East Wing area of the nursing home. It is hoped that as many as thirteen private nursing home rooms can be added in this area. MMCs digital marketing campaign through KFVS-12 began in December and has been doing well, although video production had to be suspended for the last few months, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is hoped that a new video can be produced soon. The Board gave its approval for Lisa Twidwell to check into the feasibility of MMC joining the Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan to obtain employee health insurance coverage. The Board approved the purchase of new digital equipment for both of MMCs radiology rooms, as well as a used portable x-ray machine. Lisa Twidwell was authorized by the Board to present a request to the Madison County Commission for Local Government COVID-19 funds to use for the purchase of a new telemetry system, IV pumps, and ventilators for the hospital to expand its treatment capacity for COVID-19 patients. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees will be July 8, 2020, at 9 a.m. in the Dr. Slaughter Memorial Building. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday greeted his predecessor Manmohan Singh on his 83rd birthday, wishing him a long and healthy life. He also spoke to Singh and extended birthday greetings to him.aWarm birthday wishes to Dr. Manmohan Singh ji. May God bless him with a long and healthy life,a he said in a tweet. aPM @narendramodi spoke to Dr. Manmohan Singh ji and extended birthday greetings to him,a the PMO said in a tweet. Singh, who served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, was born in Gah in Pakistan. Singhas family migrated to India during partition in 1947. Warm birthday wishes to Dr. Manmohan Singh ji. May God bless him with a long and healthy life. a Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 26, 2016 For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are at more than 100,000, more than 40 million people have filed for unemployment and the U.S. economy is officially in recession. While Montana has experienced relatively few deaths, its economy, too, is taking a substantial hit as people socially isolate and non-essential businesses have been shuttered. Montana is one of the very few states that does not have a general sales tax and instead relies on the property tax to fund its state and local governments. States which do depend on the sales tax have had to shrink their governments and more than a... Flash Photo taken on May 21, 2020 shows red flags on the Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China. [Photo/Xinhua] A Chinese military spokesperson said Tuesday the Indian side should strictly restrain their frontline troops and return to the correct track of dialogue and negotiations to resolve the differences. Zhang Shuili, spokesperson for the Western Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), made the remarks in a statement in response to a fierce physical fight that broke out between the Chinese and Indian border defense troops Monday night after Indian troops crossed the Line of Actual Control for illegal activities and deliberately launched provocative attacks. The statement was published by the official Weibo account of the PLA Daily. "The Indian troops had violated their promises and once again crossed the Line of Actual Control for illegal activities, and deliberately provoked and attacked the Chinese forces, thus triggering fierce physical conflicts between the two sides and causing casualties," said Zhang. "We demand that the Indian side strictly restrain its frontline troops, immediately stop all infringement and provocative actions, and work together with China to return to the correct track of dialogue and negotiations to resolve the differences," said Zhang. Click here to read the full article. Veteran South African filmmaker Anant Singh has penned an open letter comparing the problems of racism within his own country with the killings of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks at the hands of police in the U.S. The letter, which he calls All Lives Matter, Especially Black Lives, is published on the 44th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, in which 69 people were killed by South African police. It is both angry and surprisingly hopeful. More from Variety No matter how powerful, armed and hateful the regime was, we always knew that one day our freedom would come, Singh said of the forces that threw Nelson Mandela into jail for 27 years between 1962 and 1990. No power on earth can stop an oppressed people determined to win their freedom, he says, quoting Mandela. Singh produced the first anti-apartheid film shot in South Africa, Place of Weeping, and went on to chronicle the Soweto massacre in Sarafina! with Whoopi Goldberg co-starring. Later, he made Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, the film version of Mandelas autobiography, and another literary adaptation, Cry the Beloved Country, written decades earlier by Alan Paton, founder of South Africas Liberal Party. To be free is not merely to cast off ones chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the lives of others, said Mandela on his release from prison. From that message of forgiveness, Singh points to the South African notion of Ubuntu, the idea that all people are connected, and that every action has an effect on the humanity of the world. Today, Ubuntu is more relevant than it has ever been, Singh argues. In the past weeks, we have seen people around the world stand up against the brutality The tipping point for our freedom (in South Africa) may have been in 1976, but it would be another two decades before those ideals were realised. I hope that the actions and introspections required today provide quicker outcomes. We simply cannot continue to lose any more lives. Story continues What is of significance today is that now there are protests around the world, and we are able to see the unanimity of support from all race groups, particularly among the youth. Many of us are coming together around the world for our Black brothers and sisters, to make a difference. We need more. To view a PDF version of All Lives Matter, Especially Black Lives click here. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Telephone conversation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus V.Makei with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia On June 10, 2020 upon the initiative of the Russian side, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, had a telephone conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov. During the conversation, the heads of Foreign Ministries discussed the topical issues of the Belarusian-Russian cooperation, as well as the schedule of upcoming contacts. print version Former Union minister and veteran RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh tested positive for COVID-19 here on Wednesday, a close aide said. Singh, who had been suffering from fever and cough for quite some time, was admitted to AIIMS, Patna on Tuesday following the advice of doctors and his samples were also sent for COVID-19 testing. The sample report has come out and he has tested positive, the close aide of the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader said. Superintendent of AIIMS, Patna, did not comment on the COVID-19 status of the 75-year-old RJD leader, but said, "He is getting proper treatment and his condition is stable". Although Bihar had reported its first couple of cases nearly three months ago and its COVID-19 tally now is close to 7,000, this is the first instance of a well-known public figure testing positive for the dreaded virus in the state. The RJD national vice president, who had served in the cabinet headed by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, has no recent travel history outside the state. He has been, however, visiting places across Bihar ever since the "Unlock 1" began this month and meeting lots of people in connection with the Assembly polls due later this year. A staunch supporter of Lalu Prasad who, nonetheless, is never shy of speaking his mind, Singh is one of the founding members of the RJD. A five-term MP from Vaishali, the veteran leader lost the seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and failed to wrest it back five years later. [June 17, 2020] AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Bosna Reosiguranje d.d. Sarajevo AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B+ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "bbb-" of Bosna Reosiguranje d.d. Sarajevo (Bosna Re) (Bosnia and Herzegovina [BH]). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) remains stable. The ratings reflect Bosna Re's balance sheet strength, which AM Best categorises as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. Bosna Re's balance sheet strength is supported by the strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). The company's balance sheet strength benefits from a well-rated retrocession panel and prudent reserves. The relatively small capital base remains an offsetting factor to the balance sheet strength assessment, with little capital buffer to protect against adverse events in absolute terms. Furthermore, the company's investment portfolio remains a source for potential earnings and capital volatility. The company has paid extraordinary dividends over the last three years, returning proceeds from a large asset sale, which has limited capital growth. With no more extraordinary dividends forecast going forward, AM Best expects prospective risk-adjusted capitalisation to benefit from internal capital generation and remain at the strongest level. Bosna Re maintained its market-leading position in BH in 2019, commanding a market share of approximately 73%, based on gross written premiums (GWP); the company remains the only domestic reinsurer licenced to write life and non-life insurance. AM Best considers the company's competitive position defensible over the medium term, owing to the high barriers to entry in BH, which include regulatory constraints and the burdensome costs of operating in a small market. Bosna Re's underwriting portfolio remains concenrated, with approximately 45% of its GWP derived from its top three cedants (some of which include shareholders). Additionally, the company's geographic diversification remains limited, with only 8% of GWP emanating from outside of BH. AM Best believes that the company's dominant domestic market profile provides some protection against the potential impact from the challenging economic and political conditions in BH. Bosna Re has a track record of stable operating performance, generating pre-tax profits of BAM 3.1 million (USD 1.8 million) in 2019. Stable underwriting performance underpins the company's results, with a five-year average combined ratio of 95.1% (2015-2019), further supplemented by investment earnings. AM Best expects Bosna Re's earnings to remain stable, as the company maintains a cautious underwriting strategy. This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper media use of Best's Credit Ratings and AM Best press releases, please view Guide for Media - Proper Use of Best's Credit Ratings and AM Best Rating Action Press Releases. AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright 2020 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005562/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A Wawa employee who was told he couldnt wear a protective mask with the words Black Lives Matter written on it quit his job over the issue last week and now the company is updating its employee uniform policy. Andre Lynch III, who is Black, worked at the Wawa on Route 38 in Mount Laurel and was told June 12 that employees were not allowed to wear anything with Black Lives Matter written on it, according to Facebook posts by Lynchs father. The mask also included the words Say my name and I cant breathe, in honor of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last month as an officer kneeled on his neck. Floyds death has sparked weeks of nationwide protests over police brutality. The protests came amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and requirements that workers wear protective masks. Lynch told NBC10 that he was given the mask by a customer and that he wore it for two hours on the job before his manager told him to switch to a different mask or leave the store. A Wawa representative later reached out to Lynch to apologize and offer him the chance to return. Since he was told he still could not wear the Black Lives Matter mask, he hasnt decided if he will accept the offer, according to NBC10. While Wawa has not commented about the situation with Lynch specifically, a spokeswoman said the company takes the issue of racial justice seriously and is now allowing employees to express their feelings on their uniforms via a Black Lives Matter pin. Wawa believes Black lives matter, and we have posted signage sharing this message in our stores, she said in written statement. This week, we are also providing our associates with pins as a way to express their support for Black lives matter within uniform guidelines, if they choose to. Prior to this incident, Wawa President and CEO Chris Gheysens posted a June 5 letter on the companys website talking about racial injustice in light of Floyds death and the companys commitment to helping everyone working for the company and living in the communities Wawa serves. He vowed that Wawa would listen even more carefully to our Black associates to better understand our own issues and work together to solve them. Gheysens also announced the company will pledge $100,000 a year to support the National Urban League and its mission of changing lives and empowering African-American communities. Lynchs father has launched a GoFundMe to help his son through this period with no job. He posted a photo to Facebook showing his son in his Wawa shirt wearing the mask. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Federal Reserve chief Jay Powell said on Tuesday in his congressional testimony that the recession in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic could widen income inequality for minorities and Americans in lower-income categories. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton says the SEC can play a role in addressing economic inequality. In an interview on Wednesday, Clayton told me that one of the most important things the SEC does is to promote financial literacy and investor education. There are many opportunities in the stock market, as the surge back from the March low caused by the Covid-19 economic shutdown shows. But there are also risks, as the SEC's scrutiny of a planned stock offering from Hertz, which declared bankruptcy, highlights, and which Clayton discussed on CNBC on Wednesday morning. Financial education and participation in the financial industry are distributed much more narrowly than they should be, the SEC chair said, and that is putting certain communities at a distinct disadvantage. The SEC is working on ways to expand financial education and access to financial opportunities, including through work with outside groups such as school districts, faith-based institutions, and professional organizations. More from Invest in You: Can I restart my unemployment benefits? What to know if you're laid off again Six strategies to help college grads find work right now 5 things all super savers do that you can actually learn The SEC's education website, Investor.gov, is a good place to start. It is designed specifically for retail investors to become more informed about the markets, investing, and how they can participate. Clayton, who appears in educational videos on the site, has often said the two things he has heard most consistently are that people wish they knew more about investing and that they had started earlier. I asked Clayton about the resurgence in retail trading, particularly in beaten-up sectors like airlines, and even some bankrupt companies. Hertz halted its plan to offer stock on Wednesday, pending an SEC review. Watch the full interview I conducted with Clayton above to see what the SEC Chair had to say about the markets right now. SIGN UP: Money 101 is an 8-week learning course to financial freedom, delivered weekly to your inbox. CHECK OUT: If you invested $500 in 2010 according to Warren Buffett's advice, here's how much you'd have now via Grow with Acorns+CNBC. Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns. In a measure of the sharp tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the North Korean regime yesterday melodramatically demolished its joint liaison office with South Korea. While nominally directed at Seoul, Pyongyangs action expressed its deep frustration with the failure of the Trump administration to conduct any meaningful negotiations to end North Koreas isolation. In June 2018, Trump abruptly shifted from his previous bellicose threats to annihilate North Korea and held an unprecedented summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un which vaguely outlined a deal to end economic sanctions on North Korea in exchange for a shutdown of its nuclear program. The liaison office located in the North Korean city of Kaesong was established in September 2018 as a sign of good will following summit meetings between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The office has been closed since January after North Korea sealed its borders in a bid to isolate the country from the COVID-19 pandemic. Relations between the two Koreas rapidly began to deteriorate after a second summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February 2019 broke down over the US refusal to offer any sanctions relief to North Korea prior to the complete dismantling of its nuclear facilities and arsenal. North Korea lashed out at the Moon administration in March 2019 declaring that it was not playing a mediating role, but rather was a player, not an arbiter because it remained a US military ally. While offering the prospect of better relations between the two Koreas, Moon did nothing to lift sanctions on North Korea. The joint industrial complex in Kaesong, where South Korean businesses exploited cheap North Korean labour, remained closed. After it ended its testing of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, Trump has simply strung North Korea along offering nothing in return. Trump briefly met with Kim last June in the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, but working level talks in Sweden came to nothing. Pyongyang set a deadline of the end of last year for a deal with the US, which the Trump administration simply ignored. By blowing up the liaison office and criticizing South Korea, the North Korean regime has chosen to send a message to Washington, indirectly rather than directly. As South Korean analyst Lee Seong-hyon told the New York Times: It [North Korea] had to vent its frustration and domestic discontent, but it feared retaliation if it directly provoked the United States. So, as Koreans like to say, If you hate your neighbor, you kick his dog. Lee pointed to North Koreas economic frailty which has only worsened after it was forced to close its borders due to the pandemic. The crippling US-led sanctions had already impacted heavily on the North Korean economy by cutting off much of its foreign trade by banning or restricting exports of minerals and imports of many items included much needed petroleum products. After it closed its border with China, its top trading partner, North Korea has been starved of foreign exchange and vital goods. Chinese customs has reported a 24 percent decline in trade with North Korea for the first two months of 2020. Chinese exports fell to $198 million and imports from North Korea to just $10 million, a 74 percent decline compared with the same period in 2019. For the first time since 2003, North Korea has been compelled to resort to raising bonds in order to plug a huge hole in its budget. The bonds are reportedly needed to cover 60 percent of the budget. While the majority will be sold to state enterprises, some 40 percent will be sold to private entrepreneurs or donju, who have been encouraged by the regime. Desperate for relief, Pyongyang has appealed to the United Nations, non-government organisations and some countries for pandemic assistance. At the same time, tensions with South Korea have sharpened after rightwing groups have again started sending anti-communist propaganda across the border via balloon. While the Moon administration has cracked down on such activities, Kim Yo Jong, the sister and ally of the North Korean leader, declared on Saturday: Before long, a tragic scene of the useless north-south joint liaison office completely collapsed would be seen. The destruction of the liaison office has been accompanied by North Koreas cutting off of the most important communication channels with South Koreas military, diplomats and the presidential office. Pyongyang has also announced that it will return troops to areas close to the DMZ that were previously removed as a token of better relations between the Koreas. The refusal of the Trump administration to make any concessions to Pyongyang is threatening once again to inflame one of the worlds most dangerous flash points. While North Korea tested short range missiles in March, it has refrained from testing long range missiles or nuclear weapons. To do so would end the possibility of a deal with Washington and result in a return of Trumps previous belligerent threats. The US State Department yesterday responded to the demolition of the liaison office with a pro-forma appeal to North Korea to refrain from further counterproductive actions and a declaration that it fully supports Seouls efforts to maintain peaceful relations. But that could change. The Trump administration is already engaged in an escalating confrontation with China, attempting to make it the scapegoat for the COVID-19 pandemic as well as imposing economic penalties and ramping up the US military build-up in the region. It has also recklessly encouraged its strategic partner India in its tense border stand-off with China that threatens to trigger a war between the nuclear-armed powers. In his determination to challenge China across the board, Trump has increased provocative US freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, and boosted relations with Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a sovereign part of China. In this context, the Korean Peninsula could rapidly become another arena for geo-political rivalry and conflict between the US and China. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile has been a controversial project that troubled waters between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. The project draws the attention of the world to potential unrest in the relations between Ethiopia, on one hand, a key player in the Horn of Africa, and Egypt, on the other hand, a strategic country in the central pivot of the three continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe and one that maintains balance, peace and security in the Arab Region and the Middle East. Ethiopias Violation of International Law The GERD project unilaterally launched in April of 2011 by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile, the largest tributary of the Nile (the world's longest river) was seen by Egyptians as a project that took advantage of Egypt's political vacuum immediately after the forced resignation of its president at that time. The launching of the Dam construction without consultation with Egypt was seen as a violation of the principles of international law, the 1993 agreement signed between Ethiopia and Egypt, and the 1902 agreement signed between Ethiopia and the United Kingdom, which necessitates consultation with downstream countries on Ethiopian structures that may affect the flows of Nile headwaters through the Blue Nile, Lake Tana, and the Sobat River flowing downstream to Sudan and Egypt. Ethiopia seems to see the Nile river headwaters originating within its territories as a matter of absolute sovereignty and that agreements signed between Ethiopia and Egypt or the United Kingdom (on behalf of Egypt and/or Sudan) as non-binding to Ethiopia. Unfortunately, there was no comprehensive Hydraulic Impact Assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment, or Socio-economic Impact Assessment Studies that were conducted on the GERD and publicly shared by Ethiopia, or consulted upon with the affected downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan. These measures that Ethiopia ignore dare actually required by international law. Even when an international consultant was agreed by the three countries to conduct the joint impact assessment studies, after the fact, the consultants joint studies were halted at their inception by Ethiopia,which pressured the consultant to redefine the baseline conditions to include Ethiopias future plans for additional dams as part of the existing baseline conditions; a tweak of globally agreed terminology that would defeat the whole purpose of the impact assessment studies. Ethiopias avoidance to attend the final meeting in a series of USA-World Bank facilitated negotiations in the end of January 2020, and Ethiopias announcement to start the filling of the GERD in July of 2020 before reaching a final agreement with Egypt and Sudan, may be seen as another breach to international law, since it would be breaching the GERD Declaration of Principles (DOP) signed by the three countries in 2015. The DOP stipulated that the three countries are toagree on guidelines and rules on the first filling and annual operation of GERD, which means that the first filling should not take place without an agreement between the three countries on those guidelines and rules. What does the Nile & the Blue Nile mean to Egypt? Unlike any other river in the world, the Nile, and more importantly the Blue Nile, for Egypt is a matter of life and death. The Greek Historian, Herodotus, once said that "Egypt is the Gift of the Nile". To put this statement in technical terms, let's examine the following factual information. 85% of the Nile waters flowing to Egypt originate in Ethiopia through the Blue Nile, Atbara, and Sobat tributaries. 67% of the Nile water allocated and/or actually being used by Egypt and Sudan comes through the Blue Nile. The Average annual flow of the Blue Nile is about 50 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) per year, while Egypt's historical uses, acquired and documented water rights allocation is 55.5 BCM/year. Theoretically speaking, one may also consider that the Blue Nile flows out of Ethiopia represent in volume, 90% of Egypt's historical water uses of the Nile. The Nile River is the only source of renewable water for Egypt, which depends on the Nile in meeting about 97% of its water needs.GERD and the Ethiopian attitude in dealing with the issue are threatening the destiny of Egypts lifeline, livelihood and national security. Infringement attempts on Egypts 55.5 BCM Water Rights Although the announced objective of the GERD is for hydropower generation, yet the Ethiopian strategy in negotiating the agreement on filling and operating rules since the unilateral Ethiopian decision to build the dam,may suggest a far more different objective than hydropower generation. Almost 10 years of Ethiopian procrastination had passed without reaching an agreement with downstream Egypt and Sudan.Ethiopias future plans shows that Ethiopia may be planning to use water storage behind the GERD Dam for consumptive use purposes such as irrigated agriculture, industrial and others. Studies have shown that, due to the exaggerated 74 BCM capacity of the GERD reservoir design, and the anticipated operational rules to maximize hydropower generation,the accumulative impacts of the associated seepage and evaporation losses from the reservoir behind the GERD Dam, can have detrimental effects on the Blue Nile river flows and hence would likely infringe on Egypts ability to continue to use its water rights and annual historical uses of 55.5 BCM. Ethiopian positions during negotiations and press releases after meetings have been aiming at having a free hand on the Ethiopian headwaters of the Nile andattempting to strip Egypt off of its rights to its meager Nile share of 55.5 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM)/year. The Ethiopian official andmedia language has always been trying to discredit Egypts water rights, using phrases such as contested Egypt shares, and Egypts claimed 55.5 BCM. They repeatedly misinform the international community about the full water potential of the Nile Basin and attempt to mislead it by alluding to myths such as Egypt is using all the waters of the Nile. An article published on April 2nd, 2020 by Ethiopia Insight, referred to Ethiopian negotiators indicating that Egypt and the USA (during the 2019/2020 US-World Bank facilitated negotiations) had proposed an un-amendable plan, which amounted to a water-allocation arrangement that effectively protects Egypts claimed 55.5 BCM annual share of Nile waters. Other than the fact that the draft February 21st, 2020 GERD agreement (rejected by Ethiopia) was a result of the facilitated 2019/2020 negotiations between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan, and is not an Egypt-USA proposed plan, the agreement is drafted to ensure that GERD filling and operation does not significantly harm on Egypt and Sudan. It was not a water allocation arrangement, but it was an agreement that, while attempting to maximize hydropower generation for Ethiopia, also attempts to minimize significant harm impacts by the GERD on Egypts and Sudans ability to continue to use their water rights and historical water uses. Any attempts to ignore these impacts may be considered aninfringement on Egypts and Sudanswater rights. On the other hand, if GERDs objective is hydropower generation which is supposedly a non-consumptive use, why does Ethiopia bring into the discussions Egypts right to its share of 55.5 BCM/year and why does it try to disclaim Egypt of this right?!Speaking of equitable utilization, is it too much for Egypt that hosts 20% of the Nile Basin countries population to benefit from only 3% of the Nile Basins 1660 BCM/year of the Nile Basins rainfall, or from even 0.8% of the 7000 BCM/year of Nile countries rainfall?! Ethiopia actually benefits from 23% of the Nile basins rainfall or 12% from the Nile countries rainfall. It is definitely a far more different reason than lack of water resources in Ethiopia that drives its infringement on neighboring countries water rights. To confirm that and to shed some more light on this matter, lets examine Ethiopias renewable water resources. Ethiopias Rainfall is Green Water for Ethiopia & Blue Water for Egypt Ethiopia is endowed with an abundance of rainfall averaging about 848 mm/year, while Egypt, according to the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), is considered the country with the lowest rainfall rate in the world with about 18.1 mm/year. Ethiopia depends mainly on the direct rainfall (Green Water) in its consumptive uses, and on river flows (Blue Water) in hydropower generation, whereas Egypt is the most downstream country on the Nile River shared by 11 countries, and it depends,for its consumptive and non-consumptive uses,on the Nile River flows (Blue Water) originating outside its political boundaries and running through its desert lands. Thats why, for food production, Ethiopia mainly depends on rainfed agriculture, while Egypt mainly depends on irrigated agriculture. This is also reflected in Ethiopias largest livestock population in Africa with over 106 million heads, feeding on vast rainfed grazing lands, while Egypt, due to its water scarcity, is importing the majority of its livestock and meat products, and is the largest importer of wheat in the world. Livestock in Ethiopia is estimated to consume about 84 BCM/year of virtual water embedded in its natural rainfed (green water) feed and fodder. Thats equal to the whole natural Nile river flows at Aswan, and more than Egypts and Sudans Nile annual water shares combined (74 BCM). Egypt, on the other hand, with about 19 million heads of livestock, consumes one sixth of Ethiopias livestock water consumption, with only 14 BCM/year of virtual water embedded in irrigated feed (blue water) and mostly imported fodder. Comparing the impact of rainfall on land cover in Ethiopia and Egypt which are of similar surface area of around one million square kilometer, and according to the European Space Agency (ESA) satellite land cover imagery analysis, about 94% of Ethiopias surface area is green cover(rainfed agriculture, pasture, and forests) using green water,while about 94% of Egypts surface area is desert lands, with a thin valley running through, along the blue water of the Nile River. Where does Ethiopias 936 BCM of Annual Rainfall go?! According to FAO, Ethiopia receives an average of about 936 BCM/year of rainfall. Where does this water go!? Based on ESA land cover classification, 910 BCM of this rain falls on green cover including rainfed and irrigated agriculture lands, forests, and pasture lands, while 26 BCM of this rainfall drops onwater bodies, urban and barren lands.Out of the 910 BCM of rainfall on green cover, and as per the United States Geological Survey (USGS) satellite imagery for Evapotranspiration, about680 BCM is beneficially used and consumed as evapotranspiration from rainfed agriculture (107 BCM), irrigated agriculture (10 BCM), pasture (352 BCM), and forests (211 BCM). 29 BCM is evaporated from barren lands, urban areas and water bodies. 105 BCM contributes to aquifers as renewable groundwater. According to FAO, about 122 BCM of the 936 BCM of rainfall, contributes to surface water streams and rivers, where about 97 BCM exits the country through transboundary rivers and groundwater to neighboring countries; Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, and Djibouti. The remaining 25 BCM of surface water contributes to internal lakes and streams within Ethiopia. The above analysis indicates that out of the 936 BCM of annual rainfall on Ethiopia, the country benefits from 117 BCM in agriculture, 352 BCM in pasture lands (part of which contributes to livestock production), 211 BCM in forests for biodiversity, tourism and wood production, 105 BCM in renewable groundwater recharge, in addition to 25 BCM in surface water that stays inlakes and streams within the country. The remaining 126 BCM leaves the country through transboundary rivers (97 BCM) and upwards through evaporation losses (29 BCM). A small amount of this huge potential of renewable water resources is what sustains the Ethiopian population of more than 100 million people with domestic water, supplemental irrigation, and water for industrial uses and others. The rest of these renewable water resources are still there within the country on an annual basis to provide for future generations without compromising the 97 BCM of transboundary flows that is barely sustaining the existing populations of neighboring countries, especially Egypt. According to watershed delineation analysis, the Nile River Basin, which is one of several river basins in Ethiopia, receives an average of 450 BCMof rainfall out of the 936 BCM of nationwide rainfall. Comparing Ethiopias Per Capita Share of Renewable Water Resources to Egypts Sustainable development is closely linked to availability of renewable freshwater resources. No matter how much a country invests in developing alternative and non-conventional resources, nothing can replace a natural sustainable renewable freshwater resource. Comparing renewable water resources available for Ethiopia versus Egypt, we see thatEthiopia receives an average of about 936 BCM/year of renewable rainfall. Subtracting evaporation losses and transboundary waters exiting the country, the remaining 810 BCM/year of renewable water resources, is available and contributes to rainfed agriculture, livestock production, surface water, and groundwater recharge (an important renewable source for domestic water and supplemental irrigation). This water is by far in excess of Ethiopias 100 million people water demand. On the other hand, Egypt is entitled to55.5 BCM/year from the Nile Basin waters for all its uses, including irrigated agriculture, domestic and industrial uses. If the small amount of sporadic rainfall of 1.5 BCM over Egypt is added to its Nile waters, Egypts renewable water resources sums up to 57 BCM/year. This water is reused and recycled several times to meet part of Egypts water demand for more than 100 million people. Egypt has to invest in agriculture drainage reuse, treated wastewater reuse, sea water desalination, and food imports in order to fill its water demand gap. Egypts annual renewable water resources provides about 570 m3/person/year share of renewable water resources, which is below the water scarcity limit of 1000 cubic meter per person per year. On the other hand, Ethiopias renewable water resources provides about8100 m3/person/year share of renewable water resources.The vast difference in natural climatic conditions between upstream and downstream in the Nile Basin created thislarge difference between water abundance in Ethiopia and water scarcity in Egypt. Similar natural hydrological conditions created the transboundary Nile River originating in the Ethiopian Highlandsand the Equatorial Plateau upstream and running downstream through the deserts of Egypt. Egypt adapted to these harsh conditions and depended on the Nile River for years without problems. But what could create a problem,is when water abundant countries upstream attempt to infringe on downstream Egypts scarcewater resources. Virtual Water tells more about the story of Ethiopias Water & Water Uses On the demand side, the agriculture and livestock sector is the largest water consumptive sector. If we run a quick comparison on the Virtual Water (embedded water in products) in Ethiopias and Egypts imports, exports, and local production in that sector, a lot could be concluded on water resources availability and the state of the water in the two countries. The following analysis is based on waterfootprint.org data and FAO data on agriculture and livestock production, exports, and imports. Egypt has to import a large amount of itsfood because of its water scarcity conditions. In 2012, right around when GERD construction seriously started, Egypt imported agriculture and meat products equivalent to about 48 BCM of "Virtual Water" at a cost of over$ 12 Billion. Ethiopia,with a similar population of about 100 million people like Egypt,imported in 2012 about5.7 BCM of Virtual Water in agriculture and meat products at a cost of $ 1.2 Billion, which is one tenth (1/10) of the cost of Egypts food imports. Onthe other hand, Ethiopia exported more than 6.4 BCM of virtual water in agriculture products and livestock, which was more than Egypts 5.2 BCMof agriculture & livestock virtual water exports for that same year. The value of these Ethiopian exports was around $ 2 billion which was double Egypts agriculture exports value of about $ 1 billion of that year. The virtual water embedded in Ethiopias annual local agriculture and livestock production in 2012 was estimated to be about 124 BCM, mainly from direct rainfall contribution (green water). On the other hand, in Egypt, virtual water embedded in its local agriculture and livestock production in 2012 was estimated to be about 78 BCM mainly from irrigation water (blue water), reused water, and imported fodder. You cant have the cake and eat it too!! Comparing virtual water in imports and local production between Egypt and Ethiopia, which is a reflection of each countrys water demand in that sector, we see that Egypts annual virtual water in agriculture and livestock amounts to 126 BCM, while Ethiopias annual virtual water in that sector amounts to about 129 BCM. Although the two countries seam to use almost the same amount of water to satisfy the needs of their similar size populations in that sector, however the difference is that Ethiopia provides 95% of this water from its available water resources (124 BCM), while Egypt could only provide37% of this water from itsavailable water resources (47 BCM) which is mainly originating in Ethiopia. Moreover, Egypt had to spend over $ 12 Billion to make available 38% of these water needsthrough imports and had to invest even more to make available the remaining 25% of these water needs through reuse of drainage and treated wastewater, groundwater development and imported fodder. And now, the 37% and most of the 25% of Egypts available water needs for agriculture and livestock are at risk by GERD, Ethiopias unilateral activities upstream the Nile, and continued Ethiopian messages on freedom to use the waters of the Nile River. The above analysis reflects how Ethiopias water abundance allows it to grow its own food as opposed to Egypt, and even to export more virtual water than what Egypt could export to make available some of the necessary funds for importing lower value food products. Both countries have been surviving on varied dependencies on different types of waters; upstream Ethiopia depends more on Green Waterfrom direct rainfall, some of which is within the Nile basin, while downstream Egypt depends only on Blue Water from the Nile River itself. Moreover, a water scarce country like Egypt has to spend more money than an abundant water country like Ethiopia to provide for its food needs. It's the power of nature that resulted invaried dependencies on green water in the basin for upstream versus blue water in the river itself for downstream. It would be unfair to have an abundant amount of green water, and still have an eye on the neighbors little amounts of blue water! You cant have the cake and eat it too! Riparian countries within a shared River Basin should not ignore their own renewable "Green Water" and rainfed potential within the Basin, to fight over other countries "Blue Water" rivers existing uses, especially if it's their neighbors only piece of cake! When Upstream Water Abundance switches to Water Hegemony Given Ethiopias water abundance, its geographic location upstream of 85% of Egypts only renewable water resources, its unilateral decision to construct GERD on the main and largest tributary of the Nile, its continued attempts to deviate from concluding the GERD impact assessment studies, its procrastinating strategy in reaching an agreement on GERD filling and operating rules;all this suggests a different objective to the construction of GERD; a Water Hegemony Power rather than just Hydropower! **The author is CEDARE Regional Director of Water Resources, Arab Water Council Regional Director of Technical Programs, Professor of Water Resources, and a Registered Professional Engineer Search Keywords: Short link: Over 2,600 Green Party members are registered to take part in Thursday's online conference on the programme for government, with sources saying it is "impossible to say" whether members will approve the deal by the two-thirds required. It is understood that around 500 of those taking part are newer members who will not be eligible to vote, but will still take part in the online conference, where party leader Eamon Ryan will attempt to persuade his members of the deal's merits. It is understood that Mr Ryan will call for the party to show unity and approve the deal. Sources say that the fact that the vote takes in Green Party membership on the entire island may complicate things, as it means that 550 Northern Greens will be entitled to vote, around 20% of the membership. What way these votes go is "anybody's guess" according to one party source. However, there has been division within the party in recent days, as three TDs abstained from the parliamentary party vote on the issue and one of the negotiating team, Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan, said that she was unsure than she could vote in favour. Cork City South East councillor Lorna Bogue says that the deal represents "Green flavoured austerity" and said that the party had a choice to "be a watchdog or a lapdog". "I'm worried about the basis of the policy. My concern is that the policies which underly the document are austerity. They don't use that term, but if you read the document, the economic approach is austerity. And I won't vote for something that I know to be incorrect. "The deal says there will be no increase in taxes but give a tax cut to self-employed people earning over 100,000 and at the same time talks about investment in services. There is no commitment to reinvest windfalls, with all of that going to service the deficit. "This would be Green-flavoured austerity and would associate environmental action with people getting hit by taxes." Clondalkin councillor Peter Kavanagh said that he was leaning towards voting no but said "credit is due" to the negotiating team for working out a greener programme for government than was possible without the party. "While I'll make up my mind after Convention, I feel that our concessions outweigh our gains and I don't see this as being the best option for the country." Mr Kavanagh said that he was particularly disappointed that a 22m demand for the Irish Language and the Gaeltacht was not included. "It is a small amount of money comparatively speaking, but would be utterly transformative for the language and for marginalised communities and we were unable to secure even this small commitment." Dublin MEP Ciaran Cuffe has said that his party should grasp this nettle and the extraordinary opportunity to promote a green agenda even if Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are not our natural bedfellows. Mr Cuffe said that the Green Party cant sit out this one until they find an exact political alignment. We can stand on the sidelines saying do something or roll up our sleeves and get in. People have been advised to not use these 52 apps, that include some social media apps as well, and block them from their smartphones. Around 52 apps have been listed for having links to China and have been deemed unsafe. Users have been advised to not use these apps and block them since these apps have raised concerns for being unsafe and extracting a large amount of data and sending it out of India, according to reports. The long list of apps that have been shared includes video-calling app Zoom, TikTok, UC browser, SHAREit etc. The recommendation to block these apps come from intelligence agencies and has also been supported by top security authorities since they can be detrimental to the countrys security. TikTok UC Browser SHEIN Mi Community DU Privacy SelfieCity Clash of Kings Vault-Hide BeautyPlus NewsDog DU recorder Clean Master Cheetah QQ Launcher Mail Master Vigo Video Xender Photo Wonder YouCam Makeup CacheClear DU apps studio QQ Security Centre Mi Video call-Xiaomi Bigo Live ClubFactory APUS Browser Mi Store Baidu Translate QQ Player Parallel Space Weibo Helo VivaVideo- QU Video Inc 360 Security Baidu Map QQ Music WeChat LIKE Perfect Corp DU Battery Saver Wonder Camera QQ Mail SHAREit Kwai CM Browser DU Browser ES File Explorer QQ NewsFeed UC News ROMWE Virus Cleaner (Hi Security Lab) DU Cleaner QQ International WeSync These 52 apps will all be examined one by one to check the risks attached to them, but till then, it has been advised that people refrain from using them. Of the apps, this is not the first time Zoom has been pulled up or security concerns. The home ministry has issued an advisory on the video-calling app earlier this year as recommended by the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-in). Zoom has also been banned in Taiwan and the US has asked people to use other video-calling apps. In fact, the Indian government has also announced that they are looking for an Indian alternative to Zoom and the developers who successfully create an app that works will be rewarded. Besides Zoom, TikTok has also been pulled up for security concerns in the past. Officials say that many apps, both on Android and iOS, that have been created by Chinese developers or have been launched by companies with Chinese links, can potentially be used as spyware. The military coalition led by Saudi Arabia involved in the conflict in Yemen has asked the UN on June 16 to reveal the details stemming the allegations posed by the peace-keeping body that the coalition is responsible for at least 222 child deaths or injuries in 2019 so it could launch an investigation. After United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his annual report to the Security Council on June 15 that more than 1,400 children in Yemen were either killed or wounded, the Saudi-led coalition reportedly said that they take any accusations of violations of civilians and childrens rights very seriously. Therefore, in a bid to investigate the allegations posed by the UN in its report, the coalition wants the organisation to share relevant information. Guterres said in the report that out of over 1,400 children either killed or maimed in Yemen, the Houthis are responsible for 313 children, the coalition for 222, Yemeni armed forces for 96 and accused popular committees, Security Belt Forces, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIL for other such incidents. However, the UN chief has noted that 482 child casualties could not be attributed. Read - UN: Yemen Programs Fighting Coronavirus Might Stop By End Of June Due To Shortage Of Money "Parties to conflict neglect to protect #children in the conduct of hostilities and deny them the vital aid they desperately need" SRSG Virginia Gamba Read the Report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict covering 2019 https://t.co/aepUCsU4ir pic.twitter.com/ALw5mspGYE ChildrenArmedConflict (@childreninwar) June 15, 2020 Read - Yemen's Rebels Crack Down As COVID-19 And Rumors Spread Read - Fears Grow Over Worsening Virus Crisis In Yemen Saudi-led coalition removed from UN blacklist In the same report on Children and Armed Conflict, the organisation announced that it would remove the Saudi-led coalition, which is supporting the Yemen government, from the global list of parties that harm children in conflict. According to the UN chief, the coalition has put in place measures...aimed at improving the protection of children. Citing a sustained significant decrease in killing and wounding of children due to airstrikes, Guterres has said the coalition would be delisted. This decision of removing the coalition from UN blacklist has been welcomed by the former, several years after it was first accused of casualties among children in Yemen. War-stricken Yemen has been involved in the conflict since the Houthi group backed by Iran ousted the government from its capital Sanaa in 2014. It was only in 2015 when the Saudi Arabia-led coalition stepped in to support the Yemeni government for restoration. Moreover, this coalition was under the UN blacklist for at least three years. Read - UN Chief Takes Saudis Off Blacklist For Harming Yemen's Kids Read - UN Aid Agencies Raise Alarm For Shortage Of Funds In Yemen Amid COVID-19 Crisis (With inputs from Agencies) (Image credit: AP) European Union diplomats are furious that President Donald Trump shut them out of talks between Serbia and Kosovo, fearing not only that EU interests will be sidelined but that the two countries' long-term interests will suffer. Three officials familiar with the behind-the-scenes maneuvering in the Balkans said the transatlantic snub ignores years of EU efforts at reconciliation between the two sides and they suspect the main focus for U.S. Special Envoy Richard Grenell is delivering a quick win for his boss. Ahead of November elections, it could burnish his chances to be secretary of state in a second Trump term. Cutting the EU out of the process now makes little sense because the countries' prospects are bound up with their efforts to join the 27-nation bloc, the diplomats said. The U.S. intervention amounts to a diplomatic grab in an area previously occupied by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who spearheaded talks between Serbia and Kosovo and championed EU expansion in the Balkans. Grenell has built his international reputation on making life difficult for Merkel's government. As U.S. ambassador in Berlin until earlier this month, he was at the center of efforts to pressure Merkel on a range of topics from defense spending, Iran and trade to Germany's relationship with Russia. He came to be seen by many German officials as a symbol of the deteriorating transatlantic relationship. Yet after years of largely failed EU efforts, Grenell's new approach may break loose some progress, according to one U.S. official who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. The person said the EU has struggled to be effective since at least 2013 given that five of its member states still don't recognize Kosovo's sovereignty. On Monday, Grenell announced a June 27 White House meeting between the former wartime foes while the EU point person Miroslav Lajcak was en route to Kosovo in his own bid to jumpstart negotiations. Lajcak, the Slovak foreign minister who leads EU efforts on the issue, hasn't been invited to the talks. European Parliament's standing rapporteurs for Kosovo and Serbia urged leaders from both sides to engage with Lajcak. "There is no alternative to the European Union facilitated dialogue because both Serbia and Kosovo are European countries with a clear European perspective and both Serbia and Kosovo have committed to joining the EU," they said in a statement late on Tuesday. The competing overtures underscore a growing chasm between the U.S. and Europe, which is struggling to find its place in a world with China emerging as a global superpower and traditional ties with the U.S. under Trump fraying. Germany and France moved forward this week with a blueprint for the EU to boost its joint defense capabilities, just as Trump threatened to withdraw almost 10,000 U.S. troops from Germany. Losing control over Balkan negotiations would be a particular blow for Merkel, who has invested much time in the region. Over the weekend, the German Chancellery launched into a flurry of diplomacy between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Avdullah Hoti, Kosovo's new prime minister, one envoy said. The agreement to meet follows both sides suspending rival campaigns over the international recognition of Kosovo, which split unilaterally from Serbia in 2008 almost a decade after NATO bombing forced Serb troops out of its territory. Serbia, which will hold elections on Sunday, insists Kosovo is its historic heartland and refuses to accept its secession. Belgrade has relied on Russia and China to block Kosovo's admission into United Nations and other international bodies and has intensively worked to reverse the recognition of some countries. Grenell oversaw an agreement in February under which Serbia and Kosovo agreed to develop road and rail links to boost economic cooperation before resolving their long-lasting enmity. "If either side is unsatisfied with the June 27 discussions then they will go back to the status quo after they leave Washington," he said on Twitter. "We must first make progress on growing the economies." The EU and the U.S. were also at odds over the ouster of former Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in March. While German and French ambassadors spoke out against the no-confidence vote that toppled him, their U.S. colleague said he was pleased to see the motion taking place. Kurti slammed Grenell for helping orchestrate his dismissal. Serbia's president said that he aimed to maintain good relations with both the U.S. and the EU and hinted at the uncomfortable position that Grenell's invitation had placed him in. "We're not going to fight with Germany or America," Vucic said. "It's important that in the battle of the elephants we remain unhurt." Still, he ruled out discussing the recognition of Kosovo, underscoring that, despite the U.S. attempts to bring the two sides together, Serbia and its neighbor remain at odds over the linchpin of their dispute. "That will not be the topic, nor will we allow it to become the topic" at the White House, Vucic said. Coronavirus update: Global caseload passes 8mn as fears of 2nd wave grip Chinese capital Iran Press TV Tuesday, 16 June 2020 7:53 AM The novel coronavirus has now infected more than eight million people and killed over 436,000 across the world, with alarms being sounded in China over the detection of more than 100 new cases in the capital Beijing in the course of a few days. According to Johns Hopkins University, which compiles data on the pandemic, reported that there were now 8,018,742 cases and 436,406 deaths across the globe. This comes as the virus, which first emerged in China's Wuhan late last year, seems to reemerge in areas that had reported no new infections over the past weeks. New Zealand reports first virus cases in 24 days New Zealand reported two new coronavirus cases on Tuesday both of them being women from the same family who had traveled to the UK ending a 24-day streak of no new infections in the country. Last week, New Zealand lifted all social and economic restrictions after declaring that it had no new or active cases of the coronavirus. The new infections took the number of coronavirus cases in New Zealand to 1,506, while the number of deaths related to the COVID-19 respiratory disease remained at 22. Beijing imposes restrictions amid fears of second coronavirus wave The Chinese capital imposed restrictions on the movement of high-risk people on Tuesday to curb the spread of a potentially new wave of the coronavirus outbreak to other cities and provinces. High-risk people are now banned from leaving Beijing, where transportation services are also suspended. Beijing has reported 106 coronavirus cases since Thursday, the most serious flare-up in China since February. "Beijing will take the most resolute, decisive, and strict measures to contain the outbreak," Xu Hejian, a spokesman at the Beijing City government, told a news conference on Tuesday. China's financial hub of Shanghai on Tuesday started to require travelers from medium- to high-risk COVID-19 areas in China to be quarantined for two weeks. Hong Kong eases coronavirus restrictions Hong Kong eased an earlier eight-people gathering limit in the city, which has recorded a total of 1,113 cases and four fatalities since the outbreak began in late January. Health Secretary Sophia Chan said on Tuesday that groups of up to 50 people would be allowed to meet starting from Friday, amid a fall in the number of infections. Delhi's local health minister admitted to hospital with high fever The health minister in the state government of India's Delhi was admitted to hospital with high fever and was undergoing a COVID-19 test. "Due to high grade fever and a sudden drop of my oxygen levels last night I have been admitted to RGSSH (Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital). Will keep everyone updated," Satyendar Jain said in a tweet on Tuesday. Several senior officials from finance, foreign affairs, and law departments that are all based in Delhi have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus over the past few weeks. India has reported 343,091 coronavirus cases so far the world's fourth-highest toll, after the United States, Brazil, and Russia and at least 9,900 deaths. Thailand sees no new cases or deaths Thailand reported no new coronavirus cases or deaths on Tuesday and marked 22 consecutive days without a domestic transmission. The country has had 3,135 confirmed coronavirus cases and 58 deaths. Indonesia's virus cases surpass 40K Meanwhile, the number of infections in Indonesia increased to 40,400, after 1,106 new cases were reported on Tuesday. Indonesia also reported 33 more deaths on Tuesday, taking the total to 2,231, Health Ministry official Achmad Yurianto said. Mexico's coronavirus cases exceed 150K The number of coronavirus infections in Mexico increased by 3,427 to 150,264 on Monday, the Health Ministry said. The ministry also reported 439 additional fatalities. That took the total number of deaths attributed to the disease to 17,580. Brazil's coronavirus deaths near 44K Brazil's Health Ministry said that the death toll from the coronavirus had climbed to 43,959 up by 627 on Monday. The ministry also registered nearly 20,000 new infections on Monday, bringing the total to 888,271 cases. Russia's coronavirus cases jump by 8,248 Russia on Tuesday reported 8,248 new infections and 193 deaths linked to the virus. Those took the overall tolls in the country to 545,458 cases and 7,284 deaths. Despite the high numbers of cases, museums, libraries, and zoos in the capital, Moscow, reopened on Tuesday after more than two months of closure. Moscow started to ease its lockdown measures last week. Ukrainian president's wife hospitalized with COVID-19 The wife of Ukraine's president, Olena Zelenska, was admitted to hospital after contracting the coronavirus, the presidential office said on Tuesday. Her condition was stable, it added. Zelenska announced last week that she had tested positive for COVID-19, while her husband, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and their two children had tested negative. Spain mulls imposing quarantine on UK visitors in tit-for tat move Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya says her country is mulling imposing a quarantine on visitors from the United Kingdom when it opens its borders next week in response to a similar move by London. "We will be checking what the UK will be doing and we will be in a dialog with the UK to see whether or not we should be introducing reciprocity as they have different measures than the rest of the European Union," Gonzalez Laya said in an interview with the BBC. Germany's infections increase to 186,839 Germany registered 378 new confirmed coronavirus cases, taking its total to 186,839, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday. According to the tally, the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus increased by nine to 8,800. US congresswoman Ilhan Omar's father dies of COVID-19 The father of Somali-born US Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar died on Monday night of complications caused by the new coronavirus. "It is with tremendous sadness and pain to say goodbye to my father," the Minnesota congresswoman said in a tweet late on Monday. "No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew and loved him." UAE allows outbound travel from June 23 The United Arab Emirates said on Monday that citizens and residents would be allowed to travel to specific destinations as of June 23, according to state news agency (WAM). The news agency said the list of the destinations would be announced later. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address GILLETTE Responding to what it calls inaccuracies on local social media in response to the resignation of former Gillette City Councilman Shay Lundvall, the council released a statement after meeting in executive session for more than 90 minutes Monday evening. Specifically, the statement says the council and Mayor Louise Carter-King unanimously agreed to ask for Lundvall to resign after learning he had liked a handful of sexist and offensive Facebook posts. The City Council and staff conducted a cursory review of Mr. Lundvalls social media activity and were appalled by the abhorrent nature of the content, the statement says. Until June 9, 2020, the city was unaware of Mr. Lundvalls systematic support on social media of views regarding violence toward citizens, misogynistic views toward women, disdain for the handicapped and racial and ethnic slurs. The council then informed Lundvall that it intended to publicly call for his resignation. He was given an option to resign on his own by June 10, which he did. But by Friday, the former Ward 3 councilman had reconsidered his decision. Lundvall apologized for liking the posts in a lengthy Facebook post of his own, which has generated a political buzz the council says has been based on misstatements. Lundvall said that while he admits in hindsight liking the posts was both insensitive and misguided, he also regrets resigning his Ward 3 council seat. He said his candidacy for reelection, for which he filed last month, will continue. He said that as a councilman, I am held to a higher standard and that I strive for unity and equality and would never want to put the City in a position to jeopardize that. I sincerely apologize. In light of the response to Lundvalls Friday post, the council said it felt compelled to issue Mondays statement for the public to understand the exact nature of his resignation. The statement, which was posted to the citys Facebook page, was accompanied by screenshots of four posts liked by Lundvall. The four posts the City Council included as examples of what Lundvall had liked were all made by a local resident, Bob Vomhof. In one made Feb. 10, Vomhof includes a photo of a female city worker who had become stuck in a plow vehicle clearing a bike path of snow. The post sarcastically mocks the woman and says it would be sexist of him to help her. I thought it was only right that I treat her just like a man in this same debacle, his post said, so I rolled down my window and took a mocking picture of the mess she got herself in, then I shouted quit draggin ass and dig you worthless worm! Another Vomhof post that Lundvall liked was made June 1 and advocates using the recent racial protests of the Black Lives Matter movement as an excuse to potentially kill others. Vomhof posts that he has seen several videos of law enforcement officers ran over by vehicles, beaten by gangs of mongoloids, dragged through the streets etc. He rhetorically asks at what point would he be justified in using lethal force against others. ... to what extent is legally justified? the post says. Essentially at what point are we legal to be lethal? I refuse to be a victim or watch other people in my community become victims. In another on Jan. 11, he says its about time women learn what its like to be the breadwinners in their families. I keep seeing girls posting whining about their boyfriends, theyre crying cause they gotta pay the bills, he doesnt work, he doesnt provide blah blah blah, it says. You females wanted to be equal, now you are, now you know what men have been dealing with since the beginning of time. Within an hour of posting the City Council statement Monday evening, it had received close to 200 comments, including a lengthy one from Vomhof attacking the mayor. The council statement has a time stamp of 8:20 p.m. on it, about 40 minutes after Mondays executive session was adjourned. The council did not have any public discussion or action after the executive session, and members declined to comment afterward. The reason given for the closed door meeting was to discuss litigation and personnel matters. When asked if the discussion included Lundvall, who as a resigned elected official isnt city personnel, Councilmen Billy Montgomery and Tim Carsrud declined to comment. The City Councils statement also goes into detail about how it learned of Lundvalls actions Tuesday and gave him until Wednesday to resign. When he did, the mayor and council accepted his resignation in writing, creating a vacancy in Ward 3. It wasnt clear, however, how the mayor and council took that action on the resignation as there wasnt an official City Council meeting scheduled or held that day. Although Lundvall may regret stepping down from the council, he did so on his own, according to the statement. Mr. Lundvalls resignation was solely his decision, it says. The statement also outlines a 2016 action the council took when it passed an anti-discrimination resolution. As leaders of our community, the council holds itself to a very high standard and cannot support Mr. Lundvall remaining a member after his abhorrent views were made public, the statement says. The council also said it will move quickly to fill the vacant seat and that it will not comment on this matter again. Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 2 Sad 1 Angry 2 Domestic airline operators in the country have started recording a gradual surge in passenger traffic due to the easing of restrictions on movement to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Data from the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) indicate that since May 1 when further relaxation of the restrictions allowed for conferences, workshops, funerals, among other social gatherings, to take place, passenger numbers have been surging. According to the data, passenger throughput from Accra to the two major domestic destinations of Kumasi and Tamale rose from nearly 1,850 travellers per week to almost 2,800 passengers per week. The domestic air space is dominated by two operators, Africa World Airlines (AWA) and PassionAir, which carried the passengers 70 and 30 per cent, respectively. Profitability Although the numbers have been increasing, the airline operators said the current passenger traffic was way low, compared to the period before the country recorded its first COVID-19 case when they could carry up to 2,200 passengers per day. The airlines explained that they were presently in business just to build confidence, as the precautionary measure they had implemented to curb the spread of the virus were eroding their profit. They mentioned physical distancing on board flights as one of the measures impacting their profitability, reducing aircraft capacity from 78 to 38 passengers, maximum. Flight frequencies As a result, the operators said they had increased their flight frequencies from one daily flight to four return flights per day. The additional flights would enable them to increase their output by up to 20 per cent to serve customers better, they said. AWA, for instance, announced four daily return flights each to Kumasi and Tamale from Accra, starting today, in addition to the two weekly flights to Takoradi. PassionAir, on the other hand, also added a second flight to its initial one flight a day on Mondays and Fridays to meet the weekend demand. Visit When the Daily Graphic team visited the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) last Friday, it was observed that passengers were trooping in to board flights to their various destinations. The Departure Hall of Terminal Two, the terminal reserved for domestic flights, was the centre of attraction, as travellers trooped in to complete pre-departure formalities. Although the Arrival Hall was not as busy as the Departure Hall on Friday afternoon, some few people were seen at the waiting area to pick up relatives, friends or business partners who were arriving from major domestic destinations in the country. The team also observed that the management of the GACL had initiated a number of mandatory COVID-19 safety protocols, such as the wearing of nose masks, the use of hand sanitiser, as well as physical distancing, for travellers and the airlines to strictly observe. The various regulatory authorities, such as the GACL, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS), were also on duty to enforce the laid down procedures and protocols. The protocols implemented at the airport are home-grown measures, accepted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), as guided by global standards for their member nations. AWA's position When contacted, the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of AWA, Mr Sean Mendis, observed that the airline was currently seeing a gradual surge in its passenger numbers. The airline carried 5,686 passengers to their various destinations in May. Consequently, he said, increasing flight frequencies to four daily return flights each to Kumasi and Tamale would ensure that people with essential travel needs could choose between a range of flight timings throughout the day to best complement their business schedules. "Initially, AWA started with a one daily flight to Kumasi and Tamale; this is now going up to four daily flights each, as well as two weekly flights to Takoradi. This development occurred within a month. However, the numbers were still reduced compared to the period just before the virus was recorded in the country "Despite the significant challenges thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are pleased to have operated 99.58 per cent of our scheduled flights, with only two flights delayed beyond two hours (both due to bad weather). Only one passenger was denied boarding due to over-sales in May, and only one bag, out of nearly 9,000 checked in, was delayed, he said. PassionAir's position The Sales and Marketing Manager of PassionAir, Mr Samuel Razak Tachie, said patronage was improving gradually but was not near the expected numbers. "We are currently capped at 38 passengers maximum per flight due to physical distancing protocols on board, while the aircraft has the capacity for 78 passengers," he said. Asked whether the easing of the COVID-19 restrictions contributed to the gradual growth in passenger traffic, he answered in the affirmative, and explained that patronage in Kumasi was often fuelled by social activities, while that in Tamale was encouraged by distance by air, compared to road. "The patronage in Kumasi is fuelled by social activities, while that in Tamale is encouraged by distance, compared to road, and so we have realised that as soon as conferences, workshops, funerals, among other social gatherings, returned, the numbers have started growing, especially for Kumasi, Mr Tachie said. To make travel safe for customers, he said, all PassionAir aircraft were fitted with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) to help clear particles and airborne contaminants such as viruses and bacteria. "The HEPA filter removes 99.97 per cent of particles measuring 0.3 microns or bigger," he said. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced today that Digital Dutch Finco B.V., an indirect wholly owned finance subsidiary of the company's operating partnership, Digital Realty Trust, L.P., priced an offering of 500,000,000 of Euro-denominated 1.250% Guaranteed Notes due 2031 (the "Euro Notes"). The Euro Notes will be senior unsecured obligations of Digital Dutch Finco B.V. and will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by the company and the operating partnership. Interest on the Euro Notes will be payable annually in arrears at a rate of 1.250% per annum from and including June 26, 2020 and will mature on February 1, 2031. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on June 26, 2020, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the Euro Notes to temporarily repay borrowings outstanding under the operating partnership's global revolving credit facilities, acquire additional properties or businesses, fund development opportunities, invest in interest-bearing accounts and short-term, interest-bearing securities consistent with the company's intention to qualify as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes, and to provide for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including potentially for the repayment of other debt, or the repurchase, redemption or retirement of outstanding debt or equity securities, or a combination of the foregoing. The Euro Notes are being sold only outside the United States in reliance on Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The Euro Notes have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to United States persons (within the meaning of Regulation S under the Securities Act) absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the Euro Notes, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of the Euro Notes in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the timing and consummation of the offering of the Euro Notes and the expected use of the net proceeds. The company can provide no assurances that it will be able to complete the offering on the anticipated terms, or at all. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the company's reports and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Reg S Statement This communication is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. or its subsidiaries. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act, or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. Consequently, the securities may not be offered, sold, resold, transferred, delivered or distributed, directly or indirectly, into or within the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and in compliance with any applicable securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. Any offering of the securities will be conducted pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. Notice to EEA Retail Investors The Euro Notes are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and, with effect from such date, should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the European Economic Area (the "EEA") or in the United Kingdom. For these purposes, a retail investor means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU (as amended, "MiFID II"); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of Directive 2016/97/EU (recast) (as amended, the "IMD"), where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II. No key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 (as amended, the "PRIIPs Regulation") for offering or selling any in scope instrument or otherwise making such instruments available to retail investors in the EEA or in the United Kingdom has been prepared. Offering or selling the Euro Notes or otherwise making them available to any retail investor in the EEA or in the United Kingdom may be unlawful under the PRIIPs Regulation. This communication has been prepared on the basis that any offers or sales of Euro Notes in any Member State of the EEA will be made pursuant to an exemption under Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 (as amended or superseded, the "Prospectus Regulation") from the requirement to publish a prospectus for offers or sales of Euro Notes. This communication is not a prospectus for the purposes of the Prospectus Regulation. CONTACT: John Stewart 1-415-848-9311 [email protected] SOURCE Digital Realty Related Links https://www.digitalrealty.com China central bank In April this year, the news of Chinese central bank hiking stake in Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) didnt go well with many in New Delhi. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) had bought a 1.1 percent stake in the housing finance major on behalf of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund SAFE. The government was reportedly unhappy about the fact that no alarm signals were raised over this. In an exclusive interaction with Moneycontrol, HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh however downplayed the concerns. No big deal, said Parekh There is no issue here. They (PBOC) have been buying stake since the last two years, said Parekh. But they are buying for sovereign wealth fund. The front is the Peoples Bank as they must be having the foreign exchange. Since the price came down, they bought more, Parekh told this website. Central banks and sovereign wealth funds routinely invest in Indian financial institutions and non-financial institutions. Despite Parekhs assurance, the concerns remained. Logically, the tensions on the India-China border, which have resulted in the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers, will have an impact on the bilateral relations. This can impact the business relations between the two countries. In fact, even before the latest border conflict, India was wary of the possibility of the Chinese gaining control of local firms, exploiting the steep fall in share prices. Many Indian companies had seen their share prices falling due to COVID-19 onslaught on the economy. This evoked interest from multinational investors who smelled the opportunity. Indias concern was mainly on Chinese opportunism. By the second half of April, India began to put in place controls to screen Chinese investment proposals in Indian companies. The most recent trigger was the Chinese central banks move to hike stake in Indias premier mortgage financier, HDFC. What are the rules? India soon effected some rule changes primarily targeting Chinese investors seeking control of Indian companies. The first such change came a week after the news of the PBOC stake purchase in HDFC appeared in the media. The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) acted to prevent hostile takeovers of Indian companies whose market valuations had taken a severe hit due to COVID-19 related uncertainties. "An entity of a country, which shares land border with India or where the beneficial owner of an investment into India is situated in or is a citizen of any such country, can invest only under the government route," it said. In other words, the government revoked the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposal from countries sharing land borders with India to government approval route from automatic approval route. This wasnt the end of it. The government is also reportedly planning to tighten the scrutiny on Chinese investments through Foreign Portfolio Investments route (FPI). According to a report, the government, in consultation with stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India, is planning to set up a body to scrutinise portfolio investments by Chinese companies in Indian companies. What about the Reserve Bank of India? There are no specific rules from the RBI that restrict investments in India by Chinese companies. According to a 2004 RBI circular, no person being a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China, Iran, Nepal or Bhutan shall acquire or transfer immovable property in India, other than lease, not exceeding five years without prior permission of the RBI. Further, foreign nationals of non-Indian origin resident outside India are not permitted to acquire any immoveable property in India unless such property is acquired by way of inheritance. The RBI rules also say that foreign Nationals of non-Indian origin who have acquired immovable property in India with the specific approval of the RBI cannot transfer such property without prior permission of the central bank. The idea behind these hurried measures is simple. Once the investments are routed through the government, it can keep a close scrutiny of the profile of investors and the terms of investment. Globally, such restrictions are common for investments from countries that are considered a threat to the destination country. Chinaalready a major investor in Indian firms The flip side of restricting Chinese investments in Indian companies is that it could affect many of the existing investments. Indian companies are already struggling to get investments from foreigners. There is no accurate estimate of combined Chinese investments in India. According to some estimates, it could be a cumulative $26 billion. There are a number of companies where Chinese have invested including technology, finance and engineering. These include some big names including Big Basket, Byjus and Zomato. A blanket ban on Chinese investments and further escalation between the two countries could jeopardise many in the pipeline. Why China worries us Chinese investment activities are looked at with some amount of suspicion because of the perception of Chinas aggressive approach to dominate economies and markets. Over the years, China has attempted to dominate the trade and investment areas in Asian countries. This has always attracted the attention of policymakers. China has significant investments in Pakistan also. According to a Financial Times report, Chinas $62 billion investment under the China-Pakistan economic corridors are looked at with caution by India for its regional political implications. India fears that increased Chinese presence in Pakistan could create security problems for the country eventually. For this same reason, and especially in the context of Chinas latest aggression on the border, India is unlikely to lower guard on Chinese investments in the near future. Open source Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal does not rule out that local elections might not take place this year. The alleged cause is the coronavirus epidemic. Although, according to Shmygal, his team is turned for the elections. ...So far, speaking about the funds for the elections. We plan to hold these elections. The world lives in conditions of uncertainty, connected with the corona-crisis. If Ukraine has some reasons for the introduction of a total quarantine restriction, then, probably, we will be forced to postpone these elections. But so far, we hope that we will manage the adaptive mechanisms of this disease quite effectively, and this will give us the opportunity to hold these elections in October, said the head of government. Shmygal is a little disingenuous, says political analyst Kyrylo Sazonov. No, hes just a little off-topic, head of the Third Sector Center Andriy Zolotariov opposes. It is not at all a matter of who is cunning and who is not, adds Bogdan Petrenko, deputy director of the Ukrainian Institute for the Study of Extremism. The point is the Constitution, which does not provide for such games with dates, he says. And yet, what about the situation when the number of patients in Ukraine supposedly increases daily? We say "supposedly" because the situation with our statistics is a separate topic for discussion. Constitution and coronavirus According to Article 141 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the next elections of the village, town, city, district, regional councils, village, town, city mayors are held on the last Sunday of October of the fifth year of the powers of the respective council or the corresponding chairman, elected at the next elections. Thus, the next local elections should be held on October 25, 2020. Moreover, it is impossible to legally change something in it. In order to postpone local elections, you need to have very good reasons. With a probability of about 98%, I can testify that no one can stand the local elections because there is a Constitution and it does not spell any force majeure and the like. Therefore, it is likely that the elections will be held when they were planned, Bogdan Petrenko assures. For what reasons, the elections might be canceled? The first reason is the intensification of military aggression against Ukraine, the second is the coronavirus. But both the intensification of aggression and the epidemic are unlikely until October of this year, he adds. According to the Ministry of Health, the number of patients is growing steadily every day. The increase in infections concerns 21 out of 24 Ukrainian regions. But, as our experts rightly point out, everything depends on who and how keeps these statistics and on what it is based. Hypothetically, the possibility of canceling or postponing elections cannot be ruled out. But the situation with the pandemic in Ukraine is being manipulated. In particular, on the part of the authorities, commented the political expert Yevgeny Bulavka. Because the number of patients we have is correlated with the number of tests performed, that is, the more tests, the more patients, although the percentage of the latter remains the same. Another thing is if the authorities have political motives if the elections are not electrically beneficial. Then the threat to people's health can be used as an excuse. But what kind of electoral difficulties are we talking about? The answer to this is also obvious and lies on the surface. Sociology would help According to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the rating of the Servant of the People party in early June compared to April slipped by 4.6%. This is among those respondents who have made their choice. Because if in April 32.6% of respondents were ready to vote for Servant of the People, now only 28% would support it. In July 2019, this political force was supported by 43.16% of voters, which made it possible for the presidents political force to set a record and hold the largest number of deputies from one faction in parliament - 254. The Servant of the People will not show such a result as in the parliamentary elections, says Yevgeny Bulavka. In addition, its not just about the party. Its also about community leaders, mayors who are quite serious And here the Servant of the People also does not have bright prospects because relations with the local authorities promise only to worsen over time. Postponement of the elections will not benefit the rating of the authorities. If the presidents rating is still high, the party cannot boast of such a result, Sazonov assures. Every day that moves us away from the elections, the Servant of the People rating will decrease, Bogdan Petrenko notes. In addition, autumn means the beginning of utility bills for heating, for which Ukrainians will designate responsibility for the president. And therefore in February 2021, the presidents rating will be less than he could have been in October 2020. Andriy Zolotariov states: Given the prospect of a difficult economic situation in the fall, it is better to hold elections on time. In spring, the situation for the Servant of the People would not get better. Preparation in full swing Presidents Office does not seriously discuss the postponement of the elections. Sazonov insists on his version: Postponement of elections is possible in an extraordinary situation, be it a pandemic, aggravation at the front, an attack by aliens or something else. Politicians are actively discussing this, but the impression is that they cast this version solely as a test case "Because both the Presidents Office and the faction are preparing very actively by October 25. Party organizations are being built from the wheels, castings are being held, people are being invited. If someone was going to postpone the election, there would be no such preparation, but its rather exhausting. Preparation is in the full swing. A few days ago, Servant of the People decided on its candidates for the heads of cells in the Zakarpattia region and Kyiv. These are MPs Ihor Kryvosheyev and Mykola Tyshchenko. Kyiv regional party organization of was headed by MP Oleksandr Dubinsky. However, the key to successful local elections will not be the arrangement of certain personalities. The main thing is that the top decisions made by the central government do not include frankly failed initiatives that could destroy its popularity. Now the Servant of the people - even despite the obvious drop in support - remains the first among other participants in the elections, Zolotariov says. If its smart enough not to increase tariffs and taxation, then the rating will remain at about the current level, he says. Dangerous turn Yevgeny Bulavka draws attention to yet another conflict enlargement of areas undertaken by the government. The enlargement will be quite radical: they plan to leave only 129 out of 490 districts. Prime Minister Shmygal explains this plan by overcoming the remnants of the Soviet Union that did not carry anything constructive. The current reformatting of the districts will definitely not add the votes to the Servant of the People. When in the Kyiv region, some Gerrymandering takes place, this causes very strong indignation among the people. The situation with the enlargement of districts is the same, Bulavka notes. In Ukraine, not only administrative-territorial reform has not been completed. Decentralization reform has not been completed either. Furthermore, the authorities are now trying to revise it, just like the healthcare reform of Uliana Suprun or the practice of Independent Testing in high school. More specifically, the fact that the already created united territorial communities, by order of the Cabinet, begin to dissolve or reformat. Yes, we have areas that are completely blocked by territorial communities, and there are areas where they are not created, and this means a risk of chaos and disorder, Zolotariov comments. But even the deficit of general relativity cannot be the motivation for postponing elections. After all, if this reason is voiced to the population, it will not be perceived correctly. Because the elections still need to be held, he is convinced. Petrenko adds: All the elections are held under conditions that later change. I am talking about territorial councils. For the most part, they have already been created, and as regards the regions, they are unlikely to be changed, and therefore all the changes will fall to the districts. The enlargement is not excluded here, but speaking about the changes in administrative reform, they simply will not have time before the current election, he says. That is, this is not a proper reason to delay the celebration of the popular will. Our reforms last for years, and if we focus only on them, voters will never come to the ballot boxes. Therefore, the election would be held without any doubts. They promise to be an interesting arena where a duel will unfold between many ambitious players. Local and party elites will enter the ring to compete with each other and compete with the current government. For her, the autumn will be the fourth round of the presidential election. Fourth and last? It will show time. Over the past four weeks, Iranians have been in a state of shock and disbelief prompted by three horrific cases of honor killings that have sparked an intense public debate on how to push the practice closer to abolition. The last such case was reported from the southeastern city of Kerman on Tuesday. The father of Reyhaneh Ameri admitted to killing his 25-year-old daughter with an iron bar before moving the corpse to a nearby desert. While the exact details have yet to be released, other family members told the media that the father clashed with the victim because she had returned home late the night before her death. Earlier last week, 23-year-old Habib Barahi turned himself in to a local police station in the southwestern city of Abadan to confess how he decapitated his 19-year-old wife, Fatemeh, who some reports suggest had been forced into the marriage, and ran away for months to a shelter in the northeastern city of Mashhad. The two cases were made public at a time when Iranians are still reeling from the grisly saga of 14-year-old Romina Ashrafi, whose father beheaded her with a sickle while she was asleep in their rural home in the countrys north. Rominas death occurred after she eloped with a man 17 years older than she was. Iranian media reported that the father, Reza Ashrafi, had for weeks been contemplating the murder after he learned about his daughters relationship. He reportedly contacted a lawyer among his immediate relatives and was assured that under the Iranian penal code, a father who killed his child would not face the death penalty, a verdict normally handed down to those who deliberately kill someone. The report strengthened arguments that leniency toward fathers who kill their daughters has only encouraged such slayings and that urgent legal reforms need to be introduced for a more inclusive and strict criminalization of domestic violence. Prior to the Romina case, a contentious bill on protecting childrens rights had been halted over partisan disputes, caught for more than a decade between the Guardian Council dominated by ultraconservative clerics on the one hand and Reformists in parliament and in the government administration on the other. In the fallout of the Romina case, the bill pushed by activists and pro-reform officials has now been signed into law, raising hopes for genuine legal support for Iranian children. Loopholes, however, still remain. The exemption from the death penalty enjoyed by fathers who kill their daughters, rooted in an interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, will have to stay unchanged. Such murders are products of a patriarchal society characterized by an unequal and unjust treatment of women, wrote Elaheh Mohammadi, a Tehran-based womens affairs expert. Old traditional prejudice and stigma that have prevailed in local communities for centuries, according to Iranian sociologists, are also significant contributors to honor killings and have to be reckoned with in the multilayered debate. The sociologists say these issues can be tackled only through yearslong campaigns dedicated to raising public awareness. We are late, but we have to start now, an Iranian Twitter user said about such efforts. Even if those killers are handed down the death penalty, we will still continue to witness honor killing, because we are dealing with a deep-rooted traditional belief, which is way more powerful than the fear for execution. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tetsushi Kajimoto (Reuters) Tokyo, Japan Wed, June 17, 2020 10:07 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf62d8b 2 Business Japan,export,Trade,US,shipment,automotive Free Japans exports fell in May at the fastest pace since the 2009 global financial crisis as US-bound car shipments plunged, bolstering expectations for a deep contraction in the worlds third-largest economy this quarter. Weak global demand for cars and slowing business spending could drag on Japans export-led economy, even as China-bound trade shows signs of picking up and US and European economies reopen. The trade data came a day after the Bank of Japan increased its support through lending schemes for struggling businesses to US$1 trillion. Ministry of Finance (MOF) data out Wednesday showed Japans exports fell 28.3 percent in the year to May, worse than a 26.1 percent decrease expected by economists in a Reuters poll. That followed a 21.9 percent decline in April and marked the biggest annual drop since September 2009. US-bound exports - Japans key market halved to mark the biggest annual drop since March 2009, due to more than 70 percent declines in shipments of cars and car parts, the trade data showed. Exports to China, Japans largest trading partner, fell 1.9 percent in the year to May, a smaller drop than the prior months 4 percent annual decline. Shipments to Asia, which account for more than half of Japanese exports, declined 12 percent, and exports to the European Union also fell 33.8 percent. Japans economy slipped into recession for the first time in 4-1/2 years in the first quarter and is on course for its deepest postwar slump as the pandemic ravages businesses and consumers. Analysts warn of an even bleaker picture for the current quarter as consumption crumbled after the government requested citizens to stay home and businesses to close. Overall imports fell 26.2 percent in the year to May, versus the median estimate for a 20.4 percent decrease, posting the biggest drop since October 2009. As a result, the trade balance came to a deficit of 833.4 billion yen ($7.77 billion), versus the median estimate for a 1.07 trillion yen shortfall. Topics : Japan export Trade US shipment automotive 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 Amazon is rolling out a system that combines artificial intelligence and augmented reality to help workers maintain social distancing in the workplace, the company revealed Tuesday in its Covid-19 blog. The new system has been deployed at a handful of Amazon buildings, but the company plans to deploy hundreds of the units in the coming weeks, the giant online retailers leader of robotics initiatives Brad Porter revealed in the blog. He explained that his team uses augmented reality to create a magic-mirror-like tool that enables workers to see their physical distance from each other. Inspired by existing use cases, like radar speed check signs, the system, named Distance Assistant, gives workers real-time feedback about their social distancing with the use of a 50-inch display, camera and computing device. The standalone unit uses machine learning models to differentiate people from their surroundings, Porter wrote. Combined with depth sensors, it creates an accurate distance measurement between associates. He explained that as people walk past the camera, a monitor displays live video with visual overlays to show if associates are within six feet of each another. Green circles are displayed around workers who are six feet apart, while red circles are shown around those too close together. The on-screen indicators are designed to remind and encourage workers to maintain appropriate distance from others, Porter noted. The self-contained device requires only a standard electrical outlet, and can be quickly deployed to building entrances and other high-visibility areas, he added. Whats more, Amazon plans to open source the technology so it will be free for other businesses to use. Nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our employees and well continue to innovate to keep them as safe as possible, Porter wrote. Worker Lawsuits Some employees, though, dont think Amazon is doing all it can to protect them from Covid-19. Two lawsuits were filed against the company this month by workers alleging Amazon is putting workers and the public at risk by conditions its fostering in its warehouses. In a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, its alleged that Amazon failed to implement reasonable safety protocols, placing essential workers at needless risk of Covid-19 infection and endangering public health. It added that cramped conditions, re-use of employee protective suits without cleaning, and quotas that make it impossible for workers to practice social distancing or sanitization have exposed workers and the public to risk of catching the coronavirus. In the other lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., its alleged Amazon is fostering the spread of the coronavirus by mandating unsafe working conditions, that caused at least one employee to contract the virus, bring it home, and see her cousin die. The lawsuit also contends that Amazons JFK8 fulfillment center, which employs some 5,000 people on Staten Island, has become a place of danger by impeding efforts to stop the virus from spreading and by boosting productivity at the expense of safety. In a statement to the press, Amazon noted it spent US$4 billion from April to June on coronavirus initiatives, including $800 million during the first half of the year on temperature checks, masks, gloves, enhanced cleaning and sanitization, extended pay and benefits options, testing and more. AR a Valuable Tool As for Distance Assistant, it shows how artificial intelligence and augmented reality can be worthwhile additions to the workplace. AR can be a valuable tool and assist people to maintain a social distance, not only in the workplace but in any location, including airports, shopping malls and other public places, Eleftheria Kouri, a research analyst for ABI Research, a technology advisory company based in Oyster Bay, N.Y. told the E-Commerce Times. Amazon isnt alone is applying AR to social distancing. Kouri noted that Google has launched a web-based AR app called Sodar to help people maintain a two meter distance between each other. Meanwhile, Snapchat, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, has introduced new lenses that assist users in visualizing distances. A D V E R T I S E M E N T AR smart glasses have already made inroads in the workplace and could be programmed to add social distancing to their repertoire. If the glasses support spatial understanding, they can play an important role and assist employees in maintaining social distancing by overlaying safe virtual paths on the ground in a users field of view, Kouri observed. AR smart glasses are more efficient because they provide immediate feedback and notifications regarding social distancing, consequently a user is more proactive in maintaining a distance, she explained. She also pointed out that glasses can be used hands-free, unlike a cellphone, and are hard to ignore, unlike a 50-inch display. Fever-Detecting Glasses Smart glasses could take AR beyond social distancing. On the back of this global pandemic, were seeing increased activity around AR glasses, which includes headset makers exploring thermal imaging for disease detection, said George Jijiashvili, a senior analyst with Omdia, a research and consulting firm in London. Nreal and Vuzix are examples of AR headset companies who have revealed thermal imagining capabilities as part of the effort against the pandemic, he told the E-Commerce Times. It is important to highlight that the rollout and integration of AR glasses into workplaces has so far been relatively slow, due to the complexities of system integration and the initial cost, he added. However, the growing demand for innovative safety solutions in the current climate could accelerate ARs adoption. The pandemic isnt only driving rapid development of safety solutions. Ive heard from multiple organizations that digital transformation plans that they expected to take years to complete have been done in a matter of months because of the coronavirus, said Liz Miller, vice president and a principal analyst withConstellation Research, a technology research and advisory firm in Cupertino, Calif. With the coronavirus, you have to be digital, whether thats empowering a digital workforce or utilizing new tools to manage and interrogate data differently, she told the E-Commerce Times. Tug-of-War with Tech While AI and AR tools can contribute to keeping workers safe and productive, those contributions can come at a price for the individual. These AR solutions for measuring a safe social distance will raise similar privacy concerns as did the introduction of smart glasses and surveillance cameras in the working environment, Kouri said. What Covid has done is elevate the awareness of many consumers to what privacy truly means to them, Miller added. Josh Crandall, CEO and co-founder of NetPop Research, a market research and strategy consulting firm in San Francisco sees solutions like Distance Assistant camped on the frontier of humanitys tug-of-war with tech. On the one hand, using AI to maintain social distancing is undeniably beneficial, he told the E-Commerce Times. Itll keep us safer in pandemic times. On the other hand, he continued, we are becoming further entwined and dependent on data-driven, computerized solutions that are generic, devoid of contextual knowledge. Without recognizing and appreciating the context in which decisions are made can lead to bias and false outcomes, he said. Thus, the application of this technology, while beneficial on the face of it, may lead to false accusations, social stigma or worse. Silicon Valley has a long history of benefiting off of user data for profit, he added, and look where we are today. Treasury Metals Announces Upsized $11.5 Million Bought Deal Financing Posted by Publisher Internet Treasury Metals Inc. (TSX: TML) (?Treasury? or the ?Company? https://www.commodity-tv.com/play/treasury-metals-ceo-update-on-the-goldlund-acquisition/ ) is pleased to report that, in connection with its previously announced bought deal private place financing, the Company and a syndicate of underwriters, led by Haywood Securities Inc., and including PI Financial Corp., Sprott Capital Partners LP, and Canaccord Genuity Corp. (collectively, the ?Underwriters?) have agreed to increase the size of the offering (the ?Offering?) to an aggregate of 32,000,000 subscription receipts (the ?Subscription Receipts?) of the Company. The Subscription Receipts will be issued at a price of $0.36 per Subscription Receipt (the ?Issue Price?) for aggregate gross proceeds of $11,520,000. The Offering is being completed in connection with the Company?s previously announced transaction (the Transaction?) wherein Treasury will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Tamaka Gold Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of First Mining Gold Corp., which holds a 100% interest in the Goldlund Gold Project (?Goldlund?), located immediately adjacent to Treasury?s Goliath Gold Project (?Goliath?) in Northwestern Ontario. Please refer to the Company?s press release dated June 3, 2020 for further information regarding the Transaction. The Subscription Receipts will be issued pursuant to a subscription receipt agreement (the ?Subscription Receipt Agreement?) to be entered into by the Company, the Underwriters, and a licensed Canadian trust company as subscription receipt agent to be agreed upon. Pursuant to the Subscription Receipt Agreement, the gross proceeds from the Offering (less 50% of the Underwriters? cash commission and all of the Underwriters? expenses) (the ?Escrowed Funds?) will be held in escrow pending satisfaction of certain conditions, including, amongst others, (a) the satisfaction or waiver of each of the conditions precedent to the Transaction; and (b) the receipt of all required shareholder and regulatory approvals in connection with the Transaction and the Offering, including the conditional approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange (?Escrow Release Conditions?). If the Escrow Release Conditions have not been satisfied on or prior to the date that is 90 days after the closing date of the Offering, the holders of Subscription Receipts will receive a cash amount equal to the Issue Price of the Subscription Receipts and any interest that has been earned on the Escrowed Funds. The Company has agreed to use its commercially reasonable efforts to obtain a receipt from the applicable regulatory authorities (the ?Securities Commissions?) for a (final) prospectus qualifying the distribution of the Common Shares and Warrants (as defined herein) issuable upon conversion of the Subscription Receipts and the Underwriters? compensation option issuable? upon conversion of the Underwriters? compensation option receipts (the ?Qualifying Prospectus?) by 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on August 18, 2020 (the ?Qualification Deadline?). Pursuant to the terms of the Subscription Receipt Agreement, each Subscription Receipt shall automatically convert into one unit (a ?Unit?) or one Penalty Unit (as defined below), as applicable, upon the later of: the date when the Escrowed Funds are released; and the date which is the earlier of: four months and one day after the closing of the Offering; and the second business day following the filing of the Qualifying Prospectus. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share?of the Company (a ?Common Share?) plus one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole such purchase warrant, a ?Warrant?), with each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.60 for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Offering. If the closing price of the Common Shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange (?TSX?) is equal to or greater than $1.00 per share for a period of twenty (20) consecutive trading days during the exercise period, the Company may elect to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants to a date that is not less than 30 calendar days from the date on which written notice is delivered to the Warrant holders. In the event the Company has not received a receipt from the Securities Commissions for the Qualifying Prospectus before the Qualification Deadline, each Subscription Receipt will thereafter entitle the holder to receive upon the conversion thereof, for no additional consideration, one unit (a ?Penalty Unit?), each Penalty Unit to be comprised of 1.1 Common Shares and 0.55 of a Warrant. The net proceeds of the Offering will be used for the exploration and development of the Goliath and Goldlund projects, and for general corporate purposes. Closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about July 7, 2020 and is subject to certain customary conditions, including, but not limited to, the approval of the shareholders of Treasury in connection with the Transaction, the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals and acceptance of the TSX. The Subscription Receipts to be issued under the Offering will be offered by way of private placement exemptions in all the provinces of Canada and in the United States on a private placement basis pursuant to exemptions from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The Subscription Receipts and the Warrants, and the Common Shares underlying the Subscription Receipts and the Warrants respectively, will be subject to a statutory four-month hold period in accordance with Canadian securities legislation, subject to qualification under the Qualifying Prospectus. To view further details about the Transaction and the Goliath and Goldlund projects, please visit the Company?s website at www.treasurymetals.com. Contact Information Greg Ferron CEO & Director Tel: 416-214-4654 Email: greg@treasurymetals.com Twitter @TreasuryMetals In Europe: Swiss Resource Capital A GJochen Staiger info@resource-capital.ch www.resource-capital.ch About Treasury Metals Inc. Treasury Metals Inc. is a gold focused company with assets in Canada and is listed on the TSX under the symbol ?TML? and on the OTCQX? Best Market under the symbol TSRMF. Treasury?s flagship Goliath Gold Project is located in Northwestern Ontario. The project benefits substantially from excellent access to the Trans-Canada Highway, related power and rail infrastructure, and close proximity to several communities including Dryden, Ontario. Treasury plans on the initial development of an open pit gold mine with subsequent underground operations. The Company also owns several other projects throughout Canada, including Lara Polymetallic Project, Weebigee Gold Project, and grassroots gold exploration properties Gold Rock/Thunder Cloud and Shining Tree properties. 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 expectations about the timing and completion of the Transaction and the Offering, the use of proceeds from the Offering, the satisfaction of the Escrow Release Conditions and management?s expectations with respect to the Offering and the Transaction, the issuance of a receipt for a Qualifying Prospectus, the necessary approvals for the Offering including the approval of the TSX and shareholders of Treasury and are based on the Company?s current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs, which may prove to be incorrect. Some of the forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of conditional or future tenses or by the use of such words such as ?will?, ?expects?, ?may?, ?should?, ?estimates?, ?anticipates?, ?believes?, ?projects?, ?plans?, and similar expressions, including variations thereof and negative forms. 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 projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: risks and uncertainties relating to the completion of the Transaction and the Offering as described herein, the ability of the Company to satisfy all Escrow Release Conditions, obtaining necessary TSX and Treasury shareholder approval of the Offering in connection with the Transaction and management?s ability to anticipate and manage the foregoing factors and risks. 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. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by securities legislation. Neither the TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. India and China on Monday night engaged in the first deadly clash in at least 45 years. As per statements by the Indian Army, the violent clash at Galwan Valley started between Indian troops and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on the night of June 15. According to India Today, a team led by Colonel Santosh Babu of 16 Bihar Regiment set out to hold a discussion with the Chinese side on June 15 as PLA troops were not returning back to their territory as per their commitment. During this discussion, the Chinese PLA deliberately aggravated the situation. They eventually attacked the Indian delegation with sticks, stones and clubs wrapped in barbed wire. The Colonel and his personnel suffered injuries during the clash. The Indian side later retaliated, resulting in heavy casualties. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: Four Indian soldiers critical after violent face-off in Ladakh, says report Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in clash with Chinese forces. The Indian Army added that 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty, later died. On the other hand, China has not confirmed any casualties but has accused India of crossing the border and launching provocative attack against Chinese personnel. Both sides have said no shots were fired. Senior Colonel Zhang Shuili, spokesperson of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theater Command has asked India to "strictly restrain its frontline troops, stop all provocative actions, meet the Chinese side halfway and return to the correct path of solving disputes via dialogue". Key developments: Indian Army will soon release the names of all 20 soldiers who were killed in Galwan Valley. According to India Today TV, nothing much has come out of the talks from both sides. Indian Army is still on standby across the LAC. On the other side the United Nations Secretary-General has urged both India and China to deescalate the violence and come to a solution. The UN body said, "We're concerned about reports of violence and deaths at Line of Actual Control between India and China & urge both sides to exercise maximum restraint. We take positive note of reports that the two countries have engaged to deescalate the situation." Also read: India-China border clash: 'Closely monitoring, support peaceful resolution,' says US US State Department paid condolence to the families of 20 Indian soldiers that died in yesterday's clash. The US said, "We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation". The tension in LAC started in early May when India accused China of sending thousands of troops into Ladakh's Galwan Valley. India said that China had occupied 38,000sq km (14,700sq miles) of its territory. Thereafter, the armies of both sides clashed with each other. There have been several confrontations between India and China in the past. However, the two countries have fought only one war so far -- in 1962. Also read: India-China tension: Chidambaram questions PM Modi's silence on 'intrusion of foreign troops' The uncle of Syrian President Assad has been stripped of his vast European property empire today after being found guilty of misappropriating public funds in Syria and laundering the spoils, by a French court. The Paris court imposed a four-year prison sentence on 82-year-old Rifaat al-Assad, which he is unlikely to serve given his advanced age. For now, Assad remains a free man pending an appeal but judges have also ordered the confiscation of his French real estate assets, worth an estimated 90 million euros ($100 million). Assad, who was treated in a French hospital in December for internal bleeding, was not present for Wednesday's ruling. The Paris court imposed a four-year prison sentence on 82-year-old Rifaat al-Assad, which he is unlikely to serve given his advanced age Dubbed the 'Butcher of Hama' for allegedly commanding troops who put down an uprising in central Syria in 1982, Assad has been under investigation in France since 2014. The younger brother of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad - father of the incumbent president - was tried for crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian funds. The court dismissed charges against Assad for the period 1984 to 1996, but found him guilty of organised laundering of funds embezzled from the Syrian public purse between 1996 and 2016. He was also convicted of tax fraud. Assad, who divides his time between France and Britain, denies the charges, and his lawyers said he would appeal. But even if he loses, Assad is unlikely to see the inside of a prison, as elderly people convicted of a crime in France often successfully ask for jail terms to be commuted. The manor of Bashar al-Assad's uncle, Rifaat al-Assad, is seen, in Bessancourt, north of Paris, 2013 The entrance of Bashar al-Assad's uncle, Rifaat al-Assad's 600 square metre manor Formerly Syria's vice president, Assad left his home country in 1984 after mounting a failed coup against his brother Hafez, who led Syria from 1971 to 2000. Today, he describes himself as an opponent of the regime of his nephew. After he arrived in Europe, Rifaat al-Assad's lavish lifestyle, four wives and 16 children soon raised eyebrows. His French fortune includes two townhouses in chic Parisian neighbourhoods, a stud farm, about 40 apartments, and a chateau. One of his Parisian mansions sprawls over 3,000 square metres (32,000 square feet). Assad and his family also built up a huge portfolio of 507 properties in Spain, valued at around 695 million euros, Spanish legal documents show. All his properties in that country were seized by the authorities in 2017. An Assad property has also been seized in London. Assad, awarded France's Legion of Honour in 1986 for 'services rendered', insists his lifestyle was made possible by gifts from the Saudi royal family amounting to more than a million dollars per month. The late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad (right) with his youngest brother Rifaat (left) at a military ceremony in Damascus. Jan 1, 1984 The former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad (right) with his youngest brother Rifaat (left) taken at a formal reception in 1986 But while his lawyers claimed to document gifts of almost $25 million between 1984 and 2010, French investigators registered transfers from Saudi Arabia totalling a mere $10 million. The court ruling said the crimes were of 'exceptional severity', and pointed to 'consistent evidence of the misappropriation of public funds at the expense of the Syrian state and for the exclusive benefit of Rifaat al-Assad'. Rifaat al-Assad pictured in 1984 But Assad's lawyers in a statement insisted their client had taken 'not a penny' from Syria, saying all his money had a lawful origin. The French case against Assad began with a suit filed in 2013 by anti-corruption campaign group Sherpa, which welcomed the outcome. 'This decision is of particular importance in the current Syrian context and underscores the urgency of establishing a French legal framework for the restitution of looted assets,' it said in a statement. Sherpa also urged the French government to withdraw Assad's Legion of Honour, the highest French decoration. Assad's was only the second trial of a foreign dignitary in France on charges of 'ill-gotten gains'. In the first, Equatorial Guinea vice president Teodorin Obiang received a three-year suspended jail term in October 2017 after being convicted of using public money to fund a jet-set lifestyle in Paris. [June 17, 2020] A Fortuitous Launch As The Global Pandemic Hit, Helped Thousands of People Get Back into a Positive Mindset and Back on Their Feet. MIAMI, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Velovita has become one of the most advanced, trailblazing crosses between social selling and e-commerce businesses to assist with the economic shortfalls of many citizens that have lost their jobs due to the crisis. Launching with their flagship product, a super nootropic with nanotechnology, Bran [pronounced breyn] Reimagined, has attracted thousands of consumers already. Social sellers of today know the hook is about the product, and with the power of social media through word of click; online sales of Velovita's flagship product continues to thrive. The unique snap package that is easy and fun to use, makes it a convenient way to get a boost of energy as a start to your morning or when needed throughout the day. Each snap is equivalent to drinking one cup of coffee without the jitters. The company came to fruition with the entrepreneur in mind alongwith the goal of giving the SMB market a chance to rebuild their own economy. Created with a social consciousness and the rise of e-commerce sales, this hybrid business model has created a 5x Win Model to benefit all stakeholders; their Customers, their Affiliates, their Members, the U.S. economy, and last but not least, the Velovita brand. "With the major focus on fueling your brain to feed your mind, we have built a unique community where the entrepreneur is nourished, supported, and applauded." - Kosta Gara Kosta Gara, Founder and CEO, partnered up with Jeff Mack, Co-Founder, and President who had similar philosophies and outlook on what they wanted the company to contribute to society, given the current state of the economy. So they decided to partner up to build something they could be proud of and that could help many micro-entrepreneurs recover financially and become stable to weather the economic business cycles. "The best things in my life have been guided or made better by peers and mentors that have encouraged positivity and proactivity. A goal for me is to do the same for others." - Jeff Mack Headquartered in Florida, USA, they're 100% debt-free, with 20+ years of infrastructure and 100% in-house ecosystem from backend to frontend, and everything in between. Velovita officially launched US market on May 5th, 2020 and is in the process of launching new markets. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/a-fortuitous-launch-as-the-global-pandemic-hit-helped-thousands-of-people-get-back-into-a-positive-mindset-and-back-on-their-feet-301079149.html SOURCE Velovita Inc [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] ANN ARBOR, MI George Floyd. Eric Garner. Breonna Taylor. Tamir Rice. Philando Castile. Tony McDade. Those are just some of the many names of black people killed by police in the United States featured in a new Black Lives Matter mural in downtown Ann Arbors Graffiti Alley. Stretching 30 feet long and nearly 14 feet tall in the alley off Liberty Street by the Michigan Theater, the mural has caught the attention of many passersby whove stopped to reflect and take in its message in recent days. A local rapper even shot his latest music video in front of it on a recent afternoon. The black-and-white, all-text painting stands in stark contrast to the otherwise colorful, graffiti-laden alley that has delighted downtown visitors for many years. Murals reading "ACAB" and "Black Lives Matter" are painted on the walls of Graffiti Alley off Liberty Street in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com Its a sign of the times as the Black Lives Matter movement has gained momentum following recent acts of police brutality against black people, most notably the killing of George Floyd, whose death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer has sparked nationwide protests and rioting. The Michigan Theater expressed thanks via social media for the new mural in its alley, crediting several Instagram users for 19 hours of hard work to paint it. Michigan Theater recommends 15 films with strong black voices for Black Out Tuesday One of them, local graphic designer Liz DeRensis, shared her thoughts in a post, saying it was a group effort and lots of people put in hard work over multiple days. Open your eyes! Black Lives Matter! she wrote, calling for defunding police. This was one of the hardest things Ive ever done, and I dont mean physically, wrote another mural collaborator who goes by Antifa Juggalo on Instagram. I hope you look at this and your fing chest hurts. I hope you see this and you realize youre complicit. I hope you see this and join us in our fight to protect our black brothers and sisters. This is every black person (that we know about!) MURDERED by police in COLD BLOOD since 2014. " We gotta value our lives, organizer of Black Lives Matter mural in Jackson says Another collaborator, local photographer Jared Haas, shared this message: If you cant get out and peacefully protest, make signs, talk to your friends and relatives, dont be silent. A panoramic view of the new Black Lives Matter mural in Ann Arbor's Graffiti Alley on June 9, 2020.Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News In addition to the mural and local demonstrations, many Black Lives Matter signs some of them homemade have been sprouting in yards and windows around the city, and radical police reform is now an issue the City Council and the citys police oversight commission are discussing. We have had, by my count, over 2,000 emails that range from cut the funding for the police budget to completely abolish the police department, and I think that that is a pretty clear call to totally redo how we handle public safety, Council Member Chip Smith, D-5th Ward, said this week as council discussed a resolution to explore alternatives to armed officers. MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS: Ann Arbor officials want to radically rethink policing, consider alternatives to armed officers Ann Arbor mayor criticized by police oversight commission for not understanding its role Weve got a long way to go: Police oversight chair seeks review of all complaints against officers A man who was arrested in his wifes slaying only to be cleared later is seeking $6 million from an Alabama city, news outlets reported. Carl Harris is demanding the money from the city of Ozark, where police initially arrested him in the 1990 death of wife Tracey Harris in 2016. She was found dead in the Choctawhatchee River but no arrests were made for years. Harris was moments from going to trial in January when Ozark police arrested another man and cleared Harris. That man, Jeff Beasley of Ozark, is now awaiting trial. Harris is seeking repayment for alleged mistreatment, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, emotional distress, and pain and suffering. Harris lawyer, David Harrison, said the next step would be to file a federal lawsuit against the city, investigators and Ozark Police Chief Marlos Walker over claims they violated Harris rights. Walker did not immediately return an email seeking comment Tuesday. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Alabama (Natural News) On Thursday CNN political reporter Oliver Darcy, who defended the anarchist Seattle Autonomous Zone, published a hit piece on conservative publishers. (Article by Jim Hoft republished from TheGatewayPundit.com) Oliver Darcy, whose primary purpose at the network is to silence conservative voices, published a hit piece on The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, and others. Says Darcy: Right-wing websites like Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit have also pushed the narrative that armed Antifa members have begun seizing land. Antifa is reportedly seeking armed volunteers to take turns manning barricades and holding ground that protesters have seized within Seattle city limits, a Wednesday Breitbart article said. That report relied on a post from the far-right blog The Gateway Pundit, a website known for peddling misinformation and conspiracy theories. If you've been getting your news from right-wing media, you probably think armed militant Antifa activists have seized a section of Seattle. But the mayor's office tells me, "City officials have not interacted with 'armed antifa militants' at this site."https://t.co/ctZiwNNCx6 Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 11, 2020 In his report Darcy says the local officials said there was no interaction with armed individuals at the CHAZ encampment. Of course, as we have reported There have been many photos and video of armed protesters inside the CHAZ-CHOP antifa zone in Seattle, Washington. Heres one This week NBC contacted Google and complained about Zero Hedge and The Federalist. Google then promptly banned both from their ad network. NBC cheered the news! NBC Contacted Google and complained about Zero Hedge and The Federalist Google then promptly banned both from their ad networkhttps://t.co/P1iMuSLu4e Tim Pool (@Timcast) June 16, 2020 An NBC reporter thanks two far left wing activist groups for their collaboration in getting the Federalist banned from Google. pic.twitter.com/PB00d7jSZq Monitoring the Situation Cernovich (@Cernovich) June 16, 2020 Later today Law Professor Glenn Reynolds weighed in on this latest censorship. Glenn called out the ban on the conservative websites and suggested NBC can be investigated on conspiracy charges. GOOGLE RHYMES WITH GULAG: Google bans two websites from its ad platform over protest articles: The two sites, ZeroHedge and The Federalist, will no longer be able to generate revenue from any advertisements served by Google Ads. Thats okay, there are several percent of the ad market that Google doesnt control. Time for antitrust scrutiny. And since NBC prevailed on Google to demonetize two of its competitors, I think NBC should be investigated, too. When two huge companies collude to cut out competitors, that looks like a conspiracy in restraint of trade, whatever the excuses given. Constitutional lawyer Mark Levin agrees. I agree. An antitrust investigation into the potential of collusion of Comcast-NBC and Google is absolutely warranted.https://t.co/bXYZZj82IY Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) June 16, 2020 The story drew the attention of FOX News. NBC News is facing intense backlash for apparently influencing Google to punish two conservative news sites over what was deemed offensive coverage of the George Floyd protests. In a report published Tuesday afternoon, NBC News claimed Google banned The Federalist and ZeroHedge from Google Ads for pushing unsubstantiated claims about the Black Lives Matter movement. Google later pushed back, claiming that The Federalist was never demonetized, and adding, We worked with them to address issues on their site related to the comments section. We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race from monetizing, a Google spokesperson initially told NBC News. NBC, however, did not link to the derogatory content from The Federalist or ZeroHedge. In addition, it appeared it was NBC News inquiry into the matter that prompted Googles actions in the first place. The left is stamping out free speech. The cowards on the right better act or there wont be anyone left when their number comes up. Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com and TechGiants.news. KYODO NEWS - Jun 18, 2020 - 03:23 | All, Japan A 2-year-old girl died Wednesday after her father apparently left her in his car for about seven hours while working at home in eastern Japan, police said. The father found his daughter, who was unconscious and not breathing, in the rear seat of his vehicle at around 3:20 p.m. and she was pronounced dead at a hospital, the police said. According to the police, the 40-year-old man drove his 8-year-old daughter to an elementary school in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, at around 8 a.m., with the 2-year-old also in the car. The man then returned to his home and worked there for hours. At around 3 p.m., he drove back to the school to pick up the elder daughter, and after parking noticed his younger daughter still in the child seat in the rear, the police said. The high temperature for the day in Tsukuba reached 27.8 C shortly before noon, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Even as the lockdown may have resulted in a temporary blip in its business, pre-owned luxury cars player Big Boy Toyz is bullish on non-metros. Having opened its latest store in Ahmedabad after Gurgaon, Mumbai and Hyderabad, the company is looking to go beyond metros and tier-1 cities. "Location plays a significant role in our industry. While buyers from Tier-1 cities may be interested in monetising deals where they could save big, it's mostly the aspirational buyers from the Tier-2 and -3 cities who come looking for used luxury cars for better value for money. The demand is ... Patient readers, I had an administrative kerfuffle that ate up about half an hour. Hence links is short the COVID section and a few other orts and scraps. Im adding those now, and Links for today will shortly be complete. lambert UPDATE 7:24AM All done! Snot palaces built by sea creatures could help scientists and maybe even Nasa BBC Kings of Controversial Debt Trades Cry Foul When on Other Side Bloomberg U.S. plummets to 10th spot in World Competitiveness Ranking CBS Blame the Fed for the Disconnect in Markets Bloomberg Pontifications: bleak near- to mid-term future for Rolls-Royce engine unit Leeham News and Analysis. See also Focus on Rolls-Royce Trent engines (2011): We talked with an engineer a few months ago who isnt involved in either incident but who knows RR. His view is that in looking at the Trent 1000 and Trent 900 incidents, focus on the design is actually looking in the wrong direction. Rather, the system issues at RR, this engineer tells us, are in the culture that are leading to the performance failures. Sound familiar? Its not just Boeing. #COVID19 China? India The Koreas South Korean Unification Minister offers to step down amid worsening spat with North Korea CNN Art of the deal: So, about N Korea destroying the Kaesong liaison office, top line conclusion first: They are being fucking stupid. I lost my temper at them a few days ago because I saw this coming and it would have been very dumb for them to go down this road. T.K. of AAK! (@AskAKorean) June 16, 2020 Syraqistan UK/EU How Chile went from coronavirus role model to among worlds worst South China Morning Post Neoliberalism vs Populism on COVID Stimulus Exponents. Also Latin America. New Cold War RussiaGate How an Internet Persona Helped Birth Russiagate Ray McGovern, Consortium News Trump Transition Black Injustice Tipping Point Austrian police defend decision to fine man after provocative fart Guardian (Re Silc). Police State Watch Heatlh Care Our Famously Free Press Class Warfare How Woke Politics Keeps Class Solidarity Down The American Conservative Antidote du jour (via): See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. While the travel industry is doing its level best to restart in earnest, there are still several big hurdles that could put the kibosh on your summer holiday plans for 2020. One is the Foreign Office travel advice, and the other is the dreaded Q-word: quarantine. Heres everything you need to know about the latter. Will I have to quarantine when I go on holiday? Recommended 10 FAQs about summer holidays this year This is largely dependent on the country in question. Some places are still all but closed to foreign visitors for example, New Zealand while others are tentatively reopening their borders. In Europe, countries permitting entry to British visitors without any quarantine period or need to produce a health certificate include Spain, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Croatia, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland. France previously required Brits to undergo a two-week quarantine (though it was somewhat voluntary in nature), but has lifted this measure since the UK did likewise for travellers entering the country from France. Click here for The Independents list of countries where you wont have to quarantine when you get there or get back, and where the FCO warning against non-essential travel has been lifted. Will I have to quarantine when I get back to the UK? If you do manage to slip away to foreign climes, when you touch down back on UK soil you might have two weeks of mandatory quarantine to look forward to. The policy was implemented on 8 June and put in place indefinitely, subject to regular review. The Department for Transport (DfT) announced the relaxation of self-isolation measures from 10 July for those entering England, Wales and Northern Ireland from certain countries, while Scotland published its own list. Inbound travellers from a range of places regarded as low-risk by the Joint Biosecurity Centre which was set up to coordinate the governments response to the pandemic are exempt from quarantine. There are currently more than 60 countries and territories on the exempt list, including popular holiday destinations such as France, Italy, Greece and Turkey. But the list is subject to last-minute changes and updates: as of 28 July, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia and St Vincent and the Grenadines have been added, while Serbia and controversially Spain have been removed. Luxembourg also got the boot after a surge in cases, as did Belgium Andorra and the Bahamas. Just because a country is on this list, it doesnt mean there is a reciprocal agreement in place you may still have to self-isolate when you arrive there, just not when you get back to the UK. There is also a separate list of places where the Foreign Office has lifted its blanket advice against all non-essential travel. What are the current rules on quarantining in the UK? The presumption will be that you are carrying Covid-19. You should ideally occupy a room separate from any other members of the household where youre staying. Avoid contact with the people youre staying with and minimise the time you spend in shared areas, says the Home Office. You must not go to work, school or to any public areas, or use public transport or taxis (although it is permissible to use the latter when travelling from the airport). You should not have visitors, including friends and family, unless they are providing essential support. Do not go out to buy food or other essentials where you can rely on others, officials say. Will the quarantine be enforced? Public Health England have set up an assurance service to contact people at random to ensure they understand the requirements and are self-isolating. Officials can telephone or call at the nominated address at any time during the 14 days. If the traveller is not at home or out with a valid excuse, a 1,000 fixed penalty notice will be issued in England and Wales (480 in Scotland). However, so far only one person has been fined for breaching quarantine. Will the quarantine be effective? The home secretary Priti Patel said: These measures are informed by science, backed by the public and will keep us all safe. However, senior public health experts, MPs and travel industry representatives have all questioned the efficacy of the policy, which was devised by Dominic Cummings. The governments chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said: Measures like this are most effective when the number of cases is very low, and theyre most effective when theyre applied to countries from higher rates. Speaking to MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee about the quarantine, Sir David Skegg, a New Zealand professor of preventive and social medicine, said: Its not clear to me what the UK strategy is for dealing with this disease From the UKs point of view, it doesnt look very logical to me to have 14 days quarantine for people coming from countries with a much lower incidence and prevalence of Covid-19. These border measures would be most effective if they were conducted very early. When will the quarantine be lifted? The policy was eased on 10 July. Although the quarantine will stay in place for everywhere else, certain low-risk countries will not be subject to the two-week quarantine for those entering the UK. Unwell tourist arrives at Heathrow about to get on tube and does not know he has to quarantine The list of exempt destinations includes France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. The policy is due to be reviewed regularly, with more countries added as they meet the governments criteria, or removed if there is a spike in coronavirus cases, as was observed in Spain. While previously the government said the list would be reviewed every few weeks, this will now be done more regularly. The DfT said in a statement: Government will update GOV.UK with any changes on a weekly basis (should any be required) to reflect the shifting international health picture. We are prepared to respond rapidly if the health situation of a country deteriorates. - The seven Kenyans had travelled to Somalia to work on a one-year contract but it suddenly expired following the COVID-19 - The contracts were terminated just six days after President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered for the closure of all borders - They were trapped in Ras Kamboni since April 6, 2020, - They also had to go for days without food after the expiry of their contracts Families of seven Kenyans who were stranded in Somalia for over two months due to the global coronavirus pandemic were relieved when they finally got to reunite with their kin. The seven were identified as Ignus Kialu, Patrick Shingula, Martin Mwaghazi, Michael Mjala, Gabriel Kennedy, Elia Mwalili and Abas Mutuku. READ ALSO: Day of the African Child: Nothing to smile about as teenage pregnancy cases spike in Mombasa The seven were trapped in Ras Kamboni since April 6, 2020, and had to go for days without food after the expiry of their contracts. Photo: Caroline Mwawasi Source: Original READ ALSO: Over 3,900 teenage girls impregnated in Machakos within 5 months They were trapped in Ras Kamboni since April 6, 2020, and had to go for days without food after the expiry of their contracts. Addressing a presser after their arrival, they said they had travelled to Kismayo in search of greener pastures before the country closed its borders. They all had a welding contract which expired on March 31, 2020; six days after the Kenyan government shut down its borders due to the pandemic. READ ALSO: Muslim lady disqualified from beauty pageant audition for refusing to remove hijab In Ras Kamboni the Kenyans said they were stigmatised, confined and neglected. My husband told me locals at Ras Kamboni were hurling insults at them, claiming they have coronavirus," said Purity Moraa. "My spouse, Kialu had exhausted his savings by sending them home, she added. READ ALSO: President John Magufuli orders Tanzanian schools to reopen on June 29 According to Moraa, her family was later kicked out of their house due to accrued rent arrears. Her husband, a 33-year-old teacher, Kialu and six others flew to Kismayo, Somalia in January 2020, for a contract that involved dismantling wrecked warships. But their contract, which was to last a year, expired abruptly on March 31 after President Uhuru Kenyatta closed the border with Somalia and shut the country's airspace. READ ALSO: Mombasa: 46 orphans in rescue centre appeal for food, clothing as COVID-19 effects bite Later, they decided to sail home via Ras Kamboni hoping to enter Kenya but were barred despite possessing valid passports due to the pandemic. Both Kenyan and Somalia authorities blocked them and their travelling documents later seized. Their Kenyan families sought help from Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia but their plea fell on deaf ears. READ ALSO: Force, discipline service, or thugs? Kenyans question high police brutality rates On June 15, 2020, we decided to trek some 18 kilometres to Kenya border at Kiunga. We met humane Kenya Defense Forces officers who interrogated and searched us," Mwaghazi said. "We were later driven to Kiunga via their Landcruiser. We were provided with food and medical personnel were called to check on us, he added. The seven spent the night at Kiunga KDF camp. READ ALSO: Kisumu man who overcame abject poverty to become dentist builds elderly mom new house According to Mwaghazi, they left the camp on June 16, 2020, and arrived at Lamu Island at 10:30am where they were placed on quarantine. We are happy to be back in Kenya. Thank you so much Muslim for Human Rights Group for your interventions, Mwaghazi said. Story by Caroline Mwawasi, TUKO.co.ke correspondent - Mombasa county 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 LONDON - The governing body of Oxford Universitys Oriel College on Wednesday recommended the removal of a statue of Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes that has long been the target of protests though it wont be taken down immediately. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A statue of Cecil Rhodes, top centre, the controversial Victorian imperialist who supported apartheid-style measures in southern Africa stands mounted on the facade of Oriel College in Oxford, England, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The governing body of Oriel College are meeting today to discuss the future of the statue. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) LONDON - The governing body of Oxford Universitys Oriel College on Wednesday recommended the removal of a statue of Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes that has long been the target of protests though it wont be taken down immediately. The colleges governors said they had "voted to launch an independent Commission of Inquiry into the key issues surrounding the Rhodes statue." In a statement, Oriel Colleges governing body, made up of faculty, said they had "expressed their wish to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes" and a plaque to him, adding that "this is what they intend to convey to the Independent Commission of Inquiry." A statue of Cecil Rhodes, top centre, the controversial Victorian imperialist who supported apartheid-style measures in southern Africa stands mounted on the facade of Oriel College in Oxford, England, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The governing body of Oriel College are meeting today to discuss the future of the statue. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Rhodes made a fortune in the late 19th century from gold and diamond mines where miners laboured in brutal conditions. He was an education benefactor whose legacy includes Oxford Universitys prestigious Rhodes scholarships, which have been awarded to international students for over a century. Famous Rhodes scholars include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and feminist writer Naomi Wolf. His statue was removed from the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 2015 after students led a "Rhodes Must Fall" campaign. A similar campaign has sought the removal of his statue in Oxford. The movement had gained new momentum since the death of George Floyd spurred anti-racism protests worldwide and a renewed debate on colonialism and its legacy in Britain. 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. Other historical monuments and statues around the world, honouring figures from Christopher Columbus to Belgiums King Leopold II, have since become flash points in protests. Earlier this month, Black Lives Matter protesters pulled down a controversial statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston in the English city of Bristol and threw it into the harbour. Colston was prominently involved in England's slaving company, the Royal African Company, which transported tens of thousands of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean. Oriels governors said the new commission would include people from academia, education policy, law, politics and journalism. The commission aims to look into how to improve access to black and ethnic minority students and faculty, and review "how the colleges 21st-century commitment to diversity can sit more easily with its past." The Rhodes statue will stay up until the inquiry finishes its work later this year. In a statement, the Rhodes Must Fall campaign group said it welcomed Oriel College's intention to take down the statue, but demanded a stronger commitment to follow it through. "This is a potentially epoch-defining moment for our institution, the University of Oxford. We can, potentially, offer a powerful example of the decolonial project in higher education in the U.K. and beyond," the group said. Countries' response to COVID-19, their long-term development, and the meeting of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are all threatened by the invisible infection of corruption, the Commonwealth Secretary-General has warned. Speaking to the annual conference of the Commonwealth Caribbean Association of Integrity Commissions and Anti-Corruption Bodies (CCAICACB), Patricia Scotland laid bare the devastating impact criminal acts such as fraud, bribery, and theft have in both financial terms and in their human cost. In her speech to the conference she highlighted that: It is estimated that every year $1 trillion is paid in bribes globally, while an estimated $2.6 trillion is stolen annually through corruption, a sum equivalent to more than five per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product. Illicit financial flows cost developing countries $1.26 trillion per year, enough money to lift 1.4 billion people out of poverty and keep them there for at least six years. While the United Nations Development Programme estimates, that in developing countries, funds lost to corruption are 10 times the amount dispersed in official development assistance. Transparency International states corruption in the health sector alone costs US$500 billion every year, more than the amount needed for worldwide universal health coverage. The Secretary-General said corruption would not only undermine efforts to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic but also deprive vulnerable communities of vital funding for social and economic development. Speaking to the conference, she said the corrosive cancer of corruption is one of the major impediments to achieving the SDGs. The Secretary-General called for swift and decisive action to improve transparency and accountability and to build confidence that institutions and systems are corruption-free. She said: Our Caribbean region is now confronted with the triple impacts of the global pandemic, climate crisis, and a potential economic tsunami because of the lockdown measures necessary to fight coronavirus. As we mobilise to adapt to climate change and work to withstand its impacts and those of the natural disasters which bring devastation to our islands, there is this invisible infection of corruption which the world must also continue to fight. SG at anti-corruption conference2.jpg The Secretary-General outlined how the Commonwealth Secretariat's work is crucial in the battle to curb corruption. The approach attacks criminal financial activities on three fronts - research, capacity-building, and networking. This is delivered through regional anti-corruption agency networks and training centres, backed up by closer co-operation and learning. The CCAICACB was created by the Commonwealth Secretariat in 2015. The Secretariat's work has seen significant success, with recent data showing Commonwealth Caribbean countries are perceived as less corrupt than their non-Commonwealth neighbours. Commonwealth Anti-Corruption Benchmarks have also been developed as the latest tool designed to help governments and public sector bodies with measuring anti-corruption laws, procedures, and actions against international good practice. Dale Marshall, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs in Barbados explained the challenge his country faces in combatting the dual-threat of corruption and the pandemic. He said: Barbados has had to divert all of its available resources to keeping our economy afloat. At a time when we are almost in a position to establish integrity in public life commission, when we are just about to establish a special agency to fight corruption, the resources that we would have made available are now having to be diverted to ensuring that we have ventilators, that those people who have been thrown on the unemployment line have food. We are faced with a choice. Do we focus on the issues of keeping Barbados afloat or do we take some of those resources and dedicate them towards the fight against corruption? It is an impossible choice. The CCAICACB conference is being held in a virtual format for the first time due to the Covid-19 situation. Two further session of the meeting will be held over the next two weeks, with members presenting and reviewing their recent anti-corruption initiatives as well as sharing ideas and best practice for use across the region. By Gina Lee Investing.com Asian stocks were mixed on Wednesday, with investors weighing the equity markets recent global rally against evidence that the fight against COVID-19 will be a long and tough one. Chinas Shanghai Composite fell 0.35% while the SZSE Component gained 0.03% by 10:52 PM ET (3:52 AM GMT), with capital city Beijing shutting schools and lifting its emergency level to level two to curb a weekend outbreak from Xinfadi market. Some U.S. states such as Florida and Texas are seeing an uptick in cases and hospitalizations, sparking fears of a second wave of cases globally. Meanwhile, India claimed 20 soldiers had been killed and China also reported casualties after clashes between the two countries earlier this week, the culmination of hundreds of soldiers facing off in three locations since early May. Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index was down 0.06%, even with the government set to further ease social-distancing measures on Friday, allowing public gatherings and wedding banquets of up to 50 people. Japans Nikkei 225 fell 1.15%, giving up some of its gains from Tuesday. South Koreas KOSPI was down 0.81%, with tensions rising on the Korean peninsula after North Korea blew up a liaison office it shared with South Korea on Tuesday and vowed to send troops to the DMZ earlier in the day. South Korea for its part stated though Blue House spokesman Dohan Yoon that it would "no longer accept unreasonable behavior from the North. Down Under, the ASX 200 rose 0.01%. Investor sentiment further soured after International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath warned in his blog post on Tuesday that the forthcoming June World Economic Outlook Update is expected to show negative growth rates even worse than previously estimated. The IMF added that the current crisis, which it christened the Great Lockdown, is unlike anything the world has seen before. Meanwhile, the U.K. said that trial results announced on Tuesday showed that dexamethasone, which is widely available, could help critically ill COVID-19 patients by reportedly reducing deaths in hospitalized patients by up to one third. Chinas National Biotech Group also said on Wednesday that phase II human clinical trial results showed that its COVID-19 vaccine is generally safe and able to generate an immune response. National Biotech Group is now looking to conduct clinical trials outside China. Story continues Related Articles Asian business sentiment plunges to record low on virus effect: Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey Asia stocks given pause by virus surge, geopolitics Why Goldman Is Siding With China on This Huawei Play Tens of thousands of Russian schools will soon use a facial recognition technology called 'Orwell' to monitor children and teachers during school hours. According to a report from the Russian business newspaper, Vedomosti, the systems will be introduced to 43,000 schools across the country and are currently already being used in 1,600. Elvees Neotech, the company behind 'Orwell' says that the technology is designed for 'automatic detection and classification of targets' which includes identifying people as well as 'situations.' The name of the software appears to be a bizarre straight-faced reference to George Orwell, whose novel 1984 told of a dystopian future where government over-reach, and mass surveillance are the norm. NtechLab, a facial recognition company, will support the Orwell system. Pictured: NtechLab's face recognition tech in action On the company's website, Elvees Neotech says that the software is capable of identifying crowds of people, when targets have crossed a preset boundary, and even specific license plates. According to Yevgeny Lapshev, a spokesman for Rusnano, the state-run technology development agency focused on nanotechnology, Orwell will be used to monitor the safety of children at school as well as identify potential intruders on school campuses. Lapshev said that data collected by the system will be stored locally at schools and said that children and their parents won't be added to the system without their consent. Russia already has an extensive network of AI-enabled surveillance systems set up in cities like Moscow where ABC reports there are 105,000 cameras alone. Those cameras are used by Russia's police and and intelligence agencies to monitor activity in real-time, allowing them to search for specific individuals using a single image. NtechLab, a facial recognition company whose technology is supporting the use of Orwell in schools, is the primary developer behind Moscow's facial recognition system, according to ABC. In the future, Orwell could be used to monitor attendance and track teachers' working hours according to a spokesperson from NtechLab who spoke to Vedomosti. George Orwell's novel 1984 was published in 1949 and tells of a future where the world is constantly monitored by an omnipresent government and its leader, Big Brother. Yet the number of infections remains relatively low. As of Tuesday, there were nearly 48,000 confirmed cases and 1,766 deaths in a country of 100 million people. One reason for the modest number is that coronavirus testing has been limited, said health experts and Western diplomats. At the same time, many Egyptians have difficulty accessing medical care and some may not report their illness for fear of being stigmatized, health experts said. "Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"- the famous quote from Mao's Red Book defines the guiding philosophy of China under Xi Jinping. The attempt to change the status quo at the border, its growing interest in the Kashmir region, and its willingness to go the extra mile to closely engage with Pakistan, and twist the foreign policy of Nepal are not isolated events. They point to an aggressive 'dictatorial' power trying to avert the possible change in the power balance in Asia post-COVID pandemic. Read: LAC Faceoff: Russia Welcomes Talks For De-escalation Between 'close Partners' India, China Faultlines in the China-led world order exposed The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the faultlines in China-led world order, or the bipolar world order with China and the US as two poles. The pre-COVID-19 world order saw focussed Chinese investments in the US in the order of 14 billion dollars. Even in India, more than 2/3rd of the startups valued more than 1 billion dollars have at least one Chinese Venture Capitalist. COVID-19 crisis made the world realise its mistake of supporting an unchecked China. It is ironic how one party, one leader, one ideology China abused rules of free trade, principles of democracy, and equality to economically grow, and in parallel, set up a debt trap for smaller nations. Read: Telangana Govt, People With Centre In Face Off With China: CM K Chandrashekhar Rao When the Malaysian Prime Minister cancelled the 2 multi-billion dollar Chinese projects because Malaysia could not repay its debt, he said, "We do not want a situation where there is a new version of colonialism". Fortunately, COVID-19 is making the world realise its mistake. US and Brazil are examining limiting exposure to Chinese technological company Huawei. Australia recently asked for an independent probe into the origins of COVID-19. In these changing global dynamics, India should not hesitate to effectively counter China. The clash at Galwan has displayed India's military prowess. India's brave soldiers inflicted more than 40 casualties on the Chinese, with speed of road construction near Galwan increased, not halted. But this should be the start. India should go beyond the standard operating procedure at the border if China repeats the provocation. The current clash at Galwan was a violation of the mutually agreed process of disengagement on June 6. An unprincipled neighbour does not merit a principled military response. Along with military option, India should make a plan for Poorna Swaraj. This Poorna Swaraj involving a boycott of foreign goods was first envisioned by Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal in 1905. Inspiration should be drawn from it to achieve complete substitution of Made in China goods with Made in India ones. When provided an alternate quality product, customers will choose swadeshi. It also gives India an opportunity to be the new epicentre of global supply chains. The world is looking for this shift away from China. Though, India is facing a realistic challenge from Vietnam for this spot. Read: Faceoff With China At LAC: All 4 Injured Jawans Now Stable Confirms Indian Army It will not be possible for India to achieve complete economic insulation from China without the success of the Indian growth story. Indian growth story needs to give preference to Indian bidders over China. The Indian government took a positive step by preferring Indian companies for contracts less than Rs 200 crore. It should be coupled with discouraging Chinese bidders. When bids are similar, Indian companies should be given preference over Chinese ones. For instance, Indian company L&T should be given priority over Chinese company STEC for the Delhi Meerut RRTS project. Atmanirbhar Bharat needs to deliver higher economic growth than China for at least five consecutive years. India lacks scalable long term research in high-end technology like China. As per a Brookings report, India has 18% the number of researchers China has. Partnerships with the US, Germany Japan, Israel should be leveraged to fill this gap. The government needs to be large-hearted in supporting Indian companies. The day more Indian companies than Chinese feature in the Fortune 500 list, we will see more strategic acceptance of India's soft power as an alternate economic poll of the world. As of 2019, India has 7 and China 119 companies in Fortune 500. Read: Australia Notes India's Efforts To De-escalate Standoff With China;pays Tribute To Martyrs The world respects strength not weakness. India under PM Modi has displayed self-confidence in foreign policy. This self-confidence was seen in how we could foster an equally strong partnership with both Israel and Palestine. India needs to extend similar confidence in its policy against China. Support to the democratic movement in Hong Kong, the establishment of strong defense, and economic ties with Taiwan, and resisting China's Tibet plans should form pillars of India's response to China. China has spent enormous money across the globe in enhancing Chinese propaganda. A country without free media has reportedly given millions of dollars worth advertisement to press in the United States. As per documents filed by a China daily with the Justice Department, it has paid more than 6 million dollars to Wall Street Journal and 4.6 million dollars to Washington Post. There should be no surprise that similar money might be flushed in India through dubious channels in the near future to shape public opinion in its favour. Chaos and instability in India will serve Chinese foreign policy. It will keep them at a position of strength on the negotiating table. Intelligence agencies should keep a close watch. Sun Tzu, the Chinese military strategist quotes, " If you know the enemy and know yourself, your need not fear the result of hundred battles". Expansionist China under Xi is inspired by Mao and Sun Tzu. A self-confident India under PM Modi should march on a national renaissance for an economically and militarily stronger India. Only strength can tame the dragon, and it will take time and stamina. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are the personal opinions of the author. The facts, analysis, assumptions, and perspective appearing do not reflect the views of Republic TV/ Republic World/ ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd. Ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory painkillers could make hospital patients with coronavirus more likely to die, according to a study. South Korean research looking at deaths and complications in Covid-19 patients suggested the common painkiller drugs raised the risk of death by 65 per cent. And the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may push up the risk of serious heart or kidney complications by 85 per cent, results showed. NSAIDs are common and some types including ibuprofen and naproxen can be bought over-the-counter for pennies. High-dose aspirin is also included in the category but was not counted in the study. The drugs are often used to relieve the pain caused by headaches, periods, muscle injuries, cold and flu, and arthritis. Researchers behind the study said anti-inflammatories should be 'used with caution' in coronavirus patients and called on more trials to prove the link. This is not the first time research has suggested a link to worsening Covid-19 but the NHS says there is 'no clear evidence' that NSAIDs are dangerous. It says it is safe for people to take ibuprofen if they have coronavirus symptoms. The NHS says there is still 'no clear evidence' that ibuprofen or other NSAIDs are dangerous for people with the coronavirus and says people can take them to reduce symptoms if they want to (stock image) Scientists at the Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea, studied a total of 1,824 hospital patients who had Covid-19. They found people who had had a prescription for NSAIDs in the seven days before joining the study were more likely to die of coronavirus. It is not clear whether all the patients were being prescribed the NSAIDs before entering hospital or while in hospital but before the study enrolled them. Prescription drugs could be stronger than shop-bought ones, but it could also be the case that inpatients were being prescribed regular medicines by hospital doctors. Those taking the drugs were also more likely to experience serious problems with their heart or kidneys. Led by PhD student Han Eol Jeong, they wrote: 'Use of NSAIDs, compared with non-use, is associated with worse outcomes among hospitalised Covid-19 patients. 'While awaiting the results of confirmatory studies, we suggest NSAIDs be used with caution among patients with Covid-19.' The team added: 'The harms associated with their use may outweigh their benefits in this population.' Mr Jeong and colleagues suggested the way the common drugs worsen the disease is by forcing the body to allow more of the viruses to attack it. They said studies in animals had found NSAIDs appear to increase the amount of a specific receptor inside the body, known as an ACE-2 receptor, which is effectively the doorman that allows the coronavirus into the body. These ACE-2 receptors are a normal part of the body and are found mostly in the airways and blood vessels but they are known to be the gateway through which the coronavirus causes infection. On the NHS website's page about non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) the health service says there is 'no clear evidence' that taking the medicines can make coronavirus worse, and says people can take them if they have symptoms of the disease (Screenshot from June 17 2020) Increasing the amount of them, which the scientists suggest NSAIDs do, could offer the coronavirus more ways into the body and allow it to mount a stronger attack. The researchers said: 'ACE-2 upregulation induced by NSAIDs could theoretically heighten the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 to worsen clinical outcomes, resulting in multiple organ failure in severe cases.' They added that it was also possible the drugs weakened the immune system but there was not strong evidence for this. KING'S COLLEGE SAID 'NO STRONG EVIDENCE' AGAINST NSAIDs AMID UK SCARE IN MARCH Scientists at King's College London reviewed 13 studies into the effects of NSAIDs on coronavirus patients in March and found no evidence it was risky. Working with Guys and St Thomas' NHS Trust, London, the team scoured studies that related to both non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and Covid-19. Scientists had raised concerns that ibuprofen, in particular, could dampen people's immune response and make their bodies less able to fight off the virus. The thinking was that inflammation (swelling) - which ibuprofen seeks to reduce or prevent - is a natural part of the immune system's attack force and stopping it might reduce someone's ability to recover quickly. Even the UK Government's top scientist, Sir Patrick Vallance, said it would be 'sensible' to avoid the drug in light of concerns about its safety. And the NHS removed ibuprofen from its advice for people treating themselves for coronavirus symptoms. But the King's College team found no good evidence that ibuprofen or similar anti-inflammatory drugs, which are taken by millions of people, could make Covid-19 worse. They wrote in the journal ecancer Medical Science: 'Since the outbreak of the novel COVID-19 infection, various contradictory information has been circulated regarding the potentially negative effect of treating patients with NSAIDs. 'Our search did not identify any strong evidence for or against the use of ibuprofen for treatment of COVID-19 specifically. 'The current literature does not give conclusive evidence for or against the use of NSAIDs in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.' Advertisement In the study, 354 out of the total 1,824 Covid-19 patients were considered anti-inflammatory users (19 per cent) and 1,470 (81 per cent) were non-users. Out of all the patients, 76 of them either died, went into intensive care or got sepsis or experienced more than one of those. A disproportionate amount of the seriously ill patients were NSAID users, the study found 6.5 per cent of them became seriously ill or died (23 out of 354), compared to 3.6 per cent of the people who didn't take the drugs (53 out of 1,470). There were also a disproportionate amount of people taking NSAIDs in the group that developed serious heart or kidney problems while they were in hospital. Of 44 who developed those complications, 28 were patients taking NSAIDs and 16 were not. The risk was 87 per cent higher, the researchers said. Their study did not show which types of NSAIDs the worst-affected patients were taking. It included the following under its NSAID definition: aceclofenac, diclofenac, etodolac, fenoprofen, flurbiprofen, dexibuprofen, ibuprofen, ibuproxam, ketoprofen, dexketoprofen, ketorolac, meloxicam, naproxen, piroxicam, celecoxib, polmacoxib, and etoricoxib. The NHS still recommends people take ibuprofen if they have a fever caused by Covid-19 and says there is 'no clear evidence' that it can be harmful. There was a scare in March when the health service removed ibuprofen from its recommended self-treatments and the UK's chief scientist, Sir Patrick Vallance, said it would be 'sensible' to avoid the drug in light of concerns about its safety. French health minister Olivier Veran brought the issue to the fore when he said anti-inflammatories could 'aggravate the infection'. Other leading medics echoed his concerns, admitting the drug could dampen the immune system and even slow down recovery. But scientists at King's College London then reviewed 13 other studies into the effects of NSAIDs on coronavirus patients and found no evidence it was risky. That study, led by Dr Beth Russell, said: 'Since the outbreak of the novel COVID-19 infection, various contradictory information has been circulated regarding the potentially negative effect of treating patients with NSAIDs. 'Our search did not identify any strong evidence for or against the use of ibuprofen for treatment of COVID-19 specifically. 'The current literature does not give conclusive evidence for or against the use of NSAIDs in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.' The NHS has since reinstated the advice on its website for people to use ibuprofen to reduce symptoms of Covid-19 if they feel ill, but to try paracetamol first. Its website reads: 'There have been some news reports of anti-inflammatory painkillers, such as ibuprofen, making coronavirus worse. 'The Commission on Human Medicines has now confirmed there is no clear evidence that using ibuprofen to treat symptoms such as a high temperature makes coronavirus worse. 'You can take paracetamol or ibuprofen to treat symptoms of coronavirus. Try paracetamol first if you can, as it has fewer side effects than ibuprofen and is the safer choice for most people.' The Sungkyunkwan University study has not been reviewed by other scientists or published in a journal but was posted on the research-sharing website medRxiv. LUDLOW A vocal critic of COVID-19 inmate releases ordered by the states high court, Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi is calling on Massachusetts judges to allow him to fit all of the early releases from his facilities with GPS monitoring and manage their movements. Cocchi last week denounced early releases in Hampden County involving inmates he believes are threats to public safety or themselves, in some cases. On Tuesday he offered pre-existing hardware and software his department already has to keep tighter controls on the inmates who have been released. I see this as a way to pump the brakes but also satisfy the court ruling to release people, all while taking an extra step to ensure the safety of the public as well as the person who is being released, Cocchi said. When someone is released from our facilities, I feel a degree of responsibility for that person, even if legally they were released by a judge. This is a common sense option to balance everybodys concerns, and Im offering to manage it with staff and equipment we already own and use, he added. However, he cannot carry out the plan without the permission of the states trial court, which was noncommittal after Cocchi publicly made the suggestion. The Supreme Judicial Court in April ordered early releases of thousands of pretrial inmates to help stem the spread of COVID-19 in jails across the state. The ruling followed a lawsuit filed by inmate rights groups who argued keeping non-violent criminals behind bars during the pandemic would add to the burgeoning public health crisis. According to Trial Court Chief Justice Paula M. Carey, there were 1,818 releases of all types from county facilities statewide between early April and May 25. In that same period there were 46 re-arrests recorded for this group of individuals, a re-arrest rate of 2.53%. In Hampden County, the rate is 3.08% eight re-arrests out of 260 releases. The goal was to undertake this action pursuant to the Supreme Judicial Court decision as an emergency measure to prevent Massachusetts jails from becoming COVID-19 hotspots. It is a credit to the work of the Massachusetts sheriffs, facilitated by this reduction in the jail population, that Massachusetts has maintained relatively lower rates of staff and inmate infections than other jails nationally, Carey said in a statement. The state figures refer to all inmate releases, not just those freed through the SJC ruling. At the main campus in Ludlow, there have been 11 inmates diagnosed with COVID-19 who have all recovered, according to a spokesman for Cocchi. That number was originally reported at 12, then readjusted. The entire inmate population and all staff were tested after a small cluster outbreak in late May, according to the sheriff. The sheriff has touted stringent controls to stem the threat of the virus to his inmate population and staff, and argues releasing certain inmates to the community makes them more vulnerable to the virus. Cocchi also cited examples of defendants with violent histories being released and services such as halfway houses and probation operating in a more limited capacity because of the pandemic. Cocchi earlier said the cumulative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on public safety was literally a circus. Carey countered that the probation department is still meeting contact standards, continuing drug testing, electronic monitoring and other services. The Probation Service maintains a real-time inventory of treatment and support services, including substance use and mental health services ... and continues its specialized treatment services in areas such as domestic violence and sex offender treatment. The Probation Service provides access to basic needs food, shelter, clothing medical care, COVID-19 testing and employment services, Carey said. A new study by Florida State University researchers may help answer some of the most perplexing questions surrounding Alzheimer's disease, an incurable and progressive illness affecting millions of families around the globe. FSU Assistant Professor of Psychology Aaron Wilber and graduate student Sarah Danielle Benthem showed that the way two parts of the brain interact during sleep may explain symptoms experienced by Alzheimer's patients, a finding that opens up new doors in dementia research. It is believed that these interactions during sleep allow memories to form and thus failure of this normal system in a brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease may explain why memory is impaired. The study, a collaboration among the FSU Program in Neuroscience, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, was published online in the journal Current Biology and will appear in the publication's July 6 issue. "This research is important because it looks at possible mechanisms underlying the decline of memory in Alzheimer's disease and understanding how it causes memory decline could help identify treatments," Benthem said. Wilber and Benthem's study, based on measuring brain waves in mouse models of the disease, gave researchers a number of new insights into Alzheimer's including how the way that two parts of the brain -- the parietal cortex and the hippocampus -- interact during sleep may contribute to symptoms experienced by Alzheimer's patients, such as impaired memory and cognition, and getting lost in new surroundings. The team had examined a phenomenon known as memory replay -- the playing back of activity patterns from waking experience in subsequent sleep periods -- in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease as a potential cause of impaired spatial learning and memory. During these memory replay periods, they found that the mice modeling aspects of Alzheimer's Disease in humans had impaired functional interactions between the hippocampus and the parietal cortex. The hippocampal formation is crucial for the storage of "episodic" memories -- a type of long-term memory of a past experience -- and is thought to be important for assisting other parts of the brain in extracting generalized knowledge from these personal experiences. "Surprisingly, a better predictor of performance and the first impairment to emerge was not 'memory replay' per se, but was instead the relative strength of the post-learning coupling between two brain regions known to be important for learning and memory: the hippocampus and the parietal cortex," Wilber said. According to the Alzheimer's Association, more than 47 million people worldwide are living with the disease, a number projected to soar to 76 million over the next decade. It is currently the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S., affecting one out of every 10 people ages 65 and older. The Floating Laboratory Innovations are extremely important for the further development of the yacht industry. But how do manufacturers know in advance which ideas will prove effective or which products will actually add value compared to conventional processes? With the AZ project, a 30-metre yacht hull, International Maritime Research GmbH & Co. KG (IMR) is for the first time now offering a platform to test innovative products and processes under real world conditions. The AZ project, initiated by Kay-Johannes Wrede\-\-s newly founded company IMR, currently comprises several research projects, funded in part by the German Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWI). Among other things, it is concerned with the development of special heating technologies for modular composite components in shipbuilding. Another project involves an innovative coating for yacht hulls. This process is tested on one side of the hull against innovative filler technology on the other side of the hull. Other project ideas, e.g. for modular interior finishing, are in the planning stages. IMR is making the hull available as a floating laboratory for all of the research projects. Wrede Consulting will be supporting all of the processes in an advisory capacity, while Wrede Technologies is responsible for the laboratory and metrological analyses. A consortium of six international companies is involved in current project development. ?The goal is to use IMR to become a driving force for innovation in the superyacht industry,? says Kay Wrede. WREDE Consulting GmbH, with headquarters in Hamburg and locations in Bremen, Barcelona, La Ciotat, Rotterdam and Palma de Mallorca, provides independent consulting for coatings from new builds to refits with specialisation in mega- and superyachts. Founded in 1999, the company owes its success to the many years of experience of its independent paint consultants and surveyors, as well as to state-of-the-art, innovative technology. Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan unveiled a new version of a hate crimes bill in the Georgia Senate on Wednesday that would mean perpetrators of bias crimes could be charged separately with a hate crime under state law. Some leaders from the House, however, pushed for their version of the bill and noted that because the legislative session is nearly over, Duncan's plan jeopardizes the effort to pass any bill at all. Ahmaud Arbery Ahmaud Arbery Georgia is one of four states in the country without a hate crime law, which in other states typically take the form of sentencing enhancements. Advocates and lawmakers have renewed their push to enact a hate crime law in Georgia after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man pursued by two white men and shot dead while jogging through a Brunswick neighborhood on February 23. Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, who told police they thought Arbery was a burglary suspect, were charged with Arbery's murder 74 days after his death. The killing, captured on a disturbing video, and the delay in the arrests, drew a national outcry. An investigator later testified that Travis McMichael was heard using a racial slur as Arbery lay dying. "Obviously a lot has changed since the original house bill was drafted, and unfortunately more horrifying examples of hate crimes have continued to haunt our state and our communities," Duncan said at a press conference introducing his version of the bill Wednesday. "There is no way to ignore the sense of urgency and the desire and the immediate need for the strongest hate crimes law in the country to show up on our books here in Georgia." The version of the bill that passed the Georgia House last year and stalled in the Senate would add additional punishment for bias-motivated crimes, rather than an additional charge. It gained bipartisan support and would mandate enhanced sentencing for defendants convicted of targeting a victim because of their "actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origins, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability, or physical disability." That would mean additional potential prison time or fines on top of sentences for the type of crime for which the defendant was convicted, such as manslaughter or murder. Story continues But Duncan's Senate version would require bias-motivated crimes to take the form of an additional charge, "bias-motivated intimidation," in addition to charges for the underlying offense. If convicted, the hate crime charge would carry a sentence of one to five years, in addition to the sentence for the underlying crime. Citizens would be empowered to request a grand jury hearing if the local prosecutor declines to file the hate crime charge, according to Duncan's office. The new version would add additional protected categories for victims, including those targeted because of their culture, because of their sex, because they are experiencing homelessness, or because of their status of having served in the Armed Forces, status of participating in civil rights activities, or status of exercising First Amendment rights. And, it would require a standardized reporting mechanism for hate crimes in the state. Even small changes to the house bill would require a new vote in the state house, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where it may face new objections from conservatives. Democrats questioned the timing of the new Senate version of the bill and raised concerns that with only nine days left in the session, its passage this year could be in jeopardy. "We are up against a legislative clock to me that is the major issue," Representative Calvin Smyre, a Columbus Democrat, told the AJC. "The urgency of the matter is now. Every day is important." John Porter, Duncan's chief of staff, rejected "the notion that we can't get it done," saying the latest bill is awaiting a committee hearing, along with the house version and many other bills at this point during the legislative session. "Just passing a bill for the sake of passing it is not good enough," Porter told CBS News, but he said "nothing is off the table." Kami Chavis, professor of law and director of the criminal justice program at Wake Forest University, cautioned against crafting a hate crimes bill with excessively broad protected categories of victims, saying it "dilutes the symbolic nature" of sending a strong message condemning hate based on religion, race or sexual orientation that has historically plagued the U.S. "We're going to have to engage in some kind of line-drawing, and I think this doesn't draw enough lines to really get at the importance" of combating hate crimes, Chavis said. Porter said Duncan's office wanted make the bill as inclusive as possible when it comes to including groups of victims, but will be open to removing some of the protected groups from the bill's language based on the committee's feedback. The Georgia chapter of the NAACP tweeted that it has "many concerns" and that they were not consulted during the drafting of the new bill. "During a time when people are literally dying, being murdered and lynched every single day, it is a shame knowing [Duncan] nor anyone from his office ever reached out to ask for our input," the group said on Twitter. Porter said the office has been in touch with the NAACP and hopes to have their input in the future. While states are the primary prosecutors of hate crimes, the federal government also has the authority to bring charges under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The Department of Justice can act as a "backstop" to prosecute hate crimes in states without the statutes or where state laws don't cover the crime. The Department of Justice has said it is reviewing the Arbery case to determine whether federal hate crime charges are appropriate. It's also weighing a request by the Attorney General of Georgia to investigate the conduct of the first two district attorneys assigned to the case. They recused themselves amid questions over their links to Gregory McMichael, a former law enforcement officer, and handling of the case. Correction: A previous version of this article mis-stated John Porter's title. It has been corrected to reflect Porter is the chief of staff for Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan. Former Atlanta police officer charged in Rayshard Brooks shooting Rayshard Brooks' widow reacts after officer is charged with felony murder Officer charged in death of Rayshard Brooks booked for felony murder Derry is to host a major online learning festival. Derry City and Strabane District Council have revealed a packed programme for the Virtual Learning Festival, which will take place on July 1st and 2nd. Marking the city's membership of the UNESCO'S Global Network of Learning Cities, the festival which is funded by the council, North West Regional College and Ulster University - will offer a wide range of online learning experiences and activities. Events will take the form of information sessions, live presentations, short films and live chats. Ulster University will host of variety of online events, from an interactive session on robotics to a discussion around language and identity. With recent approval from the Executive Office for the opening of Magee's Graduate-Entry Medical School, medicine will also be a big focus from Ulster University, with Professor Louise Dubras, Foundation Dean of the GEMS, and Professor Tony Bjourson of C-TRIC discussing medicine in the 21st century. North West Regional College lecturers will host a series of online events, ranging from swing dance style combinations, health and sport activities to include tips for a healthy lifestyle, first aid and holistic health, as well as online cooking demos. For those who are looking for guidance on employment, Craft Training will be providing information sessions on creating a CV and interview skills, and will also provide tutorials on construction and catering. With many people now spending a lot more time at home, the Virtual Learning Festival will also focus on technology and how it can be utilised in many different ways. The Nerve Centre will provide bitesize tutorials on building your own iPad animation, creating a timelapse animation, and even how to get the best out of your webcam for Zoom meetings, while Allstate will discuss the important topic of cyber safety for kids through an interactive session. The North West Japanese Cultural Group will look at Japanese folktale in Irish and creating origami paper crafts. The Cedar Foundation will deliver an important presentation on disability awareness. Participants can also develop their skills in the kitchen with a lesson in making pizza dough and Italian basics from U3A, or some crazy kitchen science from STEM Aware. Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Brian Tierney, said the range of events really captured the essence of what learning is about for all ages. "Looking at the wonderful and wide-ranging programme that has been put in place for this festival is extremely exciting there really is something for everyone and I think it has been adapted really well to fit in with the current climate in taking the festival online. "We can all do with learning new things, whether it's a new skill or education on really important issues like disability awareness or the role medicine plays in our society. "This programme celebrates everyone, from our young children to our students, and the adults out there as well it's never too late to learn! "Our current situation can be overwhelming and frustrating at times, and this festival offers the perfect solution, by picking up new skills and information, and by utilising technology in a way that we may never have needed before. More details about the festival are available on the council's website. Pakistan says the two Indian men were not abducted by its security forces but were involved in a hit-and-run incident. Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistans government has categorically rejected Indian assertions that two Indian diplomats had been forcibly abducted in the Pakistani capital earlier this week, saying the men had been involved in a hit-and-run traffic accident and had been returned to Indian custody after legal formalities were completed. In a statement released late on Tuesday, Pakistans Foreign Office said the two men were over-speeding and crashed their car into a pedestrian on [Monday]. The pedestrian was seriously injured and taken to the hospital for treatment, said the statement. The officials attempted to flee from the scene; however, some passersby who witnessed the incident stopped them from fleeing and informed the police. The men, named by Pakistan as Dwimu Brahma and Selvadas Paul, were returned to the custody of a senior Indian High Commission official later the same day, Pakistans Foreign Office said. The incident is the latest in tensions between the two South Asian neighbours, who routinely accuse each other of harassing their diplomats. Earlier this month, India expelled two Pakistani High Commission staff stationed in New Delhi for espionage. Men were attacked, India says India disputes Pakistans version of events, saying the men were attacked by unnamed Pakistan security agencies, a term often used to refer to the countrys intelligence services. The two Indian officials were subjected to interrogation, torture and physical assault resulting in grievous injuries to them, said Indias Ministry of External Affairs in a statement issued on Tuesday. They were video-graphed and coerced to accept a litany of fictitious allegations and concocted charges. Pakistans charge daffaires at its High Commission in New Delhi was summoned to register Indias strong protest against the incident. Pakistan, however, termed the Indian statement a reprehensible attempt to distort facts and deny the culpability of these officials in criminal offences. Its Foreign Office said the men had been involved in illegal actions and reckless conduct, and that their behaviour violated the norms of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Pakistan says the men were also carrying fake currency when they were apprehended. Police in the Pakistani capital Islamabad did not respond to a request by Al Jazeera for comment on Wednesday. Earlier, police spokesman Zia Bajwa said the police would not be issuing statements on the incident, as that was the purview of the Foreign Office. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947. Relations have been particularly tense in recent years, with conflict centring on the disputed region of Kashmir, which both claim in full but administer separate portions of. On Tuesday, Pakistans foreign minister said the country was closely monitoring escalating tensions between China a Pakistan ally and India along their disputed border in Kashmir region, after a clash between their forces saw at least 20 Indian soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley. Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim. Met Eireann's weather station at Dublin Airport recorded 11.5mm of rain in just one hour between 5am and 6am. That is more rainfall than it saw in the whole month of May. Meteorologist Liz Walsh says the east of the country has fared worst today in terms of rain. A line of heavy showers came in off the Irish Sea. And so weve got about 21mm so far in Dublin Airport and Casement, looking at a further up to 10mm for the rest of the morning. Meanwhile, a status yellow rainfall warning has been issued for seven counties until 2pm today. The warning is in place for Dublin, Kildare, Longford, Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. Met Eireann said there will be "further heavy downpours moving westwards with spot flooding". Later today there will be bright and sunny spells but further showers or thunderstorms will occur. Met Eireann says that highest temperatures will be between 17 to 20 degrees generally but a little cooler in coastal parts of the west and north. Tomorrow will start cloudy but bright spells will emerge. The forecaster said temperatures could hit 21 degrees but warned: scattered showers will occur and will be most frequent in Leinster and Ulster with some heavy bursts. The rest of the week is looking changeable but Met Eireann said is likely to become breezy on the weekend. The Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ho Teaching Hospital (HTH), Dr John Tampuori, has called for behavioural and attitudinal change of workers, if they are to remain competitive. The CEO said there was the need for workers to change their mindset and follow the new vision of the hospital, as it has been elevated from a regional hospital to a teaching hospital. Dr Tampuori made the call yesterday in Ho, when he opened a five-day orientation and capacity-building workshop for sub-Budget Management Centre (BMC) management teams at the National Medical Village Innovation Centre, HTH Annex, as part of measures to equip them with the requisite knowledge to effectively play their new roles. The workshop, which is being organised by management of Ho Teaching Hospital, is also meant to educate the middle-level management about the organisational philosophy of the hospital. He noted that these levels of management teams need to work independently, look at problems and try to resolve such issues at that level. Dr Tampuori maintained that any sub-BMCs who cannot meet this standard and work below average risk severing their positions and must give way to other qualified personnel. He explained further that the philosophy of the newborn Ho Teaching Hospital should be teamwork and commitment for them to be able to transform the institution to the standards of a teaching hospital. The CEO said their managerial innovations should propel them to greater heights within the five-year strategic plan of the hospital, and assured participants that management would take steps to continue to build their capacity to equip them to give quality service to the people. Mr Simon Dzokoto, Deputy Director, Research Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, who took participants through the philosophy and strategic directions of HTH, told the sub-BMCs members to ensure adherence to the hospitals financial regulations and other financial procedures and regulations. He said management would ensure that all staff have access to the necessary support to enable them to contribute fully and develop their skills and experience. In his welcome address, Dr Lord Mensah, Director of Medical Affairs, said the workshop has come at the right time since it would help participants to know about their new functions, so that clients can get quality healthcare. He urged all to show professionalism in the discharge of their work using the knowledge they have acquired. 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 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has confirmed that Senate Republicans will introduce a police reform bill next week, setting up a legislative fight with Democrats over the outline of the bill. The Republicans legislation was drafted by Senator Tim Scott (R., S.C.), a favorite of the Tea Party movement and the first African American senator elected in a southern state since 1881. The bill, known as the JUSTICE Act, seeks to create federal incentives for state and local police to reform policies that may lead to use of unnecessary force or discrimination against African Americans. Scott has spoken of several instances in which he believed police officers had racially profiled him, including on Capitol Hill. The JUSTICE Act works to restore the broken trust between communities and color and law enforcement through three essential pieces: reform, accountability, and transparency, Scott wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. Faced with the fact that policing is primarily a local and state, rather than federal, concern, our colleague has nevertheless found a variety of levers that Congress can pull to advance, incentivize, and insist on the changes that we need to see, McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor. We need to encourage police departments across America to implement practical reforms, like ending chokeholds, training their officers to deescalate tense situations, and having prior disciplinary records play a greater role in hiring. This bill does that. Competing legislation introduced by House Democrats earlier this month would take more proactive measures on the federal level, including a nationwide ban on police use of chokeholds. The Democrats bill also lowers the standard for criminal conviction of an officer accused of misconduct. While prosecutors currently must prove that an officer willfully disregarded a suspects constitutional rights, the bill would make reckless disregard of those rights the new standard for conviction. Story continues The Justice in Policing Act establishes a bold, transformative vision of policing in America, said Representative Karen Bass (D., Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. The worldis witnessing the birth of a new movement in our country. Senator Scotts police reform bill has already drawn criticism from Democrats. We cannot waste this historic moment, this singular opportunitylets not do something that is a token, half-hearted approach, Senator Dick Durbin (D., Il.) said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. The Senate will on recess on July 3, and it is unclear whether Republicans and Democrats will pass a final police reform bill by that time. More from National Review The two major Irish vintners associations have criticised the "drip feed release" of guidelines on the reopening of pubs. The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) have called for the full and immediate publication of the guidelines for the reopening of pubs, saying the drip feed release is "creating more questions than answers". The representative bodies for pubs throughout the country said that the slow release of the regulations needed for pubs to reopen is adding confusion to the process and questioned why Failte Ireland did not release the pub guidelines at the same time as those published for the rest of the hospitality sector. The LVA and the VFI said that they are unsure about guidelines for pubs who serve food reopening on June 29 and also all other pubs from July 20. Currently it is believed that a "substantial meal" costing 9 or more must be served for customers to be allowed drink in pubs. The vintners representatives said that they are unclear, however, if this requirement be removed for pubs after July 20. Contract tracing measures is another area where LVA and VFI say that they are in the dark and unsure what will be required of pubs under these guidelines. "The drip feed release of these guidelines has been handled in a completely arbitrary manner, which is sowing confusion throughout the industry," said Donall OKeeffe, Chief Executive of the LVA. Pubs who serve food are due to reopen on Monday week, but they still dont have clarity as to what will be required of them. These businesses need time to get their premises ready, to ensure their pubs are fully compliant while offering a safe and comfortable environment for their customers and staff. Padraig Cribben, Chief Executive of the VFI added: "There is no reason why the publication of the pub guidelines should have been delayed this long. The absence of the detailed guidelines is generating speculation which will hamper the efforts of pubs getting ready to reopen. This has been a very uncertain time for the industry and instead of having a clear understanding of what will be required were left with a lot more questions than answers. Its almost as if the guidelines are a puzzle which publicans have to try to piece together. We are calling on Failte Ireland to make the guidelines available so that these 7,000 businesses can make all necessary preparations in time." Tara Kerry, registrar and accommodation development manager with Failte Ireland, said that guidelines will be available to pubs tomorrow. "We have received guidance from Healthcare Standards Consultative Committee (HCSC) and we are currently going through it at the moment. "I would hope (to issue the guidance) within the next 24 hours," she said on RTE News at 1, this morning. A discussion is currently ongoing as to whether the social distancing requirements in reopening pubs could be reduced to one metre. It is currently understood that this may be the case if customers can limit their stay to less than 90 minutes. Ms Kerry said that it is Failte Ireland's wish for this to be extended to two hours. Answering the questions of the vintners associations, Ms Kerry said that it was the Government's decision not to release the guidelines at the same that as those of the hospitality sector and that the 9 meal requirement will be dropped after July 20. "We were request by Government not to launch them at the same time because they wanted to look further into the two metres / one metre distance." "I think the public on the back of where we have been in the last 13 weeks will honour what is in place because they recognise the importance of allowing businesses to reopen and I think that both owners and customers will be compliant. "Based on the current advice we have yes (all pubs will be able to reopen on July 20) unless something changes on the Government's roadmap to reopening." As of 2019, 187 of the S&P 500 companies had zero Black board members, according to Black Enterprise . When looking at the CEO spot, Burns, who served as Xerox's leader from 2009-2016, says it's a disappointment that there are only four Black CE0s on the Fortune 500 list today. Of those four Black CEOs, none of them are women . "There has to be more of us who are qualified to do these roles," she says, while explaining that setting diversity benchmarks and targets for companies could be a possible solution. In a recent interview on CNBC's "Closing Bell ," Burns, who was the first Black woman to serve as a Fortune 500 CEO, says that a huge part of racial inequality within corporate America starts at the board level. She points out that "most of the boards still have zero or one African American" members on their team and that "pressure in that area can help to speed up progress and transitions for companies." Former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns is calling on leaders in corporate America to look at the racial imbalances within their own companies amid their statements of support for protesters fighting against racial injustice. "I've actually started to switch my thinking a little bit around targets," she says. "I was totally against them and now I'm really starting to investigate and think about whether this would be helpful." At first, Burns says, she was hopeful that corporate America would do the right thing and hire more diverse leaders on its own without forced intervention. But, after being around for more than 30 years, she says she's upset at the fact that "we still have made very little progress." "I think we are at the last step of what I call 'voluntary compliance,'" she says. "If we can't start to improve representation for women and for Blacks then I think that we may be forced to do what Europe has done." The European commission has proposed a requirement for companies to have at least 40% women on their corporate boards. Any company that doesn't meet this quota would be required to prioritize women candidates when hiring for future leadership roles. Though some European countries opposed this rule, places like France and Italy mandated that local companies meet this quota. As a result, France was the only member of the European Union to have more than 40% women on its corporate boards in 2019, followed by Italy being in close second with 36%. "It would be a really sad state if we get there," Burns says. "But if we don't do it voluntarily soon, then I will be marching down the streets saying, 'Yes, we should do it.'" As a current board member at Uber, Burns says companies have to be more "affirmative about the way [they] approach hiring" and business leaders have to be more proactive in leading discussions about social injustices now and every day moving forward. "I am part of the 1%, and I still worry when I'm approached by a police person," she says. "We have to get these kind of hidden bombs to the surface and work on them." Her hope, she says, is that we don't view these injustices as "a problem that's unsolvable" and that we don't "shy away from" and forget these issues quickly. "This will pass," she adds. "We will wait for the next killing of a Black man by a policeman and then we will have an uproar again and I'm hoping that this is not the fate we're going into now. That we're not going to quiet down, everything is [not ]going to go back to normal and everybody is [not] going to go back into their houses and we're [not] going to actually wait for the next explosion. That can't be the way it is. I'm hoping that a pandemic plus a social disaster comes together to give us the opportunity to rethink" the injustices in our country. Check out: The best credit cards of 2020 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years Don't miss: 5 ways to start being a better ally for your black coworkers Experts believe the crisis unfolding along the LAC is driven by Chinas concerns that Indias development of logistical infrastructure could lead it to occupy contested territories it has until now only been able to patrol. Furious hand-to-hand fighting raged across the Galwan river valley for over eight hours on Monday night, as Peoples Liberation Army assault teams armed with iron rods as well as batons wrapped in barbed wire hunted down and slaughtered troops of the 16 Bihar Regiment, said a senior government official familiar with the debriefing of survivors at hospitals in Leh. The savage combat, with few parallels in the history of modern armies, is confirmed to have claimed the lives of at least 23 Indian soldiers, including 16 Bihars commanding officer, Colonel Santosh Babu, many because of protracted exposure to sub-zero temperatures the Indian Army said late on Tuesday. Even unarmed men who fled into the hillsides were hunted down and killed, one officer said. The dead include men who jumped into the Galwan river in a desperate effort to escape. Government sources say at least another two dozen soldiers are battling life-threatening injuries, and over 110 have needed treatment. The toll will likely go up, a military officer with knowledge of the issue said. The fighting at Galwan, News18 reported on Tuesday, began after troops under Babus command dismantled a Chinese tent sent up near a position code-named Patrol Point 14, close to the mouth of the Galwan river. The tent had been dismantled following a meeting between Lieutenant-General Harinder Singh, who commands the Leh-based XIV Corps, and Major-General Lin Liu, the head of the Xinjiang military district Inside two days of the disengagement agreed to at the two generals meeting in Chushul, though, the PLA set up a fresh tent at Patrol Point 14, inside territory claimed by India. Colonel Babus unit, government sources said, was ordered to ensure the tent was removed. For reasons that remain unclear, the PLA refused to vacate Point 14 reneging on the 6 June agreement leading to a melee in which the Chinese tent was burned down, the sources said. In ongoing dialogue with division-level military commanders of the two armies in Galwan, a bid to bring about de-escalation, the PLA has alleged troops of the 16 Bihar were responsible for the incident. The PLA, government sources have said, alleges Babus troops crossed a buffer zone separating the two sides, violating border-management protocols which mandates the use of white flags and banners to signal to the other side that it must turn back from the territory it is on. The burning of the tent, the sources said, was followed by stone-pelting on Sunday, and then a massive Monday night attack on the 16 Bihars unprepared troops. Large rocks were also thrown towards the Indian positions by Chinese troops stationed on the high ridge above Point 14, one source said. Though some fought back using the improvised weapons carried by the PLA, most had no means of defence. Large numbers of dead bodies, Indian military officials say, were handed over by the PLA on Monday morning possibly men dragged away in the course of hand-to-hand fighting, and then killed. The killings mark the Indian Armys worst losses since the 1999 Kargil war, and mark the most intense fighting between India and China since 1967, when 88 Indian soldiers and perhaps as many as 340 PLA troops were killed in the course of intense skirmishes near the Nathu La and Cho La passes, the gateways to the strategically-vital Chumbi Valley. Beijing has issued no official statement on the numbers of casualties the PLA suffered in in the fighting, but the Indian Army claims it has intercepted military communication suggesting over 40 PLA soldiers may also have been killed or injured. Earlier, on 5 May, Indian and Chinese troops, as well as border guards, had engaged in similar, brutal fighting near the Pangong Lake, south of the Galwan valley. The commanding officer of the 11 Mahar Regiment, Colonel Vijay Rana, is still being treated for life-threatening wounds sustaining during the fighting, army sources say. There are obviously questions the public will want answers to, a senior government official told News18, including why the troops under attack at Galwan could not be supported, and why casualties could not be evacuated. The government will conduct a full investigation of these issues. No explanation has been offered for why the PLA pitched a tent at Point 14 after agreeing to a withdrawal. In addition to a drawdown at Point 14, the 6 June agreement had mandated an end to a standoff unfolding at another location code-named Point 15, and a withdrawal of troops and armoured personnel carriers stationed at the third location, Point 17. Experts believe the crisis unfolding along the LAC is driven by Chinas concerns that Indias development of logistical infrastructure could lead it to occupy contested territories it has until now only been able to patrol. In maps published in 1962, after the end of the China-India war that year, the PLA asserted it had established control of the entire Galwan valley. Lightly-armed Indian troops of the 5 Jat Regiment, whose supply lines had been choked for months, held out against an entire PLA battalion at one key post in Galwan, losing 32 of the 68 troops stationed there before running out of ammunition. Following the war, though, the PLA pulled back from its 1962 line, allowing Indian troops to resume patrolling ground dozens of kilometres to the east of the 1962 line, reaching the positions that India claims to be the LAC. In the 1980s, China launched major border-works programmes which led several areas claimed by India to lie on its side of the LAC like the Finger 8 ridge in Pangong to be physically held by the PLA. This article originally appeared on News18. In April, some 2,900 foreigners arrived in Japan, which was a 99.9 per cent slump year-on-year, and in May the number dropped further to some 1,700 visitors, the lowest figures since the authorities began recording the data in 1964, Efe news reported. Tokyo, June 17 (IANS) In a record low for the second consecutive month, Japan again recorded a 99.9 per cent slump in the number of visitors from abroad in May due to restrictions imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, official sources said on Wednesday. On Apr. 3, Japan began extending the ban on the entry of foreign visitors to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which has so far infected nearly 18,000 people with at least 931 deaths. Travelers from 111 select countries are banned from entering Japan and so far, the country's government has not announced the date from when it will reopen its borders in order to allow the entry of people from the countries included on the blacklist. Entry into Japan is only allowed for the people from these countries who have had to travel out of the country under extraordinary circumstances, such as the death of a family member abroad and are returning to their place of residence. According to figures provided by the tourism office of Japan on Wednesday, in May some 50 tourists from the United States, around 30 from India, some 30 from China and around 20 from South Korea arrived in Japan, as well as travelers of other nationalities. Tourists from China, South Korea and Taiwan usually top the list of foreign visitors to Japan. Before the entry ban was imposed on the more than 100 countries that make up the current blacklist, the Japanese authorities required visitors to remain in quarantine for two weeks, an important element to discourage tourists. Between January and May, the number of foreign visitors to Japan stood at 3.94 million, 71.3 per cent less than the first five months of 2019. Although Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration is considering partially easing entry restrictions, it is focused on stimulating domestic tourism through subsidies, the local Kyodo news reported. --IANS sdr/ PLZ NOTICE OF ANNUAL AND EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETINGS Plaza Centers N.V. ("Plaza" or the "Company") is to announce that the Annual General Meeting of the Company's shareholders (AGM) will take place at 11:00 am (CET) on July 29 2020 at the offices of the Company (Pietersbergweg 283, 1105 BM Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and the Meeting of Independent Shareholders will be held immediately after the closing of the AGM at the same place. The Notice of Meetings, including agendas and proxy voting cards in English, are available on the Companys website at the following link: http://www.plazacenters.com/index.php?p=general_meetings_os_2020 Documents made available by the Company for the purpose of the AGM may be inspected during normal working hours at the registered office of the Company (Pietersbergweg 283, 1105 BM Amsterdam, the Netherlands). The Notice of Meetings, including agendas and proxy voting cards in English, will be sent today to Plaza's shareholders and Depositary Interests Holders registered at the Company's UK registrar (Capita Asset Services). Copies of the Company's Notices of Annual General Meeting and Meeting of Independent Shareholders have been submitted today to the UK Listing Authority. Ends For further details, please contact: Plaza Ran Yaacovs, CFO 972-546-303-006 Notes to Editors Plaza Centers N.V. (www.plazacenters.com) is listed on the Main Board of the London Stock Exchange, as of 19 October 2007, on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (LSE: PLAZ, WSE: PLZ/PLAZACNTR) and, on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. (TNS) In early 2017 the Central Intelligence Agency suffered a massive data loss when an agency employee stole vast quantities of information including some of its most secretive hacking tools because of lax cybersecurity measures, according to a redacted investigation report obtained by Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.The employee took away about 180 gigabytes to as much as 34 terabytes or the equivalent of about 11.6 million to 2.2 billion pages of Microsoft Word documents which included some of the agencys most valuable hacking tools from its so-called Vault 7, according to the report. The employee later gave the data to WikiLeaks, which published it in a series of posts.Citing the CIAs task force report that examined the breach, Wyden said in a letter addressed to the newly installed Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe that the agency had prioritized building cyberweapons at the expense of securing their own systems.In a statement accompanying the letter, Wyden said his office obtained the redacted investigative report after the Justice Department introduced the material as evidence in a court case. Federal prosecutors have charged former software engineer Joshua Shulte, but his family and lawyers have said he is not responsible, The New York Times reported in 2018.The probe into the CIA leak found that the agencys day-to-day security practices had become woefully lax most of our sensitive cyberweapons were not compartmented and users shared their passwords with one another. The CIAs Center for Cyber Intelligence had no plan on mitigation if its weapons were stolen, the investigation found.The CIAs hacking tools developed between 2013 and 2016 had been used by the agency to penetrate web browsers including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox, as well as smart cars and smart TVs.Wyden said that U.S. intelligence agencies must begin complying with U.S. law which requires federal agencies to comply with cybersecurity standards and technologies developed by the Department of Homeland Security. Congress had previously exempted U.S. intelligence agencies from that provision.Its now clear that exempting the intelligence community from baseline cybersecurity requirements was a mistake, Wyden said in his June 16 letter.Wyden also asked Ratcliffe to answer in an unclassified report questions on how the intelligence agencies are addressing cybersecurity risks, including steps they have taken to secure their websites using multi-factor authentication, employing anti-phishing technologies, and steps the agencies would take to comply with the 22 recommendations made by the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community on tightening cybersecurity standards.Wyden said U.S. intelligence agencies have yet to require multi-factor authentication on their websites as required by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which issued the recommendation in early 2019. The spy agencies also have failed to adopt anti-phishing technologies, another recommendation made by CISA in October 2017, Wyden said. BERLIN (AP) Germanys Lufthansa is warning that a 9 billion-euro ($10.2 billion) rescue package for the airline group could be in danger because of criticism from a major shareholder. It urged shareholders on Wednesday to show up to a special meeting next week. Lufthansa has agreed to the plan, which would give a government stabilization fund a 20% stake. Existing shareholders need to approve the bailout at an extraordinary meeting on June 25. Lufthansa said it currently expects attendance of below 50% at that meeting and, in view of statements by shareholder Heinz-Hermann Thiele raising questions over his approval, the company sees a possibility that the rescue package may fail to win the two-thirds majority that such low attendance would require. It added: This would mean that Deutsche Lufthansa AG would possibly have to apply for protective shield proceedings under insolvency law a few days after the Annual General Meeting if no other solution is found immediately. The company said it urgently appeals to all shareholders to exercise their voting rights. Only a simple majority is required if more than 50% of the share capital is present. ___ Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak The most violent encounter in decades between the Chinese and Indian armies arrayed along a disputed border high in the Himalayas did not involve any exchange of gunfire. Instead, soldiers from the two nuclear-armed nations fashioned weapons from what they could find in the desolate landscape, some 14,000 feet above sea level. Wielding fence posts and clubs wrapped in barbed wire, they squared off under a moonlit sky along jagged cliffs soaring high above the Galwan Valley, fighting for hours in pitched hand-to-hand battles. Some Indian soldiers died after tumbling into the river in the valley below. Others were beaten to death. By the next day, 20 Indian troops were dead. It remains unclear if there were Chinese casualties. [June 17, 2020] Enterprise Connect Announces Programming for 2020 Virtual Event SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enterprise Connect , the leading conference and exhibition for enterprise communications and collaboration, today announces details for its virtual event taking place online August 3-6, 2020. Enterprise Connect Virtual will offer a robust lineup of content including 20 conference sessions, technology demonstrations, its first annual Women in Communications awards program and discussion, as well as AI-driven networking opportunities. The event showcases timely and strategic content centered around five main areas: unified communications, contact center and customer experience, team collaboration, cloud communications, And video collaboration/AV. In addition to conference sessions, professionals who purchase a premium pass will have access to four, 2-hour intensive seminars: Practical Post-Pandemic Strategies for Success Unified Communications Security Cisco vs. Microsoft vs. Zoom: Clearing the WFH Fog CCaaS: Is it Delivering on its Promises? These in-depth seminars will take place every Friday in August, starting the day after the main Virtual Event closes. They will be led by long-time industry experts and consultants. For 30 years, Enterprise Connect has been the premier event solely focused on the needs of decision makers in enterprise communications and collaboration, said Eric Krapf, eneral Manager, Enterprise Connect. With the shift to an all-virtual event and free programming options, we are more accessible to a broader professional audience, with new ideas and energy focused on the concerns, challenges and solutions that matter most to our enterprises. Enterprise Connect Virtual takes place online, August 3-6, 2020. A standard virtual pass is free, and Premium access starts at $299 for those who register now. For more information and to register for the event, visit www.enterpriseconnect.com/virtual . Media and industry analysts who are interested in attending Enterprise Connect Virtual can apply for a complimentary press badge here . About Enterprise Connect For 30 years, Enterprise Connect has been the leading conference and exhibition for enterprise Unified Communications and Collaboration in North America. Enterprise Connect brings corporate IT decision makers together with the industry's vendors, analysts and consultants to focus on the issues central to enterprise networks and communications. Enterprise Connect owns and produces No Jitter, (nojitter.com), providing daily blogging and analysis of enterprise communications, and it also serves the community with a weekly email newsletter, research surveys and a Webinar Series. For more information, visit enterpriseconnect.com . Enterprise Connect is brought to you by Informa Tech . About Informa Tech Informa Tech is a market leading provider of integrated research, media, training and events to the global Technology community. We're an international business of more than 600 colleagues, operating in more than 20 markets. Our aim is to inspire the Technology community to design, build and run a better digital world through research, media, training and event brands that inform, educate and connect. Over 7,000 professionals subscribe to our research, with 225,000 delegates attending our events and over 18,000 students participating in our training programs each year, and nearly 4 million people visiting our digital communities each month. Learn more about Informa Tech . Media Contact: Briana Pontremoli Informa Tech briana.pontremoli@informa.com [ Back To SIP Trunking Home's Homepage ] With its $8 million in extra funds, Beta Media wants to drastically scale its business Japan-based Daiwa PI Partners recently poured $8 million to Beta Media which operates 12 cineplexes and 60 movie houses across Vietnam. The investment is hoped to fuel the company's expansion plans under the franchise model as well as its ambitions to produce made-in-Vietnam movies under its production arm Beta Productions. According to Bui Quang Minh, chairman of Beta Medias management board, the firm targets to reach 50 cineplexes in the next two or three years. The initial step of the goal is to focus on Ho Chi Minh Citys nearby areas such as the two provinces Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Dong Nai. Beta Cinemas was founded in 2014 in the northern province of Thai Nguyen. Along with the young and vibrant style the company wants to embody, after the first six years, the firms main competitive advantage remains the focus on low- and middle-income customers, which the company can afford by maintaining a stable profit as it is optimising land leasing costs via selecting suitable locations for its movie houses. This concept is contrary to the South Korean-backed CJ CGV Vietnam, which prefers shopping malls with the sometimes vast leasing expenses one of the main reasons behind its tremendous losses during COVID-19. In a response to VIR, Khanh Nguyen, lead of CJ CGV Vietnams PR corporate, said that its earnings in March plunged by 70 per cent on-year. Moreover, April and the first nine days of May saw no revenue at all. As soon as the national social distancing ended, just a tiny number of customers came to the cineplexes. Currently, our performance has been improved but not as good as before the pandemic. However, its still positive for us at this time, Khanh said. Due to the huge deficit during the global health crisis, CJ CGV has just announced to sell its 25 per cent shares in CJ Vietnam to the other three subsidiaries of the parent company CJ Group. CJ CGVs financial performance has been greatly impacted due to unavoidable pandemic. Specifically, its debt-to-equity ratio rallied by nearly 200 percentage points to 845 per cent in this years first quarter, with an on-year drop of 22 per cent in total capital. African hotel development had returned to growth at the start of 2020, with more than 78,000 rooms in 408 hotels in the pipeline, according to the 12th annual survey by W Hospitality Group, acknowledged as the industrys most authoritative source. However, the COVID-19 outbreak is now shattering the dreams of Africas hotel industry. W Hospitality Groups Managing Director, Trevor Ward, said: The growth of the chains presence in Africa has been a very positive story since we started this analysis in 2009. It is quite clear from the numbers that the chains, the developers, the investors and all of us at W Hospitality Group! continue to believe in the opportunities that Africa presents in the hotel and tourism industry. However, our industry has been devastated by the impact of COVID-19, possibly more so than most other economic sectors, mainly because of the almost total shutdown of borders and of the aviation sector no flights means no guests. With that background, we see a slowdown in pipeline growth in 2020, as we all get to grips with the new reality. With so many of the players locked down, fewer deals will be signed, and it is inevitable that some of the planned openings in 2020 will be delayed, due to closed or slower-paced construction sites, restrictions on funding, and a lack of market demand. According to our latest data, there are 90 hotels with 17,000 rooms scheduled to open in 2020, but we estimate that at least half of these will be delayed, bringing the actualisation rate down to no more than 40%. This years African Hotel Chain Development Pipeline survey covers 35 international and regional hotel contributors across the 54 countries in north and sub-Saharan Africa, and in the Indian Ocean islands. It reveals a 3.6% increase on the 2019 pipeline. Most encouraging was a record 68 chain hotels opening last year, fully 75% of those which were scheduled to open, with 11,000 rooms. That performance was substantially up from the 39% of those scheduled to open in 2018 actually doing so. Accor performed particularly well; it opened 18 hotels last year with almost 3,500 rooms in its various brands, ranging from Ibis to Fairmont. The findings of the 2020 Pipeline report, together with a mid-year update, will be discussed in depth at Bench Events new virtual conference, Africa Tomorrow (https://www.africa-tomorrow.com/), to be held on 21st July. This event is complementary to the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF), the leading hospitality investment conference in Africa, which has in previous years connected business leaders to serious investors, driving funds into tourism projects, infrastructure and hotel development across the continent. Marriott, the worlds largest hotel chain, has the largest pipeline in Africa, 22 per cent more hotels and 6 per cent more rooms than second-placed Accor, but Accor has been catching up fast, signing 25 new deals last year, compared to Marriotts 17 new projects. If Accor can open its hotels in 2020 at the same rate that it did in 2019, it is likely the company will overtake Marriott and position itself as the largest operator in Africa. Trevor Ward said: We have to wait and see what will happen in the second half of 2020, and in 2021, as we emerge from lockdown and other restrictions. Tourism is such an important industry in Africa, because of the direct and indirect jobs that it creates and sustains, as well as its strong foreign currency earnings. We are anxious to see hotels reopen and get back to contributing to the African growth story. Matthew Weihs, Managing Director of Bench Events, which is staging Africa Tomorrow, said: Right now, we are facing the biggest recession in history. For those seeking to operate hotels, it is a dreadful time. However, for the savvy investors, this is actually a moment of opportunity because hotels are a long-term investment and one of the secrets of success is to spend money during the bottom of the economic cycle in order to capitalise on the upturn as soon as it comes. Thats one reason why I expect the networking sessions at Africa Tomorrow will be very busy and fruitful. About W Hospitality Group The W Hospitality Group, a member of Hotel Partners Africa, specialises in the provision of advisory services to the hotel, tourism and leisure industries, providing a full range of services to clients who have investments in the sector, or who are looking to enter them through development, acquisition or other means. In sub-Saharan Africa the W Hospitality Group is regarded as the market leader due to the market and financial expertise of its staff, its worldwide knowledge, and its commitment to its clients. In Africa, W Hospitality Group has to date worked in 40 countries on the continent, from its Lagos and Addis Ababa offices. About Africa Tomorrow Africa Tomorrow is Africa Tomorrow is the premier virtual conference and networking platform for the continent's travel, hospitality and aviation sectors, attracting prominent international and regional industry decision makers. The event features a free-to-attend option for Africans or Africa-based businesses. It is organised by Bench Digital, a sister company of Bench Events (www.benchevents.com), that has delivered three digital conferences since April 2020 and countless webinars with a combined attendance of over 20,000 industry professionals. Bench Events has a long track record of delivering multiple premium hospitality and aviation business conferences across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Hongkongers have brushed aside reports that traces of the coronavirus were found on chopping boards used for salmon at a Beijing market, with long lunchtime queues at sushi restaurants and shoppers still buying the popular fish. The citys Centre for Food Safety confirmed on Tuesday evening that 16 samples of imported salmon from countries including Norway, Chile, Ireland, Iceland and Denmark all tested negative for the coronavirus. A spokesman for the centre said there was no evidence to show humans could be infected by the coronavirus through food such as aquatic products, based on current scientific research. Mainland China has halted imports of European salmon amid fears they may be linked to a new cluster of Covid-19 cases at a wet market in Beijing. Major supermarkets in the capital removed salmon from their shelves and restaurants also dropped the fish from their menus. But in Hong Kong, consumers dismissed speculation over any possible link that new infections in Beijing could have been caused by imported salmon or the packaging. Lengthy queues formed outside sushi restaurants across the city at lunchtime. I'm not concerned about contracting the coronavirus through eating salmon. I think the report from the Centre for Food Safety already confirms we have nothing to worry about, said a diner who only gave her surname as Ng. She was among dozens waiting outside a branch of the Daikiya Japanese Restaurant chain in Mong Kok just before it opened at noon. Among items on offer at the buffet-style restaurant are sushi and sashimi and food is also served to order. Ng believed that as long as people sat 1.5 metres apart, washed their hands and wore a mask to the restaurant, the chances of spreading the virus were small. In the same district, prime salmon belly sashimi was sold out at Daikatsu Don, a Japanese rice bowl restaurant. Wait staff said they were unable to replenish stock overnight, as diners had devoured their bestseller. Story continues Local importers have had no problems sourcing salmon for the Hong Kong market. Photo: Felix Wong There were about 12 diners at the small upstairs restaurant around 1pm, and all of them were asked to take their temperature and use hand sanitiser before being seated. Meanwhile, a fishmonger at Citysuper grocery store in Causeway Bay said salmon was still a top choice for shoppers. Our salmon is mainly sourced from the USA, Norway and Japan, but not from mainland China. Food safety is one of our primary concerns, we will communicate closely with our suppliers to ensure good hygiene during processing, minimising any risk of cross-contamination, a supermarket spokesman said. Holida, a preschool teacher from Indonesia who has lived in Hong Kong for seven years, placed two chilled packets of Norwegian salmon fillets into her shopping trolley at Jasons supermarket in Causeway Bay. I think as long as you cook [the fish] properly, it should be no problem, she said Terence Lau Lok-ting, convenor of the Food Safety Consortium at Polytechnic University, said: The negative coronavirus test results on salmon samples indicates a rather slim likelihood that salmon is a coronavirus carrier. Lau added that local health authorities should conduct more random sampling tests in the coming weeks to be sure that salmon was not a carrier of the coronavirus, while closely monitoring the situation of new outbreak clusters on the mainland. Lau advised people not to eat raw fish in general, as uncooked seafood could contain bacteria and parasites, regardless of the coronavirus threat. He also stressed that fish must be handled at cold temperatures to avoid it from getting spoiled. Under food safety guidelines in Hong Kong, frozen fish should be kept and transported at minus 20 degrees Celsius, while chilled fish must be kept at under 4 degrees. Lee Choi-wah, chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Seafood Merchants, which represents more than 100 importers, said local firms had not seen immediate challenges when sourcing salmon from overseas despite the ban on the mainland. This article Coronavirus: Hong Kong consumers unfazed by speculation imported salmon linked to new Covid-19 cluster in Beijing first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020. People wear protective masks while riding scooters in Studio City last week. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Health officials have said that the public needs to look beyond the rising number of coronavirus cases in California and focus on whether hospitalizations are increasing as a sign that reopening the economy is leading to new outbreaks. Statewide, coronavirus hospitalizations have been relatively flat for the last six weeks, even as officials have allowed myriad businesses to open their doors and people have begun to resume old routines. But in some parts of California, hospitalizations are again on the rise, according to a Los Angeles Times data analysis. And if the trend continues, it could force officials to slow the pace of reopenings. The reasons for the upticks vary and are open for debate, but health officials have expressed concern about some people not following safety recommendations, including wearing face coverings and social distancing. We have met the enemy, and they are us, said Dr. Robert Levin, the health officer in Ventura County, where hospitalizations are up. And many of us have to do a better job of social distancing and quarantine. Some of us are doing a great job; were stalwarts. If we can do this and I know we can we can prevent the state from telling us that we must take a step back from some of the gains weve made in opening our activities and businesses. Last week, there were an average of 91 people hospitalized in Ventura County with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections, the highest such number since early April. That's a 75% increase from each of the previous two weeks, The Times analysis found. Orange County has experienced a 76% jump in coronavirus intensive care unit hospitalizations in the last six weeks. In the week of May 4, the county reported a seven-day average of 94 people with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections in its ICU beds. Last week, that number rose to an average of 165 hospitalized. The eight-county San Joaquin Valley has seen a 45% rise in coronavirus ICU hospitalizations in the last six weeks. Story continues Meanwhile, L.A. County and statewide ICU hospitalization rates have been declining. L.A. County once had the worst ICU coronavirus hospitalization rate on a per capita basis among all of California's 58 counties. But that's changed, with Imperial County, Kings County and now Orange County having larger ICU coronavirus hospitalization rates, The Times analysis found. L.A. County now reports 5 ICU coronavirus patients per 100,000 residents; Orange County is now reporting 5.2 ICU patients per 100,000 residents; Kings County, 6.1 ICU patients per 100,000 residents; and Imperial County, 9.9 ICU patients per 100,000 residents. Though Ventura County health officials say there is still plenty of space in its hospitals, its possible the county might have to press the pause button on reopening additional sectors of the economy if hospitalizations continue to rise. At this point, it would be foolhardy to just open up and continue to open up everything given what our numbers are doing, Levin said during Tuesdays meeting of the countys Board of Supervisors. Ventura County allowed in late May the resumption of in-restaurant dining, in-store shopping and hair styling. Gyms and bars were allowed to reopen last Friday. California officials are set to allow counties to decide starting this Friday whether to reopen nail salons, tattoo shops and massage therapy establishments in counties that have filed paperwork to accelerate their reopening. Levin, however, said it was not a given that such personal-care industries would be able to reopen on that date. "I personally would like to see them open," he said, "and were going to do our best to make that happen as we evaluate the numbers." Even as more spaces reopen, though, he said it was vital that residents continued to observe physical distancing to stem the spread of the virus. Santa Barbara County and the San Joaquin Valley are also being closely watched for increasing coronavirus hospitalizations, according to the state Department of Public Health. Santa Barbara County is seeing increased hospitalizations in the northern part of the county. The increase has been blamed on rising community transmission due to a growing number of gatherings, as well as workplace spread. Outbreaks in skilled nursing facilities are also a factor. The same problems are being blamed for an increase in hospitalizations in San Joaquin County , east of the San Francisco Bay Area. And in the the broader San Joaquin Valley, one of the nations most important agricultural areas and home to 4.2 million residents, increasing hospitalizations were reported in Kern and Kings counties, where nursing home outbreaks are also a contributing factor. In the last three days, five counties across the state have experienced more than a 10% rise in patients hospitalized with COVID-19: Contra Costa (13%), Kings (18%), San Joaquin (12%), Santa Barbara (27%) and Stanislaus (42%). Increasing hospitalizations and elevated disease transmission have been recorded in Kern County amid outbreaks at state and federal prisons as well as because of residents in nearby counties being admitted to the Kern County hospital, state officials said. Kings County has reported a number of outbreaks, including at a meatpacking plant in Hanford and its Adventist Health hospital. An outbreak at Avenal State Prison caused the virus to spread to nearby areas including Fresno County carried by prison employees returning home. In Tulare County , home to cities including Visalia, Tulare and Porterville, state officials are closely monitoring elevated disease transmissions related to outbreaks in nursing homes and workplaces, as well as the difficulty in preventing transmission within households. And Imperial County , east of San Diego, is also experiencing elevated disease transmission as Americans return from Mexico, which is experiencing a worsening outbreak . A recent surge in hospitalizations in Sacramento County was linked to members of the same household who gathered for birthday parties and a funeral. Dr. Olivia Kasirye, Sacramento Countys health officer, said many people think were out of the woods, but health experts continue to warn of the seriousness of the virus and the need for safety and health precautions as larger swaths of the state continue to reopen. On Monday, California reported nearly 3,400 new cases of the coronavirus , the highest number at the start of a week since the outset of the pandemic. Despite the continued rise in infections, Californias top health officials have said that overall case counts are not necessarily a measure of how the state is faring in its fight against the novel coronavirus, noting that increased testing can drive up the number. Weve ramped up testing in an extraordinary way, nearly hitting our goal that was set for August not June, not July, but August of getting to 60,000 to 80,000 tests a day, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the states secretary of Health and Human Services. Were already knocking on that door, averaging in the mid- to high 50s over the past few days across the state. Officials, instead, are closely monitoring two metrics as they gauge how California is handling the pandemic: the positivity rate, or the percentage of people who have tested positive, and the daily number of hospitalizations. A rise in the former could mean an uptick in community transmission separate from increased testing. A rise in the latter may mean that more people are becoming seriously ill, possibly jeopardizing the ability of the healthcare system to deal with the influx in patients. Los Angeles County has seen its ICU cases consistently decline. Six weeks ago, there were an average of 633 people in L.A. County ICUs daily during that seven-day period. Last week, there were 501, a decline of 21%. In Los Angeles County on Monday, 1,956 people with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections were in hospitals, according to the state health agency. Officials are working with the state to prepare for the possibility of an influx in patients. Health officials noted last week that coronavirus transmission continues to worsen in Los Angeles County, bringing with it the chance that the nations most populous county could run out of intensive care unit beds in two to four weeks. The numbers have not reached danger levels yet, but health officials said they are monitoring conditions carefully for any signs of new pressures on hospitals. Times staff writer Colleen Shalby contributed to this report. We've all had the dream at some point. You walk to center stage, ax in handand you shred. Thousands of adoring fans drink in every note from your six-stringed hammer of the gods and the applause and adulation is deafening. The life of a guitar hero and rock idol has been a dream of every red-blooded American male dating back to the 50s. Even if you've now passed beyond your rock star admiration years, playing the guitar is still a great pastime, from the ability to play music to the creative outlet to just its positive effects on mental health. The training in The Complete Guitar Master Class Bundle may not make you into the next Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix, but it's a fabulous means of improving your manual dexterity, soothing your active mind and impressing the hell out of a crowd at your next party. This collection includes seven courses that can unleash your inner musician, helping you learn patterns, chords, riffs, playing techniques, and more. The training kicks off with The Professional Guitar Master Class, a four-part, interactive, step-by-step, all HD video course including everything you need to play with complete confidence and control in any genre of music. 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By picking up The Complete Guitar Master Class Bundle at hundreds off its regular price, just $29.99, you'll also have saved enough money to buy one wicked guitar of your own and start blazing. Prices are subject to change. Do you have your stay-at-home essentials? Here are some you may have missed. Parkinson Canada invites people living with Parkinsons disease to join the Canadian Open Parkinson Network (C-OPN) to be part of the solution to improve lives for those living with Parkinsons and ultimately to help discover a cure. Phase one of C-OPN brings together many of Canadas best in Parkinsons research with eight sites initially taking part in four provinces, giving investigators access to unprecedented data. The database and the biobank will support large scale, multidisciplinary projects that would not be possible at a single research site. To ensure this initiative will have the greatest impact, the network needs people with Parkinsons disease and Parkinson Plus (Atypical) Syndrome across Canada to register and participate in moving science forward at a more rapid pace. As a participant in the network, you will have the opportunity to: Participate in the creation of a national database collecting critical information from people with Parkinsons disease or Parkinson Plus Syndrome for researchers across Canada. Participate in the creation of a national biobank for Parkinsons disease or Parkinson Plus Syndrome for researchers. Learn more about research opportunities happening across Canada and contribute to findings and new outcomes that could change the future of Parkinsons care and treatment or that can ultimately lead to a cure. It was pretty devastating to receive news that I have Parkinsons disease. I thought it was kind of a death sentence. I found out it wasnt. Now, Ive come to realize that nobody can take away my Parkinsons unless these wonderful researchers come up with a cure. Participating in medical research is worthwhile, says Dulcie Webb, diagnosed with Parkinsons in 2016, and participant in the Calgary Parkinson Research Initiative (CaPRI) site that is linked with C-OPN. Currently, due to COVID-19, all research is being conducted remotely, and joining C-OPN can be done from the comfort of your own home. If you are interested in participating, click the following link and fill out your information to be connected to a research coordinator at the site closest to you. If you are interested in learning more about the network, click the following link that will take you to the C-OPN website. Dr. Oury Monchi, a professor and Clinical Research Director at the University of Calgarys Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Canada Research Chair and Tourmaline Chair in Parkinsons disease in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgarys Cumming School of Medicine is the Principal Investigator and Director of C-OPN. By building a strong, interconnected and collaborative network of researchers, physicians and people living with Parkinsons, we can work strategically to accelerate advancements in Parkinsons research and treatment Dr. Oury Monchi, Professor and Clinical Research Director at the University of Calgarys Hotchkiss Brain Institute C-OPN was created through a $2-million Brain Canada Platform Support Grant. $1 million was provided by Brain Canada in partnership with Health Canada through the Canada Brain Research Fund and this was matched by a $1-million investment of funds supplied by generous donors to Parkinson Canada, who led the project development. Brain Canada has long believed in the importance of open science and data sharing in strengthening Canadian brain research. We consider that research funders have a key role to play in supporting the development of open science policies and data sharing platforms. We are proud to be a partner of the C-OPN and remain unwavering in our commitment to science without barriers and borders -- science that is networked, coordinated, diverse, and inclusive. Line Trudeau, Chief Financial and Strategy Officer and Interim CEO, Brain Canada A future without Parkinsons requires transformative change and unwavering commitment, said Karen Lee, PhD, President and CEO of Parkinson Canada. By creating C-OPN with our partners, we are shaping the global state of Parkinsons research. Once we understand bigger questions like causes of Parkinsons, together, we can better serve the needs of the Parkinsons community. A collaboration like C-OPN allows us to reach more people affected by Parkinsons and accelerate research discoveries that one day will unlock a cure. None of this would be possible without significant financial backing, and donors are stepping up to make it all happen. The logo of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is seen next to a mural depicting Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 2, 2017. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters) Venezuelas Oil Exports Plummet as Shipping Contracts Get Suspended Venezuelas oil exports have fallen nearly 28 percent in the first half of June, on course for the lowest level in over 70 years as tanker owners and operators suspend contracts for transporting crude oil, according to documents and data on June 16. Shipping firms are avoiding Venezuela after the United States earlier this month blacklisted four vessels and their owners for transporting the countrys crude. Several shippers have turned tankers away from Venezuelas waters in the face of increasingly aggressive U.S. efforts to isolate and oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro by throttling the oil revenue that funds his government. State oil firm PDVSA and its partners in joint ventures have exported seven cargoes of crude and fuel so far in June to long-time customers including Italys Eni, Spains Repsol, and Cubas state-run Cubametales, according to internal company documents and Refinitiv Eikon data. An oil tanker is seen at Jose refinery cargo terminal in Venezuela in this undated file photo. (Jorge Silva/Reuters) That is an average of 325,000 barrels per day (bpd), down from the 17-year low of 452,000 bpd in May. If this level of exports continues for the rest of the month, the average could be the lowest seen since the 1940s. Monthly data is not available from before 2000, but annual averages were last around these levels in 1942-1945, according to data reported by Venezuelas oil ministry. In early 2019, before sanctions, Venezuela exported about 1.4 million bpd, according to Eikon data. The nation no longer publishes monthly data on production or exports. As of Monday, PDVSA and vessel operators had canceled five other cargoes scheduled to load this month, according to company documents. Motorists line up for fuel at a gas station of the Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA in San Cristobal, Venezuela on Nov. 10, 2018. (Carlos Eduardo Ramirez/Reuters) The fall in exports has forced PDVSA to cut output because storage is full. Among the seven cargoes that have sailed is the Liberia-flagged Respect, whose commercial manager is NGM Energy SA. It loaded 2 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude, the data showed. Two vessels managed by Greece-based firm Delta Tankers Ltd, the Delta Med and the Delta Captain, also departed for Europe this month, while another three operated by the same company are loading or headed to Venezuela. A bus drives over the General Rafael Urdaneta bridge as an oil tanker sails the Maracaibo lake in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on March 15, 2019. (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images) PDVSA, Venezuelas oil ministry, and Cubas government did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Repsol, which along with Eni has received Venezuelan oil as repayment for dividends and debt, said the company is fully compliant with international laws and regulations. Eni confirmed it plans to take two Venezuelan oil cargoes this month as part of a receivables recovery plan. It said it is in full compliance with U.S. sanctions and in continuous dialogue with U.S. authorities. NGM Energy, which earlier this week said it had diverted tanker Commodore away from Venezuela as part of a policy against servicing vessels intending to call at the country without U.S. authorization, told Reuters that tanker Respect completed loading at a PDVSA port on May 31, before Washingtons most recent round of Venezuela-related sanctions. Delta Tankers did not reply to information requests. By Marianna Parraga Questioning the silence of India's ruling establishment on the incursion by Chinese forces in Indian territory, interim Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Modi to brief the nation on the situation at the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. Paying her homage to the 20 Indian soldiers killed in a violent confrontation with Chinese troops in Galwan valley, Gandhi in a video message said the government needed to share with the people of this country its policy and action plan in dealing with the current crisis. "The martyrdom of 20 of our soldiers...has shook the conscience of the entire nation...Everyone knows that for the past one-and-a-half months China has infiltrated our territory in Ladakh. Today when in India there is great anguish, the Prime Minister should come forward and explain to the nation how China was able to capture India's soil and why 20 Indian soldiers were martyred," Gandhi said. She said that the Prime Minister should brief the country on the status as it is right now. "Are our soldiers and officers still untraceable? How many soldiers and officers are critically injured? China has captured which all areas and where? To deal with this situation, what is the government's thought, policy and action?" Assuring the government that the Congress was with the government and the forces in this time of crisis, Gandhi expressed hope that in the present challenging time "entire country will unitedly stand against the enemy." A few minutes after Sonia Gandhi's statement, Prime Minister Modi in a video statement said that India wants peace but, when provoked, had the capability to respond appropriately. "The sacrifices of our soldiers will not go in vain," Modi said before observing a two-minute silence along with Chief Ministers of several states with whom he is now discussing India's preparations and policy of fighting Covid-19 pandemic. The Prime Minister said that integrity and sovereignty were at the top of India's interests. This is the first time that Modi has spoken since the Indian army released a statement, late last night, confirming the deaths of 20 soldiers in the clash with Chinese forces at Ladakh's Galwan valley. In this 3 minute speech Modi talked about India's "integrity and sovereignty" thrice. The opposition has been repeatedly questioning the government over its silence on reports of China capturing part of Galwan valley. According to some reports, China was in possession of around 60 square kilometre of Indian territory. The government has so far not denied any of these claims. Words cannot describe the pain I feel for the officers and men who sacrificed their lives for our country. My condolences to all their loved ones. We stand with you in this difficult time, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted after deaths of 20 soldiers were reported. The nation is waiting for an official statement from the Ministry of Defence or Army HQ. Will it come tonight? The PM has maintained a worrying silence since May 5. Can you imagine any other Head of Government not saying a word for 7 weeks since the intrusion of foreign troops into a country? asked former Union minister P. Chidambaram in a series of tweets on Tuesday. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh also urged India to take some action. "Each sign of weakness on our part makes the Chinese reaction more belligerent," he said on Twitter. Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and National Conference leader, tweeted "If the Chinese shoot dead an Indian army colonel & two jawans during a de-escalation process imagine how escalated the situation must be in the first place." The CPI (M) had on Tuesday also issued a statement urging the union government to come out with an authoritative statement. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Twitter said that his father and former defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had on many occasions warned the government of the dangers and challenges from the Chinese side but it was met with indifference. When will the government respond to this [Ladakh incident]? he wondered. Shocked and anguished over the killing of our brave officer and 2 soldiers in Galwan Valley. There are more disturbing reports emerging about the clash at LAC even as Govt talks of de-escalation. Govt. should come clean on the LAC situation and act swiftly to defend borders, BSP leader Kunwar Danish Ali tweeted. India and China agreed Wednesday to ease tensions at their disputed Himalayan border, even as they traded blame for a brawl that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead. The two nations' foreign ministers spoke by telephone to calm nerves after a high-altitude melee involving fists, rocks and clubs. The call between China's Wang Yi and India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar came as sources told AFP that Indian paramilitaries were being deployed to the area of the skirmish high in the Himalayas opposite Tibet. China's state broadcaster CCTV, meanwhile, showed footage of People's Liberation Army tanks and soldiers holding live fire drills in Tibet. China has refused to confirm if it suffered any casualties in the first deadly clashes at the border in decades, although Indian media said at least 40 Chinese troops were killed or seriously hurt. The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that Wang demanded "India conduct a thorough investigation" and punish those responsible. "The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation, and must not underestimate China's firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty," it added. India's foreign ministry said Jaishankar "conveyed the protest" of his government. He warned that "this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship" and urged Beijing to "take corrective steps". But the two ministers also sought to de-escalate tensions. China said both sides agreed to "cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible". India's foreign ministry said the two sides would implement a previously agreed disengagement, and "neither side would take any action to escalate matters". However, ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said late Wednesday that "making exaggerated and untenable claims is contrary" to a responsible de-escalation, in comments carried by the Press Trust of India. The incident, which took place Monday at around 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) up in the Galwan valley area, dominated Indian news channels and inflamed social media in both countries. In India, small groups of protesters called for the boycott of Chinese goods, with some burning posters of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the nation the deaths of the soldiers "will not be in vain". Sources told AFP that military transport aircraft had made a number of rare night-time landings in Leh, capital of India's Ladakh region opposite China's Tibet, throughout Tuesday night. - 'Hurtling down' - The clashes reportedly involved intense hand-to-hand fighting but no gunfire, in line with longstanding practices aimed at avoiding a full military confrontation over the disputed 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) border. An Indian army source told AFP there were "violent hand-to-hand scuffles", while media said that Chinese troops attacked with rods and nail-studded clubs. Many of these killed appear to have been punched or shoved off a ridge onto rocks and into an icy river below. "They came hurtling down like free-falling objects," one source told AFP. Postmortem examinations on some of those killed showed that the "primary reason for death is drowning and it looks like they fell from a height into the water because of head injuries," an official told AFP. Sources said Wednesday that six Indian soldiers were still missing. Both sides have given competing versions of the violence. Beijing said Indian troops "crossed the border line twice... provoking and attacking Chinese personnel". New Delhi said the Chinese side sought to "erect a structure" on the Indian side of the valley and "took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible" for the violence. - Calls for restraint - The United States has said it was hoping for a "peaceful resolution" and the UN called for "maximum restraint". Russia welcomed news of subsequent peaceful contacts between the two neighbours. India and China have never even agreed on the length of their frontier, known as the "Line of Actual Control." They fought a brief war in 1962 and deadly clashes followed in 1967, but the last shot fired in anger was in 1975 when four Indians died. In 2017, there was a 72-day showdown after Chinese forces moved into the disputed Doklam plateau on the China-India-Bhutan border. The recent uptick in tensions began in early May, when several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a clash involving fists and stone-throwing. But the prickly relationship was strained when India in August last year revoked the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir and split off Ladakh into a new administrative territory. Ladakh is partly claimed by Beijing. India meanwhile has been irked by China's backing of Pakistan and an economic corridor going through parts of Kashmir controlled by Islamabad but claimed by India. burs-stu-lth/sst/st Indian Army vehicles drive on a road near Chang La high mountain pass in northern India's Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir state near the border with China Activists from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prepare to burn an effigy of Chinese President Xi Jinping during an anti-China protest in Siliguri after the Ladakh skirmish India is sending hundreds of extra troops towards the Chinese border, sources told AFP -- these soldiers are riding in a convoy along a highway leading towards Leh, bordering China In India small groups of protesters called for the boycott of Chinese goods with some burning posters of Chinese president Xi Jinping Workers and supporters of India's Congress party hold posters as they light candles to pay tribute to the Indian soldiers killed in the skirmish with China The border claims by India, China and Pakistan in and around the Galwan valley are complex It's a key rite of passage and a reward for years of hard study and graft - the formal robes, the speeches, the strawberries and the photographs with proud parents on graduation day. But for the Class of Covid-19, that last push to sit their final exams and crown years of hard work with a day of celebrations has all ended in a bit of a whimper as graduation ceremonies have been mothballed. Final year Queen's University Belfast medical student Patrick Lynch (26) found himself drafted into the world of work earlier than expected after his nine-week hospital placement was cancelled just three weeks after it had begun. The north Belfast student completed finals in February for his five-year medical degree and had just started his 'F0', a nine-week assistantship to give graduating students experience before starting new roles as junior doctors in August. While working in Belfast City Hospital new measures were introduced involving social distancing and use of PPE, and then the placement was cancelled after three weeks. "That was when we realised something big was going to happen and it would change how the next couple of months would work out," he says. "We were immediately taken off the wards, mainly because doctors were realising there was going to be a huge burden on them and they couldn't properly supervise us." The medical students went into lockdown while they awaited further instructions and had a virtual graduation in a Zoom meeting with a special video message from Hillary Clinton. Soon afterwards, the students were drafted in to support the NHS while more experienced staff were reallocated to the frontline. Patrick has now started working full-time at the Royal Victoria Hospital's Stroke Unit as a fully fledged junior doctor. "We're now part of that cohort of doctors who have started early and that has given us the experience that we missed," he says. Expand Close Patrick has started working full-time at the Royal Victoria Hospital / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Patrick has started working full-time at the Royal Victoria Hospital "It would be surreal, regardless of the pandemic, that I've actually formally become a doctor. It's quite unbelievable and something I'll look back on and just think how did I get through it?" He isn't dealing with Covid patients, but the pandemic changes things in the unit - patients are reluctant to stay in hospital, but stroke patients often need a longer stay. It can also be difficult to communicate with stroke patients through the mask, he says. "It's just adapting to circumstances which is what medicine is all about," he says. His graduation has been postponed rather than cancelled, but Patrick admits the end of his final year has been a bit of anti-climax, with fellow students scattering to new postings without being able to say goodbye. "I missed my first graduation because I was in Camp America and my mum has spent the last few years saying 'Don't worry, you'll get your graduation for medicine'. She is more annoyed than I am!" But Patrick and his housemates didn't let their graduation go unmarked - they had a little party in the house, made a graduation robe out of a bedsheet and took photos of each other outside the Lanyon Building. "We literally cut up a bed sheet and a T-shirt for the ribbons, and my friend made a graduation cap out of a cereal box. If medicine doesn't work out, I could be a seamstress," he laughs. Jamie Kennedy (21) was due to graduate in politics from the Ulster University at Jordanstown at the start of July, but has now been in lockdown with his factory worker dad Andrew, hairdresser mum Amanda and brother Adam in Killyleagh, Co Down, for more than 12 weeks. Expand Close Waiting game: Jamie Kennedy is weighing up his options for the future / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Waiting game: Jamie Kennedy is weighing up his options for the future "Even the lecturers didn't know what to do - they had never faced anything like this before," he says, reflecting on the abrupt end to life on campus. Because much of the work had been delivered through modules, Jamie only had one exam left to sit and it was replaced with an online assignment. "The last piece of work we had to do was the dissertation which was due last month. I got it submitted a couple of weeks before the deadline, as I'd been at home for weeks and had time to sit and do it. I'm just waiting on the dissertation mark coming back now," he says. "The staff at university and the lecturers have been brilliant the whole way through this, dealing with stuff they've never had to deal with before and completely switching the way they teach to online and recorded lectures. They have been very, very helpful." Jamie can vividly recall going into college the week before lockdown. He had no idea that he wouldn't be back at the university again. "It was a normal day - and then that was it. What a weird way to end it. It was a bit of an anticlimax after three years," he says. The students have been told only that graduations have been cancelled and the university is considering options. "Some people have suggested there may be virtual ones or that they will be held in November or December. But I still don't know if they are going to happen - it's not set in stone. It's strange -it's sort of like it's over," Jamie says. "It wasn't that I was sitting thinking 'I can't wait for my graduation day', but it was just something I thought would be a good day. "I'm not totally devastated about it, but I am still missing out and it's sad. However, everything else going on puts it into perspective." Jamie hadn't any firm plans for life after graduating. He'd been weighing up whether to take a break from studying and finding a job for a year before deciding whether or not to embark on a Masters degree. Now, if anything, the pandemic has left him feeling at even more of a loss about his future. "I don't know what I am going to do now - I don't know if everything will be lifted completely or if there will be a second wave of this virus and whether I can go and work," he says. "It's all really up in the air. I am just waiting to see what happens. "I'd love to do a bit of work and take it from there, but I can't even do that at the moment. "Everything has stalled completely." Ellie McGuinness has had a traumatic final year to her degree in psychology at the Ulster University at Coleraine. At the start of it, the 22-year-old from Irvinestown in Co Fermanagh suffered heartbreak when her father Brendan died from a stroke. Expand Close With her late dad Brendan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp With her late dad Brendan She had been hoping that her graduation day would be a big family celebration, when they could all reflect on how delighted her dad would have been of his daughter's achievement. "It would have been bittersweet because he wasn't going to be there and he would have been so proud," says Ellie. "The whole family were looking forward to my graduation day so they could celebrate. It would have been such a thing for dad, who had made it so clear of how proud he was of me and the work I was doing," she says. "It's been a tough year for me but I've worked my way through it as he would have wanted, and now it's just kind of finished and we're not getting the celebration that we're all yearning for. "No matter what they would pull out of the bag now, it wouldn't live up to expectations. But that's the way the cards have been dealt - we are the class of Covid-19." Ellie was class rep and in early March, when numbers in Northern Ireland were in single figures, students were beginning to ask questions about what would happen if lockdown was introduced. "We had a meeting a week before the lockdown with a panel working on what it would mean - and then it just happened. "The staff and the students' union were great - if you had questions they tried to answer them as soon as they could," she says. Ellie decided to stay in Portstewart and continue with her job at Asda, while working on her dissertation, as she was concerned about passing anything on to her mum Sheena, who has degenerative disc disease. Expand Close Tough year: Ellie McGuinness / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tough year: Ellie McGuinness She says the university provided extensions for anyone who asked for one and the exams were put online, with students given nine days to submit their work. It meant that while some students took the full nine days, others finished earlier. "Instead of a last exam where we all leave together and go straight to the pub, it was staggered. It didn't feel as final as your final finals would feel, although in retrospect I was probably the calmest I've ever felt in any exam," Ellie says. Graduations were due to be held in early July but have now been cancelled and degrees will be posted out in August. Ellie says the university is still hoping to host a formal celebration at some point, but it will be difficult to have people congregating in such numbers. "They're also looking at something they can do now, like a virtual graduation - it will be a celebration at least. But you work so hard for four years and you look forward to the cap and gown and the nice dress and getting your whole family together," she adds. Ellie had hoped to move to Dublin after graduation and work with the Simon Community homeless charity where she did her placement, but she says that few companies are hiring at the moment. Instead, she is continuing to work in Asda - she has now switched to their Omagh - and has moved home where she is careful to socially distance from her mum and sister. "We know lockdown restrictions are easing faster than originally set out, but it could be next week or it could be September or October," she says. "If the hotels are open again, there will be homeless people on the street and I'd like to help them." Lucy Brown (22), a final year law student at Queen's University Belfast, had heard rumours that former first lady Hillary Clinton would be the guest of honour at her graduation on July 7 - but the students have now been told they will have a virtual graduation with a celebratory event. Expand Close Lucy Brown / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lucy Brown The students attended their Law Ball in early February, but within weeks rumours were circulating about the pandemic, the south Belfast student says. Lucy went into lockdown earlier than the rest of her friends because her dad was in a high risk group. "I stopped going to the library the week before St Patrick's Day because my mum was worried about it," she says. "After St Patrick's Day the classes were just put online. Ultimately the exams were put online - one of the core modules was meant to be a three-hour exam in a hall but it ended up being put online." Like Jamie, Lucy, who has three older sisters Fiona, Claire and Alison, has found the whole experience rather underwhelming. She'd been looking forward to walking out of the exam room after her final exam and then enjoying the customary celebrations in a local bar with her friends. "In the past two years, we would have gone to the Student Union or the Parlour Bar after our exams and it doesn't feel the same now," she says. "Having a sip of the can didn't really taste the same when it was in my living room though it was good all the same," she says. Queen's has reassured students that the virtual graduation is just a way to get their degree classification and they will get a celebration event where they can wear their robes. "We don't know when it will be," says Lucy. "Obviously it can only take place when it's sensible to do so, but hopefully it will be in the not too distant future." For Lucy, too, life is now on hold. She had been considering going travelling this summer with friends, a last burst of freedom before applying for jobs, but is grateful that she hadn't booked anything. "Obviously, it was not really the way that we wanted to end university but there is all so much worse going on in the world - look at the work that doctors and nurses have been doing," she says. "We've a good group of friends and we know we will celebrate when the time is right. It's just not the right time now." The World Health Organization (WHO) will end the hydroxychloroquine arm of its SOLIDARITY coronavirus treatment trial once and for all, the agency announced on Wednesday. Officials for the international consortium said their decision was based on evidence from the multinational SOLIDARITY trial itself, a review of other studies on the drug, and the decision of the UK's Recovery trial to the hydroxychloroquine arm of its own treatment studies. It comes just two days after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked its emergency use authorization (EUA) of the malaria drug, which has been promoted by President Trump, for treating coronavirus. Hydroxychloroquine was one of the four existing drugs being tested by the WHO, which paused the study of the malaria drug after a study in The Lancet suggested patients who took it were more likely to die. The study arm was paused after suspicions were raised over the Lancet study, then resume following the journal article's retraction. Now, the WHO seems to have dropped hydroxychloroquine permanently. The agency also announced on Wednesday that it would add dexamethasone to the SOLIDARITY trial after the drug was found to save one in every eight patients on ventilators from dying of coronavirus in a University of Oxford study published yesterday. The WHO announced Wednesday that it is dropping hydroxychloroquine from its multi-arm, multi-national SOLIDARITY trial for potential coronavirus treatments 'Data from Solidarity (including the French Discovery trial data) and the recently announced results from the UK's Recovery trial both showed that hydroxychloroquine does not result in the reduction of mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients, when compared with standard of care,' the WHO said in an emailed statement. No more patients enrolled in the SOLIDARITY trial will be assigned to receive hydroxychloroquine. Those who are already in the middle of a course of hydroxychloroquine can continue taking it or stop immediately, depending on the guidance of their doctors. After months of controversy, robust clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine are finally returning verdicts on the drug - and they are not favorable. The WHO cited a broad review of studies and, specifically the results of the UK's Recovery trial, which compared the outcomes of 1,542 coronavirus patients who took hydroxychloroquine to 3,132 who did not. 'We reviewed the data and concluded that there is no evidence of a beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalized with Covid and decided to stop enrolling patients to the hydroxychloroquine arm, with immediate effect, and that has been actioned this morning,' the trial's deputy chief investigator, Dr Martin Landray of the University of Oxford said on June 5. On Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stripped hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by Trump, of its emergency use authorization for treating coronavirus patients. It comes after Dr Gary Brisbow, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority's medical countermeasure programs requested the FDA revoke the controversial drug's status. Already, the FDA had issued a warning about the use of the drug outside clinical trials or hospitals, due to its potential to cause dangerous heart side effects, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommended its use be isolated to trials. Earlier this month, a study linking the drug to a higher risk of death in COVID-19 patients was retracted from the medical journal The Lancet, reigniting debates over the drug and its safety. But the FDA cited new data from a clinical trial as evidence that the drug does not help coronavirus patients recover, and may pose risks that outweigh its potential benefits. Because hydroxychloroquine has long been approved for treating other conditions - malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis - it could still be used 'off-label' and clinical trials may continue. The WHO, headed by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, paused its hydroxychloroquine trial, then resumed it and has now ended it for good Still, the FDA's decision to revoke its emergency approval status comes as a blow to President Trump - who has been conspicuously quieter about the drug in recent weeks - and to at least one hope for a coronavirus treatment. 'FDA has concluded that, based on this new information and other information discussed in the attached memorandum, it is no longer reasonable to believe that oral formulations of HCQ [hydroxychloroquine] and CQ [chloroquine] may be effective in treating COVID-19, nor is it reasonable to believe that the known and potential benefits of these products outweigh their known and potential risks,' wrote chief scientist, Dr Denise Hinton, in the Monday letter. The FDA primarily pointed to the results of a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine performed at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Results from the study of 150 patients, published in the BMJ, showed no signs that patients treated with hydroxychloroquine fared any better than those who did not get the drug at any point over the 28-day trial period. Researchers stopped the study short as a result of its dismal results. The study was the nail in the coffin for the FDA's stance on hydroxychloroquine. When the FDA issued its emergency use authorization (EUA) for hydroxychloroquine on March 28, the decision was met with excitement from President Trump and skepticism from much of the medical community. FDA officials pointed tepidly to limited evidence that the drug might help stem the replication of coronavirus and ease symptoms. Since then, a flurry of studies have returned very mixed results, mostly based on small data samples. Several of these studies were stopped short, either because the drug was showing little benefit, or due to high rates of cardiac complications in the patients. Critics suspected that the FDA's quick decision was in response to political pressure from the Trump administration, a claim that agency head Dr Stephen Hahn has vehemently denied. President Trump promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating coronavirus and took it himself in the hopes it would prevent infection, but has grown quiet about the drug in recent weeks (file) It comes after three authors of a momentous study that claimed that hydroxychloroquine raised the risks of death for coronavirus patients treated with the controversial malaria drug have retracted their research. The retraction was published in the Lancet on Thursday, and comes just two days after the medical journal posted an 'expression of concern.' Along with the publication, more than 120 prominent scientists raised questions about the data used in the study, which was sourced from a database run by a private company, Surgisphere. On the heels of that research's May publication, international trials of the drug were halted - but the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday it would restart the hydroxychloroquine arm of its international SOLIDARITY trial. And President Donald Trump himself continued to take the drug he dubbed a 'game-changer' in the hopes it would prevent infection. The research, led by Dr Mandeep Mehra of Harvard Medical School, Dr Amit Patel of the University of Utah and Dr Frank Ruschitzka of the University Hospital Zurich, has been under outside review. But Surgisphere - founded by study co-author, Dr Sapan Desai, whose name was conspicuously absent from the retraction letter - refused to transfer its data to the auditors, citing patient privacy. As a result, the review was cut short and the study was retracted. 'We can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources,' the three authors wrote to The Lancet in their retraction. Even before the study was retracted from The Lancet, hydroxychloroquine was a controversial subject, politicized in part by President Donald Trump's references to the drug as a 'game-changer' and a 'gift from God.' The study's lead author, Dr Mehra, is a cardiovascular surgeon and registered Republican. Dr Mehra said in a personal statement shared with DailyMail.com that he found Surgisphere through a co-author and personally reviewed the company's data, but admitted that in hindsight, his review was perhaps not thorough enough. The study authors published a retraction of their research on June 4, less than a month after the original article was published. They revealed that their data could not be reviewed and apologized for any 'embarrassment or inconvenience that this may have caused' 'I did not do enough to ensure that the data source was appropriate for this use. For that, and for all the disruptionsboth directly and indirectlyI am truly sorry,' he said in the statement. Results from Vote With Me suggest that Dr Patel, an adjunct professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Utah may be a registered Democrat. Editors at the NEJM published an 'expression of concern' Tuesday that echoed that written by the editors of the Lancet. The NEJM, too, was suspicious of the data from Surgisphere. More than 120 top scientists and doctors had criticized the study in an open letter to the journal, flagging 10 major flaws. The Lancet then admitted there are 'serious questions' that need to be answered about the data - but did not reveal what those question were - in a public statement. But scientists say the move was too late and that the 'harm was already done', as the race for a cure to halt the virus that has ravaged the world continues. However, the World Health Organization announced Wednesday that the hydroxychloroquine arms of its international SOLIDARITY trial of potential coronavirus treatments would resume. People play chess at a park in Stockholm on May 29, 2020, amid the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND The decision to exclude Sweden from the lifting of travel restrictions between Nordic countries Finland, Denmark and Norway, following the coronavirus pandemic, "has created wounds that will take time to heal," the country's foreign minister told CNBC. A decision not to implement a strict lockdown like its neighbors has meant that Sweden, which has seen a far higher number of coronavirus cases and deaths, has been left out of an easing of travel restrictions between the countries. Since Monday, citizens of Nordic nations can largely travel to and from each other's countries for work and leisure purposes, but Swedes are still subject to restrictions due to a higher infection rate in their country. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde told CNBC Tuesday that she had "mixed feelings" about the Nordics' attitude toward Sweden at the moment, and that the move to exclude her country could damage relations. "On the one hand we have had an absolutely fantastic cooperation with the Nordic countries when it comes to the repatriation of our citizens ... Sweden took home 8,600 Swedes from all over the world with the help of our Nordic friends and we also took 1,500 non-Swedes with our flights, so this has been a fantastic Nordic cooperation," she said. "But on the other hand ... I think that those people that have been very used to working as if there were no borders, have been given a very clear wake-up call that different nations (are being treated differently) and I think this will, in many people, create wounds that could be difficult to heal." "I'm not generally worried about the future of Nordic relations, I am genuinely worried that this has created wounds that will take time to heal, especially in the border area," she said. Linde believed that tensions "will heal" and that the government would do everything it can to help, "but it might take a long time." No lockdown The country of around 10 million people went against the grain in Europe, and much of the world, by not imposing a strict lockdown on public life when the coronavirus pandemic emerged in late February and early March. Instead of shuttering all but essential businesses such as food shops and pharmacies, like most European countries, Sweden's government allowed bars, restaurants and schools for under 16-year-olds to remain open. It did ban mass gatherings and visits to elderly care homes, which have seen acute outbreaks of the virus, and advocated social distancing, working from home and good personal hygiene. Defending Sweden's strategy to the virus, Linde said the aim of Sweden had been the same as its neighbors: "To save lives and health and to keep the health system able to manage the pressure of the coronavirus, to mitigate the effects on business and work and doing this by a mixture of legally-binding measures and recommendations." "In two areas we can see where we have been most different from others. And that is that we have kept our schools open up to the ninth grade, up to 16 years of age, and we have not had a lockdown, meaning that people have to stay at home," she said. "But we have been very, very clear on keeping social distancing, hand hygiene, not traveling, not going more than two hours from your home, not going on public transport and also to work at home if possible, and we have made it economically possible for people to stay at home even with the slightest, slightest symptoms. And we can now see that more than 80% of people are still following those recommendations," she said. Nonetheless, the figures paint a sober picture of Sweden's experience of the pandemic, compared to its neighbors. Sweden has recorded 52,323 cases of the coronavirus and 4,939 deaths while Finland, Norway and Denmark (which all have populations around half the size of Sweden's) have seen far fewer cases and deaths. Denmark, for example, has reported 12,450 cases and 598 deaths and the other two neighbors even fewer cases and fatalities. Linde said it was still too early to say whether Sweden's approach could have been better, and that there were nuances to the outbreak seen in the country, compared to other nations. "The week the virus broke out was Spring Break in Sweden and we had so many more international travelers, more than a million, coming to Stockholm from all over the world. We only detected, at that time, Italian and Austrian travelers and we followed them up by testing them. But now, later on when we know more about the virus, we could see that it was the virus coming from the United States, U.K., Belgium and other countries where we did not do this testing and tracing," she said. Virus doesn't stop at borders As countries around Europe are lifting more and more restrictions on public life, Sweden too is seeing its number of daily infections continue to decline. The country's Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told CNBC Tuesday that the situation is improving daily. "If you look at the number of people being admitted to hospital, the number of people admitted to ICUs (intensive care units) and mortalities, all of these figures are either going down or at a plateau. So the epidemic continues but basically, it's very much on a plateau." Linde said she regularly speaks to her counterparts in Denmark, Norway and Finland on a regular basis and that she hoped restrictions would soon be lifted, particularly after the EU had already recommended that member states lift all internal travel restrictions from June 15, and allow non-essential travel into the EU starting from July 1. People sit on terrace tables at cafe in Stockholm, Sweden, on Thursday, March 26, 2020. Sweden is starting to look like a global outlier in its response to the coronavirus. Bloomberg Press Release 17 June 2020 Singapore - CapitaLand's wholly owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), has set a new record by securing contracts for 25 new properties with over 5,400 units across nineteen cities globally. This is the largest number of new properties Ascott has clinched in the first five months of any year. This is also a 139% year-on-year increase in the number of units secured, compared to the same period in 2019. Advertisements Through the new properties, Ascott will expand its geographical reach into four new major cities in China, Indonesia and Morocco. Ascott will enter Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province; and Nanchang, the capital and largest city of Jiangxi Province. In Indonesia, it has expanded into Jayapura, the capital and largest city of Papua Province; and in Morocco, it has ventured into Casablanca, the largest city of Morocco. Ascott will also further strengthen its presence in key gateway cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu in China; Batam and Surabaya in Indonesia; as well as Manila in the Philippines. The 25 new properties are secured under management contracts, franchise contracts and a lease. The properties will open in phases between 2020 and 2024. This year, Ascott has also opened six new properties in Singapore; Changsha and Tianjin in China; Gold Coast in Australia; Osaka in Japan; and Tours in France. Ascott continued to ramp up its presence with these new signings and property openings amid the COVID-19 outbreak, when many of Ascott's serviced residences remained operational to provide a safe haven for its guests, including healthcare workers, returning nationals, and those affected by border closures. As cities emerge from their lockdowns, Ascott's value proposition as a 'home away from home' continue to resonate well with its guests and partners across the world. Mr Kevin Goh, CapitaLand's Chief Executive Officer for Lodging and Ascott's Chief Executive Officer, said: "Ascott's record signing of 25 new properties globally despite the challenges of COVID-19 demonstrates that our partners recognise the resilience of our lodging products and the value Ascott brings as one of the leading international lodging owner- operators. We have a strong base of long-stay guests who appreciate the comfort of our spacious apartments where they can live and work. This has enabled our serviced residences globally to maintain robust average occupancy rates. We have already taken steps to ready Ascott to be the accommodation of choice in a post COVID-19 landscape and will continue to cement Ascott's position as a dominant lodging player and deliver more value for our guests and business partners." Domestic demand for serviced residences remains resilient in China Half of the 25 new contracts secured are in China. Ascott has also signed its first rental housing property in China, located in Shanghai. The expansion into the segment taps on the growing demand from young, mobile workers as well as returning students from abroad who are looking to rent quality fully furnished homes in the tier one and tier two cities on a long-term basis in China. In 2Q 2020, a quarter of Ascott's properties in China have achieved occupancy rates of over 70%. Ascott has also achieved 100% occupancy rate across some of its properties in cities such as Hangzhou, Suzhou and Wuxi over China's five-day 'Mini Golden Week' public holiday1. Mr Tan Tze Shang, Ascott's Managing Director for China and Head of Business Development for China, said: "Ascott remains confident in China's long-term growth and will continue to seek good investment and partnership opportunities to expand our footprint. Since May 2020, Ascott has fully resumed operations of our properties in mainland China and we are seeing encouraging signs of recovery driven by the country's strong domestic demand. With the implementation of green lanes between China and other countries such as Singapore2 and Korea3, we expect demand for our properties to pick up pace as international travel gradually resumes. We stand ready to welcome our new and returning guests to Ascott, their home away from home." In May 2020, Ascott launched 'Ascott Cares' to deliver stringent hygiene and cleanliness standards as well as safe distancing to continue providing safe homes for its guests, and a safe working environment for its staff. Covering nine commitments, 'Ascott Cares' is in compliance with the World Health Organization standards and local regulations. It is being rolled out progressively to its properties globally from June 2020. For more information on 'Ascott Cares', please visit:www.the-ascott.com/ascottcares. With the addition of the 25 new contracts, Ascott has a total of close to 118,000 units in over 700 properties worldwide. These new contracts will offer a boost towards achieving Ascott's global target of 160,000 units by 2023. 1 China's 'Mini Golden Week' took place from 1 May 2020 to 5 May 2020. 2 3 June 2020, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Trade and Industry on the Singapore-China Fast Lane for Essential Travel 3 Bloomberg, 30 April 2020, China, South Korea Ease Border Controls For Business Travel Robots are stepping into the breach during the coronavirus crisis, but what does this mean for jobs? When human contact needs to be kept to a minimum, robots can save lives and factories. But when the coronavirus crisis is over, will they amplify job losses? It may be a mechanised arm pulling beers in a Seville bar, a dog-like dispenser of hand sanitiser in a Bangkok mall, a cooler on wheels that delivers groceries in Washington, or a vaguely humanoid greeter at a Belgian hospital that also checks you are not running a fever. These are some of the new jobs that robots have taken on as lockdown measures have seen humans confined to their homes. 'Resistance falls away' "The moment there is a threat for humans, you should send a robot," said Cyril Kabbara, co-founder of the French start-up Sharks Robotics. Its robot Colossus helped save Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral when flames engulfed its roof in 2019, and has been adapted to help remove lead that contaminated the site. "Four or five years ago, when we went presented the Colossus, they laughed at us. The firefighters said: 'These guys are going to take away our jobs'," said the entrepreneur. But the Colossus has since been successfully integrated into the Paris and Marseille fire services. "The more we advance, the more the resistance falls away," he said. CRUZR welcomes vistors at University Hospital Antwerp in Belgium It is not just in the hygiene and medical spheres where robots have made advances. "This crisis has demonstrated that you have to have a capacity to continue activity even when a health or another type of crisis strikes," said Kabbara. "We've had quite a few manufacturers tell us that the robots allowed them to continue operating. And if they hadn't had them, they'd be at a dead stop." While owners like robots as they can keep operations running, workers can see them as a risk to their jobs. Rightly so, according to Brookings Institution researcher Mark Muro. "Recent research suggests that the deepening recession is likely to bring a surge of labour-replacing automation," he said in a recent note for the Economist Intelligence Unit. 'Robophobia' "People who suggest that automation is not taking away jobs in manufacturing, they're just wrong," said Oxford University economist Carl Frey. Don't be afraid: K9 doesn't bite, he distributes hand sanitiser to visitors in a shopping mall in Bangkok He pointed to China, a country which is rapidly installing industrial robots, with 650,000 going online in 2018 alone, and which lost 12.5 million manufacturing jobs between 2013 and 2017. The country has seen an explosion in "robophobia" during the coronavirus crisis, according to a study by Spanish university IE. While only 27 percent of Chinese supported limiting automation before the crisis struck, the figure has doubled to 54 percent. The Chinese are now close to the French, who at 59 percent, are the most hostile to automation. The study also revealed that hostility towards automation was tied to age and education, with the younger and less educated people most hostile towards robots. "Historically, technology has created a lot of jobs as well, but you see less of that happening in the digital world," said Frey. He pointed to automakers or manufacturers like General Electric still employing many workers even after adopting automation. "The leading techs of today are not creating so many jobs, apart from Amazon," he told AFP. No need to tip, a robot now pulls beers at one bar in the Spanish city of Seville No one safe ? With the rapid progress made in artificial intelligence, white collar workers are increasingly at risk from automation, experts warn. "No group of workers may be entirely immune this time around," said Muro. That is not to say that high levels of automation cannot coexist with low unemployment. Singapore and South Korea are at the top of the rankings for deployment of robots compared to the size of the workforce and yet they enjoy low unemployment. Nevertheless, Frey warns of rising anxiety about robots stealing jobs once the immediate fear of the coronavirus recedes. But he doubts a worldwide movement against automation will gain traction as job losses are a local phenomenon and tend to happen in regions that have long suffered from manufacturing jobs disappearing. Explore further Economic recovery kept more robots from eliminating jobs 2020 AFP Skincare is not complete without using a toner, the one important thing in the Korean beauty routine. Toners are used to help cleanse your skin from other residues and prep for the next skincare products you'll be applying. Take note, though, that any Korean beauty regimen, women don't settle for any regular alcohol-based toners. The high acidity would tend to dry and damage the skin. They choose to go for hydrating toners for a gentler way of removing dirt while making sure there's enough moisture to achieve smooth, glowing skin. Below are some must-haves K-beauty toners for all skin types. This toner hydrates on any skin type. It contains amino acids that deeply moisten the skin. Perfect for removing stubborn dirt and sebum, leaving smooth and hydrated. Klairs Supple Preparation Facial Toner is alcohol-free and contains multiple essential oils. This toner that anyone with skin that is dehydrated and sensitive must use. This one's money's worth of splashing your skin with one of the best hydrating toners. A big bottle of Banila Co's helps to clear skin impurities to maintain your skin pH balance. With it's lightweight, non-greasy, and uncomfortable feeling gives you more confidence. The floral scent well makes you feel relax and pampered. Is it a toner or a cream? An exciting and unique product for COSRX Toner To Cream. This two-in-one item might just make the smart choice if you are looking for something beneficial. COSRX is a genius for producing a product that comes with a toner-slash-lotion to use. Once you put on your skin, it looks like a cream at first, but when applied, it sets like a moisten toner. It's not sticky, no harsh chemicals, and absorbs the vitamins that give a clear complexion. Innisfree is popular as one of the beauty essentials using natural ingredients from Jeju. If you plan to go out and get that oil in control, this toner is best for you. It contains a salicylic acid toner that helps deal with acne-prone skin. Innisfree No Sebum Toner will help restore pH balance and oil control to minimize pimples. The Saem Jeju Fresh Aloe Toner If you are looking for a toner with a touch of aloe vera components, then try The Saem's version. A product that contains 92% fresh aloe vera leaf extract that is from Jeju Island is worth to buy. Excellent toner that moisturizes and dehydrates any skin type back to life. What more could you ask for? A plant-based ingredient that helps brighten your skin's complexion. Its hydrating nutrient-rich formula is dedicated to moisturizing your skin and strengthening it. If you have tired or very sensitive skin, count on this toner to help restore your healthy complexion. It contains milk vetch roots extracts for your skin to absorb and stay hydrated. Popular skin clinic Pyunkang Oriental Medicine is known as one of the major oriental medicine clinics in South Korea. They sub-own Pyunkang Yul. Hence, it guarantees that this product is top of the line. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 15:18 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf84bbf 4 National Central-Java,COVID-19,coronavirus,virus-corona,new-normal,President-Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,working-visits Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo is scheduled to restart his working visits to regions across the country on Thursday as the government transitions into the so-called new normal period. Presidential Secretariat head Heru Budi Hartono confirmed the first visit. [Jokowi] plans to visit Central Java [on Thursday], he said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com. Heru, however, did not reveal the remaining schedule for the Presidents trip to Central Java. Read also: Jokowi jogs with military chiefs, reasserts their role in enforcing new normal The President and his entourage would apply strict health protocols during the visits, he said. Jokowi was previously limited to working from the State Palace in Jakarta and Bogor Palace in West Java as the government had imposed restrictions on intercity travel, including for the Idul Fitri mudik (exodus), to prevent COVID-19 from spreading from the countrys epicenter of Jakarta to other regions. The President attended several virtual meetings with Indonesian officials, as well as international partners, during the restrictions. (aly) RALEIGH, N.C., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NWN , a leading technology-enabled service provider, today became the latest corporate member of the North Carolina Technology Association (NC TECH) , the premier statewide leadership organization representing the technology industry. This new relationship demonstrates NWN's joint commitment with NC TECH to foster growth and champion innovation in North Carolina's tech sector. "NWN powers today's organizations with unparalleled technology solutions and support for any stage of digital transformation," said Jim Sullivan, CEO, NWN. "We have a strong presence in North Carolina helping many public and private sector customers, and I look forward to working closely with NC TECH in continuing to help lift the innovation and modernization that's happening throughout this region." NWN, founded in 1986, provides a unified customer experience with integrated offerings for unified communications, security, contact center, device-as-a-service, connectivity and advanced technology solutions. Together with its customers, NWN is focused on transforming the customer experience across commercial, enterprise and public sector organizations. "We are pleased to welcome NWN to our partnership roster as they help provide North Carolina businesses with the latest in customer experience offerings," said Brooks Raiford, president & CEO, NC TECH. "We look forward to working with them to help the state's tech sector evolve alongside the industry." About NWN: NWN Corporation, headquartered outside Boston, is an established leader in technology-enabled services that support remote work and transform customer and employee experiences for commercial, enterprise and public sector organizations through its solution-as-a-service platform. With 1,300 customers throughout the U.S., NWN provides a unified customer experience with the NWN Experience Management Platform and integrated offerings for unified communications, security, contact center, DaaS (device-as-a-service), connectivity and advanced technology solutions. To learn more about NWN's solutions and offerings, visit www.nwnit.com . About NC TECH: The North Carolina Technology Association has a mission to foster growth and champion innovation in North Carolina's tech sector, while providing a voice for the tech community. The organization works to achieve its mission through four core pillars: professional networks, government affairs, talent development and sector promotion. For more information, visit https://www.nctech.org . Media Contact: Carissa Ryan, CTP for NWN [email protected] SOURCE NWN Corporation Related Links http://www.nwnit.com Auburn, IN (46706) Today Mostly cloudy with snow showers around this morning. High around 30F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 50%.. Tonight Cloudy with periods of snow after midnight. Low near 20F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch. On Tuesday, in the morning, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC departed Government House for official travel to Mitchell, Charleville and Goondiwindi. Following, at the Shire Hall, Mitchell, His Excellency officiated at a Private Investiture for Mrs Marvelle Frances Kerslake OAM, and addressed guests. In the afternoon, at Murweh Shire Council Chambers, Charleville, His Excellency received a briefing from Murweh Shire Council representatives. Following, at the Cosmos Centre, Charleville, His Excellency officially opened the Astrodome, unveiled a plaque and addressed guests. Following, at Charleville Airport, Charleville, His Excellency viewed the site of the Brisbane Line Building. Following, at Charleville Airport, Charleville, His Excellency was farewelled by Charleville State High School, Charleville State School and St Marys Parish School representatives. In the evening, at Cascades Restaurant, Goondiwindi, His Excellency hosted a dinner in support of the Goondiwindi Regional Council, and the Governor addressed guests. Chinese female J-10 fighter pilot Yu Xu (R plane back seat ) performing at the Airshow China in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, China, on Nov. 11, 2014. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) Taiwan Warns Off Intruding Chinese Aircraft for Fourth Time in 9 Days TAIPEITaiwan jets on Wednesday again had to warn off Chinese air force aircraft that approached the island, Taiwans military said, the fourth such encounter in nine days as China steps up its activity near the island. The Chinese J-10, a fighter plane, and Y-8, a propeller aircraft often used for surveillance missions, entered Taiwans air defense identification zone around midday (0400GMT) to the southwest of the island, Taiwans air force said. Patrolling Taiwanese fighters gave a verbal warning to the Chinese aircraft to leave, whereupon they immediately left the air defense identification zone, the air force said in a brief statement. At present the situation is normal, it added, without giving further details. Since June 9, Chinas air force has flown at least three other similar missions, and were each time chased off by Taiwanese jets, according to Taiwans military. An F-16V fighter jet lands on the freeway in Changhua county, central Taiwan, during the 35th Han Kuang drill on May 28, 2019. (Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images) 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 has not commented publicly on the recent Chinese air force activity near Taiwan. Beijing routinely says such exercises are nothing unusual and are designed to show the countrys determination to defend its sovereignty. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. One of Chinas most senior generals last month said China would attack if there was no other way of stopping Taiwan becoming independent. China is deeply suspicious of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, whom it accuses of being a separatist intent on declaring formal independence. Tsai says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name. By Ben Blanchard Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. CALEDONIA, MI Revolution Farms, an indoor farm in Gaines Township that grows lettuce and salad greens, has announced its expansion. The company could triple its output by the end of the year, once an 87,000 square foot greenhouse expansion is completed and operating at full capacity. The greenhouse expansion will provide the company with two additional acres of space and enable it to produce up to 1.5 million pounds of salad greens each year, said co-founder and CEO John Green. Adding two more acres gives us the ability to grow more of consumers favorite lettuces, such as romaine, but also create ideal indoor ecosystems to grow more varieties of leafy greens and herbs, he said in a statement. Revolution Farms grows its plants on small, styrofoam rafts that float atop pools of water infused with nitrogen and other nutrients. The company sells its products at 24 West Michigan Meijer stores, as well various SpartanNash grocery stores. Construction of the greenhouse started in February. Company officials say the structure is expected to be complete in July and fully operational by the end of the year. The greenhouse is set to include a new feature, under which the planting, tending and harvesting process are fully automated. This is state of the art technology from seed to harvest, Green said. Read more: Toddler dies after being run over in West Michigan driveway Michigan coronavirus deaths continue to decline Juneteenth celebration and march for black lives planned for Grand Rapids June 19 Ahmadinejad has found himself in the company of past Iranian presidents who have been marginalised [REUTERS] Few could have imagined two years ago that the man who caused a Tehran spring that nearly brought down the Iranian regime, only for it to be saved by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, would today be reduced to political impotence. But after a three-month conflict, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be grateful Khamenei has not ordered his arrest, and, at least for now, is content for him to serve out his term as a lame duck. As this battle has unfolded, important lessons about the workings and dysfunction of the Iranian political and theological system have emerged. The limits of presidential power Like the two presidents before him, Ahmadinejad made the mistake of assuming Iranian presidents have power. He also incorrectly assumed that, because of his once special relationship with Khamenei, who had placed his full weight and legitimacy behind Ahmadinejad when it appeared his re-election in June 2009 was rigged, he could exploit his position to appoint his loyalists to key political posts while dismissing others he deemed to be his foes. The limits of clerical support No matter how much some clerics in the past supported Ahmadinejad, once Khamenei made clear his decision to effectively strip the president of his powers, the clergy placed their full support behind the supreme leader. Even Ayatollah Muhammad Taghi Yazdi, the presidents religious mentor, publicly turned against him. Some Iran experts have written that the battle is over divergent interpretations of Shia theology. This is placing a sophisticated mask over what is really a dirty and raw political struggle. In fact, the battle between the presidents faction and loyalists supporting the supreme leader is a conflict between two visions for the Islamic Republic: the supreme leaders vision, in which the ideal is nothing more than the preservation of the status quo, and Ahmadinejads vision, in which clerical rule is marginalised in favour of nationalism and populist religious fervour. Supporters of the supreme leader maintain that they are defending the Islamic Republic from a deviant movement, which seeks to do away with the traditional structures of clerical rule. Ahmadinejads opponents may not be far off the mark. The presidents closest confidant and adviser, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, has repeatedly made statements hinting at his disregard for traditional Shia jurisprudence. The limits of Khameneis tolerance Simply put, Khamenei could not permit a president to defy his orders, make political appointments unilaterally without the consent of various ministries, and pout at home for 11 days in a disappearing act to demonstrate his anger at the supreme leader. Ahmadinejad wanted to build his own network in key ministries that would be loyal only to him, not to Khamenei, in order to ensure the election of candidates belonging to his political faction when parliamentary and presidential polls are held in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Ahmadinejad was grooming Mashaei as his replacement, despite the loathing directed at him by the clerical establishment. According to high-level sources in Tehran, Mashaei may soon follow in the long line of Ahmadinejad loyalists who have been arrested. The fickle whims of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard While there is ample evidence to suggest that Ahmadinejad has support within the IRGC some commanders openly endorsed his candidacy in 2009 they did not step in to save him. In fact, former commanders in key political posts, such as Tehran mayor Mohammad Qalibaf, have sided openly with Khamenei in the dispute. Regime above all else As the points listed above show, what matters most to political elites governing the Islamic republic is regime survival. Ahmadinejad became a threat to this survival. He challenged the authority and legitimacy of supreme clerical rule, and he cast doubt on the divine attributes of the clergy without which the Islamic republic could not exist in anything like its present form. Whether he is allowed to finish out his term is still in question. As one political adviser said in Tehran: Ahmadinejad is a knife in Khameneis side. Removing the knife will cause a lot of bleeding, but if the pain becomes too much, the knife will be pulled out. Ahmadinejads fall lends credibility to the Green movement, which told Khamenei and all Iranians that he was trouble from the start. In fact, if Khamenei allows him to finish out his term, he should thank the Greens; removing Ahmadinejad would give the opposition a big boost in society, which has grown weary of Ahamadinejad. The question that has been asked repeatedly is: What does all this mean for the United States and other Western governments. Does Ahmadinejads fall empower or hurt the West in its troubled relationship with the Islamic republic? It makes little difference, despite conventional wisdom to the contrary. The argument has been made that Ahmadinejad and Mashaei were the best hope for engagement with the United States, a compromise on the nuclear issue, or both. However, when the president appeared last year to be encouraging a compromise with the 5+1 permanent members of the UN Security Council on Irans nuclear programme, this was purely for political gain inside Iran. The president never had any particular conviction to engage the United States or to improve relations with the West unless there were a domestic political reward. Once it became clear that there was no consensus within the inner circle around Khamenei for a deal on the nuclear programme, Ahmadinejad abandoned this goal, even though it would have made him popular within Iranian society. According to many opinion polls, Iranians favour better relations with the United States and Western countries. Ahmadinejads shift in fortune from an insider at the heart of the inner circle around Khamenei to a pariah has been shocking. While protesters who on one day in June 2009 numbered 3 million disputed the election results, Khamenei insisted that Ahmadinejad had won fairly, thus casting the enormous power and weight of the post of supreme leader into the contest between demonstrators and the president. This move marked a step away from the traditionally aloof and unifying role the supreme leader had previously assumed, and indicated that Khamenei had firmly cast his lot with Ahmadinejad. But no more. Ahmadinejad has now found himself in the company of previous Iranian presidents who have been marginalised or sidelined, such as the impeachment of the Islamic Republics first president, Abulhassan Banisadr, a longtime critic of clerical involvement in politics. He was impeached in 1981 at the behest of Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution and Khameneis predecessor for acting against the influence of Irans clerics. Similarly, reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who many hoped would open up Irans political and social atmosphere, was soon reduced, by the rest of the establishment, to wielding only very limited power. The paradox of the Ahmadinejad story is that, now, in the eyes of Khamenei, he appears to pose more of a threat to the survival of the regime than the Green movement, whose members have been arrested, tortured, and even killed all to install Ahmadinejad as Irans president. Geneive Abdo is the director of the Iran programme at The Century Foundation and the National Security Network, two Washington-based think tanks. Shayan Ghajar, a research associate for the programme, contributed to this article. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. The federal government has directed chief medical directors of health institutions across the country to open attendance registers for... The federal government has directed chief medical directors of health institutions across the country to open attendance registers for resident doctors. Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, gave the order after a meeting with members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) ended in a deadlock on Tuesday. Ehanire asked medical directors to open the attendance register on Wednesday by 7am and record those who are on duty and the ones who did not comply. He said those who did not comply will be assumed to have left the service. The resident doctors embarked on a nationwide strike on Monday after the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum it issued to the federal government. The doctors are demanding payment of hazard allowance, group life insurance, payment of minimum wage and provision of adequate personal protective equipment for all health workers. One day, you will be sitting where we are sitting; you will be going through the same thing we are going through; it is a circle of life, the minister said. In other countries, we have seen retired doctors and workers come out of retirement. Nigeria is the first country in the world where health workers went on strike during a pandemic. We at the ministry of health are ready to protect the lives of Nigerians, we are not going to allow our hospitals to fallow. The government has an obligation to support and keep the health every Nigerians. The resident doctors have told us that they are not returning to work very soon until certain conditions are met and they cannot keep extending the goal post any time they like. Those who report to work will be taken as those who are still in service and the register will be closed at 12 noon and by then we will know who want to still be in service. Aliyu Sokomba, NARD president, said the resident doctors will only end the strike within 24 hours when the federal government proposes a tangible deal on meeting the unions demands. Five suspected robbers believed to belong to a scraps stealing syndicate operating in some parts of the country, have been arrested. The suspects whose names are being held for security reasons, have, for some months now, cut into pieces of earth moving machines and other heavy equipment, such as crashers, that were handed over to the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) by the Limex Bau Construction firm. Limex Bau, a German construction firm, was contracted by government to rehabilitate the roads in Kumasi between 1999 and 2004. The company had its workshop at Sepe, near the Kumasi Airport roundabout, where the equipment was kept. Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Godwin Ahyiano, Ashanti Regional Head of the Police Public Affairs Unit, confirmed the arrest to the Ghanaian Times here saying the suspects operated deep in the night. He said two articulated trucks loaded with scraps have also been impounded by the Airport District Police. Preliminary investigation, he said, indicated that the suspects had already conveyed 14 articulated trucks of the scraps to Accra. According to ASP Ahianyo, someone approached the police claiming he had bought the equipment for scraps but could not produce any document. He had since not returned to the police who have stepped up their investigations into the matter. Efforts by the Ghanaian Times, to contact the Acting Ashanti Regional Director of the GHA, Ing. Edmund Obeng, for comment did not yield any result. 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 Artillery unit platforms on North Korean coast in the red circles are shown to be open, as they were seen from an observatory at Yeonpyeong Island in Incheon's Ongjin County in South Korea, June 17, suggesting a sign of the North's preparation for military engagement. Yonhap North Korea said Wednesday it has rejected South Korea's offer to send special envoys and will redeploy troops to two inter-Korean business zones near the border, unrelentingly ratcheting up tensions a day after . The North's disclosure of its rejection of the special envoy proposal shows the regime has no intention to defuse tensions through dialogue and will carry out a series of measures it has threatened to take in anger over propaganda leaflets criticizing its leader. The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also issued a harshly worded statement lambasting South Korean President Moon Jae-in for failing to apologize for such leafleting and accusing him of "pro-U.S. flunkeyism." South Korea reacted angrily to the North's moves, with the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae slamming the North Korean leader's sister, Kim Yo-jong, for her "rude" and "senseless" criticism and warning it will no longer tolerate such "indiscreet" words and acts. It also denounced the North's disclosure of its special envoy offer as an "unprecedentedly senseless act." The defense ministry warned that the North will pay the price if it actually takes military action, and the unification ministry expressed "strong regret" over the North's plan to send troops to the joint economic zones. Earlier, the General Staff of the North's Korean People's Army said it will send troops to the now-shuttered inter-Korean industrial complex in its border city of Kaesong and the Mount Kumgang tourist zone on the east coast two key symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation. The North also said it will restore guard posts removed from the Demilitarized Zone separating the two sides and resume "all kinds of regular military exercises" near the inter-Korean border in an apparent move to abolish a military tension-reduction deal signed in 2018. Sydney's PR queen Roxy Jacenko looks set to add another company to her highly successful business empire. The entrepreneurial powerhouse blonde, 40, took to Instagram on Wednesday, teasing the new venture. Roxy posted a picture of herself at a Sydney timber yard, proudly leaning on a piece of pine while standing in the parking lot. New horizons: Sydney's PR queen Roxy Jacenko looks set to add another company to her highly successful business empire. The entrepreneurial powerhouse blonde, 40, took to Instagram on Wednesday, teasing the new venture 'The face of someone who just bought 100 linear metres of pine for an exciting new side hustle. Coming soon,' she wrote in the caption. Roxy tagged friend and billionaire chicken heiress Jess Ingham and linked to a new business handle, XRJ Celebrations. 'The face of someone who just bought 100 linear metres of pine for an exciting new side hustle. Coming soon,' she wrote in the caption. Roxy tagged friend and billionaire chicken heiress Jess Ingham and linked to a new business handle, XRJ Celebrations The business-minded blonde was seen jumping in the air with joy wearing a black puffer jacket and exercise tights. The new direction isn't a surprise as Roxy recently revealed that isolation made her realise she 'hated' her high-stress job in public relations. 'It's been a realisation for me. I hated my job. I didn't like what I was doing,' she said on KIIS FM's The Kyle and Jackie O Show earlier this month. New ideas! Roxy tagged her friend and billionaire chicken heiress Jess Ingham (centre) and linked to a new business handle, XRJ Celebrations 'I'm now semi-retired,' she said, explaining how the hectic nature of her job made it impossible for her to enjoy life. 'You don't stop. You're like a mouse on that spinning wheel and it wasn't until we were in forced isolation...[I realised]' she added. Roxy revealed that her PR business had suffered tremendously as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Taking a hit: Roxy revealed that her PR business had suffered tremendously as a result of the coronavirus pandemic She said: 'We lost 85 per cent of our clients in three days. And I was like, 'Hang on a second, actually, I really dislike what I'm doing".' Clearly shocked, radio host Kyle Sandilands interjected: 'But you're so good at it!' 'Yes, but I mean, I've had a job since I was 14. So now I'm like, it's time to smell the roses,' the mother-of-two responded. Family time: Roxy is pictured with her husband Oliver Curtis, and their children, Pixie, eight, and Hunter, six Describing her career as a 'sick addiction', Roxy said she always thought she would retire by 40. While Roxy may be semi-retired, her flagship business Sweaty Betty PR will continue to be managed by her employees. Roxy founded the company in 2004 when she 24 years old. Sweaty Betty's former clients include Coles, Big W, Peugeot and Puma. The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to issue directions to states for payment of salaries and providing necessary quarantine facilities to doctors and healthcare workers engaged in treating COVID-19 patients. The government told the court it would issue the necessary directions. A bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, S K Kaul and M R Shah said that doctors and healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients should not be denied quarantine facilities. The top court asked the Centre to file a compliance report within four weeks on payment of salaries and quarantine facilities to doctors and healthcare workers and warned that non-compliance would be viewed seriously. The bench was hearing a plea filed by a private doctor raising questions on the Centre's May 15 decision that 14-day quarantine was not mandatory for doctors. Doctor Arushi Jain, in her petition filed through advocates Mithu Jain and Arjun Syal, had alleged that front line healthcare workers engaged in the fight against COVID-19 are not being paid salaries or their wages are being cut or delayed. During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre said that government would issue the directions to states and union territories within 24 hours to ensure timely payment of salaries to doctors and health care workers. He said that the May 15 circular on Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will also be modified and do away the clause for non-mandatory quarantine for healthcare workers engaged in COVID duty. Mehta also gave the assurance that a new order would be issued for providing suitable alternate accommodation for doctors and healthcare workers engaged in COVID duty to avoid risk to their family members. He said that Centre is also thinking to make non-payment of salaries by hospitals to health care workers a criminal offence under the National Disaster Management Act. The bench said that necessary directions be issued by union health secretary and chief secretaries of the State. On June 12, the top court had observed, "In war, you do not make soldiers unhappy. Travel extra mile and channel some extra money to address their grievances". It had said that the courts should not be involved in the issue of non-payment of salary to health care workers and government should settle the issue. Senior advocate K V Viswanathan, appearing for the petitioner, had said that if doctors on COVID duty are not provided accommodation near hospitals their family/friends are exposed to higher risk of infection. He had said that doctors and other healthcare workers, who are engaged in COVID duty, run a great risk of exposure of infection without proper PPE kits and without proper accommodation, their family members are also at higher risk of infection. On June 4, the Centre had told the top court that a "large number" of make-shift hospitals will have to be built in the near future to accommodate the constant rise in the number of newly infected people. The Centre had also contended that though hospitals are responsible for implementing the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) activities, the final responsibility lies with healthcare workers to protect themselves from COVID-19. It had further said mandatory quarantine for 14 days after the duty of healthcare workers of 7/14 days is "not justified and warranted". "It is most respectfully submitted that number of cases of COVID-19 are constantly increasing and at some point of time in near future, apart from existing hospitals, large number of temporary make-shift hospitals will have to be created in order to accommodate COVID-19 patients requiring admission, medical care and treatment," the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had said in an affidavit. On April 8, the apex court had observed that doctors and medical staff are the "first line of defence of the country" in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, and directed the Centre to ensure that appropriate PPEs are made available to them for treating coronavirus patients. Also read: India-Chine face-off: 'Why is PM silent, how dare China kill our soldiers', asks Rahul Gandhi A Coles shopper made a gruesome discovery after pulling out a whole chicken head from a packet of necks she was feeding her German Shepherd. Mersina Vranic screamed after stumbling across the horrific sight on Tuesday while giving her dog a treat. Ms Vranic said the chicken head - which she has since named Phoebe - is still sitting inside her fridge. Mersina Vranic said she was horrified after finding a whole chicken head inside a pack of necks bought from Coles 'I had a surprise in the pack of chicken necks this morning,' she wrote on Facebook. 'Getting a nice treat ready for our German Shepherd and found her at the bottom. I have named her Phoebe. 'I FaceTimed my husband telling him I could not adult after this.' Her post was flooded with comments from other disgusted customers. 'OMG I would have screamed the house down!' said one. 'Omg that's disgusting...obviously no quality control,' wrote another. 'How traumatic for you. Not to mention the chook!' said a third. Coles said they were investigating the issue. 'We're sorry to see this poor experience with some of our Chicken Necks as we have strict quality controls in place to prevent this from occurring,' a spokesperson said. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Coles for comment. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 06:02:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close STOCKHOLM, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 death toll in Sweden has exceeded 5,000, according to statistics from the Swedish Public Health Agency on Wednesday. The country reported 102 new deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the national tally to 5,041. Meanwhile, infections increased by 1,239 cases, taking the country's total to 54,562. There are 2,322 people who were and are treated in intensive care nationwide. DEBATES ON STRATEGY The high infection rate and death toll have sparked debates on Sweden's unusual approach to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. Bjorn Olsen, a professor of infectious disease and a vocal critic of the country's approach formulated by the Public Health Agency, told Sweden's Channel 4 earlier this month that he believed Sweden should have imposed a lockdown at the outset. On June 3, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who is credited as the architect of Sweden's coronavirus strategy, told Swedish Radio that there was "room for improvement" and that too many had died prematurely in the country during the pandemic. Tegnell's comments were widely interpreted as signifying a U-turn, but at a press conference on the same day, Tegnell maintained that he and the Public Health Agency still believed in Sweden's decision not to impose a lockdown but that, with the benefit of hindsight, there were aspects of the strategy that could be improved. Both Tegnell and the government have admitted that Sweden has failed to protect the elderly. Figures from the National Board of Health and Welfare published on May 28 showed that 90 percent of COVID-19 related deaths were among those aged 70 and up. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven defended, in an interview with Swedish Television on Sunday, the country's approach, insisting that it is too early to draw any final conclusions. "It is incorrect to say our entire strategy was a failure," Lofven said, adding that it is precarious to compare death rates across countries. "In a period where we are increasing the testing rate, it looks like the number of cases is going up but at the same time the number of hospital patients is also decreasing, the number of the dead is decreasing," he said. TRAVEL ADVISORY EXTENSION While many European countries have now started to open up, several are banning Swedes from crossing their borders or are imposing quarantine requirements on Swedish travellers. Neighboring Norway, for instance, announced last week that, with the exception of residents on the Baltic island of Gotland, no Swedes would be allowed to enter the country due to the high infection rate in Sweden. "I hope other areas of Sweden will soon have an infection situation that will allow for travels," Norwegian Health Minister Bent Hoie told Swedish Television. Norwegians who choose to travel to Sweden will need to self-quarantine for 10 days upon their return to Norway. Out of all the Nordic countries, only Iceland is prepared to welcome Swedes this summer. The country opened up for all international travelers on Monday, with the requirement that arrivals test for COVID-19 at the airport. Sweden, on its part, has announced that it would partially amend its international travel advisory at the end of June. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs had previously advised against all non-essential international trips up until July 15, but on Wednesday it announced new directives that mean the general travel advisory will be extended until Aug. 31, with the exception of ten European countries, where Swedes will be free to travel to starting June 30. The ten countries are Belgium, Croatia, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Enditem A 21-year-old Belfast man allegedly raped his younger brother and sister, a court has been told. He is also accused of abusing a cousin as part of a planned and premeditated series of sexual assaults on family members. The alleged offences were committed over a four-year period when the defendant was himself as young as 12. He appeared at Belfast Magistrates' Court on Wednesday charged with two counts of raping a child aged under 13. The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also faces counts of sexual activity with a child family member, and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child. Police said the charges relate to dates between 2011 and 2015. Opposing bail, a detective claimed the defendant could commit further offences if released. "He is suspected of committing multiple sexual offences against children he has had access to, and a number of these offences have shown a high degree of premeditation and planning," the detective said. During interviews the accused denied all of the allegations, but told police his memory may have been affected by taking drugs since the age of 11. Concerns were also raised about a potential risk to his own safety if others living in the neighbourhood become aware of the charges. Defence solicitor Damien Trainor said the case has led to "a massive rift" within the family. "They have essentially turned their backs on him now," he told the court. However, Mr Trainor argued that his client was only between 12 and 15 when the alleged offences were committed. "At the time of these allegations he was a child in the eyes of the law," the lawyer said. "He was so young that, even if convicted, he wouldn't have been able to go to the Young Offenders' Centre." Granting bail to an address approved by police, District Judge George Conner stressed it must be at a location outside Belfast. He also banned the accused from contacting any alleged victims. But with the prosecution set to appeal the decision at the High Court, the defendant remains in custody. Sent the 6-5 favourite, Musical Rhythmmaking his 2020 debutgradually reeled in leaders to land a half-length victory in the $36,000 Preferred Trot at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Tuesday (June 16). On The Ropes set the tempo with Derf Hanover sitting pocket through early splits of :28 and :57.2. Derf Hanover began to lose ground on the leader moving into the final turn while Musical Rhythm slid first over towards the top, ducking into the pocket passing three-quarters in 1:26.1 while On The Ropes owned a three-and-three-quarter length lead. Musical Rhythm closed ground on On The Ropes through the stretch and edged by in the final strides to win in 1:53.4. Mass Fortune K closed for third. Owned by Santo Vena, Nunzio Vena, Claude Hamel and trainer Ben Baillargeon, Musical Rhythm won his 37th race from 92 starts, earning $906,488. Mario Baillargeon drove the $4.50 winner. To view Tuesday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Tuesday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park. LAS VEGAS, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AGS (NYSE: AGS) (the "Company") today announced that it is offering a virtual meeting option to its 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders ("Annual Meeting") as a result of continuing concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The Annual Meeting will still be held on Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 8 a.m. PDT at the Company's global corporate headquarters at 5475 S. Decatur Blvd., Suite 100, Las Vegas, Nevada 89118. However, stockholders are strongly encouraged to avail themselves of the virtual meeting option rather than attending in person. Instructions on how to attend and participate in the Annual Meeting virtually will be posted at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/AGS2020. Stockholders who choose to attend the virtual Annual Meeting will need their 16-digit control number included with the Notice of Internet Availability or proxy card. By following the instructions on the website, stockholders will be able to vote their shares virtually. Any stockholder who attends the Annual Meeting in person is encouraged to wear a mask or face covering and may be subject to additional screening requirements, including responding to questions about COVID-19 symptoms. About AGS AGS is a global company focused on creating a diverse mix of entertaining gaming experiences for every kind of player. Our roots are firmly planted in the Class II Native American gaming market, but our customer-centric culture and growth have helped us branch out to become a leading all-inclusive commercial gaming supplier. Powered by high-performing Class II and Class III slot products, an expansive table products portfolio, real-money gaming platforms and content, highly rated social casino solutions for operators and players, and best-in-class service, we offer an unmatched value proposition for our casino partners. Learn more at playags.com. Forward-Looking and Cautionary Language This release contains, and oral statements made from time to time by our representatives may contain, forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations and projections, which are intended to qualify for the safe harbor of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the public offering and other statements identified by words such as "believe," "will," "may," "might," "likely," "expect," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "estimates," "believes," "continues," "projects" and similar references to future periods, or by the inclusion of forecasts or projections. All forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and projections of future events. These forward-looking statements reflect the current views, models, and assumptions of AGS, and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or qualified and could cause actual results in AGS's performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ability of AGS to maintain strategic alliances, unit placements or installations, grow revenue, garner new market share, secure new licenses in new jurisdictions, successfully develop or place proprietary product, comply with regulations, have its games approved by relevant jurisdictions and other factors set forth under the section entitled "Risk Factors" its annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 4, 2020, as such factors may be updated from time to time in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements made herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements and there can be no assurance that the actual results, events or developments referenced herein will occur or be realized. Readers are cautioned that all forward-looking statements speak only to the facts and circumstances present as of the date of this press release. AGS expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Media Contacts: Julia Boguslawski, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Investor Relations [email protected] Steven Kopjo, Director of Investor Relations [email protected] 2020 PlayAGS, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All notices signify marks registered in the United States. All and notices signify unregistered trademarks. SOURCE AGS Related Links http://www.playags.com Sweden's parliament on Wednesday held a 15-minute memorial, including a minute of silence, for the victims of the pandemic in a country that has seen nearly 5,000 deaths. "This particular moment is for all of them. Those who lost their jobs, their health, their lives," said parliament speaker Andreas Norlen. "But also, for those who remained when a relative's life ended," he added. "Before we continue our fight against the pandemic, we stop together and acknowledge their suffering, their sacrifice," he said to the lawmakers who stood for a minute of silence in the Riksdagen. Sweden, which is an outlier in the way it is handling the outbreak of the virus, has one of the world's highest death rates per capita. So far 4,939 have died of COVID-19 in Sweden and the approach has a support in the population. Outside parliament, a lone protester accused the government of denying elderly people proper healthcare. Sweden has repeatedly sought to defend its strategy by explaining it defers little to other countries, despite having never imposed a lockdown on society. Large gatherings were banned, but restaurants and schools for young children have stayed open. The government urged social distancing, and Swedes have largely complied. Just imagine being so horny and having such a high libido, that you single-handedly save your entire species. I only have one gif that fits this perfectly - Marvel Diego, the giant Galapagos tortoise, is a hero alright because he fathered hundreds of kids and almost single-handedly saved his entire species that was once under the threat of extinction. But, he can rest now knowing he has changed the world, in a sense. Galapagos national park Basically, Diego was a part of the Galapagos national park's breeding programme on Santa Cruz island and after decades of breeding in captivity, he, along with 24 other tortoises, are going back home and have been put out to pasture on their native island. They're now going from Santa Cruz to the remote and uninhabited Espanola. Calling it the end of an era, Ecuador's environment minister Paulo Proano Andrade said, "We are closing an important chapter." AP Now, something we can all relate to after this year; before the 100-year-old Diego and the other tortoises were taken to Espanola on a boat, they had to undergo a quarantine period to avoid them carrying seeds from plants that are not native to the island. What makes Diego the star of this mating programme was the fact that he alone was responsible for at least 40% of the 2,000-tortoise population. Wow, that's impressive. Galapagos national park About half a century ago, only two males and 12 females of Diegos species were alive on Espanola, and even they were too spread to actually reproduce. In came Diego from Californias San Diego Zoo who came and conquered. Despite a veto from the governor, the Louisiana House has plowed ahead with a top priority for business lobbying groups, trying to lessen the money that people could win against insurance companies and businesses in car wreck lawsuits. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards on June 12 vetoed the Republican-pushed bill to make sweeping changes to Louisianas civil litigation system, a proposal passed in the regular session that ended June 1. Rather than try to override that veto, the House on June 15 passed two new, rewritten bills aimed at the same tort reform goal of lessening successful civil lawsuits in car accidents or shrinking the damages awarded. One measure, sponsored by Republican Rep. Ray Garofalo, was sent to the Senate with a 74-25 vote. A second proposal, sponsored by GOP House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, headed to the Senate with a 78-22 vote. Supporters say a Louisiana legal environment that encourages lawsuits with promises of big payouts is damaging existing business in the state and making it harder to draw new industry. Gov. Edwards vetoed a crucial tort reform bill during the regular session, but were not giving up, Dawn Starns, Louisiana state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, said in a statement. She added: The cost of defending itself against just one frivolous lawsuit could be enough to drive a small business out of business, even if the small business wins at trial or the case is eventually thrown out of court. Bill proponents have pitched the civil litigation system changes as a way to lower Louisianas insurance costs, which are the nations second-highest, by making it less lucrative to sue over car accidents. But Edwards noted the bill he vetoed by Republican Sen. Kirk Talbot didnt contain a commitment that it would lower insurance rates. Opponents of the revised bills passed, largely Democrats, repeated that point. We are lying to our constituents by saying we will lower insurance rates by passing this legislation, said Rep. Mandie Landry, a New Orleans Democrat. Theyve also said the measure would keep people from getting money needed to cover their medical bills and could increase costs for courts. This aint even putting lipstick on the pig. This is a pig from the beginning, Rep. Robby Carter, a Democrat from Greensburg, said in objecting to Garofalos bill. Republicans who knew they had the votes to pass the measures didnt take questions about the bills or offer speeches about them on June 15. Edwards said hes willing to continue negotiations, but bill backers worry the governor wont sign any version because his allies and campaign contributors include personal injury lawyers. The civil litigation changes sought by business groups and spread across multiple bills would: Force jury trials more frequently, so that lawyers would have to argue damage claims to more people than a single judge; Allow information about whether someone was wearing a seatbelt as evidence in litigation; Cap certain damages that can be awarded; Limit when insurance companies can be sued directly; Increase the time accident victims can file lawsuits to give more time for settlement negotiations. The bills are House Bills 44 and 57. Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Legislation Auto Louisiana Politics According to intelligence reports, one member of Russia-led forces was killed on June 16. Russia's hybrid military forces on June 16 mounted nine attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, with one member of the Joint Forces reported as wounded in action. "The Russian Federation's armed formations violated the ceasefire nine 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 17. "As a result, one Ukrainian serviceman sustained combat-related injuries in enemy shelling." Read alsoUkraine one of world's most mined countries MP Russian-led forces opened fire from proscribed 122mm artillery systems, 120mm and 82mm mortars, as well as cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, and small arms. Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the towns of Avdiyivka and Maryinka, and the villages of Novozvanivka, Krymske, Novo-Oleksandrivka, Orikhove, and Pyshchevyk. Joint Forces returned fire to each enemy attack. According to intelligence reports, one member of Russia-led forces was killed on June 16. "Since Wednesday midnight, Russia-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions twice near the villages of Orikhove and Luhanske, using 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, and rifles," the update said. No Ukrainian army casualties have been reported since Wednesday midnight. By John W. Whitehead Whats been most striking to me is just how one-sided the rules are when Americans take on their own government. It has been dismaying to learn the extent to which rules and laws shield the government from accountability for its abusesor even lawbreaking. Its been a long and frightening lesson. The rules seem rigged to protect government lawlessness, and the playing field is uneven. Too many processes favor the government. The deck is still stacked. Journalist Sharyl Attkisson June 16, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - The system is rigged. The system is rigged, the government is corrupt, and we the people continue to waste our strength by fighting each other rather than standing against the tyrant in our midst. Because the system is rigged, because the government is corrupt, and because we the people remain polarized and divided, the police state will keep winning and we the people will keep losing. Because the system is rigged and the U.S. Supreme Courtthe so-called peoples courthas exchanged its appointed role as a gatekeeper of justice for its new role as maintainer of the status quo, there will be little if no consequences for the cops who brutalize and no justice for the victims of police brutality. Because the system is rigged, there will be no consequences for police who destroyed a private home by bombarding it with tear gas grenades during a SWAT team raid gone awry, or for the cop who mistakenly shot a 10-year-old boy after aiming for and missing the non-threatening family dog, or for the arresting officer who sicced a police dog on a suspect who had already surrendered. This is how unarmed Americans keep dying at the hands of militarized police. By refusing to accept any of the eight or so qualified immunity cases before it this term that strove to hold police accountable for official misconduct, the Supreme Court delivered a chilling reminder that in the American police state, we the people are at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to serve and protect. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter This is how qualified immunity keeps the police state in power. Lawyers tend to offer a lot of complicated, convoluted explanations for the doctrine of qualified immunity, which was intended to insulate government officials from frivolous lawsuits, but the real purpose of qualified immunity is to rig the system, ensuring that abusive agents of the government almost always win and the victims of government abuse almost always lose. How else do you explain a doctrine that requires victims of police violence to prove that their abusers knew their behavior was illegal because it had been deemed so in a nearly identical case at some prior time: its a setup for failure. Do you know how many different ways a cop can kill, maim, torture and abuse someone without being held liable? The cops know: in large part due to training classes that drill them on the art of sidestepping the Fourth Amendment, which protects us from being bullied, badgered, beaten, broken and spied on by government agents. This is how we the people keep losing. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in Harlow v. Fitzgerald (1982) that suing government officials for monetary damages is the only realistic avenue of holding them accountable for abusing their offices and violating the Constitution, it has ostensibly given the police and other government agents a green light to shoot first and ask questions later, as well as to probe, poke, pinch, taser, search, seize, strip and generally manhandle anyone they see fit in almost any circumstance, all with the general blessing of the courts. Whether its police officers breaking through peoples front doors and shooting them dead in their homes or strip searching motorists on the side of the road, these instances of abuse are continually validated by a judicial system that kowtows to virtually every police demand, no matter how unjust, no matter how in opposition to the Constitution. Make no mistake about it: this is what constitutes law and order in the American police state. These are the hallmarks of a police state: where police officers, no longer mere servants of the people entrusted with keeping the peace, are part of an elite ruling class dependent on keeping the masses corralled, under control, and treated like suspects and enemies rather than citizens. Unfortunately, weve been traveling this dangerous road for a long time now. A review of critical court rulings over the past several decades, including rulings affirming qualified immunity protections for government agents by the U.S. Supreme Court, reveals a startling and steady trend towards pro-police state rulings by an institution concerned more with establishing order, protecting the ruling class, and insulating government agents from charges of wrongdoing than with upholding the rights enshrined in the Constitution. Indeed, as Reuters reports, qualified immunity has become a nearly failsafe tool to let police brutality go unpunished and deny victims their constitutional rights. Worse, as Reuters concluded, the Supreme Court has built qualified immunity into an often insurmountable police defense by intervening in cases mostly to favor the police. The system is rigged. Police can claim qualified immunity for warrantless searches. In Anderson v. Creighton, the Supreme Court ruled that FBI and state law enforcement agents were entitled to qualified immunity protections after they were sued for raiding a private home without a warrant and holding family members at gunpoint, all in a search for a suspected bank robber who was not in the house. Police can claim qualified immunity for warrantless arrests based on mere suspicion. In Hunter v. Bryant, the Court ruled that police acted reasonably in arresting James Bryant without a warrant in order to protect the president. Bryant had allegedly written a letter that referenced a third-party plot to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, but police had no proof that he intended to harm Reagan beyond a mere suspicion. The charges against Bryant were eventually dropped. Police can claim qualified immunity for using excessive force against protesters. In Saucier v. Katz, the Court ruled in favor of federal law enforcement agents who forcefully tackled a protester as he attempted to unfurl a banner at Vice President Gores political rally. The Court reasoned that the officers acted reasonably given the urgency of protecting the vice president. Police can claim qualified immunity for shooting a fleeing suspect in the back. In Brosseau v. Haugen, the Court dismissed a lawsuit against a police officer who shot Kenneth Haugen in the back as he entered his car in order to flee from police. The Court ruled that in light of existing case law, the cops conduct fell in the hazy border between excessive and acceptable force and so she did not violate clearly established law. Police can claim qualified immunity for shooting a mentally impaired person. In City of San Francisco v. Sheehan, the Court ruled in favor of police who repeatedly shot Teresa Sheehan during the course of a mental health welfare check. The Court ruled that it was not unreasonable for police to pepper spray and shoot Sheehan multiple times after entering her room without a warrant and encountering her holding a knife. Police officers can use lethal force in car chases without fear of lawsuits. In Plumhoff v. Rickard, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that police officers who used deadly force to terminate a car chase were immune from a lawsuit. The officers were accused of needlessly resorting to deadly force by shooting multiple times at a man and his passenger in a stopped car, killing both individuals. Police can stop, arrest and search citizens without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. In a 5-3 ruling in Utah v. Strieff, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively gave police the go-ahead to embark on a fishing expedition of ones person and property, rendering Americans completely vulnerable to the whims of any cop on the beat. Police officers can stop cars based on anonymous tips or for suspicious behavior such as having a reclined car seat or driving too carefully. In a 5-4 ruling in Navarette v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that police officers, under the guise of reasonable suspicion, can stop cars and question drivers based solely on anonymous tips, no matter how dubious, and whether or not they themselves witnessed any troubling behavior. Then in State v. Howard, the Kansas Supreme Court declared that motorists who recline their car seats are guilty of suspicious behavior and can be subject to warrantless searches by police. That ruling, coupled with other court rulings upholding warrantless searches and seizures by police renders ones car a Constitution-free zone. Americans have no protection against mandatory breathalyzer tests at a police checkpoint, although mandatory blood draws violate the Fourth Amendment (Birchfield v. North Dakota). Police can also conduct sobriety and information-seeking checkpoints (Illinois v. Lidster and Mich. Dep't of State Police v. Sitz). Police can forcibly take your DNA, whether or not youve been convicted of a crime. In Maryland v. King, a divided U.S. Supreme Court determined that a person arrested for a crime who is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty must submit to forcible extraction of their DNA. Once again the Court sided with the guardians of the police state over the defenders of individual liberty in determining that DNA samples may be extracted from people arrested for serious offenses. The end result of the ruling paves the way for a nationwide dragnet of suspects targeted via DNA sampling. Police can use the fear for my life rationale as an excuse for shooting unarmed individuals. Upon arriving on the scene of a nighttime traffic accident, an Alabama police officer shot a driver exiting his car, mistakenly believing the wallet in his hand to be a gun. A report by the Justice Department found that half of the unarmed people shot by one police department over a seven-year span were shot because the officer saw something (like a cellphone) or some action (like a person pulling at the waist of their pants) and misidentified it as a threat. Police have free reign to use drug-sniffing dogs as search warrants on leashes. In Florida v. Harris, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court determined that police officers may use highly unreliable drug-sniffing dogs to conduct warrantless searches of cars during routine traffic stops. The ruling turns mans best friend into an extension of the police state, provided the use of a K-9 unit takes place within a reasonable amount of time (Rodriguez v. United States). Not only are police largely protected by qualified immunity, but police dogs are also off the hook for wrongdoing. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a police officer who allowed a police dog to maul a homeless man innocent of any wrongdoing. Police can subject Americans to strip searches, no matter the offense. A divided U.S. Supreme Court actually prioritized making life easier for overworked jail officials over the basic right of Americans to be free from debasing strip searches. In its 5-4 ruling in Florence v. Burlington, the Court declared that any person who is arrested and processed at a jail house, regardless of the severity of his or her offense (i.e., they can be guilty of nothing more than a minor traffic offense), can be subjected to a strip search by police or jail officials, which involves exposing the genitals and the buttocks. This license to probe is now being extended to roadside stops, as police officers throughout the country have begun performing roadside strip searchessome involving anal and vaginal probeswithout any evidence of wrongdoing and without a warrant. Police can break into homes without a warrant, even if its the wrong home. In an 8-1 ruling in Kentucky v. King, the U.S. Supreme Court placed their trust in the discretion of police officers, rather than in the dictates of the Constitution, when they gave police greater leeway to break into homes or apartments without a warrant. Despite the fact that the police in question ended up pursuing the wrong suspect, invaded the wrong apartment and violated just about every tenet that stands between us and a police state, the Court sanctioned the warrantless raid, leaving Americans with little real protection in the face of all manner of abuses by police. Police can use knock-and-talk tactics as a means of sidestepping the Fourth Amendment. Aggressive knock and talk practices have become thinly veiled, warrantless exercises by which citizens are coerced and intimidated into talking with heavily armed police who knock on their doors in the middle of the night. Andrew Scott didnt even get a chance to say no to such a heavy-handed request before he was gunned down by police who pounded aggressively on the wrong door at 1:30 a.m., failed to identify themselves as police, and then repeatedly shot and killed the man when he answered the door while holding a gun in self-defense. Police can carry out no-knock raids if they believe announcing themselves would be dangerous. Police can perform a no-knock raid as long as they have a reasonable suspicion that knocking and announcing their presence, under the particular circumstances, would be dangerous or futile or give occupants a chance to destroy evidence of a crime (Richards v. Wisconsin). Legal ownership of a firearm is also enough to justify a no-knock raid by police (Quinn v. Texas). For instance, a Texas man had his home subject to a no-knock, SWAT-team style forceful entry and raid based solely on the suspicion that there were legally-owned firearms in his household. The homeowner was actually shot by police through his closed bedroom door. Police can recklessly open fire on anyone that might be armed. Philando Castile was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop allegedly over a broken tail light merely for telling police he had a conceal-and-carry permit. Thats all it took for police to shoot Castile four times in the presence of his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter. A unanimous Supreme Court declared in County of Los Angeles vs. Mendez that police should not be held liable for recklessly firing 15 times into a shack where a homeless couple had been sleeping because the grabbed his BB gun in defense, fearing they were being attacked. Police can destroy a home during a SWAT raid, even if the owner gives their consent to enter and search it. In West v. Winfield, the Supreme Court provided cover to police after they smashed the windows of Shaniz Wests home, punched holes in her walls and ceilings, and bombed the house with so much tear gas that it was uninhabitable for two months. All of this despite the fact that the suspect they were pursuing was not in the house and West, the homeowner, agreed to allow police to search the home to confirm that. Police can suffocate someone, deliberately or inadvertently, in the process of subduing them. I cant breathe has become a rallying cry following the deaths of Eric Garner and George Floyd, both of whom died after being placed in a chokehold by police. Dozens more have died in similar circumstances at the hands of police who have faced little repercussions for these deaths. As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we are dealing with a nationwide epidemic of court-sanctioned police violence carried out with impunity against individuals posing little or no real threat. So whats the answer to reforming a system that is clearly self-serving and corrupt? Abolishing the police is not the answer: that will inevitably lead to outright anarchy, which will give the police state and those law-and-order zealots all the incentive it needs to declare martial law. Looting and violence are not the answer: As Martin Luther King Jr. recognized, A riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt. Using the looting and riots as justification for supporting police brutality is also not the answer: As King recognized, It is not enough to condemn riots without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity. Police reform is necessary and unavoidable if we are to have any hope of living in an America in which freedom means something more than the right to stay alive, but how we reform the system is just as important as getting it done. We dont need to wait for nine members of a ruling aristocracy who primarily come from privileged backgrounds and who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo to fix whats broken in America. Nor do we need to wait for 535 highly paid politicians to do something about these injustices only when it suits their political ambitions And we certainly dont need to wait for a president with a taste for totalitarian tactics to throw a few crumbs our way. This is as much a local problem as it is a national one. Be fair. Be nonviolent. Be relentless in your pursuit of justice for all. Lets get it done. Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute . His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People is available at www.amazon.com . Whitehead can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. - " Source " - Post your comment below Bloomberg photo by Jayme Gershen. The positivity rate among Florida covid-19 tests surged to the highest daily level since at least April, undercutting Gov. Ron DeSantis's case that a recent increase in cases is in part the result of elevated testing. The new rate of people testing positive for the first time surged to 10.3% for Tuesday, from 7.4% on Monday. The last time it was around 10% was April 13. Trap Kitchen PDX, a Northeast Portland barbecue and soul food cart with roots in Los Angeles, will once again serve free meals to Black Portlanders on Saturday, this time thanks to Trail Blazers star CJ McCollum. A previous event sponsored by Portland-born rapper Amine drew more than 300 people to the cart at 3137 N.E. 82nd Ave. on June 6. This time around, Trap Kitchen PDX, rapper Kool Nutz and McCollum are teaming up to host the event from 1 p.m. until all food is gone. Free food on me, McCollum wrote in his Instagram stories. Pull up Saturday before its gone. The giveaway comes as Portland enters its fourth week of protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyds death came shortly after Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, was shot and killed by police in her home, as well as the release of video evidence showing the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man killed while he was out for a jog. In the weeks since, thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest centuries of systemic racism in Portland and across the United States. The seafood Baller Box at Trap Kitchen. Portland's best new food carts of 2018 Michael Russell | The Oregonian/OregonLiveMichael Russell | The Oregonian/ Donations taken during the event will go to Campaign Zero, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Self Enhancement Inc. and North x Northeast Community Health Center. Trap Kitchens story began in Los Angeles, where a pair of former gang members and best friends teamed up to create a catering operation in Compton, California. The Southern-inspired cuisine grew increasingly popular and found celebrity fans, including Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. Portlands Trap Kitchen was named one of The Oregonian/OregonLives best new food carts of 2018. -- Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. The union that represents Mississauga firefighters say its supply of N95 respirator masks is running "extremely low" and the shortage means members have to wear a cumbersome, self-contained breathing apparatus when responding to medical calls. Chris Varcoe, president of the Mississauga Fire Fighters Association, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1212, said firefighters are disappointed and frustrated at the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) allocated to them by the province. The union, which represents 715 firefighters, has had trouble securing an ongoing supply since the start of the pandemic. "We have run into a critical shortage and no new supply is available in the near future that we can see," Varcoe said in a Skype interview on Tuesday. A memo issued late last week directed firefighters to start wearing their self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs), also known as air packs, to medical calls as of this past Monday morning. Varcoe said firefighters are "towards the bottom of the list" when it comes to provincial allocations of PPE. Members of the association know they are not alone among emergency services personnel in lacking PPE but are still feeling "let down," he added. "They're pretty upset. They feel they're pretty frustrated. They do a great job. They work hard in the community to serve the public and to serve our citizens. And they feel very frustrated that it's been allowed to get to this point that we just simply don't have PPE for them to go into the field to continue to help out in the community when we're needed," he said. The N95 masks needed by firefighters are certified, approved by Health Canada and protect them when dealing with people who have COVID-19. Varcoe said firefighters know that other emergency services personnel need PPE as well, but he says firefighters are an integral part of the emergency response system in Ontario. "We don't consider ourselves above any other front-line worker," Varcoe said. Story continues "We expect that our nurses and doctors and paramedics and anyone else who is interacting with the public in an emergency service capacity is receiving the PPE. We would just also like to make sure that firefighters are also considered in that." Tony Smyth/CBC The firefighters' breathing apparatus is heavy and cumbersome and it is difficult to communicate with members of the public while wearing it. Varcoe said firefighters are now wearing the apparatus when responding to calls involving anyone who is sick or injured. That includes when responding to vehicle crashes. "The impact is significant to my members. But it is the the only option that we have right now available to us to protect both my members and members of the public," he said. Varcoe said the apparatus is normally reserved for smoky, hazardous environments, such as fully involved fires in houses, high-rise buildings, commercial properties and industrial settings The air packs also need to be decontaminated after use and are not disposable as are the N95 masks, he said. "They're not one-time use. That's an expensive piece of equipment. We're having to wear it, having to come out, bag things, get them back to the fire station, and the truck remains out of service while this is happening." Justin Fraser/CBC Situation 'not ideal,' fire chief admits Tim Beckett, Mississauga's fire chief and director of emergency management, confirmed on Tuesday that firefighters are having to wear their air packs. He said the fire service has about a week's supply of N95 masks and is working Ontario's Office of the Fire Marshal to try to obtain more. Beckett said the service doesn't want to use them all because it still needs the masks in operations outside of medical calls. About 14,000 N95 masks are on order, he said. The service ordered about 20,000 in February before the pandemic hit, it received about 6,000 and it has used nearly all of them. He said 3M will not release the 14,000 currently on order. As well, all of the available stock is going into the provincial stockpile, he said. Fire services in Hamilton and Ottawa had the same problem several weeks ago, he added. "We're exploring a few other options that we might have that are viable. Without the stock of the N95s that we require, we are going to be carrying on with the use of the breathing apparatus," he said. "Not ideal, but it still allows us to maintain a level of service to the citizens of Mississauga and protect our firefighters and the patient." The number of red squirrels is on the increase in Ireland thanks to the return of the pine marten, a native carnivore, a new survey led by NUI Galway has found. The new findings indicate that the return of the red squirrel is due to the decrease in the number of grey squirrels, which compete with them for food and carry a disease that is fatal to the native species. The re-emergence of the pine marten, which had previously almost disappeared in Ireland, is linked to the local demise of the greys. High densities of pine martens were found in areas - particularly the midlands - where grey squirrels had disappeared, with red squirrel numbers recovering in many of these areas indicating that they are capable of sharing habitat with the native carnivore, unlike grey squirrels. In urban areas, such as Dublin and Belfast, the grey squirrel continues to thrive. Grey squirrels were introduced to Ireland early in the twentieth century, and had spread to cover the eastern half of the island. As a result, the red squirrel range had contracted over several years and the native species was struggling to survive. The citizen science survey, a cross-border collaboration with the Ulster Wildlife and Vincent Wildlife Trust led by NUI Galway, detected significant changes in the ranges of squirrels and pine martens particularly in the midlands and Northern Ireland. Dr Colin Lawton of the Ryan Institute, NUI Galway said: 'This study brought together colleagues from institutions all across the island, and this collaborative approach gives us a full picture of the status of these three mammals in Ireland. We are delighted with the response from the public, who were enthusiastic and showed a wealth of knowledge of Ireland's wildlife. It is great news to see two native species recovering and doing well.' The report on the survey makes recommendations to ensure that the red squirrel and pine marten continue to thrive, with further monitoring required to allow early intervention if conservation at a local or national level is required. Dr Lawton added: 'We encourage our citizen scientists to continue to log their sightings of Irish wildlife on the two national database platforms. Our collective knowledge is a powerful tool in conservation.' The survey used online platforms provided by the National Biodiversity Data Centre (RoI) and Centre for Environmental Data and Recording (NI) to develop the data. It was funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The All Ireland Squirrel and Pine Marten Survey 2019 report (Irish Wildlife Manual No.121) can be downloaded at https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/IWM121.pdf ### LONDON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Medicinal cannabis firm Eco Equity has announced it has begun the second round of funding for its cultivation project in Zimbabwe. The firm is also introducing a convertible loan note instrument to investors offering 15% interest per annum in order to achieve its funding target. After achieving its objective of raising 8.1m during the first round of funding, the company has stated its objective of raising 10.2m during the second round. The convertible loan note is available to individuals who qualify as high net worth individuals, as well as Family Office, institutional, professional and sophisticated Investors. The loan note is also available to high net worth companies and institutions. The loan notes shall not be redeemable and shall automatically be converted into ordinary shares in the company. The loan notes have a mandatory conversion date of 36 months from the date of the issue. The interest of 15% shall be paid annually. Eco Equity is the first company to hold a medicinal cannabis licence in Zimbabwe and is on track to replicate the model in Antigua after positive talks between Eco Equity and the government. Jon-Paul Doran, CEO of Eco Equity, said: "Launched two years ago, Eco Equity is cultivating and exporting from Zimbabwe as well as providing dispensary locations in Antigua. The convertible loan note instrument we are launching with a 15% return delivers on our commitment to ensuring maximum returns for our investors. "Medicinal cannabis has proved itself to be one of the more resilient industries during the coronavirus pandemic. Having begun cultivation in Zimbabwe, we are looking forward to the next stages throughout the rest of 2020 and into 2021 as the market goes from strength to strength." The proceeds from the loan notes will be utilised to continue the advancement of the company's project in Zimbabwe. Eco Equity will use the funds to obtain extraction equipment, refining equipment, and the completion of three green-housing facilities, seeds and working capital. Eco Equity is based in London and is the pharmaceutical arm of investment vehicle JPD Capital. Eco Equity has operations in Zimbabwe with advanced plans to enter the Antiguan market. Eco Equity secured one of five licences to cultivate cannabis for medicinal purposes in Zimbabwe in late 2018. Cultivation was due to start as scheduled in the second quarter of 2020, however coronavirus has delayed that until the end of Q4 2020. About Eco Equity: Eco Equity is a London based company with rapidly expanding production operations in Africa. Eco Equity has acquired licenses to meet the global demand for an effective medicinal cannabis product supplied to the wholesale pharmaceutical industry. Eco Equity intends to become world leaders in the production of medicinal quality cannabis, supplying extracts and produce such as GMP-Flower, GMP-Oil to the pharmaceutical industry as an API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) to meet the increasing global demand for a premium medicinal cannabis product that transforms lives. With a combination of research, development, cultivating, growing and manufacturing Eco Equity's mission is to advance the medical extracts, related products and sector as a whole by educating the Zimbabwe community and developing products that are safe, effective and affordable for export. Note to Editors Please see a link to the website: - https://www.eco-equity.com/ and other useful social media links: Facebook - Eco Equity Limited Twitter - @Eco_Equity LinkedIn - Eco Equity Limited Images are available upon request. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1192308/Eco_Equity_Logo.jpg President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Business Insider/Getty Images President Donald Trump expressed approval of a concentration camp for Uighur Muslims in China during a private meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to former national security adviser John Bolton's upcoming memoir, "The Room Where It Happened." Xi "explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang," Bolton wrote, citing the interpreter's account. The interpreter added that "Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do," according to the book. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. President Donald Trump expressed approval of a concentration camp for Uighur Muslims in China during a private meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to former national security adviser John Bolton's upcoming memoir, "The Room Where It Happened." In a private meeting during the 2019 G20 meeting in Japan, Trump and Xi were accompanied only by their interpreters, according to Bolton's book, parts of which were published in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Xi "explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang," Bolton wrote, citing the interpreter's account. The interpreter added that "Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do," according to the book. Bolton also wrote in the book that Matthew Pottinger, a retired US Marine and the current deputy national security adviser, "told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China." The Chinese Communist Party has long been criticized for its construction of large concentration camps in Xinjiang, where millions of ethnic minority Uighur Muslims are believed to be detained under the guise of a counterterrorism campaign. Inside the roughly 465 camps in Xinjiang and the surrounding region, 2 million to 3 million Uighur Muslims are under surveillance and subject to mandatory "reeducation" training. One survivor said that people in the camps were beaten, subjected to medical experiments, and even forced to watch gang rapes. Story continues The camps have been criticized by the White House, and lawmakers from both parties have condemned the practice. Trump walked back his reluctance to take action against China for its treatment of the Uighur Muslims and signed a bipartisan bill on Wednesday. The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act was overwhelmingly approved by both chambers and calls for sanctions against officials involved with the camps. "Beijing's barbarous actions targeting the Uyghur people are an outrage to the collective conscious of the world," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in May. "This House of Representatives, in a very strong bipartisan way, we are sending a message to the persecuted that they are not forgotten. We're saying to the president of China: you may tell these people that they are forgotten, but they aren't." China has continued to deny that the Uighur Muslims have been mistreated and claims that the notion "blatantly smears China's counterterrorism and deradicalization measures and seriously interferes in China's internal affairs." "We urge the US to immediately rectify its mistake, stop using Xinjiang-related issues to intervene in China's internal affairs and refrain from going even further down the wrong path," the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, said in a statement, according to The New York Times. Bolton's book has sent shockwaves through Washington and the political sphere. The former national security adviser accuses the House of Representatives of "impeachment malpractice" in his memoir and says Trump engaged in far more objectionable conduct than just what he was impeached for. In one section of the book, Bolton described how Trump "pleaded" with Xi for China to purchase US agricultural products to help him win reelection in 2020. "He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome," Bolton wrote. In an excerpt published by The Wall Street Journal, Bolton added that "Trump's conversations with Xi reflected not only the incoherence in his trade policy but also the confluence in Trump's mind of his own political interests and U.S. national interests." "Trump commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security," the former national security adviser said. "I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn't driven by reelection calculations." Bolton said the president's actions related to his China policy "formed a pattern of fundamentally unacceptable behavior that eroded the very legitimacy of the presidency." "Had Democratic impeachment advocates not been so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg in 2019, had they taken the time to inquire more systematically about Trump's behavior across his entire foreign policy, the impeachment outcome might well have been different," the former national security adviser wrote. Read the original article on Business Insider By Park Jae-hyuk Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn's youngest son Kim Dong-seon recently joined SkyLake Investment, a domestic private equity firm (PEF) led by former Minister of Information and Communication Chin Dae-je, according to the conglomerate, Tuesday. At the buyout firm specializing in technology investments, the scion, 31, who is also a three-time Asian Games gold medalist in equestrian events, is expected to learn about various new businesses that could be growth engines for Hanwha. According to Hanwha, the PEF hired the chairman's son a month after he retired as a professional dressage rider in March, when he finished the grand prix freestyle in Wellington, Florida. At the time, he said he was willing to be an investment banker. Although there was speculation then that he would rejoin his father's company after his retirement, some critics mentioned his previous misdemeanors as a reason that Hanwha should not offer him a position. Kim, who once worked for Hanwha Engineering & Construction, left the company in 2017, after it was reported he assaulted several new recruits to the nation's largest law firm Kim & Chang during a binge-drinking session at a bar in downtown Seoul. Since then, he temporarily ran a restaurant business in Germany through a company named DS Group he established there. As he has decided to engage in the private equity industry, market observers wonder whether SkyLake will form a partnership with Hanwha. According to sources, the SkyLake founder and the Hanwha chairman, both born in 1952 and graduates from Kyunggi High School in Seoul, have been close friends. When SkyLake was launched in 2006, the Hanwha chairman was one of the SkyLake founder's acquaintances. They each offered about 1 billion won ($824,000) for the PEF to raise a 30 billion won fund. In 2015, Hanwha also acquired plant automation company SIT from SkyLake for 130 billion won. DARTMOUTH, N.S. - The federal government will soon start taking applications for funding to help the Canadian fish and seafood sector cope with the impacts of COVID-19. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. DARTMOUTH, N.S. - The federal government will soon start taking applications for funding to help the Canadian fish and seafood sector cope with the impacts of COVID-19. The pandemic has been a financial strain for small- and medium-sized enterprises in the sector, Fisheries and Oceans Canada said in a news release on Wednesday. In response, Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan said boosting Canada's domestic seafood market is the focus of two funding programs. "Obviously, fish and seafood in Canada is primarily an export market, but we knew that was going to change significantly with COVID-19," she said in an interview. Demand in Asian markets started dropping in January, followed by reductions in business from cruise ships and restaurants, Jordan said, adding it's taking a long time for sales to rebound. Given those challenges, Jordan said Canadians should consider the importance of the seafood industry when buying food. "You're supporting local, coastal communities and independent fishermen in a lot of cases." The $62.5 million Canadian Seafood Stabilization Fund aims to help seafood processing companies put necessary health and safety measures in place, while increasing capacity to store, package and distribute more seafood at home. "For example, on the west coast, we've heard about an oyster company that was always a fresh market company who now wants to do smoked oysters because that's been more of a domestic product," said Jordan. First announced in April, the fund is open to applications on Monday, with more than $38 million earmarked for processors in Atlantic Canada, $9 million for Western Canada and $9 million for Quebec. Fisheries and Oceans said the money was distributed based on the value of the seafood industry in each region and the funds will flow through regional economic development agencies. "They're the experts when it comes to making sure the money flows fast," Jordan said. Roger Pacquette, owner of Hub City Fisheries in Nanaimo, B.C., estimated international business is down 60 to 70 per cent because of the pandemic. Hub City needs equipment that would improve the marketability of its seafood for both domestic and international consumers, he said. People want seafood that's ready to cook and eat, he said, and processors need support to retool their facilities. The need for support predates the pandemic, said Pacquette, whose company processes an assortment of seafood including salmon, rockfish and shrimp. A single piece of equipment can cost as much as $300,000, and Hub City is only one plant among hundreds in Canada, he added. "You take two or three pieces of equipment, you know, that's $700,000 or a million dollars right there on equipment for one plant." Pacquette said $62.5 million isn't nearly enough to support the needs of processors across the country, particularly in the West, where he's seen fisheries and seafood products decrease in value. Try our Dish The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Dish arrives in your inbox every other Friday. See sample. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Meanwhile, the $42.85 million Canadian Fish and Seafood Opportunities Fund is open to non-profit organizations engaged in marketing and promotional activities related to the fish and seafood sector. That includes branding strategies, advertising and market research. The cost-sharing program between the federal, provincial and territorial governments was first launched in 2018 with the goal of helping the sector reach new international markets. Given the impacts of COVID-19 on international trade, Jordan said the fund is expanding to help promote Canadian seafood at home too. Applicants may now submit an expression of interest to the program on a rolling basis. By Brenna Owen in Vancouver This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020. Jayant Khobragade, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1995 batch, is expected to soon take over as the acting head of Indias mission in Islamabad, people familiar with developments said on Wednesday. Khobragade, who served as a counsellor in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad some years ago, has also held assignments in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Spain and was ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic between 2013 and 2017. He is expected to take up the position in the near future, the people cited above said on the condition of anonymity. Khobragade has worked in different divisions of the Union ministry of external affairs (MEA), including the disarmament and international security affairs division, and joined the Department of Atomic Energy (DEA) on deputation in 2017. Last August, Pakistan had asked India to withdraw then high commissioner Ajay Bisaria as part of a slew of retaliatory actions in response to New Delhis decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status. Pakistan had also decided not to go ahead with the posting of the diplomat, who had been chosen as its next envoy to India. Since then, the Indian mission in Islamabad and the Pakistani mission in New Delhi have been headed by their charge daffaires. In a separate development, JP Singh, who was till recently Indias consul-general in Istanbul, Turkey, is expected to take over the crucial position of joint secretary (Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran). Singh has considerable experience in the region and has served in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he was the deputy chief of mission. The Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran desk was until recently headed by Deepak Mittal, who has been named the new Indian ambassador to Qatar. The desk is playing a crucial role again, following a spurt in tensions with Pakistan and the uncertainty surrounding the Afghan peace process in the aftermath of the deal signed by the United States of America (USA) and the Taliban. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ISTANBUL Turkey intensified military strikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq on Wednesday, helicoptering in commandos and dropping bombs from the sky in its biggest operation on Iraqi soil in years to counter what it says are threats emanating from across the border. The incursion is part of a far more assertive Turkish military policy that also has forces on the ground in Libya and Syria, revealing its go-it-alone inclination to tackle perceived threats that has increasingly put it at odds with traditional allies in NATO. The latest offensive came just days after the Turkish armed forces launched another operation, dubbed Claw-Eagle, against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), hitting 81 of its targets in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkey has launched scores of cross-border attacks and air campaigns in hot pursuit of the guerrillas over the years and maintains several outposts in northern Iraq, but Wednesdays offensive is the first large-scale air and land offensive inside Iraq in more than a decade. The Turkish Armed Forces began Operation Claw-Tiger against the PKK terrorist organization, which threatens the security of borders and people with increased harassment and attacks on outpost and base areas from Iraqs north, the Defense Ministry said on its website. Turkish F-16 warplanes, armed drones, attack helicopters, rocket launchers and howitzers all fired on 150 PKK targets, the ministry said. Special forces crossed by land and from the air to enter the terrorists lairs in Haftanin, a mountainous area south of the Turkish border. The Iraqi government summoned the Turkish ambassador on Tuesday to protest the earlier airstrikes, but there was no immediate reaction to the ground incursion. Officials and President Recep Tayyp Erdogans ruling party heaped praise and prayers on the incursion, saying it was in line with international law. Turkey may be seeking to exploit the power vacuum in Baghdad, where the new prime minister has only recently been able to form a cabinet, six months after his predecessor was forced to quit amid street protests, said Hasan Selim Ozertem, an independent Turkish security analyst. Turkey considered a few political balances as it undertook this operation, he told Al-Monitor. After Turkeys engagement in Syria and its greater control of territory there, military officials may also be expecting the PKK to begin staging bomb attacks targeting soldiers. Destroying weapons stores and removing militants with an operation in Iraq may be a preemptive strategy. The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the state in 1984, and the governments last attempt at peace talks collapsed in 2015. At home, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cracked down on the countrys third-biggest opposition party, whose base is overwhelmingly Kurdish, accusing the People's Democratic Party (HDP) of being the political extension of the PKK. His government has jailed thousands of its members, including lawmakers and mayors. The leftist HDP rejects allegations of links with the PKK and has long advocated for a negotiated settlement of the three-decade conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds. The HDP campaigns for greater cultural rights for Turkeys estimated 15 million Kurdish citizens. This countrys most important problem is the Kurdish problem, which can be resolved with dialogue, negotiations and recognition of rights, HDP chairwoman Pervin Buldan said on Wednesday, according to an email from the party. Just as it cant be resolved by jailing politicians, it is a problem too significant to fix by bombing civilian areas. The weekend airstrikes hit areas close to Sinjar, home to the persecuted Yazidi community, and near a refugee camp in Makhmour, frightening civilians. A spokesman for the PKK said fighting on Wednesday was continuing along a 125-mile (200-kilometer) front line, according to the Associated Press. He accused Turkey of having expansionist plans as they did in Libya and Syria. Reports have emerged that Iran is involved in the operation, launching artillery strikes against the PKK. The news comes on the heels of a surprise visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Ankara this week, the first foreign dignitary to travel to Turkey since the coronavirus outbreak. His Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said they discussed coordination to combat terrorism and reiterated Turkeys opposition to US-led sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear program. Zarifs visit followed a rebuke from Turkeys powerful Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who was at the Iranian border earlier this month and claimed about 100 militants were active across the frontier. Iran knows it is responsible for curbing the threat they pose, he said. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ground forces commander said Soylus assertion was "groundless and irresponsible." As for Turkeys traditional Western allies, they are increasingly frustrated with Ankara, especially over its activities in Libya. Europe, led by France, is accusing Turkey of undermining NATO and the European Unions efforts to enforce a United Nations arms embargo on the north African country, which is in the throes of a proxy war fought by forces loyal to the UN-recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj and rebel commander Khalifa Hifter. Hifter is supported by France, Russia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries. Qatar and Turkey back Sarrajs government in the capital Tripoli, and Turkey sent troops and mercenaries to bolster Sarrajs defenses in January, helping turn the tide of the conflict in his favor. On Wednesday, Cavusoglu, intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak (who is Erdogans son-in-law) and Erdogans adviser Ibrahim Kalin met with Sarraj in Tripoli in a surprise visit. The criticism out of Europe comes as NATO defense ministers hold a virtual summit this week. Turkey continues to block a NATO defense plan for Poland and Baltic states despite relenting last year, Reuters quoted NATO diplomats and a French official as saying. Besides Libya and Iraq, Turkish forces are also present in Syria, where they launched two incursions since October, including one in the northeast against PKK-affiliated Kurdish fighters who battled alongside American soldiers in the fight against the Islamic State. Turkey has attacked the PKK inside Iraqi territory since the 1990s and while this weeks operations are larger in scale, fighting between the military and the rebels often resumes in the spring as the weather improves in northern Iraqs mountains, Ozertem noted. More recently the Turkish military has subscribed to a preemptive strike doctrine since 2016 to eliminate the threat before it emerges, he said. Turkey has recently expended its energy, focusing on two different fronts in Syria and Libya. Starting an operation like this in Iraq is a clear message that it wont be confined just to the east Mediterranean and isnt softening on its security policy toward traditional threats, Ozertem said. But he added that Turkeys projection of power comes at a cost. As it finds it difficult to act in unison with its traditional partners, Turkey has evolved into a country that acts unilaterally. The effect of that is that Turkeys actions appear to clash with the Wests interests. Relations with the US and the EU have seriously deteriorated, he said. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday wrote to Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal urging him to cancel the pending Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examinations for Classes X and XII scheduled for July, citing rising cases of coronavirus in the national capital. He requested the Pokhriyal to declare the results based on students internal assessment and pre-board exam marks. The board examinations were postponed due to the northeast Delhi communal violence in February followed by the Covid-19 outbreak. The remaining examinations of 29 subjects were scheduled from July 1st to 15. As I had suggested at the meeting held between the MHRD and state education ministers on April 28 that the results be declared on the basis of pre-board or internal exams, which include project work, periodic tests, term exam, etc., instead of conducting the remaining exams. I hope you would agree with me that the board exams, particularly those of Class XII are a high-stake exam for children. Subjecting them to take this exam in such an uncertain situation would be unfair on them, Sisoda wrote in the letter.He added: This is likely to rise to 5.5 lakh by July 31. In such a situation, if a candidate or someone in a family tests positive, he or she will have to skip the exam causing further distress. CLICK HERE FOR COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES Currently, there are 242 containment zones in the city which are expected to increase. At present, 251 government school buildings are being used as dry ration distribution centres, 33 schools are serving as hunger relief centres, 39 as shelter homes, 10 as transit migrant camps and 10 as quarantine centres. These schools will not be in a position to conduct the exams from July 1, Sisodia said. Delhi is planning to use the auditoriums of 242 schools to set up additional beds for Covid-19 patients and to meet the requirements of 80,000 beds. Holding exams in the same buildings where there would be hundreds of patients would be a serious risk for students. The school buildings cannot be used for exams. I once again urge you to let us now focus on building the confidence of parents and capacity of schools to welcome our children back to resume teaching-learning activities, whenever it is possible, instead of getting stuck with the remaining exams, he added. Some versions of chloroquine are approved in the United States. Bayers was not. Top officials at Dr. Brights former agency, known as the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, were not enthusiastic about the donation; in vitro, or test tube, studies were not promising, they said. Not a lot of enthusiasm based on just vitro data, Robert Johnson, an agency official, wrote in an email to a top aide to Dr. Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary of health for preparedness and response. Chloroquine has been shown to have in vitro effects on other microbes, but that has not panned out to clinical benefit. Dr. Kadlec and his aides, however, were insistent, the emails show. They wanted the chloroquine donation distributed widely as part of a clinical trial that would be sponsored by BARDA, with the National Institutes of Health providing the ethics panel, known as an institutional review board, overseeing the trial. At the same time, the technology giant Oracle was developing a platform that, the White House hoped, could serve as a vehicle for doctors to enter data about the drug. On March 23, the F.D.A.s top lawyer, Stacy Amin, dashed off an urgent email. Can we please start moving forward on BARDA sponsoring the chloroquine I.N.D., she wrote, referring to an investigational new drug application, documents that accompany a clinical trial. The president is announcing this tonight and I believe the W.H. would like it set up by tomorrow with data to flow into the Oracle platform, she added, referring to the White House. By that time, other companies had donated tens of millions of tablets of hydroxychloroquine, which is approved in the United States and often used to treat lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune disorders, as well as for malaria prevention. But top F.D.A. officials, as well as Dr. Fauci, took a dim view of the clinical trial idea and especially the Oracle platform, which they viewed as unworkable, according to three people involved in the decision-making. Dr. Bright, too, was balking; if the drugs had to be accepted into the national stockpile, he wanted their distribution tightly controlled. But the women who represented the brand often refused to follow that script. They wore the costume because the company refused to let them show up in a smart suit, but in many cases, they dropped the broken English. My grandmother sang gospel songs so people would know she was a woman of God, and she focused on children because she knew that many of those little white boys and girls had never seen a black woman before. She must have blown their minds when she served pancakes, reciting Bible verses and poetry from heart in the crisp diction I remember from childhood, when she would fuss at me and my cousins for droppin the letter g from the end of our words. UC Berkeley officials announced their plans for the fall semester Wednesday, including limited in-person classes and nearly all courses made available online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Chancellor Carol Christ had predicted a mix of in-person and online classes, but the schools strategy clearly leans toward remote instruction. Cal students will not be required to take in-person classes or be on campus for smaller discussion sections. Fall semester instruction begins Aug. 26. The in-person classes will be restricted to a small number of people, as dictated by factors including public health guidance and our own building density guidelines, Christ and other campus leaders wrote in their message to students. Almost all academic offerings, including those with in-person instructional activities, will also be provided via a remote method. In-person classes will be limited to a maximum of 25 students, campus spokeswoman Janet Gilmore confirmed. Even then, requests for classroom instruction will require approval from a special committee. Panos Papadopoulos, a mechanical engineering professor and former chair of the Academic Senate, described the approach as a more conservative, lower-risk hybrid model than what some other large, urban schools are adopting. Papadopoulos pointed to schools such as the University of Southern California and UC San Diego, which can think differently about testing and isolation with a medical school and hospital nearby. UC Berkeley also faces space challenges in holding in-person classes while adhering to physical distancing guidelines. Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle That helps explain why school officials are not pushing for students to return to campus in August. Our classrooms are already bursting at the seams, Papadopoulos said. Theres just not enough space to spread out instruction. Maja Ahmann, a UC Berkeley senior majoring in legal studies and public policy, had hoped to take all classes in-person during her final semester in Berkeley. She viewed Wednesdays news as a reasonable compromise. I think its the right thing to do, even if its not exactly what I wanted to happen, Ahmann said. Im happy there will be at least some smaller, in-person classes. I think they struck a good balance. Among other notable elements of UC Berkeleys plan: The school will provide housing for up to 6,500 students, staggering arrival dates to avoid the usual crowds. Students in residence halls will be expected to isolate for 7-10 days upon arrival and probably will be required to undergo coronavirus testing. Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle Space at one campus housing complex will be reserved for quarantine and isolation of students who test positive. All instruction, and final exams, will be delivered remotely after Thanksgiving (Nov. 26). Many colleges are adjusting their schedules to reduce potential virus exposure at the start of flu season. COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California. On-campus dining will be offered only on a to-go basis. Students (and other people) who do return to Berkeley will be required to meet campus, city and state mandates of physical distancing, face coverings and hand-washing hygiene, according to Wednesdays announcement. More Information Here are some other Bay Area colleges' plans for the fall term: Stanford: mix of in-person and online classes; starting fall quarter a week early; allowing only half the student population on campus each quarter; sending students home before Thanksgiving USF: mix of in-person and online classes; no traditional fall break; students sent home before Thanksgiving; classes and final exams in December conducted remotely St. Mary's: mix of in-person, hybrid and online classes; ending classes Nov. 24; online final exams Nov. 30-Dec. 4 Santa Clara:mix of in-person and online classes San Francisco State/San Jose State/Cal State East Bay/Sonoma State: nearly all classes online See More Collapse UC Berkeley, like nearly all other colleges, still plans to charge full tuition for the fall semester. This could lead to a drop in enrollment, or at least some frustrated students. I understand they still have to pay professors and staff, but its hard when you lose out on so many resources, said Ahmann, who is from Nebraska. If the libraries arent open, Ill be really upset my (out-of-state) tuition is the same. Gilmore, the campus spokeswoman, said Cal hopes to have one library open to begin the semester, pending public health considerations. Ron Kroichick is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkroichick@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ronkroichick A divisive change to election laws will be put under scrutiny in a bid to force more disclosure of political donations as a new analysis warns it is almost impossible to identify money transferred within the major parties. The Morrison government will have to wait on the inquiry before knowing whether it can gain the numbers in the Senate to prevent state laws stopping the flow of donations to federal campaigns. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says new federal political donation laws will apply exclusively to federal donations, not state ones. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen But the new analysis has deepened crossbench concerns about the government plan, with the Parliamentary Library concluding it is "essentially impossible" to easily identify transfers between state and federal branches. The main political parties received at least $420 million in donations last financial year under a complex system that relies on paper forms to disclose payments to federal and state branches from thousands of donors. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come clean about the situation in eastern Ladakh, where 20 soldiers of the Indian Army were killed in a violent confrontation with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley late on Monday. The PM should tell the nation how the Chinese occupied Indian territory, why 20 brave soldiers were martyred, she said in Hindi during a live address. The Congress president also sought to know how many soldiers are injured or still missing. She said her party stands behind the government and sent her tributes to the families of soldiers who died for their country. The sacrifice of our 20 jawans has shaken the conscience of the nation. I pay my tribute to all those brave soldiers from the core of my heart and pray to the almighty to give their families the strength to face this pain, said Gandhi. The Congress chiefs address came almost simultaneously as the Prime Ministers first reaction to the Indian Armys face-off with Chinese troops late on Monday. Also Watch : Sonia Gandhi questions PM Modi over India-China faceoff The PM said the sacrifice of the soldiers who were killed in the line of duty in Galwan Valley will not go in vain. I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our soldiers will not be in vain. India wants peace but it is capable of giving a befitting reply if instigated, said the PM. Earlier in the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi demanded to know why is the PM silent? and raised questions on the Chinese aggression. Shortly after came defence minister Rajnath Singhs tweet mourning the loss of 20 Indian soldiers in the scrap with the Chinese troops. The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias bravehearts, the minister tweeted. Since May, there have been tensions between the Indian and Chinese sides following clashes between the troops of the two countries in the Sikkim and Ladakh sectors of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The deployment of reinforcements by both sides led up to the face-off in Galwan Valley on Monday night that left 20 Indian soldiers, including a colonel, dead. On the Chinese side, news agency ANI reported, 43 soldiers have been killed or seriously injured, though the Indian armys statement did not refer to this. The army statement issued on Tuesday evening said the Indian and Chinese troops at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed have disengaged. The External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said Monday evenings violent face-off took place after the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the LAC and attempted to unilaterally change the status quo. These are the first Indian casualties in a border skirmish with PLA since October 1975 when Chinese troops ambushed an Indian patrol in Arunachal Pradeshs Tulung La sector and shot four soldiers dead. HT has learnt rival soldiers exchanged blows, threw stones at each other and Chinese troops even attacked Indian soldiers with rods and nail-studded clubs during the brawl that went on for over six hours. The deadly clash came on a day army delegations from India and China held talks at two locations along the LAC - brigadier-ranked officers met in the Galwan Valley and Colonel-ranked officers in Hot Springs - as part of continuing efforts to resolve the standoff. CPP General Secretary, James Kwabena Bomfeh has clarified the position of his party on the EC's decision to compile a new voters' register. The Convention People's Party (CPP) is reportedly said to be part of six political paties that have thrown their weight behind the Electoral Commission to conduct the new voters' registration exercise which comes off on Tuesday, June 30, 2020. Nonetheless, one of the party's bigwigs, Kwesi Pratt, says the reports that the CPP supports the EC is complete falsehood. "I am a member of the Central Committee of the Convention People's Party. I am Chairman of the Logistics Committee of the party. The party has never taken any such decision. Yes, the party has not taken any decision to support the compilation of a new voters' register," he told Kwami Sefa Kayi on 'kokrokoo' Tuesday. To give credence to the statements by Kwesi Pratt, James Kwabena Bomfeh, popularly called Kabila on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' stated emphatically that there has been no concrete decision made by the CPP on the compilation of the new register. According to him, the CPP stands neutral and is not in favour nor against the EC's decision. "Please, with the greatest respect, there's no meeting that the CPP has said we're for or against. We would have been a member of IPRAN if we were against but we're not part. We haven't stated that we're for or we're against. What I understand is we have remained positively neutral and that positive neutrality is in line with the party's philosophy from Osagyefo's time. That's why we're part of the non-allied movement but that doesn't mean we're not citizens," he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi. He however emphasized that, as a politician with political ambitions, he will not abstain from the exercise stressing only registered persons can assume a public office in Ghana. "I will certainly go and register," he said. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) rejected Cairos ceasefire initiative last week. The militias that back the GNA continue to press eastward, preparing for a showdown in the petroleum crescent in the Gulf of Sirte, and local news reports cite GNA security sources saying Syrian and other mercenaries have been despatched to reinforce Tripolis forces to the south. Turkey, however, which is backing the GNAs eastward thrust to seize control of Libyan oil storage facilities and terminals, as well as military bases in the vicinity, remains wary of Russia. According to a Turkish official, the main cause for the delay in launching operations in Sirte is the absence of an understanding between Ankara and Moscow. The latter has been pressing for a ceasefire, and supported the Cairo Declaration. Some reports from Libya have suggested that forces from the Russian Wagner Group are still on the ground in Sirte, which is why Ankara is dragging its feet. Yet Yusuf Katipoglu, a Turkish politician close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), told the pro-GNA Tanasuh channel that Turkey would launch the offensive soon, regardless of what Moscow might say. Observers had expected Russian and Turkish officials to get together to discuss the situation. The fact that no meeting has taken place is a sign, they say, of the growing friction between Moscow and Ankara. It was also reported that GNA head Fayez Al-Sarraj had proposed a deal to Moscow, under which, in return for relinquishing its support for Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Moscow would receive lucrative construction contracts to compensate for the billions of dollars Russia lost with the fall of the Gaddafi regime. The reports add that Al-Sarraj also offered to hand over two Russians held in Tripoli for over a year on espionage charges. This week, as Cairo renewed its calls for a return to the Libyan political process as the only solution if stability is to be restored to Libya, it encountered a new crisis when pro-GNA militias abducted Egyptian workers and then broadcast video footage of their torture on the Internet. As news of the incident broke on Monday, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was speaking about the broad regional and international support Cairo had garnered for its peace-making efforts. The Egyptian initiative is consistent with current international and UN efforts and initiatives, he said. It aims to ensure the equitable representation of the three Libyan regions [Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan], and to unify and organise Libyan governing institutions and equip them to perform their duties, and to ensure a just and transparent distribution of Libyan wealth. Egyptian MPs urged a swift and strong response to the GNA militias abduction and torture of Egyptians. Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal said Cairo would not allow the incident to pass unanswered, and would choose where, and how, to respond. Voicing her outrage at the abuse of Egyptian civilians in Libya, Immigration Minister Nabila Makram vowed Cairo would not allow the incident to go unanswered. She hinted at the possibility of recourse to force when she recalled how Egypt avenged the Egyptian Copts who were massacred by Islamic State terrorists in Libya. GNA Interior Minister Fathi Bashaghas response to Egypts renewed calls for the return to the political process was noteworthy in that he is a leading hawk who opposed the Cairo Declaration. Egypt had a role to play in the Libyan political process, he said. On the incident involving Egyptian civilians, he said that his ministry had launched an investigation and would bring the perpetrators to justice. Egyptian MP Mustafa Bakri questioned Bashaghas credibility. Hes running a ministry made up of militias and is probably behind the incident himself. Libyan sources contacted by Al-Ahram Weekly are divided over whether Bashagha has the ability to resolve the crisis. They note that the men who detained the Egyptians in the video were all from Misrata, which Bashagha represented as a parliamentary member, and that he has strong ties with the Western militias, which he worked to reorganise under his ministry. A Libyan source in Tripoli told the Weekly: You need to take into consideration that there are tens of thousands of Egyptians living and working in this part of Libya. Though they are safe in the majority of places, this is not the case in areas that fall under the control of GNA militias that have an antagonistic relation with Egypt. Other sources doubt the militias could have acted independently in Tarhouna, which is where the incident occurred, because the strategic city is closely watched by the Interior Ministry. Libyan commentators report the GNA camp is fracturing over political differences. The latest rift occurred last week, between Interior Minister Bashagha and Vice Chairman of the Presidency Council Ahmed Maiteeq, over the role of Misrata militias in Tripoli, and now in the battle for Sirte. Maiteeq is reported to favour a ceasefire. It is noteworthy that Bashagha was the only GNA official that Aguila Saleh, the speaker of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives, mentioned during his speech at the launch of Cairos Libyan peace initiative. Bashagha personally suffers from the role those militias play in Tripoli, said Saleh. Subsequently, a number of militias in Tripoli agreed to form a league to defend their interests from the foreign mercenaries that now rival them, and also in the face of the reform plan that Bashagha announced recently. Cairo continues to seek information that will lead to the rescue of the detained Egyptians. It is aware that the broadcast of the video showing Egyptian civilians being tortured is intended to convey political messages. In addition to undermining the Egyptian role in the Libyan crisis, it seeks to frustrate Libyans who have placed hopes in this role. The militias have made no demands from Egypt, but the element of blackmail is clear, especially given the growing tide of Libyan appeals for Egyptian military intervention, and the circulation over Libyan social networking sites of images of Egyptian forces amassed along Egypts western borders. Cairo has made it clear that the forces are there for defensive purposes in light of the spiralling violence in Libya and that it remains determined to play an effective role in promoting a return to an inclusive political process in Libya. Nevertheless, an Egyptian source close to the developments told the Weekly that Egypt must ready itself for eventualities that could entail the use of military force in the event our national security is endangered. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: This week, the N.M. Legislature will convene for a historic special legislative session in the midst of a global pandemic and nationally declared public health emergency. The Legislature prides itself on the openness of our state Capitol. Unfortunately, this session, like so many aspects of daily life today, the threat of COVID-19 poses great concern for the health and well-being of the public and lawmakers, requiring the Capitol to remain closed to all but lawmakers and the most essential workers. Our challenge is maintaining the publics ability to freely access legislators, the legislative process, and provide input while protecting the health and well-being of everyone involved. The stakes couldnt be higher for the upcoming legislative session. Record high unemployment, closed and closing businesses and continued COVID-19 related deaths and hospitalizations have made a perfect storm of hardship. Together well get through this, and the public must be involved in the deliberative process. The pandemic and public health emergency pose a big challenge to this process. But with challenge comes opportunity, and recent innovations and preparations mean the Legislature is ready to receive the highest volume of public input in its history. Staff at the Capitol have gone through great lengths to ensure every debate, every public comment, every committee hearing and every vote are streamed, recorded and archived on our easy-to-use nmlegis.gov website. This site has been the envy of other states because our Legislature chose to invest in an intuitive and robust system under the belief that greater transparency leads to better government. In preparation for this upcoming special legislative session, weve expanded the capabilities of this system to accommodate new streaming platforms as well as call-in numbers to provide multiple avenues for public comment so no voice goes unheard. Press access to the Roundhouse will also continue unabated. Members of our dedicated press corps will still cover the Capitol beat and report back to the public. As a legislative body, well work closely with reporters to ensure all call-in phone numbers are included in their stories and broadcast for public notice. New Mexico is hardly alone in enacting emergency measures. Seventeen other state legislatures have taken emergency measures similar to our own. The list includes states across the ideological spectrum from Alaska to Arkansas, Colorado to California. This is not a partisan issue; it is a public health issue, and during a public health emergency, it would be a dereliction of duty for state government to not do everything in its power to protect the health of our residents. Take myself for example. I live in a high-risk household with my 92-year-old mother, immune-compromised daughter, and baby granddaughter. We have no room for error. If the Legislature decided to conduct a business as usual stance toward the session, Id be hard-pressed to perform my duties to my constituents as their elected state representative while also protecting the health and well-being of my family. The Roundhouse is a literal petri dish of bacteria and viruses when in session. It would be unfair and dangerous to members of the public who, like myself, not only take their personal health into account, but also the health of their families. The rule changes will expire upon the conclusion of the special session. We hope that the innovations we make today, if successful, are with us to stay and will mean greater public participation and engagement. As lawmakers, we will not put at risk those gains and the health of others while taking action to meet the challenges this pandemic has wrought on our communities. The past several months have been the most difficult in recent memory. Let us take some encouragement in knowing that despite the hardships, our resiliency manifests in our ability to innovate and overcome these challenges and, in the process, create something better. Bank of Maharashtra fell 4.07% to Rs 10.85 after net profit declined 20.5% to Rs 57.57 crore on 1.2% increase in total income to Rs 3,198.30 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Pre-tax loss stood at Rs 315.04 crore in Q4 March 2020 as against pre-tax profit of Rs 86.39 crore in Q4 March 2019. Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 12,152.15 crore as on 31 March 2020 as against Rs 15,745.54 crore as on 31 December 2019 and Rs 15,324.49 crore as on 31 March 2019. The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 12.81% as on 31 March 2020 as against 16.77% as on 31 December 2019 and 16.40% as on 31 March 2019. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 4.77% as on 31 March 2020 as against 5.46% as on 31 December 2019 and 5.52% as on 31 March 2019. Provisions and contingencies surged 119.41% to Rs 910.11 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. The provision coverage ratio of the bank was at 83.97% as on 31 March 2020. In terms of RBI circular dated 17 April 2020 on Covid-19, the bank has made provision of Rs 150 crore in FY20 towards Covid-19 regulatory package provision as against required provision of 5% i.e. Rs 38 crore. Return on Assets stood at 0.13% as on 31 March 2020 as against 0.31% as on 31 December 2019 and 0.18% as on 31 March 2019. The Net Interest Income (NII) rose 2.25% to Rs 1,023 crore in March 2020 as against Rs 1,000 crore in March 2019. Net Interest Margin (NIM) stood 2.41% in March 2020 as compared to 2.64% in March 2019. The Current Account-Savings Account (CASA) deposit of the bank improved to 50.29% as on 31 March 2020 as against 49.65% as on 31 March 2019. Overall capital adequacy at 13.52% with Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio of 10.67% at the end of FY20. Liquidity Coverage Ratio stood at 184.74%. In terms of RBI circular dated 17 April 2020 on COVID-19 outbreak, Bank of Maharashtra had made provision of Rs 150 crore in FY20 towards COVID-19 regulatory package provision as against required provision at 5% i.e. Rs 38 crore. The Government of India holds 92.49% stake in Bank of Maharashtra (as on 31 March 2020). Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (Photo : REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration) Small toy figures are seen in front of Google logo in this illustration picture, April 8, 2019. (Photo : REUTERS/Erin Scott) People hold up a Black Lives Matter banner as they march during a demonstration against racial inequality in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Washington, U.S., June 14, 2020. Google has banned conservative website ZeroHedge from its advertising platform over policy violations on race-related content. According to Fox News, a Google spokesperson confirmed in an email sent on Tuesday, June 16, that the tech giant took action after determining violations of the -right website that often publishes conspiracy theories. ZeroHedge was notified last week about the violations before the ban took effect on Tuesday. Google also issued a warning to another conservative website The Federalist over comments on articles related to Black Lives Matter protests and it has three days to remove the violations before proceeding with a ban. "We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence, or discrimination based on race from monetizing," said the spokesperson as reported in NBCN. He further said that they take action when a page or site that violates their policies, so they have demonetized both sites. Google policies vs ZeroHedge and Federalist ads Google acted on the matter after it was notified by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a British nonprofit that combats online hate and misinformation. The study found 10 U.S-based websites that published some "racist articles" about the BLM protests while gaining millions of dollars through Google Ads. Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO Imran Ahmed said it found advertisements from many companies promoting some racist statements and content on their websites. "We found that lots of those companies are inadvertently funding through their advertising content that is outright racist," Ahmed said. He added that these articles are either an outright defense of white supremacism or include conspiracy theories about George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. In the past, Google also banned various websites to prevent the spread of fake news. Meanwhile, both The Federalist and ZeroHedge have not provided comments. Black Lives Matter corporate support ZeroHedge and The Federalist are known for publishing far-right content about various topics. Recently, the former published an article claiming that the recent protests were sham, while the latter claimed the media were lying about the looting and violence that happened during the protests. Both articles were included in the research furnished to Google. Numerous corporations have eagerly backed the Black Lives Matter protests that have been happening since early this month. This includes Google's pledge of $12 million in funding to "organizations working to address racial inequities." Other websites continue to generate revenue through Google, which is raising concerns for civil rights advocates. The Center for Countering Digital Hate said other far-right websites carried advertisements by well-known brands while disseminating false narratives about the protest movement. Also, this trend raises significant risks for brand security. Caroline McCarthy, communications and content vice president of digital advertising company TrueX, said Google and other digital advertising companies should be held responsible for their ads. "[They] have to start by asking questions," said McCarthy adding that companies should know which their brand content will be running against. If the other person the other side cannot answer directly, "then that's a problem." The executive added that the "pressure on the tech companies is only going to come from dollars" that will be withdrawn. Read also: NYPD Police That Accused Shake Shack of Tampering Drink Found Lying 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The bag donation is filling a much needed resource, and we are proud to support all of our school districts. For thousands of San Antonio children, school isnt just nourishing their minds, it is also nourishing their bodies. These students depend on their school for meals and may go hungry without them. In some San Antonio school districts, over 90% of children qualify for free or reduced lunch. While classrooms are closed, many schools are still bustling with activity to make sure students dont go hungry. As a result of the Coronavirus, schools had to quickly change the way they operate. Teachers transitioned their classrooms online, and schools provided supplies and meals through curbside pickup. The rapid shift resulted in substantial unplanned costs. With larger school districts serving up to 27,000 student meals per day, the need for packaging materials and distribution bags became enormous. To ease the burden, Firstmark Credit Union has donated 100,000 meal pickup bags for food distribution. We have close relationships with San Antonio schools, and we know how important the food nutrition program is to district families, said Nathanael Tarwasokono, president and CEO of Firstmark Credit Union. The bag donation is filling a much needed resource, and we are proud to support all of our school districts. Last month at its corporate headquarters, Firstmark held a curbside pickup for curriculum and meal bags. To date, 88,000 meal bags have been distributed. Schools interested in receiving meal bags can call the Firstmark Credit Union Marketing Department at 210.556.2480 and leave call back details, including name, school/ISD and number of meal bags needed. As a credit union founded by teachers for teachers, Firstmark continues to champion the education community. In addition to the meal pickup bags, Firstmark recently provided 10,000 curriculum bags to San Antonio schools for curbside distribution of lesson plans. The credit union also offers educator discounts, educator grants, and back to school loans. To learn more about Firstmarks efforts, visit firstmarkcu.org. About Firstmark Credit Union Firstmark Credit Union has been helping people for more than 88 years. The Firstmark story began in 1932 at Fox Tech High School where ten teachers signed a charter to form the San Antonio Teachers Credit Union. Firstmark has grown the ten teachers original $475 investment to almost 100,000 members and over $1 billion in assets. Firstmark is a not-for-profit, member-owned financial institution focused on helping people to better their lives. For more information, visit http://firstmarkcu.org or call 210.342.8484. Ryan Gilligan, Senior Director of IT Search Ryan will enhance our already strong executive search experience within the firm in addition to bringing years of relationships with technology leaders. Versique Search and Consulting, the hiring leader in Minneapolis, has hired Ryan Gilligan to be the companys Senior Practice Director of IT Search. In this role, he will oversee Versiques IT search practice. We are thrilled to be welcoming someone as well-versed and experienced as Ryan, said Versiques President of Direct Hire and Executive Search, Steve Yakesh. Ryan will enhance our already strong executive search experience within the firm in addition to bringing years of relationships with technology leaders. Gilligan joins Versique with more than ten years of recruiting expertise behind him. Most recently, Ryan spent three years with Korn Ferry in New York City and Chicago as part of their Global Technology Officers Practice, executing executive-level technology searches for Fortune 1,000 companies. Prior to Korn Ferry, he joined Amazon to help build out their newly formed Minneapolis office while also recruiting for positions in Seattle at Amazons headquarters and in Boston for their Robotics division. Prior to Amazon, he spent six years with Robert Halfs technology team both as a recruiter as well as a leader of a 12 full-desk recruiting team. I couldnt be more excited to be joining the Versique team as the Sr. Practice Director of IT Search, with a focus on Executive Search, said Gilligan. They truly have a winning culture and believe in putting people first, which aligns with my core values and is what drew me to the organization. About Versique: Versique is one of the largest talent acquisition firms in the Midwest, and specializes in three main areas; Direct Hire, Executive Search, and HR Contract positions across 13 areas of focus. Versique is built on a culture of collaboration and community engagement and was named by the Minneapolis Star Tribune as a Top 150 Workplace in 2019. To learn more, visit http://www.versique.com. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday paid a surprise visit to Tripoli, the seat of Libya's UN-recognised government, backed by Ankara in a conflict between rival Libyan powers. It is the most significant delegation to visit the country since eastern Libya-based strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive on Tripoli in April 2019. Haftar's offensive came to an end in recent weeks, as the GNA, with increased Turkish support, drove his forces out of the northwest of the country. Arriving around midday, Cavusoglu was accompanied by Finance Minister Berat Albayrak and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan. The Turkish officials discussed with GNA head Fayez al-Sarraj the "latest developments in the crisis" in Libya and the "international efforts to resolve it", the GNA said in a statement. The meeting also covered the "monitoring of the implementation of the military and security memorandum of understanding" concluded in November 2019 between Tripoli and Ankara, the statement added. It was under this controversial agreement that Ankara had reinforced its military support of the GNA, tilting the balance against Haftar, who is supported by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Oil-rich Libya has been torn by years of violence, drawing in tribal militias, jihadists and mercenaries since the 2011 toppling and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a Western-backed uprising. The latest escalation has been marked by an uptick in foreign involvement. Recent weeks have seen tensions rise between Turkey and France, which despite public denials, has long been suspected of favouring Haftar until his recent setbacks. Paris has deemed Turkey's armed backing of the GNA "unacceptable", with Ankara retorting that France and other countries' support for Haftar is "the main obstacle to establishing peace and stability in Libya". In Tripoli, the top Turkish diplomat's visit was also an opportunity to discuss "the return of Turkish companies" to the country, according to the GNA. Before 2011, Turkish construction companies had secured a large share of the Libyan market, but the projects were abandoned with the overthrow of Kadhafi. Through the Tiger Pistol platform, AB InBev shifted its budget to local social advertising, specifically Facebook and Instagram campaigns, aggregating touchpoints in communities around the world. This bottom-up approach generated larger and more meaningful results for its brand, drastically lowering advertising costs, increasing consumer engagement, and fostering loyalty among its worldwide network of bars, restaurants and retailers. "For nearly a decade, Tiger Pistol has been obsessively focused on building the world's most effective and efficient social advertising platform for local activation at scale," said Paul Elliott, Tiger Pistol CEO. "This recognition by the AdExchanger Awards is high praise, and further validates our company's legacy of delivering 'first-evers' that drive client value. With our disruption-proof technology, we're able to pivot seamlessly for AB InBev, bringing the speed, versatility, and flexibility necessary for our current world situation, that's truly region by region and business by business." Tiger Pistol powers AB InBev's Covid-19 local social strategy giving the brand's network of independent restaurants and bars, most of whom are suffering during this time, advertising power to help them drive business and reinforce the essential role restaurants and bars play in fostering memories and connections in the lives of consumers. Pre-pandemic, AB InBev offered its establishments brand-funded, direct-response local social campaigns to drive foot traffic. Tiger Pistol continues to give AB InBev the opportunity to provide their establishments brand-level creative and messaging, but has shifted to ads structured around community building, gift cards sales, home delivery, or no contact curbside pickup in impacted communities. "Our platform's capability is based on the flexibility and versatility needed to run more personalized, localized social campaigns," said Elliott. "In the thick of this pandemic and beyond, we're going to see some establishments open, some closed, some with varying business operations, and some that could even be closed for a day or two for cleaning. These fluctuating situations are highlighting the added benefits of our technology, as we empower our clients, like AB InBev, to function at a local level, which now has a much higher degree of importance in recovery and revitalization efforts." AdExchanger, an award-winning integrated media company devoted to data-driven digital marketing, annually recognizes excellence, innovation, and the advertising and marketing world's brightest achievements through the AdExchanger Awards. Learn more about Tiger Pistol and AB InBev's award-winning social advertising. Register now for the free Digital Food & Beverage Virtual Event, where Daniel Ingram, Global Director of Trade Innovation at AB InBev, and Talia Wachtel, VP Client Management at Tiger Pistol, will present together at 1:50PM ET on June 23. About Tiger Pistol Tiger Pistol is the world's #1 social advertising automation platform for local. For nearly a decade, the company has been obsessively focused on building the world's most effective social advertising platform for global brands, resellers, and agencies who realize the power of local activation at scale. As a preferred Facebook Marketing Partner and the largest third-party publisher of social advertising for local, Tiger Pistol creates, deploys, manages, and optimizes high-performance Facebook and Instagram ads at unprecedented scale, with over 800k Facebook and Instagram campaigns published to date. Tiger Pistol's first of its kind technology delivers meaningful and measurable business impact for brands, resellers, and agencies alike, helping to unlock value and efficiency through innovation-led social advertising automation. Tiger Pistol has been recognized by Digiday as the Best Social Media Marketing Platform , by Street Fight for Best Social Media Campaign and by Localogy as Best Localized Marketing Campaign . Tiger Pistol Ranks in the Top 100 on the Inc. 5000 List of Texas's Fastest Growing Private Companies and in the top 5 among advertising and marketing companies. To learn more, call (888) 400-8845, visit TigerPistol.com , or follow on Twitter , Facebook , or LinkedIn . About Anheuser-Busch InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev is a publicly traded company based in Leuven, Belgium, with secondary listings on the Mexico and South Africa stock exchanges and with American Depositary Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange. Our Dream is to bring people together for a better world. Beer, the original social network, has been bringing people together for thousands of years. We are committed to building great brands that stand the test of time and to brewing the best beers using the finest natural ingredients. Our diverse portfolio of well over 500 beer brands includes global brands Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois; multi-country brands Beck's, Hoegaarden, Leffe and Michelob Ultra; and local champions such as Aguila, Antarctica, Bud Light, Brahma, Cass, Castle, Castle Lite, Cristal, Harbin, Jupiler, Modelo Especial, Quilmes, Victoria, Sedrin, and Skol. Our brewing heritage dates back more than 600 years, spanning continents and generations. From our European roots at the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven, Belgium. To the pioneering spirit of the Anheuser & Co brewery in St. Louis, US. To the creation of the Castle Brewery in South Africa during the Johannesburg gold rush. To Bohemia, the first brewery in Brazil. Geographically diversified with a balanced exposure to developed and developing markets, we leverage the collective strengths of approximately 170,000 employees based in nearly 50 countries worldwide. For 2019, AB InBev's reported revenue was 52.3 billion USD (excluding JVs and associates). CONTACT: Christina Morello Director, Marketing and Communications [email protected] (330) 354-0899 SOURCE Tiger Pistol Related Links http://tigerpistol.com/ Patna Zoo has welcomed yet another rhinoceros. A rhino named Rani gave birth to a calf in the morning on June 16. Now the zoo has 13 rhinos in all. A picture of the mother and calf was shared on Twitter and its making people smile. Not only is the photo all kinds of adorable, the calfs name, matching its mother, is equally delightful. The newborn calf has been named Yuvraaj. Good news from Patna Zoo. Our Rhino Rani has given birth to male calf Yuvaraj at 4.30 am today. 13th Rhino in our zoo currently, posted IAS officer Dipak Kumar Singh on Twitter. His tweet, complete with a picture of the mother-calf duo, has collected over 2,400 likes and more than 500 retweets. The tweet has collected a ton of wonderful comments from tweeple. May the divine give the baby a long and healthy life and save from real animals. Thanks for posting the pic, filled my heart with happiness, wrote a Twitter user. Love the name. Yuvraj suits him a lot. Congratulations to all and to mommy dear, added another. Wow, so cute! commented a third. Thats amazing sir. Now two calves Gudiya and Yuvraj, posted an individual. Gudiya is another calf that was recently born at the zoo to a rhino named Gauri. A video of two was shared on Twitter IFS official Sudha Ramen. Just born Rhino calf and her mother Gauri. This little baby calf takes all efforts to stand, soon after the birth under the mother's supervision. Rare footage. Credits to Patna Zoo, leading the way in exsitu conservation of Rhino @ImRo45 @KP24 @CZA_Delhi @moefcc @DEFCCOfficial pic.twitter.com/452T3G0Du3 Sudha Ramen IFS (@SudhaRamenIFS) May 9, 2020 Days after Gudiyas birth, Dipak Kumar Singh also shared this adorable clip of the mother-daughter duo playing around at the zoo. It was an eventful morning for Gauri the #rhino mom and her new daughter Gudiya. And the excitement hasn't stopped! Gudiya is burning her child-like energy by running literal circles with her mom, taking baths, and indulging in snacks at her outdoor habitat at the #Patna #Zoo. pic.twitter.com/zFzElg3yjJ Dipak Kumar Singh (@DipakKrIAS) May 29, 2020 Arent Gudiya and Yuvraaj adorable? What do you think? Also Read | 100-year-old Diego saves Galapagos turtle species, heads back home for retirement WASHINGTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A statewide poll of likely Florida voters finds broad voter support for reductions in immigration in the face of massive layoffs resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. The polling was conducted on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) by the national opinion research firm, Zogby Analytics, on June 10 and 11. The poll indicates that Florida voters support reductions in the admission of new immigrants and guest workers in the face of the ongoing public health and economic crises gripping the nation. Florida voters are also significantly more likely to prioritize the need for immigration and border enforcement over programs to legalize millions of illegal aliens. Among the key findings of the Florida opinion poll: By about margins of roughly 2 to 1 (62% to 27%), Florida voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. voters support "reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions" during the crisis. By a 57% to 32% margin, Florida voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." voters believe that "Limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired." 83% of voters in Florida believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 10% disagree. believe that it is prudent to "slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screen to everyone entering the country." Only 10% disagree. By a 63% to 37% majority, Florida voters said they would prioritize reducing overall immigration, strengthening immigration enforcement and border security, and removing illegal aliens from the country, over increasing immigration, granting amnesty to illegal aliens, or decriminalizing illegal immigration. "The polling shows clear public support in Florida for many of the immigration policy steps that the Trump administration has taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting economic and unemployment crisis. Voters in this key state agree that reductions in the admission of new immigrants and foreign workers are a prudent response to a crisis that has resulted in some 40 million Americans losing their jobs, and there is broad support for additional measures to be taken by the White House," commented Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "The polling numbers send a clear message to Senators Rubio and Scott and members of Florida's congressional delegation, that jobs and economic security are always critical issues in presidential and congressional elections. Both Senators have a tremendous opportunity to show voters that they stand with the American worker over corporate interests clamoring for guest workers at a time of mass unemployment. "While voters certainly understand the extraordinary circumstances that have led to massive unemployment, they will also expect that the president and their federal representatives will take all reasonable steps to minimize the damage done to American workers, and expedite recovery for those who have lost jobs. This poll makes it clear that Florida voters understand and support the need to reduce the flow of people entering the country who will compete for jobs during this crisis and once the economy fully reopens," Stein concluded. The poll of 805 likely voters has a +/-3.5 percent margin of error. Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or [email protected] ABOUT FAIR Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 2 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced. SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Related Links http://www.fairus.org The statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, one of several monuments boarded up to protect against potential vandalism, will be uncovered in time for French president Emmanuel Macrons visit to London. The statue, along with monuments to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, were covered ahead of protests last weekend that saw far-right demonstrators clashing with police as they swarmed near the Palace of Westminster and Trafalgar Square. The previous weekend, a Black Lives Matter protest sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the US at the hands of the police resulted in the toppling of a statue of a 17th century slave trader in Bristol. In London, the statue of Churchill daubed with graffiti accusing him of being a racist. The graffiti has since been cleaned off and the statue was covered up to prevent further vandalism. A spokesman for Sadiq Khan said the boards around the statue will be removed on Wednesday ahead of Mr Macrons visit on Thursday. However, the boards around the statues of Mandela and Gandhi, which the mayor is also responsible for, will stay in place under review. English Heritage said the coverings around the Cenotaph were taken down on Monday night. Mr Khan defended his decision to cover Churchills statue after facing criticism from the Home Secretary. Priti Patel told the Daily Mail that Churchill gave the British people the freedom to live our lives the way we do today. We have seen the desecration of war memorials, which is thoroughly unacceptable, she said. Now were seeing a national hero being boarded up. The prime minister also called for the boards around the statue to be taken down and defended his predecessor against accusations of racism in an article in the Daily Telegraph. I will resist with every breath in my body any attempt to remove that statue from Parliament Square, and the sooner his protective shielding comes off the better, Boris Johnson wrote. (AP (AP) The mayor said the decision to board up the statues was a wise precaution, fearing they could become a flashpoint for violence involving extreme far-right protesters. Mr Macrons visit marks the 80th anniversary of General Charles de Gaulles appeal to the French people to resits the German occupation of France during the Second World War. The French premier will be welcomed to London with a ceremonial Guard of Honour from The Coldstream Guards at Clarence House and a flypast by the RAFs Red Arrows alongside their French counterparts, La Patrouille de France. Reporting by PA President Moon Jae-in, second from right, holds a meeting with former unification ministers and foreign affairs experts at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday. At right, former unification minister and former chief of the National Intelligence Service Lim Dong-won listens as Moon speaks. A key architect of former President Kim Dae-jung's (DJ) Sunshine Policy of engagement with North Korea, Lim prepared for the first inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in June 2000 with former President Kim. Lim and the DJ are known to have prepared for the June 15 Declaration, which marked its 20th anniversary this week, on the basis of the spirit of the Romans 12:17~21. The famous verses from the New Testament encourages people to live in peace with everyone and not repay anyone "evil for evil," but rather "overcome evil with good."/Yonhap By Do Je-hae Public outcry is rising over Cheong Wa Dae and the government's assessment of circumstances surrounding Pyongyang's hostile acts, the latest of which was demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office in Gaeseong on Tuesday. Calls are also increasing for the replacement of President Moon Jae-in's national security team in the wake of the destruction of the symbolic building for inter-Korean cooperation. Cheong Wa Dae had trumpeted the office as one of the key outcomes of the April 27 Panmunjeom Declaration in 2018, signed by Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their first summit on the South's side of the Joint Security Area (JSA). The latest act is virtually seen as the North's attempt to scrap the declaration. Many South Koreans are baffled at the government and Cheong Wa Dae's activities just before the destruction of the building which implied they failed to detect any unusual signs involving the office. A senior presidential official was giving a briefing at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday that had started around 2:20 p.m. and lasted about 25 minutes. Despite rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the senior aide made surprising remarks that seemed to insinuate hopes for further talks with North Korea, including a possible resumption of summit diplomacy between the leaders of the two Koreas. "Of course, our proposal for a fourth summit is still valid," the aide said at the briefing. Around the time the briefing ended, Pyongyang blew up the office at 2:49 p.m. What is considered even more problematic is national security adviser Chung Eui-yong's whereabouts. He was participating in a ceremony for five new Korean ambassadors at Cheong Wa Dae that started at 3 p.m. with President Moon. National security adviser Chung Eui-yong, left, and President Moon Jae-in arrives at a ceremony for new Korean ambassadors at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. Yonhap Cheong Wa Dae held a National Security Council (NSC) meeting presided over by Chung about two hours after the explosion. But given the gravity of the situation, some experts said the President should have presided. Another NSC meeting was held Wednesday morning, but the President did not participate in this one either, according to the presidential office. Criticism of Moon's national security and diplomatic teams is increasing because of their failure to prevent inter-Korean ties from dropping to their worst level since the beginning of the current administration. China warned US not to interfere with its relations with India With no sign of disengagement along LAC by China, Delhi pins hopes on diplomacy The Chinese departed from the consensus to respect the LAC: MEA India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 17: India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh, the Ministry of External Affairs said. "Senior Commanders had a productive meeting on 6th June 2020 and agreed on a process for such de-escalation. Subsequently, ground commanders had a series of meetings to implement the consensus reached at a higher level. India-China clashes: 20 soldiers martyred as they fought back PLA incursion | Oneindia News While it was our expectation that this would unfold smoothly, the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. Prepared for action in winter, acted in summer: China had this planned for some time now On the late-evening and night of 15th June, 2020 a violent face-off happened as a result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo there. Both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. Given its responsible approach to border management, India is very clear that all its activities are always within the Indian side of the LAC. We expect the same of the Chinese side. We remain firmly convinced of the need for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and the resolution of differences through dialogue. At the same time, we are also strongly committed to ensuring India's sovereignty and territorial integrity." ALBANY, New York, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Transparency Market Research has recently published a new research report that provides an in-depth information about the overall working dynamics of the global weather monitoring solutions and services market. In this research report, the reader can find meaningful and actionable insights about the key driving factors, prominent restraining factors, key segments, geographical outlook, and the general condition of the vendor landscape of the global market. As per the findings of the research report, the global weather monitoring solutions and services market is expected to showcase a promising CAGR of ~7% over the course of the given forecast period ranging from 2019 to 2027. Given the rate of growth, the valuation of the global market is expected to rise up to US$1.6 Bn by the end of 2027. Initially, the market was valued at US$896 Mn in the year 2019. Download PDF Brochure - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=73243 Weather Monitoring Solutions and Services Market Key Takeaways Based on type, the global weather monitoring solutions and services market is being divided into solutions and data services. The segment of solutions is further divided into hardware and software. Of these two, the segment of solutions is expected to witness a promising rate of growth in the coming years of the forecast period. In terms of end user industry, the global weather monitoring solutions and services market is segmented into agriculture and fisheries, renewable energy, energy and utilities, broadcast and telecommunications, meteorology, government, transport & logistics, and others. Of these, the segment of government is expected to provide promising and lucrative growth opportunities for the development of the global market in the coming years of the forecast period. Explore a report with detailed research, incisive insights, and in-depth country levels estimations. Gain business intelligence on global Weather Monitoring Solutions and Services Market (Type: Solutions (Hardware, Software), Data Services; End-use Industry: Transportation & Logistics, Government, Meteorology, Broadcast & Telecommunications, Energy & Utilities, Renewable Energy, Agriculture & Fisheries, Others) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2019 2027at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/weather-monitoring-solutions-and-services-market.html Weather Monitoring Solutions and Services Market Key Driving Factors Global warming has led to frequent changes in weather patterns, leading to heat waves and droughts. The number of incidents of natural disasters has increased due to these fluctuations in weather. Fluctuating weather conditions are a cause of concern across different industries. A reliable system for advanced warning is important to take preventive steps, which can save these industries from huge damages and losses. This, in turn, is expected to drive the weather monitoring solutions and services market. Introduction of IoT for weather monitoring solutions has improved data delivery. The introduction of IoT has led to improved, efficient, and timely data transfer between systems through improved system connectivity. These factors have resulted in enhanced weather forecasting services, which, in turn, is estimated to drive the demand for weather monitoring solutions and services during the forecast period. Request COVID-19 Impact Detailed Analysis on Weather Monitoring Solutions and Services Market Weather Monitoring Solutions and Services Market Key Restraining Factors One key restraining factor for the market growth has been the functioning issues of sensors. Primarily, weather monitoring solutions and services operate of sensors as they play a key role in transmission of information. Functional issues and frequent inoperability of these sensors can thus lead to slowing down of the market growth. Weather Monitoring Solutions and Services Market Geographical Outlook Asia Pacific region is projected to provide ample growth opportunities for the growth of the global weather monitoring solutions and services market. region is projected to provide ample growth opportunities for the growth of the global weather monitoring solutions and services market. The growth of the regional segment is mainly attributed to the growing demand for these services from emerging economies such as India and China as they move gradually towards use of renewable energy usage. Analyze Weather Monitoring Solutions and Services 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 Weather Monitoring Solutions and Services Market Key Players Vaisala Oyj, Campbell Scientific Inc., and Met Instruments Inc. are some of the key players in the global market. Purchase Premium Research Report on Weather Monitoring Solutions and Services Market at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=73243 Masterbrand Cabinet unit, helped develop the ready-to-assemble business in China before deciding it posed a risk to its much larger domestic operations. Masterbrand's U.S. sales were $2.5 billion last year, and it has 10,000 U.S. employees in 20 factories fed mostly by U.S. suppliers. Masterbrand said it stopped buying from China after the case was filed. But it did not bring those jobs home either. The company now obtains ready-to-assemble cabinets from Vietnam. Cabinets made in Vietnam are 30-40% pricier than China, according to industry sources. Back at CNC, Hunter said he was also anticipating more trade issues. If shipments grow too much from another country, such as Vietnam, the United States could crack down with duties on those imports as well, he said. "That's why I want to find sources in five countries, minimum," said Hunter, "because you don't know what comes next." (Reporting by Timothy Aeppel in Fairfield, Conn.; Editing by Dan Burns and Matthew Lewis) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:36:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DUBLIN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Ireland's trade surplus with China more than doubled in the first four months of this year compared with the same period last year, showed the latest figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO). In the January-April period of this year, Ireland's trade surplus with China stood at 1.808 billion euros (about 2 billion U.S. dollars), up by 970 million euros or 115.75 percent when compared with the corresponding period of last year. In the first fourth months of this year, Ireland exported a total of 3.455 billion euros worth of goods to China, up 35.86 percent when compared with a year ago, while its total value of goods imports from China amounted to 1.647 billion euros, slightly down by 3.4 percent year-on-year. The CSO figures also showed that China was the fifth largest market for both the Irish exported and imported goods in the first four months of this year. The United States was the largest export market of Ireland in the first four months of this year, with the total value of the Irish goods exported to the country reaching 17.1 billion euros in the period. It's followed by Belgium (5.67 billion euros), Germany (5.64 billion euros) and Britain (4.81 billion euros). Britain was Ireland's largest market for imported goods. In the first four months of this year, Ireland imported a total of 6.7 billion euros worth of goods from Britain, followed by the United States (4.06 billion euros), France (2.36 billion euros) and Germany (2.17 billion euros). (1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars) Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:34:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAMASCUS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said the new set of sanctions by the U.S. against the Syrian government reveals the thuggish behavior of the U.S., according to the state news agency SANA. The latest sanctions, provisioned by the Caesar Act, show the violation of the U.S. administration to all international laws and norms and the "low level to which the U.S. officials have reached," the ministry said. Speaking about human rights in Syria, the U.S. administration "surpasses the ugliest forms of lies and hypocrisy in its policies that support terrorism and bloodshed in Syria," it said. Upping the sanctions against the Syrian people adds a new dimension and a new shape for the terrorism in Syria, said the ministry. The ministry stressed that the Syrian people and army will not allow "the practitioners of black crimes in the White House to revive their failing scheme in Syria." On Wednesday, the United States announced massive sanctions against Syria, in an effort to further deprive the revenue of the Syrian government. The latest sanctions include 39 individuals and entities including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in a statement. Pompeo alleged designated people and companies "played a key role in obstructing a peaceful political solution to the conflict." "Anyone doing business with the Assad regime, no matter where in the world they are, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions," the statement said. The statement noted that Wednesday's action was the beginning of a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure against Syria. Earlier this month, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said that the United States is practicing "economic terrorism" against Syria, claiming the sanctions under the Caesar Act are based on lies and fabricated claims. UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Tuesday said sanctions by the United States and the European Union helped push Syria's economy to the brink. Enditem Editors note, Wednesday: All the results are in for schools in Cayuga, Madison and Oswego counties except for the Oneida City District. We will update with that when the results become available. Thank you. School districts across Central New York and throughout New York state are counting votes today on school budgets. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the balloting was done by mail this year. Districts were to start counting the ballots at 5 p.m. Officials were uncertain how long it might take to open all the mailed in ballots and tally the votes. We will report the budget votes as the results become available. (Some districts may not report the results until Wednesday.) Onondaga County schools results Results for other CNY counties Cayuga County Auburn Proposed spending: $80,725,559 (2.27%) Per pupil: $19,598 Yes: 3801 No: 1492 Cato-Meridian Proposed spending: $20,893,690 (-4.34%) Per pupil: $22,910 Yes: 480 No: 152 Moravia Proposed spending: $24,238,869 (3.23%) Per pupil: $25,275 Yes: 713 No: 241 Port Byron Proposed spending: $22,284,645 (1.23%) Per pupil: $24,927 Yes: 519 No: 374 Southern Cayuga Proposed spending: $18,061,671 (1.52%) Per pupil: $25,086 Yes: 791 No: 293 Union Springs Proposed spending: $18,334,610 (-7.07%) Per pupil: $22,635 Yes: 806 No: 175 Weedsport Proposed spending: $20,295,324 (-3.18%) Per pupil: $26,953 Yes: 815 No: 298 Madison County Brookfield Proposed spending: $7,076,100 (7.66%) Per pupil: $29,857 Yes: 185 No: 55 Canastota Proposed spending: $31,613,948 (1.18%) Per pupil: $23,505 Yes: 1045 No: 465 Cazenovia Proposed spending: $31,052,000 (3.15%) Per pupil: $22,404 Yes: 1604 No: 563 Chittenango Proposed spending: $41,293,559 (3.17%) Per pupil: $21,745 Yes: 1324 No: 531 Deruyter Proposed spending: $11,307,426 (4.51%) Per pupil: $31,942 Yes: 382 No: 79 Hamilton Proposed spending: $13,395,564 (1.35%) Per pupil: $24,356 Yes: 861 No: 199 Madison Proposed spending: $10,975,715 (3.04%) Per pupil: $22,308 Yes: 296 No: 156 Morrisville-Eaton Proposed spending: $17,806,978 (2.86%) Per pupil: $29,192 Yes: 489 No: 338 Oneida Proposed spending: $46,654,593 (-0.7%) Per pupil: $24,401 Yes: 1496 No: 727 Stockbridge Valley Proposed spending: $11,674,248 (2.56%) Per pupil: $27,664 Yes: 284 No: 114 Oswego County Altmar-Parish-Williamstown Proposed spending: $33,166,285 (0.95%) Per pupil: $30,344 Yes: 538 No: 336 Central Square Proposed spending: $81,325,857 (1.51%) Per pupil: $23,032 Yes: 2097 No: 1046 Fulton Proposed spending: $73,777,000 (0.58%) Per pupil: $23,034 Yes: 1552 No: 810 Hannibal Proposed spending: $35,210,500 (2.91%) Per pupil: $25,150 Yes: 578 No: 307 Mexico* Proposed spending: $57,619,200 (0.4%) Per pupil: $27,308 Yes: 1,235 No: 595 Oswego* Proposed spending: $88,505,455 (2.9%) Per pupil: $23,920 Yes: 2594 No: 1380 Phoenix Proposed spending: $47,335,500 (2.19%) Per pupil: $26,444 Yes: 1182 No: 527 Pulaski Proposed spending: $27,617,000 (1.18%) Per pupil: $27,129 Yes: 608 No: 168 Sandy Creek Proposed spending: $23,240,836 (0.93%) Per pupil: $28,692 Yes: 590 No: 213 Source: Districts, New York state Property Tax Report Cards *Oswego and Mexicos budget information was not in state report cards. The information was taken from the district web sites Onondaga County school districts also are reporting results. The Chinese and US national flags are seen during a promotional event in Beijing A high-level conference of Chinese and American officials was set for Wednesday at a U.S. military base in Hawaii. It was to be the first face-to-face meeting between top diplomats from the two countries after months of travel disruption amid the Covid-19 pandemic and after a sharp slide in bilateral relations. As of Wednesday morning, neither Beijing nor Washington officially confirmed the meeting or disclosed an agenda. Several media outlets reported that the delegations were led by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinas State Councilor Yang Jiechi. U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun was to be part of the American delegation, the South China Morning Post reported. Yang and Pompeo last met in August at the height of the trade war between the worlds two largest economies. Even as the trade conflict unfolded, high-level exchanges between China and the U.S. never stopped. That is why the two countries were able to reach the phase one trade agreement in January. But the coronavirus outbreak largely halted global travel and forced several major gatherings of world leaders to move online or be postponed. Under these circumstances, the Hawaii meeting sends a strong signal that China-U.S. relations are so important that top officials must step in to halt the slide. Observers widely expected the meeting to cover a range of issues on which the two sides are at odds, including trade, technology, dealing with the pandemic, publicly traded companies, Hong Kong, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and the South China Sea. But rather than any significant solution for the areas of disagreement, the meeting may serve to prevent the cracks in bilateral relations from expanding further. The two countries are also in disagreement on Chinas recently proposed national security legislation for Hong Kong and issues related to Taiwan. Relations between China and the U.S. have plunged to their lowest point in decades, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. Although top leaders in March held a telephone conversation and agreed to cooperate in battling the pandemic, disagreements on various issues including the role of the World Health Organization set the two sides further apart. It is the time for the two countries to sit down and discuss how to coordinate the combat against the coronavirus. There have always been ups and downs in the 41-year diplomatic relationship between China and the U.S. There were times when relations deteriorated to the verge of collapse, such as the 1999 U.S.-led bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict. Other disagreements have long lingered, such as cybersecurity issues. Fortunately, none of these issues has affected the main direction of bilateral relations based on mutual benefits. But today, concern over worsening China-U.S. ties seems to be deeper. At an April event organized by Bloomberg, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the U.S.-China relationship is now in fundamental disrepair as the machinery that previously existed through the strategic and economic dialogue has virtually been rendered redundant. The best we can hope for is a tactical pause in the hostilities while the strategic dimensions of the relationship continue to unravel, Rudd said. But at the same event, Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S., said there should be more optimistic expectations for China-U.S. ties. Rather than seeking only to suspend tensions, the two sides should sincerely think about the foundation of their important bilateral relations, Cui said. Of course, the Hawaii meeting may serve only as a chance for the two sides to seek to suspend tensions. More efforts to improve the relationship will need to follow. The phase one trade agreement is a good example of how the two countries can put aside disagreements and move toward each other for mutual benefit. Before former President Barack Obamas China visit in 2014, I interviewed then-U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Affairs Susan Thornton in Washington. She told me that ups and downs are normal parts of China-U.S. relations and the two countries will eventually reach consensus on many topics under their shared interests. But when I met Thornton again last year, she seemed to be less confident. Recent clashes between the two countries may erode previous optimism on bilateral relations, underscoring the need to prevent further escalation. The Hawaii meeting should set a first step to lead relations in the right direction. Huang Shan is the deputy managing editor of Caixin Media. Contact translator Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimisos@caixin.com) Farmers have called on the British public to lobby their MPs as a way to avoid 'long-term adverse impacts' for UK food security and consumer health. The call comes as a result of the government blocking an amendment to the Agriculture Bill, which would have banned food imports produced to lower standards in the event of any trade deal. The Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) says it is 'not too late' to lobby MPs before the Bill - which soon reaches the House of Lords committee stage - becomes law. The union's president Glyn Roberts said: You can send them a letter making it clear that UK consumers and food producers deserve better, and let your voice be heard. The Bill has, since being drafted by the government, included a clause that would ensure imported organic food from an overseas country is produced to standards equivalent to the UK's. But an attempt to introduce a similar clause requiring that any food product imported be produced to standards equivalent to the UK was opposed by the government and defeated during the Third Reading of the Bill on the 13 May. Mr Roberts said farmers found this 'completely unacceptable' as the government had previously committed to upholding UK standards. "The principle of maintaining UK standards and protecting consumers, farmers and food producers from sub-standard imports has cross-party support," he said. "If the public wants to help - a good way is to join our campaign to stop this madness. Farmers, as well as consumers, conservationists and animal welfare bodies, are united in supporting such an addition to the Bill. The FUW added that the general public were 'overwhelmingly' behind it. But failure to include an amendment supporting British standards before the Bill receives Royal Assent could have 'long-term adverse impacts' on British farming. I would urge anyone to ask their MP to make sure they do all they can to ensure that the proposed Clause 2 or an equivalent addition to the Bill is ultimately included before it receives Royal Assent," Mr Roberts added. Failure for such a change to be made to the Bill will have long term adverse impacts for UK food security, consumer health, our agriculture industry, global animal welfare and ecosystems as well as resulting in significant political damage for the government. Numerous public figures have also called on the government to uphold British standards in the event of any Brexit trade deal being secured, including Jamie Oliver, Jeremy Clarkson, and Jimmy Doherty. Elsewhere, the NFU's food standards petition is nearing 1 million signatures. As of Tuesday 16 June, over 980,000 people have signed. The Ashanti Region has recorded 2,403 confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease with health workers accounting for 97, Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang, the Regional Director of Health Services, has announced. Dr. Tinkorang who was giving a regional update of the pandemic at a media briefing on Wednesday said 778 had recovered, leaving 1,587 active cases with 38 deaths. He further disclosed that 38 cases were currently on admission, 156 in isolation, and 1,393 receiving home-based care. Unfortunately we have lost one of our hardworking doctors to the virus and 82 out of the 97 infected health workers are being given home-based care with 14 fully recovered, he disclosed. The Regional Director indicated that the directorate had managed to contain the spike in the Obuasi area some weeks back but the Kumasi Metropolis was becoming the new epicenter. He said all treatment centers were full and efforts were being made to expand the bed capacity at the Kumasi South Hospital from 20 to 41to create room for more admissions. A medical doctor, he said, had volunteered to release his private facility as a treatment center and the expectation is to increase the bed capacity to 138 very soon. He used the occasion to debunk alleged strike by some contact tracers in the region because their allowances had been slashed from GH150.00 to GH70.00. The situation is that at the beginning of the lockdown, we were previously using our health staff comprising community health nurses and disease control officers for the contact tracing but because of the lockdown we needed more people to support us, he explained. He further clarified that The Ministry requested that we recruit more volunteers to support the programme but after the lockdown the intensity of the work reduced so we decided to continue with our health workers. According to him, they disengaged the services of the tracers but some districts wanted to engaged some of them and agreed to pay them GH70.00 hence the claims that the tracers were on strike were false. Dr. Tinkorang expressed grave concern about the blatant disregard for the recommended safety protocols by the public, saying that, the only way to overcome the pandemic was to strictly adhere to the protocols. He said people were refusing to wear the facemasks even after it had been made mandatory and Veronica buckets were no more visible in public spaces. GNA RAMALLAH, West Bank The Israeli municipality in Jerusalem is embarking on a mega project it dubbed "Silicon Wadi" (Arabic for "Silicon Valley," a reference to the US region where thousands of tech giants are based) in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood of East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. The project, announced June 3, is designed to create a technological, financial, business, commercial and hospitality hub. The plan allocates 250,000 square meters to high-tech industrial employment centers, 50,000 to shopping centers and another 50,000 to hotels. The construction, which will take until 2022, will cost an estimated 2.1 billion shekels ($600 million). If completed, the project will destroy an existing industrial area in East Jerusalem, where dozens of shops, restaurants and facilities like vehicle repair shops and parts stores are located. Since May 31, the Israeli municipality in Jerusalem has distributed eviction notices to 33 facilities and shops in the industrial area, according to which they have until Dec. 30 to leave before their shops are demolished, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kamal Obeidat, told Al-Monitor. Another 17 sites are expected to receive the same news. Obeidat said Wadi al-Joz, only a few hundreds of meters away from Jerusalems Old City, is private Waqf-administered land, of which the al-Khatib family is the largest owner. He warned against some Palestinians consenting to the project, which targets the livelihoods of the Jerusalemites. If implemented, the project would alter the citys landscape and erase the Arab and historic scenery of its souks, he added. Rumors circulated among Palestinian Jerusalemites that the al-Khatib family consented to the project. The family denied the rumors in a June 4 statement, writing, We did not and absolutely will not sign any partnership agreement with the Jerusalem municipality, and We have not and will not consent to or sign any eviction, demolition, removal or partnership in this regard. The announcement of the Silicon Wadi project came as the Israeli government prepares to annex parts of the West Bank in line with the US Mideast peace plan. The plan, which US President Donald Trump announced Jan. 28, treats Jerusalem as the unified capital of Israel. The project would alter the demographic balance of East Jerusalem, where more than 360,000 Palestinians live. The Palestinian Authoritys appointed governor for Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, told Al-Monitor that the project in Wadi al-Joz is yet another settlement and Israelization project by Israel and its arm, the Jerusalem municipality. He added that such projects are based on the expropriation and demolition of the citizens properties, as 33 citizens received notices to evacuate their shops before the end of the year. He went on that armed with US protection, Israel is working to turn Jerusalem into a Jewish-majority city. According to the eviction notice, of which Al-Monitor obtained a copy, the municipalitys planning and construction committee approved the plan Jan. 6. It claimed the project will create thousands of jobs for the residents of East Jerusalem and that the municipality will develop the citys infrastructure, roads and public squares to the benefit of the people. Speaking to Al-Monitor, Ziad al-Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, warned against the risks of the project. He stated, If implemented, the project will serve as a connection between the outposts in Sheikh Jarrah and Israeli centers in the city, which would give the area a Jewish character, especially with the construction of towers in Sheikh Jarrah, Musrara and Silwan. That would destroy the Arab identity of the city. Hammouri went on, According to the available information, Israel will build two hotels, business parks and a high-tech educational facility as part of the project, using the false claim that it will serve the Jerusalemites and improve their conditions. Yet, in reality, the project is a continuation of the Judaization project around the Old City of Jerusalem and will pave the way for the infiltration of the settlers. This is particularly true since the investors in the project are Israelis. Hammouri pointed out that the towers and buildings are to be built along the main street of Wadi al-Joz, stretching to the Ras al-Amud neighborhood, linking the project to the settlements of Ma'ale HaZeitim and Ma'ale David as well as some Jewish graves, which will facilitate the settlers movement among the areas. Hammouri indicated that the project will add a finishing touch to a series of settlement projects that encircle and stifle the Old City of Jerusalem. Zakaria Odeh, coordinator of the Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinians' Rights in Jerusalem, told Al-Monitor that Wadi al-Joz project is a continuation of another the Israeli municipality has been working on for years to encircle the city center with settlement projects, furthering annexation and Judaization goals and expanding Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem. Odeh noted, If implemented, the project would destroy the Palestinian economy there, since shops and facilities will be demolished in order for Israeli business centers to be set up. The Palestinians could have the simple labor, but the greater good will go to Israel. Since Jerusalem was occupied in 1967, Israel has neither stopped its Judaization projects nor its settlement activities, with the goal of bringing about a demographic change to the advantage of the settlers. It has been building settlements around and within the city, surrounding, isolating and preventing any geographical connection between the Palestinian neighborhoods. The Silicon Wadi project in Wadi al-Joz is another building block in the city's overall settlement project. Indian authorities have reported that 20 of their soldiers have died during a clash with Chinese troops along the border between the two countries. The region had long been a disputed area in the Himalayan Mountains. The incident marks the worst military confrontation between the parties for several decades. A broken silence The Wall Street Journal reports that Indian officials stated the Chinese side also received casualties on their side. A Chinese spokesman said the encounter occurred when Indian soldiers showed provocative intentions in a region that they claimed is under China's control. It is currently unknown how the Indian troops suffered their fate. Still, one senior military official revealed some of the men were beaten to death with blunt weapons such as clubs that were embedded with nails in a fight that did not utilize guns. Both sides agreed to protocols that prohibited the use of guns to avoid deadly encounters from happening. Initially, only three soldiers died during the confrontation. Still, Indian officials later added that the other 17 soldiers succumbed to their injuries after being exposed to harsh environmental conditions, as reported by CNN. The casualties mark the first time in 40 years that deaths have been reported amid the growing tensions of the two countries along the border. Reportedly, senior military officials from both countries are now discussing to lessen tensions within the region. Also Read: China Behind Increased Jaguar Killings, Trafficking in Belize Accusations of invasion Zhao Lijian, the foreign ministry spokesman of China, said that their neighbour country had crossed the border on Monday twice, showing provocative signs and assaulting their personnel that sparked the severely physical confrontation. Both sides insisted that no shot was fired during the encounter. However, details of the incident remain unclear, as reported by BBC. Analysts state that neither party would want the tension to escalate, India, in particular, would be at a disadvantage with its weaker military might than China. The leaders of the two countries, China's Xi Jinping, and India's Narendra Modi have taken severely decisive decisions that increase the risk of conflict ensuing on a larger scale. According to The New York Times, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, Ashley J. Tellis believes that neither Xi nor Modi would benefit from a war. Still, neither could also give up on their territorial control. The dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs, Sreeram Chaulia, stated that the Asian country is taking risky steps assuming India is being held back by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. Chaulia added India is continually increasing its preparations to maintain a ready defence against the Chinese nation and its attempts at breaching its territory. Kanti Prasad Bajpai, a professor of international relations in Singapore, said both countries are pressured to maintain a strong ego on a global stage. He also stated China is worried over India's growing ties with the United States, and India is concerned with China's growing support and influence in South Asia, specifically, its rising relations with Pakistan. Related Article: China Takes Advantage of US Protests to Move Closer in Seizing Hong Kong, Ignoring Its Own Issues @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Chrome News Track is a yet another exclusive from Chrome Data Analytics and Media which conducts study on News Content aired across India by choosing the "Most Aired, Most Watched and Most Discussed News of the week". The automated data picked from 30200 Chrome DM Panel Homes across India. It analyses the effectiveness of the News aired on television every week and categorises it through three broad segments namely Most Aired, Most Watched and Most Discussed. Most Aired News in Week 23: According to the Chrome News Track data for the Week 23 - 2020, Coronavirus cases in world was the most Aired News this week, followed by News about Coronavirus unlock in India. The News about Encounter in Jammu and Kashmir stood at the 3rd India China relation was next in the list and News about West Bengal Jan samvad rally managed to take the fifth and the last spot. Most Watched News in Week 23: The data also unveils that Coronavirus unlock in India was the most watched news for the week grabbing maximum eyeballs, followed by Encounter in Jammu and Kashmir. The news about Coronavirus cases in world, West Bengal Jan samvad rally t & India China relation also generated interests amongst viewers and are placed at 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively in the list. Most Discussed News in Week 23: On the other hand, taking a closer view of the Most Discussed News category, the news about Coronavirus unlock in India has been the talk of the nation making it the most discussed news whereas the News Coronavirus cases in world happens to be the 2nd most discussed news as per the automated data picked from 30200 Chrome DM Panel Homes. Encounter in Jammu and Kashmir became the 3rd most discussed news among masses. West Bengal Jan samvad rally and India China relation are placed at 4th & 5th respectively in the list. In a crisis, he had no home to turn to. We move from our small towns and villages to make a new lifeand refugein cities seemingly full of possibilities such as Delhi, or Noida, or Gurugram. But so many of us end up in a limbo, with no place anywhere to call a home. Such is also the case with tea stall owner Manbeer Singh Negi. I realised during the (coronavirus-triggered) lockdown that I no longer belong to my village nor do I belong to this city. This late morning Mr Negi, 43, is sitting idle at his stall in Gurugrams multi-storey Apna Bazaar complex. His makeshift establishment, comprising of a rickety wooden table, cooking gas range, LPG cylinder, chai kettle and pan is on the first-floor corridor. Sab thap ho gaya (alls jammed up), he says on WhatsApp video, explaining the aftermath of the lockdown on his life and living. The photos are taken through the phone screen that connects him to this reporter. The chai man feels that his regular customers arent coming back to him because they are scared. He assumes that people feel that the virus might enter their bodies if they drink chai from stalls like his. Unlike many other folks with the same kind of small businesses, Mr Negi discovered during these difficult months that he doesnt have the luxury of going back to his native village in the mountains of Uttarakhand. Although his siblings still live there. He confesses he did toy with the idea of at least a temporary return during the first few weeks of the lockdown but soon realised its implausibility. My brothers are kind and they might shelter me and my family for 15 days, 20 days, or even a month... but after that they would certainly expect me to leave. They too arent rich, they too have their own households to support. His parents died decades ago, he observes. The only relationship he has with the village concerns with the infrequent trips to attend weddings or festivals. It takes about 12 hours to reach the village. I first board the bus from Gurgaon to Rishikesh, then another bus to Tehri, and from there a cab to Sagwan Gaon, my village. The little hamlet is in the middle of a woody forest, the chai man informs. We have cheetahs coming in the vicinity almost daily. There are big dams nearby, he says with some pride. And why doesnt he consider this vast Delhi region where he has been for a lifetime30 years!his native place now? Mr Negi had first lived in Delhis Karol Bagh before moving on to the Millennium City. He shrugs his shoulders, and passionately offers a counter-argument as if he were participating in a TV debate show: My makan-maalik (landlord) can evict me from his property this very evening if he decides so. Taking off the white mask from his face to talk more freely, Mr Negi regrets his failure in not owning even just a little room in the NCR (National Capital Region). I find it unable to save money.... although we dont spend on anything luxurious. He pauses and mutters that maybe if I hadnt married... then there would have been less expenses. Mr Negi lives with his family in a rented room in Lakshmi Vihar near the railway station. Vigorously nodding his head, he speaks half-jokingly that Na ghar ka, na ghat ka (Im neither here nor there). A moment later, he intones that he dutifully opens his stall every morning to cater to a handful of customers who still turn up. Money has to be earned. Meanwhile, still no customer. But the day has just begun. Mr Singh will return only in the evening to his familyUrmila Devi, Shivang and Kashish. In a world where no place is friendly enough to be a home, cant his wife and children be that elusive home. Mr Negi looks towards the phone screen in a puzzling manner, apparently unconvinced of such an idea. Suddenly, he shifts the conversation back to his village. Most of us are farmers there... these days we all must be busy with the dhaan (paddy) crop. Later in the day, he sends a winter-time picture of his family over WhatsApp. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asks PM Modi to come forth and reveal the truth about Ladakh, assures him of national support, and expresses grief over the death of Indian soldiers. Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of hiding and being silent, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday urged him to come forward and reveal the ground reality of the incidents which took place in Galwan valley area of Ladakh in which at least 20 Indian Army personnel, including an officer, lost their lives. Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? the Congress leader tweeted. The Wayanad MP later also put out a short video on the issue, urging Prime Minister Modi to come forward and assuring him that the whole country stood with him. Read also: Army sources confirm disengagement from both sides as India faces the bloodiest clash with China in 50 years Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 17, 2020 Read also: India-China standoff: US extends support for de-escalation, closely monitoring the situation The video was shared by the Congress leader on Twitter with the caption, My salute to the brave martyrs of the country. Two days back, 20 Indian soldiers were martyred, they were snatched away from their families. China has snatched land from India, Prime Minister why are you silent? Where are you hiding? Come out, the whole country, all of us, are standing with you. The country is standing with you as one (unit). Come out and tell the truth to the country, do not be afraid, Gandhi said in the short 27-second video clip he shared on Twitter. Earlier yesterday, the Congress leader had condoled the death of the Army personnel in the violent face-off with Chinese troops. The violent face-off happened on late evening and the night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on June 16. The Chinese side also suffered casualties, including the death of the commanding officer of the Chinese Unit involved in the violent face-off with Indian troops, sources confirmed to ANI. Read also: India-China face-off: Alert in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Three of Nigerias four refineries gulped N1.64 trillion in cumulative losses recorded in their operations since 2014, details from the first-ever audited accounts and financial statements of the companies published by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Friday has shown. Two of these refineries are the 210,000 barrels per day capacity Port Harcourt Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited and 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited. The audit reports showed that combined losses from the two refineries were N208.6 billion in 2014; N252.8 billion in 2015; N290.6 billion in 2016; N412 billion in 2017, and N475 billion in 2018. The five-year audited account details for 125,000 barrels per day Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited were, however, removed from the published details by the NNPC. However, PREMIUM TIMES review of the published details showed cumulative losses from the operations of the four refineries in 2017 and 2018 stood at about N412.8 billion. Critics say the humongous losses, which epitomises the level of rot and decay in the four refineries, counters the logic in the federal governments avowed commitment to sink more public funds in their rehabilitation before selling them to private investors. Both the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipreye Sylva, and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, have spoken variously about the governments plan to rehabilitate the four refineries before considering privatisation. A review showed the bulk of the losses were from the operating costs and administrative expenses accumulated by the companies despite that some have since been shut down or operating at grossly below installed capacities. Findings showed all the refineries spent huge earnings on administrative expenses, which included head office overhead funding, Public Relations and publicity, staff training expenses, local/international travels and hotels, employee benefits, directors remuneration, and consultancy fees. Kaduna Refinery The worst details are in the financial statement by Haruna Yahaya & Co. and Oye Abioye Quaye & Co., the chartered accountants that conducted the audit on the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited. The report showed that the refinery did not realise any revenue in 2018 through processing fee due to the shutdown of the plants and ongoing turnaround maintenance. But, the total comprehensive loss for 2018 was about N64.3 billion, as against N111.9 billion in the previous year, total equity loss put at about N423.4 billion, up from N359.2 billion in 2017. The expenses that contributed to the losses included auditors remuneration N50 million in 2018 and N30 million in 2017; employee benefits N13.9 billion, down from N27.3 billion in 2017; refinery assets N11.4 billion and N73.4 billion in 2017; staff bus N90.7 million and N85.1 million in 2017. Similarly, operating losses for 2018 dropped by 42% from N112 billion in 2017 to N64.6 billion in 2018, while administrative expenses grew from N21.7 billion in 2017 to N39.995 billion in 2018. Details of the administrative expenses include NNPC head office overhead (N14.1 billion) in 2018, and N1.3 billion in 2017; Public Relations and publicity N45.1 million in 2018 and N58.5 million in 2017; maintenance N102. 8 million and N567.7 million in 2017. The expenses also include staff training expenses N447.8 million and N340.2 million in 2017; local and international travels N662.2 million and N783.3 million in 2017, and employee benefits N13.9 billion, down from N13.5 billion in 2017; depreciation of property plant and equipment N106.3million in 2018 and N128.9 million in 2017, and allowance for obsolete equipment N183.8 million down from N4.4 billion in 2017. Also, the audit report showed that details of the N23.3 billion spent on employee benefits in 2018 and N27.3 billion in 2017, including salaries and wages; staff death benefits and other benefits. The report said the company realized about N134.4 million in 2018 and N98.7 million in 2017 as other income, consisting sale of electricity, penalties for the loss of ID cards; Insurance claim and miscellaneous income. Finance income, which rose to N208.9 million in 2018 from N114.4 million in 2017, included interest on employee loans. The components of the direct cost, which stood at about N24.7 billion in 2018 as against N92.6 billion in 2017, including employee benefits; administrative expenses; asset under construction written off and consultancy fees. On Directors remuneration, the report showed that the four directors earned between N10 million and N20 million in 2018 and 2017, with the highest paid director earning N33million in 2018 and N27million in 2017. The four directors of the company contained in the report include the Managing Director, Ladenegan Adewale Solomon; Executive Director (Operations), Tsavnande Thaddeus Atghir; Executive Director, Finance & Accounts), Chinwe Osolu Eunice, and Executive Director (Services), Abdullahi Idris. Advertisements Besides, a total of 312 higher-paid employees of the company other than the directors in 2018 and 1022 in 2017 were paid various amounts ranging from N100,000 to over N15 million. Although the payments excluded pension contributions and other benefits, the directors also received other emoluments totalling about N109.8 million in 2018 and N242.9 million in 2017. Since 2014, the refinery has been operating at a loss with net liabilities totalling N181.4 billion in 2014; N217 billion in 2015; N247.2 billion in 2016; N359.1 billion in 2017, and N429.4 billion in 2018. Details contained in the five years audited report and financial statements published by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Friday showed in 2014 the refinery recorded a total comprehensive loss for the year of N34.1 billion; N35 6 billion in 2015; N30.2 billion in 2016; N111.9 billion in 2017 and N64.3 billion in 2018. Although revenues dwindled from N20.7 billion in 2014 to N418.8 million in 2015, it improved marginally to N1.5 billion in 2016 and to N2.2 billion in 2017, before fizzling out completely in 2018 with not one Naira earned from the companys operations. Port Harcourt Refinery In Port Harcourt Refinery, total comprehensive loss recorded in 2014 stood at N27.2 billion; N35.8 billion in 2015; N43.4 billion in 2016; N53.8 billion in 2017 (N55.8 billion in the published 2018 report) and N45.6 billion in 2018. Non-current liabilities included Corporate Headquarters funding of N372.5 billion in 2018 and N330.3 billion in 2017; retirement benefits N10.3 billion for defined contribution plans and N12.4 billion for defined benefit plans for 2018 and 2017 respectively. In 2018, operating loss stood at about N46.6 billion as against N57.8 billion in 2017, with about N1.5 billion realized as revenue in 2018 and N4.8 billion in 2017 and processing expenses in 2018 put at N24 billion and N23.8 billion in 2017, and administrative expenses at N24 billion in 2018 and N38.8 billion. Administrative expenses include N9.2 billion and N10.9 billion as salaries, allowances and bonuses for 742 and 815 staff in 2018 and 2017 respectively. Other expenses included staff welfare N1.3 billion in 2018 and N1.4 billion in 2017; staff terminal benefit N121.5 million in 2018 and N99.7 million in 2017; retirement benefits (defined plan) N1.6 billion in 2018 and N2.2 billion in 2017, and defined benefits N12.4 billion in 2017. On turnover, N2.5 billion was realized in 2014; N683.5 million in 2015; N3.4 billion in 2016; N4.8 billion in 2017 and N1.5 billion in 2018. However, processing expenses gulped about N20.6 billion in 2014; N25.7 billion in 2015; N24.4 billion in 2016; N23.8 billion in 2017, and N24 billion in 2018. Details of the processing expenses included direct materials cost, direct labour, direct expenses and processing overheads. On Directors emoluments, the report showed that about N58.8 million each for 20188 and 2017 the Chairman of the Board and other directors, while the other directors received a minimum of N12 million and above every year. The directors include the former NNPC GMD, Maikanti Baru as Chairman; Managing Director, Abbar Bukar; Executive Director (Finance & Accounts) Aramide Ekundayo; Executive Director (Services), Ngini Amaka Nwakaife, and Executive Director (Operations), Ganiyu Abiodun Owolabi. Warri Refinery In Warri Refinery, total comprehensive loss in 2018 stood at N52.2 billion and N84.6 billion in 2017. Although the statement showed the company had as revenue N1.99 billion in 2018 and N1.3 billion in 2017, the cost of sales gulped about N12.7 billion in 2018 and N14.5 billion in 2017, with total operating loss at N45.4 billion in 2018 and N85.1 billion in 2017. Further details on the cost of sales showed that N7.2 billion and N6.1 billion was spent on salaries, wages and allowances; natural gas/industrial electricity N2.9 billion and N4.4 billion; direct maintenance cost of N1.7 billion and NN3.4 billion; chemicals consumed N43.1 million and N104.8 million in 2018 and 2017 respectively. The audited account by Oguobi & Co and Ijebor+Ijebor, Chartered Accountants, showed operating loss covered operating expenses of N34.6 billion in 2018 and N71.9 billion in 2017. Details of the operating losses revealed the bulk of the expenses were on the welfare of the staff and remuneration of the directors. While about N270.1 million and N353 million were spent on the directors remunerations in 201 and 2017 respectively, salaries, wages and allowances of the workers took N13.8 billion in 2018 and N12.9 billion in 2017. The directors include Managing Director, M. Abali; Executive Director (Finance) A.E Bisong; Executive Director (Services), F.I.Ololo, and Executive Director (Operations), A. Ariaga. Other expenses included staff pension N876.1 million in 2018 and N917.2 million in 2017; staff welfare N275.1 million in 2018 and N73.2 million in 2017; staff training N275.98 million in 2018 and N60.5 million in 2017; periodic benefit expenses N2.7 billion in 2018 and N10.5 billion in 2017 as well as travel and hotels N758.9 million in 2018 and N471.8 billion in 2017. In addition, plant lease charge was N10 billion in 2018 and N44.9 billion in 2017; auditors fees N50 million in 2018 and N30 million in 2017, and other expenses N673.8 million in 2018 and N429.4 million in 2017; depreciation N296.1 million in 2018 and N259.8 million in 2017. One of the constants of communism is anti-Semitism. It's baked into the Marxist pie, starting with Karl Marx himself, whose anti-Semitic writings are indistinguishable from Hitler's. Given New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's communist credentials, his escalating hostility to the politically conservative, religiously orthodox Jews in his city should not come as a surprise. As background, Karl Marx came from a Jewish family. Shortly before he was born, though, his father converted to the state Evangelical Church of Prussia for purely pragmatic reasons. A child of the Enlightenment with little patience for religion, Herr Marx Sr. could not advance in Prussia as a Jew. Young Karl Marx came to loathe his Jewish heritage. It was he who converted traditional European anti-Semitism, which was centered entirely on the Jewish rejection of Christ, into socialist anti-Semitism, which ties Jews to financial capital. (Marx did this even though the vast majority of Europe's Jews lived in abysmal poverty, with only a small number, many of whom had been able to take advantage of Prussia's brief window of Enlightenment, achieving any wealth.) If you're interested in Marx's "unambiguous" anti-Semitism, the best article is Michael Ezra's "Karl Marx's Radical Antisemitism." It discusses Marx's essay "On the Jewish Question," which sounds remarkably close to something Hitler or Stalin (or Al Sharpton or Louis Farrakhan) could have written: What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money. ... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist. Money degrades all the gods of man and turns them into commodities. The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew. His god is only an illusory bill of exchange. The chimerical nationality of the Jew is the nationality of the merchant, of the man of money in general. This kind of garbage could have been written by only a man whose family had turned its back on its Jewish roots so he knew nothing about the fundamental humanist values and the overriding emphasis on justice that animate Judaism. But that's a subject for another post. The point is that modern anti-Semitism is predicated on the foul and erroneous belief that Jews and capitalism are the same. As both Hitler and Stalin realized and put into effect, if you want to destroy the free market and individual liberty in favor of state ownership and collectivism, you must first destroy the Jews. In 2014, Judicial Watch uncovered de Blasio's hardcore communist affiliations: De Blasio was an active supporter of the communist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua in the 1980s. He was so enamored with Soviet-backed revolutionaries that he traveled to the capital city of the war-torn country, Managua, to aid their cause by participating in a relief mission. Upon de Blasio's return to the United States, he joined the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York (NSN). [snip] The records show de Blasio was an ardent supporter of the communist revolutionaries in Nicaragua, who raised funds for the Sandinistas and was a subscriber to the party's newspaper, "Barricada" (The Barricade). He traveled to Nicaragua in 1988 and became active in the NSN upon his return to the U.S. New York's mayor has been unapologetic about his involvement with a foreign Marxist political movement accused of slaughtering innocent civilians and practicing the "disappearance" technique of eliminating political foes. With that record, it's unsurprising that de Blasio has used the Wuhan virus to attack New York's orthodox Jews. Even as he's welcomed and encouraged the thousands of people who showed up for Black Lives Matter marches and riots, he's threatened to round up Jews for having funerals; warned them that they'll be arrested for prayers; and, most recently, shut down a Brooklyn park in which Jewish children play. That last was too much for the Jewish community, which had tried to be conciliatory with Herr de Blasio. They hadn't missed that, on the same day he shut down the park, he'd done nothing about a Black Trans Life protest in Brooklyn that attracted thousands of people. The Jews, therefore, took bolt-cutters to the park. De Blasio was outraged. "We're not going to allow people to take the law into their own hands," he said, after having stood to the side and applauded as rioters ignored lockdown and social distancing orders, as well as a whole body of criminal laws against property destruction, robbery, theft, assault, and attacks on police. "We're not going to allow people to take the law into their own hands," @BilldeBlasio says of people cutting locks on playgrounds. Erin Durkin (@erinmdurkin) June 16, 2020 Twitter users offered some stinging, and eminently appropriate, responses: NYC can let thousands of people loot, riot, and burn everything to the ground but no way are they going to let those little Jewish children play in a park. It is like we are living out a story from The Onion. DecafHigh (@CassidyWinter20) June 16, 2020 That is bizarre. Looting, arson, and vandalism are fine, but going into a park is the downfall of civilization. Gigi Kay (@GigiKay84) June 16, 2020 "I've ordered all citizens to wear a Star of David. The fact I'm only enforcing this order on Jews is entirely coincidental." Kevin Eric Snell (@KevEnoch) June 16, 2020 I have been furnished with evidence that one Collins Mnangagwa residing at Elshaddai Road in Glen Lorne Harare has been assisting Chantelle Muteswa in her shenanigans. As he is the son of the president (Emmerson Mnangagwa), I decided not to act against him as the president is an old friend of mine and would rather keep evidence of this abuse of office for a later stage, Buyanga wrote. Kolkata, June 17 : A pall of gloom descended over the native places of two soldiers in West Bengal's Birbhum and Alipurduar districts on Wednesday as the news of their killing during the violent face-off with the Chinese troops in Ladakh poured in. The mother of one of the fallen soldiers demanded a befitting reply to the Chinese. According to sources, Army jawan Rajesh Oraon's family in Mohammad Bazar were told late Tuesday night that he was severely injured during the face-off. The news of Rajesh's death was conveyed later through another call from the Army Headquarters. After reports said another Army jawan Bipul Roy from Alipurduar's district was also killed during the clash, officials from the district administration reached Bipul's Bhatipara residence to speak to his family members. Rajesh's family and villagers mourned the untimely demise of the braveheart. "He called me about a week back for barely a minute. He asked about everyone's well-being and asked me to stay safe. He told me he won't be able to connect for the next few weeks as he was to climb up further to man the borders," said Shakuntala Oraon, his sister, while breaking down in tears. Rajesh's mother Mamata Oraon demanded justice for her son. "We want the Indian Army to give them a befitting reply. I want justice for my son. We want revenge," said the bereaved mother. Meanwhile, district officials arrived at Rajesh's neighbourhood and got the approach road to their house cleared. Sources said the body was likely to arrive in the village on Wednesday night. VANCOUVERA sunny afternoon instantly turned dark for Lucien Lessard on June 17, 1958, as he plunged into the ocean when a support collapsed on a bridge being constructed between Vancouver and North Vancouver. Lessard, now 91, was among 79 workers who fell from the Second Narrows Bridge in what remains one of British Columbias worst industrial accidents. He is the last survivor of the disaster that killed 23 people, mostly iron workers, two engineers and a crane operator. A diver who searched for bodies in Burrard Inlet drowned. On Wednesday, Lessard planned to be at the site as part of an annual ceremony commemorating those who worked on the span, which was renamed the Iron Workers Memorial Second Narrows Bridge in 1994. The event draws hundreds of people annually but has been limited this year to only a few including Lessard, his daughter, the president of Local 97 of the Iron Workers Union, a reverend and a bagpiper who will lead a wreath procession. Lessard was a foreman at the site and known to his crew as Lou. I was on the edge of the bridge, he recalled in an interview. I went down 125 feet and then 35 feet to the bottom of the ocean. It was dark on the bottom because when the bridge fell down that mixed the mud on the bottom of the ocean and it was as black as it could be, he said. I couldnt breath in the water, he said, adding that when he finally surfaced he realized hed suffered serious injuries. He fractured his left femur and right arm, and spent over three months in hospital. His thoughts were with those he knew had not survived, and that took an emotional toll on him and the other survivors. Dad never talked about it, said Christine Rzepka, who was born in 1961. It was only about 20 years ago that her father mentioned anything about the memorial he attended every year, and even then it seemed hed let it slip, she said. He wasnt ready to deal with it. He kept it separate. He dealt with it when he went to the memorial with his iron worker friends and he didnt bring that sadness home at all. Rzepka attended her first memorial in honour of the dead and their families about 20 years ago before her siblings, including three sisters and two brothers, began joining them, she said. After we started to come to the memorial he started to open up a lot more about what happened then. Weve learned a lot more in the last 10 years than we ever knew growing up. Rzepka said her father, who moved to a retirement home in Langley about three months ago, is determined to attend the annual memorial for as long as he can. This year he plans to don a face shield to protect him from any risk of COVID-19. Paul Beacom, president of Local 97, said the memorial will be broadcast via Facebook and Zoom. Its to let people know that when they cross that bridge between Vancouver and North Vancouver there was a high price to pay to build that bridge, in human lives. Read more about: Sies Marjan arrived on the New York fashion scene in 2016 with a blast of color, industry fanfare and an exclusive two-year retail deal with Barneys New York. The creative director was the Dutch designer Sander Lak, a charming onetime member of Dries Van Notens design team who named the label after his parents. Joey Laurenti, an Opening Ceremony alumnus, was the chief executive. And bankrolling the endeavor were the billionaires Nancy and Howard Marks, who used the New York showroom and atelier of a previous fashion acquisition, Ralph Rucci, as the headquarters for the new label. The first show was in the penthouse, still under construction, atop a luxury condominium building in Lower Manhattan. Anna Wintour took pride of place in the front row. How times have changed. On June 16, Sies Marjan announced that it would close its doors at the end of the working day. Recently, Kumkum Bhagya actress Shikha Singh had shared a picture with her hubby Karan Shah and wrote a heartwarming message for their future baby. She had written, "Often I wondered while u were inside of me who in the world you will turn out to be. We just pray that you'll be healthy, happy, honorable, and kindhearted. Can't wait to meet ya 'AI'." The couple are proud parents now! Shikha is blessed with a baby girl, who was born on June 16, 2020. The actress was quoted by BT as saying, "We are naming her Alayna Singh Shah. During our trip to Maldives in February, we had decided that if we have a daughter, this would be her name. This was the first name we both agreed upon, and after that, throughout the pregnancy, we called our baby, 'Al'." When asked about how she feels as a new mother, Shikha said, "The feeling is yet to sink in. I think the countless sleepless nights that we will face, will make me realise that I am a mom now!" The actress revealed that she and Karan had been taking all precautions throughout her pregnancy. She also said that both she and baby are fine, and the hospital is taking very good care as they are meticulous and sanitising the area very well. The Kumkum Bhagya actress further said that she is not planning to exit the show, but will take a few months to resume work. Shikha said that she can't wait for her pet (Labrador) Goku to meet Alayna. Also Read: Kumkum Bhagya's Aliya Aka Shikha Singh Is Expecting Her First Child; Shares Pics Flaunting Baby Bump Also Read: Sumeet Vyas & Ekta Kaul Blessed With A Baby Boy; Actor Announces Good News On Instagram Canadian and Australian ambassadors and military attaches to Vietnam also took part in the talks. During the talks, Vinh informed the Australian and Canadian officials on the COVID-19 situation in Vietnam, attributing the good outcomes in controlling the disease to concerted efforts of the entire political system, with the Vietnam Peoples Army serving as the core and vanguard force. Highlighting the importance of international collaboration in the fight against the pandemic, he thanked Australian and Canadian defence bodies cooperation in sharing information on COVID-19 prevention, control, research and treatment. He hoped the joint work will last for long given the COVID-19 complexities. On the occasion, Vinh and his counterparts reviewed outcomes of Vietnam-Australia and Vietnam-Canada defence ties in the past time and sought agreement on future orientations with a stress on military medical coordination in disease prevention and control. All sides vowed that they will not allow the pandemic to hinder their thriving cooperation. The Vietnamese and Canadian officials expressed their delight at breakthroughs in the relations of the sides after their defence ministers exchanged visits, particularly in human resources training and UN peace keeping mission. The Canadian side said it plans to set up a military attache office in Vietnam this year, and the two sides agreed to push for the establishment of a bilateral defence policy dialogue mechanism toward building a three-year cooperation scheme for the two defence ministries. General view of the talks between Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh and Peter Tesch, Deputy Secretary for Strategic Policy & Intelligence at Australias Department of Defence. (Photo: qdnd.vn) Meanwhile, Vietnam and Australia took note of outstanding joint work, such as Australian military aircraft, for the second time, transporting personnel of Vietnams level-2 field hospital to South Sudan for peacekeeping mission. The sides also began teaming up to organise activities in searching for Vietnamese soldiers going missing during wartime, shooting skills exchanges; and discussions on women, peace and security. Vinh stated Vietnams Defence Ministry is committed to the effective implementation of defence cooperation with Australia and Canada based on signed documents and agreements for the benefit of the sides involved and of the region. The official also informed his counterparts on the schedule of activities during the year Vietnam serves as Chair of ASEAN 2020 and its tenure as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2020-2021. He highlighted Vietnams determination in strengthening collaboration within the framework of the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) and ADMM Plus. He stressed Vietnam backs Canadas responsible participation in the region in line with ASEANs consensus principle and praised Australias success in hosting the first informal ASEAN Australia defence ministers meeting. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 03:04:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 in Pretoria, South Africa, June 17, 2020. The summit, held via video link, was jointly proposed by China, South Africa, the rotating chair of the African Union (AU), and Senegal, the co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). (South Africa Presidency/Handout via Xinhua) BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) -- African leaders and experts spoke highly of Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 on Wednesday, hailing achievements of China-Africa cooperation in fighting the pandemic. In his remarks, Xi called on China and Africa to defeat the novel coronavirus with solidarity and cooperation. He said the two sides should work together to build a China-Africa community of health for all and take their comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership to a greater height. Leaders of African countries, including members of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government and rotating chairs of major African sub-regional organizations, and the chairperson of the AU Commission, attended the summit held via video link. AU chairperson and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said: "This Extraordinary China-Africa Solidarity Summit against COVID-19 demonstrates the depth and resilience of solidarity between China and Africa." He said humanity is facing a grave and uncertain crisis as it confronts a virus which by its nature knows no geographic boundaries and recognises no national sovereignty. "Sino-Africa solidarity and better multilateral cooperation is key to winning the battle against this pandemic. Through this and other platforms, let us continue to strengthen the bonds of solidarity that exist among us and take collective action to secure the future of humanity," Ramaphosa said. He expressed the gratitude of the African people to President Xi, the Chinese government and people for their generous donation of personal protective equipment and other medical assistance provided for Africa. Calling the summit "an excellent initiative," Senegalese President Macky Sall said that leaders attending the meeting have reaffirmed their aspiration to consolidate the friendship between Africa and China and to build a community with a shared future for mankind. Sall also voiced support for the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in coordinating the global response to the epidemic. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari commended the Chinese government, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the WHO for their respective actions and measures to help developing countries in Africa to tackle the pandemic. Buhari acknowledged that China's support had tremendously strengthened Nigeria's effort in combating COVID-19, adding that President Xi's strong support has further demonstrated the spirit of solidarity and enhanced the bond of partnership that already exist among the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) members. Boubacar Abdou, technical advisor to the president of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council in Niger, said that China has played a decisive role in the fight against COVID-19 worldwide and particularly in Africa, by reaching out to others. "It must be recognized that in the fight against the pandemic, China has been an important partner for Africa in general and West Africa in particular. After successfully stemming the spread of the disease on their own territory, the Chinese quickly flew to the aid of other countries by first sending doctors, then medical supplies, to really deal with the pandemic," said Abdou. "The Chinese aid has enabled African countries, which are not well-equipped for the pandemic, to benefit from the expertise of Chinese doctors and have prevention equipment," Abdou said. Mamadou Saliou Bah, director of Guinea's Laboratories of the National Health Security Agency (ANSS), said working together to fight the epidemic has undoubtedly deepened the friendship between China and Africa. Humphrey Moshi, professor of economics at the University of Dar es Salaam and director of the Center for Chinese Studies, said that the summit is a continuation of China-Africa friendship and economic cooperation. President Xi's remarks at the summit shows "China cherishes its friendship with Africa and both sides regard cooperation as an effective way to address COVID-19," Moshi said. Joyce Moriku Kaducu, Ugandan state minister for primary health care, said the summit "will bring a very good way forward in the fight against COVID-19" as well as in economy. Noting that Uganda has an "outstanding relationship" with China, the minister said that Uganda has been working with China in research and laboratory testing on COVID-19, adding that China has supported her country "in the beginning (of the pandemic) with testing kits and donations." With its experience in battling the pandemic, China "has helped Uganda to improve the healthcare and service delivery to the people infected with the coronavirus," she added. Enditem GARDAI targeting the activites of a Limerick-based crime organisation have seized hundreds of thousands of euro worth of cash, drugs and jewellery as well a high-end car and the deeds to a property in the Middle East. Thirteen men and one woman, ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s, have been arrested during a series of co-ordinated searches in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. As part of Operation Coronation, more than 170 gardai from Limerick, Clare and Tipperary supported by the Criminal Assets Bureau, Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Emergency Response Unit, the Armed Response Unit and Regional Dog Unit carried out 67 searches at dwellings, businesses and at lands in all three counties The operation, which began at 6am this Wednesday, was also supported by three teams of Irish Army Search Engineers, the Army EOD team and the Army Helicopter. During the operation gardai seized around 220,000 in cash consisting of euros, sterling, dirham (UAE currency) and old Irish currency. Deeds to a property in Dubai along with a car, worth 50,000, and 100,000 worth of jewellery and luxury watches were also seized Gardai say they also located high-value clothing items and significant evidence to support the investigation including financial accounts and property documentation. Suspected drugs, worth an estimated 23,500, were seized along with two cocaine presses. Two bank accounts have also been frozen containing sums in excess of 119,000. Three of those arrested for suspected money laundering offences are being detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. One person is being questioned in relation to the discovery of 2,000 of suspected crack cocaine and heroin which was seized at one location. Another of those arrested is being detained under the provisions of Section 2 of the Criminal Justice 2 (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996 in respect of suspected cannabis herb worth approximately 20,000. Six people are being detained under Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act while a further three were arrested on foot of oustanding warrants. Investigations are continuing. Union County, the rural northeastern Oregon county home to the states largest coronavirus outbreak, voluntarily returned to Phase 1 of Gov. Kate Browns coronavirus reopening plan Wednesday. The county is the first in Oregon to step backward under the governors gradual reopening guidelines. The move came after the county recorded a giant spike in coronavirus cases, from 22 on Sunday to 242 as of Wednesday. Union County had entered Phase 2 of Browns reopening plan June 5. Under stricter Phase 1 regulations, gatherings are limited to 25 people or fewer, and churches are not allowed to meet in large groups. State public health officials have linked the countys outbreak to Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in Island City, next to La Grande. The Northeast Oregon Joint Information Center, which helps coordinate Union Countys emergency response, issued a statement Wednesday explaining the countys decision to return to Phase 1. This decision was made due to the significant rise in confirmed COVID-19 case numbers, concerns for the protection of the community, and concerns for impacts to Grande Ronde Hospital, the statement said. Voluntary adherence by citizens will apply to individuals, businesses and organizations, although many have already voluntarily returned to the Phase 1 guidance. Union County has a population of about 27,000. La Grande is the hub of the county, said Suzannah Moore-Hemann, executive director of the Union County Chamber of Commerce. She believes voluntarily moving back to Phase 1 is a good idea for the communitys safety, but said the move will be painful for the economy. We just entered Phase 2 two weeks ago, Moore-Hemann said. Thats not even enough time to start generating revenue to make up for the first closure. Im sure a lot of the businesses are going back to experiencing a really drastically reduced revenue stream. The chamber serves as a source of information, and Moore-Hemann said the ever-changing news means she doesnt have all the answers to the questions that business owners are asking. Its really anxiety inducing -- the unknown, feeling the stress and hardship for our businesses, Moore-Hemann said. You almost feel helpless when youre thinking, I wish there was more that we can do. I wish I could give more concrete answers. Gabi McCauley grew up and lives in Union County and worked as a nurse for 12 years in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. She said in a small community like La Grande, the high volume of cases could devastate the community. Its just going to be so bad if they dont get it under control, McCauley said. State and county public health officials say they are taking steps to stop the virus from spreading far beyond Lighthouse Pentecostal Church. Tom Jeanne, the states deputy epidemiologist, said Tuesday that at least 236 cases are linked to the church. Despite the severity of the outbreak, Tim Heider, a spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority, said the state was confident in the number of case investigators and contact tracers it had responding to the outbreak. Most congregants have already been tested for the virus. Contact tracers are working to identify close contacts of those congregants that may have been exposed, but Heider could not say how many close contacts would be tested for the virus. Jeanne said the Oregon Health Authority provided 10 employees to help the countys five contact tracers. He said two of those state workers were on the ground in Union County and the other eight were working remotely. Neighboring counties are also helping, he said. Joseph Fiumara, county public health director for Umatilla County, said his county was contacted by Union County Friday and asked whether they would be able to offer support as the county grappled with what was growing into a serious outbreak. We have put that offer out there, and we are willing and able to provide some support if they need us, Fiumara said. Union County hasnt recorded any deaths from coronavirus so far, but McCauley and other residents are worried that will change. So far, at least five people have been hospitalized, officials have said. Jeanne said if capacity becomes a concern at the local Grand Ronde Hospital, state officials will work to transfer patients to other hospitals in eastern Oregon, Portland or Boise. The governor expressed support for Union Countys decision to move back to Phase 1 in a statement issued by her office. We support local officials in their decision to safeguard the public health of county residents, said Charles Boyle, a spokesman for Brown. Leaders from Lighthouse Pentecostal Church have not responded to various and repeated attempts at communication from The Oregonian/OregonLive. One faith leader declined to speak Tuesday. The churchs Facebook page posted a video Tuesday morning, in which Pastor James Parker held a morning devotional prayer and seemed to address the COVID-19 pandemic, without acknowledging it by name. I appreciate everybody being cooperative with what was decided and doing your best to help, Parker said in the video. In the end, our fruit will show that what were doing is the right thing, and more people need to do what we did. The more people that do the right thing, the easier its going to be for the rest of the world to combat this pandemic that were going through. Parker did not further explain what the right thing is, and the church did not respond to a request for clarification. A now-deleted Facebook post from late May explained the church was going to reopen its doors to congregants Memorial Day weekend in accordance with President Donald Trumps demands that states allow churches to open. A second Facebook post that has also been deleted showed hundreds of worshipers dancing, singing and moving around in close proximity in a video uploaded May 24. The decision to open the churchs doors came amid statewide pressure from some faith leaders to resume services. Ten churches sued the governor in early May, arguing that her social distancing guidelines were no longer justified. A Baker County Circuit Judge ruled in favor of the churches and stood by his decision on May 26, declaring Browns orders null and void. The Oregon Supreme Court ordered the judge to throw out his preliminary injunction June 12. Boyle, the governors spokesman, said Brown hasnt set out plans to cite churches that do not follow stay-home restrictions. Any enforcement decisions would be made at the local level, Boyle said in an email. However, at this time, our focus is on making sure that members of the community are getting access to the health care they need and that the county has the resources it needs to address this outbreak. McCauley said she hopes pastors who decided to hold services against Browns orders will be cited. Point to me in the Bible where Jesus said go out and infect everybody, McCauley said. Henry Larson, another Union County resident, said other churches and local groups followed the stay-home restrictions, and the decision to reopen Lighthouse Pentecostal Church was not broadly supported among local residents. As a fellow religious person, it shocks me to know that they would put their needs above the safety and wellbeing of the entire community, Larson said. -- Celina Tebor ctebor@oregonian.com @CelinaTebor -- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com | @jamiebgoldberg Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - A Sudanese here Wednesday received the first membership card of the Tunisian social security fund granted to refugees, the Arab Institute for Human Rights said The next time you go to a hospital for surgery, the surgeon's assistant may be a robot. In a collaboration between Google Brain, Intel Corporation and the University of California, Berkeley, researchers have 'trained' robots to mimic surgical procedures through the use of instructional videos. UC Berkeley professors have previously used YouTube videos as a guide for robots to learn various motions such as jumping or dancing, while Google has trained robots to understand depth and motion. The team applied that knowledge to their latest project, Motion2Vec, in which videos of actual surgical procedures are used for instruction. In a recently released research paper, researchers outline how they used YouTube videos to train a two-armed da Vinci robot to insert needles and perform sutures on a cloth device. The medical team relied on Siamese networks, a deep-learning setup that incorporates two or more networks sharing the same data. The system is optimal for comparing and assessing relationships between datasets. Such networks have been used in the past for facial detection, signature verification and language detection. Ken Goldberg, a physician who heads the UC Berkeley laboratory, explains YouTube is a rich source of instructional materials for this deep-learning project. "YouTube gets 500 hours of new material every minute. It's an incredible repository," he said. "Any human can watch almost any one of those videos and make sense of it, but a robot currently cannotthey just see it as a stream of pixels. So the goal of this work is to try and make sense of those pixels. That is to look at the video, analyze it, and be able to segment the videos into meaningful sequences." For the suture task, the team needed only 78 instructional medical videos to train its AI engine to perform the procedure. They claim a success rate of 85 percent. This means that robots can eventually undertake some of the more basic, repetitive tasks in surgical procedures and allow surgeons to focus their time and energy on the more exacting steps. Will robots replace surgeons soon? "We're not there yet," Goldberg said. "But what we're moving towards is the ability for a surgeon, who would be watching the system, to indicate where they want a row of sutures, convey that they want six overhand sutures," Goldberg said. "Then the robot would essentially start doing that and the surgeon would... be able to relax a little bit so that they could then be more rested and able to focus on more complex or nuanced parts of the surgery." Machine learning has contributed much to biotechnology indecent years. The ability of AI to rapidly process huge volumes of data has yielded progress in detecting lung cancer and stroke risk based on CAT scans, calculated risk of heart disease and cardiac arrest based on EKG and MRI imagery, classified skin lesions from photos and detected signs of diabetic distress in eye images. And here in the middle of a pandemic, AI is helping scientists find drugs that may curb the spread of COVID-19 and eventually find a cure and a vaccine. Explore further Robots learn by watching how-to videos 2020 Science X Network US Supports IAEA's Call On Iran For 'Full And Immediate Cooperation' Radio Farda June 16, 2020 The White House National Security Council on Monday said it supports the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Rafael Grossi's call on Iran to fully and immediately cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog. The world must come together to stop the Iranian regime's blatant disregard of the IAEA, the White House National Security Council said in a tweet and added: "No other country has ever denied access to a formal request under the Additional Protocol". In a virtual meeting with the IAEA's Board of Governors on Monday, Grossi said he was seriously concerned that Iran has denied us access to two locations over four months and that it has not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify our questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities for over a year. "This is adversely affecting the Agency's ability to resolve the questions and to provide credible assurance of the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities at these locations in Iran," he said and called on Tehran to cooperate immediately and fully with the agency, including providing prompt access to the locations specified by the IAEA. Grossi, however, pointed out that since January the U.N.'s nuclear agency has not observed any changes to Iran's implementation of its nuclear-related commitments in connection with this particular announcement or in the level of cooperation by Iran in relation to IAEA verification and monitoring activities under the JCPOA. In January Iran announced that its nuclear program would no longer be "subject to any restrictions in the operational sphere" in retaliation for the U.S. sanctions. "The Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of nuclear material declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement. Evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities for Iran continue," Grossi said. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi on Monday said any "unconstructive decision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will receive an "appropriate response" from Iran. Bloomberg reported on Monday that Germany, France and the United Kingdom have prepared a resolution demanding Iran "fully cooperate" with the IAEA investigation. According to Reuters, U.S. intelligence agencies believe that until 2003, the Islamic Republic had a secret plan to develop nuclear weapons. Israel says that its access to an extensive information archive of Iran's nuclear program has provided Tel Aviv with even more information about Iran's previous nuclear activities. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/us-supports-iaea-s- call-on-iran-for-full-and-immediate -cooperation-/30673310.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 Scientists have discovered that the summer sea ice in the Weddell Sea sector of Antarctica has decreased by one million square kilometres -- an area twice the size of Spain -- in the last five years, with implications for the marine ecosystem. The findings are published this month (June 2020) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Sea ice surrounding Antarctica provides an important habitat for many species including penguins and seals, which rely on it to access food and to breed. An international team of researchers studied satellite records of sea ice extent and weather analyses starting in the late 1970s to understand why summer sea ice in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica has reduced by a third over the last five years. They found that ice loss occurred due to a series of severe storms in the Antarctic summer of 2016/17, along with the re-appearance of an area of open water in the middle of the 'pack ice' (known as a polynya), which had not occurred since the mid-1970s. Lead author Professor John Turner, a climate scientist at British Antarctic Survey, says: "Antarctic sea ice continues to surprise us. In contrast to the Arctic, sea ice around the Antarctic had been increasing in extent since the 1970s, but then rapidly decreased to record low levels, with the greatest decline in the Weddell Sea. In summer, this area now has a third less sea ice, which will have implications for ocean circulation and the marine wildlife of the region that depend on it for their survival." The ocean around Antarctica freezes and doubles the size of the continent in the austral winter, with the sea ice extent reaching over 18 million square kilometres by late September. Through the spring and summer, the sea ice almost completely melts in most parts of the Antarctic, with only the Weddell Sea retaining a significant amount of sea ice. There are few storms around the Antarctic in the austral summer, but in December 2016, a number of intense and unseasonal storms developed in the Weddell Sea and drew warm air towards the Antarctic, melting a large amount of sea ice. The ice-free ocean absorbed energy from the Sun and then created a warm ocean temperature anomaly that still persists today. The winter of 2016 also saw the development of a polynya in the Weddell Sea, a large area of open water within the sea ice, which also contributed to the overall decline in sea ice extent. This polynya was created by the strong winds associated with the storms and unprecedented warm ocean conditions. This recent rapid sea ice loss is affecting both the Weddell Sea ecosystem and the wider Antarctic wildlife/plants and animals. Many species, ranging from tiny ice algae and shrimp-like crustaceans called krill to seabirds, seals and whales, are highly adapted to the presence of sea ice. If the drastic changes observed continue, they will have repercussions throughout the food chain, from affecting nutrients to the reduction of essential habitat for breeding and feeding for vast numbers of animals, such as ice seals and some species of penguins. Author and ecologist Professor Eugene Murphy from British Antarctic Survey says: "The dramatic decline in sea ice observed in the Weddell Sea is likely to have significant impacts on the way the entire marine ecosystem functions. Understanding these wider consequences is of paramount importance, especially if the decline in ice extent continues." Because of the large year-to-year variability in Antarctic sea ice extent the scientists cannot be sure if the ice in the Weddell Sea will in the short-term recover to the values seen before 2016 or whether they are seeing the start of the expected long-term decline of sea ice. European markets advanced on Wednesday as investors remained optimistic about a potential economic recovery following the coronavirus lockdowns. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.74% higher on Wednesday, with the other major indexes also posting gains. The World Health Organization warned, however, that while the spread of the Covid-19 virus has slowed in Europe, it is spiking in other parts of the world. As a result of this renewed optimism, investors may be interested in European consumer defensive companies that are trading below the Peter Lynch value since their products are in demand regardless of economic conditions. A renowned investor who generated an average annual return of 29% while managing Fidelity's Magellan Fund, Lynch developed this strategy in order to simplify his stock-picking process. With the belief good, stable companies eventually trade at 15 times their annual earnings, he set the standard at a price-earnings ratio of 15. Stocks trading below this level are often considered good investments since their share prices are likely to appreciate over time, creating value for shareholders. The GuruFocus All-in-One Screener, a popular Premium feature, also looked for companies with a business predictability rank of at least two out of five stars and a 10-year revenue per share growth rate of at least 6%. The screener found stocks that met these criteria as of June 17 included Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV (XAMS:AD), Sapmer (XPAR:ALMER), LDC SA (XPAR:LOUP), New Nordic Healthbrands AB (OSTO:NNH) and Norway Royal Salmon ASA (OSL:NRS). Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize The Netherlands-based retailer, which operates supermarkets and e-commerce businesses, has a market cap of 25.05 billion euros ($28.09 billion); its shares closed at 23.52 euros on Tuesday with a price-earnings ratio of 13.07, a price-book ratio of 1.78 and a price-sales ratio of 0.38. Story continues The Peter Lynch chart shows the stock is trading below its fair value, suggesting it is undervalued. The GuruFocus valuation rank of 7 out of 10 supports this assessment even though its share price and price-sales ratio are near multiyear highs. e525773bc68ed812ae58cb28f74554f0.png GuruFocus rated Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize's financial strength 6 out of 10. Although the company has issued approximately 1.5 billion euros in new long-term debt over the past three years, it is at a manageable level due to sufficient interest coverage. The Altman Z-Score of 2.26, however, indicates the company is under some pressure since its assets are building up at a faster rate than revenue is growing. The company's profitability scored an 8 out of 10 rating, driven by an expanding operating margin as well as strong returns that outperform over half of its competitors and a moderate Piotroski F-Score of 6, which implies business conditions are stable. Due to consistent earnings and revenue growth, Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize also has a four-star predictability rank. According to GuruFocus, companies with this rank typically return an average of 9.8% annually over a 10-year period. Sapmer The French seafood company, which catches and processes a variety of fish and crayfish, has a market cap of 36.4 million euros; its shares closed at 10.4 euros on Tuesday with a price-earnings ratio of 2.95, a price-book ratio of 0.36 and a price-sales ratio of 0.2, which GuruFocus noted are all near 10-year lows. According to the Peter Lynch chart and GuruFocus valuation rank of 10 out of 10, the stock is undervalued. 392aa7bc4d9d8aeaaf6d7cd5a3431a7f.png Sapmer's financial strength was rated 4 out of 10 by GuruFocus. While the company has adequate interest coverage, the Altman Z-Score of 1.75 warns it could be at risk of going bankrupt. The return on invested capital, however, is nearly two times the weighted average cost of capital, indicating it has good profitability. The company's profitability scored an 8 out of 10 rating on the back of strong margins and returns that outperform a majority of industry peers and a high Piotroski F-Score of 7, which implies business conditions are healthy. Despite recording a slowdown in revenue per share growth over the past year, Sapmer also has a 2.5-star predictability rank. GuruFocus says companies with this rank typically return 7.3% per year on average. LDC The French company, which processes and sells a wide range of poultry products, has a market cap of 1.88 billion euros; its shares closed at 110 euros on Tuesday with a price-earnings ratio of 12.85, a price-book ratio of 1.4 and a price-sales ratio of 0.44. Based on the Peter Lynch chart, the stock appears to be undervalued. The GuruFocus valuation rank of 2 out of 10, however, leans more toward overvaluation since the share price and price-sales ratio are near one-year highs. ca50c6e901555c4ab4c640c81417f959.png GuruFocus rated LDC's financial strength 7 out of 10. Despite issuing 248.01 million euros in new long-term debt over the past three years, it is manageable due to having a comfortable level of interest coverage. The Altman Z-Score of 2.85, though, indicates the company is under some pressure since its assets are building up at a faster rate than revenue is growing. The company's profitability scored an 8 out of 10 rating on the back of operating margin expansion, returns that outperform over half of its competitors, a moderate Piotroski F-Score of 5 and consistent revenue growth. LDC also has a 4.5-star predictability rank, which, according to GuruFocus, means it typically returns an average of 10.6% per year. Bestinfond (Trades, Portfolio) held 0.6% of the company's outstanding shares as of the first quarter. New Nordic Healthbrands The Swedish company, which develops herbal supplements, remedies and personal care products, has a market cap of 354.37 million Swedish krona ($37.8 million); its shares closed at 57.2 krona on Tuesday with a price-earnings ratio of 13.25, a price-book ratio of 3.29 and a price-sale ratio of 0.76. The Peter Lynch chart suggests the stock is undervalued. The GuruFocus valuation rank of 3 out of 10, however, leans more toward overvaluation even though its share price and ratios are near multiyear lows. 75db7b85ad660464411732b772ff0706.png New Nordic Healthbrands' financial strength was rated 6 out of 10 by GuruFocus, driven by comfortable interest coverage and a robust Altman Z-Score of 5.03. The ROIC is also significantly above the WACC, indicating good profitability. The company may be becoming less efficient, though, because its assets are building up at a faster rate than revenue is growing. The company's profitability fared even better, scoring an 8 out of 10 rating on the back of an expanding operating margin and strong returns that outperform a majority of industry peers. On a negative note, New Nordic's Piotroski F-Score of 3 suggests business conditions are in poor shape. In addition, even though the company has recorded consistent earnings and revenue growth, its three-star predictability rank is on watch. GuruFocus data shows companies with this rank typically return an average of 8.2% per year. Norway Royal Salmon Headquartered in Norway, the company, which operates a salmon fish farm, has a market cap of 9.81 billion Norwegian krone ($1.03 billion); its shares closed at 228.6 krone on Tuesday with a price-earnings ratio of 7.67, a price-book ratio of 3.03 and a price-sales ratio of 1.8. According to the Peter Lynch chart, the stock is overvalued. 5673796bdc859bdd12a49ad2ca2cd300.png Norway Royal Salmon's financial strength and profitability were both rated 8 out of 10 by GuruFocus. In addition to adequate interest coverage, the company is being supported by a high Altman Z-Score of 7.34 and a ROIC that surpasses the WACC, indicating good profitability. The company is also being boosted by an expanding operating margin, strong returns that outperform a majority of competitors and a high Piotroski F-Score of 7. Despite having steady earnings and revenue growth, Norway Royal Salmon's three-star predictability rank is on watch. Disclosure: No positions. Read more here: Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus? Sign up for a free 7-day trial here. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. 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 A Paris court will give its verdict Wednesday in a trial on money laundering charges for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's uncle, who amassed a fortune in France over several decades. Rifaat al-Assad, 82, may not be in the dock for judgement, having been hospitalised last December during his trial with internal bleeding. The younger brother of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad -- father of the incumbent president -- is standing trial in Paris for crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian funds. France's national finance prosecutor has sought a four-year prison sentence and a 10-million-euro fine, and has called for the confiscation of all Assad's real estate, valued at 90 million euros ($99.5 million). Assad, who divides his time between France and Britain, denies the charges. The 82-year-old, dubbed the "Butcher of Hama" for allegedly commanding troops who put down an uprising in central Syria in 1982, has been under investigation in France since 2014. This came the year after anti-corruption group Sherpa filed a suit accusing Assad of using ill-gotten gains from corruption in Syria to build a real estate fortune in the country. Formerly Syria's vice president, Assad left his home country in 1984 after mounting a failed coup against his brother Hafez, who led Syria from 1971 to 2000. Today, he describes himself as an opponent of the regime of his nephew. After he arrived in Europe, Rifaat al-Assad's lavish lifestyle, four wives and 16 children soon raised eyebrows. His reported French fortune includes two Paris townhouses, one measuring 3,000 square metres (32,000 square feet), as well as a stud farm, a chateau and 7,300 square metres of office space in Lyon. He and his family also built up a huge portfolio of 507 properties in Spain, valued at around 695 million euros, Spanish legal documents show. All his properties in that country were seized by the authorities in 2017. Assad, awarded France's Legion of Honour in 1986 for "services rendered", insists his lifestyle was made possible by gifts from the Saudi royal family amounting to more than a million dollars per month. But while his lawyers claimed to document gifts of almost $25 million between 1984 and 2010, French investigators registered transfers from Saudi Arabia totalling only $10 million. Assad's trial opened on December 9 last year. This is only the second trial of a foreign dignitary in France on charges of "ill-gotten gains". In the first, Equatorial Guinea vice president Teodorin Obiang received a three-year suspended jail term in October 2017 after being convicted of using public money to fund a jet-set lifestyle in Paris A TV grab shows a photo of Rifaat al-Assad, the exiled brother of Syria's late president Hafez al-Assad, as it appeared on June 12, 2000 on the London-based Arab News Network (ANN) television station, which belongs to his son Sumer Press Release June 17, 2020 Bong Go says whole-of-country approach needed to realize UHC vision; appeals to economic managers to raise PhilHealth annual subsidy Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go believes that a concerted cooperation and whole-of-country approach by all sectors are necessary to realize the vision of a universal health care coverage even as the country's health insurance sector continues to weather the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. In a hearing of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law held Tuesday, June 16, Go urged fellow legislators and stakeholders to carefully study possible amendments to the UHC Law and its implementing rules and regulations while taking into consideration the new challenges created by the pandemic. The Senator, who is also chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, stressed that "[a]ny amendment should not be at the expense of providing universal health care for all". "Habang iniisip natin ang sarili nating kapakanan, isipin rin natin ang pangkalahatang benepisyo ng Universal Health Care Law sa lahat ng Pilipino. At ang layunin natin na masama lahat ng Pilipino sa isang matatag na health care insurance program. Pare-pareho naman tayo ng gusto. Importante, magtulungan at magbayanihan tayo," he said. "Again, let me reiterate, sa panahon ngayon, kailangang balansehin ang pangangailangan para mapaganda ang mga programang pangkalusugan, at ang epekto ng krisis sa kakayahan ng mga Pilipinong magbigay ng dagdag na kontribusyon," Go continued, expressing sympathy for Filipinos who, he also noted, are struggling to afford their insurance payment. "Lahat welcome dito. Andito kami para pakinggan ang hinaing ng lahat ng Pilipino," he reiterated during the hearing attended by several stakeholders and government officials. Go reminded the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., the lead agency in the implementation of the UHC Law, to consider the precarious financial situation of its contributors, many of whom lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 global crisis. Also affected are thousands of overseas Filipino workers, many of them had been and others are being repatriated after losing their jobs abroad. PhilHealth president Ricardo Morales pointed out that the government's health insurance agency is struggling to cover its beneficiaries' benefits, particularly the premium of its indirect contributors, after it received a P71.3-billion subsidy under the 2020 General Appropriations Act as opposed to the P153 billion it had originally proposed. Despite this, the Senator said such constraints should not prevent Filipinos from seeking government assistance for their medical bills. He reassured the public, particularly PhilHealth beneficiaries and OFWs, that they can still receive additional assistance from any of the 71 existing Malasakit Centers found around the country. A Malasakit Center is a one-stop shop where indigent and financially challenged patients can conveniently request for medical and financial assistance from four government agencies now housed under one roof. "One stop-shop po ito. Pwede kayo humingi ng tulong sa DSWD, magkakatabing lamesa lang po iyon sa isang kuwarto, pati po ang DOH at PCSO to help you sa inyong billing. Lalong lalo na po sa mga cases na hindi totally covered ng PhilHealth dahil nagkaroon ng komplikasyon ang pasyente," said Go, who is the principal author of the Malasakit Center Act of 2019. Go continued that he would push for a higher subsidy for PhilHealth in order to ensure the proper implementation of the UHC Law. He appealed to the Department of Budget and Management to study options to raise the agency's annual budget from the P71 billion it advised. "Nangako tayo, inaprubahan ng Kongreso ang UHC law, lalong lalo na sa mahihirap nating kababayan na umaasang sasagutin po ng PhilHeath ang kanilang pangangailangan pagdating sa kalusugan," said Go. "Ako po ay nananawagan sa mga economic managers na pagtuunan ito ng pansin. Napakaimportante po ng PhilHealth sa atin at sa health care system. Gawan dapat ng paraan na taasan ang subsidy sa PhilHealth para mas mapagaan ang burden sa ordinaryong tao. Now more than ever, dapat ma-prioritize ang health. We must do what we can to ensure that every Filipino can have access to universal health care for all." During the seven-hour long joint congressional oversight committee hearing, Go also asked Morales to address reports that the government's health insurance agency continued to require overseas Filipino workers to pay premium contributions before they could obtain an Overseas Employment Certificate. The provision, remarked the Senator, is not found in the UHC Law and its implementation was suspended by President Rodrigo Duterte after recognizing the dire financial situation of the OFWs. Morales clarified that an advisory was issued last June 11 informing OFWs that the premium payments shall be voluntary for the duration of the pandemic. "Under the law, every Filipino shall be automatically included in the National Health Insurance Program, either as a direct or indirect contributor. This is to protect people from the financial risk of paying for health services out of their own pockets and reduce the risk that people will be pushed into poverty," explained the Senator. "We want to eliminate the idea of health care as an entitlement and as a privilege of the few who can afford to pay," he said further. The Uttar Pradesh governments nodal officers to oversee Covid-19 containment measures in Ghaziabad have asked the district health department to increase the number of surveillance teams to increase sample collection. According to officials, there are 260 surveillance teams deployed to monitor around 600,000 of the districts 4.2 million people. One official said that if the district had to target every household, they would need over 1,200 such teams. The teams comprising three members -- comprising volunteers, and two trained health workers -- go to hot spot and other areas to find patients with symptoms of the coronavirus disease or other health complications. Ghaziabad on Wednesday had a total of 718 cases. The teams comprise of volunteers, besides auxillary nurse midwife and accredited social health activists (ASHA) workers. These teams also help in contact tracing. The nodal officers said that we need to rope in more teams for taking up more active surveillance, said Dr NK Gupta, Ghaziabad chief medical officer. Surveillance teams, which have a major role to play in containing the spread of Covide-19, visit households and put up questionnaire to residents in order to find out if anyone suffers symptoms or affected by severe acute respiratory infection (SARI)-- when a patient presents with history of fever, cough and requires hospitalisation. In case they find people with symptoms, their samples are collected to test for the coronavirus disease. According to officials, the cases that emerged in June (378 case) was SARI and those who tested positive for Covid-19 often suffered critical illness. The 260 surveillance teams were able to find around a quarter of the total Covid-19 positive cases that have emerged so far in Ghaziabad. According to state health department officials, 18,458 areas in the state, including 5980 hot spots, are under surveillance. About 9.4 million households were surveyed. It is required that every household is surveyed. For the purpose of catering to all households we need about 1200-1500 teams. One team is assigned to take up survey of 50 households in a day. The number of members in team has also declined as many of them have been tasked with vaccination, deliveries and other activities. We are trying to ascertain the human resource needs and will draw out more workers, said GK Mishra, district malaria officer. As far as sampling is concerned, we have about 300 sampling done by the health department and about 50 samples as an average per day by private laboratories. Once the surveillance teams are increased, more sampling can be taken up. At present, total of 13879 samples have been taken up so far from across the district. The officials said that they have the capacity to hike sampling to about 700-750 per day. The UP government has sent IAS Senthil Pandian C and Dr Anil Chandra, professor of neurosurgery from King Georges Medical University, Lucknow, to look after infrastructure and healthcare arrangements in Ghaziabad. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister has identified Ghaziabad as one of the 11 sensitive districts in the state where incidence of Covid-19 cases is on rise. The western UP districts pose a major challenge and we have sent senior IAS and health department officials to these districts for review. We are also working on a plan for Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Hapur and Bulandshahr districts on directions of the chief minister. The CM has also directed for increase in Covid beds to ensure, in accordance with the policy, that symptomatic and asymptomatic patients are admitted to Covid hospitals, said Awanish Awasthi, UPs additional chief secretary (home). SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 18:49:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TASHKENT, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Uzbekistan's National Guard revealed Wednesday some details of a raid carried out last month to combat illegal gold mining. During the joint operation with local police, 39 illegal gold miners were detained and over six tons of gold containing rocks, 10 vehicles and other mining equipment were confiscated in Pakhtachi district of Samarkand region, the National Guard said. Pakhtachi district, adjacent to Navoi region, is home to an open pit mine that belongs to Uzbekistan's largest gold producer Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine. Last year Uzbek state media said that illegal gold mining in the Central Asian country involved some 10,000 people in a season and produced around one ton of gold per year. To fight illegal mining, the Uzbek government allowed private gold mining last year and started issuing licenses, prompting dozens of individual entrepreneurs to hunt for gold legally. Enditem Washington Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is making a brief trip to Hawaii for closed-door talks with a senior Chinese official, as relations between the two nations have plummeted over numerous disputes. The State Department said Pompeo and his deputy Stephen Biegun left Tuesday for Hawaii but offered no additional detail about his plans. People familiar with the trip said Pompeo and Biegun will meet on Wednesday with a Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party's top foreign affairs official. The private discussions are set to take place at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu and will cover the wide range of issues that have set the world's two largest economies on a collision path, according to the people familiar with the trip. Washington and Beijing are at odds over trade, China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, human rights, the status of Hong Kong and increasing Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea. China has become key element in the 2020 presidential campaign with President Donald Trump and his supporters seeking to make the administration's tough stance with Beijing a main foreign policy selling point. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Since last year, both sides have ramped up hostile rhetoric against the other and taken reciprocal steps to expel journalists and restrict diplomats' ability to travel. The presence of Biegun, also the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, on the trip suggested that the stalemate in the Trump administration's diplomatic efforts with Pyongyang would be on the agenda. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 18:57:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close This video captures the moment a 400-year-old bridge was washed away by floods in Zhangjiajie, China. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Toxicology in the field of biology, chemistry and medicines, deals with the study of adverse effects caused to living organisms due to certain chemicals. Toxicology testing involves detection, identification and also the measurement of approximate quantity of drugs and other foreign compounds in biological and related specimens to help in the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention and treatment of poisoning. The importance for their evaluation lies with their potential to cause birth defects, cancer and other adverse health hazards. Toxicologists working in the toxicology laboratories are specialized scientists or medical persons with knowledge of symptoms, mechanisms, treatment and detection of toxins. Advances in biotechnology, and molecular biology have paved the way for major improvements in evaluation of health risks due to potentially toxic chemicals. These advances are also reducing need for animal testing by developing more laboratory tests based on human cells. The toxicology laboratories may reside in hospitals or as a separate facility. Toxicity studies primarily conducted for new pharmaceutical applications to be submitted to FDA require human subjects, but under strict ethical considerations. Various regulatory agencies such as U.S. FDA in the U.S. and EMEA in Europe provide guidance documents for toxicology studies. Get Free Sample Copy With Impact Analysis Of COVID-19 Of Market Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/5399 The global toxicology laboratories market can be segmented based on test type and application. Test types majorly include blood testing and/or urine testing. Various applications include drugs of abuse, medicines, foods additives, industrial and agricultural chemicals and also forensic toxicology analysis. Drugs which can be detected by toxicology screening include alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, opiates, cocaine, phencyclidine and methadone. Geographically, the global toxicology laboratories market can be segmented into four major regions namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. Additionally, there are various types of toxicity studies carried out using animals to evaluate acute, chronic, sub-chronic, carcinogenicity, reproductive, developmental, dermal, ocular, genetic and neurotoxicity. New high through put technologies developed by the pharmaceutical companies provide toxicology laboratories to use efficient automated methods for testing of effects of chemicals on biological activities. Bioinformatics and rapid assay technologies are helping researchers to better understand the cellular networks in the human body which is the key to maintaining health. Gene expression profiling is also being used to predict toxicity since gene expression is known to rapid change on toxin exposure. Toxicogenomics, proteomics, and metabolomics aim to investigate the adverse biological effects induced by toxic compounds. Toxicology laboratories make use of genomic information since it plays a n important role in determining toxicity response by a biological system. The prediction of toxicity based on non-invasive urine and blood samples is a promising achievement, since multiple sampling over a long time period allows the monitoring of chronic toxicity. Increasing number of drug developments and technological advancements such as computerized testing methods are expected to drive the global toxicology laboratories market in the near future. However, there are various factors which affect chemical toxicology and thus standardization of toxicity testing becomes difficult. These factors include drug dosage, route of exposure (inhalation, ingestion, skin exposure) and other factors such as age, species, sex, health and individual characteristics. You Can Buy This PMR Healthcare Report From Here @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/5399 The industry leaders such as Quest Diagnostics offer services such as general toxicology, metals testing, therapeutic drug monitoring, and prescription drug monitoring. The laboratory is known to conduct approximately nine million drug tests per year. Some of the toxicology laboratories include Agilent Technologies, Alere Laboratories, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Pacific Toxicology Laboratoies AIT Laboratories, Cardiff Toxicology Services, Aeon clinical laboratories, Quest Diagnostics, Gene Logic, Inc., Molecular Toxicology, Inc., and Covance, Inc. The United States government has placed sanctions on six Nigerians for alleged internet-related fraud that caused American citizens and businesses over $6 million losses. This was disclosed in a statement signed by the U.S. treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and posted on the Treasury Department website on Tuesday. Today, in a coordinated action with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against six Nigerian nationals for conducting an elaborate scheme to steal over six million dollars from victims across the United States, read the statement. The individuals designated today targeted U.S. businesses and individuals through deceptive global threats known as business email compromise (BEC) and romance fraud. American citizens lost over $6,000,000 due to these individuals BEC fraud schemes, in which they impersonated business executives and requested and received wire transfers from legitimate business accounts. Money was also stolen from innocent Americans by romance fraud, in which the designees masqueraded as affectionate partners to gain trust from victims, the official added. The undividuals sanctioned are Richard Uzor BEC scam a loss in excess of $6,300,000 was attributed to the scam led by him and an accomplice; Michael Olorunyomi Romance Fraud losses exceeding $1 million was attributed to him. Alex Ogunshakin, an accomplice to Mr Uzor, was allegedly contacting victims; Felix Okpoh Romance Fraud allegedly provided financial materials and technological tools to Mr Uzor. Nnamdi Benson Romance Fraud and money laundering; and Abiola Kayode BEC and Romance Fraud allegedly provided bank accounts to individuals involved in the scheme. Cybercriminals prey on vulnerable Americans and small businesses to deceive and defraud them, said the secretary Mr Mnuchin. As technological advancement increasingly offers malicious actors tools that can be used for online attacks and schemes, the United States will continue to protect and defend at-risk Americans and businesses. The secretary included the terms of the sanctions placed on the six Nigerians in his statement. Todays action includes the designation of six individuals pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13694, as amended by E.O. 13757, which targets malicious cyber-enabled activities, including those related to the significant misappropriation of funds or economic resources for private financial gain. As a result of todays action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons that are in the possession or control of U.S. persons or within or transiting the United States are blocked, and U.S. persons generally are prohibited from dealing with them, read the statement. The statement did not indicate the bases of the six persons, nor any information about their arrest. The alleged fraudulent acts were committed between between 2015 and 2017, according to the statement. The president of the Chamber of Deputys environmental commission, Francois Benoy, stated that he welcomed the wolf's return to Luxembourg. His statement was made after a joint meeting with the agricultural commission. Benoy stated that many people were talking about a loss of biodiversity, but this was proof of the contrary. Upon request by the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), additional information was presented after a sheep had been mauled near Niederanven at the end of April. The nature administration announced in May that the wolf, which was only briefly on the country's territory, came from Lower Saxony in Germany. According to CSV MP and vice president of the agricultural commission, Martine Hansen, it is unknown in which direction the wolf was heading. She stated that the main point of discussion were the compensations for mauled animals: "Unfortunately, the current situation is that compensation is only granted for the mauled animals. However, if they had a special breed value it is a little bit more complicated to receive compensation. But we should mainly focus on increasing support for preventive measures and we should then also be more lenient when it comes to their installation. Currently, if a wolf is spotted somewhere, it is possible to receive a subsidy to build additional fencing in a radius of 10 km around the sheep. But 10 km is nothing for a wolf." The CSV expected improvements in that area. However, Francois Benoy draws a different conclusion from the explanations the MPs received: The action plan for the handling of wolves is working well in his eyes. "You cant say that people who have lost a farm animal have not received adequate compensation. You also cant say that this causes such immense damage on a regular basis that it would legitimise raising subsidies for fencing even further because they are already very high, in fact they are at 75%." Businesses have one year to request a subsidy to build a fence if a wolf has been spotted in the area. This measure was drawn up alongside the affected parties. Upon enquiry by RTL, the nature administration clarified that after the sighting of a wolf in Garnich in 2017 for instance, there have been no requests for this sort of subsidy. This file photo taken on April 29, 2020 shows an engineer displaying an experimental vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus that was tested at the Quality Control Laboratory at the Sinovac Biotech facilities in Beijing. AFP-Yonhap By Robert Delaney A Covid-19 vaccine that the Trump administration hopes will be available by January may not be equally effective for everyone, US officials said on Tuesday. But, they added, they expect as many as 40 million Americans to have developed coronavirus antibodies by the end of this year, which would lower the population that would need the treatment that officials hope will end the pandemic. "Operation Warp Speed", an initiative under the auspices of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in coordination with the Food and Drug Administration, the Defence Department and other federal agencies, has committed nearly US$3 billion to speed development of promising vaccine candidates and build out manufacturing and distribution capacity. HHS estimates that as many as 12 per cent of the total US population of about 331 million people will not need the inoculation because of previous exposure to the coronavirus, senior Trump administration officials told reporters. ? More than 115,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 and over 2 million have been infected. "For many reasons we don't expect to have all Americans vaccinated," an administration official said on Tuesday. "We fully expect there will be, name the number 20, 30, 40 million Americans that probably have strong antibodies to the coronavirus by the end of the year, so they would be a significantly lower priority." "We will not know what the performance, the safety and efficacy, of these vaccines is yet", he said. "It may be much more applicable to certain demographic categories than others." In this March 16, 2020, file photo, Neal Browning receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. AP Beaumont ISD has seen a surge of students attending summer school for review or credit recovery after months of distance-learning due to the coronavirus. Approximately 2,180 students, 1,200 of which are in high school, are enrolled in BISD summer sessions, according to numbers from the district. That is nearly 12% of the districts annual enrollment. There are 200 more high school students enrolled in summer school than last year. It's a little difficult to to give you an exact number because, remember, we do not have STAAR testing to deal with this year, BISDs Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jenny Angelo told The Enterprise. A number of our high school students attended summer school in previous years solely for STAAR remediation prior to the June retest administration. Middle school enrollment remains about the same as last year. Related: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suspends STAAR testing requirements over coronavirus Every pre-K and elementary school student participating in the summer program has received a device and WiFi, if needed; and an instructional resource tote containing library books, guided skills books to support reading, writing and math skills, and a packet of math manipulatives to use at home, Angelo said. Middle and high school students also were given opportunities to receive devices by campus, which will remain in place until the end of the month. Some parents have had difficulty connecting through Edgenuity, the system BISD has been using to facilitate distance learning. It was confusing at first, one parent told The Enterprise. I thought I would get an email but they are emailing my kiddos through Edgenuity. For parents who are not receiving communications or have questions, the district has set up an email at bisdsummer@gmail.com. In all programs pre-K through 12th grade, we have certified teachers assigned to students who will be contacting them through Zoom meetings, virtual conference hours, phone calls, and/or emails, Angelo said. This should occur a minimum of twice per week, more often if the student has requested further support. Angelo said there also were some issues in the first days regarding registration. We only experienced minimal issues the first few days of the program with students logging in incorrectly or trying to register for the wrong courses, Angelo said, adding that those issues were quickly resolved. Students have shared positive feedback with the district about the ability to virtually take coursework while maintaining other parts of their routine such as jobs or other responsabilities. This allows our students to continue to hold a job or participate in other activities while still being able to earn credits or advancement courses, Angelo said. Specific information and a list of frequently asked questions are posted on BISDs website and social media pages. Related: BISD Super: expect changes to calendar, more distance learning Elementary students were provided information by their teacher, Angelo said. We are encouraging elementary students to spend more time on authentic reading, writing, and math work using pencil/paper, manipulatives, and independent reading rather than spend the majority of the time on a device. isaac.windes@hearstnp.com twitter.com/isaacdwindes She is no stranger to flaunting her incredible physique with her 1.2 million followers on Instagram. And Anna Vakili looked incredible when she slipped into a busty black and white bikini for a racy snap on Tuesday. Despite appearing body confident, the Love Island star, 29, told fans that she is feeling 'upset' about gaining back weight she lost at the beginning of lockdown. Wow! Anna Vakili looked incredible when she slipped into a busty black and white bikini for a racy snap on Tuesday Anna posed with one arm resting on her marble kitchen countertop and kept all eyes on her hourglass curves in the sizzling pic. She struggled to contain her assets in the scooped neck bikini-top that matched the high-rise bottoms. With her long chestnut hued tresses left loose, Anna looked glamorous and sported a bronzed glow. In the caption she shared with her followers how she achieved her tan using BPerfect Cosmetics. Glowing: In the caption she shared with her followers how she achieved her tan using BPerfect Cosmetics However, Anna then took to her Stories to answer a Q&A with her followers and shared that she wasn't feeling confident due to gaining weight. When a fan asked how she 'stayed so skinny,' Anna replied: 'Lost a lot of weight when lockdown started now over the past few weeks I have probably put it back on (well I can see I have). 'But I refuse to go on the weighing scale. It's a struggle.' Honest: Despite appearing body confident, the Love Island star, 29, told fans that she is feeling 'upset' about gaining back weight she lost at the beginning of lockdown When another fan asked how she was doing, the reality star replied: 'I am actually good. My anxiety is under control. I am happy.' However she then shared: 'The only thing I am upset about is putting on the weight I worked SO hard to lose the first few weeks of lockdown. 'Honest it's so hard for me to lose weight and I am addicted to food. But it's ok, I will get there.' Despite facing 'struggle' Anna still looked incredible in her gorgeous selfie. Anna said: 'The only thing I am upset about is putting on the weight I worked SO hard to lose the first few weeks of lockdown' Last Monday the star shared an emotional plea to the government requesting more funding and PPE to help pharmacists on the front line. She filmed the video at the upmarket West London pharmacy where she works as a locum. Anna shared: 'Since I've been back I've just been amazed by the heroic work that pharmacy staff are doing all across the UK during this outbreak They're putting themselves at risk by physically seeing patients and dispensing and delivering millions of prescriptions to the most vulnerable people.' Emotional: Last Monday the star shared an emotional plea to the government requesting more funding and PPE to help pharmacists on the front line The reality star continued: 'Local pharmacies have had to spend thousands to stay open and I know the government has given them a loan, and it might seem like a lot, but that loan has to be paid back and when that time comes so many of them will be forced to shut down because they can't afford to pay it back. 'There are 11,500 local pharmacies so imagine how many jobs will be lost. I'm calling on the government to please back our pharmacy heroes with more support. I know the Chancellor grew up working in his mum's pharmacy and I know he values the work that they do. 'Our local pharmacies have been there for us in this crisis so let's be there for them now. Please can you all share this and help me get the word out.' Working: She filmed the video at the upmarket West London pharmacy where she works as a locum She went on: 'Last week I worked in a pharmacy that had no protective equipment and I'm just shocked that several months in, so many pharmacies still don't have the protective equipment they need to stay safe. So many of them have only received a third to a quarter of what they were promised and they're having to rely on customer donations and Ebay. 'This is really bad because local pharmacies are small enough as it is and it's difficult to maintain social distancing. So far five UK pharmacists have died on the front line and there's a risk that number could increase.' The reality star ended her plea: '1.6 million people on average visit a pharmacy every day and I'm sure they would agree that these amazing NHS workers deserve more recognition and support from the government.' Senate Republicans have suggested a July time frame for passing the next coronavirus package. As they consider their options, they should realize that the time for more relief has passed. Congress should now focus on passing an economic stimulus package. The chief aim of the CARES Act and additional PPP funding was to preserve client relationships (between employers and employees, landlords and tenants, etc.). Those early relief packages focused on deferring payments and providing capital to struggling businesses and families because the government shut down economic activity. CONSERVATIVE LEADERS URGE TRUMP TO REIN IN CORONAVIRUS SPENDING AS US DEFICIT SWELLS Mays jobs report gives early indication that our effort was successful. But it was expensive, costing taxpayers nearly $2.7 trillion. As we near a $2 trillion deficit, its clear we cannot continue spending our way out of this crisis. As the economy returns to life, Congress should take a different approach. Instead of more massive relief bills, we should focus on passing policies that promote job creation, stimulate economic activity and achieve long-term growth. WHAT IS A MIXED ECONOMY? Aprils unemployment rate in Indiana neared an eye-popping 17 percent -- we need to get those folks back into the workplace. Here are five proposals the Senate should include in the next coronavirus package to empower the American people and help President Trump lead the Great American Comeback: 1. End the death tax Families already suffering from the unexpected loss of a loved one from COVID-19 dont need to undergo extra punishment. The death tax adds a financial burden to grieving families. 2. End the self-employment tax Small business owners and entrepreneurs need extra cash to rebuild and invest in their employees. The self-employment tax hurts job creators when we need job creation more than ever. 3. Suspend the payroll tax Incentivize work by letting workers keep more of their own money. Cutting the payroll tax serves as a better stimulus more than direct cash payments to Americans because you have to earn a paycheck to benefit. Story continues 4. Make the Republican tax cuts permanent Americans shouldnt have to worry about their taxes going up in the midst of a pandemic and economic recession. 5. Congress can empower President Trump to unilaterally suspend burdensome regulations on businesses, charities, educational institutions and other employers. Since February, the FDA has used its Emergency Use Authorization to fast-track coronavirus drugs. The effect has been tremendous. Because of better treatments, the overall death rate for those infected with the coronavirus has declined by some 40 percent from March to April. Suspending burdensome regulations can work in other sectors, too. In 2019, federal regulations cost small businesses $1,500 per employee. Lifting that burden can help small businesses hire more employees. We know that policies like this work. Cutting taxes and rolling back regulations have already proven successful. GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE In 2013, after then-Governor Mike Pence enacted the largest state tax cut in Indiana history, it powered our states recovery out the Great Recession and drove the unemployment rate to 3.5 percent by August 2017. Another example: In the year and a half after the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed, the real disposable personal income per household increased $5,205, GDP rose and unemployment hit record lows. The White House estimated in 2019 that their deregulatory efforts will help save American households $3,100 each year. Congress should put the American people in the drivers seat of our economic recovery. The American worker built this nation. They can rebuild it too. Republican Jim Banks represents Indiana's 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is currently the Republican Study Committee (RSC) Budget and Spending Task Force Chairman. READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS BY CLICKING HERE Related Articles [June 17, 2020] Motorola Solutions Acquires IndigoVision, UK-Based Provider of End-to-End Video Security Solutions Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI (News - Alert)) today announced it has completed the acquisition of IndigoVision, a U.K.-based provider of end-to-end video security solutions. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, IndigoVision develops complete, end-to-end video security solutions, including cameras, video management software, encoders and storage devices. The acquisition demonstrates Motorola (News - Alert) Solutions' continued investment in video security and analytics and reinforces its strategy of becoming a leader in next-generation, end-to-end video security solutions. IndigoVision's products will complement Motorola Solutions' existing video portfolio, which includes fixed cameras, in-car and body-worn cameras and advanced analytics and software, and will provide enhanced go-to-market reach across a wider customer base. "We share IndigoVision's commitment to providing end-to-end video security solutions that enhance safety, security and efficiency," said John Kedzierski, senior vice president, Video Security and Analytics, Motorola Solutions. "IndigoVision's end-to-end offering, global presence and customer base will complement our existing and growing presence in video security and analytics." "The acquisition provides scale for continued investments in growth, and we look forward to working with the Motorola Solutions team to deliver our shared vision," said Pedro Vasco Simoes, chief executive officer, IndigoVision. "The access we will have to Motorola Solutions' range of innovative technologies, technical expertise and expanded global reach will enable us to further our goal of delivering safety, security and business intelligence." About Motorola Solutions Motorola Solutions is a global leader in mission-critical communications and analytics. Our technology platforms in mission-critical communications, command center software, video security & analytics, bolstered by managed & support services, make cities safer and help communities and businesses thive. At Motorola Solutions, we are ushering in a new era in public safety and security. Learn more at www.motorolasolutions.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable federal securities law. These statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and generally include words such as "believes," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "estimates" and similar expressions. Motorola Solutions can give no assurance that any actual or future results or events discussed in these statements will be achieved. Any forward-looking statements represent Motorola Solutions' views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing Motorola Solutions' views as of any subsequent date. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results or events discussed in these statements to differ materially from the statements contained in this release. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, (1) Motorola Solutions' ability to integrate the products and services into its portfolio; and (2) the growth of the video security and analytics business. Motorola Solutions cautions the reader that the risk factors below, as well as those on pages 10 through 22 in Item 1A of Motorola Solutions 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K, on page 34 in Item 1A of Motorola Solutions Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 28, 2020, and in its other SEC (News - Alert) filings available for free on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on Motorola Solutions' website at www.motorolasolutions.com/investor,could cause Motorola Solutions' actual results or events discussed in these statements to differ materially from those estimated or predicted in the forward-looking statements. Many of these risks and uncertainties cannot be controlled by Motorola Solutions and factors that may impact forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (1) the future results of operations of IndigoVision, and (2) Motorola Solutions' ability to successfully integrate and operate IndigoVision. Motorola Solutions undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement or risk factor, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. MOTOROLA, MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC and are used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2020 Motorola Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200616005948/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] By Mahesh Trivedi, TwoCircles.net Gujarat: There are 35,000 schools in Prime Minister Narendra Modis home state of Gujarat but J P High School located in a communally sensitive area of old Ahmedabad stands out of the pack for waiving 7 months of school fee from poor students. Support TwoCircles At a time when almost all schools have jacked up their fees, the 47-year-old school in Dariapur has waived seven months first-term fees amounting to some Rs 2,500 each (1.1 million INR in total) for the 350-odd students of Class I to Class VIII. The compassionate gesture has lifted a huge weight off the shoulders of poverty-stricken and cash-starved middle-class parents who have been struggling to make both ends meet ever since businesses went to ruin after the deadly coronavirus struck in March. Muslim-dominated Dariapur, which boasts several marvellous Mughal monuments, soon turned out to be one of the worst-affected localities in early April with the result that it was put under a strict lockdown which brought the economic activity to a grinding halt. Most of the down-at-heel residents are daily wagers, labourers, electricians, plumbers, mechanics and rickshaw drivers who were forced to remain at home twiddling their thumbs for weeks on end and barely managing to survive. How can we expect them to pay the school fees of their wards when many of them did not have even two nickels to rub together? Our trustees spared a thought for the worried parents and, on June 5, we decided to waive the April-to-October fees of primary students, managing trustee Jitu Shah (72) told TwoCircles.net. A car mechanic namely Said Usman Gani said that Many parents like me were hard-pressed and were just thinking of pulling out our children from the school. This would have ruined their future. But thanks to the fee waiver, we have now heaved a sigh of relief. While senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia told this correspondent that J P High School had proved to be a torch-bearer for other schools which had remained closed since the last week of March, Dariapur legislator Gyasuddin Shaikh said that Shahs school, by waiving the first-term fees, had written a glorious chapter in the history of education in Gujarat. Indeed, as Gujarat earned the dubious distinction of having the highest mortality rate in the pandemic, at least 20 schools took a leaf out of Shahs book and promptly announced fee exemptions for one to four months. With parents up in arms against the fee hike, even education minister Bhupendra Chudasama was critical of school owners, many of them politicians of different hues. This is not the first time that J P High School has done this. Whether it was students Navnirman agitation in 1974, anti-reservation agitations in 1981 and 1985 or the bloody communal riots in 2002, the Shah-led school management rose to the occasion and provided succour or shelter to hundreds of affected residents of Dariapur, which turned into a tinderbox of anger during disturbances. Even during the 1973 floods and 1983 drought, the schools students, 80 per cent of them Muslims, passed round the hat among citizens and distributed funds to the needy. Times out of number, teachers and students have taken out rallies around Dariapur to create awareness about saving water, growing trees, keeping surroundings clean, saving the girl child, etc. Not surprisingly, several of its alumni are today top-drawer municipal officials, doctors and businessmen. Shahnawaz Sheikh, general manager at a showroom of a prestigious company in Gandhinagar, told TwoCircles.net, I got goosebumps when I came to know that my alma mater had read poor parents mind and waived fees during these tough times. Irshad Abdul Sattar Shaikh, a headteacher in a government school in Vadodara, went down memory lane and recalled the dedicated teachers of J P High School, Sanat Sastry said he was proud to have studied in a school whose trustees had a golden heart to lend a helping hand to down-and-out parents and make sure that their children did not discontinue their studies. Naresh Shah, who has been taking up cudgels for aggrieved parents as president of the All-Gujarat Parents Association, told TwoCircles.net that the Gujarat government should loosen its purse strings and spend for education from its Rs 270-million budget. J P High School has set an example for others. The state administration should come out with a Government Resolution and throw the book at greedy and guilty school managements, he summed up. Neither Kenya nor Djibouti gain required two-thirds majority for UN Security Council term; new round of voting needed. Mexico, India, Ireland and Norway have been elected to take up a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council, but a rerun is needed for the contested fifth seat after there was no clear winner. Neither Kenya nor Djibouti on Wednesday gained the required two-thirds majority to win the Africa seat on the 15-member council, meaning another round of voting is needed on Thursday. Canada lost out to Ireland and Norway in a hotly contested election in the councils Western European and others group. India and Mexicos uncontested bids for the Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean seats were approved. To ensure geographical representation, seats are allocated to regional groups. But even if candidates are running unopposed in their group, they still need to win the support of more than two-thirds of the UN General Assembly. The new members will start their term on January 1, 2010. And the winners are [of non-permanent seats on the #UNSC for 2021-22] India (184 votes) Mexico (187 votes) Norway (130 votes) Ireland (128 votes) Canada falls short. And 1 seat remains to be filled: Neither Kenya nor Djibouti got enough votes in the first round. Amanda Price (@amandaruthprice) June 17, 2020 After operating virtually since March amid the coronavirus pandemic, diplomats wearing masks and social distancing returned to the General Assembly hall on Wednesday to cast their secret ballots at allotted times. They also elected unopposed Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir as the president of the 75th session of the Assembly. He will take up the role later this year. The Security Council is the only UN body that can make legally binding decisions such as imposing sanctions and authorising the use of force. It has five permanent veto-wielding members the United States, the UK, France, China and Russia. African countries have in the past picked their own candidate but were unable to put forward a single country this time, setting the stage for Wednesdays showdown. Kenya boasts of enjoying the support of the African Union, but Djibouti said it should have the seat due to Nairobis past participation on the Security Council and the principle of rotation. Both countries are highlighting their roles in seeking peace on the Horn of Africa, as well as their contributions to UN peacekeeping options. Adam Sandler was among the winners at this years Film Independent Spirit Awards, but next years show has been postponed (Isabel Infantes/PA) Another major Hollywood awards show has been postponed following the Oscars decision to delay its ceremony due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Film Independent Spirit Awards traditionally take place on the eve of the Oscars each year. Following news that the 2021 running of the industrys most prestigious ceremony had been moved from February 28 to April 25, Film Independent confirmed it too was was delaying its show. Expand Close Director Lulu Wangs The Farewell won the top prize at this years Film Independent Spirit Awards (Matt Crossick/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Director Lulu Wangs The Farewell won the top prize at this years Film Independent Spirit Awards (Matt Crossick/PA) The ceremony, which celebrates the best in independent cinema, will take place on April 24, organisers said. Film Independent has also tweaked its eligibility rules in response to the turmoil caused by the pandemic and will now accept movies released between January 1 2020 and February 28 next year. Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent, said it was in acknowledgement of the unique challenges the world of cinema, and the world as a whole, is currently experiencing. The Spirit Awards traditionally take place in a tent on the Santa Monica beach, offering an indie alternative to the often blockbuster-focused Oscars. At this years show in February, Lulu Wangs poignant family drama The Farewell was named best picture while the top acting prizes went to Adam Sandler for Uncut Gems and Renee Zellweger for Judy. The film Academys decision to delay the Oscars has already redrawn the traditional awards season calendar, with Bafta also pushing back its ceremony. Video of the Day The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which usually holds the Golden Globes in early January, said it is monitoring the situation. To the Virginia Tech community, On Friday we observe Juneteenth, an annual celebration recognizing the significance of June 19, 1865, the day the last enslaved Americans learned that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been signed more than two years earlier. Today, Governor Ralph Northam announced his intent to make Juneteenth a permanent, paid state holiday, and issued an executive order declaring this Friday a holiday, which we will observe at Virginia Tech by closing the university. In doing so, we recognize the great significance of this occasion and the continuing imperative for change in our society. Juneteenth marked the end of slavery, and the beginning of a long and arduous struggle for freedom and equality by African Americans. That struggle, which played out across the nation, the commonwealth, and on our campus, continues today. We are currently at an inflection point that provides an opportunity to confront the historical and systemic issues of racism and their impact on the Black community and our university. Juneteenth is an opportunity for us to educate ourselves about our history, listen to and learn from others, and most importantly, determine what action steps Virginia Tech can take to create a community that is free of hate, violence, and racism as envisioned by our Principles of Community. I urge each of you to take time over the next week to recognize Juneteenth by engaging in a purposeful discussion with your department, unit, co-workers, and colleagues. As part of the InclusiveVT commitment, the Office for Inclusion and Diversity has developed a guide to assist you in creating this important conversation. I have learned a great deal in my conversations with colleagues and peers, especially my recent discussions with Vice President for Strategic Affairs and Diversity Menah Pratt-Clarke as part of her Making the Chair Fit series and VTs Unfinished Conversation Series. For many of us, this can be an uncomfortable space, and it should be. Those of us who enjoy privilege cannot remain on the sidelines while others struggle, and in some cases die, because of their race. Our vision for the future and spirit of Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) calls us to action. Tim Sands, President Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the two leaders agreed to 'cool down' tensions on the ground 'as soon as possible' and maintain peace and tranquility in the border area in accordance with the agreement reached between the two countries, an official statement said in Beijing. The telephonic conversation between the two ministers came after 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in the clashes with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the two sides agreed to deal 'fairly' with the serious events caused by the conflict in the Galwan Valley, jointly abide by the consensus reached at the military-level meetings between the two sides, 'cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible', and maintain peace and tranquility in the border area in accordance with the agreement reached so far between the two countries. During the telephonic conversation, Jaishankar conveyed to Wang India's protest in the strongest terms on the violent face-off and said the unprecedented development will have 'serious impact' on bilateral ties. He asked the Chinese side to reassess its actions and take corrective steps, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement in New Delhi. "The Chinese side took pre-meditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties. It reflected an intent to change the facts on ground in violation of all our agreements to not change the status quo," Jaishankar told Wang. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Beijing that the two sides agreed to deal 'fairly' with the serious events caused by the conflict in the Galwan Valley, jointly abide by the consensus reached at the military-level meetings between the two sides, 'cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible', and maintain peace and tranquility in the border area in accordance with the agreement reached so far between the two countries. During the conversation, Wang said the two sides should follow the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and strengthen the communication and coordination on the proper handling of the border situation through the existing channels so as to jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border area, according to the statement. India on Tuesday said the violent face-off between the armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. The MEA said both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement arrived earlier at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. Wang emphasised that both China and India are emerging powers with a population of over one billion people, and accelerating 'our own development and revitalisation is our respective historical missions'. For this reason, mutual respect and mutual support is the right direction for the two sides, which is in the long-term interests of the two countries; 'mutual suspicion and mutual friction are evil paths, and contrary to the fundamental aspirations of the two peoples', he said. The Chinese foreign minister also alleged that on the evening of June 15, the Indian front-line frontier troops 'blatantly broke the consensus' reached at the military-level meeting between the two sides. Once the situation in the Galwan Valley has calmed down, they 'crossed the LAC again and deliberately provoked and violently attacked' the officers and soldiers who negotiated on the spot, leading to fierce physical clashes, resulting in casualties, he claimed. He said this 'dangerous act of the Indian army seriously violated the agreement reached between the two countries on the border issue and seriously violated the basic norms of international relations'. Wang demanded the Indian side to conduct a 'thorough investigation' on this, 'severely punish those responsible' for the incident, 'strictly control the frontline troops', and 'immediately stop all provocative actions' to ensure that such incidents cannot occur again. "The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation, and must not underestimate China's firm will to safeguard the territorial sovereignty," he added. A large number of Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Galwan Valley and certain other areas of eastern Ladakh for the last five weeks, including in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. Monday's face-off was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the face-off. The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the row. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC). China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet, while India contests it. The US State Department issued a statement on Wednesday regarding the India-China standoff at the Galwan Valley region of Eastern Ladakh. The US State Department spokesperson said that both the countries have expressed their desire to de-escalate and that they support a peaceful resolution of the current situation. "We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation," said the spokesperson. The US State Department also said that PM Modi and US President Donald Trump discussed the India-China border situation during their June 2 phone call. A violent clash took place between the Indian and Chinese troops on Monday night resulting in the death of 20 soldiers. While the identities of only three of the soldiers have been revealed, the Indian Army said that 20 men died at the Galwan Valley clash. The Indian Army had initially said that three soldiers had been martyred in the clash. Later it issued another statement saying, "17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20." Colonel Santosh Babu, Commanding Officer of the 16 Bihar Regiment, along with Havaldar K Palani and Sepoy Kundan Ojha are three of the men to have died. According to news agency ANI, Chinese casualties have been estimated to be 43. "Indian intercepts reveal that the Chinese side suffered 43 casualties including dead and seriously injured in a faceoff in the Galwan Valley," said ANI, quoting sources. Also read: India-China Tension Live Updates: US 'closely monitoring' situation Also read: Infographic: Can we boycott China? Boko Haram kills at least 60, including 4-y-o girl, in northeast Nigeria Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment At least 20 soldiers and 40 civilians, including a 4-year-old girl, were killed in two attacks claimed by a Boko Haram faction last Saturday as the trend of extremist violence in northeast Nigeria continues. On Sunday, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria Edward Kallon condemned attacks in the Monguno and Nganzai local government areas in Borno state in which many civilians were killed and a humanitarian aid facility was damaged by non-state armed groups. I am deeply saddened by the news that many civilians, including an innocent child, lost their lives in these horrific attacks, Kallon said in a statement. My deepest condolences go to their families. Those who were injured are also in my thoughts and I wish them a speedy recovery. Two residents and an unnamed Civilian Joint Tasks Force fighter told Reuters that militants entered Nganzai around the same time on Saturday morning in pickup trucks and motorcycles before killing over 40 residents. Meanwhile, two unnamed humanitarian workers and three residents of the area told the news agency that militants armed with heavy weaponry arrived in the nearby town of Monguno at around 11 a.m., when they overran government forces. The militants are said to have killed at least 20 soldiers while some civilians were injured in the crossfire between the militants and soldiers. In addition to the deceased, the U.N. reports that at least 37 other people were injured in the two attacks. "They fired rocket-propelled grenades indiscriminately which fell on homes, killing three people and injuring many others," Monguno resident Kulo Gana told AFP. "I saw the bodies of the two soldiers and the militia member on the streets after the fighting." According to the sources who spoke with Reuters, the militants are said to have set a local police station and a U.N. humanitarian office on fire in Monguno. Additionally, the sources said that militants distributed letters to residents in the Hausa language telling them not to work with military, white Christian westerners or non-believers. The U.N. stated the humanitarian facility only sustained light damage as initial reports indicated that the building was targeted. U.N. and nongovernment organization vehicles in front of the facility were set on fire, however. Due to protective security measures, no staff members working at the U.N. hub were harmed. Kallon said that aid workers and their facilities should never be a target and must be protected and respected at all times. I am relieved all staff are safe and secure, but I am shocked by the intensity of this attack, Kallon said. It is the latest of too many clashes affecting civilians, humanitarian actors and the assistance we provide. The attacks in Monguno and Nganzai come just days after as many as 81 people (some reports suggest at least 69 people) were killed when suspected Islamic radicals attacked a nomadic community in the Gubio local government area of Borno last Tuesday. Boko Harams offshoot faction, Islamic State West Africa Province, which split from the insurgency in 2016, has claimed responsibility for all three of the recent attacks, according to Reuters. I am appalled by the continued violent attacks launched by non-state armed groups in civilian areas in Borno State, Kallon stressed. The U.N. reports that there are over 150,000 displaced people in the town of Monguno. The international body warned that attacks impede its ability to deliver assistance to the people in need. As many as 25 aid organizations are assisting the displaced persons in Monguno. ISWAP is associated with the Islamic State terrorist network and has carried out numerous attacks in Nigeria since its formation in 2016. Reports have indicated that ISWAP attacks have primarily targeted military bases and the group has imposed taxes and controls trade in areas it wants to control. ISWAP has been responsible for the killings of civilians, including the December 2019 killing of 11 Christian aid workers and the January 2020 execution of a Nigerian Christian student by a child soldier. The Nigerian government is facing increasing international pressure over its inability to protect its citizens from attacks carried out by Boko Haram and ISWAP in the northeast as well as violence against communities in the Middle Belt that has reportedly led to thousands of deaths in recent years. According to the U.N., there are millions of people living as internally displaced people throughout Nigeria who have been uprooted by violence in their communities. In the northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, there are over 10.6 million people in need of assistance. Advocates are calling on the Trump administration to appoint a special envoy to monitor the situation in Nigeria. Last December, the U.S. State Department included Nigeria for the first time on its special watch list of countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom. Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. Instagram Head Adam Mosseri on Monday said that they will take a harder look at how their product impacts communities differently while stressing that the platform stands for elevating Black voices. Mosseri, in a statement, said that in the last few weeks, they have seen an incredible movement happening around the world and have seen communities on Instagram mobilizing to demand justice and express solidarity, support Black-owned businesses, elevate Black voices, and raise awareness for the equality of Black people everywhere. At the same time, were also hearing concern about whether we suppress Black voices and whether our products and policies treat everyone equally. The irony that were a platform that stands for elevating Black voices, but at the same time Black people are often harassed, afraid of being shadowbanned, and disagree with many content takedowns, is not lost on me, Mosseri said. Black Lives Matter protests started from the US after George Floyd, an African-American man, passed away after having a knee pressed onto his neck by a police officer identified as Derek Chauvin. 2/ Addressing the feedback we get has always been an integral part of how we work, and has helped us build a better Instagram for everyone. Were going to focus on four areas: Harassment Account verification Content distribution Algorithmic bias Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) June 15, 2020 4/ Our focus will start with Black community, but were also going to look at how we can better serve other underrepresented groups. Instagram should be a place where everyone feels safe, supported, and free to express themselves, and Im hoping this will get us closer to that. Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) June 15, 2020 Mosseri said they have done a lot of work to better understand the impact their platform has on different groups. But I think theres more to do across some key areas, which fit into our broader company commitments. We need to better support the Black community within our own organization, as well as on our platform, he said. Mosseri said one of the ways they will do this is by taking a harder look at how our product impacts communities differently, specifically around Harassment, Account verification, Distribution and Algorithmic bias. The platforms head admitted that this work is going to take some time, but they are going to provide updates over the next few months. For all the latest Gadgets News, download NewsX App An anti-Trump group of Republicans has put out another scathing ad, this time ridiculing the president as 'not well' and featuring him slowly walking down a ramp at West Point and sipping from a small water bottle with two hands. The ad was produced by The Lincoln Project, which includes a handful of prominent anti-Trump Republicans including lawyer George Conway, who is married to counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway. 'Something's wrong with Donald Trump. Hes shaky. Weak. Trouble speaking. Trouble walking,' a female narrator says at the start of the ad, with ominous music in the background. The ad shows images of Trump gingerly walking down a ramp following his speech at West Point on Saturday, and moving in and out of the TV frame during speeches. It also shows a close-up of Trump using both hands to carefully take a sip of water out of a small water bottle a gesture critics pointed to over the weekend as a clue that Trump could be suffering from some sort of cognitive issue. A new ad by an anti-Trump group claims the president is 'not well' and shows him walking carefully down a ramp. The ad also pictures Trump using two hands to sip from a bottle It pictures longtime Trump doctor Harald Bornstein, who penned an over-the-top letter about Trump's health that he later said Trump dictated 'So why aren't we talking about this, and why isn't the press covering Trump's secret midnight run to Walter Reed Medical Center?' The line was a reference to Trump's unannounced trip to Walter Reed for 'phase one' of his physical. The White House only announced the results of the second part of the physical weeks ago. It is not clear that it happened at 'midnight.' 'Why do so many reporters who cover the White House pretend they can't see Trump's decline?' the ad asks, taking a page from the president by swinging at the media. 'The most powerful office in the world needs more than a weak, unfit shaky president. Trump doesn't have the strength to lead, nor the character to admit it,' it says, showing yet another two-handed water sip by the president, who turned 74 Sunday. It also flashes an image of Trump's longtime personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, who during the campaign gave Trump an over-the-top endorsement of his health that he later admitted was dictated by Trump. Bornstein had said Trump if elected would be 'the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.' Trump responded to critics saying the ramp he walked down was very steep 'We're not doctors, but we're not blind,' it says. It ends with the hashtag '#TRUMPISNOTWELL.' Trump blasted back at critics Saturday night and defended his gait while walking down the ramp. '"The ramp that I descended after my West Point Commencement speech was very long & steep, had no handrail and, most importantly, was very slippery," Trump wrote. "The last thing I was going to do is 'fall' for the Fake News to have fun with. Final ten feet I ran down to level ground. Momentum!" The group told Fox News the ad will run in the D.C. market later this week. Trump did not address criticism that he drank his water 'sippy cup style' as he delivered the address at the nation's premiere military academy. It is not the first time that Trump has used two hands to sip from a cup of water, an odd tic that has led some to question whether he has a medical issue. 'This is a persistent neurological sign that, combined with others, would be concerning enough to require a brain scan,' Dr. Bandy Lee, a Yale psychiatrist, wrote on Twitter in response to the West Point footage. 'Recent videos make it clear that there is something medically wrong with Trump. The way he walks, how he holds a glass of water, his slurred words, his lapses in thought. What is the White House hiding?' tweeted Jon Cooper, a top fundraiser for Joe Biden. Physicist Maximilian Haider, adjunct professor of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), receives this year's Kavli Prize for nanosciences, together with Harald Rose, senior professor of Ulm University, Knut Urban of Forschungszentrum Julich, and Ondrej Krivanek, President of Nion Company, USA. This was announced by the Kavli Foundation in Oslo. The prize honors the work of the four scientists in the development of electron microscopy, by means of which it is now possible to image and study materials with atomic resolution. In 1990, Maximilian Haider, Harald Rose, and Knut Urban started a collaboration to correct the aberrations of electron optical lenses that had been known for about 60 years. Rose proposed a theoretical concept and Haider finally succeeded in implementing it technically. Already in 1997 did Urban and his team reach a major improvement of resolution with the laboratory prototype. Aberrations are corrected by novel "unround" electron optics, consisting of so-called magnetic multipoles. These influence the electron beams such that aberrations of an objective lens are compensated. This effect is similar to that of glasses worn by visually impaired persons. The result is a highly improved image resolution. Electron microscopes are used to study with atomic resolution novel materials for better data storage systems and processors, the properties of high-performance materials for fuel cells, batteries, or solar cells, as well as the function of biological macromolecules. This makes electron microscopes key instruments of modern materials research and the associated nano- and microtechnologies. "During long years of work, Haider, Rose, and Urban made resolution of electron microscopy exceed the theoretical limit and, thus, improved a major tool for materials science," says Professor Holger Hanselka, President of KIT. "The highly renowned Kavli Prize is a great recognition of their outstanding achievements as pioneers of electron microscopy. We are proud of Maximilian Haider, who is closely related to KIT as an adjunct professor, and are happy together with him and the other laureates about this special distinction." Maximilian Haider, Harald Rose, and Knut Urban already received a number of prizes for their collaborative research, including the 2006 Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize for Innovation, the Japanese Honda Prize 2008, the Wolf Prize in Physics 2011, and the Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2014. Maximilian Haider - about the Person Maximilian Haider, born in Austria in 1950, founded and is heading the CEOS Company in Heidelberg. About 900 microscopes with correctors made by CEOS based on the new groundbreaking electron optics are presently being used by universities and research laboratories all over the world. Since 2008, Maximilian Haider has been adjunct professor at KIT and member of its Laboratory of Electron Microscopy. Kavli-Prize Since 2008, the Kavli Prize has been awarded every two years in the areas of astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience by the Kavli Foundation, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. The prize was established by Norwegian businessman and inventor Fred Kavli (1927 - 2013). In 2000, he established the Kavli Foundation to advance science for the benefit of humankind, to enhance public understanding of science, and to support the work of researchers. Each of the prizes consists of USD 1 million. The prizes are presented by King Harald V in a ceremony in Oslo. Due to the Corona pandemic, the ceremony will take place in autumn 2022. Press contact: Sandra Wiebe, Redakteurin/Pressereferentin, Tel.: +49 721 608-21172, sandra.wiebe@kit.edu Being "The Research University in the Helmholtz Association", KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,300 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 24,400 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence. ### Richmond: Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced on Tuesday that he will propose making Juneteenth - a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the US - an official holiday in a state that was once home to the capital of the Confederacy. Juneteenth, which is also called Emancipation Day and Freedom Day, is celebrated annually on June 19. Texas first made it a state holiday in 1980. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Credit:AP/Cliff Owen The holiday would be a paid day off for all state employees. Northam said he thinks Virginia would be only the second state to do so. "It's time we elevate this," Northam said of the June 19 commemoration. "Not just a celebration by and for some Virginians but one acknowledged and celebrated by all of us." The indisputably racist Aunt Jemima brand, and its bewildering longevity, speaks to the power of marketing in reinforcing offensive stereotypes. (AP) Aunt Jemima, the long-standing brand that finally was put to rest this week, has slavery in its corporate DNA. Nancy Green, who portrayed Aunt Jemima when the character was introduced at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, was born into enslavement six decades earlier, on a plantation in Montgomery County, Ky. By all accounts, Green's friendly personality made her a perfect corporate mascot, launching the Aunt Jemima name and commencing more than a century of dubious marketing. She was offered a lifetime contract to continue appearing as the character, the first of numerous Black women to play the part. Aunt Jemima, along with Uncle Ben, who it was announced this week will also be getting the heave-ho, were not responsible for creating stereotypes. Bigotry isn't new. But the indisputably racist brands, and their bewildering longevity, speak to the power of marketing in reinforcing offensive stereotypes. Simply put, if corporate America hadn't given its full backing to creating and promoting these images as sales tools, making them both culturally legitimate and highly profitable, it's debatable whether the country's racial divisions would have run so deep for so long. "There's very strong support for that premise," said Jerome Williams, a business professor at Rutgers University. "Corporate America perpetuated this situation." Judy Davis, a marketing professor at Eastern Michigan University, was even more emphatic. "Advertising and marketing play an important role in selling whiteness," she told me. "They have played a role in perpetuating an image that whites are superior." Williams related how, when he was a kid, his mom would serve Aunt Jemima pancakes or Uncle Ben's rice, and the stereotypical branding never registered as overtly racist. "It was just part of the background noise," he said. "I remember watching 'Amos and Andy' on television and laughing along with the show." Story continues In hindsight, he realizes how much cultural damage was being done. "They were very abhorrent images," Williams said. "But like many African Americans, I just accepted this as the way the world was." That's now changing, hopefully forever, as America and other nations shine a harsh spotlight on racial mistreatment, inequality and insensitivity following the death of George Floyd and amid a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Quaker Oats said Wednesday that it's retiring Aunt Jemima after more than 130 years of pitching the brand. "As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers' expectations," the Pepsi-owned company said in a statement. Mars, owner of the Uncle Ben's brand, quickly followed suit, declaring that the time has come to change the product's "brand identity." "Now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben's brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do," the company said. "We don't yet know what the exact changes and timing will be, but we are evaluating all possibilities." These are laudable moves. But it's hard not to wonder if they're less an indication of corporate enlightenment and more an awareness that there's no longer money to be made perpetuating archaic and ugly stereotypes. "When it starts affecting corporate profits, that's when it starts having an impact," Williams said of criticism from consumers. The Aunt Jemima brand has long reflected the values of a less-woke time. Case in point, a magazine ad from 1938 that depicted the white Jones family lamenting the sorry state of Mom's pancakes. And there's Aunt Jemima, in full "Mammy" regalia, standing in the window declaring, "Dey sure needs me in dis house!" Marketing that way may not make people prejudiced. But it lends a corporate seal of approval to such thinking. Branding is incredibly powerful. It can teach the world to sing and enjoy a bottle of Coke. And it can promote a smug sense of white superiority. "Once something is seen as normative, its typically not questioned and taken for granted," said Sonya Grier, a marketing professor at American University. "Like fish in water. And this would allow such stereotypes to be perpetuated consciously or unconsciously in society." Seeing Aunt Jemima on a box of pancake mix, she said, drives home the idea that a Black woman belongs in the kitchen as a servant or caretaker. "The lack of discussion, especially cross-race discussion of these issues traditionally, doesnt allow for the stereotypes to be challenged on a personal, individual level," Grier said. It goes even deeper than that. "While brands such as Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben can't solely be blamed for systemic racism, by using these stereotypical icons to represent their brands they are giving credence to such stereotypes on a global platform," said Monique Bell, an associate professor of marketing at Fresno State. "Black people, and other underrepresented groups, already face implicit biases, and these representations only encourage prejudice and further dehumanization," she said. Recently, it has felt like every company under the sun has wanted to demonstrate its commitment to racial harmony and diversity. Some of these declarations are undoubtedly sincere and aim to promote positive change. Others may be little more than me-too pandering. "I'm a little skeptical," said Kevin Thomas, an assistant professor of multicultural branding and strategic communication at Marquette University. "I believe it's more of a calculation at this point on the part of marketers." We'll see. "If your company is committed to change, it can't just be about changing the symbolism," said Davis at Eastern Michigan University. "Dropping certain names and imagery is a start, but there's a lot more companies can do." It could take generations, in fact, for the influence of decades of racially questionable marketing to be undone. Davis said that when she first heard the news about Aunt Jemima, she felt gratified. Then she made herself some pancakes. They weren't Aunt Jemima, but the connection was made. Brands are mighty things. And they must not be tolerated when they do wrong. LYNDHURST, Ohio Domestic violence: Case Avenue At 7:50 a.m. June 10, a caller reported that she had been involved in a physical altercation with her boyfriend, the father of her child. She said that the altercation took place at about 4 a.m. and that her boyfriend was no longer at the house. The woman, 22, claimed that the man flicked a finger on her forehead, head-butted her and hit her in the legs. On June 12, the man, 28, of Lyndhurst, turned himself in to police. Police charged the man with domestic violence. Menacing: Cedar Road At 8:50 p.m. June 12, an employee of Giant Eagle, 25105 Cedar Road at Legacy Village, reported that a male customer had threatened the stores manager. The customer, while standing at the customer service counter, became upset when the manager couldnt process a request and threatened to beat the manager. The customer had left before police were called. The manager did not want to file a police report. Warrant arrest: Acacia Park Drive At 10:05 p.m. June 11, a caller reported a car chasing a woman, who was on foot. The caller also reported hearing screaming from both the woman and the man in the car. Police located the woman, but not the car. Officers learned that the woman had been arguing with the father of her child and that she was not being chased. The woman told police that the argument was her fault. It was subsequently discovered that the woman, 23, of Lyndhurst, was wanted on a Macedonia police warrant and another warrant issued by the Ohio State Patrols Medina post. Macedonia police were unable to pick up the woman, but the Ohio State Patrol did meet with Lyndhurst police to take custody of the woman. Traffic altercation: Mayfield Road At 8:15 p.m. June 9, a woman reported that her former boyfriend was using his vehicle to try to drive her off the road. The incident took place as the Euclid woman, 20, drove near Noble Road in Cleveland Heights. The woman drove into the Lyndhurst police station lot, followed by her former boyfriend, who is also a 20-year-old Euclid resident. An officer spoke with both parties. The man said he was merely following the woman because he was concerned for her after she had entered into a new relationship. He said he had spotted the woman driving and decided to follow her car. Police took no action. Read more from the Sun Messenger. TOKYO, June 17 (Reuters) - Japanese shares fell on Wednesday as automakers dragged on weak export data, while escalating tensions between North Korea and South Korea also doused the market sentiment. The benchmark Nikkei average fell 0.74% to 22,414.50 by the midday break, while the broader Topix lost 0.50% to 1,585.51. The index had posted its biggest intraday percentage gain in three months in the previous session. Japan's exports shrank to the lowest levels in a decade as shipments of automobile to the United States slumped. This offset optimism around an overnight rally on Wall Street, where all three major U.S. stocks hitting third consecutive daily gains. Shares of export-oriented automakers underperformed, with Mazda Motor dropping 4.73%, Hino Motors down 4.39% and Isuzu Motors falling 4.11%. Investors were also rattled by escalating tensions between North Korea and South Korea after North Korea demolished an inter-Korean liaison office and rejected an offer by South Korea to send special envoys, vowing to send troops back to the border. On the Nikkei index, there were 28 advancers against 192 decliners. As concerns about the coronavirus progress resurfaced, highly cyclical airlines went down 2.19% and iron and steel dropped 1.83%. Bucking the overall market's weakness, SoftBank Group advanced 3.93% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Japanese technology company plans to sell "a significant portion" of its stake in T-Mobile to controlling shareholder Deutsche Telekom AG. Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer that sells dexamethasone, gained 3.91% after a preliminary trial results in the United Kingdom showed that this steroid drug reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients. In the startup market, the Mothers Index climbed 2.14%. (Reporting by Eimi Yamamitsu; Editing by Rashmi Aich) "The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation and must not underestimate China's firm will to safeguard territorial sovereignty," Wang told India's Minister of External Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, according to a statement released in Beijing. Hours later, India's ministry posted its own version of the conversation, saying that Jaishankar blamed China for "a premeditated and planned action that was directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties." Both Xi and Modi are in uncharted territory. They are dealing with the coronavirus, which is still spreading in India while China tries to contain a new outbreak in Beijing. The economies of both countries are weakened and vulnerable. The deaths along the border only increase their anxieties, making a diplomatic resolution all the more difficult. "For years India and China have said there have been no fatalities" along the border, said Tanvi Madan, director of the India Project at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "That they have crossed that threshold in and of itself makes this a significant incident." So far, Modi appears to be projecting toughness while trying to avoid a deeper conflict. Photos in Indian media showed military convoys on the winding roads approaching the disputed region, and local residents described heavier than usual troop movement. Even so, military analysts said that forces had not been put on full alert. Chinese troops hold a banner which reads "You've crossed the border, please go back" in Ladakh, India, in 2013. Credit:AP Modi, who met with his defence and foreign ministers on Tuesday night at his home, already faced criticism from opposition leaders that he was feckless, despite his nationalist appeals and his sharp response last year to an attack linked to a militant group based in Pakistan. "Why is he hiding?" Rahul Gandhi, one of India's most prominent opposition leaders, wrote on Twitter. "Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land?" Loading Modi's media allies could help him weather the storm. On Wednesday, media friendly to his party circulated unsubstantiated reports that Indian troops had won the skirmish. If people believe the reports, true or not, that could lessen the pressure to retaliate. "A whole bunch of myths have been created," said Ajai Shukla, a retired army colonel turned popular commentator. "And many of Modi's followers will back him no matter what." China is carefully minding its own message. Unlike India, which has a freewheeling media and vibrant if weakened opposition parties, Xi's seasoned propaganda apparatus is able to control the flow of information. China's state media have offered only sparse reports on the clash, rather than stirring nationalist fervour, though some still spilled out. It is still not clear whether China suffered fatalities. In four decades, the People's Liberation Army had lost just three soldiers to fighting abroad troops who were killed in United Nations peacekeeping operations in Mali and South Sudan in 2016. "I just don't understand," one person wrote on Weibo, the Chinese social media site. "Why didn't we announce the casualties of our side? What do we have to hide and why?" A spokesman for China's foreign ministry, Zhao Lijian, four times on Wednesday sidestepped questions about media reports in India that China had suffered 43 casualties on Monday, including some deaths, saying he had no information to offer. A spokesman for China's Western Theatre Command, which oversees the region, referred to casualties but offered no details. Officials in India have blamed China for starting the confrontation along the border in May by sending troops into the Galwan Valley, among other places. Several brawls broke out between the opposing forces, causing serious injuries. Modi ordered India's military to reinforce the border, even as commanders on both sides tried quietly to resolve tensions through a meeting on June 6. While China remained tight-lipped about the latest violence, new details emerged from India. Activists from Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a wing of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), shout slogans during a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, India. Credit:Bloomberg A number of Indian troops were captured, two Indian military officials said in interviews, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. Their fate remains unclear, and presumably is the subject of intense manoeuvring behind the scenes. The fighting began after Indian troops on Monday set fire to tents erected by Chinese soldiers, the officials said. The Indian force later encountered a much larger patrol of more than 100 Chinese soldiers, they said, wielding fence posts and clubs wrapped in barbed wire or studded with nails. The two sides reportedly had no firearms, according to longstanding protocols for the two militaries along the Line of Actual Control, the boundary drawn after the 1962 war to keep them apart. Among those killed was the Indian commander, Colonel Bikkumalla Santosh Babu, whose death appeared to spark a larger fight along a steep ridge, which continued into Tuesday morning. The officials said several Indians died after falling from the ridge in the dark or intentionally jumping into the Galwan River. India initially announced the deaths of only three soldiers but then the toll rose by 17, whose deaths were attributed to "environmental conditions" at the high altitude. Hu Xijin, the editor of The Global Times, a Chinese newspaper controlled by the Communist Party, taunted India on Twitter, saying 17 injured soldiers died because India's military could not evacuate them quickly enough for medical treatment. "This is not an army with real modern combat capabilities," he wrote. For all of Modi's aggressive rhetoric, the clash has underscored how far India has fallen behind its neighbour, militarily and economically. "India has no options, or limited ones," said Rahul Bedi, a military analyst in Delhi. "Appeasement is a risk," he added, but one that "may be more digestible for now." Others in India say that the danger of inaction is greater. China has chipped away at territory along the disputed frontier seizing about 23 square miles in the past two months. Madan of Brookings said that many Indians viewed this as "salami slicing" similar to China's establishment of military bases on contested islets in the South China Sea, moves that have frustrated neighbouring countries and the United States. "It's not lost on folks that this is the fourth major boundary incident since 2012," she said, referring to the year Xi rose to power. "What they seem to be trying to do is the territorial version of what they have done in the South China Sea." Samir Saran, the president of the Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi think tank, who is seen as close to Modi's government, said that if India does not stand up to China, Beijing may double down and continue to claim more contested terrain. Bailey County Jail staff members tested positive for COVID-19. The Sheriffs Office alerted citizens via news release posted on Facebook on Friday. The SO was notified on June 10 that a jailer had tested positive. Two days later, all jail staff (25 people) were tested and nine tests returned positive results. Visitation to the jail has been on hold through the pandemic, per state mandates, so there was no risk of public exposure. Sheriff Richard Willis has also stopped movements of inmates in or out of the jail. All inmates in the jail were tested on Monday. The next step will be determined based on the results of those tests. Red Cross raises concern over spike in attacks on health facilities and large number of coronavirus cases among medics. Rising violence and attacks on healthcare facilities amid the coronavirus pandemic have put millions of people at risk in Afghanistan, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned. In a statement on Wednesday, the humanitarian group said civilian casualties were on the rise even as the war-torn country battles the coronavirus pandemic. The recent trajectory in Afghanistan is of great concern, said Juan Pedro Schaerer, the head of the ICRC delegation in Afghanistan. After the hope brought by a relative reduction in hostilities in February and March, we again see more violence. The ICRC said Afghanistans health system was stretched even before the arrival of the novel coronavirus, with limited coverage in conflict-affected areas and poor specialised healthcare. Attacks on medical staff and health facilities, such as the assault last month on a hospital in the capital, Kabul that killed 24 people, including 16 women and two newborn babies, only made the situation worse, it said. COVID-19 has challenged the worlds most advanced nations. A country where gunmen attack a hospital stands no chance at providing quality care. We see it in health facilities in conflict-affected areas and in prisons, where people have already limited access to healthcare, Schaerer said. With a population of more than 37 million, Afghanistan has roughly 172 hospitals and four doctors per 10,000 people, according to a 2019 government report. More than 26,000 people have so far tested positive for the coronavirus, and nearly 500 have died, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. Authorities imposed a nationwide lockdown after the first cases were reported in February, but people have largely ignored the regulations. Among the more than 900 cases in the capital Kabul, more than a third were doctors and other healthcare staff, officials said last month. The ICRC said this worrying trend puts more strain on the entire system. On Monday, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced it was ceasing operations and withdrawing from the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, after its maternity ward was targeted by gunmen on May 12. Narendra Modi New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened an all-party virtual meet on June 19 to discuss the situation on the India-China border, his office said on Wednesday. In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister @narendramodi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 PM on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting. Advertisement June 17, 2020 Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two. "In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister @narendramodi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 pm on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting," the PMO tweeted. 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 26-year-old jawan Rajesh Orang martyred in Ladakh was suppose to marry, but destiny had other plans India oi-Madhuri Adnal Suri (WB), June 17: Oldest of three siblings, Rajesh Orang, joined the Army in 2015 but the soldier died of injuries suffered in a hand to hand combat with the Chinese army at Galwan Valley in Ladakh region, his father Subhas was informed. "My son served the country and gave his life for it, "was all Subhas could say on Wednesday morning as he grieved his son's death. Rajesh's mother Mamata was speechless. She was hoping to get him married when he came back on a holiday next. India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News Army Jawan from Himachal killed in Indo-China clash at LAC, village grieves his loss Subhas said Rajesh, elder to two sisters, had joined the Army in 2015 after passing the higher secondary examination and belonged to the Bihar Regiment. He said that he was informed by the Army authorities on Tuesday evening about the death of Rajesh, who was in his early 20s. "From his childhood, my brother wanted to serve the country and was happy to be in the Army," his youngest sister Shakuntala said. "He came home on leave a few months back and talks were on for his marriage," she said. Subhas, a marginal farmer in Belgoria village in Mohammedbazar police station area in Birbhum district, raised his children amid poverty. Rajesh was among the 20 Indian Army personnel killed in the fierce clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region. If you really want to honour him, implement his inclusive ideology: SC Bose's grandnephew At DMs meets, PM calls for direct, emotional connect between administration and public for good governance India-China face off: Modi calls for all-party meeting at 5 pm on 19th June India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, June 17: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened an all-party virtual meet on June 19 to discuss the situation on the India-China border, his office said on Wednesday. "In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister @narendramodi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 pm on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting," the PMO tweeted. India-China face-off: Loss of soldiers disturbing, painful, says Defence Minister Rajnath Singh India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News Atleast 20 Indian Army personnel, including a colonel were killed in a violent face-off with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over 5 decades that has escalated the already volatile border stand-off in the region. Meanwhile, China on Wednesday claimed that the sovereignty of the Galwan Valley area in Ladakh "always belonged to it," a day after the armies of the two countries were engaged in a violent face-off. The External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said the violent face-off between armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. Indo-China clash at LAC due to 'intelligence failure': Ex MoS M M Pallam Raju The ministry said both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement arrived earlier at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. Mukesh Ranjan By Express News Service RANCHI: Ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls in Jharkhand, the BJP has put all its MLAs in political quarantine at the campus of Sarla Birla University in the outskirts of Ranchi after a meeting of NDA alliance partners was held to discuss poll strategy on Wednesday. Sources in the party revealed that all 26 BJP MLAs will stay in hostel rooms of the school till RS polls are conducted and leave the campus only for polling on Friday. According to the party sources, they will also not be allowed to interact with anyone, including media persons even through mobile phones. Meanwhile, BJP National Vice President Om Mathur and National General Secretary Arun Singh reached here from a chartered flight to hold the meeting to discuss the strategy for the RS Polls. Notably, the meeting was attended by all 26 MLAs of BJP and 2 AJSU MLAs - Sudesh Mahto and Lambodar Mahto. State BJP Vice President Pradeep Verma however, called it a normal process saying that the party already has required numbers. This not happening for the first time, earlier also we used to gather at a point and discuss various issues related to RS polls. This time situation is abnormal due to the outbreak of coronavirus and hence such an arrangement was made for the MLAs, said Verma. Earlier, such meetings were held in BJP headquarters, but since hotels are also closed, the meeting is being held in this school, he clarified. The decision apparently is taken in the backdrop of the ruling alliances aggressiveness on gathering support for Congress nominee for RS polls Shahjada Anwar. Congress leaders have repeatedly been saying that they have fielded their candidate under a strategy and Jharkhand, as earlier, will give shocking results this time also. Most of the time, Jharkhand has given shocking results in RS polls. This time also, I believe that the State will witness shocking result, said senior Congress leader and Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam. Several independents, as well as those attached with one or another political party, have been contacted for voting in favour of the Congress nominee, he added. Alam claimed that the Congress has adequate numbers to win a seat in RS polls. Notably, support of at last 27 legislators is required to win a seat in 79 members Jharkhand Assembly after Chief Minister Hemant Soren resigned from Dumka constituency and Bermo MLA Rajendra Kumar Singh died after prolonged illness. JMM, already having 29 MLAs, therefore its nominee Shibu Soren is all set to get nominated for RS. BJP, currently having 26 MLAs, has the support of AJSU and the two independent MLAs Saryu Roy and Amit Yadav to reach the magic number of 27, required for winning a Rajya Sabha seat in Jharkhand. If all put together, it makes 30, three more than the required number. Congress, on the other hand, has 15 MLAs and if somehow it manages to get the support of one MLA each from RJD and CPI (ML) and remaining two MLAs of JMM along with independents Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, it has only 21 MLAs. Meanwhile, JMM General Secretary and party spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya has accused BJP of violating the provisions of disaster management act by assembling its MLAs and several others at one place forcefully. In a formal complied lodged with the the Chief Election Commissioner, Bhattacharya has demanded immediate action against university management and release of MLAs from the campus. A former Flybe jet preparing for take off was left wedged underneath a parked plane's engine following a collision at Aberdeen airport. The crash involved a plane formerly belonging to the collapsed British airline, which rolled into a stationary Loganair Embraer aircraft at around 6pm on Tuesday. The former Flybe Bombardier Q400 hit the rear port side of the Embraer, becoming lodged underneath and lifting the right main gear off the ground. The Loganair Embraer 145 regional jet had offloaded its passengers and no crew were on board when it was struck. Crew on the former Flybe aircraft were said to be shaken by the 'unfortunate occurrence', but were otherwise unhurt. A former Flybe jet preparing for take off was left wedged underneath a parked Loganair Embraer plane's engine following a collision on the tarmac at Aberdeen airport The former Flybe Bombardier Q400 hit the rear port side of the Embraer, becoming lodged underneath and lifting the right main gear off the ground No passengers had been on board either aircraft and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch has launched an investigation, Aberdeen International Airport said. A spokeswoman for Loganair added: 'Just before 6pm yesterday evening, a Loganair Embraer 145 regional jet, parked with no passengers or crew members aboard, was hit by a former Flybe Bombardier Q400 aircraft, which we understand was being prepared for departure after being stored at Aberdeen Airport. 'The nose of the Q400 impacted the rear port side of the Embraer, becoming lodged underneath and lifting the right main gear off the ground. 'The most important thing is that no one was injured in the incident, with the crew working on the ex-Flybe aircraft being safe and well, yet understandably shaken by the occurrence.' No passengers had been on board either aircraft and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch has launched an investigation, the airport said Flybe, which had been Europe's largest regional airline, collapsed into administration in March with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs She added: 'A recovery operation for the aircraft is already in hand. 'We do not expect that this unfortunate occurrence will lead to any disruption to customers on Loganair flights from Aberdeen as we have standby aircraft available to fulfil our schedule.' Flybe, which had been Europe's largest regional airline, collapsed into administration in March with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs. With the heat of the summer on, so-called air-conditioning mats have been widely sold online. The mats are advertised being made of self-cooling wood fibers. Photo vietnamnet.vn With the heat of the summer on, so-called air-conditioning mats have been widely sold online. The mats have been advertised as a replacement for air-conditioners. I heard that the mats were made of self-cooling oak wood fibres. So I tried to buy one for these extremely hot days, a man living in Hanoi's Cau Giay District told zing.vn. He thought he would save money by not using his air-conditioner. On online markets, the mats prices ranged from VN40,000 to 100,000 (US$1.8-4.3) each. However, Hoa and many customers were quickly disappointed with the mats as they have turned out to have no cooling effects. When Hoa asked the seller if his mat was broken, he was told it would work well in an air-conditioned room. If something seems too good to be true, it just might be. VNS DUBAI (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen on Wednesday denied that an air strike it carried out earlier this week in Saada province had killed civilians, as alleged by Houthi authorities. The coalition that has been battling the Iran-aligned movement for five years said in a statement that it had targeted armed members of the group. The Houthi health minister had said 13 civilians, including four children, were killed in Monday's air strike. Both sides have released footage as proof. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos or when or where they were taken. The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, said in a statement on Tuesday that initial field reports indicated that at least 12 civilians, including four children, were killed in strikes on a vehicle in Saada. "We share our deepest condolences with the bereaved families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives in this terrible, unjustified attack," Grande said. The coalition statement said the vehicle was carrying armed Houthi combatants near the Saudi-Yemeni border and that the air strike was "legitimate". The United Nations on Monday removed the Western-backed coalition from a U.N. blacklist several years after it was first accused of killing and injuring children in Yemen. Violence has surged between the two sides after a six-week ceasefire prompted by the coronavirus pandemic expired last month. The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed government from power in the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014. The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system. (Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Writing by Lisa Barrington and Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Giles Elgood) The mayors of the largest cities in Texas have written to Governor Greg Abbott asking him to allow them to mandate the wearing of face masks as the number of new coronavirus cases per day hit another record high. Texas saw 4,098 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, 1,500 more than the previous peak on 10 June, as the coronavirus surges following the easing of lockdown rules. The mayors of Arlington, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Houston, Plano and San Antonio sent the bipartisan letter asking if local governments could be allowed to enforce the wearing of face coverings. The mayors stressed that masks have proven to be the most effective way of preventing transmission of the virus, and yet many people refuse to wear them. Governor Abbott acknowledged that many Texans have become lax about wearing masks and social distancing. He urged people to take greater personal responsibility for stopping the spread but said he would not require the general public to wear masks. On Wednesday, officials near San Antonio took the initiative and ordered people to wear face masks in public when social distancing isnt possible. Businesses were warned they could face fines of up to $1,000 for failing to comply with county health policies in the next five days. The executive order came from Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg joined Judge Wolff in a press conference to say they are concerned younger people will get infected with Covid-19 and take the virus home to older family members. People younger than 40 are showing the most infections in the area, the mayor said. What we are doing here is to protect the life and safety of the San Antonio community, Mr Nirenberg said. In May, Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton lashed out at the cities of San Antonio, Dallas and Austin over what he called unlawful local orders that are tougher than restrictions prescribed by Mr Abbott, and threatened lawsuits if the cities didnt back off. Judge Wolff said he had reached out to Governor Abbotts chief of staff and assistant chief of staff to notify them of his new executive order but had yet to hear back. He said he hoped the governor would be supportive of his decision but that attorneys were ready for a legal fight. Mr Abbotts spokesman John Wittman said Judge Wolffs order doesnt clash with the governors executive order. With reporting from the Associated Press Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) announced today that Stork, part of Fluor's Diversified Services segment, was awarded a 5-year maintenance contract by Delamine B.V in the Netherlands. Fluor booked the undisclosed contract value in the second quarter of 2020. "Stork is pleased that Delamine has extended our contract to continue our work at Chemistry Park Delfzijl," said Taco de Haan, Stork's president. "Stork has been supporting Delamine's production facilities since 2006, and this contract renewal exemplifies the valuable partnership Delamine and Stork have jointly established." Stork will provide maintenance services and capital expenditure services including multidisciplinary piping and mechanical, electrical and instrumentation, and other specialty services. "This contract demonstrates the excellent work performed and importance of strong relationships with clients in the Eemsmond region of the Netherlands," said Carla Rodenburg, Stork's vice president, Europe. "It strengthens our continuity and offers a foundation to pursue many inspiring new energy and other innovative industrial initiatives in the northern region of the Netherlands." The five-year maintenance contract begins July 1, 2020. About Stork Stork, a Fluor company, continually improves the performance of its clients' assets through a wide range of integrated, innovative and data-driven solutions, from operations and maintenance and to turnarounds and modifications. We are committed to growing our clients' business sustainably and successfully by setting new standards of excellence in asset management. Underpinned with our core values Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Client Focus and Excellence we aim to be the industry reference, every day, everywhere. For more information, please visit www.stork.com or follow us on Twitter @StorkTS, LinkedIn. About Fluor Corporation Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) is a global engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and maintenance company with projects and offices on six continents. Fluor's 47,000 employees build a better world by designing, constructing and maintaining safe, well-executed, capital-efficient projects. Fluor is ranked 181 among the Fortune 500 companies. With headquarters in Irving, Texas, Fluor has served its clients for more than 100 years. For more information, please visit www.fluor.com or follow Fluor on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. stork View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005722/en/ Contacts: Brian Mershon Media Relations 469.398.7621 Jason Landkamer Investor Relations 469.398.7222 Beatrijs van de Ven Stork Media Relations +31 6515.66.513 By PTI MUMBAI: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, actors Akshay Kumar, Anushka Sharma and others have expressed their deep pain and sadness over the killing of Indian Army personnel during a violent clash with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region. Taking to Twitter, Bachchan quoted the iconic lines from "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo" penned by poet Kavi Pradeep. "'Zara aankh mein bhar lo paani, jo shaheed hue hai unki, zara yaad karo kurbani...' They sacrificed their lives to protect our country , to keep us safe and secure. T 3565 - .... ; , ..they sacrificed their lives to protect our country , to keep us safe and secure. SALUTE Indian Army Officers and Jawans ! JAI HIND Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) June 16, 2020 Salute Indian Army Officers and Jawans! Jai Hind," the actor said. Akshay paid condolences to the families of soldiers and said the loss was devastating. Deeply saddened by the death of our bravehearts in #GalwanValley. We will forever be indebted to them for their invaluable service to the nation. My heartfelt condolences to their families pic.twitter.com/tGOGTU61X6 Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) June 16, 2020 "Deeply saddened by the death of our bravehearts in #GalwanValley. We will forever be indebted to them for their invaluable service to the nation. My heartfelt condolences to their families," he wrote in a post. Anushka said that as a "soldier's daughter", the death of an army officer always "hurt hard and feel personal". "The sacrifice of their lives and the sacrifice of their families will always leave a void. I pray for peace and I pray for strength for the brave bereaved families #IndianArmy #JaiJawan. Hrithik Roshan described the deaths of the soldiers and the unrest in Ladakh as "painful". It leaves me with a heavy heart to know of the lives lost in Ladakh & the unrest we are faced with. Our defence stands tall on ground. My highest respect to the martyred in the line of duty. Condolences & prayers for their families. May the departed & living find peace Hrithik Roshan (@iHrithik) June 16, 2020 "It leaves me with a heavy heart to know of the lives lost in Ladakh and the unrest we are faced with. Our defence stands tall on ground. My highest respect to the martyred in the line of duty. Condolences and prayers for their families. May the departed and living find peace," he tweeted. Taapsee Pannu posted, "As if Corona was not enough to fight with now we have to lose our brave hearts as well! Every soldier martyred is a loss no one can compensate for. The families of those soldiers lost their peace for a long time to come so that we all can have a sound sleep. Indebted." As if Corona was not enough to fight with now we have to lose our brave hearts as well! Every soldier martyred is a loss no one can compensate for. The families of those soldiers lost their peace for a long time to come so that we all can have a sound sleep. Indebted. taapsee pannu (@taapsee) June 16, 2020 Farhan Akhtar offered his deep condolences to the families of the martyrs and said he salutes the martyrs for their "courage and for the ultimate sacrifice in defending our borders." The Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement it revised the figure to 20, saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries." Government sources said the Chinese side too suffered "proportionate casualties" but chose not to speculate on the number. It is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. French English Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States ROUYN-NORANDA, Quebec, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Radisson Mining Resources Inc. (Radisson or the Company) (TSX.V: RDS, OTC: RMRDF) is pleased to announce the promotion of Rahul Paul to President from Chief Financial Officer effective June 17, 2020. He will report to Mario Bouchard, Radissons Chief Executive Officer and Director. Denis Lachance, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Radisson Mining Resources, will assume the role of Chief Financial Officer on an interim basis. We are very happy with Rahuls significant contribution since he joined the Company in November 2019. His involvement has benefited Radisson in several areas including strategic planning, financial management, capital allocation and marketing. His efforts have been instrumental in getting Radisson to a position of strength. Our confidence in the potential of the OBrien project continues to increase with each round of drilling and we see significant upside to be unlocked for our shareholders. We believe that Rahuls promotion to President will allow Radisson to better leverage on his industry knowledge and capital markets relationships to take Radisson to the next level. I look forward to working with Rahul in his new role, commented Mario Bouchard, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Radisson Mining Resources. Over the last several months, I have enjoyed working with Mario and the rest of the Radisson team. The more I learn about the OBrien project, the more convinced I am about the opportunity to unlock significant value for our shareholders. Marios dedication, hard work and leadership have been instrumental in Radissons success so far. His extensive experience and strong relationships will continue to be a significant asset for Radisson. I am excited to be taking on additional responsibilities and look forward to working closely with Mario in my new role. commented Rahul Paul, President of Radisson Mining Resources. Results of AGM Radisson is pleased to announce the results of its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders ("AGM") held in Rouyn-Noranda, Qc on June 12, 2020. Shareholders voted in favour of all items of business, including the election of each director nominee. A total of 80,506,161 votes were represented in the meeting amounting to 42.36% of the issued common class A share shares as of the record date. All votes were submitted by proxy with the following tabulation of these votes: Directors Tabulation of Votes in Favour submitted by Proxy Tabulation of Votes Withheld submitted by Proxy Denis Lachance 80,216,809 (99.99%) 5,500 (0.01%) Mario Bouchard 80,209,757 (99.98%) 12,552 (0.02%) Luc Simoneau 80,218,809 (99.99%) 3,500 (0.01%) Jean Dion 80,218,809 (99.99%) 3,500 (0.01%) Rejean Gourde 80,218,809 (99.99%) 3,500 (0.01%) Tony Brisson 80,218,809 (99.99%) 3,500 (0.01%) Denis Bois 80,216,057 (99.99%) 6,253 (0.01%) In addition, shareholders voted 100% in favour to re-appoint Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton as Independant auditor of Radisson. Grant of stock options On June 12th 2020, the Board of Directors awarded a total of 2,675,000 stock options to directors, officers and three employees of the company. Pursuant to terms of the stock options plan each option grants the holder thereof the right to purchase one common class A share at a price of $ 0.255 until June 12th, 2025. Following the grant of stock options and pursuant to terms of the stock options plan, there are currently 11,825,000 stock options outstanding. About Radisson Mining Resources Inc. Radisson is a gold exploration company focused on its 100% owned OBrien project, located in the Bousquet-Cadillac mining camp along the world-renowned Larder-Lake-Cadillac Break in Abitibi, Quebec. The Bousquet-Cadillac mining camp has produced over 21,000,000 ounces of gold over the last 100 years. The project hosts the former OBrien Mine, considered to have been the Abitibi Greenstone Belts highest-grade gold producer during its production (1,197,147 metric tons at 15.25 g/t Au for 587,121 ounces of gold from 1926 to 1957; Kenneth Williamson 3DGeo-Solution, July 2019). For more information on Radisson, visit our website at www.radissonmining.com or contact: On behalf of the board of directors Mario Bouchard Chief Executive Officer, Director For more information on Radisson, visit our website at www.radissonmining.com or contact: Hubert Parent-Bouchard Director, Corporate development 819-763-9969 hpbouchard@radissonmining.com Certain information contained in the press release are subject to receipt of all regulatory approvals. 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 All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release including, but not limited to, those relating to the intended use of proceeds of the Offering, the development of the OBrien project and generally, the above About Radisson Mining Resources Inc. paragraph which essentially describes the Corporations outlook, constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as of the time of this press release. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Corporation as of the time of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. These estimates and assumptions may prove to be incorrect. Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can directly or indirectly affect, and could cause, actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements and future events, could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward looking information can be found in Radissons disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions do not reflect future experience. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about managements endeavours to develop the OBrien project and, more generally, its expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important risk factors and future events could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations, anticipations, estimates, assumptions and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those made in our other filings with the securities regulators of Canada. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law. Novel coronavirus cases in Bangladesh inched towards the 100,000-mark with over 4,000 more persons testing positive for the infection on Wednesday, the biggest single-day spike since the virus was first reported on March 8 in the country, health officials said. Professor Nasima Sultana, a senior Health Ministry official, said in an online briefing that 4,008 new COVID-19 positive cases and 43 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh, Xinhua news agency reported. "The total number of positive cases is 98,489 and the death toll stands currently at 1,305," she added. According to the official, 17,527 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh. She said 1,925 more COVID-19 patients have recovered during the last 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries so far to 38,189. Australians can expect to shiver through the weekend as the country is battered by extreme cold weather, snow and severe winds. A cold front is set to sweep across south-eastern parts of the country throughout the week with Tasmania, Victoria and parts of NSW to suffer the most. Strong wind warnings have also been set across South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Meteorologist Graeme Brittain told Daily Mail Australia the wild weather will last over the whole weekend. Australia's south-east is set to be hit with extreme cold weather bringing snowfall to ski resorts in Victoria, Tasmania and NSW (pictured skier in Mount Buller, VIC) Strong wind warnings have also been set across South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory (the blue areas shown the map indicate where will have the coldest weather) Snow is expected to fall in parts of NSW as the cold front sweeps through (pictured: snow in NSW on Wednesday) 'A frontal system associated with a cold front is lined up for the south-east this weekend, affecting all of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales from Friday across the whole weekend,' he said. 'Over this period winds will be quite gusty especially in coastal and elevated parts.' Mr Brittain said Australia would also see some heavy snowfall over the weekend. 'Snowfall will mainly be in the Alps in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales. The resorts there could pick up some decent snow over the weekend,' he said. 'Generally strong and gusty cold winds will be a feature from Thursday through to Monday. It's not a great weekend to be outdoors.' Heavy rainfall of around 22mm and possible hail is also expected to hit central Victoria and Canberra. Clouds are seen looming over Sydney Harbour Bridge on Wednesday as the city prepares for a bout of cold weather A cold front is set to sweep across south-eastern parts of the country throughout the week with Tasmania, Victoria and parts of NSW to suffer the most (pictured: a car veering off a road in Perisher, NSW) NSW will see a cold and windy weekend due to a cold front coming in from Tasmania Sydney was covered in thick cloud on Wednesday morning as temperatures drop Tasmania is also in for a wet weekend but Sydney will be spared the rain and will instead see sunshine. On the other side of the country a severe weather warning has been put in place for south-west areas in Western Australia. Fierce winds of up to 100km/h are expected to sweep through the areas on Wednesday with the potential to damage homes. Thunderstorms and huge swells are also expected in the areas Albany, Bunbury, Busselton, Mandurah, Manjimup, Margaret River and Mount Barker. A warning has also been set for farmers as cold temperatures and winds could put lambs and sheep at risk. Heavy rainfall is also expected to hit Victoria and Tasmania (pictured: rainy day in Melbourne) Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment In these unprecedented times of division, grief and pain, we are forced to ask ourselves, What is the value of human life? Human life, if there is no God, is cheap. In a godless universe, man is nothing more than a mass of chemicals. Friedrich Nietzsche said that humans are merely animals. B.F. Skinner, the famous psychologist at Harvard University, reduced people to the status of a machine. Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existentialist, regarded mankind as nothing more than a useless passion. Before he became a Christian and recanted his atheistic belief, Mortimer Adler, one of the most prominent philosophers of the last century, saw human beings as nothing more than sophisticated animals. For this reason, he said, There is no logical reason to treat mankind differently from any other animal. Therefore, to exploit minorities or to exterminate the homeless could not be condemned any more than killing steers in a slaughterhouse. Again, if there is no God, Adler is logically correct. Contrast this with the life of Mother Teresa, the benevolent Catholic nun who dedicated her lifes work to caring for the sick and poor of Calcutta, India. These people lived out their lives in pain, fear, and loneliness. Many times, Mother Teresa was asked why she cared for those who were doomed. She responded along the lines of, They are created by God; they deserve to die with dignity. She clearly believed that every person is precious and has a great value that was formulated by Gods creative act. So, whose perspective is correct? And what does this have to do with racial reconciliation? I was born in 1953 and grew up in the turbulent 1960s. During this time I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, where there were all types of racial turmoil and prejudice. I grew up in an all-white neighborhood, went to all-white schools with all-white teachers, and attended an all-white church. I was totally segregated from the black community and I knew no blacks other than Edith, who worked for our family. This is how I grew up. Looking back, I assumed this was the way the rest of the world worked. However, I recognized there were certain undercurrents in our city over racial inequality and social upheaval in the black community. Birmingham became an international symbol of racism in 1963 when Bull Connor directed the use of fire hoses and police dog attacks on blacks. As a nine-year-old, I didnt really understand what was going on but it troubled me. In March of 1965, I remember driving home from the beach. It was a Sunday. We stopped to pick up a black man who was hitchhiking to Selma. I remember my Dad asking him if he was participating in the march and the man said that he was going to see his girlfriend. Then something happened in August of 1965 that is still seared in my memory. Our family went to New York to attend the Worlds Fair. One day we stopped by Macys department store. I was thirsty and looked for a water fountain. When I finally found it, I noticed there were two fountains, one for blacks and one for whites. To this day I can remember how stunning this was to me. Yet this is the world I grew up in. At the age of fourteen, I can remember where I was when it was announced that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. I can vividly recall the rioting and the burning of property all over the country. It was a frightening time. Looking back, the issue of racism was never talked about at school, in church, or even at home. It was a subject that was just left alone. It was with this background that I headed off to college as an eighteen-year-old to the University of the South. I hate to admit this but I was a quiet, silent racist. Three weeks into my first semester of college, I was studying in my room and there was a knock on the door. There stood a black student, a senior who had some type of petition he was looking for students to sign. I invited him into my room and we had a conversation I will never forget. He was the first black man my age who I had ever talked to. His name was Eric Benjamin and I will forever be grateful to him as he blew away so many of my prejudices. In March of 1974, I came to faith in Christ. This event not only changed my worldview but also the way I viewed people and their value. I realized the gospel cannot co-exist with racism, it is mutually exclusive. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor. Not our black neighbor nor our white neighbor, but all of our neighbors. And more specifically to love them as we love ourselves. We are told in Romans 2:11 that God shows no partiality, and neither should we. Richard D. Land, Christian Post Executive Editor stated recently that ...there is only one race the human race. Scientific research is now confirming what the Bible told us all along we all come from one common ancestor. So how do we deal with the sin of racism that exists in each of our hearts? Are protests or movements sufficient for lasting change? CP Guest Contributor Ryan Bomberger concludes in his recent article, As a Christian, the Church should be leading on these issues instead of sheepishly following a movement hostile to the Gospel. I think many of our leaders are trying to determine how we find our way out of this racial divide. I keep hearing of new legislation, but really, will new laws root out a heart of superiority? Can a law make a white person love a black person? Im now 66 and wonder if much has really changed from the 1960s. Billy Graham was often criticized back in the 1950s and 1960s because he consistently spoke out about racism and injustice, always pointing to the Gospel as the solution. In his 1977 book, World Aflame he wrote these powerful words which have proved to be prophetic: In Christ the middle wall of partition has been broken down. There is no Jew, no Gentile no black, white, yellow, or red. We could be one great brotherhood in Jesus Christ. However, until we come to recognize Him as the Prince of Peace and receive His love in our hearts the racial tensions will increase, racial demands will become more militant, and a great deal of blood will be shed. The race problem could become another flame out of control. Finally, a book that I read back in the 1980s profoundly impacted my life and caused me to realize how God can change the human heart. He can transform hate to love, selfishness to selflessness, meanness to kindness, and misery into joy. The book was Through the Valley of the Kwai by Dr. Ernest Gordon. Gordon recounts his experience in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. He tells how death was the chief topic of conversation. He describes the inhumane living conditions to which the prisoners were subjected: As conditions steadily worsened, as starvation, exhaustion, and disease took an ever-growing toll, the atmosphere in which we lived was increasingly poisoned by selfishness, hatred, and fear. We were slipping rapidly down the scale of degradation. You could say we lived by the rule of the jungle I look after myself and to hell with everyone else. Consequently, the weak were trampled underfoot, the sick ignored and resented, the dead forgotten. When a man lay dying, we had no word of mercy. When he cried out for help, we averted our heads. Men cursed the Japanese, their neighbors, themselves, and God. We had no church, no chaplains, no services. Many had turned to religion as a crutch. But the crutch had not supported them, so they had thrown it away. We had long since resigned ourselves to being derelicts, motivated by hate. Then several incidents took place that began to transform the prison camp. Several of the prisoners, who were devout Christians, sacrificed their lives for other prisoners. In one situation, a man was sick and dying, and his Christian friend would draw his own ration but wouldnt eat it. He would take it to his friend and insist that he eat it instead. Over time the sick man got better, but his friend finally collapsed and died from starvation. One day Gordon was approached by an Australian sergeant. He said that he and his men wanted to explore Christianity. He said, Maybe there is something to it that we havent understood. And they knew that Gordon had a Bible. At their first meeting, there were several dozen men in attendance. Gordon would read and expound on the New Testament. They had discussions about their own inner questioning and their desire for spiritual truth. Through the Bible readings, they came to know Jesus. They realized He understood them because of what He had faced himself. They began to see Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, as the incarnate word. Gordon said, In the fellowship of freedom and love, we found truth, and with the truth a wonderful sense of unity, of harmony, and peace. The numbers continued to grow. As more and more men put their faith in Christ, they developed a keener insight into life and its complexities. As Gordon described it: We were learning what it means to be alive to be human. As we became more aware of our responsibility to God the Father, we realized that we were put in this world not to be served but to serve. This truth touched and influenced many of us, even those who shunned any religious quest. There was a general reawakening. Men began to smile, to laugh, and even to sing. He goes on to describe the first communion: With expectant hearts men had come to receive the strength that only God could give. The elements were of our daily life rice baked into the form of bread and fermented rice water. The solemn words of the fraction were said. We broke the bread as it was passed to us and then passed it to our neighbor. The elements were returned to the table, a prayer of Thanksgiving said, a hymn sung, and a blessing given. We slipped quietly away into the singing silence of the night, cherishing as we did so our experience of the communion of saints. The Holy Spirit had made us one with our neighbors, one with those at home, one with the faithful in every land, in every age, one with the disciples. My desire for the rest of my life is to take this message of Gods transforming love out into the world. This is the solution to the problem of racism and Billy Graham said it best: The closer the people of all races get to Christ and His cross, the closer they will get to one another. Amen! PUNE: After two months, more than 100 elected members attended the general body meeting of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday, wearing mask and following Covid-19 preventive measures. Their presence was more to avoid membership disqualification. However, the general body was quickly adjourned when the opposition parties, including the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) started questioning the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the administration on how it spent Rs 125 crore while tackling the Covid-19 situation. Despite the opposition parties demand, leader of House Dheeraj Ghate proposed to adjourn the meeting till July amidst resistance from the Congress and the NCP members. Mayor Murlidhar Mohol intervened at the house discussion and said, Almost all the elected members and officers are working on the field. More than 150 people are in the hall and the central air conditioning is on. Everyone is aware about the Covid-19 precautions. We just called the meeting to avoid the technical and legal problems for elected members. I would like to appeal to all that if anything goes wrong (Covid-19 precautions), all will need to pay the price. The mayor agreed that elected members would get proper information and instructed the municipal administration to give written information to members from regional ward offices. Post lockdown restrictions, the civic administration had postponed general body meetings leaving authorities in a fix as any further delay could have resulted in 98 corporators losing membership. To avoid disqualification of members, PMC called the general body meeting on Wednesday. All the 162 corporators marked their attendance at the register before leaving the PMC building. As per the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act (1949), if an elected member remains absent for three consecutive general body meetings without any information, he or she is liable to be disqualified from membership. To avoid this technical issue, corporators attended the meeting and signed on the attendance register. The mayor said, The purpose of calling the meeting was to avoid the disqualification issue. After running the general body meeting for half an hour, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) adjourned it. Representative Image Sunil Dhingra Apart from being one of the biggest health crises to affect humanity in recent times, the Coronavirus pandemic has also led to a severe economic slowdown across the world. In India, this has also resulted in the large-scale reverse migration of people who had come from villages to cities in search of livelihoods. Given that its not clear how long this outbreak will last, one can expect that those who have reached their villages, will remain there for the near future. This poses further economic challenges in terms of jobs and livelihoods to the suddenly increased rural population. Most livelihood opportunities in rural India are related to agriculture and forestry and are, hence, limited and seasonal in nature. Add to this the issue of a majority of agricultural/horticulture crops being perishable in a matter of days, and one is facing a major problem. To achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modis vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India, improving rural livelihoods in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, dairy and fishery-related activities is important. Aatmanirbhar Bharat provides opportunity for increased investment in strengthening rural infrastructure, agri-storage facilities, and promoting entrepreneurship in agriculture and allied sectors. This has the potential to make the agriculture sector not only self-reliant but also more resilient to shocks. It also has the potential to create more jobs and livelihoods opportunities for the suddenly increased rural population. The socio-economic benefits of something like this could range from reduction in post-harvest food losses to increased farmer income. It could also promote local entrepreneurship development and employment opportunities. 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 India has seen a phenomenal growth in horticultural produce such as fruits, vegetables, and spices, apart from dairy products. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, estimates that India produces around 314 million tonnes of horticultural crops (viz. fruits, vegetables, flowers, aromatic plants, and spices) annually and more than 150 million tonnes of milk daily. India is the second largest producer of fruits at 97.4 million tonnes and vegetables at 187.3 million tonnes. The horticulture sector accounts for 6.5 percent of Indias GDP, 13 percent of its employment, and over 9 percent of its exports, despite only 9 percent crop acreage. However, despite huge progress in production in the past 10 years, the situation of post-harvest management of fruits and vegetables remains extremely discouraging in India. According to estimates by the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables in India are estimated at Rs 133 billion. The lack of proper cold storage facilities in India forces farmers to sell their perishable horticultural produce at whatever prices the market offers at the time, which are usually sub-optimal. In case of delays, farmers bear the entire burden of post-harvest losses. In India, these go up to 25-40 percent of the annual production. Such high loss is one of the primary reasons for low per person consumption of horticultural produce despite the high nutritional value. Further, such huge wastage across the value chain of high-value perishables discourages farmers. Cold storage facilities allow farmers of horticultural crops to store their produce for long periods of time without risking loss in quality. The produce can then be sold when market demand is high and prices are attractive. Decentralised cold storage holds the key to not only reducing losses but also to rejuvenating agriculture and boosting rural employment. Decentralised cold storage systems are essential for intermediary storage at the local farm level. This area is still at a nascent stage in India and, therefore, has tremendous growth potential given the large production volume of perishable fruits, vegetables and dairy products. Cold storage facilities based on alternative power solutions, such as solar or biomass, could prove to be very useful for the farmers and Farmer Producers' Organisations (FPOs). Decentralised cold storage units can have a storage capacity ranging from 5 to 15 metric tonnes (MT), and would be powered by compressor-less refrigeration systems that use hot water at high temperatures to run a refrigeration cycle with no moving parts, to maintain a temperature of -5 degree Celsius. Such systems can be operated by harnessing solar energy or on bio-waste materials such as biomass pellets/briquettes, bamboo, biogas etc., that are easily available in rural areas. This would result in very low operating costs, compared to diesel or grid electricity-based systems, in addition to being environmentally benign. According to a conservative estimate, there is a potential to set up 250,000 such systems across India, which could generate around 250,000 direct jobs and 750,000 indirect jobs in operation, maintenance, collection, transportation and allied services. This could collectively inject Rs 500 billion worth of new investments into the rural economy, besides the local generation of renewable energy that would result in a cleaner environment. With such all-round benefits, rural India would be less dependent both on the vagaries of nature and of the economic climate of the rest of the world. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has announced the application period for the 2020 Wildlife Management Area (WMA) Big Game Quota Hunts, the regular elk, youth elk, and WMA youth is now underway through July 22. Entries must be submitted before midnight (CDT) July 22. The WMA hunting instruction sheet lists locations and dates for each of the quota hunts along with drawing rules and regulations. Instruction sheets can be obtained and applications made for the hunts at any TWRA license agent, TWRA regional office or online at www.gooutdoorstennessee.com . Mailed applications will not be processed into the drawing system. There is no fee for current Annual Sportsman License holders, Lifetime Sportsman License holders, or seniors possessing a Type 167 Annual Senior Citizen Sportsman License. For all other applicants, there is a non-refundable $12 permit fee for each drawing entered. There is a $1 agent fee for applications made at a license agent. When applying at a license agent, hunters must remain at the location while the application is processed to verify the information is correct on the receipt. For applications made on the internet, there is a $2 internet usage fee. If entering multiple quota hunts, a person must pay the permit and agent fee(s) for each quota hunt application submitted. The WMA (elk hunts excluded) priority point system gives a priority point for each year a hunter participates (this year a maximum of 13 points) without being successfully drawn for a hunt. Applicants drawn for a hunt last year will start over with a priority of zero. After all the drawings are conducted, leftover permits will be sold on-line, on a first-come, first-serve basis beginning Aug. 26 at 8 a.m. (CDT). The states 12th gun elk hunt will be held Oct. 10-16 with seven individuals selected to participate. Six of the participants will be selected through a computer drawing conducted by the TWRA. The seventh participant will be the recipient of a permit that is donated to a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), which is the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation. That permit will be issued in a raffle for the third year. Additionally, this will be the fourth year for an archery only elk hunt with seven permits. Elk archery hunt dates are Sept. 26-Oct. 2. (@ChaudhryMAli88) La Paz, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jun, 2020 ) :Bolivia's Interim President Jeanine Anez on Wednesday proposed postponing the country's general election a second time, citing an expected peak in the number of coronavirus infections in the South American country. The country's legislature last week approved September 6 as the date for the elections, already delayed by the pandemic, although the decision still has to be ratified by Anez. "Postponing probably for a month or two months is not going to hurt anyone," Anez said in a speech in the southern city of Tarija. A delayed election "means all Bolivians would win," the right-wing leader said. She added however that she would "abide by everything established by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, because we all want elections." The September 6 date was approved after an agreement between the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the political parties. However, Anez's right-wing party abstained from the vote in Congress that approved the deal. Conservative Anez, a former senator, has been interim president since assuming power in November after socialist leader Evo Morales fled the country following three weeks of protests over his controversial re-election. Pressure is growing on Anez to ratify the new date. Electoral Tribunal chief Salvador Romero said in an interview with Red Uno tv on Tuesday it was important to promulgate the law "to give certainty to the citizens and the country about the celebration of an electoral process that is essential for democracy in Bolivia." Anez last Friday sent a letter to Senate leader Eva Copa asking her to "take public responsibility" for the decision to hold elections on September 6, around the time when the government expects the pandemic to peak. In her reply, Copa referred to the Electoral Tribunal agreement with the political parties. If Anez doesn't sanction the new law, under Bolivia's constitution Copa could step in to ratify it. Health authorities estimate that the country coronavirus epidemic will reach its peak in late July or early August, with some 100,000 infections and between 4-7,000 fatalities. By Tuesday, the authorities had registered more than 19,000 infections with 632 deaths. Rebel Wilson has left her Instagram followers stunned after showing off her weight-loss journey. Earlier on this year Rebel said that 2020 would be her 'Year of Health' as she tried to get to her goal weight of 75kg. She's been keeping fans in the loop with her progress and over the last few days has shared quite a few posts on her Instagram showing off the results so far! Her followers were quick to praise Rebel... WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - JetBlue Airways is planning to outsource positions at smaller airports across its network and to offer voluntary opt out programs for up to 300 employees, Business Insider reported citing an internal email. The planned transition to a 'full Business Partner model', due to the impact of coronavirus, is expected to begin on October 1. Under the new plan, JetBlue will lay off staff members and use outside contractors for positions of gate agents and baggage handlers. The report quoted Mike Parkinson, JetBlue's vice president of airports experience, as saying, 'The continued impact of coronavirus on our industry has left us no choice but to look for new ways to run our airline.' As per the report, the opt out programs include free travel for up to 9 years, healthcare, and extended pay, depending on the plan, and based on employee's experience. The choices include opt out with perks, opt out with cash, and long-term time off. Many airlines across the globe are struggling to continue operations and were forced to lay off staff as commercial traffic plummeted after the rapid spread of the coronavirus sharply reduced demand for air travel. 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. Two days before the hearing, the courthouse closed due to the pandemic. A court date in June was delayed until July. And Warren, 44, an ex-gang member who remains in Cook County Jail, is starting to wonder if this is ever going to be over. Now the wait for him and other inmates is becoming more challenging as some jails and prisons have seen COVID-19 outbreaks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that although India wants peace, when instigated it is capable of giving a befitting reply. The prime minister gave a brief address on the Ladakh face-off right before beginning his virtual meeting with the chief ministers and heads of 15 states and Union territories. PM Modi said that the sacrifice of soldiers who lost their lives on Monday will not go in vain. The PM, along with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers, observed a two-minute silence as a tribute to the soldiers who got killed in the recent military stand-off with China. I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important...India wants peace but it is capable to give a befitting reply if instigated: PM Narendra Modi #IndiaChinaFaceOff pic.twitter.com/kFIC3F1fE4 ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in a face-off with Chinese troops along the undefined Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh on Monday. According to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), PM Modi will also hold an all-party meeting on Friday to discuss the situation on the countrys border with China. Here are the key highlights of PM Modis address: I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not go in vain. India wants peace but it is capable to give a befitting reply if instigated. India has always worked with its neighbours in a cooperative and friendly manner, hoped for their growth and development. Weve always tried to resolve differences and not let them turn into disputes. The unity and sovereignty of the country is of the utmost importance and we wont compromise with it. Nobody should test our patience. Valour and courage are also part of our countrys character as much as sacrifice is. Nation takes pride in the fact that our valiant soldiers lost their lives while fighting. In Vienna, a gentleman was fined for farting "with full intent" at police officers. According to the police report, the man was ticketed for "offending public decency." From ABC News: City police wrote on Twitter that "of course no one is reported for accidentally 'letting one go.'" They added that the man had behaved "provocatively and uncooperatively" during an encounter with officers that preceded the incident. He got up from a park bench, looked at officers and "let go a massive intestinal wind apparently with full intent," they said. "And our colleagues don't like to be farted at so much." All passengers travelling from abroad should get themselves tested for Covid-19 before boarding: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan To improve contact mapping in Delhi's containment zones, health surveys have been started: Ministry of Home Affairs spokesperson From 18 June, Tests will be done via new Rapid Antigen methodology approved by ICMR: MHA spokesperson Former Union minister and veteran RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has tested positive for Covid-19 A doctor attends to a man at a mobile medical clinic organised by Doctors Without Borders in San Salvador, El Salvador. (Reuters) As the pandemic continues to force nations to prepare for a second wave researchers in the UK have found that dexamethasone, a 60-year-old anti-inflammatory medicine, reduces the death rate of patients who are ventilators by a third and by a fifth among those who are on oxygen. People critically ill due to Covid-19 experienced dexamethasones benefits. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic Dexamethasone also brought relief to the UK's government who faced criticism for handling the pandemic. In South America, Brazil has reported a record increase in the number of cases reported daily. While hospitalizations and Covid-19 deaths decrease in New York, 2.12 million people continue to be affected by coronavirus in the US. Delhi and Maharashtra struggle to curb the contagion as cases continue to rise in these mega-cities. While the Indian market has fallen more than 10 percent in the past year, fund managers have used the volatility to raise stake consistently in more than 150 stocks in the same period, data from AceEquity showed. There are as many as 156 BSE stocks where fund managers have raised stake consistently in the last 4 quarters. The stocks include Jubilant FoodWorks, Shree Cement, CRISIL, Tata Consumer Products, Gujarat Gas and GMM Pfaudler. Out of those, 30 top stocks rallied 10-200 percent in the last one year. Two stocks which more than doubled investors money are Alkyl Amines, and GMM Pfaudler. Table: Top 30 stocks with MF holdings in each quarter (in %) Over the last 4 quarters, fund managers have gradually increased exposure in beaten-down sectors like Cement, Pharma, Power to name a few. This is a clear indication that the fund managers are moving on from cyclical sectors to search for more stability and better performance in the portfolio, Amit Singh, Head, Investica - an online platform for investing in mutual funds, told Moneycontrol. With the recent market fall, the valuations of tail end large-cap and mid-cap companies have gone down significantly making them a good buy from a risk-reward point of view. While the economy will take some time to recover, investors should be careful while investing in individual stocks, he said. Stocks in which fund managers have raised the stake should only be taken as a reference point for stock selection. Investors should evaluate the company on their own based on their risk profile before pressing the buy button, suggest experts. Also, it is difficult to say when fund mangers entered a particular stock, and what is the time horizon? Consistent addition of stake does add to confidence, but investors should stick to fundamentally strong companies amid rising volatility. On the other hand, out of 156 companies in which fund managers have raised their stake, 116 have given negative returns, and 101 companies have fallen 10-70 percent in the last one year. There are more than 100 companies that have fallen in double digits in the last one year in which fund managers have raised the stake. The list includes names like Delta Corp, Chalet Hotels, Cyient, Chennai Petro, Arvind Fashion, and Tejas Networks, etc. among others, data from AceEquity showed. Table: 22 stocks that fell more than 50% in past year with MF holdings in each quarter (in %) The recent downfall had resulted in the stocks to correct a lot and most of them are trading at cheap valuations. As Fund managers buy stocks for the long term, so there is no surprise that they are relatively more interested in acquiring or increasing stakes in the companies of their desire, Nitin Shahi, Executive Director, Findoc told Moneycontrol. As mentioned earlier fund managers do not buy for short term and this shows their confidence in the long term story of the country. Investors should consider it and can shortlist stocks or sectors which they are comfortable with, he said. What should investors do? Investors should use the list as a reference point for making investments, and not blindly follow what fund managers are doing. Most of the stocks lapped up by fund managers are because of attractive valuations and most are of good pedigree. Sorting stocks where mutual funds have increased stake could be a good starting point, suggest experts. While one could follow somebody's investment style, investment decisions should always be based on company financials and cash flows and relevant return ratios and most importantly confidence in the management, Paras Bothra, President of Equity Research, Ashika Stock Broking told Moneycontrol. In these challenging times, companies run by strong management and having strong business models will overcome quickly, he said. : The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. AMSTERDAM Montgomery County officials will launch a "Buy It In Montgomery" campaign Friday that will seek to support local businesses as they recover from the economically crippling pandemic. Montgomery County Executive Matthew L. Ossenfort and Montgomery County Business Development Center CEO Ken Rose will unveil a new logo for the campaign and discuss the county's new online business directory. Coronavirus is not expected to stop growth in Toronto, which was fueled by immigration in 2019 Toronto will still be attractive to immigrants after coronavirus Toronto will still be attractive to immigrants after coronavirus Coronavirus is not expected to stop growth in Toronto, which was fueled by immigration in 2019 Toronto will still be attractive to immigrants after coronavirus Coronavirus is not expected to stop growth in Toronto, which was fueled by immigration in 2019 Toronto will still be attractive to immigrants after coronavirus Coronavirus is not expected to stop growth in Toronto, which was fueled by immigration in 2019 Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Toronto was the fastest growing city in Canada and the U.S. last year, thanks to immigration. A recent analysis out of Ryerson University concluded that Toronto saw the most growth in terms of the city and the metropolitan area, which include municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Metropolitan Toronto grew by approximately 130,000 people in the 12 months leading up to July 1, 2019. Most of these gains were led by immigration. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington came in second place as it grew by nearly 120,000 residents. Though coronavirus has seen Canadas immigration numbers fall in recent months, Toronto is still expected to see growth driven by immigration once Canadas newcomer levels recover. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs Why do so many immigrants choose Toronto? Immigrants are attracted to a particular community based on a number of factors including jobs, community, settlement supports, and infrastructures such as transportation, access to housing and education. Jobs, community, and family ties, are the most important drivers, according to the Conference Board of Canada. Jobs Toronto has a lively technology sector that is still growing in industries that have adjusted to the changing demands spurred by coronavirus. There are multiple pathways to Canadian permanent residence for skilled foreign workers in tech who want to immigrate to Canada. The most notable way is by submitting a profile under the Express Entry system. Toronto is the capital city of Ontario, so foreigners who work in tech may be eligible for the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) Tech Draws if they have an Express Entry profile. Canada also offers the Global Talent Stream, which has a two-week processing standard for eligible employers hiring foreign tech workers. Last year Toronto was named the top city in terms of brain gain in the 2019 Scoring Tech Talent report. This means there were more jobs created in tech than there were university graduates from tech programs. Even for non-tech workers, Toronto has a highly diversified service-oriented economy. There are opportunities in many sectors such as finance, health, and real estate. Community With over 100,000 immigrants coming to Toronto every year, the city has a reputation for being one of the worlds most multicultural centres. Toronto is the most populous city in Canada, with nearly half of its residents being foreign-born. The GTA alone took in 118,000 immigrants last year, a third of the total number of immigrants to Canada. There were more immigrants that went to Toronto in 2019 than the four Atlantic provinces, the three territories, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba combined. Settlement supports Toronto has about 200 settlement support locations available to immigrants. These organizations include support for housing, language training, and health among others. Tailored supports are available for women, as well as specific nationalities and religions. Infrastructure; housing, transportation, education Considering all other factors, the high cost of living in Toronto is not a deterrent for new immigrants. There are multiple modes of public transportation such as buses, subways, streetcars, and regional trains. It is also home to the Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ). There are six universities and four colleges in Toronto. The University of Toronto consistently ranks as one of the top universities in the world. U of T recently improved to the number 25 spot in the QS World University Rankings for 2021. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved Workers sow grass seeds to prevent desertification in Zhongwei, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, in 2019. [Photo/Xinhua] The forestry authority announced on Wednesday that China has made a great achievement to combat desertification, with a total of 8.8 million hectares of desertified land under control and another 2.2 million to be included by the end of the year. June 17 marks Desertification and Drought Day, a United Nations observance day that will in 2020 focus on changing public attitudes to the leading driver of desertification and land degradation: humanity's relentless production and consumption. On Wednesday, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration announced it will establish a special office to implement the United Nation's Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Desertification is the process of degradation of once fertile land into arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. The main reason for desertification is attributed to overexploitation and inappropriate usage of land areas through deforestation, overgrazing and substandard irrigation practices. According to the United Nations, land degradation has impacted almost a third of the Earth's arable land in the last 40 years, a landmass nearly half the size of the European Union. And China is severely affected by desertification, with more than a quarter of its territory covered in desert. Holding some of the largest and most aggressive deserts in the world, China joined the convention in 1996. Thanks to decades of unremitting efforts, the area in China covered by deserts has shrunk by nearly 2,000 square kilometers every year. Hyderabad, June 17 : The mortal remains of Colonel B. Santosh Babu, who was killed by Chinese troops in a clash in Ladakh on Monday, were brought here by an aircraft on Wednesday night. An Army aircraft carrying the body landed at Hakimpet Airport Station. Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, state ministers K. T. Rama Rao, Mohammed Mehmood Ali, Malla Reddy, MP Revanth Reddy and other leaders paid their respects to the martyr. Cyberabad Commissioner of Police V.C. Sajjanar and senior Army officers also paid the homage. The body of Santosh Babu (39) was later taken to his home town Suryapet in a special ambulance. The last rites will be performed in Suryapet Thursday morning. Earlier, the Coloner's family members arrived in Hyderabad from New Delhi and later left for Suryapet. The martyred officer's wife Santoshi, nine-year-old daughter Abhigna and four-year-old son Anirudh were received at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport by Cyberabad Police Commissioner Sajjanar and senior Army officials. Santosh Babu and 19 soldiers killed in the clashes with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley of Ladakh on Monday. The news of Santosh's martyrdom was first conveyed to his wife in Delhi on Monday night while his parents who live in Suryapet were informed Tuesday afternoon. Santosh, Commanding Officer of 16 Bihar Regiment, had been serving on Indo-China border for the last one-and-half year and his family was looking forward to his transfer to Hyderabad. The transfer was delayed due to COVID-19. A pall of gloom descended on Suryapet as people from a cross section of society mourned the death of the braveheart. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) Three buildings occupied by the Department of Justice in Manila will be closed for almost two weeks after five employees tested positive for the coronavirus, Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Wednesday. Guevarra said the DOJ's main building, the new building of the National Prosecution Service, and the annex building located near the Court of Appeals within the Padre Faura complex will be shut down for the next 12 days "due to possible exposure to COVID-positive employees reporting therein." DOJ Undersecretary and Spokesperson Markk Perete said five employees were confirmed to have the disease. On-site work will resume on Monday, June 29, Guevarra added. He clarified that of the five employees with COVID-19, three report to each of the buildings, one works in the field office, and one is a security guard hired through an outsourcing agency. During this time, DOJ employees will work from home, while the agency will continue to receive affidavits, motions, and other documents related to scheduled preliminary investigations. Otherwise, it may need to be reset. Guevarra said 72 of 536 DOJ employees and outsourced personnel at the main office tested positive using rapid test kits, who were recommended to take the more accurate swab tests in nearby hospitals. CNN Philippines' Senior Correspondent Anjo Alimario contributed to this report. We understand that we cant allow the pandemic to halt the day-to-day functioning of government. But we also think its important to provide an outlet for people to log instances in which the spirit of the law may have been violated. - Mary Z. Connaughton With most public meetings taking place remotely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pioneer Institute has unveiled an online hotline that allows members of the public to report potential violations of the Commonwealths and other states Open Meeting Law. In March, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker issued an executive order suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law. The order allows municipal officials to participate in public meetings remotely and allows public bodies to post a recording and full transcript of meetings on the municipal website if the public body, for reasons of economic hardship and despite best efforts, is unable to provide public access via telephone, internet, video conferencing or other alternative means. A number of states have made similar changes. We understand that we cant allow the pandemic to halt the day-to-day functioning of government, said Pioneers Director of Government Transparency Mary Z. Connaughton. But we also think its important to provide an outlet for people to log instances in which the spirit of the law may have been violated. People can access the hotline at https://pioneerinstitute.org/survey-open-meeting-laws/. Complaints will be made public. Open Meeting Laws provide the public with access, said Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios. The resulting accountability is a key tool for ensuring that governments act in the public interest. About Pioneer Mission Pioneer Institute develops and communicates dynamic ideas that advance prosperity and a vibrant civic life in Massachusetts and beyond. Vision Success for Pioneer is when the citizens of our state and nation prosper and our society thrives because we enjoy world-class options in education, healthcare, transportation and economic opportunity, and when our government is limited, accountable and transparent. Values Pioneer believes that America is at its best when our citizenry is well-educated, committed to liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise, and both willing and able to test their beliefs based on facts and the free exchange of ideas. Tourism Tasmania is being mocked online for an advertising campaign that critics say reinforces the insulting stereotype that residents of the island state are inbred. The 'Make Yourself at Home campaign' is aiming to keep Tasmanians travelling locally while COVID-19 restrictions remain in place. But a phrase embedded in the middle of the video is being ridiculed for an old joke popular among mainlanders that the islanders are all inbred. The video features footage showcasing some of the state's incredible wilderness including native wildlife like Tasmanian devils and wombats. 'We are all family here,' the ad reads over the top of two wombats nuzzling each other But the choice of wording at the one-minute and eight-second-mark has been raising questions. 'We are all family here,' the ad reads over the top of two wombats nuzzling each other. The reference has resulted in dozens of jokes about Tasmanians all being related due to inbreeding on the island. The 'Make Yourself at Home campaign' launched by Tourism Tasmania is aiming to keep Tasmanians travelling locally while COVID-19 restrictions remain in place 'Hear me out guys.....maybe...maybe we lean into the incest?' one commenter wrote. 'At least they are finally admitting it,' another said, while another commenter suggested the wombats looked a lot alike'. But Tourism Tasmania's CEO John Fitzgerald told bandt.com.au the community has embraced the campaign rather than fixating on old jokes. 'As a state and a people, we've moved beyond the stereotypes of the past and we're glad that so many Tasmanians see it as a celebration of Tasmania and its people including how we come together as a community when times are tough.' While it wasn't widely publicised at the time, Tourism Tasmania's recent brand relaunch in October also used some questionable wording. While it wasn't widely publicised at the time, Tourism Tasmania's recent brand relaunch in October also used some questionable wording The brand relaunch encouraged visitors to 'come down for air', released just prior to the catastrophic bushfires on the mainland The brand relaunch encouraged visitors to 'come down for air', released just prior to the catastrophic bushfires on the mainland. While the campaign was not making reference to the smoke choking Sydney and Canberra, the timing couldn't have been worse for tourism authorities. On a recent Facebook thread many supported the creative concept, but the timing was criticised by a select few. 'Is it an insensitive shot/marketing strategy at all whove had to breath and live with smoke/bushfire devastation these past several months?' one woman wrote. [June 17, 2020] Kahoot! Brings In 30k+ Educators Globally For Its Inaugural Kahoot! EDU Summit OSLO, Norway, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kahoot! , the global learning platform company, kicked off its inaugural virtual Kahoot! EDU Summit, a free, all-day event for teachers and school administrators to explore educational products, discuss the future of education, and learn new skills for the upcoming school year. The EDU Summit garnered over 30,000 registrants from more than 120 countries, which consisted of teachers and administrators in K-12 and higher education, as well as anyone interested in the future of education. Due to COVID-19 forcing schools to close early and potentially remain fully or partially closed for the upcoming academic year, access to effective digital tools to support virtual learning is more important than ever. To empower teachers with resources and knowledge for the next year, the Summit featured sessions from the Kahoot! team, Kahoot! partnersincluding Britannica, United Nations, Common Sense Education, Microsoft, Google and moreas well as inspiring educators and leaders in education innovation. Topics covered during the event included distance learning, virtual and blended learning, insights-driven instruction, inclusive and social emotional learning, and technology tools teachers can use. With content relevant for both K-12 and higher education, the Summit empowered educators and educational leaders at all levels to respond to the challenges of the 2020/2021 school year and shape the future of learning. Kahoot! announced several key initiatives at the event including: Kahoot! announced Kahoot! Academy , a global knowledge platform, community and marketplace for educators , a global knowledge platform, community and marketplace for educators Kahoot! demoed interactive lessons and all-new reports that facilitate formative assessment and that facilitate formative assessment Kahoot! previewed study leagues coming for back-to-school 2020: a new take on virtual groups that will make studying with peers more exciting Gina Ruffcorn , 5th Grade Teacher at West Harrison Elementary in Mondamin, Iowa . "Kahoot! EDU Summit not only provided informative sessions to prepare me for the school year but also provided a forum for support, discussion and reflection with other educators. I feel confident going into the next academic year knowing that my Kahoot! toolbox is stocked and ready to go!" "The response to the Kahoot! EDU Summit has been overwhelmingly positive, with thousands attending the virtual event to be inspired and better equipped for the classroom of the future," said Eilert Hanoa, CEO, Kahoot! "We will bring more events and resources to empower teachers around the world, such as the newly launched Kahoot! Academy, and continue our journey to becoming the leading learning platform in the world." Recorded sessions from the Kahoot! EDU Summit are available for all educators to watch here. To learn more about how Kahoot! can support your virtual classroom, visit the website or read the starter guide to distance learning with Kahoot! . For updates on all Kahoot! events, features, and offerings, follow on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram . About Kahoot! Kahoot! is on a mission to make learning awesome! We want to empower every child, student and employee to unlock their full learning potential. Our game-based learning platform makes it easy for any individual or corporation to create, share and play learning games that drive serious engagement. In addition, our family of apps takes math learning to a new level and empowers children to learn to read through play. Launched in 2013, Kahoot!'s vision is to build the leading learning platform in the world. In 2020, more than 218 million games have been played so far on the Kahoot! platform with 1.3 billion participating players in 200 countries. The company is headquartered in Norway with offices in the US, the UK, France and Finland. Let's play! Media Contact: Falguni Bhuta [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kahoot-brings-in-30k-educators-globally-for-its-inaugural-kahoot-edu-summit-301078761.html SOURCE Kahoot! [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] VIENNA and SAN DIEGO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lexogen, a transcriptomics and Next Generation Sequencing company, and OnRamp Bioinformatics, a provider of cloud-based genomic analysis and collaboration tools, announced availability for the QuantSeq 3' mRNA-Seq data analysis pipeline on ROSALIND, the globally recognized discovery platform for scientists and researchers. The partnership enhances QuantSeq 3' mRNA-Seq data analysis with ROSALIND's visual data exploration and deep pathway interpretation with more than 50 knowledge bases. Lexogen's QuantSeq 3' mRNA-Seq is a straightforward, fast, and cost-efficient method for library preparation. It has been widely used for expression profiling analysis and is currently featured in more than 470 publications. "QuantSeq is a well-established library preparation kit, validated by researchers who have used it for a broad range of applications. We are continuously enhancing the workflow based on the user feedback, and offering a complete solution including data analysis has always been top priority", said Dalia Daujotyte, Chief Commercial Officer at Lexogen. As a platform for scientists, ROSALIND empowers QuantSeq 3' customers to analyze, interpret and collaborate globally on differential gene expression analysis without the need for specialized bioinformatics or programming skills. "Through our collaborations, it is our goal to provide full transcriptome analysis solutions vetted by experts in their fields. Access to QuantSeq data processing on ROSALIND not only gives an opportunity to an in-depth gene expression analysis, but also enables collaboration and multi-omics work without leaving the environment", added Daujotyte. "QuantSeq 3' has been a game-changer for our biotech and pharma clients adopting RNA-seq, with the compelling economics to support high volume and the ability to assess the whole transcriptome," said Tim Wesselman, CEO of OnRamp Bio. "With ROSALIND, QuantSeq users of every skill level are empowered to visually explore same day results, save valuable time and restore the thrill of discovery," added Wesselman. The usage of ROSALIND for QuantSeq data analysis and interpretation will be demonstrated in the GenomeWeb webinar "Integration of 3'mRNA-Seq and ChIP-Seq Datasets to Disentangle Redundant Epigenetic Regulatory Mechanisms", taking place on June 18, 2020. Register here: bit.ly/2AN9URF 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. To learn more, visit www.lexogen.com and follow @lexogen. Contact person: Jekaterina Aleksejeva Senior Marketing Manager Tel.: +43 699 1023 8946 Email: [email protected] About OnRamp Bioinformatics OnRamp BioInformatics is the San Diego genomics software company that develops and maintains the ROSALIND discovery and collaboration platform designed for biologists and researchers. ROSALIND is globally deployed and trusted by top pharma, biotech and research institutions as the leading cloud platform for transcriptomics and epigenetics with comprehensive QC, deep pathway interpretation, advanced multi-omic meta-analyses and collaborative gene signatures. To learn more, visit www.onramp.bio and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn (@OnRampBio). Contact person: Cassandra Elwell Investor Relations & Communications Officer Tel.: +1 855 766 7267 ext. 708 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Lexogen Related Links http://www.lexogen.com Sudhir Suryawanshi By Express News Service MUMBAI: Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday demanded a befitting reply to Chinas aggression at Galwan Valley area. Raut said the people of India are with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he should show aggression. Jitendra Awhad, NCP minister said that the time has come for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reply to China and take revenge for the death of our 20 soldiers. He said that it is enough drama now, the country needs actions against China. 20 Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a fierce clash with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. Sanjay Raut who is also Rajya Sabha member and executive editor of Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana tweeted, Prime Minister, you are brave and a warrior...Under your leadership, the country will take revenge against China. When will a befitting reply be given to Chinas aggression? he asked. Without a single bullet being fired, our 20 soldiers were martyred. What did we do? How many Chinese soldiers were killed? Raut tweeted. In the current situation, the country is with the PM. But what is the truth? Speak something. The country wants to know the truth. Jai Hind, he said. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar paid tributes the Indian soldiers, who attained martyrdom while protecting the countrys borders at the Galwan valley on the Indo-China border. Maharashtra Congress president and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should show his 56-inch chest. Our army is strong and people also need to know the truth about what is exactly happening. The sacrifice of the Indian soldiers should not go waste. China has entered in our area. We should protect our borders effectively. This is the time to show the strong leadership, Thorat said adding that all Indians were united in maintaining the country's unity and sovereignty. The yearlong search for the next superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system will come to a close Thursday night when the School Board gathers to choose between two out-of-state educators who are finalists for the post. Leslie Brown, 62, and Nakia Towns, 46, sat down for interviews before the School Board on June 11. Those interviews capped three days of visits, interviews with small groups as well as a public town hall meeting where they sat side by side. The meeting is set to start at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Professional Development Center, 3000 N. Sherwood Forest Drive. It will be conducted in person and virtually. Board member Dadrius Lanus said Wednesday that he is supporting Towns, who serves as chief of staff for Hamilton County, Tennessee, public schools. I think just right now and for what we need, Dr. Towns is the one, Lanus said. Lanus, however, said the board looks to be evenly split between support for Towns and support for Brown, who is chief of portfolio services for Broward County, Florida, and he expects one of the nine board members to break the tie Thursday night. Brown and Towns were selected as finalists on May 21 after a search that was put on hold for several weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak. Two in-house school administrators, Adam Smith and Quentina Timoll, fell short that night, as did a prominent out-of-state candidate, Marshall Tuck of Los Angeles, who was strongly promoted by a few business and community leaders. Timoll days later accepted a job as chief of staff to incoming Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley. EBR educator named to top post in state Department of Education In his first major appointment, state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley on Friday named a top official of the East Baton Rouge Parish s The person selected Thursday night would replace outgoing Superintendent Warren Drake, whose contract ends June 30. To ease the transition, the board plans on Thursday to extend Drakes contract a month so he can help the new superintendent prepare for the new school year, which starts Aug. 6. Drake, who took over as superintendent in June 2015, said the coronavirus has ensured hell be around. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up My wife and I were going to go on a retirement trip but the pandemic did away with that, Drake said. The board also plans to revise its superintendent qualifications policy, removing language that no longer conforms with state law. State law, however, has consequences if Towns is chosen. Towns, who has not worked before as a classroom teacher, is a non-traditional candidate. She left a career in corporate America in 2010 for a job as a school administrator in Knoxville and has remained in education ever since. If selected, state law requires that she, within 120 days of starting, hire a chief academic officer who possesses all the traditional credentials of a school superintendent in Louisiana. The key reason is that Louisiana requires that traditional superintendents have a teaching certificate and those coming from out of state possess a valid teaching certificate from another state with authorization to serve as a school superintendent. Brown meets that requirement, but Towns does not, acknowledged Gwynn Shamlin, general counsel for the school system. Brown has spent 41 years in education, including 12 classroom teacher; her teachers license in Florida certifies her in art as well in educational leadership. The first and only non-traditional superintendent hired in East Baton Rouge was Charlotte Placide, who was promoted from the school system's finance office to become superintendent, a job she held from 2004 to 2009. Placide at the time had to hire a chief academic officer. +3 Private meals between board members and Baton Rouge schools leader finalists violate law, lawyer says The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board is planning to a series of private meals next week with the two finalists to lead Louisianas second- Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed last week by the Baton Rouge NAACP that was trying to force a revote on the superintendent finalists is not scheduled for a court hearing until July 3, long after Thursdays vote. Attorney Donald Hodge, who is representing the NAACP, said he spoke Wednesday afternoon with State District Judge Janice Clark and she'd like to hold a status conference Thursday with Hodge and a school system attorney to discuss the matter. MBABANE - There are concerns that patients who visit the Mbabane Public Health Unit (PHU) may be exposed to contracting the coronavirus. This follows that six of the public health unit employees tested positive for the virus but the premises were not fumigated. Also, colleagues of the six employees were only sent to isolation recently, meaning its unknown if they had infected others or not. The institution has had to make do with a limited number of staff after some of the workers tested positive for COVID-19. Following six healthcare workers testing positive for COVID-19 and others who have been recently isolated, the unit under the Ministry of Health has been stretched in as far as human resources is concerned. The total number of healthcare workers stationed at the PHU could not be ascertained. The Mbabane PHU mainly offers family planning programmes including child immunisation and pre-natal care. Their main clients are pregnant women and babies who flock the facility on a daily basis. Orderly According to sources close to the matter, but who spoke on condition of anonymity, it all started a few weeks back when an orderly tested positive for the coronavirus. None of the other staff members were isolated after their colleague tested positive. I assume this is when the virus spread, resulting in others contracting it, he said. He also said last week, two of the healthcare workers tested positive and three tested positive this week. In total, six orderlies and nurses at the Mbabane PHU have tested positive for coronavirus. The staff was isolated just recently, otherwise they continued working even after their colleagues had tested positive. Those who have been cleared have been sent back to work, he said. He said the main concern raised by healthcare workers was that the facility had not been fumigated to date. We are concerned that our surfaces have been contaminated given the number of confirmed cases. Also, the nurses and orderlies are in contact with many of their colleagues, meaning they run the risk of being infected as well, he said. Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) President Bheki Mamba said they were aware that some nurses and orderlies had tested positive at the PHU. Mamba said they were happy that the necessary steps of isolating the exposed employees had now been taken. Our main worry is the patients who were in contact with the healthcare workers, said Mamba. He advised the Ministry of Health to embark on contact tracing of the patients and clients. I assume the people who visit their unit register and through this, they can be contacted and probably screened and tested, he said. He also insisted that the facility should be fumigated so that surfaces could be cleared of any viruses if any. Director of Health Services, Dr Vusi Magagula, said it was safe for people to continue going to the facility for medical attention. When asked what measures were taken to make the facility safe, he said the issue had been dealt with internally. Immunisation Parents should not stop bringing their children for immunisation. We guarantee them that it is still safe, said Dr Magagula. Magagula also said he could not divulge if the Mbabane PHU was fumigated as he insisted that means to ensure the facility was safe were taken. I cannot divulge much on the steps that were taken, he said briefly. When asked if the Ministry of Health had embarked on a contact tracing mission for the Mbabane PHU patients, Dr Magagula said there was a risk assessment that they were in the middle of as the Ministry of Health before actually tracking down suspected cases. Entering into a room with COVID-19 patients does not mean one is already infected, said Magagula. He explained that the intensity of risk widely varied depending on physical proximity with a confirmed case. The European Space Agency (ESA) has enlisted Airbus to help it build a Mars rover called 'Fetch' that will find and retrieve rock samples on the Red Planet. The defence and space arm of the aerospace corporation won the upcoming phase of the contract to develop the robot as part of the 'Mars Sample Return' mission. Fetch will travel across the surface of the Red Planet in 2028 collecting packaged rock samples left behind by the NASAs Perseverance rover. The four-wheeled ESA rover will ultimately transport these samples to a 'Mars Ascent Vehicle' which will carry them into orbit for collection by another ESA spacecraft. Scroll down for video The European Space Agency (ESA) has enlisted Airbus to help it build a Mars rover called 'Fetch' that will find and retrieve rock samples on the Red Planet. Pictured, an artist's impression of the Fetch rover (left) and the lander vehicle (right) Fetch will travel across the surface of the Red Planet in 2028 collecting packaged rock samples left behind by the NASAs Perseverance rover. The four-wheeled ESA rover will ultimately transport these samples to a 'Mars Ascent Vehicle' which will carry them into orbit for collection by another ESA spacecraft 'Its exciting for our Airbus team to have such a key involvement in the Mars Sample Return programme which is a major international collaboration to achieve a real world first in space exploration,' said Airbus project manager Ben Boyes. 'The Sample Fetch Rover project is a great opportunity to make use of the technology developed in the UK for Rosalind Franklin,' he added referring to the ESA's ExoMars mission rover that was also designed at Airbus. The Mars Sample Return rover will be launched from the Earth in 2026, arriving on the surface of the Red Planet in 2028. Fetch will need to travel an average of 656 feet (200 metres) across the Martian surface each day covering more than 9 miles over six months as it collects up to 36 of the metal sample containing tubes left behind by NASA's 2020 Mars rover. Once carried into orbit by the Mars Ascent Vehicle, the so-called 'Earth Return Orbiter' an ESA vehicle with a NASA payload will collect the samples and bring them back to earth for geologists to analyse, likely in the year 2031. Airbus have already developed the algorithms that will allow fetch to spot the sample tubes as it roams across the Martian surface. Meanwhile, a collective of European industries are working to design the robotic arm and grasping unit which will allow the rover to pick up the tubes and safely load them onboard in its front-mounted storage units. The Fetch rover will be designed with four large wheels two less than its Airbus predecessor, the Rosalind Franklin ExoMars Rover with the aim of best equipping it to handle the landing site terrain and the speed to collect the samples in due time. Fetch (depicted here with a car for scale) will need to travel an average of 656 feet (200 metres) across the Martian surface each day covering more than 9 miles over six months as it collects up to 36 of the metal sample tubes left behind by NASA's 2020 Mars rover The Mars Sample Return mission is a joint endeavour between the ESA and NASA. Its rover is being developed at Airbus' Stevenage facility, which recently completed the ESA Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover which is now scheduled to be launched in the summer of 2022. The initial phases of the Fetch rover, however, have been under development in Stevenage since the July of 2018. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in a face-off with Chinese soldiers at the border on Monday night. Initially, the Indian Army had put the number at three, but in an update on Tuesday evening, it said that 17 soldiers who were wounded in the clashes succumbed to injuries. The face-off has been going on for weeks. It began near the Pagong Lake in Ladakh on May 5-6. This is the first deadly conflict between India and China in at least 45 years. Around 43 Chinese soldiers have been injured in the violent face-off, pushing the bilateral relationship between the two nuclear powers to an all-time low. Here are the latest developments on the India-China face-off: The United States has said that it is closely monitoring the after the clashes between Indian and Chinese soldiers in eastern Ladakh. A senior State Department official said he hopes that the differences will be resolved peacefully. The army has said that both Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged from the Galwan valley area where the clashes took place. Senior military officers had held talks in the area to defuse the situation. In a statement, the army had said that it is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. The External Affairs Ministry said the violent face-off was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. Officials later said it could be a reference to an observation post set up by the Chinese troops on the Indian side of the LAC that was removed by Indian soldiers. The officer killed in the clash is Colonel Santosh Babu, Commanding Officer of the 16 Bihar regiment. These are the first Indian casualties in a border skirmish with the Peoples Liberation Army since October 1975 when Chinese troops ambushed an Indian patrol in Arunachal Pradeshs Tulung La sector and shot four soldiers dead. However, no shots were fired this time. Hindustan Times has learnt rival soldiers exchanged blows, threw stones at each other and Chinese troops even attacked Indian soldiers with rods and nail-studded clubs. The brawl went on for over six hours. Defence minister Rajnath Singh briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the developments along the Line of Control (LAC) on Tuesday evening and also held two meetings with chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs to assess the ground situation and review options. The situation remains tense at Pangong, which has been at the centre of the ongoing border scrap and where troops are still locked in a face-off. Democrats want to do away with chokeholds and similar maneuvers, while Republicans are encouraging narrower restrictions. the house bill TITLE 3, Sec. 363, p. 67: (2) CHOKEHOLDS AS CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. Section 242 of Title 18, United States Code, as amended by Section 101, is amended by adding at the end the following: For the purposes of this section, the application of any pressure to the throat or windpipe, use of maneuvers that restrict blood or oxygen flow to the brain, or carotid artery restraints which prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air is a punishment, pain or penalty. the senate bill TITLE 1, Sec. 105, p. 24: (1) DEFINITION. The term chokehold means a physical maneuver that restricts an individuals ability to breathe for the purposes of incapacitation. (2) FEDERAL POLICY. The attorney general shall develop a policy for federal law enforcement agencies that bans the use of chokeholds except when deadly force is authorized. The House bill would ban chokeholds and any neck-pressure maneuver that results in restricting an airway, classifying them as civil rights violations. It would also pressure state and local police departments to impose their own bans on such tactics, withholding critical federal grant money if they do not do so. The Senate measure also conditions federal grants on banning chokeholds, but defines the practice much more narrowly, applying it only to something done with the goal of incapacitating someone. It calls on the attorney general to develop new restrictions on chokeholds. Democrats would alter qualified immunity to allow victims of police brutality to seek damages; Republicans would not. the house bill Title 1, Sec. 102, p. 6. QUALIFIED IMMUNITY REFORM. Section 1979 of the Revised Statutes of the United 16 States (42 U.S.C. 1983) is amended by adding at the end the following: It shall not be a defense or immunity to any action brought under this section against a local law enforcement officer (as defined in Section 2 of the Justice 20 in Policing Act of 2020) or a state correctional officer (as defined in Section 1121(b) of Title 18, United States 22 Code) that (1) the defendant was acting in good faith, or that the defendant believed, reasonably or otherwise, that his or her conduct was lawful at the time when the conduct was committed; or (2) the rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws were not clearly established at the time of their deprivation by the defendant, or that at this time, the state of the law was otherwise such that the defendant could not reasonably have been expected to know whether his or her conduct was lawful. From Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, sponsor of The Senate bill My position has been that when the Democrats start talking about qualified immunity and the ability to aggressively pursue the officers at a higher threshold, that is a poison pill from my perspective. Is there a conversation that could be had around something different? Perhaps. The House bill would fundamentally alter the doctrine of qualified immunity, which offers legal protections to police officers for their actions in situations in which citizens are seeking damages for violations of their constitutional rights. The Senate legislation in its current form does not address the practice, though some Republicans indicated that they may be open to discussions around the issue. Senator Mike Braun, Republican of Indiana, told reporters on Tuesday that he would be introducing separate legislation that would change how qualified immunity was applied. Democrats would make it easier to prosecute police officers for misconduct. Republicans would call for de-escalation training for officers. the house bill TITLE 1, SEC. 101, p. 6: Section 242 of Title 18, United States Code, is amended (1) by striking willfully and inserting knowingly or with reckless disregard; and (2) by adding at the end the following: For purposes of this section, an act shall be considered to be death resulting if the act was a substantial factor contributing to the death of the person. The Senate Bill TITLE 6, Sec. 601, p. 58: The attorney general, in consultation with relevant law enforcement agencies of states and units of local government, labor organizations, professional law enforcement organizations and mental health organizations, shall develop training curricula in (A) alternatives to use of force and de-escalation tactics; and (B) safely responding to a person experiencing a behavioral health crisis, including techniques and strategies that are designed to protect the safety of the person experiencing the behavioral health crisis, law enforcement officers and the public. The Democratic bill would lower the bar for the prosecution of police officers for misconduct. While prosecutors currently need to prove that an officer willfully violated an individuals constitutional rights, the Democratic legislation would lower that standard to actions taken knowingly or with reckless disregard for a persons rights. A woman's plea deal for having sex with multiple teens while filming her misdeeds has been rejected by a local Idaho judge. District Judge Darren Simpson struck down the amended two counts of felon injury charges agreed upon by Amanda Katherine Steele, 34, who was initially charged with three felony counts of child sexual battery committed by lewd conduct. Simpson told defense attorney Shane Reichert that such a deal would require evidence that the teenage boys had suffered great bodily harm. 'I'm not going to accept a plea on some fiction,' Simpson said, the East Idaho News reports. 'I've got some concerns about being able to take a plea unless there is a factual basis for it.' District Judge Darren Simpson struck down the amended two counts of felon injury charges agreed upon by Amanda Katherine Steele, 34, who was initially charged with three felony counts of child sexual battery committed by lewd conduct Steele's attorney argued that the teens could suffer bodily harm while having sexual relations with an adult, making the felony injury to child charges sufficient. 'I don't understand the issue,' Riechert said. 'I've done it on multiple occasions.' Steele's binding plea agreement with the Butte County Prosecutor Steve Stephens dropped one of her charges after multiple boys came forward with claims that they had sex with the woman in 2016. According to court documents, the teens would skip school and Latter-Day Saint seminary so that they could have sex with Steele. Steel was living in Arco, Idaho, at the time of the escapades. Simpson told defense attorney Shane Reichert that such a deal would require evidence that the teenage boys had suffered great bodily harm While the victims considered the sexual acts consensual, Steele was charged because under Idaho law, a minor who is 16 and 17 cannot consent to sex with adults five or more years older than them. An investigation was launched in late 2017 when Steele's father in law contacted local authorities after hearing rumors that the woman was hanging out with a group of boys. The investigation was stalled in spring 2018 when the victims, Steele and others began giving conflicting answers during interviews. Steele's ex-husband finally admitted to authorities in July 2019 that Steele told him that she had been having sex with underage boys. He revealed the information following their divorce. The man shared that he came home one day to find Steele and one of her victims snuggling in a hot tub. When he tried stopping the activity, the ex-husband shared that the woman would become upset and 'tell him he's being ridiculous.' In 2019, one teen admitted to authorities that he had been having sex with Steele while underage. He shared that he used a Go-Pro camera to record one of their sexual encounters but claimed that the computer with the file was destroyed. According to court documents, the teens would skip school and Latter-Day Saint seminary so that they could have sex with Steele Another hearing has been set for September 30 at 9.30am and Stephens plans to go back to negotiations. 'I'm not trying to throw a wrench into the negotiations because it sounds like you've worked on it very hard,' Simpson said during the hearing. The initial plea agreement called for Steele to be given a sentence no longer than a retained jurisdiction or rider program, which would normally last up to a year. It also sought to seek to determine whether Steele was a low risk to re-offend, which would then lead to her being placed on probation with local jail time. She would have then served the jail time on weekends, when she did not have custody of her children. With a rider program, a person can be sent back to prison after a year of a program designed to treat things like sex abuse. European Solidarity's MPs have 'romantic breakfast' at Rada in support of McDonalds, its position on Ukrainian language The parliamentarian from the European Solidarity faction held a romantic breakfast under the Verkhovna Rada building in support of McDonalds, which took a principled position in relation to the Ukrainian language in service. "Today, Mykhailo Zabrodsky invited all our faction and journalists to a 'romantic breakfast.' What is its essence? The point is to communicate and support the Ukrainian language as well as to support those who regularly pay taxes in Ukraine," Co-chairperson of the faction Iryna Gerashchenko said. The MP said that today, McDonalds gives a good example in matters of social responsibility of business, respect for laws and the national language. "We urge all business to switch to Ukrainian," Gerashchenko said. According to Zabrodsky, "the United States is not only the Javelin ATGM, but also McDonalds." According to a correspondent of Interfax-Ukraine, MPs of the European Solidarity faction brought "orders" from McDonalds to the fifth entrance of the Verkhovna Rada, where journalists work, and had breakfast together with journalists. The menu included fries, burgers and coffee. The U.S. military has experienced a mix of tragedy, heroism, and innovation during the pandemic. Heres how COVID-19 is impacting the armed forces. This article was first published on Stacker The Acting President for the Bono Regional House of Chiefs and the Omanhene for Dwenim Traditional Council Nana Bofo Bene IV has said no chief has the right to prevent his subjects in taking part in a national exercises. He said although chiefs have authority over their subjects they cannot prevent them from exercising their constitutional rights as Ghanaians. Nana Bofo Bene IV, made the call when he was addressing the regional party executives of the New Patriotic Party in the Bono Region at his palace at Dwenim on Monday. The hierarchy of the New Patriotic Party in the Bono Region led by Kwame Baffoe Abronye DC is embarking on 3 day sensitisation visit to the various paramount chiefs (Nananom) in the region over the new voters registration exercise. Nana Nana Bofo Bene IV added that, chiefs must be ambassadors for peace and progress and therefore should support the decision of the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters register as enshrined in Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution and refrain from acts that have the tendency of plunging the country into chaos. Chairman Abronye in his remarks said the new voters register will not disenfranchise any qualified individual because it is a constitutional mandate which needs to be upheld and therefore Ghanaians should not fall foul to the lies and propaganda of the opposition NDC over the new voters register. 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 BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Fidan Babayeva Trend: The Azerbaijani Ministry of Energy will be provided with the proposals for carrying out reforms in the country's gas supply system, Trend reports on June 17 referring to the ministry. A contract was signed between the ministry and McKinsey & Company, one of the leading consulting companies in the world, to conduct the detailed diagnostics of the country's gas supply system, the message said. In accordance with the contract, the company will consult the ministry to prepare the proposals for carrying out reforms in this sphere to increase the efficiency of the gas supply system in Azerbaijan and the level of customer satisfaction taking into account the international experience. The diagnostic results will be used by the ministry to prevent losses in the gas supply system, improve the accuracy of measuring natural gas consumption in the country and formulate the detailed proposals for improving and modernizing the management, the message said. On the basis of these results, the proposals will be prepared for a phased transition to the market relations in the field of gas supply, to improve the investment efficiency and modernize the regulatory framework, the message said. The legislative initiatives that are considered necessary for carrying out the reforms are planned to be included in the new bill of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Gas Supply". The ministry was entrusted with the preparation of proposals for carrying out the reforms in this sphere to increase the efficiency of the gas supply system in the country and to meet the consumers' needs upon the Azerbaijani presidents order dated May 29, 2019 # 1209 "On accelerating the reforms in the energy sector of the Republic of Azerbaijan". The order also included the provisions on the preparation of a new bill of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On gas supply" on the basis of the proposals of the ministry. --- Follow the author on Twitter: Fidan_Babaeva Somrita Ghosh By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Delhi is set to see a surge in sample collections for Covid-19 testing after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) gave the go-ahead for rapid antigen testing. The state government is planning to introduce the rapid antigen kits in the most affected parts of the city. According to officials, these kits will be used for testing from June 20. We have started preparations. The kits are yet to come but we have identified places where it can be done and are in process of identifying staff and manpower, said Neha Bansal, district magistrate, West District. However, all the districts are not yet prepared to start antigen testing. South District officials noted that they have not taken any steps on using this kit. ALSO READ | COVID-19: Kejriwal government likely to use rapid antigen test kits in containment zones from June 20 After Sundays meeting with the Home Minister Amit Shah, the Delhi government said that they are also going to speed up testing using the RT-PCR protocol. They will double and triple the number of tests being done to 18,000 per day. The state health ministry had also asked private labs to connect with community healthcare centers to increase the capacity of testing. We have already increased testing. We are going to do more testing in containment zones on Wednesday. As of Tuesday, the number of tests is likely to go up to 1,600 in the West District, Bansal added. Antigen tests are conducted through swabbed nasal samples that detect antigens found on or within this virus. Compared to RT-PCR, the antigen tests take less time to get results. Proper diagnosis is required, one cannot be labelled wrongly positive or negative and thats the difficulty of these tests. It takes less time and thats the advantage, said Dr. Jugal Kishore, head, Community Medicine Department, Safdarjung Hospital. There are many asymptomatic cases and a good number of people are positive. Contact tracing and surveillance should continue in these areas because our focus should be on people who are having symptoms. They should be isolated. There, we can save lives. Deaths are happening because people are approaching late, they are scared. The Government needs to provide a smooth system of admission and treatment, added Dr. Kishore. Rising containment zones There are 242 containment zones in Delhi right now with the majority in North district, followed by South West District and South. Deadly violence in Himalayan region after thousands of troops from both sides face-off for weeks. At least 20 Indian soldiers have been killed after a violent confrontation with Chinese troops in the Himalayan region of Ladakh in the deadliest clash in nearly 50 years, with experts warning of a new geopolitical flashpoint in South Asia. New Delhi blamed Beijing for Mondays clash in Galwan Valley near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) where the Chinese and Indian troops have been engaged in a standoff since early last month. The heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries have drawn international concerns, with the UN urging both sides to exercise maximum restraint. The two sides previously fought a brief and bloody war over the demarcation of the border in the region in 1962. Indias External Affairs Ministry on Wednesday accused the Chinese side of attempting to unilaterally change the status quo in Galwan Valley a key geostrategic junction in the Himalayan region where India is building a road to connect to an airstrip close to China. A satellite image shows Galwan Valley in the disputed Ladakh region [Planet Labs Inc/Reuters] The Indian army in a statement said the violent face-off took place on Monday night during the de-escalation process in the Galwan Valley. It said there were casualties on both sides. China has not officially commented on the casualty figures on its side. India said since early May thousands of Chinese troops have crossed to the Indian side of the LAC, the 3,488km (2,167-mile) de facto border between the two neighbours, at several places Pangong Tso Lake, Galwan Valley and Demchok in Ladakh, and Nathu La in Sikkim and built bunkers and brought armoured trucks and artillery. Neither side has released a detailed account of Monday nights fighting as both governments have shared little information with the media. Indian officials, however, said no weapons were used in the clash, with soldiers engaged in brutal hand-to-hand fighting with clubs and staves about 4,270 metres (14,000 feet) above sea level amid sub-zero temperatures. China blamed India for the violent clashes and insisted it did not want the situation to escalate. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday the border situation was stable and controllable. Outrage in India The killing of Indian soldiers, including a colonel, has caused outrage in India with people calling on the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to boycott Chinese products. Beijing is Indias biggest trading partner, with annual bilateral trade worth $92bn. On Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress party, questioned Modis silence on the biggest border tension in decades. Enough is enough, we need to know what happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? he wrote on Twitter. Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 17, 2020 Later on Wednesday, Modi assured that the sacrifice of our jawans [soldiers] will not go in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important India wants peace but it is capable to give a befitting reply if provoked, said Modis statement carried by the local ANI news agency. Meanwhile, in a sign of de-escalation, foreign ministers from both countries spoke via telephone and agreed to cool down tensions. Indians protesters burn posters of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese-made goods during a protest against China, in Gurugram on the outskirts of New Delhi [Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto/Getty Images] Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi spoke to his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, on Wednesday and expressed his willingness for a diplomatic solution to the border crisis, Chinas foreign ministry said in a statement. The ministry said Jaishankar also expressed his countrys desire to peacefully resolve the border conflict and relieve regional tensions through dialogue. Chinese concerns, interests Analysts said the current standoff is a result of Chinas pushback against Indias construction of military infrastructure in border areas in recent years. I believe China has been concerned at Indian road building along the LAC particularly one road that was completed last year that essentially allows connectivity from Leh, the capital of Ladakh, all the way to Karakoram Pass, said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at The Wilson Center. The 255km (158-mile) Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO) road was inaugurated last year. China has objected to the extension of a branch of the DSDBO. Chinas economic corridor to Pakistan and Central Asia passes through Karakoram, which is close to the Galwan Valley. The disputed area is close to the Aksai Chin plateau, which is under Chinese control but claimed by India. Ladakh and eastern Ladakh is crucial for Chinas access to Central Asia and CPEC project with Pakistan in which they [China] have invested billions of dollars [about $60bn], said Happymon Jacob, professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University based in New Delhi. China is worried about it [Indias border military infrastructure] because you have a situation where China has lots of interests in that particular region. Jacob and Kugelman believe geopolitics is at play with China, a rising superpower, taking on India. I think that is the message that China is trying to convey through this confrontation to the other states [in the region], Jacob told Al Jazeera. New Delhis decision to revoke the special status of Indian-administered Kashmir last August also angered Beijing. Indian defence experts say China demanded New Delhi reverse its decision on the status of Kashmir. India repealed Article 370 of its constitution that guaranteed a measure of autonomy to Kashmir and subsequently carved out Ladakh from Kashmir and made it into a federally-administered territory. China, along with its close ally Pakistan, condemned Indias move and raised the issue at the UN Security Council (UNSC). Indian army trucks move along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangir in Kashmirs Ganderbal district [Danish Ismail/Reuters] Kugelman said geopolitical factors played a role in the latest escalation. I think any conversation about Chinese motivation for its recent provocation has to address the repeal of Article 370. I think its clear, Beijing responded strongly and quickly after India made that move last year. I think China looks at [the] Article 370 repeal similarly to Pakistan that India made a unilateral move that affected territory China claims [as] its own. I do think the Article 370 is very much a part of Chinas broader thinking, he said. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir a Muslim-majority Himalayan region that has witnessed armed rebellion against Indian rule. Strong US-India ties Kugelman said the other major geopolitical factor at play is the US-India-China triangle. While the US-China relationship has been collapsing, the US-India relationship has been rapidly growing. I think China understands that. Its message to India: If you want to get closer to my rival, thats fine, but look what we can do to you in return, he said, adding that US support to India has been much more public and robust this time. Jacob, the foreign policy professor, said India should reach out to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as Quad, with Japan and Australia. India and the US are the other members of this group. If the USA makes noises in favour of India and strengthens the Quad, it will send a message to China that we will take aggressive steps and will defend our interest, he said. They [Quad] should conduct more joint military exercises in [the] Indian ocean region where Chinese have major economic and commercial interests. Even they [the US] share fraction of information with India, the Indian planning vis a vis Chinese will improve drastically. As the two sides prepare for dialogue, their entrenched positions on controlling strategic areas in one of the harshest frontiers in the world might become an impediment to finding resolution to the border standoff. Galwan area a key strategic junction is particularly important for India due to its proximity to the Nubra valley, which is a feeder station for the Indian forces deployed in Siachen glacier. Pakistani forces are also deployed at in parts of Siachen dubbed the highest battlefield in the world at 6,000 metres (20,000 feet). Jacob says China would demand concession from the Indian side. They might say that Indian infrastructure in certain areas should not continue, he said. Chinese control of Galwan Valley could in the future threaten India in Siachen glacier. For Modi, a Hindu nationalist who won re-election in May 2019 following military conflagration with its foe Pakistan, the border crisis comes at a time when New Delhi is facing an economic crisis as it struggles to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Regional tensions Modis neighbourhood-first policy seems to be in tatters as it is now locked in border disputes with three of its neighbours, including its traditional friend Nepal. New Delhi and Kathmandu are engaged in what experts have called cartographic war. There is no question about the fact that India neighbourhood policy in last few years have been in complete failure, Jacob, the foreign policy professor, said. Even Bangladesh has issues with India after how ruling party leaders have been going on talking about Bangladeshi immigrants in India as termites. I think we are facing very tight situation at this point of time. On the one hand the major power in the region, China, is against India and on the other hand, smaller neighbours, which have been traditionally very friendly to India, are also negatively disposed to India. I think that is the major policy failure, he said. South Africa: President Ramaphosa orders men to stop the abuse President Cyril Ramaphosa has read the riot act to abusive South African men, who harm women and children, saying the barbaric attacks need to come to an end. Gender-based violence has once again reared its ugly head in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging large sections of the world. This, the President said, means the country is waging a war on two pandemics. In an impassioned address to the nation on Wednesday, President Ramaphosa expressed deep-felt regret at the recent wave of fatal attacks on women of all ages. As a man, as a husband and as a father, I am appalled at what is no less than a war being waged against the women and children of our country. At a time when the pandemic has left us all feeling vulnerable and uncertain, violence is being unleashed on women and children with a brutality that defies comprehension. These rapists and killers walk among us. They are in our communities. The perpetrators, the President said, are fathers, brothers, sons and friends. [These are] violent men with utterly no regard for the sanctity of human life. People with personalities Over the past few weeks, about 21 women and children have been murdered. Their killers thought they could silence them but we will not forget them, and we will speak for them where they cannot, the President said, calling the victims by name. They include Tshegofatso Pule, Naledi Phangindawo, Nompumelelo Tshaka, Nomfazi Gabada, Nwabisa Mgwandela, Altecia Kortjie and Lindelwa Peni - all young women who were killed by men. We will speak for the 89-year-old grandmother, who was killed in an old age home in Queenstown; the 79-year-old grandmother, who was killed in Brakpan and the elderly woman, who was raped in KwaSwayimane in KwaZulu-Natal. The victims, he said, were not mere statistics but people with personalities. In his address, the President commended the police for arresting almost all of the alleged perpetrators. As these suspects make bail applications this week, I have the utmost confidence that our courts will send the strongest of signal that such violence has no place in society. National Strategic Plan In 2019, President Ramaphosa announced a R1.6 million Emergency Response Plan to combat gender-based violence and femicide. Government now has a National Strategic Plan to guide the countrys national effort against GBV. During the lockdown period, government ensured that survivors of gender-based violence have access to support and services, including the GBV hotline, shelters and centres providing support to victims of sexual violence. Since December last year, 10 government-owned buildings have been handed over to the Department of Social Development to be used as shelters, addressing one of the biggest challenges facing survivors who want to leave abusive relationships. Over the last 18 months, we have made demonstrable progress in broadening access to support for survivors, said the President. During this period, 13 regional courts were upgraded into sexual offences courts. Over 7 000 evidence collection kits have been distributed regularly to police stations across the country. Additionally, 1 000 survivor-friendly rooms at police stations have been availed. Many police, prosecutors, magistrates and policymakers have undergone sensitivity and awareness training, and over 3 000 government employees, who work with children and mentally disabled persons, have been checked against the National Register of Sex Offenders, President Ramaphosa said. Legislative amendments have been prepared around, among other things, minimum sentencing in cases of gender-based violence, bail conditions for suspects, and greater protection for women who are victims of intimate partner violence. I urge our lawmakers in Parliament to process them without delay, he said. The President said the countrys courts have been firm in dealing with cases of GBV, even during the lockdown period, handing down life sentences to perpetrators. I want to assure the women and children of South Africa that our criminal justice system will remain focused on gender-based violence cases and that we can expect more arrests and more prosecutions against perpetrators to follow. He said perpetrators of these crimes should receive sentences that fit the horrific crimes they commit. It is deeply disturbing that the spike in crimes against women and children has coincided with the easing of the Coronavirus lockdown, he said. Alcohol as a contributor According to the police, violent crime especially murder and attempted murder has increased dramatically since Alert Level 3 took effect on 1 June. We need to ask some very difficult questions of ourselves as a society. We need to examine the effect of alcohol abuse not only on levels of violence, but also on road accidents and reckless behaviour, said President Ramaphosa. He said if alcohol intoxication is contributing to these crimes, then it must be addressed with urgency. We need to draw lessons from this lockdown and decide how we can protect our society from the abuse of alcohol. Certainly, we need to provide greater support to people with drinking problems, including through rehabilitation and treatment. The consequence of being silent The President said if the country is serious about ending these crimes, people cannot remain silent any longer. These perpetrators are known to us and our communities. By looking away, by discouraging victims from laying charges, by shaming women for their lifestyle choices or their style of dress, we become complicit in these crimes. He called on every single South African to consider the consequence of their silence. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-06-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 19:51:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The closing meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) HEFEI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Yiyi has been annoyed by the leak of her personal information as she often receives harassing phone calls after booking plane tickets online or buying a house from a real estate agency. Zhang, a resident in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, hopes the problem could be solved with the country's newly adopted Civil Code, which clearly defines people's privacy. As the first law to carry the title "code" since New China was founded in 1949, the Civil Code passed at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, will take effect on Jan. 1, 2021. A major innovation of China's Civil Code, jurists say, is embodied in the section on personality rights. Yao Weiyao, partner of the Anhui Huishang Law Firm, said incorporating personality rights provisions into an independent section emphasizes the protection of people's dignity, which is in line with the people-rooted thoughts of traditional Chinese culture and reflects China's confidence in its culture. The section on personality rights includes provisions on a civil subject's rights to life, body, health, name, portrait, reputation, and privacy, among others. In Yao's view, the code not only shows China's innovation in legislation but also contributes to mankind's achievements in building a law-based civilization. The adoption of the Civil Code also excited Deng Jiakai, a judge of the Intermediate People's Court of Wuhu, Anhui Province. "The code is a milestone in the country's advancement of the rule of law, and adapts to the judicial practices at the grassroots level," he said. "From the protection of individuals and families to the maintenance of social order, it embodies our excellent traditional values and national spirit." The judge, who has 26 years of trial experience, has heard a succession case before, in which the nephew of a man surnamed Fang, as his only relative, asked for insurance compensation after Fang died in a car accident. At that time, Deng could only protect the nephew's legitimate rights and interests in accordance with a series of legal provisions, such as the tort liability law and General Principles of the Civil Law, and relevant judicial interpretations. "The inheritance provisions in the Civil Code amended the Law of Succession, which highlights traditional values including caring for the elderly and gives judges at grassroots levels more clarity in their decisions," Deng said. In addition to general and supplementary provisions, the Civil Code includes six parts on real rights, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance, and tort liabilities, protecting Chinese citizens' rights from the cradle to the grave. According to the code, even unborn children have the right to an inheritance and gifts. Zhou Shihong, vice president of the Anhui Lawyers Association, said the code mentions carrying forward the core socialist values in Article One of its general provisions and also fully reflects the integration of the rule of law and the rule of virtue in the specific articles. "Embodying our fine traditional culture and moral values in laws can in turn promote the further civilization of society, resulting in two-way benefits," Zhou said. Gov. Ned Lamont demonstrated welcome caution as he launched phase two of his states reopening Wednesday. His sole scheduled public appearances were visits to Full Heart Farm in Ledyard and Jonathan Edwards Winery in North Stonington to check out precautions being taken on behalf of customers. Lamont didnt sample the bacon on a statewide indoor diner tour, or do reps at several gym, or have CT is #1! branded on his forearm at a tattoo salon. After more than three months, you cant blame the guy if he favors quiet settings and a little time to sip wine. Taking it slow is the right model for Connecticuts other 3.7 million residents. Yes, were also curious about what those first COVID-19 tattoo requests will be, but giving Connecticut businesses a shot in the arm will require poised public behavior. Consider cautionary tales being published in other newspapers around the country. While Connecticut and New York were hit hard by the pandemic, states such as Florida were slow to respond with mandates for masks and social distancing. In recent days, Florida experienced the largest leap in infections since the start of the pandemic. This is happening just as county officials lobby for more doors to be opened to revive businesses. Meanwhile health officials in the Sunshine State advise a four-week waiting period before starting phase two. That tug-of-war is taking place across the map. North Carolina just reached a record high in hospitalizations, joining 20 other states documenting trends in new cases, including Texas, California and Hawaii. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence counter that such spikes are due to increased testing, which health directors dismiss. Both camps miss the point. All that really matters is the knowledge that more people are suffering from the disease. That should be enough. There are anomalies. Vermont has documented an decrease of at least 50 percent in cases. But then, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott could get a tattoo proclaiming Social distancing is our motto. While youre considering headlines in other states, take a peek at social media postings around the country as well. Ohio is cracking down on bars crowded with overzealous customers. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned bars and restaurants that they could lose their liquor licenses if they ignore protocols. So far in Connecticut, were encouraged that many businesses are demonstrating an understanding of the spirit of such regulations. Norwalks Maritime Aquarium is requiring reservations, several restaurants are holding off on indoor dining until they feel they are ready and movie theaters are planning to use ushers to seat patrons, which should create a vintage vibe. Some businesses will surely be casual about safety, but they will likely suffer the consequences of bad word of mouth. The virus is not in summer hibernation, so the simple spring rules still apply: Wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your distance. Well never get to phase three if we cant get past two. Ector County Health Department reported 16 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, making the total 291. Fourteen of the 16 new cases are people under the age of 35. People 30-39 comprise 68 total cases, and people 20-29 comprise 62 cases. (Note: ECHD had a mistake on the websites case information page; the website reported the total number was 289 instead of 291.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 18:25:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Women wearing face masks walk beside a river in Tonekabon city, northern Iran, on June 16, 2020. Iran on Wednesday reported 2,612 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 195,051, official IRNA news agency reported. (Photo by Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua) TEHRAN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Wednesday reported 2,612 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 195,051, official IRNA news agency reported. Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said during the daily update that 120 people died overnight, raising the death toll of the virus to 9,185. So far, 154,812 people have recovered and 2,789 are in intense condition, said Lari. According to the spokeswoman, 1,319,920 lab tests for COVID-19 have been carried out in Iran as of Wednesday. 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. (Natural News) Are you feeling suffocated by the rank authoritarianism, lunacy and violence of Black Lives Matter? If youre noticing that you cant breathe, its probably because your nation is being turned over to an extremist, anti-American, atrocity-promoting criminal cartel run by violent thugs who now have the financial backing of nearly every major corporation and institution in America, from Google to Netflix. The stench of a rapidly rising fascist movement a modern-day obedience cult is too horrendous to ignore. Right before our very eyes, we are watching Americas masses undergo mass media hypnosis thats using contrived emotion to indoctrinate the sheeple into engineered fanaticism as a pretext for political revolution. Yes, its all staged, and even the rioters are mere pawns in this winner-take-all game that has all the echoes of a communist Cultural Revolution (with mass genocide against Christians and conservatives soon to follow). Black Lives Matter is following in the footsteps of the Third Reich, and most Americans are now too terrified of the BLM enforcers to voice their dissent against the rank authoritarianism and lawlessness. The fascist, anti-American tech giants are censoring anyone who dares criticize the Black Lives Matter terrorists, and social media has been transformed into a celebration of left-wing violent terrorism and anti-white hatred and bigotry. Just today, for example, a CHAZ occupier demanded that all the white people be rounded up inside CHAZ and put into work brigades. Yes, Black Lives Matter is now literally pushing for Whites to be turned into work slaves to serve Black people. Yet somehow this isnt called racism or bigotry by the Left; its celebrated as inclusiveness and an admission of white guilt. In another incident, a preacher who entered CHAZ and teach the word of Christ was choked and sexually assaulted by the Black Lives Matter terrorist mob that currently occupied CHAZ. From the article: The very same people who are supposedly protesting police brutality and chokeholds in particular actually choked a preacher who didnt obey their orders to leave because he was talking about God. He can be seen in a video being held face down by masked Antifa members in a chokehold. In case youre wondering how racism works in the minds of Leftists and Democrats, heres a handy chart that explains everything: Black Lives Matter has morphed into a dangerous OBEDIENCE CULT that now poses a clear and present danger to the United States of America Tucker Carlson explains it brilliantly in the video below: Black Lives Matter has changed the rules, and heres their first rule: No criticizing Black Lives Matter. You can be fired from your job if you disobey. Black Lives Matter now enjoys almost complete immunity from criticism. This is unprecedented for an American political movement. Affirming the fundamental equality of all people is now considered hate speech. This is a dangerous moment. How did we get here? Consider some of the other positions Black Lives Matter has endorse the repeal of all immigration restrictions the legalization of sex work the forced reallocation of farmland race-based reparations specifically in the form of a guaranteed minimum income for all Black people. In St. Louis, every rioter arrested has been released without charges. In New York, hundreds were released without bail When the people in charge undermine the law, violence surges. Is there a reason why the DOJ hasnt filed federal conspiracy charges against the people who organized and led these riots? If you cant tell the truth when the truth actually matters, then nothing you say matters. Its time to declare Black Lives Matter a domestic terrorism organization and dismantle the entire operation Much like Antifa, Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization. Its the mirror image of the KKK, except for the fact that both BLM and the KKK were organized and run by Democrats. In essence, BLM is the militant wing of the radical Left. BLM relies on violence, threats and intimidation, and the warlord leader of the CHAZ zone in Seattle, a gang banger named Raz, has been photographed and filmed distributing AK-47 rifles to various left-wing youth who currently occupy the zone. Thats right: Black Lives Matter is a gun-running terrorist organization pretending to be a civil rights group. And they demand the mass killing of police officers and white people. In the end, Black lives dont matter at all to Democrats, except when its time for Blacks to vote. Thats the only time Black lives matter at all to the rich, White Democrats that keep Blacks trapped in a cycle of poverty and manufactured rage, falling right in line with the Lefts divide and conquer strategy for America: Its time for America to take a stand against Black Lives Matter terrorist thugs and the complicit corporations and media cultists who brought BLM into power If youre having trouble breathing in America right now, maybe its because the stench of left-wing authoritarianism is too putrid to handle. Soon, America will be in a civil war, all by design. The cities will be bloody war zones. Again, this is all by design. And if America doesnt find the will to stand up and fight for survival, America will not survive this onslaught of emotionally-driven insanity and chaos. Thats why right now, several critical things need to happen: 1) The Mayor of Seattle and the Governor of Washington must be arrested and charged with treason, for colluding with an enemy invasion and occupation of America. Where is the DOJ on the rule of law? 2) The militant terrorists known as Black Lives Matter must be met with force and completely halted and dismantled, through the use of military force if necessary. After all, the U.S. military has the right and the power to defend America against treasonous enemies occupying inside U.S. borders. 3) All corporations that have donated money to Black Lives Matter or Antifa must have their CEOs arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit acts of treason against the United States of America. This includes left-wing media propaganda channels such as NBC News, CNN and MSNBC, all of which are actively engaged in fomenting riots and chaos as a tactic to destroy America and overthrow the national government. 4) Every law enforcement officer in America including National Guard troops must be given a weapons free order to allow them to defend themselves against potentially deadly weapons being deployed by the rioters. Its time to allow police officers and National Guard troops to defend their lives when they are threatened by violent terrorists wielding deadly weapons. 5) The CHAZ section of Seattle must be cleaned out using SWAT snipers while National Guard troops rescue and set free the American Prisoners of War (POWs) who have been kidnapped and held hostage by Black Lives Matter in Seattle. This will restore law and order to the area and send a powerful message to other would-be terrorists that you dont get to immunity from the law just because your skin is black. If we are all truly equal under the law, then we must be held equally responsible for following the law. Yes, its common sense, but the radical left-wing lunatics who now seem to be in charge of every city in America are so far beyond reason or rationality that the only remaining way the government can communicate with them is probably through kinetic force. Its time to shut down the Black Lives Matter terrorists in America, and the only way that happens is by defeating those terrorists through the use of determined force. For if we dont defeat them, Americas cities are already lost to anarchy, and no American citizen will ever be safe from the reach of the violent BLM terrorists who are holding this entire nation hostage with their reverse-racism crybully tactics. With all that said, on the other hand we could just sit back and watch left-wing lunatics burn down left-wing cities, all while sipping a cup of Itoldyaso tea. After all, most of the people who have to deal with this left-wing lunacy are the same left-wing morons who voted for the very same Democrats who have surrendered their cities to terrorists. Maybe we should let them stew for a while in their own liberal sh#t before bothering to rescue them from their utopia. After all, Black Lives Matter doesnt have the balls to try to seize a farm anywhere in rural America, because that attempt would last no more than a few hours before theyd all be shot and killed by rural property owners wielding long-range rifles. If the DEMONrats want to burn their own filthy cities to the ground, why should we stop them? KANSAS CITY 2020 MURDER #83 BRINGS THE CURRENT HOMICIDE SPIKE TO 38% OVER LAST YEAR!!! Kansas City Demands Accountability After Deadly Officer-Involved Shootings Families, advocates demanding names of Kansas City officers involved in shootings be released KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Local advocacy groups, protesters and the families of two Kansas City men killed by police are calling for the officer's names to be released. The push is gaining momentum amid protests over the last few weeks. The families of 47-year old Donnie Sanders and 26-year-old Cameron Lamb said they are looking for transparency. Report: Nasty Mountain Man Wanted In Kansas City Wanted: Joe Cauthon KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- Joe Cauthon is wanted on a Jackson County warrant for sex offender registration violation. His original offense happened in 1998 in Kansas City and involved the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. His last known address was near 78th and Main streets in Kansas City, Missouri, but his current location is unknown. Suspected Bad Hombre Charged In The Golden Ghetto Overland Park man faces rape, sodomy charges KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An Overland Park man faces charges of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and lewd and lascivious behavior in Johnson County. The charges against Juan Manuel Paredes-Castellanos, 45, stem from events that occurred on Feb. 16, according to charging documents. Overland Park police investigated the case. KCK Lady Confronts Deadly Car Crash Consequences Woman charged in hit and run crash that killed KCK man KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A Kansas City, Kansas woman is facing charges in a hit and run crash that killed a 41-year-old man and severely injured his 2-year-old granddaughter. Kendra Woman, 25, is charged with failure to stop at an accident that resulted in death. White Collar Crime Crackdown Across The Bridge North Kansas City woman sentenced on federal embezzlement charges KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - A North Kansas City woman with prior convictions for embezzlement will spend more time in prison after defrauding a local solar energy company. The federal judge sentenced 42-year-old Tonya A. Topel to two years and nine months without parole. She must also pay back more than $142,000 in restitution. Historic Kansas Justice Against Creepers Coming Soon . . . Two Men Convicted Of Rape And Murder Of Kansas Children Set For First Federal Executions In 17 Years Two men convicted of the rape and murder of Kansas children more than two decades ago are among four men scheduled to be put to death in the first federal executions scheduled to take place in 17 years. Kansas City Gives EPIC Cash For Riot Bail Before protests, fledgling KC bail fund had raised $3,000. Now donations are soaring In its first year, the Kansas City Community Bail Fund had raised about $3,000 in donations to bail clients out of jail and help them navigate support services and court procedures. Few requests came in. But as protests against systemic racism and the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis spread across the nation, the switch flipped. Local Housing Fight Contd Apartment owner under federal investigation resumes eviction hearings during COVID-19 outbreak In the middle of a global pandemic, lawyers for apartment owners under federal investigation for unsafe living conditions have resumed pursuing eviction cases in the Kansas City area.While evictions are still on hold due to federal legislation due to COVID-19, judges have started hearing eviction cases once again. The stench from a corpse tops crime news today and adds another victim to the historic list of spiking KCMO murder.Check the links . . .To wit . . .There were only 60 killings at this point on the calendar in 2019.After the jump we've compiled news & notes oncrime, police action, court cases and mugshots . . . Checkit:Developing . . . Regulatory News: Alberic Chopelin, Chief Commercial and Customer Officer, member of the Management Board of Europcar Mobility Group (Paris:EUCAR), has announced his decision to step down as a member of the Management Board with immediate effect. The Supervisory Board would like to thank him for his positive contribution to the Group's Management Board since his arrival in April 2019. As from 17 June 2020, the Group Management Board is composed of: - Caroline Parot, Chairman of the Management Board - Fabrizio Ruggiero, Managing Director, Business Unit Director - Olivier Baldassari, Director of Countries and Operations The scope of responsibility of Alberic Chopelin within the Management Board is taken over ad interim by Fabrizio Ruggiero. The Management Board remains focused on implementing the plan to restart the Group's activities following the sanitary crisis linked to COVID-19, notably with the support of dedicated task forces. About Europcar Mobility Group Europcar Mobility Group is a major player in mobility markets and listed on Euronext Paris. The mission of Europcar Mobility Group is to be the preferred "Mobility Service Company" by offering attractive alternatives to vehicle ownership, with a wide range of mobility-related services and solutions: car rental and light commercial vehicle rental, chauffeur services, car-sharing, scooter-sharing and private hire vehicle (PHV rental to "Uber like" chauffeurs). Customers' satisfaction is at the heart of the Group's mission and all of its employees and this commitment fuels the continuous development of new services. Europcar Mobility Group operates through a diversified portfolio of brands meeting every customer specific needs and use cases, be it for 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week or longer; its 4 major brands being: Europcar the European leader of car rental and light commercial vehicle rental, Goldcar the low-cost car-rental Leader in Europe, InterRent 'mid-tier' car rental and Ubeeqo one of the European leaders of round-trip car-sharing (BtoB, BtoC). Europcar Mobility Group delivers its mobility solutions worldwide solutions through an extensive network in over 140 countries (including wholly owned subsidiaries 18 in Europe, 1 in the USA, 2 in Australia and New Zealand completed by franchises and partners). Further details available at: www.europcar-mobility-group.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005652/en/ Contacts: Valerie Sauteret valerie.sauteret@europcar.com +33 6 72 93 31 05 Vincent Vevaud vincent.vevaud@europcar.com +33 6 43 64 21 49 Publicis Consultants camille.madec@publicisconsultants.com +33 7 86 42 95 15 Actor Daniel Masterson has been charged with forcibly raping three women in separate incidents between 2001 and 2003, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said Wednesday. Masterson, 44, has been charged with three counts of rape by force or fear. The crimes allegedly happened in his home. Masterson denied the allegations in a statement when the investigation was made public in 2017. Masterson's attorney Tom Mesereau said Wednesday his client is innocent, were confident that he will be exonerated when all the evidence finally comes to light and witnesses have the opportunity to testify. Obviously, Mr. Masterson and his wife are in complete shock considering that these nearly 20-year old allegations are suddenly resulting in charges being filed, but they and their family are comforted knowing that ultimately the truth will come out," Mesereau said in a statement. "The people who know Mr. Masterson know his character and know the allegations to be false. Masterson has been married to actor and model Bijou Phillips since 2011. According to the district attorney's office, he's accused of raping women in their 20s at his Hollywood Hills home. The charges were filed Tuesday and Masterson was arrested late Wednesday morning, jail records showed. He was being held on $3.3 million bail. Prosecutors declined to file charges in two other Masterson cases that police had investigated, one because of insufficient evidence and the other because the statute of limitations had expired. Video: Masterson accused of sexual assault by multiple women He had reunited with Ashton Kutcher, who also was a key part of retro sitcom "That 70s Show," with the Netflix western sitcom The Ranch when the LAPD investigation of Masterson was revealed in March 2017. The news did not have immediate career repercussions for Masterson, but later in the year, after allegations against Harvey Weinstein shook Hollywoods culture, he was written off the show. Masterson decried the Hollywood atmosphere that led to his losing the job, and also suggested at the time that his high-profile membership in the Church of Scientology was leading to his persecution. He said in a 2017 statement that in the current climate, it seems as if you are presumed guilty the moment you are accused. Because police were already investigating him, Mastersons case was not among those taken up by a task force formed by Lacey, the Los Angeles County district attorney, to investigate sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry. That task force has declined to file charges in more than 20 cases in the two years of its existence, charging only Weinstein himself. He's scheduled for a Sept. 18 arraignment. Could you tell your life story in six minutes? Thirteen Hamiltonians have accepted the challenge for this years 6-Minute Memoir, an annual event that brings together authors, actors and activists in the city for an evening of storytelling. Now, more than ever, we need to hear each others stories and feel connected with one another during a time when so many of us are isolated, Anne Bokma, journalist, author and founder of the 6-Minute Memoir said in a press release. Storytelling helps bring us together. Presenters will tell stories of coming and leaving home, the theme for this years event. Featured storytellers include Gary Barwin, winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour for his book Yiddish for Piratesand Leo Johnson, an activist and social entrepreneur from Liberia who spent eight years in refugee camps before coming to Hamilton. The 2020 special guest is Alison Wearing, a Guelph-based writer and performer who wrote bestselling memoir and award-winning play Confessions of a Fairys Daughter. This years storytellers have the added challenge of performing virtually, through a live Zoom event on June 20 at 7:30 p.m. The 6-Minute Memoir, which was started by Bokma eight years ago, typically takes place at The First Unitarian Church of Hamilton. Last year, the church was filled to capacity for the event, with more than 250 people in attendance. Proceeds from the event, described as speed storytelling for a cause, will go toward supporting the efforts of Empowerment Squared, a charity founded by storyteller Leo Johnson that works with newcomer, refugee and marginalized youth and communities, as well as The First Unitarian Church of Hamilton. Tickets, which cost $10 per person, and can be purchased online. Oppo Find X2 series will debut on June 17 in India. The flagship smartphone series comprises of two smartphones, namely the Find X2 5G and Find X2 Pro 5G. Oppo will launch both the smartphones in India via an online-only launch event. Oppo Find X2 series launch event: Where to watch the live-stream Oppo Find X2 series launch event is scheduled to begin at 4 pm in India. The company will host a live-stream for its online audience, which can be viewed via Oppo Indias YouTube and other social media accounts. Oppo Find X2 series price and storage details Both smartphones, the Find X2 5G and Find X2 Pro 5G, were launched earlier in Europe for EUR 999 (approx. Rs 85,500) and EUR 1,199 (roughly Rs. 1,03,100), respectively. Two days before the official launch event here in India, Moneycontrol had exclusively received the pricing details of the Indian variants of the Find X2 series. According to reliable industry sources, the Oppo Find X2 5G will be launched in India between Rs 60,000 and Rs 65,000 and will arrive in a single 12GB + 256GB storage variant. While we have also been tipped about the Find X2 Pros India pricing details from another source, we are keeping the tipped pricing under wraps as we are uncertain about the accuracy of the information. Oppo Find X2, Find X2 Pro specifications The Find X2 series is one of the most anticipated flagship devices in India, courtesy of the specs it packs. The USP of this device is its display. Oppo calls the display on the Find X2 series as the Perfect Screen of 2020. Both the Find X2 and the Find X2 Pro feature a 6.7-inch QHD+ Ultra Vision AMOLED display with a 1440*3168 resolution and a 19.8:9 aspect ratio. The display comes with 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate, HDR support and 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage. Oppo has opted for a punch-hole notch on the Find X2, which houses a 32MP Sony IMX616 f/2.4 quad-Bayer sensor. Under the hood, both smartphones get the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, paired with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM. The Find X2, internationally, comes with up to 256GB storage, whereas the Find X2 Pro has up to 512GB storage options. The significant differences between the Find X2 and the Find X2 Pro lie in the camera and the battery department. In terms of camera, the Find X2 has a triple-camera setup with a 48MP 1/43" Sony IMX586 f/1.7 sensor, a 12-MP f/2.2 6P ultrawide lens, and a 13MP f/2.4 telephoto shooter with 5x hybrid zoom. The Find X2 Pro also packs three camera lenses on the back but has a different sensor setup. The primary lens uses a 48MP Sony IMX689 f/1.7 sensor, coupled with a 48-MP Sony IMX586 ultrawide sensor and a 13MP f/3.0 telephoto sensor with 10x hybrid zoom. There is a 4,200 mAh battery on the vanilla Find X2, whereas the Pro variant has a slightly larger 4,260 mAh cell. Both the smartphones support 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging. Oppo Find X2 series runs on Android 10 with Oppo's ColorOS 7.1 skin on top. [June 17, 2020] Gazelle Diagnostic Platform, Designed for Low Resource Settings, Integrates Miniaturized Technologies with AI to Transform Disease Screening and Diagnosis 8-minute, Low-Cost Diagnostic Test for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Among First Approved Tests Includes a One-Minute Malaria Test with Solutions for Other Health Priorities to Follow PORTLAND, Ore. and MUMBAI, India , June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Officials from Hemex Health joined with supportive global health leaders to launch the companys Gazelle Diagnostic platform in time for World Sickle Cell Day. Gazelle features a SCD test that has CE Mark and regulatory approval in India and Ghana with other registrations pending. Gazelle is the smartphone of diagnostics because it integrates powerful consumer electronics, digital storage and wireless communication into a portable, multi-disease platform, said Patti White, Hemex Healths Co-Founder and CEO. Our mission is focused on using these powerful, affordable technologies to improve diagnostics for those living in low resource settings. Sickle Cell Disease An Overlooked Global Health Problem Sickle Cell Disease presents an enormous global health challenge. More than 500 children with SCD die daily because of lack of access to early diagnosis and treatment. In Ghana, for example, fewer than 4% of babies are tested for SCD because of high cost and limited testing locations. With improved access to inexpensive diagnostics and cost-effective care, children with SCD could lead relatively normal lives to achieve their highest potential, said Professor Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, President of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana. User Input Drove Design of Affordable, Accurate SCD Testing Solution Hemex worked with endemic country healthcare experts to rethink diagnostics for low resource settings. With this input, Hemex engineered Gazelle to make a highly accurate test for SCD and other hemoglobin variants widely available for at risk populations. Gazelle uses the companys proprietary microchip electrophoresis technology a miniaturized but more advanced version of the traditional electrophoresis that identifies and quantifies hemoglobin variants. Novartis Biome, Tata Elxsi, Bio-Rad Partner with Hemex to Bring Gazelle from Concept to Market Please click to read more about Hemex strategic partnerships , and to see a video of Gazelle . About Hemex Health Hemex develops and commercializes life-saving diagnostic technologies for testing at the point of need. The company targets some of the worlds most deadly diseases, including malaria, SCD and COVID-19. The Gazelle technology was developed in collaboration with Case Western Reserve University. www.hemexhealth.com Contact: David Sheon [email protected] 202 422-6999 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Obscured by the myriad stories of coronavirus global devastation are three headlines from the continent with no shortage of epidemics, man-made and natural disasters. That would be Africa. Of its 54 countries, six are among the top 10 fastest-growing economies in the world this year. The continent is the favorite bazaar for appreciating equity after Eastern Europe and has one of the stock market's best-performing industries: communications. Africa finds itself with fewer Covid-19 cases than other heavily populated regions. Even after testing almost tripled to 1.2 million, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, said the continent's percentage is relatively small. Africa has the largest percentage of youth in the world, a higher average temperature and relatively more people outdoors most of the time, according to an April 28 report in the Financial Times. Although South Africa remains an outlier, with surging daily Covid-19 infections similar to the U.S rate, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria reflect the continent's low percentage of cases relative to its population, according to Bloomberg News and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Even as the U.S. daily infection rate based on population declines, the measure is still 24 to 46 times higher than in Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria. The trend has its roots at the beginning of the 21st century, when another pandemic threatened much of the world. Ever since the 2002-2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), when the continent's sole infection was in Cape Town, Africa has leapfrogged the developed world in gross domestic product with a steadily growing share of global GDP, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Most recently, some 38 economists who contribute to Bloomberg cut their 2020 forecasts for the world, from a 3% growth rate to a decline of 3.7%, while simultaneously predicting a much less precipitous slide for Africa: from 3% growth to a decline of 2.5%. If these forecasts prove accurate, Africa would be among the half-dozen best-performing 18 major regions in 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Story continues Africa dominates the list with countries forecast to grow the most in 2020. Rwanda is projected at 3.2%, Ethiopia and Ivory Coast at 3%, Uganda at 2.8% and Ghana at 1.9%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That helps explain why stocks from North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific contributed 3, 2 and 1 percentage points, respectively, to the world benchmark's 8% loss, and Africa contributed just 0.24 percentage point to the deficit. It remains the best performing region, similar to Eastern Europe (0.2 percentage point), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the world equity benchmark declined 4% in 2020, Africa lost just 1%. Communications companies in sub-Saharan Africa so far this year lead all industries in Africa with a total return (income plus appreciation) of 22% more than twice the 9% earned by global health-care companies, the No. 1 performing industry in the world. Africa's appreciation in the stock market coincides with a similar rally by the continent in the emerging market for sovereign debt. After lagging much of the past two years, Africa's sovereign debt gained 24% since the beginning of April, or more than double the entire market's 10%, according to the Bloomberg Barclays Indexes. None of these achievements apparently were anticipated by some of the biggest investors, who retreated from emerging markets earlier this year when the coronavirus became a global pandemic. BlackRock, the largest money manager with $7.4 trillion of assets, allowed its Africa investments to decline 24% to $8.3 billion. Its Asia Pacific investment declined 20% to $115 billion, and its Eastern Europe valuation fell 31% to $9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. All of which shows that Africa is the biggest economic and financial surprise in these perilous times. -- With assistance from Shin Pei, Richard Dunsford-White and Amine Haddaoui. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Matthew Winkler, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Bloomberg News, writes about markets. 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. Book now, IRCTC online ticket booking was never stopped Travel only when necessary': Railways appeals to passengers There were no passenger death due to train accident in last 22 months: Railways minister Piyush Goyal Former Bureaucrat Ashwini Vaishnaw gets Railways, IT ministry Officials in Railway Minister's office to work in 2 shifts of nine hours each Motherly touch by police woman calms baby on train India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Ranchi, June 17: A woman police officer, who fetched milk from her home for a four-month-old baby travelling in a Shramik Special train, has drawn applauds on social media. Assistant Sub-Inspector of the Railway Protection Force, Sushila Badaik, was on duty when the Bengaluru-Gorakhpur train reached Hatia railway station. A woman passenger informed the ASI that her baby was hungry. India-China clashes: 20 soldiers martyred as they fought back PLA incursion | Oneindia News 60 lakh migrants ferried at cost of Rs 600 per person on Shramik Specials: Railways Badaik went home by her two-wheeler, fetched a bottle of warm milk and handed it over to the woman, identified as Mehrunisha, who was returning home to Madhubani. "The baby was crying, and I rushed to fetch milk," a railway official quoted the ASI as saying about the incident that occurred on Sunday. Hailing the Good Samaritan, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted: 'Proud of ASI Sushila Badaik as her action showed humanity and commitment'. The tweet @Mann Ki Baat Updates also tagged a headline of the motherly gesture on Tuesday. The Ministry of Railways also posted a video of the news clip in its twitter handle. Two new commentaries on the life and work of early twentieth century short story writer Katherine Mansfield may be aimed at completely different audiences, but each uses well-known facts in new ways. The first, a popular biography by Virginia Smith, nods at Mansfields origins at the edge of the British empire she was born in 1888 in Wellington, New Zealand but is ultimately much more interested in the ways Mansfields simultaneously defiant and needy personality made her one of the most important, though often overlooked, groundbreakers of literary modernism.Mansfields relationships with fellow writers D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, as well as with her critic-husband John Middleton Murray, are examined for evidence of Mansfields influence on them , rather than vice versa. Ms. Smith compellingly presents Mansfield as a social chameleon skilled at imitation and adaptation; this innate flexibility, the book argues, is the very trait that made only Mansfield capable of infusing the English literary scene with the influence of Russian writer Anton Chekhov. Though in the end Ms. Smith offers few new biographical details, the truly impressive aspect of this biography is her ability to shift easily between worn fact and compelling narrative. Whereas the few shortcomings of Ms. Smiths book may be attributed to lack of publishing experience, a second commentary from long-time professor Jim Jeffries can make no such excuse. Mr. Jeffries contribution is an often tedious biographical essay that introduces a new critical edition of Mansfields short stories. Jeffries work plods point-by-point along Mansfields biography, attempting to attribute the inspiration for each sparkling, artfully constructed story to a traumatic event in her life. The result is not so much a portrait of Mansfields work as it is an ornate yet overly-simplified timeline. This offense is only compounded by Mr. Jeffries shallow interpretations of Mansfields most subtle and complex symbolism, and his continuing references to various critics and philosophers make the essay no more interesting than name-dropping at a cocktail party. (a) establishing an unknown writer as an important literary figure. (b) comparing and contrasting two recent biographical works. (c) arguing for a new interpretation of the life of a literary figure. (d) disputing the credentials of a well-known literary critic. (e) analyzing different uses of commonly-known biographical facts. Show Spoiler B 2. Which of the following forms the best conclusion to the second paragraph? (a) However, Mr. Jeffries does manage to say considerably more about Mansfields relationship with Virginia Woolf than does Ms. Smith. (b) In light of these facts, one can predict that Mr. Jeffries book will be far less popular than Ms. Smiths. (c) In short, though Mr. Jeffries had at his disposal the same biographical information as Ms. Smith, he manages to do considerably worse with it. (d) Because of the many shortcomings of Mr. Jeffries book, it is likely that Ms. Smith will soon eclipse him as the predominant scholarly authority on Mansfield. (e) Notwithstanding these many shortcomings, Mr. Jeffries has his long-standing critical reputation to recommend him to readers. Show Spoiler C 3. With which of the following statements about Mansfields relationships with other modernist writers would the author of the passage most likely agree? (a) Fellow writers such as Lawrence and Woolf learned imitation and adaptation from Mansfield. (b) The fact that Mansfield was both defiant and needy made her relationships with other writers difficult. (c) Mansfield preferred her friendship with Chekhov to relationships with English writers Lawrence and Woolf. (d) Mansfields personality was flexible enough to accommodate relationships with critics as well as with fellow writers. (e) Mansfields influence on fellow writers, though often overlooked, is as significant as their influence on her. Show Spoiler E 4. The author most likely uses the word plods in this line in order to (a) emphasize the tedious nature of the essay. (b) criticize the essays excessive use of detail. (c) highlight the essays method of connecting biography to literary output. (d) mark a distinction between narrative and factual elements in the essay. (e) draw attention to a preferred approach to biography. Show Spoiler A 1. The passage above is primarily concerned with(a) establishing an unknown writer as an important literary figure.(b) comparing and contrasting two recent biographical works.(c) arguing for a new interpretation of the life of a literary figure.(d) disputing the credentials of a well-known literary critic.(e) analyzing different uses of commonly-known biographical facts.2. Which of the following forms the best conclusion to the second paragraph?(a) However, Mr. Jeffries does manage to say considerably more about Mansfields relationship with Virginia Woolf than does Ms. Smith.(b) In light of these facts, one can predict that Mr. Jeffries book will be far less popular than Ms. Smiths.(c) In short, though Mr. Jeffries had at his disposal the same biographical information as Ms. Smith, he manages to do considerably worse with it.(d) Because of the many shortcomings of Mr. Jeffries book, it is likely that Ms. Smith will soon eclipse him as the predominant scholarly authority on Mansfield.(e) Notwithstanding these many shortcomings, Mr. Jeffries has his long-standing critical reputation to recommend him to readers.3. With which of the following statements about Mansfields relationships with other modernist writers would the author of the passage most likely agree?(a) Fellow writers such as Lawrence and Woolf learned imitation and adaptation from Mansfield.(b) The fact that Mansfield was both defiant and needy made her relationships with other writers difficult.(c) Mansfield preferred her friendship with Chekhov to relationships with English writers Lawrence and Woolf.(d) Mansfields personality was flexible enough to accommodate relationships with critics as well as with fellow writers.(e) Mansfields influence on fellow writers, though often overlooked, is as significant as their influence on her.4. The author most likely uses the word plods in this line in order to(a) emphasize the tedious nature of the essay.(b) criticize the essays excessive use of detail.(c) highlight the essays method of connecting biography to literary output.(d) mark a distinction between narrative and factual elements in the essay.(e) draw attention to a preferred approach to biography. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented four annexation scenarios in a meeting tonight with Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi from annexing 30% of the West Bank to a more symbolic annexation of a small amount of land, an Israeli official briefed on the meeting tells me. Why it matters: Netanyahu has vowed to move forward with annexation of at least some territory in the West Bank as soon as July 1. He's been hoping for a green light from the White House, which has said it will only agree if Israel's top leaders are unified behind the plan. In the room: Netanyahu and the speaker of Israel's parliament, Yariv Levin, presented maps for all four scenarios but did not say which they preferred, according to the official. Gantz and Ashkenazi told Netanyahu they are opposed to any annexation in areas that have Palestinian inhabitants. They want annexation to take place in a broader diplomatic context in which the Palestinians get something in return, the official says. The meeting ended with no decisions or meaningful progress, but more discussions are expected in the coming days. The big picture: Any unilateral Israeli annexation would be widely considered a violation of international law and fiercely opposed by the Palestinians, countries in the region including Jordan, as well as the European Union. What to watch: The pushback against the annexation plan from America's Arab allies is getting stronger. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto leader of the UAE, assured King Abdullah of Jordan today that the UAE would categorically reject "Israel's illegal annexation of Palestinian lands" and rally international opposition. That unusually strong statement shows how adamant the UAE is in supporting Jordan's campaign against Israeli annexation. King Abdullah has stressed Jordan's rejection of the plan in conference calls over the last two days with top leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives, Senate and the foreign affairs committees in both chambers. Go deeper: Trump administration coordinated ICC sanctions with Israel SES, the leader in global content connectivity solutions, announces it has selected two U.S. satellite manufacturers, Northrop Grumman and the Boeing Company, to deliver four new satellites as part of the companys accelerated C-band clearing plan to meet the Federal Communications Commissions objectives to roll-out 5G services. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200616005487/en/ Boeing/Artists Rendition of SES-20 and SES-21 satellites (Photo: Business Wire) Northrop Grumman will deliver two flight-proven GeoStar-3 satellites, each equipped with a high-quality C-band payload to deliver the superior customer experience that end users are accustomed to. The two satellites SES-18 and SES-19 will be designed, assembled and tested in Dulles, Virginia. The Boeing Company will deliver a pair of highly efficient all-electric 702SP satellites. The two satellites SES-20 and SES-21 will be manufactured and assembled in Los Angeles, California. These four C-band only new satellites will enable SES to clear 280 MHz of mid-band spectrum for 5G use while seamlessly migrating SESs existing C-band customers. Each satellite will have 10 primary transponders of 36 MHz plus back-up tubes so they can enable the broadcast delivery of digital television to more than 120 million TV homes as well as provide critical data services. The satellites, when launched in Q3 2022, will be positioned at 103 degrees West, 131 degrees West and 135 degrees West orbital slots. The cost of manufacturing these four satellites is part of the USD 1.6 billion investment envelope that SES has announced in May. SES is committed to investing in America by procuring services and equipment needed for the C-band transition from large and small businesses across the U.S., and these significant partnerships with Northrop Grumman and the Boeing Company are cornerstones of that commitment. Given the FCCs strong leadership in providing for accelerated clearing of precious C-band spectrum in the U.S., our focus is on delivering on our commitment and making the spectrum available in the shortest possible time while ensuring that we protect the broadcast customers and communities that we have built over 35 years, said Steve Collar, CEO at SES. To meet our deadlines to clear C-band spectrum, we have selected established American satellite manufacturers in Northrop Grumman and Boeing with their focus on heritage, reliability and minimal risk to build these four satellites, enabling us to fully support the FCCs 5G Fast initiative. Follow us on: Social Media Blog Media Library About SES SES has a bold vision to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on earth by distributing the highest quality video content and providing seamless connectivity around the world. As the leader in global content connectivity solutions, SES operates the worlds only multi-orbit constellation of satellites with the unique combination of global coverage and high performance, including the commercially-proven, low-latency Medium Earth Orbit O3b system. By leveraging a vast and intelligent, cloud-enabled network, SES is able to deliver high-quality connectivity solutions anywhere on land, at sea or in the air, and is a trusted partner to the worlds leading telecommunications companies, mobile network operators, governments, connectivity and cloud service providers, broadcasters, video platform operators and content owners. SESs video network carries over 8,300 channels and has an unparalleled reach of 367 million households, delivering managed media services for both linear and non-linear content. The company is listed on Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges (Ticker: SESG). Further information is available at: www.ses.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200616005487/en/ [June 17, 2020] European retail giant Elkjp worked with Neptune Software to become one of the most modern retail chains in the world STUART, Fla., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Elkjp replaces its entire sales system. The technology selection, utilizing Neptune Software, and approach gives Elkjp a digital solution that is primed for the future. "Everyone who has been to an Elkjp store probably remembers our old DOS application with a blue window and white print. This old-fashioned solution will now be replaced with a much more modern version similar to our website," says Sebastian Andersson, Nordic Operations Project Manager at Elkjp. He states that the technological system in all Elkjp's stores must be replaced with a new and far more flexible solution. One where the seller can switch between the use of desktop and mobile. "With the ne solution, the seller can help the customers in the store without having to go back to their desktop PC to retrieve information about the product, update the order or check if the item is in stock. This means that sales work will be considerably more efficient to the benefit of both the employees and customers," says Andersson. The roll-out of the new solution started in Denmark in May 2020, and will continue throughout the Nordic region into 2021. The investment makes Elkjp one of the most modern retail chains in the world. "When we reach our goal, we will have 10,000 new users using the system. Our legacy solution enabled changing functionality only twice a year, and, amazingly, the previous system that is now 30 years old has worked for as long as it has. But now the new system can be updated regularly, the architecture is service-based so new functionality can be pushed continuously," says Andersson. Andersson emphasizes that the upgrade will benefit customers just as much as the employees. Today, many customers check out items on the website before heading to the physical store. Despite an increase focus on e-commerce, it turns out that only 15 percent of Elkjp's customers choose to buy items online. "This means that the customer service representative is still important, and he or she can now use information about what the customer has searched for or added to the basket, and in the process give even more precise and expedited advice. The sale can be completed outside the store or with updated offers in the shopping cart, without ever having to go check out with a cashier," says Andersson. This transformation has been supported by world-leading technology companies Elkjp selected Neptune Software's low code platform to develop its original solution and is already moving forward beyond the initial scope of the project. They are now starting to build a number of additional applications to support its 'store operation processes,' including goods receipts, delivery of goods, inventory, and more. "Elkjp chose Einr as a development partner to build a completely new tool to optimize the sales process for its customers. With Elkjp's microservice-centric architecture approach, Neptune Software and its added API support is a perfect match," says Camilla Eikeland, Partner at EINR. Are you interested in hearing more about this story? Join us on June 25, 2020 to watch this solution presented first-hand at our Neptune Software's Digital IMPACT Festival. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/european-retail-giant-elkjop-worked-with-neptune-software-to-become-one-of-the-most-modern-retail-chains-in-the-world-301078462.html SOURCE Neptune Software [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson had granted businesses protections from coronavirus lawsuits, while the states epidemiologist said shes concerned loosened restrictions may have caused some to lower their guard against the virus. Hutchinson signed executive orders that grants similar immunity to health care workers and providers, and another that extends workers compensation to employees who contract the virus because of their job. All three are in effect during the pandemic. The Republican governor issued the orders, which will remain in effect during the pandemic, following requests by GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate for a special legislative session to take up the liability protections. He said the Legislature can revisit the issue next year. Whenever theres a fear of reopening, whenever theres a worry about the lawsuits and bringing customers back or bringing the patrons back because of the potential for lawsuits as weve seen in so many other states, this is a chilling effect and it can become a reality, Hutchinson said. The orders granting immunity are similar to measures enacted in other states reopening after the pandemic. The business immunity doesnt apply to willful, reckless or intentional misconduct and would cover businesses and employees substantially complying with the states virus safety rules. Hutchinson said he wasnt ware of a lawsuit thats been filed Arkansas over workers or customers being exposed to the virus. The Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association, noting that, said there simply is no crisis. Opponents called the move unnecessary, given the lack of lawsuits so far and that businesses can already use their compliance with virus safety rules as a defense. I think that taking away someones right to be compensated when theyre hurt by a negligent business deprives them of access to justice and it removes an incentive for businesses to act in the public interest, Democratic Rep. Andrew Collins said. Hutchinson issued the orders while Arkansas is in the middle of a dramatic resurgence of virus activity. The states active cases, meaning those excluding people who have died or recovered, have increased more than 163% since Memorial Day. Hospitalizations have more than doubled that same period. The spike has followed the states decision last month to allow businesses that had closed to reopen. Those restrictions were eased further Monday, with restaurants, bars and other businesses allowed to serve more customers. State Epidemiologist Jennfier Dillaha said theres no link between the eased restrictions and the spike, noting the state hasnt seen an outbreak from businesses that have reopened. But Dillaha said she is concerned about pandemic fatigue setting in and causing people to revert to their practices before the coronavirus outbreak. Its possible that people have used the loosening of restrictions to lower their guard and not continue the (social distancing) practices, Dillaha said. Thats very concerning. Dillaha, however, said shes not arguing against the loosened restrictions. Hutchinson said while part of his message is that the states economy must get moving again, hes also advising residents that they must maintain social distancing and other practices to prevent the viruss spread. We can only do those things when you protect yourselves, you protect others and you follow the public health guidelines, Hutchinson said. The Health Department said at least 12,917 people have tested positive for the virus, an increase of 416 cases from Sunday. The department 4,383 of those cases are active. The true number is likely higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick. The states recorded deaths from the illness caused by the virus rose to 182, while hospitalizations rose to 206. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits COVID-19 WASHINGTON - The Trump administration said Tuesday it will nominate Mauricio Claver-Carone, the current head of Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, as president of the Inter-American Development Bank, breaking an unwritten agreement since the bank's inception in 1959 that it would be led by a Latin American. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who announced the move, said in a statement that the nomination "demonstrates President Donald Trump's strong commitment to U.S. leadership in important regional institutions" and comes at a critical time of economic challenge in the region, "particularly in light of the global pandemic." Increased U.S. influence over the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean would also give the United States a leg up on China in a part of the world where Beijing's economic influence has been rapidly growing. Claver-Carone said in an interview that the pandemic has "taught us the fragility of our east-west supply chains" and validated Trump's priority of bringing U.S. companies back home. "For those who don't," he said, "we want companies to create a north-south axis . . . in terms of supply chains." As Latin America faces a severe economic downturn, the United States can offer significant resources, Claver-Carone said: "Do you want the largest economy in the world to partner up for the mutual benefit of the region we live in? I think the answer is yes." He said he planned a "team effort" and described "an impressive new generation of finance leaders throughout the region." The nomination effectively closes the door to a number of Latin American countries that planned to nominate their own candidates for the September election to replace Colombian Luis Alberto Moreno, who has served three five-year terms as bank president. In its 60-year history, the IDB has had only four presidents, all of them serving multiple terms. In the interview, and in conversations with numerous Latin American leaders informed of the U.S. decision in recent days, Claver-Carone stressed that U.S. resources will be crucial in rebuilding the region, now the site of numerous coronavirus hot spots. Brazil, whose president, Jair Bolsonaro, was a close Trump consultant in the matter, is now second only to the United States in its number of infections. "The other candidates were not well known by the region," Claver-Carone said. "Everybody knows me. . . . It's really been humbling in all the conversations I've had over the last 48 hours, the level of comfort, a huge level of relief" at the prospect of his taking over. One senior Latin American official contacted by Claver-Carone said he spoke of the need for "administrative reforms . . . and the issue of financing the institution with a new injection of money that probably implied it would be easier approved by Congress if the [IDB] is headed by an American." "There might be very strong support from some countries," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic conversations. "There will be very strong opposition from others, not only because it breaks the unwritten rule. . . . I think the Europeans should be worried. If the Americans can take over any institution they want to, what would prevent them from taking over the IMF?" While regional development banks in Latin America, Africa and Asia have traditionally been headed by officials from that region, the International Monetary Fund is historically led by a European, and the World Bank by an American. Claver-Carone said that consultations have already indicated he will receive a majority of votes and that he hopes to hit the ground running after an Oct. 1 inauguration. "We will commit to a one-term, five-year presidency, and we hope to institutionalize one or two terms maximum and to lead by example," he said. "I do this with a deep commitment to working with countries in the region." A former Treasury Department official and U.S. director at the IMF, Claver-Carone, a Cuban American, was a member of the Trump transition team. Appointed to the NSC job in September 2018, he has been a leading voice in the administration's hard line toward Cuba and Venezuela. His likely departure from the NSC has been met with some approval at the State Department, where many consider him abrasive. The Latin American official described him as "very confrontational . . . very direct. He has no soft skills." "Sometimes this is an advantage, to be honest," the official said. "For me, that's OK. But some people resent it." There are 48 members in the IDB, 26 that are "borrowing" countries in Latin America. Non-borrowing countries are primarily European donors but also include Japan, South Korea and Israel. The United States, which contributes 40 percent to its resources, is by far the largest donor. All 48 meet annually, usually in Latin America. But the Trump administration was irritated last year when Moreno, the current president, agreed to hold the annual meeting in China. The meeting was eventually canceled, however, when China refused to accept the Venezuelan delegation appointed by opposition leader Juan Guaido, recognized as interim president by the United States and much of Latin America. China recognizes the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro, which the United States and others have branded illegitimate and vowed to force from power. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will go on with the City of Sturgis joining a group of Black Hills-area venues that had already committed to hosting the event. Up to this point, these businesses were unsure if they would be moving forward with or without the City. Im very pleased with the city councils decision to join the 2020 rally this year, said Randy Peterson of Sturgis.com, the original site dedicated to promoting the Sturgis Rally. A sampling of more than 50 local businesses and campgrounds had already stated they would be open for business, but with the Citys involvement, necessary municipal services will be provided within city limits. The Citys involvement in the rally will allow the sale of vendor permits within the City and Main Street will be closed off to motorcycle-only traffic. The Citys decision only affects what happens within City limits, not the rest of the Black Hills region. To date, neither the State of South Dakota nor any Black Hills government has suspended rally events. More than 50 regional businesses have expressed their conviction to be open and hosting the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 2020, with more businesses joining the list every day. The most up to date list of these businesses can be found at https://sturgis.com/blog/will-the-sturgis-motorcycle-rally-be-canceled-sturgis-rally-is-on-say-businesses-even-if-city-opts-out. The 80th Anniversary of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will be held Aug. 7-16, 2020. ### About Sturgis.com Sturgis.com is the original website dedicated to promoting the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is the largest motorcycle rally in the world. It is held annually in The Black Hills and in Sturgis, South Dakota for 10 days during the first week of August. It was started by local Indian dealer Pappy Hoel in 1938. Since its beginning, private area businesses throwing events such as races, concerts, and rides have made, and continue to make, the Sturgis Rally what it is today. 2020 will mark the 80th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. For questions or more info contact Randy Peterson Sturgis.com randy@sturgis.com BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The "Tell China's Stories" contest, a campaign encouraging people to use their works to spread stories about China and Chinese culture around the world, held its awards ceremony for last year's contest and kicked off the contest for this year online Tuesday, said its sponsor. For last year's campaign, which was launched on April 28, 2019, a total of 40 works were awarded out of 3,893 works submitted by Chinese and foreign contestants, including both professional and amateur individuals and organizations, according to the China International Publishing Group (CIPG), the sponsor of the campaign. Three works were awarded the top prize, including one telling the story of a 64-year-old American volunteering at a tourist information booth in Beijing's traditional alleyways. Du Zhanyuan, head of the CIPG, said this year's contest, set to run from June to the end of the year, will encourage contributions focusing on contemporary themes such as China's fight against the COVID-19 epidemic and the country's efforts in poverty reduction. Marking the third of its kind, this year's event will feature local contests, contests on specific themes as well as a competition for university students. Wang demanded that BEIJING: The foreign ministers of China and India on Wednesday held telephone talks over a deadly border clash, agreeing to "cool down" tensions as soon as possible, Beijing said. Both sides agreed in the call between China's Wang Yi and India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to "deal fairly" with the events in the Galwan Valley and maintain peace in border areas, China's foreign ministry said. The "hand-to-hand" fighting in the disputed Himalayan region left 20 Indian soldiers dead, according to India's military, with both sides blaming the other for the violence. It is the first deadly clash between the nuclear powers in decades. China has refused to confirm if it suffered any casualties. The Chinese foreign ministry statement said that both sides agreed to "cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible, and maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas in accordance with the agreement reached so far between both countries." Wang demanded that "India conduct a thorough investigation" on the situation, punish those responsible and immediately stop all provocations to ensure such an incident does not occur again, the statement said. "The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation, and must not underestimate China's firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty," it added. According to Beijing, Jaishankar said India is willing to peacefully resolve disputes in the border areas through dialogue and ease tensions there. A 21-year-old San Francisco man was arrested on suspicion of murder in last weeks fatal shooting of a 48-year-old woman in Hunters Point. The suspect, identified by San Francisco police as Christopher Cawthorne, was taken into custody Monday evening. Prosecutors have decided to hold off on making a charging decision at this time, saying there was insufficient evidence to file a murder case by Wednesday afternoon, said Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the San Francisco district attorneys office. An investigation is ongoing. Officials are urging anyone with further information on the case to contact San Francisco polices tip line at 415-575-4444. Bastian said prosecutors will, however, move to revoke Cawthornes probation, meaning he would not be released from jail. Cawthorne is on felony probation for second-degree burglary and a firearm charge, Bastian said. At about 11:30 p.m. on June 8, San Francisco police responded to a report of a shooting in the area of Earl Street and Kirkwood Avenue. Police said witnesses heard several gunshots in the area and saw a male suspect fleeing the scene on foot. 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 San Francisco medical examiners office identified the victim as Deanna Rice, also a San Francisco resident. Police said she was found suffering from gunshot wounds and taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. She died the following day. Investigators believe the attack stemmed from an earlier argument between the victim and suspect, but no additional details were provided. Police arrested Cawthorne in Fremont, and he was later booked at San Francisco County Jail on one count of homicide. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy [June 17, 2020] Semantic Web Company and Ontotext Partner to Advance Enterprise Knowledge Graphs VIENNA and SOFIA, Bulgaria, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ontotext (OT) and Semantic Web Company (SWC) two of the strongest voices advocating the value of knowledge graphs for organizations dealing with large amounts of diverse data have announced a strategic partnership. Together, the companies will be able to meet the highest requirements of enterprise architects such as deployment, monitoring, resilience, and interoperability with other enterprise IT systems and security. Now users will be able to work with a feature-rich toolset to manage a graph composed of billions of edges that is hosted in data centers around the world. "With highly complementary portfolios, a partnership between our companies is a natural fit, and clients will certainly appreciate the benefits of this compatibility when it comes to meeting their needs, especially during times when staying agile is so necessary," said Atanas Kiryakov, CEO of Ontotext. For the market, the spillover benefits from these two companies working together is sure to bring even greater momentum to knowledge graph management, and for clients, a partnership like this will enable enterprises to discover and make use of advantages and unlocked potential hidden away in knowledge they already have. "This partnership will offer superior support for all three loops (users, experts, automation) along the entire knowledge graph lifecycle from requirement gathering and data discovery, to development, usage, maintenance, and evolution," said Andreas Blumauer, CEO of Semantic Web Company. The companies have implemented a seamless integration of the PoolParty Semantic SuiteTM v.8 with the GraphDBTM and Ontotext Platform, which offers benefits for numerous use cases: GraphDB powering PoolParty: Most of the knowledge graph management tools out there bundle open-source solutions that are good at managing thousands of concepts, whereas PoolParty bundled with GraphDB flawlessly manages millions of concepts and entitieswithout extra deployment overheads. PoolParty linked to high-availability GraphDB cluster: GraphDB can now be used as an external store for PoolParty, which offers an unmatched combination of performance, scalability and resilience. This is particularly relevant for organizations intent on developing tailor-made knowledge graph platforms integrated into their existing data and content management infrastructure. Dynamic text analysis using big knowledge graphs: PoolParty can be used to edit big knowledge graphs in order to tune the behavior of Ontotext's text analysis pipelines, which employ vast amounts of domain knowledge to boost precision. This way the power and comprehensiveness of generic off-the-shelf natural language processing (NLP) pipelines can be custom-tailored to an enterprise. GraphQL benefits for PoolParty: Application developers can now access the knowledge graph via GraphQL to build end-user applications or integrate knowledge graph services with the functionality of existing systems. Ontotext Platform uses semantic business objects, defined by subject matter experts and business analysts, to generate GraphQL interfaces and transform them into SPARQL. About Semantic Web Company As a leading provider of graph-based metadata, search and analysis solutions, Semantic Web Company (www.semantic-web.com) supports its customers in the development and implementation of enterprise knowledge graphs, in the extraction of useful knowledge from large data sets, and in the integration and linking of structured and unstructured data. The technology company is the vendor of PoolParty Semantic SuiteTM (www.poolparty.biz) and also helps organizations to develop strategies that support the efficient introduction and implementation of innovative graph technologies. About Sirma AI EAD, trading as Ontotext Ontotext (www.ontotext.com) is a global leader in knowledge graph technology and semantic database engines. Ontotext crafts big knowledge graphs to enable unified data access and cognitive analytics via text mining and by linking data across multiple sources. Leveraging AI and cognitive technologies, Ontotext helps enterprises get a competitive advantage by connecting the dots in their proprietary knowledge and interpreting it using global intelligence as context. Ontotext GraphDBTM engine and Ontotext Platform power business critical systems in the biggest banks, media, market intelligence agencies, automotive and aerospace manufacturers. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1191838/Ontotext_PP_Partnership.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/448827/Ontotext_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Gas continued to flow "uncontrollably" and the fire raged on at a natural gas well of OIL in Assam's Baghjan on Wednesday with multiple agencies engaged in efforts to stop the leakage and douse the blaze, officials said. Oil India Ltd (OIL) continued to face public ire over the incident and its production is getting affected in a big way with the company losing 6,132 MT of crude oil and 7.97 MMSCM of natural gas output in the last 22 days due to the bandhs and blockades, they said. The PSU major said nine trucks loaded with materials for constructing a bailey bridge are being mobilised from 3 Corps of the Indian Army at Misamari in Sonitpur district and it is in transit. "Two more trucks are being loaded and six more will be loaded with remaining materials for the bridge and shall depart for Baghjan," the company said in a statement. Earlier, Tinsukia Deputy Commissioner Bhaskar Pegu had sought help from the Army to construct a bridge of around 150-metre length over a water body adjacent to the blowout well in Baghjan. The state-run company also said vehicles carrying materials are being mobilised from ONGC Rajamundry and it is in transit. Besides, two more trucks carrying equipment are coming from ONGC's Vadodara base in Gujarat. Talking about production loss due to agitation by the locals and some groups, OIL said there was an output cut of 288 MT of crude oil and 0.44 MMSCM of natural gas as reported on Tuesday. "Cumulative production loss since May 27, 2020 due to bandhs and blockades: 6,132 MT Crude oil, 7.97 MMSCM of natural gas," it added. According to the statement, various assessments and impact studies of the blowout are being done by multiple agencies such as TERI, CSIR-NEIST and the Assam Agricultural University. The well no. 5 at Baghjan in Tinsukia district has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 22 days and it caught fire on June 9, killing two of OIL's firefighters at the site. The blaze at the well is so massive that it was seen from a distance of more than 30 km with thick black smoke going up several metres high, endangering the local biodiversity in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park following the blowout on May 27. Though there is no fire in the periphery of the well site at present, the company has declared an area up to 1.5 km of radius as "red zone" to avoid any untoward incident and damage to the general public. At present five inquiries are taking place to find out the facts -- a three-member probe by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, a one-member probe by the Assam government and an internal five-member inquiry by the OIL. Besides, two more crucial independent investigations of technical nature are being carried out by Directorate General Of Mines Safety (DGMS) and Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD). Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had also ordered the Additional Principal Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) to conduct a study on the effects of the explosion on the environment and ecology of the surrounding areas, including on flora and fauna in adjacent Dibru-Saikhowa National Park. Already two officials of the OIL have been suspended for alleged negligence of duty at the gas well site, while a show-cause notice has been issued to John Energy Pvt Ltd, the outsourced private operator of the well. An FIR has also been registered against Oil India and its outsourced private well operator for the Baghjan gas well blowout, which has polluted the environment and village surroundings. The Masters student will now explore work outside the church after experience The claim about him not being a 'match' for a curacy role was made in an email Augustine Tanner-Ihm hits out at the 'institutional racism' in Church of England A Black trainee vicar has been denied a position by the Church of England because the demographic of the parishioners in the area he had applied to work was 'monochrome white working class' and it might make him feel 'uncomfortable'. Augustine Tanner-Ihm has hit out at the 'institutional racism' in the church after the the statement was listed as one of two reasons why he was not a 'match' for a curacy role in the Hertfordshire area. The row erupted in February after Mr Tanner-Ihm, was turned down for a curacy in the diocese of St Albans, despite being told that he had 'obvious gifts' by local church leaders. But the The Masters student, 30, has only made it public now following the supportive reaction of the Church of England to the Black Lives Matter protests. Alongside his criticism of the church, Mr Tanner-Ihm, whose ancestors were slaves has also called on the church to 'use actions not words' after several senior church leader backed the recent protests. Today a spokesperson for the Church of England said the dioceses of St Albans had 'recognised its failure' and sent a written apology to Mr Tanner-Ihm, while the writer of the email also expressed regret and offered an apology. Augustine Tanner-Ihm has criticised the Church of England after he was rejected from a job as a trainee vicar because the demographic of the parishioners in the area he had applied to work was 'monochrome white working class' and it might make him feel 'uncomfortable' But upset turned to anger when an email informing he had been rejected said it was party due to the fact that the demographic of the parish was 'monochrome white working class' and it might make him 'feel uncomfortable'. Distraught Mr Tanner-Ihm, who claims the parish had not interviewed him over the phone or in person before rejecting him, said he was left 'bitterly upset' and felt 'broken down'. He said when he complained he received a response 'along the lines of 'sorry you took it that way.' Speaking about the church's supportive response to Black Lives Matter, Mr Tanner-Ihm, who had been studying a masters in theology at Durham University, said the Christian narrative was about 'actions not words'. He said: 'It's really nice they said 'black lives matter', but they need to do something about it. 'The Christian narrative is not just saying nice words on a piece of paper and then acting as everything is good. 'It calls for us to do way more than just taking a knee. 'The Church of England owned plantations, and all they have said is 'sorry we did that'. 'You have to do something about it I love the Church of England on the ground, but the institutional, systematic racism is still there. I've experienced it.' Mr Tanner-Ihm received the letter in February, but has only made it public now following the reaction of the Church of England to the Black Lives Matter protests Mr Tanner-Ihm, who is of African American descent, and was adopted as a boy by white parents, applied to around eight different parishes but was mainly turned down due to funding problems. Alongside the 'monochrome white' remark, the St Albans Diocese rejection email said Mr Tanner-Ihm would be 'best suited to a curacy with a more experienced vicar'. He said: 'My partner is white, from a working class background, my parents are white, from a working class background, and three of my brothers are white,' he fumed. 'They knew all that, yet they've still judged me on my race.' Partly due to his disappointment and anger over the letter, Mr Tanner-Ihm will now take up a job outside the church after he finishes his studies. And he said the Church of England had still not contacted him after he made the email public. Mr Tanner-Ihm, who is of African American descent, and was adopted as a boy by white parents, applied to around eight different parishes but was mainly turned down due to funding problems The Rt Revd Chris Goldsmith, the Church of England's director of ministry, said: 'We take very seriously any allegation that a curacy post, or any other position, may have been denied to someone on the grounds of their ethnic heritage. 'A member of the National Ministry Team has reached out to Augustine Tanner-Ihm and has spent time with him learning about his experiences. 'We have also established that the diocese concerned has recognised its failure in this and sent a written apology to Mr Tanner-Ihm earlier in the year. 'We fully recognise that the Church of England has a lot more work to do to become a place where our leadership is representative of the rich heritages of all the people of England.' A spokesperson for the Diocese of St Albans said the sender of the letter had 'made an unqualified apology by email to Mr Tanner-Ihm the same day' that they had discovered it had 'caused distress'. The sender of the letter said: 'I quickly recognised and regretted my poor choice of words and I am very sorry indeed that what I said was hurtful to Mr Tanner-Ihm. 'It was careless, thoughtless and hasty and I still regret my choice of words.' The Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, also wrote and apologised to Augustine Tanner-Ihm. He added: 'This incident and the hurt we have caused serves to heighten our awareness of the need to improve. We wish Augustine well with his search for a curacy and with his future ministry.' Cooperative worker dog breeds do not appear to respond more negatively to unfair outcomes than do independent worker breeds, according to a study published June 17 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jim McGetrick of the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, and colleagues. Although the sample size was small, the results do not support the hypothesis that inequity aversion and cooperation co-evolved. Credit: Mylene Quervel-Chaumette Cooperative worker dog breeds do not appear to respond more negatively to unfair outcomes than do independent worker breeds, according to a study published June 17 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jim McGetrick of the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, and colleagues. Although the sample size was small, the results do not support the hypothesis that inequity aversion and cooperation co-evolved. Dogs and many other animals display inequity aversionnegative responses to unfair outcomeswhich is thought to contribute to the maintenance of cooperation. But only limited evidence supports the hypothesis that cooperation and inequity aversion co-evolved. Dogs provide a suitable model species to test this hypothesis because breeds vary in the extent to which they were selected for cooperativeness. In the new study, McGetrick and colleagues examined the responses of 12 dogs from cooperative worker breeds (e.g.: Australian shepherds, border collies, Labrador retrievers, and rough collies), which work in continuous visual contact with humans, and 12 dogs from independent worker breeds (e.g.: akita inus, basenji, Siberian huskies, shiba inus). In the paw task, the experimenter alternately asked two dogs to give their paw, but only one dog was always rewarded. Dogs belonging to both breed groups displayed inequity aversion, and there was no significant difference between the groups in the extent of the negative response to inequity or in the impact of the inequity on subsequent social behaviors. But there were some differences between the breed groups. For example, dogs from independent breeds gave their paw fewer times than did dogs from cooperative breeds, especially in the unrewarded conditions. In addition, dogs from cooperative breeds spent more time close to their partners when allowed to freely interact than did dogs from independent breeds. According to the authors, the findings provide some evidence for basic breed group differences in the tendency to work without rewards, and possibly in general sociability, which could offer fruitful areas of investigation for future studies focused on understanding dog breed differences. The authors add: Cooperative worker breeds tended to work for longer than independent worker breeds in our task. This may indicate a history of selection, in cooperative worker breeds, for increased motivation to work with humans. Explore further Anxieties and problematic behaviors may be common in pet dogs More information: McGetrick J, Brucks D, Marshall-Pescini S, Range F (2020) No evidence for a relationship between breed cooperativeness and inequity aversion in dogs. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0233067. Journal information: PLoS ONE McGetrick J, Brucks D, Marshall-Pescini S, Range F (2020) No evidence for a relationship between breed cooperativeness and inequity aversion in dogs.15(6): e0233067. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233067 Waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, which is leading the nationwide disinfection against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in educational institutions, has appealed to heads of basic schools to make themselves available for the exercise. The Western Regional Manager, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Alhaji Abdulai, Abdallah, made the appeal during at the Queen of Peace Academy, which was among a cluster of schools disinfected in Anaj community in the Effia Kwesimintsim Municipal Assembly (EKMA) in the Western Region. The schools included St Peters International School, Anaji MA Primary School etc. He made the appeal against the backdrop that some of the schools they hand been mandated to disinfect had had their classrooms and offices under lock and key. That, he said, was not helping their cause. If the headmasters and headmistresses cant be present for the exercise, they should elect people to be there to open the offices and classrooms of their schools to facilitate our work, he appealed. According to Alhaji Abdallah, they were expected to disinfect about 1,808 basic schools (both public and private). He, however, said this number could swell after the completion of the exercise. We are using one week to disinfect the schools, and so far, I can say that we are doing a good job. And one significant thing about the exercise is that we are combining cleaning and disinfecting at the same time, he noted. He pointed out that Zoomlion had already started the disinfection exercise in the senior high schools (SHSs) in the region. And to beat the deadline, the Zoomlion western regional manager disclosed that they have sublet some of the schools to their partners, but stressed that these companies were under their close supervision. On the chemical for the disinfection, he contended that Zoomlion was using chlorine solution which has been recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) as very potent in killing germs, bacteria and viruses. However, he explained that the disinfection was not the only panacea for dealing with the Covid-19 disease. We must equally follow and observe all the Covid-19 preventive protocols including regular washing of hands with soap and under running water, using alcohol-based hand sanitisers, wearing of nose masks and ensuring social distancing, he recommended. The Headmistress of Queen of Peace Academy, Naa Afarley Sackeyfio Wuni, was delighted at the exercise. We are grateful to the government and Zoomlion for coming to disinfect our school, she happily expressed. We will complement the disinfection of our school by providing the pupils with Veronica buckets, soaps, hand sanitisers and also ensure that the pupils practice social/physical distance, she affirmed. According to her, the school was expecting about eighty-five (85) final-year students, who would be in four groups. Zoomlion also disinfected a cluster of schools in Sekondi. These were Chief Ibrahim Basic School, St Peters Anglican Basic School, St Andrews Anglican Primary School, and Old Hospital Basic School. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP Authorities in Oakland, California, are investigating nooses hanging off at least five separate trees as a hate crime. The nooses were discovered Tuesday in the Lake Merritt area, a popular outdoor space and neighborhood. Officials in Oakland confirmed on Thursday that they are also investigating an effigy hung from a tree in the same area as a potential hate crime. Symbols of racial violence have no place in Oakland and will not be tolerated, Oaklands mayor, Libby Schaaf, said in a statement. We are all responsible for knowing the history and present day reality of lynchings, hate crimes and racial violence. Objects that invoke such terror will not be tolerated in Oaklands public spaces. During initial investigations, some community members reported that the ropes were used for exercise equipment, with one saying he attached the rope to a tree limb for games several months ago, according to Oakland police. Although some of the ropes may have been for exercise, some of it absolutely was not, Nicholas Williams, the Oakland parks and recreation director, said at a news briefing. But the intentions of whoever put those nooses in the trees whether for exercise or for hatred doesnt matter when it comes to the message that Schaaf said she was hoping to send in directing staff to remove the ropes immediately. These symbols are symbols of racial violence and it is incumbent on all of us to have that sensitivity, to have that knowledge, she said. What a privilege for those of us that dont feel complete fear and terror when we see a rope in a tree. That is a privilege that so many of our African American residents do not enjoy and this is a moment that we must be cognizant of that reality. We have got to stop terrorizing our black and brown citizens and as white people, we have to become knowledgable and educated about the impact of our actions, whether they are well-intentioned or not. Story continues The FBI is working with Oakland police on the recent incidents. The discovery of the nooses and the effigy comes on the heels of investigations into the hanging deaths of two black men in southern California. Robert Fuller, 24, was found dead hanging from a tree near Palmdale city hall in the early hours of 10 June. The county medical examiner initially labeled the preliminary cause of death as suicide pending a full autopsy, noting the lack of evidence of foul play. But following widespread outcry, the coroner deferred the decision and the Los Angeles county sheriff announced that the FBI and the state attorney generals office will be monitoring the investigation. On Wednesday night, Fullers half-brother was killed by the Los Angeles county sheriffs department, the same agency investigating the hanging. Related: Robert Fuller: officials vow investigation into California hanging death Ten days earlier, 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch was found dead hanging from a tree in front of the Victorville public library in San Bernardino county, about 50 miles away from where Fuller was found dead. Residents of the nearby homeless encampment who found Harsch and tried to render him aid told Harschs family that he had been hanging from a USB cord, and that his 6 foot 3 inches long body wasnt even dangling from the tree. The San Bernardino county sheriff is also working in cooperation with the attorney generals office. Schaaf, Oaklands mayor, pointed out that the discovery of the nooses also came after Steven Carrillo, an air force sergeant with ties to the anti-government boogaloo movement that is popular with white supremacists, was charged in the fatal shooting of 53-year-old federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood outside the US courthouse in Oakland during a night of protest and unrest. The fact that we had an extremist charged with the murder of Patrick Underwood, an extremist group, the boogaloos, that is trying to ferment a race war, we have to see this moment for what it is, a reckoning, Schaaf said. And in Oakland, we cannot further terrorize or traumatize our black residents. Maanvi Singh contributed reporting SEATTLE, WA Seattle City Council is considering two competing proposals for payroll taxes on the city's largest businesses. Both proposals would help provide for social services and emergency services for residents struggling amid the pandemic, but they vary substantially in how much money they would raise and how they would be implemented. And both rest in the long shadow cast by the 2018 head tax, which was passed unanimously by council members but repealed less than a month later after massive outcry from businesses. The Amazon Tax The first tax, proposed months ago but tabled for the immediate coronavirus response, is a payroll tax of 1.3 percent on Seattle's biggest businesses. The tax, proposed by councilmembers Sawant and Morales, is often called the "Amazon Tax" and would raise up to $500 million dollars each year. If approved, this year $200 million of that money would be put towards coronavirus relief stimulus checks for struggling families. Under this proposal, the tax would only affect businesses with annual payrolls larger than $7 million dollars which, according to Sawant's office, is only 3 percent of Seattle businesses. The remaining 97 percent would be exempt, as would non-profits, public employers and grocery stores. Under this plan, the new taxes would not be due until 2021 or 2022, and the $200 million in emergency spending for this year would be paid through an interfund loan. Jump Start Seattle At Seattle City Councils's Select Budget Committee Wednesday a competing payroll tax was introduced by councilmember Teresa Mosqueda. Mosqueda's plan, called "Jump Start Seattle" would impose a smaller, .7 percent tax on large businesses with payrolls between $7 million and $1 billion, and a 1.4 percent tax on companies with payrolls greater than one billion. The taxes would also increase for the payrolls of employees who make over $500,000 annually. (Seattle City Council) All together, the program would raise an estimated $174 million annually. Story continues The Jump Start Seattle tax would be effective starting next year with the first payments due in the final quarterly payment of 2021. If implemented, $86 million would immediately be given for coronavirus relief for small businesses, immigrants and refugee support programs, housing and food security. That money would then be replenished by the Jump Start Seattle tax next year. The remaining $88 million raised in 2021 would be split as follows: $65 million for continuing emergency services $17 million for COVID-19 relief programs funded in 2020 $4 million for administration costs. After 2021 the money would then be split between affordable housing investments, equitable development, and supporting local businesses. Debating the differences The obvious difference between the two is that Jump Start Seattle would raise some $300 million less for emergency funds and social services, which has drawn it some criticism as a "half-measure" compared to Sawant and Morales' more robust proposal. "That is a big difference, and given the scope of the housing affordability crisis, I just don't understand why we should accept this much lower number," said Sawant. Another sticking point is that Mosqueda's plan includes a sunset provision, meaning the tax would expire in 10 years time, or if another progressive taxing plan was passed at the state or county level. Several supporters of Sawant and Morales' plan gave public comments before Wednesday's meeting asking for the rejection of the sunset provision saying Seattle needed a more permanent progressive taxing solution. Others did not see it that way, including councilmember Lisa Herbold, who said that 10 years would be plenty of time for the city to reassess the tax. "If the state fails to act over the next 10 years to correct our upside down tax code, the city council would very likely act to block the tax code because we will still have the same challenges we have now," said Herbold. Despite the major differences in their approaches to a payroll tax, both councilmembers Sawant and Mosqueda recognized they were fighting for a similar goal, and one that had seemed almost impossible after the head tax debacle in 2018. "Look at the conversation we are having, it is completely on a different magnitude of revenues than the one that got repealed in 2018, that shows the pressure on big business," said Sawant. Both proposals will be discussed again at next Wednesday's Select Budget Committee. Related stories: Updated 'Tax Amazon' Plan Includes $200M For Coronavirus Relief Decapitated: Seattle's 'Amazon' Head Tax Killed By Council This article originally appeared on the Seattle Patch YEREVAN. In her speech Wednesday at the National Assembly of Armenia, Lilit Makunts, the head of the majority My Step faction in the legislature, referred to the statements by the MPs of the Prosperous Armenia faction on silencing the opposition. "Just as the political majority cannot silence the opposition, so the opposition cannot silencewith its statements, or in some other way, by making political statementsthe political majority," she said, in particular. Makunts noted that in their speeches on Tuesday as well, their Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) parliamentary faction colleagues spoke about the attempts to silence the political opposition, and they spoke about it while the My Step faction was silent. "Now let me explain why we were silent. Because in the legal process, the My Step faction had nothing else to do but listen to the prosecutor's motion, listen to the questions, speeches of the PAP faction, and make its decision during the secret ballot. We were silent because both the public of the Republic of Armenia and the international partners have the right to hear and understandwithout unnecessary overflow, unnecessary interferencewhat was going on, regardless of how diligently the opposition colleagues tried to present it as 'political persecution,'" she said. Makunts noted that boycotting is the right of the opposition, appealing to various instances, including international ones, is also the right of the opposition, but at the same time, it is everyone's moral duty to be honest and transparent with Armenias society and international partners. "Yes, freedom of speech, democracy, pluralism are the important achievements of Armenia. (...). From now on, everyone in the Republic of Armenia is equal before the law," the head of My Step faction emphasized, in particular. The Bexar County Sheriff's Office released body camera footage from an incident where shots were fired near deputies. Sheriff Javier Salazar who labeled the video "disturbing" estimated that 14 shots were fired at deputies assisting a stranded driver, including one that can be heard whizzing by. The incident occurred on the Far East Side around 3:30 a.m. on June 6. Officials believe the shots were fired from a vehicle driving near the intersection of Woodlake Parkway and Binz-Engleman Road. READ MORE: Crime Stoppers offering reward for ID of individuals who shot at BCSO deputies Bexar County Sheriff's Office "Its a scary sound," Salazar said at a news conference Tuesday. "Its certainly sobering when you think about that those were two deputies that were just doing their jobs and a civilian that was just a stranded motorist. "Anyone of those three or even all three could have been seriously injured or even killed as a result of this indiscriminate shooting." The sheriff said shell casings were found about 200 yards away. He believes someone saw police lights in the distance and shot in their general direction. "The fact that it got close enough to where you can actually hear the bullets whizzing by on the body camera tells me that they almost hit their intended target," Salazar said. In the video, the deputy returns to his vehicle and calls for backup. Officials are considering the case an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and appealing to the public for information. Salazar also provided an update on COVID-19 at the county jail Tuesday. He said all inmates currently in custody have been tested for the virus and new arrivals are being held in isolation units pending their test results. There are 30 active coronavirus cases among inmates at the facility. Since the onset of the pandemic, 456 inmates have tested positive. Eighteen deputies (15 detention, 3 law enforcement) are currently COVID-19 positive. The sheriff noted San Antonio residents have become lax in adhering to social distancing measures. "We are absolutely getting a bit complacent and I can tell you, to steal a phrase from law enforcement training, complacency kills," Salazar said. The Thalassery Arch Diocese of Syro-Malabar church in north Kerala on Wednesday suspended two priests after an alleged audiotape of the two engaged in a sleazy talk surfaced on social media and online sites. The diocese has also tendered an apology to believers. The two were supposed to hold a high moral ground but they failed, said a statement issued by the public relations officer of the diocese signed on June 14. Both Father Joseph Poothattil and Father Mathew Mullappallil were debarred and restrained from carrying out priestly duties indefinitely, said the diocese. Both are parish priests in north Kerala. Last year a woman believer had complained to the diocese about their alleged sexual advances. Some believers also complained about their behaviour. But the church brushed aside these charges and defended them. Last week, two audio clips surfaced on social media in which one of the priests was heard allegedly saying he had an illicit relationship with the woman in question and wanted to come out of it. One of them was also heard detailing his sexual dalliance with the woman. Later some video clips also surfaced. Soon these clips went viral, forcing church authorities to take action against them. Whatever we want to say is there in the statement. We dont want to make more comments on this, said the spokesman of the archdiocese. Police said they are yet to get a complaint in this regard. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON - Kenya is seeking election to the UN Security Council when voting is done Wednesday, June 17 - In his final pitch, Uhuru said a vote for Kenya was a vote for global peace, solidarity and multilateralism - Many other citizens joined in and explained to the world why the country deserved the global vote President Uhuru Kenyatta has explained how the world stands to benefit if Kenya is elected to join the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Kenya is the African Union endorsed candidate for the non-permanent seat on the Security Council to represent Eastern Africa and is vying for the regional slot against stubborn neighbour, Djibouti. READ ALSO: 2 Sarova Stanley employees in court for leaking CCTV footage of Raila, Uhuru in CBD at night Read more President Uhuru Kenyatta making final pitch for powerful UNSC seat from State House, Nairobi. Photo: State House. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Cate Waruguru aanika baadhi ya tabia za DP Ruto, asema hafai kuwa Rais Making his final pitch ahead of the United Nations General Assembly voting slated for Wednesday, June 17, Uhuru made it clear that Kenya deserved the global vote and, if elected, the countrys positive influence would be felt the world over. A vote for Kenya is a vote for peace. A vote for Kenya is a vote for global solidarity. A vote for Kenya is a vote for multilateralism, he told permanent representatives of various countries to the UN hosted by Kenya during a virtual campaign on Tuesday night. READ ALSO: Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala elected chair of Senate committee set to probe Anne Waiguru The president told the diplomats that Kenyas crucial experience as the host nation of UN-Habitat and UNEP global headquarters places the country in a prime position to champion the worlds sustainable development agenda. I speak to you from Nairobi. Your only global capital in the South where the UN resides taking care of our environment and our habitat, he said. I speak to you from Nairobi, the capital where we recently hosted one of the first blue economy conferences bringing the nations of the world together to see how we can not only preserve our oceans for future generations but how we can exploit them in a sustainable manner for present generations, the head of state added. Uhuru lobbied the representatives to vote for Kenya based on the countrys track record of democracy, respect for human rights and solidarity. I want to give you Kenyas story. Kenyas story is one that believes and trusts that together we are stronger. One that believes that through democracy, through respect for human life and through unity, more can be achieved than individually, he stated. We want you to believe in us. We want you to trust in us. We want you to see our track record over the years. Stand with us as Kenya stands with you. The New York based envoys affirmed their support for Kenyas candidature saying the country has an impressive track record as an able and dependable partner. Uhurus lobbying climaxed a day of intense campaigns that saw the citizenry join in the final push to ensure Kenya clinched the powerful seat, proudly explaining to the world why the East African country was best suited for the position. Below is a sample of appeals by individual Kenyans on what Kenyas election would mean to the world. 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. Kenya's greatest football coach now lives in a mabati house - Marshall Mulwa | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Rob Frohwein, CEO of Kabbage Adam Jeffery | CNBC LeoPatrizi Kabbage has now provided PPP funding to over 130,000 businesses, with an average loan size of about $29,000, compared to the SBA's total average of $113,000. More than 80% of recipients have five employees or fewer, and many are so small that they don't have established relationships with banks. Kabbage claims that more than 90% of the applications they processed for self-employed businesses were automated, meaning the borrower didn't have to communicate with anyone on Frohwein's team, and many applicants receive SBA approval the same day. On Tuesday, Kabbage launched a streamlined PPP application for Uber drivers and delivery people using Uber to make it easier for them to apply for federal-relief funding. 'Fintech's shining moment' "This has been fintech's shining moment," said Frohwein. "Ten years ago there's zero chance that most businesses we serve would've gotten funding. The banks would've only worked with much larger small businesses out there." Kabbage landed the 24th spot on CNBC's 2020 Disruptor 50 list, revealed Tuesday. Because of its involvement in the PPP program, Kabbage is doling out significantly more money than in the past and often in much smaller increments. Frohwein said the company had previously projected $3.6 billion in originations this year but has already exceeded that amount, albeit with a very different kind of loan. In more normal times, Kabbage would underwrite a loan, charging a rate that accounts for the risk associated with a particular small business and its industry. The PPP loans, by contrast, are virtually risk-free for Kabbage, since they're backed by the government. Each brings with it a low fee paid to the lender. The gratitude we've received from customers we helped is kind of overwhelming. We think a large number will work with us on a go-forward basis. Rob Frohwein Kabbage co-founder and CEO A look ahead Economists say May could represent a low point, after which demand for Asian goods is likely to pick up. Latest export figures from two of Asias most trade-dependent economies Japan and Singapore show that as countries around the world slowly start to lift lockdowns that have crippled demand for consumer goods, the recovery is likely to be patchy and slow. Japans exports fell in May at the fastest pace since the 2009 global financial crisis as car shipments to the United States plunged, bolstering expectations for a deep contraction in the worlds third-largest economy this quarter. Weak global demand for cars and slowing business spending could drag on Japans export-led economy, even as China-bound trade shows signs of picking up and US and European economies reopen. The trade data came a day after the Bank of Japan increased its support for struggling businesses through lending schemes to $1 trillion. Ministry of Finance data released on Wednesday showed Japans exports fell 28.3 percent in the year to May, worse than a 26.1-percent decrease expected by economists in a Reuters poll. That followed a 21.9-percent decline in April and marked the biggest annual drop since September 2009. Exports bound for the US Japans key market halved to mark the biggest annual drop since March 2009, due to a more than 70-percent decline in shipments of cars and car parts, the trade data showed. Exports to China, Japans largest trading partner, fell 1.9 percent in the year to May, a smaller drop than the prior months 4 percent annual decline. Shipments to Asia, which account for more than half of Japanese exports, declined 12 percent, and exports to the European Union also fell 33.8 percent. Japans economy slipped into recession for the first time in four and a half years in the first quarter, and is on course for its deepest post-war slump as the pandemic ravages businesses and consumers. A horrible picture Some analysts warn of an even bleaker picture for the current quarter as consumption crumbled after the government asked citizens to stay home and businesses to close. This is a helpful reminder that while some domestic figures may well bounce as some lockdowns ease, the global picture remains horrible, Robert Carnell, head of research for the Asia-Pacific region at Dutch bank ING, said in a research note sent to Al Jazeera. But others say demand for Japanese goods could recover in the coming months. We suspect that May was the nadir for external trade as many of Japans trading partners started to emerge from lockdowns, Capital Economics senior Japan economist Marcel Thieliant said in a note sent to Al Jazeera. Imports fell 26.2 percent in the year to May, versus the median estimate for a 20.4-percent decrease, posting the biggest drop since October 2009. As a result, the trade balance resulted in a deficit of 833.4 billion yen ($7.8bn), versus the median estimate of a 1.07 trillion yen ($10bn) shortfall. For Singapore, its exports of goods manufactured in the country such as pharmaceuticals and electronics, and excluding transhipments of oil, collectively known as non-oil domestic exports (NODX) fell by 4.5 percent in May compared with the same month last year, data from the trade agency Enterprise Singapore showed, slowing sharply from the 9.7-percent rise the month before. This was worse than the 0.1-percent decline predicted by economists in a Reuters poll. Two consecutive months of month-on-month NODX falls confirms that the strength seen earlier in the year is wearing off, Prakash Sakpal, an economist at ING, said in the note sent to Al Jazeera. Indeed, it was lop-sided vigour, unsurprisingly led by a surge in pharmaceutical exports, while key exports electronics were missing in action. This state of affairs reversed in May with pharma posting a 7 percent fall and electronics surging by 12.5 percent, Sakpal added. Bangladesh on Wednesday launched the clinical trial of combination of anti-parasitic and antibiotic vaccines to treat Covid-19 after getting positive results in patients administered with the mix of two drugs. Bangladesh-based International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICCDRB) said the trial would be conducted on 72 infected patients in four hospitals treating Covid-19 in Dhaka, while the study has commenced in Kurmitola General Hospital and Mugda Medical College and Hospital and discussions with others are underway. Today, ICCDR has started a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of anti-parasitic medicine Ivermectin in combination with antibiotic doxycycline or Ivermectin alone, the centre said in a statement. A Bangladeshi doctors team led by senior medicine specialist Professor Tarek Alam prescribed the combination as it initially cured within days all the 60 Covid-19 patients who were administered with the drugs. According to the ICDDRB, the study will include Covid-19 patients between 40-65 years of age with mild illness for less than seven days. One group of participants will receive a single dose Ivermectin along with five doses of doxycycline, while another group will receive Ivermectin alone once a day for five days, while the third group will receive a placebo for five days. The test medicine and placebo will be packaged identically and neither the participants nor the physicians will have the knowledge about who is receiving which treatment. According to a statement by the ICDDRB, a panel of international and local experts were involved with this clinical trial which will be concluded in next two months. The ICDDRs announcement came hours after the countrys healthcare authorities said experts concerned were asked to quicken examinations on the efficacy of a two-drug combination and studies on it were underway in line with medical protocols. Nearly 100,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Bangladesh, while approximately 1,305 patients have died, 43 of them in the last 24 hours. The centre said their study, being supported by Bangladeshs leading drug maker Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd, aimed to understand the virological clearance rate and days required for remission of fever and cough by using Ivermectin with or without doxycycline. It will also try to understand the changes in oxygen requirement, reasons for patients failing to maintain oxygen saturation (SpO2) above 88 per cent despite oxygenation, changes in number of days on oxygen support and hospitalisation, and causes of mortality, the statement read. Beximco Pharma Managing Director Nazmul Hassan called the proposed clinical trial well designed and first such randomised experiment in the country. Should the outcomes be positive from this trial, as well as other ongoing trials in different countries, Ivermectin can offer itself as a highly affordable and readily available solution for the Covid-19 pandemic, he said. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier approved Ivermectin as a drug for parasitic infections while it has been in use since 1980 and according to ICDDRB, it is previously shown to have broad-spectrum anti-viral activity in vitro. Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Abul Kalam Azad earlier said that once a technical study team of his office gave a go ahead, the combination drugs would be prescribed for limited-scale application among Covid-19 patients. He said ahead of a massive-scale application or widened use to treat Covid-19 patients, the combination would have to exhaust clinical trials under the supervision of regulatory Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC). These are low-cost drugs, Bangladesh will be proud, if the combination is proven effective against the coronavirus, said Health Ministrys additional secretary Habibur Rahman Rahman. Head of medicine of private Bangladesh Medical College Hospital (BMCH) Alam led the team in experimenting the combination which, he said worked very well for mild and moderate cases of coronavirus. He said the team now wanted to see the combinations effectiveness on patients with severe coronavirus infections administering them with increased doses of medicines. Doctors at different facilities said they were unofficially using the matching, observing their effectiveness. WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Wednesday urged Congress to adopt new legislation that could punish Facebook, Google and Twitter for a wide array of harmful content posted online, threatening to erode a long-cherished legal immunity that Silicon Valley says is critical to the future of the Internet. The new legislation would target Section 230, a decades-old portion of law that spares social media sites from being held liable for the posts, photos and videos uploaded to their sites by their users. The proposal would pave the way for steep sanctions on major online platforms if they don't act to remove a range of illicit content, from child exploitation to terrorism, according to Justice Department officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity Wednesday. The agency also seeks to force tech giants to be more transparent about their content-moderation decisions and more consistent in their enforcement of them, according to a report the department released Wednesday. The move might offer the U.S. government a new avenue to probe and punish companies over allegations of political bias. And the new proposal further raises the possibility that tech companies could lose their legal protections if their security practices, including their use of end-to-end encryption, hamstrings law enforcement. Such technology allows only the sender and recipient of a message to view a conversation's content. Tech giants including Facebook increasingly have adopted encryption to protect users' privacy, especially in messaging apps, but Justice Department officials say the technology allows harmful content to evade detection. For months, Attorney General William Barr had teased such recommendations, questioning whether Section 230 had spared "titans" in the tech industry from accountability for their misdeeds. But the department's efforts took on new urgency this month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to introduce more government oversight of political speech on the Web. Trump issued his highly controversial directive out of concern that Facebook, Google and major social media sites are systematically censoring conservatives, a charge that each of those tech giants long has denied. The resulting debate has triggered a groundswell of concern that the White House, Justice Department and other government agencies are pursuing policies that could ultimately threaten free expression online. Spokesmen for Facebook, Google and Twitter declined to comment. The Internet Association, a Washington-based trade group representing those companies and other online services, sharply rebuked the Justice Department for its proposal. "Rolling back Section 230 protections will make it harder, not easier, for online platforms to make their platforms safe," Jon Berroya, interim president of the group, said in a statement. "The threat of litigation for every content moderation decision would hamper IA member companies' ability to set and enforce community guidelines and quickly respond to new challenges in order to make their services safe, enjoyable places for Americans." The Justice Department proposal illustrates Washington's fast-growing, wide-ranging apprehensions about the way Silicon Valley conducts business. Federal regulators in recent years have become more attuned to the dangers posed by large technology companies, including the ways that social media sites can be weaponized to spread harmful, false content at scale. The agency embarked on its broad review of Big Tech beginning last year, an inquiry that has also included antitrust issues at a time when the government is preparing to file a lawsuit against Google on competition grounds, The Washington Post previously has reported. In hearing from tech companies and critics alike, the Justice Department quickly determined the industry had outpaced one of its own foundational laws. "The time has therefore come to realign the scope of Section 230 with the realities of the modern internet so that it continues to foster innovation and free speech but also provides stronger incentives for online platforms to address illicit material on their services," the department said in a report issued Wednesday. With Section 230, however, the agency's proposal rests entirely in the hands of Congress, where the Trump administration's actions targeting the tech industry at times have invited more skepticism than support - even among lawmakers who share a belief that Silicon Valley should be more aggressively regulated. On one hand, Democrats and Republicans alike have found rare accord in attacking Section 230, fearing the decades-old legal shield has outlived its usefulness. Congress adopted the 1990s-era law to spare Internet companies in their infancy from a raft of lawsuits they never would have survived. But the rules now protect some of the most profitable companies in the world from being held liable for some of their missteps, including their failures to crack down on political falsehoods, election disinformation and hate speech. Such concerns led lawmakers from both parties to unveil a bill that could strip Section 230 protections from companies that fail to crack down on child sexual exploitation online. But their loose consensus on the need for reform often has broken down because of politics, as Trump and his Republican allies allege Facebook, Google and Twitter unfairly target their enforcement actions against right-leaning users and websites. Democrats see the allegations as an attempt to score preferential treatment online in the heat of an election year. "I've certainly been one of Congress's loudest critics of Section 230, but I have no interest in being an agent of Bill Barr's speech police," said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, one of the authors of bipartisan legislation to reform the law, in a statement Wednesday. "I'm deeply concerned that President Trump and Attorney General Barr are exploiting Big Tech's complicity in human misery to advance their own political agenda." Adding to the tensions, Trump signed an executive order this month that could open the door for the U.S. government to assume oversight of political speech on the Web. The president issued the directive days after Twitter took the rare step of labeling one of his tweets as violating its policies. Lawmakers, conservative advocacy groups, free-speech experts and tech giants blasted Trump for the order, and an organization backed by Facebook and Twitter soon challenged it in federal court as a violation of the First Amendment. Some Republicans, in contrast, have championed Trump's action and in recent days have sought to further needle the industry. A new bill sponsored by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., would open the door for Web users to sue Facebook, Google and Twitter for wrongly taking down their content online, the senator announced Wednesday. Click here to read the full article. Now that the Oscar date has been set for April 25, the film community is struggling to rearrange its calendar, from the film festivals to the award shows that feed the Oscar pipeline. While no festival solely exists to feed the Oscar machine, the complex ecosystem that supports festivals, acquisitions, discovery films, awards titles, and Oscar campaigns has never been more fragile. However, the pandemic is throwing the entire interlocking network out of whack. Its not as simple as moving everything back two months. Thats what the Oscars are doing, in order to give studios and independents more time to complete and release their films, as production and theaters are slowly limping back. As soon as the new date was set for the ABC telecast next spring, questions arose about the next set of rolling changes, which effects distributors picking theater dates, talent availability, and more. More from IndieWire Awards shows and festivals that rely on talent availability were the first to move ahead. Within hours, BAFTA quickly picked a new date (April 11), leaving more room for travel than customary, followed by the Independent Spirit Awards (April 24), always held the day before the Oscars, and the awards-friendly Santa Barbara International Film Festival (March 31 April 10, 2021), which usually comes toward the end of the Sundance Film Festival in January. Suddenly, weekend dates in March and April are the new prime real estate as the Writers, Directors, and Producers Guilds jockey for new slots with the likes of the Critics Choice Awards. The Palm Springs International Film Festival, which runs its awards gala in early January ahead of the Golden Globes, will take a little longer for its board to figure out. And the Hollywood Foreign Press Association also has a decision to make about the Golden Globes, usually held in early January. Story continues The entire 2020/2021 calendar is in flux. Just as AFI Docs 2020 benefited from movies that skipped canceled festivals, gaining world premieres like last years Oscar-winners Steven Bognar and Julia Reicherts 9to5: The Story of a Movement, theres a slew of titles that are heading for the fall 2020 festival circuit that begins at the end of August with Venice and continues through Labor Day weekends Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, followed by Septembers Toronto festival, which is determined to meet any eventuality and will announce its plans before the end of June. The New York Film Festival is considering a range of options, including outdoor screenings; however, the Lincoln Center gathering is less beholden to maintaining awards season hype as a crucial part of its identity and may have an easier time figuring out its lineup as a result. Netflix, for one, is not participating in the fall festivals to give filmmakers time to finish their movies. European festivals may be more local, with few attendees from North America and virtual talent participation. The Telluride Film Festival is proceeding as though the festival is happening, with practical plans to be revealed by mid-July. But the festival will be dependent on whether the state of Colorado allows theaters to open in time. If not, the county will need to obtain a variance from the state to show films in theaters. So far, Colorado has battled back the virus more successfully than many other states. The fall film festivals will likely keep their dates, because they risk running into a second wave if they try to move. Their choice: make do with the product that is coming their way so far (and hope that it doesnt move back), settle for local or virtual talent, and make room for emerging talent and risky programming choices, including some of the highlights from the Cannes 2020 selection. Most celebrities are not ready to travel as yet. Nothing is going to change about people flying, said one awards strategist. Youll get certain filmmakers and indies. Chris Nolan is not flying around. We dont know what theatrical looks like. Its not like the festivals have the same well to draw from. Everyone is trying to reimagine the first quarter of 2021. What films that were heading for 2020 release will hold for early 2021? How will this change the role of the 2021 Sundance and Berlin festivals, which could theoretically introduce films in time for them to be released ahead of the Oscars? Will they become new awards platforms? Sundance premieres occasionally do make their way into Oscar season, but its mostly future documentary winners that have started their runs there in the past. Reeling from AMPAS decision, wrote one veteran awards campaigner in an email. Expected, of course, but now clients are re-examining strategies and release dates. So many questions. How will Sundance lean into an awards platform? New films without distributors will find it logistically tough to open in time to qualify, as the Oscar documentary shortlist voting starts on February 1, the day after the Sundance festival ends (January 31). This past years Sundance 2020 documentaries, for example, have an advantage over other rivals that have been impacted by not launching in live film festivals. A representative for Sundance declined to comment on how the current climate has impacted its next steps, but the festival is actively planning its 2021 edition. Still to be determined are the new Best International Film Oscar deadlines, among many other questions at hand. Whats anyone to do? We kind of plan and prepare, said Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, who is juggling his release schedule and waiting to see who shows up for Tenet on July 31. And be ready to tonally change the plan if more variables show up. Well send our films everywhere we can. We dont know. Additional reporting by Eric Kohn. Best of IndieWire Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:04:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SHANGHAI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A Shanghai court on Wednesday sentenced Chinese real estate tycoon, Wang Zhenhua, to five years in prison for child molestation. The presiding judge said Wang was given a heavier punishment according to law, as he caused severe consequence of second-degree minor injuries to his victim, who was under 12 years old, and refused to confess to his criminal acts amid trials, according to the people's court in the Putuo district of Shanghai. Wang was the chairman of Shanghai-based property developer Seazen Holdings Co., Ltd. The company published a notice on July 3, 2019, confirming that Wang, then 57, had been detained. He was arrested on July 10, 2019, on a charge of child molestation. Another defendant, Zhou Yanfen, was sentenced to four years in prison on the same day. According to media report, Zhou, a friend of the victim's mother, took the then 9-year-old girl from neighboring Jiangsu Province to a hotel in Shanghai where she was molested. Enditem YEREVAN. Taking into account the legal and political "boundlessness" that took place yesterday, the PAP [Prosperous Armenia Party] faction is boycotting the NA [National Assembly] session, and right now we are leaving the sessions hall. Arman Abovyan, secretary of the opposition Prosperous Armenia faction, stated this in the National Assembly Wednesday. "I regret that the [parliament] majority, which came to power with the slogans of restoring democratic values, respecting the mans right to freedom of speech and opinion in Armenia, is trying to silence political opponents. Armenia does not have resources to become a dictatorship. We will fight for real democratic values in the Republic of Armenia, for the social, economic, and political rights of every citizen. And what happened yesterday () in this hall is nothing but political revenge against the political force that expressed disagreement with your opinion, and its leader. The whole international community, the European organizations are closely following these repressive processes taking place in Armenia against the PAP and Gagik Tsarukyan, Abovyan also said. To note, the NA on Tuesday approved Prosecutor General Artur Davtyans petitions to take parliamentary opposition PAP leader, MP, and business tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan into custody and to initiate criminal proceedings against him. New Delhi, June 17 : India will send a 75-member tri-service contingent to Moscow to participate in Russia's military parade to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the nation's victory in World War II. "The contingent will participate in the parade in Moscow to honour the heroism and sacrifices made by the Russian and other friendly people," the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday. The Victory Day Parade is scheduled to be held on June 24. The contingent is visiting Moscow on invitation of the Defence Minister of Russia. Contingents of other countries are also expected to participate in the parade. The participation in the parade will be a mark of tribute and solidarity with the people of Russia at a time when they remember their heroes of the war. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sent a congratulatory message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of Victory Day on May 9. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has also sent a congratulatory message to his counterpart Sergei Shoigu on the occasion. Wellington, 13 June 2020 (SPS)- The organization specializing in the protection of Saharawi natural resources, "Western Sahara Campaign-NZ," demanded from New Zealand government to stop its illegal import of phosphate extracted from occupied Western Sahara. In a statement made public Saturday by the local press, the organization regretted that "once again, New Zealand fertilizer companies Ravensdown and Ballance Agri-Nutrients continue to participate in the plunder of Western Sahara natural resources." "We can see that the financial interests of certain New Zealand companies have prevailed over the commitments linked to international rights and human rights," said the organization. In this regard, Western Sahara Campaign-NZ "calls on the government to force Ravensdown and Ballance Agre-Nutrients to stop importing of phosphate extracted from Western Sahara." "The government's lack of determination and the pursuit of the two companies activities undermine the prestige of New Zealand, "said the organization. "It is time for New Zealanders to say no to blood-stained phosphate," said the NGO. (SPS) 062/SPS/APS New Delhi, June 17 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the UP government to file an affidavit in two weeks, clarifying whether Noida officials were quarantining Covid-19 asymptomatic people. The court also took a grim view of reports about a pregnant woman's death due to non-availability of hospital beds. The Bench, comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, S.K. Kaul and M.R. Shah, was hearing a plea, seeking direction on easing of movement in the national capital region. When the Bench queried the UP government counsel if borders had been opened, he said they were open for essential services and the National Highways were also open now. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan intervened to say Noida had adopted a different procedure in connection with institutional quarantine and home quarantine. "Don't put asymptomatic people in hospitals. It will create a problem," the Bench observed. Sankaranarayanan argued that practice was causing deaths, and cited the death of a pregnant woman as she could not get a hospital bed. "This was because asymptomatic people were admitted," he submitted. On this the Bench said, "Don't be in a denial mode," and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to look into matter. Earlier, the top court had pulled up the Noida District Magistrate for not following Covid-19 quarantine protocol issued by the Centre. Its depiction of the situation of the family, of the moment, is so beautifully done, says Wall Street Journal classical critic Heidi Waleson in a phone interview. Waleson, along with the critic George Loomis, co-chaired the committee that selected Blue for the fourth annual award, which honors both the composer and librettist of an opera premiered in either the United States or Canada. Critics Arthur Kaptainis, John Rockwell and Alex Ross also served on the committee. Past recipients of the honor include Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek for Breaking the Waves in 2017, David Hertzberg for The Wake World in 2018, and Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins for p r i s m in 2019. This years runners-up were Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons (presented by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis) and prisoner of the state by David Lang (presented by New York Philharmonic). The return to work policy and the suspension of all measures to contain the coronavirus is the new accepted reality advanced by Brazilian politicians, the media and the corporate-financial elite. They are not shaken by the eruption of new cases and deaths from the disease, which, according to official numbers, has killed 45,000 people in Brazil. A video commercial published by Bradesco Bank declares: Everyone understands the importance of staying home now. But we know that this was not possible for you. It then presents images of workers at industries, cleaning, health care, delivery and a several other services, including, of course, their own bank employees: People who wake up early, who work hard, who take risks. People who are doing what needs to be done. In the name of resuming the flow of profits to banks and shareholders, these workers are being sent into extremely unsafe workplaces that are contaminated with COVID-19. Those workers then bring the disease home to their families and neighbors. This is what has guaranteed the best May since 2009 for the Brazilian stock market. Workers at JBS meat processing plant in Rio Grande do Sul. (Credit: MPT) Outbreaks of coronavirus are taking place in large companies, impacting hundreds of thousands of workers across the country. Cities built around large meat processing plants and mines are suffering from mass contamination. A report published by the Taquari Valley University (Univates) in Lajeado, a city with a high concentration of meat-processing plants in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, concluded that the contamination rate in the city is 14 times higher than in the rest of the state. Among the more than 16,000 workers in meat plants, the chance of being infected is 207 percent higher. In early May, a BRF Foods plant in Lajeado was closed by the State Labor Department (MPT) for posing a serious risk to the citys health. It was reopened eight days later, after a plea deal involving the allocation of 1,200,000 reais (around US$ 230,000) to local hospitals. The same pattern is repeated in meat-processing plants across Brazil. In Mato Grosso do Sul, in the central region of the country, the MPT has already given notice to more than 30 industries in the sector for not following the most basic health recommendations. One of the worst outbreaks in the state occurred at the JBS factory in Dourados, where more than 400 of the approximately 4,000 employees tested positive for COVID-19. The indigenous reservation of Dourados, the largest concentration of indigenous people in the country, where around 16,000 people live, already has 86 confirmed coronavirus cases. Community transmission at the reservation started after a resident who works at the JBS plant became contaminated at work. In an emergency statement, the Guarani & Kaiowa indigenous leaders warned that the population of the reservation, which lacks health infrastructure and adequate housing, stands in the face of yet another massacre with the arrival of COVID-19. JBS responded by sending home the infected workers and indigenous people working in the plant and continuing the production as before, claiming it follows a strict protocol for controlling and preventing the disease. They also announced a donation of 21,000,000 reais (around US$ 4,000,000) to the public health care system of Mato Grosso do Sul, to compensate for the devastation it is causing. The already terrible working conditions in the Brazilian meat-processing plants may worsen. On behalf of the meat corporations, Federal Deputy Celso Maldaner of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), is proposing the elimination of legally-required breaks for workers working under low temperatures in the meat plants. Another series of outbreaks of COVID-19 occurs in the cities where Companhia Vale do Rio Doce carries out its mining operations. In Canaa dos Carajas, in the state of Para, where Vales largest complex and the worlds largest iron mine are located, the rate of COVID-19 contamination among its inhabitants is almost 4 percent. In June 10, the city had 1,417 confirmed cases for a population of 36,027. After the company carried out rapid tests among its employees, the various cities in Minas Gerais where Vale carries out its explorations revealed high levels of contamination. In Itabirito, out 100 confirmed cases, 94 are of Vale employees. In Ouro Preto and Barao dos Cocais, miners account for about 80 percent of confirmed cases. Vales mining complex in the city of Itabirawhere around 10 percent of the companys production is carried outwas shut down by the MPT for the second time on June 6, after a surge of dozens of new coronavirus cases among the approximately 5,000 workers. At the end of May, the complex had already been closed after a report showed more than 200 had been infected. The working conditions exposed by the investigations are totally unsafe: workers are crowded at shift changes and are transported in tightly-packed vans. Operation inside closed cabins is also a potential risk factor, which helps transform mines into COVID-19 breeding grounds. The workers of the National Steel Company (CSN), the largest steel company in Brazil and Latin America, are also under high risk. The MPT requested the closure of a CSN mine in the city of Congonhas, which was denied by the courts. According to the MPT, a health investigation found flaws in the protective measures, agglomeration in transport and lack of distance between workers in some points of the company, such as cafeterias. Even in the companys offices, located in Sao Paulo, employees reported that the company is keeping its on-site activities operating under unsafe conditions, such as lack of proper cleaning and crowded cafeterias, even after dozens of employees had been contaminated. There is growing anger among the CSN workers, who, in addition to the high risk at work, receive very low wages. In Volta Redonda, where their main mill is located, workers were furious at the beginning of the month with the signing of an agreement by the union that freezes wages for two years. In hundreds of comments on the Internet, workers have denounced the online voting process as a fraud. They claim that they were coerced by high-ranking employees to vote against the strike and threatened with being fired if they voted in favor. The voting, as always, is manipulated, we were not allowed to follow the process. I cant believe the workers accepted that. You cant trust this union, said one worker. The situation of workers at the meat and mining plants is just one case of many. Workers lives are in danger in most workplaces. Last week, Petrobras workers held demonstrations in front of the Presidente Bernardes Refinery in Cubatao, Sao Paulo, where more than 130 oil workers were infected and three died from COVID-19. According to Petrobras, there are more than 1,000 confirmed cases among employees across the country. There is an urgent need for rank-and-file workers to organize safety committees at workplaces all around the country, to develop safety procedures and regulations and inspect their implementation. We urge workers to read our statement, Build rank-and-file factory and workplace committees to prevent transmission of the COVID-19 virus and save lives! and contact us. 17.06.2020 LISTEN We live in a country where people who commit heinous crimes enjoy their lives with impunity. When some of these hardened criminals are caught, the legal proceedings against such people diminish month by month and year by year. Subsequently, some of these cases are left to rot in files. The murdered J. B. Dankwa Adu, who was an MP for Abuakwa North Constituency, was one of our own. Armed Suale, the journalist, who was allegedly shot dead was one of our own. The Takoradi School girls who got missing and were later found dead through the forensic examination of some dead remains, were also our own people. A number of other fellow country men and women are alleged to have been murdered but the perpetrators are no where to be found. When they are caught, justice is impeded. People live in fear. Many people are not allowed to enjoy their right to life as enshrined by the United Nations Protocols. In this regard, what is becoming a new normal in Ghana has to change. Name, shame and blame', and no punishment trend has to be reversed. The thieves who steal petty items like coconut, cassava, plantain, and goats must not go to jail while murderers enjoy good lives in detention cells. People have lost confidence in our judiciary but our confidence needs to be restored. The distiguish work of the Ghana Police must be rewarded in court with justice. The Police carry out their duties with professionalism but the Ghana circuit courts who are only interested in imprisoning the poor thieves, use a lackadaisical approach to treat cases that are of national interest. We, therefore, request our president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, to demand justice for the the murdered J.B. Dankwa Adu, Armed Suale and the Takoradi School girls before Ghanaians go to the polls in December 2020. Bengaluru: Amidst rising cases of coronavirus, poll bugle has already been sounded in Tamil Nadu. Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy-led AIADMK has roped in low profile, ace election strategist Sunil Kanugolu to mount a powerful campaign ahead of the Assembly polls due early next year. Interestingly, reclusive Sunil was the chief strategist for MK Stalin-led DMK alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. According to highly placed sources, Sunil has already started assisting the chief minister in coming out with a detailed plan to woo and retain voters ahead of the most crucial elections. When EPS became chief minister in a coup two months after the AIADMK supremo and chief minister J Jayalalithaas death, no one gave him even an outside chance. His tattering government was mocked and ridiculed by one and all. Most had written the obituary of the EPS government, the day he was sworn in as the CM in February 2017. Three years later, proving all the naysayers completely wrong, EPS is firmly in the saddle and has established full control over both the party and government. Even a total rout in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections has not impacted his government. The AIADMK managed to win just one seat, out of total 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. Sunil Kanugolu, is a native of Bellary in Karnataka. He hails from a well-known family. Born and brought up in Chennai, Sunil did his higher studies from the USA and was with a global management consulting firm McKinsey. After returning to India, Sunil was involved in political strategies in Gujarat and led the Association of Billion Minds (ABM). He was also one of the key strategists for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Sunil has handled the highly successful BJP campaign in the UP Assembly polls in early 2017. He was associated with MK Stalin and oversaw its brilliant Namakku Naame (We are for Ourselves) campaign during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The DMK-led alliance won 38 of the total 39 Parliament seats in that election. After his onetime colleague Prashant Kishor of IPAC, joined the DMK camp to strategise the campaign, Sunil left Stalin camp and moved to Bengaluru. Speaking to New18 a few months ago, Sunil had expressed his desire to take a break from the routine election strategies for some time. But, EPS persuaded him to advise him on government policies and election campaign. Sunil has already started working for EPS and closely monitoring the government policies and other political developments in the state. The popular perception is EPS is on a weak wicket and the DMK is on an upswing. In this context, Sunil joining the EPS team has led to a lot of excitement and speculations in the political circles of TN. One has to wait and watch how a quiet, no nonsense, sharp political brain Sunil will change the political fortunes of EPS in this do or die battle. BEIJING, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, New Hope Liuhe (SZ.000876) released its first English version of Corporate Social Responsibility report. Not long ago, New Hope Liuhe released its first annual report in English. According to New Hope Liuhe, "New Hope has been committed to building an investor friendly company. In order to better serve more and more overseas investors, we first disclosed English annual report and Corporate Social Responsibility report, aiming to deliver the investment value in us to overseas investors in more detail and constantly improve our international level." Corporate Social Responsibility report is an important carrier of non-financial information disclosure, and an important bridge between enterprises and stakeholders. In recent years, domestic and overseas investors not only pay attention to corporate financial data, but also pay more and more attention to the disclosure of a corporate's non-financial information. As a leading agri-food enterprise with whole industrial chain in China, New Hope Liuhe has a strong sense of social responsibility and actively undertakes its social responsibility. As early as 2008, it has started to release annual social responsibility reports. "Becoming a trustworthy force is the original aspiration of New Hope Liuhe, and it is also the growth gene of our continuous development," said Liu Chang, Chairwoman of New Hope Liuhe. As an enterprise that has been engaged in agri-food industry for nearly 40 years, New Hope Liuhe should always act as a reliable role. "We are safeguarding life with life and creating beauty with hope, to become a good company that actively fulfills its social responsibility." At "New Hope Liuhe 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility Report" online press conference, Deng Cheng, President of New Hope Liuhe, combining the development process of the enterprise's pig raising business, told how New Hope Liuhe undertake its social responsibility in the process of industrial upgrade and became a reliable force. The development model of "whole-region planning, whole-industrial chain layout and whole-ecology development" of New Hope Liuhe integrates local poverty alleviation program, drives the development of farmers with safe and controllable modern breeding technology, and supports environment protection with the combination of breeding and planting to ensure zero emission and zero pollution, thus forming an ecological closed loop at prefecture-level cities with whole industrial chain layout from feed production to breeding, fattening, slaughtering, and food processing. In addition, New Hope Liuhe has joined the international organizations the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), and actively promoted the food safety standards recognized by GFSI to safeguard the "safety on the tongue". It utilizes the advantages of whole industrial chain to provide consumers guaranteed food safety and wonderful products from the source of feed and breeding to food production and sales. http://www.newhopeagri.com/ SOURCE New Hope Liuhe Co. Ltd Related Links http://www.newhopeagri.com/ In a bid to check the importation of fake and substandard products into the country in line with established protocols, plans are underway to operationalise the National Single Window project as well as deploy scanners at the nations seaports before the end of the year. The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, stated this on Monday at an investigative hearing on the incessant influx of fake, substandard and counterfeit products into the country, organized by the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Commerce; Industry; Information; National Orientation; Ethics and Values. The minister said there is an implementation committee at work, of which he is a member, to ensure the single window and scanners are deployed appropriately. According to him, this will significantly improve cargo turnaround time at our ports, promote efficiency and transparency, thereby removing the corruption opportunities that fuel the entry of substandard goods into the country, and enhance Nigerian ports competitiveness in the West African region. Also, the federal government has called on relevant agencies to further strengthen the enforcement of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) alongside proposed PEBEC reform interventions. Under the programme, importers of a wide range of goods must obtain two certificates in order to operate: Product Certificate (PC), either unregistered, registered or licensed; and the SONCAP Certificate (SC). The Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, Jumoke Oduwole, represented at the hearing by Oluwatoyin Bashir, said the action would further complement the efforts of the Buhari Administration aimed at improving efficiency at port operations. Continuing, Ms Oduwole said the decision to streamline the operations of agencies at the port was first implemented by the previous administration in 2011, and again reinforced in 2018. She noted that the decision was based on empirical findings and taken following extensive stakeholder engagement after some agencies had again returned to the ports. Ms Oduwole said streamlining agencies operations at the port is at the core of Nigerias ease of doing business reforms and in line with global best practices aimed at removing bureaucratic constraints and reducing costs to doing business at the ports. She, however, commended the Standards Organisation of Nigeria for the phased automation of compliance certification process amongst other innovations in their operations. Earlier in his remarks at the opening of the hearing, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, represented by the Minority Leader at the House of Representatives, Ndidi Elumelu, commended the effort of the Joint Committee and was hopeful that the hearing will unravel the root causes of the menace of influx of counterfeited products into Nigeria. In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the House Committee on Commerce, Olufemi Fakeye stated that the hearing was vital to curbing the incidence of substandard products that has led to avoidable incidents in the country. He said the hearing will also contribute to the arduous task of addressing the challenges of eradicating imported counterfeit products, particularly in view of Nigerias commitment to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. With the Single Window, port community portal and functional scanners at the ports, PEBEC aims to ensure that save the exception of the lead agencies, Nigerian Customs Service, Nigerian Ports Authority and Nigerian Police Force, there will be little or no need for routine physical examination of cargo by additional agencies at the ports. Presentations were also made by the representatives of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), amongst other concerned parties. Thirty-seven-year-old Colonel Bikkumalla Santosh Babu wanted to be with the Indian Army since he was a boy. Babu, who was one of 20 Indian soldiers killed during a violent face-off with Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday night in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, even completed his Class 12 from Sainik School under the ministry of defence in Andhra Pradeshs Vizianagaram district. He then joined the premier National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune and the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun. The resident of Suryapet in Telangana was commissioned into the 16 Bihar regiment in 2004 and was posted in Jammu for the first time. Since then, he had been working on the borders in various locations. His father, B Upender, said he lived his ambition to join the armed forces through his son. Also read | What is China trying to achieve: 5 experts weigh in In fact, I wanted to join the army in my student days. But somehow the family circumstances did not permit me. I realised my dreams through my son, the 63-year-old said. Upender described his son, who was promoted as a colonel in February, as a brilliant guy both in studies and duties. I never expected that he would desert us like this. But I am proud he gave up his life for the country, he said. I am shocked. But I am also feeling proud for my son who laid down his life in service of the country, his mother, who was more composed than her husband, said. The colonel is survived by his mother Manjula, wife Santoshi, nine-year-old daughter Abhigna and four-year-old son Anirudh. His wife and children live in Delhi. Under pressure to pay unemployment benefits as quickly as possible during the coronavirus shutdown, the N.J. Labor Department pushed through tens of thousands of claims last month without a full review by an agent. While anxious workers were relieved when their benefits were finally approved and the money started flowing, many gig workers and self-employed individuals said they noticed their payments were often smaller than they expected. Many of these workers, who are not eligible for regular unemployment benefits but do qualify for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), said their earnings records make them eligible for a much higher weekly benefit than the $231 per week minimum they are being paid. All are also receiving the additional federal weekly $600 payment. In order to get as many New Jerseyans the most generous benefits as soon as possible, we began paying the minimum, said Labor spokeswoman Angela Delli-Santi. The U.S. Department of Labor said the state was allowed to move forward to facilitate payments. The decision to pay at the minimum, then readjust if needed, was made due to the volume of claims, and knowing how long it would to take to process the monetary redeterminations, she said. In other words, we did not want independent contractors and others without complete wage records on file to wait any longer to begin receiving some benefit, even if not everyone is receiving the full benefit immediately. When the PUA benefit amount is calculated, workers get 60% of their average weekly salary up to a maximum of $713 per week for up to a total of 39 weeks. The PUA amount for the self-employed is calculated using prior year(s) tax returns if wages are not reported through wage records, the Labor website says. The PUA minimum, for businesses operating at a loss or with insufficient income to qualify for benefits, is $231 per week. BEHIND THE SCENES Robert Asaro-Angelo, the commissioner of the Department of Labor said he believed there were some people who have received their correct amount if we had records about them from the Treasury Department. Other ones I think are still waiting for e-adjudication its not just $231, theyre getting $231 plus $600, so theyre getting $831, he said. Throughout this pandemic, every decision we have made has been about getting the most people money as quickly as possible so thats why we didnt want to wait for the e-adjudication certification of what their other earnings are, Asaro-Angelo said. We got that process up and running as quickly as possible to get more people paid quickly. In mid-May, the agency said it was making progress in clearing a backlog of claims from gig workers, the self-employed and independent contractors. The agency had to wait for additional guidance from the federal government about how to process the claims, then it had to program its computer system to handle them. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage These workers claims are more complicated and time consuming because it includes a review of two years of income history documents, such as tax returns. A careful review by an agent is especially important because if benefits are wrongly paid, even if its not a workers fault, its the workers responsibility to pay back the funds. But under pressure and facing record numbers of claims, the Labor Department in some cases skipped this step before approving benefits. Delli-Santi said the Labor Department will send an email to each claimant requesting wage information asking for weeks worked and wages, income and profit earned during the base year, which will be 2019 for PUA claims. When it is returned, we will process the monetary redetermination with the reported information, she said. No timetable. A total of 1.2 million workers who have applied for benefits in 12 weeks since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and 94%, or 1.02 million, at one point were deemed eligible and have collected benefits. The 94% includes people who may have collected as little as one payment and then had benefits stopped. The agency said it has paid out $6.25 billion in federal and state benefits since the crisis began. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. NJ Advance Media Statehouse reporter Brent Johnson contributed to this report. Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com. A Dozen Mexican Medical Associations' "Profound Disagreement" with the Hiring of Cubans In a letter to President Lopez Obrador, they consider it "a serious offense" that the government spent $6.2 million on the hiring of Cubans, as DIARIO DE CUBA revealed last week. Presidents and directors of four different associations, two schools, three federations, a society and a confederation of Mexican medical specialists sent a letter on Saturday to the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in which they expressed their "profound disagreement and vigorous dissent" in response to the hiring, with public money, of 585 Cuban doctors, who have been in the country's capital since April 28. The Mexican union's representatives deemed the hiring of the Cuban medical mission for 6.2 million dollars, revealed by DIARIO DE CUBA last week, "a serious affront to national health professionals." "These foreign doctors do not possess the required competencies, do not have duly specified functions, or comply with the requirements established by current legislation; and they lack endorsement by the (corresponding) professional associations. Their intervention has not entailed any benefits for the care of our population, but does constitute a serious breach of equal treatment for doctors in our country," they said They stated that most of their Cuban counterparts hired to deal with Covid-19 are "general doctors without specializations", who have been posted "in different hospital areas, or just for consultation support, undermining the functionality of the hospitals to which they are assigned." "It should be noted that, in Mexico, all general practitioners and specialists have documents and certificates endorsing their qualification for their practice, a regulation that has been violated by the decree allowing medical personnel lacking this certification to practice within the Mexican Republic." The signatories of the letter, obtained by DIARIO DE CUBA, also clarified that in their country there are already doctors with said endorsement from the Mexican universities, "fully trained to appreciate the needs and idiosyncrasies of our population", such that they saw no reason to hire Cubans. "We have been unfairly relegated, with priority being given to foreign doctors, ignoring the academic capacity of our universities. It is an injustice to favor foreigners over Mexican doctors when we comply with all the requirements established by the Law of Professions and General Health Law," the union representatives explained They also stated that it is "cause for indignation" that public money, already limited, was allocated "unfairly, apportioning fees to foreign personnel, and paying them a salary higher than that received by Mexican medical specialists at institutions in the Health sector. These are, in addition, economic resources that the Health sector urgently requires to combat the pandemic, for supplies, such as quality Personal Protective Equipment." The doctors close the letter by telling President Lopez Obrador that, although these are difficult times, "it is time to join forces." "We are sure that Mexicans, supported by their doctors, nurses, and all health personnel, will come out ahead and emerge stronger." The letter is endorsed by the Mexican College of Internal Medicine, Mexican Association for Disaster/Emergency Medicine, Mexican Association of General Surgery, Mexican Federation of Colleges of General Surgery Specialists, Mexican Federation of Colleges of Anesthesiology, Mexican Association of Pediatric Intensive Therapy, Mexican College of Critical Medicine, Mexican Federation of Colleges of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mexican Society of Emergency Medicine, National Pediatric Confederation of Mexico, Mexican Association for the Study of Nosocomial Infections, and the Mexican Association of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology. $ 10,693 for each Cuban doctor Last week, after an interview with the Health Secretary of the Mexican capital, Oliva Lopez Arellano, DIARIO DE CUBA revealed that the Institute of Health for Wellbeing (INSABI) pays Havana $6,255,792 for each Cuban professional; that is, about $ 10,693. DIARIO DE CUBA was able to later confirm, through a source with the Cuban medical brigade in Mexico, and another source close to these professionals, that until Sunday, June 7, doctors on the island had only received $660 for three months of work on their missions. Lopez Arellano stated that the funds distributed by Mexico are also allocated for training, specialization, consulting, and joint research, while hoteliers have made donations covering the Cuban doctors' accommodations. The export of professional services, mainly medical, is one of the Cuban government's main sources of revenue, with it retaining 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 at least three quarters of their salaries, Cuban health professionals sent on missions abroad are subjected to stringent surveillance and restrictions 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." Asked for her opinion in this regard, Lopez Arellano stated that the Cuban professionals' work in Mexico is "voluntary." At the time of the interview, conducted on June 3, she denied that Mexican doctors had complained about the Cuban doctors' presence or work. BERRIEN COUNTY, MI Four people have been hospitalized, one with serious injuries, after a two-vehicle crash in Southwest Michigan on Tuesday. Sheriffs deputies responded to the crash at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, near South 11th Street and Fort Street in Niles Township, according to a news release issued by Berrien County Sheriffs Office. Police said a 56-year-old woman driving a Nissan Sentra was leaving a Speedway gas station onto South 11th Street when she failed to yield the right-of-way and entered the path of a southbound Ford Explorer truck. The truck collided with the front driver-side door of the Nissan Sentra, police said. The 56-year-old woman, of Dowagiac, was transported to Memorial Hospital in Indiana to be treated for serious, possibly life-threatening, injuries, according to the release. The passenger of the Nissan, a 56-year-old woman from Edwardsburg, was taken to Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The driver of the Ford Explorer, a 72-year-old man from Niles, and the passenger of the truck, a 61-year-old woman from Niles, were both transported to Memorial Hospital in Indiana to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release. The crash remains under investigation by the sheriffs department. Sheriffs deputies were assisted on the scene by Niles Township Fire Department, Niles City Police Department and SMCAS Ambulance Services. More on MLive: 19-year-old hospitalized after being pulled from Lake Michigan Wrong-way drivers are deadly, ongoing concern on West Michigan freeways How police officers risked their lives in high-speed crash to stop wrong-way truck A Superior Court judge on Tuesday did not find Hillside Mayor Dahlia Vertreese in contempt of court after there were issues with fully reinstating towns police chief to his position in adherence to an earlier order. Superior Court Judge Karen Cassidy on Friday issued an order in an ongoing lawsuit over the leadership of the Hillside police department that temporarily reinstated Police Chief Vincent Ricciardi after, his attorney said, the mayor suspended him on June 1 over a stipend he asked for in 2018 for another officer. The mayor told NJ Advance Media Friday afternoon she would not reinstate the chief but recanted her statement after the Union County Prosecutors Office took control of the department. Acting Union County Prosecutor Lyndsay Ruotolo called the mayor on Friday after learning the chief returned to headquarters and wasnt reinstated. Ruotolo said she doesnt have the authority to appoint a chief but does have the power to oversee a department. If the order was not going to be enforced by the township tonight, there needed to be leadership in the Hillside Police Department and I would be exercising my authority to have oversight of the department, said Ruotolo, who was asked by the judge on Tuesday to explain the timeline of events last week. At which point, the chief would be reinstated pursuant to your court order. Ruotolo - who is not a party in the ongoing legal battle between the chief, Vetreese and township over the validity of Vicciardis suspension - said the mayor did not tell her until 6:40 a.m. on Monday that she intended to reinstate the chief. But at the point, the acting county prosecutor said, he already had been. Ronald Ricci, the chiefs attorney, said the judges order was not being fully complied with since Ricciardi is being supervised by the prosecutors office and doesnt have the same authority he had prior to June 1. But Joshua Zielinski, an attorney for the mayor, said the issue was moot by the time of the hearing since the chief had already been reinstated. The judge apparently agreed with the mayors attorney but said she found it troubling that Vertreese had significant issues in complying with the order. I think this is kind of a warning shot, Cassidy said. If this continues, I would have no choice but to have a hearing concerning contempt. The acting prosecutor explained all officers still report to Ricciardi, but decisions have to be vetted through her now. Kevin Grimmer, a captain at the prosecutors office, and Michael Sheets, an assistant prosecutor, are now working in Hillside, Ruotolo said. Ricciardi returns to a department where a majority of officers do not support him. The superior officers and patrolmen unions both cast votes of no-confidence against Ricciardi within the last week. Issues raised include instances of biased and unfair disciplinary action; fostering an environment of hostility and division by pitting officers against officers; and, selectively harassing individuals (Ricciardi) sees as a threat to his authority, according to a letter explaining the vote signed by Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 82 President Timothy Henn. The mayor appointed Lt. Matthew Cove to acting chief when she originally suspended Ricciardi earlier this month. The vote from the superior officers union came when its vice president took the helm since Cove was acting chief. The judge on Wednesday, meanwhile, rejected a request from the township and mayor to dissolve the temporary order issued by the judge on Friday. Charles Simmons, an attorney for the township, argued that the dispute over the chiefs suspension should not fall under the jurisdiction a court, but rather, another agency like the state Civil Service Commission. A departmental disciplinary hearing with the chief is scheduled for July 1, Simmons said. But the chiefs attorney said the prosecutors office is already conducting an internal affairs investigation to see if his client acted inappropriately, which would make a departmental hearing unnecessary. The judge, Cassidy, said the Civil Service Commission may ultimately deal with any disciplinary issues, but said the prerequisites in the process are being handled right now. Cassidy also noted that drama and animosity has been going on for years between mayors, police chiefs and council members in Hillside. This is a significant issue for the Township of Hillside, Cassidy said. Their police department is an integral part of how that community is run and the safety of that community. The overarching leadership of that department is something thats very important. Another hearing in the case is scheduled for July 8. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. HARRISBURG, Pa., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Renters and homeowners who were financially impacted by the economic slowdown related to the coronavirus pandemic will be able to access applications for rent and mortgage relief starting June 29. At that time, applications will be easily accessible from a red banner on the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency's website at www.PHFA.org. PHFA is administering both programs. PHFA is currently identifying organizations in all 67 counties to help it process the large number of rent relief applications anticipated. People will submit their applications and supporting paperwork to these county organizations for review. The Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed in March, provided $3.9 billion for Pennsylvania and is intended to help people hurt economically during the pandemic. In late May, the General Assembly directed $175 million of these CARES dollars to PHFA to provide assistance for struggling renters and homeowners. The portion for rent assistance is at least $150 million, and $25 million was set aside for mortgage assistance. During June, in a period of about four weeks, PHFA is developing detailed programs for distributing this financial assistance quickly to people in need while following legislative requirements. The agency will begin accepting completed applications for rent and mortgage assistance on July 6. "Our goal is to make this financial assistance available as quickly and easily as possible while ensuring applicants meet the eligibility requirements established by the state legislature," said Robin Wiessmann, PHFA executive director and CEO. "Keeping people in their homes is essential for our economic recovery, and we are grateful that the General Assembly and Governor Wolf recognize that stable housing provides the foundation on which to build that recovery." For renters to be eligible for financial assistance under the CARES Rent Relief Program (RRP), they will need to document at least a 30% reduction in annual income since March 1 related to COVID-19, or they must have become unemployed after March 1. If unemployed, they must have filed for unemployment compensation with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. Their household income cannot exceed the Area Median Income for their county of residence, adjusted for the number of people in their home. Renters who qualify may receive assistance equal to 100% of their monthly rent up to $750 a month for a maximum of six months of assistance for the time period between March 1 and November 30, 2020. Payments will be made to their landlord on their behalf. Renters or landlords can apply for rent relief for apartment tenants, but renters are responsible for submitting all the documents needed to ensure their eligibility. Homeowners who became unemployed after March 1 or who suffered at least a 30% reduction in annual income due to reduced work hours and wages related to COVID-19 may be eligible for financial assistance to help with missed mortgage payments. To qualify for the Pandemic Mortgage Assistance Program (PMAP), they must be an owner-occupant of their residence, the dwelling must consist of one or two separate units, the mortgage must be at least 30 days delinquent, and the homeowner's annual household income must not exceed the Area Median Income for their county of residence, adjusted for the number of people in their home. The assistance available for homeowners can be up to $1,000 a month for a maximum period of six months. The time period eligible for assistance is for mortgage payments owed from March 2020 through December 2020, however any CARES assistance provided must be disbursed by Nov. 30, 2020. Financial assistance payments through this program will be made directly to the mortgagee. Homeowners or their lenders can apply for mortgage relief, but homeowners are responsible for providing all the documents needed to determine their eligibility. Applications for both rent and mortgage assistance will be easily accessible from PHFA's homepage starting June 29. At that time, people will be able to click in a red banner on the website to access the applications and other helpful background information. The red banner is already live on the site advising people of the date applications will be available. The agency's call center is available weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to assist the public and help with questions about the programs. The toll-free number is 1-855-U-Are-Home (827-3466). Callers should listen for the prompt mentioning CARES assistance for renters and homeowners. The county organizations to which CARES applications are submitted will also have webpages offering useful information. The CARES funding for renters and homeowners must be completely distributed by Nov. 30, 2020, although it is expected the assistance will be exhausted before the deadline because of the tremendous need by people hurt financially by the pandemic. About PHFA The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency works to provide affordable homeownership and rental housing options for older adults, low- and moderate-income families, and people with special housing needs. Through its carefully managed mortgage programs and investments in multifamily housing developments, PHFA also promotes economic development across the state. Since its creation by the legislature in 1972, it has generated nearly $14.6 billion of funding for more than 178,325 single-family home mortgage loans, helped fund the construction of 136,215 rental units, distributed more than $109.2 million to support local housing initiatives, and saved the homes of more than 50,300 families from foreclosure. PHFA programs and operations are funded primarily by the sale of securities and from fees paid by program users, not by public tax dollars. The agency is governed by a 14-member board. Media contact: Scott Elliott [email protected] 717-649-6522 (cell) SOURCE Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency Related Links http://www.PHFA.org The death of 17 more soldiers has also been confirmed, taking the cumulative death toll at the Indian side to 20, in the skirmish that occurred along the LAC late on June 15. Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area in Ladakh where they had earlier clashed on the night of June 15 and 16, Indian Army said on Tuesday. The Army also confirmed that 20 soldiers were killed in the face-off including 17 who were critically injured at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain. Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. Seventeen Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20, the statement said. The Army had said earlier in the day that an officer and two soldiers had been killed in the stand-off. Indian intercepts have revealed that Chinese side suffered 43 casualties including dead and seriously injured in the violent face-off in Ladakhs Galwan valley, sources confirmed to ANI. Read also: India-China standoff: US extends support for de-escalation, closely monitoring the situation Read also: China suffered 43 casualties in the Galwan valley face-off late on June 15, say Indian intercepts The violent face-off happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh and the situation could have been avoided if the agreement at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side, India said on Tuesday. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that both sides suffered casualties in the violent face-off and the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held two review meetings over developments in Eastern Ladakh during the day. Read also: At least 20 Indian soldiers martyred in India-China face-off in Galwan Valley For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Hyderabad: To reduce the financial burden caused by Rythu Bandhu scheme on the state exchequer, the TRS government has decided to launch a Give it up campaign, encouraging farmers to forego the financial assistance being provided by the government under the scheme. After launching the scheme in 2018 by providing Rs 4,000 per acre to each farmer without any ceiling on the number of acres held by each farmer, the state government enhanced the amount to Rs 5,000 per acre. The scheme is, however, causing a huge burden on the state exchequer. This has led to suggestions within official circles that the state government extend Rythu Bandhu only to farmers holding lands up to a certain limit. However, as such a ceiling may invite criticism, the state government is said to have instead decided to vigorously pursue the give up Rythu Bandhu campaign. The state governments intention is evident from the latest guidelines issued by the state government on Tuesday for implementation of Rythu Bandhu during this monsoon season. The new guidelines make it clear that Rythu Bandhu will be given on priority to those farmers who own a lesser extent of land. According to the new guidelines, officials must give wide publicity to the Give it up campaign, encouraging farmers to give up the financial assistance being provided by the state government under the Rythu Bandhu scheme. Farmers giving up the scheme must fill an application and submit it to Agricultural Extension officers or Mandal Agricultural Officer. The amount thus saved will be transferred to Telangana State Rythu Bandhu Samithi for farmers welfare. The new guidelines stipulate that fresh pattadars will be considered for Rythu Bandhu from next financial year. Eligible persons will be identified based on data obtained from the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) for the current fiscal. As per the new guidelines, `5,000 per acre per season will be given to more than 60 lakh farmers in the state during the current financial year. In addition to the pattadar farmers, the scheme will be extended to pattadars of RoFR (Recognition of Forest Rights) and also 621 pattadars/enjoyers of endowment lands belonging to Sri Ranganayaka Swamy temple in Kasulapally hamlet of Palitham village in Peddapalli district. The government has constituted a state-level monitoring committee chaired by agriculture secretary B. Janardhan Reddy to review and monitor implementation of Rythu Bandhu scheme. To resolve their issues, farmers can approach grievance redressal cells to be established in the mandal, district and state levels. As per the new guidelines, audit of the scheme will be conducted by relevant authorities including the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). A fly-tipper who dumped a giant gazebo in a park after a boozy birthday party was tracked down and fined 400 when his name and address were found on a receipt. Albert Brazil abandoned beer crates, disposable barbecues and piles of plastic bottles in Stanmer Park in Brighton, East Sussex after a party last Saturday. He was tracked down and fined by officials after it was discovered he had left an invoice for the tent in the park, which detailed his name and address. The address was initially linked to The Stoneham pub in Hove, but bosses claimed the mess had nothing to do with them and was instead related to a man who lived nearby. In a Facebook post, management of the pub described the fly-tipping as 'utterly disgraceful behaviour' and explained they had contacted Brazil's landlord about the matter. Albert Brazil left beer crates, disposable barbecues and piles of plastic bottles (pictured) in Stanmer Park in Brighton, East Sussex after a party last Saturday 'We contacted the landlord who acted immediately to get the mess cleaned up by the resident,' staff at the Stoneham said. 'This is utterly disgraceful behaviour, and our staff and owner of The Stoneham are devastated that we are being focused on for blame.' Brazil was slapped with a 400 fine from Brighton and Hove City Council after images of the plastic bottles, balloons, food and 'Happy Birthday' signs were posted online. Councillor Anne Pissaridou, chairwoman of the environment committee at Brighton and Hove City Council, confirmed on Tuesday that Brazil had been fined for fly-tipping. She said: 'We investigated the incident and, based on evidence provided to us, have concluded that an offence of fly-tipping has been committed by Albert Brazil and a 400 fine has been issued to him. Brazil was tracked down and fined by officials after it was discovered he had left an invoice for the tent in the park, which detailed his name and address (pictured) Brazil was slapped with a 400 fine from Brighton and Hove City Council after images of the plastic bottles, balloons, food and 'Happy Birthday' signs were posted online 'Our message is clear - leaving rubbish behind for others to clear up is an environmental offence and we will continue to track down and fine those who spoil our parks.' Martin Osborne, councillor for Hollingdean and Stanmer, told the Argus: 'Stanmer Park is one of the nicest green spaces to visit in Brighton but with several incidents of flytipping and a serious case of vandalism recently it is not getting the respect it deserves. 'We request that when people use the park they take responsibility for their own actions and respect the environment by taking away their litter and disposing of it appropriately.' Judd Apatows The King of Staten Island, a semi-biopic starring Saturday Night Live comedian and celebrity screw-up Pete Davidson, never gets its act together. As in all Apatow products, from TVs Freaks and Geeks to the movies Knocked Up and Trainwreck, the main characters underlying social and psychological issues are avoided. Apatows Gen X-, Y-, and Z-indulgent comedy specializes in a particular kind of identity politics trash narcissism. Pale, skinny, pop-eyed Davidson, flaunting his real-life Illustrated Man body tattoos, meanders through the arrested-adolescent frustrations of his alter-ego Scott Carlin, a 24-year-old from Staten Islands working-class enclave who still lives with his widowed mother (Marisa Tomei). He pouts, I need that safety net! but talks about opening a tattoo parlor/restaurant an idea that recalls Adam Sandlers zaniness minus the whimsy. He mostly smokes pot with his neer-do-well friends who play video games and idly plan to rob a pharmacy. Scott/Davidsons lifestyle, scoffing at other peoples ambition, resenting his sisters college choice and his mothers attempt at middle-aged dating, which causes Oedipal angst, isnt a new form of rebellion but a new form of privilege. Apatow gets the class and generational issues all wrong. His script (co-written with Davidson and Dave Sirus) plays up Scotts pathos; perpetually mourning the death of his firefighter father repeats the same biographical details that Davidson exploits in his stand-up routines. Scott is a non-characterization. His personality is neither hip nor dope. Hes a sketch-comedy geek derived from contemporary celebrity worship and given the same two-hour-plus treatment as Apatows failed Adam Sandler epic Funny People. Scotts plight is funny only to people who congratulate themselves for emulating the sarcasm of the class theyre not in thus understanding their own lives less. Scott/Davidson is not alienated but a new kind of hipster sloth; he represents a type that grows up envying showbiz privilege. Apatows glib narrative both sneers at and pities this working-class phenomenon, oblivious to the deep-seated social unease that defines Americas lost generation that has now taken to the streets. Their crisis is beyond Apatows basic interest in selling vulgar, bad-taste humor. (You know Im a f***in bum, right? Scott whines to his mother.) Just as Freak and Geeks was also a betrayal of American working-class roots, these bridge-and-tunnel adult tough guys and blunt, gum-smacking women (were the only place New Jersey looks down on) recall the outrageous white stereotypes of big-haired Staten Island skanks in Mike Nicholss phony Working Girl. Story continues These are Deplorables, low-class figures Apatow panders to and thinks so little of that the best he can do is be a little maudlin (thanks to Marisa Tomeis multileveled charm). Thats all thats left, given Apatows moral bankruptcy. The films single outright discussion of class proposes a list of college-educated scoundrels (Bill Cosby, Ted Bundy, the Unabomber, Trump), all easy targets of Hollywood Left hostility, which Apatow himself has expressed. Yet the one Obama joke is quite revealing: Scotts clumsy tattoo work draws Obamas face wrong a tattoo with crossed eyes. Its as if Obamas image his aura can no longer be perceived or replicated accurately. Snarky Apatow may have stumbled upon the essence of post-Obama dread. That freakish tattoo symbolizes the national Ferguson effect of incapacity and hopeless futility all over again, but this time as experienced by demoralized working-class whites who were also neglected by the Obama reign. Thanks to Black Lives Matter fever, we can observe The King of Staten Island and call out Apatow and Scott/Davidsons Gen-Y petulance as part of white showbiz privilege. The themes of male infantilization and boys without fathers that were deep and powerful in John Singletons urban-ghetto drama Baby Boy become a train wreck when hit by Apatows comedy shtick and brazen insensitivity. The film lacks a single credible emotion, not even Scotts threatening to harm himself, or his smart-aleck attack on a group of firefighters through jokey insinuations about death. (If this is Apatows homage to Adam Sandlers firemans-brotherhood classic I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, no thanks.) Scotts outcast demeanor, a cross between a drug addict and an emaciated puppy, makes him look like a perfect Antifa candidate a lost youth whose immature self-hatred and lack of responsibility leads him to harm everyone around him. Apatow gets close to something credible about Scotts ingratitude. Yet just like Scotts imprecise Obama tattoo he refuses to recognize the spiritual crisis of Millennial punks. Thats because Apatow is running a mainstream-media game playing both sides against the middle, kowtowing to clueless Boomers while sucking up to the new breed of American brat. If Apatow had an artists perception, this movie would openly scrutinize an Antifa brat. Because Apatow and Davidson dont go there, their semi-biopic is worthless. More from National Review As a response to the current national debate, the GOP is disallowing chokeholds in a proposed bill in the legislature. Included in the bill will be extensive rules that police have to follow after the death of George Floyd, and other black Americans, reported by ABC News. These changes will be affecting how law enforcement will be done. According to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the GOP is serious about reforming law enforcement in response to recent events. The Republicans have less coverage that will be up to vote next week. It is one of the most radical proposals in line with the law and order method. A widespread clamor that is convincing even less inclined senators to take part in it. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina has been working on the bill to be released on Wednesday, speaking with Trump to say that the bill should be voted on now, not late summer, confirmed in New York Times. Another incident that ended the life of Rashard Brooks who initially struggled and attempted to run, but was shot because he took away the officer's taser, gave more reasons for protestors to test the limits of the law. On the GOP reforms, the Democrats are not satisfied and want more changes after the looting and rioting, Democrat Chuck Schumer to the Republican not to shortchange the bill. Schumer added that legitimate changes are needed nothing less, on Monday. Several officials confirmed to reporters that the Trump executive order will establish a way to track officers who are notorious for excessive force and to prevent them from switching departments, mentioned in The Hill. Also read: Ben Carson Said That History Should Never Be Buried and Renaming Military Bases Is Indulgent The executive order will create a "national credentialing system" that will give incentives to police departments that perform well in the use of deadly force. These two Trump officials did not want to be known. Both parties will never defund the police, as demanded by the looters and rioters because there are better ways to deal with the problem. For now, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be convening to consider what relevant policing matters are needed in the bill on Tuesday. One of the integral parts of the GOP initiative is the national database that tracks police violations. To make sure that everything is transparent and guilty officers cannot transfer anytime, same as the Democrat bill. The proposed GOP bill will make 'police body cameras' as standard, with lynching finally a federal hate crime at last. One of the prominent provisos is to apply a chokehold under the circumstance when needed, miss-use will result in revoked funding, said a Senate Republican. A choking hold is a brutal police practice and disallowed in the Democrat's bill, though according to pundits then the police will kill by shooting then. One of the missing features of the GOP compared to the Democrats is qualified immunity. Scott has proposed that 'decertification' be done for misconduct, cited in Federal News Network. These are parts of the Republican Party bill that is not keen on chokeholds by the police. Another one is the defunding of police by protestors, who are guilty of looting and rioting. Related article: Black Organizers Do Not Trust White Protestors in the Seattle Autonomous Zone @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. 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" <<< Get COVID-19 Report Analysis >>> https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/6332 More than 70 seafood entities in Papua New Guinea (PNG) could export their seafood products directly to the Chinese market after approval from China's supervision departments. The 77 entities, including 35 seafood companies, 31 cold storages, nine fishing vessels and two carriers, are the first group in the industry got accreditation, after China and PNG signed documents on fishery cooperation at the third China-Pacific island countries (PIC) Economic Development and Cooperation Forum held in the Samoan capital of Apia last October. Chinese Ambassador to PNG Xue Bing said this was an important step for fishery cooperation between China and PNG. He believed more and more PNG companies would become suppliers for the Chinese market and more and more high-quality PNG agricultural products would be exported directly to China. The China-PNG trade relationship would be further promoted after the COVID-19 pandemic. "This is a pride moment for our tuna industry. The future looks very promising with opportunities to access to new markets," said PNG Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources Lino Tom. Lino told a press conference on Monday at Port Moresby, capital of the South Pacific island country, that these registered companies no longer need to go through China's Hong Kong or Singapore or a third place to access the Chinese seafood market, which is probably one of the biggest in the world today. Describing this cooperation "a milestone," Lino said more PNG companies will be added and registered by China's General Administration of Customs when the health certificate for live seafood is submitted and the administrative requirements are satisfied. Military history and culture is filled with rumors and myths that have been debunked but are still passed around as true to everyone who joins. Those tales are then passed down to the next generation. There's nothing wrong with having legends as part of our culture. The fact that these myths endure is indicative of how we feel about our lives, our service and our role in them. But let's be clear: They aren't true. It's just fun to believe they are. After all, rumors become part of military lore because they could be true. In the first episode of Military.com's new "Left of Boom" podcast, Managing Editor Hope Hodge Seck sat down Jeff Schogol, who is now a Pentagon reporter for Task & Purpose but was formerly known to readers of Stars & Stripes as "the Rumor Doctor." Together, they discussed the longest-lasting and persistent folklore found in the U.S. military. Here are a few of those stories. 1. The Base Flagpole Truck Schogol was surprised to find this military urban legend being taught for Army promotion boards. The story goes that the truck -- the ball at the top of a base flagpole -- contains a razor, a match and a bullet, each with specific instructions for the last soldier to take down the flag in case the base is overrun. The razor is supposedly to be used to strip the flag from the pole. The match should be used to give the flag its proper retirement before the enemy can give it an improper one. The bullet is to be used in conjunction with a pistol that is supposedly buried four to six paces from the base of the flagpole (the direction of the pistol from the pole changes, which would not be helpful if this myth were real). Once loaded into the pistol, the bullet is then supposed to be inserted into the last soldier's skull by force. If this sounds like an unbelievable act of weird bravado, that's because it is. It's not true. The Army has said as much. For those needing further proof, take down the flagpole on base and open the truck -- what you're most likely to find is nothing. 2. The 1st Cavalry Division's Unit Patch Schogol addressed this myth in a 2011 post to Stars & Stripes' Rumor Doctor Blog. The myth is that the 1st Cav disgraced itself in the Korean War so badly, the patch wasn't allowed to be worn inside the United States. The unit redeemed itself during the Vietnam War and is now allowed to return to paradise. The supposed disgrace came while fighting the Chinese for the first time at Unsan. Part of the unit was cut off from the rest, and supposedly their colors were captured. Read Schogol's full article for a complete debunking, but there are a few glaring omissions in this legend. First, if China captured a unit's colors, they would have given it to North Korea, who would definitely have claimed it for the world to see, just as they now do with the USS Pueblo. They don't so that, coupled with the unit in question not having its colors at that time, makes for a pretty shaky foundation. Add in that 1st Cav wasn't based in the U.S. until 1965, and you see how they "redeemed" themselves. 3. Getting a Sunburn Is Damaging Government Property Schogol says that, while this one is mostly rumor, there is an element of truth to it. The rumor implies that any injury or harm you cause yourself as a service member, be it by accident or purposeful, can result in getting charged with damaging or destroying government property -- you. While Schogol says legal experts believe there's no way to justify this charge, he says his time as a reporter has educated him on the flexibility of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the laws that govern American troops while on active duty. "There are different spanks for different ranks," Schogol tells Seck. What he means is that different ranks tend to get different punishments for the same offenses -- and the UCMJ allows for that kind of flexibility. But to the best of his knowledge -- and ours -- this particular charge has never been made. 4. The Taliban Were Training Monkeys to Be Snipers This myth got its start in a Chinese newspaper, and it was interesting enough for Schogol to reach out and attempt to find the source of the story. When he researched it further, all he could find was a photo of a kind of monkey with a toy gun. That was the "proof" the Chinese newspaper used to report that the Afghan Taliban were using monkeys against International Security Assistance Forces. A scientist told the reporter that there aren't enough bananas in Afghanistan to train a single monkey to fire a weapon. 5. Basic Training Chow Halls Use Saltpeter This is a real classic and has probably been around for as long as saltpeter was used to make gunpowder. The legend says that any given branch of service uses saltpeter in its basic training chow halls in order to keep recruits and trainees from feeling procreational urges during training. No matter how many times this legend gets debunked, it always finds its way back into the lore of the U.S. military. When Schogol asked the Army about it, officials frankly replied that adding saltpeter to food would not only be poisoning new recruits but would be counterproductive. The truth is that basic military training, by design, is incredibly stressful. The reason troops don't feel the natural urges is because they have many, many other things to think about. The human body places procreation very low on its list of priorities in that situation. As it should. Tune in to new episodes of Military.com's Left of Boom podcast on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and Stitcher. Follow Hope Hodge Seck on Twitter @HopeSeck and Jeff Schogol @JeffSchogol. -- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook. Want to Learn More About Military Life? Whether you're thinking of joining the military, looking for post-military careers or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to Military.com to have military news, updates and resources delivered directly to your inbox. Sen. Tim Scott, right, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaks at a Capitol Hill news conference on Wednesday, announcing a Republican police reform bill. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) Greater disclosure of police use of force and no-knock warrants, as well as financial incentives for local law enforcement departments to ban chokeholds, are the centerpieces of a Senate GOP policing reform bill announced Wednesday. The Senate bill, and a separate measure being considered in the House, are the congressional responses to the national racial-justice protests that have emerged following the death of George Floyd in the custody of a Minneapolis police officer. The protests, and the video of Floyd pleading with the officer to remove his knee from Floyd's neck, have spurred a national conversation about police use of force and training standards for officers. Its so important for us to say that we hear you. We're listening to your concerns. The George Floyd incident certainly accelerated this conversation, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said while unveiling his policing proposal Wednesday morning at a news conference with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Senate Republicans. The legislation includes emergency grant programs to increase the use of body cameras on officers, makes lynching a federal hate crime and creates a commission to study the social conditions and discrimination facing Black men and boys. The Senate will hold a procedural vote on Scott's bill next week, McConnell said. But it remains unclear whether the measure will have enough support from Democrats to meet the 60-vote threshold to advance. "Our Democratic friends," McConnell said, "if they want to make a law and not just try to make a point, I hope they'll join us in getting on the bill and trying to move forward." Democrats derided Scotts bill as a watered-down version of their own plan. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) threw cold water on the bill but did not say that Democrats would block the procedural vote next week. The Senate Republican proposal on policing does not rise to the moment, Schumer said. "The real challenge is whether Senate Republicans will be able to step up to the plate and rise to the moment and vote for a bill that actually solves the problem." Story continues White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president supports Scott's bill. The House Judiciary Committee conducted a series of amendment votes Wednesday and was on track to advance the Democrats' bill, setting up a full vote in the House as soon as next week. The House legislation, sponsored by House Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), would ban federal officers from using chokeholds and predicate federal funding on whether state and local officials follow suit. It would limit so-called qualified immunity for police officers, which has made it harder for victims of brutality to file civil lawsuits for excessive force, and stop no-knock warrants in federal drug cases. It would also create national accreditation standards for police. Leaders in both chambers say they recognize the momentum of the moment and have indicated they want to get legislation to the president's desk by July 4. Though the two proposals remain far apart, senators and representatives pointed to similarities. Both the Senate GOP and House Democrats' legislation would link federal funding which many local police departments rely on to their use of chokeholds. The GOP bill prohibits federal grant money to departments unless they have a policy banning the "use of chokeholds except when deadly force is authorized." The Democratic bill prohibits those same grants, unless the state has a law in place banning chokeholds or carotid holds, and bans the use of no-knock warrants for drug crimes. Scott's bill focuses on collecting data about how and when force is used, which Scott said is needed before Congress imposes outright bans on chokeholds and limits on no-knock warrants. He said only about 40% of departments voluntarily provide use of force data to the FBI. Both would make lynching a federal crime, a move that passed the House with bipartisan support, and has strong support in the Senate. Its passage in the Senate was recently blocked by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). But major differences remain. Scott called the qualified immunity reforms in the House bill a "poison pill," and the White House has called it nonnegotiable. Democrats call it integral to holding officers accountable for bad behavior and blocked an attempt to remove it from the House bill Wednesday. Republicans attempting to remove it urged the committee to first study the effect of removing the doctrine. Qualified immunity holds police and other officials immune from federal civil lawsuits unless their actions violated clearly established legal precedents at the time. Democrats say the doctrine has been twisted by courts to make it nearly impossible to hold officers to account by requiring an extremely precise match between the details of an incident of police misconduct and that addressed in a previous case. Some police departments and unions warn it will be difficult to recruit officers with the knowledge that they might be held personally liable. While both bills create databases of police misconduct or disciplinary records to prevent problem officers from moving between departments, the Democrats' bill makes it national and public, while the GOP bill requires departments to make the records available to other law enforcement agencies. "There's a lot of overlap, but there's some real differences," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). "And how do you hammer out those real differences? You talk to each other." Bass said knowing that some aspects of her bill were included in a form in the Senate proposal makes me feel like there is a pathway for us to do this. Federal agents are offering $70,000 in reward money for information that helps catch 14 people suspected of setting fires during protests following George Floyds death in Minneapolis. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the reward money is broken into $5,000 for each of the suspects. The ATF is distributing surveillance photos of suspects in blazes set at businesses ranging from an AutoZone to an Office Depot to the police departments 3rd Precinct. Thousands of protesters took to the streets after Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyds neck on May 25. Many protests were peaceful, but violence and arson devastated businesses along the citys Lake Street commercial corridor late that week. Anyone with information on the identification and/or whereabouts of any of these individuals is asked to contact ATF. The preferred method for reporting information is by emailing ATFTips(at)atf.gov or submitting information via www.ReportIt.com or the Report It mobile app, available on Google Play or Apple Apps Store. When using Report It, select ATF St. Paul Field Division as the reporting agency. Provide the ATF ID number of the suspect and as much information as you can relating to the whereabouts of the individual of whom you are reporting. Tipsters can also call 1-888-ATF-TIPS (1-888-283-8477) if internet access is unavailable. Information can be submitted anonymously, but if a reward is sought, be sure to include contact information into the report before submitting a tip. Information eligible for reward must lead to the successful identification, arrest and conviction of the individual. ATF is working with the Minneapolis Police Department, Minneapolis Fire Department, St. Paul Police Department, St. Paul Fire Department, Hennepin County Sheriffs Office, Minnesota State Fire Marshal Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Marshal Service and District of Minnesota U.S. Attorneys Office. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics USA Saudi Arabias Ministry of Tourism convened all Arab League nations on June 17 to agree on unified measures for the tourism sectors recovery. The virtual meeting, chaired by Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Saudi Arabias Minister of Tourism, addressed the pressing issues facing the sector as a result of Covid-19 and present opportunities for coordinated regional action. Ahead of the meeting, Saudi Arabia announced the ratification of a new Tourism Development Fund to help realize the long-term potential of Saudi Arabias tourism sector. The fund will contribute to the development of tourism projects attracting local and international investments and tourists, in addition to supporting the private sector in developing new and existing tourism destinations to drive economic growth, diversification and job creation across the kingdom. Our region hosts close to 85 million international, regional and domestic tourists each year. Not only does tourism create jobs and support economies, it enhances quality of life and deepens cultural understanding and exchange. Supporting the industry is critically important to the Arab Tourism Ministers Council, said Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Saudi Arabias Minister of Tourism. The Middle East is leading the way on tourism readiness and we are committed to working together to ensure the health of all and develop innovative ways to reopen borders. We are putting measures in place so that we can safely welcome tourists back to share the diverse and unique treasures of the Arab region. In 2019, across the Middle East and North Africa region, the travel and tourism sector employed more than 4.6 million people and generated just under $120 billion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). During the meeting, Ministers discussed substantive actions taken across the Arab world to support the tourism sector and prepare for recovery. Saudi Arabia became one of the first countries to support the World Travel and Tourism Councils Safety Stamp, which aims to rebuild tourism confidence by standardising hygiene and safety protocols world-wide. Meanwhile, the UAE shared its preparatory plans for safe reopening, and Egypt outlined investments in destination upgrades to support recovery. As the 2020 chair of the Arab Tourism Ministers Council and of the G20 Tourism Ministers Meeting, Saudi Arabia is committed to coordinated global action to support the tourism industry through the crisis and prepare for recovery. - TradeArabia News Service Some years ago, I learned a great lesson in decision making from Lieutenant General Stephen B. Croker, a retired U.S. Air Force commander who taught military doctrine to two- and three-star generals. We were discussing how soldiers make decisions amid uncertainty on a battlefield, something that was part of the new landscape of military warfare. "Imagine," he said, "you're driving Humvee at 50 miles per hour through an area of insurgents and IEDs. A sandstorm engulfs your vehicle, visibility is near zero. What would you do?" My response was, "I'd slow down, of course." "That's the last thing we want you to do. You need to keep going," he said. He went on to explain that if uncertainty is slowing you down, then it's also slowing down your enemy. Standing still is what I call a non-decision. If you want to distance yourself from someone, keep moving while they are slowing down. When you come out of the sandstorm, you'll be that much farther ahead. Business owners are fighting a different sort of battle now, but the same rule applies. You often have to keep moving despite a lack of data and information. As an entrepreneur, I can assure you that you will rarely have all of the data you need to make any decision bulletproof. It's most often the case that the greater the payback associated with the decision, the less data you will have to justify it. It's precisely because uncertainty paralyzes most people that it also creates an immense opportunity for those who keep moving to gain a distinct competitive advantage. Think back to my Humvee example. More recently, on March 2, my home state of Massachusetts had one confirmed case of Covid-19. We were still a week from the WHO calling Covid-19 a pandemic. On March 4, I decided to join a long-time business partner and make a rather sizable investment to start a company that would create a new platform for virtual events. When I spoke with colleagues, investors, and even event organizers about the idea, it was universally dismissed as unnecessary. The data just didn't support such a disruptive investment. The consensus among people I shared the idea with was, let's just ride out the lull in the events business and see what happens before investing in something new. Within two weeks, every speaking engagement and live event had been indefinitely postponed or canceled. And yet, Zoom's stock price was still at about $107. As this article is being written, it's at $227. Did I know something everyone else didn't? No. I was following a simple decision-making maxim that I'd learned years ago: The best time to speed up is when the lack of visibility causes everyone else to slow down. Take Elon Musk's SpaceX. When SpaceX was founded in 2002, no amount of data would have supported Musk's decision to build a commercial venture to ferry humans. I vividly recall being at the launch of the last space shuttle, in 2011. I was invited to see Musk's Dragon capsule, which was on display. I just as vividly recall how crazy everyone thought he was. Most people were to busy grieving the end of NASA instead of building the future. Some of the best decisions defy data analysis. As entrepreneurs, we take on ridiculously ambitious projects that no rational person would touch. If data does exist, it serves only to show how foolish we really are. Still, wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a way to somehow provide a methodology by which to make those decisions? There is, and it involves answering these four simple questions. 1. Are you doing what you and your team will be proud to have done when you look back? The key to the most important decisions is getting people to understand why the decision is being made at an emotional level that they can attach to with pride and passion. Not every decision will be the right one, but every decision can be made with the right intent. 2. Does it reflect your core values? Values need to be the foundation of tough decision making. Be clear on those values, speak them honestly, and live by them. They may stem from morals, cultural heritage, family, or faith. The founder doesn't exist who has not at least once been on his or her knees praying to make payroll--even atheists find religion in those moments. Without clear values, you will lack the compass with which to make it through the dense fog of uncertainty. 3. Have you accepted the consequences of failure? This is key. Understand the potentially flawed consequences of your decision, and be prepared to live with them. Regrets are horrid bedfellows. So, think carefully about what it will mean to make a bad call and be ready to own it. You're the leader, because you're at the top of the accountability food chain. 4. Is everyone else being slowed or hampered by the same lack of data? Humans are herd animals. We follow leaders and we typically look at the behavior of our peers to determine what our own behavior should be. That's why we all slow down collectively when uncertainty increases. But what I have found consistently is that it's at these same times that the greatest opportunities emerge for those willing to break from the pack. None of this means that you shouldn't factor whatever data you do have into your decision, but it's actually in the absence of data that some of the greatest opportunities emerge from the sandstorm. EXPLORE MORE Inc. 5000 COMPANIES New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (June 17) decided to convene an all-party virtual meet on June 19 to discuss the situation on the India-China border, besides giving a clear message that the sacrifice of Indian soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley clash in Ladakh will not go in vain. In the virtual meeting, PM Modi will get the opinion of all the parties and make them aware of the decisions of the government following the sacrifice of 20 Indian Army personnel including a Colonel in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. The Prime Minister's remark today that India wants peace but is capable of giving a befitting reply, if instigated also gave a tough message to China. Prior to that, a round of important meetings on Sino-India border dispute were held. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with the Chiefs of the Army, Air Force, and Navy besides Chief Of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and then met the Prime Minister. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke on phone today and discussed the prevailing situation in Eastern Ladakh following the bloody conflict between the armed forces of the two countries. Jaishankar conveyed a strong message to China, saying, What happened in Galwan was premeditated and planned action by China which was responsible for the sequence of events. China's official newspaper Global Times, however, said that some people in India think that India's army is stronger than China's army, but this is a misconception and it is not practical. It also released a video claiming that China's military has recently conducted a war exercise on the high mountains, showing tanks, missiles, and long-range cannons. Amid these developments, a US intelligence report today claimed that 35 Chinese soldiers have been killed or injured in violent clashes in the Galwan Valley. China had made a promise a few days ago to retreat from Galwan Valley but broke its promise and committed the biggest betrayal with India after the 1962 war. This is evident from a satellite photo taken after the violent clash between India and China in Galwan Valley, showing about 200 vehicles of the Chinese army near the Line of Actual Control. After the clashes, the militaries of China and India had agreed to retreat as both the countries had talked about reducing the tension in the area, but the pictures show that Chinese troops are still entrenched in the area. The clashes reportedly took place when Indian Army personnel crossed the Galvan River to ascertain whether the Chinese troops have withdrawn as per the agreement, but Chinese soldiers launched their attack with stones, sticks, batons and iron rods. Many Indian soldiers fell into the Galvan River and 20 of them died due to injury and cold. China too suffered in this violent faceoff as reports say that at least 35 to 43 soldiers were killed. The martyrdom of 20 Indian Army personnel in Galwan Valley has severely hit the Sino-India relationship. Since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met each other nearly 18 times. PM Modi has so far visited China 5 times and is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit China so many times in the last 70 years. Xi Jinping, who also visited India twice as President of China, is resorting to Creeping Forward Policy to become the world's supreme leader. Under this policy, China occupies the land of a country and withdraws from previous agreements. China's action looks like that of an international land mafia to expand its influence through this policy. Notably, the Galvan Valley holds a great significance for India. If China does not retreat, then Pakistan and China will come very close to each other through territorial nearness and would pose greater dangers for India. Experts believe that about 60 percent of the land that China currently has, it never owned it. China expanded its territory by trespassing into lands of Mongolia, Tibet, Eastern Turkistan, and Inner Manchuria. After the 1962 war, it has also occupied some Indian territory and later Pakistan handed over some of its areas to China. Of late, China's diplomatic talks of 'One China Policy' put its claim over territories from Tibet to Taiwan and Hong Kong. This One China Policy, under the tenure of President Xi Jinping, has covered a long distance. With its financial and military prowess, China wants to dominate those countries which have been away from its clutches. The faceoff with India appears to be part of China's strategy to convey the message to the world that if it can scare India, the smaller nations will hardly be able to stand before it. This analysis is based on DNA's conversation with Rameshwar Rai, former Director-General of Assam Rifles. Peasy.com incentivises early payment Achieved improvements of 40 per cent on payments made in terms A new company is set to radically reduce the time it takes businesses to get their invoices settled by clients. Peasy links to accounting software and accompanies each invoice raised with incentives to settle early. The earlier it's paid, the bigger the reward, resulting in dramatically improved cash flow. Rewards are funded by the supplier at typically between 1 and 5% of the invoice values. Peasy automates the entire process from when the invoice is raised, and requires no further administration. In trials with the National Association of Shopfitters (NAS), over 20% of payments were made within 14 days, and a 49% overall improvement on invoices paid within terms. Even before the pandemic, 24% of UK businesses report late payments as a threat to survival1. Today, 68%, of UK entrepreneurs cite cashflow concerns2. Improved cashflow creates growth, jobs, and less reliance on government support. Peasy also saves time and costs associated with chasing debtors. Peasy has partnered with Avios to offer travel rewards, although businesses can donate the value to Peasy's partner charities: NHS Charities, Cancer Research UK and Trees for Cities. Just like business credit cards, rewards can be distributed or shared to anyone authorised within the organisation. Companies issuing the invoices can also earn points. Peasy is free to use, with the only cost being the value of rewards when a customer pays early, so if it doesn't achieve early payments, there are absolutely no costs. David Landsberg, co-founder and CEO, comments: "We're excited to be launching Peasy a first-of-its-kind. The platform is designed to give businesses an edge and level the playing field so businesses with access to funds are incentivised to prioritise paying those without. "We believe that as businesses return to a sense of normality following lockdown, they can leave behind their old collection practices and focus on improving their cashflow and strengthening the economy without having the distraction of chasing debtors. It really is time for businesses to draw a line in the sand and take control of their cashflow for greater certainty ahead." It takes just two minutes to sign up and you're ready. For more information visit peasy.com or email carrot@peasy.com. Notes to editors: About Peasy Peasy helps businesses improve cashflow by getting invoices paid early. The company takes away the hassle and awkwardness of having to chase debtors and offers incentives that are proven to work, including Avios. The system not only rewards companies for paying invoices promptly but also strengthens relationships with customers. It saves the time and the costs associated with having to chase debtors and allows SMEs to focus on what really matters rebuilding their business. 1 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/745639/creating-a-responsible-payment-culture-call-for-evidence.pdf 2 https://www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/about/news/nationwide-survey-of-covid-19-impact View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005129/en/ Contacts: Katrina Suppiah/Roisin Tarrant Publicite info@publicite.co.uk 020 8543 6582 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 China urges India to severely punish those responsible for border conflict India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 17: China has urged India to severely punish those responsible for the conflict. China's foreign minister, Wang Yi said India must severely punish those responsible for the convict and also control its frontline troops. Reuters while quoiting the Chinese Foreign Ministry also said that both nations have agreed to resolve the border clash in a fair way. The report also added that both nations would find ways to de-escalate the tensions as soon as possible. Galwan valley area has always belonged to China: Foreign Ministry of China India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News On Tuesday the Chinese military alleged that the Indian troops again crossed the Line of Actual Control in the Galwan Valley region and "purposefully launched provocative attacks", leading to "severe clashes and casualties." The state-run Global Times newspaper quoted the People's Liberation Army Western Theatre Command spokesperson as saying that "Indian troops again crossed the line of actual control in the Galwan Valley region and purposefully launched provocative attacks, leading to severe clashes and casualties." It did not elaborate. There was no immediate reaction from the Indian side. An Indian Army officer and two soldiers were killed during a violent clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, in the first such incident involving fatalities after a gap of 45 years and signalling a massive escalation in the five-week border standoff in the sensitive region. The Army said India lost an officer and two soldiers during the violent face-off, while there were casualties on the Chinese side as well. The extent of casualties on the Chinese side is not immediately clear. The Justice Department will unveil a legislative plan as soon as Wednesday to limit Section 230 protections for tech companies in the wake of President Trumps executive order and Googles publicized threat to ban ad revenue to The Federalist, according to the Wall Street Journal. According to an unnamed DOJ official, the legislative package will include provisions that could strip protections under Section 230, which exempts social-media companies from civil liability for third-party content containing false or misleading information. The official said that if platforms facilitate or solicit third-party content that violates federal criminal law, such as online scams, drug or sex trafficking, online child exploitation, terrorism, or cyberstalking, they would lose protections to allow victims to seek redress. The proposal also aims to force platforms to adhere to reasonable rules and explanations in policing content and potential violations, and will target politically biased content-moderation by revising a federal provision that allows tech platforms to delete content based merely on an objectionable standard. The news comes after Google threatened to ban conservative outlet The Federalist from generating advertising revenue on the companys platform over materials in its comments section that Google deemed dangerous or derogatory content. After The Federalist was forced to delete its comments section to comply, Google said the matter was resolved. The threat came after NBC News contacted Google and flagged a report on hate speech and disinformation from a British think tank called the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The reporter from NBCs Verification Center who broke the story then congratulated the CCDH and its subsidiary project Stop Funding Fake News on the action. In May, sources told the Journal that the DOJ is planning an antitrust lawsuit against Google that could be launched as soon as this summer. Story continues Last month, Trump signed an executive order that challenged protections for social-media companies, and asked Attorney General Bill Barr to develop a proposal for Federal legislation that would be useful to promote the policy objectives of this order. At the unveiling of the order, Barr warned that while platforms held themselves out as free public forums, where a variety of diverse voices can come on and be heard, they have become these very powerful networkstheyve now switched, and [are] using that market power to force particular viewpoints. The comments came after he told DOJ colleagues in February that valid questions have been raised on whether Section 230s broad immunity is still necessary, at least in its current form. More from National Review San Miguel Chairman Eduardo Cojuangco, who many called "the Boss" and "Pac-Man" for his knack for acquiring businesses, has died at 85. San Miguel President Ramon Ang, in a mobile-phone text message on Wednesday, said Cojuangco died Tuesday. The former chairman and CEO helped expand San Miguel as the Philippines' dominant beer and food company, then later helped with its diversification into energy and infrastructure that made it the country's largest company by revenue. The executive led San Miguel twice, relinquishing the job once in the 1980s after going into exile in Australia in the late 1980s as an ally of Ferdinand Marcos. He returned to San Miguel in 1998. "Cojuangco was a strong manager, but wasn't rigid with his vision," said Alex Pomento, who covered San Miguel and Cojuangco in the 25 years he was an equities analyst before joining SM Prime Holdings in 2014. "It would have been easier to just stay in food and drinks and tell shareholders the low returns are such because of the nature of the industry. Obviously, Cojuangco's style is not just sitting down." Ang, who won the trust of Cojuangco in the early 1980s, has led the diversification of the century-old brewer since the late 2000s as Cojuangco took a back seat in overseeing the group's expansion. In 2012, Cojuangco sold his remaining 14.7% stake in San Miguel to Ang and its majority shareholder Top Frontier Investment Holdings, raising 37 billion pesos ($737 million). Eduardo Murphy Cojuangco Jr., known as "Danding," was born in Manila on June 10, 1935, to a family that controlled business and politics in Tarlac province, north of the capital. He too sought office. In 1965, while losing a bid for a congressional seat, he cemented his ties to Marcos, his party's successful presidential candidate at the time, according to "Boss Danding," a 2003 biography. Seven years later, he was part of the inner circle that helped Marcos plan the imposition of martial law, according to the book and other accounts. "Cojuangco's relationship with Marcos was like that of a son and father," said Earl Parreno, author of the biography. "Cojuangco's ties with Marcos were beneficial and opened opportunities." By the early 1980s, local media had nicknamed Cojuangco "Pac-Man" as he took over the country's coconut industry, San Miguel and other companies. After Marcos was ousted by Corazon Aquino -- a cousin of Cojuangco -- the government seized San Miguel and other assets and alleged in court that Cojuangco acquired them by illegally using taxes collected from coconut farmers. Cojuangco spent most of his exile in Australia, where he bred and raced horses. In 1992, three years after returning to the Philippines, he ran for president, placing third. In 1998, he backed Joseph Estrada's successful presidential bid. Days after the inauguration, San Miguel's mostly government-appointed board returned Cojuangco to the chairmanship even as the state continued to dispute his ownership in court. "I will never deny that I was close to Marcos," Cojuangco told reporters in 1998. "It is the connotation that a crony is a crook that hurts." Within months after retaking the chairman's seat, he ended an almost 30-year venture with Nestle to help raise $1.3 billion. He started picking up local food and beverage companies, and bought a brewer and juice maker in Australia. He also acquired the local Coca-Cola franchise and Australia's National Foods. In 2002, Cojuangco sold a 15% stake to a unit of Japan-based beer maker Kirin. Cojuangco, along with Ang, began investing in the energy sector in 2008 and later added infrastructure, saying there was more growth potential there. To raise money and shift the company's footprint toward the new businesses, San Miguel sold National Foods, the Coca-Cola franchise and its stake in Del Monte. "There is no other person deserving of this opportunity to control a significant stake in the company that is close to my heart, than Ramon," Cojuangco said in 2012 statement when he sold his stake in the Philippines' largest company. T he jet used by Boris Johnson is being repainted red, white and blue at a cost of 900,000, it has been revealed. The Prime Ministers official spokesman confirmed that the RAF Voyager, used by the Royal Family and the PM, is in Cambridgeshire for repainting. It is being turned from plain grey - a colour Mr Johnson has previously complained about - to featuring the Union Jack colours. The Downing Street spokesman said the military plane will have "national branding" and added: The RAF Voyager used by the Royal Family and the Prime Minister is currently in Cambridgeshire for pre-planned repainting. This will mean that the plane can better represent the UK around the world with national branding similar to many other leaders planes while also retaining its military air-to-air refuelling capability. He added: "We expect the cost to be around 900,000. The Prime Minister has previously said he would like a "Brexit Plane" / PA Number 10 insisted the paint job will allow the jet to continue to participate in military work. Defending the cost to Westminster journalists, he added: "That incorporates the cost of creating a design that will promote the UK around the world without compromising the plane's vital military role. "At every stage we have worked to ensure value for money for the UK taxpayer and all of the work has been undertaken in the UK, directly benefiting British suppliers." While foreign secretary in 2018, Mr Johnson said he would like a "Brexit plane" to help him travel the world. He also complained about the unavailability of the aircraft, adding: "It never seems to be available. I don't know who uses it, but it never seems to be available." He added: "Also, why does it have to be grey?" The plane is used by Mr Johnson and other ministers, as well as members of the Royal Family. One source said the paint job sounded like something "from Austin Powers". Acting leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Ed Davey Tweeted: "The drug dexamethasone, that can potentially save the lives of people with coronavirus, costs 5 per patient. "Boris Johnson could have bought 180,000 doses of that, but instead he's painting a flag on a plane." Welsh Labour MP Carolyn Harris added: "900,000 to put a flag on the Prime Minister's plane. That could pay for 60,000 free school meal vouchers." Her colleague Tonia Antoniazzi added: "Spending nearly a mill on painting a plane after they dragged their heels for a week of over feeding hungry kids. Give me strength." Croydon Central Labour MP Sarah Jones asked "is this a spoof?" while the Lib Dem's Jamie Stone called it an "absurd waste" of nearly 1 million. A spokesman for the RAF said: "An RAF Voyager is currently in Cambridgeshire for pre- planned works." Shares in Taiwan Secom Co (TPE:9917) are currently trading at 87.8 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 Taiwan Secom Co 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 Taiwan Secom Co 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 TPE:9917 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 Taiwan Secom Co is its 5-year Return on Capital Employed, which is a solid 16.9%. 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 Taiwan Secom Co, where the share price has seen a 4.60% 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. Only 29 percent of black Americans have a great deal or some trust in the police, according to a new survey from YouGov and Yahoo. This compares to 66 percent of white Americans who trust the nations police departments. The recent survey revealed the massive divide in opinion over how black people in America are treated by the police, with white respondents voting against cuts to police funding and saying they feel safer with a police presence. The survey was conducted between June 9 and June 10 as protests against police brutality gripped the U.S., sparked by the death of black man George Floyd while in police custody on May 25. Yet, it also revealed that while the majority of respondents supported reforming the police and believe a change is needed, only 24 percent support defunding police departments. According to a YouGov/Yahoo survey conducted on June 9 and 10, 66% of white people have a great deal or some trust of the police compared to 29 percent of black people When broken down, only seven percent of black people have a great deal of trust in the police and 22 percent have some trust. Among white respondents, 27 percent had a great deal of trust in the police and 29 percent had some trust. Trust was also higher among Hispanic people with 31 percent stating they trust the police a great deal and 33 percent saying they have some trust for the police According to the survey, which questioned 1,570 American adults over the course of two days, 50 percent of black respondents still said that we need more cops on the street, even as 49 percent of black respondents said when they personally see a police officer it makes them feel less secure. Only 12 percent of black respondents said that seeing a police officer usually makes them feel more secure, as opposed to 40 percent of the white people who responded. The survey found that most black Americans said they were more worried about police brutality against minorities than about local crime and thought the Minneapolis City Councils pledge to dismantle their police was a good idea. Black people voted by an overwhelming 71 percent to say that they were more concerned about police brutality against minorities than crime in their local community. Only 39 percent of white people said they were more concerned about police brutality. The divide was seen further as a much smaller number of black respondents believed white and black people are given equal treatment by the police. Twelve percent of black respondents in the survey said that they usually feel more secure when they see an officer personally compared to 40 percent of white people The vast majority of black respondents said they are more concerned about police brutality against minorities than crime in their local community, according to the poll Twenty-eight percent of white respondents said that black and white people are given the same treatment compared to nine percent of black respondents. Black people also favored cutting funds to police departments compared to white people. Thirty-one percent of black people would like to see funding cuts as opposed to 23 percent of white respondents. Instead of police forces, black people favored gradually redirecting police funding toward increasing the number of social workers, drug counselors and mental health experts responsible for responding to non-violent emergencies. Only three percent of black respondents felt that police departments didnt need reform while the vast majority 64 percent believed that reform is possible, and they shouldnt be defunded. The final 33 percent believed in defunding police departments. Just 9% of black respondents said that black and white people are treated equally by the police More black respondents than white respondents favored cutting funding to the police Among white respondents, the majority of 56 percent also believed that police departments needed reform and had a problem with race but did not need defunding. Yet, 21 percent felt that no reform at all is needed. Among all respondents, 24 percent support defunding the police but 59 percent believed it could be reformed. The majority of all white, black and Hispanic respondents believed that chokeholds, strangleholds and shooting at moving vehicles by police should be banned, the survey found. They also agreed that officers should be required to warn a suspect before shooting, that officers should be required to report each time they use force or threaten to use force against a civilian, and that other officers should step in if they see a colleague using excessive force. They continued to agree on a national registry to track police misconduct, that law enforcement agencies should be required to report data on the use of force, and that all uniformed federal officers should wear body cameras Yet differences were seen again in other police reforms. The poll revealed that most respondents do not want to defund the country's police departments and believe that reform is possible. Pictured, the Minneapolis police department which the city council voted to disband and replace after the death of George Floyd Black people were more likely to vote for police funding to be transferred to social workers, counselors or to community programs. This compared to only 28 percent of white respondents were happy see police funding be redirected to community programs. The survey also focused on the police response to the recent protests which saw a wave of video and pictures emerging of cops using extreme force and violence against demonstrators and scenes of looting as protests tuned to civil unrest. White respondents were more likely to approve of the police response to the protesters compared to black and Hispanic people. A higher percentage of all races disapproved of the police conduct, however, and believed they had not acted correctly. A very small percentage of white people believed that police had reacted with violence to the peaceful protests nine percent compared to 20 percent of black respondents and 16 percent of Hispanic respondents who felt they had acted violently. White people also believed that protesters had been more violent than police. The poll revealed that white people are more likely to think that protesters showed more violence at the recent protests against police brutality than the police forces did The majority 51 percent said protesters were more violent and a further 24 percent thought the violence was equal between both groups. This compared to 41 percent of black people who believed police had acted more violently. Another 38 percent of black respondents thought police and protesters had equally acted with violence. The difference between the U.S. political parties and their reactions to the protest can be seen in the breakdown of which voters thought the police or protesters acted violently. Seventy-four percent of those who thought protesters were more violent were Republicans and 23 percent were Democrats. In contrast, only seven percent of those who said the police were more violent were Republicans compared to 45 percent of Democrats. The political divide was seen again later in the survey as responders were asked about who would have handled the protests better: President Donald Trump or Democratic party nominee Joe Biden. Seventy-five percent of those who sided with Biden were Democrats and 74 percent who chose Trump were Republicans. Bidens support among black voters was evident with 70 percent of black respondents choosing him over Trump. Among white respondents, 38 percent said Biden would have done a better job, but he was beaten by Trump by one percentage point. PHOENIX, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Phoenix College of Health Professions has announced a new Master of Public Health (MPH) with a Concentration in Community Health Leadership. The program helps prepare learners of diverse health-related backgrounds to address health disparities and lead public health initiatives to help improve the quality of life within the communities they serve. Today's public health professionals must possess the competencies necessary to better respond to increasingly diverse communities. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that racial minorities will comprise the majority of the nation by 2045.1 Health disparities between white and non-white populations, however, are growing,2 emphasizing the need for improved community health advocacy and leadership to address this inequity. The MPH takes a population-based view of health, seeking to maximize the impact of health interventions for the greatest number of people. Students will be prepared to support communities by developing the skills and sensitivity required to analyze community health data and implement and lead diversity-focused health programs. "The coronavirus outbreak has emphasized the critical impact of public health professionals working tirelessly on testing, tracing and guiding us through the pandemic. There will continue to be an increasing need for community health leadership to address current and future health challenges and disparities," said Dr. Mark Johannsson, dean, College of Health Professions. "We are confident that the Master of Public Health program will produce professionals who are well equipped to lead in the diverse field of public health and the communities they represent." Throughout the program, students are taught career-relevant public health functions that can be directly applied to their workplace. This focus on applied learning provides students an opportunity to critically synthesize, apply and integrate the knowledge and skills acquired throughout their program of study in a community health setting. Furthermore, students will demonstrate leadership through developing public health strategies, working with and managing community stakeholders and implementing a community health initiative. Students will graduate with a portfolio demonstrating their public health competencies and ability to apply those competencies in a real-world setting. The MPH culminates in a Community Health Leadership Experience, where students work with a placement organization to design and implement a public health project proposal relevant to an organizational or community need. The Experience requires at least 200 practice experience hours committed to the public health placement site. To learn more about the University's healthcare program offerings, visit https://www.phoenix.edu/degrees/healthcare.html. About University of Phoenix University of Phoenix is innovating to help working adults move efficiently from education to careers in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant and engaging courses, and interactive learning can help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. University of Phoenix serves a diverse student population, offering associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs at select locations across the U.S. as well as online throughout the world. For more information, visit phoenix.edu. 1 https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/cb18-41-population-projections.html 2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425844/ SOURCE University of Phoenix Related Links http://phoenix.edu IPO Edge, in partnership with Desert Hawk Gold Corporation, owner of a fully-permitted, operating mine in Utah, and The Palm Beach Hedge Fund Association, a Florida trade association for financial professionals, will host a Webinar on Wednesday, June 24 at 4pm EST/1pm PST The Case for Gold in an Era of Unprecedented Money Printing. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER The Webinar will feature Howard Crosby, Chairman of Desert Hawk Gold Corporation, an SEC reporting company that plans to list shares on a national exchange after the completion of its current offering. The company will issue up to $10 million in shares to fund expansion of current mine assets, explore the Kiewit Mine, and for general working capital. More details about the investment opportunity are available at: www.deserthawkgoldcorp.com Mr. Crosby will discuss: Why gold has a place in a balanced portfolio How the recent monetary stimulus by global central banks makes gold more appealing An overview of the Desert Hawk offering Benefits of investing in an operational and productive mine Advantages of investing in domestic rather than international mine assets About Howard Crosby: Howard Crosby is Chairman of Desert Hawk Gold Corporation. He has been president of Crosby Enterprises, Inc., a family-owned business advisory consulting firm since 1989. From 1994 to June of 2006 he served as president and director of Cadence Resources Corporation, a publicly traded oil and gas company, which was merged with an AMEX listed company in 2005. Mr. Crosby also was a founder and director of High Plains Uranium in 2004, and was a founder and director of US Silver Corp in 2006, which acquired the Galena Mine in the Coeur dAlene Mining District from Coeur dAlene Mines in 2006. From 2004 until March of 2016, Mr. Crosby was an officer and director of White Mountain Titanium Corporation, which is developing a world class titanium project in Chile. Mr. Crosby is also a director or advisor to a number of privately held companies. He received a bachelors degree from the University of Idaho in 1975. Story continues Contact: John Jannarone, Editor-in-Chief editor@IPO-Edge.com www.IPO-Edge.com Editor@IPO-Edge.com Twitter: @IPOEdge Instagram: @IPOEdge The late Maurice Kelliher, NT and historian who provided the background to the drama in a school classroom on Limerick Road which inspired the poem in 1922. Photograph courtesy of David A Geaney via Andrew and James Kelliher. The construction of this historically anchored poem goes all the way back to a period in early 1922 after the last of the British army left Castleisland and before the Free State soldiers arrived in town and the outbreak of the Civil War later that year. There was a vacuum in the application of law and order in the period of those few months, and members of the local IRA brigade stepped into the breach. In that brief spell of relative peace, their chief duties were looking after dog licences, keeping an eye on people without lights on their bicycles and so on. An incident in the boys' national school on the Limerick Road at around this time provided all the drama and the spark of inspiration for the iconic Castleisland poem. This was explained by historian and national school teacher, Maurice Kelliher in an article published in The Kerryman during the summer after his death in February 1982. The stone from that old school now surrounds Browne's house at the left-hand entrance to St John's Park, and the school's nameplate is embedded in the masonry. The school principal, way back then, was the stern Master Buckley. He was standing with his back to the fire one day when a little explosion of coal and ashes erupted around him. Live bullets were a collector's item among the young boys at the time. Needless to say, the older boys had their own stashes for the more serious business of the era. A few of the boys in Buckley's class managed to get a couple of the bullets, with the lead removed, into the fire - and bang! The principal then called in the interim police force to collect the collectibles and the odd revolver from the boys in the school. The poem will give you a blow-by-blow account of the event. There are many people around the Castleisland area who will be familiar with the line: 'Surrender your Pistol said Markie the Tan.' And though the line doesn't appear as quoted in this surviving version, it is understandable as it was made and delivered in an era of almost total oral communication of songs and stories. We can presume that Markie O'Sullivan was given the name in a bout of nicknaming irony. He was a republican, and maybe it was because of the elevation to the role of law enforcer that it came about. Even the first line of the poem which appeared in The Kerryman in 1982 suffered from a bit of an alteration in that the Markie the Tan line was editorially changed to Markie Sullivan. Maurice Kelliher followed up on the people in the poem and he recalled speaking to Markie O'Sullivan at his home in Kilbanivane where he lived with his daughter Mary O'Sullivan - or Mary Markie as she was far better known around Castleisland. "I was talking to him last week about old times," Maurice Kelliher wrote in his article. "He fought down around Clonmel in the Civil War and he still possesses a pair of boots bought for him in Clonmel by Eamonn de Valera." Markie the Tan - The Poem On the sixth day of March 1922, Three I.R.As came up to our school. The first was named Buckley, a fine stalwart man, The others named Carey and Markie the Tan. When they entered the school, there the boys they did meet, They searched them all over from head to the feet. They found some explosive by a manly young man, Hurrah now boys we have ye says Markie the Tan. Buckley stood out in the middle of the school, If ye have these explosives y'er breaking the rule, These explosives and bullets would shatter a man, So please hand them over to Markie the Tan. Hands up then was given and the boys did obey, Mr. Buckley stood out saying he'd something to say. These bullets and explosives Mr. Buckley began, Must be all handed over to Markie the Tan. Some put their revolvers in holes in the floor, While Buckley and Kearney were shivering all o'er. And Heffernan came up with a face like a pan, Surrender your arms cried Markie the Tan. When they got to the last desk they were shivering with fear, Kearney screamed out "revolvers are near". About revolvers and bullets we don't give a damn, We've had good experience says Markie the Tan. The three I.R.As went out by the door, Revolvers were taken from holes in the floor. And the boys gave a cheer and said we don't give a dam, About Buckley of Carey or Markie the Tan. When they went back to the Barracks their pockets were full, Of empty old cartridges and a broken old gun. Said Buckley to Carey "we've defeated their plan, And all through the genius of Markie the Tan. So now for a finish we ask for a cheer, For the boys of Castleisland and a cause we love dear. We will have our explosives and all our own plan, In spite of the threats of bold Markie the Tan. With thanks to Mary Wrenn Crowley for sending the poem from Sligo. It would be great to hear from anyone who may know the identity of the author. KALAMAZOO, MI -- Kalamazoo-area candidates running for Congress and the Michigan House of Representatives this year will discuss policy and engaging marginalized communities in the political process during an online forum Friday, June 19. YWCA Kalamazoo is hosting the Stand Against Racism: Electoral Forum at 5:30 p.m. via the Zoom platform. Virtual attendees are asked to register beforehand through the link on the YWCAs Facebook page. Participating candidates include Republican Gary Mitchell and Democrats Stephanie Moore and Julie Rogers, all of whom are campaigning for election to the state House, representing Michigans 60th District. The district includes the city of Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo Township. Congressional candidates include Democrats Jen Richardson and State Rep. Jon Hoadley, who will face off in the August primary. The winner of that contest will go on to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican, for his seat representing Michigans 6th congressional district. Upton will not be attending the forum, according to organizers. The discussion will be moderated by Kalamazoo Vice Mayor Patrese Griffin and YWCA Director of Mission Impact Demetrias Wolverton. YWCA has announced a special guest for the event -- Jordan Klepper, best known for his time as correspondent on Comedy Centrals The Daily Show and his own news satire show The Opposition with Jordan Klepper. Klepper is a Kalamazoo native and graduated from Kalamazoo College in 2001. He recently surprised 2020 graduates with an appearance during their virtual ceremony. Read more on MLive: Commissioners received more than 1,000 emails about racism in Kalamazoo County Juneteenth celebrations in Kalamazoo happening in-person and virtually on Friday Black Lives Matter mural planned for downtown Kalamazoo Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 04:45:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi received on Tuesday evening a phone call from Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, where they discussed bilateral ties as well as the development of the crisis in Libya, said the Egyptian presidency. The talks addressed the Libyan issue in the light of the Egyptian initiative for a political settlement in Libya, Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement. "The Bahraini monarch affirmed his support for the initiative that aims at achieving security and stability in Libya and limiting foreign interventions in the country," Rady added. The two leaders also discussed other regional issues of mutual concern, in addition to "the strategic ties" between their two countries and cooperation in fighting the novel coronavirus COVID-19. Earlier in June, Sisi announced a Cairo-led initiative to end the Libyan internal conflict following his meeting in Egypt with Libyan eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar and Tobruk-based parliament speaker Aguila Saleh. Dubbed Cairo Declaration, the Egyptian plan seeks implementing a cease-fire between Libyan warring parties starting, disbanding militias, handing over their arms, pulling out foreign forces, electing a ruling presidential council representing all Libyans and drafting a constitutional declaration to regulate later elections. Libya has been locked in a civil war since the ouster and killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Enditem Boris Johnsons announcement of the absorption of the Department for International Development (DfID) into the Foreign Office was as brutal as it was abrupt. Let us be clear, the language Johnson used marks the end of the world leading development agenda forged by DfID over more than two decades under, Labour, coalition and Conservative governments. His description of the UKs development budget as some giant cashpoint in the sky shows at best a complete lack of understanding of the complexities and sophistication of delivering world class development programmes. At worst it shows contempt for DfIDs reach, ambition, and achievement. Of course, aid and development and foreign policy considerations should be coordinated but having two complementary departments is no obstacle to that. The two secretaries of state are ex officio members of the National Security Council. In those countries where the UK is delivering bilateral programmes, in almost all cases DfID the embassy or high commission are co-located. The government proposes that all aid decisions will be taken by the Foreign Secretary and implemented on the ground by the British ambassador and trade commissioners, who have no training or experience in procuring or delivering development programmes. Will DfID staff, with expertise in building health systems, girls education, support for the disabled and much more, be reduced to mere advisors? Johnsons comparison of UK aid to Zambia and Tanzania with Ukraine and the western Balkans is revealing. Does the UK really want to reduce its commitment to former British colonies with whom we have historic ties and, many would argue, responsibilities? Comparing these proposals with the practice in Australia, New Zealand and Canada is unfortunate as these countries have smaller economies and aid budgets well below 0.7 per cent. Indeed, New Zealand no longer identifies aid spending separately and critics cynically rechristened the Australian development agency Aus Aid to Was Aid after it was absorbed into the foreign ministry and downgraded. I was also deeply concerned that the impact of Covid-19 was not mentioned in the statement, yet the plight of the worlds poorest people will intensify in its wake. Turning inwards to subordinate the beacon to the world, which British development assistance has become, to domestic foreign policy, in a desperate bid to secure influence and trade deals, will weaken the drive to poverty reduction and the sustainable development goals. To be frank, this decision was no surprise to those who have watched the takeover of the Conservative Party by the ideological right wing, backed by the anti-development rhetoric of their cheerleaders in the press. It is a particular irony on the day that Boris Johnson reversed the decision to remove free school meals from the poorest in our society that he effectively snatched way meal vouchers for some of the poorest children on the planet. Yet I take heart that it has been greeted with dismay, not just by those who see the UKs global leadership on aid as a source of pride and a triumph of soft power, but by many in the Conservative Party, not least the former prime minister, David Cameron and former DfID secretary, Andrew Mitchell, who reformed DfID and radically sharpened its effectiveness. If that is the reaction of some in the Conservative Party, then there is certainly a coalition of support that can and must be formed to ensure we protect international aid and force the prime minister to think again. If we dont, the world will be poorer because of this decision and so will the United Kingdom whose influence and standing in the world will be further reduced. Lord Bruce of Bennachie chaired the International Development Committee from 2005 and 2015 and is a former deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats 'Cooperative' and 'independent' working dogs are equally annoyed when deprived of a treat, new experiments show. Dog experts have long suspected that some breeds evolved to be more cooperative as they began to resent unequal rewards and favouritism from their human keepers. Border collies, for example, were especially willing due to their particular dislike for unfairness, while huskies were more independent because they were less bothered, the theory goes. But new research in Austria, comparing both cooperative and independent dogs and their reactions to not getting treats, found 'little evidence' to support the theory. Cooperative worker dog breeds do not appear to respond more negatively to unfair outcomes than do independent worker breeds, according to the study 'WORKING' DOGS AND INEQUALITY AVERSION Working dogs were bred to assist humans in a variety of tasks, such as guarding and controlling sheep or assisting the police. They compare with companion dogs, or pets, although many working dog breeds are taken as pets. For this study, researchers separated working dog breeds into companion and independent dogs. Companion dogs are thought to be more attached and react more negatively to unfair treatment, compared to the more free-spirited independent dogs. This new study suggests there is less of a difference between the two dogs' and their display of 'inequity aversion' negative responses to unfair outcomes. Advertisement 'Overall, our results do not provide support for the hypothesis that inequity aversion and cooperation co-evolved,' said lead researcher Jim McGetrick, of Vienna's University of Veterinary Medicine in Austria. 'However, they illuminate potential differences in selection pressures experienced by cooperative worker and independent worker dog breeds throughout their evolutionary history.' Dogs and many other animals display inequity aversion negative responses to unfair outcomes which is thought to affect whether or not they cooperate. But only limited evidence supports the hypothesis that cooperation and inequity aversion co-evolved as dogs and humans became best buddies. For the experiments, researchers examined responses to the 'paw test' from 24 dogs half from the 'cooperative' worker breeds and the remainder from the 'independent' worker breeds. McGetrick and colleagues examined the responses of 12 dogs from cooperative worker breeds including Australian Shepherds, border collies, Labrador retrievers, and rough collies which work in continuous visual contact with humans. Another 12 dogs of the more self-assured and independent worker breeds were also used the fluffy breeds Japanese Akita and and Shiba Inu, as well as Siberian huskies and the Basenji breed, which is linked with Egyptian Pharaohs from thousands of years ago. A rough collie, a cooperative worker breed. It's been used and bred for herding sheep in Scotland In the paw task, the experimenter alternately asked two dogs to give their paw, but only one dog was always rewarded. Dogs belonging to both breed groups displayed inequity aversion, and there was no significant difference between the groups in their negative responses to inequity, the team found. However, the team did find some differences between the so-called 'independent' and 'cooperative' dog groups. An attentive border collie, one of the cooperative worker breeds and known for herding livestock, especially sheep For example, dogs from independent breeds gave their paw fewer times than the cooperative breeds, especially in the unrewarded conditions simply highlighting the differences between the two breed groupings. Cooperative breeds also tended to work longer than independent breeds after being denied their reward. In addition, dogs from cooperative breeds spent more time close to their partners when allowed to freely interact, compared with dogs from independent breeds. A Japanese dog Shiba Inu, which was classed as one of the independent worker dog breeds The doggy psychologists also compared the social behaviours of the two groups in a food tolerance test and a free interaction session, where the dogs were allowed to mingle. They found dogs from cooperative breeds spent more time close to their partners when freely interacting than dogs from independent breeds. 'While falling short of previous hypotheses, the findings did provide some evidence for basic breed group difference,' said McGetrick. 'Cooperative worker breeds tended to work for longer than independent worker breeds in our task. An Akita Inu puppy. This Japanese dog breed is powerful, independent and dominant, commonly aloof with strangers but affectionate with family members 'This may indicate a history of selection, in cooperative worker breeds, for increased motivation to work with humans.' Although the sample size was small, the results do not support the hypothesis that inequity aversion and cooperation co-evolved. The team hopes their findings will lay the groundwork for future work on dog breed differences. The study has been published in the journal PLOS One. An 'extremely violent' man has been charged after allegedly assaulting two police officers during a dramatic arrest caught on bodycam footage. Police were called to a home in Buff Point on the NSW Central Coast on Tuesday night after reports of a domestic assault. Officers approached William Peter Kershaw at the residence, who allegedly spat in a male officer's face as police attempted to arrest him. The 35-year-old allegedly resisted arrest and became violent, saying 'I can't breathe' as officers worked to subdue him. After police moved to make Mr Kershaw more comfortable, he allegedly punched the female officer in the face several times and pulled her to the ground by her hair, with a clump ripped out of her scalp in the scuffle. Police work to subdue William Peter Kershaw in a dramatic arrest in Buff Point on the NSW Central Coast on Tuesday night 'Don't grab me mate!' the female officer can be heard screaming in the video. 'F**k you motherf**ker,' Mr Kershaw responds. 'I'll get you. I'll get all of you. F**king deal with it.' The female officer was then allegedly choked by Mr Kershaw, who is also accused of elbowing the male officer in the face and squeezing his genitals. 'Deal with it you f**king dog c**t,' Mr Kershaw yells in the affray. Additional police were required to subdue Mr Kershaw, who begged for police to get off him. 'No, last time I moved you said you couldn't breath and then you grabbed my partner by the hair and wouldn't let go,' the male officer said. 'I cannot get off you when your conducting yourself in this way. You are resisting arrest, you've assaulted police, we don't even know what happened in the first place for us to be here. 'I would've happily turned you on my side so you could sit up until you assaulted my partner.' Mr Kershaw's mother approached officers, causing him to become more erratic and struggle, before pleading for her as officers gained control over him. Mr Kershaw has been charged with 13 offences following the incident, including two counts of assaulting an officer in the line of duty Mr Kershaw was taken to Wyong Police Station after being released from hospital, while both officers were taken to John Hunter Hospital suffering soft tissue injuries. NSW Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott said the man's behaviour was 'disgusting'. 'This is an inexcusable attack on two officers who were simply responding to a call out to protect members of our community late last night following reports of a domestic incident,' he said. 'Last week, I referred the issue of assaults against police officers to the Law and Safety Parliamentary Committee to seek a better understanding of community attitudes towards police as well as an assessment of whether current penalties and offences are sufficient in light of the disgusting assaults that have been reported recently. 'We want to work out what the motives and attitudes are behind these awful attacks. Thumping police is just not on.' The male officer told Mr Kershaw he would not let off him after he assaulted his partner Northern Region Commander Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell said violence against police is not acceptable. 'These two officers were attending this location after receiving a call for help as thousands of officers across New South Wales do every single day and this is what greeted them,' he said. 'They were attacked, unprovoked, for simply doing their job. 'We are all thankful they only received minor injuries, and we will continue to monitor their welfare going forward. 'I want to reiterate violence against police officers and emergency services personnel is completely unacceptable, and we will continue to do all we can to prosecute those responsible.' Mr Kershaw was charged with 13 offences including two counts of assault officer in execution of duty, four counts of resist officer in execution of duty, affray, destroy property and common assault. He was refused bail and faced Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday where he was again refused bail to appear in Wyong Local Court on June 25. 70 Shares Share When I matched into anesthesiology residency in 2002, I assumed that the entire four years of training were guaranteed to me, barring any gross failure on my part. A package deal, essentially. I hadnt heard of anyone not finishing. For me, residency was exhaustingly tolerable, yet gratefully formative interspersed with warm camraderie, the occasional difficult patient or frustrating attending, satisfying progress, and finite episodes of survivable misery. I had a basic understanding of what the program and I promised each other. The specific contract, policies, procedures, and accreditation requirements remained in the background. Fortunately, to my programs credit as much as to my own, I never had to explore them. In subsequent years, Ive learned that resident experiences can vary widely, that residency programs are under no real obligation to renew a residents contract annually, and that a contract may not oblige your institution to the behaviors and protections that you think it does. There is significant space for unpleasant or unfair events to occur. As medical students applying to residency positions, we assume that accredited programs follow the rules and requirements even if were not all that familiar with the rules. We take it as implied that we will be treated fairly and predictably. We hungrily sign Graduate Medical Education (GME) resident employment contracts, thrilled to have matched into a spot, on our way to becoming board certified in a specialty. The time and financial investment tied up in the 8+ year process at this point is considerable, with much more to come. Universities and hospitals that employ residents have investments, risks, and exposures, as well. They must have the commitments from residents and the protections necessary to keep the machinery running, their reputations intact, the pipeline of new safe doctors flowing, their accreditation statuses maintained, and patients well cared for. To those ends, the institutions create policies, procedures, and contracts. They also employ their own offices of general counsel and have the funding to outsource legal issues to large, specialized law firms. What happens if the resident/program interaction doesnt go so well? Or if the institution has poorly-developed GME policies, or doesnt follow them? Or if the accreditation body is unaware of issues, or unable to enforce program compliance with aspects of resident evaluation, due process, probation, remediation, or termination? Who is likely to be the loser in these scenarios? What is that power differential? Does the resident contract provide any protections? I talk to a few residents a month who are in conflict with their programs and facing disciplinary actions including termination. Admittedly, I get one side of the story, but usually, the gist is relatively apparent. Sometimes the resident has just really screwed up and needs some ideas to salvage his training. Sometimes I encounter a resident that may need to be on a different professional path. Too often, however, the resident recounts an inciting event with an attending who exhibits dysfunctional or discriminatory behavior, followed by some tainted poor evaluations, then a probation. The resident disagrees or appeals, which engenders faculty resentment and heightened scrutiny. Departmental attitudes shift. He becomes the problem resident. Evaluations accumulate, which reflect failings or imperfections that may be common or dismissed among his peers but which make him appear inept or unsafe when placed under the spotlight and held to a different standard. Now, hes at risk and has to really start fighting and appealing to save his position. Faculty resentment subsequently grows, rumors spread, and the spiral typically ends poorly for the resident. Regardless of fault or fact, there are accreditation requirements, as well as institution-specific policies and procedures, that delineate fair and objective management paths. Sometimes the compliance with these requirements is less than adequate. Sometimes trusting that the system will police itself may be insufficient protection. Hopefully, the resident contract outlines and legally obligates the parties to follow their own promises. But contracts vary. State laws vary. Protections vary. I recently interacted with a resident representing a group concerned that their GME contract offered insufficient protections for matters of due process and termination. They worry that a new contract demand will lead to retaliation. I recommended that the group find an attorney that could offer legal review and advice. I suggested that they investigate if and how accreditation requirements and institutional policies and procedures are incorporated into their contracts. To that point, in early June, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Missouri passed summary judgment striking parts of a residents case against her program. The breach of contract count was dismissed on the basis that GME and accreditation guidelines were not specifically part of the agreement, regardless of what might be implied or referenced in the contract. Although commonly assumed by programs and residents alike that accreditation standards and other policies will be followed, these are not necessarily incorporated into GME contracts. The compliances and protections that residents may believe are mandatory are not necessarily legally enforceable if the contract does not demonstrate a clear intent to incorporate those policies. Unlike other jurisdictions, Missouri courts have not recognized any implied contract between students and universities. If a requirement cannot be enforced, is it a requirement, or a false hope? Signer beware! Does your contract include protections or pitfalls? Consult an attorney, specifically one that has GME experience. Medical students, prevention is your best approach. Do your homework before you rank residency programs in The Match. Ask residents on your interview trail about due process, disciplinary pathways, and learning environments at their institutions. Look online. Many programs provide access to their basic GME contract. Even more fundamentally, make sure that the institutions own GME policies are accessible, clear and equitable. Then, choose well. You assume your residency program will be fair. Likely it will be, but do not tacitly rely upon it to your detriment. Review and understand your resident contract. If things were to go sideways for you, it might make all the difference. Todd Rice is an anesthesiologist and creator, Graduate Medical Education Compliance Project. Image credit: Shutterstock.com BETHESDA, Md., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of the launch of Art Basel's first-ever Online Viewing Rooms platform in March, DMI is delivering fresh enhancements to the June edition of the global art organization's Online Viewing Rooms. Over 4,000 works will be presented from June 19-26, as the art world continues to identify innovative ways to keep the community connected during the Covid-19 pandemic. "I think we're at an inflection point and people are open to trying out new channels," said Art Basel Digital Director, Alban Fischer. "At the same time, we strongly believe that digital platforms cannot replace the experience of viewing art in person or visiting the fair. But digital offers an exciting additional platform for our galleries to present their creative curatorial concepts." This next generation of Art Basel's Online Viewing Rooms will showcase the works of 282 global galleries, in addition to facilitating virtual studio tours and online conversations. Art from the modern to post-war and contemporary periods will be displayed online including paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography, installation, digital and video works. "It is gratifying for DMI to support Art Basel with the development of this publicly-accessible, timed, online initiative," said DMI CEO and Founder, Jay Sunny Bajaj. "We're grateful for the trust the world's leading art fair had in DMI when the inaugural Online Viewing Rooms launched in March. DMI is excited to build upon our successful partnership with Art Basel, as the June Online Viewing Rooms are again set to bring exceptional art works to the attention of a worldwide audience." Art Basel's March Online Viewing Rooms presented over 2,000 works from more than 230 galleries with an estimated value of $270 million. The upcoming edition of the Online Viewing Rooms will run June 19-26 on Art Basel's website and its corresponding app, also developed by DMI, with preview days June 17-19. About DMI DMI, a leading end-to-end mobility and business transformation company, combines all the skills and services necessary to deliver mobile enterprise solutions. Built to reinvent business for the connected world, DMI has expertise in enterprise-strength web and app development, IoT, digital commerce, analytics, brand and marketing, and secure device and app management. The company's unique, integrated approach to mobility has resulted in its dramatic growth as well as an expanding customer base, which includes hundreds of enterprise commercial customers, more than a dozen U.S. Federal Departments and a rapidly growing number of state and local governments. Additional information is available at www.dminc.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Media Contact: Donna Savarese DMI Senior Director of Media Relations [email protected] 314-401-8114 SOURCE DMI Related Links http://dminc.com Britain has increased the amount of dexamethasone it has in stock and on order to 240,000 doses, health minister Matt Hancock said on Wednesday, after a preliminary trial result showed it reduced mortality in the most severe Covid-19 cases. Britain swiftly backed the steroid drug after University of Oxford researchers announced preliminary results of their trial on Tuesday, saying it had amassed a stockpile of 200,000 courses of the drug. Its the first time that anyone in the world has clinically proven that a drug can improve the survival chances of the most seriously ill coronavirus patients, Hancock told parliament. As of today, we have 240,000 doses now in stock and on order. And this means that the treatment is immediately available and already in use on the NHS (National Health Service). How does a pandemic play out in the most densely militarised place on Earth, already inured to curfews and other military operations that restrict movement and disrupt the flow of everyday life? As confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kashmir cross 4,500, the Valleys residents have had compromised access to telephone and high speed internet services, despite coming out of a seven-month communication blackout only recently. In August 2019, the autonomy of Jammu & Kashmir was abrogated and the state was bifurcated into two union territories, to be directly governed by New Delhi. Into already fraught political circumstances comes the COVID-19 pandemic. In Indian-controlled Kashmir, many locals feel that the Indian State is using the pandemic as a cover to implement massive structural changes to carry out highly aggressive military operations in civilian neighbourhoods, as well as bring new domicile laws into effect, which they fear will bring about massive demographic changes to Indias only Muslim-majority state. A representative of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) says, Since the lockdown, there has been an exponential increase in violence in Kashmir, with frequent encounters leading to the killing of militants and destruction of scores of properties [sic] during encounters. In fact, violence has been at a peak in the current lockdown, as compared to the first two months of this year. The government of India has disregarded the UN General Secretarys call for a ceasefire in conflict zones and has instead taken advantage of the pandemic to scale up its counter-insurgency efforts. This photo essay documents the recent wave of state violence in the region, and the mental and emotional trauma and destruction left in its wake. During the pandemic, Indian security forces have increased their presence in the Valley, including in neighbourhoods in downtown Srinagar already some of the most militarised areas in Kashmir. In the early hours of 19 May, 2020, Indian security forces allegedly launched an aggressive cordon and search operation of the neighbourhood, followed by an armed confrontation, known as an encounter, against militants in the densely populated neighbourhood of Nawakadal. However, the military encounter became an excuse for widespread and indiscriminate destruction and violence. Many people said that in the past, they did not believe that Indian security forces could carry out an intensive military operation in downtown Srinagar because of its congested, densely populated areas. However, on that day in May, Nawakadals residents awoke to loudspeakers blaring messages, indicating the imposition of a curfew under Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code. Gun-toting forces allegedly stood on top of jeeps surveying the streets, and razor-wire spikes in the middle of streets blocked movement. The sounds of explosions from somewhere close kept many residents awake. A young boy in his night clothes, along with his family, is seen moving to a safer place in the wee hours of 19 May, 2020. Some residents also reported being asked to forcibly evacuate their homes in the middle of the night, without their belongings. We heard army vehicles rumbling up and down the street, says Mubeena, a woman who has grown up in this neighbourhood, and who was one among many rendered homeless by the militarys actions. Around 1 am, we heard a series of loud knocks on the doors in the neighbourhood. I thought they had come to quarantine a suspected COVID-19 case in the area, Mubeena adds. Sixteen-year-old Sajid was asleep at midnight when security forces allegedly barged into his house. I heard my fathers trembling voice waking me up. Its rare that my father wakes me up. The moment I opened my eyes, I couldnt believe it, I saw men in uniform pointing their guns towards me, shouting 'Gun nikalo' [give us your gun]. Sajid couldnt tell if it was a nightmare or reality. I was perplexed and didnt know what was happening, I gathered courage and said 'Yahaan kuch nahi hai mere paas, mai bahar aaunga, mujhe kapde pehenne do [There is nothing here, let me put on my clothes and I will come outside]. The soldiers searched every nook and cranny, and every resident. It was only after some time had passed that I realised we were under cordon [a cordon and search operation, or what in Kashmir is colloquially referred to as a crackdown]. Shaista, a mother of twins, says she heard shots being fired in the lawn of her home that afternoon. Security forces stormed into our house. What we witnessed that day will haunt us forever. Throwing social distancing for a toss, they entered our house there were too many of them to count and they pointed guns at us and forced us to assemble in the kitchen," she says. She adds that they took off the curtains from the kitchen door, and that the family saw some troops allegedly dragging a person by his hair in the house. They hurled him against the sill of the door and started abusing and kicking the body. We shivered and watched helplessly. They warned us to not utter a word and made us witness [the proceedings]. Some soldiers went upstairs and started breaking window panes, while others surrounded the body and started shooting indiscriminately. The crashing, loud gunshots left us deaf and feeling helpless. Within a few seconds, the body was lying in a pool of blood. Shaista says the image of the person allegedly killed that day gives her nightmares. Witnessing this brutal killing continues to haunt me and my seven-year-old twins They are using trauma to suppress the feelings of people. She also alleges that a trooper snatched the dupatta that she was wearing around her neck. He wrapped it around an injury sustained by a fellow trooper, she adds. The Nawakadal operation eventually claimed the lives of two militants and three civilians. The dead include Hizbul Mujahideens commander Junaid Sehrai, the son of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Conference chairman Ashraf Sehrai. The operation also rendered dozens of families homeless in the middle of a pandemic. Over 15 houses have been damaged, contradicting DGP Dilbagh Singhs statement at a press conference about the encounter being a clean operation with minimal collateral damage. Ghar ko bhi koi khaas nuksaan nahi hua hai [even houses havent been particularly damaged], he said. One witness claims he saw Indian armed forces set several houses on fire in the aftermath of the gunfight. Eyewitnesses report having heard a loud bang, suggesting that several homes were destroyed with IEDs (improvised explosive devices). More than a dozen houses were allegedly razed to the ground, and residents have alleged several homes were looted by the forces. At least four people were critically injured after a damaged house collapsed on them in the aftermath of the encounter. Three civilians Manzoor Ahmad (55), Fayaz Ahmad (25), and 12-year-old Basim Aijaz eventually succumbed to burn injuries in a Srinagar hospital. The family of 12-year-old Basim Aijaz mourns his death at his residence in the neighbourhood of Nawakadal. Basims father recalls their last conversation, where he asked his sons forgiveness for being hard on him and stopping him from wandering around with his friends. His father recalled how Basim forgave both him and his mother. We also forgave you. We couldnt recognise you. We were blessed to have you after six years. You [Basim] left us on this blessed day, they [the grave diggers] said, 'How pious was he, his grave was filled with fragrance!' the father says. Basims demise is symptomatic of the severity of violence in the Valley, which has not left children untouched, as demonstrated by a 2018 JKCCS report. With 318 child deaths between 2003 and 2017, the report, through studying the pattern of killings, suggests that children are in fact direct targets of state violence. The houses that were destroyed in the encounter smouldered for days. I havent seen anything as horrifying as this in my entire life, says Heemal, another resident whose house was destroyed. We have lost everything our lifes savings, jewellery, and our home. We have also lost the will to live. For the third consecutive day, houses continue to burn and have turned into dunes of black charcoal and ashes. Ye cha zindagi amie khotie behtar chu marun [Is this how life is supposed to be? It is better to die than to live in the current circumstances], she murmurs, while looking around at the ashen neighbourhood. When asked about the killing of a militant and civilians' allegation that they were made witness to it, CRPF PRO Pankaj Singh said that witnesses and investigations are handled by the civil police. He termed the operation as being "clean" and added that there was no collateral damage. "Militants enter civilian houses and make civilians their scapegoat. We have to release them [civilians], following which the operation can start, because there is firing going on (sic). This is all part of operations, what can we do? There were some houses which were destroyed, and this was also reported in the news. Luckily, during the operation, there was no collateral damage there was not a single scratch on any civilian. We make it a point that not one civilian is touched," he said. When this correspondent reached out to IGP Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, for comment, he directed us to SSP Srinagar, Haseeb Mughal. Mughal did not respond despite several attempts to contact him. Journalist Anuradha Bhasin says the upsurge in violence and counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir after the announcement of the COVID-19 lockdown is a matter of concern, because it is drawing attention away from the pandemic, to the law and order situation. "The problem is that during the encounters, excessive use of violence has been seen, while the militants are also engaging the security forces during the operations; the security forces will obviously counter the attacks. Counter-insurgency operations can be carried out if there is a major threat. But there are certain standard operation procedures. Unfortunately, these do not appear to be followed," she says. She adds that the encounter in downtown Srinagar is a sign of "immense insensitivity" on the part of government agencies. "Usually in these counter-insurgency operations, if militants are hiding in a certain building, the security forces destroy that building to ensure that there are no booby traps part of the warfare strategy. However, SOPs have been violated in this particular case. An entire neighbourhood was brought down... The government has done nothing by way of compensation, shelter for the people who were wronged. As a resident put it, while dousing the flames at one home, "This approach has a clear purpose. This is how India wants to control Kashmir and its people. It is a de-facto military occupation: they are finishing off Kashmiris, throwing them out of their homes, taking away their shelter. In the name of collateral damage, they justify anything and everything! All photographs by Sanna Irshad Mattoo Sanna Irshad Mattoo is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer based and working in Kashmir. Visual stories, reports,and articles by her have been published in various international, national and local media outlets. Twitter: www.twitter.com/mattoosanna | Instagram: www.instagram.com/sanna.irshad.mattoo Kaileigh Schmidt, 20, of Hattiesburg, was booked into the Jones County Adult Detention Center at noon Wednesday and charged with two counts of obscene communication A Mississippi woman who disappeared after she was jailed over a post accusing her father and stepmother of being racist on Facebook, before posting a video of her bruises claiming they'd beaten her, is in a 'safe and secure location', say cops. Kaileigh Schmidt, 20, of Hattiesburg, was booked into the Jones County Adult Detention Center at noon on June 10 and charged with two counts of obscene communication. Kaileigh was detained after she posted a series of screenshots to Facebook on June 5 allegedly showing her father, Robert Schmidt Sr. and her stepmother, Tracy Schmidt, using racial slurs. She also sent the messages to Antifa's and Black Lives Matter's social pages, along with her parents' address, phone numbers and pictures of them, causing them to receive 'hundreds of death threats'. Kaileigh was released from the jail the following day on June 11 into the custody of her father. Family, friends and even her attorney have told DailyMail.com that they haven't heard from Kaileigh since, leaving them 'sick with worry'. 'This isn't like her at all,' one of her friends, who spoke on the grounds of anonymity, told DailyMail.com. 'She usually wouldn't just not talk to people. Even if it takes her like 30 minutes to answer me, she always answers.' She was arrested Wednesday and released the following day after a judge in the Jones County Justice Court dropped all charges, her attorney Carlos Moore said Schmidt posted a series of screenshots to Facebook on June 5 allegedly showing her father and stepmother using racial slurs Schmidt has since taken to Facebook once more, insisting what her parents did was 'very wrong', but she does not 'condone violence towards them either. Family or not violence doesn't help anything. Change doesn't happen with violence. So please anyone that's making threats towards them need to stop. We cant fight and win with violence.' Jones County Sheriff's Department confirmed on Monday that Schmidt was not missing but was in a 'safe and secure location' away from her parents. 'We have been bombarded with numerous welfare concerns and checks on her and we know she is fine.' They also dismissed theories that she had been arrested because her parents were friends with the department. 'There are also rumors of the department being friends with the parents and so forth. Trust me, I do not know the parents, and would not know them unless they introduced themselves to me. 'We did not arrest her for posting the messages... She was arrested for attempting to cause bodily harm by posting personal information such as their personal information. Upon further investigation, these charges were deemed misdemeanor with the burden of proof left up to the parents who signed the charges , and the charges were later dismissed by the parents.' In the hours after her release, all of Kaileigh's social media pages were taken down. Her phone has also remained switched off since, ringing straight through to answerphone, the friend said. Kaileigh also recently started a new job at a Hobby Lobby store in Hattiesburg, prior to her arrest. The 20-year-old was said to be 'very excited' about her new job, but has failed to turn up for work since. Supervisors at the store have allegedly been unable to contact her. She reportedly left her purse at the store after her last shift and has not been back to claim it since. 'I don't feel right about it,' the source continued. 'It's not sitting well with me.' On June 5, Kaileigh posted a series of screenshots to Facebook allegedly showing Robert Schmidt and Tracy Schmidt using a series of sickening racial slurs. In one of the messages, said to be authored by her father, Robert wrote that her step-mother was crying because Schmidt was 'partying with n*****s. If you want us to keep helping I can't see that s*** no more. I'm blown away n*****s.' Schmidt responded by texting 'Don't call them that. It doesn't matter of they are black or white they are all down to earth people and I've been friends with them ever since I've been in Hattiesburg. They were there for me when yal weren't.' Since walking out of the Jones County Detention Center, family, friends and even her attorney have told DailyMail.com that Kaileigh hasn't been heard from since Kaileigh also replied to comments her father texted to her about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. She told her father officer Derek Chauvin was 'NOT doing his job. What he did was MURDER.' She continued to write that her father was 'f****d in the head,' if he believed the officer was doing the right thing. Schmidt added she was 'taking a stand with the black community' and said she was unfazed by her parent's threats to no longer speak to her and block her on social media. 'Yal may be blood but they are family to me,' Schmidt wrote of her friends on the receiving end of her father's ire. 'And I'm fine with getting my own insurance 'And if you keep being ugly and spreading racist s **t I'll blast yal on Facebook insta etc and let the world give yal a taste of how it feels If yal are Christians like yal claim yal will love everyone equally but yal dont yal are hypocrites.' Kaileigh later claimed that she was beaten by Tracy Schmidt after posting the exchanges online. Robert Schmidt, meanwhile, allegedly stood and watched the attack take place, calling her a 'n***** loving whore.' She sent friends pictures and videos of what she claimed were bruises caused by the alleged beating. In one of the videos two large aberrations are seen on her forehead. In a second, Kaileigh is seen running her hands through her hair with large clumps falling out with each motion. In one of the videos two large aberrations are seen on her forehead In a second, Kaileigh is seen running her hands through her hair with large clumps falling out with each motion 'I know that Kaileigh and Tracy have had disagreements and fights before and I know that some of them have gotten out of hand before,' a friend of Kaileigh's told DailyMail.com. The Jones County Sheriff's Office has since been inundated with requests from concerned members of the public to conduct a welfare check on Kaileigh. Her attorney, Javaron Buckley, a managing partner at Buckley Law Group, told DailyMail.com how he too requested the sheriff's department to check on his client after he'd been unable to contact her since her release. 'She was absolutely terrified in the jail,' Buckley said, adding that the sheriff's department had assured him they had carried out a wellness check and reported that Kaileigh was 'fine'. 'When I asked when and how, the dispatch said, 'we sent an officer who asked her if she was ok,',' the attorney recalled. 'Do I believe JPD completed a wellness check? No.' Buckley, who is based in Illinois but originally from Mississippi, said he sent two of his associates to go and conduct their own welfare check on Kaileigh. According to the attorney, there was no answer at the door and no car on the driveway, leading him to believe the family may have left town, taking Kaileigh with them. 'I think she's being punished,' Buckley said, declining to elaborate further. 'There's a lot of things that transpired along with this case. Her dad owns an air conditioning business and has reportedly been financially impacted by the fallout.' The Jones County Sheriff's Office has not yet responded to a series of questions asked by DailyMail.com. In a statement released to Facebook on Wednesday, Jones County Sheriff Joe Berlin assured the public that Kaileigh is 'safe' but does 'not want to be contacted by anyone' A friend of Kaileigh's told DailyMail.com that the sheriff's office's claims that Kaileigh 'doesn't want to be contacted' seem out of character for the 20-year-old. 'I don't think it sounds like her at all. Anything is possible but it just doesn't sound right,' the source said. 'I don't feel right about it. 'I'm worried that [Robert and Tracy]just have her held up with no way to contact anyone on the outside of whatever house they're at.' According to Buckley, Kaileigh's biological mother, Chantelle Dunn, received a text from her daughter's phone hours after she was released. Dunn had been texting her daughter while she was in jail, assuring her she was doing all she could to get her out. 'Leave me alone!!! This is all lies and u lie the most!!!,' a response from Kaileigh's phone read. 'Lmao I do not believe this is Kaileigh for one second,' Dunn replied, with Buckley later clarifying to DailyMail.com that Dunn believed Tracy Schmidt had taken her daughter's phone and authored the message herself. Buckley said that Tracy Schmidt has 'a history' of similar behavior. Those claims were corroborated by Kaileigh's friend. 'A couple of years ago they had a big disagreement and Tracy took Kaileigh's phone away,' the source said. 'Tracy sent texts out pretending to be Kaileigh and I called her out on it. She spread rumors about me and just hated me in general. It was awful.' Listed phone numbers for Tracy and Robert Schmidt went unanswered when contacted by DailyMail.com. Kaileigh's phone also went straight to voicemail. Buckley says he is planning to press charges against Tracy Schmidt for the purported assault, in addition to launching a civil suit against the city for the emotional distress they caused his client and possibly for false imprisonment too. According to Buckley, Kaileigh's biological mother, Chantelle Dunn, received a text from her daughter's phone hours after she was released. Dunn believed Tracy Schmidt had taken her daughter's phone and authored the message herself In posting the screenshots of her parent's alleged racial comments, Kailey said she had hoped for her parents to 'go viral', but quickly the post was shared thousands of times and her father and stepmother quickly started receiving death threats. The fallout started after Kaileigh's dad and step-mom took her car away from her, police said. 'My parents are RACIST and I'm tired of it,' Kaileigh wrote in her post. 'I tagged the piece of s***s so yal can blast them too! They aren't my family anymore!' In posting the screenshots of her parent's alleged racial comments, Schmidt said she had hoped for her parents to 'go viral', but quickly the post was shared thousands of times and her father and stepmother quickly started receiving death threats Threats to kill family members and burn down their home quickly flooded in, in the post's wake. Specific threats were also leveled against Kaileigh's younger siblings, including one person saying they would rape her and make her family watch. The Jones County Sheriff's Department had to conduct extra patrols around their home in Petal in light of the threats. 'Members of different churches, preachers, people of all different races have been trying to bring peace, but now they're getting death threats, too,' investigator Reuben Bishop told the Laurel Leader Call at the time. 'It got out of hand real quick.' Kaileigh was arrested Wednesday and released the following day after a judge in the Jones County Justice Court dropped all charges, her attorney Carlos Moore said. 'She spent a night in jail for simply exercising her First Amendment right on Facebook,' Moore said. 'Now, we are prepared to fight for her in the civil arena because someone maliciously prosecuted her and she was falsely arrested and she was falsely imprisoned and we want to get justice for her.' Schmidt has since taken to Facebook once more, insisting what her parents did was 'very wrong', but she does not 'condone violence towards them either. Family or not violence doesn't help anything. Change doesn't happen with violence. So please anyone that's making threats towards them need to stop. We cant fight and win with violence.' She also posted a message about starting a GoFundMe 'like yal are wanting, as much as I need a new car and everything and as much help as I need I'd hate to take money from anyone, definitely people I dont even know but are being kind out of your own hearts! Thank you all so much for showing me your love and support!' Law enforcement are continuing to watch over her parent's home. 'I hope maybe this shows people to think about what they post,' Bishop said to the Leader Call. 'This turned into a big mess real quick.' An investigation is underway into a shootout that left one man dead in a driveway and two others in hospital early Wednesday morning in West Bloomfield, police said. Township police were called three times shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday, June 17, from the area of Halsted and 14 Mile Road, police said in a release, leading to the discovery of dead man, a badly injured homeowner, and a car leaving the scene. Police in Farmington Hills quickly spotted the car and found another man injured with a gunshot wound. Detectives from the West Bloomfield Township Police Department were obtaining search warrants as the investigation was getting started. The situations started with the first 911 call at 1:12 a.m. from a neighbor who had heard gunshots on Chase Court. Just after that, the homeowner called 911 to report he had been shot multiple times and thought he had shot someone. WDIV reports that the homeowner is a 30-year-old man, who owns local businesses and he returned home. Then a third call came in to report that a car was leaving the scene, describing a dark-colored Dodge Charger, police said. Police officers from Farmington Hills and West Bloomfield quickly spotted the car about a mile away, in the area of 14 Mile and Drake roads, stopped a car matching that description. The 47-year-old driver, a Detroit man, told officers that he had been shot in the abdomen and was taken to a local hospital. A handgun was recovered from the vehicle, police said. At the home, arriving officers found a man who had been shot dead, a 37-year-old Warren man, WDIV reports, and they found the homeowner, who had multiple gun shot wounds. He was taken to a local hospital as well. West Bloomfield Police Chief Curt Lawson said in a statement that police were not actively seeking additional individuals and that the investigation is active. T heres a scene in last nights episode of Michaela Coels BBC drama I May Destroy You in which her character Arabella is sleeping with a man and he removes the condom without her knowing. After a post-coital bathroom trip she tells him where the bin is. Oh, oh... oh, he says, naughty-schoolboy-style. I took it off. I thought you... Its episode four and Coels character is already midway through police proceedings after her drink was spiked and she was sexually assaulted. But its this two-minute scene with a different man a colleague that stuck with me. Covert condom removal is clearly coercive and manipulative, but its more common than you might think. A recent study in Melbourne found that 32 per cent of women and 19 per cent of men had experienced stealthing, and here in London many friends report similar stories. Often it was with men they trusted or thought they did and for some the consequences have been traumatic. One woman I know took the morning-after pill, but unlike Coels character, it didnt work: three months later she discovered she was pregnant. My friend was unthinkably unlucky, but she wont be alone. What was one mans heat-of-the-moment, pleasure-seeking decision became her nightmare: the trauma of the night in question and subsequent abortion will be with her for life. Like many victims, she blamed herself for going there in the first place; for drinking too much; for not noticing hed removed the condom. It was only years later that she discovered the experience counted as sexual assault. Stealthing is illegal in many countries because it is regarded as non-consensual sex. In Germany in 2017 a man was convicted of rape for removing a condom without consent, and Singapore is set to become the first Asian country to make it illegal. Last year, a man in Bournemouth became the first British person to be convicted for stealthing (he was sentenced for rape) the victim was a sex worker. British victims charities are campaigning for it to be treated as rape, but theres a long way to go. What Coels drama does is at least bring some hope for victims. Not only is it the first time Ive seen stealthing shown on screen, but the scene gets more than its two minutes of airtime as the series takes its course. Friends say seeing it has stopped them blaming themselves and helped them speak out. We must thank Coel and her producers for starting that conversation. Farming organisations across the UK and EU have called for an 'urgent breakthrough' in negotiations in order to establish a free trade agreement. The call came at a webinar on Wednesday (17 June) which highlighted the importance of agri-food trade between the UK and EU. In 2019, food and drink exports to the EU were worth 14.2bn to the UK economy. The bloc takes more than 70% of the UKs agri-food exports The meeting also raised the significant impact that not reaching a trade agreement would have on farming businesses. More than 150 politicians, food and farming groups and stakeholders attended the discussion, which was jointly hosted by the NFU and six other farming organisations. Those hosting the event included the German Farmers' Association, Danish Agriculture & Food Council, the Irish Farmers Association and the French National Federation of Farmers' Unions. NFU president Minette Batters said it was 'disappointing' that there had been 'little progress' in UK and EU trade talks to date. However, she said: "Im encouraged to hear that negotiators have agreed to increase the intensity of trade talks over the next couple of months to try and break the impasse. Farmers in the EU and UK rely on trade to support their businesses. The EU takes more than 70% of the UKs agri-food exports, and it is essential this relationship is maintained through a zero tariff, zero quota agreement. This event has shown that we, as colleagues and competitors across the UK and EU, are united in our call for free trade." Farming in both the UK and EU benefited from a close trading relationship, and loses out if WTO terms and barriers were erected, Ms Batters explained. She added that it was 'crucially important' for the government to get Brexit negotiations 'right for farmers', and also for consumers who sought 'traceable and affordable food'. "British farmers want to see a trade deal with the EU that sets a precedent for how we intend to trade on the global stage especially when it comes to ensuring high standards of animal welfare, environmental delivery and food safety on food imports," she said. The George Floyd protesters in Minnesota underwent coronavirus testing, and it showed that 1 in 70 protesters tested positive of the virus. The current number of infections in the state Thousands of people are out in the streets across the country, and the current events had made it impossible to practice social distancing. Health experts urged protesters to get tested because of the concerns of a new wave of infections. The testing of protesters in Minneapolis last week showed a positivity rate of 1.4%, the health department had set up four testing sites for those who had participated in the demonstration. Currently, there are 3,300 people who are undergoing tests. There were 1,300 test results that came out, and they were done on June 9 and 10, and it showed that 1.4% of the protesters have been infected with COVID-19. Currently, there are 417,000 tests being carried out in Minnesota. However, not all suspected cases of COVID-19 are tested, which means that the data does not show the total number of people in Minnesota who have coronavirus. Based on the number of infections, around 500 in every 100,000 residents of Minnesota have COVID-19. According to the health department, around 1,500 per 100,000 African Americans in the state have COVID-19 while 177 per 100,000 white Americans have COVID-19. Despite thousands of protesters out in the streets every day, health officials say it is still too early to forecast if the protesters are the source of the spike in coronavirus cases in the country. This is because it takes at least two weeks before the symptoms of coronavirus will show, and the protest across the country began in the last week of May. Also Read: 3 NYPD Officers Fell Ill After Drinking Milkshake from Shake Shack, Cries Intentional Poisoning Although the coronavirus cases are increasing, the data from the Minnesota Health Department shows that the hospitalization connected to the virus is decreasing gradually, even though they are conducting mass testing. The average number of new coronavirus cases has been 400 people a day, and this is following the Black Lives Matter protest. The number of cases went down from the original 700 cases a day that was reported last month before Memorial Day. Spike in COVID-19 not connected to the protest Even though the number of infections and hospitalizations is declining in Minnesota, the cases have rapidly increased in states like Texas and Florida. The two states have pushed ahead with reopening businesses and other public facilities even and President Donald Trump is even planning a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Meanwhile, Alabama reported new cases for four days straight. Other states such as California, Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Arizona, Oklahoma, and South Carolina all had recorded new coronavirus cases from June 11 to June 13. Numerous health officials stated that the increase in cases is due to the gatherings that took place over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend last month. New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus cases in the United States, is also seeing a drop in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and positive rates in the past few weeks. However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is concerned that the massive gatherings brought by the protest may increase the number of coronavirus cases in the state by the end of June. Related Article: President Donald Trump Signs Executive Order on Police Reform @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The former president and chief executive of Bumble Bee Foods was sentenced to 40 months in jail and a $100,000 fine on Tuesday for his role in a yearslong conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna, the Department of Justice said. The former executive, Christopher Lischewski, was the leader of the scheme, the authorities said. It involved three other executives who pleaded guilty and testified against Mr. Lischewski. The scheme affected over $600 million worth of canned tuna sales, according to prosecutors. Executives who cheat American consumers out of the benefits of competition will be brought to justice, particularly when their antitrust crimes affect the most basic necessity, food, Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Departments antitrust division, said in a statement. Todays sentence reflects the serious harm that resulted from the multiyear conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna. Mr. Lischewski faced a maximum sentence of 10 years and a $1 million fine when he was charged in May 2018, according to court records. A horrendous series of errors that led to a disabled woman dying in appalling conditions while under government care have been identified by a state taskforce. Ann-Marie Smith, 54, who suffered from cerebral palsy, died in the Royal Hospital, in Adelaide, South Australia, on April 6 from septic shock, multiple organ failure, severe pressure sores and malnourishment. She lived alone in her Adelaide home and relied on carers for six hours a day every day since 2013 under the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The South Australian taskforce's interim report was released on Tuesday and found 12 areas that required attention, most within the Commonwealth's jurisdiction. Ann-Marie Smith (pictured), 54, who suffered from cerebral palsy, died in the Royal Hospital on April 6 from septic shock, multiple organ failure, severe pressure sores and malnourishment It found there was no requirement for care providers to allocate at least two workers to cater for each client and no requirement for carers to have regular supervision. It also found a lack of clarity in how the National Disability Insurance Scheme handled reports of matters of concern and its clients were not being helped to participate in community activities. Task force co-chair Kelly Vincent said the report spoke to everyday things needed to make disabled people feel 'more safe, more protected and, most importantly, more able to assert our own rights'. 'One of the major things we found in the case of Ann Marie Smith is how is a person like this, who communicates in ways other than speaking, was apparently left without assistive technology that might have allowed her to communicate her needs,' Ms Vincent said. Police said Ms Smith had been spending her days and sleeping at night in the same woven cane chair in her Adelaide home (pictured) for more than a year Disability care provider Integrity care SA, sacked Ms Smith's carer last month for 'serious misconduct' 'It's 2020, that technology exists and needs to be made available.' The report also found that there was no specific requirement for workers in a participants home to have regular supervision and the support coordinator can be from the same agency that provides other core services for the individual, creating a conflict of interest. Relevant information on an individual worker that may affect their suitability to work with a person with disabilities is not being shared fully, or quickly, with the Department of Health and Human Services screening unit. NDIS plans also do not include strategies to minimise participants' risk, such as co-ordination of health care. And vulnerable participants are not routinely identified and assigned ongoing support co-ordination in their NDIS plan. Police have launched a manslaughter inquiry into Ms Smith's treatment and the NDIS commissioner has appointed former Federal Court Judge Alan Robertson to lead an independent inquiry. Police said she had been spending her days and sleeping at night in the same woven cane chair for more than a year with extremely poor personal hygiene and no nutritional food. Minister for Human Services Michelle Lensink, became emotional during a media conference at Old Parliament House in Adelaide, Tuesday, June 16 SA Human Services Minister Michelle Lensink spoke through tears as she discussed the report during a press conference on Tuesday. Ms Lensink said she had already contacted the federal government to seek urgent action on the task force findings. 'Given the majority of gaps fall within the Commonwealth's responsibility, I've spoken and written to NDIS Minister Stuart Robert pushing for urgent changes to be actioned immediately,' she said. Ms Lensink said the final report from the task force, due in July, would look specifically at how to improve safeguards and oversight for people living with a disability. She said it would consult more widely with the disability sector and key stakeholders to finalise its recommendations. 'Thank you to the independent taskforce who have worked hard to deliver their interim report quickly and on time, so we can begin to close any urgent gaps for people living with disability,' Ms Lensink said. 'Ann Marie Smith was let down over a number of years by a series of system failures and we are determined to correct them.' Auto Asia, the official dealer of SsangYong and Changan vehicles in the Philippines, will be celebrating their first anniversary this June 20. To commemorate this milestone, Auto Asia is giving out exciting promos and deals for this month. Discounts will be given in all Auto Asia showrooms, where you can directly purchase your favorite SsangYong and Changan vehicles. In collaboration with Bank of the Philippine Islands, (BPI) all-in downpayment deals for every SsangYong and Changan buyer awaits as they look for value-laden cars for day-to-day necessities. Auto Asia Auto Asia clients may bring home any one of its three top modelsthe SsangYong Musso Grand, the SsangYong Tivoli Diesel Sport or the Changan Honor S 7-Seater MPV, for an initial payment worth Php 59,000. LTO registration, chattel mortgage, and free insurance are all included to this offer to give customers a hassle-free purchase. SsangYong vehicles will also receive 3-year (or up to 60,000-kilometers) of Free Preventive Maintenance Service on top of their 5-year or 100,000-km warranties. For customers who prefer to make transactions in cash, there will be bigger discounts as they avail their own SsangYong and Changan car. This promo also includes a complimentary LTO registration. Ssangyong Grand Musso For a Musso Grand 4x4 purchase, clients can save as much as Php 100,000. A P30,000 discount will make it easier for any customer to own a Changan X5 diesel truck. Whoever plans to buy the Changan Star Truck shall receive a savings up to Php 20,000. The Korean brand shows importance in its models and in providing superior features to their customers as they showcase both the Musso Grand and the Tivoli Diesel Sport. The Musso Grand features its longest, widest, and deepest pickup bed. This makes it perfect for any activities for each journey, including hauling cargo. Ssangyong Tivoli The SsangYong Tivoli Diesel Sport, known for being the only available diesel sub-compact crossover nameplate in todays market, gives you a stylish and polished presence driven by a dynamic yet fuel- efficient turbocharged common-rail direct injection 1.6-liter diesel engine, making every ride in or out of the city fun and fascinating. Story continues Looking for a budget-friendly vehicle is suitable to drive along with friends, families, or even workmates? The Changan Honor S may be able to achieve your need for comfortable transportation that can up to seven persons. Changans daily versatility allows people to go safely on the move and arrive at their destination. Auto Asia maintains its goal to provide customers a worry-free purchase as it also celebrates helping motorists all over the country. Its mobile service van remains accommodating general maintenance visits around 100-kilometers from its delearship in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. For areas outside NCR, sales quotations and rates may vary as freight charges will apply. For more information about latest promotions and discounts from SsangYong and Changan, customers may visit showrooms and service centers, all of which are now open to serve the public: Auto Asia Sta. Rosa-National Road, Purok 3, Pulong Sta Cruz, Sta Rosa, Laguna; Contact Number (02) 3485 7516 Auto Asia Otis, Manila-1120 Quirino Avenue Extension, Paco, Manila; Contact Number (02) 8561 0973 Auto Asia Davao-Km. 7 Lanang, Davao City, Davao Del Sur; Contact Number (082) 235 2700 Auto Asia Cagayan De Oro-Km. 3 National Highway, Kauswagan, Cagayan De Oro City; Contact Number (088) 855 888 Auto Asia General Santos-General Santos National Highway, Apopong, General Santos City; Contact Number (083) 551 1111 Auto Asia Butuan-National Highway, Brgy. Baan, Butuan City; Contact Number (085) 815 7700 Photos from Ssangyong Motor Also Read: Car Comparison: Nissan Terra vs. SsangYong Rexton Buyers Guide: 2020 Ssangyong Korando A standing hearing has been scheduled for next month to select the people who will be allowed to participate in the upcoming inquest into the fatal shooting of Machuar Madut by Winnipeg police in February 2019. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A standing hearing has been scheduled for next month to select the people who will be allowed to participate in the upcoming inquest into the fatal shooting of Machuar Madut by Winnipeg police in February 2019. Madut, a 43-year-old Black man and South Sudanese refugee who was experiencing a mental health crisis, was shot to death by police Feb. 23, 2019 at an apartment complex located at 182 Colony St. SUPPLIED PHOTO Machuar Madut was fatally shot by Winnipeg police in February, 2019. The Winnipeg Police Service responded to a 911 call reporting that a man was attempting to break into one of the suites in the apartment complex. Madut, who lived at the complex, was in the process of being evicted. Upon arrival, officers confronted Madut, who fled into a suite and was followed by officers. 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. "Police deployed their conducted energy devices with no effect. Madut armed himself with a hammer and charged at police. Shots were fired and Madut sustained gunshot wounds," reads a Manitoba Government press release. Madut was transported to the Health Sciences Centre where he was declared dead. Manitobas chief medical examiner previously announced that an inquest would be launched into the fatal shooting. "Inquests explore the circumstances and events leading to deaths for the purpose of finding out what, if anything, might be done to prevent similar deaths in the future," the press release reads. The standing hearing, which will be held on July 13 at 2 p.m. in courtroom 403 at the Manitoba Law Courts complex in Winnipeg, will see a judge rule on who will be allowed to participate in the inquest and question witnesses. Madut is one of a handful of people shot to death by police in the past two years that local activists have pointed to when arguing for the defunding of the WPS. The conduct of law enforcement has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks as Black Lives Matter marches have swept the continent in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, 46, at the hands of Minneapolis police. Pacific Gas & Electric is expected to plead guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter during a court hearing in which the nations largest utility will be confronted with its history of neglect and greed that culminated in a wildfire that wiped out most of a Northern California town. The hearing today before Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems comes nearly three months after PG&E reached a plea agreement in the November 2018 Camp Fire that was ignited by its rickety electrical grid that destroyed Paradise, about 170 miles northeast of San Francisco. The fire killed 85 people, but prosecutors werent certain they could prove PG&E was responsible for one of the deaths. The spectacle will unfold as PG&E approaches the end of a complicated bankruptcy case that the company used to work out $25.5 billion in settlements to pay for the damages from the Camp Fire and others that torched wide swaths of Northern California and killed dozens of others in 2017. The bankruptcy deals include $13.5 billion earmarked for wildfire victims. A federal judge plans to approve or reject PG&Es plan for getting out of bankruptcy by June 30. We want this to be impactful because this cant go on any longer, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey told The Associated Press. There is going to have to be a sea change in PG&Es method of operation. The hearing will start with a recitation of each felony count while the pictures of all the people who died in the 2018 fire are shown on a large screen set up in the courtroom, according to Ramsey. The proceedings will continue Wednesday when surviving family members of those who died in the 2018 wildfire will be allowed to make statements before Deems. More than 20 of the family members plan to appear in the court while others have sent in statements that Ramsey plans to read aloud. Deems will formally sentence PG&E on Thursday or Friday, according to Ramsey. The drama will be streamed online. Besides the mass killings, PG&E also will plead to one felony count of unlawfully causing a fire. No executives will be charged, leaving no one to imprison for the crimes. PG&E instead will pay a maximum fine of $3.5 million in addition to $500,000 to cover the countys costs of the criminal investigation. The plea agreement also spares PG&E from being placed on criminal probation for a second time. The company is in the midst of a five-year probation under the withering supervision of U.S. District Judge William Alsup for a 2010 explosion in its natural gas lines that blew up a neighborhood in San Bruno and killed eight people. The probation lasts until January 2022. Since filing for bankruptcy early last year, PG&E says it already has been dramatically altering a corporate culture that prioritized profits for its shareholders over the safety of the 16 million people who rely on the utility for power. The company is being more vigilant about trimming trees around its power lines and replacing outdated equipment before it crumbles, although Alsup has repeatedly scolded PG&E for not doing even more to ensure its grid doesnt cause more tragedy. As part of a deal with California power regulators, PG&E will replace 11 of its 14 board members. CEO Bill Johnson will step down June 30. Despite PG&Es pledge to turn over a new leaf, the utilitys critics fear more danger looms during an upcoming wildfire season after an unusually dry winter in Northern California. Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Egypt's health ministry said on Wednesday that it has detected 1,363 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases nationwide to 49,219 since the detection of the first case on 14 February. According to the ministry's statement, the total number of COVID-19 deaths has now reached 1,850, after announcing 84 deaths today. Health Minister Hala Zayed also said that 411 patients fully recovered and left isolation hospitals on Wednesday, which brings the total number of recoveries from the virus so far to 13,141. The number of people whose test results have turned from positive to negative, including the full recoveries, has now reached 14,566. Under Egypts recently-adopted treatment protocol, mild and moderate COVID-19 patients are treated at home or at university hostels so as to free up beds for critical cases at overwhelmed state-run isolation hospitals. Late last month, the ministry made coronavirus drug kits, which include medications and preventive supplies, available for coronavirus patients being treated at home, and the people with whom they had come into contact. Zayed said during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the total number of COVID-19 patients who have received coronavirus drug kits while being treated at home are 7,098 adults and 646 children. The minister added that medical kits have been delivered to 57,122 adults and 18,366 children who had come in contact with people carrying the virus. In a statement on Tuesday, Zayed stressed that people with chronic diseases, lung diseases and pregnant women are the most at risk from COVID-19. She added that the gender ratio of coronavirus patients in Egypt is 55 percent male and 45 percent female, while 80 percent are aged between 30 to 60 years old. The governorates with the highest number of cases are Cairo, Giza, Qalioubiya and Fayoum, while the lowest rates are in Marsa Matrouh, North Sinai, South Sinai, New Valley and the Red Sea, according to Zayed. The minister's Tuesday statement added that Egypt is among the countries with the lowest coronavirus death rates, adding that those with chronic diseases have had the highest mortality rate. The minister stated that 60 percent of the coronavirus fatalities in Egypt are in patients who are over 60 years old. The first coronavirus fatality announced in Egypt was on 8 March. While it took the respiratory virus almost a month to reach 94 fatalities on 7 April, it took only 24 hours to announce 97 deaths, the highest single-day increase to date, last Monday. Search Keywords: Short link: Balikpapan (Indonesia) (AFP) - A group of Papuan activists was jailed for treason by an Indonesian court Wednesday over anti-racism protests last year in a case that sparked fears of a clampdown on free speech. Unrest erupted across Indonesia's easternmost territory and in other parts of the country in August after the arrest, racial abuse and tear-gassing of dozens of Papuan students in the central city of Surabaya. The uprisings, which left dozens dead, sparked renewed calls for Papua's independence from Indonesia, which took over the mineral-rich region in the 1960s. A Papuan vote to remain in the archipelago nation, held during that period, was widely viewed as a sham. On Wednesday, the court sentenced Buchtar Tabuni, a leading figure in Papua's independence movement, to 11 months in jail. The panel said Tabuni, 41, used the anti-racism protests as cover to push for self-rule through street demonstrations and social media campaigns. "If his acts are left unpunished then it will become a threat to the integrity of the country," said presiding judge Sutarmo, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. Tabuni's sentence -- handed down over video link because of social distancing prompted by the coronavirus -- was far lower than the 17 years sought by prosecutors, but the activist said he would consider an appeal. "From the bottom of my heart I am not guilty," he told reporters. Two other high-profile activists, Agus Kossay and Steven Itlay, also received 11-month sentences, while four students were jailed, for 10 months each, after taking part in last year's demonstrations. "We appreciate the judges took the initiative to give lower sentences than prosecutors had demanded," said the group's lawyer Gustaf Kawer. "But if the panel wanted to be fair and independent then they should have released them in the first place instead of finding (the defendants) guilty of treason," he added. Story continues - 'Protesting against racism' - The hearing was moved from Papua to Balikpapan, on Indonesia's side of Borneo island, over what the government described as security concerns. "These Papuan activists and students should not stay even a single night behind bars," said Andreas Harsono, senior Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "They were protesting against racism, but are convicted of treason," he added. Rights groups say Jakarta has increasingly turned to treason laws in a bid to stifle dissent, with more than 50 Papuan activists and about a dozen critics of the government facing charges after last year's demonstrations. Among them are activists accused of raising Papua's independence flag, which is banned in the world's third-biggest democracy. The protests underscored simmering anger over racism against the region's ethnically Melanesian population. Most Papuans are Christians who have few cultural links to Muslim-majority Indonesia. Indonesia's security forces have also long been accused of rights abuses against civilians during a decades-long insurgency. Small demonstrations were held this week, with #PapuanLivesMatter trending on Indonesian social media, taking a cue from the global surge in the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer in the United States. Sam Iwuajoku, the Chief Executive Officer of Executive Jets Services Limited, has said that he is surprised that popular rapper, Naira Marley and his crew members are still roaming around freely. The aviation company CEO, in an interview with Premium Times, said he wonders why the federal government is yet to apprehend the rapper for violating the interstate travel ban. Iwuajoku also confirmed he wrote the apology letter addressed to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika even though it was out of anger. In his words; Advertisement Why will anyone be moving around unnecessarily during a pandemic? Moving around for musical concert at this time is unnecessary movement. I am wondering why they were not even arrested. Read Also: I Wont Be Using Your Useless Airline Again Naira Marley Tells Executive Jet Services I have been abused by people who said I referred to them as useless people but I dont care. If you see the truth, say it. Although I said so in anger, that is still my position today. The airline boss still reiterated his earlier position of mistaking Naira Marley for Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola. When human contact needs to be kept to a minimum, robots can save lives and factories. But when the coronavirus crisis is over, will they amplify job losses? It may be a mechanised arm pulling beers in a Seville bar, a dog-like dispenser of hand sanitiser in a Bangkok mall, a cooler on wheels that delivers groceries in Washington, or a vaguely humanoid greeter at a Belgian hospital that also checks you are not running a fever. These are some of the new jobs that robots have taken on as lockdown measures have seen humans confined to their homes. - 'Resistance falls away' - "The moment there is a threat for humans, you should send a robot," said Cyril Kabbara, co-founder of the French start-up Sharks Robotics. Its robot Colossus helped save Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral when flames engulfed its roof in 2019, and has been adapted to help remove lead that contaminated the site. "Four or five years ago, when we went presented the Colossus, they laughed at us. The firefighters said: 'These guys are going to take away our jobs'," said the entrepreneur. But the Colossus has since been successfully integrated into the Paris and Marseille fire services. "The more we advance, the more the resistance falls away," he said. It is not just in the hygiene and medical spheres where robots have made advances. "This crisis has demonstrated that you have to have a capacity to continue activity even when a health or another type of crisis strikes," said Kabbara. "We've had quite a few manufacturers tell us that the robots allowed them to continue operating. And if they hadn't had them, they'd be at a dead stop." While owners like robots as they can keep operations running, workers can see them as a risk to their jobs. Rightly so, according to Brookings Institution researcher Mark Muro. "Recent research suggests that the deepening recession is likely to bring a surge of labour-replacing automation," he said in a recent note for the Economist Intelligence Unit. - 'Robophobia' - "People who suggest that automation is not taking away jobs in manufacturing, they're just wrong," said Oxford University economist Carl Frey. He pointed to China, a country which is rapidly installing industrial robots, with 650,000 going online in 2018 alone, and which lost 12.5 million manufacturing jobs between 2013 and 2017. The country has seen an explosion in "robophobia" during the coronavirus crisis, according to a study by Spanish university IE. While only 27 percent of Chinese supported limiting automation before the crisis struck, the figure has doubled to 54 percent. The Chinese are now close to the French, who at 59 percent, are the most hostile to automation. The study also revealed that hostility towards automation was tied to age and education, with the younger and less educated people most hostile towards robots. "Historically, technology has created a lot of jobs as well, but you see less of that happening in the digital world," said Frey. He pointed to automakers or manufacturers like General Electric still employing many workers even after adopting automation. "The leading techs of today are not creating so many jobs, apart from Amazon," he told AFP. - No one safe ? - With the rapid progress made in artificial intelligence, white collar workers are increasingly at risk from automation, experts warn. "No group of workers may be entirely immune this time around," said Muro. That is not to say that high levels of automation cannot coexist with low unemployment. Singapore and South Korea are at the top of the rankings for deployment of robots compared to the size of the workforce and yet they enjoy low unemployment. Nevertheless, Frey warns of rising anxiety about robots stealing jobs once the immediate fear of the coronavirus recedes. But he doubts a worldwide movement against automation will gain traction as job losses are a local phenomenon and tend to happen in regions that have long suffered from manufacturing jobs disappearing. Adele-Momoko Fraser, the NBC journalist who contacted Google with the report calling for the company to demonetize right-wing sites The NBC journalist who wrote the piece which initially seemed to prompt Google's decision to defund ZeroHedge and to caution The Federalist is Adele-Momoko Fraser, a British journalist with two years of experience. She quoted a Google spokeswoman who said both ZeroHedge and The Federalist had been stripped of their ability to monetize. Momoko-Fraser is believed to be around 25. She has worked with NBC in London for six months. Before that, she worked for British TV networks Channel 4 and Sky, but her journalism experience is brief. She graduated with a Masters in Journalism from City University in London in 2018 and before that, obtained an undergraduate degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Bristol. She attended a private school in Dulwich, south London, where fees are $7,500 a year, and is understood to live in a $3million home in Hampstead, north London, with her mother. NBC told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that she was asking for the company's comment and did not 'collaborate or purposely attempt to get these sites demonetized' when she emailed them with the report by The Center for Countering Digital Hate. After Google responded saying it had stripped the sites of their ability to make money, Fraser tweeted the NBC story and celebrated it. She thanked The Center for Countering Digital Hate for 'collaborating' and used the hashtag BlackLivesMatter. She was slammed for her terminology, with some accusing her and the center of silencing free speech. Fraser then tweeted again: 'To clarify this earlier tweet, we obtained this research exclusively from @SFFakeNews but we did not collaborate on the research itself.' Her work for NBC'S Verification Center, much of which she has shared on Instagram, includes debunking COVID-19 conspiracy theorists. It's unclear whether she sought out the think-tank report or if they pitched it to her, but she took it to Google. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was founded in 2017 by former journalist Imran Ahmed who has written for The Huffington Post in the past. He also sits on the British government's Steering Committee, a counter terrorism committee. Among the charity's patrons is Rachel Riley, a TV personality who appears on the British show Countdown and who tweeted on Tuesday in support of NBC and Google's decision to demonetize what it called far-right sites. The CCDH has a campaign called Stop Funding Fake News which calls on companies to pull ads from platforms like Facebook and Google because they can end up running on what it deems to be 'fake news' websites. This is the report that the charity gave to NBC and that NBC then gave to Google. It's unclear if any of the other 10 sites were demonetized or if they received warnings threatening demonetization British TV personality Rachel Riley, who is a patron for the charity, said Google was bowing to 'racists' Part of the campaign was the list of ten US websites it said had published racist content regarding the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping America. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was founded in 2017 by former journalist Imran Ahmed who has written for The Huffington Post in the past They called the campaign Defund Racism: Black Lives Matter and refer to the ten sites they think should no longer be able to make money as 'the blacklist'. 'The world is crying out for justice. 'In the wake of George Floyd's death, a global #BlackLivesMatter movement has erupted, demanding justice for black people across the world and calling for an end to systemic racism. Stop Funding Fake News stands in solidarity with this movement, but this moment calls for more than words: it calls for action. 'Fake News and racist narratives can cause real-world harms: dehumanising black people and whipping up fear. 'Stop Funding Fake News is fighting back: we're calling on advertisers to blacklist these 10, U.S-based, racist Fake News sites,' the campaign reads. The ten sites are American Greatness, Moonbattery, American Thinker, Big League Politics, Zero Hedge, WND, The Washington Standard, Gateway Pundit, Breitbart and The Federalist. It complained that Zero Hedge 'claimed that Black Lives Matter is practically a revolutionary operative of the CIA via Soros' and that it 'suggested Black Lives Matter is a George Soros Astroturf campaign for leftists and their agenda to reshape the fabric of American society'. The Center for Countering Digital Hate is asking for donations to help it take down sites it deems are fake since February On the Stop Funding Fake News campaign homepage, it 'hints' for donations on GoFundMe to continue their cause. The campaign has existed since February. After NBC published their story on Tuesday, the charity heralded it as a victory. They were confused when Google then walked back its claim that it had not in fact demonetized The Federalist, as reported. Now, the charity says Google is bowing to 'pressure' from conservatives. Ahmed tweeted: 'Lets be absolutely clear here. Google admit they have been monetizing derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance violence or discrimination. 'They then say they will stop doing so. And now they are spinning that they will not. 'This is a crisis of their own making.' Riley said brands continuing to advertise on the websites was the equivalent to placing ads on a bus ''of skinheads driving around London with megaphones.' '@GoogleAds almost did the right thing, pulling ads from an internet version of this bus yday. Dont bow to racists whining about it,' she said. The world celebrates the year 2020 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Victory over Nazism during the World War II. For the first time in history, Russia postponed its military parade traditionally held on Moscows Red Square on May 9 due to the coronavirus pandemic. As the pandemic subsides, Russia will now mark this historical event on June 24 as decreed by President Vladimir Putin. For Russia, the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War is unique and has its historical importance and therefore must necessarily to commemorated. The Head of State explained he had chosen this date because June 24 was the day when in 1945 the legendary historic parade of victors took place, when soldiers, who fought for Moscow and defended Leningrad, who stood their ground for Stalingrad, liberated Europe and stormed Berlin, marched on Red Square, and provincial cities throughout the Russian Federation. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told President Putins meeting with permanent members of the National Security Council that 12 leaders had confirmed they would attend the event in Moscow. "We confirmed that all invitations are still active for all those invited to the parade [initially] planned for May 9. We already received confirmations from 12 heads of state, most of whom are [heads] from the Commonwealth of Independent States [CIS]," Lavrov informed during the video link. While contributing to the discussion, Putin further noted that the pandemic had made substantial adjustments to preparations for that event, including the work with foreign colleagues. "We certainly need to ensure the full safety of our guests," Putin said. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu assured the meeting with the permanent members of the National Security Council: "Everything is definitely ready for the parade." During preparations ahead of the parade, "all people were tested and all medical measures taken," he added. The Victory Parade on Moscows Red Square on June 24 will bring Russian troops for the parade, a mechanized column and flyover of military jet fighters and host military demonstrations of its strength and artillery firework displays. The same form of activities are expected in the regions throughout the Russian Federation. For the Moscow parade, only part of the details were made public by the Defense Ministry. "The mechanized column comprised 232 modern and advanced weapon systems, including 20 items of military hardware will take part in the military parade for the first time," the Defense Ministry said on its website. Over the years, there has been some controversy about the war history. The evolutionary and development processes of the war are in public reference libraries, and are available for any analytical research. According to Russian officials, Europe and the United States have, in the past, attempted to erase or distort the history of the World War. Understanding the evolution, the concepts and consequences, prompted Putin to pen an article that aims at straightening the historical records. Russian news agencies reported that President Putin has written an article about World War II, could be published before the Victory Parade on June 24. He first revealed his plans to write this article about the developments of the war during his annual end-of-year news conference in December 2019. His article is based on archive materials. The president has been mentioning these developments, including the so-called Munich Betrayal, or Munich Agreement, and the role of individual European states, Poland in particular, in many of his speeches. Putin has repeatedly stressed the inadmissibility to falsify the history of WW II. Quite recently, Russias State Duma Chairman, Viacheslav Volodin, also noted that denying the role of the USSR in the common Victory in some states is inappropriate and it is important to transfer historical memory and truth to children and grandchildren. "We should do everything to protect those who are no longer able to protect themselves, but they gave us the opportunity to live," said the Chairman at the meeting of the CSTO PA Council and added we should do everything to ensure that the attitude to Victory, to World War II, is based on the principles of honesty and objectivity." "We should not stand to see defamation of memory of the victorious soldiers," said Volodin and stressed that it is necessary to protect those who are no longer able to protect themselves - 27 million people who died: our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, relatives. "We should ensure that no one undermines the contribution of the Soviet Union to the Great Victory, a country with many nationalities, a country that had united all of us. We should do everything possible to prevent such war, but at the same time to respect history and not let anyone rewrite it," he concluded. Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, gave an interview to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, published on June 9. In this interview, Bogdanov explicitly noted that the current tendencies to revise history are alarming. "We have been seeing this cynical historical aggression for years, unleashed by certain groups abroad. Undoubtedly, this is done for political and opportunistic purposes they are launching campaigns to rewrite history and demonize the Soviet Unions and the Red Armys actions before World War II, during the war and after it ended. Certain countries attacks on the monuments and memorials erected earlier as a tribute to those who fought against Nazism and fascism look especially cynical," he told the Al-Ahram. He further said that Russia is confident that all countries, as heirs of the Great Victory, have a duty to preserve the truth about the events of that period of time that happened in the European, Asian and African theatres of war, paying tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for the triumph of the ideals of humanity. In line with efforts at the United Nations to combat the glorification of Nazism and the distortion of history, Russia annually submits to the UN General Assembly the resolution on combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. An official statement by the Foreign Ministers of the Member States of the Collective Security Treaty Organization on the 75th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War also condemned various attempts to the distortion of history. "It is with deepest gratitude that we remember the courage and valiance of all those who gave their lives for the freedom of future generations. Any distortion of the historical truth about those events demeans the memory of those who had suffered the cruelty of the war. Any attempts to rewrite history and misinterpretation of the events that had led to the world war are hindering the awareness of and response to the challenges and threats facing all of us and are fraught with a repetition of the tragic mistakes made in the past," according to a document released on May 26. The document was signed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia and Tajikistan. For the CSTO member states, this is a special commemorative date of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of the peoples of the Soviet Union, whose contribution became decisive in the outcome of the entire World War II. The deed in a war that claimed the lives of more than twenty-seven million will forever remain in memory. Diminishing the significance of their deed is unacceptable. Being conscious of the enormous debt owed to the fallen in the fight against Nazism and its victims, following on the principles of protecting historical truth, the provisions of international legal acts adopted after World War II, and urged the parliaments of the member states of the Council of Europe to take following measures at the legislative level: to counteract the revival and encouragement of Nazism and its manifestations in modern Europe; to protect the historical truth about World War II, to combat attempts to revise its results, to diminish the decisive role of the peoples of the Soviet Union in the Victory; to prevent the desecration of graves of participants in the fight against Nazism and military burial places, vandalism against monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators, harassing of veterans, trampling the honor of those who died and were tortured to death in extermination camps; to stop any attempt to justify the Nazis and their accomplices who committed the most serious crimes during World War II, the actions of their followers, the denial or distortion of the decisions of the International Military Tribunal in relation to the prosecution and punishment of the main war criminals of the European Axis Alliance. The consolidation of the entire international community is crucial for counteracting the resurgence of Nazism. It is the common duty to preserve the memory of the Great Victory, that unites all people who defeated Nazism together. It is important to honor the memory of those without whom the Victory would have been impossible, who gave their lives in the name of the freedom of people and for the sake of the future. 150 years ago, Ireland had emerged from the Great Famine and was the seventh richest country in the world. Mohill was thriving and confidence amongst tenant farmers and landholders was growing. This short series looks at how Leitrim and Mohill emerged from the famine, what life was like in 1870, and what changed economically and socially to enable Mohill, Leitrim and Ireland to transition towards independence. Lord Leitrim laid out alone 'without a single circumstance of dignity. After his assassination at Cratlagh Wood on 2 April 1878, Lord Leitrims body was taken to Milford for inquest, along with that of John Makim, the court clerk who had also been killed in the ambush. The bodies were laid out in a narrow chamber with bare whitewashed walls on plain deal tables. The contrast between the two men in death was marked. Makim was surrounded by friends expressing their wild grief and singing praises and prayers, while his unhappy master, for all his wealth and status, lay alone, without a single circumstance of dignity. Robert Clements, the earls nephew and prospective heir, was in Paris when he got word of the murders. He set off immediately for Donegal where he waited until 8 April when Lord Leitrims body was released for removal. Robert accompanied the body on the long journey from Milford back to Killadoon, travelling via Letterkenny and Strabane, and onwards by rail to Dublin. Unruly scenes On 10 April, the funeral cortege made its way from Killadoon to Dublin for internment at St Michans church. By the time the mourners reached the city, word had spread of the earls death, and groups of hecklers hurled abuse at the coffin as it passed along the Liffey. At half-past two, the procession reached the bottom of Church Street. The Times reported the disorderly scene as the chief mourners and gentry were charged and literally hurled back from its vicinity. The hearse was surrounded by a large mob who shouted, cheered, hissed, and threatened and made to open the door of the hearse, and get at the remains. This went on for twenty minutes, with the police unable to impose any order until twenty-five policemen arrived. Even then, the police and mob clashed several times before the undertakers were finally able to remove the coffin. Robert Clements and John Ynyr Burges, Lord Leitrims brother-in-law, were astounded at the size and anger of the mob, which continued shouting and cheering even through the burial service. In the end, Robert Clements feared the crowd so much that he alone accompanied the coffin as it was interred in the family vault inside the church. After the service, Robert and the chief mourners had to be escorted out by a seldom-used back gate. Rewards for information Various rewards were offered for the identification of Lord Leitrims killers. The heir to the earldom, Robert Clements, was reported as offering 10,000. A group of thirty magistrates raised 6,000 from a few allies. The government offered a 500 reward, though required information to be submitted within six months not a great indication of any enthusiasm to apprehend the assassins. Officially, no information was forthcoming, and the rewards went unclaimed. In the 1960s, it emerged that information had, in fact, been gained by the Lord Lieutenants agent (for 17 shillings), but had been filed away in Dublin Castle and ignored. Unlamented The truth was, in the decades after his death, Lord Leitrim was neither mourned by his tenants nor defended by his peers. The earls killers were lauded locally as heroes who ended the tyranny of landlordism in Ireland. Back at Lough Rynn, few, if any, expressions of regret were received from tenants on smallholdings, though the Castle did receive letters of regret from some of the earls larger leaseholders. The Orange Lodge in Mohill, meeting in the towns courthouse, declared that its members sing the praises of Lord Leitrim, and proclaim to the world that he was a chaste God-fearing man and a kind indulgent landlord and that anyone who would say otherwise are traitors. Two of the earls principal tenants, his doctor and solicitor, led a large meeting in Mohill where seventy farmers signed a letter of condolence and noted that, No man did more for his tenantry than Lord Leitrim did. His chief aim was for their welfare. On the Saturday following Lord Leitrims funeral, The Irish Times published a letter from A Tenant-Farmer from Mohill (not a tenant of Lord Leitrim). The writer noted that the earl was a resident landlord who gave employment to hundreds of workmen. The average wage bill for Lough Rynn was, he wrote, 80 per week and many a poor tenant . . . earned not only his rent during the winter months, but also what kept himself and his family in comparative comfort. fair regular wages, neat cottages, children educated and clothed at Lord Leitrims expense While acknowledging Lord Leitrims many faults, and that much of peace and prosperity on the estate was brought about by harsh measures and by ruling with a rod of iron, Lord Leitrims labourers had, he said fair regular wages, neat cottages, each a cows grass, and their children educated and clothed at Lord Leitrims expense. He wrote: Whatever firebrands may say of it, the tenants on the estate are now better housed, better clad, have more stock, are richer, and their lands better laid out and better cultivated. He also claimed that the earls rents were far from being rack rents, and having known the property upwards of 50 years . . . it is in the hands of a peaceful and prosperous tenantry. Most of the people of Lough Rynn at least seemed to be at one in mourning the twenty-three year old John Makim who had only recently moved to Milford from Rynn. His funeral cortege was met outside Mohill by a vast number of tenantry and estate employees, and shops closed until the beautiful, solemn burial service was concluded. [June 16, 2020] Human Academy Strengthening Support for Non-natives Living in Japan in Time of "with / after COVID-19" by Providing Information and Help in Studying Japanese TOKYO, June 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Human Academy Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Tokyo's Shinjuku district), a subsidiary of Human Holdings Co., Ltd. covering the educational field of the brand's business, will be offering a series of free webinars for non-natives studying Japanese and considering moving up to higher education or employment in Japan. The seminars are designed to provide essential information and support for them to keep up with studying Japanese. (Logo: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/202006100707-O3-U8oFb7OE) (Photo1: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M105275/202006100707/_prw_PI1fl_1l9xHKj4.jpg) (Photo2: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M105275/202006100707/_prw_PI2fl_I3O0Fn6b.jpg) Learn more about our free webinars on the company's Peatix page: https://hajl-japanese.peatix.com/view Wed., June 17, 2020 , 3:00 PM JST "What you have to know about studying i Japan university study" Thu., June 18, 2020 , 5:00 PM JST COVID-19 " Travel and Short-term Study Program in Japan Fri., June 19, 2020 , 3:00 PM JST "What you have to know about studying in Japan graduate school" Fri., June 19, 2020 , 4:00 PM JST "Japanese Challenge: How well you understand about life in Japan !" Wed., June 24, 2020 , 3:00 PM JST Take the first step bravely, break new horizons in a new world. Thu., June 25, 2020 , 5:00 PM JST "Ways to Find Your Job in Japan " Fri., June 26, 2020 , 2:00 PM JST "Must-see for the nursing care industry!" Students will be taught how to develop Japanese-language skills of foreign staff for Japanese companies. The company plans to continue this in the future. How to join: Access the Peatix page and select the event students would like to join. Each event has its unique page where they can sign up for it. Participation fee: Free of charge Targeted for: Non-natives, who are considering going to school or finding employment in Japan , and people in charge of recruiting non-Japanese employees at companies. About Human Academy Japanese Language School Official website: https://hajl.athuman.com/e/ Since its establishment in Osaka in 1987 as a Japanese-language institution for non-natives, the school has supported international students aiming to enroll in higher education institutions such as Japanese universities, graduate schools, and vocational schools for over 30 years, and has been supporting 16,000 students so far (the same number of graduates as of March 2020). In addition, the institution has been providing company training to improve Japanese communication, such as understanding business etiquette, corporate culture, attitudes to work, etc. for local companies to retain non-Japanese employees who are increasingly becoming an important work force due to the globalization. In both fields, the school has been highly evaluated by its customers. Official websites: Human Holdings Co., Ltd.: https://www.athuman.com/en/ Human Academy Co., Ltd.: https://manabu.athuman.com/ Address: 7-5-25, Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0023, Japan SOURCE Human Academy Co., Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The Ministry for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories declares that Russia continues the policy of forced passport campaign for Ukrainian citizens in Crimea. "For the seventh year now, Russia has grossly violated all regulations of the international law since the illegal occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, after military aggression and the occupation of Ukrainian territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The signing by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin of a decree depriving Ukrainian citizens of the possibility of owning land in Crimea temporarily occupied by Russia is another step towards imposing Russian citizenship and discrimination of our citizens on the territory of our state. Staying hostage gives the right to survival, but the occupier's actions deprive our citizens of this as well. Russia, once again violating the rules of Geneva and Hague Conventions, suppresses the citizens of Ukraine depriving them of rights to their property," the ministry's press service said in a statement. However, a National center for documenting violations of human rights and freedoms, namely, property, personal and others, is being created under the auspices of the Reintegration Ministry. "This center will become a possession for everyone that will need it, and the facts collected will be the basis for the protection of their rights and freedoms both in Ukraine's courts and international ones. We will do our best to help people bring criminals to justice, be it the aggressor country or a particular person. The actions aimed at appropriating property should not remain unpunished," the ministry said. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- St. Johns University has begun detailing its return-to-campus plans for the fall 2020 semester, according to an emailed letter sent to students on Tuesday. With your health and safety as our number one priority, there will be modifications in teaching, learning, and interacting on campus which will be different from the traditional way that we operated in the past, said the letter, signed by Dr. Conrado Gempesaw, the universitys president. Classes are set to start on Monday, Aug. 24, and will run to the week of Thanksgiving, which will mark the closure of the semester, the letter read. Following the Thanksgiving break, final exams will be conducted remotely up to Dec. 8, the letter detailed. The main reason for the calendar adjustment is to prioritize the health and safety of our students, faculty, administrators, and staff by eliminating the need for students to return to campus after the Thanksgiving holiday, said Brian Browne, a spokesman for the university. In early March, as the coronavirus outbreak was beginning on Staten Island, St. Johns University closed its campus days before the Advance/SILive.com reported the institutions first confirmed coronavirus case. On campus, students will be provided with a reusable face covering and will be required to adhere to social distancing protocols. In-person gatherings are also expected to be limited, and the university said it was working on alternatives for large meetings and events using virtual technology. A combination of on-campus face-to-face, hybrid and online courses are expected to be used to reduce in-person instruction and help accommodate social distancing by reducing density in classrooms. Additionally, increased cleaning and sanitization protocols, which meet CDC and DOH requirements, will be adopted, the letter said. Staff will be provided with personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies, and disinfectants, and hand sanitizer stations will be present throughout campus, according to the letter. Signage, which displays reminders of the importance of proper hygiene practices, will also be prominently displayed. For students living in dorms on campus, changes will also be present. To reduce density in residence halls, we have eliminated triple occupancy rooms, the letter said. The University has also designated a residential building for quarantine and isolation purposes only, no other students will reside in this building. Sushant Singh Rajput's Father Says He Was Unaware About His Depression The police recorded the statement of the actor's father and two sisters on Tuesday before they flew to Delhi. An Indian Express report quoted a senior Mumbai Police official as saying, "The family informed us that they do not know why Sushant was depressed and also did not mention if they had any suspicion on anyone." The Cops Are Investigating The 'Professional Rivalry' Angle Meanwhile, the police has also recorded statements of nine people close to him, including his family members, cook, caretaker and managers. On Tuesday, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh tweeted, "While the post mortem report says actor @itsSSR died by suicide by hanging himself, there are media reports that he allegedly suffered from clinical depression because of professional rivalry. @MumbaiPolice will probe this angle too." Speaking about it, the official told the tabloid that the police might also speak to Sushant's actor-friend Mahesh Shetty once more to understand whether "professional rivalry" was the reason he was depressed. The Police Has Recorded Preliminary Statement Of Sushant's Creative Manager The police officer also revealed that nothing had emerged so far to indicate any foul play. He revealed that the police was also speaking to Siddharth Pithani, Rajput's creative manager, to understand the state of the actor's finances, business dealings and his profile in the film industry. The official said, "We had recorded the preliminary statement of the creative manager on Sunday and have called him once more." Sushant's Untimely Demise Is A Huge Loss For The Film Industry Sushant Singh Rajput was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his Bandra residence in Mumbai on June 14, 2020. A preliminary post-mortem at Cooper Hospital confirmed the cause of death as asphyxia due to hanging. Post his demise, many Bollywood celebrities took to their respective social media handles to pay tribute to the late actor. Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe as Rolfe writes notes during a field sobriety test in the parking lot of a Wendy's restaurant, in Atlanta, Ga., on June 12, 2020. (Atlanta Police Department via AP) Fired Atlanta Police Officer Charged With Felony Murder in Death of Rayshard Brooks Garret Rolfe, a former Atlanta Police officer, was charged Wednesday with 11 counts, including felony murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, in the slaying of Rayshard Brooks. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced that Brookss cooperative demeanor before the arrest attempt played a role in the decision to charge Rolfe. He suggested that Brooks didnt appear to present a threat. Even though Mr. Brooks was slightly impaired, his demeanor during this incident was almost jovial, Howard said at a press conference after his team studied video evidence, spoke with 10 witnesses, and consulted with an expert on stun guns. Brooks never displayed any aggressive behavior during the 41 minutes and 17 seconds, the district attorney said, referring to the period of time that led up to the altercation, and never displayed himself as a threat. Brooks resisted arrest, triggering an altercation that saw him wrestle with the two officers before he snatched one of their stun guns and turned and pointed it at one of them as he ran through the parking lot. Rolfe also kicked Brooks while the man was on the ground and fighting for his life, Howard said. Once Mr. Brooks was shot, there is an Atlanta policy that requires that the officers have to provide timely medical attention to Mr. Brooks or to anyone who is injured. But after Mr. Brooks was shot, for some period of 2 minutes and 12 seconds, there was no medical attention applied to Mr. Brooks, the district attorney remarked. Rayshard Brooks speaking with officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of a Wendys restaurant, in Atlanta, Ga., on June 12, 2020. (Atlanta Police Department via AP) Howard also said that Brooks, 27, was never informed that he was being arrested for driving under the influence. An attorney representing Rolfe said in a statement prior to the press conference that said the officer was polite and courteous to Mr. Brooks during the entire encounter and Mr. Brooks was polite and cooperative until Officer Rolfe placed him under arrest. Suddenly, without warning or provocation, Mr. Brooks chose to violently attack two uniformed police officers. Officers Brosnan and Rolfe used the least amount of force possible in their attempts to place Mr. Brooks into handcuffs. They attempted to leverage him to the ground while giving him loud, clear verbal commands. In response, Mr. Brooks continued actively resisting lawful efforts to arrest him, the attorney said. While Brooks began running through the parking lot, he reached back with his arm extended and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe. Officer Rolfe heard a sound like a gunshot and saw a flash in front of him, the statement said. In fear of his safety, he fired at Brooks. A second officer, Devin Brosnan, was placed on administrative leave after the incident. He faces three charges, including aggravated assault. Justin Miller, who is representing Brooks widow Tomika Miller, told reporters after the charging announcement that the charges were just the first step. Step two is convictions on all charges, he said. Tomika Miller said she was hurt to hear an officer kicked her husband after he was shot, saying: I felt everything he felt just by hearing it. What he went through. It hurt. It hurts really bad. Brooks was killed in a Wendys parking lot in Atlanta after Rolfe and Brosnan responded to a 911 call about a man who seemed intoxicated sleeping in his car in the drive-through. The caller reportedly told the dispatcher that Brooks was parked in the middle of the drive-through, forcing other cars to drive around his vehicle. People watch as a Wendys burns following a rally against racial inequality and the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks, in Atlanta, Ga., on June 13, 2020. (Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters) An autopsy revealed Brooks was shot in the back twice. The shooting sparked new demonstrations in Georgias capital against police brutality, after occasionally turbulent protests in response to George Floyds death in Minneapolis had largely simmered down. Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned less than 24 hours after Brooks died. Amid the protests, the Wendys location was burned to the ground. Police and fire officials have released photos of two suspects who might be responsible for the arson. Zachary Stieber and The Associated Press contributed to this report. It was the Chinese Peoples Liberation Armys insistence of constructing an observation post at Indian patrolling point that resulted in the violent scrap between the two sides on the evening of June 15, according to a a sequence of events put together by HT. The post would have helped the Chinese to not only observe Indian troop movement towards Karakoram but also would have had the capacity to interdict army vehicles plying on the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulet Beg Oldi (DBO) road . Most importantly, the post was on Indias side of the Line of Actual Control or LAC. While External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar red-flagged this issue in his conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, it is quite evident that the PLA had a pre-meditated plan in the garb of de-escalation to change the agreed alignment of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and push out Indian Army from Patrolling Point 14. This would have been hugely detrimental to Indian interests. Also Watch | Chinas response on Ladakh violence as PM Modi says dont provoke Set-up in 1978 by the Indian Army, Point 14 is on a ridge that overlooks both the Galwan River Valley and the Galwan Nullah which joins the Shyok river on whose bank the DSBO road is being build by Indian Army engineers. Based on detailed interactions with the military brass and former commanders, the Hindustan Times has learnt that the June 6 meeting between military commanders of India and China, even defined the number of troops to be present at each point leading to Point 14. But even as the the de-escalation was on, the Chinese wanted to put up a watch post near Point 14 on grounds that they wanted to observe the dis-engagement of troops. This was strongly objected to by 16 Bihar Commanding Officer Col Santosh Babu who rightly saw this as the breach of laid down rules of disengagement. Also Read: The message is clear: China pressing forward to create new buffer zones Around dusk on Monday, June 15, Col Santosh and his company commander went up to Point 14 and told his PLA counterpart to pull down the structure. A heated exchange ensued, more troops rushed in from both sides, and punches were thrown. The Chinese PLA, which has a base camp down from the ridge near the Galwan River, rushed in more troops in armoured personal carriers to the nearest road-head to Point 14. Initially, the Indian troops were present in significant strength but the PLA soon outnumbered them . While Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has asked India to punish its troops for breach of discipline, the fact is that the PLA wanted to set up the observation post as part of its efforts to redefine the LAC; Chinese officers told their Indian officers before the scrap that the alignment of the LAC was behind Point 14. The illegal Chinese post would not only have made the Indian position at Point 14 untenable but also given a huge tactical advantage to the PLA with the option of interdicting Indian Army movement on the soon to be constructed bridge with artillery or direct fire. If the post had been allowed to be set-up the Indian army supplies to DBO camp ahead would have been at the mercy of Chinese PLA. With more than 600 troops involved in fisticuffs and hand to hand combat, the mountain ledge on which the fighting was taking place gave away to a landslide. This led to casualties on both sides as the troops fell into the Galwan nullah and river with a section of Indian troops being isolated on the other bank of the tributary. Drenched in ice cold water of Galwan and with temperatures running way below zero, the Indian troops had nowhere to hide against the elements at an altitude of 16000 feet. A large number of Indian casualties are on count on standing out in the open in wet clothes to prevent the PLA taking control of Point 14. According to top military officers, the Chinese PLA engaged in a show of strength on the morning of June 16 by bringing in more armoured personnel carriers to the nearest road head to intimidate their Indian counterparts. The PLA also linked the dis-engagement on Patrolling point 15 to the Indian Army allowing the observation post being built near Point 14 on the Indian side. It was the courage of Col Santosh and his men that prevented that. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON [June 17, 2020] Website Optimisation Tools Market Analysis - New Opportunities Explored, Expansion at High CAGR Anticipated By 2026: Radiant Insights, Inc. SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Website Optimisation Tools Market is projected to exhibit a healthy CAGR during the forecast period. These tools permit webmasters and the title-holder of the website to upgrade the visibility of the website and the functioning of the website in search engines. In accordance with the information, the global website optimisation tools industry is expected to account substantial income together with sizeable development for the period of the forecast. Because of the rising per head earnings, altering standards of living and the inclinations, increasing demand with steady formation of the market, these factors are powering the development of the global market for Website Optimisation Tools. The industry grasps the prospective to fundamentally influence the industry for these tools together with the international financial system. The market for website optimisation tools is likely to grow up more energetically throughout the period of forecast. Similarly, it is able to influence the global financial arrangement by way of a greater share of income. Classification The global website optimisation tools industry can be classified by Application, Type of Product, and Region. By Application, it can be classified as: Government Sector, Personal, Enterprise and Others. By Type of Product, it can be classified as: 120,000 Page views /Day, 10,000 Page views / Day, 20,000 Page views / Day and 50,000 Page views / Day. Regional Lookout By Region the global market for website optimisation tools can be classified as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa. The Asia-Pacific is expected to absorb additional share during the period of approaching years. The foremost contributors will be China along with speedily developing India and the regions of Southeast Asia. Please click here to download thesample pdf and find more details on "Global Website Optimisation Tools Market" Report 2026. In North America region, specifically the U.S.A will perform a vital role and that cannot be overlooked. Some sort of transformation from the U.S.A may possibly have an effect on the growth inclination of the global market for website optimisation tools. Similarly, Europe will too perform a vital part in the development of the global industry for these tools. Companies Some of the important companies for website optimisation tools market are: Gitt, Convert Insights, XML Sitemaps, EGrove Systems, Site Spect, Dare Boost, Jump shot, Kaleidoscope Global, AI Internet Solutions, Convertize, Rapid Spike, Solar Winds, Data dog, Click Cease and Moz.Rigor, Crown peak Technology, Aiva Labs, SEO Site Checkup, SeoSamba, Invesp, GT.net, AB Tasty, Key Tools, Hunch Manifest, Similar Web, Crazy Egg, Optimizely, Ahrefs, and Hot jar. In this report, our team offers a comprehensive analysis of website optimisation tools market, SWOT analysis of the most prominent players in this landscape. Along with an industrial chain, market statistics in terms of revenue, sales, price, capacity, regional market analysis, segment-wise data, and market forecast information are offered in the full study, etc. Access 124 page research report with TOC on "Global Website Optimisation Tools Market" available with Radiant Insights, Inc. @: https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-website-optimisation-tools-market-2020-2026 Market Segmentation: This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, Involved the assessment of Sales, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering Hotjar Moz Ahrefs ClickCease Optimizely Datadog Crazy Egg SolarWinds SimilarWeb RapidSpike Hunch Manifest Convertize Key Tools AI Internet Solutions AB Tasty Kaleidoscope Global On the basis of product, this report displays the Sales, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into 10,000 Pageviews / Day 20,000 Pageviews / Day 120,000 Pageviews /Day By Application, this report focuses on Sales, Market share and Growth Rate of each application, can be divided into Personal Enterprise Government Sector Other By Regions, this report splits global market into several key regions, with Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin market share of top players in these regions, from 2014 to 2026 (forecast), like China USA Europe Japan Korea India Southeast Asia South America Browse other reports available with Radiant Insights, Inc.: Smart Home System Market New Energy Vehicle Battery Market Gasoline Engine Management Systems Market Electrical Bushings 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: [email protected] Web: https://www.radiantinsights.com Blog: https://radiantinsightsinc.blogspot.co [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Grace Lee is a mother of three and community activist running for State Assembly to bring new leadership to Lower Manhattan. Click here to learn more. Please VOTE by June 23rd. *Paid for by Grace Lee for NYC. A drug trafficking network that tried to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil suffered had their plans foiled when police discovered two coffins were stacked with 626 pounds of marijuana. Military police officers patrolling highway BR-060 outside Jatai, Goias, on Monday stopped a funeral hearse after they noticed it driving erratically. The cops questioned the 22-year-old man, who informed the agents he was transporting the bodies of two people who had died of the coronavirus in Ponta Pora, a city in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul near the Paraguay border. Military police officers in Goias, Brazil, remove one of two coffins filled with 626 pounds of marijuana following a traffic stop Monday. The driver (left) of the funeral hearse told police he was transporting the remains of two people who had died of the coronavirus The military police said its agents decided to stop the hearse after it was seen driving erratically. The 22-year-old man said he was paid $950 to deliver two caskets filled with marijuana from Ponta Pora, a city in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul near the Paraguay border, to Goiania, the capital of Goias. He is facing up to 15 years for drug trafficking Several hundred plastic wrapped bundles of marijuana were concealed inside the two funeral coffins The motorist failed to provide documents to prove he was ferrying the corpses in the sealed caskets. Once they saw how nervous he appeared as he was questioned, the police were able to get him to comply to allow them to search through the coffins where they unearthed several hundred bundles of marijuana. The man later confessed he was being paid $950 to deliver the marijuana filled coffins to Goiania, the capital of Goias. The driver of a funeral hearse that was transporting two coffins filled with 626 pounds of marijuana of marijuana could face 15 years in prison if he is convicted The police said the agents decided to unseal the coffins when the driver (left) failed to produce documents that proved he was ferrying the bodies of two people who died of COVID-19 Cops on a Brazilian highway near the city of Jatai discovered two coffins with 626 pounds of marijuana during the traffic stop of a funeral hearse He was taken into custody and could face up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted. 'The curious thing is that the driver narrated that there were two bodies in the coffins and that they were isolated because they were victims of Covid-19,' Lt. Col. Sergio Marques Duarte said, according to Brazilian news outlet G1. 'The police decided to open the coffins and were faced with this large amount of drugs. It was a strange incident.' Brazil has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America. The deadly bug has killed 45,241 people and 923,189 have tested positive. It is both the highest number of deaths and infections outside the United States. A new deal between the UK and US governments will see American companies operate and launch from British spaceports for the first time. The technology safeguards agreement will let US firms contribute to and benefit from the 14.8 billion per year British space sector that employs 42,000 people. As part of the deal, American companies will be able to launch from British spaceports in Cornwall and Scotland over the next few years. The agreement will also allow US firms to bring rocket hardware into the UK - something that is normally very tightly restricted. Virgin Orbit is one of the US-based operators keen to launch from the UK This is one of the designs for the horizontal take-off spaceport proposed for Cornwall. The spaceport, due to be operation in the early 2020s, will be used to launch satellites into orbit So far the UK government has awarded grants worth almost 40 million to set up commercial vertical and horizontal satellite launches from the UK. However, with many launch providers - such as Virgin Orbit - based in the US, this agreement was needed before they could begin operations in the UK. Access Space, an industry body for commercial space operations in the UK, has welcomed the move, calling it an important development. 'We are thrilled that the UK has signed such agreement as it would boost the space sector in the UK,' said co-founder and director Tony Azzarelli. He said it would boost the industry both from lending a hand to US launchers, as well as increasing the importance of the UK as a launching state. Having US launchers operating on British soil would also provide a boost to British rocket firms such as Skyrora, Orbex, Reaction Engines and Rocket Plane. Notional image of the UK's first commercial spaceport at the Sutherland Site in Melness, Scotland, which will conduct the UK's first vertical, orbital rocket launch in the early 2020s A 6.5ft (2m) rocket called Skylark Nano blasted off from Fethaland Peninsula on the mainland of Shetland and reached an altitude of around 20,000 feet (6km) recently and the company hope to send satellites into space from the UK by 2022 It would also help the likes of Spaceport Cornwall and Astroscale - a private space debris removal company based in the UK. 'The deal would also give European companies an additional choice when coming to select a launching state,' said Azzarelli. Government officials hope to have the first launches from British soil within the decade and some companies like Skyrora are planning to launch as early as 2021. The UK Governments Spaceflight Programme aims to establish commercial vertical and horizontal small satellite launches from UK spaceports. This is designed to act as a catalyst for growth in the wider space industry, according to a government spokesperson, who said the government is also developing a comprehensive national space strategy. The goal of the strategy is to bring long-term strategic and commercial benefits. Science Minister Amanda Solloway said the deal takes us one step closer to seeing the first ever space launch from British soil. 'This is a key moment for our commercial space industry, and I look forward to seeing companies from Scotland to Newquay benefiting, and the creation of highly skilled jobs on both sides of the Atlantic,' Solloway said. It's not just about the rockets or the launch though, the deal covers the whole component supply chain and opens that up to US firms. There are also other steps needed before the launches can start. Some legislation has already been through Parliament, but safety rules and regulations are also required - something expected to happen this year. Virgin Orbit, sister company of Virgin Galactic, is based in California but hopes to be able to launch from Spaceport Cornwall, in Newquay. Their system is horizontal - they take off from a traditional jet with the rocket onboard - get to a higher altitude then ignite the rocket. Skyrora XL is a three-stage rocket which the British rocket scientists hope will take satellites and place them into sun-synchronous orbit up to 620 miles above Earth from Scotland Lockheed Martin, the US aerospace giant, has also expressed interest in launching from the Scottish spaceport at Sutherland. That spaceport is due to have its planning permission request discussed by the council in the next few days. If this all goes to plan there could be a number of spaceports across the UK including Shetland, Western Isles, Glasgow, Campbeltown and Snowdonia. Karen Pierce, UK Ambassador to the US, said the agreement is the start of a new era for UK-US space collaboration. 'The commercial space sector already represents hundreds of millions of dollars in trade between our two countries each year, as well as thousands of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic,' she said. 'This new agreement will generate further growth and prosperity for both our countries.' Spaceport Cornwall said: 'This is amazing news for the UK space industry. Our thanks for all the hard work in delivering this vital agreement.' 'We know our colleagues at the UK Space Agency have worked tirelessly to secure this deal - bringing us one step closer to launch from UK soil.' Convalescent plasma therapy, an experimental medical procedure, where critical coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients are treated using plasma collected from those who have recovered from the viral infection, have come to the rescue of a critical patient (51), who is undergoing treatment at Thrissur Medical College Hospital in Kerala, the state health department authorities said. The patient, who had returned from Delhi recently, amid the easing of nationwide lockdown restrictions, which were enforced from March to contain the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak, had tested positive and was on a ventilator support for six days, as his condition had worsened. However, he was taken out of the ventilator support on Tuesday, four days after he was administered plasma therapy in two batches. He is responding well to the treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU) after being on a ventilator support for six days, said Dr. MA Andrews, principal, Thrissur Medical College Hospital. This is the first case of successful administration of plasma therapy to treat a critical Covid-19 patient in the state. Earlier, plasma therapy was tried on three Covid-19 patients, including former Santosh Trophy player E Hamsakoya, but none of them could be saved. Plasma is harvested from people, who have recovered from Covid-19, at least two weeks after the cured patient has tested negative. Doctors said plasma, measuring between 400 and 800 millilitres (ml), is harvested from a recovered patient and transfused to a critical Covid-19 patient. Kerala has adequate stock of plasma after some youth, who recently returned from Persian Gulf nations and tested Covid-19 positive, volunteered to donate it. The countrys first patient, a medical student (21), who had tested Covid-19 positive after she returned from Wuhan in central China, the epicentre of the initial viral outbreak, had donated plasma a month after her recovery. This isnt like blood donation. Only plasma is collected from the blood. Unlike usual blood donation, the rest returns to the donors circulation. A healthy person can donate 800 ml of plasma, the yellowish liquid component of blood, which can treat at least four persons, said another senior doctor of Thrissur Medical College Hospital. However, he had a word of caution. Its not necessary that all patients respond well to plasma treatment. The virus load and level of co-morbid conditions are key to a patients recovery, he added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday suggested a uniform policy for the National Capital Region (NCR) to effectively check the spread of the Covid-19 disease there. He also favoured sealing Uttar Pradeshs borders with Delhi to regulate the movement of traffic. Yogi Adityanath made these suggestions at a video conference that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with chief ministers on Wednesday. It was the second day of Modis sixth round of consultations with chief ministers on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides Uttar Pradesh, the chief ministers of Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Bihar were among those who participated in the meeting on the second day. Adityanath suggested that directives should be issued for hospitalisation of asymptomatic persons instead of sending them to home quarantine. Not admitting asymptomatic persons to hospital may lead to spread of the coronavirus disease when such persons moved from one place to another, he said. A senior officer confirmed that chief minister made the suggestion about a uniform policy for NCR. UPs borders with Delhi (should) be sealed and movement of traffic regulated. Asymptomatic persons (should) be treated in Covid hospitals and not sent for home quarantine, the chief minister said at the meeting, according to the officer. The chief minister, who spoke for nearly 15 minutes at the video conference with the prime minister, said there was regular movement of people from both sides in the border districts. That was why a uniform policy was needed, he added. Reviewing the Unlock-1 situation earlier in the day, the chief minister asked chief secretary RK Tiwari and principal secretary, medical, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad to take stock of the medical infrastructure and arrangements made in districts of Meerut division (NCR) to fight Covid-19. Yogi gave data to make his point about welfare measures initiated by the state government and status of testing, Covid-19 infections, recovery and death of patients. He said 16,159 samples were tested on Tuesday alone. In all 4,82,596 tests have been conducted so far in the state. He said a loan of Rs 2002 crore was given to 56,000 people leading to creation of 2 lakh jobs. He also said 36.40 lakh metric tonne food grains were distributed five times to 14.6 lakh people free of charge. The chief minister also gave data about disbursement of pension under schemes for widows, senior citizens and disabled persons. Yogi Adityanath said the state government had set up a commission to explore job opportunities for workers/labourers and provide them social security and insurance etc. The commission headed by chief minister held its first meeting on Tuesday. A committee headed by minister for finance Suresh Khanna has been formed to make recommendations for providing social and economic security to the workers/labourers. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON T he UK coronavirus death toll has passed the grim milestone of 42,000 after jumping by 184, according to figures released by the Department of Health (DoH). The number of people who have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in hospitals, care homes and the wider community was 42,153 as of 5pm on Tuesday - up 184 from the day before. However, the Government figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which is thought to have passed 53,000. It comes after the UK was today ranked second bottom in a league table of how well the worlds richest nations responded to the coronavirus pandemic. Britain was given a poor rating and judged to be as bad as Spain and Italy with only Belgium scoring worse of 21 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. The official DoH figures differ from those issued by separate devolved authorities every day. Public Health Wales said a further 10 people had died after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths to 1,466, while the total number of cases in Wales increased by 53 to 14,922. A total of 2,462 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by nine from 2,453 on Tuesday, Nicola Sturgeon said. UK lockdown eases as more people return to work - In pictures 1 /54 UK lockdown eases as more people return to work - In pictures A woman wearing a face mask and gloves walks on a platform at Waterloo Station in London Reuters Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn General view of roadworks on London Bridge, London PA Busy tube train between East Ham and Upton Park. PA People are seen at Waterloo Station in London Reuters People wear a face masks at Leeds station PA A worker from LNER stands beside ticket barriers that have been blocked for social distancing measures at Newcastle train station, PA Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Police at Victoria Station as Lockdown is slowly lifted at Victoria Station Nigel Howard Nigel Howard Burnt Oak tube station. PA A Victoria line train is deep cleaned at Northumberland Park depot PA Commuters at Clapham Junction Station PA Nigel Howard Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Nigel Howard Passengers board and leave a train at a station in Bracknell, Berkshire PA Commuters and staff in and around at Clapham Junction Railway Station Daniel Hambury Police officers pictured at Colliers Wood Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Increased police and security personnel at New Street station in Birmingham PA Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Commuters at Clapham Junction sStation PA Nigel Howard Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Commuters at Clapham Junction Station PA Busy tube train between East Ham and Upton Park PA Nigel Howard Commuters and staff in and around at Clapham Junction Railway Station, Daniel Hambury Nigel Howard Increased police and security personnel at New Street station in Birmingham PA Increased security at New Street station in Birmingham, PA Busy tube train between East Ham and Upton Park PA Commuters at Clapham Junction Station PA A sign advising passengers to wear a face mask at Clapham Junction station, PA Stickers being installed on a bus at Abellio Camberwell bus garage, as more people are set to return to offices, factories and building sites this week PA The figures are lower than the 4,070 deaths given earlier by the National Records of Scotland as they do not include suspected and probable coronavirus infections. Northern Ireland and England are yet to release their latest data today. In terms of testing, in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Wednesday, 140,359 tests were carried out or dispatched in the UK, with 1,115 positive results, the Department of Health said. Loading.... Overall, a total of 7,121,976 tests have been carried out and 299,251 cases have been confirmed positive. The figure for the number of people tested has been temporarily paused to ensure consistent reporting across all methods of testing. Loading.... But earlier Downing Street confirmed that in the 24 hours up to 9am on Tuesday, 113,107 tests for Covid-19 were provided. Out of those, 28,186 were antibody tests. The latest available details of testing capacity in the UK was 241,540 on Monday. Asked about the gap between actual tests carried out and capacity, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said: We always said testing numbers will fluctuate daily. We have publicly appealed for anyone who thinks they might have symptoms of coronavirus to come forward and to get a test. Loading.... It is important if anyone is concerned they might have coronavirus symptoms that they do contact us, they do get a test and if they are found to have coronavirus, that they share with us their contacts and we are able to advise people to self-isolate for the protection of the public. Sign up for the Covering Climate Now newsletter here. EVERY CITY HAS ITS GEORGE FLOYD, Rev. Jesse Jackson said after attending Floyds June 4 funeral service in Minneapolis. No stranger to white supremacist violence, Jackson was 26 when he witnessed the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King on a motel balcony in Memphis. The murder of Floyd, Jackson added, photographed by a terrified and courageous 17-year-old girl, has made it impossible to ignore police violence against Black people. Indeed, the media has taken notice. But police brutality is not the only violence Black Americans and other communities of color must endure. It is factually indisputable that the poor and people of color in the US and around the world suffer first and worst from climate-driven catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina, whose fifteenth anniversary comes in August. The same is true of standard air and water pollution, such as the lead-laden drinking water provided to residents in Flint, Michigan, the majority of whom are Black. But only rarely does mainstream news coverage make the point that such environmental violence is pervasive, chronic, and carries a clear racial and economic bias. Theres an [environmental justice] story in virtually every neighborhood that feels on a par with Flint, Michigan, Varshini Prakash, the executive director of the youth climate group the Sunrise Movement, told journalists at a recent Covering Climate Now Talking Shop webinar. Born in the US and of Indian descent, the 27-year-old Prakash recognized as a teenager that people around the world, many who looked like me, didnt have water or other basic necessities. Her familys ancestral home in southern India was near a village where Coca-Cola used up all the drinking water and [was] selling farmers fertilizer that was actually chemical sludge. Go to Louisianas Cancer Alley, she urged the journalistsreferring to the 85 miles of land straddling the Mississippi River, north of New Orleans, where petrochemical plants occupy former slave plantationsand once again its the poor and people of color who are left to cope with horrific pollution. The environmental justice story has long been sitting there, waiting to be told. But most news organizations have missed it, devoting what little climate coverage they do primarily to the words and deeds of scientists, politicians, and activists, who are often white and well-off, and focusing on such abstract concepts as parts per million of carbon dioxide, instead of the tangible human tragedies climate change is already wreaking in some communities. If youre not getting into the context of who is being affected by [climate change], then youre not telling the real climate story, Kendra Pierre-Louis, a veteran climate change reporter, most recently for the New York Times, told journalists during the Talking Shop event. Its almost like journalistic negligence, because youre speaking in highly technical terms, when the whole reason youre reporting on [climate change] is because it has implications for society and humans. And youre leaving that part of the story out. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Recent days have brought some stellar exceptions to the rule, however. The Times interviewed leading Black environmentalists about climate change and concluded that racism makes it impossible to live sustainably. After describing how Hurricane Harvey, in 2016, wrecked a modest family home near a Texas oil refinery, CNN asked whether fossil fuel companies should help cover the tab by compensating homeowners whose lives are upended by climate disasters. And CBS News interviewed one of the pioneers of environmental justice activism, Peggy Shepard, a co-founder of the Harlem-based WE ACT for Environmental Justice, who described how mainstream green groups and environmental justice organizations are now collaborating on an Equitable and Just National Climate Platform. Sometimes, coverage can wrongly imply that racial and economic injustice is only an occasional aspect of the climate story. Too many newsrooms feel like, Oh, weve done the ecojustice story for this year, we can move on, Pierre-Louis said. [But ecojustice] is something that needs to be embedded in all aspects of climate reporting, and climate change needs to be embedded in all aspects of other reporting. If youre an energy reporter and youre reporting on Exxons quarterly earnings and youre not mentioning climate change, thats gross negligence. Reporting on climate injustice strikes some editors as improperly activist. Yessenia Funes, of Earther, attributed this view in part to the lack of racial diversity at many newsrooms. Ive been lucky to work at news organizations that center environmental justice, said Funes. Its really unfortunate that some newsrooms create obstacles for reporters to pursue these types of stories, she added. I think that is often a result of reporters or editors who dont have a clear understanding of the climate crisis and, more importantly, the inequity thats baked into the climate crisis. The solution is pretty simple, she said: Just hire more people of color. I dont understand why thats such a difficult thing for news organizations to do. Further, news organizations must regard diversity as more than a bureaucratic box to be checked, when its actually an editorial outlook to be embraced, Pierre-Louis, who is Black, said. You want to hire people who look like me but think like you, she once told a newsroom executive. Racism isnt getting worse, its getting filmed, actor Will Smith observed in 2016. Smiths comment resurfaced on social media after the video of George Floyds murder sparked unprecedented worldwide protests. Environmental injustices still arent getting filmed very much, which means that the general public isnt aware of whats happening. Scientists project that this summer will bring one of the most active hurricane seasons ever to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and extreme heat to many parts of the world. For unfortunate reasons, then, newsrooms might soon have ample opportunities to do better. RECENTLY: How Fox Newss Harris Faulkner showed the way for political journalism Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Mark Hertsgaard is the co-founder and executive director of Covering Climate Now and the environment correspondent for The Nation. Premier Doug Ford wants to extend Ontarios state of emergency until July 15 even though the provinces economy is gradually opening up as new COVID-19 cases start to dwindle. On Wednesday night in the legislature, Fords Progressive Conservatives tabled a motion for the change that will be debated by MPPs next week. His office said he is hopeful that this will be the final extension. The state of emergency, which has been in effect since March 17, is currently set to expire on June 30. If, as expected, the motion passes, Ontario will have been in such a state for 120 days. Ford announced earlier Wednesday that all emergency orders in force under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act would remain in effect until June 30. By law, the orders must be spelled out and renewed every two weeks even during an emergency. The premier said another extension was necessary to ensure the government can safely and gradually reopen the province. Extending these emergency orders gives our front-line health-care providers the necessary flexibility to rapidly respond to urgent needs and protect our most vulnerable, he said. Even though were seeing decreasing infection rates with increased testing levels, we cant let our guard down just yet, said Ford. We need to keep these emergency measures in place to support our front-line heroes and we must all continue following the public health advice, so we can reopen more of the province safely and gradually. As of this Friday, every part of Ontario except the city of Toronto, Peel Region, and Windsor-Essex, will have moved to the second stage of reopening, which allows additional businesses including restaurants with patios, barbers, and hair salons to open. That means more services and freedoms for people in Halton, Durham, York, Muskoka, and Hamilton after months of being locked down. Later Wednesday, Ford emphasized that local health authorities have the power to slow the openings if they have safety concerns. Even if we give them the green light if they want to continue to keep the shops closed, thats going to be up to them. They know they have the powers to do that, the premier said. Health Minister Christine Elliott said Toronto, Peel, and Windsor should learn next Monday if they can open up more of their economies on June 26. The system has been set up that were looking at things on Mondays, making a decision about an opening on the following Friday, so that businesses in certain areas will be ready to be able to do that, said Elliott. We give them as much notice as possible. Effective across Ontario last Friday, the government allowed gatherings of up to 10 people as well as social circles to allow households to bubble together. Social circles are different from social gatherings. A social circle is voluntary, but if adopted should include all household members, and can include family and friends outside the household up to a maximum of 10 people in the social circle, the government said in a statement. But Ford reiterated that people should maintain a safe physical distance of two metres while out in public or shopping. On Tuesday, he also urged Ontarians to wear non-medical masks when out and about if they cannot keep two metres apart. I highly, highly recommend when you go out, wear a face mask of some sort. Simple as that. Youre going into a store, wear a face mask of some sort. Read more about: Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 15) The Department of Health said Monday it has yet to clear a backlog of about 2,200 COVID-19 tests this week, citing operational issues faced by laboratories. Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said the agency still needs to process more test results which have accumulated the past few days due to bottlenecks. "Ang operational issues, hindi naman nawawala 'yan sa bawat facility na nagpo-provide ng ganitong mga serbisyo. Itong operational issues natin logistics-wise, napakalaking bagay sa amin. Meron tayong current international shortage on the different logistical supplies na kailangan ng isang laboratoryo na hindi madaling makuha sa panahong ito," Vergeire said. [Translation: Facilities rendering testing services always face operational issues. These concerns on logistics are a big deal, we currently have an international shortage on the different logistical supplies which each laboratory needs but are not easy to procure at this time.] She added that only one out of the country's 59 laboratories has yet to clear its "fresh" and "late" case backlog, which are new categories introduced late May. Apart from supply shortages, various testing centers also need additional manpower to fast-track the processing of samples. DOH said they are in need of additional encoders who will process case reports, with the DOH digitizing COVID-19 reporting systems. RELATED: Ask for help from the private sector, Robredo tells DOH Vergeire added that the same operational gaps also limit actual testing capacity to between 10,500 to 11,000 a day, even when rated capacity of all labs are close to 50,000 already. To maximize this, she said the government's expanded testing protocols will be broadened to cover vulnerable members of the population as well as those who will be undergoing major surgeries, labor, chemotherapy and dialysis. The government wants to test 1.5 percent of the population by end-July, which would be more than 1 million individuals. The government has tested 468,681 unique individuals as of June 13. Despite this, Vergeire said the turnaround time for tests have been cut to three to five days, shorter than seven to 10 days previously. Signs also point to rising recoveries and fewer deaths, with Vergeire attributing these trends to frontliners having more experience in battling the disease and faster reporting of cases. She explained that the sudden rise to above 10 deaths a day for the past few days was only due to late reporting of fatalities, but said that reporting these cases on the date of death will depict a downward trend for the past week. There are 26,420 confirmed coronavirus cases in the country, with 6,252 recoveries and 1,098 deaths. Vergeire said the DOH has been "transparent" about case data amid criticisms about delays in reporting. RELATED: Task force health expert laments delayed COVID-19 data: DOH has 'lost focus' Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 21:53:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BUCHAREST, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Romanian authorities announced on Wednesday that 345 COVID-19 infection cases have been recorded in the country in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day number since May 7. Meanwhile, 14 new deaths from the novel coronavirus were recorded in the period, said the Strategic Communication Group (GCS), the official COVID-19 communication task force, in its daily report. So far, the total COVID-19 cases in the country reached 22,760, among whom there were 16,117 recoveries and 1,451 deaths. The GCS warned earlier that infections have lately been on an upward trend. Health Minister Nelu Tataru stressed on Tuesday that "the situation is not over yet, we are at a time that we must manage," and Romanians can return to a quasi-normal life only by respecting the rules. Romania has been under the state of alert since mid-May after the end of a two-month higher-level state of emergency. Three rounds of relaxation measures were announced so far and there are actually very few areas in which people's lives are still restricted. Enditem OVER three times more visits by the public to the Derryclure landfill site outside Tullamore were recorded by Offaly County Council from March to May compared to the same period last year. The news comes as Tullamore area councillors reported an increase in instances of indiscriminate dumping in the district during the Covid-19 crisis. At this month's meeting of Tullamore Municipal District, Environment and Waste Services Director, Mary Hussey revealed the council had been allocated 64,534 in funding by central Government under an anti-dumping initiative. The funding will be used to clean up some very littered areas in the county and to provide CCTV at bottle banks, said Ms Hussey. Litter had become a huge issue during the Covid lockdown said Cllr Sean O'Brien referring to waste at bottle bank sites and dumping in the Tullamore river. He also listed two areas in Arden View where a lot of dumping was taking place, some of which seems to be builders waste. The Independent councillor added that two vacant houses in the Church Hill estate were also being used as dumping sites. We have a role to play in identifying people who are dumping, he added advising: If people see someone dumping they should take their number plate and report it to the Gardai and the council. Cllr Neil Feighery said it was disheartening to see the level of dumping in lakes and rivers and pointed to a problem at Pallas Lake where young people were leaving towels and rubbish behind them.. He speculated that people were using dumping facilities in their places of employment and did not have this option during the Covid crisis. We must ram home the message that offenders will be prosecuted, outlined the Fine Gael public representative. Cllr Tony McCormack complained the CCTV cameras used by Gardai in Tullamore at present were old and out of date as the town was one of the first in the country to erect them. He also asked that signage be erected at bottle banks in a number of different languages to deter dumping. The problem of dog waste of the main streets of Tullamore and Clara was highlighted by Cllr Ken Smollen who asked that dog dirt bag dispensers be erected particularly in the vicinity of schools. He pointed to the problem of people hoarding waste on their premises which he said was a health as well as a waste issue. I know one section of the community does receive bad publicity in relation to dumping and maybe these people could be encouraged to get involved in a clean-up, outlined the Irish Democratic Party councillor. He revealed that he in working in conjunction with the council in relation to such a project. Dumping is one of the worst environmental problems we face in the Tullamore area, outlined the Cathaoirleach, Cllr Danny Owens. Responding to councillors comments, Mary Hussey said she would investigate the issue of dumping in Arden View and Church Hill. We will try and encourage people who are not part of a waste collection service to be part of one, she added. As regards Tullamore's old CCTV network she said the council will write to the Department of the Environment while the issue of signage at bottle banks could be reviewed. She added that infographics on signs may be appropriate. Ms Hussey pointed out that the National Spring Clean Week had been postponed until September due to Covid but that 26 community clean-ups had taken place around the county. She said that dog dirt bag dispensers were in place in Tullamore but it was a matter of making sure they were located in the best areas. Ms Hussey stressed the message needed to be got out that Derryclure landfill was open as were bottle banks at various locations. She stressed that anywhere the council found evidence of dumping they followed the matter up. China on Wednesday continued its silence on the casualties suffered by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in Mondays deadly border clash that left 20 Indian soldiers dead in eastern Ladakhs Galwan Valley. Both foreign minister Wang Yi in his phone call with external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, and the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian remained silent on the aspect despite talking about casualties sustained in the flare-up. Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian refused to share details including the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) casualties and repeatedly said border troops from both countries were dealing with the matter on the ground. China and India are in close communication on resolving relevant issues through both diplomatic and military channels, Zhao said, adding that China does not want to see more clashes. At the regular ministry briefing on Wednesday, Zhao stalled queries on Chinese casualties. As I said, the border troops of the two sides are dealing with the specifics on the ground. I have no information to release here, he said when asked about the numbers. Hu Shisheng, a Beijing-based south Asia expert said it could be because China wants to keep domestic reaction quiet. It seems that both sides, especially the Chinese side want to calm down the whole situation, Hu, from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told HT. Wang Dehua from the Shanghai Municipal Centre for International Studies said he was optimistic about the future as neither side has the intention or reason to let the situation get out of hand. The editor of Global Times Hu Xijin had tweeted on Tuesday -- without elaborating -- that the PLA too had sustained casualties. Chinese side didnt release number of PLA casualties in clash with Indian soldiers. My understanding is the Chinese side doesnt want people of the two countries to compare the casualties numbers so to avoid stoking public mood. This is goodwill from Beijing. On Chinas Twitter-like social media platform, Weibo, millions of Chinese citizens shared and commented on Mondays incident: By Wednesday evening, it was trending at the top of the hot search option on the platform. Many talked about the casualties that the Indian army suffered, discussing reasons why the situation went out of control and descended into violence. Some speculated about PLAs possible fatalities and injuries as well. Chinese state media have followed the government in squarely blaming India for the situation without - expectedly - raising any question about the lack of details available. The incident happened during a patrol and both sides suffered injuries and casualties, with this being the most severe situation China and India have experienced along the border in more than four decades and may render previous efforts to defuse border disputes fruitless, Qian Feng, director of the research department of the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told the nationalistic tabloid Global Times. In the wake of the Cyclone Amphan and the relief work being undertaken, the person handling the ministrys Facebook account uploaded a picture of a table with snacks and two whiskey bottles. AFP Photo A week after the Facebook fiasco, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) has replaced the entire media team. In the wake of the Cyclone Amphan and the relief work being undertaken, the person handling the ministrys Facebook account uploaded a picture of a table with snacks and two whiskey bottles. While the mistake was detected and the photo removed, it had managed to go viral on social media platforms. According to sources, senior Indian Information Service officer Nitin D. Wakankar now leads the new media team, while his predecessor Vasudha Gupta has been moved out as director-general of the fact-checking unit of the Press Information Bureau (PIB). Mr Wakankar earlier served as spokesperson of CBI and the defence ministry. It is also learnt that deputy director in MHA, Virat Majboor, has been moved to All India Radio. Apparently, this was not the only goof-up and Amit Shah is not known to tolerate sloppiness from the babus in his ministry. The media team had made a fatal error by not listing Modi-Shahs Citizenship Amendment Act among the achievements of the ministry and the government in its reports. Obviously, that is simply unforgivable! Kerala reshuffle imminent The appointment of additional chief secretary (home and vigilance) Vishwas Mehta as the new chief secretary of Kerala has quelled the rumours swirling around the likely successor to Tom Jose who retired this month. With Mr Mehta vacating the key home secretary post, his replacement will necessitate changes in other departments as well. According to sources, additional chief secretaries T.K. Jose and Asha Thomas and principal secretary V. Venu are among the frontrunners for the home secretarys post. Another senior 1989 batch officer, Devendra Kumar Singh, has left the state on Central deputation as additional secretary and development commissioner of Union ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises. He was holding the charge of additional chief secretary (agriculture) in the state. However, many observers do not expect the reshuffle to include district collectors, at least for a few more months, as it may affect the efforts to control the Covid-19 virus on the ground. The exception could be Kottayam district collector P. Suresh Babu, who is retiring. Meanwhile, the state government has empanelled the 1990 batch officers for elevation as additional chief secretaries. Those in the list are Alkesh Kumar Sharma, V. Venu, G. Kamala Vardhana Rao and Sarada Muraleedharan. Except for Mr Rao, all others are serving in the cadre, while Mr Rao is on central deputation as chairman of India Tourism Development Corporation. Plum jobs for PMO babus Rajiv Topno, private secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Brajendra Navnit, joint secretary in the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), are now heading to the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) respectively. Their appointments are among some plum foreign assignments announced by the Modi sarkar. The exit of these senior IAS officers is not due to having fallen out of favour in the all-mighty PMO, but rather is being seen as a reward for their loyalty to the PM. After all, Mr Topno, a 1996-batch Gujarat cadre officer, has been Modis private secretary since 2014. Similarly, Mr Navnit who is from the Tamil Nadu cadre was made joint secretary during a reshuffle in 2016 and was given an extension in service last year. While Mr Topno will be a senior advisor to the executive director, World Bank, under the department of economic affairs, Mr Navnit is Indias ambassador and special representative to the WTO under the commerce ministry. Their appointment is significant, coming smack in the middle of the Covid-19 epidemic that has wrecked economies and world trade. As two important global institutions, both the World Bank and WTO will play a key role in helping battered economies recover from the growth slump and improve trade. Mr Modi will count on these babus to represent Indias economic and trade-related goals. Besides Mr Topno and Mr Navnit, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) also named five other officials for foreign assignments. These officials will work on improving commercial ties with countries such as the US, China, Switzerland, the Philippines and Belgium. The others are Ravi Kota, Anwar Hussain Shaik, N. Ashok Kumar, Lekhan Thakkar and H. Atheli. Share a babu experience! Follow dilipthecherian@Twitter.com. Lets multiply the effect. 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 neighborhoods, 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. Find Out Who Has Won The Most in Poker Masters PLO Events June 17, 2020 The Poker Masters Online is back this weekend, less than two months after Alexandros Kolonias won the Purple Jacket as the winner of the very first Poker Masters Online. However, this time around it's the four-card wizards who will get their time in the limelight with each of the 30-event schedule played in Pot Limit Omaha. That's why we thought we'd delve into the archives and take a look at who has won the most money in Poker Masters PLO Events! Pot Limit Omaha at the Poker Masters The very first Poker Masters was held in September 2017 with five events, but no Pot-Limit Omaha events. It wasn't until the following year that Keith Lehr would write his name into the history books as the first winner of a Poker Masters PLO event, taking home $333,000 after topping a 37-player field. There were two PLO events at the 2019 Poker Masters. Ryan Laplante took down the $10,000 buy-in event, while Sam Soverel triumphed in the $25,000 buy-in event, en-route to Poker Masters Main Event victory and Purple Jacket winner as the overall festival champion. However, the top two spots on the all-time Poker Masters Pot-Limit Omaha money list come from the recent Poker Masters Online. With five PLO events on the schedule, Tobias Ziegler, Pauli Ayras, Laszlo Bujtas and Eelis Parssinen had already tasted victory before Pascal Lefrancois bested a 61-player field to win Poker Masters Online Event #23 for $527,510. Lefrancois defeated Andras Nemeth heads-up, whose $343,125 cash is good enough for second place in our all-time money list. Poker Masters Pot Limit Omaha All-Time Money List Lefrancois tops the Poker Masters Pot Limit Omaha All-Time Money List ahead of Andras Nemeth, who the Canadian defeated heads-up. The top ten is littered with PLO event winners, but special mention has to go to Andreas Torbergsen and Jorryt van Hoof who are the only players to have cashed in three PLO events at the Poker Masters. Will they be ones to watch during the upcoming festival? Player Country Number of Cashes Total cashes Pascal Lefrancois Canada 1 $527,510 Andras Nemeth Hungary 1 $343,125 Sam Soverel United States 1 $340,000 Keith Lehr United States 1 $333,000 Pauli Ayras Finland 1 $303,422 Eelis Parssinen Finland 1 $287,782 Ami Barer Canada 2 $286,050 Andreas Torbergsen Norway 3 $277,475 Laszlo Bujtas Hungary 1 $272,141 Jorryt van Hoof Netherlands 3 $241,500 Poker Masters PLO Event Winners in bold Poker Masters Online PLO Series Schedule A grand total of $9,475,000 is guaranteed across the 30-event schedule, with $1.5m of that coming in the $51,000 Poker Masters PLO Series Main Event. There are also Mini Versions of every single Poker Masters PLO Series event and satellites running in the partypoker client. Date Time (BST) Event Buy-in Guarantee Sunday, 21 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #01: High Roller $10,300 $500,000 Sunday, 21 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #01: Mini $1,050 $50,000 Sunday, 21 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #02: High Roller $5,200 $250,000 Sunday, 21 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #02: Mini Knockout $530 $25,000 Monday, 22 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #03: High Roller $10,300 $500,000 Monday, 22 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #03: Mini $1,050 $50,000 Monday, 22 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #04: High Roller $5,200 $250,000 Monday, 22 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #04: Mini Knockout $530 $25,000 Tuesday, 23 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #05: Super High Roller $25,500 $1,000,000 Tuesday, 23 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #05: Mini $2,600 $125,000 Tuesday, 23 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #06: High Roller $10,300 $500,000 Tuesday, 23 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #06: Mini Knockout $1,050 $50,000 Wednesday, 24 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #07: High Roller $10,300 $500,000 Wednesday, 24 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #07: Mini $1,050 $50,000 Wednesday, 24 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #08: High Roller $5,200 $250,000 Wednesday, 24 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #08: Mini Knockout $530 $25,000 Thursday, 25 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #09: Super High Roller $25,500 $1,000,000 Thursday, 25 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #09: Mini $2,600 $125,000 Thursday, 25 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #10: High Roller $10,300 $500,000 Thursday, 25 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #10: Mini Knockout $1,050 $50,000 Friday, 26 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #11: High Roller $10,300 $500,000 Friday, 26 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #11: Mini $1,050 $50,000 Friday, 26 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #12: High Roller $5,200 $250,000 Friday, 26 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #12: Mini Knockout $530 $25,000 Saturday, 27 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #13: High Roller $10,300 $500,000 Saturday, 27 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #13: Mini $1,050 $50,000 Saturday, 27 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #14: High Roller $5,200 $250,000 Saturday, 27 June 20:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #14: Mini Knockout $530 $25,000 Sunday, 28 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #15: Main Event $51,000 $1,500,000 Sunday, 28 June 19:00 Poker Masters PLO Series Event #16: Mini Main Event $5,200 $500,000 Note: Events in bold are two-day events Sharelines Ahead of the Poker Masters Online PLO Series, we take a look at the biggest PLO winners so far! A campaign highlighting the role dairy plays in people's lives during the Covid-19 crisis has been seen by over 60 million people since its launch last month. 'Milk Your Moments' was seen by 29.5 million people in the national press and 33 million across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter since its launch in mid-May, according to AHDB. A further 2.6 million have received geo-targeted social media adverts when they are close to supermarkets and convenience stores. The campaign showcases moments of connection involving dairy products during lockdown while raising money for the UK mental health charities Mind, SAMH and Inspire. Paul Flanagan, AHDB dairy strategy director said: Were delighted with the initial results from the campaign and to play our part as an industry to support peoples mental health during the lockdown. In the coming weeks, consumers will also see PR activity, in-store promotion in supermarkets and for the first time in over 20 years, a national TV advert at the beginning of July. The 12-week, 1 million campaign is joint funded by AHDB, Dairy UK, Defra, the Scottish government, the Welsh government and the Northern Ireland executive. As well as highlighting moments of connection, the campaign is focused on driving dairy occasions during the Covid-19 crisis. It aims to provide support to dairy processors and farmers who have faced challenges with the closure of cafes and other foodservice outlets during lockdown. Dr Judith Bryans, chief executive of Dairy UK said the campaign showed how 'keen' the industry was the back 'something positive' for consumers. Were delighted to say that the first half of the campaign has already brought us some excellent results, and well be building on these in the second half of the campaign with our TV ad and our media partnership. Dairy workers, farmers, brands and consumers have been showing their support for the campaign by sharing images of on social media using the #milkyourmoments. Over the next few weeks, the campaign will encourage the public to share their favourite photo from 2019 and tagging friends to suggest a virtual cuppa. The Australian share market finished session higher on Wednesday, 17 June 2020, as risk sentiments boosted up on tracking gains on the Wall Street overnight. However, market gains capped amid concerns over a second wave of coronavirus infection and escalating geopolitical tensions pertaining to the Korean Peninsula. At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index added 49.50 points, or 0.83%, to 5,991.80. The broader All Ordinaries added 50.98 points, or 0.84%, to 6,109.10. Market gains continued as hopes for a swift global economic recovery rose after a record jump in US retail sales. US retail sales rebounded sharply in May after two months of declines, spurring hopes that the virus-induced recession may be drawing to an end. The optimism, however, was crimped by a resurgence in coronavirus cases. New infections have hit record highs in six US states and Beijing cut flights and closed schools to contain a fresh outbreak in the Chinese capital. Australia also said it will continue restrictions on its international borders for "some time to come". Investors' sentiments were also rattled by escalating geopolitical tensions pertaining to the Korean Peninsula after North Korea demolished an inter-Korean liaison office and rejected an offer by South Korea to send special envoys, vowing to send troops back to the border. Tech stocks jumped after Wall Street peers rallied overnight. Shares of WiseTech Global rose 5.9%, while Computershare Ltd gained 4.3%. Shares of material players slipped, with global miners BHP Group and Rio Tinto losing 0.7% each. ECONOMIC NEWS: Australia Westpec Leading Index Remains In Deep Negative Territory-- Australia Westpac- Melbourne Institute Leading Index which indicates the likely pace of economic activity relative to trend three to nine months into the future, rose to -4.79% in May from -5.08% in April. The leading index rose in May from the previous month, but it remained in deep negative territory consistent with an economic recession, data showed. The indicator growth rate has weakened sharply over the last six months, dropping to the -4.79% in May from -0.28% in December. CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6896 after slipping from levels above $0.693 yesterday. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) First 'deadly' border clash in decades reported between Indian, Chinese forces Iran Press TV Tuesday, 16 June 2020 10:17 AM An Indian military officer and two soldiers have been killed in a "violent face-off" with Chinese troops on the disputed border between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, India's army says. The incident the first in decades between the world's two most populous countries occurred in the Galwan Valley, in the disputed Aksai Chin-Ladakh area, on Monday night, according to the Indian army. Ladakh has seen a major troop buildup on both sides of the border in the western Himalayas in recent weeks, before senior military commanders began talks earlier this month. The Indian army said there had been loss of life "on both sides," though it did not specify the number of the alleged Chinese casualties. It said that senior military authorities from the two countries were meeting to deescalate the situation. China's Foreign Ministry expressed unawareness of any Indian casualties but said "a serious physical conflict" had taken place on Monday. During a daily press briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Indian troops "seriously violated our consensus and twice crossed the border line for illegal activities and provoked and attacked Chinese personnel, which led to serious physical conflict between the two sides" on Monday. The two key Asian countries have rival claims to swathes of territory along their 3,500-kilometer Himalayan border, though their disputes have mostly remained without incident since a 1962 border war between them. Tensions have been building up along one of the world's longest land borders since last month, with New Delhi and Beijing both accusing each other of overstepping the Line of Actual Control (LAC) separating the two. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Trudeau government will finally update the country on the state of government finances on July 8. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today confirmed CBC's report that the fiscal "snapshot" is coming next month. "This will give Canadians a picture of where our economy is right now, how our response compares to that of other countries, and what we can expect for the months to come," he said.Trudeau said that because of the economic uncertainty created by the global pandemic, the update will not be the same as the ones in previous years. "I've consistently said that an economic and fiscal update would be unrealistic right now because it automatically includes projections for a year, three years, five years ahead of time, which quite frankly we simply couldn't make any responsible predictions about," he said. Watch: Trudeau tells reporters his government will deliver a fiscal update on July 8: He would not offer a timeframe for presenting a full economic update or a budget, saying only it will happen once the economy has stabilized. Trudeau said the economy is now moving from an emergency to a recovery phase. Finance Minister Bill Morneau formally announced the date for the update in Parliament today. Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre criticized the government for failing to present a complete fiscal update. "A dictionary defines 'snapshot' for a hunter as a shot, quickly taken, without deliberate aim. Is that how the minister describes his own spending?" he asked in the House. Morneau said it's important for the government be transparent with Canadians and the full picture will be tabled as soon as the economy settles. "Canadians will get a good understanding of the investments we've made and our underlying economic situation," he said Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet accused the government of choosing to table the information at a time when few people will be paying attention. Story continues "I fear that the government will try to make it happen in the middle of summer in order to have people not watch it, while they will be having a beer around the barbecue," he said. "And I think it is quite another lack of respect for the Parliament." Watch: BQ Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet accuses Liberals of showing 'a lack of respect' for Parliament The government shelved its plan to present a budget in March, as the novel coronavirus spread around the world and the country went on lockdown. It has been under pressure to give a detailed economic update ever since. Until now, Trudeau has dismissed those calls, arguing there are simply too many variables to make an accurate projection of how the economy will respond. "There are so many things we simply don't know making projections about what our economy would look like in six months from now or a year from now is simply an exercise in invention and imagination," he told reporters last week at one of his daily briefings. While the government has used the uncertainty as an excuse, others such as the parliamentary budget officer have published some analysis of the government's spending and given regular updates on the impacts of pandemic-related spending on the deficit. Drunk drivers fined in month-long national campaign Over 17,300 drivers have been fined for drunk driving for a month when traffic police nationwide conducted a campaign to inspect and handle road violations. Under the campaign which lasted from May 15 to June 14, traffic police officers were authorised to implement unexpected checks even if drivers had sufficient driving documents and had not violated traffic laws. A driver being tested for alcohol concentration Drivers were penalised if found under the influence of alcohol or drugs, carrying too many passengers, transporting illegal products or breaking any traffic regulations. During the month, up to 401,000 traffic violations were detected, including 20,120 using alcohol, 276 using drugs and 33,000 for speeding. The police confiscated the driving licenses of nearly 27,300 violators. The Traffic Police Department has also contributed their opinions to the Ministry of Public Security over building the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety following the governments instruction. The ministry is completing the draft law for submission to the National Assembly for consideration. Over the past six months, Vietnam saw 6,781 traffic accidents, killing 3,235 and injuring 4,939 people. The figures represented a fall of 1,598 cases, 572 deaths and 1,419 injuries on-year. However, traffic accidents with severe consequences increased with 23 cases, killing 74 and injuring 12 people. This is partially attributed to drunk drivers. By Nitin Mittal The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the economy. Taking steps to protect our industries and commerce is an immediate and critical need of the hour. To this end, the government recently announced its intention to spend almost 10 percent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) in the fiscal year 2020 on economic relief measures towards reviving economic growth. A sector that is reeling under the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak is the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), which contributes to around 35 percent of India's manufacturing output. The MSME sector, which is also the second-largest employment generator in the country after agriculture, needs special attention from the government. The stimulus package announced is a mix of fiscal support, monetary support, ease of conducting business processes, as well as some fundamental reforms. The need of the hour is clarity in policy communication by making it simple for the end beneficiaries, the MSMEs, without leaving any room for subjectivity, which needs to be urgently taken up by the central and state governments. For instance, the Finance Ministrys notification in May, amending the General Finance Rules (GFR) 2017, disallows global tenders to encourage MSMEs to take part in tenders below INR 200 crores, but has bestowed power to respective departments in exceptional case scenarios to consider global tender enquiry (GTE). Policies cannot be left to individual inference when a critical step in economic progress like quality sourcing is being sought from domestic players, especially the MSME sector which is gearing to be a major supply chain player for domestic and global markets. To make this a reality, certain measures with respect to limiting imports may be a necessary step, at least for the foreseeable future. China, for example, is one of our top three trading partners and the trade deficit with the country has increased manifold over the last few years. To stem this, the Government of India proposed amendments in the Customs Act which gives it the power to ban import and export of certain items, under exceptional circumstances. These measures are intended to make our supply chains more self-reliant and less dependent on imports, but it is also important to remember the unparalleled scale and capability of manufacturing-driven countries like China; it will take significant policy interventions and drastic structural changes to match their scale, expertise and skills, to be globally competitive. Track this blog for latest updates on the coronavirus crisis This is a feat that India is not new to; the challenge has previously been overcome successfully by the likes of the textile industry in India, which is the second largest exporter of textiles in the world. As a country, we must collectively find ways to extrapolate the success stories of the textile industry to other import-heavy industries, while also learning from its failures to kickstart growth in the new normal. Here are some of the essential steps needed to get the manufacturing MSMEs back on track. - RBI needs to immediately issue guidelines for higher provisioning revisions to banks, in the absence of which liquidity injection into the system is getting delayed - Instant availability of subsidies, with simplified processes for getting them without hindrance - Speedy cashflow issue resolution through GST refunds and short-term collateral free, low-interest loans to both large corporates and MSMEs - 95% + of MSMEs are not in the formal finance fold currently; an urgent review of alternate lending mechanisms and credit scoring criteria needs to be undertaken - Incentivising export-heavy manufacturing industries like textile & apparel with new capacity addition subsidisation Stable power supply Impact of the power sector on the manufacturing sector and consequently Indias growth cant be underplayed. Capacity underutilisation in the manufacturing sector is also a function of the quality of power. Poor quality power, that keeps fluctuating, resulting in continuous tripping, resetting thousands of machines, loss of productivity and finally, poor asset quality for banks and investors, is a risk that needs to be mitigated Protection of labour The exodus of migrant workers from cities and towns has become a worrying scenario for small manufacturing units, as workers are key to their survival. Steps need to be taken urgently to counter the reverse migration trend: - Special transport for workers to facilitate their return to work - Unlocking government funds parked in Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) as medical insurance cover and using part of them to impart training in occupation health and safety for MSME manufacturers - Providing assurance to laborers that if they fall ill, their hospitalisation costs would be covered or subsidised, through Ayushman Bharat hospital insurance cards, if needed. This will go a long way in restoring confidence among them about returning to work Waivers for raw material - The extended lockdown has severely impacted the import of raw materials (sports goods, silk, rubber, etc.). Transport of these select imported materials should be allowed if they are stuck at ports or airports - Waiver of rents levied on MSMEs for raw material stuck at ports and container deports Digitisation of MSMEs COVID-19 came as a bolt from the blue for the MSME sector and more so for businesses that were digitally under-prepared. Technology is the new backbone of MSMEs who want to succeed in the post-COVID world. Digitisation is no longer optional; it has become a critical need in a scenario where physical interactions will continue to be extremely limited and remote access to everything will be the order of the day Trade fairs, for example, will not be possible for a long time, so holistic e-marketplaces will become an important way for MSME manufacturers to reach out to potential customers, suppliers and lenders to grow their ecosystem and business An accelerated pace of digitisation and progressive policies to support marketplaces promoting MSMEs in the domestic market as well as globally will be a crucial element in fast-tracking the revival of manufacturing MSMEs, going forward (The author is founder and CEO, SOLV. SOLV is Indias first B2B conversational commerce platform for MSMEs) Follow our coverage of the coronavirus crisis here Activists decry move to sell two frigates to Egypt even as 2016 murder of Italian student near Cairo remains unresolved. The Italian government is facing increasing calls to scrap a major arms deal with Egypt after reports emerged it had agreed to sell two naval frigates to the North African country. Citing sources familiar to the matter, news outlets in Italy reported last week that the government had approved the sale of the FREMM vessels built by Fincantieri and originally intended for the Italian navy for an estimated cost of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3bn). This is believed to be the first in a series of arms sales to Egypt totalling up to 11 billion euros ($12bn), according to several media reports in Italy. The so-called order of the century includes four more frigates, 24 Eurofighter Typhoon jets, 24 trainer aircraft and a satellite, an Italian source close to the negotiations told La Repubblica newspaper. We should rather call it the shame of the century, Riccardo Noury, a spokesman for Amnesty International Italy, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday, echoing the backlash that followed the reports. Critics have accused the coalition government of not following the proper procedures for the approval of such a deal, while human rights groups and activists decried selling arms to a country with a poor human rights record, especially as the 2016 murder of an Italian student near Cairo remained unresolved. Giulio Regeni was 28 when he disappeared from the streets of the Egyptian capital in January 2016. His brutalised body was found by the side of the road on the outskirts of Cairo on February 3, bearing signs of extensive torture. The case has gripped Italy. But more than four years later, no one has been arrested or charged over the students murder. Critics have long opposed the renormalisation of ties with Egypt, saying this would remove the pressure to hold accountable those responsible for the killing. On Wednesday, Nicola Zingaretti, leader of the Democratic Party, which rules in coalition with the Five Star Movement, said the government has never linked the selling of the Italian frigates to the Egyptian navy to the idea of an obscene exchange of arms for human rights, stressing he was expecting decisive steps by Egypt in the murder case before any strengthening of bilateral ties. Seeking clarity over the deal, Nicola Fratoianni, deputy of the left-wing Leu party, questioned Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio during a June 10 parliamentary session, urging the government to halt the sale considering Egypts human rights abuses. Rights groups have long accused the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of carrying out a widespread crackdown on dissent, including the torture of political prisoners allegations Cairo has denied. In response to the growing criticism, Di Maio said the final authorisation over the frigates sale was still pending, adding it still needed technical approval by the government body in charge of authorising armament exports. Still, several rights groups, including Amnesty International, launched the #StopArmiEgitto (StopArmsEgypt) campaign to bring the reported agreement under parliamentary scrutiny. The groups alleged the deal violates national legislation regulating the sale of arms and threatened legal action if it went ahead without a debate in parliament. The sale is in open contrast with our legislation, argued Giorgio Beretta, an arms sales expert who joined the campaign, citing Egypts involvement in the conflict in neighbouring Libya and its human rights record. He told Al Jazeera the current law stipulates that arms exports should be in agreement with Italian foreign policy and also bans the sale of arms to countries engaged in armed conflicts and to those that are responsible for human rights violations. Due to all these issues and due to the deals exceptional characteristics including the fact that the frigates were initially produced for the Italian navy it should pass through a discussion in parliament, as the law states, Amnesty said in a June 12 statement. Paola Regeni (R), mother of Giulio Regeni. The family of the murdered journalist said they have been betrayed by the government [File: Remo Casilli/Reuters] In recent days, Regenis family have added their voice to the mounting criticism, saying they feel betrayed by their government. Claudio Regeni, the students father, said on Friday that after four years and half of lies and misdirection, the family does not have any expectations from the Egyptian side. Its the friendly fire that hurts and embitters us, and as a citizen, you dont expect to have to fight against your own state to obtain truth and justice, he told Italian media. The case has strained relations between two countries that traditionally enjoyed generally warm ties. In April 2016, Italy recalled its ambassador to Egypt to protest against what it said was a lack of progress in the investigation into Regenis murder. The ambassador returned to Cairo the following year in an attempt to reinforce judicial cooperation and as a consequence the search for the truth, the then-Italian government had said at the time. Amid frustration over the lack of progress, Italy in 2018 placed five members of Egypts security forces under official investigation for their alleged involvement in Regenis disappearance. Egyptian officials have denied any involvement in the killing. Public prosecutors from both countries are due to hold a video conference on July 1, in which the Italian side will be expecting Egypt to finally indicate the legal residences of the five officers, a requirement for the inquiry to move forward from the current standstill. The Regeni family demands justice, and so do we, Erasmo Palazzotto, director of the parliamentary committee leading the investigation on the students death, wrote on Twitter after requesting an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. We cant seal an economic accord with a country, Egypt, which has no respect and dignity over people. For his part, Conte assured last week that the Regeni case remained at the centre of the governments dialogue with Egyptian authorities, stressing that opening channels, rather than closing them, was the way forward for broader cooperation with Cairo. The idea that selling arms can improve the respect of human rights and help resolving suspended cases in a country that perpetrates great repression within its own borders is an ingenious one, let alone hypocritical and cynical, said Noury. The reports about the deal come at a time when the Italian government seeks to soften the blow of the coronavirus lockdown on its struggling economy. The country has been one of those hit the hardest by the pandemic, registering to date 237,500 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 34,000 related deaths. Italy is a significant trade partner for Egypt. While its arms industry has grown to become one of Egypts main suppliers from 2016 to 2019, its sales have jumped from 7.4 million ($8.3m) to more than 871 million euros ($980m), according to annual parliamentary reports (PDF). Key to the relationship has also been the 2015 discovery of Egypts Zohr gas field, the biggest in the Mediterranean, by Italian oil and gas company Eni. According to Gabriele Iacovino, director of Center for International Studies, Italys current strategy is to keep an open dialogue with all the key players in the Mediterranean. And in this current situation [facing deep recession as the pandemic bites], the government made a decision based on the national interest, which now its the economic one, he told Al Jazeera. On Thanksgiving Day 1990, two people were shot and killed in a cabin in rural Maine. A man named Henry Lombard was acquitted of the double murder but convicted on federal firearms charges related to the crime. The judge in the firearms case sentenced Lombard to life imprisonment without parole, on the grounds that it was more likely than not that he had committed the murdersmurders of which he had already been acquitted. How could this happen? What about double jeopardy? On a recent episode of Hi-Phi Nation, Barry Lam spoke to Boston University School of Law professor Gerald Leonard about how and why acquitted and unconvicted conduct is used at sentencing. This transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity. Advertisement Barry Lam: There have been many claims made to the Supreme Court that being sentenced for conduct that the government has not convicted you of is a violation of the constitutional rights to a trial by jury and against double jeopardy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gerald Leonard: But they have been shot down unceremoniously by the Supreme Court. As long as there is a conviction in place, you can be punished for that offense. If theres some other offense of which youve been acquitted, the facts underlying that offense might be appropriate context for the offense of which youve been convicted. Lam: The Supreme Court has said that theres no double jeopardy because youre not placed on trial again for the crime to which youve been acquitted. You remain legally not guilty of that crime. Facts admitted during sentencing are there to figure out whether there were aggravating or mitigating factors to the crime you were convicted of committing. Advertisement Advertisement Heres an example: Two different people sell a gram of cocaine to someone elsethats the offense. They both plead guilty without any trial or testimony and come before the judge for sentencing. That judge is presented with facts by the lawyers that one of these people is a recreational user who offered some cocaine to a friend at a club and the friend gave them a dollar bill in return as a joke; the other person is a regular dealer near the local high school, and the buyer was underage. Advertisement Leonard: Theyre very different offenders violating the very same statute, and to punish them identically seems to me morally wrong, completely out of touch with all of our traditions. Advertisement Lam: The tradition is one where every sentence should be individualized. The sentence should depend on the person and persons circumstances when committing the crime. Were there factors that make someones crime a little more excusable, a little more justifiable, or, in contrast, even more heinous? This is called contextualizing the circumstances of a crime. Advertisement Advertisement Leonard: But you have to allow a certain amount of fact-finding at sentencing. Lam: But just what kinds of facts its OK to allow and what kinds of facts are not OK to allow is not clear in the law, and its not even clear in our moral reactions. In 1994, a college student in Fayetteville, North Carolina, named Anthony Barber began working as a driver for a drug dealer. The drug dealer stopped paying Barber for the rides, and eventually Barber and his friend David Hodge bought a shotgun, drove with the dealer out in the car, and shot him in the back of the head. Because Barber had no priors and for various reasons known only to the prosecutor, both Barber and Hodge pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leonard: First-degree murder requires a premeditated killingthat is, youve decided ahead of time that you mean to kill someone. If you kill somebody unjustifiably but you havent premeditated it, then what youre guilty of is most likely second-degree murder. Lam: But Barber admitted in a post-plea statement that he did premeditate the murder. He planned it out with his friend days in advance. The judge had right in front of him an admission of premeditation. Premeditated murder was uncharged conduct, conduct the state couldnt charge Barber with because of the plea bargain. But an admission of premeditation really does seem to contextualize the murder that Barber did commit. If you thought your friend killed someone in the heat of the moment and you find out later he had planned it for days, it does make it worse. That was the reasoning of the judge, who sentenced Barber to prison time consistent with first-degree murder. Thats a sentence Leonard does not believe is just. Advertisement Advertisement Leonard: I would argue that a trial judge cannot take premeditation into account as a contextualizer of second-degree murder because it doesnt contextualize second-degree murderit creates a whole new offense that we already have on the books, called first-degree murder. So if the conviction is second-degree murder, the punishment has to be for second-degree murder. Advertisement Lam: Leonard argues that a judge should not be allowed to contextualize a crime by using facts that make the crime into another crime. For Leonard, using facts that turn a crime into another crime is not contextualizingits double charging. This would mean that most uses of acquitted and uncharged conduct would be illegitimate in sentencing because by definition youre using different chargeable crimes to contextualize this persons crime. Advertisement Leonards test sounds reasonable, but it has some rather paradoxical implications. It seems to depend on accidents of what we decide to criminalize and what we dont. Theres a case where a judge sentenced a man to 30 years for a second-degree murder because the judge found it particularly heinous that the man stabbed the victim 16 times. Only first-degree murderers get time like that. Leonards test would make this sentence OK because theres no unique crime of homicide by 16 stabbings. So 16 stabbings can be an aggravating factor in sentencing. I think thats OK, but is it OK just because there happened to be no law criminalizing homicides by 16 stabbings? Legislatures have been pretty creative in recent years. We have different crimes for different amounts of cocaine, different crimes for powder versus crack cocaine, even crimes concerning whether you could use butter or margarine. Its weird to think that if lawmakers suddenly criminalize the number of stabbings in a murder then all of a sudden itll be like premeditation, something you cant admit as an aggravating factor in sentencing. Why isnt it just whatever is aggravating is aggravating, and whatever is mitigating is mitigating? Let the judges use all of itlike we do nowor let them use none of it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [to Leonard] What if we just cut out the use of unconvicted conduct completely? In fact, lets not contextualize it at allwe make almost complete uniformity across crimes and sentences. Is that a solution? And if so, what is to be said against that? Leonard: For most people, there are meaningful differences between particular offenders who fit the same offense but whose culpability or whose ongoing dangerousness seems so different that it just seems deeply wrong to punish them in the same way. Having whats sometimes referred to as a flat time systemyou do this offense, you get that punishment, end of story, no discretionis not something weve ever really done in our system. Advertisement Lam: Why cant problems like this be settled at the statute phase versus the sentencing phase? Instead of letting judges make the discretionary decision about whats aggravating and mitigating, you let the criminal law do that. You make a different crime every time you think someone deserves a different sentence. Leonard: Well, in principle they can. You can have very, very fine-grained statutes. Youve stolen a thousand dollars, you get this much. Between $2,000 and $5,000, you get this much. Between $5,000 and $10,000, you get this much. Advertisement Lam: It gets really pedantic very quickly. Leonard: Yeah. I mean, federal guidelines operate on a table that has 43 offense levels, and there are point systems, and they still leave an out for the judges to exercise discretion in cases where all of that work in the guidelines doesnt adequately cover the facts of the case. Advertisement Lam: Theres no way to make it fine-grained enough. Leonard: Theres no way to mechanize it completely, at least not in a way that makes us all feel good about the outcome. Advertisement Lam: Ultimately theres no way around the problem. We have a strong, moral commitment that individual circumstances can aggravate or mitigate responsibility for a crime. Yet we dont know ahead of time what facts are aggravating and what are mitigating. When we try to figure it out, we end up with absurdly ornate laws that never capture the full range we originally wanted. And when we fail, we end up with the need for judges discretion anyway. And finally, theres the public demand for substantive justice: the demand that the actual bad guys get put away and punished for the crimes they actually did. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [to Leonard] From the other side, I found a lot of cases where the state wasnt able to prove that some serial killer was a serial killer, so they got them on credit card charges or something like that. Im trying to look at it not from a professors vantage point about procedures of justice and constitutionality but [instead the idea that] there are some pretty bad people who most likely did something, and judges have a tool that they actually dont use all the time but they use when theyre convinced that somebodys going to escape justice if they dont use it. That way of looking at it makes it sound like this is there not as a loophole for the state to do extra violence on people who dont deserve it but to catch the people that can easily slip through the system. Leonard: What youre suggesting is this doesnt get done that often, but when you need to catch the serial killer and all youve got is credit card fraud, then thats what you do. And we know that there are going to be, shall we say, adaptations for the system around the edges, but youre suggesting its rare. And the thing is, we have no idea if its rare. For one thing, how do we know that that serial killer actually is a serial killer? Hasnt been convicted of it, but somebody, the police, prosecutor, judge, theyre convinced of it, but they arent able to convict the person. So are we really OK with that? I mean, there might be the rare case where you and I would both go, Dodged a bullet there, got the serial killer on credit card charges. But in fact, the way the system works is that 95 percent of convictions are had through guilty pleas and not through trials. And when you have a guilty plea, theres very little transparency about whats going on. So the kind of punishment for unconvicted conduct that were talking about is potentially very, very common. We dont know because we dont get to look behind guilty pleas. What we do know is that the capacity to punish for unconvicted conduct is one of the tools that gives prosecutors leverage in pushing people to plead guilty to things that they may or may not have done and to accept facts that may or may not be accurate. To listen to the full episode, click the player below or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This photo, taken on June 21, 2012, shows a person using a mobile phone touch screen keypad to write a text message in Singapore. (Roslin Rahman/AFP/GettyImages; effects added by Epoch Times) Somyurek Releases Explosive Text Messages Text messages written by federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne have reportedly been released by disgraced party powerbroker Adem Somyurek, after the backbencher agreed to cooperate with corruption investigators. The Age and Sydney Morning Herald have sighted private text messages in which Bryne calls former colleague Sam Dastyari a crooked, corrupt [expletive], a female MP a drunk and an unnamed female Labor activist a rat[expletive]. Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and retired federal MPs Michael Danby and Alan Griffin are also subject to criticism in the text messages. Byrne told the newspapers Somyurek had selectively released a hand-picked selection of my text messages as political payback after he contacted authorities told them he would assist with corruption investigations. An investigation by The Age and 60 Minutes, which claimed the scalps of Somyurek and two allies, involved secret recordings in Byrnes Melbourne electorate office in Cranbourne West. Consumer Affairs Minister Marlene Kairouz is the third minister to leave cabinet over the branch-stacking scandal engulfing Victorian Labor. @andrew_lund #SpringSt #9News pic.twitter.com/lSNgjLsvhD Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) June 16, 2020 There are fears his office could have been bugged. The potential problem is more acute given Byrnes position on federal parliaments powerful intelligence committee. In respect of the misinformation circulating, I want to make clear that I take the matters raised recently seriously and have been in touch with authorities to offer my full assistance, Byrne told AAP. I welcome investigations into corruption, which has no place in the party I love. Because I do not want to cross over or impede any investigations that may be occurring, Im unable to comment further at this point in time. Attorney-General Christian Porter described the installation of a recording device with an MPs office as a serious concern. Porter questioned why Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese had not questioned his backbencher about it. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg poked fun at the scandal during question time, when the intelligence committees Liberal chairman gave him a free hit. He, unlike other members of that committee, has informed me that he doesnt have any secret hidden cameras in his office, Frydenberg told parliament. The prime minister also put the boot in when fielding a crossbench question about plans for a national integrity commission. I would be very surprised if those opposite in the Labor Party would be asking questions about integrity today, Scott Morrison said. Both attempts at humour elicited audible groans from those on the Labor benches. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said he had not spoken to Byrne about the branch-stacking scandal, which is being investigated by Victoria Police and the states Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission. Under Victorian law, recording a conversation does not require the consent of the person being recorded, unlike some other states. Canberra Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks to reporters in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington on June 16, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) McConnell Dismisses Removing Confederate Statues From Capitol Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) dismissed House Speaker Nancy Pelosis calls to remove nearly a dozen Confederate statues from the Capitol. Pelosi last week called for 11 Confederate statutes to be removed, contending that they pay homage to hate, not heritage. What I do think is clearly a bridge too far is this nonsense that we need to airbrush the Capitol and scrub out everybody from years ago who had any connection to slavery, McConnell told reporters on Tuesday, when he was asked about an unrelated provision in a defense bill that would change Confederate-named bases, reported The Hill. You know, there were eight presidents who owned slaves. Washington did. Jefferson did. Madison did. Monroe did. Look, as far as the statues are concerned, every state gets two [statues]. Any state can trade out, as Sen. [Roy] Blunt (R-Mo.) pointed out, if they choose to. And some actually are choosing to, he added. Each of the 50 U.S. states contributes two statues to a collection of statues throughout the various quarters of the Capitol complex, which can be switched out if approved by the given states legislature and governor. Among the statues are 11 that show Confederate figuressoldiers and officers who served in the Confederate Armywhich lost in the U.S. Civil War. They include statues of Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, who were president and vice president of the Confederacy. Blunt, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee and the Joint Committee on the Library, said that seven states are removing certain statues from the Capitol, according to Politico. McConnell said on Tuesday he is OK with the idea of renaming U.S. military installations if they bear the names of leaders of the Confederacy. If its appropriate to take another look at these names, Im personally OK with that, and I am a descendant of a Confederate veteran myself, he said. With regard to military bases, whatever is ultimately decided, I dont have a problem with, he added. The Senate Armed Services Committee on June 10 voted to pass an amendment to the annual military spending bill that would require the Pentagon to rename posts and assets either named after Confederate officers, or that honor the confederacy, within three years. President Donald Trump has signaled his stance against the idea of renaming the military bases. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said that he will offer an amendment to undo the amendment that would require renaming the military bases, calling such an effort one aimed at historical revisionism. I will offer it [the amendment] not to celebrate the cause of the Confederacy but to embrace the cause of union, our union, shared together as Americans, Hawley said on June 11. Calls to remove Confederate statues or rename military bases arose amid protests across the nation in the wake of George Floyds death in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. A Virginia sheriff has apologized after deputies arrested a Black pastor who had pulled a gun on his attackers, and now five suspects have been charged with hate crimes. The altercation began in Edinburg, Virginia, when the pastor stopped two white people from dumping an old refrigerator on his property on June 1. Leon K. McCray Sr. told WHSV the people became angry, returned with 3 more people, and surrounded McCray, spouted racial slurs, head-butted him, and threatened to kill him. But responding sheriff's deputies seized McCray's weapon and arrested him on allegations of brandishing a firearm. That charge has since been dropped. Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy Carter put two supervisors on unpaid leave while he investigates the incident. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. This combination of undated booking photos from the Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office shows from left to right, Donny Salyers, Dennis Salyers, Farrah Salyers, Christopher Sharp and Amanda Salyers. Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office via AP Five people have been arrested on hate crimes charges and a Virginia sheriff has apologized, after a Black pastor was attacked earlier this month and arrested by the same deputies responding to his call for help. Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy Carter told Leon K. McCray Sr. that he was sorry for the way his deputies responded to the complaint and altercation in Edinburg on June 1, WVEC reported. The issue began when McCray, 61, stopped two people from dumping a refrigerator in the dumpster at an apartment building that he owns, according to WHSV. They "got irate" when he asked them to leave the premises, he said, and took off only to return with three others. They threatened McCray and called him "all types of racial slurs," WHSV said. "Racial epithets, and the N word, and your Black life, your motherf---ing Black life don't make, it doesn't make a difference in this county, it doesn't make a difference to me, and we will kill you," McCray told WHSV. McCray described being surrounded by them when one man started to headbutt him, adding, "One of the guys snatched his shirt off and circled behind me, that's when it got really bad." Story continues McCray told WHSV that he felt unsafe and so felt he had no choice but to pull out his gun and call 911. "It got to the point where this is really getting really, really bad," he said. "I couldn't leave, I couldn't do anything, and with the threats, I felt to save my life, I had to draw my gun." When deputies arrived on scene, McCray said one of them spoke to him but no one sought his story. Instead, they spoke with the group of white people, confiscated McCray's weapon, and arrested him. "How humiliating," McCray told NVDaily. "How dehumanizing to look at this mob of individuals cheering on the sidelines waving as I was carted off to go to jail." The sheriff said he 'would have probably done the same thing' as McCray Carter and McCray met on June 3 to discuss the encounter and the charge filed against McCray for brandishing a firearm, the sheriff said in a video shared on Facebook. "After talking with him about the incident, it was apparent to me that the charge of brandishing was certainly not appropriate," Carter said. "Actually, as I told Mr. McCray, if I were faced with similar circumstances, I would have probably done the same thing." Carter also talked to the Shenandoah Commonwealth's Attorney, who agreed with his assessment of dropping the baseless charge against McCray, he said. Instead, the five people accused of assaulting McCray have been arrested and face a slew of charges, including hate crimes charges, according to the sheriff's office. Donny Salyers, 43, Dennis Salyers, 26, Farrah Salyers, 42, and Christopher Sharp, 57, have been charged with assault - hate crime, assault and battery by mob, and felony abduction. Amanda Salyers, 26, was charged with assault - hate crime, and assault and battery by mob. They were all been taken into custody without incident and are being held without bond, Carter said, noting that an investigation is ongoing. He said he also placed two supervisors in the sheriff's office on unpaid administrative leave while he investigates the initial incident. Carter thanked McCray for "his patience as I have worked through these matters" and promised residents that he takes their grievances "very seriously." "I want the people of Shenandoah County to know I and the sheriff's office staff appreciate and care about the minority communities, and especially our Black community, in Shenandoah County," he said. "Also, I continue to support and recognize the importance of your Constitutional rights, especially your Second Amendment right to protect yourself and your family." Read the original article on Insider Downtown Marriott layoffs to affect 280 employees KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Marriott Downtown will temporarily layoff, furlough or reduce hours for 280 employees in response to a downturn in business because of COVID-19. The company sent the WARN letter to the city on June 11. More bad news for the economy inside the loop and a reminder that the tourism economy isn't coming back any time soon.Read more: Before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube made their entry in the media market, the PatnaDaily had already registered its presence in... Former Phillipsburg Mayor Stephen Ellis is being reimbursed $47,392 for attorney fees he paid before being cleared in a citizens harassment case. Town council approved the payout at its meeting Tuesday night. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Non-OPEC liquids production growth in 2020 (including processing gains) has been revised up by 0.3 mb/d from the previous assessment and is now forecast to decline by 3.2 mb/d y-o-y, to average 61.80 mb/d in 2020, Trend reports with reference to OPECs Monthly Oil Market Report. The revision was mainly due to new data estimating oil production for April and May for the non-OPEC countries participating in the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC). Increasing global crude oil prices in futures markets since the beginning of May reflect the perception of an earlier-than-expected recovery in oil demand amid a reduction in supply due to global production shut-ins. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether US upstream investment can recover in the short term from the current deep cuts due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent drop in oil prices, reads the report. Upstream investment in non-OPEC countries in 2020 is expected to decline by 30 percent y-o-y to $321 billion, according to the cartel. Strong conformity with the voluntary production adjustments by the 10 non-OPEC participating countries in the DoC led to a drop in output of more than 2.95 mb/d in May (preliminary), while OPEC-10 cut 6.25 mb/d m-o-m. At the same time, preliminary oil production outside of the DoC declined by 2.0 mb/d in April and 0.8 mb/d in May, mainly in the US and Canada. Oil production of these two countries is likely to decline by a total of 1.8 mb/d in 2020, y-o-y, the report says. Oil supply in 2020 is now forecast to grow only in Norway, Brazil, Guyana and Australia. The absolute level of production of OPEC NGLs was revised up. OPEC NGLs and non-conventional liquids are estimated to have declined by 0.08 mb/d y-o-y in 2019 to average 5.26 mb/d, following growth of 0.16 mb/d in 2018. The 2020 forecast indicates a decline of 0.03 mb/d to average 5.23 mb/d. In May, OPEC-13 crude oil production fell by 6.30 mb/d m-o-m to average 24.19 mb/d, according to secondary sources. Ten OPEC MCs have agreed to adjust down their production from May 2020. Non-OPEC liquids production in May, including OPEC NGLs and non-conventional liquids, is estimated to have fallen by 3.74 mb/d m-o-m to average 65.69 mb/d, lower by 3.99 mb/d y-o-y. As a result, preliminary data indicates that global oil supply in May decreased by 10.04 mb/d m-o-m to average 89.89 mb/d, down by 9.18 mb/d y-o-y. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Two nuclear-armed Asian powerhouses are quite literally at an uncharted territory after the two sides came into blows on Monday in Ladakh, where there was a stand-off for weeks now. An Indian colonel and two soldiers were killed in a "violent face-off" on Monday night with Chinese troops at the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. AFP Violent face-off amid de-escalation talks While confirming the developments, the Indian Army said that during the de-escalation process in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place last night with casualties. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and 2 soldiers. While the Chinese side also has suffered casualties it is still unclear about the numbers. As per reports, the two sides did not use any firearms and the deaths are from thrown stones. "Indian troops on Monday seriously violated consensus of the two sides by illegally crossing the border twice and carrying out provocative attacks on Chinese soldiers, resulting in serious physical clashes," China's Global Times quoted Foreign Minister Wang Yi as saying. This comes days after Indian Army Chief Gen MM Naravane said both sides have begun disengaging from Galwan Valley. The two armies have since withdrawn some forces in a positive signal but soldiers, tanks and other armoured carriers remained heavily deployed in the high-altitude region. REUTERS India-China flashpoint 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 standoff began last month 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 Indian Army on Tuesday confirmed that Major Generals of India and China are talking to defuse the situation in the Galwan Valley, after the violent face-off the previous night. AP Defence minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the current operational situation in Eastern Ladakh after the incident yesterday, along with the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and the three service Chiefs. External affairs minister S Jaishankar was also present during the meeting. This is the first casualties for India in a clash with the PLA since 1975 when an Indian patrol was ambushed by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh. 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. EDWARDSVILLE Summertime is usually when young adults and youth that aspire to go into law enforcement enroll in local academies or look more into being an explorer, however, those dreams may have to go on hold. Most area law enforcement agencies that hold these academies have opted out of in-person experiences and, in some instances, have completely canceled events due to COVID-19 concerns. The Edwardsville Police Department (EPD) is one of those. KEY HIGHLIGHTS Intense scrutiny of Chinese firms' proposals has kept them away from India's infrastructure sector Recent border clashes have vindicated Home Ministry's security concerns involving Chinese companies, says senior bureaucrats Only a fraction of MoUs worth $22 billion signed during PM Narendra Modi's visit to Shanghai in 2015 have fructified Industry experts fear souring relations with China could impact country's solar sector as most key items are imported from there Indian solar power firms imported equipment worth $1,179 million from China during April-December of FY20 Chinese investments in the country's infrastructure sector have come only sparingly but rising tension on the border that claimed lives of 20 Indian soldiers on Monday clouds the prospects of even those projects in the running. Senior bureaucrats said that the recent border clash has vindicated Home Ministry's security-related concerns involving Chinese companies. The Chinese firms have been trying to take a slice of India's infrastructure pie but intense scrutiny of their proposals has kept them away. Chinese firms indeed have good bandwidth when it comes to sophisticated infrastructure projects like tunnelling, industrial infrastructure metro and railways, but their reliability has been a major concern. Not surprisingly, the state-run Chinese railways were keen to take part in India's Rs 1.08 lakh crore high-speed bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad but the signature project is being executed with the help of Japan. In what mirrors the relationship between the two nations, MoUs worth $22 billion were signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Shanghai in 2015 but only a fraction of it actually fructified on the ground. ALSO READ: Chinese investments in India to face backlash; STEC's Delhi-Meerut rapid transport project at risk With boycott China chorus growing louder by the day, there is mounting pressure on the government to boot away Chinese investments. Amid heightened tension between the two countries, Chinese firm Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co Ltd (STEC) has emerged as the lowest bidder for construction of an underground stretch of the Delhi-Meerut rapid transit project. But there is demand from several quarters to not award the contract to the Chinese firm and instead it should be awarded to an Indian company. While China has missed on infrastructure investment opportunities in India, it has enjoyed a fairly advantageous position in trade. So much so that some of the sectors like solar power and pharmaceutical sectors are heavily dependent on China for inputs. Industry experts said that souring relations with China could impact the country's solar sector as most key items are imported from there. "In solar, all inverters and modules come from China. So, with the ongoing issue there is going to be a more strong pitch for Atma Nirbhar Bharat. As of today, 80-85 per cent solar modules imports and inverters are from China. So, in the short term it will impact," said Sunil Jain, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Hero Future Energies. Jain said that even the manufacturing of modules is dependent on import of components from China. Indian solar power firms imported equipment worth $1,179 million from China during April-December of FY20. India may look at other countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam as a substitute for China but the problem is that these countries do not have the required scale. Furthermore, they are also dependent on China for several key solar power inputs. With government focus on local manufacturing, India can be self-reliant in solar items but it is expected to take about 12-18 months and during this period local solar power firms would have to grapple with supply challenges. ALSO READ: India-China border tensions: Sensex falls 97 points, Nifty ends at 9,881 in volatile trade While there is an anti-China sentiment and the general public wants retaliation for 20 soldiers killed in the bloody violence, a section of investors is worried too. "Investor community is really concerned about this. Because this will mean that we will lose a lot of money which could have otherwise come especially in tech, logistics, and in the start-up business where Chinese guys are fairly comfortable in taking position," said a Mumbai-based investor. The Chinese investors such as Alibaba, Fosun Group, Tencent and TR Capital have, however, aggressively infused cash into a clutch of Indian start-ups and unicorns. As per industry estimates, Chinese investors have put in more than $5.5 billion in the new-age firms. The strained relations between India and China are set to have an impact on trade and investment. The exporters and importers are wary of the recent developments. The sequence of events in the last few months has added to the uncertainty. Industry veterans said that India is an aggrieved party and there would be definitely impact on trade and investment between the two countries if India takes retaliatory action. They at the same time hope that the inter-dependence between the two nations could keep situations from turning ugly as any further confrontation could result in disruptions in supply chains. "The border tensions have added to the uncertainty of the trade between the two countries and both exporters and importers are concerned with these developments," said Ajay Sahai, Director General, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO). India has had a huge trade deficit with China. In 2018-19, the exports from India to China were valued at $16.8 billion while the imports from China to India were valued at $70.3 billion. ALSO READ: India-China border clashes: 'India can give a fitting reply when provoked,' says PM Modi Reacting to a steep rise in novel coronavirus cases, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff on Wednesday mandated that businesses require customers and employees to wear masks. With his new directive, Wolff risked a confrontation with Gov. Greg Abbott, whose executive orders on the coronavirus crisis explicitly prohibit city and county officials from requiring residents to wear masks and imposing fines on those who refuse. In a surprising twist, Abbott didnt object to Wolffs order, telling Waco news station KWTX that his order allowed counties to impose those restrictions on businesses all along. Wolff just finally figured that out, Abbott said. The Bexar County leaders actions and Abbotts blessing opened the door for other Texas counties to do the same. Officials in Austin, Dallas and Houston now are weighing whether to follow Wolffs lead. Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez already took the step; businesses must start requiring masks of customers and employees effective midnight Friday. H-E-B, which only recently stopped requiring masks of its customers, said it would start doing so again Monday, when Wolffs order takes effect. Wolffs order came the day after Bexar County saw a record number of new cases of the novel coronavirus and of people admitted to local hospitals with the deadly virus. Enter to win: Were giving away a $75 gift card and relaxing recliner Abbott prohibited cities and counties weeks ago from requiring residents to wear face coverings and imposing jail time for those who dont wear masks. And he has repeatedly brushed off pleas from local officials to allow them to do so, including a letter from Wolff and from nine Texas mayors including San Antonios Ron Nirenberg. So Wolff tried a different tack, putting the onus on businesses to require customers and employees to wear face coverings. The action that Im taking today may be pushing the legal bounds a little bit, Wolff said before Abbott made his comments. But our attorneys believe we can defend this order in court. In rejecting the mask requests from cities and counties, the governor never once mentioned the option implemented by Wolff on Wednesday. Thats what was authorized in my plan, Abbott said. Thats what the Bexar County judge has now realized, and so what Bexar County is doing and what every county is authorized to do, and that is to impose requirements on business operations. Under Wolffs order, businesses have until Monday to adopt health and safety policies that require masks for customers and workers or they risk a $1,000 fine. After Monday, the order is in effect until June 30. Nirenberg threw his weight behind Wolff, with whom hes been in lockstep during the pandemic issuing his own order Wednesday mirroring the county judges actions. Unless everybody wants just to go back home for another 18 months before we have this vaccine, weve got to get used to doing the right thing when were out in public, Nirenberg said. Bob Owen, Staff-photographer / San Antonio Express-News City and county officials dont want to collect fines. What they and health officials want is for more residents to wear masks to help stop the resurgence of COVID-19. Bexar deputies and San Antonio police officers wont be patrolling looking for violations, officials said, but will respond when they receive complaints. San Antonio also may pull certificates of occupancy for businesses that flagrantly violate the order but thats considered a last resort. Were not trying to issue a whole bunch of fines, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said. Were just trying to get people to help keep our community safe. The new orders say residents ages 10 years or older must wear masks, but Wolff acknowledged that by itself is unenforceable. However, there are measures that can be taken to enforce the order with businesses. Bexar County reported 436 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday the largest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic and nearly double the previous record, which was just set Saturday. The new cases numbers still high were Wednesday, although not as bad 269 new cases were reported, pushing the total past 5,000 but the hospital numbers jumped again by double digits. Bob Owen, Staff-photographer / San Antonio Express-News There were 241 people with the coronavirus in San Antonio hospitals Wednesday, up from 212 Tuesday, with 91 in intensive care, up from 82, and 43 on ventilators, up from 41. Metro Health officials attribute the spike in infections to the reopening of many businesses and other activities. Residents also no longer are as vigilant as they were in the beginning about taking precautions such as wearing face coverings and keeping a 6-foot distance from others not in their respective households. H-E-B had stopped requiring shoppers to wear masks while in their stores because company officials said it was hard to enforce without a local law on the books mandating the measure. The San Antonio retailer worked closely with Wolff on the order, spokeswoman Dya Campos said Wednesday. She noted the chain initially had posted employees at its entrances to make sure customers wore masks required under previous orders. Hopefully, we wont get to the point of needing to have any kind of confrontation about masks, Campos said. Richard Perez, president and CEO of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, backed the measure praising it as a way to rebuild consumer confidence in area businesses. Enacting the restriction locally means that owners of shops, bars and restaurants no longer have to wrestle with whether to turn away customers who arent wearing masks, he said. Not everyone supports the mask restrictions. The requirement could put businesses at risk of drawing lawsuits and having to pay fines, said Annie Spilman, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. Orders like Judge Wolffs puts owners in the difficult position of policing their customers while trying to reopen and rebuild their businesses, Spilman said. Bob Owen, Staff-photographer / San Antonio Express-News The orders also means the county and other entities and organizations need to keep providing personal protective equipment such as masks and hand sanitizer to smaller businesses and perhaps come up with a template for the health and safety policy so that business owners dont have to figure out how to craft it themselves, Perez said. Its uncharted waters, so we need to help them chart those waters, Perez said. Initially, San Antonio and Bexar County each had the requirement baked into their emergency orders. But Abbott later rolled back those restrictions and prohibited local authorities from putting such requirements back in place. On ExpressNews.com: Dangerous situation Bexar County reports 436 new COVID-19 cases, largest one-day increase ever Abbott said Tuesday that rather than requiring face coverings while people are out in public, local officials can enforce restrictions he has imposed on the size of gatherings and the limits on the number of people who can gather in restaurants, shops, theaters and other businesses as a means of slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus. Bars can fill up to 50 percent of their allowed capacity under Abbotts order. Restaurants can operate at 75 percent capacity and seat up to 10 people at a table. On Friday, Abbotts order will allow amusement parks and carnivals in the states major urban counties including Bexar to operate up to 50 percent capacity. Abbott also has discouraged gatherings of more than 10 people. Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:15:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's efforts to bolster COVID-19 medical ties with the rest of the world is strengthening global multilateralism, an expert said on Wednesday. Abebe Aynete, director at the Institute for Strategic Affairs, a think tank based in Ethiopia's capital, told Xinhua that China's donation of COVID-19 medical supplies to European, Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries is a boost to multilateralism. China's COVID-19 medical supplies demonstrate the concept of building a community with a shared future for humankind, "whereby countries can act as lifelines to each other during times of crisis," said the expert. "China's foreign policy with an outward looking vision has demonstrated a bold and decisive global leadership during the ongoing COVID-19-induced global economic and social crisis," Aynete said. Aynete said with COVID-19 expected to significantly shrink the size of the global economy, solidarity should be commended. Aynete further said his home country, Ethiopia, has significantly benefited from COVID-19 medical cooperation with China. Ethiopia was among several African countries that received in April a Chinese medical team comprising healthcare and medical experts to combat the disease. "Ethiopia has received several rounds of Chinese medical supplies and experts, crucial in Ethiopia's fight against the pandemic," Aynete said. "In addition, Ethiopia's flag carrier Ethiopian Airlines (ET), using its extensive cargo network between China and African countries, has been able to deliver Chinese COVID-19 medical supplies across the African continent," Aynete said. Aynete said the Chinese COVID-19 medical supplies sent to Ethiopia underscored the strong ties between the two countries, unshaken by temporary crises. Furthermore, Ethiopian Airlines withstood domestic and international pressure "to stop flights to Chinese destinations in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic," he said. "This decision has helped ET to act as a key transportation means for life-saving COVID-19 medical supplies from Chinese destinations to African destinations," Aynete told Xinhua. Ethiopian Airlines currently operates daily passenger flights from Addis Ababa to Guangzhou and Beijing, and three-times-a-week passenger flights to Chengdu, as well as daily passenger and cargo flights to Hong Kong and Shanghai. Ethiopia has recorded 3,630 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 61 COVID-19 related deaths as of Tuesday. Enditem Authorities in Assams Jorhat district have ordered a magisterial inquiry after a 30-year-old man, who was picked by during a counter-insurgency operation, died in custody. Jayanta Bora, a resident of Kakodonga village, was picked up by a joint team of Indian Army and state police on Sunday night. He was declared dead on arrival later at the Jorhat Medical College Hospital (JMCH). According to district officials, a team of 244 Field Regiment of the army based in neighbouring Charaideo district and police personnel of Borholla in Jorhat carried out the search operation based on information of the presence of ULFA-I and NSCN-IM cadres in the area. During the operation, Bora, whose father is an ex-serviceman, was picked up from his residence on suspicion of being a United Liberation Front of Assam-Independent (ULFA-I) cadre. Bora was first taken to the Borholla police station where the army reported the person was feeling uneasy. He was first taken to the local health centre and from there to JMCH where he was declared brought dead. Alleging torture by army and police as the cause of Boras death, residents of the village refused to accept the body. Roshni Aparanji Korati, Jorhats deputy commissioner, ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident on Monday. We have directed the inquiry report to be submitted within 10 days. I have also written to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to look into this incident, Korati said while speaking to journalists. On Tuesday, three Assam police personnel were suspended in connection with the incident. The police have also registered a case and are investigating. Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal assured that the case will be tried in a fast track court. A sum of Rs 6 lakh will be given to the deceaseds family as well as a government job to a kin, Atul Bora, the states agriculture minister who visited Boras family on Tuesday, said. Following the incident, a meeting of the unified command comprising the army, police and administrative officials was held in Guwahati on Tuesday to discuss the security scenario in the state as well as counter-insurgency operations. Lack Of Justice Hampers Reconciliation In Southern Kyrgyzstan 10 Years After Deadly Ethnic Clashes By Bruce Pannier June 16, 2020 It has been a decade since the deadly ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan and, although the destroyed shops and buildings have been repaired, it's difficult to gauge how much damage remains in the people who survived the horrific chaos of those days in 2010. Nearly one week of killing and destruction -- mainly in the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad -- left at least 470 people dead, more than 2,200 serious injured, and some 400,000 displaced, mostly ethnic Uzbeks. Many questions remain unanswered, including who was responsible for starting the violence and why? These are questions that may never be answered. In a June 9 report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Central Asia researcher Mihra Rittmann said: "Justice has been elusive for so many people who suffered horrific crimes during and after the violent events of June 2010." She added: "While southern Kyrgyzstan has long ceased to be a site of open ethnic conflict, until there is accountability for past abuses there will always be legitimate concerns about the prospect of long-term stability in the region." The so-called "June Events" from a decade ago occupy a strange place in the minds of the people of Kyrgyzstan. Everyone remembers them and has an opinion about what happened and why, but it is a subject few want to talk about and -- if they do, whether Kyrgyz or Uzbek -- they're likely to say their people were the victims. Loaded Issue The 10th anniversary of the arrest of Azimjon Askarov, now 69, was marked on June 15, 2020. An ethnic Uzbek rights activist from Kyrgyzstan's southern town of Bazar-Korgon, Askarov was apprehended by security forces as the violence was ending. Askarov said he was chronicling the violence, but a Kyrgyz court found him guilty of fomenting ethnic hatred, instigating disorder, and involvement in the murder of a policeman killed during the tumult. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. International rights group criticized the case against Askarov, saying he was mistreated in detention, and decried his subsequent conviction. The U.S. State Department conferred the 2014 Human Rights Defender Award on Askarov and in 2016 the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement calling for Askarov's immediate release after "UN experts" found he had been "arbitrarily detained, held in inhumane conditions, tortured and mistreated, and prevented from adequately preparing his trial defense." Kyrgyz authorities complained about the U.S. State Department award and rejected the United Nation's call to free Askarov, calling it an internal affair. Askarov's case is a loaded issue for Kyrgyz politicians in the capital, Bishkek, where few appear anxious to take his side on this matter. In southern Kyrgyzstan itself, life goes on and, while there are signs of progress in the reconciliation of the two ethnic communities and normalcy in life, there are also signs that things are far less than perfect. Back To School Nick Megoran is a political geography professor at Newcastle University in Britain and one of the leading international experts on the region who has been working and conducting research in the Ferghana Valley -- on both sides of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border -- since the mid-1990s. Megoran used the example of Uzbek schools in southern Kyrgyzstan as one barometer of gauging the recovery. "The formation of the Kyrgyz and Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republics in the 1920s created significant national minority communities on either side of their new Ferghana Valley boundary [but]...Soviet authorities made a provision for minority schooling, with Uzbek-language schools in the Kyrgyz SSR and Kyrgyz-language schooling in the Uzbek one," Megoran told RFE/RL. Megoran said that, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were efforts in both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to maintain this arrangement. "In Kyrgyzstan, the Ministry of Education established the Kyrgyz-Uzbek University in Osh and the Uzbek Humanities-Pedagogical Faculty of Osh State University," Megoran said. After the June 2010 violence, however, "the name of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek University was hurriedly changed to the 'Osh State Social University,' and Osh State University's Uzbek Humanities-Pedagogical Faculty was evicted from its building and downgraded to a department of the university's philology faculty." All of those actions were blows to ethnic Uzbeks in the educational sphere. Megoran also noted that, since 2000, "the number of Uzbek-language schools in Kyrgyzstan has fallen from 141 to 43." The June 9 HRW report cited earlier included comments from "an ethnic Uzbek lawyer from southern Kyrgyzstan who asked not to be named out of fear of reprisals." This lawyer told HRW: "Psychologically, it stays with you. An act of reconciliation did not take place. Many friends, people who suffered, whose relatives were jailed -- no one ever answered for [the abuses]." He added: "It makes you feel psychologically vulnerable. You still feel [vulnerable] today." Signs Of Progress However, some members of the Uzbek community in southern Kyrgyzstan do see some progress. RFE/RL spoke with two ethnic Uzbeks who live in Osh. While they were optimistic, one requested to speak on condition of anonymity, so pseudonyms will be used. "Compared to 10 years ago, it is very different. Even five years ago there were problems, but now Uzbeks feel better...now it is more comfortable," Timur told RFE/RL. Timur said Osh is more secure and that there was the "rule of law" there. "Uzbeks go everywhere [in Osh city] and Kyrgyz come to restaurants in Uzbek neighborhoods." Sobir agreed, saying, "Tension has been gone for many years. Uzbeks and Kyrgyz have friendly relations." However, both Timur and Sobir said that the main language of communication in Osh is now Kyrgyz. "Kyrgyz accept the Uzbek language," Timur said, but "Kyrgyz would prefer to hear the Kyrgyz language from Uzbeks." But he admitted he does not speak perfect Kyrgyz and usually says he is from Uzbekistan, an explanation Kyrgyz in Osh seem to accept. Sobir echoed that comment, saying, "The languages are similar. Uzbeks learn Kyrgyz very well." What Kyrgyz and Uzbeks discuss and do not discuss is interesting. Timur said, "Uzbeks talk about politics and other things with Kyrgyz," but they "don't talk about ethnic questions." Sobir said, "[Uzbeks] have stopped talking about [the turmoil in 2010]. It is like a wound that people don't want to touch." Sobir said interethnic relations were mended within a few years of the June 2010 events, but Timur added: "Even five years ago there was harassment [of Uzbeks by Kyrgyz]," though he did not elaborate. Timur credited the new leadership in Uzbekistan as "the most important thing for ethnic relations" in southern Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan's first president, Islam Karimov, died nearly four years ago. Karimov's government was increasingly hard on Kyrgyzstan, especially after the 2005 and 2010 revolutions there that ousted the country's presidents, which Karimov, and many other leaders, looked upon as setting a dangerous precedent. Karimov's death was announced in early September 2016 and his prime minister, Shavkat Mirziyoev, came to power. Mirziyoev adopted a more congenial policy toward Uzbekistan's Central Asian neighbors. The Uzbek leader traveled to Kyrgyzstan in September 2017 and while he was there he announced that several border-crossing points along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek frontier that had been closed since 2010 would reopen. Shortly afterwards, at the Dostuk crossing near Osh, thousands of people from both sides of the border came out and held an impromptu celebration, complete with food and music. Mirziyoev announced that Uzbekistan would help build a new Uzbek-language school in the city and then, Megoran reminded, "On a separate occasion [Mirziyoev] visited the ethnic Kyrgyz village of Manas, in Uzbekistan's Jizzakh region, and ordered it and its school to be wholly refurbished, returning 45 days later to inspect the outcome." Sobir noted that the changes instituted by Mirziyoev coming to power had made a big difference to the situation in southern Kyrgyzstan. The coronavirus pandemic led to authorities closing the border temporarily, but Sobir said prior to this health measure, frequent visits by Uzbeks from Uzbekistan and the opportunity for Kyrgyz to travel in the other direction -- many as tourists going to see the ancient Silk Road cities in Uzbekistan: Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, and other places -- has helped repair damage in relations between the two ethnic groups. Though it has helped, not everything has totally healed yet. "The topic of justice comes up when Uzbeks gather [without any Kyrgyz present]. At any gathering [of Uzbeks] it comes up," said Timur. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/lack-of-justice-hampers -reconciliation-in-southern-kyrgyzstan-10-years-after -deadly-ethnic-clashes/30673852.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 Indigenous TV icon Ernie Dingo has told of how he 'whacked' a white man in the head in response to a crude racial slur. Dingo, 63, said he was waiting to board a train when a man walked by him and called him a 'f***ing Abo' at Perth Railway Station on Wednesday morning. 'This last bloke (white, late 30's) was watching me, as he gets aside me getting off he says "f***ing Abo" and walks off,' Dingo said. Indigenous TV icon Ernie Dingo has told of how he 'whacked' a white man in the head in response to being called a 'f***ing Abo' Dingo pictured in 2014. He said he chased the man who made the comment and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck - telling him 'say it again' Dingo said two men who were watching the incident came to the man's aid and claimed he had a mental disability In his account of the confrontation published by Ngaarda Media, Dingo said he chased the man, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and told him "say it again". 'He is scared now and I whack him on the right side of his head, he slips & falls trying to get away, his foot falls between the platform & the train,' Dingo said. 'I drag his arse away from the edge - as he is laying there I ask again "Say it again, give me an excuse to whack you" - he doesn't.' Dingo said two men who were watching the incident came to the man's aid and said he may have a mental disorder. 'Well if he is gunna say that s**t to me, I'll have a go at him. I'm 63, I don't take that s**t from anyone. 'I get on the train and this lady says "are you alright, I heard what he said". We chatted and as I told her "He should've known better". 'I might make the news tonight, I'm sure it was captured on CCTV. Dingo, 63, said he was waiting to board a train at Perth Railway Station when the man made the racist comment (pictured) on Wednesday morning 'If it does, you heard it from me first and I wouldn't have minded if I caught the next train rather than not do anything about it and be angry on the train.' The Public Transport Authority confirmed an incident happened, but could not confirm details. It comes amid Black Lives Matter protests in Western Australia and all over the world. Dingo is a well-known Indigenous actor recognised for his roles in Crocodile Dundee II and Blackfellas. HILL AIR FORCE BASE, UT, UNITED STATES 06.03.2020 - An F-16 Fighting Falcon with a "ghost" paint scheme departs Hill Air Force Base, Utah, for Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., June 3., 2020. The paint scheme is intended to replicate an adversarys fighter jet. United States, allied, and partner-nation aircrews routinely train against accurate and realistic threats including aircraft painted to replicate those pilots might see in aerial combat. (U.S. Air Force photo by R. Nial Bradshaw) X 0 20 Help Keep Us Soaring We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month. Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways: Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister on Wednesday (June 17) announced to provide Rs 5 lakh along with a West Bengal government job to one member of the families of two Jawans from West Bengal that were killed in action in the Galwan Valley (Ladakh) on June 15 night. CM Mamata took to Twitter and said, "My heartfelt condolences to the families of the brave men martyred at Galwan Valley. I'm at pain to say that two of them belonged to West Bengal Sepoy Rajesh Orang (Vill Belgoria, PS Md Bazar, Birbhum) & Bipul Roy on General Duty (Vill Bindipara, PS Samuktala, Alipurduar)" She said nothing can compensate for the supreme sacrifice made by them for the nation or the bereaved families' loss. "We stand by the next of the sons of our soil in this difficult time. To this regard, we'll provide 5 lakh & a GoWB job to one member in the deceased's family." Nothing can compensate for the supreme sacrifice made by them for the nation or the bereaved families' loss. We stand by the next of the sons of our soil in this difficult time. To this regard, we'll provide 5 lakh & a GoWB job to one member in the deceased's family. (2/2) Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) June 17, 2020 Earlier yesterday, the Indian Army had said that 20 of its soldiers were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops during a face-off in Galwan on June 15 night. This is the biggest ever military confrontation between the two armies in over five decades. In a statement, the army said that almost the same number of Chinese troops have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had blamed China for the incident and alleged that it tried to unilaterally change the status and "departed from the consensus to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley". The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) on Wednesday recovered the bodies of two children who died in a collapsed building at Ogudu area of state. The incident occurred around 12:40 p.m. at No 46 Gafari Balogun street, Ogudu area during a heavy rainfall. The Director-General of LASEMA, Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, said the the agency received a distress call about a collapsed building at the aforementioned location. On arrival at the scene by agency responders, it was observed that a building collapsed as a result of a mudslide at the rear of the building caused by heavy rainfall. The agents were informed that two children, one male and one female were trapped and immediately commenced a search and rescue operation. Unfortunately, they were found dead and their remains are being transported to the mortuary, Mr Oke-Osanyintolu said. Other occupants of the house were reportedly injured as a result of the collapse. Mr Oke-Osanyintolu said the building has been cordoned off and integrity testing will be carried out on it. [June 17, 2020] Digerati Provides Update on Fourth Acquisition SAN ANTONIO, Texas, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digerati Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: DTGI ) ("Digerati" or the Company), a provider of cloud services specializing in UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solutions for the small to medium-sized business (SMB) market, is pleased to provide information on its fourth (4th) acquisition under Letter of Intent (LOI) and an update on the status of the acquisition. Digerati has completed initial due diligence on its 4th acquisition and is proceeding with the transaction by seeking FCC approval required for closing the transaction. Based in Florida, Digeratis 4th acquisition (the Acquisition #4) is a single-source provider of flexible and scalable UCaaS solutions serving the high-growth SMB market. As an established provider of cloud-based communications systems, Acquisition #4 currently serves nearly 400 business customers in various industries including Education, Health Care, Financial Services and Real Estate. Acquisition #4 has built a solid and profitable recurring revenue business (nearly $2 million annualized) with attractive gross margins of 71%+ while operating a global network with strategically positioned data centers in the USA and Europe. Acquisition #4 has differentiated itself by specializing in integration with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. Acquisition #4s robust cloud telephony platform integrates with all major CRM platforms leading to enhanced agent workflow and increased productivity for its users world-wide. Arthur L. Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Digerati, commented, Our fourth acquisition target aligns perfectly with our disciplined M&A strategy by meeting the related financial, geographic, and technological criteria. With its operation on an identical technology stack to that of our current operation, we anticipate that integration will be streamlined and result in accelerated cost savings. We look forward to progressing this transaction to a final closing, with it also being a strategic fit with our other planned Flrida-based acquisition of Nexogy, Inc. About Digerati Technologies, Inc . Digerati Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: DTGI ) is a provider of cloud services specializing in UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solutions for the business market. Through its subsidiary T3 Communications (www.T3com.com), the Company is meeting the global needs of businesses seeking simple, flexible, reliable, and cost-effective communication and network solutions, including cloud PBX, cloud mobile, Internet broadband, SD-WAN, SIP trunking, and customized VoIP services, all delivered on its carrier-grade network and Only in the Cloud. For more information about Digerati Technologies, please visit www.digerati-inc.com . Forward-Looking Statements The information in this news release includes certain forward-looking statements that are based upon assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including statements related to the future financial performance of the Company. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations or any of its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, successful execution of growth strategies, product development and acceptance, the impact of competitive services and pricing, general economic conditions, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has provided guidance to issuers regarding the use of social media to disclose material non-public information. In this regard, investors and others should note that we announce material financial information on the website of our investor relations company, www.TheWaypointRefinery.com , in addition to SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls and webcasts. We use these channels as well as social media to communicate with the public about our Company, our services and other issues. It is possible that the information we post on social media could be deemed to be material information. Therefore, in light of the SECs guidance, we encourage investors, the media, and others interested in our Company to review the information we post on the following U.S. social media channels: Facebook: Digerati Technologies, Inc. Twitter: @DIGERATI_IR LinkedIn: Digerati Technologies, Inc. The Waypoint Refinery, LLC (973) 303-9649 www.thewaypointrefinery.com Investors: [email protected] The Eversull Group Jack Eversull [email protected] (972) 571-1624 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] With the Court of Appeal upholding the suspension of Adams Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), it is possible for the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, to return to the party, his spokesperson has said. Mr Obaseki, Tuesday, announced his resignation from the APC after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa. Mr Obasekis deputy, Philip Shaibu, who also resigned from the APC, was seen in photos and videos released by the Edo Government House, removing APC flag from his office. The governors resignation followed his disqualification by the APC from contesting the party governorship primary in Edo State which is scheduled to hold on June 22, five days from now. After the latest court ruling on Mr Oshiomhole, the APC appointed the deputy national chairman, Abiola Ajimobi, a former governor of Oyo State, as acting national chairman. But Mr Ajimobi is believed to be very ill and hospitalised. Another twist was added to the APC crisis when the deputy national secretary of the APC, Victor Gaidom, declared himself the acting national chairman of the party, Wednesday. He announced the cancellation of the screening which led to Governor Obasekis disqualification. Our party, the All Progressives Congress, will no longer allow local quests for the control of power to influence our decisions. As your Acting National Chairman and presiding officer in the NWC, we therefore cancel the decision of the Screening and Appeal Committees of the former chairman of the party on the Edo primaries, Mr Gaidom told journalists in Abuja. Following Mr Gaidoms pronouncement, PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Obasekis spokesperson, Crusoe Osagie, if the governor would be willing to return to the APC. Honestly, I have not talked with my boss yet, (but) I dont see anything wrong with it, Mr Osagie said, Wednesday afternoon. With all intent and purpose, if you look at the reasons my boss gave for his being frustrated out of the party, it all centred on Oshiomhole and his high-handedness, tyrannical approach to managing the party, tendency to want to destroy the fortune of the party, he said. With the court removing Oshiomhole, I believe theres a possibility. Its possible, after all he has not moved into any other party yet. READ ALSO: Mr Osagie said the governor has never had any problem with APC as a party. Mr Obaseki may still have to contend with some forces in APC if he returns to the party since Mr Oshiomhole may not have acted alone in the partys decisions against the governor, PREMIUM TIMES told Mr Osagie. Oshiomhole was alone, he responded. You will soon see in the coming days that what you call people loyal to Oshiomhole would soon fizzle out. Mr Osagie said the Court of Appeal ruling is rested upon the suspension of Mr Oshiomhole in his ward in Edo State several months ago. That tells you that everything that Oshiomhole has done since when he was suspended from his ward till now is invalid, he added. PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Osagie what would happen between the governor and those he may have given assurance he would be joining them in their party. I can tell you he has not given anybody any assurance that he is going into any particular party, the governors spokesperson said. Watch Video: Burma Three Killed as Bus Plunges Off Mountain Road in Myanmars Shan State Rescuers caring for the injured from the wrecked bus on Wednesday morning along the Gote Twin portion of the Mandalay-Muse road, between Naung Cho and Kyaukme. / Naung Cho fire and rescue team MANDALAYThree people were killed and several were injured in a bus accident on the Mandalay-Muse highway in northern Shan States Gote Twin Valley on Wednesday. A Min Thar Gyi company bus carrying 16 people, including the driver and two conductors, was traveling from Magwe to Lashio when it went off the road and fell down a mountain slope at about 3 a.m. on Wednesday. We have carried the bodies of the driver and another man. Another woman with serious injuries died on the way to hospital. Eight others with serious injuries were sent to Pyin Oo Lwin Hospital, said U Zaw Zaw Aung of the Naung Cho fire brigade and rescue team. According to the rescue teams, the other injured passengers were taken to Naung Cho Hospital for treatment. The bus seems to have had a brake failure. One of the passengers told us that the driver shouted that the brakes were not working and warned them to hold onto somethingthen the bus dove down, said U Zaw Zaw Aung of the victims account. The mountainous highway road crossing the Gote Twin Valley connects Naung Cho and Kyaukme townships and is a dangerous route due to winding switchbacks across the steep slopes. On Monday, heavy rains caused landslides across some parts of the road near the Gote Twin Bridge, though the road was still passable. Some parts of the road in Gote Twin Valley have been ruined, however cars and trucks can still go, said an official from the Naung Cho administration office who was at the scene of the rescue. The bus accident was not related to the landslide. It was due to the brake failure and a lack of driving skills on this route. You may also like these stories: Yangon Govt Loses $2.3m in Bus Services: Auditor General Myanmar Mobile Users Told to Re-Register SIM Cards by June 30 Myanmar Vice President Observes Ongoing Rescue in Mon State Emirates resumes flights from Manchester. Image: Emirates Airlines Boeing 777-300ER This expansion of services allows UK customers to fly to destinations in the Asia Pacific, including Australia, with a convenient connection in Dubai. However, with travel restrictions remaining in place in many countries, customers are reminded to check entry and exit requirements before travelling. Jason McVeigh, Emirates deputy airport services manager at Manchester Airport said: Our teams in Manchester and Dubai are delighted to be resuming flights for passengers, reconnecting the North with Emirates global network after a pause. We look forward to welcoming passengers on board and have taken comprehensive steps to keep passengers, colleagues and communities safe. Representative Image In West Bengal, 56 percent of the people testing positive for the novel coronavirus are migrants who returned from other states. A senior state health department official said on June 17 that 10 out of 100 migrant workers who were tested turned out to be COVID-19 positive. The official added: Most of them (migrants testing COVID-19 positive) are asymptomatic and this is making the current situation quite difficult. For live updates on coronavirus, click here So far, more than six lakh migrant workers have returned to Bengal by Shramik Special trains and lakhs more have returned by road. As per the state health ministry, several districts in Bengal such as Purulia, Coochbehar and Birbhum were green zones before the stranded migrant workers returned to their natives. The news comes at a time when Bengals coronavirus count dipped for the third consecutive day and the patient recovery rate crossed 50 percent for the first time. More than 6,000 coronavirus patients in West Bengal have recovered already, while the states COVID-19 toll is 495 at present. The total COVID-19 tally stands at 11,909, inching towards the 12,000-mark. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show To follow our full coverage on coronavirus, click here The latest figures on the state health bulletin revealed that most of the fresh COVID-19 cases were reported from Kolkata, followed by North 24 Parganas and Howrah, respectively. The health department update also revealed that 8,512 coronavirus samples were tested in the last 24 hours, taking Bengals total coronavirus test count to 3,51,754. (With PTI inputs) "The combined capabilities of IBM and Siemens can help companies create and manage a closed-loop, end-to-end digital twin that breaks down traditional silos to service innovation and revenue generation," said Peter Bilello , President & CEO of industry research and consulting firm CIMdata. "Only by closing the loop between product design and development decisions, accurate product configurations and service operations, can companies hope to run a profitable and effective product-as-a-service business model." OEMs and owner/operators can struggle to improve the performance and reliability of an asset over its operating lifecycle, due to inefficient data sharing between engineering, operations, and maintenance processes. This joint solution from Siemens and IBM creates a single source of information designed to help OEMs and equipment owner/operators improve many aspects about how they design, maintain, and service their assets. In addition, the solution enables OEMs to now provide valuable after-market services to their clients. "This new collaboration combines two industry-leading offerings into a unique solution for the industry," said Kareem Yusuf Ph.D., General Manager, IBM AI Applications Business. "OEM's and owner/operators can leverage the new solution to help them reduce operational costs and increase up time of their equipment." The integration of asset management and product lifecycle management (PLM) technology can help owner/operators to stay up to date. The solution also enables OEMs to receive critical data about asset performance, maintenance and failures in the field. Leveraging IoT technology, manufacturers can gain insights on wear and tear, operating conditions, parts failures, and other patterns that lead to design or manufacturing updates. This data can be used to help manufacturers lower maintenance costs, reduce risks, and improve asset resiliency. "IBM's Maximo Enterprise Asset Management software provides key technology to further extend the capabilities of the Xcelerator portfolio," said Tony Hemmelgarn, CEO for Siemens Digital Industries Software. "By leveraging the world-class product configuration management capability within Teamcenter, companies can bring product design, manufacturing and service together to maximize their software investment, while also minimizing downtime, improving quality and reducing inventory costs." For further information on Service Lifecycle Management solutions, please see here. For additional information please click here. Siemens Digital Industries Software is driving transformation to enable a digital enterprise where engineering, manufacturing and electronics design meet tomorrow. The Xcelerator portfolio helps companies of all sizes create and leverage digital twins that provide organizations with new insights, opportunities and levels of automation to drive innovation. For more information on Siemens Digital Industries Software products and services, visit www.sw.siemens.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Siemens Digital Industries Software Where today meets tomorrow. Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 170 years. The company is active around the globe, focusing on the areas of power generation and distribution, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, and automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Through the separately managed company Siemens Mobility, a leading supplier of smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is shaping the world market for passenger and freight services. Due to its majority stakes in the publicly listed companies Siemens Healthineers AG and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital healthcare services as well as environmentally friendly solutions for onshore and offshore wind power generation. In fiscal 2019, which ended on September 30, 2019, Siemens generated revenue of 86.8 billion and net income of 5.6 billion. At the end of September 2019, the company had around 385,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com. Note: A list of relevant Siemens trademarks can be found here. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners. SOURCE Siemens Digital Industries Software A disquieting story surfaced on Twitter earlier this week, about a child who fell off her bike and cut open her knee. In some alarm, the child's mother went into a nearby chemist to buy wipes (to disinfect the wound) and a plaster, but was unable to pay because she had only cash (as you might expect on a bike ride). Like so many other shops, the chemist refused to accept notes or coins due to fears over Covid-19. The World Health Organisation has clarified it is NOT warning people against using paper money due to coronavirus merely advising that you wash your hands after handling it Fortunately, a kind customer in the queue stepped in and paid for the items using his card. But how ridiculous that shops cannot show more flexibility not to mention sheer human decency. When did cash become a dirty word? Too many retailers believe that official guidance is to avoid using cash because it spreads the virus. But this just isn't true. The World Health Organisation has clarified it is not warning against using paper money; it merely advises that you wash your hands after handling cash just as you would after touching anything someone else has come into contact with. Despite this, as we reveal, shoppers now face a lottery as to whether or not they can pay with cash and there is often no way of knowing until you are queuing. This is enormously concerning for the many elderly and vulnerable people who rely on notes and coins. As 72-year-old Diane von Kesmark says in our story today, she prefers to take a set amount out of the bank each week, so she can keep track of what she's spent. And as Twickenham residents discovered recently, what happens if the card network goes down? Presumably, shops would suddenly be all too willing to accept cash again in that instance. But we should not despair. Work is under way to protect cash. Just today it was revealed that, under one new scheme, more than a dozen 'cash deserts' across the country are to get improved access to notes, be it a new ATM or a cashback service in shops. But with more 'card-only' signs popping up each day, urgent action is needed at a national level. At the very least, the Government should force essential shops, such as pharmacies, to accept all payment methods. If it doesn't, expect to see more distressing scenes where customers are turned away at the counter and denied vital supplies even with a bleeding child at their side. Parcel false Every week, I open my front door at some point to find a parcel sitting on my doorstep in plain view of the street. Often the doorbell isn't even pressed to tell me it's been dumped there. Even if it is, by the time I arrive at the door, the driver has usually scarpered without waiting to see if anyone answers. It's a miracle nothing been stolen - yet. Special delivery: lockdown has driven millions of us to shop online but complaints about delivery drivers have rocketed This is the new reality now that lockdown has driven millions of us to shop online for everything from paint to nail scissors. And as our investigation reveals, complaints about delivery failures have rocketed. But I don't blame the drivers. Most are under pressure to meet almost impossible targets while earning a pittance, so it's understandable that many will try to cut a few corners. It's down to their employers to introduce a fairer system that rewards good service rather than speed. Retailers should also remember that working with delivery firms renowned for poor customer service will tarnish their reputation, too. Lottery of love! Thank you to all our competition enthusiasts for sharing your cheering tales of success. We tell a few of our favourite stories along with the winners' top tips to help you boost your own chances. Another two emails really put a smile on my face. Money Mail reader James Aicken writes: 'The best prize I ever won was meeting my future wife, June, by chance in a pub in Hackney, East London, in 1966. We got married on April 1, 1967, after five months, had three wonderful children and, after 53 years, she's still my best prize.' Thinking along the same lines, Stuart Howat writes: 'Forty-three years ago I won a lovely prize in life's lottery. On a visit home from working abroad I met my wife and the rest, as they say, is history.' Proof that romance isn't dead. v.bischoff@dailymail.co.uk Humans are able to determine whether a chimpanzee is happy, sad or angry and why they might be feeling that way just by listening to their calls, a new study shows. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam played different chimp calls to more than 3,400 volunteers and asked them to determine the mood and situation. Human listeners, when played chimpanzee calls, were able to judge whether the sounds are positive or negative, relaxed or agitated, authors found. It went further than just determining mood though, the team found that volunteers were able to infer information about more detailed context - such as play. Researchers claim this could be an evolutionary throwback, preserved because being able to identify if a predator species is angry acts as an early warning system. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam played different chimp calls to more than 3,400 volunteers and asked them to determine the mood and situation Among the chimpanzee calls played to the human volunteers were sounds of the animals being tickled, being denied food, fighting and even copulation. 'Humans can infer some information from vocalisations of genetically closely related species,' the study authors claim. 'We can guess whether a chimpanzee vocalisation was produced in a positive or a negative situation, and whether the chimpanzee was aroused or relaxed.' VOLUNTEERS PUT DIFFERENT CALLS INTO CATEGORIES Each call was matched to a specific category and the volunteers had to say whether it was a good or bad match. Categories included: Being tickled Being separated from mother Threatening an agressive chimp or predator Being attacked by another chimpanzee Being refused access to food Eating high value food Eating low value food Discovering a large food source Copulating Discovering something scary Advertisement Volunteers were asked to determine context as well as 'mood' and the result is that human listeners can infer behavioural context from vocalisations of another species. This might apply to other animals as well, although this study focused on chimps. 'When we hear a hissing cat or a person laughing, we may be able to infer information from these vocalizations, including both the individuals affective state and the kind of situation they are in,' the study authors wrote. Previous studies have shown that humans are able to accurately infer arousal from the calls of a number of different species, but they were limited in reach. Researchers involved in this study say the acoustic features of mammal vocalisations vary across different types of behavioural contexts including threats, food and play in a much deeper way than they do for arousal. 'For instance, humans associate cats purring with contentment and dogs yelping with distress,' the authors said. However, it is not straightforward to map this information onto human emotional categories and there is a risk of anthropomorphising those species, they warned. 'An alternative approach is to examine mappings between vocalizations and behavioural contexts as an indirect route to inferring affective states.' Limited studies have attempted to do this and found humans are able to contextualise dog barks, cat meows and pig grunts. These were limited to domesticated animals distantly related to humans, so the Dutch team set about seeing if humans could classify calls from a closer relative. They took samples of chimpanzee calls in a range of contexts as the great ape species is one of the genetically closest living relatives to humans. 'We included chimpanzee vocalizations produced in a wide range of different positive and negative behavioural contexts at high, medium or low arousal levels.' Volunteers took part in two different experiments that tested their ability to identify and categorise chimp calls and the situations the apes were in at the time. One involved participants selecting the best of 10 unfamiliar behavioural categories for each sound they listened to - this wasn't very successful. For the second, the team moved to a simple yes or no system where listeners had to say whether the sound they heard matched a context they were shown. This second option was much more successful than the first experiment and led to the listeners accurately matching the sounds and situations. 'Given that listeners in our experiment had minimal prior exposure to chimpanzees, they are unlikely to have learned to decode chimpanzee vocalizations,' they wrote. Volunteers were particularly good at deciding when a chimp was eating high or low value food, when they discovered a large food source, were refused access to food, when they were being attacked or threatening an aggressive chimp or predator. They were particularly good at spotting highly aroused negative calls that could signal immediate or potentially dangerous situations. However, listeners weren't so good in all contexts. They failed to match sounds for copulation, being separated from mother, being ticked and seeing something scary. Volunteers took part in two different experiments that tested their ability to identify and categorise chimp calls and the situations the apes were in at the time Overall they were much better at spotting negative contexts than positive ones. The team say this could be because negative animal calls tend to come with a greater risk so we may have preserved that skill through evolution. 'Accurately mapping heterospecific vocalizations to behavioural contexts linked to affective states may draw on acoustic regularities that are conserved across related species,' the study authors claimed. Basically one particular species - say humans - has an inate, naturally ability to identify the mood and context for that mood for different species - chimps. For instance, African elephants can differentiate between threatening and nonthreatening human vocalisations, and Japanese sika deer uses the calls of the Japanese macaques when they discover a food source to locate fruit. 'Survival might be facilitated by the ability to recognize vocalizations produced in negative contexts not only by conspecifics, but also by members of other species. 'Indeed, cross-species eavesdropping on alarm calls has been suggested to increase chances of survival,' the study authors said. Thus, acoustic structure may have been preserved to a greater degree for negative as compared to positive vocalisations. The findings have been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Christopher Meloni will reprises the role of Elliot Stabler in a new series Law & Order: Organized Crime." 'One day, someday, when all this is over and those who survive to tell the tale to our grandchildren, the corona pandemic of 2020 will join cataclysms such as killer floods, communal bloodbaths, or a mass migration rising to Partition levels,' observes Sunil Sethi. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com As the first stirrings of life return to the streets, there is something hesitant, almost furtive, about the slow lifting of the lockdown. Cars are now visible from my window on an empty thoroughfare and -- my heart jumped at the sight -- even a bus or two. The popular bakery down the lane is open for business but you cannot enter: Like children, noses pressed to the glass questing for forbidden morsels, you point to a preferred loaf of bread -- though there isn't much choice. The chemist has resumed home deliveries but the stationer has pasted a notice announcing a three-day working week. In neighbourhoods like mine, all entrances and exits are shut, bar one that is monitored 24x7; the nearby basti, too, is practising a shutdown in its lanes: No thelas or vehicles allowed. I asked our garage mechanic how his children, who attend the municipal school, were managing lessons. "They were sent lockdown homework on my mobile and told to prepare." He broke into a grin before adding, "Prepare for exams, which may happen one day or never happen." One day, someday, when all this is over and those who survive to tell the tale to our grandchildren, the corona pandemic of 2020 will join cataclysms such as killer floods, communal bloodbaths, or a mass migration rising to Partition levels. As of this week, the country has crossed the 330,000 mark in infections. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says the city's hospitals are ready for an influx of COVID-19 patients, but medical practitioners such as Dr Ambarish Satwick, a vascular and endovascular surgeon at the Sir Gangaram Hospital, is among those to rip into the government's notions of prepared medical capacity or strategy. Dr Satwick's blunt but lucid arguments were initially aired on a WhatsApp neighbourhood group but, as a cautionary account, they have gone viral (to use that painful phrase). His prediction is that the epidemic is just about taking off in Delhi. 'At some point in early July (if not earlier), we're likely to observe a complete breakdown of our healthcare infrastructure, which means that hospitals in the NCR will run out of beds to treat Covid patients...' Easing the lockdown means 'your chance of getting infected today is 15 times more than what it was in the beginning of May. It will be a hundred times more by June-end. And there could be a second surge by September. Given the unpredictability of the virus, the plethora of statistics (floating like a parallel contagion) is fundamentally a form of roulette. Dr Satwick told me: "Mr Kejriwal's reservation of a percentage of beds in private hospitals is like a fatwa. A dedicated Covid hospital has to be fitted out distinctly from one for non-Covid patients." This is true as patients with other medical conditions have complained of being sidelined in the corona emergency. And there are certain conditions, such as women in labour, that cannot wait, says Dr Satwick, whose wife is a pediatrician: "What do you do about those?" My own need was minor, a dental problem that persisted through the lockdown. Relieved that the father-son practice I have patronised for 30 years had reopened, I entered another kind of clinic. The usually busy waiting-room was empty, disinfecting and PPE protocols were rigorously in force. Strips of blue barrier tape were stuck on door handles and armrests of dental chairs. "Don't forget we are dealing with saliva and blood in highly sensitive and contaminable areas. We can't be careful enough," young Dr Srijan Mehta explained. He has pared down his schedule to take only crucial cases due to curtailed staff and other restrictions. The weeks of incarceration have ineluctably changed all lives, and I asked Dr Mehta how they had changed him. He had become more philosophical and tried to reorder life to basic essentials. Friends and colleagues similarly speak of reappraising priorities and editing routines if they are fortunate enough to work from home. For some expenditure is cut down (on clothes, transport, and going out) and time, having acquired an elastic dimension, is available for reading, reflecting, or spending with loved ones. Simplification, is the word often used. Anachronistically, however, for many the exigencies of the lockdown have complicated lives. It has demolished taken-for-granted support systems and magnified uncertainties. Professionals unable to WFH, or with small children, or shorn of domestic help and endangered jobs, the worries have only begun. The worst-off are the multitudes, outside the safety net of the soldiering middle classes, that face interminable displacement and destitution. But the biggest contradiction of the coronavirus contagion is that it is both leveller and divider. As an affliction, it brooks no difference between divisions of region, class, rich, or poor. And yet it drives the wedge deeper between those with the wherewithal to ride it out and those on the margins unable to withstand its assault. Production: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com Last week, Uddhav Thackeray was forced to deny reports that Mumbai would be re-imposing a lockdown on June 15. The reports had made such an impact that all over the city, people were stocking up on goods and wondering whether they had made a mistake by resuming work too soon. In Delhi, where reports of a similar June 15 lockdown had also surfaced though they had not been as widely circulated as they were in Mumbai the health minister, and subsequently the chief minister, had to issue a similar denial. Heres the thing about these reports. They had not come from a single credible source. Nor had they been attributed to anyone in a position to either make that decision or to know the truth. They had not been carried in newspapers or on TV channels. Instead, they had come from Facebook and WhatsApp forwards. And on Facebook and WhatsApp, you dont need to quote anyone or provide any sources. People just tend to believe what they read on their phones. And even if they dont fully believe, it still nags away at them inside their heads. The WhatsApp news phenomenon is not new. WhatsApp has regularly been used by political parties and partisan groups to circulate photo-shopped pictures and false news. Riots have broken out as a consequence of WhatsApp forwards and people have been killed on the basis of fake news. But over the last few months, there has been an important escalation in the ability of social media not just WhatsApp but Facebook too to set the agenda. In the United States (US), Facebook posts have been used to stoke emotions and circulate bogus information in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Fortunately, this has led to a national outcry against Facebook in the US and a systematic debunking of the lies by TV channels and newspapers. In India, alas, we dont have the checks and balances that they have in the US. There was a time when TV news was interested in what was happening in India. It tried to tell the truth. Its stock in trade was facts, not emotions. Over the last few years, however, TV has lost interest in news. This is particularly true of many regional news channels, though most commentators only focus on the national Hindi and English channels. TV is a commercial medium so it makes sense to cut costs and increase revenues. Covering news costs money; so, many channels have settled for a low-cost formula of studio debates. The only major costs are the anchors remuneration and the studio expenses. In the old days, channels paid for camerapersons who went and shot debates with guests outside the studio. But now, with Zoom and Skype, the cost of getting the guests on air is virtually zero. In the 1970s, the media pundit, Marshall Mcluhan, wrote that while radio was a hot medium which could inflame sentiment (as Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill did when their speeches were broadcast on radio), TV was a cold medium better suited to reasoned analysis. We know now that he was completely wrong. Today TV is the hottest medium of all, used mainly to arouse emotions and create outrage or fear. It functions best when there is conflict in the studio and so it chases emotive issues rather than the real news. Not only does this keep costs down, it also raises revenues. The truth is that viewers like this sort of thing. It engages and entertains them and it doesnt matter if the content has all the credibility of a WhatsApp forward or even less. In such an environment, the one medium that still felt committed to provide real news was the newspaper. All over the world, newspapers are in trouble but the big ones have managed to survive, their commitment to the news intact. I had always imagined that something like that would happen in India. But Covid-19 may have changed all that. Though all research suggests that the virus does not survive for very long on paper (and there is research that suggests that it doesnt survive at all on newspapers), the great Indian middle class has taken it into its head that newspapers can be a major source of infection. In some states, governments have banned the circulation of newspapers. In other places, housing societies and residents welfare associations have banned them. Often, there is no need for any kind of ban. There are enough WhatsApp forwards suggesting that delivery boys are Covid-19 positive and that they might even pass on the virus deliberately. I know otherwise intelligent middle class people who believe this classist nonsense and have opted out of having papers delivered home. This has led to a situation where much of India gets no newspapers at all and gets no news from TV (because apart from a couple of channels, nobody cares about the news) either. The primary sources of information become social media platforms. Yes there are news websites but few of them have the impact that social media does. In essence, therefore, we risk becoming a society that never finds out whats really happening, that never knows what the news is, and is at the mercy of anybody who wants to plant fake news or lies on social media. There can be no democracy without truth. And there can be no truth without facts. And yet thats the situation India now finds itself in. I hope things will change once the pandemic passes. But by then it may already be too late. We will have become a society that is blind to reality and at the mercy of anyone who knows to manipulate social media. It is the surest way to smother democracy. The views expressed are personal SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON CLEVELAND, Ohio Over the two years that the United States fought in World War I, the nation suffered just over 116,500 military deaths. The COVID-19 coronavirus has eclipsed that death toll in four months. Tallies kept by Johns Hopkins University ticked past the World War I figure Tuesday evening. By Wednesday morning, the total registered 116,963 deaths. New Delhi: Disturbed by the loss of soldiers in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that the the sacrifice and bravery of the jawans will never be forgotten. He added that the nation stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the aggrieving families in their difficult hour. "The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of Indias breavehearts," Singh tweeted. On Wednesday, the minister reviewed the overall situation in eastern Ladakh with Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs. Last night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with Singh as well as Home Minister Amit Shah, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Army Chief General MM Naravane on the situation in the region. Military sources said at least four Indian soldiers were seriously injured in the clash. Monday's clash was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. The External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said the violent face-off between armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. The ministry said both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement arrived earlier at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday questioned Bindu Kapoor, wife of YES Bank founder Rana Kapoor, in realtion to the YES Bank case. Bindu Kapoor has been named as one of the accused in the case by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with Rana Kapoor, their three daughters and their three companies. Bindu Kapoor arrived at the Mumbai ED office located at Ballard Estate at around 11:30 am and was questioned for around three hours regarding funds worth around Rs 87 crore received by Rab Enterprises, a company owned by her. The funds were reportedly transferred to Rab Enterprises by Rana Kapoor from the Rs 600 crore loan received by a family-owned company from DHFL. The ED and CBI are probing alleged kickbacks received by Rana Kapoor for loans sanctioned by YES Bank to various borrowers which later turned into NPAs. Sources said the agency has also found another incriminating transaction reportedly between a company based in Chandigarh and a company owned by Bindu Kapoor that is under the scanner. Two daughters of Rana and Bindu Kapoor, who have also been named as accused in the YES Bank case, have told the ED that they had no knowledge about any quid pro quo or about the source of the initial investment in the companies owned by them. Last month, the ED filed charge sheet in the YES Bank case and named the lender's founder Rana Kapoor, his wife Bindu Kapoor, and daughters Rakhee, Radha and Roshni as accused along with three companies - Morgan Credit, Yes Capital and Rab Enterprises - owned by them. The charge sheet, according to sources, alleges that Roshni, Rakhee and Radha Kapoor and their mother Bindu were in cahoots with Rana Kapoor and helped him in laundering the proceeds of crime through the companies owned by them. Roshni Kapoor, Kapoors' youngest daughter, said in her statement to the ED that she was just 10 years old when Morgan Credit India Private Limited (MCPL) and YES Capital India Private Limited (YCPL) were set up in 2003-2004, sources told India Today. Both companies have been named in the accused list by the ED. Though she did provide details about other companies owned and controlled by her and her sisters, like Morgan Credit (MCPL) and Yes Capital (YCPL). Statement of Radha Kapoor, the second daughter of Kapoor, is similar to that of her younger sister Roshni. In her statement, Radha Kapoor had stated, "I am not aware of the initial investment in MCPL and YCPL. My father handles all business so he might know about it." The companies YCPL and MCPL are jointly owned by Rana Kapoor's daughters Radha, Rakhee and Roshni. In MCPL and YCPL, all three have 33.33 per cent share. Rakhee Kapoor's statement couldn't be recorded as she live outside India. The overseas properties owned by Rakhee are also under the agency's scanner and are suspected to be proceeds of crime. In its charge sheet, the ED has alleged that three daughters of Rana Kapoor were aware of the source of money and were hand in glove with their father. They had full knowledge and origin of the proceeds of crime and siphoned off money through multiple accounts of their companies, ED said. The ED findings indicate they were active participants in generation of proceeds of crime and were actually abettors in the crime and were involved in the laundering of the proceeds of the crime, a source said. ALSO READ: Yes Bank gets BSE, NSE approval for re-classification of promoter shareholding ALSO READ: Madhu Kapur, family withdraw case against Yes Bank ALSO READ: YES Bank case: Cox & Kings used fake customers to launder thousands of crores, says ED ALSO READ: Yes Bank case: ED raids five Cox and Kings premises in Mumbai The French praised the altruism of their prized textile and luxury goods companies when production facilities got diverted from churning out the latest fashions to making cloth masks designed to protect the general public from the coronavirus. Now, the companies that helped France avoid a feared shortage of virus-filtering face wear for everyday use say they need help unloading a surplus of 20 million masks. They asked the French government for assistance promoting and finding buyers for the unsold output of the industry's national effort. Hundreds of textile and clothing manufacturers answered the government's call for millions of masks superior to homemade versions. President Emmanuel Macron last month sported a military-tested model embroidered with the tri-color national flag to advertise the ``Made in France'' masks. Yet within weeks, demand dried up for the domestically produced masks that sold for a few euros at supermarkets and pharmacies or were available in bulk for free distribution by businesses and local governments. Manufacturers and the government acknowledged that many suppliers and consumers still opted for cheaper disposable face masks from Asia. ``We are faced with a lot of competition`` from countries with lower labor costs, said Thomas Delise, owner of Chanteclair, the knitwear manufacturer behind the mask Macron flashed during a school visit last month. In an interview with The Associated Press at his factory southeast of Paris, he called for trade barriers to large imports, and coordination within Europe to buy Europe-made masks. Guillaume Gibault, founder of trendy underwear brand Le Slip Francais (The French Brief), sees the slump as a marketing and distribution problem. The washable, specially engineered masks produced by his company and others saw ``a very strong and immediate demand'' before the excess accessories piled up in warehouses and factories. ``Not everyone necessarily knew about what was available around them, and the public didn't necessarily know where or what to buy,'' he told French public radio service RFI. Some textile companies complained that the French government was slow to validate their masks as effective in filtering out small particles, which slowed their ability to get to market before people were allowed to start emerging from their homes and needed masks in stores or on public transportation. A group of industry representatives got time with two junior government ministers this week to discuss the surplus masks, as well as broader concerns about the health of fashion, textiles and luxury goods makers amid the economic fallout of the pandemic and in the long term. After the meeting, the ministers pledged the government's help to spread the word to distributors, local governments and other potential customers about the environmental and employment benefits of the French masks and finding buyers at home and abroad for the surplus stock. Agnes Pannier-Runacher, state secretary to France's economy minister, told French broadcaster RTL that the government's objective ``is to convince large buyers to switch from single-use masks to reusable washable textile masks.'' Gibault and French Textile Industry Union President Yves Dubief agreed to lead the mission. ``In a few weeks, the French textile industry has managed to mobilize and redirect its productive apparatus on our territory in order to provide the French durable textile masks with guaranteed filtration in sufficient quantities,`` Pannier-Runacher said. ``This impressive effort is to be commended. It must now be long-term and be given support.`` The French Textile Industry Union was the first to sound the alarm in early June on this problem of surplus. ``The demand was such that no one had anticipated such a brutal halt. But in the textile industry, once launched, production does not stop with a snap of the fingers,'' Dubief told French magazine Challenges. Some French companies were disgruntled because it was the French government that urged many of them to get into mask-making and to increase capacity so the country would produce 5 million masks a day that could be sold or given to the general public, local governments and corporations by mid-May. The mask surplus is especially painful because France was so short of any kind of masks early in the pandemic that some nursing home and medical staff had no face protection at all. Those mask shortages are central to several lawsuits against the government of a country that has seen nearly 30,000 virus deaths. The French government said this week that part of the joint industry-government mission will be to help cloth mask-makers adjust ``production capacities to collective needs in masks over the next few months.'' At his textile factory, Delise said: ``We don't know how the pandemic will evolve. We don't know which instructions the government will give, we don't know what kind of equipment the professionals will want. So today, yes, we have a surplus stock of 600,000 masks and it obviously has an impact on my company.'' Search Keywords: Short link: For a better experience on our website and avoid any trouble, we strongly recommand to activate Javascript ( click here ). Hello and welcome to Journal des Palaces You are a communication or the PR manager? Click here You are an applicant? Check out our questions and answers here ! SHELBY TOWNSHIP, MI -- The Shelby Township Board of Trustees voted 5-2 Tuesday night to suspend Police Chief Robert Shelide for 30 days over comments he made on social media, according to Fox 2 Detroit. Along with the suspension, Shelide is required to complete various cultural awareness, counseling and training programs within 60 days. He will be suspended from June 17 until July 17 without pay. Shelide was placed on leave earlier this month after he published a series of tweets in which he referred to those protesting against police brutality as barbarians, wild savages and subhumans. The Twitter account Shelide used to make the comments has since been deleted. Prior to Tuesdays vote, Shelide made a statement justifying his tweets as a result of his anger toward what he was seeing on TV and that he bleeds blue. "When I saw the rioting it was deeply disturbing, I watched my brothers in blue beaten, shot, run over and this was going on in various locations across the country I was filled with anger and despair," Shelide said. He also denied being a racist and said none of the tweets mentioned race and that hes never been accused of racism during his career. I am not a racist. Shelide said. In my career as a law enforcement officer, I have (striven) to be fair, just and compassionate toward all people. My comments were driven by my heart and emotion, due to blatant criminal activity I was observing in the aftermath of rioting across this country. Shelide has been police chief since 2015 and previously worked as an officer in Detroit and Southfield. Township Supervisor Rick Stathakis argued for Shelide to be fired, saying the language used by the chief could influence other members of the department. Because of that, Stathakis said he didnt think Shelide should remain on the force, regardless of the apology. "I can personally appreciate Chief Shelide's remorse," Stathakis said. "Maybe one day he can reinvent himself. But not here, not now." The suspension penalty was suggested by Trustee Lynn Wilhelm who felt the chief would bounce back, while fellow Trustee Michael Flynn said he did not believe Shelide is a racist. Shelides comments came during a weekend of protests across the country in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. As news footage showed violence erupting across the country, Shelide promoted police brutality and even suggested he would kill protesters if he was on site. I wish to God I would have been there. Body bags for these vicious subhumans. Oh, on another note, I dare you to try and drag me out of my vehicle, read part of one tweet referring to protests in New York City. Trump threatening to deploy the military, read another tweet. I have a better idea: unleash the real cops and let them take care of these barbarians. I promise it will be over in 24 hours. By Finian Cunningham June 16, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - President Trumps favorite news channel Fox has been caught out falsifying protests in Seattle, giving the distorted impression that the city is overrun by armed anarchists. That conveniently set Trump off on a rant in which he threatened to send in military forces to take back the city from domestic terrorists. Trump and hawkish Republican figures have repeatedly toyed with the idea of sending the troops in to quell demonstrations that have engulfed the U.S. over the past month since the horrific killing by police officers of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. That has, in turn, led to an outcry that the president is attempting to violate the countrys laws by threatening to deploy federal troops to do policing work which would normally fall under the authority of the individual states. Trump is also accused of inciting violence by fomenting fears over national security, fears which are exaggerated given the generally peaceful nature of protests against police violence and racism. In a remarkable sign of the constitutionally explosive situation, the Pentagons top military commander General Mark Milley recently expressed regret about Trumps politicization of the nations armed forces. Other former military leaders have weighed in similarly. The tensions reflect tacit concerns that Trump is assuming dictatorial powers. Democrat presidential rival Joe Biden got in on the act by making an extraordinary statement in which he said that he was confident the Pentagon would intervene to evict Trump from the White House, if the incumbent tried to defy the electorate in November. Even the public contemplation of such a scenario seems a bizarre acknowledgement of how far things have gone awry in U.S. politics. Thats why Fox News fakery over the Seattle protests takes on an even more sinister aspect. Last week, the Murdoch-owned, pro-Trump channel published photoshopped images of armed protesters purportedly taking over Seattle. It also attributed scenes of burning buildings from previous unrest as if they were unfolding at the same time as the alleged armed insurrectionists. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Seattle, the most populous city in Washington state on the U.S. west coast, has seen a significant popular demonstration against police violence, whereby a downtown area has been declared a cop-free zone. The citys police decided to deescalate confrontation that erupted after the killing of Floyd, by unilaterally withdrawing from the precinct. Citizens have formed a Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). They are calling for defunding of the police budget and more spending on social services. The same demand has been made elsewhere by other cities and states. What the Seattle protest has dramatically shown is that heavy police power is not required for law and order to prevail. Most reports have characterized the Seattle civilian occupation as largely peaceful, multiracial and a manifestation of people power. Where it will lead to and what it will achieve in terms of policing in the future is anybodys guess right now. But already the Seattle citizens have won the argument that U.S. policing is out of control in terms of its militarized operation and use of excessive lethal force, especially against African-Americans and other minorities. Some 1,000 people are shot dead every year in the U.S. by police officers. The counter-narrative put out by Trump and his ilk is that defunding means scrapping police forces altogether and leaving the country at the mercy of criminals and anarchists. This fear-mongering paints an apocalyptic meltdown of American society. It is a favorite trope of elites and fascists whose depiction of society is one teetering on barbarian masses running amok, rather than trusting in the democratic cooperation between people to better organize society. Fox News was forced into making an apology and retraction for its deliberate falsification over events in Seattle after local paper, The Seattle Times, investigated the images. However, that admission did not stop Trump from telling his millions of followers on Twitter that Seattle was being ransacked by domestic terrorists. Addressing the city mayor and state governor, Trump fumed: Take back your city NOW. If you dont do it, I will. These ugly Anarchists must be stopped IMMEDIATELY. He may not have specified military force, but the implication is unavoidable. After all, Trump has previously threatened to send in combat troops to end other protests which he has also claimed have been orchestrated by Antifa (a loose network of anti-fascist activists). Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan hit back, advising Trump to go back to your bunker. She added: Its not terrorism. Its patriotism. We do not need anyone, including the president, to try to sow further divide, further mistrust and misinformation. Federal security organizations have found there is negligible involvement of Antifa in nationwide protests. The peaceful takeover of Seattles Capitol Hill is also not connected to such groups. There have been reports of an armed man appearing to be a protester in the city. Be that as it may, it is nowhere near reflecting the scenario painted by Fox and its most prominent subscriber of an armed insurrection and mob rule. Irony abounds. Trump has made fake news a signature soundbite as if he is the sole victim of it. He also has claimed that his presidency is in danger of falling to a coup plotted by the deep state. But the Seattle episode shows there is no bigger peddler of fake news than Trump and his Fox friends. And if they could get away with it, this White House would be ordering federal troops to round up civilians exercising their democratic right to protest against police violence. Trump is the one sailing close to a fascist coup. Russia has taken full control of Palmyra Military Airbase, making it the fifth military base in Syria reports Zaman Al-Wasl. Military sources told Zaman Al-Wasl that Russia has taken full control of Palmyra Military Airbase in the Syrian desert from regime forces, making it the fifth Russian military base in Syria. A Russian military delegation received the airport from a regime delegation headed by the commander of the 22nd Air Force Brigade, Maj. Gen Tawfiq Muhammad Khaddour in early June. The airport has been evacuated of all Iranian presence and all regime related military and logistical forces, a private source said. Russia started to reconstruct the airport with engineering and drilling equipment so as to remake it into a Russian military base capable of receiving Russian military and civilian planes and military troops. The base will be similar to the Hemeimeem base, and will be independent from any regime presence. According to the sources, it is still unclear whether the Russian military control is a long-term or a short-term agreement with the regime. The rehabilitation engineering operations carried out at the airport, however, indicate that the Russian military stay wont be short-lived. The source indicated that a large number of shields had already been brought to the airport and deployed in a way that is suitable for the Russian military and a civilian presence. Russias motive behind controlling Palmyra airport is military related. There is, however, a strategic motive having to do with using the airport for touristic purposes, especially since Palmyra includes some of the most important tourist sites in Syria and the whole middle east region, and since it is the only place with significant touristic infrastructure like the Palmyra Hotel. Russia wants to significantly expand its military bases in war-torn Syria, the Interfax news agency cited a government resolution as saying last May. President Vladimir Putin ordered his defense and foreign ministries to hold talks with Assads regime over obtaining maritime access in Syria, as well as further military facilities and additional real estate on land and at sea, according to DW. During the engineering preparation operations, the Russian forces found ancient historical monuments and have retained ownership of them, and the regime did not seek to prevent it. The Russian engineering forces had carried out excavation operations before, looking for monuments in Palmyra in 2017 and 2018 and had looted many of them, deporting them to Russia, the source said. Bashar al-Assads forces and Iranian militias had used the airport militarily and deployed L-39 helicopters and airplanes in September 2017, after quickly making the necessary changes during the summer of that year. The changes were mainly made by the regimes Airport Battalion with the assistance of civil engineering companies in cooperation with Russian engineering forces. Russian attack helicopters of various types, as well as a squadron of Iranian flying aircraft were temporarily put in place during battles in the countryside of Palmyra, Deir ez-Zor and Albukamal. 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. Are there any problems with your iPhone? Things like automatic restarting, screen turning black, iPhone stuck on Apple logo, or device won't turn on? If this is the case, don't worry. There are a lot of things (easiest and quickest) you can do to fix them in no time. Luckily, the doctor has arrived to help you. Annoying iPhone issues that you can EASILY fix in no time We all have our bad habits when it comes to our phones. When this happens, the tendency for the phone to malfunction can be a huge possibility. That's why Dr.Fone is here! (Photo : Dr.Fone ) Top iPhone Issues (And Easiest Quickest Ways How to Fix Them) Wondershare's Dr.Fone has already served millions of customers over time. As they termed, Dr.Fone is the 'complete mobile solution' for all iPhone users. It is a software that helps users to fix system issues on their devices using simple steps and responsible to recover ALL your data once the device breaks its system. But why the iPhone? Apple's iPhone (though top-notched brand) can experience a lot of system failures over time. To fix them, most of the time requires you to visit an Apple store or even spend huge bucks. Here are some of the common Apple iPhone problems that you may encounter. 1. iPhone black screen Did your iPhone just turn the black screen, without you intentionally turning it off? Looks like there's a problem. iPhone black screen happens when malware infects a device. It could also occur when you dropped your iPhone or accidentally soaked it in water. In any way, it is not a good thing. How to fix it iPhone black screen is never easy to fix. But you can do it through simple steps. Let's first start on installing Dr.Fone- System Repair on your Mac. Dr.Fone, an app that is solely responsible for fixing the iPhone, has one of the easiest and quickest ways to fix a black screen on the iPhone. As you install the app, go to the 'system repair.' (Photo : Dr.Fone ) Top iPhone Issues (And Easiest Quickest Ways How to Fix Them) Connect your iPhone to your desktop. Click on the 'Standard Mode' to start the process of repair. Answer basic questions about your iPhone and hit 'Start.' What's unbelievable with Dr.Fone is that it can fix your iPhone without you literally doing anything. Now, that's a win-win. 2. iPhone won't turn on Another common issue of users on iPhone devices is its power supply or difficulty of turning it on. Depends on the things you do on your device, iPhone 'won't turn on' results from a possible firmware issue. A problem with your charger cord could also be a possibility. Not only that, dropping your phone in water may result in hardware-related issues. Therefore, failing to reboot its system. How to fix it Dr.Fone suggests three possible steps to fix this iPhone system problem. First, charge your iPhone for a meanwhile. If you're lucky, charging your device would be the easiest way to fix a turned off iPhone. (Photo : Dr.Fone) Top iPhone Issues (And Easiest Quickest Ways How to Fix Them) Secondly, forced to reboot your iPhone. One of the first responses to fixing a device is to reboot its main system. For iPhones 8, 8 Plus, or X: Follow the steps on the image above. For iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, press altogether the keys for Power and Volume Down button. Keep pressing for 10 seconds. For older iPhones, long-press the power button and the home button. And also keep pressing it for 10 seconds until the logo starts to appear again. If the first and second steps won't still work to turn on your iPhone, you now need to use third-party software like Dr.Fone to help you. This app helps to fix common issues on iOS 12.3 update, so that includes the iPhone turn off. iPhone stuck on Apple logo If other people can't turn on the iPhone, others have difficulty removing the Apple logo on the screen. Getting stuck on the Apple logo on the iPhone might be the top irritating issue on the device. When this happens, no controls can be accessed. That's a problem. How to fix it Again, force restarting your iPhone could help you erase the Apple logo on your screen. If it doesn't, installing apps to fix it like Dr.Fone can be made, and you'll even be sure that your data won't be affected by the reboot. iPhone keeps restarting (Photo : Dr.Fone ) Top iPhone Issues (And Easiest Quickest Ways How to Fix Them) There are a lot of possible reasons why the iPhone keeps restarting. First, this may occur when you've installed a bad update on the device. Secondly, hardware issues due to water splash, or falling hard on the floor, are possibilities. Lastly, visiting unknown and illegal websites may contribute to this error due to malware attacks. How to fix it Unbelievably, force restart also ends the restart loop on your iPhone. This will fix the small issue on your restart loop that results in the problem. If that trick can't fix it, Dr.Fone also caters to reboot loop issues on its software. By using this app, the restart loop will end, and Dr.Fone will also recover all your data, just like nothing happened. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. CBD Women Caucus: Dialogue on CBD Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: Perspectives on Gender-responsive Biodiversity Plan and Actions by Mrinalini Rai June 17,2020 | Source: Women4Biodiversity In 2020 the Convention on Biological Diversity will adopt a post-2020 global biodiversity framework as a stepping stone towards the 2050 Vision of Living in harmony with nature. In its decision 14/34 the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a comprehensive and participatory process for the preparation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. An advice note and accompanying guidance material to enable a gender-responsive post-2020 process was welcomed by the Conference of the Parties, in decision 14/34, which urged Parties, the Secretariat and other relevant organizations to consider this advice in their processes on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The current Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which includes the 20 Aichi Targets, has a time frame until 2020. Therefore, the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15), to be held in 2021 in Kunming China (TBC), is expected to update the Conventions strategic plan (www.cbd.int/post2020) which could be done by adopting a new global biodiversity framework. CBD Post2020: https://www.cbd.int/conferences/post2020 CBD Post2020: A Gender-responsive Process : https://www.cbd.int/conferences/post2020/gender To contribute to the on-going process of the developing of the CBD Post2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, this Dialogue on CBD Post2020 Global Biodiversity Framework Process: Perspectives on Gender-responsive Biodiversity and Action Plan is to share, update, exchange and identify pathways in putting gender equality and womens empowerment in the heart of the discussion in the development of the CBD Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. CBD Women Caucus presents this dialogue to provide an open platform to share information on the work of gender considerations in the CBD Post2020 GBF in hopes in awareness raising on links to biodiversity and gender equality and womens empowerment. Women4Biodiversity 2020 Theme(s): Others. New Delhi, June 17 : After 20 Indian Army soldiers, including an officer, were killed in a violent clash with Chinese PLA troops in Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the Congress is out to corner Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The Congress is highlighting old videos and tweets of Modi and Rajnath prior to 2014 when the Congress-led UPA government was in power, and in recent days when BJP leaders were addressing 'virtual' political rallies. One video is of a rally of Modi in which he is seen saying that China has eyes on Indian territory and the weakness is not at the borders or in the army but in Delhi. Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala mockingly said "It's right that the problem is in Delhi and the PM is silent." The Congress also pointed to a tweet by then Gujarat Chief Minister Modi, using it to criticise the Prime Minister. "We wish to ask the Prime Minister, are you not weak? If indeed you are a strong government, the country needs proof of that," the Congress party tweeted, using the exact same words in a tweet by Modi on May 4, 2009. Congress has also used old videos of then BJP President and current Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to corner the government over the deaths of Indian soldiers in the clash. Congress has also lashed out the media for allegedly questioning the capabilities of the Indian Army as Surjewala said, it's "unacceptable" that the media was trying to implicate the Army rather than the government. "This is sacriligious and India won't accept the insult of our Army," tweeted Surjewala. The Prime Minister has called an all-party meeting on June 19 over the India-China border issue following the violent face-off with Chinese troops. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in a tweet on Wednesday said that the meeting will be held at 5 p.m. on June 19 in which issues related to the face-off between Indian troops and Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers in eastern Ladakh will be discussed. Gladys Berejiklian has slammed South Australia for lifting border restrictions on travellers from Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania - but not NSW. Residents of those states and territories are no longer required to quarantine for 14 days when they arrive in SA for business or holidays. But residents from NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT are still not allowed in. 'None of this makes sense to me,' Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Wednesday. Gladys Berejiklian has slammed South Australia for lifting border restrictions on travellers from Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania - but not NSW 'We are one nation. Yes, we comprise a number of states and each premier has led their state in a different way or taken a different approach, but that's no reason to have internal borders... I can't see the logic in it. 'I think it's crazy and I would hope all premiers remove their borders as soon as possible.' At this stage, SA plans to lift border restrictions related to NSW, Queensland and Victoria on July 20. However, it could be looking at an earlier date for Queensland. Ms Berejiklian has repeatedly expressed her displeasure with intrastate border closures - notably those of Queensland, which have caused problems for NSW border towns such as Tweed Heads. South Australia will let in visitors from Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania without quarantine from midnight. Pictured: South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula Border controls requiring 14-day quarantine will remain in place for visitors from the other states and the ACT. Pictured: Stokes Bay on the north coast of Kangaroo Island The NSW government, meanwhile, will from July 1 lift coronavirus-related guidelines on daily capacity across the public transport network to 1.3 million - up from about 875,000 but below the full 2.2 million capacity. The change means more people can jump on trains, buses and ferries than previously deemed appropriate, but Ms Berejiklian encouraged workers to keep staggering start times to avoid peak hour rushes. Buses and trains would continue to be cleaned at least three times daily. From July 1 a train will be able to carry 68 commuters per carriage, while 23 commuters can sit on a bus and 450 people can take a ferry. Regional NSW sale yards will also be back in business for both vendors and buyers, with restrictions eased on attendance numbers. NSW has recorded just one new COVID-19 case, prompting the premier to again criticise domestic border closures and The case recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm Tuesday involved an overseas traveller in hotel quarantine after 12,000 tests were carried out. Europeans also wonder whether the apps are placing nations on a slippery slope towards a new kind of surveillance state, or handing over too much power to foreign tech giants. In addition, there are the questions of how to reconcile national independence with Europe-wide interoperability. On Tuesday, the European Union announced its members had agreed to standards to allow their various apps to share data. The StopCovid app is displayed on a smartphone near Sacre-Coeur basilica in this arranged photograph in Paris, France. Credit:Bloomberg Such issues have not been limited to Europe and have been addressed variably around the globe. In Asia, nations like South Korea have used phone data and credit card activity to successfully track and contain infections. India has required its citizens to download an app. The United States has tended to rely on human tracers in efforts that remain patchy and limited. Italy has tried to finesse some of the thornier privacy concerns by making its app called Immuni, or Immune voluntary. What's more, the app is built on a platform developed in a rare collaboration between Apple and Google, who sided with privacy advocates concerned about how much data governments could collect, and limited Immuni's data-transmission capabilities. Loading Those restrictions and the voluntary approach may reduce the app's effectiveness but may also go some way towards assuaging public unease about state intrusion. Its creators hope the app will be used widely enough to play an important part in protecting public health. "It could be a tool with major impact," said Paola Pisano, Italian minister for technological innovation. "It depends on how it will be used." Initially, Italy had envisioned a centralised system that would send data about potentially contagious interactions to the government. But European sensibilities about privacy, and the meteoric arrival of Apple and Google into the debate, led it to reverse course. Some public health officials said that Apple and Google's design prioritises privacy at the expense of learning more about the disease, an unusual criticism for an industry more often accused here of gobbling up personal data for profit and power. Smartphones are playing a key role in tracking COVID-19. Credit:Bloomberg "This is a healthcare strategy in a global pandemic with thousands of deaths," said Cedric O, the junior minister for digital affairs in France, who is leading the development of the country's tracing app, StopCovid. It does not use Apple and Google's standards. "It is highly abnormal that you are constrained as a democratic state in your technical choice because of the internal policies of two private companies." Italian Technological Innovation and Digitalisation Minister Paola Pisano says 2 million Italians have downloaded the Immuni app so far. Credit:AP The apps built with Apple and Google limit what data can be collected about each reported infection, such as how long or how closely an infected person was in proximity to someone else. They also curtail a government's ability to perform deeper statistical analysis about a person's connections or to study the characteristics of a super spreader, said Christophe Fraser, an infectious disease expert at Oxford University's Big Data Institute, which has advised Britain, France, Germany and Italy on its tracing apps. Loading "Epidemiological insight is the information we need right now," he said. "We need it to prevent infection, to be able to resume our lives with a degree of normality and to save lives." Other governments have determined the privacy intrusion is not worth the potential benefits. In Norway, officials this week halted the use of its app after the country's data-protection authority raised alarms. Pisano argued that Italy struck the best balance possible for a country that "is not South Korea, and we are also happy that it isn't." She added that if Italy only had to consider health concerns, and not citizens' privacy, "military GPS gives me precision to 3 millimetres." But she also attributed Italy's about-face to what she said was its failure to integrate a centralised model with the operating systems on Apple phones, which tightly safeguarded privacy. She said Italy's goal of "inclusivity," and thus effectiveness, motivated the decision. She said it had the benefit of addressing privacy concerns, and potentially making the app more integrated with those of other European nations. Germany, she said, had taken some of Italy's code and consulted with Italian technicians. Germany's Corona Warn-App. Credit:Bloomberg "France has accepted to be less inclusive," she said. The French had different priorities, she said, including avoiding reliance on Silicon Valley: "For France it was more important to remain unattached to certain giants or to develop the app internally." In the meantime, she said Italy continued to negotiate with Apple to get as much data as possible for research, including about the quantity of infections in a given area. "They have to loosen up a little," she said. Navigating all these concerns has delayed the release of contact tracing applications across Europe. In Italy, myriad layers of Italian bureaucracy and regional opposition compounded delays, and as of this week, 2.7 million Italians in a country with a population of 60 million had downloaded Immuni. Pisano, reluctant to raise expectations, studiously avoided an official target number for downloads, though she said the government "had a calculation." She said that the real universe of potential users, when one subtracted those without access to the internet or those under the 14 years of age required to download the app, was about 30 million Italians. She said the government would begin a major advertising campaign this week to get the word out, knowing full well that Immuni's success depends on a critical mass of Italians downloading it. Fraser, who worked on earlier epidemics including SARS, said that even if slightly more than 10 per cent of a population used a tracing app, it could cut down on infections. He estimated that for every one to two users, one infection could be prevented. "We think that incremental benefit is really quite striking," he said. Luca Ferretti, an epidemiologist who also works at Oxford's Big Data Institute and advised the Italian government, raised a more fundamental concern: Italy and many other countries had not thought through how to manage a person who receives a notification through the app. He lamented that without widespread testing and a network of human tracers, the technology would be less effective. Some regions have not trained doctors how to use the app and respond to people who have received an alert. "Nobody factored in, once people have a notification, what should they do?" he said. Even if the app takes off, many experts consider it a poor substitute for contact-tracing boots on the ground. In Italy, mostly healthcare professionals, administrative staff and, if needed, people from veterinary public services can be employed in contact tracing. It is the year of the retail investor, and listed shipowners, like other public companies, have seen a wave of newcomers buy their stock. Shipowners are happy. They need all the buyers they can get to boost their tepid trading liquidity. Retail buyers of shipping stocks are not so happy. In the case of several tanker equities, retail enthusiasm appears to have been heavily countered by institutional selling. Diverging From Fundamentals Retail investors are getting a lot of ink, much of it negative. Famed Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig recently lamented that "swarms of willfully ignorant investors are day-trading their way through the pandemic ... computer algorithms pick up on such trades and pile in to ride the momentum ... in the old days, the little guy mimicked the big boys; right now, it may be the other way around." A central criticism of some retail investors with traders on the Robinhood platform getting the most press is a lack of focus on listed companies' fundamentals that can drive valuations away from those fundamentals. In ocean shipping, shares that become uncorrelated with freight rates exemplify this divergence. Evercore ISI analyst Jon Chappell commented in a research note on Monday, "As many shipping investors are all too aware, if the historically tight correlation of stock prices and spot rates breaks, it can be painful for both longs and shorts until fundamentals eventually return to relevance." Why VLCC Stocks Lag NAT Retail focus on the tanker sector has been primarily driven by the floating-storage thesis, which posits that tankers removed from transport service for storage duties will equate to higher spot rates for the tankers still available for transport. Floating storage most directly affects owners of very large crude carriers (VLCCs; tankers that carry 2 million barrels of crude oil). Ironically, analysts highlight Nordic American Tankers (NYSE: NAT) as the main benefactor of the "Robinhood effect" and NAT doesn't own VLCCs, it owns Suezmaxes (tankers that carry 1 million barrels). Story continues According to Chappell, "The correlation of NAT shares with Suezmax rates was extremely tight until right about the time that the floating storage' took hold, NAT was on CNBC, and Robinhood user ownership spiked. Spot rates have plummeted back to trough levels of late, yet the stock price has been somewhat resilient." (Chart: Evercore ISI) In follow-up comments to FreightWaves, Chappell explained, "There's an element of broader retail participation across the [tanker] group, especially as the floating-storage theme gained broader market attention, but NAT has been the outlier, by far, both from the holders on retail platforms and share-price performance. "NAT has outperformed [VLCC owners] DHT (NYSE: DHT), Euronav (NYSE: EURN) and Frontline (NYSE: FRO) by 29-37% year-to-date and by 66-73% over the last three months. Meanwhile, the Suezmax rate spike was shorter in duration and of lesser magnitude than the VLCC spike and that segment [Suezmaxes] now sits near 52-week lows while VLCCs are still making very good money." One reason the top VLCC equities didn't perform as well as NAT may relate to "the big boys" the institutional investors who are historically less attracted to NAT. "The institutional investor base was early to the VLCC names, either because they believed in the 2020 market fundamentals before coronavirus or they were quick to identify the floating-storage potential," said Chappell. "But just as rates were skyrocketing and retail was getting involved, institutions began fading the rally, so I think they put a lid on the VLCC upside through taking profits, whereas they rarely get involved in NAT, so there was no selling as Robinhood and his merry men were adding aggressively." Then the recovery of oil pricing spurred further selling by larger funds that had shares of VLCC owners more so than NAT. "Tankers were the only beneficiary of plummeting [oil] demand across energy, so funds were buying tankers to hedge other energy positions," said Chappell. "When energy began to rally, they sold the tanker positions." According to analyst J Minztmyer of Seeking Alpha's Value Investors Edge, retail investors were "attracted by the eye-popping daily rates and the primary stock of focus was NAT, which ironically was one of the most overvalued stocks. These retail investors absolutely had an impact on these stocks. NAT had record levels of daily volume about six weeks ago." Mintzmyer also saw institutional fund behavior counterbalancing retail. "We can argue that retail traders shot themselves in the foot a bit by trying to trade earnings' and keeping a hyper-focus on daily rates changes, while not really understanding or appreciating the long-term bullish value prospects. However, retail investors and traders at least stepped up to participate. "Institutions, on the other hand, have primarily stayed out of the sector. They loved it in December, but with COVID-19, there hasn't been much inquiry. Many of the hedge-fund types I've worked with have actually been trying to short the sector, not so much as a valuation play, but more as sort of Anti-Robinhood' because they've seen these waves come and go." Past, Present And Future Investors The retail-versus-institutional mix came up during a virtual panel on Monday presented by Marine Money. "You saw a steep increase in liquidity, the number of shares traded," recalled Lois Zabrocky, CEO of International Seaways (NYSE: INSW) of the initial wave of retail buying. "There was retail interest that was short-lived but there is also retail interest that is more long' and more interested in industry fundamentals. There was a tremendous amount of short-term interest that came in and went out of our shares very quickly, but there is still a reasonable component that is long-only.'" According to Craig Stevenson, CEO of Diamond International Shipping (NYSE: DSSI), "We started off with fast money, people trying to make a quick buck, but now it's like a sector rotation out of growth and into value. When you're playing with 50-cent dollars, there's a lot of value here." Jefferies shipping analyst Randy Giveans explained during the Marine Money event, "In March and April, the only questions people were asking were: What are the rates today? What are the floating-storage economics? All people cared about was today, today, today. "Now they're asking: What do rates look like in a quarter? At the end of the year? In 2021? People are starting to see a little further ahead. There's less of a myopic focus on things like intraday Brent moves, and more of a focus on supply-demand fundamentals which is probably healthier than just day-trading the rates." Mintzmyer told FreightWaves that retail money focused on tanker stocks "was mostly fast-money traders who sort of came and went between mid-March and mid-May without much regard for long-term fundamentals. "For tanker prices to appreciate meaningfully in the longer term, we need to see large funds come back to the space. Retail interest and traders will help at the margins and will improve liquidity, but cannot support stock valuations. This is evident in the average price-to-net asset value discounts of 30-40% or more across the board an obviously broken market, just due to not enough investors to buy available shares. There just aren't enough buyers with deep enough pockets out there." Click for more FreightWaves/American Shipper articles by Greg Miller Photo by Buro Millennial from Pexels. See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The coronavirus infection curve is not flattening, but turning in the worse direction in three southern US states which reported their largest daily increases in new cases Tuesday. Florida reported 2,783 new cases, Texas 2,622 and Arizona 2,392 in the last 24 hours, that are at par with the numbers reported in mid-March in New York, the worst-affected state. These are the states which eased lockdown restrictions to help boost their economies. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denied claims that the rise in cases was being caused by businesses reopening. At a news conference, the governor attributed it mainly to an increase in testing across the state. 'We're not shutting down. You have to have society function', he told reporters. Cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in at least 20 states, where people, fed up with lockdown, criticize and ignore public health recommendations while officials want to restart the economy. Overall, after five days' lull, a daily uptick in new coronavirus cases and deaths was recorded in the United States. With 739 new deaths reporting in the last 24 hours, the total death toll in the country rose to 116,963, as per Johns Hopkins University's latest update on Wednesday. This is almost double the number of COVID-related casualties reported in the previous day. With 23047 cases reporting in the last 24 hours, the total number of cases in the country increased to 2137731. This is nearly 5000 more than the number of infections reported in the day before. New York (30909 deaths, 384575 infections), New Jersey (12792 deaths, 167426 infections), Michigan (6034 deaths, 66269 infections), Massachusetts (7664 deaths, 105885 infections), Louisiana (3042 deaths, 47706 infections), Illinois (6398 deaths, 133639 infections), Pennsylvania (6276 deaths, 83978 infections), California (5200 deaths, 158961 infections), Connecticut (4210 deaths, 45349 infections), Texas (2049 deaths, 93569 infections), Georgia (2529 deaths, 59078 infections), Virginia (1570 deaths, 55331 infections), Maryland (2982 deaths, 62409 infections), Florida (2993 deaths, 80109 infections), Indiana (2447 deaths, 40786 infections), Ohio (2599 deaths, 42010 infections), Colorado (1617 deaths, 29427 infections), Minnesota (1344 deaths, 30882 infections), Arizona (1228 deaths, 39185 infections)and Washington (1231 deaths, 26531 infections) are the other badly affected U.S. states. Meanwhile, Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, told NPR that he hasn't spoken with President Donald Trump in two weeks regarding the pandemic. In contrast to public health experts' stand, Trump predicted the United States will develop a vaccine and cure for the deadly disease by the year-end. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has released criteria for the use of Covid-19 testing in the travel process. Should governments choose to introduce Covid-19 testing for travellers arriving from countries considered as high risk, testing must deliver results fast, be able to be conducted at scale, and operate to very high rates of accuracy. Additionally, testing must be cost-effective and not create an economic or logistical barrier to travel. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) published Takeoff guidance which is the global guidance for governments to follow in reconnecting their people and economies by air. Takeoff outlines layers of measures to mitigate the risk of Covid-19 transmission during air travel and the risk of importation of Covid-19 via air travel. Covid-19 testing should not be a necessary condition for re-opening borders or resuming air services. Technology for rapid point-of-care Polymerized Chain Reaction (PCR) testing could be a useful layer of protection for travellers from countries considered as higher risk, potentially removing the need for more burdensome and intrusive measures such as quarantine which is a major barrier to travel and the recovery of demand. Airlines are committed to reducing the risks of Covid-19 transmission via air travel and Covid-19 testing could play an important role. But it must be implemented in line with ICAOs global re-start guidance with the aim of facilitating travel. Speed, scale and accuracy are the most critical performance criteria for testing to be effectively incorporated into the travel process, said Alexandre de Juniac, Iatas Director General and CEO. As part of the travel process, Covid-19 testing would need to be conducted by trained public health officials and meet the following criteria: Speed: Testing results should be delivered quickly, with results available in under an hour as the minimum standard. Scale: If testing takes place at the airport, testing capacity of several hundreds of tests per hour must be achievable. The use of saliva for taking samples rather than nasal or throat swabs would facilitate this and would also be expected to reduce time and improve passenger acceptance. Accuracy: Extremely high accuracy is essential. Both false negative and false positive results must be below 1 per cent. Where does testing fit in the travel process? Ideally Covid-19 testing would be required in advance of arrival at the airport and within 24 hours of travel. Passengers arriving ready-to-fly reduces the risk of contagion in the airport and enables early re-accommodation for any traveller who tests positive. If testing is required as part of the travel process, it is recommended at departure. Governments would need to mutually recognise test results and data transmission should take place directly between passengers and governments in a similar manner as e-visa clearances are currently handled. Any testing requirements should only be in place for as long as necessary. To ensure this, regular evaluations should be conducted. Who should pay? Cost is an important consideration. Testing should facilitate travel and not provide an economic barrier. With testing at some European destinations costing in excess of $200, this is a real concern. Iata supports the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations which requires governments to bear the costs of mandatory health testing. Where a test is offered on a voluntary basis, it should be charged at cost price. What happens when someone tests positive? Ideally testing takes place prior to travel or at the point of departure and a positive result would mean that the passenger could not travel as planned. In this case, airlines have been offering flexibility to consumers. This includes re-booking or refunds in line with the airlines commercial policy. Many airlines are offering the same flexibility to passengers who suspect that they have symptoms consistent with Covid-19 as well as members of the same traveling party, particularly when they are members of the same household. If testing is mandated on arrival and a passenger tests positive, then the passenger should be treated according to the requirements of the receiving State. Airlines should not be required to repatriate the passenger(s) or punished with financial penalties such as fines or through operational penalties such as the withdrawal of the right to operate in the market. - TradeArabia News Service On Monday, June 22, at 16.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host an online conference on the subject: "Economy of Ukraine between Future and Past: Innovative Power Economy or Coal Preferences". Participants include Deputy Director of the Situations Modeling Agency Oleksiy Holobutsky and Director of the Situations Modeling Agency Vitaliy Bala (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Admission requires press accreditation. A Republican candidate who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory faced criticism on Wednesday from members of her own party for making a series of offensive remarks about blacks, Jews and Muslims in Facebook videos. The candidate, Marjorie Taylor Greene, captured more than 40 percent of the vote in a crowded primary for the 14th Congressional District in Georgia on June 9 and has a strong chance of winning a House seat this fall. Ms. Greene will face the second-place finisher, John Cowan, in an Aug. 11 runoff, the winner of which is widely expected to prevail in the November general election in the conservative northwest Georgia district. Mr. Cowan, a physician, won about 21 percent of the vote in the primary. For the last decade, the seat has been held by Representative Tom Graves, a Republican, who announced last year that he was retiring. With its entire lineup on showcase at the Auto Expo 2020, chinese automobile major Great Wall Motors Co. Ltd (GWM) had confirmed its intentions to enter the Indian market. Now, the company has committed a gigantic investment towards the same, to the amount of $1 billion. Around Rs 7,600 crore worth of investment will be put in by GWM for its upcoming business in India. For this, the carmaker has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra government for the investments. In Maharashtra, the company plans to acquire American carmaker General Motor's existing manufacturing unit in Talegaon. Located near Pune, GWM has shown interest in the plant since January this year and will be investing the $1 billion amount in a phased manner to acquire as well as upgrade it. The plant will be equipped with the latest world-class technology and along with the research and development (R&D) center in Bengaluru will generate employment for over 3000 people in phased manner," GWM said in a statement. GWM Haval SUV (Image: GWM) With this acquisition, GWM will have a well equipped plant to kickstart local production as soon as possible. The 300-acre Talegaon plant is believed to have an established supply chain belt, availability of skilled manpower and a proximity to the Mumbai port and high-speed expressway. All this amounted to an installed annual capacity of 1,65,000 vehicles and 1,60,000 engines when the plant was operational under GM. The MoU was signed by James Yang, president, GWM India, Parker Shi, managing director at the company and Subhash Desai, Maharashtra industries minister. Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray and Sun Weidong, Chinese Ambassador to India also attended the virtual event. GWM is expected to launch its Haval SUV brand in India soon. Out of its SUV lineup showcased at the Auto Expo 2020, the brand will be launching H4 SUV in India by 2021 to compete with the likes of Hyundai Creta and MG Hector. Once the H4 is out, the bigger models are expected to make an entry into the countrys market. GWM, however, is not limited to the makes of SUVs through its Haval brand. Alongside, it has the new-energy vehicle division called ORA, which is the maker of the worlds cheapest electric car, called the ORA R1. You can have a look at the interesting urban electric car in the video below. Zenith Energy has announced its participation, in the capacity of technical and financial partner to a Nigerian registered energy company, in the 2020 bid round for marginal oil and gas fields organised by the Nigerian Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). On 1 June 2020, the DPR announced the launch of a new a bid round for a total of 57 marginal fields covering a selection of onshore, swamp and shallow-offshore fields. Under the guidelines provided by the DPR a marginal field is defined as any field that has been discovered and has been left unattended for a period of not less than 10 years from the date of first recovery, or any such field as the President of the Nigerian Federal Government may, from time to time, identify as a marginal field. Zenith Energy is progressing in negotiations, first announced to the market on 2 March 2020, with an international oil major in order to provide funding for Zeniths development objectives in Africa in the form of an offtake agreement. Further, the company has also entered into negotiations with two pan-African financial institutions for a loan facility that will be used to fund the acquisition and development of Zeniths growing portfolio in West Africa. Andrea Cattaneo, CEO, commented: Zenith has had ambitions to establish a presence in Nigeria for a number of years. The launching of the 2020 Bid Round for marginal fields, which has not happened since 2001, represents an exceptional opportunity for the company and its Nigerian partner to acquire an underdeveloped, potentially transformational oil production and exploration asset in the current low oil price environment. Among the 57 marginal fields included in the 2020 Bid Round, there are specific assets which are particularly appealing to Zenith, especially on account of their compatibility with our development objectives. Indeed, the near-term production potential of certain assets is expected to facilitate the achievement of financing agreements to support our expansion. We expect the potential award of a marginal field, following the 2020 Bid Round process, to happen within 6 months of bid submission. Source: Oil Field Technology The Department of Telecom is set to ask state-owned telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) not to use Chinese equipment in the upgradation of its 4G faculties, which is being supported as part of the company's rehabilitation package. Government sources said the department has been asked to rework the tender in this regard. The sources said a similar message will be conveyed to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL). The department is also actively considering taking steps to ask private mobile service operators to speedily reduce their dependence on China-made equipment. The network security of equipment made by Chinese companies are always raising questions about security, added the sources. The move came in the aftermath of violent clashes on Monday night between the armies of India and China, which left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead in Ladakh's Galwan valley. This was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while more than 300 Chinese army personnel were killed. The standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh has stirred anti-China sentiments in India, with protesters and trade bodies like CAIT calling for a boycott of Chinese products. Earlier on Wednesday, Chinese handset maker Oppo cancelled the livestream launch of its flagship 5G smartphone in the country amid protests calling for the boycott of Chinese products in various parts of the country. Oppo, which ranks among the top five smartphone vendors in India, had said it will livestream the launch of its Find X2 smartphone on Wednesday via YouTube. However, the livestream was cancelled later on, and the company instead uploaded a pre-recorded video. Four of the five top smartphone brands in India (Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo) are from China and accounted for almost 76% share of smartphones shipped in India in the quarter ended March 2020. South Korea's Samsung, which ranked third and cornered 15.6% share of shipment in the said quarter, is the only non-Chinese firm in the top five tally. Lieutenant General Deependra Singh Hooda (retired) had last year said it was time India replaced foreign hardware, particularly from critical infrastructure, and had said that BSNL has 60% Chinese dependency. "I think it's time that we need to move towards greater indigenisation, and the government has a policy that preference be given to indigenous products in IT. But I think this policy needs much greater strengthening," he had said. (With inputs from PTI) The Woodlands Township Board of Directors is scheduled to hear a report on law enforcement Thursday, including updated statistics on suicides and attempted suicides in the township. A total of 31 suicides or attempted suicides have been reported in the township since Jan. 1, including 12 in the month of March. Township board member Ann Snyder, who is one of several directors to have expressed distress over the rising suicide and attempted suicide numbers in The Woodlands the past three years, said the issue still needs the close attention of all residents, from elected officials to family members and medical and mental health providers. Snyder stressed to residents that, Its OK to say Im not OK. On HoustonChronicle.com: Suicide prevention efforts continue in Montgomery County and The Woodlands The behavioral health of our community is always of concern but with our current pandemic it is even more important and of greater concern. People are struggling. Our task force under the leadership of Judge Wayne Mack seeks to raise awareness and to encourage those affected to seek help, Snyder said. The number of attempted and actual suicides is higher than normal and I attribute that to the pandemic as well other current crisis in our world. The COVID-19 pandemic, Snyder said, has sadly affected individuals in many ways financially and interpersonal relationships such as an increase in child and spousal abuse. Social distancing is difficult for many, especially in self isolation. COVID-19 has greatly upset our world, she added. Many people are having to cope with anxiety and problems that they have never before encountered. Statistics steady Montgomery County Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Judge Wayne Mack, who has been instrumental in the creation of the Montgomery County Behavioral Health and Suicide Prevention Task Force, said he tracks statistics for all of Montgomery County and not geographic specific areas such as The Woodlands. More Information Need help? National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 24-hour-a-day help line with counselors at 1-800-273-8255 or via text message: text TALK to 741741 Mosaics of Mercy, 33300 Egypt Lane, Suite K300, Magnolia, Telephone: 346-703-0051. Online at: https://mosaicsofmercy.com/ Licensed Professional Counselor Carolyn Robistow, https://joyeffectcounseling.com/ Tri-County Behavioral Healthcare: http://www.tricountyservices.org/ Phone hotline: 1-800-659-6994 See More Collapse He reported that county-wide in 2019, from Jan. 1 to May 27, there were 45 adult deaths by suicide and five juvenile or minor deaths by suicide. For the same time period in 2020, Mack said the county statistics were 44 adult deaths by suicide and only one child or minor death by suicide. In The Woodlands, according to Montgomery County Sheriffs Office statistics, there have been a total of 31 deaths by suicide or attempted suicides from Jan. 1 through May 31, 2020. Compared to 2019, there was a slight increase in both categories, with 26 total suicides or attempted suicides. In the month of March of 2019, there were three total suicides or attempts. In 2018, a high of 41 attempted suicides or deaths by suicide were reported from Jan. 1 through May 31. According to (American Foundation Suicide Prevention), they state (that) for every one death by suicide, there are 25 suicide attempts nationally, but that is a reported-only number, we need keep in mind the unreported numbers that are there as well, Mack said in an email. This is a below the normal number compared to the past seven years. We generally have had a 10 to 15 percent increase each year during this same time frame. Stress and wellness In regard to the possible reasons for death by suicide or attempts, Mack said officials believe only two of the suicide deaths were possibly related to COVID-19 issues, whether testing positive or general stress created by the pandemic. Of course, there is no way of really (knowing) what the triggers are, unless the person that dies by suicide leaves some kind of note or information indicating a cause, Mack explained. The issue of mental health and wellness as well as suicide prevention and awareness has become a much larger focal point for regional officials, from doctors and therapists to elected officials and religious leaders. Mack had led an effort to host a Community HELP Expo on May 19 in Conroe, but the event was postponed due to the pandemic. The conference featured a focus on mental health and offered a variety of educational panels and speakers. No new date has been planned. Related: UPDATE: Suicide prevention task force postpones Community H.E.L.P. Expo I feel during the unprecedented time we have learned many things about ourselves as a community and have been reminded of how important it is for us to stay connected with our friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and ask each other, Are you OK? Everyone in crisis needs to know they are not alone, Mack said. In our county, we have many resources available for rent and food assistance, mental health services and the national hotline is available (24 hours a day, seven days a week) at 1-800-273-TALK for everyone having feelings of suicide. You are never alone, no matter what your feelings say, you are never alone. jeff.forward@chron.com The present problem centres on the 8-km road that the Chinese built between Fingers (as spurs are termed) 8 and 4 on Lake Pangong Tso, in effect unilaterally shifting the LAC in Chinas favour While the situation along Indias borders with China may be under control now, as the Army chief, Gen. M.M. Naravane, claimed recently, the choice of a rising star of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army to head the Western Theatre Command is reason for wariness. Not much is known in this country about 57-year-old Lt. Gen. Xu Qiling, whom President Xi Jinping handpicked for the job in the midst of the standoff in Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control. Despite both the humiliating defeat India suffered in 1962 and Prime Minister Narendra Modis assiduous courtship of President Xi, Indians by and large do not have much interest in or knowledge of China. This became glaringly obvious during President Xis 2014 visit to India when a Doordarshan newsreader called him President Eleven, mistaking Xi for Roman numerals. Another aspect of this negligence is that the Indian armed forces seem constantly to be caught napping. Chinas surreptitious construction of the 2,342-km Aksai Chin road between 1951 and 1957 was an astonishing instance. So was Indian unawareness about the Pakistani infiltrators at Kargil in 1999. The present problem centres on the 8-km road that the Chinese built between Fingers (as spurs are termed) 8 and 4 on Lake Pangong Tso, in effect unilaterally shifting the LAC in Chinas favour. If Beijing is preparing to play hardball, Gen. Xu, who is also responsible for Xinjiang, Tibet and the PLAs military cooperation with Pakistan, may be the right man. He was chief of staff of the former 54th Army Corps, an elite fighting force involved in supressing the 1959 Tibetan uprising as well as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. Indias territorial disputes with China in three Himalayan regions cover more than 120,000 sq km at altitudes of up to 4,300 metres. The eastern sector, of about 90,000 sq km, corresponds roughly to Arunachal Pradesh, which the Chinese claim and call Southern Tibet. The central or middle sector, west of Nepal, is the smallest contested area at about 2,100 sq km, and is almost entirely under Indian control. China surreptitiously encroached on the 38,000 sq km western sector covering the Aksai Chin plateau (eastern Ladakh) and several districts in Xinjiang in the 1950s. There is also the 5,180 sq km chunk of Occupied Kashmir that Pakistan ceded to China in 1963. Despite the seven-hour June 6 meeting between Lt. Gen. Harinder Singh, 14 Corps commander, and Chinas Maj. Gen. Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region, the tussle for spurs and summits, roads and waterways continues. The agreement to keep talking at the brigade and battalion commander level gives no clue to Chinas long-term intentions. But specific physical features of the Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso lake can hardly be ends in themselves. They are bound to be aspects of a bigger long-term strategy that demands the leadership of a politically attuned ground and air military expert like Gen. Xu. A former PLA air force commander, Gen. Xu has worked in four of the five theatre commands and was one of the younger generals to be promoted to lieutenant-general last year. The previous year he was sent to 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. President Xi, who is also chairman of the all-powerful Central Military Commission, which is the PLAs high command, merged the 54th Corps he commanded with the 83rd Army Corps in a 2015 military overhaul. His predecessor, 63-year-old Gen. He Weidong, is expected to retire after his less arduous current posting in the Eastern Theatre Command. Managing sensitive border areas like restive Xinjiang and the Tibet autonomous region, whose stability is never to be taken for granted no matter what the Chinese might claim, calls for a younger and more vigorous man who can lead frontier soldiers and officers. The rugged terrain, high altitude and harsh climate make it a hard environment where even young people can age prematurely. The challenge also calls for someone familiar with joint ground and air operations. According to Song Zhongping, a Hong Kong-based commentator: 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. The latest tensions have further fuelled the buildup of troops and weapons with the PLA stepping up advanced arms testing and training at high altitude. Gen. Xus new position is seen as a test. If he handles the China-India border disputes to President Xis satisfaction, he will very likely be promoted to the PLAs ground force headquarters, or even higher. What will satisfy President Xi is anybodys guess. Chinas condescending attitude to India was reflected in President Liu Shao-chis remark that China was a great power and had to punish India once. However, Mao Zedong seemed to support those, including the British-Australian writer, Neville Maxwell, who argue India forced hostilities on China in 1962. Describing his fights with nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, Japan and the United States, Mao had reportedly said, During none of these did we fear. And in each case, we won. Now the Indians want to fight a war with us. Naturally, we dont have any fear. We cannot give ground; once we give it would be tantamount to letting them seize a big piece of land equivalent to Fujian province. [] Since Nehru sticks his head out and insists on us fighting him, for us not to fight with him would not be friendly enough. Courtesy emphasises reciprocity. Chairman Maos mocking tone confirms what Jawaharlal Nehru saw as Chinas Middle Kingdom complex. It was earlier evident in the Qianlong emperors rebuff of the Macartney mission. Whether or not China wants any further Indian territory, it probably does seek a less pro-American Indias acknowledgement of the global status to which it feels entitled. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is considering a mandate that businesses require their customers to wear masks after Gov. Greg Abbott gave his blessing to a similar rule issued in Bexar County on Wednesday. Abbott effectively gutted Hidalgos original mask order issued in late April, which required residents to cover their faces in public to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, when his own executive orders for reopening Texas barred cities and counties from enforcing such rules with any penalties. The governor stunned many political observers Wednesday when he said in a television interview that a mask order punishable by fines, proposed by Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, was permissible. The difference, Abbott explained to KWTX in Waco, was that Wolffs order only applies to businesses. "Government cannot require individuals to wear masks, Abbott said. However, pursuant to my plan, local governments can require stores and business to require masks. Abbott said local leaders always had the power to issue such an order, and said Wolff had finally figured that out. Hidalgo, who has touted a strong relationship with Abbott during the pandemic, declined to say whether the governor had at any point told her that a local mask order was possible. She said Wednesday she was pleased by Abbotts remarks; her office is working with the county attorney on a potential Harris County order. If this is an option, were absolutely going to run it down, Hidalgo said, adding that in the meantime, residents should be wearing masks when social distancing is not possible. Hidalgo County also issued a new mask order, while leaders in Travis and Dallas counties are exploring their options. In Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, businesses by Monday must require masks for customers or risk a $1,000 fine. The order expires June 30. Abbott said April 27 that no person should be punished for failing to wear a mask, and issued an executive order eliminating the ability of local officials to enforce face covering rules. Hidalgos mask order drew significant pushback from Republicans. Abbotts surprise approval of the Bexar County rule with its potential penalties is an example of how he has sought to balance the desires of pro-business conservatives to revive the Texas economy and those of medical experts who warn doing so too quickly risks catastrophe, said Rice University political science Professor Mark Jones. Most mayors and county judges believed Abbotts reopening plan prevented them from requiring masks in their jurisdictions, Jones said. When Wolff forced his hand, Jones said the governor reprised the role he played at the beginning of the pandemic, leaving potentially unpopular decisions to local officials. Hes letting the Democratic municipalities, including some Republican ones like Fort Worth, adopt more stringent measures if they wish, Jones said. This goes back in some ways to March, when he allowed local governments to be the ones seen as putting the brakes on commerce. Abbott and local leaders face intense pressure to halt a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations since Memorial Day. The Houston region set a new hospitalization record for the sixth straight day on Wednesday with 1,458 admitted with the virus. The Texas Medical Center warned that if the rate of new COVID patients contunes to increase, the system could exceed ICU capacity in two weeks. The region added 856 cases and 9 deaths on Wednesday. Abbott said at a news conference Friday that he was concerned but not alarmed about the surge, noting the state still had ample hospital capacity. The mayors of the largest Texas cities, including Sylvester Turner in Houston, wrote a letter to Abbott on Tuesday urging him to order residents to wear masks, or allow local leaders to do it themselves. Turner on Wednesday said Hidalgo called to seek his thoughts on the prospect of a new mask order shortly after Abbott gave his blessing to the Bexar County mandate. The mayor said he certainly would entertain requiring businesses to mandate face coverings, and he said Bob Harvey, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, backed the idea too. Certainly the Greater Houston Partnership here, the business community that would be directly impacted, they are supportive of similar types of policies, Turner said of the Bexar County order. And I would not be surprised if something similar does take place in this region as well. If such a measure is imposed in Houston and Harris County, Turner said he would direct police officers to distribute masks and avoid issuing fines, the same approach he took when Hidalgo issued her first mask order. It was working then. People were coming out to the mask distributions and they were asking for those masks. And it would be the same approach now, Turner said. Its amazing, just knowing that they were required to have one, they were coming to get one. But once that requirement was gone, they stopped coming. The mayor declined to say whether his interpretation all along was that Abbott would allow local authorities to impose mask requirements on businesses but not individuals, joking that he was not going to take that bait. Earlier, however, he called Abbotts sanctioning of Wolffs order a modification of the governors stance from Tuesday. The role of Abbott and local leaders has shifted since the pandemic came to Texas in March. At first, the governor delegated the response to city and county officials. Hidalgo in mid-March issued restrictions for bars and restaurants and then a stay-at-home order a week later; Abbott followed with statewide stay-at-home rules. The governor took control of the pandemic by reopening Texas businesses beginning May 1, in a series of executive orders that supersede local rules. Until Wednesdays revelation that mask orders were allowed, if aimed at businesses instead of individuals, city and county officials had little power of their own to implement measures against the virus. Abbott said as recently as Friday that while residents should wear masks, the government should not require them. Reporter Joshua Fechter contributed to this story. zach.despart@chron.com jasper.scherer@chron.com The UK's new polymer 20 note, which recently entered circulation, is made by De La Rue. (Leon Neal/WPA Pool/Getty Images) Embattled passport and banknote maker De La Rue (DLAR.L) said on Tuesday that the UKs Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had concluded a year-long probe into suspected corruption relating to its business in South Sudan, and will take no further action. De La Rue is pleased that the SFO has closed its investigation and that the SFO is taking no further action in respect of this matter, the company said in a statement. In a separate statement, the SFO said that, after an extensive investigation and a thorough and detailed review of the available evidence, the case did not meet the test for prosecution. In July 2019, De La Rue disclosed that the SFO had opened the probe into its affairs in South Sudan. In 2011, the firm spent six months designing and manufacturing the countrys new currency. READ MORE: UK employers have slashed 600,000 staff since March De La Rue has been at the centre of several probes by the SFO, including a 2010 investigation into the falsification of banknote quality certificates by employees. It is the largest commercial printer of passports in the world, and has designed around a third of the banknotes in circulation globally. The South Sudan probe was just one of a number of setbacks for De La Rue in recent years. The company, which has issued a series of stark profit warnings, last year lost the contract to print UK passports. French-Dutch competitor Gemalto was picked for the 10-year, 490m contract. The government later said that Gemalto would also manufacture the post-Brexit blue passports. READ MORE: European stocks surge after US Federal Reserve move calms markets Former chief executive Martin Sutherland demanded that then-prime minister Theresa May visit the companys factory to outline why her government made the decision to offshore the manufacturing of the British passport. Under new chief executive Clive Vacher, the company in February unveiled an extensive three-year cost-cutting plan, noting that it hoped to save 35m ($45m) per year from the second half of its current financial year. De La Rue said that it was targeting cost savings in its currency division. The company, which prints Bank of England banknotes, designed the polymer material and technology used in the new 20 note featuring artist JMW Turner. As tourism slowly resumes around the world after suffering months of lockdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many nations are still reluctant to open their borders completely. However, Cambodia has imposed perhaps the toughest entry requirements of any country. The south-east Asian country is one of the most popular tourist sites, renowned for the UNESCO-listed temple complex at Angkor Wat. In its latest bulletin, the Foreign Office of Cambodia (FCO) stated that foreign travellers must pay a $3,000 deposit as COVID-19 service charges at the airport upon their arrival. This coronavirus deposit can be paid in cash or by credit card. The FCO further said that after deductions for services have been made, the remaining deposit will be returned. But those deductions may be exorbitant, especially if another passenger on the same flight happens to test positive for Coronavirus. READ | PM Modi, Cambodian Leader discuss COVID-19; Agree To Continue Ongoing Cooperation Break up of the coronavirus deposit Mandatory fees begin with a $5 charge for transport from the airport to a testing centre. The COVID-19 test itself costs a $100. The traveller must then pay $30 for an overnight stay at the specified hotel or waiting centre, and the same again for three meals a day while waiting for the test results. With this, the traveller will have spent just $132 of the amount deposited. They will then have to self-isolate for 14 days in their desired accommodation. In case a passenger on their flight tests positive for coronavirus, everyone on that flight will be quarantined in government-approved accommodation for two weeks. This would cost the traveller $1,176 including meals, laundry and sanitary services. They must also pay another $100 for a second COVID-19 test, taking the total expenditure to $1,283. READ | COVID-19: Cambodia Lifts Entry Ban On Travellers From 6 Countries As Cases Drop Coronavirus treatment fees and cremation charges If the traveller happens to be a Coronavirus-positive patient, he or she will have to undergo four tests of $100 each, with additional $3,150 for treatment at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh. This exhausts the deposit limit, which is why a traveller must carry a proof insurance that has a minimum of $50,000 medical cover . If the unfortunate traveller passes away, the Foreign Office said that the cremation service charge is $1,500. READ | Cambodia: At Least 23 Endangered 'royal Turtles' Hatched In Koh Kong Province READ | Cambodian Man Kept Live Land Mines As Yard Decorations SPARTA Officials with the Grand American, the largest trapshooting event in the world, have announced the event is leaving Illinois this year to be held in Missouri. The Illinois Department of Public Health and the Department of Natural Resources had ruled the annual event held near Sparta could not take place there this year because of COVID-19 health concerns. Restrictions regarding the size of public gatherings under Gov. J.B. Pritzkers reopening plan left organizers scrambling. In anticipation of the decision, the Amateur Trapshooting Association had determined if the event could not be held near Sparta it would be relocated to Linn Creek, Missouri, in Lake of the Ozarks in August. Trish Creach, the executive director of the nearby Camdenton Chamber of Commerce, said the town is ecstatic. We are pleased with the announcement and we will roll out the carpet for the ATA when they arrive in August, Creach said. Lodging properties are already getting phone calls from participants that are coming in for this event. State Sen. Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, said the news was a disappointment. The event has an estimated economic impact on the region of between $20 million and $30 million. Obviously we dont like the economic hit that the region is going to take, but more importantly I am disappointed by the governors failure to lead on this, Schimpf said. The governors refusal to listen to us is probably the most disappointing aspect of this. The ATA has a contract with the state of Illinois through 2026, but Schimpf said he is worried this years move may damage relations for the future. I do know for a fact that there are board members on the trapshooting association who have wanted to relocate this event prior to this year and there are other venues that are very eager to host it, he said. So it certainly cant help the situation as far as having this remain in Illinois for the long term. New Delhi: Colonel Santosh Babu, the army officer who died on Monday night, was to be transferred to Hyderabad, but, the move was delayed by the coronavirus lockdown. His last phone call was with his mother on Sunday, a day before he was killed in a violent face-off with Chinese troops in Ladakh. Colonel Santosh Babu from Telangana and two jawans, Havildar Palani from Tamil Nadu and Sepoy Ojha from Jharkhand, were among 20 soldiers killed in the first fatal clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers since 1975. Santosh Babu is survived by his wife, daughter and son who live in New Delhi. His parents B Upender and Manjula are devastated after knowing the news. He was their only son. "At first, we didn't believe it but later higher authorities told us what had happened. Our son faced many challenges," B Upender, a retired banker, told news agency ANI this morning. He added that he wanted his son to join the army, which is his unfullfiled wish. "I could not join the army and serve my country. So I wanted my son to join the defence forces and serve our country though my relatives discouraged the idea," he said. Santosh Babu was working as Commanding Officer. In his phone-call on Sunday evening with his mother, he seemed concerned about the border tension but he said it could not be discussed as it was a sensitive subject. "I told him to be careful," said his father to ANI. "I am both sad and proud. My son has laid down his life for the country. As a mother I am sad. He was my only son," Colonel Babu's mother Manjula said. Colonel Babu joined the Army in 2004 and was first posted in Jammu and Kashmir, according to his father. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao expressed his grief over the death of Colonel Babu. "Colonel Santosh has sacrificed his life for the nation and his sacrifice cannot be valued in any terms," said the Chief Minister, extending any support the family would want. Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is now arguing that the United States case which was submitted to Canada is so replete with intentional and reckless error that it violates her rights, Reuters reports. Meng is fighting against being extradited to the US, which has charged her with bank fraud and accused her of misleading HSBC about Huaweis business in Iran. The latter accusation uses as key evidence a PowerPoint presentation given by Meng to an HSBC banker in 2013. In the presentation, Meng refers to Skycom Tech as a business partner, whereas the US describes it as an unofficial subsidiary. Her lawyers claim that the US prosecutors have omitted important information discussed by Meng in the presentation meaning that this evidence is misleading. US claims that only junior HSBC employees knew of the relationship between Huawei and Skycom have also been contested by Mengs lawyers. They said it does not make sense that HSBCs senior management would be unaware of the relationship between Huawei and Skycom since Huawei is one of HSBCs largest clients. A $900-million credit facility with HSBC allegedly provided Huawei was also denied. The lawyers instead claim that of its $1.6-billion credit arrangement across 26 banks, HSBCs portion was $80 million, was never used, and was cancelled in 2017. Failed first attempt These new arguments follow a failed first attempt by Mengs lawyers to block her extradition. Meng had argued that the US was purposefully disguising an allegation of sanctions violations as a fraud charge in order to get around Canadas double criminality rule. Her lawyers argued that if the transactions she was being held for had taken place in Canada, they would not have violated any local sanctions. However, this argument was rejected, as the court ruled that fraud could still be prosecuted in Canada if a US bank was put at risk for violating US sanctions. Now read: Huawei CFO fails first attempt to block extradition from Canada FREDERICTONA committee of the New Brunswick legislature has voted to remove the notwithstanding clause from a controversial bill on mandatory vaccinations for children in schools and daycares. Liberal committee member Chuck Chiasson brought forward a resolution to remove the clause during a meeting on Tuesday. Chiasson said it was unanimously accepted by members of the all-party committee, including members of the governing Progressive Conservatives. He said the Liberals opposed the inclusion of the notwithstanding clause because it would eliminate any chance of a court challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, Tory Premier Blaine Higgs previously said the clause was needed to shield the legislation against charter challenges, including sections covering freedom of religion. Late Wednesday, Chiasson said the bill had passed through the committee stage without further amendments and would go back to the legislature for final reading, although its not clear when the government will call it for a vote. Im feeling its going to go either way and its going to be a close vote all parties are basically having a free vote, Chiasson said when asked how the final vote would go. New Brunswicks Act Respecting Proof of Immunization would require children in public schools and licensed daycare facilities to provide proof of immunization or an exemption signed by a medical professional. Currently, non-medical exemptions are allowed. If passed, it is to take effect in the 2021-22 school year. The province held three days of public hearings last August that heard from supporters and opponents from across Canada and the United States. Read more about: Iran: E3 unconstructive draft resolution at IAEA meeting mockery of intl. rules Iran Press TV Tuesday, 16 June 2020 10:26 AM Iran has condemned as "unconstructive" a resolution reportedly drafted by the three European signatories to a 2015 nuclear deal for a vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s governing board meeting, saying such a resolution makes a mockery of international rules. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations, urged France, Germany and the UK also known as E3 not to complicate the situation surrounding the Iran deal if they cannot fulfill their end of the bargain and help salvage the accord. The comments came as IAEA Board of Governors started a four-day meeting on Monday, with Iran on the agenda. According to a Bloomberg report, the resolution prepared by the European trio urges Tehran to "fully cooperate" with the IAEA investigation of its nuclear facilities. It came after the nuclear watchdog's inspectors claimed they had not been given access to two locations that may have hosted atomic activities two decades ago. The resolution will have to be presented at meeting and is expected to win Washington's backing During the Monday session, the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi claimed that for over four months, "Iran has denied us access to two locations and that, for almost a year, it has not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify our questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities." Gharibabadi dismissed the claims in the reported resolution and said, "While Iran is cooperating extensively and constructively with the agency, submitting a resolution with the purpose of asking Iran to cooperate and fulfill the two demands of the IAEA is regrettable and a totally unconstructive move." He criticized the European trio's double standards on Tehran's nuclear program and said such a resolution is being put forth by the countries that "either possess nuclear weapons or play host to such destructive and deadly weapons." Such a move, Gharibabadi said is "a mockery of international norms and rules governing disarmament and non-proliferation regimes." Gharibabadi also called on all members of the IAEA Board of Governors to exercise vigilance and avoid taking any "political and hasty" measures in order for Iran to continue cooperation with the Vienna-based agency. "Naturally if such a resolution, which clearly serves American goals, is approved, the Islamic Republic of Iran will have to take the necessary measures accordingly," he noted. The Iranian envoy further stressed that the new IAEA request is founded on the claims raised by the Israeli regime, which is an enemy of Iran. Tehran's transparent cooperation with the agency "does not mean that we should agree to every request from the IAEA on the basis of delusional claims of our enemies," he emphasized. Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with six world states namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China in 2015. However, Washington's unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and the subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the historic agreement in limbo. Iran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to honor their commitments. As the European parties failed to do so, the Islamic Republic moved in May 2019 to suspend its JCPOA commitments under Articles 26 and 36 of the deal covering Tehran's legal rights. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A wedding photographer is being applauded for her handling of a refund request from a customer upset over her support for Black Lives Matter. This week, Shakira Rochelle, who owns Shakira Rochelle Photography in Cincinnati, Ohio, received a text message from a bride-to-be asking that she receive a refund because we cannot bring ourselves to support anyone who is so outspoken on matters that simply do not concern them as well as someone that does not believe that ALL lives matter. In the message, which was screenshot and shared to Twitter by Rochelles friend, the bride continued: We would be truly embarrassed to have you at our event and feel that you arent stable enough to complete the job we need from you. The bride concluded the message requesting to be removed from the contract shed signed with Rochelle ahead of her upcoming wedding, and asking how and when she could expect a refund of her deposit. Earlier in June, Rochelle shared her support for the Black Lives Matter movement on her Facebook page, where she wrote: Shakira Rochelle Photography stands in solidarity with the black community. The Black Lives Matter movement has my endless support. In response to the message, Rochelle informed the bride that she is sorry to hear that, but that the deposit was non-refundable. But rather than keep the deposit, the wedding photographer said she would be donating the money to the Black Lives Matter organisation. I wish you a lifetime of growth and I would like to thank you for your donation to Black Lives Matter, Rochelle wrote, prompting the former client to write: You will be hearing from our attorney. The text exchange has since gone viral on Twitter, where it has been liked more than 992,000 times and prompted hundreds of people to applaud Rochelle for her response. Your response was perfect. I support the hell out of you. People like that dont deserve your time and effort. One person offered Rochelle legal help free of charge if she is contacted by her former clients lawyer. Let me know if you need legal help. Happy to do what I can without charge, they wrote. Rochelles business Facebook page has since been flooded with positive reviews, with many praising her photography and her values. Fantastic work! Great values, and stellar pictures! one person commented, while another said: Beautiful photographs and an owner with integrity. As for Rochelles response to the outpouring of support, she wrote on Facebook that she never had the intentions or the desire to go viral for this or anything else and that she considered deleting the original post after suggestions her response was a business tactic to make a profit on the BLM movement. However, explaining that it would go against everything I stand for, to remove the post, Rochelle said: I have always stood up for human rights and will continue to do so. I have marched with my loved ones as well as alone. My intentions are pure. Please know that what you saw from me was the complete story. India is expected to be elected unopposed to the UN Security Council on Wednesday and will hope to use its eighth term as a non-permanent member to further bolster its claim to a permanent seat with the avowed goal of forging a new orientation for a reformed multilateral system. India is the endorsed candidate of the Asia-Pacific Group of UN member countries and faces no competition. Its election to one of the five open seats on the 15-member council is a given, though some UN diplomats intimately involved with the election said they are keeping our fingers crossed. Voting by paper ballot got underway at 9:30 am (7:00 pm India time) and is expected to go on till 1:30 pm (11:pm, India), stretching a process that should hav been wrapped up, with the results, possibly by noon, as it happened in 2010, the last time India was elected to the UNSC. The results will be known around 4:30 pm (2:00 am Thursday in India). The 193 UN member countries will vote to elect five non-permanent members in a phased manner, for the first time in the world bodys 75-year history. They will be allowed on to the floor of the general assembly, where the voting takes place, in smaller groups of 20 or so because of the social distancing norms in place because of Covid-19, said diplomats familiar with the process. New York city, where the UN is headquartered, was, and remains, the epicenter of the US coronavirus epidemic and has only recently started lifting restrictions on businesses and public life. UN diplomats are not certain how many of the member countries who can vote some like Venezuela are barred for non-payment of membership dues will actually show up to cast their ballots, which must be done physically and not virtually or remotely through an electronic button. Candidate countries such as India need two-thirds of the votes cast to win; no-shows will not count as yes, no or abstention, said officials familiar with the rules. India won 187 votes in 2010, and started its seventh term on January 1, 2011. Its previous terms were 1950-1951, 1967-1968, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1984-1985 and 1991-1992. Mexico is the other endorsed candidate that is likely to go through unopposed from the Latin American and the Caribbean Group seat. Canada, Ireland and Norway are contesting for the two seats for the Western European and Other Group and Kenya and Djibouti are running for the African Group seat. The Security Council has 15 members. Five of them are permanent members the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China and 10 are non-permanent. Half the non-permanent members are elected every year, each for a two-year term, starting January 1. India expects to use its eighth term to further build its case for a permanent seat in a reformed Security Council, something that it has been pushing for years now along with other claimants such as Japan, Germany and Brazil the G4 calling the current council outdated and out of sync with the changed global realities. Reformed Multilateralism to reflect contemporary realities will be one of Indias priorities, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said June 5, as he released a brief document laying out Indias priorities and approaches as it sought another term on the Security Council. Responsible and inclusive solutions and concrete and result-oriented action at the Security Council for an effective response to international terrorism, a comprehensive approach to peace and security, the key responsibilities of the body and technology with a human touch, were the other four. India will pursue these priorities through a Five-S approach, according to the priorities paper: Samman (respect), Samvad (dialogue), Sahyog (cooperation) and Shanti (peace); to create Samriddhi (Prosperity). Kyle Sandilands has been plagued by a spate of heath concerns over the years. And now the KIIS FM shock jock, 50, has revealed he's preparing to undergo a throat operation soon. He made the shock revelation on air on Wednesday during a segment with the show's resident psychic Georgina Walker - who warned Kyle that he would experience bad luck on the 8th of July. 'I think I do have to have an operation on my throat,' Kyle replied. 'It's not the 8th of July by any chance?' Georgina gasped, to which Kyle responded: 'Oh my god, actually I don't know. I go today to find out what the date is. Imagine if it's the 8th of July?' He gave no further details about the nature of his operation, nor the reason why he's undergoing the invasive procedure. Health woes: KIIS FM shockn jock Kyle Sandilands, 49, has revealed he's having a throat operation soon - following a spate of health woes Kyle is a self-confessed chain smoker and recently joked on air that he sometimes even smokes in the shower. He has also admitted to being 'massively addicted to smoking marijuana' in the past. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Kyle's management for comment. ''I think I do have to have an operation on my throat': He made the shock revelation on-air this Wednesday during a segment with KIIS FM psychic Georgina Walker Kyle's surgery announcement comes after he told listeners he was scheduled for a colonoscopy, last month. A colonoscopy is the main test used to investigate or diagnose bowel cancer, according to the Cancer Council Australia website. A tiny camera at the end of a long flexible tube, known as a colonoscope, is used to examine the entire length of the large bowel. Another procedure: Kyle's surgery announcement comes after he told listeners he was scheduled for a colonoscopy last month. Pictured on June 4 Kyle's manager, Bruno Bouchet, told Daily Mail Australia at the time: 'Just like everyone else in his age group, Kyles getting a regular check up.' In November, Kyle also revealed he had been suffering from an extremely bad case of diarrhoea, which he compared to expelling 'hot fluid. He explained a doctor had visited him at his Los Angeles home and told him to 'keep drinking water', but nothing was working. Too much information! In November, he revealed on air he had been suffering from an extremely bad case of diarrhoea , which he compared to expelling 'hot fluid Kyle, who has a history of health problems, disclosed during his 60 Minutes interview on May 24 that his blood pressure was so high his death could come 'at any moment'. 'I could die - that means at any stage at any time day or night,' he said. He showed 60 Minutes host Karl Stefanovic how his home blood pressure machine could not even give a reading because his pressure was so high. DALLAS, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alovea is excited to announce it will be partnering with Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) by providing advanced immune support products through its Buy 1, Nourish 2TM social giving platform, part of Alovea's HOPE Movement. Officially started in 2016, the HOPE Movement has already donated over 25 million nourishment servings to medically fragile children throughout the world. "We are thrilled to begin our collaboration and support for O.U.R. and these children," said Alovea CEO Sam Caster. "There may be no worse injustice in the world than child trafficking. The entire executive team and our Alovea Social Business Partners in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan are blessed to play our unique role in their recovery process." Alovea intends to donate tens of thousands of servings to the O.U.R. aftercare centers in both Uganda and Ghana, each of which is caring for 500-600 children that have been rescued from the child sex trafficking industry. "We're excited about all the children that will be blessed by this resource! It could not have come together at a better time," stated Jessica Mass, Manager of O.U.R. After Care. The donations of the company's proprietary Alovea AE (Acemannan Extract) will be distributed via MannaRelief, one of Alovea's founding nonprofit organizations. "This unique and patented aloe vera nutritional powder has been provided to children for advanced immune support in over 80 countries across the globe since 1999," said Caster. Media Contact: For added information, please contact: Linda Lucas Padilla, CMO [email protected] Photos: https://www.prlog.org/12826616 Press release distributed by PRLog SOURCE Alovea Global Nigeria was among 10 countries of the world most affected by food crisis in 2019, the 2020 Global Food Crisis Report has said. The joint report, funded by the European Union and USAID, said the 10 countries accounted for 65 per cent of the worlds total population of people who faced food crises that year. Africa was most affected by the said food crises situation, according to the report. Africa remained as the continent most affected by food crises, accounting for 54 percent of the global total number of people in Crisis, said the report released in April by Global Network Against Food Crises and Food Security Information Network. Nigeria ranked 9 out of these 10 countries listed in the report, as Yemen, DR Congo and Afghanistan were among the first three in the list. The ten countries are Yemen, DR Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, The Sudan, Nigeria and Haiti. According to data from FSIN and GRFC, Nigeria recorded 5 million people who were affected by the food crisis ,while other African countries like DR Congo, Ethiopia and Sudan recorded 15.6 million, 8 million and 5.9 million people respectively. The data shows that DR Congo recorded the highest number of most affected people in Africa, followed by Ethiopia and South Sudan. Yemen recorded 15.9 million as the country with the highest number of affected people in the world. Data to show the number of affected people in those countries: According to the report, the common problem in these countries remain insecurity, which has led to massive displacement of populations, destruction or closure of basic social services, disruption of productive activities and disruption of markets and trade flows. Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million people has the largest number of people living in extreme poverty, according to the world poverty clock released in 2018. The new report said about 5.1 million people in Nigeria were estimated to have been in immediate need of food assistance between March and May 2020. They include 1.4 million in Borno, 1 million in Yobe and 0.5 million Adamawa states. The number of food insecure people has increased by 1.1 million people since OctoberDecember 2019. The situation is likely to worsen, mainly due to insecurity, the report added. According to the report, about 7.1 million people in Nigeria are projected to be in crisis situations between June and August 2020. The report explains further how COVID-19 can team up with the security crises to worsen the situation. The states that contributed the most to the food crisis in Nigeria are Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara, the report states. Following the outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria, the situation may worsen as many farmers in the region may be displaced, therefore facing double challenges, the report said. Nigeria has so far recorded over 17,000 confirmed cases of the virus and over 450 deaths. Many businesses and offices are still out of operations because of the pandemic, as people are advised to keep to the given directives of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) in order to curb the spread of the dreaded disease. By June August 2020, 7.1 million people are projected to be in a crisis situation or worse in Nigeria if appropriate measures are not taken in the short term. The deterioration is mainly due to the security situation. The security crises and the Covid-19 health crisis could tip over 50 million additional people into a food and nutrition crisis, the report said. The main reason behind these food crises is solely attributed to insecurity in some parts of the country especially the northern region, though floods and heavy rains were reported to have damaged crops in some parts of the region. Highlighting the impacts of coronavirus to the situation and the nations economy to include increased dependence on non-Africa imports due to a collapse in the local food system, witnessing of higher unemployment rate, loss of income for households and a collapse of food crop production as a result of the pandemic. Therefore, it is urgent to plan ahead and design strategies to revive and revitalize agri-food systems, including non-agricultural segments (processing, collection, distribution), in rural and urban areas, the report said. Advertisements [June 17, 2020] Barry Sommers Named Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management CEO Wells Fargo (News - Alert) & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced that Barry Sommers will join the company as CEO of Wealth & Investment Management (WIM) on June 22, reporting to CEO Charlie Scharf. Sommers will have responsibility for the company's delivery of wealth management, investment, and retirement products and services to clients through its U.S.-based businesses, including Wells Fargo Advisors, Private Wealth Management - comprised of The Private Bank and Abbot Downing - and Wells Fargo Asset Management. He will become a member of the company's Operating Committee. "Barry is a proven leader with deep experience in wealth management. He knows asset management, brokerage, and private banking intimately and also what it takes to build a successful wealth management business inside a large bank. His experience, knowledge, and energy will be welcome as we continue our transformation," said Scharf. Until April 2019, Sommers was CEO of Wealth Management at JPMorgan Chase, where he was responsible for its private bank and brokerage businesses. Sommers also served as CEO of the Consumer Bank, where he managed the bank branch network. Before that, he spent time as the CEO of Chase Wealth Management, where he helped build the Chase Private Client Services business. He also served as the CEO of J.P. Morgan Securities. Previously in his career, Sommers was a senior managing director for Bear Stearns, serving as CEO for the private client business; prior to that he was responsible for the mutual fund business. He also spent time at Goldman Sachs in its asset management division. "I have long admired Wells Fargo, and the way its Wealth & Investment Management business delivers outstanding service to clients," said Sommers. "I am excited to join the company and do my part to help drive its continued evolution." Jonathan Weiss, CEO of Corporate & Investment Banking at Wells Fargo, will continue to lead WIM until Sommers officially begins his new role. About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.98 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as cnsumer and commercial finance, through 7,400 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 31 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 263,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 30 on Fortune's 2020 rankings of America's largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories. Additional information may be found at www.wellsfargo.com | Twitter (News - Alert): @WellsFargo. About Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management (WIM) is a division within Wells Fargo & Company. WIM provides financial products and services through various bank and brokerage affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company and is one of the largest wealth managers in the U.S., with $1.6 trillion in client assets. WIM serves clients through the following businesses: Wells Fargo Private Bank serves high-net-worth individuals and families; Abbot Downing serves ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families; Wells Fargo Advisors provides investment advice and guidance to clients through 13,450 full-service financial advisors and referrals from 5,489 licensed bankers; and Wells Fargo Asset Management brings together a strategic balance of investment capabilities to serve the investment needs of institutions, financial advisors, and individuals worldwide. Through Wells Fargo Private Bank and Abbot Downing, WIM is also a leading provider of trust, investment and fiduciary services, including personal trust services and a number of specialized wealth services designed to meet the diverse needs of high-net-worth clients. Wells Fargo Private Bank and Abbot Downing, a Wells Fargo Business, provides products and services through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and its various affiliates and subsidiaries. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is a bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. Brokerage services are offered through Wells Fargo Advisors. Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, Members SIPC, separate registered broker-dealers and non-bank affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company. Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM) is the trade name for certain investment advisory/management firms owned by Wells Fargo & Company. These firms include but are not limited to Wells Capital Management Incorporated and Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC. Certain products managed by WFAM entities are distributed by Wells Fargo Funds Distributor, LLC (a broker-dealer and Member FINRA). Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. offers various advisory and fiduciary products and services including discretionary portfolio management. Wells Fargo affiliates, including Financial Advisors of Wells Fargo Advisors, a separate non-bank affiliate, may be paid an ongoing or one-time referral fee in relation to clients referred to the bank. The bank is responsible for the day-to-day management of the account and for providing investment advice, investment management services and wealth management services to clients. The role of the Financial Advisor with respect to Bank products and services is limited to referral and relationship management services. INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: NOT FDIC INSURED NO BANK GUARANTEE MAY LOSE VALUE View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005752/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] On Monday and Tuesday, the irrigation ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met online for the fifth and sixth time since 9 June. According to a statement from the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation, tripartite negotiations have achieved progress on important technical files, including dam security, the initial filling of the reservoir, the dams long-term operation, environmental studies and exchange of information. Tellingly, the Sudanese statement did not specify whether the progress had been achieved during the Washington talks which ended late in February, or the present, online round. Since the virtual talks began last week it has become clear that Ethiopia has focused its objections on a number of fundamental legal issues. They include outlining a mechanism to settle differences, provisions to make the agreement legally binding, and legally enforceable measures to be taken in times of drought and prolonged drought. Ethiopia is treading water in the negotiations in an attempt to run down the timetable, says Ali Al-Hefni, a former deputy to Egypts foreign minister. It is not willing to reach a fair agreement. Its goal is unrestrained exploitation of transboundary water resources regardless of the rights and interests of Egypt and Sudan. On the third day of the online talks Ethiopia produced a new statement that backtracks on principles and rules previously agreed. At a lecture organised by the Egyptian Business Council for International Cooperation two days after the Ethiopian statement was unveiled, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Egypt has been committed to negotiating in good faith to reach a balanced and fair agreement in the best interest of the three countries. But as long as Ethiopia remains intransigent, negotiations will not produce positive results. Egypt will have to look at other options, including asking the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibility to protect international peace and security by preventing Ethiopia from taking unilateral actions that negatively affect Egypts water rights. Egypt will exert every effort to protect its interests, he said. On Sunday, Addis Ababa issued a statement that reflects a lack of confidence in its negotiating parties, says former deputy to Egypt foreign minister Mohamed Hegazi. Given the uncertainties and hard-feelings reflected in the statement it is difficult to predict how things will progress. Perhaps the tough negotiations and the initial filling if the different parties agree on it will lead to greater political understanding and a gradual removal of suspicion between the parties, he said. In the statement, Addis Ababa said it will only abide by the Declaration of Principles (DoP) signed in Sudan in 2015, and rejected earlier international treaties as colonial based water allocation agreements that deny Ethiopia, and all upstream countries, their natural and legitimate rights. The statement stressed that the ongoing negotiation is not about the allocation of Blue Nile waters and insisted Ethiopia will be bound by the guidelines and rules for the filling and annual operation of the GERD that it will sign with the two downstream countries, and that such a commitment will be guided solely by the Declaration of Principles. It warned that any attempt to confuse the international community or campaign to exert maximum pressure on Ethiopia to accept colonial-based treaties that it was not a party to, and foreclose its legitimate right of using the Blue Nile camouflaged in the guidelines and rules on the filling and annual operation [of the dam] is unacceptable. Both Egypt and Sudan have expressed worries that Ethiopia is now backtracking on understandings reached during years of tortuous negotiations. Ministry of Irrigation Spokesman Mohamed Al-Sebaai described the Ethiopian statement as a deeply troubling statement that is technically and legally unsound. The Ethiopian statement completely backtracks on the principles and rules agreed by the three countries during the negotiations sponsored by the US and the World Bank. It also ignores the technical understandings reached in previous rounds of negotiations. In a press briefing Al-Sebaai said the Ethiopian statement is an attempt to impose a fait accompli that either pushes Egypt and Sudan into signing a text that turns them into hostages to Ethiopias will, or forces them to accept Ethiopias decision to unilaterally fill the dam. On Friday, the Ethiopian deputy army chief told the media that Egypt should be aware of Ethiopias military capabilities as Egypt continues to oppose Ethiopias plan to start filling the hydroelectric dam next month. Egyptians and the rest of the world know too well how we conduct war whenever it comes, he said. The negotiations via video conference, which began on 9 June, were brokered by Sudan. South Africa, the US and the EU are attending as observers. Both Egypt and Sudan showed flexibility in attending the online talks to discuss issues that were supposedly concluded and agreed-upon in Washington. It was also a compromise for Egypt to accept the Sudanese draft statement, given Cairo wanted these talks to be based on the terms of reference of the Washington agreement, says Al-Hefni. Egypt entered the current round of talks with four demands, tailored to prevent negotiations returning to square one: that Ethiopia would not take unilateral action to fill the dam until an agreement is reached; a deadline would be set to reach agreement on the filling and operation of the dam; the talks would be based on the terms of reference of the Washington and World Bank-brokered negotiations in February, and observers who attend the meetings would act as facilitators. The ongoing video negotiations come more than three months after talks in Washington stalled when Ethiopia failed to turn up for what was to be the final session at which a final agreement was due to be signed. Egypt initialed the agreement while Sudan said it would sign when Addis Ababa did. The US, represented by the Treasury Department, and the World Bank stepped in in November to host tripartite negotiations after talks between the three countries reached a dead end. While it is obvious from the negotiations that Addis Ababa is not willing to respect Egypts conditions, Al-Hefni believes Cairo should continue to press international bodies to try and make Ethiopia abandon its intransigence. Egypt still believes that outstanding issues should be resolved via negotiations, and should press international bodies, including the Security Council, to pressure Ethiopia, he said. Hegazi remains optimistic that despite the stumbling start, an agreement remains in reach. Should that happen, it will in large part be thanks to the dedication, discipline and strategic awareness of the risks and difficulties of the negotiations of our negotiating team. Recognition should also be given to Sudans efforts to bridge the gaps between Egypt and Ethiopia, he said. *A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: HELSINKI, Finland, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) announced it has been awarded a contract with LocalTapiola, one of Finland's largest insurance companies, to provide further digitization services for the insurer's largest modernization project. The agreement strengthens the long-term strategic partnership between the companies to meet LocalTapiola's business objectives, such as improving the customer experience. The contract is valued at an estimated EUR 49 million (approx.C$74.5 million). "As part of the Toivo modernisation project, we renewed our agreement with CGI to build a digital foundation to overhaul our system for providing insurance against loss or damage. We are now also renewing a contractual package in which CGI will continue to handle a variety of initiatives, such as how to implement digital services in the most agile and cost-effective way possible," said Mikko Vastela, CIO of LocalTapiola. Over the past few years, CGI has developed a variety of new digital services for LocalTapiola customers, including TerveysHelppi (Health Help). These mobile telemedicine services have made it easier for LocalTapiola customers to access healthcare, such as treatment services and referrals. As part of the new agreement, CGI will implement new delivery models to ensure optimal productivity and cost control. "Using agile methods to develop innovative digital services has proven to be effective. However, when an initiative contains hundreds of projects, it is understandable that certain controls must be placed on development work controls that are not found within standard agile methods. That is why we have been working with LocalTapiola to create a brand-new hybrid development model and its associated contractual practices, " said Leena-Mari Lahteenmaa, President of CGI in Finland. "A redesign of our operating models has made them more agile in many ways, and this is also linked to the development of our new hybrid model. CGI has demonstrated its ability to provide customer-oriented service and innovative value creation," said Janne Karkkainen, Director ICT Finance and Sourcing at LocalTapiola. LocalTapiola outsourced its IT operations to CGI in 2013. CGI's service delivery model operates on a 24/7 basis by combining development in Finland with support from around the world, including Europe, Asia and North America. In accordance with CGI's quality and management framework, accountability for service delivery is provided in proximity to the client. 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 IT and business consulting to systems integration, outsourcing 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 annual revenue of C$12.1 billion, CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com. Forward-looking information and statements This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable United States safe harbours. All such forward-looking information and statements are made and disclosed in reliance upon the safe harbour provisions of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. Forward-looking information and statements include all information and statements regarding CGI's intentions, plans, expectations, beliefs, objectives, future performance, and strategy, as well as any other information or statements that relate to future events or circumstances and which do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts. Forward-looking information and statements often but not always use words such as "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "foresee", "plan", "predict", "project", "aim", "seek", "strive", "potential", "continue", "target", "may", "might", "could", "should", and similar expressions and variations thereof. These information and statements are based on our perception of historic trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other assumptions, both general and specific, that we believe are appropriate in the circumstances. Such information and statements are, however, by their very nature, subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, of which many are beyond the control of CGI, and which give rise to the possibility that actual results could differ materially from our expectations expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not restricted to: risks related to the market such as the level of business activity of our clients, which is affected by economic and political conditions, external risks (such as pandemics) and our ability to negotiate new contracts; risks related to our industry such as competition and our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, to develop and expand our services, to penetrate new markets, and to protect our intellectual property rights; risks related to our business such as risks associated with our growth strategy, including the integration of new operations, financial and operational risks inherent in worldwide operations, foreign exchange risks, income tax laws, our ability to negotiate favorable contractual terms, to deliver our services and to collect receivables, and the reputational and financial risks attendant to cybersecurity breaches and other incidents; as well as other risks identified or incorporated by reference in this press release, in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and in other documents that we make public, including our filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators (on SEDAR at www.sedar.com) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (on EDGAR at www.sec.gov). For a discussion of risks in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, see Pandemic Risks in section 8.1.1. of our Q2 2020 quarterly MD&A. Unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking information and statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and CGI disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. While we believe that our assumptions on which these forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are based were reasonable as at the date of this press release, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking information or statements. Furthermore, readers are reminded that forward-looking information and statements are presented for the sole purpose of assisting investors and others in understanding our objectives, strategic priorities and business outlook as well as our anticipated operating environment. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Further information on the risks that could cause our actual results to differ significantly from our current expectations may be found in the section titled "Risk Environment" of CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A, which is incorporated by reference in this cautionary statement. We also caution readers that the above-mentioned risks and the risks disclosed in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and other documents and filings are not the only ones that could affect us. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial could also have a material adverse effect on our financial position, financial performance, cash flows, business or reputation. SOURCE CGI Inc. Related Links www.cgi.com Those same tactical unit officers had prior run-ins with McGee, easily recognizing him by the distinctive Braveheart tattoo over his right eyebrow, prosecutors said. The four uniformed officers were on patrol looking for McGee, who was wanted for aggravated assault with a handgun on June 10, when they spotted him and another man walking on the street, prosecutors said. McGee took off running after seeing the officers, who had called out to him using his street name, authorities said. New Delhi: Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swarajs address at the 71st United Nations General Assembly Congress hasnt gone well among the Congress ranks. The political party has expressed its deep disappointment over the external affairs minister's speech, citing that the Modi government has failed us again by its meek response by not calling Pakistan a terror state. Deeply disappointed by EAM Sushma Swarajs address in UN. Even steered shy of calling Pak a terror state. Strategic ambiguity writ large, Party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a series of tweets. The tweets followed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajs address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), in which she sharply rebuked the Pakistans tirade on Kashmir. If India wont determinedly ask for diplomatic & economic sanctions against Pak in UN, who will? Modi Govt again failed us by meek response. Why is EAM Sushmaji shy of calling a spade a spade in UN? Why did we not call upon UN for diplomatic & economic sanctions against Pakistan?, he said. Another Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said whenever an Indian representative speaks on foreign soil, it is not the time for politics as the entire country stands behind him or her. The whole country is with Sushma Swaraj, she did a valiant effort, Singhvi said. Singhvi, however, hoped that government should have taken some concrete steps against Pakistan before going to the United Nations. Surjewala asked as to Why did EAM forget to place Pak sponsored terrorist attacks in Gurdaspur, Udhampur & 2attacks in Pompore in UN? Modi Govt placating Pakistan still? Surjewala said that the nation wants concrete action against rogue Pakistan not aimless political acronyms and rhetoric as seen in UN. They have not called a Parliament session to declare Pakistan a terrorist state, they have not done anything to withdraw the MFN status, they have not imposed severe economic sanctions against Pakistan, no scale down of high commissions. They have not done anything on ground for concrete actions, yes some efforts to isolate Pakistan globally but thats not enough. These had to be done before we reached UN, then our case would have resonated better, thats our unfulfilled aspirations, Singhvi said. He added, domestic concrete actions by government is not behind her to strengthen her. I had asked earlier that had Sushma gone to United Nations on the 10th day from the Uri attack with certain concrete steps taken by the government instead of Prime Ministers address at Kerala, cabinet meet and jumlas, her position would have been stronger. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. A blind woman has filed a discrimination suit after she says she was banned from a public park and library in Rhode Island for two years because she approached people to speak to them about Jesus. Gail Blair filed a charge of discrimination with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights after she was told to stay out of Wilcox Park and the Westerly Public Library in Westerly, Rhode Island, her lawyers revealed Wednesday. Blair, who was 63-years old at the time of the June 24, 2019 incident, also handed people small copies of the gospel of John that were often left behind in the park, according to a report made by the Westerly Police Department. Gail Blair filed a charge of discrimination with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights after she was told to stay out of Wilcox Park and the Westerly Public Library (pictured) in Westerly, Rhode Island, her lawyers revealed Wednesday Blair, who was 63-years old at the time of the June 24, 2019 incident, also handed people small copies of the gospel of John that were often left behind in Wilcox Park (pictured), according to a report made by the Westerly Police Department A library official told police that several complaints were made because Blair had been 'accosting' library patrons and people who frequented the park. She had been warned several times in the past to stop, said Assistant Director William Lancellotta in a report made at the time by Patrolman Matthew A. John. The woman was threatened with arrest if she returned, say her lawyers at the First Liberty Institute, an organization that defends religious freedoms. Blair is a member of the Pocket Testament League, which encourages people to 'meet Jesus.' 'Banning a blind woman from entering a public park simply because she offers people she meets religious material is outrageous and discriminatory,' said Jeremy Dys, Special Counsel for Litigation and Communications at First Liberty, in a statement posted online. 'No government entity should ban anyonelet alone a gentle, blind womanfor simply carrying on conversations about her faith and giving them a copy of the Gospel of John in a public park.' In the charge of discrimination, Blair, a former nurse who lost her vision gradually from a disorder she had suffered, explains that the library and park were the only complainers. 'The Police Department searched for all incidents that involved complaints or trespass notices issued to anyone for distributing information, pamphlets, soliciting, selling, hawking, etc., and found none apart from when the Association called the police to eject me from the park,' Blair says. 'My conduct did not violate the 'Rules of Conduct' posted by Westerly Library and Wilcox Park. Nor did it violate any of the Park's Guidelines.' Police Chief Shawn Lacey confirmed to DailyMail.com that Blair was banned from the park for two years. 'Blair was trespassed from the park on June 24th, 2019 as a result of complaint and the Library Association requesting a trespass notice issued for 2 years,' Lacey wrote in an email Wednesday. Police Chief Shawn Lacey confirmed to DailyMail.com that Blair was banned from the park for two years. Pictured is police headquarters in Westerly, Rhode Island Officials at the library and park, did not immediately respond when DailyMail.com reached out. They did not press charges when Blair did return to the park with her church's Bible school for an event. A library official had told police called to the park to hold on making an arrest and to ask Blair to leave, according to a report. The report says cops didn't find Blair in the park at the time, but were able to contact afterward and that she 'understood' that she was not allowed to trespass. Justice Movement Includes the Environmental Movement Civil rights are deeply intertwined with the pursuit of clean air, water, safe communities by Jovita Lee, North Carolina State Campaigner (originally published on Medium) The current uprising that we are witnessing and experiencing isnt anything new under the sun. Historically, protests have been an effective outlet for marginalized groups to be able to express frustration and demand equitable policy that impacts their well being. The Civil Rights Movement, Stonewall, Occupation of Alcatraz and other seminal protest movements have all been noted as some of the largest demonstrations and movements in our countrys history, and all directly relate to the concept of rights. One of the biggest mistakes made within the justice movement as a whole is the decision to segment out social, racial, environmental and economic justice, as if they are their own movements. When we review the history of these movements, particularly the environmental movement, it was crafted as a direct response to the outcry of Black and Indigenous activists, leaders, and community members who recognized that the impacts of environmental policy unfairly targets communities of color. I see it where I work in North Carolina. Its there as we struggle against CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) that are strategically placed in low income and/or communities of color in eastern North Carolina and continually contaminate our water ways. Its there in our fight against an energy monopoly that places an energy burden on its customers rather than paying for their own mishaps. Its there as we oppose the construction of fracked gas pipelines, such as the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline-Southgate, and as we call for the closing of coal plants located in the backyards of historically Black and Brown communities. In these struggles and all of the other wonderful work being done at the Center, we must be clear that they all not only impact our ecosystems and threaten our wildlife, but also have continued to slowly deteriorate communities of color and low- income communities that are often ignored. We Have No Option But Radical Transformation by Jean Su, Energy Justice Program Director, Staff Attorney (originally published on Medium) In the aftermath of George Floyds death, the most heartbreaking outcome will be that nothing changes. Based on the history of this country, that wont be surprising. The relentless carnage of Black lives and the white apathy toward it has persisted almost effortlessly in my lifetime, as it has done for four centuries. Its at moments like these that I look for signals that change is possible. It would seem like a miracle for transformation, yet signs of that possibility reveal themselves by the day and even hour. I live in Washington, D.C. and protested in Lafayette Square the day that Donald Trump lodged a tear gas attack on Americans that would have otherwise been outlawed in war. I was there to lie down with thousands of Black, white, and other people of color on Pennsylvania Avenue for eight minutes and forty-six seconds choking on the words Mama that we chanted together in honor of George Floyds final words, as military tanks and unidentified soldiers with vests full of ammo lined the streets. And I marched with what can only be described as an endless ocean of people people of all races, and of a youth that makes them raw and responsive to the horror of Black murder by the police. The jadedness against injustice has not sunk in yet, and maybe therein lies the miracle we need. But to ensure that transformation is realized, we all must commit seriously to lasting action. The kind that doesnt disappear after the protests do. In particular, people who benefit from the status quo including myself as an Asian-American woman in the white-set racial hierarchy where the fluidity of my placement on the totem pole has fluctuated in COVID-19 and World War II and the railroad era must do everything in their capacities to overthrow the system of entrenched racism that we have all been birthed into. No one is exempted from this system. For me, taking serious action is a question of profession and person. In my professional life, I am very fortunate to fight for energy justice at the Center for Biological Diversity. That justice is sought both for communities of color and the planet. It is at once a moment of alignment, but at its root, a war against injustice itself. We fight for a future where communities of color are powered by community solar instead of fossil fuels, where they are empowered to reject the fracked gas plant assaulting their bodies cells, and where they have a fighting chance to hold onto their life-saving electricity through decentralized, resilient power systems in the face of climate-fueled heat waves, hurricanes and fires. This visionary future is the one we need to save the planet from the violence of the climate emergency, and to safeguard our public lands and species with energy built within communities. Energy justice is racial justice. At the outbreak of COVID-19, the massive wave of unemployment exacerbated the already-existing crisis of utility shut-offs across the country. In normal times, nearly 15 million families per year are at risk of facing electricity disconnections due to difficulties in payment and these families are disproportionately Black and low-wealth. The coronavirus has severely widened that crack. Our team has mobilized a federal campaign urging Congress to enact a nationwide moratorium on utility shut-offs with Black and civil rights, labor, and faith groups, and this moratorium was successfully included in the HEROES Act. The Movement for Black Lives demanded the same moratorium on utility shut-offs, and our work continues in solidarity in protection of Black lives and for energy justice. On a personal level, we are challenged to fight a world enraptured in a racism that is implicit, explicit, structural, institutional and systemic. Angela Davis has said: You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time. That act is personal. It is a practice. It is and should be deeply uncomfortable for those who have benefited from the status quo. And if it isnt, we are doing it wrong. We have no choice but transformation. And this country hungers for and deserves a deeply radical one. 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. The death of George Floyd, an African American, at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer has sparked weeks of urban protests, but also fierce condemnations of President Donald Trump. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio partly blamed the president for the unrest, noting theres been an uptick in tension and hatred and division since he came along. Less anger, though, was directed at Minneapolis political establishment. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (a merger of Minnesotas Democrats and the states Farmer-Labor Party) has run the city since 1975. Instead, the New York Times ran a mild piece observing that, for Democratic leaders of Minneapolis and other cities, the violent events were testing their campaign promises and principles. Floyds death was the latest in a series of disturbing incidents that have fed a growing belief among African Americans that theyre a target of abusive cops. For many, todays tragic events evoke the experiences of the 1960s, when blacks who had moved into Northern cities clashed with hostile police departments, setting off similar riots. What is striking is that the principal controversies then and now largely revolved around police departments in Democrat-controlled cities, with a few notable exceptions, like Ferguson, Mo. Despite decades of promises of reform, these cities Baltimore, Chicago, and Minneapolis are notable recent cases continue to struggle with relations between the police and minority communities. The media rarely acknowledge this failing of the party, and it seems to evoke little self-reflection among urban Democrats themselves. The Democratic Party of the 1960s was principally a blue-collar political movement. It dominated Northeastern and Midwestern cities through powerful local political machines dispensing patronage to supporters including plum positions in police departments. Corruption was endemic, and it often occurred at the expense of black residents. Those conditions set the stage for some of the most explosive riots of that period, including in Newark in July of 1967 over the arrest of a black cabdriver. Protests swiftly turned violent, lasting four days and costing 26 lives. Investigations uncovered widespread corruption. The citys police department was tied to organized crime; mob bosses had helped pick the police commissioner, a man widely disliked in the black community. Newark saw one of more than 150 riots that summer, which brought sweeping political changes, including the election of a generation of new black Democratic leaders. But policing remained a glaring problem. In Detroit, voters elected radical labor organizer Coleman Young, an African American, as mayor in 1974. He went to war with his own police department, slashing its ranks by 20% and installing a black police commissioner, with instructions to reduce enforcement in the city. Crime exploded in Detroit, and in most American urban areas; as middle-class residents, predominantly white, left for safer suburbs, poorer blacks, living in increasingly dangerous city neighborhoods, were the biggest victims. The story only changed when a few criminologists, led by the Manhattan Institutes George Kelling, and visionary police leaders, like William J. Bratton, began to advocate for community-based policing, including enforcement of quality-of-life offenses, and the deployment of more sophisticated data to target crime hot spots, to bring order back to urban neighborhoods. After Bratton became New Yorks police chief in 1994, crime started to fall dramatically including violent felonies, which fell by 70%. Key indicators of police misconduct also declined. In 1991, at the peak of the citys crime wave, officers discharged their guns 307 times. Ten years ago, in a much safer city, police fired their guns fewer than 100 times and last year, they did so just 52 times, representing a greater than 80% decline from 1991. Still, about a decade ago, a narrative reemerged in America that police departments are deeply racist and single out minority residents disproportionately. America had just elected its first black president, which might have signaled that the countrys racist past was firmly behind it certainly in the sense of systemic or institutional racism. And yet, with Barack Obama in the White House, individual conflicts between the police and African Americans became amplified, at times by the president himself. Speaking about the case of Eric Garner, a New Yorker arrested for selling contraband cigarettes who died in police custody, Obama said that the incident spoke to larger issues that weve been talking about now for the last week, the last month, the last year, and, sadly, for decades, and that is the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way. Its clear that many African Americans believed this narrative of the Obama years. So why did so little change under a Democratic president, and in typically Democratic-run cities? The answers might lie in looking closely at some of the most egregious confrontations that occurred in blue cities over the last few years. In October 2014, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot at least 16 times by a police officer on a Chicago street and killed. Initial reports claimed that he was walking erratically down the street, carried a knife, and lunged at the police. Testimony from witnesses and other evidence, however, cast doubt on the official version of events. The city turned down numerous requests to release video of the incident, which took place in the middle of a difficult reelection campaign for then-mayor Rahm Emanuel, who eventually won a runoff for a second term in April 2015. Eventually the videos, released to public, showed that McDonald was walking away from the cop when shot. The release provoked widespread protests, and the officer was eventually convicted of second-degree murder. Emanuel refused calls to resign. While Chicago, governed by Democrats since 1931, made some police reforms, such as providing officers with tasers as an alternate to guns, no sweeping reforms took place. Current Mayor Lori Lightfoot ran for mayor three years later, promising that she would finish the job of reform. But when murders spiked in the city, she resorted to some of the same strategies that Emanuel was criticized for, including flooding crime-plagued neighborhoods with extra cops. The Minneapolis Police Department, meanwhile, hired a black police chief in 2017, and he pledged to institute broad reforms, but faced resistance from the powerful police union, which has stymied efforts to discipline and suspend officers accused of misconduct. Robert Olson, former chief of police in Minneapolis, told Reuters two years ago that the problem was concessions the city makes to the union which make it difficult to fire workers. Were talking about incremental changes in contracts over years that cumulatively makes it far more difficult for chiefs to sustain discipline. Speaking on TV recently, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden promised, if elected, to make police brutality a key issue for his administration. It was the latest in a long line of promises by leading Democrats to address what they see as police misconduct toward African Americans. One wonders when they will be called to account for their repeated failures to do something about it. Steven Malanga is the George M. Yeager Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the senior editor of City Journal, from which this was adapted. As Ontario regions slowly ease into various phases of reopening, hospitality-industry operators are warning tourists and customers that things will just not look the same anymore. Doug Ford announced Monday that GTHA areas, excluding Toronto and Peel, can enter Stage 2 of the reopening starting Friday this week. That means businesses like restaurants and hotels can start receiving customers, so long as safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are in place. Its a welcome development, but restaurateur Anthony Jordaan said customers can expect a lot of changes big and small for the dining experience in the era of coronavirus. They will notice that the tables no longer have any settings on them like side plates, cutlery, glassware, salt and pepper shakers or decorative votives, said Jordaan, owner of Keystone Alley Restaurant in Stratford, a city whose economy depends largely on tourism. Instead the only decoration they get for their table upon arrival is a small bottle of sanitizer which they get to use throughout their dining experience with us and get to take home. For extra safety, Jordaan said guests will be requested to refrain from using washrooms unless they absolutely have to. Thats because once a washroom is used, a member of the team has to go in and clean it up using medical-grade sanitizer. Tables and chairs will also be sanitized in order to kill the germs before new patrons can be served. Keystone Alley Restaurant will only be serving at 40 per cent capacity to allow enough distance between tables, a fact that will absolutely bump up the price of service, he said. Forest Motel & Woodland Retreat, also in Stratford, has put in place measures that ensure safety of patrons for the duration of their stay. Theres a two-day block off for every room before and after its been used to allow proper cleaning and sanitizing. The motel also only lets half of its rooms be booked. Owner Kim Schelhaas said check-ins are done over email or by phone to avoid contact. Breakfast services are closed just a bagged breakfast is left in every booked room. Also, no housekeeping services are available. We are doing things differently in order to do our part during this time of crisis, said Schelhaas, noting hiking and campfires are still available with physical distancing. In Niagara Falls, the number one travel destination in Canada with about 12 million visitors a year, hotel properties are already open and ready to welcome tourists. This week, Niagara Falls Tourism launched SafetoPlay.ca, a platform offering information on steps measures being taken to ensure customers safety and fun. Every business attractions, restaurants, accommodations and shopping centres has been asked to implement health and safety measures that include appropriate physical distancing, regular cleaning and sanitization as well as wearing PPE for staff members. Tourism officials say it may be different than the last time you visited the falls, but a visit during these pandemic times will still be fun and memorable. The public health crisis encountered this year has put a new lens on everything we do, said Niagara Falls Tourism president and CEO Janice Thomson in a statement. This is a dynamic destination with much to offer and we are all looking forward to re-activating visitor interest in staying in Niagara Falls. As protests continue across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, symbols of racial contention are once again coming under national scrutiny. And chief among them are the symbols of the Confederate States of America. Statues of Confederate generals are being removed by local agencies or toppled by protesters, and NASCAR has announced that the Confederate flag will no longer be permitted at any of their events. In our own region, Carlisle Events has confirmed that they have asked vendors to not have the flag on display at their automotive events. At Carlisle Events, we believe in inclusion and acceptance of people from all walks of life, backgrounds and beliefs," read a statement from Carlisle Events. "We have requested to vendors that [Confederate] flags not be flown or prominently displayed. The flag, commonly referred to as the Confederate flag and featuring a blue cross with stars on a red field, is similar to the flag adopted by the Army of Northern Virginia as their battle flag during the Civil War. While some feel that the flag is symbolic of southern heritage and symbolic for a spirit of rebellion, it has frequently been cited as a symbol of racial intolerance. The US Marine Corps has also recently banned the flags use on the grounds of their installations. The Spring Carlisle event opens today with new health and sanitation safeguards, after being rescheduled twice due to concerns about the coronavirus. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has announced a lawsuit against Carlisle Events for exceeding the 250 people limit on public gatherings still in place during the green phase of the states coronavirus recovery plan. READ MORE: Citing COVID-19 fears, Pa. Health Department sues in bid to stop 100K from attending Carlisle car show Spring Carlisle car show arrives this week: What will a large, outdoor event look like in a time of coronavirus? Ross, T.J. Maxx and more than 60 other big name retailers in Cumberland County: What stores have reopened? The bodies of two people missing in the ocean off Coral Bay in WAs North West have been found after the boat they were on sank on Tuesday evening. Police spokeswoman Susan Usher said two men and two women were on a 6.1 metre aluminium half cabin vessel when it capsized just after 8.30pm in the vicinity of the North Passage near Mauds Landing. The boat the two men and women were on capsized off Maud's Landing. Two of the four people managed to swim to shore and alerted bystanders that two others were still on board the overturned boat. A multi-agency response was launched including the local water police, the JRCC Challenger Jet, Coral Bay marine rescue and local police from Exmouth and Karratha. A YOUNG man from west Limerick is attempting to follow in the footsteps of former US president John F Kennedy. Jack OConnor, 21, a current UL undergraduate from Kilcolman in west Limerick, has been shortlisted for the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP) Award by Junior Chamber International - won in the past by former president Kenndy. Jack is one of two Irish people shortlisted, with the winners travelling to the JCI World Congress in Japan to accept their award. Having attended Desmond College, Jack is the current United Nations Youth Delegate for Ireland, and the founder of social enterprise start-up Moyo Nua; which has won international business awards, and featured on Forbes magazine. The final round of the TOYP Award includes an online vote section, and Jack needs your vote to help him secure his place in the Top Ten. Voting closes on Monday, June 22, and if you want to support Jack you simply go to https://toyp.jci.cc, click on his tile, and click the like button under his name. Its an immense honour to be shortlisted for such a prestigious award - words cant fully describe how great it is! As always, I cannot thank everybody enough for the endless support shown, especially over the past year. The JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (JCI TOYP) program honours ten outstanding young people under the age of 40 each year. These individuals exemplify the spirit of the JCI Mission and provide extraordinary service to their communities. Whether through service, innovation, determination or revolutionary thinking, these young active citizens create positive impacts on a local and global level. These ten young active citizens will be honoured during the 2020 JCI World Congress. Narrowing the 2020 JCI TOYP top twenty finalists to the final ten honorees will be done not only by the final judging panel, comprised of representatives of select partner organizations and the JCI President, but also by a public popular online vote. A police officer in Vienna - AP Vienna police have fined a man 500 euros ($565) for loudly breaking wind in front of police - a move the force was quick to defend on Tuesday. The Austrian capitals police force said there was much more to the incident than first meets the eye, after the accused complained of what he called an disproportionate and unjustified fine on June 5. In reply to social media commentary that followed, Vienna police revealed the man was fined for "offending public decency". "Of course no-one will be reported for accidentally 'letting one go' once," they wrote on Twitter. The force added that the man had behaved "provocatively and uncooperatively" during an encounter with officers that preceded the incident. He slightly raised himself from the bench, looked at the officers and patently, in a completely deliberate way, emitted a massive flatulence in their immediate proximity, they said. The suspect then found at great financial expense that the police did not like to be farted at so much. Police noted that the decision could be appealed. DANBURY The pre-trial hearing of the Sherman man accused of murdering his husband last year is expected back in court Aug. 12. James C. Maharg, 66, facing murder and tampering with physical evidence charges after police found his 63-year-old husband, Thomas Conley, dead in the couples Sherman home last March. Authorities said the murder culminated after months of trouble for the couple, when Maharg called 911 and announced: My husband is dead. Maharg told police that 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 stated he must have struck the victim in the head at some point during this time, however, he could not provide us with the object or the exact time frame, the affidavit says. [He] stressed he must have struck him in the head with a significant object to create the large gash. Maharg was arrested in March 2019, and remains in custody on $2 million bail. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 17:32:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KHARTOUM, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's 15th batch of peacekeeping force of engineers to Darfur in Sudan has completed the environmental clean-up task in ten camps of the United Nations-African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) on June 15. This has laid a solid foundation for the handover of the camps and brought more benefits to the local people. It is of great significance for the continuous promotion of peace and reconstruction in the region. There are more than ten camps of UNAMID in Darfur, Sudan. As the only engineering support force of Darfur, China's peacekeepers undertook all the task of environmental clean-up for the camps. During the past eight months, the Chinese peacekeepers have completed the cleaning and renovation of ten camps, built 229 prefabs, constructed 30,000 meters of roads, set up sandbox walls with a length of nearly 3 kilometers and barbed wire fence of more than 10,000 meters, as well as leveled more than 90,000 square meters of land. They created "Chinese standards," displayed "Chinese quality" and shaped "Chinese image" in the frontline of the peacekeeping missions. Festo Mbugala, chief of military engineering section of the UNAMID, said that all the camps cleaned up by the Chinese peacekeepers are taken on an entirely newlook. "I am grateful to the Chinese peacekeepers for their outstanding contribution to the peace and reconstruction in Darfur," he said. Enditem The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shortlisted 4 names, including two defectors from the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) for the June 29 biennial election to contest 4 of the 7 Karnataka legislative Council seats falling vacant, an official said on Tuesday. "The state core committee shortlisted 4 names and sent them to New Delhi for our high command's approval so that they can file nominations by Thursday to contest in 4 of the 7 Council seats," party official G. Madhusudhana told IANS. The 4 are H. Vishwanath, M.T.B. Nagaraj, M. Shankar and Sunil Velyapure. Vishwanath, former JD-S leader, and Nagaraj, former Congress minister, lost in the assembly by-elections on December 5 from Hunsur in Mysuru district and Hoskote in Bengaluru Rural district. "As Vishwanath and Nagaraj resigned from their assembly segments in July 2019 with 15 other rebels, which led to the fall of the 14-month-old JD-S-Congress coalition government on July 23, 2019, the committee recommended their names for the Council seats," said Madhusudhana. Shankar, who was an Independent and a minister in the former coalition government, was not given the BJP ticket to contest in the December assembly bypolls though he too resigned from the Ranebennur assembly seat in Haveri district, about 340 km northwest of Bengaluru, along with former Congress and JD-S rebels. Vishwanath, Nagaraj and Shankar are also aspiring to become ministers in the 10-month-old BJP government after getting elected to the Council, as there are 4 vacancies in the 34-member Yeduiyurappa cabinet. Velyapura is the party's grass-root leader from Chincholi in Gulbarga district in the state's northern region, about 586km from Bengaluru. "He (Velyapura) extensively campaigned in the May 2019 general elections and ensured the victory of our candidate Umesh Yadav from the reserved Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat, defeating Congress senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge," recalled Madhusudhana. As the party has 116 legislators in the 225-member Assembly, all its 4 candidates will need 28 votes each to win the contest. Of the 7 outgoing Council members, 5 are from the Congress and one each from the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and an Independent. With 68 lawmakers, the Congress will be able to retain 2 seats and the JD-S one as it has only 34 legislators in the lower house. Of the 75-member Council, the opposition Congress has 37, BJP 19, JD-S 16, two Independents and one Chairman. Lyft has announced the rideshare company will transition to 100 percent electric vehicles (EV) by 2030. The change will affect drivers personal cars and vehicles in every other Lyft program. Lyft acknowledges the switch will not be easy, but should reduce up to 16 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions while also being easier on drivers wallets. Lyft has outlined a three-step plan to meet this goal. First, the company will focus on policies to accelerate electric vehicle cost parity; second, it will provide electric vehicle rentals to drivers as part of its Express Drive program; finally, Lyft plans to build demand for electric vehicles among all Lyft users. Were going to be working with the Environmental Defense Fund, policy makers and auto makers to make electric vehicles make sense, Lyft President John Zimmer said in a Wednesday media briefing. Its all about making it work for the drivers. The shift to EVs in the Express Drive program, which provides rental vehicles to drivers who dont wish to use their own cars, will take place over the next five years, Lyft said. The company has already launched EVs for Express Drive programs in Atlanta, Denver and Seattle. The goal is to only acquire EVs for the program by 2026, and for all Express Drive vehicles to be electric by 2028. To encourage drivers to use EVs as a personal vehicle, Lyft said its working with lawmakers and auto industry officials to make EVs more accessible. Lyft officials said conversations are underway with unspecified automakers, and that the company sees opportunities to tweak some [EV] models to make them ideal [for rideshare]. Lyft didnt directly answer whether, come 2030, drivers of internal combustion vehicles will be prohibited from driving for Lyft. Zimmer instead stated that Lyft will push extremely hard on incentives for electric vehicles. A Union of Concerned Scientists study published earlier this year estimated that services like Uber and Lyft actually generate about 69 percent more CO2 emissions than the transportation options they displace. Lyft challenged the study, telling Engadget earlier this year that it made "misleading claims about rideshare." However, Lyft officials now seem more ready to admit rideshares environmental impact -- it said in a Wednesday statement that ridesharing has increased greenhouse gas emissions. The electric vehicle switch is Lyfts latest step toward making the business more sustainable. In 2017 Lyft hired environmentalist Paul Hawken to act as the companys environmental advisor. In 2018, the company promised to make all rides carbon neutral by spending millions on carbon offsets. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham set an ambitious agenda for the unusual special session that begins Thursday, directing lawmakers to take up legislation on policing, voting by mail and tax relief. The session is dedicated largely to addressing a projected $2 billion hit to state revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic and plummeting oil prices. Legislative committees are already working on solvency plans for the budget. But Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who controls the session agenda, said Wednesday that she will add to the Legislatures to-do list and ask lawmakers to consider bills requiring police officers to wear cameras, allowing county clerks to mail ballots to voters and waiving some tax penalties. The focus of this special session is relatively narrow given the economic crisis and the public health concerns about gathering for an extended period of time, Lujan Grisham said in a written statement, but we must begin to address both the financial and human rights emergencies of this moment and put ourselves in a position to evaluate and enact broader structural reform in the next regular session of the Legislature. House Republicans immediately blasted the governor for broadening the special session agenda beyond what they said is immediately necessary addressing the budget and the economy. They said they havent had a chance to review drafts of legislation they will be asked to take up. For the governor to call a special session and tell us what we are going to hear with less than 24 hours before we meet is incredibly disrespectful not just to this institution, but to the people we all represent, said House Minority Whip Rod Montoya, R-Farmington. This is legislating at its most cynical. Other proposals Besides the budget, Lujan Grisham said Wednesday that she will ask lawmakers to take up bills to: Require police to wear cameras, ban chokehold restraints and make officers disciplinary history a matter of public record under the states Inspection of Public Records Act. She is also asking lawmakers to establish a commission to evaluate ending qualified immunity for police officers, a legal doctrine that helps protect officers from civil lawsuits. Authorize county clerks, during a public health emergency, to mail ballots to registered voters without requiring the voter to fill out an application first. Ballots would go to voters with a current address, the governor said, and voters and election officials could track the ballots progress through the mail. Waive penalties and interest for small businesses and individuals who are unable to pay their property and gross receipts taxes on time. Grant the administration extra flexibility to help businesses during an emergency by, for example, allowing liquor delivery or electronic notary services. Direct the state investment officer to use some of the $5 billion Severance Tax Permanent Fund for loans to help small businesses and municipalities damaged by the pandemic. New Mexico families, workers and businesses have been suffering as a result of this pandemic, and it is our duty not merely to shore up the state budget although that is imperative but to deliver them whatever immediate relief we can as a state, Lujan Grisham said in a written statement. House Minority Leader James Townsend, R-Artesia, said its unfair for the governor to seek immediate action on complex topics such as the election code and qualified immunity without the draft legislation being available ahead of time. Focusing our efforts on anything other than our budget and our economic crisis is unacceptable, Townsend said. The people of New Mexico deserve better. Virus restrictions The session will formally open Thursday amid restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease that has killed 452 New Mexicans. The Capitol is closed to the public and lobbyists, although there are exceptions for legislative staff and media. Legislative activities are to be webcast as usual although lawmakers routinely fail to turn on their microphones, making it hard to hear. The session doesnt have a formal end date, but legislative leaders say they hope to finish within three days. Past special sessions have cost about $50,000 a day. Legislators and staff members wore masks during committee hearings Wednesday, though at least one lawmaker, Republican Sen. Greg Baca of Belen, didnt. He was the only member of the Senate Rules Committee, for example, without a mask. In an interview, Baca said he has been isolated at home and would wear a mask when the Legislatures new mask rules go into effect. He would have put one on Wednesday, he said, if a colleague had asked. I didnt think much of it, to be honest with you, Baca said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention generally recommends that people wear cloth masks in public settings, and the Lujan Grisham administration last month revised a public health order to require that New Mexicans wear face coverings in public, with a few exceptions. Agreement sought Negotiators for the legislative and executive branches continued Wednesday to work on a solvency plan for the state budget and made some progress. But significant differences remain. A revised Legislative Finance Committee plan now includes about $5 million for a new tuition-free college scholarship program that Lujan Grisham wants to launch. A $7.6 billion budget approved earlier this year included $17 million for the program, and an initial solvency plan discussed by lawmakers would have cut it entirely. The two branches also disagree on pay raises. Lujan Grisham is proposing an increase of 2% for teachers and state employees, or half what was approved earlier this year. The legislative framework proposes a sliding scale for pay increases based on an employees salary, with a maximum boost of 1.5% for workers who make less than $40,000. Under the proposal, the states recurring spending for the budget year that starts July 1 would be trimmed from about $7.6 billion to $7 billion. But some legislative staffers said Wednesday that the pared-back spending plan would not represent a budget cut, because it would largely maintain current spending levels. Tapping into the states cash reserves and using federal funds among other financial maneuvers would help the state avoid the need for deeper cuts in response to the $2 billion projected hit to revenue. But legislators and analysts warned that the following budget year starting next summer may require more dramatic steps to balance spending and revenue. Dawn Iglesias, chief economist for the Legislative Finance Committee, told lawmakers Wednesday that it could take five years for employment to reach pre-pandemic levels in New Mexico. Internet has given a big leg up to poverty alleviation in Longnan, northwest Chinas Gansu province in recent years. In the demonstration city of poverty alleviation by e-commerce, e-marketing is now a new farm work for local farmers. Zhang Jiacheng is one of the many that have turned into anchors on livestreaming platforms. Last year, the wholesale prices of apples have tripled. By showing his followers around in his apple orchard on a livestreaming platform, the man earned more than 200,000 ($28,239) yuan last year. Since China promoted internet services in rural areas for poverty alleviation more than three years ago, rural areas have seen constantly improving network infrastructure. With the help of the internet, distinctive agricultural products from rural areas are reaching more places in the country, and high-quality education and medical resources have become available in rural areas, revitalizing the countryside with better internet connectivity. Local government in Longnan has vigorously supported the e-commerce sector in recent years. The city is home to 14,372 online shops and more than 33,000 individual e-commerce businesses. In 2019, the average per capita income of impoverished people in the city increased by 840 yuan spurred by e-commerce. 536 state-level impoverished counties are learning from Longnans experience in relieving poverty through e-commerce, according to the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development. E-commerce now covers all 832 state-level poor counties across China. In rural China, there are about 1,700 county-level e-commerce public service centers and logistics and distribution centers, as well as more than 130,000 village-level e-commerce service stations. Besides, the country has trained more than five million people for e-commerce in rural areas. Last year, the online retail sales of agricultural products reached 397.5 billion yuan, 1.5 times higher than that in 2016. The deepening internet-driven poverty alleviation has been constantly optimizing network infrastructure in poverty-stricken areas. As of October 2019, more than 98 percent of Chinas administrative villages had been connected with optical fiber network and 4G network, and 99 percent of the impoverished villages had been linked with broadband internet services. The internet has not only boosted sales of agricultural products, but also profoundly changed the lives of the poor people. Besides, the internet has strengthened the role of education in poverty relief in rural China. Li Zimin is a junior middle school student in Hulu township, Guangzong county, north Chinas Hebei province. As she introduced, she now has two teachers - a top teacher invited by the school for tele-education classes, and a local teacher assisting the former in the classroom. Li noted that in the college entrance examination four years ago, only one student in her county was admitted to first-tier universities, and the figure jumped to 112 last year. Internet-based education is introducing more excellent education resources to impoverished areas, such as top teachers, schools and education institutions, greatly curbing the intergenerational poverty. Telemedicine is another sector where the internet could play a role in poverty alleviation. Recently, doctors from a hospital in Lingtai county, Pingliang of northwest Chinas Gansu province, conducted remote consultations via a video link with a health center in the countys Dudian township for a poor villager named Zhang Hongcai in Zhangpo village. Its convenient and economical to invite doctors from the county hospital to take part in my treatment via the video link, the farmer said happily. Internet-based healthcare provides impoverished people with convenient access to quality medical resources, playing an important role in preventing people from fall into or slipping back to poverty due to illness. However, to have the internet play a bigger role in poverty alleviation, China still needs to bolster areas of weakness as soon as possible, for instance, the logistics. Statistics indicate that 96.6 percent of the Chinese townships have established delivery service stations, but such facilities are only available in 35 percent of the villages. To bring more agricultural products out of the rural areas, a special project was launched by the State Post Bureau, aiming to offer express delivery services to all incorporated villages in three years. The industrial chain should also be improved so that the internet could better facilitate poverty alleviation. For instance, when the COVID-19 epidemic brought troubles to the picking and sales of 170,000 tons of navel oranges in Zigui county, Hubei province, local farmers and e-commerce platforms worked together for solutions. We adopted a video monitoring system to oversee the harvesting, sorting and packing of the fruits. We also measured the size of the fruits with calipers and the sweetness of the fruits with refractometers. Examinations were carried out once abnormity was spotted, said an executive of an e-commerce platform. Alleviating the shortage of talents helps internet-empowered poverty alleviation go further and steadily. Juncheng county in east Chinas Shandong province has established a school to cultivate online influencers. By organizing regular training on making short videos and livestreaming hosting, the school has exported a number of farmers that are adept at using the internet, livestreaming and e-marketing. By integrating livestreaming with offline industries, the county has sold its products to the whole country. Williamsburg, NM (87901) Today Mostly sunny. High 54F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Some passing clouds. Low near 30F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. A prominent dock worker at the Tema Port, Mr. Kofi Mensah, has admonished against dragging President Akufo-Addo in an agenda to make the Harbour Master at the Tema Port a fall guy. I am a dock worker and it is a well-known fact that the MPS deal, which we believe is not in the interest of Ghana and has taken a toll on the finances of our mother company, the GPHA, and we all want that to change. However, I will not subscribe to a deliberate attempts to make an innocent person, the scape-goat for our troubles, Mr. Mensah said. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview on the alleged accusation of the President after a News Conference, Mr. Mensah said that claims that the Harbour Master was in bed with the Meridian Ports Services (MPS) and that he was the reason that the GPHA was not attracting ships to its terminal was untrue. According to him, a groundswell clamour for President Akufo-Addo to have the GPHA remove the Harbour Master from office therefore was unfortunate. According to him, to say that ships are not coming to dock at the GPHA's side of the port, but going to the MPS side because the Harbour Master has been diverting them there, is unfortunate. To clamour for President Akufo-Addo to remove the Harbour Master based on this misconception is even worse. Mr. Mensah said the allegations emerging amidst demonstrations by GPHA workers against the MPS' failure to cede 20 per cent of containerized cargo to the GPHA, needs to be stopped in its tracks. He pointed out that the destination of a ship was determined long before it sets sail and not by the Harbour Master of the Port that it berths at. GPHA workers are up in arms after negotiations for MPS to cede 20 per cent of containerized cargo to the GPHA failed to fall through. It would be recalled that MPS contract to build Terminal 3 and then manage the terminal to offset its investment was a source of disagreement between GPHA and the MPS. The latest in the disagreement was a demonstration that GPHA workers were holding after another round of negotiation with MPS in Dubai failed to yield the desired compromise. While the demonstration was going on, allegations emerged that the ships that docked at MPS' Terminal 3 did not go to the GPHA's side of the Port because the Harbour Master, Capt. Christian Yeboah Asante, was deliberately re-directing incoming vessels to the side of the MPS. The clamour is for President Akufo-Addo to order the GPHA to remove the Harbour Master from office. But it is not true that the Harbour Master is the reason why GPHA is not getting vessels and therefore business; in this industry, it is the Principal or the owner of the ship who determines which Port his or her ships should dock and not the Shipping Master, Mr. Mensah said. Mr. Mensah's point has been confirmed by an agent of one of the shipping lines who said that the final destination was determined and negotiated long before the ship would even take off. The Principal is abroad and deals with top management of the various companies involved. The Harbour Master only receives instructions that are pre- determined and he follows them, the agent said. GNA United Kingdom had record number of abortions in 2019: report Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment More abortions were performed in the United Kingdom in 2019 than in any previous year since the procedure was legalized in 1967, according to a new report. The U.K. Department of Health and Social Care released its annual update on abortion procedure statistics for England and Wales last Thursday. According to the report, there were 207,384 abortions performed on women living in England and Wales in 2019, the largest number since the 1967 Abortion Act was passed. Compared to 2018, the rate of abortions has increased for women over the age of 35 while remaining basically the same for women under the age of 18. The age which saw the highest abortion rate in 2019 was 22, with a reported 31.6 per 1,000 women. This is a slight increase from 2018, in which those aged 21 had the highest abortion rate, with 30.7 per 1,000. Minors seeking abortions have declined over the past several years, according to the report, even though the numbers remained about the same from 2018 to 2019. The decline since 2009 is particularly marked in the under 16 age group, where the rates have decreased from 4.0 per 1,000 women in 2009 to 1.4 per 1,000 women in 2019, explained the report. The abortion rate for 18-19 year olds has also declined from 31.6 per 1,000 women to 23.8 per 1,000 women in the same period. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, a British pro-life group, released a statement declaring the latest statistics a national tragedy. This appalling figure shows us that abortion is becoming more and more normalised. Propaganda telling women that abortion is simple and safe coupled with easier access to abortion pills is driving up abortion numbers, stated Antonia Tully, SPUC director of campaigns. But behind the figures are real women who have taken an irreversible step and who are likely to be suffering physically or emotionally. Jonathan Lord, medical director of Marie Stopes U.K., a major British abortion provider, argued that the uptick in abortions might be due to a lack of good access to contraceptives. The contraceptive needs of women in their 20s, 30s and 40s, including those who already have children, have been sadly neglected, stated Lord, as reported by The Guardian. Lack of investment in contraceptive services has led to poor access and unacceptable waits, particularly for the most effective long-acting methods, such as the implant and coil. In England, Wales, and Scotland, elective abortions are legal for up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy, with later abortions permitted provided they fall under certain circumstances. Last October, Northern Ireland had its law prohibiting abortions save when medically necessary overturned, allowing for broader access to the procedure. (ANSA) - ROME, JUN 17 - On Thursday Premier Giuseppe Conte will speak to the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the torture and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Egypt in 2016. The commission requested Conte attend a hearing after the government approved the sale of two Italian frigates to Egypt. Cambridge doctoral researcher Regeni, 28, was found dead on February 3 2016 a week after disappearing on the Cairo metro. He had been tortured so badly that his mother said she only recognised him by the tip of his nose. Rome prosecutors have placed five members of Egypt's security apparatus under investigation for the murder, sparking Cairo to stop significant cooperation in the probe into the Friuli-born researcher's death. At various times Egypt has advanced various explanations for his death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff and abduction and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang that was wiped out after Regeni's documents were planted in their lair. Regeni was researching Cairo street sellers unions for the British university, a politically sensitive subject. The head of the street hawkers union had fingered Regeni as a spy. Rome prosecutors are set to meet their colleagues from Cairo to discuss the case on July 1. (ANSA). Representative image The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has released a list of more than 500 Made in China products to be boycotted after border tensions between India and China escalated on June 16. Products on the list include toys, fabrics, textiles, apparel, everyday items, kitchen items, furniture, hardware, footwear, handbags, luggage, electronics, cosmetics and gift items, electronics, watches, gems and jewellery, stationery, paper, household items, health products, auto parts, etc., News-18 reported. As per the report, the Traders body took cognisance of business persons strong criticism of aggression along the Ladakh border, adding that Chinas attitude is against the interests of the country (India). India-China Border News LIVE CAIT has thus under the campaign Indian Goods Our Pride released a list covering more than 500 items to be boycotted from China, and instead Indian goods be used, it added. In phase 1, the body has set a target to meet a shortfall of $13 billion (Rs 1 lakh crore approx.) in imports from China by December 2021. Presently, annual imports from China amount to Rs 5.25 lakh crore ($70 billion), the body said. The first phase has focused on products that can be made in India, but price has been the deciding factor when importing. CAIT National President BC Bhartia and National General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal told the publication: There is no need for special technology to manufacture these items. These goods can be easily manufactured in India and can replace Chinese imports. This will reduce Indias dependence on China for these goods. Bhartia and Khandelwal further clarified that goods that require particular technology are not included in the list at the moment. Currently, such items are kept out of the purview of boycott because, until the alternative of this type of technology is developed in India or is not manufactured by any friendly nation of India, there is no other way, they noted. The body is also likely to raise the matter with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, for government support and assistance to small scale industries, entrepreneurs and startups so that domestic manufacture picks up, it added. Ackerman Toyota can help individuals get a Toyota Rewards Visa. When customers purchase items on the credit card, they work towards earning points that can then be redeemed for Toyota services, parts and accessories at participating Toyota dealerships. Individuals who like receiving rewards for purchasing items on a credit card can now earn points with a Toyota Rewards Visa. 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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered the military to oversee the country's border controls Wednesday after a bungle that allowed two people with the coronavirus to leave quarantine. A 24-day run with no new cases was broken Tuesday when it emerged two women who recently arrived from Britain were allowed out of quarantine early without being tested for the virus, even though one had mild symptoms. The pair were eventually swabbed and proved to be infected, but only after they made a 650-kilometre (400-mile) road trip from Auckland to Wellington to see a dying relative. Ardern said it was "absolutely nonsensical" they were not tested earlier and border controls clearly needed to be tightened to prevent similar failures. She said Assistant Chief of Defence Digby Webb had been appointed to oversee border quarantine operations and was being given access to military personnel and logistical expertise. "My view is that we need the rigour, we need the confidence, we need the discipline that the military can provide," Ardern told reporters. Health Minister David Clark acknowledged widespread anger at the blunder. Kiwis endured a stringent seven-week lockdown to eliminate the virus in the country which has recorded only 1,156 cases and 22 deaths in a population of five million. "New Zealanders have made great sacrifices to make it to this point," he told Radio New Zealand. "Our system has performed incredibly well as a whole in New Zealand. We have eliminated COVID-19 but I want this fixed straight away." - 'Envy of the world' - The South Pacific nation last week scrapped domestic social distancing measures while maintaining strong border controls. The changes have heralded a return to near-normality, with sports matches played in front of sold-out stadiums, nightclubs open and thousands gathering for events such as Black Lives Matter Protests without restrictions. Clark said it was unacceptable that mistakes at the border, which is now seen as the frontline in the fight against COVID-19, could put such gains at risk. "We're the envy of the world in many ways and we want to continue being the envy of the world," he said. New Zealand's borders are open only to returning Kiwis and their families, besides some exceptions for some foreigners on business and compassionate grounds, with everyone expected to undergo two weeks mandatory quarantine. Officials say there are approximately 3,500 people in border quarantine, mostly staying in hotels where they are expected to remain isolated in their rooms and avoid social contact. The programme that allowed recent arrivals to leave isolation early on compassionate grounds has been suspended and everyone in quarantine must test negative for the virus before they are allowed back into the community. Ardern stressed that the women at the centre of the furore had done nothing wrong and complied with health protocols at all times. They remain in isolation in Wellington as health officials scramble to test about 320 people they had contact with while in New Zealand. MCLEAN, Va., June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- King & Spalding announced today the opening of its new Northern Virginia office, which will be the firm's 22nd globally. The Tysons Corner office, together with the 250-lawyer Washington, D.C. office, will continue to provide full-service offerings to technology and aerospace, defense and government services (ADG) clients. "Serving technology and ADG companies, sponsors, and other investors makes Northern Virginia a logical and important location for the firm," said King & Spalding Chairman Robert D. Hays, Jr. "Given both our investment in the corporate practice and the growth in the national security arena, our Tysons Corner office will extend our reach into serving the tech sector across the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia (DMV) region and globally." King & Spalding continues to invest in the region with the addition of partners with long-standing ties to the community and to the global clients with interests in the DMV area. The new Tysons Corner office will include a 25-lawyer Chambers & Partners Band 1 ranked Corporate/M&A team which is anchored by Lawrence Yanowitch, Thomas Knox, Charlie Katz, and Jeremy Schropp, who have been practicing together in Northern Virginia for over two decades. Prior to joining King & Spalding from Morrison & Foerster in October, Yanowitch was global co-chair of the firm's M&A practice and Knox was the global co-chair of its Corporate Department. In February, Rick Vacura joined King & Spalding also from Morrison & Foerster where he was the founder and former co-chair of its Government Contracts practice. He serves as the chair of King & Spalding's Government Contracts practice. Steve Cave, another government contracts partner, joined King & Spalding from McKinsey & Company. John Harper, seasoned advisor on M&A tax matters, also joined the group. "Clients value our insight into their issues and appreciate that we are fully committed to serving the Mid-Atlantic business community," said Tom Knox, King & Spalding partner and co-chair of the firm's global Technology Industry practice. "Leveraging King & Spalding's industry-leading financing, national security, international trade and regulatory practices furthers our ability to counsel clients during this period of uncertainty and opportunity." The team has been active on a number of key technology and ADG M&A transactions since joining the firm representing: Dynetics in its $1.65 billion sale transaction with Leidos; sale transaction with Leidos; SAIC in its $1.2 billion acquisition of Unisys Federal; acquisition of Unisys Federal; Sonatype in its acquisition by Vista Equity Partners; and the founder of Maryland -based Merkle Group in the completion of its strategic cross-border acquisition by London -based Dentsu Aegis Network. "King & Spalding's expanding global platform has provided outstanding transaction support to the clients we serve from the Northern Virginia office," said Lawrence Yanowitch, King & Spalding partner. "We continue to find creative solutions to achieve client objectives in a challenging market environment." King & Spalding's Northern Virginia office is located at 1650 Tysons Boulevard in McLean, Virginia. Charles Katz will serve as the office's managing partner. About King & Spalding Celebrating more than 130 years of service, King & Spalding is an international law firm that represents a broad array of clients, including half of the Fortune Global 100, with over 1,100 lawyers in 22 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm has handled matters in over 160 countries on six continents and is consistently recognized for the results it obtains, uncompromising commitment to quality, and dedication to understanding the business and culture of its clients. More information is available at www.kslaw.com. SOURCE K&S Related Links www.kslaw.com Thousands of student nurses recruited to work on the front line against Covid-19 have been told their placements will be cut short, plunging some of them into financial despair. Nurses took to Facebook and Twitter to express outrage at a decision from NHS England that their paid placements will now finish at the end of July instead of running until the end of September. One nurse calling herself Becky Jane said nurses had been told by Health Education England - which oversees training - that the NHS could no longer afford to keep the paid placements going until the end of September as originally promised. She wrote on Facebook: 'Some of us left jobs for this. Many of us have children and families to care for.' But Health Education England's chief nurse Mark Radford denied it was cutting student nurses' pay, saying final-year students would be paid until July 31 and could then get paid jobs as registered nurses. Lead organiser for Nurses United UK Anthony Johnson, pictured, said the 'disgusting' decision was typical of the way student nurses are treated throughout their studies If they have hours still to complete in their placement, they will be paid until September, he said, adding that those those in Year 2 would be paid until the end of July. Lead organiser for Nurses United UK Anthony Johnson, said the 'disgusting' decision was typical of the way student nurses are treated throughout their studies. The 27-year-old said: 'Student nurses are not all young, they have families and mortgages to support. And if there is a second peak, we're going to be asking them to get involved again.' Becky Jane said nurses could graduate with around 30,000 debt already and had signed up for the six-month placements at the start of April despite being 'terrified' of contracting Covid-19. Student nurses were on the front line treating patients suffering from Covid-19, pictured She added: 'Please do not clap for your NHS. Please in future consider voting to fund it properly.' Another nurse, Sarah Flynn, wrote on Facebook: 'We saved your life Boris or have you forgotten?' In mid-April, NHS England reported that nearly 15,000 student nurses, midwives and medical students had joined 'frontline NHS teams as part of the nationwide coronavirus fightback'. Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, praised them at the time, saying they were 'stepping up to serve in the fight against coronavirus'. The final year student nurses were sent to work in Covid-19 wards before completing their training. In response, they were offered a special contract which was due to continue until they qualify at the end of September According to the website NursingNotes, one university told its student nurses: 'We have now had final confirmation that the 31st of July 2020 will be the end date for all students on paid placements in all placement areas.' Former health secretary and Tory MP Jeremy Hunt tweeted: 'This would be very concerning if true but I cannot believe govt would let down this brilliant and brave group of people.' Professor Radford said in a statement: 'To be clear, it is absolutely untrue to suggest that student nurses and midwives are being made redundant; all student nurses and midwives are required to complete placements during their training. 'These placements are normally unpaid but to recognise the special circumstances and as part of the response to Covid-19 these hours have been paid and will be until the end of summer. NHS England has been provided with the funding for student salaries as part of the response to Covid. 'Year 3 students will be paid till 31st of July and, if they have completed hours and assessments, can qualify and be paid as a full registered nurses. They will move from Band 4 to Band 5 and therefore increase their pay. Any Year 3 student who has hours to complete will be paid until September to allow them to do this. 'Any Year 2 students on placement till July 31st will be paid and after this normal non-paid placements will be reintroduced along with Year 1 students. We committed at the outset of the pandemic to ensure that these students complete their training and are able to qualify. 'It was always made clear to students who opted in to paid placements the arrangements would need to come to an end at an appropriate point so that students could return to their supernumerary status to complete their registered nursing qualifications as quickly as possible to permanently enter the NHS workforce.' Mike Adams, director for England at the Royal College of Nursing, said: 'We urge Health Education England and the NHS in England to offer some clarity for students about the way forward. The vital work student nurses have been doing throughout the pandemic has demonstrated the huge contribution nursing undergraduates make to our health and care services. HEE was unable to immediately confirm whether students were told at the start of their placements that pay would mostly only continue until the end of July. Shadow health minister Justin Madders said: 'Student nurses up and down the country have cut their studies short, and in some cases left other jobs, to go and work on the front line as part of the national effort to combat coronavirus. 'Their personal commitment should be recognised and reciprocated by the Government. They do not deserve to be cast aside like this and ministers must explain exactly what is happening.' Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs in the Commons that the funding would be in place 'until the end of summer' but gave no specific date He said: 'It is wrong to suggest that student nurses and midwives are being made redundant.' Indian Army soldier Deepak Singh Gaharwar, one of the 20 bravehearts who lost their lives in the face-off with Chinese soldiers in Ladakhs Galwan Valley on Monday night, had told his family about his return after the Covid-19 lockdown. About 15 days back, Gaharwar told his family members that he would return when the situation gets back to normal after the Covid-19 lockdown. Deepak Singh, 30, hailed from Faranda village in Madhya Pradeshs Rewa district, about 536 kilometres northeast of Bhopal. His wife, Rekha, works as a teacher at a Navoday school. The couple got married in November last year. Also read: No compromise on borders - PM Modi spells out Indias stance on row with China A pall of gloom engulfed the village when the news of Singhs sacrifice reached his family on Wednesday morning. He was the younger son of Gajraj Singh Gaharwar, a farmer. Singh lost his mother in his childhood. He was raised by his father and grandmother Phoolmati Devi. They were inconsolable when they heard about his demise. Singhs elder brother Prakash Singh also serves the Army and is posted at the India-Pak border in Rajasthan, the family shared. Also read: He sacrificed life for nation, will send my grandsons too - Sepoy Kundan Kumars father , - pic.twitter.com/vism8TgPEW Shivraj Singh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) June 17, 2020 His grandmother said, He talked to me about a fortnight back. He told me, Dadi tum pareshaan mat hona. Main lockdown khatam hote hi aaunga (Dont worry. I will come home after lockdown restrictions are lifted). I didnt know he would never come. Singhs cousin Sachin Singh said, He called me up about the same time when he talked to his family. Since he was posted as a nursing assistant at the border, it was difficult to talk to him. Often, there would be no mobile network. He was the most adorable person in our village. He respected all and everyone had respect for him. This is the time when we must teach a lesson to China that it doesnt dare to indulge in such a crime again, the agitated cousin said. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan paid tributes to the soldier with a salute to his sacrifice for the nation and a patriotic verse. State Congress president Kamal Nath too paid condolences on the demise of the soldier. (With input from Vijay Vishwakarma in Rewa) Hundreds of potentially explosive letters that shed light on what Buckingham Palace knew in the lead-up to Gough Whitlam's 1975 dismissal will be released by the end of July. The deadline, agreed to by historian Jenny Hocking and National Archives of Australia director-general David Fricker, eased tensions between the two camps over how to interpret a May High Court ruling which paved the way for the 211 'Palace Letters' to be released. Gough Whitlam on the steps of Parliament after his dismissal in 1975. Credit:Herald Archive Mr Fricker had remained tight-lipped over when the documents would be made public, not ruling out taking more than 90 days to declassify the letters despite Professor Hocking arguing he was required under the Archives Act to make them available within a month. "We're delighted to have an actual date," Professor Hocking said. "It's a terrific thing because it was clear from recent comments that Mr Fricker appeared reluctant to be drawn on a particular date." 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. LOS ANGELESInstagram has long put on a public face of opposition to sexual, or even sexually suggestive content on its Facebook-owned social media platform, even reportedly deleting accounts held by 1,300 adult performers last year. But new research into how the sites algorithm operates shows that in reality, Instagram not only encourages users to post photographs of themselves in various states of undress, it forces them to, if they want to achieve maximum engagement on their posts. Researchers from the organization Algorithm Watch, in collaboration with the European Data Journalism Network, have published a new study titled Undress or fail: Instagrams algorithm strong-arms users into showing skin. Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women, shaping the behavior of content creators and the worldview of 140 millions Europeans in what remains a blind spot of EU regulations, the studys authors reported. An algorithm is basically a set of instructions that causes a computer to perform a specific task. On social media sites, algorithms determine which posts appear more prominently in users feeds. Posts which appear higher in feeds generally receive higher levels of user engagement, such as likes, clicks, and comments. When the Germany-based data research nonprofit studied posts from 37 Instagram content creators, measuring how their posts performed in the feeds of 26 volunteer users, they found that photos of women posing in bikinis or underwear were 54 percent more likely to appear in Instagram feeds than other types of posts. The algorithm also favors men who pose in states of undress, though not as heavily as it favors women. Men who posted shirtless pictures of themselves were 28 percent more likely to appear in Instagram feeds. By contrast, photos depicting food or landscape photography struggled for recognition, being 60 percent less likely to appear in the volunteers Instagram feeds. The findings come about a year after Instagram announced that it was taking measures to suppress just such scantily clad pics. The social media site claimed that it would now penalize any type of inappropriate content, even if it did not violate the platforms rules against nudity or clearly sexual content. This type of content may not appear for the broader community in Explore or hashtag pages, the site said in a 2019 announcement. Weve started to use machine learning to determine if the actual media posted is eligible to be recommended to our community. But according to the new study, exactly the opposite has happened. Posts depicting women and men wearing only minimal attire are actually significantly more likely to appear in user feeds. The researchers analyzed 2,400 photos from 1,737 posts, finding only 21 percent depicted women or men in their undergarments or skimpy swimwear. But those posts made up 30 percent of all photos appearing in user feeds. Photo by Tofros.com / Pexels PM Modi held a high-level meet with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday evening to take stock of the situation in Eastern Ladakh where India and China have been locked in a standoff for over five weeks. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a fierce clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region. The Army initially has said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement it revised the figure to 20 saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries." Government sources said the Chinese side too suffered "proportionate casualties" but chose not to speculate on the number. Also Read: India-China border clash: Wat happened on June 15-16? Also read: India-China border clashes: How many Chinese soldiers died? Here's what we know Check all the latest updates on India-China tension on BusinessToday.In live blog 5.26 pm: Pre-meditated action by China in Galwan, EAM Jaishankar tells Chinese counterpart In a telephonic conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, "What happened in Galwan was premeditated, planned action by China that was responsible for sequence of event." Jaishankar emphasised that this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship. The need of the hour was for Chinese side to reassess its actions and take corrective measures, he added. 4:23 pm: China used drones According to sources, China used drones to track down Indian soldiers at the Galwan Valley. 4:21 pm: Foreign Ministers in conversation Foreign Ministers of both the nations have spoken on the phone and had a discussion on the India-China clash. 4:19 pm: Many missing soldiers have been traced after air surveillance Both India and Chinese armies used multiple helicopter sorties to track down injured soldiers. Many who went missing have ben traced after air surveillance. Close to 20 jawans are reported to have been wounded and are in critical condition. 4:12 pm: WB announces compensation for two martyrs Mamata Banerjee said that the West Bengal government would pay Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the two martyrs who were residents of the state. One person from each of the families would also be given a government job. 4:09 pm: 'Bow to the families of such great heroes,' said Amit Shah Amit Shah said he bows to the families who blessed Indian Army with such great heroes. "India will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifice. Entire nation and Modi government stands firmly with their families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured," he said. 4:05 pm: 'Nation salutes our immortal heroes,' says Amit Shah Home Minister Amit Shah took to Twitter to pay tribute to the 20 martyred jawans. "Pain of losing our brave jawans cannot be put into words," he said. The pain of losing our brave soldiers while protecting our motherland at Ladakhs Galwan can not be put in words. Nation salutes our immortal heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep Indian territory safe and secure. Their bravery reflects Indias commitment towards her land. Amit Shah (@AmitShah) June 17, 2020 3:59 pm: Father of deceased jawan says will send grandsons to Army too #WATCH Bihar: Father of Sepoy Kundan Kumar, who lost his life in #GalwanValley of Ladakh on June 15-16, says, "My son sacrificed his life for the nation. I have two grandsons, I will send them too." pic.twitter.com/WHkkJw0HEX ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 3:45 pm: 'Are our soldiers still missing,' asks Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi asks if our soldier and officers are still missing. "How many of our soldiers/officers are critically injured? What areas have been occupied by China?," she said in her message to PM Modi. 3:40 pm: Sonia Gandhi pays tribute to martyrs Congress President Sonia Gandhi says that the demise of the 20 jawans has shaken the conscience of the nation. "I pay my tribute to all those brave soldiers from the core of my heart," she said adding that she is praying for the families to gather the strength to face this pain. 3.30 pm: PM Modi said that India is proud of its soldiers that died fighting and taking down enemies with them. India favours peace but will not refrain from responding if provoked. 3:23 pm: Visuals from 2-minute silence observed by PM Modi and CMs Prime Minister Modi said that the death of the soldiers will not go in vain. He said if anyone provokes India then they will get a befitting reply. The PM then observed 2-minute silence ahead of the meeting with CMs. Delhi: PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the chief ministers of 15 states and union territories, who are present in the meeting via video-conferencing today, observe two-minute silence as a tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives in #GalwanValley clash. pic.twitter.com/R9smyDFwbR ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 3:17 pm: India wants peace but will take appropriate action if provoked, says PM Modi. Unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important for us, he said. 3:15 pm: Have always wished well for our neighbours and have supported them. But we will not accept a threat to the country, says PM. I want to assure the nation that their deaths will not go in vain, he said. 3:11 pm: PM Modi pays tribute to the martyrs. The PM observed 2 minutes of silence for the deceased ahead of the meeting with CMs. 3:00 pm: Talks between India-China Major General-level talks are being held in Galwan valley between India and China to defuse the situation. 2:55 pm: PLA trying to gain ground since May, says former Indian Ambassador to China Former Indian Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale said that the PLA has been trying since early May to occupy ground position on the basis of its idea of LAC. He said India did not agree and stopped Chinese troops from advancing in early May. There has been a standoff for many weeks. He said that there is always the possibility of the situation spiralling out of control when two armies are in such close proximity. 2:43 pm: Russia-India-China RIC trilateral meeting postponed The Russia-India-China RIC trilateral meeting has been postponed in the wake of the India-China clash. The meeting of the foreign ministers likely to be held on June 22-23 has been rescheduled for a future date. 2:35 pm: List of names of martyrs released Here are the names of the martyrs who lost their lives in the India-China border clash: COL. B SANTOSH BABU NB SUB NUDURAM SOREN SB SUB MANDEEP SINGH ND SUB SATNAM SINGH HAV K PALANI HAV SUNIL KUMA HAV BIPUL ROY NK DEEPAK KUMAR SEP RAJESH ORANG SEP KUNDAN KUMAR OJHA SEP GANESH RAM SEP CHANDRAKANTA PRADHAN SEP ANKUSH SEP GURBINDER SEP GURTEJ SINGH SEP CHANDAN KUMAR SEP KUNDAN KUMAR SEP AMAN KUMAR SEP JAI KISHORE SINGH SEP GANESH HANSDA 2:30 pm: Chinese media downplays clash China downplayed the clash between the two countries. Chinese media houses like People's Daily of China, which is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China did not even mention in its newspaper. For full story, read India-China face-off: Chinese media downplays Galwan Valley border clashes 2:25 pm: Wreath laying ceremony in Ladakh Wreath laying ceremony took place in Ladakh for the martyrs. Latest visuals from Ladakh: Wreath laying of Indian Army soldiers who lost their lives in #GalwanValley clash performed at Army Hospital in Leh; chopper activity seen in the area pic.twitter.com/MDN45NWLCQ ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 2:22 pm: Chinese Army suffered 35 casualties, says US intel As many as 35 casualties were suffered by the Chinese Army in the clash with Indian troops, said sources quoting US Intelligence reports. The figure could combine killed and seriously wounded, it said. 2:18 pm: Eligibility for Indian contracts to be changed A change in the offing is the eligibility for Indian contracts. Top sources in the government said that Chinese companies used to edge out Indian entities in global bids due to the stringent clauses set in the tenders. Chinese giants in many instances due to their greater global exposure and experience used to bid low and beat domestic players. A senior source in an infrastructure ministry said that the ground eligibility rules are going to be changed to make domestic players eligible. "The technical norms for project tenders need a serious relook. This can act as another level of filtering," he said. 2:10 pm: CAIT releases list of 500 Chinese items to boycott Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has released a list of more than 500 'Made in China' products for boycotting. Toys, fabrics, textiles, apparel, kitchen items, hardware, footwear, handbags, cosmetics and gift items, electronics, watches, household items, auto parts products have made it to the list. CAIT has started a campaign called Indian Goods - Our Pride. 2:05 pm: Trouble for Chinese stakes in Indian projects? According to reports the government is looking into projects where Chinese companies have financial bids. It is looking into the Delhi-Meerut RRTS project where a Chinese company had won the bid. The government might scrap the bid. Government will study eligibility rules in projects that benefit experienced Chinese companies over domestic players 1:55 pm: Protesters detained Delhi Police said that 6-7 Army veterans had gathered near the Chinese Embassy but were asked to disperse. The Police said that 10 members of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch who also gathered have been detained. 1:48 pm: China 'throwing punches' when it should focus on economy, says US expert "China is throwing punches and provoking its neighbours at a time when you'd think Beijing would want to ease up on confrontation and focus on the economy at home. Instead, Xi Jinping is making a conscious appeal to Chinese nationalism and appears to be calculating that China can handle the consequences of these actions," Asia Society Policy Institute Vice President Daniel Russel said. 1:40 pm: Indian soldiers hold ground in Galwan Satellite images from Planet Labs, photographs taken less than 24 hours after the night of June 15 show that Indian side is still holding its ground in Galwan. High resolution satellite images taken on June 16 show a massive continuing build-up by the Chinese side. 1:29 pm: PM Modi calls all-party meetin on June 19 PM Modi has called for an all-party meeting o June 19 to discuss the India-China border situation. The virtual meeting scheduled for 5 pm will be attended by the Presidents of all the political parties. 1:15 pm: 'Don't wish to see more clashes,' says China "The incident happened on the Chinese side of LAC and China is not to blame for it. From the Chinese side, we do not wish to see more clashes," stated Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. 1:13 pm: India must discipline frontline troops, says China "We ask India to strictly discipline its frontline troops, stop infringing and provocative activity at once, work with China and come back to the right track of resolving the differences through dialogue and talk," says Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. 1:05 pm: Sovereignty of Galwan Valley always belonged to us, says China "The sovereignty of the Galwan valley area has always belonged to China. The Indian border troops flip-flopped and seriously violated our border protocols on border-related issues and the consensus of our commander level talks," says Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian. 12:55 pm: India-China in close communication, says Chinese FM Chinese Foreign Minister said that India and China are in close communication to resolve the issue through diplomatic and military channels. 12:50 pm: Defence Ministry says prepared for discussions The Defence Ministry said that India is prepared to resolve the issue through discussions as there can be no compromise on the country's territorial integrity. The ministry also said that the mortal remains of the three deceased would be taken to their respective places after the wreath laying ceremony. 12:35 pm: Act swiftly, says Sunil Chhetri "Act swiftly, for the sake of those army personnel who have died and for those who shouldn't," says footballer Sunil Chhetri. Resolve this across a table while you can, not at the border. Act swiftly, for the sake of those army personnel who have died and for those who shouldn't. I can only hope that the families of those who have laid down their lives find strength to deal with their losses. Sunil Chhetri (@chetrisunil11) June 17, 2020 12:25 pm: Police detain protestors outside China embassy Swadeshi Jagran Manch members and ex-Army veterans are protesting outside the Chinese embassy in Delhi. Police have detained some of the protestors. 12:20 pm: Rajnath Singh says nation will never forget their sacrifice "The loss of soldiers in Galwan is deeply disturbing and painful. Our soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's bravehearts," says Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. 12:15 pm: Protestors gather outside the Chinese embassy Swadeshi Jagran Manch and army veterans have gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Delhi after the clash killed 20 soldiers. Delhi: Police detain Swadeshi Jagran Manch members and some Army veterans who were protesting outside China's Embassy to India. #IndiaChinaFaceOffpic.twitter.com/c2deqVDTaW ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 12:05 pm: What is government's strategy, asks Congress leader Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said that 20 soldiers were martyred but the government is silent. He added that the government should tell how China grabbed India's land and what is the government's strategy to deal with the issue. 12:00 pm: Priyanka Gandhi says India deserves the truth Priyanka Gandhi said that India deserves the truth regarding what happened at the India-China clash. She said that India deserves a leadership that is willing to do anything before allowing its land to be taken. 11:55 am: Anand Mahindra says struck by composure of Col Babu's parents Anand Mahindra took to Twitter to talk about martyred Colonel Santosh Babu's parents. Col Babu was one of the soldiers martyred at the India-China clash. Watched the parents of martyred Col. Babu being interviewed on TV channels. I was struck by their composure, courage & pride. If this steel spine runs through all parents of our armed forces personnel, then our adversaries should recognise they are up against an unyielding force. anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) June 17, 2020 11:49 am: Violence no one's interest, says British High Commission The British High Commission has commented on the violent clash between India and China. The Commission said that reports of the clash were concerning and urged India and China to engage in dialogue on issues related to the border. "Violence is no one's interest," it said. 11:45 am: What Chinese authorities said "The Indian troops had violated their promises and once again crossed the Line of Actual Control for illegal activities, and deliberately provoked and attacked the Chinese forces, thus triggering fierce physical conflicts between the two sides and causing casualties. We demand that the Indian side strictly restrain its frontline troops, immediately stop all infringement and provocative actions, and work together with China to return to the correct track of dialogue and negotiations to resolve the differences," said Zhang Shuili, spokesperson for the Western Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). 11:40 am: "We all are responsible," says Sanjay Raut Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has said that we can't hold Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru for whatever happened at the border. "We all are responsible for martyrdom of 20 jawans. All parties will support whatever decision PM takes," he said adding that PM Modi should tell the nation what exactly happened at the border. 11:35 am: Virat Kohli says no one more selfless than a soldier Cricketer Virat Kohli said that no one is more selfless than a soldier. "I hope they find peace through our prayers," he said. Salute and deepest respect to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect our country in the Galwan Valley. NO one is more selfless and brave than a soldier. Sincere condolences to the families. I hope they find peace through our prayers at this difficult time. Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) June 17, 2020 11:30 am: Srinagar-Leh highway closed for public The Srinagar-Leh highway has been closed for public after the violent clash between India and China. The Himachal Pradesh Police has also additionally issued an alert in Lahaul Spiti districts. 11:25 am: What Chinese media is saying Global Times in an editorial said the clash has come from "two misjudgements" from India's side -- one that India believes that China does not want to sour ties and the other that it believes that India has a mightier army. "These misperceptions affect the rationality of Indian opinion and add pressure to India's China policy," said the Global Times editorial that called india reckless. 11:20 am: Commanding Officer of Chinese unit among the dead News agency ANI has quoted sources and said that the Commanding Officer of the Chinese unit is also among the casualties on their side. However, all reports of casualties on Chinese side are yet to be confirmed. 11:15 am: Rajnath Singh meets defence chiefs Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met the three defence chiefs along with the Chief of Defence Staff. Singh also spoke to External Minister S Jaishankar. 11:08 am: Significant casualties to Chinese side News agency ANI has quoted sources and said that the Chinese side also suffered significant casualties, an assessment based on the number of soldiers that were evacuated from the site "on stretchers and subsequently by ambulance vehicles on the track along the Galwan river, as also the increased Chinese helicopter movement". The agency cited sources who estimated the number to be around 40. 11:00 am: Four soldiers in critical condition News agency ANI said that four soldiers are in critical condition after the clash with Chinese troops. The Indian Army had earlier stated that 20 soldiers were martyred after the India-China border clash. 10.58 am: People in Gujarat burn Chinese President XI Jinping's photos People in Ahmedabad's Bapu Nagar burnt photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Tuesday evening. Gujarat: People in Ahmedabad's Bapu Nagar burnt photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping, yesterday. #IndiaChinaBorderpic.twitter.com/6sL2UcNKrL ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2020 10.47 am: India-China latest: RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch appeals to Centre to ban Chinese firms Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) an RSS-affiliate outfit urged the Centre on Tuesday to bar Chinese firms from taking part in tenders floated by the government and appealed people to shun Chinese products as a an homage to the slain Indian Army soldiers martyred in a violent clash with Chinese troops in Eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley late Monday evening. 10.33 am: 2020 India-China standoff: PM Modi held High-level meeting with Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah on Tuesday evening PM Modi held a high-level meet with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday evening to take stock of the situation in Eastern Ladakh where India and China have been locked in a standoff for over five weeks. 10.24 am: India-China news: Indian Army soldier from Bengal killed in Ladakh clash was sole earning member of family The Indian Army troop Rajesh Orang was one of the 20 soldiers martyred in the violent face-off with Chinese toops on late Monday evening. He was a resident of Birbhum in West Bengal and was working in the Indian Army for six years. He was posted at the 16 Bihar Regiment that engaged with Chinese soldiers in Galwan Valley of Eastern Ladakh. The 26-year old soldier was the sole bread winner for his family as his father is sick and is not able to work. 10.16 am: India China standoff news: Odisha CM condoles Indian soldiers' death in Ladakh Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik condoled the death of Indian troops martyred in Galwan Valley of Eastern Ladakh on Monday night following a violent clash with Chinese soldiers. "Join the nation to salute the bravehearts of Indian Army who made the supreme sacrifice at Galwan Valley, protecting the integrity of our nation. Deepest condolences to the families of the brave martyrs," he tweeted. Join the nation to salute the bravehearts of #IndianArmy who made the supreme sacrifice at #GalwanValley, protecting the integrity of our nation. Deepest condolences to the families of the brave martyrs. Naveen Patnaik (@Naveen_Odisha) June 17, 2020 10.05 am: Tamil Nadu govt announces Rs 20 lakh, job to family of martyred soldier Tamil Nadu government has announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the family of the martyred soldier K. Palani. The state government has also promised a government job to one of the his family members. 9.57 am: India-China fight: Indian Army shows exact location of Galwan Valley clash The Indian Army has shared a picture showing the exact location of the violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers on late Monday evening. 20 Indian troops were martyred in the standoff in Galwan Vally of Eastern Ladkah area. Click here to Enlarge 9.48 am: Border news India China Four Indian soldiers in critical condition after violent face-off with Chinese troops on Monday night, ANI reports citing sources. 9.39 am: Himachal Pradesh Police issues alert in Lahaul-Spiti The Himachal Pradesh Police has issued an alert in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur districts of the state bordering China, in the wake of the Monday night violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley, an official informed on Tuesday. 9.29 am: India-China latest news: Rahul Gandhi questions PM Modi over violent LAC face off Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a tweet on Wednesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his silence on India-China violent face-off in Ladakh. "Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land?" he tweeted. Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 17, 2020 Read more here: India-Chine face-off: 'Why is PM silent, how dare China kill our soldiers', asks Rahul Gandhi 9.21 am: India-China fight: Proud of son, but sad as family: Parents of Col Santosh Babu Parents of Colonel Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer of the 16 Bihar Regiment, who was martyred in the Ladakh clash in Galwan Valley on Monday night said that they did not believe the news of his killing at first but later were informed by higher authorities later about what happened. They further said that they are in deep shock as their son faced many challenges. His father B Upender said, "He was just 37 years old and had a bright future. As a parent I am in grief but as a citizen and a defence family man I am proud on my son. Santosh worked in the UN. He was always on field job from counter-insurgency to other postings." 9.12 am: Remains of Col Santosh Babu to reach Hyderabad today The body of Colonel Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer (CO) martyred in the violent clash with Chinese soldiers in Ladakh's Ladakh valley, will arrive in Hyderabad around 4 pm on Wednesday. His wife and children who are in Delhi will fly along with his remains for the last rites to be performed. 9.05 am: India-China update: On-ground situation remains volatile in Ladakh Indian Army will release the names of all 20 soldiers killed in the violent clash with Chinese troops on Monday night in Galwan valley of Eastern Ladakh. According to sources, nothing has changed on ground and the situation remains volatile. The sources also added that nothing much has come out of talks between the two sides and the Army is on alert not just in Ladakh but in different parts across LAC (line of actual control). 8.59 am: Around 40 Chinese casualties in India-China standoff in Ladakh: reports The government sources said that China too suffered "proportionate casualties" but did not speculate on the number. However, some reports suggest that there are around 40 casualties on Chinese side, which includes both dead and injured PLA soldiers. 8.52 am: India-China face-off in Ladakh worst clash in 50 years The violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops on Monday night in Eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley is the worst border clash between the two nations in over five decades. The military confrontation led to the killing of 20 Indian Army soldiers, including a colonel. The Indian Army had initially said on Tuesday that three of its personnel were killed in the clash with Chinese soldiers, an officer and two soldiers. However, in a late evening update, the Army stated that the figure was 20 adding that 17 others who sustained serious injuries in the clash and were exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries. 8.44 am: India-China border dispute According to US media Chinese People Liberation Army has provoked the "Indian nationalist tiger" by engaging in a face-off with Indian Army personnel in which 20 soldiers were killed. (ANI) 8.30 AM: Ban Chinese firms from govt tenders: RSS The RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Tuesday appealed to the Centre to bar Chinese companies from participating in tenders floated by the government and exhorted the people to boycott Chinese products as a tribute to the Army soldiers killed in a fierce clash with troops of China in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. - PTI 8.15 AM: Closely monitoring the situation: US "We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation. During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi discussed the situation on the India-China border," a US State Department statement. [June 17, 2020] Incubeta DQ&A becomes a Google Marketing Platform Sales Partner in the Americas Incubeta DQ&A, the specialist marketing technology division of independent marketing group, Incubeta, today announces it has been named a Google (News - Alert) Marketing Platform Sales Partner in the Americas, adding to its existing and long-standing Partnership status across APAC and EMEA, and cementing its global Google Marketing Platform Sales Partner status. In becoming a certified sales partner in the Americas, Incubeta brings its 17-year heritage of defining, deploying and optimizing the digital marketing technology infrastructures of hundreds of brands across the globe. As well as its advanced marketing technology solutions, Incubeta enables advertisers to seamlessly connect into the creative and media solutions through its divisions of Incubeta Joystick and Incubeta NMPi, respectively. With the power of Google Marketing Platform combined with Google Cloud Platform brands will have the ability to implement privacy-centric digital marketing infrastructures. Brands will also be able to achieve data-driven dynamic creative solutions at scale and speed, delivered through highly optimized paid media campaigns. Incubeta's proprietary technology further augments Google Marketing Platform's functionality, providing clients with a unique proposition. Google Marketing Platform is a marketing technology solution, comprising Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360, Campaign Manager and Analytics 360, and offers brands the ability to develop the advanced dynamic marketing strategies needed to thrive in the digital economy. Sales Partners are members of the Google Marketing Platform Partners program, who have been invited due to their extensive cross-product competency and history of collaboration with Google. Google Marketing Platform Sales Partners are vetted by Google to meet the rigorous standards of company certification, possessing at least five individual product experts, and providing case studies for each product. Michael Ossendrijvr, Incubeta DQ&A Brand CEO and Chief Strategy Officer at Incubeta comments: "This Americas partnership enables us to provide our sophisticated service levels and proprietary products at a global level. Incubeta has been a proud and effective partner of Google Marketing Platform in APAC and EMEA for more than 17 years, so it's exciting to be able to deploy this offering in the Americas region with some fantastic brands joining us from the beginning." Luke Judge, CEO of Incubeta US and UK adds: "We expect big things with Incubeta becoming a GMP sales partner in the US, and strengthening the service value of our specialist creative and media solutions in North America through Incubeta Joystick and Incubeta NMPi respectively. Our teams are geared up and ready to meet the needs in the US region from our offices in New York and Los Angeles. I'm excited to see us amplify and grow the success we have already seen in the US region in recent years." -ENDS- About Incubeta: Incubeta is the union of three market-leading specialists in Technology, Media, and Creative - Incubeta DQ&A, Incubeta NMPi, and Incubeta Joystick respectively. By seamlessly integrating these three specialisms and rethinking the rules of marketing, Incubeta puts the ownership and control of the customer experience back in the hands of the advertiser, both brands and agencies. Incubeta DQ&A specifically is an expert in advertising technology infrastructure, data management, and marketing systems integration, enabling advanced digital marketing strategies that seamlessly integrate Media and Creative for maximum performance. As the largest and longest established GMP sales partner in EMEA and APAC, Incubeta has proven through working with top-tier brands that they are leading specialists in helping advertisers tackle complex projects such as in-housing, dynamic creative, data integration, real 1:1 marketing, and industry-specific segmentation modelling. Incubeta is primed to help advertisers deliver complex use cases across Google's Maturity Framework and Menu of Services. Find out more at: incubeta.com About Google Marketing Platform Sales Partners: Sales Partners are members of the Google Marketing Platform Partners program, who have been invited due to their extensive cross-product competency and history of collaboration with Google. To become Sales Partners, these companies were vetted by Google, meeting the rigorous standards of company certification, possessing at least five individual product experts, and providing case studies for each product. In addition, Sales Partners are subject to interviews and must demonstrate their work in increasing clients' digital maturity. Sales Partners collaborate with Google on joint business plans while also benefiting from co-marketing opportunities and sales / customer management tools. Companies that become Google Marketing Platform Sales Partners span from operating companies of global media holding companies, to independent agencies, to technical sales and services specialists, to consultancies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005497/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Japan share market finished session lower on Wednesday, 17 June 2020, as investors elected to book profit after sharp gains in the previous session amid concerns over a second wave of coronavirus infection. Meanwhile, escalated tensions between North Korea and South Korea also fuelled selloff. At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 126.45 points, or 0.56%, to 22,455.76. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange declined 6.36 points, or 0.4%, at 1,593.45. Investors chose to secure gains following the Nikkei's sharp rise the previous day as concerns over a resurgence of coronavirus cases in some countries. Investors were also rattled by escalating geopolitical tensions b pertaining to the Korean Peninsula after North Korea demolished an inter-Korean liaison office and rejected an offer by South Korea to send special envoys, vowing to send troops back to the border. ECONOMIC NEWS: Japan Trade Deficit Narrows To Y833.388 Billion In May- Japan merchandise trade deficit came in at 833.388 billion yen in May, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday, down 13.7% on year, following the 930 billion yen deficit in April. Exports were down 28.3% on year to 4.184 trillion yen, following the 21.9% drop in the previous month. Imports tumbled an annual 26.2% to 5.018 trillion yen after sinking 7.2% a month earlier. CURRENCY: The Japanese yen traded at 107.31 per dollar after seeing levels around 107 earlier in the trading week. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A British-Australian academic serving a ten-year sentence for espionage has been beaten and drugged for forming a choir in her Iranian jail, sources claim. Kylie Moore-Gilbert was left with wounds to her hands and arms and severe bruising all over her body after being attacked by guards. She was beaten in retaliation for sending messages to new inmates, and for starting a prison choir which sang and hummed as a form of protest, sources close to her family told The Times. Kylie Moore-Gilbert has reportedly formed a prison resistance choir in the notorious Evin jail The former Islamic studies lecturer at University of Melbourne has since been drugged to keep her 'compliant', and now appears weak, incoherent and constantly 'comatose', one source said. Dr Moore-Gilbert formed the 'Evin Choir' after turning down Iranian attempts to recruit her as a spy and smuggling out letters begging Prime Minister Scott Morrison for help. 'She got huge respect from other prisoners for being so inventive in her defiance,' a source said. Former Evin prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband Richard said Dr Moore-Gilbert's prison conditions were hellish. Dr Moore-Gilbert was allegedly beaten by prison guards in the jail (pictured), leaving her 'comatose' 'She is being kept in solitary [confinement] at a level of abuse that's egregious and the fact that the Iranian authorities are getting away with it is something that has shocked all the Iranian activists we've worked with,' he said. Dr Moore-Gilbert had reportedly attempted suicide multiple times after being left in unbearable conditions in the jail. She has always maintained her innocence and The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade does not accept the charges against her. In May, her family released a statement claiming she remains in 'good health', contradicting claims made she was struggling to adapt to life behind bars. 'She strongly denied reports that she has attempted suicide or that she is being tortured,' they claimed. Dr Moore-Gilbert was arrested while at an educational conference in September 2018 and later convicted of espionage Dr Moore-Gilbert's family claim she is in good health in the notorious jail. Pictured: Inmates sit outside of their bunks at Evin jail in June 2006 'She seems to be in good health considering her situation. We love her and miss her. We ask that you continue to respect both Kylie's and our privacy while we concentrate on getting her home.' Dr Moore-Gilbert had reportedly felt 'abandoned and forgotten' and claimed Iran tried to recruit her as a spy. Letters smuggled out of Dr Moore-Gilbert's cell in Evin prison, and seen by The Guardian, showed she begged to leave the restrictive unit where she served periods in solitary confinement. Dr Moore-Gilbert claims she was shown two sentences, one which was 13 months long and another which said she would remain behind bars for a decade. Press Release June 17, 2020 Gatchalian warns of teenage pregnancy surge amid COVID-19 pandemic While the Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) is projecting a spike in unplanned pregnancies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Senator Win Gatchalian is warning that a spike in teenage pregnancies could be part of this population surge, citing similar trends in the Philippines and other countries when emergencies and natural calamities occur. Gatchalian recalled the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda and the results of a study by the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP), which showed that 23.5 percent of teenage girls in Eastern Visayas got pregnant, while 14.8 percent got pregnant and had another child the following year. The senator also shared the example of Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak, where adolescent pregnancy increased by up to 65 percent in affected communities. According to Gatchalian, this should prompt local government units (LGUs) to ramp up their efforts to raise awareness on teenage pregnancy through public health and population management programs. He emphasized that getting pregnant would force these teenage girls out of school and deprive them of opportunities to make a decent livelihood. The lawmaker also cited the urgency of enhancing comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) for learners to counter this spike in adolescent pregnancies. The factors of teenage pregnancy include lack of access to school, information, and sexual and reproductive health care, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, experts already considered teenage pregnancy in the Philippines a "national emergency." While the number of births from the 15-19 age group declined from 182,906 in 2017 to 181,717 in 2018, the number of births in the 10-14 age group increased. Between 2011 and 2018, live births in this age group rose from 1,381 to 2,250, or a spike of 63 percent. "Matagal nang hamon sa ating pigilan ang pagdami ng kaso ng maagang pagbubuntis ngunit dahil sa COVID-19, nanganganib na mas dumami pa ang mga kabataang kababaihan na maging batang ina at huminto sa pag-aaral," said Gatchalian, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture. According to the National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2017, adverse pregnancy outcomes are more likely to occur among teenage mothers, while their children are at greater risk of sickness and even death. The NDHS 2017 also reported that teenage mothers are prone to abuse, with 26.4 of married women aged 15-19 reported experiencing physical, sexual, and emotional violence. "Ngayon natin dapat mas patatagin ang mga programa laban sa maagang pagbubuntis upang hindi mapagkaitan ang ating mga kabataan ng magandang kinabukasan," Gatchalian added. ### Gatchalian nagbabala ng pagtaas ng bilang ng teenage pregnancy sa gitna ng COVID-19 Nagbabala si Senador Win Gatchalian na maaaring umakyat ang mga kaso ng teenage pregnancy o maagang pagbubuntis sa gitna ng pandemya. Kung susuriin ang mga nagdaang kalamidad at sakuna sa Pilipinas at ibang bansa, isa sa mga nakikitang epekto ng mga ito ang pagtaas ng kaso ng maagang pagbubuntis, paliwanag ni Gatchalian. Ginawa niyang halimbawa ang Eastern Visayas matapos ang bagyong Yolanda noong 2013. Ayon sa pag-aaral ng Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines o DOST-NRCP, halos dalawampu't apat (23.5) na porsyento ng mga kababaihang teenager ang nabuntis nuong panahon iyon. Halos labinlimang (14.8) porsyento naman ng mga batang inang nanganak ang muling nabuntis nang sumunod na taon. Sa bansang Sierra Leone naman noong panahon ng Ebola outbreak, umakyat ng animnapu't limang (65) porsyento ang mga kaso ng teenage pregnancy sa apektadong mga komunidad. Ayon kay Gatchalian, lalong dapat paigtingin ng mga lokal na pamahalaan ang pagpapatupad ng kanilang mga programang pang-kalusugan at tutukan ang pagsugpo sa maagang pagbubuntis. Dagdag ng mambabatas, ang mga batang ina ay napipilitang huminto sa pag-aaral at nawawalan ng pagkakataong magkaroon ng maayos na hanapbuhay. Ayon pa sa senador, ang pagpapatatag sa comprehensive sexuality education para sa mga mag-aaral ay isang mahalagang hakbang upang labanan ang maagang pagbubuntis. Bago pa tumama ang pandemya ng COVID-19 sa bansa, itinuturing nang isang national emergency ang teenage pregnancy sa bansa. Bagama't bumaba ang bilang ng mga nabubuntis sa mga kababaihang labing-lima (15) hanggang labing-siyam (19) na taong gulang mula 182,906 nuong 2017 hanggang 181,717 nuong 2018, tumaas naman ng higit animnapung (63) porsyento ang kaso ng mga batang nabubuntis mula edad na sampu (10) hanggang labing-apat (14). Mula 1,381 na kaso noong 2011 sa naturang age group, umakyat ito ng dalawang libo't dalawang daan (2,250) noong 2018, ayon sa Commission on Population and Development o POPCOM. "Matagal nang hamon sa ating pigilan ang pagdami ng kaso ng maagang pagbubuntis ngunit dahil sa COVID-19, nanganganib na mas dumami pa ang mga kabataang kababaihan na maging batang ina at huminto sa pag-aaral," ayon sa Chairman ng Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture. "Ngayon natin dapat mas patatagin ang mga programa laban sa maagang pagbubuntis upang hindi mapagkaitan ang ating mga kabataan ng magandang kinabukasan,"pahayag ni Gatchalian. ### That is something that will ultimately be the presidents decision, Stitt said. Ultimately, the president doesnt ask for permission before he comes different places. But Stitt said he and U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., have now recommended that Trump not visit Greenwood. Stitt said it would be disruptive to Juneteenth activities. Juneteenth is the annual commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved black people. Trump was originally scheduled to hold his rally on Juneteenth but moved it back a day at the request of Stitt, the governor has said. Stitt said he is no longer looking for an outside venue for the event instead of using the BOK Center. We decided to stay where we are at, Stitt said. That was one of the things on the table was to look for an outdoor venue. It didnt work out in the city of Tulsa. The crowd is expected to be in the thousands for the rally, scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, with an overflow audience in the nearby Cox Business Convention Center. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 10:58:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Steven Carrillo, a U.S. Air Force sergeant serving at Northern California's Travis Base, has been charged with murder and attempted murder of protective security officers in Oakland, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Tuesday. The DOJ made the announcement at a press conference held at a federal building in the city, where the murder took place, saying that the alleged gunman committed drive-by shooting that resulted in the death of Protective Security Officer David Patrick Underwood and injuries to a second security officer on May 29 at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland. "Pat Underwood was murdered because he wore a uniform," said U.S. Attorney David Anderson. "Indiscriminate targeting of law enforcement officers by those motivated by violent extremism of any stripe is contrary to our nation's values and undermines the powerful message of peaceful protestors ... We stand firmly against anyone who seeks to hijack the protests with acts of violence and destruction," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. Steven Carrillo, the 32-year-old suspect, serving in a military police unit at Travis Air Force Base, also killed Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputy Damon Gutzwiller and wounded two others in Ben Lomond, Northern California on June 7 before he was wounded and arrested. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation linked these two similar ambush-style shooting death cases as a white van was recorded leaving the scene of Oakland shooting, and the suspect's vehicle at the scene of shooting on June 7 was also a white van. Carrillo appears to have used his own blood to write various phrases on the hood of the car that he carjacked during his arrest. The phrases relate to an extremist ideology that promotes a violent uprising through use of militias, according to a DOJ statement. Enditem Hyderabad, June 17 : The family of Colonel B. Santosh Babu, who was killed by the Chinese troops in a clash in Ladakh on Monday, arrived in Hyderabad from New Delhi on Wednesday and later left for home town Suryapet in Telangana. The officer's wife Santoshi, nine-year-old daughter Abhigna and four-year-old son Anirudh were received at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport by the Cyberabad Police Commissioner V. C. Sajjanar and senior Army officials. They later left for Suryapet, where the mortal remains of the Colonel are likely to be brought later in the day for the last rites. Santosh Babu (39) and 19 soldiers were killed in the clashes with the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley of Ladakh on Monday. The news of Santosh's death was first conveyed to his wife in Delhi on Monday night while his parents who live in Suryapet were informed Tuesday afternoon. Santosh, Commanding Officer of 16 Bihar Regiment, had been serving on the Indo-China border since last one-and-half year and his family was looking forward to his transfer to Hyderabad. The transfer was delayed due to COVID-19 outbreak. A pall of gloom descended on Suryapet as people from a cross section of society mourned the death of the braveheart. Santosh's father B. Upender, a retired bank officer and mother Manjula said, though they were sad over losing their only son, they were also proud that he made the supreme sacrifice for the country. Upender said he wanted to join the Army and since he could not achieve this he realized his dream through his son. Santosh joined Sainik School at Korukonda and graduated from the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. He had joined the Indian Army in 2004 and had risen to the rank of Colonel. "He was very talented and won many awards. He was looking forward to achieving much more," said a distraught Manjula. She recalled that her son spoke to them over the phone a day before the clashes and termed the situation on the border as serious. The parents had advised him to take care. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text As many as 35 Chinese troops died, including one senior officer, in a fierce clash with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15, according to a US News report citing its source. China has considered the casualties among its troops as a humiliation for its armed forces and has not confirmed the numbers for fear of emboldening other adversaries, the source told the publication. The India-China clash is said to be the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already-volatile border standoff in the region. According to the report, the incident took place during a meeting in the mountainous region between the two sides -- both of which had agreed to disarm -- to determine how the two militaries would safely withdraw their presences from the region. However, the discussion became tense and led to a physical confrontation between the troops, said the report, adding that all of the casualties were from the use of batons and knives and from falls from the steep topography, the source says. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report. India-China Border News LIVE Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley. Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020, an Indian Army statement said. The officer killed in the clash was identified as Colonel Santosh Babu, Commanding Officer of the 16 Bihar Regiment, and a native of Telangana. It is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in NathuLa when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. The casualties take both sides into uncharted territory at a time when the government's attention is focused on fighting the COVID-19 crisis that appears to be ballooning by the day. (With inputs from PTI) Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday stressed that the country's Armed Forces are "fully capable" of dealing with the challenges of banditry and terrorism Air Canada apologizes after barring passenger from flying to U.S. to see terminally ill husband Air Canada has apologized to passenger Mayette Musclow of Kelowna, B.C., after it barred her from flying to Cleveland last month to visit her terminally ill husband. The airline told CBC News that the mishap occurred due to a misinterpretation of complex border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. "I was at the airport crying," said Musclow about the incident. "I didn't know what to do." After she read a CBC News story on Friday which outlined that Canadians can fly to the U.S. during the pandemic Musclow booked another flight and flew to Cleveland on Tuesday with no complications. "I'm so overwhelmed right now, so overjoyed," she told CBC after passing through U.S. Customs. To help stop the spread of COVID-19, the Canada-U.S. land border is closed to non-essential traffic on both sides of the border until at least July 21. However, Canadians can still enter the U.S. by plane. But when Musclow tried to check in for her May 24 flight from Kelowna to Cleveland, she said an Air Canada agent told her the U.S. border was closed to Canadians, and wouldn't let her board the plane. "I was so upset because we had three months my husband has three months [to live] and I wanted to go over there and be with him," said Musclow. Submitted by Mayette Musclow Her husband, John Sarvis, has cirrhosis of the liver and a 20 per cent chance of dying within the next three months, according to a May 7 doctor's note provided by Musclow. She married Sarvis, an American, last year in Akron, Ohio, near Cleveland, and planned to live with him at his home in Akron once her application for an immigrant visa was approved. When Sarvis received his dire diagnosis last month, Musclow took time off from her job as a care aid, and booked a flight to be with him. Canadians can still fly to the U.S.? Musclow booked her flight with United Airlines, but Air Canada was the carrier for the first leg of the trip from Kelowna to Washington D.C. She said when she purchased her ticket by phone, a United agent assured her that she could fly to the U.S. as a Canadian citizen. Story continues According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Canadian travellers can currently fly to the U.S. as long as they haven't visited Brazil, China, Iran, Ireland, the U.K. or 26 European countries in the Schengen Area 14 days prior. But Musclow said the Air Canada agent at the Kelowna airport told her she needed written permission to travel to the U.S., and wouldn't issue her a boarding pass. Musclow said she consulted a second Air Canada agent at the airport who told her that if the airline let her enter the U.S., the U.S. government would fine her $1,000. "I was shaking," said Musclow. "It caused me a lot of stress and tears for days. I was just crushed." Watch | Windsor-Michigan couple separated by COVID-19 border restrictions talk tricky pregnancy: Musclow said United Airlines returned the reward miles she used to book the flight, but didn't refund the $130 she paid in taxes and fees. United told CBC News on Tuesday it will refund the money. After being contacted by CBC, Air Canada sent Musclow an email on Tuesday offering a $500 travel voucher and its "sincere apologies" for what happened to her at check-in. Musclow being denied boarding was an "unfortunate situation" that "arose due to a misinterpretation of the complex and changing rules around border closings," Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick told CBC News in an email. Because the U.S. land border is closed to Canadian travellers, many Canadians have incorrectly assumed they can't fly to the U.S. Two days before Musclow's flight, Air Canada announced that it had resumed flying to the U.S. The online announcement included a link to a CBP website which states that Canadians can enter the country. Fear of flying Because she was denied boarding, Musclow was afraid to book another flight. She said she started losing hope of seeing her husband anytime soon, after learning last week that the Canada-U.S. land border closure would be extended past its then end-date of June 21. "I was sitting in my bed and saying, 'What's happening?'" said Musclow. "Like, I'm just gonna go there and bury my husband when the border's open?" Musclow had renewed hope of travelling to Cleveland after she read the June 12 CBC News article about Canadians flying to the U.S. The story featured a B.C. woman who had who had flown from Vancouver to Seattle last month to visit her sick grandson. "It was a big, big relief when I found out this lady was able to fly to the U.S.," said Musclow. "I was like, 'Why did the agent at Air Canada turn me down?'" On her second attempt to fly to Cleveland, Air Canada let her board her flight. Musclow landed in Cleveland on Tuesday night. BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The Chinese yuan declined against the U.S. dollar in the Asian session on Wednesday, as rising coronavirus infections in Beijing and a border dispute between China and India dampened sentiment. Beijing reported 31 new cases of novel coronavirus for June 16, taking the total number of cases to 137 in six days. Geopolitical tensions increased after India-China border clash killed twenty Indian soldiers. The yuan declined to a 2-day low of 7.0964 against the greenback from Tuesday's closing value of 7.0855. The yuan is seen finding support around the 7.2 mark. The People's Bank of China set today's central parity rate of the yuan at 7.0873 per dollar, compared to Tuesday's rate of 7.0755. The Chinese central bank sets central parity rate every morning and allows the yuan to fluctuate up to 2 percent from that level. 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. Human remains found in Melbourne's south-east on Wednesday are believed to be those of a 26-year-old Oakleigh South man who went missing last month, according to Victoria Police. Detectives from the missing persons squad discovered the body in a semi-rural area near Nixon Road at Lysterfield about 1.30 pm on Wednesday. Remains of a 26-year-old man were found on Wednesday. Credit:Nine News Melbourne Police revealed on Thursday evening they believe the body was of a man who was last seen on May 11 and had been reported as missing, but they were yet to formally identify him. The man's death is being treated as suspicious. There are standard operating procedures to be followed when one takes a flight, also for those boarding a train or taking a bus. How about the SOP for those who use car-pool or share cabs to commute from home to office and back? After all, 174 million people in India used car pooling in 2019, says data from Statista. With companies around the country allowing up to one-third of their employees to get back to offices post the lockdown, people have also started using car pooling. "A little over 10 percent of our members have started using the service," says Shailesh Dubey of Liftlelo, a carpooling service in Mumbai. With over 20,000 members, Liftlelo works through WhatsApp groups dedicated to specific routes in the city. To ensure social distancing and hygiene in the cars, Dubey laid out a few guidelines to be followed, both for the car owner and the co-passengers. 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 A few, says Dubey, are mandatory. These include: 1. Wearing masks2. Sanitising hands3. Using face shield4. Only two passengers, apart from the driver, allowed in each car5. Avoid exchanging mobile chargers 6. Sanitise umbrella handles, as rains have started 7. Travel with same people as much as possible 8. And if down with cold , cough or fever please stay home and avoid carpool Some guidelines are what Dubey calls, preventive. These are: 1. Avoid phone calls2. Carry just one bag3. Declare verbally in good Faith, if your colleague/ family member / neighbours are having COVID-194 No sharing of food5. Avoid handshakes 6. Let the car owner operate window buttons centrally, to prevent multiple touches "And yes," concludes Dubey, "No corona discussions in the car or on WhatsApp groups." A hero tradie who tackled a knife-wielding robber to the ground has been praised by Karl Stefanovic - who offered to take the Good Samaritan for a beer. Sam Dale, 22, had been enjoying breakfast with his mates on Smith Street in the inner northern Melbourne suburb of Collingwood on Monday morning when he noticed a woman being harassed by an armed man. Leaping into action after hearing the woman's screams, Mr Dale tackled the man to the ground and held him until police arrived, with the incident filmed by passersby. 'I just had a bit of a feed, then got out of my car and heard a scream down the road,' he told Today on Wednesday. 'I saw a woman run across the road, away from a guy with a hoodie on. 'It was like something out of a movie. 'So I ran over to see if she was ok, and asked what the guy had done. 'She said he had a knife on him, and had said something to her about money and was really close to her. 'We tried to get cops down, but that wasn't going to be instant. Someone had to go and take him down I suppose, that's about it.' Impressed with the tradesman heroism, Stefanovic commented: 'You just sorted it out. You just sorted it out brother.' 'Someone had to do it, mate,' Mr Dale replied. Sam Dale (pictured, left) had been finishing breakfast in Melbourne on Monday morning when he took down a knife-wielding man (right) Sam Dale (pictured, right) impressed Today hosts Karl Stefanovic (far left) and Allison Langdon (centre) with his heroics 'He was walking around and there were people everywhere, he could have done that to someone else for all we know.' 'It happened pretty fast. I was close to him, he was nearby, I didn't really think to be honest.' But the modest tradie refused to admit he was a hero. 'It's been buttered up a lot to be honest,' Mr Dale joked. 'I feel like it's getting milked a bit at this point. It was a good thing to do but it's been blown up a fair bit, I'm keen to get back on with it.' 'What a legend,' Stefanovic said. 'I'm going to come and have a beer with ya. You're a legend, I love ya. I can't wait to have a beer with ya in Melbourne. 'You did a good thing, you did a really good thing and you deserve to be proud of yourself and your mates deserve to have you as a great mate.' Sam Dale (pictured, left) was filmed dramatically taking down a would-be robber (right) after hearing a woman screaming The men, aged 22 and 30, chased after the alleged robber, pinning him to the ground (pictured) before kicking away his knife Keen on the offer, Mr Dale said: 'Hit me up any time mate, you're a legend.' To which Stefanovic replied: 'I'll send you my digits.' Dramatic footage showed two tradies, aged 22 and 30, chase after the alleged robber, pinning him to the ground before kicking away his knife. Stunned onlookers watched as the two men in hi-vis clothing held the man on the ground until police arrived. The alleged robber, 36, was arrested and taken into custody. The woman, 34, had used an ATM to withdraw money when she was allegedly approached by the man, who was said to be carrying two knives. Researchers work in a lab at Yisheng Biopharma, one of a number of companies in China trying to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. (Noel Celis / AFP/Getty Images) They werent just vaccine volunteers. They were revolutionary comrades in arms, nearly 200 mostly young, brave souls putting their bodies on the line for China and for the world. "I'm not afraid," said Zhang Jing, a vaccine trial volunteer, as she and her husband, Zhao Wei, rolled up their sleeves to receive injections, according to a report in the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily. Zhao worried that their child would be orphaned if they didn't survive. But Zhang said: "I believe in the motherland." Such is the heroic narrative Beijing is promoting as China, having largely contained the coronavirus outbreak within its borders even though recent fears of a second wave in the capital prompted new restrictions sets its sights on the ambitious goal of developing the first COVID-19 vaccine. Just as the battle to beat the virus was framed as a peoples war, so too is the global race to create a vaccine portrayed as a patriotic effort, part of a decades-long goal to prove China is a scientifically advanced state. An engineer at Sinovac Biotech in Beijing looks at monkey kidney cells as he tests an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. (Nicolas Asfouri / AFP/Getty Images) The quest for a vaccine is a chance to transform the countrys image, from the perceived source of the novel coronavirus to a savior that stemmed its spread. It is a crucial time especially as the United States withdraws from its leading role in many international institutions to persuade the Chinese people, struggling with economic crisis and mass unemployment, that theirs is still a powerful nation. The pressure to win is entangled in global politics driven by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Trump strong nationalists whose relations have become increasingly strained over the virus' origins and its devastating impact across the planet. Its almost a manhood type of competition between Trump and Xi Jinping, said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University and an advisor to the World Health Organization. Its a competition not just for health, but for national prestige, and for which system is a better system. So the stakes are extraordinarily high." Story continues More than 130 candidates for the vaccine are under development around the world, but only 10 of them have entered clinical trials, according to a recent update from the WHO. Half of those are Chinese. While scientists in China and abroad have kept up with mutual developments, China leads the world in the development of certain types of vaccines, the State Council said in a white paper on Chinas coronavirus response. Employees work in a research and development lab of Beijing Applied Biological Technologies. (Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press) The highest-profile candidate is a vaccine developed by bio-pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics in partnership with the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, which belongs to the Chinese military. The research team is led by an epidemiologist, virologist and major general named Chen Wei. A vaccine is the most powerful weapon to end the novel coronavirus, said Chen, 54, in an interview on state TV in March. She often appears in the media wearing a military uniform and surgical mask and is called a goddess on Chinese social media. If China is the first to develop this weapon with its own intellectual property rights, it will demonstrate not only the progress of Chinese science and technology, but also our image as a major power, she said. CanSino is developing a virus vector vaccine, which uses a different virus to carry a piece of the coronavirus genetic material into the patients cells, teaching the patients body to recognize and react to it. The results of CanSinos Phase I trials were published in the medical journal Lancet last month. They found that the vaccine was mostly safe and produced an immune system reaction in all 108 trial members a preliminary but inconclusive sign that it could be effective. The vaccine created adverse reactions, including fever and fatigue. The symptoms didn't last long, and the drug passed Phase I safety requirements. CanSino now has 500 people in Phase II trials. It recently signed an agreement to manufacture the vaccine and potentially continue clinical trials in Canada. The other four Chinese candidates in clinical trials are working on a more traditional type of vaccine that uses a weakened or inactivated version of the coronavirus to trigger an immune response. One of those developers, Sinovac Biotech, signed an agreement last week to produce and test its vaccine in Brazil, where 9,000 volunteers have signed up for a Phase III trial in July. Phase III trials typically require thousands of volunteers to be given the vaccine, then observed in a hot spot where the virus is still spreading. China has mostly suppressed the COVID-19 spread within its borders, which means it had no suitable domestic location for Phase III trials. Brazil, which has nearly 980,000 infections, second only to the United States, could provide an ideal testing ground. In exchange, the Brazilian research partner, Instituto Butantan, will get to license the vaccine and ensure Brazilians access. Another vaccine candidate by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca supported by Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administrations COVID-19 vaccine initiative is also being tested on 2,000 volunteers in Brazil. An American vaccine candidate developed by Cambridge-based Moderna Inc. is, meanwhile, set to conduct Phase III trials on 30,000 people in the U.S. next month. The incendiary rhetoric over the virus Trump repeatedly blames China for the spread of the disease is the latest turn in a new Cold War between Beijing and Washington. Comparisons of the vaccine race to a Sputnik moment, in which China and the U.S. vie for superiority, place pressure on scientists to lower safety standards for geopolitical interests, said Gostin, the advisor to the WHO. It is very dangerous to call it a race, he said. Its playing with fire. But that is what it has become, with billions of dollars and prestige at stake across continents. China's fast-tracking vaccine development has led to ramping up production capacity while allowing unconventional practices like combining the first two phases of clinical trials. Such moves can lead to safety risks. An employee at Beijing Applied Biological Technologies, which is developing COVID-19 molecular diagnostic test kits. (Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press) Vaccine developers in the United States and Europe are taking similar shortcuts conducting human trials before animal trials have been completed, for example despite scientists warnings against compromise of safety standards. U.S.-China competition also hurts global efforts to coordinate vaccine development and ensure distribution goes to those who need it most. In past outbreaks such as H5N1 in 2007 and H1N1 in 2009, wealthy nations quickly bought up vaccines, leaving poorer countries empty-handed until much later. Similar competition in the global scramble for personal protective equipment during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic is a troubling indicator of what may unfold over a new vaccine. The U.S., China or other wealthy nations could prioritize vaccinating their citizens even when domestic outbreaks have been contained while health workers and populations suffering mass outbreaks in poorer countries, notably in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, are blocked from access. The WHO and other international organizations are working to prevent such a scenario and recently received $8.8 billion in global pledges for cooperative COVID-19 vaccine development. But beyond funding and rhetoric, the WHO needs commitments, especially from China and the U.S., to a needs-based distribution of vaccines. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is the fastest and smartest way to end the pandemic quickly, said Kendall Hoyt, professor of medicine at Dartmouth University and author of a book on vaccine development. The pressure to be the first to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is entangled in global politics driven by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, left, and President Trump. (Andy Wong / Associated Press) Both Xi and Trump have made vague statements about sharing. Xi said at the World Health Assembly last month that Chinese-developed vaccines would be a global public good, accessible and affordable in developing countries. Trump said at a briefing in May that we have no ego. Whoever gets it, we think its great." But neither country has made concrete commitments to needs-based distribution. The U.S. jeopardized a shared global approach recently when it withdrew from the WHO. Chinas June white paper said the vaccine would be a global public product once it is developed and deployed in China. The politics of a vaccine is just as complicated as the science. If China gets a vaccine first, the U.S. is unlikely to use it because of distrust in Chinese data, said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. People would be skeptical and concerned about the safety and efficacy of a Chinese vaccine, she said. Even within China, recurrent vaccine and food safety scandals have caused a crisis of public confidence in regulatory authorities, despite their endorsement by the WHO. But other countries, especially those in the developing world, would probably be just fine with it, she said. China already produces many vaccines for developing countries. They include more than 400 million doses of a Japanese encephalitis vaccine, for example, delivered to Laos and other nations with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Sheng Ding, director of the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute a joint initiative by Tsinghua University, the Gates Foundation, and the Beijing municipal government said that several vaccines might be available by the end of 2020 or early 2021, at least for emergency use on high-risk groups such as front-line health workers. Or there might be no successful vaccine at all, he said, despite all the racing. We really need to manage that hope. A vaccine is not the only option, he said. Scientists are also working on drug treatments, neutralizing antibodies, better diagnostics and other tools to cope with the virus before anyone finds a vaccine. Sheng is also working on a vaccine candidate not yet in clinical trials. Theres no guarantee, he said, that it would work or that any of the current vaccines would work. But we just have to do it. Otherwise, we will not know. Times staff writer Don Lee in Washington contributed to this report. Naeem Juwan, the artist formerly known as Spank Rock. His new album as Naeem is 'Startisha.' Read more Naeem Juwan first made his mark in the mid-2000s as a Philadelphia-based rapper out of Baltimore who was known for ribald rhymes delivered at a mile-a-minute pace. Back then, and until recently, Juwan was known as Spank Rock, an appropriate name for a transgressive party starter. Frequently paired off with Phillys equally risque Amanda Blank, he collaborated with German electronic producer Boys Noize and toured with Diplo, as well as mavericks like M.I.A. and Philadelphia pop synthesist Santigold. In 2006, Juwan made a sensational Spank Rock entrance with his debut album, YoYoYoYoYo, following it up in 2011 with the less well-received Everything Is Boring and Everyone Is a F- Liar. Now, after a nine-year absence, Juwan is back with Startisha (37D03D ***), a new album that expands his musical range and teams him with unexpected collaborators like Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and country-soul cult hero Swamp Dogg. Startisha, named after a childhood friend, is Juwans most personal album, so he chose to release it under his own name. Hes now known simply as Naeem. I had to remove a lot of stuff in my head so I could have the confidence to make this album, says Juwan, speaking from Los Angeles, where he lives with his boyfriend, Scott Ross, who directed the socially distanced videos for Startishas Simulation and Woo Woo Woo. The music industry is really, really tough, says Juwan, who sings as well as raps on Startisha. Just that feeling of being really valued and then having no value, in the blink of an eye. Its confusing, and theres so much pressure to conform or follow trends. Juwan, 39, grew up in the working-class West Baltimore neighborhood listening to his mothers David Bowie, Elton John, and Parliament-Funkadelic records, as well as the frenetic dance music subgenre known as Baltimore club. In 2000, he moved to Philadelphia to go to Drexel University. He dropped out after a year but met early Spank Rock partner Alex Epton, who had the brainstorm for Juwan to rap over warp-speed Baltimore club beats. I didnt think that was possible, he remembers, laughing. Disillusioned with the music business after Everything, he began working four years ago on what would become Startisha, seeking a fresh start. Noah Beresin, the producer who was formerly one-half of the Drexel-born hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang, pointed him toward young Philly producers Sam Green and Grave Goods. Most of Startisha was recorded in Philadelphia, including the self-assured Stone Harbor, an unabashedly pop love song written for Ross, whose family vacations in that Jersey Shore town. In 2017, Juwan performed at the Eaux Claires Festival in Wisconsin, striking up a friendship with Vernon that led him to move to Minneapolis to work on Startisha at the Bon Iver leaders studio. The song Naeem on Vernons 2019 album i,i is named for Juwan. Its a bit of mystery, says Juwan, because I wont ask him about it. Its an honor, coming from a good friend who has been really inspiring and encouraging to me. READ MORE: Philly songwriter Orion Sun was knocked to the ground by police at a Black Lives Matter demonstration. The next day, she wrote a beautiful protest song. Juwan lived in Minneapolis for a year and a half. He collaborated with Vernon associates like Francis and the Lights and 78-year-old iconoclast Swamp Dogg, with whom he has become close. Startishas Simulation, about creating your own alternate reality, was influenced by Synthetic World, from the 1970 Swamp Dogg album Total Destruction To Your Mind. As Startisha progressed, Juwan realized that he was leaving Spank Rock behind. By the time we got working on the album, nothing Spank Rock was happening. All my friends who were around for the Spank Rock records, it was a totally different group of people. (The exception is Blank, who is featured on Woo Woo Woo.) So it just felt good to shed that brand of whatever Spank Rock means to people and present myself as myself. Hopefully that gives me the room to be more agile in the future. I want to be able to make whatever I want to make and not be attached to anyones expectations. The trickster rearranges the world While working on Startisha, Juwan read Lewis Hydes 2008 cultural study, Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art. It helped him think critically about the role he was playing as Spank Rock. The trickster is a character that rearranges the world, he says. Its always important to question people in power, and institutions. ... As a minority, theres so little opportunity to see yourself in your superheroes, to have someone to look up to. People whove been awarded often dont look like us, or come from where I come from. So its really important to have tricksters around to say, That is all fake. Those images of what it looks like to be successful can always be rearranged. Watching Black Lives Matter protesters attempt to rearrange the world after George Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police gave me a lot of anxiety at first, he says. But its been amazing to see America go through all these emotions frustration and anger, and then peace." Following the Philadelphia demonstrations from Los Angeles made him homesick. I miss it so much, he says. "Its like no other place in the world. The Los Angeles protests got attention for a minute. But I was following Philadelphia Twitter. That was way more exciting for me. But if Spank Rock was a trickster, Naeem is not. When I was younger, that was the way I was practicing self-expression. And it wasnt until I read the book that I realized that this album is not about me rearranging the world. ... Its about me focusing on myself and long-lasting ideas like love. SAN ANTONIO When government officials no longer required people to wear face masks, H-E-B didnt either. Thats prompted more than 27,000 people to sign an online petition asking the San Antonio retailer to make masks mandatory for customers at its stores. H-E-B, as a private company, is free to require customers to wear masks in their stores, regardless of whether state or local laws require it, the Change.org petition states. H-E-B needs to REQUIRE shoppers to wear face-coverings if they want to shop in their stores. As the coronavirus pandemic took hold, San Antonio and other cities required residents to wear masks in public and places such as grocery stores, where social distancing is difficult. Gov. Greg Abbott effectively undid that requirement when he issued an order in late April preventing local governments from fining or jailing people for not wear masks in public. At the same time, he also announced plans to allow businesses to begin reopening. On Tuesday, as reported cases of COVID-19 continued to spike, the mayors of Texas largest cities asked the governor to once again require Texans to wear masks in public. Bob Owen / San Antonio Express-News TRACKING THE OUTBREAK: Interactive maps, charts show spread of COVID-19 across Houston, rest of Texas H-E-B is following local ordinances and strongly encouraging customers to wear face coverings, company spokeswoman Dya Campos said. Employees and vendors are required to wear masks. We want our customers to wear masks in our stores, she said. Enforcing it, without a local ordinance, is extremely difficult. H-E-B controlled 60 percent of the South Texas market in 2019, according to the Shelby Report, an industry publication. As retailers implement a slew of safety measures and adapt to a patchwork of government orders, they are confronting questions about how to ensure customers follow public-health rules. Enforcement often falls to employees. Some workers at H-E-B, Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale Corp. and other large retailers have contracted COVID-19. H-E-B, one of the few companies to publicly post the number of employees who have caught the virus, has reported at least 30 cases among its San Antonio-area employees so far in June. Masks in particular have become a flash point as Texas and other states reopen, with clashes over whether the coverings should be required. Costco faced some backlash when it said employees and customers alike must wear a face covering starting May 4. The requirement doesnt apply to children under age 2 or people unable to wear coverings because of a medical condition. MEMORIAL: We remember the lives we've lost from COVID-19 We know some members may find this inconvenient or objectionable, but under the circumstances we believe the added safety is worth any inconvenience, Costco president and CEO Craig Jelinek said in a statement. This is not simply a matter of personal choice; a face covering protects not just the wearer, but others too. Although some may disagree with this policy or question its effectiveness, were choosing to err on the side of safety in our shopping environments, Jelinek said. As part of a community, we believe this simple act of safety and courtesy is one that Costco members and employees can undertake together. David Spener, a sociology professor at Trinity University and long-time H-E-B customer, said he started the Change.org petition because he was concerned. He said he emailed the company before posting the petition. He was told the company would be adding signage and messaging at its stores encouraging customers to take precautions but that it was difficult for H-E-B to enforce a mask policy without a local ordinance. After Spener posted on Facebook about the issue, someone suggested he start a petition. Its not intended as an attack on H-E-B. We just want them to do the right thing by their customers, employees and the community at large, Spener said in an interview. Many major retailers including Walmart are requiring employees to wear masks, and urging customers to follow suit and take other safety precautions. Maintaining customer and associate safety remains our top priority, a Walmart spokesperson said. We encourage customers to be especially mindful of one another during this unprecedented time and adhere to recommendations that we all use face coverings while in public spaces. Like Walmart, Target is giving workers masks and requiring them to wear the coverings while at work. In areas where local governments are asking residents to wear masks, we have added signage and stationed team members outside stores to remind guests to wear masks while shopping in stores, a spokesperson said. Trader Joes is urging employees to use masks for their protection and the protection of those around them, the grocery chain said in a May 28 announcement. We strongly encourage customers to wear a mask or face covering while shopping in all our stores, the company added. Where face coverings are required by state or local authorities, we communicate that to our customers as well. Whole Foods Market is mandating that employees wear face masks and requesting that customers do so, too. The grocery chain is providing masks for customers at the entrance of all of its stores, a spokesperson said. Sprouts Farmers Market also is requiring masks for workers and customers are encouraged to wear face coverings, while specific mask requirements for customers vary based on state and local requirements, a spokesperson said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people wear face coverings when around others, among other safety measures. Some studies have shown communities that required masks and implemented other prevention measures were able to slow the rate of coronavirus cases, said Dr. Bryan Alsip, chief medical officer for University Health System. Wearing of masks in public has been shown to be one of the elements of successful strategy in reducing the transmission of COVID-19, along with physical distancing, hand hygiene and other things, he said. As businesses reopen and more people venture out, masks are just as important now as before, Alsip added. If youre wearing a mask, youre not only less likely to get infected yourself, but much less likely to spread it to somebody else, even if youre asymptomatic, he said. If more people are wearing masks, it really means that youre sort of reducing that likelihood of person-to-person spread. madison.iszler@express-news.net Waiting game: Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said it could take 10 years to divest stake in banks Bank of Ireland shares shot up as much as 11pc yesterday, leading an Irish stock market surge turbo-charged by increasing certainty a Government will be formed and the prospect of a stimulus package. AIB (+9.16pc) and landlords Hibernia Reit (+3.5pc) and Ires Reit (+1.46pc) were also swept higher as the market digested the implications of the programme for government (PFG) published on Monday. The ISEQ 20 index of major Irish shares outperformed European peers yesterday, led by the banks. Davy analyst Diarmaid Sheridan said global shares were up anyway yesterday after fresh support from the US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan. In Ireland, the increased likelihood of a centre-right government gave an added boost to bank shares in particular which had sold off sharply after the February 8 general election on the prospect a left- wing Sinn Fein-led government might emerge, he said. Concrete moves to put a Fianna Fail/Fine Gael/Green government in place by the end of this month have removed that perceived risk. The prospect of a stimulus plan including retro-fitting and mortgage supports for homebuyers is also seen as positive for banks, said Mr Sheridan. Builders Cairn and Glenveagh and builders suppliers such as Kingspan also saw shares rise. The incoming government will inherit stakes in AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB that have been in State hands since the bail-outs. The PFG says the incoming coalition is ideologically in favour of privatising those stakes, but only at attractive prices. A collapse in banks' share prices in the last two years in particular means share sales are unlikely for now. "We do not believe that there is a long-term case for the State to remain as a shareholder in the Irish banking sector. However, we should not sell our current holdings until such a time as we are likely to recoup a significant portion, if not all, of the State's investment," the PFG states. On Monday, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said it could take another decade to divest the stakes, and he admitted that heeding a call two years ago from NTMA CEO Conor O'Kelly to sell bank shares would have netted a better return than is currently available. In February this year, Mr O'Kelly repeated his advice, warning policy-makers not to try to call the market or wait for a share price recovery. He said the State should cash in its holdings in AIB, Permanent TSB and Bank of Ireland, and use the proceeds as a matter of policy regardless of timing the sale to optimise a recovery. Pakistani troops violated ceasefire along the Line of Control in Naugam sector of Jammu and Kashmir by firing mortar shells towards Indian positions, a defence spokesman said on Wednesday. "On 16 June 2020, in the late evening hours, Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation (CFV) along the LoC in Naugam Sector by firing mortars and other weapons," the spokesman said. He said Indian Army gave a befitting response to the ceasefire violation. There were no casualties reported in the incident, the spokesman added. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 12:09:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that significant "uncertainty" remains about the timing and strength of the recovery, warning that a prolonged downturn could further widen gaps in economic well-being. Despite the economic bounceback, most forecasters think "that will leave us well short of where we were in February, full employment with the economy really working broadly across all of its areas," Powell said in a virtual hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. "There are parts of the economy that will struggle to return to their old ways of activity, because they involve getting people together closely in large groups," said the Fed chairman. "It's going to take some time to rebuild confidence." At the hearing entitled "The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress," Powell said in his opening remarks that beginning in mid-March, economic activity fell at an "unprecedented" speed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the measures taken to control its spread. "Even after the unexpectedly positive May employment report, nearly 20 million jobs have been lost on net since February," he said, noting that the reported unemployment rate has risen about 10 percentage points, to 13.3 percent. The decline in real gross domestic product (GDP) this quarter is "likely to be the most severe on record," Powell said. The central bank chief reiterated that the burden of the downturn has not fallen equally on all Americans, saying that "those least able to withstand the downturn have been affected most." "Low-income households have experienced, by far, the sharpest drop in employment, while job losses of African Americans, Hispanics, and women have been greater than that of other groups," Powell said. "If not contained and reversed, the downturn could further widen gaps in economic well-being that the long expansion had made some progress in closing," said the Fed chair. The Congressional hearing came shortly after the U.S. Commerce Department reported that retail sales increased by 17.7 percent in May following a record plunge in the prior month, as businesses continue to reopen across the nation. Noting that the retail sales number was evidence that the economy was bouncing back, the Fed chair said, "the levels of output and employment remain far below their pre-pandemic levels, and significant uncertainty remains about the timing and strength of the recovery." "Much of that economic uncertainty comes from uncertainty about the path of the disease and the effects of measures to contain it," he said. "Until the public is confident that the disease is contained, a full recovery is unlikely." As reopening efforts continue across the nation and employment starts to pick up, Powell said that "we have a long road ahead of us to get those people back to work," especially those who work in the service industries. ECONOMIC SUPPORT IN NEED Noting that the unemployed will be hard pressed to find work, Powell said they're going to "need support," without making specific suggestions for Congress on future fiscal policy actions. Also on Tuesday, more than 100 economists, including two former chairs of the Federal Reserve, three former chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers, and two Nobel laureates implored Congress to immediately pass a "multifaceted relief bill of a magnitude commensurate with the challenges our economy faces." The economists said Congress must pass another economic recovery package before most of the support in the 2.2-trillion-dollar CARES Act, or the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, expires this summer. "If Congress fails to act, state and local governments face potentially disastrous budget shortfalls," the statement read, noting that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the unemployment rate will likely be more than 11 percent at the end of the year. At the hearing, Powell highlighted the importance to support state and local governments, saying that if the states are in tight financial straits, they will cut essential services, and lay people off, which will "weigh on the economy." Enditem French troops in Mali recently killed the leader of AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb). This was a big deal because the Maghreb is the Arab word for North Africa and that is where AQIM came from. Most of the Islamic terrorist violence in North Africa took place during the 1990s and by 2000 Islamic terror groups were in decline. That decline continues to the present and led to many surviving al Qaeda men heading south where they tried to rebuild their strength by recruiting locals. This ran into problems because the largely Arab population of North Africa had never got on well with the non-Arab people living south of the Sahara Desert. AQIM did get enthusiasm going down there and that led to local Islamic terrorist groups forming and operating independently of AQIM. As a result, the largest Islamic terror group in Mali is JNIM (Jamaah Nusrah al Islam wal Muslimin, or Group for the support of Islam and Moslems). This is an al Qaeda coalition formed in early 2017 to consolidate the many separate Islamic terror groups in Mali. In part, this was a reaction to the growing threat from ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), which is hostile to everyone who is not ISIL and will attack or recruit from the JNIM members like AQIM, Ansar Dine, FLM and several other smaller groups. Another reason for the merger was to make it easier to pool resources, especially information and practical advice, and coordinate with other Islamic terror groups in the region. This reduces friction and destructive feuding. Making a coalition like this work is always difficult, especially considering the importance of ethnic differences. FLM is Fulani (the largest local tribal contribution) while the other groups are largely Tuareg and Arab, and some have a lot of foreigners. Note that JNIM did not absorb all of AQIM groups in the area, just local groups that had long been identified with al Qaeda. Drug trade income keeps a lot of these factions in business and Islamic terrorists know that business and religious fanaticism do not mi. Those groups that do not go broke and wither to nothing. Islamic terror group members evolved and the more radical JNIM members joined more radical groups like ISIL, which is universally hated by other Islamic terrorists and Moslems in general. Earlier in 2020, Malian ISIL members released a video on the Internet in which the group pledged allegiance to Abu Hamza al Qurayshi, the new ISIL leader. By 2018 there were two ISIL provinces in central Africa. The smaller one was ISGS (Islamic State in Greater Sahara), which showed up in 2018. ISGS is currently active in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The other, slightly older and larger, ISIL province was ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province). ISWAP was actually a faction of the Nigerian Boko Haram Islamic terrorists who had been around since 2004. ISWAP personnel are mostly in northeastern Nigeria as well as smaller numbers in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. There has been increasing friction between ISGS and JNIM (and other al Qaeda affiliates). This is not unusual because, worldwide, ISIL demands all other Islamic terror groups acknowledge the supremacy of ISIL. This rarely happens anymore. In areas where both ISIL and al Qaeda operate, there is usually an informal truce or, as is now the case in Mali, open warfare. ISIL groups are usually outnumbered but often survive because they are more ruthless and vicious. In northern Mali, ISGS also accuses JNIM of collaborating with the security forces against the ISIL group. That is not unusual worldwide but it is unclear if it is actually happening in Mali. What is happening is that ISGS continues to recruit new members from al Qaeda factions. This is how ISIL was created back in 2013 and the practice continues. While Islamic terrorists are the source of much violence and death in Mali and neighboring countries, the main source of violent death is still tribal feuds. In Mali, the primary one is between the Fulani and Dogon and so far in 2020 that feuding has killed more people than all the Islamic terrorist violence in Mali. June 14, 2020: In central Mali (Segou) Islamic terrorists ambushed a military convoy. Fourteen vehicles and 44 soldiers were taken away. An air search soon found four of the vehicles and 32 of the soldiers but only eight were found alive, the other 24 had been killed. June 13, 2020: In the north (outside Gao) a peacekeeper convoy was ambushed and two peacekeepers were killed. June 12, 2020: So far about one percent of the 12,000 peacekeepers have tested positive for covid19 and two have died. While the peacekeepers have pretty good medical care, which they brought with them, the same cannot be said for Mali in general. There are only about 6,000 medical professionals in Mali, a nation of 19 million. Most of the medical personnel are concentrated in the capital and other cities, where less than half the population lives. As a result, the reported covid19 infections and deaths is incomplete. So far there have been 93 confirmed cases per million people and five deaths per million in Mali. For the peacekeeper force alone that comes out to about 8,000 cases per million and 170 deaths per million. Peacekeepers are tested for covid19 and get prompt treatment. That is not the case for most Africans. In most of the Mali covid19 would probably be mistaken for influenza or one of the many other diseases present. Covid19 often kills with what appears to be a case of pneumonia and most of the covid19 dead are elderly or those already ill from something else. That means in many parts of the world a covid19 death is seen as another loss to old age or an existing affliction. The peacekeepers are mainly young and very healthy, which is the group least likely to fall ill and die from covid19. In Mali, the covid19 threat is a recent one, even though the disease has been ravaging China since late 2019. It took a while for the virus to get noticed in Africa. The first case in Mali was not confirmed until March 25th. Throughout Africa, covid19 is not seen as a major new health threat because there are so many other endemic diseases and covid19 is not much more lethal than the annual influenza outbreak in a bad year. June 5, 2020: In central Mali (Mopti), a Fulani village was attacked by armed men in uniforms and over two dozen villagers were killed. It was unclear if the attackers were soldiers (unlikely but not impossible) or Dogon tribesmen (more likely). Fighting between Dogon and Fulani tribal militias has been going on for years. There was a surge in attacks during 2019 that began with a spectacular March massacre where Dogon militia attacked a Fulani village. That action leftover 160 Fulani dead and it wasnt just the Fulani who were outraged by this. The Fulani were the ones who started this violence years ago as they sought to force farmers off the land and away from water supplies the Fulani coveted. But the Fulani raids were meant to terrorize, not exterminate. The Dogon tribe, one of the larger sedentary groups in central Mali, has always been the most organized and aggressive in confronting Fulani expansion into the better watered and more fertile (for grass and crops) Niger River Valley and beyond. After 2012 and the separatist/Islamic terrorist uprising in the north there was an increase in Fulani-farmer violence and the bloodiest incidents often involved Dogon militias fighting Fulani. Calls for the government to disarm the Dogon militias were popular for a while until police and army commanders convinced the government that attempting disarmament would be bloody and, in the long run futile. For the Dogon and Fulani, all this feuding is a matter of life or death while the politicians are concerned about appeasing popular outrage, which tends to fade quickly. Then there are the critical foreign media, which influence foreign aid decisions and are more important, especially for corrupt politicians who steal much of that aid. Getting the Fulani and Dogon and other farming tribes to settle their land and water disputes peacefully is more difficult but is the only lasting solution. Obtaining lasting peace agreements have proved difficult. Those fundamental conflicts are still there, which is why any current peace deal will be under growing economic pressure and eventually collapse into renewed violence. These most recent attacks on a Fulani village were preceded late May attacks that left 27 Dogon villagers dead. The many Dogon-Fulani ceasefires were always at the mercy of natural (drought, hunger) and political (corrupt politicians) events. In the north, the basic problem is poverty and the negative impact banditry and Islamic terrorism is having on efforts to revive the economy. A lot of the Islamic terrorist violence up there is just bandits. It gets more attention if the victims describe the attackers as Islamic terrorists. June 3, 2020: In the north (near the Algerian border) French troops killed Abdel Malek Droukdel (the leader of AQIM) and two of his followers. American UAVs, electronic surveillance and intelligence analysts assisted, as they have done in Africa since the 1990s. Droukdel has headed AQIM since 2007 and was the supreme leader of al Qaeda in North Africa. He was believed to be spending most of his time hiding out in northern Algeria but like many other senior Islamic terrorist leaders, much effort was put into keeping their location secret. The Americans had taken the lead in finding al Qaeda founder bin Laden and ISIL founder Baghdadi and the French believed those search efforts would work in Africa. As with bin Laden and Baghdadi, there was an effort to take Droukdel alive but that was not possible. May 28, 2020: In central Mali (Mopti) there were three attacks during the last 24 hours, all carried out by armed men riding motorcycles firing on Dogon villages. At least 27 Dogon villagers were killed. The attackers suffered no losses because the attacks were brief and the attackers sped away before local police or militia could show up. This sort of thing usually leads to revenge attacks. May 27, 2020: Algeria delivered 53 military vehicles to the Mali military. This was a gift, in recognition of the cooperation between Mali and Algeria against Islamic terrorists operating along their common border. Turkey launched an air and ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq on Wednesday, in a move likely to increase friction with the Baghdad government. The defence ministry said "commandos" moved in, supported by drones and helicopters, following a bombardment with rocket launchers and artillery guns that hit more than 150 targets. It said the operation, dubbed "Claw-Tiger", came after a "recent upsurge in attacks on our police stations and military bases" near the Iraqi border. Turkey carried out air strikes earlier this week that drew an angry response from Iraq, which labelled them "a violation of sovereignty". The Turkish military regularly carries out operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey and its rear bases across the border. The operation on Sunday night was dubbed "Claw-Eagle" with raids in the northern Iraqi territories of Kandil, Sinjar and Hakurk. A PKK source in northern Iraq told AFP Turkish forces "carried out a commandos airdrop from military helicopters backed by warplanes, and clashed with our fighters" in an area called Haftanin, which is in Dohuk province near the Iraqi-Turkish border. Reda Manujri, an independent analyst in northern Iraq, said Turkish troops would likely seek to occupy a "strategic mountain chain" along the border between Iraq and Turkey, possibly even setting up military bases there. The expert said the "silence" from the Kurdish regional government and Baghdad "indicates that they both had information from, an understanding with, and perhaps even collusion with the Turkish government on this attack". PKK bases are not explicitly authorised but are tolerated by an autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq. - 'Natural right' - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party spokesman defended Turkey's actions. "Turkey continues its effective fight against terror using its rights based on international law," Omer Celik said on Twitter. "It is our most natural right and duty to fight against terrorists who attack our borders, citizens and security forces." The PKK, which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is banned as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies. Tens of thousands have been killed during the violence, which resumed after a two-year ceasefire collapsed in 2015. Iraq summoned Turkey's Baghdad envoy Fatih Yildiz over the raids on Sunday night. The ambassador tweeted he had informed Iraqi officials that Turkey would "fight the PKK wherever it is" if Iraq did not "take any steps" to remove the PKK's presence. burs-raz/fo/jj The Turkish military regularly carries out operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey and its rear bases across the border Denise Rogers knows without a doubt that she caught COVID-19 on the job. As a shuttle driver for ProPark in New Haven, she transports doctors, nurses and other medical staff to and from Yale New Haven Hospital and the Hospital of Saint Raphael from 5:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every day. As the employees board the shuttle, every single one passes Rogers in the drivers seat. The shuttle only has one door, and its right next to her. This is all I do, Rogers said. I deal with every aspect of people in the hospital, whatever department they work in. Thats what a shuttle driver does. She contracted a severe case of COVID-19 in March and is still out of a job. When she went to the emergency room the first time, the doctors assumed it was related to her asthma and did not test Rogers for the virus. A week later, she traveled by ambulance to the hospital, where she tested positive for COVID-19. Rogers and two other Connecticut essential workers testified Wednesday before a virtual joint hearing of the legislatures Labor and Public Employees and Insurance and Real Estate committees. She has been battered with medical bills, lingering complications from COVID-19 that prevent her from working and the death of her husband, who she also believes contracted COVID-19 on the job. Rogers applied for workers compensation, but her application was denied. Rogers is not alone. Thus far, only 29 of the 739 employees who have filed for workers compensation have won hearing requests; the other 710 have been denied and not appealed, according to Stephen Morelli, commissioner of the state Workers Compensation Commission. The message I will leave for anyone who feels aggrieved because they have contracted COVID-19, theyve had illness were here, Morelli said. If you are not receiving what you feel you should be receiving, file your hearing request in the appropriate district and we will adjudicate it in accordance with the statute and the law. Other states have taken measures to make it easier for struggling workers to receive compensation. As of June 9, six states have enacted legislation creating a workers compensation presumption. While the presumption can be rebutted, unless the employer provides sufficient evidence, it would be difficult to challenge. Seven other states have enacted the same presumption through executive orders. Gov. Ned Lamont has said he supports the current workers compensation process and doesnt see any need to make changes in the short-term. Morelli said without a workers compensation presumption, employers have an incentive to deny a claim. If an employer fails to file a denial within 28 days, the employer cannot defend themselves in the case. Therefore, Morelli said about 90% of workers compensation claims filed never make it to the commission for a hearing. In those cases, there is going to be denials, Morelli said. It doesnt mean there wont be benefits paid. It means the employer is reserving their right to down the road, to contest the extent of the injury. Dori Harrington, a licensed practical nurse at Parkville Care Center, filed a claim after she says she contracted COVID-19 on the job. She was denied. At the hearing, she read part of the denial letter aloud. Alleged occupational disease of coronavirus/COVID-19 did not arise out of and in the portion of the employees employment and is due to non-occupational causes, Harrington read. COVID-19 is not distinctly associated with the employees occupation as an LPN such that there is a direct causal connection between the duties of the employment and the disease contract and does not qualify as an occupational disease under general statutes. Harrington said she received this denial letter even before she filled out the packet where she could detail the circumstances at the job that led her to believe her infection occurred as she was working. Like Rogers, Harrington is certain she caught the virus on the job. On her floor, 25 of the 29 patients contracted the virus and Harrington said she was not equipped with the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) throughout the most deadly months of the pandemic. Even if Connecticut did adopt the presumption as several other states have, some lawyers testified that these cases are often too difficult to prove. If you dont prove the case you dont win, said Anne Zovas of Strunk, Dodge, Aiken and Zovas, a law firm in Rocky Hill. If someone contracts the flu, it is very difficult to obtain a medical opinion that a flu symptom was contracted in the workplace. Diane Retucci, president of the Workers Compensation Trust, said the trust has accepted 25 claims of workers who tested positive for COVID-19. As for a legislative solution, lawmakers are torn. State Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, said lawmakers should look holistically at the situation and opt for a solution that will help these workers who are in dire need as soon as possible. Emilie Munson / Hearst Connecticut Media When we say, Let the system work, and I listen to the workers who testified today, thats not working for them, the co-chair of the Labor Committee said. Our job here in this little piece we can address is not to hand them over workers compensation, but to give them a fair shot of getting workers compensation for being out there and protecting us. While workers compensation would help alleviate some of the financial struggles for essential workers who became ill, it might be too little, too late for Rogers. Without workers comp, I am facing medical bills, my hospital bill alone was over $180,000, Rogers said. I have a $500 deductible. I still have to pay copay. The biggest problem I am facing is I was covered by my husband, his insurance. For me to keep it, I need to come up with $800 a month. I dont know how I am going to pay my bills. I dont know how I am going to return back to work. I am going to have long-term damage. I have been stretched emotionally. I dont know what is going to happen to me. Earlier in his career, Riccio served as lieutenant of the former Belmont Area violent crimes unit, supervising investigations into homicides and shootings on the North Side and downtown. While assigned there, one of the most high-profile cases he supervised was the December 2006 fatal shooting of Willie B. Posey, the bodyguard of former Chicago Bears defensive lineman Terry Tank Johnson. An alleged gang member was convicted of murder in his slaying. BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A former Chinese chief trade negotiator has stressed that it is even more important for China and the United States to cooperate amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP). "At a time when the coronavirus pandemic is still threatening global cooperation, I think it's even more important to uphold and carry forward a spirit of cooperation," the SCMP's report on Monday quoted Long Yongtu, China's former chief negotiator for entry into the World Trade Organization, as saying. Speaking at a seminar in China's Jiangsu Province last week, Long said China and the United States are too intertwined to be decoupled. The "competitive" bilateral relationship does not mean the two countries "have to confront or clash with each other," he said, adding, "just like in a market economy, although many companies are competitors, competition doesn't lead to exclusion or prevent finding a common interest." China and the United States can surely find a place to cooperate since the two economies are already intertwined, he said. Noting that the United States in last month expressed its willingness to continue to have an open and constructive relationship with China, Long said he believes the two sides can form a cooperative relationship "as long as China and the U.S. are willing to seek common ground while reserving differences." Dreamstime, HO / TNS For real estate agents, every phone call is a potential client. But being easily accessible can have drawbacks. Houston-area real estate agents have been reporting harassing phone calls for years, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. Over the past decade, roughly 100 female real estate agents have told the association they have received phone calls from a man calling from a blocked number, who would dial frequently and has recently escalated harassment to death threats. US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters US President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to buy US agricultural products to help Trump win the 2020 election, John Bolton wrote in his upcoming book. In an excerpt published on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, Bolton wrote that Trump was "pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win," adding that "he stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome." Bolton said that the president's actions related to his China policy "formed a pattern of fundamentally unacceptable behavior that eroded the very legitimacy of the presidency." "Had Democratic impeachment advocates not been so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg in 2019, had they taken the time to inquire more systematically about Trump's behavior across his entire foreign policy, the impeachment outcome might well have been different," he wrote. The Trump administration sued Bolton this week to prevent him from releasing his book, alleging breach of contract. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. US President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to buy agricultural products from the US to help Trump win states with large farming industries in the 2020 election. That's according to an upcoming book by the former national security adviser John Bolton, titled "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir." In an excerpt published on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, Bolton wrote that Trump was "pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win." "He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome," Bolton wrote. He added that "Trump's conversations with Xi reflected not only the incoherence in his trade policy but also the confluence in Trump's mind of his own political interests and U.S. national interests." Story continues "Trump commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security," the former national security adviser said. "I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn't driven by reelection calculations." The book offers an inside look at events that took place during Bolton's rocky tenure as Trump's third national security adviser. In particular, it includes new details about what happened in the White House during Trump's efforts to strong-arm Ukraine into delivering political dirt against former Vice President Joe Biden, now the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. In the book, Bolton accused the House of Representatives of committing "impeachment malpractice" and alleged that the president had engaged in significantly more impeachable conduct than what he was ultimately accused of. Bolton said the president's actions related to his China policy "formed a pattern of fundamentally unacceptable behavior that eroded the very legitimacy of the presidency." "Had Democratic impeachment advocates not been so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg in 2019, had they taken the time to inquire more systematically about Trump's behavior across his entire foreign policy, the impeachment outcome might well have been different," he wrote. The former national security adviser has attracted significant criticism from Democrats for including these details in his book after refusing to testify in the House's impeachment hearings against Trump last year. He later agreed to testify before the Republican-controlled Senate if subpoenaed, but the upper chamber voted against calling new witnesses in the president's trial. Bolton's book is set to be released next Tuesday, and he has already taped an interview with ABC News to promote it. On Tuesday, the Trump administration sued the former national security adviser to prevent him from releasing the book. The lawsuit accused Bolton of breaking his contract by backing out of the National Security Council's ongoing vetting process to determine whether his book contains classified information that needs to be redacted or edited down. The NSC "quickly identified significant quantities of classified information that it asked Defendant to remove," the complaint said. "An iterative process between NSC Staff and Defendant then began, as required by the binding agreements he signed, with changes to the book and other information being securely passed between Defendant and NSC staff. Soon, though, Defendant apparently became dissatisfied at the pace of NSC's review." It alleged that instead of waiting, Bolton "decided to take matters into his own hands." On June 7, "without Defendant giving any prior notice to the NSC, press reports revealed that Defendant and his publisher had resolved to release the book on June 23, without completing the pre-publication review process," the lawsuit said. Read the original article on Business Insider Parts of the aircraft flown by the men were found in a French village last January and have been given to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Details of a secret wartime mission by two Australian airmen to rescue the family of Charles de Gaulle have been unearthed. First published in The Age on June 19, 1980 Memorial officials said yesterday that just after the fall of France, General de Gaulle appealed to British authorities to save his wife and family from a village near Brest in Brittany. German troops were expected to reach the village the next day. On 17 June 1940 British Special Operations decided to send one of their officers to France in a Supermarine Walrus amphibian plane piloted by Flight Lieutenant John Napier Bell of Adelaide, with Sergeant Charles William Harris of New South Wales as air observer. Both were members of the RAAF number 10 Squadron based at Plymouth. The memorial said their instructions were to land the British intelligence officer and pick up a British spy and de Gualles family. That is a stark difference compared to how the case and death numbers were increasing at the end of April and beginning of May. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Naperville nursing homes jumped from 54 to 158 between April 19 and May 1, a 12-day period, and the number of deaths jumped from two to 18 in the same amount of time, state numbers show. 100% Website visitnorway.no uses latest and advanced technologies. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 199375 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 787682 bytes (769.22 kb uncompressed) and 98290 bytes (95.99 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2022-01-02, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. YEREVAN. The prosecutor spoke against the appellate appeal by the defense attorneys of Armenias second President Kocharyan during Wednesdays Criminal Court of Appeal hearing on the criminal case against him. Prosecutor Gevorg Baghdasaryan cited the DataLex judicial information system website, among other things, and said the charge was the evidence of the risk of influencing the investigation. According to him, the respective cornerstone is the inclusion of the army in internal political processes, attempts to falsify evidence, and pressure on witnesses. "Facts that Robert Kocharyan, being in freedom, had an impact, are not presented," the prosecutor said, adding that it was about risks, not just actions. The court inquired whether there was any information about Kocharyan's direct connection to the circumstances mentioned by the prosecutor. In response, the prosecutor had to admit the lack of necessary facts, and he focused on the risks. But Hayk Alumyan, one of Robert Kocharyans attorneys, lodged a complaint against the presiding judge's actions. "The court is considering a circumstance that is not put on the basis of the decision of the court of first instance, and it has not even been studied," the lawyer said. It is now conventional wisdom that the policy of non-alignment and strategic autonomy served India exceedingly well in the first six decades or so of its independent existence. Sure, there were times when the policy strained at the leash: one such instance was 1971 when India signed a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation with the erstwhile Soviet Union; yet another was the position we took when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. But on the whole, India managed to walk the tightrope pretty well and it may be reasonably argued the policy helped us punch above our weight in ... A gang of girls have kicked, punched and stomped on a teenager in a sickening unprovoked assault that left her with broken ribs and suspected facial fractures. The 15-year-old victim was alone and waiting for a train at Melbourne's Southern Cross Station when she was set upon by eight females who filmed their brazen Sunday afternoon attack. In the video, a girl in a black tracksuit can be seen sitting on a platform bench when another female punches her in the face. A teenage girl (pictured) has been assaulted by a gang of girls at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne The terrified victim is then struck again by another girl before she is kicked three times in the head. One of the attackers then punches the sitting teen in the face so hard it snaps her head back. As the injured victim turns her head away she is then punched in the back of the head five more times. The rest of the horrific assault is not captured on video but the mother of the victim told 7News, she was then dragged to the ground and stomped on. In a Facebook comment, the distraught mum said her daughter was left bleeding from the nose and mouth, suffered broken ribs, severe bruising and a suspected broken cheekbone. The teenager, who knows at least one of her attackers, believes she was targeted because she spoke to a boy that one of the group 'liked'. Although the attack occurred three days prior, police have not made any arrests. A female is pictured punching the 15-year-old victim in the head while she is alone sitting down 'Police are aware of footage of an assault at a train station circulating on social media,' a Victoria Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia. 'Based on the information provided at this stage we have not been able to confirm if a complaint has been made in relation to the incident.' A GoFundMe page has been set up on behalf of the victim and her family. 'We have decided to try and raise some sort of financial contribution to enable her to gain support through therapy, to gain the physical martial arts training to give her back her confidence to leave her house again,' the fundraiser page says. '(And) If possible, something for her to enjoy. A little weekender or holiday to show her how much love there is out there for her so she doesn't feel alone.' Appeal comes one day before Chinas top legislative bpdy meets in Beijng to discuss key legislation. A group of 86 human rights organisations have urged Chinese legislators to abandon a national security law for Hong Kong, calling the proposed legislation a devastating assault on human rights. Wednesdays appeal comes as the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress (NPCSC), Chinas top legislative body, prepares to hold a three-day session in Beijing. The rights groups which include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House said legislators are likely to discuss the national security law at the June 18-20 meeting, paving the way for the proposed law to come into force as early as this month. China first unveiled plans for a law banning what it termed secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in semi-autonomous Hong Kong last month. The proposal triggered opposition from pro-democracy protesters, lawyers and business executives in Hong Kong, as well as criticism from foreign governments, including the United States and Britain. Critics see the law as a threat to the one country, two systems formula agreed upon to protect the former British colonys freedoms and role as a global financial centre when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. But Hong Kong and Beijing officials say the planned law, in fact, strengthens the governance formula and would only target a small number of troublemakers threatening national security, while leaving rights and freedoms intact. They have dismissed criticism from foreign governments and organisations, urging them to stop interfering in Chinas internal affairs. Although China has revealed few concrete details about the national security law, everything we know about it so far suggests it will threaten the basic rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong, wrote the groups in the letter addressed to Li Zhanshu, chairman of NPCSC. It criminalises broad, vague offences that can encompass any criticism of the government and be used against people peacefully exercising and defending their human rights. The groups also expressed concern over the potential establishment in Hong Kong of agencies similar to the Ministry of State Security and the National Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, bodies long known for serious rights violations in China. Allowing these agencies to operate in Hong Kong, or having similar agencies set up by the Hong Kong government, poses an imminent threat not only to human rights defenders, the independent media and dissidents, but essentially to everybody in the city. the letter said. Signatories of the letter included organisations from Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Norway, Taiwan and the US. Hong Kongs leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday urged opponents of the new law not to demonise and stigmatise the legislation, saying people were sick and tired of violence in Hong Kong. The city was roiled last year by months of mass protests denouncing what protesters called Beijings increasing intervention in Hong Kongs affairs. The demonstrations at times descended into violence, and Hong Kong and Beijing officials blamed the discontent in part on foreign interference. Lam told a news briefing that the new proposed law is aimed at protecting Hong Kong and China. We are part of the Peoples Republic of China, but we dont have a mechanism to protect national security, she said. This is a risk not just to over 7 million people in Hong Kong; its also a risk to 1.4 billion people in the country. Abel Communications Right now, in the face of the pandemic and at a pivotal time for justice, we recognize many of our friends and neighbors could use a boost. We are launching the Boost Bmore Project to give back to the community we call home. Abel Communications, a leading Maryland public relations firm, today announced the launch of the Boost Bmore Project, an initiative that aims to empower Baltimore small businesses, nonprofits, restaurants, start-ups and entrepreneurs with pro-bono communications consulting. Over the past fifteen years, Abel Communications has provided communications counsel to companies around the country, including many based in our hometown of Baltimore. Weve seen firsthand how resourceful and resilient the Baltimore business community can be, said Greg Abel, CEO and Founder of Abel Communications. But right now, in the face of the pandemic and at a pivotal time for justice, we recognize many of our friends and neighbors could use a boost. We are launching the Boost Bmore Project to give back to the community we call home. Organizations with 50 or less full-time employees based in Greater Baltimore, including nonprofits, restaurants, startups and entrepreneurs are eligible and encouraged to apply from now through July 8. Selected businesses will receive communications counsel from one of the top PR firms in the region, including: a one-hour strategy session to help address the most pressing business and marketing challenges, an internal Innovation Lab that will focus on brainstorming how to solve a business or marketing challenge, a Boost Analysis with ideas and recommendations, and an invite-only PR 101 workshop. For more information on the Boost Bmore Project and to apply, visit http://www.abelcommunications.com/boost-bmore-project/ About Abel Communications Abel Communications is a full-service public relations firm, delivering strategic communications programs for its regional and national clients. We provide strategic counsel to help clients navigate that vast intersection of media relations, content development, social media and digital strategy. We are not just a publicity shop. We unleash the power of relationships and connections. We deliver great ideas and get results for clients including The Bainbridge Companies, Loyola University, National Apartment Association, UnitedHealthcare and WorldAware. For more information, visit https://www.abelcommunications.com. BEIJING: The foreign ministers of China and India on Wednesday held telephone talks over a deadly border clash, agreeing to "cool down" tensions as soon as possible, Beijing said. Both sides agreed in the call between China's Wang Yi and India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to "deal fairly" with the events in the Galwan Valley and maintain peace in border areas, China's foreign ministry said. The "hand-to-hand" fighting in the disputed Himalayan region left 20 Indian soldiers dead, according to India's military, with both sides blaming the other for the violence. It is the first deadly clash between the nuclear powers in decades. China has refused to confirm if it suffered any casualties. The Chinese foreign ministry statement said that both sides agreed to "cool down the situation on the ground as soon as possible, and maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas in accordance with the agreement reached so far between both countries." Wang demanded that "India conduct a thorough investigation" on the situation, punish those responsible and immediately stop all provocations to ensure such an incident does not occur again, the statement said. "The Indian side must not misjudge the current situation, and must not underestimate China's firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty," it added. According to Beijing, Jaishankar said India is willing to peacefully resolve disputes in the border areas through dialogue and ease tensions there. The ongoing confrontation between India and China has taken a dangerous turn. While all details are not known yet, a violent clash broke out after the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) troops refused to follow a disengagement plan that had been agreed upon by the two sides. We know the casualty numbers on the Indian side but have only unconfirmed reports about the Chinese side. It is too early to conclude anything about the military situation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). What is clear is that China is willing to escalate militarily for the small pieces of land it has occupied around Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, and the Hot Springs. The PLAs behaviour is unusual when judged against the benchmarks of Chinas own conduct in previous territorial disputes with India. So far, the Chinese tendency to initiate a military conflict has been correlated with the stakes involved in the territory for Beijing. Let us consider three regions whose status has or had been a bone of contention between the two countries Tibet, Aksai Chin, and Sikkim. These three case studies provide ample variation in the nature of dispute and the extent of military escalation by China. India was not a direct party to the dispute in Tibet. New Delhis interest was in the kind of relationship it would have with Tibet, and hence the kind of autonomy Tibet would enjoy under Communist rule. The Chinese leadership, however, believed that India wished to create a buffer zone in Tibet. Aksai Chin, on the other hand, has been a direct dispute between India and China. Sikkims status was a contestation between the Indian government and the Chogyal in Sikkim. China was the third party which would have liked Sikkim to continue as a buffer zone. So, the Chinese stakes were highest in Tibet and lowest in Sikkim, with Aksai Chin in between. The case of Aksai Chin, however, was linked to the fate of Tibet. Indias claim on Aksai Chin was annoying for China because the territory provided, in 1950s, the most viable link between China and Tibet. Other routes, from Qinghai province in the north and Sichuan basin in the east, were subject to adverse weather patterns, difficult terrain and a Kham insurrection, which the Chinese believed was being supported by India along with the American Central Intelligence Agency. Moreover, Indian claims over Aksai Chin were inconsistent over time. Jawaharlal Nehrus position on Aksai Chin hardened when Sarvepalli Gopal, a historian with Indias ministry of external affairs, studied historical documents and convinced the PM, in 1960, about Indian claims over the territory. Given that THE Dalai Lama had fled to India in 1959, the change in Indian position on Aksai Chin could have come across to the Chinese leadership as linked to New Delhis designs over Tibet. The most convincing explanation of China initiating a war against India in 1962 has to do with Tibet. Indias inconsistency over Aksai Chin and Nehrus flawed Forward Policy raising posts and conducting patrols in the disputed areas definitely contributed to the war. But they were mere confirmation to the Chinese leadership of their prior beliefs about Indias designs on Tibet. In contrast, Indias annexation of Sikkim in 1975 did not elicit a military response from China. The Chinese stakes were the lowest in Sikkim, and that could explain why the PLA did not escalate the 1967 clashes in Sikkim. Aksai Chin was a theatre of conflict in 1962 but Indian moves in that region, when considered separately from their implications over the status of Tibet, would not have prompted a full-fledged war. The current crisis involves new intrusion points which were not part of the Aksai Chin dispute. There is an argument that the Indian decision to effectively nullify Article 370 and create a new Union Territory of Ladakh in August 2019 could have led China to believe that India intends to change the status quo in Aksai Chin. This is a tenuous claim because the fact is that the Indian position and claims on Aksai Chin havent changed. Indias map before and after the amendment of Article 370 look exactly identical, except for the addition of an extra line between Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and this line is hundreds of kilometres away from the LAC around which the disputes lie. The nullification of Article 370 also does not, in any sense, affect Indias ability to alter the status quo in Aksai Chin. It seems far-fetched that the decision to issue a new map after the creation of Ladakh as a separate UT which, to reiterate, is identical to the old map indicates any Indian territorial design over Aksai Chin. The PLAs behaviour also does not show that Article 370 has much relevance to whatever it has been up to. For instance, even the recent intrusions involve one in Naku La in Sikkim which has nothing to do with Article 370. PLA has undertaken similar unilateral actions, albeit on a lower scale, in 2013 (Depsang) and 2014 (Chumar), much before Article 370 was amended. Beijing has inserted itself into the Kashmir dispute by signing off on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, also much before August 2019. The trend is clear: China is moving forward into territory where it has neither been a disputant nor does it have high stakes. But since the economic and military gap between the two Asian giants have widened, China is pressing forward to create new buffer zones. With every crisis, China aims to expand its claims and create new limits for the Indian patrols. With the widening capability gap, the old standards of behaviour military action only when the stakes are high are no longer applicable. With fewer material constraints, China is creating new areas of interest, new buffer zones, new standards of behaviour, and new realities on the ground. (Kunal Singh is pursuing a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The views expressed here are personal) Tyler Perry dreads the day he will have to talk to his five-year-old son Aman about racism. In an essay the 50-year-old actor, writer, and director penned for People magazine, Tyler wrote: 'I know that as his father, a black man in America, it is my duty to prepare him for the harsh reality that awaits him outside of the watchful eyes of his loving parents. It will be a hard, heartbreaking conversation, but one that I must have and will have soon. 'I will explain to him that because we are only 12 to 14 percent of the population, this fight will continue to be a long and arduous one, but I will tell him with pride to never give up. 'It will be a hard, heartbreaking conversation': Tyler Perry dreads the day he will have to talk to his five-year-old son Aman about racism 'I will tell him that progress is made in small steps, and even if you get exhausted to fight on, because there are always signs of daybreak before the morning comes 'It is my hope that we continue these hard conversations out of respective corners to talk to each other but most of all to hear each other so that this mourning in America will give way to morning in America.' The star also admitted he is 'exhausted' of the 'hate and division' currently present across the world, and says following the recent death of unarmed black man George Floyd - who was killed when a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes - and the Black Lives Matter protests that have followed, he can't stand seeing similar scenes play out 'with nothing changing'. He wrote: 'When I was asked to write this essay, I initially said no, and that is so strange for me because I'm a man of faith, and I believe greatly in hope. It was simply because I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted from all the hate and the division, the vitriol that I see online from one to another. Family matters: Perry shares Aman with his partner, Gelila Bekele (pictured 2011) Candid: Perry admitted he was reluctant to write the essay for People (pictured April 2020) 'I'm exhausted from seeing these kinds of senseless murders play out over and over again with nothing changing in our society.' Tyler spoke about the discrimination he has felt at the hands of police, including a time in which officers seemingly accused him of stealing his own car. He added: 'From as far back as I can remember, growing up in New Orleans, which in the '70s and '80s had one of the most corrupt police departments in the country, it brought back memories of walking to high school being stopped and frisked or later walking to work in the French Quarter and being made to lie facedown on the ground while they searched me for no reason at all. 'Or all the times I had to keep my hands on the hood of a hot police car in the middle of the Louisiana heat, almost burning them, while I was searched simply because I was black in a white neighbourhood. 'It brought back the pain of 2012 when I was leaving my studio preparing for a visit from the sitting President at the time, Barack Obama, when I was pulled over by two white officers in a situation that quickly could have gotten out of hand. I could have been a hashtag simply because I was driving a nice car.' (Newser) Pacific Gas & Electric confessed Tuesday to killing 84 people in a devastating 2018 wildfire that wiped out the Northern California town of Paradise in November 2018. PG&E CEO Bill Johnson entered guilty pleas on behalf of the company for 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the fire, which was blamed on the companys crumbling electrical grid. "Our equipment started that fire," said Johnson, who apologized directly to the victims' families. PG&E will never forget the Camp Fire and all that it took away from the region." Although the admission was part of a plea deal, it came during a dramatic court hearing designed to publicly shame the nations largest utility for neglecting its infrastructure, the AP reports. PG&E has agreed to pay a maximum fine of $3.5 million for its crimes in addition to $500,000 for the cost of the investigation. story continues below Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems read the name of each victim aloud in the courtroom while the images of the dead were shown on large screen as Johnson entered a plea for each of the counts. The fire killed 85 people, but prosecutors werent certain they could prove PG&E was responsible for one of the deaths. Johnson also pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire. With no prospect of jail time for a corporation, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey tried to use Tuesdays hearing to force PG&E to confront the death and destruction stemming from its its corporate culture of placing a greater priority on profits for its shareholders than public safety. The company has agreed to pay $25.5 billion for losses from the 2018 fire and other blazes in 2017 blamed on its equipment. (Read more Camp Fire stories.) S. Korea says DPRK blows up inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 16:19, June 16, 2020 SEOUL, June 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Tuesday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) demolished an inter-Korean liaison office in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong by an explosion. The South Korean ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs said in a brief statement that the DPRK blew up the Kaesong joint liaison office at 2:49 p.m. local time (0549 GMT). The liaison office was opened in September 2018 for the round-the-clock communications between the two Koreas in accordance with the Panmunjom Declaration. The declaration was signed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un after their first summit on April 27, 2018 at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom. The joint liaison office has been temporarily closed since January over the COVID-19 outbreak. According to a military source cited by multiple local media, an explosion was heard and smoke was seen rising from the Kaesong Industrial Complex, an inter-Korean factory park in Kaesong housing the liaison office. An official at the South Korean defense ministry told Xinhua over phone that the ministry had nothing to confirm over the issue. The explosion came after Kim Yo Jong, first vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and younger sister of the DPRK leader, said in a statement Saturday night that she had given instructions for decisive action to be taken. "If I drop a hint of our next plan the South Korean authorities are anxious about, the right to taking the next action against the enemy will be entrusted to the General Staff of our army," she said, indicating a demolition of the liaison office. The DPRK has repeatedly lashed out at South Korea in protest of anti-DPRK propaganda leaflets sent by defectors and activists across the border. Pyongyang closed its joint liaison office and cut off all communication lines with South Korea last week. South Korean President Moon on Monday offered to have dialogue with the DPRK to find a breakthrough, saying the time has come that the two Koreas "would no longer sit and wait for improved conditions." Moon said he wished to actively find and put into practice the projects that the two Koreas can choose and push for on their own, expressing his anticipation that the DPRK would open its door for dialogue and put ideas together. Denuclearization talks between the DPRK and the United States have stalled since the second summit between top DPRK leader Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump ended with no agreement in February 2019 at the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. The South Korean president proposed in April to resume inter-Korean cooperation with the DPRK by jointly tackling the COVID-19 outbreak. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address President Trump allegedly told Chinese President Xi Jinping in June 2019 to continue building camps used to detain 1 million2 million Uighur Muslims, according to an excerpt published in the Wall Street Journal from former national security adviser John Bolton's book. Trump denied the claims in an interview with the WSJ later Wednesday. Why it matters: China's internment camps have used mass surveillance, arbitrary detentions, brainwashing and even torture on the persecuted minority group living in the Xinjiang region, as exposed by journalists, NGOs and former detainees. Between the lines, via Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian: Trump administration officials have publicly condemned the camps. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sam Brownback, the ambassador at large for international religious freedom appointed by Trump, have all spoken out against them. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross took the novel step of adding dozens of Chinese companies and government bureaus deemed complicit in operating the camps to an export blacklist normally reserved for terrorism and financial offenses. Around the same time as the WSJ excerpt was published Wednesday, Trump signed a bill passed by Congress that calls for sanctions for Chinese officials responsible for the camps. But many of the allegations excerpted from Bolton's book claim that Trump's personal dealings with China were singularly focused on securing his own re-election, not on the country's history of human rights abuses. What he's saying: "At the opening dinner of the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang," Bolton writes in his upcoming book, per the WSJ. "According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Councils top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China." What they're saying: The White House referred Axios to a comment from press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who said Wednesday that the book is "full of classified information." The National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday night, Trump said the claims about the camp were "not true" and called Bolton a "liar." Go deeper ... Report: Leaked files show how mass detention of Uighurs was organized Editor's note: This article has been updated with Trump's comments. In a roll call room in North Precinct, the citys new police chief told the members of the Gun Violence Reduction Team that their days were numbered. The 34-member team likely would be disbanded by July 1. Governor Abdullahi Ganduje on Tuesday rejected the federal governments findings which attributed 50-60 per cent of recent mysterious deaths in Kano to COVID-19. Mr Ganduje spoke at the Kano government house while receiving a new report of verbal autopsies conducted on the causes of these deaths. A verbal autopsy is carried out to find the cause of death when the corpse is not physically available or has been buried. The governor, who described the federal governments report as misleading, said he will pass the new findings to President Muhammadu Buhari, the chairman of the presidential task force, the minister of health, and the national coordinator of the technical committee. He also hinted that the report would be translated into Hausa for the consumption of the people at the grassroots so that they would come to know the true situation and (have) clearer picture. The minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, had earlier linked 60 per cent of mass deaths recorded in Kano State to COVID-19 infection. An elated Mr Ganduje congratulated the committee for a good job. This report, which was scientifically conducted, has put to rest all postulations, predictions, permutations and all hues cries about the mysterious deaths. When I went through the literature review, I understood how good the findings are. So it is good for all to understand that any report that could not pass the test of validity and reliability, such report is misleading, he said apparently referring to the FG report. Findings Presenting the findings, Mukhtar Gadanya, who read out all parts of the report said A retrospective study of mortalities was conducted over 2 weeks (27th April 15th May 2020); across 8 metropolitan local government areas (Gwale, Fagge, Tarauni, Kumbotso, Ungogo, Nassarawa, Kano Municipal and Dala). According to him, the mortalities in the identified LGAs were line-listed, which made a provision for the questionnaire to be administered house to house. He revealed that, as part the committees scientific approach, mortalities reviewed were for a period of 1 month (1st April to 2nd May 2020). The commissioner of health Aminu Tsanyawa presenting the report to governor Abdullahi Ganduje. Relatives of those who passed away were interviewed by respective Ward Focal Persons (WFP), using a structured questionnaire into an electronic platform (ODK). Data from the questionnaire were reviewed for categorisation into most probable causes of mortality by medical specialists using two-symptoms criteria (at least presence of two of any of fever, cough and shortness of breath), he added. According to Mr Gadanyas account, an inter-play of various factors contributed to the mysterious deaths, causes this study shed light on. Mortality in community is cyclical and vary by seasons and months. Mr Gadanya disagreed with the earlier report given by the minister of health saying that, COVID-19 might have contributed 15.9 % of the cases of mortality, but within the limitations of the verbal autopsy method, that cannot provide confirmation. He added thst, suspected COVID-19 255 out of 1604 deaths or 15.9% (95% confidence interval: 14.1% to 17.8%). Some deaths may be related to disruption of medical care and socio-economic activities due to fear of contracting COVID-19, which usually happen during epidemics. If the mysterious deaths were COVID-19 related, the deaths could have come more from local governments that have more COVID-19 cases. Tarauni local government for example, with 100 confirmed COVID-19 cases is the 1st in pandemic ranking, but in the mysterious deaths it is rated 7th, he said. At last, Canada has fully woken up to the long-standing, systemic problems in its long-term care (LTC) for seniors. There is now a will and desire to improve care conditions for our most vulnerable citizens. While there is consensus that major reforms are necessary, little is being said on how to meet the costs of overhauling the system. How do we get from an unacceptable present to a better, more sustainable future? And with our aging population, how will we afford it in a post-COVID economy? COVID-19 showed us that maintaining the status quo for LTC in Canada is an unacceptable path. Financial projections by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) show its also expensive and financially unsustainable. Using a complex population microsimulation model to project Canadas future LTC costs, if Canada continues on its current track, the cost of publicly funded LTC is expected to more than triple in 30 years, rising from $22 billion to $71 billion (in todays dollars). That accounts for one-fifth of all provincial and federal personal income tax revenue by 2050 double what it is today. Recommendations proposed in response to COVID-19 include offering better work conditions and training for front-line providers, reducing or eliminating multi-bed ward rooms in care homes, and moving more proactively toward home- and community-based care models. But, so far, the discourse has been exclusively about the management and delivery of LTC. The elephant in the room is the financing: How can we pay for the care that Canadian seniors will need? According to a recent Canadian Institute of Actuaries research report, which I co-authored with Sim Segal, Michael Wolfson and Heidi Walsh, much will depend on the direction of todays decisions. Even before COVID-19, our analysis found that Baby Boomers are unlikely to tolerate the current LTC systemic deficiencies and will put political pressure on governments to improve the overall quality of care (correcting issues such as overcrowding, high use of physical and chemical restraints due to inadequate staffing, etc.). If this forecast is accurate, then unit costs of care to governments for nursing home bed days could rise from $175 to $300, increasing public sector costs by 50 per cent. Better recruitment and retention of personal support care workers (PSWs) who are currently underpaid and overworked, sometimes working in unacceptable (or even dangerous) conditions would increase public sector costs even more. LTC work is highly labour intensive. By adding $10 per hour to PSW wages, the overall cost of LTC to the public purse would more than double above and beyond the tripling of costs already projected by simply maintaining the status quo. Currently, 87 per cent of public LTC spending is on nursing home care, with only 13 per cent on home- and community-based care. Our study foresees a high likelihood that Canada shift toward home first policies to keep more seniors in their homes for longer. Although this is generally where seniors want to be and it could save money for the public purse in the long term making this shift without carefully designing new models of home and community care will simply place a greater burden on families. Family caregivers are already providing about 75 per cent of home care for older Canadians, on an unpaid basis, with reported high levels of emotional, physical and financial stress. If all projected unpaid hours of family care had to be paid publicly, this would add $27 billion to public-sector costs by 2050, increasing the overall projected cost from $71 billion to $98 billion. Elderly Canadians who dont have family to help and cant afford to pay out of pocket would be at risk of not getting the care they need. Detailed analysis at the NIA is still underway but, clearly, providing adequate LTC wont be cheap. Research like ours helps stakeholders more strategically visualize the future of LTC and what it could be, rather than reacting in the short term with decisions that may ultimately prove to be more expensive and have poorer outcomes. Reforming LTC will require a big-picture vision of delivering the best possible care to older Canadians one thats solidly grounded in sustainable funding models to support Canadians with the level of care they need, when and where they need it. By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Television series, movies and documentaries about the experience of black people in the United States have seen a surge in viewership as public demonstrations have focused new attention on racial discrimination, according to industry data. The audience for filmmaker Ava DuVernay's 2016 documentary "13th," about mass incarceration that disproportionately affects black people, jumped more than 47 times higher over the past three weeks, streaming service Netflix Inc said on Tuesday. Millions of people watched, the company said, though it did not give a specific figure. DuVernay welcomed the sudden spike in attention for "13th" and other movies, books and TV shows about race from people trying to better understand the reasons behind inequality. "It's rare. It's a once-in-a-generation mood that we're in," DuVernay said in an interview with Reuters Television. "I hope that people that might be engaging with this material now will look to work like this outside of these very tense cultural moments (and) just let it be a very steady stream of learning and enlightenment." Streaming networks have highlighted programming by black creators in recent weeks as protests swelled over the killing of African American George Floyd in U.S. police custody. AT&T Inc's HBO Max featured a slate of shows and movies under the heading "Celebrating Black Voices," while Walt Disney Co's Hulu included a link to "Black Stories." "Dear White People," a Netflix comedy about black Ivy League college students, enjoyed a 331% boost in demand in the United States over the past 30 days, according to Parrot Analytics, which measures downloads, social-media mentions and other data. DuVernay's Netflix series "When They See Us," about five men wrongly accused of raping a jogger in Central Park in 1989, saw demand jump 83% in that time. Story continues On the Apple TV app , which featured sections called "Confronting Systemic Racism" and "Black in America," 2014 Oscar-winning drama "12 Years a Slave" climbed to No. 8 among top independent films for the week ending June 14. That was just behind documentary "I Am Not Your Negro" and "Loving," about an interracial couple who prompted a landmark anti-discrimination ruling in 1967. (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Additional reporting by Rollo Ross; Editing by Peter Cooney and Richard Pullin) The background image shows the Galactic centre as observed at 8 microns by the IRAC4 (Infrared array camera) camera of the NASA Spitzer space telescope. The yellow star indicates the position of the Galactic centre and the cyan star corresponds to the position of the source studied in this work, the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027. In this region, the molecule propargylimine (HCCCHNH) was detected for the first time. The molecule is represented in the bottom right circle of the figure and was characterized at the CASAC spectroscopic laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich. Credit: Nasa Spitzer Space Telescope, IRAC4 camera (8 microns), MPE-CASAC experiment, Victor M. Rivilla (INAF-Arcetri). Laboratory experiments performed at the Center for Astrochemical Studies (CAS) of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Munich, together with astronomical observations conducted by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), lead to the identification of a new molecule in the molecular cloud known as G+0.693-0.027, close to the galactic center. The newly discovered molecule is called propargylimine: according to the experts, this chemical species may play a fundamental role in the formation of amino acids, among the key ingredients for life as we know it. The propargylimine has the chemical formula HCCCHNH and is an unstable compound. It is very difficult to isolate it in the ordinary conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, but it thrives at low densities and temperatures typical of the interstellar medium. Luca Bizzocchi, the study's lead author who studied the molecule spectroscopy at MPE, explained: "The peculiarity of this chemical species lays in its carbonnitrogen double bond, which gives it a high reactivity. With this double bond, it becomes a fundamental constituent of the chemical chains that lead from the simplest and most abundant molecules in space containing carbon and nitrogenfor example formaldehyde (H 2 CO) and ammonia (NH 3 ), respectivelyto the more complex amino acids, the fundamental building blocks of terrestrial biology." Every molecule absorbs and emits radiation at certain wavelengths, creating a pattern that uniquely describes it, like human fingerprints. With the aim of unveiling the presence of propargylimine in space, spectroscopic analysis has been performed at the Max Planck laboratories to rebuild the molecule's "identikit." "As a molecule rotates in the interstellar medium it emits photons at very precise frequencies. This information, when combined with data from radio telescopes, allows us to know whether a molecule is present in the molecular clouds, the sites of star and planet formation," continues Bizzocchi. In this case, the laboratory data have been compared with the results of observations taken at the 30m radio telescope in Sierra Nevada, Spain. "Our molecule was already there," said Victor M. Rivilla M, a Marie Skodowska-Curie research fellow at INAF Florence, who led the INAF observational effort that resulted in the confirmation of propargylimine in the G+0.693-0.027 environment. "It was laying in our data of the G+0.693-0.027 molecular cloud, but we couldn't identify it without knowing its precise spectroscopy, that is the full description of its emission frequency pattern. As soon as we got it, thanks to the measurements in the laboratory, we realized that the propargylimine was undoubtedly there, waiting for someone to recognize it." As a matter of fact, molecules with such a carbonnitrogen double bond take part in the so called Strecker synthesis, a chemical process widely used to synthesize amino acids in laboratory. Under favorable conditions, similar reactions are thought to occur also in a number of extraterrestrial environments such as the frozen mantles of interstellar dust or asteroid surfaces, as demonstrated by the recent discovery of glycine, the simplest amino acid, in the tail of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. "High precision molecular spectroscopy is one of our group's goals," concluded Paola Caselli, the director of the Center for Astrochemical Studies at MPE and co-author of the paper. "Only with high precision measurements of the frequencies of interstellar molecules we can use such molecules as powerful diagnostic tools of the physical and chemical evolution of interstellar clouds, where stellar systems like our own form." Explore further Ancient asteroid impacts created the ingredients of life on Earth and Mars More information: Propargylimine in the laboratory and in space: millimetre-wave spectroscopy and first detection in the ISM, arXiv:2006.08401 [astro-ph.GA] Propargylimine in the laboratory and in space: millimetre-wave spectroscopy and first detection in the ISM, arXiv:2006.08401 [astro-ph.GA] arxiv.org/abs/2006.08401 She is the proud owner of six pooches and also fosters dogs before passing them on to their forever homes. And Ireland Baldwin took her beloved Siberian Husky Koda to the dog groomers on Tuesday, as the lockdown restrictions lifted in Los Angeles. The model, 24, cut a casual figure in black joggers and a ribbed jumper. Time for a trim! Ireland Baldwin took her beloved Siberian Husky Koda to the dog groomers on Tuesday, as the lockdown restrictions lifted in Los Angeles Hailey mixed style with safety as she wore a dog patterned mask and opted for comfort on her feet with black sandals. She tied her blonde hair back into a low ponytail and showcased her flawless complexion by going make-up free. The daughter of Alec Baldwin chatted away on the phone while a very fluffy Koda looked eager to head to the groomers for a much needed trim. Casually-clad: The model, 24, cut a casual figure in black joggers, a ribbed jumper and a dog patterned face mask Earlier this month, Ireland revealed she had adopted a new dog from reputable rescue Wags and Walks located in West Los Angeles. 'Failed foster. Previously known as Pieces is now Ellis! And shes mine,' wrote Baldwin on Instagram. She also made sure to share a sweet portrait of herself with Ellis, who looked more than happy to be a part of her fur family. Ireland, who has been dating Corey Harper since September 2018, has a total of six pooches that she often feature on her various social media pages. The California native then revealed to her 598,000 followers that she helps with dog adoptions. 'Sometimes I actually successfully find homes for dogs just so you know!! Its just that 6 of them happened to fail. Can you blame me? Thank you @wagsandwalks,' she explained. Wema Bank is Nigeria foremost indegenous bank established on May 2, 1945, as a private limited liability company. T he Bank converted to a public limited liability company in 1987 and was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1990. The Bank has gone through various strategic repositioning that gave birth to it being a national bank in 2015. However, incidents of fraud and forgeries are major concerns in the 2019 financial reports of the Bank even though the bank made a profit of 5.2 billion Naira after taxation. Wema Bank Plc, recorded 1,056 cases of fraud and forgeries in 2019 financial statement. Out of these, a cumulative figure of 593.99 million was recorded for fraud and forgeries and this contrasted with 545,918 million Naira recorded in 2018. However, only the sum of 168.77 million and $3,100 was recorded in the year 2019. These frauds and forgeries resulted, for the bank, in the actual loss of 96.53 million Naira and $3,100 respectively. Wema Bank reported that its staff members were involved in only 14 of the 1,055 cases. However, the bank did not include the actual amount and the percentage these 14 cases had in the total loss to the bank. The NHS coronavirus contact tracing app will not be rolled out nationwide until winter at the earliest, a senior health minister admitted today. Lord Bethell, the health minister responsible for the Covid-19 testing programme, said the app - which was supposed to be the UK's saving grace for easing lockdown - is no longer the Government's priority. Health Secretary Matt Hancock had initially told the country the heralded app would be available in mid-May, but officials have since launched the Test and Trace system without it. Lord Bethell told the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee that the app being trialled on the Isle of Wight had taken a backseat to manual contact tracing. Manual contact tracing works by people in call centres phoning those who have been put at risk by a confirmed Covid-19 patient to give them the news. Lord Bethell said feedback from people on the Isle of Wight found people preferred to receive the 'alarming' news from a real person rather than a text or email. He also admitted there were 'technical challenges' that made it difficult to scale the technology up from being used by a few hundreds people to tens of millions. The app has faced a gauntlet of setbacks since ministers announced it was being developed, with experts raising serious privacy concerns, others saying it wouldn't work in crowded tower blocks where people live in close proximity, and constant delays putting back its launch date at first by weeks and then months. Lord Bethell, the health minister responsible for the Covid-19 testing programme, said the app - which was supposed to be the UK's saving grace - was no longer the Government's priority NHS Test and Trace contact tracers failed to reach 33 per cent of people who tested positive for coronavirus Lord Bethell told MPs: 'The pilot on the Isle of Wight has gone very well indeed and it has led to some infections being avoided. 'But one of the things it taught us is that it is the human contact that is most valued by people. 'There is a danger of being too technological and relying too much on texts and emails and alienating people because you're telling them quite alarming news through quite casual communication. 'Whereas [the] call centres we've put together have actually worked extremely well. So that is where our focus is at the moment.' There are around 25,000 human contact tracers currently employed by the Government specifically to track down and reach out to people who have been close to people with the coronavirus. They are mostly employed by private contractors working on behalf of the Government around the country. The NHS Test and Trace programme launched last week but ministers are under pressure after failing to reveal how many people have so far been contacted Lord Bethell continued: 'Apps around the world have been challenging and I note that the Norwegians, Singaporeans, the French and others have all been working on their app releases. TEST AND TRACE MISSES 33% OF PEOPLE IN FIRST WEEK Britain's test and trace fiasco deepened last week after damning figures showed Number 10's flagship system only tracked down the contacts of two thirds of Covid-19 patients. Between May 28 and June 3, 8,117 people who tested positive for the coronavirus were referred to the NHS's flagship scheme. But shocking statistics show contact tracers could only get information from 67 per cent of them (5,407). Hundreds did not respond to phone calls or refused to give details of people they had been in contact with, the Department of Health admitted in another blow to the scheme that has been described as 'shambolic' by workers. Baroness Dido Harding the head of the test and trace scheme admitted it wasn't yet 'at the gold standard we want to be'. She added: 'Is it completely perfect? No, of course it isn't.' She added: 'We wont have got all of the contacts. Some were unreachable, some didnt want to provide contacts, some said "well, Ive already told my mates I tested positive".' But officials say they are happy with test and trace's performance so far, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock this afternoon repeated his plea for people to use the system, saying it was the 'civic duty' of people to take part if they were contacted. In the first week of the service, 26,985 contacts were successfully reached and 85 per cent agreed to self-isolate for a fortnight. But it means that the army of 25,000 staff hired to only contacted one person each for the whole week, on average. It is not clear how many of these contacts later tested positive for Covid-19 themselves because, controversially, people are not routinely tested after being contacted. Advertisement 'We're seeking to get something for the winter, but it isn't a priority for us at the moment.' 'I won't argue there are technical challenges with getting the app right, and we are really keen to make sure that we get all aspects of it correct. We're not feeling great time pressure, we're focused on getting the right app.' Ministers launched NHS Test and Trace last month without its key contact tracing app, which is still being trialled on the Isle of Wight after its development was beset by problems. Health Secretary Matt Hancock previously said he wanted the app to go live nationwide in mid-May but it has been delayed and no fixed date has been given for when it will be made available. Experts believe the app will be critical to the success of the programme because it digitally logs people's close contacts. At the moment the system is entirely reliant on human testimony and physical contact tracing work done by an army of contact tracers. The app's contact tracing data would massively speed up the process of finding out who has been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for the disease. It comes after it emerged that Test and Trace failed to contact one third of people who tested positive for coronavirus. Health Minister Edward Argar blamed the early struggles of the programme on sick people not wanting to pick up the telephone. The Government published data this month which showed that in the first week of the programme being up and running some 8,117 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England had their case transferred to the NHS system. However, while 5,407 (67 per cent) of these people were reached, some 2,710 (33 per cent) did not provide information about their contacts or could not be reached. The large number of failed attempts to speak to people who tested positive immediately prompted concerns about how effective the programme will be in stopping the spread of coronavirus. But Mr Argar said that 'you sometimes simply don't feel like answering the phone or responding to much at all' when you are unwell as he highlighted a potentially major flaw in the system. He told the BBC: 'Some people won't necessarily have answered their phone. You and I know what it's like if you have flu for example, and Covid-19 is a much, much nastier disease than that. It has launched without the new NHSX app, which uses Bluetooth technology to alert people when theyve been close to a COVID-19 patient 'You sometimes simply don't feel like answering the phone or responding to much at all.' He added: 'This is the first week of this new scheme and I think it has started off very, very well.' Mr Argar said the Government will 'continue to chase up those who didn't respond'. Task Force Dragon Mission Roars to a Finish U.S. Central Command By Courtesy Story Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 16, 2020 -- "Task Force Dragon," the Royal Danish Army contingent with Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, concluded its Iraqi Border Guard training mission in Iraq, June 11, 2020 at Al Asad Air Base. Since 2014, Task Force Dragon, of CJTF-OIR Task Force Iraq, has led the international Coalition's effort to train more than 19,500 members of the Iraqi Border Guard Forces. This week, TF Dragon passed the torch to their Iraqi counterparts, who will continue to train their own forces to ensure the enduring defeat of Daesh. "I am most proud that we managed to shift the training effort from direct training of the individual Iraqi Border Guard to 'train-the-trainer' mentoring, where Iraqis are training their fellow Iraqis," said Royal Danish Army Lt. Col. Brian Busk, TF Dragon Commanding Officer. "I am also proud that the new method of training was developed in cooperation with the Iraqis, with their buy-in on the principles of how we make this training work." Since 2014, TF Dragon soldiers trained their Iraqi counterparts in functions such as basic infantry skills, check-point procedures, counter-improvised explosive device training, first aid, and marksmanship. Additionally, they mentored Border Guard members on developing future training courses. This helps ensure the Iraqis can continue to train up new forces, said Busk. "It has impressed me to see how [the Iraqi Security Forces] make things work with sometimes limited resources, and I also appreciate their general willingness to learn new things," he said. "It has been an honor to serve alongside all of them." In addition to the Border Guard training mission, TF Dragon also contributed Mobile Training Teams with Iraqi Army units at Besmaya and Taji. "Task Force Dragon, like the rest of the Danish contingent, is a perfect example of why our Coalition has turned in such success against ISIS over these years," said U.S. Army Col. Matt Brown, deputy commander of Task Force Iraq. "Great things happen when you gather the professional militaries from many nations and apply them to a clear and just mission." Denmark will continue to support the multinational Coalition by providing staff officers and planning support. The Coalition remains committed to enabling Iraqi security partner forces through high-level advising, intelligence sharing, and air support. Denmark also remains committed to Iraq with a recent announcement from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deploy approximately 285 troops to NATO Mission-Iraq. "Danish leadership of NATO's Mission in Iraq will strengthen the ability of Iraqi security forces to provide the country's own security for the benefit of Iraq's people," Danish foreign minister Jeppe Kofod said in a statement. "By strengthening our contribution to stabilizing Iraq, we both reduce the risk of new refugee crises while increasing our protection against the threat posed by terrorist groups such as ISIS." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cherif Mahamat Zene, expressed his heartfelt thanks for the medical aid Morocco sent to Chad on Monday. The shipment followed the instructions of King Mohammed VI to assist several brotherly African countries in efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The medical gear and products were made in Morocco in line with World Health Organization standards and donated as a gesture of Moroccos solidarity and to promote joint African action to fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. Mahamat Zene tweeted : I would like to address, on behalf of the government, our sincere thanks to the Kingdom of Morocco for the precious and prompt support in medical equipment and drugs to combat COVID-19, granted and delivered today June 15 in the early evening, The Advisor to the President of the Republic in Charge of Education and Scientific research, Hissein Massar, received the Moroccan medical aid in NDjamena during a ceremony at the NDjamena airport. Present Minister of Health Mahmoud Youssouf Khayal and the Ambassador of Morocco in NDjamena, Abdellatif Erroja, were also present to welcome the aid. Medical experts from Torontos SickKids Hospital say children in Ontario should be able to return to school in September even though the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 likely wont be eradicated by then. SickKids says it has worked closely with Ontarios Ministry of Education to provide guidance on how to safely reopen schools. A team of doctors released their recommendations Wednesday, putting more emphasis on hand hygiene than wearing masks or physical distancing. Dr. Michelle Science says steps should be taken to ensure some distancing in school settings such as separating desks and putting students into cohorts but trying to enforce safe distances among kids is impractical. She said face masks are only potentially beneficial when worn properly and incorrect use can lead to an increased risk in infection. The experts also say that according to recent data, children are not the superspreaders of COVID-19 they initially believed they would be. A Chinese woman was recently arrested for creating a money-making scheme by purchasing flight delay insurance and then raking in the claims. Identified only as Li, the 45-year-old woman from Nanjing reportedly used 20 other identities in addition to her own to take out almost 900 flight delay insurance policies from 2015 to 2019. However, rather than getting on all these planes herself, Li would use her past travel service work experience to select flights she expected to be delayed or cancelled, and then collect the claims. While some sources described her scheme as gambling, some Chinese outlets reported that the woman conducted research before deciding which flights to buy tickets on, checking for extreme weather or other delay-inducing events on flight routes, and consulting user reviews. Photo: Ethan McArthur/Unsplash According to The Paper, Li was fully aware that what she was doing was illegal, and she did everything she could to cover her tracks, using the identities of several friends and family when taking out the flight delay policies. However, 900 policies is a lot totaling a whopping 3 million yuan ($423,000) in profits over the course of 4 years didnt go unnoticed, and in April of this year, the police finally nabbed her. While the media didnt specify whether this played a role in her capture, Li reportedly had the habit of trying to cut her losses by requesting a refund of the ticket price on flights that didnt end up getting delayed or cancelled. Photo: The Paper The womans arrest was announced by Chinese police on Friday, June 12; Authorities revealed that the 45-year-old had long faked information related to flight delays and scammed large sums of money from insurance companies. An investigation is currently underway. The Paper reports that Lis exploits helped insurance companies close some of the loopholes that helped the woman carry out her illegal scheme. Many insurers now have provisions which state, among other things, that compensation may only be paid to people who actually used the booked flight. Bhopal: Even as the row over the gruesome killing of a pregnant elephant in Kerala has barely settled down, a similar incident has come to the fore in a Madhya Pradesh village, sparking public outrage. A cattle owner in Ginjri village in Umaria district late on Tuesday lodged a complaint with the local police alleging that his cow was fed explosive-mixed food by unidentified miscreant, leading to grievous wounds in her lower jaw and mouth. In his complaint, Om Prakash Agrawal said he used to release his cow in an open ground in the vicinity of the village to graze. The domestic animal used to return to her shed in the evening. On June 14, the bovine did not return to home. After a two-day-long search, he found the cow lying in a pool of blood in a deserted area near the village. She had suffered injuries in her jaw and mouth. The cow was fed explosive-mixed food by someone, leading to injuries in her jaw and mouth, he told the police. The cow was unable to eat and also feed her one-month-old calf. The incident sparked outrage among the people in the locality. We have received the information that a cow was injured in the area. Police rushed to the spot for investigation. A veterinary doctor was also sent to provide treatment to the injured bovine, Umaria district superintendent of police Sachin Sharma told reporters on Wednesday. A case has been under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) in connection with the incident, police said. The newly-released "Corona-Warn-App" developed by the German government for tracing Covid-19 infections is seen for download on an Apple iPhone in Berlin on June 16, 2020. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Virus Contact Tracing Opens Door to Privacy Violations, Critics Say As governments gear up contact-tracing efforts aimed at containing the spread of the CCP virus, critics worry privacy will be compromised, which some say could threaten freedom. The push to implement widespread contact tracing, which involves tracking infected people and those they have come in contact with, comes after months of now-easing lockdowns. Contact tracing is part of the process of supporting patients and warning contacts of exposure in order to stop chains of transmission according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It also comes amid concerns of a second wave of the disease. COVID-19 has reportedly claimed more than 100,000 lives in the United States, amid more than 2 million infections. To prevent new outbreaks, some jurisdictions are requiring customers at businesses such as restaurants and beauty salons to sign in so they can be contacted if there is evidence an infected person patronized the establishment. Some retail stores are requiring appointments merely to look at merchandise. In New York, the state hit hardest by the virus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is now talking about locking the state down again because people arent practicing social distancing. As reports emerged of New York City residents squeezing tightly into bars and not wearing masks, Cuomo responded on Twitter on June 13, Dont make me come down there Wildly exaggerated COVID-19 death predictions helped to foster public distrust of governments handling of the pandemic. For a month after influential Imperial College London epidemiologist Neil Ferguson warned that a staggering 2.2 million Americans would likely die of the disease, federal officials promoted the findings of that now-discredited March 16 study. Those terrifying figures helped convince Americans to stay at home and not go about their normal everyday lives, going without paying work if they were unable to work remotely. This in turn led to a sudden, massive spike in unemployment and economic reversals that have fed civil unrest. And declarations from government officials such as Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams who at first told people not to wear face masks, then said everyone should wear face masks, have eroded confidence in official guidance on virus containment. The public health community has forfeited a huge amount of trust over the last few months, and thats going to make people much less likely to be cooperative, Glenn Reynolds, Beauchamp Brogan distinguished professor of law at the University of Tennessee College of Law, told The Epoch Times. Privacy Concerns Conservative activist Kat Stansell of the nonprofit group United in Strength for America, thinks government tracking of infected persons is fraught with danger. Contact tracing is as invasive of our freedoms as anything could possibly be. It literally sends chills down my spine. It is a glaring attack on the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution: the right to privacy and security against unreasonable searches and seizures, she told The Epoch Times. Robert Weissberg, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of IllinoisUrbana, holds a different view. He suggested that Americans are understandably preoccupied with other problems in society. Personal privacy is far, far down the list of what worries people in current times, he told The Epoch Times. Although epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan, a professor at the University of Ottawa, said contact tracing, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, is absolutely essential as part of a proper public health regime, he acknowledged there are some valid privacy concerns. With new tracing technologies, like the tracking apps, then there is by definition some intrusion into our lives because the data is objective and passive, he told The Epoch Times. Critics say data captured the old way, by individuals using the telephone to contact persons of interest, spending perhaps 90 minutes on each case, can be misused, the same as data captured by smartphone apps, many of which are now in development for use in the United States. Expanding Surveillance Some international versions of contact-tracing technology expand mass surveillance, limit individual freedoms and expose the most private details about individuals, according to Apps Gone Rogue: Maintaining Personal Privacy in an Epidemic, a report published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in March. Risks exist for both the individual and the public with use of contact-tracing technology, the report states. The primary challenge for these technologies, as evident from their deployment in the COVID-19 crisis, remains securing the privacy of individuals, diagnosed carriers of a pathogen, and local businesses visited by diagnosed carriers, while still informing users of potential contacts. Additionally, contact-tracing technologies offer opportunities for bad actors to create fear, spread panic, perpetrate fraud, spread misinformation, or establish a surveillance state. Those diagnosed with the virus are at the greatest risk of their privacy being violated by public identification. Even when personal information is not published, these individuals may be identified by the limited set of location data points released. When identified publicly, diagnosed carriers often face harsh social stigma and persecution. An example from South Korea stands out, the report states. Information sent out by that countrys government to inform residents about the movements of those recently diagnosed with COVID-19, sparked speculations about individuals personal lives, from rumors of plastic surgery to infidelity and prostitution. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has expressed privacy concerns, as well. We dont yet know if any of these technologies will work, but we do know that we currently lack many of the protections needed to guard against abuse or overreach, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Neema Singh Guliani said in a statement. If we as a country decide to go down the path of tech-assisted contact tracing, our lawmakers must first enact robust safeguards to prevent these tools from exacerbating existing disparities and violating our civil rights and liberties. Governments should also require that any data obtained from these tools be used only by public health agencies and for public health purposes related to the pandemic, and be destroyed after its use expires. The ACLU urges that governments make sure that any use of contact tracing technology is voluntary and prohibit private and public entities from making the use of a contact tracing technology a condition of employment, housing, or access to critical services like grocery stores. The liberal Brookings Institution concurs. A report from April warns that theres a very real danger that these voluntary surveillance technologies will effectively become compulsory for any public and social engagement. Employers, retailers, or even policymakers can require that consumers display the results of their app before they are permitted to enter a grocery store, return back to work, or use public servicesas is slowly becoming the norm in China, Hong Kong, and even being explored for visitors to Hawaii. Klon Kitchen, director of the conservative Heritage Foundations Center for Technology Policy, also urged caution in the deployment of tracing apps. Technology will play a critical role in getting the country up and running again, Kitchen said. But as we leverage these tools, we must always protect the fundamentals of our shared experiment in liberty. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Upper East Region has called for immediate suspension of police training activities of the Police Training School at Pwalugu for reportedly containing the majority of the Region's COVID-19 cases. The party in a statement issued by its Regional Communications Officer, Alhaji Saeed Ahmed Tijani, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga said: The attention of the National Democratic Congress in the Upper East Region has been drawn to media reports of an outbreak of COVID-19 in the Pwalugu Police Training School. The statement noted that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the Region collected over 600 samples of Police recruits at the training school as part of their heightened surveillance for COVID-19 testing, and said: over 199 police recruits tested positive of the novel COVID-19 in the region. This has increased the region's COVID-19 cases from the initial 42 to 241 making the Upper East the 6th highest region in the COVID-19 case counts in the country. This latest development is causing fear and panic among the populace throughout the region. The NDC described the infection rate in the School as unfortunate development, saying the high infection rate was expected Because the government defied experts' advice and secretly admitted students into the Police Training Schools nationwide in the wake of this COVID-19 pandemic. It must be emphasized that the region over the last three weeks had zero active cases since the initial 26 active COVID-19 cases were treated and discharged from the treatment centre at the Upper East Regional Hospital, Bolgatanga, according to the GHS, the statement recalled. The Party stressed that the infection rate at the school was likely to overstretch the capacity of the Region's treatment centre, logistics and human resources, especially health professionals in the Region who were mostly at risk of acquiring the virus. According to our reliable sources, the Region has almost run out of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), which exposes Health Workers to the disease. Already, the COVID-19 situation in the country has been worsened with over 12,193 cases and 58 deaths and counting, following the easing of restrictions by the government. The statement said the rise in COVID-19 cases in the Region, especially in the Training School, with just a fraction of the results in, was a worrying issue to the NDC Party as a key stakeholder. The Party cautioned that the infection among the recruits should serve as a lesson to Teacher Unions, and said with the reopening of schools, the government should prepare for similar infection rates as some students or pupils scattered across the country including Regions with high recorded cases of COVID-19 were likely to transmit the virus, and may inadvertently infect their colleagues. The Party asked the government to temporarily close down the Police Training School to prevent further spread of COVID-19 as the GHS had pending results of samples yet to be received which might give higher numbers of infection. ---GNA The Atlanta Police Department fired Garrett Rolfe, left, after the fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks. The department placed Devin Bronsan, right, on administrative duty. Atlanta Police Department Two Atlanta police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks were charged Wednesday and warrants were issued for their arrest, Fulton County DA Paul L. Howard, Jr. announced. Garrett Rolfe, who shot Brooks and was fired by the police department, faces 11 charges, including felony murder and aggravated assault, and Devin Brosnan, who has been placed on administrative duty, faces three charges, including aggravated assault. Witnesses told investigators that Rolfe "actually kicked Mr. Brooks," and Brosnan stepped on his shoulder as he lay on the ground "fighting for his life," Howard said. Earlier in the day, the Guardian reported that Rolfe and two other policemen tried to cover up a 2015 officer-involved shooting that landed a Black man, who was found in a stolen truck, in the hospital with a collapsed lung. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe will face 11 charges, including felony murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks, District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr. announced on Wednesday. Speaking at a news conference at the Fulton County Superior Courthouse, Howard said that Officer Devin Brosnan, who was placed on administrative duty following the fatal June 12 encounter, is now a state's witness. He faces three charges, including aggravated assault. The incident in question began when police were called to Wendy's because Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, had fallen asleep in his car at the restaurant's drive-thru. An employee told dispatch that Brooks appeared "intoxicated" but unarmed, and was parked in a way that was forcing other patrons to have to drive around him, the 911 call shows, according to NBC News. Rolfe and Brosnan's interaction with the father of four began peacefully but escalated after he failed a breathalyzer test and the officers tried to arrest him. He scuffled with them, rolling around the ground, before snatching a Taser from one of their hands, attempting to flee, and firing the Taser at them, video from the scene shows. Story continues After reviewing video from numerous sources, including witnesses' cell phones, and officers' body-worn cameras and dashcams, interviewing bystanders, examining Taser logs, and conducting a medical autopsy, Howard said, "Mr. Brooks on the night of this incident was calm, he was cordial, and really displayed a cooperative nature." And despite being "slightly impaired," Howard said he displayed an "almost jovial" demeanor. For 41 minutes and 17 scenes, he followed officers' instructions including moving his car, handing over his driver's license, informing police that he wasn't armed, and agreeing to a pat-down and answered a slew of questions. Former Atlanta Police Department officer Garrett Rolfe conducts a field sobriety test on 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks in a Wendy's restaurant parking lot on June 12 in this still image from the body-worn camera of officer Devin Brosnan in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta Police Department/Handout via Reuters After Brooks collapsed, Rolfe kicked him and Brosnan stood on his shoulder, witnesses said He reacted after he was "grabbed from the rear" by Rolfe who tried to restrain him despite never informing Brooks that was "under arrest for driving under the influence," which Atlanta policemen are required to do. Brooks didn't demonstrate any "aggressive behavior" and "never presented himself as a threat," Howard said. The Atlanta police department's rules prohibit officers from firing a Taser at someone who is running away so Rolfe "certainly cannot fire a handgun at someone running away," Howard added. The district attorney also showed reporters multiple photographs and said Brooks was more than 18 feet away from Rolfe when he was shot twice in the back with a 9mm Glock pistol. Two bullets struck him, but one "penetrated" his heart, Howard said. As Brooks collapsed, Rolfe exclaimed, "I got him," according to Howard. Based on Atlanta's standard operating procedures, officers are expected to render timely medical assistance to anyone who is injured. But, on Friday night, "for some two minutes and 12 seconds, there was no medical attention applied to Mr. Brooks," Howard said. Instead, investigators learned that Rolfe "actually kicked Mr. Brooks" and Brosnan stepped on his shoulder as he lay on the floor "fighting for his life," Howard said. Their demeanor after Brooks collapsed on the ground did not "reflect any fear" of him, but did highlight "other kinds of emotions," he added. Brooks died later at a hospital from "gunshot wounds of the back," which caused "organ injuries and blood loss," the Fulton County medical examiner's office said. Meanwhile, a Chevy Trailblazer in the Wendy's parking lot was carrying three people from Memphis, Tennessee, who were visiting Atlanta. One of Rolfe's bullets struck the car, which prompted prosecutors to level three additional aggravated assault charges against him as well as one count of criminal damage, Howard said. Arrest warrants have been issued for both Rolfe and Brosnan, and Howard asked them to voluntarily surrender by 6 p.m. local time on Thursday. He recommended that Rolfe be held without bond, while Brosnan can be granted a $50,000 bond. "I don't remember a circumstance where we had an officer, particularly in a case this important, to step forward and say that they would cooperate with the state," Howard said of Brosnan. ATLANTA, GA - JUNE 15: Protesters take part in the March On Georgia, organized by NAACP, on June 15, 2020 in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The march comes in response to the police killing of Rayshard Brooks outside an Atlanta Wendy's restaurant on June 12. Dustin Chambers/Getty Images On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered in protest at Wendy's and set it on fire. Brooks' death comes about two weeks after the police killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, in Minneapolis. Black Lives Matter demonstrations have sprung up around the world with tens of thousands calling for justice and an end to police violence and systemic racism. 'None of the police put in the report that they shot the man' During his nearly seven-year tenure as an Atlanta policeman, Rolfe had faced 12 investigations four of them were citizens complaints and been exonerated in nine of them, his disciplinary history shows. He received a written reprimand for use-of-force involving a firearm in October 2017. Rolfe was also involved in an August 2015 case that involved a firearm discharge but did not have a conclusive action taken, based on the department's documents. However, the Guardian first reported that the incident in question was an officer-involved shooting that Rolfe and two other policemen allegedly tried to hide. The encounter involved Jackie Jermaine Harris who police pursued because he was driving a stolen truck, court documents show, per the Guardian. Harris, who is Black, rammed the vehicle into a squad car, prompting responding officers to shoot multiple times into the truck. One bullet hit Harris and his lung collapsed, but he survived and went on to plead guilty to theft, property damage, fleeing arrest, and damaging a police vehicle, the Guardian said. At a 2016 court hearing, Judge Doris L. Downs deemed the case a "disaster." "It's the wildest case I've seen in my 34 years here," she said, per the Guardian. Apparently mystified by the fact that the officers did not report the shooting, Downs called for an investigation. "None of the police put in the report that they shot the man none of them. And they sent him to Grady [Memorial Hospital] with collapsed lungs and everything, and the report doesn't mention it," Downs said. She went on to say: "I am ethically going to be required to turn all of them in. What the police did was wrong, and they will have to answer for what they did." The Guardian said that it remains unknown if any action was taken against the officers. Since Brooks' death on Friday, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields has stepped down. Nineteen officers also resigned, CBS-affiliate WGCL-TV reported. Expanded Coverage Module: black-lives-matter-module Read the original article on Insider Participants in a debate Wednesday at the U.N. Human Rights Council on systemic racism have called for an independent investigation into the death of African American George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. The council meeting began with a moment of silence for all the victims of racial injustice. In opening the debate, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said merely condemning expressions and acts of racism was not enough to alleviate generations of suffering resulting from racial injustice. Speaking by teleconference from New York, she said the debate was taking place as marches for racial justice and equality take place around the world. 'Enough' Mohammed said the "most recent trigger" for the protests was the Floyd case, "but the violence spans history and borders alike, across the globe. Today, people are saying, loudly and movingly, Enough. The United Nations has a duty to respond to the anguish that has been felt by so many for so long. In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet deplored the death of Floyd and said it had come to symbolize the systemic racism that harms millions of people of African descent. It has brought to a head the outrage of people who feel they are neither adequately served, nor adequately heard, by their governments," Bachelet said. "It has brought to their feet millions of allies people who are now beginning to acknowledge the realities of systemic discrimination suffered by others, and to join their demand that every person in their countries be treated with equality, fairness and respect. Floyd's brother gave an emotional address to the council by teleconference from his home in Houston. Philonise Floyd described his familys anguish while watching the last moments of his brothers life. You in the United Nations are your brothers' and sisters keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd," he said. "I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us black people in America. In advance of the debate, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Andrew Bremberg issued a statement affirming Washingtons commitment to addressing racial discrimination and injustices stemming from that. In alluding to the death of George Floyd, he said President Donald Trump had condemned the brutal actions of the police involved and was implementing police reforms. He cited the steps as an example of government transparency and responsiveness in holding violators accountable for their actions. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said on Tuesday she will issue an executive order before the November elections to restore voting rights for paroled felons in the state, per the New York Times. Why it matters: Iowa has grappled in recent years with its restrictive laws for felon voting access. But recent protests over criminal justice reform have highlighted the lifelong barriers to democracy that some citizens face after finishing their criminal sentences. The Sentencing Project reports that 2.2% of adults in Iowa in 2016 were ineligible to vote due to past convictions, including 9.8% of African Americans in the state overall. What she's saying: Reynolds stated, "Were working on that right now, sitting down with various groups, listening to what they think is important, what is contained in that executive order," adding, "and then Ive got my legal team working on it." Yes, but: History shows that enacting felon voting reform isn't a quick fix, and the details of Reynolds' proposal are unclear. Reynolds signed a GOP-backed bill earlier this month excluding felons from restoring voting rights who'd committed certain serious crimes, including homicide and sexual offenses. The bill also required felons to pay back restitution before regaining their right to vote, which can take years. It's unknown if these carveouts will persist in Reynolds' executive order. Go deeper: The sticky web of felon voting laws Police Officers Will Only Enter Seattles Autonomous Zone for Significant Life-Safety Calls: Mayor Seattle police officers will only enter the so-called autonomous zone if they receive calls concerning significant life-safety issues, Mayor Jenny Durkan said. Those issues may include an active shooter incident, an assault, a structure fire, significant medical emergency (i.e. heart attack, stroke, trauma) and other incidents that threaten a persons life safety, according to a statement from the office of Durkan, a Democrat. A group of activists took over an area comprising multiple blocks in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington states largest city earlier this month. Video footage showing fights, people being mobbed, and robberies of businesses in and near the area has circulated widely online as city officials resist calls to use force to deal with the situation. When one shop, Car Tender, was stolen from Sunday night, police officers never responded in person despite being called repeatedly. An internal message circulated to police officers last week displayed a map showing the autonomous zone in red. Officers shouldnt respond to calls within the red zone unless the response is to a mass casualty event, such as an active shooter incident or a structural fire thats likely to endanger lives, the message stated. An entrance to the so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, Wash., on June 10, 2020. (Ernie Li/NTD Television) If responding to a mass casualty event, officers should muster with a supervisor outside that zone to evaluate whether its feasible to respond and develop a plan. Police Chief Carmen Best said Monday that officers are responding when they get a call thats an important emergency 911 call. Officers did respond to the phone calls from Car Tender, which experienced a break-in, but refrained from approaching the area, Best told reporters at a press conference. The officers responded to the call and they observed the location from a distance. They did not see any signs of smoke or fire or anything else and they did not see a disturbance, Best said. The officers did not observe, based on the report that I read, anything that they perceived as a threat to life safety, and they didnt go in. We do not want to escalate under the current situation any potential danger to the community and put them unnecessarily in harms way, she added. A Black Lives Matter mural is painted on the street in an area in the so-called autonomous zone, in Seattle, Wash., June 11, 2020. (Jasmyne Keimig The Stranger via Reuters) Durkan and other city officials reached an agreement with occupiers that included major concessions, including replacing temporary barriers with concrete ones that shut off some streets to traffic. A street next to Cal Anderson park will remain closed, Durkans office said. This street is now home to the Black Lives Matter street art, the statement said. Occupiers in return agreed to allow the re-opening of 12th Avenue to vehicles in a shift that reduces the size of the zone from six city blocks to three. The area taken over by activists was initially known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone but was recently changed to the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP. Minor changes to the protest zone will implement safer and sturdier barriers to protect individuals in this area, allow traffic to move throughout the Capitol Hill neighborhood, ease access for residents of apartment building in the surrounding areas, and help local businesses manage deliveries and logistics, the mayors office said. Additionally all plans have been crafted with the goal of allowing access for emergency personnel including fire trucks. Tesla released the Model Y vehicle last year 2019 in the month of March. A source has stated that the market for the Model Y has increased because of Tesla's resumption of Model Y vehicle production in their Fremont factories. Reviews of the Tesla vehicle, however, have not been the greatest for the vehicle manufacturing company. Issues on the vehicle quality have been expressed by the recent clients of Tesla. This pressing issue on vehicle quality is common in the car and transport industry. This is because of the early release of these vehicles. Tesla has been working hard in producing better quality Model Y vehicles to cater to the needs and wants of car enthusiasts and Tesla clients. The Model Y vehicle, though, has proven to be quite the challenge for Tesla. Because of the issues with the Tesla vehicle, clients have opted to contact the customer support system of the company. Moreover, there has been a refusal of deliveries of the Model Y. Cancelled orders of the vehicle have made it into the roster as well. Tesla Model Y problem As of now, Tesla is in its quarterly end of delivery processes, pushing out orders as much as they can to people who have acquired the manufacturer's vehicles. This is in order to increase the company's market sales for the quarter. Additionally, a few clients who have bought the Model Y have contacted Tesla for their delivery schedules only for them to be informed that the delivery dates will be set back because of the complications within the Tesla Model Y. A Tesla Model Y buyer from the state of Maryland named Riley Dove has notified Tesla of his vehicle purchase. However, because of various problems within the vehicle, Dove had to refuse his acquisition of the car. A few of the problems of the Model Y vehicle were the inaccurate paint job, an unsteady seat belt fastener, trim issues, and hollowed areas in the car seats. The most alarming issue was the detachment of the backseats to the base of the back part of the car. Read Also: [Viral Video] Tesla Autopilot Successfully Avoids Pig on the Road: Elon Musk Claims They Don't Crash Big issues in the Tesla Model Y This issue has been a constant issue from the many reviews on the Model Y vehicle. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has stated that Tesla is currently working on the immediate need to fix the issues of the Model Y vehicle. Musk has also notified the company employees about the Model Y issue, stating that it is essential for Tesla to produce Model Y vehicles and resolve the issues within the aforementioned vehicles immediately and concisely. Electrek, an American news website, has stated its opinion on the Tesla matter. It is normal for vehicle companies to have fluctuations in their newly released vehicles. However, because of the many issues that have come up from the Tesla vehicle, it makes people think twice about buying the Model Y. There are still plenty of satisfied Model Y buyers out there. However, the new website mentioned that the other buyers must not be overlooked. Read Also: Tesla Opens Design Sumissions for China-Made Small EVs Even For Non-Car Designers, But There's a Catch The Chairman of the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO) Rex Omar has reacted to the demise of Ghanaian Highlife legend, Nana Tuffour, by stating that the Ghanaian music industry has lost a great musician. In an interview on the Happy FM Ayekoo After Drive show, he disclosed that the death of the Highlife legend had saddened members of GHAMRO. About a month ago we were in Kumasi to visit him. He always shared jokes with us. There was nothing that showed that he wasnt well. But we woke up this morning to the news. We have been saddened by the demise of Nana Tuffour, he said. The GHAMBRO chairman related that the late Nana Tuffour was loved by all because of his great personality. Nana Tuffour was the second vice to our former chairman, Kojo Antwi, so he is a great man. Even as a board member, he was very humble. Nana and I stood for chairmanship and I beat him with just one vote. It tells you how powerful he is, he added. While GHAMRO mourns Nana Tuffour, chairman of the organization, Rex Omar, has disclosed that it is yet to make an official release on the arrangements for their beloved. GHAMRO will officially address this issue. We are waiting for the family to schedule the one-week celebration. Then we will support them, he told Mercy Bee. Legendary Highlife Musician Nana Tuffour aka 9924 passed on in the early hours of Monday 15th June 2020 at his residence in Kumasi. He was sixty-six (66) years. 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 BALLSTON SPA The schism between Saratoga County supervisors grew wider on Tuesday in a contentious meeting over spending pitting those who want to spend money on advertising small businesses against those who want to spend money on public health. The battle, between small town supervisors who have the majority in the 23-member body and the larger towns with the weighted vote, was sparked by a resolution to give $50,000 to the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce to come up with an advertising package to promote a county webpage and the phased reopening of the county's small businesses. Moreau Supervisor Todd Kusnierz wanted to replace that promotional resolution with one that would purchase a $55,100 medical device, a Rheonix CoVID-19 MDx Assay, that would test for COVID-19. The device, which would be purchased from a company in Ithaca, would offer testing results within 24-hours. That angered Waterford Supervisor John Lawler, chair of the county's reopening committee, who said the move was akin to something one sees in the smoke-filled back rooms of the New York state government. He could have offered a resolution to buy that equipment as a stand-alone rather than kill support for small business, Lawler said on Wednesday. It was an extremely underhanded way to avoid taking a vote that he didnt want to take. Kusnierz called that accusation "hogwash." "The county already committed to spend over $1.1 million to assist and promote businesses in Saratoga County, as part of the approved 2020 budget," Kusnierz said. "This is done through agreements with the chamber, the (Saratoga County) Prosperity Partnership and Saratoga Economic Development Corporation. In fact, the Partnership recently hired additional staff to assist with their mission." Previously: Saratoga County officials seek $50k to promote webpage He said the county is suffering from a 32 percent decrease in sales tax and that the county needs "to earmark our limited and declining resources to help businesses by providing for testing and personal protection to maintain the safety of their employees and ensure the success of their businesses." Kusnierz efforts were backed by Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett who also said there is no need to promote the county. Based on what he sees, there is pent-up demand for its businesses. He said testing was key to a safe reopening. Expanding testing capabilities and providing access to PPE are two tangible opportunities to assist small businesses and residents of the county, Barrett said after the meeting. We achieved one of those goals today. We must carefully prioritize spending and the county has already allocated more than $1 million for promotion of the county. Edinburg Supervisor Jean Raymond suggested that the resolutions be offered separately. They were and both passed. The testing machine got unanimous approval while the advertising spending won, 17 to 6, with the supervisors from the larger towns voting against it. Lawler said those who voted against the advertising resolution voted against small business and that the move was divisive politics. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Lets advertise to show we are open and safe. Its not just for Saratoga, its for the entire county," Lawler said. "The (public health) resolution was to provoke bitter debate and divide the board when it was not necessary. Obviously, it was a cheap political game. Saratoga Springs Supervisor Tara Gaston said the government's first priority should be public health. I dont have a problem helping our businesses, Gaston said. But rapid testing would allow our businesses to open without fear. We could test employees and visitors. We dont want any restaurants in the county to be known as the COVID restaurant. It will be especially important in the fall when everyone thinks there will be a second wave. Todd Shimkus, president of the chamber which gets $380,000 a year from the county for promotions, said his organization will use the $50,000 for a "Feel the Freedom" campaign and a tutorial for small businesses on a new page on the county's website. "We can promote our unique small businesses that are now open in a way that they cannot afford to do on their own," Shimkus said. Dear couples, We are not able to have a baby. Can you please check what is wrong with my wife (or daughter-in-law)? This is a common complaint heard from a majority of couples that come to our infertility centre. Traditionally, this presumption held some merit. Upon testing and diagnosis, the male factor was found to be the cause of infertility in only about 15 per cent of total cases. But this has dramatically changed over the last few decades. Now, we expect infertility of male partner to be the direct reason behind lack of conceiving in about 50 to 60 per cent of all the cases that come to fertility centres. This has become a major reason for concern because the male infertility is harder to resolve. In fact, it goes undiagnosed in almost 25-30 per cent cases, which means that even after examination and testing we are unable to explain what is causing it. When all internal conditions are ruled out, there are factors outside the body which are having an impact on the male factor. These can include stress, radiation from mobile phones and laptops, pollution, addiction to tobacco or alcohol. All of these factors are related to lifestyle and are very difficult to mitigate. Apart from these lifestyle factors, the other most common cause is varicocele, a medical condition where there is a swelling of veins that drain the testicle. This directly impacts the quality of sperms being produced. About 20 per cent cases of male infertility can be attributed to this condition, which can be easily treated through a surgical procedure. Another reason, widely brushed under the carpet, is sexual dysfunction like getting an erection and or premature ejaculation. Couples dont reveal these problems easily. Even educated couples shy away from disclosures. A small fraction of cases can be attributed to an infection bacterial or viral like herpes, HIV, STDs or rarely even TB, which can affect sperm count. Environmental causes like sustained exposure to heavy metal or to high temperatures or radiations and X-rays can also cause male infertility. Overheating of testicles has an adverse impact on testicular sperm production and in cases where the exposure is for long hours, it can even be irreversible. Treatment like chemotherapy used for ailments like cancer also affect fertility and we recommend patients to freeze their sperm samples before starting such treatments. In rare cases, a surgery of abdominal region (like hernia) in childhood can also lead to infertility. Male infertility must not be ignored and, in fact, medical help must be sought at the earliest. Yours truly, Dr Sachin Jadhav Dr Jadhav is an IVF consultant at Cradle IVF, Gupte Hospital, Pune. You can get more information about infertility related issues and IVF by clicking on our site or www.parentsoffertility.com DISCLAIMER : This document / communication is intended for general reference only. The information provided is based on the writer independent opinions and / or data collected from scientific publications, which do not necessarily reflect the views, ideas and policies of Merck and Merck makes no representations of any kind about the accuracy or completeness of the information provided. It may refer to pharmaceutical products, diagnostic techniques, therapeutics or indications not yet registered or approved in a given country and it should be noted that, over time, currency and completeness of the data may change. For updated information, please contact the Company. This document / communication should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition without the professional advice of a Registered Medical Practitioner, and does not replace medical advice or a thorough medical examination. Registered Medical Practitioners should use their independent professional judgement in checking the symptoms, diagnosing & suggesting the appropriate line of treatment for patients. Merck is not in any way influencing, propagating or inducing anyone to buy or use Merck products. The information provided by or about the doctors and medical professionals and the special programs / procedures conducted by them shall in no way be construed as advertisement and is only provided for public awareness, well-being and in public interest. The decision to engage a doctor from the clinic should not be based on the information provided in this document / communication and you should personally satisfy yourself before engaging the clinic / doctor and taking their services. Merck accepts no liability for any loss, damage or compensation claims in connection with any act or omission by anyone based on information contained in or derived through use of this document / communication. Duplication of or copying any data / content requires prior permission of the copyright holder. For more information write to Merck Specialites Private Limited, Godrej One, 8th floor, Pirojshah Nagar, Eastern Express Highway, Vikhroli (E), Mumbai 400079, India The United States has said it is closely monitoring the India-China border situation and an American media report suggested China may have suffered severe losses in the eastern Ladakh clashes and put the number of its fatalities at 35 citing an intelligence assessment. US News, the media publication, went on to suggest that the Chinese are taking the deaths as a humiliation and might be reluctant, therefore, to announce or confirm them for fear of emboldening other adversaries. In the reported assessment of US intelligence it was a tense border meeting between military personnel of the two sides to de-escalate tensions that turned violent. Most deaths were caused by batons, knives or from falling off a steep cliff. The details of this account of events could not be ascertained independently. The state department pointed to an earlier statement when asked. A spokesperson had said: We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation. The spokesperson had gone on to refer to a June 2 phone call in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump had discussed the India-China border. President Trump had earlier, on May 28, offered to mediate the dispute, saying in a tweet, We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute. The offer was turned down by both India and China and Trump has since not said more on this, snowed under as he is with the twin crises of the Covid-19 epidemic that has killed nearly 117,000 Americans and the civil unrest triggered by the killing of an Africa-American man by a white police officer in Minneapolis. The state department had earlier slammed the border tensions as a reflection of Chinese aggression going beyond the rhetoric and the House foreign affairs committee had blamed the Chinese for as well. I am extremely concerned by the ongoing Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control on the India-China border., Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, had said in a statement in early June. China is demonstrating once again that it is willing to bully its neighbours rather than resolve conflicts according to international law. Riverside County's decision to keep Blythe's animal shelter open follows previous discussions among officials on the facility's potential future, as well as a public online petition published by Blythe Vice Mayor Eric Egan (pictured) with (as of 3:30 a.m. on June 16) over 5,800 citizen signatures against the explored closure. (Photo by Uriel Avendano/Palo Verde Valley Times) Online fashion success story Boohoo said it would top market expectations for profits and sales again this year after first-quarter results showed revenue up 45% as it adapted quickly to the coronavirus lockdowns. Shares of the company rose nearly 10% in early deals as it said it was buying the online businesses of Oasis and Warehouse, snapping up a pair of struggling brands it said would help it build on its momentum at a time when many brick-and-mortar retailers are collapsing. Manchester-based Boohoo, headed up by Irish man John Lyttle, bought the brands from Hilco Capital for 5.86 million. Boohoo, which owns the Nasty Gal and prettylittlething brands, has become a hit with a generation of younger consumers who shop on their mobile phones and share fashion tips on social media. It last year bought Karen Millen and Coast. "Whilst there is a period of uncertainty within the markets in which we operate, the Group is well-positioned to continue making progress towards leading the fashion e-commerce market globally," Chief Executive Officer John Lyttle said. Revenue surged to 410 million, well ahead of the consensus of a 15% growth, according to Jefferies analysts. The analysts said they view the acquisition of Oasis and Warehouse "as a low risk and likely high returning opportunity, one that provides further evidence of the long-term potential in boohoo's multi-brand platform". -Reuters[/] The police chief in Richmond, Virginia, has resigned after weeks of anti-police brutality protests following the death of George Floyd, Mayor Levar Stoney announced Tuesday. The mayor said that Chief William Smith resigned at his request. "I have high expectations for the Richmond Police Department, our law enforcement. At a very minimum, I expect them to be willing to come around the table with the community to reform and reimagine public safety," Stoney said. "So it boils down to whether the leadership of RPD embraces the change or stands in the way." "Chief Smith is a good man," Stoney added. "He has served this city for a very long time. He has put his heart and soul into the service of the police department, and to this city, and I thank him for his service." Smith joined the department in 1995 and has been the city's police chief since June 2019, CBS affiliate WTVR reported. Major William "Jody" Blackwell will serve as the interim police chief, Stoney said. "Interim Chief Blackwell is willing and able to focus on the necessary public safety reforms," he added. "He will lead our healing and trust-building within our community." Protests Continue Across The Country In Reaction To Death Of George Floyd Protesters surround police headquarters to protest against police brutality in Richmond, Virginia. Eze Amos/Getty Images Smith's resignation comes after weeks of turmoil in Richmond and across the nation. The former police chief apologized earlier this month after officers tear-gassed a crowd of peaceful protesters, and he took a knee with demonstrators in front of Richmond's City Hall in early June, WTVR reported. Smith had also been criticized for claiming that only violent protesters were arrested for violating the city's curfew and that out-of-town demonstrators caused most of the violent protests and riots, according to WTVR. Multiple officers have been placed on leave while the department investigates their conduct during the protests, the outlet added. Story continues "We have a good police department in the city of Richmond. I truly believe that," Stoney said. "But I also believe we can be better. I believe that we have to do more to elevate the voices of our community, and I believe we have to do more to take a human services approach to public safety. And I believe that we have to do all of this work using a restorative justice framework." "One thing is clear after the past two weeks: Richmond is ready for a new approach to public safety," he added. "There is work to be done. And we are ready to do it." Atlanta police shooting of Rayshard Brooks sparks second night of protests Cases of coronavirus spiking across the U.S. raise alarm as states reopen Uncovering the Greenwood Massacre, nearly a century later Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 10:41:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SYDNEY, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Construction to revitalize Sydney's world-class fish markets is on a fast track to help the city recover from COVID-19, with approval of the final plans granted on Wednesday. New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the development of the new site would create 700 vital construction jobs initially, and more than 700 ongoing jobs once construction is completed in 2024. "Projects equal jobs. Building infrastructure will be key to our economic recovery out of this pandemic which is why we have already accelerated a number of infrastructure projects in NSW, creating thousands of jobs," Berejiklian said. The existing fish markets, which is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, generally draws hundreds of thousands of international visitors every year, the majority of which are Chinese tourists looking to source the best local seafood. "Not only will the new Sydney Fish Market continue to be the beating heart of our State's seafood industry, it will also continue to lead the way as one of Australia's leading tourist destinations," Berejiklian said. The new facility will sit adjacent to the current, outdated market building, and feature a cutting edge design by Danish architect, 3XN in association with Sydney firms BVN and Aspect Studios. It will include a variety of fishmongers, restaurants, cafes, bars, and specialty food retailers over four floors, as well as public outdoor spaces and a ferry wharf. As international tourism returns post-COVID-19, visitation to Sydney's new fish market is expected to double over the next 10 years, from three million to six million each year. Enditem Cannabis growers have been granted permission to begin exporting medicinal marijuana and hemp into more foreign markets. Federal parliament passed a bill on Wednesday giving farmers access to export opportunities in South East Asia, China, Canada and the lucrative US market. Australia will now be able to certify legitimate exports of narcotic products, helping producers export to countries that need government approval. Cannabis growers have been granted permission to begin exporting medicinal marijuana and hemp into more foreign markets including South East Asia and the lucrative US market (medicinal cannabis crop in Queensland pictured) Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said certification would provide assurances to trading partners and help farmers. 'This bill will enable agricultural industries to come out firing after the threat of COVID-19 has passed,' he said on Wednesday. The cultivation of cannabis in Australia is illegal without explicit certification through licence and permit schemes under the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967. Meanwhile the export of medicinal cannabis products was legalised in February 2018 through the Narcotic Drugs Amendment (Cannabis) Regulations 2018. Cannabis growers are overseen by the Office of Drug Control (ODC) who prevent the risk of diversion of medicinal cannabis. Minister for Health Greg Hunt announced in August that medicinal cannabis licence applications for projects granted Major Project Status were being prioritised. 'This demonstrates the Morrison Government's commitment to helping people living with chronic or terminal illnesses,' Minister Hunt said. 'The medical community is increasingly recognising the value of medicinal cannabis. The export of medicinal cannabis products was legalised in February 2018 through the Narcotic Drugs Amendment (Cannabis) Regulations 2018 (CBD oil eye dropper widely used for medicine is pictured) 'Australia is well placed to become a source of trusted medicinal cannabis products.' As of June 2020 there are 23 Medicinal Cannabis Licenses issued across the country and 10 Cannabis Research Licenses. Wednesday's announcement came days after Australia's largest producer, Cannatrek, signed a supply and manufacturing deal with global cannabis company THC Global. Cannatrek CEO Tommy Huppert said the industry would be undergoing rapid 'maturing' throughout 2020. 'This agreement with THC Global provides excellent opportunities for deploying both agronomic and manufacturing excellence in the supply chain,' he said. 'More importantly, it will allow patients to have access to 100 per cent Australian-made medicinal cannabis for therapeutic purposes at affordable prices.' As various phases of legislation continue to roll out the country's cannabis market is expected to be worth US$1.5 billion by 2025, according to a report by Prohibition Partners. Reaching US$1.5billion in value by 2025 would make the Australian medicinal cannabis industry the largest in the Oceania region. The list of essential Manitoba workers eligible for a one-time payment in recognition of the risks taken throughout the pandemic has expanded to include more job titles and higher-earning employees, with a new income cap of $5,000 per month double the provinces initial announcement. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The list of essential Manitoba workers eligible for a one-time payment in recognition of the risks taken throughout the pandemic has expanded to include more job titles and higher-earning employees, with a new income cap of $5,000 per month double the provinces initial announcement. Finance Minister Scott Fielding announced Tuesday the expanded criteria for the $120-million risk-recognition payment program, noting the province has received feedback from unions and stakeholders since it rolled out the initial requirements in mid-May. The new requirements make the Manitoba Risk Recognition Program available to hotel staff and business improvement zone employees, some of whom have been distributing COVID-19-related education material throughout the novel coronavirus pandemic. Both part- and full-time employees in these sectors as well as Manitobans who work in health care, social services, justice, transportation, food and beverage and essential retail now qualify if they worked a minimum of 200 hours between March 20 and May 29. (Employees who were scheduled to work that amount or more, but were required to self-isolate under public-health orders, are eligible.) The previous income cap of $2,500, calculated before taxes and overtime earnings, has also been bumped to $5,000 per month or a total of $12,500 during the two-month period. Anyone who earns more than approximately $60,000 per year is disqualified. "By increasing eligible positions and income limits, and excluding overtime earnings, we will ensure the program continues to support lower- to middle-income workers, and recognizes those who may have otherwise worked themselves out of qualifying through overtime," Fielding said in a prepared statement. Ottawa announced in April it would provide up to $3 billion, with provinces and territories chipping in $1 billion, for programs to top-up the wages of low-income workers in essential services. Each province was given the reins to decide how to distribute the funds. Manitoba announced its initial program in May, after consulting with 15 unions, business leaders and critical service providers a group that voted on the parameters of the initiative. Fielding said Tuesday the province consulted the stakeholders again in order to expand the 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. While representatives from the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ and Manitoba Hotel Association applauded the expanded measures, unions that represent health-care workers expressed frustration the benefits requirements create inequities within their memberships. "There may be more allied health professionals in Manitoba who would qualify under this expanded criteria, but were still a long way from having all of our members recognized for the risk that they faced through the pandemic," said Bob Moroz, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals. The president of the Manitoba Nurses Union echoed those sentiments; Darlene Jackson said the program excludes most full-time nurses, but it includes some who work part-time hours and earn the same wage. "In a sector that relies on a balance of full- and part-time workers to meet the needs of patients 24-7, this approach is obviously unfair, and will cause frustration for many nurses," she said Tuesday in a statement. It remains unclear how much individual payments will be, as the fund will be distributed equally to qualified applicants; essential workers have until noon June 29 to apply. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Click here to read the full article. MILAN The Italian eyewear industry is assessing the impact of the coronavirus emergency as data released on Wednesday by the national association of eyewear manufacturers Anfao outline a difficult moment for the sector. In 2019, sales derived from Italian eyewear production totaled 3.99 billion euros, up 3.3 percent compared to the previous year. In particular, exports were up 3.9 percent to 3.88 billion euros compared to 2018, accounting for more than 90 percent of total production. Projections for this year show exports are expected to drop 25 percent, production value to decrease 15 percent and sales in the domestic market to shrink 10 percent compared to 2019. In the first quarter of the year, exports dropped 17.7 percent, or by 200 million euros, compared to the same period last year. Although exports were still up 2.9 percent and in sync with last years performance in January, the following month the limitations in the Asian market started to cause a 3.8 percent decrease in performance, which climbed to 43.6 percent in March. China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan represent 7.7 percent of total exports for the industry, accounting for around 300 million euros a year in value. These are also the main sources of raw materials and semi-finished products for Italian companies, as they account for 64 percent of total imports. Therefore, before being affected by the COVID-19 restrictions in their own regions, Italian eyewear manufacturers had already been impacted by the crisis as they had to look for different suppliers and, those with plants in China, suspend production. Forecasts for the rest of the year show exports will continue to perform negatively, with the first half of 2020 registering a 40 percent drop, resulting in a loss of 850 million euros in value compared to the same period in 2019. In a hypothetical scenario with no new outbreaks of the virus and a recovery in the second half of the year, exports would be down 7 percent, or about 130 million euros less than 2019. Story continues Weve been very cautions in these forecasts, after all the sentiment were receiving from our companies doesnt allow us to be more optimistic, said Anfaos president Giovanni Vitaloni. We know its a difficult situation for the whole country and therefore we are aligned with the overall demand of really efficient measures to support the economy and consumer spending, he continued. He also noted the association has proposed to implement a voucher to encourage the purchase of optical frames. To wit, in the domestic market, eyewear sales dropped 30 percent in March and 80 percent in April due to the lockdown that froze Italy for over two months. Although eyewear manufacturers and stores were allowed to be open during the lockdown, since the category is considered an essential business for producing personal protective equipment, the lack of demand significantly impacted both companies and retailers. Many companies still had to request the cassa integrazione wage support measure because orders from abroad suddenly zeroed and the opticians who decided to keep the business running did it to respond almost exclusively to urgent cases of eyeglasses breaking, said Vitaloni, who also helms the Milan-based Mido eyewear trade show. The fair was another casualty of the health crisis. Initially slated to run from Feb. 29 to March 2, the event was first postponed to July 5 to 7 and then canceled. Next year, Mido will run Feb. 6 to 8, moving up its usual dates to help boost orders. The industry showed resilience in the past. Last year the sector performed positively despite geo-political and economic instability, including general commercial tensions with China, Brexit and a more cautious approach to consumer spending in France and Italy. In addition to the production value, in 2019 the number of companies and employees grew 1.4 percent to 879 firms and 2.3 percent to 18,082 workers, respectively. Imports were up 6.7 percent to 1.35 billion euros while, in terms of exports, Italy accounted for over 20 percent of global exports of sunglasses and optical frames, which registered 19 billion euros last year. In particular, Europe accounted for almost half of the Italian eyewear companies export activity, while the Americas and Asia accounted for 33 percent and 16 percent, respectively. Exports to the U.S. grew 6.7 percent last year, confirming the countrys leading position as a destination for Italian eyewear. Due to a slowdown in internal consumption, exports to France and the U.K. were down 3 and 7.9 percent, respectively, while they grew 8 percent in Germany last year. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. JK Rowlings publisher, Hachette UK, has told staff they are not allowed to refuse to work on her novels because they disagree with her views on transgender issues. The news comes after a group of employees at the company objected to being asked to work on the authors new childrens story, The Ickabog. Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of publishing, said Hachette in a statement. We fundamentally believe that everyone has the right to express their own thoughts and beliefs. Thats why we never comment on our authors personal views and we respect our employees right to hold a different view. We will never make our employees work on a book whose content they find upsetting for personal reasons, but we draw a distinction between that and refusing to work on a book because they disagree with an authors views outside their writing, which runs contrary to our belief in free speech. Rowling has sparked a great deal of controversy in recent days, after appearing to take issue with a headline about people who menstruate. Following a backlash in which she was accused of being transphobic, Rowling then wrote a 3,700-word article on her website explaining that she was a survivor of sexual assault and that helped convince her of the need to maintain women-only spaces. She also argued that biological sex is meaningful and claimed sections of the trans community are seeking to erode women as a political and biological class. Her essay was not supported by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson or Rupert Grint, who all rose to fame through their roles in the Harry Potter franchise. This is the second controversy Hachette has found itself at the centre of in recent months. In March, it cancelled its plans to publish Woody Allens memoir after a staff mutiny. A free, anonymous and inclusive text service has been launched to provide support for people going through a mental health or emotional crisis, Fine Gaels John Paul Phelan, TD, has said. Deputy Phelan said: 50808 is a first of its kind for Ireland, a free 24/7 text service, providing everything from a calming chat to immediate support for people who need it. Many people particularly young people - dont feel comfortable making that call or reaching out for help. This is a service that will offer a lifeline to people of all ages across Kilkenny and Carlow and indeed across the country. Its been an exceptionally difficult time for our country, and this service is needed more than ever. There is no doubt the launch of 50808 by Crisis Text Line will save lives. Deputy Phelan continued: 50808 has been in development for some time, and it couldn't launch at a more important moment. The service's trained Crisis Volunteers will help people through this current crisis and will continue to provide free, 24/7 support in the long term. This life-saving service is part of the governments strategy to protect the mental health of all members of the public. Id like to commend my Fine Gael colleagues, the Minister for Health Simon Harris and the Minister for Mental Health and Older People Jim Daly for prioritising this essential service. Since the initiative began its pilot in September last year, it has provided support to 3,801 people through 6,694 conversations. It is expected that 50808 will support over 50,000 people each year once fully operational. Of the almost four thousand people supported; 832 people were thinking about suicide 360 people were self-harming The top issues discussed were: Anxiety/stress (40%), Depression/sadness (32%), Relationships (29%), Isolation/loneliness (23%) and Suicide (18%) 80% of texters have been between the ages of 16 and 34 65% of texters were female, 24% male, 2% transgender and 2% non-binary 30% of texters identified as LGBTI+ 35% of texters are living with a disability, an existing mental health condition, or other medical condition Reasons for texting: Didn't have anyone else to talk to (50%), Wanted to talk to someone who didn't know me (48%), More comfortable texting than talking (40%), To embarrassed to talk on the phone or in person (31%), Didn't have access to a therapist (31%) Deputy Phelan continued: The service uses an artificial intelligence (AI) system to analyse a texters initial message, scanning keywords, phrases, and even emojis to determine the level of severity. The texters at most imminent risk are placed at the top of the queue. 50808 has performed over 100 Active Rescues since beginning in pilot phase in September 2019 in which the National Ambulance Service is contacted for a texter in need of emergency support. The service allows trained Crisis Volunteers to volunteer from home. Crisis Volunteers complete a 30-hour training and have 24/7 supervision by full-time mental health professionals. Deputy Phelan concluded: The COVID-19 crisis has been a challenging time for us all. If you need to talk, please pick up the phone and text 50808 where you will be connected to a trained and compassionate volunteer. The service is available 24/7. One in five adults in the United States report they have experienced change - mostly a decrease - in their sexual behavior during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study by Indiana University researchers. The study, co-authored by Devon Hensel, associate research professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine, and Debby Herbenick, professor in sexual and reproductive health at the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington, examined changes in solo and partnered sexual behaviors from about mid-March to mid-April, when most of the country was subject to stay-at-home guidance, in an effort to learn more about Americans' sexual lives and relationships during the first month of social distancing. The study has been published via preprint in medRxiv. Herbenick and Hensel will present preliminary findings of the study at a virtual conference of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists on June 4. Understanding how sexual behavior changes during a pandemic, specifically COVID-19, is necessary to continue to adapt public health COVID-19 management in ways that are consistent with people's sexual health and well-being. Our data illustrates the very personal ways in which different pandemic-associated factors may create or inhibit opportunities for solo and partnered sex." Devon Hensel, associate research professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine The study used a U.S. nationally representative probability survey of adults to look at changes in 10 solo and partnered sexual behavior categories. Researchers looked at factors such as how knowledgeable individuals are about the virus; mitigation measures such as social distancing and recommended hygiene; if participants had children in the home and their ages, and mental health variables including depressive symptoms and loneliness. Across all 10 behaviors studied, 50 percent of participants reported no change or stability in their sexual behaviors over the past month. Another third of participants reported that they had either increased or decreased in some behaviors. The most common behaviors to increase and decrease were the same. Among the participants reporting an increase in sexual behavior, the most common increases were hugging, kissing, cuddling or holding hands with a partner. Similarly, those reporting decreases said the same sexual behaviors--hugging, kissing, cuddling, or holding hands--were the most common to decline. "In the first month of social distancing and stay at home guidance, many people experienced substantial change in their relationships," said Herbenick. "While some people found themselves spending time constantly with their romantic or sexual partners, others found themselves separated from partners or unable to date or meet up with potential partners." The study found that participants with any children at home under the age of five were three times more likely to report increased hugging, kissing, cuddling or holding hands with a partner in the past month, while having elementary-aged children was often linked to decreased reports of these behaviors. Those findings could be attributed, Herbenick said, to parents of smaller children being able to better maintain pre-pandemic schedules and routines. Likewise, parents of small children could have reported an increase in hugging, kissing, cuddling or holding hands because it is part of group/family interactions such as family cuddles. In terms of mental health factors, the study found that depressive symptoms and loneliness were associated with both reduced partnered bonding behaviors, such as hugging, cuddling, holding hands and kissing, as well as reduced partnered sexual behaviors. These mental health factors could be attributed to social distancing measures, the researchers said, that while necessary, can exacerbate feelings of depression and loneliness for some people. Consistent with existing research, the study also found that people who perceived they were at greater odds for COVID-19 medical consequences (they or a loved one getting sick) or for COVID-19 social consequences (job loss or missing medical appointments) were more likely to report decreased partnered sexual behaviors. Those with greater COVID-19 knowledge were more likely to report stability in partnered sexual behaviors. However, the study could not assess whether greater knowledge increased people's comfort to maintain existing habits, or how greater knowledge might lead some people (particularly single adults) to risk reduction behaviors that also affected their sexual behavior - for example, refraining from meeting up with new partners. Individual circumstances, and access to resources such as health care and services, impact decisions about how and when to have sex, Hensel said. Pandemics cause interruptions in resources that can lead to adverse outcomes such as unintended pregnancies. Unwanted abstinence, Hensel said, could also result in mental and sexual health consequences. "This study is a reminder that pandemics impact every aspect of the human experience, including sexuality," Hensel said. "Better understanding of how real-life pandemic management - such as childcare, mental health challenges, and worries about getting sick - impacts solo and partnered sex aids professionals in helping people tailor solutions to any sexual challenges they may have. " Molly Rosenberg, assistant professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at IU Bloomington, Maya Luetke, a doctoral student at IU Bloomington and Tsung-chieh Fu, a postdoctoral fellow at IU Bloomington, also contributed to the study. Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with more than 50,000 active cases, followed by Tamil Nadu and Delhi, with the total national death toll crossing 11,000. With an increase of 10,974 new cases and 2,003 deaths in the last 24 hours, Indias COVID-19 count reached 3,54,065 on Wednesday while the toll due to the virus stands at 11,903. This includes 1,55,227 active cases and 1,86,935 cured, discharged and migrated patients, according to the Union Health Ministry. While the spike in the number of cases has stayed below the 11-thousand mark, the death toll has increased manifold today as compared to the 380 death reported on Tuesday. Maharashtra with 1,13,445 cases continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 50,057 active cases while 57,851 patients have been cured and discharged in the state so far. The toll due to COVID-19 has crossed the five thousand mark and reached 5,537 in the state. It is followed by Tamil Nadu with 48,019 and the national capital with 44,688 confirmed cases. Read also: Decision to resume international flights to be taken next month: Hardeep Singh Puri The global number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection has surpassed 7.9 million, with over 434,000 fatalities being registered since the beginning of the outbreak, according to the latest data provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday. Read also: Upto three lakh Covid-19 tests can be conducted in a day: Health Ministry For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Qualcomm is announcing its first 6-series Snapdragon mobile chipset with support for 5G networks. The Snapdragon 690 is built on the 8nm process and is the successor to the Snapdragon 675 and this new chipset is paired with the an X51 modem. This chipset is part of Qualcomms intention to make 5G more affordable for consumers worldwide. HMD, LG, Motorola, Sharp, TCL, and Wingtech are all expected to announce devices running this new chipset. The new Snapdragon 690 will support SA, NSA, and global 5G bands if they are sub-6Ghz. Qualcomm didnt decide to include mmWave support for the 690, that will remain on higher-end 7-series and 8-series 5G chipsets like the Snapdragon 865 and the 765G for now. You can expect 20% faster CPU speeds and 60% faster graphics performance compared to the Snapdragon 675. 5G isnt the only thing the new chipsets bring. They enable HDR video recording at 4K @ 30fps and supports stills up to 192MP. It also announced a new enhancement to video encoding. With it, devices with this chipset can smoothen the experience of watching high-quality videos in lower-bandwidth situations by selectively enhancing moving parts of a video. We can also expect to see more high-refresh rate displays using this chipset. The Snapdragon 690 supports 120Hz refresh rate displays at up to FHD+ resolution and Quick Charge 4+. This chipset also enables support for Wi-Fi 6 on Qualcomms FastConnect 6200 system. A new fifth-generation AI Engine called ARCSOFT arrives, one component of which called the Hexagon Tensor Accelerator (HTA) makes your real-time Snapchat filters look smooth and less stuttery. Theres also a new ARCSOFT feature that smoothens the transitions when zooming between ultrawide, wide, and telephoto cameras. Although the Snapdragon 765G was announced late last year, we are only now seeing them arrive to the United States in the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G. Qualcomm hopes it wont be long before we see even cheaper 5G devices, but for the US, that will likely take longer than ROW. Qualcomm expects that we can begin seeing devices powered by this new chipset starting in the second half of this year. In the last 24 hours, India added close to 11,000 cases in its tally, taking its caseload to 3,54,065. Meanwhile, the death toll has reached 11,903 with 2,003 new fatalities the most in a day. With this, India has become the eighth-most-affected country by death toll. Two states each reported their sharpest single-day spikes: Haryana (550), and Andhra Pradesh (385). Overall, five states with the biggest 24-hour jump in total cases are Maharashtra (2,701), Delhi (1,859), Tamil Nadu (1,515), Haryana (550), and Gujarat (522). Prime Minister will continue his virtual meet with chief ministers today. Defence Minister and Home Minister will also be the part of todays virtual meeting. Click podcast for more Happy restaurant owners Laurent Vrignaud (L) and Alessandor Pirozzi celebrate the opening of the promenade in Laguna Beach, Calif., on June 15, 2020. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times) Laguna Beach Kick-Starts Reopening With Summer Promenade LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.An early morning ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 15 in downtown Laguna Beach, California, marked the opening of a new pedestrian promenade officials hope will kick-start the citys economic recovery following the COVID-19 shutdown. Roughly 100 people gathered at 8 a.m., coffee in hand, to watch Mayor Bob Whalen and Councilmember Sue Kemp launch the summer project at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Forest Avenue, which has been closed to traffic and turned into a European-style art walk. Kemp, who spearheaded the initiative, cut the ribbon. Now, we have a downtown! restaurant owner Alessandro Pirozzi told The Epoch Times, admiring the changes made outside his business, which include extra tables, chairs, umbrellas, and art installations. I think this will be a fun opportunity for our community, a great boost for our local retailers and restaurants, Whalen said at the ceremony. Its great to see all of youthis is more people than Ive seen in three or four months. The mayor encouraged visitors to wear masks, safely social distance, and spend some money. He said maintenance workers have been hired to disinfect the furniture often. The city hopes to assist restaurants, retailers, and art galleries in their recoveries by creating a special space for visitors, Assistant City Manager Shohreh Dupuis told The Epoch Times. The stay-at-home order has had significant impacts on our businesses, Dupuis, who also attended the ceremony, said via email. Several restaurants and shops that were closed during that time have gone out of business. Performance art and retail display decks are scattered along the stretch, from the Coast Highway to Glenneyre Street. A vintage lifeguard jeep, on loan from the Marine Safety Foundation, is parked at one end of the walk, while hand-sanitizing stations and works by local artists line the avenue. The citys economic recovery team hopes the setup will encourage residents to linger, buy local, and restore the citys liveliness and well-being. A crowd gathers amid installations by local artists and tables set up for neighborhood restaurants at the opening of the promenade in Laguna Beach, Calif., on June 15, 2020. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times) Laurent Vrignaud (C) serves pastries to pedestrians in the newly opened promenade in Laguna Beach, Calif., on June 15, 2020. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times) A vintage jeep encouraging ocean safety is parked as part of the new promenade in Laguna Beach, Calif., on June 15, 2020. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times) A depiction of a surfer adorns the street in the newly opened promenade at Laguna Beach, Calif., on June 15, 2020. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times) Members of the Laguna Beach City Council gather to celebrate the opening of a summertime shopping promenade to spur business in the heart of the city following the COVID-19 pandemic, in Laguna Beach, Calif., on June 15, 2020. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times) Some of Laguna Beachs quaint businesses were already strugglingand City Council members were debating how to resolve ongoing economic issues downtownwhen Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his March 19 stay-at-home order. The city ordered all nonessential businesses to completely close down on March 22. Pirozzi, owner of fine-dining Italian restaurant Alessa Laguna, said he was prepared for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus because of what his family in Italy were experiencing early on. However, he didnt think the city of Laguna would react so quickly, and was shocked when it did. We threw away hundreds and hundreds of bottles of wine and food, because we didnt even have time to sell it, Pirozzi said. We never really recuperated, so far, from it. Pirozzi pays $20,000 a month in property rent; his landlord allowed him to defer one payment, then began collecting again. Pirozzi kept 100 employees on payroll and paid them out of his own pocket, he said, until he spent almost all his savings. He furloughed his part-time employees, but when the restaurant was allowed to reopen in mid-May for takeout, he reinstated all of them. I kept everybody on because, you know, it wasnt their fault, he said. He said it was good that the city took some initiative to create something that generates more business. He was impressed by the citys out-of-the-box thinking. Just a few doors away sits Moulin, a French cafe serving beverages, crepes, brunch, and more. Owner Laurent Vrignaud placed trays of croissants and pastries on tables in the new parklet outside, chatting excitedly with visitors as they strolled by. Now, theres light at the end of the tunnel, Vrignaud told The Epoch Times. My problem is going to be the crowds. Next weekend is going to be insane, by the time people know whats going on here. Vrignaud said he was fortunate to have a cushion to fall back on during the shutdownbut paying rent was particularly difficult. You cant shake rent. The landlord wants to collect his rent whether youre open or not, so thats always been a challenge, he said. He recalled that a few years ago, there was a similar project, but it didnt last more than a few months. People just werent into it, he said. But with the pandemic at play and stirring residents eager to get outside, he thinks this time is going to be different. This is an example of when business and community can work hand-in-hand, Kemp said, before cutting the ribbon. The City Council voted on May 12 to create the promenade, contradicting the belief that the local government moves at a glacial pace, she said. This is about reenergizing the whole town as safely as possible, Kemp said. The promenade will be open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. throughout the summer, ending Sept. 7. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. SARATOGA SPRINGS - Retirement and opportunity prompted Alison Rhodes-Devey and Mark Hodge to convert their carriage house into an Airbnb rental. The property, tucked into the city's East Side between East and Lake streets, seemed like an attractive setting for out-of-towners looking for a place to stay during the racing meet. It was a good bet. Last summer, their first as hosts, Rhodes-Devey said the carriage house was booked solid. "It was a great way to make money and we really enjoyed it," she said. The couple was looking forward to hosting again and by early March, Rhodes-Devey had begun to let last summer's renters choose the weeks they wanted for a return visit in 2020. Then came coronavirus. The carriage house had a new role: a place for Rhodes-Devey's daughter, a New York City-based actor, and son-in-law to live when they left Queens. Rhodes-Devey started blocking off dates to accommodate them; at the same time, cancelation after cancelation rolled in. Rhodes said she has one booking left in June, which she plans to honor - her daughter and son-in-law will move into the main house for the weekend. That kind of story was repeated everywhere. Airbnb doesn't provide regional information about the number of listings on its platform, but boasts more than seven million listings worldwide and an average of two million-plus guests staying in Airbnb listings per night. "We are a travel company, of course we were hit by the pandemic," said Alexandra Dagg, senior policy director for Airbnb in the Northeast United States and Canada. "People stopped traveling on a massive scale we haven't seen in our lifetimes." In early May, Airbnb cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky announced the company was dialing back its investments in activities that didn't directly support its core mission - hosting - and laid off 1,900 employees, about 25% of the staff. Since then, the company has rolled out a new campaign, "Go Near," based on data showing more than 50% of users were renting in a less-than-200-mile radius from where they live. The company also produced a new cleaning protocol and will provide special promotions to hosts who sign onto it. But Airbnb hosts seem to be staying with the platform. A recent company survey showed 92% of hosts around the world said they plan to host as often as before, or more often, once the pandemic is over, according to Liz DeBold Fusco, Airbnb's director of public policy and communications. Dave Gardell will not be one of them. Gardell, owner of The Ruck pub in Troy, said he converted one of his apartments to a short-term rental on Airbnb in August of last year. It went well, but when bookings didn't come back by the end of April, Gardell found a renter and turned the two-bedroom apartment back into a long-term rental. Gardell owns four three-story buildings, including the space where the Ruck is located, and couldn't afford to lose money on any of the spaces, especially while the pandemic was cutting into the pub's business. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "Pre-COVID everything was working great, all but one of the guests were fantastic. I'm sad to see it go," Gardell said. Another Trojan, Greg Back, sales director for Rare Form Brewing, doesn't own an Airbnb, but is a frequent user of the service - and that won't change, he said. "My primary concern is staying away from places where the outbreaks are," Back said. "If there's a high level of risk, I don't want to go there, and I'm more worried about that than the individual cleaning regimen by the host." Back recently cancelled a trip to Burlington, Vermont because he heard about an outbreak there, but still plans to travel to Portland, Maine, at the end of July. His hosts have already informed him that as an out-of-state traveler, he will need to get a COVID-19 test within 72 hours before he arrives and sign a document saying he tested negative, although the hosts will not ask to see the test results. Rhodes-Devey said she will also continue to use Airbnb when she travels, with one significant change: she will clean the space when she arrives. An excerpt from actor Ayushmann Khurranas book -- Cracking the Code: My Journey in Bollywood -- in which he recalled being rejected by filmmaker Karan Johar in 2007, is going viral, after the suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a renewed conversation around nepotism in the film industry. Ayushmann recalled that one of the first Bollywood personalities that he interviewed back when he was a radio jockey was Karan. At an awards show in 2007, Ayushmann asked Karan for his number and told him that he wanted to be an actor. Karan gave me the landline number to his office when I met him. I should have taken a hint there and then. But I was so excited! I even planned exactly when I would make the call: sometime around 11:30 am, so hed be done with breakfast and available to talk. Also Watch | Nepotism versus talent: Sushant Singhs death fuels Bollywood bullying row Ayushmann continued, The next day I dialled the number theyd given me. They said Karan wasnt in office. The day after that I called again. They said he was busy. And finally, my bubble burst when, the subsequent day, they told me bluntly We only work with stars, and cant work with you. In a twist of fate, Karan invited Ayushmann to his chat show, Koffee with Karan, in 2018, when Ayushmann had, in fact, become a star. And the actor chose to tell him this story. You gave me a landline number. The next morning, when I called the number and asked to speak to Karan Johar, the person on the other line said, We dont audition outsiders and newcomers or something like that. Also read: There are many Sushant Singh Rajputs in the industry, Karan Johar doesnt decide their success or failure: Koena Mitra Karan replied, I gave you the right number. That was very sweet of me! I mustve thought that you have potential. Ayushmann responded by saying that the goal was to reach him, which didnt happen. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON iRobot Corporation IRBT was a big mover last session, as the company saw its shares rise nearly 10% on the day. The move came on solid volume too with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This breaks the recent trend of the company, as the stock is now trading above the volatile price range of $68.65 to $82 in the past one-month time frame. The stock gained after the company raised its second-quarter revenue guidance on strong demand for its Roomba vacuums. The company has seen four negative estimate revisions in the past few months, while its Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current quarter has also moved lower over the past few months, suggesting there may be trouble down the road. So make sure to keep an eye on this stock going forward, to see if this recent move higher can last. iRobot currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) while its Earnings ESP is 0.00%. iRobot Corporation Price iRobot Corporation Price iRobot Corporation price | iRobot Corporation Quote A better-ranked stock in the Industrial Products sector is Proto Labs, Inc. PRLB, which currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Just Released: Zacks 7 Best Stocks for Today Experts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of +24.1% per year. These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout. See these time-sensitive tickers now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Proto Labs, Inc. (PRLB) : Free Stock Analysis Report iRobot Corporation (IRBT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Brazil reported a record 34,918 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the same day that one of the senior officials leading the country's widely criticized response to the crisis said the outbreak was under control. Brazil, the world's No. 2 coronavirus hotspot after the United States, is fast approaching 1 million cases, although experts say the true number is likely higher due to patchy testing. Brazil also registered 1,282 COVID-19 deaths since its last update on Monday, the Health Ministry said, bringing confirmed fatalities in the country to 45,241, overtaking the UK's total number of deaths last week. Walter Braga Netto, the head of the office of the president's chief of staff, known as Casa Civil, and one of the top officials handling the crisis, said it was under control. 'There is a crisis, we sympathize with bereaved families, but it is managed,' said Braga Netto, who spoke during a webinar held by the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro. A daughter hugs his mother at Geriatric Clinic on June 16, 2020 in Gravatai, Brazil. The clinic created the Tunel do Abraco (hug tunnel) for elderly residents to be able to hug relatives after more than 70 days apart due to the coronavirus pandemic A nurse cleans the hug tunnel, which has holes and plastic sleeves to all people to hug relatives while being protected from the coronavirus behind the plastic screen Braga Netto said Brazil's deaths-per-million-people figure was better than that of Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy and France. As such, the Army general said he 'was trying to convey a message of optimism in the management of the crisis.' His optimism was not shared by the World Health Organization's regional director. Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne said in a video briefing from Washington that Brazil is a major concern. Latin America's largest country accounts for about a quarter of the roughly 4 million coronavirus cases in the Americas and nearly 25% of the deaths, she said. 'We are not seeing transmission slowing down' in Brazil, Etienne said. PAHO recommends that Brazil and other regional countries strengthen social distancing and urged that reopening of the economy be done slowly and carefully. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has long opposed social distancing measures, and many of the country's states are re-opening for business even though the outbreak remains severe. Pictured: Gravediggers of the Vila Formosa cemetery, the largest in Latin America, exhume old graves to open new spaces for those deceased by COVID-19, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 15 June 2020 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (centre) leaves the Palacio do Alvorada, in Brasilia, Brazil, 16 June 2020. Bolsonaro has long opposed social distancing measures in the country Some villagers in the eastern Amazon are spurning Brazilian government advice to take the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to keep the novel coronavirus at bay and are drinking tea of jambu, also known as the toothache plant. Maria de Nazare Sajes, 65, tested positive for the coronavirus and believes she fought off the symptoms by drinking the infusion of bitter leaves. 'I made jambu tea and felt healthy again. People said: "Look at Maria, how she has recovered, she no fever or pains",' Maria said while she was boiling water on a gas stove in her wooden house. Her village on the banks of a tributary of the Amazon was visited by public health workers to test inhabitants for the virus that is ravaging Brazil in the world's second worst outbreak after the United States. U.S. regulators withdrew approval this week for the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine to treat patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. It is still being prescribed in Brazil as scientists around the world are working to develop a vaccine and effective treatments. Pictured: Maria de Nazare prepares a tea using a leaf from the Jambu, a typical herb from northern Brazil, in her home near of Portel, southwest of Marajo island in Para state, Brazil, June 13, 2020 Maria de Nazare Sajes, 65, tested positive for the coronavirus and believes she fought off the symptoms by drinking the infusion of bitter leaves Jambu leaves (pictured) are used in local dishes, but said to work as an anesthetic that helps relieve pain, besides other properties fighting viruses and use as a laxative or aphrodisiac In remote corners of the Amazon rainforest, where access to intensive care wards can require long boat rides to the nearest cities, prevention is paramount, and people there place their faith in traditional herbal medicines. Nurse Marilia Costa says there is resistance to taking hydroxychloroquine. 'We are seeing that most inhabitants here are taking home-made remedies that they believe have great curing qualities,' she said. 'They accept pills for fever, but they take it with their own local medicine.' Jambu leaves are used in local dishes, but said to work as an anesthetic that helps relieve pain, besides other properties fighting viruses and use as a laxative or aphrodisiac. 'I'm afraid to go to hospital because there would be no natural medicine that we find here,' said a young woman called Maria Claudia. 'They wouldn't allow me to have jambu tea there.' (Reporting by Leonardo Benassatto; Writing by Anthony Boadle; editing by Grant McCool) People take part in a protest against the death of teenager Guilherme Silva Guedes, 15 - on June 16, 2020 - who disappeared in Vila Clara, in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sunday Pictured: Guilherme's cousin Christofer Henrique Quadros, 17, leads chants as residents take part in a protest against the death of teenager Guilherme Silva Guedes, 15, who disappeared in Vila Clara, in Sao Paulo, Brazil - pictured June 16, 2020 Guilherme's grandmother Antonina arcanjo da Silva participates in a minute of silence during a protest against the death of her grandson Meanwhile, protests against police brutality have broken our after the body of a 15-year-old boy was found. Guilherme Silva Guedes went missing on June 14, and Residents of Sao Paulo took to the streets on Tuesday after his body was later found with two gunshots to the head and signs of aggression on his body. His grandmother was among those marching. 'They took my grandson,' she said. 'I just went to see my grandson at the cemetery, with two gunshots to the head, a gunshot in the hand. He was injured, they hit my grandson a lot. He didn't deserve what they did. He was a very good person.' People protest for the second consecutive day after police reportedly shot and killed a 15-year-old boy, in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sunday. Pictured 16 June 2020 People have taken to the streets and were seeing throwing rocks and other projectiles at police, who are believed to have killed 15-year-old Guilherme Silva Guedes on Sunday According to Human Rights Watch, police killings are commonplace in Brazil and three-quarters of the nearly 9,000 people killed by Rio police in the past decade were black men. Pictured: A man fires a firework down the street in the protests On Tuesday, Sao Paulo's Civil Police confirmed two officers from the military police have been named as suspects. Tuesday's protests were peaceful after protesters burned buses on Monday. According to Human Rights Watch, police killings are commonplace in Brazil and three-quarters of the nearly 9,000 people killed by Rio police in the past decade were black men. CLEVELAND, Ohio Allies of Republican former Ohio Gov. John Kasich are continuing to form groups seeking to oust Republican President Donald Trump a political foe of Kasichs in the 2020 election. Already, multiple political action committees have been set up seeking to either topple Trump and Republicans in Congress or pump up his opponent, Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden. Two of those groups have deep ties to Kasich, though both said the governor is not involved in any way. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on the occasion of sixth International Yoga Day (June 21). The theme for this year is "Yoga from Home, Yoga with Family" keeping in mind the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The event will be celebrated on digital media platforms and there will be no mass gatherings, the government had said earlier. During his address to the nation through Mann Ki Baat programme on May 31, PM Modi had said that as yoga is getting integrated with people's lives, the awareness about their health, is also continuously on the rise among them. PM Modi had requested everyone to be a part of the International Yoga Day. He had said that these are time tested techniques, which have their own distinct significance. A video blogging contest, 'My Life, My Yoga', has also been introduced this year and the last date for submission of entries is June 21. This global contest on the digital platform is jointly organised by the Ministry of AYUSH and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). The aim of the video blogging competition, which was launched by the PM on May 31, is to raise awareness about yoga and to inspire people to prepare for and become active participants. The contest is being run on two legs -- the first one to select a winner within a country and the second to pick global prize winners. To enter into the contest, a participant is required to upload a three-minute video of three yogic practices (kriya, asana, pranayama, bandha or mudra), including a short video message/description on how it influenced his or her life. They can do it in any language, Ayush Secretary Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha had said. Entries can be submitted by participants under three categories -- youth (male and female aged under 18), adults (male and female above 18 years), and yoga professionals, Kotecha had said. International Day of Yoga is celebrated annually on June 21. June 21, 2015, marked the first celebration across India. PM Modi, along with several prominent leaders and dignitaries, performed yoga at Rajpath in New Delhi. Since then, Yoga Day has been celebrated with full fervour in India and abroad. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) had in 2014 declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga, on the recommendation of PM Modi. Following which, several spiritual leaders also voiced their support in favour of the day. In 2019, the theme was Climate Action and the main event was held in Ranchi's Prabhat Tara ground. PM Modi joined the yoga session along with 18,000 people, including Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Ministers and senior officials of the state. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday demanded clarity from the government on the death of 20 Indian soldiers during clashes with Chinese troops in Ladakhs Galwan Valley, asking why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is silent. Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? Gandhi tweeted. Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers?How dare they take our land? Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 17, 2020 The army and the minister of external affairs are yet to hold a press briefing on the violent escalation which unfolded on Monday night. The death of 20 Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel, marks the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between India and China. The Indian Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement on Tuesday, it revised the figure to 20 saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry officials were silent on the casualties suffered by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops, but Hu Xijin, the editor of the ruling Communist Party-run Global Times tabloid, tweeted to say that there are casualties on Chinese side too. According to a report in the US News, at least 35 Chinese troops including one senior official died in the violent clash with Indian soldiers. A large number of Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Galwan Valley and certain other areas of eastern Ladakh for the last five weeks, including in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. A sizeable number of Chinese Army personnel even transgressed into the Indian side of the de-facto border in several areas, including Pangong Tso. The Indian Army has been fiercely objecting to the transgressions, and demanded their immediate withdrawal for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the area. Both sides held a series of talks in the last few days to resolve the row. 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. (L) President Donald Trump in the White House Rose Garden in Washington on March 13, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) (R) John Bolton outside of the White House West Wing in Washington on April 30, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Trump Administration Sues Bolton to Block Publication of Memoir The Trump administration filed a lawsuit on June 16 seeking to prevent former national security adviser John Bolton from publishing a book that details his 17-month stint in the White House. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, comes a week before the highly anticipated memoir, The Room Where It Happened, was set to be published. It alleged that the book is rife with classified information and would compromise national security if published before completion of a government review. [Bolton] regularly came into possession of some of the most sensitive classified information that exists in the U.S. government, the lawsuit stated. Within two months of his departure from government service, defendant had negotiated a book deal allegedly worth about $2 million and had drafted a 500-plus page manuscript rife with classified information, which he proposed to release to the world. The lawsuit stated that the White House National Security Council (NSC) has determined that the manuscript in its present form contains certain passagessome up to several paragraphs in lengththat contain classified national security information. Its publication, which was set for June 23, would cause irreparable harm, because the disclosure of instances of classified information in the manuscript reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage, or exceptionally grave damage, to the national security of the United States, the lawsuit said. Bolton, who served as national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019 before he was fired by President Donald Trump, said in a statement this week that his memoir contains explosive details about his 17 months at the White House. Publisher Simon and Schuster said Boltons book details Trumps dealings with China, Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, Iran, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The publisher added in a statement that the lawsuit is nothing more than the latest in a long-running series of efforts by the administration to quash publication of a book it deems unflattering to the president. The Justice Department (DOJ) in the lawsuit requested that the court declare that Bolton in his memoir violated his nondisclosure agreement, by disclosing classified information, which is a federal crime. The DOJ requested that the federal court order the former national security adviser to instruct or request Simon and Schuster to delay publication to allow the memoir to undergo a national security review process, and make the necessary deletions of classified information. The lawsuit also sought to order the publisher to retrieve and dispose of existing copies of the book. Boltons lawyer Charles Cooper said they were reviewing the lawsuit and will respond in due course. Cooper previously said his client worked for months with the NSC to ensure classified material is not released. It comes after Trump told reporters Monday that Bolton will have broken the law, and will face a very strong criminal problem if the book is published. Reuters contributed to this report. European airlines are offering some attractive discounts to people itching for an escape from months of coronavirus lockdown. But fares could rise quickly as demand picks up. Following months of idled flights, carriers are touting promotional summer prices as they return to the skies, with Ryanair Holdings Plcadvertising return trips from London Stansted to Seville, Spain, in mid-July for 20 pounds ($25), or Trieste in Italy for 50 pounds. The low-cost carrier's average return fare last year was 74 euros ($83). "It's a great time to be a consumer," said Mark Manduca, an analyst with Citigroup in London. "You're going to get some great deals. Airlines are looking to fill their planes this summer." Prices are down about 14% for travel this month and next compared with last year, and about 10% for August, according to data provider Skytra. How long those offers last depends on how fast people shrug off concerns about the virus and their own finances, and how well airlines are able to match capacity to demand in order to retain a measure of control over fares even in a depressed market. Ryanair Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary has said a full-scale price war may be on the cards as European airlines chase market share in the aftermath of the pandemic. While Ryanair touts its bargains, figures from UBS derived from an analysis of screen-scraped fares suggest the Irish company has the greatest scope to put the squeeze on rivals. Its prices are up around 20% overall for July and August versus last year. That compares with decreases across most other airlines. Ryanair's ability to take on full-service operators may be limited, though, by multi-billion-euro bailouts granted to companies including Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Air France-KLM, which O'Leary says will help them subsidize weaker routes. The U.K. market, Europe's biggest, has also been muddied by a 14-day self-quarantine rule for arrivals that could put people off flying whatever the price. Fellow discounters EasyJet and Wizz Air Holdings, which brought back their first services in western Europe this week, appear less enthusiastic about unleashing a fare competition at a time when European consumers generally may have concerns that go beyond the cost of a ticket. EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said Monday he'll focus on profitable routes and expects fares to gain as demand begins to match supply. While the U.K. carrier will serve 60% of its usual network in July and 75% in August, daily frequencies will be slashed, with only about 30% of normal capacity deployed. Wizz, Eastern Europe's biggest no-frills carrier, expects to restore 60% of normal capacity by the end the third quarter and has ambitions to add more western hubs to Vienna, Milan and London Luton. At the same time, chief Jozsef Varadi said this month he won't be driven by pursuing market share and that the biggest concern is to restore margins and keep costs under control. What's unusual about the current situation is that airlines are effectively starting from scratch, having lost out on several months of sales that would have steadily filled their summer schedules heading into the year's busy season. That could limit the extent to which they're able to charge more for what would usually represent late bookings - tickets purchased within three days of flying now account for 41% of sales, according to the International Air Transport Association. The airline trade group said Tuesday it's found consumer confidence in air travel has slipped since April. Citigroup's Manduca predicts that Ryanair will cut fares in coming months and still fly with its planes only three-quarters full as people prove reluctant to resume travel. Pricing might not recover fully until summer 2023, he said. UBS analyst Jarrod Castle said that while advertised prices point to fare increases at some low-cost carriers in the third quarter, airlines will seek to actively manage revenue and the build-up in capacity, leading to further fluctuations. "Some consumers, as things open up, might still be a bit hesitant to travel but potentially there's a price at which they do," he said. Asia could offer a clue to the development of flights and fares in Europe, as the region where the Covid-19 outbreak originated has already begun a cautious return to travel. Carriers there are offering promotions to entice people back on board, with discounter AirAsia Group offering unlimited flights between 16 Malaysian cities through March 2021 for 399 ringgit ($93). Korean Air Lines offered a 15% discount on international flights for two years if booked by May 31. In both the Asia-Pacific region and U.S., where flying never shut down as fully as it did in many European countries, Skytra data portend an upswing in ticket prices for July and August from a year earlier, after drops of about 22% and 12%, respectively, in June. While rising demand could lift fares, airlines are still likely to lose money. About half of the global fleet remains grounded, while costs are poised to rise as government assistance such as employment subsidies taper off. IATA estimates carriers will lose a combined $100 billion this year and next, dwarfing the $31 billion loss during the 2008-2009 recession. European airlines will shoulder $21.5 billion of that burden in 2020. The airlines that ultimately emerge strongest in the region will be those that focus on what consumer data is telling them and have the agility to respond while keeping costs "razor low," according to Manduca. "Short-term they can fill their plane at a lower price and still make money," he said. "And in the long-term they'll have the ability to take market share from incumbents." Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday demanded to know about the violent confrontation between Indian and Chinese armies along the undefined Line of Actual Control (LAC) at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army has said 20 of its soldiers, including a commanding officer, had been killed in clashes with Chinese troops in a major escalation of a weeks-long standoff between the two neighbours in the western Himalayas. Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened, Gandhi tweeted. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land? he asked. The Indian Army said in a statement that the troops have disengaged since Mondays scrap and confirmed the number of dead at 20. Indian Army officials claimed 43 Chinese were killed or seriously injured, citing radio intercepts and other intelligence. HT couldnt independently verify this. The immediate spark for the conflict at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh isnt known, although it could have been about Chinese soldiers dragging their feet about removing some of the installations they erected in May in an area India claims as its own. Anurag Srivastava, the ministry of external affairs spokesperson, has blamed Chinese troops for the incident and referred to the meeting between army commanders of the two sides on June 6 that agreed on a process of de-escalation after the two sides deployed heavily on their respective sides of the LAC, which has never been defined. Colonel Zhang Shuili, a spokesperson for the Peoples Liberation Armys (PLA) Western Theater Command, in turn, blamed India for the clashes, on similar lines that the Chinese foreign ministry did earlier. These are the first Indian casualties in a border skirmish with PLA since October 1975 when Chinese troops ambushed an Indian patrol in Arunachal Pradeshs Tulung La sector and shot four soldiers dead. No shots were fired this time. HT has learnt rival soldiers exchanged blows, threw stones at each other and Chinese troops even attacked Indian soldiers with rods and nail-studded clubs during the brawl that went on for over six hours. A defence solicitor told a court he is innocent "beyond any doubt" as he was sent forward for trial accused of theft and perverting the course of justice. "I wish to say the State are aware there are witnesses that prove my innocence beyond any doubt," Cahir O'Higgins told Judge Colin Daly yesterday after he was served with a book of evidence. "They should have spoken to them before dragging my name through the mud. They should have spoken to all potential witnesses in an unbiased and impartial manner before charging me with a crime I did not commit." Mr O'Higgins (45), who appeared before Dublin District Court, is accused of theft of 400 belonging to a Spanish man who was a defendant in district court proceedings on July 30, 2016. Shop The theft allegedly happened at a Londis shop on Parkgate Street, close to the Criminal Courts of Justice. Mr O'Higgins is also accused of four counts of perverting the course of public justice contrary to common law on December 8 and December 17, within the State and at Bridewell Garda Station in Dublin. These charges allege intent to pervert the course of public justice by producing to the investigating garda a copy of notes purportedly made by him on July 30, 2016, which contained information that he knew to be untrue, and that he knew the notes were not made on this date. These offences are in the context of a criminal investigation into the theft allegation. He denies the charges. The Director of Public Prosecutions directed trial on indictment. A book of evidence was served on Mr O'Higgins in court by Detective Garda Colm Kelly. Judge Daly then made the order sending him forward for trial on bail to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, where he will face his next hearing on July 10. He told Mr O'Higgins that if he intended to use an alibi in his defence, he must notify the prosecution within 14 days. His counsel, Karl Monahan, said four of the alleged offences were not common charges. He submitted that they were complicated and of a grave nature, particularly for someone in his client's position. In Miao-Bouyei Autonomous County of Ziyun in southwest China's Guizhou Province, locals are in awe of Chen Xinghua and his connection to a heroic legendary figure. Chen, 75, is a national-level inheritor who tells the story of King Yalu, a sprawling heroic epic in the local language. The epic tells the story of King Yalu, a hero of the Miao ethnic group, and depicts the history and migration of the people. The epic is usually told on special occasions such as weddings and funerals. For more than 2,500 years, it was passed down orally in western Guizhou. Those who tell the stories of King Yalu are called "Donglang," or singing artist in the Miao language. The epic has been listed as a major focus of the Chinese folk art heritage rescue project. It has come into the spotlight once again, as China observed this year's Cultural and Natural Heritage Day on Saturday. "When I was just a boy, my elders demanded that I learn to sing and perform the stories of King Yalu properly," Chen recalls. "They believed learning the epic was like learning to speak." During his teenage years, everyone in the village wanted to be a Donglang because it was deemed a sacred profession, Chen says. At the age of 16, Chen began to learn the epic from three local masters. With a strong memory and good singing and reciting abilities, Chen soon understood the essence of the epic and by age 20, he had become a famous Donglang in the locality. After learning the epic by heart, Chen began to perform it at funerals. He combined the stories he learned from his three masters and managed to piece together a long version of the epic. The abundant details he weaved into his version caught the eye, and ears, of his fellow villagers. As the Miao people do not have a written language, the epic was traditionally passed down in the oral form. To help preserve the cultural heritage, Chen decided to transliterate the Miao words into Chinese characters. He scoured the county of Ziyun and visited many senior Donglang for different versions of the epic, trying to piece together as many stories of King Yalu as possible. In 2009, Chen heard that the county's cultural museum had launched a program to compile the stories of King Yalu. He volunteered to participate in the program, and sang the epic for four days so that the museum staff could record his version and translate it into the modern vernacular. "As a national inheritor of the epic, I feel a heavy burden on my shoulders," Chen says. "Now that times have changed, maybe our way of passing down our heritage also needs to be adjusted." In accordance with local Miao tradition, the masters only teach their apprentices about the stories of King Yalu in January and July on the lunar calendar. But to better preserve the epic, Chen recorded his version and sent the recordings as well as the Chinese texts to his apprentices via smartphone so that they could learn more conveniently. His students are also free to call him anytime if they have any questions, he says. But the passing down of King Yalu's stories is not an easy task. Chen's hometown Ziyun sits along a long belt of arid, stony land in the provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, and in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The county of Ziyun is among the nine counties in Guizhou mired in grinding poverty. By 2019, Ziyun still had 12,940 people living under the poverty line. The situation has forced many young people to go out and seek jobs in more developed areas in China. "I have taught many apprentices in the past, but fewer than 10 of them have truly learned the essence of the epic," Chen says. "They are all working hard outside the county to make money and live better lives." Fortunately, the government understands the importance of cultural protection and has taken a variety of measures to save the epic from dying out. In 2011, the county government established a research center for King Yalu culture. The center compiles and translates the content of the epic and holds cultural exchange activities. "We found that there are 1,778 Donglang in the county, and we have stored their stories in digital form," says Yang Zhengjiang, director of the center. "We also hold storytelling competitions and cultural seminars on the epic." The center has also published a book containing 10,819 lines of the epic of King Yalu, Yang said. In 2011, a cultural and tourism company was established in the county. The company has launched a variety of products based on the culture of King Yalu, including embroidery and wax dyeing. It has offered job opportunities for more than 200 local people. "I hope that more young people will join me in passing down the epic of King Yalu," Chen says. Enditem More than 1,500 leading experts have demanded Boris Johnson publish a clear plan for getting children back to school before a generation of pupils are left 'scarred for life'. In a scathing letter to the Prime Minister today, paediatricians warned the prolonged closure of schools could spark a wave of health, social and educational problems that linger long after Covid-19. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) claimed millions of pupils were missing out on education and friendships, physical exercise and even free vaccinations against other illnesses. But it is societys most disadvantaged children who are bearing the brunt of the pandemic because they have been robbed of the safety net that school provides, according to the experts. For these pupils and their families, interventions such as free school meals and mental health support are 'the difference between surviving and thriving', the letter says. Schools have been closed to the majority of pupils since March 20 in a desperate bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus. But official figures have shown children are more likely to be hit by lightning than die form Covid-19. Wales has published detailed plans to get a third of youngsters back in classrooms by the end of the month, while Scotland has set out strategy to reopen schools in August. But the UK Government which initially ordered schools to go back this month then U-turned continues to flip-flop over its plans and has highlighted September as the arbitrary date on which classrooms must reopen. Private schools, fed up with the lack of direction from ministers, are understood to be planning to open at the new academic year 'come what may' regardless of what the official advice is. Meanwhile, teaching unions were today accused by MPs of running a 'disgraceful political campaign' to keep classrooms closed by making parents fear they are 'deathtraps' when children can now go to Primark but not to school. In other coronavirus developments today: More than 5,500 people have signed a petition to close Oxfordshire shopping and tourist destination Bicester Village amid concerns visitors flocking there risk spreading the virus; Health Secretary Matt Hancock raised hopes for people wanting a summer holiday as he said the Government will permit people to travel to some low-risk countries without being quarantined when they return; More than 100 workers at a meat factory in Wales have been sent into self-isolation - the factory supplies chicken to KFC and Tesco; The Government is still under mounting pressure to help more children get back to school amid fury they are allowed to go to zoos and high street shops but not to continue education; Matt Hancock hinted the Government is trying to get rid of the 2m (6'6") social distancing rule and chief scientist Sir Patrick Vallance said shorter distances could be 'managed'. More than 1,500 leading experts have demanded Boris Johnson publishes a clear plan for getting children back to school before a generation of pupils are left 'scarred for life'. Pictured: A teacher at the front of a class of Year 12 pupils at Ortu Gable Hall School in Corringham, Essex as older students returned this week Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said the decision to protect the elder generations by shutting schools has come at a cost to children 1,500 EXPERTS DEMAND PLAN TO REOPEN SCHOOLS: THE LETTER IN FULL As paediatricians we are increasingly concerned by the continued absence of millions of children from schools. This interruption is without precedent and risks scarring the life chances of a generation of young people. Clinically, most young people have been spared the worst effects of COVID-19 but the health and social impact will be severe. The brunt of the impact of COVID-19 is and will continue to be borne by children and families who have the fewest resources and need the most support. The attainment gap was significant long before the pandemic. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are twice as likely to leave school without national qualifications in English and maths compared with better off peers . Left unchecked, COVID-19 will exacerbate existing problems and deepen structural social and health inequalities. School is about much more than learning. It is a vital point of contact for public health services, safeguarding and other initiatives. This includes access to mental health support, vaccinations, special therapies, free school meals, physical activity and early years services that help children get the best start in life. For many children and their families, these interventions are the difference between surviving and thriving. In their absence our already frayed safety net cannot function, and we risk failing a generation. We recognise the efforts of school leaders, local authorities, teachers and other professionals, who have worked tirelessly to facilitate learning for our children and young people. They deserve decisive leadership from the top of government. We note that plans have been published for children to begin returning to school in Scotland and Wales. We call on the UK government and the Northern Ireland Executive to urgently publish clear plans for getting children back to school; and for all UK governments to deliver recovery plans for children and young people. Without such action, the effects of COVID-19 will linger far beyond the pandemic itself and will limit the life chances of children and young people for years to come. Advertisement Today's letter reads: 'Clinically, most young people have been spared the worst effects of COVID-19 but the health and social impact will be severe. 'The brunt of the impact of COVID-19 is and will continue to be borne by children and families who have the fewest resources and need the most support. 'The attainment gap was significant long before the pandemic. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are twice as likely to leave school without national qualifications in English and maths compared with better off peers . 'Left unchecked, COVID-19 will exacerbate existing problems and deepen structural social and health inequalities.' Professor Russell Viner, president of the RCPCH and member of the Governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said: Children need their schools. Every child deserves to have an uninterrupted education. 'Schools are vital to the wellbeing of children and young people, providing a range of services from vaccinations to mental health support. 'Schools are also where at-risk children are looked out for and supported. Right now, we don't know how some of the most vulnerable children in our society are faring because they are outside of the safety net that school provides. 'And, of course, schools are also where our children run around, play and laugh and argue with each other. They need to return to that sort of a healthy normality as soon as possible.' Dr Liz Marder, a consultant community paediatrician working in Nottingham who signed the letter within two minutes of it being sent out, said: 'Up until now, very few children have been directly affected by COVID-19. 'But, indirectly, many children and young people have suffered enormously from the impact that the pandemic has had on their daily lives. 'It is our most vulnerable children, such as those from disadvantaged families or those with additional needs, who may suffer most. 'Getting children safely back into education as soon as we can has to be a priority if we are to avoid further damage to the health, well-being and life chances of so many of our young people.' The Government last week abandoned plans for all primary school children in England to return before the summer holidays. Some secondary groups restarted this week but caps on class sizes are causing problems. It means that most pupils up to GCSE age will have been at home for nearly six months by the time they go back in September. Private schools are thought to be taking matters into their own hands and planning to open at the new academic year regardless of what the Government advice is. Boris initially ordered schools to go back this month then U-turned. He has now highlighted September 1 as the arbitrary date on which classrooms must reopen LOCKDOWN PUTTING TEENS AT RISK OF FUTURE MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS, STUDY The coronavirus lockdown could have long-term damaging effects on teenagers' mental health, leading experts have warned. Face-to-face social interaction is vital for brain development and building a sense of self between the age of 10 and 24. University of Cambridge researchers warn depriving young people of this may lead to a host of mental health, behavioural and cognitive problems later in life. In an editorial in the Lancet, neuroscientists from the prestigious university called for schools to reopen for young people as a priority to prevent long-term damage. And despite being blamed for an explosion of mental health problems in recent years, the scientists say social media might actually have been the saving grace for teens during the pandemic. The ability to interact with friends virtually may have mitigated some of the negative effects of physical distancing, they write. It comes after official data found half of under-25s had been affected by 'lockdown loneliness'. Advertisement Some of Britain's best-known fee-paying schools are organising their own track and trace systems - with plans to have them operational for September. One governor at a leading private school said headteachers are 'furious' with the Government over its dithering on the issue of schools reopening. He told the Telegraph schools 'could have legally and safely opened this term', adding: 'We have had enough. 'We will definitely open in September using our own hygiene measures, our own risk-based assessment of social distancing and our own test and trace system. 'There is no confidence left in the Government, given their failed promises. All schools should do the same.' Chairman of the Independent Schools Council, Barnaby Lenon, has called for ministers to give headteachers the freedom to reopen from September if they think it is appropriate. Mr Lenon, a former headmaster of Harrow School, said that the Government should rely on 'the good judgement of heads, all of whom will have carried out risk assessments'. He added there was now 'significant demand' for more flexibility on how private schools should reopen. Downing Street's schools policy has come under criticism after officials rowed back on plans to have every primary school pupil return to school before summer - and then said it would be encouraging this. New guidance this week said that all secondary school pupils in England could return before summer - but just for one day. Responding to a legal challenge about its lockdown policies, the Government recently admitted in a High Court document that it was a 'request, not a direction' for schools to shut down. Private schools plan to reference the document to convince insurers that a September reopening is safe. UNDER-15S 'MORE LIKELY TO BE HIT BY LIGHTNING THAN DIE OF COVID-19' School children under the age of 15 have a 'tiny' one-in-3.5million chance of dying from coronavirus and are more likely to be hit by lightning, according to statistics. Analysis of data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) by a top expert from the University of Cambridge last week showed that the risk of Covid-19 to children is extremely low. The death rate for youngsters aged five to 14 in England and Wales is around one in 3.5million and for under-5s it is one in 1.17million only 14 people aged under 19 have died with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 since the start of the outbreak. In comparison, between 30 and 60 people are hit by lightning every year in the UK, according to figures from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. This is a risk of between one in 2.21million and one in 1.1million each year, the Daily Telegraph reported, although it was unclear how many people hit by lightning are children. Advertisement School closures could put back years of slow progress on social mobility with privately educated pupils almost twice as likely to have online lessons than their state school counterparts. Meanwhile, teaching unions were yesterday accused by MPs of running a 'disgraceful political campaign' to keep classrooms closed by making parents fear they are 'deathtraps'. Rowing broke out as the heads of the four main teaching unions appeared before the Education Select Committee to discuss the impact of coronavirus on young people. At the committee, Tory chairman Robert Halfon asked union chiefs: 'Can you explain why parents and children can have access to Primark over the coming weeks and months but not to schools?' Mr Halfon also questioned the safety regime being demanded for teachers to return, suggesting they were being falsely compared to nurses who he said work in far more 'hazardous and dangerous' conditions than schools. Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the NEU, Britain's largest teaching union, interrupted and hit back: 'If you have a quarrel with the risk assessments in schools, then take that up with the DfE (Department for Education) on whose guidance those risk assessments are being done'. And just a week after the NEU called for a 'can-do mentality' to get pupils back in class, Dr Bousted said that social distancing means schools will be unable to fully reopen in September meaning millions of children face 'blended learning' - pupils learning at school and at home. MPs on the committee, held on Zoom, reacted with fury to her comments. Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, a former teacher, said he was 'outraged' with the unions and said: 'Ive never been so frustrated in my entire life as sitting in this committee, listening to whats being said' and accused the NEU of 'running a political campaign to make sure schools did not open that is utterly disgraceful'. 'Why can children go to Primark but NOT school?' Furious Tory MPs accuse teaching unions of 'cherry picking' evidence to make parents fear classrooms are 'death traps' Teaching unions were today accused by MPs of running a 'disgraceful political campaign' to keep classrooms closed by making parents fear they are 'deathtraps' when children can now go to Primark but not to school. Rowing broke out as the heads of the four main teaching unions appeared before the Education Select Committee to discuss the impact of coronavirus on young people. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer were embroiled in bitter clashes in the Commons, with the PM demanding the Labour leader stated it is safe for children to return to school. 'The unions won't let him say the truth,' Mr Johnson raged. At the committee, Tory chairman Robert Halfon asked union chiefs: 'Can you explain why parents and children can have access to Primark over the coming weeks and months but not to schools?' Mr Halfon also questioned the safety regime being demanded for teachers to return, suggesting they were being falsely compared to nurses who he said work in far more 'hazardous and dangerous' conditions than schools. Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the NEU, Britain's largest teaching union, interrupted and hit back: 'If you have a quarrel with the risk assessments in schools, then take that up with the DfE (Department for Education) on whose guidance those risk assessments are being done'. And just a week after the NEU called for a 'can-do mentality' to get pupils back in class, Dr Bousted said that social distancing means schools will be unable to fully reopen in September meaning millions of children face 'blended learning' - pupils learning at school and at home. MPs on the committee, held on Zoom, reacted with fury to her comments. Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, a former teacher, said he was 'outraged' with the unions and said: 'I've never been so frustrated in my entire life as sitting in this committee, listening to what's being said' and accused the NEU of 'running a political campaign to make sure schools did not open that is utterly disgraceful'. Tory chairman Robert Halfon asked unions 'Can you explain why parents and children can have access to Primark over the coming weeks and months but not to schools?' Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the NEU, Britain's largest teaching union, interrupted and hit back: 'If you have a quarrel with the risk assessments in schools, then take that up with the DfE Boris Johnson (left) and Keir Starmer (right) were embroiled in bitter clashes in the Commons, with the PM demanding the Labour leader stated it is safe for children to return to school. 'The unions won't let him say the truth,' Mr Johnson raged Marcus Rashford says Boris Johnson THANKED him for speaking up for the underprivileged after the Man United star's free school meals campaign England striker Marcus Rashford today revealed Boris Johnson phoned him and thanked him for using his profile to help feed vulnerable families as the football star said he is already considering his next child poverty campaign. Manchester United star Rashford spoke with the Prime Minister on Tuesday, after he was forced into a U-turn and agreed that 1.3million children currently eligible for free lunches in England will get vouchers worth 15 a week that can be spent in supermarkets. Speaking to the BBC, the 22-year-old said: 'I was obviously shocked it's a big decision for someone to make. I'm just grateful the Prime Minister did change his decision and he understood.' On his conversation with the Prime Minister, he said: 'He was just saying thank you for using what I've built in a positive manner, we was sort of thanking each other because he didn't have to do what he done and neither did I. 'He was grateful that someone had an opinion and shared it with people and had been that voice for people who didn't have the platform to speak out as much as they'd like too.' Revealing the campaigning will continue, he said his big win off the pitch had 'bought an extra six weeks' for him to 'figure out what's next'. He said: 'I don't want this to be the end of it because there are more steps that need to be taken and we just need to analyse the response. People are struggling all year around so we still need to learn more about the situation people are in and how we can help them best'. Mr Rashford revealed last week that leaving home aged 11 to join Manchester United's academy when his single mother Melanie struggled to feed the family had driven his campaign to ensure other children in the UK do not go hungry. And his mum has called him 'about 10 times' in recent days as his campaign hit the headlines, he said, adding it was 'nice to see her smiling' about the PM's decision. He said: 'When she was going through [the hardship], if someone had spoken about it then maybe the situation would've been different'. Speaking at yesterday's daily coronavirus briefing, Mr Johnson denied he was shamed into the dramatic climbdown and raised eyebrows by claiming he only became aware of the push by Rashford - inspired by his own tough upbringing - earlier on Tuesday. 24 hours earlier the PM's spokesman commented the campaign - but rejected his plea for a free school meals extension. Advertisement Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of the NASUWT union then insisted that they were all working to get children back but had to make sure it was 'within the country's health and safety rules'. Mr Gullis said: 'Whether you like it or not it has come across to parents that these schools are death traps and that is not the case'. Fellow Conservative MP David Simmonds also suggested that unions had been 'cherry picking' evidence and said: 'The schools should be open now'. He also blasted their backing for the alternative SAGE group who claimed schools were not safe to open, saying they were relying on 'self-appointed people who set up a group because they disagreed with the actual Sage group'. Dr Bousted later suggested teachers were being made scapegoats, adding: 'Some of the line of the questioning here seems to be that it's schools' and teachers' and leaders' fault for following government guidance'. She added that England's schools have high class numbers in buildings with 'small footprints' and said that the use of public buildings should be looked at. This would include churches, sports stadiums, libraries and village halls. In bruising exchanges in the Commons, Mr Johnson repeatedly called on Sir Keir to confirm that it is safe for children to go back to school. He said one of the best ways to help the poorest children in the country 'would be to encourage all kids who can go back to school to go back to school now because their schools are safe'. 'It's the most disadvantaged kids who need to go back to school and it is those groups which, unfortunately, at the moment that are not going back to school,' Mr Johnson said. 'Let's hear from him, one more time, will he say schools are safe to go back to? Come on.' Sir Keir replied: 'This is turning into Opposition questions.' The PM pressed again: 'There are some councils, particularly Labour councils alas, that are not opening their schools when they could be opening them. 'And I say to him, I hope for the last time, now is the moment when he can say to those Labour councillors that it is safe for kids to go back to reception, to year one, to year six, to early years. Will he now say it?' Sir Keir replied: 'Every week the Prime Minister seems to complain that I ask him questions at Prime Minister's Questions. If he wants to swap place, so be it.' Mr Johnson shot back: 'There are some councils, particularly Labour councils alas, that are not opening their schools when they could be opening them. 'And I say to him, I hope for the last time, now is the moment when he can say to those Labour councillors that it is safe for kids to go back to reception, to year one, to year six, to early years. Will he now say it?' But Sir Keir again dodged responding, saying: 'Every week the Prime Minister seems to complain that I ask him questions at Prime Minister's Questions. If he wants to swap place, so be it.' Today it emerged that private schools are planning to and open at the new academic year 'come what may' regardless of what the Government advice is. Some of Britain's best-known fee-paying schools are organising their own track and trace systems - with plans to have them operational for September. One governor at a leading private school said headteachers are 'furious' with the Government over its dithering on the issue of schools reopening. He told the Telegraph schools 'could have legally and safely opened this term', adding: 'We have had enough. 'We will definitely open in September using our own hygiene measures, our own risk-based assessment of social distancing and our own test and trace system. 'There is no confidence left in the Government, given their failed promises. All schools should do the same.' Chairman of the Independent Schools Council, Barnaby Lenon, has called for ministers to give headteachers the freedom to reopen from September if they think it is appropriate. Mr Lenon, a former headmaster of Harrow School, said that the Government should rely on 'the good judgement of heads, all of whom will have carried out risk assessments'. He added there was now 'significant demand' for more flexibility on how private schools should reopen. Downing Street's schools policy has come under criticism after officials rowed back on plans to have every primary school pupil return to school before summer - and then said it would be encouraging this. New guidance this week said that all secondary school pupils in England could return before summer - but just for one day. Responding to a legal challenge about its lockdown policies, the Government recently admitted in a High Court document that it was a 'request, not a direction' for schools to shut down. Private schools plan to reference the document to convince insurers that a September reopening is safe. School closures could 'put back years of slow progress on social mobility' with privately educated pupils almost twice as likely to have online lessons than their state school counterparts. The 'prominent' attainment gap between disadvantaged and more wealthy students is set to widen further amid the coronavirus pandemic, a report has revealed. Researchers claim this gap could become permanent without 'a concerted effort' to help poorer pupils once schools reopen. The stark warning from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) comes as Government sources refused to confirm whether all pupils will be able to return to school full-time in September. Researchers from the IFS and University College London's Institute of Education surveyed 4,157 parents with children aged between eight and 15 in English private and state schools from April 29 to May 12. Some 79 per cent of families paying for private education said their child's secondary school provides online classes. This compares to just 41 per cent in state secondary schools attended by the most deprived children and only 53 per cent of state secondaries in middle class areas. More affluent secondary pupils in both sectors spend almost an hour more a day on schoolwork than the least advantaged. They also have more support at home, have had 'more active involvement' from teachers and are 'much more likely' to have private tutoring, the report found. Overall, more affluent secondary pupils across both sectors are 'spending more time in almost every single educational activity than their peers from the worse-off fifth of families'. On average, they devote almost an hour more a day on schoolwork than the least advantaged. They have more support at home and are also 'much more likely' to have private tutoring. On Tuesday Labour's Rebecca Long-Bailey welcomed the Government's mooted summer catch-up programme, but pressed Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to develop a national plan for education. This would involve schools receiving additional resources to help disadvantaged children, and public buildings being used for socially distanced teaching. The Government advises that schools should communicate their plans to parents once they have had a chance to work through them in detail. Official advice includes carrying out a risk assessment before opening to more children and young people, making sure that children and young people do not attend if they or a member of their household has symptoms of coronavirus, and promoting regular hand washing for 20 seconds with running water and soap It is also advised that schools clean more often to get rid of the virus on frequently touched surfaces, such as door handles, handrails, tabletops, play equipment and toys. Teachers should reduce contact through smaller classes or group sizes and altering the environment as much as possible, such as changing the layout of classrooms reducing mixing between groups through timetable changes, such as staggered break times or by introducing staggered drop-off and collection times. At the invitation of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya spoke as panelist at a live Webinar organized by the Kenya School of Revenue Administration (KESRA) on 16 June 2020. The KESRA is one of the four WCO Regional Training Centres for the East and Southern Africa (ESA) region. The virtual talk was part of KESRAs Economic Dialogues series and the topic of this webinar was "A thought leadership perspective on the status of Customs and Global Supply Chains: the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic". The webinar was moderated by KRAs Commissioner and Head of KESRA, Dr. Fred Mugambi and the other panelist was the former Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission and former Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), H.E. Erastus Mwencha. At the beginning of the webinar Dr. Mikuriya expressed his thanks to the organizer for the invitation to virtually address an audience comprising of representatives from Customs, Academia and policy makers from the ESA and other regions. He went on to explain the effects of COVID-19 on borders and its impact on Customs administrations. While many borders are closed or the movement of people is restricted for on the health reason, they are kept open for the flow of medical and other essential goods. Customs officers therefore have a duty to not only safeguard the supply chain but protecting it from health risks. In response, the WCO has collected and shared best practices of Customs administrations around the world to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic, and has provided relevant guidance in collaboration with international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), and maintained the dialogues with the business community. Dr. Mikuriya envisioned the establishment of resilient supply chain supported by technology and trust in the post COVID-19 environment. H.E Mwencha talked about the economic effects of COVID-19 and indicated that regional integration embodied in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could be the way forward to address the concerns raised by the Pandemic. Dr. Mikuriya concurred and mentioned the progress made in the ESA region with regards to integration and connection with external markets. Both panelists called for the strengthening of cooperation for a better world and appreciated the discussions. In conclusion, Dr. Mikuriya praised the webinar initiative as a good model for all the WCO regional entities to follow. An Indian army convoy moves on the Srinagar-Ladakh highway at Gagangeer, north-east of Srinagar, India (Mukhtar Khan/AP) Chinas foreign minister has demanded that India punish those behind recent deadly border clashes between their forces and is warning New Delhi not to underestimate Chinas determination to safeguard what it considers its sovereign territory. Wang Yis comments came in a telephone call with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, that came two days after soldiers from the sides engaged in fighting along their disputed border high in the Himalayan Mountains. Twenty Indian troops were reportedly killed and China suffered an unknown number of casualties. Mr Wang said China demanded India conduct a thorough investigation and harshly punish those responsible. The Indian side would best not make an incorrect judgement of the situation, would best not underestimate Chinas strong determination to safety its sovereign territory, he said in a statement issued by the foreign ministry. Expand Close Indians burn products made in China (Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Indians burn products made in China (Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP) Mr Wang repeated Chinas claims that India was solely responsible for the conflict, saying its forces had on three occasions illegally crossed the Line of Actual Control that divides the thousands of troops from the sides deployed in the area. The statement said Mr Jaishankar explained Indias position, but gave no details, and said New Delhi was committed to talks on reducing tensions. Earlier, China said it was seeking a a peaceful resolution to the dispute. Both sides agree to resolve this matter through dialogue and consultation and make efforts to ease the situation and safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border area, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing. Indian security forces said neither side fired any shots in the clash in the Ladakh region late on Monday that was the first deadly confrontation on the disputed border between India and China since 1975. Some officials said the soldiers were carrying anti-riot gear instead of weapons. China has not said if any of its troops were injured or killed. Indias prime minister Narendra Modi said the country would be proud that the Indian soldiers died while fighting. Their sacrifices wouldnt go to waste. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important. India wants peace but when provoked, it is capable of giving a fitting reply be it any kind of situation, he said. Indias defence minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that the loss of soldiers in the Galwan Valley is deeply disturbing and painful. A group of protesters gathered near the Chinese Embassy in the Indian capital condemning the killing of the soldiers and demanding a ban on Chinese goods. Expand Close Indians burn posters of the Chinese national flag (Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Indians burn posters of the Chinese national flag (Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP) They carried placards with crossed photographs of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese army. A small group of retired Indian army personnel also marched close to the embassy with placards reading Chinese army down down. They were detained by police. Mr Zhao, the Chinese spokesperson, repeated Chinese claims that the clashes erupted after Indian forces provoked and attacked Chinese personnel, which lead to fears, physical confrontation between the two sides border troops and resulted in casualties. China claims about 35,000 square miles of territory in Indias northeast, while India says China occupies 15,000 square miles of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau in the Himalayas, a contiguous part of the Ladakh region. India unilaterally declared Ladakh a federal territory while separating it from disputed Kashmir in August 2019. China was among the handful of countries to strongly condemn the move, raising it at international forums including the UN Security Council. Thousands of soldiers on both sides have faced off over a month along a remote stretch of the 2,100-mile Line of Actual Control, the border established following a war between India and China in 1962 that resulted in an uneasy truce. Expand Close Indian army lorries drive near Pangong Tso lake near the India China border in Indias Ladakh area (Manish Swarup/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Indian army lorries drive near Pangong Tso lake near the India China border in Indias Ladakh area (Manish Swarup/AP) The tense standoff started in early May, when Indian officials said that Chinese soldiers crossed the boundary at three different points, erecting tents and guard posts and ignoring verbal warnings to leave. That triggered shouting matches, stone-throwing and fistfights, much of it replayed on television news channels and social media. The Indian army said three soldiers died initially in Mondays clash. The 17 others died after being critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high-altitude terrain, it said in a statement Tuesday that did not disclose the nature of the soldiers injuries. The troops fought each other with fists and rocks, Indian security officials said. After the clash, the two sides disengaged from the area where the the fighting happened, the Indian army statement said. The United Nations urged both sides to exercise maximum restraint. PHOENIX - When the coronavirus flared in China's capital this week, Beijing cancelled flights, suspended reopenings and described the situation as extremely grave. But with cases rising in some U.S. states, local officials have balked at even requiring people to wear masks. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Chinese police officers wearing masks shelter in the shade near a portrait of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Gate in Beijing Tuesday, June 16, 2020. Chinese authorities locked down a third neighborhood in Beijing on Tuesday as they rushed to prevent the spread of a new coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 100 people in a country that appeared to have largely contained the virus. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) PHOENIX - When the coronavirus flared in China's capital this week, Beijing cancelled flights, suspended reopenings and described the situation as extremely grave. But with cases rising in some U.S. states, local officials have balked at even requiring people to wear masks. In the United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths in the world, authorities wrestled Wednesday with balancing demands for constitutional rights and personal freedom with warnings from health officials that being lax will have deadly consequences. China responded to a new outbreak in Beijing by scrapping more than 60% of its flights to the capital, cancelling classes and strengthening requirements for social distancing. It was a sharp retreat for the nation that declared victory over COVID-19 in March. This has truly rung an alarm bell for us, Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of Beijings Communist Party Standing Committee. China's actions follow about 137 new cases, a fraction of the number some U.S. states see each day. In Arizona, more than 1,100 people visited emergency rooms on Tuesday alone with positive or suspected cases. Alabama also is running out of hospital space, stirring impassioned debate over a mask requirement. Other states that haven't mandated face coverings, like Texas and Florida, are seeing infections soar. A family rides a motorcycle past a checkpoint during the first day of a system limiting the days that vehicles can go out as a way to curb the spread of COVID-19, ordered by the government for the metropolitan area of Guatemala City, Tuesday, June 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) With masks becoming a political symbol, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has taken aim at President Donald Trump's approach to the pandemic. Donald Trump wants to style himself as a wartime president. Unlike any other wartime leader, he takes no responsibility, he exercises no leadership, now he has just flat surrendered the fight, Biden said Wednesday. Biden has worn a mask repeatedly at public events, while Trump hasn't, even on occasions such as touring auto factory floors when they are required. Aides say Trump believes they're unflattering and that wearing one projects weakness. A passenger looks at a board with QR codes for health screening from different provinces at the Beijing Capital Airport terminal 2 in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Chinese capital on Wednesday canceled more than 60% of commercial flights and raised the alert level amid a new coronavirus outbreak, state-run media reported. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) The mask debate is playing out nationwide, notably in hard-hit states where face coverings have become a political and cultural debate. Hundreds of medical professionals signed a letter urging Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to require them. Facing mounting pressure to act as cases surge, the Republican said cities were free to mandate masks. Ducey, who removed his mask before speaking to reporters, said there were vastly different rates of infection across the state. Residents wearing masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus wait at a traffic junction in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Chinas capital reported a slight increase in the numbers confirmed new coronavirus cases Wednesday as it seeks to battle the recent outbreak with strict measures aimed at reducing human contact and the chances of a new wave of infections across the country. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) For some things, a statewide directive or executive order works very well, he said. If you have 12 or 13 counties that say pound sand on an executive order ... its a self-defeating executive order. Ducey has attributed Arizonas soaring cases to increased testing. The state has been doing more tests, which can yield more cases, but health experts say a better way to see if more people are getting sick is to look at the percentage of positive tests. When that percentage rises, it means the outbreak is worsening not just that more people are getting tested. Arizona has the nation's highest seven-day average positive test rate: 17.7%, or about double the national average and well above the 10% threshold that health officials find worrisome. It also has the most new cases per capita in the U.S. in the past 14 days. The states leading hospital system says it's almost running out of beds. Edoardo D'Alba, 19, wearing a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19, right, sits at a desk before the examiners at a high school Liceo Morgagni to do his end of year secondary school exams, in Rome, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Students all over Italy went back to their schools which reopened after three months of coronavirus closure to allow students to take their final secondary school exams. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) Ducey said roughly 300 National Guardsmen would help with contact tracing. Several restaurants and other businesses have closed because staff tested positive in the last week. The same thing is happening in parts of Florida, where people under 35 are testing positive at a higher rate since the pandemic began, contributing to a surge in cases, officials said Wednesday. The coastal city of St. Petersburg had three popular bars close after employees tested positive, and it's now requiring workers who have contact with the public to wear masks which some hard-hit cities in southern Florida have been doing for weeks. A boy rests carried by a woman, as a shopkeeper wearing a mask as precaution against the coronavirus arranges his ware inside a shop in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur) Mayor Rick Kriseman said he also plans to require people to cover their faces in businesses and other public spaces. We can wear a mask, protect others and ourselves, or we can contribute to someones death. Maybe even our own, Kriseman said. The Democrat said Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has encouraged people to use masks but not mandated them. A bottle of hand santizer is shown outside the Park & Rec DTSP Wednesday, June 17, 2020, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Three downtown bars within a couple of blocks of one another announced that they're temporarily closing after staffers tested positive for COVID-19. The recent spike in cases in Florida and around downtown St. Petersburg is causing some restaurants and bars to shut down two weeks after the state gave bars the all-clear to reopen.(AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) DeSantis said he has no intention of closing Floridas economy again despite the statewide spike in new cases, which topped 1,000 Wednesday for the 15th consecutive day. He said many of those getting sick are young and unlikely to suffer serious illness or death. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. Fears about growing numbers of infections in younger people pushed officials in the San Antonio area to order masks in public as infections keep rising in Texas. In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, nurses tend to COVID-19 patients at the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) What we are doing here is to protect the life and safety of the San Antonio community, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said, adding that most infections in the area are in people younger than 40. Later Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said local governments could force businesses to require customers and workers to wear masks but that he wouldn't issue a statewide order. The second-most-populated state set daily records for new COVID-19 cases, with 3,129, and hospitalizations. The 2,793 hospitalizations mark a daily high for the 10th time in 11 days. In Montgomery, Alabama, where cases are spiking, the issue of masks erupted during a City Council meeting, where members rejected a proposal to mandate them at public gatherings of 25 or more. Liz Cahn, center, and her daughter Cara eat lunch at Meli-Melo Creperie, Juice Bar & Cafe, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 in Greenwich, Conn. The state began Phase 2 Wednesday, which includes allowing indoor seating at restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Dr. Bill Saliski, a lung specialist at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, called on the city to pass a mask requirement and declared: If this continues the way were going, were going to be overrun. Some city leaders voiced concern about trampling on people's rights. I think to make somebody do something or require somebody to wear something is an overreach, councilman Brantley Lyons said. A traveler wears a mask and protective goggles as he walks through Terminal 3 at O'Hare International Airport Tuesday, June 16, 2020, in Chicago. Beginning June 16 at American Airlines and June 18 at United Airlines, all passengers and crew members will be required to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Since the virus emerged in China late last year and spread worldwide, there have been more than 8.3 million confirmed cases and over 447,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Experts say the true toll is much higher. The U.S. death toll has exceeded 117,000. European nations, which embarked on a wide-scale reopening this week, watched Asia and the Americas with trepidation. 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. After lockdown restrictions were relaxed in Iran, Health Minister Saeed Namaki said he realized the extent of the challenge when he took a domestic flight. Kelli Ann Thomas, a candidate for Community Council, sorts signs before the start of a Workers First Caravan, Wednesday, June 17, 2020, in Miami. The caravan was part of a nation-wide effort to urge those in government to implement policies that further economic and racial justice. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) Many people have become careless, frustrated with wearing masks, he said. ___ Moritsugu reported from Beijing, and Pane from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed. ___ Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak The Perspective Atlanta, Georgia June 17, 2020 William G. Nyanue For the better part of two decades, several friends of mine and I have been engaged in a conversation about Liberias challenges. We often widened the conversation to include the whole continent. Why do we rank so low on the development ladderinfrastructural, educational, economic, technological, etceteraand our people so poor despite our rich natural endowments and decades of interactions with the developed world, has been the question that we have been grappling with. During the last four to five decades, several countries, particularly in Asia, made the successful march from dirt- poor-third-world status to the developed or developing country status. Today, the world is celebrating what may be called the China miracle. A third world country a few decades ago, China is today a rising superpower that is giving the West jitters and that has become most of Africas destination for investment and development aid. What makes one nation succeed where so many others are failing is a complex question, but that political leadership plays a critical role cannot be in dispute. And by leadership I do not just mean the guy at the top, I have in mind a team, that collective that conceives policies and plans and directs programs. The Chinese philosopher Confucius taught that people are like the grass and their leaders are like the wind. Whichever direction the wind would blow, he said, there the grass would bend. Translation: as the peoples leaders go, so go the people! In democracies, the question of political leadership is answered by the people; they determine through their votes who should be their leaders. In todays Liberia, it is what the youths say on this question that matters most since they constitute more than sixty percent of the electorates. So, it seems to me, a serious conversation about Liberias challenges and future requires a civil conversation with Liberias youths, thus my reason for writing this piece. I write simply to stimulate a non-partisan conversation with and amongst Liberias youths about how we might move our country to a better place. By virtue of their numbers and our new democratic dispensation, Liberias youths practically hold the future of the country in their hands. Where they sit on our ship of the state impacts its center of gravity and thus determine whether the sailing would be smooth or turbulent. This is an enormous responsibility, even a burden! Unfortunately, I learned from my interacting with and observing some of our young people during the last more than seven years that it is difficult for many of them to focus on this big picturethat the decisions they make on the issue of political leadership, local and national, do actually impact the future of the country. One of the major blindersthe one thing that often prevents many from focusing on the big-picture issuesis not educated vs uneducated but rather the high level of poverty in our country. Because so many of our people live in poverty, they are continually occupied with survival issuesmoney for school fees, food for today, rent for next month, etcetera, leaving little or no time to think deeply about big national issues. Poverty is not a new phenomenon in Liberia. I, for example, was one of the lucky few who lived on the University of Liberias mens dorm on capitol hill when I was attending the university in the 1970s. At that time, I attended the First Baptist Church of Oldest Congo Town, located on the Congo Town back road. Many Sundays I did not have the 10-cents (20 LD) bus fare to go from the campus to church. I also remember several colleagues who went through the university shacking with friends in the dorm because they had no stable place to live in Monrovia. But three related things have made poverty a dangerous blinder today for so many. The first is its sheer level; the civil war and the non-strategic management and investment of public resources since the war ended greatly increased the level of poverty in the country. Second, the economy contracted for the same reasons, thus reducing most of the available employment opportunities to government jobs. And third, the number of persons competing for those few government jobs has increased astronomically, making it difficult for many of the young people entering the job market today to get gainful employment. We, the young people of my time, persevered through our poverty to get an education because we were reasonably sure of a better life after graduation. About thirty days after receiving our engineering degrees, two friends of mine and I, for example, cashed our first salary checks at the then branch of the National Housing and Savings Bank on Bushrod Island, located at the UN Drive and Caldwell Road junction. Many of our liberal arts colleagues also quickly got employed. Today, the situation is starkly different. So, understandably, many of the young people today have been compelled to turn to politics, the one thing that has been shown to give them a fighting chance to survive, get an education and pursue their dreams. However, this outlet, which has now become the surest path to wealth and luxury for a lucky few, requires a political patrona political officeholder who will push the young person through to a government job. That sponsorship often comes with a shackle that literally makes the patron the owner of the young person. Where the patrons are unprincipled, the beneficiary young people are mentored/conditioned to often act against their long-term self-interest as they do their patrons' biddings. It must be this phenomenon that the Nobel Laureate, Oluwole Soyinka, had in mind when he said, Only in Africa will thieves be regrouping to loot again and the youths whose future is being stolen will be celebrating it. In the seventies, many of the young people who followed Bacchus Matthews PAL and Tipotehs MOJA, the two main advocates for social and economic justice at the time, did so mainly on ideological grounds; they believed that they were working and sacrificing to change the Liberian society for the better; their leaders had no money to reward them with. They too were poor, but they managed to look beyond their poverty to see the better place that their patrons advocated for. Unfortunately, because that effort was aborted, all one can do today is to speculate whether their patrons could have brought them to this better place. So, what is todays young person to do, particularly those who truly desire to give attention to the big-picture issuesexpanding the economy to create more employment opportunities, making sure the countrys resources are wisely managed and deployed, improving the quality of education and healthcare, combating public corruption, etcetera? How does a young person act today in a way that attends to his/her legitimate need to surviveget an education, pay rent, put food on the table, support a young familyand at the same time support our collective need for a country that lifts all its people? On the one hand, the former requires the young person to be loyal to a political patron, often with little or no consideration for the requirements of the latter. On the other hand, focusing on the latter often means losing survival support since it would mean being more attentive to issues that disqualify his/her patron for public office, such issues as qualification, competence, capability, etcetera. The situation is made even more difficult because the young person today sees little or no evidence that focusing on the big-picture issues brings benefits since many of the qualified adults who talked this talk in the most recent past only lined their own pockets when they were given the opportunity to lead. I concede that this is a difficult position to be in but let me share a few points that I suggest every young person consider as he/she thinks about this dilemma: First, IT IS A FACT that the political patronage route, which we have been on now for quite some time, will only lift a lucky few out of poverty. Any young person who doubts this needs only to look around and will see the number of people who continue to struggle without a job after investing time and energy doing their patrons biddings, often including badmouthing their patrons competitors on social media. During the last more than seven years, I came to know many fine, smart and capable young people in the country, several blessed with a quality university education, who were subsisting on the generosity of friends and family in foreign parts because either they had no patrons or their patrons could not secure for them a government job. Others were in this helpless, dependent state because some insecure political officeholders saw them as potential competitors who needed to be suppressed. Second, IT IS A FACT that the lucky few who the current dispensation lifts out of poverty become, as it were, islands of prosperity. And islands of prosperity in an ocean of poverty will always be vulnerable to tidal waves of instability. Thus, the political patronage route threatens our long-term security. Third, IT IS A FACT that moving our country to that better place requires certain minimum qualifications, we deny this FACT at our peril. Unfortunately, we often limit our definition of these qualifications to holding university degrees. As I use the word here, I have in mind more than just academic credentials, as important as these are; I am also talking about a proven track record of integrity (doing the right thing even when no one is looking), transparency, trustworthiness, fair-mindedness, empathy (putting ones self in other peoples shoes), hatred of public corruption, and a servant spirit. I am not suggesting perfection, only serious consideration for things that make for effective, accountable, and responsive leadership. Fourth, IT IS A FACT that while it is true we do not have many adult leaders in our most recent past who exemplified the aspects of qualification alluded to above, people who possess these qualities do exist in our society; they might bubble to the surface if we put a premium on these qualities when considering who we might support to be our leaderslocal and national. Lastly, IT IS A FACT that we will continue to linger in this wilderness of despair and wishful thinking until we realize, and act accordingly, that our redemption lies with our getting our most able to lead the effort to bring our country to a better place. I realize that the issue of qualification for leadership is a difficult, complex one, but one upon which the future of any country rests. The choices we make every time we are confronted with this question impact the future of the country, for better or for worse. In todays Liberia, the burden to get this thing right rests more heavily on the youths because of their electoral weight. Their opting to focus on the big-picture issues may require some sacrifice in the form of possible loss of support. But sacrificing to get our country to a better place will be well worth it, provided the choices made are based on demonstrated evidence of real qualification, as discussed earlier, and not just on sentiments. Burma Without Work and Fearing Arrest, Undocumented Myanmar Migrants in Malaysia Take Their Own Lives Staff from the Kathpone Free Funeral Service Society wearing personal protective equipment attend to the body of a Myanmar migrant who committed suicide in Malaysia on Tuesday. / KFFS YANGONSix undocumented migrants from Myanmar have committed suicide in Malaysia in the past month after being stranded in the country for several months without any job opportunities and fearing arrest amid an immigration crackdown, according to a migrant rights group and a Myanmar Embassy official. Thousands of undocumented Myanmar migrants in Malaysia who lost their jobs due to lockdowns imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic now find their hardships exacerbated by a crackdown against illegal foreign workers. A 40-year-old male undocumented migrant from Kyaukphyu Township in Myanmars Rakhine State committed suicide in Malaysias Johor State on Wednesday after struggling to earn enough money to survive. His death followed Tuesdays suicide in Kuala Lumpur of a 36-year-old female undocumented migrant from Myaungmya Township in Myanmars Ayeyarwady Region who was distressed at being unable to return to Myanmar due to the lockdown, U San Win, chairman of the Kuala Lumpur-based Kathpone Free Funeral Service Society (KFFS), told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. U San Win said the female worker wrote in her diary that she had been stranded after losing her job, was unable to leave her room and wanted to return to Myanmar. Just three days earlier, a 30-year-old undocumented Myanmar migrant worker from Taungdwingyi Township in Magwe Region killed himself in Malaysias Selangor State on Saturday after experiencing financial hardship due a lack of job opportunities while not being able to return home. KFFS provided funeral services for the migrants who died in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, U San Win said. Two other cases of undocumented Myanmar migrants killing themselves amid increased financial hardship resulting from the COVID-19 crisis were reported this month in Malaysias Penang State, according to Myanmar civil society groups based in Malaysia. Those five cases followed an incident in late May in which an undocumented Myanmar migrant residing in Perak State committed suicide after being stranded without work during the lockdown. Compared to their documented peers, undocumented workers in Malaysia were more likely to lose their jobs due to the COVID-19 crisis and now dare not venture outside for food or health care because of the ongoing crackdown on illegal foreign workers. In Malaysia, undocumented foreign workers are often jailed for three to six months under the countrys immigration laws. After serving their prison terms, they are held at immigration detention centers until their identities and citizenship are confirmed by their respective embassies. Those detainees whose citizenship is confirmed by their respective embassies will be deported to their native countries. Even if they can find the money to cover the cost of travel, undocumented workers lack opportunities to return home. Many suffer from depression while stranded in their rooms, U San Win said. To make matters worse, jobless undocumented workers face difficulties paying their rent. An embassy official and civil society organization representatives said they are trying to supply food to the Myanmar migrants across the country who are stranded without means of support due to the COVID-19 crisis. U Aung Zaw Min, labor attache at the Myanmar Embassy, said he was aware of some of the Myanmar suicide cases, saying undocumented workers are unable to find work and struggling to make a living due to the crackdown, though some registered workers are beginning to return to work. Of the more than 550,000 Myanmar migrants in Malaysia, an estimated 250,000 are undocumented workers, according to the embassy official. He estimated that up to 50,000 are currently struggling to make a living. He said he was reporting on the situation to senior officials at the embassy, who would take up the issue with Malaysian authorities in order to find a way for undocumented workers to return home. According to the embassy, around 400 Myanmar nationals stranded in Malaysia have been brought home on three repatriation flights since May 8. Another 391 Myanmar undocumented workers were deported on May 11 on two flights chartered by the Malaysian government after serving their prison terms for staying in the country illegally. The six Myanmar nationals who committed suicide in May and June would not have qualified for deportation as they were in hiding to avoid arrest by the Malaysian authorities. The Myanmar Embassy has also been informed by the Malaysian government that it seeks to deport more than 3,000 additional detainees it claims are from Myanmar and who are currently being held at immigrant detention centers across the country. U San Win, the KFFS chairman, urged the Myanmar government to negotiate the issue with the Malaysian government so that all stranded undocumented workers can be brought home soon. Note: This story was updated on June 18, 2020 to revise the total number of people who have committed suicide to six. You may also like these stories: Quarantined Returnees Jailed for Being Drunk and Disorderly in Myanmar India-Myanmar Border Town Opposes Quarantine Center Amid COVID-19 Fears The Ukrainian and Czech sides hope to hold a meeting of the intergovernmental trade and economic commission this autumn, which was postponed from March to a later date due to coronavirus. "We have started consultations on a new date of the visit. We hope and work to make it possible in autumn," Ambassador of Ukraine to the Czech Republic Yevhen Perebyinis said in an interview with Ukrinform. He reminded that the meeting within the framework of the visit of a large business delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Industry and Trade, Minister of Transport of the Czech Republic Karel Havlicek was scheduled for March 10-11 but was canceled due to coronavirus pandemic. Perebyinis stressed the importance of holding a meeting as soon as possible to "analyze which industries suffer the biggest decline and what can be done to prevent and stop negative trends, as well as to identify promising areas for cooperation in the medium term." IT sector and increasing supply of Ukrainian agricultural products to the Czech Republic and the EU, in general, are among the promising areas, the ambassador noted. "Holding of commission meeting would be important, among other things, to try to jointly find non-standard solutions to the current situation and together overcome the serious challenges for the countries economies caused by coronavirus crisis," the diplomat said. Perebyinis reminded that the Ukrainian-Czech trade had fallen by 19% in the first quarter and even greater slump was expected in the second quarter. At the same time, last year set a record in bilateral trade more than EUR 2 billion. ol Vaughans mayor says its doing away with Benjamin Vaughan Day and renaming its August civic holiday to honour John Graves Simcoe, an early abolitionist, thanks to unanimous support for the change from the citys council. In a press release on Tuesday night, Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua said he wanted to recognize his council colleagues for coming together to unanimously support my Members Resolution calling for the August Civic Holiday, known as Benjamin Vaughan Day, to be renamed in honour of John Graves Simcoe the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada and a leading proponent of the Act Against Slavery. I know that the ongoing solidarity against racial injustice continues to be a fundamental priority for our city. We are working closely with residents, community organizations, and other levels of government to address the issue of anti-Black racism, the Mayor further added. Giovanni Senisi, a member of the citys heritage committee, initially brought the motion forward for Tuesdays meeting because he thought it was not right that the city and residents were celebrating someone who represents the worst of humanity. I want this motion to give council the opportunity to correct a past mistake, Senisi, a teacher, told the Star. The proclamation that renamed our Civic Holiday Benjamin Vaughan Day was in 2013, recent enough to reflect our current values and I dont believe our values are represented by having a special day where we celebrate the man who, in 1792, stood up in the British Parliament and argued that freeing slaves in Jamaica would bring about the end of civilization. The city itself is also named after Benjamin Vaughan, who played a role in drawing up the Treaty of Paris in 1783, ending the U.S. Revolutionary War. The August civic holiday is already known as Simcoe Day in Toronto. Bevilacqua said council also approved the creation of a brand-new position, chief diversity officer, on Tuesday night, a post being set up to foster a culture of inclusion, diversity and excellence throughout the corporation, according to the release. It is incumbent upon each of us to stand up and take meaningful action against injustice and inequality, Mayor Bevilacqua said in a statement released following the meeting. I remain hopeful that, collectively, we can and will do better. While we have achieved much, we recognize there is still more to do. In Vaughan, we will continue moving our city forward without leaving anyone behind, he added. With files from Noor Javed Read more about: The revolution was victorious a month later, and Mr. Pastora was appointed vice minister of the interior and later vice minister of defense in the revolutionary government. Some observers said that he was angered to get such second-level appointments and that that was part of his motivation for leaving the Sandinista administration in 1981 and publicly declaring his switch to the contras in 1982. TUCSON, Ariz., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Until President Trump suggested that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ, Plaquenil) might help COVID-19 patients, it was generally considered a very safe drug, observes the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS). It was approved by the FDA in 1955 and has been used by hundreds of millions of patients worldwide for malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. Physicians do not generally require an electrocardiogram before prescribing it. Apparently because of alarming media coverage, many patients are now expressing fear that HCQ is dangerous because of cardiac effects, states AAPS. Outgoing AMA president Patrice Harris, M.D., told the media that "you could lose your life." Widely reported studies have been stopped because of lack of benefit in seriously ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients and the occurrence of cardiac rhythm disturbances. AAPS notes the following: Late in the disease, antivirals are unlikely to help because patients are dying of organ damage and blood clots, possibly due to immune overreaction. The SARS-CoV-2 virus may infect the heart, and this may cause arrhythmias. Doses of HCQ in some trials, such as the UK's "Recovery" trial and the multinational World Health Organization (WHO) Solidarity trial may be toxic or even lethal, and much higher than recommended for any medical condition. The cumulative dose of this long-acting drug in the "Recovery" trial (9.6 grams) is four times as high as used in India . . A Brazilian study published in JAMA is being investigated by Brazilian governmental authorities for ethical reasons: investigators were giving seriously ill patients a lethal dose of chloroquine. HCQ (hydroxychloroquine) is much safer than chloroquine but like all drugs is toxic in too-high doses. Americans are being urged to "follow the science." But AAPS asks: "How can we trust the established authorities or prestigious journals when, in this perilous time, trials of an available, inexpensive, long-established drug appear to be designed to fail, while risking the lives of their subjects through deliberate or negligent drug overdoses?" The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) has represented physicians of all specialties in all states since 1943. The AAPS motto is omnia pro aegroto, meaning everything for the patient. SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) Related Links http://www.aapsonline.org After low doses of dexamethasone were found to have reduced deaths among patients, hopes have risen about a possible cure for coronavirus infection. The steroid treatment has shown to cut death rates by around one third among those with the most severe cases of COVID-19 infection, according to trial by scientists leading the UK-led clinical trial known as RECOVERY. However, even as multiple vaccine candidates have entered various levels of trials, experts believe that a fully potent vaccine could only be developed next year. There is no approved drug for treatment of coronavirus patients as of now. Over 100 experimental COVID-19 vaccines are in various stages of development, as per the World Health Organisation (WHO). From US-based Moderna Inc to China's CanSino Pharmaceuticals Inc, some of the world's biggest companies are in the race to develop the coronavirus vaccine. Over 4,31,000 people have lost their lives globally due to coronavirus infection. The mRNA 1273 vaccine candidate by Moderna, expects to enter third-phase clinical trials next month. Other leading names include vaccines under development by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca in association with the University of Oxford. Germany and partner countries in the European Union last week pledged funds for the production of an experimental vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. Britain and the United States had previously made commitments to secure hundreds of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is based on so-called viral vector technology, as developers across the world prepare to produce even before their candidates are shown to work in trials. Brazil recently announced that Instituto Butantan has signed a deal with Sinovac to produce an experimental coronavirus vaccine. The tests for the same would begin in July and would include around 9,000 Brazilians. Israeli researchers have identified molecules that may lead to the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. Chinese pharma company Sinopharm has cleared the animal trials. Even though initial trials by many of these candidate vaccines show encouraging results, a clearer picture can only emerge when a diverse population gets tested. Also read: Coronavirus vaccine, drug: Patanjali claims to find cure; Johnson & Johnson nears human trials Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: China's vaccine candidate shows promise in human trials Valeriy Reshetnyak led a double life during the Soviet era. Officially, he was an engineer in Kyiv. But in his spare time, he photographed ordinary people in the Soviet Union. "None of my coworkers knew what I was doing. It was a kind of dissent, says Reshetnyak. He knew that his photos would not be printed or exhibited anywhere while the Soviet system was firmly in place. I naively thought that one day people would look at my photos and reflect on their lives, but I was wrong," Reshetnyak says. Reshetnyaks work wasnt published until perestroika in the late 1980s when strict Soviet censorship of media and the arts began to loosen. His photos have since been exhibited in Kyiv, Moscow, Denmark, and the United States. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Reshetnyak made photography his full-time job by shooting commercial assignments and teaching students. In a recent interview with RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service, Reshetnyak recalled the stories behind some of his best photographs shot between 1977 and 1990. "A village teacher returning home from school in the Sumy Oblast. I also went to school like this. There were no streetlights, so we used a flashlight to find our way in the dark. But there werent always batteries, so sometimes we would have to strike a match, then shelter it from the wind with our sleeves. This road still looks the same today; there arent enough people in the village to justify an upgrade. On the left is the 'elite' passenger transport. Only the head of the collective farm or local Communist Party 'princes' could ride in such sledges. Ordinary people were only allowed to use the sleds at critical moments like carrying a patient to the hospital. In winter, there was no other transport except sledges. Most of the roads were covered in ice and snow. On the right is a woman with canisters full of kerosene on an old sled. She had gone to the store to buy fuel for her kerosene lamps. Donbas. When we entered this huge factory, suddenly this figure emerged out of nowhere in a gray quilted jacket and tarpaulin boots. It gave me the feeling that the factory was operated by slaves. "Children were constantly prepared for war -- this was the basis of Soviet ideological education. There were very few ordinary toys, but a lot of military ones. If you look closely, in addition to the machine gun on the left, you can also see a toy armored personnel carrier." Bread is king, they said in the Soviet Union. All of the people in this photo apparently survived the famine of 1932-33. During the Soviet era, the Holodomor was spoken about only among ones closest companions. My father and a colleague told me how they were almost killed and eaten by a local cannibal. This is an ordinary cart that carried all kinds of loads. When it was used for bread they just threw a tarpaulin down and dumped loaves into it, however dirty the cart was. But at that time, nobody cared. In the mid-1960s, the peasants almost stopped baking bread. In this village, the local bakery was also shut down. So bread was brought in from elsewhere. The truck delivered to a shop on a paved road, then the bread was loaded onto a cart with horses, or in the winter on a sleigh, to be taken to other shops scattered around the village where the truck couldnt reach." A father with his two sons and wife. The lives of village women were harsher than that of men. Both the responsibilities of the household, and for the work in the fields, lay on the womens shoulders. The last inhabitants of a liquidated village in Belarus. Sometimes the Soviet authorities relocated the inhabitants of villages deemed no longer worth maintaining. This family did not want to leave their unpromising village. They wanted to die where they were born. "Occasionally, guests came to visit the Belarusian villager (right) in his forsaken home. For example, this childhood friend brought him cheap but powerful Soviet wine. The taste was awful. But it went straight to your head." The children in the village wanted to escape to the city as soon as possible. They saw the battered hands of their parents, and they already knew what hard work was. But by 1974, it was almost impossible to leave the village because the peasants were not given travel passes. It was like slavery. Even to go to the city on business, you had to get a special pass. So it was necessary to know the right people who could pull some strings just for the children to get a travel pass. Everyone who managed to escape from the village mostly ended up in dormitories. Dormitory No. 5 in Kyiv. Most of the workers came from villages and didnt have their own housing. Soviet organizations built cheap housing for them: A long corridor, rooms with four to six beds in each, one shared kitchen, and a toilet on every floor. Theres only one shower -- on the ground floor or in the basement. Although this housing was temporary, most people during perestroika didnt have time to get public apartments and had no choice but to live in dormitories for the long-term. The little boy in this photo is now all grown up and still lives in this same dormitory room along with his wife and a child. His mother and sister live next door. The soup-eating father left the family for another woman. Locals waiting outside a government office in Lviv for a reception with local officials. These people arrived long before the scheduled time in the hope they could catch the ear of someone who could help with their problems. But even with such patience, most people left the meetings empty-handed. In the U.S.S.R., most products for ordinary citizens were in short supply. To get your hands on scarce items, you had to know the right people. But miracles happened before public holidays. The rarest products were sold from the back door of shops. Scuffles often broke out in the long queues when some clever fellow tried to cut the line. TORONTO, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cardinal Resources Limited (ASX / TSX : CDV) (Cardinal or the Company) refers to its announcements of 30 March and 4 May 2020 in respect of the continuing strategic process with banks, financiers and other parties which continue to show interest in bringing the Namdini Project into production with a view to maximising economic outcomes (Strategic Process). The Company also notes the recent local Ghanaian media article with respect to potential strategic alternatives. The Board of Cardinal wishes to advise that as part of the Strategic Process it remains in discussions with parties regarding a potential strategic transaction. Whilst discussions in relation to any potential transaction remain ongoing, at this time no agreement has been entered into in relation to any transaction and there can be no guarantee that any agreement will be entered into. Accordingly, given that there is no certainty that any strategic transaction will proceed, Cardinal advises that shareholders should be cautious in trading on media speculation. The Company will update the market if and when any formal agreement is entered into in relation to a potential strategic transaction. Shareholders do not need to take any action in relation to the Strategic Process. ABOUT CARDINAL Cardinal Resources Limited (ASX/TSX: CDV) is a West African goldfocused exploration and development Company that holds interests in tenements within Ghana, West Africa. The Company is focused on the development of the Namdini Gold Project and released its Feasibility Study on 28 October 2019. Cardinal confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in its announcement of the Ore Reserve of April 3, 2019. All material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning this estimate continue to apply and have not materially changed. *The Namdini Project has a published gold Ore Reserve of 5.1 Moz (138.6 Mt @ 1.13 g/t Au; 0.5 g/t cut-off), inclusive of 0.4 Moz Proved (7.4 Mt @ 1.31 g/t Au; 0.5 g/t cut-off) and 4.7 Moz Probable (131.2 Mt @ 1.12 g/t Au; 0.5 g/t cut-off). Story continues Authorised for release by the Chairman of Cardinal Resources Limited. For further information contact: Archie Koimtsidis Alec Rowlands CEO / MD IR / Corp Dev Cardinal Resources Limited Cardinal Resources Limited P: +61 8 6558 0573 P: +1 647 256 1922 Cannings Purple Peta Baldwin or Warrick Hazeldine E: pbaldwin@canningspurple.com.au E: whazeldine@canningspurple.com.au Competent / Qualified Person Statement The scientific and technical information in this announcement that relates to Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves at the Namdini Gold Project has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Richard Bray, a Registered Professional Geologist with the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and Mr. Ekow Taylor, a Chartered Professional Geologist with the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr. Bray and Mr. Taylor have more than five years experience relevant to the styles of mineralisation and type of deposits under consideration and to the activity which is being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person, as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves and as a Qualified Person for the purposes of NI43101. Mr. Bray and Mr. Taylor are fulltime employees of Cardinal and hold equity securities in the Company. Disclaimer Cardinal confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in its announcement of the Ore Reserve of April 3, 2019. All material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning this estimate continue to apply and have not materially changed. This ASX / TSX press release has been prepared by Cardinal Resources Limited (ABN:56 147 325 620) (Cardinal or the Company). Neither the ASX or the TSX, nor their regulation service providers accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. This press release contains summary information about Cardinal, its subsidiaries and their activities, which is current as at the date of this press release. The information in this press release is of a general nature and does not purport to be complete nor does it contain all the information, which a prospective investor may require in evaluating a possible investment in Cardinal. By its very nature exploration for minerals is a highrisk business and is not suitable for certain investors. Cardinals securities are speculative. Potential investors should consult their stockbroker or financial advisor. There are a number of risks, both specific to Cardinal and of a general nature which may affect the future operating and financial performance of Cardinal and the value of an investment in Cardinal including but not limited to economic conditions, stock market fluctuations, gold price movements, regional infrastructure constraints, timing of approvals from relevant authorities, regulatory risks, operational risks and reliance on key personnel and foreign currency fluctuations. Except for statutory liability which cannot be excluded and subject to applicable law, each of Cardinals officers, employees and advisors expressly disclaim any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the material contained in this press release and excludes all liability whatsoever (including in negligence) for any loss or damage which may be suffered by any person as a consequence of any information in this Announcement or any error or omission here from. Except as required by applicable law, the Company is under no obligation to update any person regarding any inaccuracy, omission or change in information in this press release or any other information made available to a person nor any obligation to furnish the person with any further information. Recipients of this press release should make their own independent assessment and determination as to the Companys prospects, its business, assets and liabilities as well as the matters covered in this press release. Forwardlooking statements Certain statements contained in this press release, including information as to the future financial or operating performance of Cardinal and its projects may also include statements which are forwardlooking statements that may include, amongst other things, statements regarding targets, anticipated timing of the feasibility study (FS) on the Namdini project, estimates and assumptions in respect of mineral resources and anticipated grades and recovery rates, production and prices, recovery costs and results, capital expenditures and are or may be based on assumptions and estimates related to future technical, economic, market, political, social and other conditions. These forward looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Cardinal, are inherently subject to significant technical, business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results reflected in such forwardlooking statements. Cardinal disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly or release any revisions to any forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, circumstances or results or otherwise after todays date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, other than required by the Corporations Act and ASX and TSX Listing Rules. The words believe, expect, anticipate, indicate, contemplate, target, plan, intends, continue, budget, estimate, may, will, schedule and similar expressions identify forwardlooking statements. All forwardlooking statements made in this press release are qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements. Investors are cautioned that forwardlooking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forwardlooking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. A resolution will be considered to grant indemnity to directors of the trustee company, in relation to any liability with the decision to wind up six debt schemes of the mutual fund (MF) arm. The notice for the EGM read, in accordance with the articles of association of FT Trustee Services (the company), the company shall indemnify all directors to the fullest extent permitted by such articles and applicable law, in connection with liability that any of them may ... 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 U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said the new treatment of Google involving conservative publications The Federalist and ZeroHodge are raising concerns that the tech company is abusing its power to censor content it disagrees with, Fox News reported. On Tuesday, June 16, NBC News also shared this report featuring Google's ban on The Federalist and ZeroHodge, two right-leaning publications. The ban covered Google Ads and prohibited these publications from "pushing unsubstantiated claims" on the Black Lives Matter campaign. Google, however, later claimed in the statement, "To be clear, The Federalist is not currently demonetized. We do have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on, which includes comments on the site. This is a longstanding policy." Further actions The U.S. Senator also reportedly plans to send Sundar Pichai, the Google CEO, to speak about these actions. He said these are part of bigger issues involving the "culture of free speech" being challenged in the country, adding that the company was supposed to join the campaign in leading the change. Cruz also added that Americans once understood the best responses to free speeches, pointing out that some of them, with the help of influential companies, are now pressing to censor and punish individuals who express views that do not "align with the prevailing and ever-shifting progressive orthodoxy." He said, "These individuals demand that people with different views lose their livelihoods if they step out of line. Companies like Google must -- to use a most Orwellian term -- 'demonetize' them." Censorship from Google? Cruz added: "As evidence by its actions yesterday, Google seems more than happy to play this censorship role by trying to break the financial back of a media publication it disagrees with." Google though, clarified that they are working to continue addressing these issues on the website related to the comments section. RELATED STORY: Ted Cruz Pulls Out Galileo Card In Climate Change Debate Updates Google is now sparking outrage over its banning of conservative websites ZeroHedge, and providing a warning for The Federalist over its ad systems, Daily Mail Online reported. "What exactly Google complained to The Federalist over remains murky, and it's unclear if they ever threatened to ban it from the ad platform," Daily Mail's Jennifer Smith wrote. It also followed the NBC report suggesting that Google acted upon receiving a report from British think tank groups flagging that one of the publications, The Federalist, had utilized a black crime tag to categorize certain content. They are also reportedly flagging stories wherein journalists pointed out that the media was "lying" in the reports that white supremacists are involved in the looting. The outlets specified were the New York Times and CNN. The quest for balanced news gathering and reporting continues. Google was quoted saying it never demonetized the website, but rather was only addressing comments which violated guidelines. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A bike lock, left, and a flag cord used to block exits from the Portland Police Bureau's Central Precinct on June 16, 2020. (Portland Police Bureau) Activists Lock Police Precinct Doors in Portland, Burn American Flag A group of people who appeared to be part of anarcho-communist group Antifa blocked an exit from a police precinct in Portland amid protests Tuesday night by tying down a roll-up door. The main doors of the Portland Police Bureaus Central Precinct were also locked from the outside, police officials said. The situation unfolded shortly after 11 p.m., as a group of protesters removed an American flag hanging outside the precinct. They later burned the flag, according to video footage captured by reporters, but utilized the cord for something else. The flag cord was tied from the door to a fire hydrant on the Southside roll up door to prevent it from opening. Additionally, the Central Precinct main doors were locked from the outside with a u-lock blocking anyone inside from leaving, the bureau said in a statement. This presented a life safety issue for those inside. The flag was lit on fire and one person was injured by the burning flag. Warnings were given and the crowd left the area. Officers removed the exterior locks and objects on the doors. Some demonstrators have locked the doors from the outside of the Justice Center and are lighting fires on 2nd Avenue. They are also tampering with the roll up doors of the Justice Center on 2nd Avenue. This is a life safety issue. Remove the items now! Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) June 17, 2020 Officials shared pictures showing the cord and a u-lock that was cut lying on the ground next to a chain. Video footage captured by KOIN reporter Jenny Young showed a group of people dressed in all black with their faces obscured tying the cord to a fire hydrant and a door that rolls up to allow vehicles to enter and exit. The group tried convincing her to stop filming, alleging: This is how people die. Youre risking the lives of everyone, another said, before cutting off her video. Members of Antifa, a far-left group that has assaulted journalists in the past, usually dress similar to the people seen in the film. Around the same time, demonstrators shouted insults at several police officers at the backside of the Justice Center, which houses the precinct. One said: Theres going to be chapters on June 2020 in the [expletive] history book Youre going to be a [expletive] enemy. Protests sparked by alleged police brutality have taken place in Portland, a city in Oregon, in recent days. Several hundred people gathered at Jefferson High School and marched to the Fremont Bridge before dispersing around 10 p.m., police said. A separate group gathered outside the bureau. After the flag was lit on fire and one person was injured by the burning flag, officers gave warnings and the crowd left the area. Officers then removed the locks and objects on the doors. The group marched to the Pearl District and a vehicle moved through the crowd, striking several demonstrators. Three people were injured, two of whom were taken by ambulance to a hospital. The other was taken to a hospital in a personal vehicle. All injuries were believed to be non-life threatening. A rock thrown at a police officer at an officer during demonstrations in Portland, Ore., on June 15, 2020. (Portland Police Bureau) The driver was later located and arrested. Identified as Anthony Eaglehorse-Lassandro, 27, the driver was booked on charges including reckless driving and felony hit and run. Officers tried getting witness information at the location of the crash but no one there would share video footage of information, officials said. The demonstrations Tuesday came after 10 people were arrested and charged amid protests the previous two days. Robert Harden, 33, Hailey Davis-Burton, 19, and Manuel Fox, 18, were booked on charges including assault of a public safety officer. Others were charged with burglary, interfering with a police officer, and riot. At least two reporters, meanwhile, including Beth Nakamura of The Oregonian, said they were assaulted by officers during protests. Nakamura said she was reporting when she was slammed by a baton from behind even after making clear she was a member of the press. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, called the claim extremely concerning, and asked reporters to send complaints to his office while promising an investigation into every one. "I'm delighted that our community stepped up to assist the most vulnerable," said Dwayne J. Clark, founder and CEO of Aegis Living. "These seniors are the bedrock of our community. The virus has caused financial uncertainty, fear and isolation, all things we hope to help them overcome." Aegis Living and the Clark Family Foundation pledged $100,000 in matching funds to two Seattle-based charities dedicated to providing critical services and support for seniors: Sound Generations and the Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank (PMSC). In just 60 days, Sound Generations raised over $62,000 and PMSC raised over $53,000. Additionally, Bartell Drugs launched a four-week partnership with Seattle Seniors Strong, collecting over $105,000 in cash donations used to purchase 30 full pallets of essential goods for the charities while also collecting additional donated goods in-store. "We are blown away by the generosity of our customers," said Ken Mahoney, Senior Vice President of Operations at Bartell Drugs. "As a PNW organization, we aim to help our Northwest neighbors however we can. I want to extend my personal thanks to those who donated." During the two-month campaign, PMSC served nearly 5,400 meals and provided 6,300 bags of groceries to seniors. With the over $100,000 raised, the organization will be able to provide 35,000 more free meals this year and purchase 143,000 pounds of groceries to donate to those in need. "In addition to providing meals and other essential items, The Pike Market Senior Center is maintaining a connection to members who are sheltering in place through weekly letters, regular emails, and telephone calls," said Mason Lowe, Deputy Director of PMSC. "Members can also count on us for social services support and the use of a clean restroom which continues to be a top concern for homeless seniors across the city." PMSC provides a variety of services to area seniors at no cost. The staff features five social workers who have helped more than 300 homeless seniors find safe and secure housing. During normal operations, PMSC also offers on-site activities, including fitness and art classes. Sound Generations strives to expand food security, transportation, health and wellness, and Assistance services to meet the diverse needs of the growing aging population in King County. The group administers the Meals on Wheels program for King County and the Hyde Shuttle, a fleet of 38 vans providing door-to-door service for hot meal programs, medical appointments, senior centers, grocery stores and other local destinations. The organization will used funds raised to support all of these critical community resources. Sound Generations has served more than 75,000 meals since the COVID-19 crisis began and is on track to serve 600,000 meals this year. More information on Seattle Seniors Strong can be found at www.seattleseniorsstrong.com. About Aegis Living Aegis Living is a national leader in senior assisted living and memory care with a simple philosophy: make every day count. With more than 22 years of experience, it is known for its approach for supporting residents along the continuum of care, from light assistance to advanced dementia; an eye for innovation and staying on the frontlines of design; and an employee-centric company culture. With every community, Aegis Living creates a living environment where residents can feel at home and inspired to live life to the fullest. The privately held company is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and operates 32 communities in Washington, California and Nevada, with 7 additional communities in development. For more information, visit www.aegisliving.com. Follow the company on Twitter @Aegisliving and Facebook at www.facebook.com/AegisLiving. About The Clark Family Foundation The Clark Family Foundation was established in 2017 by Dwayne Clark and his family to care for some the most vulnerable people in society, elderly and our children. The Foundation is now run by three generations of Clark decedents and supports a variety of philanthropic causes: the 30/30 Project, Russell Wilson Why Not You Foundation, the Macklemore Residency Project, Seattle Children's Hospital, Lifespring, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Seattle Film Festival, among others. SOURCE Aegis Living Related Links http://www.aegisliving.com The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr Paa Kwesi Baidoo, has revealed that about 20 doctors have been infected with the novel Coronavirus at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. He also noted that though the number of infected nurses hasnt been fully collated, he can project that for every doctor that is infected, five nurses will contract the virus. This brings the presumed number of infected nurses to about 100. The Ashanti Region has a total of 2,275 Covid-19 cases according to the latest update on the Ghana Health Service website. Dr Badioo, however, noted that thirty-eight lives have been lost, adding that the national figure of 14 is not the fair reflection. Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr, he said: the more your health workers are contracting it, the more likely that after some time there wouldnt be anybody with the requisite skill to take care of whoever who is coming in because they themselves are in quarantine. We are compiling the list of doctors nationwide and we will make it public. But those from Komfo Anokye, and my last count, they were almost twenty. If twenty doctors are getting it, you can extrapolate the number of other health workers. I cant give you the figures therein because I am not responsible for gathering their data, but it stands to reason that for each doctor who will get it, there will be about five nurses or healthcare workers who will also get it, he explained. ---starrfmonline The newspapers on Wednesday, June 17, have given prominence on the power politics surrounding the ouster of Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru. The dailies have also looked at Kenya's chances to secure the highly coveted seat at the United Nations Security Council as the final verdict is set to be delivered at 4pm. READ ALSO: Ian Otieno: Volunteer offers full education scholarship to Dandora boy who collected plastics for sale Kenyan newspapers for June 17. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Mama mwenye ghadhabu atoweka na pikipiki ya mumewe 1. The Standard Stormy politics rocked the Senate on Tuesday, June 16, during a session convened to discuss impeachment of Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru. During the impeachment of former Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu who was a member of Deputy President William Ruto's Tanga Tanga faction, senators allied to the grouping overwhelmingly supported the committee of the Senate to preside over the matter. Those allied to President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga, Kielewe or team handshake, opposed the adoption of the committee and successfully vouched for plenary. In the case of Waiguru, an ardent supporter and member of the handshake team, things changed. The pro Uhuru-Raila team vouched for committee and Ruto's allies unsuccessfully lobbied for plenary. The decision by the handshake team to vouch for plenary was seen by Ruto's allies and a section of Kenyans as a means to "sanitise" Waiguru. The Standard newspaper for June 17. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC 2. The Star The publication reports on the controversial KSh 92 million tender scam that has put Governor Anne Waiguru on the chopping board. The governor is said to have irregularly awarded the tenders to her cronies and close allies with the intention of defrauding the county According to the newspaper, the governor irregularly KSh 19 million tender for upgrading of Kagumo market, KSh 8 million for the supply of drugs, KSh 50.6 million for design, development, installation and commissioning of integrated hospital management system. Waiguru is also accused of irregularly allocating KSh 14.5 million for top-of-the-range Land Cruiser as the governor's official vehicle. The Star newspaper for June 17. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC 3. Daily Nation Kenya has expressed confidence in clinching the powerful and highly coveted seat at the UN security council despite facing opposition from Djibouti. Nairobi is banking on the overwhelming support and endorsements it received from the African Union as the continent's preferred representative. The AU has endorsed Kenya over Djibouti three times, however, dubbed as a "stubborn competitor", Djibouti has refused to back off and has severally appealed against the resolution. Because of the dispute, the United Nations will cast the vote on Wednesday, June 17, at 4pm, to determine who seats at the council for the next two years beginning January 2021. Daily Nation newspaper for June 17. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC 4. Taifa Leo The Swahili publication reports on advancement made by researchers in the quest to find coronavirus cure. A group of scientists from England have identified a drug called dexamethasone which has shown great potential in saving the lives of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. According to medics, the drug has a 20% potential of reducing the chances of a patient who is in a serious and critical condition, especially those put on oxygen, from dying. For patients on life support machine, the drug is said to have between 40% to 28% chances of reducing their chances of succumbing to the virus. Taifa Leo newspaper for June 17. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC 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 United Nations Security Council(UNSC) has on Tuesday condemned the recent attacks on civilian populations and some UN humanitarian facilities in Borno State by the members of the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP). Last week, ISWAP staged a series of coordinated attacks upon civilians and humanitarian workers in different parts of Borno, leading to the death of many persons. PREMIUM TIMES had reported how armed insurgents attacked villages in Gubio, Nganzai, and the main town of Monguno local government during a major humanitarian hub was badly assaulted. Reacting to the development, the UNSC members said in a statement that the attacks which occurred on June 9 and 10 in Felo, on June 13 in Monguno against a UN humanitarian facility and on June 13 in Nganzai had killed 120 persons and injured many others. The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the people and Government of Nigeria, a statement shared with PREMIUM TIMES reads. The members of the Security Council wished a speedy recovery to those injured. The members of the Security Council commended the efforts of countries in the region, including through the Multinational Joint Task Force, to effectively combat terrorism, and encouraged further progress in this regard. The UNSC members reaffirmed that acts of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. The foremost UN body underscored the necessity of bringing those behind the perpetration of these unsavoury acts of terrorism to justice. The council also urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of Nigeria and all other relevant authorities in this regard. The UNSC members restated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed. They called on States to, by all means, resist all threats to global peace and security caused by terrorist attacks, using all extant International laws that protect the rights and privileges of citizens. The UNSC is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and approving any changes to the UN Charter. Nastura Sharif (pictured), chairman of the board of trustees (BoT) of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), has been arrested by the... Nastura Sharif (pictured), chairman of the board of trustees (BoT) of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), has been arrested by the police in connection with the protest against the insecurity in the north. On Tuesday, some members of the group protested in Katsina, calling on Aminu Masari, the governor, to resign if he could not guarantee the security of lives. They also demanded action from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. In a statement on Wednesday, Aminu Adam, the groups director of operations, said the police arrested Sharif after the peaceful protest. He explained that after the protest, Sanusi Buba, the state commissioner of police, invited leaders of the group for an interactive session in his office. Adam said five member of the group, including himself and Sharif, had honoured a police invitation after which theb groups leader was detained. After the protest ended peacefully, the Katsina state police commissioner, Mr. Sanusi Buba, invited us to his office for an interaction during which he told us that the Inspector General of Police wanted to see Sharif, he said. The commissioner handed us to a team of policemen, headed by the OC (officer in charge), federal operations bureau (FOB), who led us to Abuja. We drove from Katsina to Abuja with the police team in a white bus and a hilux. However, on getting to force headquarters in Abuja, they told us that Sharif is under arrest for the protest and they put him in detention. Frank Mba, force public relations officer, neither responded to calls nor responded to text messages as of the time this report was filed. On Monday, a coalition of northern youth groups asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the service chiefs over the rising insecurity in the north. The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) also expressed concern over the high rate of insecurity in the north, accusing Buhari of failing to address the security challenges in the region. How do you film a soap opera with love scenes and a full crew in the age of wearing masks and social distancing during a pandemic? The long-running CBS show "The Bold and the Beautiful" believes it can be done with slick camera work, regular testing, a COVID-19 coordinator and "love-scene doubles," as it becomes the first U.S. broadcast series to resume production on Wednesday. The Bold and the Beautiful (Sonja Flemming / CBS) Executive producer Bradley Bell spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the extensive changes made to filming the show, which has been airing reruns since late April after shutting down production in mid-March. The show plans to make its return with original episodes next month. "We feel we're ready to go," Bell said. "Safety is our utmost concern and will be as we return to production." The soap opera, which is filmed in Los Angeles, will follow local safety guidelines as well as testing actors and production employees at least once a week for coronavirus. As for the love scenes that are an integral part of any soap opera, Bell plans on using a little television magic to make them happen. "(Actors) will shoot eight feet apart, following all the safety standards, but use the tricks of the business,'' he told The Hollywood Reporter. "We'll shoot one side of the couple in a romantic scene alone in the room, but looking at a spot very close to them, and then shoot the other side alone. When we edit it together, it will look like they're nose to nose." The husbands and wives of the cast could also see some screen time. Bell may use "love-scene doubles" in which the husband or wife of the cast member will be the one touching the actor or actress. The scenes will then be edited to look like the couple from the show. The crew will be separated into different areas for hair and makeup, props and lighting and will have to wear masks, Bell said. The actors also will be wearing masks when they're not filming their scenes. Story continues There also will be plexiglass in the booth and control room separating everyone, and the lighting department has been moved to an auxiliary area, Bell said. The show has also hired a COVID-19 coordinator who will be on set to ensure that safety guidelines are followed, according to Deadline. As for whether there will be pandemic-themed storylines in the new episodes, viewers probably won't be seeing Katie confront Wyatt about his reluctance to wear a mask to Costco. "At this point, we may make mention of the pandemic," Bell said. "But my feeling is it's covered on every other channel and all news channels. We've always been about providing some escapism. We're telling stories about families and romance, love stories and staying clear of diving into the pandemic." CAIRO Amid tension and anticipation, technical negotiation sessions have occurred daily since June 9 between the irrigation ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, and three observers representing the United States, the European Union and South Africa following a Sudanese initiative to resume negotiations to reach a comprehensive agreement that would determine the rules of filling and operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed spoke in front of the Ethiopian parliament June 8 ahead of the meetings, stressing that the decision to fill the GERD reservoir is irreversible. The Ethiopian government already specified July as the starting date for water storage in the dams reservoir without waiting for Sudan and Egypts approval. Ethiopias insistence on filling the dam figured on the agenda of the meeting that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held with the National Security Council June 9 to discuss the steps to deal with Ethiopias unilateral decision to fill the reservoir. Following the meeting, presidential spokesperson Bassam Radi said in a press statement commenting on the launch of technical negotiations, The resumption of the negotiations June 9 was three weeks late since the Sudanese prime ministers invitation. He warned that the negotiations might become a new tool for stalling and reneging on obligations. Sudanese Minister of Water Yasser Abbas has attempted to portray the meetings in a positive light since they began, since Sudan was the one that called for the resumption of the negotiations. In press statements June 9, Abbas described the setting of the first meeting as positive and fruitful in terms of discussions between the three parties. However, the Egyptian Ministry of Water replied in a press statement June 10, It is difficult to describe the meeting as positive since the discussions showed Ethiopias inclination to reopen doors that had been closed and settled in Washington. A technical official participating in the ongoing negotiations told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Egypt wants a comprehensive agreement that includes all technical and legal aspects of filling and operating the GERD, in addition to strict provisions that would bind parties to the agreement and the implementation of its provisions. It should not be just another legal document short of any obligations for Ethiopia. The source added, Egypts message not to mess with its interests in the Nile waters and not to stall in time-consuming negotiation deviousness has become clear. Egypt wants to reach a comprehensive agreement based on the outcome of the Washington meetings and the document redacted by the US Treasury Department and the World Bank Feb. 21. Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Ministry of Water and Resources did not mention in a press statement June 10 any intention to sign said agreement. The Ethiopian statement said the goal behind resuming the negotiations is to build a genuine dialogue and negotiation on the guidelines and rules for the first filling and annual operation of the dam. Another condition by Ethiopia: The working document of the legal and technical teams of the three countries during the meeting of Feb. 12-13, 2020, should be the basis for negotiation. In this context, Ethiopia shared its guidelines and rules on first filling and annual operation of the GERD. Sudan also submitted its position. In the same statement, Ethiopia mentioned the importance of fully respecting the texts of the Declaration of Principles signed in March 2015. The fifth provision of the agreement determines the cooperation principles in filling and operating the dam, and stipulates a consensus over the guiding rules and provisions to fill the dam while the dam is being built in addition to the annual rules of operating it. Ethiopia, the owner of the dam, has the right to amend the rules occasionally, provided it informs the downstream countries, namely Egypt and Sudan, of any urgent situation necessitating amendment of the operation policies of the dam, according to the declaration. This gives Ethiopia privileges to proceed with its storage and building operations without signing any binding agreements, in addition to granting it the right to amend the operation policies yearly without waiting for approval of the downstream countries and while contenting itself to notifying them. Ethiopia has refused the Egyptian proposal to commit to the outcome of the agreement in Washington. In light of its stance, during the second session of the technical meetings June 10, the Ethiopian delegation made a proposal including the mechanism that Ethiopia is relying on to fill and operate the dam. Egypt and Sudan rejected the proposal. The spokesperson for the Egyptian Ministry of Water, Mohammed al-Sebaie, said in a press statement following the third session of talks June 11, Egypt and Sudan had their reservations over the Ethiopian proposal because it completely reneges on the principles that the three countries agreed on in Washington. Ethiopia has to reconsider its stance, as it is hampering any agreement. In another statement following discussions on June 13, Sebaie said the negotiations are still faltering, adding that Ethiopia hopes to sign a nonbinding document, as per which the downstream countries would relinquish their water rights and recognize Ethiopias unconditional right to use the Nile waters unilaterally and to fill and operate the GERD based on its own discretion. Professor of political science at the University of Cairo Rawya Toufic told Al-Monitor that the escalating dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia was expected. She added, Ethiopia is interpreting the Declaration of Principles in a way that allows it to perform the first filling without an agreement, since Egypt allowed the construction to continue during the previous negotiation stages. The nature of the dam allows filling while continuing with the construction. Toufic argued, Due to time constraints, Egypt might have to accept a partial agreement on the first filling without including the operation of the dam and the coordination mechanism, especially since Ethiopia insists that filling the dam during the first year will be limited to 4 billion cubic meters and will not have a tangible effect on Egypt and Sudan. A military move is still unlikely. While talks are ongoing without tangible progress, Ethiopia responded to insinuations of military solutions from Egypt. Ethiopias Deputy Army Chief Birhanu Jula said in a press statement June 12 that his country will firmly defend itself and will not negotiate over its sovereignty. Egyptians and the rest of the world know too well how we conduct war whenever it comes, he added, accusing Egypt of using its weapons to threaten and tell other countries not to touch the shared water. Switching from general to regional anaesthetics may help cut greenhouse emissions and ultimately help reduce global warming, a new study claims. While regional anaesthetics numb a certain part of the body, general anaesthetics make patients totally unconscious for what tend to be more serious procedures. But unlike regional anaesthetics, generals use volatile and environmentally-unfriendly halogenated agents, such as desflurane, or nitrous oxide. These greenhouse gases, which can be retained in the atmosphere for up to 114 years, damage the earth's ozone layer, increasing the risk of global warming and climate change. At one New York hospital last year, just 4 per cent of hip and knee replacement procedures were done under general anaesthetic, compared to a nationwide average of 75 per cent. This switch prevented carbon emissions equivalent to thousands of pounds of coal burnt or more than three million smartphones charged, US researchers say. The scientists advocate the use of regional anaesthetics, which provide more effective pain relief, have fewer unpleasant side effects and shorten hospital stays. Switching from general to regional anaesthesia may help cut greenhouse emissions and ultimately help reduce global warming, indicates a real life example at one US hospital over the course of a year, and reported in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine Most regional anaesthesia uses a local nerve-blocking agent along with intravenous sedatives, eliminating the use of halogenated gases. What's the difference between general and regional anaesthetics? General General anaesthetics put patients to sleep and means they are in a state of unconsciousness. General anaesthesia is essential for some surgical procedures where it may be safer or more comfortable to be unconscious. It's usually used for long operations or those that would otherwise be very painful. Theyre often administered as a gas -- nitrous oxide, halothane, isoflurane, desflurane, sevoflurane or injections. Regional Regional anaesthesia can be used to numb large areas of the body and means patients dont have to be asleep. There are three types of regional anaesthesia: spinal, epidural (usually used to numb the lower half of the body, for example, during labour and childbirth) and regional nerve block, used to block the sensation in a specific part of the body. With regional anaesthesia, a small amount of an anaesthetic drug is injected near to the nerves that connect a part of the body to the brain. Advertisement Every year more than 300 million major operations take place in hospitals around the world, according to the University of Melbourne. However, some of the gases uses to induce general anaesthesia are thousands of times more potent than our best-known greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. These gases escape into the atmosphere and can spread all over the globe, including to the South Pole. 'Following general anesthetics, volatile halogenated agents and nitrous oxide are exhaled by the patient and are also often scavenged from the operating room and released into the atmosphere,' the research team say in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. 'Very little less than 5 per cent of the volatile halogenated gases used during general anesthesia is metabolised by the patient. 'The remainder is eventually vented into the atmosphere, and although each volatile gas used in anesthesia does differ in its global warming potential, all have some contribution to climate change. 'The use of regional anesthesia and the avoidance of volatile inhalational agent use may represent an opportunity for anesthesiologists to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help prevent global warming.' Co-author of the study, Dr Christopher Wu at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, told MailOnline that some patients may prefer general anaesthetics, due in part to some misconceptions regarding regionals, such as a fear of being awake for the procedure. In 2009, in the US alone, more than a million hip and knee replacement procedures were carried out, lasting an average of two hours. If all of these were done under general anaesthetic, that would be the equivalent of 112,000 kg of desflurane and 9000 kg of nitrous oxide released into the atmosphere, according to the authors. That's equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions generated by 3,260,000 pounds of coal burned, or 333,000 gallons of petrol used, or 7.35 million car miles, or 378 million smartphones charged. The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York therefore opted to carry out as many hip and knee replacements as possible using regional anaesthesia in 2019. The evidence suggests that regional anaesthesia provides more effective pain relief, has fewer unpleasant side effects than general anaesthesia, shortens hospital stay, and may be preferred by patients Out of the 10,485 procedures carried out that year, just 4 per cent, or 419 in total, were done under general anaesthetic. This percentage is far less than the 75 per cent average under general anesthesia and represents a difference of 7,427 patients for whom regional anesthesia was 'substituted' for general anesthesia. This switch saved the equivalent of nearly 27,000 pounds of coal burned, 2,750 gallons of petrol, 60,500 car miles, or 3.1 million smartphones charged, researchers report. Making this switch, when feasible, may allow GPs and medical staff to 'take personal responsibility in the fight against global warming'. No definitive data can give a specific contribution of anesthetic gases to the worldwide greenhouse gases. Unlike general anaesthesia, regionals don't use volatile halogenated agents, such as desflurane, or nitrous oxide. These greenhouse gases, which can be retained in the atmosphere for up to 114 years, damage the earth's ozone layer, increasing the risk of global warming and climate change However, healthcare systems generally are responsible for around 5 to 10 per cent of the national pollutant emissions, while the anesthetic gases contribute to between 50 to 60 per cent of an operating theatre's carbon footprint. 'Ultimately, the increased use of regional anesthesia for the purpose of decreasing our carbon footprint may initiate discussion of other ways to cut greenhouse gases at a larger level,' the team say. Not all surgical procedures are suitable to being performed under regional anesthesia alone, such as brain surgeries, the researchers admit The decision to use a specific anesthetic method should also primarily be based on the individual patient and their condition. Anaesthetic gases accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere have been detected as far a field as Antarctica, according to a previous study Anaesthetic gases accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere have been detected as far a field as Antarctica, according to a previous study. It has been calculated that desflurane, a chemical used for general anesthesia, has a global warming potential of approximately 3,700 times. Global warming potential (GWP) is a measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere up to a specific time horizon, relative to carbon dioxide. In England, meanwhile, the health and care system is responsible for an estimated 4 to 5 per cent of the countrys carbon footprint. Therefore the government has told hospitals to switch to less-polluting anaesthetic gases as part of a campaign for a 'greener NHS'. It's planning to switch to less polluting anaesthetic gases, better asthma inhalers, and encouraging more active travel for staff. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called global climate change 'the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century' and an increase in temperature and resulting environmental changes may eventually cascade to a direct threat to health. WHO estimates between 2030 and 2050 there will be an additional 250,000 deaths per year due to climate change. 'These deaths are predicted to occur due to the impacts of extreme heat, lack of safe water, a decrease in staple foods, and an increase in extreme weather and natural disasters,' the authors conclude. 'Although the extent of the contribution of healthcare-related activities to climate change is uncertain, healthcare professionals do have a responsibility and the means to decrease our carbon footprint by reducing our use and emissions of greenhouse gases.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-15 10:48:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Members of a Chinese medical expert team visit the Bashundhara COVID-19 Isolation Hospital (Temporary Health Centre) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 13, 2020. (Xinhua) Experts from a Chinese medical team visited hospitals and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, sharing experiences with their Bangladeshi peers to assist them in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. DHAKA, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Experts from a Chinese medical team have shared experiences with their Bangladeshi peers to assist them in better combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Senior officials of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society conveyed gratitude and thanks to the Chinese government for sending the experts to Bangladesh. The Chinese team visited hospitals and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka Saturday and gave advice on the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of a Chinese medical expert team visit the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to learn about the pandemic control measures in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 13, 2020. (Xinhua) Bangladesh experts said smooth communication and information exchange between the two sides are very important, and they also showed a strong interest in traditional Chinese medicine. The Chinese medical team arrived here on June 8 and will stay in Bangladesh for two weeks to support Bangladesh in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR), a global fintech leader, today announced that its new AI-driven corporate bond trading platform, LTX, has executed its first trades. Broadridge has partnered with Jim Toffey, founder of Tradeweb Markets, to create LTX, which combines powerful artificial intelligence (AI) with a new digital execution protocol that enables broker-dealers to significantly improve market liquidity, efficiency and execution for their buy-side customers. Built on Broadridge's US Fixed Income post-trade processing platform, which processes over $6 trillion in notional volume per day across 40+ dealer clients, LTX uses AI (LTX AISM) to help broker-dealers digitize their franchise to maximize liquidity for asset managers while delivering improved transparency, "BestEx" and minimizing information leakage. "Over the past three years, Broadridge has been working with a number of dealers and their buy-side customers to develop an AI-enabled digital platform creating liquidity, digitizing workflows, and increasing efficiency in corporate bond trading," said Tim Gokey, Broadridge CEO. "We're excited to announce the creation of LTX based on successful trading activity on the platform over the past several weeks. This is the latest example of Broadridge applying next-generation technologies to create powerful industry solutions for broker-dealers and asset managers." Toffey, CEO of LiquidX, leads LTX alongside Vijay Mayadas, President, Global Fixed Income and Analytics at Broadridge, supported by a world-class team of fixed income sales and trading professionals, technologists and data scientists. Improving corporate bond liquidity is a critical need, and the LTX platform is rapidly being embraced by leading broker-dealers and asset managers. LTX works by combining powerful AI to locate and connect natural counterparties with a new digital protocol, RFX, that enables dealers to efficiently aggregate liquidity across multiple counterparties and create trading opportunities in seconds. These new technologies amplify the critical role dealers play, enabling them to solve a key need for the buy-side. LTX's RFX protocol allows dealers to unlock more value from their data and customer network by smartly identifying and efficiently aggregating liquidity across multiple buyers bidding for their desired amount, which in turn helps improve BestEx for their customers. In addition, LTX AI and the new LTX Liquidity Cloud provide a more complete view into pre-trade and post-trade liquidity, further enhancing dealers' ability to aggregate liquidity from natural counterparties and better servicing their customers. These new capabilities enable broker-dealers and asset managers to digitize complex processes for more efficient corporate bond trading. Leveraging these next-gen technologies is part of Broadridge's investment in The ABCDs of Innovation - AI, Blockchain, Cloud and Digital helping clients and the industry move markets forward into the future. The total size of the US corporate debt market has grown to nearly $10 trillion with only a small fraction traded daily and an even smaller fraction traded electronically. Of bonds that do trade, fewer than 25% trade electronically today. The size, complexity and opacity of the market, along with more stringent regulations, have greatly increased the need for buy-side firms and dealers to access liquidity efficiently. According to a Greenwich Associates report published in January 2019, 82% of corporate bond investors found trades above $15 million in size "very difficult" to execute. LTX's AI, Liquidity Cloud and RFX will directly address these challenges. About Broadridge Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR), a $4 billion global Fintech leader, is a leading provider of investor communications and technology-driven solutions to banks, broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers and corporate issuers. Broadridge's infrastructure underpins proxy voting services for over 50% of public companies and mutual funds globally, and processes on average more than $7 trillion in fixed income and equity securities trades per day. Broadridge is part of the S&P 500 Index and employs over 11,000 associates in 18 countries. For more information about Broadridge, please visit www.ltxtrading.com. Contact Information Investors: W. Edings Thibault Investor Relations (516) 472-5129 Media: Gregg Rosenberg Corporate Communications, Broadridge (212) 918-6966 SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. Rival Kurdish groups in northeastern Syria said they had reached an initial agreement for what has long been an elusive goal Kurdish unity today, calling it a significant historical step. The announcement by opposition parties operating under the umbrella of the Kurdistan National Council (KNC) and those allied with the ruling Democratic Unity Party (PYD) follows US-mediated talks that began in April at a US military base outside the Kurdish-controlled city of Hasakah. The sides said in a joint statement that they had concluded the first round of the negotiations for Kurdish unity and reached a common political vision, agreeing on consideration for the 2014 Duhok Agreement on governance and partnership in administration and defense as a basis to sustain the ongoing dialogue between the sides. But they failed to elaborate. Hours later, the US embassy in Syria followed up with its own statement in English, Arabic and, unusually, the main Kurdish dialect Kurmanji. "This understanding symbolizes an important first step towards greater political coordination between Syrian Kurdish political factions with the support of the United States and will contribute to a peaceful resolution of the Syrian conflict under UN resolution 2254 by helping all those Syrians opposed to the Assad regime," it said. On Thursday, the KNC emphasized in a statement that there was no agreement as such but rather an "understanding" between the sides, a further sign of how sensitive and fragile the talks remain. The Duhok agreement brokered by Massoud Barzani, the KNCs mentor and president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in northern Iraq envisaged equal representation in the government for the rival groups and merging their military forces. The deal fell through over internal bickering and outside meddling, chiefly from Turkey, which sees Kurdish unity as an existential threat. Parts of the KNC bloc are based in Istanbul and are affiliated with the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition. The PYD has since steadily consolidated power while its military arm, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), took the lead role in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State. It was SDF commander Mazlum Kobane who initiated the latest stab at unity after Turkeys October 2019 military incursion, which saw US forces pull back from the Turkish border and Russian and regime forces replace them. The threat of further Turkish military intervention has receded and President Donald Trump decided to keep around 500 American forces in northeast Syria only for the oil." But the Syrian Kurds' eight-year experiment with autonomy remains precarious. Should the sides actually forge a common front, it would in theory allow the PYD to be represented at now frozen UN-sponsored talks in Geneva to hammer out a modified constitution for Syria that would be implemented in the wake of democratically held elections. The PYD has not been allowed to participate while the KNC has because Turkey wont let it. This is because the group was founded by members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been fighting the Turkish army on and off since 1984. The group is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Kobane persuaded the United States that its engagement was critical in getting the KNC, the KDP and in an ideal world Turkey on board. He called todays draft agreement a significant result and a basis for a national Kurdish agreement in Rojava Kurdistan. Rojava means Western or Syrian Kurdistan in Kurdish. Thanks were also given to Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, who leaned on the KNC to cooperate. Speaking privately, sources from both camps described todays agreement as a declaration of intent to pursue the talks and said issues of power-sharing had yet to be comprehensively addressed. The matter has gained some urgency as a new set of crippling of sanctions against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad under the Caesar Act came into force today. Washington insists they will not hamper humanitarian operations but Syrian Kurdish officials have aired worry about the sanctions impact as the collapse of the Syrian pound further pummels peoples buying power. The sharp drop in the price of oil, the main source of income for the administration, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, has added to its woes. Detente with Turkey would help mitigate the effects if it results in Turkey opening its borders with the Kurdish region for trade. Wladimir van Wilgenburg, the co-author of the recently published The Kurds of Northern Syria, points out that, unlike the 2014 accord, todays draft document was announced in Syria, not Iraqi Kurdistan, and that this vastly enhances its legitimacy. Moreover, the United States is directly involved this time, as is a top military figure from the PYD camp, SDF chief Kobane, who has broad public support that cuts across ideological lines in Rojava. Its unlikely that the KNC would have accepted a new deal without an international guarantor, van Wilgenburg told Al-Monitor. But even as Kobane and the top US diplomat in northeast Syria, William Roebuck, made upbeat comments, Turkish ground forces backed by fighter jets were pounding PKK targets during a third day of their Claw-Eagle offensive against the PKK in Iraqs Kurdistan region. The move follows Kobanes visit to Baghdad in early June to discuss security cooperation against the Islamic State. Less than a week later, Turkeys intelligence chief Hakan Fidan traveled to Baghdad as well. Iraq has formally protested the latest Turkish attack in a mild statement and by summoning the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad to the Foreign Ministry. Sources familiar with the Kurdish unity talks said todays announcement was made under great pressure from Roebuck, who was leaving Syria today. Some speculated that its timing was calculated to limit the fallout from the Turkish offensive. A spokesperson for the women's foreign relations committee at the Martyr Rustem Cudi Makhmour camp, which was struck by Turkish jets along with 80 other targets in the early hours of Monday, accused Baghdad, the KDP and the US-led coalition of colluding with Turkey yesterday. The three agreed to attack, Leyla Arzo Eylhan told the Hawar news agency. The PKK has broadly supported the talks as it comes under mounting military pressure from Turkey. Engagement with the United States albeit via the PYD is viewed as a useful card in its bumpy relations with the KDP and more importantly as key to the survival of Rojava, its primary bargaining chip, as it sees things, should peace talks with Ankara that collapsed in 2015 ever resume. Some PKK hard-liners, however, call the talks a trap whose ultimate goal is to destroy the PKK. The fact that Washington is pressing for PKK cadres to be purged from the administration so as to make it more palatable to the KNC and Turkey has reinforced their suspicions. Yet veteran PKK official Sabri Ok, who was seen as the PKK commissar in Rojava, is no longer in Qamishli, according to a senior Kurdistan Regional Government official who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition that he not be identified by name. The official did not say when Ok had left. PKK officials have denied all along that Ok was ever there, other than for visits. There are no signs, however, that Ankaras position has changed. Turkey keeps pressing NATO albeit unsuccessfully to classify the YPG and the PYD as terrorist organizations. Ankara has also aired its displeasure over the unity talks via the state-run Anadolu news agency in a May dispatch, calling them an effort to create an international representation space for the terrorist organization in northern Syria. Turkish leaders have not commented formally on the talks since then and Turkish officials reportedly did not raise any objections when Trumps Syria envoy Jim Jeffrey broached the topic with Turkish officials during his last trip to Ankara in February. But for Turkey, the benefits of the talks are measured by the extent to which they can weaken and divide the PKK an unlikely outcome and that is how Jeffrey may have sold them. But Turkey also desperately wants to undermine Kobane. The SDF commanders meteoric rise on the diplomatic circuit, crowned by a phone call with Trump, is viewed with deepening alarm as it is seen as conferring legitimacy on the PKK. Turkey has placed a bounty on Kobanes head. But Ankaras calculations could always change, especially if President Recep Tayyip Erdogan concludes that his foundering public support amid a weakening economy can only be reversed by engaging with the Kurds once again. But then so could Jeffreys, should he sense that the talks will dig Turkish-US relations into an even deeper hole. Update: June 18, 2020. This article was updated with a KNC statement. Montreal, June 17, 2020--For people with a brain arteriovenous malformation, a congenital vascular system defect, fate has a name: stroke. To avoid this risk, patients sometimes undergo interventions to remove the malformation. But is this very beneficial? Not necessarily. According to an international clinical trial, co-directed by researchers from the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM), interventional treatment--by neurosurgery, neuroradiology or radiation therapy--could be more dangerous than the disease itself. In a study published in The Lancet Neurology, Dr. Christian Stapf, a vascular neurologist at the CHUM and the co-author of the article, and his colleagues show that the risk of having a stroke or dying falls by 68% when doctors let the malformation follow its natural course. "In other words, the risk of patients having a stroke or dying is at least three times lower," stated Dr. Stapf, a researcher at the CRCHUM and professor at the Universite de Montreal. "We wondered what was better for the patient: to remove the malformation to prevent a stroke or to live with the malformation for several years? The results of our study are clear: in the long term, standard medical care is more beneficial for the patient than any intervention. This certainly shakes up conventional thinking about how to prevent stroke in these patients." Before joining the neurovascular program at CHUM in 2015, Dr. Stapf worked at Lariboisiere Hospital (Paris, France). He was already the principal co-author of this study and in charge of the European component. A second phase of the study sought to evaluate whether early surgical intervention might reduce the risk of neurological deficits. "After a five-year follow-up period, we showed that there were twice as many patients with a disabling deficit after the interventions than medical management alone," pointed out Dr. Stapf. An Extraordinary Study In this international clinical trial named ARUBA (acronym for A Randomized trial of Unruptured Brain AVMs), 226 adult participants with an average age of 44 were recruited between 2007 and 2013 in 39 hospital centres located in nine countries. Among the members of this collaborative network, the CHUM was the most active centre in terms of recruitment in Canada. There were two other centres in Ontario. These volunteer patients, who had never had a stroke and whose malformation was sometimes discovered by chance, were divided into two groups: the first would get standard medical care, while the second would receive standard care combined with invasive therapies (by neurosurgery, interventional neuroradiology or radiation therapy). They were followed for average periods of between 33 and 50 months. In 2014, under the supervision of Dr. Jean Raymond (interventional neuroradiologist), the CHUM launched TOBAS, an international study whose aim was to see whether the conclusive findings of the clinical trial ARUBA might also be valid for all patients with a neurovascular malformation, including those who had had a stroke in the past. To date, the CHUM's neurovascular health program is the largest in Quebec and among the biggest in Canada: more than 800 stroke patients are admitted to the program every year. With its Centre de Reference des Anomalies Neurovasculaires Rares (referral centre for rare neurovascular abnormalities or iCRANIUM), the CHUM also offers a specialized multidisciplinary clinic dedicated to patients with several types of vascular malformations of the brain. ### This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Vital Projects Fund. Further reading: "Medical management with interventional therapy versus medical management alone for unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations (ARUBA): final follow-up of a multicentre, non-blinded, randomised controlled trial" by Jay P. Mohr et al. in Lancet Neurol 2020; 19:573-81 About the CRCHUM The University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) is one of North America's leading hospital research centres. It strives to improve adult health through a research continuum covering such disciplines as the fundamental sciences, clinical research and public health. Over 1,850 people work at the CRCHUM, including more than 550 researchers and more than 460 graduate students. chumontreal.qc.ca/crchum @CRCHUM About Universite de Montreal Deeply rooted in Montreal and dedicated to its international mission, Universite de Montreal is one of the top universities in the French-speaking world. Founded in 1878, Universite de Montreal today has 13 faculties and schools, and together with its two affiliated schools, HEC Montreal and Polytechnique Montreal, constitutes the largest centre of higher education and research in Quebec and one of the major centres in North America. It brings together 2,400 professors and researchers and has more than 67,000 students. umontreal.ca Media contact--information and interviews Lucie Dufresne Communication and access to information directorate Centre hospitalier de l'Universite de Montreal (CHUM) 514 890-8000, ext. 15380 lucie.dufresne.chum@ssss.gouv.qc.ca A Buffalo police officer appears to shove a man who walked up to police, in Buffalo, N.Y., on June 4, 2020. (Mike Desmond/WBFO via AP) Elderly Buffalo Protester Has Fractured Skull, Cannot Walk: Attorney The 75-year-old protester who was pushed by an officer during a demonstration in Buffalo, New York, is not able to walk, according to his attorney. I am not at liberty to elaborate at this time other than to confirm that his skull was fractured. While he is not able to walk yet, we were able to have a short conversation before he became too tired. He is appreciative of all of the concern about him but he is still focused on the issues rather than himself, Martin Guginos attorney, Kelly Zarcone, told CNN in a statement. The attorney previously said that Gugino suffered a fractured skull after the incident. Video footage showed riot police shouting at him to get back before one of them pushed Gugino. He then appeared to stumble backwards, hitting his head as he fell. About 10 seconds later, medics are seen tending to him amid chaos and yelling. Zarcone also released a statement from Gugino, who is a longtime activist, in saying that I think its very unnecessary to focus on me. There are plenty of other things to think about besides me. Barring something unusual and unforeseen, I dont expect much change at all this week in Guginos condition, the attorney remarked. The two officers involved in the fracas were suspended after the video went viral on social media. They have been since charged with second-degree assault. Suspended Buffalo police officer Robert McCabe (L) and Aaron Torgalski on June 6, 2020. (Erie County District Attorneys Office via AP) Mayor Byron Brown told CBS News on Sunday that law enforcement officers are trained to use common sense while on duty, but he said that the two officers erred. I dont believe common sense was used in Guginos case, he said. I immediately thought about: Is he gonna be okay? Brown asked when he saw the footage. But then had to reach out very quickly to the management of the Buffalo Police Department to try to make sense of what I had seen. In the interview, the mayor said he believes the two officers werent deliberately trying to harm Gugino. The situation was moving very quickly, Brown told the broadcaster. People in every single profession can make a mistake, and that mistake doesnt mean that an intention to mislead is what occurred. But Brown previously told news outlets that Gugino was told by police to leave the area several times, and he noted that there was a curfew in effect. One of the things that happened before was conflict among protesters and there was a danger of fights breaking out, and police felt it was important to clear that scene for the safety of protesters, said Brown. After he fell, medics attended to Gugino within seconds, Brown remarked. We saw violence, we saw vandalism, we saw fires being set, we saw looting, we saw rioting, he said. And I imposed a curfew for eight oclock to prevent that kind of violence and danger to our community. It has been two years since the United States launched its maximum pressure campaign against the government of Iran. It did so to convince Irans leaders to abide by international standards and allow Iran to become a normal nation, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said. In the face of the regimes ongoing malign activities -- including launching military satellites, supporting proxy forces, harassing U.S. ships at sea, and violating the Iranian peoples rights -- that pressure campaign continues. On June 8, sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, or IRISL, went into effect, after a wind-down period in which the United States allowed companies to find alternative shipping methods. IRISL was designated in December 2019 as a proliferator for its involvement in transporting weapons of mass destruction. At a press briefing, Secretary of State Pompeo said, Our maximum pressure campaign also entails demanding that the regime in Tehran treat its own people with respect and dignity: Today, the United States announces that it is imposing sanctions on 12 Iranian individuals and entities under human rights authorities. One of those sanctioned is the current Minister of Interior for Iran, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli. We have reason to believe he is the individual who gave orders in November 2019 authorizing Iranian police forces to use lethal force on peaceful protesters inside of Iran. His evil commands killed Iranian citizens. Were proud to mete out what justice we can on behalf of the slain and silenced inside of Iran. In a recent interview with Foreign Policy magazine, Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook noted the enormous scope of the brutality used against Iranians in November: The regime murdered over 1,500 people, injured thousands, and jailed anywhere between 8,000 and 10,000 people. The new designations of those complicit in such brutality are both financial sanctions and visa sanctions, he said. Given Americas reach in the global economy, these have consequences. Two years ago, when Secretary Pompeo announced the United States maximum pressure campaign against the Iranian government, he said what has proven true: The leaders in Tehran will have no doubt about our seriousness. .... The United States stands with [the Iranian people] longing for a country of economic opportunity, government transparency, fairness, and greater liberty. Mysuru: A 22-year-old man who returned from Uttar Pradesh after learning Arabic at a madrasa there is giving sleepless nights to people in Nanjangud in Karnataka. The man tested positive for COVID-19 upon his return and his mother and two brothers too were confirmed to be infected. Health authorities have moved in and taken samples from as many as 193 people in the containment zone around his house. The latest cases has left the people of Nanjangud in jitters after the experience of the Jubilant Pharma cluster of cases which kept authorities here on tenterhooks for more than two months. The young man had gone to Deoband in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh to learn Arabic. Returning from the seminary, he reached Bengaluru on 22 May and was quarantined at a facility there. On June 1 he was sent home to Nanjangud. The man claimed he had not been tested for COVID-19 in Bengaluru. On 2 June health officers in Nanjangud took his sample but his report was negative for COVID-19. On 6 June they took another sample which returned positive. This week, his 44-year-old mother, his two teenaged brothers also tested positive. Hence samples of 193 people from around his house at Neelkantnagar in Nanjangud have now been drawn for testing. Four people who tested positive are asymptomatic and they are being treated at the designated COVID-19 hospital in Mysuru. Nanjangud played home to 59 cases from the Jubilant pharma cluster. At one point there were 28 containment zones with 14 in the town and 14 in the villages around. All those patients were cured and all containment zones were lifted last month. Meanwhile, 54-year-old person who returned to Mysuru from Maharashtra has become the transgender to test positive for COVID-19 in Karnataka. Mysuru has reported a total of 120 corona positive cases and only 14 cases are active. Those 120 cases include one from UP and three of his primary contacts, a transgender from Maharashtra, two from Tamil Nadu, one from Ireland, 22 from Mumbai, 74 cases related to the Jubilant cluster, 10 religious missionaries from Tablighi Jamaat who had come from Delhi in January end, one person who returned from Dubai, one Keralite who returned from Dubai, one primary contact of a Keralite, two cases of severe acute respiratory infection who were tested positive for Covid 19, one primary contact of SARI case. Alaska x x Both medical cannabis and recreational marijuana are legal in Alaska. In 1998, the state's voters passed Measure 8, a ballot initiative to allow the medical use of marijuana. In 2014, Alaska voters approved Ballot Measure 2, which legalized recreational marijuana. Arizona x x Both medical and recreational marijuana are legal in Arizona. In 2010, voters passed Proposition 203, which legalized medical marijuana. Ten years later, Arizona voters passed Proposition 207 to also legalize recreational marijuana. Arkansas x Medical marijuana became legal in Arkansas after voters passed Issue 6 in 2016, which amended the state constitution to legalize medical marijuana. California x x Both medical cannabis and recreational marijuana are legal in California. In 1996, voters passed Proposition 215, a ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana. In 2003, the state's legislature adopted SB 420. This law protects physicians from being punished for recommending medical marijuana to patients. In 2016, voters passed Proposition 64, which legalized recreational cannabis. Colorado x x Both medical and recreational cannabis are legal in Colorado. Voters passed Ballot Amendment 20 in 2000 to legalize medical marijuana. In 2012, Colorado voters passed Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. Connecticut x x Both medical and recreational cannabis are legal in Connecticut. The state's legislature passed a law in 2012 to legalize medical marijuana. In July 2021, Bill 1201 was signed into law to legalize recreational marijuana. Delaware x Medical marijuana is legal in Delaware. In 2011, the state's general assembly passed SB 217 legalizing medical marijuana. District of Columbia x x Both medical cannabis and recreational marijuana are legal in the District of Columbia. In 1998, D.C. voters approved Ballot Initiative 59 to permit seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana when it's recommended by a licensed physician. But at that time, the U.S. Congress, which has jurisdiction over the federal district, voted to prevent the initiative from being enacted. In 2009, Congress reversed that decision, allowing Initiative 59 to take effect. In 2010, the District of Columbia's council passed L18-2010, which legalized medical marijuana more broadly. In 2014, D.C. voters passed Initiative 71 to legalize recreational marijuana, too. Florida x Medical marijuana is legal in Florida. In 2016, voters approved Amendment 2 to legalize medical marijuana. Hawaii x Medical marijuana is legal in Hawaii. In 2000, the state's legislature passed SB 862 to legalize the medical use of cannabis. Illinois x x Both medical and recreational marijuana are legal in Illinois. The state legislature passed HB 1 in 2013 to allow the compassionate use of medical marijuana. In 2019, the legislature voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Louisiana x Medical marijuana is legal in Louisiana. In 2016, SB 271 and SB 280, which allow the medical distribution of marijuana, were signed into law. Maine x x Both medical and recreational cannabis are legal in Maine. In 1999, the state's voters passed Question 2, a ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana. In 2009, Maine voters approved the Question 5 ballot initiative, which enabled the creation of nonprofit medical cannabis dispensaries. It also established a statewide system for identification cards to protect patients who use medical marijuana from being arrested. In 2010, Maine's legislature passed LD 1811 to amend the state's medical marijuana laws to establish a medical advisory board, which can add new conditions for which medical marijuana can be legally used. In 2016, Maine voters approved Question 1, an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. Maryland x Medical cannabis is legal in Maryland. In 2014, the state's legislature adopted HB 881 to legalize medical marijuana. Massachusetts x x Both medical and recreational marijuana are legal in Massachusetts. The state's voters passed the Question 3 ballot initiative in 2012 to legalize medical marijuana. In 2016, voters approved the Question 4 ballot initiative, which legalized recreational marijuana. Michigan x x Both medical and recreational cannabis are legal in Michigan. In 2008, Michigan voters passed a proposal to legalize medical marijuana. Ten years later, the state's voters approved a proposal to also legalize recreational marijuana. Minnesota x Medical marijuana is legal in Minnesota. In 2014, the state legislature passed SF 2470 to allow the legal use of medical marijuana. Mississippi Mississippi is a special case. While voters in Mississippi passed Initiative 65 in 2020 to legalize medical marijuana, the state's Supreme Court overturned the initiative in 2021. Missouri x Medical marijuana is legal in Missouri. In 2018, voters passed Amendment 2 to legalize medical cannabis. Montana x x Both medical and recreational marijuana are legal in Montana. Voters passed Initiative 148 in 2004 to allow the legal use of medical marijuana for patients with debilitating conditions. In 2011, Montana's legislature adopted SB 423, which expanded the state's medical marijuana laws. In 2020, voters passed Initiative I-190 to legalize recreational marijuana. New Hampshire x Medical marijuana is legal in New Hampshire. In 2013, the legislature passed HB 573 to legalize the use of medical cannabis. New Jersey x x Both medical and recreational marijuana are legal in New Jersey. In 2009, the state legislature passed SB 119, which legalized medical marijuana. In 2020, New Jersey voters approved Public Question 1, an amendment that legalized recreational marijuana. New Mexico x x Both medical and recreational cannabis are legal in New Mexico. In 2007, the state legislature passed SB 523 to legalize medical marijuana for compassionate use. In 2021, the state passed bill HB 2, which legalized recreational marijuana. New York x x Both medical cannabis and recreational marijuana are legal in New York. In 2014, the state assembly passed bill A6357 to legalize medical marijuana. In 2021, the state assembly passed bill A01248, which legalized recreational marijuana. Nevada x x Both medical cannabis and recreational marijuana are legal in Nevada. Voters passed Question 9 in 2000 to amend the state's constitution to allow medical marijuana. In 2016, voters passed the Question 2 ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. North Dakota x Medical marijuana is legal in North Dakota. It was legalized in 2016 when the state's voters approved Measure 5. Recreational marijuana is not legal in North Dakota but has been decriminalized. Ohio x Medical marijuana is legal in Ohio. In 2016, the state legislature passed HB 523 to legalize the medical use of the plant. Oklahoma x Medical cannabis is legal in Oklahoma. In 2018, voters passed Question 788 to legalize its medical use. Oregon x x Both medical and recreational marijuana are legal in Oregon. In 1998, the state's voters passed the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act to legalize medical use. Oregon's legislature passed SB 161 in 2007 to amend provisions in that act and create new provisions related to medical marijuana use. In 2014, voters approved Measure 91 to legalize recreational marijuana. Pennsylvania x Medical marijuana is legal in Pennsylvania. In 2016, the legislature passed SB 3 to legalize medical marijuana. Puerto Rico x Medical marijuana is legal in Puerto Rico. In 2007, the U.S. territory's general assembly passed SB 791 to allow the legal use of medical marijuana for certain medical conditions. Rhode Island x Medical marijuana is legal in Rhode Island. In 2006, the state's general assembly voted in favor of a bill that legalized medical marijuana. Rhode Island's governor vetoed the bill, but the state assembly overrode the veto. In 2009, the state's general assembly passed SB 185 to amend its medical marijuana law to establish centers for medical marijuana to be distributed. South Dakota x ? Medical marijuana is legal in South Dakota, but the legal status of recreational marijuana is currently uncertain. In 2020, voters in the state passed both Initiated Measure 26 to legalize medical marijuana and Constitutional Amendment A to legalize recreational marijuana. The enactment of Constitutional Amendment A was blocked by a circuit court, and the circuit court's ruling has been appealed to the state's Supreme Court. Utah x Medical marijuana is legal in Utah. In 2018, the state legislature passed HB 3001 to legalize medical marijuana. Vermont x x Both medical and recreational cannabis are legal in Vermont. In 2004, the state legislature passed SB 76, which legalized the use of medical marijuana for patients with specific serious illnesses. Three years later, the legislature passed SB 7 to expand the use of medical marijuana for more conditions. In 2018, the legislature passed H. 511 to allow the legal use of recreational marijuana. Virginia x x Both medical and recreational cannabis are legal in Virginia. In 2017, Virginia's legislature enacted a comprehensive bill that legalized cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) oil for patients with epilepsy. One year later, that bill was expanded to include patients with any diagnosed condition or disease. In 2021, the legislature fully legalized recreational marijuana by passing HB 2312, but legal sales of recreational cannabis won't begin until 2024. The state is delaying the establishment of a commercial market to first create a comprehensive regulatory framework. Possession of up to one ounce of marijuana is legal for adults ages 21 and older. Washington x x Both medical and recreational marijuana are legal in the state of Washington. In 1998, voters passed Initiative 692 to legalize medical marijuana. In 2010, the state legislature adopted SB 5798, which allows authorized healthcare professionals other than physicians to recommend medical marijuana for patients. In 2012, Washington voters approved Initiative 502 to legalize recreational marijuana. West Virginia x Panasonic India announced its partnership with the digital payment platform Benow to digitalize its offline retail network in India. Through this collaboration, Panasonic India enables its offline retailers all Panasonic-exclusive retail partners and digital imaging (camera) stores, to sell the entire range of consumer electronic products online, thereby increasing their reach. The Benow digital platform enables millions of consumers to reach out to their local dealers for buying Panasonic AC, televisions, refrigerators, washing machine and much more at the click of a button. The new platform does not require any capital expenditure by Panasonics retail partners and helps them provide a contactless purchase experience to its consumers in current times. Catering to the partners across regions, the platform can be accessed by them in local languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Telugu as well as English. Talking about the partnership, Mr. Jialal Koundal, Group Head Trade Marketing, Panasonic India said, The ongoing pandemic has not only impacted consumer behaviour but also redefined how businesses operate. Further strengthening our distribution strategy & customer centricity, the association with Benow not only enables our offline retail partners to come online but also ensures that our consumers can browse, select, order, pay and receive their favorite Panasonic products from the safety and comfort of their homes. We are also supporting our retail partners with training to on-board and help them understand the new platform for seamless transactions. We expect that this will make the sales process easier and faster for not only our customers but also our retailers. We plan to extend this to all our distribution partners such as multiband outlets, national and regional retail outlets and sub-dealers, in the coming months as well. Extending his thoughts on the association, Soorraj V.S, Co-founder, Benow said, Our digital solution provides a seamless and convenient shopping experience to millions of consumers of Panasonic in India. The advantage of the platform is that it does not call for yet another app download by a consumer while presenting him with a seamless app like shopping experience supported by multiple payment options. We are excited to collaborate with Panasonic India, and support them in their endeavor to provide the best of digital solutions to their offline partners and consumers there by help them in transacting seamlessly and safely during these trying times. Workings of the platform: To enable a retailer to become part of the new digital platform, Panasonic will share the details of the retailor with Benow. Following this, the retailer receives a link on the mobile number from where they can register on the platform, downloads the Benow Application, and completes the digital KYC. Retailers can make an online catalogue of products on the Benow app itself. They can edit the online catalogue based on the availability of the product, and will be able to share the link to customers via email, SMS, WhatsApp and social media. To place an order, customer will have to put in a request via the online link. Following this, the retailer receives a notification, and checks the Benow app to get consumer details. Post contacting the customer and finalizing the deal, the retailer generates the payment link through the app. The customer can make contactless payment through the method of their choice cash on delivery, credit card, debit card, easy EMI, etc. Upon transaction, both the customer and the dealer will receive digital charge slips and the retailer delivers the Panasonic product to the customer. CHICOPEE A five-year police officer was killed Tuesday afternoon while off-duty and riding her motorcycle with her twin sister in Connecticut. Angela Santiago, who most recently served as the Chicopee High School police resource officer, died in the crash at about 1 p.m. on Interstate 91 in East Windsor. State Police are investigating the crash, Police Chief William Jebb said. During a press conference he announced her death and said he was devastated at the loss. He asked for a moment of silence. She was young and very energetic and very involved in her community, he said. She was everything you would want in a police officer. He said Santiago was very outgoing and always smiling. He offered his sympathies to her family and said the entire department is mourning her death. Details about the crash are limited. Jebb said he understands that for an unknown reason her bike went down on the highway. Her sister, who was riding a separate motorcycle, is not believed to have been injured. 4 Tribute to Chicopee Police Officer Angela Santiago, killed in off-duty motorcycle crash The Connecticut State Police is investigating the crash. Officials declined to share any information about the incident Monday night saying they will release a statement later. Several members of the Chicopee Police accident reconstruction team also went to the scene to offer any assistance. They will also escort her body home, Jebb said. He recalled meeting Santiago for the first time while interviewing her for the job of police officer. She was enthusiastic and energetic and when she walked out of the room he and other members of the panel immediately agreed they had to hire her. He called her a stellar employee and her enthusiasm and energy never waned. She worked in the uniform division until this year when the position of school police officer at Chicopee High School became vacant. Jebb invited her to apply for the position because he felt she had the skills and personality for the job. In March, just before the schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, Jebb said he passed her in the department hallway and asked her if she liked the new position. She told me she absolutely enjoyed going to work, Jebb said. It is painful to talk about Santiagos infections smile because Jebb said he is going to miss seeing her. Her death is going to leave a big void in the department. She was always warm, bubbly, happy. Not much got her down, he said. It is a great loss to our law enforcement community. Mayor John Vieau said he met Santiago recently at the Chicopee graduation and was impressed by her charisma and her relationship with the students. She was upbeat, positive and absolutely super energetic and I could tell that the kids admired and looked up to her, Vieau said. He offered condolences to her family and friends personally and from the city. When the announcement was made on Facebook that Santiago had been selected as the new school resource officer, it received more than 1,000 likes and more than 150 comments including people who called it a great choice, a perfect match and one parent said she felt confident her son was in good hands. How lucky you are Chicopee to have such a genuine, caring and kind woman working with our youth, one commenter said. . Chesapeake Energy (OTC:CHKA.Q) is nearing the end of an era. The oil and gas producer is reportedly just days away from declaring bankruptcy. The culprit is the crushing weight of roughly $9 billion in debt, which the company used to build an energy empire. At its peak, the company was America's second largest natural gas producer, behind ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM). However, Chesapeake Energy is now a shell of its former self. While it's still a top-10 gas producer -- it ranked as the sixth largest in the U.S. at the end of 2019 -- the company's stock has lost nearly all its value because of persistent losses. That's left the company in a steady state of decline for the past several years. Here's a look back at Chesapeake's rise up the leader board and subsequent fall from grace. Growth at any cost Chesapeake Energy had rather humble beginnings. The company's co-founders started it in 1989 with an initial $50,000 investment. They grew the company over the years by acquiring land and drilling new wells. By 1993, the company completed an initial public offering, which valued it at $25 million. By its peak in the middle of 2008, Chesapeake Energy had a market capitalization of more than $36 billion. Fueling the rapid rise in Chesapeake's share price was the success of new drilling techniques, which unlocked a treasure trove of natural gas across several shale plays in the country. That led the company to gobble up large swaths of land so that it could continue drilling more wells and grow its gas output as fast as possible. It used most of the cash those wells generated and boatloads of outside financing -- such as issuing new stock and debt -- to fund its expansion. In its peak growth years of 2007 through 2013, the company tallied an average of more than $10 billion in annual capital spending, including a stunning $17.8 billion in 2008. Cracks in the foundation That wild spending helped fuel Chesapeake's ascent up the natural gas leaderboard. By the end of 2012, Chesapeake produced more than 3 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day or about 5% of the country's total output. However, the company had also piled more than $16 billion of debt on its balance sheet. That was a significant weight on its stock price, which by this time had tumbled 75% from its all-time high. That underperformance led the company to start selling assets as well as make a change at the top by ousting its founding CEO. Chesapeake Energy would continue to sell assets in the years that followed. One of the largest was in 2014, when it sold a significant portion of its assets in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations for nearly $5 billion. While it used some of those proceeds to repay debt, the company also bought back some stock and helped bridge the gap between cash flow and its continued outspend on drilling more wells. Because of that strategy, its debt remained elevated during the oil market downturn of 2014-2015 at around $10 billion. That had the company precariously close to filing for bankruptcy protection in early 2016. However, it was able to walk a tightrope and avoid that fate by completing several debt exchanges with its creditors to relieve some of the pressure. The final blow With a new lease on life, Chesapeake Energy shifted gears in recent years, pivoting away from natural gas toward oil, which had higher profit margins. The company focused on drilling oily wells in the Eagle Ford shale of Texas and Wyoming's Powder River Basin. Meanwhile, it sold gassier assets, including its remaining position in the Utica Shale. It also made a bold oil acquisition by purchasing WildHorse Resource Development for roughly $4 billion in cash and stock in early 2019. At the time, Chesapeake estimated that the growing cash flows from its oil business would enable it to significantly de-lever its balance sheet by 2020. Unfortunately, wildly volatile oil prices short-circuited that plan. They also prevented the company from achieving its 2020 asset sales target of $300 million to $500 million, which would have been just enough to meet this year's debt obligations. With no other alternatives, Chesapeake is on the precipice of declaring bankruptcy. Being the biggest doesn't always mean the best Chesapeake's growth at all costs strategy fueled its rise to America's second-largest gas producer at its peak. Unfortunately, the company built that empire with the help of debt, which came back to bite it in the end. It's a reminder to investors absolute growth can be hollow if the company's financials don't back it up because it doesn't take much for a house of cards to collapse. Prince William and Prince Harry are reportedly keeping in touch since Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex made their official royal exit in March. During the last royal engagement the Sussexes attended, it appeared that things were still tense between Prince Harry and Prince William, but it sounds like they are mending their fractured relationship via Zoom chats. Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Charles | Phil Harris WPA Pool/Getty Images Prince Harry and Prince William were feuding It had long been rumored that Prince Harry and Prince William had been feuding, something that Harry confirmed in a 2019 interview for the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey. Part of this role and part of this job and this family being under the pressure that its under inevitably, you know, stuff happens, Prince Harry remarked at the time. He continued, But, look, were brothers. Well always be brothers. Were certainly on different paths at the moment but I will always be there for him and, as I know, he will always be there for me. There was tension at their last royal engagement together As Prince Harry and Meghan prepared to exit the royal family, there were a small number of engagements they had to fulfill in their last days. Their final appearance was at the Commonwealth Day service, also attended by William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. Fans were eager to see if Prince William and Prince Harry were on better terms but their body language spoke volumes about the state of their relationship. Body language expert Judi James told The Mirror at the time, It wasnt the warm reunion that we were all hoping for. The tension in Harrys body language especially was palpable. RELATED: How Prince Harry Has Changed After His Exit from the Royal Family Prince William is keeping tabs on Prince Harry During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Prince William and Prince Harry have been on lockdown and, although they havent been able to get together face-to-face, they have reportedly been using Zoom to keep in touch virtually. According to a report from Fabulous, Prince William uses the meeting platform to contact his brother in the evening. William finds Zoom a good, informal way of keeping in touch, and some would say tabs, on his younger brother, a source shared with the site. There have been several zoom calls. Its easy to set up and involves no awkward scheduling. The insider added, After the children have gone to bed and supper with Kate. It has been only William and Harry. It is around lunchtime in LA. The brothers are casual about their chats, the source explained. These calls are made from Anmers private sitting room. Its not the room that Kate and William use for their public zoom sessions, they shared. Additionally, a friend close to Prince Harry and Prince William explained that William is very anxious to keep the calls low key and casual. Just two brothers have a chat. No-one else is involved. It takes the pressure off. Of course, theres no need for formality, as the source shared, Its about keeping in touch thats important. Harry has spoken on Zoom to the Queen as well. The 2020 release of Rystad Energys annual global energy outlook reveals that the Covid-19 downturn will expedite peak oil demand, putting a lid on exploration efforts in remote offshore areas and as a result reducing the worlds recoverable oil by around 282 billion barrels. Global total expected remaining recoverable oil resources decrease to 1,903 billion barrels, 42% of which are in OPEC territory, with the remaining 58% located outside the alliance. Non-OPEC countries account for the lions share of lost recoverable resources with more than 260 billion barrels of undiscovered oil now more likely to be left untouched, especially in remote exploratory areas, says Rystad Energys Head of Analysis, Per Magnus Nysveen. OPEC countries are much more resilient to the current crisis and will only lose a fraction compared to their non-OPEC counterparts such as the US (-49 billion barrels) and Russia (-31 billion barrels). OPEC countries are expected to lose 21 billion barrels of reserves potential as the negative developments in Venezuela and Iran outweigh the increased strength and reserves potential of core OPEC countries in the Arab Gulf region, Nysveen adds. Rystad Energy releases its annual outlook following the publication of the BP Statistical Review to provide an independent, solid and clear comparison of how the year has changed the worlds energy landscape. Related: The Oil & Gas Sector Could Already Be In Terminal Decline A few more regional takeaways AMERICAS: In the US we expect lower upstream activity in shale acreage, less exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, and a reduced number of licensing rounds on the Atlantic West Coast. In total, this decreases recoverable resources by 49 billion barrels. Canada will likely see more high-cost oil sands reserves left in the ground (14 billion barrels) due to increased environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns. Mexico will likely see reduced exploration for deepwater and shale oil reserves. In Brazil, more pre-salt reserves will likely be left in the ground. With no normalization in sight, Venezuelas actual reserves potential falls further by 21 billion barrels. EUROPE: Russia will see more of estimated Arctic offshore oil reserves left in the ground due to peak oil demand coming sooner, lowering oil reserves by 31 billion barrels. Similarly, Norway will also have to leave more reserves in the ground in the Barents Sea, due to little exploratory success and the assumption that Covid-19 will bring peak oil demand sooner. AFRICA: In Nigeria, after a decade-long debate on oil policy reforms, potential reserves are expected to fall further by 6 billion barrels. With no imminent peace in sight in Libya, future production potential falls further by 4 billion barrels. Despite positive news on oil policy reforms in Algeria, shale exploration potential is expected to fall by 7 billion barrels of oil. In Angola, we forecast less deepwater exploration as peak oil demand comes sooner due to Covid-19. MIDDLE EAST: As the clear winner of the OPEC+ agreement, Saudi Arabia is expected to add 25 billion barrels to future production potential despite peak oil coming sooner. AUSTRALASIA: Chinas proven reserves are revised lower due to increased drilling while the countrys shale exploration is expected to be reduced. In Iran, the risk of prolonged sanctions reduces recoverable reserves potential by 18 billion barrels. For Australia, we expect reduced exploration in new basins. *All oil volumes refer to crude and lease condensate. By Rystad Energy More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Three-hundred Greater Valley YMCA employees are losing their jobs effective next week, but the top administrator at the nonprofit organization is hopeful that theyll eventually be able to come back to work. The layoffs were made public through a Pennsylvania Worker Adjustment and Retraining (WARN) notice published by the state Department of Labor and Industry. The notice says employees at seven of the organizations facilities in Lehigh and Northampton counties are affected. This includes facilities in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. Greater Valley YMCA President and CEO David Fagerstrom told lehighvalleylive.com on Tuesday that the decision was a difficult one but necessary given the economic climate caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The Ys been in the Valley for well over 100 years, he said. There have been numerous times when the Y has had to take some pretty strong action to make sure were here for future generations. The organization doesnt expect all the layoffs to be permanent, does not plan to reduce any services and will not be closing any of its facilities, Fagerstrom said. The reason we can emphatically say theres no danger of that happening is that we are taking these steps, he said, referring to facility closures. We have to make these changes now. The 300 facing layoffs represent the majority of the organizations approximately 500 employees, most of whom are part-timers. Those being laid off work in a wide range of jobs, including administration, the president and CEO said. It comes in the wake of other measures, including widespread furloughs, that the Greater Valley YMCA has taken since the coronavirus essentially shut down Pennsylvanias economy at the end of March, Fagerstrom said. The Greater Valley YMCA opened its facilities for child care after the Lehigh Valley dropped down to the less-restrictive yellow phase of Gov. Tom Wolfs three-phased plan to reopen the states economy. That happened June 5, but the yellow phase still prohibits the opening of gyms and other activities that are part of membership-supported services. Fagerstrom said the Greater Valley YMCA has gleaned considerable knowledge from other YMCA organizations about how widely used those services will be once theyre allowed to reopen. Theres reason to believe members will be slow to return due to concerns about contracting the coronavirus, he said. We know from those Ys that have reopened that they are seeing 25, 30, 40% of the members, the president and CEO said. Those numbers are pretty much standard across the nation. Theres a lot of fear. Theres a lot of trepidation. As for child care, the Greater Valley YMCA facilities are currently at about 40% of where they were at this time last year, he said. Those numbers, he said, will go up as the economy improves and more people get back to work, but theres really no way to predict how long that will take and what the new normal will look like in terms of memberships and child-care enrollments. Fagerstrom said the community has always responded positively to the YMCA in part because of the array of charitable programs it offers. He pointed to 20,000 free meals it has served to children since the pandemic began. Hes hopeful the community will respond positively once again and find ways to support the organization through memberships and donations; you can learn more at the Greater Valley YMCAs website, gv-ymca.org. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Nick Falsone can be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Garrett Rolfe, the Atlanta police officer who fired the shot that killed Rayshard Brooks, has been charged with murder, among nearly a dozen criminal counts. I await the analysis of those with more expertise in criminal law than I possess before reaching a definite conclusion. However, the murder charge strikes me as dubious, and I doubt that if the victim of the shooting had been white, such a charge would have been made. Below is the statement of Rolfes defense attorney: On June 12, 2020, a Wendys employee called 911 to report a man was passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle and blocking traffic in the drive-through. Officer Brosnan responded, and made contact with the driver, Rayshard Brooks. After determining alcohol may have been a contributing factor, he requested Officer Rolfes assistance. Officer Rolfe, a member of the High Intensity Traffic Team and the Governor funded HEAT Unit, has specialized training in DUI investigations. He has made at least 300 DUI arrests, and completed the 160-hour Drug Recognition Expert course, graduating as valedictorian. After a thorough investigation, Officer Rolfe determined Mr. Brooks was impaired and driving a vehicle in violation of Georgia law. Officer Rolfe was polite and courteous to Mr. Brooks during the entire encounter. Mr. Brooks was polite and cooperative until Officer Rolfe placed him under arrest. Suddenly, without warning or provocation, Mr. Brooks chose to violently attack two uniformed police officers. Officers Brosnan and Rolfe used the least amount of force possible in their attempts to place Mr. Brooks into handcuffs. They attempted to leverage him to the ground while giving him loud, clear verbal commands. In response, Mr. Brooks continued actively resisting lawful efforts to arrest him. He then escalated his resistance by punching Officer Rolfe in the face committing several counts of felony obstruction of an officer. See O.C.G.A. 16-10-24. In an effort to place Mr. Brooks under arrest and stop his assault, Officer Rolfe lawfully deployed his TASER twice, but it had no effect on Mr. Brooks. Mr. Brooks continued his assault and disarmed Officer Brosnan, stealing his city-issued TASER committing a robbery, another forcible felony under Georgia law. See O.C.G.A. 16-8-40 & O.C.G.A. 16-10-33 . Mr. Brooks, then armed, began running through a crowded parking lot. Mr. Brooks was lawfully under arrest and Officer Rolfe pursued him. Officer Rolfe had deployed his taser and held it steady in hopes the prongs would catch onto Mr. Brooks body and neutralize him. Unfortunately, that didnt occur. Instead of merely trying to escape, Mr. Brooks reached back with his arm extended and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe. Officer Rolfe heard a sound like a gunshot and saw a flash in front of him. Fearing for his safety, and the safety of the civilians around him, Officer Rolfe dropped his taser and fired his service weapon at the only portion of Mr. Brooks that presented to him Mr. Brooks back. Officer Rolfe immediately stopped firing when Mr. Brooks fell to the ground since there was no longer an imminent threat towards Officer Rolfe or others. Officer Rolfe gathered himself, and then immediately called for EMS. Officer Rolfe retrieved first-aid supplies and began rendering aid to Mr. Brooks. When Mr. Brooks pulse stopped, Officer Rolfe immediately began CPR until EMS relieved him. The loss of life in any instance is tragic. However, Officer Rolfes actions were justified under O.C.G.A. 17-4-20 and O.C.G.A. 16-3-21. A peace officer may use deadly force to 1. arrest a suspected felon when he reasonably believes that the suspect poses an immediate threat of physical violence to the officer or others, 2. to protect himself and others from a life-threatening injury, and 3. to prevent the commission of a forcible felony. Mr. Brooks violently attacked two officers and disarmed one of them. When Mr. Brooks turned and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe, any officer would have reasonably believed that he intended to disarm, disable, or seriously injure him. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will complete an impartial investigation. Mr. Brooks family, the citizens of Atlanta, and Officers Rolfe and Brosnan, all desire a fair and thorough investigation including learning why Mr. Brooks suddenly turned violent. Officer Rolfe is well known to the courts and there is no compelling reason to bring any charges against them before the GBI has completed its investigation and published its findings. (Emphasis added) I think its pretty clear why Brooks suddenly turned violent. As Daniel Horowitz has pointed out, Brooks was a career criminal who was on probation and facing a parole revocation hearing.* He knew that an arrest for DUI or any other offense would have severe consequences for him. He said as much in an interview. Discerning the reason why Brooks turned violent has no relevance I can think of to the issue of whether Brooks violence against the police justified his killing. But I point it out because in announcing his charge of murder, the Fulton DA. said that for 41 minutes and 17 seconds [Brooks] followed every instruction, he answered the questions. [He] never displayed any aggressive behavior during the 41 minutes and 17 seconds. . . . Okay, and its a nice touch that the DA included those 17 seconds. But Brooks did display highly aggressive behavior once he realized that his alternative was to be taken into custody and, as a result, face severe consequences because of his record. It doesnt matter how Brooks behaved before he decided that, no matter what, he couldnt let the officers arrest him. It seems to me that the Fulton County DA is blowing smoke. The other officer involved, Devin Brosnan, faces three charges, but not for murder. In a statement, his attorney said that Brosnan is cooperating with the Fulton County District Attorneys investigation. He also said this at the end of his recitation of the facts of the case: The decision to initiate charges by the Fulton County DAs office is irrational and obviously based on factors which should have nothing to do with the proper administration of justice. This was not a rush to judgment. This was a rush to misjudgment. Shame on the District Attorney for this abuse of his charging power. Shame on the District Attorney for not honoring his oath to uphold the constitution. Shame on the District Attorney for this rush to misjudgment. (Emphasis added) Right now, thats how it looks to me with the factors in question being race and a desire to satisfy a political movement and the mob that backs it. * In a properly functioning justice system, Brooks likely would have been jail. According to Horowitz: He appears to have served only four months of a seven-year sentence in 2014 for charges and convictions of simple battery, cruelty to children, false imprisonment, family violence battery, receiving stolen property, criminal interference with government property, weapons charges, and obstructing a law enforcement officer in the preceding years. In addition: AUSTIN, Texas, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A large majority of Texas voters across the political spectrum support abstinence-plus, medically-accurate, and age-appropriate sexual health education in schools, according to a new poll released this week by the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is preparing to revise the state's sex education curriculum standards for the first time in two decades. On June 29 through July 2, the SBOE will hold a public hearing on the sex education curriculum updates. They are expected to approve the new standards this November. Abstinence-plus sex education teaches that abstinence is the safest choice, but also provides students with factual information on topics such as contraception, prevention of sexually transmitted infections, and healthy relationships. Currently, only 16% of Texas school districts offer an abstinence-plus approach to sex ed. Fifty-eight percent (58%) teach abstinence-only and 25% do not teach sex ed at all. However, in 2018, Texas had the 9th highest rate of teen birth in the nation, with a baby born to a teen mother once every 21 minutes. KEY POLL RESULTS: 75% of poll respondents, including 68% of Republicans, support teaching "abstinence-plus" sex education. 88% of respondents, including 86% of Republicans, agreed with the statement, "It's important for students to learn about consent, including respecting the boundaries set by other people about their bodies." Respect is a Texas value. LGBTQ youth are bullied at higher rates than their peers and subsequently have higher rates of mental health issues and suicidality. In this poll, 75% of Texans, including 65% of Republicans, agree with the statement that, "To help prevent bullying of LGBTQ youth, Texas public schools should include standards around cultivating respect for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or identity." "The poll shows that Texas voters support providing youth with common sense information that they need to stay healthy and thrive," said Molly Clayton, Executive Director of the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The poll results provide strong support for the SBOE to improve the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), the minimum curriculum standards that guide health education in public schools, and ensure that youth have access to the information they need to stay safe and healthy. WEBINAR: The poll results will be released during a webinar on Wednesday, June 17 at 3:30 pm CT. Registration for the webinar is available at www.texasisready.org . The Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy is also part of the TexasIsReady.org campaign, which launched in March to support better sex education in Texas. The campaign is led by Texas' top teen pregnancy prevention organizations (Texas Campaign, North Texas Alliance to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Teens (Ntarupt), and Healthy Futures of Texas). Methodology The poll was conducted March 3-10, 2020, by the well-respected Republican polling firm Baselice & Associates. A representative sample of more than 600 registered Texas voters completed the poll over the phone or online, resulting in a margin of error of +/- 4 percent. Responses were weighted across six geographic regions and by gender. ABOUT Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy ( www.txcampaign.org ), founded in 2009 as a statewide nonpartisan organization to reduce teen pregnancy through research, advocacy, collaboration, and training. North Texas Alliance to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Teens (Ntarupt) ( www.ntarupt.org ) is the sole organization in North Texas committed to bringing together community resources for both parents and teens with a focus on teen pregnancy prevention and sexual and reproductive health, which it has been doing since its inception in 2014. Healthy Futures of Texas ( www.hf-tx.org ) has worked to reduce unplanned and teen pregnancies through science-based education and advocacy efforts that empower young people, women, and families to make the best decisions for their futures. Contact: Jen Biundo, Director of Policy & Data Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy [email protected] SOURCE Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy Related Links https://txcampaign.org A couple who feared they'd never have a family of their own have revealed how a chat about parenting with a colleague while working on a flight to Cuba led them to their adorable twin daughters. Cabin crew Craig and Paul Saunders, 39 and 37, from Worthing, Sussex, who met while working for Virgin Atlantic, say colleague Mel Odell, 39, from Chelmsford, Essex, gave them 'the gift of life' when she agreed to be their surrogate. The couple, who married in March 2018, are now preparing to celebrate the first birthday of twins Austyn and Orla, who were born at Chelmsfords Broomfield Hospital, 15 minutes apart, on June 19 2019. And as a special tribute to their surrogate, Mel and her husband Tom, 39, are set to become godparents to the twins. Scroll down for video Cabin crew Craig (right), 39, and Paul Saunders (left), 37, from Worthing, Sussex, with twins Orla and Austyn Paul and Austyn with twins Orla and Austyn who arrived at Chelmsfords Broomfield Hospital, 15 minutes apart, on June 19 2019 The couple have also given each daughter a middle name after Mel using her surname 'Odell' for Austyn and her maiden name of 'Love' for Orla as a token of gratitude. Paul said: 'It was important for us to show how grateful we are of her and everything she has done for us. 'We love being parents and Paul has since changed his contract to part-time so he will be only fly twice a month and won't miss out on the girls growing up.' He added: 'We will definitely tell the girls about everything so they can grasp on how it happened from start to finish. 'We are sharing our story to give others hope that magic does happen!' Paul first met Mel on a flight to Cuba in spring 2017 where he explained the couple's dream of having a family. He said: 'We thought we could only be parents through adoption so began the process - Paul told Mel about it whilst on a flight. After five days in Cuba, I decided I really want to help and be a surrogate for them. I knew Paul would make a great dad... Mel Odell, Craig and Paul's surrogate 'A few weeks later, Mel offered to be our surrogate - we were in complete disbelief but she was the driving force behind the idea and was looking into everything for us so we knew she was serious! It felt too good to be true.' Mel revealed how she had 'easy' pregnancies without complications and has been fortunate enough with her two children to have 'quick labours' which prompted her to be a surrogate. She said: 'I had never thought about being a surrogate before in my life but after my last child Zachary, five, I felt quite upset knowing I won't be pregnant again. 'When I first met Paul on a work trip, I thought he was amazing and he told me a little about his personal life and how he really wants to be a dad. 'After five days in Cuba, I decided I really want to help and be a surrogate for them. I knew Paul would make a great dad!' Paul, Mel and her husband Tom, 39. Paul met Mel on a flight to Cuba in spring 2017 where he explained the couple's dream of having a family Twins Orla and Austyn have middle names after Mel as a token of gratitude. Mel revealed how she had 'easy' pregnancies without complications with her own two children After researching clinics, the trio opted to undergo treatment at Crown IVF in Famagusta, Cyprus, where the couple narrowed down the egg donors to ones who had the same characteristics and a good academic background. Craig and Paul were initially going to see who 'produced the strongest embryo' after Mel agreed she would be a surrogate again - but the clinic allowed them both to father an embryo. Staff performed the unusual procedure of fertilising donor eggs from the same woman, one with Craigs and another with Pauls sperm, and transferring one of each for implantation into Mels uterus. Speaking about when he first met his husband, Paul said: 'Craig and I met whilst on a flight to Florida in 2005 - we briefly dated but went out separate ways before bumping into one another in Greece in 2016. 'We got back together and six months later Craig proposed and said 'lets do the dream' as we both wanted marriage and children. Craig and Paul were initially going to see who 'produced the strongest embryo' after Mel agreed she would be a surrogate again - but the clinic allowed them both to father an embryo The couple have revealed how parenthood is a the 'craziest and best rollercoaster' they have ever been on Craig and Paul (right) said they are sharing their story to inspire others that 'magic does happen' Twins Orla and Austyn with their surrogate Mel. The girls will celebrate their first birthday on June 19 Paul revealed how Mel is a friend for life after helping them become a family. Mel played recordings to the bump from Craig (pictured) and Paul Paul said: 'It was a surreal experience but we both stayed really grounded with it and saw the donor selection as another step towards the end goal of achieving our dream of becoming parents. 'Mel kindly offered to be our surrogate twice so we could both father a child but fortunately we found the clinic in Cyprus which allowed two eggs to be fertilised by each of our sperm at the same time. 'The clinic were amazing and so inviting - we were worried in case they didn't have the same views on same sex couples as the UK. Paul revealed how the pregnancy 'ran smoothly'. Paul (left) revealed how the pregnancy 'ran smoothly' 'When Mel was working on her ground placement at the airport she would stay with us from Monday to Wednesday so we were able to touch the bump and watch it grow - it fascinated us. 'We also recorded messages for her to play to the bump.' Mel said: 'Being their surrogate is one of the best things I have ever done and I am very proud to have helped. 'Everything went perfectly and it was the best feeling in the world knowing I have made them the happiest men alive. Paul (right) said: 'It was important for us to show how grateful we are of her and everything she has done for us' Left: Craig and Paul with their surrogate Mel. Right: Paul (middle) with Mel, Tom, and his husband Paul Craig and Paul pictured with Mel's children, Keira, six, and Zachary, five. Mel explained how she had 'easy' pregnancies without complications with both of her children 'It was a really lovely gesture giving the girls a middle name after me!' And the couple have revealed how parenthood is a the 'craziest and best rollercoaster' they have ever been on. Paul said: 'The pregnancy ran smoothly and so did the labour - it was heartbreaking having to say goodbye to Mel as we wanted to remain close to her but little did we know that it was just the beginning of our journey. 'She will always be one of our very close friends. 'Craig and I are in awe with the twins - we absolutely adore them and can't thank Mel enough for helping us.' SAN FRANCISCO - Pacific Gas & Electric pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing 84 of the 85 victims of a 2018 wildfire in Northern California. A report released by the Butte County district attorney listed the names of all but two who have not been identified and how they died. ___ Joyce Acheson, 78, of Paradise, was found inside her home. She had limited mobility and lived in an area closed off to public access, preventing any caregiver from getting to her. Herbert Alderman, 80 of Paradise, had a severely sprained ankle that limited his mobility at the time of the fire. He made several phone calls to friends seeking rescue but was found inside his home. Teresa Ammons, 82, of Paradise, died attempting to flee the fire. She was found outside her trailer with her purse nearby. Rafaela Andrade, 84, of Paradise, needed a walker to get around and did not have the ability to evacuate on her own. She was found inside her home. Carol Arrington, 88, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Julian Binstock, 88, of Paradise, was found with the remains of his dog in the shower of his home. David Bradburd, 70, of Paradise, was near a power line knocked down by the fire outside his home. Cheryl Brown, 75, of Paradise, was found in a recliner next to her husband, Larry Brown. Larry Brown, 72, of Paradise, was found in a recliner next to his wife, Cheryl Brown. Richard Brown, 74 of Concow, was found outside his home under his pickup truck, where he tried to hide from the fire. Andrew Burt, 36 of Paradise, was found just outside the front passenger side door of a minivan with his dog. He was trying to escape in the minivan when it was overcome by flames. Three other vehicles with the remains of four other victims were nearby. Joanne Caddy, 75, of Magalia, was found inside her home. Barbara Carlson, 71, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Her remains were commingled with those of her sister, Shirley Haley. Vincent Carota, 65, of Paradise, a partial leg amputee who did not have a vehicle, was found inside his home. Dennis Clark, Jr., 49, of Paradise, was found in the passenger seat of a car with his mother Joy Porter in the drivers seat. Their car was in a line of three other vehicles with remains inside. Evelyn Cline, 81, of Paradise, was physically immobile and unable to leave her home without help. She was found inside her home. John Digby, 78, of Paradise, was found inside his home. Gordon Dise, 66, of Chico, was found inside his home. His daughter, who fled the house with him, said he went back inside for something and never made it back out. Paula Dodge, 70, of Paradise, was found between two cars in the carport of her home. Her husband, Randall Dodge, was found deceased next to her. They were trying to flee. Randall Dodge, 66, of Paradise, was found between two cars in the driveway of his home with his wife, Paula Dodge. Andrew Downer, 54, of Paradise, an amputee who used a wheelchair and was unable to drive, was found outside the front door of his home. Robert Duvall, 76, of Paradise, was found in the passenger seat of his truck a third of a mile (half a kilometre) from his home. A second vehicle registered to him was nearby with the remains of his girlfriend, Beverly Powers, inside. Paul Ernest, 72, of Paradise, and his wife tried to escape by driving their ATV off road through a canyon. When their escape route was blocked by a rock formation, they were overtaken by the fire. Both were severely burned and airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center Burn Unit in Sacramento. Ernest died at the hospital nearly 9 months later. Rose Farrell, 99, of Paradise, was found on the front porch of her home, her wheelchair nearby. Jesus Fernandez, 48, of Concow, was found on the ground between two vehicles. Jean Forsman, 83, of Magalia, was found inside her home. Ernest Foss, 63, of Paradise, was found with his oxygen tank outside his house. He had limited mobility and was attempting to escape. Elizabeth Gaal, 80, of Paradise, was found in her apartment. Sally Gamboa, 69, of Paradise, was found in a clearing behind her home. She died while attempting to flee the oncoming flames. James Garner, 63, of Magalia, was found inside his home after calling his sister and nephew multiple times. Richard Garrett, 58, of Concow, was running from the fire when he was overtaken by the flames. He was found among trees. William Godbout, 79, of Concow, was found inside his home. Shirley Haley, 67, of Paradise, was found in her sisters home, her remains commingled with those of her sister, Barbara Carlson. Dennis Hanko, 56, of Paradise, was found in his home. Anna Hastings, 67, of Paradise, who couldnt drive because of severe scoliosis, was found inside her home. Jennifer Hayes, 53, of Paradise, was found inside her house. Christina Heffern, 40, Ishka Heffern, 20, and Matilde Heffern, 68, of Paradise, were found in their bathtub. The three generations of women had called 911 as the fire approached. Somehow the phone line remained open as the house, and the three women, burned as helpless fire dispatchers listened to their screams. Dorothy Lee-Herrera, 93, was found inside her home with her husband, Louis Herrera. Louis Herrera, 86, of Paradise, was found inside his home with his wife. Evva Holt, 85, of Paradise, was found in a burned vehicle, about 2 miles (3 kilometres) from her home. TK Huff, 71, of Concow, was found inside his home. He only had one leg and generally used a wheelchair, which was found about 10 feet (3 metres) away. Evidence shows he tried to escape the flames by dragging himself along the ground. Gary Hunter, 67, of Magalia, had limited mobility because of a stroke. He was found inside his home. James Kinner, 83, of Paradise, was found inside his home. Warren Lessard, 68, of Magalia, was found on the front porch of his home. Dorothy Mack, 88, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Sara Magnuson, 75, of Paradise, wrapped herself in a wet carpet and sheltered in the bathtub but she died there. Dolores Joanne Malarkey, 90, of Paradise, was found in her home with her husband, John Malarkey. John Malarkey, 89, of Paradise, was found inside his home with his wife, Joanne Malarkey. Christopher Maltby, 69, of Paradise, was found in his home. David Marbury, 66, of Paradise, was found in his apartment. Deborah Morningstar, 65 of Paradise, was found inside her home. She was unable to drive. Helen Pace, 84, of Paradise, who had medical issues that made it difficult to leave her home. She was found inside. Joy Porter, 72, of Paradise, was found in the drivers seat of her car with her son, Dennis Clark Jr., in the passenger seat. The car was in a line of three other vehicles with victims inside. Beverly Powers, 64, of Paradise, was found in the drivers seat of a pickup truck owned by her boyfriend, Robert Duvall. It was in a line of three other vehicles with victims inside. Robert Quinn, 74, of Paradise, was found inside his home. Joseph Rabetoy, 39, of Paradise, was found inside his home. He had no vehicle to get away from the blaze. Forrest Rea, 89, of Paradise, was found in his home. Vernice Regan, 95, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Ethel Riggs, 96, of Paradise, spoke with her grandson on the phone at least twice that day, telling him because the power was out she couldnt get her car out of the garage. She said she could not reach the manual release for the garage door, and even if she could, she was not strong enough to raise the door. Lolene Rios, 56, of Paradise, was found in the basement of her house with the remains of her four dogs and two cats. Gerald Rodrigues, 74, of Paradise, was found in her home. Frederick Salazar, Jr., 76, of Paradise, was found in his home with his wife, Phyllis Salazar. Phyllis Salazar, 72, of Paradise, was found in her house with her husband, Frederick Salazar, Jr. Sheila Santos, 64, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Ronald Schenk, 74, of Paradise was found inside his home. Berniece Schmidt, 93, of Magalia, was found in her home with the remains of her cat and a kitten. John Sedwick, 82, of Magalia, was found on the front porch of his home. Don Shores, 70, of Magalia, was found in a recliner in his home. The remains of his wife, Kathy Shores, were found in an adjacent recliner. The remains of two dogs and two cats were also there. Kathy Shores, 65, of Magalia, was found in her home with the remains of her husband and their pets. Judith Sipher, 68, of Paradise, was found in her home. Larry Smith, 80, of Paradise, died of his injuries at UC Davis Medical Burn Center 17 days after the fire. He was found severely burned in the driveway. Russell Stewart, 63, of Paradise, was found in his home. Victoria Taft, 67, of Paradise was found in her home. Shirlee Teays, 90, of Paradise, was found inside her home and appeared to be holding or hugging a framed photo. Joan Tracy, 82, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Ellen Walker, 72, of Concow, was found inside her home. Donna Ware, 86, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Isabel Webb, 68, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Marie Wehe, 78, of Concow, was found inside a burned truck on the side of a lane near her home. Kimber Wehr, 53, of Paradise, was found inside her home. She was unable to drive due to a neurological disability, and was unable to flee the fire on her own. David Young, 69, of Concow, was found with the remains of two unidentified animals inside his minivan, which had crashed into a tree about a 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometres) from his home, as he fled the fire. An autopsy found he survived the crash, but was killed by the fire. The remains of two unknown victims were found commingled in Concow. Officials are still trying to identify them. KYODO NEWS - Jun 17, 2020 - 18:40 | World, All North Korean troops are redeploying to two areas that had been demilitarized under agreements with the South, official media said Wednesday following Pyongyang's demolition of a joint liaison office, in a sign that their recent efforts at reconciliation have gone up in smoke. The Korean Central News Agency also reported that Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, has rejected South Korean President Moon Jae In's offer to send special envoys to North Korea, saying she "made known the stand that we flatly reject the tactless and sinister proposal." In a statement carried by the news agency, Kim Yo Jong also criticized Moon's offer in a speech earlier in the week of inter-Korean dialogue, saying he had "reeled off a string of shameless and impudent words full of incoherence." The South later rebuked North Korea for snubbing Moon's offer to send the envoys, saying disclosing the unannounced proposal was an "unprecedented and irrational act." Moon's office also said that remarks Kim Yo Jong had made directly critical of the president were "very rude" and could not be tolerated, warning they would lead to a loss of trust between the leaders of the two Koreas. The latest inter-Korean tensions, which have escalated in the wake of the scattering of leaflets lambasting Kim Jong Un's reign, could develop into a military clash in the worst-case scenario, as the North is unlikely to extend an olive branch to the South. Since early June, Pyongyang has taken a tough stance against Seoul, as North Korean watchers have speculated that Kim may be worried that an economic slump stemming from the coronavirus pandemic could be eroding his political clout at home. Moon has made serious efforts at achieving a thaw in relations by holding three summits with Kim in 2018. But, ties between the two nations have deteriorated to their worst level since the left-wing president took office in 2017. The South Korean military separately said the North would "pay the price" if it puts its words into action in relation to its planned reinforcements among troops on the front line. With ties with North Korea rapidly worsening and the joint liaison office just across the border now in ruins, South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon Chul offered later Wednesday to resign to take responsibility. "I thought someone has to be held responsible," Kim told reporters in Seoul. A spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, the North Korean military, said in Wednesday's statement via KCNA that it is sending regiment-level units to the Mt. Kumgang resort area on the east coast and the Kaesong Industrial Zone in the western border area. The spokesman also said the military will set up guard posts that had been withdrawn from the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas under a bilateral agreement. Both areas were previously sites for economic cooperation projects with the South. The artillery units deployed in the western Yellow Sea side of the country will also "upgrade the level of the front guard duty" and resume "all kinds of regular military exercises in the areas close to the boundary," the spokesman said. The statement added that the military's General Staff will work out "military action plans against enemy" in more detail and present them to the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea at the earliest date. On Tuesday, North Korea blew up the joint liaison office located in the border city of Kaesong, in retaliation for anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent across the border by balloon by defector groups and other activists. The office, opened in September 2018 and staffed with personnel from both North and South Korea until early this year, was a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation that had begun that year with a series of summit talks between Moon and Kim Jong Un. North Korea's economy, meanwhile, is believed to be shrinking as trade with China, its closest and most influential ally in economic terms, has become sluggish against a backdrop of the closure of the border with its neighbor amid the global virus spread. Also, North Korea has so far failed to convince the United States to ease sanctions that have choked the nation's trade, while Seoul has hesitated to proceed with economic cooperation projects with Pyongyang in the face of opposition from Washington. Kim Jong Un has been frustrated with Moon, who has called himself a "broker" between Pyongyang and Washington, as the South's president has fallen short of helping the North produce results in its denuclearization talks with the United States, observers say. Related coverage: U.S. urges restraint from North Korea after it destroys liaison office FOCUS: North Korea's Kim may use South to boost influence of younger sister North Korea blows up inter-Korean liaison office: S. Korea The doctor at the centre of racism and bigotry complaints can no longer practice medicine in Newfoundland and Labrador. According to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador, Dr. Zachary Kuehner's licence was no longer active as of June 10 one day after CBC News published a story detailing complaints against the second-year medical resident. It remains unclear whether Kuehner's licence was suspended, revoked or voluntarily given up, or if it simply expired. The CPSNL declined to provide specific information to Kuehner's case. It is not mandatory for a doctor's licence to be suspended when they enter a complaints process, said CPSNL complaints director Elyse Bruce, but each case is assessed differently. The college follows provincial legislation when disciplining doctors the Medical Act of 2011 but it also has a set of internal regulations that it doesn't release to the public. Twitter Kuehner came under fire when his colleagues at Memorial University's medical school wrote to the dean of medicine, Margaret Steele, about comments he'd made on social media. Kuehner argued with his peers about the Black Lives Matter movement, and referred to himself as a racist on two occasions. He denied allegations of racism when contacted by CBC News, and said the comments were taken out of context. The bio for his Twitter account, which has since been deleted, included the word "Islamophobe." His social media activity also prompted a letter penned by four Muslim groups, including the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Muslim Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. 3rd complaint letter sent to dean The latest letter of complaint came from a group called Canadian Women in Medicine, whose advocacy co-chairperson Michelle Cohen wrote to Steele on June 12. "The screenshots of Dr. Kuehner's social media conduct that have been reported in the media are disturbing and call into question his independent judgment and ethics," Cohen wrote. Story continues The letter also took aim at an op-ed Kuehner had written for a newspaper in Thunder Bay, Ont., in which he argued the issues facing the city were not steeped in racism, but rather a result of the hopelessness and dysfunction in the Indigenous communities surrounding the city. In the piece, Kuehner also took issue with identifying as a "white settler" while practising medicine in Thunder Bay, where he attended undergraduate medical studies. He wrote that the Northern Ontario School of Medicine was "hell-bent" on producing "physicians comfortable self-flagellating for deeds they did not commit." Cohen said his comments, all taken together, show Kuehner is "unsafe" to practise medicine with Muslim and Indigenous patients. "Recent civil unrest and protest against systemic racism in law enforcement have highlighted the importance of addressing racist discrimination in all our major institutions," Cohen wrote. "Now more than ever, the medical establishment in Canada needs to take a clear stand for equity and against bigotry. Words in praise of diversity and representation must be backed by concrete actions." Dean Steele has said she cannot comment on specifics of action taken against any student, but confirmed there is an active complaints process being followed in Kuehner's case. Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador New Delhi, June 17 : Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings have suspended one of its team doctors following his tweet on Galwan clash which was "in bad taste". Reportedly, Dr. Madhu Thottappillil had on Tuesday tweeted from his official handle: "Just curious if the coffins will come back with a 'PM Cares' sticker on them?" However, this tweet did not go well with the Chennai-based franchise. "The Chennai Super Kings management was not aware of the personal tweet of Dr. Madhu Thottappillil. He has been suspended from his position as the Team Doctor," CSK said in a tweet on Wednesday. "Chennai Super Kings regrets his tweet which was without the knowledge of the management and in bad taste," the franchise added. The PM-CARES or the Prime Ministers Citizens Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) was formed on March 27 this year, three days into the lockdown, and is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid the COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed more than 11,000 lives in the country till date. Other ex-officio members of the trust are Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Twenty Indian Army men, including officers, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with Chinese People's Liberation Army troops at Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night. Three global miners including Australia's BHP have become embroiled in an alleged human rights crisis in Colombia, with indigenous communities claiming the jointly owned Cerrejon coal mine is depriving them of water and exacerbating illnesses amid the coronavirus emergency. Cerrejon owned equally by miners BHP, Anglo American and Glencore is one of the largest open-pit coal mines in the world, covering 69,000 hectares in the middle of indigenous Wayuus' ancestral land. Credit:Arsineh Houspian As the mining sector's relationships with First Nations people face the spotlight following Rio Tinto's destruction of ancient Aboriginal caves last month, the Wayuu indigenous people of Colombia are launching an urgent application for the UN Human Rights Council to intervene in what they say is a "health emergency" being exacerbated by the Cerrejon mine's contamination of the area. Cerrejon owned equally by miners BHP, Anglo American and Glencore is one of the largest open-pit coal mines in the world, covering 69,000 hectares in the middle of indigenous Wayuus' ancestral land. Represented by barrister Monica Feria-Tinta, the communities allege the mine's operations use 24 million litres of water a day and have contaminated drinking water at a time when locals are facing difficulties accessing clean, bottled water due to lockdown restrictions. NICOSIA (dpa-AFX) - Cyprus's consumer prices fell for a second consecutive month in May, led by steep decline in the transport and clothing and footwear segments, preliminary data from the statistical office showed on Wednesday. The harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP, which is meant for EU comparison, decreased 1.4 percent year-on-year after a 1.2 percent decline in April. Transport costs slumped 7.8 percent and prices in the clothing and footwear group decreased 4.2 percent. Utility costs dropped 2.5 percent. Prices in communication and restaurants and hotels were lower by around 2 percent each. In contrast, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages grew 3.6 percent. Compared to the previous month, the HICP edged up 0.1 percent in May. In the January to May period, the index decreased 0.2 percent from a year ago. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. COLONIE You likely won't be thrown off the airplane, at least not while it's in the air. But the nation's major airlines this week warned they will no longer tolerate people who refuse to wear face masks. And you may be banned from flying them in the future. Airlines For America, the industry trade group, said "member carriers will be vigorously enforcing face covering policies, putting rigor around rules requiring passengers and customer-facing employees to wear facial coverings over their nose and mouth." The stepped-up enforcement comes as air travel recovers and social media report instances where cabin crew ignored passengers who declined to wear masks. Albany International Airport has required masks be worn whenever passengers, employees and visitors are inside the terminal building. Airport spokesman Doug Myers said Wednesday that the airport has masks for people who don't have them, and that the mask requirement is being obeyed. But with new COVID-19 cases emerging in several sections of the country -- The New York Times reported new records were set Tuesday in Florida, Texas and Arizona -- airlines are stepping up enforcement. U.S. airlines are very serious about requiring face coverings on their flights," said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio. "Carriers are stepping up enforcement of face coverings and implementing substantial consequences for those who do not comply with the rules. United Airlines last week began requiring passengers, when checking in for their flight, to agree to wear face masks and to acknowledge that they hadn't experienced a number of health conditions, including an elevated temperature, chills, breathing difficulties or loss of taste or smell, all symptoms of COVID-19. Southwest added a similar health declaration as part of its check-in process on Tuesday. The new requirements are the latest effort by airlines to reassure passengers that air travel is safe. Southwest, Delta, United and other carriers also have been blocking out some seats to maintain social distancing in the cabin. Southwest said it would keep middle seats open at least through Sept. 30. Aircraft have begun filling up, after a period early in the pandemic where planes were flying nearly empty and boardings had plummeted by 95 percent or more. Airport boardings at Albany were down 97 percent in April from year-earlier levels, but down just 89 percent in May, when 13,968 people boarded planes, compared to 129,868 in May 2019. On Tuesday, 909 people passed through the security checkpoint, although that figure includes not only passengers but crew and airport employees who work beyond the checkpoint. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. For all of 2019, the airport averaged 4,109 passengers a day boarding aircraft at Albany. Concessions at the airport also are beginning to reopen. Chick-fil-A will open on Monday, Myers said, with Saratoga Silk set to open later in the week. The airport concession operator OHM has been serving free coffee to passengers from 5:30 to 10 a.m., with the Albany County Airport Authority picking up the tab. Myers said the airport expects to see additional flights serving Albany as service is restored beginning in July. Still, air and rail passengers may want to check out conditions at their destination before they travel. Some cities have required quarantines of as long as 14 days. And this week, the U.S., Canada and Mexico extended their border closures to July 21. eanderson@timesunion.com 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. Filmmaker Rumy Jafry has reacted to speculation that actor Sushant Singh Rajput was isolated by powerful production houses in Bollywood and was facing a scarcity of work. The director had earlier revealed that he was working with the late actor on a new project, which was supposed to begin after lockdown. There has been speculation about a supposed boycott the actor allegedly faced from production houses and how he was isolated by camps in Bollywood, which affected his career. Sushant died by suicide on Sunday but no note was found by the police. Speaking to ABP News, Rumy said, I have been listening to all these debates on TV channels and it hurts me a lot. The reason is that you know how the industry works. If anyone could plan or conspire to make someones career, so many directors and producers would have made their kids careers by now. No one can make or break anyones career. Whether you are an insider or an outsider, only your talent will take you anywhere. Sushant was an outsider but because of his talent, Yash Raj hired him for their films, Sajid Nadiadwala hired him, Dangal director Nitesh Tiwari hired him after Aamir (Khan). Rumy said while he was working with Sushant on a new project, other filmmakers had requested his help to approach the actor with their films. He did less work and met few people, Rumy said, explaining how the actor had told him he was not looking for more work at that time. Also read: Karan Johars SOTY 2 director Punit Malhotra comments on outpouring of love for Sushant Singh Rajput You know how the business works. He was among the top 10 actors. Last film of his (Chhichhore) did Rs 150 crore business. I know what the recovery was for my film that I was doing with him, he said. A lawyer on Wednesday filed a complaint against eight persons, including Salman Khan, Ekta Kapoor and producer-director Karan Johar, in a local court regarding Sushants death. In his complaint filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha alleged that these eight persons forced Sushant to commit suicide under a conspiracy which, he pleaded, amounted to murder. Ekta, who had launched Sushant in her TV series, has expressed shock at the development. If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918 Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened an all-party virtual meet on Friday to discuss the situation along the India-China border, his office said on Wednesday. The meeting comes against the backdrop of demands by the opposition seeking details of the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh which left 20 Indian Army personnel dead. "In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister @narendramodi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 PM on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting," the PMO tweeted. Twenty Indian soldiers including a colonel, were killed on Monday evening in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh Galwan valley. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked the prime minister to share the truth of the India-China face-off, saying the entire country is standing behind him. Earlier in the day, defence minister Rajnath Singh said that Indian soldiers displayed exemplary courage and valour in the line of duty and sacrificed their lives in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. "The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers ...We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's bravehearts," he wrote on Twitter. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:59:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BISHKEK, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The parliament of Kyrgyzstan Wednesday approved the candidacy of 56-year-old Kubatbek Boronov for the country's prime minister, soon making him the 31st in the role since the country gained independence. Boronov's predecessor Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev resigned Monday following allegations of corruption in the sale of radio frequencies. He became prime minister in April 2018. Of 120 parliament members, 105 voted in favor of Boronov and two against. The deputies also approved the program, structure and composition of the new government. Boronov was previously first vice prime minister, prior to which he served as head of the country's Ministry of Emergencies. Parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan are scheduled for October 2020. The government structure remains the same, except for posts of chairman of the State Committee for Information. Taailaybek Temiraliev is the head of the government's office. The new government is "technical" and will work until the formation of a new parliament. Composition of the new government of Kyrgyzstan is as follows: Almazbek Baatyrbekov -- First Vice Prime Minister Erkin Asrandiev, Akram Madumarov, Aida Ismailova -- Vice Prime Ministers Chingiz Aidarbekov -- Minister of Foreign Affairs; Kashkar Dzhunushaliev -- Minister of the Interior; Marat Dzhamankulov -- Minister of Justice; Baktygul Zheenbaeva -- Minister of Finance; Sanzhar Mukanbetov -- Minister of Economy; Erkinbek Choduev -- Minister of Agriculture, Food Industry and Land Reclamation; Zhanat Beishenov -- Minister of Transport and Roads; Zamirbek Askarov -- Minister of Emergency Situations; Kanybek Isakov -- Minister of Education and Science; Sabirzhan Abdikarimov -- Minister of Health; Azamat Zhamankulov -- Minister of Culture, Information and Tourism; Ulukbek Kochkorov -- Minister of Labor and Social Development; Orozbek Opumbaev -- Chairman of the State Committee for National Security; Erlis Terdikbaev -- Chairman of the State Committee for Defense; Emil Osmonbetov -- Chairman of the State Committee for Industry, Energy and Subsoil Use; Altynbek Ismailov -- Chairman of the State Committee for Information Technologies and Communications. Enditem A five-year-old girl found walking alone outside a New Jersey apartment complex in the middle of the night led responding police officers to her mother's body following a deadly stabbing. According to a statement from Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella, in the early hours of Tuesday morning Michelle Burns, 36, a mother-of-three from Dumont, was repeatedly knifed in the neck during an argument with her boyfriend, 36-year-old Jeffrey Daniels, who then fled with the victim's two other young children in tow. A few hours later, police in the nearby city of Closter arrested Daniels and rescued Burns' children, an infant and a young toddler, who were not harmed. Scroll down for video Jeffrey Daniels, 36 (left), has been arrested and charged with murder for allegedly stabbing to death his girlfriend, Michelle Burns, 36 (right), and fleeing with their young children Burns' body was discovered after a neighbor saw her five-year-old daughter walking alone in the courtyard of this apartment complex in Dumont, New Jersey, and called police The suspect was charged with murder, possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child. The case began unfolding at around 12.20am when police received a 911 call asking to perform a welfare check at Burns' apartment in the 300 block if Knickerbocker Road in Dumont. The caller told a dispatcher that she saw Burns' eldest daughter wandering through the courtyard of the apartment complex without supervision after midnight. Officers who arrived on the scene minutes later located the five-year-old and also spoke to Burns' sister and neighbor, Nicole Boccellari, who told them that she had been trying to reach her older sibling by phone, but the woman was not answering. The sister reported hearing the sounds of arguing coming from Burns' apartment, which the hairstylist shared with Daniels and her three daughters, earlier in the evening. Sometime later, the sister said Daniels had knocked on another neighbor's door while carrying two small children and had asked her to give him a ride, but the woman refused to open the door out of fear, reported NorthJersey.com. Police officers then made their way inside Burns' apartment and found the mother dead from stab wounds to the neck inflicted by a kitchen knife. Shortly after, police in Closter called their counterparts in Dumont to say that Daniels had been apprehended after attempting to knock on the front door of a home while wearing no pants or shoes, reported ABC 7 NY. Burns, who worked as a hairstylist, was repeatedly stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife. Her and Daniels' children, ages six months and 18 months, were unharmed The suspect was arrested and booked into Bergen County Jail. Burns' two youngest children by Daniels, an 18-month-old and a six-month-old, were taken to a hospital to await the arrival of caseworkers from the state Department of Children and Families. Her eldest daughter is now in the custody of her biological father, Burns' estranged husband. The woman's youngest sister said Burns and Daniels had a tumultuous romance marred by arguments and fights, but she never filed a restraining order against her boyfriend because she feared he would kill her. Michelle's older brother, John Boccellari, said he and other family members had made attempts to get her out of her fraught relationship with Daniels, but it did not work. A friend has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help Burns' family with her funeral expenses. INTERSECTIONS INCLUDE 56.3 G AU/T OVER 15.10 METRES, 10.2 G AU/T OVER 7.10 METRES, AND 11.9 G AU/T OVER 5.30 METRES (In US Dollars unless otherwise stated) TORONTO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Superior Gold Inc. ("Superior Gold" or the "Company") (TSXV:SGI) is pleased to announce results from the ongoing underground diamond drill program focused on reserve and resource expansion at its 100%-owned Plutonic Gold mine in Western Australia. The drilling targeted potential extensions to the gold mineralization within the Indian Zone. Results are provided for 19 drill holes for a total of more than 1,855 metres of drilling. KEY FINDINGS 17 intersections encountered more than 5g Au/t 7 intersections encountered more than 10g Au/t 3 intersections encountered more than 20g Au/t 1 intersection encountered more than 50g Au/t The drilling was focused on the area to the northwest of the Indian Zone within an area that extends approximately 500 metres between the Indian and Baltic Zones which has yet to be fully drill tested. The location of this drilling is shown in Figures 1-3 . The key intersections are shown in Table 1 below and all intersections are provided in Table 2 . Reported intersections are over a minimum downhole width of 0.30 metres (0.20 metres true width). Chris Bradbrook, President and CEO of Superior Gold stated: "We are extremely pleased with these drill results, which we believe continue to illustrate the potential to extend and connect the Indian and Baltic Zones, expand resources, and extend mine life. The intersection of 56.3g Au/t over 15.10 metres is our most signficant intersection to date since we acquired the Plutonic Gold Operations, and was encountered more than 50 metres from the existing resource outline. The drilling was completed over a strike length of approximately 200 metres and a vertical extent of more than 100 metres. Mineralization remains open both up and down dip and along strike, resides close to exisiting infrastructure, and is only approximately 600 metres from surface. The Indian and Baltic Zones are key components of our five year underground Life of Mine plan that was announced in October 2019. These results illustrate the potential to extend this plan well beyond the initial five years." HIGHLIGHTS Key Intersections are summarized in Table 1 below: Drill Hole # Easting (Mine Grid) Northing (Mine Grid) Drill hole collar RL (Mine Grid) Dip (degrees) Azimuth (degrees, Mine Grid) End of hole depth (m) Downhole From (m) Downhole To (m) Downhole Intersection (m) Au (gpt) uncut Est True Thickness (m) UDD22003 3906 11552 1004 -62 234 94 34.50 47.90 13.40 6.5 9.4 Including 34.50 35.50 1.00 20.6 0.7 and 39.70 45.00 5.30 11.9 3.7 UDD22011 3908 11584 1003 -54 237 75 45.60 60.70 15.10 56.3 10.6 UDD22013 3908 11584 1003 -34 237 113 66.10 73.20 7.10 10.2 5.0 Including 66.10 69.90 3.80 18.3 2.7 UDD22016 3908 11584 1003 -59 260 115 74.40 77.60 3.20 5.5 2.2 Including 75.60 76.60 1.00 14.6 0.7 101.30 113.90 12.60 4.0 8.8 Including 101.30 108.20 6.90 2.0 4.8 and 112.90 113.90 1.00 35.7 0.7 UDD22017 3908 11584 1003 -49 272 118 52.50 57.00 4.50 4.7 3.2 Qualified Person Scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Keith Boyle, P.Eng., Chief Operating Officer of the Company, who is a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) Quality Control Protocols Core is drilled BTW core diameter (42 mm). Core intervals are whole core sampled. All gold results were determined by on-site laboratory analysis and confirmed by ALS Minerals (Perth) using fire assay fusion (40g charge, lead collection method) with an ICP finish. Drill program design, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and interpretation of results are performed by qualified persons employing a Quality Assurance/Quality Control program consistent with NI 43-101 and industry best practices. Standards, blanks and duplicates are included in approximately every 20 samples for Quality Assurance/Quality Control purposes by the Company as well as the laboratory. Approximately 5% of sample pulps are sent to secondary laboratories for check assays. About Superior Gold Superior Gold is a Canadian based gold producer that owns 100% of the Plutonic Gold operations located in Western Australia. The Plutonic Gold operations include the Plutonic underground gold mine and central mill, the Hermes open pit projects and an interest in the Bryah Basin joint venture. Superior Gold is focused on expanding production at the Plutonic Gold operations and building an intermediate gold producer with superior returns for shareholders. Forward Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws that is intended to be covered by the safe harbours created by those laws. "Forward-looking information" includes statements that use forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "potential" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made. Furthermore, such forward-looking information involves a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. See "Risk Factors" in the Company's prospectus dated February 15, 2017 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks. In addition, The Company is exposed to outbreaks or threats of outbreaks of viruses, other infectious diseases or other similar health threats, including the novel coronavirus ("COVID-19") outbreak, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company by causing operational and supply chain delays and disruptions, labour shortages, shutdowns, the inability to sell gold, capital markets volatility or other unknown but potentially significant impacts. The Company cannot accurately predict what effects these conditions will have on the Plutonic Gold Operations or the financial results of the Company, including uncertainties relating to travel restrictions to the Plutonic Gold Operations or otherwise and business closures that have been or may be imposed by governments. If an outbreak or threat of an outbreak of a virus or other infectious disease or other public health emergency occurs, it could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations. The Company cautions that there can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking information contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Superior Gold Related Links https://www.superior-gold.com/ Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during the Google I/O keynote session at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California on May 7, 2019. Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told employees it will commit to more than $175 million toward funding more Black businesses, as well as increase Black representation in leadership. It will also end peer badge-checks, which some employees have said encourage racist behavior. "Over the past several weeks, violent and racist attacks against the Black community have forced the world to reckon with the structural and systemic racism that Black people have experienced over generations," Pichai said in a blog post Wednesday. "My own search for answers started within our own walls." The commitments come after a police officer killed George Floyd, sparking worldwide protests. A few days after the video of the killing was released, Pichai said the company would donate $12 million toward organizations supporting racial justice. Last week, YouTube announced $100 million fund to "amplify" Black creators and artists. It also comes after the company faced backlash for reportedly rolling back diversity programs and providing broken links when employees tried to access resources. Black employees account for just 3.3 percent of Google's overall workforce, with little change over the last several years. The $175 million "economic opportunity package," will go toward supporting Black business owners, startup founders, job seekers and developers, Pichai said. $50 million will go toward financing and grants for small businesses, focused on the Black community. $100 million will go toward funding participation in Black-led capital firms, startups and organizations supporting Black entrepreneurs, "including increased investments in Plexo Capital and non-dilutive funding to Black founders in the Google for Startups network." The rest will go toward skills training and increasing representation in its developer ecosystem. Pichai went on to announce several commitments to build "sustainable equity for the "Black+" community, adding that it will help Google build more helpful products for users. The company said it counts "multiracial people as a member of all the racial categories they identify with" and uses + to represent this. Improve representation by 30 percent by 2025. "First, we're working to improve Black+ representation at senior levels and committing to a goal to improve leadership representation of underrepresented groups by 30 percent by 2025," Pichai said. "To help achieve this, we'll post senior leadership roles externally as well as internally, and increase our investments in places such as Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, and London, where we already have offices." Rolling out anti-racism training globally early next year. "We'll be welcoming external experts into Google to share their expertise on racial history and structural inequities, and start conversations on education, allyship, and self-reflection," Pichai said. Ending peer-based badge-checks. "Over the past year, our Global Security and Resilience team partnering with a cross-functional working group, conducted extensive research, listened to Black Googlers' experiences, and developed and tested new security procedures to ensure we could maintain the safety and security of the Google community without relying on this type of enforcement," Pichai said. "Now, as we prepare to return to the office, we will end the practice of Googlers badge-checking each other and rely on our already robust security infrastructure." WATCH: Change starts with conversation, says former Darden CEO [June 17, 2020] Computer-Aided Biology: The Metadata Responsibility Synthace Ltd, the company behind Antha, the cloud-based software platform for automating and improving the success rate of biological processes, is pleased to announce it has released a new comprehensive whitepaper entitled, Computer-Aided Biology: The Metadata Responsibility. AI needs metadata The future of biological research and development must be built on a foundation of well-contextualised data. The integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence, lab automation, and the internet of things is beginning to enable researchers to address ever-more-complex biological questions across a rapidly expanding bioeconomy. However, the ability to use these tools successfully requires a fundamental shift in how we generate biological data. Data is of value when it is associated with contextual metadata of how the data was produced. It is therefore imperative that rich metadata is harvested at the point of data creation and associated with that data in a complete data package. According to the report, many initiatives are being formed to enable the sharing or structuring of biological data - with the end goal being the ability to leverage artificial intelligence. However, to complement these initiatives, it is important to focus on how this data is being generated in the lab. Critically, systems that allow for the smart definition and capture of richer datasets at the beginning of the data journey will be vital to unlocking AI's power in the experimental sciences. "We are pleased to offer these insights around the importance of collecting comprehensive metadata," said Tim Fell, CEO Synthace. "In this follow up to our pioneering whitepaper Computer-Aided Biology: Delivering biotechnology in the 21st century, we highlight the crucial responsibility to define, capture, and combine metadata at the point of creation. The current practice where users spend considerable time trying to back contextualise experimental datasets is not fit for purpose in an AI and automation powered laboratory." "This whitepaper shows that Synthace is a leading voice in the global conversation about how to make biotechnology more of an engineering discipline. This is also why we have built our Antha platform, which solves the challenges of collecting comprehensive metadata at the time a biological experiment is performed," Fell concluded. The full detailed whitepaper can be found on the following link https://synthace.com/metadata-whitepaper. -ENDS- Tweet this: News! @Synthace announces the launch of its pioneering whitepaper, Computer-Aided Biology: The Metadata Responsibility, highlighting the crucial role of metadata in an AI and automation powered lab of the future. Read here: https://synthace.com/metadata-whitepaper #AI #Automation #Biotech #metadata #LaboftheFuture Follow Synthace Synthace Blog Join the Twitter Conversation Join us on LinkedIn About Synthace Based in London, UK, and Boston, the US, Synthace is accelerating biological discovery & optimisation through computer-aided biology. Our cloud software platform, Antha, empowers biologists by enabling them to flexibly program their lab automation without the need to code. The graphical user interface has been designed by biologists for biologists, intuitively enabling them to automate their whole experiment from planning to execution, data collection, and analysis. Antha is the cornerstone of the lab of the future, seamlessly connecting the digital realm of data with the physical of lab automation and wet-lab biology, automatically collecting and structuring data to accelerate biological understanding. Synthace is unlocking the potential of biology for humankind and our environment. Synthace works with biopharmaceutical companies, and in 2016 was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer that is helping shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution (News - Alert), and in 2018 as a Cool Vendor by Gartner. Visit: www.synthace.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005311/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A 20-year-old and his father are accused of shooting and dumping 19-year-old Amari Wises body after an argument broke out in the familys New Castle garage, according to multiple reports. Wise was hanging out at the Henry family home when he got into a disagreement with an unnamed person and threatened to shoot them, WTAE said. Connor Henry, 20, then threatened to shoot Wise, the TV station reported. Wise died from a gunshot wound to the back of the head, WTAE said. He was reportedly found between a creek and Pennsylvania Avenue. Connors father Todd Henry, 47, is accused of dumping Wises body and power washing the garage floor afterward, according to KDKA. A witness recorded audio of the incident and told KDKA it was bone-chilling to hear. I heard a gunshot, heard them start panicking. It sounded like the dad told [Connor Henry] to calm down and then go in the house, the witness said. Connor Henry was taken into custody in Ocean City, Maryland on charges of homicide and tampering with evidence, WTAE said. Hell be extradited back to Pennsylvania and arraigned. KDKA said Todd Henry is charged with attempted homicide, obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence. Hes being held in the Lawrence County Jail after failing to post bail, the station said. READ MORE: Central Pa. police investigating after severely injured woman is found in the street with multiple gunshot wounds I-80 pursuit ends with Maryland woman critically injured, two PSP cruisers disabled Eastern Pa. man accused of sexually abusing two boys, including foster child Project supported by Department for Transport will see biometric entry corridors brought to rail travel in a world first for the UK Travellers opting for accelerated boarding will be able to complete security processes at St Pancras International station without showing a ticket or passport iProov, the world leader in spoof-resistant opt-in biometric authentication technology, today announced that its technology will be used to improve the speed and safety of train travel. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005228/en/ iProov enables online identity verification using biometric Genuine Presence Assurance (Photo: Business Wire) Rail passengers using Eurostar services will be the first to take advantage of a facial biometric corridor to enable contactless journeys. The walk-through system will allow customers to complete ticket checks and border exit processes at St Pancras International station without needing to come into contact with people or hardware. The concept, already trialled in airports to increase speed and safety and manage immigration, is now being brought to train travel as part of the First of a Kind (FOAK) competition run by Innovate UK and funded by the Department for Transport. The initiative supports research, development and innovation in the UK rail industry. Andrew Bud, Founder and CEO, iProov, said; "This is a world first. iProov is enabling train passengers to choose to travel without tickets or documentation in a way that is safe and secure. "What started off as a project to reduce travel congestion and keep passengers moving is now going to help keep people safe in a pandemic world through social distancing and contactless interaction. "It's yet another example of how opt-in facial verification is making life easier and safer for people around the world." Passengers planning to travel on Eurostar services would be offered an accelerated pre-boarding option. Prior to travelling, they would use the Eurostar app to scan their identity documentation before iProoving themselves. The iProov facial biometric check uses patented controlled illumination to authenticate the identity of the user against the ID document. The iProov solution is unique in assuring the Genuine Presence of the passenger. As well as checking that the user is the right person, matching the identity portrayed in the passport, the illumination process checks that the user is a real person, rather than a photo, video, or mask, and, uniquely, that the user is authenticating right now. This protects against large-scale criminal attacks using deepfakes. The passenger would then receive a message confirming that their identity document had been secured and a ticket or passport would not need to be shown again until they reached their destination. On arrival at St Pancras International, the passenger would enter the contactless travel corridor and proceed in distanced fashion before boarding the train. A kiosk solution at the station would allow passengers without access to smartphones to complete the same process. The iProov solution will be developed in close partnership with Eurostar, the UK's only operator of high-speed rail services, and with Canadian travel and immigration solution specialists WorldReach Software. It is planned to be in live operation by March 2021. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "I am delighted to announce the winners of this year's First of a Kind competition, which will support better, more environmentally friendly journeys. Crucially, these pioneering projects will also ensure that passengers have a more efficient, reliable and responsive railway, making their journeys simpler and easier." Ian Campbell, Executive Chair of Innovate UK, said: "These high quality projects illustrate the appetite of UK organisations to develop new and exciting innovations for rail transport that improve customers' user experience, that optimise railway efficiency, and are environmentally sustainable." Gareth Williams, Strategy Director and Company Secretary at Eurostar, said; "We are very pleased to be working with iProov on this important innovation. We're convinced it will enhance our passenger experience and offer a live illustration of how innovation can benefit the high speed rail and international transport industries." iProov has been enabling global banks and other regulated organisations to meet Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations for several years, before extending into biometric traveller verification for the Department of Homeland Security in the US. ENDS About iProov Founded in 2011, iProov is the world leader in online facial biometric authentication, working with governments, banks and other enterprises to remotely verify customer identity. Used for onboarding, logon, and authentication, customers include the US Department of Homeland Security, the UK Home Office, the UK National Health Service (NHS), Rabobank, ING and others. iProov's unique patented technology provides Genuine Presence Assurance, ensuring that an online customer is the right person, a real person, and authenticating right now. This protects against spoof attacks using photos, videos, masks, replay attacks and the emerging threat of deepfakes. For more information, please see www.iproov.com, LinkedIn or Twitter. About Eurostar Eurostar is the high-speed train service linking St Pancras International, Ebbsfleet International, Ashford International, Paris, Brussels, Lille, Calais, Disneyland Resort Paris, Avignon, the French Alps, Lyon, Avignon, Marseille, Rotterdam and Amsterdam Eurostar was established in 1994 as a partnership between three railway companies: SNCF, SNCB and LCR (London and Continental Railways). On 1 September 2010, Eurostar became a single, unified corporate entity owned by three shareholders: SNCF, SNCB and LCR. LCR's holding was transferred to the Treasury in 2014, and sold by the UK government to a consortium comprising Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ) and Hermes Infrastructure on 28th May 2015. Eurostar is a founder member of Railteam, a partnership between Europe's leading high-speed train operators that is developing simpler ways to book and travel on the fast-expanding, European high-speed rail network. Eurostar and Eurotunnel are entirely separate companies. Eurostar operates high-speed passenger trains, while Eurotunnel operates vehicle shuttle services and the Channel Tunnel itself. Eurostar is Eurotunnel's biggest customer. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005228/en/ Contacts: PR Tyto (on behalf of iProov) Connor Mitchell connor.mitchell@tytopr.com +44 203 026 000 Up to 51,000 worth of drugs have been seized at Shannon Airport. One kilogram of vacuum-packed blocks of Kratom, with an estimated value of 40,600, was found. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened an all-party virtual meet on 19 June to discuss the situation on the India-China border, his office said on Wednesday. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened an all-party virtual meet on 19 June to discuss the situation on the India-China border, his office said on Wednesday. Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two. "In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister @narendramodi has called for an all-party meeting at 5 pm on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting," the PMO tweeted. International travelers of over 60 countries will be required to obtain an ETIAS for Europe in 2022. Foreign visitors will have to complete an online application to get their ETIAS travel authorization. What exactly is ETIAS? ETIAS stands for Electronic Travel and Information Authorization System. It is currently being developed by the European Union's eu-LISA It Systems Agency. Once the system is up and running, travelers from eligible countries will be able to apply online for an ETIAS visa waiver. This electronic travel authorization will allow the EU to: Improve security in Europe Identify individuals that may pose a threat to the region Know who is visiting European territory Similar to the U.S.' ESTA or Canada's ETA, ETIAS will gather an international traveler's basic information and screen their details against security databases. How will travelers be able to get ETIAS? International travelers will have access to an online registration form. The ETIAS application will be straightforward and easy to complete. When filling out the form, foreign visitors should provide the following information: Full name as it appears on their passport Date of birth Nationality Contact information: address, telephone number Country of intended first entry Passport details: number, issuing and expiry date The application form to get the ETIAS visa waiver will take about ten minutes. It is expected that most application will be processed within a few minutes. Who can get ETIAS? At this time, nationals of over 60 countries are able to visit Europe without the need of a visa. Thanks to mutual visa waiver agreements between these countries and Europe, international visitors can travel to Europe and stay for up to 90 consecutive days. Citizens of these countries will be eligible to get the ETIAS visa waiver. It is important to note that ETIAS is not a visa, it is an electronic travel authorization. The applicant will not need to make an appointment with an embassy or consulate. They can complete the ETIAS application using an electronic device such as a tablet, smartphone or a laptop or computer. What will I need to apply for ETIAS? If you are currently able to travel to Europe without a visa, this means you are from a visa waiver country. Once travel authorization is released in 2022, you will need to meet the following ETIAS requirements to apply: Hold a passport valid beyond the desired stay in Europe An email address A debit or credit card The ETIAS visa waiver will carry a cost. To successfully submit an application, you must cover the fee of the visa waiver with a debit or credit card. All applicants must use a valid email address when registering. Notifications about the status of ETIAS will be sent to the email address provided on the form. Also, if there are issues with a traveler's application, the ETIAS team will contact said traveler via email. It is possible that in some rare cases, an applicant may be asked to provide additional documents. While entering personal information and passport data, it is essential to double check that they match. Every applicant is responsible for providing accurate details. All the information a traveler enters will be verified by the ETIAS system. Where in Europe can I travel with the ETIAS visa waiver? The ETIAS visa waiver will be valid to travel to Schengen Member countries. The EU's Schengen Area is comprised of 26 European nations. These are the Schengen Countries where ETIAS will become an entry requirement in 2022: Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The Schengen Area also includes three European microstates: Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City. The countries listed above have all signed the Schengen Agreement, which originated in June 1985. Internal border checks have been mostly abolished, allowing for the free movement of people. The Schengen Area also has a common visa policy. Citizens who won't be eligible to obtain an ETIAS visa waiver, will have to apply for a consular visa through a Schengen member state embassy or consulate. When entering data on the ETIAS form, the applicant will need to indicate the Schengen country of first intended entry, even if they are planning on visiting more countries in the region. How long will ETIAS be valid for? Once an ETIAS visa waiver is granted to an applicant, it will be valid for a period of three consecutive years from the date of approval. However, if the traveler's passport expires before the three year mark, their ETIAS will no longer be valid. An ETIAS visa waiver will be electronically linked to a traveler's passport. If the passport has expired, the travel authorization will be void. Unlike a visa, the ETIAS visa waiver cannot be extended. After it has expired, it will be necessary to complete a new ETIAS registration. Duration of Stay in Europe While the ETIAS travel authorization will be valid for three years, the duration of stay in the Schengen Area is of 90 days within a 180 day period. ETIAS grants multiple entries to the region, however, it is strongly advised not to overstay beyond the 90 days. This could have an impact on future travels to the region. Why will I need ETIAS to enter Europe? Discussions about introducing a unified electronic travel authorization system were first brought up in 2016. Europe has been the target of several terrorist attacks in recent years. Another issue that concerns the EU is irregular immigration. You will need ETIAS to contribute to the EU's fight to protect its citizens and territory. To improve border security, the EU decided to develop a system that will identify individuals who may pose a threat. For instance, the ETIAS system will spot whether a person has committed fraud, has overstayed in Europe in the past, or is applying with a reported lost or stolen passport. The ETIAS system will screen each application against security databases that include Europol, Interpol, EURODAC, Schengen Information System, and VIS (Visa Information System). Activated alerts will allow the system to deny ETIAS to suspicious travelers. ETIAS will benefit both: the EU and foreign visitors. The goal of ETIAS is to better secure the Schengen Zone and prevent further attacks. Official talks on free trade is linked to Brexit that UK government sees as chance to deepen ties with global allies. The United Kingdom has formally launched talks with Australia and New Zealand on free-trade agreements following the UKs departure from the European Union. Australias Trade Minister Simon Birmingham announced the start of official negotiations on Wednesday, in a speech highlighting his countrys drive to diversify trade as it is locked in disputes with China. The UKs Conservative government has heralded Brexit as an opportunity to deepen trade relations with global partners. While talks have already taken place, formal negotiations had been delayed until the UK left the EU bloc in January. Birmingham warned that even with an Australia-UK deal, volumes were unlikely to return to those seen in the 1970s a time before the UK joined the European Economic Community and when its trade was last focused on its former colonies. Australia will be looking to secure better market access for goods exports, especially in agriculture, and high-standard rules on digital trade and investment, he said. Talks on an Australia-EU trade deal are already under way, and Birmingham said Canberra would also like to conclude them this year. But he admitted that would be a tough task with negotiations on several trade agreements taking place simultaneously. Birmingham refused to say whether Australia would prioritise a deal with the EU or the UK. The EU is a much bigger market and, notwithstanding Brexit, it remains a much bigger market. But that does not mean the UK is not a significant market, he said. I dont have favoured children in that regard, and I want to love them both equally. Trade with New Zealand Separate negotiations commenced in Wellington, where UK High Commissioner Laura Clarke said it made sense to deal with Australia and New Zealand at the same time, given their close economic ties. David Parker, New Zealands minister for trade and export growth, said the country was pleased to be among the first to negotiate on trade with the post-Brexit UK, calling the country one of our oldest friends. As he announced the formal launch of free-trade negotiations, Parker said he hoped it would open up opportunities for regional communities, Maori exporters, and small and medium-sized businesses. Meanwhile, while not mentioning China by name, New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her country was also aiming to broaden its range of trading partners. Our policy in the here and now is to strengthen New Zealands economy and resilience through diversification, she said. In 2019, Australian export to China was worth about $103bn, while New Zealand export was worth about $11bn. The UK is New Zealands sixth-largest trading partner, with two-way trade totalling almost $3.8bn in 2019. Two-way trade between the UK and Australia amounted to about $20bn from 2018 to 2019, making the kingdom Australias seventh-largest trading partner. An American national will spend nearly 16 years in prison for sexually abusing four minors at a childrens home he ran with his wife in Bomet County, Kenya. Gregory Hayes Dow, 61, from Lancaster in Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places during a teleconference with U.S. District Judge Edward Smith on Monday. Dow assaulted four underage girls between 2013 and 2017 while running Dow Family Childrens Home in Boito, Kenya, which he established in 2008. The court heard that when the abuse started, two girls were 11, one was 12 and one was 13 years old. The prosecution noted that Dow purported to be a Christian missionary who would care for these orphans. They called him Dad. But instead of being a father figure for them, he preyed on their youth and vulnerability. He used force and coercion to perpetrate the most heinous of crimes, preying on vulnerable children for his own sexual gratification, said the federal prosecutors as quoted by the LNP daily newspaper in Lancaster. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy M. Stengel noted that Dows wife had taken the victims, and other girls at the orphanage, to a Kenyan clinic to have birth control devices implanted, and as a result, Dow was able to perpetrate these crimes without fear that the abuse would result in pregnancy. The apparent pedophile pleaded guilty following a plea agreement that he would serve 15 years and eight months in prison. Dow must also register as a sex offender under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Gregory and his wife, Mary Rose Dow, arrived in Kenya on February 27, 2008, and set up the orphanage which received financial support from Lancaster County churches and nonprofits. On Sept. 11, 2017, a 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl from the orphanage filed sexual harassment reports with Kenyan police. The next day Kenyan investigators visited the childrens home but the Dows had already fled. Mary Rose Dow was in January 2008 sentenced in Kenya to one year in prison or to pay a fine of about $500 U.S. after being convicted of two counts of cruelty in connection to her husbands case. She paid the fine and returned to the U.S. Gregory was arrested July 12, 2019, in Lancaster; he pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually abusing the four girls and was placed in custody because he was considered a flight risk. In the biggest military confrontation between India and China in over five decades, at least 20 Indian Army soldiers were killed in a violent clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday night. While China said it does not want more clashes with India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it clear today that although India wants peace but it is capable to give a befitting reply if instigated. A large number of Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Galwan Valley and certain other areas of eastern Ladakh for the last five weeks, including in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. Here are the latest updates on India's face-off with China: All Indian troops on border duty always carry arms, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday as a response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who asked on Twitter why soldiers were sent "unarmed to martyrdom" in Galwan Valley. The minister said armies of the two sides do not use firearms as per provisions of two bilateral agreements sealed in 1996 and 2005. Read more No Indian troops missing in action, clarified Indian Army. This is with reference to the article 'In China-India Clash, Two Nationalist Leaders with Little Room to Give' by New York Times dated 17 June 2020. Talks between Major Generals of India and China in Galwan Valley are over. The talks have remained inconclusive as no immediate disengagement or change in ground has taken place. More talks to take place in the coming days, reports ANI quoting sources Four Army personnel who were critically injured after the violent face-off with Chinese troops are stable now, reported ANI citing Army sources Front-line bases of the Indian army and the air force along the nearly 3,500 km de-facto border with China have been put on high alert in sensitive Galwan Valley, PTI reported citing official sources. The Army has already rushed in additional troops to all its key front-line bases and formations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, they said. President Ram Nath Kovind expressed deepest condolences to the families of 20 Indian soldiers. "All those who laid down their lives in Galwan valley of Ladakh have upheld the best traditions of the Indian armed forces. Their valour will be eternally etched in the memory of the nation. My deepest condolences to their families," the President tweeted. All those who laid down their lives in Galwan valley of Ladakh have upheld the best traditions of the Indian armed forces. Their valour will be eternally etched in the memory of the nation. My deepest condolences to their families. President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) June 17, 2020 "We are proud of our nation, we will fight this together. We stand with the nation at this hour: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on all party-meeting called by PM on June 19 over #IndiaChinaFaceOff After speaking to Chinese foreign minister, EAM S Jaishankar "underlined that this unprecedented development will have a serious impact on the bilateral relationship. The need of the hour was for the Chinese side to reassess its actions and take corrective steps", MEA said in a statement. "Two sides should scrupulously and sincerely implement the understanding reached by Senior Commanders on 6 June. Troops of both sides should also abide by bilateral agreements and protocols. They should strictly respect and observe LAC and shouldn't take any unilateral action to alter it," the ministry added. During the phone call, a strong message was conveyed by Indian Foreign Minister to China: What happened in Galwan was premeditated and planned action by China which was responsible for the sequence of events" reported ANI. "General MM Naravane, COAS and all ranks salute the supreme sacrifice of our valiant soldiers at Galwan. We offer deepest condolences to the families & stand strong in our resolve towards protecting the sovereignty & integrity of our country. Their sacrifices will not go in vain," said Indian Army in statement. Amid anti-China protests in various districts of north Bengal, shop owners in Siliguri's popular Hong Kong market on Wednesday decided to change its name and stop selling Chinese products in the entire market. In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced 5 lakh compensation and government job for kin of 2 soldiers from the state who died in the Galwan Valley. 5 lakh compensation and government job for kin of 2 soldiers from the state who died in the Galwan Valley. The Indian Army has released the names of the 20 military personnel, including an officer, who laid out their lives in the violent face-off with China. Chinese foreign minister emphasises that both sides should strengthen communication and coordination through existing mechanism to resolve differences. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over phone. "India and China should follow important consensus reached by their leaders," Wang tells Jaishankar. China, India agree to resolve border clash in a fair way, de-escalate as soon as possible, reports Reuters quoting China foreign ministry. Home minister Amit Shah said the entire nation and the Modi government is standing firmly with families of soldiers killed along Sino-India border in this hour of grief. "Pain of losing our brave soldiers while protecting our motherland at Ladakh's Galwan cannot be put in words. Nation salutes our immortal heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep Indian territory safe and secure," he said. Kolkata-based importers have started holding back their orders to China. A large range of consumer products from toys to lights and industrial items are imported from China, president of Calcutta Customs House Agents Association, Sujit Chakrabarty said. Congress president Sonia Gandhi said the prime minister should tell the nation how the Chinese occupied Indian territory and why 20 of our brave soldiers were martyred. She also asked how much of Indian territory has been occupied by China and what is the government's strategy to deal with the situation. "In this time of crisis, Congress stands with army, govt. Confident that country will unite to face enemy.": Sonia Gandhi on India-China stand-off. The Congress today blamed the Modi government for the violent face-off with Chinese troops. Prime minister Narendra Modi and his government is quiet now. The country had not expected that the government's silence of 40 days will result in this," AICC spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said. Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked PM Modi "what is govt's strategy to deal with situation on border". China said that it does not wish to see "more clashes" with India. "From the Chinese side, we do not wish to see more clashes," said Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. "We are having communication through diplomatic and military channels. The right and wrong of this is very clear... The incident happened on the Chinese side of Line of Actual Control (LAC) and China is not to blame for it," Lijian added. PM Narendra Modi made the statement on China during a video conferencing in which Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers of 15 states and union territories, were also present. He asked everyone to observe two-minute silence as a tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives in the clash. We have tried that differences do not become disputes: PM Modi on Ladakh face-off. The sacrifices of soldiers along the border with China will not go in vain: PM Modi "I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans will not be in vain. For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important. India wants peace but it is capable to give a befitting reply if instigated": PM Modi. "From early May, Chinese PLA has been trying to occupy ground position on basis of its idea of LAC and we dont agree with their perception. So, Indian troops in early May stopped Chinese troops from advancing: Gautam Bambawale, former Indian Ambassador to China. A group of six-seven ex-armymen gathered near the Chinese embassy in Delhi to stage a protest under the banner of Martyr's Welfare Association. Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has suspended its team doctor, Madhu Thottappillil, after he posted a tweet about recent India-China military stand-off 'in bad taste'. "Just curious if the Coffins will come back with a 'PM CARES' sticker on them?" he had reportedly tweeted. Names of the 20 Indian Army personnel who lost their lives in the "violent face-off" with China in Galwan Valley, Ladakh. View Full Image Photo: ANI Major General level talks being held between India and China in the Galwan valley to further defuse the situation after the violent face-off between their troops on June 15-16: ANI says quoting Indian Army Sources. In order to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas, Prime Minister has called for an all-party meeting at 5 PM on 19th June. Presidents of various political parties would take part in this virtual meeting. China today claimed that the sovereignty of the Galwan Valley area in Ladakh "always belonged to it," a day after the armies of the two countries were engaged in a violent face-off. When pointed out that the India has released the number of casualties and why Beijing was not providing the number for Chinese side, he said, "I I have stated that Chinese and Indian border troops are now jointly dealing with the relevant matter on the ground. I have nothing to add at the moment." Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said China urges India to "strictly restrain frontline troops, do not illegally cross the border, do not make provocative gestures, do not take any unilateral actions that will complicate the border situation". China is not to be blamed regarding the latest incident, says Zhao Lijian. "We of course don't wish to see more clashes," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference, while urging India to avoid "provocative gestures" that could complicate the border situation. "The Nation will never forget their bravery and sacrifice. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen soldiers. The nation stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this difficult hour. We are proud of the bravery and courage of India's bravehearts," Rajnath Singh said. The loss of soldiers in Galwan Valley is deeply disturbing and painful, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday, paying glowing tributes to the Army personnel who were killed in a violent clash with the Chinese Army. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will also join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Chief Ministers of 15 states and Union Territories via video conference today at 3 pm. The External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said the violent face-off between armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. On the situation at the China-India border both sides are having close communication with each other resolving this through diplomatic and military channels, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics He's on a mission to find the mythical Blue Mountains black panther on his property near Bathurst. And on Wednesday, Family Feud host Grant Denyer shared an 'evidence alert' with his 158,000 Instagram followers. The 42-year-old posted a video of a wombat hole on his farm with what he claimed to be bones inside, while also explaining how wombats are plant eaters. Off he goes: Grant Denyer (pictured), 42, continued his search for the Blue Mountains black panther on his property on Wednesday - and shared video evidence of bones in a wombat hole 'Panther Man here. NEW EVIDENCE ALERT. In our hunt for the famous bush Panther, we've discovered BONES inside this wombat hole on our farm,' Grant wrote online. 'Here's the deal, wombats don't eat meat. They're plant eaters. What's this sheep's hip bone doing in there? What dragged it in and devoured it?!?' he continued. Clearly delighted with his findings, Grant went on to joke that that 'this story is too big to drop' and will 'risk' his life for 'Panther truth'. 'There's a skeleton in there': Grant posted a video of a wombat hole on his farm with what he claimed to be bones inside, while also explaining how wombats are plant eaters Excited: 'Here's the deal, wombats don't eat meat. They're plant eaters. What's this sheep's hip bone doing in there? What dragged it in and devoured it?!?' he wrote in the post's caption The TV star accompanied his caption with a short video zooming in on a hole at his property, and is heard saying 'there's a skeleton in there' in the background. Last month, Grant told News.com.au that he'd not only seen the panther on his farm, he'd caught it on camera. 'I'll give you an exclusive, and don't think I'm crazy, but I am on the panther bandwagon right now,' he told the publication. On a mission: Last month, Grant told News.com.au that he'd not only seen the panther on his farm, he'd caught it on camera He clarified: 'I'm talking about the famous panthers that roam the Australian bush.' Reported sightings of black panthers in Australia first emerged over a 100 years ago, but there's still no hard evidence of their existence. Still, Grant maintains he's seen the animal twice at the bottom of his farm, and claims to have video proof, even though it's 'blurry and zoomed 10 times on my iPhone'. Determined: 'I'll give you an exclusive, and don't think I'm crazy, but I am on the panther bandwagon right now,' he told the publication He went on to say he recently installed 'infrared and motion-detecting night cameras' on his property in the hope of getting a better look at the animal. Grant shared a home video of what he believes was the black panther on his Facebook page in November 2018. 'FRESH PANTHER EVIDENCE!! I shot this yesterday. Massive, black Panther roaming our bottom paddock,' he captioned it. Evidence: Grant maintains he's seen the animal twice at the bottom of his farm, and claims to have video proof, even though it's 'blurry and zoomed 10 times on my iPhone' And after speaking to other locals, Grant said he's more convinced than ever that the animal was the mysterious black panther. 'I had heard about the myth many a time. I'd quizzed locals in the area of Bathurst and Lithgow - there'd been many a tale,' he told news.com.au. 'So I was like, "I've just seen the famous panther".' The future of small business in Canada isnt looking bright, according to a recent survey. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/6/2020 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The future of small business in Canada isnt looking bright, according to a recent survey. Manitoba sits around the middle of the pack countrywide in terms of small businesses reopening, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business among those surveyed, around 57 per cent of small businesses in the province are now open, but only a quarter are back to pre-COVID-19 shutdown revenues. The survey was conducted between June 12 and 15, surveying 4,098 businesses. The survey has a margin of error of 1.2 per cent, 19 out of 20 times. The results are not entirely surprising, CFIB director for the prairie region Jonathan Alward said Tuesday. "There are a lot of businesses that are reaching a critical point and really need support from government, and certainly need a lot of support from Manitobans to go out and shop local," he said. As of late May, the CFIB found around 12 per cent of all businesses surveyed were considering declaring bankruptcy or winding down operations as a result of COVID-19. "When were looking back at 2020, and what happened especially in the second-last quarter, I certainly hope thats not the case, I hope we dont lose one in every 10 small businesses across the province," he said. "But at the same time, I think a lot are in a position right now where if we dont have extra help from government, if we dont have a lot of Manitobans thinking about shopping small and improving consumer confidence to go out and actually shop and support these businesses, were absolutely looking at that as a real possibility." While the agriculture sector has the highest percentage of open businesses and normal sales, the hospitality industry is currently being hit the hardest only 18 per cent of businesses surveyed have reopened, and just seven per cent are reporting normal sales. "Im very interested to see what happens in Phase 3, in particular with restaurants, because we have heard the 75 per cent (capacity) isnt really going to help a lot of businesses," Alward said. Phase 3 of Manitobas reopening plan is set to begin June 21, and the plan includes an increase from 50 to 75 per cent capacity for restaurants. The math doesnt add up for smaller restaurants who still have to keep their tables six feet apart from each other, according to Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association executive director Shaun Jeffrey, who said the CFIB finding hospitality at the bottom of the list didnt surprise him at all. "In Manitoba, we really took some major steps to be successful in keeping the curve flat, we succeeded yet were always the middle or the last to implement measures that are allowing for the reopening and the viability of restaurants," Jeffrey said. Jeffrey said he believed restaurants will be overrepresented among the possible 12 per cent of businesses going bankrupt or winding down reported in the survey. "If we dont get some relief, whether it be an easing of social distancing, easing of rent relief, commercial moratoriums on rent, additional supports of business and property taxes if we dont get this relief, July will see significant increases (of closures)," Jeffrey 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. The federal government announced Monday that as of June 19, the requirements for small businesses that qualify for Canada Emergency Business Account funding will be expanded a step in the right direction, but not enough, Alward said. The average rent cost for CFIB members, Alward said, is $10,000 a month, and many have fewer than 10 employees meaning businesses that qualify for financing up to $40,000 will see much of it going to paying landlords who have not been mandated to reduce their rental fees while businesses have been closed. Both Alward and Jeffrey recommended the province implement a temporary commercial eviction ban, which would be in line with other provinces, including Alberta and Saskatchewan. A letter was sent to Premier Brian Pallister signed by the CFIB, the MRFA and several other organizations May 27 recommending the province place a stop on evictions until September. Alward said the CFIB has yet to hear back from the province. malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: malakabas_ The first British mother on record to give birth to 10 sons in a row was delighted to welcome a baby girl. The mom of 11 said she is thrilled to no longer be outnumbered. Alexis Brett, who lives in the Scottish town of Dingwall in Ross-shire, gave birth to her first and only daughter, Cameron, on Aug. 27, 2019. We are absolutely in love with her, Alexis, 40, told Caters News at the time. The whole family is besotted. Alexis and David Brett with their 11 children including 10 boys and 1 girl. (Caters News) Whenever we have brought a new baby home, the family is thrilled and wants to help, Alexis continued, but this time the boys have been even more excited. Alexis admitted that after giving birth to 10 boys in a row, she and her husband, David, were convinced that they would be having another boy. As such, Alexis almost avoided asking her sonographer for the unborn babys gender. Alexis with her baby scan. (Caters News) The mom, a former-nurse-turned-part-time-fitness-instructor, said that she and David were gobsmacked to learn that their eleventh baby was a girl. I just didnt really think we were capable of making a girl, she said. The couple planned a gender reveal with their sons and claimed that the boys were collectively excited after they found out that they were to have a sister for the very first time. After the birth, baby Cameron was given a crib in her parents bedroom while the Brett brothers shared rooms in the familys detached five-bedroom home. Baby Cameron with her parents Alexis and David. (Caters News) Alexis and her husband, David, a 44-year-old train driver who also suffers from early-onset Parkinsons disease, credited their sons for embracing their new roles as big brothers to their only baby sister. They are desperate to help out her brothers are very protective of her, Alexis said of the couples 10 boys. Campbell, the eldest, is the big brother to Harrison, Corey, Lachlan, Brodie, Brahn, Hunter, Mack, Blake, and Rothagaidh. Camerons arrival has impacted the brothers in a good way. Shes already having a good influence on the boys, David told the Daily Mail. They have generally been much better behaved around her, trying to keep quiet in case they wake her up. They also want to help with holding and feeding her, he added. Its been great. The couple, who always wondered what they would do if they have a girl, are now enjoying buying all things pink for the very first time. Alexis Brett with her daughter, Cameron. (Caters News) However, the Bretts revealed that it is no easy feat funding a family of 11 growing children. Collectively, the family consumes 6 pints (approx. 3 liters) of milk and two loaves of bread every single day. David completes three grocery shopping trips every week. Alexis, who cant stand mess, also washes laundry and vacuum cleans the floors a grand total of seven times a day. According to The Sun, Davids Parkinsons symptoms remain minor and are thus far successfully controlled by medication. David works, and Alexis voiced plans to return to work as a fitness instructor around her childrens school schedules. Alexis said that the couple often receives comments about the number of children they have, but the mom of 11 claimed that neither she nor David was bothered by what other people think. Were well used to it, she said. Some people think we must be on benefits, but were not. David has a good job which means we dont even qualify for full child benefit. David and Alexis with all their 11 children. (Caters News) The mom of 11, who grew up as the only child, never thought she would have such a huge family but revealed that now that she does, she loves it. Lots of people assume we have had so many children because we have kept trying for a girl but thats absolutely not the case, Alexis told Caters News, adding, Were definitely not having any more! (Newser) John Bolton's White House memoir has been printed and shipped to warehouses ahead of a scheduled June 23 release datebut the Trump administration doesn't want it to see the light of day. The administration filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block the release of The Room Where It Happened, saying it contains classified information, the New York Times reports. The Justice Department asked a federal court to order Bolton to "instruct or request" publisher Simon and Schuster to delay publication until the national security review process is completed, and to "retrieve and dispose" of the copies already printed. Bolton submitted the book for security review in January and has pushed back the publication date several times since. story continues below The book from the former national security adviser "shows a president addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government," according to Simon and Schuster. President Trump warned Monday that Bolton could have a "criminal problem" if he goes ahead with the release next week. Bolton's lawyer, Charles Cooper, says efforts to block publication are a "transparent attempt to use national security as a pretext to censor Mr. Bolton," the Guardian reports. According to the lawsuit, Ellen Knight, the official conducting the review, completed it in late April "and was of the judgment that the manuscript draft did not contain classified information." The lawsuit states that Bolton went ahead with plans to publish in June after contacting Knight three times and being told that the review process was ongoing. (Read more John Bolton stories.) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating T-Mobile after the service experienced a 13 hour-long outage on Monday that impacted customers across the US. The disruption started shortly after 12pm ET and continued on until after 1am ET the next day, leaving hundreds of thousands of users without optimal service. T-Mobile has blamed an internet protocol traffic-related issue, but others suggest it may have been triggered by network configuration changes that were conducted the night before. However, the FCC is now demanding answers from the firm and Chairman Ajit Pai shared a statement on Twitter: 'The T-Mobile network outage is unacceptable' and that 'the FCC is launching an investigation. We're demanding answersand so are American consumers.' The FCC is investigating T-Mobile after the service experienced a 13 hour-long outage on Monday that impacted customers across the US. Issues began to surface Monday afternoon, with many users sharing reports on Down Detector, a site that offers real-time status and outages for online services. More than 110,000 users were plague by the outage Monday afternoon and there were still over 26,000 reports into the evening. Our engineers are working to resolve a voice and data issue that has been affecting customers around the country,' Neville Ray, president of technology for T-Mobile, said in a tweet at 5:24pm ET 'We're sorry for the inconvenience and hope to have this fixed shortly.' After hours had passed, Ray finally broke his silence with another tweet stating the issues had been resolved. The disruption started shortly after 12pm ET and continued on until after 1am ET the next day, leaving hundreds of thousands of users without optimal service. T-Mobile has blamed an internet protocol traffic-related issue, but others suggest it may have been triggered by network configuration changes that were conducted the night before Chairman Ajit Pai shared a statement on Twitter: 'The T-Mobile network outage is unacceptable' and that 'the FCC is launching an investigation. We're demanding answersand so are American consumers' He also released a statement noting that 'the trigger event is known to be a leased fiber circuit failure from a third party provider in the Southeast. 'This is something that happens on every mobile network, so we've worked with our vendors to build redundancy and resiliency to make sure that these types of circuit failures don't affect customers.' This redundancy failed us and resulted in an overload situation that was then compounded by other factors.' The overload then caused an 'IP traffic storm that spread from the Southeast to create significant capacity issues across the IMS (IP multimedia Subsystem) core network that supports VoLTE calls.' AT&T and Verizon both said their networks were operating normally. But calls between their customers and T-Mobile customers could have run into trouble because of T-Mobiles issues, creating the impression of a widespread communications failure. The peak of the outage seems to have hit at 12pm ET with more than 110,000 users sharing the problems on Down Detector and there were still over 93,000 reports three hours later Some users were demanding T-Mobile provide them with a free month of service to compensate for the outage The FCC has fined telecom companies in the past for network outages. T-Mobile paid a $17.5 million fine for two nationwide service outages on the same day in August 2014, which together lasted three hours and prevented customers from being able to call 911. Public-safety officials were worried about lack of access to 911 on Monday as well. For example, the Redmond, Washington, police department tweeted that T-Mobile customers should have 'an alternate plan in place in the event you need to call 911.' In February, T-Mobile won approval to takeover Sprint during a legal battle for the blockbuster deal to combine the third and fourth-largest U.S. mobile carriers. Officials from New York, California and other states were against the merger, citing it would violate antitrust laws and raise prices for consumers. During a two-week trial in December, T-Mobile and Sprint argued the merger will better equip the new company to compete with top players Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc, creating a more efficient company with low prices and faster internet speeds. R K Singh, Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy and MoS, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Govt of India has said that the Ministry may consider to extend the ISTS waiver for renewable energy projects by at least 6 months. Addressing CEOs Interactive Session organized by FICCI Renewable Energy CEOs Council and FICCI Power Committee, Singh said that power generation will have to be doubled. He urged the industry to start adding capacity without waiting for bids to come out as RPO penalty will be made more stringent. The government is looking towards strengthening the local manufacturing units for solar instead of depending on neighbouring countries, he added. Alluding to reforms in the sector, Singh said that amendments in the Electricity Act are essential to make the sector viable and sustainable. The Minister urged the industry to communicate the importance of these reforms. He added that the sanctity of contracts have to be maintained and this applies to all parties involved, failing to do so will result in blacklisting of companies. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Members of the Minneapolis Police Department Community Navigator program speak with people gathered near a crime scene in Minneapolis, Minn., on June 16, 2020. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Minneapolis to Replace Police with Transformative New Model The Minneapolis City Council is starting a year-long process to try to figure out what will replace the citys police department, according to newly released details. The council unanimously passed a resolution last week to pursue a transformative new model of policing in the city, replacing the police department with a community-led public safety system. The veto-proof vote came after protests erupted nationwide over the in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. According to the newly released text (pdf), the process will take a year and involve research and community engagement with every willing community member in Minneapolis as officials try to create a new model of public safety. Floyd, 46, died after former police officer Derek Chauvinwho now faces second-degree murder chargesknelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. Calls for police reform have grown amid protests over Floyds death and against police brutality. The murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, by Minneapolis police officers is a tragedy that shows that no amount of reforms will prevent lethal violence and abuse by some members of the police department against members of our community, especially black people and people of color, City Council President Lisa Bender wrote in the resolution. Council members noted that Floyd was not the first person killed by Minneapolis police, and that he joins a tragically long list of names. As we respond to demands for immediate action to reduce police violence and support community safety, we will invite our community to help shape long-term transformative change, centering the voices of those most impacted by community violence and police violence, Bender said in a statement. Protesters march on Hiawatha Avenue while decrying the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 26, 2020. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Since Floyds death, there have been growing calls for officials to cut police funding and place greater emphasis on supporting essential social services. Organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement have stated they want a national defunding of police. The demands of the defund the police movement range from calls for redistributing funds from police budgets to complementary community-based solutions, to extreme proposals of entirely disbanding police departments. Floyds death has also fueled national discussions on overhauling police procedures, including creating a national database of excessive-force encounters, banning the use of chokeholds, and limiting legal protections for police. The resolution states that $193 million was allocated to the Minneapolis Police Department in its 2020 budget, and that the figure is more than double the funds allocated for areas such as building affordable housing, home ownership support, small business support programs, race equity, violence prevention, family and early childhood support, youth development, and protection of civil rights. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said last week that Floyds death had made him committed to transformative change, as he announced that the department would be pulling out from contract negotiations with the police union. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, meanwhile, has voiced opposition to dismantling the department, but said he is open to reform. We need to entirely shift the culture that has for years failed black and brown people, he told NPR. We need a full structural revamp. But abolishing the police department? No, I think thats a bad idea. The council states in the resolution that the process will center the role of healing and reconciliation and will require deep community engagement on race and public safety. The council will create a Future of Community Safety Work Group, which will include staff from a number of city departments, including the office of violence prevention and the department of civil rights. It has been tasked to deliver recommendations by July 24 on how to engage with community stakeholders to transform the public safety system. Decades of police reform efforts have not created equitable public safety in our community, and our efforts to achieve transformative public safety will not be deterred by the inertia of existing institutions, contracts, and legislation, the resolution states. Together, we will identify what safety looks like for everyone. Now, Norway's health authority will delete all data gathered through its contact-tracing app, Smittestopp app, or Infection Stop, which was downloaded by more than 1.6 million users in the country of 5.3 million people over privacy concerns. The app had around 600,000 active users, which is just over 10 percent of the country's population. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, many countries have launched contact tracing apps to help contain the spread of the virus. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread across most of the world, now infecting more than 8.17 million people; hence, extensive contact tracing is a vital tool to prevent its vast spread. One of the first in Europe The software is one of the first national coronavirus contact-tracing apps to be launched in Europe. The suspension of the app comes after the country's data protection authority raised concerns that the app poses a disproportionate threat to user privacy since it tracks people's movements. The data protection authority (DPA) also warned that the app invades the privacy of its users, even if it is needed in a nation trying to fight a pandemic. The Institute of Public Health (FHI) received a notice of decision on the temporary suspension and ban on processing personal data on the Smittestopp app. The FHI plans to stop uploading data on June 18, ahead of the June 23 deadline given by the DPA. "We do not agree with the Data Protection Agency's assessment, but now we have to delete all data and pause work as a result of the notification. With this, we weaken an important part of our preparedness for increased spread of infection, because we lose time in developing and testing the app," Camilla Stoltenberg, the FHI Director, said. "At the same time, we have a reduced ability to fight the spread of infection that is ongoing. The pandemic is not over. We have no immunity in the population, no vaccine, and no effective treatment. Without the Smittestopp app, we will be less equipped to prevent new outbreaks that may occur locally or nationally," she added. She added that they are hoping to find a solution to monitor the spread of the SARS-CoV-2, which has so far infected 8,660 people and killed 242 people. No longer a proportionate intervention The DPA believes that the app is no longer a proportionate intervention to monitor the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The watchdog intervened with the contact tracing app since there is a low contagion rate in the country and a low download rate for the app. This means that Smittestopp is no longer a needed intervention for the pandemic. "The reason for the notification is the Data Inspectorate's assessment that Infectious Stop can no longer be regarded as a proportionate encroachment on users' basic privacy rights," Bjrn Erik Thon, director of the Data Inspectorate, said. "Infestation is a very privacy-intensive measure, even in an exceptional situation where society is trying to fight a pandemic. We believe that the utility is not present the way it is today, and that is how the technical solution is designed and working now," Thon added. Unlike other national coronavirus apps in Europe, which use Bluetooth signals to estimate user proximity to determine a person's exposure risk to SARS-CoV-2, the Smittestopp app tracks real-time GPS (global positioning system) location data, combined with Bluetooth technology. The developers of the app decided that the best way to monitor the virus spread is to gather both Bluetooth and GPS location data and carry out contact-matches remotely on a centralized computer server. The DPA, however, said that the health officials had not demonstrated that it was strictly needed to collect location data. Further, it said that the users of the app cannot choose to grant permission only for coronavirus contacts tracing. The users must also agree that personal information will be used for research purposes, which contradicts the EU data protection principle of purpose limitation. "The Privacy Council has concluded that it is unnecessary to use location data in the infection tracking and recommends using only Bluetooth. We believe that FHI has not demonstrated that it is strictly necessary to use location data for infection detection and is meeting a new assessment by FHI on this," Thon explained. Meanwhile, the FHI urged the public to keep the app on their phones in case the ban will be lifted in the future. "I want to thank everyone who has downloaded the app and sent data to FHI. We hope they will keep the app in readiness on their phones. This means that we can quickly reactivate the app if we find a solution that the Data Protection Agency is satisfied with," Stoltenberg said. A children's performing arts school was forced to cancel its production of Hairspray after an alleged cyberbullying campaign run by an Instagram star and an actress who complained that the cast was not sufficiently 'ethnically diverse'. The Northern School of Performing Arts in Auckland, New Zealand, began casting for the musical - which follows the story of a white teenager's fight for racial equality on TV during the Civil Rights Movement - on May 31. Actress Kristin Paulse and Instagram star Sabby Jey, neither of whom have children at the school, took exception to the production because only six of 50 roles were given to 'racially diverse' people. The cast was made up of school students aged from 11 to 18. The Northern School of Performing Arts in Auckland, New Zealand, began casting for the musical, about a white teenager trying to integrate the television show she is part of, on May 31. Pictured: Cast from the 2007 movie Sabby Jey (pictured), a Sri Lankan model, became involved after Ms Paulse felt like her concerns weren't being addressed Ms Paulse said when she became aware of the production through her connections in musical theatre, she wanted to stress the need for representative casting. 'I feel so passionate about the casting because there is already so few roles in musicals that are exclusive to people of colour or that are about race so it feels like another thing being taken away from our community if you dont acknowledge the significance of casting the correct races,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'I just wanted them to be aware of the racial sensitivity around the show in case it wasnt something they had thought of.' Ms Paulse said when the school responded, she sent a five-page letter expressing her concerns but felt it was dismissed. 'I was unhappy because they repeatedly told me that they heard me but their actions and dialogue were contradictory,' she said. 'For example, they told me that they hear my concerns and can assure me that they had "plenty of Maori and ethnic people auditioning" but then sent me the licensing rights as a defence. 'This read to me as: "I hear you but if we cant find enough people of colour, were allowed to cast it how we want".' This is when she got Sri Lankan-New Zealand actress Sabby Jey involved. Jey, 26, also contacted the performing arts school and said if they did not reconsider Ms Paulse's concerns, she would set up a petition and speak to other people she knew in the industry about the school's actions. The school felt so threatened by Ms Jey's comments they allegedly filed a police report against her. NZ Police were unable to confirm whether a complaint was filed due to privacy reasons. Ms Jey, 26, reached out to the school organising the play and pleaded with them to consider Ms Paulse's ideas to make the musical more inclusive The Northern School of Performing Arts made one concession - they would have a 'larger' woman, a person of colour and a gay man speak to the children to educate them. 'This was the one part of the response I actually did like and appreciated. However, they followed that sentence by saying "society may deem these people different, but in my strong view, they share the same skeleton as you and me",' Ms Paulse said. 'While this may seem like a noble stance it minimalises the challenges faced by those individuals if you think of them as the same. 'I could never understand the pain and discrimination a member of LGBT community because I am not part of that community.' The school has since pulled the plug on the performance and announced it in a since-deleted Facebook post that it was due to a 'safety issue' after 'cyberbullying, threats and harassing behaviour'. 'We auditioned and had a wonderful cast with the sufficient number of POC in our cast to effectively convey the story,' the post said. The school has since pulled the plug on the performance and announced it in a since-deleted Facebook post Ms Jey said she didn't understand why the school was making itself out to be the victim 'We are deeply apologetic to our wonderful cast as this is heartbreaking for them, however the safety of our cast and crew is paramount. 'Due to cyberbullying, threats and harassing behaviour of certain individuals it was becoming a safety issue for us to continue'. Ms Jey said she didn't understand why the school was making itself out to be the victim. 'Im hugely disappointed to see that staff at the NSPA has flipped the script and are claiming to be victims of bullying and unsubstantiated threats,' she said. 'I'm really not sure how requesting change and asking for an apology could possibly be perceived as a threat to the safety of any student.' Ms Paulse said she just wants an apology as she has given one for any distress she has caused. 'I apologised for any wrong I have done or harm inflicted. Id like the same in return being that they had accused me of cyberbullying and harassing behaviour and making threats to children. Thats hurtful,' she said. 'I've been kicked out of a show because of this as well. This whole experience validated why POC in the theatre community dont come forward and address their concerns because they ultimately get punished for doing so.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Northern School of Performing Arts for comment. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said today that it had intercepted ballistic missiles fired by the Houthi rebels, marking the latest foiled assault on Saudi Arabia. A spokesman for the coalition said the Iran-backed group launched the missile from Sadah in northwestern Yemen toward the southern Saudi region of Najran in a deliberate attempt to target civilians and civilian objects. The Houthi group has fired a total of 313 missiles and 35 drones toward the kingdom since 2015, Col. Turki al-Maliki said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. The coalition also said it earlier intercepted several armed drones launched toward the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait. The Houthis claimed responsibility today for the drones, which a spokesperson said were targeting an airport and came in response to coalition airstrikes. The Arab worlds poorest country has been embroiled in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis took control of Yemen's capital and captured large swaths of the country from pro-government forces. Saudi Arabia leads a Western-backed military coalition that intervened the following year to restore the internationally recognized government. A cease-fire designed to bring a pause in the fighting and allow humanitarians to focus on combating the coronavirus expired last month. Yemen has confirmed close to 900 cases of COVID-19, most recorded by the Aden-based government in the south. On Monday, the United Nations removed the Saudi-led coalition from its blacklist of countries violating childrens rights. In his annual report to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote that the coalition killed or injured 222 children in Yemen last year, a drop from 729 the year before. The Houthis and the Yemeni government remain on the list and according to Guterres were responsible for the deaths of or injuries to 313 and 96 children, respectively. The report also said that responsibility for 482 child casualties could not be attributed and that 276 casualties "occurred during crossfire between various parties to the conflict." The poor deployment of WLATMs has tripped what the central bank sought to achieve back in 2012. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has relaxed the deployment norms of automated teller machines (ATMs) by white-label players, who will now not need to put up thousands of units every year. The central bank is for manageable annual targets, a major departure from the stiff run-rates set under the licence terms in 2012, sources aware of the development said. ATMs set up, owned, and operated by non-banks are called white-label ATMs (WLATMs). Non-bank ATM operators are authorised under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, by the RBI. Deployments by white-label ATM (WLATM) firms have been poor at 23,597 units, seven years after they began operations. This is way off the 1,000-25,000 ATMs that would have been added annually by each operator based on the schemes they had opted for. Industry sources say as many as 200,000 WLATMs would have been deployed if the run rate had been maintained. The central bank has not announced a policy change, but industry sources said it had been conveyed to deployers that they would now be evaluated on an annual basis with more realistic targets and the kind of cities (from tier-I to tier-VI) in which ATMs were put up. These targets are confidential and player-specific. The earlier targets were hard to meet. We also miscalculated as it is a capital-guzzling business and private equity may not continue to support us as in the past, said the chief executive officer of a white-label deployer. Another sore point was that the central bank did not allow WLATM players to switchover to a different deployment scheme. Of the eight WLATM players, Tata Communications Payment Solutions is the largest deployer with 8,290 ATMs, followed by BTI Payments (6,249), Vakrangee (4,506), Hitachi Payment Services (3,535), RiddiSiddhi Bullions (681), Muthoot Finance (217), and AGS Transact (119), while Srei Infrastructure has exited the business. The number of ATMs in the country has fluctuated around 240,000 levels since demonetisation on the back of rising operational costs and the emergence of digital modes of payment. This has made the ATM channel unviable for all manner of deployers - banks, brown-label, and WLTAMs. The WLATM business model was premised on the fact that customers will swipe on ATMs and deployers could pocket the interchange fee of Rs 15. The interchange is the payout by a card-issuing bank when you swipe at other banks ATMs (and this includes white-label units). The promise of a hike in the interchange fee to Rs 18 has also not materialised so far. The model was turned on its head when footfalls fell at these WLATMs and operating costs soared. Another blow was when banks started to plonk their ATMs next to WLATMs to cut back on the interchange paid. In effect, the poor deployment of WLATMs has tripped what the central bank sought to achieve back in 2012 when it noted: While there had been a nearly 23-25 per cent year-on-year growth in ATMs, deployment has been predominantly in the tier-I and -II centres. "There is a need to expand in tier-III and tier-IV centres. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 20:06:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. officials have called for stricter implementation of COVID-19 control measures after some tested positive for the virus, amid a rise of cases in the United States. On Tuesday, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced he had tested positive for COVID-19. "My symptoms continue to be mild, and I am in regular contact with my staff in order to continue to manage the operations of my office," Raoul said in a statement. The attorney general has been in self-quarantine since he began experiencing minor symptoms, local media reported. Raoul's office is in the process of notifying people who may have come into contact with him so they can self-isolate and seek health guidance. As of Tuesday, Illinois has reported 133,639 known cases, with the death toll amounting to 6,398 statewide since the start of the pandemic. On Monday, U.S. Congressman Tom Rice said that he, his wife, and his son have tested positive for the coronavirus. "We are all on the mend and doing fine," Rice, a South Carolina Republican, said in a Facebook post. "We are finishing our quarantine and looking forward to seeing you all again," he said, adding that "Friends, please wash your hands and take precautions. Stay healthy. See you soon." Six other members of U.S. Congress have also tested positive for the coronavirus and have since recovered. U.S. Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday urged people to take the pandemic more seriously, as the state's confirmed cases and hospitalizations spiked in recent days. At a news conference in Austin, Abbott said the state, which has seen some of the biggest single-day caseloads in June so far, reached another peak on Tuesday, with 2,622 new cases reported. Abbott urged people to stay at home as much as they can, wear masks in public, and maintain social distance to slow down the spread of the virus. Businesses, especially bars and restaurants, should follow the state guidelines, he added. States may need to re-implement strict social distancing measures put in place earlier this year if coronavirus cases rise "dramatically," Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Jay Butler said on Friday. In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown has placed a seven-day hold on loosening social restrictions in light of an increasing number of new cases emerging. U.S. coronavirus cases reached 2,137,731 with 116,963 deaths on Wednesday, according to an updated tally by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. New Delhi, June 17 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre, Delhi Police and the Delhi government to file their response over a plea by 121 Malaysians, charge sheeted in the Tablighi Jamaat case, seeking designated courts in order to ensure a speedy trial. A single judge bench of Justice Anup J. Bhambani asked the Delhi government and Delhi Police to file a status report, while posting the matter for further hearing on July 1. The petition filed by Fahrul Naim Bin Mohd Noor stated that the petitioner and the other Malaysians arrived in India during the time when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and the Central and Delhi governments announced a lockdown, restraining the movement and assembly of people. "While the Malaysian citizens were trying to arrange a place to stay or were making arrangements to go back to their country, they came to be taken into custody and were sent to correctional Quarantine Centres," the plea said. The plea stated that 121 Malaysian citizens are estranged from their kith and kin and have been stranded in a foreign country for over three months without any final solution in the near future. "The 121 citizens who have approached this Hon'ble court through the petitioner have tested negative for the presence of any virus and are currently in Delhi which is seeing a sudden upsurge of infected patients and has therefore become a serious cause of concern," the plea read. The plea has sought the court's direction directing to treat the proceedings pursuant to the filing of charge sheet against the 121 Malaysian nationals as urgent for the purpose of consideration during the extraordinary times of Covid-19. It also sought the court's permission permitting the Malaysian nationals charge sheeted by the Crime Branch to appear before the trial court, through video conferencing. Meanwhile, 11 Saudi Arabians, who were also charge sheeted by the police in the same matter, have also approached the high court seeking direction to the trial court concerned to conduct trial on day to day basis in order to complete it expeditiously. The petition also sought direction to permit these foreign nationals to go back to their country with appropriate conditions and undertaking that they shall return here to face trial and as and when called summoned by the court. The Delhi Police's Crime Branch is probing the matter and Deputy Commissioner of Police Joy Tirkey is supervising it. In the meantime, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also started a probe in the Nizamuddin Markaz congregation case even though a probe by the Delhi Police was on track. The CBI has started a preliminary enquiry into the case and has also sought various documents from the police. On the CBI probe, the Central government on June 5 told the Supreme Court that a CBI probe was not needed into the Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz as the investigation by the Crime Branch into the event is at an advanced state. The Crime Branch has named more than 900 foreign nationals in connection with the case. The accused persons have been charged under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act, and also for violating the prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The FIR in this regard was registered on March 31. The case pertains to a congregation at the Banglewali Masjid in Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin area in mid-March, in which a large number of foreign nationals had participated. Guwahati, June 16 (IANS) With coronavirus infections on the rise, ahead of the formulation of new strategies, the Assam government has decided to launch the Assam Targeted Surveillance Programme (ATSP) on Wednesday to randomly test 50,000 samples in 11 days, according to officials here on Tuesday. Assam Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Samir Kumar Sinha said the random testing under the ATSP would be conducted in four categories of people. In his order, which was tagged to the twitter handle of Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Sinha said under the ATSP, random testing of people and workers involved in truck parking, loading and unloading of goods, including railway goods and godowns, would be conducted. Similar random testing would be conducted on all frontline district officials, including health workers, police personnel, officials of the transport department and the district administration, those associated with Covid-19 management, hotel staff and family members of people released from the institutional quarantine centres. Earlier, the Health Minister said if a sizable number of positive cases were found after testing 50,000 samples, several stringent measures, including total lockdown, would be re-imposed in Guwahati and other vulnerable places. "The new strategies are being considered to check the coronavirus spread in Assam," Sarma said. Assam has tested 2.20 lakh samples and found 4,319 Covid-19 cases. It has now 2,103 active cases. While 2,205 patients have recovered, eight people, including a 16 years-old girl, died. Assam's neighbour Mizoram, which has inter-state borders with Covid-19-hit Tripura and Manipur, on June 8 re-imposed lockdown for two more weeks to curb the coronavirus spread following return of natives from different parts of the country. Of the eight northeastern states, only Mizoram was a green state until June 1 as the state, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, became Covid-19 free after its lone patient recovered on May 9. However, with the return of thousands of natives from southern and western states, Mizoram's Covid-19 cases climbed to 121 in two weeks. All the 120 new cases (after one recovered) are active. --IANS sc/pcj The following results were reported from the 2020 Cayuga County-area school budget, special proposition and board of education mail-in voting, which concluded at 5 p.m. Tuesday: Auburn Enlarged City School District Proposed budget (+2.3% with 1.7% tax levy increase) Yes: 3,801 No: 1,492 Proposition for a designated high school senior to serve as an ex officio member of the board of education and participate in board discussions. The student wouldn't have voting power or be able to attend executive sessions. Yes: 4,375 No: 923 School board candidates (three three-year spots available): Eli Hernandez: 3,829 Patrick Mahunik: 3,287 Rhoda Overstreet-Wilson: 3,631 Joseph Sheppard: 3,547 Cato-Meridian Central School District Proposed budget (-4.3% with 1.9% tax levy increase) Yes: 480 No: 152 The purchase of two 65-seat passenger buses at a estimated maximum cost of $118,500 each, one small handicapped accessible school bus at an estimated maximum $66,500 cost, and one stake rack pick-up truck at an estimated maximum cost of $51,500. Yes: 448 No: 179 School board candidates (two three-year spots) Paul Byrne: 367 Jason Hirvela: 350 Justin Reeves: 298 Nicholas Schmitt: 185 Jordan-Elbridge Central School District Proposed budget (-1.4% with tax levy unchanged) Yes: 1,057 No: 164 School board candidates (three three-year seats open) Susan M. Fordyce: 939 Gage Moulding: 902 Lisa Long: 1,026 Moravia Central School District Proposed budget (+3.2% with 2.99% tax levy increase) Yes: 713 No: 241 Purchasing three student transport vehicles at a cost not to exceed $362,000. Yes: 655 No: 301 A proposed budget of $79,500 for the Powers Library. Yes: 657 No: 296 School board candidates (two three-year spots available) Michelle Lyon: 828 Terry Thompson: 795 Port Byron Central School District Proposed budget (+1.2% with 1.2% tax levy increase) Yes: 519 No: 374 Purchase three 66-passenger buses at a cost not to exceed $430,000. Yes: 470 No: 424 School board candidates (three three-years seats) Paul W. Ryan: 709 Peter V. Svitavsky: 629 Benjamin Vitale: 695 Skaneateles Central School District Proposed budget (-3.5% with 2.1% tax levy increase): Yes: 1,937 No: 628 Purchase four student transport vehicles at a cost not to exceed $445,000. Yes: 1,841 No: 731 Establish 10-year capitalize reserve fund not to exceed $2.5 million. Yes: 1,950 No: 614 School board candidates (two three-year spots) Michelle Ederer: 1,108 Gary Gerst: 1,436 Daniel Evans: 1,397 Valerie Jerabeck: 563 Ezra Wegbreit: 419 Southern Cayuga Central School District Proposed budget (+1.6% with 1.0% tax levy increase) Yes: 791 No: 293 Proposal for $4,900,000 capital project, with $1 million from capital reserve fund to offset local share of capital construction costs, reducing borrowing amount to $3,900,000. Would include high school kitchen electric upgrades, driveway and sidewalk replacement/repairs ad other repairs. Yes: 730 No: 354 Purchase three 66-passenger buses and one Dodge Caravan replacement, at a cost not to exceed $413,470. Yes: 734 No: 352 Total requested support for Aurora Free Library and Hazard Library is $122,150. Yes: 711 No: 377 School board candidates (two three-year seats) Christine Brozon: 918 Rachel McCarthy: 886 Union Springs Central School District Proposed budget (-7.1% with +1.3% tax levy increase) Yes: 806 No: 175 Purchase of student transport vehicles at a cost not to exceed $130,000. Yes: 784 No: 188 School board candidates (three three-year seats and one one-year seat) Ann Marie Daum: 792 Mary Seitz: 765 Daniel Testa: 793 Erin Tones: 777 Weedsport Central School District Proposed budget (-3.2% with 2.0% tax levy increase) Yes: 815 No: 298 Proposition to purchase one school bus at a cost not to exceed $120,000. Yes: 801 No: 309 Proposition to allow the district to collect $83,096 on behalf of the Weedsport Public Library. Yes: 832 No: 273 School board candidates (one five-year seat open): Norman J. Chirco: 948 Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 The United States on Tuesday said it is closely monitoring the situation between India and China after a violent face-off between troops of the two countries at the Line of Actual Control and has extended support to a peaceful resolution of the current situation. We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control. Both India and China have expressed a desire to de-escalate, and we support a peaceful resolution of the current situation, a State Department spokesperson said. This comes hours after India said that 20 of its army personnel were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops at Galway Valley at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families. During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi discussed the situation on the India-China border, the spokesperson further said. Also read| A timeline: India-Chinas deadliest border clash since 1975 explained During the faceoff, the external affairs ministry said, both sides suffered casualties and the Chinese side had departed from the consensus to respect the LAC in the Galwan Valley. The faceoff happened on late evening and night of June 15 in Ladakhs Galwan Valley as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during de-escalation in Eastern Ladakh. In a highly provocative and apparently coordinated move, Canadas three main grocery store chains announced last week that they were scrapping a $2 per hour COVID-19 pandemic premium or bonus, effective Friday, June 13. The decision will mean a significant pay cut for hundreds of thousands of workers who have performed, and continue to provide, an essential service amid the worst pandemic in a century. Loblaws, Metro and Empire, the parent company of Sobeys, IGA, Safeways and other chains, introduced the bonus in late March. They did so to dampen worker anger and anxiety about being exposed to the highly contagious and potentially lethal coronavirus in their workplaces while the country was in near total lockdown. The bonus was touted by corporate bosses and the mainstream media alike as an example of the ruling elites recognition of supermarket workers as heroes. This was a crucial element in the fraudulent narrative that everyone was pulling together in the face of the pandemic. In reality, while workers received a few crumbs, the federal Liberal government handed over more than $650 billion to the financial markets and big banks. Loblaws owner Galen Weston, who possesses a net worth of $13 billion and splits his time between a spacious downtown Toronto residence and a private island in Georgian Bay, and his fellow oligarchs who control Metro and Empire, could not bear the thought of tens of thousands of store clerks dragging down their profit margins by collecting a pathetic $2 per hour bonus for a moment longer than was politically necessary. The decision to abolish the pay premium as the pandemic continues to rage shows the companies shocking disregard for the lives of workers, whom they see as nothing more than slaves to build their pyramids of wealth. Last Thursday, a worker at a Loblaws-owned store in Cambridge, Ontario, tested positive for the virus, while Metro reported three new cases at stores in Mississauga and Etobicoke earlier this month. The National Post reported in late May that at least 500 grocery workers have contracted COVID-19 and several have died. Meanwhile, the grocery chains have never had it so good, with reports suggesting profits were up by over 20 percent during the lockdown. The decision to scrap the pay rise is connected to the ruling elites reckless back-to-work campaign that is being spearheaded by the Trudeau Liberal government. Against all scientific advice, workers are being told that the pandemic is effectively over and that everything must return to normality, i.e. ruthless exploitation, insecure employment and low wages. As Weston put it in a statement, referring to his low-paid workforce, (W)e are confident our colleagues are operating safely and effectively in a new normal. For the corporate elite and its political hirelings, this new normal includes workers accepting that public health efforts to combat the spread of the pandemic will be abandoned. Infections and deaths must be tolerated as a part of day-to-day lifea cost of doing business for the capitalists. This is the meaning of the Trudeau governments threat to change the terms of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) so that they can impose huge fines on workers and even send them to jail if they refuse to return to their jobs because of safety concerns. (See: Canadian government threatens fines and jail time to force workers back to work) The winding down of the CERB is closely connected with the grocery chains decision to slash workers wages. Even though workers receive a mere $2,000 from the CERB each month, wages in grocery stores are so low that many workers would have been better off on the CERB without the $2 per hour premium. The wages have been kept so low in the industry, observed Chris MacDonald, the assistant to Unifor president Jerry Dias for the retail sector, that people were wondering is it really worth risking my health and my familys health to work, when I can just collect CERB? So companies had to pay that premium or they wouldnt have had enough workers. It wasnt out of the goodness of their heart. Unsurprisingly, MacDonald fails to note that poverty wages have been paid by the grocery chains with the connivance of the unions. Unifor and the United Food and Commercial Workers, which together represent over 170,000 grocery workers, have negotiated a never-ending series of concession contracts with the employers. This is illustrated by the fact that prior to the pandemic, fully 80 percent of grocery store jobs were part-time. The UFCW issued a statement saying it was disappointed with the decision to remove the pay premium, while Unifor president Jerry Dias sought to appeal to the good consciences of Weston and Co. to increase pay for its poverty-wage workforce. We have a chance to fix this. We cant let this opportunity pass, he pleaded. But the unions are doing absolutely nothing to mobilize popular opposition to the grocery chains decision. On the contrary, they have focused on deepening their cooperation with the Liberal government and setting up a corporatist alliance with big business which has the immediate aim of forcing workers back to unsafe workplaces. This was expressed most clearly by the Canadian Labour Congress declaration that it is in a collaborative front with Canadas main employer organizations. (See: Canadian unions cement anti-worker corporatist alliance with government and big business) Following the independent protests by autoworkers across North America that forced the shutdown of the auto industry in March, Dias and Unifor worked hand-in-glove with the major automakers to reopen the plants across Ontario as soon as possible. This move is exposing thousands of workers and their families to the risk of infection to guarantee the profits of GM, Ford and Fiat-Chrysler. The role of the UFCW was even more brazen in Alberta, where it forced 2,000 meatpacking workers to return to their jobs amid a huge COVID-19 outbreak at Cargills High River plant. Even though close to 1,000 infections had been recorded in the facility and three people had died as a result, the UFCW refused point blank to organize any strike or job action by the workers. Local UFCW president Thomas Hesse insisted job action to protest these life-threatening conditions would not be legal under the state-designed, pro-employer collective bargaining framework that the unions uphold and enforce. (See: Canadian workers at Cargill meat packing plant forced back to work despite 935 infections) The lesson workers in grocery stores and all other economic sectors must draw is that they must build their own independent organizations of strugglerank-and-file workplace committeesto fight for their interests. Permanent, decent-paying jobs, the availability of comprehensive testing for COVID-19, the provision of personal protective equipment to all workers, the enforcement of strict safety measures, and the shutting down of non-essential production and dangerous workplaces with full pay for all workers affected are all urgently necessary demands that such committees should take up. The unions cannot fight for any of these demands because doing so would mean challenging the primacy of corporate profits over human life that is the brutal basis of the capitalist system. Workers must therefore link their struggle for improvements in working conditions with the fight to establish a workers government committed to socialist policies. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal The COVID-19 pandemic has had a cascading impact on the way firefighters are battling wildfires in New Mexico and elsewhere with a focus on testing, tracing, waiting, wondering and taking resources off the board. This is firefighting with coronavirus, State Forestry Director Laura McCarthy said. Efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus among emergency personnel have forced changes in training, the way camps are organized and how tools and equipment are sanitized. And all this occurred as wildfire season enters its peak, she told a panel led by U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., last week. There were at least seven fires in New Mexico as of Sunday, according to the Southwest Coordination Center. They include the 17,000-acre Farm Camp Fire in northeastern New Mexico, the 11,000-acre Uvas Fire southwest of Hatch, the 6,600-acre Tadpole Fire in the Gila National Forest and the 8,370-acre Good Fire southwest of the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. Despite the new efforts, at least a couple of firefighters have tested positive for the virus either during an incident or days after. And other firefighters have chosen voluntarily not to respond to fires because theyve been exposed to people who had the virus. McCarthy said a firefighter developed symptoms during efforts to stop a human-caused fire in the northern part of the state. Because of our new best practices, we kept that potential infection to five people, McCarthy said. But the cycle started again when a firefighter from another agency had a positive test. She said state and local firefighting agencies implemented changes soon after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in New Mexico in March. McCarthy said agencies had to consider ways to screen firefighters before even mobilizing them to an incident. We had to modify our training plans, forgo large group training with local fire departments and instead use online, self-paced curriculum, she said. And then we had to schedule our work capacity field testing in small cohorts. McCarthy said the state put restrictions in place to try to prevent human-caused fires. She said changes were made to transportation procedures and how eating and sleeping modules are spread out in camps. She said agencies planned for virtual briefings. She said new innovations were added to disinfect tools, vehicles and other equipment that could potentially transmit the virus. Similar procedures are being implemented in other Western states, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Director Thom Porter and Colorado Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Director Mike Morgan told lawmakers. Firefighter strategy remains unchanged, Porter said. It is a hands-on effort that requires hard work and boots on the ground to put fires out. The key for all of us is to have an aggressive initial attack, keep fires small, he added. We need to keep exposure to firefighters to a minimum and keep people in sheltering locations to a minimum. Diana Aburiya Asuure, a former New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Bongo Constituency in the Upper East Region, has admonished the partys delegates to endorse more women parliamentary candidates in the upcoming parliamentary primaries. According to her, women constituted more than 51 per cent of Ghanas population and when given the political platform and resources could mobilise more voters especially floating voters for the party to win more votes in the forthcoming general election. The NPP is set to organise its parliamentary primaries for constituencies, on June 20, 2020, having held its primaries in the orphan constituencies in 2019. Madam Asuure, who is also a senior lecturer at the newly converted Bolgatanga Technical University noted that the party stands to make greater impact in winning massively parliamentary and presidential slots if it gives more chances for female parliamentary candidates to contest for parliamentary seats and appealed to delegates to consider that. She, however, pledged to work tirelessly with Peter Ayinbisa, the partys parliamentary candidate for Bongo constituency, who is also District Chief Executive of the area, to win the parliamentary seat massively in the 2020 general election. For interest and growth and development of party, all of us as party supporters, executives, members, well wishers, faithful and sympathisers need to bury our differences and work together to enable us to retain power for the party particularly Bongo constituency, which is noted to be a world bank of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the years. The numerous social intervention programmes including Free Senior High School, expansion of School Feeding Programme, Planting for Food and Jobs, One Village One Dam and Planting for Export and Rural Development implemented by the government, had impacted positively on the livelihoods of the vulnerable. Theres the need for more Ghanaians especially women and youth to renew mandate of President Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, to pave way for him and party in government to initiate more good social intervention programmes to help bridge poverty gap, despite my meagre resources, I will continue to sacrifice, remain dedicated, loyal and faithful to the cause of the partys victory in the forthcoming general election and I urge other supporters, members, faithful and well wishers to do same, Madam Asuure intimated. 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 Thirty-nine Iranian and international human rights organizations have called for the term extension of the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights on Iran, voicing deep concern about serious violations in the country. In a joint letter to the UN Human Rights Council, the organizations accused Iran of "widespread and systematic violations of a large array of human rights," including the violent crackdown on protests against a gas price hike in November 2019. Among the signatory organizations is Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists and several Iranian rights defenders. "This severe crackdown has also involved the arrest of around 7,000 people, according to a spokesperson for Irans parliamentary committee for national security and foreign policy, as well as widespread patterns of enforced disappearances, incommunicado detentions, and torture and other ill-treatment of detainees. Iranian officials called for charges that carry the death penalty against protest leaders, creating an urgent concern for the fate of those arrested; three men have already been convicted of enmity against God (moharebeh) and sentenced to death in a grossly unfair trial in connection with acts of arson that took place during the November 2019 protests," The letter said. The organizations added: "Hundreds more have been convicted of vague and broad national security-related charges, often stemming from the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and sentenced up to 10 years in prison as well as, in some cases, flogging. Courts relied on torture-tainted confessions as evidence on which they based their verdicts, even when retracted by defendants." They say in their letter that gross violation of human rights in Iran justifies the extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights. The current special rapporteur for Iran, Mr. Javed Rehman of the Brunel University of London was appointed by the United Nations in 2018 after the death of his predecessor Ms. Asma Jahangir. However, he has been denied entry to Iran to inspect the situation of human rights. Mr. Rehman's mandate can be extended on an annual basis for up to six years. Several other previous rapporteurs had also been denied entry into Iran. A large part of the letter is about the Iranian government's reaction to the November protests that were triggered by a sudden hike in gas price but soon turned into demonstrations that targeted the Islamic Republic's leaders. The signatories presented evidence and accused the Islamic Republic of "unlawful killing of hundreds of protesters and bystanders, including children, who posed no imminent threat to life or serious injury." London-based Amnesty International has so far documented the killing of 304 Iranians by the security forces during the November protests, adding that the actual number of those killed is higher. Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has recently said implicitly that the government forces have killed 225 protesters during the protests. Meanwhile, Reuters has quoted several Iranian officials close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office as saying that up to 1,500 demonstrators were killed during the November protests. Arresting and handing down long-term jail sentences to labor activists, as well as women, environmentalists and journalists, violating the rights of religious minorities are among the reasons that prompted international human rights organizations to call for the extension of the mandate of the special rapporteur for human rights in Iran. The UN Human Rights Council replaced the UN Human Rights Commission that had appointed Reynaldo Galindo Pohl (1965 to 1973) and Maurice Copithorne as Special Rapporteurs for Human Rights in Iran from 1974 to 1980. The two visited Iranian prisoners and met with Iranian officials at the time, but after 1980, Iran has constantly refused to accept UN Rapporteurs and levelled accusations against them including maintaining ties with terrorist organizations and being influenced by Iranian opposition groups abroad. Meanwhile, earlier in June, in its annual report on religious freedoms, the United States accused Iran of widespread violations of the rights of religious minorities, including Baha'i and Sunni citizens. The U.S. annual report on religious freedom also criticized the Islamic Republic's Constitution which is based on Sharia and considers heavy punishment of those who have abandoned their Islamic faith for another. The punishment in some cases could be the death penalty for "waging war against God". Continuing the search operation in the Rs 350-crore bogus billing scam in Mandi Gobindgarh, the Punjab goods and services tax (GST) department conducted raids on seven firms in Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib and Malerkotla and recovered Rs 1.37 crore, according to a statement issued on Tuesday evening. The statement said the department also attached payments to be made by the seven firms to some Mandi Gobindgarh companies, which were raided by the department earlier on June 12. Four of the seven firms, which were raided, are situated in Ludhiana, two in Fatehgarh Sahib and one in Malerkotla. The inspections were conducted under the supervision of deputy excise and taxation commissioner Pawan Garg and GST additional commissioner Showkat Ahmad Parray. The statement said the department had conducted raids on 10 firms in Mandi Gobindgarh on June 12. Three persons were arrested on that day and sent to judicial custody. It had come to light that owners of the 10 firms had issued forged sale bills to seven firms in Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib and Malerkotla. Following this, owners of these seven firms availed input tax credit (ITC) worth crores. The officials said an investigation was going on and the list of other beneficiaries was also being scrutinised and tax would be recovered from every single person, who claimed ITC on bogus purchases. The All Industries and Trade Forum (AITF) has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tighten noose around the firms involved in bogus billing and those evading tax in connivance with the alleged corrupt officials and politicians. National president of the AITF Badish Jindal said, Tax worth crores is evaded in the county, but the government has failed to check it as some officials and politicians are involved in the practice. - The mom of Christopher de Leon passed away on Monday, June 15, at the age of 92 - Several reports on social media said that Lilia Dizon succumbed to lung cancer - A day after the passing of the said veteran actress, Christopher posted a simple yet loving message for his mom - He immediately received words of sympathy from netizens, and even KC Concepcion reacted to his post PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Christopher de Leon received words of sympathy on social media because of his post after his mother Lilia Dizon died at the age of 92. KAMI learned that the Asias Best Actress way back 1956 has passed away on June 15, reportedly due to lung cancer. The actor could not hide how affected he is because of what happened, and he even posted a short but loving message for his mom. Aside from the simple message, he uploaded a photo of a locket that has their old photos in it. Love you, Ma! From your only boy, he wrote. PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Many social media users expressed their condolences to Christopher because of the passing of the well-acclaimed Kandelerong Pilak star. Even KC Concepcion left a comment on his post, saying that the late actress looks really gorgeous in the newly-uploaded photo. Shes so beautiful, KC commented. PAY ATTENTION: Shop with KAMI! The best offers and discounts on the market, product reviews and feedback In a previous article by , a lot of netizens poured in prayers for Christopher after he tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease. Christopher de Leon is one of the most acclaimed actors in the Philippines. He won the Best Actor Award during the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) for the movie Magkaibigan. POPULAR: Read more news about Christopher de Leon! 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 New Delhi: Amid violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops along Line of Actual Control in the Galwan Valley of east Ladakh, in which 20 soldiers including one Colonel Rank officer sacrificed their lives on June 15 night, Taiwan News has published an illustration showing a Hindu god battling a Chinese dragon. The viral illustration surfaced on social media in Taiwan showing Hindu god Rama has drawn a bow and preparing to shoot a huge arrow into a Chinese dragon with the title "We Conquer. We kill." This illustration was reportedly posted on the Hong Kong social media site LIHKG. According to the report, Hong Kong Twitter user HoSaiLei wrote "An Indian friend has already finished this exquisite Sino-Indian war poster," while sharing it on Tuesday. Within 21 hours, the post had gained 861 likes, 300 retweets, and 34 comments, the report said. Many Indian netizens reportedly extended thanks to HoSaiLei for sharing the image, and he responded to one user as, "Likewise!! Please know this, we support you!" In the fierce clash in Galwan Vally on June 15 night, the Chinese side also suffered casualties. China has not yet talked about the number of casualties suffered by the People's Liberation Army. The clash in Galwan Valley is reported to be the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their clashes in Nathu La in 1967 when India lost around 80 soldiers while Chinese army lost over 300 personnel in the confrontation. Austin Transportation Department On Tuesday, a mural with large, yellow letters saying "Black Austin Matters" was painted on Congress Avenue between Sixth and Ninth Streets. The city of Austin wrote on its Facebook Tuesday that the mural represents the city's commitment to racial equity and improving policies, practices and outcomes. The recent protests in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement was sparked after the death of George Floyd, a man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis. Colorado was the first Democratic-run state to reopen from a coronavirus lockdown, and so far it has avoided the fresh spikes in infection rippling across the West. Its measured approach could be a lesson for the country on how to reopen effectively. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis stood out because he embarked on a slow and methodical economic recovery in late April even before the White Houses stay-at-home guidelines expired. Polis limited when restaurants and other businesses could reopen, at first only allowing curbside pickups at stores, imposing strict social distancing on salons and other personal services and prohibiting gatherings over 10 people. Colorado also benefited from a relatively young, healthy, active population that bought into the state public health officials message about wearing masks and social distancing. That experience could influence other states as localized outbreaks pop up even as people clamor for a more rapid reopening of the economy and something resembling a more normal way of life. Polis has balanced libertarian sensibilities with public health doctrine since issuing a statewide stay-at-home order on March 26 following a burst of cases. His safer at home reopening, which even drew praise from President Donald Trump, was more like a tiptoe than a march: Dine-in service at restaurants didnt begin until May 27. Gyms and pools only followed at limited capacity this month. And bars and residential summer camps can only begin operating at limited capacity this week. Thats in contrast to Utah, which never imposed a stay-at-home order and where gyms and dine-in service began on May 1. The average number of new infections has roughly doubled there since the beginning of this month. In Arizona, where casinos, restaurants and gyms opened by mid-May, hospitalizations are up 40 percent since June 1 and the health department recently told hospitals to fully activate emergency plans. Were only a few steps ahead of this virus, Polis said this week. We cant let good news give us a false sense of security. We see some of our neighboring states, Arizona and Utah, moving the wrong way. Story continues The states biggest trouble spot in recent weeks was Boulder, where a spike of about 30 cases was recorded after a series of parties involving University of Colorado students. But theres concern that the state caseload could surge if people who travel back and forth across state lines bring the virus with them. The virus doesnt understand state borders, Polis said. Colorado Governor Jared Polis speaks during a news conference to update the state's efforts to stop the spread of the new coronavirus Wednesday, April 22, 2020, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Public acceptance of restrictions during reopening has notably varied by state, however. An early and alarming surge of cases in mountain communities and in Denver in March may have scared many Coloradans into wearing masks and observing social distancing, said Lindsay Keegan, an infectious disease expert at the University of Utah. That's a contrast to Utah, which felt the pandemic much later and where public health officials are now pleading with residents to get on board. A recent Salt Lake Tribune poll found that 35 percent of Utah residents said they always wear a mask in public, a cohort that dropped to 26 percent among self-described conservatives. On Tuesday, nearly 700 medical providers in Arizona asked GOP Gov. Doug Ducey to mandate mask-wearing in public as the state reported nearly 2,400 new infections, a daily record. People think, There hasnt been an outbreak so I can get back to socializing," Keegan said. "In Colorado, they saw what can happen so people are being a little more cautious. A spokesperson for Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said officials there would like to see more people wearing masks but do not believe that factors like open restaurants and gyms are driving the current spikes. Angela Dunn, the states epidemiologist, has said most cases are being spread at work. Polis' stay-at-home order is credited with discouraging unnecessary travel in the sprawling, geographically diverse state and tamping down disease spread once the first outbreaks were contained. That was especially important in areas that could have been swamped by a surge of skiers and tourists. The earlier you put in your stay-at-home order the more likely you are to have a better outcome, said David Bortz, a mathematical biologist at University of Colorado Boulder and a member of the states Covid-19 modeling team. Coloradans' relative fitness also likely played a role. The CDC ranks it the least obese state in the nation, meaning there are fewer people with underlying health conditions who could make them especially susceptible to the virus. There are other demographic factors distinguishing states in the region. Arizona's big prison population has exacerbated the effects of the pandemic there. Last week, Maricopa County officials said 313 inmates tested positive in the jail, up from 30 the week before. The Eloy Federal Contract Facility, an immigrant detention center about 45 miles north of Tucson, is also in the midst of an outbreak, and has the second-most confirmed cases of any ICE facility in the nation. Those are populations that seed the rest of society, said Nina Fefferman, associate director of One Health Initiative at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Those can drastically impact the progress of an epidemic. And while Colorado, Utah and Arizona all lifted restrictions in May, the states appear to have been at different points along the epidemiological curve. Cases were increasing in Arizona and decreasing in Colorado. The rate of virus transmission was lower in Colorado in late April than it was in Arizona and Utah, giving Polis and his health officials a little more margin for error. You want to be at a very strong starting place, said Jeffrey Shaman, a professor at the Columbia University School of Public Health. You want some wiggle room. Colorado is still in a precarious spot. The state is averaging roughly 150 new infections every day. Increased summer travel and sentiment that the worst of the pandemic is over could yet send the state into a downward spiral. This is all a time game, Fefferman said. The places like Colorado that arent being hard hit, they should not rest on their laurels. They should do all the things to protect themselves as if theyd been hit just as hard. Polis acknowledged the human factor in announcing the lifting of more restrictions on Monday that will allow bars and summer camps to open, albeit at limited capacity. The only variable is human behavior, Polis said on Monday. The minute human behavior lapses, this will surge back. Energy: floating wind farm between Sicily, Tunisia Investment worth 740 million of Danish Offshore Partners (ANSAmed) - PALERMO, JUNE 17 - The first floating wind farm of the Mediterranean will be created in the Strait of Sicily, off Marsala, Trapani. The plant, called 7Seas Med, will include 25 floating blades worth 10 megawatts each and will not be visible from the Sicilian coast, at a distance of over 35 km from Marsala and as many from the Egadi islands, in the direction of Tunisia. The seabed in the area is about 300 meters deep - perfect for the floating turbines. It would not be possible to install normal stable offshore turbines which cannot exceed 50-60 meters in depth, according to financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. The project, which is worth an investment of 741 million euros, was developed by Danish company Copenhagen Offshore Partners with the support of the fund Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, specialized in large projects of renewable energy around the world, and was presented before the outbreak of the COVID pandemic at the ministries of the environment and infrastructure. The project is now being processed by Italian bureaucracy but if everything will go according to plan, construction work should begin in 2023, said project manager Luigi Severini. Severini created the project for the offshore wind farm of Taranto.(ANSAmed) Nearly 124 years after it was erected, the John C. Calhoun Monument in Marion Square will come down and be relocated, Charleston's mayor said on Wednesday. City Council members will vote to remove and relocate the statue during their Tuesday meeting, Mayor John Tecklenburg said. Jubilation over the mayor's decision by those in the crowd at the monument's base set off hours of celebration, followed by vandalism of the memorial, graffiti and several arrests by Charleston police. Police closed Marion Square amid the turmoil but said it would reopen Thursday morning. City officials said they expect the statue at the top of the monument would be removed in a relatively swift time frame after the council makes its decision. Tecklenburg said removal of the entire monument, starting with the statue, will occur in stages. A challenge by state officials, citing a law enacted 20 years ago, is possible, but city officials said they're confident of a successful outcome if taken to court. Charleston's decision, and any case that might follow, could set a precedent for other cities grappling with whether they should remove similar memorials. Tecklenburg's announcement came on the fifth anniversary of the shooting at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church, where self-avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine African American worshippers in a Bible study session in 2015. The church is just down the street from the Calhoun statue. The mayor paused his remarks and named the victims to pay honor to the moment. In his statement, Tecklenburg called Calhoun "both South Carolinas most prominent national statesman and its most consequential defender of slavery and white supremacy." "That we as Charlestonians must reckon with Mr. Calhouns towering and deeply troubling legacy is a given," Tecklenburg said. "That we must allow his memorial to continue to divide our city while we do that reckoning, however, is not a given. And that is why, today, I will be sending our City Council a resolution calling for the relocation of the Calhoun statue to a local museum or other academic institution where that necessary and long-overdue reckoning can truly begin." Cheers followed and people shouted, "Take it down!" A few people booed, saying No relocation! and "Throw the statue away!" No longer will our council have its head in the sand as our children bear the brunt of this evil, Councilman William Dudley Gregorie said of racism following Tecklenburg's statement. A committee impaneled to study racism and conciliation will recommend taking down other such statues, he said. Later in the evening, a crowd taped up the memorial's base, mounted posters and spray-painted graffiti on it. Cheers and celebration in Marion Square lasted several hours, but police then made several arrests and the crowd left. The city was expected to clean up the statue, officials said. The Calhoun Monument, 115 feet tall, towers above downtown Charleston. Its namesake was vice president under presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He advocated for slavery as a positive good and died in 1850, over a decade before the Civil War began. The statue has been unpopular since its first incarnation, defaced regularly by African American residents who felt the statue was meant to keep them "in their place." A much shorter monument built in 1887 was replaced in 1896 so that it would be unreachable. Those years marked a period of widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans, during which many such monuments were erected as a symbol of the racial hierarchy. Wednesday's announcement followed a week during which campaigns to remove the monument quickly gained steam. On Tuesday, Charleston civil rights leaders and three lawmakers called for the memorial to come down, saying it was a symbol of hate. A news conference on Wednesday echoed those calls. "If someone raped your wife, stole your children, sold you, would you want a statue of that person?" the Rev. Nelson Rivers III, a leader of the National Action Network, said on Wednesday. A group of Charleston residents of all ages gathered in front of the monument Wednesday morning, again pushing for its immediate removal. One resident, Daron-Lee Calhoun II, spoke to the crowd about how Calhoun was the slaveholder of his ancestors for decades, yet he had to constantly see the statue in a place of honor. "I never imagined in my lifetime that I would see it come down," Councilman Robert Mitchell said on Wednesday. He acknowledged the council would get a lot of pushback from those against removing the monument. Michael Better, a leader for Black Lives Matter, spoke on Wednesday as well, saying he was looking forward to pointing out the relocated statue to his children. "That was the guy we tore down. He used to be in Marion Square above us. Now he's below us," Better said he would tell his children. But removing the statue is only the first step, he said. "There's a whole lot of J.C. Calhouns in people's hearts that we need to tear down," he said. The states Heritage Act could cause problems, depending on the state's interpretation of how it applies to the Calhoun monument. The law was part of a compromise that removed the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse dome in 2000. It forbids removing or changing any war monument or memorial that is on public property. Also, the law prohibits renaming or rededicating public property, including bridges, streets, parks or structures, honoring a historic figure or event. Changing anything covered by the law requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. In the 20 years since it was passed, legislators have only taken up a Heritage Act issue twice, most notably when they removed the battle flag from Statehouse grounds in 2015. Many lawmakers have been opposed to any further discussions of issues covered by the act. Tecklenburg said the city's legal team feels confident the Heritage Act does not apply to the Calhoun memorial. The monument belongs to the city but rests on ground owned by a private organization, the Board of Officers of the Washington Light Infantry and the Sumter Guard. Tecklenburg said the council has "full authority to order its relocation to a setting where it can be placed in its full historic context." He said he called Gov. Henry McMaster's office to express our resolve but had not received a response by Wednesday afternoon. There seem to be some outstanding legal questions that will likely be addressed in the near future, but the governor believes these issues are most appropriately addressed by the General Assembly so the ultimate resolution has the force of law throughout the entire state," Brian Symmes, a spokesman for the governor's office, told The Post and Courier regarding the Calhoun monument. A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office did not have a comment on Wednesday afternoon about whether the state would challenge Charleston's decision in court. Three state lawmakers in Charleston said Tuesday that they believe the Heritage Act is unconstitutional and they are working on a bipartisan coalition to repeal it. State Sen. Marlon Kimpson and state Reps. Wendell Gilliard and David Mack III said it was overdue for legislators to take action. Additionally, the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus called on Wednesday for repeal of the law. James Underwood, who taught constitutional law at the University of South Carolina for decades, said he believes the Heritage Act does violate the state and federal constitutions. According to Underwood, the law appears to violate Article 1, Section 1 of the S.C. Constitution, which vests political power in the people, who can modify their form of government at any time. "What the act seems to do is invest the power in a past body that no longer exists," he said. "It segregates it as something beyond the power of the people." He said the law also seems to violate Article 8 by taking power away from local governments, as well as federal protections for free speech. However, he believes it would be hard to repeal the law politically. Across South Carolina, protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis have energized campaigns to remove memorials or namesakes that honor those involved in slavery and segregation. This week, Clemson University officials asked lawmakers to allow them to rename Tillman Hall, named for a white supremacist who helped found the school. The University of South Carolina also is expected to ask for permission to rename a dorm named for J. Marion Sims, who experimented on enslaved women. Seanna Adcox and Mikaela Porter contributed to this report. India should not misjudge or underestimate Chinas will to safeguard its territory, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has told his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar, demanding that New Delhi immediately cease all provocative actions at the border and thoroughly investigate the clash between the border troops on Monday night. Wang told Jaishankar that Indian armys adventurous act triggered the clash. A strongly worded statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry after a phone conversation between Wang and Jaishankar on Wednesday -- said the former told the Indian minister that New Delhi should strictly control frontline troops. Also read| No compromise on borders: PM Modi spells out Indias stance on row with China The phone call took place two days after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in an unprecedented violent exchange with Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley region of eastern Ladakh. Until now, Chinas foreign ministry and the Peoples Liberation Army have squarely blamed the Indian army for the violent face-off, which India has rejected as well: Wangs phone call clearly shows that China will continue to be aggressive. Again, China expresses its strong protest to the Indian side. We demand that the Indian side conduct a thorough investigation into the matter, severely punish those responsible, strictly control the frontline troops and immediately cease all provocative actions to ensure that such incidents do not recur, the statement released in Mandarin by the ministry said. Wang, who is also a state councillor, which makes him one of the most senior officials in China, said Indian border troops brazenly broke the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries. When the situation on the ground in the Galwan Valley had already eased, they once again deliberately provoked and even violently attacked officers and soldiers of the Chinese side who were on their way to negotiate across the Line of Actual Control. Also read| PM should tell how Chinese occupied Indian territory: Sonia Gandhi on Ladakh face-off This led to violent physical confrontations, resulting in injuries and deaths. This adventurous act by the Indian army is a serious violation of the agreements reached between the two countries on the border issue and a grave breach of the basic norms of international relations, Wang said. The Chinese minister said India and China should step up communication through existing channels like special representatives mechanism on the Sino-India boundary and communication channels between border troops to safeguard peace and tranquillity in border areas. Wang himself, and national security advisor AK Doval are the two SRs for the ongoing boundary talks between the two countries. Mutual respect and support between the two sides is the right way to go and is in the long-term interests of both countries; mutual suspicion and friction go against the fundamental aspiration of the two peoples, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 05:09:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A delegate casts his vote for the president of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, June 17, 2020. Volkan Bozkir of Turkey was elected president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, which begins in September 2020. (Xinhua) UNITED NATIONS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Volkan Bozkir of Turkey was elected president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, which begins in September 2020. Bozkir, a Turkish diplomat who was running uncontested, won unanimous support of the 178 UN members that were present and voting. He will take over from Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, the current General Assembly president, in September. A General Assembly president has a one-year term. Enditem His, and other numerous studies, have proved that decision makers make different decisions depending on how many decisions they have already made. Parole judges, for instance, are more likely to grant parole first thing in the morning, or shortly after a break. Doctors order more tests in the morning and fewer in the afternoon. Decision making can alter in different ways. In some situations, decision makers delay making a decision, such as the parole judge effectively putting off the decision whether to release someone back into the community. Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit: In other situations, decision makers become more impulsive, which explains all those chocolate bars at the checkout counter retailers know you're more likely to cave in to a poor health choice after an exhaustive search of the grocery aisles. Explanations vary as to why we're so bad at consecutive decision making. Psychologists have compared the concept of self-control the ability to make optimal decisions for oneself to a muscle, which fatigues with use. While actual energy use by the brain fluctuates very little, different parts of the brain that require conscious choice require more energy. Interestingly, studies have shown that small amounts of glucose, like fruit, can restore at least temporarily the ability to make good decisions. So that 3pm sugar craving might not be so irrational after all. Overall, strategies to overcome decision fatigue include reducing the number of decision points in the day. Wearing the same outfit or eating the same meals each day are ways to reduce the cognitive load. That new uniform of tracksuit pants and Ugg boots you've adopted while working from home during the pandemic is not so irrational after all but a highly strategic coping mechanism. But it's the second insight from behavioural economics of "asymmetric loss aversion" that really goes to the heart of the current malaise. Loading Not only are we making more decisions, but the consequences of those decisions are more dire than ever before. One of my local bus shelters has an ad reading: "Save lives in your community, stay at home unless absolutely essential." Every tiny decision we make these days, from catching a bus to ringing a doorbell to how far to stand apart in the coffee queue now comes with the potential to bring death to you, your loved ones, or those in our community with compromised health. At times, there have also been severe financial penalties for breaking the rules. And perhaps worst of all for a social animal, has been the sense that one might incur social shame or stigma if the decisions we make should spread the virus. For many people who got COVID-19, the worst part was not the illness itself but the social shaming of friends or acquaintances who they may have exposed to the virus. Each decision made in a time of COVID has been subject to an asymmetric loss function. That is, the potential loss that could be suffered from any course of action was more extreme that of death, loss and isolation. Many decisions carry such an asymmetry of risks. Being 30 minutes late for a flight is way worse than being 30 minutes early. That's why we all spend so long waiting around in airports (well, we used to). Getting caught in the rain without an umbrella is so much worse than the inconvenience of carrying around an umbrella unnecessarily. The greater the potential loss, the greater level of discomfort we are willing to experience to avoid it. And even as the threat of the virus recedes, life is far from back to normal. For every rule change, for every relaxation or potential reimposition of restrictions, we are forced to make a new set of decisions. It will be some time before life is back to normal if ever. On the upside, the new way of life offers the potential for some, at least to eke out more optimal ways of living, such as continuing to work from home or spending more time with family. But the cognitive load imposed by having to re-imagine the minutiae of life remains. Protesters walk past artwork on the boarded up windows of a 7-11 near City Hall in Center City, Philadelphia, Pa. on Sunday, June 7, 2020. The Free People Strike is hosted by Philly for REAL Justice, Human Rights Coalition PA, Black Lives Matter Philly, and Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration, according to a Facebook page for the event. Hundreds of people gathered to call for the release of people in prisons. Read more George Floyds death disgusted America. Not just Black America. White America was appalled, surprised, and aghast to see Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin strangle 46-year-old Floyd on bended knee in broad, open daylight. How could this happen in 2020? Still, after weeks of peaceful protests and violent riots, Black bodies are still hunted. And killed. On June 12, Rayshard Brooks was fatally shot in the back by Atlanta police officers as he tried to run away from them. Even in Philadelphia there are those who still dont think Black lives matter. Writ-server supervisor at Philadelphia Family Court, Michael Henkel, was fired from his job after a video of Henkel tearing down Black Lives Matter signs at Columbus Square at 12th and Reed went viral. Black lives matter, a woman is heard yelling at him. Not to me, Henkel yelled back. Black people arent responsible for this hate. It has been normalized through decades of systemic racism fueled by white Americas belief that Black people no matter where they are from are inferior. We live with this reality every day. It manifests in a big way as police brutality. But microaggressions are also ever present. For example, Band-Aid just introduced a collection of bandages that match Black skin. It only took Band-Aid 100 years. Even the newspaper industry has been debating whether the b in Black people deserves a capital B. This debate has been going on for decades. And its only been now that the L.A. Times, BuzzFeed, NBC News, MSNBC, the Associated Press and this newspaper made the capital B in Black standard, and recognize that Black is deserving of a capital letter. Band-Aids, capital letters: They may seem minor, especially while we still mourn the deaths of Floyd, Brooks, and others. But they are more connected than you might think. The Black experience in America is one of traumatic invalidation, said Stephanie Mattei, a psychologist and associate professor at La Salle University, who is white. The Black experience is invalidated time and time again. Outside of the Black community, the rest of society doesnt acknowledge their feelings or thoughts. How can you get over a trauma without acknowledging it is a trauma? said Mattei, who described traumatic invalidation in Black Americans as like PTSD that has gone untreated. We cant undo 400 years of inequality overnight, a few weeks, a couple of months, or several years. But we have to start somewhere. And that somewhere should be with ourselves. We have to identify what makes us angry, what makes us uncomfortable, and sit in it. Its time we unlearn ideas about Black people that are a part of the American psyche and keep systemic racism alive and kicking. Some think they are fair and just statements. They are not. Some think they are harmless. But they do cause harm. Unlearn: Bad people are racist. Im not a bad person, so Im not racist. Recognize: Racism is an act, not a state. Racism is not a fixed category, nor is it an identity, said Ibram X. Kendi, historian and author of the New York Times bestseller, How to be an Antiracist. In a TedX interview last week, Kendi explained that racist is a descriptive term: It describes what a person is saying or doing in a given moment. According to Kendi, to be truly antiracist is to believe there is nothing wrong with a specific group of people. An antiracist is someone who is willing to admit when they are being racist and willing to recognize the inequities and problems in our society. The heartbeat of racism is denial. The heartbeat of antiracism is confession, Kendi said. Unlearn: The effects of slavery are over. What matters is now. Recognize: The effects of slavery continue. Yes, enslaved people were freed in 1865. And Black people have achieved a lot, even the U.S. presidency. But the trauma Black people suffered collectively during the antebellum era can still be felt today. That pain has never been validated, Mattei said. Black people have been charged with healing themselves and cleaning up a mess they didnt make. Thats a tall order, Mattei said. Its impossible to heal when youve been invalidated every step of the way. Unlearn: Color doesnt matter. There is only one race: the human race. Recognize: Black experiences are valid. Saying that you dont see color is another way to invalidate the Black experience, said the Rev. Marshall Mitchell, pastor of Salem Baptist Church. Mitchell went on: When Black people tell you something, listen. If Black people have established capital in other parts of your life and they speak up to tell you something, give them an audience and not default to them overreacting or being emotional. This will require a certain level of vulnerability, he said. We have to unlearn defensiveness. We dont know everything and we have to be willing to admit what we dont know. Unlearn: Black people dont seem to care about violence in their communities. Recognize: Black people mourn violence in their communities every day. There is always rage and sadness when Black people are victims of violent crime. But the truth remains: According to the nonprofit Mapping Police Violence, Black Americans are three times more likely to die at the hands of police than white people. And its not because Black people are more violent; its because white people fear Black people. We arent criminals, we are whole people. But because America has this desire to punish, to be punitive, Mitchell said, it becomes easier to punish Black people because America doesnt see humanity in us. This is why we continue to see stories about police officers killing Black men for small, nonviolent offenses, like selling loose cigarettes. Unlearn: The Black experience is separate from the American experience. Recognize: We are a major part of the American story. Black history is American history, said Hilary Beard, a Philadelphia-based speaker and author of Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life. But it is not how we learn the history of this country in school. Beard lists a litany of important moments of Black American history from Crispus Attucks, the first person killed in the Revolutionary War, to Garret Morgan, who invented the traffic light. We have been present and active participants in every facet of this country, Beard said. American history is littered with the destruction of Black businesses by groups of angry white people, from Philadelphias Lombard Street Riots in 1842 to the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1920. READ MORE: Its ironic that the Tulsa massacre that destroyed Black Wall Street happened 99 years ago this week The problem is that Black success has always been a threat to this nation so white America has sought to subjugate, incarcerate and remove us from American life to minimize and diminish our contribution. But Black history is American history and American history is Black history, Beard said. Over 2,000 Covid-19 fatalities were added to the national death toll, taking the final figure to 11,903. This comes after Maharashtra and Delhi, two of the worst-hit states in the country, added unreported fatalities to their respective death tolls after review. The national capitals death toll went up by 437 of which 93 occurred over the past 24 hours while the rest were added after a review of pending fatalities. Maharashtra added 1,409 more fatalities to its Covid-19 death toll of which 1,328 deaths were added to the tally after the reconciliation exercise. Together, Delhi and Maharashtra added a total of 1,672 deaths after reconciliation. The addition led to a spike in Maharashtras case-fatality rate defined as the ratio of deaths to the total number of cases and now stands at 4.9, against the national rate of 3.4. Also read: Why was there a sudden spike in coronavirus deaths in Delhi? Sudden spike Mumbai alone added 862 fatalities to its death toll on Tuesday with officials citing discrepancies in records filed from various counting centres, according to a Bloomberg report. All of these cases correctly recorded Covid-19 as the cause of death but werent integrated into the master database, it said. Why the mismatch? Bhushan Gagrani, principal secretary, the Chief Ministers Office, blamed lack of information in private hospitals and poor record-keeping in government facilities. The figures of the deaths have risen suddenly owing to the reconciliation of the figures. It is true that there was negligence to a certain extent at some level and it led to the mismatch in the figures, he said. He admitted that the data was not being fed as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, leading to the mismatch. Also read: Indias Covid-19 toll nears 12,000 after backlog data reconciled Some private hospitals did not provide us the information in time while in some government hospitals, the records about the deaths were not kept properly. In some cases, the death certificates had the mention of Covid infection as the cause of the fatality, but in hospital records, the entry was missing. When we realised the lapses we, last week, asked all the municipal corporations and district collectors to reconcile the data on an urgent basis, he added. Undercounting fatalities Earlier, health experts had warned that India was undercounting fatalities as some states used different criteria. Like elsewhere, the actual numbers are thought to be higher as testing remains limited. Tamil Nadu administration was recently under the scanner as reports of more than 250 unreported Covid-19 fatalities in Chennai surfaced. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said that the government has nothing to hide. Syracuse, N.Y. Mark Hard has technically recovered from Covid-19, but his real recovery is a long way off. Hard, who spent nine days in intensive care last month, is considered recovered because its been more than two weeks since his first symptoms. But hes still tied to an oxygen tank at home. He cant walk to the drug store a block away. His chest feels tight, and his pulse rate, which used to be 70 to 80 beats per minute, spikes to 130 if he tries to walk slowly across the room. He cant pick up his 3-year-old granddaughter, Emmalyn, with whom he used to sing and sway every night before bedtime. I cant return to work. I cant walk down the street, said Hard, a mental health therapist and musician who lives in Fairmount. If you ask the county and state health departments, Im recovered, but if you talk to my doctor my recovery could take months to regain my lung function. Hards case illustrates how powerful the novel coronavirus can be, and how long it can take people to regain their functions. Some patients might never bounce back completely; its believed the virus, SARS-CoV-2, can permanently damage lung tissue and blood vessels. It also illustrates that the word recovered doesnt necessarily mean what we think it means when public officials announce it. About 62% of Onondaga Countys 2,444 confirmed coronavirus cases are listed as recovered. When we say that someone is recovered from Covid generally what we mean is that the virus is gone, said Dr. Helen Jacoby, an infectious disease specialist at St. Josephs Health Hospital. The vast majority of people do completely recover and get back to normal life, but if somebody has been seriously ill the recovery period can be long. Thats not unique to Covid-19, said Dr. Viren Kaul, a pulmonologist and critical medicine specialist at Crouse Hospital. We know theres something called post-ICU syndrome, Kaul said. When people are in the ICU, its not like they leave the ICU and theyre suddenly back to their normal state. Muscles atrophy during an extended hospital stay, and high volumes of oxygen can cause lung problems that take a long time to recover from. Some people suffer lasting damage to their brains and bodies after extended hospital stays for other conditions, but the jury is still out on Covid-19 patients because the virus has been in existence for just over six months. What are they going to be like six months from now? Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, asked in a speech last week. We dont know that. Theres a lot we need to learn. Research on other serious illnesses isnt encouraging, Kaul said. People who end up staying in the ICU for more than seven or eight days we say have chronic critical illness, he said. Studies show that of people who undergo chronic critical illness, less than 10% go back to living at their usual level of functionality at one year. Hard, 57, has been a therapist and substance abuse counselor for six years after getting his bachelors and masters degree in social work from Syracuse University, where his wife, Nancy, works. He worked in radio for 30 years both behind the scenes as a producer and on the air for the Mars Hill Network. For 25 years, he traveled to churches from Long Island to the Thousand Islands, singing sacred music; he produces his own music videos, playing everything from guitar to drums. In April, before he got sick, he wrote and produced a music video titled Covid Holiday. The idea came from Emmalyn, who said it felt like Christmas because everybody was home all the time. Hards adult son and daughter live with him and his wife, Nancy. Hard was deemed an essential worker, so he went to the Helio Health office on North Salina Street every day, seeing patients in person and via telemedicine. He was the only family member who left the house, so he did the grocery shopping, too. When he got home, he tossed his clothes in the washer and took a shower. I did everything right, he said. I wore a mask. I wiped everything down once an hour or before and after every patient. I washed my hands. I used hand sanitizer after I went to the store or got gas. You can do everything right and still contract it. One thing that was hard to do right, though, was not touching his face. He was born with glaucoma and uses four different kind of eye drops that can create itchy crusts. The first sign of Covid-19 was evening fatigue that started Wednesday, April 29. The pattern persisted for a few days: fall asleep after dinner, wake up feeling better. On Saturday he felt good enough to mow the lawn. Then I just crashed at that point, Hard said. I took my temperature, and it was 102. He went to urgent care the next day, where a flu test was negative. On Monday, he was tested for Covid-19. The positive result came back Wednesday, and he was immediately put in mandatory isolation. He stayed alone in the bedroom, rarely getting up except to eat and use the bathroom. His wife left food outside the door. The family was under a mandatory 14-day quarantine, unable to leave the property. During a telemedicine visit the following Monday, the doctor said Hard looked fine and to call if things got worse. That night, his wife and daughter clipped a pulse oximeter to his finger. Hards oxygen level was 52%, he said. At 60% you usually lose consciousness, Hard recalled a pulmonologist telling him later. His family called 911, and an ambulance rushed Hard to the Crouse emergency room. His lips were blue, and he was placed immediately in ICU, with 60 liters of oxygen flowing each minute through tubes into his nose, he said. In the hospital they said I couldnt put together a full sentence, he said. They were telling my wife this could go one way or the other. He was tethered to oxygen in the ICU for nine days, then transferred to a semi-private room for a few days until he was discharged May 23. Like all Covid-19 patients, he couldnt have visitors. He talked to his family by phone video, trying to reassure Emmalyn hed be OK. She was asking, Is Poppa going to die? Is grandma going to die? he said. Nancy asked for prayers from their fellow congregants at nearby Christ Community Nazarene Church. She called the hospital every day; the updates werent always encouraging. One of the nurses or doctors would say that usually people in my condition end up on a ventilator, Hard said, and if they end up on a ventilator they usually dont leave with a heartbeat. Studies have found that about a third of people sick enough to need a mechanical ventilator died. At home now, Hard uses an oxygen compressor. The flow is down to 2 liters a minute, but his blood oxygen level drops substantially when he climbs the stairs to the bedroom. Hard considers himself a pretty healthy guy, but he had some vulnerabilities that Covid-19 exploits: mild high blood pressure and slightly elevated cholesterol, two risk factors that force the immune system to battle harder against viral infections like Covid-19. By the time he reached the hospital, the virus had also caused a spike in his liver enzymes, another insidious, but generally short-lived, consequence of the coronavirus. Hard said that despite the close quarters in the house on Melrose Avenue, no one else in the family got sick and they werent tested. His son and daughter stayed away for a week after he came back from the hospital. They were in quarantine for 14 days, he said. Why bother getting tested? Scientists believe the virus can incubate for up to 14 days before causing symptoms, although the average time is five to seven days. Hards daughter, Abigail, had her quarantine lifted a few days early because she had completed her clinical requirements to become a physical therapy assistant, an essential occupation in New York. His son, Eldon, is planning to enter the University of Southern California in August to pursue a doctorate in biochemistry and neurology. Hards isolation finally ended May 31, more than a week after he left the hospital. In the letter releasing him, the Onondaga County Health Department said he was authorized to go back to work because he met the current guidelines for recovery from the state and federal health agencies. While the definitions of recovered have changed, in late May county health Commissioner Dr. Indu Gupta said patients were considered recovered if they have not needed fever medication for three days and have had the virus for at least seven days. Hard said his doctor has told him not to work for at least three months. I dont know if this will last for weeks or months or the rest of my life, Hard said. Nobody knows the answer because its so new. A self-described glass half full kind of guy, Hard said hes determined to return to normal, whatever that ends up being. He recalls how much fun he had with Emmalyn, Abigails daughter, before bedtime. She chose three songs; her favorites included Fish Heads Roly Poly, Werewolves of London, and Bad Boy, by the Miami Sound Machine. I would hold her in my arms, and we would dance, and she would fall asleep in my arms, he said. Now, he gets breathless just trying to lift her. Emmalyn doesnt understand. Shell say, I love you, Poppa. Dance with me! he said. I want to get to the point when I can do that. MORE CORONAVIRUS Where is coronavirus in NY? See map, charts of COVID-19 cases, deaths, hospitalizations (Monday, June 15) Coronavirus cases rising in several states, undermining reopening push Update: Coronavirus spreads slowly in Onondaga County, new data shows Tens of thousands of hectares of natural forests have been devastated just within a short time. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has requested local authorities to explain the deforestation and claim responsibility. The ministrys report released last May showed that the natural forest area in nine provinces decreased sharply by 29,000 hectares in 2018-2019. The sharpest decreases were seen in Dak Lak (11,400 hectares), Dak Nong (7,000 hectares), Quang Binh (3,300 hectares) and Quang Tri (2,000 hectares). MARDs Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan has requested to check the lost forest area and clarify the responsibilities of organizations and individuals for the forest loss. Forests disappear MARD's report released last May showed that the natural forest area in nine provinces decreased sharply by 29,000 hectares in 2018-2019. The sharpest decreases were seen in Dak Lak (11,400 hectares), Dak Nong (7,000 hectares), Quang Binh (3,300 hectares) and Quang Tri (2,000 hectares). It took reporters two days to walk to the fokienia forests in Sub-zone 1219 put under the control of Krong Bong Forestry Ltd Co in Krong Bong district of Dak Lak. Located in such a disadvantageous position, the fokienia population there has been devastated by illegal loggers for many years. Most recently, 19 fokienia trees, belonging to the protective forest, were found felled by them in April. Some reporters felt surprised when seeing that illegal loggers cut by 5-10 cm into tree trunks. A forest ranger explained that the loggers examined the quality of the tree to find if the wood was rotten inside. They did this to declare ownership with other illegal loggers, sending words that they will come to exploit the trees later. The fokenia population, comprising trees hundreds of years old, has been the favorite destination for illegal loggers for many years. The sub-zone 1219 alone has witnessed five illegal exploitation cases since 2018, in which hundreds of fokenia trees have been felled. According to Bui Quoc Tuan, director of Krong Bong Forestry, many local people rely on the forests to earn their living and some of them join the groups of illegal loggers. Tuan said the police took investigation on the deforestation cases, but they could not find illegal loggers. And more and more deforestation cases continue occurring. The forests in the Nam Kar and Ea So Natural Reserves, and the forests put under the control of Ea Kar Forestry and Chu Pa Forestry Companies have also been devastated continually. After each case occurred, provincial and districts authorities released documents requesting forest owners and relevant agencies to strengthen measures to protect the forests. But more forests have been devastated. On the trail that linked to Sub-zone 1104 controlled by Duc Hoa Forestry Company, reporters saw many felled trees lying on the ground and the burned trees, which were behind the signboard with the words cam pha rung (no deforestation). The devastated forest area is not far from the checkpoint of the Duc Hoa Forest Company. Vu Dung Two wild elephants spotted in Quang Nam forest Two wild elephants have been found in a forest in the central province of Quang Nams Hiep Duc District. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 19:48:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's central budget has allocated 169.59 billion yuan (about 23.93 billion U.S. dollars) worth of subsidies to support compulsory education in 2020, an increase of 8.3 percent year on year, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday. The subsidies will be spent to ensure the development of compulsory education and enhance the quality of education, according to the ministry. Starting from the spring semester this year, schools in central and western China will receive the same amount of subsidies as schools in the eastern part of the country. Primary schools will receive 650 yuan annually for every student they have and junior high schools will get 850 yuan per student, said the ministry. The ministry said more teachers will be recruited and assigned to rural areas this year, while priority will be given to meeting the demands of schools affected by COVID-19 including those in poor areas. The nutrition improvement program for rural students will be further strengthened, the ministry added. Around 749.5 billion yuan has been allocated from the central budget in the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), and 90 percent of the funds have been invested in rural areas, the ministry said. The ministry added that about 154 million students nationwide are exempt from miscellaneous fees and are given free textbooks; around 25 million students from poor families receive living allowances, and 32 million students from poverty-stricken areas benefit from the nutrition improvement program every year. China stipulates nine-year compulsory education for children, which covers primary school and junior middle school. Enditem The Police Ombudsman is investigating how the PSNI has enforced coronavirus regulations at large public gatherings. It follows complaints to the Ombudsmans office after a number of fines were issued to people who attended Black Lives Matter protests in Belfast and Londonderry on Saturday June 6. The complainants claim police had not done enough to enforce the same regulations during large gatherings on beaches and also at the Protect Our Statues gathering at Belfast City Hall on Saturday June 13. Expand Close People outside City Hall in Belfast in Northern Ireland to the protect war memorials in its grounds on June 13 (Niall Carson/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People outside City Hall in Belfast in Northern Ireland to the protect war memorials in its grounds on June 13 (Niall Carson/PA) Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson said her investigation will focus on the police policy and how it was and is being implemented, including how it is being communicated to police officers on the ground. The powers to enforce the public health regulations came under new legislation and there is the likelihood that they will continue to be enforced for many months to come, Ms Anderson said. It is in the public interest that there be an independent assessment as to whether the associated police policy is being applied consistently. If we identify inconsistencies and can make recommendations which will help improve policing of public gatherings, we will do so promptly Marie Anderson If we identify inconsistencies and can make recommendations which will help improve policing of public gatherings, we will do so promptly. If, however, we identify that there have been good reasons for taking different approaches on occasions, that is something the public should know and understand. Ms Andersons office added that the legality of the fixed penalty notices is a matter for the courts. The Northern Ireland Policing Board is also examining the matter, and has agreed to liaise with the Ombudsmans office. Expand Close People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Custom House Square, Belfast (Rebecca Black/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Custom House Square, Belfast (Rebecca Black/PA) Amnesty International welcomed the investigation. Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland programme director of Amnesty International said: Amnesty International has received complaints from members of the public who have been fined and threatened with prosecution as a result of participation in peaceful, socially-distanced Black Lives Matter protests in Belfast and Derry-Londonderry. The right to peacefully protest is a fundamental human right and people must be allowed to take a stand against racism without being criminalised. BALLSTON SPA The chair of the Saratoga County Democratic Committee is calling for the resignation of Carl Zeilman from either his chairmanship of the county's Republican Committee or from his position as the county's Commissioner of Emergency Services. In a press release sent on Tuesday evening, Democratic Chair Todd Kerner said that Zeilman's sharing of a far-right, fake flier that called for Democrats to eliminate Republicans "is inconsistent with the role of a Commissioner of Emergency Services." "Zeilmans tweeting and posting this flyer prior to the demonstration was fear mongering and an inflammatory political act," Kerner said. "The residents of Saratoga County are of all colors, faiths, and political ideologies and deserve their County Commissioner of Emergency Services to be above such political partisan actions. The Emergency Services Department is a vital office and we need it to be above reproach and for the benefit of all county residents. It is clear from Zeilmans actions, one cannot serve as both a political party official and a county Commissioner of Emergency Services. At a time when it is critical that public trust in our institutions remains firm, Zeilmans resignation would help restore faith and credibility in the countys ability to fulfill its responsibilities in a way that respects all of its residents." Clifton Park Democratic Committee Chair Patrick Lyons also called for Zeilman's removal. "This action, which was perpetrated by the Saratoga County Republican party chair and salaried employee of the county of Saratoga, requires formal action," Lyons said. The press release did not further address Zeilman's GOP chairmanship. Zeilman said the Democrats' demands are typical. This is just an attempt to create a distraction from the dangerous policies of defunding our law enforcement, erasing our countrys history and placing COVID19 patients back into nursing homes all of which Todd Kerner and his Democratic Party stand for," Zeilman said on Tuesday night. Zeilman tweeted out the flier on June 2 that called on Democrats to "reject whiteness" and called Republicans "war mongering" and "subhuman troglidytes." In his tweet, he called the flier despicable and said they were found on cars in Clifton Park. He later deleted the tweet after he told the Times Union it was drawing incendiary comments. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The Saratoga County Sheriff's Office investigated the claim that the fliers were placed on windshields in a Hannaford parking lot, but Captain Jeffrey Brown said they found no evidence they were. Zeilman sent the tweet at a time when demonstrations unfolded across the country in response to the deaths of black people at the hands of police, including the May 25 death of George Floyd, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. A few days after Zeilman tweeted it, the same image of the flier reappeared in social media posts in California. The flier was later debunked by a Colorado media outlet that researched its violent language after a Republican state representative said he found them at the Capitol. It remains unclear who created the flier. When Kerner saw the flier in early June, he figured it was fake, created by "someone looking for trouble" and "clearly not from our party." When he learned it was indeed phony, he called for Zeilman to apologize. Zeilman has not. By PTI NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come out of "hiding" and share the truth of the India-China face-off, saying the entire country is standing behind him. Questioning the prime minister's silence on the fierce clash between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh, he said the country needs to know what has happened and why Modi is silent. "Why is the Prime Minister silent. Where are you hiding? You should come out, the whole country is standing behind you together. Come out and tell the truth to the country, don't be afraid," Gandhi told the prime minister in a video message. ALSO READ: 20 Indian Army personnel killed after India-China standoff in Ladakh's Galwan valley Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two. The former Congress chief, in his message shared on his Twitter account, also saluted the brave martyrs of the country. He said that two days ago, 20 Indian soldiers were martyred and snatched away from their families and China has snatched India's land and usurped it. "Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened," Gandhi earlier said on Twitter. "How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land?" he said. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also asked Prime Minister Modi to show up, saying it is time to stand up to China as it is threatening India's sovereignty. "Our land, our sovereignty is being threatened, our soldiers and officers have been martyred, are we just going to remain silent?" "India deserves the truth. It deserves a leadership that is willing to do anything before allowing its land to be taken. Show up Narender Modi ji, it's time to stand up to China," she said in a tweet. The Army initially said on Tuesday that an officer and two soldiers were killed. But in a late evening statement it revised the figure to 20, saying 17 others who "were critically injured in the line of duty and exposed to sub-zero temperatures at the standoff location succumbed to their injuries." Government sources said the Chinese side too suffered "proportionate casualties" but chose not to speculate on the number. It is the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers, while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation. After protests and demonstrations following George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order on Monday, June 15 outlining changes he is implementing for the Connecticut state police force. "Police accountability is about trust and good police work doesn't work without trust and trust doesn't work unless police has the word community in it," said Lamont on Monday. From banning chokeholds to requiring body cams, there will be an overhaul for the Connecticut state police to meet new standards for their use-of-force policy. Scroll below to see the changes in store for Connecticut's state troopers. Click here to read the full article. LONDON Slowing down the fashion cycle has become a hot topic in the wake of the coronavirus, but what about slowing down investment? What if, instead of taking the short or even medium-term view, fashion investors took the long one, and cultivated businesses for years, with no intention of selling, similar to what LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Richemont and Kering do? In Britain, committed, long-term investors in fashion and the creative industries are rare. One of them is Javad Marandi, a self-made businessman who believes in taking the long haul with founders and entrepreneurs, and cultivating their companies like rare and precious blooms. Britain has an amazing pool of talent from all over the world. They love the British liberal values; they aspire to live here. What I can bring is patient capital, and offer back-office and financial help to support the businesses, said Marandi, who has put his money behind a variety of companies and individuals here, including Nick Jones of Soho House and designers Anya Hindmarch and Emilia Wickstead. Im a very patient investor, and I dont have an exit strategy. I would like to keep my businesses forever. Thats the ideal. My partners might want to exit at a certain point, in which case I would support them. But they are under no pressure to do so from my side. Last month he added The Conran Shop, the design and furniture retailer founded by Sir Terence Conran in 1973, to his diverse portfolio, which also houses Chais Monnet, a 92-room luxury hotel, restaurant and retail development in Cognac, France and Shirvan, the restaurant run by Michelin-starred chef Akrame Benallals on Place dAlma, in central Paris. The 52-year-old Marandi arrived in the U.K. as a child with his family following the Iranian revolution, and he was educated in England. His career began in the Nineties, in business development for firms including Coca-Cola International and Philip Morris, and he went on to launch his own export and distribution company with a focus on Central Asia. He later broadened his reach to European real estate. Story continues He owns Soho Farmhouse, Soho House groups country hotel and club in Oxfordshire, and is working with Jones on the high-concept motel and diner chain Mollies in the U.K. He is also working with Jones on a Soho House project in the New York Catskills, which is still in its very early stages. While these investments dont appear to have much in common, Marandi would argue that the companies are all led by hardworking entrepreneurs, and he gets a buzz from helping them grow. Marandi, who works alongside his wife Narmina, said he has no delusions of grandeur or any intention of forming a luxury group or becoming the next Bernard Arnault, Johann Rupert or Francois-Henri Pinault. He invests in individuals rather than companies, and prizes hard work and ambition. We genuinely get involved when we see an opportunity, when we think the brand is strong, has something unique. But more importantly, we invest when the person who leads it is passionate and dedicated to the brand and to the product. All three companies [Hindmarch, Wickstead and Conran] carry the name of the founders. Its their brand, its their thing. Were just proud to be supporting them, he said during an interview. The same goes for Jones, a cofounder of Soho House. I knew Nick Jones very well: He had a dream and he wanted to create something amazing, but he needed someone to finance it. I basically bought the [Soho Farmhouse] land, built what we wanted, and he operates it. Its been an amazing success. He is another one of those people who is extremely talented, hard-working and dedicated. Id love to be in the same room as him and support him whenever he sees fit but he doesnt really need it that much, he said. Marandi added that he and Narmina sometimes meet people who are extremely talented, and their business is probably very good, but they dont have the passion or energy or drive. Those are the ones we tend to avoid. In an ideal scenario, its my job to give the financial discipline and the oxygen for the creatives to do their job, which is creating amazing products. He said another big consideration is who might run the company if the founder cant, or isnt interested. You see very mediocre businesses doing extremely well under talented managers, whereas you see extremely good ideas destroyed by bad management, he said. Hes not fussy either about the size of the stakes that he and Narmina take: He holds 50 percent of Anya Hindmarchs business, having purchased it from Mayhoola last year, and a significant minority share in Emilia Wickstead. In May, he bought 100 percent of The Conran Shop. We dont insist on having a majority share its not that important for me. What we do insist on is control of the finances. We want to make sure the money is spent in the right way, or at least have a say in how it is spent. He and his team look regularly at cash flow, costs and overheads, while Narmina is more focused on the bigger picture, meeting regularly with Hindmarch and Wickstead to understand their aspirations and the direction they want their businesses to take. We want to make sure that were really adding value, and we dont want to get involved in things were not good at. This is business its not a charitable endeavor. And our aim is to grow these businesses in a more patient and sustainable way. The designers said the Marandis have become part of their day-to-day work. Wickstead said that when Narmina initially contacted her about investment, she wrote me a letter connecting herself to the story that I had created and where I dreamt of taking it to. Wickstead added that today, Narmina continues to train my eye to remember what women want and need. She is my best critic and is always very honest when it comes to creative sessions, where we will spend afternoons at the studio together with the team testing and trialing everything, be it designs, fabrics, color palettes, concepts or show production. She has a brilliant eye and aesthetic. Wickstead described the Marandis as family and said they give unlimited support. She described them as the true definition of a partner for our time. Hindmarch used similar language when talking about the couple. They innately understand the nuts and bolts of running a business. They fully back me, and jog along with me on the journey, she said, adding that Narmina has the most amazing taste and a very keen eye when it comes to design. I feel very lucky to have met them. During lockdown and the gradual reopening, Marandi said it has been paramount for him to instill confidence in his companies. Were making sure these businesses are properly capitalized, he said, adding that he has guaranteed his businesses that any money he lends them will be interest-free, and will come as a loan, not as equity, as he does not want to dilute the founders shares. Obviously we have to look at the efficiencies, and at cost-cutting, wherever possible. And this doesnt mean these companies can have as much as they want. At the same time were investing and weve guaranteed them for day one. Marandi is frank about where the money is coming from: Commercial real estate. Thats what brings in the short or medium-term liquidity. I develop, own and run hotels not just in the U.K., but in France and Belgium, too. Not all of his investments are as glamorous as Soho Farmhouse or Mollies, though. He also has stakes in Center Parcs in Moselle, France; the Sofitel hotel in Brussels, while his Alitas Sarl Group also holds stakes in the German property firm Burlington and a string of Swiss companies in the construction and warehousing sectors. One of his companies owns the McDonalds franchise and development agreement for Azerbaijan. Marandi gets his biggest buzz from launching and developing businesses and watching them grow. Historically, Im a development person, the one who goes in first and starts a business. I like when I can start them small, support them, and build them up. Most times, unfortunately, it doesnt work. But when it does, its the most rewarding thing. When you do something well, when its successful and people enjoy it, and you can see it grow I love it. That, for me, is the most important thing. Once its successful, it gets boring. Looking ahead, Marandi said he foresees a wave of national pride driving sales in Britain, with consumers favoring craftsmanship and authenticity. London, compared to Paris or Milan or Madrid, has a significantly bigger pool of affluent people who want to buy local, from British designers, he said, adding, I think they want to have more conversations, and affinity with the brands, too. Marandi also thinks its time for other investors to fess up and start taking care of their companies and people, too. He believes COVID-19 is giving them a great opportunity to do so. Last month, Marandi wrote an impassioned op-ed for The Daily Telegraph, entreating investors to take the long view, invest in companies, stop loading them with debt and stripping their assets. I just dont understand, morally, how you can justify that going forward, especially in an environment where well have a lot of socioeconomic issues post-COVID, he said, adding that investors, and business owners, need to play their part. Were not doctors, we cant work in hospitals to help people. But in our own way, we should take some responsibility. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. China on Wednesday claimed that the sovereignty of the Galwan Valley area in Ladakh "always belonged to it," a day after the armies of the two countries were engaged in a violent face-off. The External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said the violent confrontation between armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh was the result of an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. The ministry said both sides suffered casualties that could have been avoided had the agreement arrived earlier at the higher level been scrupulously followed by the Chinese side. At a briefing at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Spokesman Zhao Lijian refused to comment on reports of 43 casualties on the Chinese side during the face-off in the Galwan Valley on Monday night. "The border troops are dealing with relevant matter," he said. When pointed out that India has released the number of casualties and why Beijing was not providing the number for Chinese side, he said, "I have stated that Chinese and Indian border troops are now jointly dealing with the relevant matter on the ground. I have nothing to add at the moment." On the situation at the China-India border both sides are having close communication with each other resolving this through diplomatic and military channels, Zhao said. "The over all border situation is stable and controllable," he told correspondents to a volley of questions. Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel, were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two countries. A large number of Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Galwan Valley and certain other areas of eastern Ladakh for the last five weeks, including in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh "It will be great news if dexamethasone, a cheap steroid, really does cut deaths by one-third in ventilated patients with COVID19, but after all the retractions and walk backs, it is unacceptable to tout study results by press release without releasing the paper", Atul Gawande, surgeon and CEO of Haven Healthcare, tweeted. "Bottom line is, good news," Dr. Fauci, America's foremost infectious diseases expert told a US newswire on Tuesday, soon after the dexamethasone results were announced in the UK. Fauci, who has long championed the therapeutics-first view said that dexamethasone is a "significant improvement" in the available therapeutic options currently available. On Medical Twitter and Facebook, doctors broadly agree that dexamethasone use aligns well with the way COVID19 attacks the body's immune system. Fauci said the results in the Oxford study make "perfect sense" in that context. "We should see the number of people who actually survive go up, if the study holds up," virologist and epidemiologist Dr. Joseph Fair told a television network. Global coronavirus cases crossed 8 million on Tuesday. In the US, Texas and Florida are facing a new wave of cases after lifting lockdown orders earlier than medical experts recommended. Amidst the relentless graph upwards, the dexamethasone study results injected hope for better survival rates among those most seriously ill. World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan welcomed the results from the randomised control trial. Dr Eugene Gu, Founder and CEO of CoolQuit tweeted that he is "genuinely impressed" with the UK dexamethasone trial. This may be a "game changer", he wrote. "There's no conflict of interest as dexamethasone is a generic steroid. The mechanism of action makes sense because steroids can reduce cytokine storms and overactive immune systems that makes COVID-19 so deadly. The number needed to treat is 8 ventilated patients which is great." The Oxford study found that dexamethasone reduced deaths by 35 percent in patients who needed treatment with breathing machines and by 20 percent in those only needing supplemental oxygen. Dexamethasone was one of 5 drugs studied in a large clinical trial in the United Kingdom named RECOVERY, short for Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy. Peter Horby, chief investigator of the University of Oxford clinical trial, said dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19. Details of the study have not been released. The trial organisers said they made their announcement via a news release because of "the public health importance of these results." According to Horby's public comments, there was a lot of initial resistance to studying steroids. During the study, 2,104 patients were randomly selected to be given 6 milligrams of dexamethasone once a day (either by mouth or by intravenous injection) for 10 days. That group was compared with 4,321 patients who received the usual care alone. Researchers estimated that dexamethasone would prevent one death for every eight patients treated while on ventilators and one for every 25 patients on extra oxygen alone. UK experts have called the study results a breakthrough in the fight against the virus. The researchers have promised they would publish the results soon. --IANS niki/in More than five years ago, area leaders, police departments, and members of the Western Wayne County NAACP got together to address racial tensions surrounding police and the use of excessive force after an unarmed black man was shot multiple times and killed by an officer. Those efforts produced some good dialogue, but it eventually fizzled out as protests and heated conflicts over police shootings involving black men cooled. The May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has ignited that same anger over policing as global protests have continued every day since a former officer kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly 9 minutes. Unlike most protests, these marches involve white people, black people and people from a wide range of backgrounds, including police officers. Again, Western Wayne County mayors, area leaders, police chiefs and members of the Western Wayne County NAACP have recognized the growing tension concerning excessive force against unarmed black men and women and many of the same leaders are not only stepping up, but vowing to continue their work for change this time. Law enforcement officers and leaders representing 18 communities in the conference took over the front lawn of Westland City Hall on Tuesday to unite over the launch of Partnerships for Progress Listening Tour. The Conference of Western Wayne and Western Wayne County NAACP branch, will travel to each of the communities, including Huron Township and Romulus, to engage with residents on their concerns involving race relations, policing, their safety and more. It is designed to improve communication throughout the communities. Romulus Mayor LeRoy Burcroff was among the invited city officials asked to speak at the kickoff. Burcroff said the conference is unique in that it represents more than 700,000 residents, and they put all differences aside for the greater good. In light of the unrest in the country over Floyds death, ruled a homicide, the mayor said people simply want to be heard. There is listening and there also is being heard, he said. I think those are two different things. We listen to music, but being heard is understanding the words and the meaning of what needs to happen. He said the tour will allow people to tell their story and hear from those crying out to be heard. Livonia will be the first host city with a discussion from 6 to 7:30 p.m. June 24 at the Livonia Clarenceville High School auditorium. It will be livestreamed at facebook.com/conferenceofwesternwayne. There is no date yet for the Downriver talks, but Burcroff said he is anxious for the tour to come to his city. We want to be in the forefront and we want to be a model for Michigan, Burcroff said of the tour. Romulus wants to be a model for the region. That is why we are offering early on to host one of the listening tours. I think the bigger takeaway is the follow through. The mayor said the previous joint efforts inspired some dialogue, but along the way, people got distracted, society refocused and national attention shifted. We learned from that and we cant let that happen again because some of the same issues we talked about nearly six years ago at this building are still going on, Burcroff said. What is different about this is the commitment to keep this going, to set up accountability committees within each community so we can stay on task. Were going to learn as we go through tours. Burcroff said although he is looking forward to the stop in Romulus, he would like to do it when the governors order on social gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic changes and more than 100 people can gather for the discussion. For now, the first 100 people to sign up will be able to attend. There is hope that by July those restrictions will have been lifted. He said he is anxious to land a date, noting that people are going to have some meaningful opportunities to hear from a variety of police departments. Through the tour, organizers said residents will be able to ask elected officials questions and offer ideas for solutions and change. Gina Wilson Steward, president of the Western Wayne County NAACP, said a quote she borrowed from civil rights activist Malcolm X was fitting for the moment: If now, when? If not me, who? She said the difficult times everyone is trying to navigate through now are the same challenges black mothers and fathers have struggled with for years. We realized that for far too long, many members of the community felt like they have not been heard by the elected officials and law enforcement in their communities, Steward said. The recent killing of unarmed black people and the resulting global protests says it is time to do something different. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is committing $120 million to institutions dedicated to the higher education of students of color. Hastings will donate $40 million each to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and historically Black Spelman and Morehouse colleges. "There are many good places to donate, but the [historically Black colleges and universities] are 150 years old, incredibly resilient, producing an amazing number of Black graduates," Hastings told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin in an interview that aired Wednesday. The donation from Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, comes amid renewed calls for racial justice after the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. In addition, the Black community has been disproportionately sickened by the coronavirus, showing the gaping disparities in access to quality health care across minority communities. "The amount of tragedy really did get us to focus and say, 'let's do something now that will be supportive of these great institutions and give people some sense of hope,'" Hastings said. "This moment is not the first time that racism has reared its, you know, terribly ugly head." "We want to help draw attention to the HBCUs, to them being part of the solution for America, and for Black children to aspire to," he added. Spelman College President Mary Schmidt Campbell said 60% of Morehouse's students and 48% of Spelman students are eligible for the federal Pell Grant, which helps low-income families. "Here you have in this country, you have the colleges with the least resources taking on the responsibility of educating at a high level the students who need resources the most," she told Sorkin. According to Forbes, Hastings has a net worth around $4.8 billion, thanks primarily to his 1.3% stake in Netflix the best-performing stock of the last decade. That's helped him become a longtime donor in the education system. He has given millions in funding to charter schools, and in 2016 started a $100 million philanthropic fund for children's education. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. The reopening of Co Kildare's commercial life continued this week and queues formed outside retail centres such as Kildare Village in Kildare town. In Whitewater Shopping Centre, a queuing system was in place for each store to allow for social distancing. Customers were advised to consider the weather for their trip as they may need to queue outside due to a limit on the number of customers allowed inside. A spokesperson said on Monday: On behalf of Whitewater Management we wish to express our utmost gratitude to our customers, partners and team members whose kindness, loyalty and support has made this day possible. Across the town, the Penneys store was into its second week of trading and a large group of customers waited outside to enter. Further west along the M7, there were over 20 people queuing to enter Kildare Village before it opened at 10.30am on Monday morning. As well as strict hygiene measures, Kildare Village was operating a thermal scanning entry process and limiting the number of customers in the Village and boutiques at any one time. Meanwhile County Kildare Chamber called for radical measures to boost town centres as it welcomed progress in the formation of a new Government and the publication of a Programme for Government. Allan Shine, Chief Executive of the Chamber said: The focus on town centres, balanced regional development and infrastructure, particularly public transport and housing, is welcome." Read more in this week's Leinster Leader - in shops now! Governors Cuomo and Northam move to make the day that commemorates the end of slavery in the US a paid day off. The governor of New York state, signed an executive order on Wednesday recognizing Juneteenth a day that commemorates the emancipation of slaves in the United States as a paid holiday for state employees Governor Andrew Cuomo said he will propose legislation next year making June 19 a permanent state holiday. It is a day we should all reflect upon. It is a day that is especially relevant in this moment in history, Cuomo said. The move from New York came a day after Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced that he is making Juneteenth an official holiday in a state that was once home to the capital of the Confederacy. Juneteenth, which is also called Emancipation Day and Freedom Day, is celebrated annually on June 19. Texas first made it a state holiday in 1980. The holiday would be a paid day off for all Virginia state employees. Forty three other states and the District of Colombia commemorate or recognize the day, but not as an official holiday. Its time we elevate this, Northam said of the June 19 commemoration. Not just a celebration by and for some Virginians but one acknowledged and celebrated by all of us. Changes in Virginia The Democratic governor is giving every executive branch employee this Friday off as a paid holiday and will work with the legislature later this year to pass a law codifying Juneteenth as a permanent state holiday. The legislation is likely to pass the Democratic-controlled legislature with little trouble. The holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, the day the news finally reached African Americans in Texas that then-President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves living in Confederate states two years earlier. When Union soldiers arrived in Galveston to bring the news that slavery had been abolished, former slaves celebrated. The announcement came less than two weeks after Northam announced he was ordering the removal of a statue of General Robert E Lee along Richmonds prominent Monument Avenue. It is one of the countrys most iconic monuments to the Confederacy. Every year, as a nation we mark the Fourth of July, celebrating our independence from English colonial rulebut that freedom did not include everyone. Its time we elevate #Juneteenth, not just as a celebration by and for some, but one acknowledged and commemorated by all of us. pic.twitter.com/4AI4fmmAmn Ralph Northam (@GovernorVA) June 16, 2020 Nearly forced from office last year after a racist yearbook photo surfaced, Northam has won widespread praise among Black legislators for his actions in Virginia following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes as he pleaded for air. President Donald Trump announced last week that he has rescheduled a campaign rally that was planned in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Juneteenth. President Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina [File: Carlos Barria/Reuters] The announcement of the rally had sparked an outcry because Tulsa was the site of one of the worst instances of racial violence in US history in 1921, when hundreds of African Americans were massacred by a white mob that burned Black-owned businesses and homes. Northam was joined on Tuesday at his news conference by musician Pharrell Williams, who is from Virginia. Williams said Juneteenth deserves the same level of recognition and celebration as Independence Day. Earlier this year, Northam signed legislation scrapping Lee-Jackson Day, a state holiday named after two Confederate generals. Confederate symbols fall Statues continue to topple in Virginia, most recently the Howitzers Monument located near Virginia Commonwealth Universitys Monroe Park campus, which fell on Tuesday night, according to reports. The monument showed a Confederate artilleryman standing in front of a gun and was erected in 1892 to memorialise the citys Civil War artillery unit, according to the Encyclopedia of Virginia. {articleGUID} Protesters who spent the night marching in the rain used a rope to pull it down from its pedestal. It is the third Confederate statue, and the fourth monument, to be torn down by demonstrators in Virginia since international protests erupted following Floyds alleged murder. Statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Confederate General Williams Carter Wickham as well as Christopher Columbus were toppled by demonstrators in recent weeks. Richmond also saw its police chief removed on Tuesday by Mayor Levar Stoney after weeks of protests against police brutality. Another confederate statue in Richmond torn down. Protesters toppled the Howitzers monument located near VCU's campus Tuesday night. pic.twitter.com/jWON0iVJtM Leondra Head (@Leondrahead) June 17, 2020 Chief William Smith resigned at the mayors request, Stoney said at a news conference on Tuesday. Stoney requested his resignation after protesters in Richmond accused the police force of repeatedly using excessive force during demonstrations. Stoney called Smith a good man at the news conference, but said [o]ne thing is clear after the past few weeks Richmond is ready for a new approach to public safety. There is work to be done, and were ready to do it. FILE PHOTO: Meat stalls are seen at a market in Beijing By Dominique Patton and Hallie Gu BEIJING (Reuters) - China's meat importers fear clearing delays and a hit to demand after one of the country's major ports began requiring coronavirus tests for all meat and seafood containers to prevent contamination. Tianjin on the northern coast, the primary port for Beijing, started testing batches from every arriving container on Monday, two importers and an official briefed on the matter said. Tianjin port and customs officials did not respond to calls seeking comments. The government of Shanghai, another major port for meat imports, said on Wednesday its customs would strengthen inspections of imported meat, seafood and fresh fruit and vegetables. It did not specify if it would also carry out coronavirus tests. China is the world's top meat importer and many meat exporting nations, including the United States and Brazil, have seen thousands of cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, among meat plant workers. Authorities usually conduct food safety tests on a random sample of about 10% of frozen meat shipments, Grace Gao, manager at Dalian-based meat importer Goldrich International, said. Now, every container in Tianjin is opened and boxes pulled out for coronavirus tests, she said. The move by Tianjin, 110 km (70 miles) from Beijing, follows a fresh coronavirus outbreak linked to a wholesale food market. [nL4N2DU08O] "Each batch of beef, or all beef produced on the same date, must be tested for the virus," a manager at Haiyunda Trading, who only gave his surname Fu, said. Any meat in cold storage that arrived after March 1 must also be sealed and tested before it can leave the port, Fu said. Gao, who has shipments arriving this week in Guangzhou, Tianjin and Shanghai, is worried the tests will cause a backlog, particularly given the large volume of pork that has arrived in China in recent weeks. The United States Meat Export Federation said so far it had seen minimal disruption of U.S. shipments. Story continues The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was aware China would begin testing seafood and meat, spokesman Peter Cassell told Reuters. But he said the regulator did not know of any cases of COVID-19 linked to these foods or of any transmission from food or packaging. "The FDA is not currently aware of any evidence to suggest that food produced in the United States or imported from countries affected by COVID-19 can transmit this respiratory virus," he said. Importers fear other ports may follow Tianjin and Gao said any positive test would destroy consumer demand. Fu said he was trying to import from regions and countries where COVID-19 is less severe, such as northern Europe and Kazakhstan. "If test results for products from certain countries or factories turn out to be problematic, imports from those places could be suspended," he said. (Reporting by Dominique Patton, Hallie Gu, Muyu Xu, and Yawen Chen; Additional reporting by Tom Polansek and PJ Huffstutter in Chicago; Editing by Tom Hogue and Barbara Lewis) By PTI GAUHATI: A public interest litigation has been registered at the Gauhati High Court against the Centre's nod to Oil India for drilling seven wells inside Dibru- Saikhowa National Park, which is adjacent to Baghjan well tragedy site. The PIL no. 35/2020 was filed jointly by advocate Mrinmoy Khataniar and mountaineer Amar Jyoti Deka on Monday and it was registered on Tuesday, the E-Courts services of the Gauhati High Court mentioned. The petitioners have made 14 respondents in the case -- Government of India (GoI), Secretary to GoI, Assam government, Principal Secretary, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Head of Forest Force and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife). The National Board of Wildlife, State Board of Wildlife, Oil India Ltd (OIL), General Manager, The Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner and Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board and State Pollution Control Board have also been made parties in the case. The PIL has been filed against the Central government's approval to OIL for drilling seven wells inside the Dibru- Saikhowa National Park, which is very rich in biodiversity. It also pointed out that if the company is allowed to go ahead with the drilling, then situations like Baghjan's gas well tragedy can take place there also, thereby threatening the entire Park. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) had accorded environmental clearance for extension drilling and testing of hydrocarbons at seven locations under Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, north west of Baghjan in Tinsukia district. An OIL gas well at Baghjan, which is abutting the Dibru- Saikhowa National Park, in Tinsukia district of Assam has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 22 days and it caught fire on June 9, killing two of OIL's firefighters at the site. The blaze at the well is so massive that it can be seen from a distance of more than 30 kms with thick black smoke going up several metres high, endangering the local biodiversity in the National Park following the blowout on May 27. On May 19, the PSU major OIL had published an advertisement in a leading English newspaper about the company receiving permission to drill inside the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, evoking sharp reactions on social media regarding protection of the forest. The next day, the company had informed through an official statement that in order to tap the hydrocarbon resources underneath the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, it had approached statutory bodies for obtaining necessary permissions in 2016. The company had claimed it would drill the seven wells inside the National Park from about 1.5 km distance outside the boundary of the forest with the help of advanced technology. "This is a state of the art technology, where drilling will take place around at an average more than 1.5 kilometres outside the demarcated area of the national park where OIL already is carrying out hydrocarbon exploration since last 15 years (Baghjan area)," OIL had said. The company would be able to accomplish this task of exploring hydrocarbon reserves under the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park by use of the Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) technology, it had added. "ERD techniques are extensively used to intersect hydrocarbon targets far from the surface or areas of the reservoir which otherwise are difficult to access. By using this technology, wells can be drilled up to a depth of approximately four km from the existing well plinth without entering the protected area. "Through ERD technology, OIL will reach the target depth of around 3.5 km beneath the surface of the National Park without carrying out any drilling activity inside the National Park," the statement had said. OIL had asserted that no disturbance to the environment and Dibru-Saikhowa National Park is envisaged due to use of ERD technology. Four more participants have been announced ahead of the highly anticipated return of Bachelor in Paradise. In a post on the show's official Instagram on Wednesday, it was revealed former Bachelor hopefuls Helena Sauzier, Mary Viturino, Brittney Weldon and Cassandra Mamone will be appearing in the franchise's spin-off series. 'With Bachelor in Paradise just around the corner we can reveal four more lovely ladies looking for love in Fiji this season,' they announced, sharing photos of each woman. Making a comeback: Four more participants have been announced ahead of the highly anticipated return of Bachelor in Paradise. Pictured, Cassandra Mamone They added: 'Welcome back Helena, Mary, Brittney & Cass!' Just a day earlier on Tuesday, Bachelor in Paradise teased the new contestants, sharing a picture with only their silhouettes and a question mark over each person. 'Psst! Want to know four more Bachelorettes making their way to Paradise this season?' read the caption. Headed to Paradise: In a post on the show's official Instagram on Wednesday, it was revealed former Bachelor hopeful Mary Viturino will be appearing in the franchise's spin-off series While an official air date is yet to be announced, they added: 'Come back tomorrow and we'll spill the tea! Bachelor In Paradise, coming soon to 10.' Helena, who appeared on last year's season of The Bachelor, vying for Matt Agnew's affection, also posted on her own Instagram account. 'Well... the [cat emoji] is out the [bag emoji]. I'm baaaaaaaack (with a slightly frizzier mane. Join me in Paradise,' the 26-year-old wrote on Wednesday. Coming soon: Helena Sauzier, who appeared on last year's season of The Bachelor, vying for Matt Agnew's affection, also announced the news on her own Instagram account Meanwhile, this is Brittney's second appearance on Bachelor in Paradise, after first appearing on Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins' season of The Bachelor in 2018. 'BULA... Third time lucky as they say. Get ready for a wild time, SOOOOO much to come on #bachelorinparadiseau,' the 27-year-old wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. 'I can tell you from experience it is nothing like you've seen before! Have I finally met the man of my dreams????? Oh la la... Make sure you watch, "coming soon".' Satellite recon of a Shanghai shipyard was China's third aircraft carrier under construction which disappeared when checked. The aircraft carrier is the Type 003, that is different from the Liaoning and Shandong and but is still inferior to the Nimitz or Gerald Ford. Intelligence analysts have discovered signs that it has been moved to another location that is yet to be determined by US intelligence. By estimation, the time it was relocated was from May 25 to May 28, which is based on satellite images available to the public. However, why the ship under construction was moved is unknown. This article was reported in Forbes. What makes this Type OO3 an exception from the Liaoning and Shandong Compared to the Liaoning and the Shandong that are based on Soviet aircraft carriers, equipped with ski-jumps to launch aircraft but with lower payload and range. Type 003 will be significantly more advanced with an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) that is similar to the USS Ford. The discovery of the ship's transfer was not expected by intelligence analysts, because the shipyard is for the specific construction of the T-003, with a launch basin too. Earlier photos were showing several large hulls that are to be welded together in the satellite photos showing the ship's huge hull was getting assembled. Signs of the impending transfer of Type 003 from its dock Before the disappearance of Type 003, the Chinese fabricated a large semi-submersible transport barge that is used to move hull sections of the aircraft carrier, that was made large enough to accomplish the task. Experts weigh in that the barge is for local transfer not for rough seas. This was seen earlier in satellite photos too. Also read: Three US Navy Aircraft Carriers Seen Patrolling Indo-Pacific Amidst Tensions in Three Years as a Pushback Aimed at Beijing Initially, the transport barge was first seen in photos in May, as it was docked near the 003 carrier hulls in the nearby basin. According to analysts, it was barely visible under cloud cover from a satellite photo dated from 23rd of May, originating from Twitter. The dock was empty when the images were examined. But on June the 2nd the large semi-submersible transport barge is in the basin, seen in a satellite photo but no carrier hulls. So, speculation that it just picked up the Type-003 hull, and took them to an undisclosed location and return to the docs. One major implication is that the Chinese have transferred the 003 hulls to another secret location, unknown to anyone except themselves. Progress of the construction of Type 003 in the shipyard was done several times a week by US satellites. Visibility is not good because of impenetrable cloudiness in the region. It might have been the best time to move hull parts with the barge. Analysts are trying to decipher how the Chinese were able to move, and possible places the construction is getting underway. A photo from an aircraft for social media, that is gone from the shipyard. Some ideas about the missing hulls of Type OO3 Speculations are rife about the missing hulls, one of them might he issues with the launch basin, with large vessels parked there with dredging done all the time. Or there might be a problem concerning the fabrication site, here is a page in Twitter that might be where it is. It is not possible that the fabrication was stopped, and makes no sense when it can be done anywhere else. These hulls cannot be hidden forever and it might turn up soon. Other areas are examined by analysts that might harbor the missing Type 003 hulls. What is crucial is not why the aircraft carrier was moved under construction. Related article: Air Force to Send F-35s to Middle East to Blunt the Iranian Offensive @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress on Wednesday that the circulation of physical coinage has ground to a halt amid the coronavirus outbreak but that the central bank is working to fix the flow. The topic came to light after Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., said banks in Tennessee are reporting that they're receiving smaller-than-usual sums of coinage each week. Rose asked Powell if the central bank was aware of any shortages in the production and distribution of currency, and if there are plans to boost the allocations to their usual levels. "What's happened is, with the partial closure of the economy, the flow of coins through the economy has ... kind of stopped. The places where you'd go to give your coins and get credit ... those have not been working," Powell said. "So, a whole system of flow has kind of come to a stop. We're well aware of this: We're working with the mint and we're working with the reserve banks. And as the economy reopens, we're seeing coins begin to move around again," he added. The spread of Covid-19 across the U.S. over the first half of the year has led to a rise in contactless payments as more Americans shelter in place and shop online using PayPal or credit cards. But unprecedented, state-imposed business closures also resulted in a deceleration in the rate at which physical cash and coinage exchange hands. Companies that generate a significant portion of their revenues in physical cash, including restaurants and convenience stores, would normally deposit their earnings at local banks. That regular activity, in conjunction with regular inflows of new money from U.S. mints, helps resupply the nation's banks with coinage to then reallocate back into local circulation. So when states like New York this spring ordered restaurants and other in-person commerce closed, the normal cycle of U.S. money slowed and failed to refresh banks per usual. Powell's comments about U.S. coinage came as part of his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, part of his semiannual testimony to Congress. He warned the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday of "significant uncertainty" about the economy's recovery from the coronavirus and said small businesses are at risk. Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world. Anyone who has served in the Army will admit they paid scant attention to the history or whats behind the names of the posts they were assigned whether they be Camp Algiers, Fort Lewis (named for Meriwether Lewis, the Army officer who co-led the Corps of Discovery in the early 1800s exploring the Louisiana Purchase), now Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash.; Fort Dix close to Trenton, N.J., (named for War of 1812 and Civil War Gen. John Adams Dix); or Fort Sill by Lawton, Okla. (named for Union Gen. Joshua Sill, who was killed in the Civil War). Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jalees Andrabi, Bhuvan Bagga, Parvaiz Buhkari and Jing Xuan Teng (Agence France-Presse) New Delhi/Srinagar, India/Beijing, China Wed, June 17, 2020 07:10 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf4f29b 2 World India,China,border-areas,clash,Dispute,bilateral-relation,tension Free The long-running border dispute between Asian nuclear powers India and China turned deadly for the first time in nearly half a century after at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a "violent face-off", the army said Tuesday. Experts warned the high-altitude clash along the Himalayan frontier was a worrying development which could escalate, following weeks of rising tensions and the deployment of thousands of extra troops from both sides. Brawls erupt regularly between the world's two most populous nations across their disputed 3,500-kilometer border -- but no-one has been killed since 1975. Beijing and Delhi blamed each other for Monday's clash in the precipitous, rocky terrain of the strategically important Galwan Valley, which lies between China's Tibet and India's Ladakh. An Indian army source in the region told AFP the incident involved no shooting but "violent hand-to-hand scuffles". The soldiers threw punches and stones at each other, with Chinese troops allegedly attacking their Indian counterparts with rods and nail-studded clubs during the more than six-hour fight, the Hindustan Times reported. India had earlier put the toll at three dead. But in a statement later Tuesday the army added that 17 more critically injured were "exposed to sub-zero temperatures... [and] succumbed to their injuries". The Indian army said earlier that there were "casualties on both sides". China's defense ministry confirmed the incident had resulted in casualties but did not give the nationality of the victims or any other details. The United States -- which has mounting frictions with China, but sees India as an emerging ally -- said it is hoping for a "peaceful resolution", and that it was monitoring the situation closely. The UN called for both sides to "exercise maximum restraint". Former Indian ambassador to China and foreign secretary Nirupama Menon Rao warned that "we are at an extremely worrisome juncture in the relationship". "If not handled correctly... [this] can really escalate into something much bigger than we had initially imagined," Harsh Pant from the Observer Research Foundation think-tank told AFP. 'Attacking Chinese personnel' Beijing claimed Indian troops "crossed the border line twice... provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces on the two sides". New Delhi's foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava hit back, saying the clash arose from "an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo" on the border. The violence followed weeks of hostilities that began May 9, when several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a clash involving fists and stone-throwing at Naku La in India's Sikkim state, which borders Bhutan, Nepal and China. But just last week, China said it had reached a "positive consensus" with India over resolving tensions at the border, while New Delhi also sounded conciliatory. However, Indian sources and news reports suggested that Chinese troops remained in parts of the Galwan Valley and of the northern shore of the Pangong Tso lake that it occupied in recent weeks. The prickly relationship had already been strained when India in August revoked the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir state. That saw the Ladakh region -- partly claimed by Beijing -- turned into a separate Indian administrative territory. Taylor Fravel, an expert on China's territorial disputes at MIT, said Beijing would have viewed the move as a "direct challenge to China's sovereignty" over the area it claims. "This may have been one factor leading China to adopt a much more forward posture along the LAC [Line of Actual Control, or the frontier] in the western sector [of the border]" he told AFP. Fravel said both nations would not "want to see a major escalation", with China's main security priority still the US. 'Worrying' India and China have never even agreed on the length of their "Line of Actual Control" frontier, and each side uses different frontier proposals made by Britain to China in the 19th century to back their claims. They fought a brief war in 1962 in which China took territory from India. Further deadly clashes followed in 1967, but the last shot fired in anger was in 1975, when four Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed along the dividing line in Arunachal Pradesh. In 2017 there was a 72-day showdown after Chinese forces moved into the disputed Doklam plateau on the China-India-Bhutan border. After that India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping appeared to ease tensions at two summits. India and China meanwhile have also been engaged in a show of power in the Indo-Pacific, with New Delhi allying with the US, Australia and Japan to check China's push in the region. CALISTOGA City officials have come to agreement on a budget for the coming year by bargaining for pay freezes, cutting department expenditures, and postponing capital improvement projects. Impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic have slashed city hotel tax revenue, with a $4 million loss expected through August. A normal year might bring in $6 million in transient occupancy tax (TOT). That number is now projected at $2.3 million, based on information from Visit Napa Valley. But while Julys TOT is expected to be at about 10% of normal, next June is projected to be up to 75% of normal revenue income. To deal with the losses, city department heads have revised expenditures, and have brought down costs by 9%, or $900,000. In bargaining with employee groups, concessions were made across the board, with a 3% cost-of-living increase suspended; 5-step increases have been frozen; and city employees are expected to take eight hours of furlough. In addition, city employees are giving up car allowances and technical stipends have been suspended. Additionally, unfilled vacancies within all departments will remain vacant for the coming year. The total overall concessions from employees come to $1.7 million. Pensions are safe, said Gloria Leon, the citys administrative services director. The city has also saved about $9.6 million by postponing capital improvement projects. Impact fees are expected to bring in nearly $1 million, which will contribute to general fund projects, and revenue should be about $13.6 by the end of the year, Leon said. Each year since 2014, the city has met its goal of 50% in General Fund reserves. The coming year will see 22.7% in reserves, but that is still up from the 20% the city council requested from staff. This reserve has allowed us to weather the situation were in now, said Mayor Chris Canning. You can reach Cynthia Sweeney at 942-4035 or csweeney@weeklycalistogan.com. 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. With external affairs minister S Jaishankar speaking with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Wednesday for the first time since the troop build-up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) began several weeks ago, people familiar with developments said the focus is expected to remain on bilateral efforts to defuse the crisis. India, however, is mulling economic measures, including limiting Chinas access to its vast market, even as its armed forces went into a state of high alert to deal with any threat to national security following the significant escalation of the border conflict with China after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a brutal clash with Chinese soldiers on June 15. The army has strengthened its posture across the length of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) where reinforcements have been sent, the Indian Air Force is keeping its contingency plans ready and the navy is also on an operational alert in the Indian Ocean region where scores of warships are ready for any task, three military officers said on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity. Also Watch | The General who first saw through Chinas intentions in Ladakh On the economic front, at least 100 Chinese products are staring at anti-dumping action and future investments from China, including participation of its firms in big and important projects such as the 5G market, could be barred, four government officials said, asking not to be identified. India will, however, not resort to any knee-jerk reaction. It will take well considered action at an appropriate time, necessary to protect integrity and sovereignty of the country and its national interest, the officials added. Hopefully, good sense will prevail (upon China). We have several options and we will not hesitate to exercise them depending on the situation, one of the government officials said. But New Delhi is hoping that the two countries will be able to work out a solution at the diplomatic level that doesnt compromise Indias interests or position, the people cited in the first instance added. They described the call between the two foreign ministers as an effort to clear the air after Monday nights violent face-off . THE DIPLOMATIC TOUCH Though there have been behind-the-scenes contacts involving the two foreign ministries and the Chinese mission in New Delhi and the Indian embassy in Beijing, the first public diplomatic contact between the two sides on the border stand-off was the video conference between joint secretary (East Asia) Naveen Srivastava and his Chinese counterpart Wu Jianghao on June 5. This contact was under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China border affairs. The people cited above said WMCC and the Special Representatives mechanism are among several bilateral mechanisms that can now be used to carry forward efforts to address the border issue. If needed, there can also be bilateral contacts at a higher level, said one of the people. India has traditionally kept away from multilateral forums to address bilateral issues, particularly border disputes. This was the reason why US President Donald Trumps recent offers to mediate between India and China were immediately rebuffed by New Delhi. However, the possibility of quiet back channel contacts with other countries to get China around to a negotiated settlement is something experts havent ruled out. On Wednesday, the UK expressed concern at the border stand-off. A British high commission spokesperson said: We encourage China and India to engage in dialogue on issues relating to the border violence is in no-ones interest. China is interested in a solution because of the economic stakes it has in India. Over the past two decades it is the countrys economic prowess, not military might that has made China a global superpower, and the country recognises that. Those stakes could be it. THE ECONOMIC HIT Already, with this latest Chinese offensive, the chances of Chine telecom equipment maker Huaweis participation in the multi-billion dollar 5G project in India are bleak, a second official with direct knowledge of the matter said. Besides economic interests, this project also involves serious security concerns, this person added. A third official said the Beijings aggression is ill timed for China. It came at a time when New Delhi is aggressively pursuing an economic policy of self-reliance, anti-China sentiments have gripped major global economies such as the United States, and it is the prime suspect for spreading the Covid-19 virus, he said. Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has launched a campaign against China, its national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan said. Traders are also against China. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), a powerful lobby of 70 million local traders, has decided to step up its nationwide movement against the boycott of Chinese goods, CAIT national secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said. CAIT has released a list of over 450 commodities that can be sourced locally: fast moving consumer goods, toys, textiles, builder hardware, footwear, apparel, kitchenware, luggage, hand bags, cosmetics, gift items, electrical and electronics. Both ministries of finance and commerce are already taking action against the influx of Chinese goods that is injuring domestic industry. Imports of more than 100 goods are under various stages of anti-dumping action, a fourth official said. India could extend anti-dumping duties and safeguards on more than two dozen Chinese goods this year that range from calculators and USB drives to steel, solar cells and Vitamin E amid concern that a flood of imports would kill domestic manufacturers who will lose duty protection soon against such products. Anti-dumping duties on these products were imposed five years ago and are expiring this year. Email queries sent to ministries of finance and commerce did not elicit any response. But Mohit Singla, chairman at the Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI), said economic decisions must be driven by pragmatism and practical consideration and it was a wrong call to boycott Chinese products as many industries are dependent on imports from that country. Singla added that India should not ignore any investment from China. Any equity investment is about adding value to the Indian companies, which is much more important and needed, he said. Anupam Manur, assistant professor at Takshashila Institution, said, As much as the popular sentiment and political will dictates, India is not in a position to hurt China economically, and therefore we should carefully consider our economic position. The key question to ask would be the cost imposed on our own society in an attempt to hurt another country. He said by attempting to boycott Chinese goods, India will hurt its own citizens more than the Chinese government. Every essential item that we import from China will become more expensive and the reality is that we cannot find credible domestic alternatives overnight. On curbing Chinese investments, he said, Chinese investment is a lot trickier than import of goods, as in many cases, it is impossible to distinguish between a private player and the Chinese government. Nonetheless, at a time when Indias investment rate is low and falling, it would be unwise to turn away investments. Therefore, instead of a blanket ban on Chinese investments, the Indian government can use a lot more discretion based on the sector and the level of investment. Sensitive sectors such as banking, telecommunications and defence should attract greater scrutiny, while investment in dumb infrastructure such as roads can get an easier pass, he said. India-China bilateral trade is heavily tilted in favour of China. According to trade figures released by the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) in mid-January 2020, Indias trade deficit with China was $56.77 billion in 2019; bilateral trade amounted to about $92.68 billion last year, a 1.6% annual increase. But even as it discusses an economic route to hurting China, New Delhi is ensuring its armed forces are prepared. THE MILITARY RESPONSE The government has given financial powers to the armed forces to make critical purchases to plug capability gaps and emergency procurements are likely to be fast-tracked, said one of the military officers cited. He added that the armed forces were prioritising key purchases to stay prepared for any eventuality. Chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat is responsible for integrating and prioritising the acquisition requirements of the three services. The officer said that the possibility of China asserting its so-called claims in other sectors of the LAC cannot be ruled out, given the current belligerent stand of the neighbour and its unwillingness to de-escalate in the Ladakh sector. We have improved our posture in all sectors, from Ladakh to Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. We are ready for any task, he said. He said rules of engagement and standard operating procedures for forward deployed troops were also being revisited to allow soldiers to deal with situations that may unfold along the disputed border. The IAF is also leaving nothing to chance and it is ready to swing its assets into service at short notice, said the second military officer . The navy already has warships positioned along critical sea lanes of communications and choke points in the Indian Ocean Region under its mission-based deployment and the vessels could be diverted for any mission, said the third military officer. The navy has its warships deployed from as far as the Persian Gulf to the Strait of Malacca and northern Bay of Bengal to the southeast coast of Africa, he added. While Indian military planners said it was unlikely that Pakistan could resort to any adventurism, all border aspects and developments are being closely monitored. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Members of the Chilean army helped distribute hot meals and disinfect public spaces in the outskirts of Santiago on Tuesday. Military personnel set up three field kitchens on the streets of the Maipu commune and prepared a traditional Chilean dish - beans with 'rein', a soup made of beans and spaghetti. Local government workers joined them in handing out the food to residents as part of an aid program amid the strains of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly for poor communities. Maipu City Hall representative Jorge Maureira said spraying disinfectant in common areas would help lower the "viral load" in the area. Chile is among the countries in the world with the highest number of infections per million people, most concentrated in Greater Santiago, where 45% of its 18 million inhabitants live. Despite months of lockdown, the country reported a further 5,000 cases on Tuesday, taking the national toll of infections beyond 180,000. By PTI NEW DELHI: Saudi national oil company Aramco has donated USD 500,000 (about Rs 3.8 crore) to the Indian Red Cross Society to support its efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. The humanitarian support is part of Aramco's global response to COVID19, the company said in a statement. "The donation will be used to buy protective equipment and medical supplies for local communities in India," it said. Aramco along with UAE's Adnoc is looking to pick up 50 per cent stake in a planned mega 60 million tonne-a-year oil refinery on the west coast. Mohammed Al Mughirah, President of Aramco Asia India Pvt Ltd said: "People are our priority. We are proud to aid the response to this outbreak through our contribution and assist the great efforts undertaken by the Government of India, as well as medical personnel who are working hard to contain the spread of COVID-19." "Our operations in this country comply with all safety measures, including work-from-home (WFH) guidelines announced by the Government of India, while ensuring the reliable supply of crude and LPG to refineries and oil and gas companies." Aramco's donation to the Indian Red Cross Society is part of the company's global response to COVID-19. So far, Aramco has donated more than USD 3.5 million towards the efforts to counter the virus around the world. These donations are part of Aramco's commitment to the communities in which it operates. Similar donations include those made to the Japanese Red Cross Society, the Red Cross Society of China and the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association, among others. It also includes a USD 500,000 donation to the Houston Methodist Hospital in the US, which will fund an experimental plasma treatment for COVID-19 patients. This article has been sponsored by BMW Australia. Only 16% of Australians believe they are adequately informed about electric vehicles. BMW Group Australia CEO Vikram Pawah says the industry as a whole is keen to see more government support in the space. The company's sustainability strategy is through Power of Choice, giving customers the choice between different drive technologies without having to compromise on performance or design. BMW's already well established with portfolio of electrified models including plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV). Visit Business Insider Australia's homepage for more stories. As more car companies start to introduce electric vehicles into their product lineups and the number of charging stations across Australia increases, driving a greener alternative is becoming more achievable to the average consumer. However, there are still some sizeable barriers to the mass uptake of electric vehicles, and education on the benefits is a big one. According to a Nielsen report titled 'Caught in the Slow Lane,' only 16% of Australians believe they are adequately informed about electric vehicles. BMW Group Australia CEO Vikram Pawah is looking to address this barrier with a multifaceted approach. "We are taking responsibility of supporting our dealer network through extensive staff training on electric vehicles, and by extension we are educating the public around the topic of electromobility," he told Business Insider Australia. "We also aim to introduce as many electrified vehicle variants to the Australian market with each product launch increasing consumer awareness and sparking conversations around the topic of electric vehicles. We already provide an extensive range of electrified models both via plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric (BEV) and that offering will continue to expand and improve." When it comes to the more traditional concerns like range anxiety how far an electric vehicle can go on a single charge and the subsequent availability of chargers when needed Pawah says the company is taking a practical approach by listening to customer feedback. Story continues "To alleviate concerns around range anxiety, we have continually introduced updated variants of the innovative BMW i3s which is now capable of delivering 260km of driving range," he said. "That is double the original number while maintaining the same iconic silhouette and cabin space thanks to the advancement in battery technology." Additionally, BMW established and continually improves its line-up of plug-in hybrid models to provide solutions for those looking to drive completely on electric power with the support of the combustion engine if required. "Some of our latest PHEV models have doubled their electric-only range in the past year," Pawah said. "We also have plans to introduce a dynamic suite of electric vehicles over the next two to three years including the BMW i4, BMW iX3 and BMW iNext. These models, which span different segments, will deliver enhancements in range, performance and usability within our electrified product range to enable customers to effortlessly find a solution that suits their individual needs." To see more consumers adopt electric vehicles, Pawah says the automotive industry as a whole is keen to see the government step up with cash incentives for buyers and further investment in charging infrastructure. "Many of the electric vehicles available in the Australian market are priced higher than their equally specified combustion or diesel counterparts due to the extensive battery development behind this drive technology," he said. This lines up with the feelings of Aussie drivers as well, with 79% of respondents in the Nielsen report saying lower prices was the key factor that would entice them to buy an electric vehicle. "High electric vehicle uptake markets such as U.S., China and Norway offer monetary incentives to buyers of a plug-in hybrid or fully electric vehicle which effectively offers electric vehicles as a choice for customers that otherwise may not consider it due to the pricing discrepancy," Pawah said. "Furthermore, these countries have invested in a strong charging network with more than 20,000 charging stations currently available in the U.S. and more than 48,000 new public charging stations expected to be introduced in urban and rural regions of China. In comparison, Australia currently has 2,000 charging stations nationwide." BMW Group Australia has a partnership with Chargefox, Australia's largest electric vehicle charging network which is powered by 100% renewable energy. This allows BMW to provide its i3 and i3s 120 Ah customers with a three-year charging subscription, including a complimentary 250kW/year allowance. "This allowance equates to more than six complimentary charging sessions where the vehicle is charged from zero to full and allows customers to use the new Chargefox Ultra-Rapid EV chargers to do so," Pawah said. The company also believes in giving consumers the power of choice by offering a number of vehicle variants, including hybrid and fully electric among its traditional petrol and diesel options. "For BMW Group, electromobility technology development is a given, but it is much more than just investing in an individual drive technology. Sustainable mobility can only succeed if customers have access to the technology and can seamlessly integrate it into their lives," Pawah said "As mentioned, we are currently pursuing our Power of Choice strategy which gives customers the choice between different drive technologies without having to compromise on performance or design. This strategy is complemented by a diverse and extensive product portfolio which allows us effectively cater to different regions of the world that are shifting toward electromobility at varying rates." SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco VA Health Care System (SFVAHCS) has selected four promising medical researchers for the Grunfeld Scholars Research Development Initiative. This new initiative invests in early-career clinician-scientists to grow the pipeline of future leaders in medical research, and preserve SFVAHCS' legacy as a pre-eminent medical research institution. The Grunfeld Scholars Research Development Initiative is named for Carl Grunfeld, M.D., Ph.D., SFVAHCS's associate chief of staff for research and development. Dr. Grunfeld is a renowned clinician-scientist who has contributed over four decades of research excellence to the SFVAHCS. "I have been able to do incredible research during my 40 years at the SFVAHCS because I have had such smart and wonderful colleagues here," said Dr. Grunfeld. "For the last decade as the associate chief of staff for research and development, I have had a strong commitment to assure the future of research at the SFVAHCS." The scholarship program was open to clinician-scientists who: * Have completed, or will soon complete, a research fellowship with at least three first-author original publications in peer review journals. * Are currently eligible to apply for VA or National Institutes of Health (NIH) Career Development Awards, VA Merit Review, the NIH Research Project Grant Program, or other comparable funding. Applicants were subject to a competitive selection process that included a review of their application by a SFVAHCS research team. The selected Grunfeld Scholars will receive dedicated, protected time outside of their existing clinical work to pursue their research goals. They will receive this protected time for a duration of two years, with the possibility of an extension. The program does not provide monetary funding for research. 2020 Grunfeld Scholars Dr. Bahram Razani, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Bahram Razani is a staff physician in Dermatology at the SFVAMC and an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Razani's research focuses on the how the immune system causes psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Razani is a native of New Mexico who has an interest in outdoor activities. Dr. Daniel Calabrese, M.D. Dr. Daniel Calabrese is staff physician in the Pulmonary Section, Medical Service of the SFVAHCS, and assistant professor of medicine at UCSF. Dr. Calabrese's research focus has been to study the innate immune mechanisms contributing to poor outcomes in lung transplantation using human biospecimens and mouse models of acute lung injury. He attended the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Washington. Dr. Calabrese hails from Maryland, and enjoys expedition kayaking and remote backpacking. Dr. Scott Bauer, M.D. Dr. Scott Bauer is a board-certified general internist and clinician investigator at the SFVAHCS, and assistant professor of both medicine and urology at UCSF. Dr. Bauer's current research is focused on using large observational datasets and translational epidemiology (integrating mechanistic investigations into population-based studies) to identify biological mechanisms of age-related changes in skeletal muscle and related urinary symptoms in older adults. Dr. Bauer is an alumnus of the UCSF School of Medicine. When not at the SFVAHCS, Dr. Bauer enjoys camping along the Northern California coast. Dr. Jeffrey Hofmann, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Jeffrey Hofmann is a Neuropathology Fellow and future staff physician in SFVAHC's Anatomic Pathology Service, and faculty in UCSF's Department of Pathology. His primary research focus is neurodegenerative disease, which is common in Veterans due to a variety of combat exposures. Dr. Hofmann received his M.D. and Ph.D. at Brown University. He is passionate about teaching and youth mentorship, and enjoys cooking cuisines from around the world. "I am delighted that the SFVAHCS is supporting the development of early career researchers and honored that the Scholars program has been named in honor of me," said Dr. Grunfeld. "The first four scholars are a phenomenal cohort who have begun to make significant advances in the diseases they study. I look forward to seeing their future contributions." On June 29, from 12 - 2 p.m., the four inaugural Grunfeld Scholars will be giving web-based presentations of their ongoing research work. To attend, please e-mail Alexandra.Smetaniuk@va.gov. ### The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has revealed the best candidates in the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination ( UTME). In JAMBs 2020 policy meeting document seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the candidates scored between 352 and 365 in their UTME. Two candidates from Anambra State outshone others with 365 and 363 scores, respectively. They were followed by a candidate from Edo State with 359 while two candidates from Ekiti made the list on the fourth and fifth positions, scoring 358 and 356 respectively. Another two candidates from Delta also scored 359 and 352 respectively. Other states that appeared on the list are Ekiti, Ondo, Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Oyo, and Ogun states. Out of the 13 listed candidates, two scored 359, two, 355, while four candidates scored 352. They are 10 in number and if you notice, some of the candidates scored the same mark and they are (tied) on the same position, the spokesperson of the board, Fabian Benjamin, said. Here are the names of the candidates and their scores as released: 1) Maduafokwa Egoagwuagwu Agnes -365 2) Nwobi Okwuchukwu David 363 3) Ojuba Mezisashe Shalom 359 3) Elikwu, Victor Chukwuemeka 359 5) Adebola Oluwatobi Paul 358 6) Gboyega Oluwatobiloba Enoch 356 7) Ojo Samuel Oluwatobi 355 7) Utulu, Jebose George 355 9) Osom Akan Awesome 353 10) Akakabota Fejiro Simeon 352 10) Ogundele Favour Jesupemi 352 10) Alatise Monsurah Bisola. 352 10) Adelaja Oluwasemilore Daniel 352 All 10 candidates applied to study engineering courses, ranging from Industrial Production, Mechanical, Civil, Computer to Electrical Engineering. Advertisements Four will attend the University of Lagos, two each will attend Covenant University, Obafemi Awolowo University and University of Ilorin. One will go to Kwara State University. The 2020 UTME examination started on March 14 and ended March 21 in its accredited Computer Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide. A total number of 1,949,983 candidates wrote the 2020 UTME examination. The board conducts entrance Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination for prospective undergraduates into Nigerian universities. A composite photo of a lightning storm captured over the course of two hours by Mark Humpage. (SWNS) A dad has created an amazing composite image of all the lightning bolts that struck during a massive two-hour electrical storm in the UK. Mark Humpage, 55, took the striking shots from his toilet window in Cotesbach, Leicestershire, when storms battered the country on Tuesday night. The dad-of-two, who has chased storms in America, said: We were really lucky there was a band of electrical storms in the country and the focus was on us in the East Midlands last night. It was amazing. I could see it coming on a radar screen on an app. I have chased storms in the past and knew what to look for. Read more: House struck by lightning as summer thunderstorms and flash flooding hit UK Humpage added: I put it [the camera] on a stand on the tripod and let it shoot for two hours. I was sitting there watching the storm going on as it passed straight over us. It was quite scary. The camera has a special gizmo and only takes a picture when it detects lightning. I put the composite picture together with shots over that two-hour period. Read more: House partially collapses after thunderstorms and flash flooding hit UK Humpage reduced more than 1,000 pictures to 40 to make the composite image on his computer. He said: The colours are created by different particles in the atmosphere. The oxygen and nitrogen are most prevalent in the atmosphere. "The combination of them with pollution and dust gives you the purples and the pinks. You get the white stripes when the bolts are closer and the air is clearer. Storms hit the UK on Tuesday. (Getty Images) Humpage said the thunder was rumbling very loudly and there were a couple of cracks which shook him off his seat. His cat and dog were hiding under beds, he said. Thunderstorms also hit parts of Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, causing police to urge drivers to drop their speed following reports of traffic collisions. The Met Office issued two yellow weather warnings for north-west England, south-west Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland. Honda Cars India has released the details of the upcoming all-new Honda City ahead of its launch which is going to take place in July 2020. The upcoming Honda City, which will be its fifth generation, is the successor to the most popular sedan in India and is perhaps the most important car that Honda sells in the country. As can be seen from the official images released by Honda, the City follows a continuous design at the front with the bold, chrome-finished grille and the sharp LED headlamps following a single line, which then leads to the sharp shoulder line that the new City gets. This, coupled with the chiselled hood, accentuates the cars length. Also, Honda claims that the City will be the longest and widest sedan in its segment. The side profiles highlight is the new 16-inch diamond-cut alloy wheel design which gets a dual-tone treatment. Honda has also released images of the interiors of the City and it shows that the new City will make use of a black and beige colour combination on the inside. In terms of features, the upcoming Honda City will boast of being Indias first connected car with Alexa remote capability. It will also get an electric sunroof, support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, automatic headlamps and paddle shifters for the CVT variant. 2020 Honda City interiors. (Photo: Honda Cars India) It will also be offered with an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, ambient lighting in the front footwell and a 7-inch colour TFT instrument cluster that will display information like real-time fuel efficiency and a G-force meter. At the back, passengers will get centre armrests, AC vents and sun-shade as well. As for practicality, the boot space capacity is claimed to be 506 litres. Honda has also paid special attention to safety in the new City as it has been awarded 5-star ASEAN N-CAP safety rating. The City will offer up to 6 airbags, Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with Agile Handling Assist (AHA), Hill Start Assist (HSA), Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), Honda LaneWatch Camera, ABS with EBD and a Rear Parking Camera. Also Watch: The new City will come with BS-VI compliant diesel and petrol engine variants. Here are the complete details of the drivetrain options. 'They're showing up and eating tacos' at new White Duck Diners have been beating a path to the new White Duck Taco Shop at 500 Seventh Avenue East. If he had any hesitancy about opening his White Duck Taco Shop in the middle of a pandemic, Aaron Adams has left those fears behind. "Oh, man, Hendersonville's killing us," he said when asked how business has been in the two weeks since he and his wife, Ashley Clifford, opened the restaurant in the Historic Seventh Avenue District, a stone's throw from the historic depot. "They are showing up and eating tacos." Diners filling widely spaced green picnic tables outside and many of the inside tables chowed down on the wide variety of snacks, tacos and other specialties. The menu Wednesday included $3.95 snacks house-made queso fresh chips and fresh salsa with chips fish, Bangkok shrimp, crispy pork belly, mushroom and potato, jerk chicken, Thai peanut chicken, Korean beef bulgogi tacos, a lamb gyro and barbecue carnitas all $3.95. The kids' menu featured chicken or cheese quesadilla, a crispy chicken BLT and the Jammin', with beef, lettuce and cheese. Dessert was Mexican chocolate pot de creme with pistachio crust and cinnamon whip ($5). Open 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. every day but Monday, the White Duck has been busy every day since it opened and that's before it starts pouring local craft beer and wine and mixing specialty cocktails. "The whole office that reviews that (ABC permit application) was shut down during our opening process," he said. He expects to have the beer, wine and liquor license soon, adding even more work to the stretched restaurant owners. "I worked 90 hours last week," Adams said. He's hired 16 people but needs more help in the kitchen and dining room. If you're interested call 828-595-9871. * * * * * White Duck Taco Shop, at 500 Seventh Avenue East, is open 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. every day but Monday. The phone number if 828-595-9871. 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 Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions Police at the scene of a shooting incident in the Colin Road area of west Belfast on June 17th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Police at the scene of the shooting in the Colin Road area of west Belfast on June 17th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Police said a man was shot in a paramilitary-style attack "by appointment". It happened in the Hazelwood Avenue area of west Belfast on Tuesday night. Detective Sergeant Eric Fairfield said: We received a report at around 10.30pm from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, that a man had been shot in the leg. The victim, who is in his 30s, was taken to hospital for treatment of injuries to his leg. "We believe at this time that the shooting was by appointment and that the man had been ordered to attend this location to be shot. "This is totally barbaric and must stop. No-one deserves to have this happen to them and there is absolutely no justification for an attack like this in our communities. "We must all work together to bring those responsible to justice and to stop this from happening to anyone else." The officer added: "Our enquiries are at an early stage, however, we are treating this as a paramilitary-style attack and I want to appeal to anyone who has information which may assist our investigation to pick up the phone and tell us what you know. If you have any information which may assist with our enquiries, please contact detectives on 101 quoting reference number 2181 of 16/06/20. Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime. On June 11, 2020, the U.S. Congress approved a military assistance package worth US$250 million for Ukraine for 2020. Ukraine has received over US$60 million in military aid from the United States, it includes Javelin anti-tank missiles. "U.S. security assistance and cooperation efforts with Ukraine during #COVID19 continue! Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy's Office of Defense Cooperation received more than $60 million of equipment to transfer to our Ukrainian partners, including radios, ammunition, and Javelin anti-tank missiles," the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said on Facebook on Wednesday, June 17. Read alsoU.S. military have lessons to learn from Russian invasion of Ukraine, envoy says "The United States stands strongly with Ukraine in support of its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression," the embassy said. In late 2017, Washington for the first time approved a plan to provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with lethal weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missile systems. In the spring of 2018, the United States delivered these anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine and, in May, they passed their first tests. On June 11, 2020, the U.S. Congress approved a military assistance package worth US$250 million for Ukraine in 2020. On May 15, 2020, the United States provided Ukraine's Armed Forces with materiel assistance totaling US$25 million for better equipment of Ukrainian military units deployed in the Joint Forces Operation zone in the country's east. Amid nationwide outrage over racial injustice and police brutality, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, R, is under pressure to further limit when state law enforcement agencies can use lethal force. Democrats on Tuesday pushed him to issue an executive order to ban chokeholds in all instances involving state officers and to dramatically curtail when they can shoot at vehicles or use deadly force to subdue someone. "Policing in our country is broken," the Democratic caucus of the House of Delegates wrote in a letter to Hogan. "While we have taken some important steps together with you - most notably passage of the Justice Reinvestment Act - we have not done enough to fix policing in Maryland." Lawmakers asked Hogan to take action immediately that would affect 18 law enforcement agencies under his control, including the Maryland State Police, the Maryland Natural Resources Police and police forces at various public universities. The governor does not have direct control over the policies of sheriff's offices or city and county police agencies, which most frequently interact with the public. House Speaker Adrienne Jones, D, the state's first black speaker, drafted the letter, which said that "the past three weeks have exposed what some of us have known for years: that enforcement of our laws has not yielded equal justice." The letter asked the governor to require the law enforcement agencies he oversees to adopt five "best practices" recommended by the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission. The best practices were issued years ago as recommendations for agencies statewide, but it was not immediately clear Tuesday how many agencies have adopted them. "As you know, the House has convened a legislative work group with the full intent of mandating these things in the 2021 legislative session, in addition to other legal requirements to begin to undo the systemic inequality that our justice system continues to hand out every day," the letter said. "However, you have the power with the stroke of your pen to begin this process today." The practices would: - "Require that deadly force is only used to 'stop an imminent threat of death or seriously bodily injury to the officer' or a citizen." - "Require a duty to intervene for those police officers who see another officer 'using force beyond what is objectively reasonable under the circumstances.' " - "Implement an early warning system to identify excessive incidents involving use of force and immediately retrain that officer." - "Ban shooting at vehicles, unless the vehicle is clearly being used for deadly force against an officer or another person." - "Require that every officer within a State law enforcement agency sign an affirmative written sanctity of life pledge to 'respect every human life' and 'act with compassion toward others,' as recommended by MPTSC." Additionally, the caucus asked Hogan to ban chokeholds in all circumstances. On June 5, Minneapolis City Council enacted such a ban in response to the killing of George Floyd, who died after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd's death on May 25 sparked nationwide protests that still continue. The officer, who was later fired, has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other former officers also have been charged. Hogan spokeswoman Shareese Churchill said several of the policies in the letter are already implemented, but "we will certainly give thoughtful consideration to the Speaker's letter, as well as the conclusions and recommendations of the work group she has established to examine these serious issues." Hogan and the Democrats who dominate the General Assembly enacted the Justice Reinvestment Act in 2016. The sentencing-reform package, which cut jail time for nonviolent criminals, has helped reduce Maryland's prison population. Edwin Raymond, a black lieutenant in the Police Department, heard racial insults Sellout! and Uncle Tom! rising above protesters chants as he helped to control the crowds at recent demonstrations in Brooklyn against police brutality and racism. He said he understood the words were aimed at black officers like him. He tried not to take them personally, but the shouts were particularly painful, he said, because he has long been an outspoken critic of what he sees as racial discrimination within the department. Im not blind to the issues, but Im torn, Lieutenant Raymond said. As Im standing there with my riot helmet and being called a coon, people have no idea that I identify with them. I understand them. Im here for them. Ive been trying to be here as a change agent. Lieutenant Raymond, 34, is one of hundreds of black and Hispanic officers in New York City who have found themselves caught between competing loyalties. Many said they sympathized with protesters across the city and the country who have turned out en masse to demonstrate against police brutality in the wake of George Floyds death at the hands of a white officer in Minneapolis. A Narre Warren father who was shot dead by police on the Monash Freeway last month had grown increasingly fixated with the coronavirus pandemic, feared his family would die and believed he would be shot dead by police when he drove to the freeway, a coroner has heard. During a directions hearing on Wednesday into the death, State Coroner John Cain was told the 53-year-old, who can only be referred to as XY for legal reasons, had no diagnosed mental health history when he became "obsessed" with the pandemic, even quitting his job as his fixation grew. Forensic investigators at the scene of the shooting on the Monash Freeway. Credit:AAP Counsel assisting the coroner Lindsay Spence said the man believed his home Wi-Fi was being used to spy on him and that his Facebook page had also been hacked. The coroner heard the man and his wife had separated last year but continued to live together in order to support his children and his elderly mother, who lived with the family and suffered dementia. Bengaluru-Police personal felectitate by flower pettals for the police constable who recovered from corona virus at victoria hospital in Bengaluru on wednesday. Photo Satish.B Bengaluru: Fear gripped the Bengaluru police as nine cops have tested corona positive in the line of duty in the last 24 hours. All of them had been deputed to containment zones in the city. They have now been quarantined and the authorities are now tracing their primary and secondary contacts. Five of these policemen were from the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) unit. The Sampangiram Nagar police station has been sealed off as a constable attached to the station tested positive for the virus after coming down with fever. The whole station has been sanitized and 14 of his primary contacts are being quarantined. Three other cops attached to the City Market traffic police station, one ASI and two constables have also tested positive. Meanwhile, personnel of the Hennur police station led by senior officers lined up at the Victoria hospital to welcome a colleague who was discharged after being infected. The constable was hospitalized on June 11. As soon as he stepped out of the hospital, he was garlanded and policemen on either side showered flowers as he walked out. A textile firm that completed a $9 million expansion of its long-running Summerville plant last year has sold the 43-acre property after abruptly shutting down and moving the business overseas. Thrace Linq, which makes engineered fabrics for the automotive, construction and floor covering industries, cited a bright future in South Carolina when it completed its new production line off U.S. Highway 78 in 2019. On Tuesday, the company signed over the deed to its property, its production line and equipment to a Boston-based real estate group after moving its former Lowcountry operations to Scotland. An affiliate of GFI Investors purchased the 563,154-square-foot building on 43 acres at 2550 W. 5th St. for $14.5 million, according to Dorchester County property records. The group plans to renovate the site with a new roof, parking lot, paint and rehabilitation of the adjacent Norfolk Southern rail site. GFI will rebrand the property as Eastport Industrial Complex. A spokesperson for GFI could not be reached for further comment Tuesday. The sale marks an abrupt departure for Thrace Linq, which has a small staff winding down operations at the site. Its plant was opened in 1972 by Exxon Chemical Co., which sold it in the 1992 to an investment group that renamed it Linq Industrial Fabrics. For years, the company ranked among Dorchester County's largest employers, with as many as 600 workers. Last year, Thrace Linq finished an expansion that was aimed at meeting what the company called a growing demand for petroleum-based "nonwoven" fabrics in North America. "This new production line is one of a series of planned investments for our growing company here in South Carolina," George Bramis, chairman of Thrace Linq said at the time. Later in 2019, Thrace Linq's parent company in Greece determined that equipment and operations would move to Scotland to become part of the parent company's Don and Low subsidiary. Athens-based Thrace Group cited slowing demand for its products in the United States as one of the reasons for the move. The building adds to GFI's Charleston-area portfolio, which includes industrial properties at 4500 Goer Drive and 7240 Crosspark Drive, both in North Charleston. It's also part of a growing trend of investors renovating older manufacturing sites for tenants who balk at the cost of new construction. "Speculative construction has slowed down since the coronavirus," said Hagood Morrison Jr., vice president of Charleston-based Bridge Commercial, which brokered the sale. About 200,000 square feet of industrial space is currently under way in a market that typically absorbs 1.5 million to 2 million square feet a year. "This creates more opportunity to lease a repositioned, older and less-expensive building," he said. That was the case for GFI's property on Goer Drive, which the investment group bought for $8.5 million 2016. The property had been vacant for several years before GFI refurbished it and leased it to Mid-States Packaging, which bundles plastic pellets used in thousands of household goods for export at the Port of Charleston. Morrison said the Thrace Linq site will be marketed to manufacturers and distributors and will likely include several tenants. He said the Charleston area continues to draw interest from industrial clients but a lot of financing for new construction has dried up due to the coronavirus. "Demand has remained strong with the impacts of near-shoring and supply chain consolidation, and those users are seeing fewer available options on the horizon," Morrison said. "That bodes well for manufacturing plant repositioning, such as Eastport Industrial Complex." GARDAI are appealing for information after an acid-type substance was allegedly thrown into face of a young man during a house party in Limerick city at the weekend. While gardai have not confirmed specific details of the incident, they have confirmed an investigation is underway. The Limerick Leader has learned the complainant, whose aged in his early 20s, initially presented at University Hospital Limerick late on Saturday night and was subsequently transferred to Cork University Hospital for specialist treatment. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is a lovely young man and he did not deserve this. His face and neck are destroyed, said one woman who knows the injured party. He was taken to the Regional Hospital and then transferred to Cork and now has to go to Dublin as there is damage to one of his eyes. This is a terrible thing to happen and everyone who knows the family are distraught that this could happen, she added. Its understood detectives travelled to Cork and spoke to the man over the weekend after they were made aware of the incident. Gardai are investigating an alleged assault incident that occurred at a house in Garryowen on the night of June 13. A man is alleged to have had a substance thrown in his face during the incident., said a garda spokesperson. Gardai at Henry Street are investigating the incident and can be contacted at (061) 212400. Budget 2020-2021 lays emphasis on a more equitable distribution of wealth, said the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, yesterday, at the National Assembly, during his speech at the closing of the parliamentary debates. He highlighted that the focus is on preparing for the post-Covid-19 period without sacrificing public finances while promoting social justice, economic prosperity and sustainable development. To that end, he pointed out that the government has directly assisted more than 460,000 individuals through the implementation of measures such as the Wage Assistance Scheme for employees earning up to Rs 50,000, and the Self-Employed Assistance Scheme, relieving the self-employed and the informal sector. In addition, the Bank of Mauritius Support Programme and the Business Support Plan have been instrumental in assisting firms in difficulty, he said. Strategic thrusts for a robust recovery of investment and the economy Referring to the main strategic thrusts of the Budget 2020-2021, Dr Padayachy insisted that the Plan for the Relaunch of Investment and the Economy has a short-term objective of safeguarding employment and the economic fabric coupled with a long-term strategic investment objective. The main measures of this recovery plan are: - Injection of Rs 100 billion to the Investment and Economic Recovery Plan which will help revive the traditional sectors of the economy, and facilitate the emergence of new areas of activity. - Construction of 12,000 social housing units over the next three years. - Investment of more than Rs 40 billion in major infrastructure projects including the development of new community spaces, the construction of dams, roads and bridges, the development of port infrastructure, and the completion of the metro on the Rose Hill-Curepipe segment. - Establishment of the Mauritius Investment Corporation to support viable Mauritian enterprises in difficulty, to promote food and pharmaceutical production for self-sufficiency, and to invest in projects of strategic importance to the country. - Provision of Rs 20 billion to support small and medium enterprises and vulnerable households. - Provision of Rs 10 billion by the Development Bank of Mauritius to support small and medium enterprises through preferential rates at 0.5 percent per annum. Reforms for more social justice Speaking about social justice reforms, Dr Padayachy dwelt on two important elements that have an impact on the pension system, including the demographic phenomenon of the ageing of the Mauritian population and the ratio of the active population to the retired population, which is drastically decreasing. Universal Basic Pension He recalled that the number of citizens over 60 years of age is expected to almost double in the coming decades, from 226,000 in 2019 to 410,000 in 2068. The number of people of working age is inevitably expected to fall from 825,000 in 2019 to 395,000 in 2100, a decrease of more than 50%, he said. Thus the universal pension will be maintained at Rs 9,000 per month for every citizen over the age of 60. From now on, all increases in benefits for seniors will be paid from the normal retirement age of 65. General Social Contribution With regard to the General Social Contribution (CSG), the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development has specified that this change in operation will make our system fairer, more equitable and more collective. Thus, from 1 September 2020, the new contributions from the National Pensions Fund (NPF) will be abolished. Under the new system, as of 1 September 2020, employees and employers in the private sector as well as the self-employed will be legally obliged to contribute to the CSG. For basic salaries up to Rs 50,000, the employees' contribution will be 1.5% and the employers' contribution will be 3%. For basic salaries above Rs 50,000 per month, the employee's contribution will be 3% and that of the employer's 6%. Solidarity Levy As regards the change in Solidarity Levy, Dr Padayachy pointed out that those with very high incomes will be called upon to contribute more actively in the economic development of the country, thus reducing inequalities, especially in the current economic context. The US Senate Passes Historic Conservation Bill, The Great American Outdoors Act The U.S. Senate passed Sen. Cory Gardners (R-Colo.) bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act, 7325, making a historic investment into conservation. Years of bipartisan work have led to this moment and this historic opportunity for conservation, said Senator Gardner. Today the Senate passed not only the single greatest conservation achievement in generations, but also a lifeline to mountain towns and recreation communities hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. I call on the House of Representatives to pass this bill without delay in order to provide jobs to the American people, economic stimulus to communities in need, and protections for the great American outdoors for future generations of Americans to cherish, said Gardner. Gardner urged his House colleagues to take up the bill, before a guaranteed signature by President Trump. I am calling on Congress to send me a Bill that fully and permanently funds the LWCF and restores our National Parks. When I sign it into law, it will be HISTORIC for our beautiful public lands, President Trump said in March. Many outdoor recreational organizations praised the passage of the Great Outdoor Act and also pushed for a vote in the House. The Great American Outdoors Act just passed the Senate! Now, wildlife needs your help: Ask your representative to pass the bill in the House of Representatives today, posted the Wildlife Action Fund. An advocacy group for the Adirondack Park, the Adirondack Council said Wednesday, A bit of good news today! The Great American Outdoors Act was passed, with annual funding up to $2.8 billion allocated to wildlands, recreation, restoration, and public green spaces. Congressman Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a co-sponsor of the House version of the bill, called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to bring the House of Representatives back into session to pass the Great American Outdoors Act as soon as possible. Speaker Pelosi should immediately call the House back into session so we can pass this critical bill ASAP! Rep. Mast said. Mast said the bill is critical to Floridas economic health. He highlighted the fact that, if passed by the House, it would support a $58 billion industry and 485,000 direct jobs. The bill will fully and indefinitely fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) as well as invest billions of dollars into national parks and public lands. The European Union should impose a temporary ban on Chinese takeovers of European companies made vulnerable by the COVID-19 crisis, says the EPP Group. The European Commissions new White Paper on foreign takeovers is not enough - quick action is needed. While the crisis has caused European companies value to fall, they have valuable technology, infrastructure, expertise and jobs that must be defended and not lost to a foreign takeover. Syrian refugees resort to ever more desperate measures to resist pandemic impact 16 June 2020 - The COVID-19 crisis has caused a dramatic spike in the number of Syrian refugees in need of emergency assistance in the last three months, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday, in an appeal for funding to confront new challenges posed by the health emergency. Now into its tenth year, the Syrian conflict has created more than 5.5 million refugees seeking shelter in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. "The number of vulnerable refugees who lack the basic resources to survive in exile has dramatically surged as a result of the public health emergency," said UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic. Since pandemic lockdown measures have been implemented, Mr. Mahecic noted that in addition to families already identified as vulnerable, UNHCR had seen "another 200,000 refugees just in this period of three months who because of the impact needed emergency assistance". Cutting back on food, medicine Clear signs of distress among vulnerable individuals who have lost their jobs include coping measures "that would allow them to somehow make ends meet", he added. "We have evidence of people trying to skip meals in order to spread out the food so it can last longer, they may skip taking medication, anything that is considered right now something where they can cut costs." Calling for additional support to sustain humanitarian initiatives, Mr Mahecic explained that in Jordan, only 17,000 out of 49,000 newly identified families in need had received help, "as UNHCR is lacking the funds to extend its programmes". Prior to the pandemic, the majority of Syrian refugees in the region were living below the poverty line, according to the UN agency, while a recent survey in Jordan showed that only 35 per cent of refugees said they had a secure job to return to after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. More than six million internally displaced Syrians and other vulnerable groups remain inside Syria, according to UNHCR. Before the onset of the virus, the agency's $5.5 billion Syria Refugee Response and Resilience Plan 2020 appeal was only 20 per cent funded across the region. It is now updating its requirements to cope with additional needs and has appealed for strong international support to countries sheltering those in need. "Host communities have shown great solidarity, but they have also suffered loss of livelihoods as a result the COVID-19 pandemic," said Mr Mahecic, adding that nine in 10 Syrian refugees in the region live in towns or villages, not in camps. If refugees are safe, so are host communities Beyond the immediate emergency, the UNHCR spokesperson highlighted the need to ensure that refugees were included in countries' national public health responses to COVID-19, in addition to other basis services, including education. "It is a very important point that the refugees, internally displaced, stateless people are included in the national public health responses," he said. "Only if everybody's being looked after and everybody's safe, we can all be safe." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The year 2020 is getting worse day-by-day for the entire world. India, which is already facing a crisis like Coronavirus pandemic, has recently witnessed a face-off on the India-China border. And in the tussle that happened in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, at least 20 Indian army soldiers have been killed. Completely heartbroken with the news, Tollywood celebrities paid homage and offered condolences to the families of the Indian martyrs. Mahesh Babu tweeted, "Deeply disturbed and saddened to learn that our soldiers were martyred at #GalwanValley. Your sacrifice for the nation will forever be etched in our hearts. We salute your bravery and patriotism. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. Jai Hind." Deeply disturbed and saddened to learn that our soldiers were martyred at #GalwanValley. Your sacrifice for the nation will forever be etched in our hearts. We salute your bravery and patriotism. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. Jai Hind Mahesh Babu (@urstrulyMahesh) June 17, 2020 Kajal Aggarwal stated, "A big salute to our Indian soldiers who were martyred at #GalwanValley Om shanti my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families." A big salute to our Indian soldiers who were martyred at #GalwanValley Om shanti my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. Kajal Aggarwal (@MsKajalAggarwal) June 17, 2020 Tamannaah Bhatia wrote, "My heart goes out to the families of our soldiers who lost their lives fighting relentlessly for us. Om Shanti." My heart goes out to the families of our soldiers who lost their lives fighting relentlessly for us. Om Shanti #JaiHind #IndiaChinaStandOff #IStandWithIndianArmy #GalwanValley Tamannaah Bhatia (@tamannaahspeaks) June 17, 2020 Pranitha Subhash tweeted, "A huge loss to see our 20 soldiers martyred in #GalwanValley. A pandemic, cyclones, locusts attack, an economic slowdown cross-border terrorism by Pakistan, cartographic aggression by Nepal and now #IndiaChinaFaceOff. Bharata must be united now at such testing times. Om Shanti!" A huge loss to see our 20 soldiers martyred in #GalwanValley. A pandemic, cyclones, locusts attack, an economic slowdown cross-border terrorism by Pakistan, cartographic aggression by Nepal and now #IndiaChinaFaceOff. Bharata must be united now at such testing times. Om Shanti! pic.twitter.com/8RXWiLRY4R Pranitha Subhash (@pranitasubhash) June 16, 2020 Varun Tej expressed, "Saluting to the brave soldiers who were martyred at the #GalwanValley My heartfelt condolences to their families!" Saluting to the brave soldiers who were martyred at the #GalwanValley My heartfelt condolences to their families! Varun Tej Konidela (@IAmVarunTej) June 17, 2020 Anil Ravipudi wrote, "My heart goes out to all the lost brave souls at the border #GalwanValley #BraveSonsofIndia #Saluteindianarmy." My heart goes out to all the lost brave souls at the border#GalwanValley #BraveSonsofIndia #Saluteindianarmy pic.twitter.com/2K8VmWAvZO Anil Ravipudi (@AnilRavipudi) June 17, 2020 Sudheer Babu tweeted, "A heavy heart is reading this .... Salutes to these Martyrs who gave everything for us. Thoughts for their families. Hope our nation meets normalcy and peace very soon. #IndianArmy #OurHeroes #GalwanValley." Also Read : India-China Border Clash: Akshay, Hrithik, Kareena And Other Celebrities Pay Tribute To Martyrs A fire in Thermalito, Calif., has prompted evacuations. (Cal Fire) At least four homes have been destroyed in a fast-moving brush fire that erupted just before noon in Butte County in Northern California, officials said Wednesday. The blaze, dubbed the Nelson fire, prompted evacuations in the town of Thermalito, near Oroville. Photos from the scene showed black smoke consuming the area. The fire jumped to about 50 acres, and authorities with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported progress before the blaze shot up to nearly 100 acres around 2 p.m. Within half an hour, though, firefighters reported that forward progress of the fire had been stopped and the blaze was 50% contained. #NelsonFire [update] Fire is roughly estimated at 50 acres. Structures are involved. Making good progress on stopping the forward spread. pic.twitter.com/POPPZAz64K CAL FIRE Butte Unit/Butte County Fire Department (@CALFIRE_ButteCo) June 17, 2020 The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the area shortly before 5:30 a.m. The warning remains in effect until Thursday afternoon. Several other areas in the Central Valley are also under the warning. A fast-moving brush fire broke out south of the area in a rural section of Calaveras County on Tuesday night, which also prompted an evacuation warning. The Walker fire had ballooned to 1,100 acres and was 10% contained Wednesday morning. Two structures have been destroyed in that blaze. The cause of both fires is under investigation, officials said. Works Permit Granted To Construct Yangibana RE Process Plant Perth, June 17, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Hastings Technology Metals Limited ( ASX:HAS ) ( FRA:5AM ) has received a works permit to construct the Yangibana Rare Earths Project (Yangibana Project) process plant under Part V of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (Western Australia).Following a rigorous assessment process and a public advertisement period, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) has issued a works permit subject to conditions for a number of prescribed facilities (i.e. facilities that emit pollutants) at the Yangibana Project including:Category 5: Process or beneficiation of metallic or non-metallic oreCategory 6: Mine dewateringCategory 52: Electric power generationCategory 64: Class II or III putrescible landfill siteCategory 73: Bulk storage of chemicals etc.Category 85: Sewage facility.Of these facilities, the process plant (Category 5 under Schedule 1 of the Environmental Protection Regulations 1987) and the associated tailings storage facilities are the most important. The conditions include design and construction requirements, pollutant emission limits, monitoring requirements and compliance reporting.The Yangibana Project includes the development of five open pit mines, groundwater abstraction, on-site processing of ore, tailings storage facilities, and supporting infrastructure such as access and haul roads, accommodation facilities, administration buildings and an airstrip.The company is working on satisfying the approval conditions and when completed, the work can commence subject to financial close for the Yangibana project.Andrew Reid, Chief Operating Officer commented: "While Hastings has received State and Commonwealth environmental approvals, the additional focus and rigorous nature of this approval process on polluting facilities such as the process plant provides us and our shareholders with further confidence that the Yangibana Project is able to meet the high regulatory standards set by the Western Australian (WA) government. The regulatory standards set by the WA government also provide the international community and our major offtake customer, Schaeffler Technologies AG with assurance that the extraction component of the rare earths supply chain is undertaken in an environmentally responsible manner."About Hastings Technology Metals Ltd Hastings Technology Metals Ltd (ASX:HAS) (FRA:5AM) is advancing its Yangibana Rare Earths Project in the Upper Gascoyne Region of Western Australia towards production. The proposed beneficiation and hydro metallurgy processing plant will treat rare earths deposits, predominantly monazite, hosting high neodymium and praseodymium contents to produce a mixed rare earths carbonate that will be further refined into individual rare earth oxides at processing plants overseas. Neodymium and praseodymium are vital components in the manufacture of permanent magnets which is used in a wide and expanding range of advanced and high-tech products including electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, medical applications and others. Hastings aims to become the next significant producer of neodymium and praseodymium outside of China. Hastings holds 100% interest in the most significant deposits within the overall project, and 70% interest in additional deposits that will be developed at a later date, all held under Mining Leases. Numerous prospects have been identified warranting detailed exploration to further extend the life of the project. Brockman Project The Brockman deposit, near Halls Creek in Western Australia, contains JORC Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources, estimated using the guidelines of JORC Code (2012 Edition). The Company is also progressing a Mining Lease application over the Brockman Rare Earths and Rare Metals Project. Hastings aims to capitalise on the strong demand for critical rare earths created by the expanding demand for new technology products. Los Angeles, June 17 : "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" director Jason Reitman has shared that he is already working on a fourth film in the franchise. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" release date to 2021, but that hasn't stopped Reitman from working on the fourth part, reports dailymail.co.uk. "I can't tell you anything, but we are working on another instalment," said the director during an appearance on the "Josh Gad Reunited Apart" series. The 42-year-old director, who is the son of "Ghostbusters" and "Ghostbusters II" filmmaker Ivan Reitman, appeared on the special alongside his father and the cast from "Ghostbusters" first and second parts, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts. The five original actors have reprised their roles from the first two movies in "Ghostbusters: Afterlife", which is a direct sequel to "Ghostbusters II". Image Source: IANS News Their characters Dr Peter Venkman, Dr Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, Dana Barrett and Janine Melnitz will feature in the third instalment. The film was slated to release this year, but got pushed to March next year. "We have a little bit more time, and look, as a director, I've never had this opportunity to actually take a pause and breathe and look at the movie again. I've been spending my days editing 'Ghostbusters', so that's where I've been," said the director while talking about the delay. "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" follows the story of Dr Egon Spengler's family, who inherit a farmhouse in Oklahoma, following his death. -- Syndicated from IANS In the wake of George Floyds killing, agonising reflections on race have spread far beyond the United States. In France, they have set off an unexpected reckoning in a country that has long sought social justice through a commitment to universal ideals like equality and secularism, arguing that an emphasis on diversity, ethnicity or race would undermine unity and the social fabric. Bobigny, France: Luc Pechangou had never joined a protest before, not even when his own neighbourhood just outside Paris was convulsed with anger over the violent arrest of a young Black man from the area in 2017. It was instead the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis that led him to join an anti-racism rally and, he said, see things more clearly in France, his own country. It was the shock that I needed to finally wake up, Pechangou, 20, said. White privilege is real. Whites have access to employment. Theyre not stopped by the police. They dont have to worry about what theyre wearing or if they have their ID cards. But we, as Blacks, have to worry every day, said Pechangou, who was born in Cameroon, a former French colony in central Africa, and lives in Hector Berlioz, a sprawling subsidised housing complex in Bobigny, just northeast of Paris. People look at us suspiciously. They ask us what were doing. When I take public transportation, I have to show whats in my backpack. Its not right to have to live like that. In the wake of Floyds killing, agonising reflections on race have spread far beyond the United States. In France, they have set off an unexpected reckoning in a country that has long sought social justice through a commitment to universal ideals like equality and secularism, arguing that an emphasis on diversity, ethnicity or race would undermine unity and the social fabric. Many Black and Muslim French in the younger generation by now often from third-generation immigrant communities are pressing for a new model that takes account of racial differences and discrimination. They are challenging a founding ideal of modern France, drawing inspiration from the US movements that seek to remedy the racism that has metastasised in state structures. In the past, perceived challenges to French tenets like the wearing of Muslim head scarves that some see as a threat to Frances secularism have been soundly beaten back. The political establishment, Left and Right, remains fiercely opposed to what it regards as an American-inspired threat to its worldview. But even many in the political class acknowledge that the nation has failed to integrate non-White and Muslim immigrants and their descendants from its far-flung former colonies. Christiane Taubira, who was the first Black woman named justice minister in France, serving from 2012 to 2016, said that a structural discrimination has prevented non-White minorities from finding their place in French society. Not enough has changed since 2005, when two teenage boys fleeing police officers were fatally electrocuted, setting off weeks of rioting in the poor suburbs of Paris and focusing attention on Frances racial fissures, she said. They tried to enter the republic through the door, the window, the basement, but they failed, Taubira, now retired, said in a phone interview from French Guiana, an overseas department on the north coast of South America. Rejected in France, they were seeking a form of refuge by looking to the United States, she added. Protests in France have been led by the family and supporters of Adama Traore, a 24-year-old man who died in police custody in 2016. In Paris, as many as 20,000 demonstrators, including a visible percentage of white participants, have assembled in a series of protests, despite concerns about the coronavirus. Their formal demands of the government have focused on reopening the investigation into the death of Traore. But the demonstrators comparisons between France and the United States, expressed passionately at the rallies, have angered many French, who have denied that racism is as deeply rooted in France and have accused protesters of advancing their own political agenda. The protests appeared to have taken aback a government already grappling with the pandemic and an economic crisis. President Emmanuel Macron, after several days of silence, seemed to nod to both sides, saying racism was a betrayal of universal republicanism. On Sunday, in a national address devoted to the pandemic, Macron also vowed to remain uncompromising against racism. But he warned this noble fight is unacceptable when it is taken over by separatists who want to divide French society. Frances reluctance to discuss or even acknowledge race has served as an obstacle to integration and change, argue some French, especially those belonging to a younger generation of activists or intellectuals. When you talk about questions of race or racialisation, many people in France are shocked and think that youre the racist one, said Pap Ndiaye, a historian at Sciences Po who, after studying in the United States in the 1990s, led efforts to establish Black studies as an academic discipline in France. So those who talk about it are definitely not in the majority. The debates over race follow a two-month lockdown that laid bare the enduring racial inequalities in France. Just as black and Hispanic Americans were disproportionately affected by the virus, Seine-Saint-Denis the poorest department in France, located just north of Paris and home to large non-White populations was hit hard economically and suffered one of the countrys highest mortality rates. Although authorities and the news media focused on the viruss impact on Seine-Saint-Denis, they avoided looking at it in racial terms, Ndiaye said. In France, it is illegal to keep racial, ethnic or religious statistics. Without data, it is impossible to understand the scale of the problems, Ndiaye said, adding: Progress wont be made just with code words. We have to be able to say things. But others say that an overemphasis on racial identities invites a pushback, including from the extreme right, because it goes against Frances founding principles. In recent days, leaders on the extreme right have seized on the protests to argue for the rights of White French further example of what the French mainstream regards as corrosive identity politics. Collecting data on ethnicity or race could turn minorities into targets of the far-right, said Patrick Weil, a historian of immigration who teaches at Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris and at Yale. During the Second World War, the absence of such data helped many French Jews evade the Nazis, Weil said. We always have to be careful that the policy youre proposing wont be used for the exact opposite of what youre fighting for, Weil said. Though imperfect, Frances universalism brings more equality than in the United States to important services likes education and health, which are financed nationally, Weil said. In a poll released this week by Seine-Saint-Denis, an administrative area whose center is in Bobigny, more than 80 percent of respondents said they believed that race or ethnicity was the basis of discrimination in dealing with police or in employment. The young felt the discrimination most acutely, the poll showed. While the older immigrant generations in Seine-Saint-Denis were hesitant to speak out about racism, their children had higher expectations from the only country they knew, said Yancouba Dieme, 30, a writer who grew up in the department and still lives there. In France, they want us to stay locked inside Seine-Saint-Denis, said Dieme, whose novel, Boy Diola, recounts his fathers emigration to France from Senegal, a former colony in West Africa. When we try to go to a nightclub in Paris on a Saturday just like anybody else, sometimes were stopped by a police cordon. They dont want to see us. They want us to stay home, keep our mouths shut and remain like our parents invisible. In the Hector Berlioz housing complex, some recalled Theodore Luhaka, a 22-year-old black man who was injured by a police officer during an arrest in a nearby neighbourhood in 2017. In a still unresolved case, Luhaka said the officer sodomized him with a baton. Medical experts later said his injuries resulted from being struck in the anal area. On a recent afternoon, a group of men whose parents had come from Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Haiti and other former colonies socialized on the rooftop of a building next to the housing complex. They greeted one another with fist bumps. They referred to White people as babtou verlan slang, or the inverted syllables, of toubab, a West African expression meaning Whites. They spoke of Black people not with the historically loaded French word noir but with the English word black or the verlan, renoi. They spoke of being excluded from the France that lay beyond the 93 the first two digits of the departments postal code and shorthand for Seine-Saint-Denis. Our parents came here looking for El Dorado, they worked, they retired, they died, and they left us here, said Ibrahim Sakho, 38, a plumber whose parents came from Senegal and Mauritania. And one generation, two generations later, and now its the third until now, we havent been accepted as French. And it hurts, he added. When we go to Africa, were not Africans. And in France, were not French. We fall between two stools. Norman Ajari, a French philosopher who specialises in race and teaches at Villanova University, said that the failure to integrate communities like Seine-Saint-Denis underscored the failure of Frances universalism. The French model has been discredited, Ajari said. Now the debate has shifted to whether we should demand the abolition of the police and what we should demand of the state. This obsession with universalism is politically useless and prevents us from seeing the stakes in this fight, which are concrete, Ajari added. But most in France, including its political mainstream, remain committed to its universalist tradition. American concepts like white privilege and affirmative action are political non-starters, said Corinne Narassiguin, the No 2 official in Frances Socialist Party. In its years in power, the party failed to help integrate nonwhite groups because it had relied exclusively on economic and social policies, said Narassiguin, who lived in the United States for 13 years and is from Reunion, the French department in the Indian Ocean. It is necessary, she said, to tackle discrimination and racism directly: For example, by reforming police identity checks that the government has acknowledged unfairly target black and Arab youths, or by raising awareness in employee training and human resources in the private sector. We gave the impression to a whole generation of young people in France that we didnt understand the reality of discrimination in France and the violent racism they experienced every day, Narassiguin said. So we drove them to seek other solutions. Norimitsu Onishi c.2020 The New York Times Company Checking body temperature for Vietnamese citizens (Source: VNA) The latest patient, a 24-year-old man, returned to Vietnam on June 16 from Kuwait after transiting in Qatar. Upon his arrival at the Tan Son Nhat international airport in Ho Chi Minh City, he was immediately quarantined. With his first test on the day being positive for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19, the man is now being quarantined and treated in the HCM City hospital for tropical diseases. As of 6am on June 17, Vietnam marked 62 consecutive days without community transmission. Of the 335 cases recorded in the country so far, 195 were imported and quarantined upon arrival. A total of 325 patients, or 97 percent of all cases, have recovered and zero deaths have been reported. Four of the remaining 10 patients have tested negative for the coronavirus at least twice. Some 7,250 people who had close contact with patients or came from pandemic-hit areas are now under quarantine across Vietnam. Rayshard Brooks was on probation and faced going back to prison if he was charged with a DUI, DailyMail.com can reveal. It was the fear of incarceration that likely caused Brooks to panic in the face of imminent arrest and caused him to make a break for it. Brooks was shot and killed on Friday, June 12 when cops received a 911 call to the Wendy's at University Avenue in Atlanta. Brooks was drunk and asleep at the wheel of his car and blocking the fast food restaurant's drive-thru lane. The 27-year-old father of four was polite and compliant with officers across the 20 minutes during which officers Devin Brosnan, 26, and Garrett Rolfe, 27, questioned him as to how much he had drunk and how he had ended up in the drive-thru. As the interaction neared its tragic conclusion, Brooks suggested to officers that he could just walk home saying that it wasn't far. But after Brooks failed a field sobriety test and blew 0.108 when breathalyzed (0.08 is the legal limit in Georgia), Rolfe who has since been fired, moved to cuff Brooks who suddenly resisted. Both officers were clearly taken by surprise. As their bodycameras fell to the ground in the scuffle that ensued one shouted to Brooks to 'stop fighting' and warned him, 'You're going to get tased,' but the peaceable incident quickly escalated into violence. Now DailyMail.com has uncovered the fear that could have caused Brooks to panic in the face of imminent arrest and caused him to make a break for it. Rayshard Brooks was on probation and faced going back to prison if he was charged with a DUI, DailyMail.com can reveal. It was the fear of incarceration that likely caused Brooks to panic in the face of imminent arrest and caused him to make a break for it Brooks was shot and killed on Friday, June 12 when cops received a 911 call to the Wendy's at University Avenue in Atlanta. Brooks was drunk and asleep at the wheel of his car and blocking the fast food restaurant's drive-thru lane. He was polite and compliant with officers across the 20 minutes during which he was questioned on how much he had drunk and how he had ended up in the drive-thru But after Brooks failed a field sobriety test and blew 0.108 when breathalyzed (0.08 is the legal limit in Georgia), Rolfe who has since been fired, moved to cuff Brooks who suddenly resisted. Both officers were clearly taken by surprise. He tried to make a break for it and was shot twice in the back (left and right) The charges to which Brooks pleaded guilty and for which he was still on probation dated back to August 2014 when he was convicted on four counts False Imprisonment, Simple Battery/Family, Battery Simple and Felony Cruelty/Cruelty to Children. He was tried in Clayton County and sentenced to seven years on the first count, with one year in prison and six on probation and 12 months for each of the other three counts, sentences to be served concurrently. His sentence was revised, and he was sent back to prison for 12 months in July 2016 when he violated the terms of his probation. Brooks had not been in trouble since that year until last December when he went to Ohio without informing his probation officer and a warrant was issued for his arrest. That warrant was revoked and the case dismissed when he returned to Georgia on January 6. According to his wife, Tomika Miller, Brooks was a devoted husband to her and loving father to their three daughters and his stepson. According to his wife, Tomika Miller, Brooks was a devoted husband to her and loving father to their three daughters (pictured) and his stepson. She last saw her husband at 4pm on Friday when she went home to unwind after the family had gone bowling an outing at which, she said, they 'had a blast' The charges to which Brooks pleaded guilty and for which he was still on probation dated back to August 2014 when he was convicted on four counts False Imprisonment, Simple Battery/Family, Battery Simple and Felony Cruelty/Cruelty to Children. Brooks had not been in trouble since that year until last December when he went to Ohio without informing his probation officer and a warrant was issued for his arrest DailyMail.com can reveal that Officer Rolfe begged Rayshard Brooks to stay alive after shots were fired, as seen on the officer's body camera Amid angry shouts and accusations from bystanders Rolfe can be clearly heard pleading, 'Mr. Brooks keep breathing. Keep breathing for me Brooks' blue shirt can be seen surrounded by officers who tried to save his life Speaking to CNN, Miller recalled her husband as a happy person who always kept her spirits up and doted on their children. She has told how Brooks pushed her to be a better person and said of her children: 'They got him wrapped around their little fingers. 'There's nothing they can't have even when I'm saying, ''Hey, stop, don't give them that, they don't need that''.' She last saw her husband at 4pm on Friday when she went home to unwind after the family had gone bowling, an outing at which she said, they 'had a blast.' Now she revealed her one great regret for which she carries a sense of guilt is that she did not stay with Brooks that day. She said: 'I know he wanted me to stay with him. I was just so tired that day.' Brooks' death has been ruled a homicide by Fulton County Medical Examiner who conducted an autopsy on Sunday, June 14. DailyMail.com can also reveal that Rolfe begged Brooks to live as he desperately administered CPR to the dying man. Rolfe's bodycam came off during the violent altercation that erupted when he tried to cuff Brooks telling him he'd had too much to drink to be driving. But the camera never stopped recording, as it was picked up and carried around by other officers called out to investigate the shooting before eventually being returned to its owner. Amid angry shouts and accusations from by-standers Rolfe can be clearly heard pleading, 'Mr. Brooks keep breathing. Keep breathing for me.' The jerky bodycam footage captures him kneeling on the ground and administering CPR to the bleeding man while Brosnan looks on. Rolfe administered CPR until the ambulance arrived and can be heard repeatedly calling Mr. Brooks' name as he tried to keep him alive. Officer Garrett Rolfe (left) was fired from the force after firing the shots that killed Brooks on Friday night, while Officer Devin Bronsan (right), who was also present but did not fire, has been placed on administrative leave The Wendy's is pictured after it was set on fire during protests that erupted after the slaying The Georgia Bureau of Investigations are still investigating the shooting and Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard is considering bringing charges against officer Rolfe who fired three times with two bullets striking Brooks in the back. According Howard from what he has seen Rolfe would have a hard time arguing self-defense, despite the fact that Brooks grabbed Brosnan's taser and turned to deploy the stun gun against Rolfe as he chased him. Howard has stated that a Taser is not a lethal weapon and that therefore the officers' lives could not be considered under threat as they had already established that Brooks was otherwise unarmed. For her part Miller has said that she is not angry with the officer who killed her husband because: 'God will deal with that.' She added: 'I know my husband would never want me to be upset with them or hold that feeling in my heart. He was a very forgiving person.' State officials on Wednesday announced the appointment of Jamey Tesler as the Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles after serving as the acting RMV chief for nearly a year. Tesler, the acting registrar since June 25, 2019 following the resignation of Erin Deveney, led an in-depth review of interstate data sharing processes in the aftermath of a deadly New Hampshire crash involving Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, a West Springfield truck driver. A procedural error allowed Zhukovskyy to continue driving despite a drunk driving arrest in Connecticut a few weeks before the June 21, 2019 crash that killed seven motorcyclists. Zhukovskyy is facing charges of driving under the influence and seven counts of negligent homicide. In a statement, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation noted that Tesler, who has more than 16 years of senior management experience in the public sector, had implemented a series of safety-focused reforms at the RMV and Merit Rating Board since last summer. After stepping up to lead the Registry of Motor Vehicles at a difficult time, Jamey has re-prioritized and re-oriented the RMV and MRB around public safety responsibilities and functions, while transforming the RMVs service model in the midst of a pandemic, MassDOT Secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack said in a statement. He has built a strong leadership team and excellent relationships with the workforce while demonstrating the ability to identify and implement changes in longstanding practices that failed to ensure that the registry met its core safety and credentialing functions. Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement that he was pleased the registry will continue to have Jameys leadership as the agency continues to fulfill both its safety-related and customer service functions. Jamey Teslers experiences in the course of his career in the public sector give him a unique lens to look at Registry operations and make improvements so that the registry is in compliance with statutes and policies, was quickly able to change its service model in response to the pandemic and can continue to deliver quality service to customers, Baker said. Lieutenant Gov. Karyn Polito said Tesler had taken many steps that demonstrated his ability to make changes in collaboration with the workforce which better position the registry to meet its goals including serving the public as efficiently as possible. MassDOT said that Tesler oversaw the hiring of new senior managers, including a deputy registrar for safety, chief compliance officer, and director of policy and risk. He has pushed for enhanced training and other improvements in key departments, leading to an increased focus on accuracy and timeliness of updating driver records and improving the reliability of state-to-state data sharing and communications concerning violations by Massachusetts licensed drivers, MassDOT said. Tesler said in a statement that he was grateful for opportunity to continue to work with RMVs strong and resilient team. I admire the dedication of these employees who have informed, developed and launched many important initiatives in the last year, and who have been relentless through the pandemic to focus on the challenges ahead, he said. The RMV is proving it can reinvent operations to be a nimble, responsive organization that prioritizes the public health and safety of everyone, especially RMV customers and those who use Massachusetts roads. Tesler previously served in a host of positions in the public sector, including as general counsel to the Massachusetts state treasurer; deputy legal counsel to the office of the governor; and chief operating officer at MassDOT, among others. Last year, MassDOT employees told auditors that the commonwealths so-called War on Wait Times boosted customer service but undercut the quality of RMVs record-keeping and risked public safety. Employees told auditors at Grant Thornton that concerns about computer glitches, lack of regulation training, out-of-state records processing and a lack of resources fell on deaf ears. Last July, Massachusetts transportation officials suspended more than 1,100 licenses as part of a review of lapses related to processing out-of-state drivers violations. In September, Tesler announced that more than 5,200 motorists licenses had been suspended. At least 1,869 suspensions came from a review of the National Driver Registry. Nearly 3,400 stemmed from mail notifications and new incoming violation notices. The backlog was discovered in the aftermath of the New Hampshire crash. MassDOT on Wednesday said the RMV was committed to building on the safety and customer service-based improvements that have been made since June 2019. The improvements include ensuring RMV records of Massachusetts drivers are up to date, including information from other states and law enforcement, through primarily electronic and automatic data-sharing. RMV has also pushed to refine and update the process for crosschecking Massachusetts 5.2 million driver records against the National Driver Registry and establishing other data-sharing agreements with states. The RMVs new ATLAS technology has allowed significant overhauls across the agency since last fall, MassDOT said, including enhanced state-to-state communications; automatic voter registration; non-binary gender options; and more web- and phone-based interactions with customers. The state has also advocated for a federal system similar to the Commercial Driver License Information System, automating state-to-state communications for non-commercial drivers, and bolstering the Commercial Driving License administration. Zhukovskyy pleaded not guilty to seven counts of negligent homicide. Prosecutors say Zhukovskyy, 23 at the time of the crash, had fentanyl, morphine and a chemical found in cocaine in his system that day, and told authorities he often would take drugs before starting work, the Associated Press reported in April. Related Content: New Delhi, June 17 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday expressed grief over the killing of 20 Indian soldiers in the India-China stand-off in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, saying "their bravery reflects India's commitment towards her land". "The pain of losing our brave soldiers while protecting our motherland at Ladakh's Galwan cannot be put in words. Nation salutes our immortal heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep Indian territory safe and secure. Their bravery reflects India's commitment towards her land," Amit Shah tweeted. "I bow to the families, who have blessed Indian Army with such great heroes. India will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifice. Entire nation and the Modi government stand firmly with their families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured," Shah further said. Around 120 Indian soldiers, almost an entire company, was trapped and encircled by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and followed by savage and deceptive attacks, many to a point of mutilation, on Monday night at the patrolling point number 14 on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army on Tuesday said 20 of its men, including officers, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with PLA troopers in the Galwan Valley on Monday night. The force also said the death toll would increase, as many soldiers were grievously injured. In a statement, the Indian Army stated that 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Parlez-vous francais? The answer (and how honestly you answer it) could determine whether you can win the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada and become the next prime minister. The party will hold the first of two leadership campaign debates in Toronto today. It will be entirely in French. A debate in English will follow on Thursday. CBC News will carry the debate live online starting at 7 p.m. ET. None of the candidates vying for the leadership Ontario MPs Erin O'Toole and Derek Sloan, former cabinet minister Peter MacKay and Toronto lawyer Leslyn Lewis speak French as their first language. It's not clear how comprehensible the debate will be. While both O'Toole and MacKay can communicate in French, they do so with some limitations. Lewis and Sloan reportedly do not speak the language with any fluency. Nevertheless, the format will still have them debate each other in one-on-one match-ups. In the end, the focus will be on the two front runners, MacKay and O'Toole. But the audience will be focusing on what they say as much as how they say it. Both MacKay and O'Toole have been reaching out to Conservative Party members in Quebec. O'Toole's platform has an extensive section specifically aimed at the province. The proposals emphasize respect for, and expansion of, Quebec's political jurisdiction and endorse limits on federal interference in the province's affairs. The platform also includes promises to close the border crossing at Roxham Road, provide financial assistance for the 'third link' infrastructure project in Quebec City and ensure the party's next federal campaign in the province is run by a dedicated team in Quebec. The O'Toole campaign clearly sees Quebec as an important part of its path to victory. The platform names Quebec 50 times; it cites Alberta nine times and Ontario just twice. MacKay's campaign has not announced any Quebec-specific policies. A spokesperson says that in communications with party members and in media interviews, MacKay has outlined his support for equalization, infrastructure projects and respect for Quebec's jurisdiction. MacKay also recently tweeted a video about the work he is doing to learn French, aided by his multilingual wife, human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam. Story continues For all their efforts, however, it's not clear yet who has the edge in the province. MacKay leads in Quebec endorsements By one measure, MacKay seems to have the inside track. Half of the ten MPs in the Quebec Conservative caucus have endorsed MacKay. They include Steven Blaney (who placed ninth in the 2017 leadership race) and Jacques Gourde the only Quebec Conservative MPs elected in Stephen Harper's 2006 breakthrough in the province who are still sitting in the House of Commons today. MacKay also has the backing of two Quebec senators, seven former MPs and senators from Quebec and most of the candidates who ran for the party in the province in the last election. O'Toole has only one Quebec Conservative MP backing him (Richard Martel, first elected in a byelection in 2018), along with two former MPs and three sitting senators although one of his supporters, former speaker of the Senate Leo Housakos, has considerable sway in the party's Quebec wing. There is little to glean from the available fundraising data, as Quebec represented a tiny share of both MacKay and O'Toole's national fundraising. That O'Toole narrowly edged out MacKay is worth noting, however, considering that Quebec was the source of O'Toole's worst results on the first ballot of his unsuccessful 2017 leadership bid. The allure (and the risk) of social conservatives in Quebec Neither Lewis nor Sloan have any endorsements from current or former legislators in Quebec. But since the contest will be decided by a ranked ballot, their supporters are still being coveted by MacKay and O'Toole. Lewis and Sloan are both social conservatives; many of their supporters and volunteers backed the campaigns of Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux, the two social conservative candidates in 2017. Together, Trost and Lemieux combined for just nine per cent of the vote in Quebec on the first ballot. But even that modest vote share could prove decisive this time. That's why O'Toole has campaigned for the support of social conservatives. In a video conference with social conservatives in Quebec leaked to Radio-Canada on Monday, O'Toole explicitly asked for the second-choice support of social conservative voters and voiced concerns about the Liberals' anti-conversion therapy bill. As "a Catholic and a lawyer," he said, he also felt discomfort with the government's medical aid in dying legislation. That might fly with French-speaking social conservatives, but it's not the kind of message that is likely to resonate with the broader francophone population. In January, a Leger poll found that 63 per cent of Quebecers felt that the ideal Conservative leader should not convey religious values, compared to just nine per cent who said he or she should. In the rest of Canada, the margin was 45 to 16 per cent. The poll found similar proportions on other issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. Quebecers overwhelmingly and in greater numbers than in the rest of the country hoped the next leader would hold progressive views on these issues. Which may explain why O'Toole tweeted his opposition to conversion therapy shortly after the video was made public in French. Not just speaking to Quebecers Much of the debate undoubtedly will be focused on Quebec, though the candidates will not be addressing Quebecers only. There are French-speakers across Canada and four ridings outside of Quebec (three in New Brunswick and one in eastern Ontario) are majority francophone. But being able to speak French isn't important just to those who speak the language daily. It's also seen in the rest of the country as a prerequisite for leadership of a national party. While Leger found that 87 per cent of Quebecers believed that the next Conservative leader should be bilingual, 55 per cent of Canadians in the rest of the country also felt that way, as did about half of Conservative voters. The poll found that the Conservatives could lose eight percentage points in support across the country with a leader who is not bilingual, with the steepest decline happening in Quebec. This job requirement isn't limited to the Conservatives. Leger found that 92 per cent of Quebecers and 63 per cent of Canadians in the rest of the country said that being bilingual should be mandatory for a prime minister. In other words, voters who don't speak French still expect their leaders to do so. Bilingualism not an asset, but a requirement That does make this debate a bit of a language test. While few English-speaking Conservative members are likely to tune in, many will be curious to know how each of the candidates performed. As Scheer demonstrated in October's federal election, the bar for bilingualism (and striking the right tone) is high when it comes to debating French-speaking Quebecers like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Yves-Francois Blanchet, leader of the Bloc Quebecois. Scheer's lacklustre performance in the French-language debates ended his party's hopes for a breakthrough in Quebec. Conservatives inside and outside the province are keen to prevent the same thing from happening in the next election. That's because forming a majority government without seats in Quebec is not easy. The Conservatives did it in 2011 but that was one of only four elections in Canada's history which saw the Conservatives win enough seats outside of Quebec to form a majority government. All four of those elections were exceptional for one reason or another the surge of the NDP in 2011, national landslides (including in Quebec) in 1958 and 1984, and a country split between Quebec and the rest of Canada over the question of conscription in the wartime election of 1917. So the stakes in this French-language debate are high votes in Quebec are worth their weight in gold and it could play an important role in determining which of the four contenders emerges as the party's next leader. But it might also give us our first real indication of whether any of them are serious candidates for the top job in the country. Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) say it has lost almost 95% of its revenue due to the coronavirus induced ban on international passenger travel. The Director-General of the GCAA, Simon Allotey, says they have also taken drastic measures such as pay cuts to remain in business. Ghana's main Airport, the Kotoka International Airport, was closed to passenger flights on March 22, 2020, although cargo transport is allowed, as well as special passenger services such as the evacuation of Ghanaians from elsewhere and other nationals out of Ghana. The impact of this has been enormous for hotels, restaurants, car rental services, and other businesses in the hospitality industry that rely heavily on travelers to stay in business. The regulator of air transportation in Ghana, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, has not been spared the adverse impact of the border closure. Its Director-General, Simon Allotey, told Citi Business News the Authority is operating on virtually no revenue as its revenue has dropped by 95%. It's impacted adversely on our finances because the bulk of our revenues were from the landing fee, the on roads or what we call, the overflights. The bulk of our revenues are also from the safety charges for both passengers and cargo, and most of these revenues have dwindled to zero. So, if you look at the revenues we had from these few exemption flights, I'd say we've lost about 95% of our normal revenue. Even though cargo flights and other specialized flights to evacuate stranded citizens to and from Ghana bring in some form of revenue, Mr. Allotey says this is just not enough to meet the huge expenditure items on its budget. If the plane does not fly, there is no revenue to the Authority. Of course, there are other fees we charge the airlines like the validation of the foreign air operator certificate which is done every two years. Apart from that, almost everything is based on aircraft movement, he said. On how the GCAA is rationalizing to stay afloat, the Director-General said it has slashed salaries by 50% while cutting down on new recruitment. We've come up with an arrangement with the workers Union to pay 50% of their salaries and the 50% we are withholding will be refunded in good times when situation normalizes. This way, it will keep the Authority going in terms of its financial obligations as long as possible, he added. In all these, however, Citi Business News understands that none of the over thirty airlines operating international flights has given an indication of shutting down, though some have been compelled to reschedule major operations which were due by the middle of the year. What lays ahead of all airline operators and regulators alike are the measures to be put in place when the ban is lifted eventually. Among others, Mr. Allotey says some new measures being discussed among members of the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, is the issuing of COVID-19 pass as well as complying with the two weeks or fourteen-day mandatory quarantine being rolled out by some countries. He however says this is likely to discourage travel due to increased cost. While domestic airlines have resorted to reducing the number of passenger numbers on board, it appears this may not be possible with international airlines when they resume, as Citi Business News understands that airlines are opposing the move. According to them, studies have failed to prove that people contract the coronavirus disease onboard flights. ---citinewsroom Retail sales for May 2020 achieved better-than-expected results, indicating an upbeat consumer confidence in the United States after a prolonged lull, thanks to the COVID-19-induced shelter-in-place restrictions and social distancing. Shoppers are again flocking to malls after staying put for a couple of months. A spike in retail sales bodes well for companies in the payment space, such as those processing payments via contactless platforms like smart phones, mobile, credit and debit cards. Retail Sales Soar Per Commerce Department data released on Tuesday, retail and food services sales for May rose 17.7% to $485.5 billion from April reading. The same also surpassed the 8% consensus estimate from Refinitiv, which marked the highest monthly gain in data since 1992. Retail sales, however, were down 6.1% year over year. Total sales for the March-May period declined 10.5% from the same period last year. Clothing and accessories saw the biggest jump in sales, skyrocketing 188% while Furniture and home furnishing stores, and sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores saw a respective surge of 89.7% and 88.2%. The spurt in retail sales is likely to have been driven by a government benevolence of additional $600 per week in unemployment benefit. Contactless Payments Gain Momentum Increase in retail sales fuelled the use of cards and mobile payments in recent years owing to convenience, ease, flexibility, speed and security. Moreover, the continued pandemic crisis enhanced the use of contactless payments as physical modes of remittances heighten the risk of coronavirus infection. According to a new Crowdfund Insider research, in May, 50% of U.S. consumers reportedly availed of contactless payment methods at least four times with 69% agreeing that this mode is more convenient than cash transactions. Also, three-fifth of U.S. consumers confirmed that these hassle-free digital payments will urge them to continue with the process even in the post-COVID world. Story continues Even though the United States still lags in respect of adopting cashless payments, the country is catching up fast in that direction. In 2018, just 3% of the cards used was contactless in the country compared to around 64% in the U.K. and at least 96% in South Korea, going by a study, conducted by the global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. However, the coronavirus pandemic will act as a catalyst for this shift. Visa payWave, MasterCard PayPass, Apple Pay from Apple Inc. AAPL, Samsung Pay and Android Pay are just some of the novel ways to make disbursements, relying on the power of contactless payments via a chip-enabled card or an activated mobile phone and near-field communication (NFC) technology. Stocks in Focus We zero in on some of the leading companies in the payments space that are poised to gain from the long-term transition to the payment industry. Mastercard Inc. MA is experiencing a revival in business volumes, driven by normalization in select markets, attributable to gradual reopening of businesses. The companys switched volume and switched transactions are showing an enhanced trend, partly backed by the easing of social-distancing measures in several markets and the positive impact drawn from the fiscal stimulus offered in the United States. The company is also witnessing buoyant demand for its Data & Analytics and Cyber solutions. In the second quarter of 2020, the company expects services growth that provides diversification to its revenue stream to continue outperforming its core products. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and its bottom line beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 5.51%. American Express Co. AXP is another major company in the card space, which is likely to benefit as spending catches everyones fancy yet again. Its cards used for flight-ticket booking and providing premium lounge facilities are expected to gain traction from travel spending once it observes a boom. The stock is currently Zacks #3 Ranked and its earnings topped estimates in all the trailing four quarters, the average being 5.03%. Visa Inc. V is poised to cash in on the growing payments space, given its vast international reach, superior brand value, solid capital position and heavy investments in technology. The company recently reported monthly payments, processed transactions and cross-border volumes for May, reflecting a gradual betterment in card metrics trends. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank of 3 and its earnings surpassed estimates in three of the last four quarters and met the mark in one, the average positive surprise being 2.19%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >> 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 Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report American Express Company (AXP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Mastercard Incorporated (MA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Visa Inc. (V) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research The Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Victor Giadom, has declared himself acting national chairman of the party. Mr Giadom made the declaration at the APC national secretariat in Abuja Wednesday morning. He said his declaration is in compliance with the judgement of Justice S.U. Bature in suit no FCT/HC/M/6447/2020 dated March 16, 2020, which ordered the suspension of Adams Oshiomhole and ordered that I, Chief Hon Victor Giadom should act as National Chairman of our great party. Mr Giadom also called for a fresh screening of APC governorship aspirants for the Edo State governorship election. He announced the cancellation of the earlier screening exercise approved by the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC). That screening process disqualified Mr Obaseki who is in a tough battle with Mr Oshiomhole in Edo. Our party, the All Progressives Congress, will no longer allow local quests for the control of power to influence our decisions. As your Acting National Chairman and presiding officer in the NWC, we therefore cancel the decision of the Screening and Appeal Committees of the former chairman of the party on the Edo primaries, Mr Giadom told journalists in Abuja on Wednesday. Mr Giadoms actions followed an Appeal Court ruling on Tuesday that suspended Mr Oshiomhole as national chairman of the APC. The appeal court upheld the suspension of Mr Oshiomhole as APC chairman as earlier ruled by the Abuja high court. The APC spokesperson, Lanre Issa-Onilu, had Tuesday announced Abiola Ajimobi as the acting national chairman of the party. Mr Ajimobi is the deputy national chairman (South) of the party but is believed to be very ill and on admittance at the hospital. Mr Giadoms announcements Wednesday adds to the crisis rocking the party. Details coming shortly Three generations of my family have served this country in the military and law enforcement. I have been both a police officer in Nashville and an officer in the Marines. My training prepared me, like all police officers, to uphold the law. As a Marine, my training prepared me to defend our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I am trained like them ... but I am different from many of them, in that I am a Black, gay woman. Like so many other Americans, I had a moment of reckoning watching our own police and military ordered to fire rubber bullets and tear gas at citizens peacefully protesting. I was so grateful that, fellow Marine, Gen. Mattis found his humanity and made a stand, when the use of military forces was turned on the very people we were trained and sworn to protect. Gen. Powell stated he was glad Gen. Mattis took a risk, broke his silence and spoke up against what was happening. I couldnt sleep that night. I kept thinking back to when I was 16 and my dad and I had The Conversation. On my final test drive before getting my license, he turned to me and he said, What do you do with your hands if youre ever stopped by the police? I make my hands visible. I put them at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel. He said, Thats right. But, what if Im not doing anything wrong? It doesnt matter. That night, I kept thinking, Those peaceful protesters werent doing anything wrong. What if Id still been a police officer, or military officer, and I had been officially ordered to fire rubber bullets and tear gas at members of my community? What would I have done? What would you have done? At the age of 22, as a rookie officer, I always felt I was one of the good guys. I went to the tough neighbourhoods (which happened to be Black) to show a police presence, create a sense of security and conduct traffic stops. I knew I would often find drugs, suspended licenses and warrants for arrest when I pulled people over. At the time I thought I was fighting crime. In reality, and in retrospect, I was over-policing and profiling my Black brothers and sisters. It is in our culture, in our Constitution, to stand up and speak up for whats right. If you and I dont, who will? If we want things to change for good in our country, one place to start is with how we police and profile each other. Peaceful protesters are voting with their feet. They are standing up and speaking up, that we must be better, must do better, together. They are holding our elected officials accountable for re-examining how we deal with peaceful protest; 155 years after slavery was abolished, and 50 years after Dr. Kings assassination, the equality, justice and fair treatment, that is written into our laws, is NOT the norm. How can we change that? How can we move our country including its elected leaders, military leaders, and police leaders to protect and honour the rights of all people who are trying to correct what is wrong? I, for one, believe the seed of change is in taking tangible steps to follow Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s advice: The time is always right to do what is right. June 9 was election day in Georgia. Even though I was a registered voter, I was forced to fill out a paper ballot. Due to very limited polling locations and broken voting machines, more than a few lines to vote had a four- to seven-hour wait. I loaded up the car and took water, snacks and words of encouragement to help people persevere and stay in line to exercise their right to vote. That was just one way to do what was right. There are many others. What will you do today, and every day, to honour what is right, to protect what is right, and to act on what is right? One thing you can do is turn The Conversation into a New Conversation, with your friends, family members, employees, and neighbours. We can change our communities, our culture, our country for good if we just agree to have A New Conversation. Will you join me? Crude oil futures eased to Rs 2,893 per barrel on June 17 as participants increased their short positions. The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that US crude inventories rose 3.85 million barrels for the week ended June 12 against expectations of a decline of 0.15 million barrels. The market is likely to take further cue from US Energy Information weekly data to be released later in the day. Tapan Patel, Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities, said crude oil traded weak in the opening trade on June 17 on expectations of bearish weekly inventory data. "Prices have firmed up on improved demand outlook after the IEA raised the demand forecast for 2020 to 91.72 million barrels per day." Crude price may weaken further only if EIA reports an increase in stocks as reported by API. Apart from stocks, focus will also be on US crude production and refinery demand. US crude production is near October 2018 lows and is expected to fall further. In the futures market, crude oil for June delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 2,954 and an intraday low of Rs 2,839 per barrel on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). So far in the current series, black gold has touched a low of Rs 1,361 and a high of Rs 4,415. Crude oil futures for June delivery slipped Rs 44, or 1.50 percent, to Rs 2,886 per barrel at 18:40 hours IST on a business turnover of 4,602 lots. The same for July delivery declined Rs 36, or 1.22 percent, to Rs 2,922 per barrel on a business volume of 1,156 lots. The value of June and July contracts traded so far is Rs 2,620.36 crore and Rs 89.01 crore, respectively. Patel expects oil prices to trade sideways with support at $37 and resistance at $40. "MCX June Crude Oil futures has support at Rs 2,800 and resistance at Rs 3,010." West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 1.12 percent to $37.95 per barrel, while Brent crude, the London-based international benchmark, was down 0.76 percent to $40.65 per barrel. New Delhi/Beijing, June 17 : China had sought to settle the border dispute with India by finalising its boundary in Tibet in 2001, but the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government failed to respond, as per a recent book published by HarperCollins. Sarosh Zaiwalla, the Indian-origin founder of and senior partner at Zaiwalla & Co., a prominent law firm in London, in his recent memoir, "Honour Bound -- Adventures of an Indian Lawyer in the English Courts", has revealed that China sought to settle its border dispute with India in 2001, but the then Indian government did not respond to the confidential overture made through him. The then Chinese ambassador to Britain, Ma Zhen Gang, had suggested to him a "second-channel" for confidential meetings between the political leaders of the two countries be established "to find a practical resolution at the highest political level in both countries to settle the border dispute," according to Zaiwalla's memoir. Zaiwalla had previously organised a successful second channel high-level dialogue between 10 Downing Street and China over the issues which had arisen related to the handover of Hong Kong. To pursue the matter, an aide-memoire was drafted between the two, the book said. "I gave the note which I had prepared, with the ambassador's input and approval, to Maneka Gandhi, who confirmed to me that she had passed it on to Jaswant Singh (who was then the Indian External Affairs Minister)," Zaiwalla wrote in his book. He went on to reveal: "When I met Jaswant Singh at an event in the Washington Hotel in London a few months later, he said to me airily, 'I have given your note to my department to consider'. Nothing happened." "For China in those days," Zaiwalla recorded, "The focus was on economic development and not military might." He added: "I did believe China was genuinely keen on sorting out the border dispute with India..." Zaiwalla recalled that Ambassador Ma told him: "China wants the original border of Tibet to be the border with India. The line drawn by the British Raj as the border between Tibet and India cannot be considered the proper border. We are not claiming any Indian territory but what is Tibet should come back to us." The lawyer recorded in his book: "I told the Chinese ambassador that for India to part with any territory would not be acceptable for the Indian people...I also brought to his attention the fact that at the time the border, as drawn by (Henry) McMahon (Foreign Secretary of British India), was agreed by Tibet and India, Tibet had a government. Therefore, there had been a legal and binding acceptance by Tibet and India of the location of the border. This, in turn, would be binding on China. In my conversations with him, the ambassador accepted that all these points could be discussed." He further noted: "According to a 1959 diplomatic note signed by Zhou Enlai, the former Chinese Prime Minister, China does recognise a Line of Actual Control that closely approximates to most of the McMahon Line along the eastern side of its border with India." "In working with the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom in 2001 to create a confidential backchannel between China and India, I became highly familiar with this border dispute. Both sides should seek to settle this matter in bilateral talks without the need for India to cede any Indian territory. This should be possible," the book said. Governor Walz conducted yesterdays press briefing touching on the status of the epidemic in Minnesota (video below). After his first few seconds at the lectern, however, this briefing was all politics. Walz promoted the robust bonding bill he seeks to push through during the current special session of the legislature. Robust was the word of the day. Walz was required to call the special session to extend his emergency powers. He is not yielding control of the dials of our lives. The second speaker in Walzs show was light-skinned Native woman Peggy Flanagan. Flanagan is a race-obsessed metro lefty fruitcake and our lieutenant governor. They kept an unusually tight lid on her yesterday. Third up was the mayor of Red Wing. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears in support of the bonding bill. Its that important. Listening to the mayor, I understood, in case there was any doubt: robust=large. Next up was a young lady from IBEW Local 292 in Minneapolis. She wore her hardhat to demonstrate the importance of the bonding bill for new construction projects. The parade continued. There was of course the obligatory crossover with COVID-19 and the killing of George Floyd. Somehow, its all about the money. The time the time for the money has come today. One might infer that the epidemic is in decline in Minnesota. There were only 9 new deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the data yesterday. Hospitalization/ICU usage is down. Seven of the 9 new deaths occurred among residents of long-term care facilities. Seven of the 9 new decedents were in their 80s (two) and 90s (five). Of the 1,313 total deaths attributed to the epidemic, 1,041 have occurred among residents of LTC facilities. That is 79.3 percent of all deaths. Does anybody really know what time it is? At about 38:00 of the video, Walz talks about his continued exercise of control. He doesnt know what time it is. Its time to give Minnesotans the information necessary to look out for themselves and restore control of the dials to their rightful owners. BEIJING China raised its emergency warning to its second highest level and canceled more than 60% of the flights to Beijing on Wednesday amid a new coronavirus outbreak in the capital a sharp pullback for the nation that declared victory over the virus in March and a warning for the rest of the world about how tenacious this virus really is. New infections spiked in India, Iran and U.S. states including Florida, Texas and Arizona as authorities struggled to balance restarting economic activity without accelerating the spread of the pandemic. European nations, which embarked on a widescale reopening this week, looked on with trepidation as the Americas struggled mightily to contain the first wave of the pandemic and Asian nations like China and South Korea reported new outbreaks, giving rise to fears of a second wave. A man holds a child wearing masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Chinese capital on Wednesday canceled more than 60% of commercial flights and raised the alert level amid a new coronavirus outbreak, state-run media reported. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)AP In China, officials described the situation in Beijing as extremely grave. This has truly rung an alarm bell for us, Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of Beijing's Communist Party Standing Committee. The party's Global Times said 1,255 flights to and from the capitals two major airports were scrapped by Wednesday morning, about two-thirds of those scheduled. Beijing Capital Airport is traditionally the worlds second busiest in passenger capacity. Since the virus emerged in China late last year and spread worldwide, there have been more than 8.1 million confirmed cases and at least 443,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say the true toll is much higher, due to the many who died without being tested and other factors. The U.S. has the most infections and deaths in the world, with a toll that neared 117,000 on Wednesday, surpassing the number of Americans who died in World War I. In a worrying development since the U.S. hurricane season began this month, the virus has even sidelined some members of a U.S. team that tracks hurricanes. A worker cleans the glass door to a health center for COVID-19 testing in Beijing on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Chinese capital on Wednesday canceled more than 60% of commercial flights and raised the alert level amid a new coronavirus outbreak, state-run media reported. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)AP Arizona reported a new daily high of nearly 2,400 new infections for a total of more than 39,000, while in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott insisted that the state's health care system could handle the fast-rising number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Tuesday marked the eighth time in nine days that Texas set a new high for COVID-19 hospitalizations at 2,518. State health officials also reported 2,622 new cases, a single-day high. It does raise concerns, but there is no reason right now to be alarmed, Abbott said. Texas began aggressively re-opening its economy on May 1 and Abbott has continued to relax restrictions. He noted that Texans may have become lax in wearing masks or practicing social distancing and urged people to stay home as much as possible. In Oregon, a rural northeastern church has become the epicenter of the states largest coronavirus outbreak, as 236 people tested positive. The outbreak also led to Oregons second consecutive record-setting daily case count. Canada and the U.S., meanwhile, decided to extend to July 21 a deal to keep their border closed to nonessential travel, with many Canadians fearing cases arriving from the U.S. This is a decision that will protect people on both sides of the border as we continue to fight COVID-19, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. As the U.S. struggles with the first wave of the virus, other countries where it was widely thought to be under control faced disturbing developments. In South Korea, authorities reported 43 new cases amid increased public activity. Authorities said 25 of them came from the Seoul metropolitan area, where hundreds of infections have been linked to nightclubs, church gatherings, e-commerce workers and door-to-door salespeople. Twelve of the new cases were linked to international arrivals. Not long after declaring itself virus-free, New Zealand is dealing with a reemergence of the virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern assigned a top military leader to oversee the border quarantines after what she described as an unacceptable failure by health officials. They had allowed two New Zealand citizens who had recently returned from London to leave quarantine before being tested to see a dying relative. After the women tested positive, New Zealand began tracing their potential contacts to ensure the virus is contained. Their cases raised the specter that international air travel could ignite a new surge of the virus just as countries are reopening airports to boost their devastated tourism industries. The flight cancellations in China were among a number of travel limits placed around the capital. Beijing had essentially eradicated local transmissions until recent days, with 137 new cases since last week. On Wednesday, the city of 20 million people raised its threat level from 3 to 2, leading to the cancellation of classes, suspended reopenings and stronger requirements for social distancing. China had relaxed many coronavirus controls after the Communist Party declared victory over the virus in March. India which has the fourth-highest caseload after the U.S., Brazil and Russia added more than 2,000 deaths to its tally, after Delhi and Maharashtra states included 1,672 previously unreported fatalities. Its death toll of 11,903 is now eighth highest in the world. India has been reporting some 10,000 new infections and more than 300 deaths each day for the last two weeks. In this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, photo, medics tend to a COVID-19 patient at the Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After months of fighting the coronavirus, Iran only just saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)AP In Europe, which has seen over 184,000 virus-related deaths, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that a ceremony will be held on July 16 to honor the country's more than 27,000 dead. Denmark's health minister urged anyone who joined a large protest against racial injustice on June 7 to be tested whether you have symptoms or not after one person in the crowd tested positive. As long as we have the virus in Europe and in Denmark, it will flare up. We are dealing with a very, very contagious disease, said Health Minister Magnus Heunicke. Air is filled with tension right now as the India-China dispute escalated at the LAC border on Monday night leading to a clash between the two sides, which has resulted in the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers and 43 Chinese troops so far in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. Galwan Valley is a strategically important location which lies between China's Tibet and India's Ladakh. Out of the martyred soldiers, names of only three soldiers including an officer have been made public as yet that include Colonel Santosh Babu, Commanding officer of 16 Bihar, Sepoy Ojha and Havildar Palani. On Tuesday, as per the reports, the army in a statement said that 17 "critically injured" Indian troops have also succumbed to their wounds. In the latest skirmish, however, the Indian army said on Tuesday that "no shots were fired", reported ANI. It said, its the first loss of life in at least 45 years and comes after weeks of tension between the two sides. At such a difficult time, recently Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced a solatium of Rs. 20 lakh for the bereaved family of Havildar Palani and also offered a government job(based on qualification) for the next of kin. The Chief Minister and various opposition leaders from Tamil Nadu had also issued statements or tweeted out in honour of the supreme sacrifice made by the slain soldier and expressed their condolences and solidarity with the bereaved family. Even TamilNadu Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr C Vijayabaskar took to his Twitter handle to pay his tribute to Havildar Palani. I offer my sincere condolences to the family of Havildar Palani who lost his life in face-off with Chinese troops in the #Galwan Valley.Hailing from Ramanathapuram Dt & serving in the Indian Army for 22 years,he has given his life for the nation.I Salute his bravery & sacrifice. pic.twitter.com/trCAubFNtv Dr C Vijayabaskar (@Vijayabaskarofl) June 16, 2020 Havildar Palanis early life Indian Army soldier K Palani hails from Kadukkalur village in Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu. In a bid to serve the nation selflessly, Palani joined the armed forces at the age of 18, family sources told PTI. According to the news agency, the braveheart soldier had planned to retire from the army next year, having served on the country's borders for over two decades. He was one among three Indian soldiers martyred on the Indo-Chinese border in Ladakh in the conflict on Monday night. Colonel Santosh Babu, Commanding officer of 16 Bihar and Sepoy Ojha also sacrificed their lives during the violent clash with the Chinese Army. His personal life The Ladakh martyr, Palani, is survived by his wife P Vanathi Devi and two school-going kids - a son aged 10 and a daughter aged 8; and unfortunately, he was the familys lone breadwinner. WION News quoted Palanis father-in-law Nachiappan as saying, We were informed that he died in the India-China clash that occurred during the early hours. An Army official from Rajasthan called and informed us. He had even come to this very house in our town in January this year. The family is fully dependent on his income. As per the report, Havildar Palanis wife is a degree holder and works as a clerk at a college in the Ramanathapuram district. His humble background The Ladakh martyr hailed from a humble background and his parents work as farmers back in the Kadukkalur village. He was the eldest son. "He hailed from a poverty-stricken family. A class XII pass out from his village school, he was an active sportsman during his school days and aspired to join the armed forces since he was a teenager, NewIndianExpress quoted one of his relatives. Extreme poverty and ambition led him to join the army at the age of 18 after a couple of attempts at army recruitment. He was a father-figure to his younger brother and his younger sister, added the relative. Besides, the relative recalled how Palani was a responsible person who worked day and night to give education to his brother and marry off his sister. In addition, strongly motivated by Palanis love for the country, his brother Idhayakani (in his early 20s) also joined the armed forces and now works in the clerical cadre in Rajasthan. He celebrated his birthday on 3rd June and was looking forward to moving into his news house with his family. It is heartbreaking to know that man who worked all his life to serve his nation and give a comfortable life to his family will not be able to savour the dreams he fulfilled. Heres how people on social media honoured the martyred soldier: Jai Hind. Our Royal salute to him S Kasinathan (@SKasinathan15) June 16, 2020 Om Shanti Shridhar Iyer (@sridhariyer5) June 16, 2020 Salute to our brave soul .. Om shanti Suresh Kumar (@SKumarYadav_) June 16, 2020 Baskar Pettai (@BaskarPettai) June 16, 2020 Jai Hind Rezy Singh (@SinghRezy) June 16, 2020 Rest in peace Pm.Shaikdeevan MA.,ML., (@shaikdeevan) June 16, 2020 My sincere condolences towards family of Palani. siva subramaniyan (@sivasub22414734) June 16, 2020 Heartfelt condolences to the martyr's family.... Rajkamal (@Rajkama93225039) June 16, 2020 According to the news reports, the Indian brave heart soldiers mortal remains are expected to reach his native village in Tamil Nadu in a couple of days. Meanwhile, considering the current situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting on June 19 to discuss the situation in the India-China border areas. We salute the spirit of our brave soldiers who spend sleepless nights protecting the country so that we can sleep in peace. May his soul rest in peace. A first vice chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Japan branch who is also a staunch executive of the Asia caucus of the Asia NPP, Mr. Michael Awuah, has declared his support for Madam Jacqueline Boatemaa Bonsu in b upcoming Nkoranza North NPP parliamentary primaries. Mr. Awuah, who had earlier endorsed Professor Tina Abrefa-Gyan believes that with women constituting more than 51 per cent of Ghana's population, Madam Jacqueline Boatemaa Bonsu could mobilise more voters especially women and the floating voters for the party to win in the pending general election 2020. According to Mr. Awuah, Madam Jacqueline Boatemaa Bonsu has been tried, tested, and proven to be the best bet for the constituency and it is for this reason that he is declaring and endorsing her as the best parliamentary candidate for election 2020. He described Madam Jacqueline Boatemaa Bonsu as someone who has acquired a great deal of experience of dealing with local politics and also earned respect from the public as well as lawmakers and Government officials at large. Madam Jacqueline Boatemaa Bonsu as part of her social responsibility and commitment to the party has built the constituencies party office, furnished the office, and has also bought pick-up vehicles for the constituency with her own resources. He called on the delegates to vote massively for Madam Jacqueline Boatemaa Bonsu. Mr. Awuah promised to give fifty (50) Toyota Vitz to delegates on a work-and-pay basis if they give the node to Madam Jacqueline Boatemaa Bonsu. P op star Ariana Grande has bought a historic English home, uprooted from the Surrey countryside and painstakingly rebuilt in California, from US chat show host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi. Known as the Porter House, the Tudor-style home is made up of two 300-year-old barns, taken from England and reconstructed to make one property linked by an orangery, in Montecito, Santa Barbara. DeGeneres and her actress wife bought the place in January for 2.7 million and have been sprucing it up before selling to Grande for 5.3 million so theyve likely made a healthy profit, even after renovation costs. In more than an acre of land, the house has many period features indicative of its English roots, including lofted wood-beam ceilings and several cosy fireplaces, plus lovely views. Modern additions for Grande to enjoy include a smart kitchen thats open to the dining and living rooms, a sleek new laundry room, a snack bar and a study. Conceptualized around start-ups and entrepreneurship, CNBC-TV18s award-winning series and Indias longest-running show in the domain, Young Turks, marks a milestone as it completes 18 years. Celebrating this landmark occasion, the channel will telecast an hour-long anniversary episode on 17th June, 6:00 pm 7:00 pm. Hosted by Shereen Bhan, the special show will chronicle the evolution of Indias entrepreneurial journey, along with showcasing the brilliant minds who have created valuable businesses across Fintech, Healthtech, SaaS, b2B sectors that have contributed to Indias growth. Speaking on the occasion, Shereen Bhan, Young Turks Series Editor, and Managing Editor, CNBC-TV18, shared, It is a special day for all of us, as Young Turks completes 18 years. It is perhaps the worlds longest running show on startups and entrepreneurship. Over the years, Young Turks has not just been a platform for new ideas but has helped nurture Indias startup ecosystem and culture. We have never chased ideas or enterprises based on valuation; we have only chased value and, that is what makes the show successful. It is the undying spirit, perseverance, of young entrepreneurs that has kept us going for the last 18 years, and we wish to continue and make it a much bigger success story! The anniversary special edition will witness some of the most successful start-ups & unicorns across various sectors talking about the changing dynamics of the economy and how the current situation has opened possibilities for innovations. The show will feature prominent investors and founders in the likes of Naren Gupta, Co-Founder & MD, Nexus Venture Partners, Dev Khare, Partner, Lightspeed India Partners, Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder, Indian Angel Network, Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs, Gazal Kalra, Co-Founder, Rivigo, Vidit Aatrey, Founder & CEO, Meesho and Vamsi Krishna, CEO & Co-founder, Vedantu. Since 2002, Young Turks has showcased and recognized the extraordinary work of budding business leaders and has brought its viewers, inspiring stories of entrepreneurship. In addition to showcasing entrepreneurial ventures, the show also features angel and venture capital activities/investments, campus start-ups, and international entrepreneurs. Catch the special show on CNBC-TV18 on 17th June 2020 from 6 pm 7 pm The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday asked Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Sunil Jakhar to do a jan andolan against chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh who had amended the State Agriculture Produce Markets Committee (APMC) Act in 2017 to include all the provisions of the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce Ordinance-2020 which was passed by the Centre recently. Asking the PPCC chief to tell why he was trying to befool the farmers, former minister Daljit Singh Cheema asked him to explain why he was hiding the fact that the Congress government had amended the State APMC Act in August 2017 to allow creation of private yards, e-trading and direct marketing. The Congress government is also party to passing of the farming produce ordinance. It participated in the consultative process and also gave feedback to the Centre that it had already amended the State APMC Act to enable implementation of the proposed ordinance, he said. Cheema said Jakhar should clarify if the amendment to the State APMC Act by his government was right or wrong. If he feels it was an anti-farmer step, he should start his jan andolan from the chief ministers residence in Chandigarh and force the government to take it back. Napoli's all-time top scorer Dries Mertens signed a new contract until 2022 with the Serie A club on Wednesday, just hours before they face Juventus in the Italian Cup final in Rome. "Those who love Naples know that this love is eternal. I will give everything until the last day to remain in the history of this club and this city," the Belgium international said in a video posted on his Twitter account. The 33-year-old's new deal will run until 2022 but also has the option of a third season. "Happy to be together for a long time. Long live Dries!" tweeted club president Aurelio De Laurentiis. Mertens arrived in Naples from PSV Eindhoven in 2013, winning the Italian Cup and the Italian Super Cup the following season. He has scored 122 goals in 310 games and contributed 73 assists in all competitions for Napoli. The Belgian became the club's record goal scorer in Saturday's Italian Cup semi-final against Inter Milan. He overtook Marek Hamsik and moved seven goals clear of club legend Diego Maradona. Dries Mertens slots home his 122nd Napoli goal against Inter Milan to become the club's all-time top goalscorer He said the tanning salon was evacuated about 1:30 p.m., but it wasnt clear if anyone was in the tanning bed when the fire began. June 17, 2020 - Older adults who suffer a hip fracture requiring surgery are at a higher risk of suicide, suggests a study in the June 17, 2020 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer. In the first six months following hip fracture, the risk of suicide was nearly 3 times greater among patients who had sustained a hip fracture compared with a matched cohort of those who had not, according to the South Korean nationwide study by Yong-Han Cha, MD, of Eulji University Hospital, Daejeon, and colleagues. Dr. Cha comments, "So far, we have focused on the treatment of comorbidity and hip fracture itself in the management of elderly patients with hip fracture, but evaluation and management of their mental stress and emotional status are also important." Suicide Risk Remains Elevated Through One Year After Hip Fracture With use of a national health-insurance database, the researchers identified 11,477 patients who underwent surgical repair of a hip fracture. Each patient was matched with two controls with similar demographic and health characteristics but without hip fracture. The average age was 75 years, and nearly three-fourths of patients were women. The researchers compared the suicide rates of the injured and uninjured cohorts over an average follow-up of about 4.5 years (total 158,139 person-years), identifying a total of 170 patients who died by suicide. Through the first six months, there were 14 suicides among nearly 11,500 patients with a hip fracture compared with 10 suicides among nearly 23,000 matched controls. The cumulative rate of suicide was 0.13 percent among those with a hip fracture (incidence rate: 266.1 per 100,000 person-years) and 0.04 percent among the matched controls (incidence rate: 89.2 per 100,000 person-years). Thus, older adults with hip fracture were about three times more likely to die by suicide within the first six months following surgical treatment. The difference in suicide rates persisted through the first year but was not significant at longer follow-up intervals. This may reflect the high risk of death and poor health among patients with a hip fracture, the researchers speculate: patients who survive beyond the first year may represent a cohort with higher levels of health and functioning. The suicide rate during the first six months following surgical treatment was "remarkably high," Dr. Cha and coauthors write - even compared with studies of older adults with cancer and other serious diseases. The findings are also consistent with data showing the "steadily increasing number of elderly suicides in South Korea." Hip fracture is a common and often catastrophic event in older adults, with a major impact on physical and mental health and functioning. The authors note some limitations of their study, including a lack of data on fracture severity and on the causative factors leading to suicide. However, because it was based on a large national database, the findings "could be generalized to other populations." Meanwhile, the high suicide rate underscores the need to target mental health issues in older adults after surgical repair of a hip fracture. Dr. Cha and colleagues conclude: "These results imply the need for a new approach to psychiatric evaluation and management among elderly patients with hip fracture." ### Click here to read "Suicide in Elderly Patients with Hip Fracture: A South Korean Nationwide Cohort Study." DOI: 10.2106/JBJS.19.01436 About The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS) has been the most valued source of information for orthopaedic surgeons and researchers for over 125 years and is the gold standard in peer-reviewed scientific information in the field. A core journal and essential reading for general as well as specialist orthopaedic surgeons worldwide, The Journal publishes evidence-based research to enhance the quality of care for orthopaedic patients. Standards of excellence and high quality are maintained in everything we do, from the science of the content published to the customer service we provide. JBJS is an independent, non-profit journal. About Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the clinicians, nurses, accountants, lawyers, and tax, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of 4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students with advanced clinical decision support, learning and research and clinical intelligence. For more information about our solutions, visit http://healthclarity.wolterskluwer.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth. For more information, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Paris Wed, June 17, 2020 19:03 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf97128 2 Art & Culture Vincent-Van-Gogh,Paul-Gauguin,letter,auction Free A letter written jointly by Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in which they talk of their brothel visits and share their mutual admiration, sold for 210,600 euros (US$236,000) at auction in Paris on Tuesday. The letter, which mentions how they wanted to revive modern art and set up an "association of painters", was signed by both painters. It is addressed from Arles to their painter friend Emile Bernard and dated November 1/2, 1888, less than two years before Van Gogh died at the age of 37. Gauguin arrived in Arles, where Van Gogh was living, on October 23, 1888 and the two spent several stormy months painting together. It was during the fateful visit that Van Gogh lost his ear, presenting it to a brothel maid. The incident effectively ended his often strained relationship with Gauguin. In the letter sold by Aristophil Collections at the Drouot auction rooms in Paris, both men insisted that art was surging towards what Van Gogh called "an immense renaissance". Read also: Doubted Van Gogh self-portrait is real, say experts The Dutchman also writes about his visitor and their escapades. "Gauguin interests me a lot as a man," he said. "It has long seemed to me that in our dirty profession of painter, we have the greatest need for people with workers' hands and stomachs, with more natural tastes, more loving and more charitable temperaments than the decadent and exhausted Parisian boulevardier." He describes Gauguin as "a virgin being with wild animal instincts. In Gauguin, blood and sex prevail over ambition. "We made some excursions to the brothels and it is probable that we will often end up going to work there." Van Gogh yields the pen on the last page to Gauguin who would have a successful sale of paintings at Drouot in 1891. "Do not listen to Vincent," he wrote. "As you know he is easy to impress." As for "his idea on the future of a new generation in the tropics as a painter", it "seems absolutely right to me and I continue to intend to return to it". Gauguin fulfilled the "tropics" idea by going to live in French Polynesia where he died in 1903, aged 54. For students enrolled in the nursing program at San Jacinto College, the coronavirus pandemic is providing a virtual lesson in what it means to participate in the community as a healthcare worker. During the initial phase of COVID-19 response when the classes were shut down, the college began developing virtual course study for online learning through new software. The pandemic provided the perfect teaching moment and challenge for the college, according to Nikolaos Moraros, department chair of associate degree nursing at San Jacinto College. COVID-19 was a true emergency health care crisis that affected the educational landscape of all levels, he said. What was unique about SJCD, is our leadership immediately identified and mobilized all stakeholders to analyze and implement a curriculum and an academic environment that met and maintained the rigor and the flexibility needed in a time of crisis for our student body and for our accrediting bodies. The curriculum focuses on how the pandemic impacts public health systems and public and community response. Students witness in real time how the variables of the virus change constantly and the challenge to redefine both existing and new protocols. More Information San Jacinto College nursing program For more about the program, go to https://bit.ly/3cIEpW5 For more about the baccalaureate degree program for nursing at San Jacinto College Central, go to https://www.sanjac.edu/bsn See More Collapse Simulations use actual case studies Students participate in interactive simulations using actual case studies. The students are seeing firsthand how nurses are an integral member of the healthcare team in treating and managing COVID cases, said Rhonda Bell, San Jacs dean of health and natural sciences. The accredited course is a requirement for all nursing students enrolled in San Jacs nursing program, which became the first baccalaureate degree program for San Jacinto College Central following approval by the Texas Board of Nursing in early 2020. The program provides the opportunity for registered nurses with an associate degree to earn a four-year degree. The department chairs and faculty designed the curriculum in compliance with Texas Board of Nursing, accreditation requirements and in support of evidence-based best practices for nursing education, Bell said. For instance, the use of PPEs (personal protection equipment) has been redefined in terms of how medical personnel respond during a pandemic, said Bell. Typically, this is just a check-off in a skills lab and then they apply PPE, as needed in the clinical setting, Bell said. The students (now) are able to see the importance of PPEs for healthcare providers and the general public in creating safe communities and slowing the spread of a new coronavirus. A world of unknowns Nursing students are witnessing the impact of a new virus to the community as researchers try to develop a vaccine and best treatment protocols, Bell said. Students have had to adjust to a world of unknowns while maintaining flexibility, not only in their educational experiences, but also as they witness their role in the community. I hope these students truly understand they are on the front lines of healthcare and our communities depend on their expertise, knowledge and care. They have witnessed the stories shared by media sources of the nurses who not only provided care but also became the primary communication between patients and their loved ones as patients were isolated from their families. The Lehigh Valley could be saying goodbye to the areas last remaining Kmart store by the end of the summer. Thats what an employee said when asked Wednesday afternoon at the store, 400 N. Best Ave., in Walnutport. Shoppers also didnt seem to mind social distancing and wearing masks as they hustled through the store to score deep discounts ranging 30% to 80% off. Some racks were completely bare, as pointed out by the employee. The employee said she was saddened, noting a tough time as all staff were told the final day would be Sunday, Aug. 30. She speculated liquidation sales could begin sometime in July. The buzz surrounding a closure initially began last week when parent company Transformcos online jobs website stated store closing on jobs listings for that location. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated June 3 from the landlord, Seritage Growth Properties, a national owner of 203 retail and mixed-use properties, also states Seritage entered into an amendment for a master lease. The lease includes the remaining 17 Sears and Kmart stores in its portfolio. according to a news release by Seritage Growth Properties. At 12 of those stores, which are not identified in the filing, Transformco requested the lease be terminated in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Transformco must pay $5.3 million by Sept. 30 or once going-out-of-business sales are completed, under the terms of the master lease. Some shelves were bare Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at the Lehigh Valley's last remaining Kmart location in Walnutport. Transformco spokesman Larry Costello declined comment when asked if the Walnutport location would be closing. Kmart, 801 Male Road, in Wind Gap shut down sometime in March. The Wilson Borough location by mid-December 2019 was shuttered after a couple months of liquidation sales. Kmart had announced in August 2019 is would be closing four additional stores in New Jersey, as well as the Wilson Borough location at 320 S. 25th St. in Pennsylvania. The closures came in the wake of the discount retailers financial woes. Transformco was formed after Sears Holdings declared bankruptcy in October 2018 beneath a reported $11.3 billion in debt. While the company did re-emerge somewhat after the bankruptcy, Transformco still announced in November 2019 it would be closing nearly 100 Kmart and Sears stores nationally by the end of that year. The move to streamline operations also included the areas last remaining Sears, an anchor tenant at Whitehall Mall, which closed this past February. A CNBC news report stated retailers received some good news in February 2019 when Sears Holding Corp. Chairman Eddie Lamperts hedge fund ESL Investments reportedly won a $5.2 billion auction for the assets of both chains. The deal then allowed for about 400 stores to stay open under Transformco and saved roughly 45,000 jobs. Transformco in late 2019 began selling off assets for cash, including the sale of the DieHard car battery brand to Advance Auto Parts for $200 million and Innovel Solutions, its delivery and installation business, to Costco this past March for $1 billion, according to the Associated Press and a news release. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Her joints ache. Her feet throb with a dull pain from having been on them for days, marching for miles. Even her voice is different. Not just metaphorically how she has learned to wield it to inspire crowds but physically. There is more gravel in her throat, a deeper tone in her voice that did not exist before. Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - Benin on Tuesday recorded 40 new cases of COVID-19 bringing the total number of infections in the country to 572, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 16:45 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf8b245 1 Entertainment dc-comics,Justice-League,the-flash,Lucifer,DC-FanDome,Warner-Media Free Superheroes and supervillains from DC publications are set to gather in a 24-hour, virtual event called DC FanDome on Aug. 22 at 10 a.m. local time. Available for free, DC FanDome is said to provide fans with the latest announcements regarding the brand's comics, games, television series and films, exclusive footage and a firsthand look at the casts and creators behind DC films and series, such as Aquaman, The Batman, Batwoman, Black Adam, Black Lightning, DC Super Hero Girls, DCs Legends of Tomorrow, DCs Stargirl, Doom Patrol, The Flash, Harley Quinn, Lucifer, Pennyworth, SHAZAM!, The Suicide Squad, Supergirl, Superman & Lois, Teen Titans GO!, Titans, Watchmen, Young Justice: Outsiders, the long-awaited SnyderCut of Justice League and Wonder Woman 1984. The main section of the DC FanDome will be the Hall of Heroes, where fans can find special programming, panels and content in various languages, including English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian and Chinese. Five other sections available are DC WatchVerse, which provides exclusive footage and behind-the-scenes from the films, series and games; DC YouVerse, which showcases user-generated content, from cosplay to fan-art; DC KidsVerse, which provides a wide array of activities for kids and families; DC InsiderVerse, which features legendary artist and DC CCO publisher Jim Lee, among others; and DC FunVerse. which offers do-it-yourself equipment, giveaways and a merchandise store with limited edition items. Calling all DC fans! Heres your chance to be a part of the #DCFanDome. Check out the Creative Brief at https://t.co/m3dzbk0bJc and show us your fandom. Make sure to follow @DCComics for more updates! pic.twitter.com/gqCiH1PZwT @talenthouse (@talenthouse) June 16, 2020 According to a statement, fans will be given the opportunity to submit their artwork, show off their cosplay or makeup skills, exhibit their at-home Batcave or Superman shrine, show their comic collections and display their tattoos via this website, as well as win prizes. Ann Sarnoff, chair and chief executive officer of Warner Bros., said the digital convention would give fans new ways to personalize their journey though the DC Universe without tickets and boundaries. With DC FanDome, were able to give fans from around the world an exciting and unparalleled way to connect with all their favorite DC characters, as well as the incredible talent who bring them to life on the page and screen, Sarnoff added in the statement. One of the largest comic and graphic novels publishers, DC is a creative unit of American mass media company WarnerMedia. (wir/kes) Travelmania BHPian Join Date: Apr 2020 Location: Kolkata Posts: 83 Thanked: 425 Times Falling in love with Zuluk, Sikkim This time I was joined by my sibling Debjit. As the visit was booked with work, so no question of taking the family with us. Also, we took our Ecosport for the trip as it was a trip in continuation from the workplace and less passenger. We began from Darbhanga at around 2.30 pm after finishing our work responsibilities. Drove lazily to reach Siliguri by 9.30 pm with a coffee break. Signed up to Hotel Suktara International, just beside the NJP Railway Station. Rooms were satisfactory, yet the management was poor. Day 1: NJP to Zuluk Woke up ahead of schedule as we intended to reach Zuluk at a stretch. So taking a quick shower, attempted to top off at the morning breakfast table, however, got upset by the weak service of the Hotel as I expressed before. Their pantry was the vulnerable part. After repeated chasing, the waiter for 45 minutes, we received two plates of Butter toast and Boiled egg. Cooling on what received later started our journey. We left for Zuluk via Kalimpong, Algarah, Reshi, Rongli. The road condition was average with few bad stretches in between Pedong and Reshi. To Visit Zuluk, one has to take a permit from Rongli. Papers needed by Indians for Permit is as follows: 1. One Passport Size Photograph 2. Fill and duly signed form which can be availed from counters 3. Voter ID Card. They don't accept the Adhaar Card. 4. Car Papers 5. If the car is in others name, need a permission letter from the owner to drive the vehicle. A Kolkata Bhpian PriyanCar(Priyankar) helped me with a contact at Rongli to speed up the permit process. It helped me a lot, and we completed the whole process within 30-40 mins start to end. Took some light food before leaving for Zuluk. After stamping the documents at check-post at Padamchen, we reached Zuluk by 4 pm. Padamchen Check Post On the way to Zuluk Rested the night at Homestay Snow Lion. Better than a regular place to stay with great food. As it was Offseason, so we got the accommodation without a problem. They charged Rs 1000/ - per head/day with three times food. The homestay is situated in upper Zuluk in the Military enclosure precisely at the beginning of the turn to the Zigzag road. Zuluk is a little Hamlet lying on the Hills of East Sikkim at the height of 10000 ft above sea level. A population might be hardly 900-1000 people. Virtually a Transit point of Indian Army now. In years ago it was the travel route of traders among India and Tibet through Silk route. The stunning Zigzag made by man is one of the original charms. View on Mt Kanchendzonga from Thambi viewpoint is additionally an attractive pleasure for the traveller. Snow Lion Homestay Day 2: Silk Route drive It was the end of April, so we made sure to get a decent amount of snow on the valley and some on-road too. Our first stop was Thambi Viewpoint to cool our eyes on Mt Kanchendzonga. The perspective on the twisted road was the stunning view from Thambi. Thambi is situated at an altitude of 11200 ft above sea level. One can stay at Lungthung to get a perfect picture of first sunrays on Mt Kanchendzonga early in the morning from Thambi viewpoint which is barely a 500m walking from the nearest homestay. The Mighty Mt Kanchendzonga The Range from Thambi View Point Our Ecosport enjoying the view The famous Zigzag Road I have visited Zuluk in March'16 however sad to retreat from Gnathang Valley because of heavy snowfall and road blockade. Visited Gnathang Valley last time. Situated at the height of 12700 ft above sea level is one of the remote Tibetian habitats. From January to April the valley is visible as a white Cloth of snow. One can stay there in homestays if wished. Few Pictures from the Valley Halted for few moments to appreciate and feel the nature before continuing to Old Baba Mandir. There is a history attached to the Baba Mandir as the temple was built to pay tribute to Harbhajan Singh, a soldier of Indian Army. The temple is kept up by the Indian Army. It was an incredible experience to visit a temple to offer gratitude to a military officer who martyred on the job at that freezing height. Saw the Bunker kept up properly by the army officers. After giving respect to the incredible soul, we left for Kupup. Old Baba Mandir Snow and Mist all over near Baba Mandir Continued.... Once in awhile to compose, a little travelogue turns out to be smart to communicate your experience. Same for my case here. A year ago, in April, my soul was crying to see snow by driving less. As a resident of Kolkata, Zuluk and North Sikkim are the two spots to get snow by least drive. I picked Zuluk as my goal without reconsidering. To make an introduction, let me state how it occurred. Because of my business, I required to visit neighbouring states frequently. That time I had a work going on in Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga. After checking the google map found the distance between Darbhanga and Siliguri is just 323 km, and the excellent highway gave an added advantage. NH 27, the East-West corridor is the significant ease to reach Siliguri quick.This time I was joined by my sibling Debjit. As the visit was booked with work, so no question of taking the family with us. Also, we took our Ecosport for the trip as it was a trip in continuation from the workplace and less passenger.We began from Darbhanga at around 2.30 pm after finishing our work responsibilities. Drove lazily to reach Siliguri by 9.30 pm with a coffee break. Signed up to Hotel Suktara International, just beside the NJP Railway Station. Rooms were satisfactory, yet the management was poor.Woke up ahead of schedule as we intended to reach Zuluk at a stretch. So taking a quick shower, attempted to top off at the morning breakfast table, however, got upset by the weak service of the Hotel as I expressed before. Their pantry was the vulnerable part. After repeated chasing, the waiter for 45 minutes, we received two plates of Butter toast and Boiled egg. Cooling on what received later started our journey. We left for Zuluk via Kalimpong, Algarah, Reshi, Rongli. The road condition was average with few bad stretches in between Pedong and Reshi.To Visit Zuluk, one has to take a permit from Rongli.Papers needed by Indians for Permit is as follows:1. One Passport Size Photograph2. Fill and duly signed form which can be availed from counters3. Voter ID Card. They don't accept the Adhaar Card.4. Car Papers5. If the car is in others name, need a permission letter from the owner to drive the vehicle.A Kolkata Bhpian PriyanCar(Priyankar) helped me with a contact at Rongli to speed up the permit process. It helped me a lot, and we completed the whole process within 30-40 mins start to end. Took some light food before leaving for Zuluk. After stamping the documents at check-post at Padamchen, we reached Zuluk by 4 pm.Rested the night at Homestay Snow Lion. Better than a regular place to stay with great food. As it was Offseason, so we got the accommodation without a problem. They charged Rs 1000/ - per head/day with three times food. The homestay is situated in upper Zuluk in the Military enclosure precisely at the beginning of the turn to the Zigzag road.Zuluk is a little Hamlet lying on the Hills of East Sikkim at the height of 10000 ft above sea level. A population might be hardly 900-1000 people. Virtually a Transit point of Indian Army now. In years ago it was the travel route of traders among India and Tibet through Silk route. The stunning Zigzag made by man is one of the original charms. View on Mt Kanchendzonga from Thambi viewpoint is additionally an attractive pleasure for the traveller.It was the end of April, so we made sure to get a decent amount of snow on the valley and some on-road too. Our first stop was Thambi Viewpoint to cool our eyes on Mt Kanchendzonga. The perspective on the twisted road was the stunning view from Thambi. Thambi is situated at an altitude of 11200 ft above sea level. One can stay at Lungthung to get a perfect picture of first sunrays on Mt Kanchendzonga early in the morning from Thambi viewpoint which is barely a 500m walking from the nearest homestay.I have visited Zuluk in March'16 however sad to retreat from Gnathang Valley because of heavy snowfall and road blockade. Visited Gnathang Valley last time. Situated at the height of 12700 ft above sea level is one of the remote Tibetian habitats. From January to April the valley is visible as a white Cloth of snow. One can stay there in homestays if wished.Halted for few moments to appreciate and feel the nature before continuing to Old Baba Mandir. There is a history attached to the Baba Mandir as the temple was built to pay tribute to Harbhajan Singh, a soldier of Indian Army. The temple is kept up by the Indian Army. It was an incredible experience to visit a temple to offer gratitude to a military officer who martyred on the job at that freezing height. Saw the Bunker kept up properly by the army officers. After giving respect to the incredible soul, we left for Kupup. Last edited by vb-san : 17th June 2020 at 06:43 . Reason: Formatting Iran has said it will "soon" send France the black boxes of a Ukrainian jetliner its forces mistakenly shot down in January, Canada's prime minister said Tuesday. "The black boxes are supposed to be sent to France soon," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a daily briefing, adding that the coronavirus pandemic had delayed the handover. "We're going to continue to put pressure on the Iranian regime alongside our international partners to get answers, to get justice, to get compensation for the families," he added. The prime minister said he raised the analysis of the black boxes in a telephone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky "a couple of days ago." Many of the passengers on board the downed airliner were Canadian, and Ottawa has demanded for months that Iran, which does not have the technical means to decode the black boxes, send the items abroad so that their content can be analyzed. Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was struck by two missiles and crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran's airport on January 8. The Islamic republic admitted days later that its forces accidentally shot down the Kiev-bound jetliner, killing all 176 people on board. Tehran's air defenses had been on high alert at the time in case the US retaliated against Iranian strikes hours earlier on American troops stationed in Iraq. Those strikes were carried out in response to the killing of a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport. The black boxes are expected to contain information about the last moments before the aircraft was struck. On Monday, Iran said the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen most international flights canceled, had slowed its plans to send the black boxes overseas. "From the first days of this painful incident, we announced our readiness to cooperate in investigating the black boxes of the Ukrainian plane," Iran government spokesman Ali Rabiei said. He said they would be sent to either Ukraine or France to be read, adding: "We will resume this process with the gradual resumption of international flights and the clarification of the results of the negotiations" between Iran and others involved. According to sources close to the investigation, the Iranian envoy to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal last week said the Islamic republic had enlisted the help of France's BEA air accident agency to download and read the data on the flight recorder. BEA initially denied that it had been asked. Questioned by AFP on Tuesday, the BEA said it was awaiting a formal request from Iran, adding that it was "ready to provide technical assistance." The NSW government's $388 million elective surgery blitz could face blow-outs and delays as doctors warn they will not work for reduced fees to clear the backlog of procedures cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Surgeons have demanded to meet with the state health department to raise concerns about how much they will be paid to perform tens of thousands of catch-up surgeries on public patients in private hospitals. Surgeons in private hospitals are demanding higher pay rates to help clear the public waiting list. Credit:Glenn Hunt Australian Medical Association NSW President Danielle McMullen said many doctors had already lost income and would not be prepared to work for reduced fees over the time it would take to catch up on surgeries cancelled during the elective surgery ban. "We've got surgeons who've had a significant reduction in their workload, both in the public and the private system, because of those safety measures that we had to put in place," Dr McMullen said. 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. Unemployment has swept Los Angeles as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving 20.3% of workers in L.A. County out of a job. But joblessness has climbed much higher in parts of L.A. with large Black populations. Many Black neighborhoods are now experiencing levels of unemployment that are double -- and in some cases triple -- the rates seen in L.A.'s predominantly White neighborhoods. 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 Experts say Black workers are now confronting an acute version of the unemployment crisis they've always faced. "The crisis that we're seeing today -- the high numbers we're seeing in the Black community, that have really exploded due to COVID -- is not a surprise," said Lola Smallwood Cuevas, a researcher with the UCLA Labor Center. "It has been generations in the making." ONE IN THREE WORKERS NOW UNEMPLOYED IN THE 'BLACK BEVERLY HILLS' Nationally, unemployment rates declined last month as employers began rehiring their laid-off and furloughed employees. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment among White workers fell from 14.2% in April to 12.4% in May. But the unemployment rate for Black workers actually increased slightly, from 16.7% to 16.8%. At the local level, stark disparities also emerge when looking at the latest unemployment numbers in L.A.'s Black neighborhoods. Even higher-income Black communities are reeling from high unemployment. View Park-Windsor Hills -- 80.1% Black with a median household income of $91,542, according to the U.S. Census Bureau -- is sometimes called the "Black Beverly Hills." It now has an unemployment rate of 32.2%, the highest in all of urban Los Angeles. Unemployment in View Park-Windsor Hills is double that of the actual Beverly Hills, a 77.6% White city with a median household income of $103,403 -- and triple the 10.6% unemployment rate in Hermosa Beach, where more than three-quarters of residents are White. In neighboring Ladera Heights, another affluent community where two-thirds of residents are Black, unemployment sits at 24%. Joblessness also exceeds the County's overall unemployment rate of 20.3% in other parts of South Los Angeles. In the unincorporated area of Westmont, where nearly half of residents are Black, 27.1% of workers are now unemployed. In Willowbrook, 27.7% of workers are now unemployed -- including Andre Shirley. 'BEING A BLACK MAN IN AMERICA, I CAN'T SHOW THAT ANGER' A former foster youth who has struggled with homelessness, Shirley found stable work as a Starbucks barista in 2018. But he lost that job shortly into the pandemic. "It shocked me," he said. The formal reason Starbucks gave for dismissing Shirley was that he'd been showing up late to work. He said he was a few minutes behind schedule only a couple of times. Otherwise, he said he always came to work early and stayed late when asked. "It infuriated me," Shirley said of losing his job. "But I understood, being a Black man in America, I can't show that anger or that frustration." Shirley suspects his managers didn't like him speaking up about the company's policy of allowing police officers inside the store while other customers were kept outside. "I was vocal on a policy of letting people inside the store when we still didn't have a clear idea what this pandemic was," Shirley said. Andre Shirley worked at Starbucks until his termination in March. (Courtesy: Andre Shirley) Shirley said his roommate is immuno-compromised, which made him worry about picking up an infection at work and bringing it home. In an email to LAist, a Starbucks spokesman said, "We won't speak to private employment matters but we can confirm there were numerous incidents and multiple warnings that made our policies clear." Shirley has been searching for a new job, without luck. Unemployment benefits have helped cushion the blow. But he worries that long-term unemployment could drain his savings and cause him to fall back into homelessness. "That is a fear that I wake up to every day -- that I do not have secure employment," Shirley said. "It's hard being in that place again after you've worked so hard to not be there." THE ONLY BLACK COOK IN THE KITCHEN Trusion Daniels was furloughed from his job as a KFC cook at LAX in March. He remembers being called into the office abruptly along with many of his co-workers to sign separation paperwork from his employer, the airport food service company HMSHost. "They just said, well, go apply for unemployment and we'll see you when we see you," Daniels said. At the time he was laid off, Daniels was living with 13 other family members in a home in Hawthorne. That city has a 24.4% Black population and a 23.2% unemployment rate. Daniels ended up moving to South L.A. after the family's landlord told them to leave so he could sell the house. He's currently receiving unemployment benefits, but he knows that won't last forever. "My main focus really is to get back to work," Daniels said. "But I want to be able to work in a place where I'm actually getting paid right." In an emailed statement to LAist, a spokeswoman for HMSHost said, "Due to the sudden and detrimental loss of sales starting in March, we made the difficult decision to furlough the majority of our workforce. HMSHost provided extended health and welfare benefits for our furloughed associates at LAX." Before starting at KFC, Daniels had worked at a higher-end restaurant. He was the only Black cook on staff. "I felt the pressure," he said. "It's kind of intimidating when you don't see another face like yours in the kitchen. And everybody is looking at you like, what are you doing here?" Trusion Daniels was laid off from his job at LAX in March. (Courtesy: Trusion Daniels) 'SLAVERY HAS EVOLVED' Black unemployment is disproportionately high even during the best of economic times. Just before the coronavirus pandemic triggered widespread business closures and layoffs, unemployment in California had been hitting record lows. But even then, Black workers had persistently high unemployment rates -- higher than any other ethnic group in California. A 2017 UCLA study found that Black workers with a high school degree or less faced unemployment at rates double that of White workers with the same education level. Smallwood Cuevas, the UCLA researcher and founder of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, said these disparities are rooted in centuries of American history. "Slavery has evolved into an economy that does not value Black workers or Black lives," she said. After slavery, Black workers were excluded from wide swaths of the job market due to laws enforcing racial segregation. Smallwood Cuevas said it wasn't until after the civil rights movement that many Black workers in L.A. started to find their way into middle-class jobs. In the 1970s, manufacturing was the top employer for Black workers in L.A. By 1980, nearly one in five Black workers in L.A. had a job in manufacturing. Many belonged to unions and earned decent wages. At the same time, other Black workers in L.A. were finding stable, good-paying jobs as social workers. Then, L.A.'s factories were moved overseas and government budgets were slashed, leaving many Black workers out of a job. "Just as those opportunities were becoming available, the economy completely restructured," Smallwood Cuevas said. HOW LA'S ECONOMY LEFT BEHIND BLACK WORKERS As L.A.'s economy shifted, many Black workers moved out of L.A. The County's population was 13% Black in the 1980s. Today, it's 8%. Others stayed and took low-wage service jobs. According to a recent UC Berkeley Labor Center analysis, 48% of black workers in California are now employed in a front-line job deemed "essential." This category includes food prep workers, personal care aides and material movers. Smallwood Cuevas said L.A.'s economy left black workers behind, and local governments responded by heavily policing their communities -- an issue at the center of recent nationwide protests. "We must develop an economic solution to these conditions," she said. "Not simply a narrow focus on police reform, but a total reexamination of our economic structure to deal with the poverty which is really the root cause of what we're seeing play out on the streets today." High levels of incarceration have also prevented some Black workers from gaining stable employment. In California, 28.5% of male prisoners are Black, even though only 5.6% of California's adult male residents are Black. Thomas Prichard was released from prison last year after serving a six-year sentence for burglary. He has been incarcerated off and on since a childhood stint in juvenile hall. After the coronavirus struck, Prichard lost work on a political campaign, and his hours were cut in a program that puts parolees to work for CalTrans. He said staying out of trouble can be hard when steady work isn't available. "It's as if you're saying there's no second chance in America," Prichard said. "I come home and I feel as if I'm still in prison." CALLS TO INVEST IN BLACK WORKERS In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and other Black people across the country, protesters have called for defunding police departments and shifting funds toward services for disadvantaged communities. "There's a real opportunity on the table right now for cities to say that healing and taking care of the people in the city is a priority," said Janel Bailey, co-director of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center. Bailey said budget cuts from police departments could be redirected toward other public sector jobs, a field where Black workers have historically done well. A recent UCLA Labor Center study found that Black workers in the public sector earn 46% more than their counterparts in the private sector, and are more likely to own a home. "We really need to look into equitable hiring programs that will bring Black workers up to speed with other workers," Bailey said. "We can do that via the public sector." L.A.'s city council is now considering up to $150 million in cuts to the Los Angeles Police Department. Councilmembers plan to shift money toward programs supporting communities of color, though details are still to come. The cuts would be a relatively small fraction of the LAPD's $3.1 billion annual budget. Many activists have called for deeper cuts. Protesters march through Hollywood on Sunday, June 7. (Chava Sanchez/ LAist) DECADES LATER, LITTLE CHANGE Andre Shirley, the former Starbucks barista, has attended a number of protests. He has also been reflecting on the 1968 report from the Kerner Commission, convened by President Lyndon B. Johnon after civil disorder erupted in cities across America, including Watts in 1965. The report concluded the unrest was fueled in part by, "Pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment, education and housing, which have resulted in the continuing exclusion of great numbers of Negroes from the benefits of economic progress." According to the report, Black workers at the time earned 30% less than Whites on average. And they were twice as likely to live in poverty. Today, the wage gap between median-income White and Black workers has narrowed only slightly. Black Californians are still nearly twice as likely as Whites to live in poverty, according to U.S. Census data. The Kerner Commission's final report came out more than half a century ago. But Shirley said, "It literally describes what we're seeing today. It's disheartening to know that in 2020, we're facing the same exact issues." WE LOVE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS Defund the police has become a top-line slogan for some protesters and advocates speaking out against police brutality and institutional racism. Most arent just calling for police department budgets to be cut, but for that funding to be diverted to other social services. The New York City Council has so far proposed about $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD budget. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has also agreed to reduce the NYPDs budget to fund youth initiatives and social services, but he has so far been mum on how much of it hed like to see cut and where that money would specifically go. But a number of police reform activists have had their share of suggestions for city officials about where that funding should be diverted. Given the deep fiscal crisis the citys budget is facing, there are plenty of programs that could use the funding. Here are three efforts that currently rely on police involvement that some advocates say could use a funding boost and could be done without law enforcement: Mental health response Calls to change how law enforcement responds to mental health calls to 911 became more pressing after NYPD officers fatally shot Saheed Vassell, a black man with a mental health disorder, in 2018 after mistakenly believing he was carrying a gun. New York City has already expanded some mental health initiatives that rely less on police involvement. Any New Yorker can go on the NYC Well website to request a mobile crisis team to respond to crises. These teams are made up of social workers and people who have experienced challenges with mental health or substance use disorders, known as peers. The city also uses Health Engagement Assessment Teams composed of mental health professionals and peers to respond to non-emergency requests for help from city agencies and 311. This could look like a city agency such as the Department of Homeless Services reaching out for a team to contact a specific individual they work with who may need mental health support. But the responsiveness of mobile crisis teams has been hampered by slow response times previously averaging 17 hours which the officials say will significantly improve as a result of its plan to hire more teams. Advocates say current initiatives are too limited because they are less responsive and are only focused on non-emergency calls, leaving most mental health responses in the hands of police who received almost 180,000 mental health-related calls in 2018. Correct Crisis Intervention Today - NYC, a coalition of mental health advocates, used to endorse additional training for police officers to ensure sensitivity when they respond to mental health crises. But the coalition has shifted its agenda after it found that 17 New Yorkers with mental health problems were killed or critically injured by city police officers since that training went into effect in 2015. As good as the training was, we realized 40 hours of training is not going to change the culture of the NYPD, said Carla Rabinowitz, project coordinator for the coalition and advocacy coordinator at Community Access, a nonprofit that offers supportive housing and social services to people with mental health concerns. What the coalition has since proposed is a $16.5 million five-year pilot program to establish 24/7 mental health crisis response teams in the two police precincts that see the greatest number of mental health-related calls. Its modeled after the Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets program created in Eugene, Oregon, in which mobile crisis teams respond to about 20% of calls to 911. Under the proposed pilot, teams made up of one peer who has been trained as a crisis counselor and one EMT would be able to respond to all relevant mental health calls with the same speed as police officers. Only under extreme circumstances in which a person is threatening to cause serious bodily harm to themself or another person or is wielding a weapon to credibly threaten serious harm would teams be allowed to contact police for support. And if the program in Oregon is any indicator, the need for police may be rare. Less than 1% of the 24,000 calls they responded to in 2019 resulted in mobile crisis teams calling for police backup. Several groups including JustLeadershipUSA, the Mental Health Project at the Urban Justice Center and Brooklyn Defender Services have also outlined plans for additional avenues for mental health support. Their recommendations include creating more crisis respite centers where people in mental health crisis can go for services and expanding the citys mobile mental health treatment efforts. School safety The NYPDs presence in New York City schools dates back to former Mayor Rudy Giulianis administration. Now some educators and advocates are pushing to expel them. Policing in schools has long been criticized for disproportionately targeting black and Latino students and engaging in needlessly punitive or aggressive behavior. Close to 90% of the approximately 900 summonses NYPD officers issued to students targeted black or Latino youth, according to a 2018 report from the New York Civil Liberties Union. Plenty has been done to reduce the involvement of the approximately 5,100 school safety officers in the city, including one measure the city implemented last year to discourage officers from making arrests for low-level offenses and to emphasize the role of social workers. But now some people are calling for them to be out of the education system altogether. De Blasio has come out against removing police officers from city schools, which may make the move difficult to implement. He has also been reluctant to take initiatives evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of shifting responsibility for school safety from the NYPD to the Department of Education. Hundreds of Education Department employees recently endorsed such a proposal, which would allow the department to oversee its own officers who would be retrained in de-escalation, mediation, and restorative practices. But for advocates like Maria Bautista, the campaigns director at the Alliance for Quality Education, removing police officers will go a long way in making black and Latino students feel safer. Instead, she said additional funding should be pivoted toward mental health services, social workers and counselors in underfunded schools. Redirected police funding could also reverse some of the mayors proposed cuts to education. The Department of Education is facing a 3% cut to its budget amounting to $827 million compared with $23.8 million initially proposed in cuts to the NYPD, which is less than 1% of the police departments budget. Homeless outreach and support Destroying homeless encampments. Pulling homeless people off of subway trains. Arrests. Much of what Peter Malvan has seen police do during his nearly nine years in homelessness is at best failing to offer help to homeless New Yorkers or, at worst, antagonizing and harassing them. Thats a waste of a lot of money, said Malvan, a leader with the Safety Net Activists, an advocacy group for low-income New Yorkers. Police involvement in homeless outreach has been heavily scrutinized this past year, particularly as it relates to the subway system. De Blasio implemented a Subway Diversion project that allows homeless people violating transit rules, such as taking up more than one seat, to avoid civil summonses by accepting a referral to a shelter or other services. But advocates for the homeless say in practice it encourages officers to stop and harass homeless people who have violated subway rules more often than they otherwise would. They also criticized the Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys decision to hire an additional 500 transit police officers last December, in part because of subway homelessness. Concerns have only amplified since the subway stations have started to close overnight, in part to push out homeless riders sleeping on trains. Police officers and homeless outreach workers are meant to encourage homeless people being booted off trains to be transported to a shelter or hospital, but few of them are accepting offers to stay in shelters. But in some ways police officers and activists may actually be aligned on redirecting law enforcements role in helping New York Citys homeless population. The NYPDs current Subway Diversion program is not really helping the homeless, because there is not enough long-term investment in the mental health treatment and other assistance they need, Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said in a statement in January. People living on the subway are being temporarily cleared away, offered minimal services and returning the next day. Activists have called for prioritizing longer-term housing needs. Jacquelyn Simone, a policy analyst with Coalition for the Homeless which hasnt been active in calls to defund the police said investing more in affordable housing would be vital. About 40% of the city Department of Housing Preservations capital funds for affordable and supportive housing projects would be cut under de Blasios proposed budget from April, which Simone said should be reversed. Malvan also called for funding to be allocated toward allowing unsheltered homeless New Yorkers to access single hotel rooms for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, a proposal the City Council and mayor have been staunchly divided on. Homeless outreach is also already being done by nonprofits throughout the city, who can better build relationships with homeless New Yorkers to connect them with needed services without criminalizing behavior, advocates say. This approach isnt altogether perfect in practice either. For example, an audit from the state comptrollers office dinged Bowery Residents Committee, the nonprofit contracted to do outreach in the citys transit system, for failing to make sufficient contact with homeless people. Correction: Police issued 900 summonses to students in a 2018 report. An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the penalty. Representative image Across the country, closure of educational institutions due to lockdown has impacted students and their studies the most. But now, ICSE students have complained that they are being forced to write their exams in July, even as Coronavirus continues to spread, risking their health in the process. The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), which conducts ICSE and ISC exams, in a release on Monday earlier this week, gave two options to the students, either sit for pending board exams in July or be graded based on their internal assessments or pre-board exams. Students have been asked to communicate their decisions by June 22. And this is where things change. As per a report by The Hindu, students are complaining that several schools have been forcing them to exercise the first option by asking them to sign letters to give their consent to write board examinations. As per the report schools from Lucknow, Allahabad, Jamshedpur and Kolkata among other cities have been doing this. As far as the second option is concerned, parents have expressed reservations that evaluation in internal assessments and pre-boards is generally tougher than the boards which may impact grading. The order by CICSE was in a response to a public interest litigation filed by an advocate Arvind Tiwari, a father of a boy due to appear for Class 10 exams. The PIL sought for a cancellation of exams in view of rising number of cases of Coronavirus. Moreover, the litigation suggested that grading should be done by allotting 20 percent of board exam marks from internal assessments. The PIL states that why CISCE was insisting on holding the exams now when there is a surge in cases across India whereas around mid-March when parents were ready to send their wards for exams as cases were low, the Council put everything on hold. Several parents have also raised their concerns that even if all precautions were followed invigilators will still be using public transport to reach examination centres, putting others including students in harm's way. Basavaraj Bommai: Another leader with origins in Janata Parivar, who made it big outside the party Mask Day to be observed on June 18 in Karnataka India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, June 17: The Karnataka government has decided to observe June 18 as "Mask Day" to spread awareness about the use of masks, sanitisers, washing hands with soap, and maintaining social distancing among other things aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19. In an order issued today, Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar has asked all district and taluk administrations in the state to observe "Mask Day" by organising a march, with the participation of public representatives, dignitaries and medical staff. India China border tension: PM calls all-party meet to discuss developments | Oneindia News WHO advise on when not to wear a mask made from cloth Noting that the march was to be organised at district, taluk, panchayat and ward levels for spreading awareness about following the national directives issued to control the spread of COVID-19, it said, during the event not more than 50 people should assemble at one place. Those participating in the march should compulsorily wear masks and maintain social distancing. Announcing the decision to organise "Mask Day", Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday said, the government has decided to take strict against those not wearing masks and not maintaining social distancing here on. Initially Rs 200 fine will be imposed, this will be throughout the state," he had said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-16 19:45:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Workers disinfected the Zambezi market in Lusaka, capital of Zambia, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Martin Mbangweta) A warm gesture from the Zambia-China Association which has provided the rural Evergreen primary school in Chongwe district of Lusaka province with medical supplies amid the COVID-19 pandemic. CHONGWE, Zambia, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Zambia-China Association (ZCA) had provided Evergreen primary school in Chongwe district of Lusaka province in Zambia with medical supplies, a Zambia government official said on Monday in an interview. The assorted materials included face masks, gloves, hand washing soap and hand sanitizers. The association also donated sanitary towels to be distributed to girl pupils. The donations were valued at about 37,000 Zambian Kwacha (about 2,000 U.S. Dollars). Chongwe district commissioner Robster Mwanza told Xinhua that the donations would help the rural school in Kanakantapa village in Chongwe in preventing the spread of COVID-19. He also noted that the sanitary towels would help improve on school attendance by the girls who might have a challenge in purchasing the items due to the economic challenges during the pandemic. Locals were seen wearing face masks as a preventive measure against coronavirus, in Lusaka, capital of Zambia, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Martin Mbangweta) He described the donations as timely and thanked the association for its continued support to the rural school which is identified as a beneficiary of its goodwill. He was hopeful that the donated items would make a significant difference in preventing the pandemic at the rural school. The association's treasurer Francis Zulu stressed that the association donated the items in its quest to assist the school in fighting the pandemic. He observed that the association remained committed to lending a helping hand to the rural school because of the many challenges that the community was faced with. After writing five articles over the years about false prophets and charlatans, I made up my mind not to write about them again because it seemed then that I was the lone voice shouting in the wilderness. When I started listening to the crusade mounted by Hon. Kennedy Agyapong to expose these false prophets and pastors, I literally jettisoned my earlier decision and picked up my trenchant pen to start the fight again. For now, I am no more the lone voice since Kennedy has locked horns with these criminals in cassocks. When a crazy man who called himself Jesus Christ of Dzorwulu in Accra started his church in that suburb of Accra, Ghanaians as usual adopted their 'mind your own business' attitude. As we were going about our duties, Jesus Christ of Dzorwulu was gradually poisoning the minds of his followers. As things went from bad to worse, he commanded his followers, particularly women who were in the majority in his church, to wake up early in the morning every day and line up in his house so that they could get the opportunity to drink his urine, which according to him, was a panacea to almost all diseases. And so every day, women woke up with cups in hands to collect the urine of Jesus Christ of Dzorwulu. Those who could not get some of the urine went home highly disappointed and hoping to get some the following day. When members of his church realised the truth and wised up, they planned to show this particular fake prophet a lesson. One day as he reported to church as usual to preach his demonic sermon, the church members rushed on him in an attempt to lynch him. Sensing danger, Jesus Christ of Dzorwulu jumped through the window, leaving behind his Bible, a pair of sandals and his cross. He has since not been heard again As we were trudging on to make ends meet, another prophet popped up at Mantukwa in the then Brong-Ahafo Region. This one gathered some men, women and children and travelled with them all the way from the Volta Region and settled in a thick forest near Mantukwa. He established his church there and in no time some of the residence of Mantukwa joined his church. He also called himself Jesus Christ of Mantukwa and his wife was called Mary Jesus (just imagine!). Children were not allowed to go to school and women were made to work like slaves. Girls in the church were distributed to men in the church and girls who refused to marry such men were subjected to severe punishment and sometimes made to fast for the whole day. As he was playing the fool in the forest of Mantukwa, the Odikro and the people of Mantukwa did not know what was happening so they went about their farming activities while terrible things were happening at the wrong side of their eyes. It was Anas Aremeyaw, the ace investigative journalist, who unearthed the bad things that Jesus Christ of Matukwa and Mary Jesus were doing in that forest. The police moved in to rescue the poor men, women and children, but Jesus Christ of Mantukwa and Mary Jesus managed to run into the forest to be seen no more. By the time they were rescued, many girls who were forced to marry were pregnant. Pastor 'Apraku My Daughter' rode roughshod in this land of our birth. He fooled his followers and became rich overnight. His gullible followers dashed cash to him all in the name of going to heaven by following the satanic teaching of 'Apraku My Daughter'. The illegal wealth he amassed made him swollen headed and he took to excessive drinking of alcohol. His wife and children abandoned him and he eventually became broke and useless. He became a disgrace to his church members who refused to touch him with a long stick. One day when 'Apraku My Daughter' woke up early in the morning to as usual drink his 'akpeteshie', he was caught on video, visibly drunk and hopeless and the whole thing went viral. He went home and fell down and died on the spot. And this man who calls himself Osofo Kyiriabosom is also making a mess of Christianity. He goes about misleading his followers and nobody seems to be able to stop him. After all, we have freedom of worship enshrined in our Constitution. The 'man of God' who should have concentrated in the preaching of the gospel to save mankind has now founded a political party in his attempt to become the president of Ghana (apuu!). As the whole world is reeling under COVID-19 and scientists and medical doctors of the utmost fame are working tirelessly to find a vaccine, this false prophet recently told Ghanaians that he has cure for the coronavirus. What a fool! I have taken you through the activities of these crazy and sick brains who call themselves 'men of God' because I want you to be very careful in dealing with such charlatans. They keep coming with the same aim of duping people. 'Prophet' Kwabena Adjei Owusu is one of such criminals who call themselves 'men of God'. Recently when this 'prophet' became high on drugs, he took on Nana Akufo-Addo and the people of Akyem unduly. Words that he used to insult the president and Madam Jean Mensa cannot be repeated here because doing so will not make me a complete gentleman. I am very much interested in the marijuana that was seized from his waist bag when he was arrested by the National Security operatives. If a whole 'prophet' of Jehovah could get involved in narcotic drugs, then God save our country! I wonder what his followers will be doing now that their 'prophet' has been exposed as a 'wee' smoker. Ah! Maybe they also 'get high' on tramadol or 'wee' as they follow their 'wee' smoking 'prophet'. And did I hear that the 'wee' was planted in his waist bag by the National Security operatives? We all saw the video and the man never protested that the 'wee' does not belong to him. And why is the NDC so seriously defending the 'wee' smoker? You contract a criminal to go out there to destroy your political opponent and when the cat is out of the bag, you are crying wolf. For now, the 'wee' smoking 'prophet' who was assigned by JM and his desperate NDC to go haywire is behind bars while JM and his people are living luxuriously. It serves him right! I must admit that there are good men of God around. Sadly, we have too many charlatans out there milking the lean cow dry. Time is up for us to root them out before they start causing harm to unsuspecting worshippers. The battle line is now drawn. Those who don't have crash helmets should go for one! Eric Bawah GODFREY There will be no fireworks in Godfrey this year, but village officials are moving ahead with plans for a smaller version of the Great Godfrey Maze. At Tuesdays Village Board meeting trustees came to a consensus that they would not be moving ahead with the fireworks, normally held as part of a larger celebration on July 4. Village officials had been discussing whether it would be possible to have fireworks with people watching from their vehicles. We had a couple thoughts that would probably work, but ran into some roadblocks there, Mayor Mike McCormick said during the meeting. As of right now I think its going to be impossible to hold fireworks in the park. Trustees agreed, and also agreed to move forward with plans for the Haunted Maze portion of the Great Godfrey Maze after some discussion. The corn has already been planted, but the maze design a circus themed The Greatest Show in Godfrey had not been cut into the corn. While no formal vote was taken the consensus was to go ahead with the Haunted Maze, which occurs in October, and that the maze would be prepared by village workers instead of hiring an outside company to do it. Activities associated with the maze, such as the Corn Festival in September, and other attractions like the Cow Train, will not happen. Ive been a strong supporter of the maze forever, Trustee Mark Stewart said, adding that it provided jobs for a large number of young people. When I think about the potential for the fall we dont really know, he said. I dont know how you social distance in the haunted maze. McCormick did note the Haunted Maze was the biggest moneymaker for the village. Other said cutting back would make it easier to cancel entirely if something happened between now and October. If we get to September and October and it looks like we cant do it, we dont have a lot of money into it, Trustee Virginia Woulfe-Beile said. Light sentences given, but human rights activists say the defendants should never have been arrested in the first place. In Indonesia, seven men from the province of Papua charged with treason have been handed light sentences. The men were arrested in the Papuan capital Jayapura during anti-racism demonstrations in August last year. Human rights activists say the defendants should never have been arrested in the first place. Al Jazeeras Jessica Washington has more. Huawei may be using at least one statement made by US President Donald Trump in defense against the extradition of its CFO to the country. Thats based on recent reports detailing the executives defense strategy. At least according to one unnamed source speaking under conditions of anonymity. The daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, Meng Wanzhou has been under house arrest in Canada since 2018, pending extradition. Her arrest happened back in 2018 and the extradition was technically given the go-ahead back in May. Thats after a Canadian court ruled that double-criminality rules were applicable. Summarily, the court proved that the crimes Ren Zhengfei is accused of would be a crime in both countries. But the legal team for the CFO has been combatting extradition in earnest in the interim. Now, the team has at least one more argument against its client being handed over to the US for prosecution. At least in part, the defense will now argue that the focus of the case is not even about criminality. Instead, the team plans to assert that this is a political case. Advertisement Thats an idea that has been floated not just in China. But its also been put forward by some in the US, although the allegation in question is certainly criminal. According to the source, the defense team plans to highlight its argument with statements made by President Trump. In particular, it intends to point to statements that the president would be willing to intervene in the case. But that was predicated on the condition that doing so would help secure a trade deal between the US and China, among other things. Huaweis CFO defense team has more than Trump up its sleeves Of course, the defense team for the Huawei CFO has more to barter with than statements from Donald Trump. In addition to the presidents statements, the team is already motioning for dismissal. Thats on the basis that the executive was subject to an abuse of process. Namely, the motion filed with the courts claims that the Huawei team has evidence of coordinated state misconduct. Advertisement That misconduct took place, the claim is, in the lead-up to the arrest. The secret document Huawei points to is claimed to have been completed just hours before the executive was arrested. According to Huawei, the document shows that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the office of the Attorney General of Canada, and the FBI were in on the misconduct. The company argues that the arrest was planned in advance, resulting in a misuse of power by CBSA. The CBSA, the court motion claims, violated Ms. Mengs rights by questioning her about the alleged crime and performing a search. That action was conducted for the RCMP and ultimately for the FBI, the motion claims. In effect, the team claims that bypassed proper procedures and processes via a concerted effort between the agencies. Advertisement Its unclear whether that document is included in the materials turned over to the US for its case. But the US has maintained that Huawei cannot use materials or other assets turned over to defend against the extradition. So the argument could ultimately fall flat if a Canadian court cant be convinced otherwise if the document has already been turned over. Why was the Huawei CFO arrested, to begin with? Huawei has largely denied any allegations put forward by the US as political in nature. So the tactic it reportedly plans for this extradition case isnt new at all. But the body of evidence it plans to present in support of its claim is. News of Ms. Mengs arrest, in the interim, has been widely reported amid the ongoing trade war between China and the US. And the news has only been amplified by the associated war between the US government and Huawei. Huawei is Chinas biggest smartphone OEM and one of the top three largest in the world. Its also a global leader in 5G technology, which is a position the US is keen to contest. Advertisement But Ms. Mengs arrest is also the result of several factors. To begin with, the executive stands accused of breaching US sanctions against Iran through a secondary company. It also allegedly misled banking institutions about transactions and Huaweis relationship with the company that sold telecom equipment in that region. The hearing related to the extradition is presently scheduled for July 9. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government added 437 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) deaths to its tally on Tuesdays health bulletin, as the states mortality rate from the viral infection rose to 4.1% from 3.27% on Monday. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage While the pan-India Covid-19 mortality rate stands at 3.3%. Why did Delhi add over 400 deaths on a single day? Of the 437 deaths recorded in Delhi on Tuesday, 93 occurred over the past 24 hours. The rest were added after the state governments three-member death audit committee reviewed electronic records of suspected Covid-19 deaths over the past four days to check for cases that might have been missed, according to an official from Delhis health department. Also read: Indias Covid-19 toll nears 12,000 after backlog data reconciled, infection tally tops 3.5 lakh Is there a possibility for more revisions? Unlikely. There is just one pending death for which the committee is yet to assess the records, according to the official. Now, most hospitals in Delhi are reporting Covid-19 related deaths within 24 hours. Why isnt the death tally updated within 24 hours of a Covid-19 death? According to the state governments standard operating procedures (SOPs), all hospitals in Delhi must report Covid-19 deaths on the day they occur to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme by 5pm. Then, the death-review committee goes through the patients files and the deaths are declared in the next days bulletin. Initially, the state government had said the delays occurred because the hospitals were not sending the patients reports on time. Delhi government had sent show-cause notices and memorandums to seven government-run hospitals on May 30 for the delay in sharing their daily reports. Was Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) right all along? On June 11, the MCD authorities had said that there were 2,098 Covid-19 deaths, which was close to double of the Delhi governments cumulative death toll of 1,085. Not all deaths are related to Covid-19, said Delhi government as it had specified that a death certificate is not enough to categorise such fatalities. The state government has set up a three-member death audit committee to go through the patients medical case sheets, diagnostic investigations, and death summary to determine whether Covid-19 is the primary cause of death before adding it to the daily bulletin. What are cumulative Covid-19 deaths? The cumulative number of deaths due to Covid-19 that have occurred in Delhi since March 2, when the first case of the viral infection was diagnosed in the national capital. Delhi recorded its first death on March 12. The deaths added to the final toll are of those patients, where Covid-19 was the primary cause of fatality, which is usually from respiratory failure, multi-organ failure, and septic shock. What is the definition of a Covid-19 death? According to Delhi government, Covid-19 is the cause of death only if the disease directly leads to respiratory failure, multi-organ failure or septic shock, leading to death, or if it is the underlying reason that leads to aggravation of existing conditions, such as heart condition or kidney ailment leading to death. What does the Covid-19 death audit committee do? The death audit committee goes through a Covid-19 patients records to understand the modality and precipitating factors before declaring that the person has expired due to the viral infection. Why are deaths of all those patients, who test Covid-19 positive, are not counted as a viral infection death? The Delhi government has said that not all deaths of Covid-19 positive patients are due to the viral infection because they may have died of other terminal comorbid conditions, like cancer or heart failure, and Sars-CoV-2, which causes the disease, has no role in it. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON New Delhi: Atleast 20 Indian soldiers were martyred in a face-off with Chinese troops at the Galwan Valley near Ladakh on Monday, almost the same number of Chinese troops were reportedly killed too during the clashes. The Indian Army in a statement said: "The Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation." Meanwhile, the United Nations expressed its concern over deaths of Indian and Chinese soldiers at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and urged both sides to exercise "maximum restraint". Also, the US State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday night that Washington was closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Timeline of events: June 1516 night: Violent face-off between India-China troops at LAC in Ladakh June 16, 1:00 PM: Three Indian soldiers including one military Colonel martyred June 16, 1:45 PM: Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, CDS, and the three army chiefs have a meeting June 16, 2:00 PM: China offers to resolve dispute with dialogue June 16, 2:11 PM: Commander-level talks between India-China begins at LAC June 16, 3:00 PM: Defense Minister informs PM Modi about the incident June 16, 3:14 PM: Global Times reveals death of Chinese soldiers in clash June 16, 3:23 PM: China issues statement saying India crossed the border, twice June 16, 5:28 PM: Army Chief meets Defense Minister Rajnath Singh June 16, 5:51 PM: CDS meets Defense Minister Rajnath Singh June 16, 5:57 PM: Foreign Minister S Jaishankar arrives to meet Defense Minister June 16, 6:25 PM: Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, CDS, Army Chief's meeting concludes June 16, 7:01 PM: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar meets Prime Minister Modi June 16, 7:59 PM: India's activity has been limited to Indian territory, says Ministry of External Affairs June 16, 8:08 PM: Meeting between Indian Ambassador to Beijing and Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister June 16, 8:38 PM: CCS meeting at Prime Minister Modi's residence June 16, 9:00 PM: 20 Indian soldiers martyred in violent clashes June 16, 9:38 PM: Reports of 43 Chinese soldiers killed and injured June 16, 10:15 PM: Alert issued in Kinnaur and Lahaul Spiti along China border June 16, 10:18 PM: Chinese helicopters seen carrying corpses in Galvan valley June 16, 10:24 PM: CCS meeting ends, PM Modi and Home Minister hold important discussion June 17, 1:08 AM: UN appeals to both countries to exercise maximum restraint June 17, 3:07 AM: US issues statement saying we are keeping a close watch on the incident Kabul, June 17 : At least 17 soldiers were killed and 11 others wounded after Taliban militants attacked military camps in two Afghan northern provinces early Wednesday, sources said. In northern Kunduz province, five Afghan army soldiers were killed and six others wounded when clashes occurred in Talawka, a locality, 15 km north of the provincial capital Kunduz city along a road linking the city to bordering town of Shir Khan, Xinhua news agency reported. "The Taliban insurgents were forced back from the site after nearly two hours of fighting. Four militants were also killed," Abdul Qadir from army's 217 Pamir Corps told Xinhua. In northern Jawzjan province, 12 army soldiers and five militants were killed and five army personnel and 10 militants wounded after Taliban stormed an army camp in Bala Hisar, a strategic locality in Aqcha district, a provincial government spokesman confirmed. The latest clashes came as militancy and counter-militancy traditionally gets momentum in spring and summer commonly known as fighting season in Afghanistan. Sporadic clashes and fighting occur in countryside as Taliban militants have been attempting to take territory and consolidate their positions. The words Black Lives Matter is being painted on the street on First Avenue South in Birmingham, between 16th and 17th streets South near Railroad Park. The project, mirrored after one in Washington, D.C., will require the road to be blocked off June 17-19, as organizers hope to complete the project by Friday to celebrate Juneteenth. The words Black Lives Matter have recently been painted on streets in other cities around the nation. Here is live video of the Birmingham painting: Huge BLM mural being painted on 1st Avenue South at Railroad Park now Posted by al.com on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 The project developed after two people, who did not know each other, contacted the Mayors Office with the same idea, a statement from the Birmingham mayors office read. Cara McClure of Black Lives Matter Birmingham contacted Mayor Randall L. Woodfin with an interest to celebrate Juneteenth and honor activists and foot soldiers by painting Black Lives Matter on a Birmingham street...McClure, however, was unaware that Birmingham mural artist Shawn Fitzpatrick had contacted the Mayors Office of Public Information this month with an idea to duplicate the D.C. message. The two concepts were merged, and a block near Railroad Park was selected as the space to display the intended message from both groups. Work is slated to begin on Wednesday, city officials said. At this time, it is hard to say the time the actual painting will start on Wednesday, as crews will first assess the area, layout and consult with the participants in the morning. The goal is to have the project finished before Friday, June 19, which is Juneteenth. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union general Gordon Granger read federal orders in Galveston, Texas, that all previously enslaved people in Texas were free. Prior to that, those individuals did not now (sic) they had been freed, the citys statement read. Scott Disick has been hanging out with her ex-girlfriend Kourtney Kardashian, fresh from his breakup from model Sofia Ritchie. Kardashian and Disick seemed to be closer now than ever, as they enjoyed a simple getaway together. Though both parents of three have not confirmed nor denied that they are spending some time together, there have been several hints on social media that they may be hanging out, and even back together. On June 14, the 41-year-old mom and the 37-year-old "Talentless" founder posted pictures that seemed to be taken in the same location, that even fans noticed it. One person posted on their Twitter, saying, "Khloe, Kourtney, and Scott all appear to be on Kanye West's ranch in Wyoming." Though it's not new that both Disick and Kardashian go on vacations together ever since their split because the two parents are great in co-parenting. Scott Disick Celebrates Birthday with Kourtney Kardashian Back in May, they even went on a vacation together in Utah. For Scott Disick's 37th birthday, Kourtney Kardashian, the kids took a trip to a 5-star resort over the Memorial Day weekend, just before the family returned to California for a big celebration with the rest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan. A source told Us Weekly, "Kourtney and Scott had so much fun with the kids in Utah, and the kids want them to make family trips all together more often." The source further claims that Disick is so happy that he and his ex-girlfriend of so many years get along so well and how things are easy-going with her. "It's weird to everyone else, but not to them. They are like best friends." The Major Hint Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick May Be Back Together But it looks like the Poosh founder and Disick could be rekindling their relationship once again, as one major hint was spotted on Kourtney Kardashian's Instagram. Kardashian seemed to be wearing her ex's clothes, rocking a red and blue flannel while carrying a baby lamb. An Instagram fan account of Kardashian even shared a side by side picture of the mom-of-three wearing the flannel, and an old photo of Disick wearing the same shirt that looked identical to hers. The caption read, "Kourtney is wearing Scott's flannel." Though there were no signs of Disick on Kourtney Kardashian's Instagram, a source confirmed to Us Weekly that he is on the trip, along with Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, their children, Kylie Jenner, Stormi, Khloe, True Thompson, and Kris. "They're all having a fun time doing family activities like swimming. Scott hasn't been speaking about his breakup with Sofia." The Kids are Supportive.. but Since Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick are both single, this could be the best time for them to reunite. Even their three children, Mason, Penelope, and Reign, are hoping that this would happen. The Disick kids are excited for their parents to "get back together." An insider told Life & Style magazine, "They are enjoying seeing their parents spend more time together and being a proper family." Unfortunately for their kids and all the Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick shippers, it's not in the cards right now. Or ever. "There's a lot of water under the bridge, and while Kourtney loves having Scott around the kids more, she's not about dating him again," the insider revealed to In Touch. "That's not something she's ready to embrace. Scott may feel differently, but his priority right now is his health and mental state." READ MORE: Kim Kardashian Heartbreak: Kanye West Competes Head-On with Her On This! By Arshad Mohammed and Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would like a face-to-face meeting with Iran to discuss prisoner releases and it wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an indefinite arms embargo on the Islamic Republic, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday. The two adversaries disagree on many issues, including U.S. President Donald Trump's decision two years ago to abandon the 2015 Iran nuclear deal under which Tehran limited its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief. Trump has since restored U.S. sanctions that have choked Iran's oil exports, the country's main source of revenue, while Iran has accelerated its nuclear program. Washington believes Iran may seek a nuclear weapon, something Tehran denies. Despite the tensions, the two sides struck a deal under which Iran on June 4 freed a U.S. Navy veteran it had detained since 2018 and the United States allowed an Iranian-American physician to visit Iran. Speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said he hoped for further prisoner exchanges and talks on a wide array of issues. Tehran has been reluctant to deal with Washington since the Trump administration abandoned the nuclear agreement, demanding the United States return to it. "We'd love to have an in person meeting to have a consular dialogue so that we can move faster than we have," Hook said. "The door for diplomacy on our side is wide open, not just on these matters but on ... all the issues that have been bedeviling the US-Iran bilateral relations for 41 years," he said, saying Trump "would like to get to the negotiating table." He also said Washington, which criticizes Tehran for backing proxies in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, believes a U.N. arms embargo on Iran expiring in October should be extended indefinitely. (Reporting By Arshad Mohammed, Editing by Franklin Paul and Grant McCool) The diplomat says special attention is given to Georgia and Ukraine, both considered "closest partners". Ukraine has every chance to become an ally in NATO "when the time is right", believes Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO. Asked during a video briefing on June 16 whether in her opinion NATO recognizing Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunity Partner is a last step before getting a Membership Action Plan, or if that is some kind of substitute for real membership in the alliance, Hutchinson said: "Well, it's really neither one." "It is saying that the Ukraine people are very much important to NATO, that we are going to have more interoperability, more training, more exercises," the envoy said. "I think that there is no question that both the U.S. but also NATO is committed to the sovereignty of the Ukraine." Read alsoDeputy PM for Euro-Atlantic integration names five bills to bring Ukraine closer to NATO "Russia is continuing to produce much malign influence in the eastern part of Ukraine as well as their illegal invasion of Crimea, which is also part of Ukraine," Hutchinson added. "We stand with the Ukraine people," the diplomat said, noting at the same time that "this is not anything in a beginning of a MAP, and it is not anything that is saying that Ukraine would never be an ally in NATO." She expressed hope that Ukraine would be a member of NATO "when the time is right", adding that it is her country's hope, too. The diplomat said special attention is given to Georgia and Ukraine, both considered "closest partners". "We think that both of those countries are standing up to Russian aggression," said Kay Baley Hutchinson. Advanced Shapewear Technology to offer the smoothest and softest fabric from Depend to-date Two color collections, including Classics featuring black and pink, and Expressions featuring lavender, berry and teal Expanded size range to offer small through extra-large While the Depend Real Fit Briefs for Men line has been updated to feature: The softest, smoothest fabric from Depend to-date Availability in two colors grey and black across two sizes small/medium and large/extra-large "Kimberly-Clark and the Depend brand are committed to breaking category stigmas and providing people with continuously innovative products that allow them to live active, fulfilling lives," explained Lauren Kren, Senior Brand Manager for Depend brand. "While over 65 million Americans experience some type of bladder leakage, many are not using the correct products to help manage symptoms due to stigma or embarrassment. We're excited about the potential of these product improvements and The Only Thing Stronger Than Us Is You program to reduce these barriers and ultimately provide better solutions for our customers." The supporting integrated marketing creative was inspired by and intended to celebrate the strength of Depend consumers. Depend understands that people are managing incontinence among many other aspects of life, and rely on the trusted protection of Depend products to keep up with daily life. For more information and to learn about other Depend brand incontinence products, please visit www.Depend.com. About the Depend Brand Launched in 1984 by Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the Depend brand is the market leader in the adult incontinence category in North America. Over the years, the Depend brand has evolved with its consumers to provide the exceptional protection and lend them the confidence they need to lead normal, active lives. For more information or to request a product sample, visit www.Depend.com. About Kimberly-Clark Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its trusted brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Fueled by ingenuity, creativity, and an understanding of people's most essential needs, we create products that help individuals experience more of what's important to them. Our portfolio of brands, including Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, Poise, Depend, Andrex, Pull-Ups, GoodNites, Intimus, Neve, Plenitud, Viva and WypAll, hold the No. 1 or No. 2 share position in 80 countries. We use sustainable practices that support a healthy planet, build stronger communities, and ensure our business thrives for decades to come. To keep up with the latest news and to learn more about the company's 148-year history of innovation, visit Kimberly-Clark.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. [KMB-B] SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Ministry of Education has presented to the Free SHS Ambassador Actor Rahim Banda a brand new Pick-Up donated by the Ghana Education Trust Fund. This action by the Ministry is aimed the supporting the transportation needs of the young actor who has resourced some deprives schools with study materials through his Back to School project. The vehicle which was handed over to the actor Rahim Banda himself was accompanied by his father and sisters on 16th June, 2020. After the donation, the actor said that because he was fully aware of the challenges of his Ambassadorial rule, he fully took up the responsibility regardless of the anticipated challenges. With everyday passing day and all the work I have done with the support of my team, it is gratifying enough to know that we have gained some recognition from the masses. Problems with transportation of our materials to remote areas became an issue for the team, he said. He continued that they sought sponsorship from the ministry of education to provide assistance in the form of a vehicle to transport educational materials to their beneficiaries of which the ministry has accomplished. Rahim Banda and his team expressed profound appreciation to the Minister of Education and the entire ministry for their cooperation. He was also grateful to the Creative Arts industry and Media associates who have been supporting his Back to School Project especially Ghanaian Journalist and Blogger Attractive Mustapha Nii Okai Inusah for publishing every event he attends. We have donated close to two hundred thousand books (200,000) to schools within deprived areas and some schools in numerous Zongo communities. We see this gesture as a motivation and an opportunity to do more, Rahim Banda added. A vehicle carrying UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was involved in a collision with one of the security vehicles in its motorcade outside parliament on June 17. Sky News quoted a Downing Street spokesperson as saying Johnson was in the car at the time of the collision. No injuries were reported. The collision occured when an activist protesting against Turkish military action against Kurdish regions in the Middle East leapt in front of the motorcade. Elif Sarican, the protester who took this video, told Storyful, The Turkish army are indiscriminately bombing and the Kurdish community are protesting the UK governments complicity, especially with their arms trade with the Turkish government. Turkey said on Wednesday that it had moved troops into northern Iraq to battle Kurdish rebels, just days after it began an aerial bombardment of what it described as Kurdish military positions in the region. The protester was detained by police after the incident, as seen in the footage here. Credit: Elif Sarican via Storyful African countries need to seize opportunities created by US-China tensions African policymakers should safeguard their right to choose from the widest possible range of technologies that suit their countries development needs. The unfolding US-China power rivalry bears a striking resemblance to the tensions between the US and the Soviet bloc during the Cold War years. Back then, African countries were positioned like pawns on a grand chessboard. Their social and economic progress was hampered because they expended energy aligning themselves with either of the superpowers in the battle for world supremacy between communism and capitalism. With notable exceptions, African states generally failed to exercise positive agency for their own development. They also eroded the institutional and governance foundations vital for economic success. In the current context of rising geopolitical tensions between the US and China, African countries may find themselves repeating the same mistakes unless they proactively shape their own destinies. The tensions between the two great powers, characterised by a vicious trade war, are deepening at a time when the world economy is under enormous strain due to COVID-19. At the same time African countries are facing their worst economic crises since independence. Africa is institutionally under-prepared to weather the combined effects of the health pandemic and severe economic recession. Its leaders will need to consciously design strategies of engagement that will help them to manage the ongoing superpower tensions to their advantage. They should do so without taking sides. This requires that they deal with each of these great powers based on pragmatic rather than ideological choices. Despite their institutional under-preparedness, African countries can and indeed must be highly strategic and tactical in how they respond to the US-China tensions. Failure to do so will inevitably mean sacrificing their own interests. There are three arenas of challenges and opportunities for the African continent in the current geopolitical climate. The first involves technological frontiers, the second is global supply chains, and the third is trade integration and economic cooperation. New technological frontiers There is overwhelming evidence that technological innovation is the key driver of economic growth. Therefore, access to and exploitation of new technologies such as 5G is vital to Africas development. Fifth generation technologies are important options for a continent like Africa where mobile technology has leap-frogged more traditional technologies. Access to technologies like 5G offers access to universal broadband, which is critical for the continents advance to a digital economy. In May last year the US government put the Chinese firm Huawei, the worlds leading supplier of 5G network infrastructure, on its list of entities deemed to pose a significant risk to national security and foreign policy interests. Huawei was effectively banned from importing and incorporating key US technologies into its products and services. This included both hardware, such as high-tech semiconductor components, and software, like Google Mobile Services (GMS). The ban was later extended to key technologies from non-US firms. These included the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a major Huawei supplier. In the month following the initial ban, the CEOs of four major South African telecommunications operators Telkom, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C wrote a joint letter to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa requesting his urgent intervention on the US action against Huawei. Their aim would have been to lend diplomatic weight to prevent damage to South Africas telecommunications sector. In July last year Ramaphosa came out in support of the four operators as well as Huawei. He said the ban was: an example of protectionism that will affect our own telecommunications sector, particularly the efforts to roll out the 5G network, causing a setback on other networks as well. This was an example of pragmatism on the part of the South African government. African policymakers should strenuously safeguard their right to choose from the widest possible range of technology options that suit their countries development needs. And they should insist on acquiring and developing new technologies like 5G based on pragmatism. Global supply chains The second theatre of struggle for African countries is in global supply chains. The COVID-19 reality, combined with the ratcheting up of US-China tensions over trade, technology and supply chains, has opened up opportunities that African countries should exploit. Combined, they have exposed serious problems in supply networks across various sectors. These include digital products, food, pharmaceutical and medical supply chains. These sectors represent opportunities for African countries to develop new products, services and capabilities. They could, for example, provide answers to safeguarding Africas food security needs, local production of essential drugs and medicines, low-cost medical tests and equipment, and logistics. But African countries will need to work more collaboratively to develop thriving economic sectors and cross-border industrial linkages. Trade will, in our view, be a critical enabler for this. This leads us to the third domain, namely the need for African countries to deepen trade integration and economic cooperation. This will provide a basis for diversifying from over-reliance on export markets such as China and the US, and to build internal resilience. Intra-Africa trade Intra-African trade accounts for just 16% of total African trade. This compares with 52% in Asia and 73% in Europe. African trade is highly concentrated on a few economic hubs: China and Europe together account for 54% of total African trade, with China being Africas single largest trading partner. It accounts for over 14% of total African trade. The African Continental Free Trade Area creates the institutional and infrastructural framework for Africa to strengthen intra-African trade, diversify its trading partners and implement long-overdue trade policy reforms. COVID-19 has induced significant delays in the implementation of this trading arrangement. It should, in fact, have magnified a sense of urgency. But instead of showing adaptability, African leaders pressed a pause button. As a result, the continent could miss an opportunity to accelerate development of cross-border value chains in medical supplies and equipment and other areas. Imagination and courage African countries should seize the opportunities presented by deepening tensions between China and the US to realise positive agency and chart their own future. They will need to be more proactive and adaptive under the fluid and uncertain global environment. This will require a great deal of imagination and courage. African countries face a daunting set of challenges and constraints. But policymakers always have options. Mzukisi Qobo, Head: Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand and Mjumo Mzyece, Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 00:30:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, June 17 (Xinhua) -- About 110 teachers or staff from education institutions and about 3,600 students have been arrested over social incidents in Hong Kong from June 2019 to May 2020, Hong Kong's education chief said on Wednesday. Answering questions raised by a member of HKSAR's Legislative Council in a written reply on Wednesday, Kevin Yeung, secretary for education of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said that among the people arrested during the period in relation to the social incidents, about 10 of them were staff members of post-secondary institutions and about 100 of them were staff or teachers of primary and secondary schools. Among the students arrested in the same period, about 2,000 were from post-secondary institutions and the remaining about 1,600 were aged under 18 who were believed to be mostly secondary students and very few of them primary students, Yeung said. Yeung said that the HKSAR's education bureau has attached great importance to the professional ethics and conduct of teachers. For teachers who are involved in illegal acts, they have to bear the legal responsibility and the bureau will follow up on the matter seriously in accordance with the Education Ordinance. He said that under the established mechanism, if a registered teacher is charged upon arrest, the bureau will review whether a teacher has misconducted himself/herself and his/her teacher registration status by referring to the court documents and other obtainable information, regardless of whether the teacher concerned is convicted or not. If an arrested teacher is not charged but the bureau receives complaints or information about the professional conduct of the teacher concerned, the bureau will also take action according to the established mechanism, he added. "We are currently following-up on the concluded case according to the procedures mentioned above. No cancellation of registration of the teachers concerned has been recorded so far," Yeung said. Yeung said that some people and groups with ulterior motives deliberately mislead students into participating in political activities using radical means, attempting to achieve their political objectives at the expense of students' interests and prospects. The bureau strongly condemned the acts of these people who have been misleading and causing harm to the students, he added. "The social incidents have posed unprecedented impact on and challenges to the education sector," Yeung said, adding that as a place for nurturing students and developing their moral values, schools should assist students to rectify their misdemeanor and should work with parents to help students reflect on the impact of their behavior on themselves and others so that students can re-establish positive values. Enditem A strong Pan Africanist Action from the King of Morocco: Royal initiative to grant medical aid to African countries Within this difficult time that the continent faces to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, King Mohammed VI has decided to grant medical aid to support 15 African nations. This humanitarian and Pan African solidarity initiative has left good and warm reactions of Africans Our heartfelt thanks for this offer of assistance from the Kingdom, in favor of these different African countries hit by the health crisis linked to COVID 19, wrote the Permanent Representative of Cameroon to the AU, in a response sent to Moroccos Permanent Mission in Addis Ababa. This is a new step in cooperation between Morocco and Cameroon, added the diplomat. For his part, the Permanent Representative of the Comoros stressed that the Kingdoms dynamic shows how useful African solidarity is. Africa helps Africa, he said. In the same vein, the Permanent Representative of Senegal welcomed the initiative as happy news and expressed his thanks to King Mohammed VI. The Permanent Representative of Equatorial Guinea welcome the initiative as a very good royal gesture. The envoys of Mauritania and Malawi also welcomed the initiative and expressed thanks to the Kingdom. King Mohammed VI has ordered the shipment of medical aid to help 15 African countries in their efforts to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. This royal initiative reflects the special interest that King Mohammed VI grants to strengthening inter-African cooperation in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The medical aid is made of nearly 8 million facemasks, 900,000 face shields, 600,000 hygiene caps, 60,000 protective clothing and 30,000 liters of sanitizers in addition to 75,000 packs of chloroquine and 15,000 packs of Azithromycin. The beneficiary countries are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Eswatini, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Tanzania, Chad and Zambia. Aid shipments already started arriving in the beneficiary countries this Sunday. Minister for Health Simon Harris said people should be ready to use face coverings (Photocall Ireland/PA) The reproduction rate of Covid-19 in Ireland is estimated to be at 0.7, the minister for health has said. Simon Harris told the Dail the rate at which an infected person transmits the virus is more difficult to estimate the smaller the number of cases of the virus there are. However, this tells us we still need to remain vigilant and careful not to catch or transmit the virus as we go about our daily business, he said. While we continue to make progress, we should not forget this virus is still among us and its future is dependent on our actions. Mr Harris also urged the public to wear a face mask when in retail shops and when using public transport. He said that wearing face coverings is a behavioural change we will have to get used to. On Monday the Government launched an awareness campaign around the wearing of face coverings. They will not be made mandatory but people are encouraged to wear them on public transport, in places where social distancing is not possible and when visiting older people. Mr Harris took out his own face covering from his pocket and said we all need to carry them around with us. This week I have an additional ask for the public in relation to the wearing of face coverings. I have said clearly there are lots of views on wearing them and perhaps the noise has interfered with the clear communication of the advice. Lets be honest, this can feel difficult, odd and peculiar. It is a strange thing. We are not used to in this country wearing face coverings in the way other countries are. Expand Close Taoiseach Leo Varadkar takes part in a photocall to promote the wearing of facemasks on public transport in Dublin city centre (Niall Carson/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Taoiseach Leo Varadkar takes part in a photocall to promote the wearing of facemasks on public transport in Dublin city centre (Niall Carson/PA) We need to get used to it and have our face coverings in our pocket like our keys and our wallets and make it a habit. It is necessary but it wont protect you like a magic shield from coronavirus. On Wednesday, Irelands coronavirus death toll rose to 1,710 after a further three deaths were announced by the National Public Health Emergency Team. There have been eight new confirmed cases of the virus, taking the total to 25,341 since the Covid-19 outbreak began. Meanwhile, the head of the vintners organisation has said that halving social distancing measures for pubs and restaurants from two metres to one would still be restrictive. Restaurants and cafes can reopen as well as pubs and bars which operate as restaurants from June 29. Tourism group Failte Ireland said it has been told by health officials there could be certain circumstances where restaurants are allowed to adhere to a one-metre social distancing rule. Failte Ireland said the meals sold in such premises must be of a kind for which it would be reasonable to charge not less than 9 euro. Irelands Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has previously said pubs operating as restaurants would not mean people meeting up for a few pints and having a packet of peanuts. The guidelines due to be issued this week state food on offer would be expected to be served as a main midday or evening meal or as a main course in either such meal. But Vintners Federation of Ireland chief executive Padraig Cribben said the one-metre rule for pubs could still be restrictive. He told RTE Morning Ireland: We welcome the move from two metres to one but it does say that would only be in certain circumstances. We have been working with the various government departments in relation to social distancing and we need to flesh out what these circumstances are. Going from two metres to one is very important from a capacity point of view but it is still very restrictive. We have some independent research done that says even at the one metre, seating capacity would be reduced by 35%. From a viability point of view it is going to be very challenging. Photo: Michael Maser/Unsplash Here's what you need to know about what's happening in New York City. Serial random attacker accused of pushing 92-year-old woman who hit her head on fire hydrant A 31-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an apparently random attack on a 92-year-old woman in Manhattan four days ago, authorities say. A senior law enforcement official said Rashid Brimmage is a recidivist with 100 prior arrests. Read the full story on NBC4 New York. Swaths of New York City small businesses face extinction in the wake of coronavirus As New York City begins to emerge from the coronavirus shutdown, thousands of its small businesses many already struggling before the pandemic hit will face a near-impossible road to recovery. Read the full story on POLITICO. Death of black man found hanging in NYC park ruled suicide The death of a black man found hanging in a Manhattan park was ruled a suicide Tuesday, the city's medical examiner said. Read the full story on New York Post. Subway homeless incidents halved since start of nightly shutdowns Homeless-related problems on the subway have more than halved since the MTA began closing the system down every night amid the coronavirus crisis, MTA statistics show. Read the full story on New York Post. New York City to release body-camera footage of police shootings As part of a wave of law-enforcement reforms, the New York Police Department will release body-camera footage that captures an officer discharging a gun or a Taser, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Read the full story on The Wall Street Journal. 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. Pastor Louie Giglio apologizes for suggesting white privilege should be called white blessing Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Days after suggesting to rapper Lecrae Moore, popularly known as Lecrae, that the term white privilege be renamed white blessing because it triggers some white people, Pastor Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta apologized. The pastor had been accused of trying to make racism more palatable. I just want to come directly to you today and sincerely apologize for the use of the phrase on Sunday white blessing. And I extend that apology today to every single person who is listening to me right now but most importantly I extend that apology to my black brothers and sisters. I, like many, am so burdened by what is happening in our nation right now, Giglio said in a video message on Twitter Tuesday. Im sorrya message from my heart. pic.twitter.com/FD6AYU1mcM Louie Giglio (@louiegiglio) June 16, 2020 Im heartbroken about where we are as a nation and one of the things I am most heartbroken about is trying to help myself by continuing to learn and to help my white brothers and sisters understand that white privilege is real. And in trying to get that sentiment across on Sunday I used the phrase white blessing for which I am deeply sorry. Horrible choice of words. Does not reflect my heart. I dont, to be clear, believe there is any blessing in slavery. To the contrary, [what] Im trying to understand and help people see is that I, my white brothers and sisters, we sit in large part where we are today because of centuries of gross injustice done to our black brothers and sisters. So this is my heart. This is what I want to more fully understand because I believe this will help us stay engaged in this conversation so that we can all move forward together. Giglio, Lecrae and Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy engaged in a conversation at Passion City Church on Sunday as protests raged in their city over the police killing of Rayshard Brooks at a Wendys parking lot. The shooting on Friday came just three weeks after the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day that had also set off national protests and discussions on racial inequality and police brutality. Giglios 70-minute discussion with Cathy and Lecrae was presented as an open and honest conversation around how racism has plagued Atlanta for generations, and steps the church can take to confront it. At one pointed during the conversation, Giglio, after stressing the need for white people to really understand that white privilege exists, suggested that perhaps theologizing the concept for white Christians could help them better engage with the issue. You know Lecrae, its interesting because I feel like inside of the church we are fighting that historical context you talk about. In other words, we love the blessing of the cross but we dont love to sit in it and realize this is what God is asking me to do. To die to myself and to live for Him, whatever context thats going to look like for me, Giglio said. But I want to flip that upside down because I think the other side is true with our nations history. We understand the curse that was slavery, white people do. And we say that was bad but we miss the blessing of slavery that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and so a lot of people call this white privilege and when you say those two words it just is like a fuse goes off for a lot of white people because they dont want somebody telling them to check their privilege, he said. I know that you and I both have struggled in these days when hey, if the phrase is the trip up, lets get over the phrase and lets get down to the heart. Lets get down to what then do you want to call it? And I think maybe a great thing for me is to call it white blessing. Im living in the blessing of the curse that happened generationally that allowed me to grow up in Atlanta. I promise that this is the dumbest thing youve heard all day. https://t.co/iZcj03TnYL Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) June 16, 2020 Nicola Menzie, founder and editor of Faithfully Magazine which focuses on Christian communities of color, first raised concern about Giglios use of the term white blessing in a tweet on Monday and it has since gone viral. Here's an example of why words and their meanings matter. White Privilege vs. White Blessings, she noted in part with a just under two-minute clip from the discussion. Others, like prominent journalist Jemele Hill, quickly picked up on the megachurch pastors faux pas and remarked on Twitter: I promise that this is the dumbest thing youve heard all day. Liberal Pastor John Pavlovitz replied to Hills tweet, Giglio runs massive Christian youth and college ministries. Its a disgrace how many young people he has influence over. Other critics raised concern that Lecrae did not call Giglio out for the suggestion. In his response at the time, the rapper appears to attempt to diplomatically address the idea. Yeah. I mean, even the idea and we hate to use that term privilege or blessing, but even the idea that you have the ability to dismiss is a privilege. And like you have the ability to not think about it, Lecrae said before noting that he is forced to live with racism every day because of the color of his skin. I cannot change my skin tone, he said looking at his skin. I cannot live another day without recognizing my blackness. As soon as I drive into a Wyoming grocery store looking for some products for my hair, they are not going to be there and once again, Im reminded, oh, Im black. These products do not exist for me. As soon as I get on a plane on a foreign flight and I try to flip through the movies that are available I dont see myself and I realize, oh, Im black. I cant turn that off. And what I think the notion of this kind of blessing or the ability to put these blinders on is because what my white brothers and sisters tend to think is that they dont have a culture, he explained. Lecrae also explained in a video statement on Twitter Tuesday that he was not OK with Giglios suggestion and he discussed the situation with him privately after the event. I wasnt OK with it. Even as I sat there I was very uncomfortable with it and I was processing what do I say in light of this. Its been a lot of times as Ive navigated white supremacy or racial injustice where Ive been just trying to figure out, where I wanted to lash out in anger and theres other moments when Ive been, alright God, give me the grace and wisdom on how to deal with this, he said. And in that moment I was processing what do I do? I ended up having a conversation with him subsequently right after we talked. And then I talked to him again last night and let him know my views and my perspective and obviously I wasnt OK with it. And we cant just be virtue-signaling and doing this because its the in-thing to do to talk about race on platforms. And I didnt have any ulterior motives other than to help and articulate some of whats going on in our world and our culture. At the beginning of this week, the idea of asking the Iberville Parish Council whether to remove a statue of a Confederate soldier in Plaquemine had yet to pass a single threshold. But within about 36 hours, council members unanimously agreed to take up the matter and, after a brief public hearing Tuesday night, all 12 members of the panel voted to remove the relic, which one council member called an insult to the descendants of slaves. It shows that were actually moving forward finally and getting things done, said council member Raheem Pierce. We need to create new symbols together: white and black, Republican and Democrat. The statue has towered on a street corner next to the old courthouse along a busy stretch of road through the citys downtown for more than a century. At its base is one of a few inscriptions reading: The principles for which they fought live eternally The parish council added a resolution to take down the statue to its agenda at the behest of the parish presidents office, and it required all 12 members' support before it could even come up. Council members had little discussion following mainly supportive comments from the public, including a man who told officials hes offended every time he drives by it and others should be, too. +2 Iberville Parish Council votes unanimously to remove Confederate statue outside old courthouse The Iberville Parish Council voted unanimously Tuesday to remove a Confederate statue outside the parish's old courthouse building the lates Pierce said he was surprised by how quick the decision came, as well as the unified vote spanning across racial, generational and political party lines. Still, he said, more needs to be done to address icons of racial inequality in the parish, including discussions he hopes to press on removing plaques with the names of plantation owners outside the old courthouse. Its a start, Pierce said. He was still in high school when he began campaigning for a seat he won last fall. The decision to remove the statue follows a nationwide reckoning on racial injustice and police brutality following the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed last month in Minneapolis when a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyds neck for nearly eight minutes. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Protests decrying his death and police violence have since spurred across the globe. A recent trend that's emerged from weeks of protests has seen cities and public institutions have sought to rename streets, remove monuments and rename public spaces attached to colonial- and Confederate-era figures with attachments to slavery. In some cases, protesters have forcibly removed statues and monuments. Such was the case Saturday in New Orleans when protesters tore down the bust of former slave owner John McDonogh in Duncan Plaza and rolled it into the Mississippi River. Iberville Council Chairman Mathew Jewel said he had hoped to avoid a similar fate, or worse, an incident that might draw outsiders and set up potentially violent clashes that have happened in other cities. "We dont want our community to turn into a riot or see a racial division, he said Wednesday. "We want everybody to prosper." Jewel also said he worried damaging forces could spill over to nearby memorials for U.S. service members symbols he says better reflects a unified country. Parish leaders cannot recall if there have ever been past efforts to remove the Confederate statue, which was raised in 1912 by the local Daughters of the Confederacy, a group that has been inactive locally since the 1930s. The organization is part of a national group based in Richmond, Virginia, and in recent years has fought against the removal of Confederate-era monuments, saying they serve to memorialize those who died in the Civil War. Iberville Parish leaders approached the museum in Plaquemine if it would be interested in having the statue. It declined to take it, soiInstead, the structure will be indefinitely put into a crate and stored. If an owner comes forwards, they can claim it, Jewel said. Like Plaquemine, officials in East Feliciana Parish are also considering the removal of a Confederate soldier statue in front of the courthouse in Clinton. Past efforts to remove that monument have been unsuccessful. Officials haven't set a date for when they plan to remove the statue in Plaquemine. HONG KONG, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government announced on Tuesday to extend social distancing measures but relax the limits on group gatherings as the COVID-19 epidemic situation has stabilized in Hong Kong. The HKSAR government said it would gazette directions and amendments under relevant regulations to extend the social distancing measures in relation to catering businesses, scheduled premises and group gatherings in public places, as well as make appropriate adjustments and relaxations having regard to the latest situation. According to the directions and amendments, which will come into effect on June 19 for a period of 14 days till July 2, the number of persons allowed in group gatherings in public places will be relaxed from eight to 50. The limit on the number of persons allowed to be seated together at one table in catering business premises will be removed, while the limit on headcount at bars, amusement game centers, fitness centers, party rooms and other premises will be relaxed. The decision on relaxing the group gathering limits was made with the latest public health situation, needs for economic recovery and public expectation for resuming social activities being taken into account, the HKSAR government's Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. The HKSAR government must to strike a balance between guaranteeing public health and tackling the impact on the economy, she said, adding that the relaxation of limits is expected to help small and medium enterprises to safeguard employment. The Center for Health Protection of the HKSAR government's Department of Health said no new local confirmed COVID-19 cases was recorded on Tuesday, and the total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong remains at 1,112. According to Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, as of Tuesday noon, a total of 1,069 patients with confirmed or probable infections have been discharged from hospital, while 40 confirmed patients remain hospitalized, including three in critical condition and one in serious condition. On Tuesday, Bexar County reported the largest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic - 436. The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 4,873. With the increase in cases, many locals in San Antonio tweeted their concerns, writing that they are "getting really worried" and hope that people take wearing face coverings seriously. Gov. Greg Abbott no longer requires Texans to wear face masks. On Express-News.com: 'Dangerous situation' - Bexar County reports 436 new COVID-19 cases, largest one-day increase ever The mayors of Texas' largest cities pressed Abbott on Tuesday to mandate face masks amid the surge of the coronavirus - or allow them to do so themselves. "It is out of control, And Governor Abbott prevents Mayors from requiring the use masks - WHY???," @SanAntoGuera tweeted. "400+ new covid cases in san antonio i'm getting really worried now," @dommiedarko_ wrote in their tweet. The Metro Health hotline are the city's information hotline are experiencing higher than normal call volumes for questions about testing and Bexar County's new executive order for business to mandate its customers wear face mask. For information about testing, residents should visit covid19.sanantonio.gov. For questions about the county's order, call (210) 335-2626. Below are more reactions about the city's largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases. (Newser) Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking extra precautions against the novel coronavirus by forcing house visitors to enter through a disinfection tunnel. State news agency RIA-Novosti reported Tuesday that the tunnel had been installed at Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, where he's been working amid the pandemic, per CNN. Created by a local company that assembles industrial washing equipment, the tunnel reportedly spits out a "fine water mist" used to disinfect those passing through. Footage shows liquid spouting from the ceiling and side, per Reuters. story continues below Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in April that everyone meeting with the Russian president must undergo coronavirus testing and maintain physical distancing. Peskov fell ill with the virus the following month. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova, and Minister of Housing Vladimir Yakushev have also tested positive, per CNN. Russia has counted more than 550,000 cases of COVID-19, the third highest number in the world after the United States and Brazil, but has registered just over 7,200 deaths, leading to questions about the accuracy of reporting, per ABC News. (Read more Vladimir Putin stories.) Protesters from opposing sides some for and some against the removal of a Confederate memorial in Walhalla, South Carolina, came together to pray and host a peaceful discussion following four nights of high-tempered protests on Main Street. The prayer and discussion was an impromptu decision made by members of the Black Lives Matter movement, those in favor of the removal of the monument. Police allowed for both groups to meet in the center median on Main Street where the Confederate Monument stands and converse with one another over their differing opinions of the future of the monument. The conversation remained peaceful and was followed by a conjoined march to Walhalla City Hall to sit in on a city council meeting. Monday night, hundreds of protesters and counter protesters gathered on Main Street by the monument. "It started out peaceful, but then it escalated to the point where we had people who were not being peaceful and started to argue and curse and everything back and forth at each other," said Chief Sean Brinson of the Walhalla Police Department. "It started becoming an issue that we were concerned for it to escalate past that point." According to Walhalla Police, six arrests were made Monday night at the protest, all for breach of peace. "It just kind of escalated quickly," said Randy Blackwell, a protester in favor of keeping the monument. "I got scratched all up, bloodied, but we want justice, all lives matter, God is our father, all of us." These protests began last Friday when Steven Grant, a Walhalla man, tied himself to the monument in protest, calling for it to be removed and placed in a historical museum. "It doesnt need to be on public display like this, this makes it look like we are trying to approve of what the Confederate states did," said Grant. "This statue is a symbol of oppression when its on public display like this. When you put it in a museum, it becomes a symbol of history instead of a symbol of oppression." The Confederate Monument was built in 1910 in memory of Oconee County Confederate soldiers who lost their lives fighting in the Civil War. Walhalla city officials say it is too early to make a decision on the memorial's future. Officials say even though it was a gift to Walhalla, it is likely protected by the SC Heritage Act, which means state government approval would be required for its removal. A woman who drove an Aston Martin into a tram stop bollard in Melbourne is on the run after bizarrely fleeing the scene of the crash. The woman was driving the V12 Aston Martin Vanquish - which has a price guide of $490,000 - along Elizabeth Street in the CBD at 12.25am on Thursday. She turned left an the intersection of Collins Street and crashed into the pole. The unidentified woman was driving the V12 Aston Martin Vanquish along Elizabeth Street in Melbourne CBD at 12.25 on Thursday morning when she crashed into a pole The woman fled the scene on foot, leaving her 27-year-old passenger in the wreckage. The passenger is also believed to be the owner of the car, according to 3AW. Police said the car sustained major damages and was towed from the scene. An investigation has been launched to find the missing driver. Officers have urged anyone who witnessed the crash to come forward. Aggrieved workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) have appealed to President Akufo-Addo to call the Meridian Ports Services (MPS) to order in order to increase the revenue base of government. MPS, we think has burnt all its bridges now and come to the place, where it needs a strong rebuke from the President himself. President Akufo-Addo must call this company to order, says Emmanuel Neequaye, Chairman of the GPHA workers Union. Speaking in a News conference on Wednesday Mr Neequaye said the MPS were not respecting the President as they were not abiding by a peaceful arrangement to allow GPHA some 20 percent of work after President Akufo-Addo had personally ordered a negotiation. The GPHA workers are up in arms over MPS' alleged failure to abide by an agreement that was reached to annually pass on 20 per cent of containerized cargo to the GPHA. This agreement had been reached in Dubai by the GPHA and MPS, but MPS is said to have since abandoned it. The News conference was after a day's demonstration that nearly brought their activities to a halt. It would be recalled that MPS' deal with the GPHA, which was signed under the previous government was the source of controversy since the Akufo-Addo government took over the reins of power. Per the deal, MPS would build Terminal 3 of the Tema Port and then operate it to offset its investment. However, it has been observed that though the terminal 3 project is a good one, the concession agreement was bad, as the Deed of Amendment provided that during the term, MPS should have the exclusive right to provide services to any eligible vessel entering the operational area. What this has translated into is lack of work for the GPHA, a thing that has affected revenue massively and made it difficult to pay GPHA workers. The GPHA workers have therefore been agitating for the contract to be varied. Last year, matters came to a head and President Akufo-Addo directed the GPHA and MPS to sit down and negotiate for a compromise. And so we the leadership of the GPHA workers Union and the leadership of MPS met in Dubai and held talks. We had a fruitful agreement in the end with the MPS agreeing to cede 20% of containerized cargo to GPHA. However, after we returned home, MPS has not acted on the MoU that we achieved in Dubai, Mr. Emmanuel Neequaye said. According to him, the MPS arrangement in its current form was taking so much revenue from GPHA that the Authority is finding it difficult to pay workers. On Tuesday the GPHA workers went on a demonstration almost crippling work at the Tema Port. Because of the confusion. Ships could not berth and were forced to remain at the anchorage. Director General of the GPHA, Mr. Michael Luguje and the Director of the Tema Port, Mrs. Sandra Opoku, tried to get the workers to abandon the industrial action, but they workers did not heed. The situation attracted the Transport Minister, Kwaku Ofori-Asiamah, Board Chairman of the GPHA, Peter MacManu and the Chief Director of the Transport Ministry, to the Tema Port. We think that where the issue has reached, it is time for President Akufo-Addo to step in and call the MPS to order, because not only is the MPS arrangement threatening jobs at the GPHA, the company's intransigence is also disrespectful to the President, the GPHA Union Chairman said. He lamented that there was tension going on at the Port that needed the President's urgent attention, pointing out the UNI-PASS port management problems as another issue. UNI-PASS is a good deal, but the difficulties arising call for urgent attention, management of GPHA is performing excellently well for the company to survive and it would be a good idea, if President Akufo-Addo sets up a committee to resolve the problems in order for an atmosphere of peace to prevail. Mr. Neequaye said although the GNA made calls to get the side of the MPS, the Officials failed to pick up their calls. GNA A cheap and widely used steroid called dexamethasone has become the first drug shown to be able to save the lives of COVID-19 patients in what scientists say is a "major breakthrough". Trial results show dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in diseases such as arthritis, reduced death rates by about a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital. Tuesday's preliminary results, which have not been peer-reviewed, suggest the drug should immediately become standard care in patients with severe cases of the pandemic disease, the researchers said. They said they would work to publish the full details of the trial as soon as possible. Some scientists said they wished to review the evidence for themselves. The discovery of dexamethasone being able to treat patients has been hailed as 'the most important trial result for COVID-19 so far'. Source: Reuters It will save lives Britain's health ministry wasted no time, saying the drug had been approved for use in the state-run health service, export restrictions had been introduced and 200,000 courses of the treatment had been stockpiled. Oxford University professor and trial co-leader Martin Landray said dexamethasone would save lives. "This is a result that shows that if patients who have COVID-19 and are on ventilators or are on oxygen are given dexamethasone, it will save lives, and it will do so at a remarkably low cost," he said. "It's going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that for less than STG50 pounds (AU$90), you can treat eight patients and save a life." Co-lead investigator Peter Horby called dexamethasone "a major breakthrough". There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, which has killed more than 431,000 people globally. England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty said Tuesday's announcement was "the most important trial result for COVID-19 so far". The RECOVERY trial compared outcomes of about 2100 patients who were randomly assigned to get the steroid, with those of about 4300 patients who did not get it. Story continues University of Birmingham honorary professor of clinical pharmacology Robin Ferner called for more details. "We hope the data on which these results are based will be published as soon as possible so that doctors can confidently put the treatment into practice," Prof Ferner said. The results suggest one death would be prevented by treatment with dexamethasone in every eight ventilated COVID-19 patients, Prof Landray said. One death would be prevented in every 25 COVID-19 patients that received the drug and were on oxygen. Research behind the use of the drug on coronavirus patients still needs to peer-reviewed. Pictured are two medical staff tending to a patient. Source: Reuters New York doctor Thomas McGinn said physicians at Northwell hospitals had been using steroids on a case-by-case basis because they can suppress patients' immune systems and possibly made them susceptible to other infections. He said if the data was peer-reviewed and legitimised, it could spread the use of steroids in the sickest COVID-19 patients. "Across the country now intensivists have been using it based on their judgement calls. If this is legitimate, you may find... instead of say five out of 10 intensive-care COVID patients getting it, maybe everybody would get it," Dr McGinn said. 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. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Yunindita Prasidya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 15:50 584 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40660271d1 2 Business work-from-home,COVID-19,new-normal,APINDO,Unilever-Indonesia,TaniHub,Indosat-Ooredoo Free This article is part of The Jakarta Posts "Forging the New Norm" series about how people are adjusting to the new realities of COVID-19 in Indonesia. Remote work has been a growing trend with the rise of the gig economy, but the COVID-19 pandemic has brought it into the mainstream faster than many people initially expected. After approximately two months of implementing a work-from-home policy as an effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, companies are reporting the benefits of remote work and some are gearing up to practice it for the long term. Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) deputy chairman Bob Azam told The Jakarta Post on May 15 that it would be quite logical for companies to extend their work-from-home policy or adopt some form of flexible working arrangement after the pandemic. I think its quite logical, considering that during a recovery period, we need to carry out safety protocols and continue social distancing measures, aside from other new procedures, he said, adding that companies would most likely open their office spaces for only 50 percent of their workers to abide by health protocols. He explained that companies investment in digitizing their workplaces would be an added cost, but that the cost could be covered by cost-savings on other fronts. With office buildings remaining vacant, utility costs could be significantly reduced, saving enough to pay for the digitization agenda, he said. The Post interviewed executives of a number of companies across different sectors to ask them whether they had seen any benefits during the work-from-home program in the past couple of weeks and whether they were planning to implement some form of remote work post-pandemic. Energy expenses to power office buildings have certainly declined with the introduction of the work-from-home policy. However, we are also investing more in the technology to support the smooth running of the policy, PT Unilever Indonesia human resources director Willy Saelan told the Post in a written statement. The publicly listed consumer goods giant reported no loss in productivity since implementing the policy on March 16. And in line with the goal of maintaining productivity, the company allowed its employees to borrow its ergonomic chairs to be used at home. It has also adopted a number of initiatives to ensure the well-being of its employees, including holding a regular health talk with the companys doctors, conducting online classes on healthy living and providing around-the-clock online psychological services for those who may be experiencing anxieties during the outbreak. Homegrown agritech start-up TaniHub, whose online grocery platform has experienced significant growth amid the outbreak, reported that its travel expenses had reduced by 50 percent since it implemented the work-from-home policy in its headquarters in Jakarta on March 18, TaniHub Group finance director Edison Tobing reported. TaniHub Group management is currently considering the implementation of a flexible working space system or a work-from-home system post-outbreak as a form of benefit for employees, TaniHub Group vice president of corporate services Astri Purnamasari told the Post on Friday. For companies that have made an early investment in digital technology, including TaniHub, they are now seeing the benefits manifest. As a technology-based company, working from home is something that all Shopee employees are accustomed to doing, said Shopee public relations lead Aditya Maulana Noverdi. The e-commerce platform reported a business-as-usual scenario in its companys operations, from campaigns to shipping, despite the outbreak. State-owned telecommunications firm Telkomsel is also feeling the benefit of the digital transformation processes it had implemented prior to the outbreak, Telkomsel vice president of corporate communications Denny Abidin noted. Telecommunications firm Indosat Ooredoo, on the other hand, has been using a flexible working arrangement program called iWork since 2016. Employees are allowed to work remotely every week, wherever they please. Indosat Ooredoo director and chief human resources officer Irsyad Sahroni explained that several technical adjustments needed to be made during the ongoing outbreak, but the implementation of remote work had so far resulted in an overall increase in the companys performance. According to a 2019 report by brand consultancy firm Buffer, of over 2,400 people it surveyed from across the globe, two out of five said the biggest benefit of remote work was having a flexible schedule. Tadjudin Noer Effendi, a labor expert from Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, said that if companies continued to implement remote work after the pandemic, they would not only be able to reduce productivity loss due to traffic congestion, but also other costs as a result of the policy, including expensive office rent and childcare services, he said on Friday. Nonetheless, he sounded a note of alarm that there would be a great overhaul, as the increase in productivity on one end could potentially lead to less employment on another. He also questioned whether the majority of the workforce could still perform while not being supervised. Research firm Accenture, however, said in a 2017 report on digital transformation that such concern was based on a myth, as in workplaces where employees were empowered to choose when and where they worked, their anxieties were reduced and productivity increased. The results of the HPAT, the admissions test which is used to help select candidates for entry into the undergraduate Medicine degree programmes in the universities, will be issued this Friday, June 19, at 12 noon. To give an indication of the level of competition, last year there were 3,000 applicants for approximately 400 places. With the arrival of Covid-19 and all the disruption it caused, it seems a long time since HPAT took place, in February, when it was very normal for hundreds of students to sit together in an exam hall. Candidates will be notified by email when their results are available through their online account. They will see the separate scores for Section 1, logical reasoning and problem solving, Section 2, for interpersonal understanding and for Section 3, non-verbal reasoning, as well as their overall score. Sections 1 and 2 are weighted at 40pc each and Section 3 is worth 20pc. Applicants will also receive their percentile rank, which gives candidates an indication of how they performed against other candidates. The HPAT score and Leaving Cert results are combined in a weighted formula to give an overall points score (you can find more information on how in the Entry to Medicine resource available in the student resource section of the CAO website). It is this points score which will be used by to determine who will be offered a place on a medicine degree programme. While excellent Leaving Certificate results are essential to be in with a chance of gaining entry to Medicine, applicants also need to do well in HPAT. To check how many CAO points a candidate may now need to achieve in order to receive an offer for Medicine it is helpful to view the Entry to Medicine document in the Student Resource section of CAO.ie. This document will give applicants a good indication of how many CAO points were required by applicants who achieved the same HPAT score last year. Remember points change every year and we can never be certain of where the minimum cut off points will fall for any course in any particular year. Once the HPAT results are released it will become apparent to some applicants that they will not, or are highly unlikely to be offered a place on a medicine degree programme this year, even if they achieve the maximum 625 points in the Leaving Cert These students may now wish to remove medical degrees from their CAO application and they can do this between now and July 1. If they believe there is even the slightest chance they could get an offer it is worth leaving them on, but they should also be considering other options ahead of July 1. To be clear, I do not suggest that applicants who are concerned they will receive lower grades as a result of the change to calculated grades removed courses from their CAO for this reason. It was always impossible to know what one would ultimately achieve in their exams and as we move into the new system of calculated grades students may incorrectly feel they know what grades they will be awarded. However it may be prudent to make changes based on a low HPAT score. Candidates who are still interested in pursuing a career in medicine may wish to consider pursuing Graduate Medicine in the future. This will require the applicant to achieve a 2:1 in a degree in any discipline. Research indicates that graduate medicine students who come from arts backgrounds perform just as well in their studies as their classmates with science or engineering backgrounds. Changes can be made to the CAO until July 1. Iran plans monthly gasoline shipments to Venezuela: Report Iran Press TV Tuesday, 16 June 2020 10:13 AM Iran plans to follow its trailblazing shipment of fuel to sanctions-hit Venezuela with regular gasoline sales despite US threats to punish any facilitation of the cargoes, a report says. Last month, Iran sternly warned the US to stay clear of its oil tankers as they set off for the Caribbean to deliver about 1.5 million barrels of gasoline to Venezuela which is under a virtual American economic siege. On Saturday, an Iranian news agency said Iran's naval forces had prepared to target US commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf in case American forces interfered with Venezuela-bound Iranian oil tankers. "According to reports received by Noor News, after increasing military threats against Iranian vessels headed for Venezuela, an order was issued to Iran's armed forces to identify and track several US merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman," the agency said on its website. "Options for reciprocal action were immediately identified and monitored for possible operations," Noor News added. US climbdown Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)'s Aerospace Force Space Division has said the homegrown Noor satellite that was launched into space last month was used to track the oil tankers. "In the Atlantic Ocean, where access to ships is normally more difficult, monitoring the position of the oil tankers and the situation in their surroundings was put on the agenda of the Noor satellite, and was accomplished," Brigadier General Ali Jafarabadi said. On the diplomatic front, Iran complained to the United Nations and summoned the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who represents US interests in the Islamic Republic, over possible measures Washington could take against the Iranian tankers. According to many observers, Iran's determination forced a climbdown in threatened "measures" by the US which had reportedly dispatched warships and a patrol aircraft to the Atlantic Ocean to possibly confront the Iranian vessels. Sanctions failing Bloomberg said this month the US government has decided to avoid a military confrontation and instead prepared sanctions on as many as 50 oil and fuel tankers as part of an effort to cut off trade between Iran and Venezuela. "The sanctions would be imposed through the Treasury Department and are intended to avoid a US military confrontation with the countries," the leading financial news provider said, citing a person familiar with the matter. However, both Venezuela and Iran are more than willing to cooperate in defiance of the US threats. According to the Washington Post, Venezuela and Iran have "just proved" that the Trump administration's sanctions are failing. "By showing that they were able to trade to mutual benefit", Iran and Venezuela "not only successfully circumvented US sanctions; they also scored public relations points in the process," the paper wrote last month. Thanks to Iran's bold move, the chink in the chain of the draconian sanctions is becoming visible. On Monday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his country would sell gasoline to Venezuela if asked to do so. Lopez Obrador added he has not received such a request from the Venezuelan government. Officials at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's office have said Caracas plans to import more gasoline and additives from Iran. President Maduro himself has said he would visit Iran once health conditions resulting from the new coronavirus outbreak permit in order to thank the Iranian government and sign a "high-level bilateral agreement strengthening energy, financial and military ties". On Monday, Reuters quoted unnamed sources as saying that Iran could send two to three cargoes a month in regular gasoline sales to Venezuela. "Tehran plans to keep up the shipments, according to five trading and industry sources close to the Oil Ministry," the news agency reported. Viable option After importing gasoline for decades, Iran became self-sufficient in the fuel last year when the third phase of its newly-constructed 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) Persian Gulf Star refinery in the port of Bandar Abbas came online. The coronavirus pandemic has cut demand for gasoline, building up a glut which has been weighing on Iran's storage capacity. Venezuela's thirst for gasoline, marked by hours-long lines at gas stations, has made the country an ideal new destination to unload part of Iran's oversupply burden. Venezuela sits on the world's largest oil reserves. Its refineries also can produce more than 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of fuel, but they are working at less than 20% of their capacity mainly due to power outages and lack of spare parts amid the US sanctions. Oil industry data provider TankerTrackers.com says an Iranian-flagged cargo ship is currently making its way toward Venezuela to help the fuel-starved country restart its mostly idled 1.3 million bpd refining network. Refinitiv Eikon data showed the vessel, the Golsan, was navigating west across the Atlantic Ocean after departing Bandar Abbas - the same port where Iran's gasoline cargoes came from - in May, Reuters reported. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address I was the first black model on the cover of Vogue in August 1974. I was told before it could never happen. Ruth Whitney, the then-editor in chief of Glamour magazine, the venerable publication that gave me my first break in the 1970s, proclaimed that I had "broken all colour barriers." Beverly Johnson on the cover of Vogue in 1974. Credit:Francesco Scavullo/Conde Nast via Getty Images My debut was meant to usher in a current of change in the fashion industry. But as the national conversation around racism expands, stories about discrimination in the fashion industry and at Vogue, in particular, have come under the spotlight. After my 1974 cover, I shot hundreds more, including two more covers for Vogue. I was the first black model on the cover of French Elle. But my race limited me to significantly lower compensation than my white peers. The industry was slow to include other black people in other aspects of the fashion and beauty industry. I was reprimanded for requesting black photographers, make-up artists and hairstylists for photo shoots. Silence on race was then and still is the cost of admission to the fashion industry's top echelons. Anna Wintour, who has been the editor-in-chief of Vogue for over 30 years and is currently the doyenne of Conde Nast, admitted last week to a culture of structural exclusion at Vogue and across the fashion industry. Wow after three decades, fashion's leading arbiter has finally acknowledged that there may be a problem! Nine Army families are suing their privatized base housing landlords at Fort Hood, Texas, over what they say were life-threatening levels of mold and "deplorable" conditions in their homes that ruined their belongings. The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Antonio, charges that the problems occurred during and after a scandal erupted in 2018 and 2019 over living conditions in military housing communities nationwide. Read Next: US Troops Would Be Among the First to Get Working COVID-19 Vaccine, Officials Say Complaints from military families following a Reuters report detailing the disrepair and hazardous conditions in privately managed on-base housing prompted promises from the companies and pledges from military officials and lawmakers to fix the problems. But the issues have not gone away, according to the families at Fort Hood. In an 83-page lawsuit, they charged that Fort Hood Family Housing LP, FHFH, Inc., and Lend Lease US Public Partnerships, LLC, failed to properly address issues in their homes, including hazardous states of disrepair, persistent dampness and high levels of mold. The families reported developing asthma, skin rashes, nosebleeds, blurred vision, chronic respiratory issues and mental distress while living on base. One family said their oldest child is coughing up blood and has attempted suicide before being diagnosed with severe depression. That depression, the child said, started "when he had to throw out all of his mold-contaminated toys." "Fort Hood is nicknamed 'The Great Place,' but service members and their families have discovered that living there is anything but 'great.' Instead, many service members' time living there has been marred by neglected, filthy living conditions in on-post housing that has caused the service members and their families injury, personal property damage, illness, heartache, and insult," said Ryan Reed, an attorney with Pulman, Cappuccio & Pullen, LLP., one of the law firms representing the group. The suit is the latest in a series of legal actions taken by military families alleging that the companies that manage military housing have breached contracts, committed fraud, engaged in deceptive trade practices and are guilty of gross negligence. Last September, a Marine family was awarded $2 million in a suit against San Diego Family Housing and parent company, Lincoln Military Housing, alleging that water damage, mold and dilapidated conditions in their home at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego caused health problems and damage to their property. But a judge ordered a new trial in December, saying the award was excessive. Similar lawsuits have been filed over housing at Fort Meade, Maryland, and San Antonio. In the Fort Hood suit, the families described attempts to have the issues resolved. But the post housing office, they said, brushed off the concerns, took shortcuts in making repairs or simply didn't fix the problems. Sgt. Jason Kiernan and Sarah Kiernan, the couple whose oldest son was diagnosed with depression after living at Fort Hood, said they experienced respiratory distress living in their home, and all of their children had health problems. Jason Kiernan, a Marine Corps veteran with combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, said he experienced migraines and had to destroy some of his military equipment and clothing due to mold contamination. At one point in their house on Drum Song Trail, one of their children fell through a soggy wall in his bedroom, revealing extensive mold behind the drywall, according to the lawsuit. Their youngest child, born while the family lived in the house, allegedly experienced such extensive respiratory distress in the house that he was sent to the post hospital and then medevaced to a children's hospital, where at the age of two months, he spent 20 days in pediatric intensive care with pneumonia. After a doctor expressed his concerns over the baby's health, Fort Hood Family Housing put the Kiernans in a hotel room with a queen bed and pullout sofa, where they, their three children, including the infant on oxygen, and two dogs lived until they moved out of state, according to the suit. For Sgt. 1st Class William Hamilton and Courtney Hamilton, duty at Fort Hood got off to a bad start when the couple moved into a base house and immediately encountered fire ants in the backyard. They began experiencing odd health symptoms in the home, which they described as smelling constantly like "stale Fritos," according to the suit. In June 2019, as Courtney Hamilton was cleaning a bathroom floor, a tile popped out, revealing a layer of dark mold underneath, according to the lawsuit. The mold had infiltrated the subflooring, according to the Hamiltons, but the Fort Hood Family Housing declined to remove the subflooring and instead simply replaced the floor and carpeting, the suit alleges. A company spokeswoman said Fort Hood Family Housing believes it has "acted appropriately" and is prepared to "take all necessary steps to defend these allegations." She added that the company has policies that ensure it responds to residents' requests for repairs and maintenance. "Our teams are dedicated to providing quality housing to the military families we serve. This is a job that we take very seriously and one that we are honored to have," according to a statement provided by the company. A Fort Hood spokesman said base officials were aware of the lawsuit but declined to comment on it or the allegations. "Lend Lease [is] the majority (controlling) partner and the Army [is] the minority. Privatization of Fort Hood's family housing was approved by the Army in 2001 under the Residential Communities Initiative program," said Tom Rheinlander, director of Fort Hood Public Affairs. Other firms representing the families in the suit include the Law Offices of James R. Moriarty, Houston; Watts Guerra LLP, San Antonio; and Johnson Reist PLLC, Plano, Texas. Additional parties in the suit include Sgt. 1st Class Jesus and Emilee Brown; Staff Sgt. Stephen and Allison Shea; Staff Sgt. Adam and Tiffany Vaughn; Staff Sgt. James and Brittney Butler; Spc. John and Lily Kelley; Capt. Michael and Sarah Jo Proulx; and retired Sgt. Melissa and Samuel Douglass. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and compensation for the families for loss of their personal belongings, mental anguish, economic damage and future costs related to medical conditions related to exposure. Fort Hood Family Housing manages 5,617 houses at Fort Hood. Across the country, according to the lawsuit, private companies manage more than 200,000 military homes, or 99% of the Pentagon's housing stock. But while DoD and the services are supposed to exercise oversight over the contracts and agreements with the companies, they largely have failed to do so. In 2019, the National Defense Authorization Act required the Defense Department to inspect homes, resolve issues and implement reforms to ensure that the problems did not recur. It also proffered a tenant bill of rights that included 15 conditions housing offices must agree to, including the right to have a house in working order, and prompt repairs. DoD also is working on efforts to provide service members with the rights to receive a maintenance history of their homes and withhold rent if disputes with their landlords are not resolved. The Military Housing Advocacy Network, a group formed after Reuters' award-winning series was published, called the Fort Hood suit "a step towards accountability" that is needed since the Defense Department or the housing companies have not fixed long-standing problems. "These companies must be investigated on a larger scale, their blatant violations of service members and tenant rights are only currently being held accountable through litigation. Our military families deserve safe and accessible homes without needing to seek legal counsel," the organization said in a statement. -- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime. Related: Lead Paint, Asbestos Mitigation Plans Fall Short in Military Family Housing: IG The Member of Parliament for the North Tongu, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa says the National Democratic Congress will be extra vigilant when television host Paul Adom-Otchere attends any of their news events because he is an appointee of the President. According to him, the party will be on guard because it cannot tell if Adom-Otchere who was appointed a board member of the National Communications Authority (NCA) by President Akufo-Addo in 2017 will be attending as a spy or as a professional journalist. ". . Except that now when you come to cover, we won't treat you (Adom-Otchere) like 2012 like all other journalists," Mr Ablakwa said when he appeared on Adom-Otchere's 'Good Evening Ghana' television show on Tuesday. "We will be extra vigilant, extra careful with you in particular because you have become an appointee, so we have to be extra careful, we cannot be very sure whether you have come as a spy for your side or to carry out professional journalism," he said. Mr Adom Otchere insisted that his appointment to the NCA board was 'technical' to which Mr Ablakwa replied: "There are so many people with technical expertise who didn't catch the President's eye". NCA Board Mr Adom-Otchere is a member of the eight-member NCA Board of Directors. The Board is chaired by Mr Kwaku Addo Sakyi-Addo. Other members aside the Good Evening Ghana host are Mr Joe Anokye, Mr Bernard Aidoo Forson Jr, Mr Kwabena Adu Boahene, Mr Philip Asare Kwame Ayesu, Mr Alexander Bannerman and Mr George Nenyi Andah. 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 Web Toolbar by Wibiya TORONTO, June 15, 2020 /CNW/ - The #TakeThatStep campaign launched today to remind people in Canada that we can take steps every day to improve mental well-being, especially during trying times, and there's free support available. Wellness Together Canada is Canada's first and only online platform offering immediate mental health and substance use support for all ages, funded by the Government of Canada. As part of the #TakeThatStep initiative, Wellness Together Canada has partnered with Canadian multidisciplinary artist Jacquie Comrie to design a Vans limited-edition shoe that is being distributed to public figures across Canada to share their own stories about mental health and inspire others. Each bright and colourful shoe is hand painted to represent the deeply personal action of taking steps towards understanding your own mental health, getting help when needed and continuing to check in on yourself each day to promote mental wellness. "With many people in Canada grappling with different realities, the #TakeThatStep shoe design was created with community in mind to address the importance of healing and caring for our mental health through these difficult times," says Comrie. "The steps taken can be big or small. That is why it's important for us to have resources available like Wellness Together Canada to provide what you need at that moment in time to continue on your journey." Wellness Together Canada provides a "stepped care" model where Canadians can be instantly connected to virtual mental health services, from a five-minute self-assessment, to extensive support and resources, to live phone, video or text counselling with a mental health professional or crisis responder. This innovative stepped care model, designed by Stepped Care Solutions is supported by Kids Help Phone, Canada's leading e-mental health solution for youth, and Homewood Health, one of Canada's leading providers of mental health and addiction treatment services and employee assistance programs; both of which bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in providing virtual mental health services. The portal is funded by the Government of Canada. Wellness Together Canada launched in mid-April in response to growing mental health concerns as a result of COVID-19 and Canadians struggling to cope with the mental health impacts of isolation, financial uncertainty and the complex challenges brought about by disruptions to daily routines, such as school, daycare and workplace closures. It can also help those struggling with feelings of fear, stress, anger or sadness as a result of the larger dialogue taking place across the country around racial equality. Wellness Together Canada is a joint venture between Stepped Care Solutions, Kids Help Phone and Homewood Health, supported by Greenspace Health, with funding from Health Canada as a result of the vision and leadership of Health Minister Patty Hajdu. Each service delivery partner brings their unique services and expertise to the partnership. The initiative is the first and only online platform of its kind offering immediate mental health and substance use support to all people in Canada in every province and territory in English and French. Prior to Wellness Together Canada, there was no nationally available, virtually accessible service open to people of all ages and in all geographic locations. #TakeThatStep and go to WellnessTogether.ca for free support that is available 24/7. Sen. Tom Cotton alleged that Twitter almost locked him out of his account for using an old-timey phrase that the tech company's staff thought was a call for violence. Cotton detailed the odd saga in an op-ed Wednesday on Fox News Channel's website. On the morning of June 1, after Black Lives Matter protests had turned into a looting and destruction-spree in a number of American cities, Cotton suggested that active-duty troops be called in, adding, 'No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters and looters.' Sen. Tom Cotton wrote an op-ed posted on the Fox News Channel website that detailed how Twitter tried to freeze him out of his account over a tweet they thought was a call to violence THE TWEET IN QUESTION: Sen. Tom Cotton used the old-timey phrase, 'No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters and looters,' as he called for active-duty troops to be utilized when the early George Floyd protests inspired looting and destruction of property 'This was apparently too much for the professional umbrage-takers on Twitter. In high dudgeon, they exclaimed that "no quarter" once meant that a military force would take no prisoners, but instead shoot them,' the Arkansas Republican wrote. As he explained on FoxNews.com, when he said 'no quarter,' he meant the modern usage of the term. 'Never mind that the phrase today is a common metaphor for a tough or merely unkind approach to a situation,' Cotton said. Several hours later, Cotton said a 'low-level employee in Twitter's Washington office' contacted some of his Congressional aides and told them the tweet violated the company's policies. 'She also issued an ultimatum: delete the tweet or Twitter would permanently lock my account. She gave me only 30 minutes to comply,' Cotton recalled. Cotton then described the back-and-forth that occurred, which included an offer from the senator's office to post a new tweet clarifying the lawmaker's intended meaning of the phrase. The Twitter employee, Cotton said, refused the offer and said the original most be deleted because 'some snowflakes had retweeted it.' The senator also alleged that the Twitter employee mistated the company's policy on which tweets can be flagged - like President Trump's tweets about mail-in voting that were fact-checked by the company. 'She contended that Twitter only did so for heads of state, not elected legislators, though its policy plainly states otherwise,' Cotton wrote. 'The only option, she reiterated, was deleting the tweet or losing my account.' Cotton said upon providing dictionary definitions of 'no quarter' to the staffer, she said she would 'take that back to our teams.' 'It was clear, I should add, that this low-level employee was acting as a front for more senior officials at Twitter, whom one might expect would contact directly a sitting senator to discuss such a serious matter,' the senator wrote. 'It was equally clear that she avoided putting as much in writing as possible.' 'Accountability is not Twitters long suit, either,' Cotton added. Cotton said he had called Twitter's bluff, waited out the 30 minutes, and nothing happened. 'Finally, almost two hours after the initial contact, the employee called to say Twitter would take "no action" against my account, but she was not authorized to say more,' Cotton said. A spokesperson for Twitter has yet to respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment on whether the senator's description of the incident was accurate. Cotton has been in the limelight for a controversial op-ed he penned in The New York Times that called for military action to stop rioting, looting and vandalism, which had sprung out from the early protests over the death of George Floyd. The Times later said the opinion piece, which came out on June 3, 'fell short of our standards and should not have been published.' The newspaper's editors questioned some of the statements Cotton used in the piece - such as blaming 'cadres of left-wing radicals like antifa' for the looting - that were treated as fact. 'In fact, those allegations have not been substantiated and have been widely questioned,' an editors' note read. Cotton blasted The Times' move in the opening paragraphs of his FoxNews.com op-ed and then made a comparison to Twitter. 'The New York Times, after publishing my op-ed about the Insurrection Act, capitulated to a woke mob of its employees,' he wrote. 'But its not just the Times. I reveal here for the first time that the Twitter thought police also targeted me for expressing an opinion shared at that time by a majority of Americans.' Echoing the complaints of droves of conservatives, Cotton suggested Twitter editing him came with political motives. 'Though Twitter purports to police only threats of violence, the company wont even cooperate with law enforcement investigating death threats against me and other legislators,' Cotton said. He also alleged that Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey unfollowed The New York Times' Twitter account after the paper's opinion section published Cotton's op-ed. A Twitter spokesperson didn't respond to DailyMail.com's query about that either. 'These social-media companies have improved the lives of Americans in many ways. But they should not be surprised public opinion is turning against them when they act as censors and moral scolds to millions of Americans,' Cotton said. A senior police officer from an elite counter-terrorism unit gave a speech making fun of a proud Aboriginal ceremony during a boozy Christmas party. The constable is now under investigation after leaving behind a copy of the offensive speech after the event at Sydney's Harpoon Harry bar in Sydney last year. Officers from the elite counter-terrorism unit were asked to leave the inner city pub for disorderly behaviour, according to witnesses. The cop's speech was written over the top of an official acknowledgement to country - a show of respect to traditional custodians of the land. 'I would like to acknowledge the people of the TOU NATION [Tactical Operations Unit] who are the traditional protectors of this land,' the note read. An officer from the Tactical Operations Unit wrote an offensive letter calling Aboriginal elders 'protesters' The mock acknowledgement of country was left behind by a senior constable at Harpoon Harry bar in Sydney after last year's staff Christmas party Officers from the Tactical Operations Unit (pictured) were asked to leave the inner city pub for disorderly behaviour 'I would also like to pay my respects to members past and present of THE TOU NATION and extend that respect to other tactical people present. 'I would like to acknowledge that this function is being held on the traditional land that the TOU NATION protect every day.' Chairperson of the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council Yvonne Weldon said the defacement of the speech was disappointing coming from one of the country's most elite police units. 'It's not even a joke acknowledgement, it's actually an intentional disrespect to the First Nations people,' she told the ABC. 'If you can disrespect the ancestors, then what respect do you have for the current people that exist as well?' University of Technology Sydney law professor Larissa Behrendt said the note was 'disappointing, heartbreaking and demeaning'. 'We can see strong evidence that there's still very little respect for Aboriginal culture, and therefore Aboriginal people,' she said. New South Wales Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the incident was being investigated as a breach of the NSW Police Code of Conduct. 'An initial internal review has determined the document was written and delivered by a senior constable,' a spokeswoman said. 'The review determined the document was disrespectful and, accordingly, the matter is now the subject of a complaint investigation as a breach of the NSW Police Force Code of Conduct and Ethics.' Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Commander, Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton, said he was disappointed to see disrespect and a lack of understanding for Aboriginal cultural protocols. Rallies have fanned out to Australia in recent weeks, where demonstrators have highlighted more than 430 indigenous deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission 'While I'm told this speech was intended for a private audience at a small function, I cannot accept that anyone would see humour in it,' Assistant Commissioner Walton said. 'Regardless of the outcome of the complaint investigation, the unit will undergo re-assessment and training including working with Aboriginal communities.' The note resurfaced amid worldwide Black Lives Matter protests calling for an end to police brutality and racism following the alleged murder of African-American man George Floyd at the hands of a white cop in the U.S. Rallies have fanned out to Australia in recent weeks, where demonstrators have highlighted more than 430 indigenous deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission. More than 70,000 protesters took to the streets across Australia last weekend. Los Angeles police are investigating after three women reported being sexually assaulted by actor Danny Masterson in the early 2000s, but the actor denies the allegations, which he says are motivated by the producer of an anti-Scientology television series. The inquiry was launched after three women came forward and reported they were sexually assaulted by Masterson in the early 2000s, said Officer Drake Madison, a Los Angeles police spokesman, on Friday. He declined to provide any further details, citing the ongoing investigation. The 40-year-old actor is best known for his role as Steven Hyde on That 70s Show, which aired from 1998 until 2006. Hes now starring in a Netflix series called The Ranch. A representative for Masterson, who has not been charged with a crime, denied the allegations in a statement Friday. The representative said one of the accusers was Mastersons longtime girlfriend, who continued to date him after the alleged incident. Advertisement The alleged incident occurred in the middle of their six-year relationship, after which she continued to be his longtime girlfriend, the statement said. Mastersons statement also said another one of the accusers had brought the same allegations to the LAPD about 14 years ago but police determined the claim had no merit. The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they are the victims of sexual assault. Masterson, who has identified himself as a practicing Scientologist, said in the statement that he believes the false allegations are an attempt to boost a television series featuring former members of the Church of Scientology. He says one of the women only came forward after speaking with one of the shows producers. When it comes to crocodiles, Bindi Irwin is certainly following in her late father Steve's footsteps. On Tuesday, Bindi's mother, Terri, shared a video to Instagram of the 21-year-old conservationist feeding a crocodile at Australia Zoo. Filmed from Bindi's perspective, the wildlife warrior dangled a piece of meat above a crocodile's head, tempting it. Just like dad! The late Steve Irwin's daughter, Bindi, bravely fed a crocodile at Australia Zoo in Queensland on Tuesday by dangling a piece of meat The crocodile leapt from the water and Bindi dropped the meat into its mouth. Terri's post was in honour of World Crocodile Day, which aims to raise awareness of the plight of endangered crocodiles and alligators around the world. The mother of two, 55, also revealed that her whole family - including her son, Robert, and Bindi's husband, Chandler Powell - would be feeding crocodiles at Australia Zoo to mark the occasion. Brave! Bindi's mother, Terri, shared a video to Instagram of the 21-year-old conservationist feeding a crocodile in honour of World Crocodile Day 'Thank you to everyone who has come back to visit since weve reopened,' Terri wrote on Twitter, referencing how Australia Zoo had recently opened its doors after being forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Bindi, Chandler, Robert and I will be feeding our beautiful crocs tomorrow. We hope to see you here! Check out Graham the croc from Bindis point of view. Awesome tailwalk! #WorldCrocodileDay.' Australia Zoo began welcoming visitors again on June 12. Croc o'clock! Terri also revealed that her whole family - including her son, Robert, and Bindi's husband, Chandler Powell - would be feeding crocodiles at Australia Zoo to mark the occasion Bindi revealed on Instagram last week that she was delighted to be able to educate and entertain animal lovers again. 'This morning we stood at the front of our home and opened the gates to visitors,' she wrote. 'I made a radio call to our entire Australia Zoo Crew that we had officially reopened which was one of the best moments of my life.' Phew! Bindi revealed last week that she was delighted to be able to educate and entertain animal lovers again after Australia Zoo reopened. The Sunshine Coast tourist attraction had been forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic Bindi explained it had been a rollercoaster few months for the family, who struggled to maintain the Sunshine Coast tourist attraction during lockdown. 'The weight of the world seemed to press down on us as we worked hard to figure out how wed be able to pay our bills,' she wrote. 'Thank you for your support as we work to create a magical experience for you and a safe space to unwind during these hard times. Were all in this together.' Those concerns seemed to melt away quickly as more and more European countries saw the necessity for similar measures. Now the tracing apps present a host of new questions, not least whether they work effectively or better than human tracing. Europeans also wonder whether the apps are placing nations on a slippery slope toward a new kind of surveillance state, or handing over too much power to foreign tech giants. Lawsuit seeks trade sanctions against Mexico for failing to protect endangered porpoise by Kendal Blust June 17,2020 | Source: KJZZ Two conservation groups are suing the U.S. government to force a decision on a 2014 legal petition seeking sanctions against Mexico for failing to stop illegal fishing that endangers the worlds rarest marine mammal, the vaquita marina porpoise. Fewer than a dozen of the tiny mammals remain in the northern reaches of the Sea of Cortez, where they often get caught and drown in illegal gillnets used to fish for another endangered species, the totoaba. A thriving black market exists in China for the giant totoabas swim bladder, and the bladders are trafficked by some of the same Mexican cartels that supply narcotics. The lawsuit, filed Thursday by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Animal Welfare Institute, demands the United States formally certify that Mexicos failure to end totoaba poaching violates an international wildlife treaty, and sanction Mexico by prohibiting all wildlife imports, including seafood. The Mexican government has just utterly failed to enforce its obligation to end totoaba fishing that continues to entangle the vaquita, said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director and senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, which is based in Tucson. And we are truly facing extinction of a species if the Mexican government does not take action. Uhlemann said conservation groups hope sanctions will force Mexico to crack down on totoaba poaching in time to save the estimated 10 vaquitas that survive. Totoaba fishing is illegal in Mexico, and trading in totoaba is banned under a treaty known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora because its an endangered species. The problem, Uhlemann said, is a lack of enforcement. The lawlessness thats being permitted right now cant continue, she said. The answer is to get serious about enforcement. And the Mexican government has made lots of promises, but ultimately has just failed to follow through. Under pressure from conservationists, the United States already has banned seafood caught with gillnets in the vaquitas habitat. But these sanctions could go further, Uhlemann said. If the government decides to use the full power of this ban, it could ban all seafood regardless of where its from in Mexico, as well as any other wildlife product, she said. If implemented, Uhlemann said, the sanctions likely would not greatly affect fishermen living near the vaquitas habitat, who are already struggling with fishing-gear bans, the seafood ban and a lack of financial support from the Mexican government. Really, this is targeted at fishermen and other purveyors of wildlife in other parts of Mexico, Uhlemann said. And hoping that those people will make the same plea to the Mexican government to stop the lawlessness, stop the illegal fishing in the (vaquitas habitat) that I know the fishermen there are asking their government to do. 2020 Cronkite News. All rights reserved. Theme(s): Others. Atlanta police are looking for two white women who are suspected of starting a fire at the southwest Atlanta Wendys where Rayshard Brooks was shot dead by police. Atlanta officials on Tuesday released new photos of one of the two suspects at a press conference at a fire station. The photos, from surveillance footage, show a white woman without a face mask wearing a black outfit with a purple sweater tied around her waist and carrying a blue bag and a water bottle. Photos of the other suspect show another white woman wearing all black, including her face mask. #BreakingNews@ATLFireRescue Investigators release new & clearer photos of the woman suspected of starting the fire at the Wendy's where #RayshardBrooks was killed by police Friday night. Investigators will give an update soon. Follow @aungeliquefox5 proctor for details.#Fox5Atl pic.twitter.com/OL7U1EISOC Portia Bruner (@PortiaFOX5) June 16, 2020 Brooks, a 27-year-old black man, was shot dead by a white police officer on Friday after a Wendys employee called officers to complain that Brooks was sleeping in his car, which was blocking the drive-thru. Officer Devin Brosnan arrived, and Brooks showed his license and agreed to move the car. Officer Garrett Rolfe then arrived to test Brookss sobriety. Brooks was told he was too intoxicated to drive, and the officers began arresting him, at which point Brooks began a struggle with the officers that ended on the ground. Brooks grabbed a taser from one of the officers as he began to flee, at which point Rolfe fired his gun and shot Brooks in the parking lot of the restaurant. Story continues Protestors expressing anger about Brookss death blocked a nearby major interstate after setting fire to the Wendys. Demonstrators also set fire to cars parked nearby the fast food restaurant. About 60 firefighters attempted to put out the fire but were blocked by what officials estimated was hundreds of protesters until law enforcement escorts arrived. Fire Chief Randall Slaughter called the situation dangerous and said demonstrators threw projectiles as firefighters attempted to put out the flames. We were positioned and ready just in case a fire started, but once we tried to make access and the position became so dangerous for our firefighters, there was no way we were going to allow them to continue to go in and have the possibility of getting hurt themselves, Slaughter said. Brookss death added fuel to protests across the country against police brutality and racism in the wake of the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. More from National Review This illustration shows magnetic field lines protruding from a highly magnetic neutron star, or a dense nugget left over after a star goes supernova and explodes. Known as magnetars, these objects generate bright bursts of light that might be powered by their strong magnetic fields. Credit: ESA Astronomers tend to have a slightly different sense of time than the rest of us. They regularly study events that happened millions or billions of years ago, and objects that have been around for just as long. That's partly why the recently discovered neutron star known as Swift J1818.0-1607 is remarkable: A new study in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters estimates that it is only about 240 years olda veritable newborn by cosmic standards. NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory spotted the young object on March 12, when it released a massive burst of X-rays. Follow-up studies by the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory and NASA's NuSTAR telescope, which is led by Caltech and managed by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, revealed more of the neutron star's physical characteristics, including those used to estimate its age. A neutron star is an incredibly dense nugget of stellar material left over after a massive star goes supernova and explodes. In fact, they're some of the densest objects in the universe (second only to black holes): A teaspoon of neutron star material would weigh 4 billion tons on Earth. The atoms inside a neutron star are smashed together so tightly, they behave in ways not found anywhere else. Swift J1818.0-1607 packs twice the mass of our Sun into a volume more than one trillion times smaller. With a magnetic field up to 1,000 times stronger than a typical neutron starand about 100 million times stronger than the most powerful magnets made by humansSwift J1818.0-1607 belongs to a special class of objects called magnetars, which are the most magnetic objects in the universe. And it appears to be the youngest magnetar ever discovered. If its age is confirmed, that means light from the stellar explosion that formed it would have reached Earth around the time that George Washington became the first president of the United States. "This object is showing us an earlier time in a magnetar's life than we've ever seen before, very shortly after its formation," said Nanda Rea, a researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona and principal investigator on the observation campaigns by XMM Newton and NuSTAR (short for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array). While there are over 3,000 known neutron stars, scientists have identified just 31 confirmed magnetarsincluding this newest entry. Because their physical properties can't be re-created on Earth, neutron stars (including magnetars) are natural laboratories for testing our understanding of the physical world. "Maybe if we understand the formation story of these objects, we'll understand why there is such a huge difference between the number of magnetars we've found and the total number of known neutron stars," Rea said. Swift J1818.0-1607 is located in the constellation Sagittarius and is relatively close to Earthonly about 16,000 light-years away. (Because light takes time to travel these cosmic distances, we are seeing light that the neutron star emitted about 16,000 years ago, when it was about 240 years old.) Many scientific models suggest that the physical properties and behaviors of magnetars change as they age and that magnetars may be most active when they are younger. So finding a younger sample close by like this will help refine those models. Going to Extremes Though neutron stars are only about 10 to 20 miles (15 to 30 kilometers) wide, they can emit huge bursts of light on par with those of much larger objects. Magnetars in particular have been linked to powerful eruptions bright enough to be seen clear across the universe. Considering the extreme physical characteristics of magnetars, scientists think there are multiple ways that they can generate such huge amounts of energy. The Swift mission spotted Swift J1818.0-1607 when it began outbursting. In this phase, its X-ray emission became at least 10 times brighter than normal. Outbursting events vary in their specifics, but they usually begin with a sudden increase in brightness over the course of days or weeks that is followed by a gradual decline over months or years as the magnetar returns to its normal brightness. That's why astronomers have to act fast if they want to observe the period of peak activity from one of these events. The Swift mission alerted the global astronomy community to the event, and XMM-Newton (which has NASA participation) and NuSTAR performed quick follow-up studies. In addition to X-rays, magnetars have been known to release great bursts of gamma rays, the highest energy form of light in the universe. They can also emit steady beams of radio waves, the lowest energy form of light in the universe. (Neutron stars that emit long-lived radio beams are called radio pulsars; Swift J1818.0-1607 is one of five known magnetars that are also radio pulsars.) "What's amazing about [magnetars] is they're quite diverse as a population," said Victoria Kaspi, director of the McGill Space Institute at McGill University in Montreal and a former member of the NuSTAR team, who was not involved with the study. "Each time you find one it's telling you a different story. They're very strange and very rare, and I don't think we've seen the full range of possibilities." The new study was led by Paolo Esposito with the School for Advanced Studies (IUSS) in Pavia, Italy. The United States has released pictures of six Nigerians indicted for cyber fraud in which its citizens lost about $6 million. I... The United States has released pictures of six Nigerians indicted for cyber fraud in which its citizens lost about $6 million. In a statement, the US department of treasury said the Nigerians were all indicted for romance scams. NigerianEye had earlier reported how the suspects between the aged between 32 and 37, defrauded US citizens through the use of sensitive information and financial resources derived by manipulative means. Below are their pictures: RICHARD UZUH: HE TARGETED OVER 100 BUSINESSES IN A SINGLE DAY. The US said Uzuh led the business email compromise (BEC) and romance scams in the operation, while most of the others provided various forms of support for him. It said a loss in excess of $6,300,000 can be attributed to the BEC scheme led by Uzoh and an accomplice. The country also said he was designated a fraudster for having engaged in cyber-enabled activities that have the purpose or effect of causing a significant misappropriation of funds or economic resources for private financial gain. MICHAEL OLORUNYOMI: OVER $1 MILLION TRACED TO HIM Olorunyomi is said to have engaged in romance scam as well, and is linked with losses exceeding $1,000,000. From September 2015 to June 2017, Olorunyomi and an accomplice led a scheme that victimised Americans through the use of romance fraud, the US said. Olorunyomi and his co-conspirators created fictitious profiles on dating websites and posed as individuals looking for love. He developed online relationships with victims to either obtain funds directly from victims, or used their bank accounts to funnel fraudulently obtained money. ALEX OGUNSHAKIN: PROVIDED FINANCIAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL SUPPORT FOR ANOTHER SUSPECT. The US said Ogunshakin is a BEC and romance scammer who worked closely with Uzuh and others involved in the scheme. Ogunshakin conducted BEC and romance scams. Ogunshakin provided Uzuh and other co-conspirators with bank accounts that were used to receive fraudulent wire transfers, the US said, adding that he also assisted Uzuh with contacting victim companies and he conducted his own BEC schemes. FELIX OKPOH:HAD ILLEGAL ACCESS TO HUNDREDS OF US BANK ACCOUNTS The US also identified Okpoh as a romance scammer and money launderer who also provided financial, material, or technological support to Uzuh. It added: Okpoh provided hundreds of US bank accounts that were used to receive fraudulent wire transfers from victims of BEC and romance fraud. TheCable found out that he had been declared wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after a US district court indicted him on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. NNAMDI BENSON: COMMUNICATED WITH VICTIMS TO OBTAIN THEIR BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS Like the others, Benson was also said to have provided various forms of support to the leader of the team. Benson conducted romance scams and money laundering, working closely with Uzuh, the US said, adding that he communicated with multiple romance fraud victims to obtain their bank account details, and provided the account information to Uzuh to receive fraudulent wire transfers from U.S. businesses. ABIOLA KAYODE: GOT WIRE TRANSFERS He was said to have provided US bank accounts to those involved in the scheme, one of which was then used to receive a $69,150 fraudulent wire transfer. Advertisement The residents of a Texas hamlet have accused Elon Musk and spacex of trying to bully them out of their homes using threats and aggressive tactics, DailyMail.com can reveal. Tiny Boca Chica is at the center of an unlikely dispute that began when Tesla billionaire Musk began buying up homes and land in the area in 2015 to expand his SpaceX empire and build a test site for his Starship program. When complete, the Starship will be a reusable heavy launch vehicle capable of carrying up to 100 people to the Moon and Mars a 'priority' for Musk according to an email leaked over the weekend. Musk, who has long dreamed of creating a home for humans on Mars, also called for progress on the project to accelerate 'dramatically and immediately' and said in a follow-up tweet that 'Starship is key to making life multiplanetary and protecting the light of consciousness.' Residents of Boca Chica, Texas, have accused Elon Musk and SpaceX of trying to bully them out of their homes, DailyMail.com can reveal When complete, the Starship will be a reusable heavy launch vehicle capable of carrying up to 100 people to the Moon and Mars Musk has been buying up homes and land in the area since 2015 to expand his SpaceX empire and build a test site for his Starship program Until 2015, Boca Chica was a quiet hamlet of just 35 houses and a tiny chapel, spread out along a dusty street SpaceX now owns most of the town but the remaining 12 residents told DailyMail.com that they aren't going anywhere, despite being threatened with compulsory purchase under Texas' Eminent Domain laws But for Boca Chica's community of retirees, Musk's mission to Mars comes at a heavy cost for their once tranquil life on Earth. SpaceX now owns most of the village but the remaining 12 residents told DailyMail.com that they aren't going anywhere despite being threatened with compulsory purchase under Texas' Eminent Domain laws. They say they have been made repeated offers well below the market value of their properties and have been subjected to multiple visits from David Finlay SpaceX's Senior Director of Finance who they say puts pressure on them to sell up. And they say the company lied about the danger posed to them by Starship launches and is instead turning the village into a place for workers to live a claim borne out by the extensive renovation activity photographed by DailyMail.com. One resident even compared the company's behavior to that of the South African apartheid regime which used threats, intimidation and segregation to exploit the poor black majority for the benefit of the wealthy white minority. Retired social worker Celia Johnson, 76, has lived in the village since 1992 and has rejected every offer SpaceX has made for her two properties so far. She said: 'Elon Musk was born and raised in South Africa and that's where they had apartheid. That's where they had the rich white folks use the minorities to make the money and he's never changed his thinking. He's here simply for the money.' SpaceX has previously said it will pay owners three times the value of their homes if they decide to sell up. Most of the modest properties have a market value of between $40,000 and $60,000 according to county records but residents said they have been offered much less and that SpaceX bases its valuations on similar but abandoned homes. Gloria Teel, a 54-year-old drugs and alcohol counselor, says the price she was offered won't even cover her mortgage but has decided to sell 'because he was going to take it anyway' Cheryl Stevens, 59, said: 'There's nothing really like this anywhere else in the US and there's definitely nothing like this in Texas' Residents say they have been offered much less than the value of their homes and that SpaceX bases its valuations on similar but abandoned homes One resident said the first time a ship exploded it broke here window and SpaceX replaced it the next day Musk has gradually built his Space X test pad on either side of the Village and has been devaluing the homes and lowballing the resident At the end of the residential street you can see a large gray building belonging to SpaceX that surrounds the village Gloria Teel, a 54-year-old drugs and alcohol counselor, says the price she was offered won't even cover her mortgage but has decided to sell 'because he was going to take it anyway'. Through tears, Teel told DailyMail.com that the repeated offers and threatening letters had put a strain on her family relationships, culminating in the decision to leave. 'We turned it down four or five times,' Teel said. 'Me and my husband are having so many issues with that and it caused a whole lot of family stuff. 'But we've agreed to sell now because he's going to take it. We're going to lose everything the money is already invested. 'For him [Musk], it's nothing just a check, that's it. But it's a lot of hard-earned money for someone who's under that pay grade.' Until 2015, Boca Chica was a quiet hamlet of just 35 houses and a tiny chapel, spread out along a dusty street. Located inside the Boca Chica State Park and two miles from a beach famous for being a nesting site for the endangered Kemp Ridley sea turtle, residents told DailyMail.com that it used to be an isolated paradise teeming with wildlife such as blue buntings and coyotes. The shoreline of Boca Chica beach is now overshadowed by the tall buildings at the SpaceX test pad Residents tell DailyMail.com that SpaceX has been using threats and aggressive tactics to acquire their homes A launchpad for the Starship has been built just behind the beach and is the scene of two failed launches one in March and one in May. On both occasions, the test rockets exploded Residence say the company lied about the danger posed to them by Starship launches and is instead turning the village into a place for workers to live Retired social worker Celia Johnson, 76, has lived in the village since 1992 and has rejected every offer SpaceX has made for her two properties so far Cheryl Stevens, 59, said: 'There's nothing really like this anywhere else in the US and there's definitely nothing like this in Texas. 'It's just amazing. It used to be so quiet. It was so quiet, one car going by was a big noise. Now, it's just like a big city. It's almost more than I can comprehend.' The SpaceX South Texas Launch Site, which includes a rocket production facility, now sits just a few yards from her home. SpaceX security driving black Tesla cars patrol Boca Chica's single street, while the quiet has been shattered by the activities of workmen renovating the village homes. Meanwhile, a launchpad for the Starship has been built just behind the beach and is the scene of two failed launches one in March and one in May. On both occasions, the test rockets exploded. As a result, Johnson said she has had to turn one of her two bedrooms into a 'bunker room' with boarded up windows. She said: 'The first time, the ship exploded, it broke my window. SpaceX did replace it the next day. 'The second time, I didn't even know they were going to test but I heard the siren and saw the Sheriff's Department so I grabbed my dog, my pillows and my phone and went to my bunker room. 'I heard this loud boom and all of my windows rattled. Then it left me semi-deaf and a little bit stressed out because I didn't know what was happening with it.' Stevens added: 'It was like an earthquake. It was actually quite terrifying because they had been testing, testing, testing and that day there was a little kaboom and I thought that was it. 'We were headed outside when it happened, and it was like 'oh God'. It was terrifying.' Despite explosions at the site, one resident insists she will cling on and has rejected yet another offer from SpaceX What was once a quiet town has now become an industrial testing site thanks to Musk and his team of scientists Residents said they are concerned for the future of the area's wildlife and said the arrival of SpaceX has seen once abundant birds and coyotes disappear Despite the explosions, Johnson insists she will cling on and rejected yet another offer from SpaceX earlier this week. She said: 'Last week, we got another letter saying this time, it's two times the value of the abandoned home value that they give and this time, you have until June 8. 'So, I don't know what's going to happen after that. But I'm going to say no. If we didn't take three times, why would we take two times?' All the residents said they are concerned for the future of the area's wildlife and said the arrival of SpaceX has seen once abundant birds and coyotes disappear. Local sea turtle charity, Sea Turtle Inc, says it has struck a deal with SpaceX to relocate nests away from Boca Chica Beach and the nearby launch site. Executive Director Jeff George said: 'We now believe any potential disturbance with launches would only be in two events: a catastrophic explosion or ground vibrations if a nest is accidentally left in-situ near the launch site. 'Nests and stranded turtles are already being removed from the beach so the likelihood of a nest being impacted is small.' Local sea turtle charity, Sea Turtle Inc, says it has struck a deal with SpaceX to relocate nests away from Boca Chica Beach and the nearby launch site A nesting site famous for the endangered Kemp Ridley sea turtle is located inside the Boca Chica State Park The town used be an isolated paradise teeming with wildlife such as blue buntings and coyotes until recently Johnson says she has seen a marked decline in wildlife since SpaceX arrived. 'There were all kinds of birds, you have no idea,' she told DailyMail.com One resident just wishes Musk had chosen somewhere else, telling DailyMail.com: 'I wish he'd chosen another village.' Johnson says she has seen a marked decline in wildlife since SpaceX arrived. 'There were all kinds of birds, you have no idea,' she told DailyMail.com. 'One time, I was driving on this street and all of a sudden a thousand of those iridescent blue buntings came and perched on the tree and it looked like a Christmas tree decorated with blue buntings. It was just so beautiful. 'Then I'd see them on the sidewalk. Orioles. Coyotes. We would see coyotes all the time just walking down the street. I haven't seen any since SpaceX came.' Teel just wishes Musk had chosen somewhere else. She told DailyMail.com: 'I wish he'd chosen another village. 'A lot of his workers are from other countries, so go to Scotland, go to England, go somewhere else. Stay in Florida. We don't care. 'But what can you do? Apparently money buys the whole of Brownsville. Government and stuff. It's all about money.' She added: 'Sometimes, they announce they're going to do one of their space explorations. I just pray that thing blows up all in their face.' TUNIS In an interview with Tunisian Attessia TV on June 7, Tunisian black artist Salah Misbah accused prominent Tunisian artist Lotfi Bouchnak of racism, saying, On one occasion when the Ministry of Culture honored us, Bouchnak rejected this on the pretext of me being a wasif (servant), referring to his dark skin. A photo published by the company Nana Tunisie on June 9 caused much controversy on Facebook because it showed the face of a white woman whose face was painted various skin colors. Activists believe this photo is a type of racism in which blackface is used blackface is considered deeply offensive. Comments and reactions were mostly negative. Nana Tunisie deleted the photo and published a post June 12, stressing that it is committed to rejecting racism. The company said it supports all Tunisian women and attached a post with pictures of women of different skin colors. Speaking on racist practices in Tunisia, Yamina Thabet, president of the nongovernmental organization Tunisian Association for the Support of Minorities, told Al-Monitor that African and dark-skinned Tunisian students suffer racism every day through words or other painful behavior. She said one of the most important problems is that people face racism with silence or denial, making it even more difficult to eliminate. Thabet said African students have difficulties renting houses and in many other aspects of their daily lives, and she called for better, long-term education to eliminate racist tendencies. Tunisia is only the second African country, after South Africa, to issue a law criminalizing racial discrimination; it was ratified by the Cabinet on Oct. 9, 2018, and includes 11 chapters. According to Chapter 8 of this law, the perpetrator of the violation or crime is subject to imprisonment for a period ranging from one month to three years, and the fine ranges from 500 dinars ($185) to 3,000 dinars ($1,110). Also, institutions and associations that commit these crimes can be subject to a fine ranging from 5,000 dinars ($1,190) to 15,000 dinars ($3,350). For his part, Masoud al-Ramadani, former head of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, an independent nongovernmental organization that aims to defend economic and social rights at the national and international levels, told Al-Monitor that many still use abusive words against black people in Tunisia such as "kahlouch" (blackie), noting that some cab drivers refuse to pick up dark-skinned passengers and some stores will not serve dark-skinned people. Some Tunisian families still reject mixed-race relations. Ziad Rouen, the general coordinator of Mnemty, an association active in the fight against racism, told Al-Monitor that racism is still rooted in the daily practices of some Tunisians. Rouen said the state has not addressed cultural and social problems, as people of color seem absent from the cultural scene and are completely absent from the societal and general fabric of the country and from decision-making centers. Rouen called on the state to thoroughly address the issue of racism by raising public awareness among Tunisians on the necessity to combat this phenomenon, adding that public awareness must begin at childhood. Noteworthy is that there is only one female black parliament member, Jamila Ksiksi, in Tunisias Assembly of the Representatives of the People. Ksiksi at the beginning of the current parliamentary period on Dec. 4, 2019 was subject to a racist online campaign by activists supporting the Free Destourian Party following an argument in the assembly between Ksiksi and the head of that party's bloc, Abeer Moussa, because of her skin color. Another flagrant aspect of racism in Tunisia is the allocation of separate buses to transport black people in the Kasba area and Sidi Makhlouf from the southern governorate of Medenine in order to avoid the daily quarrels and differences between black and white people there. Discrimination does not end there, as separate cemeteries are allocated to black people on the southern Tunisian island of Djerba, located on neglected land and known as the slave cemetery. Meanwhile, light-skinned people have two cemeteries in two different locations, with no regard to the ill treatment and discrimination suffered by Africans in Tunisia. Mehdi Mabrouk, a specialist in sociology and former minister of culture, told Al-Monitor that Tunisia was one of the first countries to abolish slavery and the slave trade in 1846 (before France did in 1848 and the United States in 1865). Mabrouk said there is no discrimination on the ethnic level or skin color in the Tunisian Constitution, adding, We must work more on the social level to avoid these problems in some of these behaviors that especially emerge when it comes to [mixed] marriage. Article 21 of the Tunisian Constitution states that all citizens, male and female, have equal rights and duties, and are equal before the law without any discrimination. Karora Resources (Previously RNC Minerals) Commences Trading Under New Name and TSX Trading Symbol \KRR\ Posted by Publisher Internet Karora Resources Inc. (TSX: KRR) (\Karora\ or the ?Corporation\), previously named RNC Minerals Corporation, is pleased to announce that effective today, Wednesday, June 17, 2020, the Corporation?s common shares and warrants will commence trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the \TSX\) under its new name and trading symbols ?KRR? and ?KRR.WT?, respectively. As described in Karora?s management information circular dated May 8, 2020 available through its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, the Corporation believes that the new name more accurately reflects its business focus on growing gold production in Western Australia ? the Fraser Institutes top ranked mining jurisdiction for investment worldwide in 2019. On June 15, 2020, the Corporation filed Articles of Amendment to change its name from \Royal Nickel Corporation\ to \Karora Resources Inc.\ (the \Name Change\). The shareholders of the Corporation overwhelmingly approved the Name Change at the Corporation\-\-s annual and special meeting of shareholders held on June 11, 2020. The Name Change is effective as of June 15, 2020. Effective June 17, 2020, the Corporation?s new US OTCQX trading symbol will be ?KRRGF? for its common shares. Karora?s new webpage will be www.karoraresources.com. About Karora Resources Karora is focused on growing gold production and reducing costs at its integrated Beta Hunt Gold Mine and Higginsville Gold Operations (\HGO\) in Western Australia. The Higginsville treatment facility is a low-cost 1.4 Mtpa processing plant which is fed at capacity from Karora\-\-s underground Beta Hunt mine and open pit Higginsville mine. At Beta Hunt, a robust gold mineral resource and reserve is hosted in multiple gold shears, with gold intersections along a 4 km strike length remaining open in multiple directions. HGO has a substantial historical gold resource and highly prospective land package totaling approximately 1,800 square kilometers. In addition, Karora has a 28% interest in a nickel joint venture that owns the Dumont Nickel-Cobalt Project located in the Abitibi region of Quebec. Dumont contains the second largest nickel reserve and ninth largest cobalt reserve in the world. Karora has a strong Board and management team focused on delivering shareholder value. Karora\-\-s common shares trade on the TSX under the symbol KRR. Karora shares also trade on the OTCQX market under the symbol KRRGF. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains \forward-looking information\ including without limitation statements relating to the liquidity and capital resources of Karora, production guidance and the potential of the Beta Hunt Mine, Higginsville Gold Operation and Dumont Nickel Project. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Karora to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals; the results of drilling; inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the properties; environmental liabilities (known and unknown); general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; results of exploration programs; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability, terrorism, insurrection or war; or delays in obtaining governmental approvals, projected cash operating costs, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Karora \-\-s filings with Canadian securities regulators, including the most recent Annual Information Form, available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although Karora has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and Karora disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Cautionary Statement Regarding the Higginsville Mining Operations A production decision at the Higginsville gold operations was made by previous operators of the mine, prior to the completion of the acquisition of the Higginsville gold operations by Karora and Karora made a decision to continue production subsequent to the acquisition. This decision by Karora to continue production and, to the knowledge of Karora, the prior production decision were not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves, demonstrating economic and technical viability, and, as a result, there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, which include increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit. Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic and technical failure. There is no guarantee that anticipated production costs will be achieved. Failure to achieve the anticipated production costs would have a material adverse impact on the Corporation?s cash flow and future profitability. Readers are cautioned that there is increased uncertainty and higher risk of economic and technical failure associated with such production decisions. Members of the Penn State African American Studies Department are calling on their university president for further action against systemic racism. In a letter dated June 16th, the Penn State University African American Studies Department responded to University President Eric Barrons June 10th letter announcing initiatives to address systemic racism. We hope that the current crises make clear to administrators that now is the time to make the climate hospitable for them, their families, and the students who so need the teaching and research they bring to this institution, the letter said. To be clear, we appreciate that your June 10th letter acknowledges that Penn State has much urgent work to do within our own Penn State community. However, we do not accept the initiatives you listed as legitimate or sufficient responses to historical and contemporary inequities at Penn State and in State College, the letter said. Like so many other universities, we have been here before. The letter refers to the deaths of Osaze Osagie in March 2019, as well as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade. "As a community of scholars who have been teaching the history of race and racism in the United States since the disciplines founding, we call on you to center our department and our disciplines collective expertise and knowledge in ongoing discussions about how to deal with the national and campus crisis of systemic racism, the letter said. The entire department wrote the letter, according to department head Cynthia Young. Young said the department has 23 core faculty members and offers a major, minor and several Ph.D. dual-title programs. The university recently ended a historic hire of 13 faculty at all ranks in African American culture and life, according to the letter. Members of the department call for the following changes: Bishop Ranch, the office and retail complex in San Ramon, is coming back to life. With over 30,000 employees and 600 companies in normal times, including the headquarters of Chevron and major offices for AT&T, IBM, SAP and General Electric, the sprawling East Bay office park is creating a template for work and shopping with the coronavirus as an ongoing reality. Landlord Sunset Development Co. is partnering with John Muir Health and Contra Costa Health Services to conduct daily temperature checks and health screenings at each office building. Temperature checks are also available in the City Center mall, where around 60% of tenants have reopened for in-store shopping and outdoor dining. Masks are mandatory throughout the 585-acre property. It sets a tone, said Alexander Mehran Jr., CEO of Sunset Development, whose family has owned Bishop Ranch for three generations. Were large so we can have a major impact. Contra Costa County has reopened faster than other parts of the Bay Area and indoor dining and gyms are set to reopen on July 1, though infections are rising. Fewer than 10 people who work at Bishop Ranch have been reported to have a coronavirus infection, Mehran said. The landlord has worked to defer rent for up to three months for office tenants, and is still in talks with retailers about rent payments. In some cases, office and retail rents have been renegotiated, he said. Major tech campuses in Silicon Valley and high-rises in San Francisco remain mostly shuttered, but in Bishop Ranch around 15% of office workers are back, Mehran said. Armanino, a tax and consulting firm, is considered an essential business and has kept around 20 workers in its Bishop Ranch headquarters, with about 300 other workers staying home. The company is now preparing for a wider return, though it hasnt finalized a schedule and expects most employees to stay home through the summer. Armanino workers are now training with John Muir Health on how to give temperature tests. Cathy Harrington, Armaninos director of office administration, said Bishop Ranchs suburban qualities mean urban safety concerns like elevators and mass transit are less of a challenge: Most people drive to work, and buildings are a few stories tall. Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle It could be more of a challenge for the vertical, high-density buildings, such as Armaninos downtown San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, said Carol Ann Nash, the companys chief people officer. Working from home has been manageable, particularly since workers were already used to traveling and collaborating online with clients, she said. One challenge was many of them needed larger monitors at home to work with spreadsheets, so the company purchased them and had workers pick them up from the office. Harrington said the parking lots at Bishop Ranch are filling up as as more workers return. And at 5 oclock, office workers have been able to go to Bishop Ranch City Center and have a drink or shop. Barry Braden, CEO of Fieldwork Brewing, said the companys brew pub in City Center has seen strong business since reopening for outdoor dining, which has been expanded. The shopping centers design from architect Renzo Piano ready emphasized open space. The amount of open space there is fantastic. I do think it gives them an advantage over the closed shopping mall concepts, Braden said. While it was closed, Fieldwork did beer deliveries for the first time, promising to reach customers within two hours. The online sales helped, but the company had to furlough about a quarter of its workers, mostly those working to sell product to bars and restaurants. The company also received a $900,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan to help retain staff. Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle Its the most challenging thing that Ive faced as a manager, Braden said. Scott Heller, co-owner of Heller Jewelers, has been in business over 23 years and just opened its current store in Bishop Ranch. The store has hand sanitizer and masks for customers, and workers clean jewelry after a customer tries it on. Walk-in traffic has been strong, he said. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes The company also started online orders for the first time during shelter-in-place restrictions and created virtual video appointments. Weve had to pivot on how to serve our customers best, Heller said. Were not afraid of change. Were still trying to figure out whats the next step. Catherine Heller, co-owner of Heller Jewelers, credits the steady business to strong relationships with customers, and said that most are comfortable coming into the store. Theres a comfort level with our clients that we never take for granted, she said. Mehran of Sunset Development said Bishop Ranch is well-positioned to benefit from the shift to work from home and uncertainty in urban office centers because of its proximity to growing housing centers around the East Bay near good schools, which workers will continue to value. He said Silicon Valley and San Francisco companies could open more satellite offices in the East Bay. Sunset has also proposed 4,500 new apartments and condos at Bishop Ranch, part of a years-long effort to bring urban elements to the suburban property, which also include bike rentals and food trucks. The possibility of large employers shifting growth from cities to suburbs is a trillion-dollar question that could reshape the Bay Area economy, said Robert Sammons, senior director of Bay Area research at real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle Suburban satellite offices closer to workers homes could perform well in the near-term, he said. But its unclear if younger workers would embrace the suburbs, especially after a vaccine is developed. There is a strong desire still to at least be in an office environment part-time to collaborate and communicate more effectively, Sammons said. Im not sure the current or future workforce wants to go back to that old-school suburban way of life. Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf By Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijan and Iran will start discussing technical aspects of the preferential trade agreement between the two countries, Irans Ambassador to Azerbaijan Javad Jahangirzada said on a meeting on June 17. The ambassador made the remarks during the meeting between Deputy Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture of Iran Mohammad Reza Karbasi, the heads of special commissions of the chamber and Ambassador Jahangirzada, in which the Iranian officials put forward a number of proposals to strengthen economic and trade ties between Iran and Azerbaijan. In addition, the Iranian ambassador said that the establishment of the joint industrial park between Iran and Azerbaijan is in the spotlight, adding that this will increase trade turnover between the two countries. Noting the trade turnover between the two countries has increased fivefold in recent years, Jahangirzada highlighted the fact that Iran and Azerbaijan plan to increase bilateral trade turnover to $5 billion per year. On May 23, Iranian First Vice President Ishaq Jahangiri instructed the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade and the Foreign Ministry to take steps to discuss, initially and temporarily sign a preferential trade agreement between Iran and Azerbaijan. He also reminded that during the coronavirus pandemic, Iranian transit trucks have used Azerbaijani territory in cooperation with Azerbaijan. In the meantime, at the meeting held between Irans Energy Minister Rza Ardakanian and Azerbaijans Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, the Iranian government expressed its gratitude to Azerbaijan for the assistance and cooperation during the coronavirus pandemic. The Iranian minister noted that Azerbaijan had provided financial assistance in the fight against coronavirus and allowed Iranian citizens to be repatriated from Azerbaijan to their country during the pandemic. In his turn, Mustafayev said that Azerbaijan is ready to comprehensively develop relations with Iran, and will focus on joint projects of the three countries (Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran), such as electricity synchronization. Furthermore, another telephone-conference meeting of Iranian and Azerbaijani sides have taken place between Azerbaijans Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Iranian Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, Iranian co-chair of the Iran-Azerbaijan Joint Interstate Commission Farhad Dejpasand. During the meeting, Dejpasand said that it was hoped that the 14th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Iran Joint Intergovernmental Commission would be held in Tehran in the near future in full compliance with health protocols. Regarding that, the Iranian minister also invited the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan to visit Iran and said that economic relations would develop as a result of joint cooperation and assistance of the two countries. Moreover, the sides also held discussions on the latest state of joint projects of Azerbaijan and Iran in the North-South Corridor, as well as the establishment of a joint industrial park in the Bilasuvar region of Iran near the border In the meantime, in during his visit to Russia on June 16, Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif emphasized that in the near future, as conditions allow, a summit between Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan will be held. It should be noted that on March 7, Azerbaijani provided $5 million in humanitarian aid to Iran to fight the coronavirus infection. Earlier, on June 7, Davud Shayegan, the head of the Management and Planning Organization of Ardabil province, said that Azerbaijan and Iran would establish the logistics centre along with a joint industrial town in Irans Ardabil province. In 2019, Iran and Azerbaijan reached an agreement to establish a joint industrial Iran-Azerbaijan industrial park in the Ardabil province. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Our parents have told us stories about the level of discrimination they faced and the fear that what was worked so hard for might be lost, but this is not unique to Italians, being discriminated against, said Leavell, whose mother is of Italian descent. We unfortunately allied ourselves with a white supremacist in our attempts to be recognized in this country. The most serious border clash between Indian and Chinese troops since the two countries fought a brief border war in 1962 has reportedly resulted in dozens of fatalities. Fighting erupted Monday night in the Galwan Valley, one of at least four places along the disputed Sino-Indian border where troops have been arrayed against each other in close quarters for more than a month. Initial Indian government reports said three Indian army personnel, including a commissioned officer, died in the fighting. But later Tuesday, the fatality figure was dramatically revised, with the Indian Army issuing a statement that said a further 17 Indian troops who were critically injured at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries. Till now, the Chinese government has not acknowledged any fatalities. But the editor of the Chinese state-aligned Global Times indicated in a tweet that at least some Chinese soldiers were killed in the clash, which reportedly lasted for several hours. The Times of India has claimed that Indian intercepts of Chinese communications have revealed that there were at least 43 Chinese casualties, including unspecified numbers of dead and critically injured. US News and World Report, meanwhile, reported that American intelligence believes 35 Chinese troops died in the clash, including one senior officer. If news accounts are to be believed, neither side discharged firearms during the clash, adhering to an understanding that to avoid escalation, Indian and Chinese troops on border patrol should refrain from carrying guns. Instead, the two sides reportedly attacked each other with stones, iron rods and clubs, some possibly studded with nails or other sharp objects. While the cold temperatures and inhospitable terrainthe fighting took place in a Himalayan valley that lies more than 14,000 feet above sea leveland the associated difficulties in evacuating the wounded were likely contributing factors, the large number of fatalities attest to the ferocity of the fighting. In the days prior to Monday nights clash, New Delhi and Beijing had begun a so-called process of de-escalation of a border crisis that began in early May with two nonlethal clashes between Indian and Chinese troops at points more than a thousand miles apart. Subsequently, both sides had deployed thousands more troops, artillery and other weaponry to their respective border regions. Both New Delhi and Beijing continue to insist that the crisis can and will be defused. Chinas vice foreign minister, Luo Zhaohui, met Tuesday with Indias ambassador to Beijing. The disputed India-China border But each power is adamant that it is the other that bears responsibility for the first fatalities along their disputed border in 45 years and must stand down. In what could be a further complicating factor in any attempt to dampen down tensions, the New York Times is reporting that an Indian commander has told it that dozens of Indian troops are missing and presumed captured. Indias foreign ministry has blamed the violent face-off on an attempt by (the) Chinese side to unilaterally change (the) status quo along the Line of Actual Control, the un-demarcated border the two countries have agreed to adhere to pending final resolution of their rival territorial claims. The Chinese Foreign Ministry countered with a statement that said Indian troops had crossed the border twice to conduct illegal activities and launched provocative attacks against Chinese personnel, leading to a serious physical conflict between troops from both sides. Events could easily spin out of control. Indeed, they manifestly have already begun to spin out of control. The worlds most populous countries, nuclear-armed India and China, are rivals for markets, resources and geostrategic influence in South Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. But it is the enmeshing of the Sino-Indian rivalry with the strategic confrontation between China and US imperialism that makes the border dispute so combustible and incendiary. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Washington, under Republican and Democratic administrations alike, has worked assiduously to harness India to its predatory strategic agenda. The Indian bourgeoisie, in pursuit of its own reactionary great power ambitions, and desperate to secure the favour of Wall Street and Washington, has reciprocated. Building on the Indo-US global strategic partnership entered into by its Congress Party-led predecessor, Indias ultra-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has transformed India into a veritable frontline state in Washingtons military-strategic offensive against Beijing. This has included throwing open Indian naval and air bases to US forces and developing an ever-expanding web of bilateral, trilateral and quadrilateral military-strategic ties with the US and its principal Asian-Pacific allies, Japan and Australia. China and Pakistan, Indias historic archrival, have responded to the common threat they perceive in the burgeoning Indo-US alliance by strengthening their own intimate military-strategic partnership. The Indo-China and Indo-Pakistani borders have thus been transformed into potential trip lines for a global conflagration. Yesterday, Pakistan, which continues to regularly exchange artillery fire with India across the Line of Control that separates Indian and Pakistan-held Kashmir, blamed India for the border clash with China. India should have never built roads and airstrips in a disputed area, said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Thursday evening, an unnamed US State Department official made anodyne comments about the India-China clash, saying Washington is closely monitoring events and supports a peaceful resolution of the current situation. The Trump administration has dramatically ratcheted up tensions with China in recent weeks. This has included blaming Beijing for the massive loss of life from the COVID-19 pandemic that has been caused by its own negligence and incompetence, and dispatching three aircraft carrier strike groups to the western Pacific as a part of its continuing provocative military buildup against China. In keeping with this aggressive posture, Washington has conspicuously intruded into the Sino-India dispute, goading India on in taking a hard line against China. On May 20, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice G. Wells accused China of aggression against India and linked it to the South China Sea dispute as proof of a pattern of disturbing behaviour by Beijing. This was followed by repeated provocative interventions by Trump, including a barbed offer to have the US act as mediator or even arbitrate a resolution to the India-China border conflict. All this is in marked contrast with the public posture of neutrality Washington took in 2017 when Indian and Chinese troops confronted each other for 73 days on the Doklam Plateau, a Himalayan ridge claimed by both China and Bhutan, a tiny kingdom that New Delhi treats almost like a vassal state. The Trump administrations guarded response to Monday nights dramatic escalation of Sino-Indian tensions indicates that it is still evaluating its significance and calculating how best to exploit it. But whatever its immediate steps, the use of India as a means to exert strategic pressure on Chinas southern border and maintain US dominance of the Indian Ocean, whose sea lanes are conduits of Chinas oil imports and its trade with much of the world, remains pivotal to US imperialist strategy. Indeed, to further harness India to US objectives, the Trump administration, to the delight of the BJP government, is publicly pressing US companies to decamp from China and make India their new production-chain hub. Stretching along the Himalayas, the Sino-Indian border is sparsely populated and largely barren terrain. But under conditions of a systemic breakdown of world capitalism and a consequent surge in inter-imperialist and great-power conflict, it has suddenly taken on huge strategic significance. One of the US strategies for weakening China is to exploit grievances among its ethnic minorities. India borders Chinas Tibetan Autonomous Region and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. No less importantly, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passes through Chinas Aksai Chin region, territory claimed by India. The $60 billion CPEC, which is to be anchored by pipeline, rail and road links between the Pakistani Arabian Sea port of Gwadar and China, is an important element in Beijings efforts to counteract US plans to strangle China economically by seizing Indian Ocean and South China Sea chokepoints. Monday nights fighting and three of the four areas where Indian and Chinese troops have squared off against each other in recent weeks are along the Line of Actual Control between Indian-held Ladakh and Aksai Chin. In pursuing its border confrontation with China, India is engaged in a reckless game of brinkmanship. But the Narendra Modi-led BJP government is hugely politically invested in projecting India as a regional hegemon, and in promoting Modis illegal 2016 and 2019 surgical military strikes on Pakistan, which precipitated weeks-long war crises, as proof of a bold new India. On Sunday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh vowed that India will not compromise with national pride under any circumstance. India is no longer a weak India. Under conditions where its ill-prepared COVID-19 lockdown has resulted in a social disaster120 million unemployed and a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases across the countryModi and the BJP will no doubt attempt to use the clash with China as a means to intensify their promotion of a bellicose, communalist-laced Indian nationalism, with the aim of diverting mounting social anger behind reaction and intimidating the working class. Predictably, the Congress and other opposition parties have rushed to extend their support to the BJP government. "It is time now that the country stands up to these incursions, bellowed Congress leader and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh yesterday. Chinas Communist Party regime, which restored capitalism three decades ago and now serves as the political instrument of a new capitalist oligarchy, has no progressive answer to the military-strategic pressure that is being placed on China by the US and other imperialist powers, with the support of their Indian bourgeois satraps. Incapable of making an appeal to the international working class, the Beijing regime oscillates between building up its military, while whipping up nationalism, making its own bellicose threats and seeking a deal with the US and other imperialist powers. The global capitalist crisis is impelling the imperialist and great powers, led by the US, to war and a catastrophic global confrontation. But it is also fueling a global upsurge of the working class. The fight against war is the fight to politically arm this incipient movement with a socialist internationalist program. Picocom selects UltraSoC in-system analytics and monitoring IP for 5G New Radio small cell SoC Posted by Publisher Telecommunication CAMBRIDGE, UK ? 17 June 2020 UltraSoC today announced that Picocom, the 5G open RAN baseband semiconductor and software specialist, has selected UltraSoC?s hardware-based analytics and monitoring IP for use in Picocom?s upcoming baseband system-on-chip (SoC) for 5G small cells. The UltraSoC IP enables Picocom and its customers to monitor, analyze and fine-tune the performance of their systems throughout the whole product lifecycle, starting in the lab for silicon bring-up and software development, through to deployment and in-field optimization. Picocom President Peter Claydon commented: ?As a result of this partnership with UltraSoC, Picocom customers can accelerate and de-risk their own system development and optimize system performance in the field over the lifetime of their product. This is particularly important as the mobile industry starts to adopt open RAN and virtual RAN principles, which will see software from different vendors running code on the same hardware, with frequent software upgrades over the product lifecycle.? Picocom provides open RAN standards-compliant baseband SoCs and carrier-grade software products for 5G small cell infrastructure. The company?s forthcoming distributed unit (DU) baseband offload system-on-chip (SoC) is designed to be deployed in buildings to increase 5G coverage and reduce the processing load on 5G macrocells under the open RAN initiative. By partnering with UltraSoC to add in-field monitoring and analytics to its products, Picocom aims to further empower wireless vendors and new market entrants to compete in the rapidly evolving disaggregated telecoms RAN market. Picocom has selected a suite of UltraSoC?s IP to enable monitoring and development of software for its SoC as a whole, from IP definition through to software/code refinement. This addresses the SoC?s CEVA XC12 DSPs, control processors, Arteris FlexNoC (Network on Chip) interconnect, custom accelerators, DDR controller, Ethernet interface, and other logic, in a single monitoring and analytics infrastructure. This makes it much easier for Picocom?s engineers and its customers to fine-tune performance. Picocom will also deploy UltraSoC?s USB IP, allowing customers to debug systems at high-speed in a ?closed chassis? through a standard USB port. Using UltraSoC?s hardware monitoring and analytics infrastructure will allow Picocom to offer unique optimization features across its product line. Data on the behavior of the system is captured in real-time, and with detailed information about system timing ? essential for demanding applications such as wireless communications. Just as importantly, UltraSoC?s on-chip monitors feature integrated ?smarts?: data can be pre-processed and analyzed locally on-chip, giving the engineer deep insight into system operation, without the need to route excessive volumes of data off-chip. UltraSoC CEO Rupert Baines said: ?We are proud to be working with Picocom, an innovative company with extensive experience in the field of small cells. Too many silicon companies regard post-silicon debug and optimization as ?someone else?s problem?. The fact that Picocom has selected such a comprehensive suite of UltraSoC IP demonstrates a serious commitment to helping its customers deliver the best possible products, on time ? and with reliability and upgradeability ?baked in? from day one.? His estranged wife arranged for him to be burned to death in his ute, but Sydney prison officer Dean Yarnton says his life's great and it's time to move on after she was jailed for at least a decade. Five years ago he woke up alone in the car to the sound of hissing from an open gas bottle and the smell of petrol, which just needed to be ignited for him to have suffered an agonising death. "It still makes me shake my head to think how lucky I am to be alive," he said. Dean Yarnton speaks to the media outside Downing Centre. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer His then wife Sharon Yarnton, who was also a prison guard, is now on the other side of the bars after being jailed for 16 years and six months with a non- parole period of 10 years. Man-made cellulosic fibers are the second biggest cellulosic fiber group after cotton and have the potential to contribute to realizing circular fashion, regenerating ecosystems, providing vital carbon sinks, and increasing community resilience and prosperity. With COVID-19 and climate change causing lasting disruption in the textile and apparel industry, the most significant industry players and stakeholders in the man-made cellulosic fibers (MMCF) value chain have today revealed an ambitious shared vision for unleashing the fibers huge untapped potential for building resilience in the global textile industry. Man-made cellulosic fibers are the second biggest cellulosic fiber group after cotton and have the potential to contribute to realizing circular fashion, regenerating ecosystems, providing vital carbon sinks, and increasing community resilience and prosperity. Created with co-convenors, Forum for the Future and Textile Exchange, the vision outlines how the MMCF value chain can take the lead in transforming the textile and apparel sectors while building on existing standards and the progress already being driven by existing industry initiatives to address specific social and environmental issues. It calls on businesses and industry actors from apparel and personal care brands to fiber producers to align behind its goals and act collaboratively to build a resilient industry that helps regenerate society and the planet at the same time. The MMCF 2030 Vision sets out five interrelated areas for ambitious and collaborative action along the entire lifecycle from raw material sourcing and fiber production right through to disposal and re-use to help move the sector forward at the pace and scale needed and stimulate new kinds of partnerships and investment: 1. Regenerating ecosystems: Restoring natural ecosystems, ensuring a carbon-negative value chain, and taking regenerative landscape approaches 2. Producing with zero harm: Managing chemicals and other inputs, zero emissions and closed-loop production systems 3. Enabling circular systems: Designing, incentivizing and implementing circular value chains and zero waste 4. Creating prosperity: Distributing economic value equitably, applying living wage and equality, universal access to education & healthcare 5. Upholding rights: Community empowerment and related access rights, protecting the rights of individuals, indigenous peoples, and other communities The vision sets out the activities required to deliver the ambition within each of the five areas, as well as commentary on where challenges need to be overcome. The vision also highlights the critical enabling factors needed for delivery, including collaboration across the value chain, positive voice, and advocacy, full transparency and traceability, robust metric systems for impact measurement, sharing best practice and accelerating innovation, flows of finance, consumer education, affordability of solutions, self-regulation and enabling policy. The vision is launched at a time when COVID-19 is hitting the MMCF sector considerably. The shared vision, therefore, becomes even more important as a guiding star for the industry as it emerges from this crisis in a manner that will both build industry resilience and reduce the likelihood of future disruptions. Dr. Sally Uren, Chief Executive Officer at Forum for the Future, commented: The MMCF sector is facing significant social and environmental challenges, including deforestation, chemical use and labour rights. The current COVID-19 crisis is intensifying these challenges. While progress is being made on traceability, innovation and sourcing practice, opportunities for deeper, systemic change are being lost in the absence of a holistic approach to addressing these interrelated challenges within the full value chain. By aligning behind a shared vision for a resilient and sustainable industry, the MMCF industry could lead the transformation of the apparel and textile sector, as well as make a positive contribution to other industries that source this versatile fibre. We now invite actors from across the industry to explore how they will work together to achieve this vision. The vision with its five components and enablers will be taken forward by the industry and facilitated through Textile Exchange's MMCF Round Table. Industry stakeholders will convene in early November when various initiatives will give updates on progress against the vision and participants will identify the critical innovation areas that need to be taken forward collectively beyond what is already happening. LaRhea Pepper, Managing Director for Textile Exchange, said, Textile Exchange has seen the industry make great strides in our nearly twenty years of operation, but we know it still has a long way to go. 2020 is kicking off a decade of change and the launch of the MMCF Vision is a big driver of the change that is needed! We must reduce carbon emissions from fiber and material production by 2030. Textile Exchange has adopted a Climate+ Strategy to accomplish this and increasing the uptake of preferred man-made cellulosic fibers is part of the solution. Not sure where to start? Collective, connected action accomplishes more than any organization can do alone and is why we convene the textile and apparel community in a pre-competitive, fiber-specific space. Help us achieve the MMCF Vision join us at the next MMCF Round Table. Mr. Eisaku Maeda, Senior General Manager, Bemberg Division at Asahi Kasei Corporation, said: Amid the demand for reforms toward the realization of a sustainable society on a global scale, as well as in the fashion industry, it is essential to accelerate the establishment of a circular economy through transparent production processes with low environmental impact and sustainable materials which have high traceability. MMCF is a material with various characteristics that can meet these needs and we are convinced that activities such as the MMCF Vision will be collectively taken forward by all those involved to ensure MMCF become a more sustainable material that is needed by the world. Asahi Kasei will continue to make even more efforts so that we can take this leap forward and we thank Textile Exchange, Forum for the Future, and all the stakeholders for creating this kind of opportunity. Bey Soo Khiang, Vice Chairman of RGE Group, said, The conception of a shared MMCF 2030 Vision is timely. MMCF as a bio-based fibre is gaining a lot of attention, and industry expectations are high. While other fibre segments like cotton and polyester have long developed consensus and rallied action around sustainable production, it is only in recent years that key MMCF actors have come together to discuss collective action and set goals to aspire towards. This Vision is a critical part of the conversation and consolidates ongoing discussions to provide coherence and direction. The Visions broad and inclusive design identifies and articulates clearly the material considerations for MMCFs to grow sustainably. RGEs viscose business groups, Sateri and Asia Pacific Rayon, look forward to contributing to the realisation of the Vision. The year-long process to build the vision was made possible with funding from Asahi Kasei and the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, and support from Target and C&A, with input from over 50 stakeholders ranging from producers, suppliers and brands to INGOs and standards organisations. NOTES TO EDITORS About the Man-Made Cellulosic Fibres 2030 Vision The MMCF 2030 Vision aims to provide a shared vision to drive the sector towards collectively putting more back into the environment and society than it takes out from source to finished product. It was built by the sector through an extensive participative process engaging over 50 stakeholders from more than 40 organisations representing views from across the MMCF value chain. It is not intended as a formal commitment document or standard against which organisations will be measured. Instead, it seeks to serve as a set of guiding principles to inform how existing standards and practices must move at an accelerated pace, and towards which truly pioneering organisations can lead the sector to go further, faster. The vision complements existing standards by challenging actors to look beyond what might be possible now a call to action that seeks to stimulate new kinds of partnerships and forms of cross-sector collaboration to ensure that MMCF can reach its full potential as a sustainable fibre. Read the report here https://textileexchange.org/materials/pfm-round-tables/pmmc/ or https://www.forumforthefuture.org/man-made-cellulosic-fibres. What Is Sustainability? Forum for the Futures definition of sustainability is: Sustainability is a dynamic process which enables all people to realise their potential and to improve their quality of life in ways that simultaneously protect and enhance the Earths life support system. About Forum for the Future Forum for the Future is a leading international sustainability non-profit with offices in London, New York, Singapore and Mumbai. We specialise in addressing critical global challenges by catalysing change in key systems. For over 20 years, weve been working in partnership with business, governments and civil society to accelerate the shift toward a sustainable future. Together we are reinventing the way the world works. Find out more at http://www.forumforthefuture.org or by following @Forum4theFuture on Twitter. About Textile Exchange Textile Exchange is a global non-profit that creates leaders in the sustainable fiber and materials industry. The organization develops, manages, and promotes a suite of leading industry standards, as well as collects and publishes critical industry data and insights that enable brands and retailers to measure, manage and track their use of preferred fiber and materials. With more than 400 members who represent leading brands, retailers and suppliers, Textile Exchange has, for years, been positively impacting climate through accelerating the use of preferred fibers across the global textile industry and is now making it an imperative goal through its 2030 Strategy: Climate+. Under the Climate+ strategic direction, Textile Exchange will be the driving force for urgent climate action with a goal of 35-45% reduced CO2 emissions from textile fiber and material production by 2030. To join the TE MMCF Round Table, visit https://textileexchange.org/materials/pfm-round-tables/pmmc/. To learn more about Textile Exchange, visit http://www.TextileExchange.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TextileExchange. The media double standard is also obvious when compared with how Hillary Clintons health was treated. Her stumble at a 9/11 memorial event elicited media mention, but the issue was dropped once her campaign said she was being treated for pneumonia. That was despite the fact that she had stumbled in public previously and had also been criticized by Republicans for not being transparent about her health. The media largely ignored those claims. Had she won, would the media have treated her like they have treated Trumps nonslip? Theres another candidate whose health deserves more scrutiny than it has received: former Vice President Joe Biden. He has made verbal slips during his campaign. He told one audience he was running for the Senate earlier this year. Hes lashed out angrily often incoherently at voters asking simple questions. And hes often responded erratically and confusingly to reporters questions during the coronavirus lockdown and thats when hes rested and in his basement. Agra, June 17 : India's global tourist destination Taj Mahal, which witnessed a daily footfall of thousands of people, now stands secluded after it was shut to the public exactly three months ago due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown. Taj Mahal is Uttar Pradesh's main attraction and a major source of revenue for the state's tourism industry. According to the Archaeological Survey of India, as many as 15,000 to 20,000 foreigners and Indians used to visit the historical site daily. Superintendent Archaeologist Dr Vasant Kumar Swarnkar told IANS that foreign tourists were charged Rs 1,300 each while domestic tourists paid Rs 250 each for the visit but the pandemic has spelt doom for historical monuments and Agra's economy. It is the first time that the monument has been shut after the devastating 1978 floods. It was previously closed during World War II in 1942 and the Indo-Pak war of 1971. Mayor Navin Jain had, earlier this month, led a chorus to demand reopening of the Taj Mahal and other historical monuments in the city, without spelling out the gains when international flights were suspended. Agra has three world heritage monuments -- Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri -- but it will have to wait a little more to see these grand structures reopen. Sanjay Sharma, president of the Approved Guides Association, said hundreds of guides have suffered financially as tourists have not been visiting Agra since March-end. The city, which used to be swarmed by tourists prior to the outbreak, now wears a deserted look. Tourism is the mainstay of Agra's economy, sustaining lakhs of people working in hotels, travel business, as guides and photographers, in the emporia, 'petha' industry. A big chunk of population has been hit due to COVID-19. Ramesh Wadhwa, president of Agra's Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association, said that hotels, restaurants and travel agents suffered a loss of Rs 3,000 crore during the lockdown period. "India's 'Athithi devo bhava' is in danger of vanishing forever. Even though businesses have recently re-opened, there is no footfall. We are not expecting things to fall back in place until next year when the vaccine is made for this deadly disease," Wadhwa said. He said that the worst hit were the small budget hotels which were being compelled to pay all kinds of taxes, even though their earnings from tourism have been reduced to zero. Wadhwa requested the government to waive property, water and service taxes for two years and set up a fund to support the basic salaries with direct transfer to affected employees of hotels and restaurants for 12 months. President of Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber, Prahlad Agarwal, said that the marble industry used to earn a revenue of Rs 1,500 crore, including from exports, but has now come to a grinding halt. "As many as 30,000 to 40,000 craftsmen and 10,000 other people are employed in the marble industry. They are all suffering now," Agarwal said. The city's 'petha' (a sweetmeat) industry also depends majorly on tourism and has faced massive losses amid the challenging times. Rajeev Singhal, general secretary of the Petha Mandi Association, said that the industry employs over 50,000 people and has faced a loss of Rs 100-Rs 150 crore during the lockdown period. The pandemic has also dealt a major blow to the Agra footwear industry. City Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Chamber president Puran Dawar said that the shoe industry includes a total of 10,000 units and used to import and export goods worth more than Rs 5,000 crore. However, with COVID-19 cases in India touching 3.5 lakh, normalcy looks like a distant dream. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text I am also concerned about the ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party to become the world's leading economic and military power (Letters, June 17). China's tentacles are subtly spreading around the world, gathering political and military influence, with the Belt and Road initiative at their tips. President Xi is ruthlessly ambitious. China's vulnerable facet, if it has one, is its economy. However, with the Western powers being "led" by President Trump, and Xi making himself president for life, containing China is an all but impossible task. Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin (ACT) The past is set in stone what of the future? Your writer asks with what authority do people take down statues commemorating the past ("Procession on a plinth a solution for Sydney", June 17)? Every generation has that authority. Statues are not history. They are representations of the past and removing them is not rewriting or erasing history. A nation's memorial landscape helps define the values it chooses to remember. Sometimes, change must happen. In Australia and elsewhere, the move to decolonise our memorial landscape is not just about tearing things down: it is about creating a new landscape based on tolerance, not oppression. The Adam Goodes mural in Surry Hills is testament to that. Australia's memorial landscape remains, however, too heavily tilted toward the colonisers. Temporary exhibits will not be enough to redress that imbalance. Daniel Fleming, Surry Hills Sydney's lord mayor should not look to England to settle the statue debate here. The Anglo-centric view is exactly what we don't need. Australians are well capable of finding our own way through this. I propose that if the statue goes, so too the plinth, and there plant a tree. Not an English oak tree, rather an Indigenous one. Chris Hughes, Clovelly I've visited Dachau Concentration Camp, the Reichstag Museum and the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. I've seen the bombed-out church at Berlin Railway Station with repairs only recently completed, elements left as a stark reminder of World War II. I've seen the facades of buildings in Germany pitted by machine gun bullets; also left as a reminder. I can't see how defacing or destroying statues here and denying history can be for the better (Letters, June 17). Tim Egan, Mosman The toppling of statues is an exercise in futile vandalism if the political, economic, social and education systems which spawned and nurtured the people being commemorated are still firmly entrenched. Ryszard Linkiewicz, Caringbah South Are there any statues of women? Vicky Marquis, Glebe I strongly support the aims of the protests to bring to notice the extreme shortcomings of past and current governments in working towards a genuine state of reconciliation and equality with our Indigenous population. However, I object to the defacing and vandalising of statues. It shows a narrow focus and loses many of the Australians who would otherwise support the cause. One of the reasons driving this change is the need to bring to light and to better educate all Australians on the many dreadful facets of our history. Yet by damaging statues, they are removing reminders of that past. There are better ways to work towards the desired positive outcomes none more important than education. Let's all work on that through our politicians, educators and other change-drivers in our communities. Russell Fredericks, Kiama Ideology blurring stimulus lens Large-scale spending has not come naturally to the Morrison government. But to their credit it is happening ("It's too soon to start the cuts", June 17). Is it too much to ask for another break with ideology and expect that the HomeBuilder be more focused on incentivising energy efficiencies? It could be used in the home for things like solar panels and battery storage. It could also be extended to retrofitting small businesses. Surely a focus on climate-smart recovery that helps stimulate the economy, reduce energy bills and hasten our reduction in carbon emissions would represent more bang for our taxpayer buck. Not to mention that the looming health crisis we face with climate change will make the current pandemic feel like a warm-up match. Maree Nutt, Newport The government's conservative ideology has led to both poor targeting and an inadequate level of spending. Maintaining free childcare and substantially increasing the NewStart allowance would be a much greater boost to the economy and be far more equitable. Ideology blurs perspective and distorts the determination of priorities. Graeme Troy, Wagstaffe Royal mail delay Surely the High Court decision overrides the National Archives of Australia's normal procedure of redacting content it finds controversial ("Archives chief tight-lipped on palace letters delay", June 17)? The letters are either made available or they are not. Surely the court directed they are to be made available in a readable format, not covered in big black squares? And while the director-general of NAA says he has a declassification team working on the letters, he also says he's "spending time reading" them. The fight for access has taken years but now the director-general decides he needs to personally read everything? I hope he extends the same courtesy to Professor Jenny Hocking. Jenni Stapleton, Kiama The delay in releasing the Palace letters is puzzling. Surely they've had enough time to edit, massage, redact or even lose them? Frances Dixon, Garran (ACT) Informed protests Correspondent Bernard Stever misses the point by arguing the Black Lives Matter movement targeting police brutality will not bring about change in the deeper, underlying systemic failure in society (Letters, June 17). The police represent that system of institutionalised racism, and police brutality is the most visible, overt and tangible manifestation of it. The BLM protest against police brutality is a demand for a broader societal change. There is nothing "cheap and unsophisticated" about it. The BLM protesters have an intelligent grasp of the change they are demanding. Rajend Naidu, Glenfield I am sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter cause. But once again, it is driven by the patriarchy. The lives of black men, whether African American or Australian Aboriginal, are the ones that matter. Don't be persuaded that the Black Lives Matter movement is gender neutral. It's not, and it will never be while a patriarchal order pervades our society, our governments, our world. Patricia Farrar, Concord Illustration: Matt Golding Credit: Corruption of process The PM announced a (watered-down) federal ICAC in December 2018. The Attorney-General has "resumed work on it" after a delay caused by the health crisis. He says he needs to consult with the crossbench. However, the government has blocked debate on a stronger bill put forward by crossbench MPs ("Anti-corruption unit back on the agenda", June 17). How long must we wait for some action? Judy Sherrington, Kensington Fraction too much faction It is a feature of human interaction that people with similar interests will group together. Factionalism in politics is an example of this (Letters, June 17). However, when the interests of these groups becomes the priority, rather than working for the wellbeing of the community or the good of the particular political party, then they actually undermine the political process. The current situation in Victoria shows that political parties need to have robust rules and procedures to ensure that another factional warlord like Adem Somyurek cannot play the political system and damage our democracy. Phyllis Vespucci, Reservoir (Vic) States of despair I too have watched the US from afar, not as an expat, but as a parent ("Pain of seeing my country from afar", June 17). My youngest son and his Chicago-born wife have been "trapped" in a two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn NYC for months now. Both working from home (one the bedroom, the other the kitchen) able to walk the dog and shop occasionally and, most recently, further restricted by curfew laws as the tensions mount. Yet they still managed the energy and voice to protest on behalf of humanity. Whether at home or watching from afar, the States are fighting ... on every front. I can only hope it survives. Janice Creenaune, Austinmer Super minefield Which Australian super funds have invested in the Chinese government's Shenhua thermal coal mine ("US funds titan Black Rock deeply concerned about NSW coalmine", June 17)? It will impact on the water table and diminish agricultural production from NSW's main cropping area, the Liverpool Plains. We will be destroying our own food bowl. Full transparency is needed. David Stevenson, Bunnan Layers of distrust Resources Minister Keith Pitt asks how many layers of approval for the same thing do we need ("Slow decisions hold back economy: Pitt", June 17). The answer is more and better to judge from much of what somehow gets through the present system. Greg McCarry, Epping Commuting capacity I caught a train yesterday that was so full that the only way Gladys Berejiklian could double capacity would be to have passengers sitting on the roof ("Capacity on public transport to double from July 1", June 17). It appears the government's current policy is to shift the onus from themselves to commuters: we told you not to catch the train but you did. Never mind that you have no other way to get to and from work. Peter Newberry, Randwick Pet hate If correspondent Riley Brown believes climate change is a "pet issue", I hope he realises the severity of this global problem before the waves of Bondi Beach come lapping at his doorstep (Letters, June 17). Felicite Ross, Vaucluse Roos ruse I was amused by the well-intentioned students attempting to pat the various "frankies" wandering around the UNSW campus ("'I gave it a pat and he chomped my hand': students bitten by fox", June 17). I'm reminded of a student at the Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University who, alarmed at the wildlife surrounding her cottage, rang security to report that the kangaroos had escaped. Judith Reynolds, Leura A story to be tolled I'm also surprised at the $20 million estimate for the removal of the Harbour Bridge toll booths (Letters, June 17). The worry is that based on the government's past form, the job will probably end up over budget. Trevor Webster, Lane Cove A British couple have spent two months in the paradise of an Indonesian orangutan sanctuary after they were stranded there because of the coronavirus pandemic. Jeff Yip, 37, and Zuzana Barancova 36, from Staffordshire, spent two years saving to explore south-east Asia. After seeing most of the countries on their list, they got trapped in Sumatra after visiting the village of Bukit Lawang to see the wild orangutans in March. Since their onward flight was cancelled on April 12, they have been staying in a 5-per-night guesthouse with meals for 2 or less while they wait for flight regulations to change. The couple are often woken up by monkeys and have encountered all kinds of wildlife on their daily walks including lizards and snakes as well as the local orangutans. Delight: Zuzana Barancova, 36, and Jeff Yip, 37, see an orangutan while standing knee-deep in water at an Indonesian sanctuary where they have been stranded during the pandemic Jeff, a technical operator, and Zuzana, who is originally from Slovakia and works as an import administrator, were originally planning to visit Java and Bali before returning to the UK in June. Jeff said: 'It's normally hot and sunny, and there is no lockdown, so we try to go on walks on most days. 'We have seen plenty of wildlife during our walks - a variety of monkeys, huge monitor lizards, tiny and huge frogs and even a snake once or twice. 'The best encounter we had was when we went down to the river, a few metres from our guesthouse, and saw a young orangutan across the river. 'His mother arrived shortly afterwards with another surprise - a few week old baby orangutan. 'We've also, somehow become the parents of two adorable cats - funnily enough, they show up mostly around meal times. 'Of course, we are in the rainforest so we try to get back before the thunderstorms arrive in the late afternoon. 'Apart from meeting the local wildlife, we have tried to be productive as well during our time here. 'Sometimes we just chill on our terrace and catch up with friends back home while we watch the macaques run around from roof to roof. 'We don't spend our budget on any unnecessary items-there isn't actually a lot to spend our budget on. 'It's been great - we would've returned to the UK with nowhere to live and job uncertainty with the lockdown in place.' Sighting: A wild orangutan and its baby by the Bukit Lawang river, close to where Jeff Yip and Zuzana Barancova have been staying during the global crisis Greeting: The couple are often greeted by monkeys in the morning at their 5-a-night guesthouse with its cheap meals Refuge: The couple have been staying at this guesthouse where they say they feel relatively safe from the virus because people cannot travel to Bukit Lawang from far afield Jeff said the couple felt 'a little better protected from the virus here' because no one can visit Bukit Lawang from outside the local area. 'Staying here has also given us a chance to really immerse ourselves into the community,' he said. 'We have become like family with the owner of the guesthouse and he even invited us to Eid al-Fitr, something that tourists rarely get a chance to experience. ' Starting their trip in December, Jeff and Zuzana were able to visit Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. After a while the pair were planning to start a new adventure exploring South America. But after finding out about the virus outbreak on social media they decided to stay in the island of Sumatra and wait until the lockdown and quarantine is over. Apart from meeting the local wildlife, the couple have found ways to keep busy- Jeff writes for his travel blog, Zuzana catches up on reading and they both do short online workouts and watch documentaries. Wildlife: The couple have seen variety of monkeys, huge monitor lizards (one of which is pictured), tiny and huge frogs and even a snake once or twice Companions: An orangutan swinging from a tree and a monkey on the windowsill of the guesthouse in Bukit Lawang Exploring: Jeff and Zuzana trekking in the jungle in Indonesia after their south-east Asia tour took an unexpected turn because of the pandemic Jeff added: 'We had planned to do a tour of south-east Asia and South America, it was something we had been planning for a few years now. 'We worked really hard to save for this trip, working extra shifts, being careful with our expenditure and cutting back on luxuries. 'We found out about the virus in January when we were in Thailand.-one of our friends from the UK posted something on his Facebook about 'coronavirus'- we had to google what it was. 'There were still tourists everywhere that we travelled to so there was nothing to indicate that the borders would close so suddenly. 'The more we travelled, the more we saw the virus in the news and on social media-the number of tourists also dropped as we travelled to more countries. 'We planned to spend a few days here to do a jungle trek as Bukit Lawang was only one of the few places in the world where you can see wild orangutans.' 'The Gunung Leuser National Park, where the orangutans reside, was closed a few days after we arrived-luckily we managed to do a trek before it closed. 'Most of the shops and restaurants, except one or two, have been closed for months-no bars are open and most of the trekking guides have had to find alternative work to support themselves and their families. 'A full-scale lockdown wasn't introduced so people in the local villages seem to go about their lives as normal. 'With the UK's lockdown and Slovakia's 14 day arrival quarantine, it seemed like a better idea at the time to stay put and see what happens. 'Now, after three months, there are no signs that the rest of Indonesia is opening up to international tourism any time soon.' Operations have delivered strong performance despite the ongoing COVID-19 State of Emergency (SOE) in Papua New Guinea (declared on March 20), with gold equivalent production on track to exceed 1Q 2020. On June 16, the SOE ended, resulting in a further easing of some restrictions. The process plant has performed well, with daily throughput of over 700 tonnes achieved on numerous days. As a result, throughput for 2Q is expected to meet or exceed 1Q 2020, despite lower running time associated with the SOE and other production impacts. Stage 2 plant commissioning to double throughput from 200,000 tpa to 400,000 tpa expected to commence in first half 3Q and targeting completion by end 3Q. Twin incline and surface exploration activities have resumed. Movement of personnel has improved significantly, with expatriates arriving onsite after quarantine in early June and open movement of PNG nationals. Stage 3 Preliminary Economic Assessment targeting completion in July. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- K92 Mining Inc. (K92 or the Company) (TSX-V: KNT; OTCQX: KNTNF) is pleased to provide an update on its operations and Stage 2 Expansion at its producing underground Kainantu Gold Mine (Kainantu) in Papua New Guinea. Mining Operations In March 2020, Kainantu achieved a major milestone, commencing the first long hole stope utilizing the modified AVOCA method. This is particularly significant since previous mining had been exclusively from lower productivity and higher cost development and cut and fill stoping. The first stope was from the K1 Vein, and to date, long hole stoping activities have performed in-line with design and have been increasing, providing a notable positive impact on operational flexibility. Mining operations have also benefited from further additions to Kainantus mining fleet. The Papua New Guinea COVID-19 State of Emergency declared on March 20, 2020 has seen limited impact to freight, with the arrival of a third Sandvik LH517i underground LHD loader with Automine, a third CAT AD45B 45t underground truck and two Terex Articulated Surface Haul Trucks, since its declaration. The equipment joins a significantly expanded and modernized fleet since the decision to proceed with the Stage 2 Expansion on March 13, 2019 (see Press Release: K92 Mining to Expand Kainantu Gold Mine, PNG). See Figure 1 for recent mining equipment received. Story continues Twin incline activities have recently recommenced with the easing of restrictions from the SOE. Ground support for the portal is underway, with portalling and the installation of steel sets expected to commence in the first half of 3Q 2020. Processing The process plant has achieved multiple daily throughput records during 2Q 2020, significantly exceeding the 200,000 tpa / ~550 tpd nameplate capacity, with over 700 tpd achieved on multiple occasions. The strong performance of the process plant and underground mine to date are expected to result in gold equivalent production exceeding Q1 2020. Preparations are also being made to recommence Stage 2 commissioning near-term, to double plant throughput capacity from 200,000 tpa to 400,000 tpa. All of the equipment is installed, and commissioning is expected to commence in first half 3Q, with completion targeting end of 3Q. Exploration Underground drilling activities continued during the SOE, and surface exploration activities have recently recommenced as restrictions have eased. Surface drill rigs will be focusing on the Karempe and Kapore targets. Importantly, exploration activities and the number of targets drilled concurrently are expected to significantly increase in the second half of 2020, with three additional drill rigs (one underground and two surface) in transit and expected to arrive during the second half of 3Q 2020. The two surface rigs are currently planned to drill Kora and Blue Lake. The underground rig will provide additional capacity to drill Kora and Kora South. Underground development has made considerable progress advancing towards Kora South, with a new drill cuddy allowing drilling to the edge of the mining lease currently being developed and scheduled to be operational in early July. COVID-19 Mitigation and Response Plans To date, Papua New Guinea has confirmed 8 cases of COVID-19, with all cases recovered and the last recorded case on April 23, 2020. There have been no known cases of COVID-19 amongst our workforce or local communities. K92 remains determined to do our part to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic, with a COVID-19 Management Plan, that includes occupational health, hygiene and safety, business continuity, travel, supply chain, statutory compliance, communications, testing, risk assessment and contingency planning. We have also established a COVID-19 Assistance Fund (see April 21, 2020 Press Release: K92 Mining Inc. Announces COVID-19 Assistance Fund). See Figure 2 for images highlighting some of Kainantus COVID-19 systems and procedures. The Government of Papua New Guinea ended the COVID-19 State of Emergency on June 16, resulting in a further easing of some of the restrictions, particularly around domestic movement. Papua New Guinea remains vigilant in protecting its country from COVID-19, and its response will now be under the National Pandemic Act 2020. The Act enables the government to quickly impose restrictions on the advice of health and medical experts and maintain the operation of the COVID-19 National Control Centre. John Lewins, K92 Chief Executive Officer and Director, stated, We are very pleased with the resiliency and strong performance of the Kainantu Gold Mine during what has been a challenging period globally for the mining industry due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This would not have been possible if it werent for the exceptional dedication, resourcefulness and preparedness of our workforce. The support of all levels of Government in Papua New Guinea has also been a major factor. It is worth highlighting that our non-local employees, both expatriate and national, were given the choice to go back to their families ahead of the State of Emergency declaration and almost all of them decided to stay on site. They went above and beyond what is expected from them, with many staying on site for over three months to make sure the mine performed before returning home for a very well deserved break. We believe their efforts have set the stage for a very exciting second half of 2020 in terms of both production expansion and exploration. Our process plant is performing well and our Stage 2 expansion commissioning to double mill throughput is set to begin in the first half of 3Q. We will also see the potential future of Kainantu beyond Stage 2, with a Stage 3 Expansion PEA planned for July. On the exploration front, the rate of activity and number of targets drilled concurrently is expected to make a major step change, with not only surface exploration resuming but three new drill rigs arriving on site near-term. This will provide capacity to potentially test Karempe, Kora, Blue Lake and Kora South concurrently in the second half of 2020. About K92 K92 Mining Inc. is engaged in the production of gold, copper and silver from the Kora and Kora North deposits of the Kainantu Gold Mine in the Eastern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea, as well as exploration and development of mineral deposits in the immediate vicinity of the mine. The Company declared commercial production from Kainantu in February 2018 and has commenced an expansion of the mine. An updated Preliminary Economic Assessment on the property was published in January 2019. K92 is operated by a team of mining company professionals with extensive international mine-building and operational experience. On Behalf of the Company, John Lewins, Chief Executive Officer and Director For further information, please contact David Medilek, P.Eng., CFA at +1-604-687-7130. NEITHER 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. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements that address future plans, activities, events, or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur are forward-looking information, including statements regarding the realization of the preliminary economic analysis for the Kainantu Mine, expectations of future cash flows, the planned plant expansion, production results, cost of sales, sales of production, potential expansion of resources, mitigation of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the generation of further drilling results which may or may not occur. Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the market price of the Companys securities, metal prices, exchange rates, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry, changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations in PNG, international effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and regulations and other matters. There can be no assurance that such statements 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 statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Photos accompanying this announcement are available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b829eded-2f3f-494d-9453-cb50cf6ee874 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c3b0af0d-7240-4e7f-8f57-014533977afd WARSAW, Poland (AP) A gay rights activist in Poland said he ended a meeting with the country's conservative president without saying goodbye Wednesday after the politician defended recent remarks about an alleged LGBT ideology by citing his right to free speech. President Andrzej Duda invited several activists to meet after a weekend event where he described the LGBT rights movement as more dangerous than communism and endorsed another conservative official's observation that LGBT is not people, its an ideology. Duda, who is seeking a second term in Poland's presidential election this month, also signed a Family Charter last week that pledges to ban the propagation of LGBT ideology in public institutions and oppose same-sex marriages and adoption. The president's actions came amidst a competitive campaign for Poland's presidency. The election is scheduled for June 28, with a likely runoff on July 12 between Duda and Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who has voiced support for LGBT rights. After angry protesters greeted Duda at a campaign stop on Monday, he invited activists and a left-wing presidential candidate who is gay, Robert Biedron, and the candidate's mother to the presidential palace. Only one activist showed up to meet with the president. Biedron and his mother refused to go unless Duda made a public apology. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Biedron accused the president of using language about LGBT people that was offensive to many Poles. Dudas spokesman, Blazej Spychalski, described the meeting with the LGBT activist, Bartosz Staszewski, as good and constructive. Staszewski gave a different story. He said he arrived at the meeting with photos of young LGBT Poles who had died by suicide while under the psychological strain of discrimination. He laid them on a table along with a book about homosexuals imprisoned at Auschwitz, and told him of how gay people in Poland have been attacked at pride marches. Story continues I wanted to show him those pictures, look in his eyes and show him that I am not an ideology, Staszewski, a 29-year-old filmmaker, told The Associated Press. He said he and the president spoke for about an hour but that when Duda cited freedom of speech to defend his words about LGBT ideology, he became angry and stood up and left without shaking the president's hand. U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher said on Twitter on Tuesday that the U.S. condemns discrimination or hatred based on race, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation. Mosbacher denied a report in a Polish newspaper saying that the U.S. Embassy had intervened directly with Duda over his recent comments. The anti-China trade mood has reached US kitchens, where a battle is being waged over competing visions of where and how cabinets should be made. On one side are America's traditional cabinet companies, employing an estimated 100,000 people in factories across the country, often in small towns close to forests supplying the wood. On the other is a new breed of "ready-to-assemble" firms that grabbed a hefty slice of the business over the last five years by importing disassembled cabinets from China in flat boxes and selling them at unbeatable prices. In March, the International Trade Commission ruled unanimously in favor of a coalition of 50 US firms fighting to stop the influx. The ITC concluded the imports charged unfairly low prices and slapped on big anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties that will last five years. "We did this for the American worker," said Mark Trexler, chief operating officer of Cabinetworks Group, the nation's second-largest cabinet maker and a member of the coalition. While cast as a Chinese cabinet invasion, the ready-to-assemble rise was driven largely by domestic companies, including some of the biggest US players who invented the niche and went to China to source products. Chinese companies have jumped into the business, to be sure, but ready-to-assemble was an American idea. The upshot for Americans from the trade case is likely to be higher cabinet prices. And Trexler's assertion notwithstanding, jobs are not coming back to US shores because of tariffs. Even as the case was being fought, ready-to-assemble firms like CNC Cabinetry, a privately held company in South Plainfield, New Jersey, were getting out of China - by shifting work to other low-cost countries. Robert Hunter, CNC's chief operating officer, said no domestic companies will make the disassembled product for him to replace the Chinese supplies - at least not at a competitive price. So he shifted sourcing to Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia and is hunting for a low-cost option in Eastern Europe to have many options for sourcing at a time of spreading trade battles. SPEED IS ESSENTIAL CNC was founded in 1992 as a traditional cabinetmaker but shifted to ready-to-assemble after the 2007-2009 recession. At a sprawling facility just outside New York City, rather than making cabinets from scratch, most of the space is devoted to shelves of flat boxes. The key is to have a ready supply of a limited range of sizes and styles, Hunter said. When a customer calls, Hunter can ship the boxes containing all the parts needed for a cabinet immediately or have his small staff of 50 craftsmen assemble it so the cabinets are ready to install when delivered. The New Jersey facility also makes countertops, which aren't imported, to finish off a kitchen package. "If you call me today in the morning, I'm shipping tomorrow night," said Hunter. CNC sells mostly to builders outfitting multiple kitchens and house flippers looking for low prices. Traditional cabinet companies can take weeks or longer to deliver cabinets. Ready-to-assemble's rapid growth sparked the trade case, say manufacturers, importers and trade attorneys for both sides interviewed by Reuters. The US cabinet industry sells about $10 billion worth of goods a year, and while the two sides dispute how big ready-to-assemble has grown, the ITC noted Chinese imports of cabinets, vanities, and cabinet parts totaled about $4.4 billion in 2018. Many domestic firms feared they were following the path of America's furniture industry, which began selectively importing Chinese products in the 1990s and was eventually swamped by direct competition from Chinese producers entering the US market. Parts of North Carolina are still dotted with empty furniture factories as a result. Ready-to-assemble cabinets were depressing prices for everyone, according to domestic firms. They were also coming equipped with features for which US producers had always charged extra, like self-closing drawers. "History shows the Chinese aren't satisfied until they have the whole industry," said Stephen Wellborn, co-owner of Wellborn Cabinet Inc in Ashland, Alabama. He said the political climate was favorable, given President Donald Trump's commitment to helping domestic manufacturing, but he said they would have brought the trade case anyway. One irony is that the largest US cabinetmaker, Fortune Brands Home & Security Inc's Masterbrand Cabinet unit, helped develop the ready-to-assemble business in China before deciding it posed a risk to its much larger domestic operations. Masterbrand's US sales were $2.5 billion last year, and it has 10,000 US employees in 20 factories fed mostly by US suppliers. Masterbrand said it stopped buying from China after the case was filed. But it did not bring those jobs home either. The company now obtains ready-to-assemble cabinets from Vietnam. Cabinets made in Vietnam are 30-40% pricier than China, according to industry sources. Back at CNC, Hunter said he was also anticipating more trade issues. If shipments grow too much from another country, such as Vietnam, the United States could crack down with duties on those imports as well, he said. "That's why I want to find sources in five countries, minimum," said Hunter, "because you don't know what comes next." New Delhi, June 17 : Indian and Chinese military talks at Galwan Valley over the violent clash along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh ended in a stalemate on Wednesday. The three-hour dialogue remained inconclusive at the end of the day but will continue. The clash, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, occurred at the south bank of Galwan river, which flows in an east-west direction before its confluence with Shyok river. The dialogue took place to ensure that Chinese People's Liberation Army pulls back all its troops from the Galwan Valley and removed all the military-grade tents which house them. Both the forces have redeployed troops at the site of the clash. Sources said that India Army officials have made clear to Chinese counterparts that they have to move back. "The dialogue to continue on Thursday also. India represented by a Major General slated to meet the counterpart tomorrow (Thursday) again," said a senior Indian Army official. Major Gen. Abhijit Bapat, who is the Commander of the Indian Army's 3 Division, raised several points with the Chinese officers with regards to the incident on the intervening night of June 15/16. These were the first casualties faced by the Indian Army in a clash with the Chinese People's Liberation Army since 1975 when an Indian patrol was ambushed by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh. Around 120 Indian soldiers were trapped and encircled by Chinese troops and thereafter savagely beaten, many to the point of mutilation, on Monday night, sources said on Wednesday. Pointing firearms at them, Chinese troops brutally tortured Indian soldiers to death, sources said. Many Indian soldiers were helpless with the Indian government's direction not to use firearms, sources said. It was not a hand-to-hand fight between the forces, said sources, adding that PLA troops completely overran the Indian soldiers, who started losing their lives as they bravely fought against superior numbers. Sources said Indian Army troops were outnumbered five times when they came under attack from the Chinese soldiers at patrolling point number 14 on the LAC. China's PLA "savagely attacked" the Indian Army personnel, according to sources in the government with knowledge of the details of the Monday night clashes between the two armies. "The numbers were stacked up against the Indian Army troops. Yet, the Indian side decided to fight the PLA. The Indian soldiers were outnumbered 1:5 by the Chinese troopers," a source said on Wednesday. China is also said to have used thermal imaging drones to trace the Indian soldiers scattered on the treacherous terrain before brutally attacking them. "It was the deadliest attack carried on Indian Army personnel by Chinese military personnel in our memory," the government source said. "We were outnumbered," admitted an Indian Army officer, about the clash that went on for six to seven hours. Indian Army said that its soldiers went to the spot where the clashes happened without any animosity and were displaying friendly gestures to the Chinese side as they sought to check if the de-escalation agreement was being followed as promised. Several Indian Army soldiers are currently "critically injured" and are undergoing treatment. The fatality numbers could increase" as the current critically injured personnel numbers are more than 10, the sources said. A popular activewear brand is in hot water for publishing highly-offensive comments on social media in response to a troll. Australian label Muscle Nation was forced to address the Instagram posts from 2017 after they resurfaced earlier this week. The official Instagram page hit back at trolls, calling one a 'fa**ot' and 'p**fy'. The official Instagram page hit back at trolls, calling one a 'fa**ot' and 'p**fy' The troll took to the brand's promotional Instagram posts in 2017 and criticised its clothing, Sydney Confidential reported. 'Who the f**k would buy this s**t lmao,' the troll commented on a post. The official Muscle Nation hit back: 'Dude you're that guy in a DM wearing a p**fy aqua tie you fa**ot. 'And go suck your mum's t**s you look five years old.' An official Muscle Nation representative then went on to comment with their own personal account: 'You deserve to be beaten up by a pack of lesbians'. Muscle Nation released a statement apologising for the offensive comments. 'That episode in 2017 was a very crucial learning episode for us. Soon after the comments were posted, they were taken down,' the company said. The brand said it does 'not tolerate hate or bigotry' and used the incident to better itself. Muscle Nation vows to 'educate' itself each day and says it is committed to change and learning from past experiences. The apology comes after beloved Australian brand PE Nation was slammed for making a 'tone-deaf' Instagram post about the global Black Lives Matter movement. The brand, founded by Pip Edwards and Claire Tregoning, posted on social media saying 'equality for all' but failed to mention the critical protest itself by name. Major brands have flocked to throw their support behind the movement, often using the 'Black Lives Matter' slogan. But PE Nation posted a message simply saying: 'One nation. One world. One earth. 'Our diversity in race, gender, religion and age is our global strength. 'We must unite and stand together, to make for a greater change. 'We will not tolerate any kind of discrimination. . #WeAreAllInThisTogether #equalityforall #equality' Dozens of angry commentators replied to the post, accusing PE Nation of ignoring the suffering of people of colour - and even threatening to boycott it. HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - Israeli researchers say they have invented a reusable face mask that can kill the coronavirus with heat by drawing power from a mobile phone charger. The disinfecting process takes about 30 minutes - and users should not wear the mask while it is plugged in, said Professor Yair Ein-Eli, who led the research team at Technion University in Haifa. The new mask has a USB port that connects to a power source such as a standard cellphone charger that heats an inner layer of carbon fibres to 70 degrees Celsius (158 Fahrenheit), high enough to kill viruses. Ein-Eli said disposable masks, in high demand globally during the health crisis, were not economically or environmentally friendly. "You have to make it reusable and friendly, and this is our solution," he said. Professor Allon Moses, an infectious diseases expert at Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center, said there was "no question" that a half hour's exposure to 70-degree heat would kill the coronavirus. But he cautioned that repeated heating could "damage the mask's paper or fabric and spoil its ability to protect from diseases in the future". During testing, the prototype was exposed to 20 heating cycles, each for half an hour, with no impact on durability, Ein-Eli said. "We can guarantee it up to a few dozen cycles, without any risk," he added. The prototype looks like a standard N95 face mask, with a valve at the front and bands to hold it in place around the head. The researchers submitted a patent for the mask in the United States in late March and say they are discussing commercializing the product with the private sector. It will likely sell at a $1 premium over the price of a typical disposable face mask, the researchers say. (Reporting by Rami Amichay with additional reporting by Rinat Harash in Jerusalem; Writing by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Raissa Kasolowsky) NLC Pharma has patented and developed 3C protease platform for SARS and other viruses 3C protease measures viral replication, as a rapid detection method for COVID Todos to develop At-Home Saliva test kit w/ digital analysis & software REHOVOT, Israel, and NEW YORK, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Todos Medical Ltd. (TOMDF), an in vitro diagnostics company focused on the distribution of a comprehensive suite of solutions for the screening and diagnosis of COVID-19 and the development of blood tests for the early detection of cancer and Alzheimers disease, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide distribution agreement with Israel-based NLC Pharma to commercially develop its patented virus-focused 3C Protease diagnostic platform for the diagnosis of COVID-19. 3C Protease quantitation presents a unique approach to viral replication monitoring, and could prove to be a significant tool in the fight against COVID-19, said Jorge Leon, PhD, Senior Medical Advisor to Todos. The 3C Protease is a novel target for COVID-19 drug development. It has properties that make it a strong saliva-based biomarker candidate for viral load measurement because it binds to full length viral RNA and is required prior to coronaviruses exiting host cells before going to infect other cells, and it secretes into the saliva for measurement of viral load. Because only full-length RNA is detected, it overcomes potential limitations of technologies that detect viral fractions, such as antigen testing and certain polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based tests that often yield false positives post-infection. Todos intends to develop an At-Home (or Onsite) COVID-19 diagnostic 3C Protease-based test kit for use as a diagnostic for COVID-19, using existing cell phone camera technology and proprietary software to complete the data analysis. The companies will work together towards filing an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application with the FDA in the United States and the Ministry of Health in Israel. NLC previously developed working prototypes from its 3C Protease platform for rapid detection of HRV (common cold), HMV (viral meningitis), and SARS. Story continues As we build Todos into a niche provider of COVID-19 testing solutions to laboratories, healthcare providers and policy makers worldwide, we have identified areas in the diagnostic testing space that require significant innovation, including the development of an Active Infection test that is convenient to use and can be deployed at the point of screening prior to gaining access to transmission-risky settings, said Gerald E. Commissiong, President & CEO of Todos. We believe this technology gives us a proprietary foothold in a space that is screaming for novel solutions to overcome the biological limitations of current approaches. As we begin the commercialization of our COVID-19 molecular and antibody portfolios, this proprietary technology will give us a marketing advantage as customers look to align with long-term partners. The imbedded cell phone analysis technology will allow for privacy-compliant integration with various contact tracing, telehealth, and employer-based health solutions coming to market. We are excited to have an opportunity to bring our 3C Protease technology into the marketplace to address the COVID-19 pandemic, said Dr. Dorit Arad. 3C Protease offers the first platform for rapid detection of SARS-nCoV-2 in saliva, at the reproduction stage of the virus, and will developed to be used in airports and public places, as well as in the convenience of your home to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. About the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19) Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can lead to respiratory illness, including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). Coronaviruses can be transmitted between animals and people and evolve into strains not previously identified in humans. On January 7, 2020, a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the cause of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China, and additional cases have been found in a growing number of countries worldwide. COVID-19 is the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. About NLC-Pharma NLC Pharma was created in February 2020 to manifest the IP and products that have been the subject of R&D by Dr. Dorit Arad for over 30 years, aimed to be utilized to treat and prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. NLC platform is focused on inhibiting and detecting the 3C protease that is responsible for viral reproduction. It includes a very effective natural product 3C protease inhibitors, to be used as a supplement to treat and prevent corona, and a 3 minute detection kit, that is the subject of the collaboration with Todos. About Todos Medical Ltd. Headquartered in Rehovot, Israel, Todos Medical Ltd. (TOMDF) engineers life-saving diagnostic solutions for the early detection of a variety of cancers. The Company's state-of-the-art and patented Todos Biochemical Infrared Analyses (TBIA) is a proprietary cancer-screening technology using peripheral blood analysis that deploys deep examination into cancer's influence on the immune system, looking for biochemical changes in blood mononuclear cells and plasma. Todos' two internally-developed cancer-screening tests, TMB-1 and TMB-2, have received a CE mark in Europe and are currently in a pre-commercial study with its distribution partner Orot+ (a division of Luces-Orot). Todos recently entered into an exclusive option agreement to acquire U.S.-based medical diagnostics company Provista Diagnostics, Inc. to gain rights to its Alpharetta, Georgia-based CLIA/CAP certified lab and Provista's proprietary commercial-stage Videssa breast cancer blood test. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2020. Through Breakthrough Diagnostics, Inc., its joint venture with Amarantus Bioscience Holdings, Inc. (AMBS), Todos is also actively involved with the development of blood tests for the early detection of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. Todos expected to complete the remaining unowned interest in Breakthrough in the second quarter of 2020. Todos recently entered into distribution agreements with companies to distribute certain novel coronavirus (COVID-19) test kits. The Company has entered into distribution agreements with multiple international suppliers of PCR testing kits and related materials and supplies, as well as antibody testing kits from multiple manufacturers after completing validation of said testing kits and supplies in its partner CLIA/CAP certified laboratory in the United States. Todos has formed Corona Diagnostics, LLC, a strategic collaboration with Emerald Organic Products, Inc. (EMOR), to support telemedicine and virtual pharmacy aspects of the commercialization of its COVID-19 return to work testing programs in the US. For more information, please visit https://www.todosmedical.com/ Forward-looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. For example, forward-looking statements are used when discussing our expected clinical development programs and clinical trials. These forward-looking statements are based only on current expectations of management, and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, including the risks and uncertainties related to the progress, timing, cost, and results of clinical trials and product development programs; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approval or patent protection for product candidates; competition from other biotechnology companies; and our ability to obtain additional funding required to conduct our research, development and commercialization activities. In addition, the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: changes in technology and market requirements; delays or obstacles in launching our clinical trials; changes in legislation; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; lack of validation of our technology as we progress further and lack of acceptance of our methods by the scientific community; inability to retain or attract key employees whose knowledge is essential to the development of our products; unforeseen scientific difficulties that may develop with our process; greater cost of final product than anticipated; loss of market share and pressure on pricing resulting from competition; and laboratory results that do not translate to equally good results in real settings, all of which could cause the actual results or performance to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by law, Todos Medical does not undertake any obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. For a more detailed description of the risks and uncertainties affecting Todos Medical, please refer to its reports filed from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Investor and Corporate Contact: Kim Sutton Golodetz LHA Investor Relations Senior Vice President (212) 838-3777 kgolodetz@lhai.com Corporate Contact: Daniel Hirsch Todos Medical (347) 699-0029 Dan.h@todosmedical.com She tucked into two burgers, 24 nuggets and fries from McDonalds earlier this week. And Maura Higgins looked ready to get back to healthy eating as she headed out to do a food shop at Tesco in Essex with her hairdresser pal Jay Birmingham on Tuesday. The Love Island star, 29, cut a casual figure in a blue plaid shirt, which she teamed with black leggings and white Balenciaga trainers. Stepping out: Maura Higgins headed out to do a food shop at Tesco in Essex with her hairdresser pal Jay Birmingham on Tuesday Maura wore her long brunette locks in a sleek straight centre parting and accentuated her bronzed tan with a minimal make-up look. The pair made a mad dash to her car after stocking up on food due to a sudden downpour. Maura had prepared for the rain as she pulled out a large black umbrella and hid underneath it with Jay. Low key: The Irish beauty teamed the look with black leggings and Balenciaga trainers Pretty: Maura wore her long brunette locks in a sleek straight centre parting and accentuated her bronzed tan with a minimal make-up look Best of friends: Jay gave Maura a reassuring pat on the back as they headed back to the car with their shopping Taking cover: Maura had prepared for the rain as she pulled out a large black umbrella and hid underneath it with Jay Earlier this week, Maura shocked fans with the extensive McDonalds takeaway banquet which she set out neatly on her sofa. The meal-for-one consisted of 24 chicken nuggets, a McChicken sandwich, a cheese burger and a large fries. Maura left the gut-busting photo un-captioned before devouring the cheat day meal. Oh no! The pair dashed back to her car as they got caught in the rain Good pals: Maura and Jay chatted to one another as they walked through the car park It comes just days after Maura showcased her jaw-dropping abs in a sizzling snap on Instagram Stories. Maura's outing comes after her ex Curtis admitted that he cannot face dating again following their messy split. The Love Islander, 24, has said he is not looking for another relationship after he and his former co-star broke up in a series of blazing bust-ups and public rows. Speaking to The Sun about the split, Curtis said: 'It hurt. I wasn't ready for everyone to know we had split up I wanted some time. Wow! It comes just days after Maura showcased her jaw-dropping abs in a sizzling snap on Instagram Stories 'It was a shock to see that she had announced it on social media hours later.' He insists that he is now content to remain single and will not be signing up to online dating platforms anytime soon. The TV personality added: 'I'm very old-fashioned. I don't actually like talking to people over a mobile phone or laptop. I'm a very sociable person. I like to be with somebody and talk to them.' Food shop: Maura looked like she wanted to get back into healthy eating after treating herself to an epic McDonalds meal However, Maura said that she would consider going back onto Love Island because she 'needs a man'. The brunette beauty took to Instagram last month to discuss her love life with fans. She rubbished claims linking her to Dancing on Ice partner Alexander Demetriou after he separated from his wife of four years, Carlotta Edwards, last month. Maura said during the Q and A: 'It doesn't bother me. We're in 2020 and a man and woman cannot just be friends...' She then zoomed in on her face and said: 'Pure sh*** you know'. Single: The television personality recently said she would consider going back on Love Island because she 'needs a man' Police in Portland, Oregon, said they were investigating after two people were struck by a car that drove through a crowd of anti-racism protesters in the early hours of June 17. A vehicle that was possibly involved was stopped, police said. This footage shows a car accelerate through the protesters, knocking at least one person to the ground. The car then drives off as people run after it. The car circles the block, and returns a short time later, clipping another vehicle as it drives towards the protesters a second time. A man gets out of the car briefly, then gets back in and drives away. Credit: Kevin Parks via Storyful In May 2020, a U.S. Navy P-8A maritime surveillance aircraft was spotted flying near the new Chinese naval base on Hainan Island. This large island, 30 kilometers off the southern coast of China, is where China has built several new naval bases. Foreign reconnaissance aircraft can operate close (22 kilometers off the coast), but most stay out a little further because China is hostile to foreign intelligence aircraft or ships anywhere near their coast. What made this P-8A mission special was the aircraft was carrying, under its fuselage, a long box-like sensor known as the APS-154 AAS (Advanced Airborne Sensor). This is a solid-state, wide-aperture, AESA (active electronically scanned array) radar with numerous capabilities, most of them classified. The APS-154 also contains a SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and ISAR (Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar) that captures photo-like images. All these sensors operate simultaneously against whatever is present in a nearly 360-degree area around the aircraft. This further aids in real-time identification of what is below. All this data is shared in real-time with encrypted digital communications. The 154 is also believed to collect electronic emissions from whatever is down there and link those emissions with specific vessels or land-based facilities and moving objects, especially ships. The APS-154 not only detects and tracks ships below, but uses a digital library to identify them in real-time. This provides target information for long-range weapons launched from distant ships or aircraft. All this data can then be used by a missile fired from another aircraft or ship at a moving target. The AN-154 can do this at a distant target, often one outside the range of most anti-aircraft weapons. These sensors work at night and in bad (overcast) weather for tracking land-based moving targets as well as ships. The AESA can also carry out jamming or radar deception tasks. This justifies all the secrecy because if potential enemies knew the details, they would be better able to degrade the effectiveness of the AN-154 system. The APS-154 replaces or supplements the older APS-149 LSRS (Littoral Surveillance Radar System) and apparently has a lot of added or improved features. The APS-149 was also attached underneath the fuselage of the P-8 or older P-3C via three attachment points. The APS-154 was seen being flight tested on a P-8 in 2015 and is believed to have entered service by 2018. The APS-154 is used mainly on P-8s that have additional electronics installed to handle all the APS-154 capabilities. The navy does not reveal which of its hundred or so P-8s in service can handle the APS-154 or when P-8s fly missions equipped with the APS-154. This way the nation about to be scanned cannot take special measures to conceal what is down there and which of its electronic devices are normally operating. APS-154 equipped P-8s are known to have made two recent flights near the Hainan Yulin naval base. This is the major base for the Chinese Southern Fleet and its Type 94 SSBNs (nuclear powered ballistic missile carrying submarines) as well as many naval aircraft. The APS-154 equipped P-8s are also believed to have visited Chinese naval facilities throughout the South China Sea as well as major Chinese naval training exercises on the high seas. The APS-154 can spot ships and detect electronic signals more than a hundred kilometers distant, but the closer the APS-154 is to something the more detail is obtained. There are currently 124 P-8s in service or on order and the U.S. Navy expects to eventually have 122 of them. Using the APS-154, the P-8 can fly higher and faster than the older P-3C. While the P-3C often carried the APS-149, that aircraft was also equipped with more and more electronic sensors and had its maritime surveillance capabilities modified so the aircraft was also very useful patrolling over land areas. The P-8 has built on that experience. Until recently many NATO countries felt little need to upgrade their ASW (anti-submarine warfare) aircraft, which were usually P-3s. But since 2014 Russia has revived the Cold War and a growing number of NATO nations are responding by purchasing P-8As rather than refurbishing their P-3Cs so those could serve another ten or twenty years. With Russia a growing threat, the more expensive option (P-8As) became more attractive, in part because the P-8A can also handle ELINT (intelligence collection) work thus replacing smaller dedicated ELINT aircraft. The P-8 Poseidon is based on the widely used Boeing 737 airliner. Although the Boeing 737 based P-8A is a two-engine jet, compared to the four-engine turboprop P-3, it is a far more capable aircraft. The P-8A has 23 percent more floor space than the P-3, is larger (38 meter/118 foot wingspan versus 32.25 meter/100 foot), and heavier (83 tons versus 61). Most other characteristics are the same. Both can stay in the air for about 10 hours per sortie. Speed is different. Cruise speed for the 737 is 910 kilometers an hour, versus 590 for the P-3. This makes it possible for the P-8A to get to a patrol area faster, which is a major advantage when chasing down subs first spotted by distant sonar arrays or satellites. However, the P-3 can carry more weapons (9 tons versus 5.6). This is less of a factor as the weapons, torpedoes, missiles, mines, and up to 129 sonobuoys) are lighter and more effective today, and that trend continues. Both carry the same size crew of 10-11 pilots and equipment operators. Both aircraft carry search radar and various other sensors. The P-8A will be the first 737 designed with a bomb bay and four wing racks for weapons. The 737 has, like the P-3, been equipped with hardpoints on the wings for torpedoes or missiles. The B-737 is a more modern design and has been used successfully since the 1960s by commercial aviation. Navy aviators are confident that it will be as reliable as the P-3 and so far P-8s have over 255,000 flight hours and demonstrated that the new maritime reconnaissance aircraft is reliable. The P-3 was based on the Electra civilian airliner that first flew in 1954, although only 170 were built, plus 600 P-3s. Some Electras are still in service. The Boeing 737 first flew in 1965, and over 5,000 have been built. The P-8 entered service in 2013. The U.S. is buying 122 P-8s and already has most of its planned P-8s in service. The P-8A got good reviews from its American crews as well as those of export customers. That is important because export customers for the P-3 are still operating about 200 of those aircraft and the P-8A is looking more attractive as a replacement. Some nations are using business jets equipped for maritime reconnaissance but without the P-8s ASW capabilities. An Aboriginal teenager is suing the state of New South Wales after he was allegedly assaulted by a police officer in an unprovoked attack. The alleged assault on Centre Street, Casino, NSW, in September last year was caught on video by a bystander. The teenager, who was 17 at the time, was walking home at 12.30am when he was surrounded by three police officers. After a brief conversation one of the officers allegedly hit the boy in the head. The incident has been described as 'abhorrent and racist' and an 'oppressive abuse of police powers' in a statement of claim filed in the Lismore district court. The teenager is suing for damages for alleged assault, battery, false imprisonment and trespass to property, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The teenager claimed he was speaking to his mother on his phone as he walked home when the police car pulled over. He said the officers surrounded him and wanted to search him but he refused, telling them not to touch him. In the footage, the teenager can be seen slapping away the hand of one officer, before another policeman responded with the alleged punch. The teenager claimed he was left with a bleeding lip and a bruised jaw after the alleged incident. The bystander can then be heard yelling: 'Hey, no need for that mate. I got that all on record. I just seen it. You got no way of denyin' it.' The officer can then be heard asking the teenager: 'Why'd you have a swing at him?' The teenager was stopped by police officers while walking home in September last year. The teen claims police wanted to search him but he refused The boy responded, telling him he didn't take a swing. 'Police officers targeted an Aboriginal boy, for no reason whatsoever, and then proceeded to degrade and humiliate him in the most cynical way,' the statement of claim said. 'The conduct complained of demonstrates a failure by the Richmond Local Area Command to properly train, discipline and educate its police officers to prevent them from racially vilifying young Aboriginal males in the Casino area.' It is also alleged that when the teenager and his cousin went to the police station to complain, police refused to speak to them and locked the doors. A bystander captured the alleged assault on camera. In the footage, the teenager can be seen slapping away the hand of one officer, before another policeman responded with the alleged punch NSW police would not comment when approached by Daily Mail Australia as the matter is before the courts. Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott said 'as the matter is currently before the courts it would be inappropriate for me to comment at this stage'. A pre-trial conference for the case is expected to be heard in Lismore district court next week. The court action comes as police are put under further scrutiny amid the Black Lives Matter movement. The movement has seen protests spring up around the western world in response to American demonstrations following the death of black security guard George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday has accused Rivers State Governor Nyesome Wike of killing the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). According to the ruling party, Wikes inglorious roles when the then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration introduced the 16 is greater than 19 political formula led to the bodys collapse. Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has revealed that Nigeria Is currently in financial crisis and the leaders are only robbing the future generations to pay for their greed. Speaking via his official Twitter handle on Tuesday, he added that the revelation from the countrys First Quarter 2020 financial reports in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, is the most shocking report he has seen in his life. Advertisement The Federal Government schools and universities will reopen amid coronavirus pandemic, only when they meet these conditions. According to the federal government, the conditions are to protect pupils and students against Coronavirus. The former general officer commanding the Nigerian army 8 division in Sokoto, Hakeem Otiki has been court martial and sacked for N400 theft. The sentence was handed to him on Monday night at the army headquarters garrison in Abuja. A part of his sentence includes a reduction of his rank to brigadier general with two years seniority on count three and severe reprimand on count four. The Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) led by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has urged the federal government to consider suspending the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp exercises for two years. This recommendation was contained in its report presented to President Muhammadu Buhari last week. Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state, says Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is afraid of educated people because he did not go to school. The Governor who recently dumped the APC said this, while speaking with state house correspondents on Tuesday. The governor, left the party after he was disqualified from the 2019 APC primary election When asked to share the digitalisation journey of insurance giant Chubb, Michael Eksteen offered a simple analogy: you dont trade in your car and ask that they use the same engine and wheels of your previous car. Speaking as vice president of digital across the Asia-Pacific region, the Singapore-based executive acknowledged the delicate balancing act of implementing new technologies while accounting for previous investments and legacy infrastructure. At some point, you need to make a choice between fixing up the old version, hoping for better efficiency whilst impacting the environment, versus a completely new driving experience, he said. The world is changing and will change even faster, and technology will change accordingly. Technology should always be a core, dynamic enabler. [ Keep up on the latest thought leadership, insights, how-to, and analysis on IT through CIOs newsletters. ] Eksteen was quick to acknowledge however that technologywhether artificial intelligence, machine learning or automationcannot become disruptive in isolation. What will be disruptive is the person or company that understands how to package this into a product that the market wants, he said. Technology must allow for incremental, better efficiency and overall, a better customer experience. Since joining the organisation in May 2016, Eksteen has built Chubb Digital from the ground up. From concept to creation, Chubb Digital now operates as an integrated digital unit in Asia-Pacific, tasked with transforming insurance from product-focused to customer-first. Eksteens remit includes the development of the Chubb Asia-Pacific digitalisation vision, business strategy and core team. This spans responsibility for architecting and developing the Chubb API and cloud infrastructure, digital products and new digital economy partner on-boarding strategy, which includes Uber, DBS, and Grab. The innovation originated from a need to transform the existing legacy business into a digitally integrated one. According to Eksteen, the objective was and still is end-to-end digitalisation and simplification of the insurance product process. This means assuming responsibility for the full life cycle, spanning new policy sales to servicing and claims. Add in the complexities of Covid-19 and Eksteenrecently recognised in the augural CIO50 ASEAN Awards acknowledged the business has adopted a crouch and hold rugby-style approach. In other words, focus on stability, he added. We are moving to the next phase of our digital business, having built a good core platform over the last two to three years. We are razor focused on strategic partnerships and ecosystem growth where technology will play a significant role in on-boarding, integration, optimisation and ongoing innovation of insurance services. According to Eksteen, the notion of unique innovation doesnt exist, with instead the deployment and packaging of such innovation key to making a difference. Specific to Chubb, and through a digital-first approach, the business on-boarded best-of-0breed partners also operating in the digital ecosystem, such as Grab and DBS. Building a tech bridge to business Despite success, Eksteen acknowledged that transforming legacy businesses is a disruptive endeavour in large corporate environments in which the systems in place previously served a very meaningful and profitable purpose. Therefore, digital leaders must overcome large portions of the business which do not see the need for change, especially if change is a moving and abstract target. In response, Eksteen and his team tackled the unsexy areas of transformation, from structure, operations and back-end IT to culture and way of thinking, spanning the entire organisation. Unsurprisingly, Chubbs technology investment is aligned with business growth to enhance efficiency across the entire organisation. If we grow, we have more to reinvest back to enhance our key capabilities, Eksteen explained. We measure success in technology by two key indicators: revenue and efficiency. Revenue is also a key measurement of positive customer experience and overall impact. While technology is seen as a key enabler, its the business model built around product offerings and service experience localised for key markets that is the differentiator. 15 years of success and failure build character Operating in the trenches of digital and mobile technology for more than 15 years, Eksteen has experienced a healthy mix of success and failure during his career, having started out in his homeland of South Africa. It builds character and wisdom as I move on, he acknowledged. The one constant throughout my journey has been to create. I like building things and to then stand back to look at how that idea transformed into reality, something tangible and seeing it grow. Having founded and co-founded a range of diverse technology venturessuch as Tech in AfricaEksteen remains an entrepreneur at heart, citing his greatest career achievement as enabling people. I take great pride in seeing people gain confidence and advance as the business grows, he said. Yes, we have done a few cool things on the technology and product front, but the people behind it gaining greater competency and confidence, and then advancing their careers as a result is the achievement, and that leads to all the other obvious business results. On the flip side, however, Eksteen accepted that challenges occur when companies lack clear vision, in addition to side-stepping simple, actionable steps to get there in the first place. In a fluid world, the companies that lack vision and do not place absolute trust in their teams to execute, will find it very hard to get anything done and will be constantly chasing and reacting to the next big thing, he added. Leaders do not win races by committees, you win races by envisioning it, ensuring your teams understand what you want to achieve, then putting in place the steps to plan and prepare for it. On race day, you should get out of the way and let the teams deliver the results. Then you assess, optimise and the cycle starts again. As a result, Eksteen believes a successful modern-day technology executive can be judged by two key criteria. Firstly, think like a business owner or an entrepreneur, he said. This means having a crystal-clear vision and the formulation of the right business model at the heart of it. At the core, you have efficiency and constant measurement of performance. Any inefficiency will hamper your ability to scale sustainably. Secondly, Eksteen said the ability to attract talent and build multi-functional teams to work effectively within very fluid environmentswhile not becoming distracted by the floodgates of challenges and market shiftsis be crucial. A greater focus on the people is the key to any business success, he advised. Once you have the team in place, you can build just about anything with technology and excel in product innovation. Pakistani troops shelled various forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on Wednesday, promoting the Indian Army to give a befitting reply, officials said. "At around 7.15 pm, Pakistani Army initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and resorting to intense shelling of mortars along the LoC in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district," a defence spokesperson said. "The Indian Army is retaliating befittingly," he said. Firing and shelling between the two sides were continuing when the last report came in, officials said. Black members of the military services are disciplined more frequently than white military services members. This fact isnt surprising. Black public school students are disciplined more frequently than white public students. Black civilians commit a disproportionate number of homicides and other violent crimes. There is no reason to infer discrimination from the fact that blacks are disciplined by the military to a disproportionate degree. It might well be that blacks are disciplined more frequently because they commit more offenses. Yet, Rep. Jackie Speier, chair of the House Armed Services Committees military personnel subcommittee, is demanding that senior defense officials acknowledge that the military justice system is biased. The hearing she held this week was called Racial Disparity in the Military Justice System How to Fix the Culture. But does the military culture need fixing in this regard? Nothing in this report by the Washington Post about the hearing suggests that it does. Judging from the Posts report, the best Speier could do was to sniff that the results [of the military justice system] are repugnant. But they are repugnant only if they are unjust. And they are unjust only if black personnel are being wrongfully charged or convicted to a disproportionate degree or if white personnel are disproportionately being let off the hook improperly. Lt. Gen. Charles Pede, the Army judge advocate general, testified that my experience tells me that we have an extraordinarily healthy system of justice. He added, however, that we simply do not know what we dont know. Fair enough. There would be nothing wrong with a fair-minded investigation into whether systemic racial bias exists in the military discipline system. That investigation wouldnt focus on numbers, but instead on whether a close examination of individual cases reveals a pattern of disparate treatment of similarly situated personnel based on race. However, Pede seemed to skip that step. He told the subcommittee it is our job to discover what needs fixing and to fix it. No, his proper job is to determine whether anything needs fixing and, if so, to fix it. Mere numerical disparities arent evidence that anything needs to be fixed. The view that they are suggests a willingness to use, de facto, two different disciplinary standards one for whites and a more lenient one for blacks in order to make the numbers come out right. (As we have pointed out many times in many contexts, per Jim Scanlan, a lowering of standards for all groups might well increase the disparity in racial outcomes.) This would amount to systemic discrimination in favor of blacks in the administration of military justice. Such a regime wouldnt simply be unjust; it would tend to undermine the military. I hope we havent reached the point where our military can be browbeaten by the left into going this far. Events of past weeks have challenged the assertion of progress toward racial justice within our American society. As Black Lives Matter assemblies have occurred across the nation and the globe, some people are sensing a shift in mood and just maybe a change in our culture. How does it feel to be Black in America? That question is at the root of our persistent problems within the United States. For those people who are born of color black or brown the feeling is that we are not wholly American, especially as viewed by others in our nation. While we aspire to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.s dream for people to not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, the lack of empathy by some of our fellow citizens is clearly in evidence through behaviors demonstrated in communities across America. How can others gain empathy? Well, it is unlikely they will follow the path of John Howard Griffin who underwent medication and ultra-violet light treatments to darken his skin. Griffin spent several weeks in the South to briefly experience life as a Negro/Black man that he documented in Black Like Me published in 1961. It would be simpler to read Ralph Ellisons 1952 novel Invisible Man, which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Or read Dr. Kings Letter from a Birmingham Jail penned in April 1963, four months before his I Have a Dream speech given at the March on Washington, D.C. What are the feelings of being Black in America? After delving into these three texts from nearly 60 years ago or longer, the feelings of outrage, sadness and, yes, hopelessness are understandable. Empathy will lead to the judgment that such conditions are inconsistent with our espoused national values and are unacceptable, thus we must take action to be true to what being American really means. In our Carlisle community we have several opportunities and forums to learn about each other among them are Moving Circles (movingcircles@yahoo.com) and Racial Justice Book Club (rjbookclubcarlisle@gmail.com). Email Tammie at tgitt@cumberlink.com. Follow her on Twitter @TammieGitt. Love 8 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 By PTI MUMBAI: Three Chinese firms are among the 12 companies from different countries with which the Maharashtra government has signed MoUs collectively worth Rs 16,000 crore. The investment of the three Chinese companies is collectively worth over Rs 5,000 crore, an official statement has said. The MoUs were signed on Monday under the "Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0" hours before the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, in which 20 Indian Army personnel were martyred. All the three Chinese companies- Hengli Engineering, PMI Electro Mobility Solutions JV with Photon and Great Wall Motors will invest in Talegaon in Pune district, the statement has said. Hengli Engineering will invest Rs 250 crore, PMI will invest Rs 1,000 crore in the auto sector, it said, adding that Great tWall Motors will set up an automobile company with investment of Rs 3,770 crore. MoUs were also signed with companies from other countries like the USA, Singapore and South Korea. They are from diverse sectors like automobile, logistics, banking, engineering and mobile production, it has said. A Massachusetts man has been charged with sending emails that contained threats of violence and racial slurs to Danielle Outlaw, the police commissioner in Philadelphia, during the citys protests over the death of George Floyd, the authorities said on Tuesday. The man, Peter Fratus, of West Dennis, Mass., used a Gmail account to send two messages to the Police Department email address of Commissioner Outlaw, who is African-American, on June 6, amid some of the largest protests across the nation over police misconduct, a criminal complaint said. The first message, which was sent at 11:18 p.m. Eastern time, threatened to hang black people and also contained anti-Semitic references to the Holocaust, the complaint said. The second message, sent one minute later, had a racial slur in the subject line and said in the body, Where does police chief live?, according to the complaint. Mr. Fratus, 38, was identified two days later as the person who sent the messages, said the authorities, who subpoenaed his internet provider address from Comcast and Apple. He admitted when he was interviewed by the authorities that he had sent the messages and had crossed the line, the complaint said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:23:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi suggested on Wednesday that China and India strengthen communication and coordination on properly addressing the border situation and jointly maintain the peace and tranquility in the border areas. In a telephone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Wang said that Indian frontline border defense troops on Monday night blatantly broke the consensus reached at the commander-level talks between the militaries of the two sides. Under the circumstance that the current situation in the Galwan Valley has eased, the Indian troops once again crossed the Line of Actual Control for deliberate provocation, and even violently attacked the Chinese officers and soldiers who went to the terrain for negotiation, thus triggering fierce physical conflicts and causing casualties. The hazardous move of the Indian army severely violated the agreement reached between the two countries on the border issue and the basic norms of international relations, he said, while voicing China's strong opposition to the move of the Indian side. China demands that India carry out a thorough investigation into the incident, severely punish those who should be held accountable, strictly discipline Indian frontline troops, and immediately stop all provocative actions so as to ensure that such incidents do not happen again, Wang said, adding that India must not misjudge the current situation, or underestimate China's firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty. He stressed that China and India, both emerging powers with a population of over 1 billion, bear the historic mission of accelerating their own development and rejuvenation. Hence, acts of mutual respect and mutual support are on the right track and conform to the long-term interests of both countries, whereas those of mutual distrust and friction belong to an evil path and go against the fundamental aspiration of the two peoples, Wang said. He suggested that China and India follow important consensuses reached by the leaders of the two countries and leverage such existing channels as meetings between the two countries' special representatives on the boundary issue and meetings between border troops of both sides. Enditem BOSTON, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, today announced the expansion of its partnerships with leading technology companies to address the convergence of IT and OT. Bringing together system integrators with IT solution providers to build integrated industrial edge computing solutions, the expanded partnerships have resulted in the immediate release of three programs including: new reference designs, co-developed with AVEVA, and integrating solutions from Lenovo and Stratus; a learning path for system integrators; and a collaborative online community for learning and sharing opportunities within Schneider Electric Exchange. The industrial edge programs from Schneider Electric empower system integrators to expand their value to the end user, enabling their customers' industrial digital transformations. "The smart factory is becoming smarter. Our expanded partnerships and new industrial edge programs empower system integrators to leverage their domain expertise and become IT/OT convergence specialists and meet these needs for their customers," said Philippe Rambach, Senior Vice President, Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric. "We know that smart manufacturing is driving an unprecedented wave of IT technologies into industrial spaces. As companies leverage AI, robotic processing automation, and more, they will require edge computing solutions to reduce latency and enable resiliency, while ensuring privacy and security, and addressing important data and bandwidth requirements." What is the Industrial Edge? For industrial operators to capture the benefits of increased automation, they cannot rely on cloud-technology alone to bring the resiliency and speed demanded by AI, HD cameras and other Industry 4.0 technologies. Local edge data centers are IT infrastructure enclosures/spaces/facilities distributed geographically to enable endpoints on the network. When in industrial environments such as a manufacturing plant or distribution center, this application is referred to as "industrial edge." Analysts have identified the edge as becoming increasingly important. "The industrial edge is one of the fastest-growing segments of industrial automation and a key driver that is influencing digital transformation," according to Craig Resnick, Vice President, ARC Advisory Group. "To achieve the shortest possible ROI, manufacturers must properly measure asset performance, rapidly identify any problem areas, and make any crucial changes in real-time that will drastically improve their operations. The industrial edge is where this important on-site data capture occurs, real-time analysis of this data is performed and converted into intelligent information, and then shared with the cloud and throughout the entire enterprise while addressing manufacturers' concerns, such as latency and security for production environments." Opening up new business models for system integrators, the newly announced industrial edge programs include: Reference designs that integrate leading edge technologies to simplify design process Schneider Electric has unveiled new industrial edge reference designs, co-developed with AVEVA, including solutions from Lenovo and Stratus. Reference designs are available* in Schneider Electric's Local Edge Configurator and can be customized to specifications. These new designs are a key factor in industrial edge success. World Wide Technology finds the "ability to pre-configure technology platforms and devices before shipment increases deployment speed and can reduce field engineering costs by 25-40%, increase order processing speed by 20%, and reduce maintenance costs by 7%." Based on the most common use cases in industrial automation, the reference designs reduce risk and time to market with fully customizable, pre-integrated EcoStruxure Micro Data Center solutions for any edge environment. System integrators will be freeing up time from the IT architecture to focus on the software and solutions, thanks to fully validated, secure solutions designed to the standards requested by IT departments. A professional development path for system integrators to address new requirements of industrial edge computing Edge computing is an emerging trend for the industrial space presenting a new opportunity for system integrators to extend their business model and establish their role as consultants in both the OT and IT requirements. This new learning program includes a comprehensive digital training series for system integrators on EcoStruxure Micro Data Center and EcoStruxure IT solutions and how they can address common challenges at the edge. The 14-session development program focuses on how to leverage the reference designs and IT solution providers to deliver complete IT/OT convergence solutions for end users. To access the digital training series, system integrators will connect through their Schneider Electric Alliance Partner Portal. An Industrial Edge Exchange Community to increase business opportunities and foster collaboration Built within Schneider Electric Exchange, the new Industrial Edge Community allows system integrators to easily identify and engage with edge-certified IT solution providers. The Industrial Edge Community is designed to facilitate new business and address IT/OT projects. The Exchange platform also features a tool that pairs Alliance System Integrators with Schneider Electric's Edge-certified IT Channel Partners. Schneider Electric has more than 1,000 industry-leading Alliance System Integrator Partners in 67 countries, and more than 400 IT solution providers in its award-winning partner program worldwide who are already certified to build, deploy, and service edge computing solutions. "Schneider Electric's extensive partner ecosystem is unparalleled in both IT and OT systems, making it an unrivalled advantage over the competition," said Pankaj Sharma, Executive Vice President, Secure Power, Schneider Electric. "When you combine the power of the partner ecosystem with our expertise at the edge and the breadth of our offer, it's a winning trifecta for system integrators and IT solution providers." System integrators interested in gaining access to the new reference designs, learning path, and the collaborative online community are encouraged to visit the Schneider Electric Partner Portal for more information. About EcoStruxure EcoStruxure is our open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform. EcoStruxure delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity for our customers. EcoStruxure leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics, and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at Every Level. This includes Connected Products, Edge Control, and Apps, Analytics & Services which are supported by Customer Lifecycle Software. EcoStruxure has been deployed in almost 500,000 sites with the support of 20,000+ developers, 650,000 service providers and partners, 3,000 utilities and connects over 2 million assets under management. From energy and sustainability consulting to optimizing the life cycle of your operational systems, we have world-wide services to meet your business needs. As a customer-centric organization, Schneider Electric is your trusted advisor to help increase asset reliability, improve total cost of ownership and drive your enterprise's digital transformation towards sustainability, efficiency and safety. About Schneider Electric At Schneider Electric, we believe access to energy and digital is a basic human right. We empower all to make the most of their energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment. We provide energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. We combine world-leading energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services into integrated solutions for Homes, Buildings, Data Centers, Infrastructure and Industries. We are committed to unleash the infinite possibilities of an open, global, innovative community that is passionate about our Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values. www.se.com Discover Life Is On | Discover EcoStruxure Related resources: Follow us on: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | Blog | SETV Hashtags: #LifeIsOn #IndustrialEdge #EcoStruxure #EdgeComputing *Industrial Edge Reference Designs are available Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States. Additional countries to be added. SOURCE Schneider Electric Related Links http://www.se.com ELKO As the Committee Against Domestic Violence turns 40 this year, the organization that serves victims of domestic violence is reeling from the impact of COVID-19. Harbor House staff have kept busy during the many weeks of quarantine at the organizations shelter, assisting clients in obtaining protection orders in the Elko Countys justice courts, following up on hearings, and adhering to social distancing guidelines. The employees of CADV are considered essential since we help an at-risk population, so my employees still came to work every day, said Executive Director Marianne McKown. But the staff still have to maintain contact with individuals, McKown said. Clients were screened over the phone for coronavirus symptoms to comply with social distancing parameters. Although the shelter did not see an increase in cases during the quarantine, the rural outreach program that serves outlying Elko County, along with Eureka and Ely, was put on hold. It prevented CADV advocates from assisting senior populations in isolated communities. We have an advocate that is dedicated to reaching out to abuse victims who are 50 and older. She traveled to the Elko, Carlin and Wells senior centers on a regular basis, McKown explained. CADV has also felt the impact financially as events in Elko were canceled, including a fundraiser in April. The main way organizations raise funds [for us] is through events, McKown explained. One of those organizations is the Lamoille Womens Club, who has been a decades-long supporter of CADV. We still have furniture in our office that was donated by the club in 1998, she said. They are still giving to CADV. They are one of the main groups that helps to keep our pantry and freezers full. However, it is unclear how much support the club can offer CADV this year. I cant speak for them, but Im not sure how much they will be able to help this coming year since they had to cancel the Lamoille Country Fair, McKown said. Another blow was dealt this month when McKown learned there would be an $81,000 decrease in funding from a state grant that allocates a portion of marriage licenses fees to domestic violence agencies in Nevada. Referred to as the marriage license funds, McKown applies from all three counties for money that is distributed through a population formula. These state funds are very helpful because our federal grants limit what we are allowed to pay for to help victims of abuse, she explained. Federal grants come with stipulations in the form of unfunded mandates, such as requiring liability insurance but not covering the insurance premiums. They may also limit the amount of money used on expenses such as meals for victims staying in a shelter, or administration salary for the director or bookkeeper. The funds generated by marriage licenses were less restrictive than many of the federal grants, McKown said. In March, McKown said the state estimated CADV could receive about $121,799. This month a new estimate was released, decreasing the amount by $40,601. We have to find a way to make up for an $81,190 loss to our budget. Other domestic violence agencies are also experiencing an 87% drop in funding compared to last year, according to the state and the Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. Despite the news, the shelter can keep functioning. CADV retained a full staff of five through some funds that were put aside, and McKown will be applying for supplemental grants, even though the money is not guaranteed. With CADV funds now earmarked for operations, maintenance and improvement projects for the kitchen and grounds will be put on the back burner for us. I was hoping to raise money to replace our cast iron pipes with PVC, purchase new bunk beds for our bedrooms in the shelter and finish putting in a tile floor in our offices, McKown said. But instead, the money raised will be used to fill the gap caused by the decrease in the Victims of Domestic Violence funding generated by marriage licenses in the state. Right now, monetary donations and contributions of dry goods and frozen meat to the food pantry are what the shelter needs, McKown said. Say I Do, a fundraiser set for June 26, will draw attention to the financial issues faced by domestic violence agencies across the state. Ruby Mountain Pawn is collecting donations for CADV, which will contribute in-kind donations of food and hygiene products. Having this as a drop-off point for donations also allows CADV to maintain the confidentiality of the shelters location and confidentiality of our clients, McKown said. This community helped build Harbor House, so many people know where we are located, but we dont advertise our physical address to the general public. CADV has come a long way in four decades. It is now an agency staffed by five employees who cover more than 30,000 square miles in three rural Nevada counties, serving victims of domestic violence and survivors of sexual assault and stalking of all ages. During that time, Harbor House has become a staple of the community and a place where many can begin a new life, McKown said. Only 20 percent of our clients need shelter, but 100 percent need us there as the listener who helps them move from being a victim to blossoming into a survivor. 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. San Jose, California--(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2020) - DynoSense Corp. announced today it that entered into a commercial agreement with Advent Holdings Inc., a Canadian-based company listed on TSX Venture Exchange, pursuant to which Advent, through a wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary, will sell and distribute DynoSense's products and services in Hong Kong and Macau under a license granted to it by DynoSense. Under the terms of the commercial agreement, Advent will pay $1 million CAD to DynoSense on or before June 30, 2020, half of which constitutes the advance payment for inventory of certain products. The initial term of the commercial agreement will be five years and may be renewed for an additional five one-year terms thereafter, subject to certain revenue targets being met at the time of each renewal. The commercial agreement is subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange. Figure 1 To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6522/58058_4cc7b7660a9e681b524fe7efa205.jpg DynoSense deploys smart AI-powered software tools, connected FDA cleared devices, personalized digital planning, HIPAA compliant platform, and 24/7/365 care support to make it easy for physicians to adopt Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), Chronic Care Management (CCM) and Telecare in their practice to improve care and increase revenue. Its comprehensive solution has already been recognized by leading physicians who also love the deployment simplicity of its proven business model. Alice Chiu, president and CEO of Advent, stated: "We believe that this opportunity will strategically build on Advent's current mobile and Internet business by expanding into the digital health industry, which we felt is showing its tremendous growth opportunities in the post-COVID-19 pandemic crisis." "I am delighted by the prospect of expanding our revenue further into Asia, and later Canada, through this agreement with Advent," said Saeed Azimi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DynoSense Corp. "Alice and her team share our vision and passion for better health through better care." "DynoSense has built outstanding technologies and capabilities for addressing the large market for remote care assessment and management," said Paul Chau, Senior Partner of WI Harper Group, member of the board and a major early lead investor in DynoSense. DynoSense's solution has a market size exceeding $50B dollars, spanning multiple segments including elderly healthcare, remote chronic care, hospital discharge management, contract research organizations (CROs), and consumer health and wellness. In this post-COVID-19 era, "A new era of cloud-based remote health monitoring and analysis systems is upon us," said Lee Winters, MD. "This will radically change the practice of medicine in and usher new ways of caring for patients, especially those in outlying and rural locations." "41 Million deaths globally each year are caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), contributing 71% of all deaths globally. However, most of these diseases are preventable with innovative quality care that empowers individuals while connecting them with the right support," said Dr. Peter Yan, Medical Director and Co-Founder WL&H, Cardiologist and Physician, MBBS (Singapore), M.Med (Int Med), FAMS (Cardiology). About Advent Holdings Inc.: Advent-AWI Holdings Inc., incorporated in 1984 and based in Vancouver, Canada, is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV: AWI) together with its subsidiaries and provides cellular and wireless products, services, and accessories in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Wireless Business and Financing Business. The Wireless Business segment offers wireless voice and data, high-speed internet, digital cable television, home phone, smart home monitoring, and Rogers Bank Mastercard products. The Financing Business segment provides personal and collateral loans across the Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto Areas. About WI Harper Group: Founded in 1993 by Peter Liu, WI Harper is a pioneering cross-border venture capital firm investing in early to growth-stage companies across the U.S., Greater China, and Asia-Pacific with more than 400 companies in the fields of healthcare, biotech, artificial intelligence, robotics, fintech, sustainability, and new media. WI Harper is actively overseeing more than $1 billion in assets under management with 100-plus successful IPO and M&A exits. Three offices in San Francisco, Beijing, and Taipei allow their stellar team of experts to identify and capitalize on opportunities both in the U.S. and Asia. About DynoSense: DynoSense is a growing global startup founded in Silicon Valley USA with a division in Nanjing, China, a technological innovator with the objective to improve and enable personalization, prediction, prevention, and participatory health & wellness through augmenting personalized care with Digital Therapeutics. This sophisticated AI-powered health management solutions, called Health Relationship Management Solution (HRMS) is comprised of patented tools such as a clinically validated, FDA-cleared vital sign measurement system and physiological and behavioral health assessment system to deliver better clinical and financial outcomes while creating a better experience for participating members. For more information on DynoSense and its products, please visit: www.dynosense.com. # # # Media Contact: press@dynosense.com 650-397-6103 Related Links DynoSense Corp. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/58058 Politics make strange bedfellows and none could be more oddly paired than the present coordination of Black and Arab sympathizers, as is evinced in this photo of a mural of George Floyd on the Palestinian side of Israels security wall. For some time now, black American and Palestinian sympathizers have tried to make common cause with each other. The most famous example would be that of Marc Lamont Hill, a former CNN commentator, and the words he delivered to the United Nations: "We have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grass-roots action, local action and international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea," -- YouTube The phrase, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, are not-so-coded words which call for the destruction of Israel. Unfortunately, many American blacks have fallen for this halcyon view of Arab-black solidarity. What is rarely addressed is that the Arabic root for slave and black is the same: A-B-D. The word, Abeed is considered equivalent to the American vulgarity used for blacks. The Arab community knows this word all too well; Abeed is a derogatory Arabic slang term that is used to refer to Black people. This word is almost synonymous with the N- word. -- Muslim Girl The sad fact is that the traffic in blacks as slaves is almost certainly traceable to Islam. [H]ow many recall that Arab slavers were the first, and last, in modern times to ship millions of Africans out of the continent as slaves? And that Arab slavers preferred more African women to men? -- New African It can be argued that the transatlantic slave trade started with Islam. Prior to 1492, it had often been the practice of Europeans to enslave other whites. The most important source of slaves in medieval Europe... was the coast of Bosnia on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea. The word slave and its cognates in most modern European languages is itself derived from sclavus meaning slav, the ethnic name for the inhabitants of this region -- New African When the open fields of the Americas required cheap labor, the Arabs introduced Europeans to black slavery. This slave trade continued long after the Western World outlawed slavery. After abolishing their own trade in African slaves, [Europeans would highlight] the wickedness of the Arab slavers who continued to enslave Africans well into the first decades of the 20th century. Even to this day, Arab slavers are still at work in Sudan and Mauritania, buying and selling black Africans. -- New African So what can we say about this Arabic slave trade? Was it worse or better than the Western variety? [A]t least, 80 percent of those captured by Muslim slave traders were calculated to have died before reaching the slave market, it is believed that the death toll from 1400 years of Arab and Muslim slave raids into Africa could have been as high as 112 Millions. When added to the number of those sold in the slave markets, the total number of African victims of the trans-Saharan and East African slave trade could be significantly higher than 140 Million people. -- John Allembillah Azumah, author of The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa: A Quest for Inter-religious Dialogue Notice that 1400 years is given for the length of Muslim slave raids into Africa. That is the whole of Islamic history. Almost certainly, Arabs were enslaving blacks before Islam, and the numbers are therefore much higher. The transatlantic slave trade did not start until after Columbus discovered the New World, and so we find that Islams enslavement of blacks is far greater -- and worse yet, ongoing -- than any guilt borne by the West. The Arab slave trade often had a preference for women, for their harems. Men were often castrated, with high fatality rates. The castration of male slaves soon became a habit among slave traders due to the fact that castrated boys were in higher demand. They were noted to work faster and more efficient and stronger and were not a threat to slave masters and owners who feared that their wives, concubines and female slaves would have affairs with them. Face 2 Face Africa Be aware that this is still ongoing. [S]lavery was not eliminated. Mauritania continues the practice, failing to enforce a 2007 law designed to end the practice. Anti-Slavery International reports that slavery is still to be found in Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Chad and Sudan. People born into descent-based slavery face a lifetime of exploitation and are treated as property by their so-called masters. -- New Statesman Mauritania, Niger, and Mali are overwhelmingly Muslim. While Chad is about 44% Christian, the Arabs/Berbers [ie: Muslims] still purchase child slaves from among the darker Christians to the south. Samson was sold by his black African parents in southern Chad to Arab herdsman for the price of a calf Away from his parents and his playmates, life was tough for Samson. He was forced to abandon his native Sara language and Christian religion in order to learn Arabic and practice Islam. -- The New Humanitarian While not excusing Christians who sell their children, one has to wonder if the poverty which forced the Christians to do so was created by Islamic predations. And, it was well known that the wars in Sudan were fueled by partly-Arab Islamic Sudanese in the north feeling they had a right to enslave the Christian/animist Sudanese in the south. Libya has become famous for its slave markets. The open sale of human slaves -- migrants, refugees and Libyans -- shocked the world when it came to light in 2017. But without a capable government in the country, the practice has continued unabated while media interest ebbed. -- Newsweek What no one dares say is that such enslavement of blacks is central to Islam and not only does Islam enslave blacks. Islam will enslave anyone. A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 a far greater number than had ever been estimated before. -- Ohio State News In 1931, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported: The Fellah [an Arab peasant] sometimes has to sell his sons as slaves at the cheapest price in order to use the money to keep body and soul together, and to keep his wife alive, el Dajani writes. I have been with my own eyes a thing of which I will tell you. A man stopped us as we were motoring to Haifa and said to the driver, I have a little girl with me; we want to travel to Bireh (near Ramallah). Have you any room? The driver said he had room, and the man brought back a young peasant child, not more than eight years of age. Her clothes were ragged and she was weeping. I asked the man where he had got the child, and he told me he had hired her and was sending her to his brother in Bireh. Her parents, he explained, have let me take her for 25 years for the sum of A25. There is nothing to be surprised about, for there are persons who make worse bargains and buy girls outright -- for ever. -- Slavery in Palestine Oddly, there are Afro-Palestinians in the Holy Land. Almost assuredly, they were brought there as slaves by the Arabs, eventually being freed under the British mandate, when Arabs could no longer enforce their mastery. They still face social prejudice. For any African-American to cut a deal with any Islamic cause is sheer insanity. Those who make apologies for Islamic slavery, or try to diminish its brutality, are liars. Whatever the sins of Western Christianity, they do not even begin to approach that of Islam. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 02:08:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- "I too, like Martin Luther King Jr, have a dream that my granddaughter Maya will grow up in a world where she will not be judged by the color of her skin but by the strength of her character," UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed remarked on Wednesday during an urgent UN debate on racism. The UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday began the debate on current racially inspired human rights violations and related issues following a request made by Burkina Faso on behalf of the African Group. "Lasting peace, and sustainable development can only be built on the equality, human rights and dignity of everyone," Mohammed said at the opening of the debate. Recalling that the urgent debate takes place as demonstrators for racial justice and equality fill the streets of cities and towns around the world, the UN official said that the most recent trigger for these protests was the killing of George Floyd "in an appalling act of police brutality." "When I consider that we are born equal, only to find that the color of one's skin sentences us to a life of discrimination and injustice, I ask myself, I ask all of you, I ask people everywhere: How can we possibly continue to turn the other way? Enough is enough," she said, adding that "the poison of racism still rages, and so the fight must still be waged." According to Mohammed, "across the world Afro-descendants continue to be trapped in generational cycles of poverty created by unfair obstacles to their development... and they are also among the communities hardest-hit by COVID-19." "The world must rise to end racism in all its obnoxious forms. Let us turn the page of history today by making this a turning point when we agree that all humans have the right to thrive with dignity and freedom from racism and discrimination in all its forms," she stressed. Enditem Days before he is scheduled to take the stage in Tulsa at the first "Keep America Great" rally since the novel coronavirus pandemic altered everyday life, President Trump and his campaign are already expecting a roughly 19,000-seat arena to be packed with supporters. But one notable public figure won't be in attendance on Saturday: Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert. "No," Fauci responded when the Daily Beast asked if he would be appearing at the rally. "I'm in a high-risk category. Personally, I would not. Of course not," Fauci, 79, said in an interview published Tuesday night. He added that in the case of Trump's rallies "outside is better than inside, no crowd is better than crowd" and "crowd is better than big crowd." It is unclear whether Fauci had been asked to attend or whether he ever planned to do so. Saturday's gathering, which is slated to be held indoors at the BOK Center, has alarmed health officials and local leaders in Tulsa. Some worry that it could not only further inflame racial tensions as protests over racism and police brutality continue nationwide in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing but also contribute to the spread of the virus as Oklahoma sees a surge of new cases. After Trump pushed back the event so that it would not be held on Juneteenth, an observance of the end of slavery in the United States, in a city that experienced a historic episode of racial violence, Tulsa's top health official urged the president to again consider rescheduling. A group of Tulsa residents and business owners began another effort to stop the rally Tuesday, seeking a temporary injunction against the company that manages the BOK Center "to protect against a substantial, imminent, and deadly risk to the community," a lawsuit stated. A judge denied the request. Oklahoma has more than 8,600 reported cases of the coronavirus and at least 363 deaths, according to most recent figures. The danger of holding a political rally, especially indoors, is equally apparent to Fauci. In an interview last week, the doctor stressed that people should still refrain from gathering in big groups, regardless of whether it's a rally in an arena or a protest in the streets, and urged them to wear masks if they choose to do so. His comments coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's issuing guidance recommending that organizers of large events that involve shouting, chanting or singing "strongly encourage" attendees to use cloth face coverings. Trump's campaign appears to be aware of the risk. The sign-up page for tickets to the rally includes a coronavirus disclaimer, which states that attendees "voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19" and agree not to hold the campaign or venue liable if they get sick. Additionally, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale announced Monday that rallygoers will have their temperatures checked and receive hand sanitizer and a mask before entering. On Tuesday, Fauci reiterated his concerns about such large gatherings, but stopped short of assigning blame for spikes in cases to leaders who have been criticized for not adhering to public health guidelines. Trump, for instance, has been notoriously resistant to donning a mask in public and has mocked others for wearing them. "We're talking about avoiding crowds, wearing masks," Fauci told NPR, noting that he hasn't spoken to Trump in two weeks. "That clearly has a positive effect, so when you pull away from that and you still have viral dynamics in your community, that's not a good idea. So rather than blame one or the other, just listen to what I'm saying: It's risky when you do that, so please avoid doing that." The Tulsa rally was not explicitly mentioned during the roughly 25-minute NPR interview. Instead, Fauci was asked about his thoughts on the ongoing protests. Although he said he recognized the importance of the demonstrations, he advised protesters to make a conscious effort to wear masks and ensure that they stay on. "When people get animated, they start shouting, they start chanting, they pull their mask off," Fauci said. "Don't do that. Best thing, don't gather in crowds. But if you are going to, please wear a mask consistently. Keep it on. Don't take it off." With a vaccine still months away from its earliest possible rollout, Fauci called on people to keep being mindful and follow official recommendations as coronavirus-related restrictions continue to ease nationwide. "This is a global pandemic that we've got to get under control," he said. "So something as seemingly innocent as, 'Oh, what the heck, I just want to go in a crowded place, to go in a bar and go in a restaurant and not adhere to the recommendations. No big deal.' Well, in the big picture of things, it is a big deal because you're contributing to a risk of a very serious disease." Lenovo unveiled the third generation of its 15-inch ThinkPad X1 Extreme laptop on Wednesday morning, boasting an Intel 10th-gen Core CPU, upgraded graphics, and a brighter display option. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 spearheads a range of Lenovos new mobile workstations, built around Intels H series processors. Lenovo announced the 15-inch ThinkPad P15 and P17 as the successors to the older ThinkPads P53 and 73, respectivelyboth members of the inaugural Nvidia RTX Studio class of mobile workstations. Lenovo also announced the third generation of the ThinkPad P1, aptly called the ThinkPad P1 Gen 3. Finally, Lenovo announced the new ThinkPad P15v, aimed mainly at the professional on a budget, with an Nvidia Quadro P620 GPU inside. Lenovos touting a new Ultra Performance Mode for both the P series as well as the ThinkPad X1 Extreme, which will allow users to take full control of their performance settings by dialing up the settings to peak performance. According to a Lenovo spokesman, Ultra-Performance Mode is a new power setting that allows the system to reach maximum performance. Ultra Performance is set at the default for the Windows power slider [at] Best Performance,' a Lenovo representative said in an email. The airflow and thermal saturation are maximized and the CPU and GPU run at a higher wattage to hit peak performance numbers. Ultra Performance Mode also needs to be set within the machines BIOS to be enabled, Lenovo said. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 leads the launch The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 carries over the 15.6-inch display from its predecessor (presumably with a 4K option), as well as Intels vPro technology, allowing the laptop to be managed by an IT admin. Lenovo Lenovos ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 Lenovos ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 earned 3.5 stars in our review, marred slightly by poor battery life and graphics performance that lagged behind that of rival laptops. Lenovos taken steps to overcome the latter shortcoming, at least: The integrated GeForce 1650 Ti should top the previous models GTX 1650 graphics by a small amount. Intels 10th-gen H-series CPUs are still fabricated on a 14nm process technology, however, which implies that the battery life wont change much. Lenovo still claims that its the most powerful X-series laptop its ever offered. Lenovo Lenovos ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 includes Lenovos Ultra Performance Mode. We dont know too much about its specifications, but the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 features an optional 600-nit display, up from the 500-nit option offered on the second-generation device. Intels 10th-gen platform typically offers Wi-Fi 6 capabilities, and thats included, along with the option of CAT16 LTE-A. Modern Standby is enabled, allowing to it remain connected in standby mode. Lenovo said that the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 will ship in July, for an undisclosed price. Lenovo ThinkPad P15, P17 ramp up the power Lenovo said that its starting from scratch to rethink these two new ThinkPads, which now boast 13 percent more airflow, and a 30 percent larger heat sink to complement a new thermal mesh and vents. Theyre specifically designed to take advantage of the new Ultra Performance Mode, Lenovo said. Lenovo Lenovos ThinkPad P15. Both laptops now include a daughtercard design rather than a soldered layout, permitting four times the configurations compared to before. They include Nvidia RTX GPUs, which the new thermal design allows to draw more power: 90W in the P15, and 110W in the P17. Additional features will include a new 94WHr battery and up to 4TB of storage, plus up to 128GB DDR4 of memory and UHD Dolby Vision HDR displays. All four are common to both machines. Lenovo Lenovos ThinkPad P17. The P15 will be priced at $1,979, and the P17 will be priced as low as $2,119. Theyll ship in July. ThinkPad P1 Gen 3 launches Lenovos ThinkPad P1 Gen 3 will ship in July, priced from $2,019. It, too, is a 15-inch workstation, though part of what Lenovo refers to as a thin-and-light option. Options include LTE, and a 600-nit display with anti-smudge coating to reduce fingerprints. ThinkPad P15v debuts at a budget Lenovos ThinkPad P15v is a new addition, Lenovo said, a 15-inch mobile workstation priced more affordably at $1,349 when it goes on sale in July. Lenovo Lenovos ThinkPad P15v mobile workstation. The P15V includes Intels H-series processors, but also the Nvidia Quadro P620 GPUtypically considered to be an entry-level GPU. It too, will boast a 600-nit display. This story was updated at 10 AM PT with additional details about Ultra Performance Mode. Out of respect for the powers of the executive branch, Bolton said he would not testify without a court requiring him to do so, given that Trump and White House lawyers had ordered him not to appear. He blasts House Democrats in the book for not issuing him a subpoena to testify or fully seeking to enforce a subpoena issued to his deputy that he says might have provided legal guidance for top Trump aides. The Member of Parliament for the Obuasi East Constituency, Honorable Dr. Patrick Boakye-Yiadom has Commissioned an ultra-modern Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound at Mampamhwe in the Obuasi East District. The MP who is a trained Medical Doctor told the Chiefs and people of the area that the NPP Government led by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo is committed to delivering quality health care to the people of Ghana. This he said, is the reason why the Government has invested heavily in the Health sector. The recent distribution of over 300 Ambulances to the various constituencies, he said, is a clear testimony. The Member of Parliament gave credit to the erstwhile Mahama administration for starting the project and said there was the need to continue it and furnish it once the NPP Government took over the reins of power. He said so far he has spent more than GH30,000 to furnish the facility. Currently, he asserted," the facility has television for the Out-patient department and the Nurses residence, Oxygen cylinder, beds for the male, female, children, delivery and the lie-in wards. Again, he said the facility has a Pharmacy, consulting room, Weighing room, Family planning unit and Labor ward". He took the opportunity to talk about a plethora of developmental projects ongoing in the Constituency including the upgrading of the road linking Kwabenakwa to Mampamhwe and an ultra-modern clinic at Odumasi. Dr. Boakye who is seeking re-election into the Parliament house appealed to Chiefs and Opinion leaders to bury their differences and ensure that they live peacefully and lobby for developmental projects to the area. He said, "it is only through unity that the Mampamhwe town can see development". Meanwhile, the District Chief Executive for Obuasi East District, Honorable Faustina Amissah has disclosed that the District is a proud beneficiary of the proposed 88 district hospitals scheduled to be built across some districts in the country. She said land has been acquired at Kwabenakwa for the District hospital. She added her voice to calls for the people to observe maintenance culture to ensure that the facility stand the test of time. Madam Delphin Gborgblovor, the District Health Director for Obuasi East thanked the Member of Parliament for upgrading the facility which had become a white elephant since the contractor officially handed it over to the Health Directorate. She said the CHPS compound remains the first public health facility in the District. She also took the opportunity to educate the people gathered on the highly infectious Coronavirus disease. She appealed to them to observe the preventive protocols to enable them stay healthy. The District Coordinating Director, Mr. Emmanuel Ntoso, Heads of Department, Odikro of the area and some Health personnel were all present. Do not expect to get rich quick by selling hand sanitizer in Albuquerque during a viral pandemic. Heeding a request by Mayor Tim Keller, the city council on Monday passed an update to the citys emergency powers ordinance that prohibits price gouging during a civil emergency and gives the city attorney the authority to issue fines of up to $500 and potentially take offenders to court. The change provides a needed mechanism for the city to investigate complaints about spiking prices, said Councilor Lan Sena, who co-sponsored the bill with Isaac Benton. In promoting the legislation, Kellers administration explained the necessity by noting that there are no specific statewide statutes that prohibit price gouging. Consequently, the City of Albuquerque currently has no way to protect Albuquerque residents from those who take advantage of times of emergency to place profit above human life and community need, the administration wrote in an analysis submitted with the legislation. The ordinance makes it illegal to raise prices on a good or service by more than 20% during a declared emergency, though there is an exception if the seller can prove that their own costs spiked due to supply chain factors or other market forces outside their control. City Attorney Esteban Aguilar Jr. said his office will only investigate potential violations upon the receipt of a complaint. The city attorneys office can demand documents from businesses, according to the legislation, but Karen Meyers of the citys Consumer Financial Protection Initiative said that the investigations would likely be narrow. It would be focused on the nature of the complaint or the problem, so if someone is reporting that toilet paper is being price gouged, youre going to focus on the cost of toilet paper, so the burden should be pretty limited, she told the council. The citys citizen contact hotline has received seven complaints about price gouging in the last three months, according to city spokeswoman Jessie Damazyn. She said the city has been referring them to the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office, which has been investigating such tips during the pandemic. The state attorney generals office contends existing consumer protection laws prohibit price gouging even if New Mexico has no specific price gouging statute, Chief Counsel Matt Baca said this week. The office has received nearly 300 complaints since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but Baca said most have been resolved through an informal dispute resolution process. The city ordinance would apply to the current COVID-19 pandemic, as well as any emergency as declared by federal, state or local authorities. Councilor Brook Bassan said the ordinance would serve to protect not only consumers but also the businesses already doing the right thing by their clientele. I appreciate the thought thats been put in to that, she said. Also: In other action Monday, the council continued a recent theme by creating another avenue for businesses to temporarily increase their footprint. With many businesses still capacity-restrained due to COVID-19, the council approved an ordinance allowing retail establishments to incorporate outdoor spaces normally reserved for parking into their operations during the current pandemic. Sponsors Diane Gibson and Cynthia Borrego were previously successful in promoting legislation that allowed restaurants similar expansion opportunities. Accelerate Cambridge and DigitalHealth.London launchpad company Medwise.ai announces it was selected from over 8600 applications to receive funding by the UK Government to develop an AI-powered platform that answers COVID-19 questions for healthcare professionals. The UK government recently announced that 800 innovative businesses and start-ups including Medwise.ai are set to benefit from a 40 million investment to boost cutting-edge technological advances, particularly as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Medwise.ai uses natural language processing technology to help clinicians find answers faster than ever before. The artificial intelligence platform aggregates information from academic journal articles and national guidelines to provide healthcare professionals with the latest information on COVID-19 in a fast and concise format. A beta version of the platform has launched for public testing and the service will be free to NHS workers. The Innovate UK funding will allow the company and its development partners, health tech specialists Mindwave Ventures to further improve the design, performance, and scalability of the platform. Although the number of new COVID-19 cases is falling in the UK, the knowledge we have about the virus and the disease keeps increasing and it's nearly impossible to keep up with the latest developments. We need to equip health care workers with the latest evidence and guidance, so COVID-19 patients get the best care possible. We are very grateful to be funded by Innovate UK and to work with Mindwave Ventures and our other partners who have made the beta launch possible. We encourage as many professions to use the platform as possible, so more data can be gathered, which will allow improvements to both the AI algorithm and the user interface. Dr. Keith Tsui, CEO and co-founder of Medwise.ai The free, not-for-profit service was borne out of the need for health care workers, particularly clinicians who are working outside of their speciality area to support during the pandemic, to be able to access the knowledge and information they need to treat COVID-19 patients quickly. It will be available to anyone working in the health sector including junior doctors, GPs, and hospital workers. The global pandemic has created an urgency to get the most up to date evidence fast, and with advice and guidelines changing so quickly as the medical world learns more about the virus, it is so important that health professions have the can make sense of it to work as effectively as possible. We are thrilled to partner with Medwise.ai and help create an innovative and useful platform. Dr. Victoria Betton, CInO at Mindwave Ventures Medwise.ai is proudly supported by Panacea Star, Accelerate Cambridge, Eastern AHSN, DigitalHealth.London, MedTech Foundation, and EIT Health. CALGARY - Enbridge Inc. says 800 employees have voluntarily left the company, allowing it to avoid layoffs as it cuts costs to counter impacts from COVID-19 and lower global oil prices. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/6/2020 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Enbridge Inc. says 800 employees have taken voluntary early retirement, allowing it to avoid company-wide layoffs. The Enbridge logo is shown at the company's annual meeting in Calgary on May 9, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh CALGARY - Enbridge Inc. says 800 employees have voluntarily left the company, allowing it to avoid layoffs as it cuts costs to counter impacts from COVID-19 and lower global oil prices. The Calgary-based pipeline company announced in May it would defer $1 billion in capital spending this year and reduce costs by $300 million through measures including salary cuts and voluntary staff reductions. 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. Spokesman Jesse Semko confirmed that 800 staff have taken up options including early retirement, severance, educational or personal leaves of absence or part-time work. The reductions would amount to about seven per cent of the 11,300 employees Enbridge listed at the end of last year, with about 7,800 in Canada and 3,500 in the U.S. The company is also reducing base pay across its non-union workforce, cutting director and CEO pay by 15 per cent and executive vice-presidents' pay by 10 per cent. Enbridge in May reported a $1.43-billion first-quarter net loss which included an impairment of $1.74 billion on its investment in Denver-based DCP Midstream, which cut its dividend by 50 per cent in March due to pandemic effects. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2020. Companies in this story: (TSX:ENB) June 17 : Im noun in your heart, verb in mine, reads the facebook page on Sushant Singh Rajput. The talented actor was found dead in his Mumbai house on June 14, leaving the Hindi film industry shocked and many shattered. Sushants family now starts a website to share the actors thoughts and musings with his fans. He is away but he is still alive with us. Kickstarting #SelfMusing mode https://selfmusing.com/ Fans like you were real godfathers for Sushant. As promised to him, converting this space into a collection of all his thoughts, learnings, dreams, and wishes, he always wanted people to know. Yes, we are documenting all the positive energies he has left behind in this world, read a Facebook post, where his family announced the name of the website in his name, https://selfmusing.com. He is away but he is still alive with us. Kickstarting #SelfMusing mode https://selfmusing.com/ Fans like you were... Posted by Sushant Singh Rajput on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 Many Bollywood actors, who were in his association mentioned that Sushants interest and thoughts were very different from other actors in Bollywood. Often Sushant shared his thoughts and musings on his social media accounts, and also penned them down in notebooks. His family has collected his works and musings and has decided to start a website to share them with his fans. That is how Sushant will be alive in his fans hearts. Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan jets on Wednesday again had to warn off Chinese air force aircraft that approached the island, Taiwan's military said, the fourth such encounter in nine days as China steps up its activity near the Chinese-claimed island. The Chinese J-10, a fighter plane, and Y-8, a propeller aircraft often used for surveillance missions, entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone around midday (0400GMT) to the southwest of the island, Taiwan's air force said. Patrolling Taiwanese fighters gave a verbal warning to the Chinese aircraft to leave, whereupon they "immediately left" the air defence identification zone, the air force said in a brief statement. "At present the situation is normal," it added, without giving further details. Since June 9, China's air force has flown at least three other similar missions, and were each time chased off by Taiwanese jets, according to Taiwan's military. 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 coronavirus pandemic. China has not commented publicly on the recent Chinese air force activity near Taiwan. Beijing routinely says such exercises are nothing unusual and are designed to show the country's determination to defend its sovereignty. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. One of China's most senior generals last month said China would attack if there was no other way of stopping Taiwan becoming independent. China is deeply suspicious of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, whom it accuses of being a separatist intent on declaring formal independence. Tsai says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) Church of the Highlands Pastor Chris Hodges says hes cried buckets over race controversy Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Two weeks after he was accused of liking racially insensitive posts on social media, Pastor Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands in Alabama told his congregation Sunday that he has cried buckets since then and is now a changed man since the controversy erupted. Its hard to explain your own journey I am not the same Chris Hodges I was two weeks ago. Do I have a long way to go? Yes, sir. But I can look you in the eye and say, Ive been tested, stripped, disciplined, broken. I cry two times a year, and usually with a movie, he said laughing uneasily in his message, titled "Becoming One." I have buckets for days, buckets. I know its really been one of the most painful things Ive ever been through in my life and I know God is disciplining me, breaking me. A broken and a contrite heart is the pathway to the presence and anointing of God, he explained about the journey he has walked in the last two weeks, which involved conversations with four black leaders on his churchs pastoral staff. Hodges message of repentance and the need for true racial reconciliation came days after the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District and the Birmingham Board of Education cut ties with Church of the Highlands, the largest church in Alabama, due to reports that he followed and liked several social media posts of Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk in the wake of national protests over the killing of 46-year-old African American George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Department officers on Memorial Day. One of the posts shows two photos one featuring President Donald Trump standing next to Muhammad Ali and Rosa Parks with the caption The racist Donald Trump in the 1980s, and the other featuring Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam with two men wearing blackface and a KKK costume with the caption Progressive Leftist Ralph Northam in the 1980s. Another post says, We all must do our part to defeat China Virus. Hodges previously apologized to his predominantly white but racially diverse congregation but on Sunday, he argued that God was using the coronavirus pandemic as well as Floyds death to force America to confront its racism. Being quarantined, he said, helped soften people to receive the message behind Floyds death. God brought us to a stripping of ourselves. We were in our homes, we were going through a breaking. We lost things only to soften our hearts so that that event that took place in Minneapolis could be history making, Hodges said. I think God is doing it to America. I think Hes done it to people that dont even know God. That were shaken and I really believe that God is doing something. Im so encouraged today. I truly believe the devil is going to be defeated and were going to see not only a healing from a disease but I dont think our land is ever going to be the same again. I truly believe were going to see lasting change, he said. The Church of the Highlands founder said he interrupted his vacation to speak to his congregation because God spoke to him about preserving unity in the church. He cited Ephesians 4:3-6, which says: Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. We all know theres not a lot of ones right now. Theres a lot not just in America but across the world theres a lot of distinctive groups that have been formed or in peoples mind, different groups that, not a lot of one going on. And the Bible tells us, the church, tells me as a pastor, you need to make an effort to kind of bring back the ones. We gotta get back to one, Hodges said as he gingerly broached the issue of race and acknowledged his churchs own struggle to stay united. One of the ironies of our experience that is happening not only in our nation but here at our own church is that for the last three months, I was leading with some others an effort to bring unity to the body of Christ through prayer in this thing called Unite 714. And while there was unity in leading unity around the world, I had allowed disunity to happen in my own back yard, own church, own city, own nation the world, he said. And the Lord said, No, no, no. You did it there but you need to do it here. Hodges said his church will be working on initiatives to improve race relations, which will be posted on the churchs website over the coming months. We do it for COVID-19, why cant we do it for racial reconciliation, he noted. Ive grown, he continued, noting that he thinks Christians can become one in heart by choosing to learn, lament and love in order to overcome racism. We gotta not let this moment pass us by and act like it didnt happen, he said. I have the first hope in my 56, almost 57 years that we could actually move the ball down the field in this racial reconciliation thing. I really, really do. Theres a good reason the well-heeled name their boats things like Serendipity or Freedom or Footloose. In our most idyllic imaginings, summers are spontaneous, unscripted, lazy, hazy, crazy and carefree. Theyre devoted to sun-kissed recreation, free-ranging road trip or thrilling sudden romance. And music? Summers have music. You couldnt have a campfire or pool party or feel-good seasonal flick without it. Like John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John cooing Summer Nights at each other in Grease. Summer loving, Had me a blast, Summer loving, happened so fast. . . And speaking of Footloose, what about dancing? Summers have dancing. Like Kevin Bacon leading local teens in dancing the night away in Bible-thumping small-town Oklahoma. Or like Chubby Checker urging everyone to twist again like we did last summer. Well, not so fast, Mr. Checker et al. That was then. This is now. This summer, spontaneity and exuberance, singing and dancing in communal spaces, are the last things the doctors are ordering. The prescription is for planning and wariness, for distance And for stifling whatever music is in you and ordering your dance-happy feet to sit this one, in fact to sit this entire season, out. The reopening from the COVID-19 lockdown in Ontario while obviously welcome after the last three months is turning out to be something less than the grand affair wed been hoping for. Ontario patios might be re-opening and tippy-toeing into Stage 2, but hold the singing and tripping the light fantastic. The Ontario government fast becoming, even if for good reason, the mother of all nanny states has banned singing and dancing in its plan to reopen businesses shuttered by the deadly outbreak. Documents obtained by the Canadian Press also say singing is banned in child-care settings and discouraged surely the work of the devil in places of worship, which were approved last week for reopening across the province. To be sure, the decisions are based on science, not some joy-squashing cult or religious sect. After all, if even talking sends potentially hazardous droplets into the air, imagine the microscopic maelstrom of saliva and nasal secretions if were singing, shouting, dancing, panting or otherwise whooping and hollering. Ontarios guidelines vary slightly by sector, with the advice for restaurants saying that no dancing or singing may be permitted in the outdoor dining areas, the only ones cleared for use during Stage 2. So, if youre at an outdoor patio, masked and socially distanced, and hear, say, Kim Mitchell and Patio Lanterns kick up, dont sing along. Not a note. Hum it to yourself. Who was gonna be, Who would be the first to dance? Who was gonna be, Who would be the first to kiss? We wont have that kind of thing. Not this summer. If you do patronize the song-and-dance-free patios of the province, remember also the warnings against using the washroom or sharing condiments and be prepared for longer than normal waiting times due to cleaning and hygiene procedures. All in all, its enough to make staying home with a good book sound like the more exciting option. Meanwhile, the guidelines for places of worship, currently allowed to operate at 30-per-cent capacity province-wide, are more specific. The government says congregational singing or chanting should be suspended, leaving singing duties to a cantor or soloist positioned at least four metres from worshippers. Recommendations for the child-care sector, also cleared to resume limited operations, discourage singing indoors. The Health Ministrys guidelines for day camps counsels against indoor singing and encourages standard physical-distancing protocols for singing outdoors. This re-opening is sounding a lot like pie without ice cream, hot dogs without mustard, Bryan Adams without his first real six-string back in the summer of 69. And dont even think of singing along. Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-17 22:57:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BANGKOK, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's exports of farm products to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries in the first quarter jumped 5.1 percent from the same period of last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives on Wednesday. The country's overall trade of agricultural products with ASEAN totaled 113.5 billion baht (3.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter, said the Ministry's Office of Agricultural Economics Deputy Secretary General Tatsanee Muangkaew. Thailand ranks among the world's leaders in the exportation of rice, seafood, rubber and sugar. Tatsanee said Thailand has enjoyed a trade surplus of 37 billion baht (1.18 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter, with Cambodia being the largest ASEAN trade partner totaling about 14 billion baht (449.4 million U.S. dollars). She noted that Thai agricultural product exports had generally been sluggish since the end of last year largely due to drought and the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem After the most destructive wildfire in California history, the had been looking for one and a half years, the town of Paradise and surrounding communities home, the energy company Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) the negligent killing of 84 people found guilty. Of the electricity supplier to gave on Tuesday before the Supreme court in Butte County, to have the so-called Camp Fire by negligence caused. investigations revealed that on the Morning of 8. November 2018, the ailing hook of a Strommasts was broken. The sparks set the dry undergrowth on fire. Within a few hours, the flames destroyed the city of Paradise. As cars, the roads, the mountainous Region of the North columns blocked to the East of San Francisco, escaped many of the 27,000 residents to walk. As the fires were contained to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada after more than two weeks, there were more than 80 Dead. In Paradise and neighboring communities such as Concow and Magalia of 19,000 residential houses, office buildings and barns burned almost. "PG&E will forget the Camp-fire, and all that it has to cost the Region, never. We regret the accident and its tragic consequences, said company CEO Bill Johnson on Tuesday before the court. The bankruptcy of PG&E to ward off, he had agreed months ago with the Prosecutor and the Federal authorities on the payment of 13.5 billion dollars in damages for the victims. Although the investigation revealed that PG&E had neglected the obligation to establish an adequate maintenance of current facilities, costs, saw the court of imprisonment. Updated Date: 17 June 2020, 14:19 Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 06:35:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China supports the African Group in initiating an urgent debate on racism at the UN Human Rights Council, and China takes a consistent stand against racism and racial discrimination in any form, a senior Chinese diplomat said here Wednesday. Chen Xu, China's permanent representative to the UN Office at Geneva, made the remarks at an urgent debate on current racially inspired human rights violations and the related issues. The debate was held by the UN rights body following a request made by Burkina Faso on behalf of the African Group. "We are deeply shocked and saddened over the death of George Floyd and extend our sincere condolences to the bereaved family. Life is paramount. Black lives matter," Chen said. He told the Council that as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and many Special Procedure mandate holders have indicated, the death of George Floyd is not an isolated case, it exposes long-existing and deep-rooted racism, police brutality and inequalities in the United States. "We urge the United States to heed the call of the international community and honor in all seriousness its international human rights obligations; to eliminate racism, racial discrimination and other human rights violations and protect the legitimate rights of ethnic minorities; to stop using human rights as a political tool and abandon double standards," he said. The Chinese envoy also called on the international community to intensify consensus by fully implementing the Durban Declaration and Program of Action and supporting the Human Rights Council and the UN rights body to double efforts in combating racism so as to further the international anti-racism cause. George Floyd, an African-American man, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes on May 25. His death has triggered protests against racism and police brutality across the globe. Enditem Soon after the Beta trial testing in India, Whatsapp has launched the digital payment mode in the new update of Whatsapp in Brazil. After testing a beta version in India, WhatsApp on Monday announced that it has launched in-app payments in Brazil. The payments are enabled through Facebook Pay and require no fees from consumers to use the payments service but merchants will pay a processing fee to receive payments. Payments on WhatsApp are beginning to roll out to people across Brazil beginning today and we look forward to bringing it to everyone as we go forward, the company said in the post. Users need to link a credit or debit card to their WhatsApp account, and transactions are secured with either fingerprint or a six-digit PIN. The company says it will support debit or credit cards from Banco do Brasil, Nubank, and Sicredi, and it is working with Brazilian payments processor Cielo, The Verge reported. WhatsApp launches digital payments in Brazil after beta testing in India https://t.co/sSWolug1L6 pic.twitter.com/vKwCA2xz6R The Verge (@verge) June 15, 2020 Facebook acquired WhatsApp for about USD 19 billion in 2014. As of February this year, the messaging service had more than 2 billion users. For all the latest Gadgets News, download NewsX App A volunteer wearing a protective suit checks the body temperature of homeless people standing in queue to get free lunch packets on the roadside after the goverment eased a nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in New Delhi on May 30, 2020. (Prakash Singh/AFP via Getty Images) Drug Offers Hope Even as Virus Cases Rise in Africa, Asia JOHANNESBURGResearchers on June 16 announced the first drug shown to save lives among severely ill coronavirus patients, offering hope even as infection rates rose in Africa and Asia, and amid worrisome upticks of contagion in countries that had largely contained the virus. The cheap, widely available steroid, called dexamethasone, reduced deaths by 35 percent in patients who needed treatment with breathing machines and by 20 percent in those only needing supplemental oxygen, the researches said in England. It didnt appear to help less ill patients. This is an extremely welcome result, one study leader, Peter Horby of the University of Oxford, said in a statement. The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become the standard of care in these patients. Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide. The study is a large, strict test that randomly assigned 2,104 patients to get the drug and compared them with 4,321 patients getting only usual care. The researchers said they would publish the results soon. New, record-high infections were registered in South Africa over the weekend despite the further loosening of restrictions that opened businesses and houses of worship. The country now has more than a quarter of the cases on the 54-nation African continent, with more than 73,000. It is imperative that we do not fall into despair as we combat COVID-19, South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told a briefing. We can never be complacent, never found wanting. Those challenges were magnified elsewhere across sub-Saharan Africa with experts warning that the pandemics full impact there hasnt been reached. Fragile health systems, a catastrophic shortage of health care professionals and a dramatic drop in medical imports mean that the health and economic devastation anticipated is yet to unfold, officials with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote last week in a commentary for the journal Nature Medicine. Daily coronavirus deaths continued to rise in Egypt, with the health ministry reporting 97 deaths on June 15, the countrys highest for a single day. While Egypt has more than 46,000 COVID-19 infections and 1,672 deaths, the government has resisted a full lockdown to try to keep the economy functioning. Authorities have shortened the nightly curfew and plan to reopen airports next month. Israels steady rise in infections since restrictions were eased in May has increased fears of what a top Health Ministry official said looked like the beginning of a wave. The country is reporting 200 new cases daily, a tenfold increase from a few weeks ago, and Israeli leaders warned of possibly reinstating strict lockdown measures if people dont heed calls for people to wear masks, maintain social distancing and wash their hands. Pakistans steady rise in coronavirus cases has put the country in the top 15 nations globally for infections, with more than 48,000. Several hospitals have begun refusing patients because they no longer had available beds. Pakistans daily number of infections is nearly 6,000, and one official, Asad Umar, warned that they could top 1.2 million by the end of July. After fighting the coronavirus for months, Iran saw its highest single-day spike in reported cases since the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ended in late May, renewing fears about a potential second wave of infections. Iraq reported 58 deaths on June 15, the most in a 24-hour period since February. According to Health Ministry figures, at least 652 people have died from 21,415 confirmed cases, and the increase in deaths has raised the worry that Iraqs frail health system is not equipped to handle the surge of patients. Russias daily caseload of infections continued to grow, despite a decrease in the city of Moscow, which accounted for about 40 percent of the countrys 545,000 confirmed cases. Discounting Moscows figures, the daily number of new coronavirus cases in Russia has grown to around 7,000 from 6,000 three weeks ago. Turkey, which has seen an uptick in cases since it eased restrictions in early June, made the wearing of face masks mandatory in five more provinces on June 16. We cannot struggle against the virus without masks, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted. Chinese authorities locked down the third neighborhood in Beijing to contain a new coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 100 people after the country appeared to have largely contained the virus since it first appeared there late in 2019. Most of the cases have been linked to Beijings Xinfadi wholesale food market, and people lined up for massive testing of anyone who had visited the market in the past two weeks or comes in contact with them. About 9,000 workers at the market were tested already. New Zealand, which hadnt seen a new case in three weeks, said it is investigating a case in which two women who flew in from London to see a dying parent were allowed to leave quarantine and drive halfway across the country before they were tested and found to be positive. The reemergence of the virus in the country that earned widespread praise for how it handled infections raised the specter that international air travel could trigger a fresh COVID-19 wave just as countries are reopening airports to stimulate tourism. South Korea reported 34 new cases on June 16. Half were in densely populated Seoul, where officials are scrambling to stem transmissions linked to leisure and religious activities and low-income workers who cant afford to stay home. The Seoul government has so far resisted calls to reimpose stronger social distancing guidelines, fearing further economic damage. The Philippines reimposed a strict lockdown on the city of Cebu after a rise in cases. Quarantine restrictions were reimposed on Manila for another two weeks as infections continued to spike. The battle with COVID isnt over, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said. By Menelaos Hadjicostis & Cara Anna WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Less than a quarter (21%) of black college graduates nationally strongly agree that their professors cared about them as a person, compared with 34% of white college graduates. While Hispanic college graduates (29%) are also less likely than white graduates to strongly agree with this statement, they are still more likely than are black graduates. U.S. College Graduates' Perceptions Their Professors Cared About Them as a Person 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. My professors at [University Name] cared about me as a person. 5 - Strongly agree 4 3 2 1 - Strongly disagree % % % % % All recent graduates 32 29 23 12 5 White graduates 34 29 21 12 4 Black graduates 21 23 38 13 6 Hispanic graduates 29 34 23 8 6 Gallup Alumni Survey, Oct 24-Nov 7, 2019 These results are based on interviews with more than 1,600 college graduates who completed their bachelor's degree between 2010-2019. Even when combining those who indicate moderate agreement with the statement (responding with a 4 or 5 on the agreement scale), significant racial gaps persist. Majorities of whites (63%) and Hispanics (63%) versus 44% of blacks agree that their undergraduate professors cared for them as a person. Black graduates (16%) are also more likely than white graduates (10%) and Hispanic graduates (8%) to say that their university was not a good place for students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups. These data come amidst recent reports that black graduates doubt their alma mater would have appropriately handled a discrimination claim -- another critical measure of inclusion on college campuses nationally. These data are similar to important insights released in 2017 research conducted by the Strada Education Network -- a social impact organization focused on reforming postsecondary education to serve vulnerable populations better. The research found currently enrolled black students were less likely than their peers to strongly agree they felt safe in their school. U.S. College Students' Perceptions They Were Safe on Their College Campus 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. I feel safe at [University name]. 5 - Strongly agree 4 3 2 1 - Strongly disagree % % % % % All students 40 36 17 6 2 White students 44 35 15 5 2 Black students 32 35 23 7 3 Hispanic students 36 37 19 6 3 Strada-Gallup Student Survey, 2017 Black Grads Report Less Access to Academic Resources Black students also experience significant challenges in accessing the academic resources necessary to be successful in their undergraduate experience. About half of white graduates report they had access to the resources they needed to be successful academically while completing their degree; however, just 36% of black graduates say the same. U.S. Graduates' Perceptions They Had the Resources Needed to Be Successful While Completing Their Studies 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. I had access to the resources I needed to be successful academically while completing my undergraduate degree at [University Name]. 5 - Strongly agree 4 3 2 1 - Strongly disagree % % % % % All recent graduates 45 38 12 3 2 White graduates 46 37 12 3 1 Black graduates 36 36 20 6 2 Hispanic graduates 39 40 13 2 6 Gallup Alumni Survey, Oct 24-Nov 7, 2019 Black Grads Report Student Loans Restrict Job Opportunities The challenges black students face extend beyond their student experience. National research shows that black graduates borrow at higher rates than their white peers to complete their four-year degrees. In addition to the obvious financial impact student loans have on graduates' long-term financial wellbeing, they have an important effect on graduates' quality of life and ability to work in a job they are passionate about. About a quarter (26%) of recent black graduates report that, because of their student loans, they are unable to work in a job they are truly passionate about, while only 14% of white and 16% of Hispanic graduates say the same. U.S. College Graduates' Perceptions They Cannot Work in Job They Are Passionate About, Due to Student Loan Burden 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. Because of my student loans, I cannot work in a job that I'm truly passionate about. 5 - Strongly agree 4 3 2 1 - Strongly disagree % % % % % All recent graduates 15 8 12 18 47 White graduates 14 8 13 18 48 Black graduates 26 3 13 20 38 Hispanic graduates 16 9 10 15 51 Gallup Alumni Survey, Oct 24-Nov 7, 2019 Implications These data are released at a time of extreme tension in the U.S. as adults of all races/ethnicities report deep frustration, anger and disappointment over racial inequality. Unfortunately, these data remind us that this inequality exists within the financial, social and academic experiences black students have in college and that those experiences have lasting effects after graduation. Higher education has the unique ability to address inequality directly and positively -- acting as an equalizer for students from all backgrounds, including those of different races/ethnicities. But that mission can only be realized if there is equality in students' actual college experiences. This past week, we heard from presidents of major universities who confirmed their commitment to students of all backgrounds. That leadership is critical at this moment, as is listening to students directly. It is only through listening that leaders can understand, and it is only through understanding that leaders can improve the quality of the college experience for all students. Learn more about the Gallup Alumni Survey. Mumbai, June 17 : Actors Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta, Rakesh Bedi, Makarand Deshpande, Divya Dutta, Aahana Kumra, and Shikha Talsania have pledged their support to a mass fundraising campaign to aid the survival of theatre as the world of stage remains shut amid the coronavirus pandemic. The actors will urge people to donate to the theatre community. They have also appeared in a video where they talk about the importance of the support staff and technicians. Actor and lyricist Amitosh Nagpal has penned a special poem to convey the industry's unified sentiment. "I share a deep and personal connection with theatre. No theatrical production is complete without the help and presence of the technicians and support staff. Their survival is vital for our community. I would request everyone to donate generously," said Anupam Kher. Neena Gupta added: "I feel fortunate to be able to help colleagues from the theatre world who are struggling to make ends meet during this tough time. Many of the support staff and technicians are worried and helpless because of the uncertainty surrounding the reopening of theatre halls." In a bid to support the theatre community, Zee Theatre has partnered a non profit organisation to raise funds for them to pull through these challenging times. "This month-long fundraising initiative is to raise money for theatre support staff who find themselves without any source of income and unlikely to get any relief in the coming months," said Shailja Kejriwal, COO of Zee Special Projects. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A cheap steroid called dexamethasone has been found to reduce the risk of death by up to one-third among coronavirus patients with severe respiratory complications, University of Oxford researchers have said. Scientists working on the Recovery Trial found the drug could benefit patients on ventilators or oxygen, but had no effect on those who did not need help breathing. Based on these results, one death would be prevented by treatment of around eight ventilated patients or around 25 patients requiring oxygen alone, researchers said in a statement. Boris Johnson hailed the news as the "biggest breakthrough yet" in the battle against coronavirus and confirmed that the UK had enough stocks of the drug to cope if there is a second spike in cases. He told the daily Downing Street press conference: "I am proud of these British scientists, backed by UK government funding, who have led the first robust clinical trial anywhere in the world to find a coronavirus treatment proven to reduce the risk of death." The prime minister confirmed that the drug would be made available on the NHS, adding: "We've taken steps to ensure we have enough supplies, even in the event of a second peak." The government has stockpiled 200,000 courses of dexamethasone since March, and placed oral and injection solutions on a list of medicines banned for export from the UK at midnight on Tuesday. Tablets were restricted in April. In a statement, the Department for Health said the export ban was designed to deter companies from buying supplies of the drug meant for the UK and reselling them at higher prices abroad. Experts said a randomised group of 2,104 patients were given 6mg of dexamethasone per day for 10 days, while another group of 4,321 were given normal treatment. Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-fifth in patients on oxygen feeds and by one-third in those who needed a ventilator to breathe, preliminary results showed. Peter Horby, professor of emerging diseases and global health at Oxford University, one of the trial's chief investigators, said the steroid had been around for more than 60 years and was regarded by some as a "very boring drug" but the findings were "remarkable". "We've looked at the numbers and if we treat eight patients in intensive care with this drug, we will save one life," he told the press conference. "The total cost of treating eight patients is only about 40. So this really remarkable and we are extremely pleased with this result." Asked when it could begin being used, Prof Horby said: "Its in the cupboards. It can be done this evening. Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said it was "the start of something important" as dexamethasone was the first medicine to reduce chances of death in any group of patients. But asked if the breakthrough meant there was no need to fear a second spike, he said that, while helpful, the new drug was certainly not an effect such as would make us think we dont have to worry about other measures. Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford University, another of the trials chief investigators, said: These preliminary results from the Recovery Trial are very clear dexamethasone reduces the risk of death among patients with severe respiratory complications. Covid-19 is a global disease it is fantastic that the first treatment demonstrated to reduce mortality is one that is instantly available and affordable worldwide. On the pricing, he added: "It costs in the order of 5... for a complete course of treatment in the NHS, and substantially less - probably less than one dollar - in other parts of the world, for example in India." Chris Whitty, Englands chief medical officer, said that it was the most important trial result for COVID-19 so far. Significant reduction in mortality in those requiring oxygen or ventilation from a widely available, safe and well-known drug. Many thanks to those who took part and made it happen. It will save lives around the world, he said. Researchers are now working to publish the full details of their results. Nick Cammack, of the Wellcome health foundation, called for the drug to be made available to anyone who needed it around the world, whether they could afford to pay for it or not. It is highly affordable, easy to make, can be scaled up quickly and only needs a small dosage, he added. This is extremely promising news and a significant step forward, but we still have a long way to go. To end this pandemic, we still need better diagnostics to detect, medicines to treat and vaccines to prevent Covid-19. It was a rare admission when President Donald Trump told The Washington Post last year that he regretted the way he treated his older brother, Fred Jr., who died of alcoholism. But he insisted that a subsequent financial feud with his late brother's children had been settled amicably, saying, "We all get along." Now, however, Trump's niece - the daughter of Fred Jr. - has written a book slated to be published in July that could explode the image of a unified Trump family. In a description of the book posted on Amazon late Monday night, Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist, is said to describe "a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald." Mary Trump plans to reveal the feuds that have long simmered within the family but until now have been largely masked by nondisclosure agreements and the limited public visibility of the president's siblings, The Daily Beast reported Sunday. The book will include Mary Trump's account of her conversations with Donald Trump's sister, former U.S. appellate judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who does not speak flatteringly about her brother, according to The Daily Beast. Mary Trump, who declined a Washington Post interview request last year to talk about her father's death, did not respond Monday to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the publisher, Simon & Schuster, confirmed that the book will be published July 28, declining to comment further. Barry, reached by phone Monday, declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Mary Trump's book, if it is as critical as has been reported, would mark a rare departure among the president's three living siblings and extended family members, who have largely refused to comment about him and have stayed out of public view. Its publication threatens to put the Trump family's internal tensions on prominent display months before the November election. "They might be polite, but Donald's personality is one of dominance, and that includes his family," said Jack O'Donnell, a former Trump casino executive. "That is no fun for anyone." Some of the friction appears to stem from a battle over the family fortune that erupted after the death of Fred Trump Jr. The future president's older brother, Fred Jr., went to TWA's training facility in Kansas City, Mo., and flew briefly as a secondary pilot. He died of alcoholism in 1981 at 42 years old. His children, Fred III and Mary, thought they would one day receive what they believed was their father's fair share of the family wealth. But 18 years later, when Fred Sr. died, Donald Trump and his siblings fought to keep most of the money for themselves, according to court records. Fred III and Mary sued other members of the Trump family in 2000, alleging that their relatives had persuaded Donald Trump's father to change the will. Donald Trump cut off family company payments that had been used to care for Fred III's son, William, who had cerebral palsy. Trump told the New York Daily News at the time that "when [Fred III] sued us, we said, 'Why should we give him medical coverage.' " Fred III said in court documents that "my aunt and uncles thought nothing about taking away my critically ill son's coverage in an attempt to browbeat me into abandoning my claim in the probate contest." "You have to be tough in this family," Fred III told the Daily News at the time. "I guess I have what my father didn't have. I will stick to my guns. I just think it was wrong. These are not warm and fuzzy people. They never even came to see William in the hospital. Our family puts the 'fun' in dysfunctional." Fred III, who could not be reached for comment Monday, has not publicly spoken about the matter since the case was settled confidentially. Mary told the Daily News at the time that she was incensed by the way the family treated her family and her brother. "Given this family, it would be utterly naive to say it has nothing to do with money," Mary Trump said. "But for both me and my brother, it has much more to do with that our father be recognized. He existed, he lived, he was their oldest son. And William is my father's grandson. He is as much a part of that family as anybody else. He desperately needs extra care." According to The Daily Beast, Mary Trump was a primary source for a 2018 investigation by The New York Times into how Donald Trump received hundreds of millions of dollars from the family real estate company. The New York Times declined to comment. President Trump has tried to gloss over the disputes within his family. Asked by The Post last year about the feud with his nephew's family, he minimized the cost of caring for William Trump's cerebral palsy. "One child was having a difficult time," Trump said. "It was an unfortunate thing. It worked out well, and we all get along." In discussing his brother's death with The Post, Trump said he regretted his constant criticism of Fred Jr. for seeking to be a TWA pilot instead of going into the family business. He recalled telling his older brother, "You're wasting your time." Their father, Fred Sr., berated Fred Jr. for wanting to be nothing more than "a chauffeur in the sky." "I do regret having put pressure on him," Trump said. Running the family business "was just something he was never going to want" to do. "It was just not his thing. . . . I think the mistake that we made was we assumed that everybody would like it." Years earlier, Fred Trump Jr. had helped Donald when he was seeking to transfer from Fordham University to the University of Pennsylvania's business school, Wharton. Fred Jr. was close friends with a Penn admissions officer, James Nolan, who told The Post last year that he interviewed Donald Trump for entry. Contrary to Donald Trump's assertion that Penn was one of the nation's hardest schools to enter, showing that he was a "genius," Nolan said that more than half of applicants were admitted and that it was "not very difficult." During the inheritance fight, Donald Trump relied especially on his younger brother, Robert, who served as a spokesman for the siblings in court documents. In fighting against the effort by Fred III to gain support for his son with cerebral palsy, Robert Trump wrote that the family had provided financial support "out of the goodness of our hearts" and had given Fred III $200,000 annually even though they didn't have to lift "a finger" for the money. While Robert Trump acted as Donald Trump's surrogate in the court case, he has had his own clashes with his brother, according to O'Donnell, a former Atlantic City casino executive who worked with both men. In his memoir, "Trumped!," O'Donnell wrote that Donald Trump hired Robert to help run his casinos, which were then floundering. When Donald Trump complained during a meeting with his casino executives that "We're going to lose a fortune," Robert responded: "Donald, you know there's just no way to predict these things," according to O'Donnell. Trump was furious with his brother, saying, "I'm sure as hell not going to listen to you in this situation. I listened to you and you got me into this," according to O'Donnell. Robert Trump said, "I'm getting out of here. I don't need this," O'Donnell wrote. Donald Trump, in an interview for The Post's biography "Trump Revealed," said his brother "never quit" and did a "really good job." O'Donnell said in an interview Monday that Donald Trump promotes the "image of a strong loyal family," including with his parents, children and siblings. Although O'Donnell said Robert gets along with Donald Trump, he thinks the browbeating at the Taj Mahal casino "changed forever" their relationship. Robert Trump, who could not be reached for comment, does not appear to have ever spoken publicly about what happened in Atlantic City. He told the New York Post in 2016 that "I support Donald one thousand percent. I think he's doing a great job. I think he's got a great message." He and Donald were photographed embracing on the night of the election. The Post reported last year that a company in which Robert Trump has a financial stake received a $33 million federal contract. Maryanne Trump Barry, the president's sister, resigned last year as a federal appellate judge in the wake of an investigation into whether she violated judicial conduct rules related to her role in the family company's tax practices. The investigation, launched after The Times investigation into Trump family finances, became moot when she resigned. Trump once joked that he was considered putting her on the Supreme Court. She has said little publicly about her brother during his presidency. Trump's other sibling, Elizabeth Grau, a former administrative assistant at Chase Manhattan Bank, has maintained a low profile throughout her brother's presidency. She could not be reached for comment. (Natural News) If the death of George Floyd wasnt planned by the Left, it was a timely catapult for Soros-funded chaos. It was only a matter of time before George Soros money was enough for bored, young, chaotic, frustrated, brainwashed dudes in their twenties (and their stoned girlfriends) to go buy some liquid courage, drugs and spray paint, and take over a small section of downtown Seattle (the artsy-fartsy district, by the way). Now, the nation of libtard or CHAZ (acronym for Capital Hill Autonomous Zone) is a mecca, a prototype, a litmus test and a perfect model of what at least 100 more metropolitan districts will look like next month. In fact, a new autonomous zone already popped up in Chicago. Bill Gates and George Soros fuel the violent, demented, and sickly atrocities of the world today It was a rather simple formula. Have Bill Gates release a disease. Shutter all small businesses and create massively long lines for food, so everybody gets used to it. Make them all wear face coverings so it becomes so inhuman, nobody even cares about anybody else at all. Then fund dozens of Hate-Trump groups where most members already have an arrest record and no jobs, and pay them to go be violent, also promising them, and this is the key to it all to get bailed out or get off Scott-free because the police are told to stand down, the judges are sworn to Obama, and theres no bail set anyway. Yes, here are all the companies that FUND Antifa and Black Lives Matter, just so you know. Go ahead and click and read. We can wait. Ads are literally being run, hiring these brainwashed freaks the media spit out in just 4 short years, to create the most chaotic, idiotic, outright dangerous protests that are supported by every single Democrat in office right now. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are instructed by Obama and the Clintons. Obama and the Clintons answer directly to George Soros and Bill Gates. The Governors of New York, Virginia, Minnesota, California and Washington bow down and do anything theyre told, and the crap rolls down hill to the mayors, and finally to the scum of the earth, Antifa. Its all brought to you by the Nazis that run the social media platforms. Its time to cage the beast by voting every Democrat out of office over the next two years. Make no mistake, the Democrats want to get RID of all police, not just defund them, as the media spin goes Socialism means absolute chaos for the middle and lower class. Socialism is what all Democrats want now for America, and the few who dont wont matter, because the money is coming from one of the richest people in the world, George Nazi Soros. Socialism means getting rid of all the police, not just taking away certain funds for certain expensive weapons and gear. Socialism means nobody owns their own business anymore, and all income is taxed at 70 percent or higher for embezzlement hoaxes and schemes, better known as climate change and the military industrial war complex. Are you stressed yet? Vote them out, or it will come. Now, youre probably ready for the best stress relief about politics you can find right now, especially since all the late shows and SNL are in the toilet (play laugh track here). Get ready. Learn just how dumb the No Police Democrats have become as the brilliant and hilarious Hodgetwins (theyre also comedians) rip into the biggest political lies ever besieged upon the Sheeplecrats. Watch this short video, then find more by the Hodgetwins on Hodgetwins channel on YouTube. The truth is out and its hilariously out in the open when you hear it from the Hodgetwins perspective. Tune your internet dial to Trump.news and watch the Democrat-run cities collapse as Antifa and BLM terrorists start starving to death because truckers across the country are saying they wont deliver food to areas with no cops working. Sources for this article include: NaturalNews.com Trump.news ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com TORONTO, June 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Michael Lee-Chin and Portland Holdings are calling upon Canadians to join in the effort to feed vulnerable communities in Jamaica by donating to Food For The Poor Canada (FFPC). Portland Holdings has already made a huge impact; working with friends and supporters and a matching donation drive to purchase 176,000 meals for Jamaicans for an upcoming shipment of rice and beans. The philosophy of Portland Holdings is to do well and do good; they have lived up to their motto through a long history of working in Jamaica and Canada to enhance the education and the skills of youth. Portland Holdings is using their capacity and culture of giving combined with Food For The Poor Canadas extensive network of trusted partners on the ground in Jamaica to ensure that vulnerable communities are not left behind during the pandemic. Together, and with a deliberate focus on the most urgent needs, strong partnerships will have an immediate and long lasting impact on Caribbean communities. FFPC is looking for partners like Michael Lee-Chin and Portland Holdings to help combat growing food insecurity in Caribbean communities. Since March of this year, with the hard work of partners and the generosity of Canadians, FFPC has received funds and donated foods which will provide close to 1,500,000 meals in Jamaica to help increase food security for families who now find themselves without the means to afford food to feed their families, and FFPC continues to fundraise to send more containers. Portland Holdings is led by Michael Lee-Chin, Canadian-Jamaican investor, businessman and philanthropist. Michael implores Canadians to please, find it in your heart to join me in supporting the good work of Food For The Poor Canada and help feed Jamaicas most vulnerable during these unprecedented times. With the help of generous Canadians, FFPC recently purchased eight containers of rice and beans that will provide meals for children and their families in Jamaica, Haiti, Guyana and Honduras. Already, communities in the Caribbean have received millions of meals of dried vegetable soup mix, fruits and beans made from donations by Canadian farmers. Food For The Poor Canadas goal is to feed an additional 50,000 people in the region over the next 6 months. Please donate at https://www.foodforthepoor.ca/ Food For The Poor Canada Food For The Poor Canada (FFPC) empowers communities in the Caribbean and Latin America through five areas of programming: food, housing, education, health and livelihood. FFPC responds to urgent needs while building community and social infrastructure. FFPC utilizes the pre-existing infrastructure of local affiliated organizations to better sustain and grow the communities they serve and responds effectively to emergencies and natural disasters when they occur. Over the last 12 years, FFPC and its Canadian donors have built 124 homes and 32 schools, as well as shipped and distributed $32 million worth of food, educational and medical supplies. FFPC is part of the Food For The Poor family of charities; the founding organization in the USA is Food For The Poor, an interdenominational Christian organization that works in 17 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. For interviews or more information, contact: Samantha Mahfood Executive Director (416) 921-4008 Samantham@foodforthepoor.ca www.foodforthepoor.ca A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7e9cbfb1-df1f-4d75-9658-60b4eba74f8f In the absence of any clear directions from the government, various private schools of Chandigarh have said no to functioning as examination centres for the entrance exams that are just weeks away. Fearing an influx of students from various states amid rising cases of coronavirus, schools have expressed their reluctance in holding the examinations. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will conduct the pending board exams for 29 subjects between July 1 and 15, whereas the National Testing Agency will conduct the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on July 26. The Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering will be conducted from July 18 to July 23, and the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) will be held on July 5. HS Mamik, president of Independent Schools Association (ISA), Chandigarh, said, We are skeptical about conducting exams like NEET and CTET. There should be some sort of regulation with respect to doing that, but there are no instructions by the government. Centres for NEET have already been decided, most of the schools are not in a position to refuse. But my school, Vivek High School, has said we are not ready at the moment. St Johns High School, Sector 26, is a centre for both CTET and NEET. Principal Kavita Das said, We are worried. There is no communication from the government regarding the standard operating procedures. Our teachers are supposed to be invigilators, but most of them fall under vulnerable categories, are elderly and/or have comorbidities. We cant refuse but I am worried. Many people from Punjab, Haryana and other states will be coming to give exams. Many of them will be asymptomatic. We wont get to know about their condition by virtue of screening alone. This puts all teachers as well as children at risk, she added. No communication has been received regarding the material required for conducting these tests. Right now schools are already short on money as only the tuition fees is being charged. Will the government pay for the added expenses? she asked. The principal of a government school said, The CBSE has asked schools to be centers for their own children, but at many of those centres will host private candidates as well. How can we ensure that there is no infection? Officials of the CBSE couldnt be reached for comments. FILE PHOTO: The corporate logo of financial firm Morgan Stanley is pictured on a building in San Diego By Elizabeth Dilts Marshall NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Morgan Stanley diversity officer sued the bank on Tuesday, alleging racial discrimination, retaliation and violation of equal pay laws, according to a court filing. The plaintiff, Marilyn Booker, was a managing director for 26 years until she was fired in December, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn. Booker said the bank eliminated her position after senior executives ignored her proposal to address systemic racial bias against black financial advisers and trainees. Morgan Stanley rejected the allegations and said the firm will defend itself. "We are steadfast in our commitment to improve the diversity of our employees and have made steady progress while recognizing that we have further progress to make," spokeswoman Mary Claire Delaney said in a statement. The lawsuit claims the bank violated the Civil Rights Act and New York state human rights laws, as well as federal and state equal pay laws. According to an article https://mgstn.ly/30NyU6h about Booker published on Morgan Stanley's website in February 2018, the bank recruited her in 1994 to run one of its first formal diversity programs. Booker worked in human resources, leading diversity, policy and recruiting until 2011, when she was asked to lead the bank's urban markets group, which promotes prosperity in inner-city communities through financial literacy programs. According to the lawsuit, Booker pushed human resources colleagues and senior bank leaders in the fall of 2019 to consider her plan to increase diversity and "remedy rampant bias" against black financial advisers and trainees. Booker claims the bank retaliated by eliminating her job on Dec. 9, according to the court filing. Booker also alleged that the bank's discriminatory employment practices extend to other black female employees, and is filing a collective action claim under the Equal Pay Act. (Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Richard Chang and Jonathan Oatis) 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 China insists on claiming entire Galwan Valley India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, June 17: Following the violent skirmish in which 20 Indian soldiers were martyred, there were a series of discussions with China as well as within the top brass in India. Talks at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) were the toughest. The violent skirmish which began on Monday night lasted well to Tuesday morning. In the morning, several Indian soldiers were noticed on the south bank of Galwan. India China face-off: Why are there frequent clashes at the Line of Actual Control | Oneindia News Indian troops crossed LAC and purposefully launched attacks: China While there were attempts to rescue the Indian soldiers, the Chinese however prevented the same. Major General Abhijit Bapat flew in a chopper to the stop and negotiated the issue. The meeting to restore stability went on until 8 pm on Tuesday. China, had reportedly claimed the entire Galwan Valley. Hectic parleys would continue even today and New Delhi is weighing in on the claims made by Beijing. Meanwhile, in New Delhi, Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, Foreign Minister, S Jaishankar met with Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs. Army Chief General M M Naravane later on briefed Singh again in the evening. New Delhi, June 17 : Actress Swara Bhasker has started dubbing for her upcoming shows, and says she works in a very controlled environment without touching anything in the studio. "I'm dubbing for two shows. One is called 'Flesh'. The other show, which I just wrapped shooting for before lockdown, awaits an official announcement," said Swara, who is in Delhi with her family. "Since I'm in Delhi at the moment with my family, I am dubbing in a studio near my house. The directors and sound designers of the show are in Mumbai- monitoring the dubbing online and remotely," she added. The actress is taking all precautionary measures while dubbing. "I am very careful about not contracting the virus, not just for myself but also because I don't want my parents to get it. I work in a very controlled environment and don't touch anything in the studio. I carry my own coffee and water. I keep my mask and gloves on till everything is sanitised and I have to start dubbing. The headphones I use are new, personal and only I touch them," she said, adding that the recording room is sanitised before every dubbing session. Swara feels "we will now need to become more organised than before, be more careful and plan shoots in a more controlled way". -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Gandhinagar, June 17 : With just a day to go for the crucial Rajya Sabha elections for 4 seats in Gujarat on June 19, both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress party on Wednesday, claimed victory of their candidates, despite equations suggesting otherwise. The BJP has fielded three candidates while the Congress has fielded two candidates for the 4 Rajya Sabha seats in the state. The Covid-19 situation has forced the Election Commission to reschedule the date of the elections, which was earlier scheduled on March 26. There aren't enough votes of MLAs for both the parties, if the third BJP candidate or the second Congress candidate has to win. Despite that both the parties on Wednesday, claimed victory. The BJP has fielded Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin while the Congress has nominated Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki. In the 182-member state assembly, the BJP has 103 seats while the opposition Congress has only 65, with eight of its MLAs resigning during the last 3-4 months. Prior to the earlier scheduled poll date of March 26, five Congress MLAs had resigned, while 3 of the party's legislators resigned in the first week of June. Looking at the current strength, the BJP has enough votes to win two seats and Congress one seat, as according to the new situation, each Rajya Sabha candidate needs 35 votes. The BJP is short of two votes which it is banking on getting it from the Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which is 2 and 1 seats in the state assembly respectively. While the Congress is 4 votes short, even if a vote from the lone independent MLA Jignesh Mevani is counted in its favour. "Whether it's the BJP or the Congress in Gujarat, there is no need to fear as the Rajya Sabha elections will be held in free and fair manner and Congress friends need not fear. With full confidence we are saying that BJP will win all the three seats and we don't need any votes from others," said Pradeepsinh Jadeja, the minister of state for home. "Anything can happen... Last time BJP stalwart like R.C. Faldu had goofed up during the Rajya Sabha elections. So such errors can happen anytime. We have planned our strategy for the elections and we are confident that both of our candidates will win," said Amit Chavda, the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president. A meeting was held at the Uma Samaj Bhavan, at Umiya temple in Gandhinagar for the BJP MLAs, chaired by the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to plan and train its MLAs for the Rajya Sabha elections. Both the parties very well know that every single vote matters and the BJP knows it and to prevent any goof-up the MLAs were trained on how to vote for the first preference, the second preference and third preference. Similarly, the Congress too a held similar meeting at the Hotel Umed in Ahmedabad on Wednesday afternoon, where most of its MLAs have been holed up, with the Congress fearing horse trading by the BJP. As a matter of precaution all the MLAs were instructed to switch off their phones for the next two days till the elections were held. Here too, training sessions were held for the MLAs, on how to vote for their candidates on June 19. The Congress has, on top of Rajiv Satav, who is the in-charge for Gujarat, has appointed two more in-charges -- B.K Hariprasad and Rajni Tai Patil who will be arriving at the hotel on Wednesday night. University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers have led an international team in developing a new test to better diagnose different types of ovarian cancer, a tool that could one day guide and improve treatment options for women diagnosed with the most common and deadliest form of the disease. The development and validation of the test are outlined in a new study, published today in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. The study--led by researchers at UBC's faculty of medicine, University of New South Wales, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Mayo Clinic--is one of the largest ovarian cancer investigations to date, involving data compiled by more than 50 research institutes and involving more than 3,800 ovarian cancer patients worldwide. "With this new test, we'll be able to give researchers, clinicians and patients more insight into the disease, which could pave the way for more targeted treatment down the road," says the study's senior author, Dr. Michael Anglesio, a molecular biologist, assistant professor in UBC's department of obstetrics and gynaecology, investigator at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) and scientist at OVCARE, B.C.'s multidisciplinary gynecological cancer research team. The new test, known as PrOTYPE (Predictor of high-grade serous Ovarian carcinoma molecular subTYPE), is specifically designed to analyze and classify high-grade serous ovarian cancer, the most common and lethal form of ovarian cancer. Principal investigators validated the test in laboratories at BC Cancer and Vancouver General Hospital. Using PrOTYPE, researchers and clinicians alike will be able to further classify an individual patient's tumour into one of four known molecular subtypes, each with its distinct biological features believed to respond differently to treatment options. "Right now, high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients are all treated the same, but by knowing what subtype their tumour falls into, we can begin to explore how certain treatments may prove more beneficial for individual patients," says the study's lead author Dr. Aline Talhouk, a translational data scientist, assistant professor in UBC's department of obstetrics and gynaecology, VCHRI investigator and OVCARE scientist. Prior to the development of PrOTYPE, subtyping tests using gene expression analysis for high-grade serous ovarian cancer relied on the aggregation of large patient cohorts and the examination of all of the genes in the genome at once -- a situation that made them impractical for use in clinical settings, says Anglesio. "Doctors will never see a few hundred patients walk through their clinic door at one time. It's just not the reality," says Anglesio. With PrOTYPE, which was designed for clinical use, a small amount of information--55 informative genes from a small tissue sample--can quickly determine the tumour subtype with more than 95 per cent accuracy. The researchers also developed a corresponding web tool, enabling clinicians to print out a report that can be added to a patient's records. "We've developed a push-button solution. All that's needed is the tumour from the patient in question and a common reference to compare the data to. Before this test, no one could do that," says Anglesio. "We now have a robust way of figuring out which of the four subtypes a patient fits into." The researchers see great potential for the test to one day guide patient care. The test is already being used in ongoing clinical trials investigating whether certain subtypes are more sensitive to particular treatments among women with recurrent high-grade serous ovarian cancer. "This test has opened up new opportunities and treatment avenues to explore. It will be important to re-evaluate treatment options and test new targets for therapeutics in light of this new ability," says Talhouk. ### The study involved significant contributions from investigators around the world who are part of the Ovarian Tumour Tissue Analysis (OTTA) consortium, co-founded by UBC's Dr. David Huntsman, professor in the department of pathology & laboratory medicine and obstetrics and gynaecology, distinguished scientist at BC Cancer, and co-founder and director of OVCARE, B.C.'s multidisciplinary gynecologic cancer research team at UBC, VGH & BC Cancer. The UBC research team is comprised of scientists hosted at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, BC Cancer Research Institute, and Women's Health Research Institute. This research supports the Gynecologic Cancer Initiative's vision of decreasing the incidence, death and suffering from gynecologic cancers by 50 per cent by 2034. The study received funding support from the UBC Faculty of Medicine, VGH+UBC Hospital Foundation, BC Cancer Foundation, National Institute of Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, US Department of Defense, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and others. If theres one thing Ancira Auto Group is known for, its for its charitable giving and unwavering commitment to giving back to the communities it serves. Thats why Ancira Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram and Ancira Nissan will host a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24, on premises at Ancira Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram on I-10 between Wurzbach and Huebner Roads. Ancira Auto Group Vice President April Ancira said that for more than 20 years, the company, founded in 1972, has hosted at least two blood drives a year, often with a focus on employee participation though customers and the general public have always been welcome to attend. Weve always had it at the I-10 location because its central to a lot of people in San Antonio, so it just made sense, Ancira said. Just as global pandemic began to sweep the nation early this year, it became clear that with COVID-19 came a huge blood shortage and so the company decided to host an additional blood drive earlier than originally planned. There was a shortage to begin with before COVID-19 and the shortage has only increased due to the virus, with so many people who need transfusions or surgery whose lives absolutely depend on the availability of these blood donations, said Ancira. Its a pretty paralyzing time with so many things going on, so if someone is saying to themselves, What can I do? and you want to be part of something bigger and better, this is a pretty profound way to do something good for a lot of people. Cat Ruiz, an employee in accounting at Ancira Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, has largely helmed the project, communicating with the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, putting the event together and encouraging other Ancira employees to participate, ensuring a strong showing. Ancira Auto Group has widely promoted the event on social media, and the general public is encouraged to attend by signing up for time slots online to support social distancing practices. (Those experiencing cold or flu-like symptoms are asked not to attend.) We knew we needed more folks than just here at Ancira, Ancira said. We need all hands on deck. Not only will we be extra cautious about keeping everyone safe in this donating environment, but in this unique situation attendees will also receive a free (COVID-19) antibodies test, Ancira said. She added that giving blood is an option that just makes sense and affects those around you in countless ways. Giving blood is the most easy, sensible way to contribute to the community, Ancira said. It has to be one of the most impactful ways to give back saving a life for zero dollars and a little bit of time. Even those on a fixed income can participate in charitable giving in this way, she added. Its such a morale boost to do something to help others, Ancira said. And somebody needs this blood to survive you are 100 percent saving lives. What better way to honor the human race than to save peoples lives? And due to the pandemic, the timing couldnt be more crucial. This is probably the most important time weve ever hosted a blood drive, Ancira added. While weve done it for many years, we feel more compelled than ever before to involve not just our own employees but the whole community. Ancira Auto Group is honored to help the community in other ways during this time of need as well. Partnered with the San Antonio Youth Educational Support Project (SA YES), Ancira has provided five trucks for the SA YES and AUSTIN YES Online Auction and Truck Raffle, a fundraising event to purchase 15,000 school supply kits for those in need. Tickets can be purchased at www.sayes.org. And, for those who cannot participate in the blood drive, Ancira Auto Group is also collecting new backpacks for the Family Service Association, which can be dropped off at the sales department of any Ancira dealership. To sign up for the blood drive on June 24, visit https://donor.southtexasblood.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/120573 For more information on Ancira Auto Group, visit www.ancira.com or follow them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at @anciracommunity. Ancira said she finds it heartwarming to see how many individuals always turn out for the companys blood drives. Its exciting to see not just our employees, but also people who are out and about in the community who say, You know what? I want to do something great today, said Ancira. Editors Note: This content is made possible by Ancira Auto Group. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasa.com. LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- For those folks finding themselves with plenty of spare time, Lakewood Public Library is reminding patrons that they can currently use their library card number for free access to Ancestry Library Edition. Its free through June for all Ohio library card holders, said Public Services Librarian Andrea Fisher. Ancestry.com is the No. 1 genealogy resource. They continuously add to it, so its a great way to get started researching your familys history. There are census records dating back to the beginning of the census up to 1940. There are also some church directories, city directories and military records. Also, theyve just added yearbook pictures. The search capabilities make it easy. While the library version differs slightly from the consumer edition, Fisher said she was able to trace her own roots back to the 17th century. My ancestors came from Ireland and England on both sides, so its very interesting to see, Fisher said. For instance, I found both of my grandparents on the same census page. Thats how they met each other. They were neighbors. Im sure that happens for a lot of people, but its fun to see the family members living within the house. I had one family member who had a boarder -- this random person. As the popularity of genealogy continues to grow, Fisher said more patrons have taken the librarys monthly classes, which are led by a genealogist. During a normal pre-pandemic month, Fisher said Lakewood Public Library patrons taking the classes could make upward of 1,500 searches. While thats more than the 500 made last month, the librarian said the recent number is impressive, considering folks are doing it from home. Im happy theyre using it, Fisher said. Its a lot to weed through, and it certainly is time consuming, but when people get started, in just one search they can probably find out something new or see a document or something theyve never seen before. This is just another example of how we continue to find ways to help better serve our patrons. Read more news from the Sun Post Herald. Millions of workers and their families in Britain are facing an unprecedented onslaught on their jobs, wages and working conditions. Even as the government reopens the economy, with all non-essential shops allowed to open from this Monday, jobs are being shed by the tens of thousands. The economic carnage wrought by the pandemic saw the UK economy collapse by more than 20 percent in Aprilthe first full month after the lockdown was imposed on March 23. Companies are responding by implementing long-planned restructuring operations. Mass layoffs, a halt to hiring, and pay cuts are the order of the day. This weeks Office for National Statistics labour market report showed that the number of workers on payrolls in Britain fell by 612,000 (2 percent) in the first two months of the lockdown. Across the economy, the number of hours worked fell by a record 94.2 million in Aprila drop of almost 9 percent. The number of vacancies fell by a record 436,000 (60 percent) between March and May to reach 318,000. Real average pay declined a further 0.8 percent between April and May, following the already sharp decline of 2.8 per cent between March and April. In the last weeks, over 43,000 job losses have been announced by major UK firms in many sectors. Nearly 14,000 of these are to go in the UK. Among the sectors hardest hit are aviation, aerospace, builders merchants, and car manufacturing. This week Jaguar Land Rover announced another 1,100 job losses among agency staff/contractors as part of a transformation programme. These are on top of 5,000 job cuts announced last year. Builders merchants Travis Perkins announced 2,500 job cuts this week and outsourcing firm Capita is shedding 200 jobs. The job losses could well run into the millions, as the Johnson governments furlough scheme is phased out from August to October. This week the government announced that 9.1 million workers were being paid 80 percent of their wages, up to a ceiling of 2,500 a month, under its Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. On top of this, 2.6 million self-employed workers have made claims from the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme. This means that more than a third of the entire workforce are currently being paid by furlough schemes. Without these cushions, the unemployment rate would have already rocketed far beyond the nearly 4 percent in the first three months to April. As it is, the crisis has forced 1.6 million workers into claiming work-related benefits since the lockdown begana rise of 125.9 percent. The cost of these schemes, around 29 billion, is dwarfed by the hundreds of billions made available to the corporations and banks. But the ruling class hates the concessions it has been forced to make to working people. Those who are not forced back to work under dangerous conditions over the next weeks face losing their jobs, as there is no indication that companies will pay 20 percent of the costs or more to keep workers furloughed. From August to October, workers on furlough will continue to receive 80 percent of their salary, but the amount paid by the state will be reduced each month, with employers expected to make up the shortfall. Last month, the Office for Budget Responsibilitys was forced to raise its estimate of the cost to the state of the pandemic to 123.2 billion, from its previous calculation of 103.7 billion. Annual borrowing shot up to 15.2 percent of UK GDP. In the intervening weeks, this will have risen again. These staggering sums are to be clawed back from the working class in an offensive that will make the last 10 years of austerity pale in comparison. Commenting on the new figures, Tej Parikh, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, warned, The furlough scheme continues to hold off the bulk of job losses, but unemployment is likely to surge in the months ahead. This is already confirmed in HMRC data pointing to the number of employees in the labour market falling by 160,000 in May. On Tuesday, the Resolution Foundation commented, This [May figure of 160,000] has so far showed up in a rise in economic inactivity (up 425,000 in April) rather than unemployment, with the lockdown limiting the numbers actively searching for work The claimant counta measure which includes those claiming unemployment benefits and some low-income workersreached 2.8 million in April, an increase of 530,000 on the month, far surpassing the peak of the last crisis (1.6 million). Speaking to Sky News, Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, warned, This is economically catastrophic on a scale literally never seen before in history. The real question is what happens next. Johnson said the virus disappearing over the next few months and the economy returning to normal was not about to happen. The real risk, and the more likely outcome, is that the furlough scheme gradually begins to be withdrawn and a lot of jobs will be lost, he said, adding, Remember unemployment rose by a million last month, and it will continue to rise. More businesses will go out of business and then the issue is that next year well still be in a position where there are fewer businesses operating and fewer people in work. The British economy was particularly fragile, he said, with a unique triple threat of the coronavirus impact, gathering economic crisis, and Brexit taking place next yearwith the likelihood that the UK will not finalise a trade deal with the EU and crash out with a hard Brexit. Any notion that there is any correlation between the policies of capitalist governments and the concerns of working people has been blown to smithereens during the pandemic. Now workers are being shown that all efforts to justify the reopening of the economy with expressions of concern for jobs and livelihoods are rank deception. All that matters for big business and its parties is profit. The Johnsons governments herd immunity policy has led to around 70,000 deaths according to modelling based on data from the Office for National Statistics. The public health implications of Exercise Cygnuscarried out in 2016 by the National Health Service to analyse the impact of a pandemic similar to the coronaviruswere totally ignored despite predictions of hundreds of thousands of deaths. Now, nothing is being done to alleviate a mounting social and economic catastrophe, in which millions of households face a future of unemployment and poverty. The working class must take things into its own hands. What is required is the expropriation of the major corporations who are determined to make their workers pay for a crisis for which the ruling class is solely responsible. Action committees must be formed in every workplace and community, to ensure safe working conditions and to oppose all demands for cuts and closures in the national interest. The ruling class defends only its interests. The interests of the broad mass of society can only be defended by the independent action of the working class, not only against the government and the employers, but the Tories allies in the Labour Party, and trade unions that act as the workplace police force for big business and the state. The stranglehold of the corporate and financial oligarchy and their dictatorship over economic and political life must be ended. This requires the expropriation of the major corporations, the seizure of their assets, to make available the resources needed to provide for decent jobs, housing, education and health care for all. Such a programme demands the implementation of a rational economic plan by a workers government committed to a fight against capitalism and for socialism internationally. T he police officer who almost died after coming into contact with Novichok while investigating the Salisbury poisonings said he is still trying to pick up the pieces of his life. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey has made a third attempt to return to work this week, two years after being poisoned by the deadly nerve agent. Det Sgt Bailey was the first person to enter the home of Sergei Skripal after the Russian former double agent and his daughter Yulia were rushed to hospital after being poisoned by Novichok on a park bench in Salisbury. The case that led Britain to accuse Russia of attempted murder and charge two Russian intelligence agents with the poisoning in absentia, has now been turned into a BBC drama series, The Salisbury Poisonings. Novichok nerve agent suspects - In pictures 1 /14 Novichok nerve agent suspects - In pictures Both suspects at Salisbury train station shortly after 4pm on March 3 Metropolitan Police Suspects: Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov Sky News The suspects walk together through the streets of Salisbury shortly after 1pm on March 4 Metropolitan Police The suspects walk together through the streets of Salisbury shortly after 1pm on March 4 Metropolitan Police Both suspects at Heathrow airport security at about 7.30pm on March 4 Metropolitan Police The counterfeit perfume box found by Charlie Rowley on June 27 Metropolitan Police The perfume bottle and applicator recovered by police from Charlie Rowleys home Metropolitan Police Both suspects in Salisbury just before midday on March 4 Metropolitan Police The suspects seen on CCTV at Salisbury train station at 1.50pm on March 4 Metropolitan Police Ruslan Boshirov at Gatwick airport at 3pm on March 2 Metropolitan Police Alexander Petrov at Gatwick airport at 3pm on March 2 Metropolitan Police In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Det Sgt Bailey, 40, detailed the torment he and his family endured after he was accidentally poisoned at the Skripals home after grasping the door knob. Det Sgt Bailey had worn a protective suit and latex gloves, but was later told his glove was saturated by the powerful nerve agent. What followed was a two-week stay in intensive care during which his wife and two daughters feared he would die as well as the loss of the Baileys family home and possessions due to contamination fears. The world has moved on, but Im still trying to pick up the pieces, he told the paper. Theresa May visits Salisbury on the one year anniversary of the incident / PA Im not ashamed to say it has had a massive impact psychologically. It really pulled the rug from under my feet. Although Det Sgt Bailey was discharged from hospital within three weeks, he could not then go home, since he had unknowingly carried Novichok into the residence from the Skripals' house. While he was in hospital, police had seized Det Sgt Baileys home and its contents, fearing the risk of contamination too high. They moved his wife Sarah and daughters Eloise and Annabel, then 14 and 10, into a bed and breakfast. While Sarah had packed some belongings into four suitcases, police took the decision to buy the house and destroy all its contents. Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia both survived the nerve agent poisoning They had done the same to the Skripals' house and had removed the park bench where they had sat when poisoned, as well as burying no fewer than 20 emergency services vehicles used in the case. It was heartbreaking, said Det Sgt Bailey. We scrimped and saved for that house. It was our forever home, but we only lived there for two years. While the Baileys have now bought a new home, the policeman suffers with depression and memory loss, the Telegraph said. He attempted to return to work in September 2018, and in January 2019, but both times couldnt deal with being in a police environment. Local woman Dawn Sturgess died after picking up a perfume bottle / PA He returned again on Monday, joining a neighbourhood police team to build his confidence. If that also proves unsuccessful, he will look for a different job. The Skripals, like Det Sgt Bailey, also recovered and, after more than a year in an MI6 safe house, moved to New Zealand. But local woman Dawn Sturgess, 44, died months after the incident, having picked up the discarded perfume bottle used by Russian agents to hold the Novichok. Russian agents going by the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov have been charged in absentia over the poisonings, with Interpol Red Notices and European Arrest warrants issued. Meanwhile, Det Sgt Bailey has defended his wife against criticism for her actions as portrayed in the series. He tweeted: Ive seen quite a bit of negativity towards my wife regarding episode 2 and the way she handled it. Those scenes with Sarah could never truly reflect the extreme emotion and trauma she went through that day. Cut her some slack and be kind. In the episode, Sarah played by Annabel Scholey is seen to angrily tell a police liaison officer at the family home to p*** off and pours herself a glass of white wine. Critical tweets were also posted by viewers pointing out Mrs Bailey did not change the bed sheets after her husband had slept in them. The coronavirus pandemic has not only changed our present but is also changing the future in many ways. The state of normalcy in a post-Covid-19 world will be an altered version of what normal once looked like. One of the major sectors to have taken the hit of the pandemic is the aviation industry. As it struggles to get back to the open skies, many challenges loom ahead. The future of flying, at least in the immediate days to come, is going to change. One of the major changes brought about by some airlines is temporarily stopping the sale of alcoholic beverages inside the aircraft to make flying amid Covid-19 crisis a safe experience. According to a CNN report, a host of airlines companies including American carriers like Delta, American, have decided not to serve alcoholic drinks to flyers in a bid to reduce food and drink options aboard. US Delta Airlines will only be serving alcohol in its international flights. Many airlines, including British budget airline EasyJet, have settled with only serving bottled water aboard. The Netherlands flag-carrier KLM, has suspended sales of hot and alcoholic drinks, but for water and soft drinks. Also read: People with co-morbidities 12 times more likely to die of Covid - US study The UKs flag carrier, British Airways, has suspended its alcoholic beverages in its short-haul economy class flights (Euro Traveller). Virgin Australia is serving water and a snack to all its flyers, however, additional food and drinks - including alcoholic beverages - arent currently available for onboard. India resumed domestic air travel last month with a strict ban on international flight operations in place. As per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, no newspaper or magazine shall be provided on board by the airlines to the passengers. Sale of eatables is barred and passengers are not allowed to consume food inside the aircraft. The ministry issued a detailed inside the aircraft guidelines to inform about the measures to be followed inside the aircraft and restricted consumption of eatables, barring water, inside the flight. In the Aircraft a. Throughout the flight, hygiene and sanitation to be maintained by the passengers. Face to face interaction to be minimized. b. Passenger are advised to minimize use of lavatory and to avoid any non-essential movement in the aisles. c. No queuing at the lavatory and only one companion for children and the elderly to be allowed. d. No meal services would be made available in the aircraft. Water bottle to be made available in the gallery area or on the seats. e. Passengers would not be permitted to consume any eatables inside the aircraft during the flight. f. Passengers to note that No paper/magazine will be available in the aircraft. g. There would be no on-board sale of any item to minimize the physical contacts. h. lf any passenger feels uncomfortable, fatigued or have cough, it should be brought to the notice of the crew for handling the passenger. As a result of the recent flooding event and dam failures, there are ongoing safety concerns about instability of the bottomlands due to erosion, Midland County Emergency Management warned residents Tuesday night. An announcement stated that the instability of the soil can create a quicksand-like effect in which people will sink into the soil and may need the assistance of rescue crews to get out. TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - President Juan Orlando Hernandez has tested positive for the coronavirus but says he is suffering only mild symptoms and would continue in his job. "Because of my work, I haven't been able to stay at home 100%," Hernandez said in a televised appearance late Tuesday, explaining how he might have contracted the virus. "Now I will do my work through virtual media, through telework." He said that doctors had advised him to rest and that he would continue to be medically evaluated. He planned to isolate himself but continue running the government, he said in a statement. Hernandez is just over two years into his second term as president. His government imposed a strict nationwide curfew in mid-March to limit the spread of covid-19, the disease the virus causes, but started reopening the battered economy a week ago. The Central American nation of 9 million people has reported 9,656 cases of coronavirus and 330 deaths, according to a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The president said his wife, Ana Garcia, and two of his aides have also tested positive for the virus. Hernandez has been a deeply controversial president. He won a second term in a 2017 election that was criticized for being plagued with irregularities. He was the target of widespread protests last year led by teachers and doctors angered by planned cuts in government funding. He has also been accused of ties to drug gangs. Hernandez's brother, Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman, was convicted in U.S. court last year of trafficking cocaine. During that trial, U.S. prosecutors alleged that the president took a $1 million bribe in 2013 from Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. In April, U.S. prosecutors alleged that former national police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla coordinated the shipment of tons of cocaine on behalf of Hernandez and his brother. The president has denied the accusations. He says that they came from untrustworthy informants and that he has fought drug cartels. Hernandez has retained close ties with the Trump administration, which has valued his cooperation in cracking down on unauthorized migration. Honduras passed legislation last month that allows greater cooperation with the United States against drug trafficking, focusing on deterring private jets that transport cocaine from Venezuela to the Central American country. The president of neighboring Guatemala expressed support for Hernandez on Wednesday. "I stand in solidarity with the President of Honduras . . . and the first lady," Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei tweeted. "I lift up my prayers for your speedy recovery and express to you my consideration, respect and esteem." Hernandez is at least the second head of government worldwide to be infected by the coronavirus. British Prime Mininster Boris Johnson was diagnosed with covid-19 in March and treated in intensive care in May. He has since recovered. - - - Sheridan reported from Mexico City. 17.06.2020 LISTEN In the wake of the sudden spike in cases of Coronavirus in the Savanah Region, the Savannah Regional wing of the National Democratic Congress has called on the government to consider conducting random mass testing of residents for COVID-19 across the region. The NDC in expressing shock at the sudden spike in cases of COVID-19 in the region believes the Akuffo-Addo government has lost the fight against the pandemic and is throwing its hands in despair. In a press statement signed by the Secretary, Mr. Salisu Be-Awurbi, the party called on the government to earmark and equip containment and isolation centers in major towns and cities of the region as the existing one's are poorly ventilated and without the needed facilities. According to him, proper fumigation of all public places and the distribution of locked up to face masks sent from Accra can help in the fight against the virus. He said the government must consider mandatory testing of all students and teachers before reopening schools, whilst ensuring the necessary PPEs are supplied to the schools. Among other things, the NDC scribe holds the conviction that a proper partnership with assembly members to sensitise communities can do a great deal in combating the community spread of the virus since the assembly members are closer to the people. Read the full statement below: NANA ADDO MUST WAKE UP FROM HIS DEEP SLUMBER BEFORE THE CORONA VIRUS CONSUMES ALL PEOPLE IN SAVANNAH The announcement of 34 new Corona Virus cases in the Savannah Region, 18 in the East Gonja and 16 in the Central Gonja by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service has sent shock waves and justifiable apprehension to all well-meaning inhabitants of the Region. This brings to 35, the Total Number of Recorded cases in the Region. This recent spike in the Region has come at a time that the Nana Addo's Government is absolutely clueless, has lost the fight against the virus, thrown his hands in despair, and virtually staring at the virus as if to urge it on to do it's worse and to leave the remainder to what the disease may choose to ignore. We are pretty sure that but for the timely donations of PPEs by H.E JDM and his Parliamentary Candidates in the Region, which became and it's still the single biggest life-saving donations to Health facilities within the Region, a lot more people and Health Staff would have contracted the virus. This has brought painful memories of the wicked agenda of Nana Addo Led NPP Government in not only delaying but frustration the completion of ultra Modern State of the Art Health Infrastructure which were generously bequeathed to the current government by the Visionary John Mahama Led Administration but which sadly ought to suffer needless project execution delays and some are sadly even recklessly abandoned. If not, by now the Buipe, Sawla and Salaga Hospitals would have been running and saving lives. If these projects were religiously followed through, in the Nature H. E John Mahama had envisaged before souring funding and starting them, the Region would not have been gripped with this hysteric panic. We, therefore, call on the slumbering Addo's Government, the Regional Minister and his Army of nonperforming District Chief Executives to at least exhibit leadership for once and do the following as a matter of urgency to save lives and property: 1. Liaise with all Elected Honourable Assembly Members, Unit Committees, Chiefs, and Community Leaders together with NCCE, Ghana Health Service, Health Volunteers, Community, and Environmental Health Staffs, and other relevant stakeholders to begin immediately, the long-awaited aggressive Community Sensitization and Education throughout the Region. 2. Distribute the locked up to face masks, the materials of which were sent down from Accra and to additionally procured many others using the monies received from the Covid-19 Resources recently approved by Parliament and distribute them to our market women, traders, youth groups, Palaces and School Children in the Region. 3. Conduct Random Mass Testing across the Region. 4. Properly fumigate, using the appropriate Chemicals, all public places such as markets, schools, mosques, Churches, etc. We insist and demand proper fumigation, not the Charade of fumigation that the Assemblies allegedly undertook some two months ago. 5. The Government must Properly Equip and earmark containment and isolation centres in the major Towns and District Capitals within Savannah. The centres must be meet the requisite standard for a dignified holding of patients. Those currently earmarked in the Savanah Region are not only poorly ventilated and illuminated but they are also poorly maintained, needing massive refurbishment and renovations. To put few beds and mattresses together and name it an isolation or containment centre is an insult to the good people of Savannah. It betrays the huge sums of the taxpayer's monies Parliament approved for government to judiciously use it for the intended purpose of fighting to defeat Corona Virus. properly. We deserve better. 6. We hereby serve Notice to The District Chief Executives and Ministers in the Savannah Region that we are monitoring all the diversions of Public Goods to their private gains and that of the NPP Parliamentary candidates and that sooner 'NOT' later, they shall be called upon to account for their stewardship. They should desist henceforth the Practice of passing off John Mahama and his MPs Projects like that of their own. The project theft is becoming one too many. It is not the fault of NDC that they elected Incompetent Parliamentary Candidates in Savannah Region and no amount of Projects theft and crediting the same to the NPP Parliamentary Candidates will make the Bad Products appear Good. Our People are wiser than the NPP on Savvanah thinks. 7. With this spike in the Corona Virus case count in the Region, we call on the Nana Addo Government to test all students, if it's still insistent on reopening schools before they resume for their studies. We also call on them to be mandatorily housed, be fed, and provided with the necessary items that will make their stay conducive. This should include their Teachers. The students should be cocooned from contacts with the external environment for the entire period of their stay in school while providing adequate PPEs and sanitizer for the Students and their Teachers. 8. We also call the administrator of the COVID- 19 Trust Funds to immediately and aggressively utilized the funds to fight the Virus at this time the Virus is stubbornly taking a stronghold on Rural Communities through the communal spread. HON SALISU BE-AWURIBE (REGIONAL SECRETARY) Is there life out there? Weve all considered whether or not aliens exist, but according to a recent story in The Astrophysical Journal, they not only exist, but theres a whole lot of them. In fact, the Journal reports, there are at least 36 intelligent alien civilizations in our galaxy. So, maybe that dream you had back in high school with the bright lights and all wasnt really a dream after all. Howd they come up with at least 36? Well, according to Forbes, scientists at the University of Nottingham came up with a new cosmic evolution based calculation that suggested it. The Milky Way, it said, Is estimated to have between 100 billion to 400 billions stars, and roughly one exoplanet per star in our galaxy. Then again, perhaps, there arent 36 out there after all. Thats because the calculation makes a lot of assumptions, according to the report. For instance, it assumes that life may occur on other planets like it has on ours. Thats not a given, obviously. Another key assumption, according to the report is that it takes around five billion years for intelligent life to form on other planets, as it does on Earth, but that life is probable. Another assumption, the report said, is that a race with technology would last 100 years, such as ours. Thats also, obviously, not a given. There are a whole lot of variables in play here, but if they do line up, and there are nearly 40 intelligent alien civilizations out there well, thats something else. Could be more, though. Could be less, too. But if there are any at all, its certainly interesting. And, according to the story, the more we find, the better a sign it is for our civilization. That is, provided, they dont fly here on space shuttles and eat our brains. If we find that intelligent life is common then this would reveal that our civilization could exists for much longer than a few hundred years, Christopher Conselice, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Nottingham, was quoted as saying. Alternatively, if we find that there are no active civilizations in our galaxy it is a bad sign for own long-term existence. The event was organised by the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg in coordination with the Museum of Military Medicine under the Russian Defence Ministry and the Association of Vietnamese people in St. Petersburg. It saw the participation of representatives from the Commission for External Relations of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee (CPVCC), the Vietnamese military attache to Russia, the former Soviet Unions experts who used to assist Vietnam during the resistance war against the US, and Russian universities and institutes. Le Thi Thanh Ly, acting director of the department for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia affairs under the CPVCCs Commission for External Relations, reviewed major events during the seven decades since the two countries established diplomatic ties. She also highlighted the Soviet Unions enormous support for Vietnam in the past, along with the Vietnam-Russia friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership at present. Ly affirmed the bilateral ties are thriving, noting the relationship between Ho Chi Minh City and St. Petersburg is a role model for other localities of the countries to follow. The official also expressed her hope that a cultural and trade centre of HCM City will be opened soon in the Russian city. Col. Alexey Skreblyukov, head of the St. Petersburg division for war veterans who used to serve in Vietnam, underlined the need to educate younger generations, including young military personnel, of both nations on the close-knit Vietnam-Russia relations. He also suggested the building of a monument dedicated to late President Ho Chi Minh in St. Petersburg as this was the first city the late Vietnamese leader set foot in when he arrived in the then Soviet Union. Skreblyukov added that the Soviet Unions war veterans will exert utmost efforts to nurture the friendship and fraternity between the two countries. Vice Chairman of the St. Petersburg Committee for External Relations Vyacheslav Kalganov said a project on building the Ho Chi Minh monument in the city is being promoted, and the local administration has supported this idea. At the webinar, participants hailed the glorious victories of the Soviet Union and Vietnamese people, as well as the fraternal links between Vietnam and the Soviet Union in the past and Russia at present, voicing the wish to further strengthen these ties. A man, who described himself as a senior director, has been accused of lying through his teeth in a bid to pocket up to 60,000 in damages for personal injuries at a car wash. You are a liar and you have been caught out, barrister Shane English told 32-year-old David Keane after the Circuit Civil Court heard he had failed to disclose details of previous and subsequent injuries. Mr English told Keane, of Castlegrange Avenue, Clonee, Co Dublin, he had deliberately misled the court from beginning to end, lying under oath and committing perjury. Counsels claims against Keanes evidence in court were echoed by Judge Jacqueline Linnane when she threw out his 60,000 claim for spinal injuries after allegedly having been struck by a car reversing out of a car wash at Littlepace shopping centre, Clonee. Had it not been for the intense cross-examination by Mr English, and the investigative prowess of Ennis solicitors for the defendants, this court and even Mr Keanes own solicitors would never have known of previous injuries and damages awards he had failed to disclose, Judge Linnane said. The judge said Mr Keane had admitted having sworn false and misleading information in an affidavit on oath despite having been aware it was an offence to do so. We have discovered subsequent incidents where money was received and never disclosed even to his own solicitors, Judge Linnane said. He refused to answer questions put to him in a forthright and direct manner and it was only under intense cross-examination by Mr English that we got some inkling of the truth. Judge Linnane awarded costs against Keane and suggested that solicitors should be wary of promoting future claims he might initiate. She said discrepancies had been revealed in medical reports about the number of times he had seen his own doctor. He had referred to misleading information regarding medical attendances and other injuries as mistakes and errors. I see little point in referring this case to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Judge Linnane said. They have enough to deal with and none of these referrals are pursued. Following his cross-examination of Keane, Mr English told him he had lied through his teeth on oath both in the witness box and in a sworn affidavit and had deliberately misled the judge and his own solicitors. He said Keane, who had a previous address at Deansrath Lawns, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, had gone to his solicitor the day after the Clonee incident before even going to his GP. Seven weeks after the incident he had attended a garda station about the incident but refused to make a caution statement. Garda William Sharkey told the court Keane had been wearing a neck brace and had acted as if he was still stiff from his injuries when he attended the station. The court heard that despite sitting and walking around for about an hour after the Clonee incident Keane had been taken to hospital on a spinal board. He said ambulance men considered it routine once he had complained about his back pain. He had sued the owner of the car wash, now out of the country, the owner of the car, a member of staff, who he had claimed had reversed from the car wash and the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland. By Express News Service JEYPORE: Police on Tuesday ruled out forcible tonsuring of two girls of Mali community in Badaliguda village under Jeypore block during the death ritual of their father. A police team, after conducting an investigation into the matter said the girls had got their heads tonsured at their own will as part of the tenth day death ritual. It was alleged that a few villagers had forcibly tonsured their heads after the latter had allegedly taken food at a feast with people from another community. Members of district Mali Samaj Bikash Parishad had taken up the matter with the Collector and Koraput SP MK Bhamoo, who formed a team comprising Jeypore SDPO Varun Gantupalli and DSP BK Brahma to probe the allegation. The team interacted with the members of the parishad here and found that the girls had got their heads tonsured voluntarily during their fathers tenth day death ritual. The girls had got their heads tonsured along with their relatives as part of the ritual, said Guntupalli. While the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set July 1 as the date to begin advancing his plan to extend sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank, as many as 50 UN human rights experts have condemned Israel's plan and have called it a 'vision of 21st-century apartheid'. According to the experts, the move violates international law of the Charter of the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions. The UN human rights experts further added that while Israeli occupation was already a "source of profound human rights violations against the Palestinian people", the move would only "intensify" after the annexation. They further noted that Israel had annexed occupied land in East Jerusalem in 1980 and the Syrian Golan Heights in 1981. According to them, the UN Security Council had condemned the actions, but "no measures were taken". The experts have warned this time to be different. Meanwhile, thousands of people are demonstrating against Israeli PM and his move. According to international media reports, the protesters wore face masks and kept their distance from each other in order to adhere to COVID-19 restrictions. Further, they gathered under the banner No annexation, no to the occupation, yes to peace and democracy, while some even waved Palestinian flags. Reportedly, the protests were organized by leftwing groups and did not appear to be the start of a popular mass movement as around half of Israelis support annexation. Read: Netanyahu and settlers clash over West Bank annexation plans Trump's peace plan green lights move US President Donald Trump's peace plan has effectively greenlighted the move. Earlier, Trump unveiled a Middle-East peace plan that includes Israel keeping its settlements and the Palestinians establishing a state under stringent conditions. While Netanyahu cited Trumps Middle-East plan for Israel-Palestinian Peace as underpinning de facto annexation, both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have rejected the plan. Read: Netanyahu says new govt will be sworn-in with pledge of Israeli sovereignty over West Bank Israel PM's plan According to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he wants to apply "Israeli sovereignty" to the parts of West Bank which has over Jewish settlements, as well as to the Jordan Valley. Over 600,000 Jews are living in around 140 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. According to reports, some exclusion will apply to the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley and to the Palestinians in other parts of the West Bank. Read: UN envoy tells Israel to abandon West Bank annexation plans Read: Israel: Thousands protest against Netanyahu's plan to extend sovereignty over West Bank The Delhi High Court has directed that no proceedings be initiated against Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) till June 22 in relation to the FIR lodged against it for allegedly violating COVID-19 regulation norms. Justice C Hari Shankar said the ad-interim direction was being passed "to ensure status quo is not disturbed and nothing precipitates" till the court pronounces its order on June 22 on the hospital's application for stay on proceedings in relation to the FIR. The high court said the ad-interim order of June 16 should not be seen as a reflection on merits of the case. The hospital's main petition seeking quashing of the FIR is listed on August 11 by when the police and Delhi government have to file their replies to it. The hospital, in its plea, has challenged the June 5 FIR lodged at Rajinder Nagar police station under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of IPC and the proceedings initiated thereafter. The plea has also sought to set aside the Delhi government's June 3 order, prohibiting RT/PCR sampling for COVID- 19 suspect/contact cases with immediate effect. RT/PCR, short for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, is a laboratory technique widely used in the diagnosis of genetic diseases and to measure gene expression in research. SGRH, a private hospital with 675 beds, was declared a COVID-19 facility by the Delhi government and told to reserve 80 per cent beds for coronavirus patients. According to the FIR, the complainant is a senior official of the Delhi Health Department who has alleged that the hospital was not using RT-PCR app while collecting COVID-19 samples. It said that as per the guidelines, it is "mandatory" for labs to collect samples through RT-PCR app. The official has also alleged "violation" on part of the hospital in not adhering to COVID-19 regulation norms, as specified under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897. "The CDMO-cum-mission director central has mentioned that Sir Ganga Ram Hospital is still not using RT-PCR app even till June 3, which is a clear violation of directions issued under Epidemic Disease Covid-19 Regulation 2020 Act," the FIR said. Seeking to streamline the testing process, the Union Health Ministry launched a dedicated RT-PCR mobile-based app for labs to fill the data at the point of sample collection. Following the directives, the Delhi government made it mandatory for all lab collection and testing centres to download that app. The hospital, in its petition, has claimed that the FIR was vague and does not disclose commissioning of an offence under section 188 of IPC. "A mere disobedience of the order is not good enough to make out an offence under section 188 of IPC but the resultant obstruction, annoyance or injury or risk of obstruction, annoyance or injury to any person or for that matter cause danger to human life, health or safety or causes or tends to cause a riot or affray which makes it an offence under Section 188 of IPC. "The FIR being silent about any such effect, the same is liable to be quashed," it has said. Three notices were issued by the Delhi government to the hospital and the entire exercise appears to be motivated and malicious to achieve some non-bona fide and ulterior objectives, it has said. The plea has said that on the one hand, the Delhi government in its notices said that samples of asymptomatic patients are being collected and processed for testing by the hospital, on the other hand, it says that app based collection is not happening. "Both the stands are self contradictory in as much as the fact they know that samples of asymptomatic patients are being collected for further testing clearly shows that the respondents are fully aware of the data submitted by the petitioner," it has said. It has added that on one hand, the Delhi government has declared the hospital as a dedicated COVID facility by earmarking 80 per cent beds for this purpose and on the other hand, they pass an order prohibiting SGRH to carry out any COVID test. NEW DELHI: With 2414 fresh cases of coronavirus infection in the national capital, Delhi on Wednesday saw a record single-day spike in COVID-19 cases. According to the Delhi Health Department, there are 47102 active cases in the national capital and total 1904 deaths due to COVID-19 pandemic. Delhi sees the highest single-day spike in the number of cases. 2414 COVID-19 positive cases, 67 deaths and 510 recovered/discharged/migrated in Delhi today. The total number of positive cases here now stands at 47102, including 1904 deaths and 17457 recovered/discharged/migrated, the Delhi Health Department said in a bulletin. In view of the rising number of coronavirus cases, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that more Intensive Care Units (ICUs) may be needed in the coming days as the national capital continued to witness a spurt in COVID-19 cases in the city. "We may need more ICUs in the coming days. Discussed with doctors of our Delhi government hospitals on how to increase no of ICUs," he said in a tweet. Last week, the Delhi government had directed district magistrates and other officials concerned to set up 20,000 beds within a week to ramp up medical infrastructure in the city. In a move that will significantly bring down the cost of testing for the infection, the Union Home Ministry capped the COVID-19 diagnosis at Rs 2,400. Also, the Supreme Court warned the Delhi government not to "shoot the messenger" as it took note of an FIR that has been lodged against a doctor for video-graphing and disclosing the situation prevailing in a government hospital here. On the COVID-19 tests, the Home Ministry also said from Thursday tests will be done with the new Rapid Antigen method approved by the Indian Council for Medical Research and Delhi will be given priority for these tests. It said 169 testing centres have also been set up across the national capital. Delhi Health Minister Jain and his party colleague Atishi were tested positive for coronavirus. The 55-year-old minister was brought to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) in the early hours of Tuesday and was administered a coronavirus test, for which he tested negative. He was again tested for coronavirus in the morning for which he tested positive. His condition is said to be stable. Jain had on Sunday attended a crucial meeting on the handling of coronavirus with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and other senior officials of the Delhi government and the Centre. Earlier, AAP MLAs Vishesh Ravi (Karol Bagh) and Rajkumar Anand (Patel Nagar) had tested positive for coronavirus. The number of coronavirus cases in Delhi stood at 44,688 on Tuesday while the death toll climbed to 1,837. The director of health services for Weston Public Schools was fatally shot Wednesday at her Braintree home by a former neighbor, authorities said. Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrisseys office said police received several 911 calls around Wednesday morning and responded to 65 Howie Road in Braintree. Callers gave police a description of a man who was seen in the area. Officers on the scene spotted the individual, identified as 61-year-old Robert Bonang, near the entrance of the home. He complied with police commands and was arrested, a spokesman for the district attorneys office said. Police then found 59-year-old Laurie Melchionda in the entranceway to her home. She had been shot. Melchionda was rushed to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. Bonang will remain in custody overnight and is expected to be arraigned on murder and firearms charges Thursday. Officials at the Weston Public Schools confirmed Melchionda worked for the district. She also was a member of the Braintree Board of Health and a well-respected nurse, Morrissey said. Bonang used to be a neighbor but hadnt lived in the area for some time, the district attorney said. He called the slaying a targeted event. Weston Public Schools Superintendent Marguerite Connolly released a statement Wednesday. It is with deepest grief that I share with you that Westons Director of Health Services and Field School Nurse, Laurie Melchionda, was tragically shot and killed outside her Braintree home this morning, Connolly said in a notice to the community. We are reeling from this shocking and devastating news. Please join me in extending our heartfelt sympathies to Lauries family. Melchionda had more than 30 years of experience in nursing and was hired as director of health services for the Weston Public Schools in 2018. I In her two years at Weston, she made a tremendous impact in supporting the health and well-being of all of our students, working closely with her nursing staff, educators, families, service providers, and town leaders, Connolly wrote. Most recently, Laurie was the primary liaison between the schools and the Weston Board of Health throughout the COVID-19 crisis and was instrumental in guiding and supporting the school and the town. We are suffering a tremendous loss. Laurie brought professionalism, expertise, warmth, and caring to our school community every day. We will be spending many difficult moments grieving her loss. The school system is arranging to have counselors available during the upcoming days to assist students and staff. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Eisya A. Eloskari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 17, 2020 11:45 584 fc6853813033f564188675f8bdf6c0ec 1 Business Grab,COVID-19,layoffs,SoftBank-Group-Corp Free Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm Grab announced on Tuesday that it would lay off 360 employees, just under 5 percent of its total employees in the region, as the company felt the economic pressures of COVID-19. In a note to Grab employees published on the companys website, Grab CEO and cofounder Anthony Tan said the company had felt the stark impact of COVID-19 since February and that it was expecting the pandemic to lead to a prolonged recession. Please know that we did not come to this decision lightly. We tried everything possible to avoid this but had to accept that the difficult cuts we are making today are required because millions depend on us for a living in this new normal, he said in the note on Tuesday. Grab, which has been valued at US$14 billion and operates in eight countries, including Indonesia, cut its senior executive salaries by 20 percent in March and offered no-pay leave and reduced working hours in April prior to the layoffs. The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on ride-hailing services because of social restrictions enforced to contain the COVID-19 virus. The company, backed by SoftBank Group Corp., said that in addition to the layoffs, it would also be eliminating non-core projects, consolidating functions and right-sizing teams. It would also redeploy its employees to cater to the growing demand for deliveries. A Grab Indonesia spokesperson told the Post in April that its package and food deliveries had seen increased business as people stayed at home during the pandemic. This coincided with a slump in demand for passenger services. Grocery shopping service GrabMart and courier service GrabExpress orders rose by 22 percent and 21.5 percent year-on-year (yoy) respectively from February to March, the company previously said. Tan pledged that the layoff would be the last for this year. I assure you that this will be the last organization-wide layoff this year, and I am confident as we execute against our refreshed plans to meet our targets that we will not have to go through this painful exercise again in the foreseeable future, Tan added. A Grab Indonesia spokesperson told the Post that the layoffs would affect Grab globally and did not specify the proportion of the layoffs in the Indonesian office. Grab is offering laid off workers severance pay, enhanced separation payments, waivers of annual cliffs for equity vesting so employees can leave as shareholders, outplacement support and other forms of assistance. Bhima Yudhistira, a researcher from the Institute for the Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) said that while Grab had enjoyed an uptick in its delivery services, it still relied heavily on the ride-hailing business especially outside of Indonesia. Even in Indonesia where Grab has diversified its business, their profit might not make up for the losses during the social distancing period, when some of Grabs partner restaurants and merchants have been affected, he said. Bhima added that the pandemic had shocked Grabs business model of burning money, or the practice of putting more money into a business than the expected immediate return in order to build a customer base in an effort to earn larger profits later. I think funding for ride-hailing companies will be more difficult to access as investors will become more skeptical, he said. The conversation around banning the use of Chinese products has picked up yet again given the rising tension between India and China. Indians are reportedly searching for a list of 'Chinese products to boycott' on Google. The most popular searches are: 'List of chinese products in India', 'ban chinese products' and 'boycott chinese products'. Google Trends Earlier this month, rising tensions at the border led Sonam Wangchuk to say that Indians should completely boycott Chinese products. It seems ever since then this thought has only grown in weight and size on social media. It should not be just about #BoycottMadeInChina #BoycottChineseProducts but more about #SupportMadeInIndia As I say in this interview:https://t.co/FbNUiFjw93 Sonam Wangchuk (@Wangchuk66) June 14, 2020 Add to that news of 20 Indian soldiers who lost their lives in the face-off with China that has reportedly left people fuming. This sentiment shows no signs of dying down with people looking for ways to destroy the Chinese products they already own,. Some even uninstalled TikTok from their phones, claim reports. TikTok The Confederation of All India Traders has released a list of more than 500 'Made in China' products that are supposed to be boycotted after the recent border tension between the two countries. The list includes everything: Fabric, textiles, kitchen items, clothes, footwear, jewellery, electronics, handbags, cosmetics etc. Then there are also people who are emphasising on the fact that it is not just about boycotting Chinese products but also supporting Indian-made products so that our economy flourishes. Also read: Angry Protesters Burn Chinese Flag In Parts Of India, Demand 'Surgical Strike' Against China A wellness guru has claimed that mastering breathing techniques can reduce inflammation in illness similar to coronavirus. Wim Hof, 61, from Amsterdam - who is also known as The Iceman - is a Dutch extreme athlete noted for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures, including swimming in 15C water, which is considered dangerously cold. His therapy involves mastering scientific breathing techniques that improve your energy level, detox your body, reduce stress levels, and strengthen your immune system Appearing on This Morning, he claimed that a study he's produced shows that by mastering his unique breathing techniques, 12 participants who had been injected with E. Coli, showed no symptoms of fever, pain or shivering. Wim Hof, 61, (pictured) from Amsterdam - who is also known as The Iceman - is a Dutch extreme athlete noted for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures withstand freezing temperatures He told on This Morning that a study he had conducted showed that by mastering his unique breathing techniques inflammation in illness was reduced The athlete claimed that breathing was able to 'dampen the inflammation' caused vy the bacteria, which would usually create an illness similar to coronavirus. Speaking of his method, he said: 'I showed that in a scientific comparative study and I trained 12 people to do the same in four days. 'They were able to receive an injection of E. Coli bacteria, which normally creates inflammation. Like coronavirus, bacteria creates inflammation and we had no way to control that.' 'And now we show in studies, in the blood, how to be injected and then mentally by the mind and breathing, 12 people were able to dampen the inflammation totally down. Wim has baffled the world of science for decades with his bizarre ability to withstand freezing cold temperatures and part of his therapy method includes cold therapy 'No fever, no headache, no agony, no shivering, which would normally happen in that experiment.' Wim has baffled the world of science for decades with his bizarre ability to withstand freezing cold temperatures and part of his therapy method includes cold therapy. He advises 'learning how to use the power of cold to burn fat, boost your immune system, sleep better, reduce inflammation and enhance natures own mood boosters.' In the first ever trial of the Dutch man's bizarre talent, he and 20 other adults were exposed to 15C (59F) water. Body temperatures drop dangerously low in such scenarios, but tests showed the heat of his skin did not deviate once. He told hosts Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield (pictured) 12 participants who had been injected with E. Coli, showed no symptoms of fever, pain or shivering The athlete claimed that breathing was able to 'dampen the inflammation' caused from the bacteria, which would usually create an illness similar to coronavirus Striking brain scans revealed a region of his brain that controls pain is significantly more active than that of the participants. During the experiment, Hof's periaqueductal gray matter spiked both times he was exposed to the cold water in a special full-body suit. Explaining how he 'taps into areas of the brain thought impossible', Wim told: 'It is proved that we are able to tap in consciously - into the seat of the mind. 'Much deeper, much more powerful, and this related to the mood depression, being overwhelmed we get the control as well those stress factors, depression, emotional pain. 'Now we've found a way to access into the deepest part of the brain, how breathing exercises, how by believing seeing investing you yourself, I can become happy and strong and healthy and it's all in the brain.' It's funny how conventional wisdom is arrived at in Ireland. Talking to people in both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, you'd be struck by the common assumption of many (not all) that Sinn Fein will be in power five years from now. It's all based on the idea the next government will spend five years battling to get the public finances and employment into some sort of reasonable order just in time for Sinn Fein to get the electorate's kit off with the promise of a kiss and a bag of fiscal magic beans. It's recounted to you with a sigh, and a hope Sinn Fein will possibly then lose the following election having failed to deliver to their voters. I must admit to finding that proposition to be very high risk and based on the assumption that it is impossible to deliver for everyone. Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are making a major miscalculation here, because Sinn Fein has no desire to please everybody. Don't forget, unlike Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, who'd see Jack the Ripper as merely another voter to be won over, possibly with a tax write-off for his unusually high dry-cleaning bill, Sinn Fein will target its voters and screw everyone else. It can deliver for a narrow voter base whilst also transforming the State from within to make elections much more, shall we say, Hungarian. Just watch as large tranches of the urban electorate start finding murals appearing, informing them that they now live in Sinn Fein "territory", and county managers appointed by a Sinn Fein local government minister look the other way. Look on in horror as other party canvassers will be politely informed they're not welcome "in the area", as Sinn Fein- appointed judges and newly appointed Garda senior officers read the political lay of the land and look off politely into the distance. Once they're in, they'll be much harder to get out, becoming the new Fianna Fail. Let's be clear: Sinn Fein has as much right to be in government as anybody else. The key is who will be in government with them. But before we even reach this point, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael don't have to make it any easier for them. In that vein, here's a suggestion. Screw fiscal responsibility. There's no votes in cutting social welfare and balancing the books, so don't bother. Let the deficit rise. Leave it to be Sinn Fein's problem. After all, it'll not like anybody concerned about the issue is going to actually vote Sinn Fein and it's not like there'll be a single centre-right party on the opposition benches anyway. If anything, the opposition will be throwing spending promises about the place like Guinness at the MI5 informants' annual Christmas party. As for the EU and the Fiscal Treaty? Meh. The whole of Europe will be doing what we're doing, so we'll hardly be singled out for a slap. In fact, now would be a great time to start negotiating the whole future of corporate taxation on the basis the opposition are hardly going to kick off. Now is the time, in return for a guaranteed share of the federal treasury, to agree to a federal European corporate tax regime. What will Sinn Fein and the liquorice allsorts left do? Demand fair play for Apple? Leave Google alone? Unhand Amazon? Now's the time. I'm not suggesting the government be reckless, just not stupid. Nobody votes for you cutting social welfare, so don't. Same with public sector pay. VAT will scoop back a good chunk of it anyway. A big ball of money to be spent on social housing is pretty much unavoidable, although it might be worth the government looking at extending the Dail term to seven years under Article 16 to give themselves time to actually build houses and let recovery happen. Also, as the election finally veers into view seven years from now, the government shouldn't hesitate to issue a nice fat tax rebate cheque to every PAYE worker, perhaps dated for after the election, so that if the opposition attacks the tax cut, they can then be given an opportunity just before polling day to tell the voters that they'll cancel the cheques they're holding in their hands. That magic money tree can work for us all. A bit Trumpy? A bit reckless? Probably, but no more than the other crowd, so why not? The rules are off. Maths is for elites. By the way, here's another simple bit of mischief for Fine Fail/Fine Gael: given Sinn Fein will clean up in the 2024 local elections as so many rural wards will only have Fianna Fail/Fine Gael councillors defending their seats, why not put the sitting mayors' names, party and photos on the Local Property Tax bills as the face of the local authority? Most of them will be opposition councillors. Make them take responsibility for running their counties. Just imagine the indignation: "I came here for the big chain, big salary and the big portrait. Now I'm being held responsible for the council I pretend to run? It's not fair!" Yes, the deficit will have to be dealt with eventually, with additional billions in borrowing sending up our borrowing costs. But you know what? Sinn Fein says the additional funding for a United Ireland can be easily found, so this isn't much different. That Pearse Doherty seems like a smart cookie as Minister for Finance Designate. Let him deal with it. iStock/the_guitar_mann(WASHINGTON) -- BY: CONOR FINNEGAN and JACK ARNHOLZ The Trump administration announced new sanctions against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Wednesday, beginning the implementation of the strongest, most sweeping U.S. sanctions law yet against his regime. The Caesar Act -- named after a Syrian military war photographer who smuggled out thousands of photos documenting the victims of the Assad government's torture and butchery -- requires sanctions on several top Syrian figures to send a "severe chilling effect on any outside investors who would be contemplating doing business with the Assad regime," a senior administration official said. The U.S. has led an increased economic pressure to drive the Assad government and its backer Russia to the negotiating table to find a political settlement after over nine years of war. But so far, Assad and Moscow have moved forward with a campaign to conquer the last rebel stronghold and declare a military victory, even as the country's economy has collapsed in recent months. Many of the Syrian officials and elites targeted Wednesday were already under U.S. sanctions, including Assad himself and businessman Mohammed Hamsho, who has reportedly earned a fortune using his close ties to the regime to win reconstruction contracts. But prominent among the names of those newly sanctioned is Assad's wife, Asma al-Assad, the British-born first lady of Syria once deemed the Rose in the Desert by Vogue magazine. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called her "one of Syria's most notorious war profiteers" in a statement Wednesday. In total, there were 39 individuals, businesses and divisions of the Syrian military that were blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday. Most are connected to real estate developments in the country, which have brought in foreign investment even as they break ground on land stolen from Syrians displaced by fighting or the government. "We're not going to reward Assad for destroying his country by pitching in with everybody else and building it back up for him," said U.S. special envoy for Syria James Jeffrey. Syria's Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. of "bypassing all international laws and norms," according to Syrian state media. The war in Syria, which began as a democratic uprising against Assad's oppressive rule in 2011, spiraled into a bloody civil war after Assad's forces brutally cracked down on dissenters. Soon, jihadist groups and foreign powers took advantage of the chaos, fomenting even greater violence -- with 11 million people now displaced and at least 500,000 killed. The country will need hundreds of billions of dollars to recover from the widespread destruction, according to World Bank estimates. Unwilling to directly intervene in the conflict outside the fight against ISIS, the U.S. has withheld that financial assistance to pressure Russia, who has boosted Assad with forces, weapons and funds, to push its ally in Damascus to political negotiations, with Moscow unwilling to foot the reconstruction bill alone. "Anyone doing business with the Assad regime, no matter where in the world they are, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions," Pompeo said in his statement. The sanctions unveiled Wednesday, however, target only three entities outside the country -- a company based in Austria and two telecommunications firms, based in Canada and Lebanon. "While more designations are in the works for later this summer, this first round certainly won't shake the Syrian government," according to Tobias Schneider, a research fellow at the Global Public Policy institute in Berlin. The senior administration official told ABC News that there will be more sanctions targets to come and that those blacklisted on Wednesday will help block any foreign investment into the country. "We think there were quite a few plans that were in the works for outside investment to come in to some of these vehicles and others that have simply fizzled out because outside investors recognized the extreme risk" created by the Caesar Act, the official said. "I can guarantee you and anyone listening, and the Assad regime, that of course there are going to be more actions like this. Of course there's going to be intense economic and political pressure that will continue and continue and continue until the Assad regime accedes to a political solution of the conflict and ceases its atrocious behavior towards its own people," the official added during a briefing with reporters. So far, that policy has not stopped Assad and Moscow as they've moved on the last rebel stronghold in Idlib province, resuming in recent weeks aerial bombardment against targets after a truce because of the coronavirus pandemic. With Russian air power and weaponry, Assad seems intent on retaking Idlib, despite support for the rebels by Syria's northern neighbor Turkey, which has at times clashed with pro-regime forces. But even as he seems poised to win a battlefield victory in Idlib, Assad faces fresh economic woes that have caused new protests in some government-controlled parts of the country and turmoil within Syria's ruling class. Assad's position "is worse than at any time, including when the opposition military forces were in the suburbs of Damascus and held Aleppo and much of the rest of the country," said Jeffrey. In particular, there have been some sporadic protests about the economic crisis, as the country's currency collapses, unemployment rates remain painfully high and even government salaries have become worthless, if they come through at all. Amid those budget shortfalls, the government has also pressured wealthy Syrian business leaders to cover its costs, but Rami Makhlouf, perhaps the country's most infamous financier and a cousin and close friend of Assad's, pushed back publicly by posting on social media about government penalties on him for paying up. The U.S. must take advantage of that growing desperation that these fractures belie, according to Mick Mulroy, who served as Trump's top Pentagon official for Middle East policy. To do so, he urged continued U.S. funding for stabilization projects like de-mining and restoration of basic services like water and health care in the areas retaken by the Syrian fighters allied with the U.S. -- a mostly Kurdish fighting force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. "We need to do everything we can to help the Syrian people and everything we can to end the Syrian regime. They are one in the same," said Mulroy, now an ABC News contributor. "I hope we keep increasing the pressure on Assad, but also fully funding our stabilization efforts. Both are required." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Solicitor General Noel Francisco Announces Resignation From Justice Department The U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who has defended a number of Trump administration policies before the Supreme Court, is resigning from the Justice Department (DOJ), the department said on Wednesday. Francisco, who has served in the role since September 2017, said he was leaving in order to return to the private sector and spend more time with family, according to his resignation letter obtained by media outlets. His departure from the department will be effective July 3. Representing the United States before the Supreme Court is one of the greatest jobs in the law and an opportunity for which I am deeply grateful. I am proud of the significant success the Office of Solicitor General has had in advancing the rule of law in our great nation alongside the dedicated men and women at the Department of Justicesome of the finest lawyers I have known, Francisco said in a statement Francisco served over three Supreme Court Terms as Solicitor General and has represented the federal government before the court in more than 150 merit cases. He has also argued before the top court 17 times, including in cases such as the 2018 landmark case Trump v. Hawaii, which upheld Trumps restrictions on travel from countries that present national-security risks, and Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which found that Colorado had violated the Free Exercise Clause when it enforced its antidiscrimination law against a Christian baker who declined to create a custom cake for a same-sex couple on religious grounds. He had also argued in a number of potential blockbuster cases in the most recent Supreme Court term including defending the Trump administrations authority to end the Obama-era immigration policy that temporarily shielded young people who came to the United States illegally from being deported, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. He had also filed many emergency motions on behalf of the federal government to defend Trump administration policies that had been blocked by nationwide injunctions. He has been a principled and persuasive advocate on issues ranging from the separation of powers to religious liberty to vigorous enforcement of federal immigration law, Barr said in a statement, referring to Francisco. His skilled advocacy has been instrumental to historic victories on behalf of the Presidents national security authority, the free speech rights of public employees, and property owners access to federal courts, among many other significant accomplishments. In his resignation letter, Francisco commended President Donald Trump for his judicial appointments, saying that they would contribute to the nation for years to come. This comes after news that other senior DOJ officials were leaving the department. Joseph H. Hunt, who is the assistant attorney general for the Civil Division, told staff members on Tuesday that he planned to leave the department after two years serving in the role, according to a memo obtained by media outlets. Meanwhile, Brian Benczkowski, the head of the departments criminal division said last week that he was stepping down in early July, according to the department. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times request to confirm Hunts resignation. Prior to joining the Justice Department, Francisco was a partner of the Washington office of Jones Day, a private law firm. He served as an associate counsel to President George W. Bush between 2001 and 2003, and served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJs office of legal counsel between 2003 and 2005. Texas, USA, June 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jerome Karam has earned fame and fame as a successful real estate developer in Southwestern Louisiana and Texas. Last year, the Board of Trustees from the College of Mainland approved the leasing process of a new educational facility in League City. They gave Jerome Karam the whole responsibility of financing and reconstructing this facility through which students who enrolled in credit programs can attain accessible education Why Boards Selected Jerome? The reason for picking Karam this project is his excellent track record, where he put them into life-old buildings and turned them into the world's famous locations. A few of his masterpieces are World Gym in Texas City- known as largest gym facility in Texas; Altitude Trampoline park- recognized as the Nation's largest Trampoline park; Plaza Royals - famous for making executive-level deals; Karam's Loft - recognized as the comfortable spot with a supreme level of comfort. He is a visionary real-estate developer who knows how to turn a useless old building into a meaningful place. He is known all over Texas due to his excellent reconstruction and repurposing skills. So, when school boards needed something useful for their students, they didn't think twice and assigned this role to Jerome Karam Friendswood. An Educational Project Based on Lease The fund of New League City's educational center will be generated through the lease. Once the project is completed, students will enroll, and the college will pay back the lease through all the fees generated from the students. The Boards of Trustees from the College of Mainland agreed that they wouldn't use bond money or tax to finance this project. Tuition money and college fees will be enough to deal with the overall cost of this educational facility's reconstruction. A Strategically-Located Educational Place for Students People from League City are quite excited about this new educational project from the College of the Mainland. It's because more than 41 students of League City come to this college for educational purposes; about 60 percent of them enrolled themselves into credit classes. Now, if they get a chance to study general education at League City, they can easily avoid travel and hostel costs. Students can stay at their home and continue walking on the wrong of their career path without bothering to travel. So, this new education is situated in the strategically best location that is well suited for their students. Story continues Reconstruction of League City's United Church Jerome Karam Friendswood is working on a project covering 27,570 square-foot lands formerly used as the League City United Methodist Church. This real-estate developer knows how to repurpose the same facility for another purpose, and he is quite good at this job. His expertise in the reconstructions makes him quite accessible in Texas City and the surrounding areas. He is quite excited about this new facility as it offers a convenient education option for the students of League City and those who are residing along interstate 45. Building the Bright Future Jerome Karam Friendswood and his team are working dedicatedly on this new college project, which has an opening date in late 2020. The reason for showing this much passion and dedication by Jerome and his folks is that this is not just a building where tons of students will get a quality education. Still, it is going to be a center where students can step toward their bright future. Their joined efforts towards the reconstruction of the facility will reap the best fruits when students of this facility become independent in their future. Every student who will learn some professional skills from this college facility will pay back to society sooner or later, and that matters the most. contact@jeromekaram.com Tupperware India, a premium household and kitchenware brand known for direct sales over the last 24 years through its 70,000 women sellers, is now tapping the social media route to retail its products. With COVID-19 came the challenge of restrictions around physical mobility and social distancing, and the company has found a way to deal with it. Looking at the need of the hour and dynamically evolving consumer requirements, the brand is adopting a multi-channel approach to serve latent demand. Tupperware India has launched a social selling channel via its newly launched web store. In an interview with Moneycontrol, Deepak Chhabra, Managing Director, Tupperware India, said, In these times of social distancing, all industry reports hint at increased adopting of social media during and post COVID-19. Consumer behaviour is bound to change, and it is time for brands to change or evolve accordingly. He pointed out that in the absence of physical meetings, social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and video platforms are replacing traditional meet-and-greets by offering wider reach to engage with existing and potential customers, irrespective of where the direct sellers are physically stationed. Around 79 percent of salespeople, who use social media as a selling tool, outperform, those who dont use struggle, Chhabra said. He said the newly launched social selling platform will enable swift and direct deliveries to the customers and earnings or commissions will be credited to the direct sellers digitally. Until COVID-19 hit the country, direct sellers sold Tupperware India products through their contacts, visiting houses or societies and/or social gatherings. In May, Tupperware completed its 24th year in India. The brand has a strong global legacy, yet has been known for its highly customised and localised efforts in India. It has over empowered two million women by helping them start their entrepreneurial journey and also manufactured in India way before Make in India or Vocal for local like phrases were coined. Tupperware has designed customised training modules for its direct sellers to adopt the new way of engaging with the consumer. But was quick to add that the social selling model is an extension and not a replacement of the physical meet and greets which Tupperware is traditionally known for. The added advantage of social selling is its zero-investment initiation model, in-built convenience and efforts being saved in terms of time and other similar resources. The newly launched webstore is in line with the brands harmonised multi-channel sales approach including direct selling, exclusive brand outlets and e-tail. Along with listing the entire range of Tupperware products, it will host product utility and demonstration videos, quick and easy food recipes, and elaborate product information. Designed on a mobile first approach for an optimal experience on smartphone screens, Chhabra said the platform will offer superlative interface to dynamic and digitally savvy consumers who are always on the move. In due course of time, the brand intends to undertake 360-degree integration of the multiple sales channels and offer a seamless experience to its consumers where they can experience the product at one channel, evaluate options on another, place order via a third medium and return or exchange on the fourth. Over the last six to eight months, Tupperware India launched over 100 exclusive retail stores across various cities and towns and entered the e-commerce marketplaces and retained and harboured the direct selling channel alongside. Tupperwear India reopened about 40 percent of its retail outlets spread across 17 cities in the first phase of Unlock 1.0 . The company has launched 55 retail outlets across India after adopting a multi-channel approach, switching from a direct selling model. But, due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, e-tail outlets were closed and Tupperware was only functioning digitally through marketplaces and its own brand webstore. The government imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25 to curb the spread of coronavirus. The company, which follows the calendar year for considering its financial results, expects 10 percent growth in revenue over last year. In the first three months of the current calendar, the company has grown 15 percent. But due to the COVID-19 challenges, Chhabra said the company has lowered growth expectations by December-end to 10 percent. By Gustavo Palencia TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, is undergoing treatment in hospital for pneumonia after he tested positive for COVID-19 this week, the government said on Wednesday. Francis Contreras, a spokesman for Honduran health agency SINAGER, said that while Hernandez needed specialized medical care in a military hospital, including receiving medicines via intravenous drip, he is generally in good health. The health news is a fresh blow to the 51-year-old Hernandez, who has come under increasing pressure at home as one of his brothers was swept up by a drug trafficking probe in the United States which has threatened to engulf him too. "His general health status is good," Contreras told reporters outside the military hospital. However, he said X-rays of Hernandez have revealed lung problems. Hernandez's wife, Ana Garcia, also tested positive for the coronavirus, along with two presidential aides, but has not presented any symptoms of the disease, Contreras said. A significant number of politicians and officials worldwide have contracted coronavirus, but very few heads of government are known to have tested positive. The most prominent exception is British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was hospitalized with the virus in April and later recovered. When Hernandez announced his positive diagnosis on television late on Tuesday, he said the symptoms were mild and he was feeling better. While his doctors recommended rest, he said he would work remotely and through his aides. The Central American country has ordered strict containment measures and confirmed nearly 10,000 coronavirus cases and over 300 deaths due to the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus. But not everyone has obeyed the lockdown and the figures likely undercount the full impact of the pandemic. President since 2014, Hernandez has cut an increasingly polarizing figure since the Supreme Court struck down a law that allowed the conservative ally of the United States to run for re-election. Story continues His subsequent re-election in late 2017 was marred in controversy due to a heavily disputed vote count that was widely called into question by international observers. Last year, a U.S. federal court in New York convicted his brother, Tony Hernandez, for drug trafficking in a case that helped galvanize opposition to the president. In April, the president's office issued a denial that Hernandez himself was mixed up in drug trafficking after U.S. prosecutors pointed the finger at him in bringing drugs charges against a former chief of Honduran national police. (Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Dave Graham and Alistair Bell) American exports of pork to China hit a record high in April, even as coronavirus outbreaks hampered production and led to fears of shortages, new data shows. The Department of Agriculture reported last week that total pork exports to mainland China in April reached their highest monthly total since the agency began keeping track 20 years ago. The U.S. shipped 230 million pounds of pork to mainland China in April, a 360 percent increase from a year prior and the highest monthly number on record, the USDA said. It came even as dozens of meat packing plants were shuttered across the country, and U.S. consumers faced higher prices and rationing, with many grocery stores limiting the number of pork items per customer. US pork exports to China hit a record high in April, as seen in this chart showing monthly pork exports to China in thousands of pounds A sign in a Ralph's supermarket in Studio City in April shows how many stores were rationing pork amid fears of a shortage, even as exports to China hit new highs The jump in exports was thanks in part to phase one of President Donald Trump's trade deal with China, a move that was cheered by American farmers but unexpectedly took effect just prior to the pandemic's shocks to the U.S. food supply chain. As part of the deal, China promised to increase purchases of US farm goods by at least $12.5 billion in 2020 and $19.5 billion in 2021, over the 2017 level of $24 billion. The fear of meat shortages as the trade deal took effect created a delicate dilemma for Trump, who said in an executive order in April that packing plants are 'critical infrastructure' that must stay open to protect the U.S. food supply. In a perverse twist, it has since emerged that some farmers were forced to euthanize herds of pigs and dispose of the carcasses at the height of the crisis, as bottlenecks at shuttered packing plants left them with no way to get pork to consumers. China had long been self sufficient in pork production, importing little from abroad, but the African swine fever outbreak of 2018 decimated the country's pork supply, leading to demand for imports from abroad. American producers jumped at the opportunity to sell more abroad, seeing a chance to expand production after years of relatively little growth in domestic consumption. Smithfield, the world's biggest pork processor, said in April that US plant closures were pushing retailers 'perilously close to the edge' on supplies. The Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was forced to close for weeks at the height of the crisis. Meat exports surged this spring at the same time the processing industry is struggling to meet domestic demand At the height of the crisis, dozens of meat packing plants closed, though most have reopened So far, 25,523 meatpacking workers have tested positive for coronavirus and 89 have died, according to the Food & Environment Reporting Network. Smithfield is now retooling its namesake pork plant in Smithfield, Virginia, to supply fresh pork, bacon and ham to more US consumers, according to a statement. The move is an about-face after the company reconfigured the plant last year to process hog carcasses for the Chinese market, employees, local officials and industry sources told Reuters. In 2013, Smithfield was acquired by Chinese meatpacking giant WH Group, leading to concerns about Chinese influence in the U.S. food supply. Smithfield is quick to point out that WH Group is publicly traded on the Hong Kong exchanges, and objects to being described as 'Chinese owned.' Smithfield and other major U.S. meat packers insist that they were able to meet both foreign and domestic demand during the pandemic, even as American pork production declined 10 percent in April, according to USDA data. A farmer checks on young female pigs at a hog farm in Smithville, Ohio in April Supermarkets were stripped bare of meat products at the height of the crisis. Pictured, shoppers at a Walmart in Dallas faced empty shelves in April 'As long as our nation's harvest facilities continue to operate, not only do we have enough meat to feed Americans, but also to feed the world,' Smithfield said in a statement to the New York Times. Smithfield said the meat it exported in April 'was actually ordered and processed in the months prior to Covid-19.' The company added that 'much of what is exported are items that attract little or no interest from domestic consumers,' such as the pigs' feet, snouts and tails, and that exports had declined as production slowed amid the pandemic. Tyson said pork exports to China had amounted to about 3 percent of its total production since October. 'In recent months, we've prioritized supplying meat to the U.S. domestic market and have voluntarily curtailed shipping those pork export items that are also used by domestic consumers to try to meet U.S. demand,' the company told the Times. Although meat packers insist that much of their exports to China consist of items like snouts and feet, Chinese buyers import high volumes of pig carcasses, which take less labor to process and increase margins for packers. A vendor wearing a face mask prepares pork meat inside the Yuegezhuang wholesale market, in Beijing, China on June 17, 2020 Boxed carcasses accounted for 41 percent of U.S. export volume for China in April, with bone-in hams accounting for 10 percent, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Those less labor-intensive products made up more than half of this year's shipments to China, 'which is critical for processors during these challenging times' the trade group said. Through April, U.S. pork accounted for 19 percent of China's 2020 imports, with the European Union remaining the dominant supplier with 59 percent market share, according to the group. Pork producers typically send 25 to 27 percent of their meat overseas, according to the federation. But that number jumped to 32 percent in the first four months of this year, driven by demand from China. Overall pork exports increased 22 percent from the previous April, to 291,000 tons, though that was down from March. The novel coronavirus epidemic hit a housing market that had already slowed down, said Tamas Nagy, head of department at the National Bank of Hungary (MNB), writes penzcentrum.hu. Among other things, the MNBs latest housing survey showed that at the end of 2019, house prices were already stagnant nationwide, and a fall in prices was even observed in the capital. Compared to this, house price dynamics of 12.3% were observed nationwide by the end of the first quarter, while in Budapest it was only 9.5%. Moreover, in April this year, the average number of flats in Budapest was 6% higher than in April 2019. You might notice something different here. As we continue our evolution, our data and market news is now available through the Fastmarkets platform and a trial of this website is no longer available. Our new delivery solution allows you to access the prices and news that matters most to you in a way that delivers value, quality and a unique, fully customizable view for you. We are working hard to develop an experience that allows you to test drive building your view of our data and news on the new platform. In the meantime, learn more about us through any of the options below. Britain has fined the London branch of Germany's Commerzbank 37.8 million pounds ($47.3 million) for failing to have proper controls to prevent money laundering, the U.K.'s financial watchdog said on Wednesday. Banks have to check the background of clients and by March 1, 2017, Commerzbank's checks were overdue on 1,772 customers, the Financial Conduct Authority said. Many of the customers were allowed to continue to conduct business with the London branch of the bank under an "exceptions process" that became "out of control" by the end of 2016, the FCA added. "Commerzbank London was aware of these weaknesses and failed to take reasonable and effective steps to fix them despite the FCA raising specific concerns about them in 2012, 2015 and 2017," the FCA said in a statement. At the time, the FCA was publishing guidance on steps banks could take to reduce the risk of financial crime, and was enforcing action against several firms in relation to anti-money laundering controls, the watchdog said. "Despite these clear warnings, the failures continued." Commerzbank said it takes the FCA's findings very seriously, and has cooperated fully in an investigation that found no actual financial crime. "Commerzbank London has therefore undertaken a significant remediation exercise," the Frankfurt-based bank said in a statement. The FCA said external people have tested the effectiveness of these enhancements and their work is now complete. In mid-2016 Commerzbank's financial crime team in London had just three full-time staff, but this was increased to 42 within two years. Commerzbank would have been fined 54 million pounds if it had not agreed to an early settlement. The tool will help employers improve diversity, inclusion and equity within their companies and reduce labor lawsuits and EEOC complaints. University of Arkansas researchers have developed the first diversity intelligence scale that employers can use to ensure and improve diversity, inclusion and equity within their organizations. The Hughes and Liang Diversity Intelligence Scale will advance human resource development by requiring leaders to possess and exhibit the knowledge to understand protected class employees and the legal mandates and executive orders established to protect these employees from discriminatory practices at work. "Despite billions of dollars invested in diversity and anti-discriminatory practices training, many protected class workers remain under-utilized or marginalized due to leaders' unfamiliarity with these groups of workers and/or incompetence to harness their talents to achieve organizational goals," said Claretha Hughes, professor of human resource and workforce development in the College of Education and Health Professions. "Our tool will not only guide thinking and behavior to create a more inclusive organizational structure, but it could also save money and prevent headaches for organizations by reducing equal opportunity complaints and labor lawsuits." Hughes and Xinya Liang, assistant professor of educational statistics and research methods, use the definition of protected class provided by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Program, which describes "the groups protected from the employment discrimination by law. These groups include men and women on the basis of sex; any group which shares a common race, religion, color, or national origin; people over 40; and people with physical or mental handicaps. Every U.S. citizen is a member of some protected class, and is entitled to the benefits of EEO law. However, the EEO laws were passed to correct a history of unfavorable treatment of women and minority group members." Hughes synthesized information from a qualitative survey of organizational leaders to develop an 8-point, Likert-type scale that measures three areas: knowledge, education and training, and behaviors related to protected class employees. Likert scales are a type of survey that allow individuals to express how much they agree or disagree with a particular statement. The researchers then used the quantitative survey developed by Hughes to collect more information from leaders of protected class employees and to further quantify their level of diversity intelligence. A pilot study was conducted on a sample of 97 workplace leaders, ranging from supervisors to executive-level managers, such as chief executive, chief financial and chief operating officers. These supervisors and managers had direct responsibility for one or more employees. Within the pilot study, the researchers surveyed two groups - diversity advisory group leaders and leaders in general areas. The researchers then conducted a quantitative study to validate the scale, collecting an initial sample 1,334 cases and final sample 1,180 cases. Each case represented a workplace leader. The scale is based on the premise of diversity intelligence theory, which posits that organizational leaders need to possess diversity intelligence to successfully integrate all protected class employees into the workplace. The researchers sought to develop a tool to assist leaders in this effort. In addition to fostering a healthy organizational structure and reducing labor lawsuits and equal employment opportunity complaints, the scale will: Improve leaders' understanding of protected class groups in the workplace. Improve understanding of the effectiveness of compliance and diversity training. Improve employee performance as a result of improved employee morale. Provide access to a validated research tool that is useful for leaders in all fields. Diversity is commonplace within globalized workplaces, but, despite millions of dollars expended on diversity training, managers and employees are often frustrated because of unrealized goals, discomfort and feelings of underutilization. Protected class employees are often described as not a fit for the organization. "By developing and testing a tool for identifying and analyzing the level of a person's ability to be aware of and understand protected class employees and the legal mandates and policies to protect all employees from discriminatory practice, our research has the potential to promote social change and reduce workplace violence, micro-aggression and trauma," Hughes said. Hughes manages a popular Facebook page focused on diversity intelligence. She said more than 150 people joined the Facebook group in the week following the death of George Floyd. Hughes and Liang received funding from the Commercialization Fund, a subset of the University of Arkansas Chancellor's Fund. The Commercialization Fund is a $1 million annual investment to help propel technologies with strong market potential to commercial readiness. Hughes and David Hinton, associate director of Technology Ventures at the university, are interested in exploring partnership and out-licensing opportunities to enable leadership of organizations to take advantage of the Hughes and Liang Diversity Intelligence Scale to promote employee growth and demonstrate efficacy of educational interventions. ### Burma Quarantined Returnees Jailed for Being Drunk and Disorderly in Myanmar Two of the three men charged for being drunk and disorderly in Pathein. / The Irrawaddy A San Antonio man was left bloodied Friday after defending a young woman of color from a white man hurling racist abuse at a North Side gym. Matthew Egan, 36, arrived at the Life Time Fitness near the intersection of U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 with his girlfriend shortly after 8:30 p.m. On his way to the pool, he encountered a shirtless man shouting at a woman outside the sauna. The man called the woman, who's in her early 20s, obscene names and told her, "You don't even belong in this country." Enter to win: Were giving away a $75 gift card and relaxing recliner Egan, the owner of a local search engine optimization company, stepped in between and tried to defuse the situation with a joke. When that failed, he told the man to leave the woman alone. The shirtless man turned his attention to Egan, threatening to kill him and repeatedly headbutting him. Gym employees called police but the man left before officers arrived. Egan, who's now nursing an injured nose and teeth, was lauded for standing up for the woman after sharing the story on social media. "I look at it as just I have a big mouth," Egan said, laughing. "I stepped in because I didn't like what I saw. People are like, 'You're a hero.' I don't know. I'm more disappointed that I was the only one that stepped in." The woman, who asked not to be identified, said nothing like this had happened before in the more than a decade she has lived in the U.S. She became emotional describing the incident but identified one positive outcome. "Even from a very negative situation, I came out with a good friend," she said of Egan. "Its sad. Its very sad. You would think in the 21st century none of this would happen yet its still happening." The argument that would lead to a police report for the alleged assault began with the woman waiting her turn outside the sauna. A sign warned guests that only four people were allowed inside due to social distancing measures amid the coronavirus pandemic. When someone left the sauna and she stepped inside, a man whom police described as a white male in his 40s barged in behind her. She pointed out the sign and the other person waiting their turn outside. Then, she says, the man "just goes off," shouting expletives and calling her sexist names. The woman left to tell an employee what had happened, then returned to the sauna area, where the man continued his tirade outside the door. At that point, Egan arrived. The police report notes that the man allegedly told Egan he "was going to put him in a 'box' and place him in the 'ground.'" The woman said Egan's intervention meant a lot because he had not even heard the entirety of the man's rant. "There were people already there from the beginning who were hearing all of it who didnt say anything," she said. "It made me really happy and it made me feel really great to know that people like him are still there to help." Life Time Fitness noted on Twitter that "upon review of this incident, swift membership actions were taken." The company said it was conducting an internal review of the matter and cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation. The woman said that while she understands that everyone has bad days, projecting it onto other people is not the answer. "No matter what anyone is going through or no matter what anyone is feeling, always make everyone feel welcomed," she said. "Always make everyone feel like they belong. No matter what." LATEST June 17, 1:55 p.m. A number of labor unions protested in front of the Oakland Police Officer's Association Wednesday afternoon. In response, the POA issued a statement questioning their motives. "While Oakland Police Officers respect our brothers and sisters in labor, we wonder why they have not educated themselves about the Oakland Police Officers long history of embracing reform," wrote the POA. "The Oakland Police Department is by any measure the most progressive Police Department in the nation." Some of the organizing groups present reportedly included the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Oakland Education Association, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, as well as the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. Labor groups' ire at racial injustice in the criminal justice system is well placed," wrote Oakland POA President Barry Donelan. "However, Oakland Police Officers have long been on the vanguard of reform and will continue to be leaders. Any labor union is welcome to engage with their labor sisters and brothers wearing the Oakland Police uniform. We are but a phone call away and will always be here for every citizen." June 17, 1:13 p.m. The Atlanta officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks in the back after the fleeing man pointed a stun gun in his direction will be charged with felony murder and 10 other charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Garrett Rolfe kicked Brooks while he lay on the ground and the officer with him, Devin Brosnan, stood on Brooks' shoulder as he struggled for life after a confrontation Friday night, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said at a news conference. Mr Brooks was running away at the time the shot was fired," Howard said. Read more from the Associated Press. June 17, 11:49 a.m. Parenting in Place, a master class series designed to support families during the shutdown, has announced a new virtual seminar in response to nationwide protests: "Parenting in Support of Black Lives: How to Build a Just Future for Kids (and How Media Can Help.)" Slated for Thursday morning at 10 a.m. PST, the webinar will provide advice for parents hoping to discuss racial equity with their children. Speakers at the event will include Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, a leading scholar on race in America, as well as child psychologist Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith. The webinar will be moderated by New York Times bestselling author and activist Julie Lythcott-Haims, and is presented in collaboration with Common Sense Media. Read more here. June 17, 11:28 a.m. After nooses were found hanging from trees around Oakland's Lake Merritt, Mayor Libby Schaaf responded in a forceful statement Wednesday and announced that the incidents will be investigated as hate crimes. Sightings of the rope nooses, a symbol widely associated with racial terrorism and invoking lynchings, spread on social media yesterday. "We are all responsible for knowing the history and present day reality of lynchings, hate crimes and racial violence. Objects that invoke such terror will not be tolerated in Oakland's public spaces," the Mayor's statement said in part. Read more from SFGATE editor Andrew Chamings. June 17, 10:30 a.m. A statue depicting Christopher Columbus that has been the centerpiece of the California Capitol rotunda since 1883 will be removed after legislative leaders decided it is out of place "given the deadly impact his arrival in this hemisphere had on indigenous populations." The decision, announced Tuesday by legislative leaders, has long been sought by groups and others who say it's wrong to honor a man who ushered in an era of genocide to North America's indigenous peoples. But their effort gained momentum following the nationwide protests over racial injustice spurred by the death of George Floyd. Read more from the Associated Press. June 17, 10:00 a.m. Authorities say Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, reportedly a follower of a group of online extremists called the "boogaloo boys," used the cover of ongoing peaceful protests to fire at Oakland Federal Protective Services security officers on May 29 to "ignite a race war," as the Washington Post reported. "The assassination and injury of federal officers who swore an oath to protect the American public will not be tolerated," Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement announcing charges against Carrillo. "The Department of Homeland Security will continue its mission to end violent extremism in any form." Read more here. June 17, 9:45 a.m. Healdsburg Mayor Leah Gold announced Tuesday evening that she would be resigning from her position following outcry over her initial dismissal of the Black Lives Matter movement. "Although I feel positively about my contributions and have many loyal supporters, Im certain there are also many BIPOC members of our community who could serve our city well," she wrote. "As Ive considered how I can help Healdsburg advance in racial justice during this critical juncture, I believe that one of the ways I can contribute is by creating a space for a person of color to join the City Council." Read more from SFGATE Editor Amy Graff. June 17, 9:30 a.m. Multiple protests are taking place in the Bay Area Wednesday, including a Black and Brown Solidarity March at Mosswood Park in Oakland and a We Demand Justice Caravan at McLaren Park in San Francisco. For a more complete list of protests happening today and through the week, visit the SF Fun Cheap website. MORE COVERAGE ON THE GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on Bay Area protest coverage here. Alyssa Pereira is an SFGate digital editor. Email: alyssa.pereira@sfgate.com | Twitter: @alyspereira The promulgation of the Vietnam Border Guard Law is very necessary and would recognise the legal status of the border guard force in the country, a National Assembly (NA) deputy has said. Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Do Ba Ty at the session on Tuesday morning. Photo vov.vn Deputy Duong Minh Tuan made the statement at the NA morning session to discuss the draft law on Tuesday. Tuan said border soldiers had contributed greatly to maintaining security and social order as well as protecting the nations land and sea borders for years. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, the border soldiers also helped fight the pandemic, he said. Tuan added that the lawmaking process was carefully consulted with relevant parties and it was necessary to promulgate the law now. Contributing his comments on the draft law, NA deputy Luu Thanh Cong said he applauded the compilation of the law, which looks set to replace the Border Guard Ordinance issued in 1997. Cong added that the draft law needed to supplement regulations on protecting national border markers and the borderline. NA deputy Nguyen Thi Xuan said the draft law should supplement regulations on prohibited acts of destroying border makers, as the border was very important and the national border markers showed national sovereignty. Deputy Vu Xuan Cuong said he wanted the law to be adopted soon and to later set up a specialised force to better protect the border. Also at the session, NA deputy Pham Tat Thang recommended reviewing the name of the law, as the current name would mandate adding contents regarding "building national borders" and "functions and tasks of law-enforcement forces at the border. Thang said the name of the law should be reconsidered in line with other current laws, including the Law on Peoples Public Security and the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard, to avoid overlaps between legal documents. Concluding the discussion, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Do Ba Ty said the name was suitable and consistent with Resolution No 33 of the Politburo on the National Border Protection Strategy and the Programme on Law and Ordinance Compilation, decided by the NA. VNS Home sales have recovered significantly from the national markets worst April reading in nearly 40 years, although the average sale price remained relatively steady, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported. In May, Canadian housing transactions grew by 56.9% month-over-month. While this indicated substantial recovery, however, last month was similarly the weakest May in terms of sales in around three decades. May's housing numbers are certainly a mixed bag of results, said Shaun Cathcart, CREA chief economist. Sales and new listings are both way up month-over-month but still way down compared to year ago. Rochester, N.Y. -- Magic Hat, one of the earliest and best-known craft brewers in the beer-haven of Vermont, is selling its brewery in Burlington and moving all production to the Genesee Brewery in Rochester. Magic Hat has been owned since 2010 by Genesees parent company, now known as FIFCO USA. Some of the Magic Hat beers, including its well known Magic Hat #9, have been brewed in Rochester for several years. Now, FIFCO USA has decided to sell the original Magic Hat brewery in South Burlington. The buyer is Zero Gravity Craft Brewery, which will use the old Magic Hat equipment and facility as its own. Zero Gravity, founded in 2004, has a smaller brewhouse and brewpub in downtown Burlington. Vermont has long been a trend-setter in craft beer, including such acclaimed modern breweries as The Alchemist (home to Heady Topper) and Hill Farmstead. Magic Hat was one of the first, and in the words of a writer at the Burlington Free Press it jump-started Vermonts popular microbrew scene. In addition to #9, Magic Hats core beers include Circus Boy Hefeweizen and Easy Miles, a hazy IPA. It also produces many seasonals and specials, many of which have been brewed in Burlington. Magic Hat was founded in 1994 by Bob Johnson and Alan Newman, becoming well known for its funky label design and quirky beers. In 2010, Johnson and Newman sold Magic Hat to North American Breweries, then the Rochester-based parent company of Genesee. NAB also added other breweries to its portfolio, including Pyramid Brewing of Washington state and Portland Brewing of Oregon. NAB had also acquired the rights to market and sell Labatt beers in the United States through its Labatt USA division. In 2012, NAB and all its assets were sold to FIFCO, a Costa Rican company best known as the maker of Cerveza Imperial. Magic Hats full production will now take place at the Genesee Brewery on St. Paul Street just north of downtown Rochester. In 2018, that brewery unveiled a $50 million renovation that upgraded its brewing systems and environmental protections. The Rochester brewery makes a wide range of products, from the full Genny line-up to some special Labatt beers, plus Seagrams Escapes and a variety of contracted beverages. Under FIFCO USA, Magic Hat employed 43 people in Burlington. Brewing and operations employees there will be considered for jobs with Zero Gravity. The transaction is expected to be complete by July 1. As one of the first craft breweries in Vermont, Magic Hat has created a storied history in Burlington, said Rich Andrews, FIFCO USAs chief executive officer said in a statement. ... Our ties to Burlington made this decision very difficult. In the end, this was the best long term opportunity for both us and our friends at Zero Gravity. ... We have been brewing a portion of Magic Hat in Rochester for nearly a decade, Andrews said. Having one brewery with new equipment, creates consistent, high quality beer that our Magic Hat consumers have come to expect." RELATED Major CNY beer distributor closes, sells brand lines to competitors Labatt USA joins hard seltzer craze, tests market in Upstate NY Empire Brewing beers, now made in WNY, return to local store shelves Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages 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. The Middletown Borough Council voted 7-0 at their regular meeting Tuesday to censure Councilman Richard Kluskiewicz. President Angela Lloyd, wearing a t-shirt that said equality, read aloud the resolution at the start of the meeting. The resolution also condemns his behavior as an elected official. The unanimous vote included Kluskiewicz, who did not comment during the meeting. Kluskiewicz, following the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died while in police custody after being restrained by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, published cartoons and posts on Facebook that residents say were racist and derogatory toward Democrats, specifically Gov. Tom Wolf and state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. Following pushback from the community, the councilman deleted them and issued an apology. Of the roughly 30 people who attended the meeting, less than half spoke, but each shared the same serious tone and said something similar. They said Kluskiewicz should do the right thing and resign. After Lloyd explained to attendees that council members dont have the authority to vote the councilman off the board, resident Kay Wealand told Kluskiewicz its time he actually does the right thing by stepping down. His apology was strictly political and disingenuous, she said in her statement. Speaker after speaker said none of the posts were funny. Each one called for Kluskiewiczs resignation. They said he abused his First Amendment right. Kluskiewicz is a Republican. The posts he published included a cartoon of a donkey dressed in a police uniform with his hand on an African American males neck, a vulgar picture of Wolf and Levine dressed in Hitler uniforms, a before and after picture of an African American male and white male voting with a caption which read: Black Man Votes Republican, Immediately Turns White," and a before and after picture of Levine. Rachelle Reid, a former Middletown council member, said in the eight years she sat on the council, never had she ever witnessed such poor decisionmaking. Now a member of the towns human relations commission, she said the police department wrote a letter agreeing that Kluskiewiczs behavior is unacceptable. There is a petition circulating around the town, which has garnered 442 signatures. There are 135 from people who live outside the community but have ties to the area. Janelle Welkie, 25, who organized the petition, has been a lifelong resident of Middletown. She said shes never attended a council meeting, but was drawn to support change in her community. She said its unnerving to have a local leader not realize the damage his posts can cause within a community. "Ive had conversations with people who say when are we going to finally stop having a conversation like this about race, she said. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil futures settled lower on Wednesday as worries about energy demand and excess supply in the market resurfaced and pushed down prices. Reports showing spikes in new coronavirus cases in the U.S. and China, have raised concerns the global economy may take longer time to be well and truly on the recovery path. The Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, while testifying before the Senate Banking Committe on Tuesday, cautioned that 'significant uncertainty remains about the timing and strength of the recovery.' West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended down $0.42 or about 1.1% at $37.96 a barrel. Brent Crude futures were lower by $0.35 or 0.8% at $40.61 a barrel. According to the data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) this morning, crude inventories in the U.S. rose by 1.2 million barrels last week to a record 539.5 million barrels. The EIA report showed gasoline stockpiles saw a draw of about 1.66 million barrels last week, after falling by 866,000 barrels a week earlier. Meanwhile, distillate stockpiles were down 1.35 million barrels in the week, against expectations for an increase of 2.4 million barrels. The EIA report also said oil production in the U.S. was down by an estimated 10.5 million barrels per day. That was down 20% from record highs achieved about three months ago. A report from OPEC, released earlier in the day, said there will be room for its members to ease their production constraints later in the year. The OPEC report says global demand for crude may rise 27.8 million barrels a day in the third quarter and to 31.2 million barrels per day by the final quarter of this year. Meanwhile, in news about coronavirus infections, Beijing reported 31 new cases of novel coronavirus for June 16, four more than the day before and taking the total number of cases to 137 in six days. Elsewhere, South Korea confirmed 43 more coronavirus cases in 24 hours, Brazil reported a record 34,918 new infections and India registered over 10,000 new Covid-19 cases for the fifth day in a row, while new coronavirus infections hit record highs in six U.S. states on Tuesday. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Armenia still has enough hospital beds to treat increased numbers of coronavirus patients, the Ministry of Health insisted on Wednesday. We have no problems with regard to hospitalization at the moment, the ministry spokeswoman, Alina Nikoghosian, told RFE/RLs Armenian service. The available hospital beds are still sufficient. Nikoghosian said at the same time that 176 infected people in need of urgent treatment waited to be hospitalized as of Wednesday morning. But she stressed that 140 of them were in kept in medical triage centers in preparation for their hospitalization. So the [hospitalization] process is going on and perhaps most of them have already been hospitalized, added the official. The coronavirus crisis is putting a growing strain on Armenias underfunded healthcare system, forcing the health authorities to ramp up capacity. The authorities pledged last week to make 350 new hospital beds available for COVID-19 patients. Armenian hospitals fighting the epidemic had a total of over 2,000 beds at that point. Just over 18,000 coronavirus cases and at least 302 deaths have been recorded in the country of about 3 million to date. According to the Ministry of Health, 544 people tested positive for the virus on Tuesday. Nikoghosian put the current number of active cases at 10,818. The vast majority of these infected people are confined at home and monitored by primary healthcare workers. Health Minister Arsen Torosian said, meanwhile, that despite the increased daily numbers of new infections the disease has spread in the last 10 days more slowly than was expected by the health authorities. In a Facebook post, he said this is the result of more Armenians practicing social distancing, wearing face masks and taking other precautions recommended by the authorities. Torosian also cautioned: The situation remains very tense and we all need to make additional and prolonged efforts to improve it. San Francisco voters will be asked in November whether the city should tax public companies that offer stock-based compensation to their employees an effort supporters say would bolster city revenue and plug the massive budget deficit caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Supervisor Gordon Mar originally introduced the ballot measure last year when major tech companies like Uber, Lyft and Pinterest were preparing to enter the public market. The wave of IPOs was initially expected to inject so much wealth in San Francisco that many in City Hall worried it would increase the existing disparity between the rich and the poor. Now, San Francisco is grappling with a decimated economy and record unemployment due to COVID-19. Mar, who signed the measure onto the ballot with three co-sponsors Tuesday, said the city must have every option on the table to increase city revenue and preserve vital services and programs. At the start of a recession, with an exploding unemployment crisis, in the midst of a global pandemic, we have to be bold, and we have to be clear in rejecting long-term austerity cuts to vital programs as a solution, Mar said at Tuesdays Board of Supervisors meeting. The measure is expected to generate $50 million to $150 million annually, which Mar said would be used to address the citys long-term deficit. It would be just one of many initiatives needed to help plug the massive, $1.7 billion budget hole that San Francisco is projected to face over the next two fiscal years. Supervisors Hillary Ronen, Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin co-sponsored the measure. The stock-based compensation tax, which caught national attention when it was introduced last year, was originally slated for the November 2019 ballot. But Mar pulled it off the ballot so he could sync it with a broader business-tax reform, which Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors began working on last year. Breed and the supervisors both introduced their own versions of the business tax overhaul Tuesday. While both the mayor and board agree on the broad strokes of the tax overhaul, they disagree on how much the gross-receipts tax rate should increase and how quickly. The details will be hammered out over a series of negotiations in the next few months. Whether or not the mayor and the board come to an agreement on the gross-receipts tax, Edward Wright, a legislative aide for Mar, said the stock compensation tax stands of its own." The proposed tax would levy an additional 1.12% payroll tax on stock-based compensation. It would apply to any public company that issues stock options to its employees. That means companies that have already gone public like Uber and Lyft would be taxed under this measure, but the extent depends on various factors, like how many employees have already exercised their stock options. It needs a simple majority vote to pass. Also on Tuesday, Supervisor Matt Haney introduced a proposal to tax companies with top executives who earn vastly more money than the rest of their workforce. That measure is also headed for the November ballot. Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-18 01:00:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JUBA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Parties to South Sudan's 2018 peace deal on Wednesday agreed to divide the country's 10 states, ending months of stalemate in the implementation of the pact. President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar met in Juba where they agreed on a new formula for allocation of states, the presidential press office said in a statement. Under the new arrangement, President Kiir's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) party will take six states, Machar's Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) will take three. And the remaining one will be given to the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA). The two leaders also agreed to convene another meeting to discuss the nomination of state governors, the presidency said. Signatories to the 2018 pact were expected to establish state governments together with the transitional government of national unity in Feb. 22, but the process was delayed after the parties disagreed on how to share the ten states. UN peacekeeping in South Sudan warned earlier this month that the absence of political leadership in the state levels threatens the fragile peace deal amid an increase in inter-communal violence across the east African country. Enditem BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 16 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: Employees of Azerbaijani parliament are regularly tested for COVID-19, a source in the parliament told Trend on June 16. As a result of the conducted tests, two employees of the Azerbaijani parliaments Department of Affairs have tested coronavirus-positive. They, as well as other employees with whom they were in contact, have been taken under medical control. The mentioned employees are currently feeling well; showing no symptoms of the coronavirus. Have you ever found yourself flipping through channels or scrolling endlessly, bored with nothing to watch? If so, then you're in the right place. From The Heirs to Kingdom, Korean dramas have captivated audiences and stolen the hearts of fans around the globe. So, what about those hidden gems that didn't get their share of the spotlight? Check out these 3 underrated K-dramas you should watch right now. www.pexels.com Squad38 According to Faris CPA, the Bahamas leaks exposed over 175 000 companies hiding their assets from the revenue service. If you enjoy shows about the elite being brought to book, then Squad38 is for you. A dedicated government employee and a crafty con-man form an unlikely partnership to take down rich and powerful tax-evading criminals. Together with their team - a merciless businesswoman and her daughter, a computer expert, a professional hustler, and a voice phishing specialist, devise clever plans with some questionable tactics. While it's not your typical crime-fighting K-drama, Squad38 will have you on the edge of your seat, wondering what the task force will come up with next. It also has a comedic edge, paired with some fantastic chemistry. What's more, this 2016 K-drama showcases some pretty staunch talent from the likes of Seo In Guk, Ma Dong Seok, and Song Ok Sook. Why not give it a try? www.pixabay.com Shut Up Flower Boy Band This 2012 coming-of-age show follows the trials and tribulations of a boy band flung into the higher echelons of society where they're forced to attend a fancy high school. As outcasts, they soon make enemies with a rival band while dealing with tragedy, home, and family problems. The characters are multi-layered and charismatic. From the bad boy and the enigmatic one to the casanova and the rich kid, you're bound to fall in love with these heartthrobs. Follow them on their journey as they navigate the intimidating and exciting world of teenagehood, relationships, and music. The cast includes Jun Sung (I Need Romance 3 and High Society), and Hyun Jae Lee (The Old Cinderella 2 and Tiny Times 4.0). If you enjoy a K-drama filled with teen angst, bromance, love, sorrow, and music, then Shut Up Flower Boy Band is for you. A Beautiful Mind When his patients start dropping like flies, a psychopathic surgeon investigates. With the help of a beautiful, but bright-eyed and bushy-tailed cop, he tries to unravel the mystery surrounding the deaths. Along the way, he learns more about his inability for emotion. Maybe he can change? Watch as the intriguing surgeon embarks on a quest for the truth - about the murders, the past, love, and himself. With a philosophical undertone, this intense 2012 K-drama explores concepts of duality, relationships, morality, and more. It also has an exceptional cast, with Jang Hyuk as the main character. You might recognize him from the more recent Tell Me What You Saw. Other notable talents include Park So Dam and Heo Joon Ho. Give A Beautiful Mind a go if you want to be transported to the mind of a misunderstood genius battling with his identity. www.pexels.com So, What Are You Waiting For? Whether you prefer a crime show with a twist, a music-filled drama about growing up, or an in-depth suspense, our suggestions might just be perfect for you. Now that you have a few new ideas of what to watch, it's time to clear your schedule, get cozy, and start binging on these excellent K-dramas. New Delhi: Television actress Jaya Bhattacharya on Wednesday mourned the death of her 'Thapki Pyar Ki' team member, who died after contracting coronavirus. The person named Irfan had been unwell since the last two years and due to the prolonged illness, some days ago, he was diagnosed with coronavirus. In an emotional Instagram post, Jaya shared a picture of Irrfan and wrote, 'Thapki Pyaar Ki' team The guy inside this, our Irfan, is no more. He was unwell for a long time. I kept on asking him for his reports to try to understand what the basic issue was that was creating all his health problems since the last 2 years but... Gulab Dada told me of his being in hospital and on a bad state some days ago and then his weak body contracted corona. Today news from Susu, Irfan is no more. Jaya added that if the correct diagnosis was done, Irfan would have been saved. Damn it. This is the second, lovely, hard-working, talented, person I am losing in this manner. I am no medicine person but if we get to the correct doctor at the correct time for correct diagnosis we can save a life...thats what I believe. I feel like s**t right now, the actress further wrote. Take a look at her post here: The coronavirus pandemic has brought the entire world to a standstill. India is world's fourth worst-hit nation in terms of a total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. As of Wednesday evening, the total tally of coronavirus cases jumped to 3,54,065 with 11,903 deaths. A salary study giving Schertz a new pay grade scale will result in 75 percent of its employees receiving raises and develop a cost index that will help the city focus on market rate pay levels on an annual basis. The Schertz City Council on June 2 approved the staff classification and compensation plan that established flexible pay grades but eliminated its salary step program, while bringing the city salary structure closer to desired market levels. The salary increases affects the citys payroll by 6.6 percent and will cost $1,236,255 money that is budgeted to be paid over the next few years. The new pay policy is effective July 1 and affects the city pay period beginning July 4. Charles Kelm, Schertz assistant city manager, explained the rationale for the study and its outcome. The citys first salary study was conducted in 2015, and Kelm said city council has committed to having one done every four or five years. The city contracted with Management Analysis Group (MAG) to see where we are in comparison to the rest of the market and to bring the citys salaries as close to the market rate as possible, he said. MAG collected the data it needed to perform the analysis the current city budget, a list of personnel, job descriptions, position descriptions, organizational charts, and a list of responsibilities for each department. They took that information, developed and distributed a job profile questionnaire, Kelm said. It asked a number of things what you do on a daily basis, level of difficulty, the number of citizens you interact with, the number of breaks you are afforded, for example. Kelm said 297 of 342 potential respondents, 86.8 percent, responded. We had meetings with staff members and four to six open sessions, where we told them the importance of the questionnaire, Kelm said. We received replies from 297 of 342 potential respondents. That was a key piece in the process. He said MAG also surveyed about 20 benchmark cities, including Seguin Selma, San Marcos, Austin, and San Antonio because in reality, we compete with all of the cities for the same employees. Between the survey and the benchmark city results, MAG was able to rank the positions and developed a classification plan. The citys current pay structure includes grades 6 to 54, with 20 steps within each grade. That will change when the new plan is implemented. They developed a proposal where we still have grades but we go away from steps, he said, creating an open pay plan for each of the grades. It gives us a little more flexibility in hiring and merit pay. MAG took 50 positions from across the city and compared job descriptions and salaries to the benchmark cities, a move that helped define the pay bands, so we were comparable to those cities, he added. Of the 368 positions within the city, 140 will be adjusted to the new minimum of the pay bands, and 242 will be adjusted toward the market. Some of the positions were pretty close to market already, he said, admitting that the smallest raise, computed on an annual salary, barely reached double digits. But some (employees) will see several thousand dollars in increases on their annual salary, to bring them up to the market rate, he added. There are 86 employees that will see no increase as they work in positions at salaries that are already at or above the market rate. No employee will lose any money, he said. There are no staff reductions, a commitment from council and City Manager (Mark) Browne. Thats pretty good recognition and appreciation by the council. Each employee will get a signed letter from Browne explaining if their duty title changed or if their salary was impacted. Others will get a letter explaining why their salaries may not have been increased. There was a lot of care and consideration on how this would impact them and their opportunities. There was a lot of consideration put into the study, he added. One addition to the study is the creation of an Employment Cost Index, or ECI. It allows us to put money toward the pay bands so we dont lose positions with the market salaries, Kelm said. ECI will move the pay bands to the right, annually, to stay competitive an annual adjustment that can help the city avoid having to make a large budget adjustment, like the 6.6 percent increase, in a single years budget. As an employee, I am just grateful for the support we receive (from the mayor and council) to put the resources behind it, to implement it, he said. It just shows the faith they have in our staff, especially in todays environment. jflinn@express-news.net Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Albuquerque-area businesses still limping back to health after months of COVID-19-related closures and losses have another source for help. The Bernalillo County Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a $5 million small-business grant program funded by the countys federal CARES Act coronavirus relief money. The program will provide grants of up to $10,000 to businesses and nonprofits with one to 50 full-time employees (or the part-time equivalent), and is meant to cover such costs as rent, wages and vendor payments, according to county documents. The CARES Act specifies that expenditures by the county must be necessary to respond to the public health emergency. This includes providing economic support to businesses and nonprofits suffering from employment or business interruptions due to COVID-19-related closures, county staff wrote in documents prepared before the commissions vote. The anticipated results of this funding will help support economic vitality and ensure that local businesses and nonprofits are resilient and secure. County Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada said before the vote that he wanted to know the money would get to workers hurt during the shutdown, particularly those who have not qualified for unemployment insurance. County Economic Development Director Mayling Armijo said the county will ask businesses how they plan to use the money during the application process and ask how it was used during follow-up reporting. But she said recipients could use the money any way they see fit under CARES Act guidelines, even for qualifying expenses aside from wages. We cant really dictate, she said. Shirley Ragin, deputy county manager for finance, told the commission that the CARES usage is subject to audit and that the county will make the rules and restrictions clear to grant recipients. Well just follow those (guidelines), and hopefully, we saved a whole bunch of business, Quezada said. That would be a great thing. The program will take about 15% of the $32 million in CARES Act money the county received. The $5 million should help at least 500 businesses, and the county is giving priority to those who did not receive federal assistance, such as through the Paycheck Protection Program or the city of Albuquerques grant program. The city in April distributed 150 $5,000 grants to microbusinesses those with five or fewer employees. A spokeswoman with the citys Economic Development Department said Tuesday that the city which received about $150 million in CARES money has additional plans to help small businesses. Theres a couple of things were actively working on, but were just not yet ready (to announce them), city spokeswoman Jennifer Esquivel said. Tributes have to been paid to Bishop Paul Colton, who has become the longest-serving Church of Ireland bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross in 400 years. Bishop Colton, 60, who officiated at the wedding of Machester United legend David Beckham and former Spice Girl Victoria Adams near Dublin in July 1999 just months after he was enthroned bishop of the diocese, and who was the first Church of Ireland bishop to openly support same-sex marriage, reached the historic milestone today, becoming the longest-serving bishop of the diocese since 1617. Being a bishop at all is, of course, both an honour and a responsibility; to be one for a long time is especially so, he told the Irish Examiner. There were, of course, predecessors in the 18th Century who did longer periods in the several diocesan units when they were separate - Peter Brown in Cork and Ross, and Charles Crow in Cloyne - but the privilege of being the longest to serve the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross since William Lyons death in 1617 is humbling. Living in post for a long time, while significant and historical, is a landmark, but I am very conscious that the real challenge is to try to be faithful to the calling and also to make a qualitative difference for the common good in partnership with others. Naturally, Im hugely grateful to God, my family and friends, the Church, the people of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, and the people of Cork generally. Its a cliche to say the years have flown, but they have. What I truly value is the opportunity to work in partnership with so many people of many outlooks, religious and non-religious, people of many backgrounds as we engage together with the things that really matter in our own time, and really wanting to make a difference. The Lord Mayor of Cork, Joe Kavanagh, the holder of that historic office since Friday, led tributes. Bishop Colton is part of the fabric of Cork city and he is a wonderful ambassador for our city with a clear love of the city, he said. He has a fantastic sense of humour and always has a smile on his face, and has a positive effect with everyone he comes in contact with. It comes as no surprise that he is as popular as he is. A popular figure on Twitter, Bishop Colton was swamped with good wishes online, including a tweet from Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan. Ordained in 1984 and consecrated bishop in March 1999, Bishop Colton was enthroned in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork on April 14, 1999. He studied law at UCC and in Cardiff University and specialises in church law and the interface between the laws of religious communities and the laws of States. He is married to Susan Colton, who is deputy principal of a primary school, and they have two sons. He chairs the board of directors of St Luke's home and he is the chairman of the board of governors of Midleton College. Throughout the Juneteenth weekend, black-owned restaurants in the Chicago area plus other cities where Black People Eats is active will offer menu items for $6.19, an amount that acknowledges the date of the holiday. The Black People Eats Instagram account Wednesday morning published the list of the participating restaurants, more than 70 in Chicago and the surburbs, and the items they are offering. See the complete restaurant list at the bottom of this article; for information on what deals are offered, go here. For a map of the restaurants, go here. Lize Lubbe's pioneering spirit has led her to deliberately choose the road less travelled at every pivotal moment. Investing and entrepreneurship have been the golden thread that runs throughout her career, and the results of her leading huge impact investment projects across the African continent have been extraordinary. Lize Lubbe Her other love In 2015, she was the only South African selected to participate in the prestigious Frontier Market Scouts Programme in California, USA. She was one of 30 participants globally attending this program to advance high-performing professionals in the field of impact investing.We collaborated with practitioners from the top impact investing funds in the USA. As part of this programme I completed a research fellowship in impact investing and venture capital in Silicon Valley, New York City and Washington DC to research international best practice with the vision to implement it in an African context, she says.Returning to South Africa, and after a thorough search for a company with a vision aligned with her own, Lubbe joined Phatisas Africa Agriculture Fund (AFF) in 2016.She has been an intrinsic part of delivering 2,6 million tonnes of food and food-related products, supporting more than 9,000 permanent jobs and more than 78,000 small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs in rural communities from investment to date.This has been a pivotal moment in my career and has been a wonderful environment to catalyse the large scale impact that I have always dreamed of being part of.She was soon appointed a principal of the fund. I am the first female principal at Phatisa, which is reflective of an industry that has a distance still to travel regarding gender parity rather than my own singular achievement I feel honoured because other young women that will come after me in the organisation now know that it is possible, Lubbe says.Lubbe loves her job because there is never routine or predictability, each day is unique bringing along new opportunities for endless learning. I love the travel and adventure, and I absolutely love meeting and working with entrepreneurs across our continent, she says.Pioneering anything is not easy. When you are blazing a trail, you can sometimes feel that have the odds stacked against you. You have no clear path to follow. You mostly go blindly, equipped only with the vision in your mind and the dream in your heart, Lubbe says.Lubbe is also a professional musician, a violinist, and has been a permanent member of the Gauteng Philharmonic Orchestra (GPO) since 2014. The orchestra is an NGO based in Pretoria which aims to promote classical music in the local community and to make it accessible to the previously disadvantaged, the youth and the elderly. They run an outreach programme with the City of Tshwane Municipality to uplift the vulnerable youth and victims of drug and sexual abuse and include them in their activities.It is not an easy task to juggle this with my executive role, but fills my life with joy. As a musician, I have learned about leadership from some of the best conductors in the world.Lizes ultimate dream is to head her own impact investing fund one day. Businessman and member of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Alfred Woyome, has said he is ready to refund the GH51 million wrongfully paid to him by the state, in two months, should the court release his shares in his company. The Supreme Court in 2017 placed an embargo on the shares owned by the businessman, Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome, in 11 companies, after it ruled that he was indebted to the state to the tune of GH51.2 million. Let the government release the shares of my company and probably within two months that money will be paid," said. Alfred Woyome, however, indicated that his intention to pay back the judgment debt does not stop the state from going after the matter. Speaking on the Face2Face show, the embattled businessman said: I went to the Flagstaff House to meet the Personal Assistant to the Chief of Staff so that the Attorney General [will meet me and] and release shares of my company so that I can pay this money [GH51 million]; although I have not stopped the state from going after the matter. He added that the freezing of the assets of his 14 companies has rendered him jobless as he has been relying on religious organisations and some philanthropists to survive. This development according to him suggests that the state is really not interested in retrieving the money. I have not worked. Government has closed all my businesses against a court order. Bank of Ghana has blacklisted me causing a huge contract I had to supply items to the government for the building of the portand that thing was taken away. My consultancy work, because of the criminal case and all the pursuant things, I couldnt [consult] for any other country, Alfred Woyome lamented. Background Alfred Woyome has been engaged in a legal tussle with the government since 2013, after the Supreme Court on June 14, 2013, ordered him to refund all monies wrongfully paid him in the form of the judgment debt. The businessman has since maintained that he is innocent in the matter and has tried unsuccessfully to seek redress at different courts. In 2019, the Supreme Court ordered the sale of properties discovered by the state to belong to the embattled businessman to defray a GH51.2 million judgement debt paid him which the countrys apex court has ruled must be refunded. According to the court, a claim by the now-defunct UT Bank that Mr Woyome used two of his houses at Trassaco as collateral for a loan could not be proven. After some months, the Minister for National Security, Mr Albert Kan Dapaah, suggested that assets of private businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome, which were to be auctioned by the state to defray some money he owes the state should be surrendered to the state to obviate the need for an auction. This follows the inability of the auctioneer to sell Mr Woyomes assets due to fears by potential buyers that the properties will be restored to Mr Woyome by future governments. 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 [June 17, 2020] Corporates Identify Start-ups as Key Partners in Post-COVID Response Plans, Says Zinnov India is home to 60+ active corporate start-up collaboration programs as of 2019 80% of corporate leaders believe that they can derive tangible value through start-up collaborations BANGALORE, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Zinnov, a leading global management and strategy consulting firm, released the findings of its impact study titled, 'Impact of COVID-19 on Corporate Start-up Collaboration Programs', today. The study analyzed how COVID-19 has affected corporate start-up collaboration programs in terms of budget allocation, internal stakeholder interest, and the programs' operating model, to sustain on the other side of recovery. In the pre-COVID era, India witnessed a steady and consistent increase in the number of active corporate start-up collaboration programs. The key driver for this increase was a growing willingness of corporates to leverage open innovation to strengthen their business and access innovative solutions by engaging with cutting-edge technology start-ups. In fact, as of 2019, there were 60+ corporate start-up collaboration programs in India, with a majority of them being incepted in the period between 2015 and 2018 alone. Among these, 25% of them are focused on the BFSI sector, with HiTech vertical coming in second at 18% and the Energy sector rounding out the third spot at 14%. One thing that has been consistent across both pre- and post-COVID corporate action plans, is the clear and present need for corporates to leverage the external innovation ecosystem. Some of the key attributes that are a part of every post-COVID action plan include technology-first, innovation-driven, agile, nimble, as well as frugal and efficient solutions. Since start-ups fulfill all these criteria, it becomes all the more critical for corporates to engage with cutting-edge start-ups through structured programs. Zinnov's analysis also revealed that although the pandemic has affected nearly every industry vertical, structured corporate start-up collaboration programs with high maturity have witnessed only a negligible to moderate impact. About 45% of structured programs - mainly with low maturity - have reported a reduction in their budget and around 80% of program leaders are embracing a wait-and-watch approach. Further, 25% of programs intend to reduce the number of start-ups engaged per year, with a goal to have fewer but deeper engagements, while nerly 65% intend to either maintain status quo or reduce external partnerships to conserve cash. The study highlighted that nearly 80% of leaders believe that COVID-19 has presented a definitive opportunity to add tangible value to the organization through structured corporate start-up collaboration programs. Potential opportunities that these collaboration programs can explore include expanding program scope to new products, collaborating with global start-ups from India, and engaging with stakeholders in overseas markets. However, these programs need to overcome major challenges in the wake of COVID-19 like reduced internal stakeholder participation, increased expectations from all involved stakeholders, decreased resource allocation, difficulty articulating direct business impact, and absence of remote work capabilities, giving rise to issues pertaining to cybersecurity, access to facilities, data security, risk and compliance. To capitalize on the opportunities, corporate start-up collaboration programs are revisiting their operating models. The programs are being reconfigured to optimize the spend without sacrificing the strong value proposition for start-ups to build cost-neutral programs. Further, the corporates are realigning the programs at an objective, charter, focus areas, and KPIs level to reflect organizational priorities post COVID-19. Program processes are also being redesigned to factor in remote work conditions with minimal in-person interactions and capabilities. Speaking about the impact study, Atit Danak, Principal & Head of Zinnov CoNXT, said, "COVID-19 has re-emphasized the need for corporates to explore open innovation through structured programs. However, 90% of the programs are not proactively pivoting their core operating models to align with the post-pandemic reality. It is critical for corporates to revisit start-up collaboration program operating models, especially for low maturity programs, to derive real value in the new normal. And Zinnov's 5-step approach, comprising of Reconfigure, Realign, Redesign, Rebuild, and Reimagine is a derivative of our hands-on experience, and will help ensure that corporates are able to engage with start-ups effectively and drive tangible business outcomes, even with a reduced budget." About Zinnov Founded in 2002, Zinnov is a leading global management and strategy consulting firm, with presence in Santa Clara, Houston, Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Paris. Over the last 18 years, Zinnov has successfully consulted with 250+ Fortune 500 enterprises and technology companies to develop actionable insights that help them create value - across dimensions of both revenue and optimization. With core expertise in Product Engineering, Digital Transformation, Innovation, and Outsourcing Advisory, Zinnov assists clients by: Helping global companies outline and drive their open innovation programs, design and operate accelerator programs, and enable collaboration with cutting-edge technology start-ups across specific use cases and predefined outcomes; Facilitating inorganic growth opportunities for global companies through Mergers & Acquisitions by asset shortlisting, target evaluation, commercial due diligence, and value creation; Advising global PE firms in asset shortlisting and target evaluation, commercial due diligence, and value creation; Enabling global companies to develop and optimize a global engineering footprint through center setups, and technology and functional accelerators to achieve higher R&D efficiencies, innovation, and productivity; Growing revenue for companies' products and services in newer markets through account intelligence, market entry, and market expansion advisory; Structuring and implementing Digital Transformation levers enabled by technologies like AI/ML, Cloud, IOT, and RPA. With their team of experienced consultants, subject matter experts, and research professionals, Zinnov serves clients from across multiple industry verticals including Enterprise Software, BFSI, Healthcare, Automotive, Retail, and Telecom in the US, Europe, Japan, and India. For more information, visit http://zinnov.com. About Zinnov CoNXT Zinnov's open innovation practice, CoNXT, enables corporates to build effective start-up collaborations to drive tangible business impact. The practice executes a variety of corporate mandates ranging from investments, acquisitions, acqui-hiring, and commercial partnerships. Zinnov CoNXT specializes in building customized corporate start-up collaboration programs (e.g., Cisco Launchpad, GE Healthcare Edison[X], NetApp Excellerator) and scaling them to consistently deliver clear and definitive value. Media contact: Nitika Goel Chief Marketing Officer Zinnov [email protected] +91-98450-16255 Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/694742/Zinnov_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] NEW DELHI: Samsung Electronics should get tax and other incentives from Indias northern state of Uttar Pradesh as the South Korean company looks to invest some 53.67 billion rupees ($705.75 million) in a smartphone display manufacturing plant in the state, Indias lead investment promotion body said in a letter. Samsung, one of the top smartphone sellers in India, signed a memorandum of understanding with Uttar Pradesh in 2019 on the project. A source familiar with the matter said this would relocate manufacturing previously done in China. The letter, seen by Reuters, was sent to Uttar Pradeshs state government by Invest India in April. Reuters could not determine if the promotion body discussed the letter with Samsung. The Korean company and Invest India did not respond to requests for comment. Samsung expects to create some 1,300 jobs at the plant, the letter said. The facility is likely to begin operations in 2021, the source said. We are submitting our recommendations to incentivise setup of HiTech industries in Uttar Pradesh and facilitate a key investor - Samsung Display in relocating its operations to India, the Invest India letter said. Invest India said in the letter Samsung could benefit from higher capital incentives on the overall investment over a 20-year-period, including reimbursement of spending on IT infrastructure. Satish Mahana, Uttar Pradeshs minister for industrial development, said the incentives were under consideration and a decision was yet to be taken. The investment by Samsung would be a plus for India which is vying with nearby rivals such as Vietnam to attract global smartphone companies under the governments Make in India drive. Presently, competing nations such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand are offering targeted incentive packages on capital expenditure, the CEO of Invest India said in the letter. It is imperative that India also promote investments through appropriate fiscal and non-fiscal incentives. Invest India, set up in 2009, is a non-profit venture under the Indian governments Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, its website said. Samsung already operates one of the worlds biggest mobile phone manufacturing plants in Uttar Pradesh. Having a local display manufacturing business would help Samsung save on import taxes that India plans to levy on display imports, and boost its smartphone export capabilities. Two new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Wednesday in Morgan County, bringing the countys total infections to 122. Health officials also said there are 458 tests pending results. Except for a surge in tests prior to the announcement of an outbreak at a Jacksonville nursing home, the county usually sees no more than 25 to 30 cases pending on any day. There were 254 tests, or 204 fewer, pending as of Tuesday. Health department officials could not be reached to explain the reason for the significant increase in tests awaiting results. The newest confirmed cases involve a man in his 20s and a man in his 40s. Both are isolated and recovering at home, according to a daily briefing by the Morgan County Department of Public Health, Jacksonville/Morgan County Emergency Management, Memorial Health System, Morgan County commissioners and the city of Jacksonville. Of those infected in Morgan County, 44 patients have been released from restrictions. Two deaths have been reported. There have been 1,873 negative cases in Morgan County. Two new cases also were confirmed Wednesday in Cass County. The cases include a boy in his teens and a girl in her teens. Both patients are isolated at home, according to Cass County Health Department. There have been 79 cases in the county, with 72 people having recovered; one remains hospitalized. Total cases in other west-central Illinois counties as of Wednesday were: 10 in Brown County; eight in Greene County; 45 in Macoupin County; 29 in Jersey County; 382 in Sangamon County; 13 in Schuyler County; and none in Scott County, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Statewide, 546 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease and 87 deaths including a Macoupin County man in his 60s were reported Wednesday. As of Wednesday there were 134,185 cases in 101 counties in Illinois and 6,485 deaths, according to the state health agency. 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. Los Angeles is in a housing crisis. Yet up to 100,000 units, many of them luxury apartments, sit empty. City lawmakers think a vacancy tax could help. At today's council meeting, they voted 13-0 to ask City Attorney Mike Feuer to draft a ballot measure. But before landing on ballots in November, the proposal would have to survive another council vote by July 1, and then garner two-thirds support at the polls. The tax is modeled after a similar measure passed by Oakland voters in 2018, which penalizes property owners whose units are in use for fewer than 50 days. Oakland's Measure W garnered 70% of the vote; it exempts low-income and non-profit owners. L.A.'s tax could garner as much as $150 million annually for affordable housing, renter protections or affordable housing, according to the city's housing department. 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 On Tuesday, L.A.'s councilmembers voted to exclude commercial property and some single family homes from the tax. Several expressed displeasure with the fast-moving item, but Mike Bonin and David Ryu, who introduced it, argued urgent action is needed. "The market is broken, and the disparity is affecting everything from skyrocketing rent prices to an increase in homelessness," Bonin said. He argued that the tax would push some units back onto the market, create a desperately needed revenue stream for the city, and could counteract the commodification of housing. In recent weeks, California politicians have expressed alarm that corporate landlords could swoop in and buy up single-family housing -- in a repeat of the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. "We now have corporations and family trusts that are perfectly comfortable with leaving buildings unoccupied," Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell said at the meeting. The report from the city's Housing and Community Investment Department estimated the citywide vacancy rate is between 6% and 7%. Pricier units are more likely to sit empty, third-party data shows. From HCID's report: The Vacancy rate is far higher at the top of the market. It's the luxury units that are sitting empty pic.twitter.com/Jzv6m74qAq Aaron Mendelson (@a_mendelson) June 16, 2020 The vast majority of recently-built and under-construction units in Los Angeles are in the high-end of the market, while the city has been losing low-income housing, data from the real estate information company CoStar indicates. WE LOVE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS 'If you don't have any proof about her crime, then how can you keep her in jail?' On August 28, 2020, the respected lawyer and human rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj will complete two years in jail. Bharadwaj was arrested for her alleged involvement in the Elgar Parishad case and alleged links with the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit. After her arrest, Ramachandra Guha, historian and Gandhi's biographer, was in no doubt that the Mahatma would have donned his lawyer's robes -- let's not forget that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a barrister called to the law at Inner Temple in England -- and defended Bharadwaj, an IIT-Delhi alumnus who has spent her life defending the rights of Adivasis in Chhattisgarh. Lodged in the women's jail in Byculla, central Mumbai, since late February when her case was transferred from the Maharashtra police to the National Investigation Agency, Bharadwaj's bail plea on medical grounds -- she is 58, diabetic and suffers from high blood pressure -- was rejected last month by a special Mumbai court. "If somebody is working for poor people, then does it mean they are criminals?", Maaysha, Bharadwaj's daughter who got to speak with her mother after four months on June 9, asks Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com. It is almost two years that your mother was arrested. How has it been you for without your mother for two years? It has actually been very difficult for me to fend for myself all alone. As a child, everybody needs a mother, right? Whether one is 16, 23, or five, everybody needs their mother. Sadly, I never got a chance to spend enough time with my mother when I was in school. She has been very busy with her work. So, I didn't get a good chance to understand her enough, to see how she could be as a mother. She was always really busy doing her court and union work; protecting, defending the legal rights of those who suffered injustice. And then she got arrested when we barely started to spend time with each other. That's when we shifted to Delhi (from Chhattisgarh where Sudha Bharadwaj and Maaysha resided) for my college. p>It has been almost four months since I was able to talk to her. Surprisingly, I got a call on the morning of June 9 from my mother. I was so happy. So, the jail authorities allow her to talk on the phone. I don't know how, but she called me and it was really good. The call lasted just two minutes, but I felt really good because it was almost after four months that I heard my mother's voice. We spoke last in February (2020) when I met her in Pune's Yerawada jail. What did she say to you on this call? She was asking how I am doing and all that. I asked about her health and she said she was not very well. Did she disconnect the call on her own or was she made to disconnect the call? The call got automatically disconnected after two minutes. She had called me from a mobile number. Maybe some officer's number. Did she say anything about her fears about the COVID-19 pandemic because a doctor and 80 inmates in Byculla jail have tested positive for the virus? The call lasted just two minutes and we weren't able to talk that much. In the last two years, how often would you meet her? I used to meet her twice a month. I would go all the way from Delhi to Pune and I got only five to eight minutes. I couldn't even hug her or touch her. I am not sure, but I must have met her 10-11 times since she was jailed in August 2018. How would this meeting go about? I would be made to stand behind a glass wall and communicate with her. Sometimes, I got to meet her in court where the police officers would be very rude to me sometimes. They were always discouraging me from meeting her or hugging her. Why haven't you met her since February 2020? I met her last on my birthday in February. After that, they shifted mamma to Mumbai (Byculla) jail and after that COVID happened. She was shifted to Byculla jail from Yerawada prison because her case was handed over to the NIA. I am even not allowed to exchange letters with her. During past conversations you had with her when she was in jail, did she ever say that the government at the Centre and the then BJP government in Maharashtra were being vindictive or that she was being framed because she worked for the Adivasis and the workers' unions? Ever since I was a kid I knew for sure that one day or the other, some government or the other would do that (arrest her or frame her for her pro-poor campaign) to my mother. Because of the causes she espouses, she would tell me that one day they will take her (arrest her and put her in jail) and I was like, 'Why are you talking like that?' It was not her fear, she was prepared for it. She always had a sense of foreboding (about her arrest). About 600 prominent Indians have written to the jail authorities asking that your mother and Shoma Sen be temporarily released. Have you also written letters to the state government or the jail authorities for her release in the wake of COVID-19 and given that your mother also suffers from diabetes? I am planning to write an article on August 28 (the day Sudha Bharadwaj completes two years in jail). I will explain how it has been without her for two years. IMAGE: Sudha Bharadwaj with Maaysha in happier times. Photograph: Kind courtesy Maaysha You spoke to her after four months. Why this big gap in communication? Why is she not able to call you more often? While the court (the NIA court on March 30 directed Byculla jail authorities to allow her telephonic communication by providing proper facility; Bharadwaj's case was transferred to the NIA court in late February from the Maharashtra police) said they are allowed to make or receive phone calls, when I called on the jail number, the authorities said they haven't received any court order to allow my mother to speak on phone. I was very shocked when I heard this. I remember the jail authorities submitting to the court that as per the court's directions she will be allowed to make or receive phone calls. Though Shoma aunty (Shoma Sen) gets to call her family, I didn't get any call from my mother all these days. It was only on June 9 that I got to speak with her last. Since the call got disconnected in just two minutes I couldn't get to speak much with her. Though it took me by surprise I was happy. A lady officer called my number and asked if I would like to speak with Sudha Bharadwaj. My biggest concern was whether she got her medicines regularly in jail and whether she receives the money order which we send her so that she can buy her medicines in jail. What are her living conditions like in jail? (Very hesitatingly) I have no idea about that. How did you feel after talking to your mother after four months? I was very happy and relieved. It has been a very bad time I'm facing right now because I have that anxiety issue. For the first few months after her arrest my situation was very pathetic. It still is: I am feeling the same loss and loneliness that I felt when they took her away in October 2017 from home. I'm not sure when she will be able to come out of jail. Do you fear that she will be not come out of jail all her life now?= No, no, not that, but as far as I have seen, the government or the courts are not very much in our favour. So, I don't have that much of hope. How do you cope with the loneliness of not having your mother by your side for two years now? We used to live in Chhattisgarh and from there in 2018 we moved to Faridabad. I can't explain what I am going through right now because I only have her in my life. I can't even explain in words how I feel every day, every moment in my life I see. I really miss her every day, every second of my life. Would you have any message for the pIf you don't have any information or proof about her crime, then how can you keep her in jail?rime minister of India or for the Maharashtra home minister? Recently, the Maharashtra home minister announced he would be taking a lenient view about releasing prisons because of the pandemic fear and your mother being 58 and suffering from hypertension and diabetes would be more vulnerable to COVID-19 in a prison setting. I just want to say to them that it's (keeping my mother in jail during the pandemic) not really fair because they have arrested somebody who is fighting to get justice for the oppressed. She is a single mother, and I really, really, need her in my life. I have no source of income. I don't have anybody in my life. She is the only one and I want to request them to release my mother. How can you believe that a lawyer who fights for the human rights of the dispossessed indulge in such crimes? And it is really, really, not fair (to keep her in jail) that they don't have any evidence, any proof but they have kept her in jail for two years now. You can't do that with anybody's life. Do you think the government is doing it on purpose? That they want to harass people who work with the tribals or those suffering violation of their human rights? If somebody is working for poor people, then does it mean they are criminals? That's what they (the government) are trying to prove. What kind of charges is my mother arrested under? UAPA! It's a grave charge to be arrested under. Why do you slap UAPA on all those providing legal aid to the poor and treat them as criminals? This is the anger and frustration that I have been living with because of my mother's unfair and illegal arrest. I know most people won't get affected by what I am saying because they are comfortably living with their mothers, their families. And here I am sitting alone, not getting to even talk to my mother for almost four months despite the court's order. THE German government is urging other EU countries to brace themselves for a no deal Brexit wreaking havoc with trade and compounding the coronavirus economic fallout. As Taoiseach Leo Varadkar prepares to join EU counterparts for a video-summit tomorrow ((FRIDAY)), news agency reports from Brussels reveal that Chancellor Angela Merkels government fear a worst outcome from the ending of a no-change transition period on December 31 next. An internal German document casts doubt on Britains optimism over chances of an early agreement on its future ties with the bloc. In a report to the Dail last week, EU affairs minister, Helen McEntee, said Dublin still hoped for a limited UK-EU deal on trade which would minimise Irish trade devastation. The UK left the European Union on January 31 last and their current EU-relationship is governed by a transition arrangement that keeps previous rules in place while new terms are negotiated. UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has repeatedly said he has no intention of accepting an EU offer to extend the transition by anything up to two years. After talks with EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, on Monday he insisted that a new deal with Brussels could be forged as early as next month. But the German government document, seen by the news agency Reuters and dated June 15, shows that Berlin expects the negotiations to take longer. The report stressed that the remaining 27 EU states must remain united and not give in to UK last-minute pressures "From September, the negotiations enter a hot phase," the document reads. "Britain is already escalating threats in Brussels, wants to settle as much as possible in the shortest possible time and hopes to achieve last-minute success in the negotiations," it continued. The German foreign affairs department is now convinced the transition deal will not be extended beyond the end of this year, this document indicated. "It is therefore important to preserve the unity of the 27, to continue to insist on parallel progress in all areas (overall package) and to make it clear that there will be no agreement at any price," the document read. "Therefore, both national and European contingency planning would now have to start in order to be prepared for a no deal 2.0." The UK finally agreed exit terms last October after another cliff-edge threat by Mr Johnson who became Prime Minister on the back of Brexit last July. The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar helped Mr Johnson broker a late compromise after threats of a no-deal exit. Berlin officials do not believe the situation was as critical this time around. "The situation is less serious than in 2019, as important regulations, for example for citizens, were sorted out in the withdrawal agreement," the document states. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Vehicle sales data should be based on registration and not on those bought by dealers, the countrys fourth largest carmaker Tata Motors has maintained despite concerns by proxy advisory firms that this could possibly lead to insider trading. The Mumbai-based manufacturer of cars, trucks and buses has declined to share vehicle sales information for every month unlike many of its peers who do so on the very first day of every month. While April was a washout month with zero sales Tata Motors did not share sales data for May. Speaking to Moneycontrol, P B Balaji, CFO - Tata Motors, said there was no possibility of insider trading. He said: Nobody can predict the revenue of this company basis the monthly sales because there is JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) in it too. The entire OEM, dealer and vendor ecosystems is super stressed out in terms of inventory levels, availability of cash, liquidity cycle and the likes. So we would not like to add to it using a metric which only pumps inventory into the system. Tata Motors is not the first and only automotive company to have declined sharing of this data. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover also do not share sales data. However since none of these companies are listed on the Indian stock exchanges there is no impact. But, since Tata Motors is a listed entity, the information of vehicle sales will not be known to the companys investors as well as analysts tracking the company. It will however be available only to the companys employees. This anomaly has raised concerns over possibilities of insider trading. Amit Tandon, the founder and managing director of Institutional Investors Advisory Services (IiAS), said, If the management team has access to numbers then there is no reason why these cannot be shared with the investors. IiAS is an advisory firm providing independent opinions, research and data on corporate governance issues as well as voting recommendations on shareholder resolutions. We are working closely with SIAM to ensure that the VAHAN portal which gets registration data be widely used and widely reported and if that data is available on a monthly basis we will be the first ones to do it. The issue is not about transparency, the issue is about using the right metric to drive the right behavior," added Balaji. Tata Motors used to share wholesale volumes (sales to dealers) while simultaneously pushing the industry for reporting retail sales (dealer to customer). This is because manufacturers have been repeatedly accused by their dealers of dumping stocks on them for shoring up the market shares which is calculated on wholesales. In the absence of registration data we have explicitly called out that our focus is retail. While we have encouraged others to report likewise (but) nobody seems to have done it. From our perspective it is important to ensure that the dealer viability is absolutely top-notch. To do so the wholesale market share does not aid any purpose whatsoever. Reporting wholesales results in erroneous behavior within the system and the right measure to look at is retail sales, Balaji added. While Tata Motors does not want to share wholesale data as frequently as before to avoid putting more pressure on its dealer partners market watchers say that its the wholesales that are a representative of the turnover and not retails. The better way to get the market to refocus on what they believe is the appropriate number is to declare both sets of numbers simultaneously. The market can then recalibrate itself. It also needs to be asked that when Tata Motors books a sale in their P&L account is it when the car is sold or registered? Shorn of everything else the market should be most focused on when do you book a sale, added Tandon. Nine months of acrimony between West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government reached a new high on Tuesday. It subjected the Raj Bhawan to scrutiny hours after its incumbent compared the state to the dictatorship depicted by film director Satyajit Ray in his landmark 1980 movie Hirak Rajar Deshe (Land of the Diamond King). Ray portrayed a king who was obsessed with his diamond mines and subjected farmers, labourers and students to slavery and clinical brainwashing before being ousted by mass revolution. Produced by the then Left Front government, the film is considered a satire on Emergency and the Congress regime in the 70s. Dhankhar, a former Janata Dal Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthans Jhunjhunu and Union minister of state for parliamentary affairs, has been in the eye of the storm for his social media comments ever since becoming a governor for the first time in July last year. Time to heed message in Satyajit Ray masterpiece-Hirak Rajar Deshe- one of the best satires against state oppression film industry has ever produced. Hirak Rajar Deshe reminds all -every time an evil king attempts to exploit the farmers, the labourers and the rest of the very people who make the kingdom a kingdom of diamonds, the common man will rise in rebellion. Time for all @MamataOfficial to heed and be accountable, Dhankhar tweeted on Tuesday morning. Though the tweet and the trolls that it triggered did not surprise anyone, politicians and the intelligentsia questioned the constitutional limits of Raj Bhawan. Even those who did not entirely disagree with the spirit of Dhankhars imagery found in it a reflection of the turf war between TMC and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Prof Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay, a political commentator and former principal of Presidency College, questioned Dhankhars role as a critic. I am rather surprised. The governor is the Constitutional head of the state and he should not have made this kind of a comment, Mukhopadhyay said. West Bengal is in a bad shape and the government has totally failed to combat the situation. There are agitations in many places. The government cannot escape its responsibility. We think that it is a kind of Hirak Rajar Deshe but the governor should not have made such a comment, he added. The Congress, which has lost substantial ground in West Bengal to the TMC, saw the tussle between the state and Raj Bhawan as a superficial one even as it described it as a police state. Dhankhars statements are politically tilted but all we see is TMC making counter statements. If the TMC seriously feels that the governor is not playing his Constitutional role why hasnt it met the President of India yet? Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and Berhampore MP, asked. When the Congress opposed actions by the governors in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra it met the President. If the Bengal governors chair is being abused such a meeting is mandatory, Chowdhury said. Economist Indraneel Dasgupta of the Indian Statistical Institute minced no words while describing Dhankhars statements as too directly political. A governor should not be doing this. If he is unhappy with any action of the state, he can always ask for a report or seek greater consultation with Raj Bhawan. As a private citizen, I may agree or disagree with another citizens political posturing but a governor cannot take a politically partisan stance, said Dasgupta. There is no rule of law in India and Bengal is no different. But what we are witnessing is akin to a representative of the king narrating the story of the queen, quipped CPI(M) politburo member Md Salim. The BJPs state leadership feels that Dhankhar has done no wrong so far and all his actions are aimed at ensuring the welfare of the people. Nobody can blame Raj Bhawan of raising issues that are not related to well being of citizens. History shows that even dictatorial forces can come to power through a democratic process. This was noted by the makers of our constitution. Hence, they kept the provisions of Section 355 and 356 (central rule), Jay Prakash Majumdar, the BJPs state vice-president, said. Reacting to the TMCs allegation that the governor speaks the language of the BJP, Majumdar said, Has the governor said anything so far that the Congress and the Left parties have not? Those who criticise him should get the substance of his statements. Suvashis Maitra, columnist and political observer, pointed out the political nature of Dhankhars comments. The governors statements, right from the time he took over, have been politically sensitive and the relationship between Raj Bhawan and the government is getting worse every day. Opposition parties may find this amusing but it is the constitutional system that is being ridiculed. This is not good for citizens, Maitra said. No TMC leader was willing to comment on records on Tuesdays tweet by Dhankhar. The Raj Bhawan, as we said earlier, is an extended office of the BJP, a senior cabinet minister said. Vietnams economic engine HCM City has the countrys lowest fertility rate of 1.53, according to the Ministry of Healths latest report in June. A newborn at HCM City's Hung Vuong Hospital. The city's fertility rate is lowest in Vietnam. A total 21 provinces and cities have low to very low fertility rates, mostly in the Mekong Delta, southeast and central coastal regions. With a total population of 38 million, these provinces prolonged declining fertility rates pose dire threats to the countrys future in terms of security, workforce and economy, the report said. Meanwhile, 33 others have high fertility rates, with the central province of Ha Tinh topping the list at 2.9 births per woman of childbearing age. The MoH has recently decided to attempt to adjust fertility rates among localities to maintain the desired fertility at replacement level of two to 2.2 children per woman of reproductive age. The ministry said it would allocate State funds to provide contraceptive methods to localities with low birth rates which are usually poor and currently account for 42 per cent of the countrys population. There will also be incentives to encourage families in areas with low fertility rates to have more children. The plan touches on piloting online sex education and consulting for youth as well as programmes to prevent infertility and reproductive cancers for adolescents. According to the MoH, Vietnam has a high rate of infertility of which 7.7 per cent is primary infertility. The 2019 Population and Housing Census also revealed contradictions between womens financial statuses and their willingness to bear a child. Those in the richest group had the lowest fertility rate and vice versa. Sex imbalance at birth has witnessed an upward trend in recent years, the census highlighted. Vietnams total fertility rate (TFR) dropped from 2.25 children per woman in 2001 to 1.99 in 2011. From 2012 to 2019, the rate ranged from 2.04 to 2.1. According to the 2019 census, the TFR of urban areas was 1.83 children per woman, lower than rural areas average rate of 2.26. The trend has remained the same for two decades. The imbalance in access to information and health care services contributes to the status quo, the census suggests, as couples living in cities are aware of the benefits of family planning and can easily access contraception. Earlier in April, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved a birth rate adjustment programme which encourages people to get married before the age of 30 and women to give birth to their second child before they are 35. The programme plans to offer incentives for couples with two children including reducing tax, tuition fees, rental expenses and social housing prices. Local authorities have been asked to pilot marriage and family consultation services such as dating clubs and pre-marriage health consultations. VNS HCM City encourages families to have three children as birth rate falls HCM City is encouraging families to have three children as the birth rate has dropped to 1.33 children per women of reproductive age in the city, experts said. Kannada, Culture and Tourism Minister C T Ravi on Tuesday launched online Kannada classes, in an effort to encourage non-Kannadigas in the state to learn the language. The initiative 'Kali Kannada' will be available on the minister's official Twitter account, with the first two lessons put up on Tuesday. He said the initiative was meant for non-Kannadigas in Karnataka. "They are in our state and they are our people. So it is our responsibility to teach them our language," he said. Each day, his team will post spoken Kannada lessons online, he said. The first two lessons had a list of conversational Kannada phrases which included greeting and introductions in Kannada. That apart, a list of beginners' vocabulary was also posted. Speaking to DH, Ravi said this was an attempt to create a learning atmosphere for the language. "Today, all regional languages are under threat. We have to begin by taking small steps to keep the language alive. One cannot impose language learning on anyone. This attempt is just to generate interest among people to learn Kannada. There are many apps teaching the language. Once they pick up interest by using this twitter class, they can continue learning the language in depth by enrolling themselves on apps or offline classes," he said. The department wanted to keep it going for at least 100 days, he added. The module for these online lessons is being developed by staff in his office. The minister's move comes at a time when there is a statewide demand to offer government services in Kannada under the #ServiceInMyLanguage campaign. Recently, the government asked banks to offer services in Kannada and even redo their signboards, after complaints that people in rural areas were finding it hard in banks with employees not conversing in the local language. Within hours of the announcement, the minister's decision garnered much interest online with several welcoming the move and a few others expressing willingness to take part in the classes. However, there were also demands that the government ensure that Kannada was the language of transaction in banks and that the Sarojini Mahishi report on reserving jobs for locals was implemented. [June 17, 2020] Oracle Protects Real-Time Enterprise Communications via the Cloud REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With a dependence on highly reactive, legacy communications security solutions, contact centers and enterprises are increasingly vulnerable to sophisticated infrastructure attacks. To mitigate these threats, Oracle has launched the Oracle Communications Security Shield (OCSS) Cloud, a real-time communications security solution. Built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the solution uses artificial intelligence and the real-time enforcement capabilities of Oracle Communications Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC) to determine the risk of session initiated protocol-based communications crossing an enterprise's network. By quickly detecting malicious call signatures and behavioral anomalies, the OCSS Cloud can autonomously mitigate dangerous network threats. "Organizations that use AI-driven behavioral threat analytics and cloud-based defenses, and that focus on communications and collaboration threats, can contain attacks 42% to 68% faster," says Johna Till Johnson, chief executive officer and founder of Nemertes Research. According to Nemertes' Cybersecurity and Cloud 2019-2020 Research Study, modern cybersecurity requires a holistic, automated securty approach that can both analyze data and enforce policies in real-time. Legacy security solutions offer limited protection due to their dependence on static rule-based decision processes, passwords and knowledge-based answers, making enterprises a prime target for criminals and ill-equipped to take on Day-Zero attacks. Oracle's Communications Security Shield Cloud integrates advanced behavioral analytics, anomaly detection and caller-reputation scoring to dynamically assess incoming call risk. By monitoring this activity, enterprises can protect their productivity, reputation and the bottom line through: Dynamic risk assessment : Calls are inspected, analyzed and assessed quickly and efficiently though advanced analytics, AI/ML and security capabilities such as user behavioral analytics, threat signature detection and anomaly detection. : Calls are inspected, analyzed and assessed quickly and efficiently though advanced analytics, AI/ML and security capabilities such as user behavioral analytics, threat signature detection and anomaly detection. 360 visibility : A comprehensive, intuitive dashboard provides business intelligence driven data visualization of real-time communications traffic, including an overview of actionable insights for mitigating threats and traffic anomalies. : A comprehensive, intuitive dashboard provides business intelligence driven data visualization of real-time communications traffic, including an overview of actionable insights for mitigating threats and traffic anomalies. Real-time enforcement: Customizable enforcement policies ensure the alignment of mitigation behaviors with organizations' risk appetites. Together, these capabilities enable real-time communications traffic designed to be secure from cyber threats, such as telephony denial of service attacks, nuisance calls, theft of service, traffic pumping and account takeovers. "Security threats to real-time enterprise communicationsespecially unified communications and contact centerscontinue to rise," said Andrew Morawski, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications, Networks. "With the latest in cloud-based AI/ML capabilities, behavioral threat analytics and signature anomaly detection methods, the Oracle Communications Security Shield Cloud is a critical service to secure today's enterprise network." To learn more about Oracle Communications industry solutions, visit: Oracle Communications LinkedIn, or join the conversation at Twitter @OracleComms. About Oracle Communications Oracle Communications provides integrated communications and cloud solutions for Service Providers and Enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation journey in a communications-driven world from network evolution to digital business to customer experience. www.oracle.com/communications About Oracle The Oracle Cloud offers a complete suite of integrated applications for Sales, Service, Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, plus Highly Automated and Secure Generation 2 Infrastructure featuring the Oracle Autonomous Database. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com. Trademarks Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oracle-protects-real-time-enterprise-communications-via-the-cloud-301078639.html SOURCE Oracle Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Sohill Cafe, a neighborhood bistro, is happy to welcome you back. Since its inception in November of 2018, Sohill Cafe has become a fixture of the Beacon Hill neighborhood dining scene. Now because of the pandemic, owner Jean Francois Poujol has changed its format to accommodate guests, keeping their health and safety in mind. The focus is on its To Go menu versus dine-in. We have created a menu that travels well and fast, Poujol said. The restaurant seating arrangement has been adapted to comply with distancing rules and masks are required for all employees. Sohill offers free delivery, curbside pick-up, inside dining, call in order and online ordering. Sohill Cafe serves traditional Italian pasta and Neapolitan style pizza. For the moment, the focus is on practicality and convenience. We offer FREE delivery within a 3 miles radius and are keeping our prices low and quality high, Poujol said. Sohill Cafe offers family meal packages: Tuesday fettuccini alfredo with chicken, Wednesday pizza deal, Thursday Lasagna, Friday Salmon and Saturday whole roasted chicken all for $30 and feeds 4 people. Sohill Cafe is also developing lunch specials for offices nearby. Sohill Cafes sister restaurant, Julias Bistro & Bar, is scheduled in a couple of weeks and will offer the original favorites, such as the Lamb Chili Relleno and Street Duck Taco. Sohill Cafe is located at 1719 Blanco Road, 78212. Hours are Tuesday thru Saturday from11 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, contact us at 210-455-2177 or www.sohillcafe.com or Facebook. Julias will be open Thursday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday Brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Editors Note: This content is made possible by Sohill Cafe. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasa.com. Photo: (Photo : Screenshot from Instagram) American actor Khary Payton posted on Instagram last Saturday how proud he is as a father to his son, Karter Payton. Khary Payton's son, according to his post, chose the name Karter with a "K" because it is a reminder of the father's name. Khary added in his post, "You see, he was born female but has always identified as a boy." Khary Payton decided to share his son's story on social media because Karter thought to announce it would be cool. This post according to some of his followers is an incredible show of support for his son. READ ALSO: Dwyane Wade Dyed His Hair, Matching His Daughter Zaya's Pink Hair Khary Payton's support for his son's choice When Khary's son thought that announcing his preferences on social media would be cool, Khary Payton warned Karter about it. The American actor told his son that there could be supporters, but there will also be many jerks on the internet. Still, the warning did not change Karter's decision. He said, "Yeah, I know about trolls, daddy. I can handle trolls." Because of this, Khary could not be even prouder. He said that the feeling he is having is beautiful mainly because his son is becoming true to himself. In his Instagram post, Khary expressed his support for his son. He said, "This is his journey, and I am here for it." Khary Payton also wished his followers are also filled with the same kind of love that he is feeling. Khary Payton's wife shows the same support for his son. In a separate Instagram post, Khary Payton's wife, Stacy, also shared how proud she is of his son. Stacy captioned the photo with an admission that they had a mistake during Karter's birth. She said, "When he was born, we thought he was a girl. We were mistaken. He is a boy. A smart, funny, brave, loving, magnificent boy." Stacy also shared how she is very proud of how his son is finally living as his true self. Stacy has the same amount of support for their son, like his husband. READ ALSO: Teen's Coming Out Video to Her Mom Goes Viral On TikTok Netizens react to the Payton couple's Instagram posts. A lot of the followers of the couple find the support that they give to their son as incredible. Netizens acknowledge that parents like Stacy and Khary Payton are amazing for understanding and accepting Karter. Others who saw the posts are amazed by the story of Karter and the fact that he is willing to share it with the world. Some followers of Khary Payton even said that it is the people like Karter who could make the world a better place. That is because he is positive and is now living freely. Although some still choose to attack Khary Payton's son, Twitter and Instagram users are quick to defend the little man. Stacy and Khary occasionally share photos of their children on social media. The couple shares another child, Maya, who is also frequently part of the Payton couple's feeds. READ ALSO: 6 Scientifically-Proven Tips In Raising Happy and Successful Children Actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood has confessed that he is a fan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Recently, in an interview with Times Now, Sonu was asked to choose between Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the PM when he said he liked them both. Both are my favourite, how political correct can I be on Frankly Speaking. I am a huge Modi fan. The way he connected with common man, it is really inspirational. He is a leader who went ahead for some revolutionary decisions in the country. He is the one I really look up to, he said. Sonu added that he doesnt have any friends in political parties and got appreciation for his philanthropic work during coronavirus lockdown from multiple party leaders. No. I dont have any friends. I know. Sometimes you have gatherings where there are ministers also. I have been nice to everyone. Everyone appreciated and supported my efforts. Priyanka Gandhi was the first one to appreciate my efforts and said, well done Sonu. People from NCP, Mr. Deshmukh, said that I am doing pretty well. To be frank, I dont know how the system functions but I know somewhere in their heart they know, that my intentions are right, he said. Sonu recently came under attack from Maharashtras ruling Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, who asked whether the BJP had propped him to offer help to workers from north India, stranded in Maharashtra amid the lockdown, with the intention of showing the Thackeray government in poor light. Sonu later met Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray who lauded the actors initiative to arrange buses for stranded migrant workers. Also read: Karan Johars SOTY 2 director Punit Malhotra comments on outpouring of love for Sushant Singh Rajput Sonu had earlier brushed off allegations that he is interested in politics and said that he is doing what he is purely out of love. I have nothing to do with politics. I am doing this purely out of my love for migrants. I want to help reunite them with their families, he told PTI. He estimates that he has helped 30,000 workers to go back to their homes in Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. I intend to work till the last migrant reaches his home. The journey has to continue in full force. No one should be rendered homeless. We want them to reach home safely, Sonu had said. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON MBABANE With two weeks ahead of schools reopening, there are still no funds to make this a smooth process. This is because the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) has not been successful in raising the required funds for the educational budget for COVID-19 response. NDMAs Director Strategy and Sustainability Sihle Mzileni, who is responsible for resource mobilisation, said his team will meeting today and they would have an informed position of what was going on thereafter. A budget of E56 012 368 is required to facilitate the reopening of schools on July 6, 2020. Mzileni stated that currently, there were no funds in their coffers but only commitments made by their donor partners. Part of the budget will be financed by UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO and PEPFAR According to the NDMA budget for the COVID-19 response, they need to provide water and sanitation-related activities which include water distribution in the 933 schools across the country. Procurement The water distribution includes the procurement of water tankers that require a budget of E3.6 million, water procurement which will cost E1.2 million, hand washing soap for the learners to cost E2.37 million, among other items. Other items include sanitisers, ear syringes and BP machines. Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General, Sikelela Dlamini said progress on the ground suggested that schools will not open as they were far from meeting the COVID-19 requirements. Dlamini said government was running away from taking full responsibility of the COVID-19 response and shifting responsibilities yet the budget solely depended on them. Without a proper budget, it is impossible to reopen schools because we need to ensure that we are ready to respond well to the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that above everything required by the response, cleanliness was key and they needed to clean surfaces every now and then. Dlamini said in the case of a school, they were to sanitise the desks before lessons began and in between periods. This, he noted would require the employment of more support staff by government. By Park Jae-hyuk Samil PwC CEO Kim Young-sik has been elected as the next president of the Korean Institute of Certified Public Accounts (KICPA), to represent 22,000 certified public accounts over the next two years. The KICPA said Wednesday he won the election as he gained 4,638 of the 11,624 votes. This was the institute's first electronic vote, so some expected former lawmaker Chae Yi-bai would benefit from a high voter turnout. However, Kim defeated Chae, who got 3,800 votes, and three other candidates Deloitte Anjin Vice Chairman Chung Min-keun, Shinhan Accounting Corporation managing partner Choi Jong-man and Chung-Ang University professor Hwang In-tae despite the record-high voter turnout. Born in 1957, Kim joined Samil PwC in 1978 after graduating from Korea University. He became the CEO of the nation's leading accounting firm in 2016. He is supposed to step down in late June as the company appointed Yoon Hoon-soo to take over as CEO on July 1. Before the election, Kim promised to establish a knowledge-sharing platform, reduce the number of newly certified public accounts and finalize the accounting reforms. "I will ensure the KICPA brings happiness to our members," he said at that time. FAIRFIELD Fairfield officials have agreed to review the police departments use of force policy, according to First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick. In a Board of Selectmen meeting earlier this week, Kupchick said members of the public had asked her to sign a nationwide commit to action set up by the Obama Foundation. The commitment request was designed as a call for mayors, city councils and police oversight bodies to address police use of force policies. I spoke to (police) Chief (Christopher) Lyddy... this morning, Kupchick said Monday. We both agreed that together, the town and the head of law enforcement, we would sign onto the mayors pledge. I did so today as did Chief Lyddy. By signing onto the agreement, municipal leaders pledge to review the departments use of force policies, engage a diverse group of people during the review, report the findings of the review to the community and seek feedback. The final point of the pledge is to reform use of force policies. The agreement comes after weeks of protests around the country and in Fairfield over the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white Minneapolis police officer who held his knee on Floyds neck for more than eight minutes. Last week, Fairfield leaders faced criticism during what was billed as a virtual discussion on racial inequity and policing. Several of those in virtual attendance characterized the videoconference with its panel of mostly white officials as lip service and virtue signaling. According to Capt. Robert Kalamaras, the use of force policy was last updated in 2017. Notably, it already bans chokeholds in scenarios where deadly use of force is not appropriate. More changes may be on the way after Governor Ned Lamont signed an executive order on Monday that bans chokeholds and other tactics that restrict breathing. The order also ends or pauses the purchase of military and military-style equipment from the federal government by the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, mandates the creation of a web portal database that documents police use of force and revises the states use-of-force policy. Currently, the executive order only covers state police, but Lamont and state legislators said they will work to make the new rules apply to municipal departments. The Fairfield Police Departments use of force policy also mandates that officers attempt to de-escalate a situation before using force; any use of force must be stopped when a person in custody stops resisting or the incident is under control. Physical force should not be used against individuals in restraints, except as objectively reasonable to prevent escape, bodily injury to an officer or other person, the policy states. All officers have a duty to intervene to prevent or stop the use of excessive force by another officer whenever it is safe and reasonable to do so. The policy also states an officer should only use force when, in addition to other things, a person they believe has committed an offense is actively evading or resisting arrest, to defend themselves or others from imminent use of force, to take a person into custody or to prevent someone from harming themselves or committing suicide. Officers are permitted to use deadly force, the policy says, to defend themselves or others from what the officer believes to be an imminent use of deadly force or great bodily harm. (Deadly force is also permitted) to affect an arrest or prevent the escape from custody of a person whom he reasonably believes has committed or attempted to commit a felony which involved the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical injury and where feasible, he has given warning of his intent to use deadly physical force, the policy states. Selectman Tom Flynn said that, while it is great that the officials signed the pledge, many aspects of the committal are already mandated as goals for the task force Kupchick set up to examine racial injustice and inequity. The task force is going to be led by Selectman Nancy Lefkowitz. Its one thing to sign that pledge, Flynn said. Its quite another to actually take those steps and make good on doing that anyway. A program from Purdue Universitys Military Family Research Institute aims to increase collaboration to help military and veteran families with access to resources. Photo by Sydney Ray on Unsplash. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Purdue Universitys Military Family Research Institute and the Purdue Center for Regional Development recently announced that the Madison County Joining Community Forces Networks Military Supportive Communities Initiative (MSCI) Pathway Project Proposal was accepted. The group will receive a $2,000 grant to revitalize outreach efforts on resources available to community agencies, military service members, veterans and their families. Another aspect of the grant is to increase collaboration between the Madison County group and statewide resources and organizations. WorkOne is excited to have this opportunity to collaborate with other organizations in our community and be part of the Military Supportive Communities Initiative Team, said Alan Janney, disabled veteran outreach program specialist with WorkOne. We believe the collaboration of organizations through the Joining Community Forces Meetings and Workshops will unite us in our efforts to serve our military service men and women, veterans and their families in Madison County. We greatly appreciate Purdues Military Family Research Institute in providing us with this outstanding opportunity to serve. The Madison County group has been active for nine years. It provides Stand Down events and focuses on current issues pertaining to military and veteran families in Madison County. They started the MSCI process in April 2019 and submitted their Pathway Project Application in May 2020. Members of the team have been studying demographic and economic data on their county and developed the skills needed to identify and act on priorities designed to benefit military and veteran families. The proposal from the Madison County Joining Community Forces Network was excellent, said Bo Beaulieu, director of the Purdue Center for Regional Development. It is very ambitious but doable because of the commitment and passion of the Madison County team members. About MFRI The Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) at Purdue University conducts research on issues that affect military and veteran families and works to shape policies, programs and practices that improve their well-being. Founded in 2000, MFRI envisions a diverse support community that understands the most pressing needs of military and veteran families. To achieve this, MFRI collaborates to create meaningful solutions for them. This internationally-recognized organization is located at Purdue Universitys College of Health and Human Sciences, in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. About the Purdue Center for Regional Development The Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD) seeks to pioneer new ideas and strategies that contribute to regional collaboration, innovation and prosperity. Founded in 2005, the Center partners with public, private, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations to identify and enhance the key drivers of innovation in regions across Indiana, the U.S. and beyond. These drivers include a vibrant and inclusive civic leadership, a commitment to collaboration, and the application of advanced data support systems to promote sound decision-making and the pursuit of economic development investments that build on the competitive assets of regions. 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: Matthew Oates, 765-586-7496 (cell), oatesw@purdue.edu, @mo_oates Sources: Rena Sterrett, 765-414-2702 (cell), rsterret@purdue.edu, @MFRIPurdue Shelley Delong, Madison County Joining Community Forces Network, shellydelong@yahoo.com Note to Journalists: A stock photo is available via Google Drive. The World Bank on Wednesday announced a two-year conditional non-debarment of an Indian company in connection with corrupt and fraudulent practices in two road infrastructure projects in Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Egis India Consulting Engineers Private Limited is accused of corrupt and fraudulent practices in the Second Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project and the Uttar Pradesh Core Road Network Development Project. The World Bank said that Egis India was sanctioned with conditional non-debarment. This means that it remains eligible to participate in World Bank-financed projects as long as it complies with its obligations under the settlement agreement. "Otherwise, the conditional non-debarment will convert to a sanction of debarment with conditional release, and the company then will become ineligible to participate in World Bank-financed projects until the conditions for release set out in the settlement agreement are met," the World Bank said. A conditional non-debarment does not qualify for cross-debarment by the multilateral development banks that are signatories to the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions, the statement noted. Second Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project is designed to accelerate the development of the core road network in the state and improve the institutional effectiveness of road sector agencies. The objectives of the UP-Core Road Network Development Project include building capacity for results-focused road safety management in the state. "According to the facts of the case, which Egis India does not contest, Egis India made illegitimate payments to influence the release of contractual payments while implementing contracts under these two projects and submitted inflated invoices for reimbursable expense," the World Bank alleged. The settlement agreement provides for a reduced period of sanction in light of the company's voluntary disclosures, cooperation, acceptance of responsibility, and voluntary remedial actions. As a condition for release from sanction under the terms of the settlement agreement, the company commits to developing an integrity compliance program consistent with the principles set out in the World Bank Group Integrity Compliance Guidelines, the World Bank said. Henry Cisneros voice dropped an octave when he heard my questions. Did you test positive for the COVID-19 antibodies, and will you talk about it? However eager he has been to speak to the press about world events, politics, cities, and more recently, the great job Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff have done to guide San Antonio through the COVID-19 crisis, this time Cisneros was understandably hesitant, at least momentarily. His own coronavirus experience is, of course, more personal. The former mayor of San Antonio tested positive in two antibody blood tests after a swab test was negative. He was taking an evening walk in his old West Side neighborhood when I called, after a whirlwind of local coronavirus news showing dramatic increases in new cases. Cisneros spoke as officials were linking new cases to the states reopening. Some warn that in the weeks ahead, new cases may spring up among Black Lives Matter protesters, and later from others who they might have infected. His own test results point to an exposure in February. Both blood tests showed a high antibody count, he said. He joins those who carry inside them some immunity to the disease. Science doesnt yet know if they can be re-infected. The former housing secretary under President Bill Clinton has studied COVID-19 since weathering its symptoms. He had body aches and night sweats that lasted for about 72 hours. He doesnt know where he was exposed, but he thinks it was in New York City, an epicenter of the disease and where his son, John Paul Cisneros, lives. NYC is headquarters to American Triple I Partners, an infrastructure investment company the father and son co-founded. The younger Cisneros serves as its COO. In San Antonio, Cisneros offices at Cisneros and Miramontes Holdings, in a downtown suite from which he conducts infrastructure development work deemed essential. He has been grounded since the outbreak, but did travel recently with his wife, former San Antonio City Councilwoman Mary Alice Cisneros, to Los Angeles for their granddaughters high school graduation from the Harvard-Westlake School, a prestigious college preparatory academy in Los Angeles. She has been accepted to Yale University. Cisneros attended another gathering where social distancing was practiced. His 73rd birthday last Thursday was celebrated in the parking lot outside his office. He was seen wearing a mask. February was a lot different. He came home from a business trip, and his wife told him he looked exhausted. He rested and resurfaced a few days later and resumed activities, including daily workouts in a home gym. Tests were suggested by his physician, given Cisneros compromised immune system. In 2012, he underwent radiation treatment for prostate cancer. Ive been careful since March 16, Cisneros said. Ive been observant. I wear a mask. Ive tried to be careful in public settings. Ive followed the protocols. He could be re-infected with COVID-19 but believes hes not in danger, given his precautions and overall excellent health. He believes in the effectiveness of recommended protocols, even as some San Antonians push back. Wolffs executive order Wednesday that businesses must require masks of employees and customers will have outliers. Cisneros reiterated his confidence in what public officials keep repeating: Stay home, wear masks, stay 6 feet or more apart from others. People of all ages are getting it and getting it badly, he said. The virus is everywhere. Thats the truth. Its more than a pandemic. Its endemic. Or at least until an effective vaccine is developed, tested and distributed. Herd immunity may be another answer, but that will require more time as experts have said 60 to 80 percent of the population would need to have the antibodies. I want the economy to reopen, Cisneros said. I have business interests, and Im a businessperson. I dont want this country to take a severe strike to our economic system. Were going to have to wear masks and try to reopen our institutions, including schools and sports events, but with care, he added. It may take a year or more until a sense of normalcy returns. Im not saying anything new, he said, adding that Nirenberg and Wolff have done a superb job of telling it like it is. Cisneros says its a mistake to think otherwise. The eternal optimist believes San Antonio may be better off than other big cities. It got an early alert when Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland hosted infected U.S. travelers who had been stranded on cruise ships in China. He also believes despite the reluctance to wearing masks, most San Antonians trust officials and health experts. San Antonio isnt contrarian by nature, and that has served us well, he said. Im not so sure, but I hope hes right. eayala@express-news.net Twitter: @ElaineAyala Various stakeholders weighed in Tuesday as Texas three railroad commissioners considered Commission Chairman Wayne Christians Blue Ribbon Task Force for Oil Economic Recovery recommendations on the issue of flaring. At their open meeting, the commissioners heard from three panels, one comprised of the environmental community, one of producers and the third of industry associations that head up the task force. One thing I hope the three panels have brought is certainty, said Christian, such as the certainty the agency brought in May when it decided against enacting prorationing for the first time in 50 years. He expressed hope that highlighting the efforts to eliminate flaring and improve the industrys environmental impact would draw investors back to the industry. Christian also suggested the state put together a Shark Tank-type program that reviews new technology and offers a combination of state and private funding to develop and commercialize that technology. Commissioner Christi Craddick said her office has been working on the issue for some time and said it should be a priority to find ways to improve data collection and make that data more transparent and usable -- not just to regulators and the industry but also to the public. Christian called for the RRC staff to consider the recommendations and come back to the commissioners this fall with a plan of action. Task force recommendations The heads of four of the industry associations leading the task force discussed the report they provided to the commissioners. Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, highlighted recommendations that include reducing administrative time to flare by 50 percent and enhancing data submissions to increase accountability. There are six key elements of these recommendations wed like to work on with you and other stakeholders, he said. Those elements include a proposed flaring metrics guide for application of Statewide Rule 32 on flaring of new wells, enhancing the Rule 32 data sheet, developing a new report that includes increased information and submission of usable information, updating the production report that delineates reporting of vented and flared volumes and establishing best practices in the industry. Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, reported that $4.5 billion in pipelines are expected to come into service over the next year, which should meet transportation needs and help reduce flaring. We did not get here overnight, he said. Over 10 years, production in the Permian Basin has more than quadrupled, and infrastructure has been strained under that growth. Shepperd said PBPA believes economics and environmental stewardship can go hand-in-hand. This set of recommendations is the first step in changing the culture in the industry with regards to flaring. Jason Modglin, president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, said, one-size-fits-all does not work for all operators, and these recommendations do a good job of allowing for flexibility. Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, told the commissioners that progress has been made, but more can be done. We do see this as a long-term process, he said. Operators speak Kirk Edwards, president of Latigo Petroleum, called on the commission to use its power to implement production limits to help eliminate flaring by limiting the production from new wells until operators can demonstrate adequate takeaway capacity, and without flaring permit extensions. Doing so would stop waste, improve recovery and thus increase tax revenues for state and local entities., he said. Stephanie Reed, senior vice president, corporate development, land and midstream with Parsley Energy, said her companys success in reducing flaring was not by accident. Reducing routine flaring requires long-term planning, including investing millions in takeaway infrastructure. The company sets corporate goals and ties compensation to meeting those goals, she said. Parsley has also created more transparency around its flaring volumes both internally and externally. Daily reports issued companywide detail flaring events, what led to those events and what plans are in place to ensure such events dont happen again, she said. Operating responsibly is a function of advance planning and working with the local communities, Reed said. Each operator has a unique situation to deal with, but commitment is the first step. Mike Starrett, vice president, domestic health, safety and environment at Occidental Petroleum, told the commissioners his companys work to limit or eliminate routine flaring is part of its preparation for a low-carbon future. Like Reed, Starrett said it takes commitment and employee buy-in. Occidental uses site-specific planning, evaluating and identifying natural gas takeaway capacity and facility design, uses surveillance, monitoring and repair to mitigate flaring, trains its personnel and requires timely reporting of flaring events, he said. The company is participating in the industry association-led Texas Methane and Flaring Coalition to help facilitate understanding of the issue, he said. Why is flaring occurring? How much is occurring? Once the Railroad Commission understands those questions, it will be well-positioned to identify solutions, Starrett said. Environmental groups react Trammell Crow with Earth X pointed out that $750 million in natural gas was flared in Texas in 2018 and urged everyone to think of it as a resource and a commodity rather than a waste. He expressed disappointment with the various non-government organizations that oppose things such as pipelines and oppose settlements that arent 100 percent victories for them. The natural world is in dire straits, he said, but there are realistic economic solutions, such as forward-thinking companies using that flared gas to generate electricity instead of sending it into the atmosphere. His father knew we were stewards of the land, Crow said. Conservation of nature is one of our greatest value systems. Colin Leyden, director, regulatory and legislative affairs with the Environmental Defense Fund, said the regulatory agency took a tough stand against flaring in the 1930s and 1940s. Yet, he said, were here talking about the problem again today because it hasnt been fixed. This is a new day and a new opportunity to get it right. Operators are taking steps to eliminate flaring by making the decision to not complete wells until takeaway infrastructure is in place or shutting in wells until adequate infrastructure is in place. Leyden said elected officials want to do whats right by the people of Texas and he urged the commissioners to take concrete steps to eliminate routine flaring by 2025. I keep landing on one simple truth: The practice of flaring doesnt reflect our values, Leyden said. No one likes waste, and no one likes pollution. The industry says it doesnt like it either, but its not going away because we havent changed the incentives. And that cant change until the commission acts. Cyrus Reed, interim director of the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club, called Tuesdays discussion a first step and praised the EDFs goal of eliminating routine flaring by 2025. Such concrete goals are a good way to start in the right direction, he said. The commission has the authority do a lot to address the issue, including under its mandate to end waste, Reed said.He charged that the commissions failure to do so violates the Clean Air Act because not just methane and carbon dioxide are emitted but other substances such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide. He offered several proposals on the march to zero routine flaring by 2025: end the practice of extending flaring permits beyond six months; set a statewide goal of 2 percent for flaring volumes and also set goals for individual operators; require vapor recovery units on storage tanks; require additional inspections for companies getting exceptions to Statewide Rule 32 to ensure flares are working properly; consider technology such as drones to monitor flaring and work with the industry to develop best practices and train on those practices. Commissioner Ryan Sitton asked if the commission should consider economics or molecules in taking action, citing as an example requiring companies to spend millions on vapor recovery units on storage tanks when the gas theyd recover was only worth thousands. Cyrus Reed said its a balance and pointed out that other producing states, such as Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, are also struggling to find that balance. Leyden said there is opportunity to look at the economics, and in his discussion with industry operators, he has learned more about the economic concerns. He said regulators always make decisions that cost operators money, but he argued that technological advancements and innovation by the industry will render that argument moot. Christian asked about the groups opposition to pipelines and liquefied natural gas exporting facilities and if they would be more supportive if the issues were addressed. Reed and if the problems of flaring and fugitive emissions were solved, that would lessen the impact of that pollution overall. If we could get to zero flaring, zero emissions, it would make those products that much cleaner than they are today in terms of environmental impact. CARACAS, Venezuela Venezuelas Supreme Court, loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, has ordered the takeover of two of the nations most powerful political parties opposed to the socialist government ahead of parliamentary elections expected later this year. On Tuesday, the court suspended and replaced the board of directors for the Justice First party a day after the same move against the Democratic Action party, one of the nations oldest and largest. It was part of a necessary restructuring process, the court said in separate rulings posted on Facebook. On state TV, Mr. Maduro accused the opposition parties, which have controlled the National Assembly for the last five years, of robbing Venezuela of its wealth and plotting a foreign invasion aimed at ending his rule. The National Assembly is the only branch of government Mr. Maduro doesnt control. That will change with the next election, he said. Oakland County restaurant health inspection reports can now be easily accessed and viewed by members of the public. In February, the Oakland County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution requiring health division officials, within 90 days, to publish restaurant and food safety inspection reports online for public view. The project was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The website, www.oakgov.com/OCinspections, will be updated weekly with the most recent health inspection reports. Previously, these reports were only made available to those who submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the health division. The website allows anyone to search for restaurants by city, license number, address, or business name. Commissioner Kristen Nelson (D-Waterford), who introduced the resolution in January, said this policy change is about giving people the tools they need to make educated decisions to protect their health and safety. At a time when food handling and sanitary conditions can mean the difference between life and death, we owe it to the public to give them easily accessible, searchable data to make informed decisions for themselves and their families, she said. I was happy to lead this bipartisan effort, and I appreciate the hard work of the countys health division and IT department to ensure this information is easily available. Earlier this year, Oakland County Health Officer Leigh-Anne Stafford told The Oakland Press that the health division welcomed the opportunity to discuss the availability of restaurant inspection reports. The health divisions food safety program provides several services to ensure the proper handling and distribution of food being served to the general public. These services include conducting routine inspections of restaurants as well as conducting investigations of foodborne illness complaints and outbreaks. All inspection reports involving restaurants, coffee houses, etc., are made available through local health departments. Inspection reports involving grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations and processing facilities are made available by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.